Space Baby (Interstellar Sheriff Book 4) by Jenny Schwartz

Author:Jenny Schwartz [Schwartz, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Four to five children were dying every day on Mayda.

Maybe it was those deaths, but after five days of nagging, Vuthaj sent Thelma the data she’d requested. Raw data. “Our analysts found nothing.”

“Maybe there’s nothing to find,” Thelma said pacifically. But if there was, the analytical engine was far more likely to pinpoint it. The algorithms Lon had coded into it ran the analysis in unconventional as well as conventional ways; something that suited life on the frontier and in the Badstars.

She was eager to run the data, but the analytical engine didn’t need her hovering over it.

Jesse was paying equal attention to the puzzle of the data and the hope that it contained some answers.

Thelma had other work to do, work she was being paid for, but she was nonetheless grateful to receive the distraction of a comms call from Helen. Thelma kicked back in her comfy office chair as Helen’s image appeared on the wall screen opposite Thelma’s desk. But as Thelma focused on Helen’s stern expression, her own sense of relief and relaxation died.

“Mom returned my call,” Helen began bluntly. “I left a message with Captain Barlos, who was not pleased—”

“I’ll bet.”

Helen’s lips thinned even further. “Mom wouldn’t answer any of my contact attempts, even the one for an emergency. She owed me answers. So, I told Captain Barlos,” told, not asked. Helen must have been stone-cold furious. “If Mom didn’t contact me within two days, I’d broadcast my message and questions to anyone interested.”

“And Medusa responded to that threat? What were you going to ask her?”

“Who she intended to kill and why? What the heck she knows about the origins of the children’s sickness?”

Would that really be enough to scare a bandit like Medusa into taking her daughter’s call?

Understanding hit Thelma like a rocket. Everything Medusa had done was to give her daughter a chance at life outside of the Badstars and banditry. “You were going to announce you were her daughter?”

“It might have slipped out.”

“Helen,” Thelma said on a breath of protest.

Helen folded her arms. “It was effective. Mom called. And she doesn’t admit to having any answers as to the cause of the sickness on Mayda. She left the Nemesis to be in place to strike when news of the children’s condition went public and the outcry set some rabbits racing.”

“In place?”

“She didn’t say where.” Helen paused. “She’s using you. Us. She wants the answers you get, then she’ll take action. Do you know, it wouldn’t surprise me if Captain Baagh allowed Courtney to contact me because Mom put that idea in his head?”

Helen knew her mom better than Thelma did.

Nonetheless, this seemed a stretch.

“Are you, maybe, a bit paranoid?”

Helen laughed bitterly. “You haven’t heard the best bit yet. Mom wanted to distract me, so she came up with a doozy. She told me who my father is.”

“Is it bad?”

“The timing is. I haven’t told Carl. I…Mom got her distraction. I can’t think clearly. I’ve just been sitting here, staring at the screen. She ended the call.

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