A minute later, Hatya walked up the ramp, still wearing the ship-loader assist frame. Her hair was back to its more normal top braids. Moyo followed her into the shuttle and headed toward the back.
Hatya gave them a weary smile as she stepped out of the frame, then lifted it like it weighed one kilo instead of fifty and pushed it into the shuttle’s holdfasts. “I’m planting my ass in the pilot seat. We need to talk.”
Taz followed Hatya up front. Unease tightened his shoulders. He grabbed his boots and tunic, then joined them.
“I’ll cut to the core. Your orders from Bhayrip are to get to the space station. Regular pilot orders are to make sure you get there by any means necessary. After you all transit out to the reassignment base, Jumpers have secret orders to secure or space any GSAR equipment left behind. Which tells me GSAR is being zeroed.” She pulled a water pouch from the floor bin and took a long draught.
The ice of adrenaline seeped into Rylando’s lungs, stealing his breath. He’d thought he’d have more time to make arrangements for his team.
“This debacle is a colossal cluster, so I have a proposition for you. I take you and the animals to this continent’s commercial spaceport. I’ll use my Jumper credentials to arrange commercial transport for my family, since military ships won’t let you bring your menagerie of household pets. You pick the destination. You’re on your own after that. The town gets what’s left of your gear. Yanoshi gets your airsled for his farm and the chance to screw the CPS by confirming my story that you died when more of the CAC’s first floor collapsed. Which it did, by the way. Oh, and seeing as how it houses a previously unsuspected galactic node that you miraculously saved with your last brave act, the town will probably build a memorial to GSAR. If Bhayrip gives me shit about any of this, I’ll remind him he sent two humans and a few animals on a high-profile rescue instead of the full team he promised. But he won’t have time to investigate.”
The possibilities intrigued Rylando, but he saw multiple problems to solve. “How much trouble will you be in for doing this?”
“Little to none. Bhayrip’s world is crashing. My nearest chain of command is five transit days away and has no idea what I do. Besides, with GSAR zeroed, I’m out of a job. I’m retiring.”
Taz cleared her throat. “Not to be ungrateful or anything, but why are you doing this?”
“Told ya, this is a cluster.” Her chin jutted out pugnaciously.
Taz raised a skeptical eyebrow as she met and held Hatya’s gaze.
Hatya fought it for a second, then made a sour face. “Okay, fine. Bhayrip is going to force Unit 1051 to leave all the animals behind as one final ‘fuck you’ to Rylando. No way am I destroying good and loyal dogs because the CPS wants a clean slate.”
Taz shook her head in shocked disgust, then looked away, blinking fast. “Damnit.” The word sounded watery.
Rylando wished he could say Bhayrip’s revenge and the CPS’s orders surprised him, but he’d spent too many years in Unit 1051. “We’ll need funds. If you declare us dead, they’ll freeze our accounts. My family doesn’t need the money, so my estate and the on-duty death payout are willed to charity.”
“Mine, too,” said Taz. “I don’t have much cash, but GSAR will owe my estate for two thousand-plus hours’ worth of leave along with the death payout. It all goes to a search-and-rescue charity. My family refuses to admit to having any minders in their gene pool, so they don’t need my money, either.”
An idea bubbled up into Rylando’s thoughts. “I remember a story where the character embezzled from herself by creating bogus certified debts. If we make backdated debts to Hatya for buying something, or maybe losing a bet, she could file claims against our estates and send us the proceeds.” He looked to Hatya. “That is, if you’re willing. It’ll probably be a bureaucratic pain in the ass.”
“Sure, why not? Retirees have all the time in the galaxy on their hands. Better make a few of those debts to my brother, though. Wouldn’t want a CPS payout officer getting any sharp ideas. You’ll have to keep in touch and tell me where you each end up.” She cast glances at them both. “So, are we doing this?”
“Yes,” said Taz. Her jaw tightened.
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Good.” Hatya made shooing motions with her hands. “Go arrange your pets for a fast trip to the spaceport. Pack everything from the shuttle you think you’ll need or could sell. If Bhayrip asks, I’ll tell him I got a head start on decommissioning GSAR equipment.” She turned away to trigger the controls to retract the ramp.
