by J. M. Page
So many things made sense now. He understood why the old man was so desperate to get his daughter back. If she needed regular medication, then it made sense. But why didn’t Mara tell him? Why wasn’t she worried? She never gave any indication that anything was wrong with her health and she never seemed to believe her father when he said she needed to be with him to be safe.
That could only mean one thing.
She didn’t know.
Torak gazed down upon her beautiful face, pale and twisted in an expression of pain. He brushed his fingertips lightly across her forehead, pushing damp hair out of her face.
“I don’t know what I’ll do without you,” he murmured, taking her hand in his. “I was so stubborn about accepting it, but I know now that you make me so much better. I want to be better, Mara. You can’t leave me yet. Not when we’re only getting started.” His chest tightened and for the first time in his adult life, Torak thought he might actually cry at the thought of losing his beloved. It was too much. Too real. Too devastating.
Sande returned, his face drawn into a carefully crafted expression of neutrality.
“So?” Torak asked, not wasting any time. Mara’s skin was so cold, her breathing so shallow. He didn’t know how much time she had.
“I have good news, bad news, and worse news,” Sande said, clasping his hands in front of him.
Torak growled. “Just tell me what’s going on. What’s wrong with her?”
Sande swallowed thickly, the muscles in his throat working hard as he struggled to force the words out. It looked like it took a great effort, but Torak just wanted him to get on with it.
“It’s the Asanin Plague, sir.”
Torak’s heart seized, air left his lungs, and his skin turned to ice. The most notorious disease in the galaxy had its hooks in his woman.
“Please tell me that’s the worse news,” he said, remembering there was good news. He looked back at Mara, saying a silent little prayer to no one in particular that she’d be okay.
Sande cleared his throat painfully. “Uh, not exactly. The good news is that the Brahmin hospital has a stock of antidotes since the disease has been spreading in this quadrant lately. The more unfortunate news is that no one has ever lived with a dormant strain as far as anyone’s concerned. No one knows if the cure will work, or how much of the cure it will take to work on someone who’s lived with the disease their whole life. And…”
Torak was barely holding it together now. The prognosis seemed to be getting worse by the moment. “And what?” What could possibly increase his suffering any more?
“And, as you know by her father’s troubles, the medication is not cheap, sir. Even the Affliction’s considerable coffers may be insufficient.”
Torak squeezed Mara’s hand. A silent promise that he wasn’t going to give up on her. No matter what.
“Call the hospital. We need a medic here with as much medicine as it will take. I’ll pay the price. I’ll sell everything if I have to.”
Sande gaped for a moment. “But sir, without any funds the Affliction will not be able to continue operations.”
“Then I’ll sell the damn ship too!” Torak roared. How did Sande not see the importance of this? How could he think the ship was more important than Mara?
Sande took a step back and gave a quick nod. “Very well. As you wish.”
Ten days later, the Faros color festival was long over, but Torak, Mara, and company were still on the planet Brahmin. The medics had worked tirelessly, experimenting with different dosages and medications until they found just the right cocktail to kick the plague for good.
She was scheduled to be released from the hospital some time today, and Torak was busy making everything ready for her. He hadn’t yet told her about selling the Affliction, or his new line of work, but he thought she’d approve regardless. Still, he wanted to make the ship feel a little bit… homier. They were going to be spending a lot of time on it after all, and this one was significantly smaller than the Queen’s Affliction.
Torak practically bounced with excitement. He’d seen her for a few minutes here and there over the last week and a half, but there were always visitors, nurses, or medics around. He never got a moment alone with her and he was looking forward to that most of all.
The pneumatic hiss of the ship’s door alerted Torak to someone boarding. “Sande, is that you?”
“Nope,” Mara said, coming up the steps to the main area where he was.
Her being there surprised him, yes, but he wasted no time in getting to her and wrapping her up in his arms.
“You’re not supposed to be here for hours, yet,” he said, crushing her to his chest, inhaling the sweet scent of her hair, reveling in the feeling of her body pressed against his.
“I could leave again, if you want,” she said, teasing him.
“No, no, that’s okay,” Torak said with a laugh. He pulled back from her enough to give her a kiss, both of them forgetting about anything else existing for a moment.
When they broke apart, Mara’s lips were reddened, her eyes a little glazed over. She rested her palm against his chest and smiled. “I’m happy to see you, too,” she said.
She pulled away from his arms, leaving him feeling empty and cold, and walked a circuit around the open area of the ship where they’d spend most of their time.
“This is really nice,” she said. “What prompted the new ship?”
Torak shrugged. He didn’t want to make her feel guilty about selling the ship for her medicine. He’d tell her about that one day, but right now, he wanted to focus on the future. Their future.
“It was time for a change. The Centurian Commission agreed to let me have this one if I agreed to deliver supplies and aid to all the scary dangerous places their captains are too cowardly to go.”
