Home in the Stars Box Set

by Mason, Jolie

  The boy's eyes were angry, boiling angry. “Yeah, I am. I was in foster care. The state took me.”

  Emery raised an eyebrow. “Not hard to draw conclusions there. You okay?”

  “I will be”, the boy said.

  “Good man. Here's our situation in a nutshell”, he said clapping him on the shoulder. He told him about Luca and the ship, what they needed to do and where they were going.

  “Can you handle this, Kid?”

  The boy looked out at the other three young faces in hall. “The name is Ian, and, yeah, let's get moving.” Ian took charge getting each child dressed and looking as normal as possible. According to the charts, they'd already been inoculated against the disease now running rampant. There were no inoculations in this facility that he could find in the records.

  At least, he didn't have to worry about that.

  They headed back out into the dark waiting area where he talked the kids through sticking to shadows and avoiding direct sight of the windows. The door he was looking for was on the right side of the facility. He broke the security panel just as he did before and herded the children through. They traveled quietly down the smaller sterile hallway to the tunnel system beyond.

  Large ventilation tubes hung over their heads in the poorly lit gray tunnel. They walked for quite a while until the corridor forked. Emery signaled to Ian they were taking the pathway right. The boy nodded grimly and picked up the small boy.

  The entire journey, taken stealthily and carefully, lasted over an hour. They reached the physical plant door where it appeared the staff had gone home, and there was no night shift to encounter in this garage. He looked around the corner. Lawn clippers and machines for landscaping sat in a long silent row. Day shift gardeners. He smiled. Perfect.

  There would be cameras, so he pulled out a boxy, red device and raised a hand to the kids. “Just gotta shut down the cameras”, he explained to Ian. The indicator light blinked green repeatedly then , finally, turned red, telling him there were no more active cameras in the plant. They crossed the long cavernous room where he had two more doors to pop. It was full night outside, possibly near to morning. They'd have to hurry.

  He located the rental with his starting fob and waved the kids into it. It was a compact with only room for four. Ian kept the smallest on his lap. They started the shuttle and parked it near the docking bay where the Carry Bell was quarantined. There was no security here but the tech, and tech was barely a barrier for Emery.

  He led the kids up the load ramp to the Carry Bell's entrance console and pried it open. He entered the code, then pulled the manual door lock open. The Bell's lighting protocol kicked in immediately illuminating to fifty percent.

  “There are no crew aboard at this time. Remain still for identification.” The ship's AI scanned Emery and said, “Welcome back, First Mate Charles.”

  “Thank you, Bell. Please, decon the crew quarters mid ship, and activate the galley AI.”

  “Processing.”

  He looked over at Ian. “This way, Kids. We'll get you some food and settled in before I go back for the captain.”

  He used the FDU to feed the children. Though they weren't entirely satisfied, they were at least fed. The youngest had fallen asleep almost immediately from the long walk to the Bell. Ian followed him back out to the Bell's forward hatch.

  “The ship is under quarantine, Ian, so stay the hell out of the cockpit. It's sealed anyway. Take care of the others, until we get back.”

  “And if you don't get back?” the boy asked quietly.

  Emery squeezed his shoulder. “Then get on the comms and ask for assistance, Kid. But don't be too quick about it because you'll just end up right back in the clinic. Give me a shot. The FDUs will hold out with food and water for a while.” The lanky boy nodded, his long hair flipping forward in his eyes.

  “We'll be here.”

  “And we'll be back”, Emery answered by way of a promise before opening the hatch and heading back up, innocently and calmly strolling into the isolation wards as he'd no more than taken a walk and gotten a bit to eat. He prayed to Gods he really didn't believe in that Luca would be ready to leave when he got there. They were going to need a distraction as it was, but he needed her on her feet to do anything.

  ***#***

  Luca woke slowly to the sounds of beeping monitors. Several times she sank back into the blessed oblivion calling her name. When she finally emerged from the gentle, dark sea that held her comfortingly, she saw a strange sight.

