Pursuit

by Val St. Crowe

  He laughed a little. “I might have an idea, actually.”

  She wanted to laugh too. Maybe it was obvious what an idiot she was, and that was funny. But she couldn’t laugh. Everything was too awful. “You can’t leave me here, captain.”

  “I didn’t say I was going to,” he said. “I said I should do it.”

  “Thank you,” she said, and she’d never meant the words more fervently.

  “But you can’t stay on the ship, either.”

  She was confused. “But you just said that you wouldn’t—”

  “I’ll honor my agreement to you, all right? We’ll get the ship patched up, and I’ll take you to Hoder. You get off there. Then we’re done with each other.”

  Her jaw worked. Oh. Well, she supposed she couldn’t fault him for coming to that conclusion. But it put her in an awkward position. If she only had a brief time left with him, how was she going to conceive this champion with him? She still didn’t even know if she wanted to do it at all.

  “Sorry, princess,” he said, and he really did sound sorry.

  “I guess it only makes sense,” she said. “You have to protect your crew.”

  “Exactly,” he said.

  She looked out at the setting sun. It was barely visible anymore. Darkness was stealing over the landscape.

  “Can we go back abfew minutes?” said the captain. “I have to admit that I didn’t follow a bit of what you were saying earlier, when you said you didn’t know there would be danger, but you should have. You’re not telling me everything.”

  Her mouth felt dry. Oh, by the visions, she couldn’t just blurt it all out to him. She would be far too embarrassed to say it out loud.

  “When you came to me on Ceymia 4, you and that other man, you wouldn’t go to any of the other ships’ captains.”

  “No,” she said. “We had to come to you.”

  “Why?” he said. “Why me? Why my ship?”

  “We’ve seen you in visions,” she said. “I was always supposed to get on your ship.”

  “Why?”

  She hugged herself. She tried to put a sentence together in her head to explain it, but she couldn’t find the words.

  “He said you were important,” said the captain. “Why are you important?”

  She let out a helpless laugh. “You don’t believe any of it, anyway, do you? You think I’m confused about the visions—or lying—or…”

  He turned away again. “I don’t know what I think,” he muttered.

  They were quiet.

  He spoke up. “For the sake of argument, let’s say I believe you. You can see the future. You were destined to come aboard my ship. Why? Why did they think you needed to leave the Cloister?”

  “It was time,” she said.

  “Time for you to be important?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “And what important thing are you going to do in the future?”

  She laughed again, but this time it was harsh. “Give birth.”

  “What?”

  “I’m the mother of a champion, a man who grows to fight the Xerkabah and frees us once and for all,” she said.

  “You’re the what?”

  “You want me to repeat it?”

  He let out a dismissive noise.

  “Getting on your ship is the first step,” she said. “That’s what we all saw in the visions.”

  “So, I’m supposed to take you to some place where you…” He ran a hand through his hair. “A champion? Who can beat them? Really beat them?” And there was hope in his eyes.

  She drew in a slow breath. “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Bullshit,” he said.

  She winced.

  He leaned in close, his voice ugly. “You didn’t spin that little yarn for Pippa, did you?”

  “No.” She shied away from him.

  “Some savior is coming? That’s what they told you? Those fuckers.” He kicked at the dirt, sending clods of it and rocks spraying off into the darkness. “To make something like that up, to toy with people, to say that…” He clenched his hands into fists.

  She clutched her elbows.

  He whirled back to face her. He thrust his finger in her face. “No one’s coming to save us, princess. We’re on our own. Got that?”

  * * *

  Gunner couldn’t make heads or tails of what Eve had said.

  It was nonsense, anyway. Seeing the future. Champions. Giving birth to future fighters of the Xerkabah.

  There was no point in contemplating it.

  Which was why he wasn’t. Contemplating it. He was looking for a replacement rescav thruster, and that was all he was focusing on.

