Stars of Charon (Legacy of the Thar'esh Book 1) (20 page)

“But
these Collegiate chose not to forget?” I asked. “And then they attacked the
colony for no reason?”

“If they,
indeed, attacked the colony, then there was a reason.”

“I don’t
know if I buy all of this. If they are so secret, how do you know of them?”
Loid asked.

“It is my
business to know everything,” she answered. “We can leave it at that.”

Loid
paused, his mouth shifted as he bit his cheek absently. He didn’t seem
satisfied with her answer. “So then, these Collegiate folks get their hands on
the messenger drone, and decide they need to go burn down the colony within
hours. I still don’t get it. Celestrials don’t ever rush off without planning.
We still don’t know why they did it.”

“What if they
had planned it in advance?” I asked.

“What?”
the Matron turned to me, her large eyes narrow and severe.

“You mean
they were watching for whatever was in the message drone?” Loid asked.

“Something
like that, maybe,” I answered. “I don’t know. You just said they don’t do
anything without planning, so it makes sense that they may have been executing
some contingency plan.”

“To burn
down your colony?” Loid pressed.

“Well,
no, maybe not,” I answered. “It’s just a thought.”

“Not a
bad one either,” Loid added as he considered. “But it still doesn’t add up. If
they were following a protocol, you can be sure they will come again, this time
with proper planning. And if that’s the case, then those colonists don’t stand
a chance.”

I
shivered at the thought of the Downs being incinerated.

“What
brought you into this?” the Matron leveled her gaze at Loid.

“What do
you mean?” He asked. “I told you, I was hired to help track down the Celestrial
ships, so that’s what I’m doing. Can you help us or not?”

“I can’t
help,” the Matron paused. “Not today at least.”

“Not
today?” Loid asked. “Tomorrow then?”

Once
again the Matron was quiet and still. After several minutes of silence she
tilted her head to the side.

“Yes,”
she said at last. “I will find out what I can and meet you tomorrow at dusk.
Though not here. Meet me at hangar bay XG-9. It will afford us more privacy.”

“More
privacy than this?” Loid raised an eyebrow gesturing to the force field
surrounding us.

“Here
nobody knows what we say, but everyone watches the comings and goings. They
know that we talk,” she answered. “If I ask questions, I will be watched. I
have no doubt that word is getting around that you had something to do with the
death of the Noonan merchant. The Collegiate got the drone from her, yes? As
soon as the Collegiate knows that there is a connection between you and the
Noonan, they will be watching you. I cannot afford that.”

“I
understand,” Loid answered. “I am grateful for your help.”

“Yes,
well, consider it another payment on clearing the debt I owe you,” she answered
solemnly. “I will have Lati retrieve your weapons and show you the back way
out. Lay low until tomorrow, and meet me at landing pad XG-9.”

“Thank
you Matron,” I said, bowing low as I got up.

“Oh, and
Loid,” she called as Lati entered to lead us out. “Bring your other companion
as well, the girl you mentioned. I should like to meet her as well if I could.”

Loid
agreed, and we parted.

Chapter 22.

I was on the flight deck when Tren approached.

“We have finished with the others, Lor’ten,” he said. “Thank
you for sharing the glory of the kill.”

“The clan must share glory as we share pain,” I responded.

Tren repeated the oath back to me and nodded.

“We are almost finished with repairs,” he continued. “Soon we
will return to the clan with our prize.”

“Yes, the prize,” I responded looking around the cabin of our
newly won Carrack. “The Chieftain will honor us.”

“The Clan will honor us,” Tren answered.

“Yes,” I said. “And we will continue to fly. We will continue
to fight. We will continue to kill. We will gain honor.”

“And soon,” Tren nodded greedily. “Soon we will win the honor
to breed.”

A surge of desire boiled my blood as I licked my lips
hungrily.

“Soon,” Tren repeated.

“But today,” I said as I rose. “Today we will celebrate our
victory, and drink the blood of our slain enemies. Today we will take our
trophies with honor.”

“Well said Lor’ten, well said.”

Lati led
us through a secret back exit that led to a long passageway that emerged behind
a factory two blocks away from the Par’eth. Loid and I didn’t speak much as we
glided along the moving sidewalks on the empty streets. Our journey back to our
room at Talash Hall was quiet; though our return to our room was not.

“I
thought you were going to be gone all night,” Ju-lin had been pacing so much
that there was a clearly worn path on the soft carpet.  “I mean really, how
many of the locals did you end up
pumping
for information? Did you find
anything out? Did you see those guys who were following us? Were you followed
back here?”

“Ease up
Twiggy, take a breath,” Loid said as he walked in and flopped himself down on a
pillow.

Ju-lin
was silent for several seconds, waiting with expectant eyes for Loid to
continue.

