Lieutenant Vlissides was in the doorway. He must have heard the yelling. Now he looked confused as hell. “How…? What’s the kid doing here?”
Edie looked reflexively at the open access panel and Vlissides followed her gaze, comprehension dawning on his face.
“I’ll have to report this,” Vlissides said. “You, come here.”
He reached for Galeon, but the boy darted out of reach. Edie stepped between him and Vlissides.
“Let him go,” she said wearily. “He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Vlissides reconsidered for a second, which gave Galeon time to shimmy back into the access tube. By the time Vlissides changed his mind again and leapt after him, Galeon was gone.
“He just likes to visit me sometimes,” Edie said. “It’s not like I can stop him.”
Vlissides was shaking his head. “This is damn irregular.” He looked at Finn as though expecting an alternative explanation.
Finn didn’t have one. “I think I’ll leave.”
He brushed his fingers down her arm as he walked past Edie. She forced a smile, her heart in her throat as she contemplated what damage a disillusioned seven-year-old might do.
When Edie was summoned to Natesa’s office an hour later, it became immediately clear that this wasn’t the Ardra debrief
ing she’d been expecting. Natesa’s red-rimmed eyes looked like they were propped open by stims. Her hair was messily pulled back, her face devoid of makeup. What remained of her composure seemed to take great effort to maintain. Her state told Edie all she needed to know—with Prisca ruined and most of the team dead, Natesa’s career was over. All she had left was Edie. And she wasn’t happy with her protégée.
Two different holos hovered over her desk, their edges interacting confusingly. In contrast to their lazy spin, the desk was scattered with datacaps, signifying Natesa’s frantic search for hope amid the depressing data.
When Edie entered the room, Natesa looked up and the lines of weariness on her face distorted until her rage was like a physical presence in the room. “What were you doing in the lab out of hours?”
So, Galeon had talked. And Natesa probably still had just enough power left on this ship to take out her anger on Finn. Edie’s thoughts raced as she put together a story that would clear him.
“Running a few extra tests,” she said. “It’s no big deal.”
“No big deal? We found a sabotaged module, scrubbed clean. Do you have any idea how much that piece of equipment was worth?”
A lot. But there was no way they’d know what she’d used it for. In any case, it was too late. The crack was out there and the Fringe worlds were already using it.
Natesa’s assistant Darian poked his head around the door. “Colonel Theron’s on the line.”
Natesa gripped the edge of her desk. “Not now.”
“He says it’s urgent.”
“I said,
not
now!”
Darian retreated from the office.
“Where were we?” Natesa said with a modicum of control. “Theft and conspiracy. Sabotaging millions of creds worth of CCU property—that’s a life sentence, even if I can’t prove treason. All this on top of the charges relating to your pirate adventure last year. I could have you executed.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Don’t be so sure. I wash my hands of you, Edie. You’ve betrayed me one too many times.”
Edie felt a shiver of fear. She’d got away with a lot in her life only because Natesa needed her. After the disaster on Prisca, maybe all Natesa needed was a scapegoat.
Darian dared to interrupt again, looking miserable as he did so. “Administrator, Captain Lachesis demands that you comply with Colonel Theron’s request to take his call.”
“Lachesis should mind his own business,” Natesa snapped, waving Darian away without taking her eyes off Edie. “What tests were you running?”
Her face grew harder with each passing second that Edie failed to respond. She hit her commlink, not to talk to Theron but to call one of her guards.
“Have you arrested Finn yet?”
“We’re handling that now, ma’am,” came the response.
“Put him in the brig.”
Edie drew an anxious breath. “Finn had nothing to do with this.”
“That’s not what Galeon says. He’s been ranting about some top secret project…” Natesa tumbled over her own words. “You sabotaged Prisca. I know you did! And then—”
“I did not sab—”
“And then you planned to escape on the
Molly Mei
. And kidnap the children! That’s why you were in Sternhagen’s office. Stealing neuroxin.”
Truth and fiction all mixed up together—Edie didn’t know where to begin. “I told you why I was in her office.”
