Ghost in the Machine (Corwint Central Agent Files) Read online

  He reached for his com panel, but stopped. “Oh, yes, I almost forgot. One more bit of advice cousin, for family’s sake. If we do cross paths again and you are still foolishly involved with Central, I may not be able to be as lenient, so I seriously recommend a change in career. Leave him with that thought, would you dearest? Also, you needn’t bother going to Entarsk. I’m afraid all you will find is an old food factory with nothing beneath it but a sewer system.”

  “But the plague on Ventaris; we need that vaccine!” Hank finally found his voice again.

  “What plague?” Jarren laughed as he cut the com-line.

  The communication terminated and the bridge was plunged into a heavy silence. Orynn took in several deep breaths, but her heart felt as if it were about to explode from her chest at any moment. He had come so much sooner than she had expected. She knew this could never last, despite how much she tried to fool herself into believing it were possible, but she thought she would be allowed more time. He had finally beaten her. After almost two decades of running from him, he had caught her.

  “This has been his plan from the very beginning. The false plague. The pressure from the Council about your termination. The misinformation to Grohin. I have become too predictable and it was all a ruse to get to me.” She turned to Hank, but he still wouldn’t look at her. “He must have someone on the inside, perhaps even someone on the Council. You must find out who it is. He knew if Jehdra was pushed enough, she would get desperate and I would be placed out in the open. You are all in danger until you find out who the traitor is.”

  Hank gave only a small nod, but kept his eyes forward. “Hank, I am so sorry. There is more to this, but I does not excuse what did happen. Your father was a good man and I destroyed him.”

  “That’s not true.” Ethan took her shoulders back into his hands. “He chose that life, not you.”

  “It does not matter!” Orynn lost control of her tears again she looked into the sapphires of his eyes. “None of it matters! It does not even matter how sorry I am! Jarren is right; it will never be enough!”

  “I say we make a run for it.” Brom crossed his arms. “I don’t give a shit about what that Xen’dari cocksucker let on about all that stuff. You’re still a member of this crew, and we don’t just hand people over.”

  Orynn blinked and turned around to him. “But Brom…”

  “Yeah, fuck him.” Tara crossed her arms too. “We’ll all have to have a big chat, if we survive this, but I say we shove a few photon grenades up his ass and see if Hank’s piloting is really as good as he boasts.”

  “Hank, please.” Orynn touched his shoulder and he finally looked at her. There was the subtle sign of tears in his eyes as he surveyed her face. He really did look so much like his father. “Hankarron, please.”

  He could see her fear, but even more he could see her regret and how much she cared for everyone she had put at risk. With a slow nod, he understood her heart. “Zera, lower the shield and prepare for docking.”

  “Command Confirmed.”

  “Thank you.” Orynn let a soft smile surface through her sadness.

  “No!” Ethan shot an angry glare at Hank, but Orynn reached up and, cupping his cheek, she pulled his attention to her. His voice quieted as his anger died at the strength of his rising feeling of helplessness. “No, please! Let us fight for you, Velstrae. Let us stand together and fight!”

  Orynn sniffled and swallowed back her tears as his own tears slid against her hand. “I will not have you die for me. You have given me more in the past week than I have had in my entire lifetime. I have now known trust and friendship, and I have now known love. Those are three things that a Vesparian is never meant to have, but I have had them, and I will carry them with me, always, Velstrae.”

  “This isn’t right!” Tara’s tough exterior had crumbled and she was now crying into Brom’s shoulder

  “I will find a way.” Ethan leaned his forehead against his wife’s as a rare sob shuddered his body. “I will come and find you. I swear it. I love you, and I swear that you will not be forgotten.”

  “I love you, always, Ethan.” Orynn smiled and kissed her husband. The connection broke into his system with an ease that she knew surprised him as he tried to fight against her. As her connection with his system deepened beyond his control, her aura gently caressed the others on the bridge and slid into their minds. After all that they had given to her, she was happy to be able to do this for them. They would not feel the burden of her absence. Her mother had been right again.

  Rule Six – Leave no trace, and you will leave no pain behind you.

  Though she must be forgotten, she would never forget them. For the short amount of time that she expected Jarren to let her live, she would hold on to and cherish each memory. Hank’s honest smile, Tara’s strong kindness and Brom’s gentle heart. Ethan’s unyielding love.

  The connection and her aura both faltered as his name filled her mind, but she held fast to her resolve. This was the only way to save him. This was the only way to save them all. With a last gentle nudge from her aura, she placed Brom, Tara and Hank back into their chairs on the bridge and coaxed their minds into a peaceful sleep. She opened her eyes and her heart cried out in anguish at the sight of Ethan’s cold eyes and their lack of recognition as they looked at her.

  “You…” Orynn paused and swallowed the sob in her throat. “You will return to your station and complete the docking. Once the docking is complete, you will delete all memory of the Xen’dari encounter and set a course back to Corwint. You will tell the Director that you found nothing on Entarsk and that you believe the plague was a ruse from a possible traitor on the Council who was seeking to set Hankarron up for failure. If she ever asks you about a woman named Orynn, you will tell her that I… that such a woman does not exist. Confirm.”

