The Creative Fire: 1 (Ruby's Song) (26 page)

39: New Plans

Onor’s feet pounded alongside many other feet, his breath ragged and his side hurting. Conroy had herded them all off the train, followed them down here below the park, and made them run. Swore at them to work out the kinks from all that standing. Onor could smell the spent adrenaline left from being on high alert as sweat poured down his neck and the middle of his back.

The faces of the others beside him looked like he felt, tired and confused and sucking for air.

To make it worse, Conroy lapped them, laughing. Onor straightened as he heard him approach, wanting to be a good soldier even though he also wanted to strangle Conroy for making him run right now, when all he wanted to do was lie down and think about what he’d just seen.

Conroy matched him, stride for stride, slowing a little while Onor added enough speed he couldn’t talk. Not that it mattered. Conroy could. “You did great. Nice work.”

“Why?” Onor took three breaths. “Why did,” two more breaths burned up his chest, “we do that?”

“Ruby. She gave us an opening, created allies. They might not last long.”

“Why not?”

“Politics. They’re volatile, and in this case, they depend on Ruby. If she stops doing what she’s doing, we lose the advantage.”

If she got hurt, he meant. Or killed.

Conroy paused, and Onor hoped he was searching for his own breath, even though he expected he was just looking for the right words. Eventually, Conroy said, “Stay after. I need to talk to you.”

Onor nodded, completely unsure whether his tired body would stay awake for anything else after this.

Conroy ran away, slapping the back of a woman in front of Onor and whispering something too softly for Onor to hear. Before he ran on again, Conroy playfully slapped the woman’s butt, and she laughed.

People began slowing and peeling off in various directions. Onor slowed but didn’t go all the way down to a walk until most of them were gone. At the end, it was only him and Penny and Conroy and Aric.

Aric took over the role of coach. “Circle to cool. Walk it out! Walk it out!”

Next it was, “Push-ups till I say stop!”

Even as exhausted as he felt, Onor noticed he could pass twenty easily and didn’t really feel it until thirty.

He had changed.

“Stop!” Aric called.

Onor looked up to see The Jackman walking toward them between two support columns. His face was sweaty and streaked with dirt on one side, and his whole body seemed to slump with exhaustion.

“Everything okay?” Aric asked.

The Jackman nodded. “No surprises.”

Onor pushed himself off the ground and stood, slowly stretching his calves and hamstrings, first one side and then the other. Beside him, Penny stretched out her arms, showing surprising reach given her broad build.

The Jackman greeted Penny first, and said, “Thanks for offering.”

She gave Onor a sideways look laced with both sadness and pride, and nodded at The Jackman. “My pleasure.”

He turned his attention to Onor. “She’s going to pack you. Tonight. I’ll get your stuff for you and bring it. You have a new job.”

He’d actually come to peace with Penny and the cleaning bots. And he wanted to walk back with Penny and sleep. He looked up at The Jackman. “Doing what?”

“Helping me.”

The Jackman looked so tired but so proud of himself that Onor grinned in spite of his weariness. “You don’t work, old man. You just tell tales.”

“Right. So no reason not to join me.”

He glanced at Penny. “But I won’t stay here, not in this pod?”

The Jackman shrugged. “Sometimes. But what would my apprentice be if not a wanderer, too?”

He brightened a little. “Will I see Marcelle?”

“Sometimes.”

Conroy cleared his throat. “The story we’ll tell Jimmy and the other people here is that you got in trouble for what we did tonight and were reassigned. We won’t lie, since we’re reassigning you.”

The Jackman grinned. “And I’ll see that you cause trouble.”

Onor shook his head. “Aren’t the reds going to know?”

Aric spoke up. “Not your problem. It’s handled.”

“Who helps you?” Onor asked, the question blurting out even though he knew he should shut up.

“We’ll tell you what you need to know.”

“Okay . . . so I do need to know who we’re fighting.”

Aric shook his head. “No. Not really. You need to know what we ask you to do and you need to do it. Sometimes we’re going to need a messenger to say only what we want them to say and not know more in case they get caught.”

So he wasn’t going to be a spy. He was going to be a sacrificial piece in a game. He looked at The Jackman.

“I’ll keep you safe. It’s a waste to have you clean floors.”

That was true enough. Onor turned to Penny. She must have helped, must have reported on him and told them how he was doing. He stepped over to her and hugged her. He expected her to be soft around the edges, but she wasn’t, not even in the waist. “Thank you,” he said.

She blinked hard and looked a bit stunned by the hug. “Yeah.”

That was all he was going to get. He turned back to The Jackman. “I’m ready.”

They walked together, returning the way The Jackman had come. They went up a maintenance ladder and through a hatch, which The Jackman dogged carefully behind them. He glanced at Onor. “Lesson one. Never compromise the
Fire
. Doesn’t matter who you’re mad at, the
Fire
’s still a ship, even if you and I have never seen the space it flies through. If we want to have our day, we can’t break the
Fire
.”

“She’s breaking by herself. Remember our old pod?”

“That might have been helped along, too. At least by negligence. Maybe even plan.”

