The Stars Like Ice (The Star Sojourner Series Book 8)

by Jean Kilczer

  “I give up!” Sophia whispered. She took a blanket, lay down on a bunk, and covered herself. “Maybe you should celebrate this one alone, dear. Just make sure you lock the bathroom door!”

  “Wait a minute,” I said. “We can work this out.”

  “No! We can't. Your friend is better than birth control pills. Goodnight, dear.” She rolled with her back to me.

  Huff shuffled to the sous chef, yawning. “Would you like a plate of lard and eyeballs, my Terran Jules?” He opened the ingredient box and rummaged through it.

  “Thanks,” I laid back down on the bunk and sighed, “but I'm not hungry.” Not for food. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, against the laughter that rippled through the walls. “I wonder what the hell's so funny?” I muttered.

  “Oh,” Chancey said from his bunk, “I can think of a few things, Superstar.”

  “One of these days, Chance.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Wind howled a requiem as I stood with my back to its buffeting claws over Tril's grave. Wind foiled the early sun's attempt to warm land and sea. Tril's “stone” was a ragged slab of ice with a crescent moon carved on it by relatives, and my Cleocean friend's name carved on it by me. I added a stone I'd found, for respect.

  “This slab won't last,” I told Huff. “Eventually the sun will melt it.”

  He nodded. “It is the lasting proof that nothing lasts forever.”

  I glanced at the silent, ruined Cleocean village near the harbor, the igloos now just scattered chunks of ice, the few tools shattered, and the once graceful bodies of Cleoceans now lying in twisted forms with only blood for shrouds. Sophia put her arm around my waist. As I drew her closer, I felt her tremble.

  The space-lane pirates who came for the gold when word got out, had done a thorough job. They had assumed that it being the Cleocean's gold by right of land and territorial sea, those ocean-going people would have brought all the gold ashore. What the pirates didn't comprehend was that Cleoceans had no need for gold beyond what we used, to pay Sarge and his mercs.

  “Most of it's still down there, isn't it?” I asked.

  Sophia nodded.

  I peered at the waves, burdened with slabs of ice, trying to lift them to shore. “Even if they've got dive gear, the pirates don't know where to search for the sunken vessel.”

  Joe, Chancey, and Bat walked up from where they'd been rummaging through ruins to find anything still useful for the remaining Cleoceans.

  Cleoceans from other villages were streaming ashore to help their neighbors in whatever way they could. There were no cheerful greetings, just solemn touches of pectoral fins in shared grief.

  “The pirates will make their prisoners bring up the gold,” Huff said, “or see their families with no eyes to look.”

  I shuddered, not from cold.

  “Would they really do that?” Sophia asked Huff. “Have you seen these pirates do things like that before?”

  “No,” Huff said, “but I have looked into the eyes of the greedy and found cravings so strong they cover goodness like ice covers the sea.” He scooped up snow, made a snowball, and gently placed it on the slab. “They kill out of desire.”

  “This was your friend?” Joe came up and motioned toward the slab, “the one who hid you when the Cultists showed up?”

  I nodded. “He gave his life for me, Joe. I…”

  “Don't say it. Please don't say it.”

  “I'm sorry, Joe, but I owe him.”

  Sophia moved around to face me. “You owe him your life, too? Goddammit, Jules, he's dead. You can't bring him back.” Her features hardened with the press of her lips. “You'll get me killed yet with your sense of honor.”

  I bit my lip.

  “I won't stay with you this time!” She slapped my chest. “This time, it's just plain dumb.”

  “They've all been dumb, when you think about it,” Joe threw over his shoulder and walked back to the ruins. Sophia hurried to catch up.

  Last night, I couldn't sleep as the battle and Sophia's danger played over and over in my mind. I'd come so close to losing her. When she'd moaned in her sleep, I lay down beside her and held her. We should have been thankful that we both survived the battle, but we had wounds that couldn't be healed with Bat's little black bag.

  I watched the sea, the ever-abiding sea, lift its burden of ice onto the shore as it had done for countless millennia without complaint.

  “Chance,” I said, “you think the pirates could be holding Cleoceans, maybe torturing them, to find out where the gold is hidden?”

