Once Dr. Hanne was up and nobody was in their off hours, Sophi gathered her crew together to plan their assault on the Vidua. They were so few they could all gather in the kitchen, all around the little table, while Dr. Hanne nervously ate hir breakfast.
Gamal and Farah weren't fighters, either of them, and were sitting, holding hands tightly. Dr. Hanne obviously wasn't one either, and Sophi was never the type to take on a physical threat. Kriikisiii was not to be underestimated, though, and Sikii and Kliiri would follow their dominant into any battle. The anoloids together were a formidable force. Cadan was sitting, still and blank and calm, as though everything was far away. She was infamously good in combat, but Sophi would be more comfortable with the rest of her crew around her. A skeleton crew was all she had, and it would have to be enough. They didn't have the days it would take to gather the rest of the crew from the beltway hideout.
Farah said what Sophi was thinking. "We need a very good plan, if we want to win."
"We have the element of surprise," Sophi said. "We'll need to board the Vidua like pirates. I can't do it alone—I'll need all the help you can give me. Will that be all right?" She looked back and forth between Farah and Gamal, waiting for their decision.
Gamal held Farah's questioning gaze for a moment before shrugging one shoulder, uncertain.
"It's to save kidnapped children," Farah argued; she'd obviously already chosen her side. "We steal nothing and hurt no one."
Gamal nodded slowly. "It is a righteous cause," he admitted. "I do not think the Imam would disagree." He turned back to Sophi. "You have us, Captain. Anything we can do."
"Thank you," Sophi said. "Dr. Hanne, you'll be needed in the infirmary, ready to take care of any injuries we sustain. Farah, you'll be in the helm making sure they can't communicate either internally or externally. The anoloids will go first into the Vidua, to deal with any physical threats. Gamal and Cadan and I will follow after, searching for the children."
Kriikisiii rumbled her approval of the plan, echoed with only a little concern by the males of her family. She was on board.
"No," Cadan vetoed—the first word she'd offered in the entire plan. Everyone turned to look at her, but she didn't follow it up with an alternate suggestion. Her eyes were distant, unfocused, somewhere beyond all of them.
"Then what do you suggest?" Sophi demanded, after several long beats of awkward silence.
"All you need to do is get me aboard the Vidua." Cadan's voice betrayed absolutely no doubt. "Let the anoloids protect the Rhyssa. You can't leave it undefended. I'm fastest on my own."
"We have no idea how many people are on that ship, you can't take them all on alone!" Sophi protested.
Cadan bared her teeth in something that could only barely be defined as a smile—something fierce and deadly as she finally focused on the people around the table. She shifted her powerful shoulders, little sparks deliberately flickering across her knuckles as she leaned over the table. "Finding them was your strength. This is mine. I'll be at the heart of the Vidua before they see me coming. Get me in."
There was no argument Sophi could make against that, as much as she wanted to. Cadan was unstoppable with a goal.
"Are you sure?" It was the only question Sophi dared ask.
Cadan's eyes rolled toward her, something burning deep within them. "Yes," she answered. "All I need from you is to get me aboard." She leaned back, disconnecting and falling into silence again.
There wasn't much more planning they could do after that. They coordinated their schedules so everyone would be ready and rested when they reached the Rhyssa. They discussed what potential threats could be on the ship, what tricks the kidnappers might try to play against apparent pirates.
Sophi's crew was as ready as it could be.
*~*~*
Sophi made one last check, in the moments before their final blink to the Vidua. Dr. Hanne was in the infirmary checking and rechecking hir stock of medical supplies. Sie would be ready for any injuries they sustained, any state they might find the royal children in.
Kriikisiii and Siiki and Klirii were waiting just inside the airlock, while the little males were all hiding in the basking range. It was the time-honored anoloid battle plan. They would guard the airlock, protect the Rhyssa from being boarded as they were boarding the Vidua—and Kriikisiii's bellowing challenge ought to call in any full-grown anoloids on the Vidua and distract the ship's defenders from Cadan as she ran in.
Cadan was standing before the airlock, breathing slow and deep like she was meditating, her boots planted square and unmoveable and her body loose and relaxed. She acknowledged nothing and no one, her eyes fixed on the airlock.
There were stories of Cadan single-handedly smashing her way through places more fortified and prepared than the Vidua was likely to be. Sophi had always figured they were just stories. She was not so sure anymore. She'd never seen Cadan like this. Sophi had never been able to see her as a weapon, but now she began to understand why Cadan was the king's favorite. They finally had the certainty Cadan needed, and her entire being was driven to focus on that single point.
Cadan had always been focused, but this was beyond that. There was such stillness in her now, like an anoloid threatening attack. Her frustrated activity had ended, and now she waited. Cadan had her task, and she saved herself for it.
