Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Hydouis
Garrison
LAST NIGHT, despite Shohari’s flight from the training room, we’d cuddled more than we had in days. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Hell, after the last week, it was everything.
I sat at the nav station on the bridge as Hydouis came into view. I shouldn’t have expected it to be blue, but the cracked, burnt red of its arid surface momentarily stalled my mind.
As the Dorimisa came in closer, I made out jagged peaks that rent the land, steam and lava rising from vents in the cracks. The shiny, rounded, silvered buildings on the flat top of one of the mountains seemed incongruous.
We got closer still. Sharp red crystals cut through the domed elegance, exuding an ominous light that made my skin crawl.
I didn’t know what type of people inhabited this beautiful city in its barren landscape, but I was glad I was staying on the ship.
“Looks like we’ve beaten the Dawn here,” Shohari said once we’d landed.
The only other ship in the five-bay dock was a cruiser class ship, her dark hull patched with lighter repair panels and bearing the telltale scars of blaster fire. Cargo crates floated in an automated line towards one yawning bay door.
“That’s kri’ith writing.” Paiata raised his wrist-comm, zooming in on the ship. “Kri’s locked balls.” He turned, his normally impassive face slack-jawed. “That’s the Crown of the Void.”
The bridge fell silent apart from the hum of the vents and the howling wind cutting round the corners of the ship.
Shohari opened a comm. “This is Captain mai Tasra of the Dorimisa. Why are you loading my shipment onto another vessel?”
We marched down to the cargo bay, and I didn’t catch the reply. When the ramp opened, the smell didn’t shock me, at least. The sulphuric, molten tang rushed into the bay with a stifling bloom of heat that made me want to gag, and it was a relief when the door closed again.
Shohari and Paiata marched across the platform, intercepted by some of the planet’s inhabitants.
They were obscured through the film of dust on the window, but I made out tall sapients, all wearing curious-shaped capes on their backs.
I realised my mistake when one unfurled their ‘cape’ into impressive bat-like wings.
They appeared to be humanoid in every other way, but everything was alien even so.
Yet again it struck me how small I was.
Muzati, Tokki, and Daiytak watched with me, and their comforting familiarity was amusingly ironic. Had I once thought kri’ith—and by implication, the shaa’ith—were the most monstrous, the most alien of aliens?
Shohari appeared as confident as ever with them. For a person who grew up in an isolationist society, it never ceased to amaze me how easy she could be with other people. Surly, sure—but that was because they were people, not because they were aliens.
And I’m one of the few people she likes.
I pushed the thought away. “What are these folk like?”
“I do not know. The ydouir do not leave their planet often, and I’ve never had cause to visit here before,” Daiytak said.
Ee-dwaar. Yet another name, one I probably wouldn’t need to remember.
Muzati squinted through the window. “Is that… Saris?”
“Who?”
“Saris dai Yakri. Captain of the Fortune’s Dawn.”
Shohari was out of sight, gone into one of the nearby buildings.
“I thought you said that was the Crown of the Void?” Daiytak asked.
“I did.” Muzati sprinted up the ramp out of the cargo bay, and her footsteps thudded overhead. In less than a minute she raced back in, straightening the tools in her knot of headspines. “I’m going to talk to her.”
“I’m coming too.” I surged to my feet, but she put a hand to my chest.
“You can’t. She can’t see you.”
Shit.
“I’ll leave a comm line open,” she said. “That way you can hear. And I’ll record it.”
She reached into one of the many pockets in her overalls and pulled out a small, flat device. “Wrist-comm wouldn’t know subtle if you smacked it round the screen. But this?”
She activated it, I accepted the call at my own wrist, and her voice echoed in concert. “This will do nicely.” She patted her breast pocket and flashed a winning smile. “I do like it when I get out to play.”
The shaa’ith and I watched the exchange, disembodied audio coming from my wrist-comm.
“Saris! What a pleasant surprise. Oh my gods, I haven’t seen you since, what, Bzhalti? You’ve got a new ship. How exciting.”
I suppressed a grin. Muzati was all loose-limbed enthusiasm, and Saris was a study in contrasts, her body still and taut.
“Muzati. The pleasure is all yours.”
“You’re too kind. Ooh, a cruiser? What happened to the Fortune’s Dawn? Was she getting a bit old?”
Saris looked away, and I could imagine a pinched expression on her face.
Muzati, to nobody’s surprise, remained undeterred. “Oh, I like your clothes. Galaxy rubbing off on you, is it? Good for you. Those uniforms are so starchy. And not very flattering. Sometimes Captain Sh—”
“What do you want? I’m busy.”
