by Loren Rhoads
Raena supposed it was because they didn’t have Mykah standing between them.
Luckily, Coni didn’t follow that train of thought. “Let me read through all my notes one last time and I’ll send the final CV back to your cabin.”
“That will be perfect. It will be great to get this all locked in before we show up at Capital City.”
“I was thinking that, too.”
Raena wasn’t sure if the next meal was a late lunch or an early dinner. Her schedule had gotten all turned around. This time, Mykah had whipped up another simple meal, some kind of scrambled vegetable protein with cubed meat. Its smell did more to set her stomach right than anything had all day.
“Raena was correct,” Mykah said as they settled around the table. “There are freighters full of food stranded all across the galaxy. The Council of Worlds is calling for smaller craft to help off-load them and deliver the goods where they are needed.”
“What does that mean for us?” Haoun asked.
“I’m negotiating with an Eske ship now, which was stopped at Inkeri for refueling when the travel ban went into effect. They’re loaded with perishable vegetables bound for Capital City. So we can deliver those when we stop to get Mellix.”
“What are we going to ship out?” Raena asked.
“What do you mean?”
“If we show up loaded at Capital City, but don’t leave loaded with something, that’s going to look suspicious,” she explained. “There are likely to be passengers on the station who would gladly jump on the next ship out, wherever it is headed. You’re going to have to come up with a plausible reason why we don’t have room for them.”
There was a silence, during which Raena wondered if she’d insulted them by stating the obvious. Finally, Mykah said, “Thank you.”
Haoun asked her, “Why didn’t we make you captain?”
“Because I’m a much better evil mastermind than I would be a captain,” Raena answered.
“If you ever change your mind …” Mykah offered.
Raena laughed. “Don’t think you’re getting out of it that easily. You’re doing a great job.”
“Well, don’t stop advising me,” he said. “And I’m sorry to say I think we should probably clear out the hold so we have room for our load of veggies.”
Damn, she had not considered that. “Of course you’re right,” Raena said. She couldn’t be selfish enough to complain about it.
“I’ll take a look at it after lunch,” Vezali said.
Vezali surveyed the gym. It wouldn’t take long to disassemble all the pieces and return the space to its previous incarnation as a hold. She could take some of the scrap she’d salvaged from dismantling the barracks and repurpose it to store Raena’s mats—which were merely unused mattresses anyway. The various bars and poles and ropes were easily disconnected. Maybe an afternoon’s worth of work in all. It wouldn’t even need much in the way of tools.
Raena tapped at the hatch, then entered when Vezali nodded. “Can I help?”
The little woman looked … different somehow, Vezali thought. She hadn’t had much experience with humans, never counted one as a friend before she’d met Mykah. Human faces fascinated her—so many pieces moved, their joys and discomforts laid bare for anyone to read. Raena’s face was a long silvery brown oval dominated by her black-irised eyes. Today there were new shadows on Raena’s face, in the hollows beneath her eyes. The smudges emphasized the gray in her complexion.
“I’d be glad for some help,” Vezali said cheerfully. “Could you bring some of the extra wall panels down to build a locker for your mats?”
“Sure. How many do you want?”
“Let’s start with four.”
Raena went off to retrieve them. Vezali glided over to the doorway to watch her go.
There was definitely something different about the little woman today. She was dressed in black work pants and a shapeless dark blue shirt, completely different from the rainbow of eye-catching colors she normally wore. Much less form-fitted, too. Vezali wondered if it signified anything that Raena was covering her body more, since no one on the Veracity usually bothered with any more than a minimum of clothing.
Or maybe it meant something that Raena had raided the hoard of clothing left behind by Jain Thallian. The teenaged boy had been a bit bigger than Raena, but his clothing looked like a comfortable fit. Was Raena missing the child? Trying to emulate him?
Mykah would be glad to help Vezali interpret the mysteries of human behavior, if she decided she was curious enough to ask.
