Dana Cartwright Mission 1: Stiletto (35 page)

Dana blinked, still caught up in the images of Kieran and the crash of
Stiletto
on the Observatory landing zone. It was all so vivid. A tear trickled down her cheek.

Korwin felt the need to bring her back to the present. “Captain? Is it safe to return to the space dock?” He fired up the engines.

“Actually, it’s late for you two. Request a landing at the Star Service Academy and you both can head home. I’ll deliver LittleJohn to your father later in the day.”

“Navigator, I need a course?”

Dana shook herself and set about doing the calculations. “Course ready and on your screen, sir,” she responded formally.

“Thank you, Cadet,” Korwin grinned, “Engaging...”

Dana settled down on the sofa many hours after midnight local, without even a look at the chronograph or the messages on her viewer.

Over and over, she reviewed with a wary eye the quick hop to Centauri and back. Long ago it would have taken five years to reach Earth’s nearest neighbor, but it took them only five hours each way.
 

Captain Skein had taken a big chance. He’d endangered them all, by her way of thinking. What if something had gone wrong? Did he have Ambassador Kord’s permission?

Dana sighed, thinking, “It was kind of fun, finally solving the mystery around the crash of
Stiletto
, not to mention making a ten point zero landing with
Trident
.” She felt exhausted and elated.

“Befriending Korwin could prove to be the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” she said. “We make a good team.”

With a sigh, fighting down a wave of melancholy, “I just wish I could have flown with Kieran.”

Thinking of him made her sad and the tears flowed. “But he’s an entanglement,” she spouted with a snarl. “Though he gave me some incredible gifts. If I never see him again, I will always have the memories... Of Puff. Of soaring over the canyon at Forever Pointe. And of touching the sky...”

She hugged a pillow to her chest, closed her eyes, and went flying.

Though still exhausted and yawning deeply, Dana was up and at the viewer catching up on messages when Korwin peered in from the patio.

“You’re moving slowly,” she commented, seeing his demeanor.

He nodded. “I didn’t go straight to bed. I played with this awhile.” He had her med-kit in one hand and his padlet in the other, and something weighing heavily upon his heart.

“DD? I…” He handed over the med-kit by the strap. “Please don’t be offended. I have to return your gift.” He waited until she took it. “Even wearing the N-link, this has too many emotions attached.”

Her left eye narrowed. “You’re that sensitive?”

He nodded.

“Well, I’ll get you a new one then. After class, we can MAT over to the doctors’ supply store.”

Korwin protested, “No, you really don’t have to do that.”

“But I want to,” Dana countered, “because every first-year medical student has to have one.”

Korwin wavered. “What gift could I get you in return?” His eyes lighted upon the three volumes of Shakespeare on her counter. “Are you a collector?”

Dana chuckled and sat back. “No, those were a gift.”

“From DOC?”

She shook her head from side to side and pointed to the middle book. “Open up
Macbeth
.”

He chuckled and reached for the middle volume. “I’ve read every play.” He laughed and quoted, “Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble…”

Dana laughed and applauded, “Well-spoken.”

“What’s a Turk?”
 

“Um, a resident of the ancient Earth land area in Asia called Turkey, I believe.”

He held the book up, “Any particular act?”

“Just open it,” Dana urged.

Korwin did. His eyebrows shot upward. “Oh!” He deliberated picking up the blade to inspect the handle and the ruby on the hilt, but decided not to. He could feel the ownership, but said nothing. “Sterillian blades are very, very valuable. They are banned on campus. Class four non-metal. Was it also a gift? Great hiding place, by the way.”

“Yes, yes and yes,” Dana answered.

He restored the book to its place. “Dana, he still loves you. I can feel it.”

She chewed her lower lip, admitting, “I still love him.”

Korwin nodded. “I feel that, too.”

“Maybe in ten years we’ll be ready to resume our…”

“Entanglement?” He said it to lighten the mood.

She sniffled and nodded.

Korwin quickly turned away, reminding, “We’re going to be late.”

She got up and went to shut down the viewer, gathered up her padlet and slung the strap of the med-kit over her shoulder.

