Exile (10 page)

Aja turned around to look at the poor man, his meal all over him. “Because he’s had my Blood. Don’t feel bad, Mr. Fedd. Most people get sick at these speeds. My vestibular system is different. Motion sickness was bred out of my line long ago. Rapid course changes don’t bother me.”

Aja flashed the ship away from the Pikes and clicked on the auto-nav, punching in new coordinates. She unstrapped herself, stood and stretched.

“I am sorry,” she said. “Let me help you get cleaned up and I’ll make us something bland to eat. That should settle your stomach.”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” replied Davi. “If you don’t mind, I’ll get myself cleaned up and I’ll join you in the galley directly. What about your ankle?” He released his safety harness and pushed himself up onto wobbling legs.

Aja glanced down at her bloody foot. She’d forgotten all about it. Kyr had cut deep.

She pulled up her trousers. Now that she saw the torn flesh, the wound hurt. She’d have to use the ultra-violet unit before she could heal it. Her immune system could handle most bugs, but it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious. “I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.”

Aja watched the man weave his way toward his cabin. She hurried to the galley to get cleaning supplies. She wanted to get her leg disinfected and the cockpit washed clean before Kyr returned to the controls. She could close her mind to the stench and pilot for a time, but this wasn’t her ship and she felt responsible for the mess.

She found Kyr in the galley, heating up a pot of soup. He’d already rinsed some snowberries and opened a vacuum sealed container of dryebread and set the rounds on the table. To Aja’s surprise, Kyr was humming.

Kyr glanced up as Aja entered the galley. He shot her a wicked grin, one that he knew damn well she could feel all the way to her toes. Surprise showed on her face as he headed straight for her, lifting her by the waist with both hands and setting her down on the end of a heavy wooden countertop. Kyr spread her legs and he stepped between them, pressing his erection against her. Aja’s eyes opened wide. She began to protest that she had cleaning to do.

“Shut up,” Kyr said, as he dropped his mouth to hers. He nibbled Aja’s lower lip and she opened for him. Whimpering, she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on tight now, in a way she hadn’t needed to hold on during the wild ride through the Pikes.

Kyr kissed the woman like a man who had been starved for weeks on end. One calloused hand traveled her body. He wanted her lost in his touch, in his merciless kiss, in the demands of his body.

“I’m as hard as one of those fucking rocks out there,” Kyr’s said. He removed her clothes, tossing them aside without a second thought.

“Kyr,” Aja cried. “Gods, Kyr...”

“I’m right here, my love.” He took her mouth as he took her body, with deep, hard thrusts.

Aja trembled in his arms. Gods, he did feel like a rock, solid and heavy, a force she could always count on. He growled against her lips as he joined with her.

In the midst of their heated embrace Kyr experienced a sudden flash of vision, and he froze. Behind his closed eye lids, a young child with his golden hair and violet eyes stood in a patch of sunlight. As quickly as it had appeared, the vision disappeared.

What the hells was that?

Enveloped in Aja’s sweet warmth, he forgot all about it.

Kyr released her mouth. Panting, he pressed her close. She laid her head on his shoulder and he felt her body relax in his arms. She seemed at peace.

In that moment, Kyr realized how much he treasured her.

“If flying through an asteroid field makes you this excited, I’ll be happy to oblige on a daily basis,” Aja whispered.

Kyr laughed, his body shaking hers and the counter upon which she sat.

“Oh, Gods, I declare you are a wonder.”

“Seven hells!” It was Davi Fedd. “Not in the galley! You have a cabin, Captain, and if you’ll pardon me, use it.”

Kyr picked up Aja’s trousers, tossing them to her as he fastened his own. He glanced over his shoulder. Davi had turned his back, but Kyr screened Aja with his body nevertheless. One glance at her red face told him how embarrassed she felt to be caught, literally, with her pants down.

“So sorry,” Aja called to Davi.

“I don’t blame you,” he said, tossing an accusing look over his shoulder at Kyr. “You manage to get that leg cleaned up yet? Before you were interrupted?”

