Arkadian Skies: Fallen Empire, Book 6 (2 page)

“I would miss that,” he said quietly, turning that wistful gaze on her and adding a sad smile.

Alisa let herself gaze back for a moment and bask in the admission before turning her attention to the sensor display again. “I think bathing in this comet’s gas is working,” she said. “Too bad we can’t convince it to head to the planet with us.”

“If it abruptly shifted onto a collision course with Arkadius, it would attract more notice than you would want.”

“Notice and a barrage of rocket fire.”

“Yes.” Leonidas pointed toward the map of the planet. “I suggest approaching from the south pole. There’s less air and space traffic in that area. Once near the ground, you can set a course over the ocean.”

Alisa waited until the Alliance cruiser was nearly out of range before abandoning the comet and shifting toward Arkadius. She might have stayed with it even longer, but they would have had to backtrack later if she did, and that would mean more time during which the
Nomad
would be visible to other ships out there.

Alisa kept her gaze locked onto the space traffic as they flew closer to the planet. She spotted another freighter and thought about flying up to its side, so an outsider might think she was a part of a merchant convoy, but then the captain would want to know what she was doing. As a fellow freighter operator, he or she might be sympathetic and let her ride along without objecting, but the captain might report her too. Besides, that freighter looked to be heading for one of the populous continents in the northern hemisphere.

“I’m taking us toward the south pole,” Alisa said, plotting a direct course.

Leonidas stood up.

“You and your eyebrows aren’t leaving me, are you?” she asked.

“I’m going to change into my combat armor.”

“You’re
that
sure we’ll be captured and boarded?”

“It also crossed my mind that we might be fired upon and crash.”

“In which case, your combat armor would save you?”

“It can take a lot of damage. We need to order you a set when we’re finally staying in one place long enough for a delivery.” He laid a hand on her shoulder before heading for the hatchway.

“Your concern for my welfare is endearing,” Alisa said over her shoulder. “Your belief that I’ll crash the ship is less so.”

Alisa watched the space traffic warily as the greens, blues, and browns of Arkadius’s oceans and continents came into view on the screen, with the polar-capped south pole at the bottom. As far as she knew, it did not possess any strange misty phenomena such as her ship had encountered when visiting the Starseer temple near the north pole. Instead, the sky was clear, the ice gleaming. Comm chatter lit up the channels, but thus far, nobody had hailed her ship.

“Maybe it’s so busy out there that nobody will notice us,” she said, half-expecting Mica to still be monitoring the internal comm and to make a comment about overzealous optimism.

Her ongoing sensor scans showed two Alliance warships orbiting near the equator, one of which had a familiar ident. The
Storm Fury
. Tomich’s ship, already back from Alcyone Station.

A twinge of unease poked at Alisa’s gut. Had the research on the dimensionally shifting space station been completed? Or had the
Storm Fury
been called back to hunt for the stolen staff? Either way, word of everything that had transpired there must have made it back to headquarters by now. The existence of an Alliance bulletin requesting the capture of the
Star Nomad
seemed likelier and likelier.

She wondered if Admiral Tiang had returned with the
Storm Fury
. The last Leonidas had informed her, he wasn’t planning on kidnapping the man or going through with the surgery that might return the functions the fleet had taken from him, but she was still arguing with him about that. She did not agree that he should give up on his dreams of having a family. And sex. If she could find a way to bring that admiral to him, she would.

The comm light flashed.

Alisa sighed. She thought about ignoring it, but if she didn’t say anything, whoever was trying to contact her would know she was up to something. There was still a chance that her story might work, assuming that wasn’t Tomich comming her.

“Greetings,” Alisa said. “This is Captain Gillian Stokes of the peaceful and unarmed freighter
Sky Traveler
.” This time, she had thought up her fake name before she was called upon to use it. She remembered encountering a
Sky Traveler
when she had been a girl, so there ought to be a record of it in a database somewhere. It had been one of the last Rambler 880s she had seen, the rest having been traded in for newer models as they became too difficult to find parts for and to keep flying. “Can I help you?”

“This is planet patrol agent
Delta Five
,” a deadpan voice responded. “We cannot confirm the identity of your ship, Captain.”

“I just told you its identity,” Alisa said brightly. Planet patrol. She didn’t know if that was better or worse than the Alliance. Both entities could have seen bulletins demanding the
Star Nomad’
s detainment. “But you should be able to read its ident chip to verify,” she added.

