Raven's Sphere

by Melissa Koberlein

  I close my eyes as my senses wane. Emery’s voice floats up. “Sleep well, Raven.”

  I can’t help myself and crack a rare, tiny smile. I haven’t had anyone wish me a good night’s sleep in a couple years. It feels nice and reminds me that I’m still among the living.

  But I’m quick to recover. “As long as you don’t snore, I will.”

  5

  Repairs

  I’m dreaming. I know because I still have my left arm. And my brother.

  “Raven, where are you?”

  My little brother, Bren, no more than ten years old, is looking for me. He’s running around the yard in the back of the vacation home we always stayed at in the western hemisphere of Zeta. I’m hiding underneath the storage shed and can only see about eight inches of open space between the shed and the blades of grass. But I recognize his scrawny little legs and boots immediately. I stifle a giggle. He’s not very good at this game.

  “Raven?” he calls again, his feet right in front of me.

  I reach out and grab his ankle.

  “Gotcha!” I yell as he falls backward, surprised. I climb out of my hiding spot and stand over him.

  His mousy brown hair is covering his eyes, but I can tell he’s frustrated by his pout. I sigh, torn between being his big sister and our family’s honor. He’s got a lot to live up to.

  Honor wins out. “You have to get better at finding me, Bren. You’re not only Zetian. You’re a Nevar. You know what that means, don’t you? It’s in our blood. Our senses are stronger than most, just like Dad.”

  He doesn’t answer or move to get up. Instead, he huffs and kicks at a rock on the ground.

  I reach down and pull him to his feet, tousling his hair. “You’ll get the hang of it. We’ll keep practicing.”

  Bren pushes my hand away. “You’re only saying that because you’re already so good.”

  I open my mouth to reply, but there’s something funny going on with my hand. My fingertips look fuzzy. Then they disappear, followed by my knuckles, then my entire hand. What’s happening? Wait…stop. I look up at Bren for help. He’s disappearing too, hazy at first. Then his body fades too.

  I reach for him, but he’s not there. “Bren, don’t go. I’m sorry. You can hide first this time. Please don’t go.”

  My heart pounds loudly in my ears as tears sting my eyes.

  Bren! Bren!

  I fall to my knees, my fingernails scraping the ground, shredding blades of grass. I can’t breathe—my throat so thick with grief that no air can escape.

  No, no, no. It’s too late.

  I’m alone.

  No brother, no arm.

  Then the dream changes. I’m no longer in the yard on Zeta. I’m in bed, and warmth surrounds me, envelops me. I relax into it, allowing the heat to soothe my aching heart. Strong arms stroke along the length of my body, both gentle and coaxing me toward arousal. I lean into the arms and slowly come awake to the present.

  I’m in my uncle’s barracks on a top bunk. A man’s muscular arm is draped over my body moving its way down my belly as his other hand strokes my hair. I sigh, perfectly content. So nice to be in his arms—

  Wait…

  I leap down off the bunk, retrieving my pistol from under the pillow on my way. Before my feet touch the ground, I aim up at his head and prepare to shoot, my wits fully about me. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  Cole Mason.

  Uncle Teagan found him five years ago when he was a thirteen-year-old orphan scamming in the streets of Rourke. My uncle took him in and gave him a last name—Mason, for the jar he used to collect money. Incidentally, he’s still scamming. He rolls to his side to face me from the top bunk and props his sandy blond head on his open palm. He’s fully dressed, thank God. He’s wearing his usual fitted navy blue battle suit. The top part of his suit is unzipped, revealing tan skin and dark hair. My eyes dart quickly to his naked chest, shocked at his presumptuous familiarity with me. Is that a nipple?

  He smiles like he’s just won the Rourke lottery and the winning ticket is in my pants. “What, babe? You don’t want to cuddle?”

  Cole is the last person in the galaxy I want to see right now. And I’m in no mood for a cuddle. By this point, Emery has woken up too. He’s peeking out from his bunk beneath Cole.

  “Raven, are you okay?” Emery asks.

  “I’m fine. It’s our new bunkmate up there who’s not in such great shape.” I nod at Cole.

