Inherit the Stars (36 page)

“Stars blinking and receding, miss! Eat these thogens.” Rhii spooned the barnacle powder into Kivita's mouth.

Grimacing at the thogens' taste, Kivita stood in
Frevyx
's central corridor. Though tired and aching from her ordeal, the others wanted—maybe even needed—to hear her speak.

Great. What could she possibly tell them after what they'd just endured?

As the survivors from
Luccan's Wish
watched her with anticipation, four squads of Aldaakians, fronted by Seul, waited just inside the airlock chamber. Sar rested in his hammock, left leg propped on a stool. A bony woman with short dark hair and large green eyes waited outside the bridge with Jandeel, examining Kivita with keen interest. Every now and then, the woman tugged Jandeel closer to her.

Kivita stared at the floor. “I don't have Navon's strong voice or Jandeel's skillful words. I don't have all the answers. But I have some ideas on what we can do next. First, I want to clear something up.”

A lump rose in her throat. She faced everyone. “I want you all to know that Cheseia and her twin sister,
Zhara, gave their lives on that Sarrhdtuu ship, as did Navon, so that I could be standing here now. I'll hear nothing ill of them.”

Looks of surprise passed along the crowd.

Sar closed his eyes for a moment, then gave her a forlorn smile.

Kivita placed her hands on her hips. “By now you all know the Sarrhdtuu tried to use me, like they wanted to use my mother. We know the Vim still exist. Yeah, maybe not where we can easily find them, but they're out there. So are the Sarrhdtuu. And it won't take long for the prophets on Haldon Prime to select another Rector.”

“War is coming between my people and the Inheritors,” Seul said. “The blockade over Tejuit is just the beginning. Though I can't speak for others, I'm with you, Kivita Vondir. I don't believe the Vim will be found again without your talents. My ship and my Troopers are yours.”

The Thedes all gasped and whispered. Kivita blinked, then walked over and embraced Seul.

“I swear I'll not ask you to do something I wouldn't,” Kivita said.

Seul, visibly surprised by the hug, grinned. “I'll do it, anyway.”

“Seul, I'm sorry about . . .” Kivita shook her head.

“Kael is with Niaaq Aldaar now. I still have my daughter to find.”

A great warmth rose in Kivita's chest. “Vuul sent a transmission before
Aldaar
blew.”

Seul went rigid. “What do you mean?”

“It contained
Aldaar
's databanks,” Kivita replied. “As well as your personal records.”

Trembling, Seul gripped Kivita's arm. “My daughter?”

“Her name is Taeu Jaah,” Kivita whispered.

Seul mouthed the name, then smiled. “Now I know who I am looking for. And who I will follow.” She bowed her head.

Excited murmurs rippled through the Thedes, and expectation filled their eyes. How would she ever live up to it?

Jandeel raised his voice. “So, you'll lead us? As queen?” Numerous cheers and whistles followed his question, though Sar studied her with neutral eyes.

“No,” Kivita said.

Shocked stares greeted her. Sar's brow creased.

“I'll lead you as your friend. You want me to accept my mother's throne? Yeah, then here's the rules: no bowing. No titles. I'm still Kivita. Navon told me nobility comes from within, not some silly crown.”

More cheers and whoops, more hopeful smiles. But why did her throat feel so tight?

Sar sat up in the hammock. “What about a headquarters? We still have hundreds of contacts in the Cetturo Arm. How will you run the Thedes? Sutara has fallen to the Inheritors, and Tejuit will be a mess. Where can we go?”

“Redryll? Kivita Narbas can send, that's how.” Bredine tugged Jandeel's sleeve and leaned on him.

“If that's what it takes,” Kivita said. “The revolution isn't over, but it remains what Luccan and Navon wanted it to be: an organization of people spreading knowledge. Maybe with what I can do, our enemies will have a harder time silencing us. I won't support uprisings if we can change things in a peaceful way. But I'm not afraid to fight.”

