Jeanne G'Fellers - Sisters Flight (6 page)

"Computer."
Rankil smiled at Genevic who breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Transfer
all power to the helm."

"Senior
authorization is needed for that maneuver." The smiled faded from Rankil's
face, and the sigh caught hard in Genevic's throat. "Solar reserves at
minimal. Helm shutdown in thirty seconds and counting. Twenty-nine.
Twenty-eight."

"Shit,
shit, shit!" Rankil punched the air.

"Ah,
criminy." Genevic's arms fell limp at her sides.

"Computer,"
Harlis bellowed, now a threatening presence over Genevic's shoulder. "Who
is authorized?"

"Linguist
Maeminya Sioux, Master Technician Lou Jazinskis, clan leader Harlis Davies.
Twenty-four. Twenty-three."

"I'm
Harlis Davies!" the Tekkroon leader called to the ceiling. "Transfer
power immediately."

"The
voice is not recognized. Nineteen. Eighteen."

I pasted
myself against the wall, trying to stay out of Harlis's grumbling and pacing.

Rankil
looked up. "Computer, is there a record of Harlis Davies's voice?"

"Negative.
Sixteen."

Rankil
turned to face Harlis. "Computer, initiate voice recognition program. The
next voice you hear will be Harlis Davies." She nodded for Harlis to
speak.

"Harlis
Davies, Tekkroon leader for seventeen passes," said Harlis, shrugging for
lack of anything else to say.

"Voice
recorded. Secondary verification by filed name required for senior security
authorization. Ten. Nine."

"Computer,"
Genevic stammered in a high-strung pitch. "I certify the voice as Harlis
Davies!"

"Voice
pattern too rapid for recognition. Repeat. Five. Four."

"The
voice was Harlis Davies's," Genevic called out, this time with constraint.

"Recognition
complete. Two."

Sweat
beaded the clan leader's furrowed brow as the final number sounded.
"Computer, send the power. Now!"

The
helm went dark.

"Ah,
criminy."

"Shit."

"Rankil?"
I whispered when someone brushed close.

"I'm
here." But her voice came from the helm.

"Now
how do we proceed?" Evangeline was startlingly close to my ear—and the
rest of me. I liked the woman, but I wasn't sure I wanted to be this close to
her, certainly not with Rankil so nearby. I tried to step back, pushing myself
flatter against the bulkhead. To my chagrin, Evangeline chuckled but stepped
back—too much. She was too close to Rankil, and a sensation of possessiveness
washed over me. I caught myself tensing as something resembling a mental
"aha" rose from Evangeline. I'm sure no one else heard it, not even
Rankil, as everyone else was trying to remedy the lighting situation.

"Where's
the damned light?" Harlis said between promises of discarding the entire
flight program. She fished through her cloak pocket and, finding a lighter,
held the small metal cylinder up and struck the flint. "Where's a lantern
when you need one?"

"Simple
ways are often the best." Evangeline produced a similar device from her
own pocket, and added it to Harlis's. "I've been in worse
predicaments." Her eyes flashed briefly toward me, and I felt both drawn
and repulsed by the intelligent intimacy they projected.

"Me
as well," Harlis laughed. "And I believe this is how the Tekkroon
discovered trooper Rankil and her gracious gentlewoman."

"It
is." Rankil reached for me, pulling me past Evangeline. "Genevic,
lead the way out of here, will you?"

"Sure
thing." Genevic rose from her seat, slid her lean form past the equally
lean Evangeline and into the inky black corridor. As the others moved to
follow, the lights flared back on, blinding in their lumens.

"Ouch!"
Rankil placed her hands over my face when I called out. She moved her hand a
few seconds later, and I could see Genevic rubbing her face, wiping away the
afterimage. Harlis squinted as she adjusted to the light, but Evangeline seemed
unaffected. She blinked then looked into the glare, her irises shrinking to
near nothingness, an effect that made her appear quite sinister. She turned
those eyes on Rankil, staring at her in the same alluring manner she had me.

