Short Stories of Aurora Rhapsody: The Complete Collection (Amaranthe Book 10) Read online

  But the ship…the ship holding them was one of a kind.

  She traced the hull to the hatch. Already keyed to her, it opened at her touch. She was vaguely cognizant of Kennedy trailing her up the ramp, then rather more cognizant of it when she halted at the top and Kennedy bumped into her and sent her skidding into the cabin.

  She stood silently in the center of the cabin for several seconds…then she was laughing and twirling around in the cavernous open space like a carefree child. “Ken, look. This is amazing!”

  Her best friend leaned against the cabin wall to watch the rare display of exuberance in amusement. “So it’s what you wanted?”

  “Well, I’ll need to run diagnostics on the mechanical systems and confirm the HUD layout and test all the modules against my specs and I hope like hell the engineering core’s wiring isn’t a complete disaster…” she glanced at Kennedy to find her wearing a mock glare “…but yes. It’s exactly what I wanted. It’s—it’s everything I wanted. Thank you.”

  “You are most welcome. But we hardly worked gratis. You paid my company bucket-loads of credits for it.”

  “True, but those bucket-loads were a scintilla above cost, so I’ll double-down on the ‘thank you.’ I could not have commissioned this ship if it had included a retail markup.”

  “You’ve given the designers here some clever ideas to pursue. I predict we will soon recoup the initial loss in profit.”

  “Hmm.” Alex scrutinized the main cabin once more before arching an eyebrow. “Want to go somewhere? Take her for a test run?”

  Kennedy made a show of considering the question. “Only if we go somewhere with top-shelf shopping. I need new shoes. Lots of new shoes.”

  “Well I’m broke now, so I’ll be a poor shopping partner.”

  “That’s fine, I don’t require an enabler. I’ll do plenty of buying for both of us.”

  Alex pondered it a moment. “Romane?”

  Kennedy’s face lit up. “Romane.”

  ROMANE

  INDEPENDENT COLONY

  “Caleb, this is a surprise.” Mia Requelme’s lips curled up in an expression somewhere between delight and anticipation. “A pleasant one, naturally.”

  He placed a kiss at her temple then stepped a respectful distance away, as they had an audience. “How are you? It’s been a few months.”

  “I’m good. I signed a lease last week on a new retail location. I’m expanding the store.” She gestured at the cramped, cluttered space to emphasize the necessity of the act.

  He wasn’t surprised. It had taken her a few months to get her feet under her after arriving on Romane, but once she had it was off to the races. In less than five years she had gone from renting a cubbyhole behind a flat to a five-room apartment, from trading secondhand gear in the flea market to owning a custom tech shop in an upscale neighborhood. And he suspected she was barely getting started.

  Mia checked the two customers browsing her shelves then leaned in close to murmur in his ear. “I’m devastated to say I can’t leave for another five hours. I only have part-time help, and said help is currently on vacation.”

  He chuckled; she had obviously deduced why he was here. “Well, I don’t—”

  Mia’s eyes darted to the entrance, her expression darkening. He turned to see what had distracted her.

  A man hovered a step inside the store. His scruffy appearance and grungy clothes set him apart from not only the other customers but everyone in a six-block radius. They marked him as a thug.

  Caleb demanded the entrant’s attention with his eyes and held it hostage with a sharp, silent stare.

  The man balked under the scrutiny. He glared at Mia and departed.

  “So anyway—”

  “What just happened?”

  “Nothing. As I was saying—”

  “Mia….”

  She blew out an exasperated breath. “Don’t worry about it. It’s fine.”

  Now he demanded her attention, though in a far softer manner. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

  “Not at all. I can take care of myself.”

  “I know you can. So tell me what it was about.”

  She drew him to the rear wall of the shop, farther from her customers’ hearing. “He’s an enforcer for this upstart local gang. They’ve gotten it in their heads they’re going to run a protection racket.” She sighed in blatant disgust. “Even here, at the center of a pillar of our civilization, there are still goons and delinquents lurking in the shadows.”

