Rule 26 (2 of ?, j2 au)
Unbeta'd and unameripicked. With love to secretlytodream for the wonderful encouragement *hearts*, and love to annabeth_fics for being so lovely. <333
And love to all of you lot for letting me ramble off on another AU! I shall hopefully be playing catch-up this weekend, but I thought I should post another chapter before the gap between this one and the first one got too big!
Rule 26 (2/?)
(J2 au, some possibly disturbing themes but nothing graphic)
Jared only had hazy memories of the refugee freighter on which he'd come to Stantone, but the overriding impression was one of cramped, smelly darkness.
It was nothing at all like Doctor Nekrotik's star-cruiser. The ship's interior was spacious, and sleek, and so beautifully clean Jared might almost have felt bad for traipsing his Stantone dirt all over it, if it hadn't belonged to Doctor Nekrotik, who deserved plenty worse than Jared's filthy boots.
Of course, attractive as the ship was, Jared didn't have enough time to properly admire it, because he was preoccupied with attacking anyone who came close enough. There were blood splatters on the inside of one soldier's visor from where Jared had headbutted him, and another soldier was wheezing and walking funny following the repeated contact between his groin and Jared's knee. The careful handling he'd been getting from the guards was fast giving way to hostile retaliation.
"For god's sake, just sedate him already," barked the big officer, as he caught up with them. "Let's try to get him to Doctor Nekrotik in something similar to the state we found him."
A scrum of bodies pressed Jared to his knees and held him there. A thick arm wrapped around his neck, and being able to breathe suddenly became an issue. The big officer was right up close, and Jared's oxygen-starved brain spiked into panic at the sight of the needle in his hand.
"This is just something to calm you down. Won't knock you out, but it should keep you from being too much of a nuisance and getting yourself killed," the officer said. His eyes were kind and dark, and Jared remembered his inexplicably sympathetic expression back at the mine.
But he also remembered how pretty Doctor Nekrotik was, and Jared wasn't fooled, not one little bit.
"Don’t you stick me with that," he snarled. "Don't you fucking-"
The needle bit smoothly into his arm, and almost instantly, Jared's muscles loosened. He sagged back against the soldiers, the glare he was directing at the officer the strongest thing about him.
"Get him along to medical bay," the officer said. "Gently. You break him, you explain it to Doctor Nekrotik."
Whatever the officer had stuck him with had left Jared quiet and quiescent as a sleepy kitten. He stared vacantly at the smooth silver surfaces as the soldiers carried him, and he was lulled by faraway beeping and humming of the ship's computers. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the silver plate armor on the big officer's shin, going glint-glint-glint as he walked.
They brought him in to another clean, shiny room, but this one had lots of medical equipment, new and slim, not like the crappy stuff they had in the medic-center in Stantone. A huge man in mint scrubs looked around as the soldiers brought Jared in. He looked distinctly unimpressed at the sight of Jared, strung out and heavy-eyed.
"Doc Wisdom, meet Jared," said the big officer. "I need you to check him over, give him a clean bill of health."
Wisdom gestured for Jared to be settled on one of the examining tables, and gave him an even less impressed once-over.
"You picked him up in Stantone?" he asked. The big officer nodded, and Wisdom smiled mirthlessly. "You know, even the diseases have diseases in Stantone."
While Wisdom began peering in Jared's ears and eyes, checking him over like a dog for sale, the big officer propped himself up against one of the counters and removed his helmet. His dark hair was curly-damp with sweat, and his eyes were smoke and shadows. He grinned lazily when he noticed Jared's gaze on him.
"I'm Jeff," he said. "I'm Doctor Nekrotik's personal bodyguard, and I reckon you and me are gonna get to know each other pretty well if you're gonna keep trying to kill him."
Wisdom shot Jeff a look, then frowned down at Jared. "He's a rebel? What the hell is he doing on my table?"
Jeff rubbed the back of his neck and sighed wearily. "Enough if I say I think you need to check him for any sexually transmitted viruses?" He looked a little uncomfortable to be saying it, and the line of Wisdom's mouth quirked down at the ends.
"No," said Jared, through numb lips. He told his legs to get him off the table, and all he got was a pathetic twitch from his foot. "No, not gonna… No. Not with him. Don't make me."
Jeff sauntered over to his side, and Jared wanted to tell him to stop looking so damn compassionate, because Jared wasn't falling for it.
"I'm not gonna lie to you, kid," said Jeff. "This is new territory for me too. Can’t give you any idea what Doctor Nekrotik's planning on doing with you, but I don't think it sounds great. Only thing I can do is tell you to give up trying to kill him. It's not gonna happen." Jeff's lips twitched into a hard smile. "Running joke here is that my job's the most redundant on this whole ship. Doctor Nekrotik doesn't need a bodyguard, see, because Doctor Nekrotik doesn't die."
He patted Jared on the shoulder, and left. Jared's gaze flicked back to Wisdom, who'd been watching with narrowed-eyes.
"You want some more advice?" said Wisdom. "Learn to read Doctor Nekrotik's moods. Some days he's a pussycat, some days he's the nastiest bastard the universe ever spat out. You'll live a lot longer if you can tell which days are which."
:::
Jared didn't have a single nasty STD. Which sucked.
Jared lay on the table, and stared at the ceiling, and tried not to think about what exactly that meant for him. Wisdom was out of sight, his presence evident only in the tiny, irregular metallic clatter as he sanitized his instruments. It occurred to Jared eventually, that Wisdom was giving him a modicum of privacy.
Which also sucked. Because if Jared was going to be held prisoner and tortured and maybe possibly things as bad that he didn't want to think about, then he wanted to fill himself up with hatred and rage, and not have to give any of himself over to gratitude or friendliness.
After a few moments, Wisdom loomed back into sight. His expression was blank, but Jared turned his face away from him just the same.
"I'm gonna stick you in the tube now for a full scan," said Wisdom. "Don't wriggle."
It was almost kind of funny, because both of them had to know that if Jared could wriggle, he'd've wriggled himself off the table and halfway to the door by now. Instead, he got wheeled over and slid inside a thick, white tube, which swallowed him head to toe, and reflected his own bruised, surly face back at him in the mirrors on its interior. Light flashed, ultraviolet and blinding. Jared closed his eyes tightly, and pretended he was back in Stantone, with the dirt and poverty and poisonous air, and Chad and freedom.
There was noise outside the tube, more people in the room, voices that Jared had to strain to make out over the machinery's whispering.
