“How did Raena help your escape?”
“She made sure that Uncle Revan couldn’t follow me.”
“By killing him?” one of the judges asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then what happened?”
“She followed me back to Captain Chen’s ship and we left Kai together.”
“Captain Chen’s ship is the Veracity?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And where did you go?”
“I took them through the satellite defenses to Drusingyi.”
The levels of dishonesty in Jimi’s account made Raena’s head swim. Reality bore so little resemblance to what he said on the witness stand that she was amazed the judges couldn’t taste falsehood in the air.
In reality, Jimi had never been to Kai before. He’d never been off of his homeworld, until Raena told him how to reconfigure a hopper and offered a distraction to cover his escape. Yes, Jimi had given her enough information that she could bring the Veracity to Drusingyi, but he’d done it inadvertently.
Or so she had believed. She gazed at the boy now, calculating. He lied to his family for years about his feelings for them. More than that, he’d lied to his father, an Imperial torturer who once lived to root out dishonesty. The boy must be craftier than she’d thought. Jimi was, after all, one of Thallian’s sons.
“What happened after you reached Drusingyi?” the rock judge asked.
“The Veracity picked up the distress call from the men from the Arbiter. A malfunction had destroyed the city’s air filtration system. The men were stranded on the planet’s surface, without any kind of supplies or survival equipment.”
“None of this is related to the trial here before us,” Corvas pointed out.
“True,” the twiggy judge agreed. “It’s fascinating nonetheless.”
The defender inclined his head. One of his eyes slid sidelong to look at Raena. Then he faced the judges again. “Since Jain Thallian clearly was not kidnapped, I ask that the charge of kidnapping be dropped against Raena Zacari.”
“We will withdraw to chambers to discuss,” the head judge said. “Court is dismissed for the rest of the morning. We will meet back here this afternoon.”
*
Again the lunch they brought Raena was impressive, a green salad flecked with nuts, seeds, and dried berries. The accommodations might be dusty and the showers rationed, but the food could not be beat.
The jail guards escorted her back into the courtroom afterward and chained her once more in the defendant’s box. Jimi had gone back to hiding in protective custody. The audience seats seemed even fuller than they had been in the morning, but with a noticeable increase in the number of Planetary Security agents stationed around them.
“Raena Zacari,” the court recorder said, “the Planetary Business Council of Kai has agreed to drop the charge of kidnapping. Instead, it charges you with being a party to violence on a weapons-free world, violence that ended in the murder of four men. How do you answer these charges?”
“If I killed anyone on Kai, it was in self-defense.”
“Kai does not recognize self-defense as justification for violence,” the rock judge said. “How do you plead?”
Corvas pre-empted her response. “We insist on our right to trial. Please show us your evidence for the charge.”
A security cam, meant for catching shoplifters, provided grainy low-res video of seven men and Jain attacking a small party of tourists in the souk on Kai. One minute Ariel Shaad, Gavin Sloane, and Raena Zacari were sampling exotic fruits under a silver-shot canopy. The next, a soldier dressed in nondescript black livery had grasped Ariel’s arm and tried dragging her away. She fumbled for the gun no longer hanging at her thigh.
Gavin Sloane turned right into another assailant’s fist. Sloane staggered into a wall and slid to the dirt.
Raena Zacari spun into her own attacker’s grip on her arm and brought the heel of her free hand up hard under his chin. Still turning, she pulled him off balance and used his body to take the blow aimed at her by his accomplice. Then she dropped the man with the busted jaw and leapt onto the next man. In a movement as economical as poetry, she had broken his arm, several of his ribs, and vaulted over him as he dropped so she could come to Sloane’s aid.
Sloane’s attacker didn’t even know Raena was coming. Jumping onto his back, she twisted his head sharply enough to snap his spine, then turned to deal with the man dragging Ariel away. Less than a minute had passed, and already three attackers were down. One was dead.
