She thought it was silly, but who was she to argue if it got her a free meal?
Chapter 37
Callai hung in the sky out the window, and Moon stared down at it, stunned despite herself, and she murmured. “It looks so… different. Compared to Nald.”
“Yeah,” Star said, nodding in agreement as the ship moved in to dock.
Below them was the planet, while all around them was orbital infrastructure, and while they hadn’t thought anything of it before, the differences between the two planets was stark. Nald might have a wyrmgate, but it was a relatively young planet comparatively, with fewer cities forming a web across its surface, and most of the system infrastructure was concentrated in the space station.
Callai had been inhabited for five centuries, on the other hand, and a network of ten space stations was around it, along with innumerable satellites and starships. As she watched, Moon saw a tug dragging an asteroid toward a smelter near a shipyard and she shook her head. As for the planet itself, the cities were larger and brighter, allowing her to see how far Nald had to go, which made her faintly… wistful. She wasn’t sure why, though.
“Have you gotten any messages?” Moon asked after a second, then grimaced as she corrected. “From Mom and Dad, I mean, not everyone else who’s contacted us.”
She had to specify, unfortunately, as they’d gotten a flood of inquiries from the moment they’d exited astral, many of them from journalists, old classmates, friends, and more. Moon could hardly believe how many of them there were, especially since she didn’t think that they’d given out their implant codes to anyone.
“Yeah, one from Dad. He says that he’ll be waiting at the landing pad. He also said which shuttle to take,” Star said, her lips quirking into a smile. “I’m surprised he didn’t call us directly.”
“Probably didn’t want to interrupt… and I note he’s still sending directions to you. You think it’s because he thinks you’re the one more likely to remember?” Moon asked, a teasing note in her voice, though she knew she was mostly trying to hide her own anxiety over everything that was going on.
“You know better than that. Mom leaves messages with you, Dad leaves messages with me,” Star said, shrugging as she inhaled slowly. “So… how long do you think it’ll be until they try to convince us to stay home for good, rather than going back to Evelyn?”
“Um… Dad will probably hint about it while we’re in the car, but he won’t say anything outright.” Moon said slowly, thinking about it carefully, then a smile played across her lips. “Mom, though? She’s going to say something just about as soon as we’re both sitting down.”
“Sounds about right,” Star agreed. “Though they might’ve changed while we’re gone. I doubt it, though.”
“So do I. First, let’s get through station security, and down to the planet,” Moon said, wrinkling her nose. “We didn’t exactly have visas, so they’re probably going to make us go through all sorts of scans.”
“True,” Star agreed, reaching over to lace her fingers through Moon’s.
It was comforting, and it helped settle some of Moon’s anxiety.
“Girls!” Diana exclaimed three hours later, rushing forward to embrace them.
Moon smiled, accepting the hug along with Star, as they split their mother’s attention so she wouldn’t crush them too much. As she did so, a pang of worry struck Moon.
Their mother had seen better days, and the last few years had obviously been hard on her, as there were a few threads of white in her red hair, along with some lines on her face that hadn’t been there the last time they’d seen her. It made Moon worried about her, as did the white they’d seen in their father’s black hair, even if he’d seemed far less stressed when they’d met him.
“Hi, Mom. Sorry about this,” Moon said softly, her voice quiet as she hugged her mother tightly.
“Sorry about what? Coming back when you said you’d be gone for two more years?” Diana demanded, pulling away and giving her a glare. “When I saw that, I nearly had a heart attack, don’t you know that? You should be here, not off with some crazy lady from the rim!”
“Evelyn isn’t crazy, and it isn’t like Nald is on the rim anymore. It hasn’t been for nearly a century,” Star said, smiling at her helplessly. “Besides, uncle told us about how bad things were. Do you think we could have gotten good-paying jobs to help you get back on your feet while here? We’d have been lucky to get paid half as much if we came home, let alone getting an advance like the one Evelyn gave us.”
“Please, no arguing,” Nathan interjected as Diana opened her mouth. “Honestly, we’re just happy that you’re both home, even if it’s only for a month. After the last few years… I can’t say how much of a relief it is.”
“I can hardly imagine,” Moon said, giving him a weak smile as she stepped over and sat on the sofa, kicking off her shoes before curling her legs under her to get more comfortable. “For us, its barely been a month since we went to that party, then… well, it was a shock to hear that years had passed. We might not have ever known if it hadn’t been for Evelyn, really.”
The living room hadn’t changed much, Moon privately noted, and a pang of concern washed through her as she looked it over. The signs of stress were here, too. A few items were missing, like a lamp she remembered being around, and her father’s chair looked worn, like it should’ve been replaced a year or two ago, just as an example. If their parents had been spending all their money on searching for them, though, that wouldn’t have happened. It couldn’t have.
“I wish you hadn’t gone to it. I swear, I’m going to rip a strip off the dean, once I get past his secretary. They’ve been avoiding my calls ever since the news broke,” Diana said, her eyes flashing with anger. “You know what they said to me about your disappearances? They said you two probably ran off with some guy, or decided to go out-system like so many other college students! They didn’t even consider the possibility you’d been abducted, even when your things were left behind. We have those for you, too. Everything we could find when it came time to clear your rooms at the college out.”
