“Helen,” I call out, moving toward her. “Wait. Stop. We need one alive.”
She blinks and looks up at me. Immediately, she drops the ooli back to the ground, and he wheezes at her feet, clutching his thick throat. “Alive?”
“Yes,” I say, pulling her against me. “Are you all right? What were you doing?”
“Protecting Mathiras,” Helen says in that weird, too-calm voice. “I am keeping him safe.”
I cup her face in my hands. Her eyes are still wild, her pupils tiny dots in a sea of pale purple. My heart aches at the sight of her. She’s covered in blood and smears of soot, and I know this has been rough on her. “I’m safe now, Helen. The ship is ours.”
“Ship is ours,” she repeats slowly.
“Yes. I’m safe. Mathiras is safe. You can relax now.”
Helen blinks, as if processing that, and then takes a deep breath. “All right.”
It’s as if a switch turns off inside her. She relaxes a little and nods at me, then pulls out of my grip and moves to the captain’s chair. She sits there and calmly folds her hands in her lap, watching me and waiting.
Bethiah picks the ooli up off the ground, putting a pair of stun cuffs on him. “Who’s left on this ship?” she demands. “Where did your troops go?”
“J-jettisoned—” he coughs out, his color sickly. He looks at Helen. “She killed everyone here on the bridge. We didn’t even have time to react.”
I count bodies. There’s six men here, all of them probably mercenaries that were hired from a nearby station or another pirate crew. No clones, though. “Where did the product go? The clones? And the other guards?”
“Escape pods,” he manages. “The tubes are built in with life-support systems. They can be picked up from deep space.”
Zebah moves toward one of the panels and it lets out a shower of sparks. “Were you destroying the equipment here or was that Helen?”
I glance over at my mate. She looks like a statue, her expression blank, and the protective part of me wants to grab her and haul her back to our ship and take care of her. I move to her side, needing to touch her. Helen doesn’t react, and when I stroke her hair, it’s like she’s not there at all.
I’m worried.
“Mistress…mistress wanted records destroyed…” The ooli coughs again, and then his face transforms into a smile. “You’re too late.”
Bethiah groans dramatically. “Kef me. Why does everything we touch turn into a disaster?”
“Not everything,” Zebah says, and pulls a chip out of her pocket. “While you were waking up Mathiras, I hacked into their systems and gave myself access to their computers. I downloaded a copy of everything on their drives. The mistress can delete all she wants but I’ve got it all saved.”
I stare in surprise. “You did all that?”
Zebah gives me a proud look. “I am an information broker, after all.”
Bethiah surges forward and grabs Zebah by the helmet, clanging the glass of her visor against Zebah’s. “I could kiss you right now.”
“Um…?” Zebah says.
Bethiah just pats the “cheek” of her helmet. “I said I could. Don’t get any ideas. You’re not my type.”
CHAPTER 96
MATHIRAS
The moment I slide out of the med-bay cot, Adiron is hovering over me. “You better now, Matty?”
I sit up and tilt my head back and forth, waiting for the stars to wander through my vision or for my limbs to get heavy again. Nothing happens, and when I stand, I feel like myself again. “I think I’m good.”
He claps a hand on my shoulder. “Thank kef, because we need you.”
Never a good sign. I stretch my arms and legs as I fasten the neck of my bodysuit once more. “How long was I out? Where’s Helen? What’s the status of the ship?”
“You were out a full day due to toxicity, she’s keffed, and it’s keffed, too.” My brother grimaces. “Oh, and we’ve fished twenty-three humans out of deep space so far.” He pauses. “Oh, and they’re all clones.” He thinks a moment longer and then adds, “Oh, and the Scarlet Gaze is here. She’s going to give the derelict a tow back toward Risda III and the people that are awake are going to be staying on the Gaze as guests.” He pauses again. “And Bethiah and Zebah are bickering about—”
I wave a hand, pressing my other to my temple. “Wait. I was out a full day?” I have vague memories of Helen sitting in the captain’s chair on the other ship, of Zebah triumphantly holding up a copy of the ship’s logs…and then everything gets fuzzy. “What the kef?”
“Yeah, they had you so full of knock-out gas that your systems were shutting down. Helen carried you back onto the shuttle and Zebah piloted it back while Bethiah stayed with the ship, and the moment we got you here, I popped you into med-bay. You were out cold.” His mouth pulls into a slight smile. “Reminds me of the time when we drank too much of that praxiian drink, what’s it called…”