by Celeste Raye
He said, “It sounds like we need to break them out of there.”
Chapter 10
Yori cried out, “Are you insane? How the hell are you going to do that? No craft can get in and out of there without a lot of Federation stamps and—”
Jessica’s brain whirled with possibilities. She interrupted him by saying, “Yori, you could get those stamps.”
Yori slumped into the chair. His face went paler still. “You’re both insane!”
Jessica was afraid he might be right, but she was also sure that Talon might be right too. “There is no better captain in the universe. He’s the best, and he wrecks ships and kills Gorlites all the time. He’s fierce, and he’s brave, and he’s willing to help. Don’t say no, Yori. Just get the stamps so we can get this done, and today because we only have a matter of hours before this world ends, really.”
He was fierce and brave, and she loved him so very much. That hurt but she had to admit it. Talon felt nothing for her beyond whatever loyalty and belonging he bestowed upon his crew. She was his crew. She was nothing more, no matter how good that sex had been and no matter how her heartfelt.
Yori asked, “Can you really break into a prison?”
Talon said, “I escaped a mining planet. I don’t see how this can be much different.”
Yori blew out an audible breath. His fingers toyed with the blaster. “If I saw you, and I did, you had better believe others saw you, too, Jessica. You have to go under; you can’t stay above.”
Her lips flattened. “How will I get the stamps?’
Yori ran a hand through his thick hair, and her heart twisted once more. Once upon a time, she would have done anything for Yori, and he would have done anything for her. They had fancied themselves in love, but that had ended. Not painfully or with recrimination. They had just realized that what they loved most about each other was that they saw themselves reflected in each other and that that was not a good enough reason to remain a couple.
“I’ll get them to the banquelle in the next two hours. Listen to me right now. If they don’t reach you, run. If I get caught, and I just might because this is …you do know what I will have to do to get those stamps and the risks I am going to have to take. You also know I won’t be taken to prison. I will be killed on sight to save face.”
Talon asked, “Save face?”
“His father’s the Federation head of this city,” Jessica said softly. “He is an above grounder.”
Talon’s hand rested on her arm, warm and strong and it felt so right there that she wanted to weep and tell him not to touch her if he didn’t mean it, if he didn’t want her as much as she wanted him because his touch, so right and so perfect, was also a perfect torment.
Talon asked, “Can we trust you?”
Yori’s eyes rested on Jessica’s face. She sighed. “Yes, we can. He’s risked his life more than once, and he knows the odds.”
Yori stood. The blaster was once again in his hands. He said, “You can’t stay here. It isn’t safe. They do periodic sweeps, and we don’t want to be here when they do. Take the grate from anywhere but where you entered and for God’s sake go right below. Be careful at the tenth because they have IMN guards there now and you won’t pass, not with him in tow.”
Talon asked, “IMN?”
“Interplanetary Migration Nodules. They scan every face and heat register. They’ll know you are an alien and aliens do not go below. Not unless they have citizen chips or pass papers to visit family.”
“I see.”
Jessica gave Yori one last look. “I’ll be there,” was all she said because, really, what else was there to say?
Yori departed. Talon’s fingers met her arm. “We have to go.”
“I know. I am trying to think. If we take the tunnels again, we can break into the Eighth but to do that we’d have to go low, and that means the terra rats.”
He spoke. “If that is safer, then that is how we go.”
She swallowed back sickness. She had learned how to control her fear of those wretched creatures because to do otherwise meant death, but it had been a very long time since she had had to go past them, and even up high on the ropes she often felt fear. Even carrying weapons did not always keep her from being afraid of those toothed and hungry mutants.
Talon asked, “Which way, Jessica?”
“This way; the opposite of how we came in.” She set off, her head high and her mind opening in a fear trap, something else Yori had taught her to do. When she had been fifteen, and he had been twenty-two, he had brought her down to the tunnels and forced her to walk past pack after pack of terra rats to prove to her that her fear could be contained.
God how she wished she could still love him, and forget her traitorous heart that wanted Talon so much. Yori was hard to love too though, and so was she.
Maybe that was the real problem. Maybe she made it impossible for any being to love her.
Chapter 11
Below Old Toronto was a dim and sagging place. Talon found himself at a small table near a restaurant that had rickety tables and chairs and food that smelled like it had come from a rusted printer. He surveyed the glass of water in front of him with suspicion. It was gray and dead. It would give him a way to ease his thirst, of that he was sure, but how would it taste?
I’ve had worse, I am sure of it, he thought as his hand wrapped around the glass, and he lifted it to his mouth. A grimace came up. Definitely had worse, but not by much. He settled the glass back down on the table and stole a look around.
Jessica said, “Did you know that, a long time ago, this part of the city was used by everyone?”
“No. You mean everyone lived below?”
Her head shook from side to side. “No, it was a sort of second city, and it was filled with fun things for people to do. But when the wars came and the changes in climate, the ones who could afford to live above forced the others, especially the immigrants, to come below.”