Raena moved from one man to the next efficiently, dropping one with a scorpion kick, the next with a roundhouse punch. Her small stature made her tricky for the larger men to grab. The high-heeled boots she wore proved lethal. Most unnerving of all, she laughed through the whole attack, as if it was the most fun she’d had in years.
Then her gaze locked on Jain Thallian in the shadows.
A smoking canister dropped at her feet. Others rained down around her. Jain pulled his mask up from under his chin. Raena leaned into a sprint toward him, but Revan Thallian bulled after her. They came at Jain so fast he couldn’t do anything more than raise the shock net he carried.
Raena wound her fists in the sparking net and yanked hard. She hauled it out of Jain’s grasp and whirled, catching Revan upside the head with it. Then she tugged on the edge of the net and sent Revan to the dirt.
She turned a cartwheel after him and brought the toe of her boot down hard on Revan’s throat. He wilted, obviously dead. Raena snatched the mask off his face and held it over her own nose. For the first time in the fight, she seemed to be breathing hard.
Bending down, she scooped up a sleep canister with her spare hand. When her head came up, her insectile sunglasses fixed on Jain. Both of them ran out of frame.
The broadcast video usually cut at that moment, but this version continued long enough to show seven bodies in black uniforms strewn across the cramped market street, with barely a splash of visible blood.
The recording ended with a rain of sleep grenades. Pale blue smoke shrouded the scene.
Over the stunned silence in the courtroom, Corvas said, “I call Ariel Shaad to witness.”
*
Ariel strode out of the gallery to sit in the witness box. Mykah noticed she’d dressed up during the lunch break: ropes of gemstones shimmered on her chest and both wrists sported gem-studded bracelets. She’d traded her usual uniform of white blouses and gray trousers for a warm green dress that played up the flawless gold of her skin. Only the braid remained, but even it was more complicated than usual.
Now she looked less like a veteran and more like the upper-class clientele of Kai. When Corvas introduced her as the head of the Shaad Family Foundation, she looked the part. It was hard to picture her as the heir and one-time owner of the Shaad Arms Company.
Ariel told about her first visit to Kai, soon after the War ended. She and her mother had come to gamble, to be pampered, to relax. In a galaxy where humans—even those who fought with the Coalition—seemed more in danger all the time, they’d had a wonderful time and felt very safe on Kai.
Because of those fond memories, Ariel’s mother had come back to Kai several times since, bringing all her wealthy friends. Ariel never worried about the older ladies on Kai because she’d known that Planetary Security was so good.
So when it came time to choose a place to bring Raena, Ariel’s only choice had been Kai. Ariel expected that Kai’s weapons-free status would keep Raena safe.
And they had enjoyed a marvelous stay on Kai. Ariel name-checked the restaurants, the amusements, the casinos they’d frequented. It was as good a commercial for the pleasure planet as anyone could wish. Mykah expected an advertising flack somewhere was even now figuring out how to illustrate the list so that a human woman wasn’t seen to be the spokesperson gushing about how great Kai was.
“But when we needed Kai to protect us,” Ariel said, “they failed utterly. They didn’t arrest the Thallians at the spa
ceport. They allowed Revan Thallian and his kill squad to roam around Kai City, armed with a shock net and sleep grenades, if not additional weapons that they didn’t get a chance to use against us. When the Thallians attacked my party, Kai Planetary Security didn’t arrive until well after the fight had broken up. We are extremely lucky that Revan Thallian didn’t plan to kill Raena until after he’d taken her hostage, because if he’d wanted to kill her on Kai, Planetary Security provided no defense at all.”
Corvas set the video of the assault in the souk to play once more. This time, it had a counter embedded in it, clicking off the time parts before the Planetary Security team finally arrived.
It was long enough for Raena to incapacitate three soldiers and kill the rest.
“Where were you?” Ariel asked. Anger choked her voice. “I trusted Kai to protect us. Not only did no one come when we needed help, now you are prosecuting Raena for not going docilely to her death. You’re blaming her for bringing violence to a weapons-free world, when you did absolutely nothing to prevent that violence from happening here. I’m sure she is not the last person to visit Kai who expects your protection.”
