Home in the Stars Box Set

by Mason, Jolie

  Wearily, she watched the boy leave and leaned on the rugged door frame looking down on the most magnificent view of this world she’d seen yet. The forest spread around her like a carpet. She yawned quietly into her hand clutched on the door frame.

  “You’re tired, Star.” His arms enveloped her from behind, and she let herself relax into his chest.

  “Not that much. It’s been a long walk, though.”

  “And the ache in your chest is from the walk?”

  She turned toward his chin tucked into the top of her head and reached up to smooth her hand over his stubbly chin. “It will pass. Everything does.”

  “Such ancient wisdom.” His mocking tone was tempered by a kiss to her temple. “I am disappointed in my sister.”

  “War affects people differently.” Her eyes wandered reluctantly up to meet his as she made the excuse neither of them believed. “Do you think it will ever bother you?”

  “What?” he asked.

  “My humanity. I am one of them, much as I don’t really want to be. It is what I am. What if one day enough atrocity and cruelty made you hate me?”

  He scoffed and turned her in his arms. “Why do you let people hurt you this way? You are not cruel nor like your sister in any way but looks. I am not these men, Star. I was shaped in a different world, a meaner world than they even understand. You know what I learned out there in that world? Human, Sorian, Chalakian, Simeite. None of that matters. It is a choice we make each day. Corruption comes to all people in time with enough evil choices. Now, look at your choices. You are the best, kindest, sweetest woman I know.”

  She scoffed a bit herself at that. “What about Ari?”

  “Ari is mean as a snake, but always for a good cause.”

  She laughed a clear, tinkle of laughter. She pressed her forehead into his firm shoulder. “I think I do need to sleep.”

  “Have a rest. I will find us food.” He leaned in to kiss her gently, just a light brush and blending of their mouths. No fire, only love. She savored it, until he pulled away.

  “All right. I’ll try and rest a bit.”

  At just that moment, his comm demanded his attention.

  *****#*****

  Ra’dan climbed down, down toward the jungle floor where all of the cooking was done around large banked fires surrounded by high vine walls a good distance back to hide the light from patrols. Buckets of water lined the walls in case the flames needed to be doused. Men and women and children wandered round the fires some carrying food, some talking, some cooking.

  Na’len stood leaning on a tree away from the bustle and activity apparently lost in unpleasant thoughts. Ra walked his way slowly meandering his body through a crowd of playing children. Na’len looked up.

  The man appeared exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in days. His skin had a citrus pallor that came with turmoil and grief, and caused his pale blonde hair to look more yellow in the light of the flames.

  Sunset was lowering. It was a slow process here on Brin, coming on like rain rolling down a tree leaf and then, suddenly, it’s dark. Ra’dan held up one hand in greeting giving the man the opportunity to tell him to go away so he could be alone. He didn’t.

  “Sevarus”, the man acknowledged. “The elders will go with your plan.”

  Ra breathed a sigh of relief he didn’t even know he’d been keeping in. “It will work”, he said to Na’len, who he realized for the first time was not convinced.

  “I know it could. That’s why they went with my plan too.”

  “Your plan?”

  “We will take the bulk of our force and hit the holding camp.”

  “But, you said you had no chance taking that camp.”

  “We have not before, but our families are in that camp.” The man tipped forward and gestured for Ra’dan to walk with him. “You have a bond mate. You know what it will mean if we lose so many. If I lose...”

  Ra’dan stopped walking to grip the man’s shoulder. “I understand, brother. Believe me, but to throw your life away? How will that help her?”

  Na’len stood staring straight ahead at the fires before them. “If I’ve lost her, my life is already gone.”

  The older man looked at him with hope in his eyes. “We can create the distraction. It will provide the story you need for your weapons shipment, will it not? You did not think we would notice? They will want to know where the weapons were headed. What was your plan? To let them capture you alone and tell them you turned gunrunner?” He laughed. “No one would believe that. Sevarus, you are just not the type.”

