Salene's Secrets

by Laura Jo Phillips

  Salene stood facing the viewport in the Razor’s observation deck, gazing out at the stars. She didn’t even seem to hear the door open, or the sound of their boots on the floor as they approached, but when Talus placed one hand lightly on her shoulder, she didn’t flinch. He stepped closer, pressing himself against her back while Jon and Kar stood on either side of her. Only when they were all touching her did they feel the slight tremors running through her body.

  “Zerura?” he asked softly, casting quick looks at Jon and Kar, who both looked as worried as he felt. “Tell us, please, why are you crying?”

  “Leaving Rayne like this,” she said, her voice raw and hoarse. “It’s wrong. She’s sick and in pain and I should be at her side, not running off in the other direction.”

  “I understand how you feel,” Talus said. “I would feel the same if I had to leave one of my brothers behind. But this is what Rayne wants, what her Rami want, and what your parents want. If you stay with her you endanger her, and risk giving away their plans.”

  “I know,” she said miserably as fresh tears fell down her cheeks. “I know this is what has to be, but that doesn’t make it any easier.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Talus agreed, stroking her shoulders lightly in a soothing gesture. Suddenly, Salene went still, not even breathing for a long moment. Then she turned around and looked up at him. Her eyes were red and swollen from her tears, but she set her troubles aside as she studied his face.

  “What is it?”

  Talus smiled. “You never miss a thing, do you?”

  “I miss lots of things,” she replied. “But I didn’t miss that you’re tense about something. Tell me what it is, please.”

  “Let’s go to our room, first,” Talus said. Salene hesitated.

  “Don’t worry, love,” Jon said. “We want only to comfort you.”

  Salene stiffened but before Talus could ask why she stepped away from them, turned around, and started for the door. He caught up to her in one stride and scooped her up into his arms. “Close your eyes so you don’t get dizzy.” She nodded and did as he asked. He stopped in front of the Razor’s master suite a few moments later and waited for Kar to open the door. Talus carried her inside and set her on her feet beside the bed. She waited for Kar to lock the door and join them before raising both brows at Talus.

  “Tell me now, please. You’re starting to scare me.”

  “I’m sorry, Zerura, that was not our intent and there is no reason to be scared,” Talus said. He paused for a moment to order his thoughts. “We understand that this situation is difficult for you, and we understand that your main concern is your sister. That’s who you are and we’d never ask you to change. But please understand that our main concern is for you.”

  “Why me?” she asked, surprised. “I’m fine.”

  “Yes, you are, and we’d like to keep you that way,” Jon said.

  “I certainly don’t object to that but I still don’t understand what you’re worried about right now.”

  “We don’t want you to be transported out from under our noses like Rayne was,” Jon said, then winced as she paled. “I’m sorry,” he began, but she shook her head, stopping him.

  “No, don’t be. I realize that what happened to her could happen to me, of course. I was just trying not to think about it since there’s nothing that can be done.”

  “Actually, there is,” Talus said, surprising her.

  “Let’s do it,” she said at once.

  “You haven’t even heard what it is yet,” Kar said, smiling at her.

  “I don’t care what it is as long as it protects me.”

  “Allow us to tell you anyway, please,” Talus said shaking his head though he was smiling, too.

  “Fine, talk, then do,” she said impatiently which got a soft laugh from all three of them. She arched a brow and Talus stopped laughing, though his eyes still danced.

  “Your fathers taught us a shield weave this morning that will protect you from being transported as long as you’re with us, and we’ve spent the past few hours practicing with it. We’d like to try putting it around you now, but this is a complicated weave and we need to concentrate. We ask that you lie down and be really still while we do it.”

  “That’s easy enough.” Talus tilted his head as he studied her. “Why are you nervous? This is a new shield for us, but it’s not the first shield we’ve ever woven and even if it was, messing it up wouldn’t hurt you.”

  “I’m not worried about that.”

  “What are you worried about?” Kar asked.

  “What happens if the shield doesn’t work?” she asked, and they all heard the tremor her voice.

  “We’re working on a backup plan, love,” Jon said. “Let’s just do one thing at a time.”

  “All right, what do you want me to do? Just lie down?”

  “Yes, lie down and try to relax,” Talus said.

  Salene nodded and kicked off her shoes before sitting down on the edge of the bed to watch them take off their boots. Then Talus climbed onto the bed, shifted to the middle and leaned back against the headboard. He pulled her into his lap with her back against his chest, while Jon and Kar sat cross legged facing her, Jon on the left and Kar on the right.

  “Now what?” she asked.

  “Now you relax, try not to move, and let us do this.” Salene nodded and closed her eyes. She’d had shields woven around her before. Lots of times, actually, though it was usually her fathers who did it. She knew that what they were doing required skill and concentration, so she took their request to relax and be still very seriously.

  “Why are you so sad, Salene?” Kar asked softly nearly half an hour later. Even though her eyes were closed, they knew she wasn’t sleeping and had no trouble feeling her emotions.

