The Zanari Inheritance

A Children of Zanar Novel

By Niall Teasdale

Copyright 2017 Niall Teasdale

Amazon Kindle Edition

Contents

Part One: The Girl Without A Home

Part Two: Lessons for Life

Part Three: A Sister in Need

Part Four: Home Is Where You Choose To Be

Notes

Part One: The Girl Without A Home

Abertine University, Abertine Prime, 44/1/483 BCC.

Kaya Trevorny’s world came to an end in the student welfare office of Abertine University, seventy-four days after her eighteenth birthday. She stood in the sunlight streaming in through the window, stared at the dean and the welfare officer, and asked if they would please repeat what they had just told her.

‘You should sit down, Sora Trevorny,’ the welfare officer said, trying for a smile which was both comforting and conciliatory, and failing to manage either.

Kaya could barely hear the woman anyway; the sound of the blood rushing in her ears was too loud. ‘I don’t need to sit,’ Kaya said. ‘I need you to tell me again, because I’m sure I didn’t hear it right the first time.’

‘I’m afraid it’s true, Sora Trevorny,’ the dean said. He was a large man. On Sadrine’s Drift, he would have been called fat, but the climate of Abertine was significantly cooler than Kaya’s home world, and the local population tended to like putting on some extra insulation. ‘The colonial office on Sadrine’s Drift failed to make its regular report. A BCU Security vessel was sent to check. They found, um, no survivors.’

‘O-oh,’ Kaya replied. ‘I think, perhaps, I will sit down now.’

~~~

Kaya opened her eyes and looked up at a white ceiling. There was something about it that suggested a medical facility, and she finally decided that the something was actually the white, featureless visual and the smell of antibacterial agents. That almost certainly meant that she was in a hospital or the university’s infirmary. If it was the former, it was possible that she had just suffered some form of delusional nightmare following an accident. She lifted her head, not entirely sure she wanted to know the truth, and saw a medical technician wearing a blue-and-white smock with the university’s logo on it. Not a nightmare then: Kaya had fainted after learning that everyone she knew was dead.

‘You’re awake then,’ the meditech said, smiling. He had a nice smile and Kaya might have noticed it more under other circumstances. ‘How are you feeling?’

That had to be one of the stupidest questions Kaya had ever been asked. ‘Like I’m suddenly an orphan,’ she replied.

His face fell. ‘Uh, oh, yeah. Sora Grave mentioned the, uh, circumstances. She said to tell you that you’re excused from lectures for the next week and her door is always open.’

Kaya thought Grave was a terrible name for a welfare officer, but it was probably inappropriate to mention that. ‘I… I want to know what happened,’ she said instead.

‘I guess that’s a question for her. You don’t have any family who could have been–’

‘Sadrine’s Drift is a fairly new colony. I was in the second generation to be born there. We were getting established. We were hoping to begin trading out of the system soon, but… I mean, my coming here was big. If my teacher hadn’t thought I had such potential as a healer… The colony pulled together all the spare money they could find to send me…’ She trailed off, realising that she was, more or less, babbling. ‘No, I don’t think there will be any other survivors.’

‘Oh. So, um, you’re a biokinetic?’ The tech was grasping at anything that might take her mind away from what had happened to her, and they both knew it.

Kaya nodded. ‘I’m not that great at it yet. I can scan, detect injuries, illnesses, you know? I was hoping to learn the rest. My teacher on Sadrine’s Drift used to work here and he had all these instruments that said I had a lot of potential.’

The tech smiled and waved his hand at the bank of monitors beside the bed. ‘I have to use all these things to work out what’s wrong with you. You just look at someone for a while.’

Smiling weakly, more because it would make her carer feel better rather than anything else, Kaya nodded again. ‘Yeah. Um, am I okay to leave?’

‘All the instruments say you can. But I’d suggest going straight ho– Uh, straight to your lodgings. Take it easy for a day or two.’

Kaya swung her legs off the bed and was a little surprised to discover that her knees did not buckle as she regained her feet. ‘Oh, I don’t plan to do anything but sit in my room and cry until at least tomorrow.’

~~~

Crying, it seemed, was out of the question at this stage. Kaya came to the conclusion, after an hour or so, that she simply could not believe that the place she had grown up was no longer there. Mourning her loss was going to have to wait until she could accept that there was something to mourn.

Abertine’s twenty-nine-hour days did not help. She was still not really used to them having spent her entire life with an eighteen-hour day. That worked nicely, eighteen hours: twelve hours to work and six hours to sleep, which sat well with the circadian rhythm which had been engineered into humans during the great colonisation phase centuries ago. Twenty-nine hours was just crazy. What did you do with the extra daylight? What did you do with the extra, seemingly endless, night?

Native Abertines took a nap around midday and then stayed up late partying, or some other form of relaxation, before going to bed. Kaya found herself staring at the walls in the dark most nights, but she had developed the habit of watching the local news channels so that she could get a better idea of what was going on on this world she now called home. This night, sleeping was even harder, but it did give her her first insight into what had happened back on her real home.

‘Information on the exact nature of the colonisation event is scarce,’ the announcer on the Abertine News Network said, ‘but Sadrine’s Drift has been declared off-limits to all traffic. A BCU interdiction is in effect for the entire system and BCU Security have placed automated interdiction satellites in orbit over the planet.’

Kaya frowned at her computer screen and gestured to mute the sound. A BCU interdiction generally meant a quarantine for disease or some form of natural pollutant which made the planet unsafe. Or it meant nuclear or biological war, but it was pretty unlikely that the colonists had started a war among themselves in under a sexagoy. There had never been any indication of toxic agents in the atmosphere, not in sixty-two years of humans living on the planet. That left plague, but it had to have been introduced to the population after Kaya left, because there had been no indications of unusual diseases before then. If there had been, someone would likely have asked Kaya to look at one of the patients.

So, why had Sadrine’s Drift been interdicted?

45/1/483.

‘I’m afraid we don’t have any more details of what happened than were reported on the news channels, Sora Trevorny,’ Sora Grave said apologetically.

‘But they’ve blocked all access to the system,’ Kaya replied. ‘They’d only do that for some sort of plague or natural disaster with continuing danger, and why not just say that’s what happened?’

‘Well…’ Grave stared at Kaya for a second, apparently trying to come up with a reason. ‘I’m sure I don’t know, but I’m sure they have their reasons.’

‘I’m sure they do. Quite sure, yes.’ Kaya had to wonder who she was trying to convince. ‘But I just… I’ve no sense of closure. They… They’re not dead until I know why. I can’t just accept that… I just can’t accept it and move on. I can’t.’

Grave pursed her lips. ‘I can put an enquiry through to BCU Security. Your personal interest may be enough to get them to open up a little.’

‘That would be really great if you could. Thank you, Sora Grave.’

Grave smiled. ‘I am the student welfare officer. Your peace of mind is part of my remit.’

~~~

Peace of mind was not something Kaya felt she should be enjoying. If she accepted the story she was being spun, her mother, father, brother, and sister, along with everyone on Sadrine’s Drift, were dead and she would never see any of them again. If it was not true…

She had, as an act of desperation, attempted to send a message home. Blowing the money on an interstellar message to get no reply from a dead world would have been frustrating and wasteful and probably useless… But instead of no reply from Sadrine’s Drift, she had got an automated response stating that all message traffic to the address she had given was blocked under BCU Interdiction Order 409.

Computers were not a big deal on a largely agricultural, very young colony, and Kaya’s computer skills were, even she had to admit, not great, but she managed to locate the interdiction order on the BCU public web. It told her what she already knew: that all access to Sadrine’s Drift had been banned following a ‘colonisation event.’ She had to look that term up to be sure of precisely what it meant, and she discovered that it was the sanitised version of ‘everyone died without warning.’ Colonisation events were only assigned to colonisation failures within the first century of a colony’s lifetime and, in many cases, the reason for the complete destruction of so much life was never fully investigated. Colonies failed; there was only reason to discover the cause when someone else wanted to make a second attempt.

But here there had been some form of investigation, if only a cursory one. A Security ship had entered the system and determined that it should be placed under interdiction. That suggested that they knew, but they had not made the reason public. It made no sense… Unless the colony was not dead and the interdiction had another purpose.

‘And,’ Kaya said to herself as she sat at her computer, ‘I am now passing into paranoid delusion to avoid admitting the truth.’ She paused, staring at the interdiction order again. ‘Aren’t I?’

47/1/483.

Planetside, officers of the Bowrain Commerce Union Security Force did not exactly dress to reassure. They wore black: black tunics with high collars baring rank insignia, the logo of BCU Security over the left breast; black slacks which always seemed to have creases pressed to the point of being dangerous weapons; black boots, relatively stylish, but formal-looking. There was no uniform cap; the thinking was that military organisations wore caps, and BCU Security was not a military organisation. No, of course they were not.

Kaya sat in one of the guest chairs in Sora Grave’s office and looked at the two officers who had come to see her to explain the situation on Sadrine’s Drift. Grave had insisted on being present and the officers did not appear to have a major problem with that. Not a major problem…

‘You understand that any information presented here is classified,’ the male officer said. He had introduced himself as Officer First Class Pen Hilliond. That made him reasonably senior, in the local environment anyway. Kaya vaguely suspected that he had been selected because he was handsome, square-jawed, and looked like he should be trustworthy. He smiled a lot and had very white teeth. ‘Nothing we say here may be communicated to anyone outside this room.’

‘Of course,’ Grave said, smiling up at Hilliond.

‘Why?’ Kaya asked.

‘I’m sorry?’ Hilliond asked in return.

‘My home has, apparently, died in the sexagoy I’ve been away, but colonies fail and there’s generally no reason to keep the reason secret.’

‘It isn’t being kept secret–’

‘You’ve classified it. Isn’t that keeping it secret?’

‘We don’t know what caused it,’ the other officer, the woman, said. She was probably jumping in before Hilliond dug himself a deeper hole. She had been introduced by Hilliond as Patrol Leader Mara Killean. Kaya was not absolutely sure, but she thought that meant that Killean outranked Hilliond. Killean looked older, less polished. She looked like she was an active-duty officer while Hilliond sat behind a desk. ‘Standard policy is to classify all data on the subject until an investigation is completed or deemed unnecessary.’ She appeared to anticipate Kaya’s next question too. ‘We do have a report from the ship which was sent to check the colony office. It found circumstances suggesting potential biological or chemical causes for the deaths of the colonists. That is why there is an interdiction in effect.’

‘It’s all perfectly normal operating procedure,’ Hilliond added. He smiled and Kaya felt the slight pressure on her mind which indicated that someone had just tried to use a psi effect on her. Someone, probably Hilliond, had attempted to press a suggestion into her head.

‘I’m sure it is,’ Kaya said, trying hard to keep the shock off her face. ‘I… Thank you for your candour, officers. I think I should… I really need to be alone for a while.’

‘You’ll be all right, Sora Trevorny?’ Grave asked as Kaya struggled to her feet.

‘Yes. Yes, thank you, Sora Grave. I’ll be… Yes.’ Nodding to the two officers, Kaya hurried to the door and got out of the room as fast as she could.

BCU Security had tried to influence her using psi so that she would believe their story! It was crazy, but maybe her paranoid delusion had more truth to it than she thought. Maybe they really were covering something up. Something bad. Something… Kaya had no idea what they might be covering up, but she knew two things. First, she knew that she needed to find out what was going on. Second, she was fairly sure that Killean did not believe that Kaya had bought their story.

~~~

Kaya unplugged her computer to pack the cord away in her backpack. The pack was already full of the majority of her clothes, not that she had much in the way of clothing, a few toiletries, and a couple of personal items she felt she could not do without. The computer would be folded and packed next, and everything else would have to be left behind. If she could complete her quest before the end of the sexagoy, it would all be waiting for her. After that… Well, she planned to use all the money earmarked for her accommodation and studies to execute her plan, so losing a few physical objects meant nothing really.

BCU Security was hiding something. She was sure of it. She had to do something about it. She had to go home and find out whether her family was alive or dead and, if the latter, how. There was no way she was going to get help from anyone on Abertine. Correction: anyone official on Abertine. The BCU would be no help and she was an outsider on the planet, there on a student visa, so the government would be no use. There was no consulate she could go to. But she could go to someone unofficial, someone who would care less about BCU Security and their interdiction…

Except that she had very little clue about how to go about finding a smuggler or mercenary who could get her back to Sadrine’s Drift. The only thought she had managed to come up with was one little titbit of advice one of the older settlers had given her before she left: stay away from the spaceport districts because there are bad people in those places. Kaya had noted the advice and had in fact avoided the area around the main spaceport, not that she had ever had much reason to go there… until now.

Down City.

They called the place Down City, but it was not exactly a city, more a collection of buildings grown organically from the seed of the spaceport it sat beside. Maglev tracks ran from the port to the more civilised cities to the north and east, passing over Down City as though it was not there. To get in, you had to drive or walk, either through one of the few gateways out of the port or from the outside; hired cars did not go to Down City.

Kaya walked in from the port, trying not to show how nervous she was. Somewhere in her mind, the thought had occurred that the relatively tight security of Abertine would not allow Down City to be as bad as her imagination, and the place’s reputation, made it out to be, but this was the stronghold of visiting inplanitin, off-worlders, and they had their own rules.

Of course, Kaya was one of them, an inplaniti just like the people wandering the streets here. But Kaya was from a world which just did not fit into the mainstream of the BCU. Even to some of the politer Abertines, Kaya was a nong: someone from a backwater world where the main export was mud. She knew that the term was not entirely unjustified, even if it was derisive: Sadrine’s Drift was, like many small colonies, based largely around agriculture. It was a fairly simple place, backward in technology, holding its own but little more, and about as cosmopolitan as a forest glade. Kaya had no idea how to behave around the rougher elements of BCU society and, worse, she had the horrible feeling that those around her could smell her insecurity. It probably smelled a lot like blood from a wounded prey animal.

So, Kaya pulled her collar up, put her head down, and hurried as best she could through the tight streets lined with roughly prefabbed buildings. It was late and she needed to find somewhere she could stay for the night. She should have felt safer at the sight of Abertine patrol officers, but she had the feeling she needed to avoid them as much as the locals. The fact that she saw them made her feel a little safer, just not much.

One of the things Kaya had noticed as she searched the buildings for lodgings was that a lot of the people in Down City were armed. That kind of thing was not allowed in other areas, but here it seemed that carrying a gun or a knife was considered normal and she had nothing but her pack. Her clothing was not as camouflaging as she might have hoped as well. She had dressed for Abertine culture, and weather, in clothes she had bought after arriving. That had not been especially easy since Abertines tended to a rather more robust body form; Kaya had found herself looking in the children’s sizes a lot and she was wearing garments which probably suggested her age was about five years below what it was.

On the other hand, her jacket was made of a tan hide with a fur lining which kept her warm, and her leggings and skirt were made of a local wool which kept the heat in. Her boots… Her boots were her one concession to egotism, but even they helped with the cool temperatures on Abertine. They were leather and laced up her thighs, and had a slight platform and high heels. The latter was partially to keep her feet dry in the snow, which was something of a standing feature on the planet at this time of year, but there was the added benefit of bumping up her height; Kaya had always considered herself short, though at 178 cm, she was only a little below average. A little extra lift in her boots had helped on Abertine, where the locals were stocky but taller thanks to the marginally low gravity.

Even with the insulation her clothes provided, she wanted to be off the streets before darkness truly descended: the sky was clear and it would get cold when the light went. The sight of a building with a ‘Rooms: Vacancies’ sign outside it filled her heart with glee, at least until she walked in and discovered the other sign, which gave rates for the rooms by the day and the hour. Kaya marched up to the reception counter anyway: girls trying to run an interdiction blockade around their home world could not be choosers.

48/1/483.

The long Abertine night had seemed even longer than usual, and the light covering of snow Kaya found when she walked out of her lodgings did not make her feel better. Thank the Mind for sturdy boots, that was all she could say.

The traffic in the hotel had not helped with Kaya’s mood. Late into the dark hours, people came and went along the corridor outside her room and there were sounds of various sorts from the adjacent rooms. Prostitution was not something Kaya was unaware of. The majority of colonies set out with a few people who provided paid companionship, either as a career or a side line, because there were proven psychological benefits to a healthy sex life and not everyone could find a permanent partner. Sadrine’s Drift had had two hundred thousand people on it and some of them had been escorts. It was just that Kaya had never met any of them, did not know any of them, and had never spent a night in a room next door to any of them. It had been… distracting, but it had quietened down enough for her to get some sleep.

Her room had no bathing facilities, just a sink. There was a bathroom on each floor, but there was no way Kaya was going near that, so she had washed as best she could, dressed, and headed out onto the streets, taking everything she had with her. The hotel, if you could call it that, did not allow bookings for longer than a night. It seemed to assume transient status for its guests, some transiting through a lot faster than others, and Kaya was determined that she would try to find another place to stay if she could find no one to help her today. She needed to find someone, preferably as soon as possible.

~~~

There was a general air of tension in the room as Thea entered carrying the large, metal case which was the reason for the meeting. A simple courier operation, that was the job. Collect the case, deliver the case, don’t ask questions. Thea was a professional and she did not care what she was delivering. She did care about the people she was delivering it too, if they looked like they were nervous and, almost automatically, she began to read them as soon as she saw them.

There were three, all native Abertines. Two were, fairly obviously, there as muscle: a woman with short-cropped hair who had to mass over ninety kilos, and not all of it was insulating fat; a man with a slightly lighter frame, thick black hair, and a nose which had seen more than its share of bar fights. And then there was the leader, taller and slimmer than his companions, but also less muscular, less effective in a fight but more intelligent. He was smiling, a wide smile which failed to reach his eyes. His eyes shifted from Thea, to the case, to Jinny walking in second and closing the door.

Jinny was smiling. She had been a little sour for the last hour or two as things went smoothly all the way through from arrival at the spaceport to the delivery point in Down City. Now she was smiling and that, as much as anything else, put Thea on guard. Jinny was not the telepath Thea was, but she could read a room and she was expecting things to get ugly.

‘You’re the courier?’ the leader of the natives asked. Thea just nodded. ‘You’re supposed to be alone.’

‘That was not stipulated in the contract,’ Thea replied evenly, ‘and absolute security of the package was. My companion is here to make sure the delivery is made.’

The man’s gaze flicked back to Jinny who was standing there with one hand on a cocked hip, grinning. She was a slight girl, skinny. As a concession to the climate, she was dressed in a thermal bodysuit which concealed the fact that she had a toned body, even if it was thin. She looked almost child-like with large violet eyes, a small pert nose, and a heart-shaped mouth. Her general lack of bust or hips tended to add to the image of a teenager playing at being a hard-ass with a pair of huge revolvers strapped to her thighs. She did not look like a bodyguard.

‘Right,’ the leader said. ‘Well, hand it over.’ Thea raised an eyebrow. ‘Okay. The king of Spanica’s beard is very fine this year.’

‘It is,’ Thea replied flatly. ‘It’s amazing she can grow one at all.’

The leader paused for a second, sighed, and said, ‘That’s Spanican women for you.’

Thea nodded. ‘Your people came up with the phrases,’ she pointed out. Taking a step forward, she lowered the case onto the floor between them. ‘I’ll take our payment now, thank you.’

Ignoring her, the leader dropped to one knee, pulled the case toward him, and began checking the seal panel on the top. Thea felt the two guards shift their mental focus: they were getting ready to fight if…

The leader got to his feet and nodded, and Thea relaxed as the guards did. ‘The seals are good,’ the leader said.

‘Of course they are,’ Thea replied. ‘Now…’

Reaching into a pocket, the man produced five plastic chips. ‘Fifty thousand, as negotiated.’

Thea reached out a hand and the man dropped the credit chips into it. ‘A pleasure doing business with you.’ Behind her, Thea felt Jinny’s mood shift to grumpy again.

‘I haven’t shot anyone in weeks,’ Jinny grumbled when the door was closed behind them.

‘That is an exaggeration,’ Thea said, though it probably had been three weeks, maybe more, since Jinny had been required to use her pistols.

‘Can we at least stay the night? Maybe I can get into a bar fight.’

‘Your idea of a bar fight usually involves something blowing up.’

‘Only when I get really lucky. Come on, Thea. We haven’t had any fun in ages.’

Thea laughed. They had been paid, which was always a good thing, and her own mood was improved. ‘And you think we’ll find it on Abertine?’

‘There’s always some fun to be had in Down City. Please.’ Jinny’s rough soprano voice elongated the last word and Thea shook her head.

‘All right. We’ll get lodging for the night and we’ll see if we can find some of this fun you claim is out there.’

Jinny beamed. ‘Great! Trust me, I have a good feeling about this. We’re gonna have fun! With a capital Boom!’

Thea sighed. ‘That’s what I’m worried about.’

~~~

The other hotels and hostels in Down City were either full or worse than the first place Kaya had found. Down City, it seemed, did not cater to the more… conventional business traffic on Abertine. One of the older colonists on Sadrine’s Drift, a grey-haired man with a short white beard and a rather nasal voice, had told Kaya that everywhere off-world was a ‘hive of scum and villainy,’ and Kaya had concluded early on that this was untrue… But in Down City’s case, the old man might have been right.

Despite, or maybe because of, the villainy, Kaya had not managed to find someone who could help her. She had poked her head into a number of places with clientele who looked back at her with expressions ranging from disinterested to hungry. She had decided that actually entering any of those establishments was probably a bad idea, possibly a very bad idea. She had felt unsafe more or less the entire time she was on the streets and the three times someone had asked her ‘how much?’ had not helped in the least. One of them had been far too persistent about it.

Back in the hostel, Kaya had made sure the door was locked three times, and then had wedged a chair under the handle. Even then, only exhaustion after the long day had carried her away to sleep fairly early, only to be woken by particularly loud sex noises from the room next door. Now she huddled under her blankets and listened, waiting for it to finally stop. Weirdly, it sounded like the couple were really enjoying themselves and Kaya started wondering what it was actually like…

Kaya had, of course, done the sex education classes in school back on Sadrine’s Drift. The colonists did not moralise on the subject; the school taught the mechanical aspects and the biology, and the ethics of the act had been discussed, primarily the concept of ‘no means no.’ When you became sexually active was covered by one law designating the age of consent at fifteen, but when you actually decided to do it was something no teacher was going to give advice on. Kaya had, to date, not found anyone she felt she wanted to have sex with. Not anyone who wanted her back anyway. She was not entirely sure what she wanted in a man, or a woman, since she was not ready to call it either way until she figured out what she did want. She had had a couple of crushes in school, but they had been on boys, and one girl, who fell into the popular bracket. Just about everyone had an interest in them.

Lying back in the bed, Kaya looked up at the ceiling and listened to the moans and groans which, being higher pitched, were probably being made by the woman next door. She sounded… pleased, pleasured. It was not something she had heard much of before. Maybe she was actually the client. Maybe she was paying to have some guy with a huge, um, penis pound into her for what seemed like an enormously long time. What was that like? It sounded like it was–

‘Gah!’ Kaya exclaimed and yanked the blankets up over her head, pressing them against her ears and willing herself back to sleep. She had work to do, for the Mind’s sake! It was no good: she could still hear them.

49/1/483.

In the morning, the situation seemed just as hopeless as it had the night before, with added snow. The sky had clouded over during the night, the temperature was not rising much with the coming of the sun, and there was snow falling. It had already managed to lay down a couple of centimetres of white powder and that was only thickening as Kaya hurried out onto the streets to restart her search.

She had to find someone today. There had to be someone on Abertine who could get her home and she had to find them today because… Well, it was probably paranoia, but she kept seeing patrol officers on the streets and they all seemed to be looking her way. It was as though they were watching her and, now she came to think of it, there seemed to be more of them about today than yesterday… And that was just crazy, right? There was no way they would be pouring police onto the streets to find one girl trying to run a blockade. Dumb, dumb, dumb–

‘Oof!’ Kaya walked into what felt like a wall, bounced, lost her footing, and ended up falling on her behind in the snow. She blinked and became vaguely aware that the ‘wall’ was actually a person, male, dressed in khaki slacks, leather boots, and a snow-patterned camouflage jacket, and he had some sort of gun strapped to his right thigh.

He turned, frowning. ‘Damn, idiot Abertines never looking where they’re– Oh.’ The sudden stop came as he located the person who had collided with him, Kaya, and took in what he was seeing. Kaya might have considered the way his eyes scanned up and down her body something of an affront, but he was sort of handsome in a rugged sort of way. His body was somewhat obscured by the jacket, but he looked like he was well built, certainly not a local. He had a moderately long face, or maybe the frame made by his black hair made it longer than it was. His hair was swept into a long fringe over dark-grey eyes, a thin straight nose, high cheekbones, quite full lips, a solid angular jawline…

He seemed to take in her looking him over and grinned, holding out a hand to help her up. ‘You’re not an Abertine,’ he said, ‘and you’re not the kind of girl I’d expect to see on the streets around here.’

Kaya took his hand and he yanked her up onto her feet with little apparent effort. Strong, armed, and the jacket looked like something a soldier might wear… ‘I’m looking for someone,’ Kaya said.

‘Oh?’

‘Someone to help me get home.’ She flicked a gaze around and lowered her voice. ‘I need to get to Sadrine’s Drift past–’

‘Buckies locked that place down.’

Kaya frowned. ‘Buckies?’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘You are really out of your depth around here. BCU Security.’ His eyes narrowed and his lips pursed and he rubbed at his chin thoughtfully. ‘So, let me get this straight. You need to get off-world, past a BCU interdiction, to a planet which has, apparently, died for no known reason?’

Kaya felt her stomach tighten. ‘Yes. It’s where I’m from. I have to find out what happened.’

‘You don’t believe they’re dead, do you?’ Kaya shook her head and he nodded back at her. ‘Wouldn’t be the first time the buckies have covered something up. You got money?’

‘I’ve got… some.’

‘I hope you’ve got enough. I’m Jay Colder. Just so happens that I know of a pretty good smuggler who’s planetside right now. You pay our passage off this rock, I’ll help you find out what happened to your people, for a small fee, obviously.’

Kaya looked at him. He seemed genuine enough and… Something just felt right about this, like it was meant to happen. She had literally walked into a man who could help her get where she needed to be, or knew someone who could get them there.

‘All right, Sor Colder,’ Kaya said, ‘I’m Kaya Trevorny and I’d be happy to take you up on your offer.’

‘Good,’ Jay replied. ‘First thing we have to do is find that smuggler and that means we need to go buy a few drinks.’ He turned before Kaya could respond, marching off down the street, and Kaya hurried to catch up, wondering whether she had, in fact, just made a huge mistake.

~~~

The probability that Kaya was being taken for a ride seemed to be getting higher as Jay marched into the seventh bar. On the other hand, this one catered exclusively to off-world patrons and had an interlocked door system which kept the heat in, and the heat was most welcome. The snow was getting heavier outside. A thicker mat of it was building up underfoot, even in the heavily trafficked areas where it should have been being tramped down. Instead, it was compacting into ice and making walking that much harder.

Kaya unzipped her jacket as soon as she got inside, sighing as the warmth began to seep into various parts of her which were, she suspected, beginning to freeze off. Jay’s jacket was obviously insulated, otherwise he would have been looking a lot less happy. Though maybe the drinks he had put away while ‘searching’ were helping him feel warm. Kaya did not drink, at least not unless there was some special occasion, and this was not such an occasion. This was an annoying waste of time which she was going to call an end to–

‘There,’ Jay said, looking across the room, but not pointing. ‘That’s her. Not sure about the one she’s with…’

Kaya looked in the same direction, but there were several tables with women on them, mostly accompanied by men or in groups, and isolating the one he meant was impossible unless…

Two women sat alone at a table near the back of the room, apparently bickering about something. There was the smaller, thinner one with a child-like face and a mass of powder-blue hair from which fell a plait which had to reach her ankles when she was standing. Now she was twirling it absently while she argued. And there was the other one, tall, very attractive, with moderately large firm breasts, trim figure, and angular features which managed to seem both hard and feminine at the same time. She had eyes pale enough to be obvious across the room and her blue-black hair was cut into a sharp-edged razor bob which made it look almost like a helmet. And there was something about them, especially the black-haired one. There was something…

‘Back table?’ Kaya asked. ‘The two on their own?’

‘That’s them,’ Jay replied. ‘Let me do the talking.’

Kaya followed Jay across the floor and it was quite obvious to her that the black-haired woman had noticed them. She continued speaking to her companion when the need arose, but her eyes followed Jay. Kaya had been noted, or she thought she had, but Jay was the focus of attention. As they got closer, Kaya could hear what the girl with the blue braid was saying. It sounded like something of a ridiculous argument.

‘…didn’t know it was going to start snowing. We can still go. I just don’t want to go out in the cold.’

‘Maybe, if you hadn’t drunk three times your body weight in alcohol last night,’ the black-haired woman said, ‘you would have been out of bed earlier.’

‘You could have got me up.’

‘That would have required me to know whose bed you were in.’

‘Hey! I was… Oh, actually, I’m not sure who that guy was–’

‘Ladies!’ Jay said, interrupting any further comments on the nature of the blue-haired girl’s sleeping companion. ‘We’re looking for some assistance and I’ve heard that you might be in a position to assist us.’

Icy blue eyes. The black-haired woman had eyes almost the colour of the sea ice Kaya had seen on Abertine natural history programmes. The icy eyes regarded them for a second, seeming to examine Jay more closely, but not leaving Kaya out. ‘And what is it that we can do for you?’ she asked. She had a slightly husky contralto voice, a sharp contrast to the higher pitch of her companion. She seemed at ease, but she also seemed to be aware of everything around her.

Unasked, Jay pulled out a chair and swung down onto it, leaning his elbows on the table. ‘We’ve need of passage off Abertine.’

The woman nodded and gestured to Kaya and the chair in front of her. ‘Did you have a destination in mind?’

‘Sadrine’s Drift,’ Jay said as Kaya took her seat, sitting upright and nervous.

‘Never heard of it.’

Jay raised an eyebrow. ‘It’s been in the news reports recently. A colony event.’

‘Do I look like someone who spends her off-time looking at news channels? A colony event? So, if you need someone like me to get you there, the buckies have interdicted the place. Why?’

‘They won’t say,’ Kaya blurted and immediately regretted it as those cool, blue eyes turned on her. ‘Th-they say they don’t know, just that everyone’s… everyone’s dead and they don’t know why.’

The woman’s eyes narrowed slightly, feeling to Kaya as though they were boring into her. ‘You’re from there,’ the woman said. ‘You want proof of your family’s death, or life.’

Kaya nodded and, because she felt as though she needed this woman’s help, she poured on the charm. ‘Please. I need to know.’

The woman’s eyes widened again, and one eyebrow rose. ‘My name is Thea,’ she said. ‘This is Jinny. We’ll help you.’

‘I’m Jay,’ Jay said, apparently deciding he should get back in charge. ‘Jay Colder. This is Kaya. How much are we talking?’

Before Thea could answer, the door burst open and four men in Abertine patrol uniforms walked in. They were soon followed by more, which was unusual enough, but as the second batch walked through the inner door, one of the first four raised an arm and pointed across the room toward the group. ‘There!’

Kaya turned at the sound, just in time to see weapons being pulled from holsters. ‘Oh! By the Mind! They can’t be–’

She was cut off by Jinny pushing to her feet, her chair clattering to the ground behind her. ‘At last! Some real fun!’ Her twin pistols were in her hands and she was raising them and firing before anyone else could even think.

Anyone, it seemed, but Thea. The black-haired woman overturned their table as she rose, grabbed the front of Kaya’s jacket, and pulled her into cover. Kaya just had time to see Jinny’s first shots hit the wall on either side of the door frame and explode before she lost sight of everything behind the table.

A second later, Jay was ducking down on the other side of Thea, his shotgun in his hand. ‘Is she nuts?!’ His exclamation was punctuated by two more explosions. In return, the wall behind them was being torn apart by gunfire. ‘She’s up on one of the tables. They’ll blow her apart.’

‘Don’t worry about Jinny,’ Thea replied. ‘She’s… lucky.’ A whoop of glee sounded out across the room as Jinny blasted the scenery again. ‘Though, if you want to be picky, yes, she’s a little crazy.’

‘How is she even lifting those guns?’

‘Trade secret.’ Thea turned her head toward the terrified girl beside her. ‘They seem quite determined to keep you away from this mudball of yours.’

Kaya opened her mouth to speak and nothing came out, but Jay seemed determined to fill in the gap anyway. ‘Sure do. Makes it sound like she’s not just being paranoid about the buckies, doesn’t it?’

Thea turned her gaze back to Jay. ‘It does, doesn’t it?’ She lifted her head, and her voice. ‘Stop playing with them.’

‘You spoil all my fun!’ Jinny shrieked back, giggling. Her hand cannons roared again, but this time the explosions were wider apart and cold air poured into the bar through a shattered window.

‘We move on three,’ Thea said. ‘Out through the window, stay with me. You are going to regret those boots, girl.’

‘I can run in them,’ Kaya replied and hoped she really could.

‘That would be good,’ Thea said. She closed her eyes. ‘One… Two…’ Her eyes snapped open and she twisted up onto her feet, grabbing Kaya as she went. ‘Three.’

They were running and the front section of the bar was exploding. Kaya took in the detonations and they looked wrong, like blossoming flowers of superheated gas rather than normal explosions. Plasma? No one had invented a weapon that could fire plasma bolts in an atmosphere. Thea vaulted the window frame and reached out to grab Kaya, and Kaya was suddenly pushed forward as something hit her in the back like a fist. The shock of it had her stumbling as her feet hit the ground, but Thea was lifting and pulling, dragging her onward into the dimly lit outside. Jay caught Kaya’s other arm and lifted, and Kaya found herself being half-carried down the street.

‘What about Jinny?’ Kaya asked as she realised that the sound of explosions was receding, but continuing.

‘She’s fine,’ Thea replied. ‘She’ll meet us back at the Sword and keep the stink off us until we can get you there.’

Kaya managed to get her own feet under her and started to concentrate on running, and pain lanced through her shoulder muscles. ‘Ah! What hit me?’

‘We’ll worry over that when we get to the ship. Now you concentrate on trying to run and let us keep you upright. And we’re turning right at the next alley.’

With her back feeling as though it had been a mule kick rather than a punch that had landed, Kaya focused on running and keeping her feet. At least the exercise was keeping her warm, but she really wished she had thought to zip her jacket up before she had been launched out into the cold.

~~~

Thea marched through the spaceport concourse as though she was any other inplaniti, confidence verging on the brash, not a care in the world, certainly not accompanied by someone the local police seemed to have an unusual interest in. And that incident back at the bar with the explosions? Oh, that was someone else entirely.

‘I don’t know how you can do this,’ Kaya whispered. ‘I’m scared witless. What if someone–’

‘Straighten your back,’ Thea ordered, ‘shut up, and don’t act like a fugitive. It’s all in the attitude. Buckies, more often than not, are looking for people who look like they’re up to no good.’

‘I sort of thought we were up to no good.’

‘Not until we try to land on your planet. Jinny is up to no good, but she’s not here.’

Kaya was silent for a second as she concentrated on pulling herself up straight and striding purposefully as both Thea and Jay were doing. Truthfully, she was never going to quite manage that because she was having to hurry a little to keep up with their long strides. ‘I’m worried about Jinny,’ Kaya said eventually.

Thea flicked her a glance. ‘You’ve known her for all of a minute and you’re worried about her?’

‘Well, yes.’

‘I’m not,’ Jay said, and then seemed to consider that. ‘I mean, she seemed like she could take care of herself.’

‘She can,’ Thea replied. ‘She’s fine. She’s lost the buckies and she’s heading our way. No need to worry, Sora Trevorny, but it’s commendable that you would.’ Thea made a sharp left turn and started down a narrower corridor. ‘Almost there.’

After a few seconds, windows began to appear in the concrete walls and ships of various shapes and sizes were visible through them. The space outside was an open platform, marked out into various different landing zones. Spaceports tended to be built in out-of-the-way areas for largely historic reasons. Engines requiring reaction mass were rare these days, but having them take off and land in remote regions tended to be a good idea. Ships with pressor drives had no superheated exhaust to deal with and were less likely to explode, disastrously, if something went wrong. But it was only less likely; spaceports still had large, thick walls around the landing areas, just in case, but there was less need for per-ship compartmentalisation.

Kaya scanned the visible ships, trying to figure out which was likely to be Thea’s. She figured she was looking for something fairly subtle, likely to go unnoticed among other vessels. Probably not especially new. Probably not excessively large, but not too small either. Then again, there was nothing huge parked up in this landing zone. There were two or three chunky-looking, one might say ‘industrial,’ freighters, only capable of making a planetary landing thanks to their pressor drives. More of the craft here were shuttles or light yachts: sleek craft, usually winged, with atmospheric capability, but probably incapable of FTL. There was one larger yacht, or Kaya thought it was a yacht. Spaceships were not her strongpoint, but this was one of the larger ships in the area: a sleek, winged dart with visible weapon turrets and a skin that seemed to diffract the light strangely. Unlikely, Kaya figured, and she put her money on a mid-sized, blocky transport.

Thea was also looking out across the concrete and she frowned. ‘Huh. Wait here for five minutes, then come through to bay seven-A.’

Jay’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why?’

‘Because there are a couple of buckies sniffing around the Sword and I want them quietly out of the way before Jinny gets here and takes them noisily out of the way.’ Jay nodded and Thea set off again, moving faster now, as she headed for the ramp down to the landing platforms.

‘You don’t trust her now?’ Kaya asked. ‘You suggested her.’

Jay gave a shrug. ‘I’ve heard she’s good, maybe the best. She’s a bit of a legend, but I’ve never actually met her before.’

‘So? She seems to be doing what I need her to do.’

‘Yes, she does.’ He paused briefly and then added, ‘But I never told her your family name, so how does she know it?’

~~~

Thea exited through the door out onto the landing zone and immediately reached out for the minds of the two men in uniform who were standing near the lower airlock door of the Sword. There was no specific need to kill either of them. If she could disable them for a while, then they would get to live. If they drew their weapons…

She focused on masking her presence. Her initial read suggested they were lowest-grade patrol officers, a step up from raw recruits. She was not dealing with the cream of the crop here and, with her training, she could probably walk past them without them noticing, but they were a little too interested in the Sword. There were a few pieces of equipment and storage crates littered around the landing area, enough to let her get close. Close was good. Close might just save their lives.

At little more than five metres, coming in from behind, Thea slipped out from behind a crate and began to close the distance. A good thing about all the interest the men were paying to the ship was that they were not looking elsewhere, i.e. at Thea. Her mind lashed out at one of them and he reeled, staggering forward.

‘Hey! What’s wrong?’ the second man asked, taking a step forward, and Thea hit him from behind. His leg buckled under him as she slammed her foot into the back of his knee. Before he could respond in any further manner, Thea slammed the pommel of the long knife she carried on a thigh scabbard into his skull and he went down. His friend followed a second later, still not recovered from the mental blow he had taken when Thea smacked him in the chin.

With a smile, Thea pulled the electronic cuffs from their belts and considered where to hide them. It was always nice when the victims brought along their own restraints, but they would be spotted far too easily if she left them out in the open. Her gaze went back to the crate she had been hiding behind. That might be big enough…

~~~

Walking out through the door, Kaya looked around for Thea and saw no one. Jay did not appear to be looking for her; he was checking the markings on the ground. ‘Seven-A should be… that one,’ he said, pointing.

Kaya looked up and… It was the sleek, dart-shaped yacht with the weird skin. ‘Lost that bet then,’ Kaya muttered.

‘What?’

‘Any sign of Thea?’ She could see no sign of Thea herself, but maybe he had better eyes. There was a flight of steps, possibly designed to collapse into the hull, extended down to ground level, and the hatch at the top seemed to be open.

‘No, guess she’s inside. No sign of buckies either and the hatch is open, so I guess we can trust her. Assuming there was anyone here earlier, of course.’

‘Yeah… I guess we should go in.’

‘I guess we should.’ Jay’s eyes scanned over the ship. ‘Fairly large for a smuggler. Somewhere around three kilotonnes. Don’t recognise that hull coating. Some sort of stealth system, maybe.’

‘Stealth sounds like a good idea.’ Kaya preceded him up the steps which were, basically, individual platforms supported on a pair of bars. They could easily have been folded up and retracted into the hull. They passed through what looked like a very heavy, open hatch of some description before Kaya could step through another hatch with a far lighter door and onto a deck. There was a second door two metres in and she stopped, wondering what to do next.

That became obvious when Jay followed her up and the airlock they were in closed its outer door and began to equalise the inner and outer pressures. Abertine had a fairly high atmospheric pressure, almost 1.3 standard atmospheres. Kaya had more or less got used to it, but it was a little uncomfortable to breathe. The ship, it seemed, was operating on something closer to standard, and thus closer to the slightly low pressure Kaya had been born into. She was not going to mind that at all, and the ship atmosphere starting to circulate seemed to be a good deal warmer than the outside air. On the other hand, it was getting a lot warmer…

The heat seemed to affect Jay even faster than Kaya. He was stripping out of his jacket, to reveal only a thin, sleeveless T-shirt beneath it, before Kaya began taking her own jacket off. His jacket did not seem to have much in the way of insulation in it after all. Wherever he came from, it was obviously not especially warm. He wiped sweat from his brow. ‘Keep it warm in here, don’t they?’ he said.

Kaya giggled. ‘Wait until you see what it’s like on Sadrine’s Drift.’ The pressure shift, apparently, completed and the interior door opened up to let them through.

Thea’s voice sounded from speakers in the corridor. ‘You two should head up to deck two. There’s an elevator on your right. You’ll find some cabins there and a communal area. I suggest finding a seat to sit in. Jinny will be here in just under three minutes, and I intend to be off the ground and climbing in five.’

‘Won’t traffic control have something to say about that?’ Jay asked.

‘I’m clearing it through now. Shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll be pulling six gravities on the launch.’

‘Oh,’ Kaya said, and she started for the elevator.

‘You been through a six-g lift before?’ Jay asked as they rode up in the, not especially spacious, car.

Kaya was rather aware of the now lightly dressed, firmly muscled man who, thanks to the sudden increase in temperature, was smelling rather obviously male on top of everything else. She decided not to trust her voice and shook her head.

Jay grinned at her, taking the action as a sign of nervousness. ‘It’s not that bad. We’ll be up and out in… three or four minutes. You can take six for that length of time, no trouble.’

‘Uh, right.’

‘Then we get to the hard part,’ Thea’s voice added from the car’s speakers just as the door opened. She continued from the corridor outside. ‘It’s thirty-one hours at four gravities to get us beyond the limit.’

‘Oh,’ Kaya said again. She knew enough about space travel to understand what Thea was talking about, even if she had no idea of the reasons behind it. Every mass had gravity, and every mass had a hyperspace limit. That was the distance you had to be from it before you could enter hyperspace. Of course, it was only really an issue for large masses. Most planets had a limit of about a tenth of a light second. Stars had far larger limits; the one for Sadrine’s Drift was just under four hundred and sixteen light seconds. However, Sadrine’s Drift was in a far wider orbit than Abertine Prime, so the latter was further from its star’s hyperspace limit. Kaya looked up at the ceiling, which was sort of where Thea seemed to be speaking from. ‘What if they come after us?’

‘Then we move to plan B,’ Thea told her. ‘That involves drugs and acceleration pods, but we’ll outrun them, don’t worry.’

‘O-okay.’ Part of the stutter had come from walking into the ‘passenger lounge’ of the ship. Kaya had travelled to Abertine in the steerage passenger cabin of what amounted to a junk freighter for about three days, and then the rest of the way on the cheapest commercial ticket she could arrange. This was just the communal lounge area for the four cabins around it, and it was nicer than her room at home. Four sofas sat about a central open area, each equipped with a gimballed device which was presumably designed to keep your drinks in the glass. Off to one side was a galley of some sort. Another wall was suggestive of an entertainment screen, though it was currently dark. If this was the communal area, what were the cabins like?

‘I’ve just received clearance from control,’ Thea announced. ‘Get seated and settled. Jinny is entering the airlock now. She’ll play stewardess as soon as we’re in clear space.’

The four seats were moving, turning to align themselves to face the nose of the ship, Kaya assumed. She had never done a six-G launch, but she had done a three-G one and that had been uncomfortable enough. The invention of tractor/pressor fields had allowed people to create a form of artificial gravity: essentially, a field was created which pulled things down to whatever surface was the designated floor. That meant you could have gravity where there was none, but providing a means of insulating people from high gravity, or acceleration, was another matter. A field could be engineered to hold you in place against the acceleration of a vehicle, but that just meant you were getting pressed between two equal and opposing forces. It did not stop all the blood rushing to your feet so that you blacked out, and it could, in some conditions, result in you being crushed to death by your own safety system.

So, basically, your best bet for a high-G take-off was to be facing in the direction you were accelerating, and to learn to handle the stress. Humans could take far more than six gravities without too much difficulty. In the short term. Oh yes. Swallowing, Kaya set off to take one of the seats and wait for Jinny to turn up. Jay sat down beside her, flashing her a grin which she assumed was supposed to make her feel better.

Jinny’s voice came down the corridor from the elevator a few seconds later. ‘…don’t know if any of them were injured. Couldn’t say I’m that bothered about it anyway.’

‘I know, Jin,’ Thea said over the speakers, ‘but how hard are they going to be looking for us? I mean, are we talking Barjinkin or Tordirial?’

‘Oh, it wasn’t nearly as much fun as Tordirial,’ Jinny replied, skipping into the lounge. ‘Come on, Thea, there are still buildings standing out there.’

‘Right, so how close to Barjinkin are we talking?’

‘Um…’ Jinny paused, her lips pursed in what appeared to be deep thought. ‘Most of the fun was in the getting chased part. I don’t think I really killed many of them at all.’

A lump bounced up into Kaya’s throat and had to be swallowed down hard. Who were these people?

‘Well,’ Thea said, ‘they haven’t locked the ship down so they mustn’t have linked you to here. Hang onto your shorts, we’re going for a ride.’

Jinny giggled and began stripping out of her bodysuit where she was as the Sword lifted into the air, rising slowly until it was above minimum flight clearance. Jay’s eyes widened, apparently in interest more than surprise, but Jinny was wearing a candy-striped bikini bra under her suit, and she stopped with it draped around her waist before dropping into one of the other seats.

‘Hang on, kids,’ Jinny said, giggling, and the ship began to lift its nose until it was pointed upward, more or less, and that was when the main engines engaged. There was a shudder of vibration as the acceleration built rapidly from normal to six times normal, pressing them back into their seats and holding them there. During the old expansion phase before the Solar Empire, humans had altered their genome to handle zero-G and make themselves more generally tolerant to variations from the world they had been born on, but there were limits, and humans were just not designed to function under six gravities.

Kaya felt like her face was being pulled around to the back of her skull. She was sure that someone was sitting on her chest, and not for any good reason either. This was just to make her feel like breathing was a chore. Talking was right out.

‘Woooohooooo!’ Jinny shrieked. ‘What a ride!’

And Kaya gritted her teeth and wondered exactly what kind of crazy people she was flying with.

Sword of Zanar, Abertine System.

Thea walked into the lounge in the slightly stuttering manner of someone making sure their feet fell in just the right places to avoid falling over. They were down to four gravities along the longitudinal axis which, with the pressor fields providing balance, was about low enough to move in, but it was not exactly fun.

Kaya was looking less than comfortable, still in her seat and, from the looks of it, concentrating on her breathing. She looked up as Thea walked in, nodding to her, but not saying anything.

‘That was awesome,’ Jinny said, pushing herself up off the sofa. ‘I do love it when you go to ten right out the gate, but that was pretty awesome anyway.’

‘I don’t think our guests would’ve liked me pulling ten gravities,’ Thea replied. She walked over to the couch Kaya and Jay were sitting on. Jay was looking a little grey, but he was obviously more used to the acceleration than Kaya was. At a guess, he had done more spaceflight; she was from a world with heavier natural gravity. Thea made a note to look up Sadrine’s Drift in the navigation database soon. ‘We can put you both under until we get to the limit,’ she suggested.

‘Would that help?’ Kaya asked, her voice faltering and breathy.

‘You’ll be on a respirator and we’ll hook you up to monitors. There are some drugs we can give you to help.’

‘And,’ Jinny put in, ‘it’s probably going to be pretty boring getting out there anyway.’ She sighed. ‘Why can’t they put more habitable planets outside the limit? It’d be much easier. None of this tedious plodding around in normal space. Huh. Boring space, more like.’

‘It’s this thing called physics,’ Thea told her. ‘You know, stellar luminosity, black body temperatures, albedo, atmospheric composition…’

‘I hate physics.’

‘Without physics, you wouldn’t be able to blow stuff up.’

‘I love physics! I’m gonna find something to eat. Shooting things always makes me hungry.’ And Jinny set off toward the galley without further comment.

‘Okay,’ Thea said, frowning, ‘I’ll play stewardess. You want to sleep for the next day or so?’

‘No,’ Jay said. ‘I’ll lie down, if the bed’s on a gimbal.’

Thea shook her head. ‘The rooms are fitted with gravity beds. The field is a little… softer than the compensation field in the rest of the ship, but it won’t feel much different to sitting down.’

‘Then I’ll sit.’

He did not trust them, that was apparent. Thea shrugged. ‘Your choice. Sora Trevorny?’

‘Put me out,’ Kaya said, struggling up onto her feet to go wherever Thea needed her. ‘But, um, how did you know my family name? We didn’t mention it.’

Thea shrugged. ‘No, you didn’t. Aloud. But I’m a telepath and you were a little irritated that Jay gave his full name and not yours.’ Thea’s gaze flicked to Jay. ‘Can’t say I blame you, sora. It’s demeaning. Come, we’ll get you plugged in.’

Jay opened his mouth to say something, but they were already moving away. He frowned at Thea’s retreating back instead.

Kaya waited until they were in one of the cabins, which was more like a suite actually, before she spoke again. ‘Uh, you’re a telepath?’

‘Mm-hmm,’ Thea replied as she retrieved a box from one of the cupboards. ‘I’m going to need you naked, sora.’

‘You can call me Kaya.’ Kaya managed a half-wheezing giggle. ‘Especially if I have to take my clothes off in front of you.’ Thea smiled at her and waited, so Kaya began to strip. ‘Uh, I was on Abertine to learn to use my biokinesis.’

‘Interesting. You’re just a biokinetic?’

‘Uh, as far as I know.’

‘Hmm. Have you ever used a gravity bed before?’

Kaya looked around, not sure exactly what she was looking for. ‘Uh, just the regular kind of bed.’ She was down to her bra and panties, and her cheeks were already a little red, which she was definitely blaming on the acceleration, and her back hurt. ‘I feel like I got kicked in the back when we were getting out of that bar.’

Thea made a turning motion with her finger and Kaya dutifully turned, a disorienting experience as the angle of acceleration shifted. ‘You took a hit,’ Thea stated.

‘I got shot?!’

‘It’s just a bruise. I was protecting you and your jacket took most of the rest of the force out of it. This way,’ Thea said before Kaya could respond and they walked through a doorway into what could have been a bedroom were it not for the lack of anything resembling a bed. Well, there were four posts arranged in the rough dimensions of one, but there was no actual mattress. Thea knelt down beside one of the posts and plugged a thick cable from the box she was carrying in near the base. ‘Just step into the space between the posts and take your underwear off. There are a couple of things to be… attached.’

Naked, Kaya stepped in between the posts. Thea did something and Kaya found herself floating. ‘Oh!’ Her orientation was unchanged, the field lifting her keeping her facing into the direction of acceleration, but now she was floating and it was kind of relaxing.

That lasted until Thea started connecting her up to the box. There was a band which went around her left bicep and then there was a slight feeling of cold there, then a sensation of pressure, and Kaya began to feel drowsy almost immediately.

‘Don’t fight it,’ Thea told her. ‘Just let it take you under. I’ll put the catheter in and put you on the respirator when you’re out. Jinny will get you up before we transit into hyperspace. That bruise will probably be gone by then. You’ll be fine.’

