Beck made a sour face, but he clicked a fob, and the cuffs released. He looked skeptical that this would work—maybe he believed that his tormentor was playing them, saying what he thought they wanted to hear. But he didn’t know that Abelardus was surfing around in the man’s head.
“Follow us out,” Alisa said, as Medric leaped to his feet. “Turn toward the rear of the ship and sneak out around the back of the hangar as we go forward.”
“Got it,” he said.
Alisa waved for Mica, Beck, and Abelardus to walk out with her. She turned her back on the man. If he couldn’t escape the hangar on his own, then he didn’t deserve his position.
They found Leonidas standing near the hangar exit with, predictably, Solstice standing entirely too close to him for comfort. For Alisa’s comfort. She had no idea if it bothered Leonidas. He had his armor to protect him. At least she wasn’t massaging his chest plate this time. Her two armed androids stood by the door, keeping an eye on the situation. Nobody shouted and pointed behind Alisa’s group, so she assumed Medric had disappeared, or was staying out of sight until everyone left.
Leblanc was nowhere in sight. Had Solstice let him walk right out? Maybe she knew he was a faithful renter of one of her warehouses.
“I’m pleased that you were able to escape even though we couldn’t remotely lower their forcefield in time,” Solstice was saying to Leonidas as Alisa came within earshot. “I trust you’ll reconsider my offer in the future. I would so enjoy having you. And I can’t tell you how delighted I am by the damage that’s been done to Terra Dhwan. I’ve got footage coming out of there, and it’ll bring excellent ratings on the networks. I’ve already sold it to an off-world media corporation. They won’t take the dinosaur maulings, but this is simply news. Delightful news.” She gripped his arm with two hands. “I saw your fight with that android. It was also delightful. Bravo and Bruno may have gotten a little nervous.” She grinned and tilted her head toward her own androids.
They gazed back blandly. Alisa highly doubted their programming would allow them to feel nervous. If they felt anything, it ought to be jealousy, since their employer was trying to replace them.
“I’ll remember your offer,” Leonidas said, “but I’m currently needed elsewhere.” He inclined his head toward Alisa.
“Surely, she can’t deserve such a fine specimen as you.”
Alisa was tempted anew to punch the woman, but she had let them use her ship. And it hadn’t even been a trap. Maybe Solstice had anticipated the “carnage” that would happen when Leonidas went to rescue people and had been drooling at the prospect of good vid footage. She’d probably had a hacker working to get access to the Terra Dhwan feeds as soon as her ship left. The involvement by the chef’s team must feel like a wonderful bonus.
“She deserves much,” Leonidas said, meeting Alisa’s eyes. “More than I can give her.”
Solstice sneered.
Alisa ignored her, wanting instead to hug Leonidas, to make the sadness in his gaze go away. She also wanted to object to the idea that she deserved anything special. He was the one who deserved a chance to be a fully functioning person again.
“Normally, I just have women who irk me shot,” Solstice said, “and that wardrobe irks me even when she’s not speaking, but since you’ve caused great distress to my rivals, I’m going to be magnanimous and let you all go on your way.” She noticed Abelardus and turned a speculative eye upon him, looking him up and down from hood to hem.
Alisa supposed it was too much to hope that he would get and accept a job offer, so she needn’t worry about going staff hunting.
Please, you would miss me dreadfully, he spoke into her mind. I wouldn’t deprive you of my company.
Ever?
You’ll grow bored of your broken cyborg soon and see the wisdom of me as an alternative who can please you in all manner of ways.
As Alisa hurried out the door, not wanting to linger lest Solstice change her mind, she decided she’d liked it better when Abelardus had been moody and not speaking to her.
She took comfort from Leonidas’s presence—he strode at her side, not looking back as they left Solstice’s hangar.
• • • • •
“You forgot to get your dinosaur head money, Captain,” Mica said, as Alisa and the others turned onto the docks, the bulky shape of the Star Nomad coming into view farther down.
