Starfall

by Melissa Landers

  Peering across the hold, she found Kane sitting up, massaging one shoulder and frowning at Arabelle, whose arms were still locked around his waist. Solara crouched near the opposite wall, one of her eyes swollen half shut. She rubbed Doran’s back while he pressed a palm over his lips in an obvious effort to keep from vomiting.

  The whole crew was battered and shaken, but Renny only had eyes for Arabelle when he appeared at the upper landing. His boots formed a blur as he flew down the stairs. In the time it took Cassia to blink, the captain was kneeling by Arabelle’s side, delicately brushing the curls back from her face.

  “Belle,” he crooned in the gentle voice of a parent rousing a child from sleep. “Baby, are you all right?”

  The redhead smacked away his hand and tried to sit up, without success. “Don’t touch me. And don’t call me baby”—she thrust a finger at him—“ever again.”

  Renny cradled her shoulder long enough to help her into a sitting position, then released her and flashed both palms like a robbery victim. “Belle, I know you’re upset.”

  “Upset?” she screeched.

  Cassia raised a hand. “The rest of us are fine, thanks for asking.”

  “I feel upset when I stub my toe,” Arabelle raged on. “Or when someone tries to steal my shoes while I’m sleeping. Upset doesn’t describe how it feels when a man says he loves me and then leaves me behind to cover his debt!”

  “Debt?” Renny’s mouth dropped open. “What debt? I only left—”

  “Because you picked Ari Zhang’s pocket,” she finished. “I know. You told me in your letter. But when Zhang couldn’t find you, he sold me to pay for what you took.”

  “Sold you?”

  “To Reegan Fleece, of all people.”

  The news knocked Renny off his feet. From where he knelt, his legs gave out until he was sitting on the floor. Cassia could almost feel his pain. She didn’t know whether to hug him or make a quiet exit. When Kane caught her eye and thumbed toward the stairs, she knew they were both on the same wavelength.

  But first they had to take care of something. She crossed to the supply closet and pulled out the scanning rod. “Arabelle, I need you to stand up for a minute.”

  “If you’re dizzy,” Kane said, “I can help you.”

  Renny started to object, but Arabelle silenced him with a glare. She pushed to her feet and stumbled a few times, refusing Kane’s arm when he offered it. Finally she was able to stand upright. She extended both arms to the side and clenched her jaw while Cassia passed the scanner over every curve of her body—twice.

  The machine detected no devices. She was clean.

  Arabelle propped one hand on her hip. “Happy now?”

  “Yes, I am,” Cassia said, and pulled back her shoulders to stand taller. “You know why? Because you’re safe, and that’s what my captain needs to be happy. He loves you, and I love him. That’s how it works on this ship.”

  Kane settled a hand on her waist, nudging her toward the stairs. “Come on. I’m sure they have a lot to talk about.”

  “Buzz us if you need anything,” she told Renny, but he wouldn’t look up from the floor. She turned and made her way on jelly legs up the stairs to the galley, where Acorn was already helping herself to a box of raisins that had spilled during the turbulence.

  Kane rushed to scoop up the fruit. “Stop her. The last time this happened, she ate too much and upchucked on my laundry.”

  Cassia sniffed a laugh. She picked up Acorn but handed her another raisin while Kane’s back was turned. “That’s what you get for leaving your dirty clothes on the floor.”

  “My clean laundry.”

  Doran slogged to the cooler, still green in the face as he filled a bag of ice for Solara’s swollen eye.

  “Here, let me do that,” Cassia said. She tucked Acorn in her breast pocket and reached for the bag. This was her job as ship medic. Besides, Doran was going about it all wrong. The best cure for swelling was a cool gel mask, not ice, followed by an application of camelback leeches. “You sit down,” she told Doran. “And you,” she added to Solara, who was probing her puffy eyelid, “hands off. You’re making it worse.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Solara teased. Doran added a fake salute.

  Cassia set a smile free as she left to find her med-kit. She enjoyed falling into her old routine. This was the most normal she’d felt in ages.

