Chapter 31 #2
“So, it would appear.” Kira peered at Jin out of the corner of her eye as he hummed lightly. “You wouldn’t have anything to share about her, would you?”
Jin’s control over his expressions was getting better as he met her gaze with a blank face. “I may have.”
Ah ha. Kira was right. Gus was here.
“Is she going to be a problem?” Kira probed carefully.
From the way Jin was behaving, she could tell he was feeling protective of this estranged sister of theirs.
“Not for us,” Jin said.
Kira took him at his word. She’d never known Jin to be wrong about something like this.
“I killed Mars,” Kira confessed
Jin’s gaze snapped to her as he ran his eyes over her body in search of wounds.
“I’m okay,” she assured him as he reached for the shoulder where Mars’s dagger got her. “But once we wrap this up, I’ll have to leave to hunt down Cleo.”
Her sister trafficked Tuann kids. Even if she wanted to, Kira couldn’t overlook her crimes.
“Something tells me you won’t have to worry about Cleo for long,” Jin said with a knowing look.
Kira glanced down at him. “You know something I don’t?”
The smile that spread across his face was sly as he started after the kids. “Just a feeling.”
Kira frowned and followed. “You know I hate when you act mysterious.”
Once back on board Graydon’s ship, its medical team rushed the children and Caius to the med bay for a checkup.
Thankfully, the children came through the experience largely unharmed.
A few bruises and scrapes that they assured them were left over from the attack on their enclave. Nothing more serious.
The pirates had taken good care of them, giving them plenty of food and water to keep their strength up. No doubt so they’d be in pristine condition for auction.
Caius was worse off. He’d undergone torture. Many of his wounds were half healed. A few looked so serious that the healer expressed surprise that he was still walking around.
Kira suspected she knew the reasoning for that. Gus and her plants.
All in all, everyone came through the experience in one piece.
Physically, anyway.
Mentally, the children and Caius would be dealing with the fallout from this for years. If not the rest of their lives.
Graydon disappeared shortly after their arrival on ship to provide the emperor with an update.
Kira was impressed at their ability to communicate through the Falling’s debris cloud since they couldn’t contact Titan from within it. When she’d asked, Graydon had acted a little cagey which she took to mean it was all very hush-hush. Something he didn’t want others knowing.
She was content to let him keep his secrets and settled in to wait.
With nothing else to do, she fiddled with her cuff, interested when she saw that the micro-fissures had grown into true cracks.
“I wonder,” Kira whispered.
She concentrated, flexing her soul’s breath just slightly. The cracks widened, racing across the metal’s surface as if it were as fragile as a robin’s egg.
Pressure grew at the base of Kira’s skull, but she didn’t let up, cycling her ki the way Graydon had shown her.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The cuff shattered.
“You did it,” Graydon commented, walking towards her.
“I can’t believe it was that easy.”
Kira rubbed her wrist and stared at the cuff’s remnants.
“I wouldn’t phrase it quite that way. You have unusually large reserves of ki. Most, including me, could not have done what you just did.”
“How did your conversation go?” Kira asked.
“He was less than happy to hear his son was endangered. Also, the idea that someone has taken advantage of the wanderers’ isolation is of extreme concern to him.”
Kira too, if she were honest.
Graydon paused as the captain’s voice issued over the ship’s intercoms.
“Graydon to the bridge. There’s a situation that needs your attention.”
“Understood. I’ll be there momentarily.” He looked at Kira, “Shall we?”
She fell into step beside him. A few minutes later, they stepped onto his bridge.
Kira saw the reason for the strained silence and tense atmosphere on screen where several ships were displayed.
“They used the debris field as cover to fool our sensors,” the captain explained as Kira and Graydon joined them.
Jin waved her over to the seat he’d claimed. Dylan was a shadow beside him.
“We have company,” Jin informed her.
“I see that.” Kira studied the ships blocking their passage. They were of Tuann design. All armed to the teeth with enough fire power to present a serious threat. “Do we know who it is?”
Jin slouched in his chair. “Someone who doesn’t like losing.”
“Not many do,” Kira responded.
Graydon’s ship was no slouch. Though diplomatic, that just meant they had more cannons on their hull since the Tuann’s idea of diplomacy usually consisted of who had the bigger stick.
Still, the enemy had the advantage of numbers.
Their best bet would be to slip away into the debris field.
They could use it as cover to pick off their pursuers one at a time.
