The Seek (15 page)

He saluted sharply and she watched his fine ass walk away.

Then she turned back to Symon, who was eyeing her thoughtfully.

‘Boyfriend?’ She was sure he emphasised the boy part.

‘None of your business,’ she snapped, turning on her heel.

But before she made a cool exit, Symon grabbed her arm. His fingers burned into her skin and he pulled her back to him until her face was very close to his. ‘I will see you tomorrow, Kyntura,’ he growled. ‘We aren’t finished with this yet.’

‘I always loved the fireworks on my birthday,’ Kyn said, her face pressed against the glass. And it was true. She had always thought the date had been chosen especially for her by some guardian angel, to give her the best party ever, every year. But not so much this year
.

That boy who had been hanging around far too much, Asha, laughed. She knew him, from back at school in Sweetheart. He laughed a lot, and Kyn couldn’t understand why. ‘Happy twelfth birthday,’ he said, his too-pretty face smiling down at her, his honey-blond hair flicking a little as he shook with the mirth of it all. He was two years older, had been in Tabi’s class at school, and he thought he knew everything. ‘And happy fourth of July.’

She wanted to pull his ear. Hard. But then she remembered the thing that always made her feel softer towards him. He’d lost all his people, too. She closed her eyes and remembered him as they had found him, barefoot and determined, walking out of Sweetheart, alone. They’d had no idea where he was trying to go; he’d never said. But Pietr had wordlessly pulled over and told him to get in, with the rest of their ragtag group. The remnants of Sweetheart
.

They’d all turned back to the scene, like a train smash you couldn’t tear your eyes from
.

Only worse, so much worse
.

It didn’t explode all at once, like you might think. It didn’t dissolve, or burst into flames, a single ball of heat and fire. It went in parts, a series of explosions; pieces of the home they had always known falling away, into the blackness and stars around it, leaving the spherical perfection of the Earth deformed
.

Kyn had expected this. Pietr had explained how it would happen as best he could, as best he knew himself what it would look like. He was so different. Her own father would never have allowed them to watch. He would have wanted to protect them from it. Pietr wanted to protect them, sure, but he just didn’t see them as kids anymore
.

What had he said?

‘You need to see this, because nothing is ever going to be the same. And if we’re going to survive, you need to understand, all of you. There is no going back. There will never be any going back.’

Tabi had snorted and flounced away at her father’s words. But she had come creeping back at the appointed hour, as they all had, her hand sliding into her father’s. To watch the train smash
.

It didn’t matter that they’d been hiding out in the desert, hot and hungry and cold in turn; waiting, while the governments tried to decide what to do, how to negotiate, how to fight. The desert was still better than this. This cold, steel shell; this space station they called Mother Earth One. One of five, and Pietr said there would be more. He said they were all they had for now. Home
.

He said a lot of other things, too, the past year. That the League of Governments was useless. That they were destined to fail. That the Gigarions would not be diverted from their course. They would not compromise, and they could not be beaten. As soon as he connected with his contacts in the desert — the mad, sad army of scientists, soldiers and civilians who were plotting an escape — he had a cause he could throw himself behind
.

She could hear his thick, deep voice. ‘It’s the only hope we’ve got.’

Kyn was amazed by it all. She knew some things about the technology of Earth — space travel was still relatively new, but still an expanding part of commerce and leisure. But then, before they came, before The Ultimatum, they’d never been far enough to know just how deadly and dangerous the universe was. Until the Gigarion Miners came to Earth. The only good thing that had come from their visit was the ship that had been captured. It had allowed the desert armies to accelerate the ships they had been building for three years since the Gigarions first appeared, long before The Ultimatum
.

Kyn could hardly remember the sarcasm that had dripped from her sweet mother’s tongue when she used to talk about Pietr. She had thought him such a crazy, but all Kyn could see now was that his madness, his obsessions, had saved her And all of them. It was hard to see him without projecting a little aura of light and magic around him
.

Well, Kyn could live with that. As long as she had Pietr, and the others. She shuddered to think where and what she would be without them?

She turned back to the scene, remembering the last time she had seen her mother. And then her father, and the twins, not far from where had fallen. At least they hadn’t been down there when this happened. At least they hadn’t had to see any of this. Hot tears needled the back of her eyes and she blinked and swallowed furiously. She was not a little girl anymore. She willed herself to watch, her mind reeling as her eyes took in the impossible scene
.

