Chapter Twenty-Eight

Marker Shipyards - Outer Terminal

Marker Shipyards were actually five starports of varying sizes on the fringe of the Aldanthian Drifts, a rich asteroid field that was the source for both metals and fuels. It was surrounded by security beacons and backed up by Fleet security patrols. The beacons would scan you, then warn you.

The security patrols would target you and if you were lucky, just shoot your engines out so you could live to be interrogated.

Marker One was the largest starport; a cylindrical core out from which jutted the larger repair hangars and new ship bays like thick, ungainly branches on a tree.

Marker Two was a smaller administrative and residential facility, a short shuttle hop from M- 1. Commander Thad Bergren lived and worked in M-2. So did more than three hundred other people, both military and civilian.

Marker Three and Four were secondary residential and repair facilities for smaller ships and less prestigious workers. Techs, dock workers and Takas were usually housed in M-3.

M-5, also called Marker Outer Terminal, hung on the edge. Not dissimilar to Dock Five, it was long, like a mining raft. Three beacons guided us in. They were friendlier than the beacons surrounding the rest of the shipyards.

But then, we also squawked the right entry codes. Winthrop's Gallant Explorer, in service to the Englarian Church.

I watched the newsvids we'd snagged from the latest beacon while we waited for dockspace to clear. The Karn, now the Explorer, was a small ship compared to the commercial liners and freighters also queuing for space. We were also, therefore, low priority.

Welcome to Imperial NewsWatch. Top stories for in-system viewers.

Another mysterious rape and murder in a starport in Baris. And another mysterious disk left on the woman's body.

I flipped off the vid, glanced at the Englarian robes draped over the bed. Brother Sudral and Sister Chadra would accompany Sister Berri through security. Sully was in engineering, making sure this time my forged medical files were up to date.

I brought up the schematics on Marker Two. I knew the place by heart; I'd grown up there. But there had been some changes in the past few years. Changes I didn't know about, even when I'd visited Thad. Changes that had built private research labs with Crossley Burke money in a section of M-2 that used to be nothing but storage holds.

It had taken us two weeks of sifting every bit of data we could get, but that's where we believed the primary jukor labs were.

We didn't even want to think about the secondary one yet; the one we believed was on a ship, moveable, but not yet completed.

We had to start with what we did know. If we were lucky, we'd find evidence filling in the gaps about what we didn't know.

I reviewed the files Sully had tagged. There might not be another chance after this. My first selection was the vidclip of Hayden Burke at the party. Lazlo was there, in one frame, briefly. Sully had tagged it but I wanted to look for the man on my own, make sure I could pick his face out of a crowd.

I slowed the vid down, scanned it. It was easy to pick out Hayden, even with his back turned. I searched for Lazlo, not seeing him at first. Then I did.

But something else caught my eye, just before that.

Something that flitted through my mind with the briefest recognition, the kind you can't directly identify, but only feel. Not so much the recognition of a face, but of a stance, an arrogant tilt of a chin.

A woman talking to Hayden, leaning on his arm, her face upturned. Seduction was all but written on her forehead. She was beautiful, her features highlighted by elaborate makeup, her long honey blonde hair curling at her shoulders. Her slender figure draped in a dress of a rich, shimmery blue fabric.

I was wrong. She didn't look familiar at all. Maybe it was because her hair color reminded me of Ilsa. But that was the only thing that did.

I went back, picked up Lazlo in the vid and studied him. The vid shifted and I lost him in the crowd, then picked him up again a few minutes later.

This time, the blonde in the rich blue dress was just stepping past him, her hand briefly on his shoulder. Her back was to the camera; I couldn't see her face but I recognized the dress as well as the elegance of her movements.

A friend of Hayden's or a friend of Lazlo's? Or neither, just another female trolling for a good time that night.

I dismissed her. I'd located Lazlo again, on my own. That's all that mattered.

* * *

Sully came in, followed by Ren. Ren's hair was still wet-a final soak that would have to hold him until Gregor came back in. Both men were in black. I wore a black shirt but dark green pants. Spacer issue, all. But no holsters, no weapons. We couldn't get those through the gate scanner. They were hidden in our luggage, shielded in a special compartment.

"Everything set with Gregor and Marsh?"

Sully nodded. "He's cooled off a bit, probably because he's in command again and has the codes."

"And because neither Ren nor I will be on board."

Sully tugged on my braid as he walked by, his gaze on the screen. I had the news running again.

