03 Solar Flare - Spark Series (18 page)

Brandy considered him. “When you were
pretending to be Azure, you said it was your sister who was sick.
She had kids.”

“It was my mom,” he said firmly. “I was an
only child. Anyway, she died just before I graduated. I got my
degree and joined the police force, went through the academy. They
had good retirement.” He looked at her curiously. “You seem to be
taking this well. I thought you’d start questioning what else I
could have done.”

She shrugged. “In a way, we already covered
this. Besides, it’d be unfair to accept it about Azure and hold it
against you.

“To be honest, I was kind of glad Azure
wasn’t too respectable. It put us on more equal ground.”

His smile was crooked. “A stripper on equal
ground with a heiress? In what world?”

She gave him an even look. “You know what I
mean. I make whisky for a living. Not all men appreciate that.” Not
the ones looking for wives, anyway.

“Your family runs a respectable business. No
one holds that against you,” he said firmly.

Warmed by his support, she said, “Anyway. You
ended up on Polaris. Or were you raised there?”

He shook his head. “Nozjin. It wasn’t a bad
place, but it wasn’t home after mom died. Work brought me to
Polaris around the same time Blue arrived there. I was
investigating drug smuggling,” he said with a wry smile. He didn’t
have to remind her that it was investigation of The Spark that
brought him.

She made a low sound of annoyance, but let it
pass. “Why did you stay?”

He accepted a beer from the waiter and took a
drink. “It was a decent little planet. I was offered a job and
decided to stay a while. It worked out well.” He looked at her
meaningfully.

“And then you woke up one day and decided to
pursue me,” she said tartly. “Because of course, I’m completely
irresistible.”

“No. I spent the first few years thinking you
were a temperamental little witch. I let it slide, since I figured
you thought you had cause. Besides, Blue and I were friends, and
you were his sister in law.” He said it lightly, but it was obvious
he was serious. He really hadn’t liked her.

Her eyes narrowed. His description was hardly
flattering. “And when did the bolt of lightning strike?”

“I don’t know. Guys don’t analyze this stuff,
you know. We leave that to you.” He took another drink. “I’m
getting hives just talking about it.”

She exhaled softly, amused. He looked healthy
enough to her. “You want to marry a woman who gives you hives?”

He looked at her seriously. “You’re loyal to
your family, good with kids. You’re a hard worker, mostly
honest—“

“Mostly!”

He shrugged. “You’d lie to protect your
sisters; I understand that.”

She stilled. Here it was again, the past
rising up between them. “I think I’ve learned from that,” she said
softly. “I was nineteen, going on thirty. I thought I was doing…”
She wasn’t going to say “the right thing”. She’d known it wasn’t
that.

“Anyway, by the time I figured out what a
mess I’d landed in, it had gotten pretty bad. I’m not sure what I
would have done. Then you showed up, asking questions, digging into
everything.” She quieted as she realized something. How had she
missed it? Suddenly it was as clear as a polished whiskey glass.
“It was easy to blame you,” she whispered, her eyes on the table,
unseeing. Jean Luc had been the one blackmailing her, but it had
been easy, safe, to hate Azor. He’d made a good target for her rage
and resentment.

Even so, he’d just been doing his job. He
could be cold and hard, but he’d been instrumental in saving their
lives in the end, too. She’d never thanked him.

“I’ve done things for my family, too,” he
said softly. He took her hand, ran his thumb slowly over the
knuckles. “We have that in common.”

Suddenly nervous, she pulled away and reached
for her water. “Yeah, we’re a couple of hoodlums. I’m surprised it
wasn’t love at first sight.”

He allowed a slight smile. “I did think you
were cute.”

She blinked. “You were ten years older than
me! Don’t tell me you noticed.”

He smirked. “A man always notices. Even if
I’d wanted to mention it, you were still a suspect. I didn’t want
you that way until later.”

Oddly, talking over dinner left her more
unsettled than she had been before they sat down. She’d never
shared these things with anyone, and it was hard to absorb the idea
that she felt easy talking to Azor about them.

She would have enjoyed a walk on the beach
with him, but her feet were killing her, shooting poisoned spikes
of pain into her calves despite the medication she had taken. She
had to decline his offer, and tried to hide her discomfort as she
climbed into their transport. Since he’d had a couple of drinks, he
let her drive.

