Reading the Wind (Silver Ship) (50 page)

“
Creator
,” I shouted at him. “Take her in.”

He jogged toward the ship, steady and even and strong. I turned to the others, still breathing hard, my shields clamping out all of the available data nets. “Chelo, Liam, go!”

They bolted, following Bryan.

We had room for them, if they wanted to go. If we left. Dianne had agreed with my father with no hesitation. Jenna had surprised me by backing them both, suggesting we get away as fast as we could. She’d shivered, and asked me, “Do you want to die on Fremont after all?”

I bit my lip. I didn’t want to leave. Chelo wouldn’t. But what if staying started a war? Who could we save? Paloma? Akashi would never leave.

Paloma and Sasha stood looking at me, waiting for something. “Do you want to leave?” I asked them.

Paloma glanced at Bryan, carrying Kayleen through the doorway of the ship. Her brows were drawn tight together in worry. “Will she be all right?” she asked.

I nodded. They’d entered
Creator
. “She might be okay already.”

Paloma still held her own hebra’s reins. She reached for Liam’s mount’s trailing rein, handing it to Sasha. “The babies,” she said. “We have to get the babies.” She picked up Kayleen’s mount’s rein, and Stripes’s. I remembered some of the beasts’ names. If only there were time to mount one and race down to the sea!

“Get the babies,” Paloma said. “We’ll report back. Chelo has an earset. She can talk to us.”

Babies? The hebras? Or human babies? And whose? Report back to who? “Do you want to leave?” I asked her again.

She frowned, staring at
Creator
, and then looking at Sasha and Sand. “Not now. You can’t either. We’ll wait.”

I stood looking at her, confused.

“Go,” she said. “Follow your sister.”

Clearly I would learn as much from Chelo as I would from Paloma.

Something important was going on, something dark. It shone in all of their eyes. A fear. I went.

L
iam pulled me into the strange ship after Kayleen and Bryan. Joseph had turned away from Paloma and Sasha, following us at a dead run. Bryan stepped into an elevator in front of us, and I hesitated a moment, looking back. Whatever had attacked Kayleen had clearly attacked him, too. But he had a way to beat it. Maybe he could teach her. He had always been so much stronger.

Liam folded me in his arms as I watched Joseph race to catch us.

Joseph had become a man.

All of the little boy uncertainty and mischief had dropped away from him. He had built his body so his muscles stood out. My little unassuming brother looked almost like Bryan had looked when he was here. And Bryan—such strength. Where had they been? Who else was here?

Joseph caught up to us, stopping just long enough to say, “Follow me,” and then he was swarming up a vertical corridor the way we had on the New Making, using the handholds as ladder rungs, nearly bouncing upward. I followed him, struggling to move as fast. Halfway up, my right foot slipped from a rung while the left one hung in mid-step and I fell down, banging my chin. My arms held, and I pulled and scrambled the rest of the way, rushing to the sound of Joseph already at the top, calling my name and reaching a hand down for my hand.

My fingers brushed his fingertips. Another step, and I had his arm above the wrist. He pulled, I stepped and leapt, standing near him while he reached down to help Liam scramble up the last bit of round vertical wall. Joseph was off again, leaving us to follow. This ship—what had he called it?
Creator
?—looked newer than New Making, with cleaner lines and splashes of color here and there to offset gleaming silvery surfaces.

Joseph led us to what must be the command room. Screens showed various pictures of Fremont. One looked out on the Grass Plains, centered on Sasha and Paloma and the hebras, standing quietly, looking up at the ship. The other two showed the ruined hangar, and the cliffs
below Artistos. The room was smaller than the New Making’s command room, although it had an adjacent room with a sink and cupboards. A square silver table occupied the center space with four pilot’s chairs around it. I briefly registered people in each, a man and three women, all four with dark hair, and young, but my focus was on Bryan as he laid Kayleen down on the middle of the table.

Kayleen’s eyes were still rolled up in her head, and she moaned softly. Her limbs remained still. One of the women, a dark-haired beauty, leaned forward and touched Kayleen on the forehead, looking worriedly at Joseph, who stood just in front of me. Her voice was familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. “What happened?”

