He took a deep breath.
“Yajain,” he said. “We need to talk.”
“I knew we would,” she said. “That woman, Adya knew Mosam Coe.”
“That’s for starters,” Firio said. “But I also want to know why you went to confront her in the first place. You are here as a medical assistant. I shouldn’t need to tell you not to do anything so dangerous.” His eyes were soft, his tone hard.
Yajain couldn’t help the frustrated shake in her hands where they sat in her lap.
“Excuse me, captain, but landing on that terrace wasn’t supposed to be dangerous. It was a matter of survival.”
“Maybe so, but whether it was or not, you are too involved to see clearly,” Firio said.
Captain Ettasil nodded. Yajain shot him a scowl.
Firio glanced at the junior captain, showing Yajain the long pale scar that cut his face just over his bearded jawline.
“Captain Ettasil requested my presence to question you. He needs to know what I know about you and Mosam Coe.”
Yajain clenched her fists, then forced them to release. She turned to the Captains.
“He’s a doctor, but not one trained purely by the academy. He was traveling with his master when he came to Kaga Settlement eleven cycles ago.”
“What kind of a doctor?” Ettasil asked.
“His master, an older man named Savar, and he are Doctors of Harvest.”
Firio released his chair and turned to Yajain.
“These Doctors of Harvest, they were helping refugees right?”
“Yeah,” Yajain said. “It was at the end of the war. A lot of people got uprooted in the later battles. Mosam’s master worked with older kids a lot. I first met the two when they arrived on Kaga.”
Firio closed his eyes.
“Mosam Coe destroyed the imperial armory there just over two cycles later.”
“He nearly killed my sister in the process,” Yajain said. “She clerked there at the time.”
Ettasil wiped his forehead with a handkerchief.
“The woman you mentioned in your report, Adya, might well be working with Coe. It’s rumored Harvest is code for revolution.”
“Don’t tell anyone else about this,” Firio said. “Yajain, we trust you, but not everyone will.”
Ettasil nodded.
“Don’t tell the imperial agents about this. They’ll trouble you for being a compromised civilian on this mission.”
“Right.” Yajain planted her palms on the table. She stood. “I understand. Is there anything else?”
Firio folded his arms.
“Locals have confirmed the identity of the pillar’s attackers. They belonged to Ija’s forces until recently. Now they fight for a warlord. We think Harvest might have something to do with it. If you see anything unusual, tell us immediately.”
Yajain bowed her head. “Yes, Captain. I will remember.”
I will remember when I find Mosam.
Ettasil stood up.
“We depart for Sirol, Ija’s central pillar at the beginning of the next dark cycle.”
“I’ll prepare for it, sir.”
The flight to Sirol took far longer than transit between the Abdra and Toraxas Clusters. The fleet wove between pillars rather than shooting down an empty corridor in linear transit. The difference turned a journey of minutes by transit into over a week of flying.
Rain fell through most of the journey, slicing through already misty air and dappling the viewers.
Yajain’s arm recovered by the third shift with help from precise coats of morpeal spray. During the healing process, she found herself spending time in the watchroom with the shutters wide open to let in the light and shadow of the outside world.
They often passed darkened pillars without any local solnas, but as often burning serpents appeared in red, blue, yellow or green.
In spite of Adya’s taunts about Mosam, watching the solnas and pillars pass brought peace to her thoughts. Seventy-two hours into the journey with another hundred hours left to fly to Sirol, she joined Ogidar and Sonetta at the table in the watchroom for a game of Eferesa.
The simple game of wagers and cards played on a black cloth mat, nothing like the digitized interfaces the bandojen clan companies manufactured over recent centuries. Eferesa used physical pieces to represent the players’ bets.
Yajain remembered playing this game with Lin and Mosam back on Kaga.
Banedd joined Yajain, Sonetta, and Ogidar.
“Looks like the hunters aren’t going to outnumber us after all,” Sonetta said.