Mara rolled her eyes playfully. “And you agreed to this? All that do-gooding?” she teased.
Torak couldn’t help himself, he moved closer to her, settling his hands on her hips. “Of course. I’m a new man now, didn’t you know that?”
She smiled. “Oh really? Why’s that?” she asked, tracing circles on his arms with her fingertips.
“Because I met this incredible woman who convinced me I could do better things with my life and my skills.”
“She sounds pretty incredible,” Mara said.
Torak laughed, nodding before he dipped in for another kiss. “Yes, she is.”
He paused, basking in that moment before he grew more serious. “I want to help you find your home, Mara. We’ll search every rock in the galaxy if we must. I know how much you want to know where you belong.”
Mara stiffened a little in his arms and Torak wondered if he’d said something wrong. Then she shook her head, smiling. “There’s no need,” she said. “I know where I belong: it’s here, with you,” she said, flattening her palm over his heart.
It swelled under her touch and Torak didn’t think he could possibly be any happier. Soon, the crew members he considered to be friends would join them. They’d all agreed to following him to their new mission. He didn’t even regret selling the ship. No thing could ever make him feel as whole as Mara did. Not even a magnificent ship like the Affliction. No amount of fear or power could ever make him feel complete like being with her did.
He’d found where he belonged, too.
“I love you, Mara,” he said, brushing his lips over hers.
“I love you too, even when you were still a ruthless pirate.”
He laughed. “Those days are long behind me now. I hope you’ll still like me when I’m boring.”
Mara smirked, quirking an eyebrow at him. “I’m pretty sure you’re never going to be boring.”
“As long as you’ll be by my side no matter what,” he said.
“No matter what.”
Epilogue
Six Months Later
Mara
“No no no, that’s not the way you do that at all,” Mara’s father said, fussing over a repair on t
he ship.
Delta huffed, her face going crimson with annoyance, and sent a flummoxed look up at Mara. A look that clearly said either ‘Help!’ or ‘If you don’t stop him I’m going to kill him.’ Mara couldn’t really be sure which.
“Dad,” Mara said, as gently as possible. “You’ve been on the ship for a day and a half, maybe don’t tell the engineer how to repair the ship we’ve been on for six months?”
He turned to look at her, embarrassed. “Sorry, Pixel, I can’t help myself sometimes.”
Mara smiled, her hand hovering over her belly, only just starting to swell the tiniest amount. She wondered if she’d be this protective of her own child.
She and Dad were still on somewhat precarious ground. She understood why he’d kept so many secrets from her, but she still didn’t agree with the choice. They’d finally agreed to disagree for the sake of their relationship.
“You’re supposed to be on vacation, you know,” she said. “Why don’t you come up to the bridge and stay out of Delta’s way?”
Delta mouthed a ‘thank you!’ in her direction and Mara stifled a giggle.
Dad trudged his way up the stairs and sat in one of the seats, fidgeting with his fingers. He never could manage to sit still. He didn’t even know how to behave on a ship that ran as smoothly as this one.
The door to the bridge opened and Torak walked in, tablet in hand. “We’ve got a new mission. Sande, ready for coordinates?”
Sande nodded. “Ready.”
Torak rattled off the headings before he came over to give Mara a kiss. “How are you today, beautiful?”
He still never failed to set her heart aflutter. His new Centurian Commission uniform looked so much nicer than the old swashbuckling clothes he used to wear, not that he could make any outfit look bad with the way he filled it out.
“Just trying to keep the peace,” she said, smiling.
Her father jumped to his feet and cleared his throat loudly, forcing them to break apart so he could address Torak.
“I want to apologize for my behavior during… Well, everything,” he said. “I don’t hold any of it against you, mind. If my daughter’s happy, I’m happy.”
“I am,” Mara said, beaming. It took her a long time to learn it, but she’d finally realized that home wasn’t a place. It wasn’t a dot on a map or a coordinate in the sky. Home was a feeling. The feeling she got when she was with Torak, and Delta and Sande. The feeling she had when Torak wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the top of her head. The feeling she had when they were all sharing a meal, laughing and teasing one another.
That was home, and she’d finally found hers.
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Chapter One
Celine
“Celine, get your head out of the dust and get back to work!”
The young woman sighed, wondering if he could possibly know she’d been dreaming of the sky again. “Yes, father.” Her fingers moved in a blur, repairing the malfunctioning speech unit in front of her. She had yet to meet the gadget, gizmo, or contraption that she couldn’t disassemble, repair, and reassemble without a hitch.
Celine finished her assignment and went back to tinkering with her pet project: trying to get off the ground. Living in the Wastelands didn’t really provide her with a ton of materials, but every once in a long while on her exploratory missions she would find something amazing. She examined the little device, maybe a navigation unit? It was hard to tell, the technology of the old humans was pretty primitive and clunky, but it looked like this particular piece was ruined by the magnetic dust in the air.
