Home in the Stars Box Set

by Mason, Jolie

  “That’s just what I’m here to determine, Captain.”

  Nina waited by the door as he examined Ra’dan and determined that the treatment had been effective enough that he could go to his own cabin. “You need rest, Captain. Stimulating cell growth will heal you, but it’s not instant. There was a lot of tissue damage in your abdomen, Ra’dan. You must allow it to repair itself.”

  “I will. I promise.” Nina found herself simply at loose ends as they spoke. Her mind wandered to the conflict on the planet. Nessa had commed that morning to ask about her brother. Reports were circulating that the slavers were in full retreat. Apparently, the massive explosion had clued them into the way the wind was blowing. Every bastard that could find a shuttle to one of their off-world ships in orbit was running for it. Nina had ended the comm pretty quickly, rather than linger to discuss anything with Nessa.

  It still stung that Nina wasn’t good enough for Nessa, after everything they’d been through, her year treating Nessa’s people at the clinic. Nina would never have guessed it of her friend in a million years. She’d have never thought prejudice to her humanity lurked under the surface of their friendship.

  After Zann left, she helped Ra’dan put his uniform back on, though they decided to forgo the jacket and put on the black shirt alone because of the pain. His torso hurt so when he moved Sillio had prescribed him a pain blocker as needed for the next few days.

  As they walked out of the infirmary, he leaned on her a bit more than she’d anticipated. “Are you sure you ought to be leaving, Ra’dan?” Nina asked.

  “I can recover in my cabin as well as I can here. Besides, I need my files, my data and access to the codex.”

  It was a long, painful walk for him to the cabin, but Nina got him there and stretched out on his bed before he drifted off to sleep one more time. His body sought to mend itself, Nina knew. She sat down at the console to investigate what was going on out in the universe. If she were truthful with herself, she was going to locate her sister, if she could. See what was happening, how the Imperium was reacting to their losses. She wanted to know exactly what she’d lost.

  Then she’d go down and get Ra’dan something to eat from the mess.

  *****#*****

  Nina needed a moment to process what she’d learned on the Codex. News reports stated her sister was on some “diplomatic mission” to Taarken Prime which could only mean one thing; Caden’s role in the rebellion might not be so secret anymore.

  Plus, if she ran right back to the room, she had to make a choice to tell Ra’dan or keep it quiet a while. It wasn’t a choice she wanted to make, so she sat down to eat her meal at the table allotted for guests. She drummed her fingers on the plain, indigo surface and tried to force her food down her dry throat.

  It was then that the doctor walked by. Nina said hello and smiled. He didn’t return the smile, but rather averted cold eyes and walked on. Her smile fell immediately. She looked around the mess feeling suddenly out of place where she’d once felt like an honored guest. What she saw made her feel very conspicuous sitting in the rock hard chair in the middle of dinner rush. About half of the some twenty-five or thirty people getting food were staring her way or trying to look without staring. Some were openly hostile. Others were merely gossiping. Still another looked uncomfortable and awkward while looking everywhere else but at her. She spooned up another bite of casserole, but it no longer smelled appetizing. She’d been hungry when she sat down.

  “Do you mind if I sit with you, Dr. Quell?”

  She looked up in surprise to see a good looking man in a command uniform standing before her holding a steaming tray. She nodded, grateful for the distraction from her new status as societal pariah.

  The young man studied her face knowingly as he sat down. “Emery.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Emery Charles”, he said sticking his hand out above the table. “I’m the new navigator.”

  She took the offered hand. There weren’t going to be too many of those from now on, she suspected. “Nice to meet you. Are you enjoying the Carry Bell?”

  “It is a fine ship, Ma’am. Crew could use a little work. Excuse me a moment.” She hadn’t noticed the rush of whispers once he sat down, at least not till that very second.” He turned in his seat and leveled a hard stare at the whole room, scattering them like insects. When he turned back, he smiled pleasantly. “That’s what I’m here for. We’ll get these hoselens into shape, if it kills every last one of ‘em.”