  “We are not without our human friends”, he went on. “The slavers will believe they were taking an opportunity to make money. That is a story a slaver can understand, no?” He clapped Ra’dan on the shoulder firmly. “No, I will hit the camp. Our human friends will deliver the bomb. You make sure it goes off. That is a good plan, a better plan.”

  Ra’dan rolled his eyes up to see the stars peak through the canopy set like jewels in an indigo sky. “You know we’re all crazy, don’t you?”, he sighed and the other man laughed tensely.

  “Some of us more than others.”

  “I will defer to you, Na’len Randovah. These are your men to lead. My ship delivers the weapons tomorrow.”

  “Good. I will get our men ready to pick them up. Will the bomb be ready?”

  “Yes, we will have it detonated from the shuttle.”

  “I believe that this may be a good day for us all.”

  “If it works”, Ra’dan said wearily. “Only if it works.”

  8

  He woke Nina with a kiss on her sleepy head that morning that had turned into something much more. He remembered it even as he stood here among strangers. The shuttle had been deployed, and he and a group of human men waited at the drop zone which was a very rare, very large clearing in the middle of the jungle, not far from village where Nina would be waiting to receive injured later.

  The two oldest of the humans were brothers, Kurt and Tarak Carter. They were highly skilled techs, relative unknowns to the slaver groups. It wouldn’t be hard to sell the idea they were smugglers. The primary idea, however, was not to get caught.

  Ra’dan looked up at the angry color of the sky. It would be a matter of hours before the weather rolled in. He looked at his watch one more time. The Belle needed to hurry up.

  “Luca, what’s the hold up?” Ra’dan groused into his comm.

  “Sorry, Captain. technical glitch. We’re just out from your location.”

  They were deliberately cutting radio chatter today, in case alliance patrols were smart enough or lucky enough to tune in. Sure as the sun, there the shuttle was flying low just above the trees. He grimaced in annoyance. He had told Luca to remain on the Bell. No one else could fly a shuttle that stealthily.

  The small rectangular craft hovered a moment before making a soft landing in the grass before the small group and it’s two parked speeders. The shuttle doors lifted revealing the blonde pilot of the Carry Bell crawling over crates undoing latches in high gear. Ra’dan ran up to the doors.

  “I told you to stay on the ship!”

  “Too bad, Captain. The tech was beyond Emery. Had to be me. I told you we needed a techie on board.”

  He growled and started unloading the large silver crates carefully with the other men. In minutes, they had each crate mag-locked and ready to go. He walked over to the brother he’d spoken with the most, Kurt whose bald head was neatly rimmed with receding brown hair. He clapped the man on the back.

  “Remember, it’s guns. Nothing but pulse irons you want to unload. Let it go if they get too close. They will take them.”

  The older man laughed. “You can always count on the slavers to be one thing, greedy.”

  “The others are waiting up ahead to go with you, pose as your buyers and get you out of there if need be.”

  “Good hunting, Sevarus.” The man put a helmet on his head and crawled up on the speeder. They sped toward the team of rebels that would
, goddess willing, get them to safety should it all go wrong.

  “You too”, he nodded to the men as they left him too far behind to hear him. He turned back to Luca. “You aren’t supposed to be here.”

  “So fire me! Oh, wait you can’t. Ari won’t let you.”

  “You are a brat, you know that?”

  “Yes, now, let’s get this thing configured.” Luca sat at on an empty bench in the hold of the shuttle using a comp-pac to prepare the detonation program. This is exactly why he hadn’t wanted her here.

  “Program it for me.”

  “No”, she said, fingers still flying over the interface. “The shuttle’s computer is better than a hand held. More precise, and I can make changes if needed.”

  “You realize the bomb will kill people, right? That’s not something you need to carry.”

  Her hands paused, but then continued as she spoke. “These are particularly bad men?”

