Ruins of Talamar (Syrax Wars Book 2) Read online

  "Of course," Bennett held up a hand, lone finger pointing upward. "There are certain conditions to your deployment that I, as your warden, insisted upon."

  Chen nodded. She could barely focus; her excitement at the thought of getting out of this cell had sent her mind into overdrive.

  "One," he started. "I and two Naval Intelligence guards will accompany you onboard the Valiant, and you will be supervised at all times." Bennett narrowed his eyes. "You will be strictly under my command, not an active-duty Fleet officer."

  That was to be expected, at least. The chances of Bennett letting her slip completely from his grasp were slim. The idea of having to continue to obey his orders made Chen scrunch up her nose in irritation.

  "Two," Bennett extended a second finger. "Medical experts have deemed that you are still dangerous and could be a significant threat to the lives of those around you."

  Chen started to object, but he cut her off.

  "Because of this, you will be required to have a specially designed neural implant attached that allows your escorts to incapacitate you if you appear to threaten others."

  Her face paled, and Chen clenched her fists. "You can't do that."

  Bennett flashed her a smug smile. "I think you'll find I can. Your participation in this mission is reliant on strict compliance with all the rules laid out to you, as well as continued cooperation with orders given to you during the mission."

  Chen's eyes darted around the room. The rules Bennett had come up with were asinine, and she was fairly sure a forced medical procedure was not legal. But if she refused, then there was no way they would let her out. Bennett would probably need no further justification to lock her in here forever.

  "Fine," Chen growled, wanting nothing more than to reach across and smack Bennett in his smarmy face. "I agree."

  Bennett's hard eyes stared her down for a moment before he gave a curt nod. "Very well." He tapped an icon on his screen, the door buzzer sounded, and two medical technicians entered. "Stand up, you know the procedure."

  Scowling, Chen pushed back her chair and stood. She'd been through so many forced medical "examinations" over the past few months and had learned that not cooperating just ended badly for her. She stepped into the open space between the table and her cot. Tugging at the zipper that ran down the front of her jumpsuit, she peeled the top half down to reveal skin crisscrossed with the remnants of scars that still hadn't fully healed. She rolled her shoulders, placed her hands to her side, and nodded brusquely.

  The female med-tech moved over to her and gathered up Chen's hair, tying it away from her neck with a band. Chen could feel the nervous energy jumping from her, anxious words firing from her mind while she placed sensors on Chen's head and chest. The other tech placed a small box on the table, removed the cover, and retrieved a curved piece of technology roughly the size of an egg, but flattened. He examined the device over narrow glasses, nodded, and then shuffled to Chen, wiping the left side of her neck, shoulder, and chest with an antiseptic cream that chilled her skin.

  Chen closed her eyes, unsure of quite what to expect—though previous experience told her it was unlikely to be gentle. Both med-techs referenced a scanner and worked together to trace a series of lines across her torso, the marker digging into her skin and catching on puckered scars. Once they were done, whatever they had mapped out felt like it covered half of Chen's body.

  One tech stepped back, and the other placed a device against her neck. A faint whine emanated from the device, and it powered up. The moment it did, a searing lance of pain shot through her neck, and a fiery sensation prickled down her arm and across her back and chest. Chen staggered, and her hand shot up to claw at the device, but the med-techs immediately restrained her.

  Pain overcame all reasoning, and an amethyst flash of energy exploded in her mind. She lashed out at the man, and he was sent sprawling across the floor with a yelp while the lights in the room flickered. A second later, the pain had diminished to a dull throb, and Chen blinked away the stars that lingered in her vision. She stared at the man who gingerly felt the side of his head. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to."

  She turned to Bennett, but before she could say anything else in her defense, he picked up a small remote, pointed it directly at her, and jammed his thumb down on a button.

  If implanting the device had been painful, the effect its ignition had on her was on another level. Time seemed to stand still, and it felt as though every neuron in her brain exploded. Her limbs shook, and Chen toppled to the ground, head smashing against the edge of the bed frame.

