No More Heroes: In the Wake of the Templars Book Three (21 page)

Corvas put an image on the screen of the
Raptor
taken from the Kai City Spaceport recording, alongside a similar image of the
Veracity
from Lautan. He quizzed the dockmaster on the finer points of telling one ship from another. The poor stuttering toad creature seemed on the verge of tears.

Now that the trial had hit its stride, Raena started to think beyond it. For a change, she had a debt that she wanted to repay. She wondered what she could do for Ariel to thank her for organizing her defense. What could you give a woman who could purchase anything?

Raena considered what Ariel might want. She had wanted Sloane, the one man whose loyalty she had been unable to buy, but Sloane was dead. Family was important to Ariel. She still lived with her mother in the compound where she’d grown up. She’d raised her adopted orphans there. And she’d never married, because that would have limited her freedom.

Raena wished she could have been the companion Ariel deserved. Ariel needed someone who understood the essential goodness of her nature, someone who could ignore the flash of Ariel’s temper and would support her do-gooding crusades. Someone who could co-parent the strays she continued to take in. Someone like Tarik Kavanaugh. Raena wondered if there was anything she could do to encourage Ariel in that direction.

Really, living in Ariel’s shadow had been the best part of Raena’s life, up until she set foot on the
Veracity
. Even so, she never wanted to be planet-bound again. Only in space, only in motion, did Raena feel safe.

It was an illusion, she knew, but every bounty hunter that had ever captured her had taken her on a planet. The Thallians had attacked her on a planet. She’d spent decades imprisoned on a planet. The
Veracity
, while traveling: that felt like home.

And there was Haoun to consider now. Raena enjoyed his company because the pilot didn’t put any limits on her. She understood that he loved his kids and held out hope of someday coming home to them. He didn’t want to settle down with Raena. He simply took pleasure in touching her, savoring her warmth and flavor, in making her happy.

The relationship was perfect, as far as Raena could tell. They both enjoyed it, didn’t ask too much from it, and got what they needed out of it. Someday it would dissolve naturally, but for now, Raena looked forward to resuming it when Kai finally let her go.

She looked up out of her thoughts to find Mykah had taken the stand.

“My crew and I,” he said, “we’re working people. We saved our money, pooled it together, and bought the
Veracity
. Vezali has worked hard to refurbish the ship and make it a home for us. Then to have Kai issue an impound order for it without allowing us to settle the fees first—without so much as presenting us a bill—one has to assume that it is far more lucrative for Kai City Spaceport to steal small independent ships and auction them off, rather than collect what is legitimately owed to them in docking fees.”

The twiggy judge asked, “But you don’t dispute that the
Veracity
left Kai without paying its docking fees?”

“No, sir. My first officer looked for the receipt for those fees and we haven’t been able to find it. Of course, we haven’t been allowed back onto our ship to look for it in the
Veracity
’s memory, so we’ve had to do everything at a distance. However, it’s possible, with the confusion between the
Raptor
and the
Veracity
at Kai City Spaceport, that the wrong ship was billed for our docking fees. That’s for the court to decide. We, however, are ready to pay the fee for the hours that the
Veracity
was on Kai before we took possession and left in it.”

“We’ll see if we can get that calculated for you,” the rock judge said.

“Thank you. I would like to be able to compare the amount we owe against the money we’ve lost by having our home stolen away from us on Lautan, the expenses we’ve accrued to travel back to Kai, and the wages we’ve lost while trying to resolve this matter. As you know, accommodations on Kai are not cheap. None of us can work until we get our equipment back. Luckily for us, the crew of the
Veracity
has collected some significant rewards for revealing the whereabouts of the
Arbiter
survivors, the Thallian tampering with the Templar tombs, and the resurgence of the Messiah drug into the galaxy, so we have been able to afford to come get our ship back. But another crew who had not been so lucky and well-compensated as we have been—say, a crew delivering tourists to Kai or bringing in food or liquor—would simply have lost everything they owned because of an accounting mistake.”

He paused to check he had the camera’s attention. “I would like the court’s assurances that this wanton theft of an independent, cooperatively owned ship, without warning or recourse beyond traveling to the planet of the thieves, is not common practice on Kai. I want to know this was a one-time error—and not an ongoing pattern of abuse.”