Sophi had been completely forgotten the instant Cadan had caught the scent of the royal children. It stung, but at the same time, she was not sure she wanted all that focus on her. Seeing Cadan this way, it was easy enough to believe anything that stood between her and the royal children would simply crumble before the force of her will.
All Sophi had to do was get her onto the Vidua, and the seconds were ticking down.
If they were wrong—if Sophi was wrong again—Cadan would be the one who crumbled. It would destroy her. The Vidua had to be the right ship; Sophi didn't have any more leads after this.
Sophi could feel the tension humming through her ship as well as she could feel the humming of the engine charging the Rhyssa. Her hands were steady on her controls, waiting for their final blink. Farah was at her station, and Gamal was at his beside Sophi. He threw her a sharp grin, and Sophi smiled back.
"Brace!" Sophi warned, her voice projected through the ship, and the blattas translated Kriikisiii's incredibly precise mathematics into the final blink.
The Vidua had no warning. Farah hit the controls to blow out a cloud of frequency blockers so the Vidua wouldn't be able to call for help or communicate internally, and the Rhyssa bumped them. It was only the briefest kiss of ship hulls, but Gamal's fingers were dancing over his controls. The Rhyssa was left weightless for a heartbeat as their artificial gravity slammed through the Vidua's instead of adjusting to it.
The Rhyssa was far smaller than the Vidua, but they didn't have to be heavier. They just had to destabilize the Vidua's trajectory and momentum enough that they wouldn't be able to blink without recalculating. The cargo egg was slow and unwieldy on thrusters alone as it tried to flee.
Sophi fired her own thrusters to match the Vidua's erratic flight, closing in on them quickly.
"Give me just five degrees to starboard..." Gamal breathed like a prayer, eyes hard and bright as he watched for his moment. Sophi rolled the Rhyssa around the Vidua, giving it to him. He fired the grapplers, a row of cables sprouting down the egg's length, not a single one missing.
"Hard port!" Gamal shouted, and Sophi fired every starboard thruster she had. The Rhyssa whipped around the Vidua, spinning them as they spun themselves. "Farah, my heart, tell me you have their airlock."
"I will. Dock us," Farah answered, fingers flying over her own controls as she broke into the Vidua's systems. Gamal reeled in the grapplers, shooting out more to anchor the Rhyssa where they needed to be. Sophi wouldn't want to try this with a less skilled pair beside her at the controls. She managed the thrusters lightly, so the Rhyssa's airlock lined up perfectly with the Vidua's when they touched down.
The airlocks sealed, and they were in.
*~*~*
There was a moment of weightlessness, easy enough for Cadan to ride through to land on her feet again. The Rhyssa was engaging her target. She slowly flexed her fingers from the outside inward, pinkie, ring, middle, index, thumb, into a fist, priming her combat tech. She flexed her fists with power burning across them, and the airlock sealed.
She was sprinting, pounding her way into the cargo egg before the airlocks were fully open. Brief as the struggle had been, she was not unexpected. An anoloid similar in size to Siiki rushed silently down the hallway toward Cadan. There were humans behind her, dressed in yellow-throated Imperial uniforms. Cadan breathed in a single deep breath, sensing nothing dangerous in the atmosphere composition as she charged the anoloid down. There was ample time to test the air, always plenty of time in combat. The anoloid launched herself into the air at Cadan's chest level, and Cadan flexed her fists to double the charge as she dropped to her knees—sliding forward on the smooth surface.
Her hard-light shields flicked into place on her arms, protecting her from the anoloid's claws, and Cadan punched upward with all the strength in her rising body. Her fists connected perfectly, discharging into the anoloid's throat and chest. That would be enough to keep her out for a while. Cadan was on her feet again, still sprinting as the anoloid's body fell to the side. She cleared the thrashing tail in a single leap, and was among the screaming Imperials. They were armed with stun rods and even a light flail, but they were not prepared for Cadan. An elbow in a nose, a heel in a sternum, or just the lightest brush of her powered knuckles was enough to take them down. Her hard-light shields absorbed any disabling weapons that came at her. The flail wrapped all the way around Cadan's arm, slicing into the unprotected inside, but Cadan had no time for it. She smashed its power source handle and its wielder's hand in the grip of her fist, and its wielder fell beneath the slam of her forehead.
One of the final two tried to flee. Cadan threw her own dropped stun rod after her, felling her in the hallway, and slammed the last one against the wall hard enough to dent it.
"Where are my children!?" she roared, sparks from her free fist threatening his wild-rolling eyes.
