by F. T. Lukens
Liam caught him staring, and a smile broke out over his wan features. “Hey there, big brother? Are you going to keep staring or come over here and save me from beautiful women poking me with instruments?”
Penelope laughed and swatted Liam’s arm. “Asher’s orders to make sure you’re okay. Other than a little malnutrition and sleep deprivation, you appear to be in good health. The drug should be working its way out of your system, but you might feel a little… off for a few hours.” Penelope smirked at Ren. “Sound familiar?”
Liam’s eyebrows raised.
Ren shoved his hands in his pockets. “I went through a few months where I kind of… well… I wasn’t well. I didn’t sleep much and kind of… lost myself in my power.” Ren shrugged. “I’m better now.”
“Really? You didn’t just have a seizure on the deck of a prison drift?”
“That was an anomaly. A trap. I’m okay.”
“Liar,” Liam said, smiling easily. “But keep your secrets. I’m just glad to be out of there.”
“Me too. I’m glad you’re safe.”
Penelope packed up her equipment and touched Liam’s shoulder. “I’ll make you a sandwich or soup, if you want to eat?”
“Yes, thank you.”
Penelope smiled gently and excused herself to the kitchen area.
Liam crossed the small space between them, staggering every few steps, then threw his arms around Ren’s shoulders. Ren grabbed him tight and held on. Liam had had a growth spurt since the last time he’d seen him, and he was the same height as Ren, maybe a tiny bit taller, not that Ren would ever admit it.
“I can’t believe you’ve become such a badass,” Liam said, laughing. “And you have scary-competent friends. And your boyfriend shot a guy for taunting you.”
Ren laughed. “The company I keep, right?”
Liam pulled away, and his green eyes twinkled. “You got what you wanted. You found your place in space. You’re stardust. It’s everything you used to talk about. How are you not bouncing around like a bunny?”
Ren’s smiled faded. “It’s not that simple, Liam. There’s so much going on, and so much has happened and…” he trailed off. “But that doesn’t matter. You’re free. We’re together. That’s what I’ve been striving for since that day at the lake when we were separated.”
Liam took a deep breath. “I know we can’t go home right away, but I really want to be back on solid ground.”
Ren rubbed the back of his head. His hair stuck up. “We can’t go right now. Maybe when it’s all said and done.”
“I look forward to it. Until then, can I eat and maybe meet the rest of the people on this ship? I feel like they’re all standing right on the other side of that door.”
There was a cough, and Darby stumbled in. Asher was right behind her.
Seeing their caught-out expressions, Ren laughed. He wrapped his arms around his middle and threw his head back and laughed.
Asher chuckled. “We’ve met,” he said.
Liam waved him off. “I know you. You make my brother happy.”
“I try.”
Asher crossed the room and caught Ren in a hug. He spun him around, and they landed on the couch. Ren’s laughter echoed in the common room. He didn’t know if it was relief from escaping the prison or finally finding his brother, but Ren was giddy. He cupped Asher’s face and kissed him, hard, lips smacking. Asher tightened his arms around Ren’s waist.
“Get a room,” Darby called. Ren felt a cushion hit his back.
He broke away and made a face.
“We have a room,” Ren said. Asher tipped him to the side, and he fell from where he had perched precariously on Asher’s lap. Asher caught him before he slipped all the way to the floor and hauled him back to the cushions.
Settling on the couch, Ren sat close to Asher’s side and tangled their legs together. His head rested comfortably on Asher’s shoulder.
“I’m Darby,” she said to Liam, shaking his hand. “I tried to steal the ship from your brother, but he did his…” She wiggled her fingers. “…thing on me and I ran away. Scared the stardust right out of me.”
A knife in her hand, Pen waved from her place by the counter. “I’m Penelope. Some call me Pen, but it sounds like Ren, and that can get confusing. I’ll answer to either. And that big man is my brother, Ollie.”
“Nice to meet you, Liam. We’ve heard a lot about you.”
