Double Life Read online

  "He...uh...didn't send you for anything else, did he?" Delmur said, eyeing her up and down.

  "Get sucked into Leveman's and die," she growled, giving him the meanest glare she could muster.

  "Ah, well. In that case, Mabel, I will take that pie to go."

  "Here you are, Fred. See you next time," the waitress said.

  And with that, he took his box and his coffee in a to-go cup, and walked out the door.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Lyssa sat on her ship, speeding back to the planet where she had left her intern, numb with shock and the realization all of her dreams had just gone up in smoke.

  There was no way Dissident was going to let her stay in the web.

  When she wasn’t in the web, she couldn’t be a bounty hunter.

  If she couldn’t be a bounty hunter, she would have to be Lyssa forever.

  She caught her reflection in the front glass. She looked like Razia—hair down, black shirt, cargo pants. But the face was all Lyssa—defeated, miserable, and giving in.

  She'd been going back and forth in her mind, wondering if there was anything she could possibly do to remain in the pirate web—even so far as taking Sage up on his offer. Desperate times, and all.

  Then again, who was she fooling?

  She was nothing but a joke. A chocolate-fetching joke. No matter what she did, or how hard she worked, she was never going to be good enough for them.

  "This is your punishment for being a lying, deceitful child."

  She swallowed, forcing herself to keep it together. She couldn’t think about that now.

  Besides, she had bigger issues to deal with. Namely her intern, who she'd left all alone on a planet for over three days. The next stop was undoubtably being hauled in front of a disciplinary committee.

  Served her right, she supposed. If she was lucky, perhaps she would get suspended. If she wasn’t so lucky…she might be looking at losing two jobs in the same week.

  As she got closer to the planet, she finally gathered enough courage to make the call.

  She pulled up her video call application and saw all the calls to Sage, to Dissident. Even a few to Harms. All the people she no longer had in her life, who she'd probably never talk to again.

  It was weird to think that just a few days before, everything had been swimmingly for her. She looked at the call history, her gaze lingering on the last call, from Sage, where he'd so obnoxiously helped her find Delmur.

  What a waste.

  Pushing those self-pitying thoughts out of her head, she called Vel’s mini-computer.

  The call rang for a while, but he didn’t answer. Annoyed, she immediately redialed.

  And then, very faintly, she heard a beeping sound.

  Leaving the video call ringing, she followed the sound to the back of the ship, down her ladder to the lower level, through to her bedroom, where Vel’s bag had been neatly placed next to her bathroom.

  She nervously reached into the bag and pulled out his beeping mini-computer.

  Without it, he had no way of calling for help. So for all she knew, he was dying somewhere.

  But, more importantly, without his communicator, she had no way of locating him on the big, huge, giant planet he was currently stuck on.

  "Uh oh," she whispered.

  ***

  "Shit, shit, shit, shit," she spat, pushing leaves and branches out of the way. "VEL!"

  When she got close enough to pick up readings on the planet, she began scanning every corner of the planet her sensors could reach for any sign of large animals—roughly human-sized. Every second that ticked by without a hit, her panic grew exponentially.

  "Vel!"

  She’d already been kicked out of the pirate web, and she'd definitely be kicked out of the Academy for killing her intern. As if her mother didn’t despise her enough…

  "Vel!"

  Finally, after five or six scans, she picked up the readings of a plausible humanoid life-form. But it was in the middle of a thick forest—and she could only land her ship in a clearing two miles away.

  "Vel! Are you here?"

  And she'd been out there, in the jungle, for what seemed like forever, screaming at the top of her lungs. Hoping against hope that with every branch she pushed away, every time she turned around, she wouldn't come across a dead intern.

  "Vel!"

  "Hello, there, Dr. Peate!"

  Sweet, sweet relief washed over her as she spun around—until she caught sight of him.

  He was covered—head to toe—in swollen bites. Some of them were oozing white pus, and others looked just about ready to burst. His eyes were glassy, but he forced himself to smile at her.

