Gate Quest (Star Kingdom Book 5) Read online

  “So young. He was a student of mine. He should have uploaded his mind. He was an excellent scientist, for a noble.”

  “I remember him as being eccentric and dragging us on trips to all the ruin sites on Odin.”

  Qin cleared her throat. Another time, she would find it interesting to learn more about Asger’s family, perhaps after they’d all gotten away from the impending danger.

  “My captain says she’s leaving before the smugglers come, and anyone who wants a ride needs to get aboard now.” Even though Bonita hadn’t said that, Qin was certain she would agree if asked. “We’ve only got a single railgun on our freighter.”

  “Take the injured and anyone who won’t fight,” Beaumont said. “I will defend the ship until our backup arrives.” He looked down at Scholar Kelsey-Sato. “You, my lady—” he bowed, his voice turning less stiff and more friendly, “—should leave on the freighter, since Jager doesn’t know you’re aboard. He’d be certain to discover it if you were rescued by a Kingdom warship and given passage.”

  “I’m a Kingdom subject,” Kelsey-Sato said. “And I’ve been assigned to this ship for months. He shouldn’t object to my presence.”

  “You know he finds it disconcerting that you have acquaintances all over the Twelve Systems and have published as many papers abroad as at home.”

  Qin shrugged and walked back to the sickbay rooms. If she started carrying people off, that should move things along.

  She was tempted to hoist the rest of the people over her shoulders and carry them off too. Why couldn’t they temporarily take refuge on the Dragon? Once the warship arrived and scared off the salvagers, they could come back.

  Qin found numerous corpses, a living-but-sedated burned man, and a woman with a broken leg who was trying to program nanites and fit a grav-crutch to herself. Qin lifted the man, since he would be least likely to object, and gently laid him over her broad shoulder.

  “I’m here to rescue you,” she told the woman, bracing herself for a protest.

  She dropped the medical equipment and flopped back in a chair. “I’m ready to be rescued.”

  She let Qin hoist her over her other shoulder without protest. The load was awkward, but between her strength and what the armor added, she could bear it easily enough.

  As Qin walked back out, she found Beaumont standing in front of Johnny. “I implore you, Sir Knight, help us defend this ship. As my young colleague has pointed out—” he pointed to Scholar Ito, “—none of us are trained as combatants. But there are files on the computers here that cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of thugs from another system. It’s everything our people know about…” He glanced at Qin. “Quasars.”

  Qin rolled her eyes. “I’ve probably known about the newly discovered ancient gate longer than you have.”

  At this point, Qin didn’t care if Johnny knew or not. Besides, Beaumont seemed to believe his claim of knighthood and was about to share everything with him. She just hoped Johnny was who he said he was and wasn’t gathering intel for someone else.

  Beaumont stared at Qin for a second, then twitched a dismissive shoulder and focused on Johnny. “You must help us until the Kingdom warship arrives. Those hooligans cannot be allowed to get their hands on our databases. We’re fortunate they weren’t all destroyed in the first attack—thank the builders for redundancy. We have constructed a magnetic field around a protected area in one of the cargo bays to transport a certain archaeological find if it is discovered, as we hope it is. Unlike the warships, the Machu Picchu isn’t crewed by hundreds of people who are susceptible to space radiation of all sorts.”

  “Especially now,” Ito muttered.

  Qin started to walk past Johnny with her injured people, but she paused when he spoke.

  “I understand. I’ll stay and do my best to defend the ship.” Johnny looked at Qin, and she thought he might ask her to help, too, but all he did was give her a nod when he saw her carrying the injured and say, “Tell Laser, will you? That I must regretfully depart from her ship, her fine food, and her less-fine cell. And if she would see fit to send over my bag with the weapons in it, I would appreciate it.”

  “I’ll tell her.”

  Qin walked out, not sure if Bonita would be pleased or disappointed, and also not sure if leaving Johnny here was a good idea. What if he wasn’t who he claimed he was, and he was still working for the Druckers? Or some other nefarious organization?