The place was dim and old, crumbling and depressing. The streets were thin and spidery, moving past buildings that were packed with people who all had gray skin and slumped bodies. The businesses were open, but few people seemed to have credits to spend in them.
A fight broke out as he watched and his spirits sank again.
Was this place even worth saving?
He saw tired faces and tired things everywhere he looked and his heart ached at the sight. Maybe Yori was right. The only way to do it was to get as many out of there and to other planets as possible. Whatever happened to this place, maybe it was deserved.
Jessica spoke. “I…I am scared, Talon.”
The soft admission raised his defenses and a sense of protectiveness. His eyes lifted to her face. She met his gaze with a direct one of her own. She said, “Not for myself, but for them. These people. They never deserved any of this.”
Talon took a deep breath. “I can see that. Why don’t they fight to make their lives better?”
“They don’t know how, mostly. They have been killed and sold and beaten down to the point that they believe that this is the life they deserve simply because they had the misfortune to be born below. A few make it into jobs that take them above for part of the day, and they think that is enough, and that having credits to feed their families and not have to pawn their children or their wives is enough. That as long as there is survival, that is enough.”
He asked, “Why do they not just leave for other planets?”
“They barely have enough credits to eat, Talon; how could they afford the fare off the planet?”
The question was couched in a gentle tone, but there was nothing gentle about the glint in her eyes. She was raging inside, and he understood something at that moment. Jessica cared deeply about the people around them, even those that were strangers. That she had fought against their oppression with everything that she had had, and she would die to help them if it came to that.
But why?
Why would she do that?
They
were not her people, exactly. She owed no loyalty to them.
He studied her face for a moment. Humans were odd creatures, always working off whims and ideals and faded philosophies that should have died when their planet had failed all those centuries ago. Every time he met one, somewhere in the universe he was staggered by their capacity to only go with emotion and to never understand why they fought.
An old man staggered by, his gray coveralls hanging off his withered body. His eyes, red and bloodshot, peered at them and then he staggered onward. Jessica stood. “We have to go. We have to get to the meeting place.”
Talon stood. The old man peered at them from a doorway and Talon frowned. The old man darted into the door of the building he had stood in front of and a hard knot filled Talon’s stomach. He glanced at Jessica and saw that she was already moving. Disquiet filled Talon. He glanced back at the building, but the old man was gone.
He set those misgivings aside and started after Jessica.
Chapter 12
“It’s time, and nobody’s here yet.”
Jessica managed to squash her impatience as she peeked around the corner of the banquelle, a tall standing bridge that arched over the wide underground river that was harvested by above grounders through the hard labor of the below grounders, who were not allowed to drink of it, or to bathe in it either.
The below grounders had a recycle water facility that pumped used water from the above grounders and into the below sinks and toilets. The penalty for drinking from the river was automatic death. The surface of the water had been electrified, and any who dared to dip even a hand into it died as soon as their fingers or cups touched that shimmering surface.
Just one more injustice she had always wanted to right.
Once upon a time she had wanted to save that planet from its cruel caste system and its federation overseers. Now she wanted to save it from an even worse fate. So where were the goddamn stamps she needed?
“Worker above, watch your heads, nobody can cross the banquelle due to work.”
The words were muffled and came from above. Her eyes went up. A worker swung along the beams, his booted feet resting on a slim metal knot in the long cord that the workers used to climb.
She blinked and looked away. A small packet fluttered in the air, and she grabbed at it, cupping her palm to conceal that packet as the worker went by then upward, climbing fast toward the spiked upper walkway.
“Let’s go.”
Talon had seen the exchange, and they headed off quickly. Her shoulders tensed constantly. The below was a mass of stores with no credit but real credit signs in the windows, recruiter offices for work labor, pawn buildings—many with women and children standing in front of them in ragged lines.
Talon asked, “Why do they let men pawn but not women?”
Her smile was bitter. “Good question. One I never understood. Women and kids can be pawned or outright sold but men, unless they’re minor boys, can’t be and the only ones who can pawn their kids are men. Maybe it’s because most women would not pawn their children and the Federation knows it. My father burned his hand and was unable to work, and he pawned me for a year’s service to get the credits he needed to have it rapi-healed so he could work.”
His hand touched the small of her back. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I got a job working in those tunnels, cleaning trash. That’s how I met our friend. I saved him and some of his friends after one of them decided it would be a lot of fun to see if the tunnels they had heard of were real or not.”
“That’s why you hate those rats.”
His hand rested on her arm again, and her heart hurt almost as much as her memories. “Yes. I saw three adults die my first day down there when they got scared, and their fear drew a massive swarm. I ran. I ran away, up the ropes into the perches where the rats could not climb and I…I just watched them die.”
Talon stopped walking. His hand stopped her feet as well. He turned her to face him. His voice was soft. “It wasn’t your fault.”
