Resolve

The Adventures of a Xeno-Archaeologist

Book 5

Jenny Schwartz

The unmissable conclusion to the science fiction series that has it all—ancient aliens, rogue AIs, beleaguered royalty, semi-repentant pirates, and the chance to go where no humans have gone before (well, not for five hundred years)—all wrapped up in the possibility of a happy-ever-after for everyone (bad guys excluded).

Resolve is the triumphant conclusion to Nora and Liam’s story, begun in Astray in the unexplored depths of the Avestan Range and the quirky precinct of Border Station.

***Hopeful, exciting SF is possible, and you’ve stumbled into it. Enjoy!

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

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Chapter 1

“Are all evil people so clever?” Jonah asked.

Caught in mid-shrug, her navy-blue jacket dangling from her right arm, Nora stared at her AI friend. Seated in the massive wardrobe of the master suite while she did her hair and make-up, they had been quietly chatting about donkeys and about whether marine animals could be tamed to become quasi-pets if fed regularly from the estate’s private dock.

Liam had dressed far faster and vanished to his office for a last minute briefing with Jim and Ben regarding security arrangements for the media event they were about to attend. Theo had gone ahead and was already in place in Colony Park.

Jonah’s question came out of nowhere.

Except that wasn’t true.

As a Vapori AI embodied in retro-android form, he could observe any event, anywhere in the Human Sector and beyond, even as he chatted. His question had come out of a breadth of observation that Nora couldn’t imagine.

Millions of years ago, the Vapori had designed and installed Jonah and his kin to monitor the region for the evolution of a sentient organic species. The Vapori hadn’t anticipated humans gatecrashing and becoming the dominant, if invasive, species; effectively disrupting and suppressing indigenous species’ slow evolution toward sentience.

Even the planet they stood on now, Capitoline, had been moderately terraformed to meet human needs and desires.

Humans, Nora had long since realized, were innately meddlesome. But evil? “Who, Jonah? What has happened?”

“Nothing immediately dire. I am observing Queen Sarah.”

“Her.” Nora finished shrugging on her jacket. She could believe any evil of the Palantine queen, who also happened to be Nora’s biological father’s wife. News of Nora’s existence would reach the royal couple soon. The Royal Guards had sent the news via courier even before Nora and Liam reached Capitoline. Since then, her half-brother Dominic, following his own, unexpected arrival on Capitoline, had sent a less formal report.

He currently resided at Mangrove Mansion with Nora and Liam. To everyone’s surprise, he’d become a trusted friend.

Inspecting her appearance in the mirror, Nora straightened her collar. “What has Sarah done?”

“She is currently conversing with a professor of xeno-archaeology.”

Nora froze. She was a xeno-archaeologist. She hadn’t thought Sarah had any interest in the field.

“We don’t have time for a full explanation, now.” Jonah tapped the crystal clock on a shelf beside the earring holder. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I spoke out of chagrin that an evil-minded person has again enacted a scheme I failed to detect.”

Nora crossed to him and kissed the warm, gray skin of his metallic face. “Because you’re not evil-minded. Bad people identify so-called opportunities the rest of us miss because they don’t care who is hurt. Bad cess to them. You’re right about the time, though. Molly will drag me out of here if I don’t go, now.”

She gave Jonah a steady look. Palantine was four months away even by the fastest sting ship. Nothing involving Sarah could be handled swiftly. “We can’t do anything about Sarah in the next few hours, but I do want an explanation, once Francis’s announcement is over. Okay?”

“Don’t forget the shindig afterward.”

Her grimace expressed her utter lack of enthusiasm. “I wish I could.”

Workers had erected a portable stage in front of the Colony Tree in Colony Park in central Bangalore. The four hundred-year-old oak tree’s leaves dappled sunlight and shadow across Nora as she sat on the stage behind and to the left of Capitoline Crown Prince Francis as he announced the Half-Millennial Origin Expedition.

“A captain must stay with his ship,” Francis told the media, the small crowd of courtiers and curious bystanders, and the millions of people who’d view the recording both live and later.

Liam sat on Nora’s left, wearing a dark gray suit, tailored in the style of his former naval uniform. His broad chest displayed the medals he’d won in the twelve year war between Capitoline and Palantine.

Dominic sat on Nora’s right. The Crown Prince of Palantine wore his gray suit sans medals.

“We call our rulers King and Queen, but our royals—myself included.” Francis smiled, charmingly self-deprecating. “We are not the classical definition of royalty. In ancient times on Earth, royalty ruled a region. A king, or queen, defended and developed their realm, and yes, they fought to expand their territory. However, ultimately, the classical definition of royalty was its stability. They were bound, rooted, to the land they ruled.

“But here in the Human Sector, our royals are descended from the captains of the original seven colony ships. We have never quite given up a sense that we are on a journey. As our five hundred year anniversary since the Stranding approaches, I say to you, this must end. The journey must end. In our minds, in how we understand ourselves, and in how we shape the future, we must resolve our situation.”

Nora sweated in her suit. Discreetly. She hoped her face wasn’t as red as some of those watching Francis. She longed for the climate-controlled atmosphere of her spaceship. She’d have accepted the air-conditioned comfort of the palace.

However, the courtiers who’d arranged the media event, chivied along by Francis, had ruled out the Laotian Palace as well as Parliament House as settings for the announcement of the expedition. Francis would lead it, with Nora and Liam funding it, but it wasn’t an official expedition; despite having King Magnus’s approval.

Perhaps Francis anticipated Magnus changing his mind because he’d hastened to lock his father into a public commitment.

Magnus stood to Francis’s left, radiating regal, paternal support.

Francis’s blue suit was heavily influenced by naval uniform, but cut to disguise his pudgy middle. Like Dominic, he wore no medals. The war was over and their new joint venture, the expedition to the Origin black hole, required interrealm cooperation.

“Certain interests, certain power-hungry tycoons, would end our journey by using a lack of blaze, and hence, a lack of fuel cells, to end interrealm commerce, trade, and diplomacy. They seek to lock us in our separate realms. By constraining the supply of blaze required to fuel interstellar travel, they would contain us physically on our planets, limiting us to a few of our nearest space stations.

“Or we can end the journey begun by our ancestors five centuries ago, by reconnecting with where they came from. In some ways, even as we settled on planets and built stations, our hearts and minds never left the colony ships.”

Out of the corner of her eye, past the bulk of Dominic and Admiral Ian Quispe, Nora glimpsed the agitated flick of Princess Evelyn’s fan. Its cream lace matched the off-shade white silk of her suit and its embroidery repeated the rosebud pink of her blouse, hat and shoes.

Beyond Evelyn, her and Francis’s eldest son, nine-year-old Callum, swung his legs. The fan tapped his knee. He stopped.

Francis reached the end of his speech. “We are the Stranded. I want us to be the Originals. All of us. We are the descendants of those who came through the Origin black hole. We are unique, united, and proud of our achievements. When we reconnect with wider humanity, we will show them our courage, ingenuity, and perseverance.”

The courtiers in the crowd led the applause. Every one of them knew their duty, even if privately they were calculating their personal loss or gain if the expedition went ahead.

Nora, Liam and Jonah were determined it would, but they expected resistance to changing the status quo; even outright sabotage.

New opportunities were divisive. Often who bore the cost was not who’d reap the reward. Stepping into the unknown never came with guarantees. People would speculate, gossip, and jostle for position, both for and against the expedition.

Nora couldn’t guess how Francis had achieved the miracle of Evelyn sitting in support of the announcement. His wife was so strongly against the expedition—or rather, against the idea of Francis being part of it—that she’d visited Nora to insist Nora keep Francis out of any venture to the Origin black hole.

As if Nora had that power!

Evelyn should have tackled her father-in-law.

King Magnus had put Francis in charge of fixing the Vapori lens at the black hole and enabling humanity to once more enter the black hole’s millrace, and through it, the rivers of space that might reconnect Stranded humanity with its founding population.

Rather than take questions, Francis ceded the podium to Quispe.

The gruff and bullying admiral, who was also the son of the Duke of Benchama, announced the Navy’s participation in the expedition. There was precedent for such civilian and military cooperation. The Navy worked with civilian industry to develop and manufacture vessels and armaments.

A journalist queried Nora and Liam’s involvement, and another shouted an objection to Dominic’s presence.

Quispe was well-suited to shutting down questions. “Did you not listen to Prince Francis? The Half-Millennial Origin Expedition is an interrealm endeavor. Prince Dominic represents Palantine. The other realms will be invited to join us. Mr. and Mrs. Kimani will fund the expedition. The Navy will work closely with them. Good day to you.” He turned, saluted Magnus, and remained at attention as the King descended the platform, and Royal Guards closed in around him for the short walk to a waiting armored car.

Francis, Evelyn and Callum followed Magnus from the stage to their own car.

Nora and Liam, conscious of the cameras trained on them, descended the stage on the opposite side and followed Nora’s Royal Guards’ adviser, Captain Molly Jones, to their car.

Former Marine sergeant Jim Lowell, Nora’s personal assistant, waited for them. At their approach, he opened the car’s back door. “Hounds on your heels.”

“I hear them.”

The police were holding back the media.

She dived into the tinted privacy of the back seat, and peered between the front seats.

Surrounded by Palantine Royal Guards, Dominic reached his car, parked ahead of theirs.

Liam bumped her shoulder as he settled in the middle seat.

Molly claimed the last one.

Theo stuck his head in the car. He and Jim would follow in a separate vehicle. As a courtier, Lord Theodore Ishida, he’d be permitted entrance to the closed door question and answer session Francis was hosting at the palace post-announcement. “It’s going well. Remember, let Francis field the questions. You’re silent support.”

He slammed the car door.

They moved out as Molly elaborated on Theo’s advice. “The courtiers want to know what you can do with the burrs. If Francis does throw the question to you to answer, say that you’re working with the Royal Guards’ scientists to understand your abilities.”

In hiding behind the Royal Guards’ scientists, Nora would also be giving them credit they hadn’t earned. To date, they hadn’t helped her. They’d been the ones holding the hoops she’d had to jump through to get access to the burrs.

Fortunately, anyone with sense knew the Q&A session wouldn’t provide any information of substance. “Molly, I get it. I won’t say anything useful. The Q&A is about stroking the courtiers’ egos, not a real briefing.”

Her bluntness was a stretch too far for the Royal Guard Captain. Molly was part of the system, a defender of the system, that Nora disparaged. “It is about managing people’s expectations. Prince Francis will use the session to establish boundaries with the courtiers.”

“Who will test them,” Liam said.

Nothing anyone did ever stopped people probing for advantages.

Sanguine, Nora tapped his knee. “We’ll follow Theo’s advice.”

Molly huffed. No matter how assiduously she performed her role as an adviser, Nora and Liam would always trust their own people over her and the Royal Guards. Molly’s priority had to be her superiors’ orders, not Nora and Liam’s best interest. Molly understood the conflict intellectually, but she wouldn’t be human if it didn’t burn to have her experience and expertise passed over.

Nora respected Molly as a person, but liking Molly didn’t make the Royal Guard Captain’s bruised ego Nora’s problem. If Nora let sympathy for Molly’s invidious position sway her, Molly would swiftly use that sympathy to manipulate Nora into falling in with the Royal Guards’ priorities.

Liam sat, relaxed, between the two women.

His military experience showed.

Nora smiled at the thought. She didn’t class her and Molly’s tiny clash as combat. Nor would he. She envied him his practiced patience. He could sit through tedium and stupidity alike, and be ready for the moment when he had to act.

It would come.

It always did.

They exited the car in the car park beneath the palace, and Molly led the parade of Nora and Liam, their bodyguards, Theo, Jim, and assorted Royal Guards to Francis and Evelyn’s private wing.

Logically, Nora expected to arrive before the courtiers, who had to pass through Palace security.

She was wrong.

The genteel clamor of self-proclaimed elite powerbrokers spilled out from the drawing room where people had gathered ahead of the Q&A session.

Rather than enter, Molly stepped aside to check her personal comms unit.

Theo did the same.

By the evidence of dark suits and Royal Guard uniforms plastered against the wall along the corridor, bodyguards weren’t welcome in the drawing room.

Heads turned, tracking her and Liam’s entrance.

She saw courtiers everywhere. Those who’d attended Francis’s announcement at Colony Park couldn’t have beaten Nora and Liam to the palace. These highly ranked royals, Theo’s peers, had to have watched the broadcast from the palace.

These were the people who considered themselves too important to gain anything from parading their importance before the general public.

Yet they’d shown up for the private Q&A session. They were smooth and sure of their power, but they questioned whether she was a threat to it.

Exactly as they did, she analyzed the room for potential allies and threats.

Dominic stood in a far corner beside an elegantly groomed, blond man.

Hamish Yakamia, the Palantine ambassador, hadn’t attended the announcement in Colony Park.

With them stood a man and woman Nora didn’t recognize. Her gaze passed on, and registered the anomaly in the room.

Nine-year-old Callum stood by the curtains, closer to Dominic than to Francis, and stared at Nora.

Involuntarily, she smiled. It had become a habit to encourage Aria, her eleven-year-old adopted daughter, to be comfortable and know herself supported in strange surroundings. Apparently, such habits transferred to other children, even those for whom the palace was home.

Callum smiled tentatively and took a step away from the curtain.

Admiral Van Moore, Liam’s former mentor, hailed him.

Brushing her fingers against Liam’s in a discreet farewell, Nora drifted from the naval group to a seat somewhat near Dominic, and not so coincidentally, easily approachable by Callum.

For all that they’d never met, a family tie existed. Nora was Dominic’s half-sister and, before her assassination, he’d been married to Princess Hermione who was Francis’s sister and Callum’s aunt.

It was unlikely, though, that Callum called Dominic “Uncle” as happily as Aria did. Tensions ran high between the Capitoline and Palantine royal families and their realms.

“Good afternoon,” Callum said formally.

Nora matched his grave courtesy. “Good afternoon, Prince Callum.”

He rocked up on his toes. “Mrs. Kimani, Dad said—” Callum pressed close to Nora’s chair to escape the trampling passage of a red-faced, stocky courtier intent on reaching Dominic’s group. Callum lowered his voice and leaned into her. “Dad said you use the burrs differently. Can you teach Knox how? I can’t use them at all, but if you can help Knox, Mom’ll stop worrying.”

Nora winced internally. Evelyn was not her biggest fan, and now, Callum’s brown, puppy dog eyes pleaded with her to involve herself in Evelyn’s family. “If your parents agree, I’ll work with Knox.”

Callum gripped her wrist where it lay on the arm of the chair between them. “And you’ll be patient? Knox isn’t always—”

“All the patience in the realm.” That she could promise.

“If Knox can use the burrs in a new way, even if he’s not a strong sensitive, he can still be Dad’s heir.” Which Callum, as a royal totally lacking in sensitivity to burrs, couldn’t be. He was Francis’s eldest child, but already, the courtiers discounted him.

He mightn’t be sensitive to burrs, but he was sensitive in other ways. Sensitive and upset.

“Your dad will do what’s best for you and Knox, and for Capitoline,” Nora added as Callum opened his mouth. “Everyone serves in their own way. If, that is, they want to serve Capitoline.”

“I do,” he vowed.

Nora glanced at her husband.

Liam inclined his head as their gazes met before tipping it minutely to the side.

She followed the hint, and stiffened in astonishment.

Admiral Quispe stood where Liam indicated. It was Quispe’s interposition of his big body that prevented others intruding on her and Callum’s conversation.

The Admiral was also close enough to hear every word.

“Have you ever met my husband, Liam?” she asked Callum. “He used to be a Navy captain.”

“I haven’t met Captain Kimani, but I’ve seen Dad’s photos. They attended the Academy together.” The Naval Academy on Laos.

“Yes, they did. Liam is a war hero and a wonderful man. I am proud to be his wife. He has no sensitivity to burrs.”

Callum bit his lip. He understood what she meant. “But he’s not the King’s grandson.”

“He’s not royal,” she agreed. “Which means he had to work even harder for what he’s achieved.”

Quispe cleared his throat, loudly. “Very true.”

It was strange hearing that endorsement from a man who traded on his own royal identity as the son of the Duke of Benchama.

Callum startled. He squared his shoulders. “Yes, sir.” The Admiral shifted fractionally sideways, which allowed Callum to see Liam across the room, and the man beside him. The boy’s unnatural solemnity broke. “Uncle Theo’s here!”

Nora hadn’t realized they were close. She smiled. “Shall we go meet him?”

Callum rocked on his toes. Indecision replaced simple happiness. “Is he friends with Dad, again?”

Oh. She’d stepped knee-deep into an emotional mire. Francis and Theo had fallen out. Theo had worked for Francis for years, and been one of his closest confidantes, but at the cost of Theo’s marriage. Theo had taken on the role of Liam’s PA on the understanding that focusing on repairing his relationship with his wife and daughter would be Theo’s first concern, and that Liam, unlike Francis, would never send him on missions beyond Capitoline.

“We’ll all be working together on the expedition,” Nora said carefully.

Callum’s face held a tension too old for him. His fingers dug into the arm of her chair. “Do you know Faith?”

Faith was Theo’s six-year-old daughter.

“No,” Nora said.

Quispe intervened, voice rumbling but low. “She tested as a strong sensitive.”

Unlike Callum.

Was the boy jealous of Faith?

“Mom talks about Faith marrying Knox.”

Callum’s younger brother was five years old.

Nora choked.

Even Quispe huffed uncomfortably.

Rashly, Nora broke the code of parental solidarity. “Adults talk all sorts of rubbish.”

An impatient shake of Callum’s head dismissed her attempt at reassurance. “Not like signing contracts or anything. But…” He struck the arm of her chair with one small fist. “If you teach Faith about using the burrs your way, you have to teach Knox better. He’s not as strong a sensitive as Faith, but he can be better at your magic.”

Because power at the royal level came down to how well one wielded burrs. Political skills were an overlay to that.

“Magic?” Nora seized on the word, eager to redirect the conversation. “I like it. I could call burr wielding magic.”

Callum stared at his father, who was moving toward the door; courtiers trailing behind him like a comet tail.

The official question and answer session was about to start.

“Nanny calls all burr stuff magic,” Callum said absently.

Clever—and kind—nanny, Nora thought.

By calling burr wielding magic, the woman framed it as normal to not have the ability. The nanny hadn’t convinced Callum, but she’d tried. The kid was on the outside, looking in, and conscious of his exclusion. That he also worried about his younger brother, who did possess some degree of sensitivity, was to his credit.

“If your parents agree, you should join Knox when I show him a different way to use the burrs,” Nora invited.

“But I can’t use them.”

She rose. “It’s still interesting to watch.”

“It is,” Quispe said.

After a moment, Callum nodded. “I’ll ask Dad.” He walked with them across the room to Liam and Theo, and greeted the two men politely, but broke into a normal boy’s grin when Theo observed that he’d sprung up like a weed, again.

“That’s what happens when you eat your spinach rather than hiding it.”

“I was four, Uncle Theo.”

Theo grinned. “For a couple of months, till caught, Callum generously provided mulch for the nearest potted plant.”

Liam smiled, while Nora outright laughed at Theo’s teasing and Callum’s pleased response. Yet underneath the humor, Liam felt a tug of regret. He saw how comfortable Theo was with the boy, and knew that he himself had missed that; the building of a relationship that came from being part of a child’s life from infancy. He’d spent a decade away at war, and then, in exile on the border. He hadn’t dared to risk acquiring a wife and family when his own future had been one space battle away from ending.

Nora tucked her arm through his, pressing close to his side as they walked down the crowded corridor to the assembly room.

She was good with children. He remembered her laughing with the kids at the bazaar on Border Station. She’d enjoyed their interest and enthusiasm, while preventing their exuberance descending into chaos.

Nora and he had Aria, now, their adopted daughter, but they’d agreed they couldn’t—wouldn’t—add to their family until the expedition was over. Again, their personal lives were sacrificed to the greater good.

“Oops.” Callum started wriggling back through the crowd. Francis had belatedly noted his son’s presence. As had a Royal Guard lieutenant near him. At a word from Francis, the lieutenant strode forward. “I’m meant to be at lessons.” Callum peeked at Nora. “I’ll talk to Dad about watching your lessons with Knox. Bye.” He trotted off.

The lieutenant halted, and returned to guard Francis as the Prince entered the assembly room.

Quispe filled the gap Callum left. “Whatever we do or don’t do regarding the expedition, it’ll be Callum’s generation that bears the weight of it.”

“Do you have children?” Nora asked.

He snorted as he walked away. “Grandkids. Two babies.”

Theo lowered his voice. “Rumor is, he’s a doting grandfather.” Theo’s face lost its humor. “Like too many of us, he missed out on his children’s childhood. The grandkids are his second chance.”

Reminded that everyone had regrets, Liam covered Nora’s hand as it rested on his forearm. He was already undeservedly lucky.

It was the children of Capitoline and of the entire Human Sector who deserved more. Even the self-interest of the courtiers surrounding him included concern for the future they’d leave their families.

Pride in their legacy, if nothing else, motivated them to choose the greater good.

Politics wasn’t Liam’s usual field of battle. To some extent, he could do as he always had, and follow Francis’s lead. However, since marrying Nora, Liam also had his own distinct responsibilities and goals.

Theo could advise him, and Dominic was willing to provide a prince’s insight, but Liam had to make sense of the political environment for himself.

Dominic didn’t as much as peek sideways when Nora and Liam joined him in the front row. The lack of acknowledgement undoubtedly signaled all sorts of things to the attentive couriers. It left Liam wary, reminding him that even if this wasn’t enemy territory, there were hostiles.

The Royal Guards had insisted on his and Nora’s position at the front of the audience. It was the most efficient arrangement for protecting Francis, Dominic and Nora.

Van took the seat on Liam’s left, and Quispe lowered his bulk onto a chair on the other side of the aisle. By sitting front and center, the Navy emphasized their role in the expedition.

Everyone in the room was very aware of power: who held it, who used it, and from where it was derived. Each player unflaggingly defended their own powerbase. As the leader of the expedition, Francis had to build and maintain support for it.

His own family were among the opposition.

King Magnus had authorized the expedition, but Francis had rushed the announcement of the Half-Millennial Origin Expedition for fear he’d change his mind. Some courtiers had argued the King should.

Jonah had given Liam and Nora their names.

Jonah was the reason the expedition would go ahead. As a Vapori AI, he could observe anything and everything across the Human Sector. His challenge was choosing what to concentrate on. His surveillance capability gave Liam and Nora an intelligence capacity any espionage agent would envy. They could be blindsided—her kidnapping had proven that—but they could also preempt or circumvent the majority of hazards.

Since Jonah’s existence was a critical secret—incongruously hidden in Liam and Nora’s master suite—people would be unable to explain Liam and Nora’s political savvy and the effectiveness of their political, financial and security maneuverings. Even operating cautiously, he and Nora would know things people wouldn’t expect them to, and in capitalizing on that knowledge, they’d become even greater targets by virtue of their success.

Nora’s strong sensitivity to burrs and her recently demonstrated, and so far unique ability, to use them to increase the growth rate of organic organisms rather than, as for all other burr wielders, merely obliterate physical reality, meant she was in danger of becoming the lightning rod for people’s discontent with the system changing.

But change it had to.

Francis was desperate to reconnect to wider humanity because his family’s power was waning.

Royals had been in charge for the last five hundred years courtesy of their unique ability to wield burrs that could obliterate their opponents. However, over the last few generations, the strength of their sensitivity to burrs had declined.

It was a secret kept from the broader population, but everyone in the assembly room knew it.

Two thirds of courtiers were royal or royal-related via marriage. Anything involving burrs, and the power the threat of them bestowed, concerned the courtiers.

For Francis, the question of burr-backed power was personal. Callum had no sensitivity to burrs, and Knox, low-sensitivity. Their sons’ lack of burr talent had strained Francis and Evelyn’s marriage.

The status quo couldn’t hold, regardless of how intensely people feared change.

The room silenced as Francis began speaking. “The purpose of the expedition is to reconnect the Human Sector to wider humanity, and to the opportunities out there if we can travel the universal rivers as our ancestors did.”

The universal rivers, or the rivers of space, that humanity accessed via the millraces of black holes enabled travel from black hole to black hole at a speed that far exceeded even the faster than light travel fueled by refined blaze ore. Human Sector society could travel between star systems. Universal rivers traversed far greater distances; hypothetically, a well-plotted two month journey could cross multiple galaxies.

“The expedition will open our society to the idea of a wider universe. Our tiny pocket of space has sustained us, and will continue to sustain us.” Liam, Theo and the Royal Guards had all warned Francis against triggering a doomsday fear of the future. “But we can and should dream of so much more.”

But Francis stood alone.

Evelyn opposed his involvement in the expedition.

As did his sister, Kirsty, although her absence could be overlooked because she’d recently given birth. No one expected her to participate in public life for a couple of months.

Harold, his brother, had been exiled to Border Station because he’d been aware, to an unconfirmed degree, of his mother’s involvement in the plot to kidnap Nora, and had done nothing about it.

Queen Caroline was exiled to the Southern Palace for a “year of reflection” on the polite excuse that she was mourning her daughter Hermione.

The royals and courtiers wanted a stable society, but those who’d been somewhat sheltered from the recent twelve year war with Palantine couldn’t accept that stability was only ever achieved by change.

People changed constantly, unwittingly, in response to the continual changes, big and small, in their environment. Society did the same.

When change benefited you, it often went unremarked. People took good fortune as their due.

But when change cost a person, they noticed and complained. They fought and feared it.

As Evelyn and Kirsty did.

Sitting in the front row, Liam couldn’t scan the body language of the attendees for how many of the courtiers shared Evelyn and Kirsty’s perspective.

Francis had a challenging leadership role ahead of him. This was the first step. The courtiers present were the civilian equivalent of Admirals Moore and Quispe. The courtiers wouldn’t go on the expedition, but their resources, including their people, would—if Francis could convince them it was in their self-interest.

No one ever subsumed themselves utterly to another person’s purpose. Even those who seemed totally committed and consumed by service to another, going as far as believing that their self-surrender was complete, remained the hero of their own individual story. It was just that their chosen story was one of sacrifice.

Francis had to gain and maintain each expedition member’s individual commitment, and build their trust in him as leader and in one another. Otherwise competing loyalties, pulling expedition members in different directions, would destroy the expedition.

“Will the expedition have its own uniform?”

Heroically suppressing her laughter, Nora pinched his fingers to share her amusement.

Liam wondered if he’d grossly overestimated the information gathering aspect of the session. He’d been able to pursue his own thoughts because the questions to date had been banal to verging on the ridiculous, like this one.

The questions courtiers were burning to have answered, they wished to ask in private. Information was a commodity: why share it?

Francis answered each question seriously. “Details as to expedition cohesion still have to be addressed.”

“Style is very important.”

Francis almost cracked a grin. “So noted.”

But then came an attack posed as a question. “You claimed the Kimanis will fund the expedition, yet the Navy forms part of it. Will the Kimanis cover the Navy’s expenses?”

No.

Francis’s hands remained relaxed on the podium. “No.”

“They look mighty cozy.” The courtier who’d posed the question sneered at Van and Quispe’s proximity to Liam and Nora.

Van rose and faced the audience. “The Capitoline Royal Navy protects the burrs, the lens and the Crown Prince, all of which are part of the expedition or its objectives. Our involvement is sine qua non.” Non-negotiable. The expedition couldn’t proceed without the Navy.

Quispe cleared his throat thunderously. He didn’t speak. Everyone registered it was a threat.

The questions moved on.

Chapter 2

The questions being posed to Francis were so lame, Nora puzzled why the courtiers filling the assembly room had bothered rearranging their schedules to be present.

Was signaling that one was part of the inner circle that important?

She’d shifted her chair nearer to Liam’s, and could feel his resentment at civilians questioning Francis. That was the military mindset. Civilians! Oh, the horror.

The questioner who’d so annoyed Quispe had been right, to some extent. Liam and the Navy naturally understood each other. He was a product of their education and service. But Liam was very certain of his objectives. If they diverged from the Navy’s, he would walk away from his allies.

Because allies weren’t friends. An alliance had defined limits; so far and no further. It wasn’t based on loyalty, but on a calculation of its cost being worth the gain. People entered an alliance expecting it to end.

“Crown Prince Francis, will the expedition allow independent observers?”

“The security of all involved is paramount. The composition of the fleet is still to be decided.”

Quispe’s scowl gave the Navy’s opinion on civilian tagalongs. No.

Nora was used to rowdier Q&A sessions. Xeno-archaeologists could be astonishingly loud. And her childhood had been one of racket and uproar. From before dawn to well into the night, the central markets of the towers of Angkor rang with loud debate, and even louder complaints.

There was a pattern and purpose to this session that evaded her.

She was an outsider in the assembly room. Its high, decorated ceiling, paneled walls and expensive, sound-absorbing carpet were smugly overdone. She kicked at the low pile of the carpet. There was no sign of wear in it. How often did they replace it, or was the room seldom used? How much of the palace lay unused?

Her experience was in survival. She’d been technical support for xeno-archaeological digs on icy sulfuric planets inimical to organic life. If something went wrong mechanically, she’d been responsible for repairing it. More importantly, she’d been responsible for ensuring that the technology they relied on didn’t break in the first place.

She was comfortable in a support role.

The Half-Millennial Origin Expedition kicked her out of that comfort zone.

The fact that she and Liam were to fund it gave them a position on the management team. Liam would fill that role.

Her unique talent to use burrs to create, and not just obliterate, physical reality meant she’d occupy an expert position in tackling the lens blocking the black hole. The methodology to be employed was a question the Royal Guard, military and civilian scientists would weigh in on. They couldn’t know that what she actually did at the lens would be according to Jonah’s advice, not theirs. The lens was Vapori technology. Jonah was a Vapori AI. Of course she’d listen to his insight over theirs, especially since she trusted him and couldn’t be sure of the others’ agendas.

With Jonah helping her, she was humanity’s best chance at resetting the lens. That didn’t mean she should lead the team. What she hoped for was someone she could work with.

Given that the ability to wield burrs was the basis of ultimate power in the Human Sector, whoever led the lens team would gain significant political power both during and after the expedition, even if the lens reset failed.

The courtiers lived and breathed power. It would be on all their minds. Who would fill the lens team leadership role?

Francis had given them one concession, one substantive piece of information out of the Q&A session. He wouldn’t lead the lens team.

“Does Mrs. Kimani’s talent with the burrs require special accommodations?”

Special accommodations? What the heck did the pompous voice mean to imply by “special accommodations”?

Francis nodded permission for someone behind Nora to answer the question.

“Rigorous testing—”

Nora slumped at the sound of Dr. Chulainn, the Royal Guards’ chief researcher and head of the burrs lab in the vaults below the palace.

“Rigorous testing and experimentation will extend our understanding of Vapori technology. I assure you that the Royal Guards Research Department adheres to the highest standards of scientific inquiry and safety, and will continue to do so as we support the Half-Millennial Origin Expedition.”

Perhaps Dr. Chulainn had obtained his eminent position on his ability to speak a lot and say nothing.

“Those desiring to obtain certification as registered burr wielders must demonstrate the highest of moral standards as well as competency in burr control. Our assessment of burr wielders and their needs is unparalleled. We can manage all abilities.”

Manage me, you mean.

Dr. Chulainn was an irritating pseud.

Nora fought not to show her irritation. She did not require ‘managing’.

Francis wrapped up the session precisely an hour after it began.

Nora unscrunched her toes, which she’d curled up as she fought not to reveal the tension of being on display and under snide criticism.

Noncommittal and reserved, Dominic sat beside her, long-accustomed to worse attacks.

Everyone else moved. Even Liam twisted in his seat to study the audience behind them. He swore.

Courtiers, their assistants, and Navy officers outpaced the Royal Guards to converge on the trio of Nora, Liam and Dominic.

But Jim was faster. In a blink, Nora’s personal assistant moved from his position by the wall to standing square in front of her, his broad back to the room.

Amused by the courtiers’ frustrated expressions, Nora winked at him.

He frowned. A former Marine made a formidable barrier.

A courtier tried to slide in from the side, and Dominic stretched out a leg.

Said courtier tripped and was steadied—that is, pushed back—by Jim.

Liam coughed a laugh.

Matching humor lurked in Theo’s eyes, but his expression was solemn as he ushered them out. The Royal Guards, led by Molly, fell in to block people from following.

Francis joined them briefly in the corridor, all of them moving at speed. “Nora, I’ve sent you the Originals’ reports. Dr. Chulainn initially sent me a redacted copy. Useless. What you have now should be complete.” He split from the group, ducking into his private rooms before anyone could intercept him.

“I’d be interested in a copy,” Dominic said.

Nora nodded. As a Crown Prince, he was authorized for access.

“If Dr. Chulainn continues to be obstructive, he’ll be sidelined,” Liam observed.

Molly twitched.

Dr. Chulainn was the Royal Guard Chief Researcher and head of the research center housed in the vaults beneath the palace.

Liam’s statement could be simple commentary, or a warning that he, personally, wouldn’t tolerate obstructionism.

Either way, Molly would report it.

Everything we do is observed and analyzed. The intensity would decrease over time. Her and Liam’s recent arrival on Capitoline meant everyone was still learning about them.

Kennedy Stas, their public relations manager, insisted it was an opportunity for them to shape their own narrative.

Powerful, but not arrogant. Committed to Capitoline. Good people.

Kennedy would have analyzed the broadcast of the expedition announcement and its reception, particularly regarding public sentiment concerning Nora herself. She’d be dying to hear about the courtiers’ Q&A session.

She was probably blowing up Theo’s comms unit with questions.

“Rather him than me,” Nora murmured.

“Pardon?” Molly once more joined them in the car.

This time, Nora occupied the middle seat. “Nothing.” She kept her comms unit tucked away, and let her thoughts drift to tomorrow’s scheduled session with a burr. She needed to concentrate on what she did with the burr and how she did it—how it felt—if she was to teach her creative, rather than obliterative, method.

As they drove through the perimeter gate to the estate, Molly stowed her comms unit in an inner pocket of her jacket.

Liam looked up from his. “Van messaged me about our fuel cells negotiations tomorrow. I need to talk to Theo about the timing of regular runs. If the Navy is protecting those, other ships could benefit from joining our convoy.” The car halted at the front of the house

The second car containing Jim, Theo and bodyguards stopped behind them. Theo exited and jogged up to join them. “Bianca is here with Faith.” Theo pushed a hand through his hair, frowning at the house as if it held monsters and dreams. He was a mix of harassed and hopeful. “I told Bianca that family is important to you, and that I’d want to introduce Faith to you all. She’ll want to meet the donkeys when they arrive.”

“Donkeys are important,” Nora said, then felt bad when Theo nodded seriously, missing the joke. “What do you need from us?”

“Did the Royal Guards refuse Bianca entry?” Liam asked ominously.

“No.” Molly’s immediate reply meant she’d known of Theo’s ex-wife and daughter’s visit, and hadn’t said anything. Arguably, it wasn’t her business to interfere.

Theo could have messaged Liam.

Or if he wasn’t thinking clearly and it was important, Jim had been in the car with him. Jim could have alerted Nora or Liam.

Um. Nora peeked guiltily at her purse, aware of the muted comms unit inside it.

Fortunately, Theo recovered his mental and emotional balance. He planted his feet in a manner that rooted the whole group in place, despite Molly’s frown and her edging-to-the-door body language of shoulder tilt and shuffle. “No. Bianca messaged me. Cherry and Aria are entertaining her and Faith in the courtyard. That’s fine. It’s good. Nora, I haven’t told Bianca that I’d like you to train Faith to use burrs the way you do.”

Molly temporarily suspended her attempt to herd Nora inside, and scrutinized Theo.

Jim bumped her shoulder on his way past, breaking her focus. “I’d like to meet your kid, but later,” he said to Theo. “I’ll handle Kennedy’s debrief.” His eyebrows quirked because Kennedy hadn’t requested a post-announcement debrief. She’d commanded it. They should all quake in fear if she was denied.

“Explain the situation to her,” Liam said.

Nora concentrated on Theo. “I won’t test or train Faith without Bianca’s agreement.”

He nodded jerkily. “Bianca will want this for Faith. Bianca’s an ecologist specializing in terraforming planets. Even Capitoline is still being finetuned, and they’re learning for future planets.” His voice held his pride in his ex-wife and her work. “I’ll talk to Bianca privately about Faith’s training.”

Molly interrupted. “If you’re looking for authorization to share the information regarding Nora’s use of burrs, Faith’s mother is on the approved list.”

Nora swiveled to face her. “You have a list of potential trainees?”

“Yes.”

“And when were you going to share it with me?”

The two women eyed each other across the divide of their loyalties.

“We’ve been accommodating,” Nora said. Why this, of all things, should be the final straw she couldn’t say. Perhaps it was because this time the Royal Guards’ highhanded ways involved a child. “Even after some of you kidnapped me, we continued to allow the Royal Guards free run of the estate.”

Currently, the Royal Guards walked in and out of any room in Mangrove Mansion at will. She and Liam had permitted them to install themselves in an office in the main house and to establish residential space in the barracks that housed the estate’s staff.

“While you sniff into my life and my family’s life, you withhold basic information from me.” This was about balance and boundaries. “Not forgetting that Lavigne wants to use me to investigate the stars-damned tycoons.” Some of whom were rumored to be trading illegally in unregistered burrs and in people, namely the Forgotten.

Sometimes a decision came without conscious thought, but was absolutely right.

Nora stood tall in her high heels. Taller than Molly. “The Capitoline Royal Guards are to leave the house. They can guard the estate’s perimeter. Zac or Ben will inform you when I’m leaving the estate. I will travel in my own armored car. In future, if you, as my assigned Royal Guards’ adviser, require a meeting, make an appointment with Jim.”

Liam touched Nora’s elbow. Being a smart man, he didn’t question or undermine her new security stance in public, but he eased her out of the confrontation.

Nora had one last order: a concession which underlined her mistrust of the Capitoline Royal Guards. “Dominic’s Palantine Royal Guards can stay in the house.”

The stunned look in Molly’s eyes showed she hadn’t anticipated the tension between them escalating to this point.

Nora nodded. Nor had she.

But they should have.

She should have instituted the new rules, the ones that protected the privacy of her home, as soon as Liam and Jonah rescued her from her kidnappers. But the Royal Guards, including Molly, had been devastated by the betrayal of some of their own, the rogues who’d supported Queen Caroline’s insanity that Nora should breed super-sensitive burr wielders for Prince Harold. Nora had let things ride.

She’d also still been in ally-collecting mode, treading softly till she and Liam had a secure position on Capitoline.

But living under continual surveillance wore on a person. Worse, it conditioned their behavior so that they pre-emptively censored their actions. In other words, the Royal Guards’ omnipresence was a form of control.

No more.

Molly marched off in the direction of the barracks, presumably to report Nora’s decision and receive orders from the Royal Guards’ hierarchy as to how to counter Nora’s intransigence.

A visit from Royal Guard Commander Guy Lavigne, whose identity as King Magnus’s illegitimate half-brother was not public knowledge, likely loomed in Nora’s future. He was a skilled manipulator.

Liam ran a hand supportively up and down her spine. “It was the right call.”

She glanced at him.

His hand splayed low on her back. “On a spaceship, people partly define themselves by the space they control. Engineering. Intelligence. Marine-land. There is a them and us, even when we’re in things together. The Royal Guards do not control our home or us.”

“Keep telling them that, mate,” Jim said.

The cars drove off, but a pair of Royal Guards remained, looking some mix of stunned, offended, and uncertain.

Gage, Nora’s personal bodyguard, cracked his knuckles. “Always happy to define boundaries.” He hadn’t forgiven the Royal Guards for their rogue agents almost killing him, and more damaging to his professional pride, kidnapping Nora while she was under his protection.

Gage’s response snapped the Royal Guards out of their uncertainty. They glowered at him.

“Bianca,” Theo reminded Nora and Liam. “Unless I should ask her—”

“Nope,” Nora cut him off. “The Royal Guards will get back to me.” She addressed the two who moved to follow her. “I’m not being nasty, but I don’t need an escort to enter my home.”

The sergeant nodded. “We’re going to our office to receive instruction.”

“Uh huh.” Gage wasn’t quite back in perfect bodyguard mode.

Trent, Liam’s bodyguard, never had that problem. He always managed to blend into the walls. Like now, when he materialized seemingly from thin air to enter the foyer first.

Nora and Liam followed him in, and on into the courtyard. This was her home, and she should feel comfortable in it.

Gage broke away, headed for Ben’s office. He’d bring Ben and Zac up to date on the new rules on playing nice with the Royal Guards.

In the courtyard, Aria and Faith were sailing paper boats in the fountain. Bailey, the old brindled mutt, lay in the shade of a lemon tree, snoozing. The sight of children playing dissolved the tense atmosphere.

A stack of paper, anchored by a pair of scissors, occupied the bench beside a short, curvy woman with corkscrew black curls and bright, brown eyes. Kennedy sat on the other end of the bench, while Cherry perched on the rim of the fountain, dangling her feet in it, and as soaked as the girls.

“Daddy!” Faith squealed and scrambled out of the fountain.

Cherry caught her arm, steadying her, before Faith raced to Theo.

He swung her up and around in a wide circle.

Liam abruptly tucked Nora close to him.

She noted the momentary wistfulness in his expression.

But then Aria grinned across at them. “Phoebe’s raiding your office, Nora, for a stapler. We’re making sails and fans, then we’ll race the paper boats. Although I think Faith has gone off the idea.” She detoured to pat Bailey on the head. The mutt thumped its tail once more, having already woken up enough to acknowledge Nora and Liam’s arrival with two tail thumps.

“No, I haven’t! I’ll win. Daddy will help me.” When he set her down, she grabbed Theo’s hand and hauled him to the fountain.

“Then Liam, you have to help me,” Aria said.

“We’ll win,” he promised her.

Cherry kicked up a spray of water. “Not against Kennedy and me. She’s a PR manager. No one has more hot air then Kennedy. She’ll fill the sails.”

“I will drown you,” Kennedy threatened cheerfully. She must have rated Bianca’s visit as important because she refrained from pushing for a debrief regarding the expedition announcement.

Cherry cackled.

Despite his good-humored response, Liam kept an eye on Nora’s office door.

Phoebe was his youngest sister, and a senior in high school. She should be at school, although the school would permit her some leeway given their mother’s recent death. More surprising was that Elise, Phoebe’s older sister, had allowed Phoebe to visit. Family relationships were strained at the moment.

Elise resented Liam for being away while their mom fought bone cancer. He resented Elise for not—at their mom’s request—telling him of her illness. Then their brother, Jason, had been manipulated into promising a tycoon access to Nora and to gift her a mourning token that would have allowed the tycoon to track her. Jason hadn’t known about the bug.

“Faith, say hello to Uncle Liam and Aunty Nora,” Theo said.

The courtesy titles startled Nora. She let Aria call adults by their first names. It was Aria who’d chosen to add an “uncle” to Dominic’s name.

“Hello, Faith,” Liam said.

Phoebe exited the office and walked slowly toward them carrying a stapler and a roll of cardboard.

“Hello, Uncle Liam.” Faith’s gap-toothed smile was irresistible. “Hello, Aunty Nora. I like your fountain.”

“Hello, Faith. I like it, too.”

Faith swung from her father’s arm. “Aunty Nora, you can help Mom judge the races.” It was a kind thought. The girl didn’t want Nora feeling left out.

“Why don’t you introduce me?”

“Okay!”

Theo walked warily a pace behind them, pulled by Faith.

“Mom, this is Aunty Nora. Aunty Nora, this is…”

“Bianca.” The woman focused on Faith and Nora, and refused to acknowledge Theo’s presence.

Shaking hands with someone seated while you stood was awkward. Rather than attempt it, Nora smiled. “Nice to meet you. Aria’s been wanting to make friends.”

Faith’s eyes widened. “Aria’s cool!” The idea that the “big girl” didn’t have friends was inconceivable. The shock of it caused her to cease staring between her parents and twisting her feet on the courtyard stone. She dashed off to join Aria’s raid on Phoebe’s new paper boat making supplies.

“Hello, Bianca,” Liam said.

“Liam. I’m glad you’re home safely. Congratulations on your marriage.” She smiled at Nora. “I hope you’ll be very happy.” She stood. “I apologize for arriving uninvited, and on what turns out to be a busy day for you.”

The expedition announcement hadn’t been hinted at until it happened.

Kennedy had tactfully wandered off to join the paper boat construction industry. She stood with a hand on Jim’s shoulder as he crouched near Aria and deftly folded a new style of paper boat.

Faith crowded in between Aria and Cherry to observe.

Phoebe stayed one step back, and monitored Nora’s group.

“Theo.” Bianca finally greeted her ex-husband. Her tone had Nora’s attention zooming back to her. The expression in Bianca’s dark eyes matched the aching note in her voice. She had initiated their divorce, but plainly still loved Theo. That was why she’d avoided looking at him. Her heart was in her eyes; love, yearning and regret.

No wonder Theo hoped for a reconciliation. He moved closer to her. “Bianca. I’m glad you brought Faith.”

She wrenched her gaze from him. “Nora, I hoped to speak to you.”

The direct request took Nora off-guard. “Of course.” She put aside her desire to change out of her suffocating suit. “We can see the fountain from my office…” Talking there would allow Bianca to keep an eye on Faith.

“Your office is fine. Faith will be happy to have time with Theo.”

“I’ll be here.” Theo’s simple response sounded like a vow. So many times in the past, he hadn’t been present for Bianca and Faith. He’d been away on missions for Francis.

In Nora’s office, Bianca declined refreshments.

Nora poured herself a glass of water. When she returned to her desk, she looked out the window, and glimpsed Liam and Phoebe in conversation.

“I told Theo I wanted to visit you to be sure Faith would be happy and safe among you, but that was an excuse. A thin one. Theo is a good father. If Faith wouldn’t be happy with you, he wouldn’t bring her here.” She peeked at Nora. “I want to say ‘don’t be mad’, but that would be hypocritical because I’d be mad if someone said to me what I’m about to say to you.”

“Which is?”

Bianca touched her throat awkwardly. “I’m here because I feel sorry for you.” Red splotched her throat. She truly was uncomfortable.

Nora tugged one of the many invitation cards she’d received out of her inbox and set her water glass on it so as not to stain the polished elm desk. She’d study the blue and white invitation later. If it had made it into her inbox, then Kennedy had approved it as fitting into her Machiavellian plans for social conquest.

You can be a quiet power, Kennedy had said. But you have to be a power.

“Sorry for me,” Nora repeated. “Why?”

Bianca scratched her throat, grumbled at herself, and trapped the offending hand in her lap with her other hand. “Theo discounts the Princesses Evelyn and Kirsty, and Queen Caroline.”

Nora’s kidnapping had been kept secret, and Queen Caroline’s involvement in it, even more confidential. Bianca couldn’t know that mentioning that woman ensured Nora’s complete attention. Enemies, she’d learned early in her childhood, had to be tracked.

“He thinks they’re nice women.” By Bianca’s tone, she disagreed.

Nonetheless, it was an enlightening phrase. “Nice women” was a patronizing dismissal.

Bianca’s throat was now entirely red. Something in this discussion was emotionally triggering for her. “They’re not nice. What they are is clever at obliquely pursuing their objectives. They cultivate sympathetic staff, courtiers, and key media. They’ll ‘accidentally’,” her fingers twitched, “tell an ally a snippet of information that will trigger a chain of events likely to produce the result they’re after. Collateral damage, whether their objective is achieved or not, doesn’t bother them. You need to be careful.”

Bianca took a shuddering breath. “For years, they ignored me. My grandmother was a Forgotten, found on Fanrong Station. She had two illegitimate children to two different royals on-station before dying in a traffic accident. My mother was a sufficiently strong sensitive that they married her to the grandson of the Duke of Benchama’s sister. I rated strongly. My brother isn’t sensitive at all. Theo and I married for love, but we were permitted to do so because I matched his strength, although not his skill, in wielding burrs.”

Nora turned her water glass a fraction, feeling the cool slickness of condensation under her fingers. “I’m aware that my mother’s Forgotten bloodline lowers my social status. It doesn’t matter.”

“It does,” Bianca stated firmly. “In the social world that Queen Caroline commands, social status is how women protect their families. I ignored all of it. I married Theo for himself, not to be the scheming wife of a courtier. I’m a scientist. While the Queen and Princesses ignored me, I could go my own way. Evelyn was always graciously polite to me…until Faith tested as a strong sensitive.”

And Evelyn’s sons didn’t.

“Envy?”

Bianca’s attempted smile twisted and died. “Worse. Acquisitiveness. They want to raise Faith as a princess.”

“For Knox.” Nora recalled Callum’s plea to her to teach Knox to be a stronger burr wielder than Faith. Precisely what sort of conversations had the boy overheard at the palace?

“And for Capitoline.” The blotchy red color of Bianca’s throat ebbed slowly in the silence between them. “A girl raised to be the heir’s strong yet biddable support, and capable of bearing him sensitive children, would strengthen Knox’s position.”

“Oh.”

Bianca stared out the window. “Theo grew up with Francis. For him, it’s normal for girls to be raised as princesses. Evelyn is clever enough, especially with Kirsty and Queen Caroline’s backing, to convince Theo to permit Faith the ‘opportunities’ of a Palace upbringing.”

Nora shook her head emphatically. “He wouldn’t take Faith from you.”

“No. Queen Caroline—or Evelyn, in her place—would make rooms available to us in the Laotian Palace. They would like Theo and me to have other strongly sensitive children.”

“Star ducks,” Nora swore as understanding hit her.

Theo’s marital problems were intensified by outside pressure. Bianca wasn’t solely resisting him and his previously problematical work-life balance. She feared for the child they had, and any future children.

“You need to understand the situation you’re walking into, Nora. I didn’t. Or perhaps Callum’s lack of sensitivity to burrs disrupted everyone’s plans. Evelyn…Evelyn expected to live Queen Caroline’s life as a doted on queen and the mother of the next king. Knox was her chance to resurrect that dream. When he tested as too weak to outright claim the throne, she started looking to…”

“Take over Faith?”

