The others were eating lunch on the back porch. I wasn't hungry. The ring on my finger pulled my hand down, it seemed to weigh more than my ship. The cube and necklace in my pocket dragged me down, too. I shouldn't have been surprised to find Lowell in the mess. I wanted to be angry with him. I wanted to scream and yell at the wind until I could find him and shake him. But I only felt empty, betrayed yet again by Lowell.
"Is something wrong?" Jasyn asked, seeing the look on my face.
I stared at the ocean without answering. The curiosity of the others beat against my silence. I sighed. It wasn't fair not to tell them. They were as involved as I was.
"Lowell came to visit Lady Rina. He set us up. Again." I turned around to face them. "We're supposed to go to Shamustel."
"I'm beginning to hate that planet," Clark said.
Shamustel had bad memories for all of us. I'd never been there without being shot at. It was a quite a record, considering Shamustel had one of the lowest crime rates in the Empire.
"Why?" Jasyn said. "Why us? And how does everything else fit in?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," I said. I twisted the ring on my finger. Whatever past memories it held had nothing to do with the current situation, only an old keepsake included in the box by mistake. Maybe it would help me change my luck for the better. Anything would have been an improvement.
A delivery flitter landed on the pad not far from the kitchen entrance. The name on the side was Tobias Imports. Leon waved at the men emerging from the flitter. It was expected, then, not more trouble.
"How you doing, Toby?" Leon called to the man walking across the lawn to join us.
"Why is that name familiar?" Jerimon muttered. He glanced at me then grinned. "Think of cake, Dace. And the first time we were here."
Toby joined us on the porch. He handed a clipboard to Leon and grinned at the rest of us.
"No cake this time?" he asked me.
"I must have missed that story," Clark said.
Beryn smothered a chuckle. "Surveillance photos," he stage whispered to Clark.
"I'm going to burn them if I find them," I muttered.
Toby sobered, his smile disappearing. "Sorry to bring bad news. You have to leave. Someone is asking very pointed questions about a crewmember of yours. It's only a matter of time before they make a move. I don't know who, I'm sorry."
"We can't leave yet," Jasyn said. She shot a worried look back at the house. "Lady Rina needs us."
"She's dying and she knows it," I said. "I don't think she wants us here to watch."
They didn't want to hear it. I turned back to the ocean, watching the waves rolling in.
"It's true," Leon said. "The doctors told me she had little chance of surviving much longer."
"Then we'd better say our goodbyes," Jasyn said. She looked brittle, as if she would shatter at a touch. She got up stiffly and went into the house, alone.
"Tenison can send his flitter back out for you," Leon said. "I'll call him."
"I can take them back," Toby offered. "There's room if they don't mind riding in back. I'll bring Caid back tomorrow."
"Where is he?" I asked. "I rather expected him to be here somewhere."
"With the Swan," Leon said. "Which is mothballed on the only landing field on the planet. She isn't going to fly again."
"Give us an hour," Clark said to Toby. "Then I think we'd better be moving. I should have registered him as Mart Smith."
"Jericho is a bit noticeable," Toby agreed. "We'll be waiting when you're ready."
The others went to say goodbye to Lady Rina, a final goodbye. I went to walk the beach a last time.
Tattered clouds skimmed the restless waves. The friendliness and peace I'd felt earlier washed away on the edges of a growing storm. I stopped at the waterline, where waves curled and retreated. The birds called to each other, lonely and sad on the eternal wind. I wiped away a tear. I'd miss Lady Rina. Much as I'd grumbled about her meddling, I respected her. I'd grown to love her, I realized as I stood alone to watch the water tumble on the sand. At least she was dying of old age, not because of something I'd done.
I found a final shell, an intricate swirl of pink and white. It was barely bigger than my thumb. It reminded me somehow of Lady Rina, much more complicated than it first appeared. I tucked it into a pocket.
