Salvaged Destiny

by Lynn Rae

  So Del slouched in the booth built into a reinforced stone storage cell and watched her sister chatter happily with one of the Prax twins, while the other tried to chatter with her. She was too tired to determine which twin was which.

  Tasty whiskey tended to put Del on an even track quite nicely and it was her one indulgence for the evening. Entangling herself in an amorous liaison with a Prax male was not going to be an indulgence tonight. Or ever. The very idea of getting naked with someone she’d known since she was a toddler was repellant. Or hysterically unseductive. Therefore, the idea of coming close to Prax genitalia was unthinkable, at least on her part. It didn’t seem to inhibit the Praxes.

  Dee Dee laughed and prodded Del’s hand. “Guess what? Drag here says he has some reline. If you want we can get out of here, go out and look at the stars and heat it.”

  “No, I don’t think so. Still working on my drink. And I have to work early tomorrow. You go ahead if you want.” Del picked up her tumbler, still sloshing with liquor, and smiled at her sister to encourage her to do what she liked. Dee Dee gave her an exasperated look but was distracted when Drag—or was it Tug?—leaned over and whispered in her ear as the other one grinned and swigged down the last of his beer, ready to leave at any sort of signal.

  Del didn’t mind if they left. She could get back home and start to tally what she might have made on the expedition. Every mark was one step closer to being able to take a class with Dr. Elda Harad-Brinkell—Advanced Concepts in Exogeology, for actual Academy credits.

  “No, I said we were going out tonight. I’m not just going to leave you here. Bye, guys.” Dee Dee summarily dismissed the men who took their rejection with shrugs and smiles. But that was Praxes for you—pretty much happy with whatever happened. Del envied their mellow. She felt on edge most of the time—most of the time she was at the port that was. In the Outlands, she was calm, away from people and all of the confusion they caused.

  “Excuse me, are you Delphine Browen?” A man’s voice broke in and she turned to see a large fellow, medium-brown hair trimmed very close, bright-brown eyes and a careful manner. He looked very pressed and fit and since she didn’t recognize him he had to be a portie. Or a new territorial deputy, too new to have gotten sloppy like most of Sheriff Harata’s minions. Del felt an immediate prickle of warning down her spine. This man was probably trouble.

  “Yes I am,” she answered, as polite as she could be considering her desire to stay quiet, enjoy her drink and avoid interaction of any sort.

  “Hello. I’m Lazlo Casta.” He shook her hand very nicely and then turned to Dee Dee to introduce himself. Del felt a breath of relief—he would be charmed by her sister and she could return to daydreaming about the strange variegated mineral she’d found yesterday. It had been surprisingly dense with a soapy feel and once she got it in the capable claspers of Toots, her quark-driven spectrometer, she’d be able to pinpoint its composition.

  “Citizen Browen, excuse me, but I have something I’d like to discuss with you. Would you be willing to step outside with me?”

  “Are you here to arrest me?” His chocolate eyes widened. Harata hadn’t tried a shakedown of the Browens in a while, but maybe he was being subtle this time by sending someone new. Someone who looked very friendly and unthreatening, rather than his usual hulking goons. But Del felt if you were going to be crooked law enforcement, at least be up front about it. She had no patience for skulking and fake subtlety.

  “Pardon my sister, Lazlo. She’s paranoid,” her sister broke in and offered a twinkling smile to the man.

  “I’m not paranoid. How did you find me?”

  “Your mother said you’d be here.” Casta smiled in a very charming way but Del’s blood chilled. He’d been to see their mother. That was worrisome.

  “You’re law enforcement, aren’t you?” Del took a sip of her whiskey and wondered how long this was going to take. Between the Praxes and now this big Casta fellow, her peaceful evening with Dee Dee was pretty much over.

  “Yes I am. How did you know?” Casta kept smiling and Del decided to frown back. No sense in being friendly if he was going to extort something in a few minutes.

  “Your hair, your clothes. You even smell like it.”

  He blinked and Dee Dee cut in. “Stars above, Del, why are you being so rude to him? He looks very nice and—” Dee Dee being Dee Dee, leaned his way and sniffed loudly. “He smells nice too.”

