Worlds Apart (ThreeCon)

by Carmen Webster Buxton

  Rishi smiled. “I have no right to laugh at you. At least you knew them. That’s more than I did.”

  Prax made no comment.

  Rishi wasn’t quite through with the subject. “Why was it just women in the cities? Didn’t you meet any women you liked among your own people?”

  Prax realized she still didn’t understand Elliniká ways at all. “I told you I can’t marry. I could never take a risk that I would make a woman pregnant—not after what happened to Zoë.”

  “What about the women in Agnios and Pireaus? Didn’t you worry about getting them pregnant?”

  “Not the first time. But after that I asked them. They had both visited a doctor. I don’t know how it worked, but they weren’t worried about it, anymore than you were when I mentioned it to you.”

  Rishi frowned and touched his scars again. “If the reason you can’t marry is that you owe your clan a life, surely it no longer applies? You don’t live with your people anymore.”

  Prax shook his head firmly. “The debt is still there. I’ve told you this before. At my trial ,I was offered the choice between banishment and punishment. I chose punishment. I cannot change what happened.”

  “It’s not fair!” Rishi said heatedly.

  “What happened to Zoë wasn’t fair.”

  Rishi rolled over on her side and turned her back on him.

  Prax moved close behind her and put his arms around her. He kissed her shoulder lightly. “Please, lady. I love you. I know that won’t always be enough—I know one day you must marry and carry on your house. Until then, can’t we be happy together?”

  Rishi turned in his arms and put her own arms around his neck. “I love you, Praxiteles. I don’t want anyone else. I want you!”

  “I know that, lady. I wish I could say more to you than just that I love you.”

  Rishi pulled him close and hugged him as tightly as she could. “That’s enough for now. It’ll have to be enough.”

  Prax lay in her arms and thought about what Chio had said about wanting what was best for the person you loved.

  IN the morning, Prax managed to rise early enough to be gone when Lidiya came. He had learned Lidiya’s schedule and always made a point to try to be gone when he knew she was working because he wasn’t comfortable being found in bed with Rishi. He dressed and went for his usual run, thinking all the while of what Parnochh had told him.

  After he showered and changed into clean clothes, Prax went back to Rishi’s room.

  She was just sitting down to breakfast, and she made a face at him when he came through the door. “I have a good mind to tell you to eat in the staff dining room. Why won’t you stay with me on the mornings when Lidiya comes? I miss having you there when I wake up.”

  “Because being in bed with you is not something I want an audience for, no matter how nice it is.” He kissed her cheek and sat down.

  Rishi sighed. “I’ll have to tell Lidiya to wait until I call her, then. Will you stay if you know she’s not coming in?”

  “Except when I have to work,” Prax said.

  “Good,” Rishi said. “I’ll speak to her today.”

  After breakfast, they spent the rest of the morning together. Prax took Rishi for a walk around the wooded parts of the estate. He showed her where the chipmunks burrowed under the roots of the bushes and where the goatlings nested under the trees. After the walk, they got a blanket and lay down on the hillside, reading and listening to some of Rishi’s favorite music.

  As he lay on the blanket watching the clouds float by, Prax considered his dilemma. His punishment was not to marry, and yet he loved a woman who needed to marry and have children. The hopeless nature of it depressed him, but there was no good in letting the situation drag on forever until Rishi was forced to act.

  But what about the Mercouri debt? He couldn’t leave until that was paid. He glanced at Rishi, lying on the blanket beside him, a breeze ruffling her black hair. Her eyes were closed, and a faint smile curved her lips.

  The determination of payment was up to her, although she didn’t seem to understand how great her power was in this matter. If he could get her to set a limit on the time he needed to work for the House of Trahn, or set some goal he could reach, then eventually, he would be able to leave with honor and let her find a husband worthy of her. The question was, how to approach the subject? It might be best to start at the beginning.

  “Do you remember the night you asked Eugenie for me, lady?”

