The Complete Razia Series, page 88
"Lyss?" Sage asked. "What do you think? Manor or our house?"
"Oh, why not? Let's go spend a few days there," Lyssa said with a small shrug. "I told Sera I'd clean out Sostas' office anyway."
"Would you like me to invite Vel—?"
"He can get sucked," Lyssa said with a growl.
"You know changing runners wasn't his decision. Contestant offered Ganon a better deal. I can't blame him for taking it."
"But now he could hunt me. His big sister."
"You know he'd never go after you." Sage's mouth twitched. "Would you go after them?"
She didn't answer. "Maybe I'll go find me a different runner then."
"I think you should," Sage said, grasping the tiny feet at his waist. "Insurgent could use a decent bounty hunter. He's hurting. None of his new pirates are worth anything."
Lyssa surveyed him curiously. "For a retired pirate, you know an awful lot about what's going on in the universe."
He shrugged. "Who knows, maybe Ragen and I will go into business for ourselves. Daddy and Daughter Pirate Informants."
"She's going to be a bounty hunter, thank you very much."
"Of course she is."
"And speaking of that, what in Leveman's is with Dalton Burk right now?" Lyssa grumbled. "The whole way to '882, he's active. Now that I'm here, he decides to be quiet?"
"Well, he's probably asleep, don't you think?"
"People do that still?"
"Wouldn't know. I have a newborn."
She smiled and glanced down at the baby on his chest. "She looks so cute, doesn't she?" Lyssa reached her hand in and grasped Ragen's tiny hand, kissing it gently.
"Hey, Lyss, your mini's lighting up."
"Finally!" Lyssa said, as the alert popped up on her mini-computer. "Burk is on the move. Gotta run."
Sage grabbed her hand before she got two steps and she bounced back to him, pressing a short, sweet kiss to his lips and then one to Ragen's forehead before dashing away.
"Don't forget to duck!" Sage called after her.
She tossed him a rude gesture before sprinting down the street.
It took her just under an hour to find and capture Dalton Burk, who was more interested in hearing about her baby than realizing he'd just been captured. Lyssa filled him in on life with a newborn as she handcuffed him and pushed him onto her floating canvas. She walked out of the bar and grinned when she saw Sage and Ragen waiting on a nearby bench.
"Nice work," Sage said, looking up to see her bounty on the ground. "And nice shiner."
"Didn't duck fast enough," Lyssa said, more interested in the baby. "Did she miss me?"
"She definitely missed you," Sage said patiently. "Even though she's two months old, and she was asleep the whole time, she definitely missed you."
Lyssa nodded and bit her lip.
Sage, again, sounded very patient. "Would you like to hold her while I take your bounty?"
Her first reaction was to blanch, to throw a hissy fit that he dared insinuate that she needed help, and to try to balance the baby and the bounty in her hand.
"Remember what the therapist said."
"Shut up!" Lyssa barked, hoping that Burk didn't hear.
"Well?"
She thrust the cords of her floating canvas at him. "Please?"
Sage grinned at her proudly and transferred the small, warm baby into her arms. It felt like a piece of her had been returned, and she beamed down at their daughter. She was starting to look a little like Sage (although Sage said he thought she looked like Lyssa), and Lyssa hoped she had all of his sunny qualities and none of her self-doubt. Then again, Sage had said he hoped Ragen had Lyssa's intelligence and good heart.
"Hey there, Dalton," Sage said to the man bound below them. "How's it going?"
"Been better, Sage, been better," he grumbled. "Say, girlie…I mean, which confounded name do you want me to call you?"
"Lyssa is fine." She smiled as Ragen's tiny hand clasped around her finger.
"Yeah, so which of my aliases did you catch me with?"
"Oh…" She thought for a second, rocking slowly. "All of them?"
"Even George Yertza?"
"Yep."
"Damn. It's a good thing you had that baby."
"Oh yeah, why's that?" she snapped.
