by Wen Spencer
"Me boat sank off Midway. I've been cooped up with them for a couple months. They all were giving me a ride back to human waters."
"You can talk to them?" Lewis asked.
"A smidge." She lied.
"Why weren't you up here earlier?" Lewis asked.
"I was asleep!" she cried.
"Little mouth," Hoto rumbled. "I don't know what is wrong with that other bull. It tried to bite me!"
Oh gods what did she tell him? She couldn't tell him that the mouth was female or it put her own sexually into question. "It's a calf," Paige finally said. Calves were considered even more harmless than females. "It's a very badly behaved calf. And very young. Too young to be talking to adults. I'm telling them how stupid they are."
She turned back to Lewis, stomped her foot and did a head toss of disgust. "Stupid! Don't you people know anything about minotaurs? The translator has to act like a male at all times! He thought she was a bull trying to bite his thing off!"
"He can't tell she's female?" One of the other guards cried. He was crouched beside the Blue, examining her carefully.
"With those little hooters? They think I'm a boy," Paige stuck out her chest. Her breasts were only slightly larger breast than the unconscious woman but compare to minotaur females, they were both tiny. "Now put down the guns and relax or I'll talk them into taking this cargo to Ya-ya."
* * *
Mikhail was glad that they'd equipped the Rosetta with tracking devices. It was amazing how difficult it was to find a small boat on the open ocean. Mikhail landed the Svoboda on a small nearby island and took his newly purchased launch out the Rosetta. The sea was rough, and the boats tossed on the waves like an amusement park ride.
"We're over the debris field." Orin cried in greeting as Mikhail jumped from the launch to the Rosetta. "It's right where you Ensign Moldavsky said it would be."
"Have you dealt with the locals?" Mikhail said. Paige had told him that they would need to negotiate with nearest bull. More of a formality, she had said, than anything else. Apparently, minotaurs didn't like war ships parked on their back door.
"Yes, we told them that you were coming. The bull is actually somehow allied with Hoto's group somehow, so everything is hunky-dory there."
Mikhail nodded, hoping that hunky-dory meant "good."
"It's a rich find. We're going to be out here for a while. But there's something odd about the debris field. Come here, look." Orin lead the way to the Rosetta's bridge. On one screen there was a scattering of dark smudges. "When ships hit the water, the debris doesn't really scatter randomly. There's a certain pattern to it. It should—it should . . ." Orin grappled for words. "It shouldn't look like this."
"I see." Mikhail was starting to understand Eraphie's 'Blues have something going on up here.' They made the same logic leaps that he did, only more so. Was it just the Blue crossed with Red, or was it because they were Volkov? If Orin said the debris field was off, then it was off.
Orin looked at him surprise. "Really?"
"It indicates that the manner that the nefrim ship crashed is different from how other ships you've salvaged crashed."
Orin considered him and then studied the screen. "It—It was in pieces before it hit the water. This isn't one debris field, but three. See."
Mikhail considered the various ship pieces. "It's surprising how little coral is on it."
"Nefrim ships never seem to have much on them. It's like the coral doesn't like nibbling on their wrecks."
"This is the bridge." Mikhail was pleased to see it seemed undamaged and perhaps even airtight. They may actually find the navigation system intact and operable. But what had Ethan planned to salvage? What did the seraphim want?
"In ghost stories, spirits are always clinging to things that no longer exist," Mikhail said.
"Ethan might be many things, but he's a good translator."
Mikhail stared off across the featureless water. The only thing in sight was one of the floating islands, so distant it was pebble-sized. A blot of black moving over the water.
It felt wrong to list in the water like this, ungrounded from everything. What was he doing? How did he know this was the right thing? His mission was to find the Fenrir, and he had. He'd told his crew that they were coming for the navigation device but deep inside of him, he knew he had come for what ever the seraphim wanted. Why should he be chasing after phantoms? Because of his fear of his own past? Because it was easier than facing his own weakness? What if he was betraying his species? What if this was some kind of weapon that could be used against humans?
He supposed that until they found it, there was nothing to go on but memories.
Clouds had piled out around a floating island and darkened into a storm.
"You said that we would have to watch for a floating island." Mikhail said. "What did you call them? Vimana?"
Orin turned and followed his gaze. "Not that one. It's too far down the axis." He turned into the wind and brought binoculars up to his eyes. After a moment, he grunted. "Yeah, you barely make Loki out. We have days until we have to worry. I can look up on the charts to see exactly how much time we have. We'll have to move out of its path."
"Can I?" Mikhail held his hand.
"Sure." Orin gave him the binoculars. "Straight into the spin. Use Fenrir's Rock as a landmark, it passes just down the axis by a mile."
Mikhail eyed the oncoming vimana. Orin called it down the axis from Fenrir's Rock, but it seemed as if would pass directly over the sunken spaceship. "If you have charts, then the orbits of these vimanas are stable?"
"At least for as long as we humans have been mapping them."
