“Hello,” Alisa said with as much cheer as she could manage as she slipped the container into her pocket along with the file.
Mica folded her arms over her chest and glared at the four men, all of whom had their robes thrown back to reveal their muscular chests beneath their fitted vests. Mica hadn’t spent much time off the ship yet, but she looked like she had already gotten the gist as to what the Starseers were about—and she’d decided she did not like them. Alisa resisted the urge to point out that Leonidas’s muscled chest was bigger than their muscled chests.
“This area is off limits,” one said with a sneer. It was the same man who had picked a fight with Leonidas on the ramp, the one who had ended up with a hand wrapped around his throat. Erick.
“Is it?” Alisa asked. “We didn’t see any signs.”
He glared at her.
“We were just on the way to my ship,” Alisa said. “Anyone hungry? I can see if Beck is still grilling.”
Alisa envisioned him barbecuing skewers of meat, filling her mind with that thought instead of contemplating the container in her pocket. There was no reason these people should object to getting some answers, unless they already knew the truth and simply did not want her to know.
“Stay out of this investigation,” Erick said. “You’re lucky Lady Naidoo is letting you leave. If not for your relation to some of our people…” He frowned at Yumi and Young-hee. “Most intruders disappear in the mists.”
“They’re not intruders,” Young-hee said, surprising Alisa by standing up for them. “Yumi is my sister.”
“A mundane nobody of a sister.” Erick curled his lip.
“Leonidas should have crushed your windpipe,” Alisa snapped before she could think better of it. “Maybe not being able to talk would improve your personality.”
I don’t need my windpipe to talk, bitch, the man snarled into her mind.
Before she could respond, a wave of power smashed into her chest. She was hurled across the room, slamming into the wall before she registered what was happening. Pain lanced through her body as she slid to the floor. A cold breeze stirred her hair, a breeze coming through the hole in the wall. She was less than two feet from it. Icy terror washed through her as she saw how close she had come to being hurled from the tower.
Erick strode forward, his hand lifting. Three suns, was he going to finish the job?
Alisa pushed away the pain and scrambled to her feet, reaching for her holster. But it was empty. She didn’t have any way to fight him.
“Erick,” Young-hee said. “Stop being an ass.”
The man kept walking toward Alisa. I’ll teach you to respect a Starseer, he growled into her mind.
Alisa found her feet and stared defiantly at him. She clenched her fists and was on the verge of leaping for him—weapons or not, she refused to go down without a fight—but something seemed to strike him. He flew abruptly, almost comically, to the side. Just as Alisa had done, he slammed into a wall. This one was full of shelves and books, and heavy tomes tumbled out, landing on his head.
Growling, he pushed himself to his feet. This time, his glare was for Young-hee. She glared right back at him, and then she glared at the other three warriors who had come in with them, a challenge in her eyes.
“You should be ashamed of yourself, Erick. All of you.” Young-hee snapped her fingers and waved at Alisa, Mica, and Yumi. “Come on.”
Normally, Alisa would object to being ordered around, but with her back aching and Erick glowering at her, she had no problem with rushing to obey Young-hee.
“I’m starting to like your sister, Yumi,” Alisa whispered as their small group followed Young-hee through the corridors.
“I think she likes you,” Yumi whispered back.
“Really? She called me a clumsy spy.”
“But you drugged our mother and made her giggle like a schoolgirl while waxing philosophically over the qualities of forks. I gather that Young-hee found that even more amusing than I did.”
“The things I miss by staying in engineering,” Mica murmured.
“I did invite you along,” Alisa said.
“If you hadn’t been beaten up and thrown in a dungeon, I might have regretted passing on that invitation.”
They walked out of the temple and into the docking area, the cold air extra frigid with night on the verge of falling again. Maybe Alisa would join Leonidas on a tropical beach somewhere after this. If only she could find Jelena and take her to that beach too. She had always loved the water. They had visited the shore often during the summers in Perun Central since the harbor had only been a few miles from their apartment. She and Jonah had strolled along, wet sand under their bare feet, as Jelena zigzagged all over the place, hunting for rainbow stones and sea spirals. They had used the sea spiral shells as inspiration for a chocolate mold during one of their candy-making adventures.
Alisa blinked a few times and put the memories aside as she strode toward the Nomad’s ramp. If she got out of here with Leonidas at her side, her odds would be much better of surviving the dangers of the system and finding her daughter.
She touched the container in her pocket, hoping her hunch about the blood proved to be right.
Beck jogged out of the open cargo hatch and almost ran into them on the ramp. He had put away his grill and was now clad in full combat armor, his helmet and two rifles included.
“Captain,” he blurted in surprise.
“Going somewhere?” Alisa asked, a twinge of suspicion running through her as she imagined him off to meet some fellow conspirator to plan how to extricate Leonidas and take him off to collect that reward.
“Yes, to rescue you. I just heard you were in jail.”
Some of her suspicion faded. He sounded utterly sincere. But…
“You just heard? Weren’t you here when Young-hee came to get Mica and Yumi?” Alisa looked at the women, realizing she did not know how they had all come to be together.
“He wasn’t here,” Mica said quietly.