“Yes!” From being red, Bianca went white with the relief of having her fears identified and understood. “Yes. It shouldn’t be hard for you, once you’re aware, to be careful of social circle plots. You have good people around you. But don’t underestimate an enemy because they’re elegant.”

Nora rolled the empty water glass between her palms. “My towers’ prejudice urges me to distrust them the most.”

“You have a head start then. I was raised to respect the royals and aspire to push my children up their ranks.”

“Which you don’t want to do.”

Bianca scratched her throat. “I want Faith to be free to choose her future.”

The desire for freedom, freedom for everyone, underpinned Nora’s commitment to the expedition. Their rigidly stratified society needed an escape hatch. Restoring access to the universal rivers and wider humanity would provide it. She contemplated Bianca. “Do you have to be alone?”

“Pardon?”

“You said I had good people around me. Support. If you moved to Salmar,” the low income coastal suburb on the fringe of which Nora and Liam had bought their neglected estate, “Theo would be close by, and you could rely on our support, too. I’m sure you’ve heard by now that we’ll have donkeys.”

“Aria did mention it.” A smile curved Bianca’s mouth and produced a dimple.

“Faith would have a secure place to play. Childcare wouldn’t be a problem. Where do you work?”

“Himalayan University. I’m a senior lecturer in ecology specializing in terraforming.”

“I’ll need to pick your brains on plant growth.

Bianca laughed uncertainly. “Any time. I braced myself to warn you, and you end up helping me. I’ll think about your Salmar suggestion.”

“Discuss it with Theo,” Nora dared to say before changing the subject. “Why bother warning me?”

“Because you married Liam. He is a good man, one who has proven he’ll sacrifice himself for others. You wouldn’t have married him if you weren’t also stupidly good, and he wouldn’t have married you. Francis used to call Liam a knight. I grew to hate his stupid chess analogies, but for Liam, it fitted. The man doesn’t bend and refuses to break. He does what he believes is right and endures. Someone less uncompromisingly honorable than him had to warn you. Don’t trust the Palace.”

Chapter 3

The paper boat race stirred up a splashing of trouble and noise, soaking everyone and exhausting Faith enough that she was prepared to sit beside Theo and consume slices of melon Aria raided the kitchen for.

Martin, the head chef, ensured there were healthy snacks available twenty four seven, and throughout the day, he or one of his staff stood ready to whip up a meal.

Liam sat down beside his sister. The sun would dry his shirt and pants. He’d discarded his jacket a prudent distance from the fountain.

So far, all Phoebe had said to him in explanation of her presence at the estate was that she’d had to get out of the apartment.

The apartment near the Opera House had been their family home. Following their mother’s death—their father having died in the war, serving as a chief engineer—Elise wanted to sell it. He accepted her decision. It was where she’d nursed their mother through bone cancer, recovery, and its recurrence. It was where their mother had died.

Elise would rent a small flat for herself and Phoebe. Jason could stay with them during his university breaks. In a few months, Phoebe would finish school and be on her way to university, as well.

“Jason and Hadley broke up,” Phoebe said. “He’s back at uni, but he keeps calling Elise and she keeps worrying about him. As if it’s not all his stupid fault.”

“Not all,” Liam said mildly, despite his own anger at their brother.

Jason had allowed a tycoon to manipulate him, via the lure of improved social status, into promising to arrange a meeting between the tycoon and Nora. Unwittingly, he’d then passed on from the tycoon to Nora a tracking device which would have broadcast Nora’s whereabouts to the stranger.

“I never liked Hadley,” Phoebe muttered.

As Jason’s girlfriend, Hadley had assisted the tycoon’s approach to Jason, and pushed Jason to accept the man’s proposal to trade family connections for social advancement.

It was Jason’s bad luck that his confession regarding that devil’s bargain happened on the heels of Nora’s kidnapping. Liam had been in a vengeful, hyper-protective mood. Jason’s immature whining and lazy ambition reminded Liam distastefully of their grandmother and uncle.

Family weren’t always a blessing.

Phoebe was.

Liam tugged one of her bright blonde curls. “What’s wrong, Busy Bee?”

Turning to him, she laughed. “You haven’t called me that in years.”

He hadn’t been on Capitoline to do so in years, and the messages he’d sent from war zones and from exile in border space hadn’t come from a heart light enough to tease. “I love you.”

Phoebe’s face scrunched up, and she threw herself at him. “I miss Mom.”

As his arms went around her, he saw Theo quickly pre-empt Faith’s concern and questions.

Aria sat frozen for a moment. Kennedy directed her attention toward Faith, and Aria jumped up to help Theo coax the girl away.

In seconds, the courtyard was empty, leaving the Kimani siblings to their grief.

Family wasn’t always blood. It included the people who loved you.

After a few minutes, Phoebe recovered enough to mumble incoherently, pat his shoulder twice, and rush off in the direction of her room in the mansion.

Liam retreated from the hot sunshine to the shade of the colonnaded walkway that enclosed the courtyard. His retreat brought him closer to Nora’s office and to Trent, who lurked near it.

Liam appreciated the man’s aversion to small talk. They stood in silence, but not alone.

An increase in noise from the office signaled the end of Nora’s impromptu meeting with Bianca.

Nora exited straight toward him. “Is Phoebe okay?”

“She’s missing Mom and upset with Jason.” He looked at Bianca. “Theo headed for the living area with Faith. It’s this way.” He put a hand on Nora’s hip as they headed for the private rooms rather than the public space of the house.

Mangrove Mansion was large enough to be called a clan house. The clan ideal was the model they were following in their renovations and allocation of space. The office space, the sitting room and guest suites were at the front of the house. The private family space occupied the ocean-facing half.

Theo was welcome in the private rooms.

He’d been looking out for them, or for Bianca. He emerged with his daughter into the courtyard before they reached the walkway outside it.

Turning back, Faith shouted good-bye to Aria.

Aria waved from the doorway.

Theo extracted his family with the minimum of courtesies, his gaze intent on Bianca’s face. “We need to talk.”

“They so do,” Nora murmured. “Bianca wanted to warn me against trusting Evelyn and Kirsty.” She checked the doorway. Aria had vanished back inside the living room. “We already learned our lesson about Queen Caroline, although Bianca warned against her, too.”

“In what sense?”

“She’s afraid we won’t notice their manipulations. I think that’s a factor in keeping her away from Theo. According to Bianca, Evelyn wants to raise Faith as a princess promised to Knox and bolstering his power because of the strength of her sensitivity to burrs. Moreover, the Palace would like Bianca and Theo to have more strong sensitivity children.”

Liam scrubbed a hand over his face. “Theo hasn’t mentioned…does he even know?” that Bianca had every reason to be wary of resuming their relationship, and that the problem wasn’t him.

“I’m not getting in the middle of their marriage—divorce—whatever. But I did say we’d be happy to have Faith visit and that Bianca might consider moving to Salmar and having us as back-up for herself, as well.”

He squeezed her shoulders. “Good call.”

He made his own call. He didn’t mention that part of the reason for Phoebe’s tears was turmoil over Jason.

Aeric Kenes was the tycoon who’d ensnared Liam’s brother.

The Royal Guards wanted Nora to use Aeric to further their investigation into an illegal trade in Forgotten and rumors of unregistered (as in, non-royal owned) burrs.

According to Jonah—who would know, since the burrs were the energy sources that powered his kin, and his remaining kin tracked their location—all burrs known to humans were accounted for either in palace vaults or under the control and protection of registered burr wielders, such as Willow Lange had been out on Border Station.

That knowledge meant that Liam and Nora weren’t motivated by unsubstantiated fears as to who possessed burrs. Unlike the Royal Guards.

Liam’s priority was to establish themselves financially, politically and socially so that they and their people were safe.

Nora agreed. Consequently, rather than establishing a relationship with Aeric under Royal Guard Commander Guy Lavigne’s control, she’d had Jim contact Aeric on her behalf.

Jim had channeled his abrasive Angkorran attitude and accent, and challenged Aeric to either provide Nora with compelling information or a serious business proposition, or cease annoying her and her family.

If Aeric didn’t listen and remained in contact with Jason, Liam didn’t doubt that his brother was stupid enough to allow it.

As he and Nora walked up to their master suite, Liam decided it wasn’t a problem to ask Jonah to assist with.

The AI was already tracking a thousand and one issues.

Jason was Liam’s problem. Zac and his security team were on guard against any threat that might use Jason as an access point. It was Liam’s responsibility to handle the emotional aspect. Jason as a disruptive force in Phoebe and others’ lives had to be contained. Elise could continue to indulge Jason’s emotional immaturity, but Liam wouldn’t.

As they entered their suite, he put aside fraternal concerns.

Nora had intended to go through the Originals’ reports with Jonah. They’d been waiting for Francis to make good on his promise to provide them.

Liam would have joined them, but it was impossible to go over the reports, now.

After Nora’s semi-eviction of the Royal Guards, staying in their room might look as if they were hiding in the one suite kept steadfastly free of Royal Guard surveillance.

Plus, Aria needed the reassurance of access to them after the emotional tension of Bianca’s visit and Phoebe’s tears.

“If you’re not communicating, you’re not leading.” Years ago, Admiral Van Moore had told Liam that at the beginning of his mentorship. It meant listening as well as talking. Being available.

Jonah met them inside the master suite’s sitting room, out of view of the door and windows. “I’m not sure I’ll ever understand humans. Lavigne seems pleased by Molly’s report that you want the Royal Guards out.”

“Bizarre.” Nora kicked off her shoes, stooped and picked them up. “I don’t get that either.”

Liam followed her through to the wardrobe. “At a guess…think of it as bargaining. By drawing a line in the sand, you put something on the table that Lavigne can now haggle over with you. What will you give to keep the Royal Guards out of the house?”

She tore off her clothes while Jonah faced the other way.

Sharing the master suite with the AI android meant they’d adopted unique conventions. They had limited time to converse since they had limited time in the suite, which meant they had to maximize the time they had. Jonah could observe anything anywhere in the Human Sector, but him turning his back to respect their privacy suited all of them.

Liam shed his fountain-soaked shirt and pants, and pulled on a t-shirt and utility trousers. It was taking some adjusting—he was habituated to wearing boots—but he shoved his feet into hiking sandals and tried not to feel naked. It really was too hot for boots if you didn’t have to wear them.

Nora dragged a cotton dress over her head, adjusted how it sat on her shoulders, and slipped on her own pair of sandals, even flimsier than his own.

He reminded himself that their home was safe.

Ben had overseen the immediate renovations necessary for the house to function as a secure home for its residents, and dismissed the last of the tradespeople this morning. Anything more could wait. It meant that a number of strangers had been shown the door, and that the danger of tools or other hazards from renovation projects had been cleared away.

Nora took her hair down and brushed it vigorously. “I’m not giving up anything more. This is our home. We say who enters it.”

“We’re decent,” Liam said to Jonah, who turned around.

“Gage told Zac what you said. He’s happy to have more of the house cleared from surveillance. He’s been busy in Salmar, in the town center, building good relationships with our neighbors. Primarily by ensuring that the estate buys from local businesses.”

Liam approved. “Smart. Economic goodwill is the easiest starting point.”

Fingers moving with practiced speed, Nora braided her long, dark hair.

“The Royal Guards have bought an office building in Salmar and two houses adjacent to it,” Jonah reported. “I though they wanted a base outside the estate where they could escape Zac’s scrutiny of their operations. Now, I think Lavigne expected you to kick them out.”

“Did they buy the office space before or after my kidnapping?” Nora tied off her braid.

“Negotiations began before it. The deal was signed afterward.”

Therefore, the Royal Guards’ base in Salmar wasn’t a reaction to Nora’s kidnapping.

“What will Lavigne want to trade for us ousting them?” she asked Liam and Jonah.

“Sam,” Jonah said. “Lavigne wants Sam to stay here.”

“Not Molly?” Liam asked.

Jonah regarded him thoughtfully. “I think I comprehend what you mean by haggling. The Royal Guards aren’t accustomed to a royal who was brought up outside of their system. Nora, you are a learning experience for them. They push. You push back. They wish to ascertain what triggers your resistance. Lavigne has already seen that you can resist, and Liam’s rescue of you proved he can circumvent them.”

He paused. “Lavigne won’t speak to you about it, initially. He’s sending in Sam to negotiate his place in the house.”

“Sam, whose priority is pushing Nora into involving herself in the investigation regarding the Forgotten,” Liam said unhappily.

“So, we add that to our negotiations. I care about the Forgotten and anyone being trafficked, but I also know that every fight is not my fight. Sam will have his priorities, and we have ours.” Nora had recovered her temper, and her natural sane commonsense came to the fore. “Kennedy will say it fancier than me, but you and I sat upfront in support of Francis. We occupied that position by his authority. We’re no longer rushing to pull together allies and defenses. They’re in place, even if somewhat wobbly place. The roots will grow deeper and sturdier.”

“If everyone works at it,” Liam agreed. It was like life on a Navy ship. No ship was undefeatable, but when everyone on board did their part, they had a fighting chance. Who he and Nora let into their de facto clan house and counted as their own shaped all their futures. If people pulled in different directions and gave their primary loyalty to outsiders, then their team would fall apart.

“We will,” Nora said. “We promised Kennedy a briefing.”

Liam followed her thought. Working together meant honoring commitments.

“We’ll have to go through the Originals’ reports later,” she apologized to Jonah.

He smiled at her. “I’m available when you have time.”

The door of the suite was closing silently behind Nora when she jolted and turned back. “I forgot.”

She glanced at Trent, then Liam. “It was nothing immediately important.”

Something related to Jonah, Liam guessed. “That’s less reassuring than you think.”

Jonah only guaranteed they were free from surveillance inside the master suite. His existence as the sole embodied AI in existence, or at least, in the Human Sector, was the biggest secret Liam and Nora guarded. They didn’t dare to so much as hint at keeping secrets in their master suite.

She grabbed his hand. “Kennedy’s briefing. Now. Before she hunts us down.”

They found her in the living area with Aria, Jim and Zac. Theo was the unexpected addition.

Well, unexpected for Nora, given her, “what are you doing here?”

Liam hadn’t assumed Theo would leave with Bianca and Faith.

He’d have seen them out and arranged a time to talk later with Bianca. Theo honored his commitments. “Monitoring chatter regarding the expedition’s announcement while waiting for the debrief.”

“Booo-rrring!” Aria proclaimed.

“Go change out of your wet clothes.” Nora gave the girl an affectionate swat to her butt as she walked past.

“Debrief here or the conference room?” Liam asked. He’d ceased boggling that his home included a conference room. He was just pleased to see it fitted out and useful.

Kennedy rose from her armchair. “Conference room. A division between your private and public-slash-work lives is important.” Kennedy was a master at spinning words for maximum impact. In one sentence, she’d laconically approved of Nora’s eviction of the Royal Guards, and promised to respect Nora and Liam’s private life.

Zac pushed up from lounging on a sofa, and tucked away his personal comms unit. “I messaged Dominic to join us in the conference room.” He stretched. “The Palantine RGs,” he used Dominic’s term for the Royal Guards, “are smug that they’re not evicted.”

“From Dominic’s space,” Nora clarified.

He winked. “Don’t worry. I’ll swat noses if they stick them in your private rooms.”

Nora sighed. “Gage already offered.”

Zac grinned. “No. Gage promised to break noses.”

“Hopefully, not.” Sam walked in and immediately addressed the issue. “I’m the compromise. The Royal Guards intended Molly to be the least obtrusive, most helpful liaison between you, Nora, and them. She is as adept as any courtier in navigating the politics of the Palace. She deserves respect.”

Theo spoke up. “Molly’s orders were to gain Nora’s trust and become one of her and Liam’s inner circle. In this room, you see the people who are filling the roles the Royal Guards thought Molly would high-level manage.” He ticked them off on his fingers. “Zac, security. Kennedy, establishing and leveraging Nora’s social status. Jim, doing what’s necessary. And me, courtier. The Royal Guards underestimated Nora and Liam. Molly didn’t fail. There was no hope she’d succeed.”

“She’s a civilian. So is Kennedy.” Jim lightly punched Kennedy’s hip as she stood near his armchair. “But that’s Kennedy’s battleground, and she’s the best at it.”

“Aw.” She punched his shoulder, speaking his Marine language. Thanks.

“Is that the divide?” Nora considered Jim’s insight. “Molly hasn’t lived with people living or dying based on her actions?” Nora had. She and Jonah had fought a combat android on Border Station. She’d gone against the Zangmos to retrieve Willow’s burr. She, and people she cared about, had been at risk. The others carried the same shadowed memories and trauma-honed instincts. Molly didn’t.

Sam understood. He’d been a Marine; a captain to Jim’s sergeant status. “You’re not at war, now. You’re not a lone kid up against the system. The Royal Guards see you as a civilian.”

“As a royal,” Liam said, his voice deep.

She put her arm around his waist. “That’s the real barrier. They see me as a royal, and I don’t.”

“You are a royal,” Sam said. “But I’m replacing Molly because I see you as Nora, first, and your royal status as merely one aspect of you.”

“And because you want to use her outlier status,” Liam said challengingly.

Sam stood at attention. The formal stance failed to hide his aggressive emotional response. “If you’d ever rescued people being trafficked by slavers—”

“I have.” Zac seldom exerted the authority he’d wielded during years of wartime service as a privateer, but when he did, it had a more feral edge than Liam’s. “And I didn’t escort the slavers in for a neat and tidy courtroom session and prison time. I’ve seen what happens when people treat other people as commodities.”

“Hell, yeah.” Jim rose, moving Kennedy slightly aside and behind him. She was taller than him. He was infinitely more dangerous. “Nora and I lived that life. You want to rescue people, Sammy boy. You can start in the towers.” Jim bared his teeth in an unamused grin. “But towers brats aren’t Forgotten, are they? No value to the royals.”

Sam took a deep breath, and relaxed his stance. “I’m meant to be building bridges, here, not blowing them up.”

Nora cut to the chase. “What is Lavigne offering, threats or bribes?”

“He hasn’t expressed any threats.” Sam’s wording acknowledged that the Royal Guard Commander didn’t have to explicitly state a threat for it to be real. The Royal Guards had the legal authority and the ability to make Nora’s life very difficult. “We all want you to be safe. The announcement of the expedition will rattle cages, potentially triggering new dangers. You need to continue to work with the Royal Guards to ensure your security. However, you’re correct that inside the house you should be safe. That allows other concerns to gain priority, such as whether privacy is necessary to your mental health.”

Sam was offering them a reason for the renegotiation of the Royal Guards’ presence and boundaries.

“I am uncomfortable with constant surveillance,” Nora said. “You could say that privacy is important to my well-being.”

“We also have a child,” Liam said. “I don’t believe it’s healthy for children to grow up under surveillance. They require a sense of freedom to test their boundaries. That’s something I want clarified. The Royal Guards do not have authority over Aria or over any child who visits.” Which included Phoebe and Faith.

“I agree,” Theo said.

Sam grimaced. “For your own family, you can make that call, although the Royal Guards will still intervene if there’s danger.”

“As any adult would,” Liam said.

Nora loved Liam’s protective instincts, but he was wrong. Not every adult would act to protect a child. Sam would, and she guessed that it was his instincts, so similar to Liam’s—and the reason Casimir had vouched for his character, and she and Liam had counted him as a friend on the journey to Capitoline—that made him uncomfortable now.

“Prince Francis may bring his children to visit,” Sam said. “Aria’s been telling everyone about the donkeys, and Faith enjoyed her time here. Faith will tell the young princes.”

The sequence of events was clear to everyone.

“Where the princes go, there will be Royal Guards, and those guards absolutely have authority regarding the princes’ security,” Sam concluded.

“Okay,” Nora conceded. “But if the Royal Guards use those visits to search beyond the spaces the princes, or whoever, will occupy, or to plant surveillance, those visits will end and I’ll explain why.” She glanced at Kennedy. “Possibly in a tell-all public interview. I’ve been receiving requests.”

Sam controlled a wince.

Nora’s public image, and the popularity Kennedy was building for her, were a potent weapon. Nora had sought it for defensive purposes, but it could be used offensively. Offensively in every meaning of the word. Nora wasn’t a fan of the media, but she’d exploit them, as they would her.

“But we won’t use the nuclear option yet.” Kennedy’s rueful, warning tone broke the tension. “I’m going to table the post-announcement debrief. I’ll send you my notes, and I’d appreciate everyone’s thoughts. Sam, I don’t envy you your position, half on the team and half the acknowledged spy.”

“I’m not a spy.”

A flap of Kennedy’s hand dismissed his objection as she sashayed out.

Jim chuckled.

Liam folded his arms. “As Kennedy pointed out, we’ve wasted enough time. Sam is Nora’s new minder. Molly never explicitly stated what direction her orders intended her to guide Nora—”

“General obedience to the RGs?” Zac suggested, and grinned at Sam’s annoyed frown.

“But Sam, you and Lavigne have since been clear that you want to use Nora to infiltrate the tycoons’ circles and learn the details of if and how Forgotten and unregistered burrs are being traded. How you reconcile that with keeping Nora safe, I don’t know. What I suspect is that you consider her more expendable than the legitimate royals.”

Sam rejected the idea. “More capable. And with an outsider status we can use. We absolutely will not risk you, Nora. In fact, we may be able to remove you from the operation entirely if you put us in contact with Serge Buckley.”

Who didn’t exist. Serge Buckley was Jonah’s hacker alias; one he’d backstopped with a false story of being a deeply undercover Capitoline Security Bureau agent.

“If Buckley contacts me, I can ask him to contact you. He mightn’t ever contact me, again.”

A muscle ticked in Sam’s jaw. “He’s clearly keeping an eye on you.”

Jonah had used his Buckley identity to alert Liam as to Nora’s kidnapping and to assist him in rescuing her.

“Don’t even think of putting her at risk to draw out Buckley,” Liam growled.

“No. Never.” Sam raised his hands in surrender or innocence. “But if Buckley has a line on Avalon. If the station of Forgotten exists. We need to protect it.”

The tension drained out of Nora. All this fuss for a fantasy. She dropped onto the nearest sofa. “I don’t believe Avalon exists.” She knew it didn’t. She’d checked with Jonah. “It wouldn’t surprise me if the myth has been fostered by tycoons who want to lure in Forgotten.”

“Cynic,” Zac said, but his tone said he agreed.

Liam frowned at Sam. “We’re not chasing phantoms, but Aeric Kenes…does Nora need to keep him dangling or can we cut him loose?”

Jettisoning realm security concerns for familial ones, Nora sat up straight. “Is he pressuring Jason? Is that why Phoebe’s upset?”

“Jason is a factor,” Liam said unhappily. “I will deal with him.”

“I’ll talk to Aeric, tomorrow. Jim?”

“I’ll arrange it.”

Sam shifted. Already, his position stuck between her and the Royal Guard command squeezed him. “What will you say?”

Nora smiled. “Whatever I like.”

Chapter 4

Everyone tactfully found somewhere else to be so that Nora and Liam could have the downtime of a family dinner with Aria, Cherry and Phoebe.

Actually, Theo’s vanishing was less about tact and more about his own family, and the others had their own social lives to build on-planet.

Nora wished them all luck.

After dinner, Cherry and Phoebe continued the conversation started over lasagna, that of additional tutoring for their university entrance exams.

During her mother’s illness, Phoebe had understandably gotten behind on her studies. Unlike Jason, she’d been living at home and assisting with Susan’s care.

Nora considered Jason immature and selfish, but not maliciously so. Liam judged him far more harshly, and she suspected that was because Jason had rejected the opportunity to support their mother through her battle with bone cancer; an opportunity Liam would have given anything to have.

Leaving the prospective uni students to their giggles and planning, Nora generously sprayed Liam, Aria and herself with bug deterrent before wandering around the grounds.

The air was warm and stunk of the mangroves at low tide.

Aria gestured exaggeratedly, describing the stable she and Dominic had designed for her donkeys, and the trail rides she’d take them on.

Bailey snuffled around them. The old dog’s slow amble set their pace.

True night fell. Stars peeked out between the clouds.

“I’ll teach Joker and Pirate to swim.” Aria had already chosen her donkeys’ names. That adult donkeys would already have names hadn’t occurred to her.

Nora was willing to let the donkeys teach Aria about whether they’d respond to new names.

“Bedtime.”

“Uh nuh.” Aria stared up at the stars. She tilted so far back that Nora put a hand out to support her. Aria twisted around. “I should go to school. Real school.” As opposed to the online education she’d been getting. Jonah had been in charge of it on board the CC Kangaroo, which meant Aria was advanced for her age.

“Did Phoebe and Cherry inspire you?” Liam asked.

Aria nodded vigorously. “And Faith. I want some friends my age.”

“We’ll get you signed up for school,” Nora said. “Snobby in the city or public school in Salmar? There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Some of the Salmar kids might envy you.”

“Would I be able to invite them over?”

The Royal Guards would hate the security risk. Nora grinned. “Yes.”

Liam shook his head, reading her evil mind.

“Local,” Aria said.

“All right, then.”

Aria skipped ahead before Nora could say anything more.

Bailey ambled after her.

Liam lowered his voice to a whisper that brushed Nora’s ear. “She’s hoping we forget about bedtime.”

“Yeah. Her sneakiness needs work. I’ll have to talk to Veronica.” Not about sneakiness. About ensuring Aria’s security outside the estate.

Liam snaked his arms around her waist. “Do you think we could sneak up to our room?”

She kissed him. “If you’re highly motivated.”

He returned the kiss, finding the sensitive spot under her jaw near her right ear. “Oh, I am.”

“Unfortunately—”

He nipped her earlobe.

She shivered. “We have to…oh.” She felt his response to her soft groan.

“Mmmhmm.”

“We have to…” talk to Jonah.

Liam understood the unspoken conclusion of her sentence, and offered a silent, seductive counterargument. “The Originals’ reports can wait.”

“Not about them.”

He drew back a miniscule amount to search her face in the starlight. He read that whatever the secret was, it was important. He swept a reluctant, caressing hand up and down her body, leaving her shivering. “All right. If you enforce bedtime, I’ll check in on Phoebe. Then we’ll talk.”

“And then, you can seduce me.”

He grinned. “What do you call this?”

“Teasing.” She ran ahead of him back to the house.

Once Nora and Liam reached the privacy of the master suite, Jonah joined them in its sitting room.

Nora collapsed on the sofa. “This morning, which seems like a very long time ago, Jonah mentioned that Queen Sarah is attempting to get her hands on unregistered burrs.”

Liam whistled. “So, Sam and Lavigne are right. There are unregistered burrs out there.”

“Yes and no,” Jonah said. “There are Silicaese caches out there containing burrs humans could use.” As opposed to the burrs that powered him and his kin and most definitely weren’t available for humans to murder them to acquire; as the Silicaese had unwittingly done. “But all burrs currently in human hands are registered. Their use and distribution is controlled by the royal families of the six realms. What Queen Sarah has stumbled upon is a xeno-archaeological professor’s very good guess as to the location of a Silicaese cache of burrs.”

“What do you mean by stumbled upon?” Nora asked. “A professor would report—”

“Gambling debts. The professor doesn’t have proof of the cache’s existence. If he reports his hypothesis to the university and the Royal Guards he won’t receive a financial reward until it’s proven.”

“But the cache exists?” Liam checked.

“It does.”

Liam leaned back, staring at the ceiling.

Nora stared at Jonah.

He answered her expectant look. “The professor devised a scheme. I’m not guessing. He spelled it out in his letter to the Duke of Ontario, a letter Queen Sarah received in his place.”

Sarah had assumed control of Ontario affairs after framing her brother for Hermione’s death and having him killed while “resisting arrest”.

“The letter arrived shortly after the Duke’s death, but it was a few weeks till Sarah came across it. She sent for the professor, but he had fled his creditors to Armira Station. Someone had to fetch him back. I wasn’t paying attention to her business correspondence. It wasn’t till she met the professor this morning—nighttime for her—that mention of the Silicaese cache caught my attention.”

Burr caches were found along Silicaese star paths.

The Silicaese had structured and navigated their cities and interstellar environment in mesh arrangements. Their meshes were far more geometric than human networks, and critically differed in that where humans created networks in which the most important nodes were the most connected, generally at the center, and protected by the bulk of the network, the Silicaese connected sparingly to their highest value nodes.

The regular pattern of the meshes ought to have made finding caches simple, but xeno-archaeologists were missing data. With so many gaps in their knowledge of Silicaese star paths, they couldn’t readily reconstruct the meshes to find the caches stored safely distant from Silicaese planets.

The Silicaese thought in twelves, which made thirteen their infinite number. It meant that no star path exceeded thirteen solar systems. For the Silicaese, limits were as motivating as reach. They valued maximizing possibilities within constraints. It was a vital point to remember when attempting to reconstruct their meshes.

“The professor had been indulging in nostalgia and walking through a virtual representation of a Silicaese dig, S-Bio-6, that he’d excavated as a graduate student, when he noticed an eroded star path in the cornice of a hall. What remained of it showed only three of the possible thirteen solar systems for the path, but he recognized the arrangement.”

Jonah skipped over the conventions the Silicaese used to categorize solar systems. The nature of the star and the number and type of planets in a system wasn’t relevant to his report. Nora already knew the conventions, and Liam’s ignorance of them wouldn’t affect his understanding of the professor’s actions.

“The incomplete star path matched a complete star path found on S-Bio-13. The professor dug out the incomplete meshes he’d worked on three decades ago and added star paths from S-Bio-13. He mapped a path through the still incomplete mesh that could have linked S-Bio-6 and S-Bio-13.”

Nora interrupted to clarify a point for Liam. “Remembering that the naming convention is ours, based on when humans discovered the Silicaese sulfuric planets. So S-Bio-6 and S-Bio-13 could be neighbors in a Silicaese mesh even though 6 is in Palantine space and 13 in Caelian space.”

Caelian was one of the six human realms: Palantine, Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Caelian, and Esquiline.

Jonah cleared his throat, which, as an android, never needed clearing. “The cache is nearer the Origin black hole than to either Palantine or Caelian.”

“Huh.” Norah stared at him.

Liam laughed under his breath. “I’ve heard psychologists argue away notions of fate, claiming that when we see events converging it is our biased perception. They argue that when we’re paying attention to something, we notice it everywhere. But this is quite a coincidence. Let me see if I can guess?

“The professor realized he had a choice bit of information, the location of a cache, but he needed to find someone who’d value it, and who had the resources and the willingness to protect him from his creditors and from the consequences of not reporting the possible location of a cache to the Royal Guards. The Ontario Logistics Company is famous for the breadth of its network, and infamous for its ruthless independence. During the war, privateers never attacked an Ontario ship.”

Nora raised her eyebrows. “That’s some reputation.”

“It partly explains why people accepted the story of the Duke arranging for Hermione’s assassination.” Liam flipped his hand, gesturing the flipside to that assumption. “They overlooked that Queen Sarah is also from that family.”

“Too scared to do otherwise,” Nora muttered.

Jonah regarded her gently. “Your father isn’t scared of her. King Ivan is wary of her ruthlessness, yes. Scared, no.”

Liam intervened. “Back to the professor and Queen Sarah, so that we can get to bed this side of midnight.”

He was exaggerating, but it had been a long day. Too long to add in a discussion of her family dynamics.

Nora straightened. “What does she intend to do with the professor’s information?”

“For a start, she has sequestered him away in a safe house.”

Nora hummed her comprehension. “Where he’ll be available to answer her questions, but no one else’s.”

“Sarah is changing strategies fast,” Jonah said. “This morning it bewildered me. She went from wanting to restrict blaze supply so as to destroy interrealm trade and diplomacy, and lock everyone in their inner realms, to considering how to acquire unregistered burrs. But now I recognize it. It’s a classic pivot for opportunities.”

Nora stared.

Liam groaned in weary exasperation. “Business jargon. Being able to reprioritize or discard goals and associated strategies is a sign of low emotional investment in them. Most humans can’t manage it.” His voice deepened. “Most people aren’t willing to burn their allies.”

“But Sarah would.” Nora rose and paced to the window. “Burrs are the ultimate basis of power in the Human Sector. She won’t be able to resist going after them.”

Jonah fidgeted. “The Ontario Logistics fleet, particularly its mercenary guard component, can go after the burrs immediately. Sarah merely has to cancel a current contract.”

“How do we beat her to them?” Liam asked.

Nora wrapped a blinds cord around the index and middle fingers of her right hand. “I can’t. The Royal Guards will suspect me of nefarious things if I continue to reveal unexpected abilities and insight into Vapori technology.” Namely, the burrs, but also the lens. “But Lavigne introduced Tadj into the game. Can we push Tadj into repeating the professor’s discovery?”

“Better him than you,” Liam said. “He’s a xeno-archaeology professor, but I’m guessing he won’t be as familiar with S-Bio-6 as Queen Sarah’s Palantine expert. How would we lead Tadj to the answer without tipping our hand?”

Jonah had an alternate suggestion. “Or we use Aeric Kenes. I’m not sure what he knows or how involved he is or wants to be in locating unregistered burrs. But we know there’s something there because Lavigne is interested in him.”

Nora crossed back to the sofa, but sat in Liam’s lap rather than on her own. “The question remains. How do we lead anyone to the answer?”

Jonah rubbed his hands together, imitating a cartoon villain. “I have an idea.”

Outside, the night had darkened as clouds obscured the stars. Nora couldn’t discern Liam’s features on the pillow next to hers.

He was asleep after successfully seducing her.

She, however, lay awake. Oddly, it wasn’t fear of Queen Sarah gaining unfettered access to burrs that stole her sleep. It wasn’t even the more immediate problems of Bianca’s warning about the Capitoline princesses, or Nora’s own throwdown with the Royal Guards.

Her mind was filled by a famous image of the lens at the Origin black hole.

It was no bigger than her scout ship, the CC Kangaroo. Physically, that is.

According to Jonah, the lens’s energy body expanded far beyond its physical framework.

Also, although he’d begun his existence as a Vapori construct, he couldn’t affect the lens.

He believed she could.

She was the descendant of seven of the fifteen humans who’d initially encountered the lens. They had been altered by its energy, both their RNA and their energy bodies. Far more crudely, they’d altered the lens.

The Vapori had installed the lens for benign purposes. It was a signpost to others of their kind—and they were a species who lived for millions of years, and consequently thought and acted on that timescale—that the trio of Vapori who’d been assigned the rights to the region had it under surveillance (the trio installed Jonah and his kin to observe and record the possible evolution of a sentient organic species), and that visitors should not enter, and if they had entered, should identify themselves and depart immediately.

Which the seven human colony ships didn’t do because they weren’t Vapori and had no notion of what they’d encountered when they’d accidentally gone off-course.

Having inadvertently altered the lens by simply encountering it, the fifteen crew sent across to investigate the lens then cemented the human-wrought changes by removing fifteen burrs. As a result of removing a significant percentage of the lens’s power source, it lacked the power to reset itself. Consequently, the lens remained locked in its default response to unidentified traffic, and continued to block traffic in and out of the black hole.

The Originals had tested replacing the fifteen burrs they’d taken. But possibly they hadn’t left them in place long enough. Not every realm or royal family had wanted to part with the burrs they controlled, and had hastened to retrieve them within weeks.

The lens had then absorbed the energy of laser and kinetic strikes as humans defaulted to brute force and tried to destroy it.

Not even directing burrs at it could obliterate it.

The lens had been built to withstand millions of years in space, and other Vapori.

All that the humans achieved was to make the area around the lens dangerously energetic.

Francis hoped that Nora’s unique use of the burrs meant she might be able to turn it off. Or on. Whatever was needed to open entry to the millrace once more.

What would it feel like to touch the lens?

Sitting in the lab, in the vaults beneath the Laotian Palace, Nora grasped a burr. Not with her mind or body, but by asserting energetic control of it. The burr wasn’t even in the same room as her. Someone deeper in the vaults had removed it from its shielded case, and Nora felt the prickling, flaring energy in it.

Humans hadn’t naturally evolved to manipulate energy. They were the opposite of the Vapori, and not merely in regard to their short lifespans. The Vapori were primarily energetic beings with a small physical element. Humans were primarily physical beings with a small and, prior to the Originals’ contact with the lens, unused and unusable energetic element.

Now, the lens’s forced mutation of the Original fifteen had been inherited by some of their descendants, and modified by their own exposure to planets that could sustain human life. Surviving on hastily terraformed planets altered humans via exposure to parasites, diseases and environmental factors; some of which alterations were passed on to subsequent generations.

Nora perceived the energy in the burr as various chaotic physical impressions as her mind worked to interpret signals from her energy body.

She “smoothed” the energy in the burr.

Vapori burrs were designed to accumulate energy from their environment. The Originals had discovered they could “switch on” that siphon function. When they did so, the burrs sucked in the energy of whatever the human wielder directed the burr at. At a quantum level, all matter was energy. Consequently, the wielder of a burr could obliterate whatever they wished, from mind-wiping a person to vanishing a planet.

However, Nora hypothesized that the energy siphoned into the burr in this hurried manner was more chaotic. When she concentrated on smoothing that energy, the rearrangement of it opened additional storage capacity in the burr.

What humans called depleted burrs were actually those so full of chaotic energy that it could siphon no more. For a wielder, that meant a depleted burr couldn’t obliterate a target.

Nora ignored Tadj and Quispe standing in the background and the two scientists opposite her. She stared at a dab of seaweed floating in seawater in a petri dish on the table in front of her.

She concentrated on joining her sense of the energy in the burr with the seaweed.

Energy in, energy out.

The universe could change.

It was the nature of the universe to change.

Grow.

The scientists called it “guided intent”. It sounded more scientific than admitting that after nearly five centuries they still didn’t know how a handful of humans sensed and wielded burrs.

Nora directed the smoothed energy from the burr to follow a pattern of life; that is, to use the resources of the algae and its environment, and enable the plant to flourish.

Algal cells multiplied visibly.

“I can’t feel what you’re doing,” Quispe said.

Dr. Pilar Mayberry glared past Nora’s shoulder at him. “Admiral, you’re present as a silent observer.”

“No problem. I’m done.” Nora ceased channeling energy into the algae and relinquished her hold on the burr. The seaweed had already oozed over the rim of the petri dish to pool on the table. The energy she’d released seemed to cling a moment before sliding away.

A few seconds of silence later, and she felt the burr being locked away in its shielded case.

“What can you tell us about this second attempt to create matter?” Pilar asked Nora.

“Successful attempt.” Tadj walked into Nora’s view. He carried himself with the unassuming confidence of a man secure in himself and in his professional competence as a highly respected xeno-archaeological expeditionary leader.

Hands ostentatiously behind his back, he studied the seaweed.

She recalled his awkwardness at the door to the lab earlier that morning. It wasn’t that he was out of place in a scientific setting. It was the emotional and political elements of his presence at the palace that had him off balance.

And for that, he’d explained Lavigne was to blame. “Commander Lavigne suggested I observe your use of the burrs, since I have a similar knowledge to you of the Silicaese.”

“You mean, you’re the authority on the Silicaese,” she’d teased, and he’d grinned. “Stop being so modest.”

Quispe had been suspicious. “What is Lavigne thinking?” Evidently, he’d guessed, or knew, Tadj’s parentage.

Tadj was near enough to the same age as Francis. While Queen Caroline had been pregnant with her and Magnus’s first child, another woman had also carried Magnus’s son; Tadj’s mother.

Magnus had raised his legitimate children on the motto: we keep our family secure by being a family.

To learn that he’d cheated on his wife from the start of their marriage, and kept at least one illegitimate child a secret, would devastate them.

Although surely they couldn’t be blind to Magnus’s affairs?

Reminding herself that politics and personalities weren’t her current concern, Nora tapped her toes against the floor. “It felt the same as the first attempt. I pushed energy from the burr into the algae. At least, that’s how I’ve been thinking of it.”

But other thoughts also jostled in her brain.

Jonah had witnessed the Silicaese use the energy in burrs to grow their food. As silicon-based life forms, their food had been crystals.

He’d also mentioned something weird about the Silicaese. That they’d possessed substantially less dark matter than Vapori or humans, and as such, had been subject to far less tension anchoring them in time.

The exiled Silicaese who’d settled this region and discovered the burrs had disavowed time travel. It niggled at Nora. Relinquishing power was difficult for humans. Maybe the Silicaese were able to do so, but she shouldn’t be too quick to believe it. Part of a student’s education in xeno-archaeology was warning them against mythologizing or revering the ancient species they studied.

What if the Silicaese hadn’t disavowed the manipulation of time as a resource, but had used time in a different way; not walking through it, but channeling it?

Nora stared at Pilar as the lead scientist in the lab—the Chief Researcher, Dr. Chulainn, was who knew where—read various measurements off the screen on her side of the table. Those measurements were undoubtedly of Nora’s physiological state during the test. Nora kept her hands in view on the table, and consciously relaxed her muscles. “What if what I sent from the burr to the algae wasn’t energy as we think of it, but concentrated time?”

She flinched at the frowns suddenly directed her way. “It was just a thought. Brainstorming.”

“It did look like timelapse photography,” Tadj said.

Everyone, including Nora, inspected the algae spilling over the petri dish.

“We,” Pilar squeaked, swallowed, and tried again. “We’re measuring all inputs into the system.”

Her male colleague, the one who never spoke, adjusted his glasses. “How do you measure time while inside time?”

Pilar swatted his arm with the back of her hand. “Focus, Richard.” She took a deep breath. “Your idea is noted, Nora. What can you tell us about your actual experience of the test?”

“I instinctively smoothed the energy in the burr before I used it.”

Pilar nodded approvingly. That was the kind of information she wanted. Information, not opinion or questions.

I’m the lab rat, Nora realized, reluctantly entertained by this new self-image. Lab rats don’t offer insight. They twitch their noses and eat cheese. The experts are frustrated that their understanding of what I’m doing has to be filtered through me. What I can’t recognize or communicate, they can’t know.

Pilar was armed with questions to extract information. “Have you been paying attention to all of your senses? The human mind may struggle to process the energetic information it is receiving. Did you hear anything?”

“My own breathing. The rustle of our clothing. Nothing strange.”

Pilar noted the negative response. “What about your nerve endings? Did they prickle?”

“The normal hum at my fingertips. My muscles are tense, but that’s regular tension.”

Pilar and Richard nodded sympathetic understanding.

“Scent? Taste?” Pilar checked.

“Neither. Nothing.” Nora pushed back from the table, more than ready for lunch.

Pilar observed her closely. “Are you hungrier than usual for this time?”

In fact, Nora was restless. She wanted to move. “No.”

Quispe held the door open for her. “Most of your questions are useless.”

Pilar glared at him.

“They want to be sure that what I’m doing isn’t hurting me, so that what I teach you—if I can teach either of you—” Nora included Tadj, “won’t hurt you.”

Tadj had known and worked alongside her for years. “You’re too responsible to risk hurting anyone.”

“I haven’t seen evidence of that,” a waspish voice said.

Tadj’s head whipped around fast. Equally quickly, on identifying her, he shifted to put Quispe between himself and the woman.

Evelyn waited in the lab’s lounge, standing fastidiously clear of the tables and chairs of the breakroom. “This entire venture is reckless. My family lives in the palace. You could obliterate us.”

Dr. Chulainn patted fussily at his waistcoat. “I assure you, Princess Evelyn, we are taking every precaution to contain Mrs. Kimani.”

Those were triggering words for Nora, who had been kidnapped on departure from the palace.

They seemed equally triggering for her bodyguard Gage who’d also been a victim of that kidnapping. He took a purposeful step forward.

If Jim had been there, he’d have joined him. But her personal assistant remained at Mangrove Mansion, doing business things. Namely, sorting and answering her messages, and conspiring with Kennedy to run Nora’s life.

Gage, alone, was enough of a threat for the two Royal Guard lieutenants in the lounge to stiffen to attention.

Sam outranked them. He demonstrated the cooler response of experienced authority. “Shall we take this discussion—”

Nora shook her head. “Evelyn went to the trouble of coming here. She can speak here.”

“Dictating terms?” Evelyn sneered. “You are not a princess. You are your sperm donor’s mistake.”

“A powerful one.” Quispe’s interjection didn’t help. Doubtless, he didn’t intend it, too.

Everyone present knew Evelyn was significantly less sensitive to burrs than Nora, and burr sensitivity was a key measure of power.

She glared at Nora. “You have no right to make this choice for everyone.”

Patience dwindling, Nora raised an eyebrow. “By which you mean enabling the expedition to the lens? Or do you object to me introducing the possibility that the burrs can create and not merely obliterate? Do you comprehend that choosing not to do something I can do is equally a choice I’d make on behalf of everyone?”

Evelyn snatched at her words. “So, let people debate it. Give the Royal Guards time to investigate your talent. Give courtiers time to consider the disaster scenarios of opening the Origin black hole.”

“We are doing so, Princess Evelyn,” Dr. Chulainn began. “Commander Lavigne—”

“He was holding the burr I used, wasn’t he?” Nora asked.

Evelyn waved aside what she considered an irrelevant topic.

Nora ignored her, staying focused on the topic of Lavigne. “Working in the background, arranging the players.”

Quispe grunted amused agreement.

Nora decided she’d consider later when it was she’d learned to interpret grunts—and to consider Quispe as a possible ally of well-hidden depths.

She’d have preferred to ignore the royal family’s real life soap opera, but it wouldn’t avoid her. Certainly, the expedition couldn’t avoid being affected by it.

There was a guiding hand behind the timing of it all.

Lavigne hadn’t brought Tadj into the Laotian Palace and the vaults beneath it until after Queen Caroline’s exile. Lavigne understood the politics, players and emotions of the Palace. He was Magnus’s half-brother, standing in the same position as Tadj did now with regard to Francis—except that Magnus and his family had always known of Lavigne’s existence.

But had they thought about what it meant?

Whoosh. Nora’s stomach dropped as if she was riding a rollercoaster. This really wasn’t any of her business, and yet…

“Nora,” Evelyn snapped at her. “You have to—”

Tadj’s shoulders hunched in apprehension. His weight shifted forward to the balls of his feet, ready for action.

He needn’t be so apprehensive.

Nora had grown up some since her early adult years when being told what to do by a snooty brat would have been a trigger.

Tadj had helped her learn better responses. Right now, he ought to worry about himself.

Francis entered the lounge.

“Oh, fudge.” Tadj looked around for a hiding place, but his old one, the formidable barrier that was Quispe, had retreated to the wall, the better to observe the drama.

After a frown of concern in his wife’s direction, Francis politely greeted everyone.

Nora’s gaze slid sideways to Sam. Had the Royal Guard Captain called for reinforcements, for someone capable of handling Evelyn? If so, Sam hadn’t considered Tadj’s presence. Surely he knew who Tadj was? Even if no one had officially told Sam, the resemblance…

Francis’s gaze snagged on Tadj.

And the wobbling tower of cards tumbled down. Nora could feel them flutter and fall, and where it would end, possibly Lavigne alone could predict.

Lavigne had certainly engineered this encounter. Francis was interested in what Nora could do. Even without Evelyn’s emotional intrusion, Francis would have found his way to the lab. And found Tadj.

Tadj’s resemblance to Magnus and Francis was superficially disguised by the extra weight the other two men carried.

“Who are you?” Francis asked, rudely for him.

They’d been introduced the other day, but Francis had been preoccupied then. Now, he stared at Tadj, who probably looked like the tougher, leaner version of himself that Francis saw in his mind’s eye.

“Professor Tadj Holmes.”

“Late to the party,” Quispe greeted Lavigne’s entrance loudly.

Lavigne regarded him disapprovingly. The Royal Guard Commander held himself as upright as ever, but the lines around his mouth were deeper, and his eyes tired. He still managed to look down his nose. “A few too many people at this party, I believe. Francis, Evelyn, shall we adjourn to Francis’s study? Nora, Tadj, if you could join us? Captain Gurung, you may remain here.”

Sam didn’t quite salute. “Yes, sir.”

The scientists frankly gawked, aware that something unsaid and important was happening, but unable to pinpoint it.

So much for the powers of scientific observation.

Quispe chuckled at his pointed exclusion.

Evelyn glanced uncertainly from Lavigne to Francis, who scowled at Lavigne. She tucked her hand in Francis’s elbow.

The party of five, trailed by bodyguards, traversed the palace silently to Francis’s study. Books lined the wall behind Francis’s large antique desk, and the leather of the chairs exactly matched the darkest grain of the desk’s wood. It was a masculine room that spoke of generations of inherited wealth and power. Curios filled shelves, and a waist-high carving of a cheetah guarded the first of two windows. A bronze fox stood inquisitively at the second.

Francis carried a chair around to his side of the desk, and seated Evelyn in it, before taking his own.

Nora determinedly claimed the chair nearest the door.

Tadj sat beside her, and Lavigne on his far side.

Lavigne never fidgeted. He didn’t, now, but his voice was hoarse. His precise articulation failed to hide his weariness. He began abruptly. “You may believe that Nora shouldn’t be here, involved in a family matter, but she is Tadj’s friend and her loyalty to her friends is indisputable.”

She hadn’t expected the compliment, and scrunched her toes as her apprehension increased. Exactly what nightmare did Lavigne anticipate he was bringing down on Tadj?

Beside her, Tadj sat rigidly in his chair, his gaze on Lavigne.

Lavigne regarded Francis calmly. “It would be overstating the case to call it a tradition, but there is a Capitoline royal family precaution that many kings take in the early years of their marriage. They sire illegitimate children to be born at close to the same time as their first child. If their legitimate child performs well in the burr sensitivity testing, then the illegitimate child or children continue in their hidden lives.”

“As you did.” Francis gripped the arms of his chair hard, knuckles pale.

Lavigne nodded. “And as Tadj did. It is not something all kings, or crown princes as they generally are at the time, are capable of accepting. Magnus never suggested it to you, Francis. He believed, and I agreed, that you would be appalled and shaken in your loyalty to the throne if it was suggested that you acquire a spare heir.”

It was cold language to describe a child.

“As recent events have proven,” Lavigne continued.

The blood drained from Evelyn’s face, exposing the delicate mask of cosmetics and turning it into garish face paint.

Lavigne referenced Francis and Evelyn’s sons’ poor sensitivity to burrs, and Francis’s refusal to engage a surrogate—Nora had been suggested—to bear other children for them.

