by S. E. Smith
Fierce satisfaction flashed all through Pym, and he dove for the man's face with a triumphant shriek.
The guard stumbled backward and kicked the door closed before Pym could reach him.
Pym scrabbled over the metal of the door again and yelled his rage until his throat hurt. He was breathing hard, his feet stinging, and he was forced to retreat to his perch by Liana's bed. Pym clicked his beak open and shut, his mind whirling over possibilities.
With a small grunt, he hopped to the floor and sidled over to the panel Liana had been messing about with. He'd helped her a little, snipping wires with his beak. He yanked at the panel now and tore the metal away from the wall. Clicking with impatience, Pym reached in with his beak to continue the work his princess had begun. He would get out of this cage, he would find her, and then he would kill everyone who had dared to harm her.
Dismay exploded through Jacen's chest like a bomb had gone off as he looked at the princess. "Pym was with you?"
"Yes." Her voice wobbled. "I understand you're here to rescue me, but must we leave Pym?"
Jacen clenched his jaw and looked away from her eyes as they shone with unshed tears. She wasn't trying to manipulate him. If he said no they had to go now, then she would obey. But Pym was her sacred charge and companion. Who knew what the unscrupulous men on this space station had planned for the unfortunate beast?
Jacen squeezed Princess Liana's hands. "I'll see what can be done. If it's not possible to rescue him then I must make sure I can get you safely away."
Her lip trembled, but she gave a slow nod. "That's fair."
"Come on then." He tugged her forward by the hand, then forced himself to release her fingers. Their movement through the station would look less suspicious if they weren't holding hands.
Luck was on their side that apparently no one had sounded the alarm on the princess's escape. Perhaps they had meant to leave her with that disgusting torturer for a long time. No one had thought to check on the man's progress yet. Jacen's hands clenched into fists, but he pushed the anger away as he focused on navigating down the grav lift and through the casino level to the public hangar bay. He had no time for emotions at the moment—of any kind.
The casino level was a glittering throng of high rollers who rarely, if ever, left the space station. They wore an odd mix of styles--some in simple black suits, others in glittering gowns of sequins and feathers, with elaborate head dresses. There were also bodyguards and other hangers on in the mix. And the level of debauchery was not exactly what he would've wished his sheltered princess to see. Drink and drugs flowed freely and with them came a certain freedom of conduct that would surely scandalize the princess. A mostly naked quartet were writhing together in one not-quite-shaded-enough alcove in the corner, and another couple were doing some heavy necking at one of the roulette tables, the woman's breasts were almost entirely freed from her too small top.
He was worried the princess might reveal herself by stopping to gawk at the debauchery, but she kept her head down and shuffled in his wake like the ragged old person she was pretending to be. The only betraying sign he observed were the two spots of high red dotting her pale cheeks. Jacen's own neck was hot, but he kept their pace brisk and, soon enough, they had cleared the hot, sweaty press of the casino and bar. Stepping out into the ozone tinged scent of the hangar bay was almost a relief, even though it was stuffy.
The bay was full of luxury shuttles and ships, small craft that could tuck neatly into the space station's hangar bay without crowding the other high-end client's ships. He spotted his craft in the line and jerked his chin. "This way."
The princess stopped short when she recognized the ship he was leading them towards.
She opened her mouth to say something, but he grabbed her elbow to hurry her along. "Not out here," he murmured.
The coast was clear, the shuttle level empty for now. He keyed the ramp to the large star yacht he was using, and pushed her along ahead of him.
The princess waited in the entryway of the ship, her lips pressed together into a thin white line. She'd scraped the ugly gray wig off and her long black hair had tumbled down around her shoulders again in a sweaty tangle, her hair tie lost somewhere along the way. She looked like she'd just come from bed. From his bed after he'd thoroughly--Jacen gritted his teeth. He used to have such good control of his thoughts, his emotions. But, ever since he'd arrived on station, it was like his mind had one track, and it would not be diverted no matter what he wanted, what was sensible. He'd controlled himself for years, denied his feelings and stifled his urges. Where had all that self-discipline gone?