"I'm not done yet," said Wisdom. "Still got tests to run." Jared relaxed despite himself. Wisdom's tone - a low, irritable rumble - strongly suggested that it wasn't Doctor Nekrotik he was talking to.
It wasn't. "I know," said Jeff. "Just figured I'd check in on the kid."
There was a moment's silence. The tube hummed, pulsed with each flash of light.
"You talk to him?" said Wisdom.
Jeff sighed. "I did. Or, I tried to."
Another silence. Jared didn't like the silences. They made it clear to him that he was missing something huge and significant, and which he was now inextricably caught up in.
"And?" prodded Wisdom.
"And he says he wants something for himself." Jeff didn't sound convinced by it.
"He has the galaxy on its knees," said Wisdom. "That's not enough for him?"
"Apparently, he wants the kid." Jeff let out a heavy breath: a tired, unhappy sound that made his leather armor creak.
"Don't know why you keep calling him a kid. He wasn't out picking daisies when you found him, now was he? He's an adult. "
"He's younger than Doctor Nekrotik," Jeff pointed out, and was cut off almost immediately by Wisdom's bitter laughter.
"Well, now, you could say that about just about anybody on this ship," he said, darkly amused. "Including you and me."
Jared didn't know how that worked exactly, but he couldn't deny that, for someone who'd been ruling an evil empire for decades before Jared was even born, Doctor Nekrotik looked pretty good for his age.
The ultra-violet light in the tube spun through a rapid spectrum of colors, settled on yellow, and swept up Jared's body like a slow crawl of sunshine.
"Boy could get hurt," said Wisdom. "I don't mind him having his little personal projects, they're good for him, but at least when it was gardening he was crazy about, only thing that got hurt when he turned nasty was those angelis tulips. Be different this time."
"I know," Jeff said.
"We both know that if Doctor Nekrotik decides that's what he wants, won't even enter the boy's head to say no. Doesn't make it okay. Still is what it is."
"I know," Jeff said again.
A pause, and then, "It's not right."
It was Jeff's turn to laugh then, and it was an equally ugly sound. "Why don't you add it to the list with everything else?"
:::
Jared accepted the jumpsuit Jeff offered him with very bad grace, and only because Jeff made it clear that a) Jared was going to Doctor Nekrotik's quarters, b) Jared would not be wearing the filthy clothes they'd picked him up in when he did so, and c) Jeff had plenty of other matters to attend to, and if Jared didn't accept the jumpsuit quickly, he'd find himself dumped in Nekrotik's quarter's on his bare ass.
Jared very much doubted that he was going to Doctor Nekrotik's quarters, or, at least, he wouldn't be there for long. The drug was wearing off, and sensation was already prickling his fingers and toes. The need to act - to fight, escape, kill Doctor Nekrotik - was powerfully reasserting itself. If he had to surrender his clothes to Jeff, he figured it made more sense to have a jumpsuit to wear when he made his escape attempt, rather than to try it in the nude.
On his way through the star-cruiser, Jared made a mental note of exits and computer panels and guard stations. There was a lot to take in, and he worried it was all getting jumbled in his head, but the concept that he needed to know this in order to get out gave him a certain clarity.
Nothing he'd known at Stantone could compare to the clean, shimmering style of the ship. Even the giant war vessels that had docked at the edge of town a few years back, the ones that had impressed Chad and Jared so much they'd spent a whole afternoon sitting in the dust the other side of the fence just watching them, seemed clunky and clumsily put together.
And then, Jeff led him past a window, a big clear window full up of beautiful black space and stardust. Jared stumbled to a halt, staring open-mouthed.
He had never seen anything like it.
Jeff's hand came down on his shoulder to move him along, then he stopped. He gave Jared a few moment's peace, just let him look. Soldiers and crew bustled around them, but they all gave Jeff a respectfully wide berth.
Swallowing hard, his eyes still on a fragment of pitted rock that drifted past the window like it was underwater, Jared said, "Can you show me Stantone? I mean, my planet?"
Jeff cleared his throat. "We left it someway back. I'm sorry."
Space was so big, so stupidly big, that Jared had a sudden fear that he wouldn't be able to find Stantone even if he did somehow get himself a shuttle to escape in. How was he supposed to find home when there was so much space in between him and it?
His eyes pricked with tears, and he turned his face away sharply before Jeff could see. If Jeff noticed, he didn't say anything. He just gripped Jared's shoulder and got him moving again.
They ended up in a section of the star-cruiser that was quieter and emptier than the rest. There were soldiers on guard, and their uniforms were distinct from the grunts who'd dragged Jared on board. It wasn't hard to figure out that they were almost at Doctor Nekrotik's quarters.
Jared's heartbeat picked up. With effort, he kept his breathing level. He wetted his lips, and considered his options. There was a junction up ahead, one with no guards posted. If Jared could disable Jeff, he'd have a couple of seconds to disappear down the corridor before the other guards were on him. His eyes dropped to the blaster at Jeff's hip, tantalizingly available.
Muscles tensed, Jared readied himself to make his move.
"You really want me to sedate you again?" Jeff said easily. "C'mon, you're smarter than that." Jeff grinned when Jared glanced at him. "Personal bodyguard," he said, like it explained everything.
After that, it was too late, because he was taking Jared in to Doctor Nekrotik's quarters.
It wasn't like Jared was expecting. He didn't know what precisely he'd been expecting the quarters of a tyrannical, mass-murdering sonofabitch to look like, but not this. They were spacious and tidy, dimly lit with pale blue lights. A big black double bed took up an impressive amount of room, and the wall at the far end was glass, offering an unobstructed view of the starscape that was both exquisite and strangely perilous, like Jared could melt right through the glass into the void if he wasn't careful.
"I'd leave you loose," said Jeff, cuffs glinting in his hand, "but I don't wanna have to deal with however you decide to express how pissed you are."
"Hey, I'll behave, promise," said Jared. "Don't tie me up, man. C'mon, where'm I gonna go? I'll be good, I swear."
Jeff maneuvered him to a chair and fixed him to it. "Sorry, kid. What can I say? I'm just a paranoid bastard."
He left Jared like that: cuffed to a chair, facing the stars, and waiting for Doctor Nekrotik. It didn't matter how reluctant Jeff seemed to be doing it, he still left Jared like that.
:::
The pit in Jared's stomach, where all his hopeless and scared feelings sat, never went away. But, he got bored too. Scared and bored was a pretty interesting combination of things to feel. He felt sick waiting for Doctor Nekrotik, sick with the anticipation that something bad was coming for him and he didn't know what it'd do to him. But he was also fed up with the stars. Enough hours pass, and even the most stunning vistas start to get a little old.