"Corridor five!" he babbled high and desperate. "Five room C please don't—"
He went down with a light tap between the eyes. Cadan had no time for his begging. She was sprinting again, with Kriikisiii's roared challenge echoing behind her to draw in the enemy. All cargo eggs were laid out the same. Cadan had hitched rides on more than enough of them to get where she needed to go.
There were people in Cadan's way—Imperial soldiers. They were not in her way for long. Her fists were more than enough. She was enough for this. She had never been stopped. She would never be stopped. Adrenaline was singing in her veins and her arms were burning. There was blood, her own too but mostly others', and it tasted like victory in her teeth.
Room C in corridor five was well guarded. They scattered before Cadan, screaming. It did them no good. No one was shortsighted enough to take a projectile weapon starside, but a thrown stun-rod did well enough.
When Cadan was the only conscious person in the corridor, she faced the door. It was a far heavier interior door than most ships would bother with, sealed off tight. One of these guards likely held a key, but that was not Cadan's style. She wiped the blood from her split lip, an elbow she had not dodged, and powered down her fists. She flicked her fingers in the precise order to route all power to her hard-light implants. She made two fists and briefly flicked out her first two fingers, baring her teeth as hard-light blades projected before her hands. She punched them into the walls on both sides of the door, and shredded up and down.
It was violent and messy, and it sent a simple message: Do not stand between Cadan and her family. Cadan clipped the bolts that hung the door and flicked her fingers again, resetting her tech to default. Her hands closed on the door, and she ripped it out of the wall with a single heave. She flung it down the hallway, and stepped through the hole.
Three sets of terrified brown eyes looked up at her from where the children were pressed against the far wall.
"Aunti Cadan!" the twins shrieked, shoving past Devin's protective body to run to her. Cadan's eyes were sweeping the dingy room for traps or danger even as she went to her knees. Erica and Kofi hit her at full speed, little arms wrapping around her neck from either side, and Cadan's arms closed around them tight.
"Oh, my babies, I have you," she crooned as they sobbed against her neck. They were here, she had them. They reeked of sweat and unwashed bodies, Kofi was missing his beloved bracelets and Erica her pretty headwrap, but Cadan had them. She'd found them, and she would never let go. This room was safe—there was nothing in it but the children and a pair of cots for sleeping—but there was no time to waste. Even with the Vidua's communications disabled, Cadan's presence would be known. She had to get the children out to the safety of the Rhyssa.
Cadan stood, picking the twins up with her, and her eyes finally turned to Devin. He stepped closer, his bottom lip trembling and his golden-brown eyes gleaming bright, but refusing to cry. His right wrist was swollen, cradled against his chest, and his left eye and cheek were puffy and bruised, swollen nearly shut. He was hurt, and the horrible injustice of it burned hot in Cadan's belly.
"Devin." Cadan shifted Kofi over to her left hip with Erica and reached for him. All it took was the single word and Devin threw himself against her to be held tight.
"I knew you would come for us," he gasped. "They said no one could find us, but I knew."
"I would tear the galaxy apart for you," Cadan promised quietly into the top of his hair, which, along with Erica's, was done up in twists to keep it from matting. They'd obviously not been given any way to care for themselves, but they'd tried. They'd taken care of each other.
"Who hurt you?" Cadan asked Devin, taking his uninjured left hand in her right one as she stepped toward where the door had once been. There was no time for long meetings.
"One of the guards, when they caught us escaping. We almost made it to the shuttle bay," Devin answered.
"My brave boy," Cadan praised, heart breaking. He'd been so brave, and he should never have had to be. She should have found them sooner.
Devin gasped at the unconscious bodies Cadan had left around the corridor. "That one." He indicated with a turn of his chin. "That's the one who hit me."
Cadan took a two-step detour to kick the Imperial soldier with all the power in her leg, feeling the satisfying crack of his ribs beneath her boot. Another step and she could snap his pathetic neck the same way. Killing him was far too tempting, so easy, but that wasn't a road she wanted to go down. Especially not in front of the children. Instead, her next step landed on his hand, grinding in with her heel a bit, and the children all cringed at the crunch of breaking bones beneath her boot.
"You're bleeding," Devin noticed, seeing the slow dripping lines on her arm from the light flail.
"Yes," Cadan admitted. It would sting later. She only regretted that she'd probably smeared blood on the children without realizing. "Can you run?" she asked. That was the important question. They'd already been still too long, they needed to move.
He nodded once, firmly, squaring his jaw, and Cadan took him at his word. She adjusted the twins on her hip and ran as fast as she could while holding on to both them and Devin. They clung tight to her, which helped, but she was not nearly as fast as she would've liked to have been. They raced through hallways empty of anyone conscious. There weren't even any blattas. They blinked as soon as they saw Cadan coming—she'd always assumed to a safer part of the ship, but maybe they blinked clear back to their pod mothers.
