On a Pale Ship Read online

  "Blue team, copy," another child's voice answered, followed by the same answer from green team.

  "Bastion, you'll take Blue and Green to the lab. Primary objective is destruction of the corpse packages Gabino Alcazar, Lucien Gray and Katriona Macillvain. Secondary objective is the capture of Dorian Anino. If capture is not possible, terminate with extreme prejudice. Do you copy?"

  "Roger Wilco," Emilie replied. The mention of Lucien Gray's name tweaked slightly at her subconscious, but she shrugged it off and released her grip on the ship's exterior handholds.

  As one, the pack of childlings turned toward Luc. A light on his HUD warned of a ranged weapon pointing directly at him. With speed he was unaware he possessed, he dodged to the side and cracked the nearest feral child just above its knee, sending it spinning away ungracefully. While relieved that Dorian had escaped, he'd really jumped from the frying pan into the fire. The problem was he'd left a team member behind once before, and he wasn't about to abandon Katriona like he had Emilie.

  "Show all hostiles on tactical," he ordered his AI, diving forward through the opening Jimmy had blown in the side of the laboratory.

  Curie's moon Irène, while not massive enough to generate the .8g he experienced, had extensive gravity generators laid out in a mesh across most of its surface. Early terraforming efforts had failed to produce viable plant life beyond bio-engineered grasses that maintained the thin atmosphere.

  Luc's HUD showed the temperature at ten degrees below water's freezing point. With only a thin covering, he half expected the cold to be a problem, but his HUD showed that he was well within his new body's safe operating range. The thing was, he felt like he was standing on one of Nuage Gros's balconies during Grünholz's rainy season when it was cool, but not overly so.

  "Why did you stay behind?" He was startled to hear the woman's voice on the team's tactical comm.

  He glanced at his comm channel authorization. Katriona’s integrated comm had been added to the team's tactical channel the moment she'd awakened.

  "Little busy here," he replied, sprinting around the perimeter of the building. The childlings who had managed to follow Dorian and team to the building's roof were tracking him now, three of whom had jumped from ten meters up and would land in front of him in a second or two. His HUD showed the remaining hostiles were no longer occupying the lab and appeared to be ignoring him.

  "Locate secure facilities," Luc ordered his AI. "Is there a brig or something?" He couldn't bring himself to kill the children; they clearly had no such compunction. Their faces twisted in rage as they landed around him. He winced as he noticed that one had hurt its ankle and was limping.

  "What is this place?" Katriona asked. "What's going on?"

  Ordinarily, Luc hadn't been much for multi-tasking when fighting, but even with three opponents closing in, he wasn’t having any issues. The two childlings in the lead leapt at him and he turned into their attack, grateful for the non-lethal weapon Gob had provided.

  His AI displayed an overview of the building with a brig highlighted at the central security office.

  "You died on Fariza," he replied, parrying the clumsy, albeit lightning-fast attacks by the angry children. He shook his head as he took in the condition of their dirty, thin little bodies. Both children had substantial burns on their arms as well. Aged cuts and contusions showed signs of longer-term neglect.

  "I was shot," Katriona remembered out loud.

  Luc stepped toward one of the children and swept his weapon through the side of her knee with as much strength as he could muster. The joint cracked as the table leg bent on contact and made a loud thwack. The table leg, which had held up well to this point, was severely bent and virtually useless.

  "Damn," he cursed, throwing the weapon aside as the child toppled. "Right. Does the name Marek Alexander ring any bells?"

  "Shite," Katriona replied. "What's Marek got to do with this?"

  Luc blocked the arm of the next childling as it brought a knife overhead in an attempt to stab him. Slipping his fist down below the child's arm, Luc punched the side of its face at three quarter's power, not sure just how much damage the child could take.

  "He took our bodies to a lab over Fariza. I know this is messed up; you'll just need to believe me," Luc said.

  The punch he'd landed sent the child reeling to the ground. He'd need to deal with the limping child coming toward him first, however.

  "I've been in that lab," Katriona said. "You know, before I was dead."