  At first, the world was all honeycombed ceiling tiles, but, as she lifted her head, she saw Emery sleeping upright in a chair with a console on his lap. His lean jaw covered in chestnut stubble, several days worth probably, made him look like a boy, a rumpled, sexy boy. She closed her eyes. Did she really just think that?, she thought tiredly. She chuckled hoarsely. Her voice grated and her chest hurt.

  Luca began to cough. Emery's eyes popped open.

  He rushed to bring her water, tipping it gently into her mouth and holding the back of her head. “I feel like I've been on a bender”, she whispered.

  “Bet you do”, he said, then smiled.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah”, he said roughly. “I'm fine. Checked out fine.”

  “You don't look fine.”

  He looked at her silently. His mouth would open, and then shut again. “At a loss for words, huh?” She waved him to her. “Help me sit up.”

  He moved with his usual efficient grace and sat her up in the uncomfortable bed. “All right”, she said. “Now, get me a nurse so we can break me out of this joint.”

  “We may have to”, he whispered leaning in to her ear.

  She grimaced. “We're in yet another of our tough spots, aren't we?”

  “It could be worse. They lifted your quarantine yesterday, so you aren't a prisoner of the health system. Still, there are some things I need to tell you.”

  “Been busy?” He nodded. “Get the nurse. I need a shower.”

  He left her there to get someone. Luca leaned her head back against the bed. She couldn't believe how weak she felt. A blue clad nurse bustled in to start taking readings, and chattering away. Behind her, Luca caught Emery's gaze, dark and intent, like he had about a million things to tell her and some of them might not be exactly professional. She let herself fall into that look weakly, and she raised her hand beckoning him near.

  He moved forward slowly and held out his own. She took the hand he offered in hers. She pulled him down next to her, ignoring the nurse's banter. “Now, what's really wrong?”

  He looked sheepishly at the older woman checking her blood pressure. “You wanna do this now?”

  “You're going to make me nuts. You look like you lost your best friend. What happened?”

  He toyed with her tiny hand in his, watching his larger fingers caress the smaller digits. He never looked up at her, never hesitated. “I almost lost my best friend”, he said.

  Luca made a small sound somewhere between a gasp and breath. She tightened her hand on his. The nurse watched them smiling sweetly, and whispered she'd come back. They were alone.

  “Luca”, he said. She shushed him.

  “Come here”, she whispered. He leaned forward his gaze still on their joined hands, until, suddenly, he collapsed softly on her shoulder. She took a deep breath at the feeling of his trembling body so helpless in her arms. It felt exactly as if a lion cuddled at her feet. All that power in his hard frame fell into her body, giving her the strength required to hold him up. She wrapped a hand up around his neck, running her soft fingers into his shaggy hair. “It's okay”, she whispered. “I'm here.”

  They had kissed before, but this, somehow, felt three times as intimate. She waited, until he pulled away a bit. Before he did, she thought she felt the light brush of lips on her neck beneath her ear. She studied him closely.

  “Hard week, I take it.” She pushed his hair back to see his face. “This is more than my illness.”

 
“I know who you are, Luca.” He pinched his eyes. “We, Caden and I found the clinic. It's here. Your records are...I have them.”

  “Okay, you have them.”

  “It's not pretty, Luca”, he said.

  She laughed. “You thought it was going to be anything else? How bad is it?”

  “You were raised in a government facility, until, it appears, you were purchased by this company.” He spat the word purchased like it made him sick. She had more in common with the rest of the universe than she'd supposed.

  “Raised and then wiped. Seems like a waste to me.”

  “No”. He shook his head. “Wiped and then raised. You were ten.”

  “Ah, now that makes more sense.” Her heart beat quicker in her chest, but she managed to keep her face impassive and her voice calm.

  “You were in foster care, both your parents died in a pirate raid. No family is listed. And we have a related problem.” He leaned in closer. “I found more children, four of them.”