On her home world of Dagat, it was the height of insult to ask someone if they were feeling all right. The implication was that you found something in the other person’s appearance that troubled you. Vezali had lived out in the galaxy long enough to understand that some people were offended if you didn’t ask how they were. She wondered where Raena fell on that spectrum.
Kavanaugh so rarely had nightmares that he was completely unprepared to find himself dreaming of the night he met Raena Zacari for the first time.
Kavanaugh crept through the darkened ship with an electric torch in his hand, not sure exactly what he was supposed to be looking for. The ship hung dead in space, a drifter, but emergency life support still functioned enough that he could see his breath in the frigid air. Ice crystals formed and spun in front of him, sparkling.
Flicking from wall to ceiling to wall to floor, his torch beam caught on a pair of scuffed boots—toes pointed down to the floor—protruding from a doorway.
Kavanaugh juggled the light to his left hand and drew his pistol. Probably should’ve had it out all along, but he’d wanted to have one hand free to open doors. He nudged the boots with his toe. No reaction.
“Skyler, I found something,” Kavanaugh said over his headset. His adolescent voice cracked and he cursed it. He’d just turned fifteen.
“Something good?” Skyler asked.
“Don’t think so.” Kavanaugh traced the body with his light, but he didn’t need to turn the corpse over to be certain the creature was dead. It lay face down in a pool of ice-sludged blood. The back half of its head was open to the frigid air. Kavanaugh thought, I’ve never actually seen a brain before.
He jerked the light away, wishing he could wipe the horrific image from behind his eyes.
The beam of light flickered across the only other person in the room. A human girl hung in an impossibly tight crash web. She was smaller than Kavanaugh and painfully thin. Shadows smudged beneath her eyes and cheekbones. Her skin was an unnatural shade of gray. Ice crystals spangled the black hair that fell past her shoulders. As he watched, a faint breath swirled before her face.
“I’ve got a survivor,” Kavanaugh said to Skyler. “She needs Doc.”
“On my way,” Doc answered over the comm. He’d forgotten she would be monitoring the search.
The girl’s eyes fluttered open. She focused on Kavanaugh with effort. Her eyes were … black. Black like space. Black like they swallowed light without a reflection or a backward gleam to make her seem alive. He would have thought she was dead, except she was moving. Kavanaugh took a step back from her.
“Kill me,” she begged, her voice harsh with dehydration and cold.
And then she was out again, leaving Kavanaugh alone between the dead creature and the girl, wondering what the hell had happened.
Kavanaugh opened his eyes, looking around the familiar limits of his cabin on the Sundog. Everything was still in its place. He took a deep breath and wondered why he was dreaming about Raena again. Did it mean anything? Should he try to get in touch with her? He wasn’t sure he wanted to. His last interaction with Raena had ended with her punching him in the head.
He thought back over the dream. When Kavanaugh was a kid, Raena had traveled with them on the Panacea only briefly, long enough for Doc to patch her up. During that time, Kavanaugh had followed the girl around the little medical ship, captivated by her. She wouldn’t tell him much about her life, but he picked up enoug
h to know it had treated her rough. He was impressed by her courage. He’d seen his own family die in an Imperial raid and been lucky enough to stow away with Doc. Raena had had no one to rescue her.
Kavanaugh had so wanted to be the person who could make everything right for her—but Raena said she knew how her story ended and refused to let Kavanaugh involve himself.
As she was leaving, Raena asked the Panacea’s crew to pass a message to Ariel Shaad. That opened up the rest of Kavanaugh’s life—and led to his introduction to Sloane.
His thoughts backtracked from that. The short while she’d been on the Panacea, he had become infatuated with Raena. He wouldn’t have called it love, but she was a girl and he’d known damned few of them at that age. She was pretty, looked delicate, was scary strong and fast, and seemed absolutely fearless, except when it came to her sinister ex-boss. Of him, she seemed rightfully terrified. Fifteen-year-old Kavanaugh would have given anything in the universe to be able to protect her from Thallian.
