by T. M. Catron
That was odd. He wasn’t even watching the crew.
Solaris’ face looked grim, grimmer even with his dark hair and sharp features. He watched Rance descend, utterly unconcerned about the armed soldier at his back.
Something was up. Solaris would never ignore an enemy at his back. Rance shot him a puzzled look, but he didn’t return it. When she reached the bottom, she moved aside to let Turkey off the stair. She turned.
Turkey stood at the top of the stair, gazing at the ceiling like it was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.
“Lieutenant?” Rance and Solaris asked together.
Rance looked at Solaris. Up close, she saw sweat breaking out on his face. A kind of energy emanated from him, along with a metallic tang that swept through the air surrounding him.
Turkey looked at him too.
“Lieutenant,” Solaris said smoothy, “did you find anything of interest?”
Turkey struggled a moment, confusion playing out across his face. Finally, he said, “There was something, but it’s gone now.”
He looked at Rance, his now-dull eyes no longer flickering with recognition.
Rance frowned at Solaris. What was he doing?
Turkey descended the stairs and halted in front of Solaris. His gaze flickered back to Rance and then to his buddy.
“We need the key,” Rance whispered, holding up her cuffed hands.
To her surprise, Turkey pulled a key out of a tiny compartment on his armor. He unlocked her cuffs by tapping the disc and put them back in their place on his belt.
“Thank you for your inspection, Lieutenant,” Solaris said. “Say goodbye now.”
“Goodbye,” Turkey said, smiling stupidly. And then he marched to the airlock, signaling the other soldier as he went.
Since the airlock was still slow, and they could only go one at a time, Turkey ended up standing in the hold far longer than Rance would have liked. The rest of the crew remained mute, the silence stretching out awkwardly while they waited for both soldiers to leave.
When Turkey had left through the walkway attaching the two ships, the Malta detached from the Star Streaker and pulled away.
“What was that?” Rance said, rounding on Solaris.
He shrugged. “Just a little trick I picked up while evading pirates.”
“That’s not a good answer.”
“It’ll have to do,” he said, nodding toward the airlock. “We have about five more minutes before they come to their senses and try to board us again. Better get out of here.”
Rance hurried up the stairs with James and Solaris following. The rest of the crew scattered to find their places.
“Why do I feel you’re always evading my questions, Solaris?” Rance asked.
“Not evading, Captain. You always ask them at the worst times.”
Rance rolled her eyes before she remembered she wasn’t going to do that anymore.
They climbed into the cockpit and took their places. By the time they’d harnessed in, Harper had already sent jump coordinates to Rance’s console. James flipped switches and buttons and placed a steady hand on the throttle.
A voice came over the comm. “Stanley Alto, you will submit to a random inspection.”
The crew of the Malta was still confused. Rance hoped it was enough to stop them from following the Streaker into hyperspace.
“Punch it, James,” Rance said.
James didn’t need to be told again. The stars shifted, black turned to blue, and they made the jump.
Rance watched the radar for signs of being followed.
“They didn’t follow us,” Solaris said.
“Are you sure?”
“Reasonably.”
“That’s comforting,” James shot over his shoulder.
When Rance looked at Solaris, he’d changed back into his normal face.
“Next time,” she said wearily, “just disguise us all.”
“Let’s hope there won’t be a next time. How’s the toe?”
She waved away the question. “Don’t change the subject.”
“What subject?”
“How you confused them.”
“Ah,” Solaris said, smirking. “Again, it has to do with altering their perception of the way things are. I made our ship look like their own.”
“It looked the same as always to me.”
“But they saw their own cargo bay. It confused them enough that their minds couldn’t keep up. Caused that dazed look you saw.”
“So you can alter others’ perception of their surroundings?”
“I do it all the time when I change my face. Does it bother you?”
“It’s a bit unsettling.”
“A bit?” James asked, putting the Streaker on autopilot and swiveling his chair around to look at them. “It’s like marching into Hades blind. Solaris, no one likes the idea of you being able to manipulate them like that.”
Solaris looked disgruntled. “It never bothered you before, when I was saving your life.”
He looked to Rance for help, but she was feeling uncomfortable by the whole thing as well.
“I would never use it against you,” he said, looking into her eyes. He flicked his gaze to James, who was still scowling. “James, yes, but never you, Captain.”
“How would we know?”
“Oh trust me, you’d know. When you come out of the daze, you remember pretty much everything.”
The sinking feeling returned. Rance unbuckled her harness and stood, planning to go back to bed. The day had been too stressful already.
“Captain,” Solaris whispered. “What did you say to the Lieutenant?”
“When?”
“When you asked to speak to him privately.”
Solaris looked anxious, his eyes holding something like fear. Rance had never seen that expression on his face before, and it puzzled her.
“I offered him the Caducean Drive,” she said.
Solaris raised both eyebrows in surprise.
James choked out, “What?”
“I didn’t have an option. I thought I could blackmail him. Solaris, do you think he’ll remember?”
Solaris took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. For some reason, he looked relieved. “Probably.”
