"It is a long distance," she answered. "It must have taken many days."
"Forty-two," I answered. "We were attacked by maracats and almost starved to death because of the early snows. I can't believe we're already halfway back and it's only been a few hours."
"Your technology is amazing," Joliwe said. "Legend tells us that when humans first arrived they promised to share their technology. This never came to be because it was decided the Scatter people would be easier to enslave."
"Your legend sounds accurate," I said. "The group of humans who call themselves Belirand have placed their needs above every person or alien with whom they've come in contact. Their carelessness very nearly destroyed the human race not so long ago.
I broke a meal bar and handed half to her. "It's berry flavored," I said, smiling to myself. "Did you find the water tube in your suit?"
She took a bite of the dry wafer and screwed up her face. "There are no berries in this vile, wooden concoction." She spat the bar onto the ground and handed me the part she hadn't eaten.
"Yeah, that's a joke," I said. "You should eat the bar, though, it has everything your body needs to maintain itself."
She shook her head. "Where does this grav-suit find its water? And I need to relieve myself most urgently."
"Ada, could you explain how that works?" I asked.
"What?" Ada asked, her voice groggy with sleep.
"Suits and water reclamation," I said. "Joliwe was asking."
"You suck, Liam Hoffen," Ada answered.
Dawn was just beginning to break as I first laid eyes on the homestead. I saw Tabby emerge from the small hut where I'd spent my first night and was caught off guard by emotions that caused my throat to constrict. Instinctively, I reached for my ring and thumbed the crystal, only to realize that I wore the second ring on my other hand.
"Are those your friends?" Joliwe asked.
"Yes." My voice sounded husky in my own ears. "I need a few minutes."
"I'll explain, Liam," Ada said. "Go to her."
I accepted Ada’s offer, although I really hadn’t needed anyone to urge me along. I raced across the treetops toward my one and only love. With the enhanced abilities given to her by so many invasive surgeries, Tabby sensed my silent approach while I was still several meters from her position. She spun gracefully, extracting a sharpened bone knife to meet the unknown threat. Her eyes grew wide with surprise as she recognized me and dropped her knife.
I slammed into her much harder than I had intended, but she opened her arms, twisted around and accepted my momentum as she pulled me into a tumbling embrace. We rolled for several meters and when we came to a rest, I found myself on top. Wordlessly, I pushed the knit hat from her head and covered her face with kisses. I didn’t care who might see me and I cared even less that, in my absence, my fate might have been decided against me. Tabby responded without hesitation, cradling my head with her hands and pulling me to her, gently returning each of my kisses.
"I thought you would never have me," Tabby started to say when we broke apart for a moment, our need for air greater than our passion. "How could you want me? I betrayed …"
I placed my hand on her mouth and shook my head. "Don't." I pulled her ring from my finger. When she saw it, she raised her own shaking hand so I could slide the ring back where it belonged. I searched her face, but the guilt and doubt were gone. The look in Tabby’s eyes, the one I’d been afraid I’d never see again, was back. We had never lost our love for one another. Wordlessly she nodded and just like that, a great weight lifted from my shoulders. We were we again. Tears ran down her cheeks and then a small splash joined them. That was my tear. I closed my eyes and laid my cheek against hers.
We lay on the ground, neither of us willing to let go of the moment. For Tabby, it had been twenty years. I couldn't imagine how she’d made it. There were issues to work through. I simply did not care. I'd loved this woman since the moment I laid eyes on her in pre-school on the mining colony where we'd grown up.
"Uh, Cap, hate to break this up and all, but there's a Scatter woman hovering at the north side of the camp and she looks to be wearing a grav-suit. You know anything about that?" Marny asked.
"Ada?" Tabby asked, sitting up as I scooted off her.
I smiled and pulled off the pack I'd been wearing, scooping out Marny and Tabby's grav-suits.
"I found her," I said. "Ada's alive and listening to our conversation. She's on Hotspur."
