Supergiant (Gigaparsec Book 2) (12 page)

“
You
secured my
scholarship?” Emotions warred inside Roz. Part of her hated this woman for
interfering, whoever she was. The other part felt enormous relief to be free of
her own guilt at cheating. “How?”

“I visited the exam proctor the day
after I saw you. I reminded Niels of how my test had been given special
consideration.” Alyssa didn’t specify how the scholarship selection had been
rigged or why. Perhaps all the kind proctor had done was give Roz a chance to
make up for lost time. “After you went to university, I tried not to stray more
than a star jump or two away. After Herb caught me, I pulled in some favors and
limited your choice of assignments so you would move closer to us.”

“
You
did that?” Roz had been
certain the black-balling had been prejudice over her null status. “Are you
trying to be some twisted guardian angel?”

“I’m the oldest of our kind that’s
ever been. You need me, which is why your doctor friend brought me along. He
worries about you, too.”

I’m related to a mutant supercriminal
who manipulates people with no trace of guilt?
“Why?”

“Max is afraid that bending
probabilities will shorten your life.”

“So you’re not responsible for the
search warrant issued for my ship or the arrest of the Bat physicist we
mentioned in front of you?”

Alyssa put a hand over her chest.
“Oh dear, I’ll be right back.” She disappeared into the kitchen for a few
moments. The couple argued in hushed voices. When she returned, her mannerisms
were more subdued. “Initially, the arrest warrant was probably for me because I
violated my parole, but Herb worked another deal.”

“Another?”

“The Bankers took eight years off
my sentence. Herb had to agree to work for them for at least as long.”

“I’ll bet Max didn’t know that
detail.”

“Herb was already clear of that
obligation, but he had to give them something to convince them I wasn’t
stealing the Bat shuttle for the heist of a lifetime. His first thought was to
save our lives. An unregistered PM of our caliber scares a lot of important
people,
querida
. He told them you were using the shuttle to search for
the professor.”

“You two may have just wrecked my
career, not to mention Echo’s and Deke’s lives.”

“I’ll do what I can to resolve
this. I can be very convincing.”

Roz’s stomach knotted. How would
she tell Max? Then she examined the problem from another angle. This situation
wouldn’t have happened if he had told her Alyssa was family instead of acting
as though he knew best. The longer Roz brooded on this, the angrier she got.
She stormed out of the mess hall, looking to hand Max his head on a platter.

Roz tracked Max to the showers, where he was wrapped in a
towel and shaving. She blasted him with accusations and anger for minutes. He
calmly wiped the remaining lather off with a hand towel and didn’t react to the
abuse. Only when she noticed the small crowd outside the bathroom did she pause
to take a breath.

Casually Max said, “That would have
been terribly impressive if I spoke Spanish.”

Between her discussion with Alyssa
and her fury, she had neglected to switch back to English. Speechless for a
moment, she lost him as he slipped into the locker room.

Anger soon overcame embarrassment,
and she pursued. “Don’t you walk away from—ack!” The towels were draped over
his open locker door. She covered her eyes. Her badge beeped, but she muted it.
Probably Ivy wanting to know what he looks like.

“My shift starts in ten minutes,”
Max said. “If I wait for you to run out of steam, I might be late.”

He’s enjoying this
. The
locker door rattled, so she risked a peek. Every inch of him had wonderful
muscle tone. When he had slipped on underwear, she could speak. “You knew.”

“About?”

“My Aunt Alicia. Alyssa. Whatever
I’m supposed to call her.” Roz crossed her arms and watched him continue to
dress. “Did you even confirm her story before you lied to everyone? You
promised you wouldn’t hide things from me anymore!”

“As a doctor I can’t talk about my
patients, even the fact that I’m treating them.”

“Bull! You promised.”

Max scratched the back of his neck.
“Hypothetically,
if
someone made familial claims, I could have confirmed
them with DNA testing, as I already had your samples. Have faith that I would
never let a stranger hurt a member of my crew.”

“So you’re 100 percent certain
she’s my aunt?”