“Are you, though?” She strolled around the larger vessel, away from where crates still floated into the cargo bay. She touched the hull in various places, the captain trailing behind her, trying to pull her away, but Muzati shrugged her off every time.
“Why isn’t Saris being more physical if she doesn’t want her there?” I asked.
Tokki glanced at me. “Can’t afford to make a scene is my guess.”
Muzati prattled about technical details, asking a weight of questions Saris never answered. They rounded the far side and came back into view near the cargo doors.
“Ooh. What you picking up?” she said.
“Spices.”
“Oh my gods, I’m just so excited to see another kri’ith out here. Hang on.”
All I could make out was her grabbing the shorter female across the shoulders in a hug, then holding her own arm up, wrist angled towards their faces.
“Get off me.” Saris wrestled out of our engineer’s grip.
“Aw, you’re no fun. I’ll send you the pic. What’s your comm ID?”
“Enough! Leave me alone, moon defiler.”
Muzati sauntered back into the Dorimisa, holding up her wrist-comm for us to see.
Saris wore the pinched expression I’d imagined, and Muzati may have looked mildly unhinged, but it was a good photo, the red backdrop of Hydouis visible, as was the ID-tag on the ship’s hull.
“I might have stuck a tracker on one of the landing struts, too.” Muzati’s teeth seemed overly sharp as she beamed at us. “Can’t hurt.”
When Shohari returned, there was no trace of the troubled woman from the training room yesterday.
She was in her element, the buzz of negotiation dancing around her like dust motes in a shaft of sunlight.
Now I was the one holding back, while she was all herself.
All real, all competent, all grumpy, and… not mine.
“Let’s get these loaded,” she said.
Her muscles flexed as she lifted and stacked the heavy crates alongside us, and I ached to touch her.
More crates floated into the cargo bay, a stronger sulphuric, rotten egg smell seeping into the air.
“What are we collecting?” I asked Muzati.
“It’s a mix. There’s a mineral deposit from deep in the fissures, highly sought after for luxury nanochip components. Plus a silk spun from a particular worm deep in the hot chasms. Then we have to pick up the shipment for Shohari’s new contact.”
“Anandri?” It was a name I’d heard a couple of times, and Muzati nodded. “Who is that?”
“He’s a nebaru. Runs a floating auction house near the Rinta system. All very hush-hush, very high value goods.”
“You don’t sound sure about it.”
She sighed, nostrils flaring. “I’m sure it’s fine. He’s just… not very Shohari, you know?”
I didn’t. “In what way?”
“Higher risk. And he’s supposed to be legit, but I’m sure there’s grey trade in there somewhere.
She’s been taking more risks for a while, trying to get extra credits.
We thought she was being greedy.” She tugged on her headspines, mouth twisting.
“Of course, that was ulthshit, and she was building up credits to try and help her brother. But regardless, Anandri is another level of risk.”
Worry twisted in my gut, and yet again I wanted to go to her, to hold her, to be the person to support her through all these tough decisions. “What are we picking up for him?”
Muzati brushed her palms over her thighs, leaving red, dusty streaks on the grey fabric. “I have no idea.”
Shohari
I WAS GOING to skykking kill Anandri if this was a bust, or a trap, or anything we didn’t sign up for.
I didn’t even need the skykking credits anymore, though it would cushion me through my newfound independence if—when, dammit, when—I got free and clear from my parents.
“This can’t be right, Captain.” Paiata pointed to the map projected in the centre of the bridge. “We’re aiming for the middle of nowhere. The mountains are so high we’ll be landing in ice.”
The coordinates were all Anandri had given. I was getting less and less impressed by the minute, especially as it was getting so late, the light was fading.
“Do you have a better idea?” I said. “And don’t say ‘not dealing with Anandri.’”
He raised a sardonic brow. “In which case, no, Captain.”
“Is it safe to land?”
“Looking for a location now, Cap.”
“What’s that?” Garrison leaned in, his finger grazing a small, dark patch on the map and flicking his fingers open on it, zooming in.
Infuriating male. This was my bridge, for skyk’s sake.
Except I couldn’t be irritated for long. We were close enough that our sensors could project an estimated detailed appearance, and the dark grey metal suggested a disused pop-up utility and landing area.
“Good spot.” I pushed back the flutter of warmth as he stepped away, my body responding to his nearness even though my mind was focused. “Land there.”
Though the landing pad was deserted, as soon as the cargo ramp opened, over the howl of the wind and the icy cold that assaulted my skin, came the squawks and shouts of a commotion.
A figure appeared to be falling from the sky.