Page 25 of Stellar Drift
“What could sound more warped than a contaminated seed vault that’s probably making people sick?Or a nonexistent treasure that’s making people crazy?Or a secret exploration starship on countdown for a launch, with or without its pilot?”
He realized he was close to raving and made himself breathe deeply, from his core, then let it out slowly.A second deep breath helped him regain control of his runaway thoughts.“Sorry.I think ‘warped’ has lost all meaning today.What were you going to say?”
“You and I both know the CPS don’t trust high-level talents.The only way they will truly let you go is if you’re dead.”She pointed to his wristcomp.“Thanks to your boss, you’re about to be.”The ghost of a smile flickered.“You even know what time you’ll die.”
That almost made him laugh.“Yeah, four and a half hours from now.Plenty of time to get my affairs in order.”
Her words sparked an outrageously warped thought of his own.In his previous duty station, he’d spent one miserably cold winter in a remote wilderness outpost dreaming up ways he could disappear just like his incompetent boss at the time seemed to wish for.He’d even created a new identity and figured out how to secretly move money to accounts under that name.When he’d been transferred to Qal Corona, he’d dropped the idea.
He shook his head.“It’s a great warped idea, but they’d need an identifiable corpse.My life may tank, but I like living, and with all my body parts intact.And I’d need to be somewhere else — and be someoneelse — or I won’t make it past the first security checkpoint.”
Sairy crossed her arms.“I was serious about destroying this cave and the vault.It’s too dangerous.Only chaos knows what else is brewing in there.If your boss thinks you’re still there when I blow the top off Jalkapanga Mountain, they won’t look too hard for your body.”She took a step closer to him.
“As to being somewhere else, you could come with me.Well, Kyala and Elkano and me.We don’t know where we’re going until we get there, but I’m willing to bet it’s better than being buried here.Are you?”
It was a wonderfully creative solution, but he had to be honest with her.“I don’t think it will work.I’ve come to have… feelings for you.Have had since the day we met.Now that I know that you’re not available, it’ll be too hard on me and not fair to you and your partner.Elkano is a lucky man.”
Siary dropped her head, looking faintly embarrassed.“Elkano is not a man, he’s a sentient A.I.His body is the ship, but he’s his own entity, too.”She thumped three fingers on her upper chest.“We have an always-on closed-system connection, but he’s not in my head like a telepath.We talk to each other just like a comms call.”
Houyen felt his eyes widen.Could this day get any stranger?“Aren’t sentient AIs illegal?”
A corner of her mouth quirked into a smile.“The CPS rarely lets itself be deterred by inconvenient laws and regulations.I think Elkano and the others were developed using tech stolen from the Volkssang.The CPS modified it, of course, because they think they know better about everything.”She waved a hand toward the vault.“Considering all this suggests skullduggery of the highest order, I’m wondering if our mothership caught a terminal case of pirate-clan style freethinking.”
“Okay, now that I’ve made an idiot of myself by assuming…” He took a step toward her, then rocked back again.“Oh, hell, I’m warped because I don’t want to pass up this once-in-a-lifetime chance to start over.But I need to know if you like me well enough for us to have a chance at a relationship.More than friends.”
“I do like you.Far too much for my own good.You’re kind, sexy, and ethical as hell.”She held out her hand to him.“Would you like to have dinner with me and Kyala this evening aboard my spacious but experimental exploration starship?I can’t promise more than mealpacks, but I’ve got a vast and astounding variety to choose from.And I think you’ll like the hydroponics section.I enhanced it with plants from the rainforest.”
Hope rose in his heart as he took her hand in his.“I would be honored to accept your offer.It seems I have an interest in clever women who can fix things and fly starships.I’d very much like to invite you to share a kiss, but the timing is bad.You have to figure out how and where to meet our ride, and I have to grab all my records and clean out my estate before my boss kills me.”
“Let’s plan that kiss for after dinner.”She put her gloved palm against the side of his face, and he leaned into the comfort and hope it offered.Then he had to pluck the bug net out of his mouth.“Timing.”
Her smile was rueful.“In the meantime, I’ll warn Phen and Koda to get everyone off the mountain.I’d like to send them the procedures for testing and treating infinity fever, but it would be criminally stupid to expose my unique comms signature right before an unexplained fiery explosion that almost certainly caused the tragic death of a dedicated and respected nature reserve ranger.”
He was really doing this.“Get the data to me and I’ll store it in my CPS records and send it from my official CPS pingref.”He gave her a sharp smile.“My unexplained death will trigger an outside audit of my dataspace.Ranger station data hypercubes are a shambles.Mine, on the other hand, are excellent.I kept everything and documented every conversation.The person with the best records wins.Matsurgan will have a very hard time justifying why he suppressed the existence of and the cure for a deadly disease.Not to mention decades of truly criminal negligence.”
“Okay, then.”She blew out a loud breath.“You prepare for your death, and I’ll prepare for our life.”She started to step away, then turned back to him.“Thank you.I didn’t think I had a future until you proved I did.”
Her words curled around his heart like tendrils of vine.“And I wasn’t looking forward to my future until I met you.”
Kyala suddenly nosed her way between them and stood, looking up at Sairy.
Sairy laughed.“Yes, he’s coming with us, and yes, that means twice the petting.”
Houyen knew there would be challenges ahead, but they’d face them together.He couldn’t wait.
Chapter 9
Starship AD14-24, Qal Corona System • GDAT 3235.025
Sairysettledintothefamiliar contours of her pilot’s station chair.It felt both odd and deeply comforting after so much time away from it.In the adjacent navigation station, Houyen was already studying the primary console.Kyala lay on a cushion Sairy had set up in the corner, the sound of her licking her paws creating a quiet rhythm.The ship had been in a stable, quiet orbit around Qal Corona for four days.Long enough for the adrenaline to fade and a fragile sense of normalcy to begin knitting itself together.
“So,” she said, turning to Houyen.“Where do you want to go first?”
Twenty minutes ago, while they were cleaning up after breakfast, Elkano had pronounced the ship safe and ready for interstellar travel.Though she’d tried to air out the control room after they’d reached orbit, it still smelled faintly musty, and dust bunnies huddled like cobwebs in the corners.She made a mental note to remember to activate the ship’s small army of cleaning bots.Houyen’s new quarters could probably use some attention, too.
He turned from the console, a grin spreading across his face.“Norazoma Space Station.It’s supposed to be only four transit days from here, and it’s the biggest, busiest station in the galaxy.I want to be just a face in the multitudes when I finish transferring the assets that some cruel and opportunistic thief stole from the accounts of Ranger Houyen Albasrey, who is missing and presumed dead after a mysterious, tragic explosion.”He tugged at the sleeve of his tunic, which was clean but bore the faint, permanent stains of his life in the rainforest.“I also need to go shopping.Too bad that thief couldn’t have cleaned out my wardrobe along with my bank accounts.”
Sairy smiled.“I’ll stay on the ship with Kyala.I don’t think we’re ready for the crush of crowds yet.”She suppressed a shudder at the very thought of it.At the mention of her name, Kyala’s tale thumped against the metal wall.