  Her eyes snapped back to his face. “You found them? Just lying around?”

  “In the clinic.”

  “And I take it we are going to do something about it.” He moved even closer and put his hands on her arms in an intimate embrace, and though his lips brushed her ear lobe, she knew it wasn't a kiss. He was getting closer to avoid listening devices or nosy staff, but it still made her tingle where he touched her.

  “It's done, but we have to find a place to take them.”

  “We have to get out of here first.”

  He nuzzled even closer.” I was thinking tonight.”

  She turned her face into his.”I'm thinking the same thing. Hey, if you took four kids out of a hospital clinic, isn't someone looking for them?”

  “Someone is, but not anyone who wants attention drawn to it. We can't just take them anywhere. These guys are going to want their test subjects back, and they really don't like evidence sitting around waiting to be found.”

  “I can relate, I guess”, she said.

  The long look they shared at that moment felt like it went on forever. He gave her a lopsided grin acknowledging the impossibility of the situation, their uncanny knack for finding disaster, and she grinned back because they were together.

  His hand crept up to slide one long finger along her jaw to her chin. “You are beautiful, you know”, he said.

  “I look like I almost died.”

  “But you didn't”, he said. “Maybe that's why you look so beautiful.”

  Her stomach dipped. “You were worried?”

  His voice might have cracked on his next answer. She couldn't be sure. “I was afraid.” With those words, he pulled her closer. Only, it wasn't an act. It wasn't subterfuge. It was the sweet crush of a lover's embrace filled with genuine emotion. Luca didn't have much experience with this type of feeling. She'd been the object of lust, even mild obsession, but she'd never felt this...tenderness toward another.

  She leaned into him, let her body which was so weary rest on him a moment. The nurses kept their distance, as he held her. When he finally pulled away, he said, “We have to get you out of here. The quarantine is lifted.”

  She balanced herself on his shoulders. “You have a plan.”

  It wasn't a question. She knew him well enough to know he would have worked this out days ago, he'd just been waiting for her. He just smiled a small smile and tweaked her nose.

  Luca smiled back. He'd get them off planet. It wasn't even a question.

  ***#***

  The nurses shut down the ward for the night. Lights were dimmed and the bustle that usually teemed in the corridors muted to a whisper. She'd been unable to prevent her eyes from closing sleepily.

  A shrieking klaxon woke her from a deep sleep, and then arms were lifting her out of bed. “Put these on, Angel”. It was Emery's voice. “We may have some running to do.”

  Bleary eyed and alarmed, she stared down at a pair of nurse's scrubs in the royal blue worn in the isolation wards. Emery busily packed his comp pac and strapping it on his back. He looked over at her and grinned. “You need help getting those on.”

  She shook her head at first. Then smiled at him. “Maybe. I'm still very weak.” Luca began her struggle with the thin clothes. She managed to pull the pants up in the dark of her room as a klaxon light blinked on and off in pale blue beams. The shirt was harder to get over her head. She heard a deep chuckle nearby before his quick, strong hands helped pull her shirt over her head.

  “Come on”, he said softly. “Try to look like you belong here.”

  She nodded as he led her to the door by her hand. Several staff rushed by them with patients to evacuate. They walked quietly among the evacuees, until Emery pulled her by her arm around a corner that was pretty much deserted and up a set of stairs.

  This floor appeared to be completely empty already, like a ghost town. “This is the clinic ahead”, he whispered. He broke in with some contraption while she kept watch tensely.

  He led her quickly through a set of offices and down several winding turns, until she couldn't tell you how they got there. He finally pulled her into a wide industrial service shaft where she had no choice but to lean against a wall for a moment. Her chest wasn't clear, and breathing in oxygen became her number one priority.

  “Damn it, you weren't ready to leave yet.” He watched her carefully looking for signs of keeling over onto the hard concrete, she imagined.

  “Just help me. I'll get there.” She held out her arm to him, and, obediently, he propped her on his side.