“I am not able to read your identification chip.”

“It’s possible it was damaged,” Alisa said. “We were attacked by a bunch of thugs claiming they were tax collectors while dropping off cargo on Cleon Moon.” That much was true, at least.

“Smugglers often remove the identification chips on their ships,” Delta Five informed her blandly.

That sounded like an android. Alisa frowned at the idea of Leonidas having to battle another one. And dare they even fight planet patrol? It was one thing to keep competing treasure hunters from boarding their ship out in unclaimed space, but this was an enforcer of the law. Alliance law.
Her
law.

“If I were a prosperous smuggler, wouldn’t I have a nicer ship than this old relic?” Alisa asked.

“Perhaps you are an unprosperous smuggler.”

Great, she’d found the one android with a sense of humor. Or maybe he was merely being logical.

“If you wish to continue to Arkadius or one of the orbital space stations, your ship must be searched,” Delta Five said. “This is in accordance with Arkadius Planetary Customs and Border Enforcement Regulation Number Thirty-Seven.”

“You’re welcome to search my ship if you wish,” Alisa said, hoping that compliance would imply that she had nothing to hide and there was no reason for Delta Five to take the time out of his busy day to come for an inspection. “We don’t have any cargo right now, just a patient who needs medical attention after that battle. That’s all you’ll see if you come over.” Not that he needed to come over, or question her further at all. She pretended she was a Starseer and could plant that idea into Delta Five’s mind. Too bad Abelardus’s techniques did not seem to work on androids.

“We will dock with you and send a team promptly,” Delta Five said. “Any resistance will be considered grounds for arrest.”

“Goody.” Alisa considered fleeing, but the
Nomad
could not outrun a ship that had been designed to catch smugglers.

As Alisa closed the comm, Leonidas appeared in the hatchway again, now wearing his armor and a couple of extra rifles.

“No grenades this time?” she asked.

“Will I need them?” He sounded more intrigued than alarmed at the possibility.

“I hope not. It’s planet patrol, not the Alliance. I’m hoping we might yet slip past them, especially since we don’t technically have anything illegal.” Except perhaps some of Yumi’s drugs. Those might have to be stashed. “Your face is all over wanted posters, though. I want you to hide in the cubby.”

“Cyborgs don’t hide.”

“What if instead of hiding, we call it squatting in a tactically advantageous position, cheerfully preparing to launch a ferocious ambush at anyone who sticks a head in? Would a cyborg do that?”

“Not cheerfully, no.”

“Grumpily?”

His eyebrows twitched upward again. She didn’t care what he said—they were definitely riotous.

Chapter 2

Alisa left NavCom with the
Nomad
drifting in space, the planet patrol ship in the process of clamping on so it could extend its airlock tube. She jogged to Yumi’s cabin, wrinkling her nose at a burning scent drifting up from the mess hall. Beck hadn’t left something on the grill or stovetop while he’d been out on his spacewalk, had he? She would check on her way through to the cargo hold. Burned sauces were unlikely to be illegal. The contents of Yumi’s cabin were another matter.

The hatch was open, so she popped her head in, looking toward the lab counter set up between the bunk and the built-in cabinets on the opposite wall. “Yumi? Did you hear that we’re about to have visitors?”

Yumi was on a floor mat in a contorted position with her head hanging upside down and her legs and arms twisted about each other. It looked about as comfortable as being in some mafia lord’s torture chamber—the unpleasantness of which Beck could attest to. Alisa almost commented on that, but a netdisc rested on the floor, and Yumi was talking to someone while she stretched—or contorted.

“Thank you, Young-hee,” she said, holding out a finger toward Alisa. “I appreciate the information and will inform my captain.”

Oh, her sister? Alisa almost interrupted, since they didn’t have much time before the patrollers finished affixing their airlock tube, but this sounded like something important.

“Yes, she’s doing well,” Yumi said in response to a comment that Alisa could not fully hear. “I don’t believe she’s drugged anyone’s food lately, but we’ve been busy. I have given her a delightful substance which she may enjoy trying herself one day. Yes, goodbye.”

Yumi untwisted herself from the pretzel and stood up.

“Something I need to know about?” Alisa waved to the netdisc as Yumi bent to pick it up.