“I didn’t say that.” Max slammed
the locker, still holding his shirt in his hand. He strode into the hall almost
faster than she could follow. Alyssa, Herb, and Ivy obstructed the hall,
slowing his progress.

“What are you still hiding?” Roz
demanded.

“Problem?” asked Ivy.

“I may need to file a
sexual-harassment complaint,” Max replied, pulling on a dress shirt. “Since my
last disclosure, I’ve made certain we’ve never been alone together or
inappropriate. Miss Mendez violated that boundary this morning.
Someone
needs to have a talk with her.” He looked at Alyssa when he said this.

“Why would she care who I’m
indecent with or how? When she was my age, she gallivanted to the corners of
the galaxy, drinking, gambling, and giving herself to anyone with enough
money.”

Max held up a finger. “Don’t let
your anger with me spill over onto her. Don’t say anything else you’re going to
regret.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Roz
snapped.

A look passed between the
Greenbergs, and Alyssa won. “Don’t. I’m still mad at you for going behind my
back with the Bankers. What were you thinking?”

Ivy paled. “What?”

Roz said, “Oh, yeah. Herb was a spy
until recently. He just threw Crakik to the wolves and told the Bankers I was a
PM in order to keep his woman from going back to prison.”

Max escaped in the confusion.

Herb swallowed hard. “No. I only
told them you were a brilliant ship designer. I would never endanger—” He glanced
at his wife and clammed up.

A small needler pistol appeared in
Ivy’s hand. “Come to the infirmary with me. We need to discuss exactly what you
told them and when.”

Alyssa put a hand on Ivy’s arm.
“We’re all on the same side here.”

Jerking her arm away, Ivy replied,
“What side might that be?”

“Shiraz’s.”

“Where did Max go?” Roz said. “Damn
special-forces sneak.”

“If you don’t tell them, I will,”
Herb threatened. “It’s not fair to make me and the doctor suffer because you’re
a coward.”

Alyssa’s glare could have melted
iron. “Oh, someone’s going to suffer.”

Ivy waved the pistol again, and
Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Just stop. I took the darts out last week.”

Ivy frowned and tipped the muzzle
down to check the ammunition arrow on the handle.

Herb moved quickly and knocked the
weapon to the ground. Alyssa scooped it up with practiced ease, aiming it at
Ivy’s midsection, but Herb said, “Pop the clip and hand it back to her. Any
misfire might hit Max.”

With a sigh, Alyssa complied.

Ivy asked, “Why would I shoot Max?
He’s not even here.”

“You might trip when you run to
warn him. You wouldn’t mean to,” said Herb, “but the girl is pretty upset at
him. You’ve obviously never been the target of that talent. I have.”

Shocked, Roz said, “I’d never harm
him.”

Herb raised his eyebrows. “On your
first date, he stood you up. You must have been pretty angry at him then.”

“At first, but we worked things
out.”

“Yeah? What happened to him as a
result of that fit of temper?” Herb asked.

Ivy answered, “Three guys beat the
crap out of him, but it was just a … coincidence.”

Herb nodded. “Tell me about it.
Until Alyssa had her operation, I can’t tell you the number of times I almost
got hit by a bus or slipped on the sidewalk. Hell, I couldn’t wear shoelaces
because they’d always break.”

“You’re saying it was my fault he
almost died?” Roz said, aghast.

“
Querida
, no. Someone else
had the intent. Your talent sort of connects intent with opportunity. You pick
the future where he’s very sorry he ever betrayed you, and it sort of happens.
His hurt is proportional to yours. You can’t communicate through the
Collective, so your talent finds other ways to underscore your suffering. How
angry were you this time compared to then?”

Panicked, Roz hit her comm button,
but Max refused her call.

Ivy was already on her badge
talking to Kesh. “Where is he now?”

“On the way to the shuttle bay.
Lord Aviar from Purgatory offered to bargain with him for the fuel we need. Max
thinks he can offer enough bootleg tellurium and vintage scotch to persuade
him. Deke agreed to ferry him over.”

