Kaia smiled as the crisp air kissed her cheeks and her feet crunched through the fresh snow along Landing Street. Grey stone buildings reached up and blocked the low winter sun. Despite the cold, the walk was invigorating. She could have gone in a crawler, but being stuck on the Sewin Hawk for so long made her want to stretch her legs.
“Afternoon,” she greeted a pair of shoppers bundled into parkas as they exited M&R Provisions. With a childish grin, she walked inside.
Memories of running down the aisles with her sister and helping her parents stock the shelves flooded back the moment she entered the store. She smiled as she remembered stealing the occasional chocolate bar when her dad wasn’t looking. The store appeared just as she remembered. Tall shelving, flashy sale holograms, and Old Allan grumbling as he worked on the payment arches.
“Hey, Allan,” Kaia called out as she approached.
“Madam Kaia! It’s so good to see you! Master Marinoch is in his office.”
Kaia grinned. “How is it you’re one of the few people who can tell the difference between me and Briya?”
Her family’s aged servant shrugged, but Kaia could see his eyes twinkle in delight. “Trade secrets, m’lady.”
“Fine, keep your secrets. Do you know where my mom is?”
“She stepped out, m’lady. But your sister is in the back.”
Kaia laughed. “So that’s how you knew it was me!”
Allan spread his arms and bowed to hide a smile.
Still chuckling, Kaia left him to his work. She found her sister helping a pair of indentured workers unload a pallet of cereals.
Kaia walked up behind the group and placed her hands on her hips. She lowered her voice to imitate her mother’s and bellowed out, “Why on the Great Green Ring are you wasting time? Where is the stacker?”
One worker—a pale, thin woman—jumped, dropping the box she was holding. It broke open and cereal spilled out over the floor.
“I’m so sorry…” the woman stammered in a Lower Shikar Ring accent as she fell to the ground and started scooping it up with her hands.
“The stacker’s down…” Briya began, but stopped when she saw who it was. “Kaia!” she shrieked with joy, throwing herself at her twin. Kaia hugged Briya back, soaking in her warmth.
“What are you doing here?” Briya asked, pulling away with a grin.
“We docked at the orbital transfer station to take on some supplies, so I figured I’d come down for a visit.”
“Great timing! I got back last week.”
“Ah, that’s why you were strong-armed into helping around the store. Too much free time.” Kaia giggled.
“Yeah, you know Dad…” Briya rolled her eyes. “Are you at least staying for dinner?”
“That’s the plan,” Kaia said. She grew sober and added, “Do you have time to get a coffee? I need some advice.”
Briya looked back at the pallet and the mess on the ground, then shrugged, a smile spreading across her face as she jumped at the idea to escape. “Sure, let’s get out of here.”
After giving some directions to the workers, Briya retrieved her parka, and soon she and Kaia were strolling down the street and revisiting old times. They turned off Landing Street and walked down to the scenic promenade. Cafés and restaurants lined one side of the street, facing a magnificent view of the snowy peaks of the Gorgan Mountains. At one of the outdoor patios, a group of Zahex pilgrims sipped tea before heading out on the long trail up the mountains to the Sepulchre of the Celestial Veil, the last resting place of Saint Helen. The sight of the pilgrims made Kaia grimace, their thin figures and pale skin unsettling her, as did their lack of colour, contrasting with the usual traits of their race. Once upon a time, these pilgrims relied on her family’s chain of stores for trip provisions, but that changed with the start of the boycott.
“Do you know if Dad has had any luck negotiating with their leaders?” Kaia asked, nodding at the pilgrims.
Briya shook her head. “No, they’ve made it some sort of religious edict now.”
“Bastards,” Kaia sighed, feeling just as angry at herself as the Zahex.
“It’s not your fault,” Briya reached out and gripped Kaia’s hand.
“No?” Kaia sounded snarkier than she intended. “So someone else alienated the whole fucking race by wanting to exercise her own freedom of choice? Forcing our family’s business to close multiple locations and almost go into receivership?”
“I guess when you put it that way… it pretty much is your fault.” Briya grinned.
Kaia glared at her sister, not amused. “Thanks.”
“No really,” Briya said more seriously as they entered their favourite café, the Brooding Mare. “You gotta let this go. We survived. Time to move on.”
Kaia dropped the subject. Briya didn’t understand, not really. She didn’t have to live with the shame of what she’d done. How was she supposed to have known that leaving her placement at the Zahex Relations Office to join the Navy would have caused such a shit storm? She never asked to be perceived as a heavenly inspired figure by the pilgrims. All she ever wanted was to travel the stars and the Ministry placement kept her planet side, so she had left, and the pilgrims had taken it as her abandoning them.
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The women took off their parkas and sat down at a table in the corner, ordered spiced coffee, and reminisced about the last time they were here together. Finally, Briya leaned forward. “So, what is it you wanted to talk about?”
Kaia sipped at her drink, enjoying the piquant taste. No one else in the galaxy had quite the same coffee. The local blend was what she missed most about Tophin. With a sigh of pleasure, she put her cup down and told her sister about Admiral Morven and his mysterious offer.
“I guess I just wanted to run it by someone,” she finished.
“Sounds like an interesting opportunity. Are you going to take it?”
Kaia closed her eyes. “I dunno. I never aspired to be in anything like the Special Forces. Inferni, I never really even wanted to be in the military. It was just the only way I could get out of that dead end ministry placement. Maybe I should have just followed your path.”
Growing up, neither of them had been happy living here. They had both wanted to explore the stars. When Briya’s psychometric tests slotted her in the services stream, putting her on the path to serving on civilian starships, Kaia had been envious.
“Do you regret your choice to reject the test results?” Briya asked.