The gray judge collected herself enough to say, “That’s a grave accusation, Captain Chen. The court will explore whether Kai City Spaceport is impounding other ships, or if yours was singled out. Thank you for bringing the matter to our attention.”

“I appreciate your assistance, your Honors. And I look forward to resuming possession of our ship.”

*   *   *

When the court adjourned for the day, Ariel invited the crew of the
Veracity
to come by the
Sundog
after dinner.

Coni decided they should bring a gift this time, instead of just showing up to drink Ariel’s expensive liquor. Mykah tracked down a box of chocolates. He knew the clerk at Chocolatier Rouge from his days of waiting tables on Kai. She cut him a deal.

This time Ariel met them at the
Sundog
’s hatch. She took one more drag off her spice stick, then threw it down to the tarmac and ground it out with the sole of her sandal. “Thanks for coming.”

“What’s happened?” Mykah asked.

“This isn’t regarding Raena,” she said. “Come in before you ask any more.”

*   *   *

A young woman met them just inside the hatch. She had deep blue eyes and skin so pale it looked like ivory. She was dressed like Ariel in tight trousers and a blouse with not enough buttons. She also carried a very large sidearm.

“This is my daughter Gisela,” Ariel said.

Gisela said, “I’m so honored to meet the crew of the
Veracity
.”

Mykah laughed as if he thought she was teasing, but as Gisela shook their hands, Coni could tell that the girl was serious. She was starstruck.

“Come on back,” Ariel directed. “There’s someone else you need to meet.”

Kavanaugh and Corvas sat in the lounge with Eilif and someone that Coni didn’t recognize. This human’s black hair hung loose like a veil, shielding the face. Coni heard Mykah’s sharp intake of breath as soon as he saw the figure, but she didn’t understand why—until the boy looked up. His eyes glowed a vivid gray. Except for the length of his hair, he looked exactly like Jain Thallian.

“This is Jim Zacari,” Ariel said.

“You took her name?” Haoun asked. The translator did not do justice to the growl in his voice.

“I didn’t know how else to honor her,” the boy protested.

“This is your defense to the kidnapping charge?” Vezali guessed.

“Yes,” Eilif said quietly. “Jimi will pass for Jain.”

“Does anyone have a problem with that?” Ariel asked. “Jim is taking an enormous risk to break his anonymity. We need to be united in supporting him, because we know how shaky Security on Kai really is. Either I feel that Jim will be safe, or I won’t put him in that courtroom.”

“We need to hear his story first,” Mykah said. “All we know about the boys was learned by watching Jain.”

“Raena didn’t tell you about me?” The boy’s voice held the same quiet tone as his mother’s.

Mykah was the only one to answer. “I didn’t know any of the clones survived, until I saw the message Ariel forwarded to Raena.”

“Did she ever get a chance to see that?” Ariel asked.

“No one saw it but me,” Mykah answered. “I went straight off to pay our docking fees so we could leave Lautan, but the ship was impounded before I got back. Then Raena got arrested right in front of us. We destroyed the message when we overwrote the
Veracity
’s memory.”

“Any of you mentioned it to her yet?”

“No,” Haoun said. “We agreed not to say anything, until she could do something about it.”

“We were afraid she’d bust out of jail,” Mykah said. “Then things would be worse.”

“Things might be getting better,” Ariel promised, “but you need to drink first, before we tell you how.”

Kavanaugh passed around bottles of ale. No one wanted to sit beside the Thallian boy, so Ariel sat on one side of him and Eilif took the other. The crew of the
Veracity
stood around awkwardly.

“Peace offering.” Mykah set the box of chocolates on the table.

Ariel grinned. “This is a treat, Mykah. Thank you.” She pulled the lid off the box and peeled back the wrapping paper inside. “Jim, you’ve probably never had these before.” She picked one out with her manicured nails.

The boy held his hand out flat, then lifted the chocolate to examine it. “What is it?”

“Chocolate-dipped orange peel,” Mykah said.

They watched the boy discover chocolate. It was heartbreaking to see how much surprise and pleasure he took from something so small.

