Starseers: Fallen Empire, Book 3

by Lindsay Buroker

  “Yumi said that you’re a pilot too,” Alisa said, “and that you worked with the Alliance during the war. I was just twiddling my thumbs in my room, so I invited myself along to your breakfast. Hope you don’t mind.”

  “Ah, I see. Come join us then.” Ji-yoon pointed to extra chairs at the nearest table.

  Before Alisa could head over to grab one, the older of the two girls tilted her head, and the chair scooted across the carpet on its own.

  “Handy,” Alisa remarked.

  “Allow me to introduce Young-hee,” Ji-yoon said, waving at the girl responsible, “and my other daughter, Soon-hee.”

  “Daughters?” Yumi mouthed.

  “Yes,” Ji-yoon said. “Even though your appearance here was unexpected, I’m glad you can all finally meet.”

  The younger women regarded Yumi curiously. The older of the two wrinkled her nose slightly. In disdain? Maybe she just had an itch.

  “I didn’t realize…” Yumi looked to Alisa, as if she might have some light to shed on the situation.

  While she could sympathize with Yumi’s discomfort, all Alisa was thinking was that she was either going to have to find a way to get rid of the girls for a while or that she now had three meals that she had to drug. There were not any beverages or plates on the table yet, so she could not gauge how feasible that would be.

  “You know your father and I never married,” Ji-yoon told Yumi while one of the girls waved her hand over a sensor on the table. A holodisplay popped up, presenting a menu with pictures of food. “He was a good man and a soldier. Noble, appealing.” Ji-yoon smiled, and the older girl rolled her eyes.

  Alisa leaned in to look at the menu, hoping to find it full of porridge, mashmeal, scrambled eggs, and other items in which it would be easy to mix powdered drugs.

  “I knew Dad was a soldier, yes,” Yumi said.

  That likely meant Yumi’s father had been in the imperial fleet. Thirty years ago, or whenever she had been conceived, that would have been the only military service out there, aside from private guards and mercenary units. Thus far, Yumi had seemed indifferent to news of the Alliance and the empire, not speaking of allegiance to either side. Had she grown up with tendencies one way or another?

  “And quite the romantic,” Ji-yoon said. “He definitely caught my attention.”

  “I’m telling Father about this, Mother,” the younger girl said with a somewhat nervous giggle.

  Ji-yoon waved her hand in dismissal. “He knows my past.” She turned back to Yumi. “Despite an attraction, we were never a good match. Not enough common interests.” She waved toward the temple all around them, and Alisa wondered if that was a polite way of saying he hadn’t been a Starseer and thus was not good enough to marry her. “It was never my intention to have a child with him, but we were off on… I guess you could call it an adventure.” Ji-yoon smiled at some memory. “You were the result. But we separated soon after you were born, and I returned to my home. I made sure he had the means to care for you—he was quite insistent that you stay with him, and I…”

  “Didn’t care since I never displayed Starseer talents?” Yumi asked. She didn’t sound that bitter, but she looked out toward the frozen sea as she spoke, her eyes bleak.

  “I cared,” Ji-yoon said quietly. “But he wanted a reminder of our time together.”

  Gee, way to make Yumi feel like a souvenir tchotchke picked up on a shared vacation. Alisa kept her mouth shut since this conversation had nothing to do with her. Besides, she was busy perusing the menu and groaning inside because every entry involved fish. Where were the eggs? The porridge? Couldn’t these people import any staples? Eight different kinds of fish steaks. How was she supposed to mix brown powder into a fish steak?

  “I noticed you stopped visiting once I was ten,” Yumi said, “the latest age when Starseer children manifest their talents, I’ve read.”

  “That wasn’t why I stopped visiting,” Ji-yoon said firmly.

  “No? It’s not as if Dad was dating anyone else. He never married, never seemed to fall in love again.”

  “I’m sorry he never found anyone, but I was back here, and I did marry. And I had more children. When they were small, they were a handful, and it was hard to get away for weeks for cross-system visits.”

  “A handful,” the younger one said with a sniff. “Really, Mother.”

  “They’re still a handful,” Ji-yoon said.

