Hyperspeed Dreams by Anna Carven

Chapter One

Tasha foughtto keep from trembling as she raised her hand to knock.

She took a deep breath and paused, allowing the sounds and smells of the jungle to invade her senses. The orchestral drone of crickets meshed with birdsong as a gentle breeze rustled through the canopy above.

She inhaled the warm air, which was rich with the scent of humus and soil, threaded through with a hint of something heady and fragrant; a flowering vine perhaps, or blooms on a tree heralding the budding of sweet fruit in summer.

She caught a hint of earthy rain-smell and found it comforting.

Home.

Only it wasn’t.

She rapped twice on the old wooden double doors, which were painted a cheery shade of aqua.

Footsteps echoed from inside, followed by two deep male voice.

Felix? Kylian?

Anticipation coursed through her. Funny, she never got like this.

Suddenly, the doors were swinging open, and two brats from her past life were standing right in front of her.

Tall, lanky, gracefully disheveled, and quick-tempered Kylian, who was immediately suspicious.

Funny, generous, big, intimidating Felix, who had lost any trace of his good nature.

They were both orphans, just like Tasha and Alexis. Both fostered by Virginie when they were still in diapers.

Now they were grown men, and there was a hardness to them that Tasha had never seen before, and that was a good thing.

“What do you want?” Kylian demanded in rapid-fire creole as his eyes widened in semi-recognition. Then he shook his head and blinked. He stared at her for what seemed like an eternity. “Merde, I’m going crazy. You… what the… Tasha? You’re…”

“You’re not dead,” Felix blurted.

“No,” Tasha agreed. “I’m not.”

There were no hugs, no exclamations of surprise, no tears, no questions. Just stunned silence as the brothers stared at Tasha, not knowing what to make of her.

She’d changed before she’d boarded the Speedflyer from Lagos to Saint-Denis, trading her skimpy white dress for something more practical—a simple black tank top and Syntech jeans that were tucked into Neoflex boots—all stolen from one of the retail outlets near the skyport. She carried no weapon, and yet the boys she’d once called her brothers immediately pushed forward, forcing her to retreat her back to the edge of the veranda.

They were suspicious.

They were taking no chances.

One might even call them hostile.

“Tasha. It is you.” Felix’s dark eyes narrowed. Tasha discreetly looked him up and down. He’d filled out over the years, packing muscle onto his once scrawny frame. He wore simple grey camo trousers and a white muscle tank that revealed vividly colored tattoos of planets and galaxies on his forearms. “The look on your face tells me you’re not here for a family reunion.”

All of a sudden, Felix and Kylian looked very intimidating.

Tasha could have dropped both of them in a heartbeat, but she didn’t want to do that.

They were both already spooked.

She caught a glimpse of a gun bulge in Felix’s left pocket. She saw the old scars and calluses on Kylian’s bare hands.

She knew that Kylian had been in the Federation Military, reaching the rank of Private before he was dishonorably discharged for refusing to obey orders.

Despite earning his degree in molecular engineering, Felix had failed to find a job in a highly competitive field.

So they’d started a space salvage business together—Castaways Spacefaring Retrievals. She knew this because Gage had drip-fed her information about her family to reward her for good behavior.

Tasha put her hands up, showing her empty palms, trying to look as unthreatening as possible. “I know. Showing up here after everything that’s happened… after all this time… it’s beyond crazy. I don’t blame you for being suspicious. But you need to listen to me. There’s no time to—” She was cut short by a scuff of feet and a flicker of movement in the periphery of her vision.

“What is going on here? There is a visitor and you didn’t even tell me?” The woman’s voice was more brittle than Tasha remembered, bit it was the same tone she remembered so well—stern but warm, tough but laced with a hint of amusement, as if nothing in the world could ever shake her.

“Maman, please go inside,” Felix said gently, but Virginie Descalles was having none of it.

The small woman pushed through the front door, past the brothers, tapping her cane on the wooden deck. Unhurried, she shuffled across the verandah, looking resplendent in her mauve cardigan and floral skirt, her necklace of blue and green glass beads shimmering in the afternoon sunlight. Her once-mahogany hair was now silver, and she stooped a little more these days, but she possessed the same calm, comforting aura that Tasha remembered. The world could be going up in flames around them, and somehow, everything would be okay.

Tap. Tap. Virginie shuffled forward until she was staring directly in front of Tasha. The brothers fell silent.