  “Are you paying them?”

  “No. But….”

  “But?”

  “I’m starting to think it may be better for me to simply do so and be done with it.” Her gaze slid away as she shifted her weight from one leg to the other. Her arms crossed over her chest. “They’re low-rent scum, but they have muscle. They’ve gotten violent against several of the more recalcitrant store owners. Two have ended up in the hospital, and…the last person who said ‘no’ more than twice ended up dead.”

  “Okay, that’s it.” He pivoted toward the door, but was halted by her hand grasping his wrist.

  “Caleb, please don’t. This isn’t your fight. The police are investigating, and if they don’t handle it, I will.”

  “Mia, this is what I do. Let me help you.”

  Dark irises glittered beneath long lashes pinched tight. The intensity of the look reminded him she was indeed a formidable woman. “You’ve already helped me enough for two lifetimes—given me the capability to live a life of my own—and I adore you for it. But you’ve done enough.” She studied his face. “Do you hear me?”

  He nodded with an air of thoughtfulness, careful to project the impression he was taking her words to heart. “I hear you. Just watch yourself, will you?”

  She smiled broadly, breaking the somber mood. “Always.”

  He forced a devilish smirk. “So five hours, huh? All right, I’ll make myself scarce.” He drew her close and his lips found her ear. “I’ll come by later tonight. You haven’t moved your apartment, have you?”

  “No, but who said I wanted you to come by tonight? Maybe I have a date.”

  “Then I’ll come by after your date.” His teeth grazed her neck as he pulled back to find a glint in her eyes he recognized as assent. With a casual wave he left her to her customers and headed out.

  Kennedy’s shopping bags were jammed under their patio table. Empty plates sat discarded to the side, a nearly-empty bottle of shiraz in the center. They took turns devouring an enormous slice of cheesecake drizzled in raspberries as the sky began darkening to a cool lavender. Romane’s two suns made for a very long if most lovely evening.

  “So what are your initial plans for this new venture?”

  Alex enjoyed savoring her bite of cheesecake before answering. “I have an appointment first of the week with the R&D Director of Suiren about mining for nanodiamonds in NGC 2027, and one the next day with a rep from the Gagarin Institute about scouting M10 for potentially habitable worlds.”

  “You don’t waste any time, do you?”

  “Hell, no. I’ve been preparing for this opportunity my whole life. I am ready to get on with it.”

  “And you won’t get lonely, out there by yourself in the void for weeks at a stretch? Wait, what am I saying? This is you we’re talking about.” She paused to take another bite and wipe away the raspberry sauce left behind on her chin. “So did you tell your mother you left Pacifica to go freelance?”

  Alex scowled over the top of her glass of shiraz. “As if she would care. She’s a newly-minted Admiral and on the shortlist to be the next EASC Director of Operations.”

  “So…?”

  “Yes, I sent her a message. In vintage Miriam Solovy fashion, she responded that she hoped I understood I bore the responsibility for my own foolish choices.”

  “Well…nope, sorry, can’t defend her on this one. You’ve worked your ass off for four years—for a decade if you count earning multiple degrees—so you could make your dr
eam a reality. She should respect what you’ve accomplished.”

  Alex didn’t dispute the truth of the statement, though she did swallow a brief disquiet when Kennedy paid the check. She’d feel bad about it, except for the fact that while she wasn’t quite ‘broke’ by the most technical definition, the ship had eradicated her savings. And she didn’t have a proper job. Or any clients. Not yet.

  So she decided not to feel bad about it. She and Kennedy had traded implicit debts which never needed to be repaid yet always were more times than she dared count over the years. This debt too was sure to come back around again eventually.

  The instant Caleb exited Mia’s store his demeanor transformed. He traded the relaxed gait for a careful, alert posture and the friendly countenance for a cool mask.

  It did not surprise him to see the enforcer exit a store three doors down a moment later. The man was making his scheduled rounds. When his target continued on he followed.

