When Sparks Fly (20 page)

Azor’s men still surrounded them with
protection, but Gem dismissed the assassins, assuming they’d be
called off at any moment. It was the media who were their enemy
now. They camped outside The Spark, barely held at bay by security.
And while they shoved their microphones at neighbors and customers
alike, it was Xera they were most in a frenzy to question. Every
time she walked out of the inn, they swarmed. She couldn’t go
anywhere without being stalked by a photographer or reporter.

She bore it well, but the strain showed.

The family lawyer instructed her to greet
the press with, “Good morning” or “Good afternoon” or “Good
evening,” and to say “Farewell” when she left the gauntlet; that
was it. The lawyer had also hooked them up with an image
consultant. Things would eventually settle down, but it was
important for the family to earn back the community’s respect. It
would take time, but everything would settle…especially after Xera
left. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t happen for some weeks. Even
though Gem didn’t want to see her sister leave, she was also
anxious for Xera to get her life back. No one would bother her at
the academy. Gem couldn’t offer her sister a refuge here.

That was when Blue came back. He simply
walked in the kitchen door the day after the trial, as comfortable
as if he’d never been away. He saw Gem and smiled as if he were her
lover returned from an overnight trip. “I’ve heard you ladies could
use a vacation.”

Gem froze, struck by sudden shyness. She
couldn’t get any words out.

“Blue!” Xera came up and gripped his forearm
in pleasure. “Where’ve you been?”

His eyes moved to Gem. “I’ve found a place
for you to get away for a while, if you can convince your sister. I
had an idea things would get ugly here.”

Gem swallowed.
“That’s
why you
left?”

He didn’t move, but the space shrank between
them. “Yes. I can give you your privacy back…if you’ll accept.” He
glanced shyly at her from beneath his lashes.

“Yes!” Xera answered firmly for both of
them. “I’ll go pack. Come on, sis; or do you want to stay here and
feed the media sharks?”

“No,” Gem answered softly. “I’ll go.”
Suddenly she had a lot to say, but Xera’s presence forestalled it.
“But what about Brandy?”

“I’ve taken care of it,” Blue assured her.
“Do you need any help getting ready?”

“Uh, no. Let me just tell our manager what’s
going on and then I’ll pack.” She hesitated then asked, “How long
will we be gone? Do I need to bring some cash? I can stop by the
bank…”

Blue shook his head, a small smile on his
face. “Pack for a week.. You’ll be able to wash your clothes if we
stay longer. Bring something you’ll feel comfortable in. And don’t
make this complicated, sweetheart. If you don’t control every
detail, it will still be okay.”

His attitude won a smile from her. Suddenly,
Gem’s heart felt light. “I’ll be quick.”

She was disappointed to learn that Blue
wouldn’t be joining them right away on their supposed vacation,
though.

“I’m sending you and Xera on ahead with
Zsak. Brandy and I will follow after we’ve worked everything out
with her doctor. They may want to send along a nurse or therapist;
or a parole officer for her. If so, I’ll take care of it.”

“But where are we going?” Xera asked. Blue
had arranged to sneak them out with the morning deliverymen, to
avoid being followed.

Blue winked. “Trust me. It’ll be an
adventure.” Some of his amusement faded as he looked at Gem, and
her sister moved to the opposite side of the kitchen to give them
privacy. “We need to have a long talk,” he said.

She looked down at the tile. “I know.” There
was a lot to be said, but this probably wasn’t the place.

He seemed to agree. “There’ll be time and
privacy where we’re going. We’ll work this out. It’ll be all
right.” He studied her for an awkward moment, then reached over and
drew his fingers along the side of her face. “See you soon.”

He walked away.

Two days later, Xera stared out the beat-up
window of their shuttlecraft with dismay. They were rapidly
approaching a barren hunk of asteroid whose sole possibility of
comfort was a biosphere spanning a third of its pocked surface.

“This is your answer to our security and
stress relief?” she asked.

Zsak grinned. “It has underground living
quarters and an oxygen generator. What else do you need?”

“It’s a mining claim!” she snapped.

“Sure, and a lousy one. We got it cheap and
had it zoned for farming. You ever done farming, Xera? I can just
see you running a tractor!”

