The Spiral Path

by Lisa Paitz Spindler

  “Report!” She zoomed through status logs on her station’s visual display. Life support down fifty-three percent. Thorne compensators ground to a halt. Any minute the core would shut down when safety parameters were exceeded.

  “Aft outer hull buckling. Engine three operating at thirty-two percent—”

  Damn it. Oh, Rafael.

  “Shut down the wormhole, Ensign. XO, reboot the compensators and send a buoy to collect a sample of that negative matter.”

  If all that negative matter destabilizing the wormhole didn’t come from the Gryphon, then where did it come from? Mitch could be sabotaging her mission, but he needed her help to find Rafael more than he needed to be a hero. Lara needed him for nothing.

  “Buoy away, Captain.” Cam leaned over her console. “Wormhole destabilization in three…two…one.”

  The ship shimmied and a slightly heavier gravity pressed down on them. Normal space-time. Unlike that of Terrans or Creed, Chimeran physiology self-adjusted to either dimension’s phase frequency. The wrist-syncs sure did make the experience more pleasant, though.

  “Ensign, how long until the buoy—”

  “Captain.” Cam tilted back in her chair. “Commodore Yoshida requests your response on the emergency band.”

  “Ignore him.”

  “Actually, he’s broadcasting on all channels now, ma’am.”

  The world around her was spinning out of control, and Mitch would fix it if she let him. Thing was, he missed his chance eleven years ago and she sure wasn’t giving him another. This was her mess; she’d fix it.

  Lara forced her jaw to relax and closed her eyes. “Audio only.” She just could not look at him right now.

  “Captain Soto, report your damage.” Mitch’s low voice filled the bridge and its dark timbre turned her insides liquid.

  “We’re fine, Commodore.”

  “No casualties?”

  “No casualties. No injuries. We’re touched by your concern.”

  A pause. What did he expect? When Lara had needed him most, the man had deserted her.

  “Good to hear. I tried to warn you, Captain Soto. Since the Interlace’s last mission, the wormholes have been unstable.”

  Just unstable? Her ship had almost broken in half.

  “Do you require assistance, Captain?”

  “No. Everything is under control.”

  “Good. Prepare to be boarded.”

  Outside the dark captain’s lounge, Titan hovered like a coin in space. Lara propped her booted feet on the small round table, studied the old crinkled photo of Rafael with her and Mitch, and sipped Creed whiskey.

  She’d never found that closeness again. Leaving the Star Union had opened a chasm even between her and Rafael. As twin children they’d had their own language and talked every day as adults, but Rafael considered her departure to be a desertion. His inability to understand still kicked her in the gut.

  The Chimerans needed and respected her, definitely, but none of them offered her a safe haven from the world, not like Mitch had. When he left for his duty shift the night they argued and she walked out, Lara figured she’d never see him again. The refuge with Mitch had all been an illusion. Lara knew that now and swallowed her tears with another swig of whiskey. That naïve little girl had grown up and knew better than to give anyone else the opportunity to fail her again.

  Any minute the cause of that failure, Commodore Mitch Yoshida, would be boarding her ship. Taking over her ship. Killing him would, unfortunately, cause a galactic incident. Chimeran Murders High-Ranking Terran, the headline would read. Then her people would be rounded up in camps for sure.

  The door chimed.

  She pocketed the photo. “Open.”

  The door dimmed, but only the hallway’s light shone through the entrance.

  Time to get this over with. “Stop playing games, Mitch, and get your ass in here.”

  A sigh, one heavy step, and Mitch Yoshida, the man Lara once expected to spend the rest of her life with, entered her private lounge.

  “Where are the lights?”

  “Off.” Lara dropped her feet to the floor. “Whiskey?”

  “Are you drunk?”

  “If only.” Lara set the glass down and crossed the room to Mitch. “So you’ve boarded my ship. What now?”

  “Lara, when you left—”

  She held a hand up and walked to the viewport. No way was she going where he wanted. “The past is not up for discussion.” She would not argue with a man who believed her indentured servitude was a good thing. “What next?” she asked instead.

