by Scott Rhine
“I’ll bet Max didn’t know that detail.”
“Herb was already clear of that obligation, but he had to give them something to convince them I wasn’t stealing the Bat shuttle for the heist of a lifetime. His first thought was to save our lives. An unregistered PM of our caliber scares a lot of important people, querida. He told them you were using the shuttle to search for the professor.”
“You two may have just wrecked my career, not to mention Echo’s and Deke’s lives.”
“I’ll do what I can to resolve this. I can be very convincing.”
Roz’s stomach knotted. How would she tell Max? Then she examined the problem from another angle. This situation wouldn’t have happened if he had told her Alyssa was family instead of acting as though he knew best. The longer Roz brooded on this, the angrier she got. She stormed out of the mess hall, looking to hand Max his head on a platter.
Chapter 16 – Fallout
Roz tracked Max to the showers, where he was wrapped in a towel and shaving. She blasted him with accusations and anger for minutes. He calmly wiped the remaining lather off with a hand towel and didn’t react to the abuse. Only when she noticed the small crowd outside the bathroom did she pause to take a breath.
Casually Max said, “That would have been terribly impressive if I spoke Spanish.”
Between her discussion with Alyssa and her fury, she had neglected to switch back to English. Speechless for a moment, she lost him as he slipped into the locker room.
Anger soon overcame embarrassment, and she pursued. “Don’t you walk away from—ack!” The towels were draped over his open locker door. She covered her eyes. Her badge beeped, but she muted it. Probably Ivy wanting to know what he looks like.
“My shift starts in ten minutes,” Max said. “If I wait for you to run out of steam, I might be late.”
He’s enjoying this. The locker door rattled, so she risked a peek. Every inch of him had wonderful muscle tone. When he had slipped on underwear, she could speak. “You knew.”
“About?”
“My Aunt Alicia. Alyssa. Whatever I’m supposed to call her.” Roz crossed her arms and watched him continue to dress. “Did you even confirm her story before you lied to everyone? You promised you wouldn’t hide things from me anymore!”
“As a doctor I can’t talk about my patients, even the fact that I’m treating them.”
“Bull! You promised.”
Max scratched the back of his neck. “Hypothetically, if someone made familial claims, I could have confirmed them with DNA testing, as I already had your samples. Have faith that I would never let a stranger hurt a member of my crew.”
“So you’re 100 percent certain she’s my aunt?”
“I didn’t say that.” Max slammed the locker, still holding his shirt in his hand. He strode into the hall almost faster than she could follow. Alyssa, Herb, and Ivy obstructed the hall, slowing his progress.
“What are you still hiding?” Roz demanded.
“Problem?” asked Ivy.
“I may need to file a sexual-harassment complaint,” Max replied, pulling on a dress shirt. “Since my last disclosure, I’ve made certain we’ve never been alone together or inappropriate. Miss Mendez violated that boundary this morning. Someone needs to have a talk with her.” He looked at Alyssa when he said this.
“Why would she care who I’m indecent with or how? When she was my age, she gallivanted to the corners of the galaxy, drinking, gambling, and giving herself to anyone with enough money.”
Max held up a finger. “Don’t let your anger with me spill over onto her. Don’t say anything else you’re going to regret.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Roz snapped.
A look passed between the Greenbergs, and Alyssa won. “Don’t. I’m still mad at you for going behind my back with the Bankers. What were you thinking?”
Ivy paled. “What?”
Roz said, “Oh, yeah. Herb was a spy until recently. He just threw Crakik to the wolves and told the Bankers I was a PM in order to keep his woman from going back to prison.”
Max escaped in the confusion.
Herb swallowed hard. “No. I only told them you were a brilliant ship designer. I would never endanger—” He glanced at his wife and clammed up.
A small needler pistol appeared in Ivy’s hand. “Come to the infirmary with me. We need to discuss exactly what you told them and when.”
Alyssa put a hand on Ivy’s arm. “We’re all on the same side here.”
Jerking her arm away, Ivy replied, “What side might that be?”
“Shiraz’s.”