  Cole bends over his bunk to have a look at Emery. “Raven, have you been cheating on me?”

  “Shut the hell up, Cole.” The foreign sense of protectiveness for Emery that won’t seem to leave me alone rears its head once again.

  “Or you’ll what?” he challenges, an eyebrow arched.

  I take a long, deep breath to steel my nerves and remember who the fuck I am. Enough of this game.

  “I’ll do this.” I fire my pistol, hitting Cole square in the chest.

  He screams in pain as an electric shock rips through his body, arcing out from his chest into his limbs and face. After the current recedes, he falls off the bunk to the floor, unconscious. I lower my weapon. He’s lucky I sleep with my pistol set to stun. It’s too dangerous to do otherwise. The kind of dreams I sometimes have, I could end up shooting myself.

  I nudge Cole’s muscular body with my foot. He’s out cold. Not so tough when you’re stunned, are you?

  Emery stands, still sleepy-eyed. “Is that your boyfriend?”

  Boyfriend? Not even close. Cole is the last person in the world I’d ever consider trusting, and I don’t date. He’s less trustworthy than me, and that’s saying a lot. No, my only interest in Cole is to find out where the next big score is and get it before he does. “He’s just some guy I know, a thief, like me. We’re more like competitors. The problem is my uncle sort of adopted him when he was a kid. I just wish I had known he was here. That way we wouldn’t have been.”

  “He’s dangerous then? I mean, to us?” Emery reaches for his satchel containing the sphere.

  “No, I can take care of him. He won’t be a threat. Besides, we have bigger problems than him anyway. We’ve got to get started on the upgrades to our ship and get a disguise for you. I have no idea how long it will be before someone else comes looking for us. There has to be a bounty on your head by now…” I stop, my lucrative mind immediately wondering how much he’s going for. I shake the thought away. Stop it. You’re his only chance at survival. “Anyway, like I said, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

  I walk over to the door and touch the comm panel. “Uncle Teagan, time to wake up.”

  Nothing.

  “Teagan!”

  “Damn it. What is it, girl?” Teagan yells back, sleepy tides receding.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Cole was here?” I ask, my voice calm and steady.

  Silence.

  Finally, Teagan responds quietly, “Oh. Well, it didn’t come up, did it?”

  Oh, so that’s how we’re going to play this? “Well, in case you’re wondering where he is, he’s in here out cold. I stunned him.”

  “Raven! Why did you do that? Have you no self-control?”

  I shrug. No, not much.

  He groans. “I’m coming.”

  Fine. “Emery, keep your satchel with you at all times. Let’s grab a quick bite to eat, and then we need to get to work. How are you with tools?”

  “Tools?” he asks, looking confused.

  I roll my eyes. “Never mind, you’ll learn. Let’s go.”

  Five hours later, Emery has mastered the hand tools. He won’t be ready for any power tools or circuitry work anytime soon, but he can work his way up. If we stay together, he’ll be running a ship of his own in no time. As for this ship, well, I’ve decided to keep her for a while. I can’t stay here for long. My resolve won’t allow it. Besides, no need to draw extra attention to an already popular spot for the Cadmarians to bomb.

  SANDY is very helpful with the upgrades. She knows her shi
p and her capabilities well. Her system is newer than I originally thought. I deleted her flight records, and she only needed four updates. I figured it would have been at least ten and possibly some reprogramming. Luckily, she’s up to speed.

  Now, the rest of the ship in regards to hardware? That’s another story. Whoever worked on her retrofitted her with a large energy core. However, they only did minimal modifications and retrofitting to the old technology. And if I’m going to keep her for a while, she’s going to need a contra-scanner and cloaking device so we can stay concealed in space. It’s going to take a few days, but I think we can have this ship ready to defend herself nicely.

  “Emery? Do you have the millimeter socket wrench?” I ask from underneath the front of the ship.

  Without warning, hands are on my ankles, pulling me out from under the ship. I draw my knife from my utility belt in a flash. It’s too late though. Cole grabs my wrist, knocking the knife from my hand. He drags me to the side of the hangar and pushes me against the wall, holding both my arms.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” he yells in my face.

