Doomsday Girl: Last Stand, #9

By Blaze Ward

Brianna's past catches up with her, when one of the men who programmed her originally captures her.

 

Wyatt leads the team to rescue her.

 

And things will get ugly before he's done.

 

Book Nine of the Last Stand, a shiny, new space western science fiction adventure series full of bright characters, messy worlds, and all manner of ethical conundrums.

 

Start first with Lost Dreams and then continue on and pick up the rest of this series!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Knotted Road Press
• Release date: Sep 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781644703717

Blaze Ward

Blaze Ward writes science fiction in the Alexandria Station universe (Jessica Keller, The Science Officer,  The Story Road, etc.) as well as several other science fiction universes, such as Star Dragon, the Dominion, and more. He also writes odd bits of high fantasy with swords and orcs. In addition, he is the Editor and Publisher of Boundary Shock Quarterly Magazine. You can find out more at his website www.blazeward.com, as well as Facebook, Goodreads, and other places. Blaze's works are available as ebooks, paper, and audio, and can be found at a variety of online vendors. His newsletter comes out regularly, and you can also follow his blog on his website. He really enjoys interacting with fans, and looks forward to any and all questions—even ones about his books!

Book preview

Scene One

Brianna McLaren. As good a name as any. And a nice place she could hide. The face in the mirror was even one she mostly recognized.

She wasn’t sure if she could ever go back to being Nataliya Horowitz. Those men had found a way to get her listed as a fugitive from imperial justice, in spite of her merely being an escaped slave and programmed assassin they’d been building to kill Lorastir officials.

Folks angry that a jumped-up emperor that had stripped them of their lands and titles when he conquered Zaddinul and replaced them with folks friendly to Lorastir.

She studied the face in the mirror and wondered who she was today.

Nataliya was still there, if she looked hard enough, but that opened the door to all the pain and memories of the things those men had done to her. Surgery to adjust the bones in her face. Surgery to adjust her mind.

Today, as with many days, she wasn’t sure how many others there were inside here with her. Assassins. Bimbos. Artists. Scared little girls.

It was bad.

Her sister Presley had experimented with things. Calmed certain parts. Almost quieted the voices.

Not enough. And the two of them were on the run, so many light-centuries from the homes they had known. The lives they had lived.

Living publicly as man and wife because the bounties on their heads listed sisters.

It had kept them safe this long.

Some mornings were hard.

Still, they had made it this far.

Brianna finished drying her hair and tying it back to keep it out of her eyes. It had grown long enough that she had considered cutting it short. Way short, though not as short as Constanz kept his.

Something new.

She had dressed in browns today, after the shower. Pleated skirt to her ankles with two layers of ruffles and petticoats underneath, both of them loose enough to allow her to move if she needed to, but hiding her silhouette so no one could see how muscular her legs were.

Sensible boots with a low walking heel. White dress shirt under a jacket much lighter than the skirt. Creamed coffee to hot chocolate. She left the neck unbuttoned, but not deep enough to show anything off.

There was nobody she needed to distract. At least beyond herself.

One last look, telling her ghosts to behave, and Brianna emerged from the bathroom, heading quickly to her room to hang her towel and robe, then headed forward on the ship for coffee. Something smelled lovely, so maybe Auntie Maru had baked sweet rolls this morning.

Others were up and eating. She’d had the last shower because today had been a day to stare at herself in the mirror and try to remember who she was.

Who she’d been.

How they’d gotten here.

Tessa nodded as Brianna grabbed some coffee from the pot and a cinnamon roll still steaming a little, dripping with cream cheese frosting. She made herself tear off a small bite, rather than cram the entire thing into her mouth at once.

It was a close thing.

How are you feeling this morning? Tessa asked, possibly seeing something in Brianna’s eyes as she sat across the table.

Brianna had Laney on her left and Fin on her right. Wyatt ignored them and shoveled oatmeal. Auntie sat at the head of the table and daintily picked off pieces of her own cinnamon roll, eating them with almost pornographic delight.

It’s bad, Brianna replied quietly.

She could be honest with these people. They had sheltered her and her sister from terrible storms so far.

Constanz perked up, seated opposite Maru and also enjoying a roll, though with a knife and fork. Brianna waved a hand to forestall anything.

No worse than many days, she said. I didn’t sleep well. I think it’s the excitement of spending some time in port and seeing the city.

They’d landed on Glaford yesterday, late in the local day. The planet was sophisticated enough to have a proper starport on the edge of the capital city of Padun. Tessa was hauling boxes of something, both legitimate cargo and a few crates that had been stashed inside bulkheads where they wouldn’t be found, save by a concentrated search.

You be careful out there, Tessa reminded her, sounding like her and Constanz’s mother, though memories of what the woman actually looked like were thin and faded.

Brianna still wasn’t sure if she should let go of Nataliya forever, living as Brianna. On the one hand, it would be safer.

On the other, did she really want to forget all the good things she’d known growing up?

I will be, Brianna nodded. Armed and dangerous, as always.

That seemed to mollify Tessa. Padun wasn’t known to be a dangerous place. Like Bernadette, Glaford was close to the Hanrigan Gulf that connected the Hawkswold Sector back to the Core Region where humanity had been born.

Places like Lorastir, who had conquered Altenfeld, then Zaddinul. Inleah remained a neutral independent, while Ergrove, who held so much of the Periphery, had a large enough fleet to keep Lorastir from attempting to unite all of mankind under a single banner.

As much as half of Padun’s population had been born in the Core, reputedly. Sophisticated and urbane, when so much of the rest of Hawkswold was a more frontier place.

It would be nice to walk the streets of a modern city again. Last Stand was wonderful, but so many of their adventures took them to places where the roads might be gravel, at best. If there were even roads in the first place.

Brianna needed some time to rest.

Scene Two

Constanz had mostly recovered from being ill with the aptly named Red Cough. The serum had taken hold before too much damage had been done to his lungs, and the crew of Last Stand had made sure that he ate well and didn’t stress himself over much of anything.

And there would be, however unfortunately, legends told of Doc McLaren and his heroic struggle to save the lives of so many sailors at Atwick. He could not escape them.

But he had sworn an oath.

Padun was almost like being in one of the smaller suburbs of Chaulte on Falorea, the Lorastir imperial capital city. It lacked the verve of the urban core but had many of the accoutrements. A civilized place, after so long hiding in some of the worst parts of Hawkswold.

Of course, that hiding had gotten them as far as Last Stand and Tessa Sladek, so Constanz didn’t begrudge the grit and grime he and his sister/wife had struggled through. They had a home now.

Still, roads were paved with actual asphalt, marked with granite curbs cut and placed to square off concrete sidewalks. Shops had glass windows displaying goods. Cafés spilled out into the glorious, late morning sun. People dressed in modern fashions with color, when so many