  Chancey kicked a piece of crusted ice. “That's what I'd do if I wanted the info.” He squinted at the sky. The black stubble on his cheeks made his dark skin look darker. “If I was them.”

  “Where would they hold prisoners?” Bat asked.

  “Maybe on their hovair, or their starship,” I mused.

  “I'd vote for their hovair,” Chancey said. “Why waste batteries going to the orbiting ship?”

  “Or…” Huff said.

  We looked at him.

  “Or?” Chancey encouraged him, his hands spread.

  “Or the tunnels,” Huff looked around, “since we could find their hovair and search it, but few know of the tunnels.”

  I looked at Chancey and raised my brows.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Chancey said, “so he gets one good idea every E-year. So what?”

  “It was not an idea,” Huff responded, “it was a sifting through twisted paths of twisted minds.”

  “You think they got dive gear?” Chancey asked me.

  “They might,” I said, “even if it's just to sell on the colony worlds.”

  “Then all's they'd need,” Bat said, “is a Cleocean to guide them to the sunken vessel.”

  “That's what worries me,” I told them. “But this is no longer your fight. We came here to rescue Huff and we've done that.” I put a hand on Huff's shoulder.

  “And in my liver, I am forever grateful.” Huff licked Chancey's rough cheek with his rougher tongue.

  Bat laughed and Huff got him in a bear hug and licked his face. “You too, my bat friend. Will you return to Earth now to visit the other bats?”

  “Yeah, in his belfry.” Chancey wiped his cheek.

  Bat pulled free. “Yes, if my ribs aren't crushed, I'll return to Earth and visit all my bat relatives and friends, Huff bear.” He brushed white fur off his jacket. “Jules? Our work is done here, Bubba. What dya say, we all go home?”

  I shook my head. “The Cleoceans are true people of the sea, but the gold is their assurance of safety should there be a catastrophe and they have to go south.”

  “What kind of a catastrophe?” Bat waved a hand toward the ruins. “I think they already had their catastrophe.”

  I glanced at our anchored boat. “I got on the vis last night, Bat, and did some research. A subduction fault lies offshore.”

  “So?” Chancey asked.

  “So the denser oceanic plate is subducting beneath the less dense continental plate out there, just beyond the bay.”

  “So what does all that mean?” Chancey asked.

  I pointed to a dormant volcano west of us. “Why do you think the mountain springs are hot, Chance?”

  He shoved his gloved hands into his pockets. “So we can get some relief from this friggin' cold?”

  “The Ten Gods sent us the hot baths,” Huff explained, “to warm our tails and livers.”

  “If that volcano blows,” I said, “the baths are going to get a lot hotter. It might trigger a deep earthquake, and with the southeastern plate sliding under the northern plate, just past those breakers, a very memorable tsunami with very little warning. All in one interesting day.”

  Chancey stared at the sea. “I thought you were a damned biologist.”

  “Doesn't mean I have to stay stupid.”

  Bat stared at the volcano. “Y'all think it's gonna blow soon?”

  “I have no idea, Bat. Could be tonight while we're asleep in our boat. Mig
ht not be for another thousand years.”

  “So what's the gold gonna do fer the Cleos,” Chancey asked, “if they get washed up into the hills?”

  “For one thing,” I said, “it could buy them tsunami detection buoys. It's not hard to escape a tsunami if you know it's coming, or even an earthquake. Those hills would come in handy.”

  I squatted beside Tril's grave. "If the Rebels and mercs could rescue the Cleoceans being held, they could guide me to the vessel and I'll bring up the gold for them. Cleos don't have the dexterous hands needed to pack gold into baskets.

  I drew a line in the sand with the sharp-edged stone from Tril's grave and stood up. “Then Huff and I would catch a ride on the next legal merchant ship that lands here, and head for home.” I stepped back from the line. “You with me, Huff?” I gestured at the line.

  “I am always with you, my cub, even when you sleep.” He stepped over the line.

  Chancey and Bat stared at each other, then they both studied the line. Then they both crossed over.