  I recover quickly. I’m used to being attacked. Occupational hazard.

  “Oh, I see. Poor little Cole can’t take a little stun gun. Well, I had no idea how delicate you were,” I say, my mouth turned up in a sneer.

  “You think I’m delicate? This from the girl who can’t even let a guy put his arms around her? A guy who's known her since we were kids? Really?”

  “Let me go!” I struggle against him, annoyed that I should have been ready for this.

  His azure eyes are trained on mine, unmoving. “No. I’m not going to let you go until you apologize for what you did to me.”

  “Why would I do that?” I look anywhere but in his eyes.

  “I’m not budging. You owe me an apology.” His words are slow and deliberate.

  “Let go of me,” I say, biting my lower lip in frustration.

  “No. You need to look me in the eyes and say you’re sorry. For fuck's sake, Raven, why are you so hateful toward me? You know, there are women who would kill to be this close to me.”

  I twist my head from side to side, refusing to make eye contact. “Then go bother them.”

  “Oh no, you don’t. I know what you’re doing. Not this time. This time, you will acknowledge me.” He presses his body closer, his eyes pursuing mine relentlessly.

  As much as I don’t want to look at him, he’s not giving me a choice. So, I do the one thing I know will get me out of this shit. I surprise him and grind my hips against his. I consider his unyielding, bright blue eyes and fight to my core to ignore my physical attraction to him. I’m not that girl anymore. “What do you want from me? You want me to admit that you get under my skin? You do. You want me to tell you that I can barely be around you because I’m so hot for you?”

  I graze my mouth against his and use my tongue to trace an outline around his lips, coaxing an equal reaction in his mind and in his pants. His grip loosens on my wrists as he yields to my sensual touch. With the use of my arms again, I grasp the back of his neck and tilt away from him to look thoughtfully into his eyes. He stares back at me, and I detect something palpable and genuine there.

  A twinge of regret for what I’m about to do niggles at the back of my mind. Don’t do it, Raven. But even if he doesn’t realize it yet, I’m the last person in the galaxy he should care about.

  I smile as I pull back my artificial titanium arm, undetected, and clock him in the gut as hard as I can.

  He drops like a sack of tubers, moaning in pain.

  I squat down, my icy veneer firmly back in place. “Don’t ever grab me like that again. The only thing you are to me is the guy standing in my way to the next big payoff.” As an afterthought, I add, “Besides, I’m damaged goods. Surely you can set your sights a little higher than me. I certainly do.”

  Satisfied, I stand, and ask once again, “Emery! Where’s that damn millimeter socket wrench?”

  6

  Hack

  Teagan throws up his arms as if to say, What do you want from me? “I just don’t have the parts, Raven. You’re going to have to make some deals.”

  My newest ship hovers above my head in my uncle’s hangar as I shift uncomfortably. I need a contra-scanner. Point blank. Need it. I can’t go back into space without one. “Can’t we use—”

  “No. It won’t work.” Teagan shakes his head. “You know, you may just want to cut your ties with this one.” His eyes travel over to Emery, who’s digging through a tool box.

  His words hit me in the gut like a ton of asteroids. Logically, I know he’s right. I’m already in enough trouble. Why have the extra burden?

  “I’m getting the hang of this.” Emery walks over to us, holds up a drill and revs it. His smile sends a plasma shot into the icy canyon surrounding my heart. Damn, he’s so like Bren.

  I look back at Teagan. “Nah. I’ll figure it out. Once we get the ship where it needs to be, Emery and I are going to head out.”

  Teagan looks between me and Emery, knowingly. “I see.”

  I reach into a pocket strapped to my thigh, retrieving my latest contraband. “I won’t get nearly as much for these lovely pornograms as I’d have on Cadmar proper, but it’s time to go shopping.”