Liam raised an eyebrow. “Well, that is unfair. I guess that means I get to tell stories about Ren while I’m here.”
“No!”
“Yes!”
Liam rubbed his hands together gleefully. Ren buried his face in Asher’s chest.
“Well, there was this one girl named Ezzy who adored Ren and followed him around…”
Ren groaned. “Please, stop.”
“He was so oblivious! He had no idea.” Liam grinned.
Liam gratefully accepted the bowl of vegetable soup and a plate of meat-spread sandwiches and plopped down at the table. He shoved one in his mouth, and Ren was happy for the quiet.
“We met her,” Asher said. “She fawned over Ren with big, moon eyes.”
“Not you too,” Ren said, hiding his face in his hands. “She did not.”
“Oh, come on,” Darby said, settling next to Liam and elbowing him in the side. She stole a half a sandwich. “You have to have better stories than that. Granted the only planet I’ve been on was Bara, and that teemed with weird animals the likes of which I’ve only seen in exhibits. But I guess that your home planet was about the same. Right?”
Liam snorted. “Hardly. There were fish in the lake. Some of them were weird, like the eels. And there was a bear that liked to sleep on our back porch in the spring.”
“Boring,” Darby said, drawing out the vowels. “Tell us something else.”
The conversation droned on, each of them sharing stories, and Ren smiled, content to listen and to rest on Asher’s chest. The rhythm of his heartbeat was a comfort in Ren’s ear.
“You okay?”
“Yes,” Ren said. He touched his forehead, where he had a small purpling bruise from hitting his head on the way to the bridge. “Except this.”
Asher chuckled low, the sound of it tingling in Ren’s ear. “How long have you been on this ship? You know you have to duck.”
“Not long enough apparently,” Ren grinned lazily.
Asher’s arm tightened around Ren’s waist and pulled him closer.
The sound of the crew’s voices ebbed and flowed as Ren reveled in the warmth of Asher’s embrace. He melted into it and didn’t care when Ollie teased them or when Liam cast him knowing glances. And for the hour that they gathered with Ren’s brother and his boyfriend and the rest of his family, he didn’t have a care. He was happy and he was grateful the universe allowed him to have that moment of peace.
_
Trouble.
Ren stirred from his relaxed posture on Asher’s chest. “What?”
“What?” Asher echoed.
They’re coming. You need to run.
Who’s coming?
Phoenix Corps. Leaving the prison.
“Hey, guys! A few ships just rocketed out of the prison dock. And they’re heading right into the debris field,” Lucas’s voice crackled over the comm.
Ren shot up and abandoned his place at Asher’s side. He ran from the common room, leaving a stunned group behind, and strode quickly to the bridge. He remembered to duck at the top of the stairs.
A small ship barreled into the debris field with abandon. And, even though the Star Stream was well hidden with the other hosts gathered around them, it would only take one misplaced weapon’s blast to reveal them or obliterate them. Three ships followed the fugitive ship, only seconds behind it. All the ships bore Phoenix Corps insignias, but clearly the three were aft
er the one. It had to be Vos.
“I hope you had time to figure out where we’re going next,” Lucas said, “Because we need to flee.”
Rowan tugged her braid. “Any ideas?”
“Yeah,” Ren said. “I have an idea.” He placed his hand on the navigational system. He didn’t need Lucas to program coordinates. He didn’t need any guidance to get where he was thinking. He just had to think of a lake surrounded by a small wood.
He sent his goodbyes out into space.
Goodbye, Ren.
Ren gathered his power, and it came to him more easily than it ever had. Light and sound trembled around him, and, between one blink and the next, they were gone, and then they were in orbit around a broken moon.
13
Blinking away the streaks of blue in his vision, Ren stared at the moon of Erden. A jagged slice through the rock separated the two largest pieces, and debris floated around it in a loose array. The moon was small compared to the planet and the larger drifts Ren had seen, and thus the gravity was less heavy. Ren had stared at this very rock for many of his formative years, wondering what the view would be from another angle. He had it now, and, for all the mysticism that surrounded it on Erden, seeing it this way, a hunk of rock spinning slowly amid a backdrop of stars, much of that mystery was lost. Yet, it was no less beautiful—a reminder of the home Ren once had.
