Alliances Read online

  "Does it bother you that he doesn't recognize you?" Lizbeth asked.

  "No," Lyssa lied, taking another long drink.

  "Slow down there, champ." Lizbeth took the half-empty bottle from her.

  "Please." Lyssa tried to get to her feet, but found her balance completely off. She tumbled face-first into the ground.

  "Yeah, right," Lizbeth said, grabbing her by the arm and yanking her up with some protestations. "I hope there's nothing on this planet that's going to eat us or else we're screwed."

  "Nah," Lyssa slurred, steadying herself on Lizbeth's arm. "But I would need the help to walk me to the ship bed. Gotta continue the excavation in the morning."

  "Yeah, that's not gonna happen."

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Some hours and a lot of painkillers later, Lyssa was leading Lizbeth through the bowels of the Planetary and System Science Academy station. She had sent a terse message to Dorst asking him to put her in the planet presentation schedule today, but hadn't bothered to check her mini-computer to see if he'd responded. She was more interested in finding her other brother and telling him about everything she'd been up to since she last saw him a few weeks ago.

  Even though her head was still pounding and she was slightly nauseated, she was excited to see the little bugger. She assumed he was swamped with school work, and that was the reason why she hadn't heard from him in weeks (not that she'd noticed since she'd been so busy). Compared to Lizbeth, he was the preferable companion. As obnoxious as he could be, he was as smart as Lyssa, an invaluable second set of eyes on whatever problem she was facing. And she just liked his company, too, as he never got her drunk and asked her probing questions.

  She was still slightly angry at herself for sharing such personal thoughts with Lizbeth, a veritable stranger. She'd already proven she wasn't above blackmail to get what she wanted; who knows how she'd use Lyssa's pain at missing Tauron against her?

  "Where are we going anyway?" Lizbeth asked as they walked down another dormitory hallway, unaware of Lyssa's paranoid thoughts.

  "Gonna go find my brother," Lyssa replied, counting the hallways as she tried to remember the path to Vel's room.

  "Jukin?"

  "No, the one I actually like." Lyssa smiled as she approached the door with his name on it. She turned the knob only to find it locked. Without missing a beat, she whipped out her universal key and jabbed it into the doorknob.

  "Are you allowed to do that?"

  "The answer to that question is normally no," Lyssa said, twisting and turning the key until the door unlocked. With a grin, she swung it open.

  There was active movement coming from the bed, where a guy and a girl were tangled up in each other's arms, soft moans coming from both of them as they writhed together, half-naked in the darkness.

  "Oh, sorry," Lyssa said, blinking and going to close the door.

  Then she realized one half of the twisty, tangled mess was Vel.

  "Lyssa!" Vel gasped, seeing the open door and nearly falling off the top bunk. The girl screamed and hid in the dark corner. He grabbed his pants from atop a nearby lamp, stammering excuses to the girl and to Lyssa.

  "What in Leveman's Vortex is this?!" Lyssa gasped, horrified and hurt and angry all at once.

  "Lyssa, I can explain," Vel said, sliding down the ladder bare chested and quickly retrieving his shirt from the floor.

  "Who in Leveman's are you?" the girl screamed at Lyssa from her perch atop the bed. Lyssa thought she looked like a horse-faced brat.

  "N-no, Isla, it's my s-sister," Vel said, slipping his shirt on and trying to calm the situation before it got worse.

  "So this is why you couldn’t come out with me?" Lyssa seethed, as Vel struggled to compose himself. "You're screwing some whore?"

  "HEY!" the girl screamed.

  "Can we continue this outside?" Vel pleaded, brushing his hair off of his flushed face. "Please?"

  "You’ve got something, right here," Lizbeth said to Vel, putting her hand on her own neck to demonstrate as Vel pushed them out of the room and into the hallway.

  "Who is that girl and how long have you been banging her?" Lyssa bellowed, sticking her finger in Vel's chest as the door shut behind them.

  "Banging? Really Lyssa, she’s my girlfriend," Vel said, adjusting his shirt nervously as two students walked by, giving them an odd glance. "We've been seeing each other since the start of the term."