  “What the fuck,” Chancey said, “I ain't afraid of dying.” He glanced at Joe, rummaging through the remains of an igloo while Sophia held up chunks of ice. “But, uh, Bat, you want to tell the boss that we're staying?” He nudged Bat in Joe's direction.

  “I rather jump in the ocean,” Bat said, “with no clothes on. Jules?”

  “Who, me? I still have to tell Sophia that I'm staying for sure.”

  “Suppose we toss a coin.” Chancey dug in his jacket and shrugged. “No creds.”

  “An idea I have.” Huff pulled a small bottle of Fast-Fur-Grow from his pouch and unscrewed it. I held the bottle while he flipped the cap, caught it and made a fist. “Bat man, top or bottom inside my paw?”

  “Bottom.” Bat held his breath.

  Huff opened his paw. The cap lay upside down. Bat released his breath. Huff shook the cap again between his forepaws and closed his fist on it. “The Chance?” he said.

  “Uh, tops.”

  Huff opened his paw and the cap lay top up. Chancey chuckled.

  Huff shook his paws again and extended his fist to me.

  “Tops.” I waited with my eyes closed for him to open his fist.

  * * *

  “Those two stupid bastards are going to stay?” Joe bellowed. He came at me with his jaw thrust forward, his eyes gray flints of steel between his narrowed lids, his fists clenched over two bone knives he'd found. I backed up. “You talked those two fools into staying, didn't you?”

  “I don't think so.”

  Sophia stepped around broken chunks of igloo and came up to us. Chancey, Bat, and Huff waited beyond throwing distance.

  “This is not our fight, goddamn you!” Joe waved a knife at me. “Do you think you can right every fucking injustice in the galaxy before you get yourself and us killed?”

  I backed again as he came forward. “No, sir,” I said, “not every one. Just this one.”

  “I swear, Jules, I'm through with you.” He pointed the knife at me like a teacher pointing a ruler at a disorderly kid. “I'm too old to go chasing around the colony worlds while you play Superman.”

  Superstar, I thought but didn't dare say.

  Sophia put a hand on Joe's arm. “You're blowing into the wind, Joe.” She came toward me. “He can't change his nature any more than a wolf can become a lap dog.” She lifted a hand to my face. I flinched, but she just patted my cheek. “I think whatever gods might be, as you like to say, Babe, have destined you to be their crusader.” She embraced me and leaned her head on my chest. “I'm staying.”

  “No, Sophia,” I exclaimed.

  “Yes.”

  I hugged her close, kissed her head, and glanced at Joe.

  He threw down a knife. It stuck in the ice. “I swear by all that's holy, I give up!”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “That's a pretty tempting stash of gold.” Big Sarge stroked his beard.

  “How tempting?” Joe asked softly and folded his hands on our boat's cabin table.

  I knew the steel mind behind those mild gray eyes, way too mild for the situation.

  Sarge studied him and sat back. “Tempting enough that I don't want any of my tags to find out about it.”

  “You found out,” Joe said.

  Chancey, beside Joe, worked at another hangnail. How the hell many did he have? Bat, on Joe's other side, used the window for a vis screen again, and was totally engrossed in an insect's fluttering wings as he tapped out a an SOS to let him inside. Sophia sat beside me. Huff was stretched out close by on the floor.

  “My medic Ty was treating a wounded Cleocean.” Sarge sucked a tooth. “Tag was delirious. He let out the location.”

  “So only you, Ty, and this Cleocean,” Joe said, “know that he spilled it.”

  “Now only me an' Ty.”

  “Oh,” Joe said, “can you trust Ty?”

  “The salt of the earth.”

  “Can I say something, Joe?” I asked.

  “Why not?”

  “Sophia and I intend to dive on the vessel.” I didn't mention that she'd marked it with a line and a sealed empty plastic bag from the boat. “We can bring up the rest of the gold and hand it over to the Cleoceans, or, open a bank account on Alpha under their communal name.”

  “How soon can you make the dive?” Joe asked.

  I glanced at Sophia. “Early tomorrow?”

  She nodded. “The gear's ready.”

  “Then it's tomorrow morning.” Joe finished his brew.

  “Joe,” I said, “will you be leaving for Earth? We can hitch a ride on a merchant ship when this is over.”

