by Jaleta Clegg
“What?” I was on my back, squirmed in under the main drive housing tightening screws.
“Our friends are on their way. The tall ones. We have clearance to lift in ten minutes.”
The driver slipped. I skinned my knuckle on the housing. I swore a blue streak at the pain.
Caid’s balding head popped into my limited field of view. “You got the language right to be an engineer. We’re booting the main drive. Move or be fried.”
I scrambled out as the drive whined. It creaked and squealed but held steady.
“Good to go,” Caid said.
“Affirmative,” Jerimon answered.
I rolled my eyes. He sounded more like the Patrol than the actual Patrol. He must have watched too many vids growing up.
“Dace? We need two pilots.”
I handed Caid his driver.
He saluted me with his greasy wrench.”You’re welcome in my engine room anytime.”
“I’ll remember that.”
Jasyn confirmed our liftoff time with the spaceport authority as I came up into the lounge. Jerimon flipped switches and set sliders. I took the chair between the two of them and looked over the controls. I’d flown this particular type of ship twice, in simulators.
“Have you ever flown one of these?” I asked Jerimon.
He shook his head.
I sent a silent plea to the Spirit of Space and goosed the engine. The indicator lights burned green, power levels stayed normal.
“Cleared for liftoff,” Jasyn announced.
“Clear below,” Caid answered.
“Then lift off.” Lady Rina spoke from her thickly padded chair behind us in the lounge. Estelle sat beside her. Lady Rina raised one eyebrow. “Unless you’d rather answer the Patrol’s questions. I’m sure it won’t take long for them to realize what ship you must be on.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I turned to my controls.
The engine rumbled, building to a loud roar as we lifted. The newer engine types were quieter, true, but there was something deeply satisfying in the powerful vibration that rattled our seats as we left Nevira. It also helped to know that we were leaving the Patrol and the Sessimoniss behind. Scans showed no ships in the space around Nevira. None except for Lady Rina’s Swan, and we would be gone as soon as we built the speed to jump.
Chapter Thirteen
The Swan was slow, but at least she flew. We planned a short stop at Raterra Station on our way to Herifon. I took night shift, watching the controls while the others slept.
The second day, I came up to the lounge from the cramped cabin I shared with Jasyn. Estelle bustled in the galley, cooking supper. Jasyn lounged in a chair, buffing her already perfect nails. Caid sprawled on a couch, fiddling with some wires. Lady Rina sat at the only table laying out hand after hand of cards. Jerimon had his back to me, watching the controls. I stood at the top of the stairs, watching with an odd feeling of belonging.
“Come in, Dace,” Lady Rina said without looking up from her cards.
“We should make the station in about three hours,” Jerimon added over his shoulder.
Caid tossed the wires to one side. “Considering what mess you two are in,” he gave me a hard look, “you’d better stay on the ship, out of sight.”
We’d told Lady Rina and Caid the whole story after we’d made the jump to hyperspace. I didn’t want them in trouble without knowing all of it. Jerimon admitted to stealing the Eggstone and I owned up to running from the Patrol. I left Commander Grant Lowell out of the picture. Lady Rina merely raised an eyebrow and commented that older ladies, especially those with gypsy blood, were allowed eccentricities. Caid chewed his lip and said he’d come up with a plan. Estelle didn’t say anything.
I took the seat next to Jerimon. The indicators were all within normal limits. He glanced at me, then back at his board. I picked at the edge of the panel. I didn’t trust his efficient approach, he acted like an android.
“Did I miss something?” I asked him quietly.
He jumped. “No.” His face flushed.
Jasyn stood, stretching like a cat. “I think I’ll check those uniforms.”
Caid followed her down the stairs. Estelle shifted food to the table while Lady Rina picked up her cards.
“Something is going on,” I said to Jerimon.
“No, it isn’t,” he insisted.
“Yes, it is. And you are going to tell me what it is.”
“No, I’m not, and it’s nothing.”
“Then why are your ears turning red?”
“They aren’t.”
“Want to bet?”
“No.”