‘O-okay,’ Kaya managed, her eyes starting to close. ‘I feel… feel better… all…’

Thea smiled. Cute kid. Thea kind of hoped her family were still alive and being held captive or something. It just seemed amazingly unlikely.

~~~

‘So, are you a telepath too?’ Jay asked, walking up carefully behind Jinny.

The impish girl turned and grinned. ‘Not really.’ I can send. The words entered Jay’s mind without her lips moving and then she was speaking aloud again. ‘But that’s not my main talent. Thea’s good at it, and Sienna… Oh, she’s the best. You’ll meet her later. Tomorrow, probably.’

Jay frowned. ‘There are more of you on the ship?’

‘On the Sword? No, but we’ll be rendezvousing with the Oracle before we go on to Sadrine’s Drift.’

‘Uh, right. I’d only ever heard about Thea. I mean, not by name, but reputation. I’d heard she was in town. Didn’t know she was a telepath.’

‘Not something she brags about,’ Jinny replied. ‘Anyway, telepathy isn’t exactly her speciality. It’s just a tool.’

‘Right. So what is her speciality? Smuggling?’

Jinny’s grin brightened. ‘We just do that to make money. What she’s really good at is killing people. And stopping people getting dead. And keeping the rest of us in line. I mean, you have no idea the trouble I can get into when I’m on my own.’

Questions buzzed in Jay’s head, but he figured he should avoid making his chat sound like an interrogation. A few questions probably would not sound too bad though. ‘Yeah, Thea said something about Tordirial. I’ve never heard of the place.’

‘You probably wouldn’t have,’ Jinny replied absently. ‘They pretty much had to shut the place down what with the radiation hazards and chemical contamination.’

‘You nuked the place?!’

Jinny dismissed that with a wave of her hand. ‘No, course not. Someone used a mini-nuke to try to nail me.’

‘We do not talk about Tordirial,’ Thea announced as she walked out of Kaya’s room. Her tone suggested that this was far from the first time she had given the reminder.

‘Oh, yeah,’ Jinny agreed. ‘We don’t talk about Tordirial.’

‘Good.’ Thea kept walking, right past them. ‘I’ll be on the flight deck. I want to be sure no one’s chasing us. Jinny will show you your room when you want to sleep, Sor Colder.’

‘Sure,’ Jay replied. ‘That’ll be great.’ He looked at Jinny, who was finishing off a sandwich she had assembled. ‘Could I get one of those? I haven’t eaten since last night.’

‘Course you can,’ Jinny replied. ‘Help yourself. We restocked the galley a few days ago. You should aim to have a good breakfast, you know. I know we can all survive on two meals a day, but breakfast is important and far too many people skip it.’

Jay began to search through the various storage units for something which took his fancy. ‘Did you have a good breakfast this morning?’

‘Uh-huh,’ Jinny replied, starting to walk away. ‘His name was Shunsi.’

50/1/483.

The flight deck’s main hatch slid open and Jay walked through it. Thea did not even look around. ‘Good morning, Sor Colder. I note that you finally decided we weren’t going to murder you while you slept.’

Jay stepped forward and then sat down in the second of the two acceleration couches which occupied the centre of the room. The flight deck was located right in the core of the Sword’s forward section and there were no windows. However, the curved forward wall was entirely taken up by display panels which gave a good view of more or less anything the pilot might wish to look at and supplied various data displays, mostly to do with engine management. Each chair was fitted with a number of translucent displays on gooseneck stands as well, though the ones around Jay were blank currently.

‘Yeah, well… I’m not accustomed to the company of telepaths,’ Jay said.

Thea glanced at him, a thin smile on her face. ‘Hiding guilty secrets?’ She went on before he could respond. ‘I don’t do deep scans on people, Sor Colder. It’s impolite. I only scanned Kaya’s surface thoughts because she… is an interesting girl. Truthfully, I wished to be sure you were not attempting to smuggle her off the planet.’

‘Huh. Jinny said you were good at stopping people getting hurt. Unless you want them hurt.’

‘I try.’

‘How close are we to the limit?’

‘Just over an hour.’ The ship had been decelerating for hours now, though the only way you could tell was the brief period in the middle where the direction of thrust had switched over and the sofas in the main lounge had all turned around to face aft. ‘I’ll begin checking the entry plot data shortly, but we have a course already laid out once we’ve translated.’

‘We’re meeting up with another ship, is that right?’

Thea nodded. ‘That’s right. Call it our mothership. She’s got bigger engines than the Sword and she’s got the best hyperspace navigator there is aboard her. She’ll get us to Sadrine’s Drift way faster than the Sword can.’

‘So where is this other ship?’

‘About three and a half light years out from Abertine.’

Jay frowned. ‘Just sitting in deep space? How are we going to find a ship in deep space?’

Thea smiled. ‘She’s not in deep space. You’ll see when we get there. Or you won’t. Trust me, Sor Colder.’

‘You should probably call me Jay. I don’t even know what your family name is to address you properly.’ Thea was obviously not going to give him more on their destination, so changing the subject seemed like a good idea.

‘I gave it up a long time ago. I’m just Thea. What do you know about Sadrine’s Drift?’

‘Just what I saw on the news channels. It’s a fairly new colony, less than a century. Largely agricultural, possibly some worthwhile mineral resources worth exploiting. They declared a colony event on, uh, the forty-forth after a Security ship discovered everyone was dead. It was interdicted while they checked it out properly. That last was what Kaya was told. As far as everyone else is concerned, it’s an undisclosed event and traffic to the system is banned. You think you can get us in past their satellites?’

‘Of course. Automated systems like that are easy. We’ll–’ Thea cut herself off as something chimed and she looked at one of her displays, frowning.

‘Something up?’ Jay asked after a few seconds of silence.

‘Yes. It appears that BCU Security are rather more keen to make our reacquaintance than we might have thought. We have two pursuers.’

‘And they’re catching us up? Ah, shit, they’ll be automatics.’

‘Indeed. Still accelerating at eight gravities.’ She paused and then added, ‘I doubt they’ve detected us yet, but they’re on the right course… It’s tight, but we should be able to jump before they overhaul us.’ Thea tapped at another of her panels. ‘Jinny, I want you to start getting Kaya back on her feet. We’ve got company and I don’t want her asleep if I have to evade an attack.’

‘Cool!’ Jinny’s voice came back over the cabin speakers. ‘I’ll go man the turret controls when I’m done. Maybe I can get to shoot something before we leave the system.’

Thea sighed and Jay looked across at her. ‘Is she really always so keen to shoot things?’

‘You have no idea.’

~~~

Kaya blinked and shook her head as a mild stimulant woke her from sleep. She was still floating, still naked, and she could still feel the same forces pressing on her body, but Jinny was grinning at her rather than Thea. The heated suit was gone now and Jinny was decked out in denim shorts, the same bikini bra, and a pair of boots which were mismatched: one was black, the other had a green camouflage pattern. The outfit was eclectic enough to fit Jinny’s quirky personality.

‘Morning, sleepy head,’ Jinny said, eternally perky it seemed.

‘Are we there yet?’ Kaya managed, reaching up to rub at her eyes and finding herself still tethered to the ‘bed’ by the collar around her arm.

‘About forty-five minutes inside the limit,’ Jinny replied, reaching up to detach the arm cuff. ‘We’d have let you sleep a bit longer, but there are a couple of AACs chasing us and Thea wants you awake in case we need to take evasive action.’

‘Uh, AACs?’

‘Automated attack craft. They’re basically a hundred tonnes of missile with a bigger brain and a hundred-megajoule laser mounted down their spine. All engine and firepower.’

‘And they’re chasing us?’

Jinny nodded and her grin got wider. ‘Uh-huh. Once I’ve got you in a seat and ready to handle a bit of ducking and diving, I’m going to the fire control position. We think they might catch us before we can translate and there’s nothing more likely to dissuade something from killing us than killing them first.’

‘Uh… Right, well, I guess I’d better get some clothes on then,’ Kaya said. ‘If you can get me down from this thing.’

Jinny giggled and tapped on a panel on the bedpost, and Kaya began to float downward. ‘You looked kind of cute floating there with nothing on. You got something to wear besides all that cold-weather gear?’

‘I have something,’ Kaya replied. ‘I didn’t bring much with me from home, but I’ve got something.’

‘Great!’ Jinny said, turning on her heel. ‘I’ll go get the gun batteries ready.’

~~~

‘They haven’t detected us yet?’ Jay asked as the two pursuit ships got closer on the rear sensors.

‘We have a very low thermal signature and very good stealth characteristics,’ Thea replied. She tapped a key. ‘Coming into firing range, Jin, but they haven’t spotted us yet. Hold fire until they do. At this rate, they’ll have gone straight past us before they can get a firing solution.’

‘Do you just sit there coming up with ways to spoil my fun?’ Jinny’s voice replied from the speakers.

‘Yes. Everyone has to have a hobby.’ It sounded, to Jay, like two people reading a script, as though the two women had been performing the same comedy act for years. ‘Wait… Port side one is cutting power and realigning. Actioning ECM. Fire at will.’

‘About time,’ Jinny snapped back.

On one of the main screens, a window opened up showing an image of the attacking craft as it struggled to realign itself to bring its huge spinal weapon around to fire. Heat blooms began to blossom across its hull, flaring out as the invisible beams Jinny was firing cut into the vessel’s skin and began to tear apart its insides. The AAC’s rotation stopped and it began to twist as attitude control went and then there was the moment when something inside it exploded, tearing the upper-aft hull apart. After that, it was a matter of watching the slow disintegration.

‘What’s the other one doing?’ Jinny asked. She was undoubtedly shifting her attention to the forward gun systems to check for herself, but Thea had already been checking anyway.

‘It noticed our ECM, but it’s going out of range… Registering heat output from the main gun, but we’re not getting any impact. It doesn’t have the targeting software to hit us.’

‘I do.’

‘Let it go, Jin. We’ll be light hours away before it can even slow down.’

There was a sigh from the girl in fire control. ‘Yeah, okay. You know we’re going to have to burn that ship registration, right?’

‘Yes, but that’s not really what bothers me about that engagement.’

‘What does?’ Jay asked.

‘They didn’t even make an attempt to order us to stop. They wanted us dead and that’s not even standard practice for BCU Security. Somebody really doesn’t want this girl to get home.’

Sword of Zanar, Hyperspace.

Kaya had learned the basics of hyperspace travel in science classes, and even if she had not, she would have made some effort to find out about it before making the trip to Abertine. Viable faster-than-light travel, and communications, relied on hyperspace, which was an extra dimension tagged onto spacetime in some way Kaya had never quite grasped. However, hyperspace was somehow the ‘home dimension’ of the Hepps–Montague field which was somehow responsible for psi abilities, among other things, and if you could translate a physical object into hyperspace, you could take advantage of its somewhat odd correspondence to spacetime to take shortcuts from one real place to another. Basically, if you went between two points in spacetime by hopping into hyperspace and taking the right route, you could, apparently, get to your destination at superluminal velocities.

Which was great, but it didn’t prepare you for seeing hyperspace from the inside. Kaya watched the view from the forward sensor array being displayed on the big wall screen in the lounge with a feeling of disquiet bubbling up from the pit of her stomach. On her previous trips, she had been aboard the cheapest transport she could find and they had never bothered with making their passengers feel particularly at home. And, when it came right down to it, there was nothing to see out there: hyperspace was, technically, boring.

Except that boring did not quite describe the feeling the display image evoked in Kaya. It was black out there. Space was black, sure, but there was light everywhere. All you had to do was look up at the sky at night to know that space was far from being entirely dark. Get above the atmosphere and you could see more stars than you would have ever thought possible. There was none of that in hyperspace. Hyperspace was pitch-black, unending nothingness. Absolute void. The blackest of abysses. Look into it for long enough and you could start imagining all sorts of things. You could imagine that something was looking back…

‘Kind of boring,’ Jinny stated, stepping up beside the sofa Kaya was sitting on, her eyes on the screen.

‘Then why have it up there?’ Kaya asked.

‘In case there’s anything interesting. It’s not always like that. Thing is, when it stops being like that, it usually means you’re in trouble.’

‘O-oh.’

‘You can see the hyper limit on a star from far enough away to be safe. That’s kind of pretty.’ Jinny turned, her eyes flicking over Kaya. ‘So, that’s the kind of thing you wore around town on Sadrine’s Drift, huh?’

Automatically, Kaya looked down at her clothes. There was a string-strapped tank top in pink, a pair of denim shorts which covered far more of her than Jinny’s did but which had seen far better days judging from the various rips in them, and a pair of flip-flops with a blue-flower motif on the top. ‘It’s what I had that didn’t take up much space when I was packing. It’s usually pretty warm at home. Average temperature is three hundred and sixteen kelvin.’

Jinny giggled. ‘My kind of planet. That’s warmer than where I grew up.’

‘Oh. Where do you come from?’

There was a dismissive wave of a hand. ‘Oh, you wouldn’t’ve heard of it. When we get to the Oracle, you should check with Cassandra. I’m sure we can handle making you up some more clothes. Cassandra can show you the fabricator patterns.’

‘Cassandra. Okay.’

‘You’ll meet her tomorrow. Can’t really avoid her.’

Kaya frowned. ‘Do you and Thea practise being cryptic?’

‘I do. It’s all just natural talent with Thea. I think we’re going through to her cabin for some breakfast in a few minutes. She has all the best stuff in there.’

‘Oh, okay. What’s special about her cabin?’

Jinny grinned. ‘She’s the boss.’

~~~

Thea had always enjoyed a good breakfast. She did not always get to have one, but she preferred it when she did, and enjoyed it whenever she could. Now was a good time for a good breakfast and she had decided she could handle fixing the full thing for everyone while she was at it. So, she grilled small steaks, made hash browns, toasted bread, and topped it off with her favourite: beans in a thick tomato sauce. There was also coffee and fruit juice already on the table when her guests arrived.

Jinny was clapping her hands in anticipatory glee when Thea brought plates out for her and Kaya. Kaya was looking a little perplexed at the mass of food on her plate and Thea wondered what the girl normally ate at the start of the day.

As she returned for her own plate and Jay’s, Thea reflected upon the somewhat timid yet determined girl she had agreed to help. Out of the winter clothes Abertine had forced on her, Kaya was more obviously a pretty, fit young woman. Her legs were long and a little thin, but there was a hint of musculature about them. The muscles showed more in her abdomen. Thea had taken a quick look at the data for Sadrine’s Drift and discovered that the world had gravity eight percent above standard, which tended to produce people with higher muscle mass than normal, just to compensate for everything weighing that much more. Her shorts barely managed to cling to slim hips, but her waist was narrower still. She had breasts which seemed to be small ones trying to be bigger: they were noticeably pointed, a rather pleasing shape on her thin frame. Again, her arms were thin but carried more muscle than might be expected. Her face was… sweet, a sort of narrow heart shape, high in the cheekbones, but carrying a little youthful flesh around the cheeks. She had a moderately long but perky nose above a small mouth with full lips, and her eyes were a golden-brown colour. Her hair fell down from a high parting to the left of her crown, curling slightly under her jaw, and it was a soft, pinkish-rose colour. Her only unattractive feature seemed to be her lack of confidence.

‘This is quite some meal,’ Jay said as Thea put his plate down before him.

Thea gave a slight shrug and settled into her seat. ‘These are my main living quarters and the ship was designed for long-term occupancy. There’s a full array of life-support systems behind these rooms. Even a hydroponics system.’

Kaya sipped her glass of juice. ‘That’s where the fruit comes from? This is almost as good as the stuff we make at home.’

‘It is, and thank you. I make the blend myself. However, further discussion of where the food comes from should wait until we’ve eaten. Down through the ages, people have discovered that it’s better not to know how their food is produced.’

‘I prefer never to ask,’ Jinny said, grinning. ‘It’s food. It’s good for you.’ And she began digging into the food on her plate with gusto.

‘Quite,’ Thea agreed. ‘I’ve contacted the Oracle and asked Fay to organise a course to Sadrine’s Drift. As soon as we dock, we can get underway. I’d imagine we can be there in under a week.’

Kaya’s eyes widened. ‘It’s fifteen days by–’

‘Fay is a very good navigator and we won’t be going the commercial route. I’ll want to go over as much as you can tell me about your planet on the trip. I would like to try to get some idea of why someone would wish to go to so much trouble to isolate it.’

Kaya gave a shrug and picked up her fork. ‘I have no idea. We’re an agricultural colony. We’ve got minerals we were starting to mine, but that was mostly for our own use. We don’t have anything valuable.’

‘Let me decide on that. Now, try the beans. They’re my favourite.’

~~~

‘What do you think of her?’ Thea asked. She was alone with Jinny now. Jay had gone off to his cabin, and Kaya was sitting in the lounge watching the black world of hyperspace fly by.

‘Kaya?’ Jinny asked. ‘She’s… cute. If you want more than that, you’re going to have to figure it out yourself. You’re the telepath.’

‘There’s something about her. She’s got more power in her than she thinks, more than a human generally has. She has talents she hasn’t consciously tapped.’ Absently, Thea reached up to the spot over her breastbone where her pendant hung. The blue stone held on a silver chain was hidden beneath her tank top now, but she could feel the shape of it under her fingers…

‘You only ever play with that when you’re concerned about something,’ Jinny stated flatly. ‘What? She’s got more power than you expect a human to have so…’ The young face crinkled, a furrow developing over her nose. ‘No. She can’t be one of us. How can she be?’

‘I have no idea.’ Irritated at having a habit pointed out, Thea moved her hand and picked up her coffee cup. ‘I know she’s not what she seems and she was born on a backwater colony out of the way of prying eyes. She’s a Minder.’

‘Huh, hardly any of us have followed that religion since… Well, before you were born.’

‘Because we “disproved” it. Science can’t really deny faith; it can only come up with alternate explanations for things and then say they’re more reasonable. That’s basically what faith is: belief in the face of evidence to the contrary.’

Jinny sniffed. ‘She does seem to like staring out into hyperspace… Look, easy solution. All we need to do is get a tissue sample and Geo can run some tests. I still can’t see how she could possibly be one of us. I mean, we know where all of us are. There are no more.’

‘We think,’ Thea replied. ‘We believe we know. One might say that it’s a matter of faith.’

‘Oh, ha ha. Wait… We can’t interbreed with them, right? I mean, I’ve been basing a lot of my sex life on that principle so–’

‘No, we can’t. Too much difference in the genome. There are some rare instances of pregnancy recorded, but they always miscarry. So, Kaya’s parents would have to be zanari too. So would her sister and brother.’

‘But one family and just the one family in a colony like that?’

‘It’s possible. Perhaps unlikely, but possible. It’s certainly another reason why we need to check out Sadrine’s Drift. If there are really more of us alive, after all this time…’

‘And that,’ Jinny stated, ‘is why I don’t believe it. After all this time, if there were a big enough group to make a colony somewhere, we’d know.’

Thea gave a shrug. ‘Perhaps. But we’re still going to go look.’

51/1/483.

Kaya was in the lounge, watching the wall, when the Sword transitioned into normal space. It was, in many ways, a rather uneventful event. Thea’s voice came over the speakers announcing it and there was a slight hum, a subtle vibration, as the power to the hyperspace engines increased. The image on the screen distorted somehow, almost as though the blackness was contracting around them, but how could you possibly tell that a lot of nothing was getting smaller? And then there were stars. Stars and something large blocking the view of the stars.

‘Welcome to normal space,’ Thea said. ‘We are, as predicted, approximately nine hundred kilometres from the Oracle. We should be docking in… roughly eleven minutes.’

Kaya felt the push of a gravity or so and saw the shift in their orientation as Thea turned the ship onto a new vector. There was nothing really visible on the screen aside from the distant points of light. They could have been pretty much anywhere in deep space, except that there had been something big, planet big, out there.

‘Where are we?’ Jay asked as he walked into the lounge from his cabin. ‘There’s nothing out there but black.’

‘There was a planet,’ Kaya said. ‘I saw something blocking the stars.’

‘That,’ Thea replied, ‘was a gas giant, a fairly big one, actually. It’s in orbit around a brown dwarf, outside the star’s hyper limit. We find that these systems are generally pretty useful for hiding out in. They’re not really charted, even though there are a lot of them, and no one bothers with them.’

‘Well, no,’ Jay responded. ‘Who would want to? There’s usually nothing in them worth bothering with.’

It was, as far as Kaya remembered, true. Brown dwarfs were stars, as in they were massive enough to ignite a fusion reaction within them but they were so small that the reaction was weak and relatively short-lived, producing little luminance. In other ways, they were no different from other star systems, but the worlds in them were in for a long, cold existence as the fuel ran out and the star cooled slowly over billions of years. Even compared to the multitudes of red dwarf stars, brown dwarf systems were no place to look for a home, and even a visit appeared to be something of a boring experience.

‘So, we’ll meet the rest of your crew soon?’ Kaya asked the air.

‘Some of them,’ Thea replied. ‘We’ve got a lot of space and some of them… are shy. Cassandra will want to meet you both, and Fay will be joining us to discuss the travel arrangements. You’ll probably meet the others when they decide to make themselves known.’

‘Oh, okay.’

Maybe ten minutes later, their destination became visible. It appeared out of nowhere as external lights were turned on, turning the hull from black to a uniform grey. At first, it was hard to make out exactly what they were looking at, but as they got closer, the image in the view screen resolved into a more identifiable shape. The Oracle did not have the smooth lines of the Sword. This was a vessel meant for deep space and planetary orbit, and it looked to be around ten times the size of the vessel they were in. There was a tapering forward section, vaguely conical, but more rounded than pointed, and with two large turrets mounted under its ‘chin.’ This was connected to a spherical section which looked as though some heat effect had pushed a long bubble out the rear, presumably holding the drives. As they watched the upper part of the nose ‘cone’ open up, two very large doors swung out to reveal some sort of docking bay with strobe lights indicating where the Sword was supposed to join it.

‘That is like no ship I have ever seen,’ Jay commented. ‘I thought this one looked strange, but that is… Where were these things built, Thea?’

‘She could tell you,’ Jinny said as she walked in from her cabin, ‘but then I’d have to shoot you.’

Jay frowned at her. ‘I’m never sure whether you’re joking or not.’

Jinny looked at him, eyes wide. ‘Oh, I never joke about shooting people.’

‘Okay, people,’ Thea said, ‘prepare for docking. Please keep your arms and heads inside the spaceship at all times, and try not to shoot anyone, because it’ll be you cleaning up the mess if you do.’

Jinny rolled her eyes. ‘You spoil all my fun.’

Oracle of Zanar, Unnamed Star System.

Through the window in the airlock’s outer door, the exterior hull plate which covered the door was visible as it slid back and then up. The Sword mated perfectly with its mothership, it seemed, and the two vessels were obviously matched for air quality since the inner door of the airlock remained open as the outer door slid upward to allow them access to the Oracle. The stairs which had allowed them to climb up from the ground on Abertine now formed a bridge across the gap between the ships.

And waiting on the far side of that bridge was a woman. She was tall and more narrow than slim. Attractive in a severe way. Her eyes had the same icy quality as Thea’s, but they were housed in a narrower, sharper face; Thea had a hint of softness about her, but this woman was all hard edges. Her hair, a cool blonde with just a hint of red in it, added to the severity. It was shaved back at the sides, leaving a downy cap at the back and a wedge over the top which came to a point over her forehead. From that point, a pattern like a herringbone tattoo in faint purple descended down to the bridge of her long, pert nose. Long legs and a reasonably full, firm bust were displayed well by clothes unlike anything Kaya or Jay had ever seen. They seemed to be made of a thick, plastic material in white and grey with metal reinforcements over the chest. There was a tunic, of sorts, open at the front, shorts, bracers which came up past the elbow, and boots which rose to mid-thigh. Through the opening in the tunic, another bone-like tattoo could be seen rising from her navel to the top of her breasts, spreading wider as it went. The boots seemed a little odd to Kaya and it was not until the woman moved that she realised that the soles were a wedge design, but without the wedge: the soles extended out, lifting the woman’s heels up without any apparent support below the heels themselves. The entire image before them was… a little strange.

‘Thea and Jinny,’ the woman said, ‘I am pleased to have you back.’

Thea smiled and glanced at Kaya. ‘This is Cassandra. She… runs things aboard the Oracle.’

‘Sora Trevorny, Sor Colder, welcome to our home. I will show you to your cabins and then we will discuss the task ahead of us.’

‘You know who we are?’ Jay asked, frowning.

‘Yes, Sor Colder,’ Cassandra replied flatly. ‘Thea communicated all the information she had on both of you before your arrival.’ One of Cassandra’s pale eyebrows rose. ‘We are not trying to trick you. We do, however, talk to each other. Please, follow me.’ And, turning, she set off down the corridor and further into the ship.

Their walk took them through a heavy bulkhead door and then down a flight of stairs, and then down a further corridor which branched off in three directions. They took the left one and soon found themselves walking into a lounge not unlike the one aboard the Sword.

There, Cassandra stopped, turned around, and indicated the rooms on her right. ‘Sora Trevorny, your room is the one closer to the entrance, Sor Colder, yours is the other on this side. You’ll find the rooms have all the amenities. Food can be prepared in your rooms, or you will find our refectory on deck five alongside the gym and bar.’

Jay grinned, but one eyebrow rose. ‘Is this ship a smuggler’s vessel of a passenger liner?’

It did seem a sort of pertinent question to Kaya. The ship looked like a cruise liner, in a way. The walls were smooth white metal in the corridors, darker in the lounge. The builders had gone to the trouble of smoothing most of the edges. It was also obvious that the same designer had built both the Sword and the Oracle: the two matched.

‘The Oracle is whatever we need it to be, Sor Colder. Perhaps you should get settled in your rooms. Fay will be joining us shortly to discuss the course to Sadrine’s Drift.’ Cassandra’s attention shifted specifically to Kaya. ‘I believe she wishes to discuss the best location for transition.’

‘I’m not sure how much help I’ll be,’ Kaya replied, feeling her cheeks heating. ‘I’m not exactly a seasoned traveller.’

Cassandra’s full lips curled into a somewhat indulgent smile. ‘Any information you can provide will be a help.’

‘They both need some new clothes,’ Jinny said. ‘I said you’d show Kaya some patterns, but it can probably wait for later. I’m gonna grab a shower. You won’t need me for this sync-up, will you?’

‘We can manage without you,’ Thea said. ‘If there’s anything tactical to discuss… Well, you’ll just ignore it and improvise anyway.’

Jinny flashed Kaya an impish-but-knowing grin. ‘She knows me so well…’ And then she was bouncing off the way they had come, presumably toward her own cabin.

Not waiting to see what Jay would do, Kaya gave Cassandra a quick smile and set off toward her new accommodation. The door opened as she walked up to it, closing behind her after she stepped through. Kaya smiled. Her room aboard the Sword had been better than more or less anywhere she had ever lived on a planet, but it had not quite matched Thea’s room. Here, she had a suite similar to Thea’s, not especially well decorated, but spacious and comfortable, and, she suspected, with the same sort of fresh produce that Thea used in her cooking.

Since she was expected back in the lounge, she contented herself with a quick check of the suite. There was a lounge area with comfortable chairs set around a coffee table and arranged to allow easy viewing of the entertainment system. It would be interesting to see what was available on that later. Set beside it was a galley area and dining room like the one in Thea’s rooms. Separate doors led off to a bathroom with what looked very like a real shower, unlike the sonic units common on passenger ships, and to a bedroom featuring the same four posts of a gravity bed Kaya had used before. She was still not quite used to the bed, but it had been quite comfortable sleeping in it so she figured she would become accustomed.

Dumping her pack in the bedroom, she returned to the bathroom and used the sink to freshen up before setting off back to the communal lounge where she found a new, and alien, woman talking to Thea and Cassandra. This had to be Fay and Kaya was not quite sure what to make of her.

The alien woman was tall, easily two metres, though that was partially because she walked on the balls of three-toed feet with dark, horny nails in a digitigrade posture. Even so, she seemed like someone had taken a human woman and stretched her: elongated legs with noticeable muscle to the thighs, elongated torso with narrow hips and fairly flat breasts, long arms ending in long hands with elongated fingers, and an elongated face with a long squared-off chin. Unlike her feet, where it seemed the four smaller toes had fused into two, her hands had four fingers and an opposable thumb. Her skin was a mottled purple and grey, which was not entirely pleasant and reminded Kaya a little of a corpse. The face was odd, pretty in an unconventional manner, and the purple colour was predominant which made the skin more appealing. In proportion to her long face, her nose was relatively short and quite flat. Her mouth was narrow, but had full, purple-hued lips. Her eyes were a bright green and angled down toward her nose. She had no eyebrows, though there were obvious brow ridges, but she had lush, purple hair combed to fall over her right shoulder down to where her nipples probably were, assuming she had any. On the left side, her hair was braided into a narrow rope which fell to her collarbone. She was dressed more like a mechanic than a navigator: she was wearing a sort of dungaree set in black and white which, Kaya guessed, was held primarily in place by a wide band around her throat. Her shoulders were bare, but there were sleeves which came down to form fingerless gloves, and the trouser legs stopped above her knees, just above a set of knee pads. Her feet and shins were bare. The mechanic look was further complemented by various straps and belts around her hips designed for hanging tools.

Well, she was not any kind of human Kaya had ever seen or heard of, but she seemed to be chatting happily with Thea and Cassandra so Kaya set off across the lounge to be introduced.

And that was when Jay walked out of his room. His eyes lit upon Fay and he stopped dead in his tracks. ‘Cào! That’s a–’

A lot of things happened at once and it was only really after everyone had stopped moving that Kaya figured out what had transpired. It was an indication of Thea’s level of trust that Jay had been allowed to keep his sidearm, and an indication of Jay’s that he had come out of his room wearing it, and now his hand moved to it, wrapping around the grip and starting to pull it. Fay’s eyes widened as she saw the man for the first time and realised what he was doing. Cassandra began moving, stepping between Jay and Fay.

But then Jay reeled back as though he had just been struck in the face with a bat. Wavering slightly, he finally collapsed back through the door he had just walked through, and it closed, hiding the fallen man.

‘Open the door, would you, Cassy?’ Thea said as she started across the lounge.

‘What happened to him?’ Kaya asked, walking up to Cassandra and Fay. ‘Why was he acting like that anyway?’

‘My fault, I think,’ Fay said in unaccented Trade.

‘It’s not,’ Cassandra stated flatly. ‘It’s his.’ She glared across the room to where Thea was relieving a still-unresponsive Jay of his weapon.

‘His reaction was far from unpredictable,’ Fay countered. ‘I am more surprised that Sora Trevorny appears so calm.’

‘I, um, don’t recognise your species,’ Kaya admitted. ‘Should I be scared?’

‘Not of me, but I am filarax.’ Fay pronounced the last word like ‘veelarix,’ but Kaya recognised it and blanched. ‘Ah, now you are less calm.’

‘What the diyou is a filarax doing on this ship?’ Jay asked, apparently recovered but sounding both annoyed and more than a little confused. Part of the confusion and more than a little of the annoyance seemed to stem from the fact that Thea was emptying the shells out of his shotgun.

‘She’s an exile,’ Thea replied. ‘Her clan disowned her and tried to kill her. Jinny and I stopped them. She’s the best hyperspace navigator we’ve ever come across. Better than Cassy, which is saying something, and she has a natural flair for fixing hyperspace engines. So, basically, you can live with it or we can dump you on the next rock we find.’ Having emptied the shotgun, she handed it back to Jay and turned to Kaya. ‘As for what happened to Jay, I hit him in the mind with a sledgehammer, figuratively. It doesn’t leave a lasting mark. I prefer a knife for doing that. Now, shall we get down to business?’

‘Of course,’ Fay said. ‘If we are to dump Sor Colder on “the next rock,” it is likely that it will be Sadrine’s Drift. I have examined the charts and plotted a course which should have us there in approximately thirty-five hours.’

‘Thirty-five hours?’ Kaya squeaked. ‘Why did it take me fifteen days?’

‘Because the Oracle has very powerful engines,’ Fay replied, and her mouth twisted into some sort of grin, ‘and because I am a very good navigator. I will wish to examine my terminal routing with you later to ensure optimal arrival positioning. I believe I have the planetary data correct, but a resident might spot an error in the charts. We use the best charts we can find, but on the more obscure worlds, they are not always perfect.’

‘I’ll help however I can.’

‘Excellent. I shall relieve Sor Colder from the necessity of feeling uncomfortable around me and retire to my engines.’

‘And we will discuss our destination,’ Cassandra said, raising a hand to indicate the sofas.

Kaya walked over to one of the chairs, watching Fay pad lightly out of the room. ‘I was taught that filarax are… Well, they are more or less demons. They attacked ships, colonies, killed everyone they came across. They’re evil. Fay seems… nice.’

‘And Jay is probably old enough to remember the last years of the filarax raids into human space,’ Thea said, sitting down beside her, ‘which is why he got the benefit of the doubt. Fay is an atypical member of the culture, but filarax are not evil. They are highly territorial and somewhat xenophobic. The same can be said of many humans. Fay can get a little touchy if someone messes with her engines, but otherwise she is nice. She was ejected from her clan because she found the killing of innocent victims abhorrent. They viewed her as a pacifist.’

‘It does not help,’ Cassandra added, ‘that humans took territory from the filarax when they were first contacted. Essentially, the humans started it.’

Jay frowned. ‘The filarax took over human colonies and they slaughtered all the colonists when they did it.’

‘They took back colonies taken from them long ago. It’s largely lost history. This happened during the human expansion before the Solar Empire. The humans slaughtered the filarax colonists, though they would have had no choice since the filarax will never willingly give up land. Now, Sora Trevorny, tell us about Sadrine’s Drift.’

‘Kaya,’ Kaya said. ‘I’d really rather you called me Kaya. A-and I’m not really sure where to start.’

Cassandra nodded her head in acquiescence to the request. ‘Kaya then. Clichéd as it may sound, the beginning is always a good place to start.’

‘Okay, well, the colony was founded about sixty-two years ago by a group of people devoted to the Universal Mind. Nothing fanatical, just a group of Minders who felt they wanted to start a colony based around the Minder philosophy. I’m second-generation native. My parents were born on Sadrine’s Drift. My grandfather was one of the original founders; his name’s on the colonisation documents. My grandmother joined the colony about fifteen years in, when we became self-sufficient in food.’

‘The navigation documents I read said it was quite a young system,’ Thea said.

‘About one and a quarter billion years,’ Kaya agreed. ‘There was enough life developed in the ocean to oxygenate the atmosphere. There was no land-based life until we introduced it, but soil improvement was really the only terraforming needed.’

‘So, there’s still the possibility of asteroid strikes.’

‘Yes. We had a monitoring programme, but something could have got through. But I don’t see that as a reason to be secretive about the colony event and it would be pretty obvious. They’d know what killed everyone if a big rock had hit the planet. I mean, we had a population of about two hundred thousand, spread over two settlement areas and a lot of farms. It would have taken a big rock to kill everyone.’ Thea nodded acknowledgement of the point and Kaya continued. ‘The colony is primarily agricultural. Right now, it’s mainly producing to feed the population, but we were starting to consider cash crops for export and there were studies underway to look at exploiting our mineral resources.’

‘Anything unusual?’ Jay asked. ‘Anything unusually valuable, I mean. Something someone might want more than–’

He cut off as Kaya shook her head. ‘Unless they discovered it after I left, no. Plenty of things we could use, a few we could probably export, but nothing really out of the ordinary. If there had been anything in the initial surveys, some corporation would have been willing to pay more for the colonisation rights than our church could put together. It’s not on any trade routes either.’

‘No,’ Cassandra said. ‘There’s a good reason for that. You’ll probably see it tomorrow. Please continue.’

‘Uh… Well, like I said, there are two main population centres. Neither of them are really big. In fact, the orbital station we have can support just about as many people as the smaller of the two. A lot of the population live on farms around the settlement areas. My family does… Did. My family did.’

Thea put her hand on Kaya’s shoulder as the girl’s eyes fell away toward the floor. ‘You say there’s an orbital facility?’

‘Yes. Pretty basic, prefab asteroid station to handle interstellar traffic, not that there’s much, and interstellar comms, and to help with the survey work. They ran the colony office from there and the sky watch programme. It was the main food production facility before we got the soil on the planet ready for farming.’

Thea glanced across at Cassandra. ‘Disease is a possibility, but less likely with an orbital facility online.’

‘And the reports said the alarm was raised when the colony office didn’t check in with their usual report,’ Jay said. ‘They wouldn’t have dispatched a ship so fast if the automated response system was working, so something took out the interstellar comms. Could the station have been knocked out of orbit?’

‘Yes,’ Cassandra said, ‘but the basic prefab stations used on colonies are, perhaps, ten kilotonnes. That’s smaller than the Oracle. Such a fall could not produce a colony event.’

‘And we’d need to wonder what caused it to fall,’ Thea added. ‘Something could have knocked it out of orbit, but it’s not especially likely. Unless someone sabotaged the station, of course. Can you think of anything else which might have made someone else interested in Sadrine’s Drift, Kaya?’

‘I… No.’ Kaya’s brow furrowed as she tried to think of anything that might help. ‘I love my home dearly, but it’s a rock in the middle of nowhere, not that different from a lot of other rocks in better places. Why would someone take an interest in that?’

Thea shrugged slightly. ‘Sometimes, being in the middle of nowhere can be an advantage, but… Well, there are plenty of rocks around where you don’t need to remove an existing colony to use them.’

‘Uh, I know this isn’t exactly a polite thing to say with one on the ship,’ Jay said, ‘but what about the filarax? Sadrine’s Drift isn’t that far from some of their territories, is it?’

Cassandra smiled at him. ‘Fay would be the first to suggest that as a possibility if she were here, Sor Colder. She has no illusions regarding her fellows. However, while it might seem that Sadrine’s Drift is relatively close to filarax territories, there is actually more space in the way than you might think.’

‘There is?’

‘Yes. Believe me, when we get closer to the system tomorrow, you’ll understand. The filarax are unlikely to have come looking for trouble out this way.’

Oracle of Zanar, Hyperspace, 52/1/483.

Hyperspace was not empty. Kaya sat in the communal lounge outside her cabin and watched the view on the big screen with interest because it was not showing the eternal blackness she had come to expect: there was something out there and she was really not sure what it was.

Whatever she was looking at, it was big. The Oracle was moving on a tangential course, but still the whatever-it-was filled one side of the screen. In the distance, it was barely visible as some sort of distortion on the display, but that resolved into a dark plane which grew progressively paler as it neared the ship and became almost silver just before it vanished out of sight. It was a… Kaya wanted to say ‘wall.’ It was a wall in extradimensional space where there could not possibly be a wall, and it was huge.

‘It’s a rift,’ Fay said and Kaya jumped in her seat, looking around to find the filarax standing behind her.

Jay had been sitting nearby, not really paying attention to the screen or Kaya, but now he looked up, glanced at the screen, and then around at Fay. ‘Are you crazy? What are we doing that close to a rift?’

‘We are quite safe,’ Fay replied. ‘There is nothing to fear from a rift unless you stray over its border. Knowing how to avoid them is part of being a good navigator. Knowing that spatial dilation is stronger near the edge of them, giving a relatively faster transit, is part of being an excellent navigator.’

‘Uh, what’s a rift?’ Kaya asked.

‘No one knows,’ Jay replied. ‘We know entering them is a death sentence. Normal hyperspace shipping routes are planned out to avoid them. No ship that’s entered a rift has ever come back to tell anyone what’s inside.’

‘That is… partially true,’ Fay said. She moved around Kaya’s sofa and sat down, stretching out her long legs. The furniture was not designed with a filarax in mind. ‘We know that rifts are discontinuities in hyperspace, similar to those at the hyperspace limit, but far more severe. We know that some of them are caused by black holes. We know, from tests, that many vessels cannot survive passing through the edge of a rift because the stresses would tear them apart, but even vessels strong enough to pass through do not usually come out. There are rare examples of ships passing through a rift relatively unharmed, however.’

‘Who’s this “we” you’re talking about?’

‘The filarax, but the crew here knew everything I did before I was taken aboard. This rift is a large one, and it is the reason that it is unlikely that filarax attacked your world, Sora Trevorny. Detouring around this rift would put many worlds in a raiding party’s line of fire before Sadrine’s Drift.’

‘Oh,’ Kaya said. ‘Uh, could we get some sort of shipwide announcement? I’m Kaya. None of you have given me a family name so that I can be formal back.’

‘My apologies,’ Fay said, her mouth twisting into something like a smile. It was sort of like her facial muscles did not normally assume that arrangement, but she had learned to imitate it around humans. ‘Formally, I am Fayktoktarth Gagaknit. However, my clan cast me out so I no longer use my clan name, and “Fay” is quite an acceptable shortening of my full name. I believe I prefer it to the clumsy designation my parents gave me.’

‘I’ve never heard of the Gagaknit clan,’ Jay said. He gave a sort of conciliatory facial shrug and added, ‘Not that I’ve actually heard the names of many filarax clans. It’s usually the bigger ones that attack human colonies, so I guess not knowing yours is sort of a good thing.’

‘Gagaknit is not one of the major clans, no. It is an offshoot of one, and not an old name. Our ships have attacked human vessels and colonies. One such attack was what caused me to be aboard the Oracle.’

‘Thea said they sort of rescued you,’ Kaya said.

‘They did. The ship I was navigating for found a human vessel and attacked it. I knew better than to object when they slaughtered everyone aboard, but they saw my… disquiet and said it was the last thread. They took me to an uninhabited planet, gave me a fifteen-minute head start, and began hunting me. They knew I was no warrior and that I would die, probably quickly. The Oracle was nearby and saw the unusual behaviour and Thea chose to investigate. With Jinny, she killed seventeen warriors in honourable combat and accepted me onto the crew.’

‘Seventeen?’ Jay asked. ‘I mean, Jinny has those pistols of hers. I guess–’

‘Thea killed eleven, by hand, using a sword. I did not see her until she came upon three who had cornered me, wounded me. I do not believe any of her prey saw her until it was too late, until those last three. One of them died before they knew she was there. She decapitated my captain before my eyes. And then she asked whether I could walk on my wounded leg. I believe she would have carried me if I could not.’

‘Huh. She’s not someone to take lightly, is she?’

‘Not if one wishes to see another day, no. I must return to my duties. I should check our flight path against the sensor data on the rift.’

As Fay lifted gracefully to her feet and padded off toward the entrance corridor, Kaya considered the story and the exchange which had followed it. Jay had taken away from it that Thea was a badass who could wipe out filarax warriors without breaking a sweat, and it was a valid thought. Kaya had wondered at the compassion shown to an alien woman who Thea would have every right to believe might kill her in her sleep. Thea, Kaya believed, was a contradiction and something of an enigma. Okay, so Kaya was supposed to be paying for this trip, but no price had ever been mentioned and there was the odd feeling that money really had nothing to do with it. Thea did things for her own reasons, so what reason did she have for helping Kaya?

~~~

The elevator door opened and Kaya stepped out onto deck four. Cassandra had asked that she visit one of the other members of the crew, a man named Geogracus. Exactly why had not been mentioned, but Cassandra had said that ‘Geo is our physician’ so presumably there was some medical concern, but what that could be, Kaya had no clue.

The layout of this floor was different to the accommodation decks above, but there were, apparently, rooms on this level. The floor had four cabins, a biology lab, and the ship’s infirmary. The cabins were there for the medical staff, but the only medical staff on the ship was Geogracus so he had an entire four-suite block to himself and, as Kaya walked down the corridor toward it, she realised that he was making good use of that.

A sign hanging from the ceiling of the corridor warned her to ‘Beware gravity gradient.’ Unused to such things, Kaya almost tripped as she walked past the sign and felt the compensation field suddenly step from standard to a much lighter simulation of gravity. If it was a tenth of standard, she was surprised. She shifted to the bouncy, semi-hop that seemed to be the best way of moving in very low gravity and kept going into the communal lounge area.

There seemed to be no one around and Kaya was just about to ask Cassandra which room Geogracus was in when a door opened and the man himself emerged, and Kaya could not help but stare.

First of all, there was the fact that he was huge. Not tall, maybe three centimetres taller than Kaya’s one hundred and seventy-seven, but enormously obese. His body was a great bag of fat, his breasts were possibly larger than Kaya’s, his legs were short, but his thighs looked as big around as Kaya’s torso. His arms did look to have some muscle hiding under the flab. To add to the body-horror, he was wearing only a leather kilt which was clinging to his hips under his overhanging belly in a manner that probably defied physics. Oddly, his face looked rather haggard. His nose was big and fleshy, but hooked. There was a pronounced cleft in his double chin and he did have jowls. Yet there was something thin and drawn about his features, almost as if a thin old man was trying to push his way out of the fat one. He had high, arched brows over dark eyes which looked too small for his face, and a high, domed head which sported the same shaved design that Cassandra wore, though his hair was a plainer ash blonde. The haircut did not help his head look a better shape.

And to add to all that, Geogracus was floating twenty centimetres above the carpet, his feet hanging limply below him. He had to be a telekinetic. If he could lift his own weight like that in normal gravity, then he had to be a pretty powerful telekinetic.

‘You’re Thea’s latest infatuation then?’ Geogracus asked, though it sounded more like a statement. He had a rather rough voice, and he seemed to have a lousy attitude for a doctor too.

Kaya still found her cheeks colouring at the suggestion. ‘I’m not sure I’d say I was an infatuation. I’m Kaya. Cassandra said I should come down and–’

‘Yes, yes. Just shut up and stand there looking decorative.’

She stood, feeling distinctly uncomfortable as his rather beady eyes stared at her for a few seconds. She had the distinct feeling that he was unwrapping her in his head and wished she had asked Cassandra about the fabricator before now. She made a mental note to ask the tattooed woman about that as soon as she got back upstairs. But then she saw Geogracus’s expression shift to one of mild puzzlement and Kaya’s train of thought derailed: if a doctor was looking at you like that, it could not be good.

‘I’d like to get a sample of your blood,’ Geogracus said. ‘Come.’ And he began to float, at a slow walking pace, toward the corridor Kaya had entered through.

Kaya had a fleeting moment of abject terror as they climbed out of the low-gravity zone and Geogracus dipped until his toes touched the floor. But he rose back to the same height quickly and, much to Kaya’s relief, his kilt stayed firmly affixed around his hips even if his flab was now hanging lower.

‘I was born on a world with just under half standard gravity,’ he said. She figured he felt the need to explain the field in his living quarters. ‘I find lower gravity far more comfortable.’

‘Uh, my home has slightly above standard gravity,’ Kaya replied. ‘Abertine was lower and I occasionally missed my footing when I first got there. You’re a telekinetic?’

‘Obviously, but my biokinesis is more useful in my profession.’

‘Oh! I’m a biokinetic. Though, uh, all I can do is diagnosis.’

For some reason, Geogracus’s tone had changed slightly. He was still brusque, but there was less annoyance behind it, as though he had suddenly and inexplicably warmed to her. ‘Diagnosis is a good first step, a common one. I’m quite sure you can learn other techniques with proper tutoring.’

‘That’s why I was on Abertine. I was–’

He waved a dismissive hand. ‘The university there is adequate. They’ll do their jobs.’ He floated across the corridor and down another, and Kaya realised that they were going to the labs instead of the infirmary. ‘Not afraid of needles, are you?’

‘Not really.’ Walking along beside him was actually something of a chore: he did not move fast. ‘Uh, why do you want my blood anyway?’

There was a short pause, barely there, but obvious. ‘A side project of mine. I’m studying genetic drift in humans. You represent, I believe, the second native generation on a relatively isolated colony.’

‘Oh, right. Well, I’m happy to help. You’re all helping me find out what happened to my family.’

‘Thea got you in the sack yet?’

Kaya strangled off a squeak. ‘No! I don’t… I’m not… She hasn’t even suggested–’

A wave of Geogracus’s hand cut off Kaya’s outraged blustering and also opened the door ahead of them. Beyond it, she could see benches and chemical glassware. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I’d tell you to roll up your sleeve, but you don’t have any. Or anything much of a shirt.’

Glowering at her feet, Kaya followed the fat man through into the lab and prayed to the Universal Mind that she never needed his services as a doctor.

Oracle of Zanar, Sadrine’s Drift System.

‘Welcome to the Sadrine’s Drift system,’ Cassandra’s voice announced over the speakers.

Kaya looked up to see patterns of stars in the view screen which were not exactly familiar, but closer than anything she had seen since leaving home. ‘Can you see anything–’

‘At this range,’ Cassandra interrupted, ‘sensors are unable to pick up anything interesting concerning the planet. We are twenty-five light seconds away and even my passives are not that good. Active sensors would alert the interdiction stations that we are here.’

‘Oh, uh, yes. Sorry.’

‘Have you been trained in the proper use of ships’ sensor equipment, young lady?’

‘Well, no.’

‘Then stop apologising. Everything is a learning experience.’

Kaya blushed and nodded even though she was not sure Cassandra could see her. ‘How long until we know more?’ She jerked as the ship began to accelerate. Probably another four-gravity push, if she were any judge.

‘As you can undoubtedly tell,’ Cassandra said, ‘I’ve set us for approach. Transit time will be just under eight standard hours. We’ll be in orbit at approximately six-thirty tomorrow. I have had time now to determine one interesting fact, however.’

‘Oh? What’s that?’

‘The hyperspace communications relay buoy which should be in approximately this area of space is gone. I can see no sign of it. It should be transmitting an active signal to ensure that no one collides with it, and I am picking up nothing.’

‘It’s been destroyed?’ Jay asked, paying attention to the conversation suddenly.

‘A far more thorough survey, which I’ve no time to perform, would be needed to determine whether it was destroyed, or picked up and stood down.’

‘You think Security could have done it to isolate the colony?’

You could imagine, almost see, Cassandra shrugging. ‘I suspect we’ll know more when we get closer to the planet.’

‘Yeah, about that… How are you going to get past the interdiction stations?’

There was audible laughter over the speakers. ‘Automated weapons platforms, Sor Colder. Please don’t insult my capabilities.’

Jay looked about ready to ask what that meant when Thea walked in using the exaggerated walk she employed when fighting the compensation field. Her gaze fell upon Kaya. ‘Shall we put you under again? Aside from anything else, it’ll stop you worrying about what we’re going to find when we get there.’

Kaya had been going to say she would manage on a respirator until Thea had mentioned that last part. ‘Yes. Yes, that sounds like a good idea.’

Thea smiled and started toward Kaya’s cabin door. ‘Besides, you haven’t dreamed for a couple of nights. It’s always good to catch up.’

‘I haven’t?’ Kaya knew she had slept quite soundly, but she did not always remember dreaming and had no memory of it for a few days.

‘No one dreams in hyperspace. I actually hate to think what would happen if you did.’

‘Oh.’ Kaya walked into her suite and headed for the bedroom, starting to undress as she did so. She let her top fall to the floor, noticing in passing the weird shapes it made as the compensation field and their acceleration fought over the flimsy cloth.

Kaya turned before undoing her shorts and her eyes fell upon Thea who was unpacking the sleep box. Today, Thea had dressed in something she presumably found comfortable: a top not unlike Kaya’s with string straps, though Thea filled hers out more fully and the garment was a pale-fawn shade, almost grey to match the very short skirt, and a pair of knee-high boots with a block heel. There was also a silver chain around Thea’s neck with a pendant stone hanging from it, a pale, almost icy blue, like her eyes. Kaya’s mind flashed to Geogracus and his comments and she felt herself start to blush. She had never really thought of women that way before, but now the fat man had suggested that Thea might want to…

‘Are you okay?’ Thea asked.

Blinking, Kaya flashed her a smile. ‘Yes. Just… the acceleration, I guess.’

Thea nodded and reached up to attach the cuff around Kaya’s arm. Kaya backed into the bed’s field and immediately lifted off her feet, hanging, relaxed in the air. There was the cold breath of the analgesic and the pressure of the needles, and Kaya’s eyes began to droop.

‘Sweet dreams,’ Thea said, and her voice seemed to be coming from such a long way off…

53/1/483.

Thea hung in her own gravity bed wearing a respirator and nothing else. She did not need drugs to assist her sleeping on most journeys because she was used to the effects by now, but the respirator helped her breathing stay regular despite the pressure on her chest. She was not sleeping anyway; she was talking to Cassandra, just not in the conventional way.

And what does Geo say? Thea asked silently, sending the thought out to Cassandra’s mind.

He says he needs further time to study his results, Cassandra replied. I did press him. Her genome is zanari, but he says that there are some peculiarities about it.

Peculiarities? That sounds like he’s hedging.

He possibly is, but I went over his data and he is right. There are the usual markers we would find in your genome, or mine, but there are signs of, well, tampering. There are a number of non-random, repeating sequences in her introns.

Thea, her eyes still closed, raised an eyebrow. I would remind you that I’m not a genetic engineer.

Introns are sequences of genetic code which do not encode a protein, essentially. They play a part in gene expression regulation, but they are, to some extent, ‘junk’ code. It is possible to perform a number of tricks with introns when engineering an organism, such as encoding messages into them. However, the pattern we see in her follows no encoding scheme I am aware of.

Are you saying she’s been engineered?

Cassandra’s mental tone took on an exasperated edge. I am saying no such thing. I am saying that we need more time to analyse the data.

The first thing Thea thought was ‘bloody scientists,’ but she made sure she did not send that to Cassandra. We need answers, Cassy. Preferably fast ones. If she’s really a zanari, we need to know how she stayed hidden. If she’s been engineered… We need to know who did it and why.

I am aware of that, Thea, Cassandra replied. We are working as fast as we can. Perhaps you can find some answers tomorrow, on her home world.

Maybe. Don’t hold your breath.

It isn’t like I can…

Oracle of Zanar, In Orbit, Sadrine’s Drift.

They were still decelerating into orbital velocity when Kaya made her way back into the communal lounge, but that deceleration was markedly lower than what had been used for the transition in-system and she could walk without too much difficulty.

Thea was in the lounge, as was Jay, and they were watching the screen which showed a partial view of the planet’s disc and a space station. It was not the converted asteroid Kaya had flown up to for her journey to Abertine: this one was far smaller, more like a large satellite. Peering at it, Kaya could make out the shapes of turrets mounted around its bulbous central hull. This, she thought, was one of the interdiction stations, but it did not appear to be doing anything.

‘I don’t understand why they aren’t shooting at us,’ Jay said as though voicing Kaya’s unspoken question.

‘Cassandra has a way with machines. She added our registry to the list of approved craft.’ Thea seemed entirely blasé about it, as though hacking a military satellite across several thousand kilometres of space was just something one did.

‘That’s… some trick.’

‘She did say not to underestimate her capabilities,’ Kaya said. Jay turned sharply to look at her. Thea seemed less surprised by the interjection. ‘Do we have any more information?’

‘Little,’ Thea replied. ‘The comms buoy is not the only thing missing. The spaceport station is gone too. We don’t have enough information to determine whether it dropped out of orbit or was destroyed, but there’s no indication of debris at present.’

