Space Murder

by N L Haverstock

  She gasped. “Of course we can trust Jones! He has worked with the family for years now. He would never risk his job over some petty fleet squabble.”

  Raph eyed Chloe before turning to Persephone. “Wait. You have your own shuttle?”

  “Obviously. Between Chloe’s father’s work and my very active social life, it only makes sense. We used to just charter, but it became so inconvenient and they made such a big deal if you were an hour or two late. If you would like to sit in the cockpit, you are welcome to do so. Maybe you could even fly a bit. We have an emergency kit, so we can remove the braces from your arms. Surely, they are healed up by now, and you’ll be able to take the shuttle for a spin.”

  “No. I’m sure they are just—”

  “It’s the newest model. It has heated seat-warmers and those fancy glasses for intraspace entry.”

  He perked up. “The ones that let you see the dimensions shift? Maybe I will check it out.” He turned to me. “If the captain decides we should do it.”

  Chloe was eating with an intensity that seemed more about hiding her face than anything else. I had always noticed that she seemed a bit spoiled and out of touch, but I was learning exactly why she might be that way. A family that owned a shuttle was really beyond any standard of riches I was familiar with. Even with my family’s money, before it had been stripped by the government during the trials, I was nowhere in the ballpark of that kind of old-planet wealth.

  Leaving the planet was a risk for me, but staying was a bigger risk for my crew. It was a decision I didn’t want to make, but it was the right one. “Thank you, Persephone. I think you are right. We’ll go with you.”

  She nodded as though she had never doubted that was the case. “I brought you suitable travel clothing. Even a smock for you, dear.” She patted Horton’s arm. “We must hurry, as I want you fed and dressed within the hour so you can thank your host adequately. Then we must get on the road. Chloe, why don’t I help you get ready? I can tell you all about Harvey. He is looking for a bride, and I already rang his mother to see about throwing a little welcome-home party for you two to get to know each other again.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  The next few hours were a whirlwind of excitement even by my new catastrophe-affected standards. A lot of that was because Persephone never left my side and talked the whole time. She already had the next several months of my life mapped out.

  She followed me into my room with the clothing she expected me to wear. “It will look so lovely on your figure. I know you are on the slender side, but some men really do like that. Choe’s father works with so many rich men from off-planet, I am positive that one of them would just love to marry you and settle down.” She shoved the dress at me and pushed me into the bathroom to change, though she put a foot in the door when I tried to close it.

  “Thank you, Persephone, but I do love my job.” I had only been with her for about ten minutes, and already, my head felt like it was in a vise.

  “Of course you do, but there are other things you could do, like start your own delivery service or even a high-end charter business. Be your own boss. That’s where the real money is. Of course, you would need to stay on Aquaria, but we would take good care of you, all of you, even your little lizard friend.”

  I could see that nothing was going to slow her down as she continued to drone on about the tax rate on Aquaria and a never-ending list of her neighbor’s son’s roommate’s dad, who worked for some government agency, and all the ways they would help me.

  I tuned her out as I slid into the dress, which was tight in the bodice then flared out into a large skirt made up of many layers of semi-sheer lighter-than-air fabric. Every movement I made, no matter how subtle, sent the skirt fluttering to life

  With Persephone’s prattling in the background about the colors I could use to brand whatever company she had settled on my running, it was like an eerie score to a dream I’d slipped into without realizing it. I could start over, fresh and new, and maybe even shed the last name of Laika, which had been passed down for generations since two of my relatives, a married couple countless generations back, had been given the right to pick their name when they were the first pilots to transverse intraspace, an act that freed all creatures in the universe from the confines of lightspeed travel.

  They had chosen Laika in honor of those who had sacrificed their lives for science by choice or through mechanism of a government bent on advancement. Their trip had been doomed from the beginning as an experiment, their new names etched on their tombstones and their parents given money in compensation for their inevitable deaths.

  It was a surprise to everyone when they not only lived but were able to return to Earth, changed in a way no one understood. They never felt comfortable on Earth again, just like every generation after them all the way to me. I was the last living member to hold the Laika name. Planet life made me twitchy. The time I spent on Earth for training was something to be endured, and though I was happy to vacation on other planets, the stars were always calling.

  My parents had described it as an invisible cord was always drawing them back. Back then, it made no sense to me because I lived on a spaceship, and it was like trying to describe water to a fish. It was only when I left that I understood. I used to sneak out at night to sit under the stars, gasping for air like a fish on the beach.

  When I had finally gotten off-planet and back into space after my training, when the war was over, I had cried for hours. The relief was immeasurable but so was the grief. I was an orphan by that point, and I would never navigate the stars with my parents again. I hadn’t really felt their loss until we had slipped into intraspace and, for the first time in my life, my parents hadn’t been at the helm.

  Whatever easy out Persephone was offering me wasn’t something I could consider, no matter how prettily she painted my future life. I grabbed my Bible off the counter where I’d left it next to the Gulper tooth and tucked it and the tooth away in the dress. My gown was beautiful and had deep pockets, all I could ask for in formal wear.