"Say again?" Nick rushed to where we stood. I looked over his shoulder and noticed that Peter stood back, unsure what to do with himself.
"In a minute," I said, acknowledging his request. "Peter, come over. This affects everyone."
Instinctively, I reached for Tabby's hand as he approached. His eyes locked on the contact and I felt a twinge of sorrow for him. I dropped Tabby's hand and met him halfway, opening my arms and pulling him into a hug. If he bore me ill will, it melted in that moment as he returned the hug, his heavy muscles constricting around my back, but not painfully.
"Tabitha told me she would be with you if you ever returned," he said plainly as we separated.
"Are you okay with that?" I asked, pushing back to look in his face.
He shrugged with an unconvincing smile. "I always thought it would be me. But besides hunting, we really don't have much to talk about."
"I wish it could be different, Peter," I said. "She's the only woman I've ever loved. I would travel to the ends of the universe for her."
"Kind of seems like you already have," he said, cracking a familiar grin. "Did you really bring back a Scatter with you? And she's not running away?"
"Her name is Joliwe." I placed my hand on his back and led him to where Tabby, Nick, and Marny had frozen in place, watching our exchange. I pushed on, ignoring the funny looks. "Um, Joliwe, would you join us at the fire pit? We might be able to find cereal you'll like better than those meal bars."
"What about Ada and Hotspur?" Nick asked. "Is she okay. Is it wrecked? What about the electronics? Are they damaged. Does she know why we were locked out?"
"I'm suddenly glad he doesn't have a comm on him," Ada chirped in my ear.
"All in good time, my friend," I said. "We have a new problem, though."
"Of course we do, Cap," Marny said, giving me a sidelong glance.
"No, seriously. Would you believe that Belirand is on Fraxus? They've all but enslaved the Scatter people," I said.
"Wait," Marny swung to face me, placing a hand on my chest. "Belirand? How is that even possible?"
"It follows," Nick said. "We were chasing a Belirand comm crystal when we came out this way. They've had a couple hundred years to do what they want. The Scatters couldn't have had much of a defense against their tech."
"There are at least two factions," I said, feeling Tabby's arm wrap around my waist from the side. I looked over and saw that she wanted nothing beyond the feeling of closeness. "But Joliwe can tell you more."
"We don't know much of the Scatter language," Peter said, producing a warbled whistle in greeting as Joliwe slowly approached.
She responded with an identical whistle and set down a few meters from where we'd gathered around the camp's main fire pit.
"With aid of this grav-suit, I am able to understand you quite clearly," Joliwe said. "There are several Bell-e-runde factions, although we rarely see any other than Machinists Guild or the Highborne."
"Chappie Barto is in charge of Machinists?" I asked.
"He is of the Machinists," she answered. "But he is not their king. You are also right that those who call themselves Machinists enslaved my people, wantonly murdering and raping my brothers and sisters and taking the wealth of our once proud nation for their own purposes."
"Take it where?" Nick asked, not easily drawn into her emotional language.
"Above the sky is all we know," she said. "We believe it to be past our own sun, but there is little we really know of them. It is there where they have taken our Prince Thabini. It is a plac
e from where no Scatter ever returns."
"Who is this Chappie, Cap?" Marny asked.
"The local boss," I said. "I don't have a great lay of the land yet, especially when it comes to the political landscape."
"And Prince Thabini?" Tabby asked, squeezing my hand.
"The Scatter people built a pretty nice society. King Nkosi is a pacifist and lets Belirand do whatever they want, as long as they leave him on the throne," I said, catching Joliwe's eye. She nodded agreement at my assessment. "His son, Prince Thabini, is the leader of a poorly organized resistance. Long story short: he got nabbed when we were trying to find Ada. Which, by the way … Joliwe, whose idea was it to put food on Ada's suspension chamber for the last twenty years?"