“I decided to get in contact with my sister, since we’re close to Arkadius, to make sure the temple survived its run-in with the Alliance. It did. It’s been largely repaired and relocated to another remote part of the planet. I also wondered if we might be permitted to visit—I thought Starseer healers might have insight into Durant’s problem—but Young-hee didn’t sound optimistic about that. She wasn’t able to check for certain, however, because an encoded message came in last night, and Lady Naidoo, my mother, and the council members have been locked in a private meeting since then.”

“Something to do with the Staff of Lore?”

Alejandro had seemed to think it might be brought back to Arkadius. It had been his main reason for choosing to visit a hospital on this planet instead of a station or world less heavily guarded by Alliance ships. With the planet patrol ship clamped onto the
Nomad
, Alisa now wished she had objected to that choice and tried to find a state-of-the-art hospital on one of the Aldrin moons. Alisa had agreed to help Abelardus find that staff once again, but not until
after
she found Jelena. She wondered if it was uncharitable to hope that the planet patrol agent would find Abelardus suspicious and cart him off for interrogation.

“My sister doesn’t know what the message or meeting are about, nor does she know anything about any recently discovered artifacts,” Yumi said. “I found a subtle way to ask. But yes, I do believe it’s possible that the Staff of Lore, or contact from the
chasadski
Starseers, is the reason for the meeting.”

“I’ll let Abelardus know—or he’ll let himself know.” Alisa touched her temple. “But we have a more immediate problem. We’re about to be searched by the law. Is anything in here illegal? We should hide it in the cubby along with Leonidas.”

“You’re hiding Leonidas?” Yumi walked to her lab counter and poked into boxes stacked beside a confusing tangle of borrowed and jury-rigged equipment.

“Essentially, but we’re calling it not-cheerfully lying in wait since cyborgs don’t hide.”

“Then the Bliss should lie in wait as well.” Yumi handed Alisa a box. “And the puhee puhee.” Another box followed. “Oh, and the dehydrated moshaka leaf. Definitely the Zen-finder. And the pushka tail.” Yumi shifted to a cabinet above the bed, opening the door to reveal stacks of tins wedged in, taking every inch of space.

Alisa frowned as boxes and bags were added to those already in her arms. “Are all of these illegal?”

“Unfortunately, yes. Out of curiosity, I looked up the list of substances banned in Alliance space. All they had done was change the header on the sys-net page and repost the precise list the empire had most recently issued. I’m quite disappointed, Captain.” Yumi pursed her lips in Alisa’s direction, as if she were responsible. “I had hoped for more leniency from the Alliance. What a woman ingests should be up to her own beliefs and wisdom, not dictated by a totalitarian government.”

“The Alliance isn’t totalitarian. If you want different drug policies, I’m sure there’s somewhere you can vote or speak to make your mind heard.”

“Is there? I haven’t been invited to vote since this new government took charge. Have you?”

“Er.” Alisa hadn’t thought much about voting since she had woken up in that hospital on Dustor. There had been weightier matters on her mind. “No, but I’m not sure what my citizenship status is at the moment.”

Fugitive, she feared.

Yumi plopped another box on the top of the pile.

Alisa hooked her chin over it so it wouldn’t fall. “Are any of these plants or mushrooms or other…
things
illegal?” Since she couldn’t move her chin, Alisa used her eyes to indicate the various pots, planters, and mushroom logs sitting, hanging, or mounted around the cabin.

“Not in their vegetative form.”

“So, they’re not illegal until they wither up, die, and get pulverized with a mortar and pestle?” Alisa backed into the corridor, fearing that the patrollers would arrive any second.

“The government makes up these silly laws, not me.”

“When I took you aboard, I didn’t know you were an anarchist, Yumi.”

“I’m merely an opinionated science teacher.” Yumi grabbed a few more boxes and followed Alisa into the corridor. “Did you know that was the Myers-Donald 9 comet that we were following earlier? It’s projected to travel through, and perhaps crash in, the Kir Asteroid Belt later in the year, the debris field that’s all that remains of the planet Kir. Do you find that auspicious? Or foreboding? I don’t put much stock in astrology or portents, but it is an interesting coincidence that the Staff of Alcyone has come out of hiding at the same time. That was one of the first comets mapped when humans first arrived in the Tri-Sun System.”