Cadan almost dared hope they'd have the extraordinary luck to make it to the Rhyssa without running into anyone, when they were cut off. She should have realized there would be more than one anoloid on the ship. When was an anoloid ever alone? There was one waiting in the only path that led to the airlock, an anoloid mix with delicately orange-tinted scales. The mix was guarding the only way they could go, not that Cadan expected they would have let the children escape if they tried to go around. The only way past was through.
"Stay back," Cadan warned, setting the twins down and releasing Devin's hand. She flexed her shoulders and her fists, priming her tech as she strode forward. "Out of my way," she growled, voice dropping into as close to an anoloid warning rumble as her throat could make.
The mix was silent, puffed up and perfectly still, forward-facing eyes fixed on Cadan. It might have raised the hairs on Cadan's neck, but she was already in too deep. Her blood was too hot. Her arms were tired, but not near enough to stop her from fighting. Her implant power reserves were dwindling, she could feel it in the burn, but she had enough for this. She could not believe otherwise. The anoloid was maybe three times Cadan's size, with four eyes, deadly claws, a whip tail, and crushing jaws that opened wide as the mix finally broke and flung themself at Cadan.
The mix's bite broke on Cadan's hard-light shield, but the anoloid was not stunned long enough for Cadan to get a punch in. The mix was too fast, too twisty. Cadan's fist swept through empty air, and she nearly didn't have the reflexes to catch the tail whip that followed. Claws came into play next, but the mix saw and dodged when Cadan tried to catch them with a punch on the retreat. They had eyes in every direction. Cadan blocked claws and tail and jaws, again and again. The mix fought unlike anything Cadan had ever faced, all claws, all twisting speed and rage. Cadan could not block everything. She shrugged off and fought through the cutting sting of the anoloid's whip tail across her body.
Cadan fought with everything she had. The anoloid could not force her back, but neither did Cadan have any opportunity to return an attack. She managed a hefty kick or two, but the anoloid didn't seem to feel it through their thick skin. Only Cadan's powered fists could deal any damage to an anoloid, and her arms were also her only protection against their attacks. The mix had, essentially, six limbs to Cadan's two, and Cadan's power supply was not infinite. She could not hit them without opening her defenses.
One of the twins screamed, high and terrified, and the galaxy crystallized around Cadan sharp as diamonds. What mattered the most was the children, not this fight. What mattered the most was ending this as quickly as possible. Avoiding injury was of secondary importance.
Cadan lunged into the anoloid, throwing her whole body into it. She caught the mix by surprise and knocked them off balance and to the floor. Two of the mix's limbs were trapped beneath their body, but Cadan felt the claws of the second two sinking through her skin. The anoloid's back limb scraped a shallow gash down Cadan's thigh, but their front tore into her ribs. Cadan bellowed her pain as she discharged her fists into the anoloid. The mix's tail struck fire across Cadan's back and neck as they bucked with their entire body, wide mouth fighting to reach her face. They twisted in her grasp, nearly pulling free. Cadan projected a hard-light blade, stabbing through to pin the mix in place. Blue-black blood poured around the wound, and still the mix didn't stop fighting. The anoloid's claws raked Cadan's ribs again, stuttering agony against her bones. Cadan primed and discharged her free fist into the anoloid again, and a third time, and the mix finally sagged into unconsciousness.
Cadan turned, yanking the mix's claws out of her body and sprinting back toward the children before her mind could even piece together what was happening. Her lungs filled when she breathed in, and some small part of her mind noted that her lungs and chest cavity had not been pierced. A little lower and to the side and the mix might have managed to disembowel her. Cadan focused on the children, and the group of Imperials closing in on them. Erica was hiding behind Devin while Kofi threw something. Devin was waving a stun rod he must have picked up and did not really know how to use, especially not with his left hand—brave little boy facing trained adults. Cadan's eyes fixed on the thin-cheeked man standing in the back of the group, directing them. He was much older than she'd known him, and he was wearing the uniform of the Imperium, but she still recognized him.
"Lucas LeRoy!" Cadan roared, vision narrowing to her new target. He was the one behind this. He was disgraced, but still one of Nidum's own, turned against them. Both Cadan's hands were projecting hard-light blades, eyes fixed on him. "Traitor!" She'd kill him for this. She'd kill him and good riddance.
Lucas took one look at her, whites all around his eyes, and ran. His crew, dressed in Imperial uniform, took to their heels after him. It would do him no good. Cadan would fight her way through them all and end this with her hands around Lucas's throat.
"Aunti!" Devin's sharp cry broke through Cadan's furious focus, stopping her in her tracks and pulled her back to the moment. Getting the children to the Rhyssa was the important thing. She'd deal with Lucas afterward. Her hard-light blades flickered out. Her burning arms did not have the power to sustain them.
