Infinitys end books 7 9, p.56
Infinity's End: Books 7-9, page 56
“Robeaux,” Rutledge said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I never thought I’d see you in the flesh again. But then, if someone had to survive the destruction of our species, I can’t say I’m surprised it’s you.”
“Y-you will address him as Captain Robeaux.” Vrij stepped forward. “Weapons. Now.” The other security officers took up their places at the sides of the door, keeping the Erustiaan and Arc-N’gali inside the ship.
Rutledge shrugged and pulled an impressive looking blaster off his hip, handing it to Vrij. “Is…that attached to your back?” He eyed Vrij’s mandible. “I’ve never seen an Ashkasian with such a deformity before.”
“I am not Ashkasian. I am Bulaq.” Vrij grabbed Rutledge with what Cas considered a fair amount of force, pulling him forward. “I s-said weapons. All.”
Rutledge turned to Cas. “Is this what you do now? Collect species? First the Sil and now him?”
“Do as he says, Daniel. Trust me, you don’t want to see him use that blade.” Rutledge was trying to take ahold of the situation like he always did, and Cas wasn’t about to let that happen.
Rutledge forced a grin then reached behind him, removing a smaller, more compact blaster and a foldable blade. Vrij took each and passed them to the security forces. “They will stay. You will follow the captain.”
“Hell of a welcome party,” Rutledge said.
Cas scoffed. “Oh, I’m sorry. Were you expecting balloons? Maybe a banner? Some testament to the great Daniel Rutledge, savior of the Coalition?” That shut him up. “Let’s get this over with.” He turned and headed back down the corridor, leading Vrij and Rutledge to the closest hypervator. Cas couldn’t help glance back at Rutledge, whose attention was being pulled in all directions by the state of the ship itself. Compared to anything else he’d seen in the past eighteen years, Cas bet it was like stepping back in time for him, connecting him to a place that had long since been destroyed.
“I noticed you made another deal with the Sil. Laska must have done a job on you,” Rutledge said as they stepped into the hypervator.
“That wasn’t me. You can thank Evie for that.”
“Evie,” Rutledge said, rolling the name around in his mouth. “Not Commander Diazal?” He barked a laugh. “You are full of surprises. I never thought she’d last this long. Not with that bleeding heart of hers. I always said she took too much pity on you from the beginning. Anyone could see it when she brought you back to Eight. Hell, the only reason I sent her after you was because I knew you couldn’t resist a good pair of legs.”
Cas spun on the man. “Listen here, you walking piece of shit, Evelyn Diazal is one of the most competent, most compassionate and strongest people I know. And if you refer to her physical characteristics one more time, I will make sure Vrij impales you right through both your kneecaps. Then we will drag you back to your shuttle bleeding and crying. Do I make myself clear?”
“Crystal,” Rutledge said, his gaze unwavering. He’d known which buttons to push and Cas hated himself for taking the bait. But he wouldn’t stand here and allow someone to disparage a member of his crew. There was no world in which that was acceptable, he didn’t care if they lost the technology or not.
The hypervator opened on the bridge and Cas escorted the man through, all of his bridge officers staring at Rutledge as he passed. He neglected to look at any of them in turn, instead staying right beside Cas until they’d entered the conference room. Cas hung back as Vrij showed Rutledge to a seat inside. “Zaal, recall the senior staff. We need to hash this out. But don’t notify Zenfor.”
“Aye,” Zaal said, putting the call out. Cas stepped into the conference room, allowing the doors to close behind him. However this went, it needed to be quick. For Sesster’s sake.
Chapter 9
Cas stared out the conference room window, seeing nothing beyond the pane. He was trying to maintain an air of aloofness but wasn’t pulling it off. His mind was a jumble of thoughts. As the rest of the senior staff reported to the conference room, Cas gazed back to Rutledge who sat at the far end of the table while Vrij stood behind him, his blade still extended. Cas was glad to see Vrij was taking this threat seriously. He still hadn’t been able to get a good read on Rutledge yet and there was no telling what he was capable of.
