Chapter 4: Representative

Rudy watched the Representative-class destroyer’s shadow pass over Chloe, then him, then the entire alley in which they stood.

More than a kilometer of gleaming, perfectly polished composite plating and humming gravitic engines hung overhead, almost unimaginably huge in atmosphere. Some of its engines would be extras, replacing its usual load of ship to ship weapons so it could operate within a planet’s gravity well. Air whistled around its surface, forming strange eddies in the unnaturally curved space.

“What’s it doing here?” Chloe whispered.

“Apparently, somebody important decided to visit this rube planet,” Rudy said. “They’re probably here for the tournament.”

He tried to keep his voice casual. He wasn’t sure if he succeeded. Chloe acted like she hadn’t even heard him speak.

Some Invincible Battle Princess, he thought.

He almost managed a grin.

Almost.

It wasn’t that he thought the destroyer hovering over the port village threatened him. He just didn’t care for the symbols of the Federal Senate’s armed forces.

Too many bad memories.

“Why don’t we step into a shop and wait out the storm?” He laid a hand on Chloe’s arm and guided her toward a door, gently enough she wouldn't panic and start beaming her location to anyone who wanted to listen, firmly enough she didn't stay in plain sight of anyone who wanted to look.

She paid his touch no more mind than she had his voice. She kept staring at the destroyer.

Rudy figured being spotted with a possible noblewoman, however little she acted the part, could prove less than healthy under the circumstances.

He could have left her.

But where was the fun in that?

“Come on, Chloe,” he hissed. His fingers tightened. Beneath her flight suit, her slender arm felt more muscular than he’d expected. ‘Not a combat mechaneer,’ she’d said. What kind was she? A cargo hauler? She didn’t look that part any more than she acted the nob. She was obviously some kind of spacer; he knew that prim and proper act all too well.

When he pulled her into a doorway, she finally reacted. Her reaction didn’t exactly make things simpler.

He grunted as her elbows dug into his kidneys. His hand spasmed.

Chloe sprang from his grasp.

“I was trying to help,” Rudy said through clenched teeth. Girl packed quite a punch. He jerked a thumb at the destroyer descending on the port town. “Get you out of its sight.”

“I don’t need your help.” Chloe straightened up, tested her ankle and nodded, apparently to herself. The mask of her flight suit rolled up to cover her face. “I’ve got to warn Mom and Dad!”

“If they don’t know already, they’ve got to be blind and deaf,” Rudy said. “And if you send a message to your parents, the Feds could pick up on it.”

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She hesitated.

She set her jaw.

She rolled the mask back.

She said, “I’ve still got to get to them and make sure they’re okay.”

She sprinted toward the hangars, following the destroyer’s shadow.

Rudy bit back a sigh. Women.

Still, he had to wonder what kind of woman had to dye her hair to hide the black curls most people associated with the old nobility, but went running to the help of a ship in the civilian hangars on a tourist planet halfway across the galaxy from the nearest enclave of the old feudal order.

Curiosity killed the cat, he thought, but I’m no felid.

Besides, he’d could just imagine the look on the face of the Fed bureaucrat-soldier who tried to arrest him for his interference.

He ran after her.

The people in the port village thronged the streets to see the destroyer, but Rudy easily danced between confused civilians. Since he didn’t gain any ground on Chloe, he assumed she managed the same.

He almost lost ground, almost lost her, when a familiar small transport roared overhead. Rudy didn't have to see its markings to know he knew the sleek little ship, a converted luxury twenty-seater shuttle with a magnetic clasp to hold a mecha.

He wondered, what’s he doing out here?

Rudy supposed he should’ve played his subliminal briefing on the way to Wellach instead of scrapping it like he usually did. Too bad. Damn things gave him a headache.

He kept running.

Chloe's stride was at least as long as his, but he knew how to run. With the crowd too busy gawking at the destroyer to even get in the way, he put on an extra burst of speed.

He caught up with Chloe just in time to clap a hand over her open mouth and pull her back from the doors of the hangar over which the destroyer hung. Grappling lines stretched from an open bay on its bottom face, illuminated from within in contrast to the complete shadow of its exterior. Boxy Fed line mecha emerged from the bay and slid down the lines, their maneuvering thrusters firing to slow their descent.

Rudy couldn’t see where they were going. He didn’t hear any fighting, though.

Chloe struggled in his grip, but this time he didn’t allow her the leverage to land a blow.

Abruptly, she went limp. A muffled cry escaped his hand.

Rudy looked back to the destroyer.

A transport ship hung from its lines. From the long, neck-like foredeck, he figured it for the Balder class. The military mecha boosted off it and back to their mother ship, half-flying, half-climbing in the unfamiliar one gee. Slowly, inexorably, the transport rose toward the yawning hangar. It fit easily, outlined for just a second by the lit interior. Then it, and the light, vanished.

The destroyer hovered for what felt like a long time to Rudy. He wondered if its external cameras had somehow identified Chloe despite the deep shadows it cast.

Then it rose into a crisp turn and blasted skyward.

When the dust settled, Rudy found his arms empty. He looked down.

Chloe knelt in the doorway, eyes raised to the empty sky. He couldn’t see her face, but he could see her shoulders heave with sobs.

He started to reach out, to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder.

His hand halted in mid-air.

He scowled.

Saving a stranger’s life was one thing. Showing sympathy, showing weakness? Not his style.

Chloe sobbed something, so quietly even Rudy’s ears couldn’t pick it up.

She rose.

She turned.

Tears streaked her face, her clenched fists shook, and her lips trembled. Nonetheless, she managed to look at least as determined as miserable.

Rudy fought the urge to nod his appreciation.

Instead, he jerked a thumb after the rapidly retreating destroyer. “That was your ship the Feds took, huh?”

She nodded. “My parents’ ship.”

“They were on it?”

She nodded again.

He raised an eyebrow. “Wanna get it back?”