The man’s eyes fell on Agnath’s weapons and narrowed, calculating. “How old are you?”
“Our parents died yesterday at the mine. I’m her only family.”
“Answer my question!”
“He did.” Another man stepped forward, apparently in charge from the rank stripes on his better-kept uniform. He looked Agnath up and down, then nodded. “I’m sorry about your parents.”
“Thank you.”
“Let them through, Tamil,” he told the first man.
“Kid’s gotta be legal!”
“I said let them through. Enough people died yesterday, families destroyed. We don’t need help so bad we have to take a baby away from her brother.”
Aine stayed silent the whole time, her arms tight around Aggie’s neck. He adjusted her on his hip and stepped forward. As he passed through the checkpoint, the second man caught up to him and hissed, “Cut her hair, dammit! There’s still several bands of raiders we haven’t got yet. You won’t make it to the freight depot if the raiders see her.” He pressed a sonic knife into the teen’s palm before returning to the checkpoint. “Good luck,” he called out as he raised his hand in farewell.
Agnath hurried away from the mercs and found a shadowy entryway on the back alley of another warehouse to stop in. He set Aine down and gave her a protein bar to eat and a bottle of water.
“What did that man mean about my hair?”
Agnath fought more tears. Aine was too damn young to learn about the universe like this. He remembered barely escaping from Tamarind Alpha with his parents seven years earlier when raiders attacked and the fear in his parents’ faces until the rescue freighter lifted the mining families to safety. Aine had been born on this rock. A supposedly safe rock until the raiders figured out the location of the carefully concealed diryllium mine.
Aine had never known fear or loss like he had. Their parents hoped she never would.
Agnath took out the sonic knife and studied it in his hand. “Sit down and turn around. I need to cut your hair.”
As always, she complied without question or hesitation. He let his tears flow as he plaited her long hair one last time and put bands at the base and end of the braid to hold it. Then, carefully, he cut it free and tucked it into the pack. He trimmed a little more. Not a great haircut, choppy and ragged in places, but good enough to pass her as a boy.
When he finished he rubbed his face on his sleeve, drying his tears before letting her turn around. “Finished, Little One. The heat won’t bother you now.”
She felt her short hair. She never had a haircut before. “Why did he tell you to cut it?”
How much should I tell her?
He needed her to feel a little fear, to keep her listening to him and not running off or making noises that would betray their position.
He pulled her into his lap. “Remember the first man at the checkpoint?”
“The bad man?”
Agnath’s heart chilled. Always perceptive, very precocious. Combined with her being tall for her age, most people thought she was at least two or three years older when they talked to her. She already read at a six-year-old level. “Yes. The bad man. Some bad men don’t treat little girls right. They don’t protect them.”
She felt her hair again. “What about little boys?”
“Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. There’s less risk of trouble if people think you’re a boy.”
“Bad people?”
“Bad people.”
She snuggled close and held her bear. “We won’t come back here, will we?”
“Never, Little One.”
“Tell me about the ships. About other planets.”
He remembered three planets before here. She’d never been off-planet, and it was one of her favorite things to ask him about, especially the transport ships. “We don’t have time, Aine. I’m sorry. Once we’re safe, then I’ll tell you all about the space ships.”
“Okay.”
* * * *
Ten minutes later, they started on their way again. Even knowing how good she normally behaved it surprised Agnath that she never complained, never fussed, simply stayed quiet and either clutched his neck with one arm when he carried her or tightly held his hand while walking next to him. After two more hours of walking, he stopped them again to rest and check the map. They were close to the freight depot, maybe a kilometer away, if that.
“Aggie, how do boys act?” she asked, surprising him.
He smiled. “You’re not a boy.”
“We’ll be close to people soon, right?”
“Little One, you’re too smart. Just stay quiet, don’t cry, don’t fuss. You’re being a very brave girl for me.”
