Coalition Reckoning Read online

  “I’m glad they kept us together.” Dane locked his gaze with Henry’s willing him to understand their ruse. “It’ll be good to have an Earthling biologist to assist me with Brigid’s care. Most Sadirians don’t even know what a pregnant life form looks like.”

  Henry looked over at the soldiers, his lips tightening as if he was suppressing a laugh. He quickly contorted his features back into despair, then nodded.

  “Yes, I will be happy to assist you.” He spoke woodenly, but the soldiers didn’t seem to pick up on it.

  Now if only their luck would hold.

  Chapter Thirteen

  A door opened in the back of the shuttle, the hatch lowering toward the ground to act as a ramp. Through the opening, Brigid could see a dull metallic gray floor.

  She felt like she might throw up. If she did, she wanted to hit as many of these jerks as possible.

  The soldiers would be even more hasty getting out of the ship if they knew her thoughts. As it was, they all seemed to be scrambling to get away from her and out of the ship.

  Dane unhooked his harness, then knelt in front of her as he started to unstrap her from the bench.

  “You doing okay?” he asked.

  “Do I look like I’m doing okay?” she snapped.

  He smirked, a deep dimple appearing in the side of his face. She wanted to trace it with her fingertips, to feel the reassuring rasp of his stubble against her skin. Instead, she sat there, feeling disconnected, knowing she was probably in some kind of psychological shock.

  At least Barbara wasn’t really dead. Or Brigid thought so anyway. She couldn’t imagine Henry and Dane looking so calm otherwise.

  Dane turned to help Henry with his harness. When Henry smiled at him, Dane shook his head and made a point of grimacing.

  “Oh, right,” Henry said.

  His face returned to the almost comical mask of sadness as he held…whatever that was in his arms. Brigid was glad the soldiers were either rock-stupid or not paying enough attention to notice the exchange.

  “Come on.” Dane gripped her arm and urged her to stand.

  “Where are they taking us?” Brigid asked.

  “The brig, probably,” he said.

  Henry’s face brightened. “Will Vay be there?”

  “I don’t know.” Dane shook his head. “But we need to follow instructions or risk being vaporized. All of us here are considered expendable.”

  “Even you?” Brigid shifted closer to him.

  “Especially me,” he said. “Med-techs are easily replaced. They’ll want to interrogate you both to find out if anyone else needs a mind-wipe, but don’t think that makes you safe.”

  Her stomach cramped again, worry flooding her system. “Won’t they want to interrogate you, too?”

  Dane smirked. “Right now, they just want me to take care of you. As long as I do that, they probably will barely notice me at all. Which is just the way I like it.” He added the last bit under his breath.

  Henry stood and followed them as they exited the shuttle. He stopped next to her, both of them staring up at the hangar bay.

  “This should be so cool,” Henry said.

  “Yeah.” She totally understood where he was coming from.

  The room was huge, with half a dozen shuttles and three of those big flying-saucer looking ships filling it. At the far end, she could see a large opening in the wall, and beyond that a field of black speckled with stars.

  “Wow,” she said. “We’re really in space.”

  “Move,” someone barked.

  The approaching soldiers held what looked like high-tech rifles. It was so eerie seeing her face distorted in their helmets.

  She glared at them. “You don’t have to be so pushy.”

  “Let’s do what the man with the plasma rifle says.” Dane wrapped one arm around her waist and started heading across the hangar. “Come on, Henry.”

  “Coming.” Henry’s voice sounded almost upbeat. Staring out at the stars seemed to have lifted his spirits.

  They were led through an archway and down a series of halls with plain white walls and a dull gray floor that matched the one in the hangar. The ship was depressingly nondescript—no decoration, no personality at all.

  She shivered as she imagined what it must be like living on it. Was this what Dane had dealt with his entire life?

  They had to find a way out of this. She couldn’t stand the thought of him returning to that existence.

  “In here.” The soldiers stopped before a large opening. Inside, there were benches along the walls and nothing else.