‘Oh…’ Kaya walked around to sit down beside Thea. She had discovered, when she had emerged from her sleep, that someone had put out some new clothes for her. There was a top like the one she already had but clearly fresh, a short jacket, and denim jeans cut to fit over a new pair of ankle-high boots with block heels. She had to admit that the boots were more practical than her thigh-high ones and they gave her the height boost her ego still felt it needed. Thea smiled as Kaya sat down, and Kaya flashed a grin before turning her face away quickly; the blush was primarily due to the dreams she had had while she was under, dreams which had meant she really needed her shower after waking up.

‘Kaya,’ Thea said, sounding a little hesitant, ‘I’m going to take Jinny down to the main settlement as soon as we have a stable orbit. I want you to stay up here.’

‘What? Why? I need to–’

‘First, there’s no more than two hours of light left. I want to do a fast survey to see what the situation is and go back in the morning. We can go straight to your farm then. Second, we’ll be going down in environment suits and I’m guessing you have no experience of them. Third… we don’t know what’s down there, Kaya. If it’s something bad, I’d rather you weren’t just exposed to it, that you have some warning.’

‘O-oh. Well, when you put it like that… You’ll keep in contact with us? You’ll tell us what you find?’

‘I will.’

‘I guess… I guess you’re the boss.’

Thea flashed another smile. ‘I’m told I have a rather dominant side, yes, but this is primarily for your own protection.’ Kaya found herself blushing all over again and was not sure why.

‘You’re taking the Sword down?’ Jay asked. ‘Or do you have shuttles?’

Thea smiled at him. ‘No, neither. We have a much better alternative available.’

~~~

‘You’re serious,’ Jay said. ‘You really have a teleport system installed aboard this thing.’ It was a statement, because he was looking at the teleport control system and the pad beyond it which was used for transmission and reception, but still managed to come over as more of a question.

‘Quite serious, Sor Colder,’ Cassandra said. ‘I’m not sure what the problem is. The technology has been around for some time.’

‘The filarax use it extensively,’ Fay commented from her position at the controls. ‘I have a suitable landing location locked in, Thea. You should arrive in an alley off the main avenue.’

Thea was looping a belt over her shoulder with a sword attached to the back of it. The weapon looked odd, but it was not that different from the knife she had used on Abertine, now Kaya had the chance to think about it. The metal was black, but the edge glinted as though it was unusually fine. Jinny was, of course, sporting her pistols.

‘You know,’ Kaya said, ‘if you two appear in town like that and everyone’s alive and well, you’re going to get arrested.’

Thea flicked a glance at Cassandra, as though she was not mentioning something. What she said was, ‘I’ll take that risk.’ Then she walked over to stand on the pad, putting on the helmet of her suit as she went.

Jinny followed her with a sigh. ‘I hate this part.’

‘Suck it up,’ Thea told her. ‘If you’re lucky, there’ll be someone bad down there for you to shoot.’

‘I’m not feeling that lucky today.’

‘Transmitting,’ Fay said. She stabbed a button with one of her long fingers and, without preamble or special effects, Thea and Jinny vanished.

‘Oh,’ Kaya said. ‘Somehow I was expecting… swirly lights or something.’

Fay turned in her seat and looked at her. A human would have had to look up, but this was Fay. ‘Why would there be swirling lights?’

‘Who made this ship?’ Jay asked. ‘Teleport projectors are expensive, and they’re prone to targeting errors and malfunction. No one fits them in ships. Who are you people?’

Cassandra gave him a detached sort of look and raised an eyebrow. ‘Aren’t we full of questions, Sor Colder? I could give you answers, but then I’d have to get Jinny back up here to shoot you.’

‘I could teleport him into the local star,’ Fay suggested.

‘Fine,’ Jay said. ‘Keep your secrets.’

‘Good,’ Kaya snapped, finding herself becoming annoyed. ‘Now shut up so we can find out what Thea and Jinny have found.’ She looked at Cassandra and found the tattooed woman looking back with a sad expression.

‘I’m afraid it’s nothing good,’ Cassandra said.

Sadrine’s Landing, Sadrine’s Drift.

The temperature outside Thea’s environment suit would have been distinctly uncomfortable. Her suit sensors noted this as they catalogued other environmental statistics. Air pressure: 97 % standard, comparable oxygen level. No toxic gases detected. Radiation levels: nominal. Acceleration due to gravity: 10.58 m/s^2. Biological analysis… please wait.

Thea was still waiting for the analysis to complete as she stepped out onto the wide avenue which ran down the centre of the town Kaya had said was called Sadrine’s Landing. Now, it was Sadrine’s Graveyard.

‘Oh,’ Jinny said. She slipped one of her pistols free of its holster, but it did not look like there would be any need for it.

There were bodies scattered about randomly as though caught on the street and mowed down while trying to escape. The suits were masking the smell which was, no doubt, filling the air. Heat and dead bodies tended to result in rapid decomposition. Still, as Thea walked over to the nearest of them, the cause of death appeared obvious: something bladed had been used to carve a deep gash in the man’s back, cutting through flesh and bone alike.

‘Looks like they were cut down,’ Jinny commented. She was standing beside a second figure, a woman this time. ‘They were running away. All the ones I can see were hit in the back.’

Thea nodded, but… ‘There’s something about this I don’t like.’

‘Not simply that this looks like filarax hunting?’

‘Not just that, no. Not sure. Come on, we’ll take a tour, see what we can find.’ Thea glanced at her suit display as it announced that there were no biological hazards evident in the atmosphere. Well, it had stopped looking like a disease outbreak pretty quickly. ‘It seems fairly obvious what killed them, so why the cover-up?’

‘No idea. I don’t like cover-ups. I can’t shoot them.’

‘Yeah, well… Life can’t always be that easy. Let’s get on with this. Pick a building.’

Sighing, Jinny turned on the spot and marched off toward somewhere she thought might be worth a look.

~~~

The apartment building on the northern edge of Sadrine’s Landing was just like the other buildings they had found, or most of them. Bodies could be found in every apartment, most of them showing damage from edged weapons. One or two buildings had had the added feature of fire damage, the structures burned out and the remains of the inhabitants left as charred skeletons.

‘This is depressing,’ Jinny commented. ‘They were really thorough, but aside from the wounds, there’s nothing to really indicate who did this.’

‘They were really thorough,’ Thea replied. ‘That suggests filarax. They don’t leave survivors, except…’

‘Except that doesn’t sound quite right to me either. Something about this is wrong.’

‘I’m going to get Fay to come down and look the place over in the morning. You stick with her, and I’ll take Kaya and Colder to Kaya’s farm.’ They were climbing the uppermost flight of stairs as she spoke, more for completeness than anything else: might as well check every floor now they were in. ‘Maybe Fay will spot something we–’ She stopped as the sight in the top-floor hallway hit her.

Someone up here had had a gun, it seemed. Kaya had said that there were very few of them about, mostly belonging to old soldiers who refused to give up being armed. There were no large animals of any sort on the planet, aside from a few cattle herds, so there was nothing to hunt and nothing to defend against. There had been talk of forming a militia in case pirates attacked, but that had generally been viewed as paranoia and they had never had the spare money to equip such a unit. Someone, however, had had a gun and they had used it to pot themselves a filarax warrior.

The dead filarax had fallen on his face, pressed against a wall. Dark blood was pooled under his head, but Thea knelt and turned him over to confirm that he had been killed by a bullet to the head.

‘Light anti-personnel round,’ Jinny said with but a second’s look. ‘Bullet’s probably still in there, but it likely rattled around and made mush of his brain. That seems to confirm it, but…’ She walked over to the likely source of the gunshot: the door at the end of the corridor was open and the remains of a makeshift barricade were scattered around. She looked left and right, then stepped through the door, returning a second or two later with a rifle. ‘This is not some old soldier’s weapon,’ she said. ‘This is a fairly modern light assault rifle. Four-mil, high-density penetrators and the mag’s empty. The body’s been cut to ribbons.’

Thea frowned. ‘Empty magazine, but only one corpse. One filarax corpse. Perfect headshot, but they only nailed one and this is an honourable death, wouldn’t you say?’

‘Killed mounting an assault on a fortified position manned by an expert marksman, unless he just got real lucky. I mean my kind of lucky.’

‘So why did they leave the body? If they were all dead, they’d all be here. If they weren’t all dead, why did they leave him?’ When she got a shrug from Jinny, Thea nodded. ‘Okay, I want Geo down here with you and Fay. I want these bodies checked over before we decide we’re going with the filarax raid theory.’

Jinny groaned. ‘Geo? He is going to complain like a kid who was promised a dog for his birthday and it turned out to be a stuffed toy.’

‘We all have to make sacrifices,’ Thea replied as she got to her feet. ‘Yours is having to put up with Geo.’

‘And what are you sacrificing, glorious leader?’

‘I’m going to be taking a young, innocent woman to see what’s left of her family.’

‘Oh… Fair point.’

Oracle of Zanar.

Thea stretched languorously, suspended in her bed’s suspension field. She was warm and comfortable, and the images of Sadrine’s Landing and thoughts of what was to come when the day returned on the planet below had been washed away. Relaxing, she reached out, wrapping her arms around Cassandra’s naked, floating body, pulling them together.

Cassandra rested her head on Thea’s shoulder. ‘Better?’ the tattooed woman asked.

‘I’ll nap now. You’ve exhausted me.’ They were also having to deal with the large disparity between ship-time and planet-time, so taking a nap had seemed a good idea.

‘I find that highly unlikely.’

‘Huh, well, I’ll sleep. Tonight is going to be purgatory, but I’ll sleep. I’m sure her family are the same as the rest. She won’t take it well.’

‘Mm.’ There was silence for a few seconds and then Cassandra asked, ‘Do you want her?’

Thea frowned. ‘Well, I wouldn’t kick her out of bed… I’ve no idea whether she’d even be interested, Cassy. She’s barely old enough to call an adult and I’m–’

‘Young at heart,’ Cassandra said and her lips twitched against Thea’s throat.

‘Hardly. Some days I feel a lot older than I am.’

‘Not right now?’ Cassandra’s hand stroked down the taut skin of Thea’s stomach, eliciting a shiver.

‘Not right now, no. I need to rest.’

‘Not right away.’

Thea sighed as Cassandra’s fingers reached their ultimate objective. ‘Not right away, no.’

Meddon, Sadrine’s Drift.

The experience of teleporting was not as uneventful as Kaya had imagined, and it was really not that pleasant. Fay had helpfully explained how it worked before sending Kaya through with Thea and Jay; Kaya could have done without the explanation. Apparently, the teleport projector worked exactly like the ability of a natural teleporter, opening a path through hyperspace and translating the subject through it. Kaya had always heard that hyperspace was not a safe place to be unless you were inside a ship, but in reality…

Kaya stood in the street in the middle of Meddon, trying to work out whether she was still in one piece. There had been cold harsher than anything she had ever experienced, a weird, disorienting, twisting motion which she was sure had not been real, and noise. To Kaya, standing now in the silent town under the warm sun of early morning, it was the sound that stayed with her, like something had been screaming in her ears loud enough to make them bleed.

She snapped out of it a second later, noting with some pride that she was not the only one: Jay was shaking his head to clear it. Thea, on the other hand, looked as though she got herself translated through another dimension every other hour, but she was just standing there with her hands on her hips, watching Kaya. Kaya gave her a weak grin and looked around.

Cassandra had taken one look at Kaya after the reports had come back from the planet and had obtained a pill from Geogracus to help the girl sleep. Kaya had been ready for the sight of slashed bodies in the streets, or she had thought she was ready, but steeling herself for the sight was unnecessary: Meddon, the village nearest to her family’s farm, showed nothing of the carnage of Sadrine’s Landing. It was almost enough to give her a sliver of hope: maybe the killers had not come to this part of the planet and maybe her family remained untouched.

That lasted until she spotted the shattered window of the general store on High Street. The name was something of a joke: there was only one street in Meddon. The village was basically a collection of stores, a school, and a few houses. The general store, actually called The General Store, sold all sorts of goods, though food was supplied by other retailers. The name had been painted onto a broad window which spanned most of the front of the building, but the glass was now lying in a wide dispersal pattern in the street. Inside, the shop was a wreck.

‘S-something blew up?’ Kaya suggested as she looked through the shattered window. ‘They stocked fuel in the back.’

Thea shook her head. ‘That was a grenade.’

‘I didn’t think filarax used grenades,’ Jay said.

‘They don’t. It’s not sporting. It’s like fishing with explosives.’

‘Yet you found a dead filarax in the city.’

Thea gave a nod. ‘Which is also wrong, but we’ll wait until Fay and Geo have checked things over up there before we speculate. Speculation is a waste of time when we may have facts in the near future. Which way is your farm, Kaya?’

‘It’s about fifteen minutes’ walk that–’ Kaya stopped abruptly, one arm raised to show the direction: she had just seen another building which was showing signs of damage. ‘Oh… That’s… That’s the school.’

It was a fairly small school, designed to service the fairly meagre needs of the town and handle the children in the surrounding farms. It would not be doing that again because it had been burned to the ground aside from a couple of walls which were blackened with soot. Kaya ran toward it, hoping that whatever had happened had happened at night and no one was in the building, but she stumbled and had to catch herself from falling as she realised that what she had thought was a piece of wood or metal sticking up from a pile of fallen roof tiles was actually an arm…

Biting her lips to avoid screaming, Kaya stood and stared at the skeletal limb. Now that she was looking properly, she could see other bones sticking out of the debris. Small bones. The bones of children.

‘It’s okay,’ Jay said, placing a hand on her shoulder. ‘You’ll be okay. There was nothing you could’ve–’

‘How is this ever going to be okay?’ Thea snapped. ‘Cào! I’d almost prefer it if it was filarax. At least this would make a kind of twisted sense if it was filarax. If it’s not…’

‘I want to see my home,’ Kaya said, her voice calm and deliberate. ‘I need to see my home. Come on.’ And she set off walking, past the burned-out school and out of town.

Trevorny Farm.

The extent of the damage was fairly obvious from the road leading into the farm through fields which were already high with corn or lush with some ground fruit or other. At the end of the road, the blackened, burned-out building could be seen through the vegetation and, with that sight, most of what remained of Kaya’s hope fled.

‘We can go in,’ Jay suggested. ‘We could check the place over before you see for yourself.’

‘No,’ Kaya replied flatly, and she kept walking toward the buildings which had, until recently, been most of her world.

As they got closer, the extent of the structures, and the damage to them, became more obvious. There had been a large barn off to one side of the enclosure the farm buildings sat in. It had been burned to the ground. There were a couple of outhouses which seemed to be intact, but the farmhouse itself was a ruin. The roof had fallen in; the walls were intact but blackened. It seemed to have been built in two phases, one of prefabricated concrete panels with later stone-built extensions. All of them had been touched by the fire. All the windows had blown out while the interior burned.

Kaya paused outside the house, sure she had to go inside, but not really wanting to. Her home was gone. Everything she had known for eighteen years, even her school, had been burned to the ground. She stood for a second, taking it in, building up her defences for what she was bound to find inside the ruin of her life.

Jay, apparently, took this as a sign that she did not want to enter. ‘You don’t have to, Kaya. No one’s going to think less of you for–’

‘I will,’ Kaya said, but she glanced around at her companions. ‘Do you think the structure’s safe? I mean, the fire… I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.’

Thea stepped up to the front door of the house, looking through the hole left when the thing which had filled it had fallen from its burned frame. Her jaw tightened, but she said, ‘The roof’s already collapsed. There’s nothing else to fall unless the walls decide to cave and they look solid. I think they’d have come down already, if they were going to.’ Kaya started forward, but Thea held up a hand. ‘Are you sure you’re ready for this, Kaya?’

‘If I’m not… If I’m not, I never will be.’

Thea nodded and stepped aside. Kaya walked up to the front door, her memory filling the gap. The door had been red. She had been there when her father and brother had last painted it. Coming home from school, she had always run the last hundred metres to the red door. No matter how her day had gone, the bright red had always seemed to welcome her, cheering her when she was sad. Now it lay in the rubble, charred black, the paint burned away, and she stepped over it to look around the family room it had opened onto.

Kaya’s mother had been in charge of interior decoration. The family room had been papered for as long as Kaya could remember and the latest print had been a diagonal pattern of small blue flowers. The flowers were nothing Kaya recognised from Sadrine’s Drift and her mother had explained that they were a flower found on Earth, long ago, called bluebells. The paper had seemed cheery on the wall, but Kaya had looked at the flowers with their drooping heads and thought that they seemed somehow sad. There was a fireplace on one side of the room for the rare occasions when the temperature dropped to an uncomfortable level. By some quirk of fate, several of the logs that were always stacked in the grate had survived, charred but still obvious. The furniture, a comfortable sofa and two large chairs, which Kaya had sat on with her family around her, was nothing but sticks, but some of the sticks were not furniture.

Kaya’s breath caught in her throat, but her mind refused to grasp what she was seeing. For what felt like an eternity, she stood, staring at the room as it had been when she had left it. The flowered wallpaper, her mother sitting in front of the unlit fire, her sister playing on the floor. Anna was nine and had not entirely figured out that her big sister was going away to another world. Her father and her brother, Brava, were outside in the fields, and Kaya was going out to call them in. They would all go through to the kitchen soon and partake of their evening meal, and…

‘The s-skeleton,’ Kaya said, her voice barely a whisper. ‘That bracelet was my mother’s.’ She turned, found Thea standing behind her, and lurched forward. Thea caught her and Kaya pressed her face against Thea’s shoulder. Thea held the back of Kaya’s head and put an arm around her waist, and waited for the tears…

But there were none. ‘I c-can’t,’ Kaya whispered. ‘Not yet. Not until we’ve found them all.’

‘All right,’ Thea said. ‘We’ll find them.’

Sadrine’s Landing.

‘This was not a filarax raid,’ Fay said, her eyes scanning over the body of the man in the apartment.

‘You’re sure?’ Jinny asked. ‘I mean, bladed weapons, a lot of violence, a dead filarax…’

‘A dead filarax left where he fell. He died in combat and should have received a proper funeral. They would not have left him.’

‘Unless they were disturbed?’

‘By whom? There is not a human alive on this planet. These wounds are wrong. Filarax favour light, fast blades, weapons of skill, precision. Filarax like to think themselves strong, powerful warriors, but our home world’s gravity is not high, our muscle mass generally no more than that of a human. These were made by chopping weapons, heavy bladed.’

‘And,’ Geogracus said from behind Jinny, ‘that human was shot before he was cut up. The trauma is consistent with multiple bullet wounds, though they are well hidden by the cuts. It would take a thorough autopsy, or me, to determine how he actually died. All the victims I have examined have been shot prior to the post-mortem cutting.’

Jinny nodded. ‘Thea said there was something weird about this. Neither of us thought it felt right for a filarax raid.’

‘It is entirely wrong,’ Fay said. ‘The entire population has been wiped out. Our sensors have detected no one alive on the planet.’

‘Yes… so?’

‘So where are the filarax? A raid would not kill so many. An attack which wiped out all the inhabitants would be a territorial claim. We would be fighting an army of filarax intent on holding that claim.’

‘Okay, so someone dressed this up as a filarax raid. Why?’

‘That is a very good question, I’m sure,’ Geogracus said. ‘I would like to further my research into the matter by taking several bodies back for a full examination. The filarax included. There’s something distinctly wrong with that body.’

Jinny turned to look at the obese man, floating just off the ground behind her. He had dressed in a grey smock for the occasion, but his flab still made itself known through the cloth. Both flab and facial jowls suggested Geogracus was not enjoying the high gravity. ‘You just want to get back into your low-gravity field.’

‘That is, most assuredly, a considerable benefit of my desire to further examine the bodies.’

‘All right. Contact Cassy and get her to take you up with the filarax corpse. Fay and I will get you some more samples.’

Geogracus twisted in the air and floated back toward the door. ‘Four of them. The more intact the better. Try to get both genders and a range of ages.’

‘Oh, our wish is your command, great floating master.’

The big man heaved a sigh. ‘Would that that were true, sweet little Jinny. Would that that were true.’

Trevorny Farm.

Braven Trevorny had died in the kitchen. Kaya’s father had the ruins of an old hunting rifle beside his charred skeleton. It had belonged to Kaya’s great-grandfather, kept in the family as an heirloom more than a functional weapon. It did fire; there was a sort of Trevorny rite of passage when you turned sixteen and Braven would teach you to shoot. Brava had been quite keen to learn, Kaya less so, but she was an adequate shot. Braven had been quite good, but it was doubtful that he had got to use his old rifle before he died.

Finding Brava and Anna proved far harder. There was no sign of their bodies in the house, or any of the outhouses, or in the burned-out barn. It was not until Jay spotted a section of flattened corn, a path trampled into the field, that they found what they were looking for.

Fifty metres into the field, the corn had been flattened out to five metres or so from the centre where there was a shallow pit blasted into the soil. Brava lay at the edge of the cleared area, his burned body wrapped tightly around a smaller corpse as though he had been trying to keep the fire away from her. It had not worked.

Kaya stood staring at the bodies for several seconds before she spoke. ‘W-what d-did that? They’re burned, but the field is s-still here.’

‘Flamethrower,’ Thea said. ‘Some sort of vortex ring projector firing a high-intensity flammable gas. You can get very tight burns using them. And the filarax wouldn’t touch one for all the territory in the universe.’

‘So… So, you’re sure? This was not the filarax.’

‘From what Cassandra is telling me the others have found, yes. I’m quite sure this was done by someone who wanted it to look like a filarax raid, but it was something else. Someone else.’

‘Mercs,’ Jay said. ‘Mercs love this kind of weapon for hiding the evidence. A high-tech solution for something you could do with a match.’

‘I want them,’ Kaya said, her voice so low neither Jay nor Thea heard her properly.

‘Sorry, Kaya?’ Jay asked. Then he took a step back as the young girl turned her tawny eyes on him.

‘I want them. I want them to… to pay for what they’ve done.’

Jay was about to say something, suggest the task was impossible, try to talk Kaya down, he was not sure which might work or be true, but Thea spoke before he could.

‘We’ll see what we can do,’ Thea said. ‘For right now, I’m going to get a couple of service units down from the Oracle. I think we should at least give your family a proper burial, don’t you?’

Kaya looked up at her with a smile, if only a weak one. ‘I’d like that. Yes.’

Oracle of Zanar.

Geogracus hummed quietly to himself as he hovered over his instruments, periodically checking the four he had working on various different tasks. Things were progressing nicely.

He had established without much doubt that the ‘filarax raid’ aspect of the attack on Sadrine’s Drift had been staged. The blade wounds did not match any of the normal weapons used by filarax, and every body he had checked had been shot prior to the cuts. That was not to say that some of the bodies in the town had not been cut down with a knife or sword, but no filarax would have preferentially used a gun and then followed that through with mutilation.

Then there was the filarax corpse. Tissue imaging had shown up clear signs of water crystal formation in the cells, the result of being frozen, and not in a cold-sleep capsule, which the filarax did not use anyway. No, this filarax had been killed an effectively indeterminate period of time prior to his apparent death on Sadrine’s Drift, stuffed into a meat freezer, and thawed out for set dressing. Fay had been furious and she was not exactly the biggest fan her species had.

Now, Geogracus was running a number of tissue analyses on the human bodies which had been recovered. He had two males and two females, and a range of ages between about twenty and eighty. The oldest one had to have been among the initial batch of colonists, a woman in the prime of life, a mother. Geogracus was not the most sentimental of men, but he had to wonder whether all her children were now lying dead on the world below them. It seemed likely.

Something trilled at him from one of his machines and he turned to it, revolving on his telekinetic levitation field. He frowned and tapped at a few keys, checking the data.

‘That,’ he said to the air, ‘is most interesting.’

‘What would that be?’ Cassandra’s voice said from the lab’s speakers.

‘I’ll have more information when I have more information.’

‘Very useful, Geo.’

‘It is. Please would you communicate to Sienna that I have another sample of those odd intron codes for her. Possibly the original.’

‘One of the bodies was a zanari?’

Geogracus shook his head. ‘No, Cassandra. This genome is not that of any form of human. When I’ve properly identified it, I’ll be in touch. I’m sending Sienna the gene sequence now.’

‘One day you’ll just give us an answer, Geo.’

‘I find that highly unlikely, my dear Cassandra. Highly unlikely.’

54/1/483.

Kaya stepped out of her cabin to discover that she was not alone in the communal lounge. She almost turned around to leave, but she had spent much of the afternoon and the night either sleeping under a sedative or sitting alone with her thoughts; a little company would not harm her and maybe she was now ready for it. The full impact of her loss had not hit her until the robots from the Oracle had begun filling in the graves they had dug for her family. Then she had all but collapsed and been taken back to the ship to mourn as she chose to. She had a feeling that Cassandra had been keeping an eye on her the whole time, but she had been allowed to grieve in apparent private.

Now Cassandra was sitting in the lounge beside Thea while Jay sat on another sofa. Nothing was being said, which seemed to confirm that Cassandra had known what Kaya was doing and had noticed that she was about to emerge. Had they been talking about her? Or were they waiting for her?

‘Come, Kaya,’ Cassandra said, looking up. ‘Sit down and we’ll go over what we’ve learned. Sienna is on her way with another part of the puzzle, but we can start without her.’

Kaya walked over, electing to sit on a third sofa. She was ready for company, but not being crowded. ‘Geogracus found more information?’ she asked.

‘He has, yes.’

‘We’ve confirmed with very little doubt that the attack was not performed by filarax,’ Thea said. ‘That body was not one of the attackers, unless he was killed, frozen for a few decades, and then transported back in time to be left in a corridor. All the bodies Geo examined had been cut post-mortem. He extracted a couple of bullets, all of them from modern weapons favoured by human mercenary units. As Jay suggested, this seems like the work of a mercenary company, and it would have to have been a fairly large one.’

‘There are, maybe, three companies in this part of the galaxy who could mount an operation like that,’ Jay said, ‘and one of those wouldn’t. If I had to guess, I’d say it was Monteagle’s unit, the Kraggans. Either them, or they got someone in from out of the area, which wouldn’t go down well with the local units.’

‘I’ve heard of the Kraggans,’ Thea acknowledged. ‘Named for a carrion-eating predator. They’ve a less-than-stellar reputation.’

‘They give the word “mercenary” an entirely new meaning. Mercs will usually do what you want if you pay them enough. The Kraggans will do anything you want if you pay them enough. Rumour has it that the worse the mess you want to make, the lower their rates get.’

‘Probably untrue, but it’s a place to start.’ Thea paused, frowning as though unsure of how to continue. ‘We also have some evidence suggesting a reason for the attack.’

‘You do?’ Kaya and Jay spoke over each other; apparently, Jay had not heard this part before, though he seemed to have had a while to think over the mercenary angle.

‘Yes. I was hoping Sienna would be here to–’

‘Then you need wait no longer,’ a voice said from the entrance corridor. The voice had a soft, purring quality to it, velvet on the ears, and if the voice was attractive, the woman put it in the shade.

Sienna was dressed in the same outfit as Cassandra: grey-and-metal tunic, open down the front, grey-and-white shorts, and the gloves and strange boots. The outfit showed off a fit body, trim, with wide hips and a fairly expansive chest barely held in place by her tunic. Her skin was smooth milk chocolate, her eyes a golden, tawny brown. She had high cheekbones, hollowed cheeks, and quite a long, pointed jaw. Her nose was long and slightly flattened, and sat above full, bee-stung lips. Her hair was pale blonde with darker hints through the crown. It fell as a curtain to a straight-cut fringe and to the upper slopes of her breasts, where it was also cut straight across, apparently by someone with a spirit level to guide them. She was stunning, and Jay sat up noticeably straighter when he saw her. All she did, however, was wrinkle her nose at him and move to sit down beside Kaya.

‘Good evening, Sora Trevorny,’ Sienna said in her velvet voice. ‘I am Sienna, the Oracle’s communications officer.’

Kaya swallowed the small lump in her throat and nodded. She had a feeling Sienna could get just about anyone to do just about anything she wanted. ‘Uh, I’m Kaya,’ Kaya said.

Sienna smiled. ‘Thank you, Kaya. I am sorry for your considerable loss.’

‘Thanks. I… Thanks. Thea was saying you have something to tell us?’

‘I’ve decoded the message Geogracus found embedded in Kaya’s introns.’

‘I’m sorry?’ Kaya asked, her eyes widening. ‘What message? What introns?’

‘Try not to be alarmed,’ Cassandra said. ‘Introns are part of the genome of more or less every organism. Everything larger than a bacterium has them. Something seemed a little odd about yours, however, and we have been analysing them. Geo also found the same sequences in the remnants of a retrovirus he discovered in some of the other colonists.’

‘O-oh,’ Kaya said, still not sure what she was hearing. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Whatever this was, it did not sound good.

‘It’s possible to encode messages into intron sequences,’ Sienna went on. ‘Here, we have a genome with the usual two base pairs, T–A and G–C, so we have a simple means of creating a binary code. Say we make T–A zero and G–C one, then we can encode a message in any of a number of binary formats.’

‘But that’s not what we had here,’ Thea said. ‘Geo would have decoded them straight away if it had been one of the usual codes.’

Kaya swallowed. Usual codes? Since when did people have messages in their genes? Since when was it usual to have messages in your genes?

Sienna just nodded, but she was watching Kaya closely. ‘That is correct. So, I was brought in to examine it. I set my computers to the task of trying all the encoding schemes and encryption systems I have available while I tried a few more esoteric alternatives.’

‘And you beat the computer?’ Thea asked, though it sounded more like a statement.

‘It’s not a binary scheme. Whoever left this message used Morse code.’

‘Never heard of it.’

Sienna flashed a smile. ‘You wouldn’t have. It hasn’t been used for thousands of years. It was one of the very first encoding systems, invented for transmission over copper wires. Text only, simple, but quite efficient. It used long and short pulses, with short combinations assigned to the more commonly used letters to reduce transmission times. When I assigned T–A to short and G–C to long, I immediately got the first word out and knew I was on to something.’

‘What was the first word?’ Thea asked.

‘Zanar.’

‘Zanar is a legend,’ Jay said as though it were some sort of reflex action.

‘I’ve never heard of it,’ Kaya admitted.

‘The zanari were supposed to be an advanced race of humans who lived out on the edge of the Solar Empire. Masters of psi and the greatest psionics engineers ever. But they never existed. Legends like that have been around since Earth. There’s always some advanced civilisation that vanished long ago, and no one knows where to even find the ruins.’

‘Convinced of that, are you?’ Thea asked.

Jay frowned. ‘Yes,’ he said, but his certainty seemed to be slipping.

‘Well, Cassandra and I were both born on Zanar Prime, so I’m going to have to ask that you reassess your conviction.’

‘I–’ Jay began, but Kaya cut him off.

‘What is the name of your home world doing written in my genes?’ It was snapped out, terse and a little annoyed.

‘A very good question,’ Sienna said. ‘The answer is that I’m not sure, but the rest of the message may give some clue. In full it reads: ZANAR, stop. KN, stop. REGENESIS.’

Thea sat up straighter, her tanned skin paling. Cassandra stiffened and asked, ‘KN? You’re quite sure?’

‘The rest of the sequence works. There is no reason to suspect those two characters are incorrect. You recognise that? Someone’s initials?’

‘Kadal Narra,’ Thea said. ‘He was a geneticist. A very good geneticist, but he had some… ideas which were considered unsafe.’

‘He wanted to advance the evolution of the zanari through massive genetic engineering programmes,’ Cassandra said. ‘We had already altered our baseline genome to increase our talent for psi, but Narra believed we should go far further. Zanari are, essentially, humans, though we cannot interbreed with other races. Of course, modern humans would be unable to breed with the people who walked the Earth long ago, and some of the powerful families alive today have altered their genomes too much to be compatible with the majority of people outside their immediate circle. Narra wanted to take us beyond the confines of humanity, to turn us into something truly alien. His plans were rejected and he left the core worlds to conduct his experiments in seclusion. It was assumed he died when the rest of zanari civilisation was destroyed.’

‘Apparently,’ Thea said, ‘that was a false assumption. He’s alive, and he’s trying to resurrect the zanari race.’

The blood was hammering in Kaya’s ears now, so much so that it was hard to hear Thea speaking. ‘How?’ Kaya asked, her voice soft.

‘He’s created a retrovirus which rewrites human genes. He somehow released it on Sadrine’s Drift. Your parents may not have been zanari, Kaya, but you are. Genetically anyway. Narra never could get over the idea that genetics weren’t the be-all and end-all of everything.’

‘O-oh,’ Kaya managed.

‘I’m sorry, but it’s worse than that. It seems like someone found out about Narra’s plan and they decided to continue the job the Bowrains started three hundred years ago. Someone wiped out your entire colony to kill the few people who were born there as zanari.’

Part Two: Lessons for Life

Oracle of Zanar, Sadrine’s Drift System, 55/1/483 BCC.

Kaya’s eyes drifted open slowly as her brain got used to the idea of being awake. The room was dark. She was floating. When had she gone to bed? What was the time anyway?

‘You’re awake then?’ Thea’s voice was soft, as though she did not want to disturb the atmosphere.

‘I don’t remember going to bed. What time is it?’

‘Just after six hundred, and you wouldn’t remember going to bed. I put you to bed. Lights, soft, ten percent.’ The bedroom lights came on, a soft, warm glow bright enough to see by, but not uncomfortable. Thea was sitting in a chair outside the bed’s field, dressed in the same sort of outfit as Cassandra and Sienna. She put down a tablet, which she had presumably been reading, and smiled at Kaya. ‘How do you feel?’

‘Kind of like I’ve been sleeping too much. I don’t really remember. I spent a lot of time dozing or feeling… lost after the funeral. I came out and you were there with Cassandra and Jay… And then I met Sienna and she told me something…’ Kaya frowned, trying to make her mind pull up the memory of what Sienna had said…

‘It’ll come back,’ Thea said, watching carefully.

Sienna had said… ‘Oh,’ Kaya said flatly. Twisting, she reached out to the bed post nearest her and deactivated the field. When it let her down to the floor, she dropped onto her knees and put her head in her hands, breathing slowly and carefully.

‘Better than yesterday,’ Thea commented.

‘What happened? I remember… Well, going a little nuts.’

‘You were hyperventilating, which we could understand, by the way. Sienna was watching for signs of… shall we say “discomfort?” She put you to sleep. It’s one of her abilities, a suggestion which is difficult to ignore. Geo can do the same trick a different way, but Sienna’s good at reading emotions as well. In case you hadn’t noticed, Geo isn’t especially good with emotions. Other people’s anyway.’

Kaya let out a short bark of a laugh. ‘I’d sort of noticed. So… So, you’re all psis?’

‘Yes. We’re all zanari and, at least physically, so are you. Frankly, we’re as unsure of what to do about this as I’m sure you are. As far as we knew, with a few exceptions, the only zanari left alive were the ones aboard this ship.’

‘Five. Only five zanari left alive?’

‘There are a couple more you haven’t met yet. Sienna likes her alone time, but they tend to isolate themselves in their rooms and won’t come out unless we drag them. The loss of Zanar hit some of us harder than others. There were more of us. The Oracle was built to handle up to a hundred and twenty people, but we got out with less than sixty and our numbers have dwindled since, for various reasons. Not all of them died, but many did. We are what’s left.’

Kaya nodded and, finally, lifted her head. ‘Is that some sort of standard zanari outfit?’

Thea’s lips curled a little. ‘It was a commonly worn shipboard outfit. Zanar Prime was not quite as hot as Sadrine’s Drift, but we had a warm climate, and this tunic has spinal reinforcement which helps in high-acceleration situations. Would you like me to get one fabricated for you?’

‘Oh, I don’t think I could wear that without blushing. I don’t have the figure for it.’

‘Nonsense. However, your clothes are there.’ Thea indicated the garments hung up beside the bed.

Blushing anyway, Kaya stepped over to them and began dressing. Truthfully, the tops she wore were not that much less revealing than the tunic Thea was in, but there was no way Kaya would look that good in that outfit. Thea filled the tunic out really well and… Dressed, Kaya shook her head to clear it and then turned to Thea. ‘I’m… not even human,’ she said.

Thea got to her feet, waved for Kaya to follow, and started into the lounge where there were more seats. ‘The term doesn’t have the meaning you think it does. Humans began tinkering with their basic genetics before even the Solar Empire.’ She sat, and Kaya fell onto one of the chairs facing her to listen. ‘First it was longevity. Little hacks to reduce the risk of cancer and DNA mutation. Then the rich wanted to move into space habitats to get away from the mess they’d made of Earth, so the geneticists altered the way calcium was processed in the body and added hacks to maintain muscle mass. Then it was even greater life extension. How long do you think you’ll live, without additional medical intervention?’

Kaya gave a shrug. ‘Hundred and fifty, maybe even two hundred years.’

‘Before all this, people who lived to be a hundred were rare. After it, the modified humans were not really humans. The species had changed. Then the push for colonisation began and humans needed to be able to adapt to a wider range of environments. Gravity tolerance was widened, then there was more efficient processing of nutrition and water, changes to the sleeping pattern, resistance to disease and radiation… By the time of the Solar Empire, even before then, a human from a hundred years earlier would have been unable to breed with a “human” of that time.’

‘And psi, right? The original humans had almost no talent for it, but we… I mean they do now.’

‘When the structures in the brain which interact with the Hepps–Montague field were identified, alterations were made to enhance them, yes. It also resulted in enhanced intelligence, which was a useful feature. We, the zanari, enhanced those areas further, and further increased lifespan and fitness. You’ll easily make two hundred, probably more like two hundred and fifty or more, but you can learn to extend even that using your biokinesis.’

Kaya frowned. ‘Last night, you said that Zanar was destroyed three hundred years ago.’

‘Yes, about that anyway.’

‘How old are you?’

‘Me? Uh, eight hundred and… sixty… something. It gets pointless keeping count after the first few centuries. Cassandra will know if you want the exact figure. She’s a couple of years older than me. You aren’t going to faint, are you?’

‘Don’t… think so. No. Everything’s under control. Eight hundred and sixty… That’s quite an age difference.’

‘Sorry?’

Kaya was rather thankful her face was dipped out of sight so that the blush did not show. ‘Nothing. I… I don’t really know anything much about the zanari.’

‘All right,’ Thea said, settling herself comfortably in her chair. ‘I suggest you make yourself comfortable, perhaps get a drink. This may take a while.’

~~~

‘The Zanar system was surveyed in year twenty-five seventy-three of the Solar Empire,’ Thea said.

Kaya had got herself coffee and a bowl of cereal from the supplies in her kitchen. Where they got fresh milk from was anyone’s guess, but she was not going to question it now. Now, she was sitting cross-legged on her seat, listening intently.

‘The survey suggested a good affinity for human life,’ Thea went on, ‘but the region was only accessible through a narrow corridor between rifts, from the empire anyway, and it was deemed unsuitable for colonisation at that time. There were easier fish to hook. However, a group of scientists and their followers were looking for somewhere… out of the way to conduct some experiments in genetic manipulation and psi. Zanar seemed perfect and they set about colonising the most suitable planet in twenty-five seventy-five. A century later, they had a viable, flourishing colony and all the children being born were zanari. Three centuries later, Zanar had four colonies. There were twelve before the end, plus a few outposts, and we were called the Zanari Protectorate.’ Thea paused, taking a sip of her own coffee. ‘You have to understand that Zanar wasn’t just a planet or an interstellar government; it was a culture, an ethos. The original colonists wanted to be sure of the lineage of the new race being born, and they were also heavy on the female population, so Zanar was a matriarchy. We counted our ancestry down the female line and it’s true that women tended to have a higher representation among senators. Science was viewed as key to the colony’s survival and the ethos of scientific discovery trumped everything else. There was an arrogance about it, but it was a peaceful sort of arrogance. Resources went to science before the military. Noble but, as it turned out, not entirely wise.’

‘A matriarchy,’ Kaya said. ‘So, women were more respected than men?’

‘Technically not, but no system is perfect and you tended to get all sorts. Sienna, for example. I noticed that Jay was looking rather closely at her, but he really hasn’t a chance. Sienna dislikes men quite intensely. She’s respectful enough to Geo, because he’s powerful and exceptionally competent in his field, but she doesn’t really like him. Geo, in turn, doesn’t really like being ordered around by women. Kadal Narra had a huge chip on his shoulder about the matriarchal nature of zanari government, which did not help when he came to present his project plans. He believed, not entirely without foundation, that he might have got permission to run his programme if he had been born a woman. Zanari society was not some perfect utopia, Kaya. We had our problems, just like the empire did and the BCU does.’

‘What about religion? Sadrine’s Drift wasn’t exactly a religious colony, but we kept the faith. We all believed in the Universal Mind.’

Thea flashed Kaya a smile. ‘Zanari were not, generally, religious. Too focused on rationality and… Well, our scientists chipped away at a number of the tenets of Minder faith, making the idea of it rather less palatable to the mind of the rational zanari. There were a few who still believed. Faith, as they pointed out, is not something which can be disproved. If your faith falters in the face of some new scientific discovery which appears to go against it, then you don’t have faith. If your god lives in the places not yet uncovered by science, then your god is diminished by every new discovery. We can show you things which may test your faith, Kaya, but keep it until it no longer serves its purpose for you.’

Kaya smiled back, though it was a little weak. ‘Things like what’s happened to my family are supposed to test your faith.’

‘I suppose they are. Mine was tested a long time ago.’

‘When Zanar was destroyed.’

Thea nodded. ‘Yes, but it didn’t start out like that. I was ninety-four when the Solar Empire found one of our outposts monitoring the hyperspace path back into their territory. Zanari were captured and interrogated, and the empire decided that they wanted what we had: planets and technology. I was already in the military, I fought with all the power I’d been given, and we threw them back through the Gap to lick their wounds. Uh, the Gap was what we called the gap in hyperspace that led to imperial space. Not especially imaginative, but no one thought much about it really. Soon after that, maybe because they’d overstretched themselves with us, or it was just time, the empire began to collapse in on itself. The Gap was watched for a few decades, but it seemed as though our belligerent neighbour was not going to bother us again.’

There was another sip of coffee, another pause. Kaya was not entirely sure whether recounting the story was painful or Thea needed to collect her thoughts. It seemed obvious enough what was coming.

‘And, honestly,’ Thea went on, ‘I can’t blame the government for believing there was no more threat, in a way. It was nearly four hundred years later that they came back. The empire was gone, and the Zanari Protectorate was actually involved in negotiating with the Bowrain family. They’d sent envoys, the Bowrains. They wanted trade. The thing was, the Bowrains were talking to a lot of people about trade, and one of those groups was the Karraph family. The Karraphs took over the imperial worlds on the other side of the Gap from Zanar and they remembered us. Unknown to us, the Bowrains backed them with resources, weapons, and eventually mercenaries to invade through the Gap. We’d watched the Karraphs, but the threat was analysed based on them alone. Military budgets had been backed down… We lost three worlds before the government really started taking it seriously. Then it became a matter of attrition. It took twenty-two years for them to make a serious attempt on Zanar Prime, over a sexagoy to finally break down the defences. The zanari government sued for peace, but it was past that for the Karraphs and Bowrains by then. They had what they wanted, our technology, and they wanted to wipe out the evidence of where they’d got it. Zanar Prime is a radioactive wasteland to this day.’

‘But you got out. The Oracle got out. How?’

Thea sighed. ‘They called it the Zanari Memory Project. As much information about zanari culture as possible was loaded onto the best ship they had available along with as many important scientists as they could get aboard and a few soldiers to keep them safe. I was selected to lead the military contingent. I had five hundred years of experience behind me by then, and I was the best they could find. It was an honour. I hated it, of course, but I had my orders. We ran the blockade and… I’ve done my best to keep us together, but… Well, all we can do is keep living, keep the memory alive of what Zanar was. At least that’s what we thought. Now there’s you.’

‘Me?!’ Kaya spluttered right before what Thea meant hit her. ‘There’s someone out there who can replicate the zanari evolutionary process.’

‘And maybe we could use that to make a new Zanar Protectorate, somewhere a long way from the rest of human civilisation. Huh, maybe I could even let myself get old and die, but it’s not that easy, is it? Do we even have the right to make more zanari? Should we find Narra and stop him?’

Kaya finished her coffee, frowning. ‘I have no idea. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do now. My home is gone. It seems like someone wants to hunt me down and… I don’t know what they want with me, but I doubt it’s good.’

Thea shrugged. ‘We discussed it. Right or wrong, you’re one of us. We’ll help you find out who did this to your world. It’s possible that this has to do with us anyway. You wanted to learn to use your psi abilities; we have the best teachers in the galaxy. We can teach you, see how you get on, and when this is all done with, if you still want to learn… Basically, there’s a place for you aboard the Oracle for as long as you want it.’

Kaya’s eyes widened. ‘I… don’t know what to say. Thank you. I… You’re right, of course, we should give it some time. Maybe you’ll all hate me.’

‘I… don’t think that’s going to happen,’ Thea said, smirking. ‘Unless you snore. Telepathically. I don’t think we could put up with that.’

‘There is no way someone can snore telepathically.’

‘Of course you can. Why do you think we make Geo sleep all the way down on the med deck?’

Kaya opened her mouth to protest and then snapped it closed. They did keep Geogracus well out of the way of everyone else and he was a big man with a big nose that might just result in… ‘No… You’re pulling my leg. I do not believe Geogracus sends out telepathic snoring noises in his sleep.’ Thea just smiled. ‘You are joking, right?’

‘Well, he’ll be your biokinetics tutor, so you just might get to find out.’

~~~

‘I don’t suppose you know your way around the hospital in Sadrine’s Landing?’

Kaya lifted her head and stared at Thea for a second, dragging her head out of the wash of thoughts it had been sunk in most of the day. ‘Uh, well, I’ve been there a couple of times. Brava broke his foot with a spade one time and they made me have a physical before I could go to university on Abertine.’

‘That’ll do. Get your boots on, we’re doing some investigating.’

Jay looked up from where he was sitting in the communal lounge when Kaya walked out of her cabin with Thea. ‘You’re going down to the planet?’

‘Uh-huh,’ Thea replied. ‘Jinny and Fay found some evidence of an epidemic, some years ago, in the local government offices. There wasn’t much detail and I’m going down to check the hospital. Kaya’s my native guide.’

‘I’ll come.’ He was on his feet in an instant.

‘We don’t really need–’

‘One, I’m supposed to be helping her find out about her family. Two, if I sit here staring at the walls much longer, I will go mad and start running through the halls, naked and screaming.’

‘Oh. Well, in the interests of your sanity, and ours, please join us.’

Sadrine’s Landing, Sadrine’s Drift.

Sadrine’s Landing General Hospital had obviously been built early on and then added to. Unlike Kaya’s home, the additions had been done with the same prefabricated concrete panels as the oldest parts and it gave the whole place a horribly institutional look. As Kaya led the way through the halls, she pointed out the grassy quadrangles hidden away within the walls for patients to exercise in and get fresh air, but it still felt like you were walking through a military bunker with the wrong signage.

‘The power’s out,’ Kaya commented, ‘but I know they had an emergency generator here.’ She pointed at a sign. ‘Services? Sounds good.’

‘Sounds good,’ Thea agreed.

They were avoiding the actual rooms as much as possible. There had to have been patients in the hospital when the attack had happened, which meant there were now corpses in the beds. There were a few in the corridors, dressed in meditech uniforms, but Kaya kept her head up and avoided looking at them as much as possible. It was quite possible that one of these bodies had been the nurse who had done her medical check-up prior to leaving and Kaya did not want to know what had happened to anyone else she knew, even briefly. If she thought about that, her mind closed up and she became useless, and she needed to be useful.

After a couple of turns and a flight of stairs, they found themselves in the basement and Thea located the emergency generator fairly quickly, even though the only illumination came from battery-powered emergency lights. ‘Semi-portable fusion reactor,’ Thea said as she looked the device over. It was a chunky box about three metres on each side and two high with a control panel mounted on one side.

‘They use these to power field bases,’ Jay commented. ‘Shouldn’t be hard to start up. Not sure why it didn’t cut over when the main power failed. These things are good for decades.’

‘I would imagine,’ Thea replied, ‘that someone shut it down. We’re lucky they didn’t blow it up. If you know what you’re doing, why don’t you take care of it.’

‘Happily,’ Jay said, sounding as if he was genuinely happy to be able to do something. He set to work bringing the generator to life.

Thea glanced at Kaya. ‘We should discuss your training. You’re a biokinetic.’

Since she had nothing else to do aside from watch Jay work, Kaya gave a shrug and nodded. ‘Sure. Yes, I’m a biokinetic. I’d like to learn to do more than analyse injuries and contagions. I’d like to get better at that, but Geogracus seemed to think I should be able to do more.’

‘I’m quite sure you can. We’ll schedule some time with him. He’s a master of that particular discipline and not a bad teacher. What about your telepathy?’

Kaya smiled. ‘I’m not a telepath.’ Her eyes widened a little as Thea just stared at her. ‘I’m not. I’ve never–’

‘Not consciously, perhaps. When you asked me and Jinny to help you back on Abertine, you projected an aura. It’s a telepathic ability. It’s… impressing your will upon those around you. Not aggressively, more like a persuasion. You weren’t even aware of doing it, were you?’ Kaya shook her head slowly. ‘You have a shield too, not an amazingly strong one, but it’s there. You undoubtedly use it instinctively, but you can learn to make more use of it. And conscious use of your aura, and we can work up to reading and sending, if you’re capable. You can probably send thoughts with some practice. It’s rare to be able to project an aura and not be able to send something more complex.’

‘So, Sienna would be the one to talk to?’

‘Since you’re female, yes. I’m pretty good, but not quite as good as she is.’

‘Why does her gender make a difference?’ Jay asked, his attention still on the reactor controls.

Thea smirked. ‘Sienna doesn’t really like men. She’d probably work with a male student, but I’d tend to avoid putting them both through the experience.’

‘Well… damn. And they did a cold shutdown on this thing. I’m having to go through the diagnostics before it’ll come back up. Never thought this bit of battlefield knowledge would come in useful.’

‘If you don’t mind me saying, you don’t seem like a soldier.’

‘Well, it’s not like I went into it as a vocation or anything. I fell into mercenary work because… Well, I had some family trouble. I basically got told to leave and never darken their doors again. I knew how to shoot and I could handle myself, and I didn’t really have any other skills. Merc work seemed like a good way to burn off some anger and make some fast money. Guess I picked up a few skills on the way too.’

‘I was career military. My mother and my grandmother were too. I stuck with it longer, but they both backed me all the way through. When I was inducted into the Jiàn hé Shŏu, they were both so proud…’

‘Jiàn hé Shŏu?’ Kaya asked. ‘Is that, uh, “sword and hand?”’

Thea nodded. ‘Zanari has a load of similarities to Trade. Both were derived from old Earth languages, like most of the human tongues. Someone told me the name was from something called Chinese. There are Chinese loan words in Trade too, but that phrase came from the founder of the unit. We were… elite guards. We handled security for the zanari senate, and we were trained in special operations work in case things got serious.’

‘And that’s why you carry all those blades around,’ Jay said. ‘I’m assuming with a name like that, you would learn some sort of martial art.’

‘“Some sort of,” yes.’

It seemed apparent that she was not going to say more, but any follow-up questions Jay might have tried were cut off by the sudden sound of a warning buzzer from the reactor. Kaya let out a squeak of alarm, but neither Jay nor Thea seemed worried. ‘Just the start-up alert,’ Jay said. ‘She’s coming up.’ There was a flicker from above them and then the lights burst to life. ‘Guess I haven’t lost that skill then.’

‘Apparently not. Now we need to find the computer room and make sure it’s starting up properly. Then Cassy can access the data.’

‘She can just… do that?’ Jay asked. ‘Just access the data on a computer she can’t even see, from orbit.’

‘She took care of that station, didn’t she? Before it even noticed we were there.’

Jay shook his head as they started for the stairs. ‘Remind me not to get on the wrong side of you people.’