  “Well?” she shouted through the crack in the door.

  I stepped out. “Yes?”

  “Did you hear anything I said?” She reached up and adjusted the strap the smallest bit.

  “Persephone, I really appreciate all the advice but…” I hesitated, trying to figure out how to state that I had no intention of staying on Aquaria before she started planning business meetings. I decided to go for something that was still true, even if it wasn’t my prime motivation. “I could never start a business because of my past. You probably don’t know this, but I was on trial for—”

  “No one cares about that. Not only were you found innocent, but”—she leaned in—“next time, you will be more careful.”

  I contained my gasp and stuffed down my protests that I hadn’t done a thing. It was not the time to get on a moral high horse. “Of course. I should have known you would want to know all about me once your daughter was assigned to my ship.”

  “It was more than that. Her father had you investigated before we had Chloe assigned to your ship.”

  A cold, prickly sensation went down my neck. “No one knows who they will be assigned to beforehand.”

  Pox, perhaps sensing my emotions, tucked his head under my skirt and pressed against my ankles as if hugging me.

  She fluffed my skirt one last time and stepped back. “You know that things are different when you have money. We wanted Chloe to enjoy her time away but not too much, so she would be back home within a few years. Her father pulled some strings to get her assigned to the most boring ship we could find. We investigated you to make sure that you wouldn’t get her into trouble. That didn’t work out as we had hoped, obviously, but the experiment is over. Chloe will come home now and live out her life just as I planned.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  The next few hours were a blur as I heard that phrase over and over again in my head. “Live out her life just as I planned.” My
stomach twisted and turned, and a clammy sweat broke out on my upper lip that had nothing to do with the oppressive heat outside.

  I knew I was barely present through the job of greeting and thanking our host and loading up the vehicle, but no one really noticed. And Persephone was busy directing a bevy of servants. Somehow, we were packed and leaving despite my inability to fully connect with reality. My brain was rolled inside me. I crunched the facts, trying for another plan and running through my options. We were all safe for the moment. No creatures were trying to kill us. Not fire. Not guns. But still, I felt the tightening grip of anxiety that we were headed down the wrong path.

  Due to the overwhelming amount of luggage Persephone had brought, we couldn’t ride in one car. Instead, Persephone, Chloe, Horton, and Eugene rode in one of our hostess’s large vehicles, while Raph and I squeezed into a smaller one along with the rest of the luggage.

  Our vehicle was driven by Persephone’s personal shuttle pilot. Apparently, he had to pull whatever duty the family asked of him. The vehicle was a car-hovercraft hybrid and would slide into the shuttle, meaning it had only the barest of features. It was slower as it cruised a few feet over the sand and turned corners rougher, but Jones, as he’d introduced himself, handled it well.

  I was glad for his company. He and Raph hit it off instantly since they’d gotten their flight training in the same area of the east coast of North America back on Earth. They started discussing the town then transitioned to what life was like on Aquaria and all the best places to eat.

  Raph sat in a chair next to Jones, but after a handful of glances back at me, he excused himself from the conversation and unlocked the chair to spin it around to face me. I was still mostly lost in my thoughts, staring out the window and stroking Pox, who had easily settled in life as a lap pet.

  “Cap, you okay?”

  “I can’t shake the uneasy feeling that we are on the wrong path.”

  “Then let’s change the plan,” he said.

  I tore my eyes away from the landscape, which was red on red on top of more red. “Don’t you want to know why? Tell me that I am overreacting? Ask at least one question before we throw a workable plan out the window?” I couldn’t hide the stress in my voice, though perhaps letting it show was something I did on purpose. It had been a long week, and I needed to have an honest opinion.

  Raph studied my face. “Do you know why I was so quick to agree that we change the plan?”

  I thought it was a hypothetical question, but when he waited for my reply, I let out a sigh. “No, I really don’t.”

  “Let me take a different angle. Do you know why we came to rescue you, even though those officers said that you hadn’t been kidnapped but had escaped on your own?”

  “Wait. They said that?”

  “Focus. We came after you because we trusted you wouldn’t have left without letting us know. We knew you were innocent and didn’t need to escape. Because we are a team, and we take care of our team. The way we saved Horton from the fire and the…” He looked away and seemed to be debating with himself whether he wanted to finish the sentence or not.

  “Saving Horton was a bit different. He was going to die.”

  “And so would you have without our help.”

  I opened my mouth then shut it only to nod in agreement.

  He continued. “You’re not the only one around here with a sense of honor. You are a good captain and person and don’t deserve to die being framed for someone else’s dirty work. Plus, we wanted to because we like you. And I owe you.”

  “Owe me for what?”

  “I don’t want to dig up old news, but I think you need to know. When I first got to the ship, it was my last stop. If I could have gotten through two more months of service, I could leave at the five-year mark and go back to Earth. I knew that it would take at least four months for you to discharge me, so I had no reason to even try.”

  I was quiet and tried to give him space to work through what he wanted to say. I had seen his record when he joined my crew and had been able to guess how he would be feeling, but I had no idea the extent that it had impacted him. I had been pretty wrapped up in my own hurts and issues to notice.

