THE REFORGED TRILOGY: BOOK 2 — SWORD OF DREAMS
Chapter 6: Dirty
“Ixthians don’t believe that lovers have chemistry. They have biochemistry.”
– Professor Xen, Vostra Nor University (229 PA)
Everyone on the Blue Phoenix rose before the sun to get to work. The flight out to Prianus would be almost a month long. There were many preparations to make and precautions to take.
Xia called each member of the crew into her tiny medbay in turn and injected them with tailored immune updates.
“This is especially important for you,” she told Gripper as she held the injector to the Arboran’s huge arm. “You’ve never been to Prianus. You wouldn’t believe how many diseases they have there.”
“Have you been to Prianus?” he asked.
Xia shook her head. “No.”
“Did you have to take one of these?” Gripper asked.
He winced as the needles jabbed him and poured a cold stream of chemicals into his blood. The Arboran’s skin was too thick for Xia’s compressed air injector.
“Me?” Xia said. She shook her head. “No. I should be fine. I have seven times the leukocyte count that you do.”
“Why?”
“Good breeding,” the Ixthian answered. She wiped the needles clean and replaced the injector on a nearby tray. “A good immune system is one of the top traits we seek in our mates.”
“Um, that’s not very romantic.”
Xia just laughed and sent Gripper to go find Maeve.
Duaal was up in the cockpit, downloading updated astronavigation charts off the university mainstream and mapping out their course. Stars and planets were only a few of the potential dangers between Tynerion and Prianus. At superluminal speeds, a single surprise comet or solar plasma ejection would tear the Blue Phoenix apart and scatter wreckage across half a stellar system.
Tiberius and Gripper had spent the morning getting the Blue Phoenix fueled and tuned up, replacing filters and checking seals. With twice the usual complement of passengers on board, the aged recycling systems would be hard pressed to keep up.
That left the final task to Maeve, who lacked the technical expertise to help with much else. She surveyed the bunkroom and sighed. The spare quarters were closed up and sealed when not in use, which was most of the time — the Blue Phoenix didn’t take on many passengers.
Logan Coldhand had been the last one. Her hunter…
Maeve pushed up her sleeves and got to work. She scrubbed the floors and walls, changed light tubes and sheets, and cleaned each room’s single small viewport. By the time she was done, her clothes were caked in dust and her short black hair stuck to her neck with sweat. Maeve carried the full dustpan outside the ship to empty it. No point in running more dirt through the Blue Phoenix’s recycling system than she had to.
How in the name of the All-Singer could sealed rooms get so filthy? There was a sharp crash behind her. Maeve turned to find a slender, pretty blonde woman standing with hands pressed to her mouth. She looked like she was going to be sick. There were three men with her. One of them — a serious-looking Dailon with a long black braid — retrieved the suitcase she had dropped.
“God, Panna. Take your meds next time,” said a brown and white patched Lyran. He looked at Maeve. “Is this the Blue Phoenix?”
“It is,” she answered. “Are you Professor Xen’s colleagues?”
“That’s us. Gruth Rommik,” said the Lyran. He dipped his snout to indicate that this name was his own, then pointed to a short, round human man with freckles and red-orange hair. “This is our geologist, Phillip Arno. The big Dailon there is Enu-Io Crath. And the girl who can’t hold onto her luggage is Panna Sul.”
“I was surprised,” Panna said. “I didn’t expect… an Arcadian.”
The spoiled coreworlder girl had probably never seen a fairy before, but Maeve made herself smile at the scholars. They really did need paying work.
“Where is Professor Xen?” she asked.
“He’ll be here soon with the rest of our equipment,” Panna answered. “We came early to hand off some of the delicate stuff.”
“Then let us hope that you were carrying none of it,” Maeve said with an arched eyebrow.
The Lyran, Gruth, laughed and elbowed Panna in the ribs. “The bird-girl’s got you there.”
Panna recovered and held out her hand. “Ignore the furball. I’m so sorry. May I ask your name?”
