“Good morning, tech-engineer.” The voice was masculine, richly cultured, cool, and amused.
Aubrey blinked, but the blackness remained. “Where am I?”
“You are on my ship. I am Moribund. I’m sure you will prove a very valuable addition to my company.”
“Huh?” Aubrey jerked. He couldn’t move an inch. “I can’t be in your company.
I’m penal indentured.” He scowled. He was a convict, a legal slave until he finished his sentence. The tattoo marking the data-chip in the back of his neck said so. “You have to go through the Agency penal board.”
“The chip has already been removed.”
Aubrey froze. No way! They exploded when tampered with. “Then how come I’m not dead?”
“Because I have very talented staff.” Moribund chuckled right next to his ear. “Of which you may count yourself a member.”
Aubrey flinched, and every hair on his body rose. There was something very wrong with this man. He had no clue what, but he’d learned long ago to listen to those small hairs.
Moribund’s boot heels thumped as he walked around Aubrey’s feet to the other side of the table. Fabric rustled right next to Aubrey’s left elbow. “Shall we discuss the terms of your service?”
6
Morgan Hawke
Aubrey sighed and relaxed on the table. There wasn’t a whole lot else he could do.
“Sure. What do you want from me?”
“I want you to steal ships, the same way you took mine.”
Aubrey’s blood turned to ice. He was in the enemy’s hands. He’d known he couldn’t be anywhere else, but… But the last transmission he’d intercepted had said
“no survivors.” Aubrey turned his sightless eyes toward Moribund. “How many survivors from my ship?”
Moribund drew in a slow breath and released it. “You.”
Aubrey struggled to interpret that another way and failed miserably. Him. He was the only survivor. His chest clenched, and he drew in a shuddering breath. “You killed them.”
“Your ship did.”
Aubrey closed his eyes to keep in the fierce ache that threatened to spill. “Damn it, Morris…” He failed. Tears leaked from his eyes.
“I’m afraid that the ship’s sentience did not survive the act. My nav-pilot tells me that it was deliberate.”
Aubrey stilled. Morris had committed suicide? Then the ship had remained true…but everyone that had been on him was still dead. He gasped for breath and shuddered with the sobs he refused to release. All of them…gone forever, except him.
“Some ships are that way. You make a capture only to lose the ship in the process.
Very wasteful.” Moribund paced at Aubrey’s side. “The best way would be to erase the crews without the ship having to do it. That way I can keep the ship-mind intact.”
Moribund leaned close to Aubrey. “And that’s why I want you. Somehow, you succeeded in usurping not only the nav-pilot but the sentience as well, taking complete control of my ship. With your talents, I could keep the ships I capture.”
Aubrey jerked at whatever held him to the table. “I am not killing people for you!”
“How old are you, boy?”
Aubrey stilled. “Why?”
“My medic says you’re below legal age.”
Aubrey clenched his jaw. “So?”
“So?” Moribund’s voice dropped to a whisper. “You cannot legally walk into a bar or a brothel. I doubt you’ve even had sex yet. Are you sure you want to die before you’ve even lived?”
Aubrey drew in a deep breath. “I will not kill people.”
“Are you quite sure?”
Aubrey turned to face Moribund with blind eyes. “Fuck you.” His voice vibrated with the hate that burned in his heart. “Go ahead and kill me. I belong with my murdered ship and crewmates.”
“Very well then.” He stepped back.
Interstellar Service & Discipline: Lost Star
7
Aubrey was unbuckled and hauled from the table. He hit the deck hard and groaned. Painfully tight hands jerked him up onto his knees. His wrists were pulled behind his back and cuffed. They lifted him onto his feet and practically dragged him out of medical. After a fast walk down a long hall, he was yanked to a halt.
The mechanical sound of an airlock door opening crashed in his ears. He nearly dropped to his knees in shock. They really were going to kill him.
He was brutally shoved sideways and fell onto a very cold floor. The bare skin of his hands tried to stick to the metal. He fisted his hands and came up on his knees listening as the airlock door closed.
The air hissed, thinned, and chilled to razor sharpness with incredible speed. He sucked in one last breath and tried not to scream. He didn’t succeed.
* * * * *
Aubrey awoke curled on his side, shaking on a bare but warm deck. His mouth was full of thick, copper-flavored liquid. Blood.
A booted foot pushed him onto his back and his cuffed hands. “Alas for your suicidal wishes, I am not inclined to let you die.” Moribund’s voice was politely regretful, but the humor behind it was blatantly obvious. “You may visit the airlock again, if you wish?”
Aubrey couldn’t draw a full breath. His lungs were too full of liquid. He suspected that they were bleeding. He had to whisper. “Fine, put me back in, asshole.”
They did.
Determined to kill himself outright, Aubrey tried to suck in the blade-cold air and screamed it right back out.
* * * * *
He woke up on the deck again. He coughed, spewing hot, wet liquid that tasted strongly of copper and other things. He winced.
Lung damage
. He wasn’t dead, but he would be soon.
“There are faster ways to gain compliance. Pity I need your mind intact.”
“Fuck…you.” Aubrey barely got the words out.
Another trip to the airlock.
This time, he couldn’t scream. His lungs were too full of ice for breath.
* * * * *
Aubrey awoke blind and floating in the warm, heavy liquid of what could only be a medical tank. He’d been in one once before after a nasty glider spill. The thick
