by Mason, Jolie
Defeated, she commed the ship to tell them to get a bunk ready for the new mechanic’s assistant, and then she radioed the port from Arden’s comm unit to check on departure. If nothing went wrong, the Carry Bell would be shipping out just hours after her brother was due to leave on another run.
Arden walked her to the door of the small flat.
“It’s going to work out, Sis.”
She leaned into his shoulder. “What happens if he figures it out? What if I slip?”
He shrugged. “He’ll be mad a minute. He’ll get over it, and nothing will change. He’s still who he is. And you’re priceless. Don’t you forget that.”
She took a breath. “All right. You’re the big brother.”
“That’s right.” He grabbed her arm in the hall and pulled her into a deep hug. “Don’t wait another twelve years to see me, okay? Old timers like me may not have twelve years left.”
She nodded into his chest. He smelled the same; clean and minty. Just like that, a woman became a little girl wrapped up in her brother’s arms. He’d been so much older than her when their Da died. He’d tried to take up where Da left off. “I missed you”, she whispered.
As she walked back out into alley and then back down to the market, which had quieted considerably, she wiped a hand over her face. The merchants were either back in their stalls or reclining in the shade as the sun grew hotter. Ari unlaced the top of her jacket revealing cool white fabric underneath to the noonday sun. She had to stop and order the mess kit before she could go back to the Bell and sleep. The shuttle ride to the docking stations would be a good hour or two, including take-off procedures. It was exhausting to think of after the emotional afternoon she’d had.
She approached the supply depot. There was a small line out the door underneath a blue awning. No one stayed on Prime if they could help it, hence the resupply merchants were always busy with pilots and captains wanting to hurry back to one ship or another. She took her place in the line behind a burly, bad tempered, bearded man. He’d been standing here a while if the sweat pouring off him was any indicator. He snapped at a passerby who tried to squeeze past the huge hunk of muscle and meanness. She simply cut him a churlish look and pulled out her handset to look over the reqs and avoid the grumpy man’s eyes.
Carlysle’s list was exhaustive, as usual. She knew the needs of the ship were extensive, but the mess requisitions read like a cookbook and cost a small fortune at times. She grimaced at one of the items, a horrible extravagance. She deleted it. Looks like they just ran out of Tarian hoosfowl filets. Oops, she thought.
Booted feet on the gravel path pulled her mind slowly away from thoughts of requisitions and drowning her ship’s cook in soup at the next opportunity. She looked up from the datapad to see the whole world about to drop on her head. In the form of her ex. He wore expensive clothes, the very best side iron money could buy, and kept two private security drawls with huge arms and necks on each side of him. His brown eyes seemed to hide everything he felt at seeing her, or maybe she didn’t know how to read them anymore. She said a silent thanks that she hadn’t brought Jace with her. The three of them standing around taking notes would have been a bit much. As it was, they stood silently sizing each other up.
“Aricka”, he said. “I heard you were docked here this week.”
She cleared her throat. “I can’t imagine that’s the talk of the town around Prime. We’re not here that long.”
He looked away a second. “You’d be surprised. You guys, give us a minute.”
His escorts strolled a few steps away.
“It’s been a long time, Ari.”
“You asked your team to leave to say that?”
“No, I asked them to leave so I can do this.” He grabbed her elbow, steering her quickly into an alley between buildings where he pushed her back to the smooth exterior wall and kissed her.
Ari couldn’t think. The soft curve of his tongue, a warm press of his lips, and she’d slipped back in time. His body pressed into her as it always had, like a second skin, an extension of herself. Her hands clutched at the soft fabric of his shirt, as she slanted her mouth taking more of him, fighting to control the kiss. It was a competition. Always had been.
What was she doing? What was he doing?
She pried herself back, put her hands on either side of his face to push him away. “What?” She gasped the word out incoherently.
His hands grasped her hair frantically. “I’m sorry.” He mumbled more jumbled whispers between kisses, that made little sense, but she understood it.
