“If he comes over to sample your duck and ask questions about me or the doctor, I’d consider that suspicious.”
“Maybe he’ll just be unable to resist the aroma of my perfectly cooked meat, which is also, I might add, seasoned with the ideal amount of celery seed.”
“I’m certain. Let me know if he comes for either reason.”
Alisa jogged to catch up with Khazan in the cargo hold. She had walked around the stacks of crates taking up half the space and paused by the stairs. She was looking to the corner where Yumi Moon stood in a green, ankle-length dress and bright yellow boots while tossing dried corn into the makeshift chicken pen. Netting draped over the top kept the birds from flying out—sometimes.
“That-a-girl, Isabel,” Yumi crooned. “But let Alcyone have some too.”
“I can see why you got out of the army, Marchenko,” Khazan said. “The exotic allure of being a civilian freight operator couldn’t be resisted.”
Yumi looked curiously at Khazan and gave Alisa a tentative wave. The chickens complained at this pause in their feeding. Alisa waved back, trying to combine an ignore-our-guest gesture in the mix before she led the way up the stairs.
“I’d tell you about how my life has been a lot more exotic than I’d like of late,” Alisa said over her shoulder, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve already heard about that.”
“I’ve heard some.”
Khazan waited until they were seated in Alisa’s private cabin to expound. She plopped down at the fold-down desk sticking out from the wall, leaving Alisa to sit on the edge of the bed.
“I would offer you a drink,” Alisa said, “but all I have is water. My operation just got started and isn’t that flush with tindarks yet.”
“No? Ferrying chickens around doesn’t pay well?”
“Actually, the chickens ride for free.”
“You should have stayed in the army if that’s all the business savvy you have,” Khazan said.
“I forgot how endearing your tongue is.”
“I seem to recall we had matching tongues. And that they irritated Tomich to no end when they made him our squadron commander.”
“This is true,” Alisa said, expecting the mention of Tomich to lead Khazan into sharing her news, since he had been the one to help the Nomad escape from a bunch of posturing Alliance and imperial ships a couple of weeks earlier.
“I got a message from him a couple of days ago,” Khazan said, tapping a red and yellow earstar cupping the helix of her ear.
Alisa thought she might command the device to share a holo vid, but she merely lowered her hand to her lap and kept speaking.
“You might have trouble landing your freighter on Arkadius, at least if you’re going to a legitimate civilian or military space base.”
Alisa doubted the Starseer temple would count as either, but she saw no reason to inform Khazan of her destination. Even if she had come here as a friend warning a friend, that did not mean she wouldn’t relay what she learned back to Tomich. He had been the commander for both of them, after all.
“I’m a little surprised I was allowed to land here, honestly,” Alisa said, waving in the direction of the concourse.
“Must have been someone sleeping in the port authority office.” Khazan sniffed. “Civilians.”
Alisa smiled at the dig. The fact that Arkadius Gamma was a corporate-owned station rather than a military one was the reason she had chosen it. “Yes, we’re so inept, aren’t we?”
“I hope you haven’t gotten soft enough for that word to apply to you.” Khazan’s face grew serious as she leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk. “Listen, I don’t know what your business is here or on the planet, but if you’re still harboring fugitives, you better not linger for long. I hear both of them are hot commodities for the government.”
“They’re not fugitives as far as I know,” Alisa said. Sure, Alejandro and Leonidas had been responsible for the shooting up of a library—and Alisa might have helped in that endeavor too—but that had been on Perun, the imperial planet. The Alliance shouldn’t care about that. Even that crime had been a matter of self-defense.
“Whatever they are, the government wants them.”
Them. When the Nomad had encountered the Alliance near Perun’s moon, it had been Leonidas they had been after. Somewhere along the way, they must have learned about Alejandro and his mysterious orb.
“And it doesn’t look too good that you’re taxiing them around the system,” Khazan added.
“They pay more than the chickens.”
“This isn’t a joke, Marchenko—Alisa.” None of Khazan’s typical humor was in her eyes now. “Tomich said he was vague in his reports to his superiors, and implied you might have been a hostage on your own ship, but he wasn’t sure himself, and he’s afraid your status is about to go from Alliance war hero to imperial sympathizer, maybe worse. Arrest may be the least of your concerns if you’re captured.”
Alisa sighed. “I’m not sympathizing with anyone. They just paid for rides, and I’m giving them rides. They’re getting off at Arkadius, and then I’m done with them.”
Her wistful thoughts about hiring Leonidas sauntered to the forefront of her mind, but she shook her head. Even though she had come to like him, and he had saved her backside a couple of times, she had known for weeks that it would be foolish of her to keep him on her ship and in her life. Alisa did not want to find her daughter only to end up in jail or on the run as a fugitive.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Khazan said, leaning back, her hands sliding into her lap again. “I probably don’t have to tell you, but this is a precarious time for the Alliance. They’ve openly claimed Arkadius and several other key planets, but there are imperial sympathizers aplenty, and the higher-ups know they’re vulnerable right now. We spent a lot to win that war, and our people are spread thin. If I were you, I’d figure out how to turn those imperials in, not just part ways with them. That’ll show the government you can be trusted. And you could even come back into the army if you can pass the medical tests and the physical. We still need good pilots.”