  Cramped fingers scrabbled for purchase on the hard floor, and Chen was vaguely aware of the female med-tech running toward her, concern replacing fear in her eyes.

  "Stop!" Bennett ordered, a hard edge to his tone. He sauntered over to Chen's crumpled form. Her extremities still twitched uncontrollably—the aftereffects of the device working their way out of her system. He pointed back to the door. "The both of you can leave."

  The woman helped her colleague from the floor, and they hurried out. Bennett loomed over Chen and nudged the exposed skin on her side with the toe of his boot. He held up the remote control and chuckled. "I'd say it works. That wasn't even on high."

  He crouched down beside her, hot breath washing over Chen's cheek. His voice lowered almost to a whisper. "If you put a single foot wrong on this mission, I will not hesitate to melt that dangerous brain of yours. Do you understand?"

  When Chen didn't respond, he wrapped his fingers around her chin and jerked her face up to meet his. "Do you understand?"

  Her tongue felt thick and unresponsive, so the best Chen could manage in response was a low moan, her eyes blurring while she slipped toward unconsciousness.

  "I'll take that as a yes." Bennett stood and sneered down at her. "Your hair is non-regulation. You'll have to fix that before we depart." With one last shake of his head, he spun and walked out the door, slamming it shut behind him.

  Laying her throbbing head back on the cold floor, Chen closed her eyes and darkness overwhelmed her.

  - 6 -

  2208.10.15 // 09:23

  Callisto, Jupiter orbit

  Chen sat in the rear-facing jump seat of the small Union transfer shuttle, hands folded in her lap while she gazed at the patterned metal deck plates. Her head still throbbed from where she'd hit it on the bed frame, and a dark purple bruise graced her left temple. Bennett sat opposite her, immune to her frequent glares. NI guards, her constant companions since they had left her cell, occupied either side of him. The unfiltered and ignorant thoughts emanating from them had become a burden on her mind given their perpetual, oppressive presence.

  She read the name tapes stuck to their uniforms for the hundredth time since they had taken off. Corporal Oberlin—a flat-nosed, young woman with short, blond hair. Corporal Park—a sharp-eyed, irate-looking man with a shaved scalp. Neither looked any more pleasant than their commander.

  Chen took a deep breath and tried to tamp down the irritation that was forming within her. She turned her head to the nearby porthole and stared out. The infinite tapestry of stars brought her a sense of calm. She saw Bennett shift in his seat out the corner of her eye and tensed involuntarily. The neural implant clamped to her neck still itched, but she fought the urge to pick at it—Bennett barely needed an excuse to trigger the device. Chen had been doing her best to control her outbursts ever since it was installed, but the way that man pushed her around was just too much to take. Just earlier, boarding the shuttle, she had swatted away a forceful, guiding hand and been painfully punished for it.

  She shook her head, and her focus narrowed to the reflection on the porthole. She slowly raised a hand to the short, asymmetrical bob that had been forced upon her when her jailers presented her with the bland, unmarked Naval Intelligence uniform she now wore. The hair wasn't too bad—it at least got rid of the straggled mess that had grown out during her captivity—but with it had gone half of her natural hair color. Now mostly white,
only the tips and a few streaks of her original dark brown remained. Chen had never been one to feel uncomfortable and self-conscious, but the drastic changes she'd been inflicted with—both inside and out—were difficult to comprehend.

  Movement outside grabbed her attention. The curved edge of a moon drifted slowly into view—its surface pock-marked with millennia of violent impacts. Callisto was the former main shipyard of the Jovian System Alliance—now absorbed into the United Planetary Alliance since the end of the last System War. What loomed behind it was even more breathtaking. The turbulent cloud tops of Jupiter emerged from behind Callisto, storms the size of planets that raged in perpetual motion. No matter how many times she'd seen it, Jupiter's vast majesty always threatened to steal the breath from Chen's lungs.

