by Jaleta Clegg
"I'll be there in three weeks," I promised as he let me go. "Don't damage my ship."
"I wouldn't dream of it." Clark tried to smile, but I read the tension in his usually mischievous green eyes.
"Jasyn needs you here, Clark, otherwise I'd demand Lowell let you come with me," I said.
"I know. Your ride's getting impatient." He nodded at Vance Shiropi.
"Let's go," I told Vance. I could have procrastinated leaving for a month. It wouldn't have done any good. I'd still have to go.
Vance nodded and led the way off the ship.
The Patrol crews in the docking bay gave us curious glances as we threaded our way to a docking berth farther along the rim of the station. My green shipsuit stuck out. Everyone else wore uniforms. One crew was in the pale blue of Exploration. There weren't any black Enforcers, not that I saw. I still felt as trapped as when I was marched through the station by a squad of Enforcers on my way to trial on Tebros. I ducked my head and followed Vance's silver uniform across the bay.
He stopped to talk with one of the hangar crews, finalizing our departure. I wanted to run back to the Phoenix. But I had an unspoken promise to the Eggstone and the Sessimoniss. And to Tayvis.
Vance shot an unreadable glance at me as he finished up paperwork. "Through there," he said, nodding towards an open hatch.
I went inside the ship.
It was tiny, smaller than was normal, even for a courier. The cabin was barely large enough for two short bunks and a microscopic galley and table. The cockpit took up most of the front of the ship. I dumped my duffel on a bunk and went to see what the controls looked like.
The flight controls were familiar, I'd flown several ships just like it during my training at the Academy, and then for a short time with Jerimon. Someone had been very busy adding extra equipment. Both walls were crammed with hastily installed scanning equipment. We had just about every piece available to the Patrol, or anyone else for that matter.
I slipped into the pilot's chair. I glanced overhead and found more nonstandard equipment. The ship had been equipped with battle strength shielding and a control pad for a blast cannon. Lowell really didn't want to lose us. That thought was small comfort. The mere existence of the extra equipment on the ship told me this was deeply serious. Lowell expected trouble, after promising me there wouldn't be any.
The hatch shut behind me. Vance came to the cockpit and took the other chair. It was close quarters. With all of the extra equipment we barely had room to breathe.
"We're clear for undocking." Vance flipped on the com and started the undocking sequence with station control.
I warmed up the engines. "What did Lowell not tell me?" I asked Vance in a tight voice.
"He said you had been fully briefed on the mission."
"He told me there wouldn't be any trouble. Why the cannon? Why the shields? Why all of this?" I waved my hands at the equipment covering both walls.
"My orders are to get you away at the first sign of trouble." Vance pushed buttons, releasing us from the station. "All of this is to make sure we can do that."
The station undocking arm clanked free. We were pushed gently away. I nudged the ship around.
"How many ships are missing?" I asked. "What happened to the Sessimoniss?"
"Shift to vector four three eight. At last count, there are eighty three ships unaccounted for, most of them missing in the last few years. And no one knows what happened to the Sessimoniss. I thought that was why you were included." His tone made it clear that he thought I didn't belong on the ship. I would have been glad to agree with him, except I'd be deserting the Eggstone. And Tayvis.
I sent the ship curving around to the vector he'd given me. I expected the engines to be sluggish, the ship was overloaded with all of the extra equipment. The engines were more powerful than I'd expected. The ship handled heavy, but the extra power made up for it. We wouldn't be quite as maneuverable as a courier normally was, but I hoped we wouldn't need to pull any fancy moves.
"The course is set, when you're ready," Vance said. He adjusted his controls.
I pushed the sliders up, giving the engine more power. We leapt forward into clear space. The lights turned green. I slid us through into hyperspace.
There was a moment of gut twisting nausea as we passed through the transect boundary. It was as familiar to me as breathing. The ship slid through the barrier, the vibrations rattling the ship for a brief moment. I closed my eyes. I was leaving Jasyn and my life behind. I silently promised that I would be back. Three weeks, no more.