  "You're one of them?" Luc asked, his mind reeling with the new information.

  Feeling like a heel, but not seeing an alternative, Luc lashed out at the limping child's one good knee with a high-powered snap-kick. Through the slippers he wore, he could feel the joint dislocating as the child fell.

  "I'm not with Marek," Katriona replied, hotly. "He's the one who killed me."

  "Well he's here," Luc replied, dancing away from one of the wounded children who'd crawled toward him, slashing with a knife.

  "Frak that. I'll kill the bastard," Katriona said.

  "Stay away from him," Luc said. "He's got a horde of super-powered children. If they find you, they'll attack and you'll have to decide if you're willing to kill children. We think Marek attacked the compound to find you."

  Luc turned, slapping the remaining child's back as it lunged for him. He added to the child's inertia and sent it rushing past him. With unexpected agility, the child pivoted and slashed out, raking Luc’s forearm with the knife. Like before, he registered the pain, but tamped down its disabling impact. His right arm was only forty percent effective with the wounds he'd taken. The fight had felt surreal so far, his conversation with Katriona interspersed with the attacks, giving the entire thing an otherworldly feel.

  "Children?" Katriona asked.

  Luc smashed a fist into the boy's face at almost full speed. Even as he did, he chastised himself for finding no alternative. Mercifully, the boy fell — lights out — onto the ground. The girl, just slightly larger than the boy, howled mournfully when he hit the ground and crawled toward him, giving up her assault.

  "They've turned a bunch of slum kids from Fariza into super soldiers. Surely, you've noticed some changes to your body. Well Marek did that to better than a dozen kids and they're the ones attacking the compound," Luc explained.

  "Sveta," Katriona replied in hushed tones.

  Luc wasn't sure what she was saying. He jumped on one of the males who was still moving and wrapped an arm around his neck. Sleeper holds were dangerous, but he had few choices. He kept a wary eye on the girl who'd crawled on top of the smaller boy he'd knocked out. It broke his heart to see the pain in her face as she held the boy. Luc didn't believe he’d killed the boy, but then, he had hit him at nearly full speed.

  Fortunately, after thrashing for a few seconds, the child in Luc’s grip succumbed and fell limp. His AI acknowledged that the child was still alive, but unconscious.

  "Stay put, Katriona. I'll come to you," Luc said, jumping up and sprinted for a side door. The girl that had attacked him looked so harmless as she cried over the child he'd hopefully only knocked out.

  "I'm going after him," Katriona replied. "I've got to put an end to this."

  Katriona pulled herself forward, sliding on her naked stomach, grateful for the small band around her chest and the shorts she wore. Looking out the air grate into a main hallway, she saw raggedly dressed children running by carrying weapons. She strained, trying to determine if any were her niece Sveta. None seemed to be.

  "Katriona," Marek's voice sing-songed over the building's public address. "Where are you?"

  "Don't listen to him," the one who'd identified himself as Luc said over the comm channel. "He's trying to draw you out. There's a quick response team on their way from Sancellemoz."

  "Why do you care about me?" Katriona asked. "How are you any different than Marek?"

  Katriona looked at her hand. The pain hadn't been as great as she'd expected when she disloc
ated her thumb. It had taken quite a lot more effort than she'd expected, but it worked all the same. It was a trick she'd learned a long time ago, having used it to escape more than one set of restraints. She grabbed her thumb and rotated it in a long-practiced maneuver, setting it back in place. The tendon surprisingly seemed not to be torn as was generally the case, requiring considerable rehab and med-patches if she could get ahold of them.

  "We're the same," Luc said. "I was killed. Marek's people took me from Grünholz. I just woke up today too."

  "Why? This is crazy? Who would kill you just to wake you back up?"

  "Your body," Luc said. "Surely you can feel the changes. They made us into super soldiers except someone took us from Marek before he could mess with our heads. I think he's come after you to finish the job."

  Katriona considered Luc's words. She had no indication that he was lying, but it didn't matter. If Marek was here, she'd need to deal with him. He had that much coming at least.

  "You're saying I'm a super soldier?"

