To Touch the Stars

by Tess Mallory

  She began fighting him, kicking, gouging, using her nails, her teeth, anything she could to gain some sort of advantage over the tall man. He was strong, and his fingers bit into her arms, not savagely, but firmly. She tried to aim a kick toward his groin, but he spun her around and pinioned her arms to her chest, his arms around her, his body pressed against hers. For the first time in a long time, Sky felt the desperation of fear tighten its grip around her throat. She'd been afraid for her crew in recent months, and afraid for Mayla, but not for herself. She'd been too busy, too focused. And besides, the fear of another ship attacking yours was quite different from the fear of a man assaulting you in a dark alleyway on a planet where no one cared if you lived or died.

  He began dragging her down the alley and she continued to struggle, though she knew she struggled in vain. She tried to scream but her throat was too tight. On this world screams permeated the streets. No one paid them any mind. She continued to fight him. Every ploy she used, every defense technique, he countered. Her foot came down on his instep—almost. He moved it just in time. She slammed her elbow into his ribs, but he held her so tightly she couldn't get a good shot into him. She was helpless. The fury welled up inside her like a palpable object, pushing into her chest, choking her. All at once she realized he was pulling her toward a dim, recessed light in the wall of the alley, near the back door of some establishment. She began to fight him in earnest again. If she could get loose, she could run inside that door and perhaps get away.

  "Oh, really, I have had enough of this," the man said flatly. Sky froze. That voice. She knew that voice. With more force than necessary, he slung her against the wall next to the door, the dim light above them finally allowing her to see who her attacker was. A man stood staring down at her, hands gripping her upper arms, entrapping her, his face close to hers. Tall, human, handsome, his golden hair glinted in the pale light and hung down past his shoulders, some of it braided intricately. Two bluegray eyes bored into hers.

  "Hello, Sky," he said softly.

  Sky stared up at him, disbelief and rage pounding through her veins, throbbing into her temples.

  "You!" she whispered. Of all the people in the world, the last person she expected to see in this horrible place was the man who had betrayed her to Zarn. The man who had betrayed her little sister. The man she had vowed to kill if she ever saw him again.

  Telles.

  Eagle entered the Camara Tavern and glanced around, taking note of how many other Rigelians were in the place, looking for the telltale insignia that gave them entrance to any business, the best seats in any theater, the best tables in any restaurant. He took a quick survey. Only two that he could see, but the place was so dimly lit it was hard to tell. He took his seat in the booth that the cheery-faced Caldonian directed him to, and told him, in halting Caldonese, what he wanted to drink. He wasn't wearing his own emblem but he was served quickly, the waiter returning almost immediately. He politely placed the drink in front of him, hovering to see if it met with his approval. Eagle tossed it down, welcoming the burning rush of Llimo whiskey to his throat and stomach. He nodded at the waiter, who beamed with two of his three mouths and hurried away. Leaning back, Eagle surveyed the wretched dive where he'd agreed to meet Telles.

  The fast-fading daylight of this dark, dark world flickered faintly through a tiny window. The tavern was in poor repair, its interior shabby with dim lights recessed into the low ceiling at six-foot intervals. A long bar stretched the length of the room, which was only about thirty feet wide. Stools of every description and size were strewn in front of it, in differing states of deterioration. Across from the bar, fifteen feet away, were booths, one of which he now occupied. The stools and the space between the bar and the booths was filled with people—or rather, other beings—crowded together, boisterously babbling in a dozen different languages.

  Pretty clever of him to tell Sky to meet at the Domma Domma if they got split up. Now she would feel compelled to check it out and that particular bar was on the opposite side of the city. He lifted his glass in a mock salute to himself and took a healthy swig.

  "Miss me?" a sultry voice at his ear asked.

  Eagle choked on the liquor and slammed the glass down, coming to his feet as he coughed, trying to get his breath.

  Sky. Captain Sky. Captain Sky in all her glory and fury. She stood beside the booth, clad in the thin dress he'd cruelly given her to wear, a cloak tied crookedly around her shoulders. Her face was pinched, her brows arched knowingly above her furious turquoise eyes, and in her hand was a Mac57, one of the most lethal blasters in existence. Eagle sank back down in the booth before the power of her gaze—and her gun.

