by Lauren Esker
"How does this work?" Meri asked, peeking under it, where there was nothing but empty air.
*Repulsor field. Come, we should do this quickly. Which of these people seems the most trustworthy to you?*
"Um ... her, I guess." She pointed to Preet, who was comforting another woman.
Lyr spoke to Preet briefly, while Meri gathered a handful of supplies for Tamir—more painkillers, another bag of saline—and stuffed them into her purse. She almost missed Lyr starting to leave, but then he paused and waited for her while she threw her weight against the floating pallet, pushing it into motion. It was resistant to getting started, but once it began to move, it floated along easily as if on greased wheels.
When she left, Preet was busy organizing the prisoners. "What did you tell her?" Meri asked.
*I gave her instructions on getting everyone prepared for the jump, which is likely to be rough. I will deal with separating the connections to the other modules.*
It was pitch dark out here, and chilly. She stayed close to him, trying not to get underfoot to the point where he'd run the risk of stepping on her.
"There are still pirates on this ship, right? That centaur guy is still out there."
*There are, yes. But not in our module.*
"How do you know?"
Lyr tapped his forehead.
"Oh."
*Another reason to get out of here, before they have a chance to regroup and mount an organized resistance. Once we separate the module, we will be much safer.* He paused by a closed door and touched a panel set in the wall, sliding it aside to reveal a handle. He pulled this, having to drag down on it with considerable strength. There was a clunk that Meri felt through the soles of her feet.
"What did you just do?"
*I'm disconnecting each seal. It'll have to be done manually since the power is down.*
"Can I help?"
*Just keep an eye on Tamir.*
So she pushed the floating pallet while Lyr threw switches on a series of doors. It was chilly enough that she could see her breath in the cold white glow of Lyr's cuffs. She pulled the silvery blankets more tightly around her patient.
*It'll be warmer on the ship,* Lyr said.
"Are you reading my mind?"
He glanced over his shoulder at her with a tiny flash of an unexpectedly beautiful smile, a smile that took her breath away. *Just using logical reasoning. Ah, here we are.*
They'd reached another door, and this time, he opened it. The little room inside made her think of an elevator, and she was about to ask if they'd all three even fit in there with the bulk of the pallet when Lyr opened the door on the other side and she realized it was not an elevator, but an airlock, and on the other side was an alien spaceship.
Well, okay, she was on a spaceship, but so far all she'd seen were a lot of corridors and rooms. This actually looked like a spaceship on TV. They were standing in an echoing cargo hold, mostly empty except for a few crates and barrels. The doors to the forward cabin were open, showing her a bridge that looked like something out of the kind of show Cora liked to watch, the ones whose names all started with Star Something.
"Is there some kind of sickbay on this ship?" she asked, touching the side of Tamir's neck to check his pulse. He seemed to have ridden out the trip okay, not that she could do much if he started to crash.
*I'm afraid not. This is strictly a transport ship.* Lyr strode toward the bridge. Pushing the floating pallet, Meri followed along behind.
On the bridge, he turned back and touched something on the side of the pallet, lowering it to the floor. Meri barely noticed; she was busy looking around at the dozen or so seats, the forward viewscreen, and the controls, which were surprisingly minimal for a spaceship. There were some panels and buttons and such, as well as a parallel set of holes that she couldn't understand until Lyr dropped into the seat in front of them and thrust his hands inside. Light flared across the panels, and suddenly the screen blinked on, showing a view of a dark, open space lit up with the ship's running lights.
"Oh, wow," she murmured, coming to stand behind Lyr. "Are we doing it right now?"
*No reason to wait.*
She rested her hands on the back of his seat. The urge to brush her hand down his arm was almost overwhelming. As if he sensed her thought—and maybe he did—he looked back at her, his silver eyes liquid in the lights of the control panel.
*You should ride it out in the module, with the others,* he told her. *They might need you. It'll be rougher, but if anything goes wrong with the jump, the transport ship will likely take the brunt of it.*
"No." Her tone brooked no argument. "My patient needs me here."
*Meri. When I say 'take the brunt of it,' what I mean is 'explode.'*
"Then I'll take the risk with you. If we're doing this together, we're doing it together all the way."
***
Stubborn woman. The warmth of her loyalty crept through some of the ice in his heart, reaching toward his cold, cold core. He clamped down firmly on that. He couldn't care—not for her, not for anyone. Things you cared about could be taken from you, used against you. He could do nothing about the physical effect she had on him, except try to ignore it. But letting her touch his heart ... no. That he could prevent. Would prevent. He was never getting close to anyone ever again.
Which didn't mean he wanted her rattling around like a loose game piece in a box. *If you're going to be here, you should sit down and put on restraints.*
"Oh. Okay." She dropped into the seat next to him and began to grope around the sides of the seat. "Where's the seat belt?"
Lyr stood so he could kneel by her seat. "What are you doing?" she asked, a catch in her breath. With him kneeling, and her seated, they were on eye level with each other. He was suddenly all too aware of how easy it would be to touch her and find out if her skin was really as soft as it looked.
The memory came back to him of Meri pressed beneath him on the planet as he covered her body with his own, shielding her from the pirates. Such softly rounded curves ...