Gem sighed. She tried not to be
disappointed, but with all of Blue’s talk she’d held out hope for
something a little more luxurious. Even another jaunt on a starship
would have held more comforts than this.

It didn’t help that she was suffering some
major mood swings. Stress had been doing crazy things to her. As
much as she appreciated what was being done for her and her
sisters, it was hard to keep her emotions under control.

It was no wonder she was upset, either. Blue
hadn’t called. Was the man allergic to the communicator? Did he
want her to stew? Did he want her to worry? What exactly
did
he want?

After a moment, her frustration found
release. She turned and hissed at Zsak. “This is the big plan, eh?
You’re serious. What do we know about farming? You’ve seen our
garden. Why do you think we hire gardeners? Blue probably knows
more about farming than I do.” She thought about him working in the
family gardens and felt a stab of nostalgia. Things had been so
much easier when he was just the hired hand. She missed their time
in the gardens, watching him work in those ragged, provocative
shorts, teasing her…

Zsak smirked. “Good thing. He’ll be joining
us in a couple of days when the doctors release him. He’ll have to
advise
you
how to use the hoe, though, ’cause the doctors
said it would be a bit before he’ll be allowed to do hard labor.
That bullet came close to his heart, you know.” He’d been dropping
little burrs like that. She wasn’t sure what he was trying to
accomplish, unless it was to point out how hard-hearted she’d
been.

“
When
they release him? I thought
they already had.”

“No,” Zsak replied. “He sort of checked
himself out over their protests. I imagine they’re giving him grief
over that now.”

She could see him doing that: checking
himself out against professional advice. She just hoped he hadn’t
hurt himself with his stubbornness.

Ever practical, Xera drew the conversation
back to the barren rock that would be their temporary home. “How do
you figure this is a good place to hide out?” she asked. “There’s
nobody out here to blend in with! Of course, there’s also no one to
rat us out…”

Zsak didn’t respond at first, just silently
watched the pilot guide the ship down.

There were seven other “farmers” in the
security team, all of them male. Zsak was in charge. He finally
nodded and said, “There should be very few people here to report
back to your enemies. Besides, it’s not unusual to get an influx of
new blood out here, not with new mines opening up all the time. Add
a couple of green-haired Kiuyian lasses to that, and we make the
perfect picture.”

Gem and Xera glared at him. They knew what
miners in the area would assume they were there for. He’d made them
dye their hair and chrome their lips dark green before they’d left
home. Only hookers made it a point to dye their lips with the
slick, shiny dye; it was a calling card of the profession,
especially among Kiuyian girls. Also, Xera and Gem’s otherwise
utilitarian jumpsuits were nipped in.

Gem hadn’t even been aware she had all the
curves the suit now revealed. She’d never felt so exposed in her
life. And when Blue came and saw her in it…She shivered. Isolated,
dressed provocatively, with seven other men as competition; this
was the kind of situation that gave a man ideas. In her present
frame of mind, she wasn’t sure she could fight him off. More to the
point, maybe she didn’t want to. She wondered if Zsak had done it
on purpose.

The moment her feet hit the gritty surface
of the asteroid, she felt a wave of distaste. It surprised her. She
hadn’t realized she felt so disdainful of miners and land
developers. After all, her father himself had been like them,
settling his land and starting The Spark, right when that relocated
asteroid was practically trailing vapor. Had other people looked
down on him as an immigrant? She’d been born there, grown up the
daughter of a successful businessman; she’d never known what it was
like to come to a new place, to make a living as a stranger. It was
humbling.

Yes, people came here to scratch a living
from the bare rock. She’d always felt distrustful of such desperate
people, and still did. She’d seen too many of the dregs of the
galaxy come through her tavern. Of course, she had to admit a few
of the Kiuyians had done well, even though they’d recently
appeared. Still, she didn’t feel comfortable assuming the role of
an immigrant. Even less so, posing as a prostitute.

“Nice digs,” Xera said ironically next to
her. Gem’s sister’s expression, her posture, her voice were about
as un-hookerlike as it was possible to get. She looked like a young
Galactic Marines sergeant surveying an unruly group of cadets as
she glanced around the pockmarked surface. “Can’t wait to see what
the living quarters look like.”

