As We Rise: Rogue (As We Rise Saga Book 1) Read online

  “The contents of this one must have a greater mass than the others,” Sky stated with an almost robotic timbre.

  “Come again?” Jo grunted as she peeled back another layer of material from the Kismet. Damaging her ship felt as if she were digging into her own flesh.

  “I watched the video feed from the attack. Each container was subjected to the same environment—no mitigating factors. Same force. Same acceleration. The only variable is the contents.”

  Jo stared at Sky, not because she didn’t understand where Sky was going with this train of thought, but because Jo had never witnessed Sky display competence outside of her own occupation. It was refreshing, although a little intimidating.

  Jo blinked before turning a calculating gaze back to the container. “It makes you wonder what could be in this one to make it significantly heavier than the others.”

  Sky nodded as she pulled another layer of wall back from her side, the thin insulating layer peeling with ease. A loud metallic creak echoed throughout the cavernous bay. Jo felt a slight shift in the weight of the container before it started to slide.

  “Watch out,” Jo screamed as she flung her body away from the falling capsule. Her shoulder jarred and a sharp pain exploded from her wrist as it took the brunt of her weight in the fall before her head snapped back and slammed against the floor. Lights flashed behind her eyes, and a dull ache formed at the base of her skull. As Jo’s vision cleared, a deafening crash reverberated through the room.

  Jo lay on the cool floor, panting while taking mental inventory of her bodily aches. She would be stiff tomorrow, and if her swollen, pulsating wrist were any indication, she was going to need an injection of nanobots to repair the aching joint. Otherwise she was fine. When Jo concluded her inspection, a low moan came from the other side of the room.

  Sky.

  With a wince, Jo rolled over to face the sound. A few feet away, Sky lay prone on the floor. Her chest rose steadily, and Jo released a stifled breath.

  “I thought you secured the container,” Sky moaned as she pressed her palms into her eyes. It seemed she would be struggling with a headache too.

  “I did. The jack must not have been strong enough to support its weight,” Jo sighed. She pushed herself into a seated position with a groan.

  “We’re lucky.” Sky stood, adjusting her jacket and cowl to cover the skin that was exposed in the fall. “That was too close, but at least the container…” Jo watched Sky’s expressionless face morph into one of unabashed shock. Jo could have studied this undiscovered side of Sky exposed by emotion, but as Sky’s shock melted into nervousness, Jo broke her gaze to see what caused Sky’s distress.

  Unconcerned with the sharp jolts of pain in her joints, Jo jumped to stand. She blinked, hoping her eyes were sending the wrong images to her brain. When they opened, the scene before her remained the same. Dread unfurled in her stomach as an imaginary hand reached inside her chest and squeezed her heart.

  The container had opened.

  Eight

  Curiosity tinged with fear built like a crescendo, and Jo sucked in a quick breath as the fluttering in her stomach became almost unbearable.

  Jo glanced at Sky, who hadn’t moved. “The damage is done. Let’s look at what the advisor was willing to pay a million dollars to get rid of.”

  Sky nodded, her face a shade lighter than usual. A churning in Jo’s stomach, accompanied by the frantic fluttering in her chest, grew as she studied Sky. It was alarming that the stoic woman was showing her nerves over an open cargo container. It confirmed her own reaction, and that bothered her more than all the previous conversations they had about the containers. At least then, Jo could pretend that there was nothing to worry about. Now the truth was bared for them to see, and for once Jo wasn’t sure if she wanted to discover it.

  Neither woman made a move toward the container. The moment seemed bigger than Jo, and she was frightened. Jo allowed a few precious seconds to let her emotions overwhelm before she pushed them down to process later. There was work to be done, and as the captain, she needed to make sure the contents of the container wouldn’t threaten her crew.

  Jo pulled back her aching shoulders and took a step. Each step after became easier as she allowed her curiosity to win over any lingering fear. She heard soft footfalls close behind her and smiled. It seemed Sky had pulled herself together as well.

