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AT THE FIRST bang on the door, Kara rolled off the side of the bed, landing on her feet in a low crouch. In a heartbeat, her nanosuit surged and rippled over her skin, covering her from head to toe.
The bang came again, but this time followed by a voice. The last vestiges of sleep disappeared, and she recognised Arlen’s voice, though he didn’t sound happy.
Daku grumbled and shoved himself out of the blankets, rubbing at his face and glaring at the door.
“Bloody hell, can’t we get one full night’s sleep?” Daku grumbled reaching for his pants. He paused, halfway into them as he took in Kara. He stumbled and sat with a thump back on the bed.
“Kara, open up,” Arlen called through the door, banging what sounded like his fist on it again.
“Give us a sec,” she called back. She quickly shooed her hands at Daku, as she snagged up her own clothes from the chair she’d neatly folded and stacked them on last night, letting her nanosuit retract.
Daku, on the other hand, had to hunt down his clothes where he’d haphazardly thrown them and was still pulling on his boots when she opened the door.
“What?” she snapped, raking her gaze over Arlen, Zeph and Maktin. Behind them were more guards, identifiable by the assortment of blue jackets that passed for uniforms here, and the weapons holstered at their hips. She kept herself firmly planted in the doorway, keeping a watchful eye on their body language.
“Kara, step aside. I’m sorry, but that man is not who you think he is.” Arlen pointed at Daku, his other hand resting on his weapon, much to her displeasure.
“Daku?” she turned to assess him, noting he’d left a trail of blankets on the floor. He sheepishly scooped them up and flicked them over the bed, hiding the twisted sheets.
Kara turned back to Arlen. “I know his neatness, or I should say lack of, might annoy me, but that can’t be the reason you’ve woken us up with this cacophony.” She still didn’t move. No one threatened those close to her without having to deal with her, not even her own brother.
“Just let us through. We’ve only come for Daku. I promise no harm will come to you.” Arlen went to push past her.
She snapped her arm out and braced her left hand in the middle of his chest, holding him back with ease. He blinked, faintly startled as he looked down at her hand. When he looked back up, she met him with a cool stare.
“You may be my brother, but that does not give you the right to barge into my room and threaten the man I love, all while carrying weapons,” she bit the last word out.
He licked his lips and moved back a step. She let her hand fall.
“Sister, he’s dangerous.” He flexed his hand on his weapon. “We need to take him for questioning.”
Zeph muttered a curse under his breath and Maktin stepped forward purposefully.
Had Arlen uncovered the Elites existence? She kept her face blank of emotion, but the thought disturbed her. But if that was the case, why was he coming after Daku, and not herself or Isra? Daku stepped up behind her, but she didn’t take her eyes off the guards standing in the hall.
“I don’t think so. You, of all people, Arlen, should understand how I feel about sudden armed intrusions.” She wrapped her hand around Daku’s and linked their fingers. “So, no, I’m not going to let you take him. If you have questions, you can ask them here, or you can request our presence somewhere else, but you are not taking him. Not without me.”
“Or me,” Tarsk said. Kara knew he’d been listening the whole time, but he’d only just opened his door.
Arlen snapped around to stare at Tarsk lounging in his doorway.
“Stay out of this, Morus.”
Tarsk lazily stretched, flexing his paws and extending his claws several times. Pointedly. The guards shifted nervously, and Zeph looked torn.
“Daku is my friend. Tsk, would you let strangers march your friend off, with nary a word said against it?” Tarsk swished his tail rhythmically against the deck.
Arlen took a deep breath and turned back to her. She frowned at the pain she saw in his eyes.
“I’m sorry Kara, I really am. But we have evidence of the real reason why Nightwyn was branded a traitor by the Empire. He’s been lying to you.” He swallowed and shook his head.
Kara stiffened and narrowed her eyes at them. “What do you mean?”
Tarsk slowly straightened as the door to Isra’s room clicked open. Kara shot her a hard glare, but Isra didn’t budge.