The hard lump in her throat was salty and bitter. “I should have helped them to live.”
“How old were you?”
Her throat worked, but the lump did not go down at all. “Seven.”
“And they were grownups, Jessica. You were a child. You had no weapons and no skills, and all you could do was save yourself. You did that and because you did that you have been able to save a great many people. Stop blaming yourself for their deaths.”
How had he known that she did? Nobody knew that. Not Yori, not anyone. “I…I don’t know if I can.”
He drew her into a small alley between a drink house and a washaterium. “Do you know how many people I saw die when my planet died? I saw children swept into the sea. I saw men I knew go deep into the earth that split open and swallowed them, and women and more children died that way too. I stood in med-bays and heard them screaming in pain and dying. I watched those who could not get aboard before the warp happened to try to make it to ships already lifted off and leaving them behind and I have never, not once, forgotten those faces or the sound of their voices. I understand how you feel.”
Jessica had known that Talon had seen his home planet destroyed, but it had never occurred to her until just that moment that he would have seen so many of his people die. He did know how she felt. How could he not?
His fingers traced along her face and she shivered. His face was so close to hers, and his mouth parted slightly in what seemed an invitation for a kiss.
That was an invitation that she could not resist and did not resist. Her mouth found his, and her lips parted as his tongue stroked past her teeth and found her tongue. Her body pressed closer to his as her breath left her lungs in a slow breathy exhale.
The kiss lingered. It was passionate but soft and tender at the same time, and it soothed away the anguish of her memories: a welcome thing.
It was Talon who broke the kiss off. She stared at him as he said, “I’m sorry. I know you and Yori are… Well, I don’t know what you are… And I know that you don’t care about me. I care for you though, Jessica. Very much. If we manage to live through this, any of this, I would hope that one day you could care for me as well.”
An incredulous laugh sprang from her mouth. “I do care for you. I thought you cared nothing for me. No, that’s not right. I thought you regarded me with the same affection as you regard the rest of the crew. I thought you respected me as a warrior but had no want for me as a woman.”
His eyes crinkled slightly at the corners. “I would’ve thought that thing in the shower would’ve told you how much I want you.”
Her cheeks heated slightly. “I might owe you an apology for that. I truly didn’t mean to just walk into your chamber and seduce you.”
Talon gave her a wicked grin. “Oh, I didn’t mind. In fact, for a minute there I was pretty sure that I was just dreaming it was happening. It would not have been the first time that I dreamed it.”
She gawked at him, hope and joy lifting some of the despair away from her heart. “I wish we could stand here all day and talk to each other about this, but we can’t. We have to get moving.”
His head inclined forward and then affirmative gesture. “We do. Show me the way back to the ship so we can get this done.”
Done?
Until those who were trying to overthrow the Federation were removed from power and until the Gorlites were eradicated from the universe they had terrorized for so many centuries, this would never be done.
And even after that happened, it would still not be done. She would forever be wanted by the Federation, and so would he. They could go back to that planet that he had purchased along with his siblings and live outside of the Federation rule, but once they did that there would be no more flight for him.
That bothered her greatly.
Talon lived to fly, and she could not imagine him not being able to, or him ever being happy without a ship to guide through space.
There w
ere shouts on the narrow roadway ahead of the alley. Jessica and Talon instinctively flattened themselves against the wall and then sidled down it, heading toward a shadowy L-shaped corner that might provide them more cover.
They had no sooner ducked into the cover provided by a large trash receptacle than bright lights flashed from the head of the alley, pointing toward the blind wall nearby and the walls of the buildings that formed the small alley.
A querulous voice cried out, “Capo! I saw her! I’m telling you, it is her! I saw them come from over there!”
More voices floated into the alley. Some were raised in jeers of derision. “Capo, you can’t believe a word that old-timer says! He’s been drinking too much wheat-fire!”
Talon’s fingers tapped on her arm, a signal they had worked out several months before when they needed silence but also to communicate. Three taps. That meant get ready to fire. Jessica’s hands slid her weapons from the holsters with slow and silent movements. Her entire body went rigid with tension, and her heartbeat first sped up and then slowed considerably as she forced herself to breathe and relax her muscles so that she would be ready to spring into action and would not be hampered by muscles too stiff to move.
The lights continued to probe into the alley. Jessica didn’t dare peek over the trash receptacle or around it for fear that her shadow or her hair would give her away. Instead, she directed her eyes toward the walls of the buildings beside them and watched the shadows move across the brightly lit walls.
Talon was doing the same thing. He didn’t move anything but his fingers. He spread four of them across her forearm and pressed down wiggling them a bit so that she could be sure of what he meant.
Four Capos in the alley, and who knew how many more on the street.
She should shoot that damn old man herself!
A great hue and cry went up. Someone screamed, “There she goes! And that alien with her! There! Off toward the tenth exit! They’re probably headed for the tubes!”
