The Spiral Path (9 page)

“A thousand welcomes to Alpha Haven, sir. What can I get for you?”

Mitch leaned against the timberplas bar and fiddled with the data crystal in his pocket. “What are they having?”

The bartender looked down the length of the seven-foot counter to where Lara stood with Rossa, a shot full of emerald liquid in front of each of them. Various
Gryphon
crew members gathered around as well as several Alpha residents Mitch didn’t know.

“That would be brine whiskey, sir. It’s pretty potent to a Terran. Are you sure that’s what you want?”

Mitch nodded. Surely one would do no harm. While the bartender poured his shot, the two women downed their drinks and laughed. Barely five steps off the
Calypso’
s gangway, Lara and Rossa had headed straight for Artie’s, the only bar in the small colony.

“It’s a tradition.” Lara had crinkled her nose when she explained. She might be laughing right now, but Mitch noticed the tension in her body. The smiles never reached her eyes. No one else noticed the strain. Rafe’s fate and his own secrets had to still be at the forefront of her mind, even if she hid it well. Mitch drank the shot and immediately fought off a cough. His eyes watered, but otherwise he maintained a firm face.

“Remind me never to play poker with you, Commodore,” a voice behind him said.

Mitch turned around and immediately saluted. “Admiral Soto, sir.”

Javier Soto stood, legs wide and hands clasped behind his back, still the stout man Mitch had admired at the Academy, just a little older. “Please stand down, Yoshida. I’m retired now.”

Relax? No chance.
“I didn’t expect to see you here, sir.”

“She didn’t tell you?” Soto smirked. “So like her mother, that child. I live here most of the year. I’m the only Terran in residence.”

Mitch nodded toward the two wrist-syncs the Admiral held in his hands. “Going on a trip, sir?”

Soto’s shoulders sagged. “Afraid not. My trips to Creed are over. If I want to continue living in one piece, that is.” He dropped the wrist-syncs on the counter. “No, I’ve been working on a way to network the wrist-syncs as a backup if one fails. This way a wrist-sync can cover more than one person.”

Mitch picked one up and noticed that the design seemed newer than the one he was wearing. “Have you ever tried using one to stave off disintegration?” He held up his other wrist and displayed his blackened patch. “It bought me some time just a day ago. Maybe they can be overhauled to assist someone in your situation?”

“Really? I’ll have to research the possibilities.”

Mitch glanced down the bar. Rossa waved to Lara and departed. As Lara turned, she noticed the two of them and approached.

“You’re not giving away any Chimeran secrets, are you, Dad?”

Soto hugged his daughter. “Of course I am, Firecracker. Mitch and I were trading secrets. Actually, he tells me the wrist-sync helped him a great deal.”

Lara’s lips pursed. “Yes, it was close. Mother is not happy with me at the moment.”

“I’m sure I’ll receive a message from her soon. We’ll sort it out on your next trip.”

“Actually, you can tell her yourself.” Lara nodded toward the bar’s entrance.

Sabine glanced around until her eyes landed on them. Specifically on Lara’s father.

Javier’s shoulders tensed and then fell as he relaxed. “How is this possible?”

“We’ve recalibrated the wrist-syncs.”

“Does she know about Rafael?”

Lara nodded. “Yes, but Cam will have some new data from the
Gryphon’
s buoy. Hopefully a new lead.”

Soto frowned. “We will find him. I can help Rossa sort through the information.”

“You better move fast. I just sent Cam to arrange housing for the
Interlace
Terrans.”

“I’ll catch up with her later. Right now, I’d better go.” Soto hugged his daughter one last time. “Take a look at the wrist-syncs. I think I’ve figured out how to network them just as we talked about.”

Neither Lara nor Mitch said a word as Javier embraced his estranged wife.

Finally Mitch cleared his throat. “I saw Rafe in the pilot’s station, Lara. With some wraith of a woman. We have to get him out of there[0][0].” Before she could berate him for not believing her earlier, he held out his hand. The data crystal gleamed like a jewel in his palm. “I promised you this.”

Lara bit her bottom lip. “The
Interlace
comm logs?

Mitch nodded. “I downloaded them from the pods before we left Creed. It took me a while to obtain the proper security codes.”