“That’s the malicious intent.” Herb
said. “Aviar won’t kill Max, just torture him.” Bats had specialists for that,
too. As long as the subject didn’t die, the Union turns a blind eye to the
practice.

“Crap,” Roz said, sprinting down
the hall toward the shuttle area.

She managed to override the
external hatch before the shuttle launched. Deke cursed and demanded an
explanation. “Please. Let me on board so I can settle things with Max while you
fly down to the planet.”

On the radio, Deke said, “Lord
Aviar isn’t on the planet. He flew up to visit us personally. We can’t keep him
waiting. Besides, you and I can’t leave the ship at the same time.”

“Very well, have Aviar dock with us
and come aboard our vessel.”

“That’s not the way it’s done,”
Deke said.

“If you land that shuttle in his
ship’s bay, you won’t be coming back. I don’t want Max tortured.”

“What?”

“Trust me. I need to make up with
Max before the ambassador arrives.” Roz extended the gangway to the shuttle’s
door. “Hurry.”

Balancing air pressure took a few
moments, but she was at the airlock door when Max stepped through. “What are
you talking—?”

Roz leapt up, wrapped her arms
around him, and kissed Max hard. He responded, holding her weight with his
hands on her behind. Before she knew what was happening, she had her legs
wrapped around his torso, and he had her backed against a wall.

When she came up for air, her body
had some suggestions about what to do next. “There. All better,” she said, like
some British nanny in a children’s movie.

He nuzzled her throat, inhaling her
scent until he growled. “Easy for you to say. I can’t face a foreign dignitary
like this.” She squeezed closer to him until he closed his eyes in pleasure.
“Stop. This is agonizing. I promised.”

Whispering in his ear, she said, “I
think you’ll like this punishment better. Why did you run away?”

“Same reason I’ve been avoiding …
you,” he gasped. “Hard to hold back.”

“Mmm, but I like being around you.
Tell me more,” she purred, nipping at his ear.

Deke cleared his throat. “Royalty
is waiting!”

Alyssa and Ivy were watching the
action from a few paces down the outer-ring hallway.

Ivy said, “Don’t listen to him.
Eagles don’t pry apart until they finish.”

Roz tried to decouple with as much
dignity as possible. Max glanced down at her chest and noted, “Echo has a
necklace like that. What happened to my medal?”

Wiping her lips and straightening
her jumpsuit, Roz said, “Not relevant.” Her voice only squeaked a little.

“What aren’t you telling me?” he
asked.

Alyssa said, “Don’t spoil her mood
with logic. Deke, tell me what the ambassador might like to eat, and I’ll fix
it while you and Kesh arrange for him to come over.”

“This doesn’t make sense,” the Bat
complained.

“Darling, everyone else understands
completely.”

“Do I?” asked Max.

Ivy stepped forward to whisper,
“Strong emotions trigger her PM.”

His jaw dropped.

“Maybe you should let the other
shoe drop?” Ivy suggested.

Max looked at Roz with obvious
longing and angst. “I’d love to, but I promised.” He glanced up at Herb for
support.

“My woman has a whole closet full
of shoes,” Herb joked. “We’d be here all day.”

“Give me something, from your own
lips, so I can trust you again,” Roz told Max.

Ivy chuckled.

Herb said, “You can see why
protocol is to dose PMs with suppressant before puberty. Once it hits, they can
be a little erratic. That’s why I insisted we break the news to you slowly.”

“This was all your idea?” Roz
asked, her voice rising in pitch.

“She might need a tranquilizer,”
Herb said.

Ivy smiled. “At least this helps
explain why the talent died out—between the drugs and potential mates who have
mysterious accidents, it’s a wonder there are any left at all.”

“A lot of them were burned as
witches at the settlement on Jericho,” Herb said.

Ivy replied, “That would imply that
the talent follows—”

Herb interrupted. “Shouldn’t you
both be on the bridge?”

“Yeah,” Roz agreed reluctantly.
“Tell Reuben to pick up some black-market weapons the first chance he gets. I
don’t like feeling so vulnerable in my own ship.”