“Where did Max go?” Roz said. “Damn special-forces sneak.”
“If you don’t tell them, I will,” Herb threatened. “It’s not fair to make me and the doctor suffer because you’re a coward.”
Alyssa’s glare could have melted iron. “Oh, someone’s going to suffer.”
Ivy waved the pistol again, and Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Just stop. I took the darts out last week.”
Ivy frowned and tipped the muzzle down to check the ammunition arrow on the handle.
Herb moved quickly and knocked the weapon to the ground. Alyssa scooped it up with practiced ease, aiming it at Ivy’s midsection, but Herb said, “Pop the clip and hand it back to her. Any misfire might hit Max.”
With a sigh, Alyssa complied.
Ivy asked, “Why would I shoot Max? He’s not even here.”
“You might trip when you run to warn him. You wouldn’t mean to,” said Herb, “but the girl is pretty upset at him. You’ve obviously never been the target of that talent. I have.”
Shocked, Roz said, “I’d never harm him.”
Herb raised his eyebrows. “On your first date, he stood you up. You must have been pretty angry at him then.”
“At first, but we worked things out.”
“Yeah? What happened to him as a result of that fit of temper?” Herb asked.
Ivy answered, “Three guys beat the crap out of him, but it was just a … coincidence.”
Herb nodded. “Tell me about it. Until Alyssa had her operation, I can’t tell you the number of times I almost got hit by a bus or slipped on the sidewalk. Hell, I couldn’t wear shoelaces because they’d always break.”
“You’re saying it was my fault he almost died?” Roz said, aghast.
“Querida, no. Someone else had the intent. Your talent sort of connects intent with opportunity. You pick the future where he’s very sorry he ever betrayed you, and it sort of happens. His hurt is proportional to yours. You can’t communicate through the Collective, so your talent finds other ways to underscore your suffering. How angry were you this time compared to then?”
Panicked, Roz hit her comm button, but Max refused her call.
Ivy was already on her badge talking to Kesh. “Where is he now?”
“On the way to the shuttle bay. Lord Aviar from Purgatory offered to bargain with him for the fuel we need. Max thinks he can offer enough bootleg tellurium and vintage scotch to persuade him. Deke agreed to ferry him over.”
“That’s the malicious intent.” Herb said. “Aviar won’t kill Max, just torture him.” Bats had specialists for that, too. As long as the subject didn’t die, the Union turns a blind eye to the practice.
“Crap,” Roz said, sprinting down the hall toward the shuttle area.
She managed to override the external hatch before the shuttle launched. Deke cursed and demanded an explanation. “Please. Let me on board so I can settle things with Max while you fly down to the planet.”
On the radio, Deke said, “Lord Aviar isn’t on the planet. He flew up to visit us personally. We can’t keep him waiting. Besides, you and I can’t leave the ship at the same time.”
“Very well, have Aviar dock with us and come aboard our vessel.”
“That’s not the way it’s done,” Deke said.
“If you land that shuttle in his ship’s bay, you won’t be coming back. I don’t want Max tortured.”
“What?”
“Trust me. I need to make up with Max before the ambassador arrives.” Roz extended the gangway to the shuttle’s door. “Hurry.”
Balancing air pressure took a few moments, but she was at the airlock door when Max stepped through. “What are you talking—?”
Roz leapt up, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed Max hard. He responded, holding her weight with his hands on her behind. Before she knew what was happening, she had her legs wrapped around his torso, and he had her backed against a wall.
When she came up for air, her body had some suggestions about what to do next. “There. All better,” she said, like some British nanny in a children’s movie.
He nuzzled her throat, inhaling her scent until he growled. “Easy for you to say. I can’t face a foreign dignitary like this.” She squeezed closer to him until he closed his eyes in pleasure. “Stop. This is agonizing. I promised.”
Whispering in his ear, she said, “I think you’ll like this punishment better. Why did you run away?”
“Same reason I’ve been avoiding … you,” he gasped. “Hard to hold back.”
“Mmm, but I like being around you. Tell me more,” she purred, nipping at his ear.