You need to understand, all of you. There is no going back. There will never be any going back.

As the mottled, broken earth finally exploded altogether, Tabi sighed beside Kyn. ‘They’re like children,’ she said, reaching across to take Kyn’s hand in hers. ‘If they can’t have it, no-one can.’ Tabi had taken on a mothering role to Kyn since that night. Kyn snatched her hand away. She loved Tabi, needed her. But she wasn’t ready for another mother. Not now. Not ever
.

Everyone was very quiet, watching as the shards of their home floated up and around the empty space where it had hung, seemingly immutable, in its space in the sky
.

‘Where will we go?’ Kyn turned to face Pietr, her eyes dry, her chin high
.

He nodded at her approvingly. ‘To the asteroid belts,’ he said. ‘They’re dangerous but safer than the alternative. We need to lay some plans.’

Just then, the woman came in. Her tone was sharp. ‘Pietr, what have you done?’

Kyntura watched Pietr’s face as he considered the woman. Kyn did not know her name, but then they had only been on the ship for three days. She didn’t need to know her name to know that she was important. There was something about her — her height, and her grace, and that perfect silver-grey sweep of hair, straight as a blade — that radiated authority
.

Pietr face shut down as he considered her. He shrugged and turned back to the fireworks show
.

‘I said no-one was to watch,’ she said. ‘And you chose to bring your children here?’

‘You were wrong,’ Pietr said, turning towards her
.

She sighed, tapping her fingers furiously against one leg. ‘They need to be children.’

Pietr laughed. ‘No,’ he said, shaking is big, craggy grey head at her. ‘They need to survive.’

She motioned with jerky fury at the viewing window. ‘And this will aid that cause how?’

‘They’ll understand,’ he said. ‘The old rules don’t apply anymore.’

The woman walked slowly towards him and stood very close. Kyn figured them to be about the same age, but the woman spoke differently. It wasn’t just her accent, which Kyn didn’t recognise. It was the clarity and perfection of her vowels, the ease with which she projected her voice, using it like a weapon. ‘No, they do not, Pietr,’ she said. ‘And if you want to be part of this, you had better learn the new rules.’ She reached up and flicked at a spot on Pietr’s shirt. ‘Rule number one: You are not in charge. I need you, for the army. You and all your…’ She paused delicately. ‘…helpers. But you will follow the rules.’ She opened her mouth to say more, then looked down at the children. ‘Run along, children,’ she said quietly. ‘Your father and I have important things to discuss. The other children are watching a film in the common room.’

‘He’s not my father,’ Asha said, smoothly and reasonably
.

Kyn felt her own voice form the same words, but they wouldn’t come out. She looked at Pietr, his face a mask of repressed fury. She pressed her lips together, and tried not to believe that the reason she hadn’t spoken the words was because she wished he was. Her own father had told her to run. Pietr had saved her
.

Pietr knelt down in the middle of them. ‘Go, guys,’ he said, not making an attempt to hide his frustration as he tugged at his salt-and-pepper beard. ‘But remember what you saw here.’

Kyn hesitated a little as the others made to move off. He waved a hand at her. ‘Go, Kyn,’ he said. ‘I’ll come get you all soon.’ And then he did it. Gave her that smile; the one she knew he kept only for her. The one that told they shared a special bond
.

He may not have been her father, but she knew already that he loved her like one
.

***

Waking in strange quarters was worse than usual. Normally, Kyn had her routine for shaking off the dreams. But here, everything was uncertain. Then her brain connected — they were here. She would leave later today, and perhaps not return ever, or at least not for a long time. She would see them again.

The thought quickened her movements, seeing her dress quickly as she ran an inventory of what she needed to do to prepare, and to ready and brief the team.

But first, Tabi.

She found her in the lab, her green coat cinched delicately at the waist so it looked a parody of a prom dress. She was hunched over a bioscope with what looked like samples of rock and plant matter beside her. ‘Wondered if I’d find you here,’ Kyn said softly as she shut the door and came up behind her.

Tabi jumped. ‘God, Kyn,’ she said, puling the mask from her face and snapping off her gloves. ‘You scared the living daylights out of me.’

