Beyond Galaxy's Edge (11 page)

Girlfriend? With a frown, he followed her gaze and saw Aurina waving them over. He turned back to Nissa, watching her carefully. There was something there,
shifting her in unique yellow eyes. It made a slow smile break out on his face.

He leaned in closer. “You really think I’d have a girlfriend and still stick my fingers inside you and rub your clit until you came all over my hand?”

Nissa jerked, her cheeks flaming.

Justyn ran a finger down Nissa’s nose. “She’s my sister.”

“Sister?” Nissa started. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

“Half-sister.”
Not that the distinction made any difference to Justyn and his brothers. “It’s a long story that I’ll tell you another time. Aurina’s the scout for our convoy.”

“Oh.” Nissa shot another glance at Aurina. “She’s very pretty.”

“Let me check your ribs again.” He pulled the ice away and without warning her, yanked her shirt from her trousers and pulled it up.

“Justyn!” She slapped at his hands.

“Hold still.” He studied the bruise and swelling forming on her sleek side. His gut cramped. He hated seeing her skin marred. But even worse, he hated seeing the bruises in her eyes. “You spoke with the brass at GSS?”

“Yes.”

That one word held no inflection.

“That bad, huh?”

She shot him a look. “The admiral was thrilled to find out the Constitution revered throughout the galaxy is a
fake.” She let out a long breath. “That’s why I came in here looking to get drunk.”

“No transfer?”

“No, no transfer, Justyn. I’ll be lucky to get another promotion.” A thin smile. “Looks like the edge’ll be my home for a long, long while. My dad will be thrilled.”

Yep, Justyn hated those damned shadows. And damned if he wouldn’t do anything to make them go away. He stroked his thumb along
her jaw. “You think the real document is still out there?”

“I doubt it. It’s been thousands of years since it left Earth.”

For a brilliant, vibrant second, Justyn imagined it—the Constitution, lying somewhere, waiting for some adventurous soul to discover its resting place.

He gripped her shoulders. “Let’s find it.”

“Find what?”

“The US Constitution.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Are you
crazy?”

“No. Come on, Nissa. It’s out there somewhere.”

She shook her head. “No, the odds are it
isn’t
. It’s probably dust.”

“Don’t you want to make sure? Imagine if we actually found it.”

She paused, and he could see her thinking. He didn’t want this woman to get a transfer and leave the edge. But…well, a larger part of him just wanted to see her happy.

Besides, if he lured her on a
treasure hunt, they’d get to spend a hell of a lot of time together. He’d get a chance to convince her to take a chance on him.

She ran a hand over her head. “This is the most lunatic idea I’ve ever heard.”

Justyn shrugged. “I don’t know, I’ve come up with some crazy schemes before.” He smiled. “And most of those actually paid off.”

A reluctant smile. “I’ll bet.”

“Except for this one time…there
was this Gaian dancer, a lastite explosive, and a bar fight.” He shot her a wicked grin and pointed to his forehead. “That’s how I got my scar.”

“Do you take anything seriously?” She shook her head. “You can’t expect me to drop everything and go gallivanting around the galaxy.”

“Come on, Nissa. Take a chance. I happen to know the galaxy’s best treasure hunter, and his treasure-hunter brothers,
and his astro-archeologist wife. They’ll help us.”

Nissa looked torn, then her face turned serious. It was what Justyn called her “captain” face.

“I have a job. I have duties and—”

“Responsibilities. I know.” Disappointment was a bitter taste in his mouth. But then an idea sparked. He gave a careless shrug. “Well, I’m going after it.” He started to turn away. “Make sure you get your CMO
to take care of those ribs for you.”

“Wait!” She grabbed his arm and yanked him back around. “What do you mean you’re going after it?”

“I enjoyed our mission to Alchemia. I think treasure hunting is kind of fun. And if I find the Constitution, it’ll be very, very lucrative.” He raised a brow. “More so than say…smuggling. If I was inclined to smuggle.”

A crease appeared between her brows.
“You’d give up a priceless artifact for just the finder’s fee?”

“Nope.”

Her frown deepened. “You’d sell it to the highest bidder?”

“Damn straight.” He wouldn’t but she didn’t need to know that.

“You can’t go after it!”

