The Loranth (Star Sojourner Book 1) (3 page)

I stared at the Calypso Memorial in the center of the square, that charred twist of hull that is the carcass of man's first expedition to Tartarus.

“Guess I won't need hiking boots after all,” someone said behind me.

I turned quickly. “Jack!” Out of uniform this time. 'Crotes! Are you polishing your 'sneaking up on criminals' technique?”

'You're easy, Julie.” He waved at the manta and it banked away. “You never have both feet in this world anyway.”

I nodded toward the police station. “Yeah, but I wish I hadn't promised you.”

He flicked a look at the transmitter bracelet and grinned his crooked grin. “You know I always trusted you.”

We both stepped back as an eight- foot-tall Altairian bounded across the narrow sidewalk on four long stalk legs. A methane and ammonia filled rebreather covered his head like a fish bowl.

A hose undulated from its port to a sealed pack on his back. He wore a shiny black suit that covered his entire body, like a diver's. I guess he was a diver, really.

Some of the ground cars and pedcycles wheeling by in the dusty street had odd shapes to accommodate their drivers.

“I told you the town's growing,” Jack said.

I watched the Altairian disappear around the corner, tail slamming the ground. “By leaps and bounds.”

Jack chuckled. “C'mon, I'll buy you that drink.”

“Before the Big H?”

“Sure.” He winked, took my sleeve and started us across the street. “The old groat keeps me waiting all the time. And you came in earlier than I expected.”

I thought of my flight down on Gretch's back and nodded.

Jack didn't sound like the tag I knew, the one with a wife and seven kids plus to support. “Have you been drinking already?” I asked him. “It's early in the day.”

“Never too early.' He chuckled. “Sometimes too late.”

I raised brows. This was not the spiker who showed up at my sanctuary, but off duty Jack, a sociable tag who enjoyed drinking with a friend. Could I get him drunk? Drunk enough so I could sneak out and call Gordie after all?

“Anyway, Hallarin's at a Planning Board meeting,” he said.

“Oh yeah, what're they planning?”

“Capital punishment for speeders!” he yelled as we stepped back to avoid a car. Its wind ruffled my shirt.

“Damned Vegans,” he muttered as he watched the vehicle weave down the street. “They'll never get the hang of driving.”

“Their eyes are set too far to the side for binary vision,” I explained.

“That it?” The vehicle careened around a slow truck and I watched a ground squad car pulled out, lights and sirens on.

Jack smirked. “The Big H runs a tight planet. Sooner or later criminals get their due.”

“That's not funny.”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.”

We reached the sidewalk and walked past the United Worlds Embassies. The square, a child's cube structure, also housed a Galactic Interstel Government branch office. The worlds' capital was on planet Alpha.

“Hallarin's out to make this town the safest settlement on the twelve colonized worlds,” Jack said. “I'd take a fifty deduct bet the committee's coming up with more ordinances to make it harder to stay legal.”

“Is this some kind of reformation he's undertaking? Clean out the lowlife and sharpen the guillotine?”

Was I part of it?

Jack must have noticed my worried expression. “You know how he is, Julie. Everybody from the Institute's a fool that's got to be led around by the nose!”

I smiled at Jack's imitation of Hallarin's favorite cliché.

“And I'll bet,” he continued on a lighter note, “the old groat's beginning to think about leaving memorials behind, like those safety plaques he's so piss fond of. Are you still a gin and tonic man?” he asked as we entered the Homeward Inn. “They got native squeeze here that's so potent it should be outlawed as an explosive. Great stuff.”

“It's your deduct. Surprise me.” I flicked him a glance.

“Explosives sound good to me.”

I never could drink Jack under the table. But then, I never had a reason as good as this one.

The room was hazy with cigarette smoke, rank with alien odors of crushed leaves and ground chemicals that had effects on their metabolisms we humans probably couldn't imagine. One Cleocean sat quivering in a corner, his fins embracing a large luminescent crystal, his eyes tearing, snout drooling amber liquid into fur as he rocked.

Jack nodded toward him. “Those crystals are illegal. Don't know where in hell they're coming from, but they make you dream things like it was real. We're seeing more an' more of 'em all the time.” He shook his head. “Could be a real problem someday.”

“You mean they affect humans too?”

“Oh yeah. Big Time.”

“Did you ever, ah…”

“Let's just say it's a siren call.”

