Renegade Magic (Star Renegades Book 1) Page 17

  Maybe. It was a long shot.

  A very long shot.

  But a long shot was more than they’d ever had before.

  Cal had thought Ty was out of his mind when he’d gone after the enforcer, but now she might be the secret to their salvation.

  Dania laughed again, her eyes sparkling as she glanced back at Cal.

  Could they really be this lucky, or were they falling for the biggest con of their lives?

  24

  Dania

  A tiny cyclone of sand whisked past Dania’s feet. She rubbed her shoulders as a chill iced over her despite the desert-like heat. She’d left the ship that morning ready to add to the list of crimes this crew was already more than guilty of, and she hadn’t been disappointed.

  Until she’d committed a crime herself.

  Would Prince Geron excuse her for disseminating pilfered food?

  Would he understand that these people were hungry?

  The goods were stolen in origin. That was almost a certainty. But the crew hadn’t actually sold them. The law did not require the exchange of money, though, so they had in fact committed a crime.

  She had committed a crime.

  Another chill sliced up her spine as they neared the ship. Her gaze fogged, and she blinked to clear it.

  “Are you okay?” Ty asked, leaning closer.

  Dania pushed him back, but not as hard as she normally would. “I’m fine.”

  But she wasn’t fine, and she wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.

  Alanna’s eyes widened as she stepped off the landing platform and approached them. “Dania?”

  She stopped. “What is it?”

  The navigator squinted in the bright sun. “Your hair looks funny.”

  Dania tilted her head. That was an odd statement coming from a woman who’d artificially colored half the strands of her own hair pink. However, the woman’s brow furrowed with concern.

  Dania grabbed the ends of her hair and pulled the strands forward. Her heart fluttered when the locks lay still between her fingertips, rather than shifting with primordial heat. She blinked twice, hoping it was a trick of the sun shining off the edge of the ship’s hull. She flipped the ends of her hair over, then plucked a lock from her other shoulder. Her hair was not the vibrant, glinting opal of the enforcers, but a dull, mundane blonde.

  She spun toward the doctor walking up behind them. “What have you done to me?”

  He held up his hands. “Whoa there, tiger. Nothing.”

  “Really?” She held out fistfuls of her hair in each hand. “Then what is this? You took my blood, but did you inject something into me at the same time?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “It doesn’t work that way. It’s kind of a one-way needle.”

  “Then why is my appearance changing?”

  The doctor’s face blurred. She shook her head to clear it.

  He hazarded a step closer. “Maybe we should take you to the med bay so I can get you checked out.”

  She pushed him away, nearly stumbling as she did so. “Why? So you can lock me in another force field? So you can make me sleep on the floor?”

  He shook his head. “I just want to take some readings to make sure you’re okay.”

  “The last time you took readings, this happened.” She held out her hair again.

  The doctor glanced at Espinoza and then back to her. “Dania, you’re not like the rest of the crew. I’m not accustomed to working with enforcers, but to me, it looks like something’s wrong, and I’ll need to do some research to fix you.”

  She balked. “Fix me? You did this to me.”

  “I just want to help you. I promise, no needles unless you say it’s okay. I will explain everything I’m doing.”

  Alanna’s hand appeared on Dania’s arm. “Hey, I’ll go with you. I’ll stay with you the whole time, just like last night.”

  Dania’s heart twisted. This woman, for some reason, she trusted. The men were a threat.

  But why? She could slice them all in two with the will of her mind.

  Her sight blurred again.

  “Dania?” Alanna’s hazy face came into view. “Please. You don’t look good.”

  Maybe it was this planet, or the intense heat, but she knew they were right.

  Something was wrong with her, and at the moment, she had no other choice than to trust the criminals.

  25

  Cal

  Back on the ship, Ethan walked toward Cal with a slower-than-usual gate, but with the same fire in his eyes that had nearly gotten him thrown off the ship numerous times. “I thought the plan was to leave the enforcer on the surface and make a run for it? I had the engines pumped and ready.”

  Cal kept walking. “You were supposed to be resting. In case you forgot the mind-melting pain, you were hit with a particle distributor.”

  “I’m serious.” Ethan grabbed him as he tried to walk by.

  The engineer winced, like even lifting his arm hurt.

  Cal wished the people on his crew would learn to take it easy when they were injured.

  Cal looked at the hand on his arm and raised a brow in warning until Ethan dropped his grip.

  “Stuff happened out there,” Cal said. “And it looks like she might be sick. Those colonists can’t help her.” Of course, Cal wasn’t sure that Doc would be able to help her, either, but she had a better chance with the tenacious, self-taught genius than she had with a real doctor in the colony, someone used to treating normal human injuries and sicknesses.

  “I get that, but she’s still a ticking time bomb.”

  Cal poked Ethan’s chest. “You were the one with Ty when he came up with this star-blasted scheme.”

  “That was before she started threatening to kill us all.”

  “She did save your life, or at least saved you from permanent spinal damage.”

  Ethan stared at the wall. “Yeah, I know. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that.” He took a deep breath. “So, what’s the new plan?”

