“What’s the catch?” Coop asked.
The “catch” is, how far this system could be from your Earth.
Coop passed this along to Pappy, who didn’t like it anymore than Coop. Though it had occurred to all of them.
Pappy sat frowning in silence for a while, then he looked up. “There are things we need to know about this system, if we are going to be here…for a while.” His lips thinned for a few seconds. Then he sighed again. “The Captain thinks you might could help with that?”
The dragon’s beard flared, if he could look startled he would have.
Me?
“With your ability to talk mind to mind. Near as we can tell, the species in this system speak bird,” Coop told him.
“Do you speak bird?” Pappy asked him.
13
Why would they think I speak bird?
Rhubreak sounded a bit outraged, and a tiny bit flattered, as they once more boarded their ship. For her, it seemed like all paths led to this ship. It did not feel that the truth had made her free. Or ever would. Though the Colonel hadn’t kicked them out into space. Because he needed them. Or he needed Rhubreak. For now.
“Because you could speak to them, I suppose.”
They do not speak bird. I do not speak bird. It is quite different.
“I think they noticed.” She had the oddest sensation in her chest. A sort of tickle that traveled up and came out her mouth. The sound was not one she’d ever emitted before, and it left her feeling relieved and somehow more relaxed.
Rhubreak turned to look at her. I have not heard you laugh before.
“Is that what it was?” She rubbed her chest.
What is funny?
“Funny?” He was funny, as was his reaction to their request, but she wasn’t sure he’d think it was funny. “It was just…the expressions on their faces and you, you were so shocked. And now you’re annoyed. It’s…funny.” She frowned as a non-funny thought hit her. “What if, while we’re attempting to speak with the birds, another anomaly opens up? Shouldn’t they be thinking about changing their position?”
Perhaps they wish to be sure what they are moving toward. And if we are the source of the anomaly, moving will not help them.
“Do you think we did it?”
I do not believe so, but…
She felt an impatient huff blow through her mind.
I did not think I would ever miss Google.
“So you have been to their Earth.”
Not necessarily. I received a memory upload before beginning this mission. One of my kind was on their Earth… He was silent for a moment as if considering. It could have been me.
How can you not know?
The upload mingles memories. It is difficult to sort out which are mine and which are not. They all feel real.
That felt similar to what she was experiencing, only not the same. The non-Bosakli memories did not feel “real,” they felt alien. Could she have received an upload, possibly upon boarding this ship? She felt cold. What if the upload had been the time on Bosakli? What if her memories of that weren’t real? Not that she’d have minded missing it, but why make her remember that? This made her head hurt. “So the information really could be in this ship’s memory banks?”
It is possible.
He didn’t sound happy about that. “Don’t you want to find Earth?”
It is not that which worries me.
“Well, what worries you?”
What I said at the meeting. How far did the wormhole take this ship from their Earth?
“What do you mean? Remember I’m just a farm laborer.”
It has to do with distance. This ship could have been flung several lifetimes from their system, their planet.
“You mean…”
It is possible that they will never get home. Or if they do, so much time will have passed that everyone they know will be long dead.
* * *
Coop watched Pappy with worried eyes. He’d been pacing since Arian and the dragon left. Finally, he stopped and faced Coop.
He straightened. “Sir?”
“You realize that even if we find out where we are and where Earth is…”
“We might not get home?” Coop rubbed the back of his neck. “I figure anyone who has seen Lost in Space has figured that one out, sir.”
“You don’t seem too worried about it.”
“It’s the dragon, sir. If he’s been bopping around, collecting useful people…”
“Then he might know a faster way to travel?”
“It’s possible.” He half grinned. “Or another wormhole might open up and take us back where we came from.”
His mind kept returning to the wormhole, but if Arian’s ship had caused the wormhole, it didn’t seem to be working for them. And he was a flyboy, not a geek. So why did he think he knew anything about any of this? He should be out boldly going not—
“I wish I shared your optimism.” Pappy paced away, then back. “I want you to put together a team to…assess this system for resources and allies.”
Coop straightened. Now he was talking. “What parameters…”
“Initial foray will be eyes only. First contact? We have time to figure that one out. Not a lot, but some. But we need intel.” His expression cracked, letting his exhaustion show for several seconds. “You can use one of the Garradian shuttles. You’ll need cloaking and jump tech—since the region of inhabited planets is so far away.” This came out a bit bitter. “But even so, we’ll need to close the distance.”
Moving closer to the region with the inhabited planets upped the chance they’d be seen, but it had to be done.
“The hyperdrive online yet?”
“Chief got it going last night.” Pappy paced over and stared out the external viewer. “It’s not ready for big jumps, but he says it can do what we need it to.” He looked at this watch. “We’re making the hop at oh-thirteen-hundred.”
“Sir, how do we know it wasn’t our drive—” He stopped. It hadn’t launched wormholes in the other systems. Could a system be inclined to wormholes? He wasn’t a geek, he reminded himself again.