“What took you so long, my Tasha?” was all Mama asked, not waiting for an answer as she motioned toward the doors. “What are we doing standing outside like idiots? Come inside. Sit down. I have your favorite tamarind soda and bonbon la rouroute.”

Tasha froze as a tendril of scent wafted to her on the warm breeze, hitting her in the gut like a sucker punch. It was the aroma of Mama’s kitchen, mixed with the comforting wooden smell of the house.

Bonbon la rouroute were the little arrowroot cookies Tasha had loved so much as a child.

Why was there a funny feeling in her chest, as if something were squeezing her inside? It was almost like physical pain.

“Come, Tasha. You look tired.” Mama’s sweet voice called to her, cutting through the urgency, the tension; the wound-up, ruthless, hard-bitten Helborg shell…

Nearly putting a crack in it.

But Tasha was stronger than that. She buried that side of her beneath years of brutal training and discipline.

You have no idea, Mama, and you don’t ever need to know.

“No.” Her voice became icy as the Link on her wrist buzzed sharply.

Alert.

It wasn’t her link, of course. She’dstolen it from a hapless passenger on the Speedflyer from Lagosand had itwiped and reset by a black-market tech maestro at Port Louis Station. That same maestro had sold her a handful of intrusion sensors that she’d placed around the perimeter of the property on her way in.

Now they were telling her that something—or someone—was out there.

Purposeful human movement detected.

It could have been anyone, even the local kids from down the road playing at the edges of the jungle—just like she and Alexis had done when they were children—but Tasha knew better.

Three males, one female. Weapons present. Probable hostile intent.

Praetorian mercs. Had to be. They didn’t waste time.

Thank the stars she’d arrived before they did, although she suspected Felix and Kylian could give the mercs a run for their money if they were attacked.

“I know it’s a big thing to ask, but I need you all to trust me,” she said softly. “You have to get out of here right now. People are coming to try and kill you.”

“But—” Felix rose up before her, looking like he was about to raise hell. “People? What fucking people?”

“There’s no time to explain. You have to listen to me. Please.”

“No, Tasha. What the hell? You don’t just show up out of the blue after all this time and start telling us this crazy shit. Explain—”

“Quiet.” It was Virginie who silenced them all, her voice ringing with authority, cutting through their bickering. “Tasha is a good girl.” She looked Tasha straight in the eye, and for a moment it felt like Mama was seeing right through her fucked-up soul. “The authorities called off the search after only two days. Said you’d probably drowned in the ocean. I didn’t believe them. You are a strong swimmer. You know the conditions on the beaches; you are not an idiot, my Tasha. After you disappeared, I never stopped searching for you. I always believed you would come back to us one day.” She took Tasha’s hands into hers. Tasha almost recoiled—she knew how hard and inhuman her enhanced fingers must feel—but if Mama noticed, she didn’t show it. “I am just overjoyed to see you alive, ma pupuce. Whatever has happened to you, I do not believe for one minute that you would ever forget us or do anything to harm us. If you say we are in mortal danger, then what choice do we have but to trust you?” She turned to the brothers. “It is as she says. If we have to leave, then we have to leave. These things can always be made clear later… once the danger has passed.”

“This is insane,” Kylian protested. “I don’t doubt that you really are Tasha, but you were just a kid when you disappeared. We have no idea what you’ve been up to all these years. People change. How are we supposed to trust anything you fucking say… our lives are under threat? What the hell is this crap?”

Tasha thought hard and fast. She could understand how crazy the whole thing was, but…

Time was running out.

Somehow, she had to convince them to get out of here.

“All I’m asking is that you go to a safe place for a little while. What have you got to lose? If I’m wrong, it’s just an extra trip. If I’m right, which I am, you get to live. I’m telling you, Kylian, if you stay here, there is a chance that you, Felix, and Mama will all die. Are you willing to take that risk? Look at me. Right now. Look at my face. Do I look like I’m telling you bullshit? Just hear me out. Please.” I don’t want to have to use violence to get you off this damn island, but if it comes to that…

She held up her link and showed them the sensor data.

Kylian’s eyes widened. He looked at her, then at Felix, then at Mama. The three of them shared a glance, and some sort of silent communication passed between them.

Tasha felt a stab of envy.

What would it feel like to have that kind of connection with someone?

“Fine,” Kylian said at last. “But if we go, it’ll be to a safe place of our choosing.”

A puff of relief escaped Tasha’s lips. “Okay. As a temporary solution, that might work. I am aware that you run a space salvage business.”