Arlen sighed. “He’s collaborating with the same group that kidnapped us. The actual Dark Raiders.”
Kara sucked in her breath and tightened her hold on Daku. Her thoughts spun in different directions all at once. What if he had done something? What if he’d agreed to let them take the settlers from Geejo? Compulsively, her hand clenched tighter. Daku faintly winced, the expression quickly suppressed, but it snapped her out of her shock. She let go of his hand.
“Dark Raiders.” She licked her dry lips. “How do you know this?” Her heart beat in her throat.
Arlen shrugged and glanced down the hall at the other quarters. The doors were closed now, but that didn’t mean ears weren’t pressed to them.
“Not here.” He glanced at Zeph and Maktin and bit his lip. “Come with us, but don’t make any sudden moves. We’re watching you, Nightwyn.”
They stepped out of their rooms, and the guards surrounded them. Kara steadied her breathing and kept her senses open, ready to attack or defend herself if needed. Daku hesitated before falling into step beside her.
Arlen walked behind them, his gaze fixed squarely on Nightwyn’s back.
Kara wanted to yell at her brother so she could get the answers over with and know what pieces of her life she would have to put back together. Beside her, Daku was silent, but she could feel his eyes on her. She couldn’t face him right now, not with everyone watching them.
The walk back to the initial room they’d been brought to on the mothership seemed to drag on forever, the whole time spent in silence. Even Tarsk didn’t speak.
The guards took up positions outside the room. Once again, they walked in and sat on one side of the table, facing Zeph, Maktin and Arlen on the other side. The atmosphere had deteriorated since yesterday. Now Arlen’s face was hard and Zeph looked conflicted as his eyes drifted periodically to Tarsk.
“Well?” Kara demanded. “What makes you say Daku is...linked to the Dark Raiders?”
Arlen jerked his chin at Maktin, never taking his eyes off Daku. “Show them.”
Maktin pulled out his flexi, stretching it out and laying it on the surface of the table. He tapped one bony finger on the screen and the vid played.
Kara let herself relax for the briefest of seconds as the security footage from the Gaklun Two spacestation played out. “This? It’s all over the Empire’s news channels.”
“The Empire doesn’t know what they’re looking at,” Maktin said.
She clenched her hand, but fell silent. Why would they think Daku was with the Dark Raiders based on this vid? Unless they thought she was one, too? As the small images of herself and Daku repeated their actions from that day, she monitored Arlen. She’d become sick of watching it, but that wasn’t the worst part, for now Arlen would know she was a bio-cyber. She suppressed a sigh at the thought, but the ache in her chest increased.
Finally, it stopped playing and the room remained silent.
Arlen tapped the flexi to bring Daku’s face into focus. “You can’t argue with this.”
Kara and Daku glanced at the vid, then back at each other and Kara’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. Something didn’t add up here.
“I don’t think I understand,” Kara finally said.
Zeph snorted in disbelief, but Arlen hushed him.
“Are you aware the Dark Raiders have made bio-cybers?”
Kara flicked a glance at Isra and Tarsk. “Yes.”
“Then what don’t you get?” He jabbed a finger at the flexi. “You just saw one aiding Nightwyn. They wouldn’t do that without him being their ally. I told you, the Fleet can’t be trusted. These bio-cybers are an abomination and a security threat for all and need to be eliminated.”
Kara froze. The blood drained from her face, her hands going icy as shock set in.
“Eternities damn it,” Daku said, glaring daggers at Arlen, but he carefully gathered Kara into his arms.
She pressed herself into his warmth, trying to block her own brother’s words from her mind. From her memory.
Tarsk hissed, curling his body, ready to pounce. Only a sharp gesture from Isra stopped him. It didn’t stop the low growl.
Kara took the sounds of that growl and Daku’s heartbeat and weaved them around her, protecting and soothing her.
“Let my sister go,” Arlen snapped at Daku. “You didn’t think we’d find out about this? About this damned bio-cyber?”