  Mitch caught her gaze. “We go after Rafe.”

  Her brother, the only common ground they had anymore. For him, Lara would deal with a demon. “How? Do you know why liminal space has been flooded with negative matter?”

  “No, but we can compensate for it. The Gryphon has more hull protection than any ship in the Union fleet. Command presumed it would be enough, but maybe with some modifications we can—”

  “Stop. Modifications? What do you want to do to my ship?”

  “Protect it. And us.” Mitch held out his hands, palms up. “No ill will meant here, Lara.”

  From her place at the viewport, Lara looked him over. Black Union uniform complete with leather sleeves, belt cinching a trim waist, knee-high boots perfectly polished. Even as plebes, she’d expected that Mitch would look formidable in the Union blacks. And man, had she been right.

  Going by the bars on his lapel, Mitch had indeed followed the plan he originally set for himself. Lieutenant at twenty, Admiral at thirty. Commodore, minimum, at thirty-five.

  Lara ditched the Academy when it became clear the Union deemed Chimerans useful only as tools. Those first days had been tough. She’d run to Creed, to her mother, only to find they judged their Chimeran children similarly—as weapons against the Terrans.

  Mitch leaned on the desk. “I need to run this ship.”

  “You can try, but my crew won’t follow a Black Jacket of any rank. And I haven’t consented to anything yet, Commodore. No matter what, you’re not booting me out of my quarters. I still own this ship and you are a temporary guest.”

  “Do you want to get Rafe back or not? If the Creed have taken him or taken the Interlace—”

  “I’ve maintained a peaceful relationship with both Terra and Creed for over a decade. Creed has no reason to go after Rafael’s ship. If they wanted a royal heir such as Rafael to return, our mother could have summoned him. Creed had no part in this disappearance. If you can’t accept that, Mitch, then you can march off this ship right now. Or I’ll throw you off.”

  Mitch frowned. “Fine. I’ll accept that Creed isn’t involved—for now. But if we turn up evidence that implicates them, you have to consider it. Truce?”

  A truce with Mitch meant that the wall Lara had built around herself might crumble, bit by bit. She couldn’t go back to being vulnerable—couldn’t keep the Chimerans safe—if that scared little girl ruled her again. Letting go of what she could never have was what had kept her afloat while finding the money for the Gryphon and the Centaur and while settling Alpha and Beta Havens. Only her people knew the coordinates of those colonies. Even now Cam was scrubbing and firewalling that information in their databanks.

  “You don’t have to hate me forever.” Mitch narrowed his eyes. “It’s more important that we find Rafe.”

  Lara sat in a chair near the viewport. Far away from Mitch. She would set aside her fears temporarily in order to find her brother. “What’s Rafael to you anyway? He’s just a Chimeran tool, isn’t he?”

  “You really think I let some Union edict get in the way of a friendship?”

  Lara poured herself another jigger of whiskey. “Why not? You let it get in the way of us.”

  Mitch chuckled, a dry smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You let that edict destroy us, Lara.”

  “That edict conscripted every Chimeran of legal age to military service for eight years. It’s slavery.”

&nbs
p; “You were already in the military.” Mitch threw out his hands, palms up. “Why did it matter?”

  “They didn’t conscript all Terrans. Just those of us who are half-Creed.”

  “Yes, it must be so difficult being able to survive in either dimension indefinitely, while the rest of us have to risk our molecules blowing apart.”

  Lara replied with only a steely stare.

  Mitch sighed. “Creed is so much more advanced than we are. How can we not use every tool we have to our advantage?”

  Lara pushed out of the chair and crossed the room. “That’s just it, Mitch. Chimerans aren’t tools. I am not a piece of machinery to be used as the Union sees fit. I guess even now you don’t understand the distinction.”

  He still used the same soap. A musky blend of sandalwood and lemongrass. This close, she noticed the fine lines around Mitch’s eyes, grooves starting to show on each side of his mouth. The lips were the same, though, the lower one slightly fuller.

  Mitch moved toward the door. “Oh, I understand the difference, Lara. A machine wouldn’t be such a pain in my ass.”