  “I was pretty tough on you, Cap, pushing boundaries and stuff. The other captains I served under over the years had always made a point of letting me know how little they respected me, my abilities, and my opinions. I figured you would be the same, so I didn’t really give you a chance. Then you sat me down and told me how it would be. I never really apologized for my attitude during that time.”

  I smiled a little. “You saved my life several times this week, so I think we’re even.”

  He let out a bark of laughter. “Fair enough. It really meant a lot to me when you told me that you believed in me and that you would give me the freedom to be me. And you told me that you thought I had the potential to be the best navigator in the fleet.”

  I wasn’t sure I had said all that, though I would now. Maybe I had been in such a haze of depression that I had said it and didn’t remember, or perhaps he had heard what he needed in the subtext. “I noticed that you seemed happier after we talked.”

  “It was more than the talk. You walked the walk as well. You listened when I made suggestions and didn’t hassle me if I cut loose in the evenings. Then when we got our first bonus, you split it with the crew. Suddenly, navigating was fun again. Horton and Chloe feel the same. We have freedom and a job we love. Plus, the money isn’t bad. And you are a big reason for that.”

  I felt guilty. I had pictured the past two years as my own personal hell like a spoiled child because I didn’t get a shiny new ship headed out on the best job. I had missed what was around me. How much had I missed by sulking in my room? “Thank you, Raph.”

  “So now that you know why I trust you, will you tell me why you are feeling uneasy?”

  The vehicle had moved into a highway where traffic was controlled and directed by lines and lights. We were now traveling on wheels that sent the vibrations of the road transmitting through my body.

  “Chloe’s mom bribed the fleet to get Chloe put onto our ship. She doesn’t intend for Chloe to leave again. It doesn’t seem healthy. I know we are supposed to respect other cultures, but did you see how Chloe looked this morning?”

  “Like a whipped dog with its tail between its legs?” he asked.

  Pox raised his head to whine gently.

  “Shh. Not a real whipped dog.” I scratched behind Pox’s ears until he settled down. “I know it is the safest plan, but at what price?”

  “We could still do the train idea. I even know how to use all the makeup to disguise us.” He jerked his head back toward Jones.

  A staticky voice rose from the dashboard. It was too far away for me to understand the words, but when the transmission was done, Jones maneuvered the car to the side of the traffic and turned to explain to us. “The other car was pulled over. I’m going to take a different way. Persephone said to take good care of you guys.”

  He slowed to a stop and pulled up a map on his console.

  There was a hiss of a door opening, and my safety restraints unlatched automatically. A hand reached in and pulled me out of the vehicle.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  I had let my guard down, which was a big mistake. I was on the ground and away from the vehicle before I could even start fighting. Officer Girlfriend had the advantage, and she dragged me to her car. She was hitting me with something that made all of my muscles contract then give out. It was like all of my limbs were trying to head in a different direction of their own volition.

  Whatever she was hitting me with made it so I couldn’t get in a clean hit, though I did manage to do something to her knee before she shoved me into the backseat. Snot was running down my face, and one eye kept twitching. But with my good eye, I was able to spot Raph and Pox running toward us as we pulled away.

  I thought to try to open the door, but the handle was gone. It hadn’t been removed in the
smooth way of a law enforcement vehicle. This handle had been ripped out, leaving behind a bevy of loose wires that gave me a shock when I touched them. There was a clear divider between the driver’s seat and the rest of the automobile, and the faded signs in the back indicated that it was meant to be some kind of car for hire for tourists coming in on commercial shuttles.

  My vision was clearing as much as it could, given that I was sliding around on the plastic seat as Heather took each corner on two wheels. Because it was an old-fashioned car without hover capabilities, she was forced to stay on the streets.

  The way she was moving set off alarm bells, though they had already been ringing from the fact that she had zapped me half to death and kidnapped me. I’d been kidnapped twice in two days. I wondered if that was a record.

  There was a variety of vehicles on the road, from cars like we were in to hovercars and cycles. But she was treating the others like bumperpods from traveling carnivals, clipping them as she aggressively passed.

  “What are you doing?” I asked when I had control of my voice again. Gathering information was vital to my survival.

  “Oh, wouldn’t you like to know?” she spit back at me. Her voice had an edge of hysteria and bitterness that indicated she was on the verge of losing it.

  “Where’s your boyfriend?”

  She slammed her hand on the steering wheel so hard, I wasn’t surprised when it cracked. She roared, “I’m saving him by getting rid of you. You have ruined his life. His career! We can’t be out in public together, and we’re so much in love. He can’t have the job he should because of you!”

  Having found the sore spot, I poked a little more. “Won’t put a ring on it, eh? Maybe you just aren’t his type.”

  She roared again and completely twisted around to face me, pulling on the steering wheel in the process. “You’ve been a stain on our life together, but no more. You are going to get what you deserve. Those Ceruleans swore they would take care of you, but I should have taken care of it myself. Just like they asked me to at headquarters.”