Ariel pushed the box of chocolates toward the
Veracity
’s crew. Coni stepped forward to take one, as did Mykah and Vezali. Haoun wouldn’t come any closer to the boy. “What’s the matter?” Coni asked.

“They want Raena to go back to their planet,” he said. “She got shot the last time. Don’t you remember? She lost so much blood . . .”

“I remember,” Coni said gently. “Eilif helped us save her life.”

Ariel spoke up. “I wouldn’t put Raena in danger. Hell, I would do anything to keep her out of danger, but we know that’s not going to work. Look at the new recording Jim made, before you make any decisions.”

Kavanaugh switched on the screen in the lounge and Jim typed in a command that activated a camera in the city under the sea. Most of the shattered domes were shadowy, filled with twisted and broken buildings blacker than the shifting ocean. Only one dome looked whole, lit from within by a weird green glow that flickered with movement.

“Where have you seen that color before?” Ariel asked.

“It looks like Templar fire,” Haoun said. He was the only one of the
Veracity
’s crew old enough to remember it.

“That’s what I thought,” Ariel agreed.

“What was in that dome?” Mykah asked.

“That’s where the cloning laboratories were,” Eilif said. “Raena poisoned all the clones in process there. My husband believed they were contaminated to the point that none of their DNA would be salvageable. There were clones of her, too. Jonan had been very excited at the idea of presenting her with children when she came back to him.”

Coni watched her crewmates all take a hefty drink at the thought of Raena executing her own clones.

“She burned the bodies of all of Jonan’s brothers, all our sons, so there would be nothing left to clone ever again. But someone has repaired the dome,” Eilif said. “Someone is working in the cloning lab.”

“I wish we were drinking something stronger,” Mykah said.

Ariel laughed. “For Jim’s sake, I wanted to opt for less drunk, rather than more.”

“Why are we trusting him?” Haoun demanded. “We don’t know when this recording was made. We don’t know if it’s real or animated or otherwise tampered with. He’s a Thallian. Look at him.”

Instead, everyone looked at Haoun.

“I thought you would be the last one to be prejudiced,” Ariel said icily. “Thallian raped me. He’s done so much worse to Raena. I absolutely would not send her back to his planet if I thought there was any way he could have survived. But Eilif and Raena burned his body.”

“To ashes,” Eilif confirmed.

“Someone is messing about in the Thallians’ cloning lab. It may be the family’s medical robot, which might have escaped destruction when Eilif blew up the city’s domes. But it looks like Templars—and if they can be cloned back into the galaxy . . .” Ariel’s voice trailed off.

“All that is theoretical,” Haoun said angrily. “Why are we trusting that boy?”

Jim stood up. With a flourish, he pulled off his black work shirt, flung it down on the table. His torso was a map of burns, a web of scars. His skin revealed him as kindred to Raena.

“My father hated me.” Jim’s low voice was hoarse. “Father could sense that I recognized him as a monster. He thought that the more he beat me, the more I would learn to respect him. Raena offered to help me find a shipping lane near my homeworld, so that a passing ship would find my hopper before I died alone in space. I told her my point of origin. I’m the reason you knew which planet my family was hiding on.”

Ariel put her hand on Jim’s wrist. He snatched his hand away, struggling with whether to say more. Eventually he subsided and put his shirt back on.

“Jimi has as much reason to hate his family as any of us,” Eilif said. “He has as much reason to be grateful to Raena.”

“I’ve struggled with the knowledge that something is happening on the Thallian homeworld,” Ariel said. “If I tell the galaxy, will they muster up an avenging force to swoop into the ocean and pull every brick apart? Would they crack the planet’s core? What if it is Templar cloning going on there, rather than anything related to the Thallians? I thought Raena would want to know what was happening, that she would want to investigate for herself. But the more time passes, the more I worry what damage is being done . . .”

“I’ll go,” Vezali said.

The others stared at her.

“It’s an ocean,” she said. “I’m the only one who can explore it without a craft.”

“The city is two kilometers deep,” Jim said.

“I’ll have to take it in stages,” Vezali said. “I can manage.”

“There are leviathans,” Eilif said. “You will want to go armed with something to scare them away from you.”