Reluctantly, TiCara reached out and took it from her. While she started to read the string of messages, Sherin pulled on her undergarments and vanished out the door. TiCara cursed herself for letting her guard down; the rep shouldn’t be roaming the ship until she proved her innocence. Erol was right; it was too easy for her to be careless with this woman. She picked up her own comm and checked the monitor to verify that Sherin was going no further than the food dispenser.
Then she forced herself to ignore the roiling of her nerves and look at the rep’s handheld. The first few messages were the ones that TiCara had already seen. Reading them now, she was willing to convince herself of how little Sherin had explicitly agreed to do for Elia and Zig. It didn’t put all her doubts to rest, but it did help ease the sharp ache of betrayal that had been gnawing at her, just a little.
As if she knew what TiCara was thinking, the door slid open to reveal Sherin holding a tray. She set it down on the shelf next to the bed and sat down an arms length from TiCara before holding out a container of something warm and sweet smelling.
What is that? I don’t recognize it. Something from your home world? TiCara opened up a second container and sniffed at the hot, spicy stew it contained. Her stomach rumbled its approval. Or home station? I’m ravenous and it smells amazing. It embarrassed her that she didn’t know where Sherin had come from originally and hadn’t asked before.
Sherin smiled. I’m from New Chindai, near Kyrin, but this is something from my favorite eatery on Aliandra. It’s a blend of grains and nutrients with the spices that Vijay included in the dispensary. She ate enthusiastically as TiCara watched, distracted from her own food by a desperate desire to touch her. Sherin looked back at her when she was finished and licked her lips happily. Try it.
TiCara twisted inside, torn between desperate longing and distrust. She ate her stew, savoring its rich flavor, then turned her attention back to the messages on Sherin’s handheld. Elia mentioned a friend, one who could broker a profitable deal for Electra’s coordinates, and it took very little for TiCara to picture Zig. Other messages were more obscure: what did other measures will be taken mean? Was that why the other ship had been following them?
There was more about how Sherin should cooperate and get the coordinates for them, how doing this would help her get her medusas back. How her life would return to the way it had been before she lost them. TiCara looked up. Why didn’t you tell me what had happened to you on Electra?
Sherin’s face went gray, her eyes distant. I tried. But even on Aliandra, it was so hard to talk about it. I walked into those labs as a medusa pilot. Then two or three machrons later, I was on the floor screaming in pain. I passed out and when I woke up again, they were gone. Then they wiped our memories so all I could remember afterward was waking up, none of the counseling or how I got us back to port or anything. Her expression twisted and she buried her face in her arms and sobbed, the sound echoing heartbreakingly against the Astra’s walls.
TiCara reached out but paused, her hand hovering between them as her feelings rocketed back and forth. She should take Sherin in her arms and dry her tears with kisses. She should be a captain first and finish reading the messages before demanding answers. The conflict warred through her until she was sure that her own medusas would never be able to sort it all out without a full reset. TiCara sighed and settled for resting her hand lightly on Sherin’s shoulder. I’m sorry, she said finally, wincing at how inadequate that sounded. What happened after that? How did Elia find you?
Sherin sniffled and looked up, tears still running down her cheeks. When she spoke, her voice was still choked. When I got back from Aliandra, I tried to go back to the bars. But it was too hard to sing and I couldn’t get a berth on another ship. The story went viral and I didn’t want to talk about it, couldn’t talk about it. My former crewmates avoided me, I had nothing and no one. But Elia met me at one of the bars and she coaxed the story out of me. She is a good listener.
TiCara gave her an astonished look. She remembered Elia as a commanding presence, one more accustomed to speaking than listening. Even as she had seen her last, there was a ghost of that Elia still looking out of her eyes, the one that wanted to be in charge and in control. She must have wanted something from Sherin, wanted it very badly, to work so hard to win her confidence.