  They walked that way for quite a while, until she finally grew too weak to take another step. He swung her up in his arms for the last part of the journey. She lost track of where she was, until she looked around to find them facing a wide open garage filled with landscaping equipment.

  He led her outside to the street where he opened a shuttle remotely. She sat, gratefully, in the co-pilot's seat, leaning her head back. Emery pulled them out slowly, and she was asleep before they even launched into traffic.

  ***#***

  Luca woke up being carried one more time. This time down a corridor of the Carry Bell straight into her beautiful bridge and placed into her comfy pilot's chair.

  “Come on, Angel. You'll have to fly us out of here once I lift the quarantine.” He plugged his comp pac into the console interface of the Bell's comm system. “Wake up, sweetheart.”

  “I'm up”, Luca said softly. She reached for the console like it was second nature, tapping in a pre-set launch sequence.

  Emery picked up the comm mic and used the ship wide to say, “Mr. Simms, secure our passengers, if you will. We're leaving.”

  “Mr. Simms?” She looked at him even as she continued firing engines. “Where's the crew?”

  He swallowed hard. “Some of them are on the planet. Most of them are dead, Luca.”

  The hand reaching for the navpoint calculator shook minutely. She'd suspected it. Even in her weakened state, her brain was making connections. If slowly, she worked a few things out.

  There had to be a reason she came down with this new deadly disease and just happened to be one of several kidnapped children bred to be something for the Imperial government. It made her sick to think her crew would be alive today if they hadn't signed on with her. That was exactly what she feared.

  Emery worked quietly for some time, until Luca heard the automated Station Response, Quarantine lifted for Carry Bell. Safe Journey.

  She didn't wait, but threw the switch and sent the Bell careening around the traffic of the city and out into atmo. Luca monitored the screens to make sure no one followed, even as she flew them out to FTL distance. Once she hit the FTL and plugged in the navpoint, she stood on shaky legs and moved toward the hatch.

  “Hold on,” he told her lifting her in his arms yet again. “Let's get you back in bed.”

  As he carried her through the hatchway, a long lanky young man in a spare Bell uniform rounded the corner at run. “Emery, I've got the kids in
their beds.”

  “Thank you, Ian. This is Captain Luca Brine.”

  “Captain”, he said shyly.

  She smiled tiredly. “How many kids do we have on board?”

  “Three besides myself, Ma'am.”

  She groaned. “Emery, make him stop.”

  Ian looked confused. “What'd I say?”

  Emery laughed. “Rule number one. Never call her ma'am.”

  The boy smiled. “Well, I'll just eat and turn in. Do either of you want anything from the galley?”

  “I'll get her something before I go to my quarters.”

  The boy smiled at the two of them and walked away with that awkward gait used by the very young. As they watched him go, she said to Emery, “You don't have to carry me everywhere.”

  He stilled with her in his arms. “I want to carry you everywhere.”

  His eyes met hers. Luca studied the planes and curves of his face. He was very handsome, but that wasn't what she saw. It was incidental to the kindness he wore, even knowing who he had been. She saw kindness, sweetness, and honor. “You try so hard to be the tough guy.”

  He leaned his forehead to hers. “I'm not the tough guy. Not anymore.”

  “What's changed?”

  He exhaled. “You changed everything”, he said softly. He tightened his grip to get her closer and buried his face in her neck. She listened to her heart speed up.

  “I thought we couldn't do this. I thought...”

  “Apparently, I'm not capable of doing anything else.” He grazed her lips with his own, almost too lightly to feel. “You're exhausted.”

  She nodded. “I am, but we should revisit this tomorrow.”

  “Right after we figure out what we're going to do with four kids. We can't take them to Taarken.”

  “What's wrong on Taarken?”

  “We think this, what happened to you was the first shot in the war.”

  “You said you figured out who I am, but you learned more didn't you?”

  He swallowed. “The files and assessments used a phrase when they referred to your group of children. Weaponized. The plan was to make you into weapons.”