  "You knock-kneed, jax-crotted, bic-dytled, flea-ridden, pax eater!" she shouted. A few patrons in the bar turned to see what the commotion was about, then turned back to their drinks, uninterested. Death happened every day on Barbaros 9. It was part of the glamour of the place.

  "Don't kill him, Sky. Not yet."

  Eagle whirled around and stared at the man on the other side of the booth. They had him cornered. He was almost as tall as Eagle, with long golden hair and wide set, eloquent blue-gray eyes that were presently staring down at him from beneath dark brown brows. Telles. With Sky. Perfect.

  "And I still think you shouldn't have kneed that guy in the crotch outside and taken his gun. He's going to be waiting for us when we go back out."

  "He won't feel like doing any fighting anytime soon," she muttered, keeping the blaster trained on the middle of Eagle's forehead. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could utter a word, Sky grabbed him by the front of his shirt and jerked him to his feet.

  "You lied to me," she said, biting off each word, her intensity building as she pressed the weapon right up against his brow. "You double-crossing, devious, dark-witted, son of a mind-probing bastard!!"

  Telles moved around the booth to stand beside her, thumbs hooked in the belt around his hips which held his own still-holstered blaster. "Don't be too hard on him, Sky. He can't help what he's been conditioned to be."

  What the hell did that mean? Realizing he was at a distinct disadvantage, Eagle forced a smile and gingerly, with one finger, pushed the muzzle of the blaster away from his head. Sky made an indiscernible noise of disgust and turned away, slamming herself down into the booth he had just unwillingly vacated. Eagle released his pent-up breath and straightened his white, open-necked shirt, hitched his own holster a little higher over the tight black trousers he wore. He stood almost eye to eye with his old friend.

  "Hello, Telles." He nodded at Sky as if she hadn't just threatened his life. "Hello, Sky. Well, this is luck. I've been looking for the two of you."

  She still held the blaster in her hand and was checking the charge. She looked up at his words and leveled the weapon over her wrist, pointing it directly at his middle.

  "Oh, really? Is that why you left me and Kell in the middle of nowhere? Sit down, you poor excuse for a man, before I make your gutlessness a physical reality."

  Eagle looked from her furious gaze back to Telles's stone face, and gave them both a big, superficial grin. "Let's all have a drink, shall we?" he asked, spreading his hands apart in supplication. "I'm paying." He snapped his fingers at the three-mouthed waiter. "Three Llimos over here."

  "Oh, you bet you're paying," Sky said, her voice not much more than a hiss, "but you'll pay for more than a lousy drink."

  Eagle sat down on the opposite side of the booth, and Telles slid in beside Sky. Four eyes reflected back to him his own treachery, and for a moment he felt the way he had during his days in the Intelligence force—disgusted with himself Then he remembered his goal and the shame melted away.

  "All right, I know this looks bad, but I can explain."

  "Sure you can," Sky snapped. "You're a master of explanation and prevarication, just like your father. So this is why you contacted your father from my ship. All your fine talk was just that—talk."

  "He's been in contact with Zarn?
You didn't tell me that," Telles interjected.

  "We caught him in the auxiliary control room sending a message," Sky informed him.

  "That isn't true." The waiter walked up just then and plunked down three short glasses of Llimo whiskey. Eagle lifted his and bolted it down, glad for the burning excuse not to talk for a moment.

  "Really?" Sky leaned forward, her blaster cradled between both hands on the tabletop. "Then you deny talking to Daddy dearest?"

  "I deny that I contacted him. I was sending a message to Telles and he intercepted it."

  Now Telles leaned forward, elbows on the table, his fingers tense against his own arms. "He broke the code? He unscrambled my message?" Eagle nodded reluctantly. Telles pressed his lips together before picking up the glass in front of him and taking a drink. He set the glass back down with a thud. "Then he knows. He knows I have Mayla; he knows where we are. We've got to get out of here."

