The Seek (13 page)

Kendis stood quietly in front of Kyn, facing the girl. For the first time in all the time Kyn had known him, those old eyes looked alert, young. He considered her carefully.

‘Nice fight,’ he said finally, extending a hand towards her.

When the girl took it, he pulled his fingers forward to hold her forearm in the Avenger lock — comrade to comrade. And when Mirren released his forearm, the fingers of the two young people brushed lightly as they disengaged. Mirren, who had been looking down at the lock, glanced up towards Kendis, and he smiled at her. His face was open and warm.

‘Okay,’ Kyn said. ‘Enough of the drama. You all the get the point. We want her on our side. Now back to your seats.’

Kyn followed as the two young people settled themselves at the seats, Mirren taking the only empty seat, the one that had belonged to Pyten. Did Kyn imagine it, or was there the tiniest breath of a sigh from the boys in the room as she assumed the seat that had belonged to the fallen one?

She pushed the thought away.

We are adaptive
.

Being locked in a battle-class vault during a shootout in deep space was about as much fun as facing down a Hydrentian Head-hunter with no sword. Kyn loathed being in danger when there was fuck-all she could do about it. Of course, she wasn’t wild about it when there was something she could do, either, but at least when that happened you felt like you had some agency in your own outcome. Like this — being on a ship, taking enemy fire — it was all up to the gunners and the navigators.

And Kyn’s skin crawled with pent-up adrenalin as she sat strapped in and powerless.

Tyrin, the big blond who was usually one of her more laid-back charges, looked like he was about to lose his lunch under his transit visor. ‘What do we do if it gets bad?’

Kyn laughed. ‘Worse than this?’

He pressed on, his already pale skin ashen and his sweet blue eyes standing out huge and terrified in his babyish face. ‘If the ship goes down,’ he prompted, his voice squeaking a little as he said the words.

‘Well,’ Kyn tried hard to sound like she was very cool with all of this as the ship took another direct hit, and the little room they were in felt like it was going to dissolve under their feet, ‘if we get the evacuate order we go to the pods.’

Tyrin’s colour improved marginally. ‘Escape pods?’

She nodded. She didn’t add that the things were like death traps — easy to out-manoeuvre and popular sport for swarming Tyverians. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

The boy swallowed hard. ‘Should we maybe go down to the deck now?’ His eyes flicked around to the others for support. ‘In case they give the order?’

‘No,’ she said sharply and Tyrin pursed his lips and closed his eyes. If that order was given they were as good as dead. Kyn sat tight and tried not to let the sixty-eighters see how hard she was holding on to the armrests.

A deep whining sounded and twelve heads snapped up. ‘It’s the leap alarm,’ Kyn said. ‘We’re going to try to outrun them.’

‘That’s good, right?’ She had to give it to Tyrin; he was the eternal optimist.

‘It sure as shit beats sitting here waiting to get blown to pieces,’ she agreed. Then she tried to work out what it meant, really, from what she knew. They’d been getting close to Earth Five. There was danger in leaping. They might overshoot. They might lead the Tyverians right to the carefully veiled space station, so they wouldn’t be doing it unless they were sure they were going to go down if they didn’t, and that Earth Five needed them there needed it badly enough to take the risk.

She marshalled her thoughts. ‘So,’ she snapped, injecting pure Magister into her voice to make sure they would listen. ‘You remember how this goes down? It will mess with you, absolutely sap you. You may lose consciousness, but it’s best not to, because if you do it will take you longer to recover, and we don’t know exactly what we’re stepping into. So try to stay with it.’

Twelve heads nodded.

She pressed on. ‘You remember how?’

Reetor spoke, his warm tones taking on the repetitive sing-songy quality of words he had learned chapter and verse. ‘Slow your breath, and with it your pulse. Relax your musculature, especially your neck and head, your shoulders. Focus hard on the skin of your face and head, keep it as warm and loose as you can.’ He cleared his throat. Goddamn, but he was good. ‘Don’t think about the leap. Don’t think about the impact.’ He grinned, finally, almost done. ‘Go to your happy place.’

Rexas the smartass redhead laughed darkly. ‘You don’t want to know just how warm and loose my happy place is.’

Kendis snorted, and Kyn was sure she saw him flick a look at Mirren, staring straight ahead and bolt upright in her seat. ‘You still reading those dirty v-tomes Rexas? ‘Cause that’s the only place you’re getting any warm and loose, you ugly fuck.’

