Derelict: Halcyone Space, Book 1 (39 page)

"Why? Was she blunt and unsocialized, too?"

Nomi laughed. "Well, maybe a little. She was well known for speaking her mind. Not a traditional or desirable trait in the history of Japanese culture, but I adored her."

Ro glanced around the room at all the reminders of Nomi's family and wondered what it would be like to feel connected like that. "You're lucky." She took a sip from the hot tea and set the cup down. "I never want to see my father again."

"Do you think he's still drifting out there?" Nomi gestured up, as if they could see the field of empty stars that surrounded Daedalus.

"I think he's too vindictive to be dead." Ro jumped up and paced the living room area.

Nomi set her tea down and stood, blocking Ro's path. She reached up to cup Ro's face, her thumb gently tracing beneath the suture line across her cheek, just below her left eye. Ro stiffened and Nomi let her hands drop.

"I'm sorry," Ro said, staring into Nomi's disappointed eyes. "I don't think I know how to do this."

"Am I that scary?" Nomi asked.

"No. It's just —" Her father had used her need for companionship as a threat and all those years of fear didn't vanish with him. "I'm sorry. I want —" She didn't know what she wanted, but she didn't want to lose Nomi and her gentleness. "Wait! I have something to show you!"

"I'm not going anywhere," Nomi answered, laughing. "I live here."

Ro sank back onto the sofa and dug out her micro. "Look!" Waking up the screen, she showed her the emancipation papers. "I'm free to go to Uni. Free to leave. To do anything!"

"Congratulations, Ro." Nomi handed her back the micro, her face still, her voice flat. "Where will you go?"

Ro wanted to chase the sadness from Nomi's eyes. "That's not even the best part." Her pulse sped up. Slowly, she reached out to clasp both of Nomi's hands in hers, her body moving on automatic pilot. Part of her brain froze, repeating a terrified mantra.
What am I doing? What am I doing?
She swallowed the fear.

"Halcyone is mine. I can keep her." She looked into Nomi's dark eyes, wanting to see her shared excitement. "I can … We can go anywhere."

Nomi's eyebrows met in the center of her forehead. Ro wanted to smooth the lines away.

"I don't understand."

"Come with me," Ro whispered, before she could take the words back. She straightened her spine and lifted one hand to touch Nomi's cheek. It was smooth against the roughened skin of her palm. Her hand shook, but her father wasn't here and he no longer had control over her or her choices. "Come with me," she repeated, her voice gaining strength.

Nomi pressed her hand over Ro's before standing and stepping back. "You could stay here. Daedalus is going to need an engineer."

"I can't." Ro winced, unable to meet Nomi's gaze.

"He's not here anymore. There's nothing to run away from."

But her father was still here. He'd dragged her to Daedalus just like he'd dragged her from one posting to another her whole life. "Come with me, Nomi." She stood, afraid to close the distance between them. "Halcyone needs a comms officer."

Nomi smiled sadly and looked around her quarters at the photos crowding the walls. Ro followed her gaze, settling on her graduation picture, a hologram of Nomi, standing between her beaming parents, all three of them with their arms entwined. "I have a responsibility. To them. To Daedalus Station. And obligations to honor." She reached for Ro, gathering her in her arms.

Ro stiffened against the taller woman and forced herself to breathe. Her head nestled easily against Nomi's shoulder.

"You are not your father," she said. "You don't have to make his mistakes."

"No, I'm perfectly capable of making my own," Ro said, her tears soaking into the soft fabric of Nomi's kimono.

Walking into their quarters, Barre felt like he had stepped into someone else's past.
With a distant, observer's eye, he watched their parents fuss over Jem. His mother gathered him in her arms as if he were a baby and carried him from the transport chair to the living room.

"There's nothing wrong with my legs, Mother," Jem complained.

"You should be in medical," she said, depositing him onto the sofa.

Jem glanced up at his father for support. He stood by the chair, his arms folded. "Look, you said it yourself; they did everything they could on Hephaestus. And I'll be more comfortable here anyway."

His father nodded.

"None of this would have happened if you hadn't interfered in your brother's affairs." The set of his mother's expression had always said anger to him, but when Barre met her gaze now, he recognized the fear.

"You didn't give me a choice!" Jem cried, glaring up at her, his body trembling.

