by T. M. Catron
Rance turned to look at Solaris. He was glaring at the men as they walked away. She’d never really seen him angry. “Everything all right?”
“I just wish we had some direction, that’s all. For some indication that your friend is even here on this planet where we are wandering around exposed for all to see.”
A surge of anger welled up in Rance. “If you didn’t want to come, you shouldn’t have.”
“It’s not that,” Solaris said, shaking his head. “I don’t like pirates.”
“Only pirates like pirates,” Abel said sagely. “And most of them don’t like each other, either.”
“Didn’t you fight pirates as a Galaxy Wizard?” Rance asked.
“Yes, many and often. Since I was a child, I vowed that any I encountered would feel the full wrath of the Wizards.”
Rance frowned. She’d never heard Solaris talk that way. He was usually mild-mannered, and except for the few times he’d been forced to act, it was easy for her to forget that he’d fought in Unity’s elite special force.
Rance’s comm crackled in her ear, sending an eardrum-splitting squeak into her head. “Ow! Who’s doing that?”
“Not me, boss,” Abel said, wincing.
“Nor me,” Solaris said. He turned on his heel and scanned the dark towers around them. When nothing else came through, they continued their hunt.
Rance decided to make her way to her father’s old residence. Moira had lived close by a few years ago. They were taking a chance that she still did, but options were scarce given the circumstances.
They walked for another hour. The planet grew darker, the deep shadows of night replacing the long shadows of the buildings. Prometheus didn’t have a moon, and the stars were blocked by smoke spreading over the city.
They hid from a few more roaming bands, unwilling to find out if they were friend or foe. Every few minutes, Rance tried hailing Moira on an open channel.
As the night went on, the group became even more tired. Rance forced one foot in front of the other, shook her head to keep her eyes open. With no food and no sleep, she was running on pure adrenaline. And even that was failing her.
With his armor to support his weapons as well as his body, Abel didn’t complain. Solaris stewed about something. Rance didn’t ask what. At that moment, all she could think about was sitting down, putting her head on her knees, and sleeping.
After midnight, the first of Kaur’s dark ships flew overhead. The trio ducked into an alley, watching the sky for more. Three more ships passed by before they felt safe enough to move on.
“They’re landing, aren’t they?” Rance asked.
“Looks like it,” Solaris said.
“Will the Star Streaker be safe?”
“If James doesn’t move it.”
“Did you tell him that?”
“No, but where’s he going to go?”
“You don’t know what he’ll be forced to do!”
“True,” was all he said. And he refused to argue further.
Rance, fuming, hungry, and cold, was ready to give up. She wanted to, oh so badly. Suddenly, the mission seemed like a foolish errand—an immature, brainless, impulsive errand. Rance mentally kicked herself. If they got off the planet alive, it would be a miracle. She looked at Solaris again, hoping he had at least one more miracle left in him.
Finally, she pulled up her handset to check the status of the Star Streaker, but it wouldn’t tell her anything, either. She tried to hail James on the comm. All she earned was more squawking in her earpiece.
“You ready to give up, boss?” Abel asked.
“No. I just wanted to check in with them. But it would be great if they could pick us up.”
Solaris gave her a sideways glance. “There’s no shame in going back, Captain Cooper. To come this far for someone you barely know—it’s commendable.”
Maybe he was right. She looked into Solaris’ blue eyes, wondering what he was really thinking.
He seemed to be thinking one thing and saying something different.
“Do you think we should go back?” she asked. She waited for him to respond, but she knew her decision. They’d come this far. If she left now, she’d always regret it. It felt too much like running away.
But you’re very good at running away, Devri. She pushed aside the small voice inside her head, the one that liked to remind her of her failings. No use dwelling on the past now. And this situation was different. Moira’s life could be in danger. Running away from her father only endangered herself and, to some extent, Tally. Running away from Moira could mean her death.
Solaris, who had been thoughtfully watching the street, finally shook his head. “We’re here, might as well assist if we can. If you’re right and she was afraid to leave the planet, she’s in hiding. I just wish we could get past those jammers.”
“Me, too.”
Rance tried one more time to raise James or Moira. But when her earpiece sent ringing vibrations into her skull, she stopped trying. Then she looked up at the dark sky with its smoke and glanced around at the quiet buildings. She was just about to suggest they find a place to rest a few minutes when a woman exited the building across the street.
She was dressed in a long robe, the kind that trailed the pavement when she walked. Even from the silhouette, Rance recognized that type. It was a noblewoman’s clothing, never meant to touch the ground outside. Only the very wealthy wore robes like that because they never had to walk outside for themselves if they didn’t want to. They only wore those fine clothes indoors.
The woman looked both ways up and down the street. Rance didn’t try to hide. But when the woman saw them, she shrank back into the shadows of the building.
Rance’s comm squawked again. Only this time, a woman’s voice was mingled in with the static. It wasn’t coming through the earpiece but from across the street.
“Stay here,” she told Solaris and Abel. Then she darted across the street, keeping her eye on a band of men three buildings down. The woman saw Rance and turned to go inside.
“Moira?”