Thea chuckled. ‘It’s not an especially good idea, no.’

~~~

It was when Thea was checking over the microframe computer they had found in one of the offices that Jay drew Kaya aside in what could only be described as a conspiratorial manner.

‘You sure about all this zanari stuff?’ he asked, keeping his voice low.

‘What?’ Kaya replied.

‘You being a zanari. Them being zanari. Are you sure about it?’

‘Why not? They seem pretty clear. Geogracus–’

‘That’s just it. They did the tests. They say you’re one of them. But the zanari are a legend, a story the conspiracy nuts tell of a great civilisation with awesome power. The people who really believe the Zanar Protectorate ever existed are the same kind of people who believe that hidden aliens are always watching and directing our actions.’

Kaya narrowed her eyes. ‘So, you think they’re frauds?’

‘I’m not saying that. Exactly. Maybe deluded. Maybe they’re on the level. I just think you should… be careful about buying into the deal without due consideration.’

‘Well… okay. Why didn’t you say anything sooner?’

Jay’s eyebrows went up. ‘On their ship? The entire place is rigged for sound, and there are almost certainly cameras. If it’s just delusion, suggesting I don’t believe them could be bad. If they’ve got other reasons…’

Kaya was really not sure what to say to that. What other reasons? What was he getting at?

Anything she might have asked was cut off by Thea’s voice from the computer room. ‘Okay, we’re up and Cassy’s in their system. We might as well get out of here.’ She appeared behind Kaya with a smile on her face. ‘Unless there’s somewhere you’d like to visit before we go. There’s plenty of light.’

Kaya frowned. ‘No… No, it might be early down here, but it’s getting late on the Oracle. We’ll go back up.’ Besides, she really wanted to have a think about Jay’s warning. What reason could Thea and the others have for lying to her?

Oracle of Zanar.

It took less than an hour for Cassandra and Geogracus to get the information they were looking for. The enormous biokinetic decided to remain in his low-gravity environment and let Cassandra break the news, but it was clear that he had set speed records in running the comparisons to confirm that the virus which had afflicted the colony before Kaya was born bore the same genetic markers as the one he had found in the bodies. It was obvious, because he had made sure that Cassandra informed everyone of his speed and efficiency in performing the task.

‘And you want me to learn biokinesis from this guy?’ Kaya asked Thea once Cassandra had given her initial speech.

‘He’s very good,’ Thea countered.

‘And he knows it,’ Cassandra added a little sourly. ‘You wouldn’t hear me pointing out how rapidly I had searched through sixty years of medical records to locate exactly what we needed in a matter of forty minutes.’ She paused, widened her eyes, and formed her lips into a perfect ‘O’ of surprise.

‘Yeah, hilarious,’ Thea said, though she was smirking. ‘What did you find, sora smart panties?’

‘You know full well that I’m not wearing–’

‘Cassy…’

Cassandra straightened her face, but she did seem to be rather pleased with what she had found. ‘The virus which became known as “Drift Fever” was first detected in the fourth sexagoy of four fifty-two. The last reported case was in the second sexagoy of four fifty-three. The symptoms always included a fever, coughing and sneezing, and some muscle ache, but the more severe cases ran to nausea, vomiting, some breathing difficulty, and in only two cases there were seizures, resulting in one death. Average time from start of symptoms to them clearing was nine days. By the end of the epidemic, approximately eighty-nine percent of the population had been infected.’

‘That sounds… kind of high,’ Kaya said.

‘Statistical analysis of the reported cases suggests that the virus was introduced into multiple population centres and, later, further distributed in some way. The coughing and sneezing suggests an airborne virus, so it could have been distributed by drones flying over the more out-of-reach farms.’

‘So, it was deliberately spread, but why would one of the colonists do that?’

Cassandra smiled. She was giving her little presentation in the big lounge outside Kaya’s and Jay’s cabins, and now the wall screen lit up with what looked like a hospital employee data file. The text down the left side indicated that a Doctor Kenner Nash, epidemiologist, was located at Sadrine’s Landing General Hospital while conducting a study into diseases on the colony as part of a wider study being conducted by the BCU. The picture, on the right side, was of a fairly young man, dark-haired, grey-eyed, with fairly classic, handsome features.

Kaya caught a slight movement out of the corner of her eye and looked around to see that Thea had shifted into a more upright posture, and Kaya knew who this man really was. ‘That’s Narra?’ Kaya asked. ‘That’s the man whose initials are in my genes? He was on Sadrine’s Drift?’

Cassandra nodded. ‘Kadal Narra, Kenner Nash. He kept his initials the same, but why not? It’s not like anyone else alive was supposed to know him. His “study” began about forty-three days before the first case of the fever appeared. Of course, “Nash” immediately volunteered his services in attempting to uncover a cause and a cure. I found notes made by one of the local doctors suggesting that Nash was deliberately obscuring the results of tests, though he could not come up with a motive and was ignored by his colleagues. Still, that man is the reason we had a clean DNA sequence for Geo to compare to the remnants he found.’

Cassandra turned and looked up at the screen, her hands clasped at her back. ‘We can be sure, then, that Narra was alive and conducting genetic experiments to resurrect the zanari thirty years ago. What we need to do now is determine his current location and objectives.’

‘But it’s crazy,’ Jay said, shaking his head. ‘How can this guy think he can get away with this? He turns up on some planet and infects people, and the next generation are born zanari.’

‘Yes,’ Cassandra agreed.

‘So, zanari can’t interbreed with humans. People are going to notice.’

Cassandra gave a shrug. ‘Even with extended lifespans and a fertile period which lasts much longer, people today tend to pair with those of their own generation. A generation of zanari are born and mate with zanari to produce zanari. Some decrease in colony fertility might be noticed, but nothing major.’

‘And if he could get this to work properly,’ Thea said, ‘it wouldn’t simply end with new zanari being born. Narra wanted to take the species beyond its current limits, but he also hated the constraints of zanari society. If he went ahead with a full-scale implementation of this, he would want to do it in such a way that he could control the society that developed as well as the species.’ She frowned. ‘Doesn’t entirely explain this extermination…’

‘Unless someone found out what he’s up to and decided to clean up,’ Jay suggested.

‘Yes, but that doesn’t quite feel right.’ Shrugging, Thea looked around at Kaya. ‘Whatever the case, I suggest we get some rest and decide where to start hunting tomorrow. We’ve no idea where to look for Narra, so we’ll follow the one lead we have. We’re going to track down the people who destroyed Sadrine’s Drift and ask them some very pointy questions.’

‘Don’t you mean pointed questions?’ Kaya asked.

‘We’ll be asking those too, but if we don’t get answers we like, I’ll have a few blades on hand.’

56/1/483.

Kaya was not entirely sure what woke her, but whatever it was, it was not welcome. She had had trouble getting to sleep between worrying over Jay’s comments and the new evidence regarding Narra, and had tossed and turned, as much as that was possible in a suspension field, trying to work things out in her head. She had eventually drifted off, but her lack of sleep probably explained why it took her several seconds to realise that the ship was accelerating and it was the pressure on her chest which had woken her.

Between the acceleration and the counter-pressure of the field, she found it next to impossible to reach the controls on the bedpost. After flailing wildly for a minute or so, trying to reach them, she found herself glowering at the switch and wondering how anyone got out of bed when the ship was moving. She could see the button on the panel, right there in front of her, but she couldn’t… And then she found herself being lowered to the floor. Cassandra, she assumed, must have noticed her predicament, but she would have to ask about voice controls.

Dressing was not as hard as it might have been. They were on the move, but the acceleration was not as high as usual. Maybe two gravities. Breathing was certainly not as difficult and walking was a lot easier when she headed for the lounge.

Thea, Cassandra, Fay, and Jay were already there, watching the large display screen which seemed to be showing some sort of tactical plot of the system. Kaya could see the circle representing Sadrine’s Drift and a green marker, which was presumably the Oracle, but it took her a second longer to notice the red marker moving toward the planet.

‘What’s that?’ Kaya asked.

‘From the mass and energy signature,’ Cassandra replied without turning, ‘and the BCU Security registration it sent to the interdiction stations, I believe that it is a Farrel-class heavy cruiser. Since we are not supposed to be here, and we have largely gathered the data we needed, I’ve begun moving out to the hyper limit. We should be able to stay outside their passive-sensor range. They won’t know we were here.’

‘Oh. Wonder what they’re doing here? And thanks for letting me down from the bed. I couldn’t reach the switch.’

‘Huh,’ Jay said, grinning. ‘I guess I have longer arms.’

‘I am accelerating less rapidly than usual so that we might have some time to determine their purpose before we leave,’ Cassandra said. ‘And I did not turn off your bed field.’

‘You didn’t? I thought you saw me flailing around on a camera or–’

‘There are cameras in the cabins for communication purposes. I do not routinely monitor them. I did not see your “flailing.”’

‘Did you get annoyed at not being able to reach the switch?’ Thea asked.

‘Well, yes,’ Kaya admitted. ‘I was going to try yelling and then it just let me down.’

‘Right, well, we can add telekinesis to the list of things for you to train in.’

Kaya grinned, a little weakly. ‘I’m not a telekinetic.’

‘Most of the controls on the ship are coated with a polymer which makes them easy to flip or push using minimal telekinesis. You obviously have some talent and enough power to activate the control. Don’t worry, Geo may be our expert, but I’ve got enough talent to teach you the basics. We’ll have you bench-pressing weights with your mind before you know it.’

‘Well, that’s something to look forward to. How long before that cruiser gets into orbit?’

‘A little under thirty minutes,’ Cassandra replied.

‘I guess I might as well wait then.’ Kaya walked over to one of the sofas and settled down to watch.

~~~

It was almost fifty minutes later before they found out why the cruiser was visiting Sadrine’s Drift. It arrived when Cassandra had predicted, entering a low polar orbit, and then nothing happened. The sensors lost sight of the other ship as it passed behind the planet, and the marker began to flash as its predicted path was indicated, and they watched and waited to see what might happen.

Kaya was starting to think that they were going to see nothing before detection became impossible, but then Cassandra spoke.

‘Oh.’

‘Oh?’ Kaya and Thea asked at more or less the same time.

Cassandra’s voice was entirely devoid of emotion when she spoke again, but it sounded like a strained sort of lack of emotion, like she was forcing it. ‘Detection of a thermonuclear detonation approximately six hundred metres above the settlement of Sadrine’s Landing. Approximate yield of ten megatonnes. Registering additional detonations…’ She trailed off and turned away from the screen, her head bowed.

‘They’re nuking the place,’ Jay said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Thea was at Kaya’s side before the latter was aware that she had moved. Kaya was silent, staring at the screen, but she looked up as Thea stepped up beside her and shook her head. ‘I… I think after all that’s happened,’ Kaya said, ‘one more insult is just… nothing.’

And then Fay was there, dropping to her knees to bring her face down to Kaya’s height. Long fingers enfolded Kaya’s smaller hands and Kaya found her eyes drawn to the alien girl’s. ‘Among the filarax,’ Fay said, ‘cremation is reserved for those who have fought honourably during their lives. The fire, it is believed, speeds your soul to Zankora where it is judged by Zankatosh the Unspoken. I know that you do not subscribe to the beliefs of the filarax, but… Do not think of this as an insult. However unknowingly, these people in their ship have granted your people a great honour. One they deserve, for they died defending their territory as any filarax would do.’

It was not exactly a comfort. Kaya’s belief in the Universal Mind did not include funerary practices anyway; when you died, you returned to the universe, no matter what happened to your body, but then… Kaya smiled. ‘Thank you, Fay. That helps, at least a little. A-and if they nuke the place, no one’s going to disturb it for a while.’

‘Good point,’ Thea said.

‘Yeah… Uh, where are we going when we get to the limit?’

‘Harroway,’ Jay said before anyone else could respond. ‘I was thinking about it and… Well, I have some contacts on Harroway I could talk to. They can probably confirm or deny the involvement of the Kraggans. We can head for Teladish after that if it is them, and Harroway’s a hub system if we need to go elsewhere.’

‘That sounds like a plan,’ Thea said. ‘Not that I really want to go to Harroway, but it does sound like a plan.’

Fay gave Kaya’s hand a squeeze and got to her feet. ‘I will plot us a course to Harroway. About nine hours to the limit, Cassy?’

‘Around about that,’ Cassandra replied. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I seem to be taking this less well than our young guest.’ She started off for the corridor out before anyone could say anything.

‘She, uh, doesn’t look happy,’ Kaya commented.

Thea nodded. ‘Zanar Prime was bombarded with high-energy kinetic impactors and nuclear weapons for four days when they finally dropped the defences. Cassandra took it pretty badly at the time and, well, she hasn’t had the shocks you’ve had recently to numb the memories.’

‘You’d think time would take care of that,’ Jay said. ‘Zanar was a long time ago.’

‘You’d think. For me it has, but she has a photographic memory. Everything from then is as fresh in her mind as if it was yesterday. All it takes is a trigger.’

‘I’d never have thought of a perfect memory as a curse until now,’ Kaya said.

‘If you get to know Cassy better, you’ll find that there’s a lot of curses around what she can do. For right now, you might be wise to try to get some more sleep.’

Kaya shook her head. ‘I won’t sleep with that going on out there. We’ve nine hours out to the hyper limit and who knows how long in hyperspace. I’ll rest later.’

~~~

For two hours, the cruiser launched missiles at the planet below. Most of them were 2.5-megatonne warheads, relatively small, but still antimatter-catalysed thermonuclear bombs. The focus was on the northern continent where most of the settlements were located, but the sensors detected a ten-megatonne weapon destroying the one outpost the colony had established within the belt of fractured land masses which made the southern ocean look more like the southern jigsaw puzzle. In two hours, one spacecraft had undone all the work done by the colonists of Sadrine’s Drift over sixty-two years.

Even when it was over, Kaya knew she would not be able to sleep, but she went to her room and sat in the dark, thinking about what had happened to her over the last few days. There were moments where she started and realised that she had, after all, dozed off, but that never lasted. She was not sure what the dreams were about, but she felt them when she woke, clawing at her consciousness like an animal in the shadows.

When her cabin door opened and she saw Cassandra’s silhouette framed in the light from the lounge, Kaya was surprised, tired, and not sure why she was being disturbed.

‘We’re a minute from reaching the hyper limit,’ Cassandra said, her voice soft and somehow more respectful than usual. ‘We’ll be in hyperspace very soon. We thought you might want to say goodbye.’

Kaya opened her mouth to decline, and then realised that, yes, she had to do it. She had to take one last look at the only place she had ever known as home. And she had to let it go. She could never go back now; there was nothing left to go back to. ‘Thank you,’ Kaya said, climbing to her feet.

The ‘we’ Cassandra had mentioned apparently meant more or less everyone. Neither Jay nor Geogracus were in the communal lounge, but Thea, Fay, Jinny, and Sienna were there and they all offered her a smile as she walked out to look up at the screen. It was showing space, but had clearly been pushed to the limit of magnification of the sensors because there was one planet centred in it: Sadrine’s Drift. From here, the details were indistinct. It was little more than a white marble, clouds obscuring the surface.

Kaya stared at the display for what felt like hours, saying nothing until Cassandra announced that they would be transitioning into hyperspace in ten seconds. ‘Goodbye, Mom,’ Kaya whispered. ‘Goodbye, Dad. Bye, Brava, bye, Anna. Goodbye.’

And then the view shifted to the midnight blackness of hyperspace, only the slight almost rainbow-like distortion of the hyper limit barrier giving any shape to the world outside the ship. Sadrine’s Drift was gone.

~~~

The idea of trying to do a lesson with Sienna was Kaya’s. She did not want to sleep, did not think she could, and Sienna was right there with her when the little group had collectively looked down from the screen. So, Sienna had led the way to her cabin, which was two floors up, right at the top of the ship.

Not that that made much difference. The Oracle was a spaceship, a hyperspace-capable spaceship, and having weaknesses in the hull, like windows, was generally frowned upon. Passenger liners frequently got around this by having observation decks fitted with huge screens to give the illusion of windows, but it had been realised long ago that if you wanted to keep everyone safe, you kept the hull solid.

Still, Sienna’s cabin was obviously lived in, unlike Kaya’s. Instead of a sofa and chairs, Sienna had a long, curving, somewhat over-large sofa with a lot of large cushions on the floor in front of it. No tables. The lighting came on soft and warm, and revealed that the galley arrangement was more or less the same as all the other cabins. There were also two doors leading off to the bathroom and bedroom.

Rather than settling onto the sofa, which would likely have involved a semi-reclining position, Sienna pushed a few cushions together and settled on the floor, leaning against the sofa. She indicated the space in front of her and smiled. ‘Thea tells me that you can cast auras and have a shield, but you were unaware of either before she told you. An accurate summary?’

Kaya nodded. ‘That sums it up. If I was using this aura thing at all, it was unconsciously. And Thea said the shield was instinctive.’

‘It is, but learning to use it consciously has some advantages. We should, I believe, focus on that initially. Before one attempts to master more… offensive capabilities, a good defence should be cultivated.’

‘That seems pretty reasonable.’

Sienna smiled. ‘I’m glad you think so. However, I’d like to at least try to awaken an awareness of what you have, so let’s begin with a demonstration of what you can do and let’s see if you can understand what is happening to you.’

‘O-okay,’ Kaya said, unsure of what was about to happen, but Sienna just pulled herself upright on her cushions, lifted her chin, and smiled. Several things seemed to happen at once, but what Kaya was left with was a strong desire to trust the dark-skinned woman in front of her, and a strong impression of… Sienna-ness. It was like someone had distilled the telepath down to her most basic essence and then injected that into Kaya’s mind. ‘Oh!’ Kaya said, trying to analyse what she was feeling.

‘Oh, what?’ Sienna asked, smiling.

‘Well, I kind of feel like we’ve been friends for months.’

‘A generally undirected aura tends to result in greater trust in those around you.’

‘A-and there was this feeling of… of you.’

‘Telepaths are almost all able to send their mental avatar out with anything they send. Now that you’ve felt mine, were I to send you a message through telepathy, you could recognise it as coming from me. The question, Kaya, is whether you can see now how to cast your own aura, on purpose.’

‘I… I’m not exactly sure…’

‘Think of it as… being all that you can be. You are a beautiful young woman, a powerful psi, strong, resilient. People should take notice of you. People should be aware of who you are and where you are. Everyone around you should sit up and take notice.’

Maybe because Kaya felt like she should be trusting Sienna, maybe because she welcomed the ego boost with open arms. Maybe because she had figured out what Sienna had done, but it took the little speech to crystallise it; whatever was the real cause of the awareness, Kaya pushed her back straight and her chest out and…

‘Impressive,’ Sienna said. ‘Most impressive. You, young lady, have quite a talent for telepathy to have done that first time.’

‘I really did it?’ Kaya asked, grinning brightly.

‘You did not succeed in getting past my barriers, but I was made aware of you and sensed your avatar. You cast an aura, just as Thea said you did on Abertine. We’ll develop this further, but we should get back to the task of toughening your mind.’

Kaya pulled her legs into a cross-legged posture and straightened her back, and generally got ready for whatever was coming. Suddenly, she felt good about something. Suddenly, she had something to focus on aside from her losses. ‘Okay. What do I do?’

Sienna gave a little grimace, even though she was grinning. ‘I know this sounds like a terrible cliché, but I want you to imagine a wall…’

~~~

‘What does being a zanari mean to you?’ Kaya asked. After almost two hours of imagining walls, brick walls, concrete walls, stone walls, metal walls, Kaya felt as though her head was full of, well, bits of wall since every time she had formed one, Sienna had blasted through it one way or another. She had needed a break and Sienna was happy enough to allow one.

Sienna pursed her perfect lips and frowned. ‘That’s… not an easy question to answer.’

‘I guess not, but, well, suddenly I’m not what I thought I was. Physically. I’ve had a little time to digest this and I know nothing’s changed up here.’ Kaya tapped her head. ‘I mean, nothing’s changed in my body either, but what I am isn’t what I thought, so–’

‘You’re a Minder, are you not?’

The question brought Kaya up short because that seemed to have nothing to do with the matter at hand. ‘Yes, but–’

‘Then your beliefs are that the physical body is merely a shell for the aspect of the Universal Mind which inhabits it. Your mind has, I would imagine, changed more from the loss of your world than from finding out you are part of something else. What real difference does it make what your genetics are? Which species you belong to?’

And she was right: it should not make the slightest difference. ‘Thea told me that zanari don’t believe in the Universal Mind.’

‘Most didn’t. The Universal Mind, like so many other religious artefacts, is a creation of people attempting to understand something they can’t grasp. Natural disasters, the rising of the sun, storms… Why, among all the creatures of the Earth, only humans rose to intelligence. How did the universe, in all its glory and horror, come into existence? And, of course, what is the mysterious field discovered by Hepps and Montague? Zanari scientists had a far greater understanding of the field than anyone else and they stated that minds interacted with it, they did not come from it or return to it, and there was no evidence of any “background intelligence” within the field itself. To a scientist, “no evidence” often equates to “does not exist.”’

‘Oh,’ Kaya said softly.

‘A common error of arrogance. Thea holds scientists in contempt for a number of reasons… Contempt may be too strong a word. She has reason to see science as something which can be as bad for those caught up in it as religion can be. Anyway, one cannot prove a negative. There are many reasons to believe that the Universal Mind is just another deity manufactured by humans to meet their needs, but “we can’t see any evidence that it exists” is not any kind of argument.’ Sienna smiled. ‘There. But what do I feel being a zanari is? I feel that the zanari were people who went out to discover a new way. They expanded their minds and learned more of the nature of reality than any humans before them. They were explorers of the vast ocean that is the mind and all the glory it can achieve. Unfortunately, if that is what the zanari were, then they died out long before Zanar was destroyed. And that, I think, is another reason Thea does not really like scientists.’

‘Okay,’ Kaya said, though the answer had not really told her what she wanted to know.

‘This ship was loaded up with every bit of information there was on the Zanar Protectorate, Kaya. If you wish to know about the zanari, Cassandra can give you access to the archives. You can learn whatever you want.’ Sienna chuckled. ‘That should keep you out of mischief for a decade or three. I think we’ve done enough for today. Practise the exercises I’ve taught you. We’ll see how you’re doing and proceed accordingly in a few days.’

Kaya pushed to her feet and flashed Sienna a smile. ‘More walls?’

‘Oh, you’ll be entirely sick of walls by the time we’ve finished.’

Port Town, Harroway Alpha, Harroway System.

Kaya had never been to the primary planet of the Harroway system and, technically, she still had yet to visit it. There had been a mandatory stopover in the system on her journey to Abertine, but she had spent it on the orbital station in a cheap hotel room, awaiting her connection. That hung in space over the surface of a world not much smaller than Sadrine’s Drift, but that was in orbit around one of Harroway’s gas giants, so it was a moon, not a planet. Standing on the surface of Harroway Prime would have proven difficult. As it turned out, standing on the surface of Harroway Alpha would not have been that easy either.

The only inhabited world in the system was an ice-coated rock. The surface temperature of just over two hundred and five kelvin was cold enough that carbon dioxide froze out of the thin atmosphere, leaving almost pure nitrogen. Water for the colony had to be mined out of the asteroid belt. Harroway existed as a colonised system because of the abundant minerals to be had from the two asteroid belts, the ready supply of gases which could be mined from the five gas giants, and because it happened to be on several hyperspace routes through that region of the galaxy. No one lived on Harroway Alpha, because everyone lived under its surface.

The whole place was operated by the Harroway Mining Corporation who kept a pretty tight lid on things. That was why they had not brought Jinny down to the surface with them when Thea, Kaya, and Jay went down. Jinny was likely to cause some sort of minor disaster and she was almost pathologically incapable of going anywhere without at least one gun on her thigh. Even in the town below the surface port facilities, open-carrying a gun was not going to go down well with the armed corporate police who patrolled the streets.

To Kaya, it looked like a total dump. From orbit, you could only see the huge pits which had been excavated in search of minerals. The port town, called Port Town, seemed to have been built in one of those pits with a dome built over the top. Everything looked like an industrial zone building, but there were apartment blocks, bars, clubs… Kaya had rapidly got sick of the sight of strip club signs. Jay had come down to hunt out some of his contacts and he had left them to dive into one such club without any sign of embarrassment. Then again, Thea did not seem in the least disturbed by their environment, though that might have been because she could probably demolish anyone who got in her way. Kaya was not feeling so secure.

‘Here,’ Thea said, cutting across the throng of people they were wading through and into a building.

Kaya managed to duck into Thea’s shadow as she turned, which meant the crowd flowed around her rather than over her. Thea seemed quite capable of walking through anyone she had to and the locals avoided her with the calm efficiency of those used to being trodden underfoot. The ‘here’ in question was a bank. They had passed several so far, but this one was a BCU-accredited company, which tended to mean it was safer to use than the local banks and credit agencies. The bank was quiet compared to the town outside and Kaya headed for one of the terminals after glancing once around the sterile interior. Sterile was actually a lot nicer than the ‘careworn’ look outside.

‘How much shall I authorise?’ Kaya whispered as she logged into the system using her ID card.

Thea leant against the wall beside the machine, her eyes watching the people, and shrugged. ‘Five? It’s just expenses, and it’s just because you insisted. Jay may want paying, but we don’t.’

‘Jay doesn’t have a self-sufficient, hyperspace-capable spaceship to run around in.’ Kaya tapped at the keys, requesting authorisation for a five-thousand-unit transfer to her card’s memory. Somewhere in the background, the transfer would be checked by a reconciliation process with her bank on Abertine and, if there was a problem, her account would be frozen and her card flagged, but that was going to take time. Unless someone on Abertine had already frozen her account…

‘Much as I’m amazed to say this,’ Thea muttered under her breath, ‘I think you’re going to get away with it. I don’t see guards converging on us.’

It had been a risk. If BCU Security were hunting for Kaya, they surely would have thought to flag her card. Apparently, they had not. ‘Maybe we got lucky.’

Kaya was almost certain Thea would say something about not believing in luck, but what she actually got was, ‘Possibly, but I’m not sure I believe that. There’s something else going on here. Done? We’ll go find somewhere we can get a drink and wait for Jay.’

‘I don’t really drink…’

‘Huh,’ Thea grunted, pushing off from the wall. ‘Believe me when I say that you don’t want to drink the water around here.’

~~~

The bar had a rough, industrial quality to it. It was a little like the bar Kaya had met Thea and Jinny in, which seemed to make sense given the environment. There were tables scattered liberally around the floor and Thea selected one at the back where she could keep her eyes on the door and her back to a wall. However, instead of painted concrete walls, this place had metal panelling, exposed pipes, caged lights hanging from the ceiling, a couple of screens showing the local news channel, and a girl in a skimpy outfit dancing on one end of the bar.

‘Try the beer,’ Thea said. ‘It’s brewed on the premises, and it is the only reason we’re here.’

Wrinkling her nose, Kaya tried the beer. ‘Oh!’ she said. ‘That’s actually… quite nice.’ It was a light beer, but she could taste fruit. What fruit was a complete unknown, but it was kind of like drinking a subtly flavoured fruit juice.

‘Brewer knows his stuff. And he does a good job of filtering and sterilising the water before he uses it. A lot of people end up with stomach complaints from drinking the water on Harroway. You get over it after a few weeks, but it’s no fun. How was your lesson with Sienna?’

‘Oh, uh… There were a lot of walls.’

Thea almost spat her beer over the table. ‘Not the walls. I haven’t done that exercise since basic training. That’s, uh, too long ago to mention. I must have spent weeks of my life imagining walls.’

‘Something to look forward to then,’ Kaya said, grimacing.

‘Well, Geo won’t have you imagining walls. We’ll get you in with him tomorrow. Get your lessons started. It’ll at least give you something to work with, even if you decide not to stay with us.’

‘I can’t imagine where I’ll go if I don’t stay.’

‘That is no reason to stay. There’s always somewhere you can make your home. Home is where you choose to be.’

‘Can’t say I agree with that. I’d choose to be on Sadrine’s Drift with my family, and I bet you’d prefer to be living on Zanar Prime.’

Thea gave a small smile. ‘Very well, sometimes our choices are limited.’

‘If I can learn what I wanted to learn anyway, and be safe, then I see no point in being anywhere other than aboard the Oracle. I–’ Kaya stopped abruptly as something on the news stream caught her attention.

‘…has been released by BCU Security. A colony event was declared twelve days ago along with a system-wide interdiction, but no reason was given for the actions. A release from BCU Security yesterday indicated that a virulent plague spread through the colony, which has now been sterilised and quarantined under BCU statutes for disease control.’

The voice was backed by various graphics of the Sadrine’s Drift system, its relation to Harroway and a few other stars, and some stock pictures of Sadrine’s Landing which Kaya knew had been taken before she was born. The delivery was flat, matter-of-fact, just another news story.

‘That’s a flat-out lie!’ Kaya hissed. ‘That’s not even pushing the filarax angle. That’s–’

‘A lie to cover up a lie,’ Thea said. ‘That seems… alarmingly over-complex.’

‘It’s certainly alarming.’

‘Yes, but why? Why bother with a cover-up like that? What’s the point?’

Oracle of Zanar.

‘Commerce,’ Jay said flatly. ‘They want an excuse that doesn’t affect commerce.’ They were sitting around the lounge, Jay on one sofa, Kaya and Thea on another, and Cassandra standing beside Thea like a guardian angel.

Kaya opened her mouth to say something, but Thea got in first. ‘Makes a degree of sense.’

‘What?!’ Kaya squeaked.

‘The filarax raids at the end of the Solar Empire and on to thirty years ago caused a lot of commercial disruption. BCU Security’s power comes from the fact that they slowly drove the raiders back. We’ve had thirty years of free movement, no attacks on settlements… Piracy is still a problem, but it hasn’t quite got the scare factor of a filarax ship coming out of the black at you. I can believe they’d try to hide the fact that the filarax are back.’

‘But they aren’t back!’

‘No, but someone put effort into making it look like they are. Someone who knew that the BCU would want that lie hidden behind another one.’

‘It’s kind of insane,’ Jay said, ‘but the Bowrains will do anything to keep hold of the power they have. Any of the big families, houses, and corps will.’

‘It’s not the Bowrains,’ Thea said.

‘How can you–’

‘If it was the Bowrains,’ Cassandra said, ‘they would have simply used their contacts within the union to make the colony go away. A young colony like that? They might have simply been able to vanish it. It’s likely no one would have known everyone was dead for years.’

‘I’d have known,’ Kaya pointed out. ‘And Security was chasing me.’

‘Except that they didn’t freeze your account or flag your ID,’ Thea said. She looked up at Cassandra. ‘There’s a Security station here, do you think you could dig out any details from their system?’

‘Of course,’ Cassandra replied.

‘Right. Jay, what did your contacts say?’

‘They didn’t confirm that the Kraggans attacked Sadrine’s Drift, but they did tell me about two Kraggan heavy cruisers that came through Harroway around the nineteenth. Dropped in from hyperspace, picked up some supplies of some kind, and then jumped out without waiting. No one saw them come back this way, but they could’ve gone straight back to Teladish.’

Thea nodded and turned her head to look out toward the entrance corridor. She nodded again. ‘Fay is plotting us a course to Teladish. We’ll leave as soon as you’ve got that data, Cassy.’

Cassandra nodded and started out of the room. ‘If it’s there, I’ll find it.’

57/1/483.

‘Can’t sleep?’

Kaya looked around to find Jay standing over her, smiling. She returned the smile. ‘Not even tired. I’m not really sure what time I’m on. All the oversleeping and working to Drift time…’ She shook her head. ‘What calendar do they use on Harroway Alpha?’

Jay walked around her and sat down beside her on the sofa. ‘Bowrain Commercial. They don’t adjust for the local year.’

‘They don’t?’

‘No point. Harroway Prime has a year, sure, but you’d get the weird kinks from adding in Alpha’s rotation around Prime on top of Prime’s rotation around the sun, and everyone lives underground anyway. There aren’t really any seasons and the daylight comes from overhead lamps, which are always on. So, to make it simple, they run everything on the BCC. Twenty-four-hour days, seven-day weeks, three-sixty-five-day years.’ He gave a shrug. ‘It works. Not sure I could get used to eighteen-hour days. I’d go nuts trying to get everything done.’

Kaya grinned. ‘You get used to it. I mean, it was all I was ever used to, and then I went to Abertine and the days were so long. Worse, the nights seemed to go on forever.’

‘Where I grew up, the days were twenty-one hours. It’s a nice middle ground, you know? You could get things done in a day like that. The years… The years were crazy. Over two thousand local days to the year. I mean, we had seasons, but it was like a standard year per season. Not the warmest place in the galaxy either, but we managed.’

‘It was always hot on Sadrine’s Drift. Great growing weather, of course.’ Kaya giggled. ‘And then I decided to go to school on Abertine.’

‘Huh, my home wasn’t as cold as Abertine. Abertine’s just short of an ice block. Tell me about Sadrine’s Drift. What was it like?’

Kaya raised her eyebrows and puffed out her cheeks. ‘Oh… Well, it was an agricultural world, but you know that.’

‘What did your family grow?’

‘Corn. We ran five fields a year, one for seed, the rest for us and trade. Fibre trees. We always had a small plantation of them growing and we were expanding it. One of our neighbours had the machinery to make it into cloth and thread. We had a pretty good thing going there. And we grew cabbage, but well away from the house. If you’ve ever been near a cabbage field, you’d know why.’

Jay laughed with her, and soon she was describing her walk to school and playing in the fields with her brother and sister. Somehow it did not seem to hurt as much to think about them when all she was doing was describing the good times, and there had been a lot of good times. So Kaya just kept talking, and Jay just kept listening.

Oracle of Zanar, Hyperspace.

Kaya was beginning to wonder whether she would ever get her body clock straight again when she walked down the corridor to Geogracus’s habitat. She had missed the transition to hyperspace entirely having gone to bed at three, and that made her wonder when Cassandra slept because the omnipresent mistress of the Oracle seemed to be around whenever you needed her. Not that Kaya regretted getting to bed so late: her talk with Jay had been nice, and it had made the ache in her chest fade a little more.

Geogracus was in his cabin when Kaya found him, dressed in a tent-like robe rather than the kilt he had been wearing on their first meeting. Kaya could only be thankful for that. His cabin was… somehow what Kaya would have expected if she had thought about it. The lounge had one chair in it, a large one designed for Geogracus’s bulk, and a sofa for more normally proportioned people. There were few ornaments, presumably to give plenty of space for the big man to move in, but there were pictures on the walls which looked old and were of nowhere Kaya recognised. The doors into the bedroom and bathroom were extra wide.

‘Jinny will be here in about thirty minutes,’ Geogracus said as soon as Kaya walked in the door. ‘I want to assess your current skills and she can be your test subject.’

‘Uh, okay,’ Kaya said. ‘And good morning, Geogracus.’

‘Yes, yes. Good morning. Now, take a seat. I wish to discuss a few things before we get down to the core of the task. First, you can analyse a patient for signs of ill health, correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘And how long does it take you to get a full picture?’

Kaya shifted a little in her seat, hoping it looked like she was getting comfortable. ‘I’ve never done it in under ten minutes.’

‘That’s quite reasonable. Some people never manage to reduce the time below an hour. There’s no need to study, you seem to grasp the concept well enough, but you should practise. Any of the crew should be able to spare you a quarter of an hour to sit still and be looked at. Try to get the human to participate. You may notice the differences in physiology.’

‘Okay. I can do that.’

‘Good. You’re nervous.’

Kaya frowned. Clearly, Geogracus could run a scan a lot faster than she could. More or less instantaneously in fact. There was no point in denying her state of mind; she always received some basic indication of a subject’s emotional state when she did her scans so he almost certainly did too. ‘First lesson with a new teacher, and…’

‘And?’

‘You’re kind of intimidating.’

Kaya was not sure what reaction she was expecting after an admission like that, but the roar of laughter she got was not it. ‘Intimidating?’ Geogracus said after a bout of hearty laughter. ‘Never been called that before. Fat, bulbous, acerbic. I like “acerbic,” though my favourite was “obese clown with the personality of a dried fish.”’

‘The person who said that must’ve been a powerful psi.’

‘It was Sienna. She’s warmed to me since, though from absolute zero, there’s only really warmer. However, our talent for biological analysis gives us insight, deep insight if we wish to dig, into another person’s emotions.’ Which was somewhat amusing given that Geogracus appeared to care little about anyone else’s emotions. ‘And we need to be careful of how we use that insight. Another example: we can learn to treat the ailments we discover, destroying bacteria and viruses, mending torn muscles and broken bones, extending life, even regrowing severed limbs.’

‘That’s what I’d like to be able to do.’

‘Of course, but what can be mended can be torn apart. You may learn to start a heart which has ceased beating. You can also learn to stop a heart.’

‘I’d never–’

‘Even if you were face-to-face with the man who killed your mother, your father? Someone who stood over your brother and sister and burned them alive?!’

The flare of anger came unbidden. Kaya’s fists and jaw clenched, and the nervousness was gone, replaced by a rage unlike anything she had ever felt before.

And Geogracus simply said, ‘Precisely. More, I would not blame you for tearing that person’s heart from their chest. Everyone has their limit, Kaya. To have the capabilities we have is to see to it that such a limit is rarely reached. Power corrupts. Psi power can be insidious since it is of the mind and the mind is something we do not always have control over.’

Kaya unclenched her fists. Her palms stung where her nails had dug into them. ‘Maybe it’s a good thing I can’t do anything like that yet.’

‘Perhaps. Killing someone, even out of what we feel is righteous anger, is a life-changing experience. Another example.’

When he just stopped, Kaya wondered what the example was. She was about to ask when she realised that she could not move. Nothing worked. Her voice was silent. Even her eyes refused to move.

‘I’ve taken control of your body,’ Geogracus said. ‘I can, with just a small exertion of will, make you do anything I wish.’ Unbidden, Kaya’s arms crossed in front of her and she felt her fingers grip the hem of her T-shirt. They began to lift and she could not even let out a squeal of protest. Her eyes refused to widen in shock. ‘But I won’t and wouldn’t.’

Suddenly free, Kaya pushed her shirt back down and glowered at her tutor. Coming so soon after the rage he had invoked, he was clearly trying to provoke her. ‘That was–’ she began, anger tinging her voice.

‘Insensitive? Cruel? Entirely inappropriate? The act of a depraved fiend? Immoral?’

‘Immoral?! Immoral barely covers it.’

Geogracus nodded solemnly. ‘Morality, young lady. You are learning from Sienna and Thea as well as me. You have a talent for telepathy I believe I cannot match. You can learn to uncover a person’s weaknesses, mental and physical, and you can exploit them. And the question in every case is, should you?’

Kaya bit her lips to keep back the first thing that came to mind. The fat man had an annoying way of presenting lessons in ethics. ‘Don’t ever do that to me again,’ she said after a couple of seconds.

‘My word as a zanari,’ Geogracus replied. ‘In case you’re wondering, I generally use it for restraining conscious patients and moving unconscious ones. In the former case, it is kinder than physical restraints; in the latter, it’s easier than lifting them.’

‘Okay, well… Point taken. I think you could’ve used… alternative methods of making it.’

‘Probably. As has been pointed out, I have the personality of a dried fish. Now, all we need is a test subject so that you can invade their privacy. Ah, good morning, Jinny.’

Kaya looked around to see Jinny bouncing into the room in her customary outfit of shorts and bikini top. There was a huge revolver strapped to her thigh. ‘Awesome!’ Jinny said, grinning like a maniac. ‘Do I have to take my clothes off?’

‘I think,’ Kaya said before Geogracus could get in, ‘that there’s quite enough bare skin available for me to work with. You don’t mind if I touch you, do you? It helps.’

‘Aww, Kaya, if there’s touching involved, you can practise on me any time you like.’

Kaya grimaced and tried to settle her mind for what she had to do. At least the nervousness and the anger were gone. Now if she could just deal with the embarrassment…

~~~

Kaya made her way forward to the Sword and Thea’s cabin feeling rather pleased. After her lesson, which seemed to have gone quite well, she had studied some zanari culture documents Cassandra had provided, and then gone out to the communal lounge and had lunch with Jay. There had been more chatting: Kaya had talked about her teacher and his suggestion that she should go to Abertine to study, and what travelling to another world to learn had been like. Just having the man there, nodding and listening, put Kaya in a happy mood and seemed to wipe away the fatigue of the lesson.

Now she was on her way to her first lesson with Thea which she had a feeling would be a little more fun, even if she was not really sure she had any telekinetic talent. All the cabin doors had a panel outside them allowing someone outside to signal to the occupant that someone was seeking entry, but when Kaya pressed the button outside Thea’s cabin, the door opened immediately. Well, Thea was expecting her, so…

Thea was walking out of the bedroom as Kaya walked into the lounge, and she was dressed in a short, steel-grey robe which did not really do a whole lot to conceal her figure. Kaya felt her cheeks heating and tried to push back on yet more embarrassment. At least she thought it was embarrassment. The tall warrior woman in the robe smiled and indicated the seating area.

‘Good afternoon, Kaya,’ Thea said. ‘Geo gave something of a glowing report on your first lesson. Glowing for Geo anyway. He said you clearly had “undeveloped potential and a strong, ethical personality.” Did he make you do something embarrassing?’ Kaya’s cheeks decided to heat up even more at that. ‘Ah, I see he did. Well, I won’t be making you do anything you don’t want to.’

Kaya was just about to say something along the lines of ‘I should hope not’ or maybe even ‘I’d be happier doing what he made me do in front of you’ when Cassandra walked out of Thea’s bedroom, straightening her tunic.

‘Good afternoon, Kaya,’ Cassandra said as she set off toward the door. ‘Enjoy your lesson.’

‘Uh, thanks,’ Kaya said. ‘I’m sure I will.’ And then she waited for Cassandra to leave and for the door to close before looking back at Thea. ‘I didn’t know you and Cassandra were, um…’

‘Friends with benefits,’ Thea said. ‘We’ve known each other a long time and… It’s a little complicated.’

‘Oh, okay.’ Kaya made a mental note that, no matter how much Geogracus might tease, Thea was with Cassandra and so was off the fantasy list.

‘Let’s get started,’ Thea said and turned in her seat. Kaya lowered her eyes to the table as Thea’s robe strained over her chest, and so was a little surprised when a silver medallion floated down in front of her. The metal disc looked like it had some form of engraving on it and Kaya reached out to pick it up. ‘Ah, no,’ Thea said, grinning. ‘You can look at it once you’ve succeeded in moving it.’

Kaya looked up and frowned. ‘You mean–’

‘Telekinesis, yes. It’s lightweight and smooth. It’ll slide over the table without much effort. You just need to focus. Imagine reaching out with a finger and pushing. Want the medal to move.’

So, it was a medal. For what? Well, there would be no way to find out until Kaya got down to making it move. She frowned at the metal disc, trying to get the same feeling she had had when she, unconsciously, activated the switch in her bedroom. She had been… frustrated. Well, if she could not manage to move the thing, frustration was likely to result, but that seemed like a poor way of using psi. She had to want it to move… Just because it felt right, Kaya reached out a hand, fingers spread, and tried to imagine reaching out to push the disc with her index finger. She gritted her teeth in concentration and pushed… And the medal jerked a couple of centimetres across the table.

‘Yes!’ Kaya exclaimed.

Thea laughed. ‘Very good. You can look at it while I find something else for you to try.’ She got to her feet and padded off across the carpet toward the kitchen.

Kaya dragged her eyes away from Thea’s legs, because Thea was off the fantasy list, and reached out to pick up the medal. It was engraved. The design was simple enough: a shield with a clenched fist over it. Beneath that was a line of text which read ‘in obsequium vitae,’ but Kaya had no clue what that meant.

‘It’s the Silver Shield Medal of Valour,’ Thea said as she walked back into the lounge with a large candle on a small, metal stand. ‘The words mean “in service of life,” or so I’m told. It’s actual Latin, not the bits of Latin that got tossed into the zanari language.’

‘It’s yours? You were awarded it?’ Thea gave a nod and Kaya asked, ‘What for?’

‘It’s awarded for being injured while saving the life of a zanari senate member. There’s a gold one too, but you can only receive it posthumously.’

‘Uh, oh. What did you do to get it?’

Putting the candle down, Thea lit it, with a lighter not her mind, and sat back in her seat. ‘There was a diplomatic mission to the daformi and I was assigned as part of the protection detail.’

‘I’ve never heard of the daformi.’

‘Probably not. They’re a species from out beyond Zanar. They look sort of like insects, though there’s no biological similarity. They’re… easily offended, quick tempered. I’m honestly not sure why anyone felt it was worth talking to them, but I suppose you have to try. The senator leading the mission upset some general, or something similar, and the next thing we knew there were knives being drawn. The general went for our senator and I took his knife through my right forearm to stop him killing her.’

‘Great Mind! Then what happened?’

Thea’s face flattened, turning very still. ‘I planted the general’s knife in his left eye.’

Kaya’s eyes widened. ‘There was a war?’

Shaking herself, Thea smiled. ‘No. Another thing about the daformi is that they respect someone willing to kill over an insult. They said that the general had insulted me by ignoring me as a threat, so my killing him was perfectly fine and demonstrated that the zanari were worth daformi attention. Seriously, I have no idea how the daformi survived to become a spacefaring civilisation. They should have all murdered each other. I never really got the hang of their culture, but supposedly they are very careful not to give offence unless they think they can kill you.’ Thea gave a shrug. ‘Anyway, for getting a knife through the arm while doing my job, I got that. Now…’

Kaya put the medal down on the table. ‘Okay, what’s the candle for?’

‘Something a little harder. Make the flame dance.’

With a sigh, Kaya reached out her hand again and tried to imagine how she could possibly make a flame dance with her mind.

~~~

Kaya was sitting in her lounge focusing all her will on the candle flame in front of her when she felt it. There was a sudden flash of awareness of Cassandra, as though the woman was right there in the same room. And then Cassandra’s voice was in Kaya’s mind. Please come to the lounge, Kaya. I have news on the BCU Security investigation.

Kaya blinked. Cassandra had never addressed her telepathically before. None of the others had, come to think of it. Was this some sort of acceptance or just a convenience? Well, no sense in sitting around wondering. Kaya blew out the candle and got to her feet.

Cassandra was waiting in front of the screen when Kaya walked through. Thea and Fay were seated on one sofa, Jay on another. Kaya joined Jay since there was a spare seat there, and Cassandra nodded.

‘I have decrypted and analysed the files I acquired from BCU Security,’ Cassandra said. ‘I thought you might all be interested.’

‘I should like to know why they are so concerned about filarax raids,’ Fay said, nodding.

‘They are concerned about filarax raids because they have had several of them over the past three sexagoy. The cover-up of the “raid” on Sadrine’s Drift was performed under a BCU directive enacted three years after the last large-scale raid in four fifty-four. It was decided that any filarax activity uncovered after that time should be disguised in whatever manner appeared suitable.’

‘How many times have they done this?’ Kaya asked.

‘Four times recently. The other three were attacks on ships, not planets. The vessels were simply vanished. Accidents happen. Drives fail, reactors overload or suffer containment failure. Ships are lost and three more is just a statistical blip. I found no records of previous instances of the directive being invoked, but a search of my news archives uncovered six colony events which appeared suspicious and a further two which did not quite look right. These events are spread across the last twenty-five years and have gone largely unnoticed. However, if they are all related to Narra’s experiments, it would seem that covering up his work is the largest single source of colony failure within the BCU’s borders.’

‘That… sucks,’ Jay said, frowning. ‘It’s crazy. Where did this directive come down from?’

Cassandra smiled. ‘Darvin Bowrain signed it.’ Jay gave a grunt of displeasure and folded his arms in a gesture of disgust. ‘This goes all the way up. Darvin has been head of the family for some fifty years now and is quite determined to see that the Bowrains remain at the top of the BCU. He pushed hard for a resolution to the filarax problem and took a lot of the credit for the eventual elimination of the threat. If that threat still exists…’

‘The old bastard would lose a huge amount of face,’ Jay completed for her. ‘So, they’re hunting Kaya to make sure she doesn’t dig too deep and uncover the truth?’

‘On the contrary. I could find absolutely no evidence that Security are seeking Kaya at all.’

‘But they came to that bar,’ Kaya said. ‘They–’

‘No,’ Thea said, cutting in. ‘They were all Abertine locals. They pointed our way and we assumed they were after you. Jinny and I were there on not entirely legitimate business. We could have been sold out. Of course, you were trying to obtain passage to an interdicted planet so getting caught with us would not have been good, but they may not have been looking for you at the time.’

‘Oh. So, if they never find out we were there, I could be in the clear?’

‘It would appear so,’ Cassandra replied.

Kaya gave a shrug. ‘It’s still not like I really have anywhere to go but here. They won’t have me back at the university and I’ve no idea where else to go.’

‘As we have said, you are welcome to stay for as long as you wish.’

‘Yes. Thank you. I really don’t know what else to do.’

~~~

‘What’re you reading?’

Kaya looked up and flashed Jay a smile, and then looked back down at the text she was working through. ‘It’s a biology text Geogracus suggested. Turns out it can be useful to know some basic biology if you’re going to go messing around with people’s cells.’

Jay dropped onto the sofa beside her and grinned. ‘Who knew? Of course, I’d feel better getting myself healed by him if he actually has some idea how it all works.’

‘Oh, he’s got a medical degree. An actual one, based on treating people the usual way.’

‘Good to know if I get shot on this gig.’ He paused and Kaya went back to her book for a paragraph. ‘You do have other options, you know.’

Kaya looked up, blinking. He was quite close, leaning toward her a little. With the height difference, Kaya had to look up into his eyes which, she decided, were not exactly grey, more like a sort of sultry, cloudy blue. ‘Sorry?’

‘You have options. You don’t have to stay here when this is done.’

‘I’ve got no real skills, no home. I’d be starting from scratch with whatever cash I have left after I’ve got through this.’

‘You’ve got talent,’ he countered. ‘I know places that’ll take you on for vocational training. You’d work and learn.’ He grinned. ‘Warmer places than Abertine. Hell, you must know something about farming after growing up on Sadrine’s Drift.’

‘Well, yes…’ Actually, she had made a bit of a hobby of learning what she could about the family business before her psi talent developed.

‘So, you could hire on as a farmhand somewhere. Build up some savings, go back to university when you’ve got the money. You’ve got options.’

Kaya looked down for a second or two, because looking at his face that close was a little distracting. There were alternatives to staying on the Oracle, she supposed. Farming was one, though it might take her a long time to get the money for training together working in agriculture. Some sort of vocational training might work, maybe a kind of apprenticeship. Then again, Geogracus and Sienna, and even Thea, could train her far better than anyone else, and there was the possibility that another teacher might notice that Kaya was not quite human…

‘I guess,’ Kaya said, ‘but I’d have no idea where to start. I’ve got nowhere to live. I can’t just… just drop in on a planet and figure out what I’m doing from there.’

Jay shrugged and settled back onto the sofa, which took him to a more comfortable distance from Kaya. ‘Pretty much what I do. Though… Well, I have been thinking about putting down some roots. You travel so much, it gets tiring. You get… jaded. I’ve been thinking about buying somewhere permanent. You know, somewhere to go back to that isn’t a hostel room or a spaceship. I was thinking maybe… Maybe Giltanish. Temperate climate with a reasonable agricultural industry. Three major cities with large medical facilities. Some beautiful coastlines, very romantic. I might even be able to swing a house on one of the beaches. Of course, I’d still have to work so I’d be away for weeks, maybe a sexagoy at a time. Be useful to have someone there to look after the place, maybe help pay the bills…’

‘Well, that sounds great if you could find someone to– You mean me?’

‘Sure, why not?’ He made it sound like it was just an obvious thing to do, a no-brainer.

‘We hardly know each other.’

‘Really?’ Jay raised an eyebrow. ‘I feel like I know more about you than any woman I’ve ever, uh, known. I mean, that’s part of the advantage. I already know your biggest secret. We’d both be keeping it. And, well, you know…’

Frowning, Kaya looked at him. ‘Know what?’

‘I’d really like to get to know you better.’

Kaya turned away quickly as her cheeks started to redden. ‘Well… Well, I hardly know anything about you.’

‘Huh. What do you want to know? I’m pretty much an open book. Oh, I’ve got my secrets too. Everyone has secrets. But ask what you like.’

‘Okay, well then, what about your family?’

Jay gave her a flash of a smile which seemed to have a bleak edge to it. ‘Sore topic,’ he said, and then went on quickly, ‘but I said you could ask, so… Both my parents are still alive. Not sure you could kill my father if you shot him with an anti-tank missile. Then there’s two brothers and two sisters. My little sister, Jacky, she’s the youngest and I was the next oldest. Big family, I guess, but we got on. Everyone doted on Jacky, of course. She was a decade younger than me and so cute. I mean, she’s still a decade younger than me, but she’s grown up now. Haven’t seen her for… nearly five years. Huh. Anyway, I screwed things up but before that it was a pretty good life. The family’s mainly in commerce, trading and shipping. Not rich, but comfortable…’

Kaya listened as Jay told his story, but her mind drifted toward a beach with a house at the top of it, an ocean lapping up over white sand. A fantasy, but…

58/1/483.

They had moved into Kaya’s cabin at some point, she was unsure of the time, and Kaya had discovered that they had some of the light beer she had tried on Harroway in stock, or something like it anyway. Maybe drinking it was not the best idea she had ever had, but she had decided that she liked it, and Jay was still telling her stories. Actually, things had started to get a little silly.

‘First girl I ever kissed?’ Jay asked in reply to Kaya’s question. ‘Really?’

‘Yeah. Why not?’ Kaya replied, grinning.

‘Okay… Okay. Her name was Karrin Dannery. I met her in school and we thought we were so in love. I mean, we were children and we didn’t know any better. Her parents didn’t approve so we kept it a secret. The big secret that, of course, everyone knew about. What about you?’

‘Me?’

‘I think a question like that deserves some reciprocation.’

Kaya knew she was blushing, but she had asked… ‘Norrin. Norrin Lutine. I was twelve, and he’d just turned thirteen. And we kissed behind the school, and then I ran home and I was sure that my mother knew all about it. She didn’t.’

Jay chuckled. ‘He can’t have been the last. A pretty girl like you has to have had a few boyfriends.’

‘No…’ Kaya turned away. ‘I’m not that pretty.’ When she looked back, Jay was frowning. ‘What?’ she asked.

‘Anyone else, I’d assume you were fishing for compliments.’

‘What? No. I’m just not that pretty. If I was, then… I’m not.’

Jay narrowed his eyes. ‘Have you looked in a mirror lately?’

‘Every morning.’

‘Maybe you should look harder.’

Jay was looking. He was looking right at Kaya’s face with the kind of scrutiny reserved for fine paintings. After a second, it started to feel uncomfortable and Kaya turned her face away. ‘I’m not–’

His hand on her cheek pulled her back to him. He was close, very close. She could feel his breath on her face. ‘You are,’ he whispered, and then his lips were against hers. It felt almost as though he wanted to consume them. She felt his tongue against her lips, parted them, felt him enter her mouth, and her tongue responded, fighting a rear-guard action for the territory which it seemed to not want to win. This was so not the same as Norrin. This was hot, passionate, everything Kaya had dreamed of after watching late-night romance streams. This was–

Jay pulled away, turning from her and getting to his feet. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

‘What? What for?’

‘That was… inappropriate. It’s… I’m a little drunk. I should go.’

‘But–’

‘No, Kaya. We… I shouldn’t be doing… It’s late. We should both get some rest.’ He headed for the door and was gone before Kaya could muster another response.

‘Well… cào,’ Kaya grumbled and headed for the shower. She was going to need something to get her to sleep and Cassandra had better not be watching.