  Rishi opened her eyes and gave him a curious glance. “Yes. I’m a little hazy on some parts of it, but I can remember most of it. Why?”

  “You said you wanted me to come with you, but you never said what you wanted.”

  Rishi smiled. “You knew what I wanted,” she said, an accusing note in her voice. “I expect everyone in your camp did, too. I must have made it obvious enough. In fact, I distinctly remember putting my arm around your neck when we got back to my cabin on the Golden Hawk. When I woke up next to you the next morning, I was afraid I’d made you have sex with me.”

  “If what you wanted was for me to take you to bed,” Prax said, “why did you ask me to work for Hari instead?”

  “Because I couldn’t ask for what I really wanted,” Rishi said. “I would have felt like one of those creepy old rich women who pay young men for sex—or worse, like that man who tried to force himself on me.”

  “But what good did it do you? Did you really need another security guard? One who couldn’t read Standard and didn’t know what a force field was, let alone a resonator frequency?”

  “I didn’t at the time.” Her tone was dry, but not bitter. “It was just that I couldn’t bear the thought of your leaving.”

  At the time, she had said. “And now?”

  She cocked her head as if she were assessing him. “As it turns out, you’ve been a very valuable member of the security staff. You stopped me from making a fool of myself that time I tried to run away from Tinibu and Rurhahn. You prevented a break-in the morning you were attacked, and you’ve saved me lots and lots of money by telling me when people were lying to me.”

  This was progress, at any rate. Perhaps he could suggest that a certain number of successful deals would pay the debt?

  Rishi rolled over on her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows. “Why are you asking me this now, Praxiteles?”

  “Because I’m wondering how I’ll ever pay the debt,” Prax said. “When I came with you, I was prepared to do whatever you asked. I thought I knew what it would be, but you never asked that—not until after I came to you that first time.”

  “Are you saying you come to my room at night just to pay me back?” She sat up abruptly.

  A misstep. He had to be careful how he spoke, or he would only make things worse. “No, lady. I come because I love you, and for no other reason. But the debt is still there, and I must figure out how to pay it.”

  “No, it isn’t!” Rishi sounded as angry as he had ever heard her. “I’m tired of that damn debt getting in the way of how we feel about each other. Anything you owed me for what I did for the Elliniká, you paid back when you told me what Margaret Andersen was up to in that first meeting. You not only saved me money, you saved my face. You saved me from being outwitted and mortified. I should have told you at the time, but I was afraid you’d leave if I did. I think I loved you even then.”

  Prax’s heart lurched in his chest. The debt was paid. She had said it, but she didn’t realize what the words meant. He had to distract her. He bent over her and kissed her forehead, then her mouth. “I knew I loved you when I woke up in Danitra’s bed.”

  Rishi made a sound suspiciously like a snort. “What do you mean, you knew you loved me when you woke up in another woman’s bed?”

  Prax made himself smile as if he had no cares in the world. “Because I had called her ‘lady.’ She told me so the
next morning. I realized then that I wanted you, not her—and not anyone else.”

  Rishi tilted her head and gave him a suspicious look from under her brows. “That’s a very shrewd excuse for what you were doing there. Not bad for someone from an unsophisticated sleeper world.”

  Prax shook his head. “No, that wasn’t my excuse. My excuse was too much Miloran whiskey. How else could I mistake someone as ordinary as Danitra for you?”

  Rishi chuckled low in her throat. “This gets better and better. Pretty soon you’ll have me thanking you for going to bed with her.”

  Prax didn’t answer. He had distracted her, but his own needs came to mind. Who knew how many chances he would have to kiss her again now that the debt was paid? He kissed her insistently this time. Rishi lay back and yielded to the kiss. When he finished, she would have tugged him back on top of her, but he pulled away.

  “No, lady. You told me you had to be back at the house in time to take that conference call. You’ll be late.”

  Rishi sighed. “Why do you have to be so damned reliable?”