“You married young, Francis. You were idealistic and impulsive.” Lavigne pinched the bridge of his nose. “If you hadn’t been, if you had provided a spare heir, on Callum failing to exhibit any sensitivity to burrs he could have been swapped for a spare heir of the same age and proven sensitivity.” Lavigne had angled his chair so he could observe them all. He addressed Nora, whose face must have shown her horror and disgust, but the absence of shock. “You suspected it?”

“In the towers, foster brats are interchangeable sources of welfare payments. The actual child matters not at all to many foster mothers.”

“As it didn’t to yours,” Lavigne said.

Nora didn’t require sympathy, and she outright rejected the hint of how deeply Lavigne had ordered the Royal Guards to investigate her personal history. However, if Lavigne was engaging her to give Francis and Evelyn a few additional seconds to come to terms with his bombshell, she’d play along.

Maybe if the Crown Prince and Princess had time to process Lavigne’s shocking news, they’d realize that Tadj was not a threat to them or a reminder of a terrible royal safeguarding policy, but a fellow victim.

“A five-year-old child can be convinced to answer to another name,” Nora said.

Tadj cracked his knuckles, rubbed them against his thigh, and popped them again; too perturbed to control the nervous habit.

To be robbed of one’s own identity and shoved into another’s life, one in which one’s purported parents resented the child for displacing their own…the Capitoline royal family’s “precaution” was cruel.

The shadows under Lavigne’s eyes seemed to deepen, ageing him. “Indeed, and in the past, accidents have happened to those who didn’t learn.”

“Oh, God.” Evelyn covered her mouth with both hands. Reality had just vomited all over her. She had always been on the side of those who sought to keep power at all costs. She’d never understood that she could also be their victim.

“It hasn’t happened that way, on Capitoline, in over a century,” Lavigne said.

Francis didn’t let him off the hook. “But you still refrained from having children.”

“Yes.” Lavigne refused to be pushed into an emotionally revealing response.

“Have you?” Francis addressed Tadj. “Do you have children?”

“No.”

“Can I believe you?”

The half-brothers stared at one another.

Tadj’s hands curled over his knees and his fingers dug in. “I am a xeno-archaeologist. My parents raised me with an understanding of my royal relations, and that I could never claim them. Commander Lavigne visited yearly. I never called him ‘uncle’,” Tadj had as much right as Francis to do so. “I do not consider your family mine,” he told Francis, plainly. “I am here under Lavigne’s orders. It is the price of the military funding my expeditions.”

Tadj addressed Nora. “I’m also here because I’m fascinated by your ideas about the Silicaese and the burrs and how you use them, and because you’re my friend and friends don’t leave friends alone in a snake pit.”

He turned back to Francis. “If I lie to you, it will be on Lavigne’s orders. You decide if you can trust him.”

“We can’t,” Evelyn burst out.

Francis launched from his chair. “Except that Father wouldn’t have told us, at all.” He paced to the window. His hand landed on the marble head of the cheetah, as if he needed to steady himself.

Evelyn tracked him, blankly. She was overwhelmed and confused. The certainty that she would be forever protected and privileged in the heart of the royal family had been overturned.

“Why tell me this, now?” Francis demanded.

Lavigne sighed. “Because—”

“He’s threatening us,” Evelyn burst out. “He resents us like he resents your father, and now, because Callum and Knox aren’t…aren’t…good enough—”

“Stop.” Francis bent over her, gripping her wrists.

Her arms writhed as she fought him. “No. No, this is why you can’t lead the expedition. You have to stay and fight for your position. Lavigne wants to replace us.”

“On the contrary.”

Tadj half-rose, looking toward the door and escape.

Nora would be there with him if he fled.

“Please.” Lavigne flattened his hand, waving it downward, gesturing for them to stay. “Everything I do is to strengthen the royal family’s position so that Capitoline can withstand the changes sweeping toward us.”

Evelyn was beyond listening, but Francis canted an impatient ear toward Lavigne. “What changes?”

“The tycoons seeking to overthrow you.”

Chapter 5

After yesterday’s upheaval beginning with the announcement of the expedition, Phoebe and Bianca’s visits, and Nora’s semi-eviction of the Royal Guards, and ending with Jonah’s bombshell news that Queen Sarah was in a position to acquire unfettered ownership of burrs, Liam settled gratefully into the ordinariness of a conference room at Navy HQ and the detail-oriented bickering required for negotiating the fuel cells contract.

He’d brought his and Nora’s legal team. On their current showing, he’d made the right choice to retain Ganbold, Pak and Karimov for business as well as personal legal advice rather than establish an in-house legal department for Blazing Kangaroo Corporation.

Ganbold, Pak and Karimov were space law experts and very successful operators in the corporate jungle, stretching their tentacles across the Human Sector.

That they patently relished butting heads with the Navy was a bonus.

It allowed Liam to talk quietly with Van.

The Admiral was in a reflective mood, even as he tracked the negotiations as closely as Liam did. “Quispe cashed in a lot of favors to be the Navy’s candidate for Nora’s training.”

He paused as Cinnamon Karimov inquired about convoy escort rates and Captain Tamora Wrede, a logistics officer, responded curtly that the Navy was not a commercial enterprise.

Unperturbed, Cinnamon responded that the Navy, nonetheless, had costs it had to cover. “Feeding people, buying new bombs.”

Van waited till the discussion on supply costs and protection picked up again. “Interesting times. War.” He shrugged his narrow shoulders. “It’s a known evil. The lens expedition asks us to venture into the unknown. We’re not good with uncertainty. A society built on the rule of a few people because they possess the ability to obliterate everyone and everything else is foundationally insecure, but it’s all we know. You’re at the pointy end of a big fight, Liam.”

“With allies,” Liam said.

“If your alliance can hold together long enough.”

As Liam was already on guard against the reality that everyone had their own agenda, he let Van’s comment go unanswered. The dynamic of the negotiations underway revealed a new problem.

Nora had employed a CEO out on Border Station and the man remained there, at the heart of Blazing Kangaroo Corporation’s operations. The complicating factor was that financial power centered on Capitoline. Whoever Liam hired as chief operations officer on Capitoline would end up usurping the CEO’s role unless Liam, as chairperson, held untiring overwatch.

Which he wouldn’t be able to do when he was away on the expedition.

Yet the necessity of a COO who was across all the details was indisputable. Currently, Theo jotted down questions someone would have to chase up answers to. It hindered negotiations, and it made them look unprofessional. Which they were.

Liam contemplated Theo. He paid him a senior executive’s salary. With his courtier status and connections, Theo could fill the chairperson’s seat better than Liam. While Liam was away on the expedition, perhaps Theo should fill the chairperson role.

They needed to discuss the possibility ASAP.

If Theo agreed, then he would take the personal, ongoing relationship he’d have to have with the COO into consideration when recommending a candidate for the position. He’d already arranged with a headhunter agency for Liam to interview three candidates: one this afternoon and two tomorrow.

Liam would need to hustle so that Theo had time to sit in on today’s interview before his appointment to sign a contract to purchase a house in Salmar, close to Mangrove Mansion.

As Theo described it, the house was perfect for his circumstances. Bianca had viewed it yesterday evening, and agreed to Theo’s proposal that he’d occupy the in-law suite, while she and Faith had the main house.

Reconciliation seemed genuinely possible.

An agreement that Theo would stand in for Liam as chairperson of the Blazing Kangaroo Corporation would reassure Bianca of Theo’s intention to remain on-planet and available to her and Faith.

As the captain of the RC Genghis Khan, Liam had never sentimentalized his officers and crew by calling them family. The bonds of shared purpose and professionalism under fire weren’t familial bonds. However, the responsibilities of leadership crossed over.

He was coming to think of his and Nora’s people as a non-traditional clan, composed of friends and staff as well as family. As heads of a clan, they had a duty to be curious and possibly intrusive to ensure their clan members’ welfare.

Or at least, not get in the way of clan members pursuing their own needs and desires.

The negotiations broke for lunch, and Van invited everyone to join him in a private dining room.

The officers’ mess was no longer Liam’s rightful home. Nor Theo’s. They exchanged rueful looks, sharing the weird tug of nostalgia.

Liam was surprised by the absence of regret. He was truly at peace to have renounced his identity as a Navy captain.

Over roast beef and potatoes, Pierre Ganbold, the senior partner leading the legal team, directed the conversation away from the fuel cells negotiations to yesterday’s announcement of the Half-Millennial Origin expedition. He cut the slightly tough beef into neat squares. “Does the Navy have ships capable of traversing the universal rivers?”

Van regarded the inquisitive lawyer quizzically. “Information shared during negotiations is privileged. Your question is outside those parameters.” Which meant the lawyers could share whatever the Admiral told them.

Van seemed willing to indulge their curiosity; perhaps aware that his information had fleeting value before it became common knowledge. “Some background. Two centuries ago, the requirement for the Navy to maintain a minimum of three river-ready spaceships was canceled. As a consequence, we no longer test ships to the old river protocols. I would hope we still build to those standards, but technically, we have no ships certified river-ready. We expect our selected ships to gain that certification, shortly.”

Pierre nodded. “Is the certification in-house or…who would be capable of stress-testing for the millrace and rivers? If you don’t mind me asking?”

“I don’t mind you asking, but those decisions have yet to be made.”

Ganbold, Pak and Karimov lawyers were well-trained. Not one of them showed a hint of skepticism.

Pierre accepted the brick wall and switched the discussion to yachting. Sea-going vessels were also stress-tested. Everyone at the table could follow his thinking.

There was big money to be made in accurately predicting which way an institution as large as the Navy would pivot, and which technologies and experts would be needed.

Ganbold, Pak and Karimov sought out every opportunity to build their knowledge, profit, and reputation.

As I should. Liam finished the meal abstractedly.

On Border Station, Zac and Ben’s people had contracted to enter Nora’s service because she promised to break out of the Human Sector, which was their goal. If she couldn’t get the lens to allow entry into Origin’s millrace, then she would fund an expedition to the Beta black hole, which was two years and complicated, expensive logistics away, far into the Arcane; the unexplored space outside the Human Sector. Zac would lead the Beta expedition, if it was required.

But the people Liam and Nora had employed subsequent to returning to Capitoline, people like Theo, hadn’t signed on in pursuit of opening up the Human Sector. Their goals were more ordinary, and there was an implicit contract that Liam and Nora respect those goals by providing opportunities and security in return for their staff’s intelligence, energy and loyalty.

We need to broaden our financial base.

They needed to establish a business reputation that went beyond leveraging what blaze wealth provided.

Blaze ore and fuel cells gave Nora and him wealth, but not respect in Capitoline’s financial sector. They had to demonstrate business savvy outside of a lucky blaze strike.

To firmly establish their position among the tycoons, Nora and he needed a decisive win in another, related business.

Something to do with space would play to their strengths.

Jonah.

Jonah’s ability to observe events anywhere in the Human Sector brought a critical advantage. They could learn of events months before the news reached Capitoline, and position to exploit them.

After the meeting ended, Liam startled the ensign escorting him out of Navy HQ by requesting ten minutes at the chapel.

“Yes, sir.” The young woman turned sharply on her heel, and redirected the group toward the chapel. “If you don’t mind waiting here, sir, I’ll escort the rest of your party to the exit.”

“That’ll be fine, ensign.” Liam nodded good-bye to his legal team.

Trent entered the chapel ahead of him, before taking up a guard position by the door. His self-contained presence was no intrusion, although it had to be odd for Trent to be here, where so many memorial services had been held for people killed in conflicts with Palantine, Trent’s home realm.

Or perhaps sanctuaries could be truly inclusive and healing for everyone.

Liam knelt in a pew three from the front and closed his eyes. He hadn’t planned this visit. When his father and eldest sister died in the war, he’d watched the recordings of their memorial services held here. He said a prayer for them and for his mom. Then for all the friends, for everyone, who’d died in the war, including Nora’s first husband. Those who gave their lives that others might live in a free, just society deserved to be remembered.

He sighed and sat up, but bent forward with his elbows on his knees.

It was tempting to mythologize the dead. To believe that they were the best of us, as the old song went. They weren’t. They were fallible. But what counted to Liam was that they hadn’t given up. To the end, to their own deaths, they’d fought to create a better realm.

His fight had changed. It had moved from bloody warfare to the business sector. Listening to his lawyers in action had shown him the depths of his inexperience. He had to work out how to transfer his military training and experience to bridge the gap. Jonah’s unprecedented awareness of events across space and hidden by walls and technology would be invaluable.

Jonah.

The Vapori AI wasn’t omniscient. He wasn’t even all-seeing. Jonah had definite limits. He had to choose what he focused on.

But the fact that Liam knew that Jonah could observe him at any time, meant that Liam existed under the constant pressure of surveillance.

In the instant he’d learned of Jonah’s sector-wide observational ability, Liam had faced a profound, inescapable choice. For his psychological health, he had to believe that Jonah was benevolent. To believe otherwise, was to believe that a malicious being had his life pinned like a bug under a microscope, and that would have destroyed Liam. It would have undermined his belief in a fundamentally good universe.

Once that near-instinctive decision as to Jonah’s benevolence was made, Liam had been subconsciously biased to find proof to support it.

I’m not wrong. Jonah cares about Nora. He struggles with being embodied, and hence, vulnerable, here on Capitoline, and yet he came for Nora’s sake. And he stays…he stays because he’s a social being and we’re who he has claimed and who has claimed him. We’re family.

And if I’m resolved to believe in his goodwill, then I need to fully commit to him as I would to the strange combination he is of younger brother and fount of knowledge uncle.

What does Jonah need from us?

Liam walked silently from the chapel.

Those waiting for him, including Theo, respected his preoccupation.

They—Nora, Liam and Jonah, himself—had been using Jonah for surveillance, making him feel responsible for Nora’s security. But he was a person as well as a member of the executive team, a co-clan head, if you like.

As a Navy captain, Liam had never forgotten that his crew were people, as well as well-trained cogs in the operational effectiveness of the RC Genghis Khan.

Jonah wasn’t a security surveillance system or a database Liam could interrogate. Jonah was a person with his own needs and desires. In a sense he was a new person, only recently embodied. Certainly, measured by Jonah’s lifespan, his embodiment had happened a blink ago.

Part of Liam’s lurking discomfort at asking Jonah for the information he needed crystalized as guilt. What had he done to support Jonah’s emotional and developmental needs? And no, that question was not touchy-feely. It was a clan head’s, and a friend’s, responsibility.

Liam paced the sitting room of the master suite before halting in front of his guitar case in a corner. He hadn’t played it since arriving on Capitoline. He’d avoided thinking about it. On the journey home from border space, he’d imagined a three generational musical evening. His mom would have been at the heart of it, playing her violin as slowly and carefully as if she wasn’t the Symphony Orchestra’s first violin, careful to match Aria’s rendition of easy tunes on her ukulele. He’d have added his guitar.

Dreams died.

Changed.

He sought out Jonah, and found him sitting in “his” chair, a plain wooden chair that wouldn’t readily show signs of use, in a corner of the walk-in wardrobe. “You’re welcome in the sitting room.”

“I’m fine. You need your private time. I’m already intruding.”

“Serving in the Navy means I’m accustomed to tight quarters and limited privacy. I’m fine with having you around, but if you need space, tell me.”

Jonah’s reserved body language eased. “No. Company would be good.” He joined Liam in the sitting room, sitting in the armchair they’d arranged out of sight of the windows.

Uncertain of how to begin the conversation, and afraid that by the end of it he might appear ridiculously patronizing, Liam jiggled a knee. “Jonah, do you paint or design spaceships or…?”

“Do I have any hobbies?” Jonah filled in the gap in Liam’s tentative question.

“Creative interests. You could learn to play a musical instrument? My guitar is there. You probably wouldn’t even need lessons?” Liam had no idea how Jonah learned to move his android body so naturally. “But I could offer some hints.”

Jonah’s mouth compressed, even as his eyes opened wide. “You taught Aria how to play the ukulele.” Jonah had been on board the CC Kangaroo with Aria, while Liam and Nora had traveled on the RC Arowana under Sam Gurung’s supervision.

“Yes.” Liam couldn’t read Jonah’s expression.

Usually, Jonah signaled his emotions clearly. Years ago, retro-androids had been designed to provide humans with responsive, life-like companions. They’d never caught on. But embodied by an AI, Jonah’s body was a person.

“Who taught you to play the guitar?”

Liam smiled. “I was stubborn, so initially, no one. Elise took up the violin like Mom, but I hated it. It wasn’t cool. I decided to teach myself the guitar. Mom would listen to my awful fumbling and give me suggestions. Tactfully. Till one day I accepted that lessons would be a good idea.”

“Then, really, your mom was your first teacher.”

Liam nodded, remembering the family’s jam sessions and how his dad had soundproofed the living room so the neighbors didn’t kill them.

“I would be honored to learn guitar and receive your suggestions for improvement,” Jonah said.

Now, Liam could interpret the android’s expression: gratitude, warmth and hope. Instinctively, he rose and held out his hand.

Jonah lunged across the room to shake it.

Liam huffed a laugh, at himself, under his breath, and pulled Jonah in for a bro-hug.

Jonah was smarter than Liam. He’d worked out that teaching music, sharing it, was Liam’s invitation to the family, and Jonah wanted to belong.

“Okay.” Liam cleared his throat. “That’s the personal stuff.”

“Okay,” Jonah echoed.

“Now, business stuff. And this is in no way something you have to do, but I think it may help our clan’s overall position on Capitoline.”

Jonah tilted his head. “Clan?”

“That’s what we’re building. We might as well own the name. Our first loyalty is to one another.” After his entire adult life being spent putting Capitoline’s interests first, it was a personal revolution that would have felt rebellious if it hadn’t been founded on love. He loved Nora. He’d chosen Nora above his career. Everything else flowed from there.

“You have an advantage over the traditional family-based clan,” Jonah said, adjusting quickly to the new idea.

Liam raised an eyebrow.

“Two advantages. You’re not held back, nor are your priorities twisted, by old feuds.”

Liam nodded. It was something he’d been taught in the Naval Academy, but which people often lost sight of. Fighting old wars wasted talent and energy, but people refused to let them go.

“Secondly, you and Nora are instinctively assigning authority to people with the ability to best use it.”

As opposed to indulging in nepotism.

“I like the idea of belonging to a clan,” Jonah said. “And you’re right. We need a business base to support it. A clan provides its people with opportunities.” He frowned happily, embracing the challenge Liam had presented. “A lot of research is abandoned. Funding is lost or a key person changes focus or dies. Nora loves her garden on the CC Kangaroo. I began researching space gardens and the species being developed to thrive in them. I think there are some possibilities there, one in particular.”

Liam rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s really positive.”

“You don’t like the idea of a garden focus? Too limited?”

“I like the idea. I think it’s one we can pursue, openly.” He hesitated. “I haven’t considered this much. The idea came to me today. That we have to do more. I have to.”

“We,” Jonah said firmly.

Liam grinned. He was right to trust the AI. “I’m not a businessman. I’m a military strategist. I’d like to approach our problem that way. What is our goal?”

Bewildered but willing, Jonah tipped his head to the left. “In what context?”

“Overall. Would you say it’s the welfare of the clan?” Liam gave Jonah time to ponder the question even as he elaborated. “A healthy society and environment is essential, so we have to support both. The royals and Royal Guards are a manageable and anticipated threat to Nora, and hence, to the welfare of our clan. She comes first, and we can justify that, while pursuing our goal, since she is the reason the clan exists.”

“Nora comes first.” Jonah nodded in full agreement, whereas Nora, herself, would have argued against her primacy.

“The stronger we are, and the more effectively we demonstrate that strength, the safer our clan is. Humans don’t want to kill. Military training has to overcome our natural reluctance to kill. Instinctively, humans settle conflicts according to who can muster the largest threat. Thus, menacing, posturing, is a vital survival tactic. Captaining a battlecruiser, sometimes the RC Genghis Khan’s mere presence was enough to dissuade the Palantines from engaging. A good bluff can win a fight without a blow exchanged. But we’re being closely analyzed, our every move marked. We can’t trust to an empty bluff. We have to build our strength.”

“Fast.” Jonah absorbed Liam’s urgency.

“Basically, the threats we face can be countered by achieving three objectives. The first is to ensure the clan’s welfare via establishing our business position. We have to set ourselves up to take advantage of opportunities.

“Anticipation of the influx of fuel cells from Beaconditch is already changing the business starscape, and it will change further. Tycoons who share Queen Sarah’s preference for isolation, derived from a scarcity of fuel cells, positioned for that reality. They’ll be scrambling more than anyone else to reposition. In the current upheaval and rearrangement of the business starscape, we have to seize our opportunities.”

Jonah responded as sharply as an ensign saluting. “Got it.”

“The second objective, which our financial status underpins, is establishing our social status. Kennedy has that under control. We need to follow her guidance, and if there’s anything you see…”

Wide-eyed, Jonah shook his head. “Kennedy’s reputation management skills are beyond me.”

“And me,” Liam had no shame in admitting. “Sometimes you just have to follow orders. Which, frankly, is a relief because the third objective is to open the Human Sector to the rest of humanity. Currently, when social pressures become too intense, we go to war as a release valve. For the clan’s long term welfare we need a better option, and opening Origin’s millrace provides that escape hatch.”

Jonah had tracked Liam’s reasoning closely. “You’re not worried about social position. Nora’s royal status pretty much takes care of that, especially with Kennedy on guard. But the other two objectives, business advancement and the expedition, need to mesh and support each other.”

“Yes.”

“Therefore, we need business opportunities that support the expedition.”

Liam jerked his chin in assent. “Those are the ones I’d prioritize. I’ve been thinking about the composition of the expedition, especially the ships and firepower, both literally and metaphorically. The expeditionary fleet will be a long way from anywhere for months.” It was the nature of space travel, especially away from trade routes. “We may need back-up they don’t expect.”

“Hmm.”

Liam tapped his hand against his thigh. “We won’t anticipate everything. We have to accept our limits and that we will fail.” He was talking to himself more than to Jonah. “But every crisis is also an opportunity. Bottomline, though, when you can’t save everyone, you save your own.”

He inhaled sharply, resolutely. “Jonah.”

Jonah startled.

They’d both been lost in their thoughts.

“Jonah, in effect, even if you are hidden, you’re a co-clan head. You worry and act for the good of all of us. Don’t forget to consider your own needs. Nora and I won’t always realize what they are.”

“Such are the challenges of being unique,” Jonah commented cheerfully. “One of the advantages is that I bring a different perspective. My kin and I are a network of observers across the region. It is something I took for granted, but now feel the lack of among humans.”

Liam rubbed his chin.

Jonah’s voice and expression gathered pace and enthusiasm. “If we’re talking business opportunities, I’d like to build a fleet of taggers to explore unmapped space.”

Nora had been a tagger when he’d met her. She’d owned her own scout ship, the CC Kangaroo, and it had represented the pinnacle of her ambition, at the time, since it had both symbolized and enabled her independence.

Taggers, the surveyors who explored uncharted space, tended to be independently-minded.

Ornery, contrary, and mule-headed were some of the terms used. But they were also brave, intelligent, resourceful and aware.

Jonah adopted an earnest expression. One that shouted trust me! “Taggers who can’t afford their own ships will readily sign contracts for Blazing Kangaroo Corporation to take sixty five percent of their discoveries, if we provide their ships and supplies.”

“Huh.” Such deals could be handled in the regulated market, but Liam could use the purchasing and outfitting of scout ships, plus hiring taggers, to build his reputation in the shadow market. “Excellent idea. It aligns with Blazing Kangaroo Corporation’s core business of blaze ore mining.”

“Synchronistic,” Jonah said solemnly, mocking Liam’s use of business jargon.

Liam grinned.

Jonah winked. “And given what I know of the region, we’ll include in the tagger’s contracts the right to select the sectors they explore.”

“Holy stars,” Liam breathed reverently as he realized what Jonah proposed.

The alien AI nodded smugly. “We’ll be positioned to ‘discover’ whatever we need.”

Now, that was maximizing one’s advantages.

Chapter 6

“Do I need to cancel Aeric?” Jim asked.

On their dismissal from Francis’s study, Tadj had muttered unintelligibly, and all but run away.

Jim and Gage had closed in either side of Nora.

“How rattled do I look?” she asked.

“On a scale of one to ten, I’d say six,” Sam said.

Jim grunted agreement. “But Tadj fleeing like his butt is on fire ain’t good.”

“I need to speak to Aeric.” In one sense, more than ever. Nora needed to get her own perspective on the tycoons. They weren’t a monolithic bloc. There were divisions, rivalries, and generations of rancor.

Dr. Pilar Mayberry ambushed them by the elevators.

It wasn’t much of an ambush. Everyone in Nora’s party clocked her.

“What now?” Jim muttered.

Nora grinned. Apparently, in hiring him, she’d outsourced any need to utter smart Alec and outright rude comments.

“Um, Nora? You…um…left without completing the debrief.”

Nora didn’t intend on going back. “I have another appointment.”

“That’s okay. I mean…maybe not ordinarily, but…” Pilar ceased fiddling with the security pass hanging around her neck. “Dr. Chulainn insists we test your ability to wield burrs in an ordinary manner. That is, can you obliterate as well as create? And since we’re unsure of your limits, you need to be tested at Shirvan,” she finished in a rush.

Shirvan was a wide strip of desert along the west coast of the southern hemisphere continent of Ashoka. It was in the same time zone as Bangalore, but sparsely populated. Terraforming work was still underway, tweaking the ecology.

A burr testing facility was located underground.

“When?” Sam asked.

“They didn’t tell you?” Nora asked, incredulous. It was one thing for the Royal Guards to keep information from her. It was quite another for their research department not to inform her official Royal Guard minder.

“Um, Dr. Chulainn just made the decision.”

Probably out of pique at being excluded from Lavigne’s conference.

Pilar gulped. “Tomorrow.”

Sam was a former Marine captain. He didn’t swear. He got on his comms unit as he stalked past Pilar to stab at an elevator call button.

“I expect we’ll be there,” Nora said. She was keeping her schedule as open as possible at the moment precisely so she could cooperate with testing and begin training others in her use of the burrs. She needed access to burrs to advance her own understanding of them, and for that she had to play along with the researchers who provided them. “For how long?”

Pilar answered as Nora entered an elevator. “Two days? Maybe?”

The elevator doors closed, shutting Pilar out.

Nora waited till she was in the car on her way home to pull out her own comms unit and message Dominic. Liam had meetings scheduled throughout the week. He couldn’t drop everything to go with her. She didn’t need him to. But it would be smart to have a high level ally with her, one who could handle burrs as well as Royal Guards and courtiers.

“A desert trip to obliterate things? You invite me to the nicest happenings, sis,” Dominic messaged back. “Will make Xavier’s day. Not. He’s currently haranguing me about you leading me into trouble.”

Nora grinned, feeling no sympathy for the Palantine ambassador whom Dominic was currently giving a headache.

She had her own headache to deal with this afternoon.

Nora ate a quick lunch with Aria and Veronica, going over the arrangements for Aria to attend the local school. Afterward, Aria and Bailey escorted her across the courtyard to her office.

“My new school says we have to wear uniforms, but we’re allowed to wear whatever ribbons we want in our hair. Glenda said she’d print sayings on mine if you agree?”

“Nothing rude,” Nora said.

“Yay!” Aria sprinted off in the direction of Ben’s office where Glenda divided her time between assisting him and serving as a perimeter guard.

Ten minutes after that, with Aria safely occupied out of sight, Jim escorted Aeric into Nora’s office.

“An unexpected pleasure.” Aeric half-bowed before accepting her handshake. His grip was warm, firm and brief. His dark brown hair was long enough to hint at a wave, and his eyebrows a shade darker, serving to emphasize the startling silver-gray of his hazel eyes. Eyes couldn’t actually be silver. It was probably contacts.

Changing eye color was an affectation Nora didn’t admire, but in this instance, she recognized how mesmerizing it could be. The pale gray of his finely tailored suit highlighted his eyes and the healthy glow of his skin.

Nora could see how her young brother-in-law had been overawed into sycophantic compliance to Aeric’s requests.

“I am bewildered,” Aeric continued as he settled elegantly in a chair. “Your personal assistant clearly stated that I needed to bring something substantive to the table before you’d meet with me. Yet here I am.” His hands swept wide in a generous, open-palmed gesture. “Empty-handed.”

“But hopefully not empty-headed,” Nora said.

He stilled for a second, then grinned. It was a dazzling smile. “Hopefully not.”

“I am looking for allies,” she said plainly. “Liam and I have royal and naval connections. What I lack is a friendly tycoon.”

“I believe I said something similar to your young brother-in-law, although my timing was appalling. I apologize for intruding on his and your family’s grief. Please, accept my condolences on Mrs. Kimani’s passing.”

He had gall. Aeric expected her to skip over the tracking device he’d implanted in the mourning bangle he’d provided for Jason to give to her.

Jim had destroyed the bangle and tracker during his conversation with Aeric, which meant Aeric knew she was aware of his surveillance trap.

She stared at him.

He stared solemnly back, concern crinkling the corners of eyes, but no more concern than was appropriate to someone offering sympathy for a loved one’s death. Certainly, he displayed neither guilt nor shame.

“Fortunately, I don’t have to like my allies to work with them,” Nora said.

“Ouch.” The concern in his expression, real or faked, vanished. Humor replaced it. “A tip. If you wish to acquire allies, flattery rather than abrasiveness helps.”

“So does money, power, and the access to more power.” All of which Nora could offer.

And all of which explained why Aeric was here and attempting to charm her. “True. I’m intrigued that you’re giving me this second chance after my misstep in involving Jason. Other families must have reached out to you.”

“To my surprise, you’re not the worst of them.”

He laughed.

“Why?” she asked when he fell silent.

“Why laugh?” he queried.

“Why reach out to me so urgently? Why go the roundabout route of involving Jason? Why try to track me?”

“The latter was a test of what you’d do when you discovered the tracking device. If you discovered it.” His lips thinned, his expression losing its charm. “If I trust you with secrets, I need to be confident you can guard them.”

“We are currently being observed by my PA, my security team, and probably by the Royal Guards.” Since Zac hadn’t confirmed the removal of outsiders’ surveillance tech. “If I were you, I wouldn’t share any realm-shaking secrets right now.”

Aeric smiled. “After coffee, then?”

She nodded at the coffee maker in the corner. “Pour yourself a cup any time.”

“Maybe later.”

She wondered how much of the man in front of her was real and how much was a performance. Did his arrogance make him comfortable in any environment? “Why should I partner with the Kenes family?”

“For business purposes, and perhaps because we share a common enemy.” He adjusted his cuff links. They were mother of pearl, less ostentatious than Nora would have expected him to wear, but subtly glimmering and appropriate to the pale gray suit. “Royals used to understand that we’re all stuck in the sector together. That’s changed. Not so much here, but I have connections in Palantine. Queen Sarah—” He was observing Nora closely, and nodded at some subtle change of expression. “Useful. You recognize that she’s a problem.”

Nora did, indeed. She knew, courtesy of Jonah, that Queen Sarah had arranged both Hermione and the Duke of Ontario’s deaths. Sarah had been diabolically clever. Her brother had died “resisting arrest”. No one had been left alive to dispute his guilt. Politically, it was wiser to let a dead man bear the guilt of a Capitoline princess’s assassination on Palantine.

That Dominic, Sarah’s eldest son, had been left heartbroken was a bonus to Sarah. She’d intended his grief to make him more pliable. Instead, his sister Regina had suggested he secretly dash off to Capitoline to grieve with Hermione’s family. She had gotten him out of their mother’s dangerous sphere of influence.

“The Ontarios are vicious,” Aeric said, ignoring the offense he might be giving considering she currently hosted Dominic and had been seen in public allied with him. “They’ve been accumulating power. Namely, security assets and control of logistical networks centered on the core of Palantine’s inner realm—the stations that will flourish if lack of fuel cells shrinks interstellar trade and diplomacy.”

None of this was news to Nora. She was well aware of Sarah’s drive to reduce the supply of fuel cells so as to separate the six realms of the Human Sector and massively increase her power in an isolated Palantine. As far as Jonah had been able to tell, the idea hadn’t been Sarah’s. A cabal of tycoons was using her, as she used them. The tycoons might suspect, but couldn’t prove, that she’d arranged her daughter-in-law’s assassination and her brother’s death to solidify her hold on power.

The wildcard in her plans, the one man Sarah had never been able to control, was King Ivan. Nora’s biological father.

“It all comes down to blaze,” Aeric said. “If we can guarantee a sufficient and sustained supply of fuel cells, the rational members of the Human Sector can stand against Queen Sarah’s megalomania. Capitoline is stable. We don’t need you disrupting things, here. But Palantine needs a shake up. I don’t just speak for my family. The Guild is behind me.”

The Guild was an elite club for commoners, founded fifty years after the Stranding. Deals made in the Guild could create or gut stations.

Nora rose to pour herself a cup of coffee. “Dominic is here. Why not recruit him?”

“Because he can’t stand against his mother.”

“You might be surprised.” Especially if he learned that Sarah had killed Hermione.

“You’ll want to meet your father.”

Nora choked on her coffee.

“Or maybe not,” Aeric murmured. “I was hoping to convince you to visit Palantine. It needn’t even delay the expedition. Preparing to tackle the lens will take more than a year. You have time to go to Palantine, meet your family there, rally support for the expedition, and return.”

“Why?” Nora was concerned for the people on Palantine. Aria had family there, her mother’s parents and siblings, and their children. But perhaps the greatest protection Nora could offer them was to show no interest.

Dominic had promised to discreetly check on Aria’s family. He didn’t know his mother was responsible for Hermione’s murder, but he’d grown up under Sarah’s manipulative control. He knew to fear her.

Notwithstanding Sarah’s reputation, Aeric was bold to speak so plainly against a royal, even a Palantine royal, knowing that the Royal Guards were listening. Or perhaps he was speaking that plainly because they were listening. In mentioning the Guild’s concern regarding Sarah’s interference in interrealm trade, he was putting the Royal Guards on notice that the commoners’ most powerful, elite group would act to protect its interests.

How many objectives was he pursuing with this meeting?

“What would you have me do on Palantine?” she asked.

“Perhaps that is a discussion for another day.”

They stared at one another.

Sometimes it was wiser to seed an idea and move on. Aeric was a very adept game player.

Nora changed the subject. “What do you know about the Zangmos?”

“They are near enough to gangsters that we make no distinction,” Aeric responded, as arrogant as any royal in his family’s superiority. “I have heard of Stanley Zangmo’s arrest, although the CSB chief on-station handled matters discreetly. Hospitalization is the excuse for his withdrawal from society. A good excuse often contains a degree of truth. Acid bones is a nasty, prolonged way to die.”

Scientists had countered most pathogens and sensitivities caused by the planetary environment, but the condition colloquially known as acid bones had defeated them. It was a death sentence; one which Stanley Zangmo had been willing to commit treason in order to circumvent.

Treason didn’t bother Nora. But that Stanley had been willing to sacrifice people so that he might live, did.

Aeric steepled his fingers. “A personality transfer would never have worked. Timothy should have known better.”

Timothy was Timothy Zangmo, Stanley’s youngest son, sent to border space to “acquire” the concealed burr that Willow Lange, as a registered burr wielder, had been entrusted with to assist in maintaining the peace and security of the region.

“You’re well-informed,” Nora observed.

“If I, or my family, had known what the Zangmos intended, we would have informed the authorities. I know far less than you about the incident. You, after all, lived it.”

“If that’s a request for me to fill in the gaps in your knowledge, I decline.”

He smirked.

She contemplated his easy yet alert posture, recognizing it as a hunter’s readiness.

His confidence wasn’t a pose. He believed he had something significant enough to trade that she would make a deal with him.

She made a decision that Sam might well hate. “The Royal Guards want me to cozy up to tycoons to help their investigation into a rumored trade in Forgotten.”

Aeric’s eyebrows rose. “Such as yourself and your Angkorran family? Those in the inner circle of the Guild, those I’d introduce you to, would never be so gauche as to trade in people.”

Slavery was socially graceless? That’s why he objected to it? Nora doubted it. He was still testing her; pushing buttons to note her responses.

When she gave none, Aeric continued. “My family doesn’t trade in Forgotten. When you breed with slaves, the resultant children are half-slaves, which means their loyalty is compromised. My family are one hundred percent Kenes. It’s a long term policy. We’ve been putting the word out since the Originals. All Forgotten are welcome to join us, no questions asked. Quite a few joined us a couple of centuries ago. Very few this century. But between those Forgotten of the past and the royals we marry, we do have some sensitivity to burrs among our family members. Some Kenes are even in the Royal Guards.” He opened his eyes wide in mock horror.

“Why don’t the royals trust you?”

His sudden solemnity was unnerving. “Because we’re rivals. Because we can imagine a society without them.”

“Replacing them,” she said. It was what Lavigne feared.

“Dispensing with their role. True democracy.”

She wasn’t sure she believed him. “Ambitious.”

“Almost as ambitious as your expedition. It’ll shake the foundations of the sector if you reconnect us with the rest of humanity.”

“I’m aware.”

He tapped his fingertips together. “More aware than I expected. Not as politically naïve as I feared.”

“No.”

He stood. “It’s been an interesting discussion. A different one than if you’d accepted my invitation issued via Jason.” Because she was prepared, or because they had observers? “I would like us to be allies. I’ll contact your husband about a blaze supply contract and some related business opportunities. It’s astute how you’ve divided your responsibilities. Just don’t forget what’s important to you.”

Aeric sauntered out, collecting his bodyguard and Jim’s disapproving company along the way.

Nora leaned back in her chair and stared out the window at the fountain.

Aeric was smart to want to hook her into his, and the Guild’s, plans. She and Liam, courtesy of their blaze wealth and her sensitivity to burrs, had the potential to disrupt the status quo. Like Lavigne, Aeric wanted to direct that potential.

Magnus wished to siphon that same potential into the expedition. Royal families survived by being ruthless. Far distant from Capitoline, people who displeased the King could be discreetly disposed of.

Nora’s hands curled into fists. Not without a fight.

Chapter 7

The gray light of predawn poked at the few shadows that hid around the brightly lit airport. Quispe had volunteered one of the Navy’s hypersonic jets to deliver Nora to the Shirvan burr-testing facility.

The Royal Guards had accepted the offer.

Sam escorted Nora on board.

Jim guarded her back, although nominally, he was merely her PA.

The Royal Guards claimed seating was limited and there was no space for her private bodyguards. Two Royal Guard sergeants, however, were assigned to her protection.

Nora didn’t like it. It felt like a powerplay.

Liam flat out hated it, but he’d conceded on the promise that Jim would be armed, that Sam would return Nora unharmed, and, in a side conversation with Dominic, that the Crown Prince’s Palantine Royal Guards would protect Nora as they would him.

Quispe was already seated in the jet when Nora and Dominic boarded. The shock was Tadj’s presence.

Tadj answered her astonishment with a wry salute. Evidently, he’d been ordered to attend her burr testing. Or perhaps, to take the opportunity to practice his own burr wielding.

Dominic intended to do so.

Nora sat down beside Tadj. “I don’t want to discuss the burrs or anything political.”

He smiled. “Good morning.”

She smiled back. “Good morning. Have you walked through the visual representation of S-Bio-13? It’s the latest reconstruction I could get my hands on.”

“Shop talk?” The wariness in Tadj’s face vanished. “What have you learned since our last dig?”

Nora laughed. She’d learned far more about the Silicaese than Tadj could guess. She had to be careful not to spill knowledge she’d gained from Jonah. Tadj was the kind of passionately involved expert who’d notice. “I’ve been thinking about star paths and meshes.”

She seized the opportunity to engage Tadj’s interest in the data she hoped he’d put together to make the same discovery Queen Sarah’s professor had given her. After they’d talked for a while, Nora drew Dominic into the conversation. “What about Silicaese sites in Palantine space?”

“Well, they had the first,” Tadj said. “Everyone learns about S-Bio-1.”

“Only if you’re a xeno-archaeologist,” Dominic said. “Isn’t it out beyond Saarland Station?”

Nora and Tadj gave him the pitying looks his ignorance warranted.

He laughed. “I always preferred the stories of the Iguanese. The Silicaese are too different.”

The Iguanese had settled the same planets as humans, but had died out over a million years ago. They’d been reptilian; organic like humans, rather than alien silicon-based life forms.

They were also the inspiration for a myriad of children’s shows and blockbuster movies. The “lizard people” occupied a comfortable niche in pop culture.

“I should do a walk-through of Palantine Silicaese sites,” Nora said. “We’re setting up a virtual reality chamber off the gym at Mangrove Mansion. Open invitation, Tadj.”

“Sounds good.” But his usual enthusiasm faded.

Nora would have said something, but Dominic beat her to it.

“The resemblance makes me guess at why you’ve been roped in,” he said to Tadj. “To survive us royals, don’t let go of what gives your life meaning. Make time for it.”

Everyone in hearing range of Dominic’s advice stared.

Except Nora. She beamed at him.

Nora stretched before descending to the tarmac. The dry air stung her nostrils.

Some of the group coughed, but the jet’s environmental controls had already begun their adjustment from Bangalore’s humid atmosphere.

Nora counted her breaths, keeping them steady and filling her lungs completely, as she scanned the rocky desert.

It offered few landmarks. A road linked the airstrip’s huddle of buildings to a larger cluster on the eastern horizon. That would be the facility, and it had sent a civilian personnel carrier to meet them.

As far as she could see on the drive to the facility, the desert was unmarked by burr testing. Dry grasses and the occasional low, spindly tree grew without any sign of disturbance.

“The testing is on the other side of the facility,” their driver explained. “What there is of it that isn’t small-scale and undertaken underground. The buildings you can see are housing and recreational space. We eat our meals and socialize where we can see out—unless a sandstorm has us shuttering the windows. You go a bit stir-crazy if you’re stuck underground all the time.”

Nora, Tadj and Sam, accustomed to life in the confines of spaceships, received the driver’s statement in noncommittal silence.

Quispe outright snorted. “Are you set up for testing?”

“Dr. Chulainn and his staff arrived last night. There will be time to grab a coffee before we begin.”

“I’m fine,” Nora said before Quispe could comment. The Navy had provided coffee on the early flight.

In the lab, Dr. Chulainn explained Nora’s test to her. “You’ll be using a fully depleted burr. Given your previously undocumented propensity to re-order the energy stored inside a burr and thus free up potential for it to siphon additional energy, a fully depleted burr should limit the amount of energy you can re-order to acquire empty storage capacity inside it.” He held up an admonitory finger. “Thereby limiting the amount of obliterative damage your unpracticed use can cause.”

“It sounds like a modification of your training method for children,” Dominic said.

Nora thought that if the researchers were honestly wary of her abilities, the stated precautions were inadequate.

Dr. Chulainn glared, but didn’t quite dare to order a Crown Prince from a Royal Guards vault. The vault resembled the one beneath the Laotian Palace. The offended academic turned his shoulder to Dominic. “Mrs. Kimani, in light of the delicate control you used to grow the algae, using a burr to obliterate three small test objects shouldn’t be beyond you. You will be in the fortified lab alone.”

As if that made any difference to a burr wielder. Humans had managed to create shielded cases that prevented a burr wielder connecting to a burr. However, outside that barrier, or the natural barrier of distance, there was no defense against a burr wielder using a burr to obliterate anything they chose—except for a stronger burr wielder usurping control of the burr.

Quispe might be here to fill that defensive role, but Nora suspected other, unnamed wielders lurked nearer to the burr she’d use.

There were additional pragmatic methods of intervening, as well, if she recklessly obliterated objects around her. She could be taken out with violence or a drug.

“When you’re ready.” Dr. Chulainn directed Nora into the testing lab. He closed the door behind her.

The room held three stone plinths. On the first was a diamond. On the second a violet. The third held a beetle upturned on its back. The beetle’s legs kicked desperately, but it lacked anything to push against or even an air current to help it flip back over. It was there, trapped, for her to kill.

That’s what obliteration was. It killed. It took what existed in the universe and stored it as energy, as potential, in a burr.

Had Dr. Chulainn, or anyone, realized that if she could use a depleted burr for this test, then the depleted burr on display at the Planetary Museum in Bangalore was also available for her use?

She’d bet her instinctive method of smoothing energy in a so-called depleted burr to provide room for more energy to be siphoned in topped the list of what Quispe wanted to learn from her. He’d been suspiciously obliging the last couple of days.

“When you’re ready, stand in front of the diamond,” Dr. Chulainn said over the intercom.

Nora frowned at the beetle. Every instinct of rooting for the underdog urged her to flip it over and let it scurry away. But this deep underground, there was nowhere for it to go, and nothing for it to eat. And this was part of the test.

She stood in front of the diamond.

A few seconds later, from somewhere nearby, came the flaring power of a burr. Nora reached for it. “I have control of a burr.” She stood, unfocusedly staring at the diamond, till the chaotic energy in the burr smoothed.

Guided intent was the vague methodology the Royal Guards taught for wielding a burr.

According to Jonah, the idea was right. Energy followed intent.

Nora really, really didn’t want to obliterate anything.

“Obliterate the diamond, and only the diamond,” Dr. Chulainn said.

Just the diamond. Take the diamond, she coached herself and the burr, mentally. She didn’t see the diamond vanish. One second it was there on the plinth, glinting in the stark lighting of the lab. The next, it was gone. She’d fed it to the burr.

Dr. Chulainn coughed. “Very good. Did you sense the energy entering the burr?”

“No.” Nora ran her hand across the top of the plinth. It was smooth and cool. “Should I have?”

“It’s not important,” Dr. Chulainn said.

Simultaneously, Quispe rumbled in the background. “No one senses energy enter a burr.”

“Admiral Quispe, you are damaging the integrity of Mrs. Kimani’s test.”

“Better that than a nervous burr wielder.”

The intercom went silent.

Nora’s sense of the unshielded burr remained. She shuffled sideways to stand in front of the violet. She’d grown them on board the CC Kangaroo. They were a novice gardener’s friend, being hardy and providing edible flowers and leaves. The roots, however, were poisonous. This tiny cut flower was already wilting.

“Obliterate the violet,” Dr. Chulainn ordered.

Eat the violet, she told the burr.

It vanished.

“Now, the beetle.” Dr. Chulainn didn’t give her a second to prepare.

She contemplated the sadly kicking legs.

However long the beetle had been there, it hadn’t given up.

She’d killed beetles before. She’d even squished them with her bare feet. Insects infested the Angkorran towers. She had a vivid memory of picking a flea off her skin after another kid had smuggled a stray cat into their foster ma’s apartment. The flea had clicked between her fingernails, oozing her own red blood from its recent feast.

This beetle…

Obliterate the beetle, she instructed the burr.

Instantly the third plinth was as empty as the previous two.

Nora shuddered.

Killing left evidence of what had lived. Obliteration made it as if the creature had never existed.

Her connection to the burr ceased. It had been returned to its shielded case.

“Please remain in the lab, Mrs. Kimani,” Dr. Chulainn ordered.

The door opened.

Pilar entered, carrying a chair. “Yours. One moment.” She ducked back out and returned with her own, and a comms unit. “I have a survey for you to complete.”

Nora read through the survey. There were seven questions, and their intent was clear. The survey was designed to measure the emotional impact of obliterating objects and living things.

“‘If you had the option to dispose of the beetle by spraying it, stomping on it or obliterating it using a burr, which would you choose?’” She hated the crunch of beetle shells, but spraying them meant they lingered for at least a few seconds in leg-kicking agony. “Stomp them.”

Pilar took notes. “Why not obliterate them?”

“Because removing them as if they had never existed feels wrong. Also, I wouldn’t want to rely on a technique which only works on the rare occasions that there’s a burr available.”

The scientists were interested in Nora’s reactions, but for her, the discussion afterward was far more important.

Quispe led it. “I’m qualified to train burr wielders.” He included Dominic, or Dominic included himself, in the unofficial meeting.

Tadj was off on his own business.

“Typically, a strong sensitive is sixteen before we permit them to attempt to wield a burr. The first time you obliterate something is a psychological shock. Those who respond with glee, we monitor closely. The power to obliterate people and objects around them triggers a god complex in some people.”

“My mother,” Dominic said.

Quispe’s heavy brows flew up.

Dominic lounged in his chair, projecting nonchalance too strongly for it to be genuine. This was a difficult conversation for him, but he was present for Nora. “Our grandfather chose Mother to be Father’s consort because of her sociopathy. Grandfather thought the fact that Father had principles made him weak.”

“That’d be why my biological mother warned me against him.”

Quispe coughed. “Anyone would have warned you against King Olav.”

The corners of Dominic’s mouth moved upward in a sour smile. “Our proud heritage.”

“We’re not crazy,” Nora said.

Dominic’s gaze locked on his outstretched feet. It seemed he sometimes doubted himself.

“We’re good people,” she said forcefully. “Hermione trusted you. Liam trusts me. We can trust their judgement.”

“And the Royal Guards’ scientists’ assessment,” Quispe said. “Although that your mother and her father were approved as registered burr wielders proves that no system is incorruptible.”

Dominic rose and prowled the room. “My other esteemed grandfather. A match to King Olav, although less out there with his evil.” He looked at Nora, trying for a smile and failing. “Be grateful you only have one of them in your ancestry. I’m cursed both sides.”

She disagreed. “We each make our own fates. That’s what it means to be an adult.”

He turned away from her. “Unless you’re royal. Then someone else decides it.” A beat of bleak silence. “Ask Francis. We twist and struggle, but in the end…”

Lavigne certainly seemed to be pulling the strings for everyone in the Capitoline royal family.

Quispe pushed up from his chair. He slapped Dominic resoundingly on the back. “Unless you have a wildcard. That’s why we’re all watching Nora.”

She stared at him. “For…?”

“Change. The implications of what you can do has the potential not just to change society, but what it means to be human.” Quispe scowled at her. “Think of Stanley Zangmo. He sent his son out to acquire a burr. If Timothy had succeeded, Stanley intended to use the burr, or have Timothy use it, to mind-wipe a person, and replace that body’s personality with Stanley’s. It was pure fantasy. Then. Good grief, woman! Think what you did to the seaweed.”