Kyn shrugged. ‘Sorry. What you working on?’

Tabysha seemed to blush at Kyn’s question. ‘Oh, nothing,’ she said, too quickly, turning back to rapidly sort and file the samples, opening and shutting drawers quickly and methodically.

‘Yeah, right,’ Kyn said, moving around to the other side of the lab bench so she could see Tabi’s face. ‘Don’t worry, girlfriend, we’ve all got our secrets.’

Tabi sighed. ‘It’s not like that,’ she said, finally finishing with her clearing away and giving Kyna smile. ‘It’s just…’

‘What?’

‘Some samples from Tyver. The Hunter Gatherers.’ Tabi waved a hand in the air dismissively. ‘It’s nothing.’

‘Doesn’t look like nothing, the way you’re blushing like a peach.’ Kyn vaguely knew she should let it go, but the eleven-year-old girl in her, who loved to tease the older but shyer Tabi, just couldn’t.

Tabi sighed. ‘Never could hide anything from you, could I?’

‘Nope.’ Kyn smiled to soften the blow. And she didn’t say,
you couldn’t hide anything from anyone, darling
.

‘We-ell,’ Tabi began. ‘I sort of made a discovery, about the Tyverians, and now I’m just trying to isolate what it means, and its potential uses. You know, deployment options for combat, that sort of thing.’ Tabi’s voice got faster as she spoke, and that pink blush licked at her neck again.

‘And that’s making you blush why?’ Kyn frowned. Lab stuff. So confusing.

Tabi blew out all the breath she’d been holding in her lungs in a noisy whoosh. ‘It’s pheromones, okay? Well, a delicate hormone/pheromone cocktail really. They hate it. The Hunters.’

Kyn’s frown deepened as she tried to connect this information to the source of the blush. ‘Like sexy hormones?’

Tabi nodded.

‘I heard you made Admiral-class Explorer,’ Kyn said. She motioned at the bioscope. ‘This why?’

Tabi nodded again, the blush firmly fixed in place.

Something clicked in Kyn’s brain. ‘This discovery wouldn’t have had anything to do with Asha, would it?’ Kyn remembered, very well how hot and heavy Tabi and Asha’s teenage thing had been, before Asha was taken for the Avengers. She could only imagine how incendiary their reunion might have been. Kyn didn’t doubt that it could give off enough hormone-pheromone-whatevers to freak out the entire universe, let alone a bunch of life-sucking ice vampires.

Tabi shrugged and smiled secretly. ‘Let’s just say a theory’s never that solid ‘til it’s been tested in the field,’ she said quietly.

Kyn grinned at her. ‘Go you,’ she said. ‘Doing the dirty with Asha while some bad-bass vampires click-clack with their nasty suckers all around you. You sure got some balls. Maybe you should have been a repopulator after all?’

Tabi shuddered, and Kyn felt the echo it in her own bones. They’d both seen those girls, shuffling lifelessly down the halls. Eight children. God help them all.

Tabi tried for light. ‘Hey, some girls like babies right?’

Kyn made a belching sound. ‘Tab, there’s liking kids, then there’s being shackled to a sperm machine for the next fifteen years of your life. I’d rather fight a thousand Tvyerian Hunter Gatherers.’ She smirked at her old friend. ‘Even if I had to get laid to do it effectively.’ She nudged Tabi who was blushing again. ‘I’m just a real take-one-for-the-team kind of girl, you know?’

Tabi laughed outright at this, and hugged Kyn unexpectedly. ‘Oh baby,’ she said, squeezing Kyn hard. ‘You have no idea how good it is to see you. Absolutely no idea how worried I was, how much I missed you.’

Kyn stiffened and screwed up her nose. ‘Don’t call me
baby
,’ she said automatically, making Tabi laugh again.

‘You always hated that,’ Tabi said, stopping to watch Kyn carefully. ‘Why?’

Kyn shrugged. ‘You tried to mother me.’

Tabi screwed up her face, her pretty nose wrinkling brutally. ‘Well, now, that was a hard gig. Like trying to mother a pit bull.’

Kyn tried hard to smile. ‘Was I that bad?’

Tabi pretended to be considering the question, one finger tapping her temple as she stared off into space. ‘No,’ she said finally. ‘You were harder. Much harder.’