  A while later, after she’d treated one black eye, a sour stomach, and dozens of abrasions, she sat beside Kane on the bench and cocked an ear toward the cargo level to listen to the murmur of voices. She couldn’t make out any words, but Arabelle had stopped shouting. That had to be a good sign.

  Renny had docked them inside an asteroid crevasse, but they couldn’t hide forever. Cassia’s people needed a cure, and she wouldn’t find it in a cave. Maybe her tech team on Eturia could run a search on the term adelvice and point her in the right direction. She should probably contact General Jordan, too.

  “The hub wasn’t a total bust,” she whispered, leaning in to form a huddle. “We found a puzzle piece or two. We know that Marius’s financial backer is somehow tied to adelvice, and whatever that is, it’s important enough to kill for.”

  “Don’t forget the Zhang mafia,” Solara said around her gel mask. “They belong on Earth, not in the fringe. I doubt it’s a coincidence that they were operating out of the same hub as Marius’s contact. Your husband’s probably in bed with the mob.”

  Cassia agreed. It made sense. The financial backer had powerful connections within the Solar League, not to mention access to illegal weapons. Plus Marius’s father had described the backer as “the most twisted” man he’d ever met. That certainly fit Ari Zhang’s profile. What she didn’t understand was what Zhang would stand to gain from the deal.

  Doran shifted nervously in his seat. “Did you notice who bought Arabelle?” When they shook their heads, he told them, “Reegan Fleece. I’ve heard of that guy. He’s kind of an urban legend on Earth. They call him Necktie Fleece because he has a thick scar across his throat and he likes to use a garrote for his kills.”

  “A garrote?” Kane repeated. “That’s how the pirate lord of sector three died.”

  Doran lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know if Necktie did it, but I’m glad we didn’t run into him at the restaurant. Arabelle’s boss was a puppy dog compared with him.”

  That raised an interesting question for Cassia. Renny had once bragged that Arabelle was an electrical engineer on Earth, and a successful one. So why would a mafia hit man buy her and then outsource her to a restaurant to sell food from a cart—a job anyone could do? It seemed like a waste of human resources.

  “Tell me about her boss,” she said. “You held him at gunpoint, right? Was that before or after he met Daro the Red?” At the confused looks the crew gave her, she clarified, “Did the deal go sideways because you didn’t have enough money, or because the mob met a pirate lord and panicked?”

  Solara shared a glance with Doran and Kane. “Both, I guess.”

  “It happened so fast that it’s hard to tell,” Kane said. “Why?”

  “Because at first I was afraid Arabelle might be a spy,” Cassia explained. “That’s why I wanted her scanned before you brought her on board. But if she was a plant, the mob would want you to have her. They would’ve made the deal easy.”

  “Not necessarily,” Kane argued.

  Doran nodded. “Yeah, it would’ve been suspicious if they’d let her go without a fight.”

  “But the scan came up clean,” Cassia said.

  “And she didn’t come with us willingly,” Solara pointed out. “Kane grabbed her and ran. It’s not like she had time to stuff a wire down her bra.”

  Kane tipped his head in concession. “Still, something about this doesn’t feel right. What we need is a place to lie low while we figure out how it all fits together.”

  “Very low,” Solara said. “Just because we’re out of sight doesn’t mean we’re hidden. The mafia ship can pick u
p our current if they have an electrical scanner. We should probably shut down all the systems and disconnect the batteries.”

  “What about oxygen?” Kane asked.

  “There’s an emergency hand crank in the engine room,” Doran said, earning him a proud smile from his mechanic girlfriend. “We can take shifts turning it.”

  That was true, but manually cranking air through the ship would get old fast. And until Cassia could radio Eturia, she had no access to her team of technical wizards. “The sooner we leave, the better.”

  “The obvious choice is Gage’s place,” Kane said. “Even if the Zhangs look for us there, they won’t be able to touch us. The whole planet’s shielded.”

  Doran lifted his mug of seltzer. “Plus my brother can hook us up with a crate of Infinium. It comes in handy for trading.” He stood from the table and strode to the upper stairwell. “I’ll call him now.”

  “And I’ll start shutting down the systems,” Solara said while heading for the lower stairs.

