Reading the Wind (Silver Ship)

by Brenda Cooper

  Why?

  This group could help us get the babies back. Caro and Jherrel. Thinking of them gave me focus and strength. I looked around. All eyes were on me. “Who are you all?” I asked.

  The strange dark-haired man looked at my brother. “Can we take a few moments?”

  Joseph nodded. “They appear to be watching.”

  “But they attacked you out there?” He glanced at Kayleen, who had pulled free of Bryan’s embrace and now stood between Bryan and Liam, the three of them filling one side of the smallish room.

  Joseph said, “A test.”

  “They’ve never done that before.” Kayleen’s voice, scratchy and frightened.

  “We’re safe in here now,” Joseph said, his voice soothing. Then he turned to me, a slight mischievous grin touching his lips for just a moment before his face settled into the new Joseph’s serious demeanor. He seemed to be in charge here. He nodded at the slight, dark-haired woman next to him. She was the strangest-looking of the group, with a bobbed haircut and severe white tunic that looked like the ones Lushia and Ghita wore. “This is Dianne. She is from the same place the people with the ship in Artistos are from.”

  “The Islas Autocracy,” Liam said. He pulled Kayleen close to him. “Why is she here?”

  “To help.” Joseph looked at the other two women at the table, both dark-haired, one with blue eyes and, the one whose voice was naggingly familiar, with gray eyes. Mischief crept across Joseph’s features. “And this is Tiala.” He shifted his attention to the gray-eyed woman. “And her sister Jenna.”

  The woman regarded me calmly as Joseph’s words sank in. Jenna. But Jenna was old! I pushed to her side and knelt, looking more closely. She wore Jenna’s eyes. The truth of it, the power of the healing, sank in. “It is you. You came back. You—you’re whole.”

  She nodded, and suddenly she and I were crying. Unable to get to her any other way, Kayleen scooted across the table. “Jenna!” Kayleen took my hand, gazing up into Jenna’s eyes. “You can help us!”

  Joseph cleared his throat. I felt dizzy, off balance. Jenna, perfect and whole. Two eyes. Two arms. I glanced at Joseph, ready to plead for more time, but something in his face stopped me.

  He needed me to focus on him.

  Once he had my attention, he looked down at the man, who still watched me.

  I shifted uncomfortably.

  “Come here,” the man said. “Let me touch you.”

  And over my head, Joseph’s voice, catching in his throat. “Chelo, this is our father, David Lee.”

  The world stopped. This man with the intense, demanding stare, this man who had worried me since I first saw him because of the intense hunger in his eyes.

  I understood now.

  The room shrank to just him and me. I had noticed his short, dark hair and the deep mist-blue eyes, now veiled a bit by tears. Even though he was sitting, I could tell he was built like the Joseph who stood by him now, like the man my little brother had become. Wide shoulders and slender hips, high cheekbones and a rounded chin. I took one of his long-fingered hands in mine. His palm and finger pads were a little rough, but not like a farmer’s or roamer’s hands. I searched his face. There were tears, but what emotion drove them? He hardly moved a muscle, waiting for me to react.

  I found my voice. “I …Pleased to meet you.” I wanted to rush to him, touch him, but something in his eyes stopped me. “I’ve always hoped you lived.” It still wasn’t right. My father. “Hello.”

  He smiled then, almost a laugh, but edgy. He spoke softly. “You have no idea how much I hoped to get here in time.”

  My head spun. My father. Jenna. Bryan and Alicia. In time. In time for what? The babies! We had to tell them about Caro and Jherrel.

  The Islan, Dianne, said, “They’re coming.” The rest of the room fell back into focus, and I looked up at the middle viewscreen, which showed a skimmer heading our way from Artistos. In the screen next to it, Sasha and Paloma had let the three extra hebras go and were racing toward the edge of the valley.

  “Strap in!” my father called, and the room began to empty.

  I knew what they were going to do.

  Leave.

  Kayleen figured it out at the same time, her eyes snapping wide open. Fear filled every pore. The babies! We screamed together.

  “No!”

  Liam jumped to his feet, fists clenched, looking for some way to stop people who flew starships with their minds.