“Really?” Onor shivered, suddenly as afraid as he had been the day the sky fell. They started down a corridor Onor knew from his cleaning job. “I thought the ship was getting old.”

“It is. And we humans are getting lazy. You’ll get some education with this job, not to worry. I have plans for you.”

40: Mixed Messages

The first low chime of the morning bells dragged Ruby from a ragged sleep. Surely it hadn’t been more than a few hours since they came home from the cargo bay and the grays’ attack, or whatever it was. She slid her hand across the sheets, releasing a surprised groan when she found Fox’s waist.

So he’d stayed.

She scratched at his back lightly, a caress of her fingernails. He leaned into her a bit but either didn’t wake or didn’t want to wake.

Fine. At least he was here.

She padded into the kitchen and made a cup of stim.

Her journal lit with an incoming message. She frowned at the idea of a note arriving. Nothing from her old life got here. Fox, Ani, Jali, and Dayn had her address, but they didn’t use it.

The note’s signature showed that it came from Colin West.

She clicked it open.

No subject line. Just a sentence. “Check your front door.”

She stared at it for a minute. Then she took the journal to the kitchen controls and held her palm up to the reader.

It logged her on.

She tried a few things. She could make stim (but she had been able to). She could order food, which she hadn’t been able to do. She tried her alarm clock settings. Bingo. She had always been able to get in and out; a child’s access allowed that. But now she could lock her own door. She closed her eyes and thanked Colin, and then she sent him back the same two words in a reply. “Thank you.”

The secret felt good and bright inside her.

She was still humming when Fox found her in the kitchen. “You’re in a good mood.”

She laughed, hoping to hide the way she felt thrilled and guilty all at once. After all, she
should
have full access to her own hab. She had had access to all of her mother’s habs and to Daria’s. Now she felt more at home than she had in all her days here so far. “You took me out.”

He put a hand on her shoulder. “This isn’t the same ship you woke up on yesterday.”

“So?” She tried to weave a tease into her voice, to throw him off the scent of her secret. “So tell me what changed?”

He just stared at her.

“You don’t tell me enough to know this. I still don’t understand what happens here.”

“I know.”

She waited, but he didn’t say anything. He stood over the sink, looking lost in thought.

“So it’s a threat. I got that much. The workers showing the rest of you that they can get to various places on the ship. But no one got hurt, right? And the whole ship needs the workers. Isn’t that how it plays out?”

“You’re not that stupid.”

Ouch
. “So educate me.”

“I make sure you know what you need to know.” He came closer to her, smelling of sleep and a little foul with old sweat. “I understand that you want life to be different. That’s the main reason I came to get you. I know how to make you matter to people.”

She blinked at him, angry. “I mattered before I got here. You even said that. Just now. I have friends you don’t even know.”

Dayn came in the front door. He gave her a quirky smile from behind Fox’s back, but cleared his throat, announcing his presence.

She kept her focus on Fox. “Don’t leave yet. I need to talk to you more.”

“I have to go,” he said. “Ani will be along in a while and I want you to move in a threesome today. But do the normal things. Go to class.” He glanced at Dayn. “Don’t let anybody surprise you. If you get confronted or she gets taken, tell me right away.”

“Taken by who?” Ruby demanded.

“Anybody.” Fox had already turned toward the door, but he stopped. “What your friends
I don’t know
did last night was to make powerful people mad. They scared them. That would have been great when we were ready, in about a year.” He turned around to Dayn. “She hasn’t been communicating with them has she?”

Dayn shrugged.

Fox turned back to Ruby, his eyes uncharacteristically hard. “Have you?”

“I wish.”

He sighed. “Don’t count Ellis and Sylva powerless, or the people who run them. We need more time to kill their influence. If they take you now, they won’t just drop you back in gray and make an accident happen. You’ll never see gray—or me—again. So no escaping and running around the ship today, okay?”

She hated his tone, but she nodded in spite of it. If he wouldn’t tell her anything, maybe Dayn or Ani would. She wanted a good answer for Colin.

Fox stepped back over to her, leaning down to claim a kiss goodbye, but she stepped away so he almost overbalanced. When he stopped and stared at her she stared back and remembered her access rights.

Someday she could use them to lock him out.

She stared at the place Fox had been for a long time, forcing herself not to cry. Right that moment she never wanted to see him again.

Dayn came over and stood close. He whispered, “Let it go.”

As if she would cry on
his
shoulder. She could leave Fox, and maybe she would, soon. Maybe she’d even set the door to keep him out tonight and see how he liked her being on equal footing. But she couldn’t leave him for Dayn, or open up enough to talk to Dayn. There was only another trap there.

“Are you okay?” Dayn asked.

She pulled away from him and put her back to him. “Sure. I’m surrounded by friends and family and I have my freedom.”

“Sarcasm doesn’t sound good from you,” he snapped. He lowered his voice. “You’ve got fans. More than you should by now, more than you would have ever had or known about if it weren’t for Fox.”

She licked a tear that ran down her right cheek, making sure to keep standing so Dayn wouldn’t see. She pulled on her anger, which felt more comfortable by far than feeling lost. It was easy to be mad at Fox for acting like she couldn’t know anything, like she’d betray his plans if she did.

