Chapter 12
As soon as Mace stepped onto the lift, his vambrace beeped with a communique with Cache’s insignia, priority one from the command center.
His hand hovered over the controls. He wanted to ignore the summons, to follow through with his need to gain vengeance for Nia, when her words rattled in his mind. Some people don’t know how to deal with extreme situations.
She might as well have been talking about Mace, because he wasn’t dealing with her attack and injury well at all.
He tried not to notice how his hands shook when he touched the control for the command center. With a deep breath, he realized this was probably a good thing. Walking into an interrogation room enraged was a mistake.
By the time he strode through the command center’s security scanner, he’d regained control of himself. Mostly.
All the commanders and sub-commanders had already arrived ahead of him again. Foley’s eyes tracked him as he walked toward the group, his arms crossed. If the commander wanted to have a go at him, Mace was happy to oblige. It would relieve some of what boiled inside him. But when they locked eyes, Foley’s expression turned into a grin. Unsettled, Mace took his place beside Grey.
Cache clunked a gun onto the holotable. Everyone leaned in for a closer look.
Pushing his volatile emotions aside, and ignoring Foley’s disquieting stare, Mace focused on the weapon. He hadn’t seen anything quite like it. About the same length as a pulse cannon, it was made of black metal composite, sleek, the barrel about fifteen centimeters in diameter. A void occupied most of the shoulder rest, like it was incomplete.
Cache waited for the murmurs to settle around her. Meeting each of her commanders’ gazes, she narrowed her eyes at the weapon. “One of our scouting missions came across a rogue cruiser in Sector Four. They found this,” she said with a jerk of her chin, “on board.”
“It looks like it’s missing something, sir,” Mace commented, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Yes, it’s the charge and the payload,” Cache replied. A collective wince shuddered through the commanders, and she didn’t have to say her next words. “We’re talking bio-weapons here, people.”
“Proof?” Commander Sheefra asked.
If they had proof, they could pull out their existing treaty with the CORE and wave it their sanctimonious faces.
Cache shook her head. “Not in this catch. We have the hardware but none of the ammo.”
“How do we know it’s a bio-weapon then?” Grey asked.
“Commander Foley has been interrogating the occupant of the cruiser. We’ve received solid information from his efforts. The man was on his way to meet a contact.”
Mace’s gaze flicked back to Foley. Satisfaction hung around the other man like a cloak.
“This weapon wasn’t the only one on the ship,” Cache continued. “There were fifty disassembled and integrated in the cruiser’s construction.”
A low murmur rumbled around the table. That amount of prototype guns hiding in such a small ship meant the CORE had been planning this for a while.
“I shouldn’t need to emphasize how important it is to find out what the CORE’s agenda and put a stop to it.” Cache stared at each of her commanders in turn. “The day they use bio-weapons on Tellusians again is the day we really go to war. I have orders from Admiral Krispin to use everything at our disposal and to make contact with our assets.” Her eyes rested on Mace a moment longer than necessary. “And I mean everyone.”
Mace raised his eyebrows at her. He wouldn’t endanger Lexi unnecessarily, not with her position so vulnerable.
“Dismissed,” Cache said, and the commanders scattered.
Mace remained where he was, but his eyes followed Foley as he strode to the nearest lift. Beside him, Grey grasped the gun to examine it closer.
“It’s pretty,” Grey said stroking the barrel and lifting the weapon to his shoulder. “Light too. Point and shoot. Couldn’t be easier.” Grey set the gun back on the holotable and leaned forward, bracing his hands. “Fuck, what are they planning?”
“Nothing good,” Cache replied, crossing her arms over her chest before jerking her chin at Mace. “You need to contact Lexi. Find out what she knows.”
“You know I can’t do that, sir,” Mace replied.
“Dammit, Mace.” Cache seized the gun, and with her eyes flashing, shoved it at his chest. “This is a game changer, and it’s on my watch. My territory.”
His hands wrapped around the barrel. Grey was right. It was lightweight, the sleek composite material comfortable in his hands. Mace stared down the sight and the opposite side of the command center came into focus. Point and shoot.
A chill ran down his spine at the idea of the CORE making bio-weapons this easy to use. “What about the prisoner’s contact?” Mace placed the gun on the holotable’s surface.
“No show. They were probably going to send another set of co-ordinates before the real drop point.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “If you don’t contact her, I will.”
“And you’d be giving her a death sentence. Do you want that?”
Cache’s nostrils flared. “No, of course not.” She took a breath. “But with bio-weapons, no one’s safe. Use proper channels if you must, but we need what information she has ahead of the regular schedule.”
Mace’s stomach twisted. The only way his sister remained safe was if they didn’t contact her. There were too many variables involved, and long-distant communications could be intercepted.
But at least Cache was being reasonable enough to wait for proper channels. “I’ll see what I can do, sir.”
“That’s all I ask.” She turned on her heel, black hair swooshing over her shoulder, and headed to the far side of the command center, a group of techies scurrying as she yelled orders.