It was silent in Doctor Nekrotik's quarters. The hum of star cruiser became white noise, lodged inside Jared's head, until he couldn't unthread it from the quiet anymore. It was silent in the quarters, and it was silent the other side of the door too.
The star cruiser never went close enough to any of the planets for Jared to see more than a pinprick of light, though he supposed the inhabitants liked it that way, because when Doctor Nekrotik dropped in for a visit, it was usually fatal on a massive scale. And it wasn't like Doctor Nekrotik had any personal items left lying around in the room that Jared could look at, and wonder about, and fantasize about destroying for him.
After so long that Jared almost felt tired enough to not care that he was in Doctor Nekrotik's quarters and go to sleep anyway, there were footsteps in the corridor outside. Adrenaline and the furious pumping of his heart woke Jared up again instantly. He couldn't catch breath around his own heartbeat, couldn't tear his eyes off the door.
Maybe it was just Jeff, come to check on him. Maybe it was Welling, orchestrating a heroic and daring rescue. Jared would have hoped for anyone other than Doctor Nekrotik, anyone at all, but it was Doctor Nekrotik's quarters, which of course meant he was the one most likely to be turning up.
The large, glass eyes of Doctor Nekrotik's gasmask reminded Jared of an insect, especially in the blue light and starshine. It definitely didn't feel like anything human looking out at Jared.
"Come near me and I'll rip your head off. With my teeth," said Jared, straining against his handcuffs, lips pulled back in a feral grin. "C'mon, fucking try it."
"Save the dramatics for when they're actually required," said Nekrotik. He unclasped the mask from the back of his head, and drew it away from his face, and Jared's brain did that funny little half-step again, fumbling with the idea that someone so evil could be so very pretty.
"Your virtue's safe tonight, I promise." Free of the gasmask's respirator, Nekrotik's voice sounded tired and waspish.
"Imma kill you," said Jared. "You know that? You do whatever you want, but I'm gonna live the rest of my life, looking forward to the day I kill you."
Nekrotik rolled his eyes. "At least you're on topic."
He crossed to the huge window, touched a gloved finger to the corner, and a red grid flickered across the glass, offering inset views of planet systems and highlighting each significant star. Jared was knocked temporarily silent at the sight of it, the mass of detail. So many little planets - every one of them probably thriving with life - just in this corner of the galaxy.
"Pick one," said Nekrotik.
Jared glared at him. "Fuck you."
"Pick one," said Nekrotik again, twitching an impatient finger at Jared.
"Obraxus," said Jared, and it was his voice, and it came from his brain because it was Obraxus he'd been looking at on the star-chart, but he couldn't believe he'd actually said it. He'd intended to say no. He'd had another colorful rejoinder all ready on his tongue, when, instead, he'd simply obeyed. He'd done as Nekrotik told him, simply opened up for him.
It was terrifying. Jared felt cold and helpless, and whatever he'd been afraid of before was nothing in the shadow of knowing that Doctor Nekrotik could take the 'no' right out of his head.
"Obraxus," said Nekrotik. "Good choice." He touched the small dot on the glass, and a close-up of the planet filled the screen, turning in a slow orbit to give Jared a proper look at its yellow-green terrain. "Home to 1.2 billion people, rich in garric-palm oil, and with an impressive history of folk music." Nekrotik nodded, almost approvingly, then glanced at Jared. "Next time you try to kill me, you'll fail. It won’t be a pleasant experience for you. And then I'll bomb Obraxus to smoking cinders."
Jared's jaw dropped. "What? No, you can't-"
"This isn't my poker face, Jared. 1.2 billion people are hoping you'll believe that." He gave a small, elegant shrug of his shoulders. "If you wanna gamble, that's okay. We'll take Obraxus off the chart, and I'll just keep bombing planets until you take me seriously. Defy me in any way, and they'll burn."
He cocked his head at Jared, as if waiting for some response, but Jared was too busy choking on disbelieving hatred. So Nekrotik shrugged again, said, "I'm glad we could have this little conversation. I'll speak to you later."
He fixed his mask back in place, and went out the door, and Jared was left watching Obraxus spin slowly in front of him.
:::
Doctor Nekrotik didn't come back to his quarters that night. Jared was only aware of a new day coming in when the dim blue light in the room progressed to a soft yellow.
It was beginning to dawn on Jared how monumentally his future was fucked. He was never going to see Stantone again. He was pretty sure he'd left dishes in the sink back at Stantone, and they were just going to sit there, while Chad rotted in some faraway mine and Jared was held prisoner by Doctor Nekrotik, and eventually squatters would take over the empty apartment, and the dishes would get thrown out, and -
Jared was never going home.
Stantone was a shithole, and Chad was a jerk, and Jared missed them both so fiercely it was a hot, open wound in his chest.
The door opened. Jared's head shot up. It was only Jeff, and Jared was relieved.
"Don't s'pose you got any sleep," said Jeff. He bent over to unlock the cuffs at Jared's wrists. "Gently. Ease your shoulders back."
The muscles in Jared's shoulders and back were killing him, tight and locked, but his eyes snapped to Jeff's blaster. Freedom was right there, just a few inches from his fingertips. As soon as his first hand was free, Jared snatched for the gun. Jeff caught his elbow easily, twisted it around, jerking Jared's hand meaningfully in the direction of his shoulder blade.
"You just don't know when to quit, do you, kid?" he said. He flexed his grip on Jared, as if to make the point, then let him go. "C'mon, gotta get you on the shuttle."
"What shuttle?" Jared demanded, as Jeff walked him out into the corridor. "Where the hell are you taking me?"
"Fleet's breaking up and heading back to previous stations, but Doctor Nekrotik's going back to base, and, you and me, we're going with him."
"I don't want to," said Jared, and he didn't care that he sounded like a petulant teen. It wasn't like he had any other way of expressing his vehement disapproval. "Look, just let me loose. Please. I don't wanna go with him. I'll try to kill him again, I will, and he'll kill me, and billions of other people, and I know you don't want that."
Jeff's gaze stayed fixed forward, though his jaw was clenched, and the light in his eyes was flinty. "Don't make the mistake of thinking you know me, kid."
Loyal to the day they died, that's what people said about Doctor Nekrotik's army, and Welling might have been evidence that it wasn't so, but Jeff's tone made a compelling argument otherwise.