  The older one rolled her eyes again. Alisa would have taken Yumi over either of these twits for daughters.

  Ji-yoon looked in her direction, frowning slightly. Hells, was she mind surfing?

  Alisa pointed at the last item on the menu and the only one without “steak” or “fillet” in the description. “Is the fish stew good? I’m going to try it.”

  She prodded the picture of it in the display. The selection flashed. The girls picked two items of their own, a fillet and a steak. Ji-yoon looked toward Alisa for another long moment before shifting her gaze to the menu. She selected a dragonfish steak. Great.

  Alisa turned a grim expression toward Yumi, wondering how she was going to make this work, but Yumi did not look at her. She was frowning down at the table where her hands were clasped tightly.

  “Yumi?” Ji-yoon asked softly. “Are you going to eat? You don’t have to worry about paying here. You’re my guest.”

  Yumi’s lips thinned. “Thank you, but I assure you I can afford my way. I’ve held several prestigious teaching positions, and I’ve worked as a private tutor for wealthy families. I’m smart with my money. Just because I’m choosing to travel now—”

  Ji-yoon held up a hand. “I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that we don’t use money here. Those who have jobs outside of the temple often get paid, but here, as long as you contribute in a way, your room and board and other needs are provided. Those of your guests, too, though given the strict policies about outsiders, few of us entertain.” Her smile actually looked a touch sad.

  “Oh.” Yumi’s cheeks flushed pink, and she poked at the fish stew option.

  Alisa cleared her throat. “What is it that you do for the temple, ma’am? You’re a pilot, I understand, but also an archivist, was it?” She glanced to Yumi for confirmation, but Yumi was studying her hands again. Alisa was starting to wish she had another accomplice along to rely on.

  “Yes, I keep records.” It was a terse answer, and Ji-yoon looked back to Yumi as soon as she shared it.

  Alisa scratched her ear. How many of her thoughts had the woman glimpsed? Was this plan already hopeless?

  “You should also know that your father and I had a difference of opinion when it came to politics,” Ji-yoon said. “He was working for the imperial fleet and believed in the status quo, whereas I was an advisor to the burgeoning Tri-Sun Alliance.”

  “Did you help the Alliance during the war then?” Alisa asked, still trying to find a way to get the woman speaking more. She had no idea if she was going to get a chance to drug her food, but maybe she could draw out a few useful tidbits.

  “I did.” Ji-yoon lifted her chin. “Starseers aren’t all loyal to the same factions, and many don’t care one whit about what mundanes are doing out in the system, but there are a lot of us who haven’t forgotten that the founders of the empire were those who destroyed so many of our people in the Order Wars, that they were the ones to force us into hiding.”

  Alisa did not mention that the Starseers might not have been forced into hiding if they hadn’t been trying to take over the entire system, but Ji-yoon must have seen some of her thoughts, because her face grew more unfriendly. If she was a weak telepath, as Yumi had said, Alisa did not want to encounter a strong one.

  The door opened, and a robot rolled out carrying plates, bowls, and a coffee pot and mugs.

  “Do you ever have trouble among your own people?” Alisa asked. “Because of your allegiances? If some supported the empire and some supported the Alliance, I imagine there were some brawls here in the temple. What happens when
you fight each other? Do walls come down?” She tried a smile.

  “We’re not savages, Captain.”

  “No, I didn’t mean to imply that.” Alisa covered her discomfort—three suns, she was making a mess of this—by selecting her dish from the tray as the robot rolled around the table. Maybe she should drug her own food. Would that make this breakfast less awkward?

  “Political discussions often come up at meals,” Ji-yoon said, “but even heated debates remain civilized. If people are too passionate one way or another and can’t remain civilized, they’re encouraged to leave the temple for a time.”

  “Like those spoilsports who had to leave last summer,” the younger daughter said, digging into her meal. “Remember, Young? When Jason left with his dad? They were imperial loyalists and kept saying that there’d be no living on Arkadius now.”

  Alisa ate a spoonful of her stew while fiddling with the packet in her pocket. “Last summer? When was that here? A few months ago?”

