by Lynn Rae
Her datpad pinged with a message from Zashi. He was on his way to help her, and she rose slowly, her joints popping out a protest. The door to the holding area opened, and the security chief entered, silently activating the gurneys and pushing Aline out into the corridor. Lia followed with Tully, the lifters on the bed making the task of moving her friend no effort at all. It seemed as if it should be harder to push him. They exited the building through opened loading bay doors, and the bright sunlight and humid breeze of Gamaliel washed across her like an invigorating balm.
The shuttle gleamed at the center of the new landing deck, and a group of settlers headed toward the new admin building for processing. They had to pass the ruins of the barracks on their way, and even at this distance, Lia could see them pause and look over the destruction. Quite a welcome to their new home. People moved in the wreckage, and construction bots glittered in the sunlight as they lifted debris toward neat piles growing at the edge of the common area. She spared a thought for Colan and wondered if he was there working.
She and Zashi continued on their way directly toward the open hatch in the belly of the ship where a crew member waited. She nodded to them as they approached and checked something on her datpad. Zashi pushed Aline’s gurney up the ramp, and Lia waited in the shadow of the shuttle, her hand light on Tully’s shroud, trying to say goodbye to him again. No profound eulogy emerged from her overwhelmed brain. Tully deserved more from her than a brief ‘I’m sorry.’
“Lia, is that you?” A familiar voice broke into her reflections, and she turned to see Stev Laarsen approaching her. Stev, her former lover from her assignment on Station Ten. Seeing him standing there on the decking wearing a flight suit, carrying a duffle, his auburn hair glinting in the sunlight was so unbelievable she forgot to breathe for a few moments. She felt Zashi return and broke her stare at the other man to nod acknowledgement as the silent security officer took hold of Tully’s gurney.
“Should I come?”
“No, you don’t need to do this. Stay here.” The security officer’s gaze was as kind as she’d ever seen it, and Lia felt tears return to her eyes. She laid her hand on Tully one more time before Zashi moved him away.
“Who was that?” Stev interrupted, and she turned back to him, sniffing and trying not to cry in front of him. She’d done that too much in their time together. And afterward.
“Stev, what are you doing here?”
“I’m your new network engineer.” Lia almost laughed in his face. The absurdity of his statement contrasted with the sad departure of their former network engineer was almost too much to bear. “Lia, what are you doing here? The reports said you were injured.”
“I was injured. I still have work to do,” Lia answered as Zashi returned to stand by her side. She made the introduction between the two men and wasn’t too overwhelmed by the oddness of the situation to notice Stev measure himself against the security officer. Typical of Stev, always in competition with someone. Memories of their time together began to intrude, and old resentments bubbled up past her sadness.
“Have you checked in yet?” Zashi asked the other man.
“No, I just got off the ship and noticed what you were doing back here, and then I recognized Lia and couldn’t believe she was standing out here.” Stev took a step her way and touched her elbow as if he was going to hold her up. She was too exhausted by grief to care about his intentions.
“What are you doing here?” Lia repeated, still not clear on how this was possible. “I thought you were on R-48?”
“I was. Priority reassignment here when you lost your guy.” Stev visibly gulped as he realized something. “Was that him, just now, on the bed?”
Lia nodded wearily, missing sweet-natured Tully yet again.
“Oh. Sorry I interrupted. But you’re right. I was on R-48, but they sent me here. My second needed some supervisory experience, so it wasn’t a problem to turn things over to her. I want to help.” Stev radiated good will. Lia remembered other times he’d seemed so sincere and been equally duplicitous. Zashi evidently echoed her skepticism.
“Registration is in the admin building, right over there.” Zashi pointed in the correct direction, implacable in his adherence to regulations.
“Lia, let me walk you to your rooms, you must be tired,” Stev offered instead, giving her a warm look with his bright blue eyes as he touched her elbow again. Before, that look would have swayed her, had swayed her, into giving him too many second chances and offers of forgiveness. Not today. She didn’t know if she was too sore to care, or the distance between them had grown great enough that she was now immune, but she shook her head and drew away.
“No, Stev, you go on and check in. I have other things to do.” He frowned back at her. She shook her arm slightly to dislodge his hand and noticed Zashi take an interest in the interplay. Trust Zashi to be ready to intervene.
“Of course, you have work to do. You always did.” Yes, definite petulance in his tone.
“Stev, please. Not now.” Lia didn’t want to get mired in that conversation path with him yet again.
“Later then. I really want to talk and help in any way I can.” Stev stepped close to her and gathered her up in an unwelcome hug. In the past, contact with his well-muscled body would have made her compliant, but now, he just touched all her bone-deep bruises. She extricated herself as quickly as she could. With a reluctant wave, Stev turned and jogged after the group of arrivals clustered at the distant entrance to admin where Informationist Myklos waited to process them. She should go and help him with his immigration duties as soon as she was done here.
“What sort is he?” Zashi asked as he guided her away from the pallets of supplies being offloaded from the ship.
