The captain's lips thinned in irritation, but as usual he let the comment pass. He leaned forward, planting his fists on the back of his seat, and looked around. “Playtime's over, it's time to get back on the prowl. The universe is full of Deeks to kill.”
Lana stared at the man. For a while now she'd been trying to reconcile the two sides of him she saw. The man who'd saved her, who'd given her a place aboard his ship, who'd bared his shame over Dax. And the ruthless pirate, who left ships stripped bare of vital systems and helpless without rescue. Who'd pushed a bunch of prisoners out an airlock because they were monsters.
Maybe she'd fooled herself over the last several weeks into thinking they were two different people, that what he'd done for the scientists on Recluse represented the real him, not just the kinder side. But more and more, she was realizing there was only Aiden Thorne, and the good and bad were both part of him. For better or for worse.
“What's the target?” she asked, giving in.
Aiden hesitated, which clashed with the show of resolve he'd just shown. “Ali has fed me the travel route of an Ishivi Harvester over the next week. We're going to ambush it.”
Lana took it as a bad sign that the two Ishivi were staring at the captain as if he'd just suggested flying into a black hole. “You want to attack a Harvester,” Barix said flatly. “If you have your heart set on suicide, there are ways to go about it that don't involve the rest of us. I'd be happy to assist you, even.”
The captain gave him an irritated look. “You don't think we could take one, even in a well set up ambush?”
Belix laughed scornfully. “Ishivi put out top of the line ships, masterpieces of engineering. All the expensive modifications we've spent years customizing on this scrap heap come standard on a Harvester, and then some. And they're crewed entirely by Constructs.”
Lana sucked in a shocked breath; the idea of a ship with a Dax at every station was terrifying.
Still, Aiden didn't seem worried. “The very fact that attacking the Ishivi is unthinkable works to our advantage. In their arrogance they won't even consider the possibility, and we'll be able to catch them by surprise.”
Barix gave a high, slightly hysterical laugh. “What part of crewed by Constructs was confusing you, Captain? They have no lives outside their duty . . . their vigilance is unceasing. You don't catch them by surprise.” He turned to Dax. “Right, gunner?”
“The only thing that surprises me is your ability to constantly surpass yourself in unlikeability,” the young man agreed, deadpan. Lana couldn't help but giggle at that, in spite of the seriousness of the discussion.
“Then I suppose we'll just have to make our attack as perfect as their response,” Aiden growled. “Shouldn't be too hard, when we know exactly where they'll be and can plant an atomic in their path.”
The Blank Slate and Dormant both stiffened at that. “Atomic?” Lana repeated.
The captain nodded grimly. “We may not have a missile launcher, but the destructive power of the weapon is so potentially useful we try to carry a warhead or two with us as an option.”
Atomics! The Dormant inwardly fumed, very inwardly in this case.
Granted, she'd known the Last Stand occasionally employed the weapons when hitting prizes. In fact, they'd used one against the Fleetfoot in the attack that had seen her planted aboard the Stag pirate ship in the first place. But in spite of that, she hadn't seen any sign that they were still carrying one, and had been all this time.
What a miserable inconvenience. If she'd known, she could've focused her efforts on getting past whatever security the captain kept on it, and simply completed her mission by blowing them all into subatomic particles. No need to waste time reprogramming combat androids, or fruitlessly trying to get unsupervised time while piloting the ship to crash them into something.
She would've liked to blame this on her handlers, since they'd told her the Last Stand didn't carry missile launchers, and so sabotaging the ship by blowing it up with its own explosives wasn't an option and she'd likely have to get more creative. But her professional nature didn't allow for such ducking of responsibility.
She should've known. If nothing else, she should've at least explored the possibility.
But no matter. There were other ways to critically sabotage the ship, especially once the task force finally caught up to them. Her position in the shields room left her wide open to exploit one such way, which she intended to do the moment she was triggered. For now, though, best let the Blank Slate stay at the fore.
Lana frowned, deeply bothered by this revelation. “Wait, we've been carrying a massive bomb around with us this whole time?”
Barix smirked at her. “Look at the wide-eyed kid, afraid of things she has no understanding of.”
Aiden ignored the man, treating her question seriously. “The atomic is well secured, and has numerous failsafes to prevent it from going off under any circumstances, other than being directly activated by me. It isn't a threat to this ship.”
Not unless we live long enough for me to make it one, the Dormant stirred just long enough to think wryly.
“Well, assuming we were insane enough to hit a Harvester,” Belix said slowly, “and did somehow survive, we'd score a fortune in prime genetic material to sell on the black market.”
Aiden's eyes narrowed. “We won't be selling it. It would just end up back in the hands of Ishivi, which is my primary motivation for hitting this ship in the first place.”
“Then why exactly take this risk?” the elfin woman demanded. “Just out of the goodness of our hearts?”
Lana didn't like the idea of piracy in general, but even so she kind of had to agree.
“No, we'll give up the material to the Caretakers for
