Turk nodded. "They go looking for Ethan to tell him that they've arrived, they end up on the engine while he's not there, and discover who is funding the project."
Mikhail made a note that he would have to show Captain Bailey a picture of the dead Red to see if she could identify him. "Afterwards, Mary's Landing has leverage on Ethan to force him to go with them. Eraphie said that he had a minotaur and obnaoian with him, so some of his technical team survived."
"So we go to Mary's Landing and use our orders from the United Colonies to force them to turn Ethan Bailey and his team over to us?" Kutuzov said.
His crew was ready to fight someone, anyone. He could see the eagerness on their face to grapple with something other than the laws of physics, bare elements, language differences, and inscrutable but peaceful aliens.
"Mary's Landing is pre-United Colonies." Mikhail hurried to put a damper on that. "As such, it has no reason to cooperate. At the moment, it's a virtual unknown. Both Ethan and Hardin are operating covertly. Ya-ya and Fenrir authorities and most of the civilians were totally unaware of Hardin's activities. We have no justification for treating the entire landing as hostile—yet. We need to gather information and perhaps do a reconnaissance before attempting anything."
They nodded, obedient but a little disappointed.
"Hardin said he was coming to Ya-ya after he left Fenrir's Rock. We need to find out where he is. It's possible that he went to Mary's Landing instead and retrieved Ethan Bailey." Mikhail wanted to talk to Hardin before they escalated to armed confrontation. "Tseytlin, see if you can recreate that translation machine. Worse case scenario, we ask the seraphim ourselves what they want. Moldavsky, translate out those coordinates. Amurova, run every test you can think on the minotaur children. We'll be leaving them here when we leave, so I want to gather as much information as I can before we go. Turk, see if you can figure out some type of weapon that might work on our unwanted guests."
Tseytlin held up a finger. "I have a few ideas on that line."
Mikhail indicated that Tseytlin should pair up with Turk. "Kutuzov, you have command of the ship, I'm going to talk with Captain Bailey. Keep on top of the repairs. I want us in fighting shape and ready to leave as quickly as possible."
* * *
Paige's fight with Turk had her family all spooked. True to his word, though, Mikhail had sent Rabbit to her, complete with his gear, which he didn't have to do. The combat suit alone was worth hundreds of yen. Whatever Turk might feel or not feel, Mikhail was obviously interested in maintaining a relationship with the Rosetta.
Rabbit was truly a dear thing. Once she managed to convince him that she wasn't angry with him for shooting at her, he relaxed and focused on fitting in. He was very good at it, better than Turk, and didn't even trigger Mitch into displays of dominance. The only thing was that with two sets of teenage lovers onboard there was no way she could ignore that she was all alone. That stupid idiot.
The very worst of it was knowing Turk had taken all the abuse that the cat fancier had dished out to him but had lashed out at her and her family. For whatever reason he could withstand abuse but he couldn't extend common courtesy to the people that rescued him, protected him, loved him . . .
Paige blinked at burning in her eyes, determined not to cry over the lout.
The Rosetta had a new engine. They were nearly done with all their repairs. And they had money left over for supplies. The Svoboda was also nearly completely repaired and knew where to find other translators. Paige was tempted to bolt from Ya-ya and save herself the pain of having to deal with Turk again.
As if summoned by her thoughts of him, Mikhail hailed her from the dock.
"Permission to come aboard?" Mikhail didn't even have a guard with him. Then again, the Svoboda was close enough to spit on.
"Come on up, Misha," she used his nickname to show that she wasn't mad at him.
He came up onto the deck and watched as they passed materials down through the halls for finishing up the crew quarters. "This is the last of your repairs?"
Paige nodded, not sure what to talk to him about. She would not ask how Turk was.
"I was hoping that Ethan might have given you a location for the ship he wanted you to salvage."
"No. He said he'd talk details when we got to Fenrir's Rock. Radios are not the most private way to talk. Discussing a find means that anyone listening in could decide to beat you to the claim. A hundred thousand miles is a long way to go to find out someone stole the salvage out from under your nose."