Justyn held his arms out. “Free galaxy. You can’t stop me.” He headed back toward his table. His brothers and sister were watching him with undisguised interest.

Nissa
gripped his shirt and pulled him back a step.

“If you’re going after it, then I’m coming with you.” She drew herself up. “To ensure you hand it over to the Institute for the finder’s fee only. No selling a priceless document to some black-market dealer.”

Justyn barely contained his smile. “You’re on, Captain Smooth.” He slung an arm across her shoulders. “Let’s go treasure hunting.”

Goddess help her
. Nissa hitched her bag higher on her shoulder and tried to ignore the flutter of butterflies winging their way around her insides.

She was on a leave of absence.

She stepped off the travel tubes and entered the station’s main docking arm. She’d just left the
Resolute Freedom
under Drayna’s command.

As of right now, she wasn’t Captain Nissa Sander, GSS Patrol.
She was Nissa Sander, treasure hunter.

And partner of Justyn Phoenix.

Business partner, she corrected.

She circled around a crowd of freighter crew loitering in the corridor and moments later reached docking bay 253, temporary home of the Phoenix convoy ship, the
Sky Nomad
.

Heading up the enclosed ramp, she tried to ignore the voices in her head telling her she was crazy, irresponsible,
insane. Funny, but most of those voices sounded an awful lot like her father.

Reaching the large ship door, she pressed a button on the panel beside it. Before the intercom activated the doors opened.

Justyn leaned on the doorjamb. “Hey, Smooth, welcome to the
Sky Nomad
.”

She stepped in and let him take her bag. “Thanks.”

“You get those ribs taken care of.” He gestured her down a wide
corridor.

“Good as new.” The ship was big. “A retrofitted freighter?”

“Yep, she’s an Ashrian starfreighter.” Sturdy glass windows gave glimpses into organized cargo bays. “We need enough cargo space to take on provisions for the convoy. Food, weapons, medical supplies.”

“And passengers?”

“We take on a few. Mostly the convoy is made of travelers with their own starships, but for the right
price, we’ll carry a few on the
Nomad
.”

“Do you have a large crew?”

“Not too many. Rynan has a couple of security guys and a medic. Dare has a couple of bridge crew and maintenance. And Aurina is often aboard, when she isn’t out scouting ahead of the convoy. Looking for the safest routes and any trouble we might want to avoid.”

“When’s the next convoy leave?”

“In a few days. Following
what we call the Colony Route. It’s a popular route for colonists looking for uninhabited worlds and missionaries out to save souls. Dare’s still accepting a few travelers and organizing the last of the supplies.”

He showed her the large galley and dining room. The huge, open room had floor-to-ceiling windows, loads of tables set up in rows, with a well-equipped galley at one end. A few food
printers were also set into the wall for anyone who wanted to grab quick snacks outside of meal times. A rec area adjoined the dining room and was filled with comfy couches, holo-screens and some high-tech holo games.

“Come on, the others are waiting for us.” Justyn led her through more corridors. He paused outside a set of double doors. “Nissa, while you’re here, you’re not Patrol anymore.
You’re one of us.”

Something fluttered in her chest. “I know.”

“Beyond the galaxy’s edge, we only have each other to depend on. You can’t have mixed loyalties. You’re loyal to the hunt, otherwise you could get us all killed.”

“I understand, Justyn.” And she did. Beyond the edge, she wasn’t Captain Sander anymore. She was just Nissa. Part of the Phoenix crew.

With a nod, he pushed through
the doors and they entered Rynan’s domain.

The security center was all slick, flat holo-screens and humming computer consoles. Most of the screens displayed various star maps with color-coded marks flashing on them and various routes marked. One map was projected in three dimensions, hanging in the center of the room. Rynan sat in a big black chair, working at a computer console. Dare was there
as well, leaning against the wall, one leg crossed in front of the other.

“Just in time,” Rynan said, swiveling his chair to face them. “We’ve linked up with Dathan and Eos.”

Nissa turned to the holo-com where a man and woman appeared.

She recognized both of them. The year before, the dashing Dathan Phoenix and Dr. Eos Rai had been all over the galactic news with their discovery of Star’s
End, the legendary resting place of the Terran treasures of the New Louvre. The treasure hunter and his beautiful wife had donated the fabulous treasures to the Institute of Historical Preservation, although the last surviving fragment of the Mona Lisa had never been found.