Daku stiffened, his chest muscles tensing under her cheek. “Shut up before you make it worse, you fool!” He sucked in a breath, gentling his hands on her back. “You’re so damned focused on discrediting the Jade Fleet you didn’t even look further than recognising me, did you?”
“Daku,” Isra cautioned.
“Are you going to let him keep spouting this crap?” Daku demanded, tightening his arms around her.
Kara pressed her head into his chest, clutching his jacket. This couldn’t be happening; her brother couldn’t be saying these things about her. Yet he had. As much as she wanted to block everything out and stay pressed against Daku, she knew she couldn’t. Hiding from reality didn’t change it and she knew from experience that life would only sweep her along, often on nastier paths if she didn’t take a stand. Taking a slow, deliberate breath, she straightened. She didn’t want Isra and Daku to be at each other’s throats either. She caught his face and pressed a kiss to his lips in thanks and to keep him from annoying Isra.
“It’s alright,” she whispered.
“No, it’s not. He just—”
Kara kissed him again. “I know. But starting a fight won’t help.” She shot Tarsk a speaking look too.
Tarsk sniffed and stopped growling, but his ears remained flattened back.
“Kara, how can you sit there like this, kissing him?” Arlen cried out, pointing at the vid again.
Kara looked past Daku to Isra, waiting for permission to speak the truth, otherwise she was going to have to weave an epic tale. But Isra inclined her head an infinitesimal fraction, lowering her eyes in unspoken acknowledgement of the request. Kara gave a silent thank you before she rose to face her own brother. He had cursed bio-cybers; the thought sliced into her. She reached up and rubbed the spot on her chest that always got tight when tears felt like falling. But she wouldn’t let them this time.
“Daku is right, Arlen.”
Her brother jerked back. “How can you say that?”
She shook her head. “You may be my brother, but we really don’t know each other anymore. I remember a boy that thought we should all have augments, not one that curses those that do.”
Arlen stiffened, but looked uncomfortable. “I still don’t see the issue the Empire has with metal and alloy mods, but I agree with the Fleet’s stance on biological ones,” he said, drumming his fingers on the table.
“So you think we should eliminate the people the Dark Raiders made into bio-cybers?”
He spread his hands and shrugged. “There’s probably a better way to deal with them, but they damn well shouldn’t be running free.” He scraped his hands back through his hair. “But why does that matter? Aren’t you freaked out that a bio-cyber was helping Nightwyn?”
“No.” Kara sat down, steadily staring at Arlen. She flicked the flexi towards him. “Maybe you should watch it again, but this time remove those blinkers of prejudice from your eyes.” She crossed her arms and waited.
Arlen looked at Zeph and Maktin in confusion, clearly not expecting the confrontation to go this way, but she wasn’t feeling very sympathetic towards him right now. She wanted to watch the expression he made when he realised his mistake; she wanted to know how he really felt. And, yes, she acknowledged to herself; she wanted him to squirm and suffer, even if just for a bit, for what he had called her. Even if he didn’t know it at the time.
Once again, she sat through the damned vid, but this time she kept her attention focused purely on Arlen’s reaction. She saw the exact moment when he realised it was her. That the awful, abomination of a bio-cyber was his little sister. He jerked back and the blood drained from his face to leave him pale and shaken. Beads of sweat popped out on his brow and he swiped them away.
The vid continued to play and with a sudden explosion of nervous energy, Arlen slammed his hand on the screen, freezing the vid on an image of Kara bent over an unconscious Daku, her blood pumping into him. His breaths were choppy as he stared down at it.
Kara tapped her forefinger against her bicep, waiting for him to face her.
Arlen raised stricken eyes to her, sweeping them over what he could see of her. He shook his head in denial, but then looked back at the paused vid. He placed his hand over his mouth, then closed it into a fist, pressing it into his lips.
He dropped his hand to the table reaching for her, but aborted the movement. “That’s you, isn’t it?”