Heart of the Nebula (8 page)

“
Interesting.”

“
That’s not all. When we
arrived, the patrician met us at the spaceport to brief
me.”

Now it was Lars’s turn to frown. “He briefed
you personally? That’s a strange development.”

“
You’re telling me. Why do
you think he’d do that?”

“
I don’t know,” said Lars.
“The patrician has been trying to expand his influence and
consolidate his control—the presence of his daughter on the
delegation bears testament to that. Some even think that he’s
running a shadow government.”

“
You think this is part of
a centralist power grab?”

“
Not exactly. More like…”
Lars paused, stroking his chin in thought. “More like he’s trying
to distract us from something.”

Distract us.
James stared out at the starfield and mulled it
over. Intuitively, he felt that Lars was right.

“
Sounds like you expect
foul play.”

“
I’m not sure what to
expect,” said Lars. “The patrician is a crafty man, and very
difficult to keep up with. I locked horns with him plenty of times
back when I was more involved with domestic affairs. Never quite
got a handle on his game, but he’s definitely up to something
here.”

“
And Sterling and I are his
unwitting agents?”

“
Well,” said Lars with a
grin, “not so unwitting anymore.”

“
I was hoping you could
tell me something about his motives,” said James. “What is he
after? Money? Power? Is he trying to override our democracy and set
up a quasi-dictatorship?”

“
I should hope not,” said
Lars, “but even if he tried, he wouldn’t get very far. The General
Assembly of Citizens is far more powerful than the Galbraith
family—he’s more of a figurehead in some ways than a true power
player. Still, I wouldn’t put it past him to subvert the system to
his own ends.”

“
Which are?”

“
I’m not sure. But with
this assignment of yours, you might be able to find
out.”

James leaned forward. “How?”

Lars glanced over his shoulder, as if to
make sure that they were alone. “Keep a close eye on Sara,” he said
in a markedly lower voice. “See if she tries to do anything out of
the ordinary—and if she does, be sure to record it. Any evidence
you gather may be crucial later, if indeed her father’s up to
something dubious.”

“
I see,” said James,
nodding. “Anything else?”

“
Not that I can think of
offhand,” said Lars. “Just let me know what you find.” He leaned
back in his chair and stretched, signaling that he had nothing more
to say on the matter. “I requested the latest ballots from the
General Assembly a few hours ago. We’re about to enter the
starlane, so this is the last chance we’ll have to transmit them.
Care to transmit your votes along with mine?”

“
Thanks, but I still feel
undecided about those measures. It’s probably best if I
abstain.”

“
As you will,” said Lars,
pulling up the collapsible holoscreen from the surface of the
table. “Thanks for the chat. I enjoyed it.”

“
So did I,” said James. He
rose tentatively from his seat. “But don’t underestimate the
Hameji, Lars. If this conference provokes them—”

“
Believe me, James, if
there were any other way to save the Colony, I would be pursuing
that right now instead of this conference. But don’t worry. I’m as
skilled a politician as you are a pilot, perhaps even more. This is
my game—trust me.”

James took a deep breath. “Yeah. All
right.”

“
Take care, old
friend.”

“
You, too.”
But really, Lars—be careful.

* * * * *

Sara followed Captain Jarvis into the
captain’s quarters without a word. For the commanding officer of a
luxury yacht, Jarvis’s personal space was surprisingly bare. A
small, neatly kept bed sat unretracted in the corner, with a modest
computer terminal next to it and a small wallscreen adorning the
opposite wall. It alternated between pictures of Jarvis’s two
daughters, both of them grown. There were no portholes or
windows.

“
Do you spend a lot of time
here?” Sara asked as the door hissed shut behind them.

“
Not especially,” said
Jarvis. She pulled down a chair from the wall and motioned for Sara
to have a seat. “But it is nice to have a place where I can
separate myself from my work. I’m sure it’s the same for your
father.”

Sara nodded; that much was certainly true.
Growing up, her father’s work had always seemed to come between her
parents. Her mother wasn’t as good at separating out the personal
side of her life from the political, and her father’s approach was
perhaps a bit too compartmentalized. It was one of the many things
that had led to their divorce the year Sara had started at the
academy. Thinking about it made her want to change the subject.

“
Have you filled the
lieutenant and his copilot in on the details of the mission
yet?”

“
I have,” said Captain
Jarvis, pulling down the seat at the computer terminal. “The two of
them have spent most of the last two days meeting with the rest of
the diplomatic staff. Have they met with you yet?”

“
Not yet. That’s strange,
wouldn’t you say?”

Jarvis nodded. “A little bit, certainly. The
lieutenant has spent quite a lot of time with Lars in particular. I
know that the two of them are old friends, but I can’t help but
wonder if they’re plotting something.”

“
I know,” said Sara with a
sigh. “Lars Stewart has been a thorn in my father’s side for years
now. If he’d known that the two of them have such a close personal
connection, I doubt he’d have chosen the lieutenant for this
military escort.”

“
You don’t think he foresaw
this?”

“
My father knows a lot, but
he doesn’t know everything. He’s just as prone to mistakes as the
rest of us.”

“
That’s not been my
experience,” said Captain Jarvis. “Your father is an extremely
shrewd man. He’s often four or five steps ahead of everybody. I
would be extremely surprised if this was a simple oversight on his
part.”

“
Well, it certainly doesn’t
make my mission any easier.”

“
That much is true. But he
always had the highest expectations of you. I’m sure he feels that
you’re up to the task.”

