Hearts and Stones (Celta HeartMate) Page 7

  “I volunteered for a procedure no one else would,” Levona put in.

  Ava’s mouth soured. She shrugged. “We personnel managers have agreed that your crew assignment should be working in the ag section of Lugh’s Spear.”

  Levona’s mouth fell open. That meant — farming? She could do that!

  “As you may or may not know, the greenspace ag section comprises a full third of this ship.”

  Delight filled her. Not truly outside but, but, a greenspace!

  Ava lifted her hand. “You will be assigned to the ag area at the most menial level. Currently that means planting seedlings under supervision.”

  Swallowing, Levona nodded. “I can do that.” Feeling baby shoots of green in her hands. Wonderful.

  Umar Clague rose and everyone else followed. “Be assured that now you have become a part of our community, you must follow our rules.”

  “Your ship, your rules,” Levona managed.

  “This is true. However, we are cognizant of our agreement with you and if someone who has reserved one of the twenty-two cryonics tubes does not arrive by the minimum two and a half hours before we launch, when we close the boarding doors, you and Pizi will be assigned that tube. As it stands, some of the former crew members have canceled their requests to join us on this voyage and we are working through our waiting list, but are not at the bottom where you were placed. We are making a position for you. Be thankful.”

  “I am.” Levona snagged her bag and stood, too.

  I am! Pizi hopped up and down, flicking her tail.

  Ava said, “I will lead you to your room so you may note where it is. The ag greenspace needs hands as soon as possible. Report to your supervisor for your duties and your schedule tomorrow morning at workbell.”

  “Thank you.”

  She reached her tiny room, put on a nightshirt and slid under the covers. Physically and emotionally weary, she wondered if she would fear falling asleep. If the drop into unconsciousness would remind her of her struggle in the tube and the testing that day. If nightmares would torture her. But she closed her eyes . . . and slid into sleep with her next warm breath.

  A knock at her door awakened her, and the in-built clock on the closet wall at the end of her bed informed her that four hours had passed. Though the flat light and metal-tinged air provided no clues, it would be night outside. With a pang, she wondered if she’d ever see the moon and stars again. “Come in,” she croaked, shifting on the bed too narrow for both her and Pizi, who lay on her stomach napping.

  Nothing happened.

  Are you awake in there? came a whisper to her mind.

  Levona blinked. She knew that voice, though she hadn’t heard it for a long time – since the first day she’d been in the barrio.

  Karida? Levona sent back, then, Come on in!

  The mental exchange woke Pizi and she extended her spine in a quick stretch before hopping down to the floor, sitting within petting reach and purring.

  Carrying a box, Karida entered as soon as the door retracted into the wall. She stopped at one step and looked around, appalled. Levona gritted her teeth. She hated the narrow room, but would tolerate it – for the whole damn trip, if necessary.

  “Hi, Levona.” A false smile until she looked down into the box she carried that rustled like it held a lot of scrunched and old paper shreds. The woman offered Levona a lopsided smile, a sincere one not given to her before. “Since you’re the one who introduced me to the concept of near-telepathic animals —”

  Almost as smart as ME! Pizi put in, then licked a patch of fur near her shoulder.

  “Almost, but none of the kittens can actually use words like you do to speak,” Karida said with a grave nod at Pizi.

  “No,” Levona agreed. “Pizi is a prodigy.”

  “Anyway, I — and many of my friends — have been searching the city, all parts of the city, for such animals.” Another smile. “We even found a puppy or two.”

  Pizi jumped to her feet, her tongue stuck out. No!

  “Yes. I think we’ve rescued them all, and every psi mutant in the city, living in the ghetto or not, will be keeping watch for them. Everyone in the barrio who wanted a pet — an animal companion, has one.”

  “Bartek Coval?”

  “He received a young tom, a fierce mouser.”

  “Good.”

  Karida nodded, then her voice became drier. “And some of our wealthiest people” — she paused to stare pointedly at Levona — “like the real Minerva Starshine, received an unrelated male and female pair to breed.” Karida marched over and upended the box, and six small and squeaking kittens tumbled over Levona. “These semi-intelligent animals are now available for adoption by the starship folk.”

