The vending machine stopped as soon as it detected her interest, swiveling on its wheels to turn its wares toward her. She waved her chip card at its sensor before remembering that her bank account seemed to have disappeared.
“Funds inaccessible,” the vendor announced brightly. “Physical cash or barter?”
Surprised it accepted physical coin, Alisa dug into her pocket, glad she had made Yumi and Alejandro pay her that way. A twinge of guilt ran through her as she wrapped her hand around a couple of the coins, realizing that Alejandro surely hadn’t expected her to steal his belongings when he’d paid her for passage.
“Barter?” Mica asked.
“The team at Vendomatic Satisfaction is collecting raw materials and valuable items for the rebuilding of Perun. If you have such items, please place them on my tray for consideration. I am programmed to analyze them and offer a fair trade.”
Mica plucked off some of the sticky strands still wrapped around Alisa’s sleeves and back.
“I’m sure that’s not what it has in mind for raw materials,” Alisa said as Mica wadded them up and wiped them on the tray.
“I’m out of metals and plastics.”
The vending machine sucked in its tray and hummed to itself. A scraping came from within it, and Alisa imagined the machine trying to figure out a way to dispose of the sticky strands.
“0.57 morats in credit,” it announced, and lights flashed inside its case, signifying the items she could purchase.
“Huh,” Alisa said.
“If you let me work on your legs, you might be able to get a bottle of FizzBurst too.”
Alisa tapped the display in front of the chocolate she had been eyeing. “No, thanks. That stuff tastes like lemon-flavored takka, and I’d never get to sleep.”
“Do you really want to sleep when an irate cyborg is after you?”
Alisa sighed, accepting the chocolate and heading for the door. She wished she could deny that anyone might be after her, but the bag weighed heavily against her hip as she stepped outside.
The sea air smelled of rain, and storm clouds lurked over the harbor. That did not keep people from busily streaming along the concourses, on their way to and from ships. Alisa watched the passersby for familiar faces. Beck, walking behind her and Mica, was doing the same thing, though he was surely watching for White Dragon representatives instead of Leonidas and Alejandro.
“Any idea how you can buy them off, Beck?” Alisa asked.
“Who? The mafia?”
“Yes. Surely, they have some price that they would consider acceptable.”
“My life,” he said glumly. “That’s the price they have in mind.”
“It must be costing them a lot of resources to keep sending people after you. Maybe you could bargain with them.”
“I doubt they’ll accept a wad of sticky webbing. As I told you before, if I could turn in a certain cyborg for an extremely handsome reward, I might have enough to pay them off.”
Alisa grimaced, wishing she hadn’t brought the subject up again. It just seemed that they ought to be able to come up with a way to get Beck out of his trouble. A way that did not involve betraying anyone else.
“He’s too dangerous,” Alisa said. “Got any other ideas?”
“If I could make it big with my sauce line, maybe I could eventually make enough money, but that’ll take years, especially since I’m not able to actively work on it now. I don’t have anything else of value.”
Beck glanced toward Alisa’s bag, but did not suggest that she give him the orb to trade. She was not surprised the idea crossed his mind. Who wouldn’t be tempted by a little theft in order to get out of trouble?
“You’re welcome to work on your project in your spare time on the ship,” Alisa said as they stepped onto the moving walkway that would take them to the Star Nomad’s berth.
“Making sauces?”
“The mess kitchen is a good size.”
“The appliances don’t work, the utensils are rusty, and there were cockroaches nesting in the stock pot when I first came aboard.”
“My kitchen has a stock pot? Huh.”
Beck gave her a sour look.
“At least the price is right. You would have to pay to rent a commercial kitchen.”
“I suppose. When are we leaving? Maybe I could take my wages and order some ingredients for the next stage of our trip.”
“Leaving might be difficult,” Mica said, pointing toward Dock 87, where the Nomad rested at the end of a concrete pier.