"Is it possible that the nefrim clipped Loki?"
"Like you did with Icarus?"
Mikhail nodded.
"The vimanas seem to float and not collide with each other because they seem to be made of some material that repels metal and possibly heavier material. The size of the vimana doesn't seem to effect how high it travels. Its as if there is some constant keeping it in place that has nothing to do with mass—because vimanas collect water and vegetation. Lower vimanas travel faster than higher vimanas."
"That would follow basic centrifugal force. The items closer to the center moves slowly while that at the rim moves quickly."
"Paige saw you clip Icarus. Because of your acceleration, you actually spun the vimana as you and it repelled each other. It dumped a shit-load of stuff off it."
"Anything that looked like Fenrir's Rock?"
Orin frowned and took back the binoculars and stared through them. He got the dreamy look that Paige would get time to time. "Yes," he finally said. "Fenrir's Rock was part of Loki."
The nefrim ship had hit Loki hard, dropping part of the vimana, and finally falling to the ocean floor. Not so unlike himself. Mikhail had left part of his bridge on Icarus. Had the nefrims left part of their ship on Loki?
"How do we get up there to see?" He asked Orin.
Orin laughed. "We don't. The only thing that can land on the vimanas are kites."
"Can you speak their language?"
Orin laughed again. "They supposedly speak Standard. Their language is one of money and thrills. They'll do it for the kick of it; but you have to pay them to."
* * *
It took every once of Turk's self-control to stay below deck as Paige bolted out to save the situation from spiraling out of control. Especially when Lewis turned and leveled a weapon at Paige. Turk trusted that Paige could talk her way out of trouble as long as she didn't have to explain too much. And she did, smoothly.
Things, however, continued in an alarming direction. True a pilot came onboard and helped to steer the large minotaur ship into the harbor, just like they did at Ya-ya. There was, however, a large number of armed troops at the dock that they guided the minotaurs to. Said troops showed signs of wanting to board the ship.
"Don't leave the ship," Turk whispered, pressing his fingers to the monitor, wanting to reach out and keep Paige from mo
ving off the ship.
Paige stood on the gangplank and argued with both sides. She got Hoto to allow on the medical crew to care for the still unconscious Blue. Once the Blue was carried off, she and Hoto followed the humans down the gangplank.
"Oh, no, no, no." Turk could barely see her now. She was the shortest person on the dock.
The medic from the medical team turned back. Turk couldn't hear what he said to Paige but saw her stiffen and shake her head. The men standing on the dock, though, slowly gathered in around her.
Turk could barely breathe. Paige hunched down into herself, not liking what she heard, but apparently unable or unwilling to flee. She shook her head a couple more times, and then, reluctantly, held up her arm to the medic.
Oh god, they were going to take her DNA. They'll know she was a Blue. Once they realize it, they might try to seize her.
Can I just kill them all?
The Mary's Landing people weren't that heavily armed, didn't have serious armor, and weren't expecting an attack from him. He might be able to kill them all. If he did that many people, though, they would have a limited time window to get safely out of the harbor—with no guaranteed that the minotaurs would flee. Actually, minotaurs probably wouldn't flee until they got their pumps, important for their future survival. Killing them all wasn't an option.
Can I kill everyone in this town?
Doubtful.
The medic stepped forward, took Paige's arm and pressed a medical device to it.
Turk thought about simply going out and joining Paige on the dock. That way they'd be together and he could protect her, but the first thing the Mary's Landing people would probably do was strip him of his weapons and armor. He would have to kill them all to keep the armor and he'd already decided that wasn't a good plan.
No, he would be more effective staying hidden and following. She wasn't in immediate danger; the Mary's Landing people considered her far too valuable to hurt. He had to keep track of her though. He had a tracer that he could use, but he needed to get it on her. How did he get it on her though? One of the calves could take it down. He could hide the tracer in something and have a calf take it to her. Turk hunted quickly around the room for something to put the tracer in.
The calves watched him.
He settled on a piece of soft-fleshed fruit. The small tracer could be pushed its side, totally hidden, Paige could tuck it into her pocket, and there would be no reason why the Mary's Landing people to take it from her.
"Toeno!" Turk called to the little bull who was the only calf that would talk directly to Paige. It got all of the calves attention. Turk showed them the tracer. Pushed it into the fruit. Held it out to the bull. "Paige." Turk tapped the monitor where she stood and then shook the fruit at Toeno. "Torno. Paige."
"Annnno . . ." The tallest of the females calves murmured. "Hano nana ra sa ne."
"Bowae!" Toeno cried.
Turk had no idea what they said. He wasn't even sure if they were asking questions or not. He couldn't tell if there was any understanding in their eyes. Were they looking at him in confusion or were they perfectly aware what he was asking only refusing because it broke one of their father's rules?
Turk caught Toeno's hand, pushed the fruit into the bull's hand, and then pointed at Paige on the monitor. He then tried to push the bull toward the door.