The corridors of the star cruiser were even busier than before, alive with the organized hustle of an army on the move. A path sprang open among the soldiers as Jeff marched through, dragging Jared in tow. Stationed at the shuttle boarding point was a small unit of the elite guard. They saluted smartly as Jeff passed, and Jeff ignored them.
Inside, the shuttle was compact, and it felt pretty full with Jeff and Jared, plus Doc Wisdom and another guy that Jared hadn't seen before and who seemed to be the pilot. He was a short, thickly-built guy, talking a mile a minute on comm.s, and most of it seemed to be unfriendly suggestions as to what the person he was addressing could do with their request. As Jared stumbled on board, the guy glanced over at him, pulled a face, and continued abusing the other person on comm.s.
"Kane, you wanna wrap that up?" said Jeff. "He's due in a couple minutes, and trust me, you don't wanna hold him up today."
Jared found himself in the seat next to Wisdom, who smiled at him in an unwelcoming manner, and said, "Be warned, you act up, Jeff and I'll have a little race to see who can stick a needle of sedatives in your neck first."
"Could you make it something lethal instead?" said Jared. "I'm getting a whole new appreciation of the phrase 'fate worse than death'."
Wisdom laughed. "Friend, you have no idea."
Jared saw Jeff straighten up just a few seconds before Doctor Nekrotik swept on board the shuttle. Hood pulled up and mask in place, Nekrotik flexed his gloved hands, and the shuttle door slid smoothly closed behind him. With a brisk nod at Jeff, Nekrotik took a seat, and Jeff crossed to sit beside him.
"Any time you're ready, Kane," Nekrotik said, and it was hard to tell whether the note of threat it held was deliberate, or whether he was so used to throwing cryptically menacing comments that it was his default mode of conversation. Either way, Kane obeyed immediately, and without any backchat.
The shuttle's engine thrummed, built gradually to a fluid vibration. Disengagement from the star-cruiser was accomplished with the barest jolt. Kane handled the instruments with an expertise that Jared was grudgingly impressed by. His commands and responses were delivered in a professionally neutral tone that was entirely unlike the shit-eating obnoxiousness he'd displayed earlier.
Informality had been replaced with cool detachment the second Doctor Nekrotik had entered, and the atmosphere remained dead as the shuttle shot away from the star cruiser. There was no conversation, not even any wordless interaction that Jared could see, and instead he focused on the weightless beauty the shuttle seemed to hold for a moment, like it was trapped in a bubble, before Kane exerted some control and sent it streaming through the stars. They swept out of the shadow of the star cruiser, and Jared caught a glimpse of the silver cloud of Doctor Nekrotik's fleet.
It was a fitting fleet for the murdering bastard, Jared thought. All those shiny, pretty vessels, which did such an awesome job of hiding that inside, they were built for killing.
He'd had his chance back at the mine. He'd had his blaster pressed to the soft pale skin at the back of Doctor Nekrotik's neck, and he didn't care how immortal and invulnerable they said the guy was, Jared was betting burning a hole through the spinal column would do the trick nicely. He should have killed the evil sonofabitch back then. Pulled the trigger and blown him away, and everything would have been just fine.
With that beautiful thought in mind, Jared looked over at Doctor Nekrotik again, and was more than a little surprised to see him slumped in his seat. Even as Jared watched, he could see Nekrotik's head lolling towards Jeff's shoulder. It was weird: Doctor Nekrotik was falling asleep against his personal bodyguard, who was holding very still but pretending not to notice, and it would have made Jared smile, except it was Doctor Nekrotik.
Eventually, Jeff snuck a glance at Nekrotik. He tentatively waved a hand in front of the gasmask, and got no response.
"He's asleep," announced Jeff, and, beside him, Jared heard Wisdom let out a breath. "I'm gonna put him to bed."
'Asleep' didn't seem a strong enough word for the state Nekrotik was in. He didn't even twitch while Jeff unbuckled the mask, and scooped him over his shoulder in a careful fireman's lift. Slung over Jeff's shoulder, arms hanging loose over his head, Doctor Nekrotik was so absolutely still that he could easily have been dead. Jared took a savage pleasure in daydreaming that that was the case. Black little heart exploded in his chest, and Jeff was going to take his miserable corpse, with its cruelly pretty face, and throw him out the airlock.
While Jeff headed towards the back of the shuttle with Nekrotik, Kane flicked a button, and music filled the air. Doc Wisdom pulled a book out from under his seat, and got comfortable. Jared glanced around uncertainly.
"Kane keeps a stash of girly mags in the panel up there," said Wisdom, jerking his chin in the direction, while his gaze stayed on his book. "Careful though, the pages might be sticky."
"Screw you, Doc," said Kane cheerfully. "And don't go offering out my porn." His feet were up on the control panel, Jared noted. They definitely hadn't been there when Nekrotik was conscious. They were like goddamn kids with the teacher out of the classroom. Kane looked towards the back, where Jeff had reappeared. "How is he?"
"He'll be better back on home-soil," said Jeff. "How soon?"
Kane shrugged. "Couple hours."
"That'll work," said Jeff, nodding.
He sat down on the floor, with his back to the door, and Jared got a very clear mental image of Nekrotik, lying helpless and unaware and softly sleeping, just a little behind Jeff. It was only Jeff between Jared and a Doctor Nekrotik that could be killed. Jared stared at the door with an intensity that soon made his vision swim. Disable Jeff, step over his body, get at Doctor Nekrotik. He could burn a hole in Nekrotik before the bastard could open those pretty green eyes of his. It'd be a kinder death than Nekrotik had given countless others.
"Jared?" said Jeff.
Caught out, Jared's eyes snapped to him. There was a grim understanding in Jeff's expression. No judgment, just implacable resolve.
"You know how to play Aurigean Five Card Brag?" said Jeff. He tugged a deck of cards from his uniform pocket, offered them towards Jared. "Might pass the time a little better than thinking about things that aren't gonna happen."
It registered with Jared then that both Wisdom and Kane were focused on him. Three men in a small shuttle, and not one of them wouldn't give their own life to stop Jared reaching Nekrotik.
Not yet, Jared thought, surprising himself with the steady calmness of his own inner voice. Doctor Nekrotik would die, but not today.
He sat down, cross-legged, opposite Jeff, and Jeff grinned, and began to deal the cards.
Behind Jared, Kane laughed, and said, "Oh son, you're gonna regret that. Nobody tell you what a dirty cheat Jeff is?"