For her part, Sara wasn’t so sure. Her
father had a habit of testing her, and she didn’t always pass. In
her second year at the academy, he had put her on the ballot for an
oversight committee, knowing full well that she’d have to push back
against claims of nepotism just to keep her political career from
imploding before it had really launched. She hadn’t even wanted the
position, but by the time he’d nominated her, it was already too
late to object. She’d faced a great deal of scrutiny and criticism,
which at the age of nineteen had been practically soul-crushing. In
the end, she’d lost the position, which would have been a relief
except for the impact it had on her political career. She’d always
felt that her father had been disappointed with the way she’d
handled herself, and every nomination since had been a
struggle.

“
Do you think Lars has
caught on to something?” she asked.

“
Even if he hasn’t, it
would be well to be cautious,” said Jarvis. “Of course, I’m no
politician, so I’m not the best one to give advice. Still, if he
does suspect something, you can be sure that he and the lieutenant
will be working together.”

Exactly,
Sara thought silently.
That’s the problem.
She thought back
to the briefing with her father in the tram car and remembered the
look on the lieutenant’s face. His copilot was fairly guileless and
probably not much of a threat, but Lieutenant McCoy had a glint in
his eyes that reminded her of her father. He was a man who played
his own game, irrespective of the forces that tried to contain him.
There was a certain charm in that, but a danger as well—or perhaps
the danger and the charm were two sides of the same
sphere.

“
If the lieutenant is
hiding something, then maybe I should get him to open up,” she
mused aloud. “Find out his game, see how deep his connection with
Lars really runs.”

Captain Jarvis raised an eyebrow. “How do
you plan to go about that?”

“
We’re on a luxury yacht,
aren’t we?” said Sara, pulling back a strand of hair behind her
ear. “I’ve never met a boy who could turn me down for a
date.”

Jarvis frowned. “Are you sure that’s such a
good idea, mingling your personal life with your political
one?”

No, but it certainly would make this voyage
a lot more interesting.

“
It’s the best way to get
some insight into the lieutenant without arousing too much
suspicion,” she offered instead. “Besides, I’ve dated plenty of
boys—it’s not like this means anything.”

“
Just as long as you’re
careful about it,” said Jarvis, shaking her head. “Politics isn’t
the only high-stakes game out there.”

* * * * *

James wiped the sweat from
his face as the treadmill slowed for cool-down. The exercise
facilities on board the
Freedom
Star
weren’t as extensive as the ones on
the
Trident One,
but they were plenty sufficient. He’d had a good workout; his
shirt was soaked with sweat and his muscles were gratifyingly sore.
His lungs burned for oxygen, but the air on the starship was clean
and refreshing. As he slowed from a run to a walk, he breathed
deeply to catch his breath.

The door at the front of the room hissed
open, and the patrician’s daughter walked in, catching his
attention almost immediately. Her skinsuit fit her slender form
almost perfectly, the sleek curves a sharp contrast to his
olive-green cutoff shorts and ragged tan T-shirt. She smiled at him
in greeting, making his stomach fall.

“
Hello there, Lieutenant.
Mind if I join you?”

“
Just finishing up,” James
stammered. She took that as an invitation to come in and walked
over to the mats in front of him.

“
Do you work out often?”
she asked. The door hissed shut, leaving them alone in the
facilities together.

“
Yeah. It takes a lot of
rigorous physical training to be a soldier in the
Corps.”

“
I can tell. Where’s the
ensign?”

“
Sterling?” said James,
wiping his sweaty forehead rather self-consciously. “He’s in his
quarters, I think. At least he was an hour ago.”

“
You don’t work out
together then?”

“
Not generally, no. We’ve
each got our own regimen.”

She stood with her feet apart and pulled her
hands behind her to stretch them out. Leaning forward, she raised
them high in the air, with her long blond hair spilling forward
almost to the floor. James caught himself staring and immediately
looked away.

The countdown timer finished, and the
treadmill slowed to a stop. He stepped off and wiped his face with
a towel while Sara continued her stretching routine.

“
Have a good workout,” he
said as he walked toward the door.

“
Actually, Lieutenant, do
you have a minute?” Sara asked.

James stopped, his breath catching in his
throat. “Yes?”

“
Do you have any
self-defense moves you could teach me? It would help me feel safer
when we’re at the conference.”

He turned around to face her. She was on the
floor now, stretching out her legs. Her flexibility was
impressive—with both legs spread out at a considerable angle, she
could still lean forward far enough to touch her elbows to the
floor.

“
I suppose,” he mumbled.
She smiled at him, and his legs practically turned to
water.

I have to be
careful,
he told himself.
This is the patrician’s daughter, after
all.
That wasn’t the only thing that made
him uneasy around her, though. Without a doubt, she was the most
gorgeous sparring partner he’d ever had.

She stood up and looked at him with bright,
eager eyes. He tried to avoid them as he squared off to face
her.

“
The first thing to
remember is that the best way to defend yourself is to get away
from trouble as quickly as you can. You’ll never lose a fight if
you always run away.”

“
But you don’t run,
Lieutenant. That’s why my father chose you for this
mission.”

His cheeks blushed bright red. “That’s
different. If I run, people die. I’m supposed to protect them.”

“
Just like my father asked
you to protect me?”

The look of admiration on her face was so
disarming that for a couple of panic-filled moments, he was
speechless. When was the last time a girl had looked at him that
way? Something told him that she wanted more from him than a
self-defense lesson.

“
Pretty much, yeah,” he
somehow managed to say.

“
So what do I do if I can’t
run?”

“
Well, you call for help.
Most thugs are basically cowards, so if you make a lot of noise and
cause a scene, that’s usually enough to spook them. Besides, I’m
sure Sterling and I won’t be too far away.”