Space Junque (10 page)

"I was scanning the chatter on the surface." He reached for her hand. "Char, the Emperor is dead. The DOGs blew his shuttle out of the air before it even broke atmosphere."

Did it matter? In a day or two, there might be no empire.

"The entire official family was on board." His voice cracked, and like a forlorn child he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder.

"Oh, Mike. I'm sorry." She patted his back, embarrassed by her lack of sympathy. "There must have been people you cared about on that flight."

Mike seemed to truly care about the Emperor, though Jake detested the guy.

"It's worse than that, Char. The V has gone down just like the Imperial station."

Jake.
 
Char's heart turned to stone.

"It went down over China. I haven't been able to find Jake or Rani. No signal from the
 
Space Junque
."

Jake and Rani gone. And the
 
Space Junque.
 
They truly were alone and quite possibly marooned. Mike shuddered in her arms.

"You told me you all grew up together,” she said.

"Their mothers were Imperial concubines in New Melbourne. They lived in the same compound and hired my mother to tutor Jake and Rani. They were my only real family."

"Was Rani born … like that?"

"No. It happened when she was twelve. Her hair fell out and her eyes changed. We all tried to protect her, tried to keep the Emperor from learning that he'd fathered a mutant. But at court secrets are worth more than pure water. Someone told, hoping to gain favor."

"Politics."

"Of course then the rumors flew. Rani's mother must have slept with another man. She was a traitor. When the assassins came, Jake saved Rani, but…"

"But what?"

"They murdered Rani's mother. And mine."

"Oh, Mike. I never knew." The hint of cold malice in Mike's voice was so faint, Char wondered if she imagined it. She smoothed the worry line between his eyebrows. "That's horrible."

"She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A peasant in a knight's path."

"Rani went into hiding?"

"In Reynaldo's household, if you can believe it. His wife was alive then. Years later, when the Emperor was in Corcovado, he saw that Rani hadn't gone ghost and she was gorgeous. I arranged for him to acknowledge her."

"Mike, that's wonderful."

"It was something I could do. I'm not a brave man, Char, but I'm great with a legal clause. It solved two problems. First, the Emperor is --
 
was
 
a petty man and afraid of his corporate masters. Especially Garrick. But he wasn't cruel. He never wanted Rani killed -- or anyone."

"I'm glad to hear it."

"Second, this was a great coup for him as far as mutant relations. For the first time, there was official acknowledgement that not all mutation ends in ghosting."

Mike looked up at Char with a mock sad expression. "I'm hurt that you don't remember. Ah, that's right. You don't pay attention to politics. You thought I was a low-level clerk in Identifications."

"Oh, no. Mid-level, at least."

It felt good to laugh. Mike wasn't so bad. He was a hero, in his way.

He sat up. As they disentangled from each other, somehow his lips brushed against her cheek. She meant to turn her face the other away, but her lips accidentally touched his lips. They froze in that position for a moment, then he really kissed her.

She didn't stop him.

He wrapped his arms around her. Char knew his muscles were enhanced, but the massive embrace felt wonderful all the same. "Sky --"

What? "Oh,
 
shib
!" What was she doing? She extracted herself and ran for the corridor.

"Wait! I was going to say Sky would have been happy for us!"

She probably would have been, but that didn't matter. This was all wrong.

Mike nearly caught up with her when the docking alarm went off. The door between control room and airlock closed and the docking bay door cracked open.

"DOGs!" Char whirled around to face the docking bay. "Get to the blankets."

It was too late. They should have been watching the control console. The docking bay was already full open, and a shuttle zipped in and landed neatly beside the Mikemobile.

"Mike, stop!" Char burst out laughing and crying at the same time. She pulled Mike away from the controls. "It's them. It's the
 
Space Junque.
"

Surely the orbital runner hadn't made so much noise. But then the Mikemobile was tiny compared to Jake's
 
Junque
. At last the all-clear light signaled that there was sufficient air, and the galley lift descended from the cockpit.

Why had she kissed Mike? He stood close behind her. She could feel him watching her watch the
 
Junque
.

At the first glimpse of Jake's boots, she let out a relieved sigh. This was no apparition. He was alive and human, holding onto the hand of a child. He gave Char an odd look, then smiled and shook his head as if she'd done something strange.

She thought he was going to jump down before the platform landed and come to her, but his eyes dulled and he held back. At the same time, she felt Mike's hand on her shoulder. Jake hit the knob on the galley lift that released the cargo bay's loading ramp
.
 
He didn't see her step away from Mike's touch.

The girl had blood-red hair with unnatural silver blazes at her temples. Char felt queasy. She knew that color. The girl's eyes lit up. She leapt off the platform. "My sister!" In raptures, she ran and threw her arms around Char's waist.

Char had always found children obnoxious and demanding or meek and depressing. This attitude was a flaw in her character, and she always felt vaguely guilty in their presence.

This one was irritatingly enthusiastic.

Rani came down the cargo ramp, a towering Amazon followed by five more young girls. When the girls saw Char, their eyes widened. Rani glanced at Jake and then to the girl hugging Char. "What is this, Durga?"