She shook her head. “I’ll take care of it now.”

“Let me see it,” ordered Kyr.

“No, it’s already healing.”

Kyr grabbed her wrist as she tried to get by him. “I’m the captain and I said, let me see it.”

He knelt down on the floor and lifted the leg of her trousers. He studied the wound for a moment. “Forgive me,” he said. “I did this to you.”

“There’s nothing to forgive. You did as I asked. You did what was necessary. And it worked, didn’t it? He can’t track us, at least for now.” Aja walked to a storage unit. She removed some cleaning supplies and headed back to the cockpit.

Kyr stopped her.

“I’ll clean up,” he said, taking the rags and the bucket from her hands. “Let Mr. Fedd see to that ankle. He’s had some experience patching up the wounded.”

Kyr watched while Davi retrieved the first aid supplies. “Aja.” She turned at the sound of her name. “When I’m finished, we need to fill our stomachs. After we eat, the three of us will talk. Do you agree?”

She nodded.

“So it’s true, then,” said Davi. “Females of the Blood make stunner pilots.”

“Yes,” Aja replied, as she crumbled her dryebread into the soup Kyr had made for them.

“It’s no wonder the Coalition barred women from flying. Their male pilots couldn’t hope to compete,” Kyr said. “My own grandmother was a pilot and my father did a little piloting for a time, but from what he says he couldn’t hold a candle to her.” He glanced at Aja, “And neither can I. That was some impressive flying.”

Spoon halfway to her mouth, Aja stopped eating. “Your grandmother was a pilot?”

“A damn good pilot. She traversed the route between Calen and the Galactic Core for thirty years.”

“That means you’re of the Blood,” Aja said, her voice soft, her eyes staring down at the bowl of soup. “Why didn’t I see that?”

Davi snorted.

“Of the Blood?” Kyr laughed long and hard. “I don’t think so. I grew up poor as a field rat on Calen. My father worked the lithium mines. My mother tended a flock of winat goats and spun thread from their wool to sell to the weavers. Of the Blood? Unlikely.”

“Kyr, if your grandmother was a pilot, then you are of the Blood. What you think doesn’t matter. Only female descendants of the Blood possess the genetic traits that allow them to be stunner pilots, as you call them. Many people can be trained to pilot, but only women of the Blood can fly blind, so to speak. Could your grandmother fly blind through an ion storm?”

“So my father claims.”

“Did she fly through the Tionay Nebula? It’s the shortest route between Calen and the Galactic Core.”

Kyr seemed reluctant to answer her, but at last he said, “Yes.”

“Who flies through the Tionay Nebula since the coup? Who, Kyr? Tell me. Do you? Does any pilot you know? Do the Coalition forces ever risk their ships in those electrically charged ion clouds?”

“No.” Kyr and Davi exchanged looks. “I don’t know of anyone who flies through the Tionay Nebula. At least, not for the past thirty years,” Kyr added.

“Not since the coup,” said Aja. She spooned up her soup.

Both men followed her example and ate in silence.

When they were all three finished, Kyr pushed his bowl away. “What did you mean, when you said, why didn’t I see that? Have you been in my head, Aja?”

“No.” She bristled at the implication. “And I don’t intend to be in your head, as you so succinctly put it. When I first saw you I read your intentions and your heart, not your mind. If someone has had my blood as you have, then yes, I know what you are feeling, but no, I don’t read your mind. I’ve already explained this. Your thoughts are your own.”

“I’m sorry,” replied Kyr. “But I needed to know. I don’t understand how you work, for lack of a better way to put it.”

Aja’s face reddened. “I work exactly the same way you work, but I’ve been genetically enhanced. It’s hard to explain. There are things the Coalition doesn’t want anyone to know and I’m afraid I might endanger you by discussing these matters.”

“But we already know the legends and the myths,” said Davi. “And my mother claimed there is always a core of truth to the old stories. Besides, I suspect we’re in more than a bit of danger already.”