Rexas shot him a dark look, and Kyn cleared her throat. ‘Focus, Avengers. Take your bodies to leap mode. On my count: one, two, three.’

And with that, they were all silent. Even though she knew they would be, even though Kyn had seen many times just how effective the Avenger culture and training was, she was still always amazed when they did exactly as she told them. Who would have thought? Who would ever have thought Kyntura Casters of Sweetheart, Georgia, would bark an order at twelve fine, strong young men and have them rush to obey. Life really was a very strange thing.

As the whining signal built in pitch and intensity, Kyn focused on her own body, slowing her breath and her pulse, unclenching muscles knotted from the tension of the fire fight. As she did, she heard but tried not to register the low growl of an incoming laser fuse. It sounded huge, and deadly. If the ship didn’t leap before the weapon connected, they’d never make the manoeuvre. They’d be toast.

But she couldn’t think about it. She needed to ready her body. She needed to arrive on the other side loose and ready. So she tuned out the whine, and the growl that hunted them, and turned inwards.

Three…

Two…

One…

When the impact came, her bones barely registered it.

***

The time during the leap is like suspended animation — something not real. And then you are there, and it all begins again. Life restarting, your body coming to.

Kyn flicked her eyes open and her first conscious act was to count how many had managed to stay conscious. Twelve sets of eyes blinked back at her. Triumph surged through her, thick and rich like the effects of old-school whiskey. But she couldn’t show them that she hadn’t been sure if they could do it.

She simply nodded. ‘Good,’ she said. ‘Now await the order.’

Twelve heads nodded back at her.

It came within seconds. ‘Avengers and crew,’ a voice she recognised announced. ‘We will be docking on Earth Five in three minutes. Stand by.’

Kyn tried not to smile. She hadn’t been happy to see that Krysto was leading munitions support on the flight. The last thing she needed was the distraction. But right now his voice sounded good — close and warm and good. And most of all, alive.

‘Take a little time,’ she instructed them. ‘You all did well, but you’ll need the three minutes to breathe back into yourself. I want you strong, and together. These people need Avengers. They’ve had a very tough time.’ Kyn had been briefed thoroughly on the battles that had been underway in Sector Five. Earth Five itself had managed to stay veiled, but her ships had taken a beating. And the Avengers, her Avengers, on the new star — the one they were calling Eden 13 — were close to crippled.

Avengers were more than military. They were a symbol. And goddamn if she would not give the poor, embattled residents of Earth Five a symbol that looked as young, fit and lethal as possible. Kyn knew from her time with Pietr — symbols mattered.

Beyond that, she would not think about the landing; she would not think about the other thing.

It had been too long. She did not know what to say; she did not know how she would play it. And she had no idea at all what he would think of her. She had tried so hard not to think about him — not to think about all of them — over the last ten years. Avengers don’t do visits home; they don’t send postcards. Until Jedro had told her so, Kyn had not known Asha was here on Earth Five, although of course she’d known he was an Avenger. She’d had no news of any of them in ten years.

For all she knew, they could all be dead.

And they probably thought she was too.

A moment later, the vault door slid open and Krysto was lounging in the space like sex on legs, his long frame leaning against one curved side. ‘Let’s go, Avengers,’ he said lazily, snapping a salute to Kyn. ‘Captain, the landing mission is yours.’

She nodded, unsmiling. ‘Thank you, Lieutenant. Sitrep?’

‘Earth Five was unimpeded. The ship docked smoothly.’

‘Damage?’ Kyn frowned at him, trying to work out how worried he looked. They had sure taken some fire before they leapt.

‘Some bad,’ he shrugged. ‘None bad enough to stop us leaping. Earth Five is well stocked. We should be able to repair here. Few days, week maybe. I’m guessing we’ll be here that long?’

Kyn eyed him levelly. ‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘That’s not something you need to know.’

He smirked at her. ‘Yes, Ma’am,’ he said, saluting crisply again. ‘The Governor will meet you up top.’

‘Thank you, Lieutenant,’ she acknowledged sharply. ‘Now fuck off while we get ready.’

Once he was gone, Kyn touched the fingerprint release on her seat and stood in the middle of her charges. ‘This matters,’ she said. ‘You know that. Remember the code. You are the best. The best these people have.’

They nodded.