“Maeve Cavainna.” She took the offered hand briefly and Panna looked uncomfortable. “I am first mate of the Blue Phoenix. Your accommodations are prepared, if you wish to board.”
“We should wait for Professor Xen and help him with the equipment,” said Enu-Io.
Maeve nodded. Duaal appeared at the airlock and waved.
“Are these our passengers?” he called out.
“Hello again, Mister Sinnay,” Panna said.
“Just Duaal. And who are the rest?”
The Hyzaari copilot came down the cargo ramp and exchanged introductions with the archeologists, then winked flirtatiously at Enu-Io. Maeve fished her com — short not for communications, but compound phone/radio — from her pocket and called Tiberius. There was a metallic clang and some shouting before he answered.
“Myles here. What?”
“Most of our guests have arrived,” Maeve reported. “Professor Xen will join them soon, along with the majority of their equipment. Is Gripper finished inside? We could use his help in loading.”
“We’ll be there in just a minute. Keep your wings on!” Tiberius grumped.
“Yes, captain.”
Duaal was deep in conversation with the stout geologist, Phillip, who was familiar with Hyzaar. Panna watched Maeve again, but blushed and turned away when she saw the Arcadian staring back.
At precisely seven o’clock, Professor Xen drove onto the landing field in a flatbed truck piled high with crates and cases. He pulled to a stop behind the Blue Phoenix ramp and called out to Panna.
“Would you supervise the loading?” he asked. “I need to have a word with Captain Myles.”
Panna nodded. She climbed up onto the truck bed and began checking over the crates. Gruth, Phillip and Enu-Io went to help. Xen asked where Tiberius was.
“He is in the engine room with Gripper,” Maeve answered. “He will arrive shortly.”
The Ixthian professor looked at her for a moment with eyes shifting through a spectrum of colors too quickly for Maeve to read, then nodded. A moment later, Tiberius and Xia emerged from the Blue Phoenix. Xen exchanged a handshake with Tiberius and a hug with Xia. They all joined the rest of the team in grunting and straining as they unloaded the truck.
A few of the crates were marked with yellow biocontainment stickers and had to be handled with care, but most were just heavy. Only the large Enu-Io wasn’t streaming sweat. Maeve’s feathers made Gruth sneeze every time they passed one another. Most of the work was done when Gripper swung down from the upper walkway and landed in the hold.
“Sorry, Claws,” he apologized. “That last bolt got stuck. Had to replace it.”
Xen stood to one side, alternately talking to Xia and checking over a datadex that Panna held. He caught sight of the Arboran and whistled sharply. Gripper looked at him and colored.
“Hi, I’m Gripper. Professor Xen, right?”
“Amazing,” Zen breathed. “What are you, my boy?”
“His species is called Arboran,” Xia said.
Xen’s eyes flickered again through several colors. “Arboran? As in the arborus genox? Trees?”
“Um, yeah. The Lyrans who found me gave it a name in Aver,” Gripper said. “Back home, we didn’t really have one. We called the forest Weh-weh, though. It uh… it means tree-tree.”
“Amazing,” Xen said again. “Simply amazing. How many other secrets are you keeping on this ship, Xia?”
“Gripper’s the big one, I think. I’m sure you can understand why we didn’t want to drag him across the university to meet with you.”
Xen looked Gripper speculatively up and down. “I suppose I do, at that. This will be a fascinating trip.”
“It won’t be if we can’t get this stuff loaded up,” Gruth shouted from across the cargo bay. “Why doesn’t the big whatever-you-are come help me with this drill? Bring me that NI pallet!”
“Yeah, sure,” Gripper said and did as the Lyran asked.
“Absolutely fascinating,” Xen murmured.
Tiberius waved Duaal over and hooked his thumb over his shoulder, in the direction of the nose of the ship and the cockpit.
“It looks like we’re about done here,” Tiberius said. “Go submit our clearance to the control tower.”
“Do I have to?” Duaal asked plaintively. He looked around the field and lingered on Enu-Io, who had removed his shirt to keep it clean as he repositioned crates in the Blue Phoenix hold. “The view out here is much nicer.”