Kyr rose from his chair and walked over to Aja. He knelt beside her and took her hands. “Do you trust me?”

“You have my heart,” she said. “I trust you with my life and everything I hold dear.”

“Then confide in us. Davi and I need to understand how Bom knew to find you, how he tracked us. I need to know why Davi lost his lunch on that ride through the Pikes while I found it exhilarating. Explain these things. Please.”

Aja brought his hands to her lips. She smiled down at him. “I’ll make a bargain with you. You make the cavitt and I’ll tell you a very long story. I like mine sweet,” she added.

“And me,” said Davi.

Kyr laughed, and he set about grinding the cava nuts and boiling a kettle of water. Ten minutes later, he brought three steaming mugs to the table along with a tiny pot of rare and precious Akkan honey.

“Contraband?” Aja dipped the tip of her little finger into the thick, clear liquid.

“My percentage,” Kyr replied. “One of the perks of smuggling.”

Aja closed her eyes and licked the honey from her finger. “Mmmm. We aren’t allowed anything so valuable.”

Davi raised his eyebrows. “I’m surprised,” he said. “I would think the Royal Family, well, that you would be provided with whatever you wish.”

“No.” Aja opened her eyes and smiled at him as she stirred a small spoon of honey into her caavitt. She passed the pot to Davi. “The Ruling Council delights in keeping us hungry and cold. Warm clothing is in short supply and our home rock is quite chilly. Most of the guards, while not overtly cruel, are indifferent. A few men are kind. They risk their livelihood, their career, to smuggle in stockings and wool undergarments, even extra rations.”

When both men frowned, she added, “Don’t pity us. It has made us quite resilient. I think the men of the Council were hoping we would die of the elements or deprivation within a year or so, but, well, what’s the old saying? The best laid plans?”

Davi asked, “I would like to hear how you know my future. Are you like the traveling gypsy women of old? Do you tell fortunes? You claim you didn’t read Kyr’s mind, but did you read mine? I don’t understand how this works.”

Aja thought for a moment. “After a generation of rule, the Coalition has been quite successful in making us, my family, I mean, seem a bit like gypsies. They’ve written us out of the history books, but because your parents and grandparents still remember the Royal Blood, we’ve become a mixture of fantasy and reality. The truth is different. It lies in the science of the ancient Earthers, our ancestors. My line, my own bloodline, was the result of a science experiment. The ancients perpetuated the Blood for a reason, because we can help guide the people through space and time.”

“So you do see through time?” Kyr asked.

“That’s one way to put it, I suppose,” Aja said. “We see time as we see space. You see before you a table, six chairs, three cups of cavitt, and a pot of Akkan honey. I see these things, too, but I can also see where the honey might be in six hours, or six days, or six months from now. It can be disconcerting. It’s why women of the Blood are trained to control these visions, to discern from among these pathways to the future. To discriminate between what is real and what is not yet. What is likely and what is unlikely.” Aja smiled. “It’s complicated and it’s why so many of my ancestors have, unfortunately, had difficulties.”

“But the women pilots?” asked Davi.

“Every woman who has an aptitude like mine must be a descendant of the Blood. There is no other way to navigate with ease and safety. The Coalition fears us for many reasons. One of which is that they believe we bend time. No one can bend time. We simply have the inbred ability to find our way through the time eddies and currents and we can choose the shortest route between here and there. If there is an ion storm, for instance, we see a safe path through it. It’s why your grandmother, Kyr, could fly through the Tionay Nebula and not fry.” Aja blew on her cavitt and took a sip. “The primary reason the members of the Coalition deposed the Royal Family is because they do not believe in the ascendance of women. They want a male-dominated galactic society, one in which wives are protected and cherished by confinement to their home compounds. The Coalition wants an empire where whores are made available to satisfy the sexual appetites of men. There is no in-between. The Coalition does not believe women are fit to rule, or to lead, or to guide the people.”