  She smiled a little at his infectious humor.

  “I’m afraid I’d better get used to this. Our reception back on the planet wasn’t much better.”

  “People don’t like rule breakers, that’s for sure. Even when the rules are so much shit. Guess that’s why I have such a wide circle of friends. I’m a bit of a rule breaker myself. Come from a long line of rule breakers, right back to Granddaddy Salt who began the first Turian rebellion.”

  She nodded and took a bite.

  “Now, me, personally, well, I’m a bit of a womanizer, but the Captain, he’s a good guy.”

  “Yes, it seems everybody felt that way about him, until...”

  His dark eyes searched for and found Nina’s as he held the fork suspended over the plate. “Until he met you? Nah, these ones here, looking at him funny over his relationship with you. They felt the same way underneath the whole time. Only difference is they were trying to fool themselves, as well as everyone else. You just pushed ‘em past the point where they can lie to everybody. That’s the thing about racism. It hides in strange places. Some of the smartest people I’ve ever known turned out to be idiots on the inside.”

  “That’s a pretty astute set of observational skills, Navigator Charles.”

  He affected a farm boy nod and blush. “Shucks, Ma’am. I try.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, amused by him. He took a big bite. “You aren’t exactly what you appear, Emery.”

  He stilled. “Top of my class in school.”

  “You claim to be a womanizer, but you’re here with a taken woman you have zero chance of bedding, seeing to her hurt feelings over a few strange looks. You’re a bit of a good guy yourself, aren’t you?”

  He grinned, showing two charming dimples in each cheek. “You trying to ruin my reputation?”

  “Absolutely”, she said.

  “That hardly seems fair”, he joked. “Word of this gets out and I’m ruined. No good deed goes unpunished.”

  Chuckling, she said, “Your secret is safe with me. I’d hate to see your bad boy reputation tarnished.”

  “I certainly appreciate it.” They ate together a while longer, talking about books they loved, until Nina no longer felt anything but comfortable. She was going to have to develop a thicker skin, if she didn’t want Ra’dan to be miserable, and he would be, if she was hurt all the time.

  Nina walked away from her encounter with the young navigator realizing everyone wasn’t the enemy. Of course, there would be ignorance and stupidity, but there would also be people who saw more than two people from different planets. They’d find acceptance, and, if they didn’t, well, they had each other. That was more than enough, she thought, thinking of the last time he’d held her in his arms. It was far more than she’d ever thought to have. She'd gotten so used to being alone that she'd almost thought she belonged on her own.

  Nina retraced her steps back toward the lift to the cabin carrying a fresh tray for Ra in one hand and a cool drink in the other. Just as she passed the wide doors leading to the medbay, she heard them hiss and out walked Dr. Sillio Zann right into her path.

  “Doctor, so sorry. I wasn’t expecting you to be there.”

  “Yes, I am sure.” Coldly, the doctor met her eyes. “Am I to assume you are leaving the Carry Bell?”

  He did his level best to inflect that he approved of the relocation. She’d had enough of it, from crew and family. “You don’t like humans much, Dr. Zann, and, yet, you work on a human crew?”

  L
ooking a little surprised that she wasn’t just going to politely ignore his bigotry, he turned toward once again. “Humans are not significantly different from any other group, I suppose. When they keep to themselves.”

  “Ah, so you’re one of those.”

  Now, she’d pissed him off. “One of what?”

  “One of the sanctimonious small minded, Doctor. You know the type. The ones who are so involved in someone else’s sex life they can’t even see how disgusting it is that they obsess over someone else’s sex life. Ra’dan is my husband, Zann. Your consultation in the matter is unnecessary and unwanted”. She wasn’t even giving him the respect of his title now.

  “I suppose telling me what you think of my opinion will be a kind of cold consolation for you when the two of you bare children who should never have been born.”

  “Says the guy with bat ears? Seriously, you’re concerned what shade of green my kids might be? Stow it, Doctor.”