Taz tilted her head in tacit invitation. He nodded and followed her to the back of the shuttle. In the confines of the storage area, she reeled him in for a long embrace that he hadn’t known he’d needed. Their bodies fit together like perfect puzzle pieces. He longed to melt into her warmth.
She loosened her hold to look up at him with a serious expression. “That place you invited me to visit. Can they take you now? Would they want someone like me?”
“Yes, and yes,” he said. “They don’t know it yet, but they desperately need a telekinetic tech genius.”
“Good to know.” Her head drifted back to his shoulder. “This is all… a lot to take in.”
He nuzzled his nose into her hair and took in the intriguing scent of her. “Second thoughts?”
“No. Naughty thoughts, though. And again, my timing is lousy. Would it scare you if I told you I love you?”
“No. Do you?”
“Yes. I fought it from practically the first day I met you, but your animal magnetism was just too much for me.” She lifted her head to give him an impish grin. “Field Co-Commander, sir.”
He palmed the side of her face. “I love you, too, Field Co-Commander. Shocking breach of protocol, I know.”
“Kiss me again, and I’ll forgive you.”
He did just that, with a hopeful promise of a lot more to come.
10
Paz de Lune Animal Sanctuary, Verderi Kashtar • GDAT 3243.094
“Valtrova, open front door.” Taz voiced the command so Shen, the shepherd at her side, would know her wish was being granted.
The Russian-named house computer opened the floral-decorated interleaved sections to reveal the wide entryway.
Shen bolted through them and launched from the front steps into the small expanse of green beyond, sliding a bit on the rain-slick grass. She danced in a circle, barking in excitement.
Taz followed more sedately, amused by the silly dog who loved to bite raindrops. She cradled a warm mug against her chest and savored the subtly fruity whiff of hot morning kaff that tickled her nose. Her loose, drapey tunic and pants fluttered a little in the chilly morning breeze. The cold textured plascrete under her feet made her wish she’d stopped to put on slippers and a scarf over her head. When she’d cut her hair asymmetrically short to change her look, she hadn’t anticipated that her ears and neck would miss the insulation.
The covered front porch bumped out into a shallow half-circle on this side of the house, with a blue-tinted glass railing. In the summer, she hoped it would be a nice place to sit with Rylando, soaking in the sunlight.
He called their sprawling home a modest ranch. Her childhood in a crowded city and career on military bases had never involved any living space so spacious and open. For just two humans and their pets, they had a dozen rooms with windows everywhere, even the roof.
Out in the grass, Shen crouched and barked twice, tail wagging.
Taz didn’t need to access the dog’s controller to know what she wanted. “No, it’s too wet for me to play right now.”
Contentment filled her as her gaze drifted to the low shrubs and narrow trees beyond the grass where Shen cavorted. The previous owner installed them as a living privacy screen between the neighboring houses in the enclave. Rylando liked the illusion of living in a wilderness clearing. She liked knowing they were still part of a community.
After the recall, their shorthand for the CPS’s precipitous dissolution of the G
alactic Search and Rescue division, the journey from Perlarossa to Verderi Kashtar had been more stressful than a rescue. Hatya’s connections got them temporary travel identities, the kind celebrities used, and her Jumper credentials got them passage on a large, slow interstellar passenger liner.
But the “family stateroom” that she and Rylando shared with six “household pets” had been no bigger than their rescue airsled. And the trip itself had taken twenty-two long interstellar transit days to reach their destination.
On the ship, they kept to themselves. At first, they’d just needed the sleep. Then news of the recall exploded across the newstrends and that was all anyone wanted to talk about. Rylando had to maintain near-constant contact with the animals to keep them calm in their cages, meaning he overused his talent and paid for it with insomnia.
She fended off the hospitality stewards who wanted them out of the room and buying souvenirs. She also arranged room service for their prepaid meals and finagled items for the more exotic dietary needs of the animals.
