Authors: Lynn Rae
“No, Dad. You’re boring,” Bets announced with a decisive air
and Lazlo chuckled. Mart looked scandalized.
“It’s true, honey. From her perspective, you’re boring.”
Fallon defended her daughter but softened the criticism with a kiss for Mart. “Lazlo,
it’s good to see you. You look tired.”
Lazlo shrugged agreement. He knew he looked nearly as ragged
as he felt. Poor sleep, stress and worry about Del were taking a toll. But he
still reached for the baby and tucked her up against his shoulder. The little
girl wriggled and bobbed her head a few times as she tried to focus on this new
large person in her range of vision.
“You seem frail, Laz. Let’s get to the restaurant and feed
you and my girls before all of you faint from hunger.”
Mart had made some sort of connection with one of the tour
operators, which meant they had reservations in a very nice private dining room
at the top of a building that looked out over a manicured park. Wide windows
surrounded their table, which was set with icy white linens and gleaming
crystal. Fallon busied herself with settling her baby in a nearby swaddling
seat while Mart arranged all Bets’ cutlery to her satisfaction and then turned
on a datpad for her to use while they looked over the menu.
Lazlo didn’t care what he ate. He was glad to spend time
with his family and be away from the utilitarian surroundings of the campus. It
might take his mind off his troubles.
“So, Lazlo, what’s the story behind the beard?” Fallon asked
as she input a drink order into the hovering servbot’s panel. She looked serene
and lovely as she took care of her family.
“Just marking time, I guess.”
“Marking time until what? Your return to Freton to help me
out?” Mart teased.
“No. Until I can get back to Sayre.”
“Sayre? You’re going back there after your classes are over?
I thought that was a temporary assignment to get you away from Serra. And
speaking of her, the last I heard of her is that she is close to being
released. Again.”
Lazlo swallowed a drink of some sort of juice mixture the
servbot had handed him. Trust Mart to be able to bring up painful topics as
quickly as possible. That’s why brothers existed. But Serra was the least of
his worries now. Fallon shot her husband a repressive look but Mart was
unabashed.
“Maybe it was supposed to be temporary but I’ve decided to
request a permanent posting. I’m just waiting on Major Sekar’s approval.”
Mart shook his head. “This is the commander who has it in
for you at the most primitive posting in this arm of the galaxy. The same place
where the territorial sheriff tried to kill you. The planet full of creeping
spores. I’m not even sure I want to ask why you’re having this change of heart.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t,” Fallon chided her husband as she
gestured for another servbot to take their meal requests. Lazlo sighed and
input some random entrée requests into the robot’s waiting display.
“But I will. So what’s the story, little brother?” Mart
fixed a dark and determined eye on him and Lazlo realized he didn’t have the
energy to fight it anymore. He took a deep breath and wondered what to say.
“I decided that there were plenty of challenges there.”
“I suppose a lawless place like that must appeal to your
need to do the right thing. But you have the qualifications to move on to something
with a much higher profile, especially after you complete this first round of
classes. Make us proud,” Mart advised him with patented older-brother
certainty.
The arrival of plates of appetizers distracted him and he
cut up servings for Bets to try. She looked over everything her father offered
with great concentration as she declared she did not want any green flakes on
her food, whatever those were.
Fallon took the respite from childcare to talk with Lazlo. “Do
you like it there that much? It sounded like a harsh place, from your earlier
messages.”
“It can be harsh, but I’ve grown to like it. I can make a
difference there and I have some unfinished business.” Lazlo looked over his
plate and wondered what he had ordered. Some sort of pale dumpling with lots of
green flakes, it seemed.
“Right, the trial with the sheriff. But you could come back
to testify in that case. Any other reason you want to return?” Fallon gave him
a considering look as she deftly shook a rattle toy for the gurgling baby while
maneuvering a bit of salad for herself.
Lazlo shook his head but his sister-in-law wasn’t easily
diverted. “Who is she?”
“Who is she who?” Mart jumped in the conversation with a
raised eyebrow.
