I shake my head. “Better that you do not.”
I jump out, turn toward the farm, and jog toward it. It takes me only a minute. I slow to a walk as I come up the lane. The sun is rising, and I see activity around the buildings. I spot what I have come for, and continue to advance. There are people in the fields, preparing farm equipment and machinery for a day’s tasks. I have an image of Wrik’s father in my memory, from a photo of a reunion of soldiers from the Solari Incursion that he fought in: Confed decorations mixed with Retiefan ones on his broad chest. I spot his father by an agro-harvester.
He notices me. “Yes, Young Miss. Can I help you?” He stares at me. “Those are some big eyes you have there.”
“I see much with them.”
“You’re not from around here.”
“I am from long ago and far away. But that does not matter. Come with me.”
“Look, little girl, if there is something you need—”
I reach over and take hold of a metal roll bar on the machine and casually twist it. “Come with me,” I repeat. “Do not call out to your farmhands. I am a combat android, and they can do nothing against me. We are only going a hundred yards. You will not be harmed, but do not think to disobey me.”
Some of the farmhands stare at us curiously as we walk away from the house and down the land to the main road.
“What do you want?” he demands.
I must credit his courage. He follows me at a wary distance and is alarmed, but not fearful.
I do not answer him. We reach the family plot. I open the small gate, and he follows me in. I see the stone marker that he has placed here. Fury builds in me. I walk forward and stand over the stone.
“Shall I offer my condolences on the loss of your son?” I am surprised by the evenness of my tone. Not since Wrik was in the hands of the Collector have I felt a rage to equal the one that wraps around me now. I desire to do harm, but this is his father. I remember Jaelle’s father and how Wrik forbade me to strike him, even though he’d helped ambush us, an attack that cost me an arm and Wrik his ship. The network between parent and child seems fraught with complexity and room for disaster.
Van Zyle crosses his arms. “No need. He wasn’t much of a man.”
“I have journeyed far and long with Wrik. I have met no better person.”
“Then you have never had to rely on him in a tight spot,” he says.
“I have relied on Wrik for existence in dangers that you cannot imagine, and for something more far more important than my life.”
He raises an eyebrow. “That being?”
“Hope.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t need to bandy words with a machine.”
“Then let my actions speak for me.” Plasma jets into my right hand and coats my fist. I strike in an instant. The gravestone under my fist fragments and crushes. I have aimed my blow so the fragments will not strike his father, but one unexpectedly cuts the old man across the face. He stumbles back, hands raised.
Too bad.
The breeze quickly disperses the cloud of pulverized stone. We face each other across the small space. The tree over us rustles, the grass bows before the wind. In the distance, the farm hands stand frozen. Van Zyle lowers his hands to stare at me.
“Your son,” I say, biting off each word, “is not dead. Do not dare to raise a stone for him again.” I turn my back on him and walk away. Wisely, no one pursues me.
Chapter 31
I woke in the morning feeling reborn. Feeling like someone who didn’t even know the frightened and desperate man who’d worked for Dusko and the Guild on Kandalor. It lasted only a little while, but it felt good. Maybe it would last longer on other days.
I was surprised Maauro was not beside me. Maybe she thought the bed wasn’t sturdy enough, and I’d been too out of it to move the mattress to the floor. I spotted her out on the small balcony. Maauro, as she had been some mornings lately, seemed unusually quiet, even distracted, but her smile was pure sunshine to me. As I stirred, she rose and opened the glass door.
“We have to get ready for church,” she said.
I rolled over with a groan, mostly because I was afraid that had I continued looking at her I would have burst out laughing, and I would rather lose an arm than hurt her feelings.
“None of that,” she said, primly.
“I suppose I should get up.”
“You should,” she said. “Delt is waiting breakfast for you. I, meanwhile, am off with Janna to buy clothes suitable for a young lady to go to church in.”
“You were fine as you were yesterday.”
“Janna and I disagree.”
I sat up, knowing Maauro really didn’t need clothes, save as a pattern, but clearly she wanted to spend more time with Janna. “Have fun.”
She walked over and kissed my scruffy self, then slipped out the door.
Twenty minutes later, I found Delt, reading newsprint, in the hotel restaurant. He tossed the filmy printout into the recycler nearby when I walked up.
“How’s the world looking to you?” he asked.
“Shiny and new,” I said.
The waitress slid a coffee in front of me and took my order.
“I envy you, Wrik.” Delt said, over his coffee.
I was too stunned to speak for several seconds. “Envy me? What the hell for? My father’s disowned me. I damn near wrecked my family—“
Delt shook his head. “Our pasts are a weight we both drag behind us. You fled a battle. I led my friends to a slaughter because I didn’t have the courage to think for myself.
“But you, Wrik. Well, what are you now: agent of the Confederacy, captain of your own starship? Most of all, I envy you what you have with Maauro. She’s something special, and I don’t mean just because she can punch a hole in steel plate.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Good,” Delt said, sitting his coffee down, his face suddenly looking far older than his thirty-two years. “You got a second chance in life and you did something with it.”
