Faring Soul - Science Fiction Romance (12 page)

“Federation membership sounds like a
terrible deal,” Bedivere said. “No wonder no one wants to
join.”

Lilly jumped off the table. “But they
hold the galaxy to ransom! No one wants to live in the
fringes!”

Brant looked up at her sharply.
Bedivere straightened up from his lean.

Lilly pressed her lips together,
looking around the room. “I mean…” she began softly, then stopped,
looking wretched.

Catherine got to her feet. “Lilly, I’ve
been around for a very long time. I’ve seen a galaxy without the
Federation and I’ve lived on the fringes a long time. One thing
I’ve learned is that no one is ever completely right, or completely
wrong. There’s
always
another side to it.”

Lilly pressed her lips together.
“That’s not going to stop the Federation.”

“No, but if you bear what I’ve said in
mind, it might just stop you from making terrible mistakes, ones
you’ll regret for the rest of your life.”

“And the Federation?”

“We’re going to duck them and hide out
for a while. We’re already halfway to the Sunita system.”

“Which world?” Brant asked. “There’s,
what, eight of them settled now?
And
a couple of moons.”

“Exactly,” Bedivere said. “If the Feds
caught a hint of our ion trail back out the gate and if they have
any ability to track it—even if they jab their finger at a star map
and
guess
which system we were heading for—they still have
to search every single world and settlement and moon. It gives us
time.”

“Time for what?” Lilly asked. She was
quiet and sober, now.

Sunita System. FY 10.070

Catherine was eating in the galley
standing up. She didn’t even bother to lean over the counter to
catch crumbs. She was too hungry. She had hit the lucky button on
the dispenser and a bowl of something that smelled familiar
emerged, piping hot. She ate it with her scalded fingers, even
though there were forks. Somewhere.

All she wanted to do was eat enough to
stop being hungry, then fall into bed for a month. Or two.

Lilly’s quick, quiet boots sounded,
hurrying down the corridor. She was moving fast.

Catherine put down her bowl as Lilly
rounded the open doorway, one hand on the frame to swing herself
around. Behind her, Bedivere and Brant appeared. They had been
alerted by her running.

“They killed them,” Lilly said. Her
eyes were glittering with tears. “They killed both of them.”

Catherine didn’t bother asking who she
was talking about. Once they had cleared the gates, she had asked
Lilly to tap into the fedcore and collect any news they should
know. Lilly was smart. She would have included the Keogard system
in her search parameters without being told.

Sadness touched Catherine. Sibéal and
she had not been close friends. They had spoken only a few times in
the course of doing business. But Sibéal had been like-minded.
Independent and free spirited.

For her own part in Sibéal’s death and
Rashnu’s, too, Catherine felt regret.

Brant’s expression was grave. “Why kill
them? There was no reason to.”

“To make me react,” Catherine told him.
“They’re prodding, hoping I swat back and that way they’ll find
me.”

“Are you? Going to swat them?” Lilly’s
tears were glistening on her cheeks now.

“We’re going to stick with the
plan.”

One corner of Bedivere’s mouth turned
down. He was upset, too. But he was controlling it, like
always.

“And the plan is?” Brant asked.

“There’s a small moon around the
twelfth planet. We’re going to ground there.”

“Are you
crazy
?” Lilly cried.
“If the Federation is looking for us, the very
last
thing we
should do is stay still!”

Catherine pushed her bowl away. She had
lost her appetite. “We’ve already been over this. Sunita is a big
system. It’s not ideal, but it’s imperative the ship be grounded,
most of the systems off-line and everything be rock steady for the
next twelve hours. For twenty-four hours after that, being grounded
will be useful, too. After that, we can run as fast as you like,
Lilly.”

“Maybe we should put it off for a
while, until conditions are better,” Bedivere said.

Catherine rounded on him. “No. We are
not
putting this off.”

“Putting
what
off?” Brant
demanded.

“That’s on a need-to-know and you
don’t,” Catherine said.

He looked surprised, but she didn’t
care. This was too important. She looked at Bedivere. “There’s
never going to be a good time to do it. There’s never going to be a
perfect place. We do it now. No more waiting.”