  "It appears as though you forgot to leave me some bug spray," he said, trying to sound cheerful. "I assure you, I look worse than I feel. Could I bother you for a drink of water?"

  "Here," she said, tossing him the bottle on her hip. "So, um…"

  He smiled at her as he gulped down the bottle.

  "Did I forget to leave you a potable water sensor?" Lyssa asked nervously.

  He continued gulping.

  "I guess so…"

  He finished the bottle, and, even with the bulbous swelling bites all over his body, he smiled at her. "How did your research go?"

  "R-Research?"

  "Yes, I can only assume you went to go do some research," Vel said. "Did you find out anything interesting?"

  She opened and closed her mouth, reality crashing down on her again. Delmur was gone, Razia was out of the pirate web, and all her dreams of greatness had vanished into thin air.

  "No," she spat after a few moments.

  "Well, maybe next time you'll be more successful!" Vel said, looking very much as if he wanted to scratch one of his boils. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

  "I think we should just get you back to the Academy," Lyssa said, eyeing him. "To the medical wing."

  "Oh, these?" Vel said, waving her off. "Don't worry about these. I'm sure they will go down soon."

  "I think you're loopy. Let’s get you back to the ship so you can get some rest."

  "Oh, wait," Vel said, reaching into his bag and handing her a set of neatly organized bags of leaves and specimens, and other scraps of paper. "I'm not sure if this will be enough to do a presentation on, but I'm sure it will at least get us started."

  She stared at him, amazed. Even after leaving him with little survival gear, he'd still managed to gather data. And from the looks of it, he'd even captured more readings than she normally did.

  "Thanks..." She swallowed. "And hey... I'm sorry I just left you here."

  "I'm sure it was important, whatever the reason. And I understand. I'm just glad I could be helpful!"

  She watched him stumble back the way she'd come, toward the ship, and couldn’t help but be a little impressed at how dedicated he was to Dr. Pymus.

  ***

  They arrived at the Academy just as Vel's skin started to turn green. As obnoxious as he was, and as much as she hated everything about him, somewhere deep in her soul, she knew he was still her little brother. She'd feel bad if he actually...died.

  "Shall we...unpack first?" he said, his eyes seeming to go in and out of focus.

  "I think we should head over to the medical wing now," Lyssa said, helping him to his feet.

  "I hate to...impose..." he protested as she guided him down the ladder and off the ship.

  She hurried him out of the docks and into the first available lift—hoping to avoid any and all unwanted attention. She wasn't sure what her other brothers would say if they saw Vel in this state, and definitely didn't want to run into—

  "Dr. Pymus!" Lyssa gasped, as the lift opened.

  "Well my, my!" Pymus stepped onto the lift with them. "I had heard you'd returned from your excavation a little early."

  He barely acknowledged Vel, who was leaning against the wall, pale and sweaty.

  "Yes, well." Lyssa gulped, wondering what sort of fallout she was going to get when Vel
told him what had happened.

  To her surprise, Vel popped upright and forced himself to smile at Pymus. "It's my fault, Dr. Pymus. It seems as though I walked into a swarm of nasty bugs on a planet."

  "I see," Pymus said, not looking at him.

  Ding.

  The lift opened to the medical wing, and Lyssa couldn't pull Vel off fast enough. Luckily, Pymus remained on the lift and they were safe for a few minutes longer.

  "Hold on a second," Lyssa said, before they walked into the wing. "Why didn't you tell him the truth?"

  "What?" Vel squinted at her.

  "That I went bou...left you on the planet," Lyssa said, catching herself. "Why didn't you tell him?"

  "Dr. Peate," Vel said, looking rather affronted. "We're family. Why would I betray you like that?"

  She stared back at him, stunned. She wondered if she should open his eyes to the kinds of betrayals she'd seen from select members of their family over the years.

  Then, it occurred to her that he may simply be delirious, as he started talking to a nearby potted plant.

