The Road To Earth By Rachel Herndon Chapter Two: Gains and Losses "Hello, Kyne." Terebi said through the pain, gritting her teeth. "Excuse me for not being in better condition to receive you; your approach took me a little by surprise." "Please, Captain, speak your mind." Kyne smiled. "Let there be no hidden resentments between us." Terebi stood, gritting her teeth. "Fine. Is your memory failing you, Kyne? Firing on the Fortune was never part of the deal, nor was boarding her before I had a chance to get *him* out in a lifeboat." Kyne grinned. "You wound me, sweet Captain. I remember our deal perfectly; you couldn't pay your docking fees, and didn't feel like avoiding the major ports for the rest of your life; I can hardly blame you. You were to jettison your mate, turn your ship over to me, peacefully. I was to have the Fortune and the spice, in return for dropping you off on some out-of-the-way asteroid, perhaps Dione? Where you would start a new life, completely disassociated from your... pressing financial obligations. Terebi, of course, would be presumed dead, killed by pirates. Do I have it straight?" "That's how it was supposed to be, but-" Terebi said. "But you paid your docking fees." Kyne raised an eyebrow. "I... got lucky at poker." Terebi said defensively. "I didn't see how it changed the deal." "Nevertheless, the plan *has* changed... This is your second in command?" Kyne turned to Pell, who'd just shifted on the deck, and moaned slightly. "Yes." Terebi said carefully. She knew Kyne did not make trivial inquiries. Terebi gasped as the pirate captain pulled one of his pistol from his belt. "Don't-" she cried, kneeling at her comrade's side and throwing her upper body across his. Kyne cocked the pistol. "You wish to die with him, sweet Captain? Such a waste..." He smiled as the pirate crew continued to bring the spice-crates up on deck. "I just don't like the way you keep renegotiating our terms." Terebi said through gritted teeth. "Killing him was *never* part of our deal! He has to be with me to confirm my story, now." "Don't be silly." Kyne knelt across from her, cupping her face gently in his hand. "You've got *almost* all the proof you need. A broken mainmast, an empty hold... and with those docking fees paid, you're a captain in good standing. There's insurance out there for poor little girls whose ships are stripped by pirates... " Kyne stood, and smiled at Terebi, who stood warily, smiling back through the pain in her head. "Of course, the perfect touch is the corpse of the loyal mate." "NO!" Terebi shouted. Kyne shook his head, motioning, and two strong arms gripped Terebi and dragged her backwards. She looked up, into the face of the man who'd convinced her this plan was a good idea in the first place. "You know my first mate already." Kyne said casually. "Back a little more, Lexen... The sweet Captain doesn't *want* blood on her." * * * Mira gasped. Her hand stinging with the impact, she punched it again, harder this time, and it splintered, some shards falling inward, some out. She heard nothing from inside the ship. One shard cut through the sash around Mira's right hand, and she saw blood well up, staining the thin cloth. She heard something from the Fortune's deck- a gunshot? Then she heard Terebi's voice, indistinct and far away. Had she shot a pirate? There would be more, though... No matter. Concentrate on the task at hand. Scraping the glass away from the edges, Mira tossed the knife in through the porthole, then stretched out with both hands to grasp the rim. After this, no turning back. No matter. She knelt on the rim of the Fortune's porthole- and kicked free. As she hung there, clutching the jagged rim of the Fangs' porthole desperately, she heard thumping above her, from the plank between Pirates, carrying the cargo. They'd be down the ladder and into the Fang's cargo hold in a moment... Desperately, Mira pulled herself up and wriggled into the Ebon Fang, ignoring the bite of the glass as it scraped her shoulders, stomach and legs. Dropping into the Fang's cargo hold, she stared around wildly, then dove for cover behind a few dusty crates in a corner. Six pirates, each carrying a crate of spice between them, carefully descended the stairs and stacked the crates across from Mira. None noticed her, chatting amongst themselves as they were. Mira couldn't hear them, the blood pounding in her ears drowned almost everything out. Six. Six pirates. She took the knife out of her mouth absent-mindedly as she watched them head back up the stairs. How many more were there? And where was the captain? Her hand hurt like the devil. She pulled the sash tighter around it, the warm blood seeping through to stain her palm and fingers. It reminded her of something and an idea popped into her head... She took a deep breath, and crept up the stairs. * * * The sound of the shot was like thunder. The captain's first mate gripped Terebi's arms so tightly that it hurt, and then released her. Staggering slightly, Terebi gazed on the blood for one moment, then closed her eyes. May your soul find good rest, Pell Orren. May your gods gather you to their arms, may the darkness not swallow you up... as it has already swallowed me. Slowly, she opened her eyes. "Turn her loose, Lexen..." Kyne smiled patiently, and stepped around Pell's body, avoiding the spreading bloodstain. "Now, Captain Terebi. about your story." The same six pirates trooped across the deck, and down into the Fortune's cargo bay