Protector of the Realm (2 page)

Rae thought she detected a faint tremor in Kellen’s hands and wondered what caused it. Was it more of her impressive anger?
Or is she afraid, or perhaps in pain?
“Do you have proof of what you say?” she inquired.

“Only her last words! When she was dying, she asked me to raise Armeo, and until a few lunar cycles ago, nobody cared either way. I won’t give him up.”

The defiant retort seemed to mask other, underlying emotions. Rae rubbed her neck, where an all-too-familiar tension reminded her of countless negotiations with Onotharians wanting to cross the border into the SC. Situations like this one were always stressful. “Take a seat.” She pointed at one of the alu-carbon visitors’ chairs.

Kellen looked as if she was about to refuse, but relented and sat down, flinching as she extended her left leg in front of her.

“Are you injured?” Rae asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Very well. As you know, I’ve spoken with the boy. He’s obviously very fond of you and would be upset if you were apart. That’s why I haven’t confined you to the brig without him. Yet. Fact remains, by firing on my frigate and refusing to obey direct orders, you violated at least a dozen Supreme Constellations
laws.”

“You were approaching me head-on. I had no way of knowing your intent.”

“We identified ourselves as an SC spacecraft.”

“You are not the first to present yourselves as representatives of the SC. I have come across several convoys of pirates with the exact same method of operation.”

Rae knew this was probably true. The Gamma outposts were eternally trying to stamp out the pesky space pirates who infested intergalactic space and made it dangerous for traders and other small spacecraft. “My people are searching your vessel right now. They’ll find any such incidents on record in the ship’s computer log, if they exist.”

“They will be there.” Again, an expression of anguish flickered over Kellen’s face.

Rae scanned the lean body before her for clues as to where the pain originated. She could see no outward signs, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. “Before we commit you to your quarters, I’ll send you and young Armeo through sick bay.”

“Your scans will come out negative. We carry no disease.”

“Perhaps, and our biological filter should’ve pick up any foreign agents already. However, we’re many light-years from the nearest medical facility. We can’t take any chances. Besides, someone needs to look at your leg.”

Kellen rose without permission, glaring at her. “Have your doctors scan us, then. They can’t be any worse than the bunglers the Onotharians allow to practice medicine on Gantharat.”

Acidic, aren’t we?
Rae nodded toward the guard. “Escort Ms. O’Dal to Dr. Meyer. Pick up the boy on the way.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

As she returned to her chair, Rae watched the proud woman leave. Her stoic appearance and the arrogance that bordered on hauteur were hardly the demeanor one would expect of a prisoner. And she showed no signs of gratitude for her decent treatment at Rae's hands. Puzzled, and somewhat concerned at the thought that O'Dal could be injured, Rae returned her focus to her work. She had no plans to allow her captive to prey on her mind; she had more important things to think about.

*

Kellen gazed around sick bay, waiting for the chief medical officer to join her and Armeo where they sat next to each other on an elaborate-looking examination table. Two guards armed with laser-pulse rifles stood by the door.

“What’s going to happen now?” Armeo sounded more curious than afraid.

“A doctor will make sure we’re healthy and all right. It won’t hurt.”

Armeo looked at her with an expression of disdain that reminded Kellen of his mother. “I’m not afraid of anything.”

“It’s natural to fear the unknown.” Kellen smiled fondly and let her gaze soften. “We don’t know these people, but they won’t harm you.”

“The commodore interrogated you,” Armeo pointed out.

“Yes, but she didn’t hurt me.” Kellen knew Armeo was worried by the rumors he’d heard about interrogations in the Gantharat System. “We only spoke together.”

He scooted closer. “Honestly?” His dark blue eyes, framed by straight, black eyebrows, probed hers.

Armeo’s face was thin below a shock of dark brown hair. Like his mother’s, his features were finely chiseled, and he also carried the Gantharian blue-blood cells, making his dark eyes blackish blue. Despite this coloring, his skin possessed a clear olive tint, which was inherited from his father, as were his broad shoulders and lithe body. He was lanky and tall for his twelve years, reaching almost to Kellen’s shoulder.

