Starlight Gleaming Ch. 13

I saw no point in trying to stay at the house. We would head to Janetta's hangar. There was a fridge there with drinks and hopefully some food as well. I knew there was a shower and latrine. Tomorrow, I would check out a couple of cots from Supply, as well as a portable cookstove. For tonight, though, even though it would be crowded, the four of us would sleep in the back of the ChoCac.

As I stepped back out onto the front porch, a black ChoCac drove up and parked near my vehicle. I left the Talon in the holster, but I flipped the safety off again as I moved off the porch, waiting to see who it was.

Senior Lieutenant Hayantotichti of Imperial Security got out of the driver's seat and approached, taking in the mess in the yard. He looked through the billowing curtains into the chaos inside. He didn't look surprised.

"Do you know anything about this?" I asked, securing the safety on my pistol again.

"I have a good guess," he replied. "Before we do anything else, we should do a scan first." He pulled out his tablet, and from a pouch on his belt, attached a small square device to its side. A scanner, similar to what I'd seen during my trip into Capisco.

Going back through the cottage, we found four listening devices: two of them voice-activated, and two motion-activated. All of them went underneath my heel.

When we were done, he looked at me sympathetically. "Only one was Imperial design. The avalanche is still going, I think."

I blinked. "You're the one who warned her about what was going on at the beach."

Hayantotichti nodded. "We've successfully blamed the draconians for Maretta's death. And, we've managed to hide your presence at the beach in the official records. However, Minister Supay is furious about her death, and he is raising considerable effort to find and kill Sergeant Innati. Our friend is a marked woman. If she is captured .. it doesn't bear thinking about. And, questions are being asked about who stopped the sale of the children."

"Seven hells! That means Supay knew about it!"

"Apparently so. And no doubt collected a major share of the take."

"He really is an evil, soulless bastard! I appreciate the warning, but you didn't come here at this time of night to tell me this. At least I hope not."

He shook his head, then gestured to his vehicle. "No. I brought you guests. Though at the moment, it seems you are ill prepared to host them. Nonetheless, they are most eager to see you."

Hayantotichti motioned, and the three doors to his vehicle opened. Even though part of the large man's features were hidden by the night, he looked incredibly familiar.

I called out to him. "Anton? Is that you?"

Anton Sonilawa should be hundreds of rads away at the mountain estate of my parents. A former professional wrestler, he did odd jobs around the house and often escorted my mother or Calia as a bodyguard on their outings.

"Young Master Kandikan! It is good to see you!"

The man exiting the door behind Anton was immediately recognizable. Styen Topangiti. A former second sergeant in the Ground Service, Styen was an expert in hand-to-hand combat, and he worked as a drill instructor for ten years before retiring and coming to work as another bodyguard for our family. I'd learned a great deal from him while growing up.

Styen's short-cropped, salt-and-pepper hair and how he moved with a casual awareness suddenly reminded me of Senior Sergeant Itznacoco, my security trainer at Tikun, a man who was one of my contacts with Imperial Security, and he was the reason why I had ten weeks of training immanent. According to Melannee, Itznacoco was a general.

I moved to greet Anton and Styen, and both took turns embracing me, clapping me on the shoulders and laughing in delight. I had really missed them! And their friendly faces took away some of the sting of our home's destruction.

"It's good to see you, Master Kandikan!" Anton laughed. Styen just grinned at me.

"I'm happy to see you both. But I'm at a loss. Why are you here? Why aren't you at home--" Then I caught sight of the third passenger as she got out.

Calia.

Dressed like a great lady of the priest caste, she wore a vest, sash, and a shawl over her fancy dress, colored and embroidered in the markings of House Kandikan. While her hair was curled and in complicated braids, because she was a Personal Servant, her head was bare of adornment.

I was delighted to see her, but I did not look forward to introducing my Personal Servant to Janetta. I could easily imagine the impending firestorm that would ensue once that tidbit was aired, and Janetta learned she was here. During my last visit, Calia and my parents had lobbied for her to come live with me and take care of me. And Calia's repeated desire -- with my mother's endorsement -- to bear my children. Then I flashed on Sisi and Mina. How would Calia take that news?

Then I remembered Ixma, sitting in the ChoCac, watching all this and wondered what was going through her mind.

Seven hells! I think I was safer during the firefight at the beach this morning.