An explosion ripped through a building close by, casting debris over their hideout and into the alley beside them. Sounds of weapons, men yelling, and more explosions reached them.
Aine didn’t scream as she shrank against her brother.
“Time to go,” Agnath said. “Now.”
Aine grabbed her bear as Agnath scooped her into his arms and raced away from the fighting. The battle raged directly in his planned path. He found a back route around it and quickly ran in what he hoped was the right direction. Ten minutes later, the sounds of the fight faded behind them. Then they rounded a corner and in front of them sat the depot.
Relief streamed in. While he didn’t like the idea of crossing nearly half a kilometer of open tarmac and dodging moored freighters and stacks of shipping containers to reach the well-armed and protected depot terminal, it was a far safer option than trying to go around and risk trouble.
No workers visible, two of the freighters raced to load cargo pallets of shipping containers full of mined ore with automated hover lifts, raising the pallets into the holds faster than he’d ever seen. Agnath didn’t take that as a comforting sign. Then he heard the sound of a land bike’s whining engine heading their way.
The only hiding place was a group of cargo palettes clustered under the closest freighter. Quickly covering the distance, he wiggled through the piles of crates and found Aine a hiding spot on one of the pallets.
The bike pulled up to where they disappeared into the stacks. Then it shut off.
Agnath pulled another plasma cartridge from the knapsack, shoved Aine’s bear into it, then closed it and strapped it to her front. “Stay here,” he ordered. “Stay silent. Do not cry or make any noise. Do not let go of this knapsack. You asked me how little boys act?”
She nodded.
He stroked her cheek. “Little boys are very brave. Little boys do not cry. Be very strong for me and stay here and hide well. Do as I say. Little boys obey orders, and they are strong and fierce. And you are strong and fierce, my radiant little Aine. I love you, Little One.” He kissed her and ran his hands through her short hair before setting the cap back on her head. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Aggie.”
He stood, holding the rifle at the ready. With a wink and his finger pressed to his lips to remind her to stay silent, he quietly slipped through the stacks, off the palette. That’s when the familiar, coarse voice bellowed, “I know you’re in there somewhere, kid. I saw you.”
The merc, Tamil, from the checkpoint. Agnath didn’t reply. He held his breath and tried to listen, to hear where the man stood.
“You can’t take care of a girl, you know.”
Agnath’s blood chilled. His father had been brutally honest with him. Little girls were frequently captured and sold by raiders and unscrupulous mercs. Sometimes adopted, sometimes for use as household workers. Sometimes as worse.
Much worse.
* * * *
Aine shivered despite the heat and pressed deeper into the small hidey hole between the shipping containers. She kept her arms tightly wrapped around the knapsack, her brother’s comforting smell still permeating the coarse canvas. She heard the bad man yell at Agnath. Too scared to listen, she promised she’d stay still and quiet, and that’s what she’d do.
>
Aggie appeared, visible if she stretched a little. That’s when she saw the bad man sneak up behind him and fire his gun.
The little girl bit down on the knapsack to keep from screaming, to keep from breaking her promise to Aggie. To keep from being a weak girl instead of being a fierce, strong boy.
Just like her brother.
Aggie fell to the ground. As the palette lifted into the belly of the freighter, she peeked over the side and saw the merc standing over the still body of her beloved brother.
Chapter Two
“Captain Lorcan, we’ll only be able to grab this palette and one more before we’re out of time. We’re only leaving two. Extras, not the planned load.”
The captain nodded from his command chair. “Leave them. I don’t plan on being raider bait.” He turned to his yeoman, Malvous Dentry. “Mal, is everything ready?”
“Yes, sir. As you ordered.”
“Good. Let’s get the hell off this fucking planet before we end up a permanent part of it.” He wearily dragged himself from his chair and pulled his shoulder length brown hair back with a band. Only a little grey, he looked younger than his forty-five years even though wrinkles creased the corners of his brown eyes. “Number One, you’re in charge. As soon as that last palette is secure, lift, break orbit, and jump immediately.”