There really was no good way for Mitch to tell Lara what she would find in those logs, but a promise was a promise. Revealing it all to her here in a bar was not a good idea, though.

“You’re actually going to tell me classified information?”

Mitch nodded. “Not here. Can we talk somewhere private? There are a few things I need to tell you about those logs.”

“Have you seen your quarters yet?”

Mitch pushed aside his shot glass. “Not yet.”

Lara quirked an eyebrow at him but said nothing. They exited Artie’s into a breezy summer night. The street busy with foot traffic after the excitement of the
Gryphon’s
return, Alpha Haven was a small settlement of maybe two hundred civilians. Around them were scattered two- and three-story buildings—a general store for necessities, a tailor, a butcher. All the necessities of a small, thriving community. As they walked through town center, he noticed empty stalls that would be full on market day. Silhouettes of farms dotted the outskirts.

“I still can’t believe you accomplished all of this in eleven years.”

She shrugged. “We grew most of the buildings with nano-calcite bacteria. We were lucky to have a few Creed architecture students.” She walked backward and nodded toward the hangar. “We built the hangar bay first. For two years most of us lived there.”

As Lara turned around front-facing, Mitch clasped her hand. “I never understood how angry you were with the Union.”

“Honestly, neither did I at first. I admit, my anger gave me purpose in the beginning. But then the Chimerans I’d rallied desired a place of their own to live and picked me to find it. I couldn’t let them down.”

Mitch nodded and they continued walking in silence. At the end of the street they came upon a collection of bungalows tucked off the main road.

Lara pointed at the closest building. “Your quarters are there. The door is open and the accommodations have been prepped for you. My quarters are next door.”

“Before you review those comm logs, I need to fill you in on the
Interlace
’s orders.”

“Fine, then. Join me for another whiskey and tell me all about it.”

Lara let Mitch into her bungalow and hoped she would still be speaking to him at the end of the night. Chances were, whatever he had to tell her would not be good.

She needed to hear it, though, for Rafael’s sake.

When last she departed Alpha Haven, Lara hadn’t been expecting visitors to her tiny cottage, so the place showed its usual range of clutter from the pile of holotablets on the main table to her closet full of dirty uniforms. At least a cleaning crew had been through the place and filled the cooling unit before she left.

She emptied the contents of her pockets on the main table along with the wrist-syncs. The old photo of her, Mitch and Rafael gave Lara pause, but she would get her brother back soon. “You sure you want another whiskey? I think I have some Terran brandy in the pantry.”

“Actually, I’m all right. Let’s skip the drinks.”

Lara held her breath and settled in an overstuffed chair. “Is it that bad? Whatever it is, just tell me.”

Mitch ran a hand through his hair and sat on the couch opposite her. “I sent the
Interlace
into the wormhole. That’s what you’ll find in the comm logs. I know the phase frequency because I helped Rafe design the experiment.”

Lara’s vision pinholed, her whole world stopping as if the planet had suddenly spun off its axis. “You what?”

“During my years of visiting Creed, I’d heard stories that their scientists had long ago breached other dimensions. Creed publicly denied it, but still people told stories. Rafe and I both were intrigued and started researching the claims. Through my connections as Creed liaison, I obtained—legally—logs from some early dimensional experiments. In one account a Creed science ship had been accidentally destroyed, but the data didn’t support that notion. We discovered that Chimerans were especially sensitive to that area of space. We hoped if any remnant of the experiment existed, the Chimeran presence would draw it out.”

She clutched the arms of the chair.
No, no, no.
She could not be hearing this from Mitch. “You used Chimerans as…bait? You haven’t changed at all.”

Mitch sighed. “Hear me out, Lara, please. When we were ready to re-create the experiment, I’d been commanding the
Interlace
for months. In my time as Creed liaison I’d been sheltered from how the Union was treating the Chimerans. Then I witnessed it firsthand. Like I’ve said before, you were right.”

“And your sudden awakening is supposed to make me feel better about you sending my brother into some kind of trans-dimensional prison? For withholding this information from me?”

Mitch leaned forward, elbows on knees, and clenched his fists. “I didn’t just protest Chimeran segregation. When in charge of the
Interlace
, I desegregated the crew, and my command was revoked as a result. The mission continued without me, and it seems they faced a similar fate as the
Bayne.
”

Her legs tensed to run, but Lara forced them still. She was done running. She needed Mitch to get Rafael back. “Regardless, you sent my brother into a dangerous situation.”

