When Alistair came around, he was in another genemod machine. He surged upright and looked around. He could still see. He couldn’t tell what was normal anymore, so he didn’t know if the colors he was seeing were the colors he was used to. He couldn’t tell here, in this room, which didn’t look like any ship room he’d been in in his life.
“We didn’t touch your eyes,” Rik Terri said. “Although, we would like to know how they happened.”
All three modders were there. Rik Terri, her apprentice, and the doctor from the Boost.
Alistair looked at the walls.
“What do you see?” Rik Terri asked.
Snowshoe cleared his throat. “We don’t have time, Nika. You can ask about it later.”
Alistair felt better than he had in a long time.
“Nor did we change whatever it was you had in your blood. Or the tiny changes in your brain. You had those before, and it didn’t seem to bother you. Besides, we didn’t know how important it was for your eyes. Or your mods. You have a few.”
“Thank you.” The Santiagan doctor had called it a virus.
“We fixed the physical damage Norris did.” Snowshoe frowned repressively at Alistair. “And the hit from the fry pan. I wouldn’t have bothered, given what you did, but we thought you might have brain damage. Don’t forget we rescued you. It’s not the best way to thank us.”
He would have been embarrassed, but they had to get to Zell. “I’m sorry, I’ve been chasing Rik Terri for weeks. My goal was to get her to Zell. Urgently. And Zell is right in front of us.” Assuming they hadn’t jumped. “I’d do it again if I had to.”
Rik Terri looked at Snowshoe. He shook his head back.
“Josune told us,” Rik Terri said. “Or she gave us some story you told her about your people being captive on Zell, and you manipulating the Boost to come here so it could shoot up the ship that’s holding your people hostage.”
“Which is pretty stupid,” Snowshoe said. “For then you have the Boost instead. Which would be worse.”
“It was the best idea I could come up with. I didn’t have time to plan.” He’d been hoping the Santiago warship and the Boost would wipe each other out. Or at least damage each other so badly they weren’t a threat. Just long enough for the settlers to escape from Zell. “I needed time. And now that they’ve had their battle, I also need to call my boss to arrange the rescue ship.”
Rik Terri waited.
“We need to get the people off Zell.”
She crossed her arms. “You told Josune you had promised to take me to Zell. Now you’re telling me you want to call a rescue ship.”
“Whatever that is,” Snowshoe said.
“Yes, I did, and yes, I do.”
“Explain.”
How could an unarmed woman look so forbidding?
“And don’t muck around. Tell it straight and tell it fast. Because of you, we’re about to be attacked. Roystan’s waited longer than he should to hear your story.”
“Then let’s go talk to him.” He’d feel more comfortable on the bridge.
“I can hear from here,” Roystan said.
Alistair looked around. “What?”
“He’s stupider than the other Justice Department agents we’ve met.” Carlos’s mutter came through the link clearly. “And that’s saying a lot.”
Alistair took a deep, steadying breath and looked around the studio while he collected his scattered thoughts. This crew was . . . unusual. Even down to the fact that the studio contained three genemod machines, which was bizarre for a spaceship this size. One of them a Songyan.
“Is that the machine you stole from Songyan Engineering?”
“Well, it’s certainly not the machine we ordered. That was destroyed while it was under your care.” Biting and more than a little angry. “The Justice Department will pay for it.”
He nodded. It was only fair.
“We don’t have time for small talk,” Roystan said. “Either tell your story or shut up and let us escape. We are here only because you arranged it, so do us the courtesy of being honest. And make it fast.”
“Harsh words from your captain.” Gramps frowned at Snow. “Not what you led me to believe.”
“He’s normally mild,” Snow said.
“Except when his crew is endangered,” Josune said through the link. “When he’ll do anything to protect them.”
Was everyone listening in?
“I am trying to save our settlement.” It was Alistair’s home. “We took a contract with Santiago. Two years, plus bonuses if we delivered on time.” He took a deep breath. “We made the bonus, but the company never intended to pay it out. They came to kill us instead.” It was harder to tell than he thought it would be. Especially now Cam was gone.
If he was gone. He still wasn’t sure if he’d hallucinated Cam on Wickmore’s ship.
“Except they didn’t know about the Ort.” He paused, ostensibly to give them time to ask the obvious, but really to breathe again.
His audience of three didn’t ask. Nor did the four other crew members on board, who might or might not have still been listening. Josune and Roystan kept a quiet murmur of stats going.
“The Ort are sapient, but nonhuman. At first we thought they were local to Zell, but they turned out to be just as foreign as us.”
“Aliens?” Nika asked.
“Yes. They’d been watching us. They saw Santiago attacking us and came to our assistance. They wanted—” What did they want? They’d wanted Cam, and, “You. You modded Cam with transurides.”
“Why is that important?”
This would be where he lost her. He continued regardless. “Their race is dying of a plague. They’ve been inoculating us.” Gloss over how the inoculations happened. “They have a vaccine that’s effective on humans, even if not on themselves. When they tried to inoculate Cam . . . whatever it was you did with the transurides in his body blocked the plague virus. They think that if you could show them how you did . . . whatever you did with the transurides, they might be able to use it to save more of their own people.”
He didn’t understand her quick glance toward the screen. Snowshoe did, for he looked concerned.
“What happened with Santiago?” Roystan’s voice, coming out of the speakers, made him jump. “No company will give up on aliens, especially if they’re advanced enough to travel to other worlds.”
“Santiago sent in an armed warship. We knew we were safe as long as the Ort dealt with us, not Santiago.” Alistair closed his eyes. He wasn’t proud of the next bit. “I said I’d find Rik Terri, because we all knew that if Santiago found her . . . you . . . first, then the Ort would work with Santiago.” They’d work with anyone who could help them save millions of lives by doing it. Alistair would have done the same.
“Nika,” Snow began warningly.
She waved him quiet.
“My promise to collect you is the only thing keeping us alive,” Alistair said. “Santiago can’t talk to them, or they couldn’t before I left, and I haven’t told Santiago what the Ort need from us.”
They must know by now that he was after Rik Terri. They just didn’t know what value Rik Terri was.
“What happens when the Boost and Santiago finish fighting?”
“The victor will still be weakened. Santiago hasn’t told anyone more than necessary. Not even their board. I have a ship on standby—if you’ll let me call them. They’ll come and get our people.” His agreement with Paola wouldn’t last forever.
“Your people. What about the Ort?”
“They’re our people too.” He supposed he’d better be honest. “They’re plague carriers. They can’t go home.”
“It’s a stupid plan.”
“Desperate times,” Josune said through the link, making Alistair jump again. “It might even have worked, Nika.”
Nika sniffed.
“We’ve done stupider things.”
“I never said we hadn’t. You just don’t go against companies like this and win.”