Planet Killer (Star Kingdom Book 6) Read online

  Bonita shook her head, reminded of her vow to avoid entanglements with men. They always had an agenda. Just because Bjarke had turned out to be a knight didn’t change anything. A knight wouldn’t be interested in a bounty hunter who could barely afford to keep her ship flying. If he was flirting with her, it was because he wanted something. Again.

  “More likely rubbing alcohol over myself to remove contaminants from our last meeting,” she growled. “What do you want, Toes?”

  He blinked, and his smug arrogance faded. “Did I offend you, Bonita? You know I enjoy our verbal repartee, and I thought you did too.”

  “I assumed we were done exchanging it, now that you don’t need a ride anywhere, and you’re off doing knightly things.” Bonita caught voices floating up through the ladder well, and she leaned back and closed the hatch to navigation. If Bjarke was looking for Kim and Casmir and Asger, she didn’t want to help him. She wasn’t sure yet if she would risk the Kingdom’s ire by trying to hide that she had them, but she wouldn’t volunteer the information.

  “The knightly things have kept me busy, I admit. I regret that I didn’t get a chance to comm you before leaving System Hydra. I was thinking of composing a letter or a video recording when your plucky freighter pushed its way into the queue behind us at the gate. Imagine my surprise when it appeared in the same system that we were traveling to. My first assumption was that you were stalking me because you ached to continue what we started back in your guest quarters on the Eagle…” There was that eyebrow wriggle again—the man didn’t stay contrite or un-smug for long. “But then you took off without a word. Am I less stalkable than I thought?”

  “The only people likely to be stalking you are the Druckers for spying on them.”

  “That’s disappointing. Especially after our dalliance. At the time, I was positive you enjoyed it, since you had such a firm grip.” His eyelids drooped to half mast, and she imagined him naked in her bed, the blankets covering… very little.

  She frowned and smacked the image out of her mind. Wasn’t she too old to be manipulated by her hormones? Age ought to be good for something.

  “If you’re talking about the kiss-and-grope we did in the lavatory, I’m not sure I’d call that a dalliance.”

  “No? You dallied nicely as you were pressed up against my hard chest.”

  “I was pressed up against the hard toilet too. It’s not comming me for a date.”

  “Well, no wonder you’re grumpy.” Bjarke grinned again. “A date is an excellent idea. Perhaps if I finish my knightly duties, as you call them, and help stop this war some megalomaniacal prince has started with my people—” the grin disappeared, his eyes growing hard and determined, “—then I can catch up with you. I would like to see you again, perhaps without military men walking up every five minutes to interrupt. Where did you say you’re going?”

  “I didn’t.”

  He glanced down at some display. “You’re on course for Stardust Palace, I see.”

  “Now who’s the stalker?”

  “I just need to know where to send gifts.”

  “You can keep your gifts.”

  “Are you sure? I wanted to thank you for comming those mercenaries and getting them to leave us alone.”

  He’d found out about that? Despite her determination to remain aloof, that warmed her. She hadn’t expected anything—it wasn’t as if she’d been that much help or risked herself—but it pleased her that he knew about it. Even if she doubted that was the reason he’d commed her. Bjarke wanted something. She was sure of it.

  She shrugged. “They would have left you alone anyway when your other ships showed up. They were only expecting two, you know. Someone lied to them.”

  “Lies abound in space. I’ve grown used to them. What’s unusual out here is to find someone willing to fight at your side and watch your back, especially when that someone has no reason to love the Kingdom—or its knights. I confess to being touched.” He rested a hand on his chest, and his eyes seemed sincere, at least for a moment. Then a teasing smile curved his lips and he added, “Only by my own hand, alas. But often. In my bunk in the dark of night.”

  “Is rubbing alcohol involved?”

  “Something less astringent and more lubricating.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “I hope to see you again soon, Laser. Very soon.” He smiled again and ended the call.

