I’d have to reprogram them for what he wants. It’s in their base programming to defend themselves, so he will not have good luck if he tries to melt them or destroy them.”
“I will defend myself, and I will defend Casmir Dabrowski.” Zee put a hand on Casmir’s shoulder and frowned down at him inasmuch as his vague mouth had been designed to frown. “I will not allow you to be taken prisoner. This ship must fly out of this system and escape.”
“Thank you, Zee.” His heart ached that his robotic defender cared and wanted to keep him from going off to some horrible fate, very possibly death. “But I have to cooperate.”
“Casmir,” Kim said sharply. “You can’t hand yourself over to him without a way to escape or protect yourself.”
“I can’t do anything—anything else—that will put my family at risk.” He blinked away moisture trying to form in his eyes as he wondered what his parents had been told and what they believed about his actions these past months. All he’d ever wanted to do was make the Kingdom a better place—without sticking it to the rest of humanity in the process.
“You cannot go alone without a crusher,” Zee said. “Without me.”
“I have to.” Casmir hugged Zee, expecting the crusher to do nothing or maybe pat him on the head.
Zee hesitated, as if figuring out the proper human response, then hugged him back. The moisture forming in Casmir’s eyes turned to tears that ran down his cheeks. He didn’t care.
Next, he hugged Kim. She was just as frustrated about letting him go as Zee, and that touched him, but he couldn’t disobey Jager. Not this time.
She didn’t hesitate to hug him back, but he sensed that she also wanted to punch him for getting himself into this mess. He couldn’t blame her for the sentiment.
Lastly, he shook Tristan’s and Nalini’s hands, then headed off the bridge to wait for the shuttle.
Epilogue
“We’re getting another comm message.” Tristan’s voice had an odd note to it. “Encrypted. Tight-beam.”
Kim was sitting in her pod, kicking the underside of a console. She would have been pacing, or maybe taking out her aggressions in a sparring match with Zee, but the Dart was stationary in space and had no gravity. That made pacing difficult.
“Who is it?” Even Nalini, who barely knew Casmir, sounded glum and sad.
The Kingdom shuttle had arrived, and he’d gone with them without a fight, and without her or Zee, as he’d promised. It had disappeared back into the belly of the Kingdom warship, and he was now King Jager’s prisoner. Would he even make it back to Odin alive?
Nalini had been forbidden from following Jager’s warship and ordered to take her hodgepodge fleet out of the system within twenty-four hours or there would be “repercussions.” The ungrateful bastards.
Kim had heard that Bonita and everybody else who wasn’t flying a Kingdom military vessel had been given the same order, all save the Drucker warships, since they were being commanded by some of Ishii’s officers. Someone must have forgotten that there were numerous crushers aboard the Dart and the Dragon. Jager had mentioned that he wanted Casmir to reprogram them, but his people hadn’t wanted any to come in the shuttle with Casmir, so they were still here. Kim wished she knew how that could help.
“Captain Rache from the Fedallah,” Tristan said.
“Is he nearby?” That surprised Kim—she’d assumed he had arrived days earlier and was halfway to Odin—but then she realized it made sense. Jager was out here by the gate. Where else would Rache be?
“I can’t pinpoint the exact source of the transmission, but it seems to be coming from behind the gate.” Tristan pulled himself over to the scanner station where Casmir had been sitting. “His ship doesn’t show up even with the slydar detector activated, but it’s possible he knows its precise range and is just outside of it.”
“Is there any reason why we would want to talk to him?” Nalini asked.
“I don’t,” Tristan said.
Kim wanted to talk to him. Maybe he would be willing to help one last time and retrieve Casmir.
She sent him a message via her chip. I’m on board the Moon Dart, but maybe you already knew that.
Yes. I know much, he replied, no lag in the response. He was close.
Another time, she would have poked fun at his cockiness, but she wasn’t in the mood. What do you want? Tristan and Nalini aren’t interested in talking to you.
How rude. I was going to invite Tristan