Chapter 23
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE
Rys, it turned out, was just as adept at tech and hacking as Maxtalen.
Though he claimed he lacked the “finesse of that rekan-fucker.” The worry I’d felt about the crew’s anger over one of their own dying was all for nothing, I realized as I settled into one of the empty seats.
A sheen of sweat covered my brow from trying to keep pace with the captain and my back throbbed no matter how I shifted in the chair.
Rhiaon gave me a once-over from their place across the table, nodding thoughtfully to themselves before Kal slipped into the chair beside me.
He didn’t say a word, but from the corner of my eye I catalogued the mask that in many ways was an echo of Captain Ruciyah’s helmet. The expression was cold, impersonal, even a little cruel, though it slipped for just a moment when he looked at me.
I listened to the captain and Greabes as they talked through the new plan, holding back my grimace when they explained that it might not be as smooth as before. Captain Ruciyah and I would be traveling to Lesephous’ estate in Louxuria seemingly alone.
“I’ll have Hudzon, Greabes, and Crux waiting in the cargo hold,” he explained, looking at Rys.
The male nodded, leaning back in his chair until the front two legs lifted. “One of the containers down there is empty, so you’ll be getting nice and cozy in there so the security scans don’t read you.”
Kal huffed, resting a scarred forearm on the table, and gestured between Rhiaon and their twin. “And what about you two?”
Rys grinned, steepling his fingers together. “Rhi here is putting in their notice. I’m happy to report they’re starting a new life as a junior security officer for Phyenix Listra’s personal collection of treasures. I’ll be staying behind on the ship with Zoleka to be your eyes and ears.”
Captain Ruciyah placed the toe of his boot on the edge of Rys’ chair and it fell to the back to all four feet with a snap. Next to me, Kal snickered, shaking his head.
“I fear I might be recognized in this group,” Zoleka offered. “My father and sister were well known throughout the quadrants. But I’ll be close at hand to provide any assistance needed.”
The captain hummed his agreement and I realized he’d been avoiding looking in my direction. I couldn’t blame him, not with the weight of what he had to do already pressing down on his shoulders. Somehow it was different now, even though this male was someone I still couldn’t trust.
“It’s important to remember if you encounter the stone, it cannot be touched with your bare hands,” Zoleka said, pulling open one of her large books.
“Why? What happens?” Rys asked, a grin pulling at his cheeks.
But it was Captain Ruciyah who answered in a monotone: “The power in that stone will rip you apart bone by bone, cell by cell, atom by atom until there is nothing left.”
Not even Rys had a response. But all agreed we would either wait for the captain, or carry gloves on our person. He dismissed the meeting a few minutes later, stomping out in that heavy way of his down to wherever his quarters were.
Rhiaon circled the table and squatted next to me, their voice soft. “You look pale.”
I nodded. There was no point in denying it.
A cup slid across the table to me followed by Zoleka smiling kindly.
Kal picked it up first, taking a sip and then passing it to me.
To an outsider, it must have looked like he was marking his territory—Zoleka’s brows ticked up in surprise—but I saw it for what it really was.
He’d lost cycles and cycles of protecting me.
It was the only reason why I didn’t roll my eyes or grumble at him.
“May I?” Rhiaon asked, a hand hovering over my wrist.
Clearing my throat, I gave them another nod. They pressed two fingers to the thin skin there, expression growing distant.
“What does she need?” Kal pressed.
“Maker’s tits, Crux, she needs space,” Greabes chided.
My mouth twisted to the side. I didn’t need to see Kal to know the affronted look on his face, the same one I’d seen countless times when we were children.
Rhiaon let me go, resting their forearms on their thighs. “I think your body is just tired—it’s gone through a lot in the last day or so. Eat something and then head back to your room, okay? Rest. The ventilation system can have one night alone.”
I spluttered at the joke. Even Kal gave a chuckle beside me while he plugged commands into the meal renderer. Rhiaon gave me another nod before rising to their feet and leaving the room with a goodbye.