  9

  The submarine shuddered, and Kim gripped the edge of the small table in sickbay. Her vials rattled in the open case.

  “They’re firing at us!” a mercenary blurted, his nose pressed to a porthole.

  “Good deduction, genius,” his seat mate replied. “Next, see if you can figure out who my real father is, will you?”

  “We’ll have to wait to try loading them.” Yas closed the case and shifted the now-converted, thanks to an engineering assistant, tranquilizer gun off the table. “I thank you for these.”

  “I didn’t agree to give them to you,” Kim said. “Your mercenaries confiscated them, much like Casmir’s candy bar.”

  “They’re not my mercenaries. I’m not sure they’re even technically my patients. They don’t show up for appointments and only call for me when they’re grievously wounded. But in case Rache asks, how quickly will the bacteria affect the cyborgs, once they’ve been inhaled?”

  “I don’t know. My new strain hasn’t been tested. I tried to make the bacteria work much more quickly than usual, but…” Kim shrugged and leaned out the hatchway to check on Casmir. She was worried about him. She’d lost track of how long they had been making their way under the ice, but it felt more like days than hours. If they had to return the same way, they could be stuck down here for a long time, and Casmir might get a lot sicker.

  “And everyone with cybernetic implants will be affected, right?” Yas asked.

  “If they inhale the gas, yes.”

  “You, Casmir, and I may be the only ones in these submarines without implants.”

  “And Asger,” Kim said. “Knights don’t usually get cybernetic enhancements. They’ve got a pseudo religion that espouses purity of the human form.”

  “Great. I’ll just give him the tranquilizer gun—the vial gun. I’m sure Rache will approve.”

  The submarine rose sharply, bubbles spewing past a nearby porthole, and the deck rocked. A low groan came from Casmir, who’d belted himself into a rear seat and had a hand clasped to his stomach.

  So far, the maneuvers hadn’t been that drastic, so Kim didn’t know if motion sickness was affecting him or if it had more to do with whatever was causing his fever.

  “If you could get Rache to work with the Kingdom people, you could give them the gun. They won’t have cybernetic enhancements either.”

  “You’d have to be the one to talk him into that,” Yas said, “but I don’t think even you have the power to sway him to work with Kingdom troops. Besides, they would be quick to use the vials on Rache and his people. He’ll know that.”

  Kim shook her head, both at the idea that she had any power over Rache and at the likelihood of the two teams working together.

  “They’re all armored,” Kim said. “We’ll have to hope the astroshamans aren’t, or the bacteria won’t get through.”

  She didn’t know if astroshamans wandered around in combat armor at home or not, but they would know visitors were coming and would be prepared.

  “There’s probably not time to come up with anything else,” Yas said. “At least Jess isn’t down here. She has a lot of cybernetic implants, so I wouldn’t want to risk her being affected. She has… enough problems as it is.”

  “She’s the one with the trylochanix addiction, right?” Kim remembered the woman going through withdrawal symptoms in addition to all the damage done by the pseudo radiation.

  “Yes.”

  The submarine lurched, and Kim tumbled forward, ramming her gut against the table. Elsewhere, something toppled with a metallic
clang.

  “Dabrowski, Kim,” Rache barked from the navigation hatchway. “Come talk to your people.”

  “Please,” Kim growled, pushing herself upright.

  She strode up the aisle, pausing to put a hand on Casmir’s shoulder. He was struggling to unfasten his belt and had already filled a vomit bag. “Stay. I’ll talk to whoever that is.”

  He slumped back, relief flashing in his eyes. “Let me know if you need me to…” His cheeks puffed outward.

  “Puke on Rache? I’ll definitely tell the Kingdom commander that option is on the table.”

  She made a stay-there motion with her hand and jogged to the front. Their submarine fired a trio of torpedoes. How many had the various teams brought? She envisioned them pulling up to the astroshaman base with nothing left but submarine-tour pamphlets to hurl at their enemies.

  “It’s not like maneuvering a fighter,” the pilot growled as Kim stepped into the hatchway.

