Skielach: Echelon, #2

Skielach

Z. A. Waterstone

Skielach

Written by Z. A. Waterstone

Published by Amy Keeley

Copyright © 2015 by Amy Keeley

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. For permission requests, contact the publisher through her website listed below, subject Permissions Request.

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Cover image: aerial view of futuristic city with flying spacehsips by yulia rosher | Stockfresh.com

Cover Design by Amy Keeley

Orbitron font created by Matt McInerney

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank my readers for coming along on this next part of Maia and company’s journey. I’m grateful for the support of my family and the members of Holly Lisle’s Boot Camp and Forward Motion. I don’t think I’d have nearly as much confidence with this series if I hadn’t had my family and friends cheering me on. Thank you.

Most especially, I’d like to thank my husband, who listens to all my angst with the patience of a saint. Thank you.

For Philly.

1

Maia kept her eyes closed and smiled while the baby kicked. There wouldn’t be time later to focus on this. Soon, the crew and passengers on the Xingsen transport Kaylan had chosen for them would be shuffling around, getting ready to leave, and Kaylan would give her a glare that wasn’t a glare and she’d waddle around, gathering her things that she’d brought with her from Roz, finally able to leave this cramped space and constant noise behind.

But for now, there was just her and the baby, engaged in a quiet conversation that she hoped was just her imagination. Hey, there.

Hi. Her baby always sounded happy and that made her glad.

Doing well?

Yes. The happiness shifted, a thread of innocent sadness running through it. I miss the big ship.

She didn’t want to admit it, but so did she. We’ll go back soon.

Her hips felt sore after being on one side for so long, but she forced herself to stay still. Movement meant she was awake, and if Kaylan was giving her a chance to get some more sleep (something she suspected he did when he could) then she wanted to take it while she had it. Who knew if she’d have the chance once they were in the city of Skielach, home of Eishan Idierd, the one who had tried to steal Roz from Kaylan.

Joyful curiosity filled her head. What’s the city like?

She’d answered this question from her daughter before, but had no images then or now. All she had was what Kaylan had described. It’s big, both wide and tall, with many buildings on many levels. And there are ships that float above the city. That’s where the rich live. We won’t be going there.

But you’ll see it?

Yes.

Then I’ll see it too! And she thought she felt her daughter’s happiness bubble through her before settling into a peaceful joy.

It’s just my imagination, she told herself. She didn’t want to think on what it would mean if her infant could access the shared space. Meditation space. No matter what name she used, human or Darushee, it was the same thing.

If her daughter could already speak in the shared space…no. Her daughter was not the savior of mankind, no matter how much Darushee-whatever her husband had put in the bodies of his rebel group and in her. Right now, she was just mommy’s little kicker, and both of them were going to figure out if it was even safe for her to use Ventra—a newly-found program on Kaylan’s ship, Roz—to adapt the ship so she could give birth.

The sound of rustling above her caught her ear. Kaylan’s feet swung over (she could tell by the sounds from the creaking bed) and his tall frame landed on the floor with barely a sound. Over the last four months (Earth time) he’d gotten very good at moving around without waking her up. If the baby’s movements hadn’t woken her, she’d still be asleep.

Docking in an hour, he said, her comm translating his native Darunihin into English, and she wondered, not for the first time, how much he could see of her thoughts.

She stretched. Better get up now then, slow as I move. She looked up and saw the remnant of his brief smile.

He hadn’t wanted her to come with. In fact, he’d spent the first month barely talking to her.

For just a moment, the memory was so strong it was as if she’d slipped back to that point in time.

You won’t want to come, Kaylan had said when she’d first asked, the comm’s translation acting like the dubbed lines to a foreign film, a mismatch between what her eyes saw and what her ears heard, yet both were true. I can’t bring Roz near the planet without Idierd knowing. Four months in a Xingsen transport is miserable for anyone traveling in it, let alone a pregnant Airie. How close are you now?

Another Earth—Aishe month.

She hadn’t felt she could give the reason, not with Roz or possibly even Ventra listening to everything they said. So she’d given him one weak excuse after another: what if Idierd found out and came for Roz and he wasn’t there (It would be more dangerous for you to come with me, he’d countered), what if one of the prisoners in the Hold escaped (Nemed would stop that before it started. It’s why he stays in the Hold.). Finally, when she’d exhausted all her weak reasons, she hinted at the true one.

I don’t know what will happen while you’re gone. And she’d hoped that something in the look on her face would tell him what her words couldn’t, what she didn’t dare even think for very long. She didn’t trust Roz.

Kaylan had looked at her for a long time through those eyes whose odd angle was just enough to make it clear he wasn’t human, then told her to pack whatever she needed. You do realize, he’d said as she’d turned away, that if you come with, you won’t be on Roz when you give birth. There won’t be time to bring you back.

I think there will, she had said. Things go wrong with Idierd, you’ll want to make a fast getaway. I can’t see you not planning for that.

It was the last time she’d seen him smile since they’d begun this trip. Until now.

And somehow, that smile made her world a little brighter, even though he was a Darushee.

Back in the present, she got up and packed her bag, making sure her robes, maternity pants, and shirts were all neatly folded inside. Roz had made them for travel and comfort. Whatever the material, they were the best clothes she’d ever had. Looking at them made her feel guilty or bad or something she couldn’t even name all because they’d come from Roz who had done her best to make sure Maia felt comfortable inside her walls.

And yet she didn’t trust her.