Pushing that thought aside before she could catch even the edges of it from his mind, he pulled down the restraint spider, a flat disc as wide as his palm, from the seat frame above her shoulder. She turned her head to follow him, her expression curious. If he'd shifted his hand just slightly, he could have brushed her cheek, touched the bow of her parted lips—but instead he pressed the spider to the center of her chest, just above the swell of her breasts under her shirt.
She gave a small cry as the restraint web sprang from the spider and rippled over her body. In less than a second, gossamer threads pinned her torso to the seat from hips to collarbone, leaving her arms free. She held very still, breathing shallowly, before tentatively raising her head to give Lyr a look that was both alarmed and reproachful. "How do I take it off?" she demanded.
*Tap the spider.* When she only frowned at him in confusion, he clarified with a mental image to accompany the explanation. *That device on your chest. It's called a spider. Tap it.*
She raised a hand slowly, keeping the rest of her body immobile, and gave the spider a nervous tap. Instantly the web sucked back inside, leaving the spider tethered only by a narrow strap that passed over her shoulder to the seat above.
"Oh." She tapped it again, experimentally, and this time when the web covered her, she smiled. "I see why it's called a spider."
Lyr looked away, unwilling to accept how the look of delight on her face warmed him. *That's just its name.*
"No, but it makes a web, right?" She sent him a mental picture, an insect on a netlike support, much like the creature that the Galatean word for the restraint referred to.
Lyr pushed his hands into the control cradle and gripped the handles. The ship connected to his cuffs, and its sensors came online in the back of his mind; he was suddenly there and not-there, sitting in his seat but also part of the ship. *Tell me of it later; we must go now.*
"What about Tamir? Doesn't he need a seat belt too?"<
br />
*I reversed the thrust on the float-hauler. It'll hold him to the floor, like extra strong gravity.*
Meri looked over her shoulder, wide-eyed. "Your technology is really amazing."
It was Galatean technology, technically; she hadn't even seen what his people could do. It wasn't worth correcting her, though. He began to maneuver the ship forward, then stopped and hissed softly in frustration as it thunked back to the deck.
Meri had been poking at the spider; now she dropped her hands away. "What's wrong?"
*The launch doors need power to open.* He flexed his hands on the controls and then muttered a curse in Galatean. What did it matter? The hangar bay was already a wreck, its hull full of holes. He could simply use the ship's weapons to enlarge one of those. *Brace yourself.*
He pressed the firing stud, and light flared on the ship's viewscreens. Meri let out a soft gasp. When the screens cleared, a starfield spread before them, framed by the ragged edges of torn and blackened metal.
Lyr glanced at Meri to make sure she wasn't panicking. Instead her face was a picture of eager delight, unselfconscious and fascinated. It made him think of his own wonder when he had spread his wings outside his home asteroid for the first time.
*Have you ever been in space before?* he asked, thinking of the state of technology on her planet. She shook her head. *Well then, welcome to space, Meri of Earth.*
Carefully, alert for debris, he nudged the ship out of the hangar bay into velvet darkness pricked with a million stars. Their shields glimmered as small pieces of debris bounced off. Meri gasped as something larger hit them, making his entire ship shudder.
*I'm going to pull back to a safer distance. It's a minefield here.*
He guided the ship in a long, slow loop around the derelict vessel. Beside him, Meri made a soft, shocked sound when they pulled away enough that the entirety of the pirate ship could be seen—or what was left of it. The central part of the ship was all but obscured by the debris cloud drifting around it.
Meri leaned forward in her seat, straining against the restraint web. "Where were you when the crash happened?"
He pointed to the drifting cloud of wreckage. *There.*
"... Wow," Meri said, her eyes wide. "How did you survive that?"
*My people can survive in outer space.*
"Really?"
Glancing toward her, he allowed himself to smile just a little. *Aliens. Remember?*
"Okay, good point."
Lyr maneuvered around the badly damaged ship, picking his way with care through the floating debris. *This junk is a problem, and it'll be even more of a problem when we jump, if we drag a bunch of it with us. The last thing we want to do is bombard the planet with asteroids right before landing on it. Hold on.*
He targeted the debris around the ship, systematically blasting one chunk after another until he'd created a clear space where he could get close.
*Get ready,* he told Meri. *I'm going to see if I can move the module.*
A ship this small didn't have tractor beams, but it did have cargo grapples. Carefully he maneuvered the small ship next to the module, and locked on.
In the vacuum of space, even a small amount of thrust could move a very large object, if it wasn't resisting. At first he felt the drag of the module getting hung up on other parts of the ship, and then suddenly it was moving with him, gliding through the cleared area.
Lyr let out a breath.
*How are you doing?* he asked Meri.
"Fine." She was looking around, captivated, as they put some distance between themselves and the debris field. "I wish we had ships like this back on Earth. I would've gone to space on vacation all the time if I knew it was like this."
*You like this view?*
She turned a beaming smile on him. "I love it. It's beautiful."
Some planetbound people's first view of space brought agoraphobia or panic. It pleased him that she was not one of them.
