“Oh yeah, and a lot more besides. She’s a registered sentient so she has her own account on New Switzerland. We uh get creative on occasion with the bills of lading. She helps me and I help her.” Owen grinned. “Can’t say more than that. You’re not in the Cargo Master guild so you have no need to know.”
“I probably don’t want to know,” Trevor said frankly. “It’d be beyond awkward to have to write up the cargo master for infractions.”
“I think there’s probably a damn good reason the authorities don’t usually allow a decommissioned military AI to transfer to a new embodiment,” Owen said. “Fleming worked some deal with the Sectors and the Mellureans to move her over when the battleship was retired but nobody knows exactly what. She’s a good ship, cares about her crew and her passengers and I have no need to know anything else. I trust her and I trust the captain.”
8
Her allotted time for sketching the dancers and discussing the planned work of art ended with much laughter and goodwill and then since Trevor hadn’t returned, she and Gayla, the newly assigned security officer, walked with Verlaine toward the gravlift. She heard a voice behind her, calling her name and paused, thinking it was one of the dancers. As she took a step to see who was hailing her, she supposed she’d left something at the rehearsal hall.
She remembered Verlaine growling and lunging. The security officer went to draw her weapon and collapsed. She herself became too dizzy to stand and as she fell across Verlaine’s silky fur she realized she’d been drugged. A tiny dart was lodged in her upper arm.
Her impressions of what happened next were disjointed. Hands pulling her to her feet. A voice commanding her to walk normally. A man and a woman walking with her, not going to the gravlift. The ship seemed to shudder. She was in a lifeboat, lying across two seats. She could barely remain conscious.
“Aww, poor sweetheart, under the weather, are we?” The words were kind but the voice was mocking. A hand patted her cheek and she wanted to pull away but her body wasn’t obeying her commands. “Probably for the best if I let you go to sleep but be aware we’ll be arriving at the ship shortly.”
“What—what happened? Where’s Trevor? Why are we on a lifeboat?” Her tongue felt thick and her lips were numb but she managed to get out three questions.
Semma Provimter leaned over her. “You’ve been kidnapped, darling. We’re going to be paid an obscene amount of money for snatching you right out from under the nose of your so attentive security officer boyfriend.”
Shocked, Gianna managed to ask one more question. “Who wanted me kidnapped?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
Gianna heard Dant calling for his partner to join him in the cockpit and Semma walked away. The couple hadn’t restrained her in any way, relying on whatever drug she’d been given to keep her immobilized. Gianna had no idea what was going on but she struggled to move, to get out of the seat and scavenge for anything she could use for a weapon. The efforts exhausted her, to no purpose. She heard the external sounds of the LB docking with another ship and then a loud thump as the craft settled onto the deck.
She must have passed out briefly because now Dant and Semma were both standing beside her again and the man was giving her an inject. Gianna tried to fight him off but her efforts were more of a pitiful flailing.
“Save your strength, honey,” Semma said as they heaved her to her feet. “You’ll need it when you see who your hosts are.”
Her kidnappers walked her to the stern of the LB as the ramp opened. She caught a whiff of a scent she’d been only too familiar with on the Nebula Dream during the events of the wreck. Desperately she tried to wrench free. “You can’t give me to them. You can’t—”
“You’re a payday to us,” Dant said, voice cold. His face was expressionless. “What they do with you after we make delivery is their business.”
She wanted to scream defiance but the medicine was making it hard to breathe. When she saw the Shemdylann waiting for her at the bottom of the ramp, her chest constricted and she collapsed, blacking out.
The sting of another inject and awareness rushed into her mind and body with a jolt. She was lying on the cold deck in a heap, hands bound behind her back. A Shemdylann female towered over her, nudging her ungently with one clawed foot. “Get up and walk, human, or else I’ll have the drones drag you to your cage.”
Terrified beyond belief, Gianna struggled to her feet, staggering drunkenly. She heard Dant and Semma talking in the distance, more mockery no doubt, but her attention was all for the monster she was facing. As a child enduring flashbacks she’d told herself the Shemdylann who’d threatened to eat her wasn’t really as big as her memory insisted he had been but now, facing five of the aliens, she knew she’d been lying to herself. They were huge, fearsome creatures. “What do you want from me? The Sectors doesn’t ransom hostages.”
“You’re beyond price to me,” said the largest Shemdylann, clicking her pincer claws and flicking her tail. Her huge yellow and red ruff flared out around her neck, pulsating. “You’re the key to regaining my family’s honor.” She swiveled her head in the direction of the nearest soldier. “Pay the kidnappers.”
A male leaped to do her bidding, handing Dant and Semma each several sacks. “Uncut gems, as agreed,” the underling said. “Easy to convert to credits, untraceable. From the mines on one of our colony worlds.”
Dant let a pile of the glittering rocks run through his fingers, flowing into the unprepossessing leather sack and bowed to the giant female standing in front of Gianna. “You’ve been most generous, your excellency. And if I might remind you, we were promised transit to the nearest inhabited planet. We’ll make our own way from there.”
“Yes, yes, don’t bother me with details,” the leader said, not taking her attention away from Gianna for a second. “Take the humans to their cabin and then shove this piece of offensive junk off my ship.” She flicked one claw at the lifeboat.
Clicking his claws and bending his knees to indicate respect, the officer accepted the order with enthusiasm. “At once, captain.”
“No need to tremble right now, although I must admit to enjoying the sight,” the commander said to Gianna. “You’ll live for a while, until we’ve reached my home planet. Then you’ll be on display and I will kill you publicly.”
“Why?” Gianna asked, determined not to curl into a ball on the deck and whimper. This was no dream or flashback, it was all too real and she intended to do her best to be brave as long as she could. “What could my death possibly achieve for you?”
“My hive, my clan line has been a subject of mockery and dishonor for over two decades now, thanks to you and your friends,” she said, slime dripping from her mandibles. “Ce-Miil-Dazklr, who perished when the cursed Nebula Dream blew up is of my progenitor line. Since he bungled the recovery of that ship so spectacularly, we’ve been banned from the great councils, reduced to minor jobs patrolling the borders, our advancement and chances for promotion denied with no appeal. Unable to make strategic alliances. My promotion to supreme captain torn up in my face by superiors who mocked the foolish audacity of one from my disgraced line dreaming of any glory whatsoever. But when I, Sela-Miil-Dazklr, bring you to the judgment stone, one of the fabled human survivors, having snatched you from the heart of the human space, my bold success will be acclaimed and my hive will reclaim its position among the favored.”