“I’ll think about it.” Alisa made a show of nodding. She couldn’t truly imagine betraying Leonidas, but it had crossed her mind many times to turn Alejandro in, or at least record a detailed message to send to someone who could use the information to apprehend him. Hells, if that Major Mladenovic had been willing to help her find her daughter instead of stringing her along, Alisa might have already handed over the orb.
“For your sake, I hope you do. It would be good flying with you again.” Khazan stood up. “And I sure wouldn’t want to fly against you.”
Khazan grinned, probably meaning it as a compliment, but the words made Alisa’s stomach turn to stone. The idea of flying against her old comrades disturbed her even more than the idea of faceless police officers chasing after her. That was a future she did not want, not for herself and certainly not for her daughter.
Chapter 2
Alisa piloted the Nomad away from the space station and toward the ice-smothered north pole of Arkadius. When they got closer, she would call Yumi to NavCom for more specific directions, but Yumi had already said the temple was located near the pole. That was fine with Alisa, because habitations were sparse above the arctic circle. She hoped the military patrol ships that protected the planet would be sparse in that area too.
Leonidas ducked into NavCom and slid into the co-pilot’s seat. Since nobody except Alisa knew how to fly the ship, she supposed she should re-dub that the passenger’s seat. She sat there when she needed to plot a course for the autopilot, but that was about all that station was for, other than holding a backup helm in case her station exploded. Or she exploded.
The grim thought made her glance to the side to check the sensors. Satellites and ships in orbit lit it up at the edge of its range, but nothing was close at the moment. More important, nothing was following them. According to Beck, the Starseer on the station had walked away shortly af
ter Alisa had gone inside with Khazan. She hoped that meant that her suppositions had been wrong, that the robed figure had simply been passing through and hadn’t been sent to spy on her ship. Or her interesting passengers.
She looked toward Leonidas, debating whether she should tell him about the person. “Can I help you with anything?” she asked, since he had not spoken yet.
It was not uncommon for the others to come up and chat with her about something or another while she was flying, but he rarely did. During the long days in space between planets, he kept to himself, exercising in the cargo hold or doing who knew what in his cabin. He had seemed even quieter since their stopover on Starfall Station, where he had gotten his combat armor repaired—and where he had watched an old comrade die in his arms. Alisa had been along for that, and she could understand why the events might have left him feeling pensive. He was well aware of the bounty out for his arrest, and now he was aware of what might happen to those who stood close while bounty hunters took shots at him.
“I don’t need any help,” Leonidas said quietly, gazing at the view screen where icecaps floated in the frigid northern sea. He turned toward her, meeting her eyes. “I did wish to come and thank you.”
“I—what?”
“The proper response is, ‘You’re welcome,’” he said dryly.
“I know. I mean, you are. But for what?”
“For not turning me over to the Alliance when you had the chance.”
Alisa almost pointed out that he had been standing behind her when she’d had that chance, and that he could have wrung her neck if she’d truly considered plotting against him, but she kept her mouth shut. Having him appreciative for something she had done—or not done—was new. And she liked it.
“Both back near Perun,” he said, “and since then. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find Alliance soldiers waiting on Starfall Station or on Arkadius Gamma.”
“If they had been, they would have been there for Beck’s free duck.”
“Ah.”
Alisa smiled. “You’re welcome.”
His eyebrows rose. “That’s it?”
“Did you expect something else?”
“From you? I’ve come to expect inappropriate humor whenever it would be… inappropriate.”
“I don’t always make a joke,” Alisa said.
“Huh.”
She wondered if he had waited two weeks to voice his gratitude for her involvement in the Perun escapade because he had worried that she would respond with sarcasm. That thought made her feel bleak.
“I’m not certain if the Starseer temple will be a place from which we can depart,” Leonidas said, “but the doctor and I plan to leave your ship there or at the next possible stop.”
That statement made her feel even bleaker. Which was stupid. Not an hour earlier, she had been thinking about how both men needed to move on. She should have said a hearty, “Good!” Instead, what came out of her mouth was a bitter, “Did you two have a nice field trip together on the station? Find a better pilot to ferry you around?”
One of his eyebrows twitched upward. “He wished to use a private comm terminal for a long-distance message. I wasn’t privy to it, and I don’t know who he spoke to.”
A private terminal. Meaning one that she couldn’t monitor. If he’d trusted her, he could have made that call from the ship. But could she truly be surprised that he didn’t trust her? Why should he? She’d already proven that they had different agendas and that she would betray him if it would further her agenda.
“He needed a bodyguard along to do that, huh?” she asked.
“I’m not a bodyguard,” Leonidas said coolly.
“No? You loom nicely.”
Alisa clamped her mouth shut, annoyed with herself. Why was she mocking him? She was irritated with Alejandro, not Leonidas. Hells, she wasn’t even irritated with Alejandro. It was more the fact that Leonidas was choosing Alejandro and his mission over her offer of employment. Over her. She fully admitted that her feelings were irrational. Having them both out of her life would be the best thing for her and for her daughter.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled an apology, aware that his gaze had grown flinty, even though he had directed it back at the view screen. “And I appreciate your thank you. I also appreciate that you didn’t kill all those soldiers on the Alliance tug.”
