Exile (8 page)

“My brother?”

“Karna. He is your brother, is he not?”

“Yes, but Aja, I won’t leave you there. I won’t leave you on Eir-Edan.”

Aja lifted her hands and placed them on either side of Kyr’s face. “Blood of my Blood, you have no say in the matter. Eir-Edan is where I must go. I’ve seen it.”

“I don’t care what you’ve seen.” Kyr hauled Aja to her feet and shook her. “I’m not leaving you on that bloody, murderous, muck-eating rock.”

Tears filled Aja’s eyes. They spilled onto her dark lashes and she trembled in his grip. “Then you will die and I will die by your side. I’ve seen it. This is the only way for both of us. The only way we have a chance of reuniting.”

“How soon do we have to leave?”

“We have time. She will wait for me, whether it is two weeks or two moons. She will be waiting for me.”

Kyr sensed that Aja was near to collapse. He swung her into his arms. “Mr. Fedd, how much fuel do we have?”

“Enough.”

“Jump toward the edge, in the general direction of Eir-Edan. Follow our smuggling routes. For the Gods sake, take your sweet time. Call me if you see anything, anything at all.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

Aja cradled in his arms, Kyr strode from the cockpit.

“F
eeling better?”

Aja leaned back in the narrow tub, sighing with pleasure. Kyr shampooed her long hair, working out the tangles, cleansing her of dust and sweat and the last vestiges of the medicinal stench of the laboratory.

Kyr had pulled the tub out of a cabinet and filled it with water he’d heated in the galley. Aja was very grateful. She hadn’t been able to bathe properly in a week.

“Shall I take that sound as a yes?”

“Oh, very much yes. It’s heavenly. Truly, your hands on any part of me feel heavenly. And it’s lovely to be clean, oh so lovely.” Aja sighed again and closed her eyes.

“It’s exhausting, isn’t it?”

“Hmmm…?”

“Finding your way through the future, seeking a path through the present? It must be exhausting.”

“Yes and no.” Aja’s chose her words with care. “Weaving my way at sublight speed through an asteroid field is exhilarating, not exhausting.” She opened her eyes and smiled up at him. “My flight instructors couldn’t stomach it, the way my sisters and I can fly our two-seaters. But when one can see what’s around the next rock without the use of sensors and with one’s eyes closed there’s nothing to be afraid of. I’m lucky, you know. My mother and my sisters and I are the only women in the entire empire allowed to pilot.”

Aja’s eyelids grew heavy again as Kyr used his strong fingers to massage her scalp.

“I love the feel of speed,” she murmured. “I love the g-forces pressing my body back into the seat. I love the power and the responsiveness of my little ship. She’s specially built for me, made to turn on a dime. My sisters and I grew up playing hide and seek among the rocks.”

“Did you?” Kyr’s deep voice soothed her.

“Yes. It was fun, and it was good training. Our instructors thought we were merely playing games, and we were, but the games helped hone our reflexes, decrease our response time and increase our confidence.” Aja chuckled. “And they caused Lieutenant Sharra to bite his nails down to the quick.”

“Who is Lieutenant Sharra?” Kyr’s hands rubbed the back of her neck.

“He was my personal guard, assigned by the Council.” Her body stiffened and she willed herself to relax. “My captors murdered him when they took me. He fought with courage, but it was eight against two. Between us, we killed five of them and wounded another, but Mr. Sharra had taken too many sword cuts and he was bleeding out. I couldn’t get to him in time. The two surviving kidnappers drugged me and I knew nothing more until I woke up tied to the table where you found me.”

“I’m sorry.” Kyr’s hands moved to her shoulders.

“Thank you. I’m sorry for his family. He may have been Coalition, but he was a brave and honorable man and he treated me well. He took his responsibility to protect me very seriously. He gave his life for mine.”

Silence descended as Kyr’s hands worked their way down her back. Aja leaned forward slightly so he could reach the muscles along her flanks. She knew he wanted to distract her, to give her space and time away from their predicament. For the moment, beneath his kneading fingers, he was succeeding.

“Shall I help you to my bunk?” His mouth was against her wet hair.

“Depends upon whether or not you intend to join me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of leaving you alone, at least not until I’ve put you to sleep.”

Delighted, Aja laughed. “I’m a very light sleeper. Might take me a piece to drift off.”

“I’m counting on that, love.”

Two turns later, Kyr relieved Davi in the cockpit. “Catch anything on the scanners or the com?”

“Nothing. All’s quiet. But I’m a little concerned about the skin. She burned a bit on liftoff. May have to set her down at a repair depot and do a complete skin job on that damaged section.”

“How long you think she’ll hold?” Kyr asked.

“Two weeks. Figured about the time it’d take us to get home.”

“So you’re suggesting that either we drop Aja on Eir-Edan and then get our girl repaired, or we need to find a repair depot that won’t turn us in if warnings have already been issued.”

“Yes.”

Kyr took some readings. “Jerr’s station isn’t too far off, no more than week or so. I’m speculating we can depend on him to keep his quiet.”

“Can we keep Aja out of sight?” Davi asked. “Maybe stow her in one of the smuggling compartments?”

“For three or four days? It’d be damn hard on her.”

