“Is Dara alright?”
Yajain shook her head.
“She’s in here.”
Ettasil’s eyes widened.
“Is she—what happened?”
“A prisoner escaping from the brig shot her. It’s…it’s my fault.” She explained about Mosam’s disguise, and how Adya helped him escape. “I didn’t know it was him. How could I have missed it?”
Sonetta sat down on the bench beside Yajain.
“You’re too smart to be dumb. A cute guy saves my life the last thing I’d worry about is if he was my ex in disguise or not.”
“It’s not like that,” Yajain said. “I mean, we were never together.”
“Even better reason for you not to know.” Sonetta sighed and looked up at Kebrim, who turned away. Sonetta turned back to Yajain with a sigh. “If nothing can keep you from blaming yourself I’m not gonna try.”
Yajain wiped away a few traces of tears. She sniffed.
“It’s funny. I just thought. For some reason, I thought it’d be alright when I saw him in the fluid chamber. I thought he would make things better for some reason.”
“You were still high at the time,” Sonetta said. “The Doctor Aksari part of you must know even properly filtered fluids mess with your brain for a while after you use them.”
“I hope that’s why.” Yajain shrugged. “The doctor may know, but the rest of me isn’t so sure.”
Sonetta patted Yajain’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry. They’ll catch him.”
“He knew an attack was coming. How could he?”
“He must have helped set it up. Probably just trying to save his own skin.”
“Yeah,” Yajain said. She rose from the bench, gently pushing Sonetta’s hand away. She walked to Kebrim on the other side of the hall. “Captain,” she said. “I want Doctor Merrant to be alright too.”
“I understand.” Ettasil limped past her to the bench where Sonetta sat. “My leg isn’t so bad it can’t wait.”
The normally pale Captain looked completely bloodless as he sat. His eyes stared into the distance though he was looking straight through a wall a few meters away.
Yajain leaned back against the wall. Her eyes closed and she listened to the ship hum quietly. Her mind drifted to Mosam and Adya. What had the sniper from the battle at Rakati Hub been doing here? She was clearly in league with Mosam, but how had she gotten on board? Why had Ija attacked?
Too many questions.
The door across from Yajain opened and a dark-skinned nuinn doctor stepped out. He nodded to Yajain and then to Kebrim and Sonetta.
“Are you all waiting for the same patient?”
“Yes,” Ettasil said, his voice sounding hoarse. “Is she?”
“She will live,” the doctor said. “The bullet didn’t hit any vitals. She’s lucky.” A few nurses slipped out the door behind the doctor. “I’m afraid I can’t let anyone see her yet, but we expect to see a full and relatively speedy recovery.”
Yajain exhaled slowly. Ettasil nodded to the doctor.
“Thank you. Thank you, Doctor Mohad.”
The doctor clapped him on the shoulder. Then he leaned to Ettasil’s ear. Yajain still heard his whisper through the hum of the ship’s engines.
“Now you’re really gonna have to tell her, Keb. Don’t forget.”
Ettasil drew back with a choked smile on his face.
“I won’t.”
Yajain motioned to Sonetta and the two of them left the hospital. They headed back to the docked Solnakite.
Kaga Pillar, 9 Years Ago
The party at the Church of the Harvest was in full swing by the time Yajain arrived.
Lin went ahead to help Mosam and the old deaf doctor prepare. Yajain’s still aching and unsteady legs carried her up the front ramp to the church’s entrance. Her hands folded together and her mind raced with anxious thoughts because tonight she’d tell Mosam. She had to speak before things went too far with Lin.
He has to know how I feel.
Inside, the church was lit by tall lamps and small candles. The whole place seemed to open up when the doctor had this kind of gathering. The large curtains that sometimes blocked the sides of the hall had been pulled aside. Children ran down aisles and around the central speaking point. The square central room with arched roof and seats arranged to see the center became a playground for youngsters.
From front to the back, people laughed and moved.
