Inherit the Stars (18 page)

“Trust me like you did in the old days,” Sar said.

Cheseia pushed Sar's hand away and faced the airlock, her jaw set.

“First we lose Shekelor Thal . . . then I'll decide.” In truth, Kivita preferred the Thedes over the Inheritors, but she wouldn't be used. You don't waste air on a fair-weather crew.

“Good enough. Cheseia, care to find some refugees who want to earn a crate of foodstuffs?” He didn't take his gaze off Kivita. The way his eyes roved over her, the glimmer in them . . . it was the same way he'd looked at her when she'd wore those flashy clothes on
Frevyx
.

“What for?” A flush came over Kivita.

Sar smirked. “Diversion.”

“I will definitely meet you back at
Frevyx
's airlock in a few minutes,” Cheseia said in a low voice, then exited
Terredyn Narbas
's airlock into the hive ship.

As soon as the airlock slid shut, Kivita wanted to ask Sar so many questions, but none of them reached her lips. Chest tight, her eyes roved everywhere and paused on her hammock. His computer chit still lay there—a promise at future passion she doubted either of them would keep.

Kivita bit her lip and rubbed her hands. The knuckles on her right hand still shone red from breaking the pirate's nose. As she walked to the bridge, Sar took her hands and rubbed them himself. His fingers kneaded the soreness from her joints and digits. The flush on her skin blazed into a furnace at his touch.

“Sar, don't—”

“Salvagers need good hands. Gripping the manuals, using excavation tools.” He studied her hands, not looking up.

Kivita took shallow breaths. Saliva filled her mouth. His fingers caressed her skin the same way he'd done over Gontalo. As much as she adored his attention, Kivita wanted to shoulder her own pain.

“I'm not the same lonely salvager you teamed with at Xeh's Crown,” she said. “I can survive whatever this universe throws at me. But I'm sick of wanting you back, sick of needing you. Sometimes I hate you for it. Don't you understand?”

Her lips quivered as he continued massaging her hands. Sar said nothing.

“You're not being fair to Cheseia. I see her love for you in her eyes. Doesn't that make you feel guilty?” Her question came out as a whine.

Sar pulled her close, still looking down. Heat flooded her body.

“You can't save me every time, Sar. Sometimes I don't want you to. Are you listening to me?” She reached up and tilted his chin until his gaze finally met hers. “I don't want you to.”

“What about right now?” he asked.

Kivita kissed him on the lips.

Her fingers ran through his black curls; her thighs rubbed against his. Cupping his face in both hands, she tasted the pseudoadrine residue in his mouth as their tongues writhed. Her nipples tingled while her legs rubbed against each other in eager anticipation. A hungry moan traveled up her throat.

Sar didn't touch or embrace her.

Moaning deeper, she sucked his lower lip, squeezed his rump, and swished her tongue farther into his luscious mouth. Kivita loved and hated him in the same moment. Wanted him to feel her pain, her passion. She would make him want her; just a few more kisses, a little more touching. All the hurt from being left alone, all the tenderness she'd saved just for him, gushed from Kivita.

He pulled back, lips moist from her kisses.

Her skin cooled in an instant, and she turned away. “Guess you cashed in that chit.”

Sar grasped her by the shoulders and made her face him. “Don't you understand? Every time we touch, I see those things. It hurts my own brain, trying to break down these images and sensations. How you manage it, I don't know. Guess the universe is telling you what I've always known.”

Kivita trembled in his grasp. Their bodies were so close, yet light years away. “Yeah. What's that?”

“That you're one special woman.”

Shivering, she pushed away. “Don't. Nothing will change once this is over. I know you.”

“Kiv . . .”

“I loved you once. It already isn't easy to want you so much, but then to be told I can't even touch you now? Goddamn pirates didn't seem to mind.” She bit off the last words to keep from sobbing.

Sar pressed her against his chest. “That's bullshit! I try to tell you how much I . . . But you just keep being so damn fickle.” He shoved her away and stormed toward the airlock.

Kivita ran after him and barred the airlock doors with her arm. “The hell I am! Just tell me one thing. Did you feel anything while sleeping in the cryopod with me from Vstrunn?”

He tugged her aside; she'd forgotten how strong he was.

“Anything at all?” she asked, voice thick with emotion.

He reached for the airlock lever.

“Goddammit, did you?” she cried.

Kivita tried to bar him again, but Sar wrapped an
arm around her waist and kissed her. While his fingers brushed through her hair, Kivita squeezed herself to him. She languished against his chest after their lips finally parted. A long moment passed with him rubbing her back, her inhaling his scent.