Sar's green-brown speckled eyes narrowed, and a
self-conscious anxiety overcame Kivita. What did he want?

“Tell her, Bredine,” Sar said.

Kivita examined the thin woman. All she knew was that Bredine Ov had been Dunaar's most talented captive Savant.

“Rhyer slept in void cold, too,” Bredine said. “Slept, and woke every few years. Kivita? Hmm. I protected Rhyer Vondir on Haldon Prime while you still slept in royal gold. Hmm. He readied you to return the Vim message. Rhyer, Rhyer. He recorded Ascali songs to mar Sarrhdtuu ears. Kivita? He saved a ship of Savants, placed them in a special system.”

Sar explained Bredine's history and her relation to Rector Broujel. Upon hearing his words, all regarded the woman with awe and sympathy. Jandeel gazed at Bredine with different eyes, his exasperation at her attention vanishing.

“But where would Father have . . .” Kivita paused. “My old trawler,
Terredyn Narbas
, with all that Ascali claw graffiti. The coordinates might be in its databanks! We'll need those Savants he saved. Bredine, are you sure?”

Nodding, Bredine patted Jandeel's hand.

“Then that's our first destination,” Kivita said. “Tejuit. Yeah, the blockade will be active, and war may have already broken out in the system, but we need to reestablish contact with the Tannocci nobles and Naxan merchants, anyway. Maybe the other Aldaakians, if they'll listen.”

Seul and her Troopers nodded.

“What about this?” Jandeel handed Kivita the Scepter of Office. “Every Rector since Arcuri himself has carried this thing.”

“A datacore,” Bredine said.

With tentative steps, Kivita approached it. Her hands numbed and her temples tingled. Focusing her will, Kivita peeled away the datacore's first layer.

Her mouth fell open.

Majestic yellow suns, gorgeous blue dwarfs, and roiling-hot nebulae drifted through her thoughts. The vision transformed into a sandstone mosaic of the same image. Zhhl and a man in yellow robes stood before it. Interspersed with this was images of Meh Sat's destruction, like she'd already seen in the Juxj Star.

It was a firsthand view of Arcuri's deal with the Sarrhdtuu, when Zhhl had promised the Inheritors that they'd join the Vim in the Core—if they but followed Sarrhdtuu advice. Their whole religion was based on a lie, with every Rector a puppet in a game they hadn't understood. Hell, she barely comprehended it. Still gaping, Kivita withdrew her mind from the Scepter. What else would it reveal? She'd need time to study it, absorb everything it contained.

“What do you see?” Jandeel asked.

Concentrating, Kivita sent the information into everyone's mind. All of them blinked and inhaled.

“Sorry,” she said. “But I wanted you to understand what we're really up against. We're still going to be hated, hunted. But we're going to do it anyway. First we'll salvage what cryopods we can from the wreckage outside and put them in
Frevyx
's cargo hold. There's not enough life support and food on board for everyone, so we must have them. Then we'll make a light jump to Tejuit.”

“Stars flaring, then. Let's get going!” Basheev cried.

Smiling, Kivita knelt and kissed his forehead. One by
one, all the Thedes walked by and touched Kivita's shoulders. The Aldaakians drew and raised their swords.

Bredine hugged her and whispered, “Kivita? Only a true queen kneels before those she leads.”

Pressing her close, Kivita whispered back, “Thank you for what you've done. For Sar.”

After Kivita had spoken to everyone individually, the Aldaakians boarded their shuttle. Jandeel and several others donned envirosuits to aid Seul in finding enough cryopods for everybody. The rest waited in the main corridor, excited and talkative.

With a tight jaw, Sar limped from the hammock into the toilet.

Kivita followed him and slammed the door.

He faced her and sighed. “Look, this—”

“I know I'm guilty of promising these people a lot,” Kivita whispered. “Did you see how they looked at me when I woke up in the airlock chamber? Like I was some mythical goddess or something. I don't like it. Because of me, so many—”

“Have hope,” Sar said.