“Ugh,” Moon said, glancing at Star, who looked like she’d swallowed something foul. “That… doesn’t sound good.”
“Yeah… I wonder if it’s just the university’s reputation he’s worried about,” Star said, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. “If it isn’t… that doesn’t make me happy. Not at all.”
“You’re telling me,” Nathan said, stepping over to a chair and sinking into it with a heavy sigh. “I didn’t contact the media myself, neither did your mother, but I’m pretty sure a few of our other relatives have been talking to them ever since they found out how you went missing. There’s been a few people running the numbers, and I’m betting that the university is running damage control, hard. While the numbers aren’t for sure, there’s indications of about eight or nine students going missing each semester going back at least five years. Thinking about what happened to you, and how almost none of those students have been heard from again… it doesn’t bear thinking on.”
A shiver ran down Moon’s spine, and she looked at Star for a second as her sister sat next to her. They were thinking the same thing, she realized a moment later. It didn’t even take sending an implant message to know that.
“You thinking to talk to the media?” Moon asked her.
Star nodded reluctantly. “Yeah… though I only want a single interview, I think. Maybe the police, too, since that might be more effective than the media, at least directly. I don’t like doing it… but the Uni already said they kicked us out.”
“They didn’t kick you out! They just revoked your scholarships,” Diana interjected, then flushed at the chiding look from Nathan. “I know, I know… it isn’t any better than that. Not really. But you should stay here. If anyone can convince people to change this, it’s the two of you. I’m sure there’s going to be all sorts of lawsuits, and… and I want you here.”
“I know, Mom. I know you
want us here, but…” Moon said, her voice trailing off as she struggled to find the words. Eventually she sighed and shrugged. “I think it’s just too early for us to make a decision. We ran the numbers, you know. We figured out what we could make, looked at the job market as best we could, and all of that. I don’t see how we could finish our education here. At least with Evelyn we’ll be getting job experience, good pay, and she’d protect us while we get our feet back under us.”
“That doesn’t even consider how much she spent freeing us to begin with,” Star said, frowning a little.
“Oh?” Nathan asked, looking at her curiously. “How much? And how do you know, for that matter?”
“Well… you didn’t hear that we were part of the group that went off to buy the new ship she wanted,” Star said, looking a little embarrassed. “It was an interesting experience, but I was taking the role of the accountant. Not something I’m qualified for, but she didn’t care. Anyway, when she made me the accountant, I got access to her transaction history as well, which I’m not sure she realized would happen. It took a little while for me to figure out which parts were for us and which parts were for the ship, equipment, Dolls, and everything else, but I managed it.”
“Ooh… you didn’t tell me about this!” Moon asked, her eyes lighting up. “How much? We discussed it before, but we didn’t have solid numbers.”
“It’s… well. Um.” Star looked incredibly uncomfortable as she hesitated, then spoke quietly. “Sixteen thousand and twenty-four mythrite. Each. Not including what she gave us for our other expenses.”
Moon froze, and she heard her father choke softly. Their mother’s eyes went wide, her mouth opening, then shutting. After a minute, she finally spoke.
“You’re certain of those numbers?” Diana asked weakly. “That’s… an enormous amount of money.”
“Very sure. I did the numbers several times. If you count our advances, that’s almost twenty thousand mythrite apiece, which makes me stunned. And no, I’m not saying how much she spent on her new ship, or how much money she had. That would be a breach of trust,” Star said firmly. “Anyway, you can’t even say that she was trying to make us stay. We approached her, and she let six of the others leave without a word of protest, even if Vaneryth came back.”
“Well. That… is more than I’d ever have expected,” Nathan said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he winced. “Was all of that truly necessary? I know that it would have been difficult for us to afford anything close to that, even with loans.”
“That’s the question. I know the surgery cost a lot more…?” Moon said questioningly, looking at her sister nervously.
“Yeah, it wouldn’t have cost nearly as much if she hadn’t contracted the people she did. If she’d taken us to a standard surgery center, they could’ve removed the control chip for about two thousand instead of ten thousand, maybe less here… the price was inflated in Rakal,” Star said, frowning. “And the hacker was another six thousand each. It’d probably have been cheaper to have someone remove the implants entirely, which as part of the other surgery would cost maybe… five hundred? But then we’d need new implants, which isn’t cheap either, and we wouldn’t have ended up with tier four implants. Tier one is about a hundred mythrite… anyway, you could have dropped the cost to two thousand, six hundred, if you didn’t go to the lengths she did.”
Moon winced at the price, as it was still incredibly expensive, but she nodded, relieved that Star had done that much math. Maybe it’d give her parents something to think about, rather than all the rumors about Evelyn.
“Well. At least she treated the two of you the way you deserve to be treated,” Diana said after a moment, looking at them stubbornly. “But I still would rather you were here with us. Anyway… I went ahead and started food marinating. We haven’t touched the money you sent us, either. That’s yours, and you should save it for schooling.”
