Chapter Three
Aubrey continued to research until she heard a knock at her door. She got up and used the secure intercom. “Yes?”
“Lady Aubrey, it is time for your meal.”
“I have a small unit in here. I don’t need to leave my chambers.”
The thud on the door made her jump, but she had been expecting it.
Her senses had been screaming at her that the knock was wrong.
The thudding on the door continued as she walked to the com unit, looked up departments, and spoke to the person on the other side.
“Hello, this is Lady Aubrey, consort class. I am in my room, and someone is trying to break in. I can only imagine my regular guards are unconscious.”
The face on the other end was startled, and they began typing rapidly. “Station guards are being dispatched. They will be there in ninety seconds.”
“They were on break?”
“How did you know?”
“Just a feeling.”
The thudding continued, and Aubrey got ready to deal with whatever came through, but then there was shouting, distant thuds, and then... silence.
Another soft knock that she had gotten used to expecting. “Lady Aubrey, it is time to feed your pie hole.”
The code phrase that she had given made her smile. She activated the door lock, and it wheezed open. It wasn’t unscathed.
Her guards, with their proper insignia, were waiting. She sighed. “I am sorry to cut your break short.”
The woman grinned. “Thank you for being sensible and giving us a code phrase. Did you foresee this?”
“Would it be creepier if I did or if I didn’t?”
The guards smiled, and she pushed her door shut. Maintenance was on the way to fix it and clean up the rainbow of blood smears on the floor.
She kept her robe out of the smears and joined her walking bus as they headed to a more formal restaurant for what looked like dinner.
She blinked when she saw a Hmrain with dark blue skin and dark gold stripes. He smiled and gestured for her to sit. “Hello, Aubrey. Don’t worry. I am here doing rescue and recovery. My mate is at home being doted on by my staff.”
“She’s human.”
“She definitely is.”
Aubrey understood what she was seeing. “Is her name Silhouette?”
He beamed and then paused. “How did you know that?”
“I saw it. I am still getting used to the oracle stuff. So why are you here?”
“My ship is being repaired, and then I can head home. We have retrieved as many of your people as will leave your world, taken the ones being held by others, and the next weather cycle will destroy those who remain.”
“Have you been at this for a while?”
“When we can see no other way to get to your people, we bring in a shuttle and some of those who have volunteered to speak on our behalf. The situation has to be explained, the option of life in the stars has to be explained, and then having to pay their bond has to be explained. It is not a fast process, and many of your people simply refuse to leave, sure that the government that no longer exists will save them.”
She nodded. “That was an issue when the world was whole. After the impact, some thought neighbouring countries had done it, some blamed their own governments, and when the weather turned, that was another plot against them. You have more patience than I do, Karek.”
He jolted. “You know who I am?”
“I know way too much. This station is full of images and stimuli.” She smiled. “Are you going home after this?”
“Yes, as soon as the repairs are complete.”
“Good. Your mate misses you and is counting the days.”
He smiled. “She’s wonderful. I miss her every day I am out here, but it has been so busy. Your people scattered like rodents.”
“I know. A shocking number took their own lives. What you have left is those who are stubborn, like life, or just want to outlive a nasty relative.”
He grinned. “Interesting outlook.”
“I was just brought up today. I have recent experience.”
They sat, and he helped her go through a menu, showing her how to read the icons and indicators for what food she could digest. She picked a few items and a soup, and he ordered for himself.
He smiled in memory.
“What does your mate like?”
“Pickles.”
Aubrey kept her mouth shut as Karek’s mate was very pregnant, and if he left in the next few days, he would see his baby born. She didn’t want to tell him anything because it might change what she saw, and she never messed with a pregnant lady.
He gave her a general outline of what she would be expected to do. Occupational testing could be done through her room terminal. She already had medical exams scheduled to keep an eye on her development.
He was surprisingly lighthearted and funny. He was also easy to talk to. Aubrey asked, “How did you meet her?”
He chuckled and leaned back, his plates as empty as hers.
“She was part of a stolen group of Terrans from this very station. They were diverted, sedated, and put in a container that dropped from the station and was picked up by the pirate vessel. My medic identified that she might be compatible with me, and I was confined for my rut. They put her in the cell next to me. It got my attention in a matter of minutes.”