“Delt, you don’t even want to know how far down I was before that second chance came.”
“Can’t be worse than getting your friends killed or maimed, can it? I had to attend eighteen funerals. At each one, I had to wear that damn medal on my chest.” He leaned on the table. “How I wish I could find a second chance.”
“I’ve got one for you,” I said impulsively, the realization and acting on it occurring in the same second. “The same one I had.”
“What?” he demanded, his voice flat and taut.
“Upship with us,” I said. “Join Lost Planet. We could use another good man,”
As he stared at me, something lightened in his expression. I saw the old Delt I had known. It was almost painful for those few seconds. “You mean it?”
“I do.”
He wiped a shaking hand across his face. “Piet, old buddy, I am going to take you up on that.”
We stared at each other for a few seconds, then a bitter, yet somehow cleansing, laugh burst out of both of us.
When it finally ran down, he shook his head. “I guess I will have to call you, Captain, from now on.”
I waved it off. “There’ll be none of that between you and me. But I do have a piece of advice for you. Don’t run off as I did. Make your goodbyes, especially with your family. You can’t tell them about our work with Confed MI. Your Dad will be upset enough that you are going off with me. I doubt he will put up a grave marker for you like mine did but it won’t be easy,”
“Maybe less than you think. He’s been after me to stop hiding out in a machine shed, and even out in this backwater, people have begun to hear about Lost Planet and what you did for Rainhell’s grandson. I’ll want to hear the real story behind that.”
“After we lift,” I replied. “There will be plenty of time for st
ories after that. Some of them will make the Seddon rescue look like a vacation day.”
“You’ve changed, Piet.”
“Everyone tells me that, and I’m still as scared as ever.”
“We’re all scared. You just think about it more.”
“Maybe so.”
“When do you need me at the ship?”
“Say sunrise, on the 13th.”
“Not superstitious are you?” he said, with a grin.
“If it wasn’t for bad luck…” I quoted.
“I’ll be there.”
I nodded. “We won’t leave without you.”
“Good. Think I’ll order some more eggs; all of a sudden I have an appetite.”
We attended the church service where Janna talked about love and forgiveness, about which she was now clearly an expert. Maauro, Delt and I sat in an uncomfortable wooden pew. Maauro wore a blue, print dress with a white belt and shoes that matched. She watched the ceremony with evident fascination. I wondered how long my butt would last on a Protestant bench designed to encourage thoughts of contrition. The sermon ended eventually, and we joined the line of people moving out the doors, shaking hands with Janna. We hung back to the end.
She greeted Maauro first. “Well Maauro, what did you think?”
“I found your sermon very useful and enlightening. I will, of course, keep it in my databanks with 100% retention.”
Janna laughed. “That’s better than most parishioners. Half of them have forgotten what I said before they reach their cars.”
“Then they are foolish, to ignore such valuable wisdom.”
Janna looked beyond at me. “So where are you bound next?”
Maauro and I exchanged a look.
“Offworld, probably back to Star Central, but we haven’t decided yet,” I answered.
“So I should wish you velvet skies and fair landings, then.”
I nodded. Janna hugged me, then Maauro. She stepped back, still holding onto Maauro. “I do wish you were staying longer. I enjoyed our conversations during our little shopping spree.”
“I too. I hope that we shall meet again.”
She turned to Delt, who looked at me. “Go on ahead. I want to talk to the Rev for a little.”
I nodded. We walked off to the parking lot. I enjoyed the fresh, almost brisk breeze of the afternoon wind off the river as we walked slowly to the parking lot. It was the first time we’d been alone, and it seemed the perfect time to talk to Maauro about our new addition.
“Maauro,”
“Yes?”
“I made a decision, maybe I should have talked it over with you, but it’s done now anyway.”
She looked expectantly at me.
“I’ve added Delt to Lost Planet.”
She nodded. “This is a good choice. It expands our network with someone who I know will be loyal and resourceful.”
I gave a sigh of relief. “Glad you agree.”
“I would have deferred the matter to you had you asked me. I cannot judge hearts and souls as well as you. In any event I like Delt. His open manner appeals to me.”
“Hmmn, I’m beginning to wonder about the wisdom of this decision. I always had to be careful of him stealing girls away from me before…”
“I will not be stolen,” she replied smiling, “besides he strikes me as a love-them-and-leave-them type.”
It was my turn to grin. “Well, that is Delt, or was. We are both older and maybe wiser nowadays.”
With all I had come for done, I found myself impatient to leave Retief. I’d made as much peace with my past as was possible, but I had the feeling that if I did not leave, that the bonds offered by my rediscovered family would tie me here, a prospect that both had its attractions and disadvantages.
So I held to my course as Maauro and I met with: Mom, Rena, Grieg and their children for a farewell dinner. Delt was making his own goodbyes to his family and the unexpectedly large number of young women he’d apparently been dating, not all of whom knew about each other. It was perhaps a good thing he was going off world for an extended period. Mom’s presence kept the pot of family issues at a low boil. The children made me promise to come back and to bring Maauro, both of which I readily agreed to.
