The Complete Labors of Darius Linard by Leah R Cutter

Author:Leah R Cutter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781644702956
Publisher: Knotted Road Press

Darius was pleased that Kiki acted quickly, replacing Gitakin with another navigator.

The problem? His replacement was worse. He kept hitting the emergency overrides on Lulu’s flying, trying to control every movement she made.

The ship breeders had placed mechanical controls on some of Lulu’s systems. She could override them if she had to, but only at great pain and cost to herself.

However, Lulu was almost to that point.

She wailed quietly with despair that night while talking with Darius. The lights were low and golden, the room warmer than usual. In order to keep the equilibrium on the air in Darius’s cabin, Lulu had grown a membrane over the doorway—the filters she’d set up just weren’t as efficient.

Instead of being floral scented, the air had a chemical undertone to it, acrid and dangerous. Darius felt as though the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck should be standing up. If Lulu had a physical body, she’d be pacing right now.

Darius sat against the wall on a spot that Lulu had made more comfortable for him, contouring the edges of the ship to his back. Lulu spoke from just over his left shoulder. It was as though if he turned his head, he would see her.

“I can’t stand him!” Lulu complained. “I don’t know how to get rid of him!”

The Veelu weren’t encouraged to commit suicide, but it wasn’t frowned on by their society. The Kin had different morals and values, something that Darius kept getting tripped up on.

The Veelu felt so much more “human” to him.

“Does Kiki know how awful the new navigator is?” Darius asked, still trying to play the peacemaker.

“She was the one who put him in charge,” Lulu said darkly. “She must know.”

“I’m so sorry,” Darius said.

He really was. It just wasn’t fair that Lulu had so many restrictions. She was a sentient ship, born to space. She really should just be given her head. Let her blow off some steam, then she’d be much more accommodating.

Couldn’t they see that?

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Darius asked.

The silence between built, growing more expectant.

“Yessss,” Lulu said. “There is. I want to join in the pikali with you. Then you can help me escape the Kin.”

“Are you sure?” Darius said, sitting up straighter. “That’s a big step.” His heart beat hard and sweat started trickling down his side.

If he escaped with Lulu, back to human space, he’d have the chance to enact his revenge on Captain Alana.

And to tell all the human worlds that there were aliens.

“I’m sure,” Lulu said. “They will label me a wild one, like they have others. There were many declared wild during the civil war that ended only a few years ago—young Veelu who wouldn’t join the fight against their brothers and sisters.”

Darius nodded. He’d read about the civil war among the Kin. Some of the worlds had declared themselves independent and turned away from the central government. They’d lost. It reminded him of the recent human wars with the Allied

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