As soon as the ramp clicked closed the princess gaped at Jacen. "This is my father's ship."
"Yes."
"Does...does he know you have it?"
Jacen chuckled. "He's probably figured it out by now."
Her dark eyes were huge in her lovely, heart-shaped face. "You stole my father's star yacht?"
Jacen breezed past her toward the living room area, an open space with couches along the side, and a small table bolted in the middle. He flopped onto one of the couches and put his feet up. The stress of the last few hours--days really--was finally catching up with him, the adrenaline wearing off now that he had the princess out of the open.
"Jacen."
He blinked and forced himself to look up as she stood over him, hands on her hips, face screwed up in a frown.
"Well," he drawled. "If your father didn't want disgraced former security guards stealing his yacht then he should have changed the access codes after he banished me."
"Oh, Jacen." She clapped a hand over her mouth, but her eyes were dancing. A squeak of a giggle escaped, but she then shook her head, her expression sobering. "I'm so sorry. He wouldn't let me see you...after. I wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have...I wish I hadn't--" She broke off on a ragged sigh and looked away.
All traces of fatigue washed out of his system at the brittle sound of her voice, and Jacen hopped to his feet to cradle her arms. "It's all right, princess."
"But you've lost everything. All because I'm…I'm a silly girl with a crush."
Warmth spread along his chest, paired with a strange, hollow ache in his gut. Only a crush? But a crush meant she had some feelings for him at least. The longing that had started inside him, the craving to kiss her, was a dangerous thing, and Jacen was being foolish to stand so close. "I lost everything because your father is an unreasonable jack ass. He could easily have reassigned me. He threw away years of experience and elite training because he was pissed. And I made sure he lost his favorite star yacht too."
She shook her head, looking down. "I shouldn't have kissed you. I'm sorry I did it."
I'm not. Jacen bit the words back. Just barely. They would only open a world of pain for both of them. Better not to let the conversation go there. Better to steer clear of these dangerous black holes.
"Did you really steal this ship?" Her eyebrows nearly reached her hairline.
He cleared his throat. "After your father fired me and ordered me to get off the planet I…may have gotten drunk. And remembered I had the codes to this ship and no other way off planet."
"It's not your job anymore, why did you come find me?"
Because you're the center of my world, and without her he felt like a planet with a degrading orbit. He'd had no clear plan after being banished, no other place to go, but as soon as he'd heard about her kidnapping he'd sobered himself up and turned around to come find her. But he couldn't burden her with the knowledge of how much she meant to him. Especially now. As soon as they were safely away he'd return the princess to her father and never see her again.
He dropped his hands from her arms and fell onto the couch again, forcing himself to assume a lazy posture. "So. Pym. We need to rescue Pym."
The princess huffed out a trembling short breath then flopped onto the other couch across from him. "Do you really think we can?"
"We'll need to do it soon. We can't linger here, princess.
"
"Of course." She worried at her lip as her eyes went distant with thought. "They left him in my cell when they took me out. Maybe he's still in there."
"Let's see." Jacen craned over to the arm of the couch and lifted the top off to access the storage compartment underneath. He pulled a datapad out and began tapping and swiping, accessing layers of the internal chatter from the space stations' guards.
"Have you hacked their communications?"
Jacen gave a slow nod. "Yes, it was a bit more challenging than I expected. They have fairly serious security measures here. Layers and layers of firewalls and other fun cybersecurity surprises. I suppose it makes sense with the casino and all that they wouldn't be sloppy with security."
"How did you get onboard?"
"Well." He grinned without looking up from the pad. "They're very worried about who's leaving when and with how much, but they aren't very careful about arrivals. And your father's ship makes an impressive show. I put into port under a fake call sign, though, don't worry." One of the communication channels caught his attention, and he clicked over to read the transcript generated by his computer. "They're moving Pym."