Cadan did not realize how much of her blood she was leaving behind until she turned around and saw the trail she'd left past the frightened children. It was more than just a few drops. Cadan pulled an emergency stoploss tablet from a jumpsuit pocket and broke it between her teeth, holding the gel under her tongue to absorb into her bloodstream and stop the bleeding anywhere it touched air. She grabbed a small nanohealer emergency pack from another pocket and crushed it in her fist, shoving it into the raw meat across her ribs.
The wound was worse than she'd realized in the adrenaline of the moment. Cadan screamed through her teeth as it sealed, pain burning far deeper and farther through her body than she'd expected. White shot behind her eyes, and her knees hit the floor. The twins both screamed. Cadan forced her eyes back open, looking up into their frightened faces. They needed her; she did not have time for this. She surged back up to her feet. Breath was agony, for the moment, but she had more important things to worry about.
"Come on." Cadan made her voice as gentle as she could. Devin was shaking, and both twins clung to him as they stared at her. Cadan could not easily pick them back up, but she held her hand out. Erica took it, and Devin held on tight to Kofi's hand, and Cadan set the pace in a jog toward the Rhyssa.
Erica turned her face away from the anoloid mix, shuddering, when they passed their blue-and-red-blood-spattered body. Devin looked ill at Cadan's side. Cadan wished they hadn't had to see that.
There were more unconscious people in the hallway closest the Rhyssa than Cadan remembered fighting, and three more anoloids she definitely hadn't fought. They were down, and Kriikisiii was lying on top of them, bleeding sluggish lines of blue from her neck. Klirii was behind her, eyes sweeping the hallway. The children stopped when they saw the anoloids. Erica pulled back on Cadan as hard as her little body could, whimpering.
"No, babies, Kriikisiii and her family are with me. We're safe now," Cadan soothed. They bunched tight around her past Kriikisiii and Klirii, but her children believed her. They trusted her. Cadan did not believe their safety herself until all three of them were in the Rhyssa. Sophi was there, and Dr. Hanne, finishing up patching a ragged tear on the side of Siiki's jaw. Dr. Hanne left Siiki and stepped toward Cadan as soon as she came through the door.
"See to the children," Cadan ordered Dr. Hanne. "I need to get their engine." She needed to destroy the Vidua's engine and then Lucas LeRoy. She tried to drop Erica's hand, to turn back into the cargo egg, but Erica's hand would not be dropped. She clung to Cadan tight with both hands, little nails digging in. She screamed, "No!" when Cadan tried to push her away. Devin and Kofi joined her, holding on to Cadan.
"Don't leave us!" Kofi begged. Devin was silent, but his eyes were full and overflowing with tears, bottom lip trembling.
"I have to go, I have to take out their engine!" Cadan explained desperately. "I can't let them escape!" She didn't have enough power left for hard-light blades, but she could still power her fists. She could still fight, and it wasn't over. She had to end it.
"I have this." Sophi stepped past Cadan as Klirii and Kriikisiii came back into the Rhyssa. Kriikisiii's right front leg was dragging. Sophi reached into her pocket and pulled out a little disk. She pressed a few buttons along the edge and tossed it into the cargo egg before slamming her fist onto the emergency airlock close, cutting them off from the Vidua. Cutting Cadan off from her quarry. "Take us out, Gamal!" Sophi shouted to the helm, and the Rhyssa rumbled under Cadan's boots.
"What was that?" Cadan demanded. "What did you do?"
"Scent bomb, pure blatta fear pheromone," Sophi answered, lips twisted in a grin. "There won't be a single blatta aboard that ship in under a minute. They're not going anywhere." Her smile evaporated as she looked at Cadan, eyes catching on Cadan's most obvious injuries with growing horror before settling on the children clinging to her. "You need to get to the infirmary," she ordered. "You too, Kriikisiii."
Cadan bit back her anger, her demands to be sent back to deal with Lucas, and nodded, breathing deep. The adrenaline was still searing hot in her veins, jittering through her whole body, but the fighting was over. Someone else would have to take care of Lucas for her—or else she could hunt him down later. The children were what mattered now.
"Devin." Cadan gently cupped the back of his head. "Erica, Kofi." Cadan touched them too, soothing both them and herself with the contact. "We're safe now." Cadan wasn't sure if she was reassuring them or herself. "We're safe on the Rhyssa. This is Captain Pan Sophi. She found you for me. The anoloids are Kriikisiii, Siiki, and Klirii. And this is Dr. Hanne."
