Bringing Stella Home (46 page)

And mine is not,
Sholpan inwardly finished. She longed to stay—to
finally get to know the other women—but she knew that Qasar’s
request was not a question. It was a command.

“
Of course,” she told him.
“I’ll start packing my things at once.”

Chapter 24

“
Hmm, that’s interesting,”
Ilya muttered.

“
What is it?” asked
James.

Ilya remained focused on the screen,
ignoring him. “Yes,” he muttered, more to himself than anyone else,
“this certainly changes things.”

“
What? Tell me.”

“
I found your sister. She’s
not with the Hameji fleet.”

James perked up immediately. “Not with
the fleet?”

“
No. According to the
network, she’s traveling with a small convoy to
Kardunash III
.”

“
What kind of a convoy?”
asked Danica.

“
A diplomatic one.” Ilya
squinted and scanned the data. “According to this, General Qasar
himself is with them.”

“
Where are they going?”
asked Anya from her seat at the front.

“
They’re headed to some
kind of former vacation center in orbit around the
planet.”

“
A vacation center?” asked
James. He sat up and read over Ilya’s shoulder.

“
Yeah. Some kind of
upper-class spa-and-low-gravity-gardens kind of thing. Apparently,
the Hameji are using it as an administrative center.”

“
How much military activity
are you picking up in the area?” asked Danica.

“
Aside from the convoy
escort? Not a lot, actually. Most of the traffic is civilian. I see
a lot of envoys coming in from the outer worlds and moons. Yeah,
this is definitely some kind of civil administration center for the
occupation.”

James could barely contain
himself.
Kardunash III
was practically his second home; he knew the planet’s stations
and moons better than any other place besides the Colony
itself.

“
How soon can you get us on
the station’s docking registry?” asked Danica.

Ilya brought his hands together and
cracked his knuckles. “Hacking into the network should be a piece
of cake. Jumping us in without anyone noticing—that’s the tough
part. Fortunately, a Hameji light cruiser is scheduled to relieve
the current patrol in a few hours. With all the ships jumping in
and out, we could easily sneak in then.”

Danica nodded. “That sounds like a
good plan.”

Yes,
James thought, tapping his foot excitedly against the floor.
They could do this. They really could.

* * * * *

Sholpan stepped slowly down
the illuminated walkway of the station’s lush, green gardens. Giant
leafy vines surrounded the path, stretching and curling upward to
the top of the glass dome high above her head. Local gravitic
devices normalized the path where she walked, but in the gardens
themselves the gravity was low enough to allow the plants to grow
to monstrous sizes, with vines as thick as her legs and flowers as
large as her head. At first, the monstrous foliage had frightened
her, but now she found it beautiful. The air was steamy and fresh,
so full of moisture that droplets formed on her skin as she walked.
The smell of vegetation was thick enough to taste—a welcome change
from the
Lion of
Tenguri
’s stale, recycled
air
.

Long ago, when she was a
little girl, she had seen these gardens through the other side of
that glass. She had been traveling with her father—or was it her
uncle? It didn’t matter. They had come to
Kardunash III
for some sort of family
gathering, though she couldn’t remember what the occasion had been.
She only remembered seeing the thick foliage through the glass dome
as they passed by in close parallel orbit. The sight of such a
jungle against the blackness of space had entranced her, a fragile
pocket of life floating through the starry void.

She silently entered an
observation gallery and sat down to watch the planetrise. As the
station spun, the enormous mass of
Kardunash III
gradually rose in the
window, the wide curvature of its horizon filling her view. She
stared at the swirling bands of red and orange clouds, of
world-sized hurricanes spinning in silence hundreds of kilometers
below.

Kardunash III
was a planet of poisonous gas, with layers of
hydrogen, helium, and ammonia stretching an impossible distance
down to the central core. Staring down at it through the window,
she felt as if the mammoth world were pulling her down into its
swirling, churning mass. The monstrous plants swayed around her,
whether from tidal stresses or an artificial breeze in the
greenhouse, she didn’t know. Perhaps both.

Footsteps on the walkway interrupted
her thoughts. She turned just in time to see a Hameji eunuch in an
immaculate white smock enter the observation bubble.

“
Lady Sholpan,” he said,
giving her a short bow as she rose to her feet. “Your presence is
required at court.”

“
Is it urgent?”

“
No, mistress,” he said,
“but if you do not return at once, your absence will be
noted.”

She sighed. “Thank you. I’ll be there
in a moment.”

The eunuch bowed and walked briskly
out the way he had come, sending leaves rustling in his wake.
Sholpan waited until he was gone before leaving the
gardens.

A few moments later, she
passed the soldiers guarding the entrance to the lobby where Qasar
had established his court. The once-luxurious green and white
marble walls now bore the extravagant kitschy silks of the Hameji.
Rugs, chairs, and tables were spread out across the room, all
ornately decorated with precious stones and gilded plating. Sholpan
knew that the furnishings were supposed to instill a sense of awe
and power, but they clashed with the original décor so
ostentatiously that it instead reminded her of the concubines’
quarters on the
Lion of Tenguri.
The Hameji might be masters of war, but they
certainly weren’t masters of interior design.

Herds of petitioners
crowded against the wall on the far side, waiting nervously for
Qasar to receive them. Qasar himself sat on a stand at the head of
the room, surrounded by officers, soldiers, and servants. Two
crossed swords hung on the wall above his head, with another chunk
of the space rock from the
Tenguri
system.

