Nearspace Trilogy

by Sherry D. Ramsey

  “And if I ask the Chairman to give me access to his communications crew, I might get some better details on the ship and how soon it might be here,” Baden suggested.

  I nodded. “Good ideas. Go catch up to them, and we'll meet back at the car.” The two of them hurried after Mother and the Chairman.

  I looked at Dr. Ndasa. “Doctor, I'm afraid I'll have to insist that you come with us until we have this sorted out,” I said. “We're in enough trouble now. I can't take any more chances.”

  He looked startled, then nodded.

  “Bring him,” I told Viss. He took Dr. Ndasa's arm with smooth efficiency, and the Vilisian doctor didn't try to pull away.

  Maja slid into the crowd and found one of the waiters, and we asked him to show us the quickest way out, avoiding the salon. He seemed unfazed by the strange request—perhaps guests often wanted to leave unseen—and led the way through a twisting maze of hallways. All were sumptuously carpeted and gently illuminated by elaborately blown glass sconces. Finally we rounded a corner, and the waiter let us out a back door to the parking area. All the time I followed him, I tried to calm the pounding of my heart, sick with the fear that I'd led my mother's enemies to her safe haven.

  Kiando's moons were on the rise and shone brightly, painting pale puddles on the ground and deep shadows under the parked vehicles as we waited at the groundcar. None of the others were back yet, but I couldn't make myself get inside the groundcar to wait. Hirin and Dr. Ndasa climbed in, and Maja sat on the running board, but I paced nervously across the silver-limned space next to the car. I felt as if I'd just opened the box and found Schrödinger's cat alive and well, but that there was no guarantee of maintaining that state.

  Rei leaned back against the groundcar and crossed her arms, watching me. “Congratulations, Captain,” she said suddenly. “Slow down a minute, would you, and take a breath? You did it! I mean, you really did it, you found her. After all this time.” She grinned. “PrimeCorp notwithstanding, that's a good thing.”

  I stopped and took a deep breath, closing my eyes. “Thanks, Rei. You're right. Although I think I'm still in shock, mostly.”

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Viss glance at his datapad. “I hate to say this, but what if she doesn't come back?” he said slowly. “She said she'd be quick, and that PrimeCorp ship is getting closer by the minute.”

  “She'll come back.” I'd seen the look in her eyes. She wasn't going to run away again—not just yet, anyway.

  Baden came around the corner at a run and practically skidded to a stop, leaning on the groundcar and panting. “I thought you might leave without me,” he said between breaths.

  “Oh, we would have, if Yuskeya and Luta's mother had raced you back,” Rei drawled. “However, since you're here, did you find out anything useful?”

  He paused to stick his tongue out at her, then said, “Judging by the timestamps on the comm signals between the ship and the Chairman, we should make it off the planet before they're in sensor range. Even if they've sped up considerably since then, we should have a decent window of opportunity.” He glanced toward the Chairman's palace. “As long as we don't waste too much time.”

  I started pacing again. What could be taking them so long? I assumed that my mother, in her years of running and hiding from PrimeCorp, could be packed and out of anywhere in short order. Unless Gusain Buig was trying to talk her out of it. Or wasn't really on our side, after all. But Yuskeya was with them, and she was more than competent to make sure my mother was able to come with us. I sent her a quick message from my datapad. Where are you?

  Coming!

  But after five minutes they still weren't back. I messaged her again. Everything okay? This time she didn’t respond. Well, maybe she wasn't paying attention to it and had the sound off. Maybe she was busy trying to hurry mother along, or talking to the Chairman. After another five minutes of silent pacing, and two more unanswered messages, checking my datapad every thirty seconds or so as the moons climbed higher into the sky, I said, “I can't take any more of this. I'll have to go and find—”

  My words were cut short by the appearance of one of Chairman Buig's uniformed security personnel, who appeared in the doorway we'd come through into the parking lot. He held the door open and beckoned a finger in my direction. I took off at a run, although I heard Viss say, “Captain, wait! It could be a—” Then his footsteps followed mine. I knew the others would be watching from the groundcar, so nothing too bad was going to happen.