  She stared as the display went dark. She’d expected him to ask about her new passengers. Had he only wanted to confirm that she was going to Stardust Palace? To what end? It was unlikely he would be able to get away from his duties for a quickie across the system.

  Which was, she told herself firmly, absolutely fine. If he showed up at the station, it would only lead to trouble.

  6

  Qin waited in the cargo hold for Asger to finish remotely programming his shuttle to detach from the Dragon’s airlock and fly off—presumably back to the warship it had come from. Kim and Casmir had already headed up to the guest cabins, with more than a dozen of Viggo’s robots swirling in and out of their path, accompanying them as Viggo’s opera played on the speakers. Fortunately, it had faded—the volume had made Qin’s ears want to furl up like flowers in a hailstorm—with Viggo now chatting enthusiastically to Casmir about rover robots.

  Though her keen hearing caught the words, she didn’t pay much attention to them as she watched Asger, studying his profile.

  Unfortunately, after a quick smile, he hadn’t been studying her back. Or looking at her at all.

  Granted, it had only been a few minutes, and he was busy with a task, but she sensed his discomfort. Qin had a feeling he would tell her that their kiss had been a mistake, that knights did not have relationships with strange furry women who’d been hatched in a scientist’s lab.

  She couldn’t be surprised, but even though the rejection was only in her head at this point, she felt preemptively disappointed. She vowed not to bring it up unless he did. If he wanted to forget or pretend it hadn’t happened… well, she was used to that.

  Asger stepped back, watching the shuttle fly away on the display. “I guess we’re committed,” he muttered.

  “Are you in trouble?” Qin asked.

  “There’s a war going on back home, I’m on a menial mission I don’t want to undertake, I’m not trusted by my superiors, and I may get kicked out of the knighthood when I get back home. It hasn’t been the best month.” He smiled sadly at her.

  “Because of the gate?”

  “Because we only got a few pieces of it, yes. And because I lost it in the first place. Also, I failed to find President Chronos and keep him alive… even if he was already dead by the time we got there.” Asger spread his arms, looking oddly helpless for such a strong capable fighter, but then he shrugged and waved a hand, as if to dismiss his concerns.

  Did that mean he didn’t want to talk about them?

  “If you don’t continue to be a knight, I’m sure the captain would give you a job.” Qin smiled, intending it as a joke to lighten his mood, though there was a wistful part of her that wouldn’t mind having him here and going on adventures together. She liked fighting with him. He was very dependable and good about watching her back, but he also trusted her to be competent and defend herself.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but that would be quite a demotion.”

  “It was a promotion for me.” Her smile flagged. She didn’t feel insulted, but she was sadly reminded about the vastly different worlds they came from.

  “Sorry. I’d just feel… I spent years training to become a knight, and I always believed I’d help defend my entire world—system—and do great things. It’s disappointing to be relegated to running errands.”

  “I understand. Is that what Casmir and Kim are doing too? Running errands?”

  “No. Casmir is supposed to build an army of crushers, and Kim is supposed to make a bioweapon. For Prince Jorg and the war effort.”

  Qin digested that. “On Stardust Pala
ce?”

  Asger nodded. “And I’m picking up a parcel to take home.” Asger shook his head. “I want another chance to prove myself to my father and my superiors, but I’m not sure how I can do that from some sultan’s palace on the sidelines.”

  Qin wanted to step forward and rest a hand on his arm—or even hug him. He always looked so anguished when he spoke of Bjarke. It made her wonder if she’d lost less than she always thought by not having parents. Were all family relationships so fraught?

  Asger looked down, and she realized she had stepped forward and rested her clawed fingers on his arm. She hadn’t meant to, and she blushed as he stared at those claws. They were painted purple with bright yellow starbursts this week, but that didn’t make them any less animal.

  Not human. Freak. The words she’d heard so often echoed in her mind.