When Samiya and Hank entered, Samiya paused a moment upon seeing Rutledge and then took her seat on the far side of the table. “Gysan,” Rutledge said.
She nodded but didn’t reply. Zaal, Lieutenant Tyler, and Tileah joined as well. Cas wasn’t sure why Evie had yet to show up, but he decided it was best to go ahead and begin. They were short on time as it was.
Cas turned from the window looking out on Thislea. “As you all know, Mr. Rutledge here has offered to assist us in our endeavors. Rather than debating the merits of his offer, I decided we should all hear it from him before we move forward with a course of action.”
“Spoken like a true captain. I knew you’d make it one day, son,” Rutledge said.
Cas let the comment wash over him. “How do you propose to help?”
“Gather info. Provide it to the fleet and make sure we destroy these bastards once and for all.” Rutledge looked around the room, extending his arms out in front of him on the table. “I’ve been fighting against the Athru for nigh on twenty years. One human and a bunch of Sargans. There were some close calls, and some days when I thought we’d never make it through, but here I am. I don’t know your story and I don’t really care. You’re here now and you’ve done what I never could: build an effective defense against the Athru. The Sil fleet is just the advantage we need to beat those fuckers.”
“Except,” Samiya interjected. “They won’t attack until they know the Athru’s troop positions.” Cas grimaced. He didn’t want to give anything away to Rutledge. He wanted the man to think they were completely in control. But now Rutledge knew he’d been right.
“I assumed as much. Which is where I come in,” he says. “Using my resources, we can find out their capabilities before we commit one ship to fighting.”
Hank leaned over to Cas. “Should we bring the Sil in on this? They are the ones risking their ships after all,” he whispered. Cas shook his head and returned his attention to the table. If the Sil learned Rutledge was the one who sanctioned the original attack against their people eighteen years ago they wouldn’t allow him to leave the system alive. Not to mention their shaky alliance would dissolve. Something Rutledge no doubt knew.
“What’s your proposal?” Cas asked.
“I’ve collected a number of…ships—” The doors to the conference room slid open to reveal Evie, who hurried in and took the seat on the other side of Cas. She didn’t even acknowledge Rutledge was there, instead her attention was focused on the rest of the senior staff. “As I was saying,” Rutledge continued. “I have several non-Coalition ships in my hold. We can load a small reconnaissance party on board a few at a time, then send it out to gather intelligence. Tempest or Sil vessels would be identified. This is innocuous. No comm signals, no Coalition signatures anywhere.”
“Except for one problem,” Cas said. “We’re not doing this piecemeal. We plan on striking the Horus system, where they’re holed up and in the greatest numbers. If we try to start taking out the outlying systems first, they’ll turn those star-killing weapons on us, and we’ll be dead before we get to Starbase One.”
“Ambitious,” Rutledge said.
“What about the time bubble technology?” Tyler asked. “Isn’t that the reason you’re here?”
“It’s true the time bubbles will provide protection from anything in normal space, but the Athru can detect ships that are out of sync with time. I know because we tried to get to Earth once, a few years ago. And you’re right, it’s a fortress. They have these…bioscanners that look for human life signs on anything coming in and out of the system. We’d barely crossed the border before we were found out.” He motioned to the eye that had been replaced. “If you want to go that deep, you can’t have any human life signs on the transport. With or without the time bubble. And you can’t use their own technology.” He leaned forward. “The better plan is to go in as a merchant vessel looking to trade with some of the inner planets.” He looked around the room. “So far, they’ve left the other species alone, if cut off. There are no other humans on my crew. My people can do it. I’ll stay behind with the fleet.”
Cas shook his head. “It still won’t work. It would take a hundred and forty days to get to Earth from here in your ships. We don’t have that long.” Cas glanced at Evie.
“Why not? What’s the hurry?” Rutledge asked. “We’ve waited this long.” A smug smile sat on his lips, as if he were waiting for some juicy tidbit.