Pappy turned around. “I guess we’ll find out.”
14
The bridge of the Boyington was abnormally quiet, with an air of suppressed excitement. It wasn’t toward home, but it was movement. Boldly going.
The geeks had been working on the computations, which were complicated by the amount of the debris littering this section of the system. The head geek believed that the debris was a result of the erratic wormhole. There may have been planets in this sector that were destroyed by incoming rocks. Or the junk had just been tossed in and left. Or the wormhole chewed up planets. Whatever the reason for the debris field, it did discourage one from wanting to linger.
The planned hop would take them just outside the debris field—and hopefully out of range of the next wormhole incursion. While the idea of a wormhole taking them back where they started was appealing, the reality is that it could take them even further afield. Or drop them back in the middle of a pitched battle with the pirates.
Play the hand you’re given, not the hand you wish you had.
Coop wasn’t a big poker player, but he hung with guys who were. The clock was ticking down to the hand they had. They’d jump in sixty seconds. He glanced at Arian, sitting at an unused station at the back of the bridge.
Pappy had invited her and the dragon to the bridge for the hop. Only Arian had accepted, so he’d stationed a couple of geeks down there to observe and report. A wise precaution, according to the dragon.
So far the only real good news was that there’d been no pirate sightings.
Yet.
The clock ticked down, the numbers called out only when they reached a ten count. It felt both fast and slow.
Five…
Four…
Three…
Two…
One…
The Boyington gathered herself up and in, the hyperdrive k
icking on, though it felt like it tossed her forward—
The short hops were different in a big ship, but he still felt that from-the-belly-button jerk forward, and then the slam back. Sometimes people left their cookies on the deck after a short hop. And some of the long ones. Depended on the stomach in question.
“How did we do?” Pappy’s voice was the calm force that pulled his people out of the moment of disorientation.
Reports came from the various stations. So far so good.
Coop cast a discreet look around. No one had barfed. He took a couple of breaths, and his stomach settled back down. Arian looked a bit wide-eyed—which would have surprised him before she’d admitted to being a farmer.
A farmer.
That was harder to believe than her claim to be a pilot. She did not look like a farmer. Of course, he wasn’t sure what he thought she looked like—other than a woman. She glanced up and managed to smile.
“Your stomach will settle down in a minute,” he said, with a grin. His gut gave a warning kick. He stiffened. “Something’s wrong—”
She gripped the sides of her seat. “We are being scanned.”
Coop swiveled around and saw the rim of green light tracking across the bridge. As it came toward them, it didn’t look like it was knocking anyone out or anything, but he still braced for it…
It passed him like a puff of pressurized air, and then moved on, exiting out the other side of the ship.
He glanced down. Looked like all of him was still there.
“Find the source of that scan,” Pappy ordered his calm voice cutting across the babble.
“It came from off your port bow,” Arian said.
“What?” Pappy swiveled to face her.
“Approximately point oh-oh-oh-five light years.”
Pappy turned back to his view screen, and as if the ship that had scanned them had been waiting for them to notice, it dropped its cloak. And then three more ships dropped their cloaks.
They were surrounded.
* * *
The good news? None of the ships had opened fire.
The bad news? Just because they hadn’t, didn’t mean they wouldn’t.
“Assessments?” Pappy’s calm voice once again cut across the babble and consternation. “Recommendations? Tactical?”
“Recommend we raise shields, sir.”
“That could be taken as a hostile act,” someone else objected. A mild argument arose as crew members took sides.
“They’ll be studying the data acquired during their scan,” someone else said.
“And then what?”
“They aren’t scared of us,” Coop said, “or they’d already be shooting.” But they had arrived prepared to engage them. If their scan data was correct, all four ships were heavily armed. Four to one told him maybe if they weren’t aggressive by policy, they’d had problems in the past with visitors who were. How often did the wormhole dump ships here, he wondered? And how had the Boyington’s scans missed these big ass ships? “They sure are pretty,” he murmured.
Each of the ships was about two-thirds the size of the Boyington with the sweet lines of a yacht or a sloop. The skin color was a bit odd. There was a side argument going on about whether they were out and out pink or more in the gold range of pink. Other than the whole pink thing, they looked to be four sweet rides.
“They are attempting to open a communications channel with us,” a tech said, the words cutting through the arguments. All eyes turned to Pappy.
“Open a channel,” Pappy ordered.
Attention turned toward the video screen, but it stayed blank. A restless stir flowed around the bridge. Coop glanced back at Arian. She hadn’t moved. He walked back and sat down near her.
“You okay?”
Her head turned slowly toward him, and she blinked, like someone waking up from something.
“Arian?” He touched her arm. “Are you all right?”
She blinked again and nodded, looking around as if she weren’t sure where she was.
“Did something happen to you?” What if she was possessed by the other aliens or something? How would they know?
“That was very strange,” she admitted, a frown furrowing her brow.