  He lifted his gaze, meeting hers, and she wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but he didn’t move for a long moment. She remembered their kiss and how different it had been from the plundering mouths of the Drucker pirates—the few that had even bothered with kissing. Most of them hadn’t wanted anything so intimate, simply to sate themselves.

  She was sure Asger wouldn’t be like that—if he wanted to be with her. But did he? And would he find it too embarrassing to admit and act on if he did?

  Asger stepped back, and she let go of his arm.

  He cleared his throat. “Is it all right to use the same cabin as last time?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Thanks.”

  His pace was quick as he hurried away.

  He hadn’t openly rejected her or called her a freak, but… it was hard not to feel rejected anyway.

  Yas was looking up civilian doctors on Stardust Palace and a few other stations that were near their path, on the off chance that the Fedallah might divert and he could convince Jess to see someone. She had seemed to be herself at that dinner the other night, but he remembered her wincing in pain from an intense headache while preparing the submarines back in System Hydra.

  Rache walked into sickbay, and unease hollowed Yas’s stomach. He’d hoped that being invited to his dinner meant Rache wasn’t irked with him, but Yas kept expecting him to bring up the submarine incident. Or maybe he had come to let Yas know he hadn’t appreciated his condemnation of assassinations.

  Rache leaned his hip against one of the exam tables, his arms folded across his chest.

  “I don’t suppose you’re finally here for your exam?” Yas asked.

  “No. And I don’t think Lieutenant Tanken or Corporal Meatpaw will be coming in any time soon.” Those were the names of the two men Yas had drugged. “They’ve assured me that they don’t trust you and want to know what I’ll do to punish you, assuming I don’t punt you out an airlock and replace you with another surgeon.”

  “Surgeons willing to work for no vacation and little pay are hard to come by.”

  “As I told them. What happened down there? What was Kim trying to accomplish? I assume she was the mastermind and that you didn’t get a random urge to take an aquatic tour of the moon.”

  Yas licked his lips, reluctant to put the blame on Kim, even if it had been her idea. He’d gone along with it. So far, Rache sounded calm rather than dangerous. Yas had a feeling his tone would be different if he’d helped anyone other than Kim.

  “She wanted to comm her ship so she could call down medical help for Casmir. She was worried he wouldn’t make it.”

  “And you prepared drugs to knock out two of my men.”

  “I assumed they weren’t interested in helping Casmir.” Yas twitched a shoulder. “And I felt I owed her for the help on Skadi Moon and with the pseudo radiation. She didn’t have to save us back there on that research ship.”

  “I understand that, but if one of the Kingdom ships had shown up to drill a hole in the ice after detecting your noise—what did you do, fire torpedoes at the ice?—it could have been disastrous for us. It was disastrous for the men we lost inside the base.”

  Yas lifted his chin. “That had nothing to do with what Kim and I did on that submarine. You chose to invade an astroshaman base. You had to expect casualties.”

  Rache stared at him through his mask. Yas made himself stare back, hoping he was right to believe that Rache would appreciate his frankness rather than meekness or a plea for forgiveness.

  “Next time we go on a dangerous mission,” Rache said, “you will not betray any of my men or sidestep my orders. Nobody’s a paragon here, but we have to know everybody on board has our backs, including our doctor.”

  “It shouldn’t be a problem if you don’t kidnap any more people I consider friends.”

  Rache kept staring at him, not moving from his spot. Yas had meant it as a light comment and hoped it wouldn’t get him in trouble. He didn’t know if he truly considered Kim a friend yet—or if she would consider him one—but she was at the least an acquaintance in the field that he respected and would help if possible.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Rache pushed away from the table and headed for the door.

  Yas glanced at the list of doctors he’d been researching. “Is there any chance that we’ll be stopping at any stations in this system, Captain?”

  Rache paused. “You need supplies?”

  “I want to set up an exam for someone if possible, someone I may not be able to help myself.”

  “Why can’t you help this crew member?”