“How did you know this?” Kylian’s dark eyes narrowed.

“It doesn’t matter. Can you get her on a transport to one of your salvage ships in Earth’s orbit as soon as possible? I need to handle things here. I’ll contact you once I’m done.”

Unexpectedly, Felix shook his head and laughed. “Go off-planet? Are you serious? This is so fucking insane. What are we supposed to do now?” His tone was only half serious. “Hey, Kylian, we can take her to your Isla.”

“Isla?” Tasha frowned.

“Kylian’s ex,” Felix explained. “She does some freelance salvage work for us in Earth’s orbit. She is very good at hiding from Federation surveillance.”

“Can we trust her?”

“She is the most honest person I have ever met.” Kylian crossed his heart mockingly. “Swear to God. There’s no bad blood between us. We’re still friends. I’d trust her with my own life… and yours. And even his.” He gave his brother a sidelong glance. Felix shrugged. It was almost comical. He and Kylian were as different as night and day. As kids, they’d been notorious for their fiery disputes, which would be quickly forgotten as anger and punches and tears turned to laughter.

If they were anything like she remembered, they weren’t lying.

Tasha shrugged wryly. “Looks like I have no choice.”

“Everything will be fine. We are not idiots, and we would not put Mama in danger,” Felix reassured her. “Besides, Isla and her crew have guns,” Felix added. “Lots of guns. And Maman likes her.”

“Isla is a good girl,” Virginie said sagely. “One day, Kylian will regret his choice to leave her.”

“Non. She’s too much for me.” Kylian puffed out his cheeks and ran a hand through his tousled black hair. “She needs some sort of a hardass. That is not me, apparently.” An ironic laugh escaped his lips. “No, I am getting too old for this shit. I just want to find a nice island girl to settle down with.”

Tasha’s Link buzzed insistently. She looked the brothers up and down. Despite their constant ribbing and joking around, there was a hard, steely glint in their eyes.

Even though Tasha and Alexis and the boys had always fought—a lot—they’d always stood up for her.

And running a space salvage company was not the kind of work that made one soft.

The situation wasn’t ideal, but Tasha had no choice but to trust them.

Damn, that was the second time in less than twenty-four hours that she’d had to trust someone.

“You’d better get a move on, then,” she said quietly. “Take her to this Isla. Deactivate all your Network-connected devices. My enemies will be looking for you, and they have a lot of resources at their disposal. Give me Isla’s spacecraft registration number. I will find you when it is safe to do so.”

Felix’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll come back and help you. Who the are you expecting? The Syndicate or something? What the hell kind of business have you gotten into, Tash?” He puffed out his cheeks. “But if you are interested, we also have many guns.”

“Not in my house,” Mama growled.

“Of course not, Maman. I will bring them from—”

“No,” Tasha snapped. “You two stay the hell away from here. I’ll handle this.”

The brothers exchanged a strange look, but didn’t say a word.

“Get out of here, now.”

“I am ready,” Mama declared, pulling her thin cardigan around her shoulders. She tapped her cane resolutely on the hard concrete floor. “If we have to go, then we go.”

The stolen Link on Tasha’s wrist went nuts, buzzing so fast she thought it might explode.

The Praetorian’s agents were here, advancing on her childhood sanctuary; her people.

It could have been her worst fucking nightmare, but this was where Tasha was in her element. She would kill them all before they even got a chance to look at her family.

“Take her out the back, up through the mango orchard and into the garage. You have vehicles here, don’t you?”

“The old sun-powered land beast and a couple of hover-bikes,” Felix informed her as Kylian lifted the little old lady into his arms and took her back through the house. He uttered voice-commands as he went, shutting off every single light source in the house.

“You’d better be serious about being able to handle this,” her brother growled. “I know you’ve always been stubborn as hell, but this isn’t an ordinary—”

Tasha raised her right arm, deliberately showing Felix the inside of her forearm, where the interface seams and her model number were clearly visible. There was no point in hiding it. “I’m not ordinary. I’ll handle it,” she said quietly. “Anyone tries to hurt us, I’ll fucking kill them.”

Felix’s eyes widened. He let out a low whistle of surprise. “You haven’t changed much, have you? Still crazy.”

“Get the hell out of here, Felix,” she scowled, quickly lowering her arm to hide the tremors, which were growing worse by the minute.

Never mind.

She would deal with that later.

But now, for the first time in her life, she was going to bite the hand that had fed her.

And something about that felt so fucking good.