"It is a long story that I will attempt to shorten," she said. "After the fire fell from the sky, we found the chamber you speak of resting nearby in the forest. Our people of the mountain saw the human woman within and were afraid of the consequences if the woman was found by the one who preceded Chappie Barto. We searched for a hiding place and found that the mountain had opened. A cave filled with crystals was discovered and the one who speaks into my ear was moved within the cave of crystals."
"Well that explains how she got into the cave," I said. "Why the food?"
"When our holy people visited the cave, they would often see visions of exotic fruits and undiscovered vegetables. In these visions, the produce was placed upon the chamber within which Ada Chen lay. It was at first just seen as a sign of prosperity, but one day a young priest fulfilled the vision by placing his meal upon the box. Upon doing so, the vision changed, showing a picture of Ada Chen walking within a garden, embracing the young priest."
"You didn't happen to bring my tools with you, did you?" Nick asked, abruptly shifting the conversation.
I shook my head. "No. It was a little dicey getting out of there. And really? You hear about visions and you think tools?"
"We need to get back to Hotspur," he said.
"And then what? Will you fly away in your ship?" Joliwe asked, switching back to angry elf.
"That ship is the largest strategic advantage the Scatter resistance will ever encounter. As long as it sits broken beneath a hill on the ground, it cannot be used to any effect," Marny said, not rising to Joliwe's anger. "You do not know Liam Hoffen very well, but I do, just as everyone around this fire does. Our first mission will be to restore Hotspur and then we will search for Prince Thabini with a vengeance."
"Is this true?" Joliwe asked, narrowing her eyes as if the gesture would force the truth from me.
"Yes, with the possible exception that I'm going to need a short nap first," I said. "I've been up for at least thirty hours."
Tabby glanced over at me with a wicked look in her face. "And you smell good too," she said. "Maybe we can delay that nap for just a few minutes."
Chapter 20
Knotty Problems
A warm beam from the early winter's waning sunlight fell on my face and drew me from sleep. Tabby rested next to me beneath heavy skins, both an arm and a leg wrapped over me protectively. A dwindling fire crackled in the fireplace built into the side of her small cabin. Feeling me start to move, she pulled closer, if that was possible, and nuzzled against me, gently kissing my neck.
"Don't ever leave me again," she whispered.
"How does this work?" I asked, turning into her and entwining my legs with hers so maximum skin contact was made. "You've got a home and a life here. It's all you've known for twenty years."
"Are you asking if I'll run away to space with you?" she asked. I could feel the grin on her face as she kissed me. The years had certainly calmed her, and I enjoyed this new, much softer, Tabby. I also realized in that moment that she had likely changed in other ways I would discover over time.
"I'd give it up for you," I said.
This brought an even bigger smile to her face. "I won't lie. Leaving the mountain behind will be difficult. It's hard to imagine letting go of all we've carved out of Fraxus. I love being free to run in the forest and on the mountains."
"I feel a but in this," I said, raising an eyebrow as I allowed my hand to slide down and grasp her bottom. I gave it a little squeeze to accentuate my point.
"Very funny," she said, mirroring my action. "There is a but. This life is beautiful. The mountain and forests have become part of me. But I miss our lives together in the stars. I miss sailing from one port to the next and meeting strange new people. I miss sitting in a restaurant, eating pizza and drinking beer. I miss watching vids and buying clothing and, frak, just about everything. Life was never easy for us, but we had purpose beyond simple survival."
"Been thinking about that much?" I asked, pushing hair back over her ear. Tabby had aged, but it was only visible in her face as the synthetic skin over the rest of her body was not subject to the same process. Even more, once she was back on the ship, the aging lines caused by too much sun and time in the elements would be removed by technology we all took for granted.
"It was good that you left," she said. "It gave me time to work through some things. Kind of makes me wonder, though, what if I'd turned you down after you tackled me?"
I smiled. "It was something Ada said."
"Really? Just between the two of us, I'm a little surprised she didn't make a play for you when she knew we were separated," Tabby said. I looked away. She was right and I wasn't going to lie about the attraction I'd always felt for Ada. She caught the look and lifted my chin so I had to look her in the eyes. "Don't pull away. I don't blame you for your feelings for Ada. I have them too, Liam. And before your dirty little mind goes there, no."