again, none looking twice at the body. Terebi heard their tromping footsteps, and Kyne's voice, as though through a twisting tunnel. "Why, even with all this preponderance of evidence, some accursed insurance lawyer might make a rather good case against you. Hurting for money as you were, you certainly could have planned to sabotage your own ship, stash the spice on some anonymous hunk of rock, and murder your first mate. You could really be in trouble. But, as you know, I plan for all contingencies... and I'm nothing if not generous." He raised his other pistol, and pointed it over Terebi's left shoulder. "You can have Lexen here." Terebi stepped to her left very, very slowly. Her bare foot slid into something warm, and sticky... Gods, Pell's blood. Lexen said nothing, facing his captain calmly. "He's young, impatient... I know the signs." said Kyne casually. "Like all the others, he wants to be top dog. Well, now... that's just not going to happen. There's only one Ebon Fang." Terebi's bottom lip trembled as she looked over the first mate... she didn't dare look down at her feet. Tall. Handsome. Long, dark hair pulled back into a tail; dark, glittering eyes; hook-nose, a cruel mouth. A fierce pride, just like her own. her mind whispered in revulsion. "Let me do it." she said softly, suddenly turning to Lexen. Crossing towards him, she held out her hand and with an distant smile. "More convincing that way, if I'm supposed to have killed him." "Why not?" Lexen held up his pistol, smiling at her, pulled a wickedly jagged dagger from his boot, and tossed it to her. Just out of reach, she brushed a few errant strands of blonde hair away from her face. She smiled crookedly at him, and he smiled back, turning away. "He's not work my effort, really; I-" His turning away was the opening Terebi needed. She wasn't close enough to cut him, but she didn't need to be. Silently, she turned, and with all the strength left in her, threw the dagger. Two years ago, Terebi had been in even direr straits than she was now. Grounded for almost a month on Vesta, completely broke, and with no ships hiring... Out of necessity, she'd been staying at the lowest, dirtiest, toughest, most rat- infested tavern she'd ever seen or heard of. On that first day, after searching the shipyards for any sort of work, she'd sat, slumped in the common room, in a horribly foul mood. In the background, she could hear a few dockyard workers and deckhands, apparently playing darts, a Terran game if she remembered right. But after a while, she noticed that something wasn't quite the same... She turned around, and saw a hunting knife with a six-inch blade embedded three inches into an oaken pillar. She'd watched the game for a while, and realized that unlike Terran darts, the point of this game wasn't accuracy, but force. She'd watched longer, and realized that substantial amounts of money were changing hands after each set of throws. She thumbed the knife that had sat at her side since she was twelve years old, and decided to give her luck a try. By the end of that week, Terebi had played Belter darts at every tavern on that wretched asteroid, and won enough money to buy a tiny ship all her own. She called it Fortune, because blind, stupid Fortune had smiled on her, and also to remind herself that sharp-eyed, cruel Fortune could turn at any moment, and take away her namesake, and Terebi would be back where she had begun. That's why she'd made the deal with Kyne. She'd thought maybe it was a better idea to start over herself, before Fortune knocked her down the ladder... because Fortune was a sadistic bitch. But she knew now- perhaps she'd always known- you couldn't get up from the table after Fortune had sat down. Fortune would play you till the end, not taking just your last copper penny... but eventually, winning your soul. Terebi realized none of this now, but she would later. Now, she simply watched as Lexen pulled his captain's knife out of his captain's back. Now, she was still trying to deal. "You owe me, *Captain.* You have my spice and Kyne's ship. Leave me my life and my ship and we'll call it even." The pirates came up the stairs, then, laden with spice, and Lexen grinned at Terebi, then at them, standing tall above Kyne's body. "Meet your new captain, boys!" he called. They looked at him dubiously, and he laughed. "Each man will get an extra share of the profits on this voyage! Cornwell! You're the new First Mate." "Aye, Cap'n! Three cheers for Captain Lexen!" came a call from the back of the crowd, and the pirates cheered dutifully. "Good men. Back to work." Lexen smiled tightly, and turned to Terebi. "Yes, I do have what I want!" He crossed to her, bloody knife still clutched in one hand, and kissed her harshly on the mouth. "And you..." he smiled, pulling back. "You'll get compensation for your loss, and the rather sizable bounty on Kyne's head..." He looked down, somewhat annoyed, realizing his boots were smeared with Pell's blood. "Well. A good day, then for both of us!" he saluted her mockingly, and turned to cross back to the ship that was his, now. There were a thousand tales having to do with ships, and one of them was that you could never wash innocent blood out of an oaken deck. "Yes." Terebi agreed softly. "A good day. For us." * * * Her plan set in motion, her heart thumping incredibly, Mira began the descent back down to the Fang's cargo hold. She heard a cheer suddenly, and scrambled to get to the bottom of the stairs and back