Kaia looked away, unsure how to answer. Her own psychometric testing had identified a gift for languages that automatically placed her in the political stream. The training was a blast initially, but everything changed when she received her final posting notice. Instead of placing her in the Foreign Service, they assigned her to the Zahex Relations Office here in Saint’s Harbour, anchoring her to the planet and ending all her dreams of the stars. The only way to break the psychometric contract was to join the military, so Kaia had taken the plunge. Once there, she had discovered a passion for command. Being in control of your own starship as it sailed through the vastness of space had a romantic quality; exploring the far reaches of civilization and rescuing ships in distress. Early in her academy days, she had promised herself that one day that would be her.
“If it means I can’t get a ship, then yeah. Why should some stupid test we take when we’re twelve screw everything up?” Kaia asked with bitterness.
Briya looked around, uncomfortable. She leaned in closer and whispered, “You know the Emperor Himself created the psychometric hierarchy to pull us from the brink of extinction. You shouldn’t question His will.”
Kaia gasped as she realized what she had said. The anger that had been bubbling up within her dropped away, leaving a hollow pit in her stomach. How could she be so stupid? The last thing she needed right now was to incur the Immortal Emperor’s wrath. Briya was right. The tests were for the greater good. Kaia had even consulted Vicar Indra about her decision to leave her posting at the Ministry. He had directed her to the Scrolls of Binding, which spelled out the fundamentals of the psychometric hierarchy and an obscure passage that allowed her to join the military. That meant the Emperor blessed her change, but everyone else still saw it as breaking the contract. The years of defending her decision, while being called a herator, had soured her against the whole hierarchy. She had not realized how bad it had gotten until now. She closed her eyes and said a quick prayer for forgiveness.
Briya made the symbol of the Holy Ring above her heart and bowed her head, acknowledging the prayer, then she returned her attention to Kaia. “It seems to me that you have three choices. One, break another contract and end up in servitude. That’s obviously not a realistic option. Two, you could stay where you are. Sounds like you won’t get a ship, but at least you’re an executive officer and still get to travel the stars. Or three, take the plunge and fully commit to the fact that you are a soldier now. Accept Admiral Morven’s offer, knowing that you’ll see and do violent things, far more than you were initially ready for.”
Kaia let out a low growl of frustration and sat back in her seat. Why was her need to walk among the stars so strong? She felt bound by an invisible rope that dragged her down a predetermined path. Refusing to let the turmoil at her workplace dampen their time together, Kaia shifted gears, steering the conversation towards a more pleasant subject. “Tell me all about your last cruise.”
Briya gave her a knowing look but didn’t resist, instead launching into a story about three co-workers and the unlabelled bottles they found behind the bar. Kaia nodded in all the right places, but her distracted mind continued to toy with her options, looking for some sort of compromise.
***
The next morning, Kaia woke up knowing what she had to do. She dressed and grabbed a piece of tiger fruit as she hurried out the door to catch Admiral Morven’s officer before he could check out of the Crossroads Hotel.
The building’s curved black glass walls and domed roof dominated the city’s skyline. Inside, she shook off the snow and looked around, unsure what to do next. Gijnat’Hav was commonly a male Jiuda name, which narrowed her search slightly since there were few Jiuda in Saint’s Harbour. Her first stop was at reception, but the polite clerk gently explained that she could not disclose her clients’ confidential information. Kaia didn’t think she looked like a stalker, but she didn’t press the point. Instead, she went to the bar to search the long way.
Crossroads Hotel was the most expensive hotel in Saint’s Harbour, and it showed. The building was a cylindrical tube that wrapped around a three-story tree that lived under a glass dome. Kaia moved through the lower level, paying extra attention to the seats that circled the tree base. Seeing no Jiuda, she went upstairs to the restaurant level where several patrons sat eating breakfast. Finally, Kaia spotted a lone Jiuda seated at a table next to the railing that overlooked the tree, eating a breakfast of sausage hash while he scrolled through a holographic terminal. His black cracked scales glittered, and he was almost comically oversized for his artistically crafted spindle chair. He looked up at her approach, his dark red eyes studying her the way a fencer would break down their opponent.
“Gijnat’Hav?” Kaia asked as she came up to the table.
“What do you want?” Gijnat’Hav whistled in the Jiuda language. He shifted his muscular body around with a casual grace, freeing his legs and hands. He calmly surveyed the room, taking in every detail, and then shifted his gaze towards Kaia. It all made Kaia think professional killer with a shiver.
Kaia introduced herself, added, “Admiral Morven instructed me to give you my decision. I’m in.”
Kaia had not expected any kind of delighted congratulations, but Gijnat’Hav shattered even that low back with a nostril flare of indifference.
“Did he leave any instructions or orders with you?” Kaia asked, perplexed.
The Jiuda hissed annoyance, turned back to his terminal and selected a file, forwarding it to Kaia. When he was done, he returned to his meal as if nothing had happened.
Kaia brought up her Carpi holographic wrist terminal and opened the file. It was a simple text message: Proceed to Fort Ridge on Guzunov in the Abrore system. Must arrive before 10.550.06.45.
“That’s it?” Kaia asked.
The orders, if one could call them that, lacked the Navy’s standard details. No information about the destination or how to get there. On top of that, it lacked any details about what to expect when she finally reached Guzunov. Gijnat’Hav’s only response was another nostril flare. He either didn’t know or, more likely, didn’t care. Kaia let out a frustrated huff, then turned and left the Jiuda to eat in peace. Were these sparse orders some kind of test? To see if she could get there on her own? Is this what it’s going to be like from now on? In that fleeting moment of hesitation, she sensed the familiar tug of destiny beckoning her forward on this unforeseen journey.