Chapter 4
The viewscreen showed the swirling colors of energy that were normal for hyperspace. I shut down the sublight engines. Everything had stayed within normal limits. The hyperdrive sent subliminal vibrations through the ship, powering us through that other dimension, creating a bubble of normality that surrounded the ship. All of the lights on my board were green.
"Are you hungry?" Vance asked.
I shook my head then changed my mind. We were going to be in very close quarters for the next three weeks. He was making an effort to be friendly, the least I could do was return the favor.
"What's available?" I took the four steps to stand next to the galley. The chairs were small, tucked in under a table barely large enough for a full game of solitaire. I sat in a chair.
Vance read off a list then frowned. "No chicken noodle."
It was a staple on most ships. It kept indefinitely. I hated it. The rest of the list were food I could actually stand, some I even liked.
"Lowell ordered the food, didn't he? He knows I hate chicken noodle."
Vance tapped controls on the galley dispenser. "I left you the bottom bunk." He turned around and disappeared into the tiny bathroom. The door slid shut behind him.
I shifted in the chair. The ship was really small.
The Eggstone shards dug into my middle. I reached into my suit and pulled out the two bags. Emotions pulsed and beat through me as I handled the bags. I slipped the tops open and poured the shards onto the table. They sparkled all colors of the rainbow. Some pieces were larger, as big as the end of my little finger. Others were so small as to almost disappear. I put the bags to one side and stared at the shattered ruin of the Eggstone. It had been intelligent, I wasn't sure what else it had been. It had talked to me, shown me myself, almost too painfully clear. It had a curiosity to match my own. It wasn't fair that the Eggstone was lying in pieces on the table.
I picked up a curved section, thin as paper and clear green. A blue piece near it had a similar curve. I picked it up and slid it into the green shard. No, not right. I shifted it around. The pieces chimed as they slid together, melding into a solid piece. The colors mixed to a dark green. I picked up a yellow sliver. It didn't fit against the others. But there was a red one that looked as if it belonged. I picked up an orange sliver, shook my head, and put it back in the pile. The pale blue section fit, sealing itself to the others.
Piece after piece fit into place, after much patient trial and error. The rejoined pieces grew slowly in my hand, darkening with each new addition. Sometimes there were gaps, pieces irretrievably lost.
I was vaguely aware of the ship, of time slipping past. My body made demands, I dealt with them as quickly as I could, impatient to return to my task. With each piece that connected, the pulsing anger and pain faded slightly.
I worked carefully. Each piece locked into the others, sealing itself to the growing lump of stone in my hands. Each one brought a measure of relief.
The pile of shards on the table shrank. Piece after piece slid home. I picked up a final sliver of pale lavender and slid it across the surface of the Eggstone. The piece melted into the rest. I held the stone cradled in my hands. It was not as it had been. Before, the Eggstone was smooth, glossy black, about the size of my fist. It was the same size, but now it was pitted and scarred. Cracks webbed over the surface. The gloss was dulled and scratched. But as the final piece slid home I felt a wave of weary peace wash t
hrough me, displacing the pain of the shards.
*Thank you,* the Eggstone's dry voice whispered into my mind. I felt its consciousness withdraw, assessing damage.
I set the Eggstone carefully on the larger bag, nestling it in the soft fabric. I looked up to find Vance watching me warily. A set of scratches marked one cheek.
"What?" I said defensively. My throat was raw, my lips dry and cracked. My voice was a croak.
"You've been sitting there for three days."
I dropped my eyes back to the round black stone on the table. "What did I do to you? Whatever it is, I'm sorry."
"Are you normal again? Or as normal as you get." Vance rubbed his cheek, wincing at the scrapes across it. "I tried to get you to stop long enough to eat. I gave up trying to get you to sleep."
"I'm sorry," I said again. "I had to finish."
"Is it really intelligent?" He flicked a glance over the Eggstone.
"Yes, although I don't know how much damage being broken into a thousand pieces did to it."