  "Y-you have?" Lyssa said, her eyes widening. "And that's why you didn't want to come hang out with me?"

  "Lyssa, come on," Vel pleaded.

  "You said it was because you didn't want to be a pirate!" Lyssa said, her voice rising to whining levels. "You said it was because—"

  "Keep your voice down," Vel said calmly. "Yes, partially because I have a tough semester, and partially because I do actually see myself becoming a scientist one day, but I mean…I'm allowed to have a girlfriend."

  "That's translation for: he wanted to get some action," Lizbeth offered, unable to keep an amused smile off of her face.

  "But why did you lie to me?" Lyssa asked.

  "I didn't want to, Lyssa, but you're always so touchy—"

  "I am not touchy!" Lyssa screamed, her words echoing in the hallway.

  "I was wrong to not tell you about Isla, and I'm sorry. But I didn't want you to freak out about it, and Sage said—"

  Lyssa's face fell. "You've been talking to Sage?"

  "He told me he'd keep you company," Vel said quickly, not realizing that he was making the situation worse. "I was worried about you being alone on your ship without me. You were already so upset when I went back to school."

  "I was not upset."

  "You called me an hour after you dropped me off," Vel said gently.

  Lyssa mumbled something about never having done that and that he could get sucked.

  "I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth, Lyss," Vel said, taking her hand. "I truly am. I was going to tell you the next time I came out with you, but I kept having projects assigned on the weekends, and then you didn't show up for a couple of weeks and—"

  "And you were too busy screwing your whore," Lyssa grumbled.

  "Seriously, she's my girlfriend, and if you call her a whore again, I will deck you," Vel smiled, but there was an edge in his voice.

  "I would love to see you try, seeing as I'm the one who taught you how to throw a punch!"

  "Okay, okay," Lizbeth said, stepping between them. "Lyssa, you're overreacting."

  "What?!" Lyssa gasped. "He's the one who—"

  "And he's right; you are touchy."

  Vel smiled thankfully as Lyssa's withering glare turned on Lizbeth, who didn't seem nearly as afraid of it as Vel was.

  "Stay out of this," Lyssa snapped.

  "How about," Lizbeth said, threading her arm through Lyssa's and Vel's and turning to walk down the hall. "The three of us get a bite to eat and calm down, and we can all catch up on what or who we've been doing." She winked at Vel.

  "I'm still angry with you," Lyssa muttered to Vel, ripping her arm out of Lizbeth's and folding it across her chest immaturely.

  "He'll survive," Lizbeth retorted.

  ***

  Vel spent the entire lunch talking about his new girlfriend, but Lyssa refused to listen, mumbling comments under her breath. Lizbeth, however, was engrossed in the conversation, and even provided some pointers on dates and things to buy her, with underhanded digs at the sullen, brooding member of the trio. After lunch, they traipsed back to her lab so Lyssa could put together her planet presentation. Naturally, the conversation turned to Lizbeth's investigation. Vel was most interested in their adventures, staying silent until the mention of Razia's outfit at the pirate meeting.

  "So wait a minute, you wore a miniskirt?" Vel laughed, his eyes nearly falling out of his head.

  "And she looked hot in it too," Lizbeth added.

  "Get sucked," Lyssa said, as Vel cackled happily.

  "So this meeting was attended by everyone—runners, top
pirates," Lizbeth said, "and they basically confirmed all of my suspicions up until that point. They were paying pirates to target specific ships so the cargo could be re-sold, except none of the pirates that I was tracking were even there."

  "The deal was only good until the election," Lyssa interrupted, typing in a comment about the water quality that may or may not have been entirely truthful. "The two guys who led the meeting were supporters of General State and said that the deal would be over once the administration changed."

  "He is ahead in the polls," Vel noted casually.

  "After that, we followed a lead to see if the pirates have been dropping off cargo to S-6642," Lizbeth continued. "There was a contract to deliver goods to a nearby military-owned arsenal, but one of the transporters was delivering his cargo directly to S-6642. So in a stroke of genius, your sister was able to figure out a way to get us onto the planet."

