Standing back up, I closed the windows on the screen and headed back towards the ladder. Halfway there I remembered that I promised Ice some of my private stash and turned around to claim it. Moving to the side of the cabin, I placed my finger against a small panel built into the wall. The panel slid away, and I looked over my collection. I had some of the finest herbal remedies from around the verse in here. I settled on the jar of Nubian Hash that I had promised to bring. The crew was in for a night they wouldn’t soon forget. I slipped it into my pocket and started making my way to the bridge.
I entered the bridge and immediately wished that there was somewhere else I could go. Maybe it was a guy thing, or maybe it was just me, but I had never been very good about consoling crying women. Ice wasn’t a crier by nature, so seeing her in distress wasn’t easy. I’d only seen her break down a couple of times, and never quite like this.
Moving quickly towards her, I knelt down by her side and placed one hand on her leg. “Ice, we can head back now, and drinks are on me.” That earned me a quick hitch in her breathing as she tried to rein in her sobs, but not much else.
Ice brushed my hand off her leg, stood up and started pacing around the bridge. She was still agitated, and the tears hadn’t stopped falling. “This isn’t about free drinks, Cap.”
She paused her pacing and looked into my eyes. I saw the moment when she broke and braced myself for what was coming next. Ice launched herself into my arms and buried her head against my chest. My arms wrapped around her as I pulled her tight against me. Ice was more than just my crew, she was my family. I’d never had kids of my own, but if I had I couldn’t have done much better than Ice or Kyra. “Hey little one, it’s going to be ok.”
She continued to sob against my chest. “He’s gone, Captain.”
Ice didn’t exactly care for a lot of men, so I doubted this was an old lover that went missing. That meant it was something even worse, family. Ice had never really told me much about her life before she had joined the crew, and I hadn’t pushed her. We all had things that we would rather keep secret.
Ice had skills that we needed when we hired her, and I still relied heavily on those skills today. As far as I could tell, whatever she had in her past hadn’t been bad enough to bring any kind of N.E.A. heat down on our heads. That meant if any problems came up, it was something we could deal with together.
I knew that Ice was running from something in her past. When we met, shit, that was the only reason we ever met in the first place. People on the run needed help and Ice had been no exception. We got her out of a jam, and she helped us with a job. By the end of the job, it was easy to tell we had a found a real gem. When we offered to take her on board in a more permanent capacity, she jumped at the opportunity.
So, in the end, her running from someone led us to where we are now, a big dysfunctional but loyal family. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Shit, if we kicked everyone off this bird that was running from something, there wouldn’t be anyone left, me included. Running from something didn’t make you bad people. It made you one of us. We lived and died together, so I knew whatever had Ice so upset we would be able to deal with it the same way. Together.
Still, if this was a family thing, it might not be our place to get involved. I was going to let Ice take the lead on this one. All she had to do was tell me what she needed, and it was done. I knew a thing or two about families, and one thing I knew for certain was that no one could drop you to your knees faster than family. That and they weren’t always there to pick you up after the drama subsided.
Now it was my turn to be her rock. Ice had brought so much to the Talon it was time for me to give it back to her. “Who’s gone?” I said stroking the back of her head as she continued to sob.
Her body went ridgid with tension as she spoke as if the name she was about to say held that much power over her. “Nick.”
Well, that wasn’t exactly what I expected. I’d been expecting more of an answer like Dad or Grandpa. Part of me was happy it wasn’t some woman she used to date. That was a minefield I wanted to avoid at all costs. So I did the only thing I could and asked. “Who’s Nick?”
Ice buried her head back into my chest and continued to cry. Finally, she turned her head away enough that I could hear her as she whispered. “Nick is my little brother.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother, Ice.”
She pulled away from my chest and started to pace again, clearly nervous. “I know, Captain. I really don’t like to talk about my family much. I didn’t exactly leave our planet on the best of terms.” She continued to pace and started wringing her hands together.
“You’ve never told me about why you left,” she glared at me, “and you don’t have to now. Just tell me what you need, and it’s done.”
“I don’t know what I need.” She ran her hands through her hair in frustration. “That’s not true, I know what I need to do. I just don’t want to do it.”
“That bad huh?” I said with a laugh. I couldn’t help thinking about my own relationship with my parents. They were nice enough, but they were more dedicated to their work than to family. For Ice to be this shaken by the thought of contacting them, something else had to be going on.
“Oh, it’s that bad and then some,” she said, a faint smile ticked at the corner of her lips. “But I can’t get out of it now. Not if I want to know what happened to my brother.”
“Anything I can do?”
“Go back to the bungalow, but save me some of that damn hash. I have a feeling I’m going to need it after this.”
“You want me to send Kyra over?”
Ice tilted her head to the side as she thought about it. “No, let her keep enjoying herself. She’s going to have to deal with the aftermath anyway.”
“Alright, comm if you need anything.” I started to walk out of the room but paused at the door and then turned back to face her. “If you need anything, all of us are here for you, no matter what.”