  Good question. Cal looked back to the med bay door. “Right now, I think we’re still trying to build trust. She’s agreed that I didn’t kill Filluck Palogivan.”

  “Yeah, but she also said she might still have to kill you for it.”

  Yeah, she had alluded to that. He needed to remember to keep getting her word not to kill him each morning. “But today, she committed a crime.”

  Ethan balked. “What?”

  “She gave out stolen goods by accident and then about an hour later, she did it again, knowing full well what she was doing.”

  “And you think that’s because she’s sick?”

  “Doc doesn’t think she’s sick. He thinks that she was sick, but now she’s getting better. She’s becoming human again.”

  “Can we afford to take this chance?”

  Could they afford not to?

  Cal put his hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “We’re heading to Hitus Four. If things look bad, we can drop her off there.”

  “It’s not as safe as here. Here, we’d get a week’s head start before she could call for help.”

  “I know.” And missing this opportunity would probably keep Cal awake at night.

  It wasn’t just his own life on the line anymore, but the crew’s. This would probably be their one and only chance at changing their death sentences to something less…final. If it worked, Great! If it didn’t, they were no worse off than they were now.

  As long as they didn’t get themselves caught in the process.

  This was a chance worth taking.

  He was the captain, but he needed them all to be a part of this decision, even if they only voiced their opinions and Cal made the final call.

  He placed his hand on the entry pad, and the doors to the med bay slid open. Dania sat on a gurney, her eyes on the floor as Doc ran a laser scanner across her forehead. Alanna sat beside her with an arm around the enforcer’s shoulder.

  At this point, it was quite possible that they were all still alive
because of Alanna. She was more than a ship’s navigator. She’d added a softness and sense of direction, and maybe even decorum, to the crew—something they very much needed.

  Dania looked up as the door slid closed behind Cal. Her skin was pale by human standards, but more like someone who’d been on a ship for years without any exposure to natural light, rather than the pearly glow of the enforcers.

  “Feeling any better?” Cal asked.

  “No.” Dania lifted a glass of bright green liquid to her lips.

  Trying to tell her that she looked healthier, when the sight of her own face probably scared her to death, probably wasn’t a good plan. Maybe deflecting to the more prudent issues would be better.

  “How do you feel about what happened today?” Cal asked.

  Dania handed the glass to Alanna and rubbed her temples. “There were so many laws being broken. I started to lose count.”

  She looked down. She seemed to be contemplating, as if it was strange for her to lose count.

  Maybe this was good. Maybe this was more humanity coming out.

  Cal slid his fingers in his pockets. “There were a few things happening that some people might find questionable.” Okay, maybe more than a few things. That didn’t really matter at the moment. “But I’m more interested in how you feel about what you saw.”

  “Confused.” She lowered her hands. “Because I understand why. Those colonists are desperate, and it’s no fault of their own.”

  Her whole body spasmed, as if hit with a massive chill. She held on to the gurney until the episode passed.

  “What you did was illegal, but I can’t say that it wasn’t good.” Dania folded her hands on her lap. “I can’t sit here and judge you for breaking the king’s laws when there was no other way to save those people.”

  Cal, Alanna, and Doc stared at each other with wide eyes.

  That was a huge admission for an enforcer, one he was certain she wouldn’t have been capable of a few days ago.

  Dania sniffed, and a drop of water splashed to the floor tiles. Another tear?

  Her hands covered her face. “I can’t stop thinking of how many people I may have passed judgment on who weren’t really guilty. Or maybe they were guilty, but the degree of their crimes didn’t warrant death.” Her hands dropped to her abdomen. “I-I think I might… My stomach.”

  Alanna jumped off the gurney and handed Dania a bucket. “Here you go.” She rubbed the enforcer’s shoulder. “It’s going to be okay.”

  Doc waved Cal to the side. “We’ve given her some electrolytes, but that’s not going to fix the root cause of all this.”

  Alanna continued to rub Dania’s back. “Try to take in a deep breath, and let it out slowly.”

  Doc initiated a sound barrier, cutting them off from the other side of the room, and called up some information on a computer screen.

  “The count of pathogens in her blood is down to forty-nine and a half percent of where it was when she first got here. They’re declining faster than her body seems to be able to handle.” He turned from the screen and looked at Cal. “They have to be the cause of her inability to see reason when she first got here, and the drastic change to what we see now.”

  And the remorse, all very human things that the Banes somehow had found a way to suppress.

  Doc looked at Dania through the slight haze of the privacy filter. “The sickness, though, isn’t just her being disgusted with herself. The pathogens have become part of her, and now I can tell you with even more certainty that her body has synthesized with them. When those pathogens run out, her internal organs are going to start shutting down one at a time.”

  Well, that didn’t sound good.

  Cal’s stomach churned. He’d thought they’d helped her, but now this. “How long does she have?”

  “It all depends on how long the rest of the pathogens last. I just don’t know.”

  Cal could see the wheels turning in Doc’s mind. A slight hint of a smile twitched at the edge of his lips.