Knowing he was also emotionally mature for his age, Kellen took his question seriously. “Honestly," she insisted. "The commodore only asked me questions.”

The woman in command of this space station was unlike anyone Kellen had ever met. At first glance her form was unremarkable despite the flaming dark red hair, which seemed to be unusual for a human. She was shorter than Kellen, her eyes at the level of Kellen’s lips.

She was also immaculate and had dealt with Kellen by the book, so she obviously valued correctness and order. Even the way she spoke--her pronunciation clear, each word distinct--suggested the commodore was meticulous.

However, Kellen sensed Jacelon was not an ordinary minion of the SC. She guessed her age to be around forty human years, which, she surmised, was fairly young for someone to achieve such a high rank. The woman’s blue-gray eyes, piercing and relentless, never wavered.
They kept looking at me, as if they could sum up my strengths and weaknesses by simple subtraction
.
Perhaps a worthy adversary in this mass of human weaklings.

The door hissed open, and a petite, wiry woman with short black hair stepped inside. Wearing a different version of a Supreme Constellations uniform, a light blue retrospun cotton shirt with the standard blue trousers, she strode up to Kellen and Armeo and gave them a brisk nod.

“I’m Dr. Meyer, CMO aboard
Gamma VI
. Call me Gemma. I hate titles.”

Taken aback by the surprising request, Kellen exchanged glances with Armeo, noticing the curious look in the boy’s eyes and hoping he wasn’t afraid of this new experience. The few times she had been forced to take him to one of the clinics on Gantharat, he had been traumatized for days afterward. Now Kellen was relieved to see him meet the CMO’s eyes without hesitation.

“I’m Armeo,” he said, extending a hand in the human way of greeting. “How do you do?”

Gemma, about to reach for a handheld computer, turned around and shook his hand. “I’m fine, thank you. Why don’t we start with you, Armeo? I want to make sure you didn’t bring any germs we weren’t prepared for. Also, you were in the middle of quite a scuffle in space, I hear. Were you hurt?”

“No, ma’am…eh, Gemma. I was strapped into my seat. Kellen’s orders.”

“Good.” Gemma took a scanning device from a tray. “Now, let’s see. Hmm, I detect scarring around your clavicle. I’d say you’ve been injured in the last year or so.”

Armeo blushed faintly and cast an embarrassed glance toward Kellen. “Yeah, and it was all my fault. Kellen told me to wait for her when I wanted to go riding on her new
maesha
. I didn’t listen to her. He threw me off and I landed on my shoulder.”

“What’s a
maesha
?”

“What you would call a horse,” Kellen replied. “Only much bigger.”

Gemma shot her a look. “Armeo’s clavicle hasn’t healed properly. Why didn’t you take him to a physician?”

“We have no physicians working with this kind of technology on Gantharat. And if they did exist, they would not be accessible to Gantharians. We have what you could call doctors, but no bone-knitters or derma fusers. Since I refused to have these idiots carve on him, it had to heal the old-fashioned way.”

“Didn’t you at least wear a sling, Armeo?”

He squirmed, the picture of guilt. “Yes…sometimes.”

Kellen raised her hand, ruffling the hair at the back of his head. “Sometimes, as in
rarely
, Armeo?” She felt her muscles relax marginally when he wrinkled his nose at her, looking so familiar in this stark alien setting.

Gemma shook her head and smiled. “Kids. You probably had to nag him about the sling the few times he actually wore it.”

She’s trying to act friendly, but I certainly don’t trust her.
They were in the hands of people working for the woman she’d fired her torpedoes at. She mustn’t forget that. Their loyalties lay with Commodore Jacelon and the SC, not with a fugitive accused of kidnapping.