Trending rumors said several thousand GSAR fugitives were on the run. Her and Rylando’s reported deaths should have kept them off the wanted list, but if the rescue business taught her nothing else, it was that mitigation measures worked better when taken before the potential disaster. After her own improvised haircut and makeover, she pried Rylando out of their stateroom long enough to visit the ship’s body parlor and change his look enough to fool casual AI surveillance.
When they finally arrived at the animal sanctuary, physically flatlined and emotionally exhausted, their new life truly began.
From Rylando’s descriptions, she’d imagined the sanctuary facility would be a frontier-style slab building with space for a small population of animals and volunteer keepers. To be fair, his memories were fifteen years old. His contribution to the organization at the time had been a large swathe of rural land on the nothing-special planet of Verderi Kashtar, acquired from a complicated, multi-property real estate swap of inherited family land on other planets.
The actual Paz de Lune Animal Sanctuary and Rehabilitation Research Center now occupied nearly ninety square kilometers of rural land, with five major buildings, a veterinary hospital that put big city human medical centers to shame, dozens of staff, hundreds of animals, and enough territory to create habitats for all. Most of the staff and residents were minders, and easily half were GSAR or Minder Corps veterans.
Rylando was in heaven. The sanctuary was more than an hour’s flitter flight to the nearest city. He was surrounded by nature and animals who loved him, had non-recycled air to breathe, and a lake big enough to swim in. And best of all, no disasters.
The no-disasters part suited her just fine, but she’d needed a few ten-days to appreciate the other aspects. She was still unaccustomed to sleeping in, though a nova-hot sexy lover in her bed gave her every incentive. In a way, she was like Shen, still needing things to do with her time, and having to learn how to play. It helped that Paz de Lune really did value her tech skills and welcomed her telekinetic talent. And that she’d fallen deeply in love with Rylando.
Shen shook herself like a wooly weasel, then trotted up onto the porch to sit in front of Taz, watching her expectantly.
“Yes, Captain Shen?” This time, she connected to the dog’s controller. Per Rylando, Shen had decided on her own that Taz was clearly in need of shepherding. Taz was enjoying learning to be a good partner.
See...Rylando.
Taz nodded. “Yes, let’s do that. I bet he hasn’t checked messages.”
Her hand was halfway to her ear before she caught herself. Civilians didn’t wear earwires at home. They talked in person.
She reentered the warm house with Shen at her heels. The doors irised closed behind them. The dog veered straight for the built-in solardry unit next to the coat rack and barked the two-one-two pattern Rylando had taught her. Contained jets of warm, dry air coaxed the water out of her wet fur.
Taz dropped her mug off in the kitchen, then walked with the damp-smelling dog to the largest room at the far end of the house. It stood nearly two levels tall, with a domed ceiling full of octagonal window ports that concentrated or generated daylight as needed to keep the room warm, bright, and airy. Rylando designed it as a playroom room for his team… er, pets, and she’d put her construction experience to use and helped build it for him.
He sat in the center of the room, cross-legged on the floor, with gaily colored Moyo sprawled to his right, gently snoring. Rylando’s back rested against the heavy crescent-shaped padded bench. The blue-green color complemented the fading blue tint to his skin, the remnants of the hasty cosmetic job from the passenger liner’s body parlor. His lap held a blanket filled with six roly-poly feline kittens. They snuggled against a custom-printed, fur-covered pouch that delivered temperature-regulated formulated milk.
He looked up at her with a grin. “The new pouch you designed is a hit. They’re all eating today.”
“That’s great.” She basked in the warmth that flooded her from his smile, unabashedly admiring the smooth planes of his muscled bare chest. “If you don’t mind my asking, can you feel the kittens with your talent when they’re this young?”
The orphaned litter of starving babies had kept her and Rylando up at all hours for days. He’d insisted on taking most of the shifts, so he was tired but full of heart-melting smiles. This was his element, helping animals thrive.
“Sort of.” He twitched a shoulder. “They’re like little sparks of potential. Once they start recognizing and interacting with each other, they’ll start recognizing me, too.” His finger delicately brushed along the top of the darkest kitten’s head. “They’ll know our scents a lot sooner. The dogs’ scents, too.”
