Reckless Rescue (2 page)

Milandra didn’t even seem to hear him. “We’ve been married for three years, God, four years next week. How could you keep this from me?”

Tyris folded his arms. “I didn’t tell you about it because I knew you’d react like this. You’re blowing it out of proportion. The truth is that this will change nothing in our lives.”

“Maybe not in your life. But when this comes out, it could ruin mine.”

“Celebrities have scandals all the time,” Tyris said. “It’ll blow over. Besides, you always said that any publicity, even bad publicity, would still bring in new viewers. You can use this, can’t you? Make a point of it. There are a lot of people out there who will be angry at this decision. Work with it.”

Milandra’s brow wrinkled in thought. Then she shook her head. “No, it’s too late. If you’d told me, even just a week ago, I could have worked with it, but not now. The show with my initial reaction to the situation aired last night. Besides, my viewers aren’t the sort to be dealing with this issue themselves. They don’t want to be sympathetic to criminals.”

Her words cut. “So I’m a criminal now?”

“What do you think Tyris? You’re forbidden to have kids. You’re going to have a contraceptive chip implanted, whether you like it or not. This sort of thing just doesn’t happen to people like me!”

“It’s not happening to you. It’s happening to me.” Anger bubbled in Tyris until he lost his usual sense of self control and said the words he’d been avoiding for years. “Can’t you stop thinking about yourself for one second and realise that I’m hurting here too?”

Milandra stared at him. “You’re hurting? You should have thought about that before you went to a protest.”

“I should have known you wouldn’t understand. It doesn’t matter. Let’s just forget about it, okay?”

Milandra stared at him. “I can’t forget about this. This changes everything.”

The complete lack of emotion in her voice scared him. Spurred him to action. “Look, I’m sorry Landy. I should have told you. But we can work this out. Can’t we?” He reached for her hands, but she backed away, shaking her head. The fear growing in the pit of his stomach intensified.

“I... I can’t right now, Tyris.” She shook her head again.

This couldn’t be happening. He searched for the right words, the ones that would fix this.

“Daddy will have a fit,” Milandra said quietly to herself. “But he’ll get over it. I can stay there for a while until I decide…”

This sounded serious. Milandra didn’t make plans. She blew up, let off steam, stormed out. Then when she calmed down, they worked things out.

“Landy, are you leaving me?” He hated the way his voice sounded.

She didn’t even flinch. “I don’t have any other option, Tyris. I’m not giving up everything I ever worked for.”

Tyris licked his lips. His mouth felt like sawdust.

Milandra tied the belt around her dressing gown and grabbed her purse. “I’m never going to forget you, Tyris.” Her voice wavered, and he wondered if she was about to cry. Before he could reach for her, she whirled around and ran out of their apartment.

Tyris stared after her, flinching when the door slammed. 

He took a step towards the door. He wanted to go after her, to try to make her see reason, but he stopped himself. She wasn’t even dressed. She’d be back. Hopefully she’d be a bit calmer. Maybe they could discuss this then. They could sort it out—they
had
been married for four years. 

It couldn’t be over that quickly.

He paced the room, anxiety crawling along his veins, making every part of his body restless. He couldn’t imagine life without Milandra. He
wouldn’t
imagine life without Milandra. He didn’t want the drama of meeting people, dating, and trying to find someone whose life fitted with his. There had to be a loophole, some way to win her back…

Life had always just fallen into place for him. His parents paid for a good school, and he’d achieved high marks with little effort. Since childhood, he’d dreamed of being a pilot, of flying a spaceship. The only thing that had ever gotten in his way had been that stupid protest. Fortunately, General Kendal, a friend of his Uncle Max, pushed for the board to accept his application.

He’d met Milandra in his first year in the Space Force, when she’d been visiting her father. Their romance had been one of those whirlwinds everyone talked about, sweeping him up in its inescapable vortex. She’d been everything he hoped for in a wife. So free and vibrant, so focused on what she wanted to achieve in life. They’d had so much in common.

They still did. This was just a glitch. Temporary. He’d find a way around it.

She had every right to be angry. He should’ve told her years ago, but he knew she’d react like this. He’d just hoped she’d never find out—and without this damn law change she wouldn’t have.

He sat down, flicked on the TV, and stared at the news of protesters in the Urslat streets. He shook his head. They didn’t even care about it going on their records anymore. They had nothing left to lose.

The video feeds switched from country to country, the images all the same. The numbers were too great. When Space Force officers tried to disperse the protestors, the situation escalated into riots.

The intercom buzzed, and he jumped up. Milandra must have left her key card behind when she flounced out. He tried to keep the smile off his face, so she wouldn’t hear it in his voice. If she thought he was laughing at her, she’d be furious.

He pressed the button. “Landy?”

“Why would I be Landy? Doesn’t she have a key card?” Kerit’s voice responded.

Tyris sighed and buzzed his brother in.

When he opened the door, Kerit thrust two bottles of soda into his hands. “Hey, bro. Put those in the fridge.” He walked through to the living room and threw himself onto the couch, plopping his feet up on the coffee table. He picked up a half-eaten bag of chips Tyris had left out last night and tasted one experimentally. He shrugged then munched noisily.

Finally, he looked over at Tyris, still standing in the doorway. His eyes narrowed, and he stopped, handful of chips half way to his mouth. “What’s up, Ty? Something wrong?”

“Milandra walked out on me.” He needed to tell someone, and there wasn’t anyone he felt closer to than his brother, despite their differences. He lightly touched the jade dolphin hanging at his neck. “Guess the luck doesn’t work for me.”

“Give it time, bro. The dolphin works in mysterious ways.”

