Chapter 20
Two warriors, Cache’s personal guards, flanked the door to her quarters. Mace touched his vambrace, signaling he’d arrived, and her door slid open a second later. He stepped into her personal domain.
The front room of her vast quarters was all business. A circular holotable occupied the center portion, terminals and monitors lining the bulkheads of the oblong space. Cache stared out oval portholes, hands clasped behind her back.
The door slid shut behind him. “You wanted to see me, sir,” he said when she still hadn’t turned around to acknowledge his presence.
“Yes.” Her voice was quiet, so unlike her. He walked around the holotable to stand beside her and stare at the too-familiar view of the minefield.
Cache turned slightly, tipping her head at him, meeting his eyes with her hard emerald ones. “I think we have a problem.”
He cocked his eyebrow at her. She returned her gaze to the view, stars twinkling beyond the mines.
“It started with an error in judgment,” she began. “My error. I own it. I placed a new team in a bad position. That last mission…” She hesitated a moment, then met his eyes again. “It changed you, didn’t it?”
Had it? A near-death experience wasn’t new. He straightened his shoulders. “I don’t think so, sir.”
She squared off with him, the tail of black hair flicking over her shoulder. “For fuck’s sake, Mace, drop the ‘sir.’ We’re having a conversation here.”
“Are we?”
She fisted her hands. If she needed to hit him to get rid of her anger, he’d allow it—not because she was his commanding officer, or even because she was Cache, a friend since they were tyros.
He’d take the hit because he deserved it for everything he’d done to Nia.
She stepped forward, almost toe-to-toe with him. “You took a blasted captive,” she said between clenched teeth.
“Yes.”
“You attacked a fellow officer without any desire to take his post.”
“Did that too,” he admitted, and he would do it again. He felt like he hadn’t fucked up Foley enough, really.
She stepped back, shaking her head. “You know procedures.”
“Then charge me.”
She let out a long breath. “Fuck, you piss me off.”
“I know.”
When he saw the glint her eye, he realized he’d gone too far. He waited for her next jab, wondering if it would be verbal or physical.
“Taking a captive, shoving them with others of their kind, and reaping the benefits is one thing, but using the old laws to imprison her in your quarters?”
Ah.So that was where all of this was coming from. He thought she would have found out before now from all the whispers.
“What the hell is going on, Mace?” she asked, the volume in her tone rising. “Why would you do that?”
He couldn’t tell her the truth. Cache hated the CORE too much, the ruling class especially. She might not ransom Nia if he pleaded with her, but he couldn’t take that chance.
He remained silent.
“Is it sexual frustration?” Cache continued, her green eyes flaring. “There’s no way you’ve fucked her already with all this tension and anger in you. I know you too well.”
He clenched his jaw so hard it ached.
But she kept going. “Do you need me to bury the processing interview reports to make her complaints disappear?”
His nerves went numb, and he shook his head in disbelief at what was coming out of her mouth.
“Hell, you only need to crook your finger and half this station would come running. And if it’s come to that, you know my door’s been open since we were teens.”
“Fuck, Cache.”
“Is it anger at me?” she asked like she wasn’t even listening to his responses. “Your mission was too risky. I admit it and take the blame for those deaths, but stars above, I need the old Mace back.”
Nostrils flaring, she turned away and crossed her arms over her chest to stare at the mines. “If you can invoke the old laws, so can I,” she said, voice as quiet as it had been when he’d arrived.
His whole body went rigid. “Cache, if you’re suggesting—”
“I can and I will. If it threatens the operation of this station, I will remove the problem.”
It felt his whole body had been submerged in sub-zero water. When he’d returned to Orion, he’d invoked the Take and Keep law and his bribe to the processor was supposed to bury Nia’s genetic connections. But that same law meant his commanding officer could do the same.
Unless he wanted to battle Cache to the death, she could take what he’d kept.
The need to go to his ward this exact moment overwhelmed him. He would stand in front of her and kill all those who would try to take her. Including Cache.
“Don’t—” His hand drifted to the weapon at his thigh, his mind racing with scenarios. She only wore her gun. He’d be able to take her out, then the two guards, and had enough support on the station to take her command—it was the only way to make it work.
What the hell am I thinking? Challenging Cache? Killing her? Taking over Orion? Those were the last things he wanted to do. He removed his hand from his weapon.
Cache spun toward him, whole body vibrating with pent-up energy, eyes flashing in the low light. “Mace, whatever your issues, get your head on straight.” She took a step closer. “Whatever it takes. Or I’ll be forced to.”
She wouldn’t do that to him. They’d known each other too long.
“And if I hear about another unprovoked attack on a fellow commander, I’ll personally see you in the brig for a year with no chance of probation.”
He stayed still, waiting for the next threat, wondering how far she’d really go.
Cache stood taller, turned to the mines and said, “Dismissed.”
Mace stared at her profile, wanting to say something clever, but words failed him. Her threat hung between them, but he had to believe she wouldn’t go through with it, wouldn”t force his hand.
All he needed to do was get his head on straight.
“Yes, sir.” He turned on his heel and left without a backward glance.
I would change it if I could.
Mace’s words kept looping in Nia’s head, repeating over and over again as she lay there, soaking up the rays giving the trees their nutrients. Those words revealed regret—an emotion she hadn’t thought Tellusians capable of until she came here.