Taz laughed. “They’re going to be very confused kittens, thinking they have four mothers.” When neither she nor Rylando could tend the kittens, Shen or Moyo stayed with them and patiently let them snuggle up against their warm bellies.
“They’ll be fine. Domestic cats are amazingly adaptable creatures.”
She pointed toward the media wall. “We got news from Hatya. Want me to queue it up for you, or just tell you the highlights?”
“Highlights. I’ll listen after I feed the rest of the menagerie.” He gave her a shy smile. “I like the sound of your voice.”
“Thank you.” Subtle pleasure stole over her, making her want to curl up in his lap with the kittens. He always seemed to know the right thing to say.
“Let’s see. First, the CPS held an emergency mass sale of GSAR’s non-military ships and equipment. Maybe they needed the funds? Anyway, Hatya and her brother bought six of the better transit ships and a bunch of shuttles to start an interstellar transport outfit. They’re hiring ex-Jumper buddies as pilots.”
Rylando smiled. “How fitting. I’ll put in a word with the office. Paz de Lune will be needing a trustworthy shipping company more than ever.” He pulled a damp textured cloth from the small bucket on the floor to his right. “I got a casual ping yesterday from a rescuer I went to vet-med training with, asking about job leads. The sanctuary replied with the usual ‘no one here by that name’ notice, but sent the link to their position list. If the query is legit, we might have more new residents on the way.”
“This would be a great place for them.” She sighed. “Chaos, but I hope we can someday go back to assuming old friends just want to reconnect, not betray us to the CPS. Buying a new set of permanent identities and running again would totally tank.”
“Yeah, it would. I don’t hold it against them, though. The CPS can exert tremendous pressure when it wants something.” He lifted the dark-furred kitten to gently wipe its butt, like the mother cat would have done, then put it in the heated nesting crate to his right. “I’m glad the sanctuary asks for background checks on all new residents, regardless. Some people shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near animals.”
“Like Bhayrip.” It still outraged her that their asshole former captain would have killed Rylando’
s team out of spite. She hoped his next post made him the local commanding officer over the bots on a hazardous landfill moon.
“What else did Hatya say?” The snowy-white kitten squawked and squirmed when he lifted it from his lap.
“She misses Moyo.” Taz glanced down at Shen, still standing by her side. “I was thinking maybe you could source a trained military dog for her like Shen. Someone to travel the galaxy with her. A Jumper might be too proud to accept help from people, but I bet she would from a dog.”
His eyes crinkled as a smile widened his face. “What a great idea.” He deftly wiped the white kitten’s butt and put it in the nest. “I don’t know how she got the CPS to pay out our supposed debts so fast, or we’d still be staying in the sanctuary’s guest suite. We owe her.”
“That we do. Let’s see, what else? Oh, yeah, she found out why that jerk Po wanted to blow up the galactic node data center on Perlarossa. Turns out they’d already secretly destroyed all the others across the planet. Some twist about deleting the last authoritative archive of land ownership records so his family could scam a bigger percentage of the RSI settlement. And Stramlo wasn’t as innocent as he claimed. He sold Po the explosives and the instructions. Po wanted insurance, so he kidnapped Stramlo and Jhidelle. Even with the scans and Kem-X packet I saved as evidence, Po’s family matriarch got him and the bodyguard acquitted. Stramlo got sentenced for indenture, but he disappeared himself and his bank accounts, abandoning Jhidelle. I guess he’d already showed her how little he valued her when he let Po shove her out of your airsled to lighten the load.”
“Still a rough ride for a kid.” Rylando frowned. “I hope she finds a better family of her own.”
“She’s smart and resilient. She’ll be okay. Besides, she’ll inherit Stramlo’s fraction of the RSI settlement, plus an extra decimal for her part in saving the planet’s last node. I’m glad our last mission had no casualties.”
Galactic Search and Rescue: A Scifi Space Opera with Adventure, Romance, and Pets: A Central Galactic Concordance Novella Page 11