  "Yeah, remember that awful woman that offered me a job last year?" Lyssa replied to Vel. "She got hired by a planetary services company that owns that planet. So I went on a job interview." She paused, frowning. "I never heard back from her either."

  "The planet was completely empty," Lizbeth said. "Except for one building. So we realized that Delmur couldn't have been delivering his cargo to S-6642, but then we saw a diner nearby—"

  "Who's Delmur?" Vel asked.

  "The guy I was hunting when I left you on that planet," Lyssa said nonchalantly. "Remember? You only keep reminding me every second you can."

  "Well, I mean, you did leave me without food or water, and I did have to go to the hospital," Vel said. "And me being in the hospital did result in that whole business with the U-POL…"

  "Are you going to let me tell him or are you two going to keep interrupting?" Lizbeth snapped. "After the diner, we found a tall drink of water named Royden Relleck"—Lyssa snorted—"and he took us all the way to S-864. Turns out he was transporting guns."

  "Guns?" Vel blinked. "But pirates don't use guns?"

  "He was transporting them for somebody else," Lyssa said, "which is why I'm now even more concerned. Especially considering one of the two guys at the pirate meeting was also at the warehouse on S-864. His company was providing security, I think."

  "Harman," Lizbeth said, sitting back. "But I had so much more, on my laptop that was stolen. I mean, Contestant's pirates have been hijacking government ships for months now, I had all of the case reports where pirates had specifically hit ships owned by certain companies—"

  "Salazar," Lyssa said, looking back at Lizbeth suddenly. "Back in your office, I read a case report from a few months ago where Relleck hijacked a ship owned by Salazar. It was the same company that owned the ship he stole the other day." She unhooked her mini-computer and tossed it to Lizbeth. "Go look it up. Guy's name was Angelino Moses."

  "Thank Leveman's Vortex for that steel-trap mind of yours," Lizbeth grinned to Vel who was shaking his head.

  "So what's next for you two?"

  "You're wrong, Lyss," Lizbeth said, cutting Vel off with a puzzled tone.

  "What?" Lyssa said, turning around on her chair. "Wrong about what?"

  "It says here the company he worked for is called Gabi—not Salazar."

  "That's not right," Lyssa said, getting up and walking over to take her mini-computer.

  "That's not the same company that I saw," Lyssa said, her brows furrowed. "I remember specifically it was Salazar, because I saw the same one on your desk."

  "Can't be," Lizbeth said. "Universal Bank transactions are always right."

  "No, I'm always right," Lyssa said, sitting back down at the computer, perplexed.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by impatient rapping on her glass lab door. Dorst stood outside with his usual frown. Lyssa pushed aside her thoughts and walked over to the door, cracking it only a hair.

  "Can I help you?" she drawled with an overly dramatic look on her face.

  "Let him in, Lyssa," Vel snapped from behind her. "Don't be rude."

  She made a huge show of rolling her eyes and opened the sliding glass door all the way, allowing Dorst to walk into the laboratory. She slumped back into her chair and made her best attempt to ignore him.

  "Yes, well, thank you, Vel," Dorst said, pausing to look at Lizbeth curiously. "Who are you?"

  "None of your business," Lyssa replied, adding more data points to her presentation. "Did you stick me in the planet line up today or what?"

  "No, I didn't," Dorst said sternly. "You still haven't completed any of your license renewals, nor had your booster shots, and you've missed five scheduled career appointments with me."

  "And I still don't care," Lyssa replied. "Put me in the line-up."

  "Not until you at least get your booster shots," Dorst growled back. "You are in danger of infecting this entire station."

  "Ew, really?" Lizbeth said, making a face.

  "I'm sorry, who are you?" Dorst asked.

  "Person I'm working on a side project with," Lyssa said, cutting of Lizbeth before she could say anything. "Lizbeth, this is my idiot supervisor, Dorst."

  "And your older brother," Dorst insisted.

  "Oh, really? Admitting that now?" Lyssa drawled sarcastically. "Here I thought I was disowned. That's what Jukin said anyways."