Sherin rubbed her cheeks. She introduced me to the Ear, Zig. Said he was a friend of hers. We would talk...about what happened, how I felt afterward. One of the agents that they knew put my name forward to Vahn to become his rep and he hired me. I thought it would all be so much better after that! She gestured upward in the general direction of Vahn’s cabin and swallowed another sob. But I didn’t give them the tell that they wanted.
Sherin, what did they mean by ‘other measures?’ It’s in one of the last messages they sent you.
That’s what I wanted to tell you: there’s someone else involved. I didn’t plant that tracker, but someone else did and I think that they’re still on the ship. Sherin had stopped crying now and her eyes went wide and pleading. You’ve got to believe me. This is tru tell. I talked to Zig before we left, and Elia before that, but I didn’t give them tell, not about Electra, and not about you.
TiCara took her hand off Sherin’s shoulder at the sound of Zig’s name. It was impossible for her to believe that Sherin wouldn’t tell the Ear anything that he wanted to know. A memory of pain and humiliation swept over her and she could feel herself start to tremble. She closed her eyes and fought for control, gasping for air with each breath like she’d been airlocked.
She could feel Sherin draw closer and reach for her. Then she found herself being held against the rep’s shoulder. Sherin stroked her hands gently over her shoulders and back, carefully avoiding her flailing medusa while TiCara struggled for control, finding just enough to restrain her implants from spilling over on to Sherin’s exposed skin.
Sherin leaned in and kissed her cheek TiCara? Are you here? Breath with me. She sat back and began chanting in a complex pattern that a distant part of TiCara’s brain recognized as being similar to one that she had herself had learned on Aliandra. Slowly, she sat up and began to follow the pattern, embracing its familiarity as she chanted along with Sherin. Slowly their voices entwined and TiCara could feel her breathing match their rhythm.
She took a last deep breath. Thank you. I’m back now. Were you on Aliandra after you...after you lost your medusas?
Sherin nodded. The masters helped me recover, enough to work for Vahn at least. But I miss being wired so much. I look at yours and I remember what it was like when I was whole. I imagine what it would be like to be with you, with both of us wired...and I want that. This-- Sherin gestured at her head and her body, is so limited. She looked away from TiCara and stared at the wall.
But you didn’t trade the chance to get them back for the real coordinates for Electra? The question was out of TiCara’s mouth before she had a chance to hesitate, to change it into something less cutting. Now it was out, writhing between them, and she couldn’t take it back.
Sherin pulled away and stood up, distress visibly twisting her features. "I thought you were starting to believe
me. Doesn’t this mean anything to you?" She gestured at the handheld, her hand shaking.
TiCara’s breath caught in her throat. No matter what Sherin said or did, it didn’t take anything away from how lovely she was. She desperately wanted to believe her tell because of how much she wanted the other woman and she knew it. This was weakness, foolhardy, potentially fatal weakness. She clamped down on her emotions and her medusas at the same time.
Do I need to put my blacksuit on again for you to hear me? Sherin was standing over her now, hands on her hips. Can’t you see me for more than the way I look? She was close enough that TiCara could smell her, close enough that TiCara could tell how much the other woman wanted her too. But from the set of her shoulders and the look in her eye, this was as close as TiCara was getting to what she wanted unless she organized her thoughts and spo
ke carefully.
TiCara sighed deeply and looked away. Sherin was right and she was owed an apology. She closed her eyes and emptied her mind before she spoke, I apologize. Now, if you are giving me tru tell and this other asset of theirs planted the tracker, how could I find them?
You have secur cams on this ship, yes? Sensors? Sherin jerked her head at the Astra’s walls. You can watch them and listen, too, when you’re wired. Someone will signal from this ship to let them know we’re moving again. She gave TiCara a fierce look. And it won’t be me.
But by then it may be too late. We don’t have enough weaponry to win against the pirates or that corp ship. If they can find us, we’re blackholed.
Sherin’s mouth pursed in an expression of astonishment and her eyes widened. She must have assumed that the pulse cannon would be enough or that the Astra had other weapons hidden elsewhere. TiCara wished that she were right, if only because they would have had more options.
