Inherit the Stars (35 page)

“I'll tell him,” Kivita whispered. With her remaining strength, she forced her thoughts into
Juxj
's drive systems.

A burst of power raced throughout the starship. Warriors aimed their cylinders at her. Zhhl loomed above her, coils raised.

“Obey us, parasite! Obey—”

The ship's starboard wing collided with one of the Portal components.

A silent, concussive force rippled across
Juxj
. A million voices ordered her to change course, but Kivita, through thought alone, nudged
Juxj
into the next Portal component.

A thunderous pop crackled in the chamber. Sparks flew from bulkheads, terminals. The liquids flowing along walls and floors stopped, then burst out in sticky geysers. Sarrhdtuu tried to morph back into walls, while
Juxj
's port-side hull snapped open. Bulkheads folded over as a blue shock wave spread into the chamber. Kivita screamed as her helmet's aural sensors shattered from the external noise. Her mental connection with
Juxj
snapped, as if someone had doubled her spine over.

Fingers and toes went numb; then her tongue stuck to her teeth. Hair stabbed into her scalp like needles. Her bladder relaxed, and a painful ripple traversed her temples.

Zhhl's coils reached for her. “You found them for us! Interface with me and understand! They must be eliminated!”

Kivita's mind lashed out with a mental storm.

The entire ship decompressed. Bodies, coils, weapons, and terminals shot out into space.

“Interface!” Zhhl's voice stabbed into her mind as a jagged bulkhead impaled its body. Though jelly globules scattered from its wound into the vacuum, Zhhl struggled toward her. Its coils lashed after Kivita. One brushed her feet.

The blue shock wave incinerated Zhhl as it continued on through the rest of
Juxj
.

The platform was yanked away, flinging Kivita from the chamber. She flew past collapsing bulkheads and writhing Sarrhdtuu. Green-rigged humans clutched at necks or chests, their atmosphere gone. Shrapnel pinged against Kivita's helmet and faceplate, joining her grunts and gasps as the only sounds. Everything else commenced in terrible silence.

A final explosion shoved Kivita from the Sarrhdtuu ship and into the void. G-forces mashed the air from her lungs, rattled the teeth in her head. She soared away in a straight line, while
Juxj
crumpled into large chunks. Particles drifted from the charred hulk like Haldon syrup bees.

The Vim Portal shimmered, and all four remaining components blinked red in rapid succession. The panorama of Vim starships, yellow suns, and the world of Frevyx became translucent.

Kivita sobbed. Her heart beat so hard, it seemed to bruise her chest. Legs and arms numbed with cold. Far away,
Arcuri's Glory
vanished as it made a light jump. She passed the wreckage of
Aldaar
and its line of floating refuse and bodies. Starlight gleamed off the black polyarmor of dead Shock Troopers.

“Cheseia,” she whispered, thinking of her, Zhara, and Navon. Expecting to die, they'd saved her. Kivita hated herself for being the cause of so much destruction, so much death. The price of knowledge, the price of freedom. “Damn you all, I didn't deserve to survive.”

Closer and closer, she neared the Portal. The component ring flashed quicker.

A small dot behind her arced above the gas giant, then sped toward the Portal. Questions entered her mind:
Are you alive? What happened? Can you hold on?

Kivita smiled. Fresh tears streamed down her cheeks, then vacuum cold transformed them into painful, icy rivers. Somehow Sar had figured out how to send radio messages into her mind.

“I love you,” she mumbled through chilling lips. “Can you hear me, Sar? I love you.”

Ahead, two objects drew near: a body and a staff. The corpse wore a glittering outer robe and yellow inner robe. Eyes frozen open. Dunaar Thev and his Scepter of Office, now just space trash.

Kivita collided with the Scepter and spun about. Images of Arcuri kneeling and making a deal with Zhhl entered her mind. Rectifiers on colony ships. Similar data Kivita had received from other datacores followed.

One image, though, displayed a tall figure handing the Scepter to a man in a Rectifier's yellow suit. The figure stood wreathed in yellow light, with sleek physiology and
translucent skin. The viewer in the vision looked up, but a golden gleam hid the figure's face.