“What’s strange?” He glanced at Pappy, wondering if he should give him a heads up, but he was a bit busy right now.
“Rhubreak was attempting to do as you ask, to talk to them.”
“And?”
She pressed her fingers into her temples. “So many sounds.”
“Sounds? Not words?”
She nodded. “But…”
“What?”
“Hearing them, it was almost as if…”
“As if?” he prompted when she stopped.
“I remembered…” She sighed and shook her head. “But it is gone.” She lifted troubled eyes to meet his gaze. “How can I remember something that did not, that could not happen, where I lived?”
“You’re sure it is a memory?”
“No. It was indistinct and…incomplete, like a dream.” She frowned. “It is very frustrating.”
She is valuable, the dragon had said. Was this a clue to why? Or just some new weird to go with the old weird of boldly going somewhere they hadn’t planned? She stiffened and glanced uneasily at Pappy. “Rhubreak believes he has translated their message.”
“Really?”
“It was very short.”
“What did they say?” Coop asked, forgetting he should be speaking with Pappy about now.
“They want to know our intentions.”
* * *
Coop had a simple answer for the aliens. They were here because of a Charlie Foxtrot. He didn’t know how to translate that into diplomatic speak. Good thing that wasn’t his job.
At least, for now, the aliens were being patient. They’d sent their question, and it was up to them to serve a response.
In bird.
Or something like bird. At least, that’s what it had sounded like when it came through the comm. Twitterings or squeaking. Not something the humans on the Boyington spoke.
It was a good day to not be in charge. When Pappy ordered him to take Arian into the ready room, Coop was happy to comply. He steered her to a seat facing Pappy’s desk and sat down next to her. She hadn’t gone statue on him, but she was pale, her gaze troubled.
He hesitated, then reached over and took her hand. It was icy cold, so he tried to massage in some warmth. After a few minutes, he realized he was exploring her hand like it was a new world. Maybe it was. He turned her palm up, wondering what a palm reader would learn from the lines there. Her fingers were long, the tan fading from her soft skin. Something twitched at the back of his mind, and he felt sympathy for her memory struggles. But even that faded fast as his fingers stroked across her palm and her skin quivered. He’d seen these hands touch metal, fingers spreading as she learned the machines.
Now her hands turned palm to palm with his. What was she learning now? Did she feel his heart speeding up? His breath shallowing? The heat stirring in him? Her hands warmed, and color crept into her face as her lashes lifted, her gaze connecting with his.
He couldn’t help what his other hand did. Touching her chin, then her cheeks, the fingers spearing into her silken hair. Her pupils dilated, and her free hand lifted, one finger tracing his mouth. The wonder in her eyes turned heat into fire under his skin.
“Why do your people touch lips together?” Her lips parted, and a pink tongue tracked the edges.
He blinked, trying to clear his vision. Pappy’s ready room, Banshee. He repeated the words, but they didn’t have much meaning as his blood flow changed directions, leaving his brain seriously deficient.
“We…” his voice had a husky edge, “call it kissing. Don’t your people…when things get…intimate…” He stopped. Her utter innocence was terrifying. And a total turn on. What kind of sick bastard did that make him? She started to lower her hand, but he caught it, held it against his chest, trying to think
through the fog.
“I do not know,” she admitted. “I was scheduled to pact bond, but I left with Rhubreak the night before the ceremony.”
“Pact bond?” He watched her lips form words, was sort of aware of the words, but was mostly wondered if she’d liked it when he’d kissed her by the core and if he could do it again. So wrong, especially in Pappy’s space, but it was the first time they’d been alone since the last, far too brief kiss.
“When we reach the age of accountability, we are pact bonded to a suitable male.”
“Suitable? Who decides that?” That helped cool the heat some. Not much, but some. He realized his hand was stroking the back of her neck…
“The Consortium controls everything.”
“The government picks who you…marry?”
A small frown formed between her brows, but the hand he held turned to feel his heartbeat. “I do not know what is marry, but we live with them, have offspring together.”
“You can’t say no?” Repulsed was a jets cooler.
She considered this question. “They said we had a choice, but only males seemed to have it.” Her lashes lowered, fanning across her pale cheeks. Then she looked at him. “The night Rhubreak came, I was out in the dark trying to…reconcile myself to the loss of privacy.”
“Privacy?” Crap, how innocent was she?
Now she smiled, though it was not a happy smile.
“I know that…more than privacy was at stake. I have observed animals coupling. I needed not to think about that or I would have turned myself into the healers and let them erase who I was.”
“Erase?” His voice got grim. His gaze might have been, too, because she looked worried. He made himself smile. “What was his name?” Her brows arched. “The guy that made you want to get your thinking rearranged?”
“Oh.” A slight shudder shook her. “He was called Trajan Bester.” She frowned.
“What?”
“If I had not known it was impossible, I’d have said he was not of Bosakli, but he must have been to be considered for the ceremony.”
“Arian?” She looked at him. “Trust your gut.”
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