TiCara’s handheld buzzed, interrupting their discussion, and she reached out and pulled it off the shelf with an apologetic gesture. I have to answer. It’s about the repairs. She saw Sherin’s jerky nod of acknowledgment from the corner of her eye. Second, status?
The synth skin is staying on, Captain, and Ji-min has made progress on the repairs. We should be ready for liftoff in a few cycles. Vijay is coming on shift now and he’ll continue with the cleanup and repairs.
Nova work, both of you. Tell Ji-min to get some sleep. You, too. I’ll be down there soon to help Vijay and inspect the ship.
Aye, Captain.
TiCara put down her handheld and got up, with an over the shoulder glance at Sherin. So...you want me to spy on my crew for you to prove your tell and, perhaps, also spy on your former employer and his bondarmin. She rubbed her hand over her face, medusas dancing with the gesture. She wanted to believe that Sherin was innocent, that her crew was innocent. That left Sammo as the most likely suspect. But she had no plan for how to prove that.
Sherin studied her without speaking until TiCara turned away and stepped into the sonic shower. The two women eyed each other with more caution than lust across the small room, each waiting for the other to make a move. Finally, TiCara held out her hands. After a moment of hesitation, Sherin shed the clothes she was wearing and stepped into the shower with her.
The waves traveled over their skin, vibrating their nerve endings like a massage. TiCara pulled Sherin in close and kissed her slowly. They pressed up against each other, merging their bodies into one. One creature with two hands, two mouths, two tongues and ten fingers, all bent on exploring and savoring everything it could reach.
TiCara trembled at first from the strain of controlling her medusas, to keep them from exploring Sherin’s silky flesh along with her mouth and hands. She wasn’t sure she could bear to see the other woman pull away like she had earlier, not now. No matter what. Finally, she forced her implants to lie flat and quiescent over her skull and down her neck, and by unspoken agreement, neither woman touched them.
Still, with Sherin’s soft moans of pleasure filling her ears, TiCara wished that she could show her how much more she could do with her medusas. It made meatspace sex so much more satisfying. But Sherin wasn’t ready and the restraint and control made her try harder to please the other woman without using the implants she had come to depend on.
But the insistent chime of the timer on her handheld intruded, breaking the mood until they were left standing apart and looking at each other awkwardly. I’ll come back as soon as I can, TiCara said finally.
By then, she had begun pulling on her suit and slipped her handheld back in its pouch. She stopped and looked at Sherin before she walked to the door, then reached out to stroke her cheek. I’ll set the secur cams and the sensors to look for any transmission signals that shouldn’t be there. She gave the other woman her best effort at a reassuring smile and they kissed in what TiCara hoped was a temporary farewell.
A moment later, the door slid shut behind TiCara as she strode down the corridor. She switched levels before she set up the security triggers that Sherin had asked for, including a secur cam near her own quarters. She needed to be sure of Sherin and she needed to do it soon. Before the other woman seized her heart and refused to give it back.
Once that happened, TiCara would be completely torn between love and employment, love and the loyalty she owed her ship and crew. Surety was a thing easily bought with more security, she thought as she set up the triggers and monitors. Or at least, she hoped so.
She clicked the console shut and checked her handheld for status updates. Ji-min had sent her a message when they went off shift, letting her know the current state of the cleanup and repairs. By the time she got to Vijay, she would know what was still needed. She read through them and noted that the message that she had ignored in favor of sleep was the computer’s file on Sherin. She hesitated over it for a minute, then decided that it could wait for the moment.
Which just left Vahn to deal with. And she should have a status update for him shortly, if all went as well as Ji-min thought it would. They would also be discussing the coordinates, tampered and otherwise. Sherin’s face rose unbidden in her mind and she flinched. She had never suspected the other woman of that hack, only Vahn or whoever sold him the coordinates.