“Go call it in,” Tiberius told him.
“And then take the Phoenix up?”
“And then wait for me.”
“Come on! I’m wasted on you, captain,” Duaal said, then sighed. “I really am.”
He looked around for someone to agree with him. Maeve just shrugged, but Xia put a silver hand on Tiberius’ shoulder.
“It’s a clear day and should provide a smooth flight,” she said. “He could use the practice.”
Tiberius considered and finally nodded. “Alright, sure. When you get clearance, you can fly out, Duaal. Just watch out for the morning traffic. These eggheads can’t fly straight before they’ve had their first pot of coffee.”
“Yes, sir!” Duaal snapped a silly, over-elaborate salute and ran up toward the cockpit.
“Is he your student?” Enu-Io asked in a deep, quiet voice.
Tiberius grunted, still watching the door through which Duaal had vanished.
“Duaal has been the Blue Phoenix copilot for five years,” Xia answered. “He’s pretty well qualified, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“He doesn’t look much like a pilot,” Panna said with a smile. “More like a fashion holo for deep club types. Where’s he from?”
Before anyone could answer, the engines howled and the Blue Phoenix lurched under their feet, throwing everyone to the ground. Maeve flapped her wings hard to keep her balance. Professor Xen arched a white eyebrow at Xia and she smirked back at him.
“You wanted a cheap flight, Xen,” she reminded him.
“I better go check on that,” Tiberius said.
He ran for the stairs.
Dinner the first night out was fresh fare from Tynerion, mostly fruit and vegetables with a dessert of strawberry ice cream that had them all picking seeds out of well-fed grins for hours afterward.
“Sorry,” apologized the red-haired Phillip, who had made it. “I forgot to strain the pulp.”
“It is still better fare than we are used to,” Maeve said.
With the addition of five more bodies, the room that served as the ship’s kitchen, lounge and crew dining room all at once was crowded, forcing everyone to sit close together around the table or at the couches. Despite the close quarters, Panna still managed to stay across the mess from Maeve.
Gripper burped happily and then covered his wide mouth. “Oops. Thanks, Strawberry. I haven’t had ice cream in months.”
“Strawberry?” Phillip asked, afraid that Gripper was making fun of him.
“For the ice cream and because of your hair.”
“Oh.” The geologist covered his coppery hair with his hands.
Gruth barked a short laugh.
“We never use birth names,” Gripper explained quickly. “It’s a sort of nickname. I use them for everyone. Smoke and Shimmer. Claws and Little Claws for his hawk. Silver for Xia, because she’s so shiny and pretty…”
“That she is,” Xen said. He pushed his bowl back and rested his sharp chin in one hand. He peered across the table at Xia. “You’re as lovely now as the day you left, my dear. You did cut off your hair, though, and I must confess that I miss it.”
“I didn’t cut it the first time. Someone else did,” Xia told him. She brushed a six-fingered hand over her scalp. “I guess I just got used to it after that. I hadn’t really thought about it. Maybe I should let it grow out again.”
“I like it short,” Gripper said. “It’s all fuzzy.”
“Fuzzy?” Xia frowned.
“Um, yeah…” Gripper bit his brown-mottled lip and gave her an uncertain smile.
“We have a lot of catching up to do,” Xen said. “Why don’t you show me the ship, Xia? You have medical facilities, I assume?”
“A small medbay,” Xia answered demurely. “There’s not much to show, but come on.”
She deposited their empty ice cream bowls in the sink and led Xen out of the room. Gripper watched them go with his mouth hanging open.
“Perhaps you should not have said that her hair looked fuzzy,” Maeve suggested gently.
Duaal stifled a laugh and Gripper looked mortified.
“But it does!” he groaned. “Like my favorite moss!”
Duaal could contain his mirth no longer and began giggling. Gruth and Phillip laughed, too.
Tiberius didn’t seem to get the joke. He stood and cracked his knuckles loudly. “I’ve got to feed Orphia or she’ll have my fingers. Duaal, check our vectors before bed.”