“You go into dangerous situations every day. Do you honestly think I’d send Rafe—or anyone for that matter—into a situation I wasn’t personally willing to face? If everything had gone according to plan, I’d be trapped right now in that wormhole with him. I’d hoped to free him myself. I never imagined involving you. We’ve had our differences, Lara, but if you really think so little of me, then I’d better just go.”

He stood and got as far as the table. For the first time Mitch might be the one to leave.

“Wait.” Lara didn’t want to think of Mitch trapped by the Revenant. Rafael imprisoned there was quite enough, thank you very much. Plus, she knew her brother. “Rafael volunteered for this mission, didn’t he?”

“All of the crew volunteered. Rafe and I were up front about the risks. This wasn’t an average mission.”

Lara leaned forward and scrubbed her hands over her face. “Rafael has been infatuated with that fairy tale since we were kids.” Mitch’s head jerked up. “He didn’t tell you? Creed parents tell the story to keep children behaving. The names changed over the generations, but I think the story is about Calendra.”

For a moment neither of them spoke.

Mitch picked up her old photo. “I remember when this picture was taken. A beautiful, perfect day. Before the edict.” He yanked his collar wide. “It has to mean something that none of us ever had these removed.”

She noticed the triple-star tattoo on his neck, just like Rafael’s and her own. For a short time the three of them had been so very close. Her and Mitch’s relationship had just cemented already cherished friendships. At that time, none of them could envision life without the other two. Lara had changed all that when she walked out on the Star Union and on Mitch.

Lara tried, couldn’t look away from the intensity in his eyes. Eleven years of hurt showed right there beneath the surface. “Did you mean what you said earlier? That you would have left with me?”

Mitch nodded. “I meant it.”

Lara sighed. “I wish I’d known that then.”

Mitch crossed back to her, knelt in front of her chair. “We can’t second guess ourselves. I would have been the only Terran among a lot of angry Chimerans.” He cradled her face in his hands. “I wouldn’t have fit into the life you built here. I can’t go where you can go.”

How could she make him understand? “Leaving was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. We would have figured out a way to live.”

“Like your parents have? A few days—no, hours—together at a time?”

In his time, her father had been a Star Union hero, one of the original crew to travel to Creed. He’d lived there three months, long enough to fall deeply for Sabine and create twin lives—if not long enough to witness their birth.

Javier would have stayed and died if Sabine hadn’t convinced him that their children needed their father alive, even if he lived in another dimension. Javier had spent his life since trying to find a way to return to Creed, to Sabine. In the meantime, they had only a few hours together at a time before one of them slipped out of phase forever.

Lara clasped his arms. “We’re not them. I can go anywhere you can go.”

“But that’s just it. You would not have settled the havens. We can’t keep asking ourselves ‘what if?’”

Mitch sighed and tilted his head back, eyes closed. Those oh-so-tense shoulders dropped. Lara’s brain stopped working; she didn’t want to think. The tension deep down in her belly relaxed, liquid. After all those years apart, she finally had Mitch right here with her.

She leaned forward and kissed his corded neck, just under that angle of a jaw where he wore the triple-star tattoo. Sandalwood, lemongrass and Mitch’s own musk filled her senses. How had she lived so long without this man and broken that bond? She teased her tongue along his earlobe. Mitch turned his head and caught her mouth with his own, tongues twining. His hand wrapped around the back of her head, trapping her against him.

As if she might actually leave him. Lara’s heart twisted. What had they done to each other, these eleven years? What had she done to him when she left?

She wound her hands up Mitch’s back, under his shirt, and caressed the ridges of his abdomen, the breadth of his shoulders. Then pulled the shirt over his head. Her own followed a minute later.

Lara knelt and fumbled with his fly. Mitch stood, flipped open the fastening and discarded the pants in one motion. She smiled up at him for a second. A shock of straight dark hair fell over his forehead, and his cheeks flushed. She flicked her tongue across his erection and trailed kisses up the rest of his torso. Mitch slid her trousers off with his hands kneading all the way. She pressed closer and melded their mouths together.