Oleth glanced at Preston, fear in his eyes. Preston thought he heard one word escape past the man’s tentacles. “Why?”
Before Preston could see what happened, the First Ruler had the spear in his grasp. He threw it, grunting at the effort. It struck Oleth in the throat, and his hands flew up to the wound. His lifeblood spewed between his fingers, and he fell, hitting his head on the stone. Blood spilled into the water.
Two Velibar guards rushed down, dragging the dead man away. Preston stared at the streak of red trailing beneath his corpse.
“You are not loyal to anyone but me. Do you understand?” The First Ruler stood, using the spear as a crutch.
“I… I understand,” Preston said. “If I may ask one question, First Ruler?”
“I will permit it.”
“Who is your contact on Earth? Who’s given you their assurances?” Preston was taking a big chance, but he needed to know. Especially now that he was alone.
The First Ruler cackled a laugh, more spittle falling from his mouth. “All in due course.”
Preston clenched his teeth, furious at how things were progressing.
____________
Now
“Wakey wakey.” R11 shook me in bed, and I almost hit him with a pillow.
“Couldn’t you have used the speakers?” I asked him.
“I tried. Three times,” he stated casually.
The robot waited near the bunk’s entrance, and I waved him inside. “Close the doors.”
R11 came closer as I swung my legs off the bed. My brain was muddled, despite oversleeping. I’d dreamt a lot. I was in a Pod Sprinter, halfway through an important race. I glanced to my right and found Sage beside me. To my left was a Stin Pod. The Darlor were trailing me in another, and the Hidan were just ahead. The end of the race was a glowing orange checkpoint Ring. The Velibar Pod was the closest. No matter how we tried to help one another, none of us could reach the finish line before the enemy.
Then R11 had woken me.
“Did you need something, Captain?” R11 asked.
I started to dress, slipping on socks. “You’re positive the Stin are gone from your system?”
“They aren’t inside any longer.” R11 seemed like his same old self.
“What was it like?” I sniffed my jumpsuit and decided it was clean enough for another day. I applied some deodorant from the bedside table just to be safe.
“My interactions with the Stin?” he asked.
“Yeah. Lending yourself to them.”
“It isn’t that uncommon. Bryson controls me quite often,” R11 said.
“Bryson?” That was interesting. “I didn’t know that.”
“You never asked.” This was a classic R11 answer.
“Wait, are you telling me you have a link to Bryson?” I hurried into the hall, toward our kitchen.
R11 trailed behind. “We are connected. He likes to check in.”
“Beyond the messages we’ve been sharing with him?” I checked while making a cup of coffee. The existing stuff was so thick, I doubted I’d be able to choke it down. Luther rarely cleaned up his messes.
“Yes. Bryson Kelley created a separate override system. He can control me.” R11 didn’t seem the least perturbed by this.
“Does he do it often?” I didn’t like the fact that the SeaTech CEO had been possibly spying on us.
“No. And he always gets permission first,” R11 said.
“Like the Stin did?”
“Correct.”
“Have you had any luck with contacting Earth since I went to sleep?” I was full of questions, and R11 had the answers.
“No results yet. Our communications are all unread.” R11 stepped to the side as I walked over with my coffee. We went to the cockpit together.
“Have you attempted to contact him with your… override system?” I asked him while I cautiously climbed the rungs. Doing this with a cup of coffee was never a good idea, but I wasn’t one to use a lid on my mug.
R11 entered the cockpit after me, and I glanced at Jade. She was slung over in her seat. Luther was in the pilot’s chair, watching the radar with interest.
“I haven’t tried that, Captain. Would you like me to?” R11 inquired.
The sound of his voice startled Jade, and she snapped her head to attention. She peered around, blinking quickly. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing yet. Luther, we on course?”
“About time you woke up, Arlo. We’re shifting out of FTL soon, and I don’t want that kind of pressure on my shoulders.” Luther unstrapped and climbed out of my spot.
“Jade, R11 mentioned a program Bryson added into his software that allows him access. Can you work with him to send a message to Earth? Find out some intel?” I took my seat and checked the countdown. We had five minutes before arriving at the edges of the Paedra system.
“Done. Do you mind if I find some coffee first?” Jade asked.
“Luther, you mind grabbing that for her?”
“No problem.” Luther stretched and descended down the rungs off the cockpit hatch.
The crew went to work on our problem, and I slowed the FTL drive, gradually easing power from the mods to the primary Core. The rest of the fleet appeared on screen, snapping from interstellar speeds within seconds of one another.
I tapped the dash. “Varn, glad you made it. Didn’t spy a casino to stop at?”
“I did, but we lost our shirts. You should see Aster’s tan lines,” Varn said. I heard a muffled cry and assumed she’d punched him.
“Okay, we’ll follow the Stin’s lead and park it here. Prepare for arrival.” I closed it off and laughed to myself. Somehow I found myself enjoying Varn’s company. Something had definitely frozen over.
Paedra was a yellow dwarf surrounded by fourteen planets, but the Stin were taking us to a remote destination, not near one of the worlds. That was interesting.
Luther arrived with the beverages and passed us each a serving of food to eat. I took the overheated plate and scooped up some beans while waiting for visual on the Stin base camp.
“Anything yet?” Luther asked.
My radar flashed brightly, filling with hundreds, even thousands of tiny blips. “We’re under attack!” I knocked the plate to
