Reading the Wind (Silver Ship) (51 page)

“Besides,” Liam said, “if they wanted to kill us, they would have already done it.”

Okay. I’d already figured that out. “Can we ignore them?”

Dianne said, “They probably don’t have any weapons on the skimmer that can even ding
Creator
. Let them rage. Mad Lushia is half crazy already.”

“Mad Lushia?” Chelo asked. “You know her?”

Dianne smiled, as if at some memory. “I was her Second, once. She fell from favor in the Autocracy. Too independent. She’s like a child who won’t give up a favorite toy when asked.”

I whirled around to look at her. She knew these people? “Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded.

“What good would the information have done you out there?” She pointed vaguely up toward space. “It would have just worried you. Now that it is helpful, you have it.” The way she said it almost soothed.

Ming spoke before I could react to Dianne’s statement. “That’s why you look so familiar. I’ve seen your picture.”

Dianne shrugged. “I’m no longer Islan. I believe in freedom.” She looked me in the eyes. “I’m on your side.”

Jenna held up a hand. “Let’s share stories. They want a reaction from us. Let them cool their heels. We all need to catch up. The galley’s the only room big enough to hold everyone comfortably. Can you two,” she glanced at me and my father, “manage to monitor the strangers from there?”

Of course. I told
Creator
to send copies of the camera images to the wall in the galley. “Let’s go.”

Ten minutes later, everyone was seated at the long table, twelve of us at a table meant for fourteen. Chelo, Liam, and Kayleen sat close together on one end, with Chelo at the nominal head of the table. Jenna was in the seat opposite her, flanked by Ming and Tiala. The rest of us ranged through the middle seats of the oblong table. I managed to orchestrate it so I ended up between Kayleen and Alicia. Kayleen might need me, and I needed Alicia.

Tiala set out cups for col on the table, the very ordinariness of it damping the confusion. Jenna glanced up at the screen, which now showed the skimmer landing near the hangar. “We could spend days catching up. But we don’t have them. Chelo, can you tell us your situation, and everything you know about the mercenaries?” She sent my father a look clearly meant to silence him.

Chelo leaned back and started. “We were on Islandia when they came….”

Regardless of Jenna’s warning about time, it took nearly an hour to get caught up on what had happened here. At the end of it, I knew more about my sister’s life, but had no better clue why the mercenaries waited here.

And wait they did. They had disembarked after they landed, and simply stood outside of their skimmer, five of them, talking amongst themselves. They did not have any children with them.

Dianne had suggested Lushia was out of favor. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t working for the Islans, didn’t think like them. Maybe Lushia only appeared to be out of favor, a ruse to allow the Autocracy to disavow her actions if they wanted to. All the possibilities made my head spin. I looked around the table. Exhaustion and worry showed on almost every face. But I wanted more help. “So…I’d like to hear why each of you think they’re here.”

Chelo must have heard what I didn’t ask. “Why did they come in the first place? Kayleen said they came to kill us all, but that we confused them. You knew they were here. How?”

I glanced at my father. It was his story to tell, but was he ready to tell it?”

He shook his head at me.

No.

Jenna must have seen the interaction. “They were hired by our affinity group to finish the war. Chelo, do you remember when I told you about affinity groups?”

Chelo nodded. “I remember. But I don’t think I understand.”

“Okay. The easy explanation is an affinity group is a set of people—sometimes a traditional blood family, but more often many families and individuals that are tied to a goal and to economics. There are groups that work in the arts, groups that build things, others that make things, or provide services. The Family of Exploration came together to find a new place to build into a paradise.”

Liam spoke up. “And they chose Fremont.”

“That’s right. Only when they got here, the planet was settled.”

My father spoke up this time. “By people who had no claim.”

Induan glared at him. “No claim from Silver’s Home. But they were here, and that should have been claim enough.”

Liam seemed to approve of her words. “No one should die just for being someplace.”

Chelo put a hand on his shoulder, then looked down the table at all of us. “We need to get Jherrel and Caro. We can argue about claims later. Assume we three have no good idea why they’re here.”