  Wisps of white breath flowed out of Jo’s mouth as drew closer to the container, and telltale prickles danced over her skin—whatever was in the container was kept cold. The worry that she had unwittingly let loose some pathogen kept dormant under freezing temperatures was erased when she looked over the edge.

  Inside was a smaller, sleeker, milky-white tube. About midway, a panel displayed numbers and a flickering graph. Jo was struck dumb. It took a few minutes for her synapses to connect what she was looking at, and she was shocked at the flood of relief that loosened her stressed muscles.

  “This is not what I was expecting,” Sky announced.

  “Me either, but it could have been worse,” Jo answered as she walked around the container looking to see if they could reseal it with no issues.

  “What are you doing?” Sky asked through clenched teeth.

  “We need to seal this container.”

  “No, we need to discuss this with the crew,” Sky demanded, her voice rising with anger. Jo paused her examination of the crate to study the woman. Sky stood with her feet slightly apart and her hands casually resting on the hilts of both sidearms.

  “Are you threatening me?” Jo asked, her voice low and deceivingly calm.

  Sky jerked her hands away and crossed them over her chest. Her face tinged red and her eyes narrowed. “No, but…”

  Jo forced down the rising anger. Sky needed to know who was in charge. It looked like the talk would be happening now. “I am the captain of this ship. Not you. If you don’t like it, you may disembark at the next station, but you will fall under my command if you choose to stay.”

  “This,”—Sky swept her hand over the pod—“is a bigger deal than the few times I overstepped my rank. We should bring this to the crew. They have a right to know what they’re getting themselves into.”

  “We don’t know the story, and it’s none of our business. We were hired to do a job…”

  “The story?” Sky’s wide eyes softened her entire countenance, making her seem years younger. Jo wondered for a second if Sky was younger than they originally thought. “That’s a person inside a stasis pod, inside a bio-waste container that we’re going to airlock into a star.”

  Jo flinched at Sky’s statement. Of course, she knew there had to be a person inside the pod, but without verbally acknowledging it, she could pretend otherwise. It was out there now, and her stomach churned with indecision. “They could be dying or contaminated with an engineered virus. Have you forgotten that this contract originated with the Elitian military?”

  “Have you forgotten that the contract was initiated by Eltanin – the advisor to the most powerful man in the galaxy? How do we know this isn’t some sort of political ploy?”

  “We don’t, but it doesn’t concern us,” Jo’s shrugged, trying to detach from the conversation, but couldn’t stop the shake that entered her voice.

  Sky didn’t respond. Instead she stared at Jo with a piercing gaze as if she were cataloging and weighing her soul while casually leaning against the open cargo like she didn’t have a thing to worry about. Jo struggled to keep still as she met her gaze.

  “Captain?” Haedus’s voice broke the tension.

  “Yes,” Jo answered harshly.

  “The destroyer is moving. It will be in hailing distance within the hour.”

  “Shit,” Jo hissed. She stared at Sky, who continued to lean against the container, her stare locked on Jo and an eyebrow raised in a challenge. Jo closed her eyes and thought of her father. Like her, he would be more inclined to finish the contract, collect their money, and do something reckless to ease the tort
ure of making an impossible decision before moving on to the next location. Yet, he’d consulted the crew plenty of times before making a final judgement.

  “Haedus, transfer operations to the AI and have the crew meet in the cargo bay.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Haedus answered.

  Sky unfolded her arms as she pushed off the container and stood. An approving smile tugged at her lips before she nodded her thanks. Jo felt that she must have passed some sort of test with the strange woman. Without another word, they waited for the crew to arrive.

  Jo leaned against the crate as her crew trickled into the cargo bay. She rubbed at the injection site just above her healing wrist and patiently waited for the last crew member to waltz in. For once, she didn’t have to quiet them before speaking. Every eye was focused on the open container.

  “You can all see why I called you in here.” Jo’s voice broke the spell, and like a rehearsed dance move, each gaze drifted to her. The synchronized shift of focus momentarily froze Jo. She didn’t know how to approach the subject.