But he was not here to watch Meri admire the view. "Tow ship to main module," he said over comms. "Preet, do you read me?"
"I read you," the soft voice came back after a moment.
"Prepare for jump." Remembering Meri couldn't understand his words, he added, *Are you ready to go?*
Her delight dissolved in nervousness. "What's this going to feel like?"
*Nothing like the last time.* That had probably been her first time going through a jump. No wonder she looked scared. *It'll be very fast. You'll hardly notice anything. There will be some dizziness and then we'll be there.* If all went well, at least. If something went catastrophically wrong, it was unlikely they'd know about it.
"Ready," Preet said over the comm.
"Jumping on my mark." The thought didn't even occur to him, until he'd already said it, how strange and yet natural it felt to be giving the orders.
For the first time in years, he was beginning to catch glimpses of a life beyond the Empire. A life as something other than a slave—but he shied away from that thought. It was too much. The air felt strange and cool on his neck, where his collar had rested for so many years.
"Mark," he said, and initiated the jump.
10
___
T HE MOMENT OF DIZZINESS came as Meri had braced herself to expect. It was still weird, like reality itself slid out from under her, the stars smearing in greasy trails. She tried to turn her head to look at Lyr, but every part of her seemed to weigh a thousand pounds—
And then the stars snapped back to normal, the ship solidified around them, and there was a planet in front of them.
Meri leaned forward, catching a sudden breath at her first sight of another world, a world not her own.
She'd seen pictures of Earth from space, of course: a swirled blue and white marble, streaked with green. Even in a flat photo, hanging against a backdrop of stars, it seemed somehow inviting. The colors were colors she knew, the blue of sky and water, the white of clouds and snow, the deep green of forests and fields.
This planet was shockingly colorful. Once, on TV, she had watched a man dyeing cloth in beautiful swooping patterns by dropping paint onto the surface of a large trough of water and then swirling it with a stick before slowly drawing fabric through the patterned water. This world was like that. Rust and violet, blue and dark green, white and dust-brown, all twirled together—as beautiful as it was indescribably alien.
She glanced at Lyr to see if he shared her wonder, and saw his face set and tense, his shoulders knotted with muscle as he fought with the ship's controls. She became aware of a vibration in the ship that hadn't been there before.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
*We're coming in too low and fast.* Lyr's mental voice was tight and strained. *We're about to go down.*
"We were planning on doing that anyway, weren't we?"
*Not like this. There's no landing gear on the module. I was hoping to orbit and ferry people down to the planet with the ship. We weren't supposed to jump in this close to the planet, but the gravity well caught us. I don't think I can get out of it.*
"Oh," she said faintly.
*Make sure your restraints are tight. This is about to get rough.*
Meri wasn't sure how to make it tighter, but she touched the restraint web anyway. "Tamir—" she began.
*Nothing we can do. He'll survive or he won't. Don't try to get up; I don't need you loose in here as well.*
Meri braced herself. The planet filled all the ship's screens, whorls of white and violet and yellow-brown coming up to meet them.
*Actually, there is something you can do.* Lyr's mental voice was distracted as he focused on flying the ship. *See if you can find me a place to land.*
She started to ask how to get the information he wanted, then closed her mouth. She could figure this out on her own. There was a screen and buttons in front of her. As soon as she touched the buttons, the screen lit up, showing the planet. She pushed buttons until realizing it was actually the movement of her hands that moved the vie
w, like a touchscreen in midair. Rotating her hand turned the planet; spreading her fingers zoomed out, and clenching a fist zoomed in.
I bet Apple wishes they had this technology.
"What kind of place do you need to land?" She tried not to look at the main screen, where the view had become shaky and fragmented as the ship shuddered around them.
*Grassland, swamp—try to find me somewhere flat. Someplace near water would be best. There's a lot of desert down there.*
"Trying," she murmured. If the screen could find that for her, she hadn't figured out how, and she couldn't read any of the labels. Maybe the colors could tell her? All that brown and rust was probably desert, and Lyr was right, there was a lot of it. The violet and green swirls could be forest or grassland. Some knobbly bits were probably mountain ranges.
*I need directions, Meri.* Lyr's mental voice was calm, but with a tense thread woven through it.
They broke through a band of high clouds, and suddenly she could see the land below them, not just in a diagram on her console but in the real-world view of the main screen. Mountains seamed the land, topped with white, with vast stretches of desert between. Splashes of purple and green and violent orange wound along the wrinkled coastline. She scanned desperately for something that looked flat enough to land on and wasn't going to put them in the middle of a thousand miles of desert.
"Uh—left, left!"
The ship jolted violently. If not for the restraints, Meri would have been thrown from her seat.
Long ridges of mountains rose to either side, and suddenly there was ocean, vast and glittering. Meri could see the edge of night wrapped around the world ahead of them, turning the water indigo, dark purple, black.
*Meri!* Lyr's urgent mental voice intruded on her fascination.
"There's a river mouth on the coast we could aim for," she suggested, looking down at the slowly rotating diagram on her screen. "I think it's an estuary of some kind, a big swamp. It sounds like what you told me to look for."
*We're too low. We're not going to clear these mountains if I can't get more altitude. Hold on.*
