Relic of Sorrows by Lindsay Buroker

Author:Lindsay Buroker
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General Fiction
Published: 2016-06-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Alisa gingerly put on a fresh shirt, trying to do it without lifting her left arm. The painkillers kept her back from hurting too much, and her shoulder itching had subsided somewhat, but she did not want to jostle the patches of QuickSkin all over her back. She felt like the Nomad, all patched up but far from one hundred percent. Mica lay on the exam table now, about to receive some of Alejandro’s ministrations.

Alisa needed to get to NavCom to check on their pursuer, but she made herself pause and say, “Thank you for your services, Alejandro.”

He grunted at her, busy sanitizing the instruments he had used for plucking shrapnel from her back. Mica hadn’t received nearly as many pieces, but she had a couple.

“You’re as talented as you are gracious,” Alisa said.

“Go make sure that other ship doesn’t get my orb,” Alejandro said, waving toward the counter where the box sat. Somehow in all of this, Abelardus had let him start toting it around again.

“I wasn’t going to blow it up,” Alisa said.

Alejandro grunted again. Was that a sign of acknowledgment? Of agreement? Of something lodged in his throat?

“I suppose Captain Echo knew that too,” she said, buttoning her shirt. “He didn’t seem that worried. Are androids programmed to be good at poker?”

“I was not overly worried either,” Alejandro said. “Perhaps you are not a good poker player.”

“You weren’t worried? Is that why you were foaming at the mouth, and Abelardus had to restrain you?”

“Even the penitent man is ultimately uncertain of his place in the heavens.”

“Captain,” Mica said, “I believe I hear the NavCom computers beckoning to you.” She made a shooing motion.

“So long as that other ship isn’t beckoning.”

Alisa grabbed her jacket, scowled at the holes in the back and the blood staining it, and left sickbay. She swung past the laundry chute and dropped it in, hoping the automated system could clean and repair it. Even if the Alliance had been even more of a problem to her lately than the empire, she would hate to lose her flight jacket.

Yumi and Leonidas were in NavCom, pointing at the sensors and talking.

“Any new developments?” Alisa asked, slipping past Leonidas to take her customary seat.

“The Explorer isn’t traveling as quickly as it was before,” Yumi said, “but it’s still gaining on us.”

“Everybody gains on us. Freighters aren’t meant to be fast—or to be used for secret missions into dangerous space.”

“We’re getting close to the coordinates,” Leonidas said. “They should be scannable by the long-range sensors soon.”

“At which point, we get to find out if there’s anything there, or if you’ve led us into the middle of nowhere.”

“If it’s the middle of nowhere, an odd number of people are finding it alluring right now.” He tapped the display. “Another ship just popped onto the sensors.”

Alisa propped her arm over her backrest and looked, though there wasn’t much to see yet.

“Make that three ships,” Yumi said, as the Nomad continued to fly in that direction.

“Four,” Leonidas said a few seconds later.

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