by C. Gockel
“Just talking. Why do you have more questions than kisses for me, Sunshine?”
She shrugged. “I don’t like that man.”
This time his frown was more pronounced. “Have you had dealings with him?”
“Not good ones.” She did not look at him. “He’s… not a good soldier. That’s all. His ways are… undisciplined. It’s not the way we’re meant to be.”
“Well, as I’ve been telling you, Lieutenant.” Djari softened this reminder with a gentle smile. “What you’re meant to be and what some of you are... Well, they’re not the same. I guess it gets the job done. Beryl seems… efficient.”
“Was he rude to you?” she asked carefully. For all his openness and what she hoped was trust for her, Djari would not easily admit to having fallen victim to Beryl and his gang. Their petty tortures would only confirm his view of Air Command’s methods.
“No.” He took her hand. “I have an idea. Come, I want to show you something. Down by the hub.”
Puzzled, she followed him to the lifts leading to the lower tiers of the station. He would say nothing more until they reached the public corridor outside the elevator shipping level. He nudged her to walk ahead of him to the end. “In there,” he pointed to an unmarked door. “It’s unlocked.”
“You’re so mysterious today,” she said, utterly curious now. What could there possibly be to see at the docks? A new ship, perhaps? Some remarkable delivery?
They slipped through the door to enter a shaft containing only a set of rungs embedded in the wall. It looked much like a small cargo lift on which someone had forgotten to actually install the car. Looking down, she saw a metal floor with lines painted on it. Someone walked down there and she realized that she was looking into the access area to the elevator. Djari pointed upward. She climbed the ladder ahead of him and stepped out onto a catwalk of sorts at the top.
“What is this?”
“I don’t know, but it’s really beautiful.”
“It is?” The walkway up here formed a ring around the top of the shipping area, circling the tether, she assumed. The construction was not finished here and they passed piles of building materials, coils of wire and conduit, debris and tools.
He halted for a moment to peer around a gap in the wall and then gestured to her to scurry around him before they could be spotted by the workers below. “This is just a standard part of the orbiter design,” he whispered. “Not likely to ever be used unless they get a lot of demand for sight-seeing up here. This gap here was meant for a staircase.”
“Sight-seeing what?”
He ushered her into an enclosed space beside the gap in the wall and closed the door behind them. “Look,” he said.
They had come to a curved room whose ceiling and most of one wall was made of a slightly domed, transparent window. Nova gripped his arm when she looked up to see Bellac Tau above them like an enormous moon in the sky. She made out its continents and oceans, partially obscured by swirling cloud patterns. The tether itself extended from here and disappeared to a point on its way to the planet. The sun’s light reflected by Bellac, along with the stars in the sky, was all that was needed to illuminate this space tonight. Standing close to the window, she felt as if she were floating in space. “Beautiful,” she whispered.
“Isn’t it lovely? We’re actually at almost the lowest point of the orbiter and, technically, upside down. Come sit.” He drew her to where someone had placed a thickness of foam padding.
She grinned. “You come here often? How did you find this place?”
“Poking around. I’m down here quite a bit when things come up from the base. Someone mentioned that there was an observation platform up here. If you look out long enough you feel like you’re flying out there.”
“What are those?” Nova pointed at a row of blue metal bins stacked in a corner.
“No idea.” He sat on the pallet and pulled her down to lie beside him. “Look outside. This might not be such a big deal for you, Pilot Lady, but for me this is the next best thing to being out there.”
“No, this is stunning.” She laid down on her back and gazed up at the canopy of stars. They shimmered slightly behind the orbiter’s shields as if seen through a planet’s atmosphere rather than as the stark pinpricks of light she saw from her cockpit.
“I used to watch the stars from Bellac,” he said and stretched out on his side, close to her. “On those rare nights when the skies are clear. And dream of traveling.”
“To where?”
“Doesn’t matter. Anywhere that’s new. You must have seen many places.”
“I’ve seen many Air Command bases. They all look the same. Although my parents made sure we took trips off-base as often as possible. I’ve been on a few of Magra’s continents. Callas once. A trip to Phi Four a long time ago. I barely remember it. I want to travel to other places, too. Feyd sounds interesting. And I’ve heard a lot about Delphi.”
“Feyd is dangerous to Humans and Delphi doesn’t allow foreigners.”
“And you think that’ll stop me?” She raised her arms as if to embrace the night sky. “I am going to see them all. You just watch.”
He leaned forward to kiss her softly. “You will, I’m sure.”
“Yeah. Meanwhile, we have this.” She tilted her head to let his lips travel over the skin of her neck. “And this is a very, very nice place to hide out.” Vistas like the one before them existed in other parts of the station, but none so private and none where being seen with a member of the crew in such an intimate display would not raise questions.
He seemed to guess her thoughts and began to unfasten her shirt.
“What do you have in mind, sir?”
“Shh,” he whispered. She shivered when he bared her to the sky and each other and his hand, calloused but infinitely gentle, moved over her body. “Wanted to see you like this, in the star light,” he said. “A Nova among the stars.”
She purred under his touch. “You are a poet. I told you.” She gasped when he pulled on the string of her loose trousers. “Not here!” she whispered.
