by Debra Jess
"So your parents didn't support Manitac?" Cuff asked the question, perhaps so the others wouldn't have to.
"I don't think they actively supported or fought against Manitac." Looking around the table, she tried to get a read on everyone's reaction, which was easy enough for Ezick, but she needed more time to study the others. "At the time, Manitac's focus was acquiring or destroying competition to their core businesses, which weren't as vast as they are today. It didn't have a tourist and travel segment, so they left Shade Cruises alone. Shade Cruises only failed after Majesty of the Stars was reported missing and presumed destroyed."
"So there's no chance Manitac didn't sabotage the ship in some way?" Of course Hart would want to brush aside the rumored conspiracy that had been floated by news reports. Her own research as an adult had been enlightening on how different segments of the Unity Homeport societies reacted to the Majesty's disappearance.
"No. What happened to Majesty of the Stars had nothing to do with Manitac or its expansion."
"So it was an accident?" Rusa asked, her messy curls bouncing as she tilted her head slightly to one side. "A systems failure?"
Despite all her preparation, Kelra’s throat tightened. She'd promised honesty, but only up to a point. "No. It was deliberate."
"One of the crew? Someone with a grudge against your parents?" Johza’s question was punctuated with a deep cough, one he tried to cover with a battle-scarred hand.
Hart's hand found its way to her thigh, under the table where the only person who might notice was Cuff, who had the grace to not point out what his captain was doing.
Her voice loosened somewhat with the warmth Hart offered. Not for a second did she think this was anything more than a calming gesture to keep her voice strong.
It worked. "No one had a grudge, and there was no mutiny."
Mirin squinted at her through dark, suspicious eyes, her chair still balancing on its back legs. "A passenger, then?"
"Let's not discuss the why, okay?" Even with a stronger voice, she couldn't tell them what had killed her parents and the Majesty of the Stars crew. If she told them about the alien, they would think her crazy. As far as humans had explored, they had yet to come across other intelligent life—at least that had been officially documented. Therefore, no one would believe her. "The why won't help us find the ship. If we don't find it, the why will never matter."
Silence.
"So," she continued, her voice back to normal, "to get back to the original question, there were two types of passengers on board. The business types, who were looking for new investments, and their families, who were looking for a luxury vacation with spectacular vistas and a spark of excitement."
"Wait, families means children," Ezick spoke up, his outrage obvious again. "There were other children on board?"
Oh, just what she didn't need, another interruption. "Yes. The ship's complement included an education program for all ages so none of them would fall behind academically. A year out of school is a death knell for any kid with ambition."
"Or with ambitious parents." This time Ezick kept his opinion to a single eye roll.
"From what I recall, my parents were relieved that many of the passengers either didn't have children, or the kids were old enough to live on their own, or the parents left them with relatives or at school. But there were a few."
Under the table, Hart squeezed her hand, as if he knew how much the pressure of memories hurt and actually cared. "It must have been difficult to keep the younger set engaged and excited."
She'd made friends with some of the kids her age. "I guess." With a shrug, she once again dragged the conversation back on target. "The highlight of the cruise was to position the ship so we could witness the R2305 explosion and the creation of a new nebula."
"Except that never happened," Johza reminded them.
"Correct, but that created a huge problem for my parents. The promise of being the first to witness, then explore, the new nebula drew far more passengers than just the promise of visiting new colonies breaking ground or dirty mining operations looking for investors."
"Everyone wants to be first." Finally, Ezick had something useful, if obvious, to contribute.
Hart touched his ear jack, and a spray of stars spilled across the table. "Especially if it's a once-in-a-lifetime event, but we don't care about the R2305. We care about the haunted nebula."
Kelra agreed. "When R2305 failed to explode, my parents had to scramble to find something just as exciting to replace it, something that would spark the imagination and give the passengers bragging rights to avoid the lawsuits over false advertising."
"The haunted nebula would certainly fit the bill." Rusa reached for her drink. Whatever suspicions the senior crew had, they were past that now and paying attention.
"And then some." Using her fingers, she swiped the image to her left and zoomed until a specific coordinate centered above them. "Manitac had a slipstream terminus and a station here, at the outer edge of the nebula. The station had only one ring with a few evacuation pods and two shuttles.
"From what I've been able to piece together, the results of the team's observations proved valuable enough for Manitac to make an emergency deal with my parents. Let a small science team join the cruise liner inside the nebula, let them build up the excitement about all the cool science they were performing, and Manitac would handle any lawsuits filed after Majesty of the Stars returned to port."
"It sounds like both sides were hoping that being the first people to cruise through the former golden nebula would appease even the most cankerous passengers," Cuff said.
Rusa wrapped a knuckle on the table. "That can't be everything. This science station may have started out as a politician's wet dream, but Manitac doesn't do anything unless there's something in it for them. There had to have been some evidence of something valuable inside the nebula. I suppose no one mentioned the safety considerations?"