Devin nodded deeply to them all, his manners not forgotten even if he was still clinging to Cadan like he was afraid she would disappear. "You have my gratitude," he said. He sounded just like Magnus, his father's son through and through.
"The infirmary's this way." Cadan could not pick the twins up, but she held hands with them as she led the way. Devin walked very close beside her. Klirii supported Siiki to her feet, humming soothingly, and they headed slowly toward the anoloid basking range. Kriikisiii limped on her own behind Cadan and the children. Dr. Hanne hovered over them all, but it was thankfully a very short walk to the infirmary. It was small, just three cots, one of which had been folded into the wall. Kriikisiii flopped herself down in the empty space. Cadan gingerly lifted the twins up onto the cot farthest from her, and Devin perched on it beside them.
Dr. Hanne picked up a diagnostics array to increase the sensitivity of hir medical communicator, calibrating it as sie turned toward Cadan.
"If you point that at me, I will break it." Cadan kept her voice low, tone even. Dr. Hanne looked up at her, confusion clear. "I can take care of myself. See to Kriikisiii and the children," Cadan instructed. She wasn't entirely sure the blocking chips implanted in the muscles along her spine could fool Dr. Hanne's focused medical scan, and she didn't want to find out.
"Kriikisiii's fine, but you're—" Dr. Hanne gestured toward most of Cadan's body.
"Then see to the children," Cadan repeated. She grabbed Dr. Hanne by the shoulders and turned hir toward them. "The Crown Prince has a broken wrist."
The twins tensed when Cadan took a step back, but Devin reached out, and his touch soothed them. Cadan didn't go far. It seemed Dr. Hanne had anticipated injuries—all the supplies she needed and more were set out neatly on the counter. Cadan swallowed a systemic nanohealer capsule, which would seek out and heal up most of the damage she'd taken within a few days. Between that and the stoploss, she'd be all right, but an antiseptic wipe-down and newskin to cover the injuries would make the healing go faster and keep scarring to a minimum. Dr. Hanne had some out already. The newskin very nearly matched Cadan's skin tone—sie'd anticipated the need.
Cadan unzipped her shredded jumpsuit and pushed it down a medical waste chute to be incinerated. She snipped through the torn remnants of her sports bra with a convenient pair of scissors and dropped that to join it. She sat on the spare cot and started cleaning herself with antiseptic wipes, starting from her hands inward.
Kriikisiii rumbled quiet discomfort where she lay. "Will you be all right?" Cadan asked her. "Do you need the doctor?" The children needed to be looked after, but Kriikisiii's injuries did seem more serious.
"Kliiri. Will," Kriikisiii said, and it seemed that was all the words she had.
Dr. Hanne was dealing well with the children, now that hir attention was on them. They were all three sipping on juice boxes sie'd provided. Dr. Hanne asked quiet questions and smiled, and the children smiled back and answered—though they did keep looking back to Cadan. Cadan did her best to smile for them. Her hands were starting to shake in the wake of the adrenaline, after such prolonged exertion and using so much of her stored power. Her power reserves needed to recharge, and her body did not have much for them to draw on. Cadan kept an eye on the children, and breathed deeply, and cleaned more little cuts and abrasions than she'd realized she had. After the first sharp sting, the antiseptic soothed the pain. Cadan dropped the used wipes, stained with too much of her own red blood and a little anoloid blue, into the waste chute.
The Rhyssa blinked. Cadan managed a better smile when all three of her niblings looked up at her to be sure it was okay. They were going home.
Kliiri came around the corner of the infirmary with a flock of males, all humming distress as they climbed over Kriikisiii. Several of them climbed up to the shelf and began throwing supplies to others, who began patching Kriikisiii's injuries with tight sealing bandages. Kliiri grabbed Kriikisiii's right front limb without preamble and gave it a powerful twist and push—it went back into place with a loud snap. Kliiri hummed harmonies Cadan couldn't follow and retreated, leaving the males to their work.
Raaa was still humming distress when he left Kriikisiii and scrambled up the cot to join Cadan. His four eyes swept over all of her, distress only growing louder as he circled around her, delicately patting unbruised patches of skin with his cool little hands.
"I'm all right," Cadan soothed. She hummed contentment, or as close as she could get to the tone. "I've had worse, I'll heal right up." Cadan scratched down his back with her nails, how an anoloid might pet him. Raaa stilled, but he continued humming quiet distress.
"You can help," Cadan decided. It might make him feel better to be able to do something; the males on Kriikisiii seemed to be calming as they finished tending to her. Raaa immediately perked up, listening attentively. Cadan picked up another antiseptic wipe and continued her cleaning. "First, get me two of those juice boxes," Cadan decided. The sugars would help hold her over until she could get a few nutrient bars to eat.