“But the ship will be basically
disabled for thirty six hours,” he said quietly.

“Being on the ground doesn’t disable
the ship,” Lilly said flatly. “Unless there’s something else going
on here I don’t get.”

“Me, too,” Brant added.

Catherine put her hand on Bedivere’s
arm. “I don’t want to wait another minute more than I have to,” she
told him. “We’ve both waited long enough.”

Bedivere’s gaze was steady. “You’ll be
vulnerable.” His tone was controlled, but she could hear the
stress, deep down.

“That was always going to be a risk.
We’ll never have a perfectly secure place to do it. This is as good
as it gets.”

There was a soft whomp of a pressurized
explosion, then an alarm began wailing on the concierge console on
the wall of the galley. Lilly swore as she looked at the console,
reading the data. “Recycling. Something has popped a gasket. Gotta
go.” She hurried away.

Aware of Brant standing and watching,
she shook Bedivere and picked her words carefully. “The ship needs
downtime, too. Even more reason to ground and do the install.”

He drew in a deep breath. “You’re
sure?”

“That we have to do this, yes. That
this is the least risky way to do it, hell, no. But we could go
another twenty years and not get a clear opportunity. You want to
wait that long?”

He grimaced. “No.”

Catherine looked at Brant. “We’ll park
the ship, then everyone can get some rest. Tempers are high. We
need downtime, too.”

“Whatever you say,” Brant said and she
knew that he wasn’t going to let this rest.

Fourth Moon of Sunita XII, Sunita
System. FY 10.070

Brant didn’t leave it alone for any time
at all.

Catherine grabbed four hours of sleep.
It was the minimal amount she thought she could get away with and
still be able to focus on the work to come. She buzzed Bedivere to
let him know she was ready, then showered and changed quickly.

The silence in the ship, with the
engines down, was almost total. The moon was an airless rock, so
there wasn’t even a breeze to whistle through the superstructure.
Catherine could feel her tension building simply because of the
silence.

She hurried through to the surgery,
where Bedivere was waiting and began preparations while Bedivere
stripped down to the waist and laid down on the procedure table,
face-downward.

“You’re going to put that thing in him,
aren’t you?” Brant asked from the doorway.

Catherine looked up from arranging the
trays next to her, startled.

“That’s why we have to stay parked for
thirty six hours. The navigator is going to be out of commission
for that long.” He stepped into the room and pointed to the tech,
sitting on the tray. “Is this where you tell me that whatever that
is, it’s some sort of life-saving device?”

“I wouldn’t insult your integrity by
trying that,” Catherine said.

“What have you made me a party to,
then?” The anger was radiating from Brant via clenched fists and
strumming tendons.

Bedivere turned his chin to look at
Brant. “It’s called a mesh tether. It will let me stay connected to
the ship no matter where I am. Even if I’m on the other side of
Federation space. As long as I can connect to the fedcore, I can
reach the ship.”

His calm answer seemed to infuriate
Brant even more. “You worked for twenty years, paid a small
fortune, caused the death of two people, all for the sake of a
piece of mech that will make life more
convenient
for
you?”

“The comm link he’s already got is
reaching the end of its useful life,” Catherine said. She kept her
tone even, like Bedivere had done. “And it wasn’t a small fortune,
Brant. It was a
huge
amount of money.”

“This is why you didn’t want to tell
me, isn’t it? You knew I would…I would…” He drew in a breath that
shook. “I object to this. It is indecent.”

Bedivere sat up and swung his legs
around to face Brant. “If you stop us from doing this, then
Sibéal’s and Rashnu’s deaths will be for nothing.”

“You dare taint their lives with
this….”

“Brant,” Catherine said sharply.

He looked at her.

“Fareed,” she said more gently. “This
isn’t the calamity you think it is.”

“It isn’t?” Brant laughed bitterly. “I
thought…call me stupid, but I thought that out of all the people
floating around the galaxy doing interesting things out of the
sight of the Federation…I thought it would be you two who found
it.”

Catherine blinked.

“Found what, Fareed?” Bedivere asked
softly, as if he was afraid that speaking any louder would startle
Brant and shut him down.