  “Can I take for granted that you’ve figured all this out?”

  Doc snorted. “Of course.”

  “You aren’t thinking of going all Frankenstein and rebuilding her, right?”

  “In a way, yes, but not that extreme.” He called up a few more screens, and data flew by as Doc relayed information like Cal had even a fraction of an idea of what he was talking about.

  Cal held up a hand, stopping him. “Can you just cut to the part about what you need from me?”

  “Time. And some new toys.”

  Across the room, Dania retched into the bucket.

  “It doesn’t look like she has that much time.”

  “She doesn’t. That’s why I need time to think. And I’m going to need supplies—the kind that are probably going to take some creative procurement.”

  “You mean illegal.”

  “Illegal supplies are the most fun to get.”

  So much for heading toward the placid colonies of Hitus. Those kinds of supplies would probably mean heading out to the remote sectors.

  Tears streamed down Dania’s face as Alanna helped wipe the enforcer’s mouth.

  Dania looked so helpless…so normal. Guilt cut into Cal’s gut, knowing that he’d had a part in doing this to her. It was the right thing to do, but knowing she was hurting made him want to punch something.

  Alanna finished wiping Dania’s mouth and tossed the dirty rag into the recycler. “It’s okay. This happens sometimes. It’s no big deal.”

  But it probably was to Dania, if she really couldn’t remember ever being sick.

  Alanna cooed something to the enforcer as she helped Dania lie on the gurney.

  “Make a list,” Cal said. “Whatever you need, I’ll figure out a way to get it.”

  Doc bit his bottom lip as Alanna covered Dania with a thin blanket. “You need to know that she still has a crazy amount of power coursing through her. I mean, nowhere near as much, but she can still kick all our asses without even lifting a finger.”

  “Meaning we’ll have to make it look like we’re trading legally, even if we’re dealing with pirates again.”

  “Bingo.” Doc rubbed the stubble on his chin. “This had to be hard on her. She’s confused and lost. She might decide to kill us all, just to prove to herself that she still can.”

  Great. Just great.

  However, after seeing her cure the child, and how she’d reacted to giving out the food, it was obvious she wasn’t the automaton that had first walked onto their ship. This was still a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get an enforcer on their side. On everyone’s side.

  Cal didn’t have Ty’s overly-optimistic hope that she’d completely clear their names. Cal knew that would never happen, but she’d already admitted that she’d executed people whose crimes probably didn’t warrant death. If she mentioned this to the Banes, would they listen?

  If she could convince them to change the law, Earth’s holdings wouldn’t have to live in fear of the people who were supposed to protect them. This could stop thousands of little boys from losing their fathers for no good reason.

  This was a chance worth taking.

  They just needed to keep Dania on the path to recovery without her finding another reason to execute them all.

  26

  Dania

  Dania clung to her pillow as Alanna brushed back her hair like she was a child. Everything that made Dania what she was told her to shove the woman away for the insolence. Yet she allowed it, over and over, as this woman pet her like a dog.

  She couldn’t remember anyone outside of her sponsor, or maybe Alexander, touching her like they cared. And never this long, and with such pointed attention on only Dania and not themselves.

  Dania could imagine being scolded for allowing herself to look weak, especially in the eyes of these so-called criminals. But she didn’t care. The bigger question was, though, why didn’t she care?

  Espinoza left the room, probably amused by Dania’s weak
ened state, and the doctor returned to her bedside.

  “Is she going to be all right?” Alanna asked.

  He looked into a portable data screen. “Yes. Actually, she’s getting better by the minute. Given time, she might be normal again.”

  “Normal?” Dania whispered.

  He nodded. “What is your earliest memory? Your first recollection as a child?”

  There were many, most dealing with her and Alexander getting into trouble with the queen, and Prince Geron scolding them, and snickering about it when he’d thought they couldn’t see.

  But the earliest memory? “I remember opening my eyes, and bright lights. A white room, and my prince smiling at me. I was afraid, and he held out his arms and held me.”

  “How old were you?”

  Dania eased up on her elbows. “I’m not sure. We talked to each other, so I couldn’t have been too young.”

  “What about your parents?”

  Dania blinked, surprised by the question. “Enforcers don’t have parents like humans do. We have sponsors.”

  The doctor motioned to the data screen. “According to the royal archive records, the king gave you to his son. You don’t remember anything before that?”

  The king—gave her to Geron?

  She shook her head. “My memories are all of my prince.”

  “Huh.” He walked across the room. “I don’t see any sign of your memories being altered or erased altogether. Then again, with what they did to you, the mass alteration of your cellular structure…”

  Dania sat up the rest of the way. Her head spun, and Alanna helped her. “What are you talking about?”

  The doctor’s expression softened. “Your name was Dania Rain. You were the daughter of a merchant before you were sold to the royal family.”

  Her chest tightened. “What?”

  “It went on record as an adoption, but they paid a not-so-small fortune for you.”

  Ridiculous. Just because she could not remember did not mean she’d been sold. “Lies.”