Sweet Starfire (39 page)

“I know.” Cidra’s mouth curved wryly. “The one look at his features that I got wasn’t very good. He had such an expression of horror and fear on his face and the light from those bugs was so bizarre that I doubt I’d recognize him again myself.”

“Well, if he knows what’s good for him, he won’t come near enough to you to let you have a look. Severance would feed him to a dracon.” Desma stopped short at the look on Cidra’s face. “What’s the matter? Did I say something wrong? It’s just an expression.”

“I know,” Cidra assured her hurriedly. “I’m still getting accustomed to Renaissance colloquialisms.” She blanked out her mental image of the last meal Severance had fed to the dracons and grimly went back to work on her greens.

“You’d better get used to the local slang,” Desma said cheerfully. “Severance spends a fair amount of time on Renaissance.” Her friendly eyes narrowed. “I take it you will be traveling with him for a while?”

“I’ll be traveling with him. As soon as he gets through behaving in his current stubborn, authoritarian, dictatorial manner.” Cidra’s smile thinned. “He’s insisting that I return to Clementia until he gets back from the run to
QED
.”

“Interesting,” Desma murmured. “Is that connected to the reason why he spent last night in the ship and you’re rooming with me again? Somehow, when I saw the two of you yesterday, I got the feeling that certain matters in your, uh, partnership had been resolved.”

“We don’t have a partnership. I’m just a member of his crew.” Cidra stabbed at a golden-skinned tuber. She was getting better at using a knife on food. “What do you make of the alien ship, Desma?”

“From what you’ve told me it could be almost anything from a lone scouting foray that went astray to a colony ship. Assuming it is an alien vessel. There’s still the possibility that the point of origin is somewhere in the Stanza Nine system. We may never know.”

“There were only five eggs. Hardly enough to colonize a new planet.”

“Perhaps there were several small ships headed somewhere else, and this one went off course.”

Cidra chewed her lower lip. “I hope this was just a lone ship, t would hate to think of facing a large number of those blue monsters.”

“The hatchling’s behavior when it emerged from the egg seemed entirely instinctive?”

“Oh, yes. All it wanted to do was eat. I think there was some kind of homing device built into the shell. Probably designed to lead it back to the ship eventually. Who knows what’s stored in that ship? Perhaps the equivalent of an Archive. Perhaps once led back to the ship, the young would discover their heritage. I imagine Renaissance looked like paradise to whatever piloted them here.”

“Well, it didn’t prove to be a paradise,” Desma observed coolly. “The machinery broke down and the hatchlings fell victim to the first intelligent predators who found them.”

Cidra swallowed uncomfortably. “Don’t remind me. Do you have any idea what it’s like to know you’ve wiped out the five surviving members of an intelligent race?”

“Don’t start feeling guilty. From what you’ve told me the first hatchling was going to eat Severance for lunch. Probably would have turned on you next.”

Cidra nodded gloomily. “You know, it was strange, Desma. There’s no sense of alienness about the Ghosts. They’re different from us and we’re fascinated by them, but we’re more or less comfortable with the idea that they belonged in this system. It wasn’t the same with the blue creatures. They felt wrong, somehow. I hated that hatchling on sight.”

“Small wonder. You’ve still got your primitive human instincts, Cidra, even if you have been reared in Clementia. I’m sure those instincts were working at full strength when you saw the egg crack. Your primary reaction was to protect Severance.”

“And a brilliant reaction it was too,” declared a new voice. Cidra glanced up in surprise as Severance grabbed a vacant chair, shoved it near hers, and sank down onto it in his usual sprawl. He looked extraordinarily pleased with himself. He signaled for a mug of Renaissance Rose ale and leaned back to smile smugly at the two women.

“I take it,” Desma said, “that you have concluded a successful negotiating session?”

“Right. And you’ll be happy to know that your firm coughed up the necessary credit to get first crack at the ship.”

Desma’s eyes gleamed. “Fantastic. Who got the safehold?”

“Vinton Archaeology.”

Demsa nodded. “They’ll do a first-class job. When do you show them their new finds?”

“We leave at dawn tomorrow. It’s a big event. Four skimmers and two research crews. After I’ve helped them locate the safehold and the ship, I’m going to take one of the skimmers on up the river to the ExcellEx camp. I’ve still got those reeting sensors to deliver. You don’t mind if Cidra stays with you for a few days?”

