Senescence (Jezebel's Ladder Book 5)

by Scott Rhine

  “Shouldn’t we wait till after the UN vote?” Laura asked.

  “If the measure doesn’t pass, they won’t let you leave with more astronauts,” Kaguya reasoned. “The governments will use any excuse they can to hold Stewart hostage to extort more tech from Sanctuary.”

  I just don’t like operating like Nana. “Okay. You inform Oleander, and I’ll wake Stu.”

  Laura whispered softly in Stu’s ear until he trundled into the cockpit. He grunted and waved to Monty, who nodded in reply. Brushing her hair behind her ear, Laura said, “Mom thought we should take a load to Sanctuary today while we have the shuttle and atmospheric cover.”

  Stu’s expression changed suddenly from bliss to sadness, but he nodded in a resigned way. Then he went back to the cabin to pet the dogs.

  “Trouble?” asked Kaguya.

  “I guess he’s never seen a dog before,” Laura explained, a little embarrassed.

  Monty unclipped and went back to introduce Stu to the six animals. He told the silent ambassador all about their care and feeding.

  Eyes wide, Laura stole the vacant copilot seat and turned up the heat. “Sure. Everybody likes Stu.”

  “It will take time for Monty to open up to any of us.” Kaguya checked her fuel gauge. “When we arrive, we’ll refuel and unload the dogs. Don’t tell anyone we found your brother yet. As cover, tell the warden we need the Ballbusters crew as a search party.”

  “How do we rationalize the crates and suitcases?”

  “Constructing a base camp for the search. We’ll need at least two trips into orbit, depending on the mass. We may have to stop at Esperanza Base for fuel if the prison doesn’t have enough.”

  After a moment of silence, Kaguya prompted, “So?” When Laura didn’t supply details, she asked, “How was bonding?”

  A smile crept onto Laura’s face. “Thanks for the chemical assist.”

  “It was just vodka and vanilla,” Kaguya admitted. “I couldn’t find any useful medications at the prison. You just needed to believe. I always knew you two would make a pair.”

  Chapter 40 – Don’t Ask if You Don’t Want to Know

  As instructed, Kaguya didn’t tell anyone on the radio that Monty had been rescued. The base camp ploy worked for everyone but Oleander, who resisted until Laura requested crates that could only be of use on Sanctuary. By the time Kaguya landed the shuttle back at the prison, Oleander had teams ready to service the craft and swap cargoes. Kaguya met her outside and scanned the manifest. “Stu wanted the minerals and materials for his pet AI delivered as soon as possible.”

  “People are more important,” Oleander replied. “If the repairs have waited this long, they can wait a few more hours. Besides, to make room for this shuttle, Sanctuary has to move what’s left of Ascension out of our landing bay. Since the ship is going to cannibalize those materials, Snowflake will have a head start on his minerals.”

  After this exchange, no one said a word about their real destination. Oleander strapped an ultralight, folding bicycle into an overhead bin.

  Kaguya kept the cockpit door sealed and let Laura handle the persuasion. The warden charged them a premium for the extra fuel but left them otherwise unhindered. Joan provided the rendezvous coordinates, and the mute Stu piloted.

  As copilot, Kaguya spoke to the passengers over the PA. To explain their steep ascent, Kaguya said, “Stu wants to rise above this weather system to reach the search area quicker.”

  Standing behind him, Laura said, “You seem depressed. Is there something wrong?”

  When they switched propulsion systems due to lower oxygen, Stu gestured for Laura to strap in.

  Kaguya increased the airflow to compensate for a slow leak in the vacuum seals. “He has a very tight landing zone, and gravity is going to change directions once we’re inside the bay. The mass isn’t well-balanced or secured. Don’t distract him.”

  Because Monty was already in the navigator’s chair, glued to the window, Laura wandered back to the main cabin. Since the hold was full, the luggage racks and spare seats were also jammed with vital equipment collected for Sanctuary.

  Over the South Pole, in an already chaotic weather system, Sanctuary dipped lower into Earth atmosphere than ever before, opening the lens of the landing bay. A white hole opened in utter darkness. Kaguya examined the comm board. “Did you signal for that, Stu?”

