Chapter 24

Back on the Sequi, no one spoke a word. They flew into the Lepper, cleared for Pote. It was a planet the aviarmen had been to before that had a good medical facility and few bothers.

All the injuries had Craze slipping in and out of hibernation along the way. The memories of being carried to and from the ship and to the hospital were pure fuzz. He could recall ceiling passing by overhead and a gal sniffling. Rainly.

“Rainly?”

“You need to rest,” a lady all in orange said, placing an oxygen mask over his face.

The influx of air made his lungs ache less. When he felt strong enough to sit up, Talos stared at him from a chair across the room, rolling that prized pin between his fingers. His expression was crest-fallen, but not devoid of all hope.

“Where we at?” Craze asked.

“Pote. You ‘n Rainly needed tending for your injuries. Yours was really bad. Cost us the remaining three bars, mate.”

Shit. That explained Talos’s glum face, but not the glimmer of optimism. “I’m sorry, dammitall, more sorry than I can say.” Craze ran a hand over his sore hair. It hurt too much to do anything but lay flat. Since he hadn’t ever cut it to avoid the extreme pain, the strands, without the usual waves and curls, tumbled down to his hips.

“No panicking. We’ll find another fortune,” Talos said. He seemed to mean it, too. He quit fidgeting with the button, pinning it on his coat. “Carry on. That’s what we’ll do. Don’t argue with Mom. She knew her stuff. She used to tell me sometimes things come along more important than trade routes ‘n riches. Here we be at one of those sometimes things.”

Were they? What had become more important? The creak in his side when Craze moved brought a few of them to mind: he’d lived, he’d get a tomorrow to seek his vengeance on Bast, and he’d rescued a sad gal. Maybe even given her a chance at some happiness. Dammitall, Talos was right. And it mattered a lot that the aviarman was here, standing by Craze, watching over him. It was a connection stronger than Craze ever had with his Verkinn family. A partnership worth as much as the sheeny chips they had let go.

“You think?” Craze asked.

“Life. Freedom. Good friends. A working ship ‘n the best of folks to sail it with. We’ll be all right. There’s places we can go ‘n start over.” He held out Craze’s tab with one hand, pinging it from the tab in his other. “We still have the money the Elstwhere patrollers gave us, which means something on some worlds. I made a list.”

Taking the proffered tab, Craze glanced at Talos’s data. Six planets offered homesteads and businesses at prices within their means. Six. A galaxy of possibility had narrowed down to those few options.

“We need another propellant cell for the Sequi though.” Talos fingered the pin on his lapel. “So you can scratch the first place off.”

Five options. “Can we get more chips if we keep chasing after the Fo’wo’s?”

Talos shook his head. “Dactyl got fired.”

“How come?”

“Because I made the choice to give up any chance at getting a reliable lead on the Fo’wo’s to help yous sorry asses ‘n I lost the shits. Then there’s the issue of bartering with stolen goods,” the lawman said, leaning into the room, nodding at Talos. “We about ready to go? Rainly’s anxious to start the home search. She’s never had one before. Ain’t that a shame?”

“You seem OK with how things turned out,” Craze said to the Quatten.

“It’s only a job ‘n money.” Dactyl’s long brown coat was gone, but he had sewn the sleeve back on his shirt, covering up the symbols that had scared the piss out of Rock Man.

Who exactly was Dactyl? Craze swallowed wrong, choking on his own spit. He held up a hand as he fought to get enough control back to speak. “Only? ‘N who’s Quasser? What’s that tattoo you got mean?”

“We all have a past. I won’t ask about yous dastardly pa unless yous want to say. Yous don’t ask about before I was a lawman unless I want to say.”

“OK. What will you say?”

“I joined up with the law to make up for things I’d done. Saving yous ‘n Rainly was the right thing to do no matter the consequences. Yous make up for things ...”

Craze could tell he’d learn nothing more. Not at this point. Maybe some day in the future when they’d all had many more adventures together. “Well, thank you. I appreciate it ‘n I’m pretty sure Rainly does, too. Where is she by the way? She OK?”

“She’s fine, thrilled to hear yous well enough to leave today.” Dactyl saluted Talos, fist to chest. “The Sequi’s ready to go, Captain. Except for the fuel cell.”

