Sabralia journeyed to a nearby credit station and transferred the required credit to Tulse. Her sense of relief was huge. The ship was moved and changed. Their pursuers would have a much harder time finding them, especially if Tulse left the Hub in a few days. The Hub required no record of their transaction, only Tulse and Sabralia knew of it.
“So dangerous, Sabra,” Kaistril said when she told him about the sale.
“I was cautious, Kaistril. And we might need the credits if your brothers are delayed somehow.”
“The signature and hull insignia are changed?”
“Yes. I double checked through the Hub system.” She showed him the proof and he was satisfied.
“You did well, Sabra. This gives us a greater degree of safety. And it is good to be prepared in case my brothers don’t show up on time.”
She knew he felt bad about being so helpless. “We’ll be fine now. We just need to wait.” Wait for you to get better, she wanted to say.
Since they didn’t leave their small room, there was nothing to do but sleep, or watch the Hub com.
“He seems honest,” Kaistril said of Daveed during one of his short alert periods.
“I do think he is honest,” Sabralia agreed. “He lives next door with his wife and three small children. She does not speak Standard well, but we have exchanged greetings and a few words. They plan to emigrate to Yonder.”
Yonder was a world newly opened for colonization.
Kaistril talked to Daveed and arranged for him to be a courier with a sale of more jewels. Daveed’s wife, Amira, confided that with the courier fee Kaistril paid, they nearly had enough for a colonization package.
“It is so sad your husband so sick. Very sad. You see doctor?” Amira’s eyes were full of concern.
Sabralia brought up the idea of seeing a doctor to Kaistril, who was getting too thin and far too tired. He slept constantly except for brief moments, and when he did eat he just took a few bites, and then he’d be off to sleep again. “It’s not right, Kaistril. You should be feeling better, shouldn’t you?”
“We’ll wait until my brothers get here. I trust their ship’s doctor more than I would trust a physician here. They might recognize that cybot applications were on me, alert someone. No records, we can’t be found.”
“Do you think someone is looking for us?”
“Maybe for us. Maybe for the ship. They might know who we are. I have no way of knowing what kind of security might have been running at the space field…” His voice got weaker as he spoke. “There might be visuals.”
Sabralia thought about that. “If there were visuals, then they know you are a former cybot, and they probably know about the failsafe.”
One day, Daveed came to the door, his dark eyes huge.
“Sabralia, there is some news you should know. Someone has been visiting different lodgings, asking for information. Two dark-haired Puregen men have been found dead…murdered.”
“I see.” Her heart pounded in panic.
“I thought you should know because your man is a dark-haired Puregen. Don’t open your door. And you should order security barriers for your door.”
She did so, and Daveed installed them.
“Good. Good… family will be here soon,” Kaistril said when he saw the security barriers, which strengthened the doorway locks and alerted them to any movement near their room.
“How can they be here so soon? New Prague is two systems away.”
“Yes. But secret…have a jump line.”
A jump line, an anomaly that pulled a ship through space at speeds unachievable by space flight. Like a current running through space…
“New Prague has a jump line?”
“Yes. But it’s a secret. Or Sirn…”
He didn’t need to finish. Sirn was acquiring jump lines wherever he could.
Sabralia checked the com over and over for news of the murders. She knew she was acting strangely. Knowing someone was out there, perhaps looking for Kaistril, she was jittery, but exhausted. Nothing tasted good.
Kaistril was in the small bed, bare from the waist up. He was sleeping, like always, and curled into himself. She missed the Kaistril she’d just started to know, and she missed the physical closeness she’d had with him as her cybot. The days of warm baths, of arms holding her, stroking her as she fell to sleep, were gone. The memories of the heated passion they shared seemed almost like a dream now.
Chapter Eight
The message came three days later, just as she was beginning to feel desperate. Two more dark-haired men had been killed, their gruesome stories played constantly once the Hub news-view cast.
She made sure the weapons were nearby at all times. Kaistril couldn’t defend himself, it was up to her.
She replied to the message, “Kaistril is ill. I can get him to your ship. He can walk a short distance. There is a difficulty—someone may be searching for us. They have our descriptions. Several men matching Kaistril’s description have been killed in the past few days.”
“Give me your location. We will come directly to your lodging for you. Be ready.” The message was signed as Commander Kyler.
She woke Kaistril up and got him dressed to go.
“Kyler is coming here to the lodging for us.”
“Good, that will make it safer.”
To her surprise, Kaistril called for Daveed to join them.
When he did, Kaistril tapped an amount onto Daveed’s com and completed the transaction with his thumbprint. “Here. You have been very kind to my wife and myself. I hope you and your wife have the luck of the Star Gods in your new world.”
Daveed stared at the com. “That is far more than I need.”
“I know, but I thank you. Your family deserves to be off this Hub, somewhere safe. Where will you go?”
“Yonder. Free land on that planet, good farmland on two continents with little mining. Mixed immigration and immigrant constitutions, too, to protect the colonists. A good place to raise a family.”
Kaistril nodded.
“I wish you and your wife well,” Sabralia told him, tears pricking her eyes. Daveed and Amira were the closest people she’d had for friends in many years.