Barre sat next to his brother and took his hand. "We all have choices." If he hadn't made some monumentally stupid ones, things might have ended up differently. He glanced up at both of his parents. His father met his gaze briefly, a flash of pain moving across his face. They had made their own choices as well. And here they all were, trapped at the intersection of them all.

"Barre, you need help. Your father and I have made our decision."

"You can't!" Jem cried. "You don't understand!"

Barre squeezed Jem's hand and stood. "But I do." He squared his shoulders and faced his mother and father. "I did some stupid shit, but I'm okay now. I know what I need to do."

"Barre, no!" Jem shouted.

"I don't have a place in your world, but I have a place in my own." He thought he saw a flicker of pain pass through his father's expression, but it was gone before he could be sure, replaced by his usual stoic frown. "I'm not asking for anything you don't want anyway." They would have their orderly life and their genius child to continue the family legacy. Barre would no longer be their problem to fix.

The play of emotions across his mother's face told Barre everything he could ever hope to understand. He walked over to her and took her cold hands in his, leaned down and kissed her cheek. "You have what you need. This is what I need," he said, softly.

His father gave him a huge spine-cracking hug. It was the kind of touch Barre hadn't remembered getting from him since he was younger than Jem.

"Please, don't go," Jem said, his voice thick, his eyes shining.

He knelt by his brother's side. "Look, you know there's nothing for me here. And don't worry; I'll only be as far as your micro."

A wild look of fear flitted across Jem's face before he threw his arms around Barre's neck. "I want to hear all the music you make, okay?"

"You got it, kiddo."

"Where will you go?" his mother asked, her voice raspy, tuneless.

"My emancipation petition will be lodged with Commander Mendez," Barre answered. "I think it's best for everyone if you sign it without protest."

No one said a word as he slipped into his old bedroom and packed a small bag. He looked around at the music and instruments he had collected over a lifetime. Stroking his hands across a replica of an old style twelve-string guitar, he listened until the echoes and harmonics faded away before leaving it all behind him.

***

Ro walked blindly through the station until she found herself at Halcyone's airlock. The silence of the temporary corridor only increased the emptiness she felt inside. She rested her head against the dulled metal of the hull. The ship or Nomi. She couldn't have both.

"Halcyone, unseal the outer door."

Nothing happened. She tried triggering the release through her micro, but it wouldn't pair with the AI. Was she under quarantine? Had Targill disputed her claim? Ro's mouth dried. She'd walked away from Nomi. If she had also lost Halcyone, then there was nowhere she belonged. She swore and slammed her hand against the hull, wincing at the pain that traveled up the length of her arm.

"Here. Let me try."

Ro whirled around. Barre stood blocking her way in the umbilical, a bag thrown across one wide shoulder. He whistled a brief fanfare and waved his arm toward the lock. "All yours."

She glared at him before turning back to the ship. "Halcyone, unseal the outer door." The airlock cycled and it sprung open with an audible pop. "What are you doing here?"

"Same as you, I'd bet."

His tone seemed casual, but even Ro's untrained, unmusical ear heard a kindred sadness in it. He stepped into the lock with her and shut the outer door. Ro triggered the inner door to open. Her shoulders relaxed as she returned to her ship. Her ship. Relief flooded through her. "How did you know I'd be here?"

"I didn't. Not for sure. But I figured whoever claimed her was going to need me."

"You are going to have to teach me to do that."

"What? And put myself out of a job?"

She stopped and Barre bumped into her. Slowly turning around, she confronted him. "Are you asking to stay on the ship?"

He clutched his bag to his chest and stepped back. "Would you let me if I did?"

"She's officially mine, now," Ro said. "In all her damaged glory."

The wild hope that lit Barre's eyes was also something she recognized.

"But she's going to need work. This isn't a holiday cruise."

He laughed, a deep, hearty sound that filled the corridor. "Not like our last trip, then?"

Her laughter joined his. A familiar melody played through Halcyone's speakers in harmony with them. "I guess she approves."

Barre shrugged.

Ro smoothed down her uniform tunic and stuck out her hand. Barre shook it, a huge smile breaking across his face. "Well, then, welcome aboard, Doc." Halcyone was going to need everything both of them could give before she was fully functional again. "Time to get to work."

"My pleasure, Captain."

She smiled a small, private smile and strode toward the bridge.

*