“You sound like a broken datpad, Mart. We were just getting
to that.” Fallon leaned forward in her seat and rested her chin on folded
hands. She looked ready for any sort of confession that Lazlo might want to
make.
Considering how much counseling she’d done while Lazlo was
embroiled in his nightmare relationship with Serra, she probably had his
personality traits and flaws memorized. Namely, his irrepressible urge to help
damsels in distress. Not that Del needed any sort of rescuing under normal
circumstances.
“She’s the woman who helped on that assignment. One of the
men who assaulted us has been sending her messages since he was released from
lockup. Flowers and chocolates.”
Fallon blinked with surprise. “Why in the galaxy was he
released?”
Lazlo sighed as he squashed his dumpling into a mashed
paste. His appetite was gone. “It’s one of the loopholes on territorial worlds.
Skilled workers are in short supply, so they can file for economic necessity
and be work-released pending trial. So he’s out and he’s circling around Del
and I don’t know why.”
And I’m trapped here until I can go back to her.
Fallon must have picked up on his distress because she
patted his hand before turning her attention to the baby. Mart leaned forward,
all traces of joking gone from his manner.
“So this is the Del you’ve talked about before, the one who
helped you? She’s part of your unfinished business?” At Lazlo’s nod, Mart took
a breath and frowned. “Does she have anyone there who can help her?”
“Her family, but they’re in dire straits since the raid on
their business destroyed most of their property. They’re close to each other
but they don’t have the resources to protect her.”
“What can you do from here?” Fallon asked as she brought the
baby into her lap and allowed her to grab at some peas on a small plate on the
table.
“I’ve made sure that there’s a restraining order, and her
sister made her move into my apartment because it has better security than her
place. I alerted security and they are doing whatever extra patrols they can,
but they’re stretched thin already.”
“When can you get back?” Mart wondered, cutting to the heart
of the matter, all efforts to encourage his little brother to abandon Sayre
gone. Lazlo explained his schedule and Mart nodded slowly. “Are there any
private security firms there we could hire until you return?”
Lazlo sat back in surprise at his brother’s generous offer.
“No. There’s just us in security.”
Mart shook his head at the situation. “What a planet.” Bets
chose that moment to tug on her father’s sleeve and start to negotiate if she’d
eaten enough of her meal to have dessert.
Fallon shot him a speculative look. “So this Del Browen—what
is she like?”
His sister-in-law’s gentle query shook Lazlo and he took a
breath to gain some control over himself. “She’s wonderful, Fallon. She’s brave
and strong and she works so hard for her family.”
“You miss her.”
Lazlo just nodded agreement, not wanting to talk and start
babbling about Del. And how could he express what he was feeling when he wasn’t
sure of it himself? Del insisted that their personal relationship was over,
that it had been a temporary connection. Lazlo didn’t agree. Every day that
passed intensified his certainty that he needed to return to her, threats from
Avo Kirk notwithstanding.
“Then you get home to her as soon as you can. Keep her safe.
Protect her as your DNA commands you,” Fallon declared and scooped up a bit of
creamy sauce for the baby to try. “You care about her, don’t you?”
“I do. She’s like no one else.”
“She’s kind to you?”
Lazlo swallowed, feeling overwhelmed by Fallon’s soft
questions prompting him to verbalize all sorts of amorphous ideas he was still
coming to terms with.
Their physical intimacies, limited and intense as they had
been, were not the cause of this overwhelming impulse to be with Del. She made
him happy and content just standing by his side. Her appeal wasn’t just from
tangling up with him in bed.
He knew he made her happy too, which was a wonderful
responsibility. If he knew that she’d be waiting for him when he returned to
Sayre, waiting to have him back in her life, he’d be overjoyed right now.
Instead he was unsure and worried.
“She is kind to me. She’s honest and funny.” Lazlo stopped,
finding it hard to swallow as Fallon rubbed her baby’s back in slow circles and
waited for him. Mart was listening but thankfully quiet. “She saved us out
there. I made all the mistakes but she paid the price. I want to give her so
much. I need to.”
Because I love her.
That thought sprang into his mind like a ship through a jump
ring and he almost tipped over his chair.