“And I you.”
Kaistril dozed while they waited, the bags packed and ready.
The door alarm buzzed and the security screen showed a tall, dark-haired man.
She shook Kaistril awake, then opened the door at Kaistril’s nod. The man resembled Kaistril, but his eyes were silver gray. And he was huge, a head taller than Kaistril, and wide, his shoulders grazing the doorway.
“Kyler. Good you’re here, you monster.” Kaistril tried to stand, and Sabralia rushed to his side to help him.
“What is wrong with him?” The man’s voice was sharp.
“Failsafe,” Kaistril said. “She had to remove the implants.”
“Implants?” Kyler skewered her with his eyes.
“Cybot implants,” Sabralia answered.
“All on the com. Info.” Kaistril indicated the bag.
Kyler snatched it. “Move out.”
Other men were with him, dressed in black, form-fitting uniforms, with silver and red markings on their chests and shoulders.
The men grabbed Kaistril by the arms and pulled him swiftly into a small transport. Sabralia followed, awkward with her thick cloak and bag.
Everything happened so fast. While the transport maneuvered to the New Prague ship, Kyler barked orders into a com, to someone named Karvar. He uploaded Kaistril’s com.
Sabralia sagged against her seat in relief. There was a medic on board, someone who could help Kaistril. Tears pricked her eyes. He was already asleep, several seats in front of her, slumped limply with his head against the wall.
Medics greeted them in the docking bay. One was tall, with dark hair and thick lashes surrounding amber eyes. He wore focals. Another brother?
“Take the woman to quarters on level four,” Kyler commanded. His silver eyes slid over her, ma
king her feel cold. For some reason he didn’t like her, she could tell. “Run her through our system, Security One priority.”
Two soldiers escorted her to a lift, and then down to a small room. They politely asked for her thumbprint and a retinal scan. “A meal will be brought in two hours,” one soldier said afterwards.
“I want to be with Kaistril. Isn’t there somewhere I can wait, while he is examined?”
“Commander Kyler will take care of his brother. It is best you stay here, out of the way.”
Sabralia was left alone in a small room. The room was stark and chilly, and the narrow bunk was hard. It looked like a prison cell, with the hygenie right in the same room. On impulse she tried the door. She was locked in.
Worrying about Kaistril made her feel sick. She wished someone would come with information.
She found a common com and tried it. “This is Sabralia. I came with Kaistril. Can someone inform me what is happening? Is Kaistril all right?”
She repeated the message several times before she got an anonymous response.
“We will be leaping to Goldshawk Hub in thirty hours. Commander Kaistril is stabilized and recovering. He requires rest before we leap. Please follow the procedures broadcast prior to the jump to ensure your safety.”
He was well. That was all that mattered. “May I see him before we jump?” There was a pause, then a reply. Sabralia would be summoned for a brief visit before the jump.
Relieved, she ate the cold, unappetizing food, and bathed in a daze. Finally, she dozed for awhile, until an announcement for the jump woke her.
“She is from Coloun, in fourth sector. It is an agricultural world and supplies Sirn’s forces. She was married to Sirn in a treaty contract.” Karvar read the information to Kyler.
“A treaty wife.”
“Yes.”
“Is she important enough for Sirn to come after? Because we have reports that they were being sought by Sirn’s forces,” Kyler said.
“According to the woman, Sirn was overthrown recently, at his palace.”
“Perhaps. But his forces are on the move again, so whether he is in charge, or his successor, they seem to have the same agenda.”
“We should have insider news soon,” Karvar said. “They may be after the woman for some reason. Perhaps she has some knowledge she shouldn’t have.”
“Perhaps. Still, if there was a coupe, as she maintains, she might have been able to find some delicate information.” Kyler drummed his fingers on the com. “I will allow her to visit Kaistril, and while she is with him, I will have her belongings searched.”
Karvar nodded. “Good.”
“I am also making arrangements to get her off-ship. I am not taking her to New Prague. If she remains with Kaistril, she would have access to the entire Governing Body. Including Mother. She is too high a security risk.”
“Do you think Kaistril wants her to come with us?” Karvar asked.
“Kaistril has never been interested in keeping any woman around for long. As long as she is safe, he’ll be fine with it. We’ll send her back to Coloun.”
Karvar nodded.
“I’ll have two ensigns escort her to a ship that will take her to her homeworld.” Kyler checked info on the com. “There is a transport out in two days’ time. Meanwhile, she will remain in her quarters under watch.”
Relief flooded through Sabralia. They were not trying to keep her away from Kaistril. Maybe she could stay with him now, instead of in that ugly room.
Kaistril was stretched under a white coverlet in a medic room. He was asleep, but his coloring was good, and the hollows below his cheek bones were gone.
The medic with the focals was in attendance. He looked remarkably like Kaistril, but with amber eyes under the lenses, and his hair was dark reddish brown, not black.
“I am Karvar, Kaistril’s brother and physician.”
“Oh. I did not know he had a second brother on this ship.”
“Yes, Kyler is our brother also.”
“Kaistril is going to be all right?”