~~~

Kaya was not quite sure how to behave around Jay when they met in the communal lounge the following morning, but Thea, Cassandra, and Jinny were there too and Jay seemed to be all business. It was as if he had not kissed her at all while Kaya felt like she could still taste him on her tongue. Still, she took his example and listened as Cassandra told them about the planet they had been in orbit around for almost the last hour.

‘Teladish Prime,’ Cassandra said.

‘Total dump,’ Jinny added.

‘It looks nice,’ Kaya said, looking at the planet displayed on the screen, which was about half ocean with some fairly pretty clouds shining a warm orange as they passed over the sunward side.

‘No,’ Jay said, ‘she’s right. It’s a dump. I mean, almost literally given that the atmosphere’s not breathable due to toxic waste.’

‘Technically,’ Cassandra said, ‘the air is breathable, but if you spend long enough doing it, you’ll probably die of heavy-metal poisoning. Teladish is the primary industrial planet of the Ishara Complex. The oceans are heavily polluted and the atmosphere contains a number of relatively mild but unpleasant substances. It’s advisable to wear a filter mask with visor when outside since the air will also irritate your eyes.’

‘Oh,’ Kaya said. ‘So the clouds aren’t orange because of the sunlight…’

‘No, that’s due to pollutants carried into the upper atmosphere from the oceans. Population is relatively low at three point six billion. Much of the factories and plants are automated. People tend not to live here if they can avoid it.’

‘Then why are these mercenaries here?’

‘Ishara,’ Jay said.

Cassandra nodded. ‘Ishara own a twenty percent share in the Kraggans. They like to have an officially independent agent they can use to handle “industrial issues.” The Kraggans gain a corporate sponsor and a substantial amount of land on Teladish on which to base themselves. Their field exercises are generally conducted in battle armour so the atmosphere is not an issue.’

‘The Kraggans primarily deploy light-powered-armour troops,’ Jay said. ‘They’ve got a couple of units of heavier armour, APCs, a couple of light tanks. They mainly use their cruisers, three of them, and their aerospace fighters for ground support.’

‘Orbital control is reporting one of their cruisers in orbit. The Monteagle’s Prize.’

‘Huh.’ Jay frowned and chewed his lips. ‘That’s Garaka’s baby. Claims he won it in a card game. It was the first cruiser the company got and he uses it as his personal base of operations. He could be down on the surface or up on the ship, but it means he’s in this system. What time is it in the spaceport?’

‘One hundred,’ Cassandra replied. ‘Give or take a few minutes.’

‘Little late to start looking for information. Probably not much we can do for the next twelve hours. Then I’ll go down and check some contacts.’

‘I’ll start checking mine. Computers don’t sleep as much as humans.’

‘Okay,’ Thea said. ‘We’ve got a plan.’

‘Which doesn’t involve shooting anything,’ Jinny said, not sounding especially pleased.

Thea frowned at her. ‘We have a plan. Once we have more information, we’ll see what we can do about it. There may be some shooting. Why don’t you take Kaya over to the Sword and run her through the basics of shooting a hammer gun?’

Jinny brightened visibly and bounced to her feet. ‘Come on, Kaya. We’re gonna go shoot things!’

A bemused Kaya got to her feet and followed the bouncing Jinny out of the lounge, and Jay waited until they were gone before speaking. ‘You’re expecting her to fight?’ he asked Thea.

‘I’m expecting her to need to know how to before this is over,’ Thea replied. ‘She’s used a conventional rifle before, so a pressor rifle should be within her grasp, and she won’t be defenceless when something goes wrong.’

‘When something goes wrong?’

Thea raised an eyebrow. ‘Perhaps you’re used to every plan you make going perfectly, Sor Colder, but I try to deal with the real world.’

Jay frowned, not looking pleased. But he said, ‘No… No, I’m not used to every plan working as intended. Usually the opposite.’

~~~

‘Why does Thea have a shooting range here?’ Kaya asked as Jinny led the way into one of the areas behind the habitation section of the Sword. The room was long and slim. You could have two people shooting down it at the same time, but three would have been a squeeze. Near the entrance there were two small tables set behind a line on the floor, and the range went back from there. Far down the range, Kaya could see a pair of machines holding targets.

‘Well,’ Jinny replied, ‘mostly it’s for me. She does use it to keep her skills up to date, guns and knives. Thea’s an ace with a throwing knife. You, however, are here to learn to use a hammer gun.’ As she spoke, Jinny plucked a stubby rifle from a rack at the back of the range and held it out to Kaya.

‘A “hammer gun?” It shoots hammers?’ There did not, in fact, appear to be a muzzle on the thing; the barrel ended in a slightly curved, metal plate.

‘Correctly termed a pulsed-pressor assault weapon,’ Jinny said, grinning. ‘It uses pressor technology to impart kinetic energy from a distance. They used to say that a real marksman could drive a nail into a plank at two thousand metres with one, hence it’s a hammer gun. Actually, if you try to use one to drive a nail into a plank at much under six hundred metres, you’ll just get a lot of splinters. You hit a person with one and it’ll toss them around like a rag doll, even if they’re in armour. Without armour… it’s got a good chance of killing them.’

‘I, uh, I’ve never–’

‘Good!’ Jinny flashed a grin. ‘Nice girl like you shouldn’t need to worry about killing people. However, it’s not a nice galaxy and if it’s you, or some guy pointing a weapon at you, I think you should try to make sure you’re the one who walks away, don’t you?’

Kaya took the rifle from Jinny. ‘Yes… Yes, I guess I should.’ She lifted the weapon to her shoulder, trying to get a feel for it. ‘This isn’t built like the hunting rifle I was taught on.’

‘It’s what’s called a bullpup design. Takes a little getting used to if you’re used to a more conventional rifle, but it’s easy enough. I’ll show you how to hook in the power pack and you can come in here to practise when you’ve got the spare time. Few hours in the range and you’ll think you’ve always been using one.’

Kaya turned the rifle over, looking for the power pack, and found only a socket of some sort behind the grip. The purpose of that became clear when Jinny took a belt from below the rack. There was a curved block mounted on the back of the belt, from which a sturdy cable emerged and the plug on the end looked like it was intended to lock into the socket on the rifle.

‘Pack goes back on the charger when it’s not in use,’ Jinny explained. ‘If you need to reload one of these, you’re in a bigger battle than you should ever need to worry about, so you can take your time. Hook-up is pretty simple. You just push the plug in, tighten the shroud over it, and your weapon’s set to hammer some ass.’ She grinned. ‘However, proper range etiquette. We don’t load any gun until we’re on the firing line.’

Kaya walked over to the firing line, put her rifle down on one of the tables, strapped the belt around her hips, and then spent a few seconds sorting out how to plug the cable in. Then Jinny showed her where the safety buttons were; to fire, you had to press down one of two buttons with your thumb before the trigger was enabled.

‘Maybe something a little closer,’ Jinny said, looking down the range at the target. She reached under the table to produce a remote control and used it to set the target machine moving, at a rather rapid pace, toward them, stopping at maybe ten metres away. ‘Okay, so it’s aim, make sure the safety’s down, squeeze the trigger. Treat it like you’d treat a hunting rifle, except you won’t notice the recoil so much.’

‘Okay…’ Kaya said. She lifted the rifle up to her shoulder, pressed it in as she’d been taught, sighted through to the target, pressed in the safety stud, and squeezed the trigger gently. There was a slight jerk against her shoulder and the target turned into confetti. ‘Wow!’

Jinny giggled. ‘Keep in mind that paper targets tend to be less resilient than a human body, though one of these weapons will cause a lot of bruising, break bones, and you’ve got the possibility of secondary damage if you can throw them into a wall.’

‘O-okay.’

‘Extra points if you can push them off a cliff!’ Kaya lifted her eyes from the sights and turned her head to look at Jinny who was grinning like a madwoman. ‘What? Too much?’

~~~

Kaya ambled into the lounge and glanced around in the hope of seeing Jay, but he was in his cabin or somewhere else on the ship. Not where she wanted him to be… Or maybe him not being there was a good thing since she felt a lot like she had just gone ten rounds with a heavyweight boxer in powered armour.

‘You look tired.’ Thea’s voice came from behind her and Kaya turned around. ‘You look like someone kept you up long past your bedtime.’

‘How could you tell before you saw my face?’ Kaya asked. ‘I didn’t know you could detect fatigue.’

‘With psi? I can’t. By looking at the slumped shoulders, slight stumble to your walk, and the way you’re standing there like your spine was put together by a blind monkey… From that, I can infer fatigue. Sienna’s walls again?’

‘Well, Jinny made me empty the power pack on that rifle. Then Geogracus had me studying biology texts and running a biokinetic scan on Sienna. Then Sienna had me, yes, imagining walls again, followed by mazes. Have you ever tried to imagine a maze in your head?’

Thea smirked. ‘Yes, actually I have. If you can set it up right, you can use it to trap someone’s mind if they attack you. It’s not something I use much, or at all really, but I was taught to do it.’

‘Oh, yeah, I guess you would’ve… Uh… Anyway, I think I need some coffee. And maybe a coffee. With a coffee chaser, and–’

‘Why not go lie down instead. We won’t be doing anything for several hours. I’ll take you down to Portishead later and we’ll see what we can pick up on the local chatter networks.’

Kaya opened her mouth to argue, and yawned. ‘Okay… Okay, I’ll close my eyes for an hour.’ She really wanted to talk to Jay about that kiss, but… ‘Maybe two hours. I’ll see you later.’

‘Sleep well, Kaya,’ Thea said, and she watched the smaller girl walk into her cabin before turning to leave.

Portishead, Teladish Prime.

Jay stalked through the streets of Portishead with a purpose, face hidden behind a filter mask, as were the faces of more or less everyone he walked past. He had people to see, when he could find them, so he kept moving, head down.

Portishead was another town familiar to those who travelled between worlds, like Down City on Abertine. The people did not nose into other people’s business, unless there was a profit in it, and most carried weapons in case their business looked likely to result in profit for someone else. No one really looked at anyone else, especially when the other people were in the uniforms of Ishara Safety and Security who were known to hit you with a shock baton first and then throw you in a cell for three days before asking questions. Yes, most people carried a weapon, but they also would refrain from using it unless the circumstances were dire.

On Abertine, many of the Down City buildings had simple double-door entrances to keep the cold out. In Portishead, the buildings had double doors and positive air pressure, and it was a lot more important that the system worked. Keeping the tainted atmosphere out of the buildings was almost impossible, but making sure the contamination stayed within acceptable limits was, and everyone preferred it that way; trying to drink through a filter mask was just no fun at all.

Jay waited until he was through the lock on the Great Horn Bar before moving his mask to hang around his neck and looking around. The usual collection of middle-income natives and outsiders, plus a collection of richer Teladishi slumming it. It was because of the latter that he was going to find Bennina Markif here, and it was Bennina he was here to see.

He spotted her leaning against the bar, appraising the potential customers; a tall, slim woman with breasts large enough to draw attention in more or less any company, but here, with them crammed into a low-cut, split-sided gown, she got all the attention she wanted and more. Her blonde hair fell as a cloud down to her shoulders, her legs were long and accentuated by outrageously high heels, and she was, especially by the standards of Portishead’s professional hostesses, a very attractive woman. Jay was not there for her body, however.

‘Benni,’ Jay said as he stepped up to lean on the bar beside her and signalled the bartender. ‘How’s things?’

Bennina looked at Jay, pursing her lips. ‘Jay… Haven’t seen you on Teladish for a while.’ She had a good voice to go with the body: soft, sultry, cultivated. Her somewhat angular features and exaggerated bust gave her the look of an animated character brought to life by a sex-starved artist. Jay happened to know that the features were sculpted and, while her breasts were actually natural, she had had structural work done on her spine and legs to let her function in Teladish’s high gravity and while constantly in high heels.

‘Well, business, you know how it goes. Are you still Garaka’s favourite off-base shlooka?’

Her angled, bright-blue eyes narrowed. ‘He comes to see me when he feels like it, sure.’

‘Good. Let me buy you a drink and maybe we can go someplace private and discuss his recent visits.’

‘You got the cash, I’ve got the time. Whether we talk about Garaka or not… That’s going to depend.’

Jay smiled. ‘Pretty sure I can convince you, Benni. One way or another.’

~~~

Kaya looked out on the streets of Portishead through the visor of her mask and decided that she preferred the cold of Down City. It was not helping that she was overheating. Jeans, T-shirt, and a jacket had seemed like a good idea to keep as much of the atmosphere off her skin as possible, but it was around three hundred and six kelvin on the streets and there was sweat beading under the seals of her mask and right down her back. She was really going to need a shower when she got back to the ship.

More annoying was the fact that she had slept a full six hours, and Cassandra had let her sleep that long, and Jay had gone down to the planet an hour before Kaya had woken up. She felt like he was avoiding her and that Cassandra, and maybe Thea too, was conspiring to help him. That was silly. Why would she?

Thea headed into a bar and Kaya followed, wondering what kind of hole it was going to be. They went through one door and Kaya felt an outward breeze blow at her hair as they stepped into an entry vestibule. When the outer door was closed, Thea opened the inner one and stepped through, removing her mask as she went. Kaya followed suit, thankful to get the sweaty thing off her face.

‘Better,’ Thea said. ‘Come on, we’ll get a drink and watch the locals.’

The locals, it seemed, were not entirely local. The bar was not as rough as most of the ones Kaya had been in in Down City and its occupants seemed moderately well-off. They were also dressed in a variety of fashions while the locals seemed to prefer loose-fitting clothes in various shades of brown. Or maybe the atmosphere just turned everything brown given enough exposure.

Sitting at a table with a couple of beers, Thea’s eyes scanned the room. ‘Lot of mercs come in here,’ she said. ‘They’re off-duty, so they’re not in uniform, but you can spot them.’

Kaya scanned the room and came up with nothing significant. If there were mercenaries here, they looked the same as the other people. ‘How?’

‘Hmm. Well, see the woman at the bar? Brown hair, tall, dressed in red and black?’ Kaya nodded. ‘The tattoos on her right cheek mark off the number of times she’s killed in combat. There’s a grey-haired man three tables in front of us. He’s ex-military just from the way he sits, like someone stuffed a pole up his ass. There’s a laser-burn scar over his right eye that’s too recent for a man his age to have got it in military service. I’d say he was a marine, got into the mercenary business after because he didn’t know anything else.’

‘Wishes he did,’ Kaya said, looking at the grizzled man Thea was describing. He looked tired, worn, and his dark eyes were dead. ‘He’s alone, but he comes here so he can pretend to have a life.’

‘That too.’ Thea smiled. ‘People give away a lot about themselves without realising it. I think you’re good at picking up on it. You should learn to trust your instincts more.’

‘I don’t… I’m not sure my instincts are that great.’

‘Oh? Want to talk about it?’

Kaya frowned. ‘Nothing to talk about. I just don’t think I’m that good at figuring people out.’

‘Hmm. The man who just walked in. What do you make of him?’

The man standing at the door while he removed his mask was big, tall and muscular, and dressed in a black tank top and dark camo pants tucked into high, military boots. There was a tattoo on his right shoulder, some sort of sword-and-shield design, and there was a long, heavy knife lashed to his right thigh. When he walked toward the bar, it was more of a swagger and his face looked like it had been in a few fights. But…

‘He’s no mercenary,’ Kaya said. ‘He wants to be, I think. He’s all confidence, dresses the part, but then none of the others are dressing the part. And they’re all carrying pistols while he’s got that knife. I mean, you’ve got knives, but his looks like it was meant for show, not use. And if he was as good at fighting as he is swaggering, his nose would be the right shape.’ Thea smiled and said nothing, and Kaya cracked after a minute of silence. ‘So, was I right or not?’

‘I don’t know,’ Thea said, ‘but that’s more or less what I thought when he came in. Comparing and contrasting, he has confidence and lacks ability, while you have the abilities…’

‘So, you’re saying I should get my act together and start swaggering around like that guy?’

Thea furrowed her brow and pursed her lips, and then shook her head. ‘I’d suggest more strutting than swaggering. I’m built more for swaggering than you are and I prefer a good, firm strut. However, it’s even better, under most circumstances, to aim for quiet confidence. Out on the street around here, you keep your back straight and pretend everyone else should be kissing your boots. Good advice for any spaceport town. Act like you’re the baddest bitch on the block, even if you’re not. Otherwise, know you’re good, but let everyone else think you’re ordinary.’

Kaya smirked. ‘You never look like you’re ordinary.’

‘Why, thank you. Of course, that’s because I’m not. I am the baddest bitch on the block.’

‘No question about that,’ Kaya agreed. ‘Now I just have to work on believing I’m the second baddest.’

59/1/483.

They had moved bars five times and heard a lot of chatter, none of which Kaya thought sounded interesting. Thea had not commented; she watched and listened, but she never said anything, and Kaya had no way of knowing whether Thea was using her telepathy to gather more information.

When they walked into the sixth bar, a far more downmarket place than their first with half-naked waiting staff, Kaya spotted Jay near the back of the room. Thea had apparently seen him too, because she took Kaya’s arm and steered her toward a table well away from Jay’s.

He’s talking to someone, Thea said into Kaya’s mind. He saw us. If he can, he’ll come to us when he’s done.

A waiter wearing tight, black slacks and a leather collar, no shirt, walked over to their table, squashing the bored expression he had been wearing and replacing it with a smile. It looked like it was an effort. ‘I’m Pari,’ he said. ‘What can I get you?’

‘Two glasses of white wine,’ Thea said, smiling back. ‘And keep up the eye candy.’

Pari’s smile switched from general customer-greeting mode to something more playful. ‘Of course.’ And he turned to strut back toward the bar with his behind swinging to draw the eyes.

‘Don’t drink the wine,’ Thea said quietly. ‘It’ll be over-expensive and taste like something with a busted liver urinated it last night.’

‘Then why did you order it?’ Kaya asked. ‘We were doing okay on beer.’ Actually, Kaya was starting to feel a little lightheaded, or maybe a lot lightheaded. Pari’s butt had looked really good in those slacks.

‘You’ve had enough. We’ll head back to the ship once we’ve checked in with Jay. Two women walking into a place like this would order wine and chat up the waiter. Or waitress. They’ll all be for hire.’

‘We’re not actually going to hire–’

‘We’ll be gone before it gets to that part.’ It had just fallen dark outside, so it was still fairly early, but it was also after midnight on the ship’s clock. ‘I hope. If it comes to having to wait too long for Jay, I’ll take care of Pari. You can watch.’

Kaya made a vaguely strangled noise and barely noticed that Thea was smirking. ‘That’s not funny,’ Kaya muttered.

‘Well, if you’d prefer to join in, I’m sure–’

‘That is not what I meant and you know it.’

‘I know. Sorry. Anyway, Jay’s contact just left so I don’t think it’ll be a problem.’

Even after the contact had gone, Pari had returned with the drinks, flirted with Thea, and then walked away before Jay ambled over to their table and sat down. His eyes flicked across Kaya once and then fixed on Thea. ‘Heard anything interesting?’

‘There are more than a few non-Kraggan mercs around town,’ Thea replied. ‘More than I’d expect unless Monteagle is recruiting.’

Jay nodded. ‘I heard the same thing. I heard he got a big contract at the start of the year which was executed by mid-sexagoy. He’s ploughed some of the money into bringing in new people and equipment. His people who came back from that job got some big bonus pay too. They were splashing it around, but none of them would say why the pay-out was so big.’

‘I think we saw a few of them in that third bar,’ Kaya said. She glanced at Thea. ‘Those two men with the blonde woman who were laughing so much and buying a lot of drinks?’

‘Yes, I saw a Kraggan tattoo on the woman’s shoulder.’

Kaya flashed a grimace. ‘That ugly-looking cat-bear-thing?’

‘We did say they were named after a carrion eater.’ Thea looked back to Jay. ‘Do you know where Monteagle is?’

‘Not yet. He moves between planet and orbit fairly often and no one here knows where he’s located right now. I have some more people to try though.’

‘We were just about to head back to the ship.’

Jay flicked a glance at Kaya, his expression unreadable. ‘Probably for the best, but I’ll stay. There are a few people I know who don’t get out in daylight much. I’ll contact Cassandra when I’ve got something or I can’t do more.’

Thea nodded and got to her feet, tossing a couple of printed credit notes onto the table. ‘Pari will be disappointed,’ she said and started for the door.

Kaya rushed to follow her, giving Jay a quick glance before putting her mask on. Jay was not looking her way.

Oracle of Zanar.

‘Your mind is not focused, Kaya,’ Sienna said. Her voice was soft, not reproachful, more concerned.

‘It’s full of Geogracus’s biology lessons,’ Kaya said, though that was not it at all. Jay had got back from Teladish Prime and gone straight to bed without so much as a hello. The man was confusing. He had kissed her and he had seemed to want more, and then he had backed out and now he was definitely avoiding her. And it was affecting Kaya’s focus. Maybe if she tried something a little different… ‘You know, Geogracus gave me this lecture on ethics when I started with him. I’m sort of surprised you’ve never said anything.’

Sienna seemed to take the shift in conversation in stride. ‘I judge you to be a woman of exemplary ethics and you’ve yet to learn something which is not, essentially, defensive. However, since you brought the subject up, there are some very… sticky ethical aspects to telepathy.’

‘Invasion of privacy.’

‘Obviously. You will, I have no doubt, learn to read the minds of others. You could, if you choose to do so, learn their deepest secrets, digging deep into their minds. We avoid that without good reason. Even reading surface thoughts is avoided, though that is also a matter of self-defence. It’s often better not to know what a lover is thinking, for example. People have all sorts of stray thoughts all the time and we’re better off not knowing about them.’

Kaya grinned. ‘I can imagine it could be embarrassing.’

‘Yes. Beyond that… I’ve never chosen to learn to directly control the minds of others, but I can make suggestions. I can persuade someone to do something and they will generally think they’ve thought of it themselves. It’s an ability which can be easily abused, but generally not to the extremes that full control can. I’m happier knowing that it is unlikely that I could persuade someone to kill themselves, for example. Still, one must consider carefully what one does with such abilities. However, there is an ability I’ve cultivated which has even graver ethical considerations.’

‘Oh?’ Kaya frowned, trying to think of something worse than forcing someone to kill themselves.

‘The ability is meant to be used… No, that’s not right. The ability should only be used for treating mental conditions. It’s possible to alter a mind, to remove a memory of some event which gave rise to a phobia, edit out the basis of psychosis, return a mind to a sound state. Even that is fraught with difficulty, but it can be done, and done successfully. Where Geogracus treats the body, I can treat the mind. Equally, however, I can cut out any memory I wish. The memory of a lover, the memory of a friend or family, anything. I can make someone insane instead of curing them. I could, with sufficient effort, turn someone into a slave, a willing slave. They would not even know they had ever been anything different. Or I could leave them fully aware of being free, but unable to resist performing any request I gave them.’

‘That’s… Okay, yes, that’s horrible.’

‘It is,’ Sienna agreed, ‘but I have erased memories in the past out of… convenience. It’s not something I’m comfortable with, but I’ve done it when the alternative was someone’s death.’

‘Does that happen a lot?’

Sienna gave Kaya a bleak smile. ‘We zanari are a hunted people. We need to remain a myth. When someone uncovers the truth and cannot be trusted, we need to make a decision. Sometimes it is made easy and, usually, Thea handles the situation in the manner she does best. Sometimes we have a true choice and we decide to let them live.’

‘Well, surely that’s better than killing them.’

‘Often, Kaya, yes. But sometimes it’s worse. Now, let’s see whether your mind is back in mazes, shall we?’

Kaya nodded and closed her eyes to begin building a new labyrinth in her head, but she did have to wonder how death could be better than just losing memories…

~~~

Jay was in the communal lounge when Kaya returned from her session with Sienna. That was good, but she needed a little time to think about what she wanted to say to him, and he had been ignoring her, so she went straight past him to her cabin.

Once inside, she started second-guessing herself immediately. Why had she not spoken to him? Why had she decided she needed time? Why had she not just demanded to know what he was up to? How could he ignore her? Why had he not bent her over the sofa and–

Kaya cut her own train of thought off in mid-stream and decided to think through this logically. Jay was clearly interested, but he felt he should not be pursuing her romantically. Well, she was not that bothered about romance right now, but he was attractive, sexy, strong, and she wanted him to finish what he had started. Okay, so she needed to persuade him that she did want him to go there, but she also needed to be careful about it. She did not want to scare him off. She laughed at that thought: she was trying not to scare him.

A light went on somewhere in Kaya’s head. Geogracus had spent most of his lesson doing biological process theory. There had been no subject to scan and the big man seemed averse to having Kaya look at him, but he had also said, right at the start, that Kaya should try to get Jay to act as her subject. Jay was a human, not a zanari. It was perfect, but…

Rushing to her bedroom, Kaya opened the wardrobe built into one wall. She now had a small selection of clothes, but she generally stuck to a T-shirt and some form of jeans or slacks because it was comfortable and she was not wearing shorts or her more stringy tops around Geogracus any time soon. Not after last time, even if he had stopped before it got too embarrassing. But the closet had other available options. Someone, probably Cassandra, had fabricated one of the zanari outfits Kaya had seen all the women wearing except Jinny. That was sexy, but Kaya still doubted she could wear it without blushing, and it might fall into the ‘too scary’ category. No, she would go with the old standbys.

Fifteen minutes later, Kaya had showered and changed into denim shorts, a string-strapped top, and a pair of high-heeled pumps which would bring her closer to Jay’s height, but might go relatively unnoticed given how much cleavage she had on display. It was what she had worn when they had first arrived on the ship, aside from the shoes. It was casual, but also sexy. It was a little weird that she had never really thought of it as sexy until now. She had thought about make-up, but had decided that that was probably too much of a giveaway since, as far as she could remember, Jay had never seen her wearing any.

Kaya checked herself in the mirror in her bedroom. Critical self-appraisal had never been one of her strong points. Was this subtle enough, yet shlooka enough? ‘Stop wasting time, girl,’ she said to her reflection. ‘If you wait much longer, he’s not going to be there.’ Of course, her reflection was not going to have to do anything.

Jay was still in the lounge when she opened the door of her cabin and looked out. She paused and leant as casually as she could manage against the door frame. Now or never…

‘Jay, I don’t suppose you could help me for a few minutes?’

He looked up from whatever he was reading and across at her. ‘Uh, I guess. What was it you wanted?’

‘A test subject,’ she said as though it was nothing.

‘Huh?’

‘For a biokinetic scan. I’ve done Jinny and Sienna, but Geogracus said I should try it on, well, non-zanari. I guess I should try to do Fay at some point. That would be interesting. But you’re here and I need to practise. We did theory this morning, but he said I should practise so I can get better and faster.’

‘A scan? Just… sit there and let you scan me?’

‘Uh-huh.’

Jay gave a shrug and got up. ‘Fair enough. I can do that.’

Of course, if he had thought about it, she could have done it in the lounge where he already was, but he followed her into her cabin and sat down on the sofa when she directed him to, and waited while she stared at him for a minute, not actually trying to scan him.

‘Hmm,’ she said. ‘Uh, this isn’t working as well as I’d hoped. Would it be okay if I touched you?’

Jay raised an eyebrow. ‘I guess…’

‘Great. It helps a lot. Just take your shirt off, would you?’

‘My… shirt.’

Kaya focused hard on making her voice sound casual. This was the bit where he might bolt if he was so inclined. ‘Yes. The more skin contact I can make, the better. I just need to touch skin and if I can put my fingers on your chest, I can get a better picture.’ It was even true! Extended skin contact did give better results.

‘Okay…’ He sounded a little suspicious, but he reached down and pulled his tank top off over his head. Maybe he did know what she was doing. Maybe he did not care.

‘Now, just keep quite still,’ Kaya said and, stepping closer, she placed her fingers on his temples and closed her eyes, pretending to focus on his body. Actually, her full attention was on his body, but not that way. Instead, she concentrated on the feel of his skin under her fingertips as she slid them down, over his cheeks, along his jawline, and then back to slide down his neck to his shoulders.

By the time her fingers were working over his chest and she could feel the brush of short hairs against her fingertips, his breathing had quickened. She flattened her palms against his chest, fanning her fingers and sliding down over his taut stomach. His abdominal muscles fluttered as her fingers brushed past them and she parted her eyelids a little to take a peek. His eyes were hooded, his lips parted, and she closed her eyes again before he noticed. Then her hands caught against his belt and she stopped.

‘Kaya,’ he breathed, ‘I’m not sure this–’

She stopped him by shifting her left hand down to fold around the bulge which had formed in his slacks. She opened her eyes and looked into his. ‘I’m sure,’ she said and squeezed the bulge gently. ‘I’m absolutely sure.’

And then things were happening faster than she had imagined. He moved, reaching out and pulling her shirt off over her head. He pulled her to him, spreading his knees and pushing back on the sofa so that her knee could rest there as his mouth closed around her left nipple. The sensation was like nothing she had ever experienced before: a bolt of pleasure lanced out from the point where he had joined them, flashing up into her brain and down into her groin, and she moaned as he suckled on her. His hands were working at her shorts now and he paused only to rid her of shorts and panties together. Her shoes had already fallen away and she was naked before him and moving as he wanted, however he wanted. The pretence of seduction was gone and she wanted him to take charge.

He laid her on the edge of the sofa at one end, her feet on the floor, her arms stretched up over her head, and her back arched. Somehow he had got out of his slacks. When had that happened? And then he was over her, his thighs spreading hers. His hands gripped her forearms, keeping them high, keeping her under his control, but she was out of control, writhing, wordlessly begging for him. She felt him brush her labia and then, all at once, he was inside her.

She had heard that the first time could be painful, but there was no pain. There was the length of him filling her, his girth stretching her. And then, as soon as he was inside her, he was gone again and she felt suddenly hollow, emptied, but only for a second. Her face and chest felt hot, burning. He pushed in, slid out, in… Her world narrowed to the amazing feeling of his body moving within hers. Her eyes rolled back; her jaw strained as she tried to make sounds and failed. Her vision narrowed as her attention focused on the singularity of pleasure forming between her legs, and then her world exploded.

Kaya looked up into Jay’s grinning face. She tried to grin back, but her body was not behaving itself. His head lowered. ‘I absolutely love your breasts,’ he said and his teeth nipped at one of her nipples.

Kaya let out a yelp and she heard Jay chuckle, but the shock had reset her brain. ‘That… That was wonderful,’ she said.

His face appeared above her again. ‘Oh… We’ve only just started. I’m going to make you feel like that, but better.’

Kaya was quite convinced that there was no way he could possibly make her feel better than he had just then, right until his tongue found her clitoris.

Portishead.

Jay walked into the Great Horn and looked carefully around the room. Benni was there, near the back and waiting for him, as she had said she would be. She was still his best chance. She had said she could get what he needed and the fact that she was there, on time, suggested she had managed it.

As he approached her, however, she nodded toward the back of the bar, and then set off at an easy pace, hips swinging seductively. Jay followed. He had expected to handle this transaction in private. He followed her through a door marked as employees only and down a corridor past the changing rooms the hostesses used to an office door near the back.

Pushing the door open, she waved for Jay to precede her into the room and he did, grinding to a halt as he came face-to-face with two men in Kraggan combat armour, both of them holding heavy pistols at their sides. ‘Your problem now,’ Benni said, and she pulled the door closed.

‘We understand,’ one of the mercs said, ‘that you’ve been making some enquiries regarding Kraggan business. Care to explain why?’

Jay looked between them. They were both as tall as him, both more heavily muscled, both in armour his shotgun could not breach, even assuming he could get a shot off before they killed him. It was a pretty untenable situation.

Jay smiled…

Oracle of Zanar.

Kaya woke up and stretched out on her sofa feeling wonderful. Lazily, she stretched her arms up over her head and arched her back, and various dried substances pulled against her skin in various places.

‘Shower,’ she muttered, and she got to her feet. Various muscles complained and walking was a little painful, but it was, as far as she was concerned, a good kind of soreness and she was sure the shower would fix her right up.

There was no sign of Jay, which was a shame because her thoughts turned to sex as soon as she was under the water. Mostly it was thinking about all the things Jay had done to her. She had gone in a virgin and come out a sex goddess! She giggled: that was silly. On the other hand, she had definitely ‘become a woman’ in the hour or so before she passed out. She was not even sure what the time was. How long had she been asleep?

The answer turned out to be about four hours. She retrieved her clothes from the cabin floor and walked out into the communal lounge. No sign of Jay and the status indicator beside his door said he was out, but Thea was sitting there on one of the sofas, waiting while not appearing to be waiting.

‘Jay went down to the planet,’ Thea said, even though Kaya had not asked. ‘One of his contacts said they might have something today.’

‘Oh, okay.’

‘He said you’d decided to take a nap. We decided not to disturb you.’

‘Oh.’ Kaya felt her cheeks heating. She was sure Thea, and probably Cassandra, and maybe everyone else, knew exactly what she had been getting up to to need a nap.

‘You know, if the lessons are that tiring, we should consider spacing them out more.’

Maybe they did not know… ‘No, I’m getting better at it. I’m just not used to it and slowing down would probably make it harder to adjust.’

Thea’s smile had a knowing edge to it. ‘If you’re sure.’ Oh, she knew all right. Though she did not seem to be disapproving or disappointed. She did have Cassandra, so why would she be disappointed? Well, if she knew, she knew and that was all there was to say about it.

‘I should eat something,’ Kaya said for something to say.

‘Perhaps you should. It may be a long night.’

Kaya started for the provisions cupboards. ‘Oh? Why?’

‘If Jay can tell us where Garaka Monteagle is going to be tonight, we’re going to go in and have a little chat with him. I doubt he’ll be receptive, so it could take a while.’

~~~

Jay appeared in the teleport room with a grin on his face. Kaya smiled back, but he seemed to be ignoring her again. A little voice in the back of her head repeated words her mother had said to her long ago: that men only wanted one thing from a woman and getting it tended to squash their desire for long-term commitment. It was advice Kaya had largely ignored after discovering that her parents had had a quite healthy sex life prior to marriage, but now there was Jay not looking at her like she was anything special…

‘You’re looking pleased with yourself,’ Thea noted.

‘Yeah, well,’ Jay replied, his smile turning into more of a smirk. ‘I ran into a little trouble. Couple of Kraggans had heard from someone that I’d been asking questions. So, I told them I was looking to join up. Just doing due diligence.’

‘And they bought that?’

‘Hook, monowire, and sinker.’ He really did look pleased with himself. ‘Old Garaka was interviewing today, but he didn’t get all he wanted so they said I could try for an interview in the morning. He won’t waste time transferring up to his cruiser if he’s got to be down here first thing. That means he’ll be in his suite on their base tonight.’

‘And do you happen to know where this suite of his is located?’

Jay’s shit-eating grin just got bigger. ‘Just so happens that I have a complete layout of the site that one of my other contacts got me.’

Thea smirked at him. ‘Not just a pretty face, are you? All right, we’ll go over the plans and come up with a couple of entry points. We’ll need to check the guard rotations and sensor positioning before we select one.’ Thea glanced at Kaya. ‘By tomorrow, we may know who was responsible for Sadrine’s Drift.’

Eagle’s Head, Teladish Prime.

The town of Eagle’s Head had been there before the Kraggans built their HQ beside it, but the mine it had been put there to service had been declared inviable decades ago and now Eagle’s Head was primarily there to serve the needs of the mercs. There were a lot of bars, a lot of paid companions, and a number of companies which handled supply logistics so the Kraggans did not need to. There was not a lot else, but one of the logistics companies had a tall office building that made a good vantage point from which to observe the mercenaries’ compound.

They had been doing that for over two hours and Kaya was not sure what else they could see before they went in. She had decided not to say anything about it since Thea was the expert, but they seemed to be taking a long time over this. Kaya checked once more through the multispectral binoculars she had been given and nodded.

‘Right on twenty minutes,’ Kaya said. ‘They definitely changed the guard teams twenty minutes ago, but they’re back on that twenty-minute-per-checkpoint cycle.’

Thea gave a nod of her own. ‘We’ll give them another ten minutes to get complacent and then we’ll go in.’

‘Good.’

‘You’ll stay here, Kaya.’

‘What? But–’

Thea turned her masked gaze on Kaya. ‘I’m sorry, but this operation is going to need talents you don’t have, Kaya. You’ll stay back here and keep watch. If there’s any indication that there are problems, you’ll signal Cassandra.’

‘We can’t leave her up here on her own,’ Jay said, moving a little closer to Kaya, which Kaya noticed and liked; Jay had been all business since returning from the surface earlier.

‘Fine,’ Thea said without a pause for thought. ‘You’ll stay here to watch her and the compound. Don’t use the long-range comms unit unless you need to; they could detect it. As soon as you’ve made contact with the ship, you’ll both need to transport up. These people have gunships and I don’t doubt they would not hesitate to level this building if they think you’re a threat.’

‘They wouldn’t,’ Jay agreed.

‘And you’re going in there?’ Kaya asked. ‘Isn’t there a safer place to try to get to Monteagle?’

‘Not really,’ Jay replied. ‘The cruiser would be far worse. He’s got a retreat he goes to about once a year on Giltanish, but we could be waiting sexagoy for him to take a trip there. This is the best place.’

‘Don’t worry about it, Kaya,’ Thea said. Her eyes smiled through her visor though anything her mouth might have been doing was lost to the mask. ‘Jinny and I have done things like this before and, most importantly, they don’t know we’re coming.’

‘Speaking of Jinny,’ Jinny said, ‘Jinny is getting impatient. Can we go now?’

Thea rolled her eyes. ‘We’ll head down. If you two keep an eye out, you might see us going in. Just remember, the mask comms doesn’t have the range to reach us in the compound.’

‘So how–’ Kaya began.

‘Tell Cassandra if you see anything going on in there and she’ll tell us. She can have us out of there in a second or two. Don’t worry.’

~~~

‘Plan A or Plan B?’ Jinny asked as they waited outside the fence for the next pair of guards to pass.

‘Plan B,’ Thea replied after a second.

Jinny grinned inside her mask. ‘Good, I prefer plan B.’

‘Yes, I thought you would, but that’s not why we’re going with it.’

Jinny nodded. ‘Guards seem light, even if they aren’t expecting trouble. Almost an invitation. You think Jay didn’t fool them as well as he thought?’

‘I’m not entirely sure what I think at this point.’ Thea watched as the guards moved out of sight. ‘All right, let’s get in there and find out whether I’m paranoid or not.’

~~~

‘Have you seen them?’ Kaya asked, her eyes fixed to her own binoculars.

‘No,’ Jay said, ‘but they’re both probably pretty good at not being seen. I wouldn’t worry about it. They know what they’re doing.’

‘I know. I just… This is my mission. I should be doing something.’

‘You asked for help, Kaya. Let them do what they’re good at. Does it really matter who finds out the answers?’

‘No. I guess it doesn’t.’ Kaya paused for a second. ‘I, um, really enjoyed what we did earlier.’

‘My pleasure. I’m sure we’ll be doing it again, but right now we need to focus on this job.’

‘Yes. Yes, of course.’ Kaya refocused her attention on scanning the base. She caught a brief glimpse of two bodies on the thermal imaging overlay. It was indistinct so she could not even tell whether they were female, much less Thea and Jinny, and, from what she remembered of the map Jay had obtained, these red-and-orange blobs were way away from the most obvious route to the barracks and Monteagle’s apartment above them. She decided not to mention it to Jay since it seemed unlikely to be Thea and Jinny. What was in that area of the map? The armoury? No, Jinny had gone down there with some sort of huge battle rifle as well as her two revolvers; there was no way they needed more weaponry than they already had.

Kaya went back to scanning the area. That was not them. They must have got in without being seen at all.

~~~

Jinny did not really like the shadowy stuff, the sneaking. Of course, there could well be a big pay-out to this particular batch of sneaking so she was willing to make allowances, but stealth was not one of her favoured activities. Jinny liked explosions and explosions were as un-stealthy as you could get.

Thea liked stealthy. Thea was good at stealthy. Thea was so good at stealthy that Jinny did not see her at the rendezvous point until Thea stepped out of the shadow she was standing in and let Jinny see her. It was a neat trick and Jinny had almost shot her friend more than once because of it.

Biting her lips, Jinny glared at the smirking woman who had just appeared out of nowhere. ‘One day my reflexes are going to be off and you’ll catch a bullet,’ Jinny complained.

‘Never going to happen, Jin. You’re never that off. Everything set up?’

‘Of course. You?’

Thea nodded. ‘Let’s go see what the Kraggans have waiting. Hopefully it’s just going to be a sleeping Garaka Monteagle, but…’ She turned and started for a ladder set into the side of the building.

‘You can hope for that,’ Jinny replied. ‘I haven’t shot anyone in weeks.’

The ladder took them up to the roof of the barracks block where they needed to be careful. There was a watchtower set at the northern corner manned by two mercs. Automated systems would have been more efficient, but a lot of military activity was based around keeping the troops busy and guard duty was part of that. Thea got to the top of the ladder and reached out to one of the men in the tower; both of them were busy watching the outer perimeter, but she kept up her tap on his thoughts as she moved up onto the roof and made her way across to a door in the side of the smaller second floor which housed the officers’ quarters. It was meant, primarily, as a fire exit, but it also allowed roof access and had an electronic lock which was bypassed quickly and efficiently using a psionic override device which Cassandra had invented.

They were inside. Monteagle’s rooms were not far. One corridor about twenty metres in length, bypass the lock there and they would be in. They listened. There were sounds from below, but nothing much. The majority of the mercs were asleep in their bunks at this hour. Only those unlucky enough to draw the night shift were awake. However, there had been no way to know about corridor patrols inside the building so a little haste was in order.

Jinny was looking huffy when they got to Monteagle’s door without incident. Thea knew why, of course, but it just made her grin as she activated the lockpicker again and waited for it to override the controls. There was a click and the door edged open. Thea pushed it further open and was unsurprised to see a darkened room beyond, so she pushed in, followed by Jinny who was holding one of her pistols at the ready. Thea slipped a knife free of her belt: this was the point where things got really serious.

The room was a lounge, but a rather austere one. There was light, just a little coming from a dimmed overhead. There was a desk against one wall, four padded chairs, and a small table. This was as much an office as a lounge, a place for Monteagle to talk to his officers and, possibly, dress down his troops when needed. There was a door at the back and that had to lead to the mercenary commander’s private rooms. Thea started for it.

And then the link she still had with the man in the watchtower cut off without warning and Thea felt an unpleasant sensation, a sort of cold void that was sucked back into her mind before she released the connection. She reached out and put her hand on Jinny’s shoulder. ‘Someone just kicked in a wide-area null-field generator,’ Thea said softly.

‘Oh,’ Jinny replied. ‘Trap then.’ She holstered her revolver and reached over her shoulder for her rifle. Then she turned back to the outer door.

‘Trap,’ Thea agreed. Pulling her sword from its scabbard on her back, she headed for the inner door.

~~~

‘Something’s happening,’ Kaya said, frowning. ‘I can see lights coming on all over the barracks.’

‘Yes,’ Jay said.

‘We’d better call Cassandra.’ She was half-turning when Jay’s arm slid around her waist, pulling her tight against him. She grinned. ‘I don’t think this is the time for–’ Something cold pressed against her neck, followed by the sharp sting of a pneumatic syringe. ‘What?’

‘I don’t think we’ll be calling the ship just now, Kaya,’ Jay said. His words sounded weird, distant.

‘What are you…’ Kaya heard her own voice and it sounded more like a mumble. Her vision dimmed.

‘It’s just business,’ Jay said, but Kaya could no longer hear him.

~~~

Thea stepped back out of Monteagle’s quarters and looked across at Jinny. ‘He’s not here, of course.’

‘Of course,’ Jinny replied. ‘They’re setting up to try and breach the place. They had one go.’

‘And?’

‘And my dry spell has finally ended.’

‘Glad to hear it, but they’ll come back with heavier armour.’

Jinny nodded. ‘I know. Can we do it now?’

‘Give me a second.’ Thea walked over to the door, edged it open, and glanced out. Sure enough, there were troops forming up at the end of the corridor. They were not being especially bright: if Jinny had been in the mood, there were exposed body parts she could have put bullets in from the door. Unclipping her mask, Thea yelled down the corridor. ‘You were expecting us, so do you want us alive or are we going to have to kill you?’

There was a pause and then a male voice came back, amplified by a helmet speaker system. ‘We’d prefer to take you alive, but we’re not losing anyone else tonight.’

‘You aren’t Monteagle. I want to talk to him.’

‘You’re too late, lady,’ the voice replied. ‘He’s gone, back up to the cruiser and then out of the system. But I wouldn’t worry about that. You’ve got your own problems.’

‘No, you’ve got the problems. That would be us.’ Thea closed the door on any reply she might have got and looked at Jinny. ‘Do you have smoke grenades?’

‘I am insulted that you should need to ask.’

‘Right. Do it. And then do the other.’

Smirking, Jinny took a small box from her belt and lifted it up. It was about the size of her palm and it featured one red button which was positioned under her thumb. ‘Okay, on three. Three!’ And Jinny pressed the red button.

The lights went out at the sound of the first explosion, but the explosions kept on happening and, when Jinny swung the door open again, fully this time, there were additional sounds, confused-mercenary sounds, coming from the other end of the corridor. Jinny tossed a grenade down toward them and then lowered her rifle into firing position and pulled the trigger. It was a vicious weapon, firing ten-millimetre, high-velocity bullets at a high cyclic rate of fire, and it tore into the plaster and the concrete beneath, and into anyone stupid enough to stand in its way. However, she was not aiming for hitting anyone at this point; this was just suppression fire to add to the confusion. When it stopped, the men cowering behind the walls assumed she had emptied a clip and they had a few seconds to consider mounting a counter, except that most of them were wondering when the explosions would stop and were worried by the smoke that was filling the corridor. The building was shaking with each bang, and the noises seemed to be getting closer.

And then Thea came out of the smoke, flying through the air as she leapt in among the cowering troops. She swung her sword, slamming its edge into the faceplate of the nearest man on her right, and it sliced right through the armoured plastic and deep into the tissue and bone beneath. Without a pause, her left arm extended and rammed a knife into a second man’s throat. A single man with lieutenant’s insignia on the shoulder of his jumpsuit got his head together enough to raise his pistol and fire. Two rounds burst from his automatic, skimming past Thea’s left shoulder. Thea yanked her sword free of her first victim’s face and turned, swinging it down to carve right through the lieutenant’s monocrystal-weave suit and straight into his knee. The man let out a shriek of pain and collapsed onto the floor, but his companions were starting to wake up from the shock of the sudden attack…

And that was when Jinny stepped out of the smoke with her rifle. Thea dropped to the floor, under the stream of bullets that began to blast out into the corridor.

Thea, are you there? Cassandra’s voice in Thea’s head was a welcome but not entirely surprising event. The null-field generator had been tied into the mains it seemed and Thea had known it was gone when she could read the mercs.

I’m here, Cassy. It was a trap.

I thought as much when I could not reach you. I still cannot reach Kaya or Jay, and I can’t find their minds.

Thea frowned, another not entirely unsurprising event, this one less welcome. They had a null field going. Kaya and Jay must be in a portable one. I need you to get a position on us and pull me and Jinny out, and the wounded man I’m showing you now.

Very well. Teleport in five seconds.

Thea grinned. Better tell Jinny or we’ll be digging bullets out of the walls again.

So, what else is new?

Oracle of Zanar.

‘Tell me again why I’m healing this piece of human waste?’ Geogracus asked.

‘Because I don’t want him to bleed to death before I’ve finished with him,’ Thea replied. The big man gave a grunt, but he focused his attention on the mercenary lieutenant’s leg while Thea focused her attention on the man himself. ‘So, there are a couple of things I want to know,’ she said, ‘and if you tell me the answers, we’ll drop you back on the planet, unharmed.’

‘And if I don’t?’ the merc asked.

‘Well, then I get the information out of you anyway, in a less pleasant way, and we drop you back on the planet via one of our airlocks.’

‘I ask again why I’m healing him,’ Geogracus said. ‘He’s too stupid to go the easy way.’

‘Is my colleague right?’ Thea asked the merc.

‘What do you want to know?’

‘How did you know we were coming tonight?’

The man smiled. ‘Colder’s not a Kraggan, so I wouldn’t be betraying the company to answer that one.’

Thea kept her expression neutral. It was annoying, very annoying, but not a total surprise. ‘That clears up a few things. Why did he take the girl? What possible use is she to him?’

‘No idea. Wasn’t read in.’ And he was telling the truth. No stray thoughts to give him away. Jay had betrayed them, but this man had no idea why.

‘That’s the wound taken care of,’ Geogracus said. ‘You should be fine to walk on that, but it may be sore for a few days.’

‘Uh, thanks,’ the merc said. Geogracus ignored him, twisting in the air and floating out of the infirmary toward his quarters. ‘That guy’s–’

‘A very good doctor,’ Thea interrupted. ‘Now, where did they go? We detected a dropship rendezvousing with your cruiser, and the cruiser left orbit for the hyper limit about twenty minutes ago. Where are they taking my friend?’

‘If I tell you that, I’d be betraying the company and they’d hunt me to the ends of the galaxy.’

‘After we left, my friend Jinny, who really likes guns and explosives, triggered the bombs she put in your ammunition stores. The Kraggans probably think you’re dead, and even if they don’t, there probably aren’t enough of them left to come after you. Now, where did they take her?!’

‘Giltanish!’ the merc blurted. ‘They took her to Monteagle’s place on Giltanish Prime.’

Thea smiled. ‘There, that wasn’t so hard, was it? One last thing. Just a side question. Were you involved at all in an operation out to a little backwater colony called Sadrine’s Drift earlier this month?’

‘Nope, not my op.’

And Thea watched the flickers of memory dance through his mind. The drop to the planet, the gunfire, the bodies falling. Then there had been the part he had hated: the set dressing. Hacking up bodies to make it look like someone else’s work was not the kind of thing mercenaries did, in his opinion, but he had done it…

‘Thank you,’ Thea said. ‘That’s everything.’ She turned and looked at Cassandra, standing at the entrance of the infirmary. Cassandra gave her a nod. ‘If you’ll go with Cassandra, she’ll see to it that you get where you need to be.’

‘Right,’ the merc said, climbing off the medical couch and testing his weight on his previously injured leg. ‘The station, if you don’t mind. I’ll get a ship out of here as soon as I can.’

‘Probably wise,’ Cassandra said. ‘Come this way.’

Thea watched them leave and then set off in the same direction. She needed to go apologise to Geogracus for making him heal a dead man.

Part Three: A Sister in Need

Monteagle’s Prize, Hyperspace, 60/1/483 BCC.

Kaya opened her eyes and saw nothing. She was blind. She was… Her confused mind began to take in the input from her senses and she came to an alternative conclusion, though it was on minimal information.

She was seeing nothing but black, because she was fixed into some sort of helmet with no visor. She could hear nothing but a soft, broadband hiss: white noise was being played into her ears through headphones. Her nose was covered and there was a thick gag in her mouth, but she could breathe fine, except that the helmet seemed to be fixed tightly around her throat which made things a little more difficult. There were cuffs fixed around her wrists and, from the way they pulled when she lifted her arms, the cuffs were attached to her collar by a moderately short leash. And, again from the feel of it, someone had stripped her down to her underwear, and she was lying on a mattress which had all the give of a plank.

Someone had put her in sensory-deprivation restraints. She had only ever seen the things in old vids, not that there had been many new vids on Sadrine’s Drift. She remembered seeing them used to control some evil, mind-controlling psi in a spy thriller which had seemed about as realistic as most such vids. She had to admit that it would be effective: if she could not sense anyone around her, then she could not use any of her abilities on them. And if she had actually had a psi ability which was capable of doing anything very useful, the restraints might have had a purpose. Maybe whoever had her did not know the extent of her powers. Maybe…

A thought, a memory, tickled at the edge of her consciousness: where was Jay? Jay had been with her on the roof, watching the mercenary base. Then… Then what? What had happened? How had she ended up here, wherever here was, and where was Jay? She slapped down the thought that he had been killed as fast as it came up. There was no way she would have forgotten that and she refused to believe it. Whoever had captured her had not killed her, so why would they kill Jay? No, he was alive, had to be, and he would come for her. Or Thea and Jinny would come for them both.