  Nina was pretty sure she was changing color as she walked away. She’d never been so furious. She debated over telling him about the doctor’s attitude, but decided it just wasn’t worth it. Besides, she already had to tell him that her sister was visiting Taarken, and there was nothing in the universe they could do to help Ari and Caden.

  *****#*****

  Emery returned to his crew bunk feeling stark relief that his secret was safe. For a second there, he’d been worried when the captain’s new wife called him “more than he seemed”. He looked around, including in the small toilet and shower facility. There were four other men sharing these quarters. None of them were in.

  He pulled out his secured datapad and tapped the codex icon. After navigating to the portal he needed, he watched as Officer Valek Morgan’s face appeared in the vidscreen. He smiled suavely at Emery.

  “Took you long enough, Charles.”

  “I have to work to maintain this cover, Morgan. I’ve determined the subject is still in sleeper mode. She has no idea who she is.”

  Morgan smiled a Cheshire cat smile. “Excellent. You can collect her and bring her in with no repercussions then. Very good news.”

  Emery hid the flinch those orders caused. “I thought, sir, that we were observing her behavior.”

  “And so you have, Charles. Time to bring her back into the fold.”

  “If she doesn’t want back in the fold, Sir?”

  Morgan smiled like a serpent. “If you’re quite finished, Charles. You have an assignment to complete.”

  The screen went dark, as Emery sat there and stared at it. Assignment, that’s what we were calling this, was it? He’d signed on to the Imperil Secret Service with the agenda of serving the empire, not covering up some bureaucrat’s mistakes with a few of his own. Anything he did here was going to cost him in the end.

  *****#*****

  Ra’dan walked gingerly down the corridor toward the bridge holding his sore abdomen. Luca was there. She was seldom anywhere else.

  He put a hand on the hatch control and waited for it to slide back with a hiss. Luca stared at the console with unwavering concentration. Her hair was blonde, but not like Nina’s. Nina’s hair sifted through his fingers like burnished honey. Luca’s looked more like pale moonlight, and her full lips and perfectly heart-shaped face made her look vulnerable and soft.

  The thought almost made him laugh. There was nothing soft about Luca. She was hell on wheels. If trouble could find its match, it was in the pilot before him. She was also, like Ra’dan, one of Ari’s children, making her more a sister to him than anything else. If he was staying behind on Brin, the Bell belonged to her.

  “Luca”, he said from the door. “Got a minute?”

  Startled, she jumped. “Ra’ddy! Why do you sneak up on people like that?”

  “I cannot help it. I’m just quiet.”

  She blew a skeptical sound out and tapped the console to sleep. “Please, you like the challenge of scaring people to death. What are we talking about? Your recent nuptials? How you are all going to settle down to boring planet life and leave me on my own? No, thanks. Just send me the memo.”

  He shook his head. “It’s not that simple.”

  “Never is. Look, I get it”, she sighed. “You and Ari want a life. You found people to build it with. I just... I don’t like getting left, that’s all.”

  He looked away. “I’m not going to lie. You’re not coming where I am going, it’s too dangerous, but you could go to Taarken Prime, right? Ari could set you up with a job, and....”.

  “Go to Taarken? Have you seen that place? There are lizards! It’s like five hundred degrees in the shade. Ari’s crazy. You’re crazy.”

  Luca wound down by walking over to the view screen which she kept on most of the time to see the stars that appeared to surround them, even though they were billions of standards away. She loved the stars. He walked to stand beside her.

  “It has been home. This ship.”

  Luca looked around her bridge, as did Ra’dan. The floor was beige, the walls were beige, the chair was beige; there was nothing special or remarkable about the room at all, but the view of stars in front of them.

  “It still is, Ra’ddy.”

  “For you, it is. Luca, I must go back.”

  “You’re gonna get yourself killed over a girl.” She said it sourly. Ra’dan knew what motivated her was worry and fear. Luca was scared she was being left alone, and, in a way, she had been. She was scared something would happen to the only two people who knew her. Luca worried about things like that with her background. The only thing he could do was give her the ship. He couldn’t bring her with them into a fight and away from her precious stars. As if, she’d ever let him.