“No, I just got back from—” Beck started to wave toward the temple, but paused, and his arm dropped to his side. “Uhm, an errand.”
“An errand to betray Leonidas?” Alisa asked coolly.
“No!” Beck lifted his hand to his head, as if to push it through his hair, but it only clunked against his faceplate. “I mean… it’s not a betrayal, Captain. You must see that. He’s a mech. He did horrible things during the war. The Alliance wouldn’t want him if that weren’t true. I don’t understand why you don’t want to work with me to turn him in. And having him on the ship, it’s a danger to you too. We’ve had people come after us already because of him.”
“We’ve had even more people come after us because of you.”
“Captain…” A truly anguished expression contorted his face. He lifted his hand to the fasteners for his helmet and tugged it off, his tousled blond hair as much in need of a brush as Mica’s. “I know that, and I hate that I’m putting you in harm’s way. I hate it, I swear. That’s why I want his reward money, so I can try to pay off those thugs, get them to leave me alone. Or hire an outfit even bigger and scarier to threaten them on my behalf.” This time, he succeeded in pushing his hand through his hair in a quick, agitated gesture. “I don’t want to be a burden on you, but I swear that with me, it was entirely accidental. Whatever money they’ve got on my head, it’s not fair. I was wrongfully accused.”
“And how do you know Leonidas wasn’t?” Alisa felt for Beck, she truly did, but she could not have him gunning for Leonidas. “He’s a good man, Tommy. He’s saved the ship—saved our lives—several times.”
“But we don’t know what he did in the war, and there’s got to be a reason the Alliance wants him. There’s got to be.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.
“Would you be so eager to turn him in if there wasn’t money involved?”
Alisa could see his shoulders slump even with the armor encasing them.
“Listen, Beck. I don
’t know his war history any more than you do, but we all did things we regret. We all committed what would be considered crimes during peacetime. But that doesn’t matter right now. They want him alive. You know what that means? That he knows something they want to know. If all the Alliance wanted was for him to die for war crimes, then his warrant would say you could bring him in dead or alive, but preferably dead. Instead, it’s very clear that he’s wanted alive. It even says that in the fine print, doesn’t it?” Alisa knew it did because she had read that digital wanted poster several times now. “The reward will only be given if he’s brought in alive.”
“I figured it was because they wanted to torture him before they killed him.”
“Trust me, he’s been tortured enough,” Alisa said, thinking both of his current wounds and of those he had received in the past.
The soft murmur of Young-hee’s voice came from the doorway where she had stopped. She finished a comm conversation and walked over.
“You should go now,” she said. “Erick is whining to Lady Naidoo that I violated Order law by striking him.”
“Is he always this much of a pussy?” Alisa asked.
“Yes. He used to cry in school if he had to share his toys.”
“Thank you for your help, Young-hee,” Yumi said, clasping her sister’s hands. “I hope you won’t get in trouble for it.”
“No more than usual.” Young-hee smiled and returned the handclasp. “To think I wasn’t going to go to that breakfast this morning.”
Alisa waved a goodbye to Young-hee, even though she had no intention of leaving, and headed up the ramp. Beck, Mica, and Yumi followed behind her. She hit the button to withdraw the ramp and close the hatch, not wanting to be disturbed further.
“Think they’ll let us fly out of the mist without messing with us again?” Beck asked.
“If so, I will have wasted my time planting explosives on their docking clamps,” Mica muttered, almost sounding disappointed.
“You may still get to blow those up,” Alisa said, heading for the stairs.
“Oh? Why? Yumi’s sister said they’re letting us go.”
“They may change their minds after we rescue Leonidas. Especially if fiery explosions and lots of melting ice are involved.”
“This promises to be an interesting night,” Beck said.
Mica only grumbled with displeasure.
Chapter 14
After checking his cabin, Alisa found Alejandro ensconced in her small sickbay. She almost missed him because he was sitting on the floor behind the medical table, his knees pulled up to his chest, his elbows propped on them as he gripped the back of his head. The lights were off, and he did not look up when she turned them on.
“Doctor,” Alisa said, “I understand that you’re distraught by the loss of your artifact, but I aim to save Leonidas from what I fear may be his death in that temple, and I could use your help. It won’t take long.”
“Go away,” Alejandro muttered, his voice barely audible.
“I’ll be most happy to do so once you assist me in this small matter.”
“What was I thinking? Coming here was idiotic. I knew it. But I didn’t have any other leads, and I was afraid I’d be chased—or shot—out of every civilized library along the way.”
He was still muttering, and Alisa had a feeling he wasn’t talking to her. She wasn’t even sure he had heard her. She looked at the counters. She would not be above stabbing him with a needle or something else pointy to rouse him from his stupor. Maybe a shot of adrenaline would do it. Or a slap to the cheek.
“Doctor,” she said, stepping around the table. “You can wallow in here later, but I need you. Let me be more specific. It’s not just that I would like your help: I require it. I need some blood analyzed, and they didn’t teach us how to do that in flight school.” She crouched in front of him and gripped his shoulders. “Please, Doctor.”
He finally looked up at her, his eyes bloodshot, a beard shadow darkening his jaw. “They’re not going to let him go,” he said.