Moon laughed, smiling as she shrugged. “I don’t see us changing our minds, Mom. We take after you, after all! But we’ll think about it.”
Everyone laughed a little, and Star followed it up by chiming in. “Yes… but shouldn’t we get settled in, then we can help with dinner and catch up properly? I’m sure that there’s so much we haven’t heard about, even with all the messages we were sent.”
“That sounds like a great idea,” Nathan agreed, climbing to his feet. “Your rooms are still about the way you left them when you went to university. Can’t say how glad I am that you’ll be in them again.”
Moon smiled, unfolding her legs so she could get up again, and taking the moment to hug him as she teased. “Just the way we left them? I hope the sheets have been changed, at least!”
Laughter filled the house, and Moon wondered just how long it had been since that had happened. Either way, if she could bring a little more happiness into her parent’s lives, it was worth it… and she made a note to thank Evelyn once they got back to her.
She didn’t have to do this, and it made Moon determined to see if they couldn’t find out what had happened to the elf’s parents.
Chapter 38
“So, you’re Lairia? You look much better with legs and hair,” Evelyn said, smiling at the elf waiting for her, and offered a hand. “Evelyn Tarth, but I’m sure you know that.”
“Most everyone on the station knows by this point,” Lairia replied, her smile a bit nervous, and Evelyn chuckled in response.
Lairia did look much better, but that didn’t take much work, considering what had happened to her before. Rather than being completely naked, she had short hair only a couple of inches long and colored a neon blue, which Evelyn suspected was a bio-mod, considering how short of a time it’d been since she was rescued, and she was lanky, almost as tall as Evelyn was. Her hands were whole once more, with no sign that she’d lost any fingers, and there weren’t any scars. She looked Evelyn over nervously in return, her eyes a light green. The elf was wearing a relatively simple shipsuit, but Evelyn caught sight of a pair of interface ports along her spine, barely visible above the collar of the suit. She hadn’t noticed them the last time around, that or they were new.
“That’s probably true. I got a polite inquiry from the station’s public relations department, asking when I was planning to move on. I think that their security is having the equivalent of an ulcer with me around,” Evelyn said, shrugging as she gestured to the restaurant. “Shall we?”
Nald’s Famous Fry was the restaurant Evelyn had chosen for their meal, and for several reasons. One of them was that she didn’t want to strain Lairia’s finances too much, but that was only part of the reason. Another was that while many people preferred fine dining, Evelyn had found that far too many of those meals were rather… pretentious, and far too similar for her palate. No, she liked the simpler food that was made with locally sourced ingredients and enjoyed trying out what a given world had to offer. Sometimes it was an utter failure, but she’d rather be a bit adventurous than miss out on something wonderful.
“Sure, of course,” Lairia replied, glancing at the entrance once, then shrugged as she led the way in, speaking quickly. “Not what I expected when I offered to treat you to a meal, but I’m not going to complain. I’ve seen a lot of good reviews for this place.”
“That’s why I chose it,” Evelyn agreed. “Spacers recommend it to one another, which is as good of a reason to try it as any, in my opinion. There are other reasons, but… do they really matter? As long as the food is good…”
“True!” Lairia said, turning to find the nearest empty booth.
No waiters were in the building, just a couple of people keeping an eye on everything. A console at each booth allowed patrons to examine the menue, as well as a speaker to allow those who didn’t have implants to order their food verbally. Then a robot would bring the food from the kitchen, which Evelyn considered a nice feature. Sometimes she didn’t want to talk to people, after all.
They both settled down, and as she scanned the menu Evelyn asked, “How a
re you recovering? Not the physical part, that’s dealt with, obviously, but the mental stress isn’t anything to joke about. I’m impressed you got through it at all. I ran into some privateers who ran into those oozes, and their stories were grim.”
“I believe it,” Lairia replied, shuddering slightly. “The ship… well, we didn’t realize it was intelligent, once we figured out it was aboard. Tried to lure it away with a few of us while the passengers went for the escape pods and I disabled the engines, but it realized what we were doing. All we did was feed it, then… well, I don’t want to relive that again. I’m doing okay. I’d do better if I had a ship, but I’m on mandatory leave.”
“Really?” Evelyn asked, her eyebrows rising. “Is this your home port?”
While she asked, Evelyn considered, then ordered one of the local specialties, from a creature that wasn’t that different from chicken. It was one of the more highly reviewed items, and she grabbed a set of fries and a drink as well. Nothing too expensive, but it should fill her up. ‘Should’ being the key word.
“Nope,” Lairia said, a little disgust in her voice. “The company is paying for a spot in a boarding house, though, and I’ve gotten six months of pay, but that’s it. They’re not even paying for a ticket home. If I want to go, I have to pay myself. The company also has a policy, that we have to take at least six months off after losing a ship. Then they’ll find a new position for us, if they can. Only have so many ships, after all.”
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed, and she saw the menu snap out of existence in front of the elf. She thought over what she’d said, then nodded slightly.
“Let me guess… Savrien Confederacy?” Evelyn asked, and saw Lairia pause, looking startled.
Chosen of Chaos (Eve of Destruction Book 1) Page 25