She passed through a crowd of mostly children near the entrance, always looking for Mosam or Lin. But especially Mosam.
He might think I’m silly. He probably thinks I’m too young. I’m only two years younger than Lin. But it’s Lin he wants.
She scanned the room from a raised outer row of seats. Neither Lin nor Mosam was there.
One of the kids, a twelve-cycles-old nuinn boy named Radun, broke from his group and ran over to her.
“Are you looking for big brother Mo?”
Yajain smiled at him.
“Yeah, I am.”
“I saw him earlier.” Radun waved one hand in the air by his ear. “I think he went to talk to Doctor Savar.”
The old doctor’s name sounded strange to Yajain. It took her a moment to realize what he meant.
“Oh, thanks.”
“No problem Yaya.” Radun laughed. “Good luck.”
“Luck?” Yajain’s smile slipped.
Am I that obvious? If I am, why bother telling Mosam?
She walked around the outer edge of the room, eyes still moving, searching for Mosam’s face in the crowd. She spotted the deaf doctor near a door on the other side of the room. He had just entered through a door leading to the core-view balcony.
Yajain marched towards him, a soldier with urgent orders. She caught up with him as he started speaking to a young bandojen mother with her child in her arms.
The deaf doctor spoke loudly and slowly.
“It is always good to see you, my dear. We are honored by every family who attends our gatherings.” He went on talking to her like that for a while, she answering him with nods and smiles and finally a handshake and a bow.
Yajain cut in front of the doctor as the woman moved back toward the food dishes.
“Doctor,” Yajain said. “Have you seen Mosam?”
“The boy is on the balcony,” he said. “Just go through there.”
“Thank you, doctor.” Yajain bowed her head.
He winked at her. Her heart raced and her mind tried to catch it.
What was that for? Does he know too?
She took a deep breath and pushed through the door onto the balcony. Mosam and Lin stood, pressed together by the railing, in the dim and slowly lowering light of the core’s dusk shining onto the balcony from the center of the cavern. Her arms were around him, and his hands cradled her neck and head. Their kiss lasted a long few moments. Yajain’s breath froze. She stood paralyzed as the door swung slowly closed behind her.
Yajain’s order terminal woke her with the beep of a priority message’s arrival. She slid from the hammock and checked the text readout.
Doctor Aksari, report to the ready room of Castenlock immediately. The words bore Firio Gattri’s signature, but also Agan Pansar’s imperial seal. The clipped message needed no suggestion for why she should report.
They have too many reasons to choose from.
Yajain dressed in a clean uniform. She left Solnakite’s hangar and caught an arc mover heading in the right direction.
She found Finder Boskem in the anteroom outside the ready room. Boskem stood by the door to the ready room, arms folded and fierce stare stretched taut on his broad face. He motioned for her sit.
“They didn’t expect you so soon.”
Yajain sat without a word. Whipping up Boskem’s temper would be easy, and she couldn’t handle having any more anger directed at her for the moment. He reminded Yajain of an uneasy spider hound, just with f
ewer shifty eyes.
After several minutes the door opened and Boskem waved Yajain into the darkened ready room. She obeyed without looking at him as she passed. The door closed behind her. Firio and Agent Agan Pansar sat at the table opposite each other.
Pansar’s adjutants and military police filled the places between them. The central hologram showed the head of Helle DiKandar. The Redoca must have had a viewer in this room too. She nodded to Yajain.
Then the hologram turned to Pansar.
“I detected no great deception when this man was aboard my Hall.”
“You were clearly mistaken,” Pansar said. “With all due respect, Lady DiKandar, this criminal was right under your nose as much as ours.”
“Do not insult me, Agent Pansar. Had I been looking for your Mosam Coe, the way you claim to have been, I would have captured him long ago.”
“Now who is being insulting?” Pansar inhaled deeply. “Forgive me. The important thing is we apprehend him as soon as possible. Before more damage can be done.”