"'Cause there'd be no pirates left in our web!" Burk laughed. "How about you pick on some of the other webs for once? Contestant's furious… he says, why in Leveman's Vortex did I take on her damned brother if she's just going to pick off all my pirates? I tell ya, girlie, Dissident sure got lucky that you fell into his lap."
She caught Sage's smile and tried not to beam too brightly. "You hear that, Ragen? Your mommy is one of the best bounty hunters in the whole universe. And someday, you'll be the best bounty hunter… And I will be so proud. Not like your stupid Uncle Vel, with whom Mommy is fighting forever and ever…"
Beginnings
A Razia Series Novella
S. Usher Evans
Dedication
To fifteen-year-old me,
We did it!
***
"Line up so I can take attendance. Alphabetical, please. Demetrius, quit screwing around!"
Professor Masgoret did her best to jostle the thirty preteens into an organized queue, but she had her work cut out for her. Each of the students carried identical bulky duffel bags, emblazoned with the insignia of the Planetary and System Science Academy, and more than one fight had already broken out over whose bag was whose. As part of their education at the Academy's Doctorate of Space Exploration program, the students were about to embark on their first field trip; a five-day practical lesson was the first on one of the Academy's educational planets.
Eleven-year-old Lyssa Peate hadn't been at the Academy for the past year—she'd been attending a mere three weeks. But in those three weeks she'd tested out of both her first and then second semester of courses, which was how she ended up with the second-years. She'd actually tested into the third year, but her professors decided it might draw too much attention to her.
She hadn't actually wanted to join this advanced class, and would've preferred to have stayed with the first years her own age, but, as usual, no one listened to her.
She'd been able to pick up the basics quickly, but that didn't mean that she wanted to be in class with her older brother and his goon friends. Except for the last name, there was little similarity between them. Heelin was lanky and blond like the rest of the family and Lyssa was short and stockier with dark brown hair like…him.
Heelin tried to pretend like she wasn't his sister, but his friends took great delight in Heelin's younger sister sharing a class with them. She could still hear the taunts from the first day…
"Why aren't you in advanced classes for your age?"
"Are you too stupid?"
Lyssa would've felt bad for him, if she hadn't also been the target of their ridicule.
"Why are you so weird?"
"What's wrong with you?"
"Why don't you go crying to your daddy?"
Up until this field trip, she'd only had to put up with their taunting for a few hours a day, but this was to be two long weeks of sharing a bunk and meals. She wasn't so sure that one of the more goonish idiots wouldn't try to leave her behind. Even though they were headed to a relatively safe planet with controlled, non-toxic plants and only small mammals, the professor had been explicitly clear: any student caught leaving the group would be suspended for the rest of the semester. The older students had filled in the blanks about the dangers of the planet, from poisonous berries to student-eating cats that lurked in the brush.
Beside her, Heelin shifted straighter and a smile broke out on his face. "Dorst!"
Lyssa spotted her second eldest brother immediately; he was at least a head and shoulders above the rest of them. His lab coat hung off his tall frame, and his smile, so similar to Heelin's, broadened when he approached. Dorst had graduated two years before, and was a fully-fledged DSE who worked for one of their mother's brothers. Lyssa hadn't seen him since a family dinner two weeks before she'd left for the Academy.
"I thought I'd stop by and see you guys before you left," Dorst said. "After all, the Academy loses about three students per semester. No telling if either of you will return."
Heelin paled, but Lyssa rolled her eyes with gusto. "We're going to the most boring part of the planet. Nobody's gonna get lost. Duh."
"Hello, Lyssa," Dorst said dryly. "I see you're still as pleasant as ever. Heard from Father lately?"
Lyssa clenched her jaw and glared at him. That was all anyone from the family cared about anymore. She'd told them all the same thing: she'd woken up one day and he was gone. Nobody believed her, though.
Dorst shrugged and turned back to Heelin, asking Heelin how he was adjusting to the new semester, liking his classes, and all that brother-brother stuff. Lyssa fumed but crossed her arms over her chest and forced herself to tune it out. It still hurt.