  “Command confirmed.” Ethan let go of her shoulders and walked away, disappearing into his station and leaving her without a second glance.

  “Goodbye, Velstrae.” Orynn whispered to herself and exited the bridge before her resolve gave in to the last dying beat of her heart.

  Epilogue - Inkaryk

  She was his. Over twenty years of research, training, planning and crawling his way up the ranks of the Xen’dari chain of command and she was finally his. His right eye twitched as a mix of emotions filled his mind and reverberated off of his implants. The Reux’gatxs had been just one of the challenges he had overcome in his journey to get her back. He may have been just a five-year-old child to her, but she had made a promise to him and then she had abandoned him. Now, he was going to hold her to that promise and make her see that her heart belonged to him just as much as his had always belonged to her.

  The death of his father had caused a deep chasm in his spirit, that much was certain, but it had not nearly destroyed him as much as her abandonment. He knew his father had been a traitor. He knew that his father had killed Aunt Zera and ripped his family’s world apart, and he knew that at the heart of everything there had been Orynn. She had reached into the chaotic churning sea surrounding him and pulled him to the surface. Her light and warmth had invaded his soul and breathed life back into him. She had been innocent of everything that happened, except in her decision to leave him alone in the dark aftermath that followed.

  They tore him from the only world he had known as they forced him into a new family on a new planet, and they dragged him kicking and screaming through every painful treatment experiment one could imagine. In his childish mind, he had held out hope that she would come for him and save him from what they were doing. He had foolishly clung onto the dream that she had not completely abandoned him, and his heart had refused to let go of the idea that she loved him. She said she would always be there for him, but she had lied.

  Growing into a man, he had realized that waiting for her to come back for him had been pointless. He would have to become a man worthy of the challenge of capturing a creature such as she was, and he would have to become a man worth
y of taking the heart she would not give to him willingly. It had been a long road, but it had been worth every single steep and bloody step. Now, he was respected and feared throughout the Empire. Now, he was a man strong and cunning. Now, he was a man who had caught his prey, and he would let no one take her from him again.

  She was his Volkaryk and he was her Inkaryk. He would hold onto her, even if it burned her to ash.

  “The Vesparian has been secured aboard the Inkaryk, my Master. She had with her only a small duffle bag, but her thoughts revealed it was all she had taken on board the Zera.” Tavia bowed her head as Jarren approached her as she stood in the large doorway to the command ship’s hangar.

  “Wonderful.” Jarren patted Tavia on the head lightly and continued walking past her. As he made his way to his personal ship, she fell instep automatically in her normal position one step behind to his right. “She gave no resistance?”

  “None, my Master. She placed the collar around her throat and the light has become green. I could tell from her mind that it is causing her pain.”

  Jarren frowned slightly. “Will that pain last?”

  “I do not know, my Master.” Tavia bowed her head. “I’m sorry if this displeases you.”

  He waved a hand dismissively and headed up the loading ramp of the Inkaryk, his personal cruiser which was comparable in size and power to the Zera. Manned by his personally selected and trained set of Xen’dari soldiers, it would provide him the anonymity and protection he desired while he tied up some loose ends and settled his Volkaryk somewhere safe.

  He knew that the Xen’dari Empire would only let him keep his Vesparian to himself for so long, but the respect and standing he had amongst the fleet would keep them at bay for a time. They feared the loyalty he had gained from those in the fleet more than he feared any repercussions from the Empire’s fat fucking Empress Xora or its figurehead government. Xen’dari was ruled by its fleet and its fleet answered to him.

  As the loading ramp closed behind them, he stopped and turned back to Tavia. “What of the Zera’s crew and my cousin? Did she do what I asked of her?”

  Tavia nodded. “Yes, my Master. I asked her if they would remember her, including the Mecha, and I could hear the truth of her answer when she said that they would not. I sensed the honesty with her answer, as well as a great sadness. However…”

  “However, what?”

  “Forgive me, my Master, but I sought to ensure your safety. I felt that she was trying to hide something from me, so I dove deeper into her mind, even though you had asked me not too.” Tavia bowed her head with a slight fear at the possible repercussions.

  “And what did you find?”

  “At first, I was not certain, as her mind is strong, my Master. But I asked her if any others may know of her and come looking for her. She lied and said no, but I pushed her further. I think it may have caused her pain, and I am sorry for that my Master, but I was right. She was not being honest. I retrieved from her a name.”

  Jarren clenched his fist. “And what is the name?”

  “Jehdra, my Master.”

  “Ah yes.” He nodded and relaxed. “That is alright. I already knew of Jehdra, my pet. Not to worry, she is being looked after.” He sighed and patted her head. “You have done well, and I thank you for thinking of my safety.”

  She raised her black eyes back up and smiled. “It is my humble wish to serve you, my Master.”

  He growled and backhanded her. She hit against the wall with a small trickle of blood from her lip as he stood over her. “But if you ever cause her pain again, I will kill you. Is that understood?”

  Tavia regained her footing and bowed deeply. “Yes, my Master.”