  Sudden tears overflowed Levona’s eyes, no way could she control them. She sniffed hard, pulled a rag near her pillow to wipe her eyes and nose, and caught one black kitten before it fell off the bed.

  “Thank you.”

  Karida inclined her head. “Since you first introduced us all to such animals, we of the psi mutant barrio community decided you should be the one to find these kittens new homes.”

  “Wonderful.” Levona’s voice sounded even gruffer from throaty tears.

  Setting the box down by the bed, under Pizi’s nose — and an odor of cat rose from it — Karida crossed back to the threshold of the open door. She stared at Levona, swept the room with her gaze and the corridor that began to fill with people.

  Mentally, she sent, So the ship leaves at dawn, the day after tomorrow.

  Yes, Levona confirmed telepathically.

  Aloud, Karida said, “We’ll all be providing cover for you, for the ship, milling around. Looking like we’re working on it.” She shrugged. “That will hopefully keep the gov from thinking you’ll be taking off, so you’ll all get away clean.”

  “Appreciate it.”

  “We psi mutants stick together.” Karida gave Levona a half-salute wave. “Good luck to you, Levona Martinez. May you gain what you wish. Blessed be and go with the Lady and Lord.”

  Levona managed to gather the kittens so she could scoot back and sit straighter. “Good luck to you, too, Karida Bonfils. May you gain what you wish.”

  “I have.” One corner of Karida’s mouth turned up. “While I was on this animal hunt I met Apollo Starshine and we … clicked. He’s moving into the barrio to be my mate.”

  A sharp stab of envy speared Levona, but she summoned a smile. “Good, that’s good to hear. You’ll have children.”

  Karida patted her abdomen and grinned. “Oh, yes, we will.”

  “Great!” Levona meant it. “Go with the Lady and Lord. Blessed be.”

  With a last finger wave, Karida left.

  Levona found a line had formed outside her door. More than six. As she continued to try and gather the active kittens in her arms, she knew she didn’t want to give any of them away.

  Pizi hopped onto the bed, stared at the people in the hallway and yelled mentally, These Kittens only go to peoples who are NOT travelling in tubes!

  Many grumbled and left, but others tried to crowd through the door that wouldn’t even accommodate two.

  Pizi hissed, then shouted, I WILL CHOOSE THOSE WHO SHOULD HAVE THESE CATS. LET ME THROUGH SO I CAN SNIFF YOU.

  The crowd backed up. Levona smiled.

  In under twenty minutes the rambunctious kittens had been parceled out and Pizi stood on Levona’s lap, staring up at her. We go back to sleep now.

  And Levona allowed herself to be ordered by her animal companion, and shut her eyes.

  An hour into her job the next morning, Levona felt the artificial sun’s light on her shoulders and sighed. She’d made it! She and Pizi were escaping Earth!

  All she’d suffered was worth it.

  Most of the rest of the crew had trickled in while she’d been under. And Pizi walked the corridors, greeting newcomers, acting as an emotional support cat, being loved and petted. Neither Levona nor Pizi could determine how many people didn’t sho
w up as generational staff. Levona did keep an eye on the cryonics chamber.

  Working in the ag sector, farming, soothed her beyond all understanding. She loved her home mountains, but working with the burgeoning green plants and trees and crops fulfilled her. Maybe she should have gone East after escaping CentralConglom two years ago, spent time traveling through green forests until she reached her psi-mutant people in NJNY, the deadliest psi-ghetto in the world … But she’d have missed finding Pizi …

  In any event, Levona understood she could live in this ship her whole life, even in her tiny, single room, since she’d be working in the green. Setting up the ag for the generations to come kept the anxious buzz along her nerves of waiting for launch under control.

  Then the final hours passed and she and Pizi sat in their assigned spot, both strapped in with slings, three hours before the ship lifted off. Following the rules when a few others still roamed the deck, not wanting to be immobilized yet.

  She and Pizi murmured together, Levona reassuring her cat that she totally accepted not being assigned a tube and they’d live and make friends and take lovers during their lives on the ship.