  Callisto grew ever larger in the porthole, and the endless orbiting shipyards floated into view. Tens of kilometers of insect-like spacedocks were interspersed with orbital hub stations. Huge refineries ingested massive quantities of raw resources from the sprawling Jovian system and churned out the complex alloys and composites that were essential for the construction of starships, as well as many other technologies across the Union.

  Chen focused on the flurry of activity buzzing around the immense structures. Having become familiar with the orbital yards during several extended trips during her Academy days, it was by far the busiest she had ever seen the place. Tugs and cargo haulers flitted between the docks, and patrol ships drifted menacingly around the perimeter. There can't have been this many berths filled with under-construction warships since the end of the war. Chen could see long, pointed battleships being built next to wide, open-mouthed carriers—tens of smaller ships scattered in between.

  All the activity made Chen think of the thousands of fleet personnel who made it all happen. More specifically, those she would see at the end of their transit, aboard the Valiant. She hadn't seen any of them since Naval Intelligence had taken her into custody upon their return from the Arcturus system, and many of them she had barely interacted with on the voyage home, either. Chen was fully expecting them to greet her with all the hostility and disgust she deserved, angry at her utter failure of command that had ended with so many deaths.

  Chen squeezed shut her damp eyes and tried to push down the anxiety, afraid to allow herself to become agitated around Bennett and the guards. The faint gravity shift that came with proximity to another starship pulled her eyes back open. Their shuttle skimmed past a huge battlecruiser, the segments and panels of its exterior armor plate still being assembled. Rounding the gun turrets that guarded its stern, the sight ahead sent a maelstrom of mixed emotions rushing through Chen.

  A minnow amid a school of sharks—minuscule in comparison to some of the surrounding ships—the old, battered form of the Valiant appeared before them. It hung in space within a tangle of scaffolding, workers floating around, preparing it for launch. A sense of safety surged up in Chen's chest, immediately shattered by the crass comment by the guard to her left.

  "What a hunk of junk." The woman shook her head, turning to her colleague, lip curled into a disgusted sneer.

  "Now, Oberlin," Bennett chuckled, "you don't want to offend Lieutenant Chen, do you?"

  Chen tried to tune out the callous laughs that filled the small cabin and directed her attention to the hull of the Valiant. While it looked largely the same as she remembered it, there had definitely been some changes made during its stay at the spacedock. Although the vessel had never been sleek, clusters of ungainly protuberances now sprouted from its hull—the most obvious being some sort of major modification to the ship's spine, forward of the main bridge. Chen couldn't make out what it was for, and her view was soon blocked by a forest of metal trusses when the shuttle looped round to the side.

  She was vaguely aware of the flight crew calling in for authorization to land, but it was the voice that came back through the comm that grabbed her attention.

  "Shuttle Magellan, you are cleared for approach to the starboard landing gate."

  Ensign Leona Moreau's voice crackled through the cabin, and Chen's heart rate rose. The young woman had suffered so much trauma on the forsaken planet in the Arcturus system under her brief command.

  Chen's mind was still going over what everyone might say as the shuttle pulled through the atmo-barrier with a pop, flaring gently to land on the grated metal deck of the Valiant's shuttle bay. Bennett unbuckled from his seat and stood, stretching out his arms. The two guards mirrored his actions on each side of her.

  "Come on, Chen." Bennett jerked his head toward the shuttle's exit ramp. "Time to go say hi to all your little Fleet friends."

  - 7 -

  2208.10.15 // 09:23

  Callisto, Jupiter orbit

  Chewing on the inside of her lower lip, Chen rose, flexed stiff back muscles, and turned to the exit.

  When Bennett strode past her, he lowered his voice. "Don't forget to be a good girl." He patted the neural dampener remote that was attached to his shiny black belt.

  Wanting nothing more than to punch him in the back of the head, Chen took a deep breath and followed him down the ramp. They emerged into the harsh lighting of the broad shuttle bay, and the figure who stood awaiting them was all too familiar.

  Lieutenant Wallace McCann had his arms clasped firmly behind his back, but he brought one up to salute Bennett when he stopped in front of the red-haired man. "Welcome aboard the Valiant, Lieutenant Commander. I'm Lieutenant McCann, First Officer."