“Of course not.”

“She’ll be returning to Lovelady on the next commercial freighter. But it doesn’t leave until the end of the week.”

Cidra cut savagely into another tuber. “How much, Severance?”

He gave her a sidelong glance. “How much what?”

“Credit. How much did you get in exchange for the locations of the safehold and the ship?” She didn’t look at him. Her whole attention was on her meal.

“Five hundred thousand.”

Cidra nearly dropped her knife. “Five hundred thousand? Sweet Harmony, that’s a fortune.”

“I know.” The ale arrived, and Severance took a healthy swallow. His eyes were glittering over the rim. “A very nice stake.”

“Five hundred thousand.” Desma’s tone was awed. “Congratulations, Severance.”

“I’ll want a recorded contract for my share, naturally,” Cidra said. “Two hundred and fifty thousand.”

Severance set down his mug with great care. “I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me.” She continued eating the remains of the tuber. “I’ll want a contract. Properly sealed and recorded. And I’ll want it before you leave tomorrow morning. We’d better find a contract office tonight.”

Severance’s gray eyes slitted. “Why do you want a recorded contract?”

“You know the answer to that. Remember all those games of Free Market, Severance? The one lesson you drilled into me was that you can’t trust a Wolf. Always count the cubes before you start play. In the case of a two-way split of five hundred thousand, I’ll want to get it on tape and get it recorded.”

The frozen silence at the table was broken only by die sound of Cidra continuing to eat the tuber. Desma stayed very still, watching the other two from under her lashes. Severance just stared at Cidra, his gaze brooding and malevolent.

“You don’t need a contract and you know it,” he finally said.

“How do I know it? You’re taking off for
QED
as soon as you get back from this little jaunt up the river. After
QED
, who knows where you’ll go and what you’ll do? I may never see you again.” She smiled grimly. “I have to protect my share of the profits.”

Severance continued to glare at her for another moment, and then he turned on Desma. “Did you put this idea in her head?”

Hastily Desma put up a hand. “Not me. I had nothing to do with it.”

“I,” said Cidra calmly, “thought of it all on my own.”

“This is ridiculous.” Severance’s voice was tight. He took another large swallow of ale.

“A woman alone can’t be too careful.”

“This is a form of retaliation, isn’t it? You’re madder than hell because I’m sending you back to Clementia.”

Cidra waved her fingers in a graceful, airy gesture. “I’m merely putting into practice all the things I’ve been learning recently.”

“Yeah?” He leaned closer. “And what else that you’ve teamed recently are you planning to put into practice?”

Cidra smiled gamely even though she was fully aware of the newly erratic nature of her pulse. She had to struggle to control her breathing. Severance could be very intimidating when he chose. “You needn’t concern yourself with anything except the details of splitting the credit.”

“Why, you little…” He made an obvious effort at regaining control of his own temper. Then he slammed the half empty mug down on the table and got to his feet. “You want a recorded contract? All right, you’ll get one. We’ll take care of the details right now.”

“But I haven’t finished my dinner.”

“We do it now or not at all.” He turned to Desma. “You,” he informed her, “can act as a witness.”

Desma struggled to hide her amusement. “I’ll be happy to do so.” Quickly she paid for the meal and stood. “Ready when you are.”

The deed was done in almost total silence. By the time her signature had been recorded and her voiceprint used to verify it, Cidra was almost shaking. Severance was furious. He scrawled his name beside hers, barked into the voiceprint recorder, and escorted her out of the contracts office in a chilled silence. He didn’t speak until he had deposited the women at Desma’s door. Severance stood in front of Cidra, feet braced slightly apart, one thumb hooked in his utility belt. He was the very picture of a man scorned.

“I’ll see you when I get back.” His words sounded more like a threat man a promise.

“Fine.” Cidra hung on to her poise with sheer willpower, wrapping it around herself like an early evening gown. “I trust you will have a swift, safe trip.”

“Thank you for the kind wishes.” The heavy irony in Severance’s tone was enough to dampen any further gestures of reconciliation. “Just one more thing.”

“Yes, Severance?”

“You are now officially a very rich young woman. As long as my name was the only one on the credit account, no one would have bothered you. But as of tonight you’ve become a prize.”

“A prize?”

“Any reeting renegade who thinks he can talk you into bed and out of your credit will probably try.”