Nissa suspected it was nestled safely in the Phoenix’s private collection.

“Dathan, Eos, I’d like you to meet Captain
Nissa Sander. She’ll be helping out on the hunt,” Justyn said.

On the screen, Eos nodded with a smile while Dathan’s face remained impassive.

“Captain?”

“GSS,” Nissa said. “On leave.”

Dathan raised his eyebrows. “Not like an employee of GSS to skive off on a treasure hunt.”

“She’s here to make sure I don’t do something nefarious with the Constitution,” Justyn said. “She thinks I’m a
scoundrel.”

“You
are
a scoundrel,” Nissa said.

“Ah, makes sense now.” Dathan’s smile was wide.

“The document you recovered was really a fake?” Eos asked.

Nissa nodded. “My science team verified it. It’s the document that was in the museum but it’s not the real deal.”

“Incredible.” Eos’s gaze turned inward. “My contacts at the Institute tell me they’re busy running the other key artifacts
through a battery of tests. There are quite a few embarrassed astro-archeologists. So far, everything else is coming up legitimate.”

“Good to hear.”

Eos played with the end of her dark braid. “So now we need to work out what happened to the original Constitution.”

“Yes.” Justyn pushed a chair toward Nissa and settled into the one beside her. “Eos, do you know how the Constitution and the
other Galactic Constitution Codices came into the Institute’s hands?”

“It’s a fascinating story.” The woman’s golden eyes lit up. “I’ll just focus on the Terran documents. The Rendarian Codex and the Pact of Star’is, while very important, are obviously not from Earth and not as old as the others. The three Terran documents were found together in cache buried on Alpha Centauri Bb, a planet in
the Alpha Centauri system.”

“That’s the closest star system to Earth, right?” Dare asked.

“Correct.” Eos steepled her hands. “It’s a binary star system with only one habitable planet very similar to Earth.”

“I’ve heard of it,” Nissa said. “The location of Earth’s first space colony.” Back in the early days of interstellar travel.

“It was also the location of the Uffizi Gallery II, a museum
named after a famous old Earth museum. Records tell us that the original US Constitution and Magna Carta were displayed there, along with an e-record of the United Nations Charter.”

“Go on,” Justyn prompted.

“No one knows exactly what happened to the colony at Alpha Centauri Bb, but it was destroyed, probably by the Vorta.”

Nissa knew that the Terrans’ first contact with the warlike barbarian
species had not been friendly. Even today, the Vorta stuck to their own space.

“No one knew if any of the Uffizi II’s treasures were saved. It was widely believed everything had been lost. Until a woman named Sarah Battista discovered a cache of Terran artifacts whilst digging on Bb a thousand years ago.”

“Battista? Sounds familiar,” Justyn said.

Eos nodded. “Not surprising. She was one
of the early pioneers of astro-archeology and a founding member of the Institute.”

“So, Battista uncovered the Constitution.” Nissa said.

“Yes, and the other documents. And work was done, right there on site, to confirm their authenticity.”

“Truth or lie?” Justyn asked.

“From the records and images I’ve seen, all the documents that came out of the ground on Bb were real. The manuscripts
were checked again before they were transported to the New Metropolitan Museum on Davyn V.”

Justyn tapped a finger against the armrest of his chair. “So, the Constitution was either stolen en route to Davyn V, or it was swapped out for the fake in the New Met Museum some time during the last thousand years.”

“I think it’s highly unlikely it was swapped out in the Museum,” Eos said. “It had
tight security—” she pulled a face “—although it
was
stolen during the gala. But I have it on good authority that the Magna Carta and the UN Charter have been dated again and they are legitimate. Nothing else is turning up as fake.”

“So during transport, then?” Nissa said.

Dathan cleared his throat. “All…people interested in artifacts know they’re most vulnerable during transport.” He shot
his wife a rueful look.

Hmm
. Nissa wondered how many artifacts Dathan and his brothers had acquired during transport.

“And these documents would have been tempting targets,” Rynan said.

“Very. That’s why Battista came up with an ingenious plan. Each document was transported on a separate ship. Each had a different, circuitous route to Davyn V.”

Now they were getting somewhere. Nissa leaned
forward. “Who took the Constitution?”