Relieved to see her ship again, Alisa quickened her pace. “I was too happy to get out of there without being shot at to worry about it. Besides—” she patted a lumpy pocket, “—I still have the Bliss that Yumi gave me. If you’re worrying about that raise I promised you, this may cover it. As soon as I figure out how to sell it.”
“Your drug-dealer persona wasn’t terribly convincing. It’s possible you’re not qualified to be a criminal mastermind.”
“I’m stung.”
“Ouch,” Beck said, almost stumbling into a lamppost lining the walkway. “How do you walk in this dress?”
“It’s a robe,” Abelardus said, “and I walk in it easily, since I’m a bigger man than you and don’t trip over the hem.”
Since Beck’s nudity had been attracting strange looks—and the attention of spy boxes—Alisa had talked Abelardus into letting him borrow the Starseer robe. Since he wore hide trousers and a vest under it, it had seemed a reasonable request. Unfortunately, Beck walking barefoot in a black robe and tripping frequently still attracted strange looks.
“You mean you’re a taller man than I am,” Beck said, squinting at Abelardus.
“That too.” Abelardus smirked.
His mood had improved—if returning to his usual cocky self could be considered an improvement—since Alisa had agreed to chauffeur him around on his staff hunt.
I still don’t sense it, he said into her mind, losing his smirk. I doubt it’s on Cleon Moon anymore.
We’ll figure it out after we find—
Leonidas touched her arm, distracting her. He pointed toward the docks on the opposite side of the Nomad.
Bracing herself for police or Solstice’s androids heading them off because their boss had changed her mind about letting them go, Alisa did not expect to see a young black-robed person approaching. He carried a staff and a duffle bag over his shoulder while a long hoverboard floated after him on a leash.
Alisa halted. Her first thought was that this was one of the Starseers who had attacked the outpost and stolen the staff, but Abelardus ran forward, knocking Beck aside as he raced toward the young man.
“Ostberg,” he called, lifting a hand.
“Oh,” Alisa said. “He looks much different without his riding gear.”
And helmet. She hadn’t seen his face before.
Ostberg faltered, and the hoverboard bumped against his back. His face wrinkled in confusion as he saw Abelardus, or perhaps Abelardus without his robe, and then Beck following along behind.
“This is the contact from the warehouse?” Leonidas asked.
“Yes,” Alisa said.
She kept from running forward with thoughts of throttling him for information. That had likely been part of what had driven him off before. Besides, he’d promised her that only Durant knew Jelena’s whereabouts.
Abelardus touched Ostberg on the shoulder, but soon rushed past him. A tarp covered the hoverboard, and Ostberg looked uneasily around as Abelardus peeled back the corner. Alisa glimpsed a patch of wiry, curly hair before Abelardus dropped an arm over the tarp and laid his head next to the one on the pallet.
“I believe that’s Durant,” she said.
“The Durant we’ve been looking for?” Mica asked, stopping beside Alisa.
“I assume so. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be in a condition to tell us where Jelena went.” She glanced at Leonidas and lowered her voice—the morning had grown late enough that numerous people were walking to and from ships along the docks. “Or Thorian.”
Alisa continued forward, figuring they should take this meeting into the ship. E
ven if they were currently on reasonable terms with Solstice, that didn’t mean other unfriendly eyes couldn’t be about. As she walked, she opened her comm.
“Alejandro? Are you still aboard?”
She half-expected that he would have taken his belongings and left now that the staff was gone. But he answered her with a distracted, “Yes.”
“We have a patient for you.”
“I’m busy with research,” he said, his tone growing chilly. He was probably using the overpriced sys-net to hunt down staff sightings and spitefully charging everything to her.
“This patient might have some insight that will be useful to your research,” Alisa said, “if you can find a way to wake him up. We’re bringing him into the cargo hold.”
Alejandro closed the channel without answering. She hoped that meant he was coming to see for himself.