“It’s a classified matter.” Cas cleared his throat. “Whatever we do, we’ll have to use Tempest. We can make it in under a week.”
“A week.” Rutledge sat back, the smile growing. “You’ve been keeping secrets, Robeaux. Seven hundred light-years in a week. Imagine the possibilities.” He stared at the group for a moment. “You’ll never get close enough. This ship is too recognizable. I haven’t seen another Coalition ship in seven years. The Athru aren’t stupid.”
Cas drew in a deep breath through his nose. Maybe he was right. He needed to speak to Zenfor, see if they could possibly modify one of these smaller ships Rutledge had with him. Ever since they’d returned, anything that even resembled a Coalition ship had thrown up red flags. And here, deep in Sil territory, it wasn’t as if they had the option of finding a non-aligned species that could lend them a vessel. If Cas wanted to save Sesster, Rutledge’s plan might be the only way.
“I’ll need to go,” Evie said, breaking Cas’s train of thought. “We’ll need someone we can trust to bring back credible information.”
Rutledge bristled. “Did you not just hear what I said, darlin’? No humans. They’ll destroy the ship before you get past the outer planets.”
“That won’t be a problem.” Evie stared Rutledge down. The hard edge in her voice was apparent.
“You’ve gotten insubordinate in my absence. There was a time when you’d address me as sir.” Rutledge tensed and Vrij’s eyes flashed. He was right on top of the man.
“There was a time when I didn’t know what a traitor you were,” Evie countered. “If I had, I never would have taken your assignment.”
Rutledge moved to get up. “I came here to offer my help. But I can see it’s a waste—” A sharp blade appeared under Rutledge’s throat. “Well, well.” He eyed Cas and not the blade. “Pirate tactics.”
“Sit down, Daniel,” Cas said. “We don’t have time for these games. We both know you’re not going to walk away from us, and we need your help otherwise you wouldn’t be on board. So, let’s just cut the shit. You give us one of your support craft and we’ll modify it to get us into the Horus system on schedule. When it returns, we can share the intel and form a plan of attack. Fair enough?”
Rutledge’s gloved hands were in fists. “For now.”
“Good enough for me,” Cas said. “Vrij, take our guest back to the Bay and wait for me there. I’ll join you in a few minutes.”
“Yes, Captain Robeaux,” Vrij replied, escorting Rutledge from the room. Cas’s former commander took one last look at Evie before departing. The rest of the crew followed him out, but Cas motioned for Evie to hang back.
Once they were alone, he took his seat again. “Are you sure you want to go? Assuming we can make this work at all.”
She nodded. “I need to see what my people have done. And I’m the best choice. If we have to take some of his people with us, I can get us out of any jams they get us into.”
“How are you going to explain your presence and keep them from scanning you?”
Evie took a deep breath. “I need to talk to my mother. But something—happened back when Zenfor and I were trying to get aboard that Sil ship. I felt a change inside of me when the shuttle lost pressurization. And my skin changed color. I think I might have more control over my genes than I realized.”
“That could have just been a reaction to the cold, or a dozen other things. We don’t know,” Cas said. Evie had told him a few times about her experience in the vacuum of space, though he didn’t know what to make of it. Xax hadn’t found anything out of the ordinary in her scans. But the Sil had spent a lot more time analyzing her genes. He wondered if he could glean some information from them.
“You can’t send Zenfor because they’ll detect her as Sil. Box could do it, but he’s not a fighter and isn’t very good in those kinds of situations. I’m the only one who could make sure the mission is a success if they decide to betray us.”
Cas didn’t like it. She was putting herself in harm’s way for no reason he could see other than pride. “What’s the real reason?” he asked.
She cut her eyes to the table, taking her seat again. “All this time—we’ve been one step behind the Athru, picking up where they left off. Vrij’s home planet, the Athru planet, Starbase Five, Untu, Sissk. We’re always a step behind, seeing the aftermath. I need to see them in person, get a good look at them myself to see just how terrible they are. I need to prove to myself they deserve this fate.”