  "It's different for everyone," Luc said. "Whatever you were good at before, you're probably better at now. Stronger, faster, that sort of thing."

  "Well then, he won't stand a chance, will he?" Katriona had always been agile, able to navigate even the smallest spaces. She turned easily in the narrow shaft, set her feet against the grill, and kicked it out. Grabbing the edge, she slipped forward and turned at the last moment, falling to the floor below.

  "Don't go after him. He has others like us," Luc said. "You're exposed."

  "Look, you sound like a good guy," she said.

  "You can trust me."

  "Yeah, about that," Katriona answered. "I've never had a problem a man solved for me without adding new problems."

  "That's not fair," Luc said. "We're stronger as a team."

  "Not been my experience," Katriona replied. "End comm."

  "Kitty cat?" Sveta's confused voice came over the building's public address.

  Katriona's heart leapt in her chest. The bastard somehow had her niece.

  "Marek! Show yourself, coward!" she screamed and raced down the hallway in the direction she'd seen the children running.

  Bursting through a doorway, she suddenly found herself in a room filled with grubby children. She saw the gloved fist just as it crashed into her jaw and sent her reeling in the opposite direction. She'd been in plenty of fights and being coldcocked was hardly a new experience. Instead of resisting, she accepted the attacker's energy and spun with it, lessening the impact of the blow.

  Turning, she leapt upward, trying to get a look at her attacker while jumping over a child who slashed out at her. Luc's statement was right, she wasn't ready to fight with children. Fortunately, the woman whose laser focus was on Katriona as she circled around to intercept was an athletic, blonde adult woman. Her mind flitted back to the child who’d slashed at her. Almost without thinking she snaked out her hand and disarmed the seemingly frail child, wrenching the knife away. The child turned to engage, but Katriona spun, driving her heel into the child's kidneys, creating distance between them.

  "Hold!" Marek's amplified voice filled the room, which upon further inspection Katriona understood to be the building's foyer. The advancing children stopped.

  "Marek. Using children? How could you? Where's Sveta?" Katriona asked, locating him across the room where he stood in front of the soaring windows. Just over his shoulder, she saw a ship approach and assumed it to be the fast response team Luc Gray had alluded to earlier.

  "These?" Marek asked, gesturing broadly. "Simple economics, my dear: stronger than any soldier, more obedient and cheaply produced. I wasn't fond of the idea until I really thought about it. Call me a convert. Sveta, come forward so your auntie can see you."

  A shock of wispy blonde hair appeared from behind Marek and a bedraggled Sveta stumbled into view. Her listless eyes were unfocused. "Kitty Cat?"

  "Give me Sveta and I'll let you live," Katriona growled.

  Marek smiled. "There's no reason for us to fight, my dear. I'll gladly give you your dear Sveta back. Join us. Help us rewrite history. We can bring justice to Fariza's slums with the very children they discarded."

  Katriona could smell the lie on him. Marek had been a smooth talker from the beginning and for some reason he wanted to draw her in … again. "What, so you can set me up for another murder? Or you can pin terrorism on me? How many times should I play the patsy?"

  "Water under the bridge, dear child," Marek said. "You've changed. You're one of us now. I'd no more sacrifice you than I would my left arm."

  Katriona watched as the ship outside landed, expecting at any moment to see heavily armed men pouring out.

  "You're done, Marek. It's too late for you," she said, nodding to the ship.

  "Oh, that?" Marek asked. "You're right, we do need to get going. That ship is our ride."

  "You're not getting away," Katriona said and ran at him with all the speed she possessed. Time around her seemed to slow as the athletic blonde and the barely-restrained childlings reacted to Katriona's move.

  Unimaginably, Marek pulled Sveta from the ground and brought a blade level with her throat as Katriona sliced through the crowd. The horror of the threat stopped her in her tracks and she held up her arms, allowing her knife to drop. The childlings fell on her, beating her, but surprisingly not utilizing the blades they all held.

  "Take her to the ship," Marek ordered.

