The Spiral Path (4 page)

Her mother narrowed her eyes. “What’s going on?”

“On the trip here from Terra. While in the wormhole we encountered some problems. Rafael appeared to me, Mother. I know it was real. He said he was trying to ‘free them all.’ I don’t know what he was talking about, but at least I know he’s alive.”

Mitch clasped the back of the chair and leaned forward. “We know nothing of the sort, Lara. We can’t give your mother false hope. You were ill. Your conversation with Rafe might have just been your imagination—”

“You said you believed me.”

“I want to believe you. But the Chimerans were the only ones to experience the vertigo. We can’t be sure yet that it wasn’t some kind of Trans-D dementia or something—”

Lara stood up. “Dementia? Are you joking? Thirty trips might be impressive for a Terran, Mitch, but I’ve easily traveled through the wormhole twice that with no problems. Not one bit of DNA transmutation. I know what I saw. I know I spoke to Rafael.”

Mitch jerked back from the chair. “Did he tell you anything we can use? Did he reveal any way we can help him? I want to help Rafe as much as you do, Lara, but the truth is he didn’t tell you much of any use.”

“He told me to look at the comm logs and find his research. I know he’s working toward freeing the
Interlace
crew and that he’s trying to free the Terrans first. Doesn’t that sound like something Rafael would do?”

“Yes, it does. Rafe would indeed put himself last and help those who needed it most, but he didn’t give us much to go on.”

Sabine stepped between them. “I’ll speak to the defense minister. We’ll send a ship into Trans-D space immediately to try to make contact.”

Mitch pinched the bridge of his nose. “Please, no, Countess. I’m officially asking you not to interfere in our investigation. I know you fear for your son, I really do, but the
Interlace
is a Terran ship and not your responsibility.”

“My son is always my responsibility.”

“I understand why you feel that way, Madame Osai, but you don’t have the coordinates for where the
Interlace
entered Trans-D space. That information is classified and I’m not at liberty to release it.”

Lara crossed her arms. “If you weren’t using a standard travel lane, then you’ve already broken about three treaties. When will you hand over the comm logs and research?”

“Terra planned to share the data with Creed as soon as we analyzed it.”

She wrenched him back by the arm. “You’re still a real jackass, you know that, Mitch?”

Mitch yanked his arm free. “People don’t change, Lara. I want to find Rafe. You and your ship are our best chance of doing that. Feel free to hate me, but know that we’re on the same team.”

Rafael sprawled in the command chair of the
Interlace,
head back, arms dangling down, fingertips brushing against the decking. His uniform jacket hung open. Calendra draped herself over his naked chest and the long cloudlike tendrils of her hair wrapped him in a cocoon of ecstasy and pain.

Around him the crew thrashed, locked in their own torture with the Revenant.

He heard Calendra’s thoughts like a whirlwind across his mind, shared her pain and pleasure along every nerve ending. The woman had endured agony for a thousand years. At least until she’d found him.

So sweet. So sweet. The flesh. Solid. Miss the sweet.

Calendra’s hopes and fears ran rampant in his head, constant any time she touched him. And she touched him often. Right now the woman splayed her hands through his once-dark hair and kissed the three tiny star tattoos along his neck. Ground against him. Rafe’s muscles tightened and he reciprocated.

The jumbled storm of her mind sucked him down to relive her memories—cold champagne splashing over her hand as she toasted the launch of the science vessel
Revenant,
her first sweeping view of the half-built ship in dry dock, clinging tight to her daughter on a merry-go-round.

“You had a daughter?” The words nearly choked on the grief in his throat.

Calendra paused in her ministrations and he sensed a sudden stillness in her embrace. Her mind’s tempest settled and she clung to him like an earthly ballast and safeguard from the wormhole’s pulverizing disintegration. Whatever human remnant was left of Calendra Kai after enduring such imprisonment needed him as an anchor.

“Two.” Calendra lifted surprisingly lucid gray eyes to him. “I had two daughters.”

The champagne toast flashed again, this time followed by a feminine laugh and an
“Oh, Mother, don’t be such a stick in the mud!”

Rafe cupped Calendra’s cheek and brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. “Your daughters were with you on the
Revenant?
”

Calendra broke eye contact and her thoughts jumbled out like an overturned cart. Glimpses of moments sped past him too quickly to grasp.

“One was on the ship with me, my older daughter. She was a scientist who didn’t survive the initial crash into the wormhole. The other stayed behind with her father.”

“And that father? What happened to him?” It scared Rafe how badly he wanted to know.

“He’s been dead for a millennium, Rafe. As have been my whole family. What does it matter? Whoever you left behind will forget you in a thousand years too.”

Rafe pulled her closer. “I won’t be here for a thousand years.”

“I believed that in the beginning too. We all did. Memories and imagined reunions sustained me for a long time, but eventually the wormhole won.”

“I’m not leaving this wormhole prison without you.”

“You’re not leaving at all. And neither am I. We’ve tried so many times, Rafe. There is no escape. Just give in to it. At least you won’t be alone as I have been. You’ll have me.”