You have seen us. You have saved us. We will wait.

As the voice in her head faded, Dunaar's body passed into the Portal. The arrogant fool would meet the Vim, anyway.

The entire array glimmered for an instant; then the vista disappeared just before Kivita passed through it. No more yellow stars, Vim starships, or Frevyx. A star-speckled void awaited her as the Portal components exploded one by one. The blast wave jolted her onto a new course.

Kivita groaned as she drifted into the gas giant's planetary ring. An ice-and-debris field, perhaps a mile deep and hundreds of miles wide, slowed her momentum. Frozen lumps battered her limbs, slowing her until she floated in place. The system's red giant lit the ring in glittering, pinkish shades. Beneath her, the turquoise gas giant's storms had calmed.

To have gotten so close to the Vim, to all the answers to her questions, only to fail, wrenched Kivita's heart. The Thedes had placed such high hopes in her. New tears ran chilly furrows down her cheeks. Slight vacuum frost built up inside her faceplate.

Her sight blurred and her entire body numbed. Fighting the urge to lick her lips, Kivita swallowed. Utter silence reigned over the pink-and-turquoise gloom, while a billion stars peeked at her through red-green nebulae. The Vim might be orbiting any number of them. Waiting.

Kivita imagined
Terredyn Narbas
coming alongside her, with Rhyer grinning at her through the bridge viewport. Just like he'd done in her childhood whenever he'd
return from a salvage. Grinning with the new stories he'd tell her, the exotic artifacts he'd show her before selling them to Marsque.

In one memory, Rhyer handed her a red hibiscus petal from Nax. She raised it to her nose and sniffed. Sharp sweetness mixed with fresh musk tickled her nostrils.

“It's so special, Father.” Kivita smooched his cheek, still covered in stubble.
“But the prophets claim flowers from other planets might be poisonous.”

“Don't pay heed to those Inheritor prophets, Kiv. You'll find something special out there someday. Just gotta keep looking for it.” Rhyer kissed her forehead.

Kivita squeezed her eyes shut and smiled as the sobs returned.

“I found something,” she whispered, the cold making her tongue and gums hurt.

Rhyer had found her frozen, floating in space inside a cryopod. Placed in a secret location by Terredyn's servants, where Rhyer would “salvage” her. Now, she floated once again. Frozen. Maybe she should be allowed to freeze, forgotten so no one else would have to suffer. At least the Sarrhdtuu had failed in reaching the Vim through her.

A warmth spread from her mind to her heart as she recalled the first sugar reed Rhyer had brought her from Bellerion, or her first jiir leaf from Sygma, shining like brilliant blue glass. Places she'd only dreamt about. Places she'd wanted to see. Now Kivita had the information for an eternity of exploration.

The little girl inside her quit crying, and the woman took hold again. The salvager held up her head as a queen.

Though the frost hurt her lips, Kivita smiled. “I found it, Father. Mother. Now I want to see it.”

She thought of the home she'd wanted on Susuron, with Sar at her side. Kivita didn't expect him to obey her or even bow. Just love her, give her comfort. Such fantasies loomed larger and larger in her mind, and she closed her eyes again. Her consciousness opened wide, and she focused all her will and convictions. Recalled her favorite memories, the friends she'd made: Jandeel, Rhii, Basheev, Maihh, Navon. Even Cheseia, who'd found redemption at the edge of the cosmos.

And Sar, who'd come for her on
Luccan's Wish
. He'd saved her after all. Her feelings for him were a reminder of what made life worth living.

Kivita remembered all the love she'd found while braving the chill of the void.

Her smile froze in place.

Sar clasped
Frevyx's
manuals as it hovered over the flotsam and jetsam from all the destroyed ships getting pulled into planetary orbit just outside the ice ring. It failed to compare with the wreckage inside his heart. A heavy coldness weighed down his stomach, chilled his tongue.

She was gone. Kivita Vondir, the flame of his heart, the burning star in his dark universe, was gone.

