“How do you plan to avoid being court-martialed, Physician?”
Roxy sat back in her chair and looked smug. “By resigning my field commission and accepting a different position, of course.”
“Mrs. Kaddani is now an official position? Or are you becoming Roxy the Pirate Queen?”
Pyr smirked.
Roxy said, “I’m being appointed the United Systems ambassador to the People. Not exactly officially,” she added. The People at the table looked at her, expressions ranging from mild surprise to mild indignation. “I am of the People now,” she said, looking at each member of the clan in turn and bringing her gaze back to Martin when she was certain they’d been mollified. “But I am also koltiri of Koltir Prime; my duty is to continue the Genesis. My genetic gift now belongs to the People. The koltiri will communicate my mission to the Council, and the Council will put up with it for the chance to finally have a communications link to the Borderers. Besides, you and I saved the Systems’ ass from the plague and took out two Trin, with a great deal of Borderer help,” she said. “They owe us and the Borderers and know it. You always know how to collect your debts.”
“That I do.” Martin sorted through the datacubes in front of him. He was taking a great deal of information home with him. There was certainly enough here for Roxy to get away with just about anything. Well, there was one person who wouldn’t forgive her her trespasses in exchange for what she’d accomplished. After a few minutes of considering how to approach the subject, Martin looked at his sister-in-law and settled on bluntness. “What about Eamon?”
Roxy was neither surprised nor indignant. She pushed a sealed message disk across the table. The small square of black landed amid the multi-colored stack of datacubes, looking ominous but unimportant. “I wrote him a letter,” she said. She laughed, a soft sound with no humor in it. A discordant sound from the ligret added more punctuation to her words than her laughter.
Martin glanced at Pyr, but had no clue to what the alien was thinking. This was disturbing, because he rarely had trouble figuring out what anyone was thinking. He tried to accept that what went on between Pyr, Roxy, and Eamon was none of his business, but he wasn’t much good at accepting that anything wasn’t his business. “What’s the letter say, Sting?”
“Viper!”
“That a shalsae bond rescinds a contracted marriage,” Pyr answered for the indignant Roxy. “She also gave the name of her family’s lawyer, should Captain Merkrates wish to pursue legal action. I added the place where I would be happy to fight a duel to the death should he choose a more permanent form of divorce.” Pyr’s laugh was relaxed, and had a great deal of humor in it. It was also punctuated by Linch on ligret. “Satisfied, almost-father-of-my-mate?”
“More or less,” Martin answered.
Axylel reached over and touched Martin on the arm. “Everything’s settled. Can we go now?” He rose and made a formal gesture. “Bye, Dad. Farewell, Second-Mother. Good fortune to my clan and friends to my clan.” He looked impatiently at Martin and jerked his head toward the door.
They had stolen a Bucon cutter from the spaceport on Orlin and modified it with a small-scale version of the Shireny cloak. With the modifications complete and all the Trin data sorted, Martin was taking the cutter home. Axylel was coming along. The idea had been Martin’s, but Axylel thought it was his. The kid’s head still needed a lot of work, and Dr. Braithwaithe didn’t fancy leaving a patient if he didn’t have to.
On an unspoken level, Axylel knew full well what Martin was up to but, on the conscious level, he accepted that his natural curiosity was leading him to find out what life was like on a sector ship. There were always thousands of civilians on board sector ships, for education or doing research or simply being transported to colony worlds. It would be easy enough for the chief of security of the Odyssey to sponsor a young man from one of the Bucon border worlds who had helped save the United Systems from the Sagouran plague for as long a stay as he liked.
Pyr wasn’t keen on letting his son out of his sight after so recently getting him back, but he also knew Martin’s reasons—and how valuable having the clan datarat on board the same ship as Betheny and Reine Shirah might prove to be. Martin had assured Pyr that the challenge of trying to find ways around the security screen that protected the secrets of the Shireny team would be a therapeutic challenge for Axylel. And Martin assured himself that Axylel would learn exactly what Martin thought might come in handy for the defense of the Rose border for both the Systems and the People.
“Time to say good-bye,” Martin agreed, and got up from his chair.
The others rose as well. Linch even put down his ligret. Martin did not expect the tight embrace he received from the taciturn pilot. Or the whispered, “I will take care of them.”
“And I will do the same,” Martin whispered back. Then Roxy grabbed him and gave him a fierce hug. Then she held him out at arms’ length and they said together, “It’s been—incriminating.” And her laughter this time was genuine as they hugged again. Martin kissed her and Pyr made a noise, but when Martin looked up Pyr was embracing his son. The next thing he knew he was folded in a huge bear hug by Mik, and finally Pilsane shook his hand and touched his shoulder. Martin would check himself for bugs planted by Pilsane later.
Then is was time to go, with Mik the only one who elected to accompany them all the way to the cutter bay. The time for sentiment was over. Martin accepted that. They all had a great deal of work to do. There was still plague to be stopped on many worlds, and the chaos among the Bucon could not be allowed to spread. Roxy had said she might go cure the emperor after all, and Pyr said he’d think about it. Martin had his own work to do. He wanted to get home before his son was born. He wanted to take his family in his arms singly and in groups and hold them tight and make love to them in celebration. He wanted to go, but he turned his head once more as he reached the common room door.
Over his shoulders he caught one last glimpse of Roxy and Pyr. The pirate and his queen were kissing.
“Going to be a hot night,” Martin said, and followed Mik and Axylel out the door.
The End
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Gates of Hell Page 33