  Emery’s questioning look tells me he knows nothing of current sexual relations. Pornographic holograms have taken the place of most prostitution in the galaxy. Ever since the STD outbreaks of the twenty-third century, promiscuity, especially with prostitutes, was often a death sentence. NeTox, the deadliest STD because of its extensive and rapid mutative capabilities, kills a victim within seventy-two hours of contraction if not treated within the first eight hours after contact. Faithful monogamy and polygamy became standards once again as they have in our past human history. Personally, I’ve never met anyone I trusted enough to be between my legs.

  “I’ve got some wares to sell. Who’s still around?” I ask my uncle, reluctantly.

  Teagan shakes his head and chuckles. “It’s been a while for you in Rourke, huh? You buzz in and out of the Ditch so quickly, you forget about a whole city just fifty kilometers to the west. I hate to break it to you, but there’s actually no one trading your contraband in Rourke anymore. But…” Teagan pauses. “There is a person who’s still buying, and lucky for you, they live right here in the Ditch.”

  Hands on my hips, I pace. Damn. So much money going down the drain.

  A deep voice from behind me says, “Oh come on, let’s see what you’ve got.”

  Cole. Of course he’s the one buying. All the planning and ass-kicking I did for these holograms…all for nothing. There’s got to be another way. He can take what I have, fly to Cadmar, and make the fortune that should be coming to me. He probably tried to steal the very pornograms I have in my possession, but I beat him to it. Typical.

  I blow my long sapphire bangs off my forehead in consternation and turn to face him. It’s time to deal, and I’ve got to play my hand right. “What makes you think I’d sell to you? How do I even know you have the money to afford what I have?”

  He moves toward me, slow and full of purpose. When he reaches me, he stands uncomfortably close. His body heat sets warning bells off all over mine to be prepared. For what? I have no idea. From this distance, I can see that he hasn’t shaven for days, his dark brown stubble speckled all over his cheeks and chin. His unwavering eyes watch me, waiting for me to misstep.

  Don’t worry. I won’t. My father taught me how to play this game.

  “Pornograms. But I’m not so sure you can sell them. They are high tech. No ordinary hack can recode them to be both usable and untraceable on Zeta or Cadmar.”

  Cole frowns, and I can’t tell if he’s mocking me or truly disappointed. “Oh. Well, perhaps you and I could take a little stroll to see an old friend?”

  Yeah, I knew that might be a possibility. “Why do I need you, Cole?”

  “You don’t need me, but—” Cole points at Emery. “H
e just might. You don’t think I’m that stupid, do you? I know exactly who, or better yet, what he is. I also know Cadmar has a warrant out on him. He’d fetch a pretty penny. Are you so confident in your own abilities that you don’t want some backup?”

  Leave it to Cole to skim the Cadmarian warrant list like most people read the morning galaxy news.

  “Who says I’m taking him with me?” I reply, holding my ground.

  Cole nods, mockingly. “Oh, okay. So you’re leaving him here with me then? Great. I’m sure we will get along splendidly. Run along, Raven.” He turns and moves toward Emery.

  I step in between them. Oh no you don’t. If he touches one hair on this kid’s head, I’m setting my gun to never-wake-up-again.

  “No. Emery will be coming with me. I can handle things on my own, but it wouldn’t hurt to have you as backup,” I say, biting back the desire to stomp on his foot and knee him in the balls.

  Cole nods and tries his best to conceal a triumphant smile. “As usual, you call the shots.”

  F-you. I roll my eyes and turn toward Emery. “We have to make a trip into the city. It’s not going to be easy. If you promise me you will do exactly as I say, we’ll be fine. We’ll have to cover your hair and don’t look up at anyone, not even once. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  Emery lifts his chin and pushes his shoulders back like he’s ready to go to battle. “I’ve got your back.”

  I narrow my eyes at him. Got my back, huh? That, I’ve got to see. “Okay. Cool.” I turn to Teagan. “Okay, we shouldn’t be more than four hours. If Stass is still as good as she used to be, we might be back even sooner.”

  “No problem. I’ve got this place locked down.” Teagan turns to Cole. “Keep them safe and quit being such a space douche.” He smacks Cole upside his head.

  I stifle my laugh. “Okay, let’s get going. Just need a jacket with a hood for Emery.”