to her hiding place. She made it, freezing behind a crate as the pirates came down into the hold, chattering about how the 'blonde captain' had killed *their* captain! Mira thought, her heart leaping. Waiting until they left, she crept to the empty porthole and squeezed through, reaching across for safety and the Fortune. * * * Terebi watched Lexen cross the plank back to the Ebon Fang. His crew had obviously emptied her hold while she was occupied, for they immediately retracted the plank and began to move off. Lexen's last words to her echoed in her mind, and she knelt by Pell's side, his blood staining her legs and hands. Sometimes Fortune wins things you never put on the table... she thought weakly. But no. She'd known the danger and she'd taken him into it. Was there any use pretending she was still on the side of the angels? The Ebon Fang's black sails filled and she began to move off. Terebi stared at Pell's calm face, smeared with blood. She wondered why she wasn't crying, tried forcing it, but somehow she couldn't. She heard a stirring from below decks. The girl, coming up the stairs. Gods, she'd forgotten. She felt strongly that she should cover Pell's body... Kyne's too, though he deserved to rot and be eaten by vultures. But the child shouldn't see this, not the blood... A strange lethargy had filled her body, however, and she didn't feel like moving. Her head hurt. She heard Mira come up onto the deck, and a short gasp, a choking sob. The child knelt behind her, whispering "I'm so sorry..." Terebi nodded silently, closing her eyes, but no tears came- just the thick, aching pain. The two knelt there, quietly, for several moments that stretched on like years... and then, suddenly, the stars around them dimmed as a huge blossom of fire unfurled itself several hundred feet off the stern, enveloping the Ebon Fang. Terebi jerked back, trembling, as the huge red glow spread, faded to orange and then a thick black cloud of smoke and debris. Calmly, Mira helped Terebi to her feet. "I was on the Fang, while everyone else was busy." she whispered, in a very different voice than the one she'd used just a moment ago. Terebi turned and gazed thickly at the girl. "I left a charm that generated heat buried in a powder-keg in the magazine." She lifted her chin. "How much of a bounty do you think I'll get for a whole ship?" The pain spiked, and Terebi covered half her face with one hand. The darkness that had been threatening to envelop her reached out, and finally did. She felt her body crumple to the deck, and she welcomed the oblivion that swallowed her. Mira sat with Terebi's head in her lap, gazing out at the smoking hulk that had been the Fang, for what seemed like an eternity... Then, silently, a hint of white rose up above the rail. It grew, becoming more defined as it hove into sight. It was a green and gold angel with pure white sails full-spread, a ship of the Jovian navy. She grew larger against the void as she swept through the wreckage of the Fang, like a great white bird through a cloud of insects. Mira waited. Without much fanfare, the Fortune was boarded for the second time that hour, by the crew of the H.M.S. Emerald. Mira ended up in the captain's office[note: is that the right terminology?], telling the older man the story of what had happened on the Fortune. "...And then I came up, and I found Terebi, hurt, and Pell... dead." Mira swallowed. "And Kyne as well. I don't know why they let Terebi live..." she said quietly, as the ship's doctor wrapped gauze around the cuts on her hands. "Nor do I." said Captain Wellesley, looking up from a few parchments scattered across his desk. "It's possible Kyne's first mate wanted the news to spread that the Ebon Fang had a new captain..." He shook his head. "Well, we can't ask him." Mira smiled a tiny, wicked smile, and looked down. The captain noted it, and turned to the ship's doctor. "When will Captain Terebi be able to speak?" The doctor glanced briefly at Mira. Captain Wellesley motioned for him to speak freely, and he did so. "Her concussion was severe; she has woken once or twice since we brought her on board, but it is obviously difficult for her to stay conscious. Add to that the shock of losing her ship and, and crew, and it may be a long and difficult recovery." he said grimly. "I see." said Captain Wellesley. "That'll be all then, thank you." Mira looked at him, poring over his transcribed copy of her account of the incident, then down at her hands, as the doctor left the [office.] "Shall I go too, then?" she asked hesitantly, moving to slide off the tall chair in front of the desk. "Did I say that? Of course not. Sit still, child." Captain Wellesley motioned absently, and Mira slid back in her seat. Studying him intently, a silly smile crossed her face, and she looked around curiously at the captain's office and his few pieces of memorabilia, swinging her feet (which didn't touch the floor) in a rhythmic manner. Finally looking up at Mira, the captain was fascinated. For the first time, she looked like her own natural age, instead of a petite... a petite bounty hunter. A thought struck him, and he was about to voice it... but it needed more thought. In either case, he wanted to know more about this tiny pirate-killer. "What are you smiling about, girl?" She looked back at him, eyes wide, and smiled again. "I was just... When you told me to sit still... You reminded me a little of my father." "Where is your father?" he asked gently. "I