It was a joke and everyone knew but in her few past times playing Eferesa, Yajain never wanted to win so much. She took her cards and played a few hands before understanding it again. Her memories changed the faces at the table into Lin and Mosam. After a few more hands she stopped picturing Mosam across from her, face half-hidden by cards.
Sonetta raised the stakes, moving her proxy toward the center of the black mat. Yajain’s proxy met it there. Yajain held a good hand. The two of them played better than Banedd, but Ogidar remained inscrutable. Banedd folded. Ogidar moved his proxy forward to join Yajain’s and Sonetta’s.
“Feeling lucky?” Sonetta asked.
“Feeling good,” Yajain said.
“Feelings don’t win games,” Ogidar said.
Yajain’s smile broadened and she showed her teeth.
“Well, I think I know who’s folding next.”
“Care to bet on that?” Sonetta said.
Yajain moved her proxy into a circle at the center of the mat. The game didn’t feature all-in bets. A single hand was capped by the center bid. Ogidar pushed his piece into the circle. Sonetta did the same.
“We can’t all have good hands,” Sonetta said.
“Don’t be so sure.” Yajain’s eyes moved to look at Ogidar.
The big cabler said nothing.
“That’s it. Show ‘em or fold ‘em,” said Sonetta.
Yajain locked eyes with the medical officer.
“Show.”
Ogidar folded silently.
Sonetta laughed.
“Sorry, Ogi, but I knew you were bluffing.”
Ogidar shrugged.
“I’m too open. It’s a weakness.”
They showed their hands and Sonetta crowed in victory.
“Lucky me,” she said. “Lucky me I’m going up against a guy like you and a girl with the most honest face I’ve ever seen.”
Yajain frowned.
“You think I’ve got an honest face?”
“I bet everyone here knows where your head was this game.”
“You think?” Yajain fished a note from the bag by the table to record Sonetta’s winnings.
“Oh yeah,” Sonetta said.
“Care to wager on that?”
“Sure. Now I’m the one feeling good.”
Ogidar shook his head, his expression amused.
Banedd grinned.
“Can I get in on this?”
Yajain shrugged.
“If you get it right, I’ll throw in confirmation with a little credit. But if you get it wrong, you’re gonna each give me twenty. I’ll be honest.”
Banedd leaned forward, elbows on the tabletop.
“Got it. I’m in.”
“Me too. Done.” Sonetta tapped her chin.
“Okay, go,” Yajain said.
“Hold on, hunter lady,” Sonetta said. “I gotta have time to think this out.”
Yajain rolled her eyes.
“Okay, Banedd.”
“You’re thinking about how lucky you are to be playing cards when a few dozen hours ago you could have gotten fried, and how you’re lucky to be alive. You’re going over how nice it is to do something so normal.”
Yajain smiled.
“Wrong.”
“Oh come on!” Banedd shook his head. “You’re pushing me.”
“Nobody’s pushi
ng you,” said Ogidar calmly.
“You think?” Banedd asked. “Man, you got a funny sense of humor, big guy.”
Ogidar’s hands lay flat on the table.
“Some have said.”
Yajain turned to Sonetta.
“You ready?”
“Sure,” she said. “But you’re not gonna like it.”
“Try me.”
“You were thinking about that woman who was shooting at us. She got away and you can’t stand that.”
“So much for my honest face.”
“You’re telling me I’m wrong?”
“Definitely.” Yajain sat back. “That’ll be twenty each.”
“What were you thinking about if it wasn’t your near miss?” Banedd asked.
Yajain sighed.
“Don’t ask me if you don’t already know.”
“It’s not like it’s my job to know stuff,” Banedd said. “Jump, slide, shoot. That’s me.”
“And you play your part well,” said Yajain.
“Handsome too. That’s a bonus for you ladies.” Banedd grinned.
Sonetta shook her head with a grin of her own.