“Then this is terrible,” she said. “Why are you smiling?”
Solaris tried to straighten his face. “I thought, maybe, you were going to give me away.”
“What?!” Rance shouted. “How could you think that?”
James shook his head and whispered, “Wrong thing to say, man.”
If Rance had felt a sinking feeling before, it was nothing to the cold water that had been dumped on her now. How could Solaris think that? After all they’d been through? She didn’t give up her friends. They were family. He was family. All she had.
Tears stung her eyes for the second time that day, but she preferred the pain of a broken toe to the pain in her chest. Rance hurried down the ladder, practically sliding down it and going to her cabin.
She heard Solaris on the ladder behind her. Then, James’ voice carried down through the hatch. “Better leave her alone. You’ll only make it worse.”
Rance was grateful James knew her moods, and thankful that Solaris seemed to understand this. He didn’t follow her as she stalked into her cabin and closed the door.
She wasn’t angry but hurt. Did Solaris really think she would give him up to the empire at the first real sign of trouble? Her chest ached, her toe throbbed again as she removed her boots, and it all sent her into a depressing spin. Rance flopped back, staring at the ceiling.
She refused to think about Turkey, or how close she’d come to being carried away to Xanthes. Rance would never see Turkey again, probably. The empire was a big place after all. But she couldn’t help but feel uneasy about being recognized. And opening her big fat mouth about the Caducean Drive. Something told her that lapse in judgment would come back to haunt her one day.
Remembering Henry, Rance
sat up again and checked everything. Satisfied the little nuisance wasn’t anywhere around, she lay back down and pulled a blanket over her head. She didn’t think she could deal with any more mishaps today. Rance waved her hand, and the cabin lights went out.
Chapter Four
Rance woke to find a tiny finger stuck up her left nostril. On the verge of panic, she thought she was suffocating before she heard Henry’s contented trills next to her on the pillow. This time, she pushed him away instead of throwing him across the room. Henry fell off the bed with a soft thump and squeaked excitedly at her.
“You had that coming. Now get out. Go find Solaris and bug him.”
But then she remembered the door was closed. She dragged herself out of bed and opened it. The corridor was dark, the ship back on night cycle. How long had she been asleep?
“How did you get in here?” she asked Henry.
James happened to be passing on his nightly check of the ship’s instruments.
“I’m not in there, Captain,” he said with a smirk. “One of the rules, remember?”
“Oh shut up, James. And keep this thing out of my room. I swear he’s trying to kill me.”
James picked up Henry, who snuggled into the crook of his arm. “He was just trying to find a quiet place to sleep, weren’t you Henry? Bad Captain Rance isn’t very nice.”
“Everything quiet?”
“Perfect. No hiccups.”
Rance huffed, stepped back into her room, and shut the door. Then she locked it for good measure.
Despite her weariness, all traces of sleep had vanished. She tossed and turned, trying to erase the worry in her mind.
Rance told herself the uneasy feeling in her gut was just excitement. After the Streaker’s breakdown, Rance was attuned to every noise, every clunk, every distant clamor. All of them were normal, none of them made her feel better.
They hadn’t been on any real jobs in months, nor had she been to Prometheus in almost ten years. The anticipation was spilling over and making her nervous. That’s all it was. She needed to relax. They were on their way again, with a simple mission ahead of them.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being nervous,” Solaris told her the next day. “In fact, it shows you have some sense.”
“And you doubted me before?” she asked. They were both determinedly pretending like nothing had happened the day before. Solaris wisely didn’t repeat his concern, and Rance, although still affronted that he’d thought she would turn him in, realized he’d been under stress too. His fear was logical.
Maybe. They’d talk about it later. Right now, she just wanted a day of peace and quiet.
Solaris sat down across from her in the galley with two more cups of Harper’s tea. He had made this batch. He slid one cup across the table to Rance. The tea had been the crew’s supper since they left Ares, that and the dehydrated rations Abel had found stashed in a cupboard in his room. They were very old and barely enough to keep everyone from turning to cannibalism.
Rance took a sip of tea and grimaced.
“Not good?”
“Let’s just say it isn’t as good as Harper’s.” She took another sip anyway, then gagged. “Triton’s fingernail, what’d you put in this, Solaris?”
Solaris shrugged. “Extra leaves.”
“It tastes like mud.” She set the cup back down, pushing it away in disgust.
Solaris narrowed his eyes. “Have you ever tasted mud, your Ladyship?”
“None of that.”
Something grunted behind Solaris, and they both turned toward the empty pantry. Henry had climbed up the refrigerated storage units and was now dangling from a metal handle. His little arms reached for the next one. When he caught it, he swung across the units like he was swinging from branch to branch on a tree.
“So much for staying with Harper and Abel,” Rance said in irritation. She knew that wouldn’t last.
Solaris twitched his nose as if he were trying not to sneeze. But it seemed that if Henry stayed out of arm’s reach, Solaris was fine.
He turned away from the cappatter and leaned forward. “Meeting your old friend was a surprise, yesterday, huh?”
