Blue Galaxy (5 page)

He stalked over to the nearest com, contacted Grady and told him Sola had been found. Grady sounded disappointed.
Bastard.

Javan was having second thoughts about the way he’d treated her. While he’d been sleeping off his amatory excesses, he suspected she’d lain awake, thinking of the life sentence she was on her way to and desperate for a diversion—anything to take her mind off it. She didn’t seem to be sulking, though. She’d returned his credits with a smile and a word of thanks. He’d brought her meals, checked on her, but she’d said only that she couldn’t drag herself away from the files he’d compiled on Artemis Station and Destin Grady, as well as the ones on the Three Worlds War. He was pleased she was so eager in fill in the holes in her education and get the undistorted version of Earth’s recent history. He was also amazed by her stamina. Every time he went to see her, she was immersed in the files. She barely slept. When she eventually surfaced, it was to ask a question.

“Why?”

He’d been unable to respond for a moment. She was dressed in a short sheer dress that swirled about her thighs and slid enticingly off her shoulders. His desire to touch her was overwhelming. It was flattering that she was so interested in his writing, but she seemed to have forgotten about his body.

“Why what?”

“Why have we permitted Grady to live after what he did?”

“We? You mean the Blues?”

She nodded.

“Well, everything he did—the bombings, the massacres, the civilian deaths—was on the orders of the dictator. I would imagine he’s allowed to live because he’s useful and they couldn’t kill him without destroying Artemis, which is far too valuable to destroy.”

“And because they fear him?”

“Yes, they know what he is capable of. He stays away from Earth—he’s not safe there, but he gets around. He has allies on other planets, other stations. He’s no direct threat to power of the Blues or the expansion of their power, because he chooses not to be.”

“He would be a formidable opponent if he ever decided to go against the dictator?”

“Absolutely. He was a brilliant commander and utterly ruthless. But I don’t see it happening. He has too much to lose, and I can’t imagine many people rallying to his cause. He inspires fear, not loyalty, not sacrifice. Why so interested?”

She smiled briefly. “Just filling in the gaps in my education. And of course whoever I’m going to marry is going to expect me to be useful to him. Knowledge is always useful.”

“You seem…different.”

She gave him a startled glance. “Meaning?”

“Oh, I don’t know—like you’re on a mission or something?”

She laughed. “It’s finally starting to seem real that I’m never going back to Earth. And if I’m to survive my new life, I have to be…prepared.”

This beautiful woman had an inner core of determination. She was a survivor. She might turn the marriage into a success, no matter who her intended bridegroom was. He decided to give her a test. “So based on your knowledge of Artemis and your brief meeting with Grady, what would your counsel to your husband be regarding him?”

“Based on my knowledge? I wouldn’t be qualified. But based on the information in your files, my advice would be to keep him allied no matter the price and to never, ever allow him to become your enemy. He could be very useful or very deadly.”

“Yes, you’ve summed him up nicely.”

“Your files are amazing, Javan. You wrote all of them?”

“Yes, I told you. It’s how I fill the time on long journeys.”

“Your account of the Battle of Lunar Base was incredibly moving. I felt like I was there. Where did you get all those details? They were fascinating.”

Javan hesitated. “I knew some people who fought in that battle.”

Sola watched him silently, waiting.

Time to change the subject, he decided, and brought her attention to the jump coordinates he was about to enter. She watched him key in the numbers, listened to his explanation of what jump entailed, but remained silent.

Until she said, “Tell me about your wife.”

His hands froze on the keyboard. “Ex-wife.” He wondered how much he should tell her.

“She was a Blue?”

He nodded and resumed his fascination with the coordinates.

“You must have done something to earn her, something out of the ordinary. It’s very rare for a Blue to be married to a…” She fell silent.

“To a nobody?”

“You couldn’t have been a nobody. Her family wouldn’t have permitted it. The dictator wouldn’t have approved it. So what did you do?”

Javan knew he was being pumped for information, and Sola was certainly a woman with an overwhelming curiosity. He tapped in the final check on the coordinates and sat while it ran. “I was in the military. I served with distinction and was offered Morna as my reward.”