Dorst wasn't the only one who'd asked about him—there'd been a crowd of four scientists on her first day of class eager to ask her about his work. Just like with her family, Lyssa didn't know how to answer their detailed questions, so she kept her mouth shut. Unfortunately, that only served to make them more interested because they thought she was still keeping secrets for him.
She didn't want the attention at all; she'd never wanted any of the attention that he'd brought to her. But since he'd disappeared three months prior, there had been a spotlight on her. Without him around to protect her, she was back under the reproachful eye of her mother, who loved to point out all the reasons Lyssa was doomed to burn in Plethegon, the river of fire that consumed those souls the Great Creator deemed not good enough for heaven. Of course, thanks to him and what she'd done at Leveman's Vortex, Lyssa knew that was her fate.
When Sera, her eldest sister, had informed her that she would be attending the Academy, Lyssa had seen a glimmer of hope. Perhaps away from her family and their jealousy, she could be happy. The three weeks that she'd been there, she'd enjoyed the autonomy of being able to choose what to wear and what to eat (as much as she could with the Academy's strict uniform code and pre-determined cafeteria food). But she wasn't happy—not really. She hadn't made any friends, for everyone in her classes thought she was stuck-up and full of herself.
She watched, a little forlornly, as Dorst said his goodbyes to Heelin and walked away. The students were all accounted for, and Masgoret counted them off as they climbed onto the transport shuttle. Once on board, students scattered to the seats lining the walls to sit with their friends. Lyssa shuffled to the back, placing her duffel bag in the compartment under her seat and securing it. Then she climbed into the metal seat, pulling her restraints over her shoulders and connected them in the center. There was artificial gravity on this ship, but some of the older students had warned them that it was faulty and still a bumpy ride once they hit hypermile speed.
Settled in, Lyssa kicked her feet against her bag, wishing that they would just leave already. The sooner they went, the sooner they'd be back, and the sooner she could find peace and quiet in her dorm.
"Psst…psst… Hey, Peate…"
Demetrius, one of Heelin's friends, was calling to her brother. He had a simpering face and hair that was just a little too long for Lyssa's tastes. He and Heelin had taken the seats directly across from Lyssa—but only because those were the last two left on the shuttle. While Heelin was doing his best to look everywhere but at Lyssa, Demetrius was staring right at her.
"Hey…let's leave your sister on the planet, huh?"
"Get sucked, Demetrius," Lyssa snarled at the boy, making a mental note to kick him in the shins when she was untethered from the ship. "I can survive on this planet longer than you can!"
"Oh, yeah?" Demetrius said. "What've you done?"
She opened her mouth to retort that she'd been left alone on planets for as long as she could remember, but that would require bringing up him. So, as usual, she clenched her jaw and said nothing.
The ship rumbled to life beneath them, ending any further conversation. There were a few students on board whose first flight had been from their homes on planets near and far to the Academy, and they made appropriately amazed sounds as the view outside the windows changed from the light inside the Academy to the darkness of space.
Lyssa glanced over at Demetrius again. How could someone so mean be silenced by something so mundane? She'd been flitting about in spaceships since she was a small child, excavating planets and criss-crossing the galaxy. She could make a fire, she could classify at least twenty types of plants based on their foliage and flowering patterns and she…
Was just another dumb kid now. Because she'd screwed up and he'd left.
Most of the kids in her class knew the story of Sostas Peate. He was a brilliant and secretive scientist. It was rumored his life's work was centered on Leveman's Vortex, a sucking and swirling white phenomenon that confounded most. Where science didn't answer, religion stepped in, with the faithful believing a Great Creator sat in the middle, creating everything and judging souls.
And Lyssa knew firsthand what He thought of her soul. She shivered and forced herself not to think of the metal sheets beneath her feet cracking and sucking her out into the vacuum of space.