“You really think this man is more dangerous than Sovilan and Ija’s combined fleets?” Helle DiKandar’s eyebrow elevated. “Do not take me for a fool.”
"I wouldn’t dare.” Pansar smiled with his clenched teeth. “But it is my job to find Mosam Coe, and I will use any means to do it.” He turned to Yajain. “Speaking of…Doctor Aksari, glad to see you made it.”
Yajain bowed her head.
“Agent Pansar. Redoca DiKandar.”
Pansar turned to the hologram ringed by the table. The murmurs of the officers in the room fell silent. He folded his arms.
“We suspect Coe has taken a stolen APV to one of the terraces nearby. Aksari, is there anything else you can tell us?”
“He has a woman named Adya with him, and she’s probably armed too.” Yajain frowned. “I take it this means I’m not being viewed as a traitor?”
“The two bandojens who were with you explained things,” said Firio.
“Indeed. It seems you were merely misled.” Pansar shrugged his shoulders and then looked up at the Redoca’s image. “Redoca,” he said. “I request your permission to send a team to apprehend Coe and his accomplice in your nearest settlement. Captain Gattri assures me the APV could not have gone far.”
“Very well.” DiKandar’s expression became stony. “We will work to defend ourselves from Ija’s attacks. Though I hope we can reason with the great mind or its officials.”
The image faded from the hologram and the lights shifted back into a view of the region’s pillars. Four of the six in the view were lit and settled, complete with vertical farms creeping down the curved surface of each pillar. Partial ring terraces extended from most of the pillars into the central gap. Those too were farming space, except for one.
The exceptional half circle terrace was heavily bound to its pillar by multiple large struts. Docks extended above and below it. DiKandar Hall and Castenlock floated in the misty oval of abyss described by the pillar’s arrangement. The infinite abyss offered dread below. Support vessels and even lighter craft, both fighters and shuttles, darted here and there between them.
Officers discussed which settlement Mosam could have escaped to in the APV. He needed a human-made landing place or he and Adya would have been spotted already in spite of all the confusion from the battle.
Why did Ija send a fleet to attack the hunter hall? Perdine’s forces couldn’t be beaten already, and even if they were, why would Ija want another war? It doesn’t make sense. She wanted to protect her people, not send them to die in a place like this.
One of the officers presented Pansar with a report on demographics in the nearby Lian settlements. Yajain followed just enough to gather they were almost entirely Ditari of the non-hunter classes, consistent with the way father always described his home.
The Hunters live on ships. Those they protect, the Lian they are called, support them from the pillars.
The flickering view of storm clouds rolled in from one side of the six mapped pillars. Yajain frowned at the image. The storm must be moving fast to catch up with them so quickly, given the few light-dark changes since the last blast of wind and rain.
Officers continued to discuss the course of action. Firio listened intently. Yajain met his eyes and he immediately picked up a reading pad. She flushed slightly.
How could Mosam have deceived me so easily? He knew I’d find him out when I used the fluids. Yet he chose to push me toward it. Why? All these questions need answers.
Yajain focused on what Pansar was saying.
“With all those Ditari we’ll need someone who knows the customs. And it’d be best if we could have a team that knows how to work together already.”
A bearded officer raised his hand.
“Sir, we have to move soon. The storm is close and any operation following it will be too late.”
Pansar nodded and raised a pad to his eyes.
“I’ll lead it myself. I’m taking Solnakite’s tumbler and her team.”
Yajain’s eyes narrowed. Firio stood up.
“They’ve been through too much recently, Agent Pansar.”
“They have the only Ditari in this fleet who owes his full allegiance to the empire.” Pansar’s dangerous smile returned. “Cabler DiSayul is our best guide in this settlement, and Doctor Aksari knows the most about our target.”
“Agent Pansar—”
“Captain Gattri. I must insist.”
Yajain looked at Firio. He met her eyes this time.
Dara was hurt because I let down my guard on Mosam for a moment.