  "Let’s go, kiddo," she muttered, grabbing him and dragging him toward the medical wing. It was a series of interconnected hallways to accommodate the wide breadth of species needing medical assistance. The first hallway they came across had several drawings of species with varying numbers of legs and arrows pointing to where each category should go. One such arrow pointed to the one with the one, two, or three movement-oriented appendages, which was the hall they turned down into. That hall led to more choices on arm number and head number, until they finally came to a welcome desk.

  "I’m sorry, you’re in the wrong section," the tired looking woman said to a being at the front of the line. She had orange frizzy hair and two tentacles sticking out of her forehead. "You need to go back and find the hallway with the three legs then go to the two arms, one head route."

  The man grumbled and snatched his papers. He had some sort of white growth on his shoulder.

  "Can I help you?" the woman asked.

  "He...got bit by something," Lyssa said, unsure of what else to call it.

  Vel handed the receptionist his C-card, and she swiped it.

  "Vellexore Beuregard Peate, age sixteen?"

  "Vellexore?" Lyssa asked, eyebrows raised.

  "It’s a family name," Vel said.

  "You'll be seen within the hour," she said. "Have a seat over there until your name is called."

  They sat in the waiting area with other sick-looking people and things. On a scale of scratches to mortal peril, Lyssa actually put Vel in the middle. One man was looking rather gaunt, and holding a bloody rag against the stump that was his arm.

  She sat back and out of habit, whipped out her mini-computer to search the pirate webs.

  Then she remembered she was out of the pirate web.

  She put down her mini-computer.

  Looking around, she tried to think about some other way to pass the time until Vel was called.

  She opened the application again—just to see the news, she told herself.

  Damn Relleck, she thought.

  Annoyed, she browsed through Relleck's different aliases. For being number two, he wasn't hiding very well—spending most of his time at skin bars on D-882.

  It would be so easy, she thought.

  He and everyone else would be so distracted by the naked females walking around that they'd never see her coming. She'd wait until he was drunk and stupid—maybe she'd pay off one of the girls to get him alone—then capture him and get him to the bounty office before he sobered up.

  "That must be some game," Vel said.

  Lyssa snapped out of her planning, remembering she was sitting in the medical wing with her intern, waiting to get him checked out for bug bites.

  And she was no longer a bounty hunter.

  "Yeah," Lyssa said, shoving her mini-computer into her pocket. "Yeah, it’s a fun game…"

  "Vellexore Peate?" a nurse called.

  "Here," Lyssa said, helping him up.

  "Dr. Peate, I'm supposed to be the gentleman," Vel slurred, his eyes going a little cross-eyed.

  "Yeah, well, look at you," Lyssa said pointedly. "You can help me up all you want when your hands return to their normal size."

  They followed the nurse down a long hallway with a series of doors. Lyssa could hear various moaning and screaming from some of them, and imagined all kinds of horrific injuries behind the doors. Nervously, she pulled out her mini-computer, just to check the pirate web and distract herself.

  Unfortunately, she wasn’t watching where she was going, and bumped right into someone. Her mini-computer fell out of her hand.

  Her eyes widened slightly when a gold-trimmed arm reached down to grab it. Especially as they followed the arm up past a lieutenant bar on the shoulders and the stitching of the U-POL Special Forces to the face of the very same U-POL lieutenant who had accosted her at Harms’ bar not last week.

  She swallowed as he smiled at her.

  "My apologies," he said, handing her the mini-computer.

  Lyssa’s gaze drifted down to the screen, which was still displaying the pirate web, and found herself praying that he didn’t look at it.

  Luckily, he was too much of a gentleman to pry as he handed it to her.

  "No," she said, forcing herself to stay calm as she quickly locked the screen. "I wasn’t watching where I was going."

  "Doctor, please keep up!"

  Lyssa nodded at the U-POL officer and scampered after the nurse, faster than she probably should have.

  ***

  "What are the U-POL doing here?" Vel asked, trying not to move on the paper covering the exam table.