"Too late to warn the kid now," said Jeff, and Kane laughed again, and turned the music up louder.
next
And love to all of you lot for letting me ramble off on another AU! I shall hopefully be playing catch-up this weekend, but I thought I should post another chapter before the gap between this one and the first one got too big!
Rule 26 (2/?)
(J2 au, some possibly disturbing themes but nothing graphic)
Jared only had hazy memories of the refugee freighter on which he'd come to Stantone, but the overriding impression was one of cramped, smelly darkness.
It was nothing at all like Doctor Nekrotik's star-cruiser. The ship's interior was spacious, and sleek, and so beautifully clean Jared might almost have felt bad for traipsing his Stantone dirt all over it, if it hadn't belonged to Doctor Nekrotik, who deserved plenty worse than Jared's filthy boots.
Of course, attractive as the ship was, Jared didn't have enough time to properly admire it, because he was preoccupied with attacking anyone who came close enough. There were blood splatters on the inside of one soldier's visor from where Jared had headbutted him, and another soldier was wheezing and walking funny following the repeated contact between his groin and Jared's knee. The careful handling he'd been getting from the guards was fast giving way to hostile retaliation.
"For god's sake, just sedate him already," barked the big officer, as he caught up with them. "Let's try to get him to Doctor Nekrotik in something similar to the state we found him."
A scrum of bodies pressed Jared to his knees and held him there. A thick arm wrapped around his neck, and being able to breathe suddenly became an issue. The big officer was right up close, and Jared's oxygen-starved brain spiked into panic at the sight of the needle in his hand.
"This is just something to calm you down. Won't knock you out, but it should keep you from being too much of a nuisance and getting yourself killed," the officer said. His eyes were kind and dark, and Jared remembered his inexplicably sympathetic expression back at the mine.
But he also remembered how pretty Doctor Nekrotik was, and Jared wasn't fooled, not one little bit.
"Don’t you stick me with that," he snarled. "Don't you fucking-"
The needle bit smoothly into his arm, and almost instantly, Jared's muscles loosened. He sagged back against the soldiers, the glare he was directing at the officer the strongest thing about him.
"Get him along to medical bay," the officer said. "Gently. You break him, you explain it to Doctor Nekrotik."
Whatever the officer had stuck him with had left Jared quiet and quiescent as a sleepy kitten. He stared vacantly at the smooth silver surfaces as the soldiers carried him, and he was lulled by faraway beeping and humming of the ship's computers. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the silver plate armor on the big officer's shin, going glint-glint-glint as he walked.
They brought him in to another clean, shiny room, but this one had lots of medical equipment, new and slim, not like the crappy stuff they had in the medic-center in Stantone. A huge man in mint scrubs looked around as the soldiers brought Jared in. He looked distinctly unimpressed at the sight of Jared, strung out and heavy-eyed.
"Doc Wisdom, meet Jared," said the big officer. "I need you to check him over, give him a clean bill of health."
Wisdom gestured for Jared to be settled on one of the examining tables, and gave him an even less impressed once-over.
"You picked him up in Stantone?" he asked. The big officer nodded, and Wisdom smiled mirthlessly. "You know, even the diseases have diseases in Stantone."
While Wisdom began peering in Jared's ears and eyes, checking him over like a dog for sale, the big officer propped himself up against one of the counters and removed his helmet. His dark hair was curly-damp with sweat, and his eyes were smoke and shadows. He grinned lazily when he noticed Jared's gaze on him.
"I'm Jeff," he said. "I'm Doctor Nekrotik's personal bodyguard, and I reckon you and me are gonna get to know each other pretty well if you're gonna keep trying to kill him."
Wisdom shot Jeff a look, then frowned down at Jared. "He's a rebel? What the hell is he doing on my table?"
Jeff rubbed the back of his neck and sighed wearily. "Enough if I say I think you need to check him for any sexually transmitted viruses?" He looked a little uncomfortable to be saying it, and the line of Wisdom's mouth quirked down at the ends.
"No," said Jared, through numb lips. He told his legs to get him off the table, and all he got was a pathetic twitch from his foot. "No, not gonna… No. Not with him. Don't make me."
Jeff sauntered over to his side, and Jared wanted to tell him to stop looking so damn compassionate, because Jared wasn't falling for it.
"I'm not gonna lie to you, kid," said Jeff. "This is new territory for me too. Can’t give you any idea what Doctor Nekrotik's planning on doing with you, but I don't think it sounds great. Only thing I can do is tell you to give up trying to kill him. It's not gonna happen." Jeff's lips twitched into a hard smile. "Running joke here is that my job's the most redundant on this whole ship. Doctor Nekrotik doesn't need a bodyguard, see, because Doctor Nekrotik doesn't die."
He patted Jared on the shoulder, and left. Jared's gaze flicked back to Wisdom, who'd been watching with narrowed-eyes.
"You want some more advice?" said Wisdom. "Learn to read Doctor Nekrotik's moods. Some days he's a pussycat, some days he's the nastiest bastard the universe ever spat out. You'll live a lot longer if you can tell which days are which."
:::
Jared didn't have a single nasty STD. Which sucked.
Jared lay on the table, and stared at the ceiling, and tried not to think about what exactly that meant for him. Wisdom was out of sight, his presence evident only in the tiny, irregular metallic clatter as he sanitized his instruments. It occurred to Jared eventually, that Wisdom was giving him a modicum of privacy.
Which also sucked. Because if Jared was going to be held prisoner and tortured and maybe possibly things as bad that he didn't want to think about, then he wanted to fill himself up with hatred and rage, and not have to give any of himself over to gratitude or friendliness.
After a few moments, Wisdom loomed back into sight. His expression was blank, but Jared turned his face away from him just the same.
"I'm gonna stick you in the tube now for a full scan," said Wisdom. "Don't wriggle."
It was almost kind of funny, because both of them had to know that if Jared could wriggle, he'd've wriggled himself off the table and halfway to the door by now. Instead, he got wheeled over and slid inside a thick, white tube, which swallowed him head to toe, and reflected his own bruised, surly face back at him in the mirrors on its interior. Light flashed, ultraviolet and blinding. Jared closed his eyes tightly, and pretended he was back in Stantone, with the dirt and poverty and poisonous air, and Chad and freedom.
There was noise outside the tube, more people in the room, voices that Jared had to strain to make out over the machinery's whispering.
"I'm not done yet," said Wisdom. "Still got tests to run." Jared relaxed despite himself. Wisdom's tone - a low, irritable rumble - strongly suggested that it wasn't Doctor Nekrotik he was talking to.