Max held her face, staring into her
eyes. When they were alone in the elevator, he said, “I introduced Alyssa to
Jeeves as a litmus test. He doesn’t jump into her lap like yours, but he sort
of treats her like a wounded member of the pack. Maybe you should, too.”

“Right. Drama later,” she said,
planning ways to extract the information from him. “Let’s save our ship first.”

The Bat ship had powered up its weapons before Echo
personally contacted Lord Aviar by radio. The Bat aristocrat was so intrigued
by a Magi with Human mates that he agreed to the meeting aboard
Sphere of
Influence
. In formal uniforms, Roz and Max greeted him at the airlock,
along with Echo’s hologram. Deke stood behind them to translate if need be. He
wore his prosthetic beneath a uniform with two complete pant legs and
well-polished dress shoes.

The lord had the darkest fur of the
lot, but he was also the shortest. He was accompanied by two hulking guards,
who were probably specialists in combat, and a female protocol specialist with
longer hair and four small breasts. The woman’s red silk sheath had plus-shaped
cutouts between the breasts and at the small of her back that drew Deke’s gaze
like a magnet.
I guess he hasn’t seen his own species since his accident,
and Aviar must surround himself with hot women
.

By Magi rules, none of them were
supposed to be armed, but Max carried his paralytic pistol in a medical bag. He
led the group to the gazebo by the koi pond in the birch-forest biozone.

The Bats chuckled among themselves,
but the AI translator in Roz’s ear picked up nothing. Deke was too busy
sniffing around the protocol woman to notice. When Roz prodded the copilot, he
replied, “They laugh at the reversal. You wear a man’s mantle while the male
plays host and caretaker like a woman.”

The table was arrayed with an
assortment of fruit and honey for their guests. Aviar breathed in the forest
air. “I’ll give you this much, you Magi know how to travel in style.”

Rather than let Echo speak, as they
had agreed, Roz took the lead. “Forgive our change of venue. It occurred to me
that you might attempt to use the warrant against me to hold my mate for ransom
or questioning. That would have been unfortunate for all concerned.”

The dark lord panted in amusement,
almost like a hyena. He could have been a demon or an Egyptian god of the dead.
“Your mate is a former soldier. ‘You make horseshoes from inferior metal, and
soldiers from inferior men.’”

“Sun Tsu,” she said, completing the
quote and refusing to take offense. “According to Zeiss, the highest calling of
a soldier is to make war a thing of the past. My Max has captured more Phib
warriors than your entire navy has met.”

The good doctor reacted slightly
when she referred to him as “my” Max.

“Enough of this pissing contest,” Aviar
said. “Tell me why I should deal with criminals?”

“In the eyes of Bat law, our
actions on Deke’s behalf could be deemed noble. Accusation and proven guilt are
different things, as you should know from personal experience,” she replied.

“Ha. I’m far worse than the crown
suspects.” Aviar regarded her for a moment. “So you’re the adversary in the
triad relationship. This should be interesting.”

Roz had done some studying after
the exchange of promise tokens with Echo. In the complex Magi marriage, the adversary
had the responsibility to challenge any decision made solely on the basis of
tradition. In her view, this wasn’t much different from the tenets of feminism.
“If a custom is wrong or ineffective, we change it. No progress comes from
blind slavery to the past.”

Aviar grinned wolfishly. “Oh, bless
you child. I think we may come to a meeting of the minds … in private.”

Attendants on both sides looked
nervous. Roz waved her people away, trying to project brazen authority. She
knew they would be listening in elsewhere, ready to charge to her rescue. Deke
opened the hatch for the protocol woman to exit. If he had a tail, it would
have been wagging.

When Aviar and Roz were alone, the
lord said, “I’ll trade you the blade and its pilot for the fuel you need to escape.
All your problems vanish like the dew.”

“We have need of the knight. He
will be our guide on our quest into your kingdom.”

“If you will not yield to my
authority, what could induce me to release your ship from our docking clamps
before the
Marco Polo
arrives?”

Roz ran over the inventory in her
mind. “Tellurium, fine scotch, and power crystals.” Aviar yawned, so she added,
“Music libraries—”

“What sort?” His ears were alert.