“Jerimon.”
“What?”
“Is it the Sessimoniss again?”
“No.” Jerimon looked away quickly, adjusting sliders that didn’t need adjusting.
“Then what?” My curiosity twitched.
“I read his cards,” Lady Rina spoke as if that statement explained everything.
I looked over my shoulder.
“The cards.” She fanned the deck. “I’d read them for you, but I’m afraid of what I might see there. Reading your palm was disturbing enough.” She snapped the deck together, then tucked them into a pouch. “Jerimon is tied to you. You kept showing up in his reading.”
“I didn’t ask her to do it,” Jerimon said, his whole face red now.
“What is she talking about?” I shot a glance at Jerimon.
“The Lovers, mainly,” Lady Rina said with satisfaction. “I knew someday Jerimon would meet his match, a woman who wouldn’t be taken in by his looks. Although you aren’t quite what I anticipated.”
Heat crept up my cheeks. I faced the controls, doing my best to ignore Jerimon.
“You asked,” Jerimon muttered. “Meddling old lady.”
“I heard that, young man. Be glad I’m in a good mood.”
“We really need to talk,” I whispered to him, hoping that Lady Rina’s hearing wasn’t as acute as the floor supervisor’s at the Academy. “Later,” I added, sneaking a peek at Lady Rina.
I wasn’t sure when later would be. We ate dinner. Estelle and Jasyn cleaned up. Caid and Lady Rina got into a heated discussion about upgrading the ship. I couldn’t concentrate on following the technical argument. Every time I glanced at Jerimon he turned red and looked away. When the alarms went off for entry into normal space, I jumped.
The shift was a bit rough; the teridon coils needed tuning. Teridon coils hadn’t been standard on ships for decades, though, so the chances of finding the tuning equipment at Raterra was very low. Lady Rina and Caid went at it again as Jerimon and I powered down the hyperdrive.
Space near the station was fairly clear. Jasyn contacted their flight control while I shifted the ship into a clear lane. She passed on the flight path information and closed communications with the station.
“Two hours before we reach Raterra Station,” she said, interrupting a long winded spiel from Caid on the relative merits of a Junea drive shaft. Lady Rina’s eyes had actually started to glaze over.
“I need all the beauty sleep I can get,” Lady Rina said, abruptly standing. Estelle followed her as she swept up the stairs to her cabin.
Caid looked confused for a moment, his finger still raised to make a point. He folded it back down and wandered off to the crew quarters.
Jasyn gave Jerimon a questioning look.
“You should go to bed, Jasyn. I’ll stay here with Dace. We really should have two on watch,” Jerimon said.
Jasyn shrugged and headed for the stairs. “Good night,” she called over her shoulder.
“Talk,” I ordered when she was gone.
Jerimon fidgeted with a dial on his control panel. He glanced at me then away, as if eye contact was deadly.
I studied his profile in the soft light. He was almost too good looking to be real, but the heart-pounding attraction I’d felt before was missing. I liked him, yes, I could admit that, but it wasn’t what I thought of as being in love. I hadn’t had a l
ot of experience. Jerimon was the second man to ever kiss me. I didn’t know what he had meant by it, I’m not sure he did either.
He twiddled the dial. “You’re staring at me.”
“So? What did Lady Rina say about us?” I pushed a slider up and down.
“Don’t play with that.” He took my hand, lifting it away from the slider before dropping it as if it burned him.
“It’s the temperature gauge for the refrigerator in the galley, which is currently empty. What did she say?”
“She read my cards. She kept turning up the Lovers, the Tower, and the Sword. Love, danger, and possible disaster or success. She said she couldn’t tell which. She saw a great future for the two of us.”
“She saw me in your cards? Jerimon, I like you. I find you attractive. But not that way.” My face burned. I couldn’t believe I’d actually said it out loud.
“Why not?” He swiveled to face me. Relief and outrage chased each other across his face.
“Because I don’t.” I turned my attention back to my controls. I’d said much more than I’d planned on ever saying.
“But the cards showed it.”