I chuckled and released the quickly forming image in my mind that I was certain would cause me more trouble than it was worth.
"Ada said you needed to know that I was all in. She knew you’d push us apart unless I made a big play. If you were done with me, you would never have let me tackle you. There was a good chance I'd end up on the ground, eating rocks."
"That’s a lot to gamble on a single move," she said.
"Kind of how I roll," I said. "Plus, I had Ada waiting back at the ship."
The look of shock on Tabby's face was worth the slap on my chest. "You're so naughty," she said, rolling out of bed.
"Don't go." I tried to grab her as she scooted away from me wearing nothing but long knitted socks. A familiar feeling washed over me as I watched her slip into the grav-suit she hadn't worn for so long. She was beyond beautiful: from her graying coppery hair, to the dimples on her bottom, to the way her legs had the slightest bow when she bent to remove her socks.
"What about this Prince Thabini?" Tabby slid her hands down the front of her suit, feeling the material. "It sounds like you think we should go after him. Do you think the Scatters have a war in them? Sounds like that's where we're headed if Belirand's involved."
I looked around her tiny cabin with a feeling of disappointment. Our stolen moment of intimacy was over. It was time to jump back into the fray. I took the nano-blade from my grav-suit belt and handed it to Tabby. "These Belirand soldiers we’re up against are real asshats and Chappie isn’t likely to let things go. Did I mention he shelled the city of Thandeka to coerce the citizens into handing me over?"
I pulled on my grav-suit and checked for messages. I smiled. Nick had been busy while we slept, creating lists of jobs that needed to be done to close down the homestead, and materials he thought we should bring along.
“The Scatters just let you go?” Tabby asked.
“You know how that goes,” I said. “Some thought Chappie might stop the shelling if they turned me over. Others focused on the fact that Belirand took the prince off-planet to what Joliwe calls the black prison above the sky. According to her, Belirand is going to kill Thabini the day after tomorrow.”
We exited the cabin to a camp filled with activity. According to my AI, I’d only been asleep four and a half hours. I found Joliwe following Marny, talking animatedly as Marny carried a bundle of tool
s into the combination barn and home she shared with Nick.
Inadvertently, my eyes fell on Peter as he turned to look at Tabby and I felt like I was intruding on his privacy. A mask of sorrow covered his face, if only momentarily. He must have felt my eyes on him, for he turned to look at me, covering his unguarded moment with a quick smile and a friendly wave. I felt for him; we both loved the same woman and he’d come up holding the short straw.
“Feeling better after a little sleep, Liam?” Ada asked out of the blue over our general comm channel.
“Like a new man,” I said. I’d have to be guarded in our general chats because of how Marny and Nick might feel. “Any activity in your area?”
“The sensors you dropped picked up a few Scatters, but no sign of Belirand,” she said. “I haven’t made any progress on the ship, though.”
“I have an idea about that,” Nick said.
“Seriously?” Ada asked. “Like what?”
“Get one of the stevedore bots running and bring your suspension chamber back into the ship,” he said.
“And?”
“It’s a long shot,” he said. “Just grab me once you’ve gotten that far. We’ll be headed your way in short order.”
“Is that right? We’re headed out right away?” Tabby asked. “I have traps out.”
“I brought them in this morning,” Peter answered, surprising me that he had access to comms. “We’re lucky it’s winter, most stuff is put up in the barn already.”
“Peter is right,” Marny said. “We were mostly waiting for you to wake up, Liam. Do you have a plan?”
While we’d been talking on comms, I’d made my way to the fire pit and gladly accepted the hot tea Marny seemed to always have available.
“Prince Thabini is to be executed tomorrow,” Joliwe said. “We do not have time to stand around. I cannot believe you took time to sleep.”
“He wouldn’t do anyone any good if he were to pass out,” Marny said, defensively.
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