“Some kind of data attacks. I shielded—but she doesn’t know how. She should be all right after a bit in here.” He fell silent for a moment, then said, “Yes. It’s not strong in here.”

I pushed past Joseph, standing between the man and the woman who had asked about Kayleen. “Can someone get me water?” I asked.

One of the two women went to the sink, handing me a glass of water. I bathed Kayleen’s forehead, speaking softly.

She’d been through so much today!

Liam moved to the bottom of the table, removed Kayleen’s worn boots, and rubbed her feet. She thrashed once, and opened her eyes, putting a hand to her forehead. “Where am I?”

Joseph spoke. “
Creator
. You’re in the command room of the starship
Creator
.”

Liam held out a hand and pulled Kayleen gently to a sitting position right in the middle of the table. She looked up at Bryan, her eyes widening. “Bryan.” She scooted down the table near him.

He held her, his head on her shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re all right.” He raised his head long enough to look at me, his eyes full of wonder and, maybe, a touch of abandonment.

I had sent him away from me, all those years ago.

His voice was soft and controlled as he said, “You’re all okay. We were worried.”

Worried? Had they known the strangers were here?

Two women pushed in the door, standing near the edge of the wall, close to me. I gaped, and it was my turn to fold someone in my arms. “Alicia!” She, too, glowed with health like Joseph. What was
she doing back here? She’d almost killed us all the day before she left. “I …It’s good to see you.” There was no time to talk to her, not here. Hopefully it was a good sign that she’d come back. Maybe we’d need her courage.

I looked around the table. They all had light skin. It must be from doing without real sun. The man—short cropped dark hair and sea-mist blue eyes—stared at me as if the very sight of me was a feast, and a tear rolled down one of his cheeks.

Why?

This group could help us get the babies back. Caro and Jherrel. Thinking of them gave me focus and strength. I looked around. All eyes were on me. “Who are you all?” I asked.

The strange dark-haired man looked at my brother. “Can we take a few moments?”

Joseph nodded. “They appear to be watching.”

“But they attacked you out there?” He glanced at Kayleen, who had pulled free of Bryan’s embrace and now stood between Bryan and Liam, the three of them filling one side of the smallish room.

Joseph said, “A test.”

“They’ve never done that before.” Kayleen’s voice, scratchy and frightened.

“We’re safe in here now,” Joseph said, his voice soothing. Then he turned to me, a slight mischievous grin touching his lips for just a moment before his face settled into the new Joseph’s serious demeanor. He seemed to be in charge here. He nodded at the slight, dark-haired woman next to him. She was the strangest-looking of the group, with a bobbed haircut and severe white tunic that looked like the ones Lushia and Ghita wore. “This is Dianne. She is from the same place the people with the ship in Artistos are from.”

“The Islas Autocracy,” Liam said. He pulled Kayleen close to him. “Why is she here?”

“To help.” Joseph looked at the other two women at the table, both dark-haired, one with blue eyes and, the one whose voice was naggingly familiar, with gray eyes. Mischief crept across Joseph’s features. “And this is Tiala.” He shifted his attention to the gray-eyed woman. “And her sister Jenna.”

The woman regarded me calmly as Joseph’s words sank in. Jenna.
But Jenna was old! I pushed to her side and knelt, looking more closely. She wore Jenna’s eyes. The truth of it, the power of the healing, sank in. “It is you. You came back. You—you’re whole.”

She nodded, and suddenly she and I were crying. Unable to get to her any other way, Kayleen scooted across the table. “Jenna!” Kayleen took my hand, gazing up into Jenna’s eyes. “You can help us!”

Joseph cleared his throat. I felt dizzy, off balance. Jenna, perfect and whole. Two eyes. Two arms. I glanced at Joseph, ready to plead for more time, but something in his face stopped me.

He needed me to focus on him.

Once he had my attention, he looked down at the man, who still watched me.

I shifted uncomfortably.

“Come here,” the man said. “Let me touch you.”

And over my head, Joseph’s voice, catching in his throat. “Chelo, this is our father, David Lee.”

The world stopped. This man with the intense, demanding stare, this man who had worried me since I first saw him because of the intense hunger in his eyes.

I understood now.

