The Prodigal Sun (7 page)

The reave’s voice echoed deep in Roche’s head, although the statement was intended for Cane. It was a strange and intimate kind of intrusion—almost a rape—and felt as though someone was using her brain to think their own thoughts. It was very different from the Box’s clear input, and Roche detested it. continued the Surin.

Roche watched from the other side of the cockpit as Cane kept his eyes still. Nothing was spoken aloud, but a conversation took place nonetheless.

The Surin’s tone was desperate. She was clearly uncomfortable in her restraints. you.
But, Roche— Yes, I am aware of what would happen if I tried. I’m just saying that I
could.
Why don’t you
believe
me?>

Roche cleared her throat pointedly. “Where’s Veden?” The couch next to the Surin was empty.

replied the reave.

Roche forced herself to reply civilly. “Thank you,” she said, “Maii.”

“Should I?”

“She’s telling the truth.” Cane finally wrenched his eyes away from the Surin’s. “He’s locked in the cubicle. The couch was too uncomfortable for an old man to be confined to for such a long period of time.”

Roche nodded. It seemed reasonable, she supposed. “What about you two?”

Cane shrugged noncommittally.

explained the Surin. Roche sensed amusement as the girl added:

Roche suppressed a shudder, and barely caught herself from using her training to keep the girl out of her head, if she could at all. There was no point. If the reave noticed her revulsion, she didn’t mention it.

“Maii, I want you to tell me about Veden. Who is he, and what were you doing with him?”

said the girl.

Roche turned to Cane, who shrugged. “She says they’re not really transportees—or rather, they are, but not criminals.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

The Surin’s narrow tongue licked at the fine hair around her black lips.

“I did,” said Cane.

Roche’s eyes flicked from Maii to Cane. “And what did he say?”

“Nothing.”

“I didn’t think he would.” Roche moved around the cockpit and came up beside the girl’s couch. “Is he using you against your will?”

Something rippled gently through Roche’s mind—Maii was chuckling. slave
, if that’s what you’re suggesting. Veden wouldn’t dream of doing anything like that.>

“No, I meant...” She shook her head. “You know what I meant.”

The girl looked annoyed for an instant, the flash of emotion the first true vitality Roche had seen in the Surin’s face. everything
about you. Just the surface thoughts; the obvious details. I could read deeper, of course, if you’d let me.>

“That didn’t stop you before,” said Roche. “Back in the lander bay.” The experience was still vivid in her mind.

The girl looked genuinely sad for a moment.

Roche snorted. “Yeah, they just aren’t very high.”

said the Surin. Midnight
is something I enjoy doing. But I don’t. It happens to be very draining.>

“Not to mention immoral.”

Roche mentally conceded the point, and wondered if she was being more than a little paranoid. She was imagining dark motives behind everything the reave said and did—sophisticated deceits that only an adult would be capable of. The ritually blinded Surin, for all her psychic talents, was still little more than a child. Petulant sometimes, perhaps even vicious, but a child nonetheless.

What the Surin had been doing in the company of Makil Veden remained a concern, however. To Roche, the long- faced and grey-skinned Eckandi made an odd figure beside the tawny Surin, with her wide jaws and lightly fuzzed complexion. Obviously their relationship went back a lot farther than the
Midnight
, perhaps even as far as the Surin’s birth. Certainly Maii seemed to regard Veden in a respectful light; maybe the Eckandi had adopted her as his surrogate daughter.

“You’re very young,” said Roche. “Far younger than any other reave I’ve met.”

Maii’s face closed instantly.

“Hey, I was just—”

Roche turned away from the Surin.

She groaned inwardly.

She braced herself against the nearest couch.

was
the good news: they haven’t decided to destroy us outright. The bad news is that the local authority in orbit around Sciacca’s World has made no move to avenge the destruction of the
Midnight.
Furthermore, I have detected coded transmissions between the Dato Marauder and Kanaga Station.>

Roche frowned, trying to comprehend what the Box was implying.