“You have a better suggestion? You and I can pass. Jerr will assume we’ve been on a run and he won’t ask any questions, especially if we pay him in coin instead of trade. But finding a woman with us, a woman who looks like this one? He’ll wonder a bit. All it takes is a bit and we’re scouted.

Kyr sat back in his chair. “Anything on the com channels at all about the Royal Family?”

Davi shook his head.

“That’s a good sign. Then the Coalition doesn’t want anyone to know what they tried and failed to do. The Resistance is laying low. If our forces are hosting some guests, I suspect they’ll keep them bottled up tight. They won’t let any news slip out, other than the usual bluster and propaganda. I think we’ll be safe at Jerr’s, at least for a few days. You’re right about one thing, Aja will stand out. But I don’t think I can squeeze her into a compartment. We designed them for cargo, not humans. I can confine her to my quarters. And I’ll make sure I stay onboard. You can follow your usual pattern,” Kyr said with a wink.

“What about Dina?” Davi grinned. “She’ll be wondering why you don’t pay her a call, or two, or three.”

Kyr laughed. “Watch yourself, Fedd, or you won’t be fathering those children.”

Davi’s grin faded. “What about that? She can see these things? You believe her?”

“Yes, I do. I can’t explain it. I don’t understand it. But I believe her. I believe in her.”

“Like a God, you mean? Like she’s one of the Gods?”

“No. She’s not a god, and don’t ever say that to her. She’s a woman, a special woman, but a woman nonetheless.”

“Then, you mean to say she’s been gifted by the Gods?”

Kyr rubbed his chin. “If you ask, I suspect she’ll tell you it’s more of a curse.”

“If she can see these things ahead of time, though, if she knows these things... Well, the Resistance... You understand what I’m getting at?”

“I do. That’s what I hope to protect her from.”

“Protect her from the Resistance?”

“Yes, even from the Resistance. Both sides could use her for their own ends and not everyone is, well, let’s just say not everyone can resist such power. Aja fights against it herself.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“How do you figure into this? Pardon me, Captain, but what do you mean to her?”

Kyr didn’t know how to explain himself or if he even cared to. He said, “Aja is a woman. I’m a man. Go on.” He dismissed Davi. “Grab something to eat and get some sleep. I’ll fly my bird safe.”

Davi pushed himself out of his seat. “Well,” he laid his hand on Kyr’s shoulder. “Obviously I don’t know Aja like you do, but I gave you my trust when we were six suns. I’m not about to take it back now.”

Kyr nodded at his second. His eyes followed Davi as he headed down the companionway. He’d need to stow Davi someplace safe, too. He didn’t want his friend in danger because his own destiny had taken a sudden turn.

Eyes closed, Aja rose from Kyr’s bunk. She grabbed the clean garments Kyr had thrown over a stool as she walked by them. She stepped into the trousers and mechanically rolled the waistband to keep them up. She threw open the door to the cabin, tugged the sweater over her head as she strode down the companionway.

“Mr. Fedd,” she called out as she passed his cabin. “Strap in.”

Eyes still closed, no hesitation in her step, Aja entered the cockpit. She sat down in the co-pilot’s seat and wrapped the harness around her, locking it into place. She punched off the auto-nav.

Kyr shouted, “What that hells are you doing?”

“They’re on us,” Aja said. “We drop out and we move. Strap in.”

“Aja...”

“Kyr, strap in. I’m dropping us out of flash.”

“You’re flying blind! You’re flying blind, Aja. Give me back the controls.”

“Not now. Strap in or you’ll be injured.”

“By the Gods,” said Davi, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “What the hells is going on?”

“Get down, Mr. Fedd. And hold on.” Aja opened her eyes for a moment to look at Kyr. “Listen to me. Trust me. This is what I do.” She closed her eyes and turned back to her console.

Davi dropped into the navigator’s chair and Aja heard both men click their safety straps.

“Dropping out of flash drive. Prepare to come about.” The jarring motion of a rapid drop threw all three forward against their harnesses.

“Coming about,” Aja said.

The ship groaned sickeningly, skidding sideways through space.

“Gods in heaven.” Kyr managed to speak despite the g-forces. “You can’t come about at this speed. She won’t hold together.

“She’ll hold.”

Behind her, Aja heard the sound of Davi gagging, and she knew he’d thrown up the meal he’d eaten two turns before.

Aja stayed sublight, heading straight for an enormous asteroid belt.

“The Pikes. We can’t enter the Pikes. Aja, stop.”

Aja concentrated on reaching the belt before the pursuing ship dropped out of flash. The Coalition ship was too large to drop as fast as she had, giving them some breathing room.

“Aja, who is it? Who’s after us?”

“Bom. General Bom.”

“How?”

Aja thrust her left leg in Kyr’s direction. “Your knife,” she said. “Get it.”

Kyr reached around his back and pulled his knife from its sheath.

“The purple bruise, just above my ankle. I thought I got it struggling against the ropes. It’s a bloody transmitter. The son of a Chigalla planted a bio-mimetic transmitter under my skin. You’ll have to cut it out. Cut it out now because I’ll blow this ship to the Seven Hells of Wrath before I’ll let them take us.”