CORE and Tellusians weren’t as different as she’d thought. There were differences, cultural ones, but since working in family medicine, she knew Tellusians loved their children as much as CORE parents did, and people wanted to be happy, no matter where they were from.
If only they could live in peace without the war between them.
A shadow fell across her, blocking the warming lights. Her eyes popped open. She expected to see Mace, but instead Elec stood there.
She jolted upright. “What happened?” Her gaze darted to the tree where Mace had been sitting, then around the surrounding area. He was gone. She hadn’t heard him move.
Elec shook his head. “The commander told me to make sure you ate something.”
An exasperated breath left her. Why was Mace so obsessed with her nutrition? She checked the time on her bonds and straightened when she realized it had been hours since she’d eaten rations in his quarters. Her stomach growled.
“Yeah, okay,” she said aloud, climbing to her feet. There’d been food vendors in the main area, some with items she’d never seen before.
The atrium common area was still crowded. Nia made sure to stay as far away from the weapons vendor as possible. Skimming her eyes over the people spread throughout the area, she couldn’t see the enforcer who’d watched her earlier. When she looked over her shoulder, Elec remained meters away.
She wasn’t sure how to feel about both Mace and him giving her the illusion of space, a false sense of freedom, whether it was thoughtful or insulting.
Following delicious aromas, she headed for the bulk of food vendors and stopped at one roasting skewers of unknown protein.
She tilted her head. Like most CORE citizens, she’d been raised vegetarian. It looked like real meat, but it couldn’t be. Where would they keep livestock? It had to be synthetic.
An older man stood behind the counter, his white hair matching the white stripes of his shirt. He asked her a question in Tellusian.
She stared a him a long minute, decided his face was kind, and held up one finger, pointing at the first row. The skewers smelled way too good not to try. She presented her wrist for the cred exchange. His eyes crinkling, he took her money and passed her a stick of meat.
Nia eyed the skewer. When the man gestured for her to eat, she took a bite.
Her eyeballs pricked with tears. Too spicy. But the man watched her with an expectant expression on his face.
“So good,” she said with what she hoped was a convincing smile. “Thank you.”
From his furrowed brow, she’d failed. She took another bite. “Mmmm.” With one last attempt at a smile, Nia headed away from the vendor to circle the perimeter of the common area.
Skewer empty and taste buds burning, she threw the stick into the public reclamation unit on the bulkhead and noticed a narrow corridor she’d missed earlier. It was almost hidden, like the arboretum’s entrance. Would she discover something just as wonderful? But no one went inside, skirting the area on purpose. Her curiosity grew.
Moving closer, a fowl scent wafted toward her…flesh and rot…it should of have repelled her like any normal person, but instead it pulled her forward. Why would it come from a doorway similar to the arboretum?
The corridor darkened, winding in on itself, then opened into a room almost as vast as the arboretum—some sort of public theater. But it wasn’t the raised seating or the blue banners on the bulkheads that drew her eyes. No, it was the three decomposing bodies hanging by their wrists on the raised dais. But for their general shapes and some exposed bones, they were unrecognizable as humans.
A large, black bird flapped its wings as it pecked away at one of their faces. The meal she’d eaten climbed her throat. None of their eyeballs remained.
Crumpled clothing lay at their feet, dark blue and brown: Tellusian uniforms.
Scalding bile burned her mouth. Without her wanting it to, her brain filled in the information. These people had been stripped, publicly tortured, and killed. Tears burned her eyes.
Every vile story she’d ever heard about Tellusians came back to her. The pictures the CORE liked to post on the media reels of recovered prisoners. Everything the Mullers had said had happened to them. The body counts. The savagery. The barbarism.
It was all true.
Why had she pushed these facts from her head these past few days?
A hand landed on her shoulder, and she spun around on a scream.
But it was Elec. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Who?” It was the only word she could squeeze from her tight throat.
His eyes skimmed to the hanging bodies, then returned to her. “They were traitors, tried and convicted. Commodore Cache likes to leave them up for a while as a warning.” He stepped between her and the sight. “The commander wouldn’t want you here.”
When she didn’t move, he turned her with a gentle hand on her shoulder and nudged her the way she’d come. The world around her blurred, unseen, as she placed one foot in front of the other. She wasn’t aware of where she was going, only that she’d stepped onto a lift and it hummed around her.
The sight of those bodies was burned in her brain. She’d never forget it, her mind continually putting herself in their position. Traitors. It looked like their skin had been peeled off.
She didn’t know how she’d arrived at Mace’s quarters, but there she stood, alone, her hand clutched around the locket at her sternum. She wore a tracker, signaling to any CORE ship on the right frequency who passed close enough.
If Tellusians could do that to their own… What would happen to her if they found out?
Maybe she’d been wrong about some things, like the sex slaves and working captives to the bone, but she hadn’t been wrong about others. Tellusians were a merciless race. All they knew was violence.
Mace won’t hurt you.
The voice inside her might be correct, but it was buried deep beneath the memory of those tortured victims, barely loud enough to make an impression.
Her bonds beeped, signaling the end of her day off. She covered the light with her hand.
Regardless of what she thought, what she felt, she needed to get free of this place.
No matter what it takes.