The room shrank to just him and me. I had noticed his short, dark hair and the deep mist-blue eyes, now veiled a bit by tears. Even though he was sitting, I could tell he was built like the Joseph who stood by him now, like the man my little brother had become. Wide shoulders and slender hips, high cheekbones and a rounded chin. I took one of his long-fingered hands in mine. His palm and finger pads were a little rough, but not like a farmer’s or roamer’s hands. I searched his face. There were tears, but what emotion drove them? He hardly moved a muscle, waiting for me to react.

I found my voice. “I …Pleased to meet you.” I wanted to rush to him, touch him, but something in his eyes stopped me. “I’ve always hoped you lived.” It still wasn’t right. My father. “Hello.”

He smiled then, almost a laugh, but edgy. He spoke softly. “You have no idea how much I hoped to get here in time.”

My head spun. My father. Jenna. Bryan and Alicia. In time. In time for what? The babies! We had to tell them about Caro and Jherrel.

The Islan, Dianne, said, “They’re coming.” The rest of the room fell
back into focus, and I looked up at the middle viewscreen, which showed a skimmer heading our way from Artistos. In the screen next to it, Sasha and Paloma had let the three extra hebras go and were racing toward the edge of the valley.

“Strap in!” my father called, and the room began to empty.

I knew what they were going to do.

Leave.

Kayleen figured it out at the same time, her eyes snapping wide open. Fear filled every pore. The babies! We screamed together.

“No!”

Liam jumped to his feet, fists clenched, looking for some way to stop people who flew starships with their minds.

K
ayleen’s and Chelo’s joint scream stilled the room. Not simple protest, something primal. I turned to my sister, holding her face between my two hands. “We came to get you. You’re all here. This is a miracle.” If the mercenaries were waiting for me, for us, then we could get away now.

I had imagined searching Fremont for a long time, feared searching it in vain. I remembered telling myself I wouldn’t leave without saving everyone else, but we were all here. So easy.

Kayleen’s voice was shrill and high. “They have our babies!”

Chelo looked into my eyes. “It’s true,” she whispered. “They took them today.” Her eyes welled with tears. She looked from me to our father to Jenna, her energy that of a trapped animal. In spite of the loss painting her face wet, her voice sounded firm and completely controlled as she declared, “We aren’t going anywhere without them. We can’t. You understand that.”

I did understand. She and I had been abandoned. I glanced at my father, who flinched away. His free hand on the chair shook.

The real import of her words struck me. Chelo had children. Or Chelo and Kayleen had children. I stood gaping, like a stranded fish.

My father was the first one who found his voice, and spoke into the deep silence that had settled on the room. “Of course you’re not leaving. We’re not leaving.” He stared at Chelo. “I left you. I shouldn’t have ever left you.”

He hadn’t said that yet. His words slapped something angry away
from me, leaving an open, raw space. He looked at me, then back to Chelo. “I’m sorry.”

She hesitated for a long second, her face softening. “I know,” she said. “We’ll have another day for that. We have to save Jherrel and Caro.”

My father looked tenderly at her. “Tell me about it.”

Kidnapped. Stolen. My sister’s children. I would be their uncle.

Alicia pointed at the skimmer, grown larger in the viewscreen. “What about them?”

I glanced up at the skimmer, then over at Chelo. “Do you know what they want?”

Her expression tensed in an angry frown. “No. They’re hateful. They kill with no reason. Half of us are dead, Joseph. Half. Nava and Eric and Stile…”

If she could kill them right then, I thought she might. Whatever happened to turn my pacifist sister into this angry young woman? The kids? I needed her to think. What would Marcus do? Shock them. “Should I shoot them down?”

“No. Of course not. That would just make it worse.”

There, that was the Chelo I knew.

Kayleen spoke up, her eyes snapping with adrenaline. “We don’t know where Jherrel and Caro are. They stole them from the berry patch hours ago. They wouldn’t tell us why. They won’t talk to us about anything.” Apparently she’d recovered some from the data attack. She kept going, as confusing and intense as ever. “They brought the strongs. They wouldn’t let Chelo go with them, and I think they’d have been happy to kill me and Liam. They told Chelo we had something to do. I think they meant to find you.”

I turned to Chelo. Her jaw was clenched tight, her hand still tucked inside our father’s hand. She proclaimed, “We aren’t shooting at anything until we know where the children are.”