The females calves all reacted with outcries. Toeno dug in his heads. All of them started to talk at once, but Turk couldn't even tell if they were trying to address him. Were they angry? Dismayed? Confused? He couldn't read any of their emotion. In Ya-ya, he interacted with humans that didn't speak Standard. He'd been able to buy food and clothes at the small Ya-ya shops. He'd ask how something cost with a lift of his eyebrows, understood that the shopkeeper's upraised fingers indicated amount, negotiation the price with shake of the head, agree to cost with a nod of the head, and close the deal by holding out coins. It been almost effortless. Because they were both human.
It was starting to dawn on him what Orin meant. What a stupid time for realizations.
"How hard can this be?" He asked the calves. "Take the damn fruit to Paige! Just hand it to her!"
The calves all talked, but he got the impression that none of it was meant for him.
Fine. That didn't work. He'd throw the stupid fruit at her. The ship was high enough that if he stood in the stairwell, no one on the dock could see him. Fruit falling from the sky might confuse the Mary's Landing people, but Paige would probably realize that he'd be desperate to get a tracer on her.
Turk glanced toward the monitor to check Paige's position on the dock and groaned. He was already too late. There must have been a sedative piggybacked on the DNA sampler; Paige was being lowered carefully to the stone while a newly arrive woman stomped and shouted in Minotaur. The new Blue had also brought more armed guards, these in combat armor; apparently they were expecting trouble of some sort.
Turk swore and flung the fruit across the room. Now what?
He had to get off the ship unseen. He had to be able to follow wherever they took Paige.
* * *
The Mary's Landing people must have decided long before they hit the harbor to take Paige. It was the only way to explain how quickly they had acted. It had only taken Turk three minutes to get over the far side of the minotaur boat, into the water, and swim around the stern to the dock. By then, however, they'd already whisked Paige away. There was no sign of her.
Killing them all was starting to sound like a good plan.
Turk swam a little farther down the dock to where a stack of crates shield him climbing upon to the stones. There, he tucked himself shadows and scanned the crowd in front of the minotaur ship. There would be grunts with no clue where Paige was taken, but higher ranked humans would know. He only needed to get one of them alone and beat the information out of them.
Luckily one of the officers volunteered, breaking away to head down the dock alone.
* * *
"Who are you? What do you want?"
"Where is she?" Turk growled.
"Who?"
"Paige." The name didn't mean anything to the man. "The woman that came with the minotaurs."
"The blue castaway?"
"Yes."
"Her blood test came up positive for hCG, though, God knows how. She was taken to Blue Care to determine if we want her to go to term."
What was he talking about? Was Paige really sick? "What's hCG?"
"Human chorionic gonadotropin." The man read the confusion on his face. "She pregnant. She's at least two weeks or more for it to be picked up by the tests. Scans need to be run to see if we want the child she's carrying. We didn't think humans could cross-breed with minotaurs, but she's half-Red, so anything is possible. If it's not a minotaur-mix, we'll probably abort the pregnancy. We like to control our stock."
"She doesn't belong to you!" Turk growled.
"She wouldn't have been able to pay the fine for wearing a restraint, not as a castaway. We have leash laws for a reason."
My God, a leash law here? For someone born as a human? Just like on Paradise, the law was nothing more than a reason to take what you wanted.
And then, it sunk in.
Oh my god, I'm the one that made her pregnant!
He couldn't keep the shock off his face. Where the minotaurs had been inscrutable, Turk saw the man read Turk's dismay, and he recognize the disappointment that filled the man's eyes.
"Oh, it's yours, not the minotaur's." The letdown colored the man's voice too. "That explains it. I know a Blue will fuck anything, but I had doubts she could have accommodated that bull."
Turk snapped the man's wrist. The man screamed shrilly, like a rabbit only maimed by a dog. "Where is Blue Care?"
"On the ship! In the Blue quarter! Gala Deck!"
Turk knocked him unconscious and then snapped his neck. He couldn't risk the man coming to before Turk found Paige and he didn't have time to tie up securely. There was a pile of steel rods beside them.
He slotted two through the man's belt and rolled him off the dock.
Had to get to Paige before these monsters that always acted as if he was the animal killed their child.
* * *
Using Moldavsky's renderings of the harbor and Mikhail's blue prints of Queen Mary's, Turk was able to plot a route that would keep him out of sight as he scaled up the side of the ship to a service access hatch tucked in among the "folds" of the figurehead's dress. It had the second advantage that it gave him a good view harbor. The Red Gold was nowhere to in sight. Hardin set his trap and left.
Since the Queen Mary was a spaceship that was never meant to land or even dock with a space station, the hatch's lock was overly simple. The lock could be easily operated by someone in a spacesuit but still was idiot-proof. If the security system was active, the lock would report the hatching opening and closing. Turk dismantled the lock and bypassed the security system. He half-expected to find the hatch rusted shut, but it swung open to an area that had been an airlock. The second set of door, though, had been salvaged. He ducked into the ship and closed the hatch behind him.