Vance shifted closer, reaching into the dispenser. He brought out a cup and set it in front of me. I wrinkled my nose at the sharp sweet smell of it. The liquid inside was thick and pale yellow.
"You probably need it."
"Probably." I picked up the cup of restorative drink the Patrol concocted for its troops. It was calibrated to replace essential nutrients. The stuff was vile. I choked it down. It helped. "How much longer?" I stood. And promptly fell on my face. The cabin spun around me. My tongue felt thick. "You drugged it?" I was going to strangle him. When I could move my hands again.
"I didn't think I had much choice. It's just a sedative."
My eyes were sliding closed. I couldn't do more than twitch. Vance leaned over me. I tried to stay awake. He nodded, apparently satisfied. He scooped me up and dumped me on the lower bunk. My last conscious memory was him tucking a blanket around me.
I dragged my eyes open. They felt crusty. My head was stuffed with something that made thinking hard. I swallowed, my mouth tasted like the outside of a sand cat, all fur and grit. I dragged myself to a sitting position. The cabin spun around me. I cupped my head in my hands, not sure if I was trying to keep it from spinning off or just exploding.
"Feel better?" Vance sat in the cockpit.
"Guh," I managed to croak. I got to my feet, dragging myself up the wall and hanging on to it for dear life as I staggered into the bathroom. I shut the door behind me. And locked it. I didn't want Commander Vance Shiropi checking on me.
I leaned on the sink, my head against the coolness of the mirror on the wall above. I closed my eyes, waiting for the room to quit spinning. I had bad reactions to most drugs. I avoided them whenever I could. Vance hadn't given me a choice.
I used the facilities and stripped off my shipsuit. It smelled awful. I stepped into the tiny shower. A fine mist of warm water enveloped me. The spray turned sharper, foam from soap splattered me. And then more warm water, rinsing me clean. I cycled it twice more, an extravagant waste of water. I scrubbed my short hair as well as my body. By the time the last cycle ended, I was feeling almost myself again. I stood in the shower as the warm mist turned to dry air blowing past.
I stepped out into the bathroom and realized all of my clothes were in a locker under my bunk. I nudged my dirty clothes with my foot. I didn't want to put them back on again. I was naked, with no clothes. And Vance was out there.
I'd already given him the impression I was more than a little crazy. Walking out of the bathroom naked wouldn't help.
What was I really doing here? What good did Lowell think I could do? The Eggstone was a distant echo in my head of the intelligence I'd known before. It didn't hold any answers for me.
I picked up my shipsuit long enough to empty the pockets. I hadn't emptied them before leaving the Phoenix. I had an assortment of small tools, an emergency packet of candy, my id plates, a writing stylus, and the picture of Tayvis. I wasn't making any progress on deciding what to do. I was still naked in the bathroom with my clothes out in the cabin where there was no privacy.
Vance knocked on the door. "Dace? You want your duffel?" He set something against the door.
I waited a minute before sliding the door open. My duffel of clothes tumbled into the bathroom onto my feet. I risked a quick peek out the door. Vance was in the cockpit, absorbed in the readout on the control board, his back to me. I snatched up my duffel and let the door slide shut.
I wondered about it while I dressed. Who was Vance? Why had Lowell picked him? Was he just trying to keep his distance from the crazy lady Lowell had assigned him to escort? I grimaced over the choice of clothing I'd packed. I wished I'd paid more attention. I pulled out a tunic of pale blue with pink flowers and a pair of green leggings. I didn't think Vance would dare comment. What I wore wasn't important anyway. I was going to change back to my shipsuit as soon as I could get it clean.
I gathered my dirty clothes, my duffel, and my courage, then opened the door. I stepped into the cabin. We had a miniature cleaning unit tucked under the galley. I stuffed my dirty clothes into it. I shot a glance at Vance as I stood back up. He was still bent over the controls, seemingly oblivious to me. I put my duffel into a locker under the bunk.