It wasn't. "I know," said Jeff. "Just figured I'd check in on the kid."
There was a moment's silence. The tube hummed, pulsed with each flash of light.
"You talk to him?" said Wisdom.
Jeff sighed. "I did. Or, I tried to."
Another silence. Jared didn't like the silences. They made it clear to him that he was missing something huge and significant, and which he was now inextricably caught up in.
"And?" prodded Wisdom.
"And he says he wants something for himself." Jeff didn't sound convinced by it.
"He has the galaxy on its knees," said Wisdom. "That's not enough for him?"
"Apparently, he wants the kid." Jeff let out a heavy breath: a tired, unhappy sound that made his leather armor creak.
"Don't know why you keep calling him a kid. He wasn't out picking daisies when you found him, now was he? He's an adult. "
"He's younger than Doctor Nekrotik," Jeff pointed out, and was cut off almost immediately by Wisdom's bitter laughter.
"Well, now, you could say that about just about anybody on this ship," he said, darkly amused. "Including you and me."
Jared didn't know how that worked exactly, but he couldn't deny that, for someone who'd been ruling an evil empire for decades before Jared was even born, Doctor Nekrotik looked pretty good for his age.
The ultra-violet light in the tube spun through a rapid spectrum of colors, settled on yellow, and swept up Jared's body like a slow crawl of sunshine.
"Boy could get hurt," said Wisdom. "I don't mind him having his little personal projects, they're good for him, but at least when it was gardening he was crazy about, only thing that got hurt when he turned nasty was those angelis tulips. Be different this time."
"I know," Jeff said.
"We both know that if Doctor Nekrotik decides that's what he wants, won't even enter the boy's head to say no. Doesn't make it okay. Still is what it is."
"I know," Jeff said again.
A pause, and then, "It's not right."
It was Jeff's turn to laugh then, and it was an equally ugly sound. "Why don't you add it to the list with everything else?"
:::
Jared accepted the jumpsuit Jeff offered him with very bad grace, and only because Jeff made it clear that a) Jared was going to Doctor Nekrotik's quarters, b) Jared would not be wearing the filthy clothes they'd picked him up in when he did so, and c) Jeff had plenty of other matters to attend to, and if Jared didn't accept the jumpsuit quickly, he'd find himself dumped in Nekrotik's quarter's on his bare ass.
Jared very much doubted that he was going to Doctor Nekrotik's quarters, or, at least, he wouldn't be there for long. The drug was wearing off, and sensation was already prickling his fingers and toes. The need to act - to fight, escape, kill Doctor Nekrotik - was powerfully reasserting itself. If he had to surrender his clothes to Jeff, he figured it made more sense to have a jumpsuit to wear when he made his escape attempt, rather than to try it in the nude.
On his way through the star-cruiser, Jared made a mental note of exits and computer panels and guard stations. There was a lot to take in, and he worried it was all getting jumbled in his head, but the concept that he needed to know this in order to get out gave him a certain clarity.
Nothing he'd known at Stantone could compare to the clean, shimmering style of the ship. Even the giant war vessels that had docked at the edge of town a few years back, the ones that had impressed Chad and Jared so much they'd spent a whole afternoon sitting in the dust the other side of the fence just watching them, seemed clunky and clumsily put together.
And then, Jeff led him past a window, a big clear window full up of beautiful black space and stardust. Jared stumbled to a halt, staring open-mouthed.
He had never seen anything like it.
Jeff's hand came down on his shoulder to move him along, then he stopped. He gave Jared a few moment's peace, just let him look. Soldiers and crew bustled around them, but they all gave Jeff a respectfully wide berth.
Swallowing hard, his eyes still on a fragment of pitted rock that drifted past the window like it was underwater, Jared said, "Can you show me Stantone? I mean, my planet?"
Jeff cleared his throat. "We left it someway back. I'm sorry."
Space was so big, so stupidly big, that Jared had a sudden fear that he wouldn't be able to find Stantone even if he did somehow get himself a shuttle to escape in. How was he supposed to find home when there was so much space in between him and it?
His eyes pricked with tears, and he turned his face away sharply before Jeff could see. If Jeff noticed, he didn't say anything. He just gripped Jared's shoulder and got him moving again.
They ended up in a section of the star-cruiser that was quieter and emptier than the rest. There were soldiers on guard, and their uniforms were distinct from the grunts who'd dragged Jared on board. It wasn't hard to figure out that they were almost at Doctor Nekrotik's quarters.
Jared's heartbeat picked up. With effort, he kept his breathing level. He wetted his lips, and considered his options. There was a junction up ahead, one with no guards posted. If Jared could disable Jeff, he'd have a couple of seconds to disappear down the corridor before the other guards were on him. His eyes dropped to the blaster at Jeff's hip, tantalizingly available.
Muscles tensed, Jared readied himself to make his move.
"You really want me to sedate you again?" Jeff said easily. "C'mon, you're smarter than that." Jeff grinned when Jared glanced at him. "Personal bodyguard," he said, like it explained everything.
After that, it was too late, because he was taking Jared in to Doctor Nekrotik's quarters.
It wasn't like Jared was expecting. He didn't know what precisely he'd been expecting the quarters of a tyrannical, mass-murdering sonofabitch to look like, but not this. They were spacious and tidy, dimly lit with pale blue lights. A big black double bed took up an impressive amount of room, and the wall at the far end was glass, offering an unobstructed view of the starscape that was both exquisite and strangely perilous, like Jared could melt right through the glass into the void if he wasn't careful.
"I'd leave you loose," said Jeff, cuffs glinting in his hand, "but I don't wanna have to deal with however you decide to express how pissed you are."
"Hey, I'll behave, promise," said Jared. "Don't tie me up, man. C'mon, where'm I gonna go? I'll be good, I swear."
Jeff maneuvered him to a chair and fixed him to it. "Sorry, kid. What can I say? I'm just a paranoid bastard."
He left Jared like that: cuffed to a chair, facing the stars, and waiting for Doctor Nekrotik. It didn't matter how reluctant Jeff seemed to be doing it, he still left Jared like that.
:::
The pit in Jared's stomach, where all his hopeless and scared feelings sat, never went away. But, he got bored too. Scared and bored was a pretty interesting combination of things to feel. He felt sick waiting for Doctor Nekrotik, sick with the anticipation that something bad was coming for him and he didn't know what it'd do to him. But he was also fed up with the stars. Enough hours pass, and even the most stunning vistas start to get a little old.