She shrugged. “A multi-terabyte
sampling of about five hundred years’ worth of culture, whatever the customer
wants us to burn onto it.”

“What music do you listen to?”

“While I’m doing design and repair
work? Schubert’s nice.”

Aviar closed his eyes and breathed
deeply. “Schubert is
sublime
.”

Roz announced, “Minder, broadcast
my playlists through the gazebo speakers, starting with Concentration.”

The mournful viola thrummed soon
after. Aviar said, “Do you know what my crime was? I played music like this on
a violin. I was so good that they accused me of leading the youth astray. The
priests compared me to Satan in your religion, setting myself up against the
true music of heaven.” Aviar removed a leather glove and showed that his right
hand was missing the forefinger. “They removed the threat of my bow,
conditioned me with torture never to play again, and shipped me here.”

Horrified, Roz said, “Specialists
see things in black and white when reality appears in shades of gray. We intend
to sell tons of memory devices loaded with music throughout your realm.”

“That is a worthy trade. Since my
fall, I have since resolved to become the very villain they fear. Tell me what
you really need. I am sure we can come to some accommodation. My boarding party
can satisfy the official search warrant on your vessel. After questioning you
and ‘confiscating’ all of your tellurium contraband, I can give you fuel and
letters of introduction to accomplish any foul mission. No money can change
hands. There must be no ansible records for the authorities to follow.”

The price was high, even if he
topped off the hydrogen tanks. However, she decided to trust him, or at least
his hatred of the establishment. “We need to locate someone recently accused of
treason—Physics Professor Eesan Crakik.”

“I will consult the ansible
gleaning for relevant information.” Lord Aviar fiddled with a computer unit at
his hip.

“The what?”

Lord Aviar said, “Ansibles
broadcast to everyone by their nature. It is only at the receiver that we
filter those messages meant for our ship or our category. People have to employ
filters because the aether is constantly transmitting something. Bank prices
per byte increase annually because the number of transmitters is always
increasing for the same limited resource. Bats are penultimate listeners. We’ve
learned to disable the filters and listen to everything.”

“Even the bank updates? Aren’t
those coded?”

“Many interesting messages are sent
plaintext when people assume the channel is private. Even bank codes may be
broken over time. Information is more important than gold to rulers.”

She left him alone with his keypad.
Did having an ally such as this make her team evil as well? Did such labels
matter anymore given the enormity of her goals?

****

Lord Aviar took so long at his computer pad that the weary
Roz fell asleep listening to her Insomnia music playlist. The Bat lord woke her
over an hour later. “You flatter me with your trust.”

“I am confident in my mates and
your desire to see justice done.”

He snickered at the word. “Justice.
The foundation is rotten, and there are rats in the wainscoting. The royals
can’t hold much longer, and I will be alive to watch them fall. I will be Nero
who fiddles while the outdated aristocracy burns.”

Crazy much?
“What did you
find out about the professor?”

“I wish he were real.”

“Pardon?”

“The case against him is constructed
from mostly circumstantial evidence. Years ago, he was transported to the
Mnamnabo system to study the sun-killer device.”

“He is a brilliant theoretical
physicist, and even the Union doesn’t know how Xerxes built his device.”
Unless
the Enigma Cube taught him how.

“A recent financial transaction
shows a rebel group paying Crakik to translate this skill into creating a
bomb—one that will target the smallest star in the Carousel, crippling the Bat
economy forever. He stands accused of crimes against the Void and attempting to
silence the Voice.”

The implications staggered her.
Could the subbasement drive submerge suns? They were certainly perfect spheres
with all the necessary hydrogen. Had the Black Ram perverted this wonder of
science into a lethal weapon? How horrible. What damage would this inflict on
subspace? Could someone like Crakik reproduce the weapon from residual hints?

Her panic must have shown on her
face because Aviar said, “Please, I told you this was pure fiction. I’m the
leader of the terrorist group who allegedly paid him, and I commissioned no
such weapon.”

She blinked. “That would mean the
Bankers lied.”