  Her sister grinned at her new friend and continued, “Del is just grumpy and tired. She got back from one of her trips and really wants to go home and cozy up with her rocks but I made her come out with me because I miss her. Although considering her current moodiness, I’m not sure why right now.”

  Del frowned at her flirty sibling and tried to avoid eye contact with the looming deputy. Of course, Dee Dee hadn’t dealt with the pressure of working under the unethical eyes of Sheriff Harata. Their father and her second mother shielded their younger children rather well but Del had certainly heard and experienced enough to be cautious when it came to law enforcement. It didn’t really matter if they were port security or the territorial deputies or some unknown entity, they all had power over her decidedly unwealthy and uninfluential family.

  “Come sit with me. I won’t let her bite you.” Dee Dee pulled the man down on a seat and beckoned for Milt to bring a drink over. Lazlo Casta was big and took up a lot of space in the booth. “Tell me, what planet are you from?”

  Officer Casta glanced at Dee Dee and looked befuddled when Milt plunked a whiskey in front of him.

  “Drink it,” Del ordered. “Dee Dee is going to interrogate you now, Citizen Lawman. You might as well relax. She gets to the bottom of everything in the family, sometimes very painfully.”

  Casta looked puzzled and took a tiny sip. He had nice manners, Del had to give him that. Most men would have either been looking down Dee Dee’s shirt by now or trying to gain control of the situation.

  “My planet? You mean where I’m from originally?” Dee Dee nodded happily at his question. “I’m from Freton.”

  Dee Dee squealed and the security officer looked even more confused as he drew back and his soft brown eyes widened.

  “Oh Del, that’s forty-three for me!” She patted the man’s arm. “I’ve heard it’s beautiful there. All the resorts and amusements and beaches. And the cute wavers. Were you a waver, Lazlo? I bet you were since you’re so tall and strong, I can just picture you balancing on that little board out in the ocean, wearing some colorful swim gear. I always ask someone new that question, where they’re from, that is. So far, I’ve met people from forty-three different worlds. It went faster when I started, but lately I keep getting repeats.”

  “I didn’t think anyone was actually from Freton. I thought that people just visited there,” Del could hardly resist adding.

  Casta looked back at her and quirked an eyebrow. “I used to think the same about Sayre.”

  She snorted so she wouldn’t laugh, then took a sip of her whiskey. He had a bit of sand for a big security fella.

  “Citizen Browen, I really do need to speak with you.”

  “Since you aren’t going to arrest me, why should I?”

  “Because I need your help.”

  Oh right. Del tried to figure out his angle. Was he trying to be nice to get her to relax her guard? But to what end?

  “What could I possibly do to help you?” Del tried not to sound as uncooperative as she felt. He hadn’t done anything objectionable yet and she’d rather keep this exchange civilized as long as she could.

  “I can’t discuss it here.” The big man tried to look cagey but he came off as someone who wanted to spill the surprise birthday party arrangements instead.

  “You expect me to go off with you? Some strange man who just shows up where I happen to be and somehow knows my identity?”

  Lazlo Casta looked abashed. “No, of course not, I assure you I’m not at all a, uh…” He trailed off, looking embarrassed as he searched for s
omething to say.

  “Lazlo, we don’t think you’re a bad guy, do we, Del? I can just tell when someone is bad,” Dee Dee reassured him as she patted his arm.

  “You can just tell, Dee Dee? Did your sniffing and touching tell you something factual about the man?” Del asked, feeling skeptical and suddenly sure that she wanted to stay right here in this booth and not go anywhere with Citizen Casta. Even if he was nice and not trying to loom, he was still a minion of that sneak Harata.

  Dee Dee frowned at her, but she wasn’t really angry—just looking to tease her older half-sister as she tended to do. “Yeah, Lazlo here smells like a good one, nice and clean. And he’s nice and big, Del. You talk with him. I’ll go sit at the bar and talk Milt into cooking us something spicy. I’m peckish.” Dee Dee got up, the security man rising politely to allow her to leave. He returned to his seat, leaving Del to face him alone.