‘Now stand, Avengers,’ she said. ‘And follow me.’

As they disembarked the ship, a small receiving party lined the deck. The Governor was marked out by the broad silver infinity medallion.

‘I’m Julieta,’ she said as she stepped forward to take Kyn’s hand. ‘Welcome, Captain.’ She paused. ‘You are really very welcome here.’

Kyn could feel the truth of it in the strength of the woman’s warm, strong grip. She was perhaps fifty, with warm brown eyes and a tight, lined smile. Kyn nodded. ‘Thank you, Governor.’

The woman went on, motioning to her right. ‘This is Praxus, my aide-de-camp.’

Kyn nodded low at the well-known figure. He had led the broken armies of Earth during the Ultimatum and the Apocalypse, and his ravaged face and prematurely silver hair were talismans of his efforts.

The woman gestured next to her left. ‘And the head of the resident Avenger contingent.’ She took a breath to commence the formal introductions, which were necessary and elaborate in Avenger politics, but Kyn cut her off.

‘Asha,’ she said, holding her arm out to the huge man with the beautiful face and the familiar chipped front incisor.

‘Kyntura,’ he said, his voice like honeyed gravel and insurrection.

How had a boy that bad ever made an Avenger? Kyn thought of her own indiscretions.
I guess it can be done
.

‘Long time, no see,’ Asha said.

The Governor smiled as if she were used to his breaches of protocol.

Asha held up his hands. ‘Although I’ve heard the odd thing about you over the last ten years, of course.’ He took her hand, closed on it in the regulation lock, then pulled her hard against him in an embrace, whispering in her ear. ‘I’m so fuckin’ glad you’re alive. And Tabi and Symon will — ’

‘They’re here?’ Kyn’s throat closed over at his words. Tabi. Symon. Asha. On Earth Five. All together and all alive, by the sounds of things. How would she explain it all to them?

But Asha put a finger to his lips as the Governor turned away a little to whisper to Praxus. He nodded at her. Later.

She nodded back, getting it, and moved along the small line to be received.

***

Every place humans have even been, they’ve found places to get drunk. Whatever drunk means for them, from time to time. And Earth Five was no different.

Kyn faced Tabi and Asha over the low table.

‘They took you?’ Tabi’s face was full of concern. Her beautiful green eyes were narrowed and sad. ‘My father, he took you? I can’t believe it.’ She banged her fists on the little table like she wanted to break it in two. ‘He took Asha, too. He just disappeared. And I never knew, and I always thought…’ Her voice dissolved and Kyn watched her trying to rein herself in. ‘I thought he just left me.’ Tabi’s full, expressive mouth pouted. ‘I’ve just learned…I mean, we’ve only just learned that this is how it happens. But you, as well? How could he have? He knew. He knew what you — ’

Kyn couldn’t let it go on. She didn’t deserve their well-meaning sympathy. She was a fraud. She needed to get it out, get the story out, so they could hurry up and hate her.

‘No,’ she said, turning the glass in her hands. ‘He didn’t take me. I went.’ She knew she must sound hard to them, brittle and uncaring. But she was so out of practice at being normal.

‘You went?’ Asha’s face looked suddenly much older than its twenty-nine years. Deep lines cut into its wanton beauty, and Kyn wondered how bad it had been for him. ‘You just went? And he let you? That isn’t how it works.’

Kyn shrugged. ‘I made a case.’

Tabysha picked up Kyn’s hands across the table. ‘Why didn’t you tell me what you were thinking? What was going on for you? I mean, I knew it was bad — ’

And Kyn knew that Tabi had known, a little. Least, she’d known that the eleven-year-old girl Kyntura had been had turned into a quiet, angry eighteen year old, intent on kicking ass and getting high.

Kyn weighed up the words, trying to decide how to tell it. She wasn’t like Tabysha. She was an Avenger, not an Explorer. Brawn, not brains. Fists, not words. ‘I didn’t tell anyone,’ Kyn said finally. ‘Except Pietr.’

‘Bloody Pietr,’ Asha spat. ‘He’s got a lot to answer for.’ Then he flicked a glance at Tabi, his hand covering hers and squeezing. ‘Sorry, baby.’

‘No need to apologise to me,’ she assured him, squeezing his hand back. ‘That man, my father. He thought he was a god.’

‘He was your father,’ Kyn protested, wanting to say so much more about the man who had understood her.