He also noticed her discomfort. “Have you
seen a doctor about your feet?”

“Just before we left.” She’d seen one of the
surgeons who’d attended the operation for her hands, a woman, since
she’d still been annoyed with Dr. Vhanee’s nagging her to come in
for a checkup. She’d finally gone to see him, of course, but that
was after visiting the other doctor about her feet.

“She said take the meds and keep my shoes on,
it would help.” She’d also recommended, gently, that it was time to
consider the more drastic measures they wanted to try. She’d
stalled. Just the idea of their ‘treatment’ made her want to
cry.

He didn’t say anything, and she assumed he
knew why her feet hurt. The bones had been broken years ago, and
never healed well. It was the kind of thing family talked about
when they thought the sufferer wasn’t listening. To their credit,
she never had walked in on a conversation about it. The thoughts
depressed her, though. “I’m tired.”

He glanced at her appraisingly. “You look it.
You aren’t worried about tomorrow, are you?”

She’d been trying not to think about the day
to come. She was scheduled to testify via videoconference at Darren
Topek’s trial. She was glad the day had finally come, but was
unenthusiastic about going down to the courthouse and giving her
testimony. A single magistrate was the only person who would be
physically present, in order to verify her presence, but it would
still be a trial by a jury of her peers on Polaris. Back home, it
would be talked about on the news and in the papers.

She just wanted it to be over.

Azor would be questioned, too, of course. He
was the star witness, in fact. “I’ll pick you up after breakfast.
Hopefully it will be quick and rather boring.”

She looked at him askance.

He shrugged. “I’ve been through my share of
courtrooms, testifying against men I’ve arrested. Walk in the park,
trust me.”

“Of course,” she said dryly.

His kiss that night was chaste, a light touch
to her temple that did more to advance his campaign than he knew.
Sensitive to the fact that she was in pain, he escorted her to her
room and waited while she went inside and locked the door. Tomorrow
would be a busy day.

The trial went well enough. Even though
Topek’s attorney managed to drag her name through mud and briars,
Darren was sentenced to five years in a penal colony, mining
tranium. His skin would be stained darkly blue by the time he was
released, and he’d have a hard time finding respectable work
again.

It didn’t give her much satisfaction. It just
went to show that revenge wasn’t always sweet.

Azor felt they both needed a distraction
after that. He drove them out to his ship and gave her a rundown on
the cold sleep pods.

“It looks like a glass coffin,” she
complained, still feeling moody. She hadn’t wanted to see Darren’s
face again. It brought back unhappy memories.

“Think of it as a the most expensive bed
you’ll ever sleep in,” he suggested. “But just in case, what kind
of funeral arrangements would you like? I favor cremation,
myself.”

She gave him a dirty look.

He laughed. “Okay, I’ll be serious. What do
you know about cold sleep?”

She shrugged and settled a hip on the edge of
the open pod. The top and bottom pieces had slid down into the
sides of the pod. The inside was lined with white bedding. “I’d
always thought it was being frozen completely, like an ice cube.
You know, rap a body on a table top and it goes clunk, clunk.”

“Right. That’s deep cold sleep. Its “freeze
and thaw”, like the wood frog. Although it suspends aging,
metabolic and cognitive completely, it takes more effort to thaw
and recover. It’s a couple of days before you feel quite
normal.”

“You’ve done it?”

“A couple of times.” He leaned an arm on the
top of the case, getting comfortable. “About 1 in 100,000 die from
it. It’s not the sleep that kills them, but the waking, and it’s
the old and weak that usually succumb. That’s why most captains
require a physical before they allow passengers to undergo it.”

“I just had one before we left Polaris. Does
that count?”

“Sure. You can submit the paperwork to the
flight doctor and probably be waved on. Just don’t fly with a
captain who doesn’t care—you’ll have more to worry about than not
waking up. The slave trade is still working in parts of the
galaxy.”

She shivered.

“Anyway, during the deep sleep, your body is
drained of blood and pumped full of a glucose antifreeze before
being given a quick burst of liquid nitrogen.”

She cringed. “That sounds cold.” She wasn’t a
fan of chill as it was. She didn’t relish the idea of being blasted
with freezing liquid…not to mention the thought of having her blood
drained and replaced with chemical soup. There had to be a better
way.

