“You’re taking us into orbit?” he asked.
“Probably not, but it was easy to plot. If the surroundings remain empty, I’m headed for the surface. If we meet a fleet of warships, I’m going to run like hell.”
I kept us cloaked and in stealth as we approached the planet. The sensors didn’t detect any other ships, but they were picking up various signals from the surface. Once we were in range, I scanned the surface. XAD Six was just as frozen as the von Hasenberg planet we’d left, but it teemed with radio activity.
“There’s a lot of something going on down there,” Rhys said, looking at the sensor data.
“Yes. Most of it seems to originate from a single point, at least on this side of the planet. Let me see if I can get a visual.” I pointed the ship’s long-range cameras at the most likely origination point for the signals. I piped the resulting images to the flight deck’s video screens.
A large spaceport surrounded by white landscape came into view. A single squat building sat off to one side.
“They’re underground,” Loch said.
“Of course they are,” I muttered. Infiltrating a warehouse on the surface wasn’t terribly difficult; infiltrating an unknown underground facility was.
“They didn’t bother to terraform the planet,” Rhys said. “If they’re mining, they’ll be underground anyway. Makes sense to just put all their buildings there.”
“I would’ve preferred an obvious, unguarded pile of alcubium sitting out in the open,” I said.
“Where’s the fun in that?” Loch drawled.
Rhys grinned at him. “I have to agree.”
I huffed out a laugh. “I’m glad you feel that way because if our path remains clear, we’ll be planetside in a little under an hour. Rhys, I don’t suppose you brought anything useful for this, did you?”
“Why, Lady Ada, I thought you’d never ask!” he said with a melodramatic flourish. He sobered. “I didn’t pack rebreathers or space suits, though. Didn’t think we’d be visiting an unterraformed planet.”
“The ship has plenty of suits,” Loch said. “Found them when I went looking for clothes.”
“I need a codebreaker to get me through the door and something to keep me alive on the other side. And, ideally, a distraction to let me slip back out again.”
“You seem to be under the mistaken impression that you’re going in alone,” Rhys said.
“It’s not a mistake,” I said sweetly, “I am going in alone.”
“The hell you are,” Loch said.
“I need you two to keep the ship secure and make sure I have a way out. In the event that I’m caught, I want you to promise to take the ship to Father. My sister Bianca knows all about this trip and she will let Father know if I don’t check in. He’ll expect you,” I said. It was as much threat as warning. “I don’t care how much you bend him over a barrel in negotiations, but the House von Hasenberg scientists and engineers need this ship.”
“All the more reason for me and Loch to enter the building while you stay with the ship,” Rhys argued.
“I agreed to bring you along. I didn’t agree to let you risk your neck more than necessary. If I am caught, they will keep me alive and eventually I’ll escape or be traded back to the House. If they catch you, they’ll kill you.”
“But—”
“No buts. My ship, my rules. If you no longer wish to supply me with gear, I won’t hold it against you.”
“Of course I’m still going to give you gear!” Rhys exploded. “Damn, woman, you’d try the patience of a saint. I don’t know how you deal with her,” he said to Loch.
We all froze for an instant as his words sank in. “He doesn’t,” I quipped lightly, as if the knife-sharp pain in my chest didn’t exist. “I’m going to get suited up.”
“Ada—” Rhys started, but I ignored him and fled the flight deck.
Despite my protests that it wasn’t necessary, both Rhys and Loch donned space suits. They pointed out that if they had to fight outside the ship, they needed to be prepared. And we’d be able to communicate over the headset radio.
I knew a losing argument when I saw one, so I capitulated as gracefully as I could.
These space suits were top-of-the-line models, designed to be worn next to the skin. The fabric was millimeter-thin but strong enough to deflect small physical projectiles. Even the gloves didn’t dull tactile sensation.
I could move as easily as if I wore workout clothes, but the suit lacked any pockets. Luckily, it was thin enough I could wear it as a base layer under normal clothes. I pulled on a pair of cargo pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt. The extra layer also helped to hide some of the blinding white suit fabric.
I wondered if Richard had told the rest of his House that he’d lost this ship and everything in it. And, if so, if he’d survived the conversation. If I was him, I’d be waiting until the last possible second in hopes of recovering the ship before anyone noticed it went missing.
XAD Six loomed large in the window. It was nearly time to make a course correction if I wanted to enter the atmosphere and land at the spaceport. I checked the sensors. They still showed vast, empty space. Results also streamed in for XAD Seven, the other Rockhurst planet in this solar system, and it wasn’t any better protected.
The lack of ships made me twitchy. I debated aborting and returning to House von Hasenberg with Polaris. There was enough alcubium that the scientists could at least get started, especially if I used conventional jumps all the way home.
But my reckless side, the side that had prompted me to run away from the only home I’d ever known rather than marry a practical stranger for political power, that side knew I would land on the planet. I had to know if my hunch was correct.
So I’d prepare for a trap and hope for the best. With Loch and Rhys on the ship and the FTL ready to go, they should be able to make it out either way. And if I could confirm Rockhurst mined alcubium here, they could take that info to Father along with the ship, even if I had to be left behind.
I turned to Rhys and Loch, both of whom had been subdued since Rhys’s verbal slip. “I need you both to swear that if things get rough, you’ll prioritize getting the ship to my father over rescuing me,” I said.
“No,” Rhys said flatly.
“You don’t swear, we don’t land. We don’t land, House Rockhurst goes to war unimpeded and becomes your new dictator. You okay with that?”
“I’ll do it,” Loch said. The knife in my chest dug a little deeper, but I nodded.
“I need you to back him up,” I told Rhys quietly. I need you to make sure he doesn’t double-cross me and steal my ship, is what I didn’t say. “Please.”
Rhys stared hard at Loch. A wealth of nonverbal communication passed between them. Rhys sighed. “Very well,” he said. “But if we leave you behind, your father is not going to appreciate the negotiation.”
“I hope you all become wealthy beyond compare. Father can afford it. Don’t forget to get a share for Veronica, too.”
For a second, Rhys’s charming mask slipped and his eyes flashed with fury. “How can you discuss being left behind so casually?”
“This is what I do.” I paused. “Well, what I did, at any rate. Did you think I just sat around wearing pretty dresses and going to balls all the time? It doesn’t work that way in a High House. I was groomed from birth to spy on my future husband, to infiltrate his deepest secrets and report back. And nothing teaches faster than experience.”
I tamped down the memories. “I’ve been caught before. At some point, I’ll be caught again. I know exactly what I’m risking.” At best, a slap on the wrist and the humiliation of being traded back to Father like chattel. At worst . . . well, there were things worse than death.