“Thank you, sweetie,” Mom said. “Is everything all right there? Delivery going smoothly?”
“Xing's people are picking up the cargo now.” A monkey hooted, the sound muffled by the hatch. Jelena kept her face neutral and hoped it wasn’t audible over the pickup. “Everything’s fine here,” she said, glad she’d lured Erick away from NavCom. This wasn’t the time to give her mother something else to worry about.
“Good.” Mom looked over her shoulder and lifted a hand toward someone out in the corridor. “I better go back to check on him. Take care of yourself, and please hurry along. Leonidas gets cranky without Erick to yell at, you know.”
“He doesn’t yell. He just looks sternly at Erick, and Erick melts into an apologetic puddle, feeling guilty for every sinful thought he’s ever had.”
“Leonidas’s stern look has caused a lot of people to turn into puddles. Or leave them.” For the first time, Mom’s smile held a trace of her usual irreverent humor.
“Ew, are you being gross?”
“I wouldn’t think of it.” Mom reached for the comm, and Jelena expected a goodbye, but her hand paused. “Oh, Jelena? Have you heard from Thorian lately?”
“Thor?” she asked, puzzled by the topic shift. “He hasn’t written or commed for years. The last time was when he was sixteen, and he said he was super busy with his training.”
Jelena shrugged, as if the lack of communication didn’t bother her. It shouldn’t. Just because they had been friends when they had been eight and ten didn’t mean they were supposed to stay friends into adulthood. They hadn’t even spent time together in person since she’d been eleven, his instructors had given him a week-long break, and they’d been able to arrange a horse-riding trip on Upsilon Seven. He’d never been as enamored with the animals as she had, and he’d been talking about annoyingly grownup stuff the whole time, military strategy and the politics of the system. She’d suspected he’d been bored by hanging out with someone who still preferred talking about kid stuff.
Even if that hadn’t been true, she’d wondered a few times if Thor had been told by the other Starseers, those training him and any others he’d met, that Jelena and Erick were to be shunned, and if that might have more to do with his silence than differing interests. He’d seemed a little grumpy and distant even during those last couple of years that he had been keeping in touch.
“All right, good,” Mom said.
“Good?” Jelena asked, still puzzled. Or maybe more puzzled.
“If he does get in touch, let us know, please. Let me know. Leonidas doesn’t need to get wrapped up in anything . . . political right now.” Her lips pressed together, but Jelena wasn’t sure why. Oh, she knew that Mom and Leonidas had never seen eye-to-eye about the fall of the empire and the emergence of the Alliance, but that was all so long ago now. What could be going on that would bring the old tensions out again? Something to do with Thor? He would be twenty now. He wasn’t out there trying to raise a fleet to challenge the Alliance, was he?
“I doubt he’ll get in touch,” was all Jelena said, not wanting to make a promise she might not keep. She didn’t know enough about the situation—whatever the situation was—yet.
Mom’s eyes closed to thoughtful slits. She might not have Starseer talents, but she was good at sensing evasion.
“If he does,” Mom said, “don’t let yourself get drawn into anything. I trust I don’t have to remind you that the Snapper belongs to the family business and that you’re on a trial period captaining it.”
“I know that.”
A monkey hooted again. Jelena really needed to go down there and check on everything. And tell Erick about Leonidas. Now she wished she’d let him stay in NavCom with her, so he could have gotten the news from Mom, and she wouldn’t have to explain it. She was certain she’d break down into sobs if she spoke about it and not be able to articulate her concerns—not be able to articulate anything. Maybe she would just play the recording of the call for him.
“Good.” Mom’s face softened. “Take care of yourself, Jelena. Meet us as soon as possible.”
“I will.”
Jelena bit her lip, dropped her face into her hand, and closed her eyes. Tears leaked through her lashes as her mind spun of its own accord, imagining scenarios of what had happened to Leonidas. Had he been working out in his gym? Or resting in bed? Or playing with the twins? More tears streamed from her eyes as she imagined him horsing around with the girls, and Nika and Maya having to see him clutch his chest and drop to the deck. They would have been terrified. They were only nine. Too young to lose their father. Jelena knew all too well how that felt. And damn it, she didn’t want to lose another father.
The comm beeped. She ignored it.
A few seconds later, Erick spoke into her mind. Jelena?
She didn’t want to answer that call, either, but he needed to know about Leonidas. After ten years aboard the Nomad, he surely considered Leonidas a father figure too.
Can you come up to NavCom when you get a chance? At least with telepathy, her “voice” couldn’t break in the middle of a sentence.
Yes, in a minute. I’m helping Xing’s people get the last of their cargo so I can lock up. But, uh, have you heard about anything going on with Thorian?
Did Mom comm you too?
What? No. The workers were talking about some interesting news that’s apparently all over the system, for those who actually pay attention to such things. His words had a teasing quality to them. He definitely hadn’t spoken to Mom yet. He didn’t know.
Even though Thor wasn’t high on her list of priorities right now, Jelena found it odd that his name had come up twice in ten minutes from two different sources. What is it?
According to the news, he’s been assassinating people.
He’s what?
I’ll be up in a few minutes. We can look it up.