"Why?"
"I guess he tore some of the wiring up in your room."
"Oh yes. We were working on hot wiring the door controls from the inside."
Jacen paused and gaped at her. "Did you get it to work?"
"Did Pym get out of the room?" Her lips had a smug tilt to them.
Jacen felt an answering smile bloom on his own face. "He did."
"Then I guess we did get it to work." She laughed. "I suppose Tatinas forgot I studied electrical engineering at university."
"The more fool him." And me. Jacen forgot sometimes she wasn't a hot house flower. She was a smart, capable woman and he should treat her as such. He clicked through some more screens and picked up an instant message between the guards. "I think I found where Pym is."
Pym woke up drowsy, with a loud roar in his ears and an ache along his belly. Those egg-eating villains had attacked him, shot him. They had dared to attack a sacred caliba.
He lay in a large golden cage in the middle of a busy room crowded with humans. They milled around outside the cage, occasionally stopping to peer through the bars at him. He hissed at the gawkers, but perfunctorily. His head felt fuzzy and heavy, and the wound from where their stinging dart had hit him throbbed.
"You'll be all right in a few moments." The voice was a soothing low coo in his head, combined with the almost intoxicating smell of a female caliba, her feathers fresh and fine.
Pym rolled over to confirm he had company in his literal gilded cage. Another caliba gazed back at him and ruffled her wings in surprise and embarrassment.
Pym felt his own crest rise in unconscious interest. She was beautiful, her feathers a pale, pearlescent pink with gold tones at the wingtips and tail. She reminded him of Liana's richest jewelry—shining and bright but with an undertone of warmth to the metal and stones. But she was no showpiece, no bit of twine and twig used to make the princess more appealing to a mate. This caliba was a real, breathing female sitting only a few feet away from him. He smoothed his feathers down, lowering his head to appear less threatening. "Hello. I'm Pym."
"They call me Rose Gold."
Pym settled on his haunches, cocking his head to the side in surprise. "'They'? Don't you have a companion?"
She blinked rapidly in response, her feathers fanning up and down in an agitated wave, her long neck curling in tight to her body for protection. He'd flustered her. She looked about his own age, so only a few years old, no older, but still fully grown. "A…companion? I don't know what you mean."
He beamed her images from his own memory of Liana. Liana holding him and nursing him when he was just a chick, Liana helping him learn to fly, feeding him dainty morsels at dinner, and stroking his feathers.
Rose Gold recoiled and squawked alarm. "What was that? What did you just do to me?"
Pym's stomach lurched. "A sharing. You've never done one before?"
When she clicked her beak 'no' another spurt of anger rose inside Pym, and he had to fold his wings tight to his body to keep from throwing himself at the callous humans outside the cage. What have they done to her? He was still blazing mad, but he didn't want to scare the other caliba. "They've kept you isolated. Alone. Have you…have you ever met another caliba?"
"My mother. We were here together. I was her only hatchling that survived." Her long tail swished, the fan of feathers furled tight with tension. "They took her away from me, left me alone. I haven't seen her in...a long time."
Pym restrained an urge to comfort the other caliba, to touch his beak to hers or chuff at the feathers on her neck. He ached to soothe her, but he didn't want to take liberties. She had been through enough.
Rose Gold shifted uneasily on her feet, and eyed him up and down. "There was another one in this cage when they brought me as a hatchling. A male like you, but he didn't smell like you." Her feathers ruffled up again in remembered fear. "He was musty, stinking really, with mites in his feathers and crusty eyes. He didn't even speak to me, just tried to hold me down and…and mate with me. I think. I twisted and bit his neck, shook him until he stopped moving." Her eyes flashed back at Pym. She was a little bigger than him, as most females were, but her wings looked underdeveloped—as if she'd never had a proper chance to fly and stretch them.
Pym ducked his head. "You did the right thing. It is wrong to hurt a hatchling. He should've left you alone unless you indicated interest. That is the common custom among caliba."