"I
assume this means we can resume the search?" she said as she stepped back
to the helm.

"Only
if the satellite link survived the power drain." Rankil gazed at her a
moment then stepped away from me to drop into her pilot's seat. "Yes, it's
still up."

"Excellent."
Harlis clasped her hands. "Let's get to work."

The
curious faces that appeared to inquire about the power transfer were sent away
as Rankil and Genevic watched Captain Tara's demonstration of the satellite's
capabilities. "A faded icon indicates the feature is not in service."
Tara pointed to the screen at her elbow.

"That'd
be most of 'em," mumbled Genevic with a glance at her active monitor.
Harlis and Evangeline returned to the corridor to examine the map again. I
stood behind Rankil's chair, observing my lover at work. Rankil had described
much of the helm to me in such vivid detail that it all looked familiar.

"Don't
care about any of them but one." Rankil pointed to the icon Tara had
spoken of. "Well, here we go. Computer, freeze program."

"We
ready then?" Harlis appeared through the hatchway. "Evangeline needs
to get back to her group."

"We're
ready, but the satellite is almost out of range." Genevic began the
surveillance sequence then rotated the terminal back to Rankil. "Here,
you're better at geography. Find us."

"Me?"
I knew Rankil had been more than willing to let Genevic guide the procedure,
but she now took control, rotating the image until familiar features came into
view. As she worked, Rankil reached out to me with her thoughts, sharing her
own wonderment.
It slays me how until six or seven passes ago my entire
world was my fathers compound,
she shared as she narrowed the satellite's
view to the northern hemisphere.

I
had an immediate answer to that negative thought, one so positive in its energy
that Evangeline must have heard, because she smiled.
And my world was
restricted to the Serpent clan. Now they no longer exist, and you're not the
misplaced child you once were. I have you. You have me. Now Evangeline's people
need her. Find them before it's too late.

Rankil
extended a brief mental caress as thanks then returned to her work. The
northern hemisphere came into view, then the expansive Juleskinstonwell
continent, and lastly the eastern coastline which Rankil followed south until
she saw the bulbous, pinched river mouth referred to as Two Fish Bay.

"Slowly
to the northwest." Evangeline's eyes were, for once, on something besides
Rankil and me.

"Satellite
will be out of range in five minutes," said Genevic without looking up.

Rankil
panned upward, crossing the terrain of her homeland, passing the Aut town of
Railings, the farming compounds around the town then following a hair width
smear we knew to be the road leading to the foothills of her birth.

"Keep
your heading," Harlis demanded when Rankil slowed.

"Yes,
Harlis."

I
placed a hand on Rankil's shoulder, squeezing it as a reminder of my presence.

"There."
Evangeline thrust her finger at the screen, covering the sight her people disappeared
from.

"Showing
details." Genevic placed an overlay on the screen, marking the satellite's
interpretations of various land features. "Large concentration of populace
in the area. Appears to be a town on the river fifteen kilometers to the west,"
she said, glancing down at the graphics key.

"There
are no towns besides Railings, and it's on the bay." Rankil stared at the
tiny, unfocused image. "Let me see if I can pull in." She did so with
a skim of the keyboard then stopped, horrified, gasping like the rest of us as
the image came into focus. We hadn't found a town, but rather, an aperture in
the riverbank. And there were people—dozens, penned like nassies. Sisters close
enough to touch curled together for warmth. We had found the Yauld and proof of
the long-speculated source of Longpass's wealth. Both were hidden deep within
the Autlach lands. The Yauld were laboring in the largest crystal mine we had
ever seen.

Chapter
Four

Flashback

Master:
Remember all, including the pain.
Apprentice:
But remembering the
pain brings sadness.
Master:
It does, but it can also bring healing.

Myrla

Rankil
returned home very late, sweating and out of breath, body quivering with
unmasked pain. She said nothing to me as she entered but stumbled through,
shutting and bolting the door before she scrambled behind her armchair to
crouch. There she gazed not at the bookcase on the opposite wall but beyond it
to some place that I had never been and I am certain Rankil had never wanted to
go.