Kellen decided acting as if everything were normal in front of Armeo, making him feel safe, would help their case in several ways. If the
Gamma VI
commodore learned from her crew how wonderful Armeo was, Jacelon might be more lenient when she made her decision about Kellen’s fate. “Yes,” she replied, keeping her voice even. “He’s very active and didn’t want to wear bandages.”

“I guess you’re going to stay with us for a while. I can easily repair this if you want.” Gemma scanned the rest of his body. “Apart from the injury, you’re in great shape.” She punched a few new commands into the handheld computer, then turned to Kellen. “All right. Any injuries or illnesses I should know about?”

“No.” Wordlessly, she tried to communicate with Gemma by gesturing in the boy’s direction.

The doctor nodded. “Listen, Armeo, why don’t you go over there, to the main computer. I bet Ensign Dario can show you an interesting game while I finish.” She motioned for one of the guards to accompany the boy and turning her attention back to Kellen, said, “Go on.”

“Thank you. It’s nothing, but I don’t want to worry him.”

“I understand.” Gemma ran the scanning device across Kellen’s body. Reaching her left leg, she stopped, circling it over an area on Kellen’s thigh. “Remove your uniform. I’m detecting bacteria in what appears to be an open wound.”

“It isn’t necessary. I’ve bandaged it myself.”

“It’s infected, and I have no way of knowing how bad it is without an ocular inspection.”

“Very well.” Kellen straightened her back. “Could I have some privacy, please?”

“Of course.” The doctor tugged at a curtain, partly obscuring the other guard’s vision. “He can still see us, so don’t try to fool me, Ms. O’Dal.”

“I’m not.”

Standing up, Kellen unfastened her leather suit and peeled it off her shoulders and down across her hips. She couldn’t help but moan when it slid over the injury in her left thigh. She sat on the gurney, biting her lower lip to keep from whimpering when Gemma carefully peeled off the makeshift bandage.

“God,” the physician murmured. “And you call this nothing? What the hell caused it?”

“Ambassador M’Ekar’s way of dealing with me.” Kellen ground her teeth at the searing pain.

“This isn’t new. When did it happen?”

“When we left Gantharat twenty-two days ago.”

Gemma scanned the infected area of the five-inch-long wound. “It needs treatment. How could you let it become so bad?”

“I tried to keep it clean, but we have a limited supply of medications aboard the
Kithanya
.”

Gemma reached for an injection device. “This is for the pain and is also an anti-inflammatory. Further scans will determine which bacteria are causing this mess, and we’ll give you an intravenous infusion of the right medication to help you heal and make it possible for me to close the wound later.” She pressed the imbulizer against Kellen’s upper arm. “I can't believe you tried to clean this yourself. Without the right pain relief, it must have hurt like hell.”

“What, exactly, must’ve hurt?” a husky voice said from behind the screen.

“Commodore, come in and take a look at this.” Gemma took a step back.

Kellen did her best to conceal her annoyance when the woman in charge of the space station rounded the screen to join them. She was reluctant to show any sign of weakness, even if it was merely a wounded leg.

Commodore Jacelon looked at the wound on Kellen’s leg with a puzzling expression on her face. Kellen recognized anger mixed with something close to remorse, and she wondered why she would look at a perfect stranger with so much feeling.
Perhaps she doesn’t realize how visible her emotions are to me?

“I can’t imagine how you’ve managed to move, let alone walk, with your leg in that condition.” Jacelon shook her head.

“Ms. O’Dal shouldn’t be on her feet at all until I’ve closed this wound. I'll admit her to the infirmary and—”

“No,” Kellen objected. “I can’t be away from Armeo. I will not have him incarcerated without me.”

Commodore Jacelon looked affronted. “I've thought about your situation and…seeing this,” she gestured toward the injury, “reaffirms what I've decided.”

Kellen raised an eyebrow, unable to keep sarcasm out of her voice. “Do go on, Commodore.”

“You’re in SC custody and so is the boy. We’d never throw a child into the brig--and we don’t do that to seriously injured people either. I will assign proper quarters for you both. Armed guards will be on duty at all times, so don't fool yourself that you can escape.”