They walked a short distance to a stone
knoll that had been hollowed out with lasers. The rooms were
nothing but small, spare chambers with tarps covering the doors.
Depressing. There was an area large enough to be used as a
gathering chamber and not much else.

Both sisters leveled unimpressed stares on
Zsak as he walked in, carrying equipment. He grinned at them. “Not
what you’re used to, ladies? Can’t be much worse than a Galactic
Explorers barracks. Right, Xera? You even have a room to
yourself.”

“We could always sleep in the ship,” Gem
suggested.

“Wouldn’t send the right image for true
farmers, now would it?” Zsak replied. She could tell he enjoyed
teasing them. “Don’t worry, we’ll at least make sure you have
comfortable beds. Gotta keep up appearances.”

Xera grunted and brushed by him to go get
her stuff. She was unquestionably put out by their disguise; which
likely had something to do with the embarrassment she’d suffered at
the trial. Who would enjoy having her reputation smeared
further?

With a sigh, Gem joined her. Even if it was
only a week they stayed here, it was going to feel like a year.

Then again, there was no media here. That
alone helped.

Gem said as much to Xera, and added, “Just
think of it as camping. You know, like those squalid little cabins
dad used to rent so we could go fishing. Well, he fished, anyway. I
used to bring a stack of books.” She smiled fondly at the
memory.

Xera grinned faintly. “And I stomped around
the woods, pretending to stalk our dinner through the stinkweed.”
She wrinkled her nose in memory. “Don’t mind my moods, sis. I’m
just…decompressing. I really am glad to be away from those blasted
cameras.”

Gem nodded. “I know. Things were rough for
me, too; still are. It’s like all the stress is suddenly bleeding
out. I wouldn’t be surprised if we both go a little crazy for a
while.”

“That could be fun,” Xera said, laughing.
“Maybe we should concentrate on acting as crazy as we can for a
while. If we go nuts on purpose, maybe we won’t do it for
real.”

“That’s a pretty wacky philosophy.” Gem
chuckled.

“Do you have a better one?”

“Nope. Let’s run with it.”

So they did. Xera took up wearing her hair
in pigtails and Gem painted her nails green to match her lips. They
wasted hours doodling, chatting and playing cards with the guys.
They also took up practical jokes, playing pranks on each other
with a vengeance. It was wonderful taking on a second adolescence
after being so mature about running the inn all those years.

Zsak didn’t mind being included in the
jokes, it turned out. A wicked prankster himself, he took pleasure
in gluing their boots to the floor, the ceiling, and once to the
door of the fridge. The man was a monster with a tube of
Lock-Tight. The sisters finally took revenge by gluing his pants
closed. They turned the fabric inside out and smeared glue around
the knees. It was only when Zsak pulled them out the next morning
and tried to slide his feet in that he discovered what they’d
done.

His revenge had been to spike their
breakfasts with extra-hot pepper powder the following morning. It
was fire going down and, later, coming out. They behaved for a
while after that.

Though he hadn’t arrived yet, Gem suddenly
realized she had a lot to thank Blue for. In the years to come,
these would be the days she’d smile about. She looked forward to
telling him so.

It was easier to think of him now, in this
atmosphere. Odd, how she hadn’t realized how stressed she’d become.
Looking back, she could see how that tension had colored so many of
her perceptions, clouding her decisions. Coming to this place
really had been a godsend. She hoped she could move forward with
her old optimism.

If she could just settle things with Blue,
the future could bring some of the best years of her life.

Chapter 15

It took a couple of days for them to finish
setting up camp. On the third day the lunar ice for the mist
irrigation system was delivered. Gem and Xera set aside their
cooking preparations to walk outside and watch. Gem shaded her eyes
to better see the ice barge lumber through the biosphere like a
beetle through a luminous bubble. It was lowered slowly to the far
side of the asteroid, kicking up an enormous amount of dust. She
actually felt the ground shift as the colossal block of ice settled
in the crater bed. Situated on a raised bit of land, it would form
a natural lake as it melted.