  52

  STORIES TOLD, PLANS MADE

  Kayleen’s and Chelo’s joint scream stilled the room. Not simple protest, something primal. I turned to my sister, holding her face between my two hands. “We came to get you. You’re all here. This is a miracle.” If the mercenaries were waiting for me, for us, then we could get away now.

  I had imagined searching Fremont for a long time, feared searching it in vain. I remembered telling myself I wouldn’t leave without saving everyone else, but we were all here. So easy.

  Kayleen’s voice was shrill and high. “They have our babies!”

  Chelo looked into my eyes. “It’s true,” she whispered. “They took them today.” Her eyes welled with tears. She looked from me to our father to Jenna, her energy that of a trapped animal. In spite of the loss painting her face wet, her voice sounded firm and completely controlled as she declared, “We aren’t going anywhere without them. We can’t. You understand that.”

  I did understand. She and I had been abandoned. I glanced at my father, who flinched away. His free hand on the chair shook.

  The real import of her words struck me. Chelo had children. Or Chelo and Kayleen had children. I stood gaping, like a stranded fish.

  My father was the first one who found his voice, and spoke into the deep silence that had settled on the room. “Of course you’re not leaving. We’re not leaving.” He stared at Chelo. “I left you. I shouldn’t have ever left you.”

  He hadn’t said that yet. His words slapped something angry away from me, leaving an open, raw space. He looked at me, then back to Chelo. “I’m sorry.”

  She hesitated for a long second, her face softening. “I know,” she said. “We’ll have another day for that. We have to save Jherrel and Caro.”

  My father looked tenderly at her. “Tell me about it.”

  Kidnapped. Stolen. My sister’s children. I would be their uncle.

  Alicia pointed at the skimmer, grown larger in the viewscreen. “What about them?”

  I glanced up at the skimmer, then over at Chelo. “Do you know what they want?”

  Her expression tensed in an angry frown. “No. They’re hateful. They kill with no reason. Half of us are dead, Joseph. Half. Nava and Eric and Stile…”

  If she could kill them right then, I thought she might. Whatever happened to turn my pacifist sister into this angry young woman? The kids? I needed her to think. What would Marcus do? Shock them. “Should I shoot them down?”

  “No. Of course not. That would just make it worse.”

  There, that was the Chelo I knew.

  Kayleen spoke up, her eyes snapping with adrenaline. “We don’t know where Jherrel and Caro are. They stole them from the berry patch hours ago. They wouldn’t tell us why. They won’t talk to us about anything.” Apparently she’d recovered some from the data attack. She kept going, as confusing and intense as ever. “They brought the strongs. They wouldn’t let Chelo go with them, and I think they’d have been happy to kill me and Liam. They told Chelo we had something to do. I think they meant to find you.”

  I turned to Chelo. Her jaw was clenched tight, her hand still tucked inside our father’s hand. She proclaimed, “We aren’t shooting at anything until we know where the children are.”

  “Besides,” Liam said, “if they wanted to kill us, they would have already done it.”

  Okay. I’d already figured that out. “Can we ignore them?”

  Dianne said, “They probably don’t have any weapons on the skimmer that can even ding Creator. Let them rage. M
ad Lushia is half crazy already.”

  “Mad Lushia?” Chelo asked. “You know her?”

  Dianne smiled, as if at some memory. “I was her Second, once. She fell from favor in the Autocracy. Too independent. She’s like a child who won’t give up a favorite toy when asked.”

  I whirled around to look at her. She knew these people? “Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded.

  “What good would the information have done you out there?” She pointed vaguely up toward space. “It would have just worried you. Now that it is helpful, you have it.” The way she said it almost soothed.

  Ming spoke before I could react to Dianne’s statement. “That’s why you look so familiar. I’ve seen your picture.”

  Dianne shrugged. “I’m no longer Islan. I believe in freedom.” She looked me in the eyes. “I’m on your side.”

  Jenna held up a hand. “Let’s share stories. They want a reaction from us. Let them cool their heels. We all need to catch up. The galley’s the only room big enough to hold everyone comfortably. Can you two,” she glanced at me and my father, “manage to monitor the strangers from there?”