“I know. What happened to Da wasn’t your fault.” The tension in his body broke, as he gathered her in close, running his mouth over her jaw, nuzzling her neck. “Caden, You didn’t do anything wrong, but it’s been a lot of years.”
She pushed him away, tried to get room to think. She could never think when he held her. He stopped trying to kiss her as her words sank in. “You’re right. I just keep having to apologize. It hadn’t.. I guess I didn’t think that you might have moved on to someone else.” He pulled away entirely. She held the wall for support.
He held his body tensely away from her, eyes on the ground. Anywhere but on her. Put his hands in deep pockets.
“I’ve not moved on to anything. It’s been twelve years.”
“Yes, it has been. I spent so much of that time imagining what I would do if you ever came back. Guess I should have asked you first.”
“It’s okay.”
His wounded eyes met hers. “No, it’s not. I guess it can’t be, can it?”
He continued angrily. “I waited for you. Kept thinking you’d come back. When Alec died, I thought, now she’ll come back for sure, but you didn’t.”
“Come back?” She stared at him. The fog on her thoughts broke suddenly and anger shone through like dim sunlight. Come back, she wondered. Had he been listening when she begged him not to leave her here on Taarken all those years ago? She’d tried to explain what would happen. She’d lived in the miner’s world for far too long to imagine Alec Carnes didn’t have a plan for his son, and a grudge against the New Haven trash Caden wanted to marry. “For what?”
She found herself staring at him, wondering at his audacity.
“No, really. What would I come back to find? You lording it over the Carnes Syndicate like a feudal warlord? Would I revisit the house where your father killed mine? What? Move in there, with your infantile mother who wouldn’t know morals if they bit her in the ass? You left me. When I nee...." She stopped, gathered her thoughts before too much tumbled out of her big mouth, then said, “I need supplies, Carnes. Let me go buy them and get the fuck off your planet.”
“It’s not my fucking planet.” He growled. “Everything’s wrong. I’m just fucking sorry!”
“So am I! You made your choice long before my father died. Now, can I go?” She looked pointedly at him standing between her and the alley entrance.
“No one’s ever stopped you.”, he said, stepping carefully out of the way.
“Or given me a good reason to stay. Remember that next time you get horny in my vicinity. You left me.” She stormed past him, more angry than she ever remembered being in a decade.
She’d lost everything on the altar of the Carnes empire. Her father, before that, his livelihood, her son, her lover, her dreams; all gone like dust blowing through the market street. She’d never even risked telling him about his son because if Alec Carnes had gotten wind, her son would have been whisked off to the back end of nowhere, and she’d never have found him again. Carnes had the resources and the willingness to do it. Her son would have been lost to her in every possible way. At least, this way she’d known where and how he was. She’d been able to take care of him.
She intended to get those supplies and get out of here fast, back to her ocean. She needed the peaceful black. Then she’d be all right again. She’d find her center, even if it took a while.
*****#*****
Caden watched her leave, th
en pressed his forehead to the building wall with a groan. She’d been gone so long, and then she’d been there, looking like a dream conjured by his overactive imagination. He’d reacted, until she’d reminded him that the damage to them hadn’t been only her father’s murder. He’d chosen to tow the family line thinking it would take the pressure off them, thinking he could handle the fall out later.
He’d agreed to go to school, finish a degree, give his father what he wanted up to a point. He’d never meant to let her go, but he had. He’d known what his father was.
While he’d been gone, things had changed. Her father had gotten drawn into a confrontation with Caden’s. He’d been killed for his trouble. Caden closed his eyes tightly against the regret and pain. He’d been in private school at the time, and she’d been here in a Hell of his father’s making. Of course, it changed her. Things had changed him as well. Everything but loving Ari had changed.
Caden underestimated his father’s cruelty. The more he plumbed the company’s files, the more he understood the negative impact one man’s greed could have on the world. He’d squeezed the miners and suppliers. Carnes had employed mercs to do his really dirty business. He’d used intimidation, bribery and corrupted officials with shocking regularity.