"Another?" he asked. Then before I could answer, "Verno's leaving to go with Sister Berri."

I glanced at Ren then back at Sully. "Why?"

"He belongs back in the monastery," Ren said. "It's where he feels most comfortable. Plus he wants to work with his people, teach them that murder isn't the answer. He'll still be a good contact for us, if there are any other reports of gen-labs using Takas."

"You'll miss him." With Verno gone, and Dorsie distancing herself from him, Ren now had only Sully and myself.

"I never expected him to stay. This is not his path, as it is mine."

Gentle acceptance and understanding. Just like my brother, Thad. Hah!

Sully clicked off the screen. "We'll be docking in fifteen minutes. Go put on your robes, my friends, and try like hell to look pious."

* * *

Sister Berri Solaria reached up and adjusted my hood before I could back away from her touch. "There, that's better. We must at all times be aware that our outward appearance mirrors our humbleness and our mission to serve selflessly." She yanked on my robe. "It would help if you'd at least try, Captain Bergren."

Supercilious bitch. I heard Sully's voice clearly in my mind as he brushed by me, his hand briefly clasping my shoulder. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. I caught his half- smile when he stopped by the airlock with Ren and Verno. He felt my laughter just as clearly as I heard his words. Could hear them, ever since we'd made love and I willingly granted him entry into my most intimate part, my thoughts. My mind.

It still startled me slightly when his thoughts accompanied his touch. Though the few thoughts he'd sent to me since then, like the one just now, were all light in tone. Gentle. Teasing. Still testing. I could feel that. Still cautious. Still making sure, as he'd asked me outside Trel's bar, that I wasn't angry. Afraid.

I wasn't. I knew him. No gill slits, no webbings and, as I'd told Dorsie, no wings. Terribly human, terribly male, wonderfully-

The Karn jerked. Marker Terminal's gateway impacted against us, locking onto our hull.

I took a deep breath, patted my ID secured at the belt at my waist and when I caught his dark gaze, nodded to Sully.

Showtime.

* * *

Verno handed his ID to the Taka guard at the bottom of the gateway. "Blessings of the hour, brother."

"Blessings to you. Brother Verno?" Their conversation was a gravelly, growly exchange of voices.

I still had trouble reading nuances of tone when Takas spoke. They always sounded angry, annoyed. But then, Ren and Sully were probably scanning, reading. If there were troubles brewing, I'd know.

Verno extended his hand toward Berri. "Sister Berri Solaria. We're here to open the new temple."

"Missed Peyhar's. Would have liked that." The guard took Berri's ID, scanned it through. Took mine, Sully's, Ren's. Studied Ren for a few seconds more than I liked. But he let us pass.

"Next Peyhar's!" he called after us. "Good celebration then!"

"Praise the stars!" Verno waved back.

We walked into Marker Terminal's main corridor. My heart started beating again.

* * *

Fleet personnel were everywhere. I kept my head tilted down. The chance I'd run into someone from Thad's office was slim, but it existed. I had to count on the fact I was out of uniform-people have a tendency to lump face and uniform together-and that I was believed to be on Moabar. I was also in an Englarian nun's robe. Right face, maybe, but definitely wrong uniform.

We followed Berri and Verno to the luggage and cargo ramps. Berri moved confidently through the corridors and cross-corridors, heading for a bank of lifts. She'd been here before.

We threaded the crowds down one level to cargo. I worked on calming myself. They'd let us through. Our luggage was tagged as church property. No reason to expect it contained weapons. Explosives. Poison gas.

Everything was shielded in special compartments. Sully knew what he was doing. He couldn't have worked as a smuggler for all those years, if he didn't.

We passed through a second set of security gates before we entered the luggage ramp area. About a half dozen people milled about, all human, except for two tall forms I was startled to realize were Stolorths. The only Stolorths I remembered seeing on Marker belonged to a diplomatic delegation. They'd been well-guarded, and I'd seen them only from a distance. These wore freighter uniforms, their ship's patch unfamiliar to me. They were deep in conversation, didn't look our way, didn't seem to notice the humans staring nervously, purposely giving them a wide berth. Ren had turned and kept his back to them. Berri glared at them openly, her lips pursed, but said nothing.

The Stolorths wandered off with an anti-grav pallet wobbling behind them.

I took a deep breath.