  The sidewalk ferried a busy flow of young professionals out after work and tourists perusing the shops and restaurants. The thug’s distinctly unkempt appearance made him easy to track from a distance.

  A line spilled out of a particularly popular Chinasian grill restaurant on the next corner. An expansive outdoor patio decorated in wrought iron and blooming alyssi blended into an open-air interior, and the place bustled with energy. In another circumstance he’d likely have wandered inside for stir-fry and a cold beer.

  As he slipped past the busy entrance someone tripped into him. He stiffened, keeping the stranger at a safe distance until he realized the person was merely inebriated beyond public decency. He tried to stabilize the young man, but his efforts were for naught when the guy stumbled to the ground.

  Caleb stepped away to avoid the prone figure and immediately bumped into someone else. Golden curls whipped past him as he muttered, “Excuse me.”

  “Not a problem.”

  At the sound of the rich, almost sultry voice he instinctively glanced back. The golden curls belonged to an attractive, poised young woman and were promptly forgotten when beyond her he caught a glimpse of tresses the color of fine Bordeaux and a flash of startlingly bright silver-gray eyes.

  The sight was enough to hitch his gait for half a step, to overwhelm his mission for a frozen frame of time.

  Then she was gone, and he resumed his tail.

  The waitress cleared away the dessert plates and Kennedy gathered her bags up. Alex frowned as they wound into the restaurant from the patio and navigated a growing crowd near the exit. “You seriously need to be on Erisen by first thing in the morning?”

  “I do. I have to work. You’ve been job-free for all of a day, surely you remember what ‘working’ means?”

  “Sosi yego i past’ zakroi, suka.”

  “Right, right.”

  “Next thing I know you’re going to want to sleep in the big bed. First night on my shiny, brand new ship and I’m bunking on the guest cot.”

  “Now that you mention it, I do need to be well-rested and refreshed for work in the morn—” Kennedy jostled into Alex’s side, pushed by someone bumping into her as they exited the busy doorway.

  “Excuse me.” The deep, lilting voice resonated beneath the buzz of the patrons, sending a sensual tremor fluttering along Alex’s spine. Taken aback by the unexpected, visceral response, she blinked and forcibly shook it off.

  “Not a problem.” Kennedy’s focus lingered over her shoulder as they reached the sidewalk. “He was handsome, in a rugged, ‘rock my world for a weekend’ sort of way.”

  “Whatever. Come on, there’s a tech gear shop on the next block I want to check out.”

  “I thought you were broke?”

  “This is why they invented credit. I’m investing in my ship.”

  “Clearly. Speaking of, have you decided what you’re going to name her?”

  A whimsical smile grew to brighten Alex’s features as they strolled down the sidewalk in the slowly fading light. “Oh yes.”

  Several blocks past the restaurant the ambience of the area began to shift. Meter by meter it became shabbier, darkening in sync with the evening sky. The crowd thinned and was replaced by working-class then barely working-class inhabitants. Finally Caleb’s opportunity came.

  He increased his pace to draw near to his prey. As the enforcer crossed an alley between two shabby tenements he sprang, forcing the man down the alley, deep into the shadows and far from prying bystanders, and shoving his head into the stone.

  Yanking the right arm up at an awkward angle flush against the man’s back, he held it at the end of its range of motion for a beat then thrust it upward from the elbow.

  The man screamed in pain as the bone ripped out of the elbow and shoulder sockets and the tendons tore apart.

  The other arm flailed at Caleb; he pinned it high on the wall, knifed his hand and slammed it forward. The crack was audible as the man’s forearm fractured under the blow.

  In the next motion he wrenched his captive around and got in his face. “You are going to take me to the leaders of your little ‘gang’ and you are going to do it now.”

  Beads of sweat drizzled down greasy skin, doubtless triggered by what must be fairly intense pain if not fear. “I can’t—”

  “Don’t talk. Don’t sputter out a solitary protest or it will be your last. Take me to them.”

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  Caleb palmed the man’s forehead and slammed his skull against the wall. “I said don’t talk, and you want to do as I say because I’m the one thing monsters like you and your kind fear. I’m what haunts your nightmares and hunts you in the darkness. Now move.”