"What?" Char threw up her hands in exasperation.

"Exactly," Jake said. "What did you do to your hair, Meadowlark?"

"Asherah did it." The girl stepped back, preternaturally self-confident. "Asherah said I would soon meet my sister."

Shibadeh.
 
A chill ran down Char's spine. She pulled a strand of her hair in front of her eyes. It was the bright red color of blood when it first hits the light, before it mixes with air and darkens. The same color as the girl Durga's. The same as the goddess's.

Durga hugged Char again. "Asherah told me I would have many sisters, and I would know them by her mark."

"DOGs don't need no stinkin' data links." Jake mimicked a classic holofilm. "They'll breach the hull and salvage what they can. We have to get off the annex."

No argument against that. Char had already seen it happen. "And go where?"

"Corcovado," Mike said.

"Not Corcovado." Rani had murder in her voice.

Char didn't blame her. Corcovado meant Reynaldo and Geraldo. After the one meeting in the Blue Marble, Char would be happy if she never saw them again. Unfortunately, the goddess had other ideas.

"I can't stand the 'aldos myself," Jake said. "But outside of their presence, I hear the air is breathable in Corcovado."

Mike dropped the subject and the administrator in him took over. "Char, can you and Rani deal with the crops?" He turned to Durga. "Run and get the others to come help. They can sleep later."

"Not the matriarch," Durga said.

"Not the matriarch," Mike agreed.

Durga ran to the back of the
 
Junque
, barking out orders before she was half way up the loading ramp.

"I should discharge the electric blankets so the DOGs can't have them," Mike said. "Jake, the energy drive in the com center pulls from the photovoltaic net. We can use it to recharge the
 
Junque
 
while we're in orbit."

"Good thinking. I'll get it."

It
 
was
 
good thinking. Mike was useful in a crisis, and he cared more deeply about his friends than Char had believed. She still wished she hadn't kissed him.

When Durga returned with the other girls, they all headed into the corridor leaving Mike to deal with the blankets. At the first Ppod, Char set the compad for the pallet rooms.

"The crops are on this side of the annex." She handed the compad to Rani. "This will show you the way. The rafts and buckets are on rolling plats, all automated and designed to move easily to the cargo bay. I'll join you after I take Jake to the com center."

Rani set off following the wall lights with the girls trailing behind. Char gasped when she counted the girls and stopped Durga. "Are there any more of you on the shuttle?"

"No, my sister," Durga smiled. "This is everybody."

"I see. Go on, then."

They will be as holy chalices, and you will shepherd nine from the stars.

In the Ppod, Char and Jake grabbed the rails. Her hair floated in the weightlessness, and as they both stared at the shocking color their eyes met. He looked away and said, "So what happened?"

There was a wall between them now. He must believe she was with Mike. Jake liked her. But he had no passion for her, she could see that.

"What do you mean?" She suddenly felt incredibly lonely.

"How did your hair change?"

"Oh, that." They entered the com center. "I haven't looked in a mirror since yesterday."
 
When we took a shower together.
 
"I didn't even know about it."

The annex had gone to nightside and was over land. There was no light on the surface that wasn't made by fire. Geraldo had said Corcovado was clean and safe. Why did the gods favor the 'aldos, as Jake called them?

Jake wasn't finished. "Durga insists she's been talking with the goddess of life and fertility. It's starting to not sound completely insane."

"I don't know what happened, Jake. It was as real as my talking to you right here, but I know how insane it sounds. Earlier today, I was inspecting the strawberries. A strange woman with red and silver hair appeared from nowhere."

Char decided to leave out the Empani for now.

"She said she is a goddess. Her name is Asherah, and she gave me a revelation which I am to share with the world. And then she was gone."

"Let me guess. We're all going to die unless we submit to the gods."

Of course it was possible that they were all going to die. Likely, even. This must be what the apocalypse looked like. Nuclear strikes. Hyper-polluted stench in every city swallowed by sea level rise. Skyrocketing infertility. Giant raptors preying on humans.

They'd better shibbing
 
hope
 
the gods were real. It could be their only chance.

"Asherah doesn't like the other gods. She mentioned one she's having a feud with. She wants us to submit to her, which will involve lighting a lot of candles and having a lot of sex."

"Her will be done."

"Yeah, well. It's not going to be all fun. She says some women will be chosen to be fertile again, able to carry to term."

"That's good, isn't it? Bagging isn't working out so great."

"She says if we keep using artificial gestation, the human race will go extinct and the material world will no longer exist."

"That doesn't make sense."

"I know it doesn't make sense!" Cripes, she sounded like Asherah. She should stamp her foot to go with it. "She said we don't need to understand, we just need to submit. She will reveal more as necessary. The world is being re-ordered -- re-imagined was the word. That's why so many strange things are happening. Giant raptors. Ghosting. Eyes like Rani's. More new species are coming."

I think I saw a shapeshifter.

"Then natural fertility is a godsend." Jake shook his head. "Godsend. I never thought I'd use that word literally."

"Not for the woman who has to go through it. My mother said it was horrible. She thought she was going to die."