“What is Fox planning?” she asked. “He’s using me for something. What is it?”

“He’s simply addressing an imbalance of power.”

“You won’t tell me anything either, will you?”

“You’re a child, Ruby. You’re easy to love, and a lot of us love you. Half the ship loves you. Even Colin. You felt him drawn to you last night. But you can’t possibly understand the complex power games around here yet.”

She had regained enough emotional control to turn and face him. “Maybe that’s what we need. Power that doesn’t try to play board games with the people on this ship. Maybe
The
Creative Fire
just needs a few simple rules. And one of them is
don’t keep secrets
.” She was right. She could feel it. She could see how right she was in Dayn’s eyes, too, in the way he reacted by withdrawing from her and then licking his lips. “Look. Look at me. I’m doing fine up here. And so would anybody else from home.
We are exactly like you
. And before we get home, before we stop and see the stars for the first time ever,
we need to be together
.”

He stared at her for a bit before answering in a very measured voice. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I can feel it. Fox wants to have the power. You too. You’ll do better with it, I give you that. You will. But the power has to be in every one of us.”

“Ships don’t run like that.”

Thoughts spun through the back of her head. “Maybe not. Maybe that wouldn’t have been the right way to leave home. But it’s the right way to go back. We’re going to leave the
Fire
. We—who’ve never seen the outside of the skin of our ship—we’re going to see Adiamo. And Fox and Colin and even my songs are petty and small compared to that.” She felt like she did when she hit just the right note and kept it, or when she ran in the park at home, her feet skimming the surface and her movement synchronized with her breath. Like she felt in KJ’s class when she flowed with him instead of fighting him. “Don’t you see? Everything about our world is going to be different. In our lifetimes. And nothing we have been thinking about so far is a big enough response to make us ready for that. We have to get even bigger. We have to use everything we have, every skill, every love, every note of every song.”

Dayn stared. He clearly didn’t understand her.

But she understood herself for the first time since she’d been among the blues. Maybe for the first time ever. She needed more than anger. She needed driven love. And she needed to write this all down before she forgot it. “Look—we’ll talk later, okay?”

Dayn narrowed his eyes at her and shook his head. “I was just trying to make you feel better.”

“You did.” Her journal still lay on the cabinet where she’d left it when Fox came in. She grabbed it and flopped down onto the couch to write down the things she’d just said.

Just before time to leave, Ani came in. She greeted Ruby with a glare, shouldering past her to the living room.

“Good morning to you, too.” Ruby said.

Ani stopped and turned. “Colin seemed like a nice opportunity to you, didn’t he?”

“Sure.” Ruby looked steadily at Ani, trying to tell how mad she was. It was hard to be sure. “Maybe he is a good opportunity. Maybe it would be nice not to have so many keepers for a while.”

Ani looked stung. “Helpers.”

“That’s like reds are peacers. Use the right words and you no longer believe a thing is itself.”

“It’s not that way. You’re twisting my intentions.”

“Am I?” Ruby took a deep breath. “I hope so. I hope your intentions are good. I need a friend.”

Ani looked down at Ruby, her height more impressive than usual, since Ruby was sitting down. After awhile her stern look softened some. “You sang well in the club before those scum interrupted us.”

“Those scum were my family,” Ruby snapped.

“That was your debut. Your first public appearance. We’d been planning it for a week, and now it’s ruined.”

“Is it? A lot of people heard me sing, and I did good. You just said so.”

“Did you know any of them?”

“The people who heard me sing?”

Ani gave her a warning look. “The people who threw us all out of our own club to make a point.”

“Did they throw us out or did we run?”

Ani’s generous lips thinned and her jaw tightened. But she shook her head and said, “I don’t know.”

“I don’t either,” Ruby said. “But if they’re scum, I’m scum.”

“You’re infuriating.” Ani scowled. “But that’s why Fox went down for you. You make the right people mad. But I’m not letting you get under my skin. Come on. We should go.”

Dayn and Ani flanked her as they made their way to KJ’s class. When they arrived, Dayn leaned down and whispered in Ruby’s ear. “I’ll stay by the door. You and Ani go up front.”

Well, that’s where she usually worked out anyway these days. The front of the class. They got there just as KJ was ready to start. She followed him, stretching into an upside-down standing pose, blood pounding in her ears. She balanced through a series of one-legged stretches, her thighs exactly right, her foot right, one arm or the other extended or flowing back by her side. Ani was beside her, distant and a bit cold in spite of her words about not letting Ruby irritate her, and for once clumsier than Ruby.

A flash of red caught Ruby’s eye, a woman, passing her. Bright red clothes, swirling against long limbs, a cut of clothing that Ruby had never seen. Dark hair tied up in a knot on top of her head, pale skin, dark eyes.

She went directly for KJ, stopping him in mid-movement, her slender hand on his chest. She whispered in his ear and then turned and took over his position in the flow of movement.

The class didn’t react. It just followed her instead of KJ.

Ruby started to lift her right leg, following the woman.

A hand landed on her back, and KJ’s voice whispered in her ear. “Follow me. Both of you. Don’t look behind you.”