“Aye.”
Mal followed his captain from the bridge and down a short corridor to the captain’s private quarters. Captain Edmund Lorcan, a twenty-five-year veteran of the Confederation Merchant Freighter Corps, wasn’t about to break his perfect record and lose a load or a ship at this point. Mal set his meal out for him, the first food he had in almost a day with the stress of trying to finish jump engine maintenance and load their cargo in record time to escape the planet.
“That looks fantastic, Mal.” He sank into his chair with a tired grunt and reached for a fork. “Smells great!”
“Thank you, Ed.” He rubbed the captain’s shoulders, earning an appreciative groan in response. Some of the crew suspected the two men had a deep and intimate relationship considering how long they’d worked together—nearly nineteen years—but it was never a topic of open discussion. The captain got results, made them money, and kept them safe. In front of the crew, there was nothing but professionalism between them. If Lorcan also fucked his yeoman behind closed doors, it wasn’t anyone else’s business.
An hour later, Lorcan slumped in his chair, feeling full from a fabulous meal and almost totally relaxed from the fantastic neck rub. “You need to sleep tonight,” Mal chided him. “You aren’t a spring chicken anymore. You can’t keep this up.”
Lorcan patted Mal’s hand, squeezed it, left his covering it. “We can retire, you know.” He looked up into Mal’s hazel eyes. “Or you can, if you want. You’re eligible to retire.”
Mal looked at him in mock horror. “Trying to get rid of me?”
Lorcan laughed, knowing the oath-bound man wouldn’t leave even if released. “Never. Just making sure you weren’t tired of following my sorry ass around space.”
“Never. Where you go, I go.”
* * * *
The first officer, Darious Winter, quickly checked the departure list one last time and gave the break orbit command. As the engines strained against the planet’s gravity, he kept close watch on the command console overview. Two hours later, they cleared orbit and activated the jump engine, putting them a safe distance away from the planet and the converging raiders.
With the worst over, he settled back in the command chair. He could relax, knowing the captain would probably be gone for a couple of hours at least. The man had missed two sleep cycles that he knew of. He had to be approaching exhaustion.
He started to make himself comfortable when the engineering officer looked up from his console. “Sir? Can you check the cargo sensors from your console?”
Winter pulled up the sensors on his display and frowned. “What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know. It’s about the size of a dog, but there aren’t any dogs on Apaphax 4.”
“That’s not a dog.” He mentally groaned as he hit the direct com link to the captain’s quarters. Mal answered. “I’m sorry to disturb him,” Winter said, “but I need to talk to the captain immediately. In person.”
“Is it urgent?”
“Very.”
“He’ll be right there.”
A moment later, Captain Lorcan, looking exhausted beyond measure, appeared on the bridge with Mal shadowing him as usual.
“What’s wrong?”
Winter stood so the captain could sit. He pointed at the console. “There’s an unusual reading in cargo.”
Lorcan frowned as he leaned forward to study the reading. “What the fuck?” He turned to Mal. “Get two sidearms.”
* * * *
The Bagtopy Yau, a large, interstellar freighter, could carry a year’s supply of food and general supplies for small mining colonies as well as transport mined ore. Mostly automated, its crew of twelve was exhausted from non-stop preparations for their hasty departure. Captain Lorcan had ordered sleep shifts for the crew to recover, with only four currently on duty.
He’d do this job himself.
With Mal following a step behind, the two men made their way through the bowels of the ship to cargo. “Stun,” Lorcan ordered as he set his plasma pistol. Then he punched in an override code and the cargo hatch slid open.
Mal followed, flanking him, his pistol also ready. The men swept through the cargo bay until the overhead com chirruped, Winter’s voice coming through. “The palette in front of you, sir. On the far side.”
Lorcan nodded to Mal and waved him to the other side. Together, they slowly circled around, puzzled when they didn’t see anything.
That’s when they heard the sniffle.