  The man’s head jerked wildly, slinging greasy sweat in Caleb’s direction. He wiped the fluid off his chin then grabbed the arm flopping limply at his captive’s side and pointed to the street.

  Their destination lay a few short blocks further to the west, which was probably for the best because his charge was not holding up well. He groaned and moaned and eventually begged for Caleb to punch him hard enough to render him unconscious. Caleb kept driving him forward.

  When they stepped through the door to the hideout he tossed his captive to the side and drew his Daemon.

  Three men sat around a table. All were muscled and similarly greasy and easily identifiable as scum. As he breached the entrance all three were moving, drawing their own guns in surprise.

  Only one got off a shot. Caleb had put a laser through the skulls of the other two before their arms had fully raised.

  The third man wore a minimal personal shield and weathered Caleb’s first volley to return fire.

  The shots bounced harmlessly off his own shield. He advanced while firing into the gangster’s chest. The laser overloaded the cheap shield to blow the man’s chest open.

  Ozone permeated the air to scorch his nostrils. He stood silently in the center of the room and allowed the scene to settle to its conclusion.

  The body collapsed to the floor to join its companions, leaving the far wall free to reveal its gory tableau. The sound of glass cracking followed the thud of the corpse. A display panel on the desk behind the bodies, grazed by the gunfire, teetered and fell.

  Another breath…in and out…and he was moving. After checking for immediate threats he went over to where the panel had landed.

  A visual flickered, distorted in the damaged display, but he discerned a woman and a small boy. The woman was pretty in a mildly trashy way, sporting a crooked grin and too-blonde hair. The boy looked three or four and clearly favored his mother.

  All the adrenaline abandoned him in a rush, leaving his shoulders sagging and the gun dangling from his hand.

  They were thugs and bullies and murderers. They preyed on the weak and stole from those who worked rather than work themselves. They used fear as a weapon to impose their will on others. And they had pointed guns at him.

  Yet a traitorous voice in his mind whispered that he had provoked the encounter; he had stormed into t
heir lair, gun drawn. Yes, they would have killed him, but in the present situation perhaps only because he would have done—and did—the same to them.

  Caleb didn’t know which of the dead men the woman was attached to or which might be the father of the boy. For an instant it was the only question that mattered.

  He snatched the display off the floor, spun on a heel and strode to the enforcer who had brought him here, now sprawled in a pile on the floor. He crouched and nudged him onto his back without a response. The man had passed out. Annoyed, Caleb slapped him awake.

  As soon as an eyelid opened he grabbed the man’s shirt and lifted him up to shove the display in his face. “Do you know this woman?”

  He nodded vaguely, eyes bleary and unfocused.

  “What is her name?”

  “Tam—Tamatha Baker.”

  Caleb buried the tumult he had briefly allowed to flare, and his bearing took on an uncanny stillness. He smiled.

  “This is your lucky day. You get to live—on one condition, so listen carefully. Your sole purpose from this day forward is to watch over Tamatha and her son and make certain neither of them come to harm. Use your meager, pathetic skills to protect them. Do you understand me?”

  The man’s eyes widened until they were all whites. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead and merged with a trickle of blood to weave down his cheek and splatter onto his shirt. He nodded again, more definitively this time.

  “If you fail in this task I will know, and I will come back and end your life as effortlessly as I ended theirs. Remember that whenever you start thinking you can slack off.” He stared at the man another second to guarantee the message had been received, then dropped him to the floor and stood. “I’ll send the paramedics and the cops in a few minutes. Make sure you don’t get yourself arrested—can’t do your job from prison.”

  “Why? Why did you kill them?”

  Caleb laughed, and even he recognized it bore a frightening coldness. “Because you walked through the wrong door, and they paid you to do it. Mia Requelme is off limits. You will be a testament to the terror that arrives the moment you or anyone else crosses the invisible line you didn’t know existed until tonight. Spread the word.”