Wanderer - Deception

Chapter 1

1

The first thing Kaira noticed was the pain. It varied between dull throbs and knife sharp intensity, but it was constantly there. That wasn’t right. Not the fact she was in pain. Something else. But her thoughts were sluggish, her memories fragmented.

Time was passing. She had no idea how much, but she was aware there were gaps between her lucid moments. They felt like long gaps, and she was sure there had been many of them.

Someone was there with her. Some of the time. Not always. Another indication time was passing. She didn't know who. Sometimes she heard a voice, but she couldn't make out the words. Other times she’d feel a hand on her arm, or holding her hand.

But before she could ever work out who it was, or try to understand what they were saying, the sea of pain dragged her under again, sending her into unconsciousness.

Kaira groaned as awareness returned, properly this time. She tried to move, which made her groan a lot louder. She felt sore everywhere. Battered to the depths of her bones. Yet she felt different somehow.

Her thoughts, her memories, were fragmented, but it felt as if a different form of pain was missing. One she’d been suffering from constantly. She couldn’t remember what it was, she was just aware that it was gone.

She lay still, not wanting to try moving again, and took in her surroundings through eyes squinted almost shut against the brightness. She was in a relatively small room, or one that felt small because it was packed with medical equipment. Much of it seemed to be hooked up to her.

Lying still was easy. She didn't feel like moving. She didn’t feel like doing anything. And while her mind was working, it was far from clear. So she lay there and tried to piece together what had happened.

She remembered travelling with Tarkus, convincing him to help her travel to Crasant where her brother was being delivered after the ship he was on was taken by slavers. That had all been a lie, of course. She had no brother. She’d been under orders to get Tarkus to Crasant. Orders tied to her life.

Failure would have meant dying. Those she'd worked for had injected her with technology designed to rip her body apart once a deadline was reached. That had been their way of forcing her to do what they wanted.

Tarkus had taken her to Crasant with no idea of her deception. Once there, Kaira had betrayed him. Led him into the hands of those who wanted him, at which point she’d realised they’d lied to her once again. They'd told her they wanted Tarkus to perform a particular job for them, to use his highly prized abilities to navigate faster routes through jump space for a special mission.

But instead they’d got her to slap a collar on him which they could use to torture him if he didn't do as they asked, and they’d proceeded to use it immediately to prove their point. They’d also made it clear this was no one-off event. They wanted Tarkus for good.

Kaira had then been led away to be cured. On the way they’d injected something to accelerate the devices in her body, which they said was necessary to be sure they could remove them all. But Kaira had a change of heart, guilt over what she’d led Tarkus into overcoming her.

She’d grabbed the gun from her escort, slugged him over the head, then used the gun to free Tarkus. Even though that meant guaranteeing her own imminent and painful death.

It was a rescue attempt which soon became bogged down, though Tarkus did manage to remove the collar. They’d nearly reached the Glimmer but had been pinned down by fire with no way to reach the ship. Kaira was in agony by that point, her awareness flickering in and out, but she had some memories. Memories which seemed to make no sense.

She was sure she remembered Tarkus’s ship, the Glimmer, lifting off and opening fire despite there being no one aboard to fly it. And Tarkus making some comment about those who were attacking having upset his long dead wife.

Memories which couldn’t be right. Maybe it had all just been a fever dream. Well, not all of it. She was sure about the devices in her body having been activated. The agony had been too intense to have come from her imagination. That meant she should be dead.

Yet here she was. She had a nasty suspicion she was in the hands of her former employers. As far as she knew, they were the only ones who could possibly have saved her. That thought made her stomach lurch. They’d been far from happy with her betrayal and more than ready to see her die. If they were keeping her alive, it couldn’t possibly be for a reason she’d consider good.

Before she could get too much further down that line of thought, she heard the door open. Somebody stepped into the room.

She felt frozen in place, dreading confirmation that those she’d worked for had her. Then a voice spoke. A familiar voice. A safe voice. A voice she didn’t have to be scared of. Tarkus’s voice!

“You’re finally awake!” he said. “I was starting to think I’d have to bring an ultra-strong cup of coffee down here and wave it under your nose.”

Kaira opened her mouth to reply, but barely managed a croak. Even that ripped at her throat.

“Hold on,” said Tarkus. “You’ve been out of it for quite a while. Let me get you some water.”

He moved closer, coming into her line of sight. She was surprised to see he didn’t look any the worse for wear after the ordeal he’d been through. Maybe a little more tired, but other than that the same old Tarkus.

He eased a squeeze bulb of water to her lips and slowly dribbled water into her mouth. Kaira hadn’t realised quite how dry her mouth and throat were until the cool water flowed over them. She let out a sigh and Tarkus took the bulb away.

“How does that feel?” he asked.

“Better,” she managed to say. Her voice sounded strange to her, but she could at least speak now.

“You had me worried there for a long time. The devices inside you are really nasty.”

“But you managed to deactivate them?”

His face fell and he shook his head.

“No. This is a pretty advanced set of medical equipment, but even it can’t do that. I’ve managed to slow down the devices, to send them into retreat for now, but they aren’t gone. What I’ve done won’t last forever, or even for long. Those devices are designed to do their job no matter what, to adapt to anything which blocks them. They’re damn good at it.”

Kaira’s heart sank, but she smiled anyway.

“This is still more time than I should have had. Thank you.”

“Stop that!” said Tarkus. “We’re not giving up! We just don’t have a solution. Yet!”

Kaira’s heart sank again, despite what Tarkus had said, as the implications hit home.

“If we don’t find a cure I’ll have to go through all that again?”

“Not if I have anything to do with it!” Tarkus said, his voice firm. “We’ll stop that from happening.”

“How?”

“We know there’s a cure. We just need to find it. The best place to start is with the people who sell devices like that. That’s where we’re heading now, to a station which has a large trade in items which are illegal almost everywhere else. Hell, half the things they sell are even illegal there, but the authorities turn a blind eye because of the money it brings in. We find someone who’s selling the devices. They should also have the cure.”

“That doesn’t sound like a very safe place to go.”

“Not the safest, but less dangerous than you might imagine. It’s all about money. Those who run the station don’t like anything which interferes with them making a profit.

“But still, you’re off risking your neck for me. Again!”

“It does seem to be becoming a habit, doesn’t it? I’m certainly not stuck in a boring rut now!”

Kaira opened her mouth to tell him how much she appreciated him still helping her, and more importantly how sorry she was for having betrayed him. But the words choked in her mouth, refusing to come out. Shame over what she had done flooded through her. What words could she possibly use to make up for what she’d done? Or even just to express how truly sorry she was.

“You need to rest,” said Tarkus, and the moment was gone. “I’m afraid you’ll be doing a lot of resting. That helps the med unit to keep you stable, and allows your body to recover from the trauma.”

He adjusted some controls and tiredness washed over Kaira before she could ask him for the details of the trauma, of exactly what the devices had done to her body. Her eyes flickered, closed, and awareness slipped away.