Yajain rolled her eyes again.
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep the knowledge that your nose is off center to myself.”
Banedd chuckled.
“Ouch, doctor.”
“It’s right there,” Ogidar said, “for everyone to see.”
“Hey, big guy, don’t you start—”
“Not you,” Ogidar said. “Yajain. You were thinking about that man the captains called you in about, weren’t you?”
Yajain’s face grew hot. She stared at Ogidar.
“How did you know that?”
“The Tei Officer told me a criminal might be involved. And your face is honest.”
Yajain nodded slowly.
“Too bad for you, you didn’t bet anything.”
“Wouldn’t have been fair.” Ogidar rose from the table. “Wrap up the mat and pieces when you’re done,” he said. Then he left the watchroom with a yawn.
Yajain watched him go for a moment as light from a blue solna began to circle into view around the edge of a pillar outside. She shook her head, the color in her face slowly returning to normal. Sonetta stared at her.
“How do you know a criminal, Yajain?”
“I met him when I was younger.” Yajain sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Got the message,” Banedd stood up. “Thanks for the game.”
Sonetta smiled at him.
“I’m the one who’s richer for it.”
Banedd left, and Yajain rolled up the mat. Mosam had been on her mind. She could have sworn he was right here. She remembered unwillingly the last thing he’d said to her when they’d spoken before he left that day.
“It could’ve been you and me, Yajay. Don’t think Lin was my first choice.”
And three hours later, Lin had lost her legs in the armory explosion.
Kaga Pillar 10 Years Ago
Yajain met Mosam in Kaga’s core chamber, just outside the Church of Harvest’s entrance. Though she usually arrived a little early, as she tended to do when they met for homework, this one time she detoured. Nearly a year after his arrival in town, she stopped to buy a chronometer for him to celebrate his approaching graduation.
He wore the same battered old device every time she saw him for the past year. And soon he was graduating. After today he could do anything he wanted, go anywhere he pleased. Yet, he planned to stay to help the old doctor.
Today we aren’t going to study.
Yajain’s heartbeat quickened at the thought. She looked down at the bag holding the new chronometer and smiled. Ripples of pressure in the arc field announced Mosam swimming down from the higher level of the church. He used all four limbs to control his descent.
Some habits died hard, and no one ever taught him proper arc flight as an orphaned child serving as a privateer ship’s cook. Yajain recalled his stories, happy he decided to share them. Those stories made her grateful to live on Kaga, even if the other girls, the full-nuinn girls, hated her.
She smiled and waved as Mosam floated past the smooth carved wall of the church. He powered off his lifts and landed on the stone street beside Yajain. His impact made a soft thump, much more than a skilled arc swimmer would make.
“Congratulations!” Yajain said.
Mosam smiled.
“That’s not our normal greeting. You know, usually, you ask if I’m ready to work. Then I say, sure.”
“Well we’re not working today,” Yajain said. “You’re graduating, Mosam.”
“So you think that warrants a change in custom.” Mosam grinned. “I like it.”
Yajain flushed. Her fingers tightened on the grips of the bag. She raised it and held it out between herself and Mosam.
“This is for you.”
Mosam took the bag with a smile.
“Yajay, thanks.” He held the bag to his chest.
“I’m sure you’ve gotten a lot of graduation gifts,” she said.
“A lot yeah. I think this is the first.” Mosam grinned at her.
“Doctor Savar didn’t get you anything?”
“He thinks paying for school was plenty. He’s probably right.”
She frowned.
“This is a big deal, though. School’s over. Now you’re free.”
“Some freedom.” Mosam shrugged. “I’m kinda sad we won’t be studying together anymore.”
She looked down at her feet.
“We’ll still see each other.” But we don’t have that excuse now. “Well, open it.”
“Sure.” He pulled apart the handles of the bag and lifted the chronometer out. Its swirl-patterned metal was polished so much it reflected the lights from the street around them.
