“This is Captain Marchenko,” Alisa said. “If you try to board my ship, I’ll blow up your sphere-shaped artifact. It’s been a nice paperweight for my desk, but I’m sure I can replace it with a moon rock.”
Alejandro smacked a palm to his forehead and ran his hand down his face. The faintest hint of a smile curved Leonidas’s lips upward.
“If you destroy the artifact,” the imperial speaker said, “we will destroy your ship.”
“Then it’s going to be a bad day for all of us.” Alisa leaned back in her seat, prepared to wait out his bluff. She hoped it was a bluff.
“Captain,” Alejandro said slowly. “May I suggest—”
“No.”
Alejandro’s eyebrows rose.
“Leonidas, I do wish you’d accept my offer of employment,” Alisa said, “because I’d love to be able to order you to carry wayward passengers out of NavCom for me.”
Alejandro scowled at Leonidas, as if he’d been the one to make the impertinent comment. Alisa did not see if he returned the scowl, because her sensors showed one of the other ships moving away from the cluster. It was one of the Alliance warships.
The grab beam disappeared as the imperial ship raised its shields, rotating to turn its weapons toward the newcomer.
Alisa did not question her luck. She immediately reengaged the thrusters, returning them to her original course. The other ships would have trouble locking onto her if there was a moon in the way.
“They let us go?” Alejandro asked.
“Clearly, my threat made them tremble in distress,” Alisa said.
Focused on the path ahead, she did not look back to see if he rolled his eyes at her or made a rude gesture.
The comm flashed again. Alisa thought about ignoring it, but the call was coming from one of the Alliance ships rather than the imperial craft.
“Yes?” she answered.
“Well, that’s slightly more professional than answering with, ‘What?’” a familiar voice said. Tomich.
Alisa did not know whether to be relieved by his contact or not. She had left him with a mess.
“Commander,” she said carefully. “Are you going to let us go?”
She realized that it was his ship that had advanced on the imperial vessel. They were now facing each other, posturing.
“Us,” Tomich said, his voice flat.
He must have seen enough or heard enough in his reports to believe she had been working with Leonidas. She did not see any point in denying it now. He would think less of her if she lied. They had been colleagues once, sharing more than a few drinks over lost comrades, and she did not want to intentionally give him a reason to feel distaste toward her.
“For the moment. They paid their fare. I’m taking them to—” Alisa glanced at Alejandro, “—where they want to go.”
Tomich was silent for so long that she glanced at the comm to see if the channel was still open. She also checked the sensors to make sure he hadn’t decided to give chase, imperial ships notwithstanding.
“The next time we meet,” Tomich finally said, “you owe me one.”
“I will be glad to buy you a sake while we watch a forceball game.”
“One sake? That’s it?”
“Two? I’m just a lowly freighter operator now, you know. I don’t have a regular Alliance paycheck to rely on.”
Tomich grumbled something under his breath, then sighed. “I have a feeling I’m going to regret this day.”
“Thank you, Commander,” she said, taking all hints of sarcasm and irreverence out of her voice.
The comm light winked out. Alisa suspected that the next time she ran into Tomich, he would be as likely to punch her as accept a drink from her. It was also possible that his superiors would punish him for letting the Nomad go—and put out a warrant for her arrest.
She sighed and looked back at the two men in her hatchway, wondering about her sanity for continuing on with them.
Epilogue
Alisa stood up, turning the autopilot on to navigate the start of their journey to Arkadius. The stars were bright and clear, and the sensors showed no sign of pursuers, imperial, Alliance, or otherwise. She decided she could risk a shower. Maybe even bed. The lights had dimmed a while ago, signaling the ship’s night cycle, and she had finally stopped having to run to the lav. Apparently, Alejandro’s toxin-clearing potion had involved kicking her kidneys into overdrive.