  The lights blinked and the atmosphere changed and Levona sensed the starship’s doors closing. She leaned back and visualized the plot she’d planted in the ag section, the feel of the dirt on her hands, the tender leaves of the seedlings, the …

  “Come along, Levona. Wake up, Pizi. We need to get you into one of the final tubes,” Donna Clague said.

  Relief, hope, shuddered through Levona and she couldn’t stop tears from welling and sliding down her cheeks. She snapped open the web restraints and hurried after Donna who moved fast.

  “Who’s in the final tube?” Levona asked.

  Donna threw a smile over her shoulder. “Me. I wanted to be able to take you to the bay if an opening happened. We’re friends.”

  “Yes, we are. Thank you.”

  WE’RE GOING INTO THE TUBE! HOORAY! Pizi squealed.

  To Levona’s surprise, not many in the two rows of people on either side of the take-off corridor seemed to hear her. Of those who looked startled, one man raised his hand and called, “Good luck!” then muttered, “You couldn’t pay me to get in one of those tubes.”

  And Levona’s mouth dried at the recollection of the struggle for her life. What if something went wrong again? She banished the thought, and would NOT think of anything happening to Pizi. She’d gotten a brief report that other animals had survived the testing of the cryonics process. Not in Lugh’s Spear but …

  Then she and Pizi were in the cryonics bay, being prepped. Neither of them had eaten anything for twenty-four hours … just in case. Techs took Pizi away to prepare her, as others helped Levona disrobe … as Donna Clague undressed, across the room near her husband, Umar, who already slept in a foggy capsule.

  Donna sat and let needles pierce her skin and words came from Levona’s mouth. “Thank you for being my friend, Donna. See you on the other side.”

  The woman chuckled. “You may not know it, but you’re easy to be friends with, Levona. Later!” She lay down in the tube, looked over toward her husband, and Levona saw the love. A slight movement came from Umar as if he felt the love. Then the glass covered Donna and gas poured into her pod.

  “Look at me,” ordered the tech, and caught Levona in her gaze. Levona sat on the bottom of her tube and felt the sting of injections, scanned the room a last time and saw people she didn’t know, but also Ava Quintana and Megan Dufort. They’d been friendly with her, too, had eaten with her at meals, like Pilot Hoku and Umar Clague and others.

  Levona had made friends.

  Then she let the techs and their hot hands arrange her, put Pizi on her chest. The cat’s eyes appeared half open. I … love …You … Le … vona.

  I love you, Pizi.

  We … are … Peo … ple … with … Peoples who likes Us. Friends.

  Yes. Finally Levona stopped running away and staying apart. She’d joined a community — and been accepted by them — and with them would forge a new world together.

  Homing Stone

  Rand Ash Meets Hom Holly

  From the publication of my first book, HeartMate, readers have been asking for the meeting between Rand Ash and Holm Holly when they were seventeen. That’s when Ash worked as a blacksmith in the Downwind slums and Holly went through his death-duel Passages to free his psi magic-Flair. Here it is.

  HOMING STONE

  380 Years After Earth Starship Colonization of Celta, Druida City, Spring

  * * *

  Rand Ash sat in the corner of the Downwind bar, waiting for trouble to walk through the door. Trouble for this joint, and maybe the slum itself, but an opportunity for him. He’d heard a rumor that a nobleman had cruised the taverns in this, the poorest part of town, last night. The guy hadn’t broken up this bar. Yet.

  Sipping bad whiskey from a heavy and not-too-clean glass, Rand kept his gaze moving. When it grazed across someone, man or woman, that person took another couple of steps away from him. A flimsy little table stood before him, one he could make splinters of with a single quick kick. Nobody sat near him and nobody blocked his way to the bar. If he went on the move, nobody’d block his way to the door, neither.

  He was young and strong ... and obsessed.

  And maybe lucky.

  He’d soon find out if his prophetic rune reading that morning was right, and fortune favored him.

  Vengeance simmered inside him, and he could use one nobleman, the nobleman Ash figured would come into this saloon, to get it. Ash would prevail against his noble enemies.

  He smiled and his nearest neighbor scraped a chair closer to the big round table where the guy sat gabbling with friends.