My mother was a mixture of relief and sadness. She and Rena still were wary around each other, and there was a distinct coolness between her and Grieg. As for Rena, I could see she resented my being so much the center of attention. It was perhaps too much to expect that all that had been broken, could be healed in the one short trip. After a while, Rena seemed to realize what she was doing and seemed ruefully amused at herself.
I got the distinct impression that something was going on between Maauro and Grieg, something tense and edgy, as they would slip away to converse and there was no mistaking the stiff wariness in Grieg’s body. Still, Maauro turned aside my questions, and I knew from long experience, that it was impossible to get her to answer, once she’d made up her mind not to.
Dinner was good, but was not about the food. We rose after coffee and cake and before the children needed to go to bed.
“I’d rather we made our goodbye’s here,” I said to everyone, “than down at the ship. There’s always so much to attend to before blast off, even though I have a man down there now working on it. Assuming, he hasn’t rifled the safe.”
“Now, Wrik,” Maauro said, “that is hardly nice. Not only has Dusko taken care of all our port trading, he has arranged a cargo for our outbound voyage. Goods on speculation, of course, but he has a pretty good eye.”
Maauro defending Dusko? I thought about the time she had decided to kill the Guilder not long after we’d captured him. I considered teasing her about it, but there had been something, well, fragile about Maauro in the last few days, that deterred me. Perhaps being immersed in all the controversies of human relations had worn on her.
“Yes, dear,” I said, which drew laughter from the family and a welcome smile from her. “Anyway, I want to remember you all here, safe in Rena and Grieg’s home.”
I shook hands with Grieg, his political mask firmly settled. “Look after my sister.” He nodded and turned to Maauro. “Bon Voyage,” he bade her and did not shake hands.
We hugged the children next, Amelia stroked Maauro’s hair.
“I hardly know what to say,” Rena said, standing in front of me.
I shrugged, but smiled. “When have we ever?”
My sister smiled back and hugged me. She suddenly felt very small and frail in my arms. “I have left ways for you to get hold of me,” I whispered in her ear. “Call the Confed base, and mention my name if you need me. I’ll come back.”
Rena nodded and put a hand to my face before turning to embrace Maauro. “Try and keep my dopey brother out of trouble.”
Maauro smiled. “My efforts in this never cease.”
Then it was time to say goodbye to Mom.
“I guess it would be selfish of me to wish you weren’t going so soon,” she said. “Well, that’s the way it is with parents; you grow them up so they are strong and independent, and then you wish they would stay where you put them.”
I nodded.
“I love you, son. Don’t let it be so long before you come back this way.”
“I won’t. I love you too, Mom.”
She then turned to Maauro and embraced her. “I love you too, Little One. I will sleep much better knowing he has you with him. When he comes back, I’ll be disappointed if you’re not with him.”
Maauro gently put her arms around her. “We can’t have that. Thank you for all you have done for me and all that you have extended to me.”
My mother looked into her big sea-green eyes. “It was little enough to do for the woman my son loves. Oh, drat and I wasn’t going to cry.” She snatched a napkin off the table and dabbed at her eyes. Amelia ran up
to her grandmother and took her hand, concerned.
I too was battling a mix of emotions, but wanted to end things on the right note. “Time to go,” I said. The whole mob of us walked toward the door, where I once again hugged my mom, and then we headed off to the car. From here, it was direct to the ship.
I started the vehicle and pulled into the driveway.
“Don’t watch them go out of sight,” Maauro said. “It means you don’t expect to see them again.”
I looked at her in surprise, remembering how I’d told her of my superstition. “I hope we do get the chance to come back.”
“As do I,” she replied and leaned back. She extended a hand to me, again exhibiting that strange fragility of recent days. I switched to automatics and took her hand. Something was ailing Maauro, and if she needed to hold my hand, it would be there.
We picked up the flitter, and flew through the starlit night, watching the sky and the world below roll on in their infinite courses and felt very small.
“What do we do now?” Wrik asks as we speed toward our ship. “I honestly have no idea of what I want to do beyond sending word to Jaelle that I … that we, are alive and well.”
“Then I will ask that you let me plan our course ahead for a while,” I reply.
“Yes, of course,” he says.
“We will, in due course, resume our work with Lost Planet, and doubtless Candace Deveraux will come calling. We both value our relationship with Jaelle, and, if it is not too painful for her to be with us, I wish to remain networked with her. But before that, I wish to voyage to Olympia to see Shasti Rainhell.”
Wrik’s eyebrows shoot up.
“I have some questions I wish to put to Shasti about existence and being. Then I have a favor to ask of her, if it is possible, and no, I do not wish to tell you what that favor is just now.”
A mix of emotions slip across his face: curiosity, anxiety, perhaps even a touch of resentment, but it smoothes out almost immediately.
“You can tell me what you wish to tell me, when you wish to,” he says with a touch of reluctance. “I trust you with anything, and I still owe you for running out on you.”
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