Jelena rubbed her eyes. This day was turning more and more surreal. Was there any chance she would wake up and find out she’d dreamed all of it?
She pinched her arm a little savagely to test the dream hypothesis. Nothing happened.
While she waited for Erick, she plugged Thor’s name into a sys-net search. A year or two ago, she’d looked him up out of curiosity, but there hadn’t been much. Not surprising, since he’d been lying low, pursuing his Starseer training for the last ten years. She was fairly certain the imperial loyalists handling it had wanted to spring him on the system as a surprise, the rightful heir to the empire returning to lead the rightful government to rule the system.
This time was different. Dozens and dozens of headlines for text and video reports sprang up on the holodisplay.
Former Prince Assassinates Another
Prince Thorian Sarellian Suspected in Chain of Assassinations
Vengeful Prince Springs out of the Shadows
Dux Bondarenko dead—Prince Thorian Responsible?
Retired Admiral and Mining Mogul Andrew Ruud Dead in Bed—Rogue Prince Suspected
Thorian Slays Men and Women Pivotal in Fall of Empire
“Slays?” Jelena asked, gaping at the headlines. “Assassinates? Thor?”
Feeling numb, she started one of the videos, as her mind played the memory of that horse-back riding trip again. Yes, Thor had been talking politics, and yes, she’d always known he wanted to fulfill the destiny his father had given him, to bring back the empire—after all, that was why he’d chosen to go with Dr. Dominguez and the imperial loyalist Starseers instead of staying aboard the Star Nomad and becoming a part of the family—but she couldn’t imagine him as an assassin. A military leader, yes, or something otherwise honorable, but could these stories be true? How would he gather the men he needed for a coup if he was known as some murdering criminal?
The hatch opened behind her as she was watching the fourth video.
“You’re not supposed to invite someone up for a chat and then lock the door on him,” Erick said.
“It didn’t seem to stop you,” she mumbled,
having forgotten she locked it.
“I can thwart any lock.”
Jelena didn’t look at him as he slid into the co-pilot’s seat. Her gaze was riveted by a news reporter. So far, none of the videos had shown any footage of Thor, nor had they mentioned any statements he’d made or letters he might have left explaining his actions. She wasn’t sure how he’d been identified as the person responsible for the deaths. Murders. The twelve men and women who had thus far fallen had either been poisoned with a dart or had their throats cut with a knife. Blessings of the Suns Trinity, could Thor have truly dragged a knife across someone’s throat?
“You found something?” Erick waved to the news video.
“A lot of somethings,” she said at the same time as Thor’s picture came up, an old picture that stirred nostalgia within her.
It was the blond, ten-year-old Thor she remembered from their time together, on the run from assassins who’d wanted him dead and would-be tyrants who’d wanted to use both of them. Those hadn’t exactly been good days worth remembering with fondness, but she and Thor had been close then. He’d protected her and helped her understand what it meant to have Starseer powers—she’d barely started developing her own then, and with her father newly dead, she’d been a mess. She wasn’t sure why he’d helped her when the other kids had ignored her or teased her, but she’d often looked back and felt she owed him something for that. His face was sad in the picture, and she remembered how he’d lost his parents right before they met, too, how they’d had that in common.
“Doesn’t look like the face of someone who’s been killing people,” Erick said.
“No, but they seem certain he’s responsible. I haven’t seen any of them talk about evidence or eyewitness sightings.”
Erick scratched the back of his head. “Then how can they know?”
Jelena shrugged and pulled up some of the articles and ran a search for the words evidence and proof. After a few minutes of scanning, she gathered that nobody could prove Thor was behind the murders, but that some former imperial loyalist had detailed Thor’s training to the media. Soon after, that man had been killed.
The list of people who had been assassinated added further clues to the culprit. The first five to fall had been men and women who had been behind the betrayal of the emperor’s family, giving up the location of the hidden base where Markus had taken his wife and son near the end. Dux Bondarenko—then Senator Bondarenko—was the man who’d gone on to round up the remnants of the empire and take control of the planet Perun, and he’d been the first man to be killed. Perun was reportedly in chaos now, trying to decide if their next ruler should be elected from the people or if they should follow another of the selected-by-Emperor-Markus, lifetime politicians from the time of the empire.
“How did we miss hearing about all this?” Jelena asked, checking the dates. Things had been unraveling quickly, with the first assassination only five weeks prior, but she was surprised her parents, who followed the news so they knew spots to avoid when scheduling freight runs, hadn’t mentioned any of this to her.
Her parents. She swallowed. She had to tell Erick about Leonidas.
“You were too busy planning ways to steal animals to check the mainstream news?” Erick suggested.
“Ways to liberate animals,” she said reflexively, even as she groped for a segue. “That may be, but why didn’t you hear about any of this? Were you too busy playing your game to watch the news?”
“I’d be too busy to watch the news even if all I had to do was pick lint out of my bellybutton hole.”
“If only we could figure out why you have trouble attracting women.”
“It is a mystery. My bellybutton is particularly fine, you know. And free of lint.”
“Lovely.” She took a deep breath. “Erick . . .”