  “Sometimes,” he said, “I think I should make you the captain of this team.”

  “Thank you,” I answered, “but I wouldn't want the honor.”

  “I don't know why not? You decide where we go and what we do when we get there.”

  I stared into my cup of brew and realized that Joe couldn't fly Star Sojourner back to Earth on his own, even with all the computerized systems, not through Alcubierre space. “Joe, Chancey and Bat made up their minds on their own, but you're still our captain.”

  “Don't butter me up, kid, it doesn't suit you.”

  “I'm trying not to.”

  “Try harder.”

  “OK. Suppose Sophia makes the dive tomorrow, and you stay topside to pull up the baskets? Meanwhile, Chancey, Bat, and I will check out the tunnels. What do you think, boss?”

  “I think I can't stop you from going into those tunnels, no more than I could stop you from going into the mouth of Hell. Sophia? Are you up for this?”

  She nodded. “After the battle yesterday, I wouldn't mind an easy hundred-foot dive. I think it's a good plan, Joe.”

  I squeezed her hand under the table.

  “Count me in, cupcake,” Sarge said. “Not for pay. Just for the hell of it.”

  “Sarge,” I said, “while I'm sure we all appreciate your help, can you call me something besides cupcake? How about Jules? Now there's an idea.”

  “OK. Cupcake.” He smiled through his beard and threw me a kiss.

  “Then the die is cast.” Joe scratched his stubbly white cheek. “There's another possibility. Some Cleocean might've already spilled, and the gold could be gone.”

  “Soph,” I said, “how come you and Huff didn't bring it all up when you had the chance?”

  “I'm sorry we didn't,” she said. “Joe and I decided that it would be safer on the sunken vessel than on our boat or in the Cleocean village, should word get out.”

  Joe stared at a wall.

  “Hindsight's always easier,” I said.

  “I need some fresh air.” Joe got up and walked out to the deck.

  Sarge craned his neck to watch him go. “He's right, you know. Ain't your fight.”

  “That don't mean nothing.” Chancey glanced at me. “It never is.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “It's a damn rabbit warren!” Sarge whispered as we came to a series of dark forks in
the ice shaft, lit dully by a form of green lichen. We kept our lights turned off.

  “Suppose we take different forks,” I suggested, “and meet back here with our findings…” I checked my watch, “say in half an hour?”

  Sarge, Chancey, and Bat also checked their watches. Huff looked at his empty wrist, then plucked a small black bug that tried to scurry away through fur, and popped it into his mouth.

  “Huff,” I said, “suppose you come with me…and don't anybody play hero.” I looked from one to the other. “You find Cultists, with or without prisoners, we meet back here and devise a plan.”

  “Guess Joe was right,” Chancey thickened his accent, “yo be the acting captain.”

  “No way,” I said. “It just seems like the best idea, unless somebody has a better idea.”

  They glanced at each other and shook their heads.

  Bat placed his medkit inside a protected hollow in a corner. “By the way, Superstar, how are your ribs?”

  “They're good, Bat. The pain killers you gave me are little miracle workers.”

  “That's what I was hoping. You know, with ribs, pneumonia is the big danger. Them pain killers lets you breathe deep and cough, so you keep your lungs clear.”

  “If you tags are finished with your medical dissertation,” Sarge widened his eyes, “can we get on with it, cupcake?”

  I slid him a look. I was destined to be called cupcake. Well, I've been called worse. “C'mon, Huff.” I motioned toward a dark, right passage.

  As Huff and I walked silently down the dim tunnel, I tel-probed for a Cleocean mind, somewhere in the icy distance.

  Cleoceans are mildly telekinetic, which makes it easier to tel-probe for their particular minds.

  There! Ahead. A mind in anguish.

  “Wait, Huff,” I whispered.

  “Wait for what?” he whispered back.

  “Just wait!” I whispered.

  “While you do not wait?” he whispered.

  “Just stay here! I've got to check out something.”

  I walked silently ahead, through the twisting hall of ice walls, using the tel-link to guide me.

  The Cleocean wasn't alone. As I approached a widening in the narrow shaft, light spun the cracked ice walls into golden spider webs.