  Once they’d left, Kane released a long breath. “We need currency, too. Credits and fuel chips to replace what we lost. I’ll ask Gage for the advance he promised me.”

  The ship didn’t move, but Cassia felt a sudden dropping sensation, followed by the urge to grab on to something sturdy. She gripped the bench ledge near her thighs and stared into her lap. She didn’t mean to speak, but some unknown force hijacked her voice and said, “Don’t take the advance.”

  For a long beat, there was only silence.

  “Why not?” Kane asked.

  She sensed him watching her, but she couldn’t meet his eyes. She knew the answer, and she suspected he knew it, too. Until he accepted payment, she could pretend his job offer was hypothetical, that he might change his mind. But a signing bonus would make it real, and she wasn’t ready for that. She wanted to tell him, to be transparent for once, but her throat tightened and she could barely get three words out. “Just don’t, okay?”

  He pried one of her hands from the bench and laced their fingers together while wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She let him draw her in until her cheek rested against his chest. Usually, she discouraged cuddling because it led to more, but this time she couldn’t pull away. She nestled against him and closed her eyes, inhaling a blend of soap and sweat and warmth that reminded her of the best parts of her childhood. Holding on to Kane made her feel rooted to the ground, and she needed that today.

  She needed her best friend.

  He rested his chin on her head and told her, “Okay.”

  Shield or no shield, Cassia couldn’t shake off the prickles of anxiety that skittered over her when the Banshee reached Planet X. She sat beside Renny in the pilothouse, peering out the windshield at a long, jagged tear in the frozen landscape where Kane had crash-landed the shuttle many months ago. This was the first time she’d revisited the crash site, and seeing it brought back the panic she’d felt when she found him unconscious in the cockpit. The moments before rousing him had been the longest of her life.

  She didn’t like this place. Nothing good ever happened here.

  She shifted her focus to Renny, who’d been unusually quiet in the two days since Arabelle had come on board. “Any progress?” she asked, figuring he would know what that meant.

  He slouched in the pilot’s seat. “She won’t talk to me.”

  “Try not to take it personally. She won’t talk to me, either, and I bunk with her.”

  What Cassia didn’t mention was how uncomfortable she was sharing her quarters with Arabelle. The woman didn’t make a sound. And even though the entire crew had been on their best behavior, she rebuffed their every act of kindness. The toiletries and changes of clothes Cassia had left on the top bunk ended up in the hallway, neatly folded.

  It was like rooming with a passive-aggressive ghost.

  The only benefit of the arrangement was that Cassia found she slept better with someone occupying the top bunk. She didn’t know why her nightmares had suddenly quieted, but it reminded her that trauma did strange things to people.

  People like her roommate.

  In all fairness, she could only imagine how awful the last two years had been for Arabelle. After spending so much time enslaved by the mafia, freedom probably felt a little jarring. Almost as jarring as a ship full of strangers feeling sorry for her. Maybe Arabelle had mistaken their kindness for pity, and that was why she kept giving them the cold shoulder.

  Like I did to Kane.

  Renny drew her from her thoughts with a weary sigh. “I thought I was protecting her by staying away, but all I did was abandon her when she needed me.” He docked the ship on the landing pad, then cut the engines and pushed his glasses atop his head so he could rub his eyes. “No matter how much she hates me, it can’t be more than I hate myself.”

  “Hey, now. Nobody hates on my captain.”

  “Not even your captain?”

  “Especially not him.” Cassia stood from her seat and perched on Renny’s armrest. “You’ve got the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. No one could hate you, not if they knew you like I do. And I’m pretty sure Arabelle knows you. Give her time. She’ll come around.”

  Renny patted her knee. “I hope you’re right.”

  “When am I ever wrong?”

  That earned a small laugh from him, which lifted her spirits, too.

  When they met the crew at the boarding ramp, everyone was suited up and ready for the brief-but-frigid walk to the compound air-lock, everyone except for Arabelle, who was nowhere in sight.

  Renny peered around the cargo hold for her. Before he could ask, Kane raised his helmet shield and delivered a pointed look. “She wants to stay here.”