With nothing to do but lie there in the dark, Kaya focused on imagining her white knight riding in to rescue her, and not on his body lying dead on a rooftop.

~~~

DEAD.

The word flashed through her mind in bold, white capitals. What?

‘Can you hear me, Kaya?’

Jay? Jay! Yes, she could hear him, but she could say nothing back given there was a gag in her mouth.

‘If you can hear me, Kaya… I guess you can’t do much about it.’ Jay’s voice was distant; he sounded weird, like he was a long way off and drifting in and out.

DEAD.

‘Don’t worry, Kaya. There’s nothing to worry about now. Not now. Not now we’re…’

DEAD.

‘I don’t know if you remember. The rooftop. The gunship. I tried…’

DEAD.

‘…I could do and… I guess we’re together now. Forever. I was never much of a believer, but here we are.’

DEAD.

No, she could not be dead. Death was passage to the Universal Mind and the loss of unique identity, and it would not come with cuffs and a gag. There was no way she was–

DEAD.

‘You’re fighting it. Don’t fight it. It’s easier if you just let yourself go. Join with the Mind.’

MIND.

DEAD.

‘Just… let… go.’

DEAD.

MIND.

And then there was nothing but the darkness and the soft shush of white noise.

~~~

DEAD.

How long there had been before the thought flashed through her head again, Kaya was not sure, but it was back.

JAY.

What about–

DEAD.

JAY.

DEAD.

JAY.

‘Why did you let them kill me, Kaya?’

DEAD.

‘Why?’

JAY.

‘You let me die.’

DEAD.

‘Why?’

JAY.

They were not her thoughts. Kaya closed her eyes in the dark, and the block-capital mental images vanished, leaving only Jay’s voice.

‘You go on living while I’m dead? Is that all you thought of me?’

But he had said she was dead earlier. And was that just a hint of… of smug humour in his voice?

‘Look at me when I’m talking to you!’

Her eyes snapped open and…

JAY.

DEAD.

JAY.

Subliminal messages. That was another thing she’d heard of from vids. She had even done an experiment with reading words flashed up on a screen for a fraction of a second in school. She had been good at it.

DEAD.

Now she realised what was going on, the images flashing in front of her eyes became more obvious and she could ignore them. It was irritating, and she did not understand what was happening, but whatever it was, there was no truth to it. Kaya closed her eyes again.

‘Kaya!’ Berating. ‘Kaya?’ Annoyed.

Silence.

~~~

There were a few other attempts, but Kaya was wise to it now. Whoever was imitating Jay’s voice, they did not know him as well as they thought, and they did not realise that Kaya was a perceptive girl. There were little hints, but the big thing was that Jay would not have been doing this to her.

Eventually, they gave up with the subliminals, but they were not finished with whatever they were up to because that was when they started with the sounds.

With nothing to see or listen to, Kaya began to drift toward sleep… And that was when the soft noise in her headphones turned to a sharp, shrill scream, jerking her awake and then vanishing as soon as it had come.

The first time was annoying, the second worse, and after that it just became tiring and she knew what they were up to. Sleep deprivation was another one of those things the vid villains did to break the hero. Kaya was no hero. What did they hope to get out of this?

What was going on?!

~~~

The room she was in was small and generally pretty bare. In an effort to keep the screech from ringing in her ears, Kaya had decided to explore as best she could. So she had struggled into a sitting position, which was not easy with your hands tethered in front of you, and put her feet on the floor.

First impressions: cold and metal. So, a ship. If it had been concrete, that would likely indicate a building. A carpet could have gone either way. She was on a ship and… and that was bad. She could be anywhere and she had no way of knowing whether anyone could find her.

Shuffling carefully around the floor revealed that the room was not large, barely bigger than the bunk she had been lying on. There was, however, a door with no way of opening it, a small, metal sink and a toilet, also metal with a plastic seat. She was going to need to use that at some point, but she had no way of pulling her panties down, or cleaning up after. Her jailors would think of it sometime, hopefully.

Jailors. Yes, the layout suggested a cell. She was in a cell, on a spaceship. And she had a bruise on her left shin from bumping into the toilet bowl. Little details seemed so important when you had one viable sense available to you.

Kaya sat down on the edge of the bunk, once she had found it again without adding another bruise, and did her best to not fall asleep.

1/2/483.

Kaya jerked awake, which was not a good idea given her tethered condition. Her muscles ached and she still felt tired, but they had let her sleep after… Well, she had no way of knowing how long she had been forced to wake up every time her eyes had drifted shut. The screaming tone had got longer and longer as the day had worn on and her body began to refuse to accept that it was not allowed to rest. Fatigue had set in solidly and no matter how hard she tried, she had begun drifting off to be dragged awake again. Until she had not been dragged awake again.

She had no idea why they had finally decided to let her sleep. It made as much sense as forcing her to stay awake. She had no idea how long she had slept either. She had no idea what day it was, or where she was, or what was going on…

The light, when it came, was almost blinding after so long in the dark. Kaya jammed her eyes shut and then tried looking again, turning her head away as best she could from what had to be overhead lights. Her vision shifted from all white, to blurred images of something she could not really identify, to… legs. Legs in dark slacks and they were in the doorway to her cell. She swung herself upright and lifted her eyes and… and…

‘I’d imagine you’re a little shocked.’ The words were just slightly out of sync with Jay’s lips, as though what he was saying was running through a processor of some sort before being sent to her headphones. ‘You’re wondering where you are, what’s happening. You don’t remember what happened on the roof back on Teladish. You weren’t sure whether I was alive or dead. I realise you can’t speak and I’m not going to do anything about that because, frankly, I’m fed up of hearing you.’

Something dropped in the pit of Kaya’s stomach and she suspected it was her heart.

‘Let me fill you in a little. I drugged you and took you to Garaka Monteagle’s shuttle and then to his cruiser. That’s where we are now. I said I’d take you to Giltanish, and I’m a man of my word. There’s even a house on a beach. I don’t suppose you were expecting the shackles and helmet, of course, but I never said how you’d be getting there, did I? Oh, you can’t answer. Sweet silence. I must say you look… vulnerable.’

His smile sent a cold chill down Kaya’s spine. She lifted her arms to cover her chest as best she could and crossed her legs.

‘Oh, now there’s no need for that. Very little point as well. We have another eight days in hyperspace. I plan to come down here as often as I can to teach you a few things I didn’t get around to in your cabin. I’d really have liked to have taught you to give head, but we can’t take that helmet off you safely until we get to Giltanish. It does more than keep you isolated. It generates a null field. I’m wearing one too, just so you don’t feel lonely. That means Cassandra can’t find either of us, even if she jumps to hyperspace.’ He pursed his lips thoughtfully. ‘Actually, the generators have a small area of effect so maybe we could teach you… But no. Even tired as you are, I can see the anger in your eyes and you still have teeth in your head. I’ll have to make do with your other–’

Jay stopped abruptly, turning his head slightly as though he was listening. Whatever he was listening to, it was not being transmitted to Kaya’s headphones. His brow furrowed. Annoyance? Yes, annoyance. Something had annoyed him. His attention turned back to Kaya, glaring.

‘Don’t expect to be rescued. Monteagle’s men set a trap for Thea and Jinny. They refused to surrender. Cassandra probably has better things to do than come looking for you, but even if she decides to, she has no way of knowing where we are going and, as I mentioned, she can’t track you. I’ll see you later.’

Even as he started to turn in the doorway, Kaya’s vision was blocked off and the white noise began playing in her ears. She fell back onto the bed and closed her eyes, not that it made much difference. Her heart was hammering in her chest and, yes, she was angry. Jay had betrayed her, and not just her. He claimed, or had suggested, that Thea and Jinny were dead, but Kaya could not believe that. Of course, she had not even considered the idea that Jay would betray her either. Anger faded and fear began to creep in, and Kaya bit down on it hard. Angry was better. She held on to the hot flame of anger and tried hard to imagine all the things she would do to Jay when she got out of this.

~~~

‘What the diyou do you think you’re doing?’ Garaka Monteagle growled. He had called Jay out of the cell, which Jay had been annoyed about, but the merc looked fairly annoyed himself.

‘Making a more amenable prisoner,’ Jay replied as calmly as he could manage. Smoothing feathers was one of his skills. Actually, manipulating people was the basis of many of his skills, but smoothing ruffled plumage fell into that category.

‘Using sleep deprivation, threatened rape… No, you were going to go through with it, weren’t you? Don’t bother denying it. She’s a psi, you idiot. Her abilities are mental. If you screw up her head, she could be no use to the buyer.’

Jay bit back on his first thought: that he had been planning on screwing other parts of her anatomy. Monteagle did not look like his sense of humour was functioning just now. He had a fairly basic one when he was happy and now was not the time to test it.

Monteagle used the pause to get in before Jay could reply. ‘I know why your family kicked you out, don’t forget that. Leave the girl alone. She’ll be damaged enough by the time we get her in front of your contacts. They will be interested, won’t they?’

‘Trust me, they’ll want her and they’ll pay well for her.’

‘Good, because so far you’ve cost me a lot of money and all I’ve got is a girl in her underwear and a prick with no sense. Get out of here before I put a guard on your cabin.’

Jay felt his anger spiking, but he clamped down on it. It was Monteagle’s ship. He might not have a full complement of troops on it, but he had the backing of the entire crew and there were a lot more of them than there were of Jay. Anyway, Jay was in this for the long game and Monteagle was right, in a way. Delayed gratification should be the name of the game here.

Oracle of Zanar, Giltanish System.

Thea looked up at the screen mounted in the lounge Jinny and Fay shared between their cabins. It was on the port side of the ship; on the starboard side were the cabins Kaya and Jay had been occupying. Kaya’s remained untouched for now. Jay’s had been emptied of the few things he had left behind.

The screen was showing the magnified, but still distant, orb that was Giltanish Prime. They were still hours away from orbital insertion, but Thea had decided on a planning meeting before they arrived. There was a lot of blue up there on the screen: the planet had eighty percent water coverage and a lot of privately leased islands, leased because the entire world, like Teladish, was owned and run by the Ishara Complex. There were, however, significant differences between the two worlds. Primarily, Teladish was a hole and Giltanish was a paradise. Ishara had developed Giltanish as a resort world, and the clear skies and blue oceans gave that away nicely. It was like something off a tourist brochure.

‘Of course,’ Cassandra said, ‘it has a reputation for looking the other way when it comes to activities BCU Security would consider criminal, as would most planetary governments. Stories circulate but no one has proof, which they are willing to provide anyway, and so long as the people involved keep their activities to their private enclaves, they are ignored by Ishara’s police.’

‘I have heard stories of hunts carried out on this planet,’ Fay said. ‘Hunts with humans as the prey. Even hunts with filarax as the prey.’

‘I don’t think that’s what they’re bringing Kaya here for,’ Thea said. ‘Equally, I don’t think they’ve brought her here simply because Monteagle has a safe place to stash her. The Bowrains lease an island here, don’t they?’

‘Yes,’ Cassandra replied. ‘You believe Colder and Monteagle plan to sell Kaya to the Bowrains?’

‘It’s a possibility. It’s one of the few possibilities I can come up with right now. Jay knows she’s a zanari, and he likely knows the Bowrains would be interested. I can’t quite see how he’d think she was worth enough to them to justify all this trouble. Monteagle must know that he’s heavily out of pocket after what we did to his HQ.’

‘It was… beautiful,’ Jinny said with a sigh.

‘For once, I have to agree.’ Thea flashed Jinny a grin. ‘I admit, my joy in the explosion was highly circumstantial, but it was very satisfying. However, I want Kaya back.’

‘We all do, Thea,’ Sienna said. She had come down from her cabin on the top deck for the discussion, and she generally had zero input to give on tactics.

‘Even Geo,’ Jinny added. ‘He said it was nice to be teaching again and that Kaya was not an unpleasant student.’

Thea raised an eyebrow and looked at Sienna. ‘Maybe you should check he hasn’t cracked under the pressure. That almost sounds like he likes her. However, the point remains that we need a plan for getting her out.’

‘I was unable to detect her in hyperspace,’ Cassandra said. ‘Her or Colder, which means they must both be within null fields. If they were to deactivate hers when they get here, we could teleport her out before they know what’s happening.’

‘Yes,’ Thea said, ‘and we should watch for that in case they’re that stupid, but I suspect she’s in restraints and they’ll keep her in them. The highest probability, even if they do plan to give her to the Bowrains, is that they’ll take her to Monteagle’s place. We’re going to need an assault plan for there.’

‘We will need more information on the current state of the Monteagle facility and the planet. I can begin a full passive survey as soon as we have reached orbit.’

‘How long?’

Cassandra gave a slight shrug. ‘Twenty-four hours should suffice to get a clear picture. We are going to need an excuse for being here. Teladish has all sorts of traffic moving in and out, but Giltanish does not.’

‘I believe,’ Sienna said, ‘that I have a suitable cover, and we can employ it in further information gathering. There is a Sisterhood house on this world.’

Thea sighed. ‘I guess I’m dressing up then.’

‘You are not getting me in a dress,’ Jinny stated flatly.

‘We know, Jin. Still, we’ll take the Sword down to the planet while Cassy runs her sweeps. I’ll go talk to the Sisters with Sienna. Jin, you’ll stay aboard the ship for now.’

‘Reasoning?’ Cassandra asked.

‘I want us on station and ready. When you’ve run your scans and sent us the data, I want you to take the Oracle somewhere out of sight. Fay, when can we expect the Monteagle’s Prize to get here?’

Fay had, apparently, been expecting the question. ‘It is a Nuberg-class assault cruiser with a class-three hyperspace drive. Nominal transit time is approximately ten days. A good navigator might bring that down to six or seven. To be safe, we should be ready and undiscoverable by the sixth.’

‘Yeah, but practically…’

‘I doubt we will see them in-system before the ninth.’

‘Those are our timescales then. Let’s get ready for whatever we might have to deal with. I just hope Kaya isn’t hurting too much while they’ve got her.’

Monteagle’s Prize, Hyperspace.

Kaya was not sure exactly why things had improved, and had entertained the idea that she was being given some sort of psychological rollercoaster treatment, but things had improved. A woman had come to the cell to help Kaya to go to the toilet and then dress in a jumpsuit of some kind. Kaya had been blind the whole time, so she had no idea what the woman or the jumpsuit looked like, but this was an improvement of sorts.

And there had been food. It had been some sort of nutrient fluid pumped into her mouth through a tube and maybe the fact that she had no way of tasting it since the gag prevented it from getting to her tongue was a good thing. Still, they had fed her and her stomach had greatly appreciated it.

Aside from that, she had been left alone, in the dark and the not-quite-silence, and she had slept on and off because she just kept drifting away with nothing to draw her attention. Anyway, when she had time to think, her mind would start coming up with doomsday scenarios.

She had decided that the probability that Jay had been telling the truth about Thea and Jinny was low. They had both been alive too long to fall into some trap laid by a bunch of common mercenaries. Considering their lifestyle, especially Jinny’s, if it was that easy to kill them, Kaya would never have met them.

On the matter of them figuring out where Jay had taken her, things were a little less certain. Kaya was moderately sure Jay had been telling the truth about the null field. She remembered the term from school, though it had just been a general note on psionic technology. A null-field generator emitted the equivalent of white noise into the Hepps–Montague field around it. The random noise made it next to impossible to use psi, natural or artificial, within its coverage area. That meant that there was no way Cassandra or Sienna could transmit to her, or find her.

There had to be some way of letting them know where she was. There had to be…

Haven, Giltanish Prime, 2/2/483.

There was no equivalent of Down City on Giltanish Prime. The spaceport was twenty-eight kilometres from the nearest city, linked to it via a monorail system which ferried visitors quickly and efficiently to Haven, the principal city of the planet. Giltanish Prime had a population of a little more than three million and just over half of them could be found in the city. Many of the other permanent residents were in agriculture, though that business was heavily mechanised.

Beyond the white-concrete ramparts of the spaceport, you flew silently along the raised monorail track over a nature reserve which surrounded the city for over five hundred kilometres on all sides except the north where the port was. The track itself passed through a high white wall in order to enter the city, but even so the spires of high-rise buildings were visible in the commercial centre. On the inside of the wall was a broad expanse of parkland, then low-rise residential buildings before the city began to rise toward the centre. It was beautiful, if you were into someone’s idea of an urban utopia.

The train Thea and Sienna rode in on was far from empty, but the two women had a clear space of several seats around them. To someone dropped in from an alternate reality, that would have seemed quite strange. Here were two very attractive women dressed in almost identical gowns which were both revealing and elegant. The difference between the two was that Thea was in black and Sienna was in wine-red. The dresses fell all the way to the floor and had very full, long sleeves, cuffed tightly at the wrist, but they were also slit to the hip up the front of both legs and they had a neckline which dipped all the way to the waist. The neckline was there, perhaps, to show the necklaces they both wore: silver chains looped around the neck and then through an open, cuff-like clasp before falling to about twenty centimetres above each woman’s navel where they ended in a red jewel. The necklaces looked oddly like the choke chains used on dogs, but far more elegant, and they marked the two women as belonging to the Lanthanari Sisterhood. And no one messed with Lanthanari Sisters if they knew what was good for them.

Getting off the train at the first stop past the wall, Thea and Sienna walked sedately around the inner pathway of the park to their destination. A Sister did her best to never need to be in a hurry and getting to the chapter house had no particular urgency under the circumstances, even if Thea wished there was a reason for haste. The choice of the gravel path through the greenery kept them away from the early-morning throng of people who were in a hurry to get to their jobs. The only other people in the park were those taking exercise, usually runners who gave the two women a wide berth as they went past.

Thea always enjoyed the times when she got to play at being a Sister. She was actually an honorary member and had the right to wear the red-jewelled chain. Sienna was a real Sister Advisor, though her status was a little complicated, but Thea had been told that she embodied the personal confidence, strength, and capacity for the subjugation of the will the Sisters strove to achieve as well as any trained Sister. Thea was not entirely sure she agreed, but she understood how someone might perceive her that way, and the ability to officially disguise herself as a Sister was useful; it was one of the few times she would go without her own, blue-stoned necklace since a Sister wore no other adornments than the chain.

For an organisation with such a broadly known reputation, for good or bad, as the Sisterhood, the chapter house on Giltanish Prime was very understated. It was a two-storey house constructed of the same white-painted concrete as all the others around it and there was no sign to indicate what it was until you actually got to the door and found a small plaque mounted beside it which announced ‘Giltanish Prime Chapter of the Lanthanari Sisterhood. Resident Teaching Sister: Mirganna Chalford.’

‘Know her?’ Thea asked.

Sienna shook her head. ‘Not one I’ve met. There are over a quarter of a million Sisters, Thea.’

‘Just asking.’

‘Hmm.’ There was a comms unit mounted above the plaque and Sienna pressed the button on it. ‘Sisters Sienna and Thea seeking the counsel of Sister Mirganna.’

There was no answer, but a few seconds later there was the sound of sandals hitting the floor of the hall inside at an alarming rate, followed by a pause, and then the door opened sedately to reveal a pretty brunette with a narrow frame wearing a pale-blue dress and a chain ending in a white jewel. ‘Sisters, it’s an honour to have you visit our humble chapter house. I’m–’

‘Sister Mirganna, perhaps?’ Sienna said, indicating the white gem.

‘Yes. Yes, of course.’ There was a slight pause before Mirganna added, ‘Perhaps you’d like to come in?’

‘That would be useful. We’ve need of some information on one of the local citizens.’

‘I’ll provide what I can, of course. Please sign the book.’

The interior of the house, at least the hall they entered, was tastefully decorated in pastel shades, primarily of blue with some darker colours. The furniture was white and fairly archaic, perhaps some design from Earth with decorative schemes of the past. Beside the door was one such piece of furniture, a low table with a visitors’ book and a pen. Thea signed it first, using the surname she only ever used when signing the Sisterhood’s books: her real surname, the one she had chosen to drop since the death of her world. Sienna signed second, pausing briefly before signing her own family name. She rarely used it either, though the reasons were more complicated, and apparent when Mirganna glanced at the book.

The Sister’s eyes widened and she turned her head to look at Sienna with a combination of fear, adoration, and shock. ‘You– You’re–’

‘Yes,’ Sienna said, ‘and that’s the last we’ll say about it. Can we go somewhere private? We have matters to discuss.’

‘Yes! Yes, of course, Sister Sienna. Forgive me, but I did not realise you were–’ Sienna raised an eyebrow and Mirganna swallowed what she had been about to say. ‘This way, we’ll go to my private rooms.’

Every time, Thea thought into Sienna’s mind.

Price of fame, Sienna replied with a distinct grumble in her thought. What I wouldn’t do to erase their memories…

~~~

Mirganna’s private rooms were at the top of the house, at the front. The decoration was tastefully yellow, summery, and there were large windows which let in plenty of light. There was also a privacy-screening system which was guaranteed to keep anyone outside from hearing or seeing anything happening inside; Sisters sometimes entertained very important people who preferred that their activities remained private. There was a saying among the Sisterhood: what happens in the chapter house, stays in the chapter house. Which, of course, was why Thea and Sienna had gone there to find out what had happened there.

A novice, dressed in white with a black gem on her chain, served coffee to the three senior Sisters before retiring without comment and leaving them to their discussions.

‘Do try the coffee,’ Mirganna insisted. ‘It’s a blend Ishara produce on Peladish and it’s one thing they’ve got right.’

Considering the hour, early whether you viewed it on ship-time or local, Thea had planned to try the coffee. ‘Thank you, I will. Compliments on your novice. Excellent posture and demeanour. How many are there here?’

Mirganna smiled. ‘Thank you. Nirayla is my best student in years, actually. She’ll be made a full Sister this year. There are currently three novices, but I also have four young people here as students and one of them is leaning toward the Sisterhood, if her parents don’t ship her off-world to get her away when they hear about it.’

‘You’ve many Sisters?’

‘In the chapter house? No, only two besides myself. I’m here to assist another thirteen Sisters and Senior Sisters in placements around the planet, however.’

‘Anyone in the Monteagle estate?’

Mirganna’s eyebrows rose. ‘You’re interested in them? No, Xaviran lost his wife about twenty standard years ago and has never accepted anyone else into his life in that way. When he has need of companionship, he comes here or, on special occasions, requests that we send a Sister out to the island, so I do have some knowledge of the island and the family.’

‘What about Garaka?’

‘He’s a strange one. His reputation is worse than his father’s was, as far as ruthlessness and general unpleasantness is concerned, but I’ve never heard a single complaint from anyone about him socially. He’s very respectful of women. We’ve attempted to place a couple of Sisters with him, primarily because of the status the Kraggans enjoy with Ishara, but he seems to enjoy the… notoriety of never being tied down to a single woman. I believe he has a favourite professional in Portishead on Teladish Prime, and a girl in Eagle’s Head who visits with him when he’s there.’

‘Probably not for a while,’ Sienna commented. ‘So, the island they own is primarily Xaviran’s home?’

‘Primarily. Garaka goes there when he needs a break from running things. It’s got excellent security and he can take it easy there. They have their own houses on opposite sides of the island, but they do get along well.’

Thea smiled. ‘What kind of security are we talking about, Mirganna?’

Mirganna returned the smile. ‘We’ve been compiling a list, along with a schematic map. I’ll arrange for a copy you can study.’

‘Ah, Sister Mirganna, I believe we’re going to get along just famously.’

Sword of Zanar, Giltanish Prime Spaceport.

‘So,’ Jinny said, her eyes on the data on her tablet, ‘we’ve got high-end passive sensors dotted all over the island, automated turrets covering the jetty and the private landing pad… No indication of what the turrets are mounting, but I’d guess at miniguns of some kind. And there are turrets on the buildings, which are mounting miniguns, and a full-squad barracks of “bodyguards.” Sounds like fun.’ Her tone suggested that she really did think it would be fun to storm the place.

Thea was less certain. ‘Fun, perhaps, but success would not be guaranteed and we’re no use to Kaya if we’re dead. I can’t screen myself from automated turrets and your luck is likely to run out if several thousand rounds a second are coming in your direction.’

Jinny pouted. ‘They don’t have anything really heavy we need to worry about.’

‘Uh, pardon my interruption, but they might have.’ Jinny, along with Thea and Sienna, turned to look at Nirayla. Mirganna had insisted on sending the novice to see to it that the two Sister Advisors were properly looked after on their visit to Giltanish Prime, and Nirayla was currently engaged in bringing coffee to the table. She looked properly apologetic to be making any form of interjection, but she equally obviously seemed to feel she should make it.

‘Go on, Nirayla,’ Thea said.

‘Obviously, I haven’t seen it. Novices aren’t sent out to a client’s home, so I couldn’t have. However, Sister Patrisa told us that Padre Monteagle likes showing off the armour he used to use when he was on active service. She said it was a big suit, almost like a robot with its head taken off, and it had a separate helmet which also looked heavy. Neither of us knows much about military technology, but it looked big, heavily armoured, and dangerous. A-and we know it works because he’s very proud of it and says it’s still as good as the day he first bought it.’

Jinny pursed her lips and frowned. ‘I’m guessing at a warframe. Probably a command model. That’s going to need some specialist weaponry if he brings it into play.’

‘Thank you for the information, Nirayla,’ Thea said. Then she smirked at Jinny. ‘And you wondered why we needed a “serving wench.”’

‘Well, I was right! We don’t need a serving wench, but I’ll accept that someone with more local knowledge isn’t a bad thing. Still… Sit down, Nirayla. You’re making me feel uncomfortable hovering over us like that.’

Nirayla blushed profusely, but she settled onto the sofa beside Jinny; she still seemed a little abashed at being in the presence of two women wearing the red gem on their chains.

‘It would seem,’ Sienna said, ‘that we need a means of getting onto the island without drawing excessive attention to ourselves.’

‘She’s going to say something about subtlety real soon now,’ Jinny said.

‘I suppose you’d like to come in riding on the back of a missile and screaming at the top of your lungs?’

Jinny pursed her lips thoughtfully again, but this time she shook her head. ‘No, not enough pizzazz. I mean, we’d never have time to fit the sound system to the missile.’

‘Sound system?’ Nirayla asked.

‘For the music! Gotta have something loud and heavy playing for something like that. Otherwise I’d just be some girl riding a missile.’

‘Oh. Uh, of course.’

Thea grinned. ‘You get used to Jinny eventually, Nirayla.’

‘Or she drives you to distraction and you jump out of an airlock,’ Sienna added.

‘There was never any proof that was my fault,’ Jinny snapped. ‘Anyway, we’ll need to infiltrate, locate, and retrieve Kaya, and then we’ll probably need a distraction to cover getting her out. She’s not exactly a trained combatant after an hour with a hammer gun.’

‘We can’t simply teleport out?’

‘We need the Oracle for that,’ Thea replied, ‘and if she enters orbit while that cruiser of theirs is up there, we’ll probably have to contend with an expanded military force on the island. They can have troops on the ground in… thirty minutes or less. Probably a lot faster. It’ll be a lot easier if we can get there without drawing a lot of attention.’

‘If you have some time,’ Nirayla said, ‘you could go in by boat. There are always yachts on the ocean and one passing close to the island would be largely ignored.’

‘Great, but we don’t have a boat,’ Jinny pointed out.

‘The chapter house does. The Sister Clementina. She’s named after the Sister Advisor who founded the chapter house. She’s a twenty-seven metre, ocean-going pleasure yacht.’

‘Okay, but we’re used to spaceships. We don’t know how to–’

‘My family runs fishing boats out of Ammendine. I grew up with boats.’

Thea sighed. ‘We would likely be putting you in danger, Nirayla.’

‘But the Sisterhood teaches us to put the needs of others before our own, and the rescue of another psi, even if she is not a Sister, seems a very worthy cause. I am sure Sister Mirganna would agree. I want to help.’

Sienna gave a small shrug. ‘We’d need to ask Mirganna’s permission to use the boat anyway. We’ll see if she’ll agree to allow Nirayla to crew for us.’

The young novice beamed, but Thea had to wonder whether she would be thinking the same way when their journey was over.

Monteagle’s Prize, Hyperspace.

Kaya cracked her eyes open a fraction as bright light hit her eyelids. Sure enough, the screens in front of her eyes had gone transparent and, when she thought about it, the white noise had gone from her headphones. Someone was paying her a visit, likely one of her attendants.

What happened next was more of a surprise: the gag which had stopped her closing her mouth for however long she had been in the cell began to shrink away from her teeth. By the time the cell door opened and a woman in Kraggan fatigues appeared, Kaya was trying to work out whether her jaw worked at all. The mercenary baffled Kaya more by fiddling with something over Kaya’s face and then pulling the entire gag assembly away, leaving it hanging by a cable from the helmet. It was not exactly freedom, but it felt amazing!

Then a man Kaya had not seen before entered, waving the woman out. He was tall, physically imposing, but also with an air of command about him. His hair was a sandy blonde, but cut so short against his scalp that the colour was hard to decide on. He was neither ugly nor attractive: hard features, but with a layer of flesh over them which softened his face and made him look a little overweight. Kaya had no doubt that he was not a gram heavier than he should be and that the bulk filling his uniform was muscle. His eyes were a hard, greyish-blue, holding a hint that this man did not just use physical intimidation to get what he wanted. Kaya suspected she knew who he was, but her jaw was still not working right so she remained silent while he spoke.

‘Good evening, Sora Trevorny. I am Garaka Monteagle… and I can see from your eyes that you guessed that already.’ He watched for a second, perhaps waiting for a reply. ‘It does take a while to get your voice back. I decided to drop in to speak to you. I wanted you to know that there’s nothing personal about this. Business. It’s simply a matter of business. The Bowrain family will pay handsomely for you and your genes, and the knowledge that the zanari still exist.’

He paused, gauging her reaction. Well, she already knew from Jay that they intended to sell her to the Bowrains. It was not news. And his assertion that this was ‘just business’ meant little given that they had her locked into these ridiculous restraints and in a cell.

‘I had a lot of trouble believing… Colder’s assertions about you at first.’ Kaya had to wonder why there had been the slight pause before Jay’s surname, but Monteagle was continuing. ‘But he has the evidence.’ Monteagle shook his head. ‘Zanari are supposed to be a myth. They’re a monster-under-the-bed from the last years of the Solar Empire. The most powerful psis in history with godlike powers, ruling over an empire of mind-controlled slaves.’

‘That’s… That’s not true,’ Kaya got out.

‘Ah, jaw working again? Good. I’ll get you some solid food in here when I’ve gone. One thing you learn in a war, girl, is that truth falls before the first shots are fired. The truth is something someone tells you because it’s convenient for them. There were two wars with the Zanari Protectorate. The first came when they killed or enslaved an imperial survey squadron who happened to enter their space. No one left to tell the tale and they destroyed anyone who went in to attempt rescue. Then, when the empire was crumbling, there were hints that they were planning expansion and the only way to stop them was an offensive. They refused to surrender, fought to the bitter end. Zanari are witches, sorcerers, monsters. There are parts of the galaxy where they still use “behave or the zanari will come for you” as a threat to scare children. And here I am, talking to one.’

‘If no one survived, how did anyone find out about them?’ Kaya asked.

‘Pardon?’

‘My brother got this vid once. Not the kind of thing my parents wanted us watching, but he got it from a friend and we hid in the barn and watched it. It was supposed to be this real-life recording of the last days of a freighter crew who got attacked by a monster in hyperspace. It was all cut-together scenes from their suit cameras and ship sensors. And I was kind of scared… Well, I was clinging to my brother like crazy in case the monster got me. All the way up until the end. At the end, you got this shot taken from the suit camera of the last victim and some text saying that the ship was never found. And I thought, “so how did they get the recordings to make the movie?” That was when I realised it wasn’t really real. So, if no one ever escaped from the survey team, how did anyone know what happened to them?’

Monteagle frowned; pointing out the stupidity of myths was never something which people who believed in them found entertaining. ‘I think you’re missing the point,’ he said. ‘It’s not whether the details are correct, it’s the fact that–’

‘But if the details are wrong, who’s to say the rest of it is right? It’s like you said: stories to scare children into behaving. Stories to scare people into thinking the zanari had to be obliterated. I was told the zanari sued for peace before Zanar Prime was nuked, but the people attacking them weren’t interested in a reasonable victory by then. They just wanted blood. Who’s the monster in that story, Sor Monteagle?’

‘They would tell you that, though, wouldn’t they?’

‘And someone who destroyed an entire civilisation out of fear and a desire for their technology would come up with a reason for it, wouldn’t they? All I know is that the zanari I’ve met have done everything they can to help me, and you kidnapped me and locked me in this thing.’

Monteagle nodded slowly and scrubbed at his short hair with one hand. ‘Yes. Yes, I can understand your point of view, but the restraints are there for a good reason. Someone will be in with your food shortly.’ He turned back to the door.

‘You can’t seriously think someone’s out there searching for me,’ Kaya said quickly. ‘Even if they were, and they figured out where I was, how do you expect them to follow? You must have days of head start now.’

Monteagle did not turn around, but he did answer. ‘Perhaps you’re right, but the restraints stay on.’

Ammendine, Giltanish Prime, 3/2/483.

The Sister Clementina sat at rest in the marina in Ammendine on the south coast of Giltaland, the largest of Giltanish Prime’s three continents. Sister Mirganna had taken great pleasure and not a little pride in showing the two Sister Advisors and their odd little companion around the yacht. She had been happy to allow Novice Nirayla to crew for them. In fact, she had told them that a couple of weeks of tuition from two of the most senior Sisters Nirayla was ever likely to meet would do her the world of good.

‘Besides,’ Mirganna said as she watched Jinny casually hefting crates which looked like they weighed as much as she did to load aboard the boat, ‘I have a feeling that my novice could not be safer in the chapter house. How is she lifting those?’

‘We could tell you,’ Thea said, ‘but then she’d have to shoot you. We’ll make sure that Nirayla comes to no harm.’

‘We don’t plan to come to any harm ourselves,’ Sienna added.

‘But, it’s a fairly long trip and we should get going.’

Mirganna smiled. ‘Of course. Safe journey. I’ll keep an eye on things in Haven. If you can contact me before you come back into port, I’ll try to meet you here with any news.’

Thea nodded. ‘Could be a good idea. If anything looks like delaying us, we’ll let you know.’

With the Teaching Sister gone, Sienna and Thea retired to their cabins while Nirayla and Jinny took the boat out of the marina. It was quite a spectacular vessel for a semi-religious organisation that was, essentially, a charity, but Mirganna had explained that it had been given to the chapter house by one of Sister Clementina’s partners when she died over sixty decades ago. Making sure it stayed seaworthy was something of an issue at times, but there was usually someone the Sisters knew who was willing to foot the bill for repairs and the service costs were workable with the house’s income. And, with the many islands on Giltanish Prime, having a boat simply seemed sensible.

It was a powerful boat with full AI autopilot and up-to-date communications and sensor systems. Smoothly streamlined, it came with a high command deck, an open solarium and sun deck below that, and engineering systems below in the main hull. There were six ‘guest’ cabins, quite luxurious and each with its own bathroom, four with king-sized beds and two with twin queen-sized beds. The four crew cabins had twin bunks and shared bathing facilities, and Nirayla had insisted that she would take one of those while Thea had insisted that that was stupid and she should have a larger room. Sienna had come up with the ‘compromise’ that Nirayla could take one of the rooms with the two smaller beds, which the novice had agreed to, though Thea suspected that Sienna had no plans to let her temporary student actually sleep in her assigned cabin.

By the time Thea and Sienna emerged from below, the Sister Clementina was out on the open sea and the two women were dressed in swimwear. They had both kept their chains on, but Sienna was in a pale-blue bikini composed primarily of string, and Thea was in a black swimsuit which seemed to be primarily composed of string. There was a definite ‘string’ theme.

‘We’ll watch the wheel, ladies,’ Sienna said. ‘You can get changed now.’

Nirayla blinked. ‘But, I’m in the dress. I’m just a novice, so–’

‘Soon to be a full Sister and currently under my tutelage. The Sisterhood teaches that one should always be ready to dress appropriately for the occasion. The dress is appropriate for many occasions, but not for taking a leisurely cruise with friends.’

‘Uh, well, if you say so, Sister Advisor. I did pack a swimsuit. Are you getting changed, Jinny?’

Jinny looked down at her outfit. She was in her candy-striped bikini top and a pair of khaki shorts, and her mismatched combat boots. ‘What am I supposed to change into? Lingerie?’

‘You could at least take your boots off,’ Sienna suggested. ‘Your feet must be sweating.’

Tossing her hair, which made her braid crack like a whip, Jinny pointed her nose up toward the cockpit’s ceiling and set her fists on her hips. ‘A lady does not sweat.’

Sienna’s right eyebrow rose. ‘And?’

‘And I’ll go wash my feet,’ Jinny said, setting off toward the hatch.

Sister Clementina.

‘I could definitely handle Sisterhood cooking more often,’ Jinny said, settling back against her seat in the solarium. Outside, the night was the kind of dark you only got a long way from land. There was almost nothing in the way of clouds and the stars were bright in the black dome above them. They had just worked their way through a fish-based curry that Nirayla had prepared for them and Jinny looked, and felt, quite satisfied with it.

‘Oh,’ Nirayla said, ‘the Sisterhood didn’t teach me that. That was one of my grandmother’s recipes for leftover fish.’

‘Huh. I suppose with a family that runs fishing boats, you eat a lot of fish.’

‘Sometimes it was all we ate,’ Nirayla replied with the tone of someone who knew the meaning of ‘too much of a good thing.’

Jinny giggled. ‘So, why aren’t you out fishing for whatever that was? How come you ended up as a Sister?’

Nirayla smiled. ‘Not a Sister, yet. Getting there, maybe, but not quite there. Uh, I was the youngest and brightest of six children. I’ve three brothers and two sisters. I really wanted a proper education, but my family couldn’t afford any of the local higher schools and going off-world was just out of the question.’

‘Can be expensive. Kaya, the girl we’re here to find, more or less her entire colony chipped in to send her to Abertine’s university, but they were hoping to get a real psi healer back when she graduated.’

Nirayla nodded. ‘When I started developing telepathy, that sealed the deal. The best way I could make a good future for myself, my mother said, was to see whether the Sisterhood would take me. I wasn’t so sure. I was always a little timid and studious, and here I was supposed to dress up in the gown and learn how to present myself… I just didn’t think I could do it.’

Jinny eyed the novice who was now in a bikini which, while it covered more than Sienna’s, still seemed to have a lot of string to it. ‘You seem to have got over your timidity.’

Nirayla blushed, but Sienna just nodded. ‘Self-confidence is the primary focus of the training, even if that’s not what most outsiders believe.’

‘“Only one who understands, believes, and trusts in herself can give herself over completely to another,”’ Nirayla recited.

‘Indeed,’ Sienna said with a hint of indulgence in her smile.

‘Uh, Sister Advisor, Sister Mirganna said… When she was giving me my assignment, she said that your–’

‘Yes,’ Sienna said flatly. ‘And we don’t discuss the matter.’ Nirayla’s cheeks coloured and she flinched a little.

‘It’s not one of her favourite topics,’ Thea said. ‘She doesn’t mean to snap.’

Sienna frowned. ‘Not at you, Nirayla, and I suppose it was right for Mirganna to mention it. Tomorrow we’ll spend some time going over what you’ve learned and see whether I can add anything to Sister Mirganna’s training.’

‘Thank you, Sister A–’

‘We’re not in the chapter house now, Nirayla. Sienna will do.’

You’re starting tomorrow? Thea asked into Sienna’s mind with an overtone of disbelief carried in the thought.

The response came with more than a hint of smugness. Well, perhaps later tonight…

Monteagle’s Prize, Hyperspace, 4/2/483.

Lying in the dark, unable to hear or speak, trussed up like a bird for the oven, Kaya had little to do but sleep and think.

The solid food Monteagle had provided had been a nice change, but the gag had been returned afterward. Liquid meals left a lot to be desired in the way of satisfaction, but they did break the monotony.

Her visitors who came to feed her no longer let her see what was happening, and the white noise continued at all times. Kaya had been unsure about the change in behaviour and had, at first, thought it might be a punishment for standing up to Monteagle. Then it had occurred to her to wonder why he had refused, point-blank, to let her out of the restraints. She was no, or very little, threat and they could have kept her in a null field with the cuffs and helmet…

They were afraid of her.

The thought hit her and, for a few seconds, she could not believe she had had it: how could someone like Monteagle be afraid of someone like Kaya? Because she was a zanari, a figure of myth and nightmare the common culture of the BCU had turned into something like a warrior-witch. She belonged to a species the rest of the galaxy feared, even if that fear was unfounded, and even if the result of that was that she was stuck in isolation.

The conflicting emotions of that revelation turned more dark when she began to wonder how unfounded those fears were. Even Thea had said that the zanari were, like any other race, religion, or culture, not all as good as they might wish. Kaya felt sure that the crew of the Oracle were all as good as they seemed to be, that the lessons in morality Geogracus and Sienna had given her were heartfelt. But Sienna had a huge dislike of men; the telepath did not even like Geogracus and she had seemed to ignore Jay as much as possible. Of course, Kaya had her own reasons for hating Jay right now. Maybe, just maybe, there had been enough zanari who were less inclined to follow the moral rules of psi to make the legends about them… have a core of truth. Maybe–

A twisting, howling, multi-frequency scream of sound erupted through Kaya’s headphones, cutting off thought in an instant but not quite before she had registered the flare of multicoloured, cascading lights which were flaring before her eyes. Kaya bit down on her gag and jammed her eyes closed, but nothing could keep the sound out and the light still managed to find its way in through her eyelids. The pain was almost unbearable and it just kept on, and on, and on…

Sister Clementina, Giltanish Prime.

‘Does Nirayla look a bit shell-shocked to you?’ Jinny asked Thea over breakfast.

Thea gave a shrug and glanced over at the novice who was making toast. Nirayla was a little wide-eyed but there was a vague, contented smile on her lips and her wide eyes seemed to have a certain lack of focus. Plus, Sienna was looking pleased with herself. ‘You know what Sienna gets like with a new plaything.’

‘Huh, yeah…’

Sienna gave them each a scowl. ‘I am not that bad. I simply reviewed her understanding of proper technique.’

‘I’m just glad the cabins have good soundproofing,’ Thea said.

Sienna was about to respond when Nirayla let out an exclamation. ‘Oh… Diyou!’ She plucked the slice of smoking toast out from under the halogen heater she was using to cook it and tossed it into the recycler.

‘Just take it easy on her tonight, would you?’ Thea suggested. ‘We do have a limited supply of bread.’

6/2/483.

‘Can’t sleep?’ Jinny asked as she emerged into the cockpit.

Thea glanced at her and then returned her gaze to the stars outside. ‘I could ask you the same.’

‘Yeah, well, the soundproofing in the cabins isn’t as good as I thought.’

Thea’s lips quirked. ‘I’ll have a word with Sienna about giving our young novice a break.’

‘Possibly a good idea. Obviously doesn’t explain why you’re up though?’

‘I started worrying about Kaya. You know how that kind of thing goes.’

Jinny nodded solemnly. ‘You think about something that worries you. Then you find all you’re thinking about is your worries. Then you start coming up with disaster scenarios about your worries. Then–’

‘Yeah, Jinny, I get the–’

‘– the next thing you know you’ve cleaned all your guns and you’re out looking for–’

‘Jinny, I get the picture, you can–’

‘– a worry to shoot.’

‘My worries aren’t available to shoot,’ Thea pointed out.

‘Blow up?’

Thea shook her head, smiling despite herself. ‘Okay, worries temporarily banished. I’m not going to be able to take care of them properly until she gets here though. And I can’t help worrying about what they’re doing to her.’

Jinny nodded and slumped into the co-pilot’s seat. ‘I know. Neither can I. I even think that’s why Sienna’s being so enthusiastic about her “training.”’

‘Maybe. Probably. I just wish I knew what was happening to Kaya…’

Monteagle’s Prize, Hyperspace.

The noise and the lights hammered at Kaya from, it seemed, all sides. She was never exactly sure when it started, because she had no idea what the time was at any point, but she got the feeling it ended not long before breakfast. Though she was also not sure whether she nodded off after the sound stopped, but–

She would have screamed if her mouth had not been full of spongy plastic. Instead, she tumbled off her bunk and banged her helmet against the deck and… Maybe that was not a bad idea… Pulling her head back, she began bashing her helmet against the decking.

After a dozen attempts, about all she had managed to do was prove that the helmet seemed to be armoured, and padded. The last point was good. Kaya found the bunk by touch and worked her way to one end of it. Then she turned around and charged, head down, at the opposite wall. She could not even hear the clang which she figured had to sound when she hit, but she picked herself up and ran back the other way.

7/2/483.

‘She has bruises on her arms, shoulders, and knees,’ Monteagle growled.

‘That’s–’ Jay began, but Monteagle was not finished.

‘The helmet prevented brain damage, but the medics say she compressed several vertebrae in her spine. The swelling is causing pressure on her nerves. They’re treating her with anti-inflammatory drugs and monitoring her life signs in case there are problems with her autonomic nervous system. They think she’ll pull through, but there may be some permanent damage. They won’t know until the swelling subsides.’

‘That’s bad, but why wasn’t she monitored and why are you angry with me?’ Jay suspected he knew the answer to the last part, but playing it innocent was probably for the best.

‘We didn’t think she needed watching, considering that she was restrained and isolated. And you know damn well why I’m blaming you for this, you son of a bitch!’ Monteagle was no longer growling. He seemed to be well past growling. ‘You rigged a program into the restraint controls to blast her with noise and lights for four hours a night when you were sure no one would notice. Unfortunately for you, the techs were able to figure it out five minutes after they went looking.’

Jay examined his ‘partner in crime’ carefully and made a fairly fast assessment: Monteagle wanted blood. He had lost men and equipment on Teladish: they had been in-system long enough to know that. Now he might lose the one thing he had got out of the entire debacle: Kaya. Jay had a strong feeling the Bowrains would just want Kaya’s gene sequence and a fresh corpse would be fine, though they might get a higher price for a live zanari. That, however, was highly debatable: the Bowrain family had any number of reasons for wanting any zanari they came across dead, but Kara was something a little different…

‘I don’t think you’ve really grasped the threat she poses to everyone aboard this ship,’ Jay said. ‘You know what two of her friends did to your base. You know they don’t give up, ever. Faced with certain defeat, the Zanari Protectorate–’

‘Refused to surrender to the inevitable?’ Monteagle said. ‘Funny, I told her that. She said they sued for peace before the nuking of Zanar.’

‘She wasn’t there.’

‘No, she wasn’t. And neither were we. History is written by the survivors, and the Bowrain and Karraph families were survivors with a strong desire to justify genocide. And those women you say will be looking for her were there when Zanar fell, and they were the ones who told the girl what happened.’

‘They were trying to–’

‘Just don’t,’ Monteagle snapped. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not setting her free to wander the ship and our deal will continue. However, she will be kept unconscious in medbay, in a null field, until we arrive. You are confined to quarters until we arrive at Giltanish Prime. Your cabin’s terminal will be restricted to entertainment only. If you leave your cabin for anything other than a shipwide emergency, I will confine you in the brig. If you go anywhere near the medbay without a missing limb, my staff have orders to shoot you. Are we clear, Sor Colder?’

‘Quite clear, Colonel Monteagle,’ Jay replied contritely. Inwardly, he smiled.

Sister Clementina, Giltanish Prime, 8/2/483.

Thea stood at the table in the lounge, moving her eyes between the sensor-display echo on one of the room’s screens and the large-scale printed-out map of the island that Cassandra had provided the data for. The magnified image on one of the screens was showing a cliff face that fell into the ocean and Thea was examining it as a possible point of entry.

‘Isn’t that going to be a bit dangerous?’ Nirayla asked.

‘Yes,’ Thea replied. ‘That’s why it’s an excellent choice. There are unlikely to be sensors on the cliff since no one in their right mind would go that way when there are plenty of beaches to land on.’

‘Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.’

‘Hopefully, neither have the Monteagles.’

‘But then you’re going to be on the island where there are sensors.’

‘At night. I’ve a camouflage suit which should make it extremely hard for them to spot me.’ Thea lifted her head and gave Nirayla a quick smile. ‘I have done this sort of thing before.’

‘Yes. Yes, of course.’ Nirayla still thought the idea was crazy. On the screen, she could see waves crashing into the base of the cliff. The island had been the top of a volcano at some point in the past, but that was a long time ago and the ocean had been beating against it ever since the fires had died, or moved on to the next island northward in the chain which was over a hundred kilometres away. The cliff had formed when a section of land had collapsed into the sea; it was sheer, very vertical, and there was no beach below it. Nirayla knew little enough about climbing, but she knew the ocean, and getting out of the water safely was going to be hard.

‘There,’ Jinny said. She was just watching the display, unconcerned with the map. ‘They’ve got a couple of men patrolling along the clifftop.’

‘Mark the time,’ Thea said. ‘We’ll see what the cycle is.’

‘That’s the first we’ve seen in thirty minutes. They aren’t on a short patrol cycle.’

‘I doubt they have the manpower to mount extensive patrols. That’s what the sensors are for.’

Jinny gave a nod and carried on watching the screen.

‘So what happens now?’ Nirayla asked.

‘We watch and learn until it gets dark,’ Thea replied. ‘You should go up on deck with Sienna and have a relaxing afternoon in the sun. What’s left of it anyway. I go in tonight, and tomorrow you and Sienna will be visiting the elder Monteagle. Just a senior Sister and her novice out on a tutorial pleasure cruise, stopping off to visit an occasional client of the chapter house.’

‘Me?!’ Nirayla squeaked.

‘You’ll be quite safe. Sienna will make sure you are, and she won’t be doing anything Monteagle could get suspicious about.’

‘And if anything bad does happen,’ Jinny said, ‘they’ll have to deal with me as well as Sienna. Until then, I’ll just be your overworked crew who is just so thankful to have some time off while you parade around the island. I think I’ll just lie on the foredeck and sunbathe. I might even go topless.’

‘You think that’ll distract the guards?’ Nirayla asked.

‘Huh. They’re men, aren’t they?’

‘Actually, we don’t know the gender balance,’ Thea pointed out.

‘Mostly men,’ Nirayla said. ‘From what I’ve heard anyway. There are a couple of women, but most of them are men.’

Jinny grinned. ‘And this is why we have the local girl with us.’

Nirayla returned the grin. ‘I thought it was just to distract Sister Sienna from her worries about Kaya.’

‘That too.’

Monteagle Island, 9/2/483.

Getting onto the rock face and staying on it for the first three or four metres while the waves tried to suck Thea off had been non-trivial. However, she had managed it and from there things were a lot easier. Thea was a naturally good free-climber thanks to a flexible body, her training as a soldier, and the fact that her telekinesis helped her keep a grip where she should have slipped, and she was at the top of the cliff less than twenty minutes after swimming to the bottom of it.

I’m at the top, she said in the silence of her mind. No sign of guards. No indication of sensors. Moving in.

Good luck, Sienna’s voice said into her mind.

Luck was not really a factor, but Thea accepted the gesture with a returned sense of warmth and darted across the ten-metre clearance band which had been maintained between the cliff’s edge and the wooded land beyond it. The undergrowth was a little on the strange side. It was all Earth-standard plant life, aside from a few shrubs and a couple of trees which had been found on other worlds and transplanted. Giltanish Prime had had nothing native larger than algae even before the Ishara Complex had come in and sterilised everything. On the island, however, the plants were forced to contend with salt blown in from the ocean, relatively low rainfall, and soil which was both thin and very fertile. It created thick undergrowth of fairly stunted plants. The trees in particular were short and seemed to have decided to put down a lot of roots. And, as Thea worked her way inland and northward, it became apparent that the trees had to deal with periodic storms which had a lot of power behind them. There were a number of fallen trees making clearings which were thickly overgrown with low plants but seemed to have little in the way of saplings.

Thea’s primary aim was to check out Garaka Monteagle’s home on the island, hence her northward motion. Garaka’s place was inland from the north beach; Xaviran had his place to the south, placed back from a beach and a small, bulwarked marina. Sienna would get a proper look at Xaviran’s place in the morning, but they needed to know about Garaka’s. The map showed a road leading around the far side of the island from the cliff, joining the two compounds. There seemed to be no faster way to get from south to north, but Thea was also looking for trackways which might provide alternative routes. There was also the landing pad, closer to Garaka’s house and set on a levelled area beside the perimeter road.

There were several objectives to complete and maybe six hours of good darkness to get them done in. Keeping an eye out for likely places to hole up during daylight hours, Thea moved on as fast as she could through the undergrowth.

~~~

The landing pad was a concrete platform with thick sidewalls to handle the backwash from reaction drives, and a fairly lightweight comms and sensors package mounted on a mast outside the walls to handle terminal guidance. There were a couple of turrets with miniguns mounted in them, but the fact that the weapons had been unidentified by the Sisterhood suggested that they were shut down if something was on the pad. It was, if Thea could get in undetected, a theoretically viable ambush location, but she would have no way of knowing exactly when Kaya would be arriving or how many people would be with her. There was also no way Thea could put the Sword down on the pad which probably had an upper limit of three hundred tonnes, with that being a tight fit.

The roadway from the landing site to the house had been surfaced and cleared to either side. An ambush was barely possible, but it meant a dash across open ground to attack and the possibility of attempting to get into an armoured vehicle when the occupants had a hostage.

No, it was going to have to be an infiltration op on the house. Thea was sure Kaya would be taken to the house, though ‘house’ did not seem to quite cover what she found when she got to it.

Garaka Monteagle’s compound did have a fairly large house in it, but there were secondary buildings surrounding it, and a three-metre wall surrounding those. Thea climbed one of the short trees near the edge of the cleared perimeter around the wall and used that vantage point to get a better view, relying on her camouflage suit and her immobility to avoid detection. Because detection was a possibility thanks to the automated turrets on the corners and midpoints of the walls. Thea recognised the type and felt a little better: they were not the latest models and while their weaponry was just as deadly, their sensors were less than perfect.

There were solar panels and what Thea suspected was a small fusion plant within the compound walls. At a guess, the reactor was there as a backup. Maybe it got used more in winter. Maybe the panels got hit by storms more often than Monteagle liked. There was also what looked like a barracks unit, a small one for four to six guards. There had been no sign of foot patrols since Thea had arrived, and she suspected that meant they relied on the sensor arrays after dark. A light in a blocky building beside the barracks suggested that they had a guard on duty through the night hours, however.

The house itself was a two-storey structure with a swimming pool directly behind it. Someone had tried to make it look attractive, but there was only so much you could do when you were designing something to be a fortress as well as a home. The windows were smaller than Thea would have gone for, and on the ground floor they were barred. All the lights were off and there was no seeing inside since there were heavy shutters down over the doors and windows.

Working her way around to the front of the house was not easy given the cleared areas, but there was a screen of trees between the house and the beach, which made things easier, or at least viable. The compound gate, and there was only one, was in the front wall and looked as though it had been designed to survive an impact from a nuke. There were turrets on either side of it.

The front of the house was stepped. The upper floor was set back a little to allow for a sun terrace on the roof of the lower floor. That put the personal rooms up on the top floor for sure. That made sense so long as the windows were armoured. Someone wanting to get in had to go through the more heavily fortified lower floor. Unless they just went up the outside to the terrace and broke in from there… There had to be something more to that terrace.