For a brief moment, she wished Scott had never woken Ventra, a program whose purpose even Roz couldn’t say. Even Kaylan, her captain, knew nothing about Ventra’s existence. If she were a Matriarch, she would know everything about it, but that wasn’t going to happen if she could help it.

It was the whole reason for going to Skielach.

She wore her favorite pair of slacks and a plain creamy white shirt not too different from the style Kaylan wore, glad for its blandness. She’d get attention enough from her bulging belly.

One more month. She had time. Even with the plan she knew Kaylan had, there would be time.

Closing her satchel, she turned and watched Kaylan finish getting ready. He still wore his familiar camouflage slacks with pockets seen and unseen, and his white long-sleeved shirt. His camouflage jacket hung on the wall behind him. He bent his tall form, folding it enough to sit on her bunk, though now and then the top of his head threatened to bump the upper bunk. A few copper-red braids fell forward from where he’d bound them high at the back of his head, sweeping by his pointed ear as he leaned forward to latch his boots.

There were times on the journey when Maia had stared at the holes in that ear, the scars that had once been filled with the twisting piece of gold known among the Darushee as the echelon, a piece of jewelry that kept the Darushee alive. If it was taken away, death was certain, sooner or later. Even Kaylan, with all the help he had bought or been given, had been close to dying by the time she’d boarded Roz. It was her presence that had helped stabilize him, and a part of her believed he’d let her come with because it was her presence stabilizing him now.

She would look at those empty scars and, for just a moment, there would be a feeling of common ground. She could never go back to her clan either.

But then she would remember that the Darushee had killed and enslaved humankind, That her husband had also been killed by them.

But that was a whole other mass of confusion.

Worried? Kaylan didn’t even look up. He must have seen her thoughts, or felt them, or something.

A little.

Not enough, though.

Are you saying I could go back?

He stood and she was reminded once more in that narrow room of how tall he was. "I could send you back. It’s not too late."

Really? She hefted the bag over her shoulder, hoping she wouldn’t have to convince him again. I think I’d rather see the room you got us in Skielach.

He sighed, but she could see in his face that he wouldn’t press the issue. She wondered if he was still concerned about Roz, too.

And somehow that worried her even more.

He put on his jacket, and they got in line with the other travelers forced to use the Xingsen transport vessel to get to the tiny docking hub where transport to the city below waited patiently.

Pressed in at all sides, Maia tried not to focus on the stench of alien bodies that made due with occasional cleanings, the conversations around her the comm in her ear translated, or the jostle when the doors opened.

Stay close, Kaylan said, taking her by the elbow. That one touch made her suddenly aware of how a path had opened for him, the passengers glancing furtively as they passed, as if they wouldn’t be safe until he’d entered the port proper.

Flower? A young girl had stepped forward, a bowl of flowers in her hand and a smile on her smooth face. The way her skin glistened reminded Maia of a frog, though the pattern of black and gray on it, dappled here, striped there, was beautiful.

Kaylan didn’t answer and moved away as fast as possible.

That wasn’t nice, Maia whispered, trying to keep her voice down.

Kaylan’s faint smile was more of a smirk. You think so? Where is she now?

Maia looked behind, but didn’t see her.

She’s gone? he asked. It was definitely a smirk.

She hated it when he was right. From our host? The name they’d agreed to call Idierd when they’d formed their plan, given how much influence he had within the city.

Maybe. Maybe not. But she certainly wasn’t just selling flowers.

It’ll be bad enough, Kaylan had said on one of the long days to Skielach, that I’m going through. Darushee stand out, if you haven’t noticed.

Especially you, and she’d gestured toward his copper-red hair.

He’d smiled (they were in a truce by then). Then he’d pointed out that no one in their right mind would take a pregnant slave with them, a role she’d have to play if she joined him. His first condition.

That had stopped her for a moment. While they talked, it had been easy to forget that this arrangement didn’t exist among the rest of humanity. And she felt guilty when she forgot.

They made their way to a gate where a slightly older girl of the same species as the one selling flowers nodded toward the passengers getting on the next transport to the city.

Welcome to Eishan Shuttles, she said with the same brightness in her voice each time. There was a pause as she looked at Kaylan, and for a moment, her smile faltered.

He didn’t look at her as they passed.

Maia gave her a brief smile and wondered, as the girl recovered and went back to her bright chirping, what she thought of the Darushee’s pregnant slave? Obviously nothing that struck fear. The Xingsen transport didn’t have any mirrors and she hadn’t thought to bring one. She knew her dark brown hair was longer, brushing against her neck regularly, and she knew she’d gotten bigger (obviously). However she looked, she apparently didn’t intimidate as much as Kaylan, the bounty hunter. And she found she was glad of it. Mostly.

As they squeezed onto a small ship meant for travel between planet and space, she stared. It’s like a cattle car, her dad would have said, except she was certain it was worse. There were what looked like huge suction cups on the floor, and she decided, as she watched everyone take their places, that they were supposed to hold a person’s feet. Above them dangled rings with cords: for passengers to grip during the flight.

You’ve gotta be kidding me, she muttered in English as she took her place next to Kaylan.

She felt him nudge her shoulder. When she looked up, she swore he’d given her a look that said this was why pregnant slaves didn’t travel.

All are in the correct positions, a mild female voice announced. Commencing flight.

The suction cups molded themselves over her feet, wrapping around her ankles. She put her bag between her feet, as Kaylan had done, then reached up and grabbed the ring, just as Kaylan and everyone else did.

The sides slid down, revealing a starry sky on one side and the planet Singbah still going through night on the other, lights glowing on its surface like minor stars. And that was the only way she knew they’d left the dock and