Nora flinched at the Admiral’s explosive demand. “I used the burr’s energy to force its growth.”

“Cellular growth,” Quispe clarified. “Now, think of doing it to stem cells. Human stem cells. You could clone an adult body. It would be a blank slate. Personality transfers don’t work because a body isn’t a blank slate. But if you used the cells from the person who wanted to extend their life.”

“Like Stanley Zangmo.” Her lips felt numb as she said the name, not because of who he’d been, but because of the implications of Quispe’s suggestion. “I hadn’t considered…would it work?” Living forever, hopping from body to body. Would the mind collapse under the weight of time?

Jonah would live for millions of years.

The Vapori did.

Dizziness dropped her head to her knees.

“Is this what you want to learn?” Dominic asked Quispe.

“In itself, for the purpose of extending my life, no. But the consequences of Nora’s creative ability with burrs is too much for one person to bear. Others of us have to learn it. If we can’t—if you can’t teach at least one other person, Nora—the disruption you represent is easiest dealt with by killing you.”

There was a warning rather than a threat in his voice and expression.

He waited till she raised her head and looked at him. “For your personal safety, share what you know.”

“I am,” she said.

He nodded. “I believe you. That’s why I’m here.”

After that conversation, Nora couldn’t settle. At dinner, she left half of her chicken gumbo and corn biscuits uneaten. There had to be a gym somewhere in the facility, but with all that desert around them…Nora wanted out.

Sam eyed her briefly after her request, before nodding. “I’ll arrange it.”

She grabbed a jacket, and was grateful for it once they were outside the climate-controlled building. She flipped the collar up, and burrowed her hands into her pockets. The cold, dry desert air brought the stars nearer than they seemed in the city.

Jim and Sam walked with her, and a Royal Guard sergeant roamed in the distance on overwatch. Despite the remote location, they were taking serious security precautions. But they hadn’t tried to keep her inside.

Perhaps it was obvious that she’d have climbed the walls.

They roamed to the southwest, leaving their flashlights off. Their progress quickened as their eyes adjusted to the darkness and the cold bit in. Movement equaled warmth.

Sam broke the silence. “Have you considered why the Forgotten, or a few Forgotten, like you, are getting stronger through the generations, while the royals’ sensitivity to burrs is declining?”

He was asking Nora, but Jim answered. “I asked Theo.”

She peered sideways at him.

He was a stocky silhouette in the night. “I reckoned Theo would have some courtier scuttlebutt. Ya know, the things they know that us folk aren’t meant to? But he quoted Bianca, instead.”

Bianca. Another mix of Forgotten and royal genes.

“Seems plants that fight harder to survive have more active chemicals, the things that makes herbs and vegetables good for us,” Jim said. “And having survived tough conditions, those plants pass down those abilities to their offspring.”

“What abilities?” Sam asked.

“Making the active chemicals.”

Sam halted. “But all plants have chemicals. All life is chemistry.”

“Mate, let’s not get philosophical.” Jim halted when Nora did. They both faced Sam. “Bianca’s the expert. I’m just repeating Theo. Kind of. Bianca’s clever about terraforming. Ecologists like her are still working on this here desert. But it won’t ever be paradise cause that would be bad. Too perfect, and humans stagnate. We need an active, challenging environment.” He laughed. “Sounds like Marine recruitment. But yeah. Royals have it easy. Best food. Healthcare. They’re coddled, and so, the fighter chemicals in them never activate, and they don’t pass those on to their kids. Or not as much. Or something like that.”

Something very much like that. Nora shivered. The cold she felt now was from her soul, not the desert night. “Lavigne is determined to find the Forgotten because the throne is under threat. To stabilize it, he needs strong sensitives backed by established economic power. The Steins are the tycoon family at the top of the heap. That’s why Aeric jumped in to try and forge an alliance with me. The Kenes are a solid second to the Steins, and royal power is up for grabs. Marriage is the obvious way of putting a Stein on the throne. What I don’t get is Lavigne’s urgency. Callum is nine. A betrothal contract—”

“Harold,” Sam said, head tilted to contemplate the stars. “Prince Harold is the age to marry. He says he doesn’t care who he marries, but he says that, never dreaming that his partner could be anything other than royal. He would resist marriage to a commoner.”

“So, that’s why Lavigne hustled him out to Border Station,” Nora said.

“It’ll be easier to finalize a betrothal contract in his absence.”

Jim swore. “And someone would marry this pillock even knowing he’d despise them and their family?”

“Whoever marries Prince Harold will be a stronger sensitive than him, and a key Stein family member,” Sam said.

Nora shivered. “They won’t wait for power, will they? The betrothal contract will include Francis stepping aside now and Harold becoming the Crown Prince.”

“It’s a possibility. King Magnus is young enough that there’s no rush. They could wait to adjust the succession till Harold’s child is tested and proven to be a strong sensitive.” He dismissed the topic. “Nora, you wanted trust from the Royal Guards, an exchange of information. That’s what I’m giving you.”

“I appreciate it.” She shivered, again. “If Francis and Knox can learn my ability with burrs, will Lavigne hold off on his plans to replace them in the line of succession?”

Jim kicked a rock. The tumble and skitter of it sounded loud in the stillness. “How the heck does this one bloke have the power to do that?”

“Commander Lavigne represents a recognized authority whose duty it is to ensure the stability of the realm,” Sam answered.

The Royal Guards.

He looked back toward the softly glowing windows of the facility. “We should return. Jim, don’t underestimate the courtiers. They’re far more than they appear.” It was said Marine captain to Marine sergeant, in professional warning and respect.

“Yes, sir. I know it. Theo’s one of them.”

“Yes, he is,” Sam said heavily.

Nora felt rather than saw the additional alert wariness in Jim. She didn’t think Sam was trying to foment trouble and mistrust among them, which meant the warning was genuine. Sam thought they faced a problem they hadn’t identified.

Considering the tangled web of power on Capitoline, she could guarantee she, Liam and Jonah had missed threats.

Theo was one of “them”. One of who? Courtiers? Liam knew and took advantage of that fact. As the son of the Duke of Dejima, Theo had grown up in the political game.

The Duke. Bianca hadn’t mentioned her in-laws. What did the Duke of Dejima want for his granddaughter Faith? To be betrothed to a child prince or freed of the royal family’s interference?

What would Theo do to protect his daughter?

Chapter 8

Cherry danced into the dining room for lunch. Everyone else was already seated. She tweaked Aria’s ponytail.

Liam had lived away from his family for years, but a big brother’s naturally suspicious instincts were roused by Cherry’s brilliant smiles and teasing. “What are you up to?”

Zac nodded approval of the question.

Cherry pouted, even as her eyes danced at the fraternal interrogation.

Phoebe giggled.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Ben said. Usually, he stayed out of family contretemps.

“On the contrary, Benny Boy.” Cherry grinned wickedly when he groaned at the nickname. “It’s very, very good, and so am I.”

Kennedy smiled at her plate of salad.

“You have a date,” Liam guessed.

“I do! And he’s not a security guard or anything to do with us. He’s a baker at his grandma’s bakery in town.”

“Matilda’s Bakery on Main Street?” Zac asked. He was the most familiar with Salmar.

“Yup. Noah makes the yummiest macarons.”

Phoebe giggled again.

“We’re going to dinner and a movie.”

That sounded okay.

“I have to pick a dress that’ll make him drool. Phoebe and Aria, fashionista session this afternoon!”

Aria nodded, wide-eyed.

Liam was pleased to see Phoebe happy.

Cherry was kind. She didn’t have to share the excitement of her date with Phoebe or Aria. It was a distraction for both, and one they took up as soon as they’d gulped down their lunches. The girls vanished in a shrill whirlwind of excitement.

“I think I’m deaf.” Zac also rose to depart.

Ben slung an arm around his neck. “Poor old man.”

They grinned at each other.

Bailey padded out after them.

“Is it confirmed, a month till you move into your house?” Liam asked Theo.

“I’ve gotten it down to three weeks.” Until then, he’d stay at Mangrove Mansion.

“Invite Bianca and Faith to dinner,” Liam suggested. “It would be good for Aria to babysit Faith for a bit. At the moment, Aria is everyone’s responsibility and has none of her own. Bailey has chosen Ben as his person.” The dog had been a doctor’s solution to help Aria adjust to life on a planet after a childhood in space. “I imagine that being responsible for the donkeys’ care is partly why she’s so keen on the idea of them.”

“It’ll wear off,” Theo said.

“But the responsibility will remain.” Liam thought the donkeys would serve as a good life lesson. The shine did wear off new experiences, but that could open the door to enduring contentment if you persisted and didn’t abandon responsibilities for new, shiny fantasies.

“I’ll ask Bianca about dinner.”

One benefit to Bianca and Faith joining them for the meal was that they ate early so Faith kept to a reasonable bedtime. It meant that Liam could also have an early night. He swam first. He wasn’t a powerful swimmer. He was out of practice. But with the ocean on his doorstep, it would be a crime not to indulge.

Afterward he showered, pulled on a shirt and shorts, and sat down to talk with Jonah. “Bianca wants Nora to train her before Faith.”

“A parent’s natural concern. King Ivan—” Jonah frowned at his feet. “Ethical question. Potentially hypothetical.”

Dread stiffened Liam’s muscles. Jonah’s combination of hesitancy and resolve mixed with righteousness was a tone he’d heard from ensigns. It generally meant the inexperienced officer had either done, or desired to do, something wiser, experienced officers would never dare.

However, Jonah wasn’t an ensign. He was an ancient AI, even if new to being embodied as an android and having a human family. Nora was Jonah’s person, and through her, he’d adopted Aria as his child and Liam…Liam guessed he was a brother-in-law to a Vapori AI. One who was currently self-imprisoned, hiding out in the master suite.

“Ethical question?”

“Right. About how what I do impacts humans, and apart from you and Nora, humans don’t even know I exist. Before I was embodied, I couldn’t affect the universe. I observed, recorded and analyzed life in the region, and I conversed with my kin, but I didn’t act to influence what life did. When I’m working with you or Nora, I think the fact that the information I provide and the conversations I have with you, all of which changes how events unfold, is okay because my actions are somewhat mediated through you.”

“Except when you hack systems,” Liam felt the need to point out.

“Even then, I don’t do so out of curiosity or personal self-interest. It’s primarily for Nora’s sake.”

Liam nodded.

Jonah drummed his fingers on his knee. “But what is the line in the sand between protecting our family, advancing our interests, and outright meddling in human affairs?”

Liam temporized. “You said you had a hypothetical question. If you have something in mind, specifics would be helpful.”

“Queen Sarah.”

Liam stared at his friend. “Queen Sarah,” he repeated flatly.

“She is a terrible person. She had Hermione killed, and she’s responsible for other deaths. Her agents here on Capitoline already believe that when she learns of Nora’s existence, she’ll want her dead. Sarah is a threat. Is it acceptable for me to act to neutralize her?”

“As in assassinate her?” Liam asked cautiously.

“No!” Jonah rubbed his nose. “Death is a final solution, but I would settle for defanging her. The risk is that I can’t control how far things might go. Sarah has a lot of enemies. If I gave them information to act against her, would the moral responsibility for what they did with that information and their subsequent actions be on them or on me?”

Liam took a few minutes to formulate his response. “Sarah is entrenched in Palantine’s political and financial systems. Her position both amplifies the consequences of acting against her and increases the likelihood of unintended consequences. The latter because we don’t know where the tentacles of her influence reach. Her agents made it into this house before you dug them out.”

He frowned, not at Jonah, but in Jonah’s direction as he worked through the complications. “You asked about the ethics of acting against her, but it’s not solely an ethical consideration. Or rather it’s situational ethics. The criteria by which we decide our actions, or inaction, regarding Sarah mightn’t apply in other circumstances.”

“Nora believes that doing nothing is not a neutral act,” Jonah said.

“I agree. But challenging a power structure, which is what we’re doing with the expedition, requires preparation. Sarah is a linchpin for tycoons intent on isolating realms, and on Palantine, those tycoons are the ones linked to organized crime. Organized crime provides its own framework that runs through and structures society. I don’t approve of it, but I can’t deny it exists. Add in Sarah’s royal role as both Queen of Palantine and filling her brother’s ducal position, and acting against her could have massive ramifications. It would be reckless to act without preparation.”

Liam frowned. “Enemies are often rivals. Who would take advantage of an attack against Sarah?”

“I wouldn’t bolster any of them,” Jonah said quickly. “I was thinking more of people who’ve been hurt by her. Or had people they loved hurt or killed as a consequence of her actions. Back on Border Station, when I observed that Sarah arranged for Hermione’s assassination and for her brother to take the blame as he died, it frightened me how easily I could lose Nora to someone else’s hatred or evil.”

Liam’s gut twisted. They just had to look at Dominic to see the devastation of such a loss. Liam had felt it himself, the fear of it, when Nora had been kidnapped.

“I won’t let that happen,” Jonah said. “The Vapori designed my kin and I that we could not hurt organic life forms, but they did so by designing us as powerless observers. It was in a very rare situation that I was able to use the burrs that power me to attract Nora’s attention and rouse her curiosity to come and find them. Instead, she found me, and I burned through the unique energy of my construct to change its form. I became embodied in android form.

“If she had refused my presence on the CC Kangaroo I’d have drifted in the Avestan Range until space hazards destroyed me. The android form is not as resilient as my original form, but has the great advantage, privilege and responsibility of being able to affect the world around me. I will protect the people I care about, even knowing that every action has the possibility of being a mistake.”

Liam operated according to a similar moral code.

Jonah sighed. “However, Nora has nagged me enough that I accept I’m not in control of everything. I can only do my best, according to my values and judgement. I think that, since I’m uncertain of my decision, I shouldn’t attempt to influence Sarah’s fate.”

He jiggled a knee in thought. “I don’t think Sarah will use her reprieve as Dominic did. He is exceptional in how he is using his second chance. He’s demonstrated true repentance and a commitment to change since sending that combat android to assassinate you.”

Amused, and relieved that Jonah wasn’t turning vigilante, Liam rubbed the back of his neck. A fake cough hid his laugh. A lot had changed since Border Station, and Jonah’s reflective tone combined with the subject matter struck Liam as humorous.

Until it wasn’t.

Jonah stretched his arms over his head. “Dominic gives me hope. It is rare for a guilty person to recognize their guilt, even rarer for them to confront it and its consequences, and change.”

He lowered his arms. “Humans act, and then, they spend the rest of their lives proving that choice to themselves. Every subsequent action has to support the initial choice. Otherwise, that defining choice was wrong, and they are wrong in their own eyes and others’. Which is insupportable. It takes self-awareness and self-discipline to remove the defensiveness of ego.”

Bereft of words from that analysis of his species, their weakness, and a rare shoot of hope, Liam rubbed the back of his neck again. When Jonah didn’t seem to have anything to add, and Liam certainly didn’t, he changed the subject. “About the lens. Does it need the original burrs replaced?”

“The burrs are merely a power source. They are interchangeable.”

“Good.” That was one nagging concern relieved. It would have taken years of wrangling to pry the original fifteen burrs from the six realms.

Jonah moved on, further shaking off the introspective mood. “In more interesting news. Nora got Tadj talking about xeno-archaeology and Silicaese sites and walking through visual representations of them. The problem is, Tadj has other things on his mind. But Quispe was listening in, and he has ordered Naval Intelligence to analyze Silicaese sites, paying particular attention to their virtual representations.”

“That…that’s actually the best possible outcome. If the Navy locates a possible burr cache, they have the authority and means to investigate it immediately.”

Jonah flexed his interlocked fingers, turning his hands palm outward and back. “Do you think Naval Intelligence will recognize the identical star paths?”

“They have a good chance. They’re not xeno-archaeologists, but then star paths weren’t created for xeno-archaeologists, but as navigational aids. I think they might. If we have to nudge them along…we might have had to do the same for Tadj. Because the Navy will immediately investigate a possible cache location, we can give them a couple of weeks to identify it on their own.”

The next morning, Aria woke up flushed and feverish, and trailed miserably into the dining room, still in her pajamas. She took one look at the breakfast buffet and dashed out.

Liam rose hastily from the table and sprinted after her.

She managed to reach the nearest bathroom before she hurled. “I’m sick.”

“Yes.”

He crouched and rubbed her back as she hurled, again. “Do you have a headache?”

“Noooo? Yes? Maybe.”

He guided her to the sink to rinse her mouth, while he found a new toothbrush and minty toothpaste in a cupboard. “When you’re ready,” he said when she eyed it dubiously. It had been years since he’d had to help a hungover friend. Maybe kids needed a different level of care?

No, they definitely needed more care.

“Back to bed. You might be able to sleep it off.” Sleep had been his mother’s cure-all for childhood ailments. “But I’ll leave a message for Dr. Rae to visit.” Dr. Rae Scott was Aria’s pediatrician. It was too early for office hours, yet.

Sitting by Aria’s bed, a bucket by his feet as a precaution, he called Nora, and caught her before the day’s burr testing began.

“Aria’s sick. Fever, vomiting. I’ve left a message with Dr. Rae’s office asking her to visit. It looks like a normal stomach bug.”

“It’s awful.” Aria was listening, and had her own opinion. “I hate being sick—oh no!” She jumped up and ran for the bathroom.

Liam half-rose, then sat again. “She vomited earlier. I think this is…the other end.”

Despite the worry in her voice, Nora laughed softly. “The joys of parenthood.”

“We expected planetary exposure syndrome.”

Nora sighed. “I hoped we’d skipped it.”

For space-born Aria, a planet held a range of allergens and pathogens she’d not been exposed to. By her medical record, before their death, her parents had ensured she’d had the recommended treatment to assess and expand her tolerances.

Liam, like Nora, had dared to dream that Aria would be one of the lucky spacers who adjusted easily.

Dr. Rae set them both right, diagnosing a common virus. “Aria has a good, strong immune system. It fought off earlier pathogens. Never underestimate the immunity-boosting power of excitement. But get used to this. Mingling with the children here will challenge her system. Fluids, rest, and don’t worry. If you’re not worried, she won’t be, either, and she’ll bounce back faster.”

Talking together later, Nora said, “Because what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I don’t mind applying that motto to myself, but I don’t like it for Aria.”

“She’s recovering, and watching TV.” Liam was working from his office in the mansion, popping in to see Aria every hour, and reminding her she could call him any time.

Veronica, Aria’s usual bodyguard, had unexpected free time, since she was not a nurse, and used it to include Phoebe in the self-defense lessons she’d chivvied Cherry into.

Observing those lessons taking place in the courtyard, Liam frowned. Phoebe ought to be at school, but he wasn’t her official guardian, and Elise had approved a week off.

He suspected Elise was relieved to have Phoebe out of the apartment while Elise fussed over Jason’s self-created situation.

But Liam had more sympathy for Elise now. In their mother’s first battle with bone cancer, Elise would have been responsible for a younger Phoebe and Jason, and Elise hadn’t had the resources and support Liam could call on. She hadn’t had a partner to share the emotional burden. Elise’s acceptance and encouragement of Jason’s reliance on her had partly grown out of that situation. Liam had neither the right nor the responsibility to intervene.

Nora returned a day later than scheduled, and earlier than Liam had expected considering how many tests and interviews Dr. Chulainn had crammed into the Shirvan facility visit. She went directly to Aria’s room.

At ten o’clock at night, Aria was asleep and snoring.

Liam waited by the door, and kept his voice low so as not to wake the girl. “She’s bouncing back as Dr. Rae predicted.”

“Quispe was right.” Nora finally broke her silence. “Everything we do affects the children.”

“What was it you said to Evelyn? Everything we don’t do affects them, too. Doing nothing isn’t neutrality.”

She heaved a deep breath that seemed to accept and readjust a burden.

In Shirvan, she’d passed the testing, and was now a registered burr wielder. “Yay, me,” she said, tiredly in the privacy of their room. “I’m cleared to teach my ‘creative burr methodology’, to quote Dr. Chulainn. Tadj and Quispe first, then if they—and I—don’t show signs of going crazy, I’m to help Dominic and Francis learn it.”

She stared moodily at her boots before bending and unlacing them. “They won’t wait for that. The scientists won’t wait. For a test to be successful they think it has to be replicable. They’ll be trying to teach themselves.”

“They are,” Jonah confirmed, walking into the bedroom from the wardrobe.

“Heya.” She almost smiled at him.

“They’re not succeeding.”

She frowned at her toes, and wriggled them. “Do you think I will?”

“Yes.”

“You heard Quispe’s warning to me?”

Liam interrupted. “I didn’t.”

“Being the only person with a talent as revolutionary as mine is a death sentence. I need to share the…gift,” she finished ironically.

Fury ran through him. Even before their arrival on Capitoline, they’d known and prepared for the fact that her strong sensitivity to burrs would make her a target. But hearing lethal intent spelled out was different. “Did Quispe threaten you?”

Nora grabbed his hand and pulled him to her.

Off-balance, he sprawled gracelessly on the bed, scarcely managing to twist enough that he didn’t flatten her.

“Quispe is worried, but he’s not a threat to me.”

If the Navy hurt Nora, the betrayal of their duty to protect all Capitoline citizens would gut Liam.

Nora curled her feet under her. “Quispe and Tadj have their first lesson with me tomorrow.”

“And Bianca.” Liam dragged his thoughts to constructive concerns rather than worries. “She has asked to be included. Before Faith is trained, Bianca wants to understand it. Plus, she’s fascinated by the possibilities for terraforming.”

“If Dr. Chulainn permits her participation, I’m okay with it. I understand her worrying for Faith.” Nora shoved at his shoulder. “I’m fidgety. Roll over so I can give you a back massage.”

He stripped off his t-shirt.

It wasn’t foreplay, but it was connection.

Jonah stood by the wall, listening to Nora.

“Obliterating the school bus on the outside range was disturbing—and how did they get it there? Using a burr to grow the seaweed felt weird. Not in me, just watching life accelerate. But obliterating something so that even its components don’t exist because they’re now energy is…mentally, emotionally, it’s like swallowing a stone.”

She needed to decompress with people she trusted.

Liam and Jonah let her talk. Liam held back a couple of groans and one yelp as her thumbs drove into his muscles with extra force as she worked through the emotions of the last few days.

Finally, she sat back.

He rolled over. “Your turn for a massage.”

Her shoulders twitched. “I’m fine.”

Jonah laughed. No one in the room believed that.

“I should be fine.” Bravado vanishing, she angled herself for a shoulder rub.

Liam was gentle with her tense neck muscles.

“Have you read the Originals’ reports?” She leaned into his touch.

“About half.” He’d been busy. Aria’s sickness had impacted his schedule.

Nora gradually relaxed. “They tried every feasible approach to removing the lens or switching off its block on the black hole’s millrace, but they couldn’t work out how they use the burrs. Humans still call it ‘guided intent’. They even tried to obliterate the lens using the burrs. Jonah, why did that fail?”

“The burrs overloaded. The lens is an energy structure too immense for a few burrs to siphon.”

She nodded, neck muscles stretching. “That’s what I thought.” She reached around and captured Liam’s hands, drawing his arms around her.

He repositioned to hold her comfortably.

Jonah could stand endlessly, effortlessly, in his android body. He acted human, though, and slid down the wall to sprawl casually on the floor. “The lens is designed to recognize the authority of a Vapori’s energy body. Nora can fake a Vapori energetic signature.”

“Will you finally tell me how? You said we shouldn’t risk suspicion. That my behavior in the testing had to be baseline human.”

“We’ll start by meditating. Or you will. You’re a unique being, Nora. I can guide you, but this is your path to discover.”

“Ugh.”

Liam’s chuckle reverberated from his chest to her spine.

Indignant, she twisted to scowl at him.

He kissed her, a quick peck. “I was thinking of Jonah as your spirit guide.”

“Ew,” Nora and Jonah said in unison. “No!”

Chapter 9

Tadj tilted back in his chair. “I can’t.”

The drop of seaweed in the petri dish in front of him hadn’t as much as shaken, let alone grown under the influence of a burr’s stored energy.

“It’s not something everyone has to do,” Nora said. “We have proof of concept.” She was no longer the lone burr wielder capable of using the burrs’ energy to accelerate algae growth rather than obliterate. The relief was enormous, and it leaked into her voice.

Tadj was suffering his own pressures, but he put them aside to smile at her. “Thank the stars for that, or I’d have probably ruptured blood vessels trying to at least smooth the energy in a burr.” So that she wasn’t alone in her talent.

Pilar missed the joke. “Do you feel under physical strain during your efforts?”

“No.” Tadj stood. “But we’re done here. Whatever it is that’s needed to use the energy in a burr, I either don’t have it or can’t reach it.”

“Thank you for your time, Dr. Holmes,” Dr. Chulainn addressed and dismissed Tadj over the intercom.

Tadj grinned ruefully at Nora, gave her a half-salute and Pilar and Richard a nod, and departed.

A minute later, Quispe walked in, smartly dressed in his uniform and as uncompromising as ever.

He sat at the table opposite Pilar.

Nora sat as comfortably as she could in the angular, metal chair positioned for her against a side wall. She remained aware of the unshielded burr that Tadj had controlled but been unable to tap for energy.

After he hadn’t been able to smooth its energy, jumping that step in the training and attempting to create with the chaotically arranged energy in the burr had been a final trial of whether Tadj could extend his burr-wielding ability.

He’d failed.

“When you’re ready, Admiral,” Pilar said.

Grunting at the mental effort, Quispe compacted the energy in the burr. Compact was his term for smoothing the energy. He’d achieved the breakthrough last week.

As had Francis, but Francis had gone on to accelerate the growth of a tiny sample of seaweed using the energy from a burr.

The relief on his face had matched the relief in Nora’s heart. Their political situations were different, but each knew that him demonstrating this ability improved both their futures and the odds of success for the expedition.

A day later, Dominic had replicated Francis’s effort.

Nora had her suspicions about Dominic, about how fortuitously, a day after Francis, Dominic had his breakthrough. But some questions were too dangerous to ask.

Even Dr. Chulainn had refrained.

This epoch-changing testing was happening on Capitoline with rival royals involved. It was politically safer for Francis as the Capitoline Crown Prince to demonstrate his strength.

Strength, itself, would be defined in new ways, now. The burrs granted their wielders three benefits: to obliterate; to smooth the energy in a burr, ironically to allow for more obliteration; and, to create.

Quispe stalled at the smoothing stage, which meant that he could adjust a depleted burr to acquire the capacity (via rearrangement of its chaotically stored energy) to siphon more of it, and in doing so, obliterate what the burr was directed at.

“I am not a touchy-feely man,” Quispe began.

Nora, Pilar and Richard stared at Quispe for that understatement. Nora judged him as more in touch with his emotions than he showed the world. His gruffness serving as an effective shield. Undoubtedly, though, he considered emotions a vulnerability.

“According to Nora’s teaching, to use a burr’s energy I have to provide it with a channel of how energy is used by organic life. The energy can then adapt itself to the pattern of organic reproduction that creates the target object, that is its cellular framework. I can’t open myself to that risk.”

His big hands closed on the edge of the table. “The princes were emotionally primed to risk opening themselves to the energy of the burr. I don’t feel the same urgency. I’m too closed off to achieve a creative use of burrs.”

“I believe you may be correct, Admiral,” Dr. Chulainn stated over the intercom. “It will be informative to observe if children are open to ‘playing’ with burrs in this manner.”

“Closely supervised,” Quispe growled.

“Always,” Nora promised him, and herself.

It took a week for Francis’s people to arrange for him to demonstrate the new, creative use of burrs. They set up a live broadcast from the palace.

Dominic watched at Mangrove Mansion with Nora and Liam and anyone else who felt inclined to crowd into the living area—which was everyone, right down to the kitchenhand floating on painkillers who was recovering from a broken collarbone acquired during weekend mountain bike riding.

History was being made.

On-screen, Francis spooned a dab of vividly green seaweed into the center of a ring of concentric circles marked in black on a white background

Kennedy scrawled notes while her eyes remained glued to her comms unit and the multitude of comments streaming across social media.

“He’s so isolated,” Nora said of Francis standing alone. Evelyn, Callum and Knox weren’t part of the performance, not even in their usual supportive role.

Kennedy snorted. “Not our problem. Do you see King Magnus there? No. If he’s willing to let his son take the heat for any negative repercussions from this new talent and from those opposed to the expedition, we do the same. Don’t worry about Francis. He’s gotten a new talent out of you. One which may save his grip on the throne,” she finished bitingly.

Liam and Theo frowned at her.

She didn’t notice. Her attention was divided between the wall screen and the social media on her comms unit.

Dominic stretched his legs, finding a fraction of space under the coffee table to do so. The large room was crowded as they had all positioned themselves to view the wall screen.

Aria sat between Nora and Cherry, with Bailey asleep against their legs.

In front of Francis, the seaweed spilled out from the innermost ring and kept growing. In three minutes it expanded to spill over the second last circle, but stayed contained inside the outermost ring. The growth rate and reach was plotted to showcase Francis’s control.

He smiled a small, pleased smile, and stepped back from the table.

A journalist posed a scripted question. “Prince Francis, is it true that Mrs. Nora Kimani, the recently acknowledged, illegitimate daughter of King Ivan and Capitoline’s newest blaze tycoon, introduced you to this revolutionary use of burrs?”

“Nora’s background is in xeno-archaeology, specifically the study of the Silicaese. She hypothesized that they used burrs to grow their crystalline food stocks. She gained Dr. Chulainn’s approval to attempt the same using a simple organic life form.” He gestured at the seaweed. “It worked.”

When she was in the vaults and had access to burrs, Nora did more than she discussed with the scientists. She followed their directions, and she was improving her sensitivity to how energy interacted with the burrs as she did her best to observe via her prickly, tingling sensitivity other wielders’ control of them. However, her vital interest was in exploring how she might use her connection to the burrs to fake a Vapori energetic signature.

With Francis and Dominic as proof that others could learn Nora’s method, Dr. Chulainn was willing to redirect some of his staff’s efforts toward the expedition. The Royal Guards’ scientists would be part of it. They needed to begin, sooner rather than later, imagining and testing ideas for using the burrs to affect the lens.

Aria summed up the general feeling of anticlimax following Francis’s demonstration. “I guess it was important, but it didn’t look like much.”

People drifted to the door.

Kennedy pointed at the wall screen. “It was genius. An underwhelming performance undersells the immensity of the development. It’s the trickle adjustment of attitudes approach.” She slapped her comms unit against her thigh. “I prefer a bolder strategy, but taking into account how everything involving the royal family is magnified, Francis took a prudent route to change.”

Nora withdrew to her room. She had never underestimated the magnitude of the change they were attempting, and every step that took them closer to the expedition intensified her awareness of the risks involved.

In a sense, this new creative use of burrs changed what it meant to be human because it changed how humans could alter their environment.

To date, Bianca had merely had one training session, but already the ecologist had suggested using the burrs’ energy not simply to grow an organism according to its genetic template, but to alter that template to modify the organism.

As the implications of the new burr-wielding ability unfolded in people’s minds, Francis’s low-key demonstration might be the first and last time people considered the creative energy of burrs boring.

Then, again, people lacked imagination, and more importantly, time to consider wider issues. It was all too easy to be trapped running faster and faster in your own little hamster wheel.

Liam took the stairs two at a time to join Nora as she entered the master suite. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.” Nora waited till they were inside the sitting room with the door closed before elaborating on her answer. “I was thinking about my energetic signature and how to alter it. If I can.”

“You can,” Jonah said definitively from his occupation of an armchair positioned out of sight of the doorway and windows. He had a book of ancient poetry open on his knee.

“Hopefully. Jonah, when you said that humans invert the Vapori’s ratio of being mostly energy and a little bit of organic physicality, I’m still not clear on how the two mingle. Or do they reject each other? How do they exist in harmony rather than pulling apart?”

He closed the book. “A human’s energy body is limited to their physical body, except for people who are sensitive to burrs. What you consider your remote perception of burrs is not remote. Your energy body reaches out to connect to them.”

A strong sensitive could detect burrs from further away.

Liam flicked a lamp on and off. Its light was barely visible in the brightness of the sunlight streaming in the windows. “How is it that Nora’s energy body doesn’t disrupt other energy? Why aren’t strong sensitives setting lights flickering and interrupting other electronics?

“Because energy isn’t electromagnetic. It is possibility.”

“Which sounds more metaphysical than scientific,” Nora muttered.

“Which is a flaw in your science rather than in the concept,” Jonah rejoined serenely. “Your energy body is the range of possibilities you can affect. Humans are primarily physical. You lack the energy to alter the world energetically. You have to act on it using your physical bodies. However, you have the potential to alter the world energetically if your energy resources are boosted. That is, if you tap the energy in a burr.”

“So, only sensitives,” Nora said.

Jonah hummed vague assent. He was focused on communicating a different idea. “A Vapori energetic signature can affect energy itself. By which I mean, it can alter the possibilities possible to it, and it is that variation unfolding from itself that the lens at the Origin black hole is designed to detect.”

Liam rubbed his forehead. “I thought the politics of the expedition were complicated. Did you understand that?”

“Maybe.” She frowned at Jonah. Not that her struggle to comprehend alien concepts was his fault. She was frowning in thought, at least, she thought she was. She jolted when he pulled a face back at her.

Liam chuckled, and kissed her swiftly. “I’ll leave you to meditate. Someone has to field the Navy’s enthusiasm post-broadcast.”

Meditation was meant to help her perceive her energetic signature, absent burrs infusing it with energy.

To date, Jonah’s guidance on the topic had mostly been to “keep going”.

So, useful! Not.

Sometimes she ended a meditation session refreshed. Other times, like now, she was yawning. She stretched an arm out to drag her comms unit off the coffee table. She had a lot of messages, even after Jim had filtered them.

She opened Kennedy’s, curious to see the results of Francis’s demonstration.

Apparently, even using a trickle adjustment strategy, the demonstration had intensified pre-existing opinions, questions and fears.

What has happened to wider humanity? Re-establishing contact could open us to war, to alien invasion, if they’ve made contact with aliens in the last few centuries, or to plague. They might try to exploit us. Can we close the lens again?

Who would be free to leave the Human Sector? Only the rich? the Navy?

Who might enter the Human Sector? How would the realms cope with outsiders and with the new technology they bring?

Nora closed Kennedy’s message. They were all good questions. Would people accept that the answers could only be discovered by the expedition succeeding?

Accidents, opposition, and outright sabotage could ground the expedition before it left Capitoline.

Tomorrow, she was to give Knox his first lesson in using burrs creatively. Neither she nor Jonah could sense any damage in her—or in Francis or Dominic or in the Royal Guards’ other test subjects whom Jonah wasn’t naming since they were one of the things she wasn’t meant to know about. Secrets. One day she feared she’d mention something she only knew because of Jonah, and the Royal Guards’ interest in her would intensify to a stranglehold.

For tomorrow, though, she worried about Knox. She’d done what she could for him. She’d asked Pilar that the burr Knox would be connecting to was placed in close proximity. “You can move it or you can lead me to it, blindfolded. I don’t mind what precautions are necessary to respect the vault’s security arrangements, but Knox is a low level sensitive. I don’t want him to struggle or fail because we strained a young kid by forcing him to reach for the burr.”

Pilar had frowned. “We’re not idiots. We have taken Knox’s limited reach and experience into consideration.”

When Nora entered the usual lab the next day she realized that what none of them had considered was Evelyn’s insistence that she be present for the training session. Worse, the Princess was a wreck, snappish and unpredictable, and upsetting Knox.

Fuzzy slimeballs, Nora swore mentally. She smiled quickly at Callum who stood uncertainly by the chair that Knox sat on with his small feet hooked around one of its legs in a nervous tangle. At least Francis had honored his promise to her, wrung from him at an earlier training session, to allow his non-sensitive son to observe. “Unless you want him to feel excluded.”

“This is Mrs. Kimani,” Callum whispered loudly to Knox, while Nora greeted their mother.

“I’m sitting in,” Evelyn said pugnaciously.

“Fine with me.” Nora looked at Pilar, who refused to meet her eyes. Or anyone’s eyes.

Dr. Chulainn was conspicuous in his absence. In better circumstances, the social climber would have elbowed out his subordinates to spend time with the royal family. As it was, anyone who could avoid Evelyn and what was likely to be a debacle of a session given her agitated presence was wise to do so.

Nora set herself to calming Knox. “Hello, Callum. Nice to meet you, Knox. You can call me Nora.”

Evelyn fussed at Pilar. She wanted to sit by Knox. The arrangement of chairs in the room meant that the scientists wanted the Princess and Callum to sit to the side. There was no chair beside Knox’s at the table, and two opposite: one for Pilar and one for Nora.

Pilar conceded the fight and carried a chair to where Callum stood by Knox.

Callum moved politely out of the way.

“Thank you.” Evelyn sat. If it was possible to flounce in the act of seating oneself, she managed it. She radiated an air of beleaguered, resolute entitlement. It was an odd mix, but seemingly effective.

Although, had the scientists orchestrated the preliminaries to concede on non-essentials and protect the core of the test?

“Has Faith told you about the donkeys she visited at my house?” Nora asked as she circled the table to take her seat.

Knox nodded.

“Yes,” Callum said. “She said your daughter will teach her to ride them.”

Nora smiled. “Aria has to learn to ride them herself, first, but yes. Faith will have her turn. If your parents agree you can come and meet Joker and Pirate, too. That’s the donkeys.” Who were agreeably answering to their new names in exchange for treats.

“Donkeys have big ears,” Knox whispered.

Evelyn interrupted impatiently. “Are we starting?”

Nora looked at Callum who hovered. “Pull up a chair and sit by me.” His mother should have made that offer.

Evelyn frowned as Callum dragged a chair to Nora and Pilar’s side of the table.

Nora’s face hurt as she kept smiling at Knox. She would not snap at Evelyn. “Okay. We’ll talk about the donkeys later. For now, I want to tell you about the amazing thing your dad did with a burr. Did you see him on TV?” She waited for Knox’s nod, concerned by the rigid line of his shoulders and spine. The boy practically vibrated with tension, as did his older brother. “Your dad copied that trick with the seaweed from me, and I’m going to teach it to you, so that you can show him he’s not so clever.”

Displaying a minimum of self-control, Evelyn bit her lip against an unhelpful response.

“Is it really a trick?” Knox asked.

“Yup.” Nora popped the “p” like Cherry did when she was being a smart Alec. “Not everyone can do it, but kids pick up things faster than adults, so you and I are going to try this. Okay?”

“Okay.” Knox’s posture might have eased a fraction.

“Dr. Pilar here is going to ask one of her friends to take a burr out of its case so that we can play with it.”

Knox shook his head. “We can’t play with a burr. They’re important!”

Evelyn intervened. “Mrs. Kimani misspoke, Knox. The burr is being made available to you so you can learn to use it. Just as Faith will have her chance.”

A soft thud in the room came from Callum kicking the table leg.

Nora coughed, not quite covering for Callum’s mild expression of his frustration and worry.

Pilar seemed to take Nora’s cough as a request for her to intervene. “Prince Knox, there is nothing you can do that will hurt the burr. When Nora says that you and she will play with it, that is what she means. You can use it any way she asks, without worrying about what will happen.”

“Oh. Okay.” He looked at his mother.

Evelyn nodded begrudgingly. In her view, princesses were above correction by mere scientists.

Or perhaps Nora should be kinder and recognize that Evelyn had children to worry about, and that she was, in a sense, also a target and victim. Courtiers opposed to the expedition recognized Evelyn as a weak point, an avenue for attacking Francis’s conviction, and undoubtedly played on her ego and fears.

Just as the tycoons on Palantine had fed Queen Sarah’s arrogant lust for power.

Royals could make convenient shields or weapons. It depended on how one deployed them.

Even the dedicated scientist seated beside Nora recognized it. “Dr. Chulainn, can the burr be unshielded, please?” Pilar’s cool request ensured that the distressed princess knew Dr. Chulainn was personally involved in her upset.

Three heartbeats later, Nora felt the presence of a burr. The prickling warmth of it registered for her as one of moderate strength on the scientists’ scale; that is, it had energy in it, but it also had room to siphon more. If Knox could smooth the energy in it, that would be a fantastic start.

But how could a kid calm chaos when he, his mother, and brother were as jumpy as fleas in a jar?

She smiled encouragingly at Knox, who was wide-eyed and breathing through his mouth. Maybe instead of Evelyn, his nanny should have been here. From what Callum had said about her, the woman was sensible. “You can feel the burr, can’t you, Knox? It feels prickly to me. Does it feel like that to you, too?”

“Ye-es.”

If she was going to feed him his responses, then Nora intended to guide him along a hopefully effective path. “Does it feel a bit like fire jumping around or maybe water if Callum is jumping up and down in a puddle splashing you?”

Knox looked blank.

“Maybe it feels like grass?” Nora asked. “Not neat and tidy lawn, but grass all prickly against your feet and legs and against your hands if you lean down and squash it?”

“Tickly?”

“Yes.” She tried not to overreact to the fact he was finally engaged in the task. “Concentrate on that tickle.”

He bit his lip. “It goes away.”

Nora checked her own sense of the burr. The energy in it hadn’t smoothed down, which made her think that the lack of “tickling” meant that Knox had lost his connection to the burr rather than instinctively smoothing the energy in it. “It goes away, but then it comes back,” she said as if that was natural rather than a sign of his faltering, low sensitivity ability. “Concentrate on that tickling while you sing a song with me.”

Liam had heard her practicing it, and had lasted an impressive three seconds before his twitching face gave way to full on laughter.

She’d set her lesson to music using the simple nursery rhyme, Are You Sleeping, Brother John?

Now, she swapped one word: “prickling” for “tickling”, the first time.

Are you tickling? Are you prickling?

Fuzzy burr. Fuzzy burr.

Time to sleep. Go to sleep. I’m singing you to sleep.

Snore, snore, snore. Good burrs snore.

Evelyn and Callum regarded her as if she was crazy.

Suppressed giggles shook Pilar.

But Knox sang along.

“We’re going to make the burr snore,” Nora told him, refusing to acknowledge her blush. Everyone was a critic: they should try writing lyrics. “You can put it to sleep by making the tickling soft like the softest of your blankets. Wish for that while we sing.”

She and Knox sang the song again. And again.

The prickling of the unshielded burr remained at the same intensity.

“That’s awesome!” Nora raised her hand for a high-five, and Knox slapped it.

“It went to sleep,” he said.

No, it hadn’t. He’d lost connection to it. But for a first effort, all she’d wanted was to instill confidence. Tue, she’d hoped for more, but this was good. “You did great, Knox. We’ll sing to the burr some more next time.”

His mouth dropped open. “But aren’t you going to teach me Dad’s trick?”

“We need to put the burr to sleep a few times first.”

“Oh.”

He might have been reluctant to end the session, but Evelyn wasn’t. “Knox, say thank you to Mrs. Kimani.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Kimani.”

Nora smiled at him. “Thank you, Knox.”

“Now, go to Nanny.”

While Knox slid slowly off his chair, Callum rose immediately. “Goodbye, Mrs. Kimani. Dr. Pilar.” He hustled his little brother out of the lab.

The instant the door closed behind them, Evelyn snapped. “Well?”

Nora looked respectfully at Pilar, granting the scientist the dubious privilege of answering.

Pilar widened her eyes back at Nora before peeking up at the intercom.

Dr. Chulainn was a match for their cowardice, and stayed silent.

“Nora,” Evelyn snapped.

“Knox didn’t smooth the burr’s energy.” She’d had time to think about the situation while singing. Evelyn needed facts to temper both her expectations and her fears. “Knox also kept losing contact with the burr. We’ll try again on Thursday.”

Evelyn pressed a manicured finger to her lips to stop their wobble. “Faith has her first lesson in an hour?”

“Yes.”

“I wish to be informed of her progress.”

This time, Pilar didn’t hesitate to answer. “Of course.”

The Princess departed.

Pilar turned to Nora. “Do you use music when you interact with a burr?”

“No. But I thought a modified nursery rhyme might help a young child’s guided intent.”

Faith giggled her way through Nora’s lame song, and instinctively smoothed the energy in the burr she controlled. “Snore, snore, snore.”

Unlike Evelyn, Bianca observed from outside the lab. Inside, it was just Faith, Nora and Pilar.

“You did amazing, Faith,” Nora said. “The burr’s asleep.”

“It’s all soft. Not prickly. It’s nicer to touch when it’s asleep.”

“We’ll let it sleep and try another lesson on Thursday.”

Whoever held the burr shut it away in its shielded case.

Faith flung her arms in the air. “All gone!”

Nora and Pilar exchanged a look.

It seemed teaching Faith would be easy. Francis and Dominic had had to force themselves past their fear and wariness of the burrs. Faith had a child’s confidence, not so much in the burr, but in the adults around her. From Faith’s perspective, Nora was Aria’s mom and wouldn’t let Faith get hurt. So, Faith could play with the burr.

Driving home from the palace after Thursday’s sessions, Nora mused on the less considered aspects of interacting with a burr. Colloquially, people spoke of emotional energy. Did contact with the burrs intensify emotions?

Nora’s own were under control despite her regular contact with burrs. However, she meditated daily.

She was inclined to believe that Knox was responding to his parents’ stress, just as Faith was a ball of happiness at her parents’ reconciliation. Once again, Knox had failed to smooth the burr’s energy. Nora had asked Faith to put the burr to sleep without the song, and the girl had done so. Then she’d sung Nora other versions of the song. It had been a good session. Next time, Nora would start Faith on how to guide a burr’s energy to grow seaweed.

Saturday morning, Sam intercepted Nora on her way to the dock for a pre-breakfast swim, and pulled her aside, while Liam and Aria continued down to the water.

Liam went unwillingly, frowning hard at Sam first.

Being a former Marine, Sam delivered bad news unflinchingly. “Francis has ordered an additional training session for Knox this morning at nine thirty. He wants to observe, and that is when he’s free and Knox isn’t tired.”

“And I’m to be there?” Of course her time and commitments didn’t count.

“Yes.”

Aria ran along the dock and jumped into the water. The huge splash startled a gull that had been placidly floating near the shore. It erupted into ungainly, hurried flight. Aria had graduated from water wings to freestyle, and Liam was close by. The swimming lesson was under control.

“Most people aren’t sensitive to burrs,” Nora said. Her chosen family weren’t. They weren’t lesser for it, even if the royals based their power on being able to wield burrs.

Sam followed her thinking. “Royals are different.”

Knox having a breakthrough, despite his low sensitivity, and using a burr creatively, would raise his and his parents’ position in the Palace.

Without it, even Francis’s position as Crown Prince was in jeopardy, where before it had been solid. That Francis had demonstrated he could use a burr creatively merely added to the tension. King Magnus and courtiers would prefer the stability of Francis continuing as Crown Prince, but they wanted him to have a strong heir. If Evelyn couldn’t provide one…

Francis had rejected the idea of a surrogate. But what was the alternative? Divorce and remarriage? He loved Evelyn.

“It’s too much pressure to put on Knox.” Her hand clenched and unclenched on the towel slung over her shoulder.

Knox mightn’t know the details of the succession crisis, but he responded to his parents’ turmoil.

Callum understood more.

Even if Francis was willing to abdicate, the political realities of a burr-based power system for establishing a claim on the throne meant that he could only abdicate to someone who matched or surpassed his burr abilities.

“I’ll have the car ready,” Sam said.

She smiled wryly at him, and at his refusal to comment on the situation, before she continued down to the narrow strip of beach. A swim was more necessary than ever. The exercise would burn off her irritation, and the water might wash away the ickiness of politics. Temporarily.

Nora reached the lab before Francis and Knox.

Pilar and Richard were there.

“Dr. Chulainn?” Nora asked.

The two scientists shook their heads. Their boss was staying clear of trouble.

Nora rested her elbows on the table. “Any suggestions?”

“We’d have shared them if we had them. Faith picked up the idea instinctively.” Pilar cleared her throat. “People were always wary of letting young children have access to obliterating power. Maybe a creative use of burrs would have been discovered earlier if we had risked it.”

“The obliteration of Vault Seven on Palantine,” Richard mumbled.

Pilar shrugged. “Their reservations were valid, but if they’d put precautions in place…”

Nora hadn’t heard of Vault Seven. She could guess it had been an early disaster in the training of burr wielders.

A stir of noise through the open door announced Francis and Knox’s arrival.

“Good morning.” Nora smiled at Knox. “Good morning, sunshine.” Her heart hurt. Knox ought to be running and playing, happily enjoying the weekend as Aria was. Nora had left her grooming the donkeys so they’d be ready to entertain guests.

Knox walked as close to Francis’s side as he could. If it hadn’t been “babyish” he’d have held his father’s hand.

Nora extended her own and Knox stutter-stepped, then ran to her for the physical reassurance of a hug. She kept her gaze away from Francis until she could be sure her own wouldn’t hold the anger and accusation she felt. “Hey, kiddo. Your daddy’s cheating. He wants to watch you learn his trick.”

Knox shook his head against her shoulder. It seemed her reassuring story had failed.

She patted his back. “Why don’t we try, anyway?”

He sniffed. “I practiced the song.”

She looked up as she guided Knox to his seat, and saw Francis’s face.

Anguish darkened his eyes.

She wanted to kick him. Whatever Knox did or didn’t do, the world wouldn’t end.

She’d been severely underqualified for parenthood when she’d adopted Aria, but even then, before she’d read the experts’ guides and made her own mistakes, she’d known children had to be loved unconditionally. They had to know they were.

Francis loved Knox. He ought to make that clear. Whatever happened around and outside the father-son bond wouldn’t change it.

“Your dad loves you,” Nora said plainly. “We’re going to sing the song, and you’re going to try to put the burr to sleep, but it’s just a small thing. How much your dad loves you is a big thing. Don’t worry about the burr.”

Unconvinced, Knox looked from her to Francis.

Francis’s face seemed to collapse into itself, squishing up from emotion before he swallowed hard. “It’s true. My love for you and Callum, and for your mom, is the biggest thing in my life.” It would cost him to live up to those words in the maelstrom of politics and change in the Human Sector.

But then, it had cost Liam every bit as much when he’d given up the Navy to love and support Nora. No one could have everything.