It was silent in Doctor Nekrotik's quarters. The hum of star cruiser became white noise, lodged inside Jared's head, until he couldn't unthread it from the quiet anymore. It was silent in the quarters, and it was silent the other side of the door too.
The star cruiser never went close enough to any of the planets for Jared to see more than a pinprick of light, though he supposed the inhabitants liked it that way, because when Doctor Nekrotik dropped in for a visit, it was usually fatal on a massive scale. And it wasn't like Doctor Nekrotik had any personal items left lying around in the room that Jared could look at, and wonder about, and fantasize about destroying for him.
After so long that Jared almost felt tired enough to not care that he was in Doctor Nekrotik's quarters and go to sleep anyway, there were footsteps in the corridor outside. Adrenaline and the furious pumping of his heart woke Jared up again instantly. He couldn't catch breath around his own heartbeat, couldn't tear his eyes off the door.
Maybe it was just Jeff, come to check on him. Maybe it was Welling, orchestrating a heroic and daring rescue. Jared would have hoped for anyone other than Doctor Nekrotik, anyone at all, but it was Doctor Nekrotik's quarters, which of course meant he was the one most likely to be turning up.
The large, glass eyes of Doctor Nekrotik's gasmask reminded Jared of an insect, especially in the blue light and starshine. It definitely didn't feel like anything human looking out at Jared.
"Come near me and I'll rip your head off. With my teeth," said Jared, straining against his handcuffs, lips pulled back in a feral grin. "C'mon, fucking try it."
"Save the dramatics for when they're actually required," said Nekrotik. He unclasped the mask from the back of his head, and drew it away from his face, and Jared's brain did that funny little half-step again, fumbling with the idea that someone so evil could be so very pretty.
"Your virtue's safe tonight, I promise." Free of the gasmask's respirator, Nekrotik's voice sounded tired and waspish.
"Imma kill you," said Jared. "You know that? You do whatever you want, but I'm gonna live the rest of my life, looking forward to the day I kill you."
Nekrotik rolled his eyes. "At least you're on topic."
He crossed to the huge window, touched a gloved finger to the corner, and a red grid flickered across the glass, offering inset views of planet systems and highlighting each significant star. Jared was knocked temporarily silent at the sight of it, the mass of detail. So many little planets - every one of them probably thriving with life - just in this corner of the galaxy.
"Pick one," said Nekrotik.
Jared glared at him. "Fuck you."
"Pick one," said Nekrotik again, twitching an impatient finger at Jared.
"Obraxus," said Jared, and it was his voice, and it came from his brain because it was Obraxus he'd been looking at on the star-chart, but he couldn't believe he'd actually said it. He'd intended to say no. He'd had another colorful rejoinder all ready on his tongue, when, instead, he'd simply obeyed. He'd done as Nekrotik told him, simply opened up for him.
It was terrifying. Jared felt cold and helpless, and whatever he'd been afraid of before was nothing in the shadow of knowing that Doctor Nekrotik could take the 'no' right out of his head.
"Obraxus," said Nekrotik. "Good choice." He touched the small dot on the glass, and a close-up of the planet filled the screen, turning in a slow orbit to give Jared a proper look at its yellow-green terrain. "Home to 1.2 billion people, rich in garric-palm oil, and with an impressive history of folk music." Nekrotik nodded, almost approvingly, then glanced at Jared. "Next time you try to kill me, you'll fail. It won’t be a pleasant experience for you. And then I'll bomb Obraxus to smoking cinders."
Jared's jaw dropped. "What? No, you can't-"
"This isn't my poker face, Jared. 1.2 billion people are hoping you'll believe that." He gave a small, elegant shrug of his shoulders. "If you wanna gamble, that's okay. We'll take Obraxus off the chart, and I'll just keep bombing planets until you take me seriously. Defy me in any way, and they'll burn."
He cocked his head at Jared, as if waiting for some response, but Jared was too busy choking on disbelieving hatred. So Nekrotik shrugged again, said, "I'm glad we could have this little conversation. I'll speak to you later."
He fixed his mask back in place, and went out the door, and Jared was left watching Obraxus spin slowly in front of him.
:::
Doctor Nekrotik didn't come back to his quarters that night. Jared was only aware of a new day coming in when the dim blue light in the room progressed to a soft yellow.
It was beginning to dawn on Jared how monumentally his future was fucked. He was never going to see Stantone again. He was pretty sure he'd left dishes in the sink back at Stantone, and they were just going to sit there, while Chad rotted in some faraway mine and Jared was held prisoner by Doctor Nekrotik, and eventually squatters would take over the empty apartment, and the dishes would get thrown out, and -
Jared was never going home.
Stantone was a shithole, and Chad was a jerk, and Jared missed them both so fiercely it was a hot, open wound in his chest.
The door opened. Jared's head shot up. It was only Jeff, and Jared was relieved.
"Don't s'pose you got any sleep," said Jeff. He bent over to unlock the cuffs at Jared's wrists. "Gently. Ease your shoulders back."
The muscles in Jared's shoulders and back were killing him, tight and locked, but his eyes snapped to Jeff's blaster. Freedom was right there, just a few inches from his fingertips. As soon as his first hand was free, Jared snatched for the gun. Jeff caught his elbow easily, twisted it around, jerking Jared's hand meaningfully in the direction of his shoulder blade.
"You just don't know when to quit, do you, kid?" he said. He flexed his grip on Jared, as if to make the point, then let him go. "C'mon, gotta get you on the shuttle."
"What shuttle?" Jared demanded, as Jeff walked him out into the corridor. "Where the hell are you taking me?"
"Fleet's breaking up and heading back to previous stations, but Doctor Nekrotik's going back to base, and, you and me, we're going with him."
"I don't want to," said Jared, and he didn't care that he sounded like a petulant teen. It wasn't like he had any other way of expressing his vehement disapproval. "Look, just let me loose. Please. I don't wanna go with him. I'll try to kill him again, I will, and he'll kill me, and billions of other people, and I know you don't want that."
Jeff's gaze stayed fixed forward, though his jaw was clenched, and the light in his eyes was flinty. "Don't make the mistake of thinking you know me, kid."
Loyal to the day they died, that's what people said about Doctor Nekrotik's army, and Welling might have been evidence that it wasn't so, but Jeff's tone made a compelling argument otherwise.