She insisted the Panacea drop her off on the first rock they passed with atmosphere. That rock happened to be Barraniche. Kavanaugh remembered standing beside Raena inside the Panacea’s hatch, looking out at the monsoon-lashed darkness. Doc, Kavanaugh, even Skyler, all tried their best to convince Raena to come with them, to let them find her a safe world or a job with the Coalition or some kind of hiding place beyond Thallian’s reach. She’d remained adamant that her fate was sealed. Thallian would find her, no matter where she went. He would kill anyone who stood in his way, then capture her and torture her. If she was lucky, he might kill her by accident. She doubted she would be that lucky.
She kissed Kavanaugh quickly, barely brushing her lips against his, and then melted into the night. Chest hurting from the chance he’d just lost, Kavanaugh stared after her. She was gone, as if the dark had swallowed her up.
He hadn’t seen her again for more than twenty years, until she came out of that tomb.
After they got the gym pulled apart and put away, Raena retreated to her cabin. She found Coni had sent over the curriculum vitae as promised. Raena was amazed at the intricacy of it. Coni had created a birth record, an institutional childhood, a series of standard educational tests, and a stint as a bodyguard to a Melisizei “businessman” whose employment ended in a crash in the asteroid field off Quagan. Raena, the sole survivor, had been burned in the crash.
It looked great, but as Raena began to commit it to memory, she realized it was missing one thing: It needed somehow to connect her to Ariel and Gavin on Kai.
That was a thing she would need to discuss with Ariel. It amused Raena to think that Aunt Ariel’s orphan-rescuing foundation could have helped her settle into the galaxy.
Probably, to be absolutely safe, she should contact Gavin and get him onboard with the story, too. But that would start a whole slow-burn explosion that Raena wasn’t prepared to manipulate just yet. She’d call him later, when she was sleeping better and she was certain she wouldn’t lose her temper in the midst of negotiations with him.
Raena waited at the Panacea’s hatch, ready to be on her way. It wasn’t like she had anything to pack. She didn’t own anything but the clothes she wore and her mother’s medallion.
The Panacea’s crew came out of the cockpit. Doc handed back Raena’s cloak. Her fingers trailed enviously across the rich black fabric. Raena had no desire to tell her that Thallian had given her the cloak, hoping it would make her small stature look more imposing.
“Skyler brought me this from the bounty hunter’s ship, but I knew it had to be yours. Better put it on,” Doc instructed. “It’s raining buckets out there. Maybe I should get you an extra jacket, or …”
“Thanks, but I don’t think you have anything that would fit me.” Raena turned to the big wolf-faced creature that was Doc’s companion Skyler. “When Zwack picked me up, I was wearing a torso shield I’d stolen from another bounty hunter. You didn’t happen to bring that along too, did you?”
“I saw it on his ship, but left it. Too small for any of us.”
Raena nodded. It had been too much to hope for. She’d probably never see one in her size again.
“Thought you might have a use for this, though.” Skyler handed her one of the bounty hunter’s smaller pistols. It wasn’t a Stinger, the brand that Ariel’s father manufactured, but it was a good knock-off.
“Thanks,” she said with the flash of a smile. “That will come in handy, I’m sure.”
“Cut the belt way down for you.” He passed her the holster.
“Perfect. Thank you.” She meant it. After a moment’s pause, she said, “I guess I’ve kept you long enough.”
Skyler opened the hatch for her.
“Be careful,” Doc ordered.
Before anyone could say anything else, Raena slipped through the hatch onto the ramp, into the sideways-lashing rain.
Kavanaugh followed her outside. The storm wind twisted his hair into cowlicks. “I guess there’s no way I’ll ever know how this comes out.”
“I told you how it ends.” At the foot of the ramp, Raena pulled her cloak’s hood up over her head.
“Wait.” Kavanaugh caught her shoulder. “Wait, Raena, please. The future can change, can’t it? Maybe it will be different, if you’re not alone. Let me go with you. I could watch your back. We could head for someplace really far away, far enough out that nobody’s in charge, where nobody’d find us.”