Deke cleared his throat. “Royalty is waiting!”
Alyssa and Ivy were watching the action from a few paces down the outer-ring hallway.
Ivy said, “Don’t listen to him. Eagles don’t pry apart until they finish.”
Roz tried to decouple with as much dignity as possible. Max glanced down at her chest and noted, “Echo has a necklace like that. What happened to my medal?”
Wiping her lips and straightening her jumpsuit, Roz said, “Not relevant.” Her voice only squeaked a little.
“What aren’t you telling me?” he asked.
Alyssa said, “Don’t spoil her mood with logic. Deke, tell me what the ambassador might like to eat, and I’ll fix it while you and Kesh arrange for him to come over.”
“This doesn’t make sense,” the Bat complained.
“Darling, everyone else understands completely.”
“Do I?” asked Max.
Ivy stepped forward to whisper, “Strong emotions trigger her PM.”
His jaw dropped.
“Maybe you should let the other shoe drop?” Ivy suggested.
Max looked at Roz with obvious longing and angst. “I’d love to, but I promised.” He glanced up at Herb for support.
“My woman has a whole closet full of shoes,” Herb joked. “We’d be here all day.”
“Give me something, from your own lips, so I can trust you again,” Roz told Max.
Ivy chuckled.
Herb said, “You can see why protocol is to dose PMs with suppressant before puberty. Once it hits, they can be a little erratic. That’s why I insisted we break the news to you slowly.”
“This was all your idea?” Roz asked, her voice rising in pitch.
“She might need a tranquilizer,” Herb said.
Ivy smiled. “At least this helps explain why the talent died out—between the drugs and potential mates who have mysterious accidents, it’s a wonder there are any left at all.”
“A lot of them were burned as witches at the settlement on Jericho,” Herb said.
Ivy replied, “That would imply that the talent follows—”
Herb interrupted. “Shouldn’t you both be on the bridge?”
“Yeah,” Roz agreed reluctantly. “Tell Reuben to pick up some black-market weapons the first chance he gets. I don’t like feeling so vulnerable in my own ship.”
Max held her face, staring into her eyes. When they were alone in the elevator, he said, “I introduced Alyssa to Jeeves as a litmus test. He doesn’t jump into her lap like yours, but he sort of treats her like a wounded member of the pack. Maybe you should, too.”
“Right. Drama later,” she said, planning ways to extract the information from him. “Let’s save our ship first.”
Chapter 17 – Treason and Reason
The Bat ship had powered up its weapons before Echo personally contacted Lord Aviar by radio. The Bat aristocrat was so intrigued by a Magi with Human mates that he agreed to the meeting aboard Sphere of Influence. In formal uniforms, Roz and Max greeted him at the airlock, along with Echo’s hologram. Deke stood behind them to translate if need be. He wore his prosthetic beneath a uniform with two complete pant legs and well-polished dress shoes.
The lord had the darkest fur of the lot, but he was also the shortest. He was accompanied by two hulking guards, who were probably specialists in combat, and a female protocol specialist with longer hair and four small breasts. The woman’s red silk sheath had plus-shaped cutouts between the breasts and at the small of her back that drew Deke’s gaze like a magnet. I guess he hasn’t seen his own species since his accident, and Aviar must surround himself with hot women.
By Magi rules, none of them were supposed to be armed, but Max carried his paralytic pistol in a medical bag. He led the group to the gazebo by the koi pond in the birch-forest biozone.
The Bats chuckled among themselves, but the AI translator in Roz’s ear picked up nothing. Deke was too busy sniffing around the protocol woman to notice. When Roz prodded the copilot, he replied, “They laugh at the reversal. You wear a man’s mantle while the male plays host and caretaker like a woman.”
The table was arrayed with an assortment of fruit and honey for their guests. Aviar breathed in the forest air. “I’ll give you this much, you Magi know how to travel in style.”
Rather than let Echo speak, as they had agreed, Roz took the lead. “Forgive our change of venue. It occurred to me that you might attempt to use the warrant against me to hold my mate for ransom or questioning. That would have been unfortunate for all concerned.”