Odd to hear a pirate speak of safety, since from what she'd observed from other pirate ships, safety features were usually the first things stripped upon acquisition of a ship. Most pirates preferred to live on the edge with danger dogging their tails. "Both my parents and Manitac considered pirates to be more of a threat than anything inside the nebula. Which is why Majesty of the Stars had its own private security detail and enough armaments to make pirates think twice about boarding."
"But there were pirates, weren't there?" Hart asked, his gaze on her, not the star map, narrowing as if he knew something she didn't. "Already inside the nebula, lying in wait for the Majesty of the Stars? That's what happened, isn't it? That's why you've been hunting pirates like a demon all these years. You think we're responsible for the death of your parents."
What? "That's…that's…" Perfect. The perfect explanation. Yet her own conscience couldn’t quite run with that lie of omission. Not yet, anyway.
“I never saw pirates.” True. “I heard screaming.” True. “Also weapons firing, though I didn’t know what it was at the time.” Also true. “The security nets dropped while I was still inside our cabin. It didn’t matter. I found my father in the living area, lying on the ground already dead. His eyes…his eyes…they just stared at the ceiling, and he wouldn't talk to me when I tried to wake him up. I…" All true, but her throat was closing again. Under the table, she felt the brush of Hart's hand against her leg, but she pushed it away. Talking about what happened on the Majesty of the Stars needed her full concentration. "My parents always told me what to do, where to go, who to talk to, what to say. They never considered that neither one of them would be around to guide me, help me find safety."
No one said anything when she paused, so she took a deep breath and dived back in. "Since my father couldn't help me, I left the cabin. The nets prevented me from running to the bridge to find my mother, so I followed the only open path to the nearest escape module. The instruction holo-vid showed me what to do, simple enough even for a six-year-old. The pod counted down and then ejected me i
nto space."
She did it. She told the truth but left out the part about the alien.
"Captain." Johza's rough voice interrupted her self-congratulations. "I suggest that before we go poking inside the nebula, we make sure that station has been abandoned. If so, and we can get on board, we might find the records of whatever it was they found that had Manitac so intrigued."
"I agree." Hart clicked through a series of screens under the star chart. "I assume the station is located near the slipstream terminus?"
Reaching up to touch the image, she poked a specific area on the grid. A red dot appeared at the very edge of a golden cloud that encompassed most of the chart.
"All right," Hart continued. "Do you remember how long you were in the escape pod before it was found?"
"Three days, six hours, forty-one minutes." The clock over the hatch had counted up until she couldn't stand it anymore, and she turned her back to it until the rescue team arrived from the station. The back hatch had sprung open, revealing food supplies and personal sanitation devices. In her mind's eye, all she could see was the lifeless body of her father, so she ate without tasting anything and drank without thinking.
"Do you remember the Majesty's heading?" Rusa asked.
"No, not really. I do remember, however, that one of the scientists from the station had come to my class to talk about the nebula. He talked about all the different stars and planets they had found. I remember him describing a dwarf star, but I don't remember what kind of dwarf star, except that it was unique and we were going to help the science team get close enough to study it. We got all excited over that, so our art teacher had us draw pictures of the Majesty of the Stars and the science team studying the stars."
"What's so unique about a dwarf star?" Ezick asked, managing to not sound completely contemptuous.
"I don't know. We were all too young for the details. More than likely the science team told my parents and maybe the business passengers."
No one was paying attention to her though. They were all looking at Ezick.
"I know. I know. Yes, I have that information too. I'll crack the station’s security system and the team's logs to see if we can find the exact coordinates of the Majesty of the Stars."
"You can do that?" Manitac might skimp on things like shielding design, food rations, and replacing paid labor with puppets, but their encryptions were near impossible to break. Even her advanced administrative access had its limits. "I mean, even if you could, it's possible the system autoerased its phase-shift memory when it shut down. That's standard for classified data."
"You might be correct." If any of this information dented Hart's determination, he didn't show it. Instead, he tapped his right forefinger on the table, and she could see the possibilities playing across his face. "But we won't know until we're on board the station, and we won't board the station until we know if it's still populated, and we won't know if it's populated until we figure out how we're going to get there."
"So let's not waste our time on the station?" Time to rein in any crazy ideas Hart might have about sending the Queen of Hearts after two targets. He might love treasure, but she would not let him sabotage her mission with maybes. "If there's still a science team there, avoiding the station altogether would be the better option. They may be isolated, but they'll still need supplies, so regular contact has to be maintained. Regardless of whether we take them prisoner or kill them, Manitac will eventually figure out we're there and we don't know how long it's going to take to find the Majesty of the Stars."
The look Hart tossed her way said it all—he knew she was right, but she'd also yanked a challenge out from under him. The man did love a challenge, just not to his authority.
Cuff cleared his throat. "What do you propose we do?"
Cuff was asking her, not Hart. If Hart were offended, he kept it to himself. By the Stars, she hoped he wasn't.