But perhaps she was wrong to be so trusting. Sherin used to be a pilot and that meant that she had the technical skills to change the programming on the chip if she wanted to. She wondered if Vahn had come to the same conclusion. He had her imprisoned, so he had to have something solid to go on. Coordinate tampering, along with the tracker, would be a lot of hard evidence against Sherin. All she had to counter that was a hope that the other woman was not as guilty as she looked.
Chapter 18
TiCara was contemplating Zig and Elia almost as much as she was thinking about Sherin by the time she reached the damaged part of the ship. Her distraction meant that it took her a moment to realize what she was looking at, but once she did, she gave a low whistle of admiration. Ji-min and Erol had done nova work with the skin and the cleaning. Much of the scorching and the dust from the landing were cleaned and there were far fewer singed connections to wound her eyes.
Vijay was already hard at work, safety mask covering his face as he used an old-fashioned soldering iron to weld the connections back together. It made TiCara smile to watch him work; he always said that the old tech was more reliable than the nanobots that the rest of the crew would have deployed.
But even he couldn’t deny that that bots were faster and got deeper into the circuitry. She put a facemask of her own, opened up a sealed container of cleaning bots and sent them scurrying over one of the dust-contaminated areas that still needed to be cleaned. Then she began stripping away burnt wires to clear the way for Vijay to work. As she worked, she added the pirates and the corp ship back into the jumble of worries in her head. It was, she reflected, getting very crowded in there.
To ground herself, she explored the mass of burnt wires with her medusas, letting their sensitive touch tell her which connections could be salvaged and which would need to be replaced. She let the ship tell her what it needed, where the worst of the damage remained. It was both a relief and a burden to let that information go through her hard wiring. At least they were definitely getting closer to the end of the critical fixes.
As if on cue, her handheld buzzed with Vahn’s code. She clicked it on, reflecting that it was uncanny how he always knew to call when there was a change in status. If she didn’t know better, she’d think the old man was wired himself. Ser, I was about to contact you myself. The major repairs are nearing completion. We believe that we’ll have the ship ready to fly in a few cycles.
Good news, Captain-Pilot. But I am concerned about the amount of time that it is taking us to reach Electra, as I am also concerned with our pursuers. Will your ship be able to elude the latter once these repairs are complete?
She could practically hear his anxiety thrumming through t
he speaker. For the first time, she wondered how long he had to live, given his condition. But maybe he just longed to recapture his old virility. Either way, TiCara wasn’t sure what to tell him. She’d need to verify her sensor results with Ji-min and Erol first to determine how stable the repairs would be. Then she’d need a plan for what to do if they would only last for the short term.
Ser, I will need to verify the state of the repairs with my crew. As for the timing of them, I can tell you that we are working to repair the damage as quickly as we can. Some bit of malice made her add, Perhaps Sherin Khan could assist us, since she’s had medusa ship training.
She regretted the comment once it was out of her mouth. If Vahn sent Sammo to check Sherin’s quarters, he would realize that she had escaped. Vahn’s voice crackled back almost immediately. Please notify me if things become as dire as that, Pilot-Captain. On another critical subject, I would imagine that on a ship this size, life support functions are limited when all the engines are not fully operational, is this not so?
TiCara wrinkled her nose and acknowledged Vijay’s nod and shrug. Well, if he wasn’t worried yet, it was too soon for her to be. We should be within that window, Ser. I will verify the state of the repairs and formulate a plan to reach our destination. Rest assured that I will have a new status for you soon. She clicked off at his assent.
I’ll give tell just like him by the time we get where we’re going, she remarked sarcastically to Vijay as she surveyed the state of the engine that he was working on. His style is growing on me.
Where is it that we are going, Captain? I heard Ser Vahn speak of Electra. That Electra the legendary asteroid? Vijay tilted his facemask up on his forehead to see her response.
TiCara swallowed a curse. With all that had happened, she had never told Ji-min and Vijay the truth about this trip. Or Erol, for that matter, though she suspected he already knew. That she had forgotten that worried her. At this rate, she wouldn’t need a memory wipe to forget anything.
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