  When I got close enough, though, my heart tightened in a painful spasm in my chest. On the richly carpeted floor of the hallway next to the guard lay a figure whose long, tousled dark hair I recognized immediately. Her multicoloured robe lay wreathed around her like a shattered rainbow.

  Yuskeya.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lost and Found and Lost Again

  I must have stopped in shock, because somehow Viss was there before me, kneeling beside her and feeling for a pulse at her neck. I felt a hand on my arm—Maja had come, too. The guard said to me, “She's unconscious, but otherwise she seems fine. The Chairman found her in a hallway, and said to bring her—”

  “Where's the Chairman now?” I interrupted him. “And there was a scientist with her, a woman—red hair, looks a lot like me—”

  He shook his head and gestured toward Yuskeya, whom Viss had now lifted up from the floor. He held her cradled against his chest as if she weighed no more than a child. I noticed distractedly that he looked unusually pale. A dark bruise stained one side of Yuskeya's forehead, and the blow that had done it had raised a nasty-looking lump, as well.

  “She's the only one I saw,” the guard said. “The Chairman said to contact him on this channel.” He fished a torn scrap of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me.

  “I have to see him—” I started, but Viss cut me off.

  “Time, Captain. We don't have much. Let's get Yuskeya into the groundcar and you can call him. No point running around here looking for him.”

  “Just call him, Mother,” Maja urged. “It'll be quicker.”

  Damne. I wanted to grab the guard, shake him, and demand that he take me to Gusain Buig, but Viss and Maja were right. We were on a deadline. And now I didn't know whom I could trust. Swearing under my breath, I punched the code from the scrap of paper into my datapad. The Chairman appeared on my screen almost immediately.

  “What's happening, Chairman?” I asked. I was surprised at how calm my voice sounded.

  His face was pale, and he puffed out a sigh of relief upon seeing me. “Captain, you're all right. Is Demmar with you?”

  My fingers tightened reflexively around the datapad. “No,” I said evenly. “The last I saw her, she was with you, and so was my navigator, who is with me, but currently unconscious.”

  His image jumped unsteadily on the screen, and I realized he was walking quickly as he talked to me. The glass wall sconces flickered behind his image as he passed them. “I don't understand,” he said. “Your crewmen caught up with us. She—your navigator, I assume—went with Demmar. I took your communications officer, Mr. Methyr, to a console and connected him with my comm station, and told them to give him any information he needed.”

  We had reached the groundcar by now, and Baden heard the end of what the Chairman said. He nodded his confirmation. Buig was telling the truth—at least to that point.

  “Then what?” I stood beside the car while Rei and Viss manoeuvred Yuskeya inside. She still hadn't stirred. They settled her in one of the seats, her head still leaning on Viss's shoulder, his arm around her. Baden clambered behind the wheel.

  Buig ran a hand across his forehead. Tiny beads of sweat glistened on his skin and his hand shook slightly. “Then I went to find Demmar. I wanted—I wanted to say goodbye, properly. To find out where she was going to go, and when I might hear from her. But she wasn't in her room, so I thought I'd missed them. I was on my way to see if I could catch up to you in the parking area when I found your navigator, u
nconscious, and called a guard.” He was in a darker hallway now, the light from the datapad throwing his features into caricature-like relief.

  “Where are you now?” I could feel the eyes of everyone on me: Hirin, Rei, Baden, Viss, Dr. Ndasa. Waiting for me to tell them what we would do next.

  “I'm trying to find her, goddammit!” Buig snapped. “But it's like she's vanished. I hoped she'd already found her way to you.”

  I swung around, searching the parking lot. The dual moons painted it in a clear, bright glow that reflected off the many vehicles still dotting the area. But nothing moved, the air was silent, and the lot seemed empty of anyone but us. “I don't see her. She hasn't come outside.”

  “Do you think she'd go straight to your ship?” Buig looked up from his screen, searchingly, as brilliant light flared in front of him. It darkened again, and he looked back down. “She's not in the labs.”