  He placed his hand on her head and waited for his anger to subside. The twitch in his right eye stuttered. “Good, my pet. I would hate to lose you.”

  Lowering his hand, he resumed his strong strides down the corridor of his ship. A soldier coming from the opposite direction stopped, flattened against the wall and saluted Jarren by placing his fist over his heart. Jarren gave the man a curt nod as he passed. These soldiers, like the Xen’dari fleet and the Trexen behind him, were all his pets.

  As well they should be, after all that I have sacrificed of myself for them.

  “She has been placed in my quarters?”

  “Yes, my Master.”

  “Good. You will go to the bridge and oversee the departure. Set a course for my estate and ensure I am not disturbed. My dearest and I have thirty-five years of catching up to do.”

  He departed from Tavia and turned down the secured corridor to his quarters. None would ever dare to double cross him, but too much precaution was a never poor choice. Leaning down into the ocular scanner, the first door opened and then sealed behind him as he walked the four steps to the next door. Entering his access code into the door panel, it opened and he slipped inside the dark room beyond.

  “Lights.”

  The perimeter of the ceiling illuminated with the soft blue hue of moon-glow lighting which was phased at a variance specifically attuned to not interfere with his implants. As his eyes adjusted, he drew in a slow breath at the sight of her kneeling on the floor against the far wall. Her head was lowered and her limbs were trembling. If it was out of pain or fear, he could not tell. Truthfully, his heart wanted her to be experiencing neither.

  His heart, however, had long been but a whisper in his mind. It was weak and he was not a man who tolerated weakness. Removing the confining jacket of his uniform and setting it on the back of a chair, he kept his eyes on her bowed head as the lighting caused her white tresses to glow like a halo around her. Running a hand through his dark brown hair, he approached her crouching figure and stood over her. When his shadow cast itself across her shivering body, she finally lifted her eyes up to him.

  Being so close to her again and seeing the silver irises of her eyes penetrating into his soul, he was unable to keep the stern look on his face. The solid line of his jaw softened and the muscles of his arms flexed with their desire to hold her. When she offered him a small smile, he lost his strength and collapsed to his knees in front of her. His arms embraced her as the tears fell from his eyes.

  “My dearest Volkaryk, I have caught you at last.”

  Corwint Central Agent Files Book 2:

  Whispers from Exile

  Chapter 1

  Even when he slept, he was awake.

  The mind of a Mechatronic Automaton wasn’t prone to going offline. At least not completely. He often wondered if the mental activities that occurred while he was in a state of sleep was akin to the dreaming minds of Organics. He, however, never dreamed of walks on the beach or giving speeches in the nude. Unlike their dreams, his thought processes were, what he liked to boast, much more logical. He could spend an entire recharge session working on a calculation needed for improving the intake ratio of their ship’s engine. It seemed, to him at least, to be a much better use of time than thinking about some imagined scenario that would, probability speaking, never happen.

  Velstrae!

  Ethan’s sapphire blue eyes snapped open and refocused on the dimly lit room of his workstation on board the Zera. The muscles of his face contorted and flexed as he blinked several times to recalibrate his bearings. That strange word hung in the silence of the room as he took a deep breath into his cooling system. Reaching up to his left ear, he unplugged the cable that connected him to the Zera’s mainframe and sat up straight in his chair. The memory of the word faded, but the strange heavy feeling in his chest remained.

  This had been his second charge cycle since they departed Entarsk empty handed, and it was the second time his mind had awoken to that odd word being whispered into his ears. It was not a word or language he had heard before, and it was starting to cause him some concern. The first time it happened, he thought to run a diagnostic on Zera’s systems when they returned to Corwint. Now, he was considering on submitting himself to Central’s Mechatronics team for evaluation.


  He wondered if perhaps it was just the stress of having to return to Director Szina without the intel for the plague on Ventaris they had been sent to retrieve, or the possibility that someone on the Council had set them up for failure. Still, hearing things was something Organics did. When a Mecha started to hear things, it meant there was something wrong with its system. Despite his loathing resentment of the Central Mechatronics team, as every time he went to see them they pestered him non-stop for a copy of his schematics, he knew it was better to be safe than sorry. The crew of the Zera, his friends, depended on him to be in perfect working order.

  Checking the time on the console in front of him, he stood from his chair and headed out of his workstation. The bridge was empty and Zera was on autopilot, heading through the edge of Tharsan space on its way back to Corwint. They were still only running at half speed, but he had done all he could to repair the deflector array after the last run in with those T’jaros pirates. They still weren’t sure what those damn pirates had been after, but they had been no real match for the Zera. Hank figured that they were just desperate, or drugged up out of their minds, or both.

  Leaving the empty bridge behind, he made his way down corridor C towards the small kitchen where he knew the crew of the Zera would be gathering at this early hour. Rounding the bend in the corridor, his steps slowed as the ship’s engineer, Tara Flint, came into view. She was standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at the door across from her. She seemed to be deep in thought as she idly ran her fingers through her brunette ponytail that was draped over one shoulder. He stopped next to her and turned to face the door. It was a room they used for the guests they sometimes took on board.

  C-6