  Of course. I told Creator to send copies of the camera images to the wall in the galley. “Let’s go.”

  Ten minutes later, everyone was seated at the long table, twelve of us at a table meant for fourteen. Chelo, Liam, and Kayleen sat close together on one end, with Chelo at the nominal head of the table. Jenna was in the seat opposite her, flanked by Ming and Tiala. The rest of us ranged through the middle seats of the oblong table. I managed to orchestrate it so I ended up between Kayleen and Alicia. Kayleen might need me, and I needed Alicia.

  Tiala set out cups for col on the table, the very ordinariness of it damping the confusion. Jenna glanced up at the screen, which now showed the skimmer landing near the hangar. “We could spend days catching up. But we don’t have them. Chelo, can you tell us your situation, and everything you know about the mercenaries?” She sent my father a look clearly meant to silence him.

  Chelo leaned back and started. “We were on Islandia when they came….”

  Regardless of Jenna’s warning about time, it took nearly an hour to get caught up on what had happened here. At the end of it, I knew more about my sister’s life, but had no better clue why the mercenaries waited here.

  And wait they did. They had disembarked after they landed, and simply stood outside of their skimmer, five of them, talking amongst themselves. They did not have any children with them.

  Dianne had suggested Lushia was out of favor. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t working for the Islans, didn’t think like them. Maybe Lushia only appeared to be out of favor, a ruse to allow the Autocracy to disavow her actions if they wanted to. All the possibilities made my head spin. I looked around the table. Exhaustion and worry showed on almost every face. But I wanted more help. “So…I’d like to hear why each of you think they’re here.”

  Chelo must have heard what I didn’t ask. “Why did they come in the first place? Kayleen said they came to kill us all, but that we confused them. You knew they were here. How?”

  I glanced at my father. It was his story to tell, but was he ready to tell it?”

  He shook his head at me.

  No.

  Jenna must have seen the interaction. “They were hired by our affinity group to finish the war. Chelo, do you remember when I told you about affinity groups?”

  Chelo nodded. “I remember. But I don’t think I understand.”

  “Okay. The easy explanation is an affinity group is a set of people—sometimes a traditional blood family, but more often many families and individuals that are tied to a goal and to economics. There are groups that work in the arts, groups that build things, others that make things, or provide services. The Family of Exploration came together to find a new place to build into a paradise.”

  Liam spoke up. “And they chose Fremont.”

  “That’s right. Only when they got here, the planet was settled.”

  My father spoke up this time. “By people who had no claim.”

  Induan glared at him. “No claim from Silver’s Home. But they were here, and that should have been claim enough.”

  Liam seemed to approve of her words. “No one should die just for being someplace.”

  Chelo put a hand on his shoulder, then looked down the table at all of us. “We need to get Jherrel and Caro. We can argue about claims later. Assume we three have no good idea why they’re here.”

  “Except we know they haven’t hurt us,” Kayleen said. “They had a chance to kill us today, and they didn’t. They’ve passed up other chances. I don’t know why, but they’re studying us. From a distance. The three of us. Because we’re not from here, either.”

  Interesting. So Chelo and Liam and Kayleen were alive because they were altered? The old derogatory Fremont word stuck to me here. Enhanced. Created. But Chelo was right; there was no time to dwell on questions we had no answer for. “Ming? What do you think?”

  “Either they want you, or they want you to do something. They’re playing war games. Games about far more than this planet.”

  Dianne spoke without being asked. “They want you to start a fight. Why else would they have taken the babies?”

  My father said, “That’s too complex. The easy explanation is that the presence of people obviously from Silver’s Home threw them off. They were told the only people here weren’t from the five worlds. Maybe I can make that invalidate the contract terms. I have to go talk to them. I’m the only one who can change this with talk.”

  “You’d better. Or leave.” Dianne stood up and glared down at him. “If you start a war here, you may spark more war back home.”

  Chelo surged to her feet, staring across the table at Dianne. “There’s already a war here, and we didn’t start it.”