The emotions inside wanted to spill out and drown him, cleanse them both of ill feelings and lost time. Kivita tightened her hold. The universe had taken so much from her—her parents, her career. Sar could still be hers, if she just—

He gently pushed her back and wiped tears from her cheeks. Before Kivita could say anything, he hit the airlock lever and left
Terredyn Narbas
.

“I know you did,” she whispered.

Kivita hit the speaker button on the bridge console. “Yeah, Sar?” Her voice came out sure and strong, contrasting the uncertainties in her heart.

“Shekelor will be watching for you to leave the system. I've got a way to lose him; then we'll discuss plans.” Sar's voice sounded flat, unemotional. She wished she didn't love him.

“You mentioned a diversion?”

“Kivita, I truly hired three humans,” Cheseia's smooth voice came over the speakers. “They have happily agreed to help us before we demagnetize airlocks.”

“Going to ditch a few food crates in the refugee fleet traffic,” Sar said. “With commotion on both the hive ship and in the orbital lanes, we'll make for the exit lanes. Our beacon signals should get mixed with all the other ships there, and we'll escape during the confusion.”

Kivita snorted. “Sounds like an insane plan. We'll never be allowed back in this system again.”

“It's either this or abandon your ship, sweetness,” Sar replied. She imagined him smirking. Damn, he was such an asshole!

“Fine, whatever. Ready when you are.” Kivita strapped
herself into the gyro harness and turned off
Terredyn Narbas
's gravity. Several red and orange lights blinked on the console, reminding her of the damage the ship had suffered over Umiracan. Her chest tightened.

“Kiv . . . keep up. You're more important than you know,” Sar said.

Important to him or his ragtag rebellion?

Kivita took a deep breath and demagnetized
Terredyn Narbas
from the hive ship. Nudging the manuals, she edged away from the Naxan collection of vessels and waited.

Outside her viewport, dozens of Inheritor, Tannocci, and Naxan ships passed in an orbital traffic lane around Tejuit Seven. She counted three ships across, five ships deep. Although it was originally done for protection against pirates, she'd heard that some ships magnetized with others and never departed the system again. Families and renegades dwelling in fluctuating gravities, exiled to a blue, green, and pink horizon of uncertainty.

She closed her eyes and inhaled again. To what horizon was she flying now?

Sar's voice crackled over the speaker. “You might hear some Naxan radio chatter, but try to keep the channel open.”

Kivita rolled her eyes. “Great. Let me know when something happens.”

Three hundred feet away, an Inheritor transport docked to the Naxan hive ship demagnetized and drifted away. Then a Tannocci cruiser did the same. Both ships drew near the orbital fleet traffic. Unease crawled up Kivita's spine.

“What the hell? Sar, got two ships here, ready to collide with the—”

Sar's voice blared from the speaker. “Those people I hired released these ships for us. Wasn't cheap, either. Try to follow my lead.”

Before she snapped back a reply,
Frevyx
skimmed past her port-side viewport, aft thrusters flaring. Naxan traffic controllers spoke over her speaker on an open channel.

“Attention! Two unmanned vessels have departed Naxan Consortium Fifteen Delta and are on a collision course with traffic over Sector TJ-Seven-One-Eight. Repeat, two vessels . . .”

Kivita flew after
Frevyx
as the two unpiloted craft entered the traffic lane. Incoming ships veered in every direction to avoid collision, and numerous thrusters fired throughout the traffic, resembling small starbursts. She squinted and dove under a cargo barge angling to starboard.
Terredyn Narbas
shuddered; more red lights activated on her console.

“Sar! You crazy ass!” she called into her mic.

Pulling the manuals back, Kivita fired all port-side thrusters.
Terredyn Narbas
evaded two incoming craft as they avoided the rogue Inheritor transport, while the rogue Tannocci cruiser slowed under the planet's gravity well. Two refugee vessels stalled and cut their engines. More craft swerved around the growing obstacle.

Ahead,
Frevyx
dove around three refugee ships, then ascended between two Inheritor barges. Backwash from its thrusters dusted the ships' hulls. Kivita shrugged and, without even glancing at her proximity readings, copied Sar's maneuvers with ease. Smirking, she increased engine power and corkscrewed around eight refugee craft.

Naxan traffic controllers practically screamed through the speakers.

“Yeah, let's see you top that.” Her smirk fell as three craft flew in tandem with her, and three with
Frevyx
.