  He surveyed the two ships that were docked at the edge of the outpost. A Xene 6000 and a Habagone v10. Neither of those ships had compatible thrusters with the Swallow, which was an Onui Lance 12D, the shine class. The Swallow was an old ship. She had old parts. These two ships weren’t brand spanking new by any stretch, but they weren’t the age of the Swallow.

  He looked from the Xene to the v10.

  Well, there was no point in even looking in the Xene. It was too small, anyway. Even if—by some bit of luck—it had an old set of thrusters installed, they weren’t the right size. They wouldn’t fit in the Swallow.

  But there was a slim, slim chance that the v10 might have been outfitted with something older. He passed a hand over his face and then trudged over to the ship. It was a boxy looking thing, a bit weathered from travel. It had probably flown half the people from the outpost here. A v10 was outfitted with an expansive passenger wing.

  The ship wasn’t unlocked, which was lucky, he guessed.

  He easily lowered the outer ramp and made his way on board.

  Inside the ship, he looked down the corridor—the much more spacious corridor than the Swallow—and felt disoriented. Where were the engines on this boat?

  Oh, right. He remembered. He turned to the left, walked five feet down the corridor, turned left again, and then found the door. He palmed the open controls.

  Nothing happened.

  Door was locked.

  He glared at it.

  All right, fine. He pulled his cator out of his belt. “Captain to Star Swallow. Come in.”

  A hiss of static.

  “Saffron?” he barked. “Where the hell—”

  “It’s me, sir,” said Pippa, cutting him off. “Saffron’s with Breccan. Should I get her?”

  “Nah,” he said. “Just pull up her screen and look up the override codes for locks on v10s, would you?”

  “Um…” She seemed to be looking around. “Sure, I can do that. Hold on.”

  He sighed.

  So, if Eve was supposed to get pregnant with some future resistance fighter, then that meant that the reason the Xerkabah wanted to kill her was to… what?

  Prevent the champion from even being born in the first place?

  He grimaced.

  How did that make sense? Was she already pregnant?

  His grimace deepened. Not because he didn’t like the idea of her being pregnant, because that was stupid and made no sense at all. He didn’t care about her one bit, and he certainly didn’t have any idiotic retroactive jealously toward some other man being between those legs of—

  “Pippa, you got anything?” He was gripping the cator so tight his knuckles had turned white.

  “Still looking, captain.”

  “Looking for what? Open the program. There’s a search bar. Type in ‘v10.’”

  “Well, Saffron may have moved the console around someplace, and I can’t find the input keyboard.”

  He groaned.

  “I know it’s here somewhere. Just give me a minute, okay?”

  He didn’t even respond. He glowered at the locked door in front of him. He had the urge to kick it.

  No, the reason he didn’t like the idea of her being pregnant was that then he would feel guilty as all hell if he abandoned her someplace. He was going to have to find out, and if she was, th
en he’d…

  What?

  Besides, she wasn’t pregnant. The man she’d been with on Ceymia 4 had wanted her protected, and now his strange, suggestive comments made sense. He wanted her to be protected from sexual advances undoubtedly, so that his precious important woman would be pristine and pure for whatever man she was supposed to get to who would impregnate her in the first place.

  He did kick the door.

  Barbaric.

  And if it was true, it meant the Cloister believed in those stupid visions of theirs, and they had no idea how damaging it was to give people false hope. Bastards.

  Of course, it begged the question: If she wasn’t pregnant, why were the Xerkabah after her?

  Hell, whether she was pregnant or not, the questions stood.

  He knew that some said that the Xerkabah had visions of the future as well.

  What if they did?

  He thought about talking to Eve earlier—it seemed like a long time ago, but this planet had such short days and nights, it was confusing—telling her to assume he did believe her.

  Assume it’s true, he thought to himself. Then the champion’s real too. It’s the only reason they’d be after her.

  “Got it,” came Pippa’s voice over the cator.

  “Thank the sun and stars,” he said. “Finally.”

  “Ready?”