  “No, Nina is part of this, but she isn’t the reason I’m going back, Luca. Thinking of Brin used to hurt. It used to make my hands get clammy and my heart race. Now, I remember what it was like. To run through the jungles after a hunt, to listen to the insects from my hammock. It is worth saving, Luca. It is home.”

  “So you say, Ra’ddy.”

  He cleared his throat. Luca continued to stare at the view. “The Carry Bell is yours, Luca.”

  She cut angry, jeweled blue eyes his way. “Well, I don’t want the Carry Bell.”

  “Too bad, you’ve got her.”

  “I’ll take her straight back to Ari!”

  “That is your choice, Luca, but I think you will enjoy having people to boss around as much as you please.” She sputtered at the very idea, but Ra’dan watched the idea of command take root in her imagination. He hid his smile behind a hand.

  “Ari let you go where you wanted?”

  He stuffed his hands in his pockets and grimaced, shaking his head, “Not exactly. She actually forbade me going to slaver planets. I imagine you’ll have a similar restriction.”

  Luca looked up at him wide-eyed. “Wow, you’re a good listener. How much is Ari gonna kick your ass, huh?”

  “Her revenge should be complete in about twenty years.” He turned from the viewscreen to Luca. “In the meantime, I have a rebellion to attend. The slavers are running, and we must fortify the planet for when they come back. They will be back. When that’s done, you will see us again.”

  “And what if it’s not done? What if you don’t live through it?”

  “That is the choice I make, Sister. Someone has to.”

  With those words, Ra’dan squeezed Luca’s shoulder and leaned down to kiss her on her cheek before strolling off to find his new wife and finish the process that would cede control of the Carry Bell to Luca Brine.”

  *****#*****

  Luca sat there staring at what Ari liked to refer to as “her ocean”. That had been something she and Ari had in common. Space was a second home for both of them.

  Ari’s defection had really cut Luca. But for the fact that she saw Ari was beyond happy for the first time since she’d known her, she’d have been a real brat about it, like she’d just been with Ra’dan. Luca looked over her shoulder at the hatchway doors to her bri
dge that Ra’dan had just gone through, for, possibly, the last time. That really cut, too.

  Luca ran a hand over a console lovingly. This ship was more than a home, it was all she knew. Ari and Ra’dan knew that she didn’t remember who she was. They’d found her. They’d helped her get a new identity. In fact, they were, quite literally, the only family she had ever known. She didn’t even know which world she hailed from originally. Sometimes, she would stare at the navmaps just hoping something would jog her memory.

  It messed with her something fierce at times. She knew that she hated Earth-style tapioca. She knew that she could fly like nobody’s business, and that she loved the black. She didn’t know her own name. The only name she had was the one Ari had bought her.

  Behind her, the bridge doors hissed aside again. Luca glanced up from the console. It was just Emery, she realized. He stood in the sleeveless vest of the Bell crew, black with crimson blazed on the shoulders. His strong arms flexed as he poked his hands in his pockets and leaned on the door.

  “Well, you look like someone kicked your puppy.”

  “Incorrect. If someone kicked my puppy, I’d have a hatchet buried in their eye. This is what I look like when my.... Never mind.”

  “I understand”, he said in that deep, rich, silky baritone of his voice. “It’s hard to be left behind.”

  She glared at him. “Not left behind. Left in charge. Somebody has to fly this damn ship.” At that statement, it was like she made up her mind. She felt it click into place the way it sometimes did for her. Somebody had to fly the damn ship. It wasn’t going to fly itself.

  Luca had always had access to the ship’s accounts. She just hadn’t ever used it before now, but it was time. If she was going to fly this rig, she needed to understand her job. “You any good at math?”, she asked.

  Emery Charles stood up straight and looked at her curiously. “Some, why?”

  “Because I’m not. You’re promoted. Now, get over here and show me how accounting works.”

  He grinned across at her. “You need help with math?”

  “Unless, you want to clean out the environmental scrubbers instead?”