What would he do now? Without love or vengeance in his heart, he was nothing. Sar tried to catch his breath and gazed out the viewport. None of those stars mattered. The Inheritors didn't matter. . . .

His friends still mattered.

The console speaker popped. “Sar, this is Jaah. Our scanners are starting to come back online. Perhaps we can . . . look around.”

In the chambers behind the bridge, the surviving Thedes had fallen silent. Some wept. Rhii and Basheev watched Sar from the bench, tears in their eyes.

“Sending,” Bredine whispered, holding her wounded arm.

“Everything we were is gone,” Jandeel said. “Gone.”

“We still have the datacores. We still have each other,” Sar said, voice stronger than he'd expected. “Navon would've wanted us to continue.”

He said nothing of Kivita's message from the Sarrhdtuu ship via Bredine: a refusal to utilize the ship's weaponry. The chance to destroy
Arcuri's Glory
had slipped through their fingers. Part of him wanted to blame her for a missed opportunity, yet Sar knew anguish rather than wisdom ruled his thoughts. Such anger really came from his guilt at not being with Kivita in her final moments.

“Our Savants can't compare with what Kivita could do. There will be no revolution now. Our cause is dead.” Jandeel slumped against a bulkhead.

Sar winced; his leg wound ached more by the minute. “Wrong. That signal from the Sarrhdtuu ship, before it disintegrated? Kiv sent it.
Frevyx
's databanks are filled with it. It must have gone wideband, somehow.”

“A Sarrhdtuu transmitter,” Jandeel said, straightening. “Do you suppose it went beyond this system? How could she have managed that as their prisoner?”

“Don't know.” Licking his lips, he fought back tears of his own. He'd been so close to talking to her, touching her . . . telling her.

“Redryll? Kivita is sending,” Bredine said.

Sar glowered at her. “Don't.”

“Sending for you. Kivita Narbas loves you.” Bredine smiled.

“No way she could've survived! How can she ‘send,' dammit?” He yanked off the seat restraints and half rose. “How?” His voice echoed back through the rest of
Frevyx
. The other Thedes watched him with pitying stares.

Rhii stood and touched Sar's shoulder, and Basheev hugged his leg. Shutting his eyes, Sar gritted his teeth to hide his quivering lips. How could Kivita send something and he not hear?

When he wanted nothing more than to hear from her.

Jandeel knelt beside Bredine. “You were able to track her before. Can you do it again?”

Bredine stared right through them, as if they weren't there. “Gushing hot love for Kivita. Black, cold void. I sent it to her. Hmm. Redryll? She sends it back. Gushing hot, warm. But she's cold, Kivita. So cold as she sends.”

Sar, his injured heart about to burst, wanted to grab and shake the bony woman. “Where? Where does she send from?”

“In the cold. Frozen icy garbage, pink and white.” Bredine narrowed her eyes and nodded.

Anxiety jolted Sar's heart, and he stared out the viewport.

Jandeel's brows rose. “You mean the planetary ring?”

Sar sat back down and activated
Frevyx
's engines. “Bredine, man the transmitter. Focus on it like you did before.” He pushed the manuals toward the gas giant's ring, weaving
Frevyx
past imploded hulls and charred engine cores.

“Sending . . . there.” Bredine pointed out the viewport, then tapped keys on the transmitter console.

“Where?” Sar snapped.

“Sending.” Bredine shot him an exasperated look.

The scanner beeped with a signal unlike any Sar had ever seen. Not a ship, interstellar body, or energy source, but a signal of constant, pure data.

Rhii squeezed Sar's shoulder. “Stars shining and winking, if she is alive—”

“She is,” Basheev said. “Our queen lives!” His cry produced surprised shouts from the other passengers.

Hope filling the emptiness inside him, Sar pushed the manuals. The scanner detected the signal, closer now, as the ice ring's outer edges pattered against
Frevyx
's hull. Mental oaths passed through Sar's thoughts. He hadn't saved Kivita here only to abandon her again.

He'd never leave her again.

Bredine smacked the terminal and laughed. “There! Redryll, Redryll! She sends!”

