Blood of the Cosmos (29 page)

The satellite ship was silent, the corridor by the service airlock empty. He was surprised no one had come to investigate the airlock activation, but there was so much activity outside, so many suited people coming and going throughout Ulio, apparently no one noticed. Just another business day.

Still, Aelin knew he had to be gone before anyone saw him. He did not want to try to explain why an undocumented green priest had stumbled aboard the ship. As his fingers became more flexible and background warmth crept into his skin, he disconnected the suit components, stripped off the gloves, the life-support pack, and peeled himself out like a Theron insect emerging from a cocoon. He stood in his loincloth, sweaty but shivering—and free.

Aelin had escaped the extraction operations, but he wasn't sure what to do now. On bare feet, he made his way through the satellite ship and found a connecting passage into the old Ildiran warliner that served as part of Ulio's core. The old warship's corridors had been stripped and refurbished, turned into a well-used commerce center.

He felt exposed in the empty sections, but as he made his way to the more crowded decks, he began to feel less obvious. There were so many more people here than at the Iswander extraction complex! Everyone on Ulio Station was accustomed to a panoply of races and garments, and since others didn't stare at him, Aelin assumed that green priests must be a familiar enough sight, too. A very good sign.

On Theroc, all Aelin had to do was touch a tree, and he could instantly join the community of green priests. Here, he felt isolated, and the crowds were comprised of strangers. Jittery, he was startled whenever someone spoke to him. Fortunately, although he received curious looks, they raised no alarms.

Aelin made his way along, following other moving people. He ended up in a large gathering area, a business exchange filled with loud voices and haggling groups. Commodities boards listed items on offer from cargo ships that had arrived at Ulio. The noise was deafening, frightening.

Disoriented, Aelin bumped into someone, muttered an apology, and hurried off in a different direction. He didn't like this place at all. Looking for some exit, he turned around and froze. The breath dried up in his lungs.

Elisa Enturi stood there, turned to one side and engaged in a heated discussion with two men. She hadn't noticed him yet, so Aelin bolted, not watching where he was going—and ran directly into a thin man in an embroidered Roamer jumpsuit sporting the symbol of clan Duquesne.

“Watch where you're going! I thought green priests were more graceful than that.” The man laughed; two larger men with him laughed as well. None of them seemed to have any humor.

Aelin flailed his hands, tried to get away, but the thin Roamer man caught him by the arm. “No need for that. Who are you running from?”

“Elisa Enturi—I can't let her see me.”

The man refused to release his grip. “Elisa Enturi? I thought everyone was trying to
get
information from her, not run from her.”

“I escaped from the bloater field,” Aelin blurted, trying to get away before the woman turned. “She doesn't want me to reveal anything about their ekti-X operations.”

The Roamer man's grip tightened further. “What's a bloater field?”

Aelin struggled. “Large nodules drifting in space. Nobody understands what they are.”

“That's where ekti-X comes from? That's where Iswander gets the stardrive fuel?”

Aelin groaned inwardly at what he had revealed. He wanted to stop Lee Iswander from draining and discarding the bloaters for their ekti-X. Iswander did not understand the damage he was doing to the miraculous presence being born in the universe … but Aelin also knew how greedy people could be. They would all want their own source of ekti-X.

If he revealed the source of cheap stardrive fuel, he would inspire a thousand similar operations, instead of stopping the one. He dared not say anything. His stomach twisted into knots; he couldn't reveal what he knew!

Aelin saw Elisa turning toward the commotion, so he tore his arm free and bolted into the crowd. “Wait, we've got more questions for you,” yelled the man from clan Duquesne.

But Aelin ducked and wove his way among other people, panicked. He drew attention to himself in his wild flight, but he kept running anyway, and soon the crowds folded around him, paying little attention.

He found another corridor and ran. Elisa must have spotted him—but why would she even imagine that he had escaped from the extraction field? She couldn't possibly guess that he'd hidden in the tank array. No one could have known that.