"The only way to travel that kind of distance is through the slipstream. If the station is populated, then we might have to wait for a supply ship to make the run and shadow them through the stream. If it's not populated, then we'll create a distraction to misdirect security and slip through on our own," she said.
"It could be months before a supply ship is scheduled." So said Ezick the optimist.
Again, all she could do was shrug. "I've already waited twenty years. Another few months won't kill me."
Ezick didn't look at her, but she could hear his chuff of indignation just fine.
Hart stood, taking back command of the room. "We have a mission with a huge treasure on the other side. You all know what I expect from each of you. I want to get to the haunted nebula alive. Let's find a way to do it."
Chapter Ten
Darvik watched his crew disperse from the table, but Shade remained in her seat, staring at the star chart.
"You did good." Instead of responding to him, she continued to stare at the map floating overhead. For some reason, the faraway gaze bothered him, as if she hadn't noticed that the rest of the crew had dispersed. If only she would look at him with the same intensity. Up until now, she'd been funny and flirty, which he hadn't expected and made their dance around each other all the more fun. It didn't touch the dark chord of his soul.
Did he really want her to reach that deep? Thinking about having someone who understood him, like Naz did, but who could also touch him in a way Naz couldn't made him crave Shade with a desire that sprung from a well of repression he'd kept under control all these years.
He couldn't bear her obliviousness anymore, so he clicked his ear jack and shut down the projection.
She blinked a few times.. "Sorry, I didn't realize we were done."
"Do you need time alone?"
"What? No. I'm fine." Brushing off a few crumbs from her pants, she pushed her chair back to stand.
"Hey." He reached for her arm, keeping his touch light. "It's okay if you want to call it a day."
The look of absolute confusion made her face softer, rounder. "The day has just started. We have to figure out which hub the slipstream to the nebula is located. My passcodes no longer work, so we'll need to find a snitch to get us the new ones—"
"Yet you're done." Listening to her talk, he could almost hear her placing her own feelings into a mental box just as he had done. He was going to have to try harder to resist her.
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are. You're still not completely healed from Ruintalos."
"Look, Hart—"
"Don't give me that 'look, Hart' business. Telling us what you remembered about the last time you saw your father—"
"Was nothing that I haven't talked about before. Unity had me in therapy for years."
"Therapy can't replace—"
"Yes, it can."
"You two do realize you're arguing like an old married couple." Cuff approached with two steaming mugs, one for each of them, hers clearly a meal-in-a-mug to prop up her calorie intake. "Whatever you're arguing about, take it somewhere more private."
"My quarters," they both said at the same time.
Cuff sighed. "Pick one. I don't care which one, but go already."
"Captain's prerogative: my quarters." No way was he going to let Shade out of his sight. He didn't want to examine too closely this sudden need to keep her safe, but he rolled with what his gut told him. Right now, Shade needed protection while on board the Queen of Hearts. His crew had orders to treat her with kid gloves, orders they knew better than to break, but they were still pirates and very dangerous if provoked.
Without another word, he grabbed both of their drinks and motioned her to follow him to the wardroom compressor. Using voice activation instead of his jack, he stepped through to his quarters first, showing her his trust by keeping her at his back.
His living quarters hadn't changed since the night before, with the autodam results still hovering over the game table.
Shade low-whistled at the room. "I applaud your interior decorator."
Once
again, he watched her as she inspected the captain's quarters while he set their drinks on the claffien table in front of the sofa.
"Your taste in stolen art is exquisite. This is an original Tiroco?"
He nodded, not wanting to break her concentration on the painting. The way she stood on tiptoe to get a better view of the colorful abstract caused her oversize shirt to slide up her back while her baggy pants slid just past her hips. Just the tease of her backside had an unintended consequence that made him readjust his pants.
By the Stars, he hadn't lost this much control over such a small display of skin since his father assigned him to disinfect a runabout by hand with soap and water. That was after he'd been caught watching the female crew through a steam port to the Iron Queen's communal shower room.
"Too bad the rest of Unity can't enjoy it." Shade spared him further embarrassment by lowering her heels, allowing her clothes to fall back into place.
"They can enjoy the holo-stills."
"Ummmmm." Shade turned around to explore his quarters further, oblivious to his reaction. "Not as good as seeing the original, up close and personal."
"I tend to agree." Except it wasn't art he was talking about.
She didn't receive his telepathic lust. Instead, she wandered over to the autodam table and squinted at the results. "Cuff beat you?"
"He usually does."
"How is that possible? Your strategies at escape and evade are brilliant."
"When I'm playing Naz, I'm usually more interested in what he has to say than how he plays the game."
That got him a raised eyebrow at least.
"Haven't you ever thrown a game to gain a different advantage?"
"No, I can't say that I have." Her brows furrowed together. "But then I don't play that many games, and why would you need an advantage over Cuff? I mean Naz. Would he prefer it if I call him Naz, or is that just between the two of you?"