Caden hadn’t gotten along with his father, but he’d never suspected how deep the rot would go. Straight to the center of the man’s fucking soul. He’d never been able to prove a damn thing with regard to Ari’s father, but, in his heart, he knew. Alec Carnes murdered him and bought off the company men in the marshal’s service.
Anderson walked around the corner of the building. “How’d it go, boss?”
“How’s it look like it went?” He rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on.
“Looked like you were doing okay there for a while”.
He cut him a look. “Shock wears off quickly in love and war”, he said.
“Shock, huh?” His bodyguard smirked.
Kane entered the alley, all the while looking over his shoulder and whistling. “Damn, that woman is pissed. Caden, What you do to her?”
“Shut up. Did she get her supplies?”
“Yeah, she’s gone. You scared of her or something?”
“Damn right. That woman could rip me in half.” He cringed at the statement because it kind of felt like she had.
Kane peeked back out into the street. “I think you may be smart. That woman bullied her way around every man in the depot in a few minutes. She’s in there now. I thought you said she liked you.”
Caden picked up a rock and turned it about in his hand while Kane spoke. The small white layered sediment required study, and caution. It was this damn planet, he thought. It scorched everything on it. He tossed the rock hard at the alley wall where it shattered into powder. “Not anymore.”
The three men walked out into the brilliant white light glare from the sun at its height and headed down the street while Caden sullenly contemplated how completely screwed he was. It had been hard enough being in love with her ghost. Now, he’d seen her, kissed her. It would be excruciating.
His comm beeped in his ear, low and clear, and he answered. He listened a moment.
“We have a bigger problem anyway, guys. Another sighting on the spacers. We may have pirates incoming.”
“Those guys never learn”, Kane said to him.
“The escort ships should hold them off well enough. We’ll head back to the office and tap in, see how it goes.”
*****#*****
Ari trudged up the dock into the hold of the Bell. It wasn’t a large ship, but, on land, they all looked bigger. It had a smooth wedge shape, aerodynamically suited for close, quick maneuvers in atmosphere. The back cargo hold opened into one large rectangle with spiraled, narrow stairs on each side leading up to smaller cargo storage for more delicate or specialized goods. An open lift was used for moving cargo up and down between the upper and lower levels. The port side had a full containment unit which was where Luca stood now supervising Ra’ddy as he followed special procedures for the Liquid Callumite samples they were transporting to a research facility in down space.
“You’re back”, Luca waved down cheerfully. “Did they say when the mess supplies were due in tomorrow.?”
“Sure did. 1400 Standard. I’ll be in my cabin. Did Jace get here okay?”
“He sure did. All settled in and fed. Thought I might tuck him in, too.” She laughed. “He’s a cutie. Where’d you find him?”
“At my brother’s house. He’s his son.”
“Oh, well, that’s awkward.”
“If you only knew”, she mumbled. She strolled straight back to the front hatch leading to the crew quarters where they all slept, all but engine room and mess. Those were in the rear areas above the cargo bay, able to be sealed in a crisis. Jace would be there in the only available mechanics room. It wasn’t much, but, judging from his earlier excitement, she imagined him dancing around the engine room now.
She made her way without encountering anymore crew straight to her solitary cabin. It might be considered Spartan by some, but she didn’t like too much to fly about in rough sailing. There was a bed and writing desk with one small chair. The walls contained storage units and stow boxes. Her only concession to feminine decor were throw pillows everywhere. She even had a large pillowy stuffed chair in hues of pink and a matching footstool in a small reading area. Ingeniously, she’d found a way to secure her books in with a strap. A cosy reading lamp shone right over the chair. That’s where she’d be tonight, lost in the pages of some book or other.
Ari needed time to get over her day off ship. Too much, that’s what it had been. Way too much. They’d take off tomorrow and stop at the charge station so she could be on her way. If she played the timing right, they’d only be at the Solar Charge Relay for a standard day.