“Erden,” Liam said, from behind Ren.
Ren startled and turned his focus away from the moon. In the corner of the vid screen, Erden was a blue and green sphere. It was stunning, but the memories of the last time Ren had been there bombarded him and made his gut sink to his knees.
“Ren, what did you do? How did we get here? Was that you?”
Darby, for all her glitches, was probably the most socially aware, and pulled Liam away and off the bridge. “Let me tell you all about your brother’s freaky science-magic.”
“You okay?” Asher asked.
“Yeah,” Ren answered. “It was the farthest place I could think of, and there aren’t any drifts nearby for Millicent to attack.”
“We can hide in the fissure,” Lucas said, arms straining as he piloted the ship closer to the moon. “Good call, Ren.”
“Thanks.”
“Now what?” Rowan asked, lounging in her chair. “We can’t keep running. The Corps will eventually find us, and, after that stunt, we’re wanted fugitives.”
“Asher and I were already wanted.”
“We were all wanted once the Corps figured out it was us on Bara,” Lucas added. He piloted the ship into a cove between the two parts of the moon. The rough rock cast the ship in shadow, but Ren could still see Erden on the view screen.
“True,” Rowan tapped her foot. “We need a plan.”
Ren was at a loss. He had pledged to help everyone he could, but he had his brother back now. He had Asher and the crew. He didn’t want to risk them, and any action that put them at risk was that much harder.
“Um…” Lucas said, tapping on his console. “We’re getting a message.”
“From whom?” Rowan tapped her mouth.
Lucas spun around in his chair. “Your mother.”
“Oh.” Rowan and Asher shared a glance. “That can’t be good.”
Asher wiped his hair from his forehead, then caught Ren’s hand in his own. He laced their fingers, and Ren held on.
Rowan crossed her legs and straightened her posture. She cleared her throat and gestured toward Lucas. “On screen.”
Ren held his breath. The screen blinked on, wavered, and then focused on Councilor Morgan and General VanMeerten. Dressed in her uniform, her gray hair pulled back in a severe bun, VanMeerten loomed. The harshness of her scar was matched by the cruelty of her frown.
“What have you done?” she shouted.
Rowan tented her fingers. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play coy with me, Rowan. I will have you thrown into prison. You and your brother and your crew and—” she sucked in a breath, “you.” She eyed Ren as if he was a bug under a magnifying glass. “You were dead. I saw the footage of your bloody and lifeless body. How are you alive?”
“Don’t answer that,” Rowan snapped. She stood and crossed her arms. “Do you need something, General, or are you here just to yell at me and threaten my crew?”
Her face went nearly purple with rage. “Perilous Space housed dangerous criminals and star hosts and you have set them loose on the Corps and the drifts to fall into league with that girl.”
“That girl is your problem. Not the people you had falsely imprisoned. And we didn’t do anything criminal unless correcting an injustice is considered wrong. We freed a young man whom the Corps had taken from his home village planet-side. Last time I read the law, not only was kidnapping a crime, but planetary affairs were out of Corps’ jurisdiction. You didn’t belong on Erden, you didn’t belong on Crei, and you didn’t belong on Bara.” Rowan tapped her foot. “Now, if you are only here to scream, I’ll end this call now.”
Councilor Morgan reached out. “No, don’t. There’s more.” She looked worse for wear. Though she was dressed in her usual finery, the lines around her mouth and eyes had deepened in the days since they’d last talked. She wore her makeup caked thick to hide the stress evident under her eyes. She swirled a wine glass and took a gulp. “There’s more,” she said, quietly.
“Get on with it then. I have a business to run.”