Off to port,
Fanged Pauper
mirrored her movements.

Frevyx
's thrusters flared, and Kivita activated hers, as well. Shekelor's ships kept pace as a new grouping of orbital traffic came up ahead. She deactivated life support and heating aboard
Terredyn Narbas
, save for the bridge. With slightly more engine power, Kivita gunned her trawler straight into the traffic.

“Kiv, pull up,” Sar's voice broke in between Naxan warnings.

She winced while her port-side braking thruster, damaged over Umiracan, sputtered.
Terredyn Narbas
wobbled as traffic sped past.

“Pull up!” Sar shouted.

“Dump the cargo!” she shouted back into the mic.

Refugee and Inheritor ships flew out of the traffic ahead, though longer Tannocci ships tried to maintain course. Kivita swerved starboard, port, then starboard again. She braked the port thrusters and pulled the manuals back as three crates tumbled from
Frevyx
's loading bay.

One port-side braking thruster lost all power.
Terredyn Narbas
jerked toward a Tannocci cruiser.

“Kiv!” Sar called, but she pulled the manuals and wove right between
Fanged Pauper
and the two other pirate ships. One pirate vessel swerved toward the other. A bright flash almost blinded Kivita as the ships smashed into each other.

Terredyn Narbas
's proximity alarm rang as debris banged against its starboard hull. Kivita flinched as a chunk struck and cracked her starboard viewport. Without slowing, she closed the damaged viewport's blast
cover. Some oxygen sucked out into space, making her breaths labored.

Fanged Pauper
swerved at her port-side hull, but Kivita dived just as more ships sped past in the orbital lane.
Fanged Pauper
now flew on her starboard side. Five other craft had slowed to examine Sar's dropped crates.

One of the damaged pirate vessels limped into Tejuit Seven's orbit, its thrusters crushed. The other pirate craft floated in place, its port-side hull ripped open. Small forms floated in the void.

A pirate craft tailing
Frevyx
slowed until it flew parallel with her port-side hull, with
Fanged Pauper
on the other. Both ships drew closer, sandwiching
Terredyn Narbas
. All three formed a triumvirate of doom while orbital traffic veered as a whole into Tejuit Seven's upper atmosphere.

Sweat rolled down Kivita's face. The harness dug into her skin, stretched taut from rising G-forces. There really was nowhere she could go without being followed.

“He's not buying it, Sar,” Kivita said.

Fanged Pauper
came even closer, its port-side airlock linking up with her single, starboard-side one. The pirate ship on her port side drew in, keeping her from pulling away. Below, traffic resumed, preventing her from diving.

Warning lights bathed the bridge in red shades as her ship jolted. Her stomach fluttered;
Fanged Pauper
had activated its gravity fluxer.

“He's going to board me, Sar!” Kivita started to pull up, but the vessel on her port side fired its starboard thrusters. An integrity alarm rang in her ears.

“Kiv, try to pull forward—” Sar's voice cut off as a
green beam darted past her viewport. It struck one of the pirate craft flanking
Frevyx
, cutting straight into the hull behind the bridge. Debris and bodies flew out as the ship careened away.

The speaker buzzed. “Kivita, this is Seul Jaah. Hang on; we have those pirates in our sights.”

Heart leaping into her throat, Kivita gripped the manuals and increased speed. “Seul?”

The clank and suction of
Fanged Pauper
's airlock joining with hers echoed through her ship. Kivita increased the onboard gravity to high-G. The gyro harness bit through her bodyglove as she sank toward the floor.

Air levels dropped as someone forced her airlock open.

Terredyn Narbas
shuddered again. The ship on her port side came even closer.

Through the viewport,
Frevyx
blasted toward the exit lanes. A green beam hit the last pirate craft trailing Sar's ship; the vessel spun into a Sutaran saucer in a shower of debris.

Heavy, booted steps reverberated from Kivita's airlock chamber.

“They're inside my ship!” she yelled into the mic.

Kivita drew her kinetic pistol, but under high-G, the gun seemed to weigh fifty pounds. Her right biceps bulged, but the weapon clanged to the floor.

“The Sarrhdtuu will give me my own world for you, Kivita Vondir,” Shekelor's cultured voice came from her quarters. “Make it easier on yourself. The Sarrhdtuu shan't care if I deliver you without your arms and legs.”

“Kiv, hold on!” Sar yelled over the speaker. Ahead,
Frevyx
slowed and ascended.

