Riley's Paradox, page 10
part #9 of Hearts of ICARUS Series
“The city is very much like an ancient Egyptian city with enormous statues, stone buildings, and beautiful murals and carvings everywhere. Isiben is mostly an agricultural country, so the river is truly the River of Life for them, just as the Nile still is for Egypt today.”
“We’d very much like to visit this place,” Wilder said. “But, if it’s a Class D planet, how is it that you can come and go so easily?”
“Isiben has several levels of knowledge. The royal city is where those of the First Knowledge reside, including the royal family. Those of the First Knowledge know about the Thousand Worlds, and many of them even speak Standard.
“When we visit, we have to be careful not to frighten people with our ships and other technology, so we land a small shuttle deep in the desert. We then walk to the river and take a barge to the island. We can’t go exploring off the island on our own since only those of the First Knowledge are aware of our origin. Otherwise, it’s not really a problem.”
“You sound as though you really like that place,” Win said.
“Next to Jasan, it’s the most beautiful, and most peaceful place I’ve ever been,” Riley said softly.
All three of them stared at her in obvious surprise. Flushing with embarrassment, she looked down at her plate, wondering what was wrong with her. These men had more important things to think about than some Class D planet. And so did she.
She took a slow breath, blinked back the sudden tears that threatened for reasons she did not understand, and changed the subject. “Do you usually use a patrol cutter for business purposes?”
“No, we don’t,” Wilder replied, wondering what had caused her sudden mood change. “We claimed this older cutter, which reminds us of our first patrol command, in place of the yacht we were offered when we accepted the Katre-Lau post. It requires more fuel than a yacht, and a bigger crew to run. On the other hand, it’s faster and bigger than a yacht. We had it completely refitted, and we’ve enjoyed remodeling the interior to suit ourselves without worrying about the size constraints of a yacht.
“We have a full sized clan ship, the Pharaoh, which is currently in for regular maintenance and a number of overdue upgrades. It was taking longer to complete than expected and, being Katre, we’re not long on patience, as I’m sure you know.
“Instead of sitting around waiting, we rescheduled a meeting at the skyport to take place a few weeks early, then took the Mau.”
Riley started to ask more about the remodeling, but worried they’d feel obligated to show her around. She just nodded instead, then took another bite of her omelet.
“Percy mentioned that you’d been on the skyport for a week,” West said. “Why were you there for so long?”
Chewing slowly to give herself more time, she quickly ran her response through her mind before speaking, determined to answer the question without rambling nonsense again. “I spent the summer interning on an ICARUS ship called the Reskate. We reached the skyport three days late so I missed the transport back to school by one day. Since only one transport goes to the EDU system each week from New Ugaztun, I had to wait six days for the next one, which I was trying to catch when I met you.”
“Do you know why the Reskate was delayed?” Wilder asked.
There was something in his tone that caught Riley’s attention. “It was a jump point delay. Do you think the delay was deliberate?”
“It occurred to me,” Wilder replied.
Riley thought about that while she took another bite of her breakfast. “The only reason I can think of for them to have deliberately caused a delay would be to make me miss my ride to school, which would mean they knew my schedule.
“If that’s the case, why would they wait so long to come after me? For that matter, why make such a scene in the middle of a crowded skyport when they could’ve taken me from my stateroom in the middle of the night without witnesses?”
“Good questions,” Wilder said thoughtfully. “Maybe they got someone to delay your departure in order to give themselves time to arrive. It’s quite possible they had no idea which stateroom you were in, so were forced to attempt the abduction in public.”
Riley turned his suggestions over in her mind and saw several flaws in the theory. “Is that what you think happened?”
“I have my doubts,” Wilder admitted with a little smile, knowing from her expression that she had doubts of her own. “If they knew so much about your schedule, why not wait until you returned to EDU-21? It would have been far easier for them to abduct you from school.”
“That’s true,” Riley said. “I guess we’ll never know.”
They ate in silence while the waiter refilled their coffee, then West asked another question.
“Have you always wanted to join ICARUS?”
“No, I haven’t,” she said, shaking her head. “I read about it, and it sounded interesting. I thought it would be a good fit for me.”
“Good fit?” West asked.
“I like to help people, but I’m not a pilot, an engineer, a doctor, or a scientist, nor do I have a desire to be any of those things. I’m not technically or mechanically inclined, and I’m not very good with people, either. The only thing I had to offer ICARUS was a willingness to work hard without pay for three months. That was enough for them, so they accepted my request for an internship.”
“Is there a specific field that interests you?” Win asked.
Riley set her fork down and pushed her plate back, unable to eat another bite. “Animals,” she said with a little smile. “I’ve always loved animals. When I was about six years old I decided that I wanted to be a veterinarian.”
West frowned. “Did you change your mind?”
Riley shrugged, though inwardly she cringed. What had possessed her to answer that question? She picked up the creamer, added some to her freshened coffee and stirred it while trying to figure out how exactly to word her response.
“It takes years of schooling to become a vet,” she said finally, her eyes fixed on the coffee.