She sat down at the neatly arranged desk with Codex Console to look over her billing receipts and update the financial accounts set up for the Bell. She checked the most recent income projection and felt a thrill of satisfaction. Much as she hadn’t wanted to come home, moving out to the mining colonies to ship the alloys and supplies the fleet builders needed back in the heart of the Empire had been extra profitable, and her crew would be very happy with the results.
She pressed a single link on the screen to authorize crew pay. She generally gave them only enough time to buy essentials after a paycheck, and then they’d have plenty of time to plan with the money they’d earn back in space. Spacer crews were infamous, much like the old sailors of Old Earth, in never thinking about the future, never planning for life on land. They thought they’d sail forever. Everybody gets old. Ari did her best to remind them of that.
They’d get six hours tomorrow to go ashore and then back on board. She opened a comm to make the ship wide announcement on today’s pay and tomorrow’s scheduled launch time. The rule for her ship was, if you aren’t here at launch, the crew can assume we have a vacancy. Ships have schedules. Schedules must not be delayed.
She smiled as she heard the ship’s crew shout and stomp at the news of payday across the open comms. They did it for her benefit, almost as a joke. Tomorrow, like every shore leave, they’ll be grousing all the way out the door about finally getting off the boat, and she’d grouse right back. It always seemed a bit like seeing her kids off to school. They enjoyed it. Her crew felt like family, and fought like family. Still, they always seemed to end up watching each other’s backs. They’d filled the void for her over the years.
Now, she had her son aboard. It didn’t seem possible that she could have dreamed of having him with her for so long, and, just like that, he appeared. He’d be in the mess and the decks, loading holds and the engine room. He’d be where she could see him, talk to him. The whole routine of the ship seemed different for his having arrived in the midst of it all.
She took one last moment to wire her brother about two thousand credits with a note attachment calling it his birthday present. He would grouse
tomorrow too, just as he always did when she sent them money he didn’t consider necessary. He didn’t really understand the gratitude she’d always had for his taking Jace and keeping him safe.
Ari wiped a hand over her eyes and shook her head. It would be a long night. Caden Carnes had really gotten under her skin with that welcome and farewell. She’d done this enough to know it would be a while before she got him out of her head again, and she hoped the farther she got from Taarken the easier that would be.
She had paperwork to take her mind off some of it. She scheduled a few more pick ups and drop offs over the next few weeks, and she set up some dry dock time on Reliance Station to have the ship maintained and tested. The crew needed some time home as well. That gave them a month.
Finally, Ari walked to a book shelf and pulled off a classic, then she poured herself a half a glass of the good stuff. Between the brandy and the book, she settled in nicely to her fluffy chair. Time passed swiftly for her lost in the pages of a story about the sea and it’s dangers.
By the time, she turned in Ari was well and truly tired, and she did sleep. She didn’t sleep well, but she did sleep. That was more than she’d expected.
*****#*****
Chapter Two
The comm call at 0800 did not make Ari happy. The mess delivery was delayed, which meant launch was delayed which meant more time on Taarken. It was beyond frustrating. She’d already seen the crew off after a brief on their schedule, and now she sat in her quarters stewing over why she’d be stuck on Taarken another day when she so wanted to be somewhere else.
She’d been attempting to distract herself with a workout when she got an unidentified comm call. Wrapping a towel around her neck and wiping her face on the end, Ari panted her way to the comm unit and hit accept where it flashed green.
“This is Captain Badu.”
“Aricka”, he said. She knew the voice, deep and rich. Didn’t help that it belonged to the love of her life, and it rattled her more than she cared to admit. Ari straightened formally before the viewer. They were in system so the vid feed came in crystal clear. She stared at his perfectly groomed masculinity, and realized just what she must look like in skin tight shorts and athletic gear, sweaty and gross. Ari closed her eyes a moment.