“Will do, captain,” Duaal said. He wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.
Gripper glared at the mage for a moment, but then stared wistfully out the door as Tiberius departed.
“What do you think they’re talking about?” he asked.
Maeve frowned. “Tiberius and Orphia?”
“No. Silver and Shorts.”
“Shorts?”
“Professor Xen. Shorts. Because he’s so short.”
It was easy to make light of Gripper’s infatuation with Xia. He was absurdly inept in his courtship. But for all of its comedy, his pain was no less real. Maeve put her hand on top of Gripper’s huge one and gave it a small, reassuring squeeze.
“They have a lot to catch up on,” Panna said. She stood up and collected the remaining bowls from the table. “They haven’t seen each other in years. They used to be quite close.”
“Close?” Gripper asked. “Like what kind of close?”
“Well, they were involved, back when they were both students,” Panna said.
“Involved?” Gripper’s voice was breathless. “Like… dating?”
Panna deposited the dishes beside the sink and leaned on the counter. “And they were pretty serious.”
Gripper looked down at Maeve with such a look of youthful, boyish lovesickness that her heart ached, all jokes forgotten. Young love was hard. Maeve thought of her Orthain, of her brother Caith, and his love. She laid her cheek against Gripper’s rough brown skin and badly wanted a drink.
There wasn’t much to show Xen in the medical bay. It was more of an alcove than a proper room, but even that was an improvement on the Blue Phoenix’s original design. The starship was made for short distance travels, not the sort of long hauls that required the presence of a doctor.
“Then your superluminal engines and NI generators must be modifications, too,” Xen said.
He leaned in the door, surveying Xia’s small domain.
“I believe Tiberius had to install more powerful models,” she answered. “They’re both a little more than the internal systems can handle. The repairs kept us in port longer than Tiberius likes, so he hired Gripper on to keep the Phoenix flying.”
“Is there a lot of call for a medic?”
Xia gestured around the medical bay. “I’ve used everything in here. I had to update everyone’s immunizations this morning. Six months ago, I delivered a baby. And Duaal can singe himself quite badly with some of his fire spells.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that boy. Soon.”
“Maeve gets into a lot of fights, too,” Xia said. “It used to be worse, when Coldhand was chasing her.”
Xen’s long antennae twitched.
“Coldhand?” he asked. “Is that a name I should know?”
“I hope not. He’s a bounty hunter,” Xia answered. She sat down on the corner of the examination table. “He and Maeve spent a year trying to kill each other. At least, that’s what it looked like. As it turned out, Maeve had posted her own bounty and was trying to get Coldhand to kill her. He’s gone now.”
“That sounds rather convoluted,” Xen said. “You’ve landed yourself on a very mysterious little ship and I hope you’ll tell me more. I want to know all about that alien, Gripper, and your mage. I’ve never heard of a human one. He is human, isn’t he? But later. It’s going to be a long flight to Prianus.”
Xen sat beside Xia. She smelled his warm, sweet pheromones.
“And most of all, I want to know about you,” Xen said. “What happened, Xia?”
“What?”
“We all expected great things from you. You were so dedicated to your studies, more devoted to them than you were to me.”
There was no bitterness in Xen’s voice and Xia supposed it was a testament to her years away from other Ixthians that it surprised her. Though their genetics had been compatible, their career goals were not. Once the young couple realized that, there was little reason to continue their courtship. But they had remained friends for years after.
“I’m still a doctor,” Xia pointed out.
“But after you graduated, you just… vanished. For the longest time, I heard nothing. Then you appear on a tiny, unaffiliated ship as their medic. This was never one of your ambitions, my dear, and I knew your ambitions well. What happened? Where did you go?”
“You heard that I won the grant from the Alliance to open an office on Koji, right?” Xia asked.
“Yes, I heard. I bought a round for everyone at the campus bar when I found out. I sent you a dozen Hyla roses,” Xen said. He brushed his fingers over his curling pewter antennae. “I guess you never got them.”