  "We've got to find Kell first," Sky said, "after we rid the galaxy of one less Zarn." The hatred in her turquoise eyes disturbed Eagle more than he cared to admit, even to himself.

  "Wait a minute before you go flying off half-cocked." Eagle twirled the glass between his fingers, his gaze on Sky, his words to Telles. "He doesn't know where we are. He may have unscrambled the code, but we didn't say where we were meeting, remember? I just told you to go to where we took our last R&R."

  "And you don't think he knows where that is?" Telles's quiet voice was tense, strained.

  "Why should he? I'm telling you, we're safe."

  "Unless you told him." Telles drained the last of his whiskey and shoved his glass away.

  "Is that what you really think?" Eagle forced himself to meet Telles's steely gaze. "That I would betray you?"

  Telles lifted one brow. "Why not? I'm not one of you anymore."

  "What happened to you after Alpha Centauri?" Eagle asked, shifting his eyes away from his old friend's, staring down at the glass in his hand. "Who brainwashed you into all this rebel stuff?" He glanced up to see Telles's reaction.

  Telles laughed, shortly, loudly, and flung himself back against the booth, his arms moving to rest on the back of the frayed material, one hand grazing the edge of Sky's shoulder. Eagle stiffened and looked away again. What was the matter with him? So another man touched her. So what? Telles always got the girls, always had, always would.

  "Look space-boys," Sky said, putting the blaster at last out of sight below the tabletop. "I don't know what your history together is and I don't give a damn. I want to know where my sister is and I want to know now. Telles, you said you would tell me once we found this piece of rat bait, although why we don't drag him into the streets and flay his worthless hide, I—"

  "Sky." Telles's calm use of her name quieted her and again Eagle felt a sharp prickle of jealousy. "We need Eagle to recover your sister."

  "To recover her?" The color left Sky's face. "You mean she's been captured?"

  "Well, not exactly."

  The blaster came up from its hiding place, this time turned on Telles. "Damn you, Telles! The only reason I let you live is because you told me you rescued Mayla from Station One!"

  "It's the truth. Ask Eagle." He darted a look at him and Eagle leaned back against the booth.

  "Why should I tell her anything?"

  "Because at heart you are still an honest man, in spite of Zarn's indoctrination."

  Eagle frowned. "Now there you go again with the innuendoes. What are you talking about?"

  "We've got to talk. There's a lot you don't know, Eagle. About the past. About your life."

  "I want to know where my sister is!" Sky thrust the blaster between them. "You two can catch up on old times later, but right now I want some answers. What do you mean not exactly?"

  Telles put one hand on top of the blaster and closed his fingers around it. He tugged and Sky stubbornly held on to the grip. "Sky, put the weapon away. No threats are necessary. I'm happy to tell you what I know."

  Sky blinked and lowered the blaster, her gaze wary. "All right," she agreed. She gave him another hard look before fitting the weapon into the holster strapped to her side.

  "It's really too risky to talk in here," Eagle said, hoping to stall for time. If Telles told her where Mayla was, she wouldn't need him anymore. "We shouldn't even be discussing this at all. Zarn has informers hiding in the carpet for all we know."

  "Or at the same table," Sky said. "Shut up and let him talk."

  Telles leaned closer, his hands knit together in front of him, dropping his voice to a whisper.

  "Mayla had me take her somewhere safe."

  "Where?" Sky asked, the word coming out in a rush of soft air. Eagle felt another dart of conscience, this time sympathy for her obvious worry over her sister. And he was intending to add to that worry.

  Get a grip, he ordered himself.

  "I don't know," Telles said.

  "What do you mean, you don't know?" Sky grabbed Telles by the forearm, forcing him to look at her. He glanced down at her and Eagle saw the regret in his eyes. Damn. He didn't know. He didn't know where the kid was. "She made me forget," he said softly.

  "What?" Sky almost shouted the word, her fingers tightening on his arm. "I'm sorry, Sky." His hand covered hers and his blue-gray eyes softened with sympathy. "The truth is, I have no idea where in the universe she could be."