“They’re threatening to attack the human station if we flee,” the captain told Graydon.
Kira was pleasantly surprised by his consideration. A lot of Tuann would have left the humans to their own devices without a second thought.
“Would they really do that?” Kira asked.
Titan was a civilian occupied station without a huge military presence. Taking it out would be an act of evil on par with the Tsavitee.
“There are over three million souls on Titan,” Jin said.
That was a lot of blood to have on your hands.
“They wouldn’t hesitate,” Graydon confirmed.
“Maybe we could get a warning out to the station,” the captain suggested.
“Even if we could warn Titan, it wouldn’t matter. They don’t have the defenses to deal with a fleet of Tuann ships,” Kira said.
That could be placed directly on her shoulders. She was the one that gave Jace the information about the pirate hideouts. By now, he’d be busy running them down and in no position to help Titan.
“They’re hailing us,” one of the crew announced.
The captain glanced at Graydon, letting him make the decision.
“Put it through,” Graydon said, his eyes on Kira’s.
She reached for his hand to give it a comforting squeeze.
At the end of the day, Graydon’s duty to the emperor demanded he prioritize Jin’s survival over everything else. Including the three million souls who didn’t deserve to be placed in the middle of this.
If it came to it, they would flee. But first, they’d try negotiation.
“Damn it, this sucks,” Jin complained, likely understanding the stakes as well as Kira.
“It always does, Tin Man,” Kira said as Sariah appeared in hologram form.
The inquisitor had a bruise on one side of her face that detracted somewhat from her conceited expression.
“I thought we settled this last time,” Graydon purred.
“Things have changed.”
“I can see that.” Graydon swept a gaze over the assembled ships. “Tell me—since when have you been working with the rebels?”
Kira glanced at Dylan to find him giving her a tiny nod of confirmation.
Well, damn. When Sariah went dark, she went pitch black.
“I’ve done no such thing,” Sariah declared hotly.
“Those are their ships you’re on,” Graydon corrected.
“Who does this woman think she’s fooling?” Jin muttered.
At his voice, Sariah’s gaze jumped in his direction. “We are loyal to the emperor and his cause. Even if he doesn’t see that right now, I’m sure he will soon. Hand over the emperor’s son and submit yourself for execution.”
“Does anyone else think she sounds crazy?” Jin asked.
Kira held up her hand. “Me. I do.”
Although—Kira wouldn’t discount this as a viable option. If she could get close enough under the pretense of surrender, she could do a lot of damage in a very short time.
Jin looked like he was considering the same.
“I will enjoy silencing you forever,” Sariah spat.
“You may, of course, try,” Kira murmured demurely.
In fact, she looked forward to the attempt.
“Captain, several more ships just popped up in our vicinity,” the Tuann from before murmured in a low voice.
Sariah looked off to the side as someone informed her of the same.
“How did you miss that?” she demanded.
“Looks like someone used the same trick of hiding in the debris field,” Jin gloated.
Sariah’s gaze snapped back toward him. “When you’re back where you belong, you will be put into remedial training until you get that mouth of yours under control.”
The look Dylan directed at Sariah made the hair on Kira’s arms stand up. She had a feeling if Sariah and he were ever in the same room that Sariah might not be exiting it in one piece.
Jin met her gaze with unflinching calm. “Scarier people than you have tried.”
Sariah turned her glare on Graydon. “Surrender. You’re outmatched and surrounded.”
“I don’t think it’s us who are surrounded,” Jin drawled.
On screen, the mystery ships flanked the rebels.
Kira squinted as a ship was magnified so they could see details. “What am I looking at?”
“An unholy union that the Tuann are likely to view as the worst bastardization of their technology ever.” Jin leaned forward in his chair, his face alive with glee.
“Remember the ships Luatha gave Centcom? These are them. After Jace and his scientists frankensteined them together with some of the fleet’s decommissioned rigs. ”
“They’re so ugly,” Kira whispered.
It was impressive given what Luatha gave him to start with.
“They work and that’s all that matters,” Jace said, his calm face appearing on the hologram.
A young man was at his back. Aeron had undergone a haircut to look more soldier-like since the last time Kira had seen him. Dressed in one of the Space Force’s uniforms, he could have been any other human serving in the fleet. And not the general he actually was.
That was likely Jace’s intent. Otherwise, Centcom would have taken custody of Aeron and subjected him to horrors even the Tsavitee would be proud of.