Starshine: Aurora Rising Book One (9 page)

“Mom. Here to throw me in the brig?”

“I am here to
take you home
.”

Alexis gave a melodramatic sigh, rolled her eyes in exaggerated annoyance and pulled her feet off the desk. “Fine, whatever.”

She turned to the lieutenant. “Thank you for taking care of my daughter, Lieutenant. I do apologize for any inconvenience she may have caused you.”

“She was no trouble, ma’am.” He jumped when Alexis tossed the bag of popcorn to him as she passed.

“Thanks for the snack, mes’ye.”

Miriam didn’t say a word until they reached the ship. She set the autopilot then shifted in the seat. “
What
were you thinking? You are fourteen years old and had
no
business flying off-planet without supervision.”

“It’s not like it was
far
off-planet….” Her hand jerked toward the viewport dominated by Earth’s profile.

“How did you access the ship? The security should have prevented you from flying it.”

Alexis snorted. “Please. I hacked full access to it weeks ago. It actually recognizes me as its primary owner now, you know.”

“Not for long it doesn’t. You will—”

“Did you even know I was gone until they called you? You
didn’t
, did you? You spent another night at the office, doing whatever the hell it is you do there.”

She felt her jaw tighten, but made certain her voice remained even. “I trusted you were mature enough so I didn’t need to check on you constantly, trusted you would respect your curfew and not, for instance, steal the family ship and run off with a boy four years older than you.”

“Nick? He’s a tupïtsa, and entirely too easy to impress. I was bored with him before we got to the station.”

“That is not the point. The point is I was mistaken. You aren’t worthy of my trust.”

“Bullshit. The point is—”

“Do not speak to me in—”

“The point
is
you will do everything in your power not to have to spend time with me. I’m nothing but a nuisance in the way of your damn career—but hey, it’s fine. Say the word and I’ll be out of your hair forever. I’ve got things to do anyway.”

She opened her mouth to retort…then closed it.

How could she tell her daughter it was a knife in the heart every single time she looked at her? That she saw David in the light in her eyes, the way she walked, her voice, her smile and even her frown? That she could hardly bear to be in the house where he was a ghost in every shadow and a whisper in every corner, yet couldn’t bear to let it go for the same reason? That she sought refuge in work because it was the only place where she could pretend there wasn’t a hole in the world? Where she could at least try to make sure he didn’t die in vain?

She couldn’t, of course.

“Don’t be absurd. You are my daughter, and I care about you. But with the implementation of the armistice there’s a tremendous amount of work to do. A lot of changes are on the way. Someone has to ensure matters are handled properly.”

“Chto za khuynya! I don’t understand why you agreed to the armistice in the first place. We should have blown Seneca into space dust.”

“Alexis, please mind your mouth. Cursing in Russian is still cursing.”

“I certainly hope so. And my
name
is Alex.”

She gritted her teeth in frustration, inhaling a deep breath to swallow her initial response. “
’I’
did not agree to the armistice—you know better. The Prime Minister and the Assembly did, because the simple fact is we were taking too many losses. It was against Alliance interests to get into a long and messy quagmire.”

“A ‘quagmire’? Is that what you call them murdering Dad? That’s cold, Mom, even for you.”

“Don’t you
dare
say such a thing. Your father died a hero.”

“So everyone keeps telling me. You know what? He’s still
dead.
They should be, too.”

Yes they should be. But David wouldn’t want—wouldn’t
have wanted
—it. “I’m afraid their fate isn’t up to me. But one thing which is up to me is your punishment. You are on home restriction until such time as I feel you’ve learned to be responsible. You can go to school and activities I have approved beforehand. Otherwise, the security system will not allow you to leave. If you get into trouble while at school, you will be holoing your studies for the foreseeable future.”

“I’ll just hack it.”

“Young lady, I have people working for me who are far better hackers than you. You will not.”

Alexis shrugged, threw her feet up on the dash and crossed her arms over her chest. “Right. Absolutely. You’ve got me.”

Naturally, she had hacked the security system within the week; the tougher encryption subsequently added, two weeks later. And after that….

She gave the Minister a tight, formal expression. “Well, she hasn’t taken my advice in quite some time. In any event, if you legitimately want her to accept the position, I’m afraid asking me to press the matter is not the tact you want to take. I think it best if you reached out to her directly.”

He exhaled in a suggestion of weary acceptance and stood. She stood with him and accepted his outstretched hand.

“Thank you for your time, Admiral, and your frankness. I’ll likely do that.”