He blundered into an empty well-lit room that might once have been a Solar Navy briefing chamber during the warliner's service days. Food wrappers littered the deck as if someone regularly took lunch there.

Aelin collapsed in the corner, drew his knees up to his chest, and just sat inhaling, exhaling, and wondering what to do next.

 

CHAPTER

45

XANDER BRINDLE

After what had happened to their compy the last time they visited here, Xander was much more wary when the
Verne
returned to Ulio Station. Previously, he and Terry had traveled around the Spiral Arm, happy-go-lucky, enjoying the places they visited. Danger was only theoretical.

But when Aaron Duquesne and his bully companions battered poor OK, the experience threw a bucket of cold water in Xander's face. He had heard plenty of stories about the Elemental War, and he knew about the Shana Rei, so he was fully aware that the Spiral Arm was a dangerous place. But Xander had never believed anything could happen to him.

Na
ï
ve and stupid!

Now, he and Terry were on guard, suspicious. It felt like a loss of innocence. Terry still had many friends at the station from when he had worked for old Maria Ulio, but it was a rough-and-tumble place that attracted certain unsavory elements.

As they snagged a docking spot for the
Verne
on Ulio's third outer ring, OK was the only one perfectly cheery. He looked polished and new, all damage repaired, programming restored. “I've logged our arrival with the Central Offices. According to station records, Elisa Enturi arrived seven hours ago with a full array of ekti-X, more than she has ever had us distribute before. I calculate this run should be highly profitable for us.”

Terry found that odd. “She doesn't usually deliver the fuel directly here.”

Xander said, “Maybe she's flaunting Iswander's production?”

“I would rather she didn't provoke anyone.” Terry pulled himself over to the
Verne
's weapons locker and removed a stun pistol for himself and one for Xander. “Better take these. Just in case.”

Xander never would have considered such precautions only a few weeks ago. “Just in case.”

The compy remained cheery. “I am glad to help us out in any way possible. I hope my services will be satisfactory.”

“I know they will.” Xander bent down in front of him. Rlinda Kett's compy technicians had also added mission parameters for a special job the two young men wanted OK to do. “You understand that this is an independent mission. You'll have to take care of it by yourself, solve any problems that might arise. This is very important to us.”

The compy's optical sensors brightened. “Yes, and it is also important to Tasia Tamblyn and Robb Brindle. Our future business model and understanding of ekti-X operations relies upon my mission.” He seemed proud. “A trading company has the right to know what it ships.”

“Yes, it does. We're counting on you.”

Terry applied an Ulio Station decal to OK's polymer shoulder, then attached a standard station-maintenance kit. “There, now you look like a Maintenance-model compy. I used to work with dozens of compies just like you, and this will make you unobtrusive. Be a spy for us and go where we need you to go. If you look like you know what you're doing, nobody'll ask questions.”

OK said, “I do know what I'm doing. I have new programming.”

Xander opened the typical repair kit, pulled out a small, unmarked hemispherical device. “Rlinda Kett used this in her old blockade-runner days. It's a special undetectable tracker. If you install it properly on Elisa's ship, it'll record everywhere she goes and give us assurance that the ekti-X operations are legit.”

“I will not let you down,” OK said.

Exiting the
Verne
, the compy headed off in one direction while Xander and Terry went in the other. Xander wore a traditional Roamer jumpsuit with Tamblyn clan markings on the breast and sleeve, along with Kett Shipping insignia. Terry chose more casual clothes and an old jacket he had kept from Ulio Station. They looked comfortable and at-ease, but they kept their stunners handy. They stayed in low- or no-gravity areas, so Terry needed no extra help to move about.

Xander looked at his comm, scrolled down to a new message he had just received. “Looks like Elisa is waiting for us in the star balcony lounge.”

Terry sighed. “I don't know why she always wants to meet us there, since she never drinks. I read about a new crepe restaurant featuring fruits from seventeen different planets. That would have been more interesting.”