  “Oh, seven, eight, maybe. It was right after the war ended.”

  The girl’s gossip had nothing to do with Alisa’s daughter, but she found herself thinking about how people who had left Arkadius then could have stopped for a few errands along the way and made it to Perun about the time that Jelena had been kidnapped. Would Starseers who had left for political reasons be considered rogues, as Naidoo had mentioned? But even if they were, why would such people have targeted Jelena? It wasn’t as if Jonah had been an imperial sympathizer. He had been smart enough to keep his mouth shut about his opinions when at work and in public, but he had shared most of Alisa’s political beliefs, and he had supported her when she left to fight with the Alliance.

  “Mom?” Yumi said, looking toward a spire rising from the wall not far from their patio perch.

  “Yes?”

  “You know I’ve always been interested in science. I was quite curious, as we flew up, how the temple stays afloat, especially since I didn’t see evidence of hover technology underneath. Do you know?”

  “Maybe they keep some of their people chained in a tower who are responsible for keeping it up with their mind powers,” Alisa said.

  Ji-yoon frowned at her again—she liked to do that. But her youngest daughter giggled.

  “I actually had a teacher threaten me with that task once if I didn’t pay attention in school,” she said.

  “There are hover engines, but they’re not underneath the structure. They’re built into the towers.” Ji-yoon pushed her chair away from the table. “I think you can see the housings from here on a couple of them. I’ll show you.”

  Alisa hadn’t realized what Yumi was doing with her question until Ji-yoon walked away from the table and Yumi stood, giving Alisa a significant look as she pushed her chair in and followed. Yumi was trying to give her a chance.

  The younger daughter got up, too, a skip to her step as she joined them. “I’m taking engineering courses right now. I can tell you all about the engines. Yumi, what kind of science do you study?”

  Under the table, Alisa slid the packet out of her pocket and looked at the older daughter, willing her to get up and join the adventure. Instead, Young-hee pulled up the menu again, swiping her finger to bring up a beverage section. Alisa wanted to suggest that she join her mother, but that would be too obvious. She opened the packet and eyed Ji-yoon’s plate. It was across the table from her. There was no way she could stretch over to dump powder on it without Young-hee noticing, especially since she needed to do something creative to disguise it. There was a buttery orange sauce on the fish that she might mix it into, but that would take a few seconds.

  As the girl poked through a selection of sugary coffee drinks, Alisa looked at the plate to her immediate right. That one belonged to Soon-hee. She was the chattiest one there and might give up information even without a drug. Whether that information would be useful was questionable, but maybe she knew more about the men who had left last summer, such as what their itinerary had been and if any of them had been named Durant.

  “That one sounds good,” Alisa said, pointing to something called a Galaxy Arkadia. “Is there a list of ingredients?” She used her arm to block the view of Soon-hee’s plate and slid her free hand out to sprinkle some of the powder onto the buttery fish and seaweed salad. Without looking at it, she did her best to stir the sauce around with her finger and dissolve the gray-brown powder. The butter did not hide much, as her first glance revealed. She grimaced, realizing she had created an entirely unappealing spotted fish fillet.

  “It’s a tropical drink,” Young-hee said. “Just coconut cream, coffee, and moolithika syrup.” She frowned at Alisa’s arm, probably wondering why it was still outstretched.

  “I love sweet drinks. I’ll take one.” Alisa prodded the menu as she flipped the fish fillet over with her other hand.

  She leaned back, again grimacing as she eyed the results of her clumsy legerdemain. Turning the fillet over had hidden the spots, but it was crooked on the plate, and there were still spots on that seaweed salad. Maybe the girl would think it was a seasoning. Celery salt, perhaps.

  Young-hee was frowning at her, the expression similar to the disapproving one her mother wielded often, and Alisa remembered the problematic telepathy skills. Alisa put the shirtless Leonidas at the forefront of her thoughts again, imagining him enjoying a coffee with her after a morning of amore. She felt silly for using him so, and a little bad that she wasn’t using her memories of Jonah when it came to sexual thoughts, but this was the first thing that popped into her head.