“Why is that a problem?” West asked, shooting quick looks at Wilder and Win. They looked as confused by her current tension as he felt.
“I don’t think I’d be able to finish,” she said carefully. She started to say more, then decided that was enough and sipped her coffee instead.
Win felt her tension begin to rise steadily from the moment West asked her about ICARUS. It was much worse than when they’d talked about her abduction, which seemed strange. He didn’t understand it, but he thought it would be best to end that subject for the time being. Before he had a chance to do so, Wilder asked another question.
“Was there a particular reason you decided to spend your summer break on an ICARUS ship, or did you just want to help out?”
“Both of my sisters go to different schools than I do.” She glanced up, catching their surprise before they could hide it, but this time she smiled. “Rikki goes to art school, and Rose attends the Interstellar Security Academy.” They nodded, and she continued. “They each made plans for this past summer that didn’t include going home to Jasan. I didn’t want to sit around missing them for three months, but I didn’t know what else to do, either.
“Then I learned that ICARUS was offering summer internships, so I signed up. I figured it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t love it. I’d be helping people, and that was better than doing nothing.”
“Did you like it?” West asked.
“I liked that I was able to help people. That I was, at least, doing something worthwhile. And my parents were happy about it. I didn’t tell them that I wanted to make a career out of it, but I didn’t correct their assumption, either.”
Win frowned when her tension suddenly doubled. It was confusing because there was nothing in what she’d said to indicate a reason for it. Since Riley was looking down at her cup again, he quickly signaled to his brothers that a change of subject was needed.
“You have one year left of college, right?” Wilder asked.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“What will you do after that?”
Riley raised her napkin to her mouth and dabbed at it while checking her shield and struggling to keep her expression neutral. She put the napkin down and shrugged carefully. “I have a few options to consider. How long will it take to reach Jasan?”
They’d already gotten used to Riley’s sudden subject changes, but this time Win knew it had been deliberate. He ran through each time he’d felt her tension rise, and realized that it wasn’t talking about ICARUS that was causing it. It was talking about her future. He didn’t know why, but he had a feeling that it was important that they find out.
“The Mau is faster than a yacht, an average cutter, or a passenger liner, but not as fast as the Pharaoh,” West answered, covering his brothers’ sudden distraction. “It’ll take us about ten days to get to Jasan.”
“I usually travel back and forth to school on passenger liners, which take about two and a half to three weeks to make the trip. To me, ten days is fast.” Riley pushed her barely touched coffee away and fought back a yawn.
“Percy, if you’re finished eating, we can go see about getting a transport disrupter for you now,” Win said.
“Yes, I’m finished,” Percy said, then leapt up to Riley’s lap. “Do you mind?”
“Of course not,” Riley replied. “The sooner I know you’re protected, the happier I’ll be.”
“I shall see you soon, then,” he said with a brief purr.
Win rose to his feet and Percy spread his wings before leaping off of Riley’s lap and up to the level of his head. He then glided along beside Win instead of riding his shoulder the way he did with Riley.
“How does he do that?” West murmured softly.
“How does who do what?” Riley asked.
“How does Percy fly without flapping his wings?”
“I have a better question,” Wilder said. “How does Percy fly with wings that aren’t really wings at all?”
Riley grinned. “I asked him that myself. He looked at me like I was crazy, then told me that since he doesn’t flap around like a bird, it should be obvious that he doesn’t fly, either.”
Two sets of identical brows shot up so high they were nearly lost in two identical hairlines. “If he doesn’t fly, what’s he doing?” West asked.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to ask him that,” Riley said, suddenly feeling guilty for sharing something that wasn’t hers to share. Percy had never indicated that it was a secret, but he hadn’t said it wasn’t one either. Given all the secrets he was keeping for her, she owed him better than that.
“I know I slept for about twenty eight hours and that I just woke up, but I still feel tired. I think I’ll go lie down for a while.”
“We’ll walk you,” Wilder offered, pushing his chair back before she had a chance to decline. West rose as well and together they crossed the now empty cafeteria.
They paused in front of the elevator and West pressed a button while Riley chewed on her lip and wished she could think of something to say to break the silence. She was relieved when her hand terminal chimed in a particular tone.
“That’s my sister,” she said, pulling the device from her belt. She looked up at Wilder as the elevator doors opened. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all,” he replied. They stepped inside and she hit the key to accept the call.
Chapter 6
“Hello Rose,” Riley said, instantly worried when she saw her sister’s expression on the small screen of her hand terminal. “What’s the matter?”
Rose opened her mouth, then closed it before making a visible effort to collect herself. “I just received a reicere.”
Riley felt as though she’d had the air knocked out of her. At the same moment, Fluffy hissed in the front of her mind. She closed her eyes, hoping Rose wouldn’t notice the ring of black on the small screen of her hand terminal. Since her head was bowed, she didn’t think Wilder or West could see either.
She mentally soothed and quieted her alter form while searching quickly for something to say before opening her eyes again. “I didn’t know you’d found your Rami.”
