“You’re not going to look for trouble, are you?” Jelena asked as he walked by—he didn’t look like he planned to stop to chat, and something about the determination in his eyes made her uneasy. She thought she’d talked him into giving up assassinations—or maybe he’d decided to take a break of his own accord, to give the Alliance time to forget about him—but was it possible that one of his targets lived here?
“No, but it’s always possible trouble is looking for me.” Thor glanced skyward without stopping.
Jelena thought of the gold ship that had attacked them—him, specifically—on Fourseas. “Then maybe you should hide under the ship like Alfie instead of going out in the sun.”
Thor looked toward Alfie, her brown-and-white tail still whipping from side to side like a flag in a storm. Her head was almost entirely in that hole, but the rest of her was admittedly visible.
“Like Alfie?” Thor asked. “You want me to stick my head in a hole and leave my butt in the air?”
“It could work. Your butt isn’t that memorable.”
Thor looked at his backside. “Should I find that distressing?”
“I’d say so. Maybe you should have Masika paint something on the seat of your pants. Or I could glue on some glitter. I have blue, green, and rainbow craft supplies right now. Oh, and I’ve got some shimmery fabric paint that we could use to enhance your contours.” Jelena wriggled her eyebrows at him, hoping to elicit a grin.
He squinted at her instead, then walked away from the ship, heading toward one of the disreputable groups of people loitering on the dusty lot. She tried not to feel insulted that he seemed to prefer to spend time with whoever his contacts—or targets—were, instead of her.
They don’t want to glitter me, he informed her silently without looking back.
Oh, is shooting preferable to that?
Moderately so, yes.
“He’s not what I expected from the heir to the Sarellian Empire,” Kiyoko observed, watching him go.
“Did you spend a lot of time contemplating Prince Thorian while your world was at war and you were studying to become a doctor?”
“Not really. I’d heard he was dead.”
“Then yes, I imagine he’s not what you expected. He’s probably more lifelike for starters.”
“Only slightly.” Kiyoko smiled.
Jelena didn’t return the smile. She wished Thor would lighten up and join their little crew more often for meals and the impromptu game nights that Erick and Austin had started.
“Captain?” Austin jogged into sight at the top of the ramp. “Erick said I should come see you about flying lessons.”
“He did? Were you making a mess in engineering again?”
“It’s not a mess, Captain. I just scavenged up some spare parts so I could add more power to my ghostometer.”
Kiyoko’s eyebrows twitched.
“I thought we’d decided the ghosts were gone, now that we’d allowed that monk on board to, uh, cleanse their spirits, was it?” Jelena still couldn’t believe the official Divine Suns Trinity monk, a grown man carrying a copy of the Xerikesh in one hand and clutching a bag of Ka’tah petals in the other, had possessed the gall to not only run that goofy candle-lit ceremony but also to charge Austin for it.
“I sure hope so, Captain, but I need to check to make sure. That’s why I want to ramp up the detector coil on my ghostometer. You can never be too safe. And with a spaceship, you never know what restless spirits might make their way aboard during a stop like this.” He frowned sternly at the dusty lot, as if it were a graveyard filled with the souls of the dead.
Jelena supposed she could imagine numerous gunfights breaking out in the area, resulting in more than a few deaths. Not wanting to throw fuel on Austin’s fire, she kept the thought to herself.
She whistled for Alfie and rose to her feet. It was as good a time as any for a flying lesson, especially since nobody else had volunteered to learn to be a backup pilot for the Snapper. Masika was busy painting the interior of the Snapper, and Thor was busy plotting to re-establish his empire. Erick seemed to believe keeping the ship in the air was a full-time job for him—besides, other tasks might get in the way of his ability to run virtual quests and combat missions with his cohorts in Striker Odyssey. Jelena certainly had nothing better to do until she heard back from Mom and Leonidas about their last assignment. And hopefully about a new assignment.
