B.L.A the Mouse – Unexpected is good, I think! I hope my every twist and turn isn't predictable a mile in advance. Then again, I hope it wasn't completely out of left field. Thanks as always for the review!
-o-
Once he was armed, Tyr sent his mutineers away so they were alone again. Beka made no attempt to hide her panic now, heart racing and sweat pouring from her skin. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry as dust.
"You should have kept your flunkies here," she rasped. "Woulda made it a lot easier to do this with those two cheering on your pay scheme. And I have no qualms about saying embarrassing things to save my ass when there's no one else around to hear." That was a lie, actually, but she thought she got her point across. She hoped he wouldn't launch into another one of these speeches that just skirted on telling her he loved her while he shot her. Not only did the scenario strike her as very silly, but she knew deep down that part of her would be glad to hear him say whatever it was he would say.
A corner of his mouth twitched, but his expression was weary. "You're going to be the death of me yet, Beka. Even if I kill you right now, I know that I shall carry you around with me until I die." His eyes measured her, considering, and he never loosened his grip on the weapon.
"Just knock it off already," Beka snapped. "I am so sick of this waiting game. Shoot me or throw me out the airlock or kick me off in my ship, but stop doing this." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "If you remind me one more time of how much fun we could have had if not for your delusions of destiny, I swear, one of us will not leave this room alive."
Tyr opened his mouth, whether to finally make a decision or to pontificate further, Beka did not know, for her subvocal communicator – another goodie discovered aboard the Path – chirped at that moment. While she was sure that not even Tyr could make out the words of Harper's message, the look of surprise on his face told her that he could hear something. Or maybe he was just reading her own startled expression.
When the message finished, she raised an eyebrow at Tyr. "By all means," he said, "answer."
Pressing the spot just under her ear that activated the subdural microphone, she did just that. "Thanks, Harper. Change of plans – do not tell anyone about our guest. I want it to be a surprise. Take Trance and get somewhere safe, ASAP. No, that's all I can say. I'll tell you more when I can."
She felt smugly satisfied when she saw a look of surprise cross Tyr's face. He wasn't the only one with an ace up his sleeve, she thought. She had instructed Harper just now not to inform anyone of Charlemagne's arrival, but she realized that Tyr would probably be a lot less likely to kill her outright after considering the combined wrath of Darjella and the Arch Duke. As she finished the communication, she waited patiently for Tyr to ask the question she knew he would.
After a silent moment, he obliged. "Our guest? Are you planning a fête I was not informed of?"
"Gee Tyr, it was supposed to be a surprise party, but I guess I let the cat outta the bag. I bet you can guess who the guest of honor is."
He nodded, a little stiffly. "When you stepped out earlier, you were instructing the little professor to relay a message to the Arch Duke. Bravo. I could kill you now, and I wouldn't gain a thing."
Beka bit back a smile with the greatest effort. She thought Tyr was actually pouting a very little bit. "Right, so let's be reasonable about this. You're going to get off this ship, and you're going to take those two – and anyone else you've suckered in – with you. It should be obvious to you that you are not going to get this ship, and I see no reason why we can't part ways like rational people." She really didn't want to kill him. He had said it so well – if she did, she would carry him around for the rest of her life.
Tyr let his gun clatter to the deck and gazed at her almost tenderly. "Congratulations, Beka. Truly." He extended a hand to her, and slowly, she reached out and took it.
And then felt a tiny prick at her palm, and the world went black.
-o-
Gunshots echoing nearby jerked Beka into garish consciousness, bright and painful to her eyes. She felt a rush of vertigo atop a stronger sensation, more of a blow, of déjà vu. For a moment, she was sure she was waking up in rented quarters in the bad part of a drift in the bad part of the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, even though she knew full well that she was aboard the Path. Where, she was less certain until her vision cleared to show her the shiny shapes of medical equipment and the endless cabinets marching along the bulkhead.
She tried to sit up, but wide bands restrained her ankles, waist, and elbows. Someone had bound her to a medical bed? The shots died down for a moment, but then they rang out again, louder and closer than before. Beka jerked in her bonds, but she was held tight. The Path's rudimentary A.I. did not respond to her calls, and her arms were bound too tightly for her to nudge her subdural microphone with her shoulder.
Well, she was not going to wait here helplessly for someone to come and shoot or rescue her. She jerked harder, but the bonds did not give a centimeter. Instead, the bed itself rocked infinitesimally, which would have been more encouraging if it had had wheels. If she got up enough steam, she wondered if she could actually rip the mattress from the bed and end up on the deck. It might hurt, but she could probably manage to move somehow. Frightening situations were always less intimidating when one could move, even if it wasn't very much.
After several minutes of rocking side to side, Beka had torn the mattress most of the way from the bed frame. Luckily, perhaps, the hatch to Medical slid open as she rested between rocks. She froze and tensed her body, preparing for one final lunge if the entrant turned out to be hostile. If someone fired at her, she might be able to flop to the deck, though what she would do next was beyond her.