“No. I went home before heading out to Koji. I wanted to see my parents and pick up a few things from the Kynfarr laboratories before I flew out to the frontier. My mother lectured me a little. Like you, she always thought I should have stayed in research. But otherwise, everything was fine. Until I left.”
Xia laced her fingers in her lap and took a breath before she continued.
“A pirate ship, the Caitiff, intercepted my passenger liner. They took everything of value, killed anyone who resisted and took many others as prizes. I was one of the second group, but I wasn’t on the Caitiff long before the captain, Gelden, figured out that I was a lot more valuable as a medic than a sex worker.”
“You don’t have to tell me anymore,” Xen offered.
“No, it’s alright,” Xia said. She unwove her fingers and wiped her damp palms on the knees of her pale green pants.
“So you were a doctor for the pirates?”
“Not at first,” Xia said. “I refused to work for them, but then Gelden brought in some of the other prisoners from my ship. He told me that if I didn’t obey, he would kill one of them. I didn’t believe him, naturally. Gelden was a petty, spiteful little man. I didn’t think he had it in him. I was wrong.
“The next time that the Caitiff landed, I tried to escape. I was terrified and clumsy. Gelden’s men caught me easily. When they dragged me back, Captain Gelden shot one of the other captives, a human girl. Right there in front of me. There was nothing I could do for her.
“I didn’t push Gelden again. I worked for him for two years. After a while, he even let me carry my own weapon. I still have the pistol he gave me, stolen off one of the ships he attacked.”
“But you left, eventually,” Xen said softly.
“Gelden stopped the Blue Phoenix. It was carrying some transistors. Gallium-errol, very delicate. He didn’t want to risk damaging the cargo by firing on the ship, so he boarded. Tiberius, Maeve and Duaal fought back. Gripper wasn’t around back then. Maeve chased the boarding party all the way back to the Caitiff and she found me there, waiting to care for the pirates. Maeve rescued me, if you can believe it, and brought me back to Tiberius. He offered me a job and I took it.”
“And here you are.” Xen looked around the medbay with a new appreciation in his faceted compound eyes.
“Here I am,” Xia said. “Tiberius built all of this for me. It used to be a closet. He had it expanded and bought some equipment so I could do my job.”
“Why didn’t you go back to Koji?” Xen asked. “They still need doctors in the colonies.”
“I’m sure my grant expired a long time ago.”
“You could get a new one,” Xen suggested.
Xia shrugged. “I don’t know. There aren’t a lot of grants.”
“I could help you secure one.”
“Maybe…”
They sat in silence for a few minutes. The bulkheads rumbled as the engines worked, wrapping the Blue Phoenix in a huge null-inertia field and hurling them between the stars, flying faster than light. Voices echoed quietly from the rest of the ship as the crew and passengers went about their evening routines. Xia could just make out Orphia’s harsh calls as Tiberius flew her in the hold.
“It’s good to see you again, my dear,” Xen said at last.
“And you, Xen. It has been a long time.”
“I meant what I said earlier. I really do want to hear all about your strange companions. I’m quite curious.”
Xia nodded. “I knew you would be. I’ll be making breakfast tomorrow. If you want to get up early and lend me a hand, I can tell you some about them.”
The other Ixthian stood and took Xia’s hands in his smaller ones. He kissed her forehead, between her antennae.
“I look forward to it. Until tomorrow,” Xen said.
He left Xia sitting alone in her medical alcove. It was good to see Xen. He seemed much older, more mature than the over-eager young man who had been her lover six years ago. Or was she the one who had changed?
Her relationship with Xen seemed like a lifetime ago, but the memories of the intimacy they had once shared stirred a longing in Xia that she had nearly forgotten.
Life on the Blue Phoenix could be isolating. Xia spent every day with the rest of the crew, but when she wasn’t working, her off-duty hours were long and lonely. It would be good to have passengers, especially other scholars, if only for a little while.
Xia shut off the lights in the medbay and headed back toward the mess. She could help with the dishes before bed.
