Science Friction: 15 Book MEGA Sci-Fi Romance Bundle (Excite Spice Boxed Sets) Page 33

  Slumping in the corner, she put a hand to her abdomen. Purity but it hurt! While she had been out in the crowded corridor, passing as one of the many Purists going back and forth, she’d been able to mostly ignore the pain. Now it came back with a vengeance, reminding her that the war between her suit and her hormones was most likely tearing her body apart from the inside out.

  It doesn’t matter, K told herself, trying to believe it. Doesn’t matter if it hurts—just get the job done. Just finish and then...

  Then she could die.

  The lift landed and the door opened with a muted chime. K straightened up and forced herself to step into the dark subterranean tunnel that greeted her. A gust of chilly, spice-laden air swirled around her. Just a little further—she could make it just a little further, she was sure.

  The tunnels twisted and turned in ways she hadn’t expected. She’d been to Midas before but only to refuel and drop off prisoners. There had never been any reason for her to go down into the mines—there really wasn’t any reason for any Paladin to be down here. K held her breath, hoping none of the black uniformed guards would ask her business. Some of them did look at her—their faces blank and immutable, their eyes hidden behind their black eyeshades—but she wasn’t stopped. K was thankful she outranked them all. The guards knew it might mean trouble to question her so they let her pass.

  K walked confidently, scanning the miserable, dirty faces of the slaves as she went. She was responsible for putting a good number of them down here. She felt a twinge of shame as she remembered all the raids she’d been on, all the captives she and her squad had delivered to the mines. But there was no time for regret—she had to find Shayla and fast. The pain she’d been enduring for days was sapping her strength. She didn’t think she could search all the many winding, twisting miles of tunnels for hours on end—she simply didn’t have the energy reserves to do it.

  She rounded another corner just as a particularly sharp cramp stabbed at her. K winced and was forced to grab a wall for support. Despite all she could do to hold it back, a soft cry of anguish escaped her. Immediately, one of the uniformed guards was at her shoulder.

  “Paladin? Are you well?” His voice was surprisingly concerned and despite his black eyeshades his face looked worried. It also looked strangely familiar.

  K shook her head. “It’s nothing. I stumbled.”

  “If you need assistance...” He held a hand out to her and then drew it back quickly, as though suddenly aware of the impropriety of his gesture. “Forgive me, I—”

  “Apologies are unnecessary.” K straightened up, ignoring the burning, stabbing pain in her abdomen. His hastily withdrawn hand bothered her—jogged a memory she’d almost forgotten. Who else had approached her in such a way? Who—?

  Suddenly the face she’d been looking for appeared over his shoulder. It was grimy and wretched and the blonde hair was cut short and ragged around a too-thin face but there could be no mistaking who it belonged to.

  Shayla!

  K forgot about the strange behavior of the guard, forgot—momentarily—about the pain in her gut. She stepped around him and beckoned to the female who was staring at her fearfully.

  “Prisoner, come with me,” she directed in a low, commanding tone.

  “What? Why?” Shayla shrank back from her. Like Boone, she was a giant and she had a good head on K in height. Still, she managed to make herself look small as she crouched against the rough stone wall.

  “Why does not concern you,” K said sternly. “You are to come with me now.”

  She marched forward and grabbed the girl by her ragged shirt, being careful not to touch skin even though her skinsuit covered her hands. She was no longer as horrified of contamination as she had been but no true Purist would voluntarily touch another being if they could help it.

  “What’s this about?” The guard who had offered to help her up was frowning now.

  “Prisoner transfer,” K replied shortly.

  “Where are you taking her?” He stepped up to block her path.

  K was beginning to feel desperate. The pain was back, stabbing into her like rusty knives. She didn’t have the strength to deal with this now.

  “She is being moved by order of the High Sentinel,” she said, having a sudden inspiration. “Would you care to take it up with him?”

  “No.” The guard abruptly fell back. “My apologies.”

  “None needed.” K yanked on Shayla’s shirt. “Come.”

  The girl followed her, seeming numb with fear and misery. K was relieved that Shayla wasn’t putting up a fight. In her weakened condition, she didn’t think she could have managed a rebellious prisoner.

  They rode up the lift in silence and K pressed a hand to her abdomen, trying not to cry out again. She couldn’t let Shayla sense any weakness in her—not while she still thought K was an agent of the enemy. Once they got aboard the ship and were out of Purist air space, she could collapse and let the autopilot do its work. In the meantime, she had to stay strong for just a little longer...

  Shayla kept her eyes down and her hands twisted together. She shuffled silently out of the lift when the doors whooshed open and K tugged on her ragged shirt. They navigated the crowded corridor with only a few curious glances being thrown their way. A Paladin escorting a lone prisoner might be a little unusual but it wasn’t far enough out of the ordinary to cause outright suspicion.