  Prax smiled and stood up. He wouldn’t let himself dwell on what she had said, but he would think it through once he was alone. He held out a hand to help Rishi get to her feet. She took it, but instead of standing, she tried to pull him back down again. Prax just laughed. He caught hold of her other hand and almost lifted her from the ground.

  “That’s not fair,” Rishi said, brushing stray bits of leaves and grass from her hair. “You’re bigger than I am.”

  “Life’s not always fair, lady,” Prax said, and felt it in his heart. “My people know that.”

  He carried their things back to the house while Rishi went back to work. Then he went to his room and lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking. He wasn’t exactly debating what to do. He was trying to determine if he had any choice in the matter. Rishi had said that the Mercouri debt was paid. She didn’t understand the nature of his obligation to his clan and what those words meant.

  He remembered the night Rishi had taken him away from the Mercouri camp. When he had asked Eugenie about his own commitment, she had said that the debt to Rishi took precedence over his obligation to stay with his clan; she had never said his debt to the clan was ended. By the rules under which he had lived most of his life, he was obligated to return to the Mercouri. He also knew that if he couldn’t stay with Rishi, there was nowhere else he wanted to go besides his home.

  Prax stared at the tiny alogos that Thulan had given him. He thought about what it would be like to return to the plains. When he had first come to Subidar, he had longed for the chance to go home. Now, the thought of returning brought a sense of loss that was even more painful than his homesickness had been.

  Prax sat up. His parents had taught him that it was better to face up to what you had to do than to put it off. He went over to the dresser and pressed the control that opened the top drawer. He found the credit account box that Rishi had given him the day that she had explained that he could leave any time he wanted. Prax put it in his pocket and went looking for a ride into Shembor.

  He was in luck; Moreno was on his way into town to hand-deliver a package to Trahn headquarters. He gave Prax a lift in the flyter, but explained he couldn’t wait for him for the return trip. Prax wasn’t worried. He knew he could take an autocab back to the estate. Coming back to the estate without a Trahn flyter was easier than leaving it.

  Once he was in the city, Prax debated the best way to find the office of the United Interstellar Passenger Line. Unaware of any way to find out an address, he decided instead just to take an autocab. He knew from overheard conversations that they could operate from just a business name, and he knew from Rishi’s abortive escape that they could be summoned from the special signal posts at selected intersections.

  Once the cab arrived, it took him a few minutes to learn how to operate the console, especially the credit unit. Finally, he got everything set and the autocab rose and began its journey. Prax estimated that he traveled about twenty kilometers before the autocab set him down on the roof port of a commercial building. When he got out, he consulted the directory and found that the United Interstellar Passenger Line was on the ground floor. Prax took the lift tube down.

  The starship line had modest offices; an unadorned storefront proclaimed their name and a small sign announced that they offered passage to any world in the Third Confederation. Prax walked in.

  There were several customers inside already. A Shuratanian woman came forward to greet Prax. She invited him to take a seat in a small cluster of chairs grouped around a low table. Once he was seated, she sat down herself and picked up a portable terminal.

  “How can I help you today, Citizen?” she asked.

  “I want to go to Celadon,” Prax said. “As quickly as possible.”

  “Celadon?” the woman repeated. She didn’t seem to recognize the name. “What sector is that in?”

  Sector? “I don’t know.”

  She frowned and asked him to spell the name. When he did, she entered a query on her terminal.

  “Here it is,” she said. “It’s not a ThreeCon world but the interdiction is only Level 1. Since it was a Terran colony, Terran visitors aren’t restricted, so there’s no legal problem with you travelling there. Do you want to book this round trip, or will you be staying on Celadon?”

  Prax felt a lump rise in his throat. “I won’t be coming back.”

  Her ears twisted as if she were thinking. “It’s not really that far away, but it’s not on any regularly scheduled passenger routes. This may take some doing.”