He grinned. “She liked my wings, loved my feathers, and asked me about them, so I pulled one and had it delivered to her with extra bedding. She still has it.”
“That is sweet.”
“She also uses it in foreplay.”
“And now we are edging into creepy.” She laughed.
“If you are ever near Korvil, come down for a visit. I am not going to mention you because some Terrans are funny about their partners speaking to members of the opposite sex, even if it doesn’t work that way for us. It is bad enough I have been away from home. I don’t want to upset her.”
“Very wise.” She smiled. “Thank you for the shared dinner. I am assuming that the station is paying for me?”
“Ra set up your account. It was he who contacted me. He feels that the more you can learn from actual Hmrain, the better.” He smiled.
She looked to her guards. “Where next?”
“Back to your chamber, and you can take the education assessment that was mentioned. Your door should be fixed by now.”
“Good. Now, I get to find out if anyone tampered with the programming so that it opens without authorization.” She looked at one of the guards meaningfully, and the man lifted his com and spoke urgently.
Karek looked at her with wide eyes. “You see that?”
“It is a possibility that has basis in fact. A strong basis. Someone tried to beat the door in earlier, and as such, the maintenance staff had to come and replace it. That necessitates the reprogramming. With the amount of money being used to snag me, the reprogramming of the door is an easy solution. I have to sleep sometime.”
Karek said, “Do you want me to clear it?”
“No, I have a security team. They are just grasping how difficult their assignment will be and praying for me to find my match and get out of here.”
There was a growling chuckle from her guards. As she nodded to Karek and got to her feet, she said softly, “What are the odds of me getting a new room? Then no one has to worry, and the evildoers go to the wrong room.”
The man in charge of her guard lifted his com and spoke softly in a language that was slowly populating her mind. It took them fifteen minutes to go back to the VIP block, and in that time, her room miraculously moved to one down the hallway.
She entered the identical room, settled at the terminal, found the assessment files, and prepared.
After getting a cup of water from the small dispenser in her room, she arranged everything to her liking and activated the program.
She looked at the multiple-choice and grinned.
And started moving as fast as the display could manage.
When she was done, she sipped at the water and watched the unit calculate and churn.
The room was nice, and by her estimation, she had an hour before the next meal. A day and a half more and she would be able to leave the station. “I wonder if I can ask Ra for a shuttle. Oh, I will need to learn how to fly one. Next project.”
She sat up and looked at the screen, but it wasn’t done figuring her out. She picked up her tablet and started to look up identifying parts of a cockpit.
When her terminal chirped, she looked over and laughed. She was most suited to being a judge, oracle, or high priestess. She wondered if they had an online search engine for that. She knew for certain that her guidance counsellor had never mentioned them as an option.
Aubrey kept learning about space flight until the soft knock sounded. Time for food. Again.
She walked to the door. “Password?”
“Time to stuff your pie hole?”
She grinned and opened the door, walking out with her escorts and hoping for less poison on the table. Time would tell.
She didn’t need to sleep, so she got better at dancing, crashed a shuttle simulator, and then managed to get one to takeoff and land. She was feeling smart and smug when she was asked to go to a serious meeting about her prospects. A bond auction was out of the question.
Aubrey sat with the council, and they showed her a series of Hmrain who were interested in buying her bond. She looked through them, and on the thirteenth one, she smiled. “This one. This is the one I see.”
The folks on the council murmured. She shrugged. “Sorry, but he’s the one. Is there a problem?”
One of the beings on the council with head fins kept opening and closing the fins. “There is no problem. He is on the way and will be here in four days. He is just... difficult. He selects his colonists by interview and not by batch. It is time-consuming and irritating.”
Aubrey said softly, “What is his name?”
They jolted in surprise. The male to the left said, “We thought you knew, as you selected him.”
She sighed. “I get visions, but few people introduce themselves in the visions. I see images and figure them out. I figured out that he was for me from the sheer volume of visions that I got with him featured.”
They stared at her. She opened her hands and spread them wide. “So? His name?”
The female with the head fins said, “Elder Vress.”
“Elder?”