“The sort with history.”
Colan watched Lia and Zashi cross the deck pushing the bodies of the dead. They avoided people as well as they could, and he doubted too many noticed their sad progress aside from him. The spectacle of the destroyed building distracted most people, and the arrival of more new settlers caught the attention of everyone else, so they succeeded in getting the bodies to the ship without too much drama.
He helped clear the rubble, which was nearly done thanks to all the efforts of the new settlers. They’d fallen on the task with enthusiasm, and under Welti’s direction, a few of the skilled workers were even starting repairs as the rest cleaned up the common area. Zashi had completed his investigation, so it was simply a matter of moving debris to the appropriate resting site. Most of the synthboard would be recycled, while damaged furnishings would be compacted and used for fill which was always in short supply in the muck of Gamaliel’s surface.
He glanced up at the shuttle again after tossing some twisted metal to a hovering construction bot and saw Lia waiting at the open hatch with one of the bodies. Zashi must have disappeared with the other. He thought she was probably saying goodbye to Tully, and in an uncharacteristic impulse, he wished he could go to her and offer her some comfort. So much for keeping his distance. Between berating her earlier today and getting up even earlier to make her breakfast, he had to accept his reactions to the woman ventured down an extreme path. He was either going to retreat to a distant volcanic range to escape her or end up kissing her until he was senseless. Either one would be dangerous to his well-being.
Standing up and stretching his back, he watched as a red-haired man broke off from the group of passengers striding toward the administration building and jogged back toward Lia. They spoke to each other and kept talking through the return of Zashi who took charge of Tully’s body. The stranger hugged Lia farewell, and Colan stiffened to attention. She must know the man to allow the familiarity. The other man jogged back to the people walking by the explosion site and stared at the destruction, laughing about something one of his fellows said. Colan took a good look at him as he passed; young, handsome, and relaxed.
Tossing a few more chunks of debris to the waiting claspers of his new favorite construction bot, Colan tried not
to think about the intimate interaction he’d observed. He glanced over at the shuttle, now disgorging wrapped pallets of supplies onto the deck, and saw Lia making her diagonal way toward the admin building. Knowing her, she was going to help settle in the new folks instead of resting like she should.
She avoided coming close to the bomb site which meant he could observe her without detection. She walked slowly, without the spring in her step he’d grown used to seeing. She had to be hurting, both physically and emotionally. He shouldn’t have been so domineering with her earlier. He acted as if he had a right to tell her what to do—and he didn’t. He didn’t seem to have the social skills to ease his suggestions to her. He’d been gruff and authoritative, and it was no wonder she wasn’t looking over here trying to spot him.
Turning back to the task at hand, he threw a few more chunks of synthboard into a waiting bin and searched for more. There were none. In fact, during the course of the morning it seemed all the debris had been collected and removed from the site of the blast. The wet ground around him was pockmarked and torn, but there were no more bits of building to be seen. Glancing up at the façade of the barracks building, Colan could see Welti and his volunteers had sheathed all the open sections in clear seal and were busy working behind the barrier. No doubt already putting in all the support structures they would need for the rebuilding the facilities manager had promised would begin before the next day dawned.
The fortitude of these congressionals impressed Colan yet again. Rather like Lia’s determination to get back to work and contribute, even though the day before she’d been smashed in an explosion. He shook his head to work out some of his simmering anger and glanced up to find Zashi standing at the edge of the commons, frowning at the world in general. Or grimacing slightly, which for the security officer was an enormous display of emotion.
“Any leads?”
Zashi shook his head. “You heard the boys. After they’d gotten caught they spoke to anyone and everyone about what they’d done. The news was all over the settlement within hours. So, there’s no way to narrow the suspect list down.”
“What next?”
“Interviews. Lots of interviews.” Talking to so many people would be torture for Colan, but Zashi’s grim smile indicated the security chief looked forward to the task.
Colan nodded and stared at the broken building so he wouldn’t look over at the admin doors Lia had disappeared into a minute before.
“Know any of the new folks?”
Zashi propped his hands on his hips and spared a glance back at the shuttle. Bots were busy tugging the baggage away from the fuselage. There were a lot of vehicle components in the mix. How anyone was going to drive a crawler in the mud around here was beyond him.
“Some. One of them knows Lia.”
“Oh.” Colan tried not to sound as if he wanted to know every detail of the relationship. Lia knew lots of people all over the galaxy, he was sure. Some of them she hugged. Entirely normal.
“She’s not interested, but he is.” After he dropped that tidbit, Zashi sighed and went back to staring at the barracks as if they might start to talk with him and explain what had happened the day before. Colan wanted to ask who or what Lia wasn’t interested in. The man who hugged her? Someone else? Staying on Gamaliel altogether? “She’s maintaining.”
That didn’t sound promising. In fact, it sounded worrisome. “She’s pushing herself today.”
Zashi gave a brief nod. “She went over to help out Myklos.”
“I guessed that.”