“That’s why we have to go in and get him. But before launching a full-scale assault, which we probably can’t win, I’d like to apply logic, try to make them see the truth. If the person he’s been accused of murdering isn’t dead, they have no grounds to hold him.”
“They don’t need grounds. This temple doesn’t even exist as far as imperial—or Alliance—laws are concerned. Nobody knows they’re here. Nobody’s going to enforce due process.”
“They’re not all asteroid kissers,” Alisa said, thinking of Yumi’s sister. “And he’s not dead yet. He’s in a cell. I think if we prove that his supposed victim is still alive, that Naidoo lady might let him go.” She was not sure why she thought that, especially since Naidoo had looked her in the eye and lied about knowing a Durant, but Alisa wanted to believe it was the truth. And if the woman wouldn’t let him go… she would find another way to get him out.
Alejandro’s gaze dropped back to his lap. “I was a fool to bring it here. They’re the last people who need powerful artifacts, and I let them have it. I might as well have handed it to them.”
Alisa gripped his stubbled jaw, forcing him to look up again. “Doctor, the one person who might be strong enough to help you get it back is in a jail cell in there. Why don’t you help me get him out, so he can help you?” She didn’t care a whit if Leonidas helped Alejandro when he got out, but it was the only argument she could think of that might stir him to action.
“Even he can’t fight them.”
“Are you positive? He wasn’t trying his hardest, that’s for sure. He was going out of his way not to kill anyone—he didn’t even want to hurt them.”
“Except that fool Abelardus.” Alejandro lifted his hand to her wrist and pushed her arm away. He kept looking at her, so she let him. “Captain, I’m not positive that Leonidas didn’t kill him. He was livid about those comments.”
“Comments?” She frowned.
“About you.” His tone turned dry. “I heard a couple of them. Judging by the way Leonidas’s face was turning red, I think others were delivered telepathically.”
“I’m the one Abelardus was insulting?” Alisa remembered Leonidas’s refusal to go into detail about that. She had assumed the Starseer had been denigrating Leonidas for his non-human parts.
“Congratulations, Captain. You’ve earned yourself a knight in shining armor.”
“I…” She had no idea what to say. “I don’t understand. I haven’t even talked to Abelardus. Why would he bother with insulting me?” Now if it had been that Erick, she would understand.
Alejandro twitched a shoulder. “I think he just wanted to irritate Leonidas. He found a button to push that got results.”
Alisa felt guilty if she had truly been that button, but a selfish part of her acknowledged a sense of satisfaction that he had cared enough to defend her honor. Unfortunately, that would not do anything to help either of them now.
“I don’t believe he would kill anyone over some insults,” she said firmly. “You’ve said it yourself: he’s an honorable man.”
“An honorable man who killed a lot of people during the war. I doubt it’s that hard for him anymore.”
Alisa preferred not to think about that side of Leonidas. Besides…
“He told me he didn’t do it.” She dug into her pocket and rattled the container with her sample in it. “Let’s find out together if this is real blood, Doctor. If it’s not, then we search the temple and find where Abelardus is hiding to prove that Leonidas did nothing to him.”
“Is that a screw box?”
“Mica didn’t have any sample vials.”
Alejandro accepted it, but he sighed deeply and did not rush to get up. “I failed, Captain.”
“It happens to all of us.”
“Not… all the time. I failed with my wife, too, you know. She couldn’t understand why I worked so much, why I was so driven to advance my career, why that sometimes mattered even more than saving p
eople. I didn’t have an answer for her, not one she could accept. She left. I failed with my children too. They’re grown now, and it’s been years since any of them even talked to me. I was gone so often when they were growing up. I can’t blame them. Now, I look back and wonder why I made work so important, a priority over family. What do the house by the beach, the overflowing bank accounts, and the yacht and aeroflyer mean now? I failed with my family. And then, when the emperor was in my arms, bleeding from a hundred injuries with his organs crushed, I failed with him too. I couldn’t save him in the end. He was still a young man, a man who knew his mistakes and could have rectified them. But I failed to save him.” He rubbed his hand across his eyes. “I can’t fail at this. This is my last chance to make a difference, to matter for someone. But I let myself be distracted for a second, and someone stole the artifact that could lead the empire back to…” He shook his head as he trailed off.
“Maybe it’s because you’re so driven that you fail,” Alisa suggested.
“No. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
She shrugged. She didn’t want to understand. She just wanted the blood analyzed.
Alisa took Alejandro’s hand and curled his fingers around the container. “I only need your help for a few minutes, Doctor,” she said, forcing herself to remain patient.
He finally pushed himself to his feet. She backed up, knowing she would only be in the way.
“What do you want to know?”
“For starters, if it’s actually blood or if someone dumped paint on the floor.”
“I’ll get my tools. Your sickbay is woefully under equipped.”
“My entire ship is under equipped.” Alisa did not know if he had heard the story about how she’d recovered it from a junkyard, but she decided not to bring it up.
He returned from his cabin with his duffle and withdrew prayer beads, a worn copy of the Xerikesh, and a sack of dried ka’tah petals for consecrating holy water. A handheld microscope came next.