He smirked.
“I guess I am late. A lot.”
“It’s not that.” Yajain looked at his other wrist. The old, battered device he wore looked as shabby as ever. She flushed. “I just thought that one you wear is pretty old.”
He turned to her.
“You’re right,” he said. “I’m just surprised, that’s all.” His face brightened as he slid his arm through the looped handles of the bag. He unfastened the old timepiece from his wrist and then dropped it into the bag. “Thanks, Yajay.”
“You’re welcome. I’m so happy for you.”
He fastened the new chronometer onto his wrist.
“You’ll graduate in a few years. When you’re free, who knows what you’ll do.”
She shrugged. “I haven’t thought about that.” Their eyes met. “I really, really don’t want to think about that.”
“What’s wrong with the future?”
“Asks the guy who’s always focused on the past.”
Mosam looked down at the bag on his arm, where his old timepiece lay.
“I used to go on a clock that always ran slow,” he said.
“That’s not what I meant.” She giggled.
“I know. The Harvest is an old idea. Guess you’ve got a point there, but if I want to be like Doctor Savar, eventually, I have to study how the order began.”
“You want to be deaf? Work with some loud machines.”
He chuckled.
“Yajay, you know what I mean. Being a Doctor of Harvest is like being a priest, and a lucid prophet and a healer rolled into one. Maybe you should come to a service with me sometime. We do more at the church than celebrate people’s birth hours. That’s just one thing we do.”
She looked at him with a growing warmth in the pit of her stomach.
“Any time,” she said. “I’d love to go with you.”
“I think you’ll like it.” Mosam raised his new chronometer on the arm not holding the bag. “Looks like we’ve got some time right now. Care to go for a stroll, Yajain Aksari?”
She gave him a playful shove.
&
nbsp; “You know, I would, Mosam.”
He laughed and they set off. Yajain eventually got used to seeing him wear her gift, but it took some time.
At the end of the ship’s weaving path, still surrounded by rain and storm, Sirol Pillar loomed, pale stone swirled with patterns of pink and blue. The pillar stretched five-hundred kilometers across, one of the largest Yajain had ever seen. Yet, it looked near-uninhabited from the watchroom window of the Solnakite.
Few lights shone on the pillar. A small terrace clearly built by humans a dozen kilometers down from her position gleamed in growing yellow solna light.
“People do not live close to Ija’s core,” Gellen Chakal said from behind Yajain. “She does not allow it.”
Yajain frowned. In her classes, Great Minds had not normally been referred to as having gender.
“Ija seems like a strict ruler.”
“She governs with reason,” Chakal said. “But she must protect herself.”
“You keep calling her she,” Yajain said.
“That is how she appears when she converses with us.”
Yajain nodded.
“I’ve never met a great mind before.”
Chakal walked to the window beside Yajain. Her smile reflected in the transplastic pane.
“Some are deserving of the moniker than others. Now let us go. Ija will want to speak with both of us directly.”
Yajain’s eyes narrowed.
“Why me?”
“Ija thinks you may have information she does not.”
“I want to help.” Yajain turned from the window. “I’ll tell her what I know.”
They went to the tumbler and launched at the same time as one of Castenlock’s tumblers.
Chakal explained, “Captain Gattri wanted a close escort for you, but don’t worry. There is nothing to fear on Sirol.”
Yajain nodded, unsure if she agreed. Great Minds, inhuman intelligences formed from the modified core of a pillar remained virtually unknown in the central clusters close to the heart if Dilinia and throughout most of the Kadarhan corridor.
The tumbler entered one of the pillar’s lit cavern mouths. Yajain and Chakal disembarked. A figure stood waiting to receive them, a woman in a simple white robe circled by golden bands at the waist, wrists, and ankles. The woman glowed with inner light as Yajain and Chakal arrived at the bottom of the boarding ramp.
Storm Fleet Page 7
