Ruler of Naught by Sherwood Smith, Dave Trowbridge Page A

sub-vocalized his instructions to the logos. He
arranged his fingers over his console and carefully followed the commands
illuminated there to rearrange the main screen for the best view of what he’d
planned. How had Tallis managed to hide it as long as he did? Barrodagh’s
advice to explain it as a Dol’jharian revenge custom was going to help there.
    Moments later, all was ready. He dimmed the bridge lights
and tabbed his comm. “Luri, I’ve got a surprise for you. Come up to the bridge.”
The shakiness of his voice surprised him, and he cut the connection without
waiting for a reply.
    He spent the intervening time in careful breathing, trying
to recall and use some of the meditation exercises of his youth under the harsh
discipline of the Organicists.
    The visual aura retreated somewhat as he slowly relaxed,
then came the quiet tick-tick-tick of heels on the deck, and a wave of heavy
scent as Luri stopped directly behind his pod. Her heavy breasts radiated a
sensual heat as they pillowed the back of his head. Anderic exhaled as her cool
fingers stroked his temples, traced around his ears, and drifted down to begin kneading
the muscles in his shoulders.
    “You wanted Luri?” The emphasis she used on the word
“wanted” aroused the Rifter even more than her touch.
    “I’ve arranged a special show, just for you, and then I have
another surprise for you.”
    “Ooooh,” she sighed, her breath stirring the hairs on the
back of his neck, “Luri likes surprises.”
    She slid around the pod and settled into his lap, her
movements a deliberate dance. He stretched his arm around her to adjust his
console so he could reach it. The smoothness of her silk against his bare arms
excited him even more.
    The bridge dimmed as the ship passed into night. The comm
crackled to life.
    “Lock three here. We’re ready.”
    “Do it,” Anderic croaked. He cleared his throat, struggling
for control. “Ninn. Slave the tractors to my con.” As his console flickered
into a new configuration, another thought occurred to him. “Communications.
Relay the main view down to the bilge and tell the blunge-boy he can take a
break and watch.”
    Lennart, a short, squat woman Tallis had promoted from Damage
Control, gave Anderic a narrow look, but when he widened his eyes at her, she
turned away quickly.
    A few of the crew had actually liked that fool Tallis
Y’Marmor, and Kira Lennart had been one of them. As captains went, Tallis had
not been as bad as some in the Sodality. He was careful, which had kept them
all alive. He was fair in sharing the take. But he’d also been a nuisance with
the stupid uniforms he’d made the bridge crew wear and his constant worries
about the cleanliness of the ship.
    Worst of all, he’d insisted on keeping Luri’s attentions
exclusively to himself.
    Anderic grinned, thinking of Tallis now demoted to slubbing
in the recycling tanks of the Satansclaw , where the sewage generated by
its crew was transformed back into useful forms.
    And this will make his misery complete.
    “Lennart.”
    The comtech looked up.
    “Be sure to replay this for him a few times.”
    Anderic smirked as he tapped at his console. The main screen
flickered to a new view, from an imager above the bridge, looking forward. The
extended lance of the destroyer’s kilometer-long accelerator tube, brightly
illuminated by its running lights, shone against the velvet darkness of
Arthelion’s night side.
    There was a faint thunk as the tractor engaged. In
his mind’s eye Anderic envisioned the ornate furnishings he’d ripped out of
Tallis’ cabin swirling up off the deck in the grip of the gravitic field, the
sparkling ring-discharge of the electronic lock field as they were propelled
out the lock. He laughed as a surge of well-being gripped him, momentarily
overwhelming even lust. Life is good when you’re on the winning side.
    “What?” Luri’s voice was breathy with expectation.
    “You’ll see. Watch.”
    “EJECTA NOW