“You’re sedated first. You don’t feel it,” he
said with a smile. He looked like he was enjoying grossing her out.
“But like I said, it has drawbacks. The new semi-suspension tech is
a lot more comfortable and safer. The pod fills with gasses that
flood the body with natural antifreeze. Oddly enough, in a deep
chill, you begin to feel warm and sleepy. Sleep comes, and that’s
where you stay for weeks at a time. Not completely frozen, but
highly chilled.”

“A damsel on ice,” she said,
unenthusiastic.

“The alternative is months of roaming a tiny
ship, going nuts with cabin fever. You get a little strange after a
while.”

“You’ve done it?”

He nodded. “It doesn’t take long before you
start talking to yourself and envying the guys on ice.”

That wouldn’t work for her. She was strange
enough as it was. “Fine. When do we leave?”

He looked at her seriously. “You’re not
enjoying your vacation?”

She shook her head. “Not only am I dying to
do some kind of work, staying longer will just make it harder. I’m
not excited about this trip to begin with, but since I’m committed,
let’s get started.”

“All right. We can leave the day after
tomorrow, if you like.”

Gem was somber when they told her the news.
She sighed. “I guess it’s only fair to sic you on Xera for a while.
She’s got off too easy these past years.”

“Hey!” Brandy protested, but she knew her
sister was only joking. It was better not to get too maudlin about
it. “I’ll send you messages when I’m awake. You’ll be here until
the baby comes, right?”

Gem shot a dirty look at her husband.
“Apparently.”

“We will,” Blue said firmly. “She doesn’t
need to be traveling right now.” He’d already told Brandy privately
that Gem had been fighting his decision, but he wasn’t budging.
She’d only try to go back to work if he took her home too soon.
Vacation seemed to be as boring for her as it was for Brandy.

The memory made her feel good. Gem was in
good hands.

Saying goodbye to the kids was hard, but she
pretended it was all a grand adventure. They were too young to
realize that goodbye might mean forever.

Since Gem was tired, they spent the last day
as a family dining in, watching movies and playing games like it
was a holiday. Brandy even let the kids spend the night in her room
for a sleepover; it was one way to keep Azor away from her bed.

He didn’t say anything to her, but he looked
rather satisfied whenever their gazes met. He seemed to be mellow
about the idea of them spending lots of private time on his ship.
There was something confident and relaxed about him, as if he knew
exactly what was coming and looked forward to it.

It made her as nervous as a newly hired
waitress walking through a bar full of playful miners.

Gem noticed, but for once she didn’t seem
worried about it. “He’ll be good for you,” she even murmured when
the men weren’t listening.

Brandy frowned at her. “The man is
trouble.”

“There’s a time for trouble,” Gem said with
satisfaction. “Maybe this is your time. Keep me posted; it should
make a good story.”

“I’m not a coffee table romance,” Brandy said
coolly. “Don’t waste your time making up wild ideas about us.
Besides, I’ll be in cold sleep for most of the trip.”

“Not all of it.”

“Enough,” Brandy said repressively. “Hey,
isn’t that your son smearing goofy putty into the couch?” As a
distraction, it worked, but Gem never did stop looking amused. She
also had several presents for Brandy, Xera and the niece and nephew
she’d never met.

The packages were in Gem’s bedroom where the
kids wouldn’t disturb them. Brandy noted Gem’s sadness as she
handed the packages over and hugged her sister. “Don’t worry, I’ll
pass out a few hugs from you, too,” she said, feeling her heart
tug. “You can hug long distance, as long as you don’t hold on too
tight.”

Gem smiled at the floor. “I do, don’t I? If I
were there, I’d probably try to manage Xera, too. Maybe she had to
travel so far from home. I don’t know if she could be everything
she’s become any closer.”

Brandy studied her gravely. “Sis, we love
everything about you, just the way you are. You’re a managing
fiend, but we’re used to that. It also makes you the outstanding
businesswoman you are. The Spark wouldn’t be what it is without
you. You’re the heartbeat.” She drew a deep breath. “And maybe it’s
time it threw off a couple of sparks of its own. Spread the wealth
around, you know? You can’t be greedy and keep all the talent to
yourself.” She nodded to Gem’s belly and grinned. “Besides, all the
trouble these last two are giving you is telling me that they must
be strong medicine. Only a couple of little dragons would be enough
to wear you out. You’ll have your hands full.”