  “You’re doing well,” Rache said. “We got them twice. If they’re not insane, they’ll give up and back off.”

  “We sure about their sanity, sir?”

  “Not after that message, no.” Rache saw Kim and pointed at the comm. “Talk to them and let them know you’re alive. They are under the assumption that we’ve killed you, Asger, and Casmir. No mention of the crusher. They may not value him as much.”

  “Please,” she reminded him and waved for him to open the comm.

  “Please talk to them and help us save your lives.”

  “It doesn’t count if it’s laced with sarcasm.” Kim stepped up to his side, feeling claustrophobic between the two armored men, and having the sudden urge to escape the sub and all of these people. All these stupid people who kept attacking each other over some artifact that might or might not change anything in the universe.

  Rache pointed at the comm. The channel was open.

  “This is Scholar Kim Sato,” she said, “requesting to speak with the commander of whichever sub is attacking this one.”

  “The Waddler,” Rache supplied.

  “You expect me to believe that, Rache?” came the commander’s voice over the comm. “You either recorded that earlier or are using a voice synth to make it sound like her.”

  “He’s firing again,” the pilot whispered, turning them as quickly as the ponderous submarine would comply.

  “I’m sure you can ask her some questions that only she would know to verify that it’s her,” Rache said.

  Kim shook her head. Rache knew her better than anyone left on the Kingdom submarine did. What would the commander ask her?

  “Or I can get Casmir up here,” Rache said, “and he can vomit in your ear as proof that it’s him.”

  “Please don’t,” the pilot murmured, resting a protective hand over the instruments.

  “You want a video?” Rache asked. “You’re risking killing your own people.”

  “Even if they were alive,” the commander said, “they’d be working for you now. Suborned or drugged and no longer on our side. We’re wise to you, criminal.”

  The channel cut out.

  “The hell with him,” Rache said. “Take us around, Hocking. We’re blowing them out of the water.”

  Kim rubbed her face. The commander hadn’t sounded rational. Was it possible he was the man—or one of several men—that Ambassador Romano had gotten to and bribed or threatened to make sure Casmir didn’t make it back? Speaking of people who’d been suborned…

  “Wait.” Kim held up a hand, but she wasn’t sure Rache saw it. He had his face pressed against some scope, his thumb on the trigger of an improvised weapons station that his people had created. She gripped his shoulder so he wouldn’t ignore her. “Comm one of the other Kingdom sub commanders. If Romano bribed the one that’s chasing us, we just have to get someone with more rank to order him to stand down.”

  Rache looked at her hand. Thinking it presumptuous of her to touch him and give him orders with his pilot sitting next to them? Too bad.

  She shook his shoulder. She would have squeezed it, but he wore his armor, making that type of gesture pointless. As it was, he probably didn’t feel her grip.

  “Do it. This is all too stupid for words. You’re wasting your torpedoes and so are they, at the least. You may be wasting lives you’ll need to get your prize.”

  The pilot glanced over, raising his eyebrows at her hand on Rache’s shoulder, but he didn’t say anything.

  Rache tapped the comm panel, bringing up a map with other blips—it looked like his other subs and all the Kingdom subs except for this one were in clumps still heading toward the believed location of the base. He tapped the one in the lead.

  “Kingdom submarine,” he said, “this is Rache. Is there a reason why the wayward commander of your Waddler is trying to blow us up when we have Sato, Dabrowski, and Asger aboard? Do these people have no value to you? We only need them for a short time—I didn’t need Asger at all—and then they will be returned whole and healthy.”

  A long moment passed, and Kim wondered if the new commander had even accepted the comm.

  “We haven’t been tortured yet,” Kim added, in case he’d also come to believe that they were dead.

  A woman answered—the single female submarine commander among the group. “Yet?”

  “I don’t know what the future holds,” Kim said. “Rache is a notorious hater of the Kingdom and its subjects.” She kept herself from pointing out his inability to say please as a further failure. This wasn’t the time for humor—or anything that would lead the Kingdom to think that she and Rache were… She didn’t know what. Not on the same side, but not necessarily on sides as opposing as they should be.