don't... It's just me." she said softly. "Pirates killed my father. And they say that if my mother's medicine had arrived in time, she might have lived... but pirates took care of that, too." A hint of anger rose in her voice, but none of it showed in her faraway-looking face. "I'm beginning to understand you, girl." Wellesley sighed, removing his glasses, and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "And what will you do when we get to Jupiter?" "I don't know. Things have changed so much. I thought it wasn't too late just to try and start a normal life, but..." She shrugged. "I'll get by, though. I always do." "I see. But that would be such a waste... Mira, you have potential; great potential." he said, rummaging through the ever-present papers on his desk. "You could do so much more than 'get by,' if you just had some training and... aha!" he said, pulling one particular sheet from under a small paperweight. "Mira, this is a letter from a hold-brother of mine. He runs a small business, centered just outside New Atlantis, and I have a feeling he could use you." "What kind of business?" Mira asked, a little intrigued. "It's organized like a corporation, really, with a stable of freelance employees all owning shares of the whole." Captain Wellesley explained carefully. "My hold-brother, Kenzie, arranges for his employees to work, and they return to him a share of their profits, which get shared among the rest. The type of people who buy into this are the type who would instead be living feast-or-famine lives; bounty hunters and dragonslayers mostly, but that's not all, of course. Last I heard, there were even a few artists who were considering buying in." he smiled, then leaned forward, catching Mira's gaze. "Child, the bounty you'll be getting for the Fang and its crew... this isn't an amount you can hide in your shoes at night." She raised a bandaged hand, cutting him off, and slid off the chair. "Thank you, Captain; I'll... I'll have to think about it." she said, wincing as she pushed open the door to his office and slipped out onto the deck. He looked after her, curiously. The girl was strange... certainly not like any of his daughters, or any other young girl he'd ever known. There was a sort of defiance in the set of her jaw that reminded him of someone he'd seen once, at an honorary dinner for a retiring admiral; the Elder Jupiter. Captain Wellesley found out later that Mira had slipped out of his office, and gone straight to Terebi's cabin, to sit at her side. Over the next few days, she spent most of her time there, but Captain Wellesley tried to find at least an hour each day to spend some time with the girl. He did not bring up his hold- brother's venture again, and neither did Mira. Terebi gave every sign to the doctor of not being able to speak of her experiences, but just one short hour after the Emerald landed at New Atlantis, she was gone, slipped out in the confusion as the Emerald took on supplies and made the usual repairs. Captain Wellesley's face darkened as he read the note she'd left behind, and he went to see the girl. He found her perched overhead in the riggings, watching the sailors scrub down the deck. "Come down, lass." he called to her, and she looked back at him and smiled as she maneuvered her way down to the deck again. True smiles from the girl were rare, and they made her look quite fetching, in an exotic-looking way. The smile quickly slipped from her face, however, when he told her that Terebi was gone. "Gone?" Mira's eyes widened. "Where?" The captain shook his head. "That's what I was hoping you could tell me. She told you nothing?" Mira shook her head. "No, I... I really don't have any idea where she would go." She looked down, bandaged hands unconsciously curling into fists. "Poor Terebi..." The captain nodded. "Aye... she could be anywhere by now, even off-planet by now. Gone off to tend to herself, no doubt." Mira sighed, and nodded. The Asteroid Belts were full of people who'd 'gone off to tend to themselves.' It was something she was quite familiar with, herself. "I... I wish I could have talked to her, before she went." "Aye, and that reminds me; she did leave you a note." The captain withdrew a piece of folded paper from his pocket, and handed it to Mira. Carefully, Mira unfolded it and began to read. Soon, her face went white. "This... can't be true." "It is, lass. She left me a note confirming it." The captain put a hand on Mira's shoulder. "I think she wants to make a fresh start somewhere. Away from any reminders of what's happened. And, perhaps, she feels she owes you something... that you wouldn't accept if she stayed around to offer it to you." "The bounty for Kyne... and the insurance money... all mine?" Mira whispered. She pressed the note to her chest unthinkingly, and stared over the rail, her thoughts racing. "Aye; and the wreck o' the Fortune too. All yours. Pell had no family, apparently." "But this isn't right; she needs that money." Mira shook her head. "Void! How much money is it?" "Well... quite a sum, lass, and that's separate from the bounty for the Fang that you earned yourself. Have you thought on where you plan to settle?" "Here in this place, of course." Mira said with a firm smile. "That is... if your hold-brother will have me." The captain smiled. "As fine a choice as any, and better than most." He took the note back from Mira, and put it back in his pocket. "Just come with me, my girl, and I'll set you right." (end chapter two)