A short distance outside the viewport, a figure in an envirosuit floated among the ice and rocks. As
Frevyx
drew nearer, Sar made out a thin coating of frost all over the person's body. Easing the engines to low power, he tried to get closer. Ice impacted the viewport and hull but caused no damage. He wasn't worried about the damn ice.

Sar worried she might have already frozen to death.

“Take the helm,” Sar told Jandeel, and rose. Pain shot through his left leg and he stumbled. Rhii steadied him.

“Let me retrieve her,” Jandeel said. “With that injured leg you'll just—”

“Jandeel,” Sar said in a low voice, “take the helm.”

With a resigned nod, Jandeel grasped Sar's hand and helped him from the bridge.

The other Thedes gawked at Sar, and many talked in hushed voices. “Can he save her?” they whispered. “Our staunchest hero will rescue our queen,” others mumbled. A few patted him on the back, while some prayed on his behalf. Their collective support made it easier to breathe, easier to move.

“Incoming. Redryll?” Bredine's worried query came from the bridge.

Sar slipped into an envirosuit and helmet from a storage locker. “Just get me closer. Clear the airlock chamber, everyone!”

Jandeel and the rest left the chamber, while Sar tethered himself on a dual-twine flexi cable affixed to the bay wall. All the ship's interior hatches sealed shut.

The airlock hissed open. Taking a deep breath, he stepped onto the hatch's lip.

Across from him, Shekelor Thal stood, wearing an envirosuit, in
Fanged Pauper
's open airlock. He aimed a beam rifle at Sar. The pirate ship's starboard K-gun battery leveled at
Frevyx
.

Kivita floated facedown between them, limbs spread out. A stone staff hung in the crook of her right arm—Dunaar's Scepter of Office. Pieces of ice and small rocks drifted past. The star's reflection off the gas giant shaded everything in pink and turquoise hues.

Without a weapon, Sar was helpless. Even if he turned and closed the hatch, Shekelor could still slice him in half, but each second placed Kivita closer to death. Her envirosuit might have been compromised; her air supply might be low. The greatest fear Sar had ever known spread through his heart.

“It hurts when everything you love is stolen from you,” Shekelor's voice came over Sar's helmet speaker. His index finger caressed the rifle's trigger.

“Seems the Sarrhdtuu lied to you. She's worth nothing to you now.” Sar kept his gaze level, but tremors shook his body.

“You just want her for your little revolution,” Shekelor said. “Do you suppose the Vim or the Aldaakians
destroyed
Juxj
? Ha! Your lovely redhead here did it, Redryll. Whoever controls her has the greatest weapon at their disposal.”

“And for what? Nothing will bring him back.” Sar pushed off from
Frevyx
. The flexi line brushed his legs as he floated toward Kivita.

“You are wrong, Redryll—”

“Byelor's dead.” Just a little closer and he'd have her.

“Zhhl told me Byelor would be reborn. My son was on
Juxj
when Kivita rammed it into that Portal. I might have saved him, damn you! Perhaps you'll enlighten me as to why I shouldn't kill you both now?”

Sar glared back at him, hands nearing Kivita's right arm. “Nothing's stopping you.”

Harsh laughter came over the helmet speaker. “So, instead of dying in a climactic battle with the Inheritors, you plan to sell your life for this woman? The prophets will still desire her, Redryll.” Shekelor raised the beam rifle higher.

Sar's gloved hand hung inches from Kivita's right arm.

“Redryll!” Shekelor yelled through the speaker. The rifle trembled in his grasp. “She is not yours!”

A shape blocked the red giant's glare for a moment. Sar looked up.

An Aldaakian shuttle hovered above and between
Frevyx
and
Fanged Pauper
. Seul stared at him through the cockpit viewport. Iron will gleamed in her white-within-azure eyes.

“Sar, this is Jaah. My beamer is aimed and ready,” Seul said over his helmet speaker.

A long moment passed. Ice glanced off Sar's body.

He pulled Kivita to him, though a throb traveled
along his left leg. Tiny debris, frozen for epochs, drifted away from them, while the ring continued its infinitesimal rotation.