That’s where the awe comes
from,
Sholpan thought to herself as she
joined the other Hameji on the stand.
Not
the decorations. The weapons.

She watched passively as the court
secretary called on the petitioners to step forward, one by one.
Before approaching Qasar’s throne, each petitioner prostrated
himself three times under the watchful eye of the guard. Only after
this act of extreme submission did Qasar permit them to approach
him with their concerns or issues. Though earnest, they spoke
through an older man, who served as translator even though it was
clear he was hard of hearing.

Sholpan bitterly noted the complete
lack of democracy. Those who argued with Qasar, the soldiers
forcibly removed from the room. Those who displeased him were lucky
if he only ordered them to depart. Several petitioners left with
faces paler than when they’d come.

Sholpan couldn’t stand to watch for
more than half an hour. Disgusted, she stepped down and walked to
the other side of the room.

As she mingled with the crowd that had
gathered against the far wall, she soon found that not all the
business was taking place at Qasar’s feet. Several of the lesser
Hameji officers stood in circles, talking with each other. Most of
the Kardunasians stood apart from the Hameji, discussing business
and economics. Whenever she tried to join in, however, the group
grew silent and slowly splintered off, leaving her to stand
alone.

It’s just like the
Lion of Tenguri, she realized with dismay. She was
as alone here as she was there—even among her own
people.

As she tried her best to mingle, she
noticed someone staring at her. From the corner of her eye, she saw
that he was a young man, probably in his twenties, with black hair
and a clean shaven face. She waited a few moments, then casually
turned to face him.

Her eyes went wide, and she stifled a
gasp. It was Lars Stewart.

Instantly, she turned away. Her legs
went weak, and her body started trembling, but even though her back
was turned to him, she could feel him staring at her. Her cheeks
blanched, and she felt an overwhelming need to get some fresh
air.

She slipped out the main door, staying
within sight of the foyer so that Qasar knew she hadn’t gone too
far. The fresh air of the gardens cleared her mind, and she took a
deep, refreshing breath.

The sound of footsteps behind her made
her turn her head. Even before she saw him, she knew who it
was.

“
Stella?” Lars asked,
rushing up to her. “Is it you?”

“
Shh! What are you doing
here?”

A smile spread across his face. “It is
you!”

“
Yes,” she said. “It’s me.”
After so much time speaking in Hameji, the soft, rounded sounds of
her native Kardunasian tongue seemed strangely exotic.

“
Where have you been? What
happened to you? How—”

“
Not here,” she hissed,
glancing nervously over his shoulder. The guards betrayed no
reaction, but eyes were certainly watching them.

“
Ah,” said Lars, composing
himself. “Of course. In that case, perhaps we could meet somewhere
else?”

Sholpan’s heart pounded in her chest.
Lars seemed a bit leaner than she remembered, but it was definitely
him. The boyish smile, the clean-shaven face, the pleasant scent
about him that reminded her so much of the Colony—of her
home.

“
The common room in the
woman’s quarters,” she blurted. “There are servants there, but they
don’t speak Kardunasian, so we can—”

“
Yes. What
time?”

“
Half an hour. And don’t go
back inside with me—we can’t be seen together.”

“
No. Of course
not.”

For several awkward moments, they
stood staring at each other, not sure what to say.

Sholpan drew in a deep breath.
“Goodbye.”

“
Goodbye,” said Lars.
Before she turned to leave, he took her hand and kissed
it.

Sholpan turned and hurriedly left the
garden, her heart still racing. Not since her last conversation
with Narju had she felt such an overwhelming flood of
emotion.

* * * * *

“
Ten seconds to jump,” said
Anya. The floor hummed as the drive finished warming up.
“Initiating in three, two, one…”

Danica closed her eyes and held her
breath. The humming reached a climax, and her stomach flipped in an
all-too familiar way. For a split second, she felt that she was
falling, but the feeling soon passed.

She opened her eyes and
stared out at the glowing red crescent of
Kardunash III.
The warm yellow
sunlight from behind the curved horizon reflected off of several
hundred ships parked in orbit, turning them into points of light.
Against the black night side of the giant world, they looked like
flecks of dust floating in a beam of light.

Danica took a deep breath. “All
stations, report.”

“
Initial locator estimates
place us within one hundred k-clicks of target arrival point,” said
Anya. “Area scan shows several ships arriving from jumpspace—must
be the convoy.”

“
Picking up Hameji network
signal,” said Ilya. “Connecting—and done.”

“
Transmit our
authentication codes to the port authority,” ordered
Danica.

This is when we find out
if we’re safe or if we’re dead
.

“
Transmitting,” said Anya.
“Receiving confirmation—we’re cleared to dock.”

“
Good work,” said Danica.
“How far to the station?”

“
Far side of the planet,
twelve standard orbits down. Plotting closest orbital trajectory—we
can be there in less than half an hour.”

“
Excellent.”

The mission had begun without any
mishap. The logical side of her brain hoped that their luck
continued, while the more realistic side wished that they’d get
their inevitable mistake over with so she could stop worrying about
it.

Danica turned to Ilya. “Ayvazyan,” she
said, “before we dock, I need you to confirm the location of our
target. Also, I need you to get maps, floorplans, guard
schedules—anything you can find. I want to have a perfect picture
of what’s going on in there, with five possible routes to our
target, a list of hiding places, and a map of the interior guard
routes along the way. Understand?”

“
Absolutely.”