"One more meeting," said Rue. "Think they're ready to go it on their own for a while?"
"They'll have Corinna and Blair to keep them inspired," said Mike. "And we should be back in a few days, if all goes well."
"Excuse me."
Rue looked around. A rather officious looking woman in a gray suit stood on the path. "Are you, um, Meadow-Rue Rosebud Cassels?"
Rue stood up. "Yes, I am."
"My name is Alita Strong. I represent… your family."
"Represent?"
"I'm their lawyer." Rue continued to stare blankly at the woman, who finally said, "Surely you know that there are lawsuits outstanding against you, and… financial matters to be settled…"
"Financial…?"
"It took us a while to find you," continued Strong. "But I told my clients that a face-to-face talk with you would probably be the best way to resolve things. Have you got a few minutes?"
"What? Now?" Rue felt a strange flutter of nervousness. Politicians and generalissimos didn't scare her anymore, so why was her heart pounding at this development?
Strong was walking toward one of the campus buildings near the one Rue had rented. Rue turned to Mike, appealing to him for something, any sort of guidance.
He took her hand and said, "Let's go see, shall we?"
They followed Strong inside the building and down into a lounge below the surface. Two people were sitting on low couches there. Both stood as Rue came down the steps.
"Good morning, dear!" gushed Aunt Leda as she minced forward.
"Hi, Sis," said Jentry, who slouched with his hands in his pockets, not moving from his spot near the back of the lounge.
Time seemed to stop for Rue. There he was, and damned if he didn't look older. Shorter. Skinnier. Jentry was dressed in his usual station gear, rather gauche in the plush environment of the lounge.
There was no way to look him in the eye and not remember all the times he'd beat her. Rue remembered now, though, that there had never been any occasion when she hadn't fought back. And it was with a cool tingle of pleasure that she realized that after her military training on Oculus, she could beat him in a fair fight any day.
"Brother," she said in a sweet voice; she felt Mike's grip on her arm tighten. She extricated herself from that hold and went to embrace Aunt Leda. "Aunt Leda. How are you? I'm so sorry about Max."
"Yes, we only just heard the news." Leda contrived to look weepy. "That is— it was a few days ago. We didn't know you were here, the news came from our dear friend Colonel Jackman…"
Rue nodded. Jackman had been one of those who had refused to come to her meetings here. He must have called Leda with the news— Leda and who else? Ah, now the intrigues would start!
Rue turned from Leda to Jentry. "How are you, Jentry?"
"I'm okay." He hesitated, then stepped forward, hand out. To her own surprise, Rue shook it. Then it came to her how she must look to these two: imperious and proud in her uniform, with a sharp-eyed monk standing, arms folded, at her shoulder.
She laughed, and plunked herself down on one of the couches. "Well, who of us would ever have expected this!" She patted the seat next to her; after a moment Jentry sat cautiously next to her. "How's the station, Jen? Still racing those mining bots?"
He looked shifty, and said, "It's okay. Yeah, I, we… We got a bit of a debt problem right now, so—"
The lawyer cleared her throat. Jentry looked at the floor.
Rue appraised her, with a raised eyebrow.
"There's two little matters we need to get behind us," said Strong, coming to sit opposite Rue. Leda remained standing, a rather fixed smile on her face. "There's the matter of the inheritance from Max of course, and then the—"
"Inheritance? What inheritance?"
Leda and Jentry looked at one another. The lawyer sighed.
"I gather you haven't been informed. Max Cassels made you his heir."
Rue sat there with her mouth open for a bit too long, because suddenly Mike was sitting next to her holding her shoulders. "Are you okay?" he whispered.
"Okay? Okay?" She tilted her head back and laughed. "I'm great! Oh, Max, why'd you—" Then she realized something. "But— he must have done that before we left…"
Strong nodded. "Yes, the night before your departure from Treya, he registered a new will. You were to receive his entire estate. Of course, what with taxes, litigation fees, and monies owing to certain plaintiffs…" and here Leda turned pink and tried to look smaller, "all that's left is the house. And contents. And this." She held out a data card. "Keyed to be unlocked only by you."