Instead, she considered what had happened after she and her…and Sostas barely escaped from certain fiery doom. It was usual for him to yell at her for messing up experiments—sometimes his temper would last for days. Usually if she gave him enough space, he'd cool off and forget whatever she'd done. But this time, he'd said nothing to her. He wouldn't even look at her.
They'd arrived back at the Manor in silence and he told her to leave. She hadn't argued, although she desperately wanted to beg for his forgiveness. But she had long since learned that crying just made him angrier, and so she took her silent tears up to her room.
But the next morning, she awoke to the telltale rumble of his ship leaving the Manor's elaborate docking station. She rushed to her window to see it taking off, disappearing into the gray dawn morning.
He hadn't been heard from since.
Lyssa gripped the handles of her restraints and forced her attention back onto the ship with the other Academy students. He was gone and there was nothing she could do about it.
The ship shuddered into hypermiling speed, which meant they would arrive at the Academy's educational planet in about two hours. Only ships licensed with the Academy could reach those speeds, to travel to faraway planets in a relatively short amount of time. It was a little jarring the first time, which made for several green faces.
Having been hypermiling since she could walk, Lyssa was unperturbed by the speed and reached into her bag to pull out one of her number game books. Her father had often needed to keep her occupied while he tinkered or considered the great questions he was trying to answer. She hadn't been content to read fiction books, finding them dull and silly, so her father gave her these books. Each game had a set of numbers vertical and horizontal, and to win, she had to correctly fill in the blanks. It required her to keep track of the pattern in her head, to recall which block could be a three or a seven, especially when she worked on the hard ones. Chewing her lip, she concentrated on the puzzle while the conversations hummed around her.
Her concentration broke when the ship slowed from hypermiling speed. That meant they were close to the planet. Her classmates were antsy, some still green from the speed change.
Demetrius was staring at her again, and Lyssa glared right back at him. "Stop looking at me."
"I bet you'll be crying for your mommy on the first night." His eyes shimmered with a savage sort of malice.
"Joke's on you. My mother can't stand me," Lyssa shot back.
Demetrius laughed, and Lyssa fidgeted when others did as well. "You're such a weirdo, Lyssandra."
"Stop calling me that!" Lyssa barked.
"Make me," Demetrius said, glancing to the front of the ship where the professors were seated facing away from them.
Lyssa's palms began to sweat when Demetrius unclipped his restraint and stood in the middle between them.
Her mouth had gotten her in trouble with her brothers more often than not. She did her best to defend herself, but her usual response was to run and hide in her father's lab, where only she knew the code. On this ship, there was nowhere to run. Her only hope would be to attract the attention of the professor at the front of the ship, but she'd put on thick headphones and was ignoring the ruckus behind her. Besides, calling for help would be a sign of weakness. The last thing Lyssa needed was for everyone to think she was a wimp.
She unbuckled her restraint and readied herself for the beating.
The ship shuddered—that was new.
"Demetrius, Lyssandra, put your restraints back on," Masgoret called, pulling off her headphones.
Lyssa breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down, but Demetrius mimed himself being hung and grinned at her. She might've avoided her beating for now, but he was going to get her when they landed on the planet.
Again, the ship shuddered and a ripple of concern coursed through the students and Masgoret. She pushed herself to stand and walked into the cockpit. A split second later, she rushed out, face white.
"Students, don't panic—" Whatever they weren't panicking about rocked the ship, and everyone screamed, including Lyssa. Ships didn't rock like that, not unless something was terribly wrong. A loud thump echoed from the door of the ship, and Lyssa clenched her sweaty palms around the straps on her restraints. Deaths by shuttle malfunction were nearly nonexistent, but they could still happen. If the door fell off in the vacuum of space, they'd be dead in seconds.
An eerie quiet descended among the students as all eyes were on the shuttle door.
Tap-tap-tap.
"Someone's out there!" a girl screamed. "A space monster!"
"Don't be an idiot," came the response from another student. "There's no such thing—"
"Everyone remain calm," Masgoret said, but her voice betrayed her nerves. "There's nothing to be afraid—"