  With that, he tabbed the door open and marched out.

  Chapter Three

  “Thorne compensator reboot complete, Commodore.”

  Mitch studied the terminal’s display from his station on the Gryphon’s bridge. Looking at the clean lines of the command center, he couldn’t tell if the ship was of Terran or Creed origin, but noted elements from both. The liquid curves of Creed ships dominated the bridge, and terminals grew out of the decking in fluid lines, but the utilitarian info-grid was all Terran.

  He leaned back in his chair. “Good. Ensign, increase the sensors to the new threshold levels.”

  “Captain?” For the fourth time Ensign Chandra looked to Lara for confirmation of his orders.

  Mitch forced his shoulders to relax. His own XO had reported similar interactions across the ship. Apparently, the Gryphon’s crew only answered to Lara Soto.

  “Confirmed, Chandra.” Lara propped herself against the bulkhead. “Compensate for the new threshold levels.”

  She could have settled the problem at any time by ordering her crew to follow Mitch’s command, but such a decree would never fall from her lips. Unyielding Lara. The trait he most admired was the trait that had split them up.

  Over the years he’d seen the very discrimination she’d predicted crop up again and again. It galled him to see that Lara had been right, but he could never admit it without her ego bursting out the airlocks.

  She shifted her weight, unconsciously jutting one shapely hip to the side. The woman still had the sexiest curves he’d ever seen, and that captain’s uniform didn’t hide any of them. For years Mitch had managed to put Lara out of his mind, but that was easier when the woman was across the galaxy or, better yet, in another dimension. Not so easy when they were on the same ship. So much for thinking he’d put their relationship behind him.

  Chandra nodded and clicked away at his terminal. The new compensators hummed to life without so much as a shimmy. Lara had built a solid ship indeed.

  A whole week their combined crew had been working on the upgrades. A whole week with no word from the Interlace.

  Mitch tapped the screen. “XO.”

  Rossa looked up from her terminal. “Commodore?”

  “Is the hull plating ionization complete?”

  “Ninety-nine percent, sir. Ionization should be operable within the hour.”

  “Perfect. When it’s finished, fire up the capacitors and alert me when they’re at full charge.”

  Rossa glanced over at Lara, who nodded her agreement.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Enough of this. Lara had permitted Mitch and his crew onto her ship, had granted them access to the Gryphon’s systems, but for seven days every single command had to be routed through her.

  “Captain. A word in private, please.” Mitch marched past Lara. As he turned the corner toward the captain’s lounge, he saw Lara push away from the bulkhead. She warned Rossa off with a wave after the XO handed her a holotablet. What did Rossa expect him to do? Toss Lara into a decompression chamber?

  If the crew’s attitude didn’t change, Rossa’s fears might come true.

  Lara followed Mitch into the captain’s lounge. His patience had lasted about five days longer than she’d expected. He planted himself on the edge of her desk, arms crossed. Ready to take her on. Lara sidestepped his long legs, sat at her desk and started tabbing through the data from the wormhole buoy. Anything to distract her from the coming storm that was Mitch Yoshida.

  “How can I help you, Commodore?”

  “Start by telling your crew to follow my orders.”

  Lara smiled and continued to study the holotablet. “They only follow mine because they want to.” She tried to ignore his thinned lips and refused to feel one ounce of sympathy for the man. “This isn’t a military ship. I can ask the crew to follow your orders, but I can’t make them respect you. What did you expect?”

  “I guess I should have expected less from a ship full of pirates.”

  Lara gripped the holotablet tighter to keep her hands steady. Stray bands of Chimeran freebooters did exist, but not among her fleet. Besides, if the Star Union’s laws had been just, she never would have needed to break them. “We’re private contractors, Mitch, and you know it.”

  Mitch set his hands on the desk and leaned wide shoulders into her personal space. “It’s still so easy to get under your skin, Lara.” His voice dropped lower as if he whispered to her in the dark. “I know I’m there when you stop calling me ‘Commodore.’”

  “You said you didn’t want this to get personal.”

  His dark gaze swept over her face and lingered on her lips. “I don’t. You’ll just run away again when it gets difficult.”