“Except we know they haven’t hurt us,” Kayleen said. “They had a chance to kill us today, and they didn’t. They’ve passed up other chances. I don’t know why, but they’re studying us. From a distance. The three of us. Because we’re not from here, either.”

Interesting. So Chelo and Liam and Kayleen were alive because they were altered? The old derogatory Fremont word stuck to me here. Enhanced. Created. But Chelo was right; there was no time to dwell on questions we had no answer for. “Ming? What do you think?”

“Either they want you, or they want you to do something. They’re playing war games. Games about far more than this planet.”

Dianne spoke without being asked. “They want you to start a fight. Why else would they have taken the babies?”

My father said, “That’s too complex. The easy explanation is that the presence of people obviously from Silver’s Home threw them off. They were told the only people here weren’t from the five worlds. Maybe I can make that invalidate the contract terms. I have to go talk to them. I’m the only one who can change this with talk.”

“You’d better. Or leave.” Dianne stood up and glared down at him. “If you start a war here, you may spark more war back home.”

Chelo surged to her feet, staring across the table at Dianne. “There’s
already
a war here, and we didn’t start it.”

Dianne regarded her with a gentle gaze. “But you can’t prove that. Can you? Do you have any record of anything they’ve done?”

Kayleen said, “I have some. It’s stored in our network. I have the last battle, when they killed Stile and all his people.”

“But weren’t you attacking them?” Dianne asked.

Kayleen nodded. “But they took over Artistos! They burned the Guild Halls!”

Dianne didn’t give up. “What can you prove? What might they have?”

Chelo collapsed in her chair, staring down at the table as if she
could bore holes in it. “I started it. Kayleen read their webs, and I started it.”

Chelo started a fight? I held my tongue with great difficulty.

Jenna said, “But that can be played as ‘uneducated colonist kids defend themselves.’ Every sentient being in the Five Worlds knows what the Star Mercenaries are. We can make you a hero over that.”

Dianne interrupted. “So if we attack them, two things happen.” A beat of silence fell. Chelo lifted her head and looked at Jenna. “We die. And they can go home and report that we attacked them.”

Dianne’s motives clarified. “So Marcus sent you to help keep us from making this situation worse?” I asked.

She stopped, blew out a long breath, and said, “If it’s possible.”

I nodded. “If it’s possible.”

Chelo, who always thought for the greater good and not herself, now focused on something small, and clearly dear to her. “We’re not leaving without Jherrel and Caro.”

“Any other ideas?”

None were offered. I glanced up at the viewscreen. The mercenaries still waited patiently. In fact, they laughed and talked amongst themselves as if they were at a picnic.

I stood up. “We’d better go talk to them.”

“Who is we?” Alicia asked.

My father stood up. “Me. I hired them.”

Chelo gasped. She walked over to our father, drew her hand back, and slapped him so hard his head snapped away from her. Good for her. Except now I didn’t hate him so much, and I felt the pain of her hand as well as her anger.

Chelo was no longer the same person I’d flown away from.

My father didn’t move to return the strike or to defend himself. He looked at her, rubbing his face. “I thought they’d killed you. You and Joseph both. I thought there was nothing left here worth saving. They killed your mother. What will you do to these people if they kill Jherrel and Caro?”

She stared at him, her eyes wide, her lips pursed, her hands at her side. She took a deep breath but didn’t answer him.

His lower lip quivered. “What would you do if they killed your children and Liam and Kayleen?”

Her face went to stone. “Let’s hope I don’t have to find out.” It wasn’t forgiveness, or even a conversation, but Chelo had her own focus. Alicia took my arm, leaning over and whispering in my ear. “I’ll go.”

“No. I can’t lose you.” I glanced at Jenna. “I think my father, you, and Liam.”

Jenna nodded.

“Why not me?” Chelo demanded.

“And me?” Alicia challenged.

Jenna looked down the table. “There’s no point in risking more than three. One of us should be a parent. Chelo is useful to Joseph. It will hurt Joseph too much if Alicia is damaged. Kayleen can’t go—she can’t shield. Liam is, frankly, the most expendable.”

Liam winced at that, but he nodded.

