Destiny Abounds (Starlight Saga Book 1) (26 page)

Branwen had once told her and Zimi a story where an aging warrior travelled round and paid a “blood debt” to the families of those she had killed when she was younger. This is what the money felt like to her. Even if the whole mess wasn’t really the Altairans’ fault, exactly, she still wished she didn’t have this line of credits sitting there, adding to the decent amount sitting in the bank from previous jobs, staring back at her and making her remember. It wasn’t enough to pay for her ship, or her mission, or the life of her former Captain. It was only enough to make her unable to forget.

Maybe she could give the whole thing to Mr. Leonard instead. Merlo rolled around on her bed, flopping onto her back and dangling the datapad off of the side while staring up at the blank metal roof of her quarters. She doubted he’d take it, either; he was too polite, and she had the impression that, wherever he was from, he was already pretty well off.

Merlo felt bad that she hadn’t seen him much the last couple of days; she kind of missed talking to him in person instead of just over the com system. He’d even been absent at dinner, and she was pretty sure she knew why. That line of thought brought her mind back around to the other thing that kept weighing on her mind, which was the new girl on board. Ever since meeting her in the kitchens that second day of their trip, when she’d gotten really… intensely close and somehow stolen her sandwich, she kept running into the woman.

Merlo didn’t know what to make of her. In fact, she didn’t even know her name. She’d asked once, but the woman had just ignored it and asked her if she always wore the same clothes. Merlo supposed she
did
always wear her suit, but then again she always had. Was that something she should change now? And to what end?

Anyway, that was beside the point. The woman was intense and strange, unlike anyone she’d met up until now. At first she’d thought to try and avoid her, but had noticed herself not really sticking with it, and winding up in places where they crossed paths anyway. She kind of creeped Merlo out, but also intrigued her further the more they ended up associating. She also kept stealing Merlo’s food.

It wasn’t that she intimidated Merlo, exactly; well, maybe a little. Merlo had a pretty long history of military training, after all; she could take care of herself and she could tell when someone was dangerous. This woman carried herself with a confident ease that was almost arrogant, and seemed very sure of herself. Actually, no one had made her feel quite like she felt when around the newcomer, and she kind of wanted to explore that feeling a little more. Merlo was also beginning to think that the woman might be making advances on her, and she wasn’t completely sure what to think about that, either.

Their other passenger was a bit more enigmatic, or so she supposed. Merlo had gotten some pretty good looks at her as the Kala floated about the Destiny, and she was pretty,
extremely
pretty, the kind of beautiful that you remembered well after she had made an exit. But Merlo somehow found herself not impressed otherwise. Sure her clothes were fancy, but a lot of them were really weird, too.

Supposedly, being a Kala meant that she was a member of some really important group, but no one had been able to satisfactorily explain
what
exactly they did or
why
they were so important. She had kind of gotten the impression that they were a group of people that slept with “clients” for money, and she didn’t see how a group like that could have become that influential, or respected. But there was a lot of crazy stuff in this cluster, so, whatever. Who knew?

To top it all off, Merlo was bored. Her room was kind of empty, over all; Branwen kept trying to get her to buy stuff for it, especially now that she had all of this money. But she didn’t have the first clue where to start, or even what she’d like to have around. She didn’t have a ton of mementos like the Captain did, or a set of various little plants to care for like Zimi, or a… well, whatever Mr. Leonard might have in the engine room to occupy his time.

Holovids had seemed like a pretty good idea at first, but there were literally thousands upon thousands of them, and she just got lost in the extensive library. None of her companions could give her an idea of where to start, since Branwen was new to them too, Mr. Leonard didn’t seem to watch them, and Zimi said she’d been too poor to watch them most of her life. Books were similar, not that Merlo had the patience for those. So even her one or two decent ideas ran into roadblocks.