  Then, just as they were only a few yards from the small, dark hallway that led to the docking area, Shayla began to moan.

  “No... no.”

  K cursed her luck and tugged harder on the girl’s shirt but Shayla resisted, pulling backwards and shaking her head.

  “No,” she moaned. “The mines are bad enough. I don’t want to go someplace worse.”

  People were beginning to stare. One of the Sage-kind even paused for a moment, giving the moaning girl a quizzical look, before moving on in a rustle of long black robes.

  “Come, on.” K tried to keep her voice unemotional and failed. Purity, they were so close. If only the girl would shut up and keep moving! But Shayla was going into some kind of emotional fit. She had stopped dead in the middle of the hallway, refusing to move. Her blue-green eyes, so much like Boone’s, were welling up with tears.

  “Please,” she begged. “Please, don’t.”

  With the last of her strength, K gripped the back of the girl’s neck and steered her into the small, dark hallway.

  “Stop it,” she muttered. “Just stop it now. I’m not going to hurt you or take you someplace worse.”

  Shayla was crying openly now. “Please... I just... I can’t...”

  “Look.” Making sure her back was to the main corridor, K pressed the pressure tab behind her ear. The cowl of her suit retracted, baring her face and most importantly, showing her eyes.

  “Please,” Shayla moaned.

  “Look at me. Look at my eyes,” K insisted in a low voice. “I’m here to help you—sent here by your brother—by Boone.”

  The tears stopped abruptly and Shayla looked at her with a mixture of hope and distrust. “Really? But... how do I know you’re telling the truth?”

  “Have you seen anyone else around here with eyes like mine?” K demanded. A sharp pain stabbed her and she had to grab the wall with one hand to stay upright. “Look, I’m in a lot of pain here. I need you to come with me to my ship while I’m still able to walk.”

  “Oh!” Concern filled Shayla’s eyes. “Are you wounded?”

  “Not externally,” K said grimly. “Internally is another matter. I have to get you out of here before—”

  Suddenly a heavy hand landed on her shoulder and spun her around. K blinked in surprise as she looked into the face of the same guard who had offered her help down in the mines. Then his eyeshades retracted, showing the rest of his face.

  “Commander?” he whispered, a shocked look on his face. “Commander K?”

  “Six?” K looked at the former pilot and member of her purge squad t
rying to make sense of it. He was supposed to be dead! Boone had said her entire squad was wiped out—hadn’t he? So how could he be standing here alive in front of her now?”

  Apparently Six was thinking along the same lines.

  “You’re dead,” he said blankly. “They declared you purged.”

  “Well, I’m not,” K snapped. Turning to Shayla, she shoved the girl at the door. “Come on. I have to get you past the guard and aboard the ship.”

  “All... all right,” the girl stammered.

  K shoved her roughly toward the vast metal door and out into the chilly Midas twilight the minute it slid open. She kept her face turned away from the armed guard, hoping he couldn’t see her eyes.

  “Wait!” Six was still tagging along behind them.

  “Leave, Six. Go back and leave me alone,” K commanded but for once he didn’t obey her orders.

  “You can’t just show up here like this and then leave, Commander! I thought I’d never see you again.”

  K wished to Purity he hadn’t. Of all the rotten luck, running into the one person on Midas who would recognize her seemed the worst. Then again, how could she have known Six would be here, demoted from a Paladin to a guard? He was still tagging along after her, like a puppy that has found its long-lost master, following them right up the gangplank to her stolen ship.

  “Stop.” K turned to face him, thrusting her palm into his face to force him to halt. She keyed open the ship’s door and shoved Shayla inside—or tried to, but the girl resisted. Purity was nothing going to go K’s way today? No one was obeying her orders and the pain in her abdomen was getting so bad she wanted to scream. It felt like someone was sawing a hole in her with a rusty, dull knife. She tried to push Shayla inside again but again Boone’s little sister resisted.

  “Wait,” she protested. “Where are we going?”

  “The autopilot is set with the course that will take you to safety,” K said, unwilling to give away information in front of Six. “Just flip the engage switch and you’ll be on your way. Go.”

  “Without you?” Shayla looked at her uncertainly. “But if my brother sent you, he wouldn’t want me leaving you behind.”

  “Just go,” K ground out. “There’s no help for me but I want you to get away.” The pain was getting so bad she was certain she was going to die from it. There was no point in going with Shayla—there was nothing anyone could do for K now. Well, other than the woman who called herself K’s mother back on Eros, and her solution was unthinkable. K would rather be dead than let a bunch of strangers contaminate and penetrate her. The rusty knife in her gut was cleaner and more preferable than that. “Go!” she urged Shayla again, pushing her into the ship. This time, to K’s great relief, the girl went.

  “Hey, where is she going?” Six demanded from behind her. “I thought this was a prisoner transfer. You can’t send her off in a ship by herself!”