  “No. Snowflake sensed Laura because she’s an Index,” Stu whispered. “They’re like the keys to the Magi ship.”

  “So Sanctuary can’t operate without one, which is why Mira couldn’t leave the ship.”

  “Why won’t you talk to Laura?” Monty asked.

  “Complicated,” Stu replied, flipping the shuttle. Even warned, the passengers cursed or shrieked at the reversal.

  Kaguya ventured a guess. “He’s bonded to her, which means he can never be with any other woman. But he’s made promises to me and other people that may upset her.”

  “Busy,” Stu said, clicking a series of switches with his left hand while feathering the stick with his right. “This is Rescue 972 requesting permission to dock.”

  Zeiss’ voice came over the headset. “Gravity Boy, welcome home.”

  Their landing, though gentle by comparison to their recent velocity, was solid enough to spill the contents of several suitcase racks. No one was injured, but Kaguya glared at the young pilot. If he doesn’t resolve his problems soon, they could harm us all.

  Three people in spacesuits ran to the shuttle airlock as Kaguya completed the shutdown sequence. “Monty, send your sister up here and then help people disembark.”

  Oleander barked orders to shepherd the rabble. “We have a short window. Gravity is just 10 percent Earth standard, but in about two minutes, the air will be about the same pressure and temperature as the airstrip we just left. Line up single file. I’ve opened the cargo hatches. I’ll need each of you to carry as much as you can to the decontamination chamber.”

  Someone asked, “Will we be safe without suits?”

  “As long as no one shoots us with beam weapons again. If that happens, even the suit won’t help,” Oleander replied. “Don’t worry. Stu is keeping watch.”

  Stu stared at the control panel, apparently lost in thought.

  Kaguya said, “I’m nervous about the reunion, too.”

  “How did you lie to her for so long?” he muttered. “It hurts not telling her the truth.”

  “Losing her would hurt more,” she replied.

  Laura came into the cockpit smiling. “This is so exciting. My father couldn’t come to the bay because of the risk, but Yvette said she could take me down to meet him.”

  Kaguya licked her lips. “Tsukiko, Stu and I have to make another trip for the bulkier cargo and the last few people. He won’t admit it, but he’s been missing you. Could you ride along with us one more time before seeing the habitat? I know it’s a sacrifice, but—”

  “Anything,” Laura said, placing her forehead against Stu’s. He closed his eyes, reveling in the contact.

  “From the nav chair, you may even be able to touch him,” Kaguya offered.

  Laura popped out to tell the others.

  “Thank you,” Stu said.

  “I’ve given us both a few more hours. She’ll forgive us eventually,” Kaguya said, assuring both herself and the young man.

  ****

  Departing from Sanctuary, Laura’s mother and husband clammed up. They seemed nervous during the stop at Esperanza Base to refuel. Laura gained access to the airfield tanks by claiming to be part of a search expedition for an escaped prisoner. After servicing their craft, a clerk bundled in a white, down jacket resembling the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man asked for a voucher. The carte-blanche account from the Fortune CEO no longer worked, so Laura had to use the traceable stock account instead. “We have a short fuse before they find us,” she told the two sphinxes.

  Kaguya stood beside her son-in-law in the refueling station’s office. “The blizzard has thinned, but we ca
n still be anywhere in the world in a few hours. You could have a proper honeymoon somewhere warm.”

  “Get thee behind me,” Stu replied.

  “It’s what we all want,” Kaguya stressed.

  Stu raised his voice. “I promised to fix Snowflake as soon as possible.” On the last bit, his voice broke. When everyone in the room stared at him, he calmed himself and said, “I always keep my word.”

  Laura examined the carte-blanche voucher and asked the clerk, “Why didn’t this one work?”

  “Eh? Big scandal. Your company is freezing every account that fraud touched in the last year.”

  “Fraud?” Laura echoed.

  Stu and Kaguya zipped up their parkas, put gloves back on, and strode toward the parked shuttle.

  “Yeah. Turns out she’s really some broad by the name of Mary Smith. The real Mira Hollis hired her as a media shadow, a look-alike. Hollis was such a recluse that nobody noticed when Smith took over,” the clerk said, relishing the juicy story. “They’re searching her estate now, hoping to find the body.”