  “Your sister, she’s—”

  “Yes, she is beautiful and nice and single. Go for it.” Del felt tired again.

  “No, that’s not what I…I’m not…” He took a deep breath and started over. “I was going to say that she is very courteous. I shouldn’t have asked you to leave with me and I’m glad she gave me some privacy. Would you like to see my identity?” Lazlo slid his datpad her way and she glanced at the display without much interest.

  “Why do you need privacy, Officer Casta? Or is it Sergeant Casta? I don’t know what these abbreviations mean.” She spent her brainpower on minerals and maps, not paramilitary titles.

  “Lieutenant, actually. But that doesn’t matter. I do need your help on a confidential matter.”

  Del immediately felt stressed. So that’s what he was after. “I’m not going to be an informant for you.” No matter what he might have on her or her family. She just couldn’t do the lying.

  “An informant? No, that’s not it at all.” He looked at her with a frown, his eyebrows creased with puzzlement.

  Del sighed. “Tell Harata that we aren’t interested. In anything.”

  The man blinked again and straightened his shoulders. She expected the bench to pop off its base when he moved all that bulk. “I don’t work for Sheriff Harata, I work with port security. Major Sekar is my commanding officer.”

  It was Del’s turn to be unsure. “But you don’t have jurisdiction out here.”

  “I know. That’s why I’m not in uniform and why I tracked you down here. A random meeting. I’m trying to be covert.” His honest-looking face finally projected satisfaction instead of uncertainty.

  Del sat back and considered this. Since he wasn’t one of Harata’s guys looking for marks under the table or an unsavory favor, what could he possibly be after?

  “I apologize if I misrepresented myself. I’m not here to cause you any trouble and I’m sorry if I gave you that impression.” Now he looked very sincere. Del wasn’t sure why, but she bought it.

  “You aren’t. You didn’t. It’s me. I’m just tired from my trip. And maybe I’m paranoid.” And out of practice talking with people who weren’t related to her.

  “And that’s exactly why I hope you will help me.” Lazlo glanced around and lowered his voice. “I need a guide out there to help me find some things.”

  “What things?”

  “I can’t tell you until you sign a confidentiality agreement.”

  “Despite Dee Dee’s intuition that you’re not a rapist or a killer, I’m not at all sure that I want to go traipsing out there alone with you if you can’t even tell me what you’re looking for.”

  “Once you sign it I will be able to tell you everything.”

  “Everything?”

  “Everything to do with this particular project.” He smiled again and she raised her glass to her mouth so she wouldn’t smile back. He really had a nice face, much more suited to friendliness than menace.

  “How long would this take?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “How far out?”

  “I don’t know. I have some vague directions, but I can’t show you until—”

  “I sign, right.” Del thought about this. “Is this an official thing or are you doing this on your own time?”

  “Official but secret.”

  “How much?”

  “How much what?”

  “How much are you going to pay me if I agree to this bizarre task?”

  “Ah, that we would have to negotiate, after…”

  “I sign. How in the galaxy am I supposed to make an intelligent decision if I have no information?”

  “I don’t know. Sorry.” Lazlo made an uncertain gesture with his big hands and she shook her head at him, frustrated but somehow not willing to kick him out of the stone-lined booth quite yet.

  Del looked over at the bar and saw that Dee Dee was watching and waiting for a signal to return, a plate of something hot and steaming next to her. “Normally I would simply leap at this wonderful opportunity but I can see my sister has managed to land us something to eat and I’m tired and hungry. So if you’ll excuse me, Citizen Casta, I’m going to have to delay making a decision. Although with the lack of details I’m not sure how more time to think is going to make things clearer to me.”

  “So you’ll think about it?”

  “Sure I will.” She was going to give it less consideration than whatever she was going to eat in the next few minutes but she would think about it. Whatever Dee Dee had managed to coerce from the tiny bunker kitchen would be delicious. Dealing with this weird situation was not.

  “Thank you.” Lazlo looked so grateful, as if she’d already agreed to help him, she almost liked him for a moment. But that was foolish thinking and Del shut it down.