“For Finn’s records. Yes, yes, I know.” Natesa’s eyes held a wild gleam. “We found the damaged lock. You were stealing neuroxin. Finn is going to the firing squad for this. As for you—”
Edie’s chest burned with panic. “Finn was not involved. It was Valari Zael.” Blame it on the dead woman. She felt awful doing it. “She was some kind of eco-rad from the Fringe who infiltrated the project. She said she wanted to
save the children.” May as well fall on her sword. She wasn’t going to be under Natesa’s influence much longer. “She talked me into stealing neuroxin for them.”
“Talked you into it?” Natesa was aghast. “She talked you into kidnapping children?”
“I was helping to
save
them. Look what happened to Pris. If you can’t protect those kids, you don’t deserve to have them.”
“
You
did that to Pris!
You
put her in a coma, damaged her interface, ruined her chances of becoming the cypherteck she was meant to be.”
“Yes I did, and this was how I tried to put it right. Valari promised them good homes on the Fringe.” Edie was fantasizing now, describing what she had dreamed for them. “They could just be normal kids instead of having the fate of the galaxy weighing down their shoulders.”
“I don’t believe this. And don’t try and tell me that lag of yours didn’t play a part. From the moment you made us retrieve him from that freezer, I knew he’d manipulated you.”
“You don’t know anything.” It was Edie who had influenced Finn—first the cryptoglyph, then the children.
Natesa shook with rage. “This is the end of the line for you, Edie. As soon as—”
Someone rapped on the door and opened it without waiting for permission. Lieutenant Vlissides entered with Darian fluttering around him in vain protest. Behind them, four more milts were gathered in the waiting area.
“You don’t have permission to be here, Lieutenant. What’s going on?” Natesa demanded, striding across the room to claim her space.
“Ma’am, Colonel Theron has ordered that Ms Sha’nim be transferred to my custody. Under the authority of the Weapons Research Division, I’m commandeering the
Molly Mei
and immediately escorting her to Scarabaeus.”
“Absolutely not.” Natesa’s defiance was a frozen mask, covering what Edie sensed was blind panic. “Ms Sha’nim
is being detained for questioning on serious matters of conspiracy. You won’t be leaving with her today.”
“Colonel Theron’s orders came through the correct legal channels.”
“I don’t care what the orders are. She’s not leaving this ship. And you!” she yelled at the milits outside the door, all of whom were from the
Learo Dochais
. “You’re under Captain Lachesis’s command, not the lieutenant’s or the colonel’s.” She hit her commlink. “Captain, I need assistance in my office.”
“If this is about the transfer, I’m sorry but the colonel’s orders stand,” came Lachesis’s reply. “The children are also being transferred to the
Molly Mei
.”
Natesa gaped and Darian made incoherent noises of distress.
Natesa finally managed to splutter an apoplectic response. “This…no! Not my daughter. This is not going to happen.” She grabbed Edie’s arm. “No one from my team leaves this ship.”
Vlissides looked at Natesa’s hand. “Let her go, ma’am, or I will make you let her go.”
“Who the hell do you think you are? Why are you even on this ship? Theron’s men have no authority here.”
Someone pushed through the hubbub—Captain Lachesis. Natesa turned to him with relief.
“Jeremy, please sort out this nonsense.”
“The orders are clear, Liv.”
“But Pris is my daughter!” she screamed. “Why are they taking her? I forbid it!”
“Considering the failure of Project Ardra and the uncertainty of your position on the team, Theron has approval from the Weapons Research Division at Crib Central to transfer the cyphertecks to his custody. Pris is a Crib ward, not your daughter.”
Natesa’s eyes went hollow with anguish. “Please, Jeremy, you have to stop this.”
“I wish I could. But unlike you, I’m not prepared to risk my career by disobeying orders.”
He nodded to Vlissides, who stepped up to remove Natesa’s hand from Edie’s arm. Natesa was so surprised that she didn’t protest. Then she recovered her senses and swung an arm at Lachesis, connecting with the side of his head.
“How dare you! How could you?”
She whirled around and went for Edie next. Edie blocked Natesa’s flailing limbs but couldn’t handle the sheer aggression behind Natesa’s attack. Natesa grabbed a handful of her hair and tugged her backward. The milits rushed in and disentangled Natesa from Edie.
“Lieutenant, hold her in her quarters until further notice.” Lachesis looked embarrassed as he gave the order.
Natesa gave a final horrified cry as she was dragged away.