  Salene opened her eyes, an expression of worry on her face.

  “Seriously, Kar?” Jon asked before she said anything. “I’d think the answer to that question would be rather obvious, all things considered.”

  “True,” Kar said. “I’m sorry, dearest. That was a foolish question. Of course you’re sad about Rayne.” They all felt her brief flash of guilt and wondered about it.

  “I love you,” she said.

  “I love you, as well,” Kar replied before bending down to kiss her softly on the lips. “Try to get some sleep if you can.”

  “You’re not finished?”

  “No, love,” Jon said. “We made an error in the weave and are waiting for the threads of power to dissipate before trying again.”

  “All right then,” she said, closing her eyes. “Maybe I will sleep for a little while.”

  Talus, Jon, and Kar sat quietly, unsurprised when they sensed her falling asleep moments later. It had been a long and emotional day for all of them, Salene especially.

  “I think we’re making a mistake,” Jon said when they were certain she was fully asleep. “She’s our Arima. We should be honest with her.”

  “We’re not being dishonest,” Talus said. “We’ve only made love with her once. Let’s give her some time to get used to sex, first. What’s the rush?”

  “There’s no rush,” Jon said. “But keeping the truth from her feels wrong to me.”

  “It doesn’t feel right to me either,” Talus admitted. “But I don’t want to scare her. We have to lead up to this slowly.”

  “What do you think, Kar?” Jon asked.

  “I think the subject of keeping her safe is far more important than anything else right now,” he said. “And I also think I’ve come up with an idea that might just work.”

  “What is it?” Talus demanded. He winced. “I’m sorry, Kar. That came out harsher than I meant.”

  “I understand, Talus, don’t worry about it. My idea is that we put a tracking dot beneath her skin,” he began, but before he could say more Jon interrupted.

  “That’s not going to work,” he said irritably. “The Doftle would pick up the signal immediately and either remove it or neutralize it.”
>
  “Obviously,” Kar said quietly, his eyes fixed steadily on his brother.

  “I’m sorry, Kar,” Jon said with a sigh. “Please continue.”

  Kar dipped his head in quick acceptance of the apology. He was no less tense and worried than his brothers. He just handled his emotions more quietly than they did. “We put a tracking dot beneath her skin, but we deactivate it first so that it doesn’t give off a signal.”

  “What good would that do?” Jon asked.

  “If she goes missing we wait a day or two until we think they’ve scanned her for tracking devices, then we activate it.”

  “Is that even possible?” Talus asked, frowning.

  “Yes, it is,” Kar said. “I’ll need to program a regular tracking dot with a remote activation sequence but I think I’ve got that figured out.”

  “How long will that take?” Talus asked.

  “If it works as I expect, just a few minutes.”

  “Then go do it,” Talus said. “We’ll wait here. Unless you need help?”

  “I don’t need help, but shouldn’t we ask Salene first?”

  “I don’t want to wake her up, and I don’t want her to go unprotected a moment longer than absolutely necessary. We’ll tell her in the morning.”

  Kar nodded his agreement and got off the bed, moving carefully so as not to disturb Salene. “I’ll be back in about ten or fifteen minutes whether it works or not. We still have to weave that shield around her.”

  Talus opened his eyes and blinked a few times in an effort to dispel the gritty feeling that too little sleep always left behind. Something had awakened him, but he wasn’t sure what it was. He laid perfectly still, his senses reaching out. He neither heard nor scented anything unusual. Had it been a dream? That felt right, but he couldn’t remember it.

  He closed his eyes and relaxed his body, trying to think of nothing at all. It took a while, but eventually it came back to him. His eyes flew open, he leapt out of the bed, yanked on a pair of jeans, and left his stateroom. Crossing the corridor in two steps he knocked on Jon’s door, then moved down to the next door and knocked again. A moment later both doors opened.

  “Jon, come in here,” Talus said as he stepped into Kar’s room without waiting for an invitation. A moment later all three were standing in a tight circle.

  “What is it, Talus?” Jon asked.

  “I don’t know how we could have forgotten this, but we put a tracking dot in Salene’s shoulder, remember? The night before we were taken by the Doftles.”

  “That’s right, we did!” Jon exclaimed, stunned. “Kar deactivated it, is that right?”

  “Yes, that’s what I remember too,” Talus said. “You can ping that, can’t you Kar?”

  Kar nodded, a dazed expression on his face as he moved to sit down in front of his vid terminal. His fingers began flying over the keyboard. “I don’t know how I could have forgotten this,” he said, shaking his head while he continued to type.

  “Wait,” Jon said suddenly, his stomach turning to ice. “The Razor no longer exists. How will you recreate whatever you did? Hell, how will you remember the encoded ID of that specific tracking dot?”

  “The program I could rewrite, but you’re right about the ID,” Kar said. “Since it contained about thirty characters I knew I’d never remember it, so I sent a back-up data package to my personal server back on Jasan as soon as I finished resetting the device.”

  “You’re brilliant, Kar,” Talus said with a heavy sigh of relief. “How long will it take to retrieve it?”