"Dace," Jerimon called, coming towards me over the sand. "We're about ready to leave."
"I just need to grab my bag," I said. "Good thing I didn't bother to unpack."
"Estelle got it for you."
"Maybe you should stay here," I said. "With Jasyn and Clark. This is my trouble. You shouldn't have to deal with it again."
"Didn't you learn anything on Xqtl? We're family, Dace, whether you like it or not. You can't get rid of me that easily. Besides, Jasyn and Clark would never stand for it."
"You're right," I admitted.
We walked away from the beach in silence.
The flight back was long. We sat in the back on the floor. Toby's flitter was nothing like the luxury of Tenison's. But the noise and vibration were good for one thing, they made it impossible to talk. Jasyn leaned against Clark, her head pillowed on his shoulder, her eyes closed. Clark leaned against the wall, one arm around Jasyn and his legs stretched out in front of him. Jerimon sat at the back, watching the storm behind us through the back windows. Beryn was curled up on a pile of sacks, sleeping. I fingered the pink seashell and tried to figure out how things fit together.
Toby gave us a lift up to the station in one of his cargo shuttles. My stomach was in knots over what we'd find when we reached the station. Toby didn't have any more specific information, only that someone was paying a lot of money for information about Mart.
The station looked normal, nothing was different. People went about their business. No one gave us more than a passing glance. The Phoenix was where we'd left it. Mart and Larella were playing cards when we walked in.
Larella frowned, her cards on the table in front of her forgotten. "What happened? Is Lady Rina all right?"
"She's dying, Larella," Jasyn said as we headed for the cockpit.
"Then why are we leaving?" Larella asked.
"Because we're in trouble again," I said and tried unsuccessfully to keep the bite out of my words.
"She wanted it this way." Jerimon made a big show of comforting Larella as he sat at the table. She pushed his arm away, but not very hard.
Mart just looked sad, confused, and lost.
Jasyn called up the station as we took our places in the cockpit. "We need immediate clearance to undock. Family emergency."
"We heard, Phoenix," station control answered. "There are official people beginning to ask about you. We'll stall them as long as we can."
"Thank you," Jasyn said and flipped the com to standby. "I'm too tired for this."
"We all are," Clark answered. He and I got the engines warmed up.
We got clearance to leave. The docking ring clanged free and sent us away from the station with a gentle push. We powered the ship up and turned away from Besht.
"Shamustel?" Jasyn asked.
"Yes," I said.
We ignored the com unit and its urgently blinking light. I ignored the Patrol cruisers swimming space behind us. We flew in silence to the jump point. Just before we reached it, Jasyn accepted a final message burst, recording it for later. Our ship slid into hyperspace and away from Besht.
We shut the sublight engine down.
Jasyn played the message, where everyone could hear and see.
On the viewscreen, Estelle blinked teary eyes. "She's gone. The way she wanted." The message ended.
Clark and Jasyn left. I stayed behind, watching the viewscreen and listening to the familiar, comforting vibration of the engine. I pulled the pink shell from my pocket, fingering it.
"Her spirit flies with us," Larella said from the doorway behind me. "Somehow I knew I wasn't going to see her again. I just didn't want to believe." She sat in the copilot's chair, where Clark usually sat. "She thought highly of you. She renounced her birth clan to adopt you and your crew. She loved you."
I put the shell on the small ledge just above the control boards. "It reminds me of her. The more you look, the more there is to see. I respected her."
"What now?" Larella asked.
"We finish solving the puzzle, we stay one step ahead of whoever's after Mart. And when we find him, we let Lowell know what we think of his meddling."
I stood, suddenly too tired to think. Larella shifted her attention to the shell. I went to my cabin. Larella's presence was strong there, her things had a way of spreading. And through her, I could almost sense Lady Rina watching me.
"May you find peace," I whispered to the elegant older woman who had adopted our odd mix of crew.
I changed to pajamas and rolled into my blanket and sleep.