  “I didn't tell her the name . . . but who knows, she might know it.” I tried to think clearly, logically, but my mind raced from awful possibility to awful possibility. Which was worse: that she'd been somehow kidnapped practically right in front of me, or that she'd run away from me again, despite what she'd said?

  I felt a firm hand take mine and looked up to see Hirin's blue-grey eyes. They were dark and serious. “Let's go and check the ship. She might be there. We can't be much help here . . . we don't even know our way around.”

  I swallowed hard. He was right, as usual. “I'll call you again from my ship, Chairman,” I said. “Keep looking.” And if you're lying to me . . . I climbed into the groundcar beside Hirin and we wheeled out into the Kiandon night.

  The drive back through the nearly-deserted streets to the spacedock seemed to take forever, and the silence was making me crazy. There would be a rowdy area of the city, where the clubs and bars and shopping venues were open late, since it was predominantly a mining colony and there were always miners whose shift had just ended. Our path wove through more residential and business areas, where lights had been extinguished for the night and streets lay in soft darkness. None of us spoke much. I felt torn between by the certainty that I should not be driving in the opposite direction from where I'd last seen my mother, and the crushing fact that perhaps this was exactly what she wanted. Could she have lied to me that thoroughly? Could I have read her so wrong? I don't know what consumed everyone ease's thoughts, but I guess we were all either too worried, too angry, or both, to talk. Hirin and I kept an eye on the road behind us, but no-one followed.

  When we arrived back at the Havering spacedock Baden jumped out to disable the alarms and open the cargo pod doors. I wanted to call Chairman Buig again, but I wasn't going to do it until we'd reached one of the wire-blocked decks above the cargo level. The engineering and bridge decks had wire blockers on a constant sweep and scramble so that onboard communications were private, but the cargo deck didn't—the required electronics would limit the types of cargo we could haul. I was glad that we'd spent some of the travel time to Kiando making security modifications, but I was suddenly sorry that I'd stopped carrying torpedoes a while back, if PrimeCorp was sending far cruisers after me now. At least the personal ordnance locker remained well-stocked for emergencies.

  Hirin's hand on my arm brought me out of my musings and I realized the groundcar was inside. Baden and Maja were already securing it. Viss lifted Yuskeya gently out of the car, and Rei had a hand on Dr. Ndasa's arm. It was lucky they knew instinctively what to do, because my head seemed too jumbled to think of everything. I gathered up the heavy folds of my purple dress and climbed out of the car.

  “Go ahead, Captain,” Baden said. “I'll help Viss bring Yuskeya up.”

  “Put her in First Aid,” I said with a nod, and headed for the metal stairway that had been locked in place next to the ship when we docked. It led all the way up to the airlock door on the bridge deck. The rhythmic mindlessness of the climb up the stairway felt somehow soothing, and I didn't stop until I'd reached the top. Hirin was right behind me all the way. It didn't occur to me that it was a long climb for him or that I should slow down, but he kept pace without complaining. I took five minutes to change out of my dress and into jeans and a black t-shirt, then strode straight to the bridge. I called Buig as soon as I was sitting. Hirin took a skimchair and slid it over near mine. Maja came in and sat at the communications console, since Baden wasn't there yet.

  “Anything?” I asked without preamble when the Chairman appeared on the screen.

  He shook his head. He looked a little calmer now, although no less worried. “I can only assume that she knew this might happen someday, and had a plan ready,” he said. “She's very resourceful.”

  “Or she might have been kidnapped!” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. It didn't work very well. “Someone knocked out my navigator, and I doubt it was my—Demmar.”

  “Is your navigator all right?”

  “She's still unconscious. You don't think this looks like Demmar was taken by force?”

  Through my anger and anxiety I was trying to read the man. I had only his word that he'd found Yuskeya unconscious—what if he'd knocked her out himself? But if he had, why had he allowed me to retrieve her?

  “It's possible Demmar was kidnapped,” the Chairman said, “but I don't think it's likely. Why would PrimeCorp do that—a criminal act, something so risky—when they think they're going to walk away from here with her anyway?”

  “Then who attacked my navigator?”