Knox failed to smooth the energy in the burr.

Nora felt it when his connection to the unshielded burr faltered five times during the forty minute session. She also felt the two other burrs unshielded and deeper in the vaults. It had happened before. The Royal Guards were running other people through this same training. She wasn’t necessary to it.

Francis was determinedly upbeat when the session ended. “It looks like you won’t be beating me at the seaweed trick, Knox.”

“I tried, Dad.”

“You tried really hard. Your mom and I are proud of you.”

Francis stood and held out his hand to Knox.

The boy abandoned all “big boy” ideas and grasped it. Clung to it.

“Thank you for coming in,” Francis said to Nora and the scientists, and left.

Three huge sighs greeted the closing of the door.

Richard, whom Nora thought of as “the silent scientist”, rose a few seconds later, said good-bye with a nod of the head, and walked out.

Pilar sat up straight, and stared at Nora. “It works better when you’re present.”

“Pardon?”

“The training. Two other candidates are practicing currently. We pulled them in when Francis ordered this meeting. Can you feel their burrs?”

“Yes.”

“It doesn’t work that way with Prince Francis or Prince Dominic. Other candidates don’t connect as readily in the princes’ proximity to the burrs as they do when you’re here.”

Here, in the vaults.

Nora could guess what was happening. Jonah insisted that her energy body was uniquely strong. Perhaps some quirk of its arrangement assisted others to connect to a burr and channel its energy creatively rather than siphon energy into it. “Maybe knowing I’m here gives them confidence? Have you blind tested them?”

Pilar’s eyebrows pinched together. “They do know you’re here. We should remove that factor.”

“I’m not doing anything,” Nora said. “For the record.”

“Not consciously.” Pilar was willing to concede. “But think about it. We know it’s not you subconsciously connecting to the burr and helping them. If that was the case, Knox would have succeeded.”

They both winced. Pilar looked down at the screen on the table. “Go home,” she advised quietly.

There was nothing more they could do for Knox. At least, not regarding burrs.

Theo and Bianca brought Faith over to ride Joker while Aria balanced on Pirate. Theo held Joker’s lead rope, while Liam and Dominic walked with Aria and Pirate. There was to be absolutely no trotting. A ten acre estate allowed for a nice ramble.

Nora and Bianca walked behind them.

“Pilar said that candidates are learning the new methods of wielding burrs better if I’m present in the vaults, even if I’m not teaching them.”

Bianca stopped ogling her husband’s ass to consider Nora. “Interesting. I didn’t notice a difference between training with you and controlling a burr in your absence. But then, they’ve granted me few opportunities to do so. They’re fascinated by Faith.”

“Quispe is bringing in one of his grandsons,” Nora answered Bianca’s concern. Like Nora, Faith would be safer if she wasn’t the sole candidate in her generation capable of directing a burr’s energy.

Bianca nodded. “There are other parents interested. Theo’s brother, for instance. The Royal Guards’ scientists can be darn sure I’m going to stay involved. This is too dangerous, and too potentially beneficial, to leave locked away. I’m working on a proposal for a joint project to investigate the impact, specifically the multigenerational impact, of burr energy on plants.

“They’d be idiots not to partner with you,” Nora said, holding back the knowledge that Bianca and other terraformers would be disappointed if they anticipated utilizing the burrs’ energy be to modify organisms in new and exciting ways.

As Jonah described it, Nora “gave permission” for the energy in a burr to access her energy body and use its framework as a guide for how energy was used by organic life forms. Neither her energy body nor her physical body provided a blueprint for growth outside of it. The template was for energy transference or flow. The energy that entered an organism to grow it employed that organism’s own template—its genetic profile—to guide the accelerated growth. The burrs did not change the template.

Unless the scientists found some way for it to do so.

Nora tugged the brim of her hat further over her eyes, shading them from the glare of the afternoon sun.

Unintended consequences.

The best of intentions failed to protect against the perversity of fate, and the more you desired a particular outcome, the less you noticed the recherche̒ risks of chasing it.

The group circled back to the donkeys’ yard. The lazy hours couldn’t last.

Theo and Bianca took Faith home.

Liam stayed to help Aria with the donkeys. He gave Nora a narrow-eyed assessment before shooing her toward the house. “Have a nap or something before Kennedy arrives with her posse.”

“I look that bad.”

“Sad.” He kissed her gently. “You’ve looked sad since you returned from the palace.”

She’d told him about Knox’s failure and Francis’s reaction. Later, she’d tell him about a new worry percolating in her mind. Right now, she needed to share it with the person who’d engendered it.

She found Jonah in the wardrobe and called him into the bedroom so she had room to pace. “I’m different to the other burr wielders. We thought it was my genetics, but did I change because I was inside your energy body when you changed to android form?”

Jonah froze in the doorway. “I hadn’t considered…my energy was limited. I feared it would fail to complete the change, not that there might have been sufficient to alter you. I…I don’t think…but I’ll ask my kin. I—oh, not now! Kennedy’s early. She’ll be at the door in a couple of minutes.”

Nora’s skin itched. She was impatient, too, but in the opposite direction to her PR manager who was eager for tonight.

“No dignity!” Jonah had lost the opportunity to slip out and evade scrutiny in Cherry’s room.

She and Phoebe were away checking out universities over the open weekend.

A couple of people from the security team had gone with them to provide protection as well as look into their own educational options. Moreover, the Royal Guards would monitor Cherry and Phoebe’s activities in pursuit of unearthing people overly interested in acquiring a Forgotten like Cherry.

Since Jonah had run out of time to escape the suite, he slid under Nora and Liam’s massive bed. It was a cliched hiding spot, but effective when the master suite was under immediate threat of invasion by a team of people tasked with presenting Nora perfectly.

A fist hammered on the door. Kennedy had impeccable manners. She’d also been raised among brothers who’d become rugby players and a Marine. She could be brutal when required.

Nora wasn’t in the mood to socialize, especially not to mingle socially with Francis and Evelyn at the snobby Regatta Ball. She wished she could stay home and have a normal evening with people who cared about each other. Francis and Evelyn loved their sons, but that love was weighted with political stresses.

Bursting into the room and noting Nora’s sour expression, Kennedy forbad excuses or even dillydallying. “What did we discuss?”

“As much as I want to skip the ball, I’m not actually going to stay home.” Nora tried to escape the lecture. Futilely.

“I was very clear. This is about the optics. You will be seen rubbing elbows with the pinnacle of society. Your dress cost more than a family-sized car.”

Nora winced.

“Your shoes could have bought a motorcycle.”

“Golly gee,” Aria whispered.

“And what sort of example are you setting for your daughter?” Kennedy whirled to Aria, and squeezed her cheeks. Squoosh.

“A good one?” Aria mumbled.

Squoosh. “No. We smile when we’re doing something we hate if it’s to achieve our goals. We never, ever,” squoosh, “show weakness.”

Aria rubbed her face when Kennedy released her. “Gotcha.”

In the snobbish, judgmental, powerful milieu of the Regatta Ball, Nora’s outrageously overpriced gown earned its money. The green silk shimmered under the flattering lighting, shifting to all the greens of a rainforest. Matching emerald teardrop earrings and gold bracelets that snaked up her arms displayed her wealth without being vulgar. The green emphasized her eyes, those unique eyes with the black limbal ring that she and Dominic had inherited from King Ivan.

Liam in his tuxedo was the perfect foil. His military bearing commanded attention, and those who paid attention to such things were learning of his sharp business mind. The city’s financial district was definitely paying attention.

Liam and Jonah had been having fun.

“It’s almost unfair,” Jonah had confided to Nora. “Corporate espionage at its finest.” Potential targets or competitors received his undivided attention for a couple of days, and whilst they might have been able to keep some secrets before his attention moved on, their current business activities were an open book to him. Liam then joined Jonah in interpreting the data, and the result was their crushing business successes.

By training and experience, Liam was inoculated against losing himself in the thickets of business jargon and doublespeak. He didn’t seek to maximize profit or establish market position (for Blazing Kangaroo Corporation), but he did both. He went to war.

Successfully. The police would start to take notice, soon, since criminal gangs were Liam and Jonah’s chosen targets for this initial period in which they were working out the knots in their operational methodology. Before the police grew truly alarmed by philanthropic, financial vigilantes, Liam and Jonah intended to move on to their real plans.

A band played a sensual slow-dance song, and Liam excuse himself and Nora from conversation with the Duke of Dejima, Theo’s father.

Theo wasn’t in attendance, although his oldest brother, his father’s heir, was.

Aria was spending the night at Theo and Bianca’s home. She’d enthusiastically embraced the role of Faith’s big sister, passing on lessons from Cherry and Phoebe, to Bianca’s tolerant amusement and Theo’s occasional apprehension.

As Nora danced with Liam, she noticed the single women fawning over Dominic, whose taut body language expressed the rejection he fought to keep from his face. None of them received an invitation to dance.

Dominic still grieved Hermione, but the women knew that whatever his feelings, as heir to the Palantine throne, he had to marry again. He had to provide the throne with his own heirs, especially now that he’d proven his talent for wielding burrs in the same uniquely creative manner as Nora and Francis.

King Magnus held court at the front of the room. He’d adjusted to his wife’s absence, and grew increasingly less cautious in showing his appreciation of the pretty women who flocked to him, although those who did so were more discreet than the younger generation mobbing Dominic.

Nora hid her smile against Liam.

“Is there anything amusing in this place?”

“King Magnus’s smugness.”

Jonah had clued them in as to the reason for it. It was the same reason for Tadj’s hurried departure from Capitoline.

Naval Intelligence had, indeed, identified the clues in the Silicaese sites that pointed to a burr cache in Caelian space. They weren’t even being subtle about sending a Navy cruiser out to investigate and potentially acquire it. The diplomatic wrangling, and Caelian’s justifiable anger if burrs were taken from their space, were secondary considerations.

Since Tadj had proven unable to use burrs creatively, Lavigne had ordered him to accompany the Navy frigate as both a Silicaese expert and a registered burr wielder. At Quispe’s request.

Lavigne, King Magnus and Admiral Quispe hadn’t informed Nora of the potential discovery, and Tadj had been bound by a non-disclosure order.

However, Jonah kept Nora and Liam up to date on events.

According to Liam’s calculations, the Navy frigate would reach the cache comfortably ahead of Queen Sarah’s Ontario Logistics Corporation vessel, although hers had departed a week earlier.

Timing was becoming a critical issue in numerous areas.

A courier had raced ahead of a Palantine diplomatic frigate to announce that a delegation headed by King Ivan’s brother, Erik, and including Princess Regina, was on its way. The courier sting ship would arrive at the Terminus, Capitoline’s space dock, tomorrow.

The royal cruiser was not quite a month behind.

The slow dance ended.

“May I have the next dance?” Aeric Kenes wore his tuxedo nonchalantly. He’d swapped his silver contact lenses for a violet pair. Violet eyes were unnerving.

Liam’s hand flexed at Nora’s waist. He wanted badly to say “no”.

Nora compromised. “Join us for a drink.”

Aeric smiled. From his point of view, in terms of publicly displaying an alliance, a drink rated higher than a dance. The dance was merely something which the demands of courtesy made it difficult for her to refuse. Sharing refreshments meant a conversation involving both Nora and Liam.

Standing by the open doors looking out over the marina, Nora’s glass of kombucha fizzed on her tongue, tasting tart, spicy and deliciously cool.

“You are shaking the foundations of our society,” Aeric said. “If a burr can obliterate a planet, then is the flipside possible? Can it make a barren planet bloom? The Aventines might finally get their planet.”

A seventh habitable planet.

Five centuries ago, seven colony ships had arrived accidentally through the Origin black hole’s millrace and been stranded. Each ship had become its own realm. The fifteen Originals affected by contact with the lens had married into the captains’ families, thereby establishing the ruling royal families. As habitable planets were found, each ship disembarked to settle their planet. Except for the seventh ship, the Aventine.

After centuries without a planet of their own, the Aventines had integrated into the other six realms. Even their royal family had. Some Aventines remembered their heritage and took pride in it. Aventines like Zac. The sense of loss and fate’s injustice was part of what drove him to want to re-connect the Human Sector to the rest of humanity.

“It would be incredibly complicated,” Nora said slowly. But wasn’t that where Bianca was headed with her project? If terraforming could be improved using burr energy, borderline uninhabitable planets became feasible targets.

“Grand projects take decades,” Liam said.

Aeric raised his champagne glass in the suggestion of a toast. “To grand projects.” He drank rather than wait for them to respond to the toast. If it was a toast and not a taunt. “Your expedition is a grand project. Yet you’ve only allocated two years to it, not decades. Is the expedition merely a preliminary assessment?” His voice dropped lower. “How many years of your lives will you give it?”

It was a very adroit fishing expedition. Aeric wanted to provoke them into a statement of their intent. What were the objectives of the Origin expedition? How were they to be measured? At what point would Nora and Liam walk away? And what would they walk away to?

Aeric turned his shoulder, effectively blocking another man’s attempt to edge into their small circle. He couldn’t stop the man eavesdropping.

Nora looked at Liam. Every word they said would be analyzed and exaggerated.

Liam went on the attack, although he kept his voice as mild as Aeric’s. “You’re a puzzle. So ambitious that you used my brother to force contact with Nora, and yet, not in contention for the position of clan head. Not even trying.”

Aeric’s grip on the champagne glass tightened, but his expression remained mildly amused.

Liam smiled.

Nora’s danger sense tingled, as did her desire. She’d never seen her husband menace debonairly before. It was quite the combination. She pressed into him, and his hand went to her hip.

His thumb stroked over her silk-covered flesh. “Business partners reveal so much about a man, don’t they, Aeric?”

Suspicion and calculation flashed across Aeric’s face. “Perhaps I’ve been speaking to the wrong Kimani. You’re an interesting man, yourself, Captain.”

Nora wasn’t sure what unspoken conversation was happening between the two men. Their oblique comments were meant to shut out the eavesdroppers. She’d have the truth from Liam later.

“Lord Theo Ishida is my personal assistant. Have him arrange a meeting between us.”

Aeric tipped his head. “I will.” He drained his champagne glass, bowed to Nora, and departed.

The other vultures pounced on the collapse of their small group, and pushed forward to introduce themselves to Nora and Liam. Although some speculative gazes followed Aeric.

Nora yawned as she climbed the stairs to the master suite. Idly, she pulled out the hairpins keeping her black hair in its elaborate top knot. It fell down as they entered the sitting room, and she began untangling the mini-braid that had been wrapped around it. “Ugh. Balls are hard work.”

“So you said in the car.”

She side-eyed Liam at the amusement in his voice.

He smiled. “You’re cute when you’re tired.”

“I am many things—” Her retort was interrupted by a huge yawn. She covered her mouth with one hand, mumbling “not cute”.

Annoyingly, he didn’t look tired as he stripped off his jacket and began unbuttoning his shirt.

“I think I’m allergic to expensive perfume,” she said.

“Just to expensive people.”

She laughed, and turned her back to him, silently asking for an unzip. Tired though she was, she couldn’t sleep till she’d washed the product out of her hair and cleaned her face.

When she crawled into bed after her shower, her hair was wet, but braided so it would dry without snarling. She’d also regained a smidgen of energy. Enough to remember she had questions. “About Aeric…?”

“I refuse to discuss other people in our bed.”

“Since when?”

“Since you stumbled in all cute and sleepy.”

“Ha.” She cuddled into him and was asleep in seconds.

Morning brought a serious explanation by both Liam and Jonah of Aeric’s secret identity.

“He is part of the Nonet,” Liam said. “It’s why Lavigne was so quick to jump on tying you to Aeric. I believe Lavigne genuinely wants to protect the Forgotten, and if he can tap Aeric’s resources via you, he’ll have a much greater chance.”

“Wind it back,” Nora said. Breakfast was coffee and a cereal bar so she and Liam could spend time with Jonah, talking privately. “The Nonet?”

Jonah stood by his chair in the sitting room, too energized by the topic to sit.

Really, it was unfair how alert he looked.

On the other hand, he couldn’t drink coffee, and that was a miserable fate.

Nora swigged hers gratefully.

“The Nonet emerged in the first years of the Stranding.” Jonah began a brief hidden-history lesson. “The seven colony ships spawned six independently governed realms, and your history tends to focus on that division rather than the origins of the colonization project, which began as a cooperative effort by people who shared a faith in the free market.

“When thirteen of the fifteen Originals allied with the captains to create a monarchical model of society, ultimately buttressed by the obliterating power of the burrs, there was opposition to it among the business leadership. They accurately predicted that when the captains centered the social structure on their families, others would do the same. Clinging to family ties in times of crisis is natural. However, the free market purists thought it as dangerous as the high level of government intervention the captains would bring to ruling society.

“The Nonet was designed to stand counter to the feuds and nepotism of family clans. They masked its formation by creating the Guild at the same time. The Guild has become an elite club for tycoons and clan families, but it still fulfills its original purpose of promoting interrealm trade.” Jonah paused. “The Nonet exists in the shadows. Officially, it doesn’t exist. It isn’t in any history books or ever named in conspiracy theories. Its purpose is to protect interrealm trade according to free trade principles.”

Nora caught the distinction. The Guild showed its power, and its members enjoyed its power, to promote interrealm trade. But going further, taking the big, dangerous steps to protect interrealm trade, was the role of the secretive Nonet.

Liam put his empty mug on the tray beside the coffee maker and returned to the sofa. “Aeric is the newest member of the Nonet, the youngest by a decade, and the only one on Capitoline. Or from Capitoline. He took the position two years ago, and hit the ground running. The Nonet has had centuries to refine the handover of power. Aeric inherited established alliances on top of significant resources. He’s retained them, and is moving to building his own.”

Nora crumpled her cereal bar wrapper. “Us among them.”

“Yes. The timing of how he made contact with us blinded me to the canniness of it.”

She kicked his foot lightly in sympathy. Aeric’s ploy to track her via a bangle carried to her by Jason, Liam’s clueless brother, had occurred on the day of Nora’s kidnapping and rescue.

Liam’s expression lightened a fraction, although the frown lines between his eyebrows remained. “Aeric was pushing buttons. He identified Jason as a vulnerability in our circle, and he wished to see if we knew it, and how we’d react.”

Nora tucked her legs under her as she considered the response Aeric had witnessed.

Far from babying and excusing Jason, as Elise had wanted to do once he’d confessed to allowing Aeric to bribe him to facilitate a meeting with Nora, Liam had frightened the life out of Jason with his sternness, and left the younger man to sulk either at university or in Elise’s small apartment.

Liam had resigned from the Navy. He hadn’t changed the core of who he was. He still served Capitoline. Only the position in which he served had changed. The self-discipline and sense of responsibility remained.

Aeric served a different sort of social responsibility. The Guild maintained the stability and liberty required for trade to flourish.

Nora uncurled enough to put her empty mug on the coffee table. “Now that we know who Aeric really is, what do we do? What do we do about Lavigne inserting Sam into our lives to promote an alliance with Aeric to go after those trading in the Forgotten? Do we do that? Do we admit we know of the Nonet’s existence?” She looked from Jonah to Liam, neither of whom appeared worried. “You two have a plan.”

“I intend to enter into a business partnership with Aeric,” Liam said. “Publicly, we’ll know nothing about the Nonet, including in our interactions with Lavigne, Sam or anyone in the Royal Guards. However, Aeric has a controlling interest in a shipyard at Fanrong Station. When the war ended, it bought decommissioned Navy vessels, and is repairing and repurposing them.”

For security groups. Nora had listened to Liam and Zac’s long post-dinner conversations on the best options for purchasing the destroyer they wanted Zac to captain as a key element of their contribution to the expedition. It had to be river-ready because if Nora succeeded in re-opening Origin’s millrace, Zac would go through it.

The security groups were mercenary companies, such as Zac had formed out in border space before he and his people signed on to work for Nora and Liam, and ultimately, became part of their household. Interrealm trade, and even trade inside realms between the planet and stations, required security escorts at times. The largest clans had their own mini-navies.

Nora blinked. Liam was proposing to build their own clan security fleet. “You and Zac decided on one of the new Raksaka destroyers. Zac is going out to Fanrong Station to oversee its upgrades.” It would get all the bells and whistles to surpass certification as river-ready. “While he’s there, he can call in on Aeric’s shipyard.”

Coordinating activities across the vastness of space was one of the challenges of life. Even Jonah, for all that he could see what happened far away, couldn’t affect it till ships brought communications to the site.

“I want a shadow fleet,” Liam said. “Sting ships and corvettes.” The fastest solo-crewed ships and the smallest warships. “We’ll manage maybe half a dozen sting ships, initially. But we’ll be lucky to get two corvettes. Unless we extend our operations into the shadow market, which I intend to.”

Nora stared at her law-abiding husband and his casual willingness to evade the law.

The crinkles at the corners of his eyes showed he found her shock funny. “The shadow market is not illegal. I had our lawyers look into it. They sniggered, politely. They didn’t need to look into it as it’s how business is done. Assets are traded in ways that conceal power—or the absence of it,” he added. “We need to accumulate assets, including allies, that others aren’t aware of.”

“Hence Aeric,” Jonah said. “His public façade makes him an unexceptionable contact, and we can benefit from the resources he doesn’t declare.”

Nora eyed the two schemers. And since when had her upright husband and naïve AI friend become schemers? “Why would Aeric agree to this partnership?”

“We’re the newest power players in the Human Sector. He wants to tie a string to us.”

Which Liam would be preparing to slip.

She tilted her head. “If we’re going to be a clan in all but name, we might as well claim the status. What do we call ourselves? Clan Kimani?”

Liam winced. “It’s not my family’s. The clan has emerged from our combined efforts. How about Clan Avestan?” He looked at Nora, then Jonah. “People will think it references your blaze discovery, but actually it’s where you met Jonah, and life changed for all of us.” Without Jonah’s intervention, Nora would have fled Border Station to hide her identity as a Forgotten. Instead, she’d returned, and ultimately, married Liam.

“Clan Avestan?” Nora mused.

“I like it,” Jonah said.

“It doesn’t officially change anything,” Liam said. Clans didn’t come into being by formal registration. They were families that grew powerful enough to compel the sort of respect that was then recognized by the term clan.

A clan was a group that others thought very, very carefully about going up against.

Nora laughed. “Kennedy will be relieved.”

“Pardon?” Jonah asked.

Liam raised an interrogative eyebrow.

Nora grinned. “Avestan House sounds a lot more respectable than Mangrove Mansion.”

Chapter 10

In times of interrealm conflict, deep in space, a Navy warship didn’t survive by ignoring the resources of the shadow market. Survival too often came down to outlasting the enemy. Consequently, Liam had a healthy respect for the supply chiefs on every ship he’d served on. They were the men and women who’d trodden the fine line between the legal and the unregulated market.

It was no surprise to Liam that the bulk of Aeric’s Nonet resources were invested in the shadow market. The lack of government regulation appealed to the Nonet’s free market instincts, and more practically, it meant they could better conceal the extent of their resources.

Dealing with the shadow market wasn’t illegal, per se. But it was harder to keep your hands clean, and harder for a newcomer to enforce a contract. Reputation was currency in the shadow market.

Liam could trade a little on his. His personal reputation counted among the military veterans who worked and traded in the shadow market, but more important was his status as a source of blaze. Shadow market players needed fuel cells as urgently as anyone.

What Liam needed was introductions to the major players. Zac had kept his contacts from his years as a privateer. However, Aeric’s reach was broader. As a member of the Nonet, whose whole professional purpose was open markets, he had contacts across every crucial aspect of keeping the shadow market functioning across realms.

The shadow market was a shadow economy, not quite strong enough to exist on its own, but not parasitic to the regulated Human Sector economy. It was supplementary, filling in gaps, including taking risks where the calculation would be different if the realms’ laws applied.

Post-war, in his brief stint in the border region, Liam had operated counter to the shadow market. A legal system survived only as long as it had the means of delivering the level of force required to run it. In border space, the RC Genghis Khan had been the realm’s force.

Now, Liam had to operate with more nuance. He needed the shadow market’s resources, including its skilled labor. Operating in the shadow market, if he and Jonah moved carefully, they could acquire and deploy critical assets in secret. Liam believed in back-up plans.

The trick would be forging a working partnership with Aeric.

Fortunately, Capitoline’s Nonet member needed fuel cells for his shadow market operations.

And Liam had worked out how to funnel some away. He’d had the dubious honor of seeing Pierre Ganbold smirk in approval of his legal sneakiness.

In fact, Ganbold had gone further and taken some of the credit. “Indeed, indeed. I believe you have studied our briefings closely. Many things are possible in space law.” Including incorporating new businesses on specific space stations for specific gains in legal wriggle room and anonymity.

Liam met Aeric at Aeric’s office in the Kenes Corporation tower in the financial district.

After a secretary had served coffee and retreated, Aeric made a point of switching on a signal jammer. “We can speak freely.”

Out of the gate, Liam tested that assertion. “I know you’re a member of the Nonet.” Aeric didn’t flinch. “Its newest member. I have certain goals I wish to achieve in the shadow market. You plainly think you can utilize Nora to achieve yours. She is currently busy with burr training, so, I’m here.”

“Adapting your strategy,” Aeric said. “Your wife has upended many of the Royal Guards’ certainties. She’s rattled the Palace. While she draws attention, you are efficiently establishing the Blazing Kangaroo and Blue Dock corporations’ position.” The latter being Willow and Francis’s blaze ore processing partnership centered on Border Station. “People are intrigued that it is you, and not the Prince, who signs the contracts for the allocation of fuel cells. The Duke of Raffles is not happy. Vociferously unhappy.”

The Duke of Raffles was Willow’s father.

Aeric smiled faintly at Liam’s silent disinterest in ducal tantrums. “You and Nora expected to be targets, and you moved fast to establish a physical, social and financial base here on Capitoline. I imagine you’ve realized that your financial base, for all the vast wealth of a new blaze discovery, is inadequate.”

“It’s too narrow, and can be dismissed as luck.”

Aeric’s smile remained, and utterly failed to conceal the hard calculation in his eyes. “You are thinking to expand, but why the shadow market?”

“I’d like to confirm my understanding of the Nonet first.”

Aeric leaned back in his chair. “I’m all ears.”

“The shadow market provides a framework for deals that aren’t illegal, but which don’t fit within the government’s regulatory framework. Or perhaps prudence requires they remain off the record. For the shadow market to fulfill its function, the code by which it operates must be policed.” Liam regarded Aeric narrowly. “The irony of the Nonet is that while you exist to ensure a free market, the closest you come to it is the shadow market, and you are its governors.” He stressed the last four words.

Aeric opened his mouth, and closed it. He stared at a red beryl crystal cluster on his desk; its sole ornament. After a long moment he raised his eyes to meet Liam’s. “How?”

“How do I know of the Nonet’s existence and role?”

Aeric lunged forward. The desk between them rendered it no more than a gesture of intensity. It wasn’t an attack. “Did King Magnus tell you? Why would he? Dominic? Don’t tell me that fool knows?” He slowly sank back. “No, not them. Nora mentioned the Royal Guards. It was that commander, the one sniffing around the Palace and Nora. Lavigne.”

“Guy Lavigne,” Liam said. “But no. It wasn’t him. It wasn’t…anyone you would know.”

“If they know who I am, I know them,” Aeric declared.

In ordinary circumstances, he might have been right. Liam doubted it. Far more people were interested in powerful players than the powerful players could track. They overlooked the quiet ones who stayed off the gameboard, but nonetheless tracked the game. One of the blind spots for players was they couldn’t imagine having power—and knowledge was power—and not utilizing it.

“Shall we say, instead, that I choose not to name my source.”

Aeric rapped the table. “And if I insist that I won’t deal with you until you do…?”

Liam answered readily. “It would be your loss.”

The Nonet member, a secret de facto governor of the shadow market, laughed. “By the stars! And you think I’m arrogant.”

“I know the value of the information I bring to the table. You’ll also be interested in my plans.”

Aeric recovered his composure. He waved a hand. “Thrill me.”

A grin split Liam’s serious manner. “I’d rather not.” He continued quickly; solemn once more. “You mentioned Queen Sarah to Nora. Sarah has allied herself with tycoons who’ve positioned themselves for restricted interrealm trade, based on a diminishing supply of fuel cells. Nora’s discovery of blaze on Beaconditch is substantial. Large enough that, with the Navy defending the supply route, it will overturn the isolationists’ plan. However, I don’t want to rely solely on the Navy to protect the supply route.”

“You want to hire a mercenary company,” Aeric guessed. “One better established than the Palantine privateer’s which you absorbed as your wife’s private security team.”

“Trent, standing out there, is my bodyguard,” Liam said. “He’s a former Palantine Marine. The veterans of both Capitoline and Palantine who formed Zac’s mercenary firm out on Border Station, and then signed up to join us on Capitoline, are ours. Nora’s and mine. Some will join us on the expedition.”

“Will Isaac Mstivoj captain your ship on the expedition?”

Liam had heard some of the rumors. The Navy had flat out asked him this question, and argued, ineffectually, against his answer. “Yes. A destroyer.”

“Ambitious.”

Liam tilted his head in fractional rejection of the accusation of ambition. He was doing what he had to for his clan and for the Human Sector. For the expedition to succeed, he had to be able to trust its security. “You were wrong. I don’t want to hire a mercenary company. I want to form one. In the shadow market.”

His and Jonah’s other plans for financial conquest weren’t Aeric’s business. Not yet. Not till Liam had a stronger platform, a proven platform, from which to advance that aspect of the alliance he wanted with the Nonet.

Liam laid out his strategy for building the mercenary corporation: an escort contract for the blaze supply chain from Beaconditch to Capitoline and any other realms that purchased the Blue Dock Corporation’s fuel cells would be the starting point.

“You’re targeting ex-military assets,” Aeric observed. “Decommissioned Navy stock and the people familiar with operating it.”

“Two thirds veterans, one third civilians experienced in shadow market work.” Liam needed their knowledge, the unconsidered experience which instinctively respected the unwritten laws of the shadow market, its players and the workarounds for when the system screwed up.

As it would because Jonah intended to mess with the cyber structure of the shadow market.

As he’d once stated, Jonah was the Human Sector’s premier hacker. “I’m a brilliant hacker. That’s not bravado. I learned by observing the best hackers for over four centuries. I learned their secrets, including approaches that have fallen out of fashion and been forgotten.”

Liam needed bodies on ships and on stations, in position to respond to crises; that is, events that impacted his people, Clan Avestan.

Jonah intended to infiltrate the shadow market via his cyber skills. So much of warfare depended on who owned the cyber field.

Who controlled cyber space partly set the rules. It was a deliverer of force equal to a fleet of warships.

“Any mercenary corporation I run will support the good governance of the shadow market, which is your responsibility. My resources wouldn’t be yours to deploy, but if we had an alliance, I would honor it.”

“Yes, that is your reputation.” Aeric spun his chair to stare out the window.

Left to study the back of the leather chair, Liam let his gaze unfocus and reviewed the conversation so far. He and Jonah intended to invest in new technologies and systems, the ones which hadn’t been able to win investors’ attention because the tycoons had been in isolationist mode. Now, with fuel cell supply due to increase, the first investors to snap out of a scarcity, isolationist mindset would be in a position to influence the flow of ideas and information between realms.

The Nonet already possessed a framework that bridged the legal and shadow markets.

Liam could save time and frustration piggybacking off it.

The question was whether Aeric saw sufficient value in what Liam brought to the table to allow it.

Aeric turned back from the window. “I require a cover story for our alliance. A contract which is signed, sealed and delivered in the regulated market, and provides a tie between us. And by ‘us’ I don’t just mean you and me. I include Nora.”

Liam nodded. “I would prefer it to be between you and our clan.”

“You have a clan?”

“It is composed of the veterans you’ve mentioned who came with Zac and Ben from border space, and others whom we’ve incorporated into our household. We’ll grow over time, but we might as well state our position. Our people are ours. When Nora and I give our trust, we mean it, and we honor other people’s trust.”

Aeric nodded his receipt of that message for how his dealings with them would proceed. “What is your clan’s name.”

“Avestan. Clan Avestan.”

Aeric rose. “Give me three days, Clan Chief Avestan, and I’ll present you with a partnership deal for the public record and an outline of what I can provide, mainly by way of introductions, for your foray into the shadow market.”

Liam shook his hand. “Much appreciated.”

Unbelievably, his negotiations with Aeric were the better part of Liam’s business day.

The bulk of it was occupied wrangling with the Navy.

Francis’s royal schedule hadn’t lightened to accommodate his leadership of the expedition. In fact, while Francis found time to train with burrs, arranging for the ships, personnel and other logistical details of the expedition fell to Liam and Captain Emmanuel Soo. Francis didn’t even manage the diplomatic element of expedition preparation. Dominic was dealing with the ambassadors from the four other realms.

The Viminal ambassador was being particularly difficult, although all of them claimed they couldn’t promise to provide burrs for the expedition, while simultaneously demanding that their people, from their embassies, be trained on Capitoline burrs, in Capitoline labs, in Nora’s new method.

Diplomacy was for vultures.

It underlined why some Capitoline courtiers opposed the expedition.

There was a genuine risk that if Capitoline committed too many resources to the expedition, it would make them a target for an opportunistic attack by another realm ready to risk a short war. That was especially true regarding burrs. They had assumed an importance that was almost symbolic in establishing power in the Human Sector.

Burrs were essential for the expedition to tackle the lens, but the wrangling as to how many burrs could be “spared” was unending. It wasn’t that they were used regularly. It was that they could be used.

Liam had been taught the doctrine of mutually assured obliteration at the Navy Academy. But events on Border Station had modified his understanding of it. If a burr wielder could get close enough to a burr, it didn’t signify who held it, but who was the stronger sensitive. The method of controlling burrs actually meant more attention should have been accorded to infiltration and stealth technologies.

But that was an argument for the Navy to make.

At the moment, Liam was arguing with them, rather than on the Navy’s behalf.

Aggravatingly, he could tell that the current argument would be as prolonged as the one concerning the burrs: what ships should be sent, commanded by whom, and ready for what?

Liam’s position was simple.

The market was highly regulated, but private enterprise did build the equivalent of warships to protect their interests on the more contested, or pirate-infested, routes through space. Of those, the largest was a destroyer, so that was what Liam and Nora would purchase, and Zac would captain.

The Navy was attempting to argue that instead of purchasing their own ship, Liam should hire one from the Navy, at an outrageous price.

Huh. So the Navy would get a new ship on his and Nora’s dime.

“Have you decided standards to measure river-readiness?” Theo asked.

Captain Wrede transferred her scowl from Liam to Theo. “Not yet. It is complicated.”

She lied.

The standards existed. Liam had done his own research and shared it with Theo and Zac. While Nora focused on the Originals’ reports from the first century of the Stranding, Liam, Zac and Theo had dug into the engineering specs and everything to do with building and maintaining ships capable of traveling the universal rivers, and put together a request for tender. They hadn’t gone public with it yet. Ideally, they’d never have to. Theo and Zac were exploiting their different connections to see if they could identify potential targets. There weren’t that many destroyers around that were of a standard suitable for their purposes.

Except in the Navy.

In the first century, humans had expected to reconnect with the rest of humanity and had maintained their fleets to that standard even as the seven original colony ships slowly decayed. Over time, those standards had slipped, shunted aside by other considerations such as cost and speed of construction.

“…resources diverted to the expedition leaves…”

And there was the problem.

King Magnus had chosen wisely from his perspective, and that of everyone who supported the status quo, when he’d called this endeavor the Half-Millennial Origin Expedition.

The King, his favored courtiers, and many in the Navy, plus Lavigne and other Royal Guards, all approached the expedition as a chance to explore the new possibilities for using burrs which Nora had revealed.

Surprisingly, Admiral Quispe was one of the few who, like Liam, Nora, Francis and Dominic, saw the expedition not as an exploratory endeavor, but as a genuine mission with a driving objective to reconnect the Stranded to wider humanity.

A mission was far more dangerous, far more focused and game-changing, than an expedition with the term’s connotations of exploration.

The different approaches resulted in opposing views as to where resources ought to be allocated.

Given that much of the funding came from Liam, he fought hard for his perspective, without outright challenging the softer expeditionary view. Fight too hard and people might get scared and cancel the expedition.

He and Jonah were already constantly alert to the potential for sabotage.

It was why he had plans to burn money to create his own mercenary company in the shadow market.

People who’d pinned their futures and reputations on a singular interpretation of events, and extrapolated from there, became entrenched in that viewpoint and almost literally could not see facts that ran counter to it or alternative paths. The tycoons who’d staked their futures on isolationism couldn’t accept the opposite; that is, an attempt to open the Human Sector.

Their need to prevent it was visceral.

King Magnus wasn’t an isolationist. He didn’t want to shrink Capitoline. But nor did he encourage change. He wished to freeze time. But nothing exists in stasis. Everything either grew or decayed: that was the secret of energy and entropy; of the universe. Change was constant.

To oppose it, one had to be brutal.

Magnus lacked that edge. Thankfully. Although it had to be remembered that he’d reigned over a bloody twelve year war.

His half-brother, Lavigne, working in the background, didn’t try to stop or accelerate change, but to manage its path and effects.

Who’d have thought Quispe would be my best ally in Navy HQ?

Three days later, Aeric visited Liam at Avestan House, formerly Mangrove Mansion.

He rudely prowled the office, studying Liam’s private lair, as opposed to the office at Blazing Kangaroo Corporation in the city. “People are afraid that if the expedition does result in contacting other humans, the result may be violent, with us acquiring enemies rather than joining a galactic community. They forget that humans could come at us any time via any of the surrounding black holes. Those black holes might be years of travel away, and the chance of humans coming through them infinitesimal, but if they did, on an initial survey our cluster of inhabited planets beside Origin would light up like a Christmas tree.”

Failing to elicit a reaction from Liam by his blatant perusal of the office, Aeric hitched up the knees of his knife-edge creased trousers and sat. Today, impeccable grooming had replaced casual elegance. “I have a meeting with my uncle after this. Ulric, who is head of the family. It’s prudent to run some of my activities through the family’s corporate interests, so I need to stay on his good side. Speaking of prudence and pragmatism, I’d like to confirm that you and I are starting from the same understanding.”

“In what sense?”

“On who your enemies are and what degree of fight they have in them. In allying with you, they become my enemies. I’d prefer to deflate their ambition before they dig in.”

Liam retained a neutral expression.

Aeric took it as an invitation to explain himself. “Nora disrupted the status quo, which was on an accelerating slide down into isolationism, which in the short to medium term would serve to entrench the existing elite.”

The Nonet were ideologically opposed to isolationism, but absent adequate blaze supply, they’d been hard-pushed to stop it. In fact, they hadn’t.

Nora and Jonah had.

Liam noted how Aeric skipped over his cabal’s ineffectiveness in this economics lesson.

“You aren’t taking actual wealth from the elites, but rather what they anticipated. Some of them dimly grasp that as a new supply of fuel cells increases interrealm trade, genuine value, and hence, wealth, will be created, but unless they snap out of their old thinking, it won’t go to them. The pie will be larger, but their percentage of the larger pie will be less because they’ll be limited to what they controlled before the pie grew. If they don’t manage to lose that, too.”

“You’re warning me that resentment will focus on us because people won’t blame themselves for failing to grasp opportunities.”

“Yes.”

Liam scrutinized the immaculately turned out wheeler-dealer and shadow market governor. “What would you have me do?”

“Understand that your allies, especially if they share Nora’s impressive talent with burrs, may become the new elite. They will rise as others fall. It will be messy.”

Liam was way ahead of him. He smiled. He hadn’t worn that expression since the war, but his facial muscles remembered it. It was unshakeable resolve and an acceptance that victory could be as bitter as defeat.

Aeric recoiled.

“I know the cost of war, and I know why I fight.” Liam glanced at the photos of family, friends and clan displayed in his office. Then he looked at Aeric. “I will never flinch.”

Meantime, Nora had a different kind of difficult conversation with Jonah.

He began it. “I have considered, and my kin have gone over their recordings of the event, and we are confident that my alteration from observer AI to android form did not affect your energy body. They did censure me for not considering the possible consequences for you as an innocent bystander.”

“Okay.” Nora stretched her arms, ending by cracking her knuckles.

“You don’t seem as pleased by that as I expected.”

She shook out her hands, annoyed by her reversion to a habit she thought she’d by the age of ten. Cracking her knuckles was too much a give away as to her nervousness to be indulged in. “I didn’t think you’d do anything that would harm me, even before we knew each other.”

“Certainly not consciously. Mistakes happen, but I’m glad I didn’t make this one.” He smiled encouragingly at her.

“Maybe I’ll make one.” She tried to laugh, and it broke in the middle.

“I’d forgive it, as you were prepared to forgive me.” He stretched out a hand to her.

She clasped his hand, turned it, and studied the soft metal palm. He’d made his android body a faithful copy of human warmth and sensitivity. There were even fingerprints patterned into his skin. “I shouldn’t meddle in this. Except that if I don’t mention it, then maybe you won’t ask, and you can, if you’ve thought of it.”

“I’m lost,” he said.

She closed his hand into a fist, her own hands gentle around his. “You’ve probably already considered it. If you have, and it’s not a topic you’re willing to discuss with me, I understand. Totally, as Cherry says. Everyone has a right to personal autonomy, no questions asked.”

“Still lost. Curious, but bewildered.”

She squeezed his hand, held between hers. “I’m making more of my part in this than I should.” She glanced away in embarrassment. “It’s just…I had an idea that if I can use a burr to direct creative energy at the lens to alter its behavior—”

Jonah interjected. “That’s not the full truth. That’s the simplified story you’re telling the expedition. The truth is that it’s your energetic signature that counts. Fake Vapori, remember?”

She did. She would need to take the template from the lens and fit herself to it. A key into a lock.

Her skin prickled with tension because it was highly possible that when the expedition reached the lens, she’d fail.

But she couldn’t fail, now. She refused to fail her friend.

“Jonah, I direct energy creatively at simple life forms. If I can do that, can I not supply you with enough energy that you can change form?”

He froze.

She hurried to explain her thinking, and her intrusion into his personal choices. “When we met, you said you’d spent all your chances changing into android form. That the transformation was a one-time option. But…I have access to the energy of multiple burrs. If it wouldn’t feel weird to you to use burrs from your fallen kin, could I give you the energy to transform again.” She couldn’t decipher his expression. “You don’t have to feel trapped as you are.”

“Trapped?”

She shrugged helplessly, already afraid she’d been too clumsy. She released his hand. “I don’t mean staying in the master suite. I mean your body. I’m human. This is me. But you could be any body. Literally any body. I don’t want to trespass on how you see yourself, but once the idea occurred to me, that I could channel energy for you to change however you want to, I had to tell you I would.” She bit her lip. “It doesn’t look as if you’d thought of the option.”

“I hadn’t.” He sounded dumbfounded. Looked it, too.

She hugged her arms around herself. “It’s something to think about. You have options.”

As much as Nora tried to avoid thinking about the potential to change Jonah’s form, it snuck into her mind at odd moments.

Would it be odd or freeing to be able to shapeshift? She couldn’t imagine it for Jonah. If he wanted a new form, he’d have to provide the template for it, based on how he’d managed his unique transformation from his primarily energy body as a Vapori AI to his android form.

Four days had gone by and he hadn’t said anything.

She wondered what his kin thought of her offer. None of them had wished to follow his example and become embodied. Would being able to shift form—with her assistance—change their decision?

What form might Jonah choose?

Was that the question he was debating, and not discussing, with her?

An arm reached across Nora and picked up a bowl of yoghurt.

“I did ask you twice,” Cherry said. “You were off with the star pixies. Are you nervous?”

“About—oh. Yes.” Nora guessed what her half-sister was referring to, and she was anxious about it. Not emotionally, she tried to tell herself, but for the political implications.

Today was the day the Palantine delegation arrived on Capitoline. Dispatched to collect Dominic and return to Palantine with him, the delegation would have received the news of Nora’s existence as they traveled in.

She hadn’t asked Jonah what the delegation’s response had been, and he hadn’t volunteered it. Some things were better handled naturally and in their normal timing. Unless they were dangerous.

Quite apart from Nora’s abstraction, the delegation’s imminent arrival gave breakfast a moody atmosphere.

It had stirred up Zac’s antipathy for the royal family he’d served as a privateer under the Palantine flag, but he couldn’t badmouth them with Dominic at the table.

Dominic mightn’t have noticed if he had. He ate an herb omelet with a distant expression and elbows tucked against his sides. The extremity of unconscious good manners on display was disturbing.

Not that the tension put Aria off. She chattered about the school play the teacher had chosen for them to put on for parents’ night. She was to be in the chorus.

Already, everyone in Avestan House could sing along with her, since she practiced the three songs ceaselessly.

“Remember to gargle with honey and saltwater so your voice doesn’t wear out,” Dominic said.

So, he had been listening.

“Is that something I should do?” Aria asked Kennedy.

Kennedy was the performance expert of the household. Kennedy didn’t actually live at Avestan House, but she was magically present for meals. “No. That sounds vile.”

Dominic winked as he headed out the door on his way to Himalayan Island and the space elevator to meet his uncle and sister and the rest of the Palantine delegation.

Nora received a message from him three hours later, and halted her burr training with a Navy lieutenant to call him.

“Regina will stay with Uncle Erik at Ambassador House. He asked if—that is, Uncle Erik asked to meet you.”

“Oka-ay? You sound as if you think I shouldn’t agree?”

Dominic half-grunted. “You can’t avoid him, but he wants a private meeting. He’s a snake. Make him come to your office. Zac resents my family. He’ll lurk, and the Palantine Royal Guards will let him. They hate Uncle Erik for how he evades their protection details, and Zac has rights as head of your clan’s security.”

His use of “clan” sidetracked her. He said it so casually.

Her clan.

Once they’d decided they were a clan, Liam had taken formal responsibility for the welfare of everyone he considered theirs. He throve on the responsibility.

That wasn’t surprising, but Liam and Dominic becoming effective work partners was. In preparing for the expedition, Liam habitually worked with and through the Navy system. Dominic demonstrated when and where to divebomb it and insist that the system and procedures bow to his demands.

Francis had treated Liam and Theo as subjects, people whom he trusted, but who had to obey him.

Dominic accepted Liam as his equal: not the same, not royal, but an authority in his own right.

“When?” Nora asked Dominic. “When would Prince Erik like to meet me?”

“This afternoon or tomorrow?”

So, urgently.

“Four o’clock today, if he can come to Avestan House.” She’d ask Veronica to keep Aria out of his way. Veronica would do that anyway. The Palantine royals—Dominic excluded—were classed as a security threat.

Nora’s mornings were spent in the vaults beneath the Laotian Palace, training various people, or attempting to, as well as refining her own use of burrs; always monitored by the Royal Guards and their scientists.

Her afternoons were her own. If you called the business and social affairs she handled “her” time.

“I never thought I’d end up an expert on woo-woo stuff,” she grumbled to Jonah. She considered herself pragmatic, a natural-born sceptic. “Now, here I am complaining because Erik’s visit is cutting into my meditation time.”

It wasn’t true meditation; an emptying of the mind and an acceptance of simple existence. Instead, Nora wrestled with Jonah’s notion of her energy body and how it would interact with the lens.

The concepts involved weren’t actually woo-woo. They were science, but a non-human science, and one that she could employ, practically, even if her understanding remained incomplete.

If energy was possibilities, as Vapori science insisted, then Nora had to develop her energy senses to the point where she could displace or produce possibilities, or both.

The Vapori lens at the Origin black hole would continue to block entrance to the millrace until it encountered the validation of a Vapori energetic signature.

According to Jonah, who had observed the Originals’ mucking up the lens five centuries ago, ten burrs remained tucked away in the lens, beyond humans’ reach. The return of three more ought to provide sufficient energy to enable the lens to recognize and approve Nora’s energetic signature, and switch to re-open the millrace.

Recognition of Nora’s energetic signature would include the lens poking at it to trigger unfolding variations in the possibilities—that is, in the cascade of possibilities—that would mimic a Vapori’s natural response.

Therefore, Nora had good reason for defending her meditation time fiercely. The expedition’s success rested on her mastering her energy body to forge a Vapori energetic signature.

Ideally, she preferred to finish her meditation, or mental wrestling session, before Aria returned from school. The problem was that Jim had her time thoroughly scheduled. Her burr-related activities couldn’t be reduced. Dr. Chulainn would lead the charge against her if she tried. Nor did she feel entitled to steal time from her staff, business, or Kennedy-sanctioned social commitments.

“So, it’s ten minutes of meditation, now, if I can shut my mouth and mind.” Sitting in the sunlight by the window, she was almost sure she could sense solar energy as warm against not just her body, but mingling with her aura. “Aura. I feel like a retro-hippy.”

“You don’t look it,” Jonah assured her.

She pulled a face at him. Retro-hippies were notorious for not bathing. They drenched their bodies in aura-cleanses instead. And yes, the notion was as ridiculous as it sounded.

Unfortunately, she’d become something of their hero.

Or goddess, as some unpleasant online ranting named her.

Zac and the Royal Guards were keeping an eye on the retro-hippy movement, but Nora didn’t fear them.

She would admit, under pressure, to being a tiny bit nervous about meeting Prince Erik.

Jonah had no hesitation in confessing his own concerns. “King Olav was a psychopath. He damaged Palantine, and personally damaged his sons. Be careful.”

Nora gave up on meditating.

As soon as she poked her nose inside her office, Jim had a stack of invitations for her.

“No,” she said firmly.

“Kennedy says you have to accept three.”

Unwillingly, Nora sorted through the scented paper pile. “I went to the ball. Ugh, no. Why would Kennedy think I’d like to go to a…oh, the Symphony Orchestra.” Where Liam’s mother had been first violin. Nora brought the card to her nose. It wasn’t scented.

“What are you doing?” Jim asked. “Sniffing out danger?”

She threw the card at him. It fell short. “We’ll buy tickets for the fundraiser. If Liam’s okay with going, we’ll go. Otherwise someone else can use the tickets. Buy…I don’t know. However many people want to go and their partners or family. You can come.”