She hoped there would be a new assignment. Even though this last one could have been worse—much worse—she worried her parents would once and for all decide that she wasn’t old enough or mature enough to captain the Snapper. They hadn’t threatened her with taking the job away, not since Leonidas had been recovering from his heart transplant on Arkadius, but she knew she’d been far more reckless with their ship—and their assignments—than they preferred. But how was she supposed to pay off the rest of the debt they’d incurred on her behalf if all she did was run these poorly paying cargo hauling missions? Especially when she botched them and ended up owing money to the people who’d hired them?
Groaning, she rubbed her face. All she’d wanted when she pleaded for her parents to take on a second ship was to have some independence and find a way to prove herself, both to them and to the Starseer community. Instead, she’d ended up in debt and laboring in a tedious line of work for a living. How had this happened?
Alfie leaned against her leg. She appeared happy and content even though there wasn’t a rodent dangling from her lips. Jelena thought of Kiyoko’s observation, that the dog was usually happy. She was. Why couldn’t Jelena find some of that cheer?
“Humans aren’t as smart as dogs,” she murmured to her furry friend.
Alfie wagged her tail agreeably.
As Jelena turned to head into the ship, Thor stopped in front of one of the ragtag groups of men at the edge of the lot. She paused to watch. At first, she thought they might have stepped in front of him to impede him, but hands were lifted in greeting, and she had the impression that these people had been waiting for him. They were older than those in many of the other groups, but no better dressed and no less disreputable looking. Many of them carried rifles, daggers, and other weapons. She tried to decide if they looked like former imperial soldiers. It was hard to tell. Everyone wandering around the dirt lot carried weapons like they knew how to use them. The men were all old enough to have fought in the war more than ten years ago. Thor looked like a kid next to their grizzled faces. Would they see him that way? Or would they see him as their prince and some future war leader?
“Captain?” Austin prompted.
“Sorry, yes, I’m coming.” Jelena was tempted to try to read the thoughts of some of those men, but Thor might sense it, and she didn’t want him thinking that she didn’t trust him or felt the need to spy on him.
“Masika wants you.” Austin pointed a thumb into the cargo hold.
Masika was striding toward them with paint cans dangling from her hands.
“I was working on the hatch jambs in the corridor when the comm beeped in NavCom,” she said. “You might want to answer it this time, since ignoring it didn’t work well last time.”
“Yes, it was foolish of me not to stop to take calls in the middle of a battle.”
“I thought so,” Masika said mildly.
Chapter 3
Jelena jogged toward NavCom, glowworms writhing around each other in her belly as her concerns about what her parents might say returned to her mind. She took a bracing breath as she slid into the pilot’s seat and hit the comm button.
Mom and Leonidas appeared in a holodisplay above the console, both wearing stern expressions.
Jelena winced, glad this was a pre-recorded response to her message rather than a live call.
“Jelena,” Mom started the conversation, “we got your message about the snagor delivery, and we also got a message from the clients.”
“I bet,” Jelena muttered.
“You’re not to blame for the misunderstanding wit
h the drop-off spot, and as far as damages to androids go, it sounds like your crew was more circumspect in dealing with them than mine would have been.” Mom turned her head to gaze at Leonidas—at fifty, he still looked every bit the burly Cyborg Corps soldier he’d been for twenty years—who gazed blandly back.
Jelena barely noticed the exchange. She was too busy feeling relief that her parents weren’t angry with her over her naive bungling of the situation.
“Of course, hiring a lawyer to handle the litigation would be pointless out there among the border worlds, so I’ll talk to the various parties involved and see if we can reach a compromise. The non-circumspect usage of cyborg muscles may be involved.” Mom squeezed Leonidas’s biceps.
“It’s difficult to apply muscles from halfway across the system,” Leonidas pointed out.
“We can let it be known that we’ve been meaning to take a vacation out there on Gecko Moon. Perhaps an anniversary vacation. That’s coming up, you know.”