  “Are you kidding me?” Brigid said. “There’s not even a toilet in there. Or don’t you have those in space?” She sneered at them, but the soldiers didn’t seem to mind.

  “Brigid, it’s okay.” Dane stepped closer, urging her inside.

  “That’s easy for you to say,” she huffed. “You’re not pregnant.”

  He smirked, that dimple reappearing. “There’s a panel that leads to a bathroom. I can show you.”

  She cast one last withering glare at the soldiers as she stepped into the room with Dane. Henry followed.

  A buzzing sound started up. When she looked back, the hallway beyond the arch was blurred. Some kind of flickering energy blocked the doorway.

  “I’m guessing we shouldn’t touch that,” she said.

  “Yeah, that wouldn’t be a good idea.” Dane crossed the room, then ran his hand over the wall. A door slid aside, revealing a small bathroom.

  “I don’t actually need to use the bathroom, I just wondered where it was,” she said.

  “We should probably give you a check-up, don’t you think?” Dane angled his head toward the small room.

  Maybe he had a plan. Or maybe he just wanted a moment alone with her.

  “I’ll need your help, Henry,” Dane said.

  So much for that idea.

  “Oh, okay,” Henry said.

  They all crammed into the small room. Dane tapped something on the wall and the door shut.

  “One thing you can count on with Sadirians,” Dane said. “They do everything they can to try to ignore anything that deals with bodily functions.”

  “So, what, there’s no surveillance in here?” Brigid glanced around the room, but all she saw was nondescript metal and white paneling. There wasn’t even a mirror.

  “There’s also no way out, unless you plan to squeeze down a drain or shimmy through an air vent,” Dane said. “And even if you make it out, the ship’s sensors can find you and lock you down the moment someone realizes you’re gone.”

  “If they can’t hear us, can you please explain exactly what has happened to Barbara?” Brigid asked.

  Dane smiled at her as he reached out to squeeze her shoulder. He shifted closer, his face tilting toward hers with a look that made her toes curl.

  “Um, I’d like to know more about that, too.” Henry’s voice broke in. He wasn’t smiling anymore. “She told me she’d be okay and to keep her with me no matter what. But they hit her with so much firepower…”

  “Unless they managed to throw her into an engine core, I think she’ll be fine.” Dane took the pod and set it on the small counter. The chitinous exterior gleamed in the light, a dark brown with swirls of gold. “I’ve never seen a Lyrian in stasis before.”

  “I’d rather see her out of stasis,” Henry said.

  The pod began to rock.

  Dane inched back, pulling Brigid with him. “Looks like you’re about to get your wish.”

  “Could she be coming out of stasis already?” Henry asked.

  “I don’t know,” Dane said. “But maybe let’s give her some space.”

  Henry nodded, then pressed himself against the wall along with the others.

  Cracks streaked across the pod’s surface. They widened as the rocking became more vigorous.

  Two white-furred hands appeared in one of the openings, prying it farther apart. Then two more. With a shrill yell, Barbara split open the pod,
both halves flying off the counter and bouncing off the walls.

  She stood in the sink, her chest heaving as she bared rows and rows of shark-like teeth at them and screamed, the small sound not nearly as scary as her earlier screeches. She blinked a few times, closing her mouth as she stared at them.

  “Henry, when did you get so big?” she asked.

  “Um, Barbara?” Brigid said. “You got small.”

  The once gigantic Lyrian was about the size of a chimpanzee. A small one, at that. Her fur was fluffier than it had been before and a more vibrant white. The blue skin on her face and ears had paled to a sky blue.

  She looked adorable.

  Brigid knew better than to say anything about that. Barbara’s teeth might be smaller, but she still had tons of them, and they looked sharper than ever.

  Barbara looked at her hands—all four of them—and gasped. “No, no, no. I stayed behind to protect Henry. How can I do anything like this?”

  Henry grabbed her up in a hug and buried his face in the fur on the side of her head. Dane had told Brigid that Henry had only lost his human parents less than a year ago. Even though he knew Barbara was tough as a tardigrade, this still had to have been frightening.