Fallon nodded and spooned up more cream sauce for the baby,
who kicked with enthusiasm when she tasted it. Lazlo couldn’t help but smile
even though he felt miserable inside. He loved Del and she might not ever want
to see him again.
“She sounds like a person worthy of what you can give,
Lazlo. Just don’t give her flowers or chocolates. That bad fellow has ruined
those gifts for a while, I think. I spotted a very nice jewelry store on the
way here. You should shop there before your flight back.”
Lazlo smiled at Fallon, appreciating her matchmaking
efforts. What would Del think of a piece of jewelry? She’d be excited if it were
made of some strange mineral, but otherwise he doubted she’d be impressed.
“I don’t know about that, Fallon. She’s not really the type.
But do either of you have any idea where I can get a quark spectrometer?”
“A what?” Both Mart and Fallon looked baffled and Lazlo
realized he’d have to handle that purchase on his own as he explained himself.
“If you think she’d like a quark spectrometer, then who am I
to argue? But jewelry is always appreciated,” his sister-in-law responded with
an arched eyebrow as she shot a knowing look at Mart who was busy managing the
dessert menu for Bets. “Bring her home with you the next time you get leave. We’d
love to meet her.”
* * * * *
Del wasn’t tired. And that was remarkable because she had
been tired every day for well over a month, working double time, sometimes
triple hours. But today she’d had only one shift to complete—an easy one of
supervising the washing of all the compost tubs and filtering the wastewater. Pausing
at the door of Lazlo’s apartment as she always did, she finally keyed in the
opencode, stepped inside to check the display for intruders and locked the door
behind her. Exactly as instructed.
One of Lazlo’s minibots came marching to her and sat up
expectantly. She’d named it Silly Bill since it was the most social of his
minions and the painted stripes reminded her of an old picture of a clown she’d
seen once.
“Report,” Del commanded, trying not to feel silly barking at
a device the size of a coffee cup and striped bright pink and white. But Lazlo
had been very specific that this particular bot responded best to loud, terse
commands. He didn’t know why its audio-receptors were so particular—it was a
glitch he had to work on when he had time. All this information had been
conveyed according to his very detailed instructions for maintaining good
security, which she pretended to resent but which were actually very comforting.
“Electrical assessment at 2130. Data pod drop at 3009. Dee
Dee Browen at 3019 with delivery of food. Datpad drop at 3897.”
“Very good, Silly Bill. You’ve been busy today.” The pink-and-white
bot did not respond since Lazlo had not installed a conversation routine yet. Again
according to his extensive instructions. “Dismissed, Silly Bill.”
At that, the little device saluted with three of its legs
and crawled away to attach itself to the apartment wall display, its usual
perch when it wasn’t patrolling the perimeter or randomly adjusting the light
levels.
Del looked around at the apartment. Despite her best efforts
not to get comfortable here, she was starting to like it—the space, the light,
the very delightful bathroom that wasn’t bilious and the kitchen that had an
actual counter where she could place more than one plate at a time. But she
shouldn’t like it. She needed to return to her own home because it would mean
the trial was over and Avo Kirk was incarcerated where he belonged, along with
Harata and his deputies. She could get back to her Outlands and leave behind
all of these complicated issues like testimony and personal security and
missing Lazlo. And she missed him so terribly. Her thoughts returned to him
constantly, as if rubbing a splinter in her skin.
Del had ruthlessly refused to use his bed because the
memories of what they’d done there would be too hard to repress. Instead, she
slept on his large blue sofa under her own quilt so she wouldn’t have to smell
him. She hadn’t gone through his closet and found some piece of clothing to
cuddle up with, no matter how much she wanted to.
Dee Dee knew she was hurting, but wisely did not pry. Thinking
of Dee Dee reminded her of the food her sister must have delivered earlier. Del
had been forbidden from shopping for herself, so either Dee or Arturo brought
by things for her to eat. She wasn’t allowed to open the door to deliverybots
when she was here alone. All to keep her safe from Avo Kirk, even though he
hadn’t made any sort of contact with her since Judge Titus had approved the
restraining order over a week before.