“And you believe them?” I was about to say something about stupid superstitions when I remembered Lady Rina reading my palms. I glanced involuntarily back at the closed door to her cabin. “Did it have to be me in the cards?”
“Who else could it be?” He turned a red to rival my face. “There isn’t anyone else. Despite what Jasyn thinks.”
“Are you trying to say you’re in love with me?” I studiously avoided eye contact.
“No. I mean, I, no.” He slammed a hand on the edge of the desk. “You confuse me, Dace. I don’t know what I feel.”
“Then let’s just call a truce and be friends.”
“No more throwing the blame.”
“Let’s just try to get out of this alive, and hopefully not in prison.”
“Agreed.”
We sat in uncomfortable silence, watching lights.
“Dace?”
“What?”
“You aren’t mad at me?”
“Why should I be?”
“Is your shoulder all right?”
I rubbed my shoulder, feeling the ridges of scar tissue. It wasn’t pretty but it wasn’t too bad, either. “It’s fine, Jerimon.”
“I should have told you about the Eggstone and the Sessimoniss, but I didn’t think they’d ever do anything like that.”
“It’s over, Jerimon. Let it go.”
“Just let me apologize, Dace.”
“Just drop it. We agreed to sort it out, do what we needed to fix it. So quit bringing it up. My shoulder is fine.” The reminder made it itch. I rubbed. Jerimon opened his mouth. “Say one more word and I will tell Lady Rina I find you completely irresistible. She’ll start planning the wedding and the rest of our lives. And then I’ll run off at the first chance and leave you to explain what happened.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“You’re right.” I sighed. “I wouldn’t. She scares me.”
“That wasn’t funny.”
“Lighten up. Just because we’re being tailed by the Enforcers and eight-foot-tall lizards with a death wish, and are currently in the same ship with your aunt who has her mind set on romance, doesn’t mean we should be scared.”
“Put that way, we have nothing at all to fear.”
“Except Lady Rina and her cards. What are they anyway?”
“A way to look into the future. Lady Rina told me the tradition is older than space flight.”
I flipped a switch. “And I’m the Emperor’s cousin.”
“Gypsy traditions go back a long ways. No one is really sure where or when they started. We’re in range of the station.” He pushed the button on the com. “Jasyn? We’re almost there.”
Jasyn came back to the lounge to talk to the Station Master. She looked at both of us and smiled. She was dazzling when she did. “Did you two figure it out?”
“No,” Jerimon said.
“What?” I said at the same time.
She shook her head and called up the docking office.
We were in and out of Raterra Station in just under twenty-four hours. The ship handled better with a full fuel tank. Caid found someone with equipment that worked well enough to tune the coils. He was happy with the results. I was happier about the full refrigerator and freezer in the galley. Lady Rina and Caid had another fight over the hydroponics unit. Lady Rina wanted fresh produce. Caid didn’t want to spend the time necessary to upgrade the whole unit for actual plant production, rather than just air filtration. Half the units were cracked and needed replacing anyway, but Lady Rina got what she wanted. There was no way to say no and make it stick.
Caid named me his assistant. I spent hours crawling through ducts and squirming through muck patching leaks while Caid grumbled and swore at the plumbing controls. The four days to Herifon felt more like a week. What time I didn’t spend working on hydroponics or scrubbing plant slime out of my hair, I spent on watch or asleep.
I was very happy to hear the alarms for reentry. I crawled out of the latest slime patch, wiping damp splotches from my suit. Lady Rina would never let me in the lounge. I pushed the com button. Jerimon answered.
“I’m going to be a few minutes,” I said, brushing at the green smeared down my front.
“You’ve got five before we make transition.”
“I’ll be there.” I switched the com back to standby.
I made it barely in time. I still had traces of plant growth in my hair, and no boots. The uniform Lady Rina provided was the only clean clothing in my possession. It clung to curves I hadn’t realized I had. I was more than a little self-conscious as I crossed the lounge. Jasyn and Jerimon were busy at the controls. The final alarm flashed. I hurried to my seat, doing my best to ignore Lady Rina’s proprietary appraisal.