“I do know. You promised me Stan would watch the girls so we can slip away someplace—” Leonidas glanced at the camera, “—restful.”
“You wouldn’t find beating up obnoxious clients restful? I enjoy watching you be fierce, you know.”
They shared the kinds of smiles that had a tendency to make Jelena roll her eyes and give them some privacy, but the looks didn’t last for long this time. Mom grew more serious and turned back to the camera.
“For now, don’t worry about the snagor incident,” she said.
“You have something else to worry about,” Leonidas said, his expression also turning serious.
Uh oh. Was this about the loan Jelena was paying back? Could something have happened to accelerate or increase the payments?
“He assured us there wouldn’t be a reason to worry,” Mom said.
“He’s an arrogant fool who lies to get what he wants.”
“Young-hee has been reforming him, I understand.”
“He’s a recidivist. And she’s not going along.”
Jelena started to ask what they were talking about—it sounded like this had something to do with the Star Nomad’s one-time crew member, Abelardus—but remembered the message had been recorded and sent hours earlier.
“Yes,” Mom murmured, “that is a little concerning, but she’s pregnant with their fifth child, so it’s understandable that she wouldn’t want to go on adventures.”
“Who’s going on an adventure?” Erick asked, his voice muffled by chewing as he walked into NavCom.
Jelena waved him to the co-pilot’s seat without taking her eyes from the holodisplay. The word adventures had piqued her interest. Her parents wouldn’t use such a word about a simple cargo run, surely. Something else had to be afoot.
“It sounds more like a scheme than an adventure,” Leonidas grumbled.
“We’ll give Jelena the option to choose for herself whether she wants to participate.” Mom nodded at the camera, at Jelena.
Leonidas snorted. “As if she’s going to say no.”
“He knows you well for a mere stepfather,” Erick said.
“Don’t you have something you need to be doing in engineering?” Jelena asked.
“I’ve got Austin cleaning the snagor hairs out from between the machines down there.”
“You don’t think you should help?”
“I’m helping in a supervisory capacity.” Erick took a bite from something brown and leathery in his hand. Some kind of jerky made from who knew what kind of animal. Maybe one of the local rodents. For a hypochondriac, he liked taking chances with his health.
“Aren’t supervisors supposed to watch the people they’re supervising?”
“I’m a Starseer. I can watch him with my mind.”
“I’m sure,” Mom said, after sharing a long stare with Leonidas, “that Jelena will use the wisdom she’s gaining from her independent travels to make a good choice.”
Erick snorted.
Jelena swatted him.
“As you may have already guessed,” Mom said, addressing Jelena again, “Abelardus has been in touch. He wants to hire you and the Snapper to transport him on some kind of treasure hunt.”
“Treasure hunt?” Jelena wondered.
Now that sounded exciting. And potentially profitable. Did the people who transported the treasure hunters get a share of the treasure?
“Treasure hunt?” Erick asked, the question sounding far more skeptical when it came from his lips.
“Technically, he called it an archaeological expedition,” Mom said. “You’ll recall that Young-hee has been studying Starseer archaeology for several years, and that the reason she returned to the Arkadius Temple—now the Dacia Temple—was to research and teach. Apparently, she and some colleagues found something interesting, a powerful artifact from the pre-Order Wars era, and she started preparing an expedition to send out. She assumed a centuries-old artifact could wait a year before being searched for, and that her baby would be delivered and old enough to leave with her mother before she actually went out. But one of her colleagues disappeared, and they’re worried he might be mounting his own expedition, one that’s not approved by the community. So, she’s reluctantly letting Abelardus go off with another one of her colleagues to search.” Mom waved a vague hand. “You’ll have to get more details from Abelardus when you meet him, assuming you want to meet him. It’s entirely up to you if you want to transport him. He’s willing to pay, but it’s not any more than you’d make doing cargo runs during the weeks it will take you to pick him up, head out to the Trajean Asteroid Belt, look for the artifact, and bring him back to civilization.”