  "Ah, yes, McCann." Bennett nodded and threw a half-hearted salute back at him. "I've read your file."

  McCann smiled tightly and inclined his head—something Chen had seen him do many times at the Academy when he had to force himself to be polite to some asshole or another. His eyes scanned the two guards and then flitted to Chen, who looked away from his curious gaze. He cleared his throat gently. "Lieutenant Chen, nice to see you again."

  "You too, Lieutenant," was all Chen could manage to spit out while she tried to avoid eye contact.

  There was a pause, then McCann motioned behind him. "Allow me to show you to your quarters."

  The trio followed McCann toward the exit of the busy shuttle bay. Power-haulers and grav-carts loaded and stored the masses of supplies needed to maintain a starship and its crew for the voyage ahead. They made their way up through the decks while McCann chattered politely, asking questions that were mostly deflected by Bennett.

  The last time she had been aboard the Valiant, she had been unceremoniously bundled into the back of a Naval Intelligence shuttle. The journey back to Earth had been lengthy. After several months of the Valiant limping along on sub-light power, their constant short-range comm messages had been answered at last. Two days later, a Fleet tug had arrived and towed them the rest of the way. The moment they'd reached the Solar System, NI had shown up and locked down the ship.

  Chen lagged near the back of the group, and her eyes darted around the familiar corridors they passed through. There were faces she recognized, and some even gave her brief smiles in passing recognition. The further they got into the ship, the more background buzz overtook Chen's mind. Thoughts crept into her head and began to overlap in a jumble of voices, bringing back memories of the painful voyage back aboard the Valiant. She squeezed her eyes shut to ward away the building headache and tried the one trick she had found to lessen the overwhelming sensation—focusing on one set of thoughts in particular.

  ~...the captain was right to tell me not to trust...~

  Chen almost stopped in her tracks at the familiar tone of McCann's voice echoing through her skull. A subtle shove to her shoulder from the guard behind sent her stumbling forward again, but her mind raced, flooded with anxiety. It made sense McCann couldn't trust her, not after what she'd done, how badly she must have screwed up his career between the incident at the Academy and then the disastrous Arcturus mission...

  An excited squeal interrupted Chen's train of thought, and before she could discern the source of the noise, so
meone barreled into her, almost knocking her over when they flung their arms around her.

  "Auri! What a surprise, I'm so glad to see you!"

  "Hey...uh, hey Katrina." Chen fought through a mass of vivid red hair while the young woman clasped her tightly. She looked very different from the first time Chen had seen her. Rather than bedraggled and gaunt from being stranded in a hostile alien city after her crash, she was now clean and well-dressed with impeccable makeup—an appearance much more familiar to anyone who had watched one of her holo-docs.

  One of the guards advanced, raising a hand to pull the unexpected guest away. "Please step back from the lieutenant!"

  Katrina Wilde released Chen and turned to face the much larger man. "Give me one good reason to."

  The guard balked, the challenge to his authority not expected. "She, uhh...she's dangerous."

  Wilde looked the man up and down. "Have you fought and survived a hostile alien race on a remote death-world? No? I have. I think I'll be fine." With that, she turned back to Chen, threaded her arm under Chen's elbow, and led her onward. "Come on, let's get to your quarters. We need to catch up!"

  Without waiting, they pushed past McCann and down the brightly lit passage.

  "Now, hold on!" Bennett called from behind, jogging after them when Wilde ignored him.

  "I'm so glad I ran into you. It's such a coincidence that we're both on board again!" Wilde chattered, the tone of her voice making it clear to Chen that it was anything but a coincidence that the holo-star had crossed their path. Even on a small ship like the Valiant, there were a lot of different routes to take.

  Wilde stopped at the end of a side corridor and keyed in a code so the door hissed open. Just when she was about to lead Chen in, Bennett thrust an arm in front of them, his labored breathing suggesting that his attempts to keep up with the two women had been more exercise than he was used to. "I can't permit you to enter the cabin with the subject."