  “But we could be gone for hours,” Renny said.

  “Yeah, I know. Unsupervised hours.”

  Renny gripped one hip. “What are you implying?”

  “Just that she shouldn’t have free run of the ship.” Kane glanced at Doran and Solara for backup. “At least until we know her better, right?”

  Doran shrugged and said in a helmet-muffled voice, “A lot can change in two years. Wouldn’t hurt to take precautions.”

  “I trust her,” Renny said. “As much as any of you.”

  Cassia touched Renny’s arm. “I’m with you, Captain. I don’t think she’ll do anything to sabotage the ship.” When Kane frowned at her, she added, “But let me talk to her and see if I can convince her to come. Some time under the sun lamps would do her good.”

  Renny made a go ahead motion, so she jogged to her quarters and knocked once on the door before opening it. She found Arabelle in the same position she’d expected: curled up on the top bunk, withdrawn, and facing the wall. Cassia batted down her feelings of sympathy and spoke the way she would want to be spoken to—with respect instead of pity.

  “Hey, I know you want to stay here, but you can’t. This place is a frozen hellhole. You won’t survive an hour on board without the engines running.” It wasn’t exactly the truth, but close enough to fool an electrical engineer. “But there’s a beach simulator in the compound…”

  Arabelle’s curly head lifted in interest.

  “…and because the crew’s here on business,” Cassia continued, “you’ll probably have the whole thing to yourself.”

  That was all it took.

  Ten minutes later, all six of them trudged down the boarding ramp to the external air-lock chamber, where they crowded inside and waited for the room to fill with pressurized oxygen. A green light flashed and the interior door unlocked, admitting them into the heated compound. They’d just shed their thermal suits and hooked their oxygen helmets to the wall when Gage strode to meet them.

  He was dressed in a white lab coat over singed coveralls that had obviously seen a few brushes with the lab furnace. He must’ve left the lab in a hurry to greet his brother, because a pair of safety goggles hung half around his neck, still snagged on one ear. He shook Doran’s hand and gave the rest of them a detached wave.


  “Cassia,” he said when he noticed her. His grin confirmed her suspicion that he had a crush on her. If he weren’t trying to steal her best friend, she might’ve returned his smile. “Glad to see you’re okay.”

  She lifted a shoulder. She was about to tell him that it took more than a few bounty hunters to bring her down when the distinct clicking of high heels drew her attention to the other end of the hallway, where a young woman about her age was walking toward them, scanning the group as if expecting to find someone she knew. She was beyond beautiful, with long, glossy chestnut hair and the kind of face that made you keep looking. But even more attractive was the way she carried herself, with a confidence so bold she almost glowed.

  Cassia liked her at once.

  Until the girl moved into Kane’s personal space and curled one hand around his biceps while settling the other possessively atop his chest. Then Cassia stopped admiring the girl and wondered why she was feeling up a total stranger. The answer came when Kane freed himself and immediately glanced at Cassia like she’d caught him doing something wrong. It was the same look he’d given her at age fifteen when she’d walked in on him in the boathouse with one of the palace maids.

  “Oh,” she said dumbly as the pieces clicked into place. He was no stranger to this girl. They must have met during shore leave and…really hit it off.

  “Cassy…” he began.

  “Oh,” she said again, louder this time, because full realization struck her, and now she understood why he couldn’t wait to take a job here. It seemed his benefits package included more than a generous salary and a company ship.

  Cassia felt sick.

  “This is Shanna,” Kane mumbled. “She works on the sales team.”

  The weight of half a dozen gazes settled on Cassia’s face. She feared looking at the crew because she knew she would find pity on their faces. She chanced a glance at them and found something far worse—proof that she was the last to know.

  “Nice to meet you, Shanna,” she heard herself say. “I like your shoes.”

  She didn’t wait for a response. Instead, she faced Gage and focused on the safety goggles around his neck. “Kane told me you offered him a signing bonus. Would you give it to him now so we can get airborne again? We’re in a hurry.” She held up her com-bracelet, then noticed her hand was shaking and quickly lowered it. “I need to make a call. Is there someplace quiet I can go?”