“Certainly, Minister. My door is always open.” It was a bald-faced lie, but one she had uttered at countless dinner parties and conferences, and she delivered it as smoothly as any greeting.

Once he had departed, she drifted to the window. Fall came early here, and the sun had already begun its descent into the waters.

Perhaps her suggestion to the Minister hadn’t been such a good idea after all.
Please, Alexis, don’t tell the man to fuck off.

She thought on it a minute, then turned on a heel and went down the hall to Richard’s office.

A checkerboard of screens decorated his desktop surface and an aural hovered in front of his right eye. When she walked in he shut off the aural and smiled, though it was a weak attempt. “What’s up?”

She didn’t respond immediately, instead pacing halfway across the room, hands clasped behind her back, before stopping to look at him. “You took Alexis back to the spaceport the other day, right?”

“Yeah, I caught her on her way out. Why?”

“Did she by chance say anything about the Deep Space Exploration offer?”

He huffed a brief laugh. “Not anything you want to hear.”

Her eyes squeezed shut in a grimace. “
Excellent
. The Minister just left my office. He’s rather eager—disturbingly so, actually—for her to accept the post. I told him he should contact her, but now I’m not convinced it was the correct thing to do.”

He gave her an understanding smile, this one genuine. “Well, I’m not sure it really matters. She left Earth yesterday morning.”

She sighed softly. “Of course she did. Listen, there’s something else. Karolyn said he was receiving political pressure to name Alexis to the post. I don’t suppose you’ve heard any chatter about that?”

“Miriam, I’m shocked you would imply we spy on domestic political affairs.”

“No you’re not.”

“Ha…no, I’m not. To answer your question, not a peep.”

“Damn. I know you’re underwater right now with the Summit, but if you get a few minutes could you dig around a little? It bothers me that politicians are meddling in her affairs without my—”

“Approval?”

“
Knowledge
.”

His hands rose in surrender. “Okay, I’ll look into it. It may take a few days.”

“Thanks, Richard. I’ll let you get back to work. Try to get some rest though—you know next week is going to be worse.”

Despite Miriam’s advice, it was almost twenty-two hundred before Richard walked in the door to his home in the foothills above Lake Sammamish.

Intelligence agents were now integrated into the official Alliance delegation to the Summit, the convention center staff, invited guests and rather voluminous press covering the event. By Monday morning on Atlantis (which for added fun was around three in the morning in Seattle) all his assets would be in place, and everything they saw, touched and interacted with fed to his office via an instantaneous quantum entanglement communication network.

He was met at the door by a kiss and a tumbler of whiskey.

He happily accepted the kiss but looked askance at the whiskey. “Will, I have to be back at the office in seven hours.”

“And thus you need to relax and unwind in the most efficient manner possible.” Will nudged him toward the living room while still holding out the glass. He sighed, felt a small percentage of the stress escape with the breath, and acceded to both the nudge and the glass.

He sank into the couch, grateful—not for the first time—for a home which was truly a refuge from the madness. The glass at his lips, he took a long sip and relished the smooth fire of the whiskey as it scorched down his throat. “You know, I could get used to this ‘manservant tending to my every need’ routine.”

“Well, don’t.” Will chuckled while he dimmed the lights and crossed the room to settle onto the couch beside him. “My next project starts in three weeks, though at least it’s a bit closer, on Demeter. Building a performing arts center, if you can believe it. But you can live the dream until then if you like.”

“I like….” He made an effort to smile and rub Will’s shoulder, but his head fell back against the cushion and the smile gave way to a groan. The Summit hadn’t even
started
yet and he was already ready to tear his hair out. Although to be fair, much of the stress of the day had resulted from the ridiculous volume of
bureaucracy
involved in placing agents inside the official delegation. One of the best things about intelligence work was the
lack
of bureaucracy—but not this time. It paled in comparison solely to the sheer politics involved in placing agents in the press unit.

He tried again to push the hassles to the back of his mind.
Refuge.
“I absolutely believe it. Demeter fancies itself the next Romane, some kind of mecca of wealth and refined luxury or other. But hey, it’s close enough you’ll be able to come home most weekends, right?”

“Most, hopefully.” Will rubbed his chin with his fingertips, which usually meant he was bothered by something.

Richard straightened up a little. “I’m sorry work happens to suck at the exact moment you’re home and have actual free time. If I could do
anything
to change it, I would.”

Will shook his head. “No, I know. I mean I understand. This is life, and we have all of it to be together. It’s…listen, why don’t you just
go
to Atlantis? It’d be easier than trying to control the circus from your office eighteen hours a day, and hey, at least you’d get a little sun.”