“I can’t give up—”

She caressed lazy circles on his chest. “Why go back to mortality when we can have eternity together?”

“This place is madness. It’s nearly driven you insane.”

Calendra dropped her hand. “Who do you have to return to?”

Rafe met her gray gaze, now full of hard glinting steel. “A hotheaded sister who will stop at nothing to find me and a Star Union Commodore who probably blames himself for my predicament. I can’t sentence them to a lifetime of futile effort.”

“In this place you’d be free to follow your own whims. What you’ve left behind won’t matter.”

Rafe enveloped Calendra in his arms lightly, wary of her delicate bones. She settled her head on his shoulder and melted into each pore of him. How he yearned to reciprocate, but could such a frail creature withstand his feral reaction? He probably had nothing to worry about. His muscles had withered in the short time he’d been trapped here, but Calendra’s body felt like mist, ephemeral. “I’ll tell you what else I’ve left behind. My mother is Creed’s prime minister.” Calendra’s slender body twitched and he smiled. Finally, a way to reach her. “Creed is home, isn’t it?”

She curled deeper into his neck. “My home is here now. As is yours, whether you accept it or not.”

“My father is from another dimension, from Terra. That very dimension your ship was trying to access.”

Calendra straightened at that announcement and glared at him. “How dare you lie to me—”

“I’m not lying. My father is a decorated Star Union hero. That’s quite a bar to live up to, Calendra, and abandoning all hope of rescue would surely disappoint him. I’m bred of both dimensions, as is my sister. We can find a way out of this prison.”

“How?”

“First we need a peace offering.” Rafe traced his tongue along her ear. “Release the Terrans, Calendra.”

She sighed and the wave of pleasure crested over them both.
So sweet. Sweeeeet.
“No.”

He brushed her pale shoulders with his palms, gave in to her cool kiss. Pulled away. “They can’t survive much longer. Don’t sentence them to your fate. Your pain.”

Calendra leaned back. The clarity in her eyes swirled and as the dam broke, they morphed to an inky black. “Why? What will you give me in return?”

He brushed a flowing white tendril from her forehead with the back of his hand. “I am yours for as long as you’ll have me. If I can’t free you, I’ll remain here forever.”

Calendra’s dark tongue flicked out and licked her lips. “I have your oath?”

Rafe nodded. “We’re both escaping this place, but the people who can help me need the Terrans released first. Let them go.”

She skimmed a look over her shoulder. “I need them.”

Chief Petty Officer Timms writhed on the decking. Tendrils of another of Calendra’s crew folded over the man, entangled their white trails into his mouth, eyes and ears. He couldn’t scream.

Rafe stood up. “You’re torturing him.”

Calendra brushed against him, and her ivory slip shifted to display the top of creamy petite breasts. Just that brief touch sent a frisson of electricity along his skin as if she were a natural force embodied. He wrenched her closer.

Rafe didn’t want to think anymore, but he forced himself to focus. “Let him go.”

“I have your promise?”

Rafe nodded. Calendra glided away and suddenly the bridge seemed cold. All around him floated the few remaining members of Calendra’s crew, each a spinning whorl of mist. She snatched the other creature off Timms. It shrieked.

Calendra blew up her form to twice its size and her face elongated. Her mouth opened to reveal several rows of fangs, and ghost-white tendrils reached out to the others of her kind. The creature crouched back, collapsed in on itself like a dying star. Timms scrambled away to a group of Terrans huddled in one corner of the bridge.

Calendra turned back to Rafe, angelic once more. That hideous creature of moments ago would soon be his fate if he didn’t escape. He ached that Calendra had endured such a state for so long. What would happen if she turned that specter on him?

She flicked her tongue over Rafe’s lip. “Send them back. You. Stay.”

Rafe nodded and her tendrils enveloped him. Seconds before he melted into the vapor infusing his every pore, Rafe sent a message to Timms through the ether.
Run. Go to the Interlace escape pods.

Then he was floating in the sky, delving deep into the recesses of the clouds.

Outside the dermaplas dome of the prime minister’s yacht, the sun had nearly set, the last of its rosy stain like wine on a white tablecloth.

“You’d think after that four-hour med exam we deserved a break.”

Lara pulled her gaze away from the sunset and snatched the champagne Cam held out to her. “Tell me about it. What I want right now is a long shower and a soft bed.”

All around them, Nessa’s officials and cornerstone families mingled with the
Gryphon’
s senior staff. Servers presented platters of deepwater delicacies such as cuttlefish rolled in ink-dyed sticky rice, rare land-raised venison and even Terran quail that would last mere hours. Her mother stood with several Creed cabinet members, but it was Mitch’s tall form that drew her attention. Rigged out in dress blacks that included several honor decorations, he moved through the room with ease. While the man might never have met Sabine Osai, Mitch did seem to know everyone else who mattered in the prime minister’s inner circle. Lara’s breath caught. After all these years of running from him, turns out Mitch had been running toward her. And now he fit in better with her people than she did.