  “Don’t worry about that,” Henry said. “I’m just glad that you’re okay.”

  “Barbara, can you cloak yourself when you’re this size?” Dane asked.

  “I can,” she said.

  He nodded. “When Lyrians are cloaked, you’re undetectable, right? Even to Sadirian scanners?”

  Barbara’s lips stretched into a grin. “Completely.”

  “I do not like the sound of this,” Henry said.

  Brigid wasn’t sure she did, either. But she liked the idea of staying locked up even less.

  “Oh, nestling, don’t worry.” Barbara clasped Henry’s cheeks with two of her hands, holding onto his shoulders with the others. “I’ve done much worse in my time.” She turned back to Dane. “I take it you have a plan?”

  “I’m starting to,” he said. “With the group we have, we just might be able to pull it off.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “That’s not a plan,” Brigid said, scowling. “That’s what you do when a plan fails.”

  Henry and Barbara didn’t look too pleased with Dane’s idea, either. The Lyrian was sitting on Henry’s shoulders, one set of arms holding on to Henry’s head for balance and the other set crossed over her chest.

  “You didn’t like my backpack-pregnancy plan either, but look at us now,” Dane said.

  “Yeah, look at us.” Brigid gestured to her backpack sitting in the sink. “We’re all crammed into a bathroom. But everything will be okay, because we snuck the ingredients for a baking soda volcano on board.”

  “A baking soda volcano?” Henry asked. “Why?”

  “I was pressed for time and kind of panicking,” Brigid said.

  Henry had a far-off look in his eyes. “No, that’s actually a great idea. Vay is more easily distracted than most Sadirians, but from my time with them, I think most would absolutely freak out it they saw one. Do you have food coloring?”

  “Of course,” Brigid said.

  Henry nodded. “And how many containers did you bring?”

  “Four,” she replied. “They’re different sizes.”

  “Do you guys want to clue me in on your plan?” Dane was feeling a little left out. “What the hell even is a baking soda volcano?”

  “When you add certain common kitchen chemicals together in the right amounts, they have a sort of fizzing reaction,” Henry said. “It can actually be really big.”

  Barbara hopped down from Henry’s shoulders and started rummaging through Brigid’s backpack.

  “I’m familiar with these chemicals.” Barbara chuckled. “Oh, this is hilarious. The mixture will be harmless, especially with Sadirian uniforms protecting them, but if we add these coloration packets, it’ll look just like the acidic spit from a Cygnian vorrat. Any Sadirian we hit with this will be absolutely terrified.”

  “Barbara crawls through the vent, cloaked, like you planned,” Brigid said. “But instead of just opening a communications channel in the cell so you can get your secret friend to find us a hiding place, she can set up one of our baking soda volcanoes near the guard. While he’s distracted, she can open our cell and we can overpower him.”

  “That’s too dangerous,” Dane said.

  “And you think waiting things out isn’t?” Barbara snorted. “If your General Serath—pardon me, ‘Adam Smith’—was successful in convincing the High Council to recognize Earth’s first contact committee, they wouldn’t have sent the Reckoning or taken everyone into custody immediately.”

  Dane’s stomach sank. Barbara was giving voice to his worst fears. He couldn’t let himself think about that at the moment. They were still near Earth. They could still be rescued.

  “I’m trying to keep us alive here,” Dane snapped. And hopefully keep their memories intact.

  Barbara closed up Brigid’s backpack. “I can easily take out a Sadirian soldier on my own even at this size.”

  “But she won’t have to.” Brigid gestured to the door. “We’ll all help. Only one soldier stayed behind and we didn’t pass anybody on our way here. We can make sure nothing’s changed, then work on escaping.”

  “Or we can find a place to hide until the Vegans mobilize and negotiate our release.” Dane still wasn’t sure how much the soldiers aboard the Reckoning would hesitate before vaporizing any of them. It seemed too big a risk.

  “We have to rescue Vay and Brendan,” Henry said.