“Well!?”
She held her hands up.

Loid
looked up at her blankly.

“Joof is
dead,” I said. “The other Noonan, the one who met us at the market, is saying
we killed her.”

“
What
?!
Now you’re wanted for murder?” Ju-lin began pacing again.

“Nobody’s
wanted for murder,” Loid said. “The little Noonan from the shop thinks we did
it, but there’s no proof or records. Thankfully, the Celestrials don’t tend to
jump on hearsay.”

“Besides,
she got locked up after she shot at us.” I added. “So that’s the least of our
worries at the moment.”

“Good, at
least you aren’t wanted. We do not have time to deal with that,” Ju-lin
answered. “Wait, she shot at you?”

“She
smuggled a laser into the Par’eth to try to ghost me, it happens.” Loid
shrugged casually as he grabbed some small red fruits off of the table. “But
you’re only half right, nobody is wanted for
murder
. But you’re wanted:
there’s a contract out on your life.”

“
What?!
”

“I were
you, I’d keep it down,” Loid took another bite.

“Why do
they have a contract out on my life? For what? How do they even know who I am?
Who the hell are they?”

“Not
sure, not sure, not sure, and not sure” Loid answered, annunciating each time
with a nod.

“We think
it could be MineWorks,” I volunteered.

“But
we’re not sure,” Loid said, his mouth full of fruit.

“Why
would MineWorks want me dead?”

We were
silent.

“Well,
what
do
you know?!”

“We know
who attacked the colony,” I offered.

Ju-lin
turned to me expectantly.

And so it
went through the night, Loid and I recounted everything that had happened over
the evening. Loid’s contact, Tolo shooting at us, and our conversation with the
Matron. Eventually, Ju-lin stopped pacing and sat down. We talked through
everything well into the night. We all agreed that meeting with the Matron the
next day was our best chance for finding out what was behind the Collegiate’s
attack.

As we
talked, I couldn’t help but think we were missing something important. We
didn’t know how the Draugari fit into the equation. Though Loid insisted that
the Draugari attack on the Celestials must have been a crime of opportunity,
the Draugari’s shifting memories in my head told me differently. Though I was
beginning to trust Loid, I wasn’t about to let him in on
that
secret.

When we
finally went to sleep late that night, we had yet to solve the question of how
we were going to get Ju-lin across town without her being recognized. We had
breakfast delivered the next morning, and were trying to come up with a way to
smuggle her across the city when Ju-lin’s bedroom door finally opened, and we
saw that she had already taken care of it.

Her
shoulder-length chestnut-brown hair was gone, in its place was a haphazard mess
of deep blue hair that fell to her jawline. Her unassuming clothes were
replaced with skin-tight black pants and matching long-sleeved, high-necked
shirt that had a speckled line of silver along the sleeves. Her belt had a
large silver clasp and she wore her plasma torch on her hip.

“What?”
She said as Loid and I stared at her dumbly.

“No-nothing,”
I stammered and looked away, though I quickly looked back, stealing another
glance at her soft curves.

Loid
didn’t bother looking away as he gave her a very long up-and-down.

“Enough
gawking,” she said as she stepped forward and grabbed a fruit from the tray.

“You
should be passable,” Loid said, nonchalantly turning back to his breakfast.
“Though put on some eye shadow. The Celestrials spent the last few million
years of evolution just looking at each other. Since none of them have hair,
and their facial structures tend to be more similar, they tend to recognize
each other by focusing on the eyes. A little extra color will be distracting
enough that they won't recognize you from your pictures.”

Ju-lin
gave Loid a scalding look before turning to me.

“Eli,
what do you see?” She asked as turned her hips slightly to offer me a profile
view of her feminine shape and tilted her head slightly to the side and smiled
at me.

“I—well—”
I stammered as my face flushed red.

“Fair
point,” Loid laughed. “If everyone is looking
at
you they won’t be
looking
for
you.”

“Exactly,”
Ju-lin said with a sly smile.

“I’m
serious about the eye shadow though,” Loid said as he turned toward me. “Oh,
here. I had room service bring up some gear for you as well, the whole ‘lost
colonist’ thing doesn’t do much for you.”

He tossed
me a sealed package that was on the bottom of the room service cart. It was a
pair of folded thick grey pants and a dark green shirt made of a thin
interwoven fabric.

“I don’t
know how fashionable it is, but at least you won’t look like an out of work
mechanic,” Loid said.

By midday
we were all ready to go, but still had several hours to wait. Though I had
assumed that Ju-lin would want to go outside and explore the city instead of
sit around, I found that she was eerily content to stay in our room. The
knowledge that there were hired killers after her had an unexpected calming
effect. We spent most of the afternoon in silence, reading the local news and
chatting idly about unimportant things.