  The small hands stopped their punches and turned instead to grasp her. Through swollen eyes she saw the floor moving beneath her as she was dragged toward the doorway.

  The sound of blaster fire caught her attention and the group dragging her held for a moment as Marek stumbled forward, but didn't fall.

  "Bastion, take him!" Marek ordered without turning. "Everyone else, move!"

  Impossibly, an emaciated childling grabbed Katriona away from the group, throwing her over his shoulder. As small as she was, Katriona outweighed the child by at least fifty percent. Even so, the child raced through the doors and into the awaiting ship, moments behind Marek and the rest of the childlings.

  She strained her head to look back into the building where a muscular, clean-cut, sandy-haired man sparred expertly with the athletic blonde woman who fought for her life. Knowing she had only a few moments left, Katriona turned her comm back on.

  "You shouldn't have come for me," she said.

  "You should have waited for me," he answered, seemingly unaffected by the battle he was waging with the blonde.

  "He has my niece."

  Katriona fought to continue looking out the door as the ship started lifting. She watched as Luc Gray twisted the woman into a submission hold. At the last moment, he turned, looked directly at her and said, "I pledge to you, Katriona Macillvain, on my honor. I won't give up until I find you. Do not give in to the evil around you."

  "Who are you?" Katriona whispered back as she was wrenched away from the door.

  Chapter 21

  A Promise is a Promise

  "You must let me go," Emilie Bastion whimpered and pulled against Luc, attempting to free herself. It was taking everything he had to simply hold her on the ground, but he knew releasing her would be a disaster. "The ship is leaving. I must go."

  "Stand down, Lieutenant Bastion," Luc said, adopting the voice of command he knew she'd recognize.

  For a moment she stopped struggling, turning her head toward him in confusion. He wondered how Marek had managed to brainwash her in such a short period of time. Although, the fact that he'd been killed, resurrected and rebuilt caused him to call into question many things he thought he knew.

  "Locate remaining security personnel," Luc instructed his AI. As her last act, Dorian had given him tactical command of the compound. As instructed, the security personnel had segregated the staff into safe rooms and hunkered down.

  "Captain Maloff, this is Lucien Gray," he said, after his AI displayed the highest ranking of the remaining personnel. "Do you recognize my
authority?"

  "Copy that, Mr. Gray," a gruff sounding woman replied. "I received orders from Ms. Anino regarding your promotion. Would you care to tell me what this was all about?"

  "Negative, Captain. We have hostiles still on base," Luc said. "You are to avoid these hostiles at all costs even though they look like children."

  "Mr. Gray, we're not imbeciles. We've been watching the data streams and have seen the feral children's capabilities. I assume you'd like help with the woman you're currently restraining," she answered.

  "Copy that," he replied. "You should also let the Irène fast-strike team know we've got things under control."

  "Do we have things under control, Mr. Gray?" Captain Maloff asked.

  "Order given," Luc replied almost automatically. He wasn't about to tussle with the Captain about who was on top, especially while rolling around on the floor with Emilie. "I'll need several pairs of your best cuffs and a couple people to take Ms. Bastion to your brig."

  "Roger Wilco," Maloff replied, closing comms.

  To her credit, Luc thought she avoided sounding overly sour. He didn't blame her entirely. In a critical moment, Dorian had given the woman a no-confidence vote and turned control over to a complete stranger. He suspected hard feelings would need to be resolved in the not too distant future.

  And while it took nearly an hour, he — with the security team's help — rounded up the remaining childlings who had failed to make it onto Marek’s ship.

  "Lucien!" Dorian Gray rushed toward Luc, grabbed the sides of his face, and pulled him to her. "I was so worried. You can't do that to me."

  "Damn, son, what did you put in the old lady's punch?" Jimmy asked, swaggering into the room behind her. "I've never seen her act like this."

  Luc ignored him and allowed his left hand to find its home on Dorian's backside. He pulled her to him. He'd never been an overly romantic man, but for some reason, he'd been drawn to Dorian from the first moment he'd laid eyes on her. If getting chewed on by feral children was what was required to get her undivided attention, the sacrifice was worth it.