“We'll do that afterward to celebrate—
if
OK does what he's supposed to. A meal of exotic fruit crepes sounds like a good way to end the day.”

Terry nodded, resigned. “I suppose it would be a waste to have a nice lunch with Elisa Enturi. She's always in a hurry.”

“She's always
Elisa
,” said Xander. He, for one, was glad the woman didn't spend hours in casual conversation before coming to the point. With her, each interaction was all business—mercifully so. Elisa just wanted to finalize the ekti-X transaction, verify the accounts, and return to her duties.

Inside the star balcony, Elisa Enturi sat at a table by herself, staring out at the ships swarming around the station. She was an attractive woman sitting alone in a spaceport bar filled with lonely traders, but no one ventured close to the ice barrier she kept up.

Wearing his usual grin, Xander signaled a serving compy and placed a drink order. Elisa already had a cup of coffee, which was sufficient for her. “I've been waiting for you,” she said.

Terry looked at his chronometer. “We're right on time.”

“I arrived early.” She seemed to think they should have known that.

Xander ignored the comment. “We saw that giant array you delivered. It's the largest load you've ever brought. We're going to have to store a lot of it here before we can arrange for distribution, even if we bring in another ship or two.”

“It's not all for you. Special circumstances. I signed a contract with Darwin Felliwell,” Elisa said, naming Ulio's current station manager. “Seventy percent of the array canisters are earmarked to be used as a strategic stockpile for station operations. Iswander Industries has surplus production, and we felt this was a wise diversification. The other thirty percent of the ekti-X is my usual delivery to Kett Shipping. You have not been shorted.”

Xander didn't like the idea of Elisa selling stardrive fuel to other customers, whether or not it was a strategic stockpile.

When the serving compy brought their drinks—two new and oddly named frothy concoctions that sounded interesting on the menu—Xander said, “We hope you're not looking for other distributors. We've been very successful working with you, and this is a beneficial arrangement for both parties, but our boss does have some concerns.”

Terry took a sip of the strange new drink, approved. “Your secrecy, not to mention the sheer productivity, has been raising a lot of questions.”

“Let them ask questions,” Elisa said. “It's our business, not theirs.”

“Some of them think it is their business,” Terry said. “All that stardrive fuel is affecting the ekti market for the Roamer clans.”

“And the mood is getting hostile out there,” Xander said. “On our last trip here we were assaulted in a back corridor by members of clan Duquesne who demanded to know about Iswander operations. They damaged our compy.”

Elisa was unsympathetic. “Then get another compy. Learn how to take care of yourselves and defend your profits. It's only common sense.”

“We're your business partners,” Xander said. “And that makes us your
accomplices
if you're doing something illegal to produce the stardrive fuel. How do we know there's nothing to worry about?”

“You don't. And you have no need to know anything at all about our production methods.”

Terry frowned. “That's not exactly reassuring.”

“You shouldn't need reassurance.” As she sipped her coffee, Elisa looked not quite
past
Xander, but
through
him, to the observation window where a large passenger ship could be seen docking at an inner ring on the other side of the star balcony. “I deliver the ekti, you distribute it. You make profits, we make profits. There's no need for you to be involved any further than that.”

Xander said, realizing that his voice had taken on an annoying tone, “Can't you give us at least a general
idea
? Do you get the ekti from skymining on a gas giant? Or nebula skimming? Or—”

She cut him off abruptly. “Proprietary information. And I can always find an alternative distributor if you keep pressing.” Elisa finished her coffee. “We're done here. I need to be going.”

After she left, both of them looked disturbed. “Miss Congeniality,” Xander said.

“She's definitely hiding something,” Terry said. “I was uneasy about spying on her, even if it was just to dispel our concerns, but now…”

“If OK placed the tracker, we'll know in a month or two, after we retrieve the data. She has to head back to their ekti operations at some point, and the tracker will record her movements. We just have to wait.” He grinned and placed a hand on his partner's forearm. “Right now, we have time for that crepe lunch.”