Brant looked up at the ceiling then
closed his eyes briefly. “There’s been rumors for years that
another jump technology has been developed. Something that might
not need gates and Itineraries. I thought you had tracked it down,
that it was real. I never for a moment thought that what you had
spent twenty years working for was a piece of
biotech
.” He
spat the word out.

“Fareed,” Catherine said quietly.
“Remember what I said to Lilly about there always being another
side to it?”

“How can you possibly think there is a
way to justify this?”

“I’m not going to try and justify it to
you. You’re not listening. But I will give you more than I would a
total stranger. There is a reason we’re doing this, one I can’t—I
won’t
share with you. Not now and maybe not in the future.
You’re just going to have to trust me when I say there is a side to
this you can’t see right now and it makes all the difference in the
world.”

“Trust?” He spoke the word
incredulously.

“Do you know if Lilly has repaired that
recycling blow out?” Bedivere asked him.

“What?”

“Go and check, see if you can help
her,” Bedivere told him. “And when you’re finished, ask her to see
if there are any free docks we can book on Sunittara, four days
from now…unless you want to delve into the fedcore yourself?”

Brant stared at him, like he was having
trouble processing what he said.

“Go and keep yourself busy for a
while,” Bedivere added. “Stay out of this. Don’t think about it. In
three days’ time, we can talk, if you want. But for now, go
away.”

“Nothing is going to stop you doing
this, is it?” Brant said, his voice softer and more reasonable.

“Not even you,” Bedivere said
flatly.

Brant nodded. “I’ll…I’m going to see
how Lilly is doing.”

Catherine squeezed Bedivere’s shoulder
when Brant was gone. “How did you know?” she asked.

“Know what?”

“That he was looking for a way out.
That a direct command would resolve this for him?”

Bedivere blew out his breath heavily.
“I think the hardest thing I ever had to learn was how to deal with
moral dilemmas and not go out of my mind. He likes you. He even
respects you, but this is pulling him in the opposite direction.”
He looked over his shoulder at her, then turned and settled himself
on the bed once more. “Let’s get this done. I don’t like leaving us
sitting out here like this a minute more than we have to.”

Sunittara (Sunita VIII), Terminus, F.Y.
10.070

“You’re sure you don’t mind?” Catherine
asked for the last time, looking up at Brant where he stood with
his feet apart, looking solid and judgmental, at the top of the
ramp.

“I’ve seen so many terminals they’ve
started to blend,” Brant said. “Besides, I want to be somewhere
where you are not.”

Catherine dropped her gaze.

“Just for a while. Meditating while
you’re staring at the back of my neck is not conducive,” he
added.

Catherine nodded. The truce they had
arrived at in order to get the ship up off the moon and on a smooth
two day glide over to Sunittara had shown signs of stress since
they had docked the ship, as if they had all reached the ends of
their patience. Time away would be good.

Lilita had already shot down the ramp
and had gone. Her duties ended once the station umbilicals had been
attached to the ship and she had barely waited for the ramp to
descend.

That just left Catherine and Bedivere.
He was up, on his feet and seemed normal. The incision scars were
healed.

This excursion was the real test. She
had been working hard to hide how terrified she was. What if the
tech didn’t work? What if she had botched the installation? What if
the years she had spent learning all the medical procedures needed
to pull this off hadn’t been enough?

Bedivere looked at her. “Let’s head
out.” Simple words, but the meaning was so profound she
trembled.

He must have seen her shaking, for he
picked up her hand and squeezed it. “Come on,” he encouraged.
“Let’s find out if you’re as good a medic as you are a pilot.”

Brant scowled at the top of the
ramp.

Catherine deliberately turned her back
on Brant. She couldn’t deal with him right now. Not for the next
few minutes.

She and Bedivere stepped off the ramp
and headed for the big cargo doors, which were cranked open to let
people through. The top of the bay was open to the
sunlight—
real
sunlight—and pools of brightness splashed the
docking bay floor and fell against the cargo doors, showing the
scrapes and dents from thousands of cargo sleds pushing their way
through.