  Dane shook his head. “Vay and Brendan aren’t in danger. They’re probably just being questioned.”

  “Maybe they’re not in physical danger, but what do you think will happen to them once the Coalition gets the information they want?” Henry asked. “While we’re standing around arguing, they could be getting mind-wipes.”

  Damn, Henry had a point.

  “If we go out there, they could vaporize us on sight,” Dane said. “They already tried to kill Barbara, and they have a hell of a lot more firepower on this ship. Would Vay want you to risk that? Would Brendan?”

  Henry’s lips pulled in a tight line. Henry had to know Dane was right.

  But if their places were switched, Dane knew it wouldn’t make a difference. As long as he knew Brigid was safe, he’d do whatever it took to save her memories of him.

  “Do you think whoever you’re trying to reach on board can stop them from getting their memories erased?” Brigid asked.

  “I don’t know, but he can try,” Dane said.

  “Who are you even trying to contact to help us find this hiding place?” Henry hunched over as Barbara crawled back onto his shoulders, then reached up and started messing with the vent above them. It didn’t take her long to peel the grate open, leaving it dangling from the ceiling.

  “The first officer is a friend of mine.” Dane was afraid to say more. Even that admission felt like like too much.

  “That’s great.” Henry actually smiled. “Then get him to let us go.”

  “It’s not that simple,” Dane said.

  “Why not?” Henry grunted, distracted for a moment as Barbara reached behind him, the set of hands on his face coming dangerously close to poking him in the eyes. “Surely he can sneak us out or something. Sabotage the mind-wipe procedure.”

  That was a possibility, but also a risk. A huge risk. If Dane and Marq were discovered working together, it might lead to someone figuring out their true connection.

  At the same time, Henry and Kira were looking at losing their bondmates. Sure, there was a chance when the dust settled they could be reintroduced and fall in love again, but what were the odds of that happening?

  Dane knew he was being selfish, wanting to keep his bonds with Brigid and Marq safe, along with all of their memories. But if Dane let the others lose their pair bonds because he was too afraid to even try to help, how did that make him any better than the Hi
gh Council?

  Brigid reached out and rested her hand on Dane’s chest. “What’s complicating this?”

  “The first officer of the Reckoning is Marq,” Dane said.

  “Oh.” Her eyes widened. “Oh!”

  “Who is Marq?” Henry asked.

  “Oh no.” Brigid covered her face with her hands. “Oh wow, this is complicated.”

  “Who is Marq?” Henry’s voice rose.

  Barbara suddenly leapt up from Henry’s shoulders. She hung from the edge of the vent for a moment, Brigid’s backpack dangling from one of her hands.

  “Hey,” Brigid said. “That’s my backpack.”

  Barbara chucked the backpack into the vent, then gracefully pulled herself after it. Her face appeared in the opening an instant later.

  “I’m sure you all will sort this out,” she said. “But in the meantime, I have another nestling who needs me.”

  “What?” Henry said. “I thought Craig escaped.”

  “Not your brother.” Barbara chuffed out a breath. “Your bondmate. I’m not leaving her to the non-existent mercies of the solder is on the Reckoning.” She looked at Dane and added, “I’ll make sure you get to chat with your little friend on the ship.”

  “Barbara, wait…” Dane reached up, but she vanished, activating her cloaking ability. He heard a shuffling sound from the vent, then nothing.

  “Crap,” Henry said.

  “What do we do now?” Brigid shifted closer.

  “I don’t know.” Dane wanted to pace, but there was barely room to turn around with all three of them in the bathroom.

  What the hell did Barbara think she was even going to do out there?

  He remembered Brigid’s words from the night before. “Life is full of risks.”

  This was worth it. He couldn’t let the love that Kira and Brendan and Henry and Vay had found be taken away.

  “Okay,” Dane said. “Henry and I will go back out into the main cell. Without your backpack, Brigid will need to stay in here so they don’t notice that something is wrong. As soon as we see that the communications channel is open, I’ll contact Marq and tell him—”