  “It’s already been retrieved,” Kar said. “When we initially boarded the Aegl on Jasan the Controllers were in charge. They obviously knew nothing about the data I always take with me wherever we go, so it wasn’t here. One of the first things I did after we left Garza was send an encrypted data upload request to my personal server on Jasan. It arrived yesterday. I just haven’t had time to open the package yet which I’m doing right now.” After another few minutes Kar stopped typing.

  “Here goes,” he said, holding one finger over a key for a long moment before pressing it firmly.

  “How long will it take?” Jon asked.

  “It depends on how far away she is,” Kar replied. “We should give it a minute at least.” Forty two seconds later a green dot appeared at the bottom of the vid screen and began flashing. “We got it,” Kar said with barely restrained excitement.

  “Where is it?” Talus asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” Kar said as he began typing again. “That green dot just tells us that the activation signal was accepted by the tracking dot.” He hit another key and once again they waited. Twenty two seconds later the green dot moved from the bottom of the screen to a spot somewhere in the center of the star map Kar had pulled up. “There she is,” Kar said, his heart racing in his chest with a combination of fear and relief. He hit the same key he’d hit before, sending the ping once again to be sure. Then he began trying to identify the origin of the initial response ping.

  “What is it?” Talus asked when Kar stopped typing and sat staring at the screen.

  “I’m not certain,” he replied slowly. “Give me a minute, please.”

  “At least tell us what you’re thinking, Kar,” Talus said.

  “A return ping originating from a person in a life pod in space would arrive here essentially unchanged from the way it was transmitted. But this signal had a definite refraction gradient and is slightly redshifted. The first response ping was not sent from a pod drifting in space.” Just then the second ping caused the green dot to flash faster, indicating it came from the same source, in the same location as the first one. Kar went back to work while Talus and Jon forced themselves to hold their tongues and be patient.

  “It’s been refracted by a large, nearly spherical object,” Kar said. “The redshift is an Einstein shift caused by gravity.”

  “And that means what, exactly?” Talus asked.

  “It means that she’s on a planet.”

  “Why in the seven hells would a life pod land on a planet?” Jon demanded.

  “I have an idea about that,” Kar said with obvious reluctance. He raised one hand and pointed to a spot on his vid screen. “This is her location.”

  “We can see that, Kar, and we can also see that there’s nothing there,” Talus said. “Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake with that profile? Because it looks to me like she’s still floating around in a life pod.”

  “No mistake,” Kar replied flatly.

  Jon gasped as the pieces fell into place. “She’s on a planet hidden by Blind Sight.”

  “Demii!” Talus swore. “That’s why that space station was in this area.”

  “It also explains why the pod landed,” Kar said. “It wouldn’t have detected the planet until it was too late to avoid it.”

  “How long will it take us to get to the source of that ping?” Talus asked.

  “Dragging that space station behind us, about eight hours,” Jon replied.

  “Then we best get moving.”

  Jon nodded and turned away while tapping his vox to speak with Captain Royce.

  “Good work, Kar,” Talus said, squeezing his shoulder.

  “I’m just glad you remembered it,” Kar said. “I might have caught it when I opened the data package, but we’ve been so busy searching for Salene that I probably would have waited another couple of days before doing that.”

  “Captain Royce is altering our course,” Jon said. “Is there anything else?”

  “Yes, there is,” Talus said. “I remembered the conversation we had after Salene fell asleep that night. Do either of you remember it?”

  Kar and Jon both frowned as they cast their minds back. After a moment Kar shook his head. “I don’t, sorry.”

  “I do,” Jon said, still frowning. “We were trying to weave a shield around her and our first attempt failed. After Salene fell asleep I said something about feeling like we were being dishonest with her.” He looked at Talus.
“You didn’t agree.”

  “I agreed it felt wrong, but not that we should change what we were doing,” Talus said. “I think I’ve changed my mind, though.”

  “You think?”

  “My gut is telling me that we need to wait until we actually see Salene before deciding one way or the other.”

  “I agree,” Kar said and, after a moment, Jon nodded his agreement as well.

  “However,” Talus said pointedly, “It occurred to me that it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared, just in case.”

  “Prepared how?”

  “With a set of rings, gold preferably.”

  Jon’s mouth stretched in a slow smile and his eyes darkened with barely restrained excitement. “I can certainly manage that.”

  “Good,” Talus said. “While you make the rings, Kar will monitor the ping, and I’ll go back to my room to send an update to Uncle Olaf.”

  “With pleasure,” Jon said, already moving toward the door. After he was gone Talus looked down at Kar.

  “Let me know if anything about that ping changes in the slightest, would you?”

  “I won’t take my eyes off of it, I promise.”

  Chapter 11

  Salene awoke the next morning feeling fuzzy headed. She was surprised to find that the fire was burning and she was pretty sure she smelled tea which was nice, but not nearly as nice as coffee would have been. She sat up slowly and checked the children who were both still sleeping.