“And if they don’t?” Cas asked.
“Then I just won’t tell you, and I’ll live with the guilt. I’m good at that.”
He leaned on his elbows on the table. “It’s a big risk. If something happens to the ship—”
“I know. But it’s like you said, we’re running out of time.” She glanced at the door. “It’s Sesster, isn’t it? I can feel something is wrong.” Cas didn’t have to say anything, she already knew; it was written on her face. “How long does he have?”
Cas took a deep breath. “Doc says maybe a week. If we’re lucky.”
“Then this mission just went from reconnaissance to rescue.”
Chapter 10
“This is a terrible idea.” Zenfor walked beside Cas as they made their way down the corridor. “You are placing me in a compromising position.”
“I know and I’m sorry,” Cas replied. “But we are running out of time and options. I don’t have to tell you what—or who in this case—is at stake.” He stopped her in the hall, and she turned to him, but her eyes were burning with fury. “We can save him, Zen. I know we can. But we have to make a deal with the devil to do it.”
Her face crinkled. “Devil?”
“A human myth.” Cas resumed their course to the Bay. “It means in order to get what we want; we have to compromise our morals and our standards. But in this case, I feel it’s worth it. Otherwise, Sesster…”
“I hate this,” she replied. “I hate him. And you want me to stand in the same space with him? To look him in the eye and not gouge it out? To not tear his head clean from his shoulders and—”
“I get the idea,” Cas said. “I know this won’t be easy, but I don’t have anyone else on board who can evaluate one of his ships to see if we can even make these modifications. You’re the expert in Tempest’s undercurrent drive and you’re the one who helped us reach these fantastic speeds. I’m hoping you can do that again.”
“It won’t be the same.” She bristled. “Your ship already had a modified drive with Sesster at the helm. It took me years to build something else that could work without him, even without Volf hamstringing me. If this ship of his is nothing more than a simple merchant vessel the modifications may not even be possible.”
“I trust you’ll find a way. You always do,” Cas replied.
They entered the Bay where Vrij and his security contingent stood beside Rutledge, who looked bored. Behind him was his shuttle and Cas could see his two companions still inside, watching everything happening in the bay. He didn’t like the looks they were giving him, or the rest of his crew. It reminded Cas of the pirates he used to avoid in the Sargan Commonwealth; those who would do anything to get just a little bit richer, or a little bit more powerful. It didn’t instill him with a lot of confidence.
Cas looked for Saturina but she wasn’t to be seen. He assumed she was in Bay Two, still overseeing the spacewing refits. He tapped his comm. “Chief.”
“Captain,” she replied, her voice all-business. That was part of what he liked about her: she knew when to keep it business and when it was time to be personal.
“I need an escort. Do you have two or three ships you can spare?”
“We do. I’ll pull Blackfield, Ryant and Beard. What’s the mission?”
“Shuttle escort. Zenfor and I will be returning to Mr. Rutledge’s ship with him to inspect some equipment. I’d like a little backup to make sure nothing goes wrong.” He said this loud enough so he knew Rutledge could hear, though the man seemed unperturbed.
Zenfor was doing a very poor job of masking the fury on her face. But Saturina had told him she’d already decided not to kill him on sight. Cas was trusting that would hold, but he wasn’t pushing his luck. He and Zenfor would be following Rutledge’s shuttle over. The last thing he needed to do was put Zenfor inside a small, confined space with the man. She might have self-control for the moment, but sometimes things changed in small spaces.
“We’ll be ready,” she said.
“And I need one more pilot for our shuttle,” Cas added.
“Utley will be happy to oblige,” Saturina said. Cas had hoped she would have volunteered herself, but likely there was too much to do over here. The Sil were still in the process of upgrading all their ships, which included the shuttles and spacewings and it frustrated her to no end she couldn’t get them to tell her exactly what they were doing. She’d stay and push until one side gave way.
