“Mica?” she tried when Leonidas did not answer.
Alisa stepped into the airlock chamber, thinking of heading over to the other ship and trying to find her people.
Abelardus’s hand came down on her shoulder. “He doesn’t need your help.”
“Are you sure?” She shrugged his grip away and took another step, not appreciating being held back.
The smoke stirred at the other end of the tube, and she jumped back around the jamb, not sure whether to expect friend or foe.
“We’re coming,” came Leonidas’s voice over the comm—she also heard it in the tube.
“So I see,” she said as he came into view. He trotted into the cargo hold, waving at the hatch. “We programmed a disengage command from the other side. Close our hatch, and prepare to get us out of here.”
A wide-eyed Mica came through the tube after him, gripping her arm and wincing. Her sleeve was smoldering, but that didn’t keep her from glaring at Leonidas and asking, “What do you mean we?”
“Wait up,” Beck called, running down the stairs with one of the patrollers over his shoulder. He dragged the other one behind him, the man’s butt and boots bouncing as he thumped down the treads.
Alisa grimaced. The two men were still alive, but they would not appreciate the bruises they would wake up with.
Leonidas ran to Beck and grabbed the man on the deck. He led the way through the airlock tube, tossing the figure into the smoke, presumably into the safety of his own ship. Beck did the same with the other one, and they both sprinted back into the Nomad’s hold.
Mica hit the control panel to lock the airlock hatches as soon as Leonidas slammed them shut.
“You’re not flying yet?” Leonidas asked, looking at Alisa.
Alisa thought of several retorts, but she had no idea how long the android and his crew would be distracted. It was a foregone conclusion that Delta Five had already sent out a warning about her freighter. If he had identified her and her crew, he must know about its true identity too.
She ran up the stairs. Leonidas was right. It was time to put some distance between them and the patrol ship.
“Captain?” Alejandro asked, sticking his head out of sickbay as she passed. “Are we going to be able to make it down to the planet?”
“I hope so,” she said, not slowing down for a longer conversation. “But we can count on the Alliance knowing we’re coming.”
Chapter 3
Alisa flew low over the subarctic terrain, avoiding the towns and military and research bases that dotted the tundra.
“Are we on anyone’s monitors?” Leonidas asked, joining her in NavCom.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Alisa replied, “but I’m sure that patrol ship has already reported our approach to the planet. I expect company any time.”
“The android will have to repair his comm before he can report.” Leonidas slid into the co-pilot’s seat, bumping his head on the stuffed spider that dangled above it.
“Oh? Did Mica do something while you two were over there?”
“My destroyer did something while we were over there.” He shifted his jacket aside to tap the butt of the big gun.
“Ah.”
That might buy them a little more time, but probably not much. And Leonidas would have more black marks on his Alliance record. As would she, if she was held responsible for his actions. And she was the one who had sent him over there.
“Leonidas, where will we ever be able to live in peace, now that we’re wanted criminals fleeing the law?” Alisa asked, feeling bleak as the tundra outside turned from predominantly white to brown with white patches.
“I thought you planned to live on the Nomad, with me working as part of your security team.”
“Yes, but I imagined being able to fly places while on the Nomad, and dock and land without finding arrest teams waiting.”
“Pirates and smugglers manage that life. There are many planets now that aren’t under Alliance or imperial control.”
“Charming locales such as Cleon Moon?” Alisa grimaced as she considered having to call such a place her home port, and trying to explain to her daughter why the vids there all showed dinosaurs eating people. “What happens when the Alliance solidifies its control and extends itself as much as the empire did? What happens when they control the entire system?”
“That may not happen.” Leonidas sounded like he hoped it didn’t.
Alisa couldn’t agree, not after seeing the chaos and cruelty that had come up in the void. Some government needed to establish law and order out there. Maybe Leonidas was imagining the reestablishment of his empire. That would be just as bad.
Alejandro leaned through the hatchway to NavCom and studied the view screen as yellowish-brown grasses gave way to trees. “Wouldn’t it have been better to take a more direct approach? Laikagrad is near the forty-fifth parallel.”
“Direct approaches are monitored,” Alisa said, waving toward a holomap that hovered in front of the co-pilot’s seat, with the standard flight paths into his chosen city highlighted. She had them on course for it, albeit a roundabout course. The metropolis housed millions and would have air traffic controllers monitoring the approaches to the airport, spaceport, and private air facilities. “As I told you before, it would have been better to visit the medical facilities on one of the Aldrin moons.” Once again, she wished she had fought harder for that.
“Laikagrad has the leading medical university and several galaxy-class hospitals,” Alejandro said.
“The staff could also be here on Arkadius,” Leonidas said, glancing toward Alisa. “So could the children.”
“Please, they could be anywhere.” Alisa refused to get her hopes up prematurely again, especially when they had no evidence to suggest that Jelena and the others had been taken to Arkadius. “If their captors didn’t want them to be found, heading to the main Starseer temple wouldn’t be a great place to go.”
“They didn’t want the children to be found by rogue Starseers. They shouldn’t have anything to fear from their own kind.”