After the
slow hours passed, Loid finally checked the small computer on his wrist and
indicated that it was time to go. Quietly and quickly we gathered our
belongings and left. After checking out at the front desk, we took to the
streets to the Matron’s landing bay.

Ju-lin
got more than a few looks as we crossed the city, but I noticed that the eyes
that followed her tended to be more appreciative than suspicious, and none
seemed to notice Loid and myself. The sun was beginning to set into dusk by the
time we reached the XG landing pads. The landing area was larger and nicer than
where we had set down
Tons-o-Fun.
When we reached the main gate an armed
guard checked us against his manifest, which identified us as Loid Burns and
guests. After thoroughly checking Loid’s identification against his computer
system, the guard waved us through the gates and gave us directions to landing
pad nine.

As we
passed the sign for landing pad seven I noticed that Loid’s hands were tapping
on the butt of his holstered pistol.

“You look
nervous,” I said quietly. “Are you sure we can trust the Matron?”

“I’m not
worried about her,” Loid answered. “If I can’t trust her, I can’t trust
anyone.”

“Then
what?” I asked.

“It’s
quiet, too quiet,” he answered. “Her disguise was good, but not
that
good. Have you noticed anyone following us?”

“No,” I
answered.

“Neither
have I,” he replied, the fine lines on his forehead were clearly pronounced.

“Isn’t
that good?” I asked.

“Maybe,”
he answered absently as he nodded ahead to the landing pad. “Here we are.”

“Loid!”
the Matron was standing out in front of landing pad XG-9. She was wearing a
long purple cloak with a flipped collar and a dark yellow fringe. “Right on
time.”

“Wouldn’t
miss it,” Loid smiled and looked over at the landing pad. “That thing yours?”

I looked
over to see a large vessel, nearly the size of Alonzo’s Starchaser. The ship
was a deep cobalt color with golden specks in the finish. The base of the ship
was two large, angular fuselages with ovular windowed cabin mounted directly
between them. As with most Celestrial ships I had seen, there were no
exterior-mounted weapons, though I saw the outlines of several hatches along
the surfaces that I was sure would pull back to reveal weapons. On the far
sides of each of the fuselages there were bulges that looked like they could be
turrets. The center cabin had four levels of windows, state cabins most likely.
A boarding ramp was extended from the bottom of the cabin. Two armed guards
stood at the base.

“One of
the perks of being a Matron,” she responded. “I have access to some of the
finer things. It belongs to a friend of mine. He lets me use it on occasion.”

“Perks? I
should say so,” Loid answered as he slowly looked over the ship from bow to
stern.

“She’s a
custom-built pleasure yacht made at one of my people’s shipyards,” the Matron
said. “You like?”

“Celestrial
shipyards,” Loid said absently. “Someday you’ll have to take me into the
interior worlds and give me a tour.”

“Ah,
Eti’katc’kahn,” She gave a harsh laugh. “You are a friend to the Celestrial,
but even you would be burnt down if you came anywhere near our core worlds. We
are a private people.”

“Someday,”
Loid unleashed his most disarming smile. “For now we have business. Did you
find anything?”

“Yes,
more than I had expected,” she answered as she turned to me. “But let’s not
talk here. Eli, it’s good to see you again.”

I took
her hand and took it and kissed it lightly as Loid had instructed.

She
smiled gracefully.

“And you
must be the young lady,” the Matron smiled and turned. “I love your hair,
that’s one thing that our Earthborn cousins have that I envy. You can do so
much with it. Now, if you will join me, let’s talk inside.”

Ju-lin
beamed a smile as the Matron put her arm around her and began walking toward
the ship.

Loid and
I followed them. Something made me uneasy, but I couldn’t figure out what. I
looked over at Loid. He was calm and relaxed as he studied the ship. I shook
off the thought and tried to relax as we walked past the guards and up the
ramp. At the entrance the Matron paused and gestured for me to come forward.

“Eli,
Ju-lin, youth and beauty first,” the Matron nodded forward.

Glowing
with the complement, Ju-lin stepped into the ship. I smiled and followed her, I
had just passed over the threshold when the echo of the Matron’s words caught
in my head. She had called her Ju-lin. We had never said her name.

Before I
could turn around I heard the sliding as the exterior door slid shut behind me,
locking us in darkness.

Ju-lin
realizing the trap, spun and drew her plasma torch, and aimed it at the door. I
barely had time to jump aside before she pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

“Dammit,
they must have some kind of dampening field,” Ju-lin hissed as she threw the
plasma torch clattering into the darkness. “They’re jamming all electronics in
here, it’s useless.”

“Loid!” I
called pounding on the door.

“Loid!
Get us out of here! What did you do!” Ju-lin’s voice as shrill and urgent.