“Yes. We removed the implant inside his skull that fed the nanos, and we cleared all the nanos out of his bloodstream. He should wake in the next few hours.”
“Wonderful. I was so worried.” She bent over the bed and stroked Kaistril’s corded hair. He looked so good, healthy. His color was fine, and there were no blue shadows under his crescent eyelashes.
Sabralia continued stroking his hair and held his hand, speaking now and then of nothing important.
“I’m so glad your brother was able to remove the implant and clean out the nanos. I know you are going to be fine.”
She held his limp hand to her cheek and brushed kisses against his palm. “Soon you will be awake and strong.”
What am I going to do? She was completely in love with him. At least he would be healthy. And with his family.
Karvar reappeared, and she pressed a kiss on Kaistril’s cheek. “Sleep well,” she whispered.
As the men escorted her back to the lonely, utilitarian room, she struggled not to cry. She loved him. Real love, the kind that lasted a lifetime.
Locked back into the ugly room, she cried hard, gulping sobs. Kaistril would live…he would get better…he had a full life with a family to return to. Maybe there was even a woman, back on New Prague, some strong athletic Puregen…
Was there any place for her in his new life? Did he even have good memories of her? She’d been his mistress, while he’d been a slave cybot…that couldn’t hold good memories for him. She must remind him of captivity.
But the ship. Sabralia was sure his memories of their time together on the ship were pleasant. She knew he enjoyed the intimate sexual interludes…but for her it had been life-changing. She would never forget. For her, it had been lovemaking, not just for the pure carnal pleasure, but for the soft look in his light blue eyes after he came, the warm arms that held her without a command. But did he want her in his real life?
Chapter Nine
The ship jumped just hours after her visit with Kaistril. She awoke, full of hope that Kaistril would be awake and alert soon.
However, two soldiers entered her small room.
“Pack the items you want to take with you,” one of them said.
“Take with me? Where?”
“We are moving you to a nonmilitary transport. It is safer.”
Confused, Sabralia packed the few items she had placed around the room into her bag. Safer than a military transport?
“Is Kaistril going to be on this transport, too?”
“I do not know. He is still under the doctor’s care and may follow when he is stronger. Our orders are to get you out safely.”
“It will be more comfortable for a lady, than on a military ship,” the other soldier said.
That might well be true, if the rest of this ship was anything like this room.
The men escorted her off-ship to a small transport. From there, they flew away to a dock across the Goldshawk Hub, which looked no different to her than Katherine Hub. One soldier got out to arrange her departure. When he returned, they walked her to a glide path that moved them toward a loading dock.
The walkway was full of people and even a few herds of farm animals in transport container fields.
People were talking all around them, and Sabralia was shocked to hear the language of her homeworld. She turned to the people speaking it.
“You are from Coloun?” she asked in a low voice.
“Yes, miss. We are returning to Coloun with breeding stock.”
“This ship is going to Coloun?”
“Of course.”
Anger filled her. They were sending her away from Kaistril. Back to her home world, where Sirn could find her, where Sirn ruled. She turned her face away slowly, trying not to show her emotion to the escort.
Along the walkway were small booths and portable merchant stands. Several held the Jack boots and glider boards that were so popular with Hub people.
> She had credits, left over from Katherine Hub, and she knew they would work here, too, with just a thumbprint.
She just needed to lose the escort.
Two young men with a stack of glider boards were near the walkway and she would soon pass them. She caught their eyes and smiled, wiggling a finger to get one to come close. “Get me off this glide path and away from these two soldiers, and I will pay a triple price for a glider,” she said to them, in her home language. I hope they understand.
The boys’ faces burst into smiles. “Certainly, miss,” one spoke in Coloun. “Where to, miss?”
“Farther down. These men I’m with are forcing me onto the ship. I don’t want to go. But I don’t know how to run a glider or the boots. Could you carry me down a couple levels? And show me how they work? I’ll pay you.” She spoke quickly. One of the guards was starting to frown.
“Sure. We get it.”
Sabralia turned away and walked with her escort several paces, until the two boys suddenly grabbed her on both sides, and yanked her off the path. She screamed as they dropped—she thought they would hit bottom. However, the boys’ gliders suddenly burst on, and they floated down several levels, finally landing in a crowded plaza, full of eateries and other businesses, clogged with customers. Far above she could hear the angry shouts of her escort, and she grinned.
The glider wasn’t that hard to use, it already held an energy charge, while the boots would have to be moved to rev up. She chose a glider with a narrow hand stick for direction. Then, after paying the boys well and practicing with the glider, she took off to a mid-section plaza, this one very large.
The soldiers would look for her, she thought. Her bright blue floral cloak would be easy enough to spot. She found a clothing store and covered her fashionable floral cloak with a dark brown one. On impulse, she ducked into a small tea shop after seeing several women at the windows-soldiers would not think about looking for her there, she was sure. While drinking a cup of spice, accompanied by a plate of sweet buns, she asked general questions about the Hub from her server, a kind-faced older woman. By the time she left, she had coordinates for a safe, but modest, sleeping inn. Some hours later, after she arrived to her safe, tiny room, she tried to decide what to do.
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