Chapter 5
FIVE
ELAINA
It was not ten minutes. It was 2400, way past time, and Cyan Orlogsson wasn’t there yet. Part of her wanted to be offended. Part of her was.
Elaina looked down at the carton of half-eaten noodles at her workbench. Honestly, she always ate dinner at the garage anyway. Not like she had anything better to do. But she could have. Who runs twenty minutes late past closing time?
The things she found in that dataslate, though… She was curious enough to be a little more forgiving.
A little.
Elaina was just about ready to give up and close shop when he arrived, still in that armored plating and the thick shoulder guards. Weren’t those heavy?
“Sorry I’m late,” the man said with a look that didn’t seem that sorry at all.
“It’s sand off the helix.”
No, it’s not.
Only the agitation that had been building melted away as soon as he offered her a broad, open grin, and something about it struck her as so innocent… so… boyish? How could anyone possibly be mad at that smile?
Or maybe she was just too curious about what she’d found in that dataslate. There was something off-axis about this guy, though not in a bad way. Or maybe in a bad way. Elaina wanted to find out.
He was already taking a seat on the stool across from her workbench as if this were anything other than a quick handover.
“Cyan Orlogsson,” he said, clasping a large hand to the side of his neck.
“Elaina Fairan.” She returned the greeting. “Here’s your dataslate. All patched. I had to crack the passcode.”
“Ah, so you found my list of victims?”
A laugh escaped her, so sudden that she had to cover her mouth, and the way something sparked in his eye and his brows went up a bit for a moment made her look away.
“If I did, I wouldn’t tell you, would I?”
“Smart.”
“How did you break it?”
“Hmm?” He cocked his head.
“Your dataslate. How did you break it?” She slid the slate over to him.
“I… didn’t, actually.” Cyan Orlogsson scratched his chin through his beard. “Or I don’t know. It must’ve gotten damaged in the landing somehow, when I got here. Or maybe I just sat on it and didn’t notice.” He chuckled.
Elaina frowned. “I don’t think that’s it…”
“Tell me.”
Something came to attention in him. His expression didn’t change, but the air around him stilled somehow. He was curious, and… well, she’d been dying to tell this to someone who was actually curious for a while. But also, for so me reason, she didn’t want to come off like a crazy person to this man.
“Just something I noticed during the repair. Similar patterns of damage to other devices that have been failing around here, and in orbit.”
“You work in orbit?” He perked up.
“Yeah, up on the orbital station. One-segment shifts.”
“Segment?”
“Umm…” He was definitely not from around here. “A segment is thirty planet sols.”
“Ah. A month.”
“Month.” A clue to his origin, perhaps?
“Anyway,” Elaina shook her head, “it’s probably nothing.”
Cyan propped his elbows on the workbench and leaned forward. His eyes, deep silver in the low light, fixed on her in a way she didn’t like, but didn’t… not like either. “What if it’s something?”
Good question. What if it was something?
“What brought you to Earendel?” she changed the subject.“And what is that thing about?”
She had been dying to ask about the sword on his back, its hilt jutting up over his left shoulder. And other things too.
He paused, as if weighing how much he wanted to share. “It’s part of my work.”
“What do you do, joust?”
His laughter was full and deep, straight white teeth flashing handsomely.
Crap.
“You know jousting?”
“I read.”
Yes, she knew what quadrant he was from now. But where in the quadrant? One of the inner edge stations surely.
“Not quite. I’m tasked with keeping the order of things.”
“Like a Quadrant Cloister agent?” Elaina raised a brow.
“Something like that.” He paused, his expression growing distant.
“So the things in that dataslate…”
“You snooped.”
“I patched.”
Cyan raised an eyebrow, obviously knowing full well it was a bunch of crap. She hadn’t needed to go through those docs for repair. But he’d toldthem to look through the slate to grab his comm info. How was anybody supposed to not follow that trail?
“I come from Gaia,” he said.
“Fuck, I’m sorry…” she blurted out. “I mean…”
“It’s all right.” Cyan smiled. “At least now I know you guys swear the same on Earendel.”
What did you say to someone who just lost a century in the outside world to journey through a wormhole? Had he lost anyone? Had there been anyone to lose?
The smile faded from his lips. He must’ve known what she was thinking.
Elaina looked at him, really looked at him. The graying stubble, the worn hands, the sword. He wasn’t just some stranger with an outdated outfit. He was a relic of humanity’s origin world.
“How old are you?” she asked.
Cyan frowned, then looked off at the wall behind her. His fingers twitched slightly, one by one. Was he… counting ?
“I don’t know. Time is strange now. I guess it always was. I have lived about forty Gaian years, I think. ”
“Give or take a century? Fuck. Sorry.”
Elaina wanted to kick herself for the tasteless joke, but Cyan barked out an explosive laugh that made her want to make him do that again.
“Something like that,” he said through a chuckle.
“So what made you come here?” she prodded. Was that too much? Was she prying?She wasn’t great with personal questions. Answering them, sure. Asking, not so much.
“Duty,” he answered flatly, the hilt of his sword reflecting the overhead halogen lights as he shifted in his seat.
Elaina nodded, getting the hint. “Well, I hope you find what you’re looking for here. Come back if the dataslate starts fritzing again.”
“I kinda hope it will,” he said quietly, and she tried to both decipher the meaning and suppress the warmth on her cheeks at the same time.
Outside, the first thing that hit her was the giant warg tied to a halopost. Its silver eyes were glowing mirrors of Cyan’s own.
“That’s Priad,” Cyan introduced as Elaina kneeled next to the beast. The warg rose and shook itself out from head to toe, tongue lolling out as it smiled up at its master, then turned its intense gaze to Elaina.
“Same color eyes,” she grinned between them. She held out the back of her hand, offering it for sniffing. “Hey, Priad.” The beast gave its permission and she reached up to stroke the coarse fur at the side of its neck. “Boy?”
“Yes.”
She marked the pride in Cyan’s voice behind her as she admired the warg. There weren’t many of those on Earendel. Not many animals in general. She missed that.
“Is he all the way from Gaia too?” she looked up at Cyan.
“He is.”
“Well traveled, aren’t you!” Elaina addressed the beast, trying to keep it light. “Well, I’m going that way. Enjoy your stay and good luck with the order-keeping and all.” She rose, smacking the dust off her knees with her palms.
Part of her wished that he’d do the knightly Gaian thing she’d heard about and offer to walk her to her hab.
Don’t be stupid. You don’t want a stranger to know where you live.
She wouldn’t invite him in or anything. She just wanted to talk more. A little more. Maybe a lot more.