  A feminine voice rose from the back of the small crowd. “That container was closed when the team left the bay.”

  Jo released a relaxing breath as some internal well of confidence burst open. “Yes, Zennia, the lid must have been compromised beyond my original estimate, and when the jack holding it up broke, the resulting crash broke the seal completely.”

  “So this is why the GC ship has begun its approach,” Haedus stated.

  “Most likely,” Jo answered. “We figured Eltanin could have placed an alarm to signal the vessel through a private frequency if we didn’t keep our side of the contract.”

  “Let’s close it up. Maybe we can play it off as damage from the attack,” Elek suggested.

  “That was my first thought, but I think you should know what’s inside before we act,” Jo answered. She glanced at Sky, who nodded in approval.

  “What’s inside?” At Chitra’s question, gazes flicked to the container and back to Jo.

  “An active stasis pod.”

  Jo felt the silence wrapped around the room with tangible weight. She studied the crew as they thought through her statement, and she could almost taste the distrust and unease coming off them in waves. The silence tightened uncomfortably until it ripped open and everyone began talking all at once.

  “Who’s inside?”

  “The GCM are coming. Close it up and pretend we never saw inside.”

  “We should open it.”

  “Are there stasis pods in the others?”

  “Okay. Okay. Not everyone at once,” Jo demanded. “There are two choices before us: open the pod or not. So, what will we be hiding: an accident or a crime?”

  “I think we should open the other crates,” Sky suggested. “The damage has been done regarding alerting the Galactic Consulate. We might as well see if there are more stasis pods.”

  “I agree,” Jax grunted.

  “We know the mass of this pod is heavier than the others. I highly doubt there are pods in all of them,” Jo hedged.

  “It wouldn’t hurt to check.” Haedus scanned the crew’s anxious faces. “It may help the crew make a decision regard this pod.”

  Jo relented once Siaren promised he could reseal the containers. The last thing she wanted was to discover was the contents of the other crates, but she saw the wisdom behind knowing. The question was, would it matter? The GC destroyer arriving soon could incinerate them and the cargo before they could attempt evasive maneuvers.

  “It’s open, Captain,” Siaren mumbled, averting his eyes from the raised lid.

  She rotated her shoulders, attempting to loosen the muscles, and ambled over to the crate. She pushed up the hinged lid and peeked inside. Her stomach rolled at what she saw.

  Corpses.

  They weren’t the hacked-up pieces thrown out from the rejuvenation or medical corporations, but whole, fully dressed dead people. The crew stepped around Jo and glanced inside. A few gasped in shock while others gagged at the overwhelming smell of death. Jo thought she heard at least one tearful sob.

  “Check the others,” Jo ordered. “Sky, take pictures of the bodies. Somehow I doubt their families wished for a secret cremation by star-fire, and someone should be able to give them peace.”

  “Aye,” a sad chorus answered. They worked silently until they had seen all the carnage. There weren’t any more stasis pods.

  By the time the AI announced the GC ship’s halfway mark, Haedus, Elek, and Chitra were the only ones who didn’t want to open the pod. Although their reasoning matched Jo’s gut reaction, she consented to the logic of finding out what was inside the pod.

  Reluctantly, Jo allowed Siaren to work on opening the pod with Jax while the rest of the crew discussed options for keeping their indiscretion a secret.

  It wasn’t going well.

  The system was designed to send a signal through CyNet to a nearby console if any of the containers opened, but it didn’t look like it would send more than a simple alarm message. No feeds or data files, but it was sophisticated enough that they wouldn’t be able to set up a false alarm on their end. The only thing they had on their side was the Kismet’s vid feed with proof of the attack and subsequent turbulence in the cargo bay, and the hope that they could get the lid to reengage – which would be easy, according to Siaren via Jax.