He nodded once, his expression shifting to what was probably considered command aloofness. It was better than flint or frost.
“Their kneecaps might not appreciate it,” Alisa said, “but I do.” She tried a smile, hoping to ease any tension that her words had driven between them.
He gave her that faintly puzzled look he sometimes did when she made jokes. The Cyborg Corps must not have been a very fun place to work.
The proximity alarm beeped, and Alisa groaned.
“I don’t suppose that’s just an iceberg,” she muttered, turning toward the sensor panel. She knew it wasn’t. They were still forty thousand feet above the sea of ice and icy water hugging the pole.
Leonidas leaned back in his seat, also checking the sensors. Another ship had appeared behind them.
“Have you gotten to try out your combat armor since you got it repaired?” Alisa asked.
“No.”
“This may be your chance.”
“That looks like a civilian ship.”
Alisa fiddled with the Nomad’s external cameras until she could get a visual on it. A white craft with four wings was swooping down from the atmosphere, heading in the same direction as they were.
“Yeah, a civilian ship that is coincidentally in the shape of a white dragon,” she said. “Well, technically, I’d call that more of a butterfly shape, but I think those are e-cannons protruding from its nose, so I won’t quibble.”
“They are.”
Alisa pressed the thrusters for greater speed and dipped toward the sea and ice below. There were also mountains that poked up here and there, the remains of a mostly submerged range that cupped one side of the pole, and she headed toward those, having a notion of finding a hiding spot. Fuzzy gray clouds smeared the horizon beyond them.
“It was unwise to let Beck barbecue in front of your ship,” Leonidas said. “The White Dragon mafia has outposts throughout the system and has its talons in numerous government systems.”
“He’s his own man. If he wants to let the universe know where he is so that he can earn two tindarks in tips, who am I to stop him?”
“His captain.”
“That doesn’t give me the right to keep him chained in his cabin when we’re in dock.” Alisa hit the comm button. “Mica, are you in engineering? We might have trouble soon. Yumi, if you’d come to NavCom, this would be a good time to give us more specific coordinates as to the location of the Starseer temple.”
“I’m always in engineering,” came Mica’s voice over the comm. “Where else would I be besides cuddling with the new deuterium tank you got me?”
“I told you to install it, not cuddle with it.”
“I like to enjoy myself while I work.”
“If I had time to think about it right now, I’d be concerned for you, Mica.” Alisa guided them around the first of several mountains, the sea changing from water to ice around its base. The white, jagged peaks were far apart, and she feared they would not offer as many hiding spots as she had hoped. “Give me all you can for shield power, please. And send Yumi up here if you see her.”
“I’m right here, Captain.” Yumi gripped the hatchway jamb on either side as she leaned into NavCom.
“We’re being chased by a ship that either wants a close-up look at my butt or is going to fire at us as soon as it’s in range. Which should be soon. It’s faster than us.” The other craft had disappeared from her camera’s view, and Alisa glanced at the sensors to check its progress, hoping vainly that it had veered off, not wanting to play Seek and Find among the mountains. No such luck.
“Is there anything that isn’t faster than this ship
?” Alejandro asked from the corridor behind Yumi.
“I didn’t ask for everyone to come up for a visit,” Alisa growled. “You better find seats and buckle yourselves in.”
“Is it an Alliance ship?” Alejandro asked as Yumi pulled out the fold-down seat behind Alisa.
“I don’t think so.”
Alisa hadn’t intended to go into more specifics, but Leonidas did it for her.
“White Dragon, we believe,” he said.
Alisa didn’t have to look back to see the irritated expression on Alejandro’s face. It was all right if the orb got them in trouble, but not when Beck’s past came nipping at their heels.
As Alisa headed for a series of three peaks that rose about a thousand feet above the sea of ice, the enemy ship took its first shot. The icy blue beam of an e-cannon glanced off one of the Nomad’s wings, sending a shudder through the craft even through the shields.
“Are they going to try to board us?” Alejandro asked.
Alisa weaved, trying to make a challenging target as more fire raced after them. “I think they’re more interested in crashing us. Yumi? Any chance that you could give us some coordinates so we could swoop into a well-armed Starseer temple that would love to defend you from aggressors, on account of your cute wholesomeness and your slightly auspicious blood?”
“They won’t start a battle because of my blood,” Yumi said, “and even if they would, I don’t know exactly where the temple is. I just have some directions that my mother gave me in a story when I was a little girl.”
“Uh, what kind of directions?” Alisa had expected a map or specific coordinates. A description of directions remembered from a story told twenty years in the past was not what she wanted to hear about right now.
The firing stopped temporarily as she guided the Nomad through the mountains, weaving in between the peaks and hugging the rugged slopes to keep them out of their enemy’s sights.
“Seventh peak from the whale, keep right into the mists of forever,” Yumi said.
Alisa groaned. What in the hells did that mean? “If we make it there and meet your mother, make sure to point her out to me so I can strangle her.”