The Swan bowed gracefully into normal space, hardly an indicator fluttered. She really was a beautiful ship. We went through the routine of shutting down the hyperdrive and dumping speed while Jasyn called the planet.
We got the course laid in and the engines trimmed. Jasyn kept the headset on, because Herifon had a fairly busy spaceport. It was a major crosspoint for trade. It also had a large Patrol base, but that couldn’t be helped. I mentally crossed my fingers and hoped they hadn’t heard about us yet. We saw nothing that resembled a Sessimoniss ship.
“When we land,” Lady Rina spoke when our button pushing slowed, “Jasyn will go with Caid to look for the item you sold. The two of you will remain with the ship. I have some shopping to attend to.”
“Jasyn has no idea what to look for,” Jerimon objected. “And Buzzer’s place isn’t safe. I can go alone.”
“I’ll go with him,” I said. “I can pick up the parts Caid needs on the way.”
“Caid will go,” Lady Rina began again.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Caid said from the stairway. “Not until that drive shaft is up to spec. It’s three points off to the left again.”
“It felt fine,” Lady Rina replied.
“You won’t feel anything until it’s so far out it’s ready to split.” He polished his greasy wrench on a rag only slightly less greasy. “Six hours minimum, if we can find the parts.”
Lady Rina looked between us; me, Jerimon, Jasyn, and Caid. Her mouth pinched tight. Caid calmly polished his wrench.
“Very well. Jasyn will remain on the ship. Jerimon and Dace will stay together.” She smiled slightly at that. “Caid will provide the list of parts the ship requires. I will make arrangements for funds.” Estelle handed her a small touchpad. Lady Rina frowned. “I have neglected my investments too long. I need your thumbprint, Dace.”
“My prints are registered with the Independent Traders Guild. The Patrol has probably flagged them.”
“Then I will need Jerimon’s print. I assume you are clear?” Lady Rina’s tone was acid.
“As far as I know,” he said.
; “I wanted an adventure, not a complicated nightmare,” she said as she finished up the paperwork.
The landing went smoothly. The Swan rumbled down, engines purring, with only minor drifting. I shut down the ship, putting it on standby backup before fetching my boots. I tried to comb the sticky stuff out of my hair. It had grown long enough to brush my collar. Maybe I could get it cut before we had to lift off again. Maybe I’d dance with the Emperor’s son. And maybe the Patrol would forget all about me.
I dragged a comb through the mess on my head. It stuck up in all different directions no matter what I did.
Jasyn followed me to the cabin. “Try this.” Jasyn took the comb from me. Within seconds she had my hair looking nicer than it ever had, lying flat where it was supposed to and fluffing out other places. She met my eyes in the mirror. “With a few touches you’d really look nice.”
“Why do I want to look nice?” I saw too many changes already with my hair and a shipsuit that actually showed I was female.
Jasyn shook her head. Side by side in the mirror I looked plain enough to disappear into the background. Her long, dark hair went exactly where she wanted it to. My hair was a muddy brown, too short to really do more than stick up in funny ways. Her violet eyes slanted slightly, giving her an exotic look. Mine were the color of mud.
“You’re too hard on yourself.” She handed back my comb.
I dumped it into a drawer. “I’m not anything special, I’m just ordinary.”
“Looks aren’t everything, Dace.” She cocked her head, her hair falling in soft waves. “Lady Rina had the right idea, even if she went about it wrong.”
I slammed the drawer. “Don’t even start trying to set me up with Jerimon. It won’t work.”
“But you’ve been getting along so much better.”
“Only because we don’t see each other. We agreed to be friends. I’m not marrying anyone. Not for a long, long time.”
“Friends will work,” Jasyn said, looking delighted. “He is my brother. We probably have to offer him a position on our ship. When we get one.”
“You think we still can?”
“Lady Rina would probably give us the Swan, if we asked.”
“It wouldn’t work for cargo. She’s a bit slow. Parts are hard to find. And the docking ports have to have adapters.”