  Chapter Eight

  Sky stared at Telles, feeling stunned. When she'd realized who was stalking her in the alleyway, she'd wanted to kill him. Telles. The man her sister had nursed back to health. The man who had betrayed them both. But as they stood in the dank, smelly alley, he explained what had happened. How he had been lured next door by the neighbor who had actually turned the child in, and been held there until the soldiers had taken Mayla away. He had escaped and followed, knowing exactly where the child would be taken—to Station One, where his old friend Eagle was in charge. He hadn't realized it was Sky's troops storming the place, he claimed, or he'd have waited and turned Mayla over to her then and there. At least that was what he had said, and he had convinced her. And now he was telling her he didn't know where he himself had taken her sister.

  Her voice rose and she rose along with it, her palms pressing down tightly against the tabletop as she towered over him.

  "What do you mean she made you forget?"

  "Sit down, Sky," Eagle said, staring down into his empty glass.

  "I'm not talking to you, space-boy!"

  "Sit down and for once in your life, shut up."

  Something in the tone of his own quiet voice, in the sudden slump of his posture, the shifting of his gaze toward the entrance of the tavern, made Sky do as he said. She recognized the aura of command settling on the colonel's shoulders; it was the same one she wore when confronted with a situation dangerous to her crew.

  "What is it?" she said, sitting down and lifting her glass casually to her lips, taking a tiny sip. She put the glass down. Her muscles were tense, her body ready for action. She glanced at Telles and his jaw muscle tightened. Eagle turned his collar up and looked as though he were trying to sink into the dilapidated seat of the booth.

  "Damn. Listen, just follow my lead and—"

  "Colonel?"

  They looked up into the stem, unyielding face of a Dominion soldier. He was dressed in battle gear, wearing the flat-sheeted armor across his chest common to soldiers heading into a war zone. Sky felt her throat contract.

  "You must have me confused with someone else," Eagle said, a slight drunken slur to his words. Since his glass was empty, he picked up Sky's drink, saluted the man, and tossed it down.

  "Colonel, if you will please come with me, sir." The soldier stood at attention and Eagle sighed as he pushed his glass away. He and Telles exchanged glances and Sky saw a silent signal pass between the two men. She slipped her hand down and curled her fingers around her blaster's grip.

  Eagle stumbled to his feet. "Well, if you insist," he mumbled, then lurched against the soldier as though off
balance. As the soldier reached out to steady him, Eagle grabbed his arm and Telles came at him from the other side. All three went down, fists flailing, Eagle trying to disarm the soldier while Telles held him down. Sky stood over the three, unable to get a clear shot, feeling unusually helpless in the face of their barroom brawl. In a matter of moments, however, Eagle emerged victorious. He stood and smiled down at the soldier, blaster in hand, all trace of drunkenness gone.

  "Sorry," he said, brandishing the weapon. "Guess I'll have to take a raincheck on that little excursion you had in mind."

  "Oh, yeah?" The soldier snarled up at him from his position on the floor. Telles had one knee in his chest and his own blaster aimed at the man's head.

  "But don't worry, I won't let you take the blame for not bringing me in."

  "Oh, yeah?" he said again, a little louder.

  The beginning of a grin started at the corner of Eagle's mouth. "I know that you're just doing your job, but—"

  "Oh, yeah?" Eagle shook his head in amusement. "Okay, have it your way. Yeah."

  Sky smiled and rolled her eyes, Telles laughed aloud, and for a brief instant she felt a camaraderie between the three of them, a bond. The feeling disappeared as she turned and saw at least twenty Dominion soldiers crowding into the bar. She glanced at Eagle as he turned and faced the flood of men. He didn't betray one iota of alarm—or surprise—as the leader of the group, a tall man also wearing battle armor and carrying a large blaster rifle, strode toward the three. He stopped in front of Eagle and gave him the age-old salute of fist to chest, then arm extended.

  "Colonel," the man said, his words loud, with proper military inflection, "you are ordered to surrender your weapon and report to Lord Zarn at once." Eagle surveyed the man coolly, then handed the blaster toward him butt first. Sky felt the faint hope flickering inside of her die. "Where is my father?" he asked the man in front of him. Sky looked at him sharply, noting the weariness in his voice.