  “Yes”, he answered.

  “All right. I don’t see the problem. They kidnap small boys and abuse and sell them. They can take what’s coming. I’m not going to lose sleep.”

  He heard her words, but he doubted she really knew what she was getting into. Killing a man was never what anyone thought. Still, it was too late to have this argument now. She was here.

  “I’ll be with the raiding party. You wait for word before you blow it. There are way too many variables in this plan.”

  “Is it gonna work then?”

  Ra’dan looked at her. “It has to. It’s the only plan we have.”

  He stood beside the shuttle till the doors closed. Only then did he turn away and trot back to the trees. Now, they would wait for word that the bait was taken. He would do that with Nina back at the village.

  If he had done the smart thing, he would have knocked her out and dragged her back to his ship. He stood a moment looking up at the stormy sky. She should be safe up there in the stars, if he had done what he ought to have done. Guilt and fear beat at him on the walk back to the village.

  She wanted to be here, so he had to be here. He had to keep her and his family safe. Of course, he wanted to free the planet and fix the universe, but Ra’dan wasn’t naive. That was not something he could do. Not alone. He watched the universe chew up many a soul and spit them right back out again. Nothing could stop that. Not really, probably not even the goddess his people worshiped so fruitlessly.

  The village teemed with nervous women and subdued children. He estimated there were roughly a hundred families living there in the trees. He wondered how many of them would lose men today. How many had they lost already? Ra’dan wasn’t eager for this fight. He could clearly see that none of them were either.

  He walked slowly through the central fire pits toward a group of women gathered there.

  “Old mother, where is the infirmary?” He asked of a wizened old woman stirring a pot.

  “That way”. She gestured off to the right where he could barely make out a foot path. He followed it up a small rise to a large building expertly camouflaged with vines and leaves to be missed by patrols. He supposed, because the hospital needed to be on the ground, the villagers had taken special care with concealing it.

  Inside it was barely lit by the partially open windows, and it was stuffy with nothing more than fans run on backup solar units strung through the trees to cool the patients. Rows of empty cots, interrupted by the occasional filled one, stretched to the back of the long house where he could faintly hear Nina’s voice. He felt the slow smile stretch across his face at the sound.

  Walking quickly up the aisle between cots, he found a small exam room in the back where Nina was talking to a small boy with a broken arm. “I suppose you know how to climb trees since you’re living in one, but you must try and go slower, La’nee. This could have been so much worse.”

  A taciturn La’nee nodded and hopped off the table, before running at full speed for the door even with his hand in a splint cast. He ran straight into Ra’dan’s legs. He caught the boy before he could unbalance onto the floor and injure himself again. Scowling at the child, he raised one finger in warning. Chastened, the child slowly made for the entrance.

  Nina scowled some herself. “The male of the species,” she said in frustration throwing up a hand. “You’re all alike.”

  “Are we?” He asked solemnly. She nodded.

  “Nothing redeemable about any of us?” Ra’dan pulled the plain curtain closed on the exam room and moved slowly toward her.

  When he stood inches from her, she whispered, “Not a thing.”

  He pulled her closer with one hand on her waist. “Surely, we have our moments.”

  His lips seized hers even as she laughed. Something had changed about these moments of theirs. Ra’dan changed the angle so she wasn’t laughing, but responded lovingly, passionately. Still, this was becoming ordinary, commonplace. He thought for a moment about the miracle of that. Love, desire and passion as a common, everyday occurrence in his life. Laughter and smiles had been so rare for him that the sudden bounty of it almost made Nina feel like a dream, an illusion to disappear in the light of day.

  He pulled away, satisfied he’d made his point.

  “You win”, she said softly, then grinned. “How did the delivery go?”

  “Luca flew the shuttle”, he complained.

  “Uh oh. I’m sorry, Ra’dan, but she really is the best pilot in the universe. She’s a good choice for it. She’ll be safe. Have we heard back?”