She drew herself up to her full height, fanning her wings out to the side. Pym huddled lower, trying to project an air of harmlessness. His show of submission seemed to comfort her because she stepped closer to him, sniffing interestedly.
Pym shivered, helplessly attracted to the beautiful caliba, the way the light caught on her feathers, the crisp fresh scent of her, but he didn't betray that interest by so much as the twitch of a feather, a click of his beak. He would not make the mistake that other male had. And he would not risk becoming one more creature who had hurt Rose Gold.
She circled him once, twice, then settled on her haunches just in front of him. Her eyes shone with an excitement Pym felt mirrored in his own racing heart. "Pym, would you…would you share with me again? Show me how?"
"Yes. Of course. You should know how." He sidled closer to her, his claws clicking against the metal floor of the cage.
Her breath came fast, but she didn't retreat from him.
"What would you like to see?" he asked.
She stared at him with wide eyes of a beautiful burnished gold like antique jewelry. "Freedom. What does it feel like?"
Pym made a distressed chirp in the back of his throat, but managed to swallow his other reactions. He knew exactly what he wanted to show her. He closed his eyes, conjuring up the feel of mountain air and the wind coursing over the hills like a living thing. He remembered catching it with his wings, taming the wind, riding it high enough until the mountains shrank into a small speck behind him. He conjured up the images of his mother and siblings flying at his side that day, calling to each other, twisting back and forth, spinning in the air with joy as they tried to outdo each other. And Liana on the cliff top below laughing as she watched their capering, patiently waiting for him to return. Freedom. Family. Love.
Rose Gold let out a slow, ragged breath as his vision for her receded. "When was that? Where?"
"That was my first visit back to the temple where I was born after I left with Liana. Caliba are rare on our planet and closely protected. Very few humans are able to form the empathetic link with our people. Only those who are kind-hearted and trustworthy, loyal and brave. As heir to the throne, one of the trials to prove Liana's worthiness was to see if she could bond with a caliba." And Pym, as a small down-covered chick, had been the lucky caliba that had linked with her. Liana's mother had been the last royal to bond with a caliba before that, and Pym's mothe
r had been her caliba. Liana's father the emperor had been rejected by the caliba and never found his own companion. Pym wasn't surprised by that. The emperor was a good man for the most part, but deep in his heart he was cowardly and selfish. "After Liana's mother died, my own mother returned to the temple where my siblings live. It is a sacred place, a refuge for our kind. We...usually do outlive our companions. The temple and the companionship of the rest of our kind is a solace."
Rose Gold’s feathers ruffled up in a shiver, forward then back down again as she processed this. "I would like to see your world, feel that mountain breeze you showed me under my own wings." Her voice was heavy, sad.
"I'll take you. Liana takes me a few times a year so I can be with the rest of my kind."
Rose Gold clicked her beak and looked away from him. "Your Liana seems a good sort of person. For a human."
"There is no one like her, but many humans are good and worthy." He lowered his head diffidently. "You could find a companion yourself."
"Here? Unlikely. I know what the humans are like here."
Pym couldn't exactly argue with that, but he shook his head. "After we're rescued. Many humans would like a caliba of their own. You will have many supplicants."
Rose Gold gave him a look from the corner of her eye, as if tempted by a treat she wasn't sure she was allowed to have. "How do you choose your companion? How do you know what is best?"
Pym settled on his hind legs, curling his wings tight around his body. "You don't choose. Not really. You know. You just know. As soon as Liana stepped inside the room I felt drawn to her. She felt the same way. Caliba can sense most human emotion, but with the person who's meant to be your companion it's...louder. Clearer. As if their feelings are your own."
Rose Gold clicked her beak, cocking her head to the side with interest.
A loud clattering along the bars startled them both, and Rose Gold bolted away from him to the back of the cage with a squawk.
Pym whirled to face their attacker. It was some fool human, leering at them through the cage as he raked a heavy wooden cane back and forth across the bars to make a rattling noise.