~~~

A fist-sized rock floated gently over the front wall of the Monteagle residence and onto the sun terrace. Thea had managed to guide it over the wall without anything noticing the movement, but to keep line of sight she had had to keep it higher than she would have liked as it crossed the gap to the building. Really, it was quite amazing no one had noticed. Or maybe a relatively small, cold object had not appeared that bright on the sensors. Whatever, she had her chosen tool in place and, as yet, there was no sign of anything strange on the terrace. Clenching her will, Thea picked up the pace, slamming the rock across the terrace and into the nearest window.

Twin turrets erupted from the tiling, miniguns swinging out to search for whatever was attempting to beat its way in through the window. The heads swivelled almost frantically before settling into a resting pattern and then, presumably when the operator could find nothing on his scanners, they retracted back into their housings.

The terrace looked exactly as it had done for just under a minute before a door opened onto the terrace and two figures carrying assault rifles walked out. Neither of them was in armour and one of them was a woman. They searched, but by that time, Thea had secreted her rock behind a planter. They found nothing and retreated, likely putting the impact down to a bird or something.

Thea lay back on the tree branch she was using as a perch. Okay, so the response time on the guards was not exactly spectacular, but that might improve if there was an obvious threat. Concealed turrets could be an issue. There could be more of the things and she was unlikely to know about them until they appeared and started firing.

Well, there was nothing much to do about that for now, and at least she knew it was an unknown factor. She would find herself somewhere to lay low for the day where she could, hopefully, keep an eye on the compound and just keep watching.

~~~

Nirayla was nervous as she stepped off the bridge which Jinny had placed onto the jetty the Sister Clementina was moored at. She had never really tried to fool someone before, not like this, not in real life. Training, yes. There had been plenty of training in ensuring that someone could not penetrate the veneer of calm Sisters habitually wore, but this…

A man appeared at the end of the jetty, clad in smart casuals and flanked by two men in similar clothing carrying guns of some kind slung at their sides. Nirayla figured that the man had to be Xaviran Monteagle because he seemed to be the leader and he was smiling. He was tall, over one hundred and eighty centimetres, and heavyset, but he was starting to age noticeably and gravity was beginning to pull on him more in some places than others. His face had a craggy quality, handsome, but aged with quite noticeably thickened eyebrows, and there was grey in his dark, tightly trimmed hair. He, at least, was unarmed, but he was the man they were trying to trick and–

Calm, cool confidence washed out from Sienna, walking just ahead of Nirayla, like a wave and Nirayla relaxed. There was nothing wrong. They were just a senior Sister and her novice out on a cruise and they had just stopped off at Monteagle Island to pay a courtesy visit to a valued client of the chapter house. That was all there was to it. Nothing to see here. Move along.

As they closed the distance, Sienna smiled. ‘I am sorry, Sor Monteagle. I don’t know the correct form of address. Is it simply Sor now, or do you still use your military rank?’

‘Commander,’ Monteagle replied in a rough voice which still managed to carry a hint of pride. ‘I use my old naval rank.’

‘Commander Monteagle then. I am Sister Sienna, and this is Novice Nirayla. She is accompanying me on a tour of some of the islands on Giltanish Prime and we were hoping that we could see some of yours. Sister Mirganna told me that your patronage of the chapter house here is much appreciated.’

Monteagle seemed to consider for a second. Then he said, ‘I’d be happy to accommodate you, Sister. Please, follow me.’

He turned and Nirayla followed, flanked by the two guards. Sienna stepped up shoulder-to-shoulder with the commander and he did not object as she swept along beside him, her skirt sweeping out behind her as she went.

‘You seem to have quite a lot of security here, Commander,’ Sienna said, turning it into more of a question.

‘A man with my history tends to gather enemies with a desire to make my life shorter,’ Monteagle replied. ‘I was with the Ishara Complex Navy for twenty-five years before going private. We ran anti-piracy operations a lot of the time back then. Things got a lot better during my tenure, but there are still a few men out there who would like to see me dead because of it.’

Sienna was fairly certain much of the problem had come from the reputation the Kraggans had developed under his leadership and only made worse under his son’s, but mentioning that would not have been diplomatic. ‘A shame to have to carry weapons in paradise.’

‘Ha! I’ve been around armed men and women for more than a century. I’m not entirely sure how to behave without them.’ He walked, Sienna noted, with a slight limp in his right leg. It had to have been badly damaged for modern medicine to be unable to fix it entirely. ‘We’ll go up to the roof terrace and have some refreshment,’ Monteagle went on. ‘It’s too beautiful a day to spend too much time indoors.’

‘Of course. If your staff will provide some assistance, Nirayla will serve. It’s always useful to practise.’ And, Sienna added into Nirayla’s mind, you can take a look around the more mundane parts of the building while I keep Monteagle sweet.

Inwardly, Nirayla grimaced, but nothing showed on her face. Of course, she sent back, hoping not too much of her nerves carried with it.

~~~

Watching people do more or less nothing was boring. The guards seemed to operate more on a basis of ‘I’ll patrol when I think I need the exercise’ than anything organised. The patrols they had seen on the cliff had to be coming from the compound on the south side because Garaka’s people spent most of their time in their barracks. Which was a waste considering how beautiful the day was.

Apparently, two of them decided that it was too nice a day for sitting around inside. Thea figured that the woman was the same one she had seen the night before since, as far as it was possible to tell, there seemed to be only one woman on the team. Together with one of the men, she swam laps in the pool before climbing out and lying in the sun. After a few minutes, it became apparent that these two were ‘close.’ Either that or the woman took turns at keeping her fellow mercs from getting frustrated.

Are you in position? Thea cast out to Sienna.

The response was more or less immediate. In position and having a rather nice glass of white wine with our host.

Nice for some.

Nice wine, but you know how I feel about men undressing me with their eyes. Right now, the only one not doing that is Xaviran. The three guards he has stationed around us are another matter.

Thea looked across at the pool. The male guard had got the woman out of her bikini top. The bikini should have been a giveaway: no one did laps in a bikini if their aim was exercise. His guards look serious? I’m getting a soft porn show from the ones at Garaka’s place.

Quite serious, but I would not say they are especially disciplined. They’re paying far more attention to my cleavage and Nirayla in general than they are to any threat we may pose or any threat which could come from outside. They rely, I think, on the sensor arrays.

That’s my assessment. Still, Xaviran has his people doing patrols.

I saw a team going out as we walked in, Sienna confirmed.

It was a little worrying. They were getting a picture of the security, but Thea was almost certain that Garaka’s end of the island was going to see some significant changes when they turned up. There was no way he kept to this level of security when he was actually on the island. It seemed lax for a location he was about to visit.

Does Xaviran know Garaka is coming back here? Thea asked.

I asked about his son and the reply seemed to suggest that he has no idea of what’s going on. I could dig, but he did not appear to be dissembling.

No. See what you can get without resorting to too much psi. He may have detectors or a personal screen.

There was humour in Sienna’s reply. I assure you that, from the way he’s reacting to me, he has no personal screen. I’ll see what else I can get.

Thea focused on the pool for a second. Sure. I’ll just be here watching the porn.

~~~

Xaviran Monteagle had a pool outside his house too. The entire place was on a fairly grand scale, suitable for a retired man who had certainly made enough money to keep him well into old age. So, the pool at Xaviran’s house was overlooked by a huge solarium with a domed roof and an unusual centrepiece.

‘What is that unusual robot?’ Sienna asked, gushing enthusiasm. ‘Did you capture it in battle? Is that why it doesn’t have a head?’

The ‘robot’ stood almost two metres tall without its ‘head.’ The bulk around the torso was added to by the contouring of the armour and the extended back segment which was built out like a backpack. Heavy motor units were apparent around the joints, especially in the legs, suggesting a great deal of power. There were no obvious weapons, unless you included the mass of metal in the armoured hands; the thing almost certainly hit like a train.

Xaviran rumbled with laughter. ‘Not a robot, Sienna.’ They were already on a first-name basis; Nirayla was quite amazed at the speed with which Sienna had wormed her way into the commander’s affections. ‘That is my old battlesuit. She saved my life many times and, when I retired, I couldn’t bear to see her scrapped or mothballed. She’s a little out of date compared to modern suits, but she could still hold her own in a fight. A bit like me.’

‘Commander!’ Sienna exclaimed, putting a hint of a laugh in her voice. ‘I think you may be underselling yourself on purpose.’

He is, Jinny’s voice said into Sienna’s mind. At least, he’s underselling that suit. Sienna had been sending Jinny what she could see and hear since walking into the room, and Jinny had been analysing as she lay on the foredeck of the boat. That’s a Willgor Star Commander Mark Four. Technically, he’s right that it’s a little outdated, but there aren’t many better heavy powered armour suits around.

A problem? Sienna asked.

Everything has a weakness.

Giltanish System, 10/2/483.

There was the point in time when space was just space: a near-perfect vacuum aside from the few particles per cubic metre which composed the interplanetary medium. Then there was the point in time where an insignificant portion of that vacuum was filled with ten thousand tonnes of armoured spaceship.

The crew made immediate sensor checks of the near area and, finding that there were no threats, went about the task of switching power over from the hyperspace engines to the main normal-space drives in an unhurried fashion.

Pressor systems engaged, applying thrust with no visible means of achieving it, and the Monteagle’s Prize began to accelerate toward the far-distant orb of Giltanish Prime.

Sister Clementina, Giltanish Prime.

Thea emerged into the solarium rubbing at her hair with a towel. She had swum back to the yacht during the night and decided to catch up on some sleep before coming up from her cabin. It was a good two hours after dawn and the sun was blazing in the windows, making the solarium look like a solarium.

‘I’ll get you some breakfast,’ Nirayla said, and she started for the hatch.

‘Thanks, Nirayla,’ Thea replied. Her attention turned to Sienna and Jinny. ‘So, what do we have?’

‘The powered armour is real,’ Jinny said, ‘and good. If he brings it out, countering it will need some specialist weapons.’

‘That you have with you?’

Jinny grinned. ‘I came prepared for more or less anything.’

‘More or less?’ Sienna asked.

‘Thea never lets me bring anything nuclear. Anyway, I saw at least ten guards. I think they were making up excuses to come out to the jetty to’ – Jinny made air-quote gestures – ‘“make sure I wasn’t up to anything.” I figure we’ve got at least fifteen, probably twenty, in the contingent at Xaviran’s side of the island.’

‘There are four at the north compound, but I think that’ll see some reinforcement when Garaka gets here,’ Thea said. ‘We should assume we’re looking at forty. Armament? We’ve seen assault rifles.’

‘They patrol in clamshell body armour,’ Sienna said. ‘The weapons looked like needle rifles to me. With underbarrel launchers of some sort.’

‘Grenade launchers,’ Jinny added. ‘They’re packing light needlers when they’re not expecting serious trouble. Sub-machine gun profile.’

Thea pursed her lips. ‘If they stick to clamshell armour and assault rifles, that gives me an advantage up close. At a distance, the rate of fire on a needle coilgun is going to be an issue for both of us, Jin.’

Jinny shrugged. ‘That’s if they can get a clear shot and I don’t see why we have to give them one. I think I run a diversion at Xaviran’s place, we take out their comms, and you go in to get Kaya.’

‘You’ve got something to take out their comms?’

‘Heavily inhibit it anyway. I’ve got jammer warheads. Two or three will blanket Xaviran’s compound and if you can drop one in Garaka’s place, it should cut the head off their command structure.’

‘Unless they have landlines laid between the compounds.’

Jinny flashed a grin. ‘Not from the amount of radio traffic Clementina was detecting while we were in dock. I think they use radio for more or less everything.’

‘Hardly very secure,’ Sienna said, adding a sniff of distain.

‘The underbrush on this island is thick and the soil is thin,’ Thea said. ‘Solid rock under it too. They may not have felt the pain of running a cable, which could probably be detected fairly easily and cut, wasn’t worth the added security.’

Nirayla emerged from below, holding a tray. The scent of coffee filled the air. ‘Okay, I’m going to wake up the rest of the way, and thank you, Nirayla. Jinny’s plan sounds good, but we’ll need to iron out the details and we don’t know when Garaka’s due to arrive with Kaya.’

‘It must be soon,’ Sienna said. ‘We’ve already passed the expected time for their arrival.’

‘I guess they don’t have our awesome navigator,’ Jinny said. ‘Let’s face it, we’re going in at night. That means we’ve got the better part of fourteen hours before we even think about kicking this off. Plenty of time.’

‘Let’s hope so,’ Thea said. ‘Let’s hope Kaya’s in a fit state to be rescued when we do go in.’

Monteagle’s Prize, Giltanish System.

Kaya prised her eyes open and was a little surprised to find that she could see. Her head felt like someone had filled it with fog and, as she began to take stock of her senses, her back felt less than perfect, but she could see.

What she could see was a medical bay, white and sterile, a woman in a white skinsuit who was examining various instruments with a detached air, and Garaka Monteagle. The latter was watching Kaya.

‘You’re still in a null field,’ Monteagle said. ‘Your psi won’t work.’ That also explained why the instruments were connected to her via wires: psionic systems did not operate in a null field either.

‘No restraints?’ Kaya asked.

‘Some restraints.’

Which was true. Kaya could feel straps around her wrists and waist. Her legs seemed to be free so they weren’t too worried about her kicking someone. Now she considered it, she could feel the press of acceleration working on her; it was possible that the restraints served to keep her in place as well as keeping her down.

‘We’ll put you in cuffs and a portable null-field generator shortly,’ Garaka went on. ‘We’re two hours away from Giltanish Prime orbit. I don’t believe we need further measures.’

‘I wish you’d decided that a few days ago.’

‘Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. Don’t give us any trouble and we won’t need to put you in something more restrictive.’

Kaya shook her head in mild exasperation. ‘I don’t know what Jay told you about me, but I really doubt there’s much I can do to you while I’m stuck in this field.’ Or out of it, but she somehow felt she should avoid mentioning that. He was not going to turn it off anyway.

Monteagle’s lips actually curled into a smirk. ‘I’m quite sure you could be a nuisance if you wanted to. You be straight with us and I promise you you’ll remain unharmed.’

Kaya shrugged as best she could. ‘Not like I have a lot of choice.’

Monteagle Island, Giltanish Prime.

The dropship’s wide side doors opened and a full squad of twenty mercenaries disembarked to surround the vessel. Each was wearing a light suit of ballistic armour and carrying assault needlers.

Kaya was sitting in the chair she had been strapped into and waiting for someone to get her out of it. The trip down from orbit had not been much fun since the dropship had no artificial gravity, or motion compensation, and some of the manoeuvres the pilot had performed dropping through the atmosphere to the island had been less than subtle. Plus, true to his word, Monteagle had had her cuffed, but the cuffs were attached to the belt holding her own, personal null-field generator by a fairly short chain. Her legs were free to move, but her arms were barely mobile and she could not grip the seat while the ship pulled high-G turns under her. She was quite sure she had bruises from the seat’s harness.

It did not help that Jay was sitting opposite her wearing a self-satisfied grin. He said nothing the entire trip, but he watched her, grinning, as though he was looking at his passport to riches and glory. Maybe he was, though Kaya could not see how she was going to provide him with any of that.

Monteagle undid Kaya’s straps himself while Jay got up and headed for the hatches. ‘Remember, Sora Trevorny,’ Monteagle said, ‘be on your best behaviour.’

‘Still nothing much I can do,’ Kaya replied. She got to her feet and followed him out of the ship onto a concrete platform set into cleared space in a rather scruffy-looking jungle. Maybe jungle was the wrong word. Maybe it was more of a forest, but the undergrowth looked thick even if the trees were stunted. Thin soil, but fertile, maybe volcanic.

It was night, with a clear sky and plenty of stars, but the area was well lit and there was an armoured vehicle of some description waiting for them. Not a large one and it seemed like a lot of the troops would be following on foot. Indeed, only two men and the driver accompanied Kaya, Monteagle, and Jay in the car, but the trip was not exactly long and there were four more guards waiting outside the house they were driven to.

Monteagle stepped out of the vehicle ahead of anyone else and turned immediately to the guards. ‘Wollgott, Dance, take the prisoner to the downstairs guest room and stand guard outside it. She’s not to be let out of her restraints or her room. You’ll be relieved in two hours.’

A man and a woman stepped forward to get Kaya out of the car. The woman held Kaya’s arm as they led her toward the front door of the building.

‘One other thing,’ Monteagle called out. ‘No one is to enter her room without my express permission.’ There was a slight pause and then he added, ‘Is that understood, Sor Colder?’

‘Yes,’ Jay replied. ‘Understood.’

Kaya found herself grinning at the note of displeasure in Jay’s tone. Okay, so she was a prisoner on a remote island, on a planet which she was fairly sure no one knew she was even on, but Jay had got it in the neck at some point and had just been humiliated in front of the mercs. It was not all bad.

Sister Clementina.

‘Looks like a Fenris-class,’ Jinny said, examining the sensor replay. ‘That’s… a pair of ten-centimetre guns and ten twenty-mil rotary cannons. It’s got missiles and a sixty-mil rotary up front, but they won’t be anything to worry about unless it gets airborne.’

‘Which it might do if you start blowing things up,’ Thea countered. ‘As I recall, it can carry thirty troopers. We could have a few more to deal with than I estimated.’

‘Maybe, but I doubt it’s enough to make much difference. Maybe you should take out the dropship crew before you hit the compound.’

‘You just keep adding these little tasks… Okay, we’ll go in after midnight; let them get comfortable and settled in for the night. We’ll get the sleds set up and then rest up for a couple of hours.’

‘Rest?!’ Jinny squeaked. ‘How am I supposed to rest with what I’ve got planned for them?’

Thea let out an exasperated sigh. ‘Try.’

Monteagle Island, 11/2/483.

The first thing the guards in Xaviran Monteagle’s compound knew about the coming attack was the sudden loss of their radar. The man on duty in the communications room was just about to do something about that when a one hundred-millimetre thermobaric warhead detonated right beside the pool and the entire building shook.

Alarms began to sound all over the compound. Troops reached for their combat gear. Xaviran Monteagle jerked awake as his bed did the lambada under him. He was reaching for the comms unit beside his bed when a second warhead detonated on the roof, wiping out his sun terrace, buckling several beams, and dropping a lot of plaster into bed with him. The sound of a third and then a fourth explosion followed soon after, though he could not localise them.

He grabbed his radio. ‘What the diyou’s going on?’

‘Sir,’ a voice answered after a second. ‘We’re not sure. We’re under attack. Main comms is down. We think it’s a jammer, but we haven’t found it yet. Whoever it is is throwing some heavy weaponry at us.’

‘Get out of jamming range and call in some help from Garaka,’ Monteagle ordered. ‘If this is his fault, I’ll skin him!’

~~~

Out in the bay, Jinny lowered her head and set the aquasled she was riding to negative buoyancy. It was unlikely they would trace the missiles back to source, she had programmed them to take a non-linear course to their targets and the jammer would be making their radar useless, but it was best not to take chances.

Anyway, she needed to be elsewhere for the next stage. That was when the fun would really start.

~~~

Thea watched as the armoured vehicle carrying whatever troops Garaka had to spare drove past the landing pad. There were a few men in clamshell armour hanging on to the outside of the thing. That had to be ten or twelve of them out of the way.

Down on the landing pad, the dropship crew were awaiting orders, but they already seemed to know something was happening. They had one of the hatches open and they were standing around watching the sky. The grey-painted, streamlined vessel was already ugly, but with its point-defence/ground-suppression turrets lifted upward and ready, it looked like an oversized hedgehog which had had a lot of its spikes pulled out.

Thea let them sit for another couple of minutes, just in case, and then moved out of the undergrowth at the back of the landing area. She came at them from behind the ship, but none of them would have seen her anyway. Automatic systems might have spotted her, but anything with a mind would see nothing. She prepped a grenade and rolled it under the ship toward the men on the far side, and then she rushed toward the stern to put a landing strut between her and the blast.

There was a noise and screams. The noise was not exactly like an explosion, more of a weird combination of a crack and the sound of gas rushing through a tube. Jinny was never subtle when it came to explosives, unless she really had to be. Her idea of demolition was most people’s idea of disintegration. She had loaded the grenade with plasma warheads and, when Thea rounded the ship to finish the job, the results were still obvious. Two of the flight crew were on the ground, their bodies still smouldering, what was left of them. Parts of the hull were still glowing.

Still, Thea could be unsubtle too. She tossed a second grenade into the cabin and hit the exterior door control. The sound of the explosion displacing air within the cabin could just be heard as a dull thump a second after the hatch closed.

Dropship’s disabled, she sent to Jinny. Heading for the compound now.

Great. Troops coming?

They went through a couple of minutes ago. You should have them by now.

There was a short pause. I see them. Hurry up at your end. I need to get the comms down here.

Working as fast as I can. Thea grabbed the disposable missile launcher she had left in the undergrowth and started running for the north compound.

~~~

‘What’s going on?’ Jay asked when he found Garaka talking to two of his mercs in the corridor outside the main bedrooms.

‘Someone’s attacking my father’s place,’ Garaka replied sharply. ‘Go back to your room and stay there.’

‘But–’

‘Do it!’

Jay turned and went back to the door of his room. Someone attacking Xaviran’s place need not be coming after Kaya. In fact, how could they even know she was here. Jay knew Thea and Jinny had survived the ambush at the merc HQ, but there was no way they could have followed the Monteagle’s Prize to Giltanish. Still…

Opening the door, Jay entered his room and went to the dresser where he had stowed his gun. With it strapped to his thigh, he sat down on the bed and waited. Somehow, he doubted that the attack would end with an assault on the south side of the island.

~~~

The missile Thea launched was equipped with a small pressor drive, not a rocket engine. It was silent and fast, and it dropped onto the roof of the control bunker without anyone becoming aware of it. Until, three seconds later, the jammer unit in its payload bay activated and radio communications all across the compound went down.

~~~

You’re up.

The words sounded in Jinny’s head and she grinned, raising the compact, multi-barrel launcher to her shoulder. The last two missiles in the tubes fired off, one after the other, their guidance systems already programmed. The jammers in them would complete the blanket over Xaviran’s compound, killing all radio comms. Even if Garaka’s people realised what was happening over there and called back the reinforcements, no one was going to hear them over the electronic howl of the jammers.

Still, better noisy than sorrowful. Picking up a throw-away launcher, Jinny aimed it at the armoured truck the reinforcements had ridden in on and fired.

~~~

Xaviran Monteagle had just made it to his armour when he heard another explosion outside. Whoever was attacking them believed in serious overkill, but so far there was no sign of ground troops.

With the sound of something else exploding, he lifted his comms unit and hit the stud. ‘What was that?’ When he released the stud, all he got was a sound like wind howling through a narrow pipe combined with white noise. Someone was jamming the entire compound now. That was not good.

Reaching up, he hit the button to open up the armoured suit. It was time for one old warhorse to ride again.

~~~

Thea slipped in through the gate left open when the truck had gone out and dropped into cover. Leaving the gate open had been sloppy, but then there was a lot of sloppy going around. The friend-or-foe identification system the turrets used was radio-based. With the jammer running, the turrets had been shut down in case they shot a friendly; Thea had been a little disappointed that someone figured that out before someone had got shot, but she had not expected to have everything go her way.

There were two guards at the door of the building now, and two more up on the terrace. They were wearing night-vision visors, but they were not going to be a serious problem, aside from being in the way. When Thea wanted to be invisible, and it was a sentient mind she had to deal with, she could be invisible. Still, she worked her way around to the side and came up on the door along the wall. That kept the building frontage in the way of the men on the terrace and meant that the door guards were working off their peripheral vision.

Slipping a pair of black-metal daggers from the collection of them she had across her chest, Thea closed the distance, keeping low, and then moved. One backhanded strike slit the nearest man’s throat and, without a pause, she tossed the second blade at the other guard. The blade punched through the man’s neck and he went down, clutching at the blade. Thea moved in and ripped his problem from his hands, with additional windpipe, then she opened the door and slipped into the hall beyond.

~~~

Some of the mercs had got enough brainpower together to figure out where the last missile had to have come from. There was a raised coppice of trees about two hundred metres to the west of the compound and that had to be the launch site. Nowhere else had the viewpoint to hit the truck that way.

A team of four began advancing into the woodland, taking cover where they could behind trees. They were just outside the jammer’s reach, but about all they could hear was each other. No one else seemed to be on the air.

‘You see anything?’

‘Nothing yet. They have to be here.’

‘I’m getting nothing on infrared. Maybe they– Wait, there’s something…’

Then a voice came out of the darkness, light and girlish, and not the kind of thing they expected to hear at all. ‘Oh come on, guys. At this rate, you’re never going to catch me. Put some effort into it, will you?’

The radio crackled. ‘There!’ And three needlers opened up on a section of the undergrowth twenty metres away. Four-millimetre darts spat forth at supersonic speed, hundreds of them impacting their targets in the space of a few seconds. Splinters of wood burst from tree trunks, leaves fell, and grass was shredded.

Jinny stepped out from behind a tree dressed in a bikini top, denim shorts, and combat boots. She was carrying a gun which had to be longer than she was tall and was possibly heavier than her too, and she did not seem to be noticing the weight hanging on the ends of her arms.

‘Shit! Is that a–’

‘Can’t be, she’s just–’

‘You missed me!’ Jinny called out with a bright grin. ‘Guess you need to shoot faster.’ And she pulled the trigger on her gun. There was relatively little sound. The gun had few moving parts, just a pressor beam capable of accelerating the thin plugs of ammo it fired up to a reasonable fraction of light speed in no time at all while a counter-pressor handled the recoil. There was a sound like a crackling fire as a hundred rounds a second sprayed forth, each breaking the sound barrier, and then all Hell broke loose. Trees exploded into shrapnel as the metal needles hit and were instantly turned to plasma. The same process happened when the slugs hit the men’s armour, but here the plasma punched through as though the hardened shells were paper to ravage the flesh beneath.

Jinny let up on the trigger after a count of two and examined her work. Trees were on fire. Bits of burning cloth fluttered down. Where there had been four men in armour, there was little evidence that they had ever been there. She nodded and lifted her head.

‘Come on, guys! I’m getting bored out here!’

~~~

There were no guards visible on the ground floor until Thea got to the back of the house. She figured they were either outside, checking the perimeter, or upstairs, guarding Garaka. Except for the two who were guarding a door for no obvious reason.

Well, the ground floor rooms had barred windows, which made them a good place to keep a prisoner. That probably meant that this was the room where Kaya was being kept, and those two were in the way.

Reaching out, she invaded their minds in an instant and then began moving down the corridor watching for any sign that they had noticed her through her clouding. One of them was looking in her direction, which meant that he was going to see her eventually: it was just a matter of how close she could get before he did.

The answer was point-blank range. Before any sudden motion could betray her, she sent out a pulse of telepathic power at the second guard, stunning him into insensibility. The sound of him falling attracted the nearest of the two and Thea struck as he turned his back, her sword swinging up and slicing through his armour to cut deep into his back. He let out a shriek, staggered forward a pace, and began to turn, but Thea was counting on that. Her blade swung again, this time coming in under his helmet and cutting straight through his neck. Blood sprayed as his head was almost severed and he went down hard.

His compatriot, still reeling from the mental attack, put up no resistance as Thea finished him off, and then she turned to the door.

~~~

Something was obviously happening. It was night, or maybe early in the morning, and people should be sleeping. Kaya had spent so much time sleeping that she was not really tired and getting comfortable in the stupid restraints was not easy, and she had no idea what time it was locally or on a standard clock, but other people should be sleeping. Instead, there were lights on in the hallway and there had been people running about. Something was happening.

A surge of hope welled up inside her. Somehow, Thea or Cassandra or Sienna had found her. Somehow they had and they had come to rescue her. Except… How could they have found her? And how were they going to get through all those soldiers? Except that Thea and Jinny had wiped out a filarax hunting party to save Fay. Except that they would have been able to ambush the hunters and here they were dealing with invading somewhere with solid walls, barred windows, and gun turrets. Except that–

The door opened, light blazed in from the hall outside, and Thea stepped through it, her gaze flicking around the room until she spotted Kaya. Grinning, she closed the door behind her and then flicked on the light. ‘Hey,’ she said. ‘Been looking for you.’

Kaya just gawped. Thea was dressed in camouflage pants and a rust-brown tank top, and combat boots which were a dark brown or maybe black. She had a bandolier of throwing knives over her shoulder that, Kaya figured, also held the scabbard for her sword, which was in her hand. The silver necklace with the blue stone was there, as always, around Thea’s neck. She looked ridiculously both just right and way underdressed for a combat mission, but it was the thick coating of blood that was soaking into her top which really drew the attention and held it.

‘A-are you hurt?’ Kaya asked.

Thea looked down at her chest. ‘This is someone else’s. Come on, we have limited time. Get up and hold your hands out.’

Kaya did not really understand what Thea meant until Thea lifted her sword and pointed it at Kaya’s wrists. ‘Uh, okay. Will that sword cut through these?’ She held her arms out as far from her as she could and spread her wrists as far as the manacles would let her.

‘This sword will cut through just about anything,’ Thea replied and swung the blade down. There was an odd grinding noise as the weapon bit into the metal, carving a little more than halfway through the joint. Another swing followed and this time the manacles separated. ‘It’s a vibrosword,’ Thea explained, ‘with a hardened, ultrafine edge. It vibrates really fast. You can hear it humming if you listen closely, but there’s one more thing I need to take care of.’

Walking around behind Kaya, Thea located the null-field generator on her belt and turned it off while Kaya undid the belt itself, possible now her hands were free. Thea sighed. ‘That is much better. Those damn things are annoying.’

‘I’d kind of got that part,’ Kaya said. ‘How did you find me? Jay said the field would block you.’

‘Cassandra, not me, but yes, it did. On the other hand, it didn’t stop us from talking nicely to one of the Kraggan mercs from their base. We’ve been here for days waiting for you to turn up. You’re late.’

‘Huh. Next time I get kidnapped, I’ll try to be more prompt.’

‘Next time you get kidnapped, you’d better have a really good excuse or I won’t come looking for you. That jumpsuit is not your colour, by the way. Just saying. Luckily, there’s a nanofab on the yacht.’

‘Yacht? Am I missing something?’

‘Long story. Not for now. Wait here while I check outside.’ Thea stepped to the door, turned out the light, opened the door, and poked her head out, looking to the left. Before she could turn to check the right, a hail of metal darts peppered the wall and the door frame behind her and she jerked back inside. ‘Diyou,’ she said.

~~~

Xaviran Monteagle marched out to the side wall of his house where a lot of mercs were standing around behind walls while an armoured car, on its back, burned quietly away behind them. Radios were not working so he switched to the external speakers on his suit. ‘Will someone tell me what the diyou you’re all doing standing here when we’re under attack? You, Thorgsen. Report!’

‘Sir!’ Thorgsen was a thickset blonde who generally did not scare easily, but he was looking distinctly worried as he snapped to attention and executed a sharp salute. ‘We’re not sure how many there are out there, but we’ve definitely heard one of them yelling at us. And she’s got some heavy weaponry we just aren’t set up for. I’ve never seen a gun that can do that. It tears people apart like dolls. We’ve already lost two teams.’

‘You’ve “heard her yelling?” There’s some woman out there–’

‘Pardon me, sir, but she sounds like a girl, a mad one. She keeps shouting at us to come find her because she’s getting bored waiting, or she’s feeling neglected.’

‘She said, “what’s a girl got to do to get any attention around here?” Uh, sir,’ one of the other men reported. Xaviran did not recognise the man, probably one of the ones Garaka had sent over.

‘She’s mad, sir,’ Thorgsen repeated.

‘Well, she’s caught my attention,’ Xaviran growled. Shifting his weight, he pushed off toward the gate and the trees beyond it. The trees, he noticed, were smouldering in places and looked thinner than they had done. Well, that was just going to make this easier.

Hefting the minigun he liked to use when he had his armour on, he did not really take aim, but he let loose a strafing stream of lead which decapitated more trees and, probably, anyone in them. He kept marching forward, firing into the brush until his ammo indicator blinked empty and the autoloader on his back swapped the feed to a new magazine.

‘I really don’t want to kill you, Xaviran,’ a voice yelled from the trees. It did sound like it came from a rather young throat, and certainly from a woman. ‘But I will if you keep that up.’

‘Only if I don’t kill you first,’ Xaviran said back, his voice amplified by his suit. ‘That’s pretty likely considering what I’m wearing and firing. Why don’t you just give up now before you get hurt?’ His infrared systems picked up a dim heat signature through the trees. It was faint, but it was there. Without waiting for a reply, he hit the fire control on his gun and bullets flew out to chew into the wood.

He thought he heard a shout over the sound of disintegrating links, but all he saw was the flying splinters and the heat signature moving and suddenly becoming more clear. He was about to track his fire across his new, clearer target when the return fire hit him in the chest where his armour was heaviest. It seemed to make no difference. He felt a spear drive through him, then another. The third was a vague flicker of neurons in a dying brain, and then there was nothing.

~~~

‘Someone shot at you!’ Kaya gasped.

Thea gave her a frown and unhooked a grenade from her belt. ‘Really? Well, that is shocking.’ She primed the grenade and tossed it out into the hall before closing the door. A second or two later, smoke began to creep in under the door.

‘We’re not going out that way?’

‘We’ll take the back door.’ Thea went to the window and used her sword to shatter the glass.

‘But it’s bar– Oh, yeah, you’ve got a magic sword.’

‘If I get time to use it. The smoke may persuade them to hold back for a bit, but…’ She swung, carving through one of the bars near the bottom. A second swing cut a second bar, then she stopped and moved back to the door, taking another grenade out as she did so. ‘Maybe a little more discouragement.’ Opening the door, she threw the grenade, this time tossing it far further down the corridor to the right. Then she slammed the door shut and went back to the window.

Nothing happened as Thea cut through a third bar, then a fourth. Then there was a dull thud and the building shook. Plaster drifted down from the ceiling to land in Kaya’s hair and her eyes widened. ‘What was that?’ Kaya asked.

Thea swung at another bar. ‘Jinny. She has no subtlety at all.’

~~~

Jay felt the shudder of something explosive detonating, and it felt a lot like it had gone off inside the building. Whatever Garaka had said, it was time to take a hand in things. Or maybe to find a way off the island. He grabbed a jacket and headed out into the corridor.

Things were, if anything, too quiet after the explosion, but there was smoke at the bottom of the stairs, and there was Garaka Monteagle, holding a rifle and staring down the corridor which ran along the back of the building. The corridor, Jay imagined, that had Kaya’s room on it.

Jay edged up to the corner and looked around. There seemed to be no immediate danger, given that the merc was just standing there, but there had been danger. The three bodies, charred bodies, lying on the floor indicated that.

‘It had to be a plasma grenade,’ Garaka said. ‘I’ve never seen one that powerful, but it had to be.’

‘Where’s Kaya?’ Jay asked.

‘I only got away because I spotted it and dived behind the wall.’

‘Kaya?’ Jay repeated. ‘Where–’

‘She’s in the room halfway down. There’s someone else there with her. Black hair.’

‘Thea,’ Jay growled. ‘How the diyou did they find us?’

‘Don’t know. Don’t care. That girl is more trouble than she’s worth. If I could actually get to any of my people, I’d tell them to let her go.’

‘Well, I’m not letting her go,’ Jay said. He pulled his shotgun from its holster and marched off down the corridor, into the smoke.

There was a door near the centre of the cloud which looked like it had been hit with needler rounds and Jay stopped at it, his hand on the knob. Taking a deep breath in the smoke seemed like a stupid idea, and his eyes were starting to water. He twisted and rammed through, his gun coming up as soon as the door was clear of it…

And there was no one in the room. He looked around quickly, his gun moving where his head went, until his eyes fell on the window. The bars had been cut through and then bent outward. Thea and Kaya were gone.

~~~

We’re clear, Jin, Thea thought at her friend. I’ve got Kaya. Withdraw and meet us at the boat.

Will do, Jinny replied quickly. I had to kill Xaviran. Just so you know.

Garaka’s not going to be pleased about that. Okay. If you had to.

He didn’t give me a lot of choice. See you in a bit.

‘You’re looking pensive,’ Kaya said. She was doing her best to keep up with Thea as they moved through the brush, but it was not that easy.

‘Jinny had to kill Garaka Monteagle’s father. I was sort of hoping they might just give up once we’d got out, but I suspect we won’t get so lucky.’

‘Oh.’

‘Yes. Let’s push on. It’s not far to the beach.’

‘You said something about a yacht?’

‘Yes, but we’ll be getting to it by alternative water transport.’

Kaya kept quiet for a minute while they hurried through the thick brush, but her curiosity was getting the better of her. ‘What kind of alternative– Oh.’ They pushed out onto a white-sand beach, and she saw the two-man aquasled resting on the shoreline.

‘Don’t worry,’ Thea said, flashing her a grin. ‘It’s quite safe. All you have to do is hang on. I’ll do the driving.’

‘Don’t those things go underwater?’

‘Hang on, and breathe through the mask then.’

‘And get soaked through,’ Kaya pointed out.

Thea shrugged. ‘Well, we’ll get you some new clothes when we get to the boat. And maybe burn that jumpsuit. You can always stay with the mercenaries, if you prefer.’

Kaya hurried toward the sled. ‘Show me the mask and the handholds.’

Part Four: Home Is Where You Choose To Be

Sister Clementina, Giltanish Prime, 11/2/483 BCC.

A girl Kaya did not recognise helped her up onto the aft deck of the yacht before Thea piloted the sled to the bay amidships to be winched back into its housing. The dark-skinned, dark-haired girl was wearing an open shirt over a bikini, but she also had the same sort of silver necklace chain around her neck that Sienna wore, aside from it having a black gem instead of a red one. She had a nice smile, calming, confident.

‘Hello, Sora Trevorny, I am Nirayla. If you’ll come with me, I took the liberty of fabbing you something to wear since Thea suggested you might wish to get out of… that. You can change in your cabin.’

‘Uh, thanks,’ Kaya replied. ‘Is there a shower in there too?’

Nirayla’s smile switched up a notch. ‘Of course.’

The cabins were not as luxurious as the ones on the Oracle, but you could tell this was a pleasure boat of some sort. The cabin had a double bed larger than the one Kaya’s parents had shared and an en-suite shower room. It was all tastefully decorated in smooth panelling in a beige shade which, Kaya suspected, tended not to show dirt, was easy to clean, but still looked good.

Kaya abandoned her clothes as soon as the door was shut on the shower room and dived under the water as fast as she was able.

‘There are towels on the rail,’ Nirayla called through the door, ‘and your dress is on the bed. I shall leave you to get dressed.’

And, suddenly, all of the solitude of the last few days hit Kaya right between the eyes. ‘Nirayla!’

‘Yes, Sora Trevorny?’

‘Uh, would you stay? I… won’t know where to go when I leave here.’

There was a tiny pause which indicated that Nirayla recognised an excuse when she heard one. ‘Of course, Sora Trevorny.’

‘Call me Kaya, please. How come you’re with Thea and the others?’

‘They came to the chapter house looking for assistance in rescuing you. I know how to pilot a yacht and I know the waters. And Sister Sienna has been most helpful in furthering my training.’

‘Yeah, she’s pretty good at– Wait, Sister Sienna?’

‘Sister Advisor Sienna, yes. You… didn’t know that?’

Kaya rubbed shampoo into her hair and frowned. ‘I don’t even know what that means.’

‘You’ve never heard of the Lanthanari Sisterhood? Sister Sienna said she was training you.’

‘In telepathy, yes. You’ll have to forgive me. I come from a little colony no one really goes near. I’d never seen much of the culture outside our planet before I went to Abertine, and I wasn’t there long enough to take too much in.’

‘Oh. I’d assumed… Well, that will teach me to assume. The Sisterhood is quite an ancient order. More a philosophy than a religion. It’s open only to women who have psi talent. We are taught strength and confidence, and that the ultimate test of our self-worth lies in the ability to subjugate one’s will to another without losing ourselves. I’m but a novice, still in training, but Sienna and Thea are Sister Advisors, and that marks them out as true mistresses of the teachings of our founder, Marienna Lanthanar. Only Sister Marienna and her closest advisors rank higher than a Sister Advisor.’

Kaya washed the soap from her hair while she digested that. ‘Thea’s one too?’ she asked upon emerging.

‘Yes. Well, I think it’s a little complicated. Sister Sienna has something of a special relationship with… Um. You should ask them. Anyway, I’m glad we were able to help you. Sister Thea, in particular, seemed very determined to find you.’

That was nice to know. Thea had been particularly keen on finding her… Well, Kaya was the first new zanari in a long time and Thea had that whole ‘protector of the species’ thing going. Of course she would want to see Kaya safe. That was it, right? That was all it was?

~~~

Kaya was a little uncomfortable in the dress Nirayla had fabricated for her. Not knowing the correct size, Nirayla had opted for something with a bit of adjustment: a tight-fitting wrap-around garment in cream with a flower-print design on the front. The top was a little low-cut and the hemline a little high for Kaya, especially since she currently had nothing to wear under it. She felt like a child dressing up in her big sister’s dating dress, and the fact that Nirayla had said she looked lovely in it had not really helped.

And then Kaya climbed into the solarium and was suddenly wrapped in a half-naked Jinny.

‘It’s so good to have you back,’ Jinny bubbled, still hugging her. ‘I was worried about you. We were all worried about you. Even Nirayla, and she’s never met you. Until now, obviously. She’s met you now. Did they hurt you? If they did, I’ll go back and–’

‘Let the girl breathe, Jin,’ Thea said. She was smiling, but in the calm way she usually seemed to do everything. There was no indication of a ‘special interest’ in getting Kaya back. ‘Are you hurt at all?’ Thea asked when Jinny had let go, pouting. ‘I didn’t ask because, frankly, we needed to get out of there and you seemed to be ambulatory. We can’t do too much until we get back to the Oracle, but we may have something to help, if needed.’

Kaya gave a shrug. ‘My back’s still stiff, but I spent… some time in the ship’s medical bay. I think they took care of most of the injuries then.’

Jinny’s eyes narrowed. ‘Injuries? You’re going to tell me all about all of it so I can work out who to shoot.’

‘I’d like to hear about it as well,’ Thea said. ‘If you feel like you’re up to it.’

‘My body clock is all over the place,’ Kaya replied. ‘Now’s as good a time as any, until I get tired anyway.’

Nirayla brought coffee, which Kaya realised she had had none of for quite a while and relished, and they all sat around the solarium to hear Kaya’s story. She gave it as best she could, though she still could not remember what had happened on the rooftop on Teladish, just reported what Jay had said, and there were a lot of blanks due to the sensory deprivation and drugs. Jinny asked questions, but Thea and Sienna just listened until Kaya was done and Jinny was scowling.

‘I’m gonna shoot Colder right in the moshonka with a plasma round,’ Jinny growled.

‘Not for me,’ Kaya responded. ‘I don’t want anyone else dying because of me.’

‘We may have to do something about him,’ Thea said. ‘He knows too much.’ She frowned. ‘He knows too much for it to have all come from his time with us. His treatment of you seems like there’s a personal element to it. Anyway, if we can’t kill him, we may have to take other measures.’ She glanced at Sienna, who frowned but nodded. ‘For now, however, let’s see about getting safely back to the Sword. Nirayla?’

‘We’re underway,’ Nirayla replied. She glanced out at the daylight now streaming in the windows of the solarium. ‘It’ll take us almost a week to get back to Ammendine. The AI predicts that we’ll get into port not long after midday on the seventh day. That’s local time, obviously.’

‘How long are the days on this world?’ Kaya asked.

‘Twenty-one hours. And about nineteen minutes.’

‘That’s not so bad. I might get my brain back on something like a normal rhythm.’

‘You’ll have time to,’ Thea said. ‘We’re just a couple of Lanthanari Sisters out for a cruise with some crew’ – she indicated Jinny – ‘and a couple of novices.’

‘A couple of novices?’ Kaya and Nirayla said in near unison.

Thea smirked. ‘Yes. We’ll program the nanofab to make the chain in a bit. And we’d better get Kaya’s measurements for it. She’s going to need a bikini for sunbathing on the deck.’

~~~

It took less than an hour for the nanofabricator on the boat to fashion Kaya a chain just like Nirayla’s and a bikini which, while considerably fuller than the ones the other girls were wearing, still felt a little brief to Kaya. Which, she decided, was silly since they were all girls together.

There was a little ceremony in the sun on the aft deck where Sienna hung the chain around Kaya’s neck after asking whether she accepted it willingly and with knowledge of the responsibility it symbolised. Kaya agreed, even though she had absolutely no idea what the responsibilities were and felt a little strange going through all this in a bikini. But it was not real anyway. She was not really joining the Sisterhood. Was she?

And then there had been her first duty as a Sister: lie in the sun and relax because, according to Sienna and Thea, she looked like she needed the rest. Apparently she did, because she nodded off after half an hour or so, listening to Sienna giving Nirayla meditation lessons.

When her eyes flicked open, some time later, she was surprised to find that she could see, that she was not gagged, that she could move her arms freely…

‘Bad dreams?’ Thea was lying on a lounger beside her. Sienna and Nirayla were nowhere to be seen.

‘Uh, maybe,’ Kaya replied. ‘How long was I asleep?’

‘Bit less than an hour. Want to talk about it?’

Kaya pushed herself upright, blinking in the sun. ‘I’m not really sure what “it” is. I think… I think I was holding it all in while I was with them and now…’

‘Now you can relax, all the anxiety is coming out?’

‘That. I can’t believe Jay just wanted me for… for whatever it was he wanted me for. Money? Power? I don’t see why I mean any of that to him.’

‘Hm. He was your first, wasn’t he?’

‘My first? My– Oh.’ Kaya felt her cheeks reach ignition point in no time at all. ‘You know about that?’

‘There were signs.’

‘I think he just did it so I’d trust him more. It made it easier when he drugged me.’

Thea gave a small smile. ‘I think there was at least a degree of lust involved, Kaya.’

‘Oh, I don’t think he really–’

‘Stop. Underselling. Yourself. It’s entirely unbefitting in a Sister, even a novice.’

Kaya spotted a chance to divert the conversation and went for it. ‘I don’t know what that means. Not really. I’m not really a novice anyway, I mean–’

‘Technically,’ Thea interrupted, ‘you accepted the chain from a Sister Advisor, so you are a novice member of the Sisterhood.’

‘Uh, oh.’

‘Actually, I think it would do you some good. You need some training in believing in yourself.’

‘Oh. But you’re not a Sister, are you? I haven’t seen you wearing that chain until today.’

Thea picked up the length of silver chain which had replaced her usual necklace again, twisting the jewel in her fingers. ‘I’m a sort of honorary member. If you were to look on the rolls, you’d find me listed as a Sister Advisor, but I don’t actively practise and I was given the position without all the usual rigmarole it requires. We… did a favour for their founder after Zanar fell. Sienna got her title the hard way. The Sisterhood is older than most people believe. It was founded on Ganisha Prime, one of the worlds of the Zanar Protectorate.’

‘Isn’t that where Sienna comes from?’

‘Yes. Anyway, whether you choose to, um, resign your commission, so to speak, when we’re done here is up to you. Sienna won’t hold it against you. But you might want to think on it. She’ll be quite willing to teach you about them if you want.’

Kaya frowned. ‘Okay, well, if someone can explain to me what it is I’m supposed to do as a novice, I guess I’ll work from there.’

‘That can be arranged,’ Thea replied with a smirk in her voice. ‘One duty is to serve Sienna and me, so why don’t you go down to the galley and get us some cold drinks.’ She lay back on the lounger with a sigh and closed her eyes. ‘I’ll be right here, working hard on my tan.’

12/2/483.

She slept fitfully, Sienna’s voice said into Thea’s mind. She needs help. She blames herself for our need to rescue her. She feels guilty for falling under Colder’s control.

Thea watched across the galley as Kaya helped Nirayla with breakfast. The girl was trying to appear bright, but her eyes were puffy and she paused frequently as though trying to remember what she was doing.

Under his control? Thea asked. Or is it more that she let him get close and he betrayed her?

Sienna sat back in her chair and folded her arms under her breasts. Kaya tries her best to be practical and strong. She grew up on a farm. She believes she should be pragmatic. She believes she should take life seriously, take her responsibilities seriously. That’s one reason she’s a little uncomfortable with that chain around her neck: she has responsibilities she does not understand.

I said you could teach her what they are.

And I will. However, not my point. Underneath it all, Kaya is something of a romantic. She was sure that her first time with a man would be an incredible, meaningful experience.

And it turns out the man just wanted in her panties so he could kidnap her.

Precisely. Her need for romance remains, however. I believe it would help her to have a relationship with more meaning. And I can’t do it since she’s my student.

Thea flashed Sienna a hard look across the table. I am not being rebound girl!

Someone has to be, Thea. Someone has to be…

~~~

Kaya tapped on Thea’s cabin door, heard something from inside, and pushed through into the room. It was, she noted, no different from her own cabin, aside from the fact that Thea was in the bed in this one, possibly naked, with the sheets pulled up to her waist.

Kaya managed to grin, then schooled her face into something more serious. ‘You asked me to come to your room, Sister Thea?’ she said, hoping it sounded like a little joke. It sounded like a joke to her…

‘Yes,’ Thea said, all serious and straight-faced. ‘Come in and close the door.’ Kaya swallowed hard, covering that by turning to close the door behind her. She had already figured out that one of Nirayla’s ‘duties’ seemed to be sleeping with Sienna. Was Thea going to do the same with her? Was she really going to go there?

When Kaya turned, there was a vague smile on Thea’s face. ‘You had trouble sleeping last night,’ Thea said. ‘We all noticed you were tired. You’ll sleep in here with me tonight. I don’t snore, even telepathically. You’ll be quite safe and secure, and we’ll hopefully avoid those bad dreams.’ She pulled the sheets back beside her.

‘Oh. Uh, okay. That might be better.’ Kaya walked over to the bed, entirely unsure of herself, but… ‘I think after all that time in the isolation gear… I just don’t feel right when I’m alone.’

‘We suspected that might be part of it. Do you normally sleep in a bikini?’

Kaya’s cheeks flushed. ‘No. I… No.’ She paused to remove the two scraps of cloth and then had a vague moment of panic when she realised she was going to be climbing into bed, naked, with Thea, who was naked. Pushing down hard on any rebelliousness her mind might have considered, Kaya pressed on and climbed into bed, pulling the sheets over her.

Thea nodded and looked across the room to the light switch beside the door. The room fell into darkness and Kaya lay still, on her back, listening to the sounds of the boat as it carved through the, thankfully quite flat, ocean around them. That and Thea’s breathing beside her, even and steady, but not yet sleeping. After a few minutes, Kaya began wondering whether she was actually waiting for Thea to do something. Or was she hoping that Thea would do something. Or was she just not used to being in bed with someone else. Or–

‘Turn on your side,’ Thea said, her voice soft. Kaya started turning toward her. ‘Other way.’

‘Oh.’ Kaya turned the other way, her back to Thea, wondering whether something was wrong. Did her breath smell or something?

And then Thea was cuddling up behind her, legs curling to meet Kaya’s, an arm curling around Kaya’s waist. ‘There,’ Thea whispered, as though Kaya should somehow understand what was going on. ‘Now you just need to fall asleep.’

‘I, um, I’m not used to being in bed with… with someone else.’

Thea chuckled. ‘I know you’re a little old for this, but did you never climb into bed with your parents when you’d had a bad dream?’

‘No… But I did when we had thunder storms.’

‘Well then, this is no different.’

It was different! Oh, by the Mind, was it different. Except that Kaya did feel sort of warm, and comfortable, and… loved. Not sexually loved, just like… No… No, it was not like being in her mother’s arms, but there was something about it that made her feel safe and contented. And she sort of did want Thea to turn it into something else, but for right now, what Kaya needed was this.

13/2/483.

Kaya swam into consciousness, blinked a couple of times, rolled onto her back, sat up, yawned, wondered where she was…

‘Morning,’ Thea said as she walked out of the shower room, rubbing at her hair with a towel. ‘I left you sleeping. You seemed to need it.’

Kaya blinked a couple more times and yawned again. ‘Yeah. Guess I did. Slept…’ Another yawn broke through, but her brain was starting to kick back in. ‘Uh, slept like a baby.’