She nodded.
“I’ll do it, captain. We have to find him before anyone else is hurt.”
Pansar’s smile resembled nothing as much as a Tuim cat with its mouth full of needle teeth.
The steel crate from Finder Boskem’s second cabin hit the floor with a clang. The tumbler bay rang with the sound. Yajain glanced toward the ramp from the entrance of the launch bay. Boskem directed the crew to carry the crate further inside.
As he entered the bay beside Yajain, the bandojen pilot, Harish swore.
“That big bastard,” he said under his breath.
Yajain shook her head.
“He’s not the worst we’ll be dealing with.”
Harish looked up at Yajain and grimaced.
“You weren’t supposed to hear that.”
She shrugged.
“Just be careful. Incidentally, I agree with you.”
“Hey, we got to draw the line somewhere. Not sure where that expression comes from.”
“The reef maybe,” Yajain said. “Borders on the reef could be drawn on maps.”
Harish stepped to one side, arms folded. “You think it goes back that far? Like ten thousand years?”
“Maybe,” Yajain said. “After all, we’re different biologically. But fossil evidence indicates we were all more or less the same back then.”
“Doctor, you know too much about this stuff.” Harish whistled. “They teach you ancient history at the academy?”
She gazed across the bay at the tumbler doors where ratings were packing the steel crate into the undercarriage of the tumbler.
“I knew a few Doctors of Harvest. They’re obsessed with that time.”
“Doctors that act like priests.” Harish frowned. “I trust ‘em about as much as I trust the Assembly’s cognates.”
“You think the Lucid Assembly is untrustworthy?”
“Some of ‘em definitely fit that description.”
“Well, the Doctors of Harvest definitely fit.” Yajain put the heel of one hand to her temple and sighed. “We’re hunting one of them. Harish, have you ever seen a religion you did trust?”
“Nalan is a great god. Never says a word. Definitely never asks for money.” He grinned.
“You’re an Umonist?” Yajain smiled.
“Proud and true.” Harish’s eyes narrowed as he gazed down at
the ratings carrying cargo. He scowled suddenly.
His fists clenched and he stormed off towards the tumbler.
“What do you think you’re doing?” He waved a hand at four ratings attaching what looked like a long barreled rifle to the underside of one of the tumbler’s compact wings. “What is this thing?”
Yajain followed a few steps behind as Finder Boskem turned from the tumbler toward Harish.
“Officer Harish,” he said. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”
“This isn’t a self-defense weapon. It’s a fast-falling cannon!”
“Colorful way to put it,” said Boskem. “It should work fine to protect the tumbler.”
“And cripple a banner ship? What demands this much firepower?”
“Our target is highly dangerous. We are not going to be outgunned like we were at Rakati Hub.”
“Sir I know you must know a tumbler this size isn’t going to be the most stable with your luggage and that gun attached.”
“I have faith you’ll fly well.” Boskem turned toward the crew attaching the weapon, nodded, and then strode away.
Yajain caught up with Harish.
He glanced at her.
“Looks like we’re opting to become heavily armed debris.”
She frowned.
“You think its really that bad of an idea?”
He took a step toward her, leaned in, and lowered his voice.
“The gun is one thing, but the crate? I’m serious.”
“We don’t have much choice now,” Yajain said.
Harish shook his head.
“Trust me, a choice is all I want right now.”
Yajain turned toward rest of the team as they started into the bay with Pansar and Ogidar in the lead. Behind the familiar faces of Sonetta and Banedd came two military police officers. One MP was gray-haired and bearded, the other skinny and bald. Both carried heavy coil rifles.
A choice would be nice.
The full team consisted of Sonetta, Banedd, Ogidar, Finder Boskem, the two military police officers, Harish, Tei-Officer Sogun, Rating Avencia as a backup technician, Pansar as team leader, and Yajain.
They packed the tumbler.
Storm Fleet Page 17