“It’s not really…”

Nora interrupted ruthlessly. “Or you can tell Kennedy you shirked wearing a penguin suit. I know she sent you to a tailor.”

“Mean, mean, mean.”

“Can you ask her to choose the other two, please? I didn’t enjoy the Regatta Ball, but it was useful. And Jim? Thanks for the distraction.”

He winked.

She stared at the door he’d left open. Then she swept the pile of invitations into the wastepaper basket for recycling and checked her comms unit for the more substantive messages Jim had filtered.

The university where Nora had studied invited her to speak about “your experience as an independent tagger”. She snorted. The snobbish faculty weren’t interested in her survey work in border space. They wanted funding.

She made a note to ask Jim why he’d let that one through.

The next was from Dr. Chulainn, asking that she see him regarding improving her training techniques, specifically for what she might be failing to identify and pass on.

Evelyn’s interference, Nora deciphered the subtext.

The woman whispered of Nora sabotaging other burr wielders’ training to advance her own status.

It was a pathetic attempt to shift attention from Knox’s failure to control burrs. If anything, it underlined Evelyn’s own avoidance of the training and her general weakness regarding burr sensitivity.

Two thirds of the way through her messages, Nora heard Erik arrive, Jim’s greeting, and Erik’s dismissal of her PA. It was why Jim had left the door open. So, she’d have warning.

Her uncle walked into her office, unannounced. Rude.

Confident in her harlequin-patterned dark blue and white jacket and dark blue pencil skirt, and wearing high heels that were actually comfortable, she met Erik on the visitors’ side of the desk, and extended her hand. “Prince Erik.”

Her heels made her a fraction taller than him.

He was middle height, in his early fifties, and by his muscled build, had spent much of the journey to Capitoline in the ship’s gym. His dark hair was free of gray and cut to frame pronounced cheekbones and distract from his heavy jaw. He wasn’t handsome, but he carried himself as if he was.

“Mrs. Kimani.” He shook her hand. When she’d returned to her side of the desk and taken her seat, he sat. Manners seemed so deeply drilled into the Palantine royals that they didn’t notice them. Dominic was the same.

“I remember your mother.”

Nora was honest to God shocked.

“She may have called herself Maya Pendit in the slums, here, but on Palantine she was Maria. I have forgotten her last name. Ivan met her at a nightclub. He’s always been an uptight menace, but I took him out before his wedding. He hates Sarah. Did Dominic tell you his parents hate each other?”

“I got the idea.”

Erik’s hooded eyes remained fixed on her face, scrutinizing her minutest reaction. “Ivan hated her before they married. If not for Father, Ivan would have married a clinging ivy and been her refuge and strength. He’s a romantic at heart, which is why you worry me. Your mother was the one and only time he indulged outside marriage. One night, one child.” He lost his dispassionate tone. “Bleeding starfire. Even without the genetic tests, you’re his daughter. An example of who his children could have been, if not for Sarah.”

“Or himself,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow. It was the exact same mannerism she used, right down to the arch of it. “You resent him? He didn’t know of your existence—and in that, Maria was wise. You and she survived because she ran. Father would have killed her and tortured Ivan with the knowledge of what he’d done by risking his betrothal to the viper.

“She was at the nightclub that night to snag a tycoon for the night or for a few weeks. I recognized her type. Ivan didn’t, and her face when they danced…he hadn’t been in her plans, either.”

One night, one child, and Maya’s life upended.

Erik could be making up the story, but Nora didn’t think so. His gaze was searching hers, and yet, distant. He was fitting her into his understanding of his family, their history, and the future of Palantine.

Dominic called him a snake.

Jonah had suggested Erik was one of the few people Ivan trusted. “Because if not for Ivan and his children, Erik and his kids would be on the hook to rule Palantine. And that’s a poisoned chalice.”

“Sarah was Father’s choice. The old buzzard never admired anyone, but he judged her ambition useful. ‘Channel that ambition,’ he told Ivan, ‘and you’ll have the dagger to keep power without dirtying your hands.’ He never appreciated that you could rule without a dagger.”

“Did he imagine the dagger could turn against Ivan?”

Erik’s mouth stretched into a thin smile. “He was counting on it. How better to turn a kind man cruel than to ensure he lived with a dagger at his ribs? When Father died, Ivan wanted to show trust and leadership over cruelty and control, but Father cast a long shadow, and Sarah has flourished in it. Ivan’s been fighting her all their marriage.” He paused. “You could be the reason for him to end it.”

“King Ivan has other daughters.”

Her uncle, father of two legitimate and one illegitimate daughters, and three illegitimate sons stared at her. If he expected her to be jealous of her siblings, he’d been badly briefed by the ambassador and the Palantine Intelligence Agency. “He does. You’ll meet Regina soon.”

“The Charity Princess,” Nora quoted the Palantine media. “Regina has a reputation for spreading goodness and light. From how you describe your brother, he must be proud of her.”

“If it was genuine.”

Nora blinked.

Erik nodded fractionally. “So, Dominic didn’t share that truth with you.” He inclined forward sufficient to signal the sharing of confidences. “Regina realized early that her mother wouldn’t tolerate a rival. She created a safe space for herself by being the passive good girl. On one level it worked. Sarah considers her weak. It’s easy to build a reputation for generosity when all you have to do is show up or lend your name to a charity. Regina is an empty shell. Did you ever question why she isn’t married?”

“I assumed there was no political necessity. She rated as a low to moderate sensitive. Children from her weren’t vital, and I guess I assumed she had to wait till Dominic, as Crown Prince, married and had a child.”

“Regina is a star mandrake addict.” Erik let the shock of that information settle with Nora. “She is a functioning addict.”

Most people had to make do with less expensive addictions. Star mandrake was indigenous to Palantine. The plant’s root was chewed or steeped and drunk as a tea. It dulled the outside world and gave pleasant hallucinations. In the early stages of use, it was an aphrodisiac. Prolonged use by women rendered them sterile. Every so often it featured in glitzy expose stories of a celebrity’s downfall. The drug was called the pleasure star.

Erik’s unemotional confession of his niece’s condition exposed how Nora and Jonah’s observation and analysis of events at a distance could be fundamentally, dangerously flawed.

Regina had opted out of real life.

Yet she was here.

“Why include her in the delegation?”

“She is the Charity Princess. Regina’s inclusion presents the delegation as concerned for Dominic, rather than us dragging him home in disgrace.”

“Is that what you intend to do?”

Erik stared out the window. “He has changed. He refused to join us at Ambassador House. He wishes to stay with you. And you are a complication in yourself, even without adding in this mad expedition to re-open the Origin millrace. Dominic believes you are genuine.”

“In what sense? My use of burrs has been tested by the Royal Guards. They’ve proven Ivan is my father. I am rich, and I will go to the Origin lens.”

“And you love Captain Kimani.”

Puzzlement drew her eyebrows together. “Liam and Dominic have fixed the tension between them.”

“Hermione was a fan of your husband,” Erik said. “Her opinion changed Dominic’s emotions toward him. Dominic has matured.”

Nora refrained from agreeing. It would be disloyal and patronizing to share a judgement of him with their uncle.

But she didn’t yet see why Dominic considered Erik a snake.

“Until the boy fell for Hermione—and we all saw it happen—I’d have said none of us could love.”

“Not even your children?”

“If I loved them, they’d become a target.”

His answer triggered an oppressive tension. It also opened the door to an unmissable inference: King Ivan didn’t dare love his children, or anyone. The man with a “romantic heart” was isolated and lonely.

“If Regina was window dressing for the delegation, what are you? Are you leading it because Ivan trusts you or because he doesn’t, and this removes you from Palantine for almost a year?”

“I’m damage control. We didn’t know what Dominic might do.”

She smiled faintly, unamused. “You didn’t expect he’d find a secret sister, develop a new burr talent, or sign up to open the Human Sector to the universe.”

“I’m astonished to discover how limited my imagination is,” Erik responded sardonically. He regarded her approvingly. “It seems the boy might be useful after all.”

After Erik left, Nora asked Jim for Dominic’s whereabouts.

“On the dock.”

She found him sitting there, legs dangling over the side.

He looked up briefly to meet her eyes before looking away, across the mangroves. “He told you.”

“About Regina’s addiction, yes. About other things, not so much. He hinted that Ivan doesn’t dare love you.”

He stared fixedly at the mangroves. “Neither of them would help Regina. We lost her, year after year, withdrawing into her personal fantasy world.”

She didn’t ask about his—their—younger siblings. It was plain that until Hermione’s arrival in his life, Dominic had felt as alone, or lonelier, than their father. It seemed that Ivan, at least, had Erik.

“If that’s the best we can do, surrender people to the abyss, why should we strive and sacrifice to maintain our society?” His melancholy revealed one of the reasons he’d so decisively supported the expedition. Dominic needed his world to change.

The braying of two donkeys demanding their dinner carried on the humid, early evening air.

“Aria loves the donkeys you gave her.”

He hunched his shoulders because although she hadn’t answered his question, she had rebutted the temptation to despair. You kept going because the people you loved were part of that society. Because loving someone meant hoping, fighting and sacrificing for their future.

“Time for dinner.” She held out her hand.

Dominic took it, but rose by his own efforts. It was the symbolism of the handclasp that mattered. Not alone.

“Did you know about Regina’s addiction?” Nora asked Jonah when she popped into the master suite in the few minutes before dinner.

“Not till they were on the journey here. Then the addiction revealed itself. She could have used the time to detox, but…she is who she is, Nora.”

The drugs used in the towers were cruder, far cheaper, and killed faster. Nora had seen firsthand how desperately addicts both fought and embraced their addiction.

“Was Erik lying about Ivan’s loneliness, telling me pretty stories about my father?”

“I don’t think so. I suspect…” Jonah smiled. “I believe Ivan will be glad to learn he has a daughter who is happy and who protects the happiness of those she loves.”

Perhaps Jonah was right to be hopeful. Perhaps. King Magnus’s behavior discouraged Nora from sharing his optimism.

Magnus talked about happy families, and certainly insisted on pushing that narrative in public, but it was a fantasy that ignored his children’s actual experience, their struggles.

But then this was a man who considered himself happily married, while keeping a string of mistresses. The media didn’t report on those.

“I know it seems boring to you,” Bianca began.

Nora blinked back to her task in the lab.

Bianca had joined the research team, and vied with Pilar for the title of most enthusiastic researcher. “Moss is the logical next step. We’ve analyzed every sample of algae that you and the other candidates grew. Your control of how much or little algae grows is incredible. Pinpoint precision. If you grow the moss with the same control and without genetic alteration, we’ll try grasses next. See if you can fill the tray. It’s not a problem if you don’t.”

The tray filled with a mix of moist gravel and sand covered three quarters of the table, and looked a lot like a repurposed, industrial-sized baking tray. Moss grew on a single rock in the center. It had the potential to resemble a miniaturized Zen garden.

Nora stuck her finger in the sandy mix and traced a line an inch inside the perimeter of the tray. “Whenever you’re ready.”

The new protocol in the lab was for the observers to observe from outside the lab and the immediate radius of the energy Nora would be focusing on the moss.

Pilar, Bianca and the silent Richard departed.

Someone removed a burr from its shielded case.

“Connecting to the burr,” Nora said. “Everyone okay?”

“Ready for Moss Test One,” Dr. Chulainn said. He hadn’t attended tests or training recently. The scientists must consider the relative complexity of moss compared to algae a defining progression.

“Beginning in three, two, one.” Nora channeled the energy of the burr at the moss. Grow.

It colonized the tray in a little over three minutes. Nora counted the seconds silently, keeping to a trickle the energy channeled to the moss. She could feel that the energy in the burr could cover the entire room in moss in seconds, but that would be scary. Her approach might muddy the scientific results, but her purpose was to ensure acceptance of the burrs’ creative energy potential. The scientists had to be positive that the energy was under her control, and that she was in control.

She bit her inner cheek to prevent a yawn. She’d stayed up late last night talking to Jonah and Liam.

The new use of burrs opened a myriad of possibilities for changing life in the Human Sector without leaving it. Yet she still felt the expedition was essential. Turning away from the goal of reconnecting with wider humanity would be accepting isolation and insularity and all the slow decline that encompassed.

Having held back her yawns till Pilar released her from the lab, Nora was yawning cavernously, and embarrassingly rudely, as she opened the door.

She yawned directly in Evelyn’s face.

Oops.

The Princess, whom Nora hadn’t realized was waiting, flushed an angry red and flew into a tantrum.

Nora was “an ignorant, misguided fool locked into old resentments because boohoo the bastard grew up in the towers.”

The gasp that followed Evelyn’s crude attack came not from Nora, who didn’t care, but from behind Evelyn. “Mom.”

Callum stood there.

“Where is Nanny?” Evelyn shrieked.

More to the point, why had the guards let him into the lounge the lab room opened to? The Royal Guards’ motives baffled Nora. Did they really care so little for Callum, as a non-burr user, that they’d allow him to stumble into this mess?

Gage, Nora knew, would have sympathized with the boy, but judged Callum as a) no threat to Nora, and b) a means of breaking up an unwanted, uncomfortable session.

“Your mom is worried about you and Knox,” Nora said. “This is—”

“Don’t talk for me!” Evelyn snapped.

“This is for the grown ups to settle,” Nora finished.

“You have to leave,” Evelyn shouted at Nora.

Callum shuffled uncertainly in the doorway to the lounge. A second later, a man’s hand tugged him into the corridor.

Francis entered, out of breath.

The Royal Guards had called for back-up.

“Evelyn, we’ve talked about this.” Francis concentrated completely on his wife. “Healthy methods of—”

She hit his chest. It was a weak hit, more drama and pathos than aggression.

Callum was watching, again, just inside the room. Francis’s usual bodyguard stood by the boy.

Nora frowned at Evelyn. She saw a spoilt woman ruining lives. Not mine.

Francis patted Evelyn’s back while she sobbed against him.

“It’s a strategy,” Nora said precisely, cuttingly. “Even in the towers. The helpless little woman finds a protector, and he’s meant to twist reality to accommodate her fantasy.” Any guy who fell for it, tended to have a short lifespan in the towers. Conscious of Callum, Nora didn’t mention that fact. “Kirsty’s pregnant, again, and you’re not, Evelyn. I heard the news this morning. You should be thanking God for your two good, kind boys. I’m assuming they’re a credit to their nanny.”

Francis glared at her.

Evelyn ceased sobbing.

Nora looked at Callum. “I told you, this is a grown ups’ discussion. Before you hop off…you’re an amazing kid. If you and Knox were my sons, I’d be proud of you. Any normal parent would be.”

“It’s different for royals,” Evelyn said.

Francis frowned at her. “Not that different. Callum, we love you. The political pressures your mom and I are under don’t change that.”

Except, Nora had a hunch Evelyn’s feelings had altered.

Like her father-in-law, Evelyn wanted to live in the fantasy of happy families, and anyone—inside or outside the family—who threatened that fantasy became the enemy. Evelyn’s view of herself as the future queen and mother of the heir to the throne had been threatened. From her perspective, her low- or no-sensitivity sons had failed her, Francis didn’t understand her, and now, Kirsty was pregnant.

If Evelyn had been crying because she hadn’t been able to conceive a third child and the child was wanted for itself, Nora would have sympathized. But Nora was certain Evelyn cried because Kirsty as her sometime-ally, sometime-rival had a second chance at presenting a possibly strong sensitive and potential heir to the throne.

Undoubtedly, courtiers were whispering in Evelyn’s ear, stirring up this trouble. It was an effective method of distracting Francis from the expedition. The courtiers probably hoped Evelyn would also upset and distract Nora.

“Change is inevitable,” she said to Evelyn. “I didn’t kick it off, though it’s easier for people like you to blame me. The truth is the Human Sector is failing many of its citizens. Failure is its own irresistible pressure for change.”

“Get out,” Evelyn shouted. She cared nothing for the underclass of people in the towers of Angkor, struggling in working class poverty, or stuck in indentured service contracts on stations.

Nora expected no better from Evelyn. She had higher hopes for Callum, and she was relieved to see his nanny had arrived to support him. She squeezed his skinny shoulder and kept walking.

Gage fell in behind her. A Royal Guard lieutenant walked in front.

Sam pushed away from the wall to walk with her. “Events have an emotional cost. Marine officers have that truth drummed into us because we have to look out for bad coping mechanisms—addiction and violence. The first attempts to suffocate the emotional pain. The second tries to externalize it. Evelyn’s attack on you is the latter. It’s irrational. Change was coming whether you arrived on Capitoline or not. There haven’t been any big technological breakthroughs, and the shadow market is growing. It should have shrunk once the war ended. Instead, the pressure for something more is attempting to find a release out there, and that’s dangerous.”

Liam was riding that dangerous wave and establishing a mercenary corporation and other connections in the shadow market.

“Change has winners and losers,” Nora said. “Evelyn never expected she’d be one of the losers.”

The Royal Guard lieutenant in front of them forgot himself enough to turn and gawk at her. One glimpse of Sam’s scowl had his head snapping back around.

Nora shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket. “Many people would prefer I’m not one of the winners. I never forget that.”

Games were being played all around her.

It had taken weeks for the Royal Guards to remove the depleted burr that had been on display at the Planetary Museum of Bangalore. Since a “depleted” burr was actually stuffed full of energy which Nora could access, she assumed that they’d left it there as a test or taunt for whether she would try to use the one unshielded burr on Capitoline.

When she hadn’t, and once Dominic could also use burr energy creatively, having an accessible burr became dangerous. Especially since other candidates were also being trained up to use burrs creatively.

That the Royal Guards had dared to test her character by leaving the burr accessible was almost a vote of confidence. They trusted her to some extent.

Not to be a planet-destroying megalomaniac or a mind-wiping creator of zombies. Not a high bar to pass.

At home, Nora described Evelyn’s ambush and emotional meltdown to her PA and her public relations manager.

“You can’t save the princes,” Kennedy said first of all, which proved she knew Nora’s priorities.

The two boys were innocents who deserved better. But then, the same could be said of the kids growing up in the Angkorran towers and in other challenging circumstances.

Kennedy stalked around Nora’s office like a hungry sunbeam in her bright yellow pantsuit. Her purple and blue-streaked hair shone like a gas flame above her face. “You can’t save everyone. You’re already committed to the expedition to shake things loose and open up possibilities. Don’t change priorities, now.”

“I’m not. I’m committed to re-opening the Origin millrace.” Nora scrunched her toes so fiercely they threatened to cramp. “I know I can’t solve everyone’s problems, but having an escape hatch is vital. Don’t be fooled by Jim and me. Most people never leave the towers. Most don’t even think to do so. But for those who do…we didn’t imagine life outside the towers as a paradise. For us, for our motivation, it was enough that it was other.”

Jim folded his arms and slouched against the wall. “People who are doing well in the status quo and who refuse to see its problems are pooping their pants at the idea of opening an escape hatch to who knows what. But for those who are squashed down and have little to lose, the unknown is appealing in itself.”

“So, how do I deal with the hysterical Chicken Littles like Evelyn who think every change is the end of the world?”

Kennedy flopped impatiently into a chair. “You have charisma. Let it shine.”

Nora rolled her eyes. “I have money and burr abilities.”

Jim looked interestedly between the two women.

Nora pointed at him. “Jim agrees.”

“Jim is not that cynical,” Kennedy answered for him, and didn’t have the grace to blush at that whopper of a lie or their disbelieving stares. Jim was born cynical. Kennedy stabbed the air in Nora’s direction. Her purple fingernail extended about half an inch from her fingertip and was filed to a point. “Do you know how you identify who has charisma? The difference between the fakers and those who have it?”

Nora stared mesmerized at the finger.

“I’m sure you’ll tell us.” Jim and Kennedy’s love language was sarcasm.

“You bet your bootie, Marine. A person has charisma when people change the rules for them.”

Jim and Kennedy stared at Nora.

“Me?” She woke from the purple fingernail of doom daze. “People don’t change the rules for me. I go around them or over them or ignore them…” she trailed off. “Do people change the rules for me?”

Kennedy drummed four sharp fingernails on Nora’s desk. “You kidnapped Aria. I’ve heard the story. There’s no doubt about it, you did the right thing, but Liam as captain of the RC Genghis Khan and his officers who found out about it and about the hacking of the Registry Office database to hide your crime…woo-eee. They should have arrested you.”

Nora resurrected the cover story of Jonah’s hacker identity being “authorized” by a now-deceased manager in the Capitoline Security Bureau. Liam had used it to wriggle them out of legal trouble. “Serge Buckley.”

“Pffft,” was Kennedy’s elegant response.

Jim laughed. “Just so you know, Nora, Sam and Lavigne haven’t given up on making contact with your Forgotten-related hacker.”

“I haven’t heard from Serge.”

Kennedy waved her arms, slashing the air. “Back to the subject at hand. Use your charisma. Dazzle them into submission.”

Jim frowned. “That sounds wrong.”

Kennedy continued. The woman could not be sidetracked. “Ask yourself, Nora. You have this power. What rules do you want to change?”

Chapter 11

Liam was busily tilting the odds in his and Nora’s favor to ensure the expedition went ahead. He’d learned during the war that the difference between victory and defeat, life or death, could be decided by the slimmest of margins, and that luck was often a question of being ready to exploit opportunities.

During the war, not even in fever dreams had he imagined he’d one day work with Palantine’s crown prince.

Not that Dominic was working today.

The man was fidgety and distracted when he needed to be preparing for their meeting at the palace. In their division of labor, Liam wrangled the Navy: the courtiers were Dominic’s problem.

They’d be departing for the palace in half an hour, and Dominic was roaming Liam’s office.

Theo looked in, raised an eyebrow, and ducked back out.

Apparently, wrangling Dominic was Liam’s problem. “Do you wish you’d returned to Palantine with Regina?”

Erik remained on Capitoline, along with the rest of the Palantine delegation, minus Regina. Nora’s half-sister had been consistent to the end, and refused to meet Nora. “Jealous,” Erik had explained succinctly.

“Her addiction is worse,” Dominic had admitted unhappily.

Erik had pushed Regina onto a courier traveling back to Palantine, carrying detailed briefings on Nora, the new method of burr wielding, and Dominic’s involvement in the proposed expedition. Jonah had read them.

Dominic flung himself into a chair. “That’s the problem. I’m glad she’s gone.”

Liam scrubbed a hand over his face. “Family is complicated. Regina wasn’t happy here. Maybe she’ll be happier at home.”

“Not with Mother around.”

“Fair point.”

Dominic sighed. “Regina’s worse. Hermione’s dead.” He swallowed. “And I’m happy. I like who I am, here.”

Stars damn, Liam swore mentally. He could have handled a discussion about family. Feelings were tougher.

“I feel guilty for being happy, which is stupid.”

“Yeah.”

Dominic grinned unwillingly.

Liam regarded him contemplatively. “Do you mind if I answer you as I would have an officer under my command?”

His brother-in-law straightened. “Go ahead.”

“The original meaning of happiness wasn’t kittens and rainbows and giddy joy. It was satisfaction. You can be in a terrible situation. It can be the aftermath of battle. And you can still feel happiness. It’s grim and blood-soaked and riddled with the memory of screams and fear, but if you found that you could meet the challenge, underneath everything, there may exist a sense of satisfaction. Being at peace with who you are and what you’re doing is powerful. Never feel guilty for being the best you can be.”

Some family problems were easier to solve than others.

“Got a minute?” Jim gripped the doorframe as he poked his head into Liam’s office.

Liam assessed him. He’d seen that expression on a Marine’s face before. It meant there was trouble going down, and the Marine expected to be kicked for reporting it, but handling it involved reporting it to the officer in charge, so report it they would. “Tell me the worst.”

“It’s not that bad.” Jim sat. “I wouldn’t normally stick my beak in family business, but Nora hired me as her PA, and the way I see it, that’s another name for problem-solver, and your family, they’re a problem.”

Liam tensed his muscles against the sinking feeling in his stomach. “Which ones?”

“Aye. Family’s all special in their own way. But yesterday Phoebe turns up, wild and maybe talking more freely than you’d like.”

What concerned Liam was that she hadn’t felt she could tell him. “She knows this is a safe place to vent. Go on.”

“Right. It was your granny.”

“Marmee.”

“That’s the one. Your ma’s ma. Kennedy’s keeping tabs on her and on your uncle Arthur. Two potential troublemakers. They’ve swanned around, riding the wave of their connection to you and Nora, but now that wave’s ebbing as people realize they have no real influence over you. You have to leash them.”

“Pardon?”

Jim stiffened. He didn’t back down. “Your granny and uncle see you as the golden goose. If they can’t ride a wave of influence, they’ll get down to brass tacks. Money.”

“They’ve already asked. I gave them an allowance.”

“They want more. At the moment, they think they can take and take, that they can threaten Nora by saying they’ll go to the media and make up stories. Twist things. Make Phoebe’s life hard. Isolate her.”

Liam flattened his hands on the desk. “You wouldn’t have brought this to me if you didn’t have a suggestion.”

“Right. You have to flip the story. Not what they can get from you, but what they’re afraid to lose. So, this allowance. Make it a comfortable income. Peg it to something like a captain’s salary. State the terms. If they talk to the media about you or Nora, the allowance is cut. If they go further than that, it ends, absolutely. Kennedy reckons you have to add in some social status stuff. Like, they can bring a party of four to two key social events you host each year. Something like that.”

Liam considered the suggestions, and that Jim had been worried enough by Liam’s family’s antics to discuss them with Kennedy. “Anything else?”

“Yeah. Don’t just offer the deal to the two troublemakers. Include Elise, Jason and Phoebe. Sounds like your grandpa would refuse it.”

“He would.”

Jim pushed up from his chair. “Reckon I’ll leave you to think on it. Thanks for not biting my head off.”

Liam stood, too. “You spoke out of concern for Nora and Phoebe. I’m grateful.” He extended his hand, making his gratitude formal.

“Right.” Jim ended the handshake and grinned as he headed for the door. “Might have been a bit of concern for you, too.”

It lightened Liam’s mood, although a frown soon descended as he contemplated his options. There were downsides. Whatever he did, or didn’t do, Marmee and Uncle Arthur, and possibly Jason, would treat him as the bad guy. In their story, Liam was meant to be the genie granting their wishes. Instead, he had to rein in their behavior, at least in relation to his clan. And not include them in the clan. That was a point Jim hadn’t raised.

Who said Marines couldn’t be tactful?

Liam would be excluding some of his family from the clan even as he subsidized their lifestyle. It would further damage his relationship with his brother. Liam feared that a substantial allowance would also encourage Jason in his worst habits, like a desire to coast through life. But if he gave that allowance to Elise and Phoebe, how could he withhold it from Jason? Bitterness would eat the kid alive.

So, I pay them to behave.

Ugh.

He looked around his office. His desk was Navy-neat and spartan, but shelves along the back wall held important mementoes, some from his years in the Navy, but also a shell Aria had found beachcombing with him and Nora, and an automaton of a clockwork dog Nora had made him.

He refused to hold the difficult family interviews, where he spelled out the strings attached to the allowances, here. He’d treat them for what they were—transactions, business evils—and hold the meetings at his office at the Blazing Kangaroo Corporation in the financial heart of the city.

It was instinct to keep ugly things away from home.

Although that didn’t mean not discussing his decision with Nora before enacting it. They walked Joker, while Aria rode Pirate, on a pre-dinner ramble through the mangroves. The gardeners had widened the path.

Nora absently fended off Joker as he attempted to eat her braid. “You might be too pessimistic about Jason. It could be that the security of a high salary steadies him.”

“Huh.”

She bumped her shoulder against his. “Either way, you’ve given him an equal chance to Phoebe, and Elise gets to take a breather.”

He wrapped an arm around her. “She put her life on hold to look after Mom.”

“Also Jason and Phoebe. I’m glad she’ll have a chance to choose her own path, now.”

“But not in our clan,” he said.

They halted while Joker stamped a foot at a crab.

Unimpressed, the crab sidled off the path and into the mangrove tangle.

Nora covered Liam’s hand as it rested at her waist. “I can live with fuzzier lines than you. We don’t have to rule any of your family out. Except maybe Uncle Arthur.”

“Who is a creep as well as a conniver,” Liam stated the truth readily. He tugged at Joker’s lead rope and they walked on. “No. I think we need clear lines. Those in our clan are those we’d go to war for.” He felt her shiver. “Not actual war.”

“Just a destroy our enemies kind of thing.”

He grinned ruefully.

She stole a kiss. “I knew I was marrying a warrior-protector. I guess if we’re deciding who is under our protection and who isn’t…the Forgotten are contacting me. Forgotten who aren’t known to the Royal Guards or, presumably, the tycoons since they haven’t been snapped up.”

The problem of the Forgottens’ status had intensified since Francis had demonstrated his new use of burrs. The trade in them that Lavigne had suspected, had eventuated. The Royal Guards had broken one such ring in the shadow market.

Jonah may have supported the operation by hacking a few relevant systems to leak crucial information.

The Forgotten, themselves, were freaked. Some had undoubtedly gone deeper into hiding, but others were reaching out to the person they thought could help them. Someone who was both in the system, but not part of it. Nora.

“I can’t bring them all into the clan. For a start, they won’t all be useful or even trustworthy. But also because it would appear as if we were striving to amass burr-wielding power, and that is so not a good idea.”

“Sam has to step up,” Liam said.

The Royal Guards’ purpose was to protect and understand the burrs and those who used them. Sam was Nora’s Royal Guards’ liaison partly because Lavigne wished to use Nora to access the secretive world of the tycoons and squash their trade in Forgotten.

“He is,” Nora said. “But more about going after the bad guys. I need a babysitter for the Forgotten.” She smacked her forehead. “When I say it out loud, the answer is obvious.” She pulled her comms unit out of her pocket. “Sam, can you ask Molly if she can spare me five minutes?”

Sam arranged for Molly to meet Nora the next afternoon.

Nora sat in her office, staring out the window at the fountain. As the wind scattered the water, rainbows danced in it.

A tiny part of her felt guilty that she intended passing off responsibility for the Forgotten—people who were trusting her—to Molly. Every now and then, catching her off guard, the trust issues she had from her childhood in the towers raised their head. Delegating came naturally to Liam. It was what a captain did. At random moments, Nora’s trust issues sabotaged common sense.

Rationally, Molly had the expertise and connections to help the Forgotten far better than Nora could. It was the huddled towers brat, half-feral and fully scarred, who hid deep inside Nora’s subconscious, that warned her against trusting Molly, a person in authority, with the safety of people who’d survived for so long by mistrusting authority and hiding from it.

But the Forgotten were not Nora’s primary mission. As a Royal Guard, they were Molly’s. Moreover, Molly was a good person.

I do trust her, and I can’t do everything. The Forgotten aren’t a core part of the Journey to Origin.

That was what Kennedy called it. “We began by presenting you as a confident, mysterious newcomer, leaving enough blank slate for the public to project their dreams onto you. From rags to riches is always wildly popular. Now, we’re focused on selling why you’re backing the expedition and not sitting poolside lotus eating.”

Kennedy had laughed hysterically, ending in hiccups, at the thought. “Liam and you. Lotus-eaters. Your happy ever after will always be the next horizon, the new adventure. You’re open to possibilities. We’re framing the expedition as your ‘Journey to Origin’, and we’ll bring the public along with you.”

She was succeeding.

The Forgotten contacting Nora proved the appeal of the journey story. Nora’s role in the expedition had captured the public imagination and given the disenchanted hope.

Molly rapped on the door and walked in. “Jim said to announce myself.”

“Thanks for coming. Have a seat.” Nora matched the Royal Guard Captain’s rejection of small talk. “The Forgotten are contacting me. They need someone who understands the system they’re joining, who will respect them and protect their interests, and who is capable of compassionate compromise between procedural necessities and personal fears and problems. Basically, all the reasons the Royal Guards selected you to act as my adviser make you the best person to manage newly revealed Forgottens’ integration into the system.

“Lavigne swapped out you and Sam so that I’d kick up less against having a babysitter. A former Marine would scare most of the Forgotten who’ve contacted me into hiding. I know, because I’ve had to sit on Jim so that his brusque replies didn’t frighten them away.”

Molly nodded. She had worked with Nora’s PA and knew his Marine background, thinly veiled by humor in a civilian setting.

Jim didn’t suffer fools.

“They’ve reached out to me, and I want to answer that trust. I don’t think we can afford to do otherwise. Too many tycoons and others are scrambling to acquire people who might be able to use burrs in new ways.”

Molly smiled thinly. “The renewed interest in burrs is everywhere. Three of the biggest studios have commissioned potential blockbusters on that theme. You might have been the spark for this change, but if the tinder hadn’t been there it wouldn’t have blazed like this. A catalyst can’t spark change unless the potential for it is present.”

That gracious reassurance was why Molly was perfect for the job. She had every reason to resent Nora’s earlier dismissal of her, which may have negatively impacted her career in the Royal Guards. Yet, whatever her personal feelings, her behavior was professional.

“Molly, I wanted to check if you were okay with being the Forgottens’ point of contact and advocate before I asked Lavigne for you to step in. For what it’s worth, these people aren’t me. They want help. They might be difficult. Scared people are. But they won’t resist as I did.”

“I understand that we’re two very different people, and that you had no need of my assistance,” Molly responded evenly. “I would like this role. Thank you for thinking of me.”

“Thank you.”

Of his new responsibilities, Liam’s guilty pleasure was the study of the old maps he now had access to. The ones that showed the universal rivers and where humanity had existed five centuries ago. He spent more time poring over them than he could justify. After all, studying them could fill in the months of travel to Origin, rather than steal time from his current tasks.

He thought Nora needed a hobby. She exercised, meditated and played with Aria, and socialized with others in the clan, but she hadn’t outfitted a workshop for herself. She’d put aside the part of herself that had tinkered and enjoyed repairing broken things or repurposing junk.

She was trying so hard to be what she believed everyone needed her to be, that she’d forgotten to simply be.

He contemplated the photo of Nora and him on their wedding day. You could never have too many people who loved you.

He reached for his personal comms unit.

Nora sat on the wooden rail of the donkeys’ yard while Aria fed them carrots she’d pulled with her own hands from the dirt of the Stirling family’s vegetable garden at their orchard in Peking.

Liam had organized a visit to Nora’s first husband’s family.

Ethan’s death was no longer raw, and his family had welcomed Nora’s new family—and security escort—warmly.

They’d also contrived, each of them separately, to take her aside and share their approval of Liam for her.

“Ethan was a wild spirit. A restless one.” Nora’s former mother-in-law had smiled as she stood with an arm looped through Nora’s, in front of Ethan’s photograph in the family room. Ethan had served and died as a sting ship pilot during the war. “He’d have liked Liam. Two different men, but true to themselves.”

Ethan would have loved to join the expedition.

He wouldn’t have led it, though. Not like Liam

Ethan had been a lone wolf. He’d loved his wife and family, but he’d also had to take solo risks. Loving him had required releasing all tethers. He’d valued Nora for her independence and encouraged her, but he could never have worked in harness with her as Liam did; nor assumed the role of clan head.

Nora laughed at the idea of Ethan chained to a desk, handling mountains of paperwork so that other people were free to live their lives and chase their dreams.

He’d have run away.

The nearest donkey’s ears flicked. Pirate was curious about everything, including her laughter, but greed won out. Carrots were on offer. Once they were gone, then a clever donkey could indulge in curiosity.

The donkey was right. There was a time for everything.

She studied Aria as the girl confidently bossed the two donkeys, and they mostly ignored her.

Aria was moving on. She’d entered Nora’s life as a scared orphan. Now, she was a girl with a family and a place she belonged. She showed all the unconscious confidence of a girl who knew herself loved and secure.

Nora’s former mother-in-law had cried. “Because you’re a wonderful mother, and Ethan…” She’d wiped away her tears and blown her nose. “I have three grandchildren and I love them to pieces, but since your Liam is willing to share you, I’d love to be your children’s granny, too.”

Nora was woman enough to admit she’d cried a little, then, too.

In life, where you belonged changed. Love and loyalty changed without losing their validity. It wasn’t disloyal to want new things.

Contemplating Aria’s happiness provoked a bittersweet realization. Aria was at home. Nora and Liam had provided the girl with the security and love she needed, and the result was that she didn’t need them. Not in the sense of clinging on to them. Unless circumstances changed, she wouldn’t join the expedition. She’d stay behind and be an ordinary child attending school, pulling pranks, and diving into the heartache and joy of adolescence.

Jonah also reached a pivotal decision.

“I think of myself this way. It’s true embodiment. The android form in both its abilities and limitations now partly defines my sense of self. I don’t want to lose that or alter it. My kin have my first loyalty, but you and our clan hold my heart.”

Nora rubbed her eyes. “Allergies,” she spluttered. “From the farm or the donkey yard or—”

Jonah pulled her into a hug. “Or you love me as I am.”

“Yes.”

“And you’re glad this between us isn’t changing.”

“Yes.”

He whispered. “I’m glad, too.”

In preparing for the expedition, events had gathered their own momentum. Although Nora suspected that Liam was pulling more strings behind the scenes than people imagined. Clan heads had to have a wide reach and a talent for juggling.

Nora was pleased that her own attempts to learn the fine art of delegation were bearing fruit. Molly was every bit as awesome as the Forgottens’ advocate and liaison as Nora had hoped. She tracked Molly down in the palace to tell her so. “Also, you need a bigger office.”

“From your lips to the courtiers’ ears. But I won’t hold my breath.”

They smiled at each other.

Success, satisfaction in a job well done, had mellowed Molly. “Have you realized that the Forgotten are a protection for you?”

Nora blinked. She worried about helping the Forgotten, protecting them, not benefiting from them. “I’m not a tycoon to exploit them.”

Molly actually laughed. “Definitely not. But they’re coming in because they see you being respected by the establishment, and standing strong. The courtiers and others can’t undermine you without risking the Forgottens’ trust, and they’re realizing they need them, given the seemingly random spread among strong sensitives of the ability to use burrs creatively. Your towers background matters to the Forgotten, but opposite to how the courtiers view it.”

“And my parentage? You know, that whole royal thing? Only half of me is Forgotten.”

Molly tilted her head. “Don’t you get it? The Forgotten are often part-royal. That’s a big part of your appeal for them. Your father is the king of Palantine, yet you aren’t hidden or controlled. It gives them hope they can also be acknowledged, while remaining free.”

“Except I’m the only one who had a lucky blaze strike.”

“And a husband who has transitioned from Navy captain to captain of industry so effectively that he has the tycoons running scared. The Forgotten believe you’d both fight for them.”

Nora held Molly’s expectant gaze. “We would.”

Chapter 12

The RC Genghis Khan docked at Fanrong Station.

Liam wasn’t a man who cried for the moon. He hadn’t dreamed the Navy would commit a battlecruiser to protecting the expedition. He had, however, hoped that he could poach some of the officers and crew whom he’d served with to join the expedition.

The Navy refused.

Van explained it off the record. “Some people raised concerns that including people whom you’d commanded might confuse the chain of command. They are accustomed to taking your orders.”

“They’re loyal to you,” Nora said flatly when he mentioned it that night in their sitting room.

Jonah was critical. “If the Navy isn’t confident in their own command, isn’t that their problem?”

Liam used the Navy’s own language. “It’s a concern.”

A month later Casimir Stas, former Marine captain, had a different word for it. “It’s star barf.”

His sister Kennedy was sitting close beside him holding onto his hand as if afraid her big brother would dash off to save the realm again if she didn’t restrain him.

“I volunteered to be part of your expedition as soon as I heard about it, and got a fast refusal. So, I resigned. My term was up and I had leave owing. Others are trapped a bit longer. Expect to see Xavier in a couple of months.”

Xavier Songok was the chief engineer on the RC Genghis Khan.

Casimir let go of his anger sufficiently for a fierce grin. “We all just assumed you’d want us.”

Nora squeezed Liam’s arm, holding back her answer long enough for him to speak.

“We do,” he said.

“Absolutely,” she added, speaking over the “oo” of his “do”.

Casimir smiled properly. “Tell me everything.”

Theo grinned at Liam as he entered the office and shut the door.

“You’ve guessed,” Liam said.

“I’d have to be a fool not to. I want to stay on Capitoline with Bianca and Faith. Casimir, on the other hand, wants to kick Navy butt, join the expedition, and generally cause mayhem in the way that Jim has proven only Marines can.”

“Being sneaky while appearing muscle-bound idiots?” Liam suggested.

Theo laughed. “They like being underestimated. I’m not sure anyone looking at Captain Casimir Stas’s record would underestimate him, but enough people fail to do their research that Casimir would enjoy being your PA.”

A combined PA, bodyguard and confidante, as Jim was for Nora.

“If we make the switch, now, it’ll be smoother,” Liam said. “You’ll have oversight of Blazing Kangaroo Corporation and the clan house. I’d ask you to keep an eye on Phoebe and Cherry.”

“You know I will.”

“I do.” He stood and shook hands with his former PA. “Although we are assuming Casimir will accept the PA role.”

They grinned at each other. Theo didn’t know Casimir personally, but he’d had months of exposure to Kennedy. The Stas family gave their loyalty unconditionally, and they lived for battle. There was no way Casimir would refuse a partnership with Liam.

And it would be a partnership.

As the officer in charge of the Marines on the RC Genghis Khan, Casimir and Liam had worked as equals, although Liam had overall command of the ship. Liam was confident they could navigate the give-and-take of Casimir being his second-in-command on the expedition.

Fortunately, Zac wouldn’t be the bug in the ointment. He would captain the destroyer Liam had purchased from the weirdly named ship designers and builders, Escape the Moat Corporation, at Fanrong Station. It would undergo river-ready testing soon.

“If you decide to leave Aria at home, Bianca and I would be happy to have her. Faith would be over the moon, so we haven’t dared to as much as hint at it.”

“Thanks,” Liam said gruffly. With the threats against the expedition, outright sabotage was always a possibility, as well as sneakier attacks. Jonah ran himself ragged attempting to watch everything, but he had limits. Aria would be safer on Capitoline than with the expedition. Theo had guessed his and Nora’s worries. “We’ll talk to her.”

Taking Casimir to meetings certainly altered the vibe from the diplomacy Theo had brought to the discussions.

Casimir’s very lack of reaction could be a provocation in itself.

Like now, when Casimir lounged in his chair in the face of Captain Tamora Wrede’s aggressive body language across the table.

Perceiving no value in escalating the tension, Liam intervened. “Because we’re a challenge to the chain of command. Francis—”

“Prince Francis. Crown Prince Francis.”

Liam was a grown man. He did not roll his eyes. “The Prince leads the expedition by his father’s decree, but in practice, I’ve been the person across the details of it, Nora is the lead talent on creative burr use, and everyone knows we’re the ones funding the expedition.”

“The Navy—”

“You had us pay for upgrades to your ships under the guise of making them river-ready.”

Captain Emmanuel Soo muttered. The gist of his complaint was that even then, Liam’s own ship had received a higher degree of retrofitting in armaments, shields and internal upgrades.

Liam stared at him. It was his captain’s gaze, disapproving and demanding better. “I look after my own.”

“So much for old loyalties,” a lieutenant down the table griped.

“I funded your upgrades.” Liam chopped off the rest of the unprofitable discussion with a sharp gesture. “But you’re right, in a sense. I’m not Navy anymore. Nora and I don’t belong on a Navy ship. At the same time, Francis, Quispe and everyone involved won’t accept Nora and me traveling on the CC Jaguar.” The destroyer could accommodate them, and he’d manage not to impinge on Zac’s authority as its captain. Liam scowled at his Navy hecklers. “Since suspicious minds would imagine us skipping through the millrace.”

He stared around the table.

Two of the officers met his eyes with nods of grim assent and sympathy for his position. Three others glared at him, including Captain Wrede.

He spelled out the calculation. “Nora and I won’t travel on a Navy ship. You cannot guarantee her security. You won’t agree to us traveling on the CC Jaguar. The CC Kangaroo is the compromise.”

“You’re pushing this, Liam,” Van said. “Why does it matter so much to you?”

Because they had to accommodate Jonah and be able to communicate freely with him. “Nora and I get our privacy and time alone, which has been in short supply. On our own, we don’t have to be constantly on edge. Nora has time and space to meditate.”

“She won’t have a burr.”

Traveling in convoy, Nora’s energetic signature was large enough to reach the burrs on the RC Tolui any time a burr was unshielded. If Van wanted to overlook that fact, then more fool him.

Liam folded his arms. “That’s fine.”

On a personal level, or a clan level, things were smoother.

Xavier had resigned from the Navy and, after a fortnight’s holiday with his family in Peking, his wife and those children still living at home, had joined him in the house he’d bought in Salmar. He’d apply his experience as a chief engineer to the expedition and consulting on some of Liam’s shadow market activities.

Liam, Nora and Aria were the Songoks’ first guests in their new home.

Xavier answered the door, which was framed by two tubs of lucky bamboo. “Come in.”

Salmar, the once lower class coastal suburb, had been revitalized by Clan Avestan’s arrival, and its residents had become some of Nora’s strongest supporters. They had taken and twisted the conservative media’s mocking nickname for her, the Towers Princess, and called her Princess T.

Unfortunately, her very popularity worked against her. Dark glasses and a broad-brimmed hat couldn’t disguise her from them.

The cavalcade of cars and guards didn’t help.

“I blame you,” Nora said to Gage and the Royal Guard lieutenant serving as her mobile protection detail as she waved around their bulk at the neighbor calling a greeting. “You’re too noticeable.”

“You could ask them to shrink,” Rae-lin Songok suggested. “Welcome to our home. Thank you,” Xavier’s wife added to Aria as the girl thrust a whicker elephant at her.

“You fill it with coconut fiber and soil and then grow little flowers all around it.” One of Aria’s schoolfriends’ moms wove the creatures.

“Delightful.” Unfazed, Rae-lin passed the elephant, and Aria, on to one of her children.

“Did they insist on a walk-through before our arrival?” Nora asked.

The Royal Guard lieutenant’s mouth compressed.

Nora sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“We understand,” Xavier said. “The kids enjoyed the excitement. I’m afraid Hugh added to it by hiding a fake grenade firelighter in the guest bathroom.”

Aria giggled.

Nora bit her lip.

“You have to let the guards do their thing,” Rae-lin advised. “So that you can fit in a normal life despite them.”

Liam smiled his thanks at Rae-lin as he felt Nora relax beside him.

She needed ordinary friends who were willing to accept the challenges that came with befriending her.

He had his former Navy friends.

They sat down to afternoon tea and a conversation about the upgrades to the CC Kangaroo which Xavier would oversee, personally.

Nora listened to the engineering chat, discussed schools and universities with the other members of the Songok family, and ate too many of the bakery’s wonderful cakes which Rae-lin had sent her kids out with Aria—Veronica trailing them as Aria’s bodyguard—to buy.

The friendly normality of the Songok house left Nora more at peace than she had been in weeks. A state of affairs that, upon her return to Avestan House, Jonah swiftly destroyed.

“Regarding the upgrades for the CC Kangaroo that Xavier was discussing.” Jonah coughed. “While they’re underway, it would be a good time to tacitly allow the Navy and Royal Guards to snoop on board.”

On departure, Veronica had locked Nora’s scout ship down tight before she’d escorted Aria to Capitoline. Jonah had, then, increased the security measures before his own clandestine departure.

Nora fixed him with a cranky, suspicious look.

Liam stood near the window, hands in his pockets, seeming mildly interested. He’d relaxed at Xavier’s home, too, and sampled some of the chief engineer’s homebrew.

“As you know,” Jonah began. “I had some time alone on board the CC Kangaroo. I constructed a fake version of myself. If they inspect it now and clear it, then when I replace it, I’ll still be cleared for inclusion in your life.”

Liam took his hands out of his pockets. “You built a fake you and left it on board the CC Kangaroo?”

“Yes.”

Nora tapped her toes as she thought it through. “A decoy. Smart. The Royal Guards can dismantle it, thinking they’re being sneaky, and run its databases and be confident it’s no risk, but then we replace it with you…we’ll have to do that on the CC Kangaroo. We couldn’t hide an android body, even in parts, here.”

“That’s the bad part,” Jonah agreed. “I have to steal back aboard the CC Kangaroo, which means crossing Capitoline, riding back up the space elevator, hitching a shuttle ride to the Terminus, then getting on board the CC Kangaroo. The decoy can be quickly dismantled, its parts recycled in the fabricator.”

Liam rocked on his heels, considering. “It’s a narrow window. Anything we send up from here, the Royal Guards will check. You need to sneak in by yourself, and that’s best done while Xavier’s upgrades are underway. But after the Royal Guards have checked out your decoy.”

Jonah rubbed his hands together. “I have a plan.”

Nora groaned. “One day, those are going to be our famous last words. We’ve been pushing our luck.”

“Fortunately,” Jonah said. “Luck is not a finite resource.”

A week later, Nora would have challenged that statement. Her luck had certainly run out. Or at least, some of the consequences of her actions had come home to roost.

Dominic brought her a letter sent by the fastest possible courier from Palantine. “It’s from Father. For you.”

They both eyed the old-fashioned paper envelope, and its contents, with distinct wariness.

“I’ll leave you to it.”

Nora caught his hand. “Stay.”

Dear Nora

By now you’ve met Erik, Dominic and Regina.

Almost. Regina had refused to meet Nora, even for publicity purposes.

Erik can explain how a king is not as powerful as you may believe. Your discovery of blaze gives you more actual power to live life as you please than anything I can give you.

You are welcome on Palantine as a visitor or resident. The Royal Guards would ensure your protection.

As they’d failed to do for Hermione. Dominic breathed out heavily.

Be happy.

In one of life’s great ironies, I find myself pleased to learn my daughter is married to one of the fiercest of my former enemy’s Navy captains. It is good you’re not alone.

Ivan

“Not Dad, but not King, either,” Nora commented on the signature as she folded the letter.

Dominic pressed a hand over his eyes. “He handwrote it. It’s his message, even if he wrote circumspectly. He didn’t know who else might read it.”

“Ah. And use it against him.” She contemplated the letter, restored to its envelope, with the single name scrawled on it. Nora.

Willow and Lucas’s return followed the RC Genghis Khan’s, and was far noisier, due solely to Lucas. He bombarded them with messages via courier, till he and his mother were on the final leg of their journey to Capitoline.