Kriikisiii heaved herself heavily to her feet with the rest of the males all clinging to her back, and limped slowly out of the infirmary.
"Please rest!" Dr. Hanne called after her. "Eat heavily and keep warm and dry!" If Kriikisiii heard, she did not answer.
With her gone, the children seemed to relax. They watched Raaa curiously as he helped Cadan, and Dr. Hanne helped them. Devin was treated for the pain and the bruising he'd sustained, and his cracked wrist was fitted with a lightweight brace to protect it while it healed in the next few days. Cadan drank the two tiny juice boxes Raaa scavenged from Dr. Hanne's supplies, and then he wiped her back for her, where she could not so easily reach with the antiseptic wipes. The mix's whip tail had cut through her jumpsuit and split the skin across her back and around the side of her neck. She'd not realized they hit that hard. Cadan's breath caught in her throat when she cleaned her injured ribs, feeling the sharp sting that seemed to pierce all the way through her chest. She clenched her teeth and refused to cry out—to frighten the children. The numbed relief that followed was nearly as intense as the pain had been.
Cadan removed her sweat- and blood-stained boxers and quickly cleaned her lower body. Dr. Hanne handed her a crisp white towel to cover herself with, and Cadan wrapped it around her waist as she began cutting pieces of newskin to patch up with. Raaa was very helpful with that, his clever hands gentle as he carried pieces all over her body and patted them in place over her smaller wounds while she dealt with the big ones. There was only so much the emergency nanohealers could do with Cadan's ribs. She hissed quietly under her breath as she pinched torn flesh, shiny with nanohealers, into place and sealed it with the newskin.
Raaa hummed comfort to her as he worked, and that did help. No cut was too small for him to think it wasn't worth patching—he even pressed a sliver into place on Cadan's split lip. His bright forward-facing eyes looked into hers as he hummed soothingly. Cadan hugged him in thanks, and he purred quietly as he climbed up to lie across her shoulders.
"We're going to need clothes for everyone," Dr. Hanne said into hir communicator. "And Captain, bring us Cadan's hair supplies, please." Dr. Hanne smiled at the children again, rolling back a piece of wall to reveal a simple but functional washroom. "Would you prefer baths or showers? I can set it up for either. The Rhyssa has the water for it."
"Aunti," Kofi answered, looking past the doctor to Cadan. The children were huddling in together. Cadan had been so distracted with tending to her own wounds she hadn't realized they'd been getting more insecure with her distance.
"I'll help them with it," Cadan said, standing carefully. The antiseptic and the newskin helped, but her entire body ached. "Thank you, Doctor."
"No. You need to be resting," Dr. Hanne contradicted. "I ought to make you take a deep sleep tab, just to keep you down so you can heal." Sie took a step toward a cabinet.
"Try it." Cadan clenched her fists, a flicker of sparks across her knuckles the only warning she needed. Dr. Hanne stopped in hir tracks. "I will die before I let the royal children out of my sight." She'd searched so far for them, she would not let them go now she had them. Raaa purred on Cadan's shoulders, curling in closer. Dr. Hanne stepped back, hands lifting in surrender, and Cadan stepped past to the children. The twins reached for her, and Cadan carefully wrapped her arms around them. Devin leaned against the outside of her arm.
"With newskin patches that extensive, you can't shower or bathe for at least a day. Two would be better," Dr. Hanne pointed out.
"I know," Cadan bit out. She forced herself to gentle, to calm when the twins flinched at her tone. This was hardly the first time she'd patched herself back together. She knew what she could and couldn't do. Cadan held Erica's hand as she jumped off the cot. Kofi jumped down on his own, followed by Devin. "Do you have any bath bubbles?" Cadan asked. They were the twins' favorite, and they needed something nice right now. Something more comforting than just Cadan's presence.
"I'll shower," Devin decided. Cadan nodded. He was more than old enough to wash himself, and his wrist brace was designed to allow it. It would not become waterlogged.
"And we'll need food afterward," Cadan instructed Dr. Hanne as she and the children stepped into the washroom. She was starving, and she did not trust the children to have been well fed.
"Yes, please!" the twins chorused.
"They only gave us nutrient bars." Kofi wrinkled his nose in distaste. Cadan wouldn't turn one down at the moment, but that was different from being made to subsist on them.
"We'll get you something good to eat," Cadan promised, and closed the door of the washroom behind them.
*~*~*
The Rhyssa did not have children's clothing. That was not something Sophi stocked. After a moment of consideration, she gathered a few of her own things up to offer. They wouldn't fit, but maybe the children wouldn't mind using them as dress-up until their own clothes were done being cleaned. She typed a message to Gamal asking the same of him, to offer them a little more variety.