The woman stopped, looking Rance up and down as if she didn’t believe what she was seeing. Then she approached cautiously, trying to identify Rance in the dark. “Devri? Is it really you? I didn’t think I’d reached you.”
Rance kept her eyes on the gang of men. They looked like they were checking alleys, checking doors. She didn’t like the way they systematically looked at everything. Since it was dark, she couldn’t tell if they were pirates or citizens, but this late at night she didn’t want to take a chance on either of them.
“I didn’t think I’d find you either,” Rance said. “Hi, Moira.”
Moira grabbed her in a tight hug. The young woman was much shorter than Rance, but her grip was strong. She trembled a bit, and Rance could only imagine how frightened she must have been.
As soon as Solaris and Abel reached them, Moira let go and punched in the code to let them inside.
Inside was dark, but their feet echoed off fine stone. Even the air felt richer.
“This building still has power,” Moira said. “But I’ve kept off the lights to avoid any attention.”
“You’re the only one left in the building?”
“Just my serving girls are with me—Tania and Sonya.”
She led them to an elevator which Rance was happy to see still worked. They stepped onto it, and less than a minute later, it opened on beautiful, expansive living quarters at the top of the building. Plush furniture and AI-controlled amenities covered the entire room. Expansive windows gave them views of the city on four sides, with private rooms in the middle of the building.
From their vantage point, the fires around the city burned like torches at a ceremony—giant torches ringing them in, offering no way out. Warships flew overhead and around, all marked with Pirate Kaur’s symbol.
“Moira,” Rance said. “I want you to meet some of my crew—Roote and Abel.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Moira
said, offering each of them her hand. “I would offer a party in your honor, but things have changed a little bit around here.”
Abel and Solaris both bowed.
“Are you ready to leave?” Solaris asked.
Moira looked confused. “Now?”
“That’s why we’re here,” Rance said. “You asked for help getting off the planet.”
“Yes. I did.” Moira looked disorientated and stared around the room as if she couldn’t think of what to say next.
“Pack one bag, keep it light,” Rance said. “We’re going to have to find another way back to the Star Streaker.”
“Is that the name of your ship?”
“Yes.”
“And you want to leave now?”
In truth, Rance wanted nothing more than to lay down on one of the cushions in the middle of the room and go to sleep. Her head hurt, her body hurt, even her teeth hurt. Her exhaustion must have shown because Moira suddenly had a look of pity on her face.
“Have you eaten?”
In answer, Abel’s stomach rumbled. Solaris walked around the windows, looking out at the city below and the glow of the fires.
Rance sighed. Despite the fact they needed to get out as quickly as possible, she was too tired to think straight. And she was just as hungry as Abel.
“We’ll give you some time to pack,” she said. “In the meantime, we could use some sleep. And food. Alright with you?”
Moira nodded. “I won’t need much time. But you’re welcome to sleep anywhere you find a space. There are plenty of rooms. Mine is the first door on the right. Take any other one you choose.”
Abel was the first to take her invitation, stomping off to find a door. He disappeared into it right away, and Rance heard his weapons and armor clatter to the floor. Within seconds, his deep snores rang out throughout the house.
Moira clapped her hands, and two young women came out of the shadows.
A feeling of disgust shot through Rance. She’d forgotten how the nobility lived—without a care for those under them. But the girls appeared healthy and well-treated. Both with the same olive skin and dark hair, close in age. Obviously sisters. They skirted around Solaris, who seemed to make them nervous.
Rance thought about that little boy in the marketplace on Ares who had stolen the vagrappes. He was stealing food just to get by, living off scraps and in constant danger of being arrested. Moira, on the other hand, lived a life of ease and didn’t even realize it. Rance didn’t have anything against people being rich, but it annoyed her that she had felt this way one time herself. Had she ever been like Moira?
“What happened to your husband, Moira?” she asked as the Tania and Sonya fussed over Rance’s head injury.
Moira shook her head. “I don’t know exactly. He’d been going to secret meetings, at night. He invited a few strange people here once, and they shut themselves up in his office all day. Richard has always been a man of few words, but he’s never kept anything from me. At least, he’d always provided me with straight answers if I asked about things.”
“He had other things?”
“Mostly I never asked. I have my own responsibilities. But he never hesitated when I did. Except for those new meetings. He’d brush me off. And then our friends began to treat us—me—differently. They shut me out of several parties, but more disturbingly, they refused to do any business with my husband or me. And I still haven’t been able to figure out why.”
Rance winced as Sonya dabbed a particularly tender spot on her scalp. “So he’s involved in some secret society that everyone knows about except you? Ow!”
“Sorry, your Ladyship,” Sonya said. “The bleeding has stopped. I’m going to scan your head for a concussion and then we’ll patch you up.”
Moira shot Rance a reproachful look. “Don’t mock me, Devri. I know it is unusual, nor does it make any sense, but I didn't know what to do—”
She broke off in a sob. Moira looked so sad and so afraid, Rance couldn’t bring herself to give her a hard time. She wasn’t a hugging person, though, so she settled for awkwardly patting Moira on the shoulder until she composed herself.