From the compact observation deck on the
Molly Mei
, Edie watched the new crew board. Lieutenant Vlissides, taking command of the ship, strode across the hangar deep in conversation with an officer whom Edie recognized as the
Learo Dochais
’s second navpilot. The first had been killed in the skiff crash on Prisca.
Two junior milits and one engie were the only other crew coming with them. Edie had pleaded with Vlissides to have Aila Vernet transferred as well. She was the closest thing the children had to a caring adult—but Theron didn’t care about such things and Vlissides was carrying out his orders to the letter.
Which meant that Finn was being transferred as well. When Edie saw him enter the hangar, cuffed, flanked by two milits, she ran from the observation deck and arrived at the main hatch just as Vlissides boarded.
“Finn isn’t coming. I managed to cut the leash—he can stay. He has to stay.” With Natesa locked up for the time being, he was safe from her. Safe enough to leave on the transport ship that Central had sent for the workers.
“My orders are to bring him along,” Vlissides said, unmoved. Theron didn’t know about the leash being cut, so
he’d included Finn in the transfer order. And Vlissides didn’t seem to know how to think for himself on the matter.
“But I cut the leash! Let me talk to Theron.”
“He’s halfway to Scarabaeus and blacked out. We’ll be doing the same. No comms in or out, emergencies excepted.”
“At least take off the cuffs. There’s no reason for him to be in the brig.”
“The ship has no brig as such. Crew cabins with extra locks. It’s not that bad.”
“Please don’t lock him up. He won’t cause trouble.”
Vlissides shrugged, like it was out of his hands. “We dock at Falls Station in thirteen days—three days before our final destination—to drop off the prisoners. Maybe you can persuade Theron to change his mind by then and release your friend with them.”
“What prisoners?”
“Captain Lachesis is taking advantage of the
Molly Mei
’s departure to clean up his own ship.” Vlissides indicated a small group just entering the hangar. Several milits escorted two more men to the
Molly Mei
—Corinth, who looked relieved, and Achaiah, who evidently recognized Edie but then warily avoided her gaze. “I agreed to take them with us—on my conditions. Feels like I’m commanding a prison ship. They stay under lock and key, including a woman from the original crew.”
That was Cat. With the children already sequestered in a four-man cabin, and now Cat and Finn coming on board, Edie felt marginally better about this exodus. She was escaping Natesa, and everything associated with Ardra, for good. She spared a thought for her former boss, wondering how she must feel with her life’s work in shambles, her first protégée reassigned, and her would-be young daughter taken away. Then she worried about Pris. She had no idea how the girl felt about Natesa, but she knew what being motherless felt like.
“I’ll need you to oversee the kids during the trip,” Vlissides said, urging Edie back inside.
“I just want you to know that I don’t agree with bringing them along.”
“It’s my understanding you don’t agree with much of anything when it comes to Crib affairs.” Vlissides somehow managed to make the accusation sound eminently polite. “Anyway, they’re here and I can’t spare my crew for babysitting. You’ll be sharing their cabin—please keep them confined for departure.”
Edie would rather have hung around so she could talk to Finn, to explain what was going on, but Vlissides wanted her out of the way while the prisoners were processed and taken to cabins.
The small ship felt cramped and dark in comparison to the
Learo Dochais
, although everything was spotless and tidy. This was an older vessel, a typical merchant ship built on the Fringe with all the associated jury-rigged fits and quirks, and without any of the sparkle she was accustomed to. It was also a Saeth ship, unbeknownst to its new Crib crew. As Edie walked down its narrow corridors, it occurred to her that the Saeth might want their ship back. Corinth and Finn might not have the means right now, but there were other Saeth out in the Reach. Were they keeping track of the
Molly Mei
? Would they tail it to Scarabaeus?
The cabin she was to share with the children held two bunk beds, its own bathroom, and a decent number of closets—not that they had much to put in them. Still, it seemed a tiny living space for four active, inquisitive children. They’d already messed it up, tossing around bedclothes and pillows to relieve their boredom. Galeon was drawing stick figures on the porthole using a thick green marker. He looked up long enough to scowl at Edie, then went back to his masterpiece. Pris was on a bunk fiddling with a palmet while the other two girls had squeezed themselves under the second bunk where they whispered back and forth to each other.