“And leave it at that? I commented.

“And leave it at that. But the government's heard rumors of a Terran dream czar on planet Halcyon.”

The live entertainment consisted of three Dinean boneslicers whose worn vocal chords grated stonefry tunes from their homeworld. It was alien to me.

Around us a murmur of clicks, grunts, clucks, stelspeak, and the hiss of someone's pet lizard. More than a few of the many customers crowding the circular bar and tables looked none too steady. One Vegan crouched on an artificial ice floe. He peered beneath it and sniffed with his broad snout, as though hunting fish on his native planet, Kresthaven. I always liked Vegans. They were a bulky, slow-moving, white-furred gentle folks, unless they were hunting.

“Two Dinosaur Breaths!” Jack called to the woman tender when we reached the bar. He lit a cigarette and contemplated smoke while we waited. “Did you 'gram the letter,” he asked casually.

“Hell, no. I can send it free from jail.”

“He only wants to talk to you, Jules!”

The tender had long legs and a short skirt. I stretched to watch her from over the counter.

Jack blew smoke. “I been up most of last night, thinking. If Hallarin had any real evidence of criminal negligence in your case, Julie, he'd of had you brought in a long time ago.”

I smiled at the tender as she poured our drinks and set them on the bar. She returned a tired nod and went to serve another customer. I lifted my glass, touched Jack's. “To Leone's Police Chief and his inscrutable motives.” I downed half the drink and choked. My throat felt seared. “What the hell's in this stuff?” I rasped

“They go down easier after the first few.” He gulped his and coughed.

“Yeah, by then they burn their own path.”

“Just don't light a cigarette.” He wiped his mouth. “I don't know, you used to be a good drinking partner.”

“Too good.” I swirled the crimson liquid in my glass. “What about the lawyer from Earth?”

“I been thinking about that, too. It's not above the Big H to start rumors for his own reasons.”

“You want to bet my life on that?” I sipped the drink. 'How's Randy's mother doing?”

“She, uh… Last I heard they were getting a divorce. She went back to Megacore Eight. Got family there.”

I stared at the Cleocean and wondered if the crystal would wipe away memories.”

“C'mon, Julie, the kid should've listened to you an' stayed away from the sick animals.”

“Tell Hallarin.”

“I already did.”

We drank quietly, each with our own memories to drown. I just sipped, but began to feel lightheaded. Jack bought the bottle. His hand wavered as he poured us more drinks. “Sometimes you remind me of my kids.” His words were slurred.

“How's zat?” I purposely slurred back.

“Always blaming yourself for the wrong things, never taking the real blame.”

I blinked to focus. “What the crote's that supposed to mean?”

He took the bottle, his glass, bumped into a column and almost fell over an Altairian sprawled on the floor as he made his way to a corner table. “Goddamned Altairians!” He muttered.

I followed and sat across from him. “What crote-fucking real blame?” I looked for my glass and realized I was holding it.

He poured me another drink.

“That's enough,” I said when liquid spilled over my hand. I sucked my wet knuckles.

“Every time I catch one o' my kids slipshodding, they get that same hurt look, you know?” His finger wavered in my direction. “It wasn't my fault, Dad!”

“Your kids…slipshuttle? Drink up, Cole.” I topped his glass. “What's shipshuttlin'?”

He shook his head. “Slipsliding. It's what we used to call moejoing. You remember moejoing? Oh, goddamn, being truant!”

“What the hell're are you talking about?”

“They always blame the truant officer for catching 'em, you see? Getting 'em into trouble. And when they come home with bad grades it's the teacher's fault. 'She hates me, Dad!' You understan' what I'm saying?”

I narrowed my eyes and thought hard. “No.” I took another sip and topped Jack's glass again.

“Neither do my kids. Ah, Julie!” He shook his head loosely. “Why the hell didn't you answer Althea when she wrote, seven…nine months… Hell, when she wrote! It's not Hallarin's fault. Annie says you can't expect a beautiful woman to wait forever. Sooner or later some tag's gonna come along.” He leaned across the table. “You know something?”

I shook my head solemnly.

“I never understood you.” He hiccupped and squinted at the floor.

I looked down, but saw only a blur of patterns. “Those lil' rats you're always searching for.

They -“

“They're not rats, Jack.”

He took another swallow.