So mostly, when there was no one to talk to, and no piloting to do or cargo to tend, she just sat around. She’d do some exercise, but the gravity commonly used in this cluster and on the ship still felt too light to her, and it was still too hard to work up a good sweat easily. Sometimes, she read on the Exonet, but that was when she could think of something good to look up, but otherwise that just fell prey to a combination of her problems with books and Holos. Otherwise she’d just eat or lay around wishing there was more piloting to do, like now. Speaking of which, she supposed she might as well go get something to eat.

Tossing aside the datapad, Merlo rolled lithely but lazily off the bed and to her feet. Stretching and yawning, she made her way over to the door to her quarters, which slid quietly open on its own once its sensors realized she was leaving.

That woman was standing there. Merlo froze mid stretch, arms clasped awkwardly. How long had she been standing there? What did she want? She knew Merlo’s quarters, so obviously she’d been—

The tall figure brushed past Merlo and into her room, bumping Merlo’s shoulder and nudging her out of the way with surprising ease. “Hey, what’s going on.” She sat herself with a heavy thud on the edge of Merlo’s bed, plopping down and starting to unwrap an object she’d been holding. The doors slid shut as Merlo turned around, staring at her.

Merlo felt utterly dumbfounded. “What the—? This is my room, you know.” She realized that she must have looked kind of idiotic and put her arms down, taking a couple of steps toward her bed and the stranger occupying its edge.

“Uh, yeah? Why do you think I came in? Where else would you be? You sure as Hel weren’t in the kitchen or the bridge; I checked.” The invader finished unwrapping a sandwich and a couple of large, icing-covered, deep fried snacks.

Merlo just stared at her for a moment. She didn’t honestly know what to say to that. “Um…”

“Why don’t you sit down, or something? You’re weirding me out, just standing there. We’re almost the same height this way.” She patted the bed next to her and slid over a bit to make room, just not a lot of it. After a moment, Merlo complied and sat, crossing her arms across her knees and leaning forward.

“I was actually about to go get something to eat, so I don’t really know—”

“No problem. Here.” Merlo leaned back as the unwrapped sandwich landed in her lap. Bacon. “Brought an extra.” She chomped down on one of the dessert pastries, stuffing a large portion of it into her mouth as Merlo continued to stare.

Merlo blinked and examined the sandwich. “Um, thanks, I guess?”

“Heh, don’t thank me. I didn’t make it.” The woman shrugged dismissively and rolled her shoulder, muscle definition standing out under the bare skin as she did so.

After a moment of watching her chew, Merlo bit into her newly acquired food. It was actually pretty good, standard
Destiny
sandwich fare. They ate in silence for a couple of minutes before Merlo swallowed and made a further attempt to re-ignite conversation.

“So, what’s your name?” She might as well try that one again.

The other woman grunted around a mouthful of sweet food. “Thought I already told you that.”

“Nope, you just kinda… didn’t answer me before.”

“Huh.” Merlo watched and took another bite as the woman shifted, putting her back to the wall and one foot up on the bed, now facing Merlo. “Prisoner 286.”

Merlo blinked, then snorted. “What kind of name is that? That’s not a real name, is it?”

“Sure it is. It’s mine.”

“You don’t have, like, another one?”

“Nope, I’m clean.” She burped loudly and wiped her sugar-dusted hands off on Merlo’s bedsheets.

Merlo blinked several more times, trying futilely to clear the crazy out of her eyes. She turned and once more looked over the woman resting at the foot of her bed. Prisoner 286, even sitting, even slouching, towered over Merlo. Did everyone she met in this damned cluster have to be so huge? It was weird. She was pretty sure this woman was even taller than Branwen, if not quite as broad. Then again, as she took in the corded, toned muscle, bare arms, and occasional scars, maybe she was stronger than she’d realized.

“So, you were an actual prisoner, or something, then?” The consideration that this woman might have been a felon or something didn’t quite make her nervous, at least no more than 286 normally anyway, but she didn’t know what to make of it, either. 286 looked up and met Merlo’s gaze from where she’d been staring at her. Much as before, 286’s bright hazel eyes practically burned with an inner intensity. Merlo suppressed a mild shiver as it trickled down her spine.