She almost said more, but Corvas gestured and drew her attention. Ariel took a deep breath and leaned back into her chair.
“Raena Zacari was orphaned by the War. I took her under my Foundation’s protection. Her safety is personally important to me. I’m disappointed that it wasn’t as important to Kai.”
“Thank you, Ms. Shaad,” Corvas said. “I’d like to call prisoner #1823 to the stand.”
*
The man was marched in and shackled to the witness box. He looked calm for the moment, if not particularly clear. The jailers hadn’t made much of an attempt to clean him up. He wore an ill-fitting jumpsuit that hung on him. His hair had been washed, if not combed. His bleary gaze fixed on nothing.
Raena wasn’t exactly sure what her role in this bit of theater was going to be, but she inched toward the edge of her chair in readiness. Her ankles were chained to the base of the chair. The chair was bolted to the floor. The tether that connected the restraints around her wrists to her hobble allowed her to raise her arms about shoulder high. Her wrists could reach about a half-meter apart.
The judges questioned the man about who he was, why he’d come to Kai. He muttered, “Can’t tell. Can’t reveal the family.”
Raena watched the three judges exchange a look.
Corvas stepped forward, moving quickly enough that he caught the prisoner’s attention. Suddenly the man came alert, eyes clear and focused.
Corvas asked, “Son, do you know who this is?” He stepped aside to reveal Raena sitting behind him.
The soldier launched himself forward. The attack was all the more frightening for being entirely silent. He was hobbled, just as Raena was, but the chain that attached him to the witness stand tore the wood apart. He bounded forward like a beast.
He slapped Corvas to the floor as he plunged toward Raena. She stood to meet him.
The first punch came toward her head. She sidestepped it easily. The second one aimed down toward her heart. She raised her manacled hands, tangled the cable between them around his arm. A quick circle of her foot wound her hobble around his calf. She yanked hard, falling backward into her chair as she shoved his shoulders away from her.
He lost his balance and fell. His head hit the floor with a thud.
Raena clutched the seat of the chair and managed to prevent herself from falling atop him. She disentangled her leg from his, wrapped her feet in the tether running down his body, and yanked him over onto his stomach. Then she pressed his head to the floor with her foot.
He flailed beneath her, trying to flop himself over. Raena got her other foot atop his shoulders and pushed down as hard as she could. If the chair hadn’t been bolted to the floor, she would have fallen. For once, the restraints worked in her favor.
The bailiff had moved into place to protect the judges. Only now that Raena had the soldier pinned did the guards finally move into action.
She knew they were going to stun her before anyone else had figured it out. They really couldn’t stun the soldier without hitting her, too, and they weren’t going to get close enough to grapple with him until he was unconscious. She would have done the same thing.
She was glad when the cameras zoomed in close. They would show how defenseless she was as the stun staff put her down.
Damn, she hated the feeling of current running over her skin,
co-opting her muscles. She clenched her teeth to keep from biting her tongue.
*
Haoun exploded to his feet to go to Raena’s rescue. Ariel had been expecting that, so she grabbed his forearm. Belatedly, Mykah took hold of him too. Luckily, Haoun hesitated before doing something foolish.
“She’s okay,” Ariel said quietly. “Settle, before you catch the cameras’ attention.”
Haoun sank back to the bench, shaking. “What was that all about?” he whispered angrily.
“Proof that Kai couldn’t protect her,” Mykah guessed. “Did you see how fast she is?”
“But how does that help her?” Coni asked. “Kai doesn’t recognize self-defense as an appropriate response.”
“She didn’t fight him,” Mykah explained. “She stopped him. Kai couldn’t stop him, now or when he attacked her before.” He turned to Ariel. “Do you think they’ll drop the charges?”
“No. They’ll still try to fine her. That’s why we’ll have to prove he came from the Arbiter and they should never have let him onto the planet in the first place.”