Calia quickly came around the vehicle and approached me. She looked ready to fly into my arms, but then halted when she saw my face.

"My Lord!" She suddenly dropped to her knees, bowing her head. "I have done as you requested. Storage space has been acquired at the civilian airport in Capisco for your aircraft, and a second aircraft acquired as you instructed. The details have been sent to your personal email account. My Lord?"

Calia looked up at me, switching to Vedan. "Seeing you again is balm for my heart. I have only had a handful of emails from you since your last visit home many weeks ago. I have missed you! I had hoped you would be pleased to see me, but I see anger in your face. My Lord? Did I not bring your aircraft as you wished? Was I wrong to come see you?"

I shook my head. "Speak Queschuan, Calia. And, please get up. You know I don't like you doing that. Please believe me when I say that I am happy to see you." I drew her up and into my arms for a quick kiss and a solid hug. "My anger is not for you but for others." I gestured at the cottage behind me. "I've just arrived myself, only to find our home broken into and not just looted but rather thoroughly destroyed. As you can see, not only is our home unfit tonight for guests, it is also unfit for me, Ixma, and our girls."

She briefly looked at the destruction with incredulity, then back to me as my words sank in. "Ixma -- I remember you telling me. She works for your Janetta?"

I nodded. "Just so."

"Surely you will punish the foul villains who did this, my Lord?"

"If I find out who they are, then most certainly. But that's not very likely, I'm afraid. Look, Calia, where were you planning on sleeping tonight?" I glanced from Calia to Styen and Anton. By the looks on their faces, I could tell what they had planned. "The house is literally unfit, and will take hours to clean, and days for the carpet to dry out. I was planning on going to Janetta's hangar and sleep in my ChoCac. However, I think I can wake a sergeant at a supply warehouse and check out some outdoor gear. I think I can also get a few extra cots. Lieutenant Hayantotichti, if you would be good enough to follow me?"

"Certainly," he agreed. "Just so you know, Lieutenant Kandikan, once we get everyone set up at the hangar, you and I still need to conduct some business elsewhere."

"All right. And call me Ranji, please." I offered him my hand.

"Tomin." He gave me a wry smile as he shook it.

Calia looked at me. "Is there room in your vehicle for me? I'd rather ride with you, my Lord." She reached for my hand and I let her take it. I also caught the flash of pleasure on her face.

"All right. You can sit in the front seat with me."

She grinned happily as she squeezed my hand.

The three men got back into Tomin's vehicle and waited for us to lead the way.

As Calia got inside, I thought she handled the surprise of seeing Ixma, the sleepy Sisi and the gently snoring Mina in the back seat rather well.

"Are these the girls you mentioned, my Lord?"

"Yes, they are my daughters. We adopted them today. The older one is Sisi, and the younger one is Mina." I buckled in and Calia did the same. "Ixma, this is Calia. She is my Personal Servant. Calia has been a part of my family, my companion, and my friend for seven -- no, eight years now. If I know anything about kindness and gentleness, I learned it from Calia. Calia? Behind me is Ixma. You already know about my relationship with Captain Janetta Tlacotli. To help protect them, Janetta has insisted that I mark all three of her flight crew as my women and take them as my lovers. You are my family, Calia. Janetta, Zinja, Cholan, and Ixma are also my family. Do you understand, Calia?"

She looked to Ixma, then stared at the dashboard. "Yes, my Lord."

I took a long breath. "Calia, it's nearly midnight and it's been a long four days. If you are going to insist on formality between us, I will be formal with you. However, I think neither one of us will be happy about it. You have the right to use my name in private. I expect you to use it."

"All right, Ranji."

"Everyone in this vehicle is important to me. I understand this is new and there may be some hurt feelings or fears. I ask that both of you try to be friends, but even if you can't, please, I ask that you get along for my sake. Ixma? Calia?"

"As you wish, Ranji," Calia answered.

Ixma didn't reply to me.

"Seven hells," I muttered. I started up the ChoCac and began driving.

"Did you really teach him all those things?" Ixma suddenly asked her.

"I suppose I did," Calia replied quietly. "We taught each other a great deal."

"Do you love him?"

"When he says goodbye to me, it hurts to breathe. When I see him again, it is like the sun rising in the sky. I don't have the words to express how much I love him."