  Aunt Mary? Stu knew. “Why would Mary Smith kill Ms. Hollis?”

  “I can think of a trillion reasons,” the clerk said with a chuckle. “They say Maurier, her bodyguard, was in on it.”

  Laura jogged after Stu, demanding an answer. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Close the hatch,” her mother hissed.

  Slamming and cycling the airlock door, Laura repeated, “Why?”

  In the seclusion of the cockpit, Stu replied, “Not my secret.”

  “Your family perpetrated this big hoax to get rich?” Laura asked, pulling up the news feed on her pad. The film clip showed the elegant, blue-eyed, blonde CEO posing for mug shots in Rio.

  Stu ignored her and pushed buttons for the preflight check.

  Kaguya slid into the copilot chair beside him, “The real Mira asked her to. It’s all legal. Your grandfather colluded.”

  “Stu told you but not me?” Laura asked, hurt.

  Water dampened Stu’s cheek. Were those tears or melting snow?

  “I knew Mira from the Academy. Remember?” her mother replied.

  Laura wrinkled her brow. “The only Mira you ever mentioned from there is the bitch who stole Dad and ran off to space.”

  Trying to shorten the preflight delay, Kaguya took one of the checklists herself.

  The enormity of the lies dawned on Laura. “You mean Miracle Hollis became Mira Zeiss, criminal astronaut? That’s why Dad had 2 percent of the company? A God-damned wedding present? A big-assed bribe?” Laura paced, furious as conclusions mounted. “Everybody on the Ascension crew knew about this?”

  Kaguya and Stu communicated in shorthand as they completed the list.

  “Will somebody talk to me?” Laura demanded, willing to pull a plug to get their attention. The shuttle was taxiing across the runway.

  “One question,” Stu said, “and then I’m going to need everything I have to fly through this weather. Kaguya has been a trooper, but now that she’s tired, the blinking lights have been sucking her in a little.”

  Laura went for the biggest crime, the one likely to unlock the most puzzles. “Why did Mira steal her own company’s shuttle and violate the UN embargo to land on the alien artifact?”

  “Because as the Index, she was the sole person on the planet who could open the ship,” Stu said. “She inherited the twenty-eighth Page from her mother, Jezebel.”

  “Given her family history of failed pregnancies, Mira wasn’t likely to have an heir. They were sure she would be the final Index,” Kaguya added as they picked up speed and the engines roared. “It took me a long time to accept why Mira had to be the one to go on the mission, but I finally understood. Sit down, dear.”

  Falling into the seat, Laura strapped in. Hugging the mountains to evade radar, Stu was flying this bird like he’d stolen it … which the authorities might conclude when they tracked the fuel purchase. “If her talent was so critical to the world, I don’t understand why she just wouldn’t freeze a few eggs as a precaution.” Then it hit her—with all their advances, unfertilized eggs couldn’t be frozen. They needed sperm first. Who better to supply that than her trophy husband, the tall, blond Conrad Zeiss?

  What would that child be like?

  Laura listed the attributes to herself, beginning with the physical, and transitioning to the talents. The experimental zygotes were Mira’s. Grandfather was trying to forge the keys he needed to steal the spaceship. Laura felt dizzy. “I came from Mira’s egg?”

  Kaguya was holding her hand now, crying. “I didn’t know either at first, but by then I loved you as my own.”

  “You didn’t tell me?” Laura shouted at her husband.

  “Hush. He has to concentrate. Mira and I made him promise not to.”

  After several tense minutes of buffeting by the winds, Laura risked another timid question. “Do you have any photos of her?”

  “No, but she was the heroine of Sojiro’s manga,” Kaguya explained. “The Dahlstroms thought you’d pick up that clue for sure.”

  Laura felt ill. She staggered back to the cramped closet toilet. Everyone else knew. This is worse than Santa and the Easter Bunny combined.

  She was still wallowing in private when they landed at the prison.

  Chapter 41 – Blockade

  Stu’s hands were shaking from the effort and emotion when they landed. When he clambered through the airlock, Mo said, “You look like hell, kid.” Opening a cooler, he handed Stu an aluminum can. “You need this more than I do.”