Ice settled back into the pilot’s chair. Being back in it seemed to calm her slightly. “I know you are, Captain. I know you are.”
I walked off the bridge and back to the cargohold. Part of me felt like I should stay there and make sure she was ok, but I also knew we all had secrets, and when those secrets involved family they cut us to the core. If Ice wanted her privacy, then she deserved it. Whatever had happened to drive her away from her home, it had to have been bad. Whatever it was didn’t matter to me, I knew Ice as well as anyone else on this boat, and I’d do anything to keep her and her family safe.
Chapter 10
Ice
It was just like my parents to leave me some kind of cryptic message about my brother being missing instead of just telling me what happened. When I first heard my Dad’s voice, I thought they were calling me to tell me he was dead. It wouldn’t have been that implausible. Life in the mines was hard, and cave-ins, despite our advanced technology, still happened. Normally due to shoddy working conditions more than actual mechanical or structural failures, but that didn’t matter when thirty thousand tons of rock fell on top of you.
Just hearing from my dad brought up all the feelings I’d been successfully running away from. I felt worthless. Just the sound of his voice made me feel like I wasn’t good enough to do anything right. Fuck, maybe I wasn’t. I didn’t want to get married and pop out more kids to work in the mines. That had been a real blow to the old man, watching his only way to gain more status turn a blind eye to the advances of the other miners. Well, that and walking in on me with Sally Kim. There had really been no more denying what I was after that.
My being a lesbian shattered all of his hopes. As if my choice in lovers somehow diminished me as a person. It was tough to walk into his house every night and see the look of disappointment on his face. My mom stood right by his side as he shamed me, but my little brother always had my back. He made living there bearable until I finally couldn’t take it anymore. I joined up with a group of guys that wanted to
get off the planet as badly as I did and the rest is history.
I was a wanted woman back home. Our bid for freedom hadn’t gone exactly as planned. Well, at least not for me. Finding out those bastards had planned it that way right from the start wouldn’t have been a real surprise. Needless to say, going back home wasn’t a realistic option, at least if I wanted to stay out of prison.
I’d stayed in touch with my brother Nick over the years, but it wasn’t like we were ever really close after the way I left. Still, if something happened to my kid brother then I had to be there. I just wasn’t sure if I could drag the rest of my friends into that hellhole with me. I’d probably be able to catch a flight from here to a station and then back home if it came to it.
Ugh, I was still dreading the inevitable. Drake had left thirty minutes ago, and I still hadn’t opened a comm line back to my parents’ house. I was paralyzed by fear and indecision. That place and those people weren’t a part of me anymore. But for Nick, I had to try. His big sister owed him that much.
Fuck, why was my family so hard to deal with? Sitting here for another hour wouldn’t make it any easier, and if I waited too much longer Kyra would come searching for me. I’d rather make this call in private. I bit my lip and dialed my parents’ house. The video screen in front of me flickered to life as my dad’s face filled it. It took exactly three words for me to realize I had made a huge mistake by calling.
“Oh, it’s you,” my Dad said. He looked tired. Maybe too tired to be angry, but not exhausted enough to keep the hint of loathing out of his voice.
“It’s me.” Was all I managed to squeak out.
“Well, what do you want? I thought my message was pretty clear. Nick’s gone.”
He left it unsaid, but I could hear it in his voice that he blamed me. How in the hell could it be my fault? I was worlds away from them. I felt the anger building and all of the feelings I had kept bottled up for so long threatened to come pouring out. “This isn’t my fault.”
My dad was about to speak when the screen split and my mother appeared on the other half of the screen. “Of course it isn’t, dear.” My father didn’t look impressed at my mother’s interruption, but he didn’t correct her.
“Mom, tell me what’s going on? Dad only told me that Nick is gone. Did he leave? Is he dead?” My voice cracked on the last word. I didn’t think he was dead, but he’s gone was so open ended I couldn’t be sure.
She looked off the screen and then back towards it. My dad’s face hadn’t moved, so I had no idea who she was looking for confirmation from. “Right now all we know is that he is missing.”
“That’s not all we fucking know.” My dad bellowed, obviously forgetting we were all on the line together. “He was taken, and you know it was those god damned Temple of Bones, blasphemers.”
“Jim, try and calm down,” a voice said from off screen.
“I’ll calm down when my only son is back in this house, Father Ramirez, and not a fucking second sooner.”
“Temple of Bones?” I seemed to remember hearing something about them when I was a child but nothing more. I’d been too busy learning how to hack and dreaming of escaping to the stars to pay much attention to anything else.
My mom looked into the screen. “They’ve been part of our planet’s history since before I was born. The priests were always there to do the hard work when there was a cave in. They would never leave the site until every last body had been found and removed. They’ve always been peaceful, but ten years ago that message changed. Now they preach about striking back against the company, that it’s our time to take back the planet.”
“Why would they take Nick?”
“Because he controls a lot of influence in the mines and has spoken out against them from the start,” my dad growled.