“I locked the door.” He smiled when she did not resist losing the rest of her clothes and happily submitted to his questing fingers. She looked out into the endless expanse of time, thinking of nothing until she was swept away to somewhere out there, arching her back with a guttural groan that he silenced with his kiss. Still befuddled by the moment, she turned to him and he lifted her over his lap to watch her move languidly above him, outlined by the stars and a halo of hair. He held her for a long while after finding his own release in deep, shuddering waves of pleasure.
Chapter Nine
“Whiteside!”
Nova looked up from her breakfast bowl when the call cut through the chatter, the scrape of chairs on the bare floor, the clatter of dishes being stacked and sorted in the nearby kitchen. Lieutenant Sulean and her Caga squad roommate also scanned the mess hall to find Captain Dakad striding toward them. Nova slapped the com screen on her sleeve as if that would make it work properly. “I could have sworn I wound this thing up this morning.”
Sulean snickered and nudged one of the replacement pilots who had finally arrived just two days ago. “He likes to shout. The com bands aren’t conducive to shouting.”
“He’d find a way,” Nova mumbled. The day had barely begun and already Dakad had found some reason to bark.
“He scares me,” the pilot said, not frightened enough to let it interrupt his breakfast.
Nova cast a curious glance his way. That Lieutenant Ko hailed from Feyd was clear by the deep brown of his skin, embellished on all exposed parts with intricate tattoos that carried much meaning for his people. Having seen him at his exercises, she knew that the patterns were not restricted to just his face and neck. But his long-limbed body was typically Centauri as was the black hair. Centauri and Feydans carried nearly identical DNA and most other Prime species were also not that far removed. This was as much a reason to suspect divine intention as much as
some shared origin in another part of the galaxy, depending on one’s viewpoint. Nova had no precise viewpoint but she found the possibility endlessly fascinating. Interspecies breeding was rare and often problematic and so generally not encouraged by those who had any say in the matter. Still, people had a way of getting together. Proof of that was sitting right here, slurping the last of his fruit soup.
The captain arrived at their table. “Saddle up, Whiteside. You’re taking a few pedestrians back down to the Shon Gat garrison and then you’ll pick up three more pilots while you’re there. A bunch of day trippers want to go, too.”
“Aye, sir.” They still hadn’t replaced the lost shuttle pilot and so the combat pilots had filled in for her, not averse to the break in routine or the chance to spend the occasional evening on the Siolet base.
“No layover. You’re back here tonight.”
“Thank you, sir,” she said.
Dakad’s narrowed eyes exuded disapproval while he tried to decide if sarcasm was involved in her reply. Seeing nothing on her guileless face, he spun and left them to their tea.
“Some day, Nova…” Sulean warned.
Her roommate smirked, like Lieutenant Rolyn well aware of how Nova was spending her downtime. “Something tells me she meant it.”
Nova stood up. “Bus is leaving soon. Better be on it.”
She left the mess and bypassed the restricted lifts leading to the fighter plane levels to take the one to the passenger concourse. The supply clerk supplied her with the latest gossip while issuing her the uniform used by non-military pilots. He also promised her a fresh flight suit upon her return, for which she was grateful. The suits had a way of picking up an unpleasant rankness well before new ones were issued.
She waited at the shuttle gate while security checked it once more for possible sabotage and then completed her own pre-flight inspection before allowing the passengers aboard. The civilians returning to the base were the last of the team still investigating the explosion on the flight deck. Despite Nova’s carefully padded inquiries during the trip to the surface, none of them seemed inclined to discuss the case. She wondered if the supply clerk would have better luck with them. Perhaps he gave lessons in prying gossip out of people.
She landed them on the dusty airfield that served the elevator base garrison and saw them safely transferred to another shuttle leaving for Siolet. Then there was not much to do but wait for her new passengers. She knew no one here that she cared to visit. Her temporary squad during her stint as ground pounder was now manning Rim Station, her old base. She cared little for the ones here now, consisting mostly of troops either belonging to or afraid of Captain Beryl. She ambled to the garrison administrative building, craning her neck up at the elevator looming over the landscape. It was impossible to ignore.
It was cooler inside and she flapped the front of her uniform blouse to circulate the air under there while she filed her report with a bored clerk. “So where is everybody? I’m expected back topside today.”
“Not here yet. Sandstorm grounded their skimmer. I’ll tag you when they’re ready to leave.”
“Storm heading this way?” Although Shon Gat was officially cleared of militants now, the absolute least entertaining thing she could think of was to be grounded here overnight. Perhaps there was time to head to Camomas or one of the other towns instead.
“Nah. Blowing itself out over the flats. You’ll be okay.”
Nova looked out of a sand-encrusted window over the training grounds. A few grunts were jogging around out there, no doubt cursing the grit drifting into their lungs. How fortunate her own team was to be stationed aboard the skyranch with its new, clean exercise equipment and a view of the green space while doing their laps.
“Is the pilot here yet?” she heard a gruff voice through an open door.
“Yessir, right here,” the clerk replied.
“Send him in.”