Mikhail nodded, his disappointment showing on his face.
"Why do you ask?" she asked.
"The seraphim are the bodhisattvas of the nefrim. Eraphie said Ethan told the Lilianna that it was a seraphim ship they were going to salvage."
Paige studied him hard. He was telling her the truth. He wasn't sure if he should trust her completely, but he needed her. And what's more, he wanted to trust her. She nodded. "I talked to Ethan a couple times before my radio died. We went over general details like how deep down the ship was, what equipment we would need—those kind of things. He wanted to know if I'd ever dealt with a bull of a certain Holt. I hadn't. I figured that the Holt was close to the salvage but I didn't want to ask on the open air. I asked if we were going to be trading with him, and Ethan said that we were and I should do homework on him."
"If the Svoboda went to see why the seraphim wanted this nefrim ship salvage, will we need to interact with the minotaur?"
Paige groaned and covered her eyes with her hands. She should have bolted.
"We will." Mikhail guessed from her reaction. "You don't really want to come with us."
She sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "Misha, Misha, Misha. You're going to need my whole fucking ship. You don't have the equipment and know how to salvage a spaceship out of several hundred feet of water. Hell, do any of your people even know how to swim?"
He shrugged. "I—really don't know. I can. Turk can." But he didn't offer up anyone else.
She so didn't want to say yes, but it was hard, knowing that Mikhail was doing this for no other reason than to fight the nefrims. "Let me think about it."
"We also need to find Hardin's ship, the Red Gold. He might be here in Ya-ya, or he might have gone to Mary's Landing to get Ethan."
* * *
It was fairly easy to cross-check the harbor authority logs with the local gossip to find out that the Red Gold hadn't been in Ya-ya for weeks. She radioed Mary's Landing, and asked them to connect her with Ethan or Eraphie. It was fairly standard practice and shouldn't have raised a commotion. The cagey answers she got, along with crude attempts to pry information out of her, suggested that Mary's Landing was lying.
It would take time to find someone in Ya-ya who might be able to connect her with an reliable source at Mary's Landing. Until then, it was a rare clear day in Ya-ya, so she took Mikhail, a young female ensign, and a guard—a Red by the name of Coffee—to the top of Yamaguchi.
"There is something intrinsically wrong about climbing around on the outside of a spaceship without a spacesuit on," the ensign complained as they scaled up the outside of the Yamaguchi via ladders.
"If it makes you feel better, we can go back and get you a spacesuit." Mikhail's eyes showed that he was teasing. Paige covered her mouth to keep from laughing as the ensign already seemed annoyed.
The top ridge of the Yamaguchi was the highest point for a hundred thousand miles. As Paige hoped, the view was clear all the way to Mary's Landing, thousands of miles down the axis, and a few hundred in the direction of the spin. There was a large storm front sweeping in from the Counterspin. It extended down the negative for hundreds of miles, but most likely it would miss Mary's Landing. The ensign had a day to study Mary's Landing until the top of Yamaguchi became unsafe.
As usual, the sight of Queen Mary IV mesmerized the newcomers. The cruise liner was built to impress and it was sad to know that, three generations after it vanished, it was still the largest, most
stunning ship ever created by man. Especially since it was inhabited by people with a very civ outlook at life.
If Mary's Landing was Hardin's backer, then Ethan had done more than just destroyed Fenrir's Rock when he sent back the engine. He'd started a cascade of events. Mikhail's arrival was just one of many reactions. Hardin and Mary's Landing now knew it was possible to travel back to normal space. The United Colonies knew there was a place of mystery. And they had the engine. Even if Mikhail never returned, and Ethan refused to cooperate further with Mary's Landing, the pressures of the Nefrim War would still cause the United Colonies to send more ships, only next time they might have modifications made to the engines.
The door was open. There was no shutting it.
