Part 2 (1/2)
”What shall we call you?” he asked, avoiding asking who she was; it was an ill-advised question in his world.
”I... Califa. Just Califa.” Her voice sounded as defeated as she looked. Perhaps that burst of spirit had been momentary, induced by the chance for escape. Or perhaps it had been a flash of what she had been before being captured and caged like an animal. Whatever the case, the sound of her now brought the pang he'd felt earlier back even stronger.
”Named after a Triotian legend?” He made his voice light with an effort as he said the rarely spoken words.
She lifted her gaze to his face then. The pale blue eyes, so icy before, had gone flat, hollow. ”My mother,” she said slowly, ”was an even bigger fool than I.”
He didn't know what to say to that, so said nothing. And when they began to walk again, she followed without a word. Like, he thought, a well-trained slave. The thought made his stomach churn. He wondered how many of the prisoners in those cells had a collar in their future. He hoped the Carelian found the door codes soon.
”Welcome back, sir!”
Dax stepped out of the small craft, checked that the shuttle bay door had closed and locked behind them, then nodded to Larcos, the tall, lanky man who served as theEvening Star's engineer in flight, parts scavenger when aground, and as the most ingenious inventor Dax had ever seen all the time.
”Brought the little rapscallion back, did you?” Larcos asked, grinning at Rina.
”Against my better judgment, yes,” Dax returned dryly. He felt theEvening Star begin to move, following the orders he'd given from the shuttle before they'd docked; get them out of this sector, and fast.
”Eos,” Rina said, a distinct note of disgruntlement in her voice. ”It was just a little game of chaser. How was I supposed to know the mark was a Coalition Officer?”
Dax whirled on the girl. ”Just a little game? You could have gotten all of us killed. Risking your own life is one thing, but did you really want Roxton to die for you?”
The girl paled. Dax knew it was a harsh blow; Roxton was one of the few men Rina trusted. She'd seen past his gruff exterior and gone straight for his heart, and the old man had treated her like a daughter since the day Dax had brought her aboard three years ago, a shaking, frightened child who'd witnessed horrors no child should ever see.
”I didn't mean”
Dax cut her off. ”You never do. If you want to rig a game, that's your business. But getting caught, for G.o.d's sake, at something you've been doing for years!”
”I was distracted,” Rina protested. ”That officer was talking about how he was going to be the one to capture you, take your head and present it to General Corling on a pikestaff”
Rina broke off as Dax went utterly still. He thought he heard a smothered sound from, oddly, the Arellian, but he didn't look at her.
The name of the man who had destroyed Trios was never mentioned aboard theEvening Star, by anyone, let alone by Rina, who had more reason than most to abhor the man who had wiped out her world and her people. It had been an unspoken rule for so long that most of the crew had forgotten that it had begun long before Dax had brought the young Triotian aboard, and attributed the ban to her presence.
”I'm sorry,” Rina whispered. ”It just slipped out, I”
”Never mind.” His voice was low, flat, and much harsher than when he'd been lecturing his young navigator. He looked at Califa. ”Take our...guest. Clean her up, and find her something”his nose curled expressively”else to wear.”
None of the spirit he'd hoped forhe wasn't sure whyflashed in the Arellian. But Rina was quick to yelp, ”But I'm needed on the bridge”
”I think I can manage this time without your help.”
Rina glared at him. ”Is this my punishment? Playing maid to a slave?”
Dax's eyes narrowed. ”If you hadn't earned it before, you just did.”
The girl flushed. ”I didn't mean that,” she said, sounding chagrined. ”Not that way. It's just”
”What it is,” Dax said, his tone severe, ”is time for you to learn how to think before you speak. As you should have in that cell.”
Looking chastened, Rina nodded quietly. Cheeks flaming now, she led the unprotesting Califa away. When they'd gone, Dax let out a long breath; he felt exhausted. He felt someone's gaze, and looked up to find Roxton grinning at him.