The humor on his face vanished, and she could only imagine the look on her own that made him realize so quickly that something else had happened.
“I . . . here.” She couldn’t say it. She pulled up Mom’s call and played back the recording.
He watched in silence, a grimace deepening on his face. At the end, he smoothed his features and looked over at her with what was probably supposed to be a heartening expression. “That’s not good, but it sounds like he’s stable, and your mom has a good doctor lined up.”
“Yeah.” Jelena tried not to think about how it was a journey of almost a week to get to Arkadius. Would Grandpa be able to keep Leonidas stable that whole time? And when they got there, would the new doctor be able to easily fix the problem? A heart transplant, Mom had said. That was major.
“It’ll be fine. He’ll be fine.” Erick leaned over and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Hugs weren’t usually her favorite thing, but she accepted it, glad for the support. “Assuming Thorian doesn’t assassinate his doctor,” Erick added.
Jelena pulled back, horrified.
He winced, realizing his mistake right away, and lifted his hands in apology. “Sorry, it was a joke. I was just trying to make you feel better, but—no, it was a bad joke. I’m sorry.”
It had better be a joke. Jelena stared at the holodisplay, where Mom’s image still hovered. On the second play, Jelena had registered the information about the doctor. A former imperial subject who’d worked for the emperor himself and helped with the cyborg program. The news articles had emphasized that people who’d been key in the empire’s fall were being targeted by the assassin—she refused to think of Thor as the assassin. There wasn’t any damned proof. And wasn’t it possible someone might be framing him? Still, what if whoever was responsible considered that doctor as someone who should be targeted? What if the assassin struck right before Leonidas went into surgery?
“I’m sure it’s not a possibility,” Erick said, wincing again. He must have been able to guess exactly what she was thinking. “At the least, it would be extremely unlikely.”
“I . . . think we need to talk to Thor.”
“Your mom said not to do that.”
Jelena looked back to the articles about him, afraid for multiple reasons now. “We need to know if he’s truly responsible for these assassinations, and if he’s not, if he has any ideas as to who might be and where they might strike next. Of all people, Thor should be most aware of what the imperial loyalists out there are doing.”
“Fine. Send him a note then.”
“I don’t know how to get in touch with him. He deleted his old sys-net address some time ago.”
“Then it wasn’t meant to be.”
“Erick,” she said slowly, thoughts percolating through her mind.
“Oh no.” He lifted his hands.
“What?”
“I know that tone. You’re about to ask me to help you with something dubious. Something else dubious.”
“No, I was just thinking . . .”
“Always a dangerous occurrence.”
“Do you still keep in touch with Admiral Tomich?” she asked. The Alliance pilot was one of her mother’s friends, and Jelena had met him numerous times, but she couldn’t ask her mom for help looking up information on Thor, not after that admonition to avoid him. “You once said he played that game, too, right?”
“Striker Odyssey,” Erick said, as if it were a crime to refer to it as “that game.” “And yes, he’s in my crew.” His tone grew wary at that last.
Jelena’s mind boggled at the idea of a military admiral, a real-life pilot and high-ranking officer, playing a game where one pretended to be a pilot exploring the galaxy and fighting aliens. Granted, aliens and galaxies might be more interesting than the limited offerings of their own system, but still.
“So you talk to him all the time?”
“He’s not on all the time. He’s a busy man. But he does get invited to beta test when the devs add new ships.” Erick sighed wistfully.
“Can you get in touch with him?”
“Now? Do you want to confess your sins to him?”
“From the stories Mom has told,
he has more sins of his own than I’ll ever have.” Jelena hoped that was true as she thought again of the people who had been injured—or maybe worse—in her escapade. “I’d like to know if he knows about this Thor stuff and especially if he has a list of people who might be targets for future assassinations. He’s high up in the Alliance military. He might also know if Thor is truly behind this or if it’s someone else.” It occurred to her that the Alliance might be framing Thor, but that didn’t make sense. Why would they be killing the people who’d helped them overthrow the empire and take power?
“I’m not sure a pilot would be that knowledgeable on the doings of an assassin. Senator Hawk might be the one to ask. He’s been in office for years and probably plays golf and has tea with the president.”
“Yes, but he doesn’t play your game and know you. I assume.”
Senator Hawk was another of her parents’ acquaintances, but she knew his two eight-year-old sons much better than she knew him. She’d babysat for them at a few family-and-friends gatherings on Arkadius. She doubted it would be easy to get through to Hawk, and even if she could, news of the message might get back to Mom. Since Tomich had a non-Mom connection to Erick, he seemed a far more viable contact.
“You’re determined to get me involved in this, aren’t you?” Erick asked.
“We’re not getting involved in anything. We’re just gathering information.”
“Uh huh. Can I point out that it’s been less than twenty-four hours since the last thing you got me involved in?”
“Just comm him, please?”
“Fine, but you better go check on—”
“The animals, yes. I will. I hear the monkeys howling.”
“I was going to say the cyborg,” Erick said. “She’s awake. And she’s going to be trouble.”
“Oh. You’re sure?”
“Trust me. I can recognize trouble when I see it.” He gave her a pointed look.