As they rode down in the lift to the lobby, she kept silent. Once they were out on the street, she asked him, “Are you sure about becoming a doctor, Korwin? You know, you’ll be treating a lot of patients and…”

“Oh, I know what you’re thinking. I realized that myself last night. I’m way too sensitive. Before going to medical school, I’ll have to complete the mastery training. I have to learn how to selectively turn on and off my telepathic powers; and be confident I can tune out the thoughts I want not to sense. I wish… Well, it’s not open to women. I bet you’d do really well.”

“I’m thinking about the Eridani route,” she said. “I’m more empathic than telepathic.”

He nodded agreement.

“But I have to toughen up first.” Dana laughed, “And we have to ace the test today; or, at least do better than the Galaxean twins.”
 

He reminded, “We have to ace every test for the next two years.”

“We will,” Dana said with a grin. “We’re a team!”

He nodded.

They got on the last tramcar, though with most of the upperclassmen gone there were many vacant seats. Jad and another of the Alphan delegation security officers took seats in the row behind them.

Korwin caught Dana’s gaze and casually placed a finger to his lips in the sign of silence.

Dana winked and nodded, getting the distinctive telepathic message,
Later, DD.

She squinted with her right eye and sent back,
Later, PK.

DOC Cartwright poured a second cognac to get himself through a second viewing of his adopted daughter’s graduation from the Star Service Academy. He hadn’t been invited, but stumbled upon the recording of the event along with a news story.

He watched, using the viewer upon his desk, as his adopted daughter accepted an award for Academic Excellence, tied with Alphan Prince of the Elect, Korwin Kord.
 

Ambassadors Kord and Solon looked on with a handful of newly-decorated admirals, in the wake of the Imperial Agreement scandal that had taken down Admiral Bennett Cartwright and a dozen other Star Service officers.

Vice-Admiral Taleric of Centauri, Major Captain Brandenberg of the GCE and Admiral Vince Syzek presented the awards.

DOC Cartwright experienced the greatest affront, when Prince Kord received a scholarship to medical school, while Dana — Doctor Dana January Cartwright — received an assignment to the Flight Deck at Earth Station One.

More awards were being given.
 

DOC looked away, downed the last of his drink and then swiveled his chair reaching to pour another, muttering, “What a waste! A talented doctor, now a Lieutenant Commander on a flight deck, smelling of paint and grease and rust!”

As he held the third snifter of liquor, he stared off out the window toward the West and the majestic Rocky Mountains, and pondered that ages old question: “Where did I go wrong?”
 

Why had Dana resigned from Medical Center East and rejected an amazing career, throwing it all away like old coffee, with no thought of the bridges she was burning?

“Well, the welts on her wrists… No one planned for that,” DOC muttered looking back once again at the ceremonies before he turned off the viewer. “Empathic abilities were not common in either Galaxeans or Enturians. Surely the genetics lab had a clue to that? Surely… I need to go there and make certain those records remain sealed.”
 

DOC groaned. “Should I see Kyoko? Well, that’s another matter.”

He emptied the brandy glass and set it aside. It was becoming a bad habit. Better cognac than Castellan Ale. Cognac calmed him and helped him sleep, something he’d gotten scant little of since the letters began arriving from Colonel Jai.

He clenched his fist and pounded it down upon his mahogany desk, down upon the facsimile love letter, and scowled. The latest, sappy, cursive text spoke of marriage — of forever — of waiting another year until his SSID mission was accomplished.
 

DOC scoffed
 

Perhaps, after a year on the miserably cold flight deck, the Star Service could reassign Dana to some remote location where she’d be safe.

As for this third, facsimile love letter that arrived from Colonel Jai, DOC crumpled the pathetic attempt at prose, tossed it into the fireplace, and watched it burn.

Coming Soon

LANCER, The Dana Cartwright Series: Mission Two

KAL-KING, The Dana Cartwright Series: Mission Three

JOYZ W. RITER

Joyz has been writing Science Fiction and Fantasy since the early 1960’s but spent a good deal of time after film school crewing, writing and directing educational television. Other Science Fiction books by Joyz W. Riter are:
 

STILETTO: The Dana Cartwright Series Mission One

LANCER: The Dana Cartwright Series Mission Two

KAL-KING: The Dana Cartwright Series Mission Three
 

DYING FOR A DREAM

Visit Joyz W. Riter [Joyz Writer] in many online virtual worlds such as Second Life, Virtual Highway, and 3
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