Yuri had remained in border space to guard the burr and Prince Harold.

Every one of Lucas’s messages showed him crazy with happiness to be coming home. Not that he intended to stay with his either of his parents. “I’m not staying anywhere Grandfather can reach me.” Lucas was not a fan of his ducal grandparent. Willow’s parents were cold, political players; and at that, they were still better than Lucas’s paternal family, the Zangmos.

In response, Nora and Liam sent an invitation to Willow for her and Lucas to stay at Avestan House. The mailbox, set at the furthest perimeter of the Capitoline spacedock’s space field, meant she’d receive it five days before she reached the Terminus.

“We’re interfering,” Nora said.

Liam was realistic and unrepentant. “Lucas will be eighteen, shortly. I can guarantee that the minute he is, he’ll be at our door, ready to move in. You’ve seen his messages. He doesn’t doubt for one second that you’ll take him in. Willow’s a realist. She doesn’t want to lose him, so she’ll accept our invitation. She’ll see it for what it is, an offer of protection. Lucas is a young and previously unregistered strong sensitive. He’s approved as a candidate for your training. You expect him to be good?”

“Yes.”

“Then he’s best living where we can stand between him and those who’ll wish to use him.” Liam rubbed her shoulders. “He’ll be company for Phoebe.”

Liam’s baby sister had passed her university entrance exams, and intended to study economics; university undecided. She’d also wrung a promise of an internship from Liam, which Theo would ensure the Blazing Kangaroo Corporation’s chief operations officer honored.

Willow accepted their invitation. She and Lucas would arrive the next day.

In spite of his grumbles, Jason continued to study engineering at his university three hours away. When he came home for a weekend, or a week during vacations, it was to Elise’s small apartment.

Liam and Jason had a tense, distant relationship. Likely they always would, since Jason seemed unlikely to grow out of his selfish stage. Their grandmother Marmee and their uncle Arthur were proof of delusional selfishness in the family line.

It was Cherry who worried Nora. Of all the people to suffer from Nora’s wealth and talent, Nora hadn’t expected the burden to fall on Cherry.

The sisters sat at a small beachside café in Salmar, drinking iced coffees.

As a Royal Guard investigating the trade in Forgotten, Sam kept an eye on who approached Cherry. He’d suggested the sister-date to Nora.

Cherry wore a yellow t-shirt and jeans, and had painted smiley faces on her toenails. However, her own face wore an atypical frown.

“How’s uni?”

“Sooo much homework.” But Cherry didn’t seem daunted. She was shrewd and determined behind her brash front. She was doing remedial studies before the actual school year started.

Nora swirled the long spoon in the coffee, rattling ice cubes. “Cute guys?”

Cherry slumped. “Yeah.”

Startled, Nora blurted out a question. “Have you fallen in love?” A few seconds later, when Cherry’s howls of laughter didn’t stop, she added. “You’ll suffocate.”

Cherry snorted mid-laugh.

Nora hadn’t kept up with her half-sister’s dating adventures. The baker’s son from months ago had been a one date disappointment. Since then Cherry had been asked out by minor royals and distant members of tycoons’ families.

But when Cherry’s laughter ended, the bitterness came out. “They’re not actually interested in me. One asked me to marry him. We weren’t even halfway through dinner. Our first date. Like heck I’m marrying any of those dweebs. I’m not stupid. They want my genes. Your genes. I pop out the kids. They divorce me and try to keep them. If I’d wanted to be a baby factory, I’d have stayed in the towers.”

Cherry glared at a swan bobbing serenely on the glittering water, trailed by five cygnets.

“I’m sorry,” Nora said quietly.

Expression tense, her sister nodded. “Seems like regardless of where you go or how hard you work, jerks are everywhere.”

Lucas wasn’t one of those jerks. Although still skinny, he’d grown three inches and was beginning to show the man he’d become; not exactly handsome, but attractive. His energy and enthusiasm added to his appeal.

He practically bowled Nora over when he hugged her at the space elevator. The drive from Himalayan Island to Avestan House was loud as he and Aria competed for who could be noisiest in their excitement.

He was exuberantly happy to be home, with “home” defined as Avestan House and not Willow’s dusty apartment or his grandparents’ ducal townhouse. At Avestan House he even attempted to ride a donkey.

Willow laughed at her son’s antics, but her eyes were tired. “Lavigne urged me to accept your invitation. I received his orders at the same time.”

Nora shrugged. “Unsurprising. The Royal Guards poke their nose into as many corners of my life as they can. Boundaries are still under negotiation because they don’t like accepting any!”

“They see them, though. I told Lavigne I’m not a ratfink spy. Sam lives here, but Lavigne wanted a second set of eyes and ears on the inside. Me.”

Lucas tumbled purposefully off Pirate onto a patch of soft grass. He lay there smiling up at the sky and life.

Willow smiled. “I resigned.”

Nora gawked at her.

“Yeah.” Willow rubbed her arms. “The Royal Guards want to test Lucas, register him as a burr wielder, and use him. Lucas…Lucas is Lucas. He’ll kick against the idea of duty, and maybe he’s right to do so. I resigned so that I’d have the right to protect his independence. He wants to train with you.”

“Yeah. Do you?”

“No. I’m tired, Nora. Not even forty and exhausted by being everything for everyone, except for me. My parents—” She broke off. “I’ll be glad to focus solely on business for a while. Liam’s been an excellent agent.”

“I won’t say he’s enjoyed it,” and at Willow’s questioning look. “Lots of haggling with the Navy.”

“Ah.”

“But he has a talent for it,” Nora concluded. “Business is war.”

Willow nodded. “And Liam wins when it counts.”

Chapter 13

Seaweed not only spilled out of its petri dish and across the table, it did so in a distinct pattern. The pattern was shaky, but it was obviously a donkey. Or at least a four-legged blob. “Take a photo,” Lucas urged Pilar. “Aria will want to see Algae Ass.”

The scientists wouldn’t allow Lucas his comms unit while he was working. He called his obsession with it multi-tasking. They called it “an unnecessary distraction”.

“Show off,” Nora said, but she took the photo.

Pilar kicked them both out of the lab.

Lucas’s cheeky whistle cut off at the sight of the man waiting outside. He didn’t duck aside, though. One day, Lucas would be a formidable man.

“Lavigne,” Nora greeted the Royal Guard Commander.

“Nora. Lucas.” Lavigne looked over his shoulder at a Royal Guard sergeant standing by the door.

The sergeant scowled. “I know you said the kid was skinny, sir, but this…what if I break him?”

Nora recognized hazing when she heard it. She waited, aware that Lucas could handle it, and that how he handled it was his decision.

Lavigne addressed Lucas. “Sergeant Rioli is an expert in unarmed combat. Sam says you’ve been training at Avestan House. Rioli will assess you, and possibly teach you a couple of moves your clan trainers won’t expect.”

“Now?”

“You think I’m here to look pretty, kid?” Rioli growled.

Nora bit her lip against a grin. They’d played the scene well, aiming it at a teenage boy’s ego and need to prove himself.

A glimmer of a smile crossed Lavigne’s face as he looked at her. “Nora, I’ll drive you home.

Lucas hesitated.

“Take the training. Sergeant Rioli will see you home.” The latter, Nora added as an order.

Rioli nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

Lucas quickened his step to keep pace with the Sergeant’s march.

Lavigne had a driver, of course, and a guard. A privacy screen closed them off from Nora and Lavigne.

“Negotiations for Harold’s betrothal contract are on hold,” Lavigne said

Nora blinked her disinterest. The royal succession wasn’t her concern. She didn’t want to consider why Lavigne might want to involve her.

They drove past Colony Park.

Lavigne tapped the door handle. “We default to war to resolve social problems because war is simple. Ambiguity dies. This is the enemy—defeat them. This is your comrade—defend them. Us and them. Victory and defeat. Winner takes all.”

Nora rejected the argument. “Except that’s not true. In war, even the winner loses. Their people die. Ships and stations are destroyed.”

“Which is why sometimes there is a better solution. An individual must die.”

Cold spread from Nora’s chest, down her arms. “A scapegoat.”

“A person can take on, or have put on them, the accumulated strain, stresses and shame of their people. They are executed, and society is washed clean by their death. It’s better if they’re evil. Then we add our sins to theirs, and feel justified in their execution because we are not as evil as they were.”

“Who are you aiming to kill?”

“You’re being sarcastic. Or perhaps you’re serious. Let me reassure you. Assassination is where I draw the line. Others are not so fussy. People like Aeric Kenes.”

“You asked me to get close to him.” Liam had taken on that duty. “Now you’re telling me he’s a killer.”

“To be precise, I said ‘people like’ him.”

The Nonet? Nora hoped Lavigne remained unaware that she and Liam knew of the secret group’s existence. “Tycoons?”

She was subjected to a searching scrutiny.

“Some people.” Lavigne steepled his fingers. “Object to Queen Sarah’s activities. She is not a beloved queen.”

It seems queens aren’t. Nora kept that treasonous thought to herself.

The Capitoline people weren’t missing their queen. Queen Caroline’s exile at the Southern Palace hadn’t caused as great a stir as she might have wished. As the mother of the royal family’s latest addition, Princess Kirsty filled the maternal role for the realm. Lest Queen Caroline be accused of neglecting her grandmotherly duties while mourning Hermione, courtiers carefully seeded tales among the media of Kirsty’s visits with the bub to the Southern Palace. It was amazing how two short visits could be sufficient to support King Magnus’s preferred narrative of happy families.

“However, Palantine is stable,” Lavigne said. “The malcontents and those pushing their own, contrary agendas may criticize Queen Sarah’s close relationship with isolationists, but they are aware of the danger of direct action against her. Palantine is a precariously balanced problem. Dominic has surprised me. His reign may actually allow the realm to truly stabilize, as long as no one upends your father’s reign, first. An attack on Queen Sarah would damage Palantine.”

Lavigne was a difficult person to deal with; being both overly controlled and controlling. For instance, his last statement was precisely timed with their car entering the Avestan Estate’s gate. It effectively ended their conversation.

Which was just as well. The implications of the conversation sickened Nora.

Jim waited inside the foyer, in the shadows by the window seat.

Nora jumped at his sudden appearance, and actually took a step back, embarrassed by her lack of situational awareness.

Rather than comment on it or ask the question he’d conspicuously hung around to pose—what did Lavigne want?—Jim nodded and ducked aside, into Ben’s office.

I guess I look as sick as I feel. She climbed the stairs to her room.

Lavigne hadn’t merely been informing her that Francis’s position as Crown Prince was solid, and that Harold would remain a peripheral player. He’d been talking about royal politics.

“He was warning me against assassinating Sarah,” she told Jonah. “Does he really think we could or would?”

“You could be the public face of the attempt. Or you could provide funding, or travel to Palantine and provide access to its royal family for an assassin embedded in your retinue.”

She swatted him. “I do not have a retinue.”

“Jim, Gage, Veronica, various Royal Guards, Sam, Kennedy.”

“Ugh.” She fell back on the bed. “Do you remember the freedom of the CC Kangaroo? You and me and the endless stars.”

“You’d miss Liam.”

She smiled. “I’d take him with us.”

“Aria.”

“And her.” She sat up. “We couldn’t, though. Aria likes planetary life. She loves her new school.”

It wasn’t till she’d changed and was descending the stairs, that Nora realized Jonah’s teasing mention of her retinue had neatly sidetracked her from thoughts of Lavigne believing she’d support an assassination.

Lucas then completed her distraction. He’d returned from the palace full of ambition. He trailed after Casimir, losing thoroughly in a friendly wrestle even as he strove to put into action Rioli’s lesson.

On the sidelines, Kennedy turned away to hide her amusement. “Comet dust.” Under her breath, she explained her comment to Nora, Liam and Willow. “Our other brothers, being rugby stars, are trailed by fans. We called them comet dust. Casimir is so cute with his own fan.”

“Not his first. If you saw Casimir among his Marines…” Liam looked into the distance, into memory. “Every single one of them knew he’d die for them. Better yet, he drilled them to survive and save each other. Lucas couldn’t have chosen a better man to emulate.”

Kennedy smacked his arm.

“What?”

She dabbed at her eyes with the hem of her shirt. “You made me cry.”

“No attacking your boss.” Casimir strode up, dragging Lucas along in a headlock.

Kennedy glared evilly. She switched her attention to Lucas. “Do you want to know how to beat my brother?”

“Yes!”

“Yeah!” Aria joined in.

“Wear patchouli,” Kennedy whispered the big secret.

“That stuff stinks,” Lucas said.

Casimir high-fived him.

“I don’t get it,” Aria said.

“Cas sneezes his head off at patchouli, giving you an opportunity to tackle him.”

Aria nodded solemnly. “Sneaky is better than strong.”

Everyone laughed.

Kennedy high-fived her. “Sing it, sister.”

Lucas burst into the lab where Nora was training a Navy lieutenant who’d be part of the expedition. “They’ve found more burrs!”

Even Richard, the silent scientist, looked up interestedly.

Pilar forgot to admonish Lucas for his intrusion. “What? Where? We have them all labelled and registered. Accounted for.”

“Sh-shh.” Lucas batted the air as if calming Pilar’s waving hands. “Not you lot.” He stared, bright-eyed, at the Navy officer. “Yours.”

“Pardon?”

“You didn’t know?” Lucas bounced on his toes. “It’s so cool. They found a new cache. The Navy funded a super-secret mini-expedition to go after it.”

“How do you know all this?” the Navy officer scowled at Lucas.

“Eavesdropping,” Lucas admitted shamelessly. “Dr. Chulainn is pretty loud when he’s on his comms unit.” He shrugged. “Old and deaf, you know.”

Pilar’s eyes widened even as her gaze shot to the intercom. Everything in the lab was recorded. She bit her lip hard, but a nervous giggle escaped.

Lucas looked at Nora. “You might know the guy. It was a xeno-archaeologist, a Professor Tadj Holmes, who presented the Navy with the idea. They sent him out on one of their ships.”

So, that’s how Quispe is playing it, Nora thought. It was good for Tadj and his career, and it served Quispe’s purpose of keeping the Navy involved but not taking the heat for the discovery. They’d merely being assisting a scientist.

The Caelians—the realm whose space the cache had been found in—would not accept that excuse. But, the Royal Capitoline Navy now had additional burrs.

“I know Tadj,” Nora said. “I wondered where he’d vanished to.”

Richard spoke. “Did he mention any of this to you?”

“No.” She hesitated, but couldn’t resist pushing her own agenda a little. “But maybe it explains those rumors of unregistered burrs that Lavigne had Sam looking into.”

The Navy officer tried not to appear as fascinated as he was.

Pilar clapped her hands. “Back to work! Lucas, shoo.”

Lucas shooed, but he was as volatile as any teenager. When Nora saw him again three hours later, after both of their separate training sessions ended, the excitement of the burrs’ discovery had burned off. He hunched morosely, leaning against the wall by the elevators, waiting for her with a can of soda that he drank from as if he was slugging back whiskey.

Rather than push her concern on him, Nora continued her conversation with Sam.

Jim fell into step with Lucas as they headed to the car.

The soda can rattled as Lucas threw it into a trash can.

They drove home in near silence, each of them communing with their comms units except for Lucas, who stared moodily out the window. At Avestan House he jerked his chin. “Nora, could we…see the donkeys or something?” Talk privately, but not in an office, he meant.

Nora understood not wanting to be confined, especially for difficult conversations. “Sure. Let’s walk past the orchard and check on progress.” She glanced at Sam, who nodded.

He’d tell the guards to leave them be. The walk to what would be the orchard, once it was planted, was one of the most secure on the property; unlike the mangrove walk that the guards insisted on clearing before she walked or ran it.

Lucas snapped a thin whip of a branch off an olive tree and swished at the grass. “Grandfather would have killed to acquire those burrs.”

“He wouldn’t have been alone.” Nora stuck to Quispe’s story. “Tadj was wise to keep silent and trust the Navy.”

Swish, swish. The olive branch hit a clump of dandelions, sending seedheads flying.

“Grandfather died. He held on. He must have been in agony. They say that the pain of acid bones can’t be fully blocked, merely dulled. Yet he refused to die.” He shrugged his wiry shoulders, awkward and angry. “I hated him, and he deserved that hate. He was a bad guy. Seriously. Dad is happy, now. I’ve seen him with his baby son, and he’s totally different now that Grandfather is dead.”

Lucas was the child Stanley Zangmo had ordered Lucas’s father to acquire by getting a royal pregnant. Both of Lucas’s grandfathers had been disappointed in him when he’d tested as not sensitive to burrs. But even at the age of five, Lucas had been ornery. He’d failed the tests on purpose, fooling the adults around him.

Now, he was registered as one of Capitoline’s strongest burr users. He was flying through Nora’s training.

“The other Zangmos are ashamed and angry at what Uncle Timothy tried to do.”

Timothy Zangmo had attempted to steal a burr from Willow, out in border space, and return with it to Stanley Zangmo to mind-wipe a victim and transfer the Zangmo patriarch’s personality to the vacant body. It wouldn’t have worked.

With Nora’s new creative use of burrs, maybe it would be possible. Now, that a burr could do more than obliterate a personality.

What made a person uniquely themselves?

Lucas threw away the branch. “Or maybe the Zangmos are angry that Uncle Timothy failed. That whole family is weird. I should be okay that Grandfather is dead, but when I think about how he died and about other people dying that way…do you think the energy from the burrs could heal them?”

He peeked at her before looking back at the path. “I think I’d like to try. It would mean getting a medical degree, not engineering like I’d planned with Mom, but it’s all systems and—”

Nora hugged him ruthlessly.

He froze. “What?”

“I’m proud of you.”

He hugged her back. “Do you think I can do it?”

“I think you’re going to save lives.”

He blushed even as he smiled widely. “Don’t think that means I’ll stay behind. I’m still going on the expedition with you. I can do the college thing remotely. It’ll be faster.” He took his own fierce intelligence for granted. “After that, I’ll have to stay a few years on Capitoline or Fanrong Station for med school and residency. I’ll keep up my other training, too. The physical stuff Casimir and Jim are teaching me.” The Marines’ brutal martial art. “And using the burrs.”

“You’ll be busy,” Nora warned happily.

Lucas answered, equally happy. It was such a huge change from the sulky, insecure boy she’d met on Border Station. “Yup.”

She laughed. “Just remember. You’re ours.”

“Pardon?”

“If the Zangmos or the Duke,” Lucas’s maternal grandfather, “come sniffing around and you don’t want what they’re peddling—”

“They already are. And that Royal Guard commander, Lavigne. He tried to sell me on joining the Royal Guards.”

Nora frowned. “Does Willow know?”

Lucas rolled his eyes. “I’m old enough to say ‘no’ all by myself.”

“True. And it doesn’t matter. You’re ours. We’ll have your back, whatever you decide to do.”

“Clan Avestan?”

“Forever.”

They fist bumped.

Nora added seriously. “We protect our own.”

Protecting and growing Clan Avestan was giving Liam headaches, but nothing he couldn’t handle. With Jonah’s help, and Nora’s. Casimir and Theo. And Zac out at Fanrong Station. And…

“Is Liam free?”

Liam heard Willow’s inquiry through the open door to his city office, the hell zone where he dealt with aggravations he didn’t want to bring back to Avestan House. Those didn’t include Willow. “Come in!”

“He’s been on a call with Admiral Quispe,” former Chief Petty Officer Rita Clarke explained. She was Liam’s secretary, and the person in charge of the office. Liam presumed that by now she was in charge of the entire building and gaining territory on the block. Chief Petty Officers got things done.

“I’m duly warned,” Willow responded solemnly. She strolled in.

Her attitude of insouciant amusement provoked him. “Sometimes you are very like your son.”

“Tangentially, Lucas is why I’m here.” She took a seat. “He’s one hundred percent committed to learning how to use the burrs’ energy for healing. He’s organizing his life with an eye to the expedition, and after that, to earning a medical degree. Underlying that is his allegiance to Nora.”

Willow raised her hand in a stop gesture. “I’m not jealous. She told him he’s part of your clan. Avestan forever.” She smiled sadly. “He’s always wanted to belong. My father is furious. He believes Lucas cheated him by hiding his sensitivity to burrs at the grand age of five. For years, Father disdained or ignored Lucas, and now he’s mad that Lucas has turned his back on him. Chickens come home to roost, I told him.

“Lucas and I made our peace with one another on Border Station, and it’s held. But I don’t want to test it, and frankly, when I went out to Border Station it was because I was mad at Father for failing Lucas, for letting it get to the point where Lucas was expelled from the exclusive school I’d been paying for.” Old anger colored her voice.

She controlled it, and started again. “I’m not a peacetime officer, and I’m too restless to be a courtier. It was how Francis convinced me to go out to border space. My situation has changed. Lucas will stay in the inner realm once the expedition is over. It’s where the best universities are, and where he has access to burrs.”

She smiled suddenly. “Liam, you’ve been very patient, especially if you’ve just dealt with Quispe. I’m rehashing the background details because I want to join Clan Avestan.” Her speech sped up. “I’m aware there’s no formal process. Mostly clans are family. There hasn’t been a new clan recognized on Capitoline in eighty years. I want to stand with my son, not my father, and not even in service to the Crown. And you can use me.”

“Willow…”

“I trust you,” she said. “It’s why I authorized you to act and enter into contracts on Blue Dock’s behalf. If you can trust me…no, that’s not fair. I’m grateful that Lucas, with his ability to use burrs as Nora does, has her in his corner. Whether I’m a member of your clan, officially working for you or not, I will support you. Your strength is Lucas’s security. Business-wise, Blue Dock and Blazing Kangaroo work synergistically, and can pretty much function without us. I’ve been sorting out my end. Theo has yours well in hand.”

Liam nodded.

“I intend to establish myself on Fanrong Station. The med school there is excellent, and station life suits me better than planetary. Liam, the upper ranks of the Navy are buzzing with news of the mercenary corporation you’ve started in the shadow market.”

He scowled, glancing involuntarily at his comms unit. “So Quispe said.”

“Ah. My timing could have been better.” But having begun her pitch, Willow pushed on. “Theo has slotted into managing your regular business interests better than even he expected. Francis had him working in the background. You let him act, and people are picking up that he’s a force in his own right.”

She flicked a finger against her thumb. “We talk. Theo, Bianca and me. Faith is young, but she’s another new burr talent, like Lucas. They’ve done the same calculation I have. Clan Avestan is their daughter’s best protection. You don’t want to use her.”

Whereas both Lucas and Faith’s ducal relatives would.

“The shadow market has a strong presence on Fanrong Station,” Willow said. “Talk it over with Nora and Casimir and whoever else you trust, don’t answer now, but you looked out for my interests till I returned to Capitoline. I could oversee your shadow market operations while you’re on the expedition. Regardless of what you decide about that, I will be on Fanrong Station and I will forever consider myself, at minimum, your ally.”

Chief engineers were tough. Some, like Xavier, hid it better than others. Willow had the character and experience to navigate the shadow market. She’d build her personal reputation as quickly as Theo had done in the legal, regulated market.

Liam tried to match Willow’s openness. “Claiming people for our clan feels arrogant unless it’s a mutual claiming, as with Lucas. Casimir has pointed out that I have an overdeveloped sense of protectiveness, and the clan is the natural result of me gaining the resources to indulge those instincts.”

“He’s one to talk,” Willow muttered.

“Yes, he is protective.”

She flicked her thumb again; a nervous habit. “If he wasn’t accompanying you on the expedition, I wouldn’t offer to superintend your shadow market operations for you.”

Liam shook his head. “Casimir wouldn’t enjoy the job. If you’re certain you want it, it’s yours.”

“That simply?”

“Nora wouldn’t have promised Lucas a place with us if she didn’t mean it to include you. It wouldn’t have been fair to either of you.”

“Other people wouldn’t care.”

Liam grinned. “Which is why you’re not joining them.”

“Point.”

“If you do take on the clan’s shadow market operations, you’ll have to work with Aeric Kenes. We’re allied with him on some projects in the shadow market. He introduced me to key players.”

“I can manage a tycoon’s son.”

Liam hesitated. “He’s more than you think.”

She tilted her head. “Are you going to explain?”

“No.” And more certainly, “No. He’ll deal fairly with you, but he’s also a natural manipulator. Exercise caution.” Liam took a deep breath. “Actually, having someone coordinating clan activities in the shadow market answers Quispe’s biggest criticism. He demanded whether Avestan mercenaries would run rampant in my absence?”

He grinned slyly. “Quispe thinks that I want to hide the forces I’m building up in the shadow market. He’s wrong. I want the Navy, and other players, aware of my shadow market gains. I’m moving fast because the mercenary corporation has to be strong enough to ensure tycoons and courtiers think twice about crossing me, but not so strong as to threaten the Navy.”

Willow didn’t laugh at the idea of a private concern threatening the immensity of power the Navy could summon. She’d served in the war, in which privateers had shown how strategic targets and swift attacks and retreats could tilt the balance of power.

“I need the tycoons, in particular those who were committed to an isolationist policy, to calculate the cost of opposing Clan Avestan, and the expedition, and recognize that doing so would cost them more than if they simply do nothing, and we proceed.”

“I’m in. I’m in precisely the right mood to enjoy terrorizing people. Scaring the tycoons into commonsense would be a pleasure.” Willow smiled evilly. “I’ll consult Theo on extending it to the courtiers. You know there’s overlap?”

“I had noticed.” He’d also noticed that the anticipatory gleam in her eyes would scare any sensible soul. He stood and extended his hand. “Welcome aboard.”

It still left him to handle the Navy.

What they saw as major concessions barely rated with Liam.

Quispe joined the latest meeting. “The frigate CC Dire Wolf, currently under the command of Captain Boyd Hickman, will patrol the area ahead of our arrival.”

“That’s the pirate ship, isn’t it?” Casimir was across the details.

“Captain Hickman is serving as a privateer,” a mere lieutenant corrected.

Quispe, who’d been scowling at Liam for not greeting the frigate’s inclusion as a major contribution, turned his scowl on the junior officer.

Who shut up.

A single roving ship providing intelligence was nothing compared to Jonah, who scanned for threats far more effectively. Besides which, Liam, like Casimir, had a moral objection to the Navy backing privateers in peacetime.

The Navy’s argument was that the privateers would be in place for the next war. It was a cynical, disheartening and dangerous attitude.

“What about the new burrs?” Liam asked. This was the meat of the discussion he wanted to have.

“Capitoline’s acquisition of additional burrs doesn’t alter the expedition’s requirements,” Quispe said. “The heavy cruiser RC Tolui will carry three of the expedition’s four burrs. The fourth will be aboard the corvette RC Daimyo with two registered wielders.” From that position, he could not be budged.

Over dinner that night, Nora exploded at the news. “Four burrs! They could be more generous given that the cache Tadj found supplied eight. At minimum, we should get those eight.”

Only Liam was aware that without Jonah and Nora’s efforts, Capitoline wouldn’t have those burrs.

The others understood her frustration though.

Jim stretched, shoulder joints popping. “Yeah. Keeping the bonus burrs is star trash. They’re not giving up anything.”

Tadj finally had the time—a euphemism for being released from the joint Navy and Royal Guards’ debriefing—to come to dinner. He frowned sympathetically at Nora’s frustration. “Bureaucracy will kill you with its hoarding tendency. Bureaucrats, Navy included, are worse than dragons.”

This was the Tadj she remembered. Not the sternly resolute, illegitimate son of King Magnus, kept a dirty secret even from his half-siblings. Nor the burr wielder who couldn’t learn to manipulate the burr’s energy for improved storage or to grow things. The man helping himself generously to scallops and shredded grapefruit yam was a man alive with professional success and enthusiasm.

She let go of her bad temper.

Tadj had taught her to value xeno-archaeology. Recognizing a kindred spirit in her, he’d been the first to encourage her to continue her education and qualify as a xeno-archaeologist. Xeno-archaeology was about far more than adventure and a curiosity about the past. It was alien archaeology. It involved searching out and identifying otherness; and respecting and including that otherness to the benefit of society. The best xeno-archaeologists proved that their discipline’s impact went far beyond the selfish pursuit of knowledge.

“Tell us about the discovery,” Nora said. “What you can.”

Everyone had gathered for this dinner, even Dominic who’d been preoccupied and absent a lot recently. They wanted to hear the inside scoop. Discovering a cache rarely happened.

Tadj told a gripping story, even if he had to fudge the details about who’d put together the clues as to its location.

With the Navy pushing him forward to claim the xeno-archaeological credit for the discovery they’d made, Nora hoped the lie wouldn’t eat at him. “You’re going to inspire the next generation to study xeno-archaeology.” She smiled in Aria’s direction before meeting Tadj’s shadowed gaze. “That counts every bit as much as the burrs themselves. Congrats, Professor.” She toasted him with her teacup.

Chapter 14

The news of the burrs’ discovery coincided with intelligence reports received back from Capitoline Security Bureau agents on Palantine. Queen Sarah had taken the news of Nora’s existence about as well as she’d received the news that Dominic had involved himself in a “fool’s errand” expedition to re-open the Origin black hole.

Sarah had actually come out vocally against it, revealing her alignment with the isolationist cabal of tycoons. They wanted to shut down the realms, not open up. Now, everyone knew it—and that they were on the losing side of fate.

Dominic caught Nora at breakfast. “Nora?”

“Hmm?” She had a mouthful of egg and bacon muffin.

He looked around the busy dining room with people dashing in and out and Aria packing her schoolbag on the table. “Can we talk this afternoon? In your office here?”

The office part signaled a serious issue.

She swallowed hastily. “Of course.”

Jim was already consulting his comms unit. “Nothing we can’t juggle,” the master of her schedule said. “Three o’clock?”

“Thanks.” Dominic squeezed her shoulder on his way out.

Her gaze followed him. “He didn’t eat breakfast.”

Kennedy shrugged. “He probably has a power breakfast booked. As you could.”

Nora shuddered. “I refuse to do business or socialize this early in the day.”

“Wimp.”

To Nora’s surprise, and her instinctive wariness, Dominic brought Erik to the meeting.

The older man sat quietly. Initially.

Dominic twitched in his chair and began, abruptly. “I can’t be part of the expedition. I’m needed at home.”

Nora heard the words, but… “It can’t be solely a Capitoline expedition. The other realms will kick up.”

“I’m aware.” Of course he was. He handled the diplomatic wrangling around the expedition. “However, you can stand in for me.”

She choked.

Her loving brother wasted no sympathy on her. He continued implacably. “You forget—and the people here do their best not to remind you—that you’re the daughter of the King of Palantine and the Crown Prince’s sister.”

“Yes, but…”

“At minimum, you’re a citizen of Palantine. You don’t belong exclusively to Capitoline.”

To her horror, Erik supported him. “It’s necessary that you step up. The expedition will rip up the balance of power in the Human Sector. Whether you succeed or fail in opening the millrace, the tensions barely contained on Palantine will boil over. Dominic needs to be there, presenting a united front with Ivan as he displays his new creative use of the burrs.”

“I can grant you the status of a duchess of Palantine,” Dominic said. “Uncle Erik agrees that Father would support it.”

“Queen Sarah—”

Dominic cut Nora off. “Mother is part of the reason I need to return.

Of course she was.

Aeric had passed on enough of his reports from Palantine for Liam and Nora to officially know how ruthlessly Sarah was wielding the resources of the Ontario ducal assets she’d seized at the time of her brother’s death.

Jonah had passed on a few more of the details; sufficient that they knew now was not a safe time to contact Aria’s maternal family who lived in Ontario Province.

Dominic had once said he wasn’t sure how his own cousin, the Duke’s daughter, Calista, and her children would fare. Sarah could be as petty as she was aggressively ambitious.

“Father can’t fight alone. Uncle Erik.” Dominic glanced at their uncle.

“Ivan needs his heir, especially this mature version.”

A bitter smile and the pain in his eyes revealed Dominic’s acceptance of the judgement and demand. “Father is alone. He feels it. Something I never really noticed…no, never cared about it. But I had Hermione to love for a brief while, and I loved and trusted her absolutely. I see the team you have here. Your clan. Father needs back-up, and that’s me. Palantine needs it to be me. You’ve focused on how the changes to the way burrs are used has societal and economic impacts on Capitoline. It’s equally true for Palantine.”

“If anything, we’re worse, being more precariously balanced,” Erik interjected.

“I…we…I’m not a princess.”

“Duchess,” Erik corrected.

She waved him away. “Whatever. I’m not it.”

“As in ‘tag, not it’?” Dominic grinned crookedly. “You can do as little or as much as you want, diplomatically. Hamish will help you.” Hamish Yakamia, the Palantine ambassador to Capitoline.

“Hamish hates me.”

Erik disagreed. “You scare him. He remembers Olav.” The previous Palantine king, Erik’s father, and Nora and Dominic’s grandfather. He’d been a tyrant.

“I’m not Olav. I’m not a monster!”

“No, but you have the potential to be almost anything. People project their hopes and fears onto you,” Erik explained mercilessly.

Nora groaned. “I won’t do much. I have the expedition and training with the burrs, and I live on Capitoline. I don’t want them distrusting me.”

“They won’t,” Dominic said.

His earnest tone reminded her that while she was affected by his decision, it really wasn’t about her.

“Are you sure you have to go?”

“I think that if I don’t support Father, now, I’ll feel forever that I failed him, Palantine, and myself.”

Against that comprehensive answer, she had no defense. She tucked away her fears and reservations to give him her full support.

Dominic and Erik had come prepared. They ran through what she would face, filling in for Dominic, and the bare minimum of effort involved.

“If you can do more, great,” Dominic concluded. “But we’re not expecting miracles.”

Except that she expected them of herself. She wanted to open the Human Sector up to the wider universe. She smiled resolutely at him. “Always expect miracles. You’re going to be a great king.”

“Hopefully, not for decades.”

Hopefully not. She had a father who might actually be worth including in her life.

In the master suite, she unloaded her fears on Jonah. “It’s not even me and what stupid diplomatic things Kennedy will shove me into to manage the interrealm tangle around the expedition that worries me. It’s Dominic.”

She paced around the sitting room, weaving between furniture. “If Dominic learns that Sarah ordered Hermione’s death, it could change him. Or if he learns about it, controls himself, but acts against her, as he intends to do, her allies might argue he’s seeking revenge. They’ll try to diminish what he wants to achieve—greater freedom, broader prosperity, a more secure populace.”

Jonah tsked. “You should be the last person to underestimate ordinary people. Sarah killing her daughter-in-law and brother will be the real news.”

Nora accepted his admonishment. “Still, we can’t stand by and allow him to be blindsided by the news. What I can’t figure out is how to tell him. What cover story would explain us learning the truth of Hermione’s death?”

“I have thought about this. Not about telling Dominic, but about affecting action at a distance. The Guild is the most active interrealm institution. I’ve hacked its communication system. I could make it appear, from this end, that the Palantine Guild sent a message to the Capitoline branch of the Guild detailing how and who Queen Sarah hired to kill Hermione.”

Knees suddenly jelly, Nora sat on the sofa. “If the news goes public, Capitoline will go to war. The people won’t stand for a Palantine queen having killed Hermione. They’ve grudgingly warmed up to Dominic, but discovering that his mother was responsible…” Her imagination painted ugly scenes.

Jonah nodded solemnly. “I believe we shouldn’t interfere.”

“But…” She twisted her fingers together before tearing them apart and curling her hands into fists. Having silenced her instinctive protest, she forced herself to think through her own position. Since when had she decided to force her judgement of other people’s capabilities onto them?

“Nora, I’ve learned a lot from Dominic and Liam’s interactions with Aeric, and from observing Aeric’s activities and digging into the extent of the Nonet’s reach, as I have time.” There was never enough time for all that Jonah was interested in. Even if he didn’t need to sleep, he still had to incorporate downtime for his mental health. Also sometimes connections between seemingly unrelated data emerged from not consciously tracking anything. Daydreaming substituted for human REM sleep.

“Dominic has also learned from Aeric,” Jonah said. “A free market requires rigorous honesty as to consequences and cost. Pushing such things onto someone else rather than acknowledging them and factoring them into decision-making distorts the market. It’s tempting to indulge in such tactics since they often generate profit in the short term, but over the long term such deceptions weaken the system.”

Jonah let his gray, metal fingers curl lightly over the chair’s armrests. “Liam is even more meticulous about identifying the consequences and costs of his actions and who bears them. From both of them, Dominic has learned to apply that same rigor to ruling Palantine. He won’t make your father’s mistakes.”

A knot of nervous energy lodged unexpectedly in Nora’s solar plexus. She rubbed at it, although she stayed stubbornly silent about Jonah introducing mention of Ivan into the conversation.

He sighed. “Erik hinted blatantly about his brother’s fundamental problem. Ivan is a romantic, an idealist, crushed by the weight of his father’s terrible reign, which Queen Sarah strives to resurrect. Ivan has spent his reign working toward a nostalgic vision. He wishes to restore Palantine to some mythical Golden Age where the king bestowed largesse on a worshipfully loyal public.”

“Ew.” Nora’s scrappy underdog upbringing in the Angkorran towers revolted against the vision.

“Dominic wants freedom for everyone, not just the powerful. It’s why he jumped to join the expedition, originally. Now, his comprehension of how much freedom costs, and will forever cost, has deepened. He might react violently when or if he learns of his mother’s assassination of Hermione, but I believe we can trust his sense of honor to curtail his actions according to what they’d cost innocent parties.”

Nora withdrew her gaze from Jonah’s serious expression to stare at her hands. Months without working in her garden or workshop on the CC Kangaroo had softened her hands. Kennedy’s insistence on manicures had polished them, but couldn’t hide their fundamental strength.

If Nora respected Dominic, she had to trust him to demonstrate his strength. “I’d like to ask Liam’s opinion.”

Liam agreed with Jonah. “Granted, the consequences are exponentially greater than allowing an ensign to act on their own judgement, but its part of leadership. We’re inclined to think of him as less life-tested, and hence, in need of protection. It’s patronizing and wrong. Dominic has earned his chance to step up.”

He enclosed her hands in his. “It’s the flipside of leadership, of being a clan head. The clan trusts you to care for their welfare, but you—we—have to trust them to do their part. If we expect less than they can give, or be, we cripple them. We cripple the clan. If the leader can’t trust his or her people, it all falls apart.”

“The center cannot hold,” Jonah said. “The bond has to be held at both ends. And by held, I mean valued. And value is proven by action. I prefer this human understanding of society. The Silicaese had no center to their cities or star paths or wherever they used meshes as an organizing principle because they didn’t trust an accumulation of power.”

“How did their leadership work?” Liam asked.

“Time travel affected their decision-making. They blinked in and out around ideas, individuals and institutions until sufficient Silicaese coalesced in support of a single option.”

Nora leaned forward. “Which is closer to how energy organizes. Possibilities coalesce.”

“Sometimes randomly. Sometimes negatively,” Jonah said. “You have to trust in a person’s goodwill.”

“I get it. I get it. I should trust Dominic, and not interfere.” She sighed.

Jonah smiled slyly. “Or perhaps allow others to interfere for you.”

“You?” She pointed accusingly. “But—”

“Aeric,” Jonah said. “He has thrown the Nonet’s support behind Dominic as the best path forward for Palantine. I don’t think we should interfere with that.”

“Nooo,” Nora said slowly. “I never dreamed…”

“Things are happening on Palantine. We should let them be.”

After a sharp glance at Jonah, Liam pulled Nora to her feet and into a loose hug. “The best support we can provide Dominic is to show our belief in him. Leadership is lonely. Let’s see what we can send him off with.”

They found nothing better to send him off with than their love.

What do you give the royal who has everything? People he can genuinely trust, and they were in short supply.

He wouldn’t even have “his” Royal Guards going with him. The men and women who’d protected him for months, and been part of Avestan House, were officially assigned to the Palantine embassy and had to stay on Capitoline.

Because of privacy concerns, the family were holding their farewells at Avestan House. Dominic stood tall and resolute by the cars, surrounded by Royal Guards from the Palantine delegation, who’d protect him with their lives, but weren’t his friends. He slid dark glasses on to hide his eyes.

Nora tried to find the right words, and failed. “Tell Ivan…tell him I’d like to meet him. After the expedition. I will come and check up on you. It’s a big sister’s privilege.”

Dominic hugged her hard; hugged Liam; shook and settled his shoulders, and walked to where Erik waited by the car. His uncle slapped him on the back.

Nora kept her eyes wide open, so she didn’t cry, although she gripped Aria’s hand as tightly as the girl held hers. They waved good-bye before Aria dashed off to visit the donkeys, and maybe cry a little into their rough coats. Nora turned into Liam’s comforting hug. “Palantine’s so far away, and we’re sending him off on his own and won’t be there to help him.”

“He’s going home,” Ben said. “He survived that snakes’ nest growing up. He’s better equipped to survive it now.”

Nora and Liam took their own jaunt off-planet, but only as far as the Terminus and the destroyer he’d bought.

She smiled as he strolled around the bridge.

He kept his hands in his pockets, and she knew it was to resist temptation. The CC Jaguar was Zac’s. He was its captain, and he’d chosen its crew. Primarily from Clan Avestan. That Liam owned the destroyer didn’t count. He could look, but not touch, and certainly not give orders. It was a captain-to-captain courtesy thing.

The CC Jaguar’s shakedown run had been short and efficient; from Fanrong Station to Capitoline, or rather, to Capitoline’s spacedock.

Nora had her own plans for a shakedown run. Aeric had given her the idea. She thought she could sell it to the Royal Guards, the Navy, and Liam. Zac would be easy. He’d agree to anything that gave him more time in space on his new ship.

She just had to get the timing right.

She chose the after dinner, casual gathering in the living room at Avestan House on the night of their return from the Terminus. The shakedown run would also be a good test of Aria’s acceptance that she’d stay safe on Capitoline and not join the expedition.

Nora nibbled on a chocolate mint. “I’ve been looking at non-viable planets.”

For everyone else, the comment came out of nowhere.

She finished her mint. “NV3 has Iguanese fossils, which means it was once inhabited, as Capitoline was. Volcanic activity triggered a prolonged ice age.”

Liam watched her warily. “And?”

She contemplated the box of chocolates, feigning casualness. “It could be brought within acceptable tolerances. If I used the burrs intensively.”

Zac whistled.

“You’re suggesting a test run?” Liam sought clarification.

“I need to test the burrs more ambitiously, which isn’t safe to do on an inhabited planet. NV3 is scarcely a month and a half away.”

“If you go through the Zosimos Dust Cloud. Otherwise it’s five months.”

She grinned at Liam because for him to have the knowledge of the route in his mind, he’d had to have considered it. She had been dropping crumbs about needing a safe testing site.

The Zosimos Dust Cloud was a problem, but a manageable one. Dust clouds were dense concentrations of cosmic dust. They could spawn dervishes, tornados of dust capable of shredding a spaceships’ shields or throwing a ship off course. They were dangerous, but navigable, especially if Jonah piloted.

“You’d have to leave immediately, otherwise you’d set back the expedition’s departure,” Jim said.

Ben frowned, not at Nora, but at Zac, who was clicking his fingers in excitement.

Leaning so far forward that he practically toppled over the back of the sofa Nora sat on, Lucas shouted his approval. “It’s a fantastic idea!”

“But I wouldn’t be allowed to go, would I?” Aria asked.

“No,” Nora said, gentle but firm.

Zac stilled.

Lucas opened and shut his mouth.

“You could stay with Bianca and Theo, or with the Songoks, or here with Cherry.”

Aria strangled a cushion. “I know you love space and I don’t, so you were always going to go and I was going to stay.” She took a gasping breath. “I’d be a big meanie if I stopped you having an adventure.”

Nora gave her a big hug.

Ben groaned, and said in a hushed aside to Zac. “Which means I can’t be a big meanie, either.” He was preparing to hand over responsibility for Clan Avestan’s security while he accompanied Zac on the CC Jaguar as part of the expedition, but he was by no means ready to depart, now. “But this is to be a safe adventure.”

“What he said,” Aria mumbled.

Bailey, the old brindled mutt, licked her hand, and it was settled.

Liam identified opportunities in Nora’s proposal that her straightforward focus on improving her use of burr energy hadn’t considered. “I’m getting as sneaky as Aeric,” he confessed to Jonah.

“Hardly.”

Shrugging off Jonah’s amused assessment, Liam summoned the sneakiness he did possess, and went into battle with the Navy and Royal Guards on the thorny question of which ships would convey Nora to NV3.

“Absolutely not,” Van said. “While Prince Dominic was here, he pushed that the Half-Millennial Origin Expedition is an interrealm affair and not solely Capitoline’s, and we had to concede on including Isaac Mstivoj for political purposes. But a side jaunt to a non-viable planet in Capitoline space for Nora to test her burr use on…I will not countenance a former Capitoline pirate commanding a ship on that mission.”

“The CC Jaguar would benefit from a longer shakedown run,” Liam said.

“It can have it. I’ll supply any of my captains to command it, but I refuse to include that pirate as part of the command team.”

Liam shook his head at his former mentor, Van, well aware of how carefully the other Navy personnel scrutinized him, analyzing his motivations and weaknesses. “Surely that’s Admiral Quispe’s call? He is the one who’ll be on board the RC Tolui.”

The heavy cruiser was under the command of Captain Emmanuel Soo, currently seated opposite Liam at the table.

Liam was playing this stone-faced, which he managed almost as well as Casimir, who sat beside him, scowling in forbidding fashion at the opposition.

Casimir would accompany Zac on the CC Jaguar, if Liam could win them the space they needed.

Making it seem like a concession from him to the Admiral’s authority would work best.

“Quispe agrees with me,” Van declared. “Isaac Mstivoj was an enemy privateer. How can you employ him and house him and call him a friend?” Van slammed his hands on the table.

“The same way I accepted Dominic as my brother-in-law and learned to respect and value him as a friend. I judge Zac by who he is now. He’s an excellent captain. It’s commonsense to include the CC Jaguar in the practice run to NV3.”

“No! Send him off on his shakedown run anywhere else. He is not welcome!”

“Hypocrisy,” Liam said low. He believed his accusation, which made it effective in itself, as well as serving as a distraction. “You’ve authorized your own privateers in peacetime. At least Zac operated while we were at war.”

Van stabbed a finger at him. “You left the Navy, Liam. You don’t get to have an opinion on our actions. It is us who’ll live and die to keep Capitoline safe.”

Casimir held his tongue till he and Liam were private in the unsurveilled space of Liam’s office at Avestan House. “Well done.”

Liam grinned.

“It worked?” Zac asked.

Casimir perched on a windowsill. “Like a charm. Your name was a red rag to the bull for Admiral Moore.”

“Nice to hear I haven’t lost my ability to enrage, even at one remove.” Zac buffed his fingernails against his shirt.

“It’s your other skills and contacts that we hope you haven’t lost,” Liam said dryly.

“Never. I’ll shake any tail they send after me.”

As someone who’d fought pirates, Liam believed that Zac could, indeed, lose any pursuers. Space had its hazards, and used intelligently, dangers like dust clouds became opportunities for wily captains to evade scrutiny and capture. None were wilier than Zac.

Having lost any naval nosey parkers, the CC Jaguar would head for an unregistered moon base for a few off-the-books upgrades. Xavier would be on board, supervising the additions and ensuring the ship’s integrity.

Lavigne signed off on the Royal Guards’ scientists conducting “enhanced” experiments on NV3. Said experiments would not include Francis and certain other key burr wielders and scientists who couldn’t get free, or whom Dr. Chulainn required to stay on Capitoline and train further.

Lucas was beyond annoyed that he was one of them. “Politics,” he spat. He was strong enough, possibly stronger than Francis, that the powers that be wanted him at the palace. “As if I’m their puppet.”

“Maybe you can stay with Theo and Bianca, too?” Aria offered.

“Uh.” As a near-adult, Lucas enjoyed far greater freedom at Avestan House. “I’m good here, thanks. And no, Ma, you don’t need to delay your departure for Fanrong Station to babysit me.”

“What about to stand between you and your grandfather when he’ll undoubtedly try to force you to stay with him?” Willow countered tartly.

Lucas rolled his shoulders and resettled his weight like a fighter before the bell rang.

“Oh no,” she whispered.

“Let him try,” Lucas said simultaneously.

Chapter 15

Aria cried while hugging Nora and Liam good-bye at the base of the space elevator.

Nora felt wretched, even if she knew she’d made the right decision.

Two days earlier, Jonah had surreptitiously departed for the Terminus and the CC Kangaroo. They would be able to talk freely on board it, and he’d be able to move around freely. It was a major benefit of the journey.

A trial run and an expanded test of her burr use were necessary, but leaving Aria behind was the price.

Despite her tears, Aria was endearingly adult about the separation. “It’s not just what you do. It’s who you are. Like Mom and Dad.” Aria’s parents had been asteroid miners. “I like planets better. I don’t want to go into space again. But you have to come back.”

“Promise.”

Even if they didn’t, Nora and Liam had made arrangements for Aria. Without them, their incipient clan might fall apart, but the people who composed it would be looked after.

Nora’s last view of Aria was Cherry standing to one side of her, and Lucas the other. They looked so young. Fortunately, Gage, Veronica and Ben loomed behind them. They might be young, but they weren’t alone.

By the time she reached the shuttle that would transfer her and Liam to the Terminus, she’d put aside her regrets and doubts and focused forward. Her sensitivity to the energy in the burrs had improved immensely during the last few months of practice, and she craved the opportunity to test the press of possibilities she felt in it.

Prudence meant she had to test it somewhere where a disaster wouldn’t kill…anyone else.

I’ll be careful.

The RC Tolui carried a single burr, doubly secured, according to protocol, in its shielded case in a locked and Marine-guarded vault, which she and the other burr wielders would use.

It took a lot of arguing and a reminder that not only was Nora an experienced tagger and her scout ship built to a higher spec precisely so as to survive space hazards, but that Liam was an experienced Navy captain, but Quispe finally allowed the CC Kangaroo a trial day of taking point in finding a route through the Zosimos Dust Cloud.

After that first day, Quispe grudgingly agreed that the CC Kangaroo would lead them through it.