“We can watch from here,” I told Chelo and Kayleen. “And listen.
Creator
has better sound connections between crew than earsets. We’ll get you fixed up.” I looked down the table. “It will make sense to them that those three are here. There’s no point in telling them our strengths.” Alicia crossed her arms over her chest, but didn’t fight me. I leaned over and whispered, “I love you.”

Without looking at me, she whispered, “Me too,” under her breath. It sounded as much like a curse as an endearment.

My father already stood in the doorway. “Let’s go.” He wore a look of such determination that I bit my lip until I tasted blood.

“Wait!” Jenna called. “We must dress the part.” As she led the three of them away, Dianne called after her. “Don’t imply we’re speaking for Silver’s Home with what you wear.”

When they returned, my father wore a full captain’s uniform. I startled at the choice, then took in a long breath and let it go. He may not have flown this ship here, but the mercenaries didn’t need to know it. Jenna and Liam had also dressed as formally as they could, both in navy blue ship’s clothes with no insignia on them.

I watched them leave, not happy to be staying. But what other choice was there?

I dropped into the Fremont nets. I could use the time until they left the ship to get information to the colony that way. Last time I’d tried this, Gianna had been the willing target of my conversation. She was
no longer here. For the first time, the magnitude of Artistos’s losses rang full and clear inside me.

Well, the decision I’d sworn I’d make back when I woke my father was made. I would do everything I could to be sure they lost no more.

W
edged between Chelo and Kayleen, I watched the command room screens. Alicia stood behind us, keeping a bit of distance between herself and Chelo. Through the ship’s cameras I watched my father, Liam, and Jenna disembark. They looked tiny beside the ship, but then the mercenaries looked just as tiny. They stood a respectful distance away, near their skimmer, which was parked by the shattered hangar.

Our group approached them, my father leading, his strides sure and even. Jenna put a hand on his arm, exerting force, and he stopped halfway to the mercenaries. Good.

I zoomed in on their faces. Liam stood stiffly stoic. Jenna scanned the environment, her limbs loose and ready, her face a mask of watchful distrust. My father’s jaw was tight, his shoulders back, his eyes set unmoving on his target.

The mercenaries hesitated for a moment, the looks on their faces showing brief shock at seeing my father here.

Dianne said, “The one on the left is Mad Lushia.”

The woman stood taller than all the others, lithe and really quite beautiful. Her golden hair glinted with red highlights in the sunshine. She wore black pants and a bright yellow tunic.

Lushia began moving toward our group, followed by a slightly shorter dark-haired woman and a broad muscular man.

Chelo’s voice shook with anger. “I don’t know the one next to her—it’s not Ghita. Which means Ghita is plotting trouble somewhere. If Lushia’s mad, Ghita’s stark raving.” Her grip on my hand tightened so much that I yelped. “He’s the strong that stole Jherrel.”

Dianne responded to Chelo. “They would not send the First and the Second together to a meeting like this. I am surprised Mad Lushia came herself.”

As the groups approached each other, my father’s voice entered the cabin through sensitive speakers in his captain’s coat. “Captain Groll.”

If his appearance had shocked her, she was fully recovered. “David Lee. I hope you had a good journey.” She smiled. “It is not common for customers to oversee our work.”

His voice was clear and even as he said, “I came here to stop you.”

Lushia regarded him silently.

He continued. “There were flaws in the information I had when I sent you.”

“That your daughter is here?” Lushia’s voice sounded casual, but her loose stance and the way she held her hands by her side suggested battle-readiness. She and Jenna carried themselves so much alike that they might have been dark and light twins.

“But you have killed,” my father continued.

“Isn’t that what you hired us to do? We’ll finish after we’ve decided what to do about your family.”

Chelo’s hand gripped mine.

“I want to cancel the whole contract,” my father said. “And I want you to leave immediately.”

Chelo’s grip on my hand tightened further. I pulled free and put my arm over her shoulder. Would he be able to stop the whole contract? It was his hatred that got us here in the first place. He and I had spent months alone together on the ship, even though I never turned
Creator
over to him. I’d told him all the good I knew of Artistos. It was even more than I remembered. Perhaps he was changing.