Alisa shook her head, having no idea if that was true or not. Who knew what politics motivated the men and women in that temple?
“If everything is monitored, where are we going to land?” Alejandro asked.
“I have an idea,” Alisa said.
Neither man asked what it was. She did not know if they were quietly worrying about the potential repercussions of her having ideas, or if they trusted that she knew what was best for the ship. She did catch them exchanging pointed looks. That didn’t imply trust.
“Will it involve crashing or being arrested?” Alejandro finally asked.
“I’m not a Starseer,” Alisa said. “I can’t foretell the future.”
“I don’t think they can either,” Alejandro said.
“I’m going to try to avoid crashing. My ship has taken enough damage these last couple of months.”
“No mention of arrest,” he murmured.
“Look, I’ll get us on the ground. Don’t worry about that, Doctor. What I need you to worry about is how you and Durant are going to get into whichever fancy hospital you’ve chosen.”
“I’m an award-winning surgeon with more than twenty years of experience at the most prestigious hospital in Perun Capital. I plan to walk in, ask to use the facilities, and be granted the permission to do so.”
Ugh, and he was worried about her getting them arrested?
“Your experience was in the empire,” Alisa said.
His plan, if one could call it that, sounded far worse than her idea.
“So? I’ve been interviewed and published in medical journals across the system. I’m well-known for my work. And I’m an acolyte of the Divine Suns Trinity now. Surely, nobody will believe I’m up to anything felonious, especially when I show up with a patient.”
“You’ve been flying around with a notorious cyborg for the last few months, and you were here when we appeared to help the Starseers fight off the A
lliance. I doubt waving prayer beads at the authorities will get you past them.”
“Notorious?” Leonidas murmured.
“You just admitted to shooting up the patrol ship’s comm station. I’d call that notoriety-inspiring.”
“Hm.”
They flew out over the narrow Singer Sea, heading for the southern continent. Alisa watched the sensors as the traffic increased, airplanes and spaceships crossing the land mass and adjoining oceans.
“Regardless,” Alejandro said, “I can’t be held accountable for what the captain of a passenger ship I happen to be on does. Nor what a notorious cyborg does.” He splayed his hand in an apologetic gesture toward Leonidas.
He had better be apologetic. Most of the trouble Leonidas had gotten into had been on his behalf.
“You’re being naive if you don’t think you’ll be arrested on sight,” Alisa said. “We’re not on the border planets anymore or some wild moon owned by the mafia. This is the seat of the new Alliance government.”
“I am well aware of that,” Alejandro said stiffly. “If we are arrested, I hope a rescue can be arranged.” He nodded once at Leonidas.
Alisa scowled, not liking the idea of him willfully getting Leonidas into more trouble with the Alliance.
A similar expression of displeasure should have crossed Leonidas’s face, but he had pulled up columns of data next to her map and was scanning some information. If he would not object to Alejandro’s highhandedness, she would.
“I want you to refine your plan, Doctor,” Alisa said.
He frowned at her. “The aged and venerable sun does not ask for advice from the young moons.”
“Uh huh,” she said, vaguely familiar with the passage in the Xerikesh. But Alejandro was about as venerable as a toadstool. “Figure something out that won’t involve Leonidas having to charge to your rescue. Don’t you know anyone on the staff who might leave a back door open for you? Then we could sneak in at night.” As much night as there was. She had already checked the sunrises and sunsets for the city, and Arkadius was in a bright part of its orbit, receiving a great deal of light from both Rebus and Opus. They would only have about two hours of darkness with which to work.
Alisa glanced over her shoulder, expecting a further objection, but Alejandro was scratching his cheek thoughtfully.
“I wonder if Dr. Garcia is still on the staff here. She was one of my nurses for a time until she returned to school to pursue a medical degree. And I’ve worked with Doctors Bernard and Najafi, two research scientists who I believe still work out of Aristarkhov University. I wonder if they have access to the hospital. Oh, and then there’s Gutteridge. Yes, I will risk getting in touch with my old colleagues. A mission is the duty of all those who will prosper from its completion, after all.”
“Full of platitudes today, aren’t you?” Alisa asked.
Alejandro turned away, muttering more thoughts to himself as he headed into the corridor.
“You’re welcome,” Alisa called after him.
He did not acknowledge her.
“I don’t think that man is ever going to realize how valuable and delightful a person I am,” Alisa observed.
“The aged and venerable aren’t always open-minded,” Leonidas said, his gaze still locked on the data in front of him.
“I’m going to be polite and not point out the gray hair sprinkled in with the black at your temples there.”
“Are you sure delightful is the right adjective to describe you?”
“Absolutely. I would crawl into your lap and demonstrate, but I’m busy flying, and you seem preoccupied.”
Leonidas paused the data scrolling past, and Alisa did another check of the surrounding air traffic. Nobody had hailed her yet to question her on why she was flying a mere hundred meters above the ocean—or to ask why the Nomad looked so much like a freighter that had set off explosions in a planet patrol ship. She doubted it would take that android long to get his comm system back online. As close in as his ship was, he ought to be able to contact his superiors with an earstar.