  Lara felt her face flush but held her gaze steady. “At least this time I have somewhere to go.”

  “And where is that? I’ve been sorting through your logs and you’ve definitely been on some long voyages, but to where I can’t determine.”

  “The databanks have been scrubbed or protected or both. You’re not going to discover the location of the havens.”

  “What are the havens? Some kind of Chimeran paradise?”

  “A refuge. A place with no Terrans and no Creed.”

  He’d already learned too much about the Havens. Only one non-Chimeran knew the location of the havens, and that was her father. She’d sent him a message about Rafael’s disappearance, but hadn’t yet received a reply. If any other non-Chimeran learned of the havens’ coordinates, she’d have to relocate everyone. Luckily, Mitch’s knowledge could only endanger Alpha Haven in Terran space. He couldn’t survive long at Beta Haven in Creed’s dimension.

  “That’s right.” Mitch tapped a knuckle on the desktop. “You and your crew have defected. You don’t claim citizenship with either Terra or Creed. I guess you haven’t spoken to Rafe much recently, then, have you?”

  She returned her attention to the holotablet. “Actually, we speak every month and correspond more than that.” He didn’t need to know that Rafael kept the talk small and never said anything personal, no matter how she encouraged him. “Rafael is welcome at the havens any time he decides to leave the Star Union.”

  “He’s a dedicated officer.”

  “My brother and all the Chimerans on the Interlace are sequestered bio-tools the Star Union takes for granted. A Terran ship would be dead in the water without them. Maybe the Interlace didn’t disappear. Maybe Rafael doesn’t want you to find him.”

  The creases around Mitch’s mouth deepened. “Don’t you dare imply that Rafe is a traitor.”

  Lara felt Mitch’s warm breath on her cheek and forced herself not to look at his lips. “Rafael can’t betray something he’s not. A mutiny, though—”

  Mitch snatched the holotablet out of her hand. “I can’t believe you would—”

  The door alarm dinged and Cam strode into the room. “I’m sorry to intru
de, Captain, but have you examined all of the buoy data yet?”

  Lara took the tablet back. “Not all of it. Why?”

  Cam’s eyes darted to Mitch, questioning. He sighed and stepped away from the desk.

  Lara kept her gaze forward. “Go on, Rossa.”

  “The extra exotic matter we noticed? It’s from a leak in the Thorne-Sagan shell.”

  Mitch looked at Lara. “Impossible. The shell surrounding the ship is flooded with exotic matter. How could you tell the difference?”

  Lara scrolled through the report and sat back when she found the reason. “Because it’s out of phase.”

  “Out of Terran or Creed phase?”

  Lara gazed out the viewport at an endless starry deep. Where could Rafael have gone?

  “Both. The matter is out of phase with both Terra and Creed. It’s from somewhere else entirely.”

  “That’s it. I fold. You win.” Lara set her cards down while Cam gathered up her chips. Outside the captain’s lounge viewport, transports came and went at Cassini Station. In two days, upgrades would be complete and they would make another run for Creed. Hopefully, a successful one.

  Chandra tossed his cards down and snorted. “You fixed those cards, didn’t you, Rossa? You hiding aces up your sleeve?”

  The XO downed another shot of whiskey and shook her head. “You’re just that bad a player, Raj.” Cam shuffled the cards. “Another round?”

  Lara draped her jacket on the back of her chair. “Only if you promise to give me my money back.”

  Cam smiled. “Not on your life.”

  They played a few more rounds and Chandra lost every one.

  Cam snatched his cards away. “That’s ten rounds at Artie’s you owe me, Raj.”

  Chandra called over his shoulder as he strode out of the room. “Yeah, yeah. On an ensign’s salary. Sure thing, XO.”

  Her XO laughed, but Lara just watched him leave. “He was barely ten years old when we landed on Alpha Haven.”

  Cam cleaned up the table. “Don’t tell me you’re feeling old, Lara.”

  Lara shook herself. How that little boy’s life might have been different if she’d never left the Star Union. “No, no, not old. Just—I don’t know. Restless.”