"Huh," Ixma replied tersely. "You just did a pretty good job. Well, you better know he's Captain Tlacotli's man, and she loves him. She is like his First Wife. All of us are his women and .. and the best place in all the world is being held in his arms."

Calia smiled at her. "You love him, too."

"With all my heart. And he loves me, too. He trusts me to take care of Mina and Sisi, his daughters. Why, yesterday in the shower--"

"Ixma! Stop!" I interrupted, then more quietly. "Our children are listening."

A pause, then she plunged on. "I--I wouldn't say anything they shouldn't hear. This I believe they should hear. Cholan and I were talking about this when we went to the Commissary, just before we were attacked, Ranji. You love us and feed us and treat us like we matter as much as a man. When the guards at the hospital were taken away today, you made sure our captain had guards to help keep her, Cholan, and Mama safe. And Mama told me how Cholan was sick and we didn't even know it, and you made sure the doctors are making her get better. Your daughters should know how lucky they are. They will have a father who will love and protect them like they were his sons. And I will do my best to make sure they know it."

"Yes, ma'am," I told her. "I stand corrected."

"He called you ma'am, too," Sisi said quietly. "That means you are a lady, Ixma."

I heard Ixma choke up behind me. "That's right, Sisi. It's why I love him and why you will learn to love him, too."

"'Cause 'Tenant takes care of us?"

"That's right, baby. That's exactly right."

Calia reached over and briefly squeezed my arm.

I pulled into a space by the bay doors to a supply warehouse. "I'll try to be as quick as I can. Wait here, please."

I got out and using my lanyard, accessed the locked door. Inside, I quickly found the first sergeant keeping watch and, after some verifications, signed out the supplies. Four portable cots, six air mattresses and an air pump, blankets, pillows, a portable compressed methane-gas stove, three large fuel cylinders for the stove, six mess kits, and a case of Nu-skin patches for the first aid kit, as I recalled I had used the last ones at the hangar on Janetta. After about twenty minutes, Tomin came in, and the appearance of an Imperial Security officer made any suspicion and grumpiness on the sergeant's part vanish.

With the help of Tomin, Anton, and Styen, the back of my ChoCac was fully loaded in short order. From there, we headed over to Hangar Thirty-Six.

Ixma used her key to get inside. The Lightning had not been replaced yet, so I drove the ChoCac inside and closed the hangar door, securing it inside.

Again, with the help of the men, we quickly got the cots set up. I checked the fridge and was pleased to find it still there, and the supplies untouched. Next, I checked the camera setup in the office, and made sure it was working and turned on. I took out the holstered Chon .44 from my satchel and put it into the glove box with two spare clips, loaded. I instructed the AI to only allow the glove box to open to an adult. Then I had Calia, Anton, and Styen add their spoken names to the AI, granting them driving access.

With the food chest stored outside the vehicle, I helped Ixma get the girls into the back of the ChoCac. Both girls barely noticed the shift in location, snuggling together under the blankets.

On impulse, while their luggage was being unloaded from Tomin's vehicle, I checked my laptop. Once it was loaded, I saw the half-dozen notes Janetta had sent to me earlier in the day, demanding to know what was going on. Those I had already dealt with. As Tomin approached, I saw one that was two hours old, from Tikun Travel.

"It looks like they are settled in," Tomin said. "You and I need to go take care of matters, Ranji."

I read through the message. It was another warning, advising that I should contact Senior Lieutenant Tomin Hayantotichti, order him to collect his family, and board the Free Wind, an Eastern Island freighter arriving at High Guard War base around midnight today. The freighter would carry the refugees to their new home.

"I think you'd better read this," I told him.

He did, then paled. "Supay begins his purge. It appears I'm now caught in your avalanche. What's done is done. We'll swing by my home to wake my wife and sons."

"I'm assuming we'll be elsewhere for a while, and then return here? All right. Styen?" I shut down my laptop, securing it inside my satchel. "I want you to come with us. Probably no sleep for a while. Anton? Stay here and protect Ixma, Calia, and my girls."

"Yes, my Lord," Anton replied. He had retrieved his cudgel from his large traveling trunk.

Both Ixma and Calia insisted on passionate kisses goodbye. Then I crawled into the back of the ChoCac and saw both girls were sound asleep. Gently kissing them on the forehead, I crawled back out.

"If anything happens here, Ixma, have the AI on the ChoCac give me a call. If you can't reach me and need help, call Sergeant Chita and Sergeant Yalcamara. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," she nodded, biting her lower lip.