“What did you do?”

“I did as I was ordered, my lady. Now, it’s time to jump. Strap in.”

Sola moved to obey, strapping herself in, tightening the leathers as he had shown her, but still deep in thought. Javan checked her restraints, bending to make sure everything was secure. She snaked her arms around his neck, pulling him close. She kissed his cheek, then his lips before burying her head in his neck and holding him to her fiercely.

“I envy her,” she whispered.

Javan couldn’t control the short laugh that erupted. Sola pushed him away, her eyes a world of hurt. Javan stroked a finger down her cheek and tightened the straps one last time. “Being married off to me was a massive blow to her pride. She went through with the marriage but made sure we both suffered for it. ”

“She’s a fool.”

“Really? How would you have liked being married off to a nobody? You may not know the man you are going to marry, but you can rest assured he is rich, powerful and entirely alliance-worthy. Right?”

Sola shook her head. “But will he be kind like you are? Will he be intelligent like you are? Will he be handsome?” She put her hand to his face. “Like you are.”

His sadness was complete. He was sure she loved him. Though she hid it behind her need to do her duty, it was right there in her eyes.

“Did you love her?”

“I tried to, Sola. I tried. Things might have worked out for us if I could have been the man she wanted me to be.”

“Which was?”

Javan turned away. “Not the man I was or could ever be. She divorced me.”

“What did you do for the dictator to allow that? Once he’s approved a match, divorces aren’t allowed.”

Javan was silent. His downfall and the reasons for it were common knowledge among the Blues, but apparently Sola had led a sheltered life. He sat in the command chair and tightened the straps with unnecessary force. “It’s time to jump. Close your eyes and focus on a particular thing or person or memory. Focus hard, Sola, or you’ll come out of jump vomiting. I’ll count down from five. We’re going across the deep dark to the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy. We’ll make a brief stop and jump back to the other side of the Milky Way.”

Sola opened her mouth to speak, but Javan, eager to avoid any more questions, cut her off. “Pick something to focus on. Five, four, three, two, one and…jump!” He hit the jump key and held on to the vision of Sola with love in her eyes. Then the familiar terror of jump took him in its maelstrom, and his body screamed its protest. Seconds later it was over. He wasn’t vomiting, but he
was
crying. And when he looked over at Sola, she was too.

She breathed a huge sigh. “No wonder you drink,” she whispered before passing out.

He could have prepared her better, he realized as he carried her to his cabin. Even after thousands of jumps it wasn’t easy for him, and he should have had more consideration for her. Was he subconsciously punishing her for her disappearing act? Or for the fact that she had not yet begged him to save her from her fate—and it didn’t look like she was going to either. He laid her gently on his bunk. She trembled slightly, and he remembered the terror-filled dreams that had overcome him after his first jump so many years ago. He lay down beside her and cradled her in his arms, seeking to calm the rampant demons within her. Her lips moved, and he put his ear to them, trying to discern what terrible place her jump dream had taken her to. But her words were not the ramblings of a jump-drunk nightmare; they were terse and full of conviction, not fear.

“We must rendezvous at Ramses,” she muttered. “Will you be there? Will you be there, Destin?”

Javan uncurled his body from around her and stood. She’d referred to Grady by his first name.

The puzzle pieces started to fit together. She’d met with Grady. When he’d been going insane on Artemis trying to find her, she’d been with Grady. The gift she’d given him. He’d never heard of a book dealer on Artemis, but Grady was rumored to have an extensive collection. And she was planning to meet with him on Ramses Space Station. He’d heard of it but had never been there. It was a Blue stronghold and in a sector on the other side of the galaxy from where they were traveling. He remembered Sola’s desperate and imaginative efforts to get him to take her to Artemis Station. All to get him to take her to Grady. But why, then, had she reappeared? Why hadn’t she just stayed with Grady on Artemis?

He left his cabin and paused outside to key in the locking mechanism. His head and his gut were telling him he was on to her; his heart was screaming its denial. He went into her cabin, where her luggage was neatly stacked and packed in the corner. He searched it thoroughly and found a plethora of her delightful outfits, a surprisingly large number of loose credits and the flight jacket and cap he’d given her. Inside the cap was a square of folded paper. Evidence of her meeting with Grady, he thought, but after opening it, he found only what looked suspiciously like a lock of his own dark hair. He stared down at it, confused.