"What's
wrong?" I gathered the light shift I wore and sank to my knees before
Rankil, placing my hands on top of my beloved's. Rankil jumped at the contact
and pulled back, wildness sparking in her pale eyes.

"No."

"Okay."
I removed my hands but not my presence as I followed Rankil's gaze to the
bookcase. "What is it?"

Rankil's
gaze flicked from me, through me, back to the bookcase, where it remained
focused, brimming with tears that wouldn't fall. "He's looking for
me."

"Who?"
I asked in a soft voice. "Here or at the spacecraft?" The signs were
recognizable, but such an episode hadn't occurred in over two passes. The
ugliness threatened, and there was little I could do but brace.

"I've
got to stay down." Rankil, unlike a few embittered sisters, always
mentioned males by name, except one, and his memory was so personally
synonymous with suffering that the mention made me almost as nauseous as it did
her. A few passes back we'd made a pact never to say the name again—the name of
Tisph. And his name had become nothing more than a silhouette in the depths of
night, one that we kept away in each other's arms. Since then, Rankil's
flashbacks had stopped. "He's mad about something again."

"I
thought you were working late."

"Oh,
no. He's taking his belt off." Rankil seemed to be grappling to merge
memory and reality. "He doesn't see me yet. Archell, be quiet, don't draw
him. Hide."

"Archell
wouldn't tell him." If this flashback involved Rankil's cousin Archell, it
was going to be particularly painful. Archell and Rankil had each taken
punishment for the other, sometimes enduring beatings side-by-side when neither
was to blame.

"Shut
up, Archie. Stop singing," Rankil fairly hissed.

"Rankil,
he's not going to—"

"Stars!"
Rankil gulped and listed back as her eyes widened. "He sees Archie! Run,
Archie, run!"

"Why
would he want Archie?" I coaxed Rankil as Healer Garrziko had instructed
me.

"Don't
whip him! I'm here. I'm right here."

"What?"

"I'm
the one who didn't brush the nassies, not Archie. He don't deserve
whipping." Rankil crawled from her hiding spot, neared the bookcase as if
reaching for something then shrunk back, falling to the floor in her scramble
to retreat. Scrolls fell from the shelves, scattering in every direction as
Rankil covered her face. "He got me, Archie. You can stop singing your
running song now. He won't whip you anymore. I'm sorry, sir. I forgot is all.
Please, no. Ow!"

I
scooted under the dining table, safely out of the way. Something had happened
in the Pit that evening, something severe enough to trigger a full flashback.
"It's okay," I soothed from my safe spot. "He isn't really
there."

Rankil
rose as if grabbed up, and then fell back as if dropped, landing in her chair.
"No!" She howled something unintelligible and wilted into her seat,
sobbing. "Please, no. I forgot, that's all. Meelsa called me to help her
right after you told me to do the stalls. I'll do it right now. No, sir. Ow!
Please. Please, no, please," she repeated until her breath was spent, each
becoming more of a whisper. "Please. Everything will be all right, Archie.
I messed up. That's all. I deserve it."

"Myrla?"
a voice called from outside our door. "Myrla, open up!"

"Coming."
I crawled on my hands and knees to the door, looking back twice to make sure
Rankil hadn't moved. Actually, she seemed to be getting smaller, drawing her
arms tighter around her knees.

Healer
Garrziko and Dee burst through the door when I turned the latch. "Thank
the Mother she fled here." Garrziko pulled a cloth from her cloak and,
keeping clear of Rankil's sight, reached from behind the chair and placed it
over her mouth, fighting Rankil's attempts to flee until she had inhaled. The inhalant
didn't render Rankil unconscious but lured her from the flashback, bringing
reality crashing in.

"We
got here as quickly as we could." Dee looked me over for any sort of
injury. Finding none, she turned to Garrziko, who now held Rankil in a quiet
phase, mind speaking to her so she would stay in the present. "Is
this—" she stopped short of saying Tisph's name. "The same
person?"