“Praise the Lord,” someone intoned off-screen. My dad shook his head, and my mom just looked embarrassed.
“And there is no way he could be anywhere else?”
I saw a tear streak down my old man’s cheek. “My boy, they’ve got my boy.”
Oh, this was bad. I hadn’t seen my dad shed a tear since he found out what I was. The old bastard just didn’t have it in him. The thought of losing the only child he had left must have been enough to break him. He had a little fight left, I could hear it in his defiant words, but he didn’t have the kind of juice we did. The decision was made; I was going home. “I’m coming home. We’ll find him together.”
“You can’t do that,” Mom responded, looking worried.
“You don’t belong here anymore,” Dad chimed in.
“I might not, but Nick is my little brother, and if there is anything I can do to help, you can damn well be sure I’m going to do it. If the company’s law enforcement hasn’t improved since I left, Nick’s going to need all the help he can get.”
“You can’t come back, they’ll arrest you.” My mom started crying and then signed off.
“You do what you need to, but we can’t stand behind you,” my dad said gruffly and then hung up.
Fuck, why did family have to be so hard? It wasn’t like I had a choice. If my parents thought Nick was taken by some weird ass cult then I had to go back and save him, but before I did I needed to find out everything I could about what had been happening since I left. There was only one person I could call for that. She might not be happy to hear from me either. I’d left quite the mess behind, and Sally had to deal with all of it on her own.
That call could wait until my search programs found out a little info. I needed to get back to the bungalow before they sent out a search party for me, or worse, bitched at me for delaying the start of dinner. That was the last thing I needed. Kyra was probably already worried. That or she passed out on the floor again, in which case it was me that should be worried. If I was going to have to leave in a hurry, I needed to pack my go bag. Resolved in my decision to see whatever this was through until the end, I headed to my quarters. I didn’t know how or if I could explain this to the others, but I had to try.
Chapter 11
Osiris
“Tell me that everything is in place.” It had damned well better be. I’d given explicit instructions on what needed to be done, and I expected them to be followed out to the letter.
“Yes master, everything is as you requested. The last two batches of children should be arriving within the next two weeks,” Mal confirmed, bowing his head in submission.
“Thank you Mal, you may go.” I waved a hand in the air dismissing him from the room.
The man bowed and then scurried off into the caves. His work was done for the day, and he was surely excited to indulge himself in the room of a thousand pleasures. Sadly enough, my work wasn’t done, and there would be no pleasures for me until it was. I still had to check the new shipment of cargo and make sure that everything was on schedule for the awakening.
Turning left where Mal had gone right I walked slowly down the roughly hewn passages beneath the temple. Once Jervonis was awakened the world would change again, this time for the better. His latest slumber had seen our world fall into the unrepentant hands of the Solaris Company. Their time was over, it was time for us to rise as one and take back what was ours.
In just over two weeks that would be possible. With Jervonis’ divine help we will be able to rout the company from our planet and restore it back to its natural beauty. It would take centuries, but nothing that is worth doing ever comes without hard work. I felt my hand move across my chest as I silently thanked Jervonis for giving me the strength to do what is right.
The sound of crying children greeted me when I opened the door. I wished there was something we could do about the noise, but killing them now wasn’t an option. We needed them for the ritual, which meant they needed to be fed and kept in a relatively healthy state, or else Jervonis might reject our offering.
It had bothered me when we first brought the children in, but sacrifices had to be made for the greater good. It would be worth it once Jervonis aw
oke and led our planet and our people back to glory. Everyone would see then that the sacrifices were needed. Something had to be done to shake off the yoke of oppression that we had all been saddled with since birth.
Whole generations of families had worked their entire lives on this planet and never made a dent in the debt they owed the company. Whole generations of people that had never done anything except work twelve hour days in the mines, and for what, to be further in debt than they were when they started. They had never seen the stars, never been given a chance to see the planet from space, maybe never even conceived that such a thing was possible. It was my job to show them there was a better way to live, and a better God to worship.
The bleating of these children reminded me of sheep sent to the slaughter. “Shut up!” I screamed into the room. The cries and begging stopped immediately. Some sniffling started from some of the younger kids, but that I could deal with. Walking past the cages, I did my best to ignore the pleading eyes of the sacrifices. I wouldn’t be tempted to break my vows by their cries. I would follow the path my God had laid before me until it was completed.
“Serph, why are the children crying?”
The large man looked up at me from where he was sitting at the table. A dark colored bottle rolled off the table and onto the floor. His bleary eyes met mine, and his voice came out thick and slurred. “That is what children do, Osiris.”
“Have they been fed, have they been washed, have they been exercised?” The man looked up at me dumbfounded. “Or have you been too busy with this?” I pointed to the bottles scattered around the table and floor.
“I’m not some nursemaid,” Serph slurred, pushing away from the table and rising to his feet. He swayed slightly but managed to stay upright. “If you need one of those, you should have put Gill in charge down here. That pussy would be perfect for a job like this.” He barked out a harsh bout of laughter as if what he said was the funniest thing in the world.
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