The corridors of the star cruiser were even busier than before, alive with the organized hustle of an army on the move. A path sprang open among the soldiers as Jeff marched through, dragging Jared in tow. Stationed at the shuttle boarding point was a small unit of the elite guard. They saluted smartly as Jeff passed, and Jeff ignored them.
Inside, the shuttle was compact, and it felt pretty full with Jeff and Jared, plus Doc Wisdom and another guy that Jared hadn't seen before and who seemed to be the pilot. He was a short, thickly-built guy, talking a mile a minute on comm.s, and most of it seemed to be unfriendly suggestions as to what the person he was addressing could do with their request. As Jared stumbled on board, the guy glanced over at him, pulled a face, and continued abusing the other person on comm.s.
"Kane, you wanna wrap that up?" said Jeff. "He's due in a couple minutes, and trust me, you don't wanna hold him up today."
Jared found himself in the seat next to Wisdom, who smiled at him in an unwelcoming manner, and said, "Be warned, you act up, Jeff and I'll have a little race to see who can stick a needle of sedatives in your neck first."
"Could you make it something lethal instead?" said Jared. "I'm getting a whole new appreciation of the phrase 'fate worse than death'."
Wisdom laughed. "Friend, you have no idea."
Jared saw Jeff straighten up just a few seconds before Doctor Nekrotik swept on board the shuttle. Hood pulled up and mask in place, Nekrotik flexed his gloved hands, and the shuttle door slid smoothly closed behind him. With a brisk nod at Jeff, Nekrotik took a seat, and Jeff crossed to sit beside him.
"Any time you're ready, Kane," Nekrotik said, and it was hard to tell whether the note of threat it held was deliberate, or whether he was so used to throwing cryptically menacing comments that it was his default mode of conversation. Either way, Kane obeyed immediately, and without any backchat.
The shuttle's engine thrummed, built gradually to a fluid vibration. Disengagement from the star-cruiser was accomplished with the barest jolt. Kane handled the instruments with an expertise that Jared was grudgingly impressed by. His commands and responses were delivered in a professionally neutral tone that was entirely unlike the shit-eating obnoxiousness he'd displayed earlier.
Informality had been replaced with cool detachment the second Doctor Nekrotik had entered, and the atmosphere remained dead as the shuttle shot away from the star cruiser. There was no conversation, not even any wordless interaction that Jared could see, and instead he focused on the weightless beauty the shuttle seemed to hold for a moment, like it was trapped in a bubble, before Kane exerted some control and sent it streaming through the stars. They swept out of the shadow of the star cruiser, and Jared caught a glimpse of the silver cloud of Doctor Nekrotik's fleet.
It was a fitting fleet for the murdering bastard, Jared thought. All those shiny, pretty vessels, which did such an awesome job of hiding that inside, they were built for killing.
He'd had his chance back at the mine. He'd had his blaster pressed to the soft pale skin at the back of Doctor Nekrotik's neck, and he didn't care how immortal and invulnerable they said the guy was, Jared was betting burning a hole through the spinal column would do the trick nicely. He should have killed the evil sonofabitch back then. Pulled the trigger and blown him away, and everything would have been just fine.
With that beautiful thought in mind, Jared looked over at Doctor Nekrotik again, and was more than a little surprised to see him slumped in his seat. Even as Jared watched, he could see Nekrotik's head lolling towards Jeff's shoulder. It was weird: Doctor Nekrotik was falling asleep against his personal bodyguard, who was holding very still but pretending not to notice, and it would have made Jared smile, except it was Doctor Nekrotik.
Eventually, Jeff snuck a glance at Nekrotik. He tentatively waved a hand in front of the gasmask, and got no response.
"He's asleep," announced Jeff, and, beside him, Jared heard Wisdom let out a breath. "I'm gonna put him to bed."
'Asleep' didn't seem a strong enough word for the state Nekrotik was in. He didn't even twitch while Jeff unbuckled the mask, and scooped him over his shoulder in a careful fireman's lift. Slung over Jeff's shoulder, arms hanging loose over his head, Doctor Nekrotik was so absolutely still that he could easily have been dead. Jared took a savage pleasure in daydreaming that that was the case. Black little heart exploded in his chest, and Jeff was going to take his miserable corpse, with its cruelly pretty face, and throw him out the airlock.
While Jeff headed towards the back of the shuttle with Nekrotik, Kane flicked a button, and music filled the air. Doc Wisdom pulled a book out from under his seat, and got comfortable. Jared glanced around uncertainly.
"Kane keeps a stash of girly mags in the panel up there," said Wisdom, jerking his chin in the direction, while his gaze stayed on his book. "Careful though, the pages might be sticky."
"Screw you, Doc," said Kane cheerfully. "And don't go offering out my porn." His feet were up on the control panel, Jared noted. They definitely hadn't been there when Nekrotik was conscious. They were like goddamn kids with the teacher out of the classroom. Kane looked towards the back, where Jeff had reappeared. "How is he?"
"He'll be better back on home-soil," said Jeff. "How soon?"
Kane shrugged. "Couple hours."
"That'll work," said Jeff, nodding.
He sat down on the floor, with his back to the door, and Jared got a very clear mental image of Nekrotik, lying helpless and unaware and softly sleeping, just a little behind Jeff. It was only Jeff between Jared and a Doctor Nekrotik that could be killed. Jared stared at the door with an intensity that soon made his vision swim. Disable Jeff, step over his body, get at Doctor Nekrotik. He could burn a hole in Nekrotik before the bastard could open those pretty green eyes of his. It'd be a kinder death than Nekrotik had given countless others.
"Jared?" said Jeff.
Caught out, Jared's eyes snapped to him. There was a grim understanding in Jeff's expression. No judgment, just implacable resolve.
"You know how to play Aurigean Five Card Brag?" said Jeff. He tugged a deck of cards from his uniform pocket, offered them towards Jared. "Might pass the time a little better than thinking about things that aren't gonna happen."
It registered with Jared then that both Wisdom and Kane were focused on him. Three men in a small shuttle, and not one of them wouldn't give their own life to stop Jared reaching Nekrotik.
Not yet, Jared thought, surprising himself with the steady calmness of his own inner voice. Doctor Nekrotik would die, but not today.
He sat down, cross-legged, opposite Jeff, and Jeff grinned, and began to deal the cards.
Behind Jared, Kane laughed, and said, "Oh son, you're gonna regret that. Nobody tell you what a dirty cheat Jeff is?"
"Too late to warn the kid now," said Jeff, and Kane laughed again, and turned the music up louder.
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