Cam clinked their glasses together. “When I left the ship, the last of the crew was finishing up their examinations. Nessa’s doctors found nothing out of the ordinary. As far as they’re concerned, we experienced a mass hallucination in the wormhole and are chalking it up to some sort of chemical imbalance inherent in Chimeran physiology.”

Lara rolled her eyes and sipped the champagne. “I did not hallucinate.”

Only Mitch and now Sabine were aware of Lara seeing and speaking to Rafael in the wormhole. Mitch—and probably the doctors too if she told them—believed she’d imagined Rafael, but she trusted her instincts. She’d spoken to her brother. Rafael had been real.

Mitch, however, would soon himself become less substantial than a ghost. He’d consented to an exam too and, since she was captain of the
Gryphon,
the doctors had released his results to her. They[0] revealed that the man had less than a week’s time left on Creed.

They had to act fast. And they had to stop arguing. Time was now counting down for both Mitch and Rafael. After all, no one knew what ill effects her brother could currently be experiencing. Chimerans could exist in either the Creed or Terran dimensions, but in some other dimension, Rafael could be facing the same fate as Mitch.

The collar of Lara’s formal uniform itched and she clenched a fist to avoid snapping the flap open. Mitch chuckled at some joke and Lara let herself drink in the sight while she could without him knowing. The dark uniform played up straight black hair that framed an angled jaw. Would his skin still warm to her touch?

Lara stopped the runaway train of her thoughts and set her glass down on a passing tray. For a little while their relationship had been wonderful. If only they could have lived in a bubble, untainted by outside forces. If only they’d been from the same world.

Enough of this.

“Cam, I’m getting out of here. If anyone asks—”

“If anyone asks—” her XO continued scanning the room, but her lips lifted in a smirk, “—you’re reviewing ship diagnostic logs from the wormhole. You’re a very busy girl.”

Lara suppressed an all-out grin with a look at her boots. “You deserve a raise, Cam.”

“I’ll settle for my own ship.”

Lara popped open her collar and headed for the door. Freedom lay just a few quick steps down the gangway to Nessa proper.

The lock of tension in her chest that had taken hold since talking to Rafael eased with each step closer to outside. She needed to get out of this place, get back to the ship. Find Rafael. All this talk was such a waste of time.

“Lara.”

She stopped, closed her eyes. Her mother’s voice.

Lara plastered a smile on her face and turned around. Sabine stood next to a man two heads taller with gray marking his temples. Creed’s defense minister, Aber Kade. Freedom would have to wait.

“A word, please, Captain, before you depart.” Sabine’s clear voice filled the space between them. Her bright eyes were accentuated by a light blue tunic and the aquamarine necklace of office draped over her narrow shoulders.

“Of course.”

They moved in closer and Sabine’s gaze scanned the room until they settled on Mitch. “Is there any way you might be able to convince Commodore Yoshida to reveal the last known coordinates of the
Interlace?
”

“He’ll have to tell me eventually.” Lara reined in her tapping foot. “Commodore Yoshida knows he can only hold back that information temporarily. Not if he wants to actually take the
Gryphon
there.”

Sabine pressed a hand on Lara’s arm. “Why do you think he’s holding back now? We want to send in our own search party.”

“I really want to know what Rafael’s mission was in the first place. And get my hands on those logs.”

Sabine quirked an eyebrow. “He usually can’t tell us anything about his missions.”

Lara dropped her voice. “Exactly, but Mitch knows. I’m sure of it.” She glanced at Kade and wondered if he, like the doctors, thought she’d begun to lose her mind because she insisted she’d seen Rafael. None of it mattered though, since they had no authority over her. She could, and would, speak her mind. “What we Chimerans experienced in the wormhole was not a mass hallucination. I alone encountered a very different situation. As I’ve told my mother, I’ve spoken to Rafael and I trust him. Wherever he is, he said that he’s not alone. We found huge amounts of negative matter out of phase with both dimensions that seems to corroborate his story. I want to go back into the wormhole and try to contact him again.”

Sabine pulled Lara to the side of the room. “As a Chimeran he has some protection from sudden phase shifts, but how much time do you think he has, really?”

Lara hesitated. What if she was wrong? “I don’t know, Mother.”

“Lara, whatever resources you need are at your disposal. We want to continue peaceful relations with Terra, but if Rafael and our other Chimeran children are in danger, we must help.” She glanced at Kade, who nodded. “The entire cabinet supports me on this issue.”

A warm breeze swept in from the open doorway and over Lara’s face. Every visit to Creed gave her a sense of relief. Maybe the planet’s lesser gravity caused the sense of lightness or perhaps she was just more comfortable with her mother’s people. About the only place Lara relaxed more was in one of the havens.

Lara sighed. “I don’t plan for the
Gryphon
to stay here long. Who knows how the wormhole is affecting Rafael and the other Chimerans? I’d hoped to find answers here on Creed, but we haven’t. The best course now is to return to Terra and find out what the
Interlace’
s mission was. I’m sure Commodore Yoshida will agree.”