  “Sure.” He lifted the panel next to the controls on the door and waited his fingers over the keypad.

  “Alpha niner niner whiskey foxtrot zero.”

  He punched it in.

  The door opened.

  One look inside at the gleam of the thrusters and he knew it was no good. “Damn it.”

  “Didn’t the code work?” said Pippa.

  “Thrusters are no good on this ship,” he said. “They’re the wrong model. We try to put something this new in the Swallow, it’d fry her.”

  “Oh,” said Pippa. A pause. “Damn it.”

  * * *

  “How’s Breccan?” Gunner stepped into the kitchen on the Swallow, where Saffron was sitting at one of the tables, toying absently with a piece of jewelry. Looked like a necklace or bracelet to Gunner.

  Saffron started at the sound of his voice. She turned to look at him. There were dark circles under her eyes, but she attempted a smile. “He’s hanging on. Calix can’t do anything else. He says we just wait now, see if his body mends.”

  Gunner nodded, folding his arms over his chest. “Well, that’s good news.” He considered. “I guess.”

  Saffron squared her shoulders. “Might as well hope for the best.”

  “Might as well.”

  They were quiet.

  “The, uh, reason I’m in here is to ask if you’ll come to the cargo bay with me?”

  Her eyebrows shot up questioningly.

  “I want to talk to everyone,” he said. “Figured there’s space to gather there.”

  “Everyone will fit in here,” said Saffron. “Tell them to come in here.”

  “You sure?” It was true that they usually had crew meetings around the table in here.

  “I’m not holding the kitchen hostage,” said Saffron. “And you don’t have to tiptoe around me like I’m made of glass or something.”

  He was quiet, absorbing that. She was angry because she didn’t know what was going to happen with Breccan. He understood that. They’d all lost so many people in these past years, but it never got any easier, somehow. He hoped she didn’t lose Breccan. “All right,” he said. “I’ll be back in a minute with everyone.”

  Gunner left the kitchen and went back down to the cargo bay, where Pippa, Calix, and Eve were sitting on crates. He told them to come to the kitchen, and they followed him. Gunner wasn’t exactly sure why Eve was being included in this. He didn’t need her opinion on what to do next. She wasn’t crew.

  But he figured it would be easier for her to hear what the plans were from the horse’s mouth instead of having to relay it to her later.

  They all arrived in the kitchen, and Saffron was standing now, looking stern and ready, the way she did before a fight.

  Pippa went to give her a hug, but Saffron waved her off, shaking her head. Pippa stopped and put her hands in her pockets instead. She turned to face Gunner.

  Calix and Eve filed in next to Pippa, so that everyone was standing around the table, opposite the room from Gunner.

  Gunner surveyed them, and then he scratched the back of his neck. “Well, we’re in a bit of a bind, I’m sorry to say. I was hoping that among the supplies here at this outpost, we’d be able to repair the Swallow, but the parts aren’t going to fit. There are only two ships here, and neither has the specs to match ours.”

  “So, what are you saying?” said Calix. “We’re stuck here?”

  Gunner spread his hands. “Looks that way. Now, we’re not the only ship that comes by this outpost to trade. We might get lucky and someone will be by any day, and they’ll have parts for us.”

  “That’s a fair bit of luck you’re hoping for there, sir.” Saffron’s tone was sour.

  “Right,” said Gunner. “Maybe too much. So, I want to discuss the idea of sending out a distress beacon to Ceymia 4.”

  “What?” said Saffron. “That could be intercepted. And if it is, the Xerkabah will be down our necks faster than we can say distress beacon.”

  “We can time it with the changing of the guard,” said Gunner. “Only send it for fifteen minutes, twice a day.”

  “It’ll take about fifteen minutes to get there,” said Saffron. There was a delay for transmissions sent across far distances in space.