Even as the Box posed the question, the answer had formed in her own mind.

Midnight
was no incident of opportunity; it was carefully planned in advance, using information gathered even higher—from the very top of the COE Armada. A high-priced deal was struck with those in power here around Sciacca’s World in order to facilitate it. It is also likely that an even more generous deal is being negotiated to ensure our recapture.>

is
you they’re after?>

Roche tugged herself forward to the lander’s array of instrumentation and the pilot’s couch. The feel of cushions against her back was somehow reassuring.

The Box paused for a moment, then added, almost as an afterthought:

Roche sat up and looked around. Cane was studying her closely.

“From the look on your face,” he said quietly, “I take it we’re in trouble.”

“We are. Get yourself strapped in. No, wait—we need to wake Veden.”

Cane stepped from the room to get the Eckandi. At least with him nearby, Roche thought, the Surin would no longer need her senses, or those of Cane.

A couple of minutes later, when Cane had returned with Veden, Roche turned and addressed everyone. “The Dato are on to us, but there’s a chance we can outrun them. We’ll be thrusting at max, so make sure your harnesses are firm. Let me know when you’re set.”

Cane dropped into his couch and fastened the harness with all the speed and surety of a veteran. He smiled reassuringly at Roche but said nothing. She didn’t respond. Veden swung himself into the couch next to Maii and sealed himself in.

said Maii a moment later.

“Okay here,” Cane added.

Roche locked the clasps around her own chest and midriff and let the couch enfold her.

Immediately the thrusters crushed them back into the couches. Roche felt the air empty from her lungs, and struggled against the acceleration to refill them. Purple spots floated in her eyes as blood drained from her retinae. She wondered briefly how Veden was managing; he was an aging man, surely not up to such strain. If the burn continued for too long, he might exhaust himself, be in danger of asphyxiating—

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt the Surin’s mind-touch come and go. She glanced up to the monitors above her and had the Box display a view of the others. Maii’s face was turned up, her breathing strong and even. She at least was having no difficulties. Veden also seemed to be breathing steadily, which surprised Roche. His eyes were closed, almost as if he were asleep. He was handling the burn with considerable ease.

Then Roche realized why: Maii had taken over his autonomous systems. The girl was regulating his breathing and heart rate in sympathy with her own. Veden was in a state far deeper than sleep; he had given himself over completely to the reave.

The degree of the invasion was abominable, but Roche knew that the acceleration would be life-threatening for Veden if Maii had not been controlling him. And she had checked on Roche in passing—to make sure that she hadn’t required similar assistance.

Roche shuddered. It made her skin crawl just thinking about it.

She withdrew into herself, concentrated on riding out the burn. She thought about asking the Box how long it planned to stay at max, but decided it was better not to know. She cleared her mind and focused inward upon her body, riding the stress rather than fighting it.

Even so, the burn seemed to last forever. When the pressure suddenly lapsed, there came in its place a sensation of relative weightlessness, but Roche knew from experience how false the feeling was. The Box was still holding the lander at somewhere between two and three gees. Although the lander’s instruments had come to life— now that the pretense of dereliction was over—her eyes wouldn’t focus properly.

The Box’s voice was annoyingly free of strain.

The Box hesitated before continuing:

Roche didn’t answer immediately. One-on-one was a basic security precaution prescribed by her superiors in COE Intelligence. Technically, she could not countermand it.

she asked, instinctively suspicious.

Roche felt weary. The move made good sense, and the Box could open the channel itself if it really wanted to. But to go against a direct order...

With difficulty, she reached for the pilot’s console, selected an internal com channel, and flicked it open. “Okay, Box. You’ve got what you want. The stage is yours.”

the Box lilted, Internal com will not come through your implant.> Even as Roche heard the voice in her ear, it delivered a separate message over the newly opened channel.