“I’m not that naive, Severance.”

“You’d better exercise some common sense while I’m gone. If I get back and find out you’ve done something foolish, I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” she challenged.

“I’ll feed whoever succeeded in seducing you to the river. And when I’m finished with him, I’ll tear several long and painful strips off your soft hide.”

Uneasily Cidra tried to outglare him. “You have no rights over me.”

“Don’t bet on it. Officially you’re still a member of my crew. And I’m still the pilot in command.” He stepped closer and seized her by the shoulders, pulling her against his hard body. “Good-bye, Cidra. Behave yourself while I’m gone or there’ll be hell to pay when I get back. I promise you.” His mouth came down on hers, quick and hard. Then he turned on his booted heel and started down the street.

“Severance!”

He halted and glanced back, his face set in forbidding lines. “What?”

“Don’t you dare give away those sensors. You make sure you get paid for delivering them, do you hear me?”

“I can hear you just fine. So can everyone else in the vicinity.” He vanished into the night.

Cidra awoke the next morning to find Fred collapsed across her ankle. She opened one eye and tentatively wriggled her foot. “Up and at ‘em, Fred. You can’t sleep all day.”

The rockrug wriggled into a more comfortable position. He had been as happy as a rockrug could be to see both Severance and herself when they had returned, although Desma claimed that he had made himself at home in her household. So much at home, in fact, that he had munched two of her valued exhibits before someone discovered he’d wriggled into a cage. The huge flutter moths inside hadn’t stood a chance. Fred had been discovered with a wingtip still draped rakishly from one corner of his mouth.

Cidra worked free of the rockrug’s light weight and headed for the large, comfortable lav. It was a joy to spend as long as she wanted under the invigorating spray without worrying about Severance reading her a lecture on conservation.

The thought of Severance sent Cidra into a reverie that lasted for nearly half an hour. The spray pummeled her as she considered her parting argument with the self-proclaimed pilot in command. He hadn’t been pleased by her lack of trust.

“Well what did he expect?” she demanded at Desma at breakfast. “Sometimes he makes me very angry. He’s being so arbitrary about packing me off to Clementia.”

“So arbitrary that you felt compelled to get even?” Desma poured coffade and savored the aroma.

Cidra winced. “I don’t know what came over me. I hadn’t planned to insist on a contract for my share of the credit. Severance would never have cheated me. But when he came into the restaurant looking so smug and in charge last night, I couldn’t stand it.”

“There’s nothing wrong with insuring your half of the deal.”

“Except that I insulted Severance in the process. I think he sees himself as having some obligation to protect me. He’s got a very overdeveloped sense of responsibility, Desma. That’s the real reason I’m being shipped back to Clementia. Severance feels obligated to give me a chance to make up my own mind about the future. He feels guilty for having pushed me into everything that happened here on Renaissance.”

“The decision to come to Renaissance was yours, wasn’t it?” Desma looked at her searchingly.

“Oh, definitely. But that doesn’t seem to keep Severance from assuming the responsibility.”

“Maybe it’s because you remind him of Jeude. He’s always felt responsible for what happened to his brother.”

“Well, I’m not Jeude. What’s more, I’ve learned that I never will be a Harmonic. The truth is,” Cidra added slowly, “I wouldn’t want to be one now, even if someone could wave a wand and turn my mind into a harmonically tuned brain.”

“Because of Severance?”

“Because of a lot of things. Severance is the main reason, but there are others.” Cidra paused, remembering the scenes in the safehold. “Wait until you see the tapes of the Ghosts’ history, Desma. It’s very sad. From what I can tell they were once a strong, aggressive race mat managed to control Renaissance. Then they moved on to populate Lovelady and
QED
. But they never went any farther. Something happened. It’s hard to tell from the visual record, but it looks as though they simply stopped expanding and started turning inward. For a while toward the end of the history, everything appears idyllic. The architecture is beautiful, the faces are serene, the lifestyle looks gentle and harmonious. But it doesn’t last long. There are no children in the later images, just fewer and fewer Ghosts, gradually fading away until the jungle swamps them. I realized later that it made me angry to see them just give up and die out. I wanted them to go on living, to fight back, to expand. Instead they became so serene and so passive, they lost the will to survive as a species. It made me think of what might happen if all humans suddenly became Harmonics.”