  “I can do whatever I want, Six. How dare you question me?”

  K tried to make her voice commanding but it came out weak and filled with pain. Still, she forced herself to keep standing upright. The guard at the door was shooting them suspicious looks. He was too far away to hear what they were saying but clearly there was something wrong going on. Any moment he would come over and join Six in demanding answers and explanations. K knew she had to hold them off long enough for Shayla to get the ship underway but Purity, the pain was so intense. Hurry, she mentally urged Shayla. Flip the switch. Get away!

  At that moment there was a muted roar from the shiny black hull of the stolen ship. K felt a surge of relief when, with a rush of hot air, it rose to hover behind her. Thank Purity, Shayla hadn’t hesitated. She was going now—on her way to Boone. Soon she’d be out of Midas’s thin atmosphere and on her way to freedom.

  K turned her head and watched as the ship rose up higher and higher until it became nothing but a black dot in the dusky sky. As it winked out of existence, an immeasurable wave of sadness washed over her. If only she could have gone on the ship, if only she could have gone back to Boone! But there was no hope for her. Nothing she could do except try to die with honor.

  She turned back to Six who was still staring at her in puzzlement.

  “Commander,” he said. “I do not understand.”

  “You don’t have to,” K said in a harsh whisper. “It’s done now. It’s all... over.”

  Then the world spun around her and she crumpled to the ground.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  “There! There it is—didn’t I tell you there was a ship coming out of Midas?” Loki stabbed a finger at the viewscreen where a tiny, shiny black dot was rising off the rocky, barren little world. “It’s a Purist ship—an older model too.”

  “Like the one that was stolen from the royal docks?” Rolf stared at it with interest.

  “She stole a ship from the royal docks?” Boone looked at Loki’s new touch partner in surprise. They had known that K had gotten off planet somehow—the Empress had declared that she no longer felt the presence of her daughter anywhere on Eros—but nothing had been said about a ship being missing.

  “Well, she is a princess with a claim to the whole planet so technically she didn’t steal anything,” Loki pointed out. “But yes, my man Rolf here was in touch with Eros this morning and he found out through the grapevine that the ship was just reported missing today.”

  “I’m a mechanic,” Rolf explained. “Like to keep my ear to the ground about anything to do with ships. Apparently the master of ships knew the Purist vessel was missing but he was afraid to report it.”

  “He should have spoken up right away,” Loki said primly. “Now the princess is almost a standard week ahead of any pursuit the Empress can put out. Mr. Master of the ships will be lucky to keep his head.”

  “That princess is K,” Boone reminded his pilot in a surly tone. “You know—the woman I love? The one who might be flying by right under our noses right now while you and Rolf debate the fate of some minor official back on Eros?”

  “Well what do you want me to do?” Loki demanded. “I’m not a mind reader—I can’t tell if it’s her aboard.”

  “Scan the vessel,” Boone said. “Read for life signatures.”

  Grumbling, Loki did as he was told. As the instrument panel lit up, he read the results moodily. “Just one life signature aboard,” he reported. “But it might just be a lone Paladin doing some kind of drill.”

  “Hail the ship,” Boone directed.

  “What? We’re still damn close to Midas, Boone! If it turns out not to be K, we might as well be putting a big ‘Please attack us now’ sign on the side of the ship.”

  “Do it,” Boone growled. “Damn it, Loki, just hail it. Now.”

  With poor grace, Loki did as commanded. There was a long moment of silence and then a familiar face popped onto the viewscreen.

  “Shayla?” Boone stared at her in disbelief.

  “Boone?” She started crying. “Boone, is that really you?”

  “The one and only. Goddess, it’s good to see your face!”

  “Yours too! Oh Boone, I thought I’d never see you again.”

  “You’ll be seeing a lot more of the big lug in a minute,” Loki said. “Stand by to be boarded.”

  “I’ll be waiting,” Shayla whispered, her eyes shining. “Come as quick as you can.”

  “We will,” Boone promised. He looked at her uncertainly, hoping against hope that Loki’s life signature scan had been wrong. “Shayla, is there anyone else with you onboard?”

  “No.” Shayla shook her tear streaked face. “No, Boone. I’m all alone.”

  Boone felt his heart sink but he had no time to grieve. Loki was already setting an intercept course with the stolen Purist ship. Almost before he could think they were locking an airlock onto the other ship’s entryway and his little sister was running into his arms.

  There was, of course, a lot of kissing and hugging and a lot more tears on both sides but though Boone was happy to have his sister
back, he couldn’t stop himself from asking about K. What Shayla told him chilled his heart.

  “So she made you leave her there?” he asked for the tenth time. “Just leave her there and go?”

  “I’m sorry, Boone—I told her you wouldn’t want me to.” Shayla looked ready to cry again. “But she pushed me into the ship and said... she said...”

  Boone frowned. “What exactly did she say, Shayla?”