The ramp was down, with the hatch open and Yumi standing at the top of it. Leonidas stood at the bottom wearing his crimson combat armor, all save the helmet, which rested under his arm. That meant Alisa had no trouble seeing the fearsome expression on his face as his gaze locked onto her. It was much different from the calm face he’d had in sickbay, looking almost innocuous as Alejandro tended his wounds. Now he looked like… an enemy.
Alisa did her best not to squirm as the moving sidewalk took her closer. His hard gaze never left her face. His mouth moved as he spoke, probably to his earstar rather than to Yumi, who was tinkering on her netdisc. Three suns, she wasn’t holding the door open for him, was she? To ensure he wasn’t locked out? Maybe he had figured out the problem and had forced her to do so, though she appeared calm as she poked at a holodisplay, not under any duress.
“It’s not too late to turn around and run the other way, Captain,” Beck observed, apparently also the recipient of Leonidas’s flinty gaze.
Alisa sighed. “Yes, it is.”
She had seen Leonidas run. He could catch them easily.
As Alisa stepped off the sidewalk and headed down the pier toward their ramp, she glimpsed Alejandro running toward them from farther up the concourse, pushing past people as he raced the wrong way on the moving sidewalk. His expression was more panicked than flinty, and she shrank within herself, feeling guiltier than ever for taking his artifact. Even if it wasn’t his and had only been lent to him on behalf of the empire. She imagined how she would have felt if something of such value had been taken from her. Hells, she felt that way now, about Jelena.
She reached Leonidas first, who, thankfully, was not pointing any weapons at her. Not that he needed a weapon to strangle someone. She removed her shopping bag and offered it to him—Alejandro was still running in their direction, his robe flapping around his ankles.
“Couldn’t get the price you wanted?” Leonidas asked coldly.
“That’s… more accurate than you know. Here, take it.” Alisa tossed the bag to him and took a step toward the ramp, not wanting a lecture from him or from Alejandro.
Leonidas caught the bag, but he also caught her arm, his steel grip keeping her from escaping into the ship.
“If you make a habit of stealing from your passengers—”
“I don’t.” She tugged at her arm, though she well knew that she wouldn’t get it back unless he let go.
Beck stepped forward, though hesitantly. He did not want to tangle with Leonidas, and she could not blame him.
“Don’t let her go,” Alejandro blurted, racing down the pier toward the ramp. “We’ll turn her in to the army headquarters here in town. They can question her, find out what she’s told the Alliance.”
Alisa spun toward him, as much as she could with Leonidas holding her arm. “Look, I brought it back. I haven’t told anyone anything. You’re passengers on my ship, my guests. You don’t get to turn me in to anyone.”
Beck intercepted Alejandro before he could run up the ramp, catching him by the arm.
“You brought it back,” Leonidas snarled. “That makes it acceptable that you snuck into the doctor’s cabin and stole it out from under him while he slept?”
“I didn’t have a choice, all right?” She yanked at her arm again, hating the disappointed look that he turned on her. “Get off me, mech.”
It was the wrong time to use that derisive term, and she knew it as soon as his blue eyes clouded over, as stormy as t
he sky above the harbor. She didn’t care. Panic swelled in her breast as she imagined them carting her off to some imperial interrogation headquarters.
“Yes, I’m sure someone made you steal it,” Alejandro said. “While aboard your own ship, a ship you could simply fly away in at any point. We can play the cameras, but I highly doubt armed men stomped onto the craft and held guns to your head and told you to take it.” He tried to yank his arm away from Beck, but with his combat armor, Beck was just as immovable as Leonidas.
“Mladenovic said he knew where my daughter is, damn it,” Alisa growled. “I don’t have any other leads. I had to do it, all right? But he lied. Just like everyone on this damned planet lies. He’s probably been brainwashed into being an asshole by too much time down here in the empire.” She scowled fiercely at Leonidas and Alejandro, the scowl of the righteous. The scowl of the wronged. Or the wrong. She was being defensive because they had a case, and she knew it, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to get out of this hole and find her daughter. “Beck, let him go. You two don’t like how things work on my ship, then get off. Maybe you shouldn’t have lingered here so long. It’s not a suns-damned hotel.”