  “It’s a special case. When’s the meeting with the Miners’ Union prince? Any chance of a stop before that?” Yas assumed they would have a new contract after that meeting and would head straight to System Lion to help batter the Kingdom’s forces.

  “We are on track to be early for the meeting,” Rache said, “but I was thinking of harassing Prince Jorg’s ship along the way. Or utterly destroying it.”

  “Wouldn’t the proper mercenary thing be to wait until someone’s paying you to do that?”

  “Yes, but some missions are worth taking on simply because the opportunity exists.” Rache was looking at the wall rather than Yas, his voice hard, almost zealous.

  By all the stars, did he want to kill Jager’s son too?

  “Like getting that gate?” Yas didn’t remind Rache that the deadly mission had been self-appointed with little to gain, but he doubted he had to when Rache had just brought it up.

  Rache looked over his shoulder. “You’ve grown frank of late, Doctor.”

  “Because you haven’t flogged me for previous bouts of frankness.”

  “Ah, my mistake. Though I’ve heard it’s unwise to flog someone who might one day hold your life in his hands.”

  “Very much so. You could fire me.”

  “Don’t sound so hopeful when you say that.”

  “Well, if you want my opinion, you should set your personal grievances aside and only take work that pays—and isn’t likely to get many of your men killed.”

  Yas would certainly prefer to survive his five-year obligation to Rache.

  “Mercenaries get killed, Doctor. It’s the nature of the business. Unless you’re suggesting we take up hauling freight.”

  “Is that an option?”

  “Not if I want to be able to afford the salary of a surgeon. Or crew.” Rache resumed his walk to the door, pausing only long enough to add, “Don’t knock out any more of my men, Yas. If you foster ill will with more of them, I may have difficulty intervening in time to prevent consequences.”

  A chill went through Yas. “Consequences?”

  “The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.” Rache disappeared into the corridor.

  7

  Oku was in the process of packing up the greenhouse, making sure all of her valuable seeds and plant specimens would be stored in one of the vaults under the castle, when the ground shook. An alarm wailed in the city, and Chasca yowled a complaint.

  “Don’t worry, girl.” Oku eyed the dark roof of the greenhouse, struggling to keep her tone calm and soothing. “I’m sure it�
��s nothing.”

  She remembered the faint shaking of the earth when that temple had been bombed. This had been more vigorous. An earthquake? Or could it be an attack?

  The vroom of nearby shuttles taking off filled the air, and Oku’s two bodyguards ran into the greenhouse.

  “Your Highness,” one said, “we must get you to one of the safe rooms.”

  Oku was reluctant to leave her packing, out of fear that she wouldn’t be allowed to return, but the big men would not likely give her a choice. Besides, she was curious to find out what was going on. Outside, twilight had faded into full night, and the city had been quiet until this.

  Another alarm started up. Oku recognized the distinct undulating noise even though she’d only heard it a couple of times in her life, both for drills. The air-raid siren.

  Chasca sprinted past the bodyguards and out the door, racing between the landscaping lights and out onto the dark lawn. Oku winced, hoping she wouldn’t disappear under a hedge somewhere. That noise had to be pounding her sensitive ears.

  “Are we being bombed?” she asked, knowing the bodyguards would be on the security comm channel.

  “Some stealthed ships slipped past our planetary defenses and are dropping bombs on the city, yes. Our local fighters are scrambling into the air to attack back, and the orbital defenders are descending. There’s nothing to worry about, as long as we get you to safety.” The bodyguard gripped her arm.

  Though she hated being manhandled, she knew they were doing their jobs, and she let them escort her through the courtyard and to the stairs in the back of the castle that led to an underground safe room. Her mother had tried to get her to move to Basilisk Citadel that morning, but she’d wanted to make sure all her experiments were set up so they wouldn’t die if she was gone for a week or more. Oku had been certain they would have plenty of time—and advance warning—before something happened. Now she regretted that certainty. She hadn’t yet contacted Casmir’s parents or asked her father for permission to bring them to the Citadel.