“Almost there, Kivita,” Seul said.

Through the forward viewport, two orbiting asteroids drew near.

Kivita squirmed in her gyro harness as
Terredyn Narbas
continued along the gas giant's curvature. In her struggles, the Juxj Star rolled from her pouch, pulled out by the high-G.

Three coils grasped the bridge doorway just as Kivita caught the gem in her right hand.

Shekelor's coils lashed around her right arm, and his smile shone through his envirosuit's faceplate. His mismatched eyes glared death.

“Get off my ship, you son of a—” Kivita screamed as Shekelor yanked her arm out of socket.

“Bitch? My mother means nothing. My son means everything.” Shekelor's coils pulled again.

Chest heaving, Kivita tasted bile in her throat, and the high-G seemed to mash her organs to the floor. Blazing, tearing pain traveled up her arm. The viewport became a raging blur of lights.

Through it all, she still held the Juxj Star.

Kivita recalled things the gem had revealed, then met Shekelor's stare. All became focused, attuned. Forceful. Kivita showed him the vastness of space outside the Cetturo Arm. The flurry of coordinates; the awesome alien vistas. Crammed it into his mind, drowning his thoughts with the invasive knowledge the Juxj Star had given.

The coils relaxed their grip as Shekelor gaped at her. Grunting, he tried to retract his coils.

With high-G hampering her every move, Kivita maintained her stare. Cold pain pressed in on her temples and her forehead numbed, but she focused the raw data
into him. Even without touching Shekelor, she sensed it rattle his brain.

Agony rippled through her skull. Oh, shit; couldn't hold the data flow, couldn't control it! She groaned and spasmed. The pirates would still capture her. If only she could demagnetize from
Fanged Pauper
.

Kivita thought about shoving the manuals down.

Terredyn Narbas
climbed at a sharp angle.

“Stop! Get out—” Shekelor fell back through the bridge doorway. His coils wrenched from her arm, and Kivita cried out. Concussive popping noises sounded from the airlock. As both asteroids grew larger in her viewport, Kivita slammed the gravity controls and wanted the ship to dive.

Terredyn Narbas
dived of its own volition.

Alarms invaded her ears. Pure static blared from the console speaker.
Terredyn Narbas
hummed in her mind, while the tingling numbed her skull.

On her port side, the other pirate vessel smacked into both asteroids. A brutal dismantling of hull, engine, and flung bodies accompanied a brief dust ball.

Even in her gyro harness, Kivita smacked into the bridge wall as gravity returned to normal. Her left leg flared with pain. Groans and curses came from her quarters,
Fanged Pauper
ground into her starboard hull with earsplitting noises. She unbuckled herself with the quick-release button, grabbed her pistol, and stumbled into her quarters.

“Kivita, report your status,” Seul's worried voice came over the speaker.

Shekelor started to stand as Kivita cracked her left polyboot into his right side. Two pirates rose from the floor, pointing guns, but Kivita fired point-blank into
one's faceplate. Blood and melted polymer dusted her bulkheads. She aimed at the other pirate, but
Terredyn Narbas
tilted. The pirate ducked and shoved his gun into her stomach, then aimed it at her head.

“Disarm her!” Shekelor stood up.

The pirate rammed his armored knee into Kivita's gut. A terrible ache spread through her abdomen.

The pirate she'd shot rose, half his olive-tinted face shot away. “Plumb stupid bitch, ya should—”

Fanged Pauper
finally demagnetized from
Terredyn Narbas
's airlock with a pop and a whoosh. Decompression yanked them all off the deck, but Kivita gripped the end of her hammock. Sharp agony traveled from her fingers up to her dislocated shoulder. Air sucked from the cabin, and the vacuum pulled the mangled pirate with irresistible force through the airlock. His scream ended as the void claimed him.

Shekelor, coils wound around the airlock lever, sneered. “The Sarrhdtuu have ways of reviving the coldest-hearted bitch, Kivita. Go ahead, let go. You cannot escape.”

As the second pirate neared the airlock, his form blocked the vacuum suction for an instant.

Kivita leapt toward Shekelor and fired. The shot blasted through two of his coils, breaking his grip on the lever. Landing beside him, she kicked him away and clutched the lever.

In the next second, the pirate clattered through the airlock. With the opening unblocked, the suction ripped Shekelor into space. Kivita's body lifted off the floor toward the airlock. Air was ripped from her lungs. Awful cold numbed her skin. A few more feet, and she'd be lost out there forever . . .