  He shook his head, his brow furrowed. “I'm sorry, I just don't know. Maybe they were accosted by someone, and there was a struggle, but Demmar got away. Perhaps your crew member will be able to tell us something when she regains consciousness.”

  I wanted to drop my head into my hands and cry, but there was no time for that. “You'll keep searching on your end?”

  He regarded me seriously, his eyes dark with worry. If he was a liar, he was damn good at it. “I will. What are you going to do?”

  “Consult with my crew. I'll get back to you shortly,” I said, and broke the connection.

  Rei came onto the bridge. She'd also taken time to change out of her golden finery and into a plain blue shipsuit, and had tied her chestnut hair back in a ponytail. “Dr. Ndasa is back in his room.”

  “Think he'll stay put?”

  She nodded. “Seems pretty glum about the whole thing. Also, I locked the door from the outside,” she added with a grin.

  Viss and Baden came in through the archway to Sensors. “Yuskeya's settled in First Aid,” Baden said. “All her vitals are good, she's just sleeping now.”

  Viss passed me a cocoa-coloured leather satchel, a little worn around the edges as if it had seen a lot of use. “This was slung over Yuskeya's shoulder,” he said. “Don't know if you noticed it. I've never seen it before, and I don't think she had it with her when we went to the Chairman's place.”

  I took it, puzzled. “I'll ask her about it when she wakes up,” I said. “Thanks.”

  Rei was in the pilot's chair. “I assume we're getting out of here?” she asked, flicking switches to start the engines and thrusters warming up. The bridge screens sprang to life.

  “I—” I stopped. I didn't want to leave the planet without knowing what had happened with my mother.

  Hirin put a hand on mine. “No matter what else has happened, you still don't want to give PrimeCorp those samples, right?”

  I pulled a deep sigh and shook my head. “No.”

  “The Chairman might be able to protect your mother if she's still down there, but he can't do a thing for you if we're sitting right here in plain sight. I know it's hard to leave.” He squeezed my hand. “But we can come back.”

  Tears sprang to my eyes and I blinked them back. I swallowed hard. “Right. You're right. Rei, get us off Kiando, fast. Baden, try to get a reading on that PrimeCorp ship. Wherever it is, take us in the opposite direction. Once we're well outside their sensor range, we'll figure out what to do next.”

  Maja sa
id, “I'll go and sit with Yuskeya in case she wakes up and wonders what's happening.” She left the comm station to Baden and hurried off to First Aid. Baden commed the docking authority and told them we'd be leaving. After a brief discussion about docking fees they agreed to release the clamps.

  Viss settled in at the auxiliary Engineering console. “Once we're off the planet, I'll go down to make modifications to the main drive. I might be able to alter the drive signature slightly, to make us more difficult to detect in case PrimeCorp is scanning for us. It'll only be temporary, but it might work.”

  “Great. Are we ready to lift off?”

  Rei nodded. “Firing thrusters now.” A low, steady hum had been building in the ship for the last thirty seconds or so and it increased sharply when Rei took us up. Other than that, it was a smooth lift. Probably not even enough to wake Yuskeya. Even under pressure, Rei had a steady hand at the helm. Maybe especially then. I got ready to contact Chairman Buig again.

  “Luta, look at this,” Rei said, although she didn't look away from her screen. A map of the Mu Cassiopeia system popped up on my screen. “The PrimeCorp far cruiser came through the wormhole from Delta Pavonis not long ago. No matter what wormhole we decide to go through, we're going to have to wait until the cruiser is docked here in order to get close to any of them. Instead of hightailing it out to the other side of the system to stay out of their scan range, why don't we just try to hang out in the planet's sensor shadow until they land at Ando City? Then once the planet's turned so that the spaceport is facing away from the wormhole we want, we'll slip out of the shadow and run like hell for the terminal point.”

  I hesitated. “How much time will it save us in getting through the wormhole?”

  “Depends on how fast the PrimeCorp cruiser is moving, and where we decide to go. But it'll be here in a few hours. If we spend that time putting distance between us and them but then have to backtrack . . .”