“I’m about to go buy it.” Talos stood with a sigh.

Craze knew he owed the aviarman for helping with the failed heist, for getting him out of custody, for giving him a place when he had none, and for not running off when things got rough. Nice things. Craze would keep his vow to return the kindnesses to Talos and Lepsi. “I have some really nice bottles of booze in my pack,” he said. “One or two should get what we need. Save your chips. Put option six back on the list.”

“Really?” Talos’s face brightened. “Running into you on that transport from Siegna turned out to be great fortune, mate. Life isn’t dull with you around. ‘N to think I didn’t want to be anywhere near you at first.” Laughing, he buzzed Lepsi on his tab, telling him to get Craze’s pack and meet them at the trader’s bay.

With Dactyl’s assistance, Talos helped Craze to the shop. Craze aided in negotiating the hooch for the propellant cell. His friends then guided him back to the Sequi, strapping him into his usual seat.

Rainly beamed at him. She wore a halter and shorts made from Dactyl’s coat with a patch over her heart that was Craze’s cuff. Over that bit of material she wore the lawman’s old badge, literally advertising her heart to the world. “You starting to look better. I’m so glad.” Her bruises were black as a cosmic void, but no darkness could tarnish her radiant disposition.

It made Craze smile, despite wishing most of his body parts would find new homes and leave him in peace. He squeezed her hand. “Good to see you, too.”

Sitting up so long made him moan, which led to thoughts of misery and the lost chocolates. They had left so much wealth behind on Wism. Maybe. Or maybe they didn’t. If they didn’t, that was a problem. One as big as the Rock Man and his brother. “What if most of those bars was mealworms? Those dudes will come for us. Won’t they?”

“As long as Quasser lives, we’ve nothing to worry about,” Dactyl said, settling into the chair beside Rainly’s.

“You ever goin’ to tell us who he is?” Craze would risk a slug or two to sate his curiosity.

“Yous may hear whispers of Quasser from time to time, but not from decent folks. He’s somebody yous don’t want to know. Not even by somebody else telling yous about him. Drop it, or we gonna talk for the next few hours about yous pa ‘n Yerness.”

Craze pressed his lips together, biting back his myriad questions. He didn’t want to pollute today or tomorrow with Bast and Yerness. Dactyl was right. The past was the past. “New beginnin’ right here. For all of us. Where we goin’, Captain?”

“Carry on!” Talos slapped the console. “We’ve been cleared for Danysovia. First stop on the list of possibilities.”

Craze peered at the planets Talos had pinged onto his tab. Little to no information besides the names and locations graced the InfoCy data files. After Danysovia was Lleteboor, Foradil, then a place called Pardeep Station. Exsix and Awjiscar were the last ports of opportunity.

Worries coated Craze’s palms in a cold, slick sheen. If Mortua and Wism lay outside their monetary means, what kind of holes in the galactic arm would these planets be? Shit. He wiped his hands off on his coveralls.

“Ready?” Talos clicked the course into the ship systems, taking the Sequi up toward the Lepper.

The streams of cobalt blue reached for the vessel to whisk Craze away from all the tragedies and failures, inspiring a resurgence of hope. Not every stop could end in disaster and disappointment. Could it? Nah.

And maybe there was nothing wrong with those six places besides being far out on the Edge. Just remote and unsettled, the new frontier, nothing worse. As the Backworlds healed from the war, they’d expand once again, and the Edge wouldn’t remain the boondocks forever. No. Untapped potential waited out there, and Craze would grab it along with his new-found brothers and sister.

“Danysovia here we come,” Lepsi sang out, waving Federoy’s image at the view out the spacecraft. “Give us chips. Give us chips.”

Dactyl held Rainly’s hand. They shared a smile, intimate and warm. Seemed they’d found something as precious as chocolate on Wism.

It made Craze miss Yerness for a split second. Then he realized it was the intimacy he longed for and not her. Someday he’d find the right gal. He knew that and knew he’d be OK. The aches for lost love, Siegna, and home eased. He’d lucked into a cozy new life with a new family. One that actually looked out for him and shared this same journey. On a quest for better and for healing, together they would find it. One of those worlds on Talos’s list would become home.

Craze felt a tinge of excitement, wondering which one. “Let’s go.”

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