  "When did you go see Jukin?" Dorst asked.

  "When I found out he stole my inheritance." Lyssa was angry at Jukin on so many levels. Stealing her inheritance was a pittance compared to the burning hatred she felt when she thought about Tauron. Even that paled in comparison to how she felt when Jukin didn't even recognize her. Even after seeing Lyssa in his office, and then Razia a few weeks later, he failed to make the connection.

  And yet, her anger turned to curiosity as she pondered how he was uninterested in hearing Lizbeth's evidence on the conspiracy. When they saw him on S-864, he seemed almost smug, and he had mentioned that pirates wouldn't have their protections for much longer. Hope sprung eternal, she supposed, but it was odd how confident he felt that whatever stupid plan he was concocting was going to work.

  "He…he stole your inheritance?" Dorst gaped, bringing her thoughts back into the room. "But how? That money was earmarked for you only."

  "Being Captain of the Special Forces has its perks, I guess," Lyssa said, purposefully typing more in her presentation.

  "I'm sorry," Dorst whispered. "Do you need money? I can transfer some of mine—"

  "I wouldn't if you'd just put me in the damned planet line up today!" Lyssa scowled, completely ignoring his overture.

  "Fine," Dorst said, pulling his own mini-computer own of his pocket and typing into it. "You're in for today. Now when can I expect you to complete your professional development plan?"

  "When I feel like it," Lyssa said with an overabundance of sass. "I've got more important things to worry about right now."

  "I'll try to convince her," Vel spoke up.

  Dorst looked appreciative. "Thanks, Vel. How's your girlfriend doing?"

  Lyssa's hand thunked on the desk and she spun around in her chair. "So he knows?"

  "Well, I mean, he's here and…"

  "God in Leveman's Vortex, does everyone know but me?"

  "Well, he did bring her home last weekend to meet the family," Dorst said, ignoring Vel's frantic movements to stop talking.

  "Oh," Lyssa said, looking at Vel. "You went back to the Manor last weekend?"

  Vel sighed loudly. "Yes, but I promise you, I—"

  "You know what? We're fighting," Lyssa sneered at Vel before turning back around to furiously type at her computer.

  "What does that mean?" Dorst asked, glancing between Vel and Lizbeth.

  "Normally it means that she's not going to talk to me for two or three days," Vel said, sounding annoyed. "Then she'll pout for a while, throwing me mean glances and finally forgive me by the fourth or fifth day. Usually by the sixth she'll have forgotten—"

  He wasn't able to finish that thought as a dusty old microscope went whizzing by his head.

 
***

  "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were a real scientist and not a spoiled three-year-old," Lizbeth said, meeting Lyssa on the side of the stage after her presentation.

  "Would you like to see my degree?" Lyssa replied, giving her a look as they walked into the buyers' room together. The linoleum was peeling in the corners of the room, and there were marks where chairs had been scraped across the floor. It had that same funny musty smell of too much air conditioning in a small space.

  "So this is where the magic happens, huh?" Lizbeth asked, eyeing the walls. "Geez, you'd think they would spring some money to update the decor in here."

  "Why would they do that when there's pollination pattern studies to fund?" Lyssa replied as planet buyers came trickling into the room.

  "So how much do you think you'll get?"

  "This planet should net me enough credits to cover my expenses for a few weeks," Lyssa said, before adding with a smirk, "as long as I don't leave my ship in an expensive dock for three days again."

  Lyssa intended for that barb to go to Lizbeth, but the latter had her eyes set on a prospector who had just walked into the room. The devilishly handsome planet buyer from Antica's old company took a seat in the back of the room, his dark grey suit clinging to his frame, his hair lazily falling into his eyes.

  "Yummy," Lizbeth purred. "I'd go to school to study that attractive specimen right there…"

  Lyssa looked away, hoping that he wouldn't notice her fawning again. However, the handsome man was ignoring Lyssa in favor of Lizbeth, eyeing her with the same type of appraising look that Lizbeth was giving him. Lyssa shoved down the jealous feelings; who wouldn't choose Lizbeth over her anyway?