To her surprise, this time when she tried to yank her arm away, Leonidas let her go. She almost fell on her ass. She flailed her arms and kept from toppling, then spun and stalked up the ramp. Yumi was watching it all, her mouth open, her eyes wide.
“The empire has your daughter?” Leonidas asked, his tone masked now, hard to read. “Why?”
Alisa almost chose not to answer, having the urge to keep walking, to hide in the cargo hold and shut the hatch before Alejandro could make another attempt to have Leonidas cart her off to the imperials. Yet, in her frustration, she answered before she could debate the wisdom of doing so. And maybe a part of her hoped they would understand why she had done it if they knew, that they wouldn’t continue to think of her as a lowlife thief.
“Not the empire. The Starseers. I saw the video myself. They took her right out from under my sister-in-law’s nose. And I have no idea where to even start looking. It was months ago. Mladenovic said… Oh, it doesn’t matter. It’s all lies.” Her frustration was threatening to bubble over into tears. This time, she did stalk inside, turning her back on all of them and fleeing to her cabin.
Nobody stopped her. She locked the hatch and dropped onto her bunk, yanking the blankets over her head.
Chapter 13
It was hunger rather than a desire to see anyone that eventually drove Alisa to contemplate leaving her cabin. She had slept some, having nightmares of Jelena in a dark, cobweb-filled monastery being indoctrinated by the Starseers and turned into a monster who did not recognize her own mother. She’d woken from those horrible dreams, eaten the chocolate bar, then lay on her bed awake, her knees curled to her chin as time ticked past, barely noticed.
Twice, someone had knocked at her hatch, but she had ignored it. With so many dangerous enemies looking for the people aboard her ship, she ought to be making plans to leave, but she had not felt like being that mature. She also wasn’t sure that Alejandro was not out there, plotting a way to drag her away and turn her over to his imperial thug allies.
Her stomach growled, longing for real food, the chocolate forgotten. The smell of something cooking drifted through the vents, making her notice her hunger even more.
Alisa rolled out of bed and headed for the lav. In the future, she would keep food and water stashed in her cabin for the days when she wanted to lock herself in and sulk like a toddler. She washed up, putting on her last change of clothing and hoping that the laundry machine could get the rest of that sticky stuff off the things she wadded up and stuck in the chute.
When she ventured farther afield, she did so quietly, hoping she would find that Leonidas and Alejandro had packed up their belongings and left. She did not want to deal with either of them, did not want to see that disappointed expression in Leonidas’s eyes again. Better if she never saw either of them again. All they had brought was trouble. If they both left, then all she would have to deal with was Beck and his mafia issues. Even though the White Dragon people had tried to shoot them all just that morning, it seemed a simple problem in comparison to the artifact and the empire and all that Alejandro wanted to do.
The tantalizing smell of freshly grilled meat and vegetables led her to the mess hall. Voices came from the room, and she was tempted to turn around, to wait a couple of hours more and hope for leftovers. But the food smelled too good to resist.
Beck had his portable barbecue unit out, some kind of seasoned burgers cooking over the flames. A few were finished cooking and rested on a plate in the center of the table where Yumi and Mica sat. Leonidas was also there, leaning against the wall, no longer in his combat armor but no less intimidating in plain clothes. Alisa groaned to herself. If he was still here, Alejandro was probably still here too. What did she have to do to get rid of these people?
Avoiding his gaze, she ducked past him to grab a bun and a burger. She avoided Mica’s and Yumi’s gazes, too, beelining for the rec room. The wide hatch usually stayed open, but she unhooked the chain and closed it behind her.
She sat down at the table, ignoring the flashing lights on the surface that invited her to play one of the games programmed into it, and made it halfway through her meal before someone knocked. She closed her eyes, tempted to ignore it, to stay quiet and pretend she wasn’t in there. But she had walked past three people, and it was not as if there was a back door she might have escaped through.