Kivita crossed her arms as Sar leaned on the counter. “You think I'm doing this all wrong, don't you? We don't have armies and fleets. What else can we do?”

“That signal you sent has spread across the Cetturo Arm. The Sarrhdtuu and Inheritors may think you died in the battle, but the story won't. The daughter of Queen Narbas is alive.” Sar grunted and touched his left leg. “I saw some of the data you sent out on
Frevyx
's terminal. How to replicate Vim starship engines, how to create our own fusion energy dumps. That means no more salvaging, and no more Inheritor monopoly on technology. That alone will change everything in the Arm.”

Steadying him, Kivita met his eyes. “Is that all you're thinking about, smoothie?”

He plucked at his gray bodyglove, where blue medical tape and bandages had been wound around his left leg above the knee. Faint bruises covered his chin, neck, and his right brow. His eyes danced over her body, then returned to meet hers.

“No, sweetness. I'm thinking that I'm no good for you. That we'll never have enough time together. That I can't—”

“Bullshit.” She placed his hand over her heart. “I felt you out there in the cold. There's a hell of a lot you can still salvage inside here, Sar Redryll.”

“Greatest salvage of all,” Sar said in a low voice.

She almost touched his bruised face, then grimaced. “How much will it hurt to kiss you? Looks like you got in a fight with a Bellerion swamp sloth.” She didn't say he looked more handsome than ever before.

He pulled her close and kissed her lips, her cheeks, her hair, her neck. Closing her eyes, Kivita dug her fingers into his bodyglove; then something made her push away from him.

“Don't touch me unless you're staying with me,” she said, tugging off her bodyglove. Clicking out of her polyboots, she undid her Dirr braid.

Sar's hands spread down her lower back. “Looks like I touched.”

Dressed in nothing but her two-piece underwear, Kivita leaned close and nudged her thigh against his. “Yeah, and that chit from Tejuit is still on my trawler. I might let you cash it in. You got to find my ship first, though.”

Sar jerked as she brushed his wounded left knee.

“Oh, shit. I'm sorry. I—” Kivita paused as his hands cupped her face.

“No, Kiv. I'm sorry. Bredine told me your message while you were floating out there.” He stripped off his bodyglove. Larger bruises dotted his hard musculature.

“You know I love you,” she breathed in his ear as he cupped her rump in one hand. “But I'm not the salvager you once knew. And I know you're not sterile.”

Sar drew back. “How did you . . . ? Cheseia told you.” He looked away.

“She loved you until the end. She wanted you to know that.”

Sar clasped her hands. “I'll support you in this peaceful notion you have. Shekelor showed me what vengeance can do to a man. But listen. We can't take the risk of our children being mutants like me—”

Kivita silenced him with a kiss. “Life is a risk.”

Pulling her close, he kissed her hair. “Moments like this will be few, Kiv. You can't stay hidden, and not just from enemies. Those people out there need to see you. Believe in you, like they did your mother.”

Kivita kissed his chest. “So, you don't mind having a queen for a lover? Having the most wanted woman in the Arm . . . for your wife?”

Sar smirked. “You'll need to grow longer hair to hold two more braids, like a proper married Dirr woman.”

“Picky ass.” She snuggled closer to him. “How long can we stay in here before they look for us?”

Sar's hands caressed her hips. “Not long enough.”

“Then I might have time to give you a Susuron Kiss,” Kivita said. “It goes something like . . .”

Her words ended as their lips, hearts, and minds joined. A merger of love, a sharing of knowledge and
understanding. Kivita showed him visions of Frevyx, her mother, and the secrets of their origins. All the stars uncounted and yet to be visited.

Most of all, Kivita showed him the star within herself: burning bright for him, for truth, and for the future of all.

Looking for more?
Visit Penguin.com for more about this author and a complete list of their books.
Discover your next great read!