The question now was what would be the best future for her family, and everyone that had adapted blood? If Mary's Landing gained control of that door, and managed to keep control of policies set, then adapted and their offspring would stay things to be owned. New Washington was only slightly better, as they might see offsprings as free born people. Under Viktor, the Novaya Rus Empire had already banned the production of Blues as immoral. Turk was proof that Reds could be considered free. And Mikhail, as the next Tsar, had offered protection.
Clearly, it was in her family's best interest that Mikhail be the one to control the door.
The Hak had said that she couldn't stand still in the ocean. That she would be carried either by the current or pick her own course. If she wanted the best for her family out of this, then she had to help Mikhail.
"The Queen Mary wasn't that heavily armed originally." Mikhail finally broke his awed silence.
"When you have a habit of kidnapping your neighbors, you need big guns to discourage people coming and taking them back."
"I suppose." Mikhail murmured. "Moldavsky, feed what you can into the rendering program."
"I probably can find people that can tell you details of the harbor. People here in Ya-ya tend to be pure human. And Ya-ya is too big of a bite for Mary's Landing to chew. Ceri might be able to tell you a little about the layout of the ship, but it's hard to say. She was very young when she left, and from what I understand, Blues really don't have run of the ship."
"I happen to have all the deck plans of the ship," Mikhail admitted.
"You do?"
"Because of Viktor. I had a slightly morbid curiosity about how my first self died."
"He didn't die in the crash. He . . ." She caught herself before finishing.
"Killed himself. Yes. Eraphie told me." Mikhail pulled a photo out of his pocket. "I hate to ask you this, but do you know this person?"
Paige glanced at the photo and instantly tears burned in her eyes. It was her cousin, Jack. "Oh god."
"He's one of your cousins?"
Paige held out the photo blindly. She didn't want to look at it again, see him so battered and dead. He'd been so strong and healthy last time she'd seen him. "It's Jack. He's Eraphie's older brother."
Mikhail took back the photo. "I'm sorry for your loss."
Paige nodded mutely. She didn't want to break down in front of these strangers. She blinked furiously, trying to clear her vision. "When you told us about the Lilianna, I assumed he was dead . . .but . . .but you keep hoping for a miracle."
"Yes, I know." Mikhail glanced toward the Svoboda, sitting like an odd gosling among the fishing boats. "I meant to say this earlier, but thank you for saving my brother. And please, don't be angry with him. Turk should have had the world on a silver platter, but that's not how it's been. He's had a hard life."
"He shouldn't have called my baby sister a slut."
"No, he shouldn't have." Mikhail considered for moment, obviously looking for something safe to say. All he came up with was, "He really shouldn't have."
Paige caught of sight of a large ship slowly moving toward Ya-ya's harbor entrance, attracting attention to a flock of pilot boats.
"What is it?" Mikhail asked.
She realized that she'd gasped. "It's a minotaur ship. It's probably the parents of our lost calves. We need to get back."
* * *
Paige tried to focus on the upcoming meeting with the minotaurs. They left Moldavsky and Coffee on the Yamaguchi, however, which meant that Turk met them at the Rosetta with a security detail. Nor was there time to stand and argue; the harbor authorities wouldn't want the minotaurs to come in under their own power and the minotaurs were probably not going to be patient about finding their children. As they cast off, Turk followed her like her own personal thunderstorm.
"If you're going to be like that, go away," she finally snapped at him. She didn't have time to dwell on his hurt feelings.
"I'm doing my job," Turk lowered his voice when he was angry, and it rumbled like distant thunder.
"No, you're not." She brushed past him to grab her boots out of her locker. She wished she had thought to impose some kind of ban to keep the Russians off of the Rosetta. The boat was just too tight of quarters to ignore him. "You're following me around like a hurt little boy, like I've done something wrong when you're the one with a problem."
"You lied to me."
"No I didn't." She pulled on her boots with the steel cleats fastened to the sole. The loud stomping she could achieve with the boots was satisfying in the mood she was in.
"You told me there were no other Reds onboard."
"And there weren't. My family wasn't born out of jars and we weren't raised in a crèche."
"Eraphie can fur over. Can you?"