Nova raised an eyebrow and walked into the commander’s office where she saluted with the least amount of decorum she could get away with. “Major Trakkas,” she said.
He looked up. “What are you doing down here, Whiteside?”
“Driving the bus.”
“You air jockeys don’t have enough to do,” he muttered. He gave her a card. “Get over to the climber hub and pick up a packet from Sergeant Srilk to take up with you. I don’t have three days to get it up there.”
“Yessir. Who is the receiver?”
He returned his attention to his data sheets. “Just leave it with Private Maxen at supply. Dismissed.”
She hesitated a moment. As far as she knew, Trakkas had not once inquired about her capture during the Shon Gat siege. The fact that he was to blame for her even being there didn’t seem to bother his conscience. She wanted to ask about the others and perhaps say a few words about Lieutenant Reko, but staring at the top of the major’s unevenly shaved head suddenly made her averse to even talk to him. She left without another word.
The air outside was now thick enough with the abrasive dust to force her to pull up her filter cowl to cover her mouth and nose, glad that she had remembered to grab one from the shuttle. The tether’s anchor building loomed above the surrounding structures, looking impressive and efficient and, although really little more than a shipping facility, decidedly military. Most of that was due to the armored vehicles, patrols and of course the massive scaffold surrounding the lower part of the tether, studded with communication and surveillance equipment covering the entire hemisphere. The security checkpoint at the entrance was meant to look sleek and elegantly designed but whoever was in charge of the place had by now lost the battle of trying to keep the dust from covering everything. She patted her clothes to add her contribution while the guard checked her credentials and scanned her irises.
The zone beyond the checkpoint looked like a larger version of the elevator hub on the orbiter. The climber loading deck was more tightly guarded and armed guards walked among the rows of containers awaiting shipment. She walked around the hub to a service area and presented the card Major Trakkas had given her.
The clerk glanced at it and then nodded to his left. “Go see Ton Srilk. The Caspian over there.”
She nodded and followed his direction. The woman he had pointed out was busy overseeing some sort of repacking of one of the containers. She turned her long, densely furred head when Nova approached. Her yellow eyes were watering even in here. Caspians wore clothes only where custom or policy demanded it but Nova suspected that this one was glad for the coveralls that kept the dust from her intricately patterned hide.
“Sergeant,” she said and showed her card again. “Trakkas asked me to pick up a package?”
“And about time,” the woman said and dug through her pockets while walking away from the dock workers. “Can’t wait to get rid of this.”
Nova followed her, baffled by this process and the soldier’s lack of manners toward an officer. The Caspian found what she was looking for and slapped a flat metal case into Nova’s hand. “Those guys are paid far too well for easy work, if you ask me. Tell Beryl his bag is in—”
“Srilk,” a harsh voice barked behind them. Another guard, this one Centauri, glared at her. Nova had no trouble recognizing him as one of Beryl’s associates. The last time she had seen him had been with her gun to his throat at Rim Station. “Whiteside,” he said. “Moonlighting again? You just can’t keep your ass in your Kite, can you, Lieutenant?”
The Caspian’s short intake of breath told Nova that a different sort of courier had been expected here today.
“Got to keep things interesting,” she said and flipped the container into the air before dropping it into her pocket. “I’ll tell Beryl you said hello.”
Having no other place to go, Nova walked quickly across the garrison’s central square and to the mess hall where she asked for cold tea. Her hand explored the lump in her pocket while she sipped. Payment for what? What was Beryl up to? She frowned, rejecting the idea that he and his men
were behind the recent sabotage. They were rotten to the fibers of their pharmaceutically enhanced bodies but they were in this for themselves. She doubted that any of them had the necessary interest or concentration to work for the rebels.
Smuggling was the most likely reason for this payment. If they themselves weren’t smuggling goods past the checkpoints, they were allowing shipments to go through uninspected. With Beryl’s men in control of security at both the base station as well as the hub on the ranch, doing so was not a difficult feat. And of course Major Trakkas seemed to be in charge of it all, adjusting duty rosters to place his men where they needed to be to keep the goods moving.
Nova tapped her com unit to contact the tower. “Boss, how long till the transport from Siolet arrives?”
“Hours yet, Lieutenant. Still grounded.”
Nova considered. Technically, she was on her own right now, with her commanding officer somewhere in orbit. “How’s the weather to Rim Station?”
“Clear. Storm’s heading west.”
Nova signed off, gulped the rest of her tea and hurried to the vehicle depot where she borrowed a skimmer for a trip to visit a friend at her former base. No one seemed to care very much. She remembered to let the clerk at the administrative building know where she was going before jumping into the car and heading out into the flats north of Shon Gat.
An hour of zooming over the barren salt flats brought her to where the base nestled among the foothills. Drab and storm-battered, it resembled any of the Air Command stations on planets like these. If she imagined the dusty ground red, this might be Targon. If she pictured more sand and less rock, it might be K’lar. She pulled into a charging station and left the hangars for the base interior.
“Welcome, Lieutenant,” she was greeted by a mechanical attendant at the entrance to the base clinic. Her profile was already displayed in front of the Bellac medic at the main desk when she got there. He greeted her as well but only to inform her that she was not due for an appointment.