Rue took the card numbly. She had tears in her eyes, she realized. It was simply that by this one gesture Max had brought her into the Cassels family. Since her parents died, Jentry had done everything in his power to make her feel like she didn't belong. And Leda had been no help. It was only now that Rue realized how deeply the wounds had reached. Bereft of family, she had run from world to world, across years and through adventures that had made her into something quite new. A cycler captain. A woman of power and influence.
And now, Max's gift to her was to affirm that she had been a Cassels all along. That she had a home.
There was a respectful silence while she pulled herself together. "Well," she said at last, "I will open this in good time and," she glanced sharply at Leda, "in private. Thank you."
"There is one other thing," said the lawyer.
Rue stood. The inheritance had been quite enough, she was thinking. "We need to be getting back," she said to Mike.
"It concerns a certain family heirloom, entrusted to Jentry Cassels and stolen by you."
Rue whirled. "What?"
"The ediacaran pendant your grandmother had," said Leda. "It was never rightfully hers. But Jentry has been so kind as to reveal its existence to us, and as provenance was never certain on it… well, it's legally his now."
"Come on, Sis," said Jentry. "I need that thing to pay off our debt. You wouldn't want us to lose the station, would you?"
She stared at him. Possibly a million things came to mind that she might say right now, but none seemed adequate.
Finally, in a kind of daze, she said, "I traded it on Oculus for supplies. Sorry."
Strong cleared her throat. "Then you are liable for the—"
"Take it up with the Compact," snapped Rue. "Bill the Cycler Order. I assure you we're good for it."
Then she turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.
* * *
A FAMILIAR COUNTDOWN was ticking away in the background. Rue floated once again in oxygenated liquid, watching Mike adjusting his G-bed through the wavery liquid that filled the interceptor.
"I hope this is the last time we have to trust our lives to one of these things," he was muttering.
She smiled fondly at him, and lay back. In just a few minutes they would fall into the brooding red cloudscape of Erythrion, and if the gods and kami were kind, they would survive the transition to FTL flight. In a few hours, they would be at New Armstrong.
Michael was going there to teach Irina Case's people his new alternative to Permanence. And she… she came to take back what was hers. She would see Jentry's Envy in her control again, and the men who had taken it would find justice, or die.
They would arrive at New Armstrong well in advance of the Envy. Rue would make her case, buttressed with plenty of evidence from Oculus. New Armstrong would be threatened with sanctions by the Compact if necessary, should they not comply. But they would. They would take Mallory and his people into custody once they rode down the beam, and a new crew, handpicked by Rue, would replace them. Then, finally, the Envy could be brought back onto her original ring and, in a few years, she would return to Erythrion.
Maybe by then Rue would be ready to captain her again.
She had been putting something off, she knew. A little holo window showed Erythrion approaching, like some baleful god. With a sigh, Rue took out the card Max had left for her, and pressed her thumb ag
ainst it.
The card darkened, then a tiny holo of Max appeared in it.
"Don't ask," he said with a shrug. "I couldn't very well leave it all to the old bat, could I? You deserve it, Rue, you do."
But why? She mouthed the words.
As if he'd heard her, Max paused. "You came along at a time when I'd started to lose hope, Rue. I didn't believe there were good people in the world anymore. But you came stomping into my life, all oblivious to the little jealousies and intrigues of the family, as though you'd somehow been kept in a crystal jar somewhere, pure and unsullied by the rest of the stinking clan. At first I couldn't believe it. But I believe it now. So I'm going with you to Chandaka, and maybe we can make this family stand for something again— or maybe for the first time. Because I wasn't able to do it on my own.
"But if you read this, then I didn't make it back. And maybe it will have been my own doing; I hope not."
"I hope you thrive, Rue. I know you will. And take my stuff and use it well… and keep it out of her clutches." He grimaced.
"Thrive, cousin. Thrive."
Rue raised heavy fingers and thumbed open a pouch on her suit. She brought out the little ediacaran medallion, and held it up for a moment, arm shaking with the effort. She could see the delicate galaxy-shaped spiral of it on the siltstone.
"Brace yourselves," said the pilot. "We're starting the dive."
Rue could feel the hand of Erythrion begin to press down upon her. The interceptor swayed from side to side, and her heart began to hammer.
Across from her, Mike grinned a stoic grin and said, "We'll make it. We have a house to come back to now."
"And so much more," she replied with a smile.
We have time.
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