“Hel yeah. Several years now. Urebai, mostly.” Merlo winced slightly at the mention of the small prison world, and 286 seemed to notice the reaction. “Ah, you know it? Ever been there?”

Merlo shook her head. “No, never been there. Just… been through the system, is all.”

“Well, I don’t recommend it. It’s crap.”

Merlo snorted again. Despite her misgivings, she found 286 fairly amusing. “So why were you there?”

Prisoner 286 let out a short laugh. “Cause the Altairans didn’t know where else to put me.”

“No, I mean, what did you do?”

286 leaned forward, capturing Merlo’s gaze again. “Now that,” she said in a low tone, grinning a bit, “depends on who you ask.
They
say I broke a whole bunch of stuff, caused massive property damage, hurt a lot of people, even killed some.
I
say that some people got in my way and tried to mess with me, and they regretted the decision.”

Despite herself, Merlo grinned too. She could agree with the sentiment, in a way, if not necessarily the action. Besides, who knew? Maybe 286 was actually kind of in the right. Merlo didn’t know the woman’s circumstances. She directed her attention downward and finished off her sandwich with lethal efficiency.

“What about you? You’re the pilot or something, right?” 286 kicked out a leg, laying it next to Merlo as she also relaxed back on her bed.

“Yeah, I’m a pilot, and a damn good one. And my
name
is Merlo.” She realized 286 hadn’t even asked in return.

“I know. You told me before, back in the kitchen.” Suddenly, she was leaning forward again, an almost predatory look on her face sharing space with that grin of hers.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. So why have you been following me around the last couple of days?” Merlo tried to keep meeting the Prisoner’s gaze, but it was surprisingly difficult. Kind of like the rare couple of times she’d seen Captain Branwen get angry.

286 shrugged. “Eh, I was bored.” Merlo raised an eyebrow, unsure if she should be insulted, but 286 continued. “Besides, why not? You look pretty... interesting, Merlo.” She rumbled out the last part of that statement and drawled Merlo’s name in that way that made Merlo feel a little quavery inside. She looked Merlo over with obvious interest, and the expression painted across her face said that “interesting” wasn’t all she meant by her statement. Merlo made an effort to break the direct gaze and returned the favor, looking the Prisoner over in return.

286 wasn’t exactly pretty; her face was hard, if not lined, and she had a rough cut to her jaw that didn’t quite scream “feminine.” By itself, that wouldn’t be too noticeable, but she also had a less than average bust, currently mostly hidden by a black sleeveless shirt with a white skull printed on it, and a subdued curve to her hips. She had a minor scar running through one eyebrow and another small scar at her hairline. Her nose was a little sharp and a little bent, as if it’d once been broken and never completely righted.

Still, while she might not be pretty, Merlo couldn’t say she wasn’t attractive, especially something about her attitude, or maybe it was her confidence. She also liked her hair: partially shaved, partially rising upward, and partially flipped over to one side, a blend of black and deep purple. She even had a tattoo or something, a small, silvery marking on her neck that traced out a complex pattern similar to circuitry.

“How old are you?” Merlo blurted it out. She couldn’t tell, really; she guessed 286 was in her twenties, maybe? She felt living with both Mr. Leonard, who claimed to be older than he looked, and Branwen, who exuded the same, had really stunted her ability to properly judge ages in this cluster. 286 was another one whose eyes said one thing but whose body contradicted it.

“Oh, I dunno. Old enough. How old are you, like twelve, ten, sixteen?”

“What? Why would you even say that?”

“Oh, you just look like you still have some growing to do.” She wore a viciously amused smile when she said it, and Merlo realized she was just being baited. She grabbed a pillow and chucked it at the other woman as hard as she could, but 286 caught it effortlessly.

“You could just answer a damn question, you know—” belatedly, Merlo realized that the other woman wasn’t holding the pillow with her hand. Rather, she held
out
a hand, but the pillow just floated in the air on its own, suspended and surrounded by a slight distortion of the light, as if the edges of it had gone reverse-negative. “What in the ‘verse!” She half rose from her seat on the side of the bed. “How are you doing that?”