It had been a couple of hours since they had cruised away from Perun’s moon, leaving the damaged Alliance ships glaring across the stars at the imperial ships. She trusted they wouldn’t start a war with each other. The Alliance could call in a lot of allies, and with the Star Nomad—and Leonidas and Alejandro—gone, the imperials had nothing left to fight over. She just hoped she would be allowed to approach Arkadius when they arrived in a week. Just because Tomich had let her go didn’t mean that his superiors would not put out the word for her capture.
“Marchenko,” Leonidas said, stepping out of the dim corridor and into NavCom.
He wore soft black gym pants and a gray T-shirt, no sign of his uniform jacket tonight. The T-shirt fit him like a second skin, and Alisa made herself look away, thinking of Mica’s admonitions about letting her feelings get them into trouble. As if Alisa couldn’t get into plenty of trouble without feelings ever coming into play. She admitted that her actions might not have been the wisest, even if they had possibly resulted in less loss of human life than if she had simply let Leonidas charge onto the Alliance ship with rifles blaring, no thoughts of choosing non-vital targets in his mind.
“Still not calling me Alisa, eh?” she asked.
“If I did, you might take it as a sign to call me Leo.” His mouth twisted with distaste. “You’ve defaulted to that a couple of times.”
She had defaulted to “mech,” too, which she regretted. “I could call you Hieronymus,” she offered, since that was the name on his arrest warrant, even if it was a mouthful.
His mouth twisted further. “I don’t know if I’d answer to that. It was my grandfather’s name, and I always thought it was horrible. My fellow officers just called me Adler.”
“What do your brothers call you?”
“Mech.”
Alisa blinked. “Seriously?”
He had said that he and his brothers did not get along fabulously, that one had even joined the Alliance, but this sounded like outright antagonism. How could they feel that way about him? Even if he was supposed to be the enemy to her, she couldn’t imagine him ever acting with anything but honor. She wished she could look at her own record and know she had always acted so.
“Not to my face,” Leonidas said, “but I’ve heard them talking to each other about me when they thought I couldn’t hear.”
“They sound like lovely people.”
“They’re quite a bit younger than I am. They don’t know why I joined.” His hand flicked toward his forearm, maybe to indicate more than joining, but also the implants.
“Why did you?” she asked, looking into his eyes.
He did not meet her gaze, instead staring at the stars on the view screen. Alisa knew there wasn’t much exciting to see out there—she had checked and double-checked before allowing herself to think of showering.
“I need to stop at Starfall Station on the way to Arkadius,” Leonidas said. Pretending he hadn’t heard her question? “There are tech smiths there. I need to get my armor repaired and thought it would be good to do so before we visit Starseers unannounced.”
Alisa nodded. “That’s not a problem. As you said, it’s on the way.”
The Nomad could use some new parts, too, as Mica was quick to point out on a daily basis. And the airlock hatch needed repairs. They were lucky the ship was still spaceworthy after the soldiers had forced their way in.
“The doctor seems certain that we’ll find trouble on Arkadius,” Leonidas said dryly.
“Trouble finds him wherever he and his orb go.”
“Odd. He said the same
thing about you.”
“Me? As if getting waylaid in the library was my fault. Or getting jumped by Alliance ships trying to leave the planet.”
He winced. “No, that was because of me.”
“I just try my best to improve uncomfortable situations.” Alisa shifted and patted the seat of her chair, where a stretch of engineer tape held a rip together.
“Uncomfortable situations? That’s an understatement, isn’t it?” His gaze shifted from the stars to her face.
“Not to an optimist. Right now, I’m optimistically being positive that we’ll reach the Starseer temple on Arkadius and both find what we’re looking for.”
“You believe your daughter is there?”
She wished that were the case, but she was tempering her optimism on that matter. “That would be ideal, but at the least, I believe they’ll know where I can find her.”
He was holding her gaze now, his eyes warm with sympathy. She hadn’t seen that from him, and she didn’t know what to say. Maybe she wasn’t expected to say anything. The urge to lean against him for support crept into her, but she did not give in to it. She was the captain. Captains did not lean on others for support, certainly not their passengers.