Zashi shot a considering glance his way, and Colan realized the man read him very well and knew Colan had been watching the encounter by the shuttle and then Lia’s walk to the other building. Blast, he probably knew about their too-brief kiss, too. So much for keeping something private.
“This looks better.” Zashi gestured with his chin at the cleared space in front of them. It did look better, gashed earth and gutted building notwithstanding.
It had been two days since she’d last seen Colan, and Lia was anxious. She’d assumed he would stop by and check on her sometime that first day after he’d brought her breakfast, but he hadn’t.
The day had passed in a blur of pain and grief over Tully and endless data input to help settle in the new people, most of whom were fellow civil servants—which helped lighten her work load not at all. Despite all the volunteer input and aggravation, she had the mashed schedule flowing better by the time she did her merges the day after. Everything fell into place on the third day, and she felt as if she was back in some sort of control, both over her work and her body.
But Colan hadn’t stopped by with more food for her or growled orders to rest, and she grew more and more distressed over his absence. She certainly hadn’t expected a message from him. The man was allergic to electronic communications. Maybe he had taken her seriously when she’d told him he wasn’t to tell her what to do. She was fully capable of managing her own life without his surly input. Except…
Making a few adjustments to the day’s work schedule before inputting it to the local network for all to access, Lia decided it was good he’d found something else to occupy him. If he’d shown up again, she would’ve had to think about something other than door hinges on backorder and the inexplicable slowdown of the resin casting vats which delayed the repairs on the barracks walls. Another shuttle was due to arrive in the morning, and they absolutely had to have more living space ready. Most of the first arrivals had already ventured out in the jungle to explore their claim sites, but there still weren’t enough beds available.
Scanning the hospitality report for Claude one more time, Lia decided the shortages of food oil and clean napkins were things he was capable of working around. She closed out her work displays and stretched her back as she looked around her shadowed office. It was well past the evening meal time, and she should go home and rest, find something to eat, and prepare herself for the morning which would be busy. As they all had been since she’d arrived here.
As she stood up from her desk chair and flexed her legs, there was a knock at her door and Stev appeared, dressed in a snug, clean uniform and beaming as if he was happy to see her. She’d managed to avoid him since their awkward encounter on the landing deck. Sometimes having a busy schedule came in handy. Here he was, giving the impression he had an agenda, and Lia tried to fortify herself for what was to come.
“Lia! It seems like I haven’t seen you since I arrived.”
“We’re busy around here, Stev.” Lia tried to sound dismissive as she powered down the wall displays one by one, hoping he would get the hint she was done for the day and ready to head home.
“I noticed! I don’t think I’ve ever started a project with so many problems. Your guy Tully must have been running ragged before, before…” Stev trailed off, having the sense to look abashed.
“He was. I was helping him out setting nodules when it—”
Lia stopped speaking as she recalled Tully’s last excited calls for her to return to the Barracks. He’d wanted her to be by his side when he activated the full network. That was the last time she’d heard his voice. If she’d been there sooner, she might have died alongside him. Another unbidden thought intruded, she’d stopped kissing Colan to answer Tully’s summons. His kiss had saved her, and if she’d stayed with him, she never would have been injured. Stars, what a strange combination of events that had been.
“Setting nodules? Like I showed you how to do on Ten? That’s funny, Lia. I never thought you’d do that sort of thing again. Those were good times.” Stev took a step into her office and leaned against the wall as he watched her, his blue eyes alight with memories. He’d decided to teach her some basic network construction when they’d both been involved in the construction of the space station. It had been a good excuse for them to spend time together and to find all sorts of hidden spots in the station where they could indulge the physical side of their relationship. Lia hoped she wasn’t reacting to the obvious effort
Stev made to remind her of them.
“Tully needed my help, and I was glad to have the ability to do so.” Lia collected her datpad from her desk and turned to face him, regretting that he forced this encounter when she was so weary. “Listen, Stev, you know we didn’t part under the best of terms.”
That was an understatement. There had been emotional garbage hauled in those last week’s they’d shared the posting. Lia remembered the relief when her transfer came through and she’d boarded the shuttle that took her away.
“I know, Lia. That’s why I was so glad to be reassigned here. I know I treated you badly. I know I hurt you, and despite how terrible the circumstances were that led to the opening here, I’m glad this gives us a chance to reconnect. I missed you.” He took another step her way, and Lia backed up until her rear hit the edge of her desk.
“I didn’t miss you, Stev.” She let some of the frustration and anger she felt toward the galaxy in general show in her tone. Who was he to show up and expect her attention again? She’d been working nonstop since she’d gotten here, had traumatic injuries, and was never investing any of her scant personal time with the man in front of her again. Another man, yes, but definitely not Stev. “We’re going to have a working relationship only from this point forward.”
Stev shook his head and softened his expression as he approached her. “I know I have a lot to prove to you before you’ll trust me again. And I will. You were the best, Lia; we were the best together. It had never been that good for me before. I know we can get back to that again. Just give me the chance.”