Mace stared after her a minute before heading to the lift outside the security checkpoint. Grey fell into step beside him.
“Are we off to training, then?”
The lift door opened, and they stepped on. “I need to make a stop first.” He hit the controls. Grey got off on the training level, but Mace remained, descending into the belly of Orion.
The corridors of the brig were brightly lit, a grid-like deck full of both cells and interrogation rooms. Mace strode to the intake desk and spoke to the warrior on duty.
“There was a man arrested in Section C family medicine. Where is he now?”
Her fingers skimmed the terminal in front of her. “Cell twelve,” she said, looking up at him.
“Has anyone been in there?”
“No, sir,” she said. “My orders were to wait until you arrived before following procedures.”
Mace nodded his thanks. “Send for a doctor. He’ll need one when I’m finished.”
Her eyes widened a fraction at his words. Realizing how he’d sounded, Mace shook his head before continuing on. Marked doors lined the sterile gray bulkheads.
He stopped in front of the cell and ran a hand through his hair. Nia’s last words to him made him take a breath. She was a healer. She’d asked him not to hurt the man. She knew trauma induced recklessness.
None of that should matter to him, but it did.
After taking another calming breath, he pressed his hand to the panel. The door slid open to reveal the man hunched on the deck in the corner of the empty metal room, head pressed against his knees.
When Mace stepped inside, the man scrambled to his feet using the bulkhead as support. Mace’s fingers twitched as they stood staring at each other.
Finally, the man asked, “Is my son alive?”
“He was when I left him in the doctor’s capable hands.”
The man sneered. “She’s CORE. They should all be sent out an airlock.”
“She’ll probably save your son’s life. She saved mine.”
For a second, it looked like the man would argue the issue but stayed quiet when Mace took a step forward.
“What happens to me now?” he asked.
If I don’t change my mind and decide to kill you?Fists clenched, Mace crossed his arms over his chest. “You’ll be charged with assault.” Maybe more. Depended on what other charges he felt like adding on. “If you’re eventually released, you are not to enter my ward’s med bay. You are not to come within a deck of her. Do you understand me?”
“But if my boy—”
Dropping his hands to his sides, Mace took a step forward. “Do you understand me!”
The man swallowed and nodded, back pressed into the corner.
Mace forced his fingers to unclench one by one. He stepped back, breaking the man’s wary gaze. There was nothing honorable about beating someone weak and unarmed, but let him be afraid if it meant he’d stay away from Nia.
A medic waited in the corridor, a med kit clutched to his chest.
“He hasn’t seen a doctor since arriving from the transport attack,” Mace explained, cocking his head to the door.
“Yes, sir.” The medic hurried inside.
Mace finished charging the man, Sorley was his name, then returned to the med bay to retrieve Nia. It was well past the end of her shift.
He found her talking with one of the medics beside the boy’s bed. The other two medics were gone, but each of the girls who’d been in earlier had an adult nearby, regeneration gauze on their skin. More victims from the transport attacks.
Mace came alongside the boy’s bed. “How’s he doing?”
Nia turned to him. The blood on her head had been cleaned. He noted her tense shoulders, how she held herself away from him.
“Good,” she said, voice tight. “Better. We almost lost him there, but he pulled through. He’s tough.” She rubbed the middle of her forehead. “Why does everyone keep telling me I have to ask you about prosthetic limbs?”
“We can talk about it later.”
“He needs the bonding process to begin right away. Any delay could mean complications—”
“We can talk about it later.”
Nia’s breath left her in a rush as she dropped her hand and narrowed her eyes at him. “Fine.” She turned to the medic. “Is there a way to contact me if his status changes?”
Kessy nodded. “I can contact the commander if there’s any change.”
After scanning the boy’s vitals one more time, Nia headed to the door to hang her white jacket on a hook. Mace coded his vambrace, and they returned to his quarters in silence. Once her wrists were disengaged, he meant to immediately back out of the room and give her space, but something made him stop.
“Are you okay?”
She looked over her shoulder at him. It was then he realized she’d paled considerably.
“Yeah, need to sit...” She’d barely finished the sentence when she collapsed to the deck.
“Fuck,” Mace breathed. He tried to catch her before she hit, but didn’t reach her in time. At least she didn’t smash her head against the corner of table and make things worse. Mace swept her up, cradling her against his chest before striding to the bed to lay her down. He felt for the pulse at her throat. A strong rhythm. She’d only passed out.
Mace moved her knees to sit beside her and ran a hand though his hair. He’d done this to her, worked her to exhaustion. He felt like an ass. First the attack, then this. She needed sleep. A huge chunk of it.
He sent a quick message to Grey, telling him he wouldn’t be in until the next day. Lifting her back into his arms, he scooted to the back bulkhead, then let the length of her body rest between his legs.
Mace didn’t examine the feelings rioting inside him at the familiar contact, how good it felt. Instead, he covered Nia with his blanket as best he could in their position, closed his eyes, and rested his head against the bulkhead. The only thing he cared about right now was making sure she stayed safe.