  Young-hee’s eyebrows pinched together, and Alisa had no idea if her mental subterfuge was working. Had she been too late in sticking that image into her head? Or was the girl powerful enough to see through it?

  Still looking irritated, Young-hee turned back to the menu, scrolling through the drinks again.

  “How many engines does it take to hold up the entire temple?” Yumi asked, glancing back at Alisa. She raised her eyebrows.

  Alisa shook her head slightly. Yumi made a hurry-up face. As if Alisa wasn’t trying.

  “I have to go to the lav,” she announced.

  Young-hee shrugged indifferently at her. Alisa moved around the table in the direction that would take her by Ji-yoon’s plate on the way to the door. She not-so-accidentally brushed the sleeve of her jacket over a fork and knocked it onto the rug.

  “Oops. I’ll get it.” Once again using her body to hide her movements, she dumped some of the powder onto the plate. A breeze kicked up, batting at the packet and unleashing more of the drug than she had intended. Cursing to herself, she picked up the fork and groped for a way to fix her mess. The powder was clearly lying atop the orange sauce on the fish steak. “Guess she won’t want to use that.” Alisa leaned across the table and dropped the fork in the middle while stirring the sauce with her finger.

  She inadvertently bumped Young-hee and caused the menu to close.

  “What are you doing?” Young-hee asked, frowning at her and also in the direction of her mother’s plate.

  “Just trying to help,” Alisa said with forced cheer. She lifted both hands, curling her fingers down to hide the orange sauce on one tip, and backed away from the table. “Be back in a minute.”

  She turned for the door, trying not to feel like she was fleeing from a crime scene. As she opened it to hustle out, Young-hee left the table and walked toward her mother. She must have seen what Alisa was doing, if not with her eyes then with her mind.

  Groaning, Alisa hurried away from the patio. It crossed her mind to flee all the way back to the ship and maybe, if Mica had figured out how to break those clamps, all the way back into space. But the guard was leaning against the wall at the top of the stairs. He gave her a frank look.

  “Can you point me to the lav?” Alisa asked, trying to blank her thoughts, though it probably did not matter now.

  He grunted and pushed away from the wall. “This way.”

  They did not have to go far. He pointed to a
door, and Alisa rushed in, expecting a squad of Starseers to come charging down the corridor any moment to arrest her or whatever it was they did to people who committed crimes here. She pulled out her comm unit and looked at it, tempted to call Leonidas. But what was he going to do? Come loom threateningly at her shoulder as she attempted to explain why she’d thought it would be fun to drug a Starseer? Even if he would leave Alejandro to help her, he had enough trouble with the Starseers already, just from being a cyborg. She did not need to bring him into her problems.

  She almost commed him, anyway, since he had not answered earlier, when she had intended to warn him about Beck’s conversation with his grill customers. But the door opened, and she stuffed the unit into her pocket, turning to face her visitor. It wasn’t a squad of warriors, but it was Young-hee.

  Chapter 10

  Alisa smiled at Young-hee, though she was sure it was a grim and insincere gesture.

  “If you’re a spy, you’re a clumsy one,” Young-hee said, frowning sternly at her.

  Alisa found it strange being frowned at sternly by a woman at least ten years younger than she was, but Young-hee had been the one to move the chair with her mind. Who knew what all she could do?

  “I’m not a spy. I’m a mother, and I’m desperate.” Alisa highly doubted that she would gain anything by being honest with the girl, but also doubted there was a point to lying now. “A group of Starseers kidnapped my daughter several months ago. I’m trying to find her and get her back.”

  “So naturally you’re drugging my mother and my sister.” Young-hee gave her an are-you-really-this-stupid look.

  Unfortunately, Alisa felt the look was well deserved. “I would have preferred to drug Lady Naidoo, but she didn’t invite us to breakfast.”

  To her utter surprise, Young-hee threw her head back and laughed.

  Alisa raised her eyebrows. By the blessings of the sun gods, had she finally found someone who appreciated her humor? Or maybe the girl was amused by the idea of her stately and venerable leader on drugs.

  “It’s not anything toxic, is it?” Young-hee asked, recovering. “I didn’t get that from your thoughts.”