The bailiff helped Corvas to his feet. He limped over to speak to the judges, cradling one of his arms awkwardly across his body.
“Oh, Corvas is hurt,” Coni said.
“He’s lucky it wasn’t worse,” Ariel said fondly. “I warned him. He was supposed to get out of the way.”
“You knew this was going to happen,” Haoun accused.
“Yes,” Ariel admitted.
“Did Raena?”
“As soon as she saw him, don’t you think?” Ariel offered him a tight smile, not liking his tone. “I told her this morning that Corvas planned to call for him.”
Raena was being unshackled from her chair now. She wasn’t unconscious, but she looked pretty out of it. One of the guards heaved her across his shoulder. Her limbs hung down, swinging like a doll’s.
Three other guards picked up the soldier.
“Court is adjourned,” the bailiff announced.
“’Bout time,” Ariel said. “I need a drink. Anyone else?”
“Is she going to be all right?” Haoun asked. “She looks terrible.”
“You know she’s had worse, right?” Ariel asked. Then, relenting, she said, “I’m the last person to be unsympathetic to Raena, but I also know how much she’s endured. Stun is uncomfortable, but it doesn’t cause lasting effects unless you get hit repeatedly in a short amount of time. Even then, it won’t leave a mark.”
They all understood she was referring to the scars striping Raena’s back.
“She won’t like it,” Ariel summed up, “but it won’t damage her.”
“I’m going to see if they’ll let me up to sit with her,” Haoun said.
“She’s only allowed one visitor a day,” Coni reminded.
“Every legal system has its price,” Ariel told Haoun as she stood up to give the big lizard room to get past her. “Take her some food. The stun will make her hungry when she wakes up.”
“You’ve been stunned before?” Coni asked.
“In my misspent youth.” And that was all Ariel wanted to say with the cameras still buzzing around. She smiled at Coni and Mykah. “I’m serious about getting a drink. Please come keep me company.”
*
The guard placed Raena back on the bench in her cell, making sure her head went down softly, then left her alone. Raena couldn’t even turn over yet, but the stun was wearing off. She felt as if medium-sized insects crawled all over her
skin, biting out mouthfuls of flesh.
Stars and sky, she hated to be stunned.
She wasn’t sure where the trial would go next, but Kai would have to respond to the accusation that they couldn’t protect the wealthy people who came to enjoy their hospitality. She had to admire Ariel for attacking the pleasure planet’s most vulnerable point. If the Business Council wasn’t careful, Ariel could end tourism to the planet.
Raena realized this might be a dangerous time for her, alone in her prison cell with no one to watch her back. Too bad the Business Council had already tried the deranged roommate gambit to settle the case before the trial started.
At the very least, they would hold Raena responsible for drawing the Thallians to Kai. She wondered what kind of blame-the-victim crime they would label that.
She hoped that Corvas was okay. He’d hit the floor hard enough to snap something. Raena knew the bone repair technology on Kai was state of the art. She just wished they weren’t so often in need of it.
*
The kids let Ariel pick the bar, so she chose a funky little place lit with strings of multicolored lights. Ariel summoned the serving robot and paid before anyone could object.
The kids were fond of Raena, which was enough of a point in common for Ariel. Crusading Mykah reminded her of her own kids. Coni’s sense of humor made her think of Heddryn, a Fossa she’d been friends with back in the War. Heddryn had been dead more than a decade, but it felt good to honor her memory now.
Once everyone had tasted their drinks, Ariel asked, “What’s going on between Haoun and Raena?”
“It started on Lautan,” Mykah said.
“No, it started on the ship,” Coni corrected. “It might have been all on his part then, but he was always sitting beside her, trying to get her to notice him.”
“Raena can be kind of oblivious,” Ariel said fondly. “He knows her story?”
“She’s been open with us about it,” Coni said.
“She’s Haoun’s type,” Mykah added, “meaning human. He used to romance the human ladies when he was working here on Kai.”
No More Heroes: In the Wake of the Templars Book Three Page 18