Aviar covered him mouth in mock
surprise. “And used a cipher they knew the royals had already cracked? To what
end?”

“To bury any knowledge he might
have about star-drive improvements and eliminate his usefulness to us,” Roz
said.

“All the more reason for me to
speed you on your way.”

Roz stood. “So you’ll testify at
his trial?”

Lord Aviar actually laughed. “No,
child. Even if I were willing to implicate myself and they believed me, we
would never reach the throne world in time. Besides, most of the guards here
are tasked with keeping me outside the kingdom.”

“Then what can we do?”

“Nothing. He’ll be convicted in a
few months and shipped off to the supergiant long before you can reach the
throne world.”

Roz had pulled up the star charts
on her suit cuff to confirm the length of the route, so she missed specifics of
the professor’s destination. Perhaps the translator was faulty. “Sorry. Did you
say supermax prison?”

“Though my government has little
compunction about torture or thin evidence, they adhere to the sanctity of
life. Those who we never wish to see again are shipped to a system from which
there is no escape. Niisham is a single-star system containing a massive
supergiant star. This means that while it has a single easy-access point
through the nearby Niishamboor system, there is no way out faster than light.”

Gravity lanes worked between stars,
with the heaviest gravity well pushing deeper into Einstein’s rubber sheet.
Lanes always traveled one direction, from lighter gravity sources to heavier.
That was why most populated systems were binary stars of different weights,
making two-way commerce possible. However, nothing outweighed a supergiant in
this sector. The Bats had transformed a one-way nexus into a secure prison
colony, the way the English had used Australia.

Roz panned Deke’s military star
charts hubward to examine Niisham. “How does anyone get in? I mean, is it a
ship graveyard?” Such a no-return journey would cost billions and several crew
members, an insane price tag.

“Every decade before the war, we
subcontracted Phibs and Saurians to ship in prisoners. The prison colony mines
rare earths and heavy metals common to the vicinity of a supergiant, which they
trade to the foreign ships for supplies. Once the transfer is complete, the
cold-blooded crew places itself in freezers for the long journey home. They use
solar sails to help the acceleration, but the trip still takes more years than
a warm-blood could survive. There have been many escape attempts, but the only
Bats who return from that system are dried husks.”

“There’s no way out?”

“Many of my friends and family have
been sent there already. If there were a way to freedom, I would have paid for
it,” Aviar insisted.

Roz did some math in her head.
Intercepting the professor at the gateway system of Niishamboor was just barely
possible. “How long could we stretch out the trial?”

“They’re normally open-and-shut,
before a military magistrate, and behind closed doors. The crown will prepare
its case during the months the professor will take to journey to the throne.
Trial and sentencing should take a week or two at most.”

Roz chewed her lip. “Could you use
your influence to stall, both his trial and transport?”

“Why?”

She tapped the chart. “Because
we’re not that much farther from the prison than he is. We might be able to
beat him there, or at least get to him before the next cold-blooded express to
Niisham departs.”

“No, I meant, why would I help
you?” said the Anubis-like lord.

“So you admit you
could
?”

“It would do you no good. The
military wouldn’t let you take him.”

“I only need to talk to him. An
hour or two might do.”

Aviar raised an eyebrow, a Human
touch. “A very important question. It must be worth a great deal to the Magi to
travel so far.”

Roz glared. “How much for say three
or four months?”

“I would like you to carry sealed
correspondence to the systems along your path.”

“About ten populated stops. How
many kilos?”

The Bat lord shrugged. “About a
quarter ton … each.”

Her eyes grew large as she
attempted to stay calm. Kesh would blow a neck vein. “We have limited space in
our non-perishable stasis, around thirty-three cubic meters.”

“Strictly inorganic.”

“Would this be considered
smuggling?”

“Not until the cargo leaves your
hold. I’ll place each under diplomatic seal, to be opened only at the target
system. The contacts can also help you distribute your musical recordings in a
safe and profitable manner.”

“We won’t do drugs or weapons,” Roz
said.

He panted in amusement. “I intend
something much more potent—portable radio stations will be the seeds of my
revolution. Music for the masses.”