I refilled his glass and motioned to it. “Drink up, you're falling behind.”

“So mice!” He swigged a large gulp and ran a sleeve hard across his mouth. “Are they more important than your own family? Huh?” He slammed the table. “I'm talkin' family, Rammis! Ah, mungshit!” He refilled my glass, spilling more liquid.

“That's none of your business,” I said softly.

“Oh, that's gratitude, ole buddy.” He waved the bottle, found his glass and filled it. “Real
gragitude
.”

“Gratitude for what?” I peered at him. He was cloning into two Jacks. A pair of Jacks! “Gratitude for a couple of gizzard breaths?”

He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a folded 'gram. “Annie says I should just give it to you and try to get you to write. Come on, drink up! I told her…told her you should talk to Hallarin first. See what the croteass wants.”

I stared at the 'gram. The room was reeling. So was my stomach. “Why's Annie want me to write to Hallarin?”

“She's a woman! They always want you to write. She's got me writin' to her mother. Can ya believe that?” He opened the 'gram and spread it on the table.

“I did write,” I said again. “I just…just didn't mail it.” I rubbed my eyes. I felt sleepy.

He poured more liquor over my glass. I watched it puddle on the table, then picked up my drink and sipped. “This toad breath's great stuff.” My face felt hot. I rolled the sticky glass across my cheek. The Dinean song sounded sweet and nostalgic. I closed my eyes and pictured green hills. How did they know about Earth?”

“Sure, buddy, I know,” Jack said, “everybody moejos once in a while, even Althea. But she coulda warned you first.”

Some of the mind fog dissipated, burned off by a sudden fear. “Warned me about what?”

He tried to light a cigarette, failed and ground it out cold. “Uh, didn't I already tell you?” He rubbed his forehead. “I shoulda listened to Annie an' brought you the damned letter last week when the tag…” He picked up the 'gram.

I drew in a breath between teeth. “Warned me about
what?
” The feeling of nausea that had unsettled my stomach grew worse.

“Tag in the spacegram office didn't know who you were, so he called him…I mean he called me the police.”

I pulled the letter from his hand, ripping it, and picked up the piece from the table. Liquid dripped off a trembling edge.

“Ah, Julie! You shoulda written. You shoulda gone home.”

I tried to hold the pieces together. The words seemed to run and I strained to focus. She had tried, she said. Really tried. Her and Lisa. She was sorry that I hadn't. She'd met an English teacher at Lisa's school. The words burned. “Al.” Something squeezed my insides until bile seared my throat.

Charles Kane, she said. I put the 'gram down, picked it up again. Charles Kane. He treated Lisa like his own daughter. He loves children. Sorry. She was sorry. Filing for divorce. Filing for divorce! I stared at a painting of an alien landscape hanging on a grimy wall. I could not seem to slow my breathing or loosen the tightness in my throat. I'll never forget that pockmarked desert of midnight suns and quicksilver gorges. I crumpled the letter in a tight fist and looked up at Jack.

“I'm sorry, Julie.”

“No! Don't be. She's got to give me another chance. I love her.” I felt tears. “Lisa… I was ready to go home, jack, I
swear
I was, if only Hallarin hadn't called me in! If you hadn't saddled me with this damned thing!” I pulled at the bracelet, felt it bruise bone. “She can't take Lisa away from me! Where's the code for this goddamn thing?”

He looked up from under a frown. “When was the last time you saw Lisa?”

“I have my work!”

“So have I, buddy.” He tapped his chest. “So have I. But you had a family an' that comes first.”

“I meant to -“
Filing for divorce.
My God! Suddenly I hated Jack's craggy face, staring at me. Judging. “Why didn't you bring me the letter at the sanctuary?”

“Why the hell don't you show up twice in the same place, 'stead of moejoing?”

“If I'd known about this, I would've gone home!”

“Yeah? Annie figured it was gonna happen, long time ago, so why the hell didn't you?” He pointed at me with his glass. “Don't lay it on other people. Write to her. Get down on your knees in the letter an' beg her for another chance.” His brows furrowed. “Unless you're just fooling yourself.”

People were watching.

“Thanks for the drinks.” I stood up unsteadily. 'If you ever come to Earth, don't look me up. Your jurisdiction doesn't extend that far.” I brushed past tables, stumbled toward the door, which was also cloning into two as someone opened it. “Neither does Hallarin's!”