“The Trajean Asteroid Belt?” Erick scratched his head. “What kinds of artifacts would be out there? It’s farther out than any other planet, and it’s nothing but hiding places for criminals who don’t want to be found. Now the Kirian Asteroid Belt would make sense. Who knows what kinds of goodies might have survived the destruction of the Starseer home world?”
“Maybe some of the pirates out there stole artifacts from the Kirian Belt.” Jelena waved for him to hold his thoughts, since Mom was speaking again.
“I do want you to talk to him and consider carefully whether to go,” Mom said. “Leonidas and I offered to take Abelardus in the Nomad if he was willing to wait a couple of weeks until we had a gap in our schedule. He was quick to say that he couldn’t wait for a delay, even though it wouldn’t have been much of a delay. I’m afraid he may want you and your ship because…” Mom looked at Leonidas.
“I’m not there?” he suggested.
Mom smiled faintly. “That may be part of it, but I was thinking he might not want my father along on his artifact hunt.”
“Why?” Jelena asked, puzzled. Grandpa was more powerful than she and Erick combined. She wagered he could do things that even Thor, with all his special training, couldn’t. Grandpa would be amazing to have along on an adventure.
“It’s just a hunch,” Mom went on, apparently anticipating the question. “I definitely felt that Abelardus wasn’t doing this just for his wife, that whatever this artifact is, it might be something he personally hopes to benefit from.”
“As in keep it for himself?” Leonidas asked, and Jelena realized he might not have been there for the initial conversation if he was just now learning some of the details.
“Possibly,” Mom said. “I know he’s always wanted his children to be powerful leaders among the Starseer community.”
Leonidas’s expression twisted in distaste that Jelena didn’t quite understand. She had, of course, heard that a lot of Starseers believed in finding strong practitioners of the mental arts and keeping their bloodlines pure in the hope of creating superior babies, but she thought Abelardus and Young-hee had simply married because they loved each other.
“High ambitions for the temple beer brewer,” Leonidas said.
“He’s also a pilot,” Mom said.
“Noble.”
“Damn straight it is.” Mom swatted him o
n the shoulder, and Jelena blinked, realizing for the first time that she often did the same movement when people deserved it. Huh. Odd to think she was similar to her parents. To Mom, at least. She wasn’t sure she had any of Leonidas’s mannerisms. Unfortunately, she couldn’t remember that much of her real father anymore, not the mannerisms he’d had.
“Regardless,” Leonidas said, “you better keep an eye on Abelardus, Jelena. Sometimes, he’s tolerable, but he’s not trustworthy. There’s probably a reason he asked for the Snapper specifically instead of hiring some commercial transport.”
“Commercial transports don’t go to the Trajean Belt,” Mom pointed out.
“Fine, then he could have hired a smuggler or a pirate to take him out there.”
“For more than Jelena will do it for, perhaps.”
“That better not be true,” Leonidas said.
“Do bargain with him, Jelena,” Mom said. “If he has a specific reason for wanting you, he should be willing to drop some tindarks in your account. You’re doing well with paying back the loan, so don’t let that motivate you, but if he wants to take you into danger, he can very well pay a premium for it.”
Leonidas rubbed his face. “Maybe it’s a mistake even telling her about this dubious offer.”
“He was going to seek her out whether we approved or not,” Mom said. “Better that she have our warning first. And permission.”
Leonidas didn’t stop rubbing his face. Usually, he was the one who had the most faith in Jelena, believing she could handle herself out here in the border worlds. Strange that he was the one who seemed more worried about this.
He lowered his hand, sighed, and looked at the camera. “I am having someone join Abelardus’s team who should be the voice of reason and should be far more concerned about you than any Starseer treasures, Jelena.”
“Who would that be?” Jelena wondered.
Her mother’s expression grew wry with some secret knowledge.
“Not Grandpa,” Jelena reasoned. Mom had already implied he wouldn’t be involved.