  Her fingers flew across the keyboard, energetically entering information and flipping through displays. Prax could see a star map in the three-dimensional display above the monitor. A bright blue line zipped from star to star.

  “Here we go,” the woman said brightly. “We can do it with only three layovers. You can take the Spirit of Shuratan to Space Station Freynuchh. There’ll be a three-day layover there. Then you make connections with the Traybenachh to Kesh. The layover there is very quick—only one night. From there, you’ll transfer to the Queen of the Nile and take it to Space Station Hubble. That’s as close as we can get with scheduled liners. From the station, we’ll have to put you on a gypsy ship.”

  “What’s a gypsy ship?” Prax asked.

  She gave him a professional smile. “It’s a cargo ship that accepts a few passengers to make extra money. They’re not very luxurious, I’m afraid. But we have standing arrangements with quite a number of them.” She pressed more keys and a line of information appeared. “There’s a gypsy ship scheduled to be at Station Hubble shortly after you’ll get there. It looks like they’re headed for Celadon. I’ll have to confirm that, of course,” she added. “It might take a few hours. Did you want to come back, or should I call you?”

  Prax gave her his com code at the Trahn estate. He had taken the trouble to learn it before he left the house.

  “Now,” the woman said briskly, “just a few more details. Did you want a private cabin, or do you want to share with other passengers?”

  Prax hesitated. He hated to spend any more of Rishi’s money than he had to, but he knew it would be hard enough to stay in a cabin by himself, let alone with strangers. “Private.”

  She nodded and made another note. “I see that Celadon has heavier gravity than Subidar. Do you want to sign up for gravity adjustment therapy?”

  It sounded like a good idea; hopefully, it wouldn’t be painful. “Yes, please.”

  She consulted another screen. “The Spirit of Shuratan leaves from the Shembor spaceport in ten days. There is a private cabin available for it, and for your connecting flights—except of course for the gypsy ship, where we can’t guarantee private accommodation. Is that acceptable?”

  Prax nodded. That would give him time to quit his contract and make his farewells in wha
tever way he decided was best.

  “How long will it take me to get to Celadon?” he asked.

  She checked the monitor again.

  “Assuming the gypsy ship shows up on schedule and leaves on time, forty-two days.”

  Prax took a deep breath. He had known it would take longer, but this was more than four times as long as it had taken the Golden Hawk to make the direct journey.

  “Well,” the woman said, “do you want to book this trip?”

  Prax nodded. The woman pressed a switch under the table and a retinal scanner rose from the tabletop.

  “If you wouldn’t mind,” she said, “we need to be sure your departure from Subidar is legal. Please enter your name and then let the scanner confirm your identity.”

  Prax was familiar with retinal scanners since the security staff used them with some of the visitors to the estate. He wrote his name, and then waited while the scanner moved close to his face and lined up with the pupils of his eyes. He held very still until it was finished. There was a reassuring beep.

  “Very good,” the Shuratanian said, obviously pleased there wouldn’t be a hitch for legal reasons. She hit a key and read off the total price for the trip, a figure that was more than three times what Prax had earned in the entire time he had worked for Hari.

  “How did you want to pay?” she asked.

  Prax took out the black box. He set the dial at the number the woman had named, pressed the activation switch, and placed his thumb firmly in the authorization zone. When he held out the box, the woman took it and placed it in a socket in her portable terminal. After a few seconds, the light on the box flashed once and then some information flickered on the terminal’s monitor. The woman smiled with satisfaction.

  “All set, Citizen Mercouri,” she said, handing Prax the box. “We’ll send the itinerary to your com code so you’ll have a copy, along with a description of your accommodations. Assuming you can pass the medi-scan, you’re ready to go.”

  “I’m sure I won’t have a problem,” Prax said.

  He made one more stop and then made his way back to the Trahn estate with no difficulty. He arrived in plenty of time for his shift. When he went to his room to change into his uniform, the com set was blinking with a message. Prax pressed the message button, and Rishi’s image appeared.