Moira sniffed. “I’m glad you came, Devri.”
“Better call me Rance from now on. I don’t use that name anymore.”
Moira nodded.
“How did you find me?” Rance asked.
Sonya swept a scanner over Rance’s body, watching the screen and making little-sniffing noises herself.
“I took a chance,” Moira said. “And found a dealer in the city who runs a few questionable trading routes.”
“You did what? Moira, you could have run into the wrong people! They could have hurt you. How did they find me?”
“They didn’t know you. But I paid him quite a bit of money to send my message to every known smuggling outpost in the Outer Colonies, on the off chance you were hiding on one of them. The instructions were to relay it to you.”
Rance sighed. What Moira had done was extremely risky, but she was glad it had been more anonymous than she’d thought at first. Tracking a receipt at so many locations would be next to impossible. Still, she’d used Rance’s real name, and Rance would bet the Star Streaker that whoever had sent the message had also watched the video. Moira was lucky she hadn’t had something worse happen to her.
Sonya’s scanner beeped, and Rance looked over.
“Nothing is wrong, Your Ladyship. You are very lucky. Are you ready to close the wound?”
“In a minute,” Rance said, looking at Solaris out on the balcony. Sonya nodded and left.
Rance joined Solaris. Smoke drifted on the wind, but it wasn’t so bad they couldn’t enjoy the cold air.
“We need to find a way out of here,” Rance said, staring at the fires that surrounded them. Thankfully, they were still at some distance. “But I don’t think we can afford to keep going like we’ve been. We need a few hours’ sleep and something to eat.”
“I agree,” Solaris said. “We’ll make better decisions after taking a break. How’s the head?”
“No real damage. Apparently, I have a very hard head.”
“I already knew that, Captain.” The comment was forced, not his usual light-hearted jab at all.
“What’s bothering you?” she asked.
“You mean other than we’ve stranded ourselves in a hostile city with invading pirates and no way of communicating with the ship?”
“Yes, other than that.”
Rance leaned her elbows on the railing and closed her eyes. She was so tired, but she wanted to eat. And she wanted Solaris to talk to her. Out of all her crew, he was the least transparent. She knew so little about him. Somehow it was important she knew more. Just in case one or none of them ever made it off Prometheus.
But no, she wouldn’t think about that possibility.
Solaris leaned against the railing next to her and sighed. “When I was a child,” he whispered, “my entire planet was destroyed by pirates.”
Rance’s eyes flew open. “It was? How?”
“The Galaxy Wizards never found out how they did it. But the pirates swooped in with overwhelming force and set the whole planet on fire. In the battle, it broke into pieces.”
“Wow,” Rance said, looking at Solaris. “How did that happen though? What kind of weapons did they use?”
“I’m not sure, but I’ve spent most of my life trying to figure it out. The Wizards got me off the planet. I was one of the few survivors.”
“Is that how you ended up being a Wizard?”
“Yes. They raised me.”
“What about your family?”
Solaris was silent, looking out over the city. “They didn’t make it.”
“I’m sorry,” Rance breathed, horrified. She had her share of family problems, but at least she’d had a family.
“It was a long time ago. I don’t remember them well.”
“So that’s why you’ve been upset.”
“Correct.”
Panic ro
se in Rance’s throat. “Do you think that’s going to happen here?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. But I can’t figure out why. My little planet was a backwater, full of pitiful farms scraped from the dust. I think the pirates had been trying to establish a base of operations there and something went wrong.”
“And here?”
Solaris stood up straight and turned back toward the house. “There are all sorts of compelling reasons to control this planet, rather than destroy it.”
“Let’s hope you’re right,” Rance said. She turned to go back inside.
Solaris stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Rance?”
“Yes?”
He met her eyes. “Back on the Streaker, when Unity was getting ready to inspect us, you said you were a nobody.”
Rance shrugged. “So?”
“You were wrong.”
Heat rose to Rance’s face, and she tried to clear her throat. “What brought this on?”
“Just thought you should know.”
Solaris turned back out to face the fires. Rance wondered if he were worried they wouldn’t make it out of their situation either. She started to put a hand on his shoulder, to let him know she appreciated his sentiment. But it felt awkward, so she dropped her hand to her side and left him on the balcony.
Inside, she went to find a room of her own. The guest rooms were as beautiful as the rest of the house, with fine artwork on the walls and soft fabrics on the bed. Rance felt at home, yet didn’t. But she was too tired to consider anything other than sleep.
A moment later, Tania knocked on the door and brought a simple but fine meal of fish and fruit. Rance ate while Tania used a laser to seal the cut on the back of Rance’s head. The food was good, but Rance was so hungry she wolfed it down in a few bites, without pausing to savor it.
When Tania left, Rance washed her food down with tea and eyed the luxurious sunken bath in the corner of the room. After their tough day, a hot bath would feel wonderful. But she was too tired for even that. She splashed water on her face and flopped down on the bed. It sank down with her, then automatically adjusted to her body. The bedcovers were soft and inviting, caressing her skin. With a sigh of relief, Rance drifted off.