  Del nodded to her sister and the security officer stood as she approached.

  “You aren’t leaving us, are you, Lazlo?” Dee Dee asked as she sat down a plate of dumplings. They looked and smelled as if they might be filled with something savory. And by the asteroids of Alon, there were two dipping sauces. Taking a sniff of the little treasures, Del thought she might have even detected a hint of pork. What had they done to deserve such indulgences?

  “Stay and eat—there’s plenty,” Dee Dee encouraged the big man and Del repressed her urge to wave him off. Del didn’t want to share. She was hungry and this was the first fresh food she’d had in nearly three days.

  “No thank you. I’ve taken up enough of your evening. It was a pleasure to meet you, Citizen Browen.” The security officer shook Dee Dee’s hand and then looked at Del with hope glowing in his whiskey-colored eyes. “Can I call you tomorrow?”

  “No. I’ll call you.” Stars, she wanted to eat, those dumplings smelled divine.

  “You don’t have my information.”

  “I figured that was only available after I signed.”

  Lazlo guffawed and she smiled in return. No, he wasn’t such a terrible fellow after all. But she had no time for some mysterious trip with a strange man. Not that he seemed strange—Lieutenant Casta was a courteous specimen. But she wanted her dinner and she had family business in the morning.

  “May I?” She nodded and he keyed his info into the datpad she held out to him. “Good night.” He smiled again and turned and left the Bunker with long strides. Most of the people in the bar watched him leave with varying levels of subtlety. Since he had just been at their table, Del didn’t have to pretend she wasn’t tracking his exit.

  “So, what do you think of him?” Dee Dee’s interrupted her dark thoughts with a perky trill.

  “Who? The security guy?”

  “Yes, the well-formed, nice man with lovely manners who just gave you his data. What do you think?”

  “I think he’s up to something. And I’m hungry.”

  Chapter Two

  Lazlo woke up feeling pressure to get started on his new assignment. He needed to have Delphine Browen sign on as his guide and they needed to start, today if possible. He knew she wasn’t going to call him—her reluctance was obvious when he’d tried to talk wi
th her the night before. Delphine’s suspicion and reserve were such a contrast to her outgoing and cheerful sister.

  But she was his only choice. The other person whom Citizen Kidd had suggested had a few criminal convictions and he wasn’t going to risk his project with someone who had broken the law. Of course Citizen Browen might be a criminal too, but she had at least managed to avoid being caught.

  Delphine definitely gave off a slight aura of someone who was familiar with the gray areas of life. She was also pretty, if you liked smallish women with thoughtful eyes and suspicious natures—something Lazlo recently realized he did.

  So rather than wait for a call that would never come, he headed back to the Browen family compound outside the port gates. He’d gone there last night to track her down and had found her mother who was directing the sorting of trash on a conveyer belt. Citizen Browen the elder had looked him over closely and suggested he try the Bunker with a twinkle in her eye, where her eldest daughter had been as predicted.

  Unlike her jolly mother and friendly little sister, he had failed to impress Delphine last night—so this morning he needed to be perfect.

  After a brisk walk from the port security checkpoint, Lazlo entered the metal gates of the Browen facility, noticing again the signs it had once been a small private spaceport—wide, reinforced landing deck, mechanical bays and a few low warehouses beyond them half-tucked into the ground. It was all surrounded by mismatched sheets of opaque fencing. But instead of ships and flight crews, it was now filled with an overwhelming variety of junk—gutted carts, stacks of metal and resin, crates filled with who knew what. It was also hot, humid and smelled like spilled hydraulic fluid.

  Lazlo noticed some people gathered around a clunky old transport and he walked their way, spotting Del in the driver’s seat nodding as she looked over a display while an older man talked with her. A slim girl who looked about thirteen was stacking empty containers in the bed of the transport and Lazlo smiled at her when she looked at him. She blushed and kept stacking.

  Del noticed him next and rolled her eyes but kept nodding and checking the display. The older man seemed to be reminding her about something to do with oil, but he stopped talking when he saw Lazlo.