  Lyssa’s gaze sprang to the door, but then realized Vel was talking about being at the Academy.

  "They have an agreement with the Academy to use the doctors here. Since, you know, they're the best in the universe practically."

  He sighed forlornly. "I wonder if we’ll see Jukin. If we do, could you introduce me?"

  "Why would I know Jukin?" Lyssa snapped, still focused on the door.

  "Because he’s our brother?" Vel said curiously.

  "Yeah, so why don't you know him?"

  "I mean, he was gone by the time…he's been gone for over a decade now. We don't really see him at home."

  "Oh, yeah, right." She shrugged. "I don't see him either. Besides, we're not on good terms."

  Vel either didn't hear her or didn't care. "I can’t believe my older brother is the captain of the U-POL Special Forces. He’s doing such great things for the universe."

  "Uh-huh."

  "He’s like a celebrity at home. Mother’s so proud of him, capturing pirates and trying to clean up the universe. The younger kids have never met him, but we all talk about how wonderful he is."

  "He hasn’t caught anyone in a few years," Lyssa said. "Or rather, anybody important."

  "Oh, stop being jealous," Vel chided her. "We can’t all be Father’s favorite child."

  Lyssa thought about correcting him, but decided against it.

  "Do you remember when he captured that guy? That was incredible."

  "What?" Lyssa said, her focus finally away from the door.

  "We all still talk about it at home," Vel said, smiling. "The way he was able to outsmart that pirate—"

  "Tauron," Lyssa snapped, glaring at him. "His name was Tauron."

  "Right, Tauron," Vel said, dismissing it. "But Jukin spent four or five years hunting this guy, and couldn’t ever catch him."

  "That’s not—" Lyssa said before catching herself. It wouldn’t do to give Vel her firsthand account of what actually had happened.

  "What?"

  "Where in Leveman’s is that doctor?" she said, louder than she meant to.

  "Right here," the doctor said, walking in the door, with a tablet and instruments dangling from her pockets.

  Lyssa was immediately thankful they were no longer talking about Tauron, Jukin, or the U-POL. But now she began to wor
ry about herself as the doctor poked and prodded at Vel’s boils.

  "Now, Vellexore—"

  "Vel," he quickly corrected her.

  "Vel, then," she said, putting a magnifier over her glasses so she could see his boils closer. "I see you forgot the bug spray."

  "It's...uh...his first planet excavation," Lyssa said, watching with a gross satisfaction as the doctor laced the boils and rubbed a piece of test paper on top of it.

  "And I take it he's your intern?" the doctor said.

  "Y-yeah," Lyssa said.

  "And my sister," Vel said with a frown.

  "Uh-huh," the doctor said, walking over to a drawer and pulling out a tube of medicine and a syringe. She took his arm and gently stuck him.

  "What's that?" he said.

  "This should reduce the swelling," the doctor said. "You should be fine in about an hour."

  "I feel sleep—" His eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed on the bed behind him.

  "Are you sure that was just an anti-inflammatory?" Lyssa said, peering at her comatose intern.

  "Dr. Peate, I presume?" the doctor said, looking at her tablet. "Lyssandra Peate?"

  "Y-yes?" Lyssa said, starting to get concerned. "How did you know that?"

  "His academic record says he's interning with you right now," she said, frowning. "Dr. Peate...this is fairly serious."

  "Oh, come on," Lyssa said, gesturing to Vel, who was drooling on the paper bed. "He's totally fine."

  "Not him," the doctor said, peering over her tablet. "My records say you're two years overdue for your vaccinations. In fact, you never even completed your baseline physical when you graduated the Academy."

  "Say what now?" Lyssa said, already planning how much money she was going to have to give this doctor not to put her in front of the Academy for nearly killing her intern. "Well, who cares about me?"

  "The Academy does," the doctor said. "I'm surprised your supervisor hasn't said something to you sooner."

  Lyssa considered the image of Pymus telling her to do anything and laughed. "No, he's not a very good supervisor. So what...just a few shots and we're done?"