“He had a seizure this morning,” Ostberg was telling Abelardus as Alisa drew closer. “I didn’t know what to do. I realized…” He glanced at her. “I need help. I don’t know enough. And since the others are gone, I can’t even ask Lady Kim.”
“Gone?” Alisa asked, her hopes that Jelena might be somewhere in the dome wavering.
Ostberg was even younger than she had guessed. Thirteen or fourteen. His height made it easy to think him older, but that was not the face of anyone who had ever needed a shave.
“They left right away,” Ostberg said. “After the attack. In a ship.”
“So they’re not even on Cleon Moon anymore?” Alisa groped for something to grab for support and found Leonidas’s arm.
Ostberg shook his head distractedly, looking toward the Nomad’s cargo hatch. “Is the doctor in there?”
“Yes.” Alisa risked coming forward and gripping the boy’s arm, doubting that he would tear off again when he had Durant in tow. “Do you know where they went? Which planet or station?”
Ostberg met her eyes. “No. They didn’t tell me in case I was caught and questioned. But as I said, I believe Durant knows. He’s one of the senior staff, one of the planners.”
“Let’s get him inside,” Abelardus said, waving to the cargo hatch.
Alisa released Ostberg and stepped up to the sensor, though she couldn’t help but gaze out toward the docks and the city around them, feeling disappointed that Jelena hadn’t been here after all, at least not for more than passing through on the way to some ship. Some ship that could be headed anywhere in the system.
She touched the pocket that held Jelena’s bracelet. Her goal seemed farther away than ever.
The cargo hatch opened, the ramp unfurling next to her. Alejandro waited at the top of it. He had raced right down at the promise of research assistance, hadn’t he?
Alisa wondered if Durant might have insight into the other group of Starseers and where the staff had been taken, in addition to knowing where the children had gone. As odd as it seemed, she and Alejandro had the same goal now. Healing Durant.
“What happened?” Alejandro asked as Ostberg and Abelardus steered the hoverboard into the cargo hold.
As soon as Mica, Beck, and Leonidas came in, Alisa closed the hatch. More than one set of eyes had been looking at the group’s cyborg armor and Starseer robes.
“A mental attack,” Abelardus said. “Very likely the same thing that knocked out the mech.”
“Leonidas was more than knocked out,” Alejandro said, pulling back the tarp to look at the man. “He was in a coma.”
“So is my mentor,” Ostberg said bleakly. “Are you the doctor? He’s been like this since the attack. More than four days.”
“Let’s get him up to sickbay,” Alejandro said.
Alisa watched as Beck and Mica helped him maneuver the hoverboard up the stairs. She was tempted to trail along, but what could she do besides wait for directions on where to fly? Besides, it wasn’t as if she even knew Durant, except as the person who had kidnapped her daughter. She selfishly wanted the information inside his head, nothing more.
“There’s some hope for you now,” Leonidas said quietly, brushing against her shoulder.
“Is there? Jelena seems farther away than ever.”
“But we have someone who knows where she was taken.”
Alisa leaned against his armored arm. “Alejandro was clueless when it came to treating you. If you hadn’t come out of that on your own…”
“Perhaps the Starseer will be able to do the same. When I spoke to Alejandro after you left sickbay, he apologized for being able to do little besides steal my underwear, but he said he could have if he’d had better equipment and could see how to program his nanobots. That’s not quite the same as being clueless.”
“True. And if he took your underwear, then he at least has a clue as to what the ladies appreciate.” She smiled up at him, even if her heart wasn’t entirely in the joke.
“An unconscious man’s genitals?”
“Yes. They were nice. I hope to see them again someday.”
“Hm.” He glanced at her wrist, and his eyes took on a worried aspect.
She sighed sadly and headed for the stairs.
Epilogue
After checking in on Alejandro in sickbay, Alisa headed to NavCom. It was time to get the Nomad out of Solstice’s dome before she changed her mind about letting them go. She could send an android brute squad to try to gather up Leonidas for her collection of one-of-a-kinds at any moment.