  Wait. Wait. Wait. Rand Ash had learned to be patient.

  And trouble did walk into the bar.

  More like swaggered. A huge black and white tomcat with tattered ears, Zanth.

  “Hey,” snapped the barkeep at the cat.

  But Zanth, Ash’s Familiar Companion, jumped and landed on the table before Ash with a solid thump. Rocking the little table, the cat squatted to keep his balance. No one laughed.

  In fact, the room fell quiet. Except for Zanth’s slurping of Ash’s whiskey. His tail waved in time to his guzzle.

  Ash’s Fam projected mentally on their private channel, You walked too fast. A near grumble, as always.

  Ash replied telepathically, You dawdled.

  Zanth lifted his muzzle, whiskey dripping from his whiskers. Stopped to kill sewer rat. Yum!

  There might still be traces of that rat, and rat blood, on Zanth’s whiskers. Ash slipped his whiskey away from the cat. Since Zanth wanted the alcohol, Ash put it on the floor for his Fam. Zanth took up too much space on the table.

  With an audible growl that had others glancing at them nervously, Zanth followed the drink under the table, tilting the furniture again.

  Stay outta my fliggerin’ way if I move, Ash sent.

  Of course Zanth ignored him.

  Patience. Ash did not glance at his cheap wrist timer. The runes had been interesting that morning--be sociable, no brooding on problems too great to master alone, a favorable change was blowing into his life.

  Since he’d made the divination stones himself, he tended to follow their advice. Combined with the afternoon gossip of a nobleman in the slums of Downwind, prickles of destiny had slid down Ash’s nerves. Finally it would be time to move against his enemies, exact vengeance, claim his lost title and power.

  So he’d gone to the bar he’d calculated to be next on the nobleman’s path.

  Before Ash called for another drink--an ale this time to save precious coin--the real entertainment of the evening strode in and ordered the best liquor in the place, paid with a new and gleaming weighty silver coin.

  People moved away from this guy, too. More due to his attitude than his height. With breathtaking arrogance, he turned to scan the room, study each person there while the bartender got his drink.


  Probably seventeen, like himself. But unlike Ash, the man hadn’t filled out yet. Ash’s blacksmithing had already thickened his muscles. What muscles this guy had were strung over a lean build.

  Ash stared, like every other person in the tavern, at the man with gray eyes and white-silver-blond hair. He wore materials so expensive that the amount he’d paid for his threads would clothe everyone in the place for a decade. Most people saw a noble or two now and then, and most knew of noble fashion, and his was the latest.

  Ash reflected on the books he’d read about noble Families. The volume he’d escaped with when he’d run away from the fiery inferno his home had become, destroyed by greedy Family enemies. The book remained his most prized possession since he’d been six.

  And he thought of the lessons he’d paid to the old noblewoman living Downwind. That information about the great nobles, the FirstFamilies he’d learned. He frowned as early gossamer memories wisped through his mind as he examined the guy’s aquiline features, noble features.

  Yeah, Ash nodded, he could guess the identity of this guy. Ash sensed the fluctuations of great Flair, psychic magic power. That meant the nobleman suffered through the dreamquest of Passage. Long days when internal psi abilities would rise and a gifted person had to master them to control newly augmented talents ... power.

  He looked flushed and nervy.

  Most people with good psychic power endured three Passages, one in childhood, one about now at seventeen, and a third one some years later.

  Most people suffered through the days of fevers and sweats and the emotional turmoil to free and conquer their Flair in the safety and comfort of their home, among their family.

  Most people weren’t a member of the fighting Family of Holly.

  The Hollys didn’t stay home when Passage hit them. Legend had it they went out prowling, looking for challenges. Fought death duels.

  And Ash was here to help this nobleman in those fights and death duels, get the guy in his debt.

  Yeah, Ash could guess the man’s name and pedigree. Holm Holly, heir to GreatLord T’Holly himself. Holm HollyHeir, he’d be called. If Ash cared to address him by name. Ash’s lip curled and he put his hands quietly on the table. No doubt he’d see what stuff the Holly was made of.