Tyris gave a laugh. His brother was firmly convinced the dolphin had brought him luck. He didn’t believe in that kind of thing. He believed in things he could see. But he liked the charm because it reminded him of the bond he had with his brother.

“Maybe this will work out for the best somehow,” Kerit suggested. “What happened anyway?”

Tyris put the drinks on the coffee table and sat down opposite Kerit, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “I’ve been banned from having kids.”

Kerit winced. He reached for one of the soda bottles and took a swig. “That protest thing? I can’t believe that’s still following you around. Can’t you get them to take it off your record?”

Even though he was stressed, Tyris smiled at his little brother. He reached for the other soda and took a mouthful. “I don’t have that much clout. I’d have to do something pretty impressive to have that one wiped.”

“Well, do something impressive then. You’re always going around doing impressive stuff.” Kerit waved a hand. As though it were that simple.

Tyris couldn’t help a small laugh. He didn’t think his problems would be solved that easily, but talking to Kerit calmed him down somewhat. “About the only thing
that
impressive would be to find a hidden source of anysogen. Then I think the government would do anything I asked, and Milandra would definitely forgive me.”

Only four planets had been found containing the precious gas that allowed their ships to fly faster than the speed of light. They’d searched in vain for more planets, but ironically, their range was limited by the fuel shortage. Now there wasn’t even enough to reach beyond explored space, to search out new planets that might solve their overcrowding problems. There was barely enough to keep ferrying settlers and supplies back and forth from the currently settled planets.

One day soon, they’d run out. Then space travel would go back to being painfully slow, with passage between the colonial planets taking months or years, not weeks.

“So find some anysogen,” Kerit said. “Didn’t you say something about a planet no one talks about? Can’t you call in a favour of some sort? Failing that, you could always find the right person to sleep with. You can charm the socks off a snake.”

Tyris stared at his brother. Why hadn’t he thought of that? Not the charming the socks off a snake bit, the lost planet.

He’d first heard of it by chance. In his second year of college he’d begun an assignment on the development of the anysogen engine, but hadn’t been able to find information on the planet where the precious gas had first been discovered. Since the breakthrough had been made a mere thirty years ago, around the time of his birth, it should have been public knowledge.

The mystery had intrigued him, and he’d even gone so far as to write his entire paper on the lack of information. His professor returned the assignment, unmarked, with only the note that if he wanted a job in the Space Force, he should resubmit the paper. He’d been given a two week extension. Though this only increased his interest, Tyris promptly obliged and submitted a safer report focusing on the first interstellar space flight.

He’d dreamt of flying into space since before he could speak. In fact, his parents claimed that his first word had been ‘star’. He wouldn’t do anything else that might potentially damage his career.

Since that time, anysogen had become so scarce he didn’t think finding it would damage his career at all. In fact, it would probably save it.

“I think you have something there, Ker.”

“I do?” Kerit’s face registered surprise then approval. He winked. “I take it you have someone in mind?”

“Something like that.” He suspected that going after the planet he was thinking of—one that had been removed from the history books despite the riches it contained—had its risks. No point in embroiling Kerit in it.

His brother’s record was clean. Best to keep it that way.

*****

T
YRIS KEPT HIS BACK STRAIGHT
as General Kendal paced the room. The chip in his upper arm still stung, but he didn’t wince. Before he approached the General, he’d made himself get the chip implanted. It looked better if he appeared to be obedient. He needed every edge he could get. What he was asking for wasn’t exactly by the books.

He tried not to let his eyes follow the man, tried not to let any hint of desperation show in his face.

“You know how short of anysogen we are,” the General said finally, turning to face him. “This is a big ask.”

“I know, Sir.”

The General sighed. “Why couldn’t you ask for a normal ship? We only have two HSLD-SV’s, and both of them are prepping for immediate dispatch when the results of the current outer space survey come in. There are hopes that the scientists might have found another habitable planet, and lord knows we could do with one. There are plenty of ships assigned for pilot’s rec leave. Won’t one of them do?”

Tyris didn’t want to give away his reasons. Not yet. “How about the Mark II’s? Surely they won’t be sent that far? They’re just sitting in port gathering dust. Wouldn’t it be better that they get a bit of use now and then?”

The General pursed his lips, his brow creasing. “The Mark II’s don’t have the capacity of the Mark III’s, no. Every planet that’s within their fuel range has already been explored. Officially, they’ve been retired.”

Tyris ran over the specs for the Mark II in his mind. Their scanning capability was slightly limited due to a weaker signal. They could only scan when the shields were down, leaving the ship exposed for the duration of the scan. But that shouldn’t pose a problem for his plans. So long as they could detect anysogen. That was all he needed. He nodded.

The General searched Tyris’s face, then sighed. “The Hylista is due for a maintenance flight next week. If I schedule that with your vacation days, we just might be able to swing it.” His face grew serious. “You’re not planning anything stupid are you?”

Tyris shook his head. “No, of course not.”

T
HE WARMTH FROM THE FIRE
couldn’t combat the winter chill in the air. Holding in a sob, Marlee stared out the open window at the few goats picking at the dying vegetation, and shivered.

The fields were bare, the harvest done. The trees had all lost their leaves.

The bleak view suited her mood perfectly.

She heard boots stomping mud off on the rush mat outside the door, and drew in a shaky breath. She scrubbed at her eyes with a corner of her apron and jumped off the end of the bed to pull the patchwork quilt over the mattress. She couldn’t see the front door, but she could imagine Nelor walking in as clearly as if he stood in front of her.

She smiled sadly at the image. The beard he’d been growing dominated his face, and made him look a little like his father. Would it last the winter, or would he shave it off half way through because it itched, as he had last year? She ached at the thought that she wouldn’t be around to see which it would be.