Thea shook her head, having finished with the towel. ‘No. There was no thumb-sucking that I was aware of. Cute as that would have been.’

‘Right…’ Kaya became acutely aware that she was naked and so was Thea. She tried to make pulling the sheets up over her breasts seem like a natural action, and then kicked herself because Thea had seen it all before anyway.

Thea seemed, or at least acted, oblivious. She grabbed a bikini from the dresser and pulled it on. ‘Better get a move on. I suspect Nirayla and Sienna are already up, and if Nirayla does all of the breakfast, you’ll be stuck with all of the clean-up…’

Kaya’s eyes widened and she leapt out of bed with a yelp, rushing for the shower.

15/2/483.

Three more nights passed with Kaya sleeping soundly in Thea’s bed, Thea curled protectively around her. The only difference was that Kaya made sure she got up first to be sure she did not end up doing the breakfast dishes on her own.

It was not like they were servants or slaves or something. Nirayla cooked their evening meal with Kaya’s help, but Thea and Sienna cleaned up after, standing at the sink to do the dishes and chattering about whatever inconsequential subject came to mind. Jinny got to skip chores because she was taking the night shift in the cockpit without the slightest complaint. Kaya got the feeling that the three older zanari had arranged things between them, but she did not mention it. She was not going to complain either.

A little after midday on the sixth day of their voyage, Thea walked out onto the aft deck where Kaya was sunbathing alongside Nirayla. She frowned at them for a second and then said, ‘Kaya, we need to get you fitted for a dress.’

Kaya looked up, bemused. ‘A dress?’

‘The dress,’ Nirayla said. ‘Sisters wear a formal gown in public, unless another garment is required. Honestly, it’s really comfortable, so we wear it almost all the time.’

‘I can handle comfortable.’

‘Good,’ Thea said, ‘because we’ll need you in it when we get off the boat. You’ll be playing the Novice Sister until we get to the Sword.’

‘I guess I can do that. Sienna and Nirayla have been teaching me how to behave.’

Thea nodded. ‘We need a few more measurements to feed into the fabricator program. Come on, you know the drill.’

With a sigh, Kaya got to her feet. She could not imagine what else needed measuring, but…

~~~

The dress had needed measurements for hip-to-floor, waist-to-floor, throat-to-waist, and inseam, which seemed odd until Kaya was actually trying it on.

She looked at herself in the mirror in her cabin and could not quite believe she was expected to wear the thing. It was white and, in a way, quite covering. Floor-length and long-sleeved, but then there was the gap at the front which went all the way to the waistband, and the slits up both legs to the hip. And Nirayla had advised her that it was simply not done to wear anything under it, though Kaya was hard-pressed to imagine the undergarment that would have remained invisible under it anyway. There was also a pair of sandals, with six-centimetre heels, and the skirt was designed to almost reach the floor when wearing them. That way there was no danger of the hem getting dirty, so long as you stood up straight.

Feeling like a total fool, Kaya went out and up, lifting the front panel of her skirt to clear the stair treads as she went. Climbing up into the solarium, she discovered that everyone else was waiting for her, and the only person not wearing a dress of the same design was Jinny, who was also the only one not wearing a chain around her neck.

‘You look,’ Sienna said, ‘like a proper novice.’

‘Perfect,’ Nirayla said. Kaya noted that Nirayla was also in white while Sienna and Thea were in wine and black respectively.

‘Looks good on you,’ Jinny agreed. ‘Never catch me in one of those things, but it looks good on you.’

Thea nodded slowly. ‘Yes. That will most certainly do. You’ll wear it the rest of the day. Getting around in these things takes a little getting used to.’

Nirayla giggled. ‘I tripped over the skirt at least once a day for the first week.’

‘Unfortunately,’ Thea said, ‘Kaya has less time to adapt. At least you’re used to wearing heels.’

‘Something else I wasn’t used to,’ Nirayla added. ‘You might have it easier if you’re not worrying about the way your foot’s the wrong shape all the same time.’

‘I’m mostly worried I’ll fall out of this thing,’ Kaya grumbled. ‘Can’t I tape it or something?’

‘No,’ Sienna said. ‘A Sister possesses the grace to avoid wardrobe malfunctions.’

‘That’s easy for you to say.’

Sienna laughed. ‘Believe me, keeping a straight face when I say that is not easy. Do the best you can, and… know that any spectators will appreciate it if you fail.’ Kaya’s shoulders sagged in exaggerated exasperation and Sienna broke into laughter again. ‘As I said, when you fail, it’s appreciated.’

16/2/483.

Planet-hopping was, Kaya reflected, a great way to make you wonder how anyone managed to keep track of anything involving time. She had shown off her dress to the others a good four hours before sunset, but that was also just after midnight on BCU standard time. And when Thea announced she wanted to get an early night because they had a lot to do in the morning, it was just two and a half hours after sunset, but it was also six hundred thirty-seven on the standard clock. Just worrying about time on planets was much easier.

Kaya had gone to bed with Thea because that seemed the right thing to do. It was going to be a busy day when they got up. But when they got to Thea’s cabin, Thea just sat on the bed and watched as Kaya began undressing.

‘What?’ Kaya asked when she was undoing the strap on her last sandal.

‘Hm?’

‘You’re staring.’

‘Am I?’ Thea got up from the bed and took off her own dress and shoes while Kaya settled under the sheets and turned on her side, waiting for Thea to cuddle up behind her and turn off the light.

The light went off and Thea slipped under the sheets. There was the now familiar feel of Thea’s firm breasts against Kaya’s back which had discomforted her a little on the first night. There was the feel of Thea’s strong thighs against Kaya’s thinner ones. There was the arm slipping around Kaya’s waist… and the hand cupping her left breast.

Kaya’s eyes burst open. She did not stiffen, but there was surprise. More surprise as Thea’s fingers began to stroke. ‘Thea?’

‘Mm-hmm?’

‘What are y-you doing?’ Whatever her mind was thinking, Kaya’s body was remembering the wish she had had that first night; her nipples stiffened under the soft caress.

‘It’s our last night on the yacht, and I don’t wish to pass up the opportunity.’ Pause. ‘Unless you want me to stop.’

Kaya said nothing for a second or two while her brain tried to process her conflicting desires. Thea slid her fingers up and gently squeezed Kaya’s nipple, and an electric thrill danced down Kaya’s spine making a beeline down between her legs.

‘I…’ Kaya began. Another squeeze, another sharp zing of pleasure. ‘You… You’re with, nngh, Cassandra.’

‘Cassandra? Cassandra is one of my oldest friends and we do share certain benefits, but it’s complicated.’ Thea paused for a second, her finger circling Kaya’s nipple as she did so. ‘I’ll explain when we get back to the Oracle.’

‘O-oh.’

Thea’s hand left Kaya’s breast and began a slow, tantalising slide down Kaya’s stomach. ‘Do you want me to stop, Kaya? Say the word, and I will. We can go to sleep. No hard feelings. None at all.’

Kaya bit her lip. Her stomach muscles were fluttering like mad things. Her body definitely did not want Thea to stop what she was doing. Intellectually, Kaya was worried that things would change when they got back to the Oracle. Was she just being used again? Should she let this happen to her? Again? But Thea was not Jay…

And then Thea’s fingers found Kaya’s labia, slipped between them to the nub beneath, and thought became something Kaya did not really have the energy for. Her back arched, pressing against Thea’s breasts. She was lost and, when Thea’s fingers entered her a few minutes later, there was no way she could think of anything other than what Thea was doing to her body.

Sister Clementina, Ammendine.

Sister Mirganna was waiting for the Sister Clementina when Nirayla steered her into her mooring in the marina. She came aboard before anyone could disembark, and she was wearing a serious expression which suggested she had news of a worrying nature.

There were some pleasantries to take care of before they heard whatever it was, however. ‘A new novice?’ Mirganna asked.

‘Sister Mirganna, this is Kaya,’ Thea explained.

Mirganna looked Kaya over and then smiled. ‘You certainly look the part, young lady. I’m glad they managed to find you.’ Her smile vanished. ‘However, it would seem that someone wants you back. There are Kraggan mercenaries all over Haven and the spaceport. Rumour has it that Xaviran Monteagle was killed and his son is livid.’

‘My fault,’ Jinny said sourly. ‘Well, he was trying to kill me at the time, but I was the one who shot him.’

‘Have they linked us to you?’ Sienna asked.

‘No,’ Mirganna replied. ‘None of them have even come to the chapter house. I sent one of the Sisters out to the spaceport. She was unmolested, so I don’t think they are paying us any attention. Her report indicates that they do appear to be paying particular attention to the landing area your ship is in, however.’

‘Jay knows what the Sword looks like,’ Jinny said.

Thea nodded, frowning. ‘Might we trouble you for somewhere to stay until nightfall, Sister? I need to make some arrangements. We’ll be out of your hair tonight.’

‘Stay as long as you have the need, Sister,’ Mirganna said.

Thea smiled but shook her head. ‘Tonight. We’ll take care of everything then.’

Monteagle’s Prize.

Nuberg-class assault cruisers had a very useful feature on an operation like this one, as far as Garaka Monteagle was concerned anyway: they came equipped with an ops room for directing troops. Xaviran had been directing the troops he had available to him for six local days and nights now, during which time he had managed about sixteen hours of fitful sleep.

Garaka knew he was running on empty and would have to fold to the suggestions of his exec sooner or later and get himself medicated into resting. But he still had some life in him, along with a lot of hate that was working better than coffee and stimulants to keep him going.

When he had discovered what had happened to his father, he had very much wanted to kill the men who had allowed him to go in alone, but he had needed the manpower. He had been rational enough at the time to realise that. In fact, his people had been worried by the calmness with which he took his father’s death. Then he had begun issuing orders and it became clear that he was rational, but extremely angry.

Every merc he had in the system was pulling double shifts. He had called in additional people from out-system, dragging another Nuberg from an active operation. That would not get to Giltanish for another week or more, but it was on its way, costing the company money it needed to rebuild.

No one was willing to call their boss on this. The members of the Kraggans were all hardened killers. It was pretty much a given in an organisation willing to slaughter an entire colony for money, not to mention the numerous ‘trade disputes’ which had ended with one side dying, the acts of piracy, the destruction of an orbital station with its eighteen thousand population… But one look into Garaka’s eyes told them that getting in the way of his revenge was a really bad idea. He might have needed the manpower, but one loudmouth getting thrown out an airlock was not going to make that much difference.

Giltanish Prime Spaceport.

Jay stood in the concourse overlooking the Sword, watching for any sign that Thea, Kaya, and any of the others were returning to the ship. He had managed to get his hands on some light armour and there was a null-field generator attached to his belt. His shotgun was loaded with personnel-suppression rounds, shot shells which would wound but probably not kill. He wanted Kaya alive and any of the others he could take would be a bonus.

He was also pointedly ignoring the insistent stream of messages coming in on his personal unit from the Bowrain delegation on Giltanish Prime. They knew he was on the planet since he had sent them a message indicating that he had important information for them. He had hinted that it had to do with live zanari. That had been enough to get their interest. Now he had nothing to give them. Well, not exactly nothing, but Kaya was the proof he needed that…

He shook his head, a grim smile forming. Luck was a fickle thing to put one’s faith in. It had been pure luck that Kaya had fallen into his lap like that, pure luck that the best smugglers available on Abertine at the time had been a collection of zanari. Now Jay’s luck seemed to have run out, but there was one more roll of the dice to come. Jay meant to make sure the odds were stacked in his favour.

Haven, 17/2/483.

Jinny checked her revolvers one last time before putting them away in a holdall. She had Thea’s sword in there as well, along with a few grenades which she had assured Kaya were ‘largely non-lethal.’ Kaya was not entirely sure what Jinny’s idea of non-lethal was and suspected that being near one when it went off would hurt.

Kaya, along with Thea and Sienna, had stayed in her Sisterhood gown. According to Thea, they would change into something different at the spaceport. In the meantime, Thea had secreted several knives around her person. Kaya could not spot any of them, which was quite amazing and an indication of why Thea seemed to like the dresses, but it was also comforting to know Thea had them. Jinny was making her way to the port separately; the rendezvous was planned for a washroom near the main monorail station.

‘Everyone ready?’ Thea asked. Jinny nodded, as did Sienna.

‘As I’ll ever be,’ Kaya replied.

‘You’ll be fine, Kaya. Stick with Sienna. Keep your eyes open. Don’t panic. I realise this seems weird, but most of these people we’re up against are working off descriptions. They’ve never personally seen us. Just act as though you’re not being hunted and the hunters will ignore you. While you’re in that dress and chain, all they’ll see is the dress and the chain.’

‘Okay. I’ll do my best.’

Thea nodded and turned to Mirganna and Nirayla who were watching the preparations in silence. ‘You’ve both been of great assistance. Next time we see Marienna, I’ll mention your names, and if you need help of a more assertive nature than usual, we can always be contacted through the Peace of Serenity.’

‘It was our duty,’ Mirganna said.

‘And pleasure,’ Nirayla added, flashing a grin at Sienna.

‘Still,’ Thea said, ‘let us know if you need us to repay the… duty.’

‘And one other thing,’ Sienna said, walking over and putting a hand on Nirayla’s shoulder. ‘This one is ready, Mirganna. She’ll make a fine Sister.’

Nirayla’s eyes widened, but she said nothing, letting Mirganna speak. ‘Thank you, Sister Advisor. We will conduct the ceremony as soon as possible.’

‘She deserves it.’

‘All right,’ Thea said. ‘Let’s get moving. The timing on this is semi-critical.’

‘Semi-critical?’ Kaya asked.

‘We’ve got some leeway, but getting this right would be kind of useful. Otherwise we’re going to need to deal with a cruiser as well as the ground troops. That would be less fun than I’d like.’

Giltanish Prime Spaceport.

‘Section three, anything to report?’

Jay listened to the voice traffic over the radio with vague disinterest. Garaka continued to sound annoyed and tired, and it was unlikely that the mercs would see anything until Thea made a run for the Sword.

‘Section three, nothing to report.’

Yeah, nothing to report. If Jay had to guess, the zanari could walk right past Garaka’s goons and not one of them would notice.

‘Section four, report.’

‘Section four, no sightings.’

He had men checking trains coming in on the maglev. Like that was going to do him any good. The volume of traffic alone would make it hard to spot anyone in the crowd.

‘Section five, report.’

‘Section five here. Nothing to report, sir. Thought I had something, but it was a false alarm.’

Jay’s ears perked up. A false alarm? Section five was the maglev station. Maybe if one of the mercs there had really good eyes, he might have seen someone. Maybe, if he had, someone had persuaded him he had been mistaken.

Well, if Thea and Kaya were in the port, they would be making for the Sword. Trying to intercept them was a waste of time. Turning to the stairs behind him, Jay started down to the landing pad level.

~~~

‘I was sure that mercenary spotted me,’ Kaya said. At the moment, she was alone in the washroom with Thea and Sienna, but someone might decide they needed to use the place at any moment and there were women among the mercs, so they might have decided to check. The three of them were, therefore, in separate cubicles, waiting for Jinny to arrive.

‘He did,’ Sienna said. ‘And then he decided that you looked nothing like the woman he was looking for.’

‘Oh.’

‘Don’t worry, Kaya,’ Thea said from her other side. ‘We’ve done things like this before.’

‘Yes, but I haven’t.’

‘You’re doing fine. Jinny will be here with a change of clothes in another minute. Then it’s a short walk to the ship and we’re home free.’

‘Somehow, I don’t think it’ll be that easy.’

‘Oh, it will be. I’ll be making sure there’s no one in the way to bother you.’

~~~

There was no way to get aboard the ship. Jay had checked earlier and found no obvious means of opening the hatch. Maybe it was some sort of radio command, or maybe it responded to telepathy or telekinesis. Whatever, the ideal solution of laying an ambush inside the craft was out.

There was little in the way of cover nearby too; Giltanish Prime prided itself on its looks, so packing crates on the landing pads was a big no-no. There were the landing struts the Sword was resting on, big legs, retractable, but designed to hold up three thousand tonnes of spacecraft. They would at least make him harder to spot.

Jay moved in behind the forward strut and crouched down, his shotgun at the ready in his hands. Now all he needed was a target.

~~~

They were operating in teams of four, which made neutralising them difficult, but diverting them was quite a reasonable possibility.

Thea watched the mercs patrolling down the corridor, brash as anything, and wondered how Monteagle had swung that with the planetary authorities. Probably by shouting at them a lot. Maybe he had favours he had called in. Maybe the local authorities were as annoyed about the death of Xaviran Monteagle as his son was. No matter.

Four men in combat suits with assault needlers. Which would have been tough if there had not been a lot of civilian traffic on the walkway. Some big cruise liner had to have come in recently or something, which was fine by Thea. The mercs were walking two-by-two, and she turned her attention to one of the back pair, the closest to her.

Look to your left.

The man’s head jerked around, his body and rifle following it. For a second, he saw Thea, grinning at him through the crowd. Then she was off, running back the way they had come from. He raised his weapon, but there were just too many people. He was authorised to shoot, but unnecessary non-combatant casualties were not permitted.

‘Shit! She’s there! Behind us. Uh, section four here. Target sighted heading for section three. All teams converge on section three.’

He was already giving chase, the display on his helmet visor indicating that his team was following. A brief second later, he could see other teams around the port moving to close in on their target. They were going to get her. She would be caught in a pincer in section three. No problem.

Thea watched from the side of the corridor as the fireteam ran past. By now, they had lost sight of her, but they were working on the theory that she had nowhere to go but ahead. She waited for them to run on for thirty metres or so and then stepped back out into the crowds. She was almost at the ship and the others would be following soon.

But she had not seen Jay yet. Somehow, she expected Jay to still be a problem, and the fact that he had, so far, failed to appear made it seem more like an issue waiting to happen.

~~~

The lowering of the stairs from the airlock did not make a lot of noise, but it made some and Jay tensed as he heard it. Someone was there. Probably not Kaya. He doubted Kaya knew the trick to opening the hatch. Maybe Jinny, probably Thea.

Jay swung around the strut and lifted his gun. Thea. Thea not yet aware of him. He fired. At least one pellet whined off the descending metalwork, but most of them hit. He could tell because he could see them falling to the concrete having, as far as Jay could tell, flattened against Thea’s skin. How… She had done something to protect Kaya back on Abertine. Diyou! Ducking back behind the landing strut, Jay reached for a cartridge on his belt.

‘There you are,’ Thea called out. ‘I was wondering where you were. And you’ve got a null-field generator on you too. Clever man.’

Jay rushed to get the cartridge into the receiver. Part of him was wondering why she had not rushed him. Why was she not coming around the strut to attack him? The null field? Was she trying to stay outside the null field?

‘Kaya wants you kept alive, Jay,’ Thea went on. ‘In the spirit of that desire, if you come out and give me the gun, I won’t break all your teeth.’

Jay stepped around the strut again, raising his gun. ‘You talk too much,’ he said, and pulled the trigger.

The slug punched through Thea’s shirt and she gave a grunt, frowning. Jay saw blood, but somehow there did not seem to be enough of it. ‘Now I am going to break your teeth,’ Thea said. She closed the distance between them with two long strides, her left hand forming a fist and driving at Jay’s face. He spotted the feint, rocking his head back to avoid the punch, but he could not get his gun around fast enough to block her second strike. Her fingers jabbed into his right bicep and his arm went dead.

Shock hit Jay right as he heard his gun falling onto the concrete, but he threw a wild punch with his left hand, which connected with nothing at all. Thea’s elbow came at him and he dodged aside, but then her hand came in out of left field, jabbing at one of his temples. His vision blurred briefly and two more jabs slammed into him, rocking him on his feet.

‘Go down, idiot,’ Thea told him, her words coming through a haze of pain and fog.

Jay’s knees gave out and he collapsed onto the concrete, and Thea was beside him, checking his pulse. She frowned. ‘Stupid damn fool,’ she muttered, and began hauling him toward the stairs.

~~~

The airlock’s outer door sealed behind them and Kaya waited along with Sienna and Jinny for the inner door to open. There had been no problems getting to the ship; Jinny had looked distinctly annoyed about that, but Kaya was just relieved.

‘Thea?’ Sienna called out. ‘How are we doing?’

‘We’re doing fine,’ Thea’s voice came back from the speakers. ‘I have launch clearance. We’ll be airborne as soon as you lot are sitting down. So get sat down.’

The inner door opened and they walked through, heading for the lounge with its seats.

‘Any trouble?’ Jinny asked.

‘That would depend upon your definition of trouble. I ran into Jay…’

‘Is he okay?’ Kaya asked quickly.

‘He’s in the medical bay. He’ll be fine, once the autodoc has finished with him. It’s programmed to keep him unconscious, however. I had to hit him a few times before he’d stop fighting back.’

‘Oh. Well, I didn’t say you couldn’t hit him. Or kill him if you really had to.’

‘I know. I didn’t exactly mind hitting him. We’ll deal with him later, after Geo’s had a look at him. For now, we have a Kraggan cruiser to deal with. Jinny, you’re on point defence. Let’s hustle, people.’

Monteagle’s Prize.

‘Sir, that ship you told us to monitor? It’s left the ground.’

Garaka Monteagle blinked at the lieutenant who had spoken and frowned. His brain was working on too little sleep and it took him a second to realise what he was being told. ‘Contact the ground teams, get them to verify. I thought they were closing in on one of the bitches?’

‘That was the report, sir. Apparently they weren’t.’

Garaka bit back on his immediate response. ‘I’m going to the flight deck. Contact them and tell them to bring the weapons online. I want us ready to intercept as soon as that ship is clear of the atmosphere.’

‘Yes, sir,’ the lieutenant replied. He snapped off a salute before turning to his comms unit.

Garaka stalked off toward the door. They might have got past the ground teams, but he was not letting them get past him.

Sword of Zanar.

‘They’ll attack as soon as we get out of the atmosphere,’ Jinny said into the microphone on her headset.

‘I know,’ Thea replied. ‘Just be ready to counter any missiles they throw this way.’

‘That won’t help if they can bring their graser turrets to bear.’

‘If this works right, you won’t even have to counter the missiles, Jin. Don’t sweat what you can’t affect.’

‘That’s easy for you to say. You’ve got a century and a half on me. I don’t want to miss out on all that due time.’

In the flight chair in the central control room, Thea smiled despite the situation. ‘You’re over seven hundred and you’re worried about a mere hundred and fifty?’

‘Have you any idea how much I could blow up in a hundred and fifty years?’

‘Huh. Hold on to that thought. We’ll be clear of the atmosphere in… five… four…’

Monteagle’s Prize.

‘They’re clearing the atmosphere now, sir,’ the bridge officer said as Garaka walked in.

‘Fire at will,’ Garaka replied, heading for the captain’s chair.

‘Gunnery, fire tubes one and two. Get a firing solution for the cannon.’

Two forty-centimetre missiles, each carrying a high-explosive warhead, flew from the launchers in the Prize’s blunt bow. A second after their rapid expulsion, their engines fired, driving them toward their target as it rose from the planet below.

Sword of Zanar.

‘Incoming,’ Jinny announced, her voice calm. ‘Engaging.’

Invisible beams of coherent gamma rays began lancing out from two of the Sword’s turrets and missiles began to explode before they were even close to hitting their target.

Kaya could not see that, however. ‘Are we going to be okay?’

Thea glanced at her tracking displays and smiled. ‘We’re going to be fine, Kaya,’ she said. ‘Any second now, however, that cruiser is going to get a nasty surprise.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Oh, you don’t think Cassandra’s going to stay out of this, do you?’

‘Cassandra? But I thought she was staying out of the way.’

Thea laughed. ‘Oh, she was…’

Oracle of Zanar.

Waiting for Thea to get in touch had been an annoying, interminable period which Cassandra had not enjoyed. The Oracle had been sitting at the L1 point between Giltanish Prime and its star for weeks. Every civilised planet with an iota of self-preservation instinct had objects at the L1 point monitoring solar activity, and there were generally a few other things out there to take advantage of the plentiful, free energy. Giltanish was no exception and one more spacecraft in halo orbit around the gravitational balance point was just extra clutter as far as most sensor systems were concerned. It was outside the planet’s hyper limit, which made telepathic communication impossible, and that just made the wait more annoying.

Now, however, the wait was over. The Oracle had been powering in for three hours, dumping most of its velocity for the last ninety minutes, but keeping on enough for the manoeuvre Cassandra had planned. She grazed the atmosphere on the loop around Giltanish Prime and came up and out in a passing action which brought her in under the Monteagle’s Prize. They might never know what hit them.

‘Fay,’ Cassandra said over the internal comms, ‘we have line of sight. You may fire when ready.’

Fay, in the forward gunnery control station, had been ready for thirty minutes. She had full schematics for the Nuberg-class cruiser available, plenty of time to plan, and two very nasty weapons to fire. Fay was, at heart, something of a pacifist, but she was also a filarax. She found the slaughter of innocents abhorrent, which was why her people had chosen to hunt her to death, but she had absolutely no problem killing people who could fight back and showed no desire to avoid violence. She programmed her targets in a few seconds and executed the fire commands.

Monteagle’s Prize.

‘Their point-defence fire is extremely effective, sir,’ the gunnery officer announced. ‘We’re not getting anything close.’

Garaka slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair. ‘I want that ship destroyed! Fire every–’ Pain lanced through Garaka’s chest and he clutched at it, unable to really understand what was happening to him as the beam of a psi-powered weapon played across the ship, causing massive disruption to the autonomic nervous system of almost everyone on the ship.

In the forward weapons bay, a telekinetic beam began chewing into the substance of the vessel. Metal shrieked as it was crushed or pulled to the limits of its tensile strength. Fay had targeted the weapon bay for one very good reason, and if the crew had not been gasping for breath or keeling over from heart failure, they might have realised the trouble they were in before it actually hit them. As it was, no one even tried to prevent the chain reaction as the ten remaining missiles waiting to be launched exploded, ripping the cruiser apart from the inside as the Oracle of Zanar flew past.

Garaka Monteagle would probably have died before any of his crew could get to him to resuscitate him, but as it was, he died when the flight deck was torn apart, along with everyone else on the ship.

Oracle of Zanar, Hyperspace.

Kaya was feeling… a little out of sorts.

They were safe. There was no way any of the Kraggans were going to follow them into hyperspace, assuming there were any Kraggans left to do it, and the Ishara Complex might have viewed the Kraggans as their own, private, dirty police force, but they were not going to seek revenge over the loss of a cruiser which had fired on a ship leaving the planet. They might have to deal with Garaka Monteagle at some point, but Jay, who was the main problem, was tucked away in the medical bay. Geogracus had been less than enthusiastic about making sure he did not die, but Kaya had been quite persuasive.

The Sword had re-joined the Oracle on the move without incident. Cassandra and Fay had moved all of Kaya’s things from the cabin she had been using to a new one on the starboard side where Jinny and Fay had their cabins. Jinny thought it was fabulous and that they would have loads of fun. Kaya had been happy to have a change of clothes on hand and had slipped back into top and shorts, though she had left her Sisterhood chain around her neck because she somehow felt that taking it off was wrong.

There had been food and the recounting of the adventures they had all been on for those who had not heard them. Even Geogracus turned up for some of it, though Kaya got the vague impression it was mostly to hear what treatment Kaya might need following her ordeal.

Kaya had been horrified to discover that Thea had been shot, but Geogracus declined to bother treating her for the wound which was, Kaya had to admit, not what you might call serious. Thea had taken a shotgun slug in the stomach and it had apparently caused a bit of an injury, more bruising than anything. Thea assured her that it would be healed within a day; biokinetics were a wonderful thing in more than one way.

So, everything was more or less fine, but Kaya was still feeling wrong, and the reason for that was that she was preparing to go to bed, not in her own cabin, but in Thea’s. Cassandra had said nothing about it when Thea had suggested that Kaya might like to join her. Kaya had not declined either, but as she reached for the hem of her T-shirt and realised that she was about to have sex with Cassandra’s lover aboard the ship Cassandra ran… she felt a little out of sorts.

‘Something wrong?’ Thea asked.

‘No,’ Kaya said. ‘Yes. I’m… I don’t know… Sleeping with you on Giltanish Prime was one thing, but now we’re here and–’

‘And I haven’t explained about Cassandra yet.’ Thea nodded. ‘Well, now’s as good a time as any. Leave your shirt on. We’re going for a walk.’

‘Where?’

‘Central control.’ Thea started for the door, pulling her tunic back on. ‘You are going to meet Cassandra.’

‘Huh? I thought I’d already met her.’

‘Yes… And also no. Better explained once you see. Come on.’

Thea’s cabin was aboard the Sword, housed in the upper part of the forward section of the Oracle. Once they got out of it, however, Thea took Kaya down to the deck below and to a heavy-looking door which appeared as though it did not get opened very often.

‘Forward of here is the main sensor array and the analysis consoles for that,’ Thea said. ‘Behind this door is the main control centre for the Oracle of Zanar. And in another way, behind this door is the oracle of Zanar.’

‘I… don’t understand,’ Kaya replied.

‘No, probably not.’ Thea looked around at the door. ‘Open it up, Cassy. It’s time you two met properly.’

There was a pause, and then the huge door slid sideways to reveal the chamber behind it. Lights came on with a flicker that somehow suggested they were rarely used. Kaya frowned and stepped through into what did, sort of, look like a control room. Along both sides there were banks of computer systems, racks of them complete with blinking lights, small screens across which text scrolled, and various slots where portable storage devices of various types could be plugged in. There was a console on each side, but nothing which seemed to be for extended use and certainly no obvious flight control system.

In the centre of the room was a column, bolted to floor and ceiling. It was featureless at first glance, but when Kaya got closer, she could see seams. It was such a centre point of the room that it had to be something important.

Of Cassandra, there was no sign.

‘Okay,’ Thea said. ‘Um, this might be a bit of a shock so… brace yourself.’

‘For what?’ Kaya asked. ‘I don’t see anything that–’ She stopped as the seams opened up on the column. Slowly, the metal shields retracted upward into the ceiling, revealing some sort of tank hidden within the column. It took Kaya several seconds to realise what she was seeing floating in the tank, wired into the ship as though it was another component in the control system. Which, in a way, it was…

Hello, Kaya, Cassandra’s voice said into Kaya’s mind. I hope my real appearance doesn’t cause too much distress.

‘I…’ Kaya stopped to compose herself. ‘Can… Can you actually hear me?’

Yes, I can hear you.

‘Um, you’re a disembodied brain. What’s the Cassandra I’ve seen walking around the ship?’

A robotic avatar I control remotely. Especially when we have guests, I prefer to present the fiction that I still have a body to walk around in.

‘Oh. Yes, I can see why you’d– Who did this to you, Cassandra?’ The last came out in a rush as the burning question in Kaya’s brain refused to stay put.

Thea, would you mind?

‘As you wish,’ Thea said and it was obvious that Cassandra had been transmitting to them both. Thea walked over to the column, running her fingers over the glass. Within it, the fluid Cassandra’s brain floated in was a slightly bluish colour, which did not do a lot for the flesh inside it, but there was not a lot you could do to make a naked brain attractive. ‘Cassandra was born a bit less than two and a half years before me,’ Thea went on. ‘She was… brilliant. We met when I was six, advanced for my class I must admit, but compared to Cassy I was a simpleton. Don’t argue, Cassy. I was.’ Thea looked around at Kaya and smiled. ‘She helped me with my work at school, pushed me to do better. We became fast friends. I knew there was something a little wrong with her, but I didn’t really understand until years later.’

Thea paused, stroking the glass a few more times before moving away. Kaya was not sure what the memories were like for Cassandra, but they seemed to hurt Thea quite enough for both of them.

‘Cassy was born with a genetic anomaly no one caught. It affected her nervous system. Progressively. When I first met her, she was not as quick or dextrous as most girls her age, but she could walk and run and play. By the time we were old enough to realise that maybe we were interested in making our friendship something a little more… intimate, Cassy couldn’t walk. Her hands trembled if she tried to do anything involving delicate movements. The doctors were treating her, trying all sorts of techniques to regenerate her failing nerves, but they gave her a couple of years before she would need machines just to keep her alive.’

‘That’s terrible,’ Kaya said. ‘And that’s, um, not really a useful thing to say…’

Thea gave Kaya a small grin. ‘Oh, she confounded them. She kept going for a decade even though breathing was hard and she could barely move her arms. Her brain wasn’t affected, you see, and she had so much talent. Psi talent, yes, but not just that. She’s a genius.’ Thea glanced at the brain. ‘Yes, you are. Modesty doesn’t become you.’ Thea returned her attention to Kaya and the smile on her face was more genuine. ‘She didn’t have much to do but read, so that’s what she did. She absorbed information like a sponge, turned herself into one of the Protectorate’s greatest experts on the science behind psi. She turned the field on its head, came up with new theories. Still, I don’t think things would have turned out quite so, um, happily if it wasn’t for one of her psi talents. Cassy is a precog.’

Kaya’s eyes widened. ‘She can see the future?’

‘Sort of. Ask her to explain it sometime, but what precognitives do is look at the present. All of it. Somehow. There’s never been a precog that wasn’t also a fairly powerful clairvoyant and Cassy is a powerful clairvoyant. Normally, like any other psi ability, they would be limited by the hyper limit barriers, but precogs can bypass that somehow and catch just a glimpse of everything, everywhere. Then they extrapolate that into the future. It’s never conscious. They can’t control it. Some have dreams, while others can only see things related to themselves. Cassy gets visions. She saw the fall of Zanar years before it happened, but it wasn’t believed until nothing which could be done would change it.’

‘So, you can change it?’

‘Uh-huh. It’s an extrapolation from now. It’s all probabilities. Even just knowing that the future is likely to turn out one way could be enough to change the outcome. Usually it’s more complicated than that. Some things she sees are basically impossible to do anything about. Some things are easy. Anyway, Cassy’s talent for prediction, combined with her mind in general, was considered too unique and important to lose. Precogs are really rare. So, they built the Oracle of Zanar around her. She helped design it. It keeps her alive, even if she’s nothing but a brain now.’

Kaya nodded, but she was frowning. ‘Okay… But what does this have to do with you and me, and you and Cassandra?’

‘Ah.’ Kaya was surprised to see that Thea was actually blushing a little. ‘Well, even before all this, I was a sort of sexual surrogate for Cassy. When she couldn’t have a physical relationship with me, or anyone, I went out and got her the experiences. I trained myself up in telepathy so I could do it. I’d have sex, and I’d send the sensations I was feeling to Cassy. When she finally got the avatar she uses along with the Oracle, we finally got to do something a bit more physical and we’ve never stopped. But… Well, we’ve been doing this for hundreds of years, Kaya. We get together some nights and we enjoy ourselves, but we aren’t exactly lovers any more. Cassy sleeps with Sienna and Jinny sometimes too. Occasionally, if we have someone else aboard, she’ll go with them.’

‘Okay…’

‘And I’m not saying I won’t spend a night with her, even if I’m spending nights with you, but Cassy doesn’t mind so long as you can handle it.’

I don’t, Cassy said. I’m a disembodied brain. I take it where I can get it and I certainly don’t begrudge Thea taking a new partner. She’s quite picky about serious relationships.

‘But it does depend on you,’ Thea said. ‘If you’re not comfortable with it… Well, I’m the one losing out, but I’m old enough to cope.’

‘Well…’ Kaya said. ‘I guess I won’t really know if I’m okay with it until we try.’

Thea’s lips twisted into a slightly mischievous grin. ‘Does that mean I get to show you what a gravity bed can do for your sex life?’

‘I guess you do. Isn’t it a bit difficult to do anything in that field?’

‘Oh, it’s just a matter of manipulating the field controls. Consider it an incentive to improving your telekinetic abilities. For now, you’ll just have to make do with being under my complete and total control.’

She can be a real meany, Cassandra said and there was laughter in her thought.

‘Somehow,’ Kaya said, ‘I think I’m going to regret this, but… Let’s go to bed, Thea.’

Have a good night, Kaya. And remember, there’s plenty of time to catch up on your sleep tomorrow.

19/2/483.

Sienna had been busy. Now everyone except Geogracus was gathered in a conference room up on the top deck, which Kaya had not even known existed, to hear Sienna’s report on Jay.

The room was fairly large, with a circular table forming the centrepiece. Around that were ten chairs. It gave the impression of no one being in charge, though there was a natural tendency to defer to Thea as she sat down, called everyone to order, and immediately passed the baton to Sienna. Thea just had that something about her that said ‘leader.’

‘All right,’ Sienna began, ‘the first thing you should all know is that Sor Colder is not Sor Colder. Jay Colder is an alias.’

‘Figures,’ Kaya said. ‘He lied about just about everything else.’

Sienna flashed Kaya a smile, though it was not an especially happy one. ‘In this case, he had a little more reason to. He claimed to have been kicked out of his family, and that was true. It’s just that his family name is Bowrain. His real, full name is Jaylacus Bowrain.’

‘Don’t I know that name?’ Thea asked.

‘He’s in the database,’ Cassandra said. Or, now that Kaya knew the secret, Cassandra’s avatar said. ‘He’s from one of the lesser family lines with only a vague relationship to Darvin.’ She turned to Kaya. ‘Darvin is the current head of the family and would have had to disown Jaylacus himself for the censure to take effect.’

‘So, why was he kicked out?’ Kaya asked.

‘He had a plan to climb further up the family tree,’ Sienna replied. ‘He has two older brothers and an older sister, so his chances of becoming anything more than a glorified clerk in the family business were quite slim. He chose a different path. He tried to seduce Darvin Bowrain’s third daughter, Amidahara, hoping that he could arrange a marriage with her before her parents found out. He had her under his thumb.’

‘That sounds familiar,’ Kaya grumbled.

‘But Darvin’s security agents turned out to be better than Jay thought. They were caught when they tried to elope.’

‘What you’re saying is that he makes a habit of seducing gullible young women,’ Kaya said.

‘Young women with a strong desire for romantic involvement,’ Sienna corrected. ‘Though, from all accounts, Amidahara is something of a free spirit; she is not gullible in the traditional sense. I suspect she saw the pairing as a means of thumbing her nose at her parents. They married her off to someone “more suitable” fairly soon after the attempted elopement. You, Kaya, are not gullible either. Jay took us all in. I’d say something about men at this point, but even I have to admit that they aren’t all like Jaylacus. His psychology is aberrant. One can blame his upbringing, but he has suppressed the normal capacity to empathise with others. He simply does not feel the pain he causes and his only goal is advancement. His hope was that handing you over to the Bowrains would allow him to worm his way back into the fold.’

‘I don’t see how I could have done that for him.’

‘You were the proof he needed. Proof that Kadal Narra was creating more zanari. He had something, but you were the final piece of evidence.’

‘What did he have?’ Thea asked.

‘You aren’t going to believe this. Or like it. The package you delivered to those people on Abertine was actually a set of data cards. The case was camouflage, making it look like something large. They could have shipped the whole thing in a pocket. Jaylacus stole those data cards and hid them in a compartment in the stock of his shotgun. Those contacts had contacts, however. The Abertine patrol officers were looking for Jaylacus in that bar, not Kaya. Kaya was, at first, just a convenient way to get off-world before he was caught. When he realised who Kaya was and what we were, of course, his plans changed.’

‘I retrieved the data cards,’ Cassandra said. ‘They detail a number of experiments Narra has conducted in several systems. There is also a complete list of systems used as test sites, but without the detail.’

Thea frowned. ‘Does Jay know who he stole them from?’

‘Yes,’ Sienna replied, ‘but they were simply a middleman. He doesn’t know who the ultimate recipient was, but he believes the data was meant for an organisation dealing in genetic augmentation, or a group opposed to it.’

‘That narrows it down… not at all.’

‘I can only work with what’s in his mind, Thea.’

‘I know. Cassy, you’ll go over the data on these cards?’

‘Of course,’ Cassandra replied, nodding. ‘I’ve already begun a full analysis.’

‘Good. Sienna, what have you done about Jay?’

‘I’ve removed his memory of events on Abertine and with us,’ Sienna said. ‘He won’t remember anything about the data, or us.’

‘He won’t remember me?’ Kaya asked.

‘No. If he sees you on the street, he won’t even recognise you. Or any of us. It’s the safest way. However, I decided that he needed some… punishment for his actions, so I also did a little work on his mind to reinstate all those emotive capabilities he should have anyway. When he wakes up, I suspect he’ll look back on all the other people he’s hurt, including his very first conquest, and suddenly realise what he’s done.’

‘That’s… evil.’ Kaya’s lips curled at the edges as she thought it over. ‘I like it.’

Jinny giggled. ‘Wow, Kaya, I never thought you had that kind of vindictive streak in you. Good for you, girl!’

Port Town, Harroway Alpha, 20/2/483.

Thea and Kaya appeared in a back alley off one of the main thoroughfares of Port Town. Jay was hanging over their shoulders and Kaya almost dropped him as the disorientation of the teleport hit her.

‘You okay?’ Thea asked.

‘Will be,’ Kaya replied. ‘I’ll get used to doing that eventually.’

‘Yes, you will. Let’s get this guy sat down so I can give him the stimulant and we can get out of here.’

They had dressed Jay in some of the clothes he had left aboard the Oracle when he left with Kaya, and strapped his shotgun in place, fully loaded but without its payload of data cards. Together, Thea and Kaya propped him against a wall, out of sight of anyone walking past, and Thea took out a one-shot injector, pressing it to Jay’s neck. There was a hiss.

‘It’ll take him about thirty seconds to come to,’ Thea said. ‘Get ready to be dizzy again.’

‘It’s not really dizzy,’ Kaya said. ‘It’s more like–’ The cold emptiness of hyperspace swallowed her words and, though she realised she was once again looking at the teleport room on the Oracle, she had to pause before she could go on. ‘It’s more like my brain needs to reboot.’

‘Package delivered?’ Fay asked from the control console.

‘I’d have made an analogy involving garbage and an alley myself,’ Thea said. ‘But, yes.’

‘Good. Cassandra says she has some information from the local data networks.’

‘Why am I sure that it won’t be good news?’ Kaya said.

‘I’d imagine that would be due to recent events,’ the filarax said, pushing her mouth into one of her not-quite-natural smiles. ‘It’s my hope that a little peace and quiet might return you to your former, more optimistic state.’

‘Maybe. Should we go see what Cassandra’s found?’

They did not have to walk far since the conference room was on the same level as the teleport room and Cassandra was waiting for them there. ‘We’ll hold in orbit here for an hour or so,’ she said, ‘then I plan to pull out of the system. We can go out to a local brown dwarf and consider what we plan to do from there.’

‘Why the desire to be away from here?’ Thea asked. ‘Not that here is worth hanging around for, but still…’

‘I found a couple of postings on the BCU Security bulletin feeds. One is a missing person notice for someone matching Jaylacus’s description. The other is a request for the immediate reporting of “unusual psi activity.” Both notices offer rewards for any information. It would appear that the Bowrain family have some information regarding us and they are seeking Jaylacus to fill in the details.’

‘But that won’t help them,’ Kaya said. ‘Will it?’

‘Sienna can’t remove memories, only make them inaccessible. Something could, theoretically, make them resurface and the Bowrains may have someone who can remove the blocks the way Sienna put them in. It would not be trivial, but it would be possible.’

Thea gave a small shrug. ‘Nothing much we can do about it. Cassy, take a look at that list of test sites and find us one a long way away from here. We’ll head out there and see what we can uncover. If they do get their hands on Jay’s memories of us, we won’t be anywhere near where they’ll start looking.’

Cassandra nodded. ‘I’ll start looking for a suitable destination as soon as we get out of this system, but give me a couple of days. I think we could all do with a little rest and relaxation somewhere quiet.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ Thea said. ‘I think I’ll start that after some sleep. Wake me up when we get there.’ There was a slight pause and then, ‘Coming, Kaya?’

‘I thought you said you wanted to sleep,’ Kaya replied.

‘Yeah. And when I wake up, I want to relax. Come on.’

Kaya grinned and started after Thea, and then blushed at the thoroughly dirty laugh from Cassandra which followed her out the door.

Oracle of Zanar, Unnamed Brown Dwarf System, 21/2/483.

Kaya stood in her cabin, examining her clothing options. She was going to have to book some time on the fabricator system and get some more clothes, but actually picking something to fabricate was going to take some thought and the process was not immediate enough for her needs. She wanted something now, not in an hour or two.

She wanted something, she realised with a hint of surprise, that Thea would like to see her in. The idea of dressing to please someone else was not exactly alien, she had done it for Jay, though whether that had worked or he had been intending to ‘fall for her charms’ anyway was a matter of conjecture. She pushed that thought aside with a growl of annoyance and refocused on her wardrobe selection.

And her eyes fell on something hanging right at the end…

~~~

Thea looked up from her tablet as Kaya emerged from her cabin. An eyebrow was raised. ‘It was my understanding,’ Thea said, ‘that you would never be able to wear that without blushing.’

Kaya walked over to the sofas in the communal lounge, taking care on the oddly designed boots; they were actually easier to walk in than she had thought they would be. ‘Well, I never imagined I’d do half the things I’ve been doing with you over the last few days at all, never mind without blushing.’

‘Mm-hmm, but that was in private. Other people are going to see you walking around looking like that.’

Shrugging, Kaya sat down beside Thea. ‘I’m a zanari and, since I have nowhere else to go and I’m not sure I’d want to if I did, a member of this crew. I think it’s time I tried dressing like one.’ The tunic and shorts outfit was as surprisingly comfortable as the boots. Whatever the material was, it seemed to adapt to the wearer, fitting snuggly without the feeling the Sisterhood dress had that you were one shoulder movement away from exposing more of yourself than intended. It felt good, and not a little sexy.

‘I’m not going to complain,’ Thea said, smiling. ‘So long as you’re comfortable.’

‘I am. It’s weird, but I am. Not the clothes, which are comfortable, but here, on this ship, with all of you. I never thought anywhere would really feel like home aside from Sadrine’s Drift, but I feel like I’m home.’

‘Good. I’m glad. I’ll get Cassy to put you on the rotas for chores.’

‘Wait, there are chores?’

Thea held her straight face and raised an eyebrow. ‘Of course there are chores.’

‘Okay, you can drop me off at the next planet.’

‘What happened to “I thought nowhere would feel like home after Sadrine’s Drift?”’

‘Well… Yeah, but… chores.’

###

Notes

Here are a few notes on the setting which you may find useful.

The Bowrain Commercial Calendar (BCC)

The calendar system employed throughout the Bowrain Commercial Union (BCU) was actually established with the Union on 17/3/178 BCC and then backdated to the ‘official’ end of the Solar Empire period. It was based on the standard 60-day contract periods the Bowrain family used with their workforce and the empire’s official 365-day year.

Each year is divided into six sexagoy. The first five of these are 61 days in length and the sixth is 60 days, thus creating a 365-day official year. There are no leap years.

Beyond that, the system works much like old Earth’s Gregorian calendar, with 7-day weeks, 24-hour days, with an hour split into 60 minutes each of 60 seconds.

Synchronisation of galactic time is carried out through observation of certain clearly defined pulsars and the use of sensitive quantum clocks. While most systems have their own local time and calendar (due to the differences in day and year length), most interstellar corporations and many local ones begin and end contracts according to BCC standard time.

The Trade Language

What is now known simply as Trade, or Common Trade, became the standard language used across the BCU even before the BCU was formed. Some time in the Solar Empire period, linguists recognised a commonly used lingua franca which had supplanted true English as the most widely used language across the empire. By the time of the BCU, it is just one of those things whose origins are lost in the mists of time, but the original language was formed from English with additions (mostly loan words) from Chinese, Russian, and Spanish.

Lexicon

BCC: Bowrain Commercial Calendar (see details above).

Bowrain Commerce Union (BCU): More or less what it says on the tin; the current galaxy-scale ‘government’ which is largely there to handle trade disputes and keep commerce working. Originally negotiated by the Bowrain family, who still retain considerable power within it.

Buckies: Fairly pejorative nickname for BCU Security.

Cào: Generally an expletive in Trade. ‘Fuck!’

Daformi: Species of insect-like aliens known to the zanari. Singular: daforma.

Diyou: Word in Trade from the Chinese ‘Dìyù’ (地狱) meaning ‘Hell.’ Used in place of the English word to obfuscate the ‘Christian’ meaning. Pronounced ‘dee-ow.’

Filarax: A species with high psi capabilities and, generally, a rather territorial attitude.

Hepps–Montague drive: Technical name (among humans) for hyperspace drive systems.

Hepps–Montague field: A vector field permeating spacetime and hyperspace which is responsible for psi effects. Named for its discoverers, Barrington Hepps and Lionel Montague, who first formulated their theory for the field in 2132 CE on the Gregorian calendar (1564 PH, 1564 years before the Solar Empire period).

Hepps–Montague–Drifield drive: Technical name for pressor drive systems.

Inplaniti: Off-worlder, alien. Plural: inplanitin.

Jiàn hé Shŏu: From Chinese ‘sword and hand’ (剑和手). An elite force within the zanari military assigned to guard the zanari senate as well as carrying out special operations activities in time of war. Also the name of the martial system they used, based around employing psi abilities in combat.

Madre: Equivalent to Sora when differentiating an older member of the same family or when expressing respect for someone older than you.

Mind, the: Always capitalised because it’s a religious concept akin to God. Believers in the Universal Mind, Minders, view the Hepps–Montague field as a physical manifestation of the mind of the universe.

Minder: A believer in the Universal Mind.

Moshonka: Russian for ‘scrotum.’ Used in the same sense as ‘nuts’ or ‘balls’ when describing male anatomy.

Nong: Derisive term for someone from a backwater colony. Derived from the Chinese for ‘farmer,’ ‘Nóngmín’ (农民); a lot of lower-tech colonies are agricultural.

Padre: Used as ‘Mr’ when referring to an older male of the same family or when expressing respect for someone older than you; equivalent to Sor.

Pressor Drive: A reactionless, normal-space drive based around an application of pressor technology. Actually, the drive came first since it was easier to build such large devices than the (generally) smaller tractor/pressor devices.

Psi: Psychic powers, their use and training.

Psi field: Common name for the Hepps–Montague field.

Psionics (1): Technology related to and derived from psi powers.

Psionics (2): The common name for the field of physics related to the study and manipulation of the psi field.

Sexagoy: One of the six ‘months’ of the calendar year under the BCC. The first five are 61 days long, the last is 60 days.

Shlooka: Trade word for a prostitute, slut, ‘bit on the side,’ or a woman who dresses ‘inappropriately’ as defined by local culture. Can be applied to a man in the first three senses, but cultures which worry over clothing mores tend to still have double standards. Derived from Russian, ‘shlyukha’ (шлюха).

Sor/Sora: Mr/Miss in Common Trade. Derived from Spanish (señor, señorita), via a few millennia of mangling.

Solar Empire: The first large-scale government formed from Earth colonies and ruled from Sol. Founded in 2698 CE (Gregorian Calendar), it continued for over 4600 years.

Stink: Common nickname for planetside police forces.

Unit: Shortened from BCU standard currency unit, the interstellar currency used throughout the BCU. Local currencies exist, and generally have exchange rates. Local monetary names include: dollar, credit, scrip and crown.

Universal Mind: See Mind.

Zanari: A sub-species of human with very strong psi abilities. While it’s supposed that they were all wiped out with the Zanari Protectorate, they are still figures of legend within the BCU, frequently used to scare children into behaving.

Zanari Protectorate: A collection of worlds colonised by a human-offshoot species, the Zanari. Noted for its deep understanding of psi. Destroyed by remnants of the Solar Empire prior to the formation of the BCU.

About the Author

I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.

Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.

I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote science fiction when I was playing Traveller. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still love the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.

Recently I took the big step of quitting my day job and taking up full-time writing. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, J.D. Robb, and Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.

For More Information

Take a look at the Witches and Ray-guns blog: http://witchesandrayguns.wordpress.com

Amazon US Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B006J6II9O

Amazon UK Author Page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B006J6II9O

Other Books by this Author

The Thaumatology Series

Thaumatology 101

Demon’s Moon

Legacy

Dragon’s Blood

Disturbia

Hammer of Witches

Eagle’s Shadow

Ancient

Dragonfall

The Other Side of Hell

For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll

Vengeance

A Midsummer’s Nightmare – 2017

Anthologies in the Thaumatology Universe

Tales from High Towers’ Study

Tales from the Dubh Linn

The Aneka Jansen Books

Steel Beneath The Skin

The Cold Steel Mind

Steel Heart

The Winter War

The Greatest Heights of Honour

The Lowest Depths of Shame

Hope

The Ultrahuman Books

Ugly

Shadows

Hunting Mink

Frostburn

Guardian – 2017/18

True Dark – 2017/18

The Unobtainium Books

Kate on a Hot Tin Roof

King Solamet’s Mines – 2016/17

The Reality Hack Books

Reality Hack

The Fox Meridian Books

Fox Hunt

Inescapable

DeathWeb

Criminal Minds

Emergence

The Ghost in the Doll

Eden Burning - 2017

The Princeps Venator Books

Hunter’s Kiss

Be My Valentine

The Gunwitch Books

Gunwitch: Rebirth

The Children of Zanar Series

The Zanari Inheritance

Table of Contents

Part One: The Girl Without A Home

Part Two: Lessons for Life

Part Three: A Sister in Need

Part Four: Home Is Where You Choose To Be

Part One: The Girl Without A Home

Part Two: Lessons for Life

Part Three: A Sister in Need

Part Four: Home Is Where You Choose To Be

Notes