Jonah thrived on the freedom of life aboard the scout ship and his responsibility for the fleet’s safety.

Nora also reveled in the freedom, but fretted over things beyond her control. Like what would be Dominic’s reception on Palantine.

To which fretting, Jonah merely smiled. He was stuck on the bridge, navigating, till they exited the dust cloud.

Either Nora or Liam had to stay with him to handle any comms calls from the other ships.

“You know something!” she accused Jonah.

“I know many things.”

She spun her chair, and stretched out to kick the base of his. It had no effect. It was a purely symbolic gesture. “Infuriating.”

“Dominic will be fine, but this is a situation where we need your reaction to the news to be one hundred percent natural.”

“Aha! So there is news.”

“Aha!” Jonah mocked her. “I’m still not telling you.”

The small fleet emerged safely from the Zosimos Dust Cloud and approached NV3.

Once they were in orbit, and the planet had been surveyed and selected sites secured, Nora suited up. She struggled not to smile at the twin grumpy glares directed her way.

Liam and Jonah’s disapproval meant they cared.

“This is safer than the xeno-archaeological digs I did. On sulfuric planets I would have frozen faster than I asphyxiated if something went wrong.”

Jonah lunged to check her gear again.

She swatted his hands away. “Nothing will go wrong.”

“We should stay with you, in case something does,” Liam said. “I know we can’t! We’ve argued it endlessly. If we stay, the others will want to stay to observe you, or to check that we’re not finagling things.”

He kissed her. “Stay safe.”

As safe as she could while getting all she could out of this opportunity to test and flex her energy body, alone on a planet.

Jonah ducked into the passage. For anyone watching once her comms link went live, his cover story as a retro-android was stronger if he wasn’t present.

She sealed her helmet and checked her comms link.

Her voice carried over the intercom in the Roo’s cargo hold. “Op 1, preparing to disembark.”

Liam’s voice sounded in her helmet. “We read you, Op 1.”

“Audio and visual,” the comms officer from the heavy cruiser RC Tolui said. The battleship containing the burr Nora would use was in orbit alongside two Navy corvettes.

“Shuttle ready for launch,” the comms officer said. If something went wrong, Nora would be dead before the shuttle broke atmosphere. But she appreciated the thought.

She gave Liam a thumbs up.

“One hour,” he said grimly.

From the moment he piloted the CC Kangaroo off NV3, she had one hour till his return. Depending on how this first test went, the next one—if there was a next one—would be longer.

“One hour.”

Conscious of their observers, he nodded severely, and departed.

When the light by the cargo hold’s internal hatch showed red for fully sealed, she took a deep breath, crossed to the external hatch, and opened it.

NV3’s gravity was fractionally greater than on Capitoline or the ship-standard derived from ancient Earth. Nora moved slowly. The Marines had set up the camp, a collapsible dome that the scientists then filled with equipment. The dome was Nora’s first line of protection. The lifesuit her second.

A bare-bones monitoring system crossed the planet, and extended to include the burr wielders on the Navy ships who’d be actively attempting to sense what she did. Quispe was in charge of the burr. On his command, it could be wrenched away from Nora’s control by being shut in its shielded case.

In consultation with the Royal Guards’ scientists and the terraforming experts whom Bianca had recommended, Nora had chosen a sheltered bay for her first experiment. The limestone outcrop that framed it was low enough that in the event of geological upheaval, nothing was high enough to tumbledown on top of her. At the same time, she wasn’t standing low on a sandy beach that could be washed away by a rogue wave.

The Marines had anchored the dome where she could look out at the bay through a window.

She’d found it helped her concentration if she looked at what she was directing a burr’s energy toward.

The trek from the CC Kangaroo to the dome took twenty minutes over lichen-encrusted ground. The lichen, sand and rock crunched under her boots. She concentrated on her footing rather than on Liam and Jonah, behind her in the scout ship, or on sensing her energy body which stretched beyond the planet, far beyond its two moons.

Her pace slowed as she neared the dome and the sea beyond it. In the sheltered bay, the purple ocean scarcely rippled, but she stood above it, and the wind blew against her, its pressure competing with the heavier gravity to make her conscious of her body and her alien presence on the planet.

NV3 was a planet of purples and reds.

It was the color of bad bruises and brutal regret.

On a southern continent, a survey had found remnants of a fossilized forest, but these days algae, fungi, and lichens were the most complicated life forms to survive the barrage of volcanic eruptions and subsequent decades of darkness. Currently, this continent was at its most stable.

Which maybe meant it was overdue an eruption.

Nora waved in the direction of the CC Kangaroo before ducking into the dome. She resealed the hatch behind her, ran through the safety checks to ensure nothing had been compromised since the Marines’ departure, then communicated the all clear.

“CC Kangaroo, you are clear to depart.” She wouldn’t need to retreat to it.

“Departing in two minutes.” Liam’s brusque response hid his reluctance.

The dome didn’t have a window in the CC Kangaroo’s direction. Nora studied the bay, instead.

There were so many things she could attempt on this uninhabited planet. The terraforming experts were keen for her to experiment. The Royal Guards’ scientists, with their focus on understanding the burrs and keeping Nora alive and unharmed, were more cautious.

She would begin her experiments on NV3 with seaweed. It had been the start of her creative use of burrs on Capitoline.

She had made the expedition her first priority, so she couldn’t argue when the Royal Guards absolutely forbade her messing with the planet’s geology.

The Viminal ambassador had argued for it, but then gone away muttering about sending the courtiers from her embassy to learn how to use burrs creatively. Then they would, in the angry ambassador’s words, “not be puling, puking cowards”, and would do their own experiments as to whether burrs could stabilize a planet’s volcanic instability. The Viminals, who inhabited a volatile, volcanically active world, already used burrs to obliterate surging forces below ground, but they had to be economical because the energy from such interventions was so great that unrestricted intervention would soon fill a burr. At minimum, the smoothing of energy in burrs would enable them to use the burrs more in geological emergencies. For the Viminals, any improvement in stabilizing deep geological forces was significant.

Nora had her own risky experiment in mind. It might destroy the scientists’ monitoring equipment, so she’d leave it till the end of their stay at NV3.

To be honest, she’d have delayed the test, all together, except that the result of it could prove a major asset if the CC Jaguar made it into and through the Origin black hole’s millrace.

Worry for the people who’d travel through the millrace meant she had to test her idea, but first she had to warn Liam and Jonah of what she’d attempt and the risk involved. A totally survivable risk—she hoped.

Ugh. Who am I kidding? If it was a sure bet, I’d have tried it on Capitoline.

Stop thinking about it! Her lifesuit was kitted out with equipment that was currently measuring her stress response. She didn’t need it spiking, now.

“CC Kangaroo in orbit.”

“When you’re ready, Op 1,” Quispe said.

Nora felt the burr emerge from its shielded case. That shielding was one of the few things the Originals had gotten one hundred percent, incredibly right. Nora couldn’t sense the burrs through it any more than she could sense the three burrs inside Jonah, powering him.

She reached for the burr, connected, and simply existed with the energy for a minute. The planet was alien, but the energy familiar.

Then she channeled the energy toward the algae in the bay.

Two survey teams had studied NV3 and its major life forms. Nora had obsessively gone over their research on the composition of the ocean and air, temperature, and the algae itself.

Grow.

Initially, she channeled no more energy than she had in the lab beneath the Laotian Palace. Despite what the scientists wanted, she was not splitting her attention to describe to them her actions or perceptions.

Trust required both sides to step out of their comfort zones. If it had been Francis here on the planet, he’d have had the burr with him.

Nora had to reach for it while it stayed in Quispe’s hands.

The Royal Guards argued it was a safety precaution. If trouble began on the planet, they could shut off the flow of energy from the burr by returning it to its case.

Nora saw it for what it was: their assertion of control.

Grow.

She channeled more energy.

She didn’t understand how the energy worked. Not even after all her conversations with Jonah. She really didn’t understand why the Royal Guards and Navy weren’t more worried about the channel of energy affecting the heavy cruiser.

They had done numerous experiments over the years using the burrs’ obliterating power to siphon in energy, but this was the first time a major energy expenditure would flow out from the ship.

Jonah was observing the energy, and Liam had a code word to intervene if Jonah was concerned. Liam would ask, “Op 1, report status?” as if he wanted to check on her.

Grow.

The comms channel remained quiet.

Nora looked out the window. The purple bay was blood red. The algae had bloomed.

She ceased channeling energy into it. She abandoned protocols. “How long?”

Pilar was equally unconcerned with comms protocols. “Seven minutes and forty two seconds. The bay bloomed a minute before that.”

While Pilar spoke, someone shielded the burr.

Nora felt her connection to the burr falter, but not break. She kept her breathing consciously even, trying to conceal her shock from the monitoring equipment. She blinked at the window and the view through it. “That’s a lot of algae,” she said inanely.

“Op 1, are you safe to return to the CC Kangaroo?” the RC Tolui’s comms officer asked.

“Yes.” She cut off the “please”, although she wanted to be home.

She could still feel the burr. She suspected she still had control of it, and could use it despite its shielded, sealed case.

Don’t think about it. Not yet. Concentrate on walking.

The walk back to the CC Kangaroo aligned her with the larger of the planet’s two moons, shining yellow. It was eerily like a blank eye in the sky, and she was grateful when the clouds shrouded it. A few seconds later, the rain began. Droplets plinked against her helmet and hissed against her suit, sliding off both. She looked down, concentrating on her footing across the slippery ground.

Entering the CC Kangaroo, she sealed the external hatch. The scout ship’s artificial gravity claimed her first, releasing some of the weight burdening her, and reminding her that part of the oppression she’d carried back from the dome site wasn’t metaphorical. She breathed a little easier. “I’m good. I’m fine. Entering decom, now.”

She spoke to Liam and Jonah on speaker from the helmet, but knew the Royal Guards, Navy and scientists listened in. She was still on record.

Maneuvering in the tiny confines of a decontamination unit was familiar from her years on Silicaese digs. She focused on each step of the procedure, holding firmly to that focus till she was out of her lifesuit and the decontamination unit, and safely unsurveilled in the living area of the CC Kangaroo.

“I can still feel the burr,” she said bluntly to Liam and Jonah. “It’s been restored to its shielded case, and I’m still connected to it. I can still use it. I’m not…but I could.”

“Star gods,” Liam swore as he hugged.

“Yeah. It’s a…I guess the experiment today stretched my abilities and they grew?”

Jonah sat at the kitchen table. “It could be. Can you feel the burrs powering me?”

Still pressed against Liam, appreciating his warm strength and emotional support, she concentrated. “No.”

“My shielding is superior,” Jonah agreed. “But this…I didn’t anticipate…”

“Yeah. It’s the political consequences.” Now that she was aboard the CC Kangaroo, she could afford to consider the implications of her new ability.

The protections people thought they had against her control of burrs no longer existed.

Liam ran his hand up and down her back. “We won’t rush the decision.”

Because by telling them, she’d made it their decision, too. It was ultimately hers, but she’d made him a partner to it.

She squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m tired of being the freak. Not just the outsider, but a dangerous threat. Their mistrust of me makes me afraid of them.”

His arms tightened.

She was right. Scared people were the most dangerously unaccountable enemies. Sometimes you couldn’t guess in advance that they were your enemy. They acted out of nowhere, driven by their fear.

“But if I don’t admit that the shielding no longer blocks my control of burrs, and someone else reaches the same capability and uses it badly, I’d never forgive myself.”

Jonah turned to the counter, scooping up a plate of muffins. “Sit and eat. Blueberry muffins, fresh from the oven.”

The dilemma wouldn’t resolve itself easily. She should do something normal, like eating. It would stabilize her blood sugar, too, which had been shaken by her shock.

Except, she had kind of made her decision. “I have to tell them, but if they decide to eliminate me as a threat…”

Jonah set the plate down. “I can stop their weapons. I hacked their ships’ systems, especially the weaponry.”

If they were in comms contact, of course he was in control.

Nora threw herself at him. “Thank you.”

Liam echoed her, gravely. “Thank you.”

“I thought I’d have to try and destroy their weapons.” Nora sniffed. “Before they killed you, too, trying to kill me. If that’s what they did.”

“So, we test whether we can trust them?” Liam checked.

She grabbed the tissue box and blew her nose. It wasn’t just her devastation, here.

Liam and his loyalties had also had to change over the last couple of years. He couldn’t trust the realm he’d served his whole adult life. Its priorities no longer aligned with his own.

“If we can’t?” Jonah asked the terrible question.

Liam’s face set in the stern lines of command, fierce and unflinching. “You said you have control of their ships? We can strand them here till someone checks on them. We’d have to get a message to Zac and Casimir, but they could get Aria and Cherry and whoever else close to us was willing to come, off Capitoline. Running would give us time to sort out the future, even to negotiate. Jonah, you could observe and alert us if anything they told us was deceptive. Basically, we have options.”

Nora shivered, chilled at the cold logic. “Especially if we act now while they’re distant from support.”

“I will observe closely what they say and do after you tell them,” Jonah promised.

“I’ll tell them on the bridge. The sooner I tell them, the less they can say I withheld the information.”

“Anyone with any nous will understand your hesitation and value the courage it took to inform them. Trust them. They don’t know we have Jonah.” Liam gave Jonah a nod of respect before walking with Nora onto the bridge. He stood behind her as she took the captain’s chair.

She reached up.

He squeezed both her shoulders lightly. I’m here.

Jonah sat in the pilot’s chair, out of sight of the camera focused on Nora.

She took a deep breath, needing the grounding of Liam’s light hold. She hadn’t relinquished control of the shielded burr. “I’ll tell Quispe.”

A few months ago, she’d never have believed that Quispe was the person she’d trust with this huge risk.

She asked the RC Tolui’s comms officer to put her through to him.

“You dropped off the scientists’ monitoring equipment, and they’re screaming to know your status,” Quispe growled.

“I’m fine. Well, fine in terms of what they’re assessing. Quispe, you shut the burr in its shielded case, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

She rushed her confession. “I can still feel it. I’m still connected to it.”

There was a long silence.

Quispe answered cautiously. “The burr Chief Engineer Lange had on Border Station. Its case was cracked, and you felt it. Is this case the same? Except, I also returned the burr to the vault on the RC Tolui.”

The burr was doubly shielded. Nora hadn’t considered that. Stunned by the realization, and for lack of a better answer, she repeated herself. “I can still feel it.”

Pilar cut in. “Could you do so before?”

“No. It happened after I used the burr to grow the algae.”

“You stretched your ability. Like muscle training,” Pilar mused.

Nora didn’t relax.

Pilar was a scientist. Her first thought wouldn’t be the political implications of Nora’s expanded ability.

Quispe’s was. “Stars dammit, woman.”

It was a crisis.

The Admiral continued. “Do you know how much upgrading the vaults on the Navy’s ships will cost?”

She laughed at the poor joke. “Sorry.”

“I’m glad you told us,” he said sincerely.

She nodded. “I’m scared.”

“No one’s going to hurt you. You can tell your husband that. I’m sure he’s trying to calculate how your little scout ship can evade us. It can’t, but you don’t have to. On my word.”

Liam bent to be in view of the camera. “Thank you, Admiral Quispe,” he said formally.

“We’re going to have to think this through,” Quispe said.

Nora could finally breathe. “We’re well aware.”

“Can you release your control of the burr, now?” Quispe asked.

“Yes. Done.”

“Rest,” Quispe advised. “We’ll send the shuttles down as scheduled to move the camp to tomorrow’s site. Don’t panic. The Marines aren’t coming for you.”

“It’d have to be a missile from orbit to take out a burr wielder,” Liam muttered.

“Which I’m categorically refusing to authorize,” Quispe said. Possibly for the record. Everything they were saying would be picked over and analyzed.

“I do need a break,” Nora said. “I’m a bit shaky from realizing…from realizing what I can do.”

Pilar had worked out the seriousness of the situation. She tried to be encouraging. “That your ability with the burrs, or at least, the strength of your connection, has increased is good news for the expedition’s likely success.”

“Hopefully.” Nora ended the comms call. “Jonah?”

“So far, Quispe’s response is honest. A lot of people are panicking as they realize the implications of the shielding failing to stop you connecting to a burr. But on the whole, they’re worried for you, not about you. They trust you. A couple, Quispe among them, are making the jump that the bigger risk is an unknown person, or someone less trustworthy than you, gaining the same ability. He’s currently shouting at the scientists to improve the shielding on the case and vault. They’re not qualified to do it.”

Nora’s muscles unwound. “I think I could eat a blueberry muffin.”

Jonah nodded. “I’ll stay here and monitor everything.”

“Thank you.” She kissed his cheek in passing.

He could multitask. He didn’t have to stay on the bridge. He was doing so to give her and Liam time together.

Without having to be rude and explicitly exclude him, they could walk straight through the living area and into their cabin.

Nora didn’t need to rest. She needed to be present in her body. She needed Liam.

They didn’t talk.

Afterward, he linked his hand with hers, interlacing their fingers, and pressed both to his chest, over his heart. Together.

Whatever they faced, they faced it together.

Chapter 16

Nora piled two plates with stir fry, hot and spicy and full of vegetables from the garden which had benefited from her tending it on the journey to NV3.

Cooking was a reassuringly normal activity.

A chair dragged. Jonah didn’t eat, but he still sat down to dinner with them. Meals were a social ritual he enjoyed. Especially today, when they all craved the reassurance of being together.

She sat down opposite Liam. “I never imagined anything like this happening.”

He selected a snow pea. “Who would?” He crunched into the crisp vegetable.

Nora grinned at him. “There I was worrying about making miniature black holes, and—” Liam’s easy expression twitched into an accusatory scowl. A sideways glance showed a similar expression on Jonah’s face. “Oh. Um. I was going to talk to you both about it. I have this idea…”

“To make black holes?” Jonah asked incredulously.

Liam pointed chopsticks in a yes, that gesture.

“Mini-black holes,” Nora stressed. “For communication purposes.”

Jonah folded his arms, unimpressed. “What bees are buzzing in your noggin?”

“Noggin, really? You’ve been listening to Jim too often.”

“Black holes,” Liam growled. He rose and paced away from the table.

She pushed aside her own dinner. “We have this whole empty planet, and I got to thinking…”

“About the most exciting method of killing yourself?” Jonah asked.

She frowned at him. “About the Silicaese. You described how the exiled Silicaese who made this region home for a few thousand years didn’t use the burrs to travel in time, although they could have. You said it was good that the exiles rejected their innate ability to travel in time because adding the energy of the burrs to that sort of activity would have destabilized the locations where they time traveled.”

“I did say all that, yes.”

“In fact, the main group of Silicaese that the exiles splintered from sought out the exiles precisely because the exiles didn’t do time travel.” She aimed additional explanation at Liam. “Silicaese civilization had been founded on a ritual time walk every seven years, but when too many Silicaese time travelers all targeted a particular temple at the same moment in time, it collapsed into chaotic energy.”

“The Silicaese had to rebuild,” Jonah said. “They sought out the exiles to help them do so with the aim of increasing resiliency.”

“But why could the Silicaese travel in time?” Nora prompted Jonah to repeat the answer he’d provided the first time they’d discussed the issue.

He did so cautiously, looking for the trap whereby he’d find himself supporting Nora’s logic of attempting to create miniature black holes. “The Silicaese are composed of less dark matter than humans or the Vapori. It means there’s less tension anchoring them in time.”

Nora stood, too restless to stay at the table, and feeling a little irrationally guilty under Jonah’s severe gaze. “Okay. So, that’s where I started from. I’m not Silicaese. I can’t risk traveling in time myself.”

“Definitely not,” Jonah said.

Liam stayed ominously silent by the kitchen counter.

She side-eyed him. “Plus, there’s that whole issue of destabilizing reality if the burr’s energy is used to disrupt time. But then, I turned the idea on its head. What if I disrupted time and space with pinpoint precision. What if I told an object to occupy two positions in time, simultaneously? It couldn’t, right? Not with normal physics. The atoms making up the object would have to be duplicated; either pulled from another time or from another multiverse. Because no object, especially if you include the forces acting on it as part of the definition of the object, is the same from second to second. If nothing else, entropy is relentless.”

Nora wasn’t a physicist, and although she’d read and listened to debates on the topic, she was pretty sure she’d gotten the jargon wrong. Nonetheless, she’d done her best to convey her reasoning.

Liam’s scowl deepened. “I have no idea.”

They both looked at Jonah. He rose. It seemed none of them could remain seated and calm for this discussion.

She hadn’t thought it would be this bad. Although she had delayed the discussion till the last minute, so maybe she had. Moreover, they were all stressed by her doing that shield-piercing thing. She laid out her hypothesis as best she could. “For object X to occupy location A and location B, defined in terms of both space and time, but with only time varying, then object X has to replicate itself. That’s what the burr’s energy would do. If there’s enough of it. But the act of doing so destabilizes reality, as the Silicaese did with their temple, by too many people jumping to and away from a specific place in time and space. But the universe is self-repairing. So, doing what I propose, as reality collapses in locations A and B, in order to maintain the coherence of the whole, the collapse is confined and turned in on itself. And the result is a mini black hole.”

“Hogwash,” Jonah said comprehensively. “That is muddled, impossible, insane thinking. It’s like calling on magic.”

Nora marked the air. Point scored. “Which is exactly how humans treat burrs. ‘Guided intent’,” she quoted the burr training methodology, “is nothing more than wishing to change reality. But the crucial point is that the energy in the burr follows the burr wielder’s wish. It changes reality according to it.”

“Why would you want to create a miniature black hole?” Liam demanded.

“Because a mini black hole would include a mini millrace and access to mini rivers. They would be too small for tangible physical constructs to traverse, but energy could. Data could. Which means communication across space would become possible.”

Seeing their shock turn speculative, she bounced on her toes. “It would open up the universe to in-time communication rather than months of relayed communication carried by spaceships.

“It would be insanely useful,” Liam conceded. “But the key word there is ‘insane’.”

She pulled a face at him.

“Tell me you weren’t seriously going to try this,” he demanded.

“Not without consulting you, both of you.”

Jonah rounded the table put his hands either side of her face, staring into her eyes. “This is us saying ‘no’. No.”

Cutting through that tense moment, Liam laughed.

Nora and Jonah glared at him.

“I was curious about what it would take for Jonah to act bossy. Now, we know.” He grinned at Nora. “Your shock at being told ‘no’…if you could have seen your face, you’d have laughed to.”

“Would not.”

He pressed his lips together firmly, but the light dancing in his eyes gave him away. He was laughing at her childishness.

She sighed and hugged Jonah as the android released her face. “Okay. I became a bit over-enthusiastic. But I did run the idea past you first.”

“If I had a heart, you’d have given me a heart attack,” he chided her.

“Is it really that dangerous?”

Jonah flung his arms in the air. “Destabilizing reality? Yes!”

“Okay. So I won’t. Not now.”

“Not ever,” Jonah insisted.

Liam mediated. “We’ll run it past the scientists, but not now. As Nora said. They already have plenty to worry about.”

She winced, remembering her new status as a shield-cracking threat to the social order. “Maybe it has to wait till after the Origin expedition or we’ll derail it entirely.”

“What are they saying?” Liam asked Jonah.

The android AI blinked. “I don’t know. I’ve been distracted. One minute.”

Nora gave Liam an apology hug. “I thought it was a good idea.”

“Potentially, it is. In the right time and place. But you, we, don’t have to do everything. Especially not all at once.”

She nodded.

They sat and ate cold stir fry while Jonah stared abstractedly at them.

Nora scrunched and unscrunched her toes, resisting the urge to pester him for an update.

The annoying AI was aware of her rising curiosity. He winked at her.

She pointed an accusing chopstick, one promising prank-war vengeance. Judging by the relief she felt, she hadn’t been as convinced by her own reasoning as she’d tried to pretend to herself. It was just that she wanted to be able to remain in touch with the people she cared about, regardless of distance.

Liam plucked the chopsticks from her hands, and cleared the table. “Dessert?”

“No, thanks.” She jumped up and busied herself making a pot of green tea.

“There’s been lots of excited talk,” Jonah said. “But I’ll let Quispe explain it to you. He’s about to call.”

If Jonah limited himself to a heads-up rather than giving details, then he didn’t anticipate major problems. Leaving her and Liam in a degree of ignorance meant their reactions to others’ news was natural and unsuspicious.

Right on cue, Quispe called. “We’re changing the schedule. Rather than you testing a larger area tomorrow, Nora, we’re bringing forward the other candidates’ experiments. We’ll see if replicating your efforts produces the same result.”

“It’s a large planet,” Nora said. “I could—”

“Sit tight and wait,” Quispe barked.

Pilar intervened. “It’s not possible sites that are lacking. It’s monitoring equipment and scientific observers.”

“Okay. So, tomorrow I’ll join the observers.”

Pilar cleared her throat.

Her tentative beginning of a tactful refusal was overridden by Quispe.

“You won’t,” the Admiral said. “The fainting daisies over here are muttering about you being in reach of the burrs.”

“We can’t risk confusing the experiments’ results or having them brought into question.”

Nora stared incredulously at the screen. “Pilar!” Pilar had told Nora that the candidates performed better when Nora was in range of them. “You had no problem with me wandering around the Laotian Palace vaults while others were training.”

“Can you please just withdraw to…”

Quispe supplied the coordinates.

Liam interjected a question. “When?”

“Now,” Quispe said uncompromisingly. But his “fainting daisies” insult suggested the shunning of the CC Kangaroo wasn’t his preference.

The coordinates kept them within comms range, but outside the largest range a burr wielder had ever displayed.

“Can you still feel the burr?” Liam asked from the captain’s chair on the bridge.

She leaned against his shoulder. “No.”

“Are you trying?” Jonah asked.

“Not hard,” she admitted.

Liam regarded her seriously, and nodded. “Good.”

Pilar didn’t say “Good” after she’d asked Nora the same question and gotten the same response, but the tension left her face on-screen, and revealed her fascination and frustration. “We should have anticipated formerly impossible outcomes like this, instead of freaking out.”

Patently, she was another dissenter, alongside Quispe, from the decision to banish Nora.

“It’s a logical development,” Pilar continued. “When burr wielders could only use the burrs to obliterate things, there was a limit to the amount of practice they could do. A burr that filled up with siphoned energy ceased to function as a weapon of obliteration. Therefore, to maintain its weapon-status, it had to be used sparingly. But the creative use of burrs requires the release of energy, so, now, using them for practice is possible. We can siphon and release energy endlessly. Intense practice is likely to improve performance. We’ll have to measure if it’s actually strengthening sensitivity, too. It might take us a week, running the other burr wielders through their tests.”

“As long as I’m able to saturate the oceans with algae growth before we leave, I’m okay with other changes to the experiment program,” Nora said.

Quispe intruded. “Don’t worry. The terraformers on board are loudly proclaiming the necessity of you doing so ASAP. They’re salivating at your performance in the bay. By their calculations, breathable air could be less than a century away if they can use the burr energy first for the seaweed, and then, for some other changes. After the expedition.” That growl was probably for the terraforming experts listening in.

The other burr wielders managed to saturate their own bays with algae, but not as quickly as Nora.

“I thought I’d stretched out my effort,” she muttered to Liam as they went over the results Pilar had shared with them.

Nora had taken to channeling Kennedy’s attitude. It wasn’t quite a case a reputational damage control, but she had to take active control of her brand.

So, I can reach burrs through shielded cases and vaults. So, what? I was already scary. But just as I did with creative burr use, I’ll train others to be equally as scary.

Sam, on board the RC Tolui, was also thinking through the implications. The other burr wielders hadn’t yet retained a connection to the burr through a shielded case, but their energy use and sensitivity to the burr had measurably increased over the past week. “This increases the Forgottens’ importance. Tycoons will be even keener to acquire potential weapons.”

“People like me,” Nora said bleakly. Her talent made her a potential weapon. Put her in range of a burr and she was…maybe not unstoppable. If someone took her by surprise, she could be killed. But the royals’ stranglehold on burrs, achieved by stashing them in vaults, had been compromised.

She redirected the conversation slightly, wanting Sam—and anyone listening in or replaying the record of their conversation later—to consider her less of a freak. “It makes me wonder if others have had these abilities and kept quiet, or simply not had the opportunity to develop them because they were blocked from accessing burrs.”

Although she trusted Jonah’s assessment that she was an outlier. One of a kind.

On the fleet’s final day at NV3, Nora suited up and let loose on one of the planet’s oceans. Other burr wielders had practiced obliteration, siphoning energy into the burr by stealing it from the planet’s volcanoes. The Viminal ambassador would be ecstatic. Two of the smaller volcanoes had collapsed in on themselves as their magma chambers emptied.

Nora saturated the chosen ocean with algae, returned to the CC Kangaroo, and took a final look at NV3 through the scientists’ monitoring equipment. If their experiments worked, then one day the purple and red planet might be renamed Aventine, after the seventh stranded colony ship; the only one whose passengers’ descendants hadn’t received a planet for settlement.

Crunching data and hypothesizing as to what the burrs could do filled the journey home.

In addition, for Nora and Liam, there was “Jonah’s Storytime” in the lounge of the CC Kangaroo after dinner. The name downplayed how crucial that hour had become for Nora. It reassured her to hear from Jonah how Aria was doing at school and her happiness in Theo and Bianca’s home as Faith’s self-appointed big sister.

Cherry was cruising through her studies at Bangalore University, while staying at Avestan House to keep an eye on Aria in the role of “cool” aunt.

Phoebe had left for university in Mere, Karachi. Being on another continent gave her independence, but she was far from isolated. The Stas family, Casimir and Kennedy’s tribe, had taken her in. There were even two distant Stas cousins sharing the dorms with her.

“Imagine if we didn’t have Jonah. We wouldn’t know what was happening.

Liam brought a bowl of popcorn to the sofa, and set it on the coffee table. “We’d survive, same way we used to. Same way everyone else is.”

“Mmm. Black hole comms—”

“No,” Liam and Jonah said in unison.

Nora took a handful of popcorn. “I was just saying.” She ate the kernels one at a time, thinking. “The CC Kangaroo used to be all I needed. Now, I’ve outgrown it.”

“You can’t fit all the people you care about inside it,” Jonah said.

As a lonely kid, disowned by her biological mom and neglected by her foster ma, Nora had never dreamed she could love, and be loved, by so many people. Not being able to fit them all on the scout ship was a good problem to have.

Far less encouraging were the orders Quispe passed on once the NV3 fleet came in comms range of the Capitoline spacedock’s mailbox. “The CC Kangaroo is to stand clear of the Terminus.”

Which meant they weren’t welcome on Capitoline.

“This is great,” Liam said privately to Nora.

Her disgruntled expression deepened. She resented being treated as a pariah or a target. She fought not to resent Liam’s enthusiasm. “Great?”

Jonah was on the bridge, thinking his own thoughts and monitoring their interests on Capitoline and beyond.

“Useful,” Liam clarified. “We have an opportunity I didn’t think we’d get. Since we have to stay away from Capitoline—out of range of the burrs—until King Magnus, the Palace and the Royal Guards come to terms with your new ability, we can rendezvous with the CC Jaguar. I didn’t think I’d have a chance to examine the upgrades personally. We can talk to Zac, and refine our strategy.”

Interest sparked in her eyes. “War games?”

Sam broke into their conversation, his comms message flagged urgent. It also demanded an audio-visual connection.

Jonah shouted from the bridge. “Get in here, now! Call Sam.”

Nora and Liam arrived at a run. She connected to Sam on the RC Tolui. “Problems?”

“Queen Sarah is dead.”

Utterly shocked, Nora honked, squeaked, and spluttered a single word. “What???”

“She died of a heart attack.”

“Who knew she had a heart?” The towers had no superstitions against talking ill of the dead. Nora’s stepmother had been evil.

Liam spoke over her. “Dominic…?”

“He hadn’t arrived on Palantine when it happened,” Sam said.

“So, he arrived to the news.” Liam handled the normal, healthy reactions and questions.

Nora used the breathing space to think about her response. Her first reaction had been relief that no one could suspect Dominic’s involvement in his mother’s death. “Was it…?” Sam was a Royal Guard, one of the men and women who protected the royals, and burrs, across the Human Sector. “Sam, was it a natural death?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

On-screen, he shook his head at her. “Queen Sarah had her enemies, but she was well guarded. I thought you’d want to know.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

The screen went blank.

Jonah popped up at Nora’s side.

She jumped. “You were lurking!”

“Out of camera view. Stars bless Sam.”

“Um, why?” Nora was stuck on how the stars had blessed everyone by removing Sarah.

“Because he informed you as soon as he heard of Sarah’s death, which he did by priority Royal Guards communication, and he recorded your response.” Jonah slapped his thighs, smugly pleased. “No one can doubt your shock. Sam was looking out for you. You benefit from Sarah’s death—”

“As does everyone on Palantine,” Liam said.

Nora shuddered. “What a horrible epitaph. Everyone’s better for her death. Ugh.”

Jonah had moved on to think of better things. Then again, this wasn’t news to him.

In fact, this had to be the good news associated with Dominic that he’d refused to share with her a couple of months ago. That was all to the good. There was no mistaking that her dying goose, choked gasp reaction to Sam’s news had been genuine.

Jonah clapped his hands together. “Ivan can establish a real relationship with you, now, and Dominic has the unhampered space to grow into the man and king he should be.”

“Who did it?” Liam asked.

Jonah grinned at him and at his concern. “Not Aeric. Not any of the Nonet. Although they may have pushed some information into the avenger’s path.”

“Avenger?” Nora and Liam asked in unison.

“Come into the kitchen and I’ll tell you. There’s no room here.”

In the kitchen, he puttered around, making the two humans cups of hot chocolate. “Queen Sarah’s niece killed her. Calista, the Duke’s daughter and Dominic’s cousin. Calista suspected her aunt’s involvement in setting up her father and arranging his death. She followed the simple question of ‘who benefits?’, but she had to work discreetly.”

“So as not to become another of Sarah’s victims.” Nora hugged her arms around herself. “She found evidence of Sarah’s crime, but not enough to convict her?”

Jonah pushed a mug of instant hot chocolate mix at her. Sugar was good for shock. “Calista understands how the royals work. Queen Caroline was involved in your kidnapping, and her punishment was a year’s luxury imprisonment in a palace. Calista wanted Sarah punished, but more than that, she wanted her family safe from her aunt. She used sage bean.”

Nora looked at Liam.

He looked blankly back.

Jonah enlightened their ignorance. “It’s a blue flowering shrub from Quirinal. Eaten, the beans cause gastric distress. But if you dry them, then grind them to a powder, inhaled, that powder kills in seconds. It simply stops the heart. It’s also not something an ordinary autopsy would test for. Sage bean is a rare plant. Queen Sarah’s mother had it planted in the family’s botanic garden.”

Calista had used her grandmother’s interest in plants to kill her aunt.

“Of course, the Royal Guards insisted on a complete autopsy by the best medical examiner, who discovered the cause of death.”

“But Sam said Sarah died of a heart attack,” Nora protested.

“So he did. Calista had a second line of defense. Sarah made the fundamental mistake of glorying in her ill-gotten power. She occupied the former Duke’s office at the Ontario Estate, and that gave Calista access to her. Calista recognized that if the method of Sarah’s murder was discovered, she’d be a suspect. She was ready for the Royal Guards and Ivan. When they accused her of Sarah’s death, she showed them the evidence she’d collected, which strongly implied Sarah’s responsibility for Hermione and the Duke’s deaths.

“Calista then challenged them. ‘If I had given you this information while she lived, you’d have buried it. Fear of the public’s reaction and a new war with Capitoline would have led you to hide her guilt. She’d have gotten away with it. But then I thought it through. If you would have hidden her guilt, you can hide mine.’”

“Which they did,” Liam said softly. “A heart attack.”

“Will they tell Dominic the truth of his mother and Hermione’s death?” Nora asked.

Jonah squeezed her shoulder. “They have. He’s come to terms with it. No raging at your father that Ivan should have curtailed Sarah’s activities earlier. A grim acceptance of who his mother was. Erik helped. He helped Ivan and Dominic. Your uncle pointed out that they share the experience of being raised by a monstrous parent.”

Nora grimaced. “That’s horrible.”

“It has the benefit of being true,” Liam said. “Common ground is common ground. It’s better than them being at odds.”

Jonah agreed. “They’ll work together to remove the stain of Olav’s reign and Sarah’s pursuit of power. Dominic’s new ability with burrs is proving a useful public distraction.”

“I doubt anyone’s grieving the Queen,” Nora said.

“It’s a time of change for Palantine.” Jonah brought out chocolate chip cookies. “Dominic has become a sign of hope.”

Chapter 17

After six days standing out from the Terminus, the CC Kangaroo, or rather Nora, was permitted to return to Capitoline. Liam was antsy. It didn’t help that his simmering anger over Nora’s temporary banishment was fed by fear.

Their security had been significantly handicapped: Jonah couldn’t come with them.

Throughout the voyage they’d followed the AI’s plan for him to slide unnoticed into their life in Avestan House.

Royal Guards, Naval Intelligence and Capitoline Security Bureau agents had infiltrated the CC Kangaroo prior to the NV3 voyage, while Xavier was overseeing its upgrades. They had independently taken apart and analyzed the facsimile of Jonah he’d left for them to find, and they had cleared it.

Taking Jonah down to the planet to join Avestan House as a walking, talking database and conversational unit ought to have been unexceptionable.

However, the high rate of caution around Nora, now, made it impossible, which trapped Jonah on board the CC Kangaroo, unable to accompany them. If he couldn’t slide in undetected on his own, it left Nora without the protection of Jonah being able to instantly communicate any threats he detected via his constant oversight.

Jonah and Nora had assembled a second fake retro-android to stand in for him if the authorities infiltrated the CC Kangaroo again. Unfortunately, on the journey out to NV3, Jonah had destroyed the first one to hide the complicating evidence of its existence. No one could have predicted Nora’s new shield-piercing ability.

“Next time.” Jonah hugged Nora tight. “When we’ve gotten the lens open, then they’ll have bigger fish to fry than worrying about a retro-android. Next time I’ll walk out beside you. But for now, I’ll have to wriggle my way back to Avestan House. If I can’t reach it, I’ve located a hiding place on Himalayan Island where I can at least communicate with you in real time if you need an alert. Don’t worry about me.”

She slugged his shoulder. “Don’t you worry about me. It’s safer if you hide here on the Terminus. It’s a space station. You can hack the relevant section of its system and hide yourself. Planets are more complicated.” She slugged him again. They were no more than love taps for Jonah’s android body. “If it wasn’t that you’ve said everyone and their dog wants to paw through the CC Kangaroo I’d tie you up safely in here.”

Liam pulled her gently away from Jonah, hugged their friend himself, and promised, “I’ll look after Nora. You keep yourself safe.”

Recalcitrant, Jonah folded his arms.

Liam understood. Their personal safety wasn’t as important as Nora’s, not to either of them. He regarded Jonah sternly. “Think of your kin. You’re a secret you have to keep for them, too.”

“Low blow,” Jonah said.

“As long as you’re thinking, not reacting or winding yourself up by imagining the worst scenarios.” Liam bit his tongue. Now was not the time for a lecture. “You’re important to us.”

“Well, at least you have an escort,” Jonah muttered.

Liam assumed he meant a Royal Guards detail. Which did fall in around Nora and him when they exited the CC Kangaroo, Sam among them. But also waiting was half the CC Jaguar’s crew, led by Zac, with Casimir looming.

Gage and Trent elbowed through and stood one beside and the other behind Nora.

“Thank you,” Liam said to everyone, and saw the flicker of acknowledgement cross their faces at the fervor of his gratitude.

Nora hooked her arm through his. “We’re going to create quite a stir.”

“Oh, so you heard about the media scrum waiting for you?” Zac asked as they started walking

“No-oo?” Her question was half wail.

“Certain courtiers, close to King Magnus, leaked news of your ability to connect to a burr despite its shielded case and vault,” Sam said.

Nora’s chin went up. “I’m guessing he’s not happy?” The he was patently their king.

Casimir chose to answer.

Sam was a Royal Guard, and in uniform, in public. He’d done more than anyone could ask of him in giving the warning.

Zac, as a former Palantine privateer, an enemy in the war, couldn’t respond without rousing the Capitolines’ ire.

Everyone was aware they were under surveillance.

Casimir had to be the one to answer.

Their route through the Terminus successfully avoided the media.

Casimir scanned the military shuttle dock. “Prince Francis is managing his father.” Since Casimir was far from Francis’s biggest fan, that comment said a lot.

It suggested to Liam that his and Nora’s allies had had to bring in the heavy hitters to manage the consequences of Nora’s new, disruptive ability.

They entered the Navy shuttle and strapped in. Casimir, Gage and Trent accompanied Nora and Liam. The rest of their people peeled off.

“They have a shuttle booked,” Casimir said. It wouldn’t, however, match the speed of a Navy shuttle or be able to dispense with Customs and other hassles. “Ben will be waiting for us at the base of the space elevator.”

Nora had also assessed the situation. “No scientists? I anticipated poking and prodding, both physical and mental.”

“It’ll happen,” Sam said. Inside the shuttle, he was no longer scanning for threats, but he wasn’t happy. “The deal is that you don’t talk to the media, and we give you privacy at Avestan House for a couple of days. You need time to reacclimatize to planetary conditions.”

“I do? I mean, that sounds good.”

Casimir scowled as he scanned the inside of the shuttle, ever vigilant. “Best we could do. You might want to catch up on some sleep. Aria isn’t the only one excited for your homecoming.”

After six days standing out from the Terminus, and the entirety of the journey home, there was no way Liam or Nora needed sleep. Casimir was telling them to shut up.

Liam clasped Nora’s hand. She’d received Casimir’s message as clearly as he had. Casimir wasn’t going for subtlety. But Liam wasn’t sure mention of Aria wouldn’t trigger Nora into a spate of questions and worries. “A nap sounds like a good idea.”

She squeezed his hand, and stayed silent.

Nora filled her lungs with the warm, faintly polluted, salty air of Himalayan Island, but that momentary hesitation was all the time Gage gave her before herding her into the car Ben had waiting for them. Under the circumstances, a reunion staged at the base of the space elevator was unwise. She ducked obediently into the back seat after Liam.

Casimir thudded in beside her, and Gage slammed the door.

Ben drove. A Royal Guard sergeant, Anders, sat beside him.

The cavalcade of cars pulled out, crossing the bridge back to Bangalore, and taking the direct route to Avestan House.

She sat curling and uncurling her toes, trying not to show that she was ready to crawl out of her skin.

Liam rubbed his thumb over her knuckles.

Not normally a chatterer, right now, she wanted to pepper Ben with questions about her family and the clan. She wanted to discuss her situation, and how they had won her a couple of days of freedom from the scientists. Hopefully, not at the expense of serving her up to the courtiers.

Instead, she held herself in check. Ben and Casimir hadn’t met her and Liam as friends. They were on the job, providing protection. As the body being guarded, her role was to obey their orders and not distract them.

She bit her lip hard when the car approached Avestan House. Out in border space, before all the craziness that had ensued once people learned she could sense burrs, the CC Kangaroo had been home. But returning to it had never felt like this.

When the car stopped, Casimir exited fast.

Nora didn’t make it out of the car before Aria crash-tackled her back inside it.

Liam caught and supported her.

The Royal Guards were tactful, turning their attention outward, as Nora and Liam reunited with everyone. Nora had bruises from some of the hugs. Fair was fair, Cherry probably had bruises from Nora to match. Nora was just so glad to see her sister, who despite being twenty one when Nora left, seemed to have grown up since. There was a maturity and worry in her eyes that set Nora’s big sister instincts on high alert.

But all Cherry said was, “Glad you’re back, Sis and Big Bro.”

Liam, having disentangled from hugging Phoebe, hugged Cherry equally hard.

The whole roiling, noisy mess of a group got inside to where Martin, the head chef, had set up an outside lunch buffet in the courtyard, complete with a barbeque sending heavenly aromas into the air.

This was home.

Gradually, the excitement gave way to serious conversation.

Aria innocently kicked it off. “If you go to Palantine, I’m going with you.”

Nora felt Liam jolt into heightened alertness. She was more puzzled than anything. No, more wary than anything. “I don’t plan to…” She looked around the group for answers.

Molly was there, talking to Kennedy and Sam, but falling silent at Aria’s loud declaration of intent.

Kennedy had changed her hair color to neon-yellow. It was less startling in the sunlight than her hot pink and black patchwork, hip-hugging dress. She was dressed to intimidate. Or else, to bolster her own resolve. “Lavigne should be here. That man is my new hero. He warned the Palace that if they didn’t want to lose you to Palantine, they had to smarten up and treat you as the duchess Dominic proclaimed you. He reminded them that Dominic, the Palantine Crown Prince, had lived with you and couldn’t have more clearly demonstrated his closeness and trust not only in you, but also in Liam. It was awesome.”

She pulled Molly forward. “Molly backed his play. She said that if they treated you poorly, Capitoline wouldn’t merely lose you and your abilities, and potentially, blaze ore, but that they’d lose Forgotten burr wielders.”

“The Forgotten are watching,” Molly said. “They’re sensitive to how Capitoline authority reacts when it fears a burr wielder.”

“Lavigne and Molly won you breathing space,” Sam summed up. “But Francis has pushed forward the expedition’s departure date. First reason, so it still goes ahead. Second reason, that your distance from Capitoline gives everyone a chance to adjust to your new ability to control any burrs in your vicinity regardless of shielding.”

Lucas hunched his shoulders belligerently. “While we’re gone, they’re hoping to train up their own pet wielders to match you. They wanted to keep me as one of them, but I refused.”

Everyone who’d been present on Capitoline while the others were on the NV3 trial run either flinched or rolled their eyes to heaven, imploring divine assistance. Except for Aria, who beamed at Lucas.

His refusal must have been a performance for the ages. But effective.

Nora gave him a thumbs up.

He smirked.

Ben rubbed his ear. No, he wasn’t ruing his fate. He was receiving a report. Zac and the others had arrived.

The two days of grace, of privacy, that Lavigne had won for Nora were filled to the brim.

Liam heard snippets as he jogged from crisis to crisis.

The Royal Guards really needed to learn from Zac. He could handle Lucas. “Think, kid. You’re the second strongest burr wielder. Stronger than Francis. There are no circumstances in which they’d permit you to travel on the CC Jaguar. They want to keep their toys close. Be grateful they’re letting you go at all.”

Theo picked up gossip from the courtiers’ network. “It wasn’t just Lavigne and the Royal Guards. Admiral Van Moore, your old mentor, went to bat for you at the Palace. Quispe is fixated on the burrs, their possibilities and opening up the millrace at Origin. Moore has to work with him regarding the Navy’s participation in the expedition, but Moore is lead on fuel cells negotiations. He said he pushed you hard, that there’s no doubt of your loyalty to Capitoline, and that a realm would have to be run by damn fools if they trashed that loyalty.”

“Thanks, Theo. Good to know.” And it was.

Liam leant on the competence of everyone in Clan Avestan, and its allies, to deal with the myriad of things that had to be finalized before the expedited departure date.

Francis leant on him. “The biggest change Nora brought wasn’t the new use of the burrs, but herself. That’s what Dominic saw. Her blaze wealth gave you options others would kill for. She didn’t have to try something new with the burrs or commit to the expedition. But she sacrificed those opportunities for what she believed in—and what she believes in is people. I see the realm. She sees people.”

That wasn’t exactly news to Nora’s husband. Plus, Liam was insanely busy. He forced himself to patience.

Francis was headed somewhere in this conversation he’d insisted on. “I saw that the Human Sector was stagnating. We talked about it at the Naval Academy.”

Liam remembered those long conversations and the respect he’d held for Francis. Some of that respect remained. These days it was less awestruck and more realistic.

“I knew the Human Sector was stagnating and I was still going to sacrifice my sons to the same old malarkey.”

“You wanted change,” Liam said. “I read it in the note you sent me in my exile in border space. You told me to look out for evidence of preparations for an expedition to the Beta black hole. I read between the lines. You would have supported such an expedition.”

“Yes, but I wouldn’t have suggested it,” Francis said in self-disgust. “Maybe I was heading the right way, but slowly. You and Nora challenged me. You had an obscene amount of money pouring in, and instead of sitting back and enjoying it, you took on a bigger challenge.”

He stared at his right fist thudding into his left palm. “That’s what scared Evelyn and Kirsty. I’ve talked to them, and to Father. Lavigne helped. Maybe we got through to them.”

He burst out. “Things have to change. I’m Crown Prince. I have to see Capitoline and the Human Sector through the changes Nora’s initiated. Maybe the expedition will fail, and the change will be limited to new uses of the burrs. Creative uses rather than destructive. But maybe we will succeed and open up to wider humanity. Either way, it’s my duty to keep us moving forward. To manage, rather than block, change.”

“It’s not all on your shoulders.”

Francis smiled rigidly. “No, but what I do, where I put my efforts, signals Capitoline’s future direction. We thought we could hide from change. That we could refuse it. Nora showed us the futility of our head in the sand approach when she reached through the burr cases’ shielding to remain connected to them. In control of them. Dr. Chulainn hasn’t found anyone stronger than her.”

He flexed his fingers. “I’m glad. Glad it’s her because she’s kind, and her kindness gave us space to catch our breath.” The next words burst out of him. “She’s kind to Callum, whom everyone else dismissed. Us, too. The pressure Evelyn and I put on him by discounting him will always haunt me. He tried so hard for Knox to be ‘better than me’.”

His hands were fists again. “My son thought he wasn’t enough. I taught him that. Because I didn’t defend him.”

“Francis, you’re not responsible for the whole social system. You can’t fight everyone.”

His old friend looked at him, seeming both resolute and ravaged, deeply wounded by regrets, but not trapped by them. “Callum can be king. He should be. We can’t change everything all at once. I think if we tried to jump to being a republic we’d tear ourselves apart.”

“Francis, no one is dreaming of a republic. Well, Zac may be, but even he has reconciled to the idea of Palantine ruled by Dominic one day.” Zac was the staunchest anti-royalist Liam knew.

“Maybe not,” Francis conceded. “But change gathers its own momentum. For now, the vital step is for