“I spoke with Dominguez earlier,” he said quietly. “He told me about how you threatened him on my behalf.”
“Oh?” Alisa wouldn’t have been surprised if Alejandro had lied to Leonidas, implying he hadn’t wanted to abandon him. But then, she hadn’t quite figured Alejandro out yet. One moment, he was pretending religion meant something to him, and the next, he was proving that he would do anything and sacrifice anyone to complete that mission of his. “And are you annoyed? He said you would happily sacrifice yourself for him and his orb quest.”
Leonidas did not appear annoyed. He looked mellower than she had ever seen him. Maybe because the lighting was dim, and he was wearing the clothes he probably slept in. Except he would take the shirt off to sleep. She remembered the time he had answered the door in the middle of the night with only pants on, then found herself blushing at the memory for some reason. Perhaps because it was easy to picture him that way again with that T-shirt hiding little of his musculature.
“Perhaps not happily,” he said, one corner of his mouth curving upward. “I appreciate that you cared enough to help.” His head tilted to the side, his expression turning faintly bemused. Apparently, he hadn’t had the same revelation that Mica had shared in regard to why Alisa wanted to help him. He stepped forward and rested a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she whispered.
She licked her lips, aware of how close he was. She could almost feel the heat radiating from his body. There was nothing sexual about his gesture or the look he was giving her—if anything, his grave nod seemed to be a gesture that one gave to a comrade. An appreciated comrade, perhaps, but nothing more.
That was fine, she told herself firmly. As she had stated on several occasions, he definitely wasn’t her type. He didn’t get her humor, and she didn’t even think he could laugh. Besides, she had not been at Jonah’s funeral, hadn’t had time to formally sit down and say goodbye. It was far too soon to think of relationships with other men. It would feel like a betrayal to his spirit to turn her back on him so quickly.
As logical as her thoughts were, her body did not quite grasp them, and she found herself thinking about how long it had been since she’d had sex. Jonah might not have been gone from the universe for long, but it had been nearly a year and a half since she’d been home on leave. The warmth of Leonidas’s hand on her shoulder made her imagine his touch in other places, and she wondered if kissing him would be similar to or different from kissing another man. What would he do if she tried? Be surprised and step back? Be surprised and enjoy it? Not be surprised? He was perceptive enough in other matters, so it seemed crazy to think that he wouldn’t be aware of the effect he could have on a woman.
A throat cleared in the corridor.
Alisa jumped back, heat flushing her cheeks as if she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t. No, just thinking libidinous thoughts…
Leonidas simply lowered his arm and turned, no hint of red tingeing his cheeks. Probably because he hadn’t been thinking libidinous thoughts.
“Leonidas,” came Alejandro’s voice from the corridor, his tone neutral.
Had he seen Leonidas with his hand on her shoulder? Had he seen her drooling on him?
“May I speak with you?” Alejandro added.
“Yes.” Leonidas gave her that nod again and said, “Goodnight, Marchenko—Alisa.”
She leaned against the back of the pilot’s seat, watching him walk out and once again told herself that she was not developing feelings for him, and she definitely wasn’t melting into a puddle because he had deigned to use her first name.
He and Alejandro disappeared down the corridor toward their cabins. Their conversation wasn’t going to be held anywhere so open as the mess hall.
Alisa checked the sensors and told herself to get that shower she had been thinking about—perhaps there was a reason Leonidas and his enhanced olfactory senses hadn’t given her anything more than a friendly pat on the shoulder. Yet, she found herself glancing at the comm console, thinking of eavesdropping again. It had given her some good intelligence last time—and shown her what an ass Alejandro was. If he was planning something that could affect her and her ship when they got to Arkadius, shouldn’t she know about it? Or was it just that she wanted to know what he was saying about her, if anything?