  Dianne regarded her with a gentle gaze. “But you can’t prove that. Can you? Do you have any record of anything they’ve done?”

  Kayleen said, “I have some. It’s stored in our network. I have the last battle, when they killed Stile and all his people.”

  “But weren’t you attacking them?” Dianne asked.

  Kayleen nodded. “But they took over Artistos! They burned the Guild Halls!”

  Dianne didn’t give up. “What can you prove? What might they have?”

  Chelo collapsed in her chair, staring down at the table as if she could bore holes in it. “I started it. Kayleen read their webs, and I started it.”

  Chelo started a fight? I held my tongue with great difficulty.

  Jenna said, “But that can be played as ‘uneducated colonist kids defend themselves.’ Every sentient being in the Five Worlds knows what the Star Mercenaries are. We can make you a hero over that.”

  Dianne interrupted. “So if we attack them, two things happen.” A beat of silence fell. Chelo lifted her head and looked at Jenna. “We die. And they can go home and report that we attacked them.”

  Dianne’s motives clarified. “So Marcus sent you to help keep us from making this situation worse?” I asked.

  She stopped, blew out a long breath, and said, “If it’s possible.”

  I nodded. “If it’s possible.”

  Chelo, who always thought for the greater good and not herself, now focused on something small, and clearly dear to her. “We’re not leaving without Jherrel and Caro.”

  “Any other ideas?”

  None were offered. I glanced up at the viewscreen. The mercenaries still waited patiently. In fact, they laughed and talked amongst themselves as if they were at a picnic.

  I stood up. “We’d better go talk to them.”

  “Who is we?” Alicia asked.

  My father stood up. “Me. I hired them.”

  Chelo gasped. She walked over to our father, drew her hand back, and slapped him so hard his head snapped away from her. Good for her. Except now I didn’t hate him so much, and I felt the pain of her hand as well as her anger.

  Chelo was no longer the
same person I’d flown away from.

  My father didn’t move to return the strike or to defend himself. He looked at her, rubbing his face. “I thought they’d killed you. You and Joseph both. I thought there was nothing left here worth saving. They killed your mother. What will you do to these people if they kill Jherrel and Caro?”

  She stared at him, her eyes wide, her lips pursed, her hands at her side. She took a deep breath but didn’t answer him.

  His lower lip quivered. “What would you do if they killed your children and Liam and Kayleen?”

  Her face went to stone. “Let’s hope I don’t have to find out.” It wasn’t forgiveness, or even a conversation, but Chelo had her own focus. Alicia took my arm, leaning over and whispering in my ear. “I’ll go.”

  “No. I can’t lose you.” I glanced at Jenna. “I think my father, you, and Liam.”

  Jenna nodded.

  “Why not me?” Chelo demanded.

  “And me?” Alicia challenged.

  Jenna looked down the table. “There’s no point in risking more than three. One of us should be a parent. Chelo is useful to Joseph. It will hurt Joseph too much if Alicia is damaged. Kayleen can’t go—she can’t shield. Liam is, frankly, the most expendable.”

  Liam winced at that, but he nodded.

  “We can watch from here,” I told Chelo and Kayleen. “And listen. Creator has better sound connections between crew than earsets. We’ll get you fixed up.” I looked down the table. “It will make sense to them that those three are here. There’s no point in telling them our strengths.” Alicia crossed her arms over her chest, but didn’t fight me. I leaned over and whispered, “I love you.”

  Without looking at me, she whispered, “Me too,” under her breath. It sounded as much like a curse as an endearment.

  My father already stood in the doorway. “Let’s go.” He wore a look of such determination that I bit my lip until I tasted blood.

  “Wait!” Jenna called. “We must dress the part.” As she led the three of them away, Dianne called after her. “Don’t imply we’re speaking for Silver’s Home with what you wear.”

  When they returned, my father wore a full captain’s uniform. I startled at the choice, then took in a long breath and let it go. He may not have flown this ship here, but the mercenaries didn’t need to know it. Jenna and Liam had also dressed as formally as they could, both in navy blue ship’s clothes with no insignia on them.