  He shook his head. “It is too soon.”

  Looking at his watch, he imagined the brothers were nearly to the spot where the lure would be set. It wouldn’t be long before they knew if they took the cache. “I need to join the others.”

  Nina curled herself into his chest. He could barely hear her when she said into his shirt, “If you get hurt, I’ll kill you.”

  He chuckled and pressed his lips to the crown of her head. “If you kill me, who will you argue with in your old age, huh?”

  “Someone who can duck. I mean it. There will be an inspection.”

  “That sounds promising.”

  She sighed. “I’ve created a monster, just go.”

  He laughed in her ear before taking one tantalizing little bite of her earlobe. “I will always come back to you, Star. I mean it.” He left quickly so he wouldn’t be tempted to delay any longer. Nina was really worried, even though she tried to hide it for his sake. The jokes masked the uncertainty.

  She was smart enough to know that everything about this plan was ridiculously simple and complicated. If one part went wrong, the whole thing did. He wasn't able to hide that from her, so they'd adapted by not acknowledging it.

  He hurried back along the foot path and through the center of the village for the rendezvous spot. Just as he approached his comm jangled in his ear. “Sevarus”, he answered.

  Luca answered, “Captain, the box is on the move. Tracking puts it headed east toward the space port.”

  “Perfect. Comm me when it gets there. I’ll tell the others.”

  He picked up his pace. This was the first hurdle. There were plenty of others, but just getting that bomb in place was the biggest unknown in this plan. He smiled. This might just fall their way.

  *****#*****

  The village men and a few women gathered in a clearing lush with large orange and red harka lilies. The legend went that these flowers had come from Old Earth through the sky. They very likely came with the original human colonists who settled the three worlds. Evolution worked its magic, and here they were; slaves to the children of their ancestors.

  They carried whatever weapons they’d cobbled together, and some that Caden had sent. Ra’dan walked over to the stack of crates gathered in the clearing. It was nearly empty. He grabbed a couple extra magazines for his pulse pistol, just in case, clipping them to the spare ammo clip in his holster. He checked the weapon charge and his holster’s fit, before finally pulling a rifle out of the crate and checking it as well. Th
e barrel stretched long and black, as he checked the targeting system through the scope.

  “Sevarus, we thought you might forget about us.”

  He glanced at the man. “Wish I could, to be honest. I would haul Nina off this rock today, if I thought she’d go willingly.”

  The older man acknowledged the honesty. “I doubt my Marrca would have been safer anywhere else, but you have a special circumstance. She's human, not prey to the hunter. I envy you that.”

  Ra’dan dropped the lid on the crate. “Everyone's prey to the hunters. They took the bait. Once it’s there, we can hit the camp.”

  Na’len nodded and went to organize his fighters and tell them the news. Ra’dan’s stomach flopped madly. His instincts shouted that this would work, but at what cost? He hoped it was possible to return the wives and children and fathers to their families, but the attack on the camp bothered him. It wasn’t a distraction. It was a rescue mission. Once the bomb was inside the port, blowing it was simple. Na’len and the others wanted their families back safely. He didn’t blame them, but he wasn’t convinced it could be done. Taking the camp would be where the real fighting happened today.

  The missile launcher and two rocket drones Caden had generously loaned him would change the odds. They had a former tech specialist working the mechs. He waved at Ra’dan from across the clearing where he ran his last minute system shake down.

  He hit his comm. “Luca, what news?”

  “Almost there. Looks like they’re entering the compound surrounding the terminal. Caden said maximum damage would occur if we waited till it was as close as it was going to get.”

  “Let me know.”

  “Will do”.

  He waved to get Na’len’s attention and signaled go. By the time, they surrounded the camp and got into position, the bomb would be ready to use. He followed the others and three mechs out of the clearing and closer to the target. Whatever else happened today, whoever else died, the slavers were about to lose their advantage.