“I didn’t,” Rose said with a hitch in her voice.
Riley frowned. A reicere was, by definition, a formal rejection between a male-set and a berezi. “I don’t understand, Rosie.”
Rose nodded and made a visible effort to collect herself. “We had multi-quadrant training games on Norbu-Cutt a week ago. At some point during the three days I was there, a male-set identified me as their berezi. I don’t know when, or how, or anything else about it. They didn’t share that with me.”
“They didn’t tell you they were your Rami?” Riley asked in confusion.
“Not until this morning.”
“They waited a week? Why?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Didn’t you ask them?”
“I couldn’t ask them.” Rose pressed the fingers of her free hand to her temple for a long moment, then sighed and looked into the camera on her hand terminal again. “I’m sorry, Riley, I’m not being clear. I just found out about this a few minutes ago when I received a certified document via private messenger.”
Rose held a sheet of paper up to the camera. “This says that they saw me on Norbu-Cutt and identified me as their berezi.” She lowered the document and set it aside. “They watched me for an hour while giving the matter careful thought.”
Riley was surprised by the bitterness in Rose’s voice. She’d never heard her sound that way before. Not once in their entire lives. “What else does it say?” Riley winced slightly when she heard the growl in her voice, but she couldn’t make herself worry too much about it at the moment.
“That my appearance isn’t what they’d hoped for, but they could learn to live with it if they had to.”
“Your appearance?”
“According to them, I’m neither pretty nor feminine,” Rose said flatly, then continued before Riley could say anything. “What they can’t overlook is my interest in warfare.”
“Warfare?” Riley asked, then ducked her head further and shut her eyes when her katrenca’s hiss grew into an angry snarl which, thankfully, remained in the silence of her mind.
“That’s the word they used. It also says that they have no interest in being linked with a woman who wants to fight all the time. They ended by wishing me luck in my future endeavors, and hoping that I possessed enough honor and feminine grace to keep this matter private.”
“That’s it?” Riley asked, stunned. “No sorry to dump this on you? No have a good life? Nothing?”
“Yeah, that’s it,” Rose said. “Instead of facing me they sent this document full of insults and a back handed request that I remain silent about it.”
“I’ve never heard anything so callous, Rose. We all know incompatibilities occur sometimes, but there’s no reason to be cruel about it. A simple line expressing regret would have done the job just as well. Are they younglings, or already mated?”
“I don’t know, Riley. I don’t know any more about them than I’ve just told you.”
“You have their names, at least, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course,” Rose said. “They signed the reicere to make it all nice and official.”
“Then you can look them up on the Jasani data site.”
“I could, yes, but I don’t want to,” Rose said. “I don’t need to know more about them than what’s in this document and to be honest, I wish I didn’t know this much.”
“Then tell me their names and I’ll look them up.”
Rose sucked in a deep breath and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. Riley’s heart ached when she saw how much her sister’s hand trembled. “Tell me, Rosie. Please.”
Rose shook her head. “No, Riley, I can’t do that. They shouldn’t be punished for not wanting me.”
“No, they shouldn’t,” Riley agreed. “But they should be punished for what they wrote on that sheet of paper they sent you. What kind of males would write such things to a woman they don’t even know, let alone the one they’re meant to link their soul to? They didn’t even have the decency to face you.”
“No, they didn’t,” Rose agreed. “Now that I’m thinking about it, would I really want to be linked to a male-set who would do something like this? I don’t think so, Riley. Even if they’d done this the right way, the moment they tried to tell me I couldn’t continue with my training we would’ve had a serious problem.”
“I understand that, but it’s not really the point, Rose.”
“I know,” Rose said with a heavy sigh. “What’s done is done, though. Kicking up a fuss isn’t going to change anything.”
Riley saw that she was just upsetting Rose further, so she clamped down on her own feelings and focused on trying to help her sister. “What will you do now?”
“There isn’t anything I can do. I just wanted to tell you about it. I guess that old saying Mom uses about misery loving company has more merit than I thought.”
“I don’t agree,” Riley said. “A burden shared is a burden halved might be more accurate. Will you tell Mom and the Dads about this? Or would you like me to do that for you?”
“Thanks, Riley, but no,” Rose replied. “Once I’m sure that I can speak of it without an emotional reaction, then I’ll tell them.”
“Emotional? Did you feel a connection to them?”
“No. As far as I’m aware I’ve never even seen them, and I’m kind of glad about that. If I’d known them, or even just met them, then I’d have faces to regret. This way, it’s just a dream that will never come to pass.”
Rose’s words hit a little too close to home for Riley, but this was about her sister, not herself. She kept her own feelings hidden and stared steadily at the tiny screen until Rose gave in with an annoyed huff.
“Okay, yes, it hurts,” she admitted. “I always thought that one day I’d find my Rami and, all other issues aside, we’d have a family. It’s a shock to realize that I’ll never have that because they decided they don’t like my face, or the one thing they know about me.”