Berri became cheerful again, blessing everyone left and right as she headed for a stack of boxes and duffle-cases. The small electronic sign underneath read GLNT EXPLR.

Verno grabbed a pallet, activated it, and began to load the boxes stenciled with the arch-and- stave on all sides. Obviously, just supplies for the new temple. Sully loaded a second pallet, smaller, with our duffels, arch-and-stave tags dangling.

A Takan guard glanced at our IDs again, waved us through.

Praise the stars.

* * *

A shuttle would take us to M-2, Berri and Verno to M-3. There'd be no further security checks. We were cleared, as safe as if we'd been through Berri's purity process. She and Verno stepped into line for the M-3 shuttle. I realized maybe I didn't dislike her as much as I thought. She was, if nothing else, true to what she believed. Even Sully said he sensed no duplicity in her. She was deeply fervent-perhaps misguidedly so in my opinion-and committed to her work with the Takas. Maybe someday she'd revise her opinions on Stolorths and Ragkirils. She and the rest of the Empire.

I extended my hand to her. "Blessings of the hour, Sister Berri. And thank you." I meant it.

Her smile was angel-soft. "I see the holy sword of the Abbot behind you as you proceed." She nodded to Sully.

Verno hugged Ren, one of the odder sights I'd ever seen. A eight foot tall Taka embracing a six and a half foot tall Stolorth.

Praise the stars.

* * *

We passed a newsbank holovid on our way to the M-2 shuttle. The 'caster's bronzed-skinned face turned, as if following us, as we walked by. "And in sports news, zero-g racquetball competitions heated up in Port January yesterday when..."

"I'll take the pallet to the cargo ramp," Sully said as the gate came into view. "You stay with Ren. Watch for unfriendlies."

That meant anything from other Stolorths to Marker stripers to Lazlo. I requested three tickets from the droid attendant. Next shuttle was due in fifteen minutes, a second five minutes after that. M-2 was a popular destination. If we didn't make the first shuttle, we'd be first in line for the next.

Sully came back and we retreated into a quiet corner not far from the gate, blessing anyone who looked our way but not deliberately making eye contact. Most didn't. This was Marker. Everyone was in too much of a hurry, with projects and duty schedules on their minds.

I leaned back against the wall. Eleven minutes. Sully snugged his hand against the small of my back. His fingers made small circles, sent warmth. He and Ren talked zero-g racquetball. Port January had a good team, but there was no way they could beat out Garno's.

"Would you be willing to place a wager on that?" Ren asked softly.

I fought an urge to roll my eyes and focused instead on two young men and a woman in Fleet dress uniforms taking shuttle tickets from the droid attendant. They were laughing, relaxed. Just back from liberty, I guessed. The man ruffled the woman's curls and she turned around.

My heart stopped, my breath caught in my throat. I recognized her.

Tessa. Looking straight at me. Twenty, maybe twenty-five feet separated us. I could see her clearly and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she could see me. Her laughter faded to be replaced by a soft, knowing smile.

Shit.

Chasidah. Nothing to fear.

Nothing to fear? She and one of the men walked toward us, toward me. I fought the urge to run, knowing that would only make things worse.

Sully pulled his hand away from me and bowed slightly as she approached. "How may we assist you?"

"I don't mean to trouble you, Brothers. Sister." She nodded to me and didn't appear to be the least bit disturbed by my heart hammering loudly in my chest. "But Dylan and I just got married. Would you mind blessing our rings?"

She and her husband held out their hands, their matching rings glistening in the bright overhead lights.

Sully took their hands in his. "Guardian of love, Guardian of wisdom and mercy, hear now my plea..."

I bowed my head, trembling, listened to the deep, soothing tones of his voice. The absolute sincerity in his voice. He meant every word. He asked for blessings upon the love, and peace, Tessa had found. And because she had, so, finally, could Gabriel Ross Sullivan. Poet, monk, mercenary, Ragkiril.

I prayed a prayer of my own, one that had no words. And realized that maybe, sometimes, miracles do happen.

"... for the love that resides now in your hearts, forever. Praise the stars."

"Praise the stars," Tessa repeated softly. Sully raised his head, smiled.

"Blessings, thank you," Dylan said as he hooked his arm through Tessa's. He led her back to their friend waiting near the gate.

Sully met my gaze, still smiling.

"Thank you," I whispered. The words caught in my throat. Tears prickled gently at the back of my eyes.

Chasidah. My angel. Nothing to fear.