The Eggstone was where I'd left it on the table, still nestled in the folds of the bag. It was slightly warm and felt smoother. I ran my finger over a network of pale gray cracks. I couldn't feel the ridges where the pieces joined. The Eggstone sighed in my mind. It felt as if the Eggstone were in a healing trance. My touch calmed it. I slipped it into my shirt. It made a slight bulge. I shrugged. Vance wasn't going to think I was any more normal without it.
He glanced up as I came into the cockpit. "We've got less than an hour until reentry."
I swung into the pilot's chair. "What is Lowell expecting us to run into?" I asked Vance as he flipped through the calibration routines on half a dozen scanners.
"I don't know."
"You know something. Lowell told me ships were disappearing and only one Sessimoniss ship has been seen in the last two years. That one was almost destroyed."
Vance leaned back in his chair, reaching over his head to flip a last switch. He studied me, cool and assessing. I met his look with one of my own. He straightened and started a new calibration sequence running on another set of equipment.
"There have been rumors of ghost ships," Vance said. "I'm assuming your security clearance is still at least an eight. Commander Lowell didn't give me any indications that had changed. He did warn me you were going to be different. He didn't say just how much different."
"I did say I was sorry." I stroked the bulge of the Eggstone through my tunic. "I had to put it together again."
Vance very wisely didn't comment.
"Tell me about the ghost ships," I said. "Why didn't Lowell tell me himself?"
"Probably because your whole crew was listening in. It isn't something we want out in the open. The rumors are mostly unconfirmed. One ship we found had a brief contact with a ghost ship, right before they stripped it and blew the seals."
I winced. Anyone with any experience in space knew how close vacuum was, how narrow the margin between living and dying. To deliberately blow a ship's seals was the act of a pirate, someone with no qualms about sending a crew to a painful and nasty death of decompression.
"They aren't like anything we've recorded before," Vance continued. "There was no warning. One moment space was clear, the next the ship was under attack. They didn't have a chance. It was an Exploration ship."
I touched the picture of Tayvis in my pocket. Not his ship, I pleaded silently to whatever god was listening. Not Tayvis.
Vance watched me, gauging my reaction. I couldn't read what he thought, he would have made a good card player. He gave nothing away except a general sense of wariness. "Commander Lowell told me to let you know it wasn't the Wanderer."
My sense of relief was tempered with sudden suspicion.
"He said to tell you he was telling
the truth. Although why he'd think you suspected him of lying—"
"He's lied to me before." He'd also told me more truth than lies. A lot more of the truth. Tayvis wasn't confirmed dead, I was fairly certain I could trust that. He was still missing. And I still had the Eggstone and a big mystery. "What else did he not bother to tell me earlier?"
"Nothing," Vance said.
The reentry alarm blared. Vance frowned. "We shouldn't be there yet."
"We are." The alarm beeped insistently until I shut it off by powering up the sublight drive.
Vance shifted his attention back to the controls. He had most of the scanning equipment on standby. He waited with me for the ship to make transition back to normal space.
It was rough. The ship hung on the edge of normal space for a very long, gut wrenching moment. We finally slid through. Half the board was yellow and red. We were blind while the ship cleared the turbulence of reentry. I got the sublights up and slowed the ship. I started a dozen self diagnostic routines. The lights flickered back to green.
Vance reached overhead and flipped the shields on.
"Where are we?" I asked. I couldn't see an obvious sun or planet nearby. The viewscreen had cleared to show mostly empty space, dark and silent. The only stars were pinpricks of light far away. Wavering streaks of glowing gas drifted around us. Serrimonia was in a nebula, a thin glowing ghost of a long gone star. At least we were in the right area of space.
Vance checked his readouts. "Turn us one twenty degrees to zenith."
It took me a second to figure that one out. I'd been out of the Academy too long, I'd forgotten half the military protocols. I turned the ship onto the heading he'd just given me. A single star shone brighter than the rest. It was still a star, though, not a sun. We were very far out.
Vance sighed. "Bad data. It hasn't been updated for a while. We almost missed the gravity well."
"That explains the rough transition. Do you have a course set?"
"One moment." His hands flew over the keypad. He read off numbers to me. I turned the ship onto the course and locked it in.