The knock came again, not hard and demanding but a soft rap, such as one might make with a couple of knuckles.
Hoping it was just Mica—she did not want to talk to Alejandro—Alisa called, “It’s not locked.”
She could not bring herself to offer more of an invitation. She did not want company. She knew she had done a dishonorable thing, and she did not need anyone pointing it out. If she had gotten her daughter’s location, or at least some concrete information on who had her, it might have been worth it. But she hadn’t.
The hatch opened. She focused on her burger, taking another chomp. Battered morals or not, she hadn’t eaten much in the last twenty-four hours, and her stomach would not stand for being ignored. Even so, she almost lost her appetite when she saw who loomed in the hatchway. It wasn’t Mica.
“Figured you’d be gone by now,” Alisa said, staring straight ahead at the table.
Leonidas looked at her, then looked over his shoulder—Yumi’s and Beck’s voices floated in, along with the scent of a fresh round of charbroiled meat. Lamb, Alisa had decided as she had been eating, heavily spiced with orakesh. It was a favorite dish from the southern continent here, though Beck had added an interesting twist, a hint of orange and pepper.
Leonidas stepped inside and closed the hatch.
Alisa licked her lips for reasons that had nothing to do with the spices. She remembered Alejandro’s statement that she should be interrogated. He had suggested dragging her off to some imperial facility for it, but maybe he had decided to settle on having his local cyborg do it. The day before, Leonidas might have objected to the idea of assassinating her, but that had been before she had stolen the doctor’s orb.
She kept her gaze forward, pretending indifference to this enforced privacy, but she watched him out of the corner of her eye. She picked up the burger for another bite, not wanting him to think she was worried.
“Yumi gave us some interesting information after you went to your cabin,” he said. His voice was level, not threatening. He walked to the opposite side of the table and sat across from her. If he was still angry, he was hiding it.
“Oh?”
“She says she knows the location of one of the main Starseer temples.”
Alisa froze, her burger held in the air before her, juices running down her wrists. Was it possible? That Yumi of all people might be a resource in this? “I wouldn’t have guessed that she knew the location of more than the closest colony of jashash grow
ers.”
It was a snide thing to say, and Alisa was glad the hatch was closed. Yumi had proven she had knowledge about more than her quirky hobbies.
“I wouldn’t have guessed, either,” Leonidas said, “but she claims one of the largest temples is on Arkadius.”
“On Arkadius? The Alliance seat of power and one of the oldest and most populated planets in the system? I think someone would have noticed during the Order Wars if there was a Starseer base there.”
“The Starseers are good at not being found.”
“Tell me about it.” Alisa set her burger down with more force than required, and crumbs tumbled off the plate and onto the table. She had not even started looking for her daughter yet, and she was already frustrated with the Starseers.
“I’ve spoken to Alejandro, and he believes the Starseers may have the answers he seeks since the artifact is of Starseer origin. Getting those people to give him the answers without taking the orb from him will be a challenge, but he thinks it’s worth the risk. He could spend the next five years researching in libraries, assuming he can get close to any more libraries without being captured by soldiers, and not find what he’s looking for.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Alisa finally met his eyes, more than a little worried about the sharing of information that they had heretofore been secretive about. Maybe they had plans to kill her, after all, and figured it didn’t matter what she knew now.
“It’s not obvious? We need a ride.”
“A ride?” she mouthed. How could they possibly want to continue on with her now? Surely, there were other ships heading that way, and if not, it seemed that Alejandro had money enough to bribe someone to change course for him. “Alejandro wants to continue to be my passenger?”
“No, but he’s realized, or he did after I pointed it out to him, that the reason we were likely allowed down to the planet in the first place was not because of some special stature he has among the remaining imperials. Someone knew he had the orb and wanted a chance to get it.”
The Fallen Empire Collection by Lindsay Buroker Page 39