  The bright colored drink was called Alert. Stu figured it couldn’t hurt. I’m living in a house of cards, and there’s a gale outside. What’s a little caffeine?

  After he took a swig, Stu said, “You heard about my Aunt Mary and you’re still on the team?”

  Mo scratched his head. “About that. The Nyxians practically worship Hollis. If she gutted a man with a deer knife in front of an auditorium, they’d ask what the guy did to piss her off. Your being related to her was actually a promotion to these ladies.”

  “So everyone else is still coming?”

  His bodyguard laughed. “The prisoners are excited at poking the world in the eye. We had to (ahem) borrow a skid steer and tie up someone who asked too many questions.”

  Stu put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You don’t have to do this. Once you break the law, there’s no going home.”

  “You don’t understand. Kelly is my home. She’s made it clear that we’re backing whatever play you make.”

  Hugging the Samoan, Stu admitted, “You have no idea how much I needed to hear that.”

  “Yeah, well we got freight to pack.”

  “Get the rare earths for Snowflake in first. Everything else is expendable. I’ll keep watch. If I call all’s-in-free, run in here like your ass is on fire.”

  Mo nodded. “Get your princess out here to move her share or the troops will complain.”

  “She’s injured, remember?” Stu’s eyes lingered on the bathroom. Our fight is none of his business.

  Kaguya came from behind and stole a swig of his drink. “I’ll take her shift. Ack! That stuff is vile. Do you have any more?”

  Mo dropped the cooler on the front seat. “Pilots drink free.” He handed them each a new comm. “This is Nyx tech—it’s more secure with less footprint than ours. Old man Mori won’t have the frequencies.”

  “Oh no.” Stu palmed his face. “You don’t think Mori’s been listening in, do you?”

  Kaguya patted him on the back. “Relax. At worst, he knows our landing coordinates. If he tuned in before that, he’ll know that Laura has been taking your biological samples but isn’t planning on sharing them with anyone.”

  Stu blushed as he wandered back to the cockpit.

  ****

  A see-through Joan appeared on top of the bathroom sink. “Laura, tell Stu that the old rendezvous is too hot. Near-Earth patrols are swarming our last position.”

  “How did
that happen?” Laura asked. As a Quantum Computer, she was one of the few who could see Out-of-Body scouts.

  “Whenever we open the lens, the enemy can see where we are. Please use these exact words: Admiral Woolsey wants you to take the Patagonian approach vector.”

  Laura repeated them back. “Who’s Woolsey?”

  “A Teddy bear Stu gave me when I was born. Other than the towel he used as a superhero cape, it was his most prized possession,” the ghostly girl explained. “Why are you hiding in here crying?”

  “I know who my real mother is, and what the Moris did.”

  The girl grunted. “Kaguya raised you with love. Mira wasn’t a saint either. She tried to turn Kaguya into a vegetable by sharing Quantum Computing.”

  “But Zeiss visited Mom in the asylum afterward.”

  “He realized that we can’t share the gifts in hate. When you give, a part of you joins the recipient.” The girl flickered like a neon sign in a rainstorm. “In the deep, we’re all connected.”

  “Stu lied to me,” Laura pouted. “You all did. Why should I trust you?”

  “We didn’t know until the day he proposed. To me, you were a gold-digging tramp. To him, you were the gold. I risked my best friend to save you,” Joan said as she winked out.

  Stu’s muffled voice asked her through the door, “Is everything okay? Do you need anything?”

  Laura wiped her nose for the tenth time and opened the door. Without the extra soundproofing, she heard the beeping of a backing forklift and booted feet stomping up and down the gangplank. She gave him the message from Admiral Woolsey verbatim.

  Stu immediately told the others, “Sanctuary says we could have company soon. Wheels up in ten.” He started pushing the buttons from the pilot chair again, ignoring her once more.

  Wanting to sit at the farthest corner of the shuttle to avoid the liars, Laura paced the main cabin. Mo informed her, “These seats are all taken. We saved you the navigator’s chair in the cockpit.”

  When she returned to the cockpit, her mother fitted her with an oxygen mask. “This shouldn’t be necessary, but the enemy likes to target air supplies.”