”Easy to humble them when they think the universe of you, like she does,” the old man said.
”She doesn't,” Dax corrected. ”She just knows she was wrong. Tell me, old man,” he added ruefully, ”why in Hades do people have children?”
The grizzled first mate's smile faded. He tugged at his beard. When he spoke at last, there was no trace of humor in his voice. ”Hoping for one like you, I suppose.”
On the last word, the first mate turned on his heel and strode out of the shuttle bay. Dax gaped after him. Roxton was as stingy with praise as Ansul, his old tutor had been. He forced his mind away from those memories; Ansul, like all others from his past, was dead, long dead. That must be it, he thought. The old man must have really feared him dead in those moments before he'd come down the cliff, to shake that kind of compliment out of him. And how like Roxton to fire this salvo, and then retreat before Dax could react. Before he could tell the old man he was crazy, that no parent anywhere would want a son like him. And that Rina, of all people, couldn't possibly think the universe of him. Because Rina, alone of those aboard theEvening Star, knew the ugly truth about him.
”Sir? Will you be going to the bridge now?” Yanked out of his grim reverie by the words, Dax looked up to see Larcos standing in the doorway of the shuttle bay. Where, Dax realized suddenly, he'd been standing for some time, waiting.
”Sorry,” he muttered. ”Let me get out of this thing.” He shrugged off the heavy, enveloping cloak, tossed it over his shoulder, and then strode past Larcos into the companionway.
TheEvening Star was a brigantine cla.s.s s.h.i.+p, built as a light cargo carrier by the Clarion Starworks. She had been built for maximum capacity and speed; Dax had made some renovations to up the capacity, then handed her over to Larcos, who had turned her into the fastest thing in five sectors. Able to run, thanks to some computer adjustments Dax had made, with a crew of twenty rather than the usually requisite fifty, she was the perfect s.h.i.+p for his purposes.
Not bad, Dax thought as he came onto the bridge, for a s.h.i.+p won on a role of the dice.
He stopped for a moment to replace the flashbow in its case. It was left unsecured; everyone aboard knew it would do no good to take it; only Dax could fire it. He tossed the cloak over the back of the command chair, and asked for a position report from the navigational computer. The report came back instantly, but no faster than Rina could do it. And without her usual flair.
”Looks like a clean getaway, sir,” Larcos said. ”Easy, with us parked on the dark side, away from the checkpoints.”
”We nearly didn't make it,” Dax said with a grin at the engineer. ”Shuttle came in on vapor, after all that low level flying to get out of range of their sensors.”
Larcos frowned, his brows lowering on his long, thin forehead. ”Did it malfunction? You should have had exactly enough fuel.”
Dax's grin widened. He'd known that engineer's brain would immediately take over. ”Relax, Larc. You figured perfectly. Don't forget, we had some unexpected extra weight. There may be only a hundred and twenty pounds or so of her, but it made a difference.”
The engineer's brow cleared. ”Of course. I should have made allowances.”
”It was already fueled to the maximum,” Dax a.s.sured Larcos, beginning to wish he hadn't tried to tease him; the man had absolutely no sense of humor about his precious equipment. Which, Dax reminded himself, has saved your a.s.s more times than you can count.
”I could have rigged something, temporarily, to”
”Cease and desist,” Dax ordered with a laugh. ”We made it. Let's just concentrate on making sure n.o.body's on our tail, all right?”
”They're probably still trying to figure out that hole in the wall,” Roxton put in with a grin. ”I'll never forget the look of them two, flapping down that cliff like a pair of crazed rockfowl. 'Course you weren't exactly grace itself after you ran out of”
”Dax!” Rina's shout came across the s.h.i.+p's comlink with no lessening of its fervor. Dax spun back to the command chair and hit the b.u.t.ton.
”What's wrong?”
”She's gone crazy!”
”What?”
”We were just walking along and all of a sudden she went demented on me.”
Dax saw Roxton tense, and waved the older man back. ”Did she hurt you?”