  With the container taken care of, Jo began to worry about the crew on the Galactic Consulate destroyer. She would have to find a way to make sure they didn’t become suspicious of Jo or her crew. They would want to board and check the cargo, which wasn’t the problem. Jo’s apprehension grew as she watched the engineering crew ease the pod open.

  A low hiss from the pod turned Jo’s attention away from the conversation on death and decay.

  “Wait,” Jo yelled as she left the bickering group and jogged toward the pod. A soft stampede of footfalls followed her. The lid was partly open, just enough for a steady, billowing stream of mist to cascade down to the floor and wrap around Jo’s ankles.

  “Was there a sensor on the pod?” Jo’s question came out more like a demand.

  “None that we could see. It seems like a typical long-range stasis pod. The kind you’d find in the explorer class vessels.”

  Jo nodded and motioned for Jax to continue. Nerves were making her fingers twitch, and she crossed her arms and tucked her hands into her armpits to stop the shaking. When they pushed the lip the rest of the way, Jo stepped away from the group and glanced inside.

  “Well, shit.”

  Nine

  Cream-colored silk adorned with thousands of tiny jewels glittered in the artificial lights of the cargo bay. The fine gown ruffled at the neck and cascaded in silken waves over smooth, milky flesh of a woman. The dress alone proved that whoever was currently thawing was someone more than a simple medical experiment gone awry. Jo’s gaze skimmed over the manicured nails and the slender neck ensconced in lace to a face so regally beautiful it felt like a punch to the gut.

  “We’re all going to die,” Haedus mumbled as he backed away from the pod.

  “Who is she?” Elek asked.

  Jo just stared. Most every man, woman, child in the Galactic Consulate Alliance knew this woman’s name and her life story. Yet, not many people from the edge worlds would be able to recognize the sleeping woman. Any photo or vid feeds found on the CyNet were taken down minutes after being uploaded. This woman was never to be seen, only heard. Jo only recognized her because she had been sitting next to the captain when he and Haedus received a message with a girl’s image in it. It had been 4 years since she saw the picture, but Jo would bet her good leg that this woman was the same girl. She was the most guarded woman in the system. Kept more secure than the chancellor’s vault. Having her on the Kismet inside of GCA would put the entire crew at risk. Much less having her unconscious in a pod meant for disposal.

  “Captain,” Sky placed a hand on her shoulder. “Who is she?”

  “This is the chancellor’s d
aughter,” Jo answered.

  A chorus of whispered curses wrapped around Jo. She ignored them as she stared at the sleeping woman’s fingers twitching. It wouldn’t be long before she was awake. There was no way Jo was going to let a spoiled Elitian princess put her crew, her family, at risk. The Kismet and these people were all she had left of her father, and Jo would protect them with her life.

  “Don’t go there,” Sky hissed. “I can see what you’re planning to do.”

  “If she wakes, we will guarantee a death sentence to everyone on board.” Jo risked a glance to Sky. Her cowl was pulled off her head. Her sleek black hair pooled around her shoulders in sumptuous waves that framed her strikingly feminine face. Jo was momentarily caught off guard before she shook away the shock. “We should replace the lid and hope that the GC officers about to board won’t be able to tell that we took a little peek.”

  “You’re asking us to be okay with murder,” Sky replied louder, getting the attention of the crew. A few people obviously agreed with Sky, but Jo couldn’t glean the consensus of the group.

  “I don’t know a single crew member who hasn’t killed.” Jo’s reply garnered a few nods in agreement.

  “Killing and murder are two different things,” Jax boomed from the back of the crowd. At that the murmuring grew to a deafening roar.

  Jo stepped up on the ladder she had used earlier to extract the container and yelled, “Hey! We don’t have time to discuss this. The GC ship will send their docking orders any minute now. We have to seal up the pod now, either with or without her. Use your UAB to send me your answer.” Jo paused and stole a quick glance to the pod. The woman’s eyes were beginning to flutter behind her lids. “If we choose to wake her, we will be entangled in whatever conspiracy Eltanin is involved in.”