He replaced the items, logged on to the cabin puter and pulled up her search history. An incredibly long file popped up, and he examined it closely. All his entries—everything he’d written about the places he’d been, the history he’d witnessed, the people he’d met—had been opened and marked as read.
Impossible.
It would have taken years to read them all. She must have just scanned them for items of interest. He tapped into his encrypted personal files and checked the security history, then heaved a sigh of relief. She’d found them but had made no attempt to break the code. He threw himself onto her bunk, ignoring her light scent.

He scratched at the rough hair on his chin. He’d offered her a way out of the arranged marriage. She’d refused, claiming she had to do her duty. But now it seemed she was going to stand up her bridegroom and meet up with Grady instead. Unhappy with the unknown elements of the arranged marriage, perhaps she had fallen back on the ancient right to arrange her own alliance. And perhaps she had chosen, of all people, Destin Grady.

His offer to save her wasn’t good enough. And the love he’d thought was in her eyes was just another Blue playing another high-stakes political game. He’d been a fool—a complete fool. Pushing aside the memory of her sweet smile and the ecstasy of their lovemaking, he stalked out of the cabin and to the hold, where the last crate of brandy waited. He pulled out a bottle and returned to the cockpit. Taking a long, bubbling pull on the brandy, he planned his revenge. He would simply fulfill the job he had been half paid for, drop her off in the savage outer reaches of the galaxy for her bridegroom to enjoy, collect the rest of his money and return to Earth. The memory of the keepsakes of him she had been collecting—the jacket, the cap, the lock of his hair—popped into his mind. He drowned them in several fierce gulps.

The fatal swim in the Aegean he’d been envisioning for so long seemed very appealing. Or maybe not. Maybe it was time someone did the decent thing and removed Destin Grady from the face of the galaxy. Yes, he’d do the galaxy a favor and end Grady’s miserable existence. He drank and he plotted; he drank until he passed out.

Frenzied banging on a steel door brought him back to consciousness. As he listened to the angry woman, he added another element to his plan. There was absolutely no reason he couldn’t continue to enjoy Sola for the rest of the journey. If she was going to play her games with him, then he would play a few of his own with her.

He stood outside his cabin, examining his conscience, and grinned as he realized that, at long last, he no longer had one. There was no need to kill himself. Life would be better now that he’d finally rid himself of the thing that gotten in the way of his life, his career, his marriage.

He tapped the system-unlock key, and a disheveled Sola fell into his arms.

“Why did you lock me in?”

He stared down into her wide brown eyes and clasped her trembling shoulders, quashing the lurch of compassion. “Calm down. You didn’t handle the jump well. You were stumbling around the cockpit, banging into consoles and falling onto keyboards. I had to put you somewhere safe until you recovered.”

“I was so scared. I don’t remember anything.”

“You’ll be fine. A stiff drink, a quick pressure shower, and you’ll be as good as new.”

“I was so scared, so confused.”

She clung to him like a limpet. He paused and stroked her head soothingly, then led her to the pressure shower and pushed her inside while he fetched her a drink. She was one hell of an actress, hitting all the right beats of a terrified female who needed a strong protector. He allowed himself a smirk. He’d act the part—right up until he turned her over to whatever poor fool had been designated to marry her. He returned with the brandy just as she was stepping naked from the pressure shower.

She smiled coyly and attempted to take a sip of brandy. “Ugh, I can’t drink it. I’m still too nauseated. How about we lie down together for a little while?”

He downed her drink. “Why not?”

She led him to his bunk and started to undress him.

“Oh, I though you meant lie down and rest.”

She giggled mischievously. “There will be plenty of time for resting once our journey is over.” She stripped him naked and lingered over an exploration of his body. He lay back, enjoying her performance immensely. It was a perfect portrayal of a woman trying to burn a memory into her lips, into her mind. Every touch, every stroke, every lick, every kiss could have been that of a woman most desperately in love.