Lorcan dropped to one knee and looked into the small recess formed by the cargo containers. The child scrabbled backward, futilely trying to press deeper into the dark hiding place. Lorcan handed his gun to Mal and sat down to coax the child out.
“Hello there. Where’d you come from?”
The child, he suspected a boy from the haircut and clothes, didn’t respond. He had his arms tightly wrapped around a knapsack and looked frightened out of his mind. He couldn’t be more than five or six from the look of him.
“You can’t stay there, you know,” Lorcan said. “It’s dangerous for a little one. We need to get you someplace safe.”
When the boy spoke, his voice barely above a whisper, Lorcan strained to hear him. “I can’t. I promised my brother I’d stay here and stay quiet.”
The two men exchanged a look. Lorcan had heard about a merc killing someone nearby before they departed, but it wasn’t his business as long as it didn’t involve his crew or get in the way of his ship safely leaving. Lorcan turned back to the child. “Who is your brother? Where is he?”
“Aggie. He told me to stay here and hide from the bad man. Said little boys are strong and fierce and brave and don’t cry.”
“Your brother isn’t here. How did you get here?”
“We were running from the bad man.”
Lots of possibilities ran through Lorcan’s brain. The worst being that he’d have to return this boy to that damn planet or face kidnapping charges if the parents wanted to bitch. Shit. “Where are your parents?”
The little boy didn’t reply at first. Lorcan couldn’t get a good look at him in the shadows of his hiding place. Finally, the child said, “They died in the mine yesterday.”
Lorcan felt relieved that he wouldn’t have to return to that stupid rock and ashamed for thinking it. An orphan. His brother dead, too.
“I’m sorry. You can’t stay here, Little One. It’s dangerous here in cargo.”
“Where?”
“You hid on a cargo palette. You’re on my ship.”
“I’m on a ship? A space ship?”
Lorcan extended his hand toward the child. He desperately didn’t want to frighten the little
boy by forcibly dragging him out. “Yes. My ship. I’m Captain Lorcan. Now tell me your name.”
“Aine.”
He frowned. “Anya’s an unusual name for a boy.”
“Aggie says everyone spells it wrong. It’s A-i-n-e. But it’s said ‘Anya.’”
“Well, Aine, this is my yeoman, Malvous Dentry. You can call him Mal. Are you hungry? He’s a really good cook.”
As the child crept closer to the opening, Lorcan spotted fear in his big brown eyes.
“I’m hungry. Where is Aggie? I saw the bad man hurt him.” His face twisted for a moment, like he was about to cry, then cleared. “Did the bad man hurt him?” he whispered. “We’re all alone now.”
Lorcan nodded. “I’m afraid so,” he admitted. “I promise you, Little One, no one here will hurt you. Mal and I will personally take care of you. You’re safe.”
The child sat still for a moment before crawling to the edge of the opening. “Aggie said I had to hold on to this. Can I keep it? My bear’s in it.”
“Of course you can.” The boy’s sad eyes pulled at Lorcan’s heart. Here was a child not only suffering the loss of his home and parents, but the loss of his big brother, too. “How old are you, Aine?”
“I’ll be four next week.” He again looked like he might cry, then he sniffled and wiped his face with a grimy hand.
Only four? Holy gods, this child sounded older than that. “Wow, four years old. You are a big boy, aren’t you?”
He vigorously nodded. “Yes. I’m a big boy.”
Lorcan finally coaxed the child into his arms. He picked him up and carried him out of cargo while Mal updated the first officer.
Aine was filthy and probably in need of food and a long nap. In their quarters, Mal immediately prepared a quick meal for the child, who wolfed it down before asking for more.
Aine asked for help taking off the knapsack, but he held it in his lap. “Aggie told me to hold it.”
Lorcan sat across the table from the child while Mal went to get supplies for Aine’s bath. “Can I look in the bag?” Lorcan asked.
Fierce Radiance Page 2