Less than a heartbeat later a plate heavy with veg and protein cakes slid in front of me.
“You don’t need to do this,” I murmured to Kal.
He blinked, giving his head an experimental shake. “Huh. I seem to have gone momentarily deaf.”
Rolling my eyes, I tugged the plate a little closer and picked up the eating sticks he’d slid to me as well.
“Have you had a chance to take a look at the book I gave you?” Zoleka asked, programming a meal for herself on the renderer.
“I have, thank you.” I cleared my throat and took a sip of water. “It’s nice to have something of them I can hold in my hands.”
Kal stilled as he dug into his plate, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
“I gave Juniper a text that was crafted on her home planet.” Zoleka flicked a napkin into her lap.
If I hadn’t been looking at him, I would have thought he wasn’t listening, but Kal’s mouth tensed, his eyes growing glassy as he looked down at his plate.
It was odd to share this grief with someone, to know he felt something as acutely as me.
And it was even stranger to lean into him, letting my elbow press against his. “I’ll show it to you.”
“Burgeron?” he asked, voice so low Zoleka wouldn’t have heard.
The name triggered something in me and I saw the face of the elder who oversaw the creation of texts in our village.
His bright white hair and thick beard dappled with sunlight through the trees, a patient smile on his face as he answered question after question as to how parchment was made and showed us the ring he wore to emboss the final page with his stamp.
Somehow it was worse than the memories that had faded. Kal was a living, breathing reminder of all we had lost, and he had been sitting next to me for days, weeks, almost a quarter cycle and I hadn’t known.
And to him? To him I’d been a ghost, haunting him around every corner.
So I nodded, doing my best to let the grief show on my face and give him a sad smile before it all melted away into the nothingness that kept me safe. After a little longer, Zoleka finished her food and left with a promise to show me a few more texts tomorrow.
Kal’s eyes darted around the empty room. “I’m going to buy you out of your contract with the Daskquah.”
The earnest expression on his face strangled the disbelieving laugh from bubbling up my throat. Instead, I placed a tentative hand over his forearm, squeezing once. “You can’t.”
He turned more fully to me, covering my hand with his own. “I can. I will, June—”
“No, Kal, you can’t. It’s—”
“If it’s a question of credits—”
“It’s not credits,” I said.
“—then Asher will buy you out of it.”
This time the startled laugh did slip out and I leaned forward as if seeing my eyes better would somehow help him understand. My heart squeezed at the determination set into his expression and it reminded me why I never got too close to anyone.
This hurt more than being alone.
“I doubt Captain Ruciyah would do more than send me back to Lunastra with a few extra credits in my pockets. And anyway…” I cleared my throat. “There is no contract.”
It was Kal who jerked back this time, his hands balling into fists. “What do you mean?”
My tongue clicked as I released it from the roof of my mouth, gaze darting around the room like I might find an easier way to say it nestled within the chairs and tables and renderers.
From my seat I could just see a bare sliver of space, one of the galaxy’s biggest nebulas streaming through the upper corner of the window.
Purples and pinks and blues danced with each other like leaves on a tree, mixing into dizzying patterns.
This universe was so vast I struggled to quantify it and yet in the time I’d been alive, I’d seen so little of it, just like most beings.
Though of course I had taken this job to stop Captain Ruciyah from destroying lives with the stone, a small part of me had taken it so I could see what lay outside the walls of the Daskquah.
“I was brought to Ebyd III as barely more than a child, no name or papers, no registration within the Federation. I’m a number, not a name. And when I smuggled myself onto Lunastra’s ship it was the same.” I placed my hand over his arm, forcing as much of an apology as I could into the words.
“Juniper…” Kal all but pleaded. “There has to be a way.”
When I forced the grief back from my eyes, crystalline tears dripped down his cheeks instead, each one a knife to my belly.
“There is no way to buy me out because there is no contract. I am tagged, I am owned, and I am peddled just like the metal beneath our feet.”