  “So, we do the calculations, figure out when to send it, and then we do it,” said Gunner. “Someone will pick it up and send us our supplies. We’ve got no problems with food and water, considering we have access to all the outpost’s rations, and it shouldn’t be a problem paying whatever they want for parts. Hell, we can give them a little extra, and they can take this one off our hands too.” He pointed at Eve.

  Eve’s lips parted. “Me? But you said you would take me to Hoder.”

  “Yeah, well, I want rid of you, and you know that,” said Gunner.

  “You’re just going to send her away?” said Pippa.

  “She’s being hunted by the Xerkabah,” said Gunner.

  Pippa turned to look at Eve. “You are?”

  “Oh, she didn’t tell you that while you were braiding each other’s hair?” said Gunner.

  “We don’t braid each other’s hair,” said Eve.

  “But we could,” said Pippa, looking at Eve. “I could do a spiral braid around that cowlick you have—”

  “Pippa,” said Gunner, glaring at her.

  She turned back to him, chastened. “I just don’t think we should leave Eve. Besides, I’ve been thinking, and you said that the thrusters in that v10 were just too new, right? Well, there’s a way to rig them so that they’ll rotate slower and they won’t fry our engines.”

  Gunner hadn’t known that. “You know how to do that?”

  “No, not exactly,” said Pippa. “But I’ve heard people talk about doing it. I’m sure Breccan can do it. We’d need a tolen bolt, thought. I know that much. Actually, I think maybe four tolen bolts.”

  “Tolen bolts?” Gunner shook his head at her. “You think we’re going to find that kind of alien tech just lying around on this outpost?”

  “Wait,” said Calix. “We’re on Durga, right? There was a Xerkabah base here during the war. That’s why they put the outpost here in the first place. They knew it was habitable thanks to humans being held captive at the base and surviving.”

  “Right,” said Gunner. “I forgot about that. Well, they cleaned that base out when they abandoned it, right? It’s not going to have what we need.”

  Suddenly, Eve fell back on the floor, her eyes rolling up in her head.

  “Oh, sun and stars!” said Pippa, going down into a crouch beside her. She slid an arm under Eve’s shoulders while she convulsed.

  �
�She having a seizure?” said Saffron.

  “A vision,” said Pippa.

  Gunner rolled his eyes. “Listen, whatever that girl says, we can’t be sure that she isn’t—”

  Eve gasped and sat up, interrupting them. She touched her forehead. “Captain, Pippa, and me in some place with slick, metal walls. We were taking big circular metal things off something that looked like a heating unit or—”

  “Those are tolen bolts!” said Pippa. “That must be the base. You just had a vision about us going to the base.” She beamed up at Gunner. “They have them. We can get off this planet.”

  Gunner shook his head. “Listen, she had a seizure, and she hallucinated, and we were talking about tolen bolts—”

  “I don’t even know what those are,” said Eve, pushing to her feet. She glared at him.

  Gunner took a step back, even though the table was between them. There was something about the expression on the girl’s face that affected him. “Sure, you say you don’t, but maybe you do, and you’re just pretending you don’t know. So, you describe them to us, and then we go on this crazy mission to the base, because…” He drew in a breath. “Because…”

  Eve lifted her chin. “Why? Why would I make this up?”

  Gunner raised his index finger. “You don’t want me to send you off on another ship, that’s why.”

  “Well, if there aren’t any tolen bolts on that base, how is going there supposed to stop that from happening?” she said. “If I’m just making it up, then it’s no good to me. We’d go, find nothing, and then you’d come back and send out the distress beacon anyway.”

  “She has a bit of a point,” said Calix, furrowing his brow.

  Gunner turned on him. “You think she has visions?”

  “Well, fighting the Xerkabah was always impossible, right?” said Calix. “They seemed to know our next move before we made it.”

  “Seemed to,” said Gunner. “So people made up stories about how they could see the future in order to make our side feel better about our failure.”

  “How did it make us feel better?” said Calix. “How does thinking that your enemy knows your every strategy before you make it create anything but a feeling of despair?”