Cadan was easy to get clothes for—her jumpsuits were already folded up in her bag, clean underthings neatly stowed in their places. Sophi grabbed a set for her, and carried her offerings and Cadan's hair stuff to the infirmary. The clothes she left on the end of a cot as she delivered the hair stuff to Cadan in the washroom.
Cadan and Devin were wrapped in towels, seated to either side of the triangular tub in the corner, which was full of bubbles and the young prince and princess. They were giggling as they played in the water, their deep-brown skins gleaming clean with the dinginess of their captivity gone. They were cute children, Sophi had to admit, but they took all of Cadan's attention. Cadan hardly looked at Sophi when she accepted the hair stuff. Cadan's bruises were already starting to come in, stark purple-red along the edges of the off-tinted newskin that pieced her body back together.
Cadan had run off into the cargo egg alone, and run back with the royal children in tow and her body in shreds. Sophi could have sworn she'd seen a pink-white gleam of bone and cartilage exposed in her rib wound, beneath the shine of nanohealers. Cadan was that badly injured, and she'd tried to run back in to fight more. That kind of drive, to complete a task beyond the point of injury and death, would never make any sense to Sophi. She valued her own life and health more than any reward.
Cadan took the bottles from Sophi and immediately pulled the twin with the longer hair—Erica—toward her to begin gently untangling her hair. Devin was the one who thanked Sophi, giving her a nod he'd probably picked up from his father and grandmothers. It had that hint of arrogance and dismissal beneath it.
"Get Kofi's hair, and then I'll help with yours," Cadan instructed, and Devin was quick to obey. Sophi might as well have been dismissed. This might've been her ship, but there was no place for her here. Raaa fit in better, draped across Cadan's shoulders and teasing the twins with not quite letting them catch his tail. Cadan had her children, her family, the people she loved. Sophi was just the one who'd found them for her. She'd done what she was hired to do and King Magnus would be paying her handsomely for it.
She slipped out of the washroom unnoticed. She was glad of the ping from Farah summoning her to the helm. If there was a problem, it would at least be something else to occupy her mind.
"You'll like this, Captain," Farah said, keying up a message. "My frequency blockers intercepted this mixed in with the SOS calls from the Vidua."
A man appeared on the viewscreen, his dark-brown hair graying at the temples, his face thin. He was wearing an Imperial uniform and breathing hard, eyes rolling and looking back toward something offscreen.
"You promised this would be easy," he spat. "Hide Magnus's brats until he goes off and starts the war. Sure it's easy, up until the moment Cadan fucking Martin boards your ship with murder in her eyes!"
Martin. Cadan Martin. This man had known her before she was the woman who didn't exist. Cadan had carried a name, then, and it was only the name of the king's own cousins. No wonder Cadan called the royal children her niblings. That branch of the royal family had yielded Magnus's chief adviser and his best diplomat... and apparently Cadan too, his best weapon. It was hard to place Cadan's age exactly, but she could have been daughter to either Senan young or Bryn old—and they'd erased her when their king wanted Cadan not to exist.
Of course Cadan was a Martin. Who else was that loyal to the Agyemans?
The man's eyes traveled back to the point offscreen. A door, maybe. Was he expecting Cadan to burst through it? "She recognized me," he continued, shaking his head. "I'm not taking the fall for you, Inés." His lips twisted bitterly. "Not this time. I was supposed to earn my position back, not this. I'm not going to put my neck on the line so you can sit pretty with your Imperial friends and pick up the pieces when they finally take Nidum. I will not..." He broke off, tensing all over as a door opened. There was an indistinct voice speaking. "What do you mean we don't have any blattas!?" His voice was nearly a full octave higher, and the message cut off.
"The message was addressed to Inés LeRoy, who sits on Magnus's council," Farah said. "Making this Lucas LeRoy, her disgraced nephew."
Sophi smiled, leaning her elbows on the back of the pilot's seat. Wasn't this a sweet little nugget to have picked up? Nothing like good news to brighten the mood.
"Good catch. Send that directly to Commander Li," Sophi ordered. She'd be able to make use of it—figure out who in the Imperium was working with Inés to try to undermine Magnus Agyeman. Commander Li had the resources to find out who was willing to destabilize the system—and could no doubt use the knowledge and the capture of the kidnappers to open up a friendlier relationship with Magnus. Commander Li could pay Sophi back for the favor later.
Sophi held out her hand, though, pausing Farah before she could send the message on. "The sound quality of the message we picked up is bad, though. A few unimportant words missing..."
Understanding sparked in Farah's eyes. "Cadan's name."
Sophi nodded once. Commander Li was already going to owe Sophi big with the rest of it—she didn't need to hand Cadan's name over, too.
It wasn't Sophi's secret to give away.