The dark lord panted in amusement, almost like a hyena. He could have been a demon or an Egyptian god of the dead. “Your mate is a former soldier. ‘You make horseshoes from inferior metal, and soldiers from inferior men.’”
“Sun Tsu,” she said, completing the quote and refusing to take offense. “According to Zeiss, the highest calling of a soldier is to make war a thing of the past. My Max has captured more Phib warriors than your entire navy has met.”
The good doctor reacted slightly when she referred to him as “my” Max.
“Enough of this pissing contest,” Aviar said. “Tell me why I should deal with criminals?”
“In the eyes of Bat law, our actions on Deke’s behalf could be deemed noble. Accusation and proven guilt are different things, as you should know from personal experience,” she replied.
“Ha. I’m far worse than the crown suspects.” Aviar regarded her for a moment. “So you’re the adversary in the triad relationship. This should be interesting.”
Roz had done some studying after the exchange of promise tokens with Echo. In the complex Magi marriage, the adversary had the responsibility to challenge any decision made solely on the basis of tradition. In her view, this wasn’t much different from the tenets of feminism. “If a custom is wrong or ineffective, we change it. No progress comes from blind slavery to the past.”
Aviar grinned wolfishly. “Oh, bless you child. I think we may come to a meeting of the minds … in private.”
Attendants on both sides looked nervous. Roz waved her people away, trying to project brazen authority. She knew they would be listening in elsewhere, ready to charge to her rescue. Deke opened the hatch for the protocol woman to exit. If he had a tail, it would have been wagging.
When Aviar and Roz were alone, the lord said, “I’ll trade you the blade and its pilot for the fuel you need to escape. All your problems vanish like the dew.”
“We have need of the knight. He will be our guide on our quest into your kingdom.”
“If you will not yield to my authority, what could induce me to release your ship from our docking clamps before the Marco Polo arrives?”
Roz ran over the inventory in her mind. “Tellurium, fine scotc
h, and power crystals.” Aviar yawned, so she added, “Music libraries—”
“What sort?” His ears were alert.
She shrugged. “A multi-terabyte sampling of about five hundred years’ worth of culture, whatever the customer wants us to burn onto it.”
“What music do you listen to?”
“While I’m doing design and repair work? Schubert’s nice.”
Aviar closed his eyes and breathed deeply. “Schubert is sublime.”
Roz announced, “Minder, broadcast my playlists through the gazebo speakers, starting with Concentration.”
The mournful viola thrummed soon after. Aviar said, “Do you know what my crime was? I played music like this on a violin. I was so good that they accused me of leading the youth astray. The priests compared me to Satan in your religion, setting myself up against the true music of heaven.” Aviar removed a leather glove and showed that his right hand was missing the forefinger. “They removed the threat of my bow, conditioned me with torture never to play again, and shipped me here.”
Horrified, Roz said, “Specialists see things in black and white when reality appears in shades of gray. We intend to sell tons of memory devices loaded with music throughout your realm.”
“That is a worthy trade. Since my fall, I have since resolved to become the very villain they fear. Tell me what you really need. I am sure we can come to some accommodation. My boarding party can satisfy the official search warrant on your vessel. After questioning you and ‘confiscating’ all of your tellurium contraband, I can give you fuel and letters of introduction to accomplish any foul mission. No money can change hands. There must be no ansible records for the authorities to follow.”
The price was high, even if he topped off the hydrogen tanks. However, she decided to trust him, or at least his hatred of the establishment. “We need to locate someone recently accused of treason—Physics Professor Eesan Crakik.”
“I will consult the ansible gleaning for relevant information.” Lord Aviar fiddled with a computer unit at his hip.
“The what?”
Lord Aviar said, “Ansibles broadcast to everyone by their nature. It is only at the receiver that we filter those messages meant for our ship or our category. People have to employ filters because the aether is constantly transmitting something. Bank prices per byte increase annually because the number of transmitters is always increasing for the same limited resource. Bats are penultimate listeners. We’ve learned to disable the filters and listen to everything.”