Calia put her arm around Ixma, startling her. "I'll look out for them," she promised. Ixma looked at her thoughtfully.

The three of us got into Tomin's sedan-style ChoCac, with Styen sitting in the back seat. As he drove, Tomin explained his plan.

"Because there are so many refugees, flying them out would take a dozen or more Condors, or fewer aircraft doing multiple trips. A large freighter would be slower, but it could carry them all in one go. The Free Wind will take them directly through the Eastern Islands, arriving at Tohingo in three days. Commander Orchid's plan was to fly a Condor in and out several times while the refugees were quietly shuttled to the naval base and loaded onto the freighter. I was to go on the Condor and oversee that portion. That's obviously changed." He took a long breath. "My wife may decide against coming with us. While she hates it here, she would hate hiding to avoid discovery even more. She is shallow and materialistic and loves to preen at social gatherings. The sad thing is that I still love her."

I handed Styen my light stunner. He took it without comment.

Tomin pulled into a driveway beside a cottage. We entered the house and he set about waking up his family. Unfortunately, he was right about his wife, Teela.

While the nanny worked quickly to pack for his two sons, Teela, a beautiful woman in a sheer silk nightgown, started yelling about how it was the middle of the night, and how tired she was of living in the wilderness amongst the barbarians.

"My father is a commander in the Ground Service, and a decorated hero!" Her dark eyes glared at Tomin. She angrily brushed away thick black tresses from her face. "The Bayloks'mec family has an estate covering thousands of square rads and owns over a thousand slaves. We are important in Copan! And now, we are to pack up like thieves in the night? Going where, Tomin? Going where? And for what reason?"

"I said I will tell you once we are away, Teela. Our sons love you and they need you. But right now, you must pack the essentials and we must leave. Immediately! Our lives are in danger. Not just me, but your life and our sons, too."

"I am the daughter of Commander Bayloks'mec, hero of Ventac Two. My father was given his medal by the Emperor himself! How can we be in any danger? How?"

Ventac Two had been a bloody skirmish, part of the Chon Revolt twenty years earlier. Styen, having been there with the relief forces as a private, told me discretely that the military response had been excessively punitive.

Tomin stood in front of his wife. "We don't have time for this, Teela. We must be away by dawn. Are you coming with us?"

"No! I'm tired of living in this backward frontier, doing without my servants or decent living quarters, and I'm tired of you, Tomin. I'm going home, to my father, and back to civilization! If you want to keep me, you better come along!"

With a sad look, he turned away. The nanny had his two boys, both under six by my guess, standing by the front door, each dressed in good clothes, their hair damp and freshly combed, and carrying a small suitcase.

"Styen," I quietly instructed, "will you take them out to the car?"

Nodding, he escorted them out.

"So that's your answer?" she asked. "My father is a real man. He could protect you, Tomin. Instead, you chose to run and hide?"

"You have never been to Marvak Prison, Teela. Your father is no match for the Minister of Imperial Security. You are deluded if you think otherwise. And you obviously have no idea just how evil Supay is."

"Go! Run away! I will go home where it is comfortable and there are servants and fashionable society, and I will forget all of you. Even my sons love their nanny more than me! My father will help me divorce you, and he will find me a real man. I have proven I can bear sons. I should have no trouble finding someone worthy of my family's name and status." Folding her arms, she turned away, dismissing us.

"I don't know why you stopped loving me, but it doesn't matter. I will always love you, Teela. I promise, I will protect our sons. Understand, Teela, that Supay's men will do unspeakably cruel things -- even to small boys. Or to women."

As she whirled back around, Tomin suddenly held his stunner and fired. Whatever angry words she had meant to say were silenced as she collapsed.

"Even long after you have told them anything useful, they will hurt you so that even breathing is agony, screams are a memory of when you could speak, and death an elusive promise of escape. Marvak Prison is the embodiment of the Sixth Hell, Teela."

Putting away the stunner, he crouched down and cradled her in his arms. "If I took you with me, against your will, the first chance you got, you'd run to your father or call him, alerting Supay to where we were. If it was just me, that would be one thing. But the Minister doesn't do things by half measures. It's always scorched earth for anyone in his sights. He won't be satisfied with my death alone. He intends to wipe out my House, and that means killing our sons, too. And I can't allow that."