Her step faltered when she found Abelardus sitting in the co-pilot’s seat. She still wasn’t comfortable alone with him and might have retreated if she hadn’t needed to fly them out of dock.
“Not staying in sickbay with your brother?” she asked.
“The doctor said he would let me know what he found. And I had a message to read.” Abelardus shifted his body to reveal a netdisc on the console, a holodisplay open, a familiar face frozen in the middle, one with blind white eyes.
“Lady Naidoo?”
A jitter of nerves teased Alisa’s stomach. Abelardus had said he would message her about the staff thieves.
“Yes.” Abelardus leaned back in the seat, gave her a long look, then flipped to another screen. “Remember this fellow?”
The face of the Starseer Leonidas had killed came into view. She had only seen it once—one of the men had arranged for the disposal of the body—but she remembered it well.
“Yes,” she said.
“Lady Naidoo looked him up. He used to belong to the Arkadius Temple, but he broke away in his early twenties and became… we call them the chasadski—pariahs. They call themselves prophets and disciples of the gods, the zhadski. They study dark powers.”
Alisa raised her eyebrows. She would consider most Starseer powers to be dark. Manipulating the minds of people, crashing warships… These weren’t the talents of benevolent people.
“Really,” Abelardus murmured. “We can do benevolent things. There are a few among us who are good at healing people. Our males are, of course, excellent at pleasuring women.” He wriggled his eyebrows. “With their minds.”
Alisa snorted. “I’m glad you’re taking this discussion seriously.”
“Trust me. You may prefer jokes when I get to the end.”
Wariness encroached. “Oh?”
Abelardus looked at the picture of the dead man. “The chasadski practice their dark powers in private for the most part, but they pop up from time to time, doing some callous act or another and ensuring that the system doesn’t forget that they exist. Much of the fear that exists today among the general populace is because of their acts. You see, they believe in the original Starseer mission, the one we had when we first left Kir and set out to take over the rest of the system.”
“Enslaving humanity?”
“Not enslaving. Ruling over. The way the emperors ruled over the empire. People with power governing over those without power.”
Alisa couldn’t see that ending up as anything other than enslavement for the majority of the population. It sounded even worse than the empire.
/> “The chasadski have been a small splinter group for centuries,” Abelardus said, “since the Order Wars nearly wiped our people out. But they’ve never gone away or forgotten their mission. They believe that if they can increase the number of Starseers in the system again, their goal could be accomplished.”
“But the rest of your people consider them pariahs, you said? So they wouldn’t join in?”
“They consider them boat rockers, making trouble for the rest of us. But… others do share some of their opinions. If it became clear that the chasadski had gained some significant advantage and that they could actually win if they made another attempt to take control of the system, more Starseers might join them.”
“Significant advantage?” Alisa asked. “Like that staff?”
“Like that staff. Add in the fact that the system is in a vulnerable state after the war, and they may believe the time is perfect for them to act.”
Alisa spread her fingers and rested her face in them. Three suns, why hadn’t she found a better hiding place for that staff? She had been negligent with it, indifferent. She hadn’t truly wanted it, and now someone who did want it had it.
“You suspected these people were behind this all along, didn’t you?” she asked, lowering her hand.
“I feared it was possible, yes. I wanted to hear from Naidoo before saying anything. I’d hoped there might be a less unpleasant explanation.”
“I understand why they would want the staff, but why attack that outpost? Why go after the prince?”
“Perhaps for the same reason the Alliance wants him out of the picture. To ensure that he can’t show up later, leading armies.” Abelardus tapped his fingers on the console. “It’s also possible they hope to capture him and use him, and perhaps the other children, as well. Mold their young minds to their purpose.”
Alisa closed her eyes. She had already worried about Jelena being indoctrinated into Starseer ways. This sounded even worse.
“You don’t know where their hideout or base is, do you?” she asked.
“No, and neither does Lady Naidoo.” Abelardus turned back toward the holodisplay. “I have more news you won’t like hearing.”