"What kind of question is that?"
"Can you?"
He wanted her to confess that she was some kind of monster.
"I will not dignify that with an answer." She stomped to her cabin to find her cap.
He followed close enough for her to almost feel his body heat. "Why can't you just tell me?"
"Because it's all a DNA crap shoot which of us can and can't. Where is the line of humanity? How many generations do we need to be away from the crèche before you get over your bigotry?"
"You didn't even give me a chance to—understand."
It didn't help that her cabin smelled like him. With his scent, it seemed to hold dangerous memories of being in his arms and happy. She snatched up her cap and turned to leave, but he filled the doorway, blocking her escape.
"I brought you on board my ship with my baby sisters and my little brother and my younger cousins. I was putting all their lives on the line. I didn't know shit about you except you were wearing Red combat armor." She slapped said armor hard enough that her hand stung. It made her angrier, and she was tempted to hit him harder, but it would probably only hurt her.
"And you couldn't tell by the time we got to Ya-ya that I wasn't raised in a crèche?"
"I could tell you're a bigoted shit." She gave him a shove, wondering if he was going to force her to fight with him. "You hate being adapted." He didn't back up enough for her to squeeze past, so she shoved him again. "You don't respect people that you think are adapted." She dropped her voice to mimic his deep growl, shoving him yet again. "Why didn't you tell me Ceri wasn't human? What the fuck difference would it make if she was a Blue or Red or Purple, for god's sake, except in your maggoty little brain?"
"Maggoty?" he rumbled dangerously, but he'd backed up enough that she could escape him.
"You're pissing me off." She stomped away from him. "Go away before I find nastier names to call you."
The idiot followed her. "Were you ever going to tell me?"
"You left me!" She was losing it. Her volume was raising as his timbre dropped lower. "Before telling you could become an issue, you left! Why are we even having this discussion? As soon as you and your brother can track down Hardin, you're going away and never coming back."
"Did you think if I didn't know, I might stay?" He was reaching subsonic level.
"You've made it fairly clear that you were only staying with me because you were afraid to deal with Ya-ya on your own." The urge to add more hurtful things hit h
er and she locked her jaw against it. "Go away!"
"Can you fur over?" He pressed.
"Go away!" she shouted.
"You didn't tell me when you knew it was important to me. You knew. You knew and kept silent. If you had told me, I wouldn't have called Hillary a slut. I would have realized that Hillary would see Rabbit as a potential mate. I would have known what putting him with her would have ended up with. You totally blindsided me and then acted like I'm—zlody—the evil one."
"No I can't fur over." She snapped. "My mother couldn't either; she was just half-Blue, so she died of hypothermia when my parent's boat went down. Orin and Charlene and Hillary can and they survived. But we had a baby brother that couldn't—just like me—and he died—just like I would have died if I'd been with them."
She turned away because if he'd looked relieved that she couldn't fur over, she would have hurt him, with both words and fists.
Orin came clambering down from the bridge. "It's Hoto's ship! Someone must have gotten a message through to him about his kids." He glanced toward Turk, and his eyes narrowed as he guessed what was going on. "We're almost to the peace docks." They were wood floating platforms that served as neutral ground outside of the city. "The pilot boats have corralled the minotaurs to the docks, but they're afraid that the minotaurs will plow their way in if a translator doesn't show up soon."
"I'm coming!" Paige bellowed.
* * *
Turk growled with annoyance as Paige turned away from him yet again. He said one thing out of surprise—she'd lied for days and days. She was painting him as a villain without even trying to understand what he'd gone through all his life at the hands of cat fanciers. Bringing in her parents' death was totally underhanded; it had nothing to do with lying to him and causing this mess.
Orin stepped in front of Turk, blocking his view of Paige. "Don't be such a hypocritical bastard. Just leave my sister alone."
"I asked if I was the only Red on board and she lied to me. You all lied to me."
"Well, if I'd known that you wouldn't dirty your hands with the likes of us, I would have told you. Saved my sister from a cat fancier."