“The Storm Fury is among the Alliance ships orbiting the planet,” Leonidas said.
“I noticed that on the way in. Want me to call Tomich and see if Admiral Tiang is still there and available for kidnapping?” She smiled at him.
A wistful expression overtook Leonidas’s face, and she thought he might have changed his mind about that, but he shook his head. “No.”
“Perhaps we could simply comm him after we’ve found a solution for Durant. See if there are any options and if there’s any way he could be convinced to—”
“No,” he said, more firmly this time.
Alisa ought to drop it, to respect his wishes, but it was hard when his wishes had taken a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn after he had inadvertently struck her in his sleep. It was her fault, her thoughtless choice, that had resulted in him giving up his dream of having a family and a normal life. That was what he had been working toward when she had met him, even if many weeks had passed before she had known it. He had been fixing up the Star Nomad, intending to travel out to that asteroid research lab on his own if need be. He had considered his dream worth risking much for.
“What if there’s a solution for the nightmares?” Alisa asked. “You believe the surgery that stole your sex drive can be reversed. Why won’t you believe that the rest of you can be fixed?”
“Because a human brain is complex.”
“And your penis isn’t?”
“It goes up and down. It’s simpler than the wheel. And as useless when it doesn’t work.” He clenched his jaw and looked away, the bitterness surprising her. He usually saved that for discussions of how the empire had fallen, and even then, he had to be irritated to let his feelings slip.
Alisa hoped she hadn’t irritated him. She glanced toward the hatch to make sure they didn’t have any eavesdroppers, and lowered her voice even though she didn’t see anyone. “Leonidas… I don’t know if my opinion matters to you in this matter, but I think you should have the surgery done—reversed—if there’s any way that it could happen. Even if you decide you don’t feel it’s safe to let yourself have a relationship with me, if it’s at all possible that you could get something of yourself back that the empire took away, you should. You never know what the future will bring—maybe after you’ve been out of combat for a few years, the nightmares will fade away, or maybe you’ll find a drug or treatment that will help you sleep without lashing out.”
She thought of all the canisters in Yumi’s cabin. Might not something in there help with nightmares?
“But if you wait,” she went on, “what if it’s then too late to find any of the doctors left who worked on imperial cyborgs? If you get the chance now, you should have someone do the surgery. Like I said, you don’t know what the future holds, but you should have all of your options available going forward into it.”
His expression wasn’t quite as closed down as she had thought it might be, so she found that encouraging.
She smiled, leaned over, and bumped his arm with her fist. “I’ll still hold a gun on the admiral while he performs the surgery if you’re worried that he’ll let something slip. Even if you won’t let me play with your wheel afterward.”
He snorted. She couldn’t tell if it was a contemplative snort or not.
“The admiral might think fondly of you since you didn’t kill him when he helped steal our artifact,” she added.
“I doubt it. I used him as a meat shield.”
“You pushed him aside before he could be hurt. You could have strangled him. Maybe if you contact him, you could open with that. Say, Admiral, remember that time I could have killed you and didn’t? That was nice of me, wasn’t it? Want to do me a favor?”
Leonidas frowned at her humor. Maybe he didn’t find it humorous. Nothing new there.
The comm light flashed. Ah, some industrious air traffic controller had finally noticed the Nomad and wanted to know what the ship was up to.
> Alisa considered ignoring the hail or responding with static, but she didn’t need the controller suspecting her of being a terrorist on a bombing mission and sending a squadron of military fighters out to greet her.
“This is the Sky Wanderer,” she said. “Can I help you?”
“Sky Wanderer,” a woman responded, “you are not on an approved flight path and aren’t on the list of scheduled incoming flights at Laikagrad spaceport.”
“We’re a private freighter delivering directly to our customer. Also, we’re having trouble with our port thruster. I’m concerned about being forced to make a less-than-perfectly controlled landing before a mechanic can look at it, so I wanted to come in low.”
“In the empire, we called that a crash,” Leonidas murmured.
“Who is your customer?” the controller asked, a frown in her voice.
“Chef Jean Pierre Leblanc,” Alisa said, waving down Leonidas’s comment. “We’ve got mushrooms fresh in from Cleon Moon.”
Leonidas lifted his eyebrows.
Alisa muted the comm. “I checked, and he has three restaurants and a warehouse in the city.”
“Does he know you’re using his name for a ruse?”
“Not in the least. But Beck is his new best friend, so I thought he wouldn’t mind overmuch.”
“Understood, Sky Wanderer,” the controller said. “Please land promptly if your situation escalates. Laikagrad doesn’t take kindly to dilapidated relics from centuries past crashing in the city.”
“Will do,” Alisa responded tightly, waiting until she cut the comm before saying, “Dilapidated relics? Since when are air traffic controllers allowed to snub your ship? Isn’t there a regulation against that?”
“She believed your ruse, and you’re complaining?” Leonidas asked.
“Of course I’m complaining. What kind of captain wouldn’t complain about slights to her ship?”
“You should have tried Leblanc’s name with the planet patrol android. Maybe we wouldn’t have ended up in a battle.”
Arkadian Skies: Fallen Empire, Book 6 Page 4