“He’s not really a friend, especially since he was going to turn me over to my father. Friends don’t do things like that.”
Okay, maybe they were going to talk about this today.
“Aren’t we friends, Solaris?”
Solaris raised an eyebrow, “Yes.”
“Then why’d you think I would betray you? I don’t leave my team behind, and I certainly don’t turn them over to the authorities. I expect the same from you. You wouldn’t, would you?”
Solaris looked alarmed. “Of course not. But would you turn over your friend if you knew they’d done something truly heinous?”
Rance’s interest piqued, and she forgot her foul mood. What had kind, good-natured Solaris done that he’d considered heinous?
“Like what?” she asked.
Solaris waved her away. “Nothing in particular, just asking.”
Rance didn’t quite believe him. “Why would you bring it up then? Honestly, Solaris, sometimes I really don’t get you.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
They sat in awkward silence a moment, Rance looking at her tea and wishing it was more palatable, and wondering how they’d started quarreling again.
“So,” she said finally. “Ask me something then.”
“Huh?”
“A very intelligent question—huh,” Rance teased. She smiled, trying to ease the tension.
Solaris smiled back. “You don’t want me to start asking questions.”
Rance shrugged. There wasn’t much he could ask that would bother her.
“Okay, then,” he said, taking up the challenge. “I’m curious. And running into your friend Turkey yesterday made me wonder. What’s it like going from someone like Moira or Devri to Rance Cooper, daring smuggler and Captain extraordinaire?”
Rance crossed her arms and gave Solaris a shrewd look. His open, honest face was quirked into something between amusement and curiosity.
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yes.”
Rance smirked. “I was never like Moira, so your question doesn’t apply. But the change isn’t something I think about much. I’m still Devri.”
“And Rance.”
“Yes, why?”
“No reason.” Solaris drummed his hands on the table and looked around the galley as if food would magically materialize on the shelves.
“Tell me.”
His eyes flicked back to hers. “It’s a personal question.”
“I assure you, everyone else on this ship knows my story. It’s not a secret. I’m surprised you haven’t asked sooner.”
“Alright, Captain, I’ll ask. You say you aren’t different, but we both know that’s wishful thinking. If anything, you’ve changed for the better. Now you know what hardship is.” Then he smiled and looked around. “Well, as hard as it is to own a beautiful ship and fly it wherever in the galaxy you please.”
“I don’t know anything about you, Solaris, not really. But I know that you know how hard it is to go from place to place, wondering if Unity is waiting to nab you at the first opportunity.”
He nodded. “I do.”
“Then why do you get to be all high and mighty?”
At her tone, a look of surprise crossed Solaris’ face. “I must have hit a little too close to home, huh? Look, Captain—Rance—”
“Captain,” she said a little too forcefully. He’d irritated her again, and she didn’t feel like indulging his attempt to be friendly.
“Captain. You told me to ask, so I did. I was merely trying to pin down how you felt about the shift from a life of privilege to a life of, well, less privileged. You’re hardly a beggar.”
“I never said I was.”
“Okay. But you blew it off like it was nothing. And I think it’s something.”
“Your tho
ughts are noted.”
In truth, Solaris had touched on a sensitive subject. Although Rance had opened herself up for questions, his astute approach had caught her off-guard.
“So you’re not going to answer the question?”
Rance sighed and sagged her shoulders in defeat. “We all like to think we’re the same person, but in reality, even if my father called off the marriage and invited me back home to live as I pleased, I couldn’t do it.”
“And why does that irritate you?”
She looked at him shrewdly. “Those Wizard interrogation skills come in handy, don’t they?”
Solaris held up his hands. “Don’t answer, then.”
They sat again in awkward silence, Rance staring into her undrinkable tea and wishing it were vagrappes or lantess or even a hunk of stale bread. A lack of food had lowered her tolerance for personal questions, it seemed.
“Why can’t you magic us some food?” she asked after a bit.
Solaris sighed into his own tea and said, “Regretfully, it doesn’t work like that. Galaxy Wizards can’t make something from nothing.”
He took a long swig of tea and fought the urge to spew it back out. Rance almost laughed and then thought better of it. She didn’t want another argument. Solaris was just as hungry as she.
“I just want to get to Prometheus, find my friend, and get out,” she said after he’d managed to swallow the muddy liquid. “That hiccup yesterday with Unity was a freak occurrence. We shouldn’t have any more trouble.”
Solaris frowned. “Are you trying to convince yourself or me?”
“Both.”
“What’s the plan if we can’t contact Moira?”
“We’ll get in touch with her. She’s expecting us—I hope. Do you think I made the wrong choice in telling Turkey about the Caducean Drive?”
Solaris sighed and looked at his empty tea cup. “Maybe. You really don’t want to be Devri? And all the perks that go with it? It sounds like your family would welcome you with open arms. Is the situation that bad that you can’t go back?”
“You think I should submit to an arranged marriage?”
“Heh. No. But I wonder why you have had such a strong reaction. Most Nobles have arranged marriages. You would have grown up expecting it.”