VanMeerten narrowed her eyes. “Since your little stunt, the star host named Millicent has attacked yet another drift. She continues to vent Corps soldiers and then uses her power to take over the electrical and mechanical systems on the drift. She scares the residents into complying and has an army of zealots behind her. Our efforts have been ineffective.”
“What?” Ren asked. “Zag hasn’t been able to shoot her? How surprising.”
“It worked on you,” VanMeerten said, the lines around her mouth deepening with her frown. “Except it seems death didn’t stick.”
Asher’s hand flexed around Ren’s own. “You mean when you betrayed me and instead of going after Vos and Millicent, the very girl who is exacting her revenge on you right now, you decided to attempt murder on the person who was not the threat.”
“Not a threat?” VanMeerten scoffed. “As I understand it, he’s more dangerous than the others combined.”
“You betrayed us.” Asher said, not yielding. “You betrayed me.”
“You were working both sides from the beginning, Morgan.” She slammed her fist on the desk. “Don’t think I didn’t know that your allegiance was always with him and never with the Corps.”
“That wasn’t always true, General. But when you left me in a cell for a year on a planet, injured and afraid, a hostage to a man who wanted to build an army and wage war, then yes, my allegiance changed to the person who actually cared enough to free me.” Asher’s eyes flickered to his mother, who had grown even paler. “But instead of rehashing everything the Corps has done wrong since the beginning, let’s talk now. What do you want?”
“She’s powerful,” Councilor Morgan said. She finished her glass of wine and poured another one. “And you’re right, the Corps efforts have been unsuccessful. We need help. You can help.”
“We decline,” Rowan said. She smiled sweetly. “Sorry.”
Councilor Morgan squinted at the screen. “You’d allow one of your kind to wreak destruction on innocent people.”
Ren bristled. “That’s implying that Corps soldiers are innocents. She’s otherwise left the residents alone. And why would I want to interfere with a duster doing good?”
Ren lied. He lied and kept a smile plastered to his face, but his stomach churned. He hated the idea of Millicent killing anyone. He hated the idea that she was using her power for her own gain and scaring people and giving people reason to fear technopaths.
He planned to stop her, but it would be on his own terms, on his own time.
“I think you have your answer, Mother, and General,” Asher said, clutching Ren’s hand tighter. “Unless, well, we may be persuaded.”
Rowan tapped her chin, sharing a glance with Asher. “You know, you might be right. We could be persuaded. But so far all I’ve heard is a bunch of yelling and no offer.”
VanMeerten sputtered. “Pirates! You are nothing but filthy pirates!”
Rowan cocked her head to the side. “So you’ve said. But I also know that I’ve lost a lot of potential jobs because of your incompetence. And I wouldn’t mind a little compensation.”
“If you don’t assist, then there will not be any drifts left for you to run trade between. Your living will become obsolete.”
“There are planets and, so far, I have a fairly good reputation with all the dusters I know.” Rowan shrugged. “There may be a little longer transit time, but, hey, when I have a technopath on board, I don’t foresee that as being much of a problem.” She winked, and her lips pulled into a smug smile.
General VanMeerten put her hands on her hips and huffed. Councilor Morgan hid a grin behind her glass.
“What do you know about her?” Councilor Morgan took another long drink of the dark liquid, then set the glass on her desk. She brushed her blond hair from her shoulder. “What is her weakness?” She zeroed in on Ren. “What can we do to defeat her? Or persuade her from continuing her rampage?”
“Don’t answer that,” Rowan said. “I haven’t heard a number yet.”
“Rowan!” her mother snapped. “This isn’t a game.”
“No, it’s not. We offered information last time, and you dismissed us. We tried to warn you a year ago, and again, you dismissed us. If you want our help, then we want a deal.”
“Fine!” VanMeerten glared. “What do you want?”
Ren swallowed. “I want my brother and myself to be left alone. I want a place on a drift, and your promise that the Corps will stop trying to imprison myself and other peaceful star hosts. I want the planets to be left alone and allowed to govern themselves without interference from the Corps unless that’s requested. I want you to apologize to me and the others.”