"Rebecca?"
She laughed aloud with relief. "If it isn't the Arch Duke himself. Get your ass over here and bring a scalpel."
He chuckled in reply and glided toward one of the counters, where a variety of silver utensils sparkled in the bright light. "Aye, Captain. I can't tell you how relieved I am to see you alive and well." In a matter of seconds he had sliced through the wide bands, and she swung her feet to the deck to stand and stretch.
"'Well' remains to be determined. Tyr's friends must have slipped him a microtranquilizer when they gave him his gun." She blinked several times in succession and wiggled her fingers and toes. "I feel fine now… I guess he knew what he was doing."
Charlemagne crossed his arms and looked at her with his head cocked. "Frankly, I'm rather surprised to see you. Have you worked your way into the heavily fortified heart of our favorite Kodiak orphan?"
Beka snorted. "Something like that, but I don't think that alone would stop him from killing me. He found out you were on your way and…"
More gunshots, now a little more distant, interrupted her. "And that's not important now. Do you have an extra gauss gun on you?"
"For my esteemed captain, always," he replied with a little bow as he took a gun from his belt and handed it to her. She checked the power supply and the safety, and when she looked up, he was wielding what appeared to be a custom laser weapon. She whistled. Despite her declarations that she felt fine, Beka's feet stumbled underneath her as she took a step toward Charlemagne.
He reached out with his free hand as fast as he had drawn his weapon and caught her around the ribs. "Careful," he said with a touch of amusement. "Can't have you falling over in front of the troops."
She tried to disengage herself from his grasp but, when he refused to let her stand without support, settled for draping an arm around his neck.
"Just tell me one thing," she said. You don't have any secret Nietzschean agenda to pursue at the helm of this ship, do you?"
He grinned. "I'm already Arch Duke, and to tell you the truth, I prefer the stability of a good, tightly controlled planet."
"Great. Let's go take back my ship."
-o-
"Just my luck," she muttered. They had followed the sound of gun fire to the hangar where the Maru sat. Charlemagne's bodyguards, he explained, had held off Tyr's mutineers while he forced the lock on Medical, and apparently the mutineers had retreated to this place.
The Maru looked almost serene among the cacophony of light and sound from the firefight going on around him. Beka recognized another of her crew helping Tyr, but most of them were not present. Judging by his treatment of her, she guessed they were all either dead, unconscious, or securely locked in their quarters. She hoped Harper and Trance were in the latter category, that they had received her message in time to find someplace safe.
Charlemagne's people were pushing the others into a corner, and those others were slowly realizing that they were not going to win this round. One of their number lay still on the deck. Despite the reputation and skill of every one of Beka's crew, Charlemagne simply had more people, and most of them were decent fighters themselves.
"Tyr!" Beka shouted, "stand down! I told you once, there's no way you're getting the Path."
He turned to look at her. She was no longer leaning on Charlemagne for support, but he hovering near her with an arm outstretched to steady her if she needed it. A sudden flash of deep unease came over her; it should be Tyr hovering annoyingly close to her, watching her back as they faced their newest foe.
"I've told you, Beka, this is bigger than me!" His voice echoed through the hangar more impressively than hers had. Hmph. "I'll have this ship, I promise you."
Mittander muttered something to his leader and shook his head violently. "Hey, Captain, you know this is nothing personal, right?" He dropped his gun faster than that irritating smirk and threw his hands in the air. "I'll just leave real peaceful, no hard feelings, okay?" Tyr moved in a blur, firing a single shot from his gun before letting it fall. Mittander hit the deck with a heavier thump a moment later.
Beka rolled her eyes. "Real nice, Tyr. Now it looks like you only got one friend left on board." She sighed. "Don't be an idiot. If by some miracle you do get your hands on the Path, how long do you really think you'll be able to keep her? You'll have Darjella on one side and Charlemagne on the other, not to mention I'll be pretty pissed off."
He looked her up and down then slid his gaze to Charlemagne for a moment. "Then you've made your decision?"
"I have."
"You know what my advice would be," he said slowly.
She scoffed. "Yeah, yeah. Get outta here while I'm still too drugged up to think straight."
With more dignity than she would have believed possible under the circumstances, he climbed into a slipfighter along with his remaining crewman and sped out the hangar. Something lurched inside her chest as she watched him disappear into the airlock and then beyond. She shivered and wrapped her arms tightly around her. Charlemagne's arm drifted, soft and warm, to her waist.
"Your ship, Captain," he murmured.
She forced a laugh. "Great." Her first officer, first bodyguard, oldest friend (how weird was that?), and fake boyfriend was gone. Aside from the serious material and emotional loss, people in her circles would be snickering at her expense for the next couple of weeks. "Can this day get any better?"