Sar embraced Kivita while eyeing Shekelor. “She belongs to everyone.”

Ice drifted between them, a spackled plane of a hundred thousand frozen mirrors. Sar didn't blink. Shekelor's purple eye twitched.

Jaw tightening, Shekelor stepped back into
Fanged Pauper
's airlock. “Make sure Kivita is worth this, Redryll. Enjoy your respite. Far worse enemies than I shall stalk you now. But I shan't be far. Not far at all.”

Fanged Pauper
's hatch slid shut as Shekelor smirked. The vessel drifted a few hundred feet away, shimmered into a light jump, and disappeared.

Releasing a tremendous breath, Sar tapped his wrist panel. “Jandeel, reel me in. Hurry.”

While the flexi wound itself back into
Frevyx
, Sar clutched Kivita to his chest. Vacuum frost obscured all but a shadow of her face. Sar placed a hand over her heart as they both drifted from the shuttle's shadow and back into the sunlight.

The gentle beat under his hand made Sar's throat tighten.

Once inside the airlock chamber, the hatch hissed shut. Sar forced himself to wait until atmospheric pressure and air returned.
Frevyx
's bridge and other hatches opened, and the Thedes watched with hope. Some invoked prayers to the Solars. Others beamed at Sar with admiration.

Rhii and Basheev brought medical supplies from the storage locker, while Jandeel helped Sar ease Kivita to the floor. Dunaar's Scepter clattered against a bulkhead.

“Rhyer, Rhyer, your mission is complete,” Bredine whispered.

Sar knelt over Kivita. Melted frost pooled into water around her. Still wearing his gloves, he unlocked Kivita's helmet. Everyone gasped at the vacuum frost coating Kivita's nostrils and mouth. Her eyelids had almost frozen shut.

“Need some heating pads and pink mollusk extract!” Sar called.

Rhii handed him the pads, which he pressed to Kivita's face. Water ran down her cheeks and into her suit. Sar touched her neck; a weak pulse crept under his fingers.

“She's alive,” Sar said in a low voice.

Everyone cheered, but he held up a hand and removed the heating pad.

Kivita didn't open her eyes.

“Stars burning, why doesn't she wake up?” Basheev asked.

“She might have frost sickness.” Jandeel glanced at Sar with troubled eyes.

“Redryll? The queen has returned, gushing hot.” Bredine leaned over Kivita. “Send it back to her.”

Jandeel, Rhii, and the rest watched Sar with renewed hope. It seemed a new star had ignited the darkness haunting them all.

“Kiv?” Sar placed both hands on her cheeks. Their latent chill concerned him, but all the things he'd wanted to say, all the things he'd wanted to do with her, flooded the emotional pit in his soul.

Pressing his lips to hers, he imagined their short, precious months in orbit over Gontalo. . . . Their heated, desperate moments outside the Naxan hive ship . . . The
pain in his chest just before sending her and Cheseia away on
Frevyx
.

The pulse under his fingers beat faster and faster.

“Keep sending,” Bredine whispered.

Sar kissed her again and reached deep into his heart.

The relief he'd felt upon seeing her aboard
Luccan's Wish
, then the agony when Shekelor had taken her. The pride he felt knowing she'd inspired not only him, but also his Thede friends. Inspired the entire Cetturo Arm, after sending out that wideband signal from the Sarrhdtuu vessel. Like he'd told Shekelor, Kivita and the good she could do belonged to everyone now.

A gentle, warm gasp caressed his lips.

Sar drew back. Kivita opened her eyes.

She coughed and moaned. Sar pried apart the seals on her envirosuit, still crusted with frost; then Jandeel pulled the suit away. Sar lifted her in a tight embrace as the Thedes smiled and laughed around them. Weeping again, Rhii hugged Sar and Kivita both. Basheev kissed Kivita's cheek. Everyone touched collectively for a long moment, encircling Sar and Kivita.

“You're home,” Sar breathed in Kivita's ear.

She coughed, then frowned at him. “Was that supposed to be my Umiracan Kiss?”

Sar laughed and squeezed her to his chest.