Grumbling about her questionable morality, Alisa closed the hatch, slid into the pilot’s seat, and flipped through the switches to open the comm in Alejandro’s cabin.
“She said we could stop at Starfall,” Leonidas was saying.
“No mention of an extra fee?” Alejandro asked dryly.
“No.”
“All right, good. I don’t trust the Starseers to have any interest in the empire or want to help us. Having your armor repaired to 100% could be important.”
“I may not be very useful against them,” Leonidas said. “My mind is no different from yours.”
“Some of their attacks and defenses strike the mind. Others strike the body. I’ll do my best not to pick a fight with any of them, of course, but we need to be ready.”
“I’m always ready.”
“The gods themselves can be surprised on a beautiful day,” Alejandro said, quoting scripture.
“Is that supposed to be a warning about letting my guard down?”
“Advice only. I want to part ways from Marchenko and this ship when we reach Arkadius.”
Alisa frowned at the comm station. She would be happy to let Alejandro part ways—he would be lucky if she didn’t fly over one of Arkadius’s many oceans and dump him in. But even with the warrant on Leonidas’s head and the fact that it would make her ship a target, she would regret having him leave.
“Did you get Ms. Moon to agree to come with us independently?” Leonidas asked, making Alisa wonder what kinds of conversations Alejandro, Yumi, and Beck had shared back here on the ship while the soldiers had been tramping around.
“No, but I’ve had enough of the captain interfering with my quest.”
“She’s been ferrying you around to further your quest.”
“Fine, I’ve had enough of her threatening me, then. She knows too much. Leaving her with what’s in her head is almost as unpalatable an idea as staying with her, but I assume your stance hasn’t changed.”
“It hasn’t,” Leonidas said coolly.
“We’ll get what we need to know from Yumi, then hire someone else to taxi us around if need be.” Alejandro grunted. “I suppose it’s too much to hope that what I seek is on Arkadius.”
“Since I still don’t know what you seek, I couldn’t say.”
“I’ll tell you when we get there. You will come with me, won’t you? I can pay you for your time. It is my hope that this can be finished in a few months, an
d then you can return to your own quest.”
Alisa willed Leonidas to tell Alejandro to stuff his payment and his quest, that he was going to accept her job offer and stay here to help her with her quest. If he helped her find her daughter, she would fly him wherever he needed to go to find what he sought. Damn, she wished she had told him that when they had been alone together. Instead, she’d been thinking about kissing him.
“If the emperor’s dying wish was for you to fulfill your quest,” Leonidas said, “I’ll help you do it. There’s no need for payment.”
She heard the hatch clang softly, and Alisa straightened in her seat, realizing he had walked out. She flicked the comm button off, then looked toward the corridor, hoping Leonidas would return to keep her company. But nobody walked into NavCom to join her. Her heart was heavy at the idea of him going with Alejandro and disappearing from her life once they reached Arkadius, but so be it. She had to find her daughter. Being caught up in the dying wishes of an emperor she had done her best to dethrone would only delay her—or worse.
“This is for the best,” she told herself. “It’s for the best.”
THE END
STARFALL STATION
Fallen Empire, a short story
by Lindsay Buroker
Copyright © 2016 Lindsay Buroker
STARFALL STATION
Hieronymus “Leonidas” Adler waited until late in the space station’s day cycle to walk down the ramp of the Star Nomad, his hover case of damaged combat armor floating behind him. He could have carried the two-hundred-pound case easily, but he was a wanted man—a wanted cyborg—and he did not wish to call attention to himself by displaying inhuman abilities. Not here, not on a space station controlled by the self-proclaimed Tri-Sun Alliance.
His mouth twisted with bitterness. Almost everything was controlled by the Alliance now. When the empire had maintained order over the dozens of planets and moons in their vast trinary star system, Leonidas would have walked proudly onto the station, his head high as he wore his Cyborg Corps military uniform. He wouldn’t have waited until the lights dimmed for night to skulk into the concourse on his errand.