“Stop. It doesn’t happen that way. It can’t.” He will kill you, Raena wanted to say. He will torture you. Or make me do it. I can’t watch that happen to anyone else.
She ended the conversation the only way she knew how, with a kiss. While Kavanaugh was too stunned to respond, she melted into the night.
Raena walked through the rain toward the trees she could barely see on the other side of the landing field. The saturated ground was invisible below a shaggy carpet of weeds, but as she crossed it, it felt sodden and slick beneath her boots. Terrible footing for a fight.
She wasn’t exactly sure where she was or where Doc’s ship was headed after this, but it didn’t matter. Raena had been on the brink of death on the bounty hunter’s ship, before Kavanaugh and the others had discovered her. She had hoped they could be frightened into killing her, into ending this endless flight from Thallian. But just as she was too much of a coward to kill herself, she had developed too much affection for the Panacea’s crew to really goad them into final action.
So here she was, with the rain driving into her face, soaking through her cape. It was so cold that she couldn’t stop shivering. She almost turned back to the medical shuttle behind her. She could take it all back, ask them to drop her in a city someplace or, for that matter, anywhere warm and dry. She didn’t have the stomach to run right now, even to search for somewhere to sleep out of the weather. She felt so completely overwhelmed that she thought she might cry.
Then something moved amongst the trees, a shadow blacker than the night. Raena froze, but of course she must have been seen. The ship’s lights were behind her as she stood in the scrubland, no cover at all unless she flung herself flat on the spongy ground.
“Raena?” a male voice called. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not here to hurt you.”
“How do you know my name?” She suddenly felt so cold that even her shivering stopped. A quick reality check reminded her that her hands were beneath her cloak.
“I’m an old friend,” he said. His voice sounded strangely amused, as if he’d had this conversation before.
“I don’t have any old friends,” she said bitterly, inching her right hand down toward the new holster Skyler had given her.
“I’m an old friend of Ariel’s, too.” He stepped clear of the trees, coming toward her at a slow, non-threatening walk.
Keep coming, Raena thought. Make this easy. I don’t want to do anything hard tonight.
“How is Ariel?” Raena asked, keeping the conversation alive. “Is she safe?”
“She found her way back to
the Coalition, if you consider that safe.”
Raena eased the new pistol free of its holster, angled the barrel toward the man. She couldn’t see him clearly at this distance and through the weather, but she was certain he was human. That made the Coalition a possibility, but the Empire much more likely.
She fired off six quick shots. One of them spun him around, took him off his feet. She ran toward him, rather than back to the med ship. Who had Doc told she was landing here? Either the Panacea had betrayed Raena or she’d just shot one of their Coalition friends. Either way, the Panacea’s crew didn’t want Raena showing back up on their doorstep.
The man was wheezing when she reached him. His hands were empty as he sprawled in the mud, but a pair of expensive guns hung from his belt.
“I’m here to help you,” he muttered as she rolled him over. He was an older man, old enough to be her father, with thinning hair and a beard that eclipsed the lower half of his face. Nothing about him looked the least bit familiar.
Raena shot him in the heart. Then she stole his guns and the belt that they hung from and ran into the woods.
Behind her, the med ship powered up for takeoff. Raena felt adrenaline course through her. She ran among the trees, looking for a deadfall or a cave or even a low-hanging branch. She had to find a defensible hiding place, in case they came after her.
They didn’t.
Raena was left alone in the storm. The weight of her guns comforted her enough to raise a smile.
Raena blinked, refocusing her eyes on the screen in front of her. The curriculum vitae that Coni had prepared for her was still open.
What had just happened? Raena shook herself, stretched, trying to get the blood flowing into her stiff muscles. Had she really just hallucinated that she shot Gavin dead in the rain on Barraniche?
That hadn’t happened twenty-odd years ago. She hadn’t known Gavin then, hadn’t met him until the night on Nizarrh. That had been, what? Months, maybe as much as a year after she’d said goodbye to Kavanaugh and Doc and the Panacea.