“Ahem, I do not think your father would approve of this,” a small robot commented as it rolled across her workspace.
“Shh, if you don’t tell him, I certainly won’t,” Celine whispered with a conspiratorial smile. She sent a quick look towards the storefront her father operated out of their home, making sure he wasn’t within earshot.
“But if he finds out and knows I knew he might unplug me.” The little bot quivered, its bolts rattling.
“Oh, Rufus, you know I would just put you back together.” Celine reached across her workspace and tightened his loose nuts.
She’d created the little bot years ago, putting different spare parts together to create something new. He definitely had the appearance of something homemade, complete with rough edges and eclectic charm. Over the years she had tinkered and upgraded various parts of him, but never touched his core AI.
He trembled again, this time silent in his fear. “But if I’m unplugged I could lose all my memories. I wouldn’t be me anymore,” he whined, his over-sized optic lenses giving him a pitiful look that made Celine chuckle.
“Okay, okay, I promise I won’t let him unplug you.”
She looked over to the pile of malfunctioning parts and pieces littering her workspace. Her father was the Parts Master and de-facto leader of the modders and Celine had become chief technician in the past couple of years. Dad always said that her arm was the finest piece he’d ever crafted and somehow it could do things even he couldn’t. Celine’s mechanical arm never failed to fix something and she often wondered why anyone had flesh arms at all.
She flexed the fingers on her human hand and marveled at how seamless the movement of her joints was, how soft her skin was, and how sensitive the tips of her fingers were. Maybe there was something to be said for the human parts, too.
Celine worked for a little while longer before pushing the artifact away with a huff. “You know,” she said, casting a look over to Rufus, a sparkle of mischief in her eyes, “I think I’m missing a part I need to fix this.”
“What are you talking about? You never have troubl—”
Celine gave him a meaningful look, a smile playing across her lips. “No, I’m pretty sure I need to go scouting to find the right piece,” she said, hardly more than a whisper as she watched the door.
Rufus’s eyes lit up, flashing with understanding. He shuddered and shook until he couldn’t hold it in anymore and started to spin circles across her work space, sending pieces and parts flying in all directions. “Yeah! Let’s go!” he said too loudly, following it with chirps and beeps of excitement.
“Shh! Okay, okay,” Celine said, laughing. She packed up her space, carefully hiding her illicit projects before sneaking out of the repair shop with her robotic companion.
On her way out of the tunnels, Celine grabbed her outerwear — a flowy single piece of fabric that covered her head to toe, meant to keep the dust at bay.
Rufus perched on her shoulder, half-hidden under a fold in the fabric. The dust was particularly bad for mechanical parts. Every mote had its own tiny magnetic field and even the finest coating of the stuff could destroy moving parts and ruin computer chips. Always better to be safe than sorry.
“What do you think we’ll find today?” Rufus asked, his voice permanently child-like and full of wonder.
Celine shrugged and Rufus burrowed in closer to her neck as he slid down her shoulder. “We may not find anything,” she said, navigating the labyrinth of underground tunnels without a second thought.
As they neared one of the entrances to the tunnels, Celine heard wind howling outside and pulled her covering a little tighter around her body. The storm never ended, but some days were worse than others. On the rarest of occasions, there was nearly enough visibility to see the sky. Nearly.
She could tell from the sound of it that this wouldn’t be one of those days. She’d be lucky to see three feet in front of her. But some days, anything beat staying buried underground in the tunnels.
“I bet we’ll find something really cool,” Rufus answered, vibrating against the crook of her neck with anticipation.
At the mouth of the cave, Celine pul
led the wrap over her face and patted Rufus gently. “Maybe we will.”
She stepped from the safety of the tunnels into the swirling dust of the surface, shielding her eyes to peer as far as she could into the distance.
As was the case every day, the only thing she could see in any direction was more dust. Celine knew if she turned one direction and followed the rock face she’d find other entrances to the tunnels, most of them unused these days.
But she wasn’t interested in going back into the tunnels. Not yet. Maybe after she’d found something.
“How about we go North today?” Celine said over the howl of the wind.
Rufus rattled and gripped her shoulder tight. “N-north? To the city?”
Celine chuckled and rolled her eyes even though the bot wouldn’t be able to see the gesture.
“Old fairy tales, Ru. If there ever was a walled city — and that’s a big if — it’s probably nothing but ruins by now. I bet they’ve got really cool stuff there,” she added in a sing-song tone, trying to entice him. Even though he was a thing of her own creation, Rufus often served as Celine’s voice of reason… when she’d let him. Normally she just convinced him to do whatever ill-advised thing she had her heart set on.