  She tugged at her ponytail, worried she didn’t sound authentic even though she was telling the truth. There was a subtle lie in her words, a distancing of herself from Rache that seemed inaccurate and a lie. She didn’t know what he was to her, but it wasn’t some distant villain.

  “Commander Birken said he saw a body being jettisoned,” the woman said.

  Rache shook his head but didn’t say anything. Even if the commander had lied, his fellow officers wouldn’t believe Rache over their colleague.

  “Is Dabrowski still alive?” the female commander asked. “And Asger?”

  “Yes,” Kim said, “for now.”

  “Birken must have been mistaken. Let me call him off.”

  The channel closed.

  “Let’s see if that idiot can accept orders from a woman,” Rache said.

  “Couldn’t you?” Kim lowered her hand.

  “I don’t take orders from anyone. The perk of being in command of your own ship.”

  Kim noticed the Waddler in Rache’s sights—thanks to the pilot’s maneuvering, they had ended up chasing it instead of the other way around—but he didn’t fire.

  Unfortunately, his pilot noticed it too. They could see the glow of the other submarine’s running lights in the dark water ahead.

  “You’ve got them lined up for a killing shot, sir?” the pilot asked. “It doesn’t matter what these Kingdom schlubs chat about then. We’ll just take that sub out, right? Here, I’ll get us closer.”

  Rache, gazing at the submarine in the sights for the torpedo launcher, seemed to be considering that very thing.

  Kim sought something she could say that would get him to spare those men’s lives. Even if the commander had been bought off by Romano, all the marines riding along knew nothing about it. Those men didn’t deserve to die, and there was nothing to be gained from killing them. She thought of Casmir’s new gaming friend and opened her mouth.

  “Let’s see what he does,” Rache said first.

  “Sir?” The pilot stared at him.

  The submarine ahead veered off in another direction, toward the rest of the Kingdom vessels.

  Rache waited to make sure it didn’t turn again, then removed his finger from the trigger. “Return to our previous course, Hocking.”

  “But… those are Kingd
om troops sailing those subs, sir. You hate the Kingdom.” The pilot glanced at Kim.

  She couldn’t tell if he was looking at her for confirmation or if he suspected her of influencing Rache. Probably in a way the mercenary did not approve of.

  “Yes, I do,” Rache agreed. “But we need as much cannon fodder down here as possible to keep the astroshamans distracted while we move in.”

  “But they attacked us, and you’ve always retaliated. Won’t they continue to be a threat?”

  “Do not question me further, Lieutenant.” Rache’s tone was icy, and he stared at the man. “It is not your position to do so.”

  “Er, sorry, sir.”

  Rache jerked a thumb toward the hatch. “Return to the passenger cabin. I will pilot the craft for now.”

  The pilot hurried to unfasten his harness and stand up. Kim shifted to the side to let him pass, but he paused.

  “What about her, sir?”

  “What about her?” Rache’s tone was still icy.

  “Do you want me to take her back there too?”

  “No. I will question her.”

  “Oh. Yes, sir.”

  The pilot slunk out, shutting the hatch behind him.

  “Thank you,” Kim said quietly.

  “For promising to question you? You don’t even know what that will involve yet.”

  “For not obliterating that submarine. And I know what kinds of questions you ask me. Unfortunately, I’ve only had a chance to read up to seventy-five percent in your book.”

  He snorted but didn’t deny that he’d had literary questions in mind.

  It seemed strange given how little time they had spent together, but she trusted that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. Even if she was irked with the kidnapping, she’d had time to cool off. She didn’t appreciate his approach to rescuing Casmir, such as it was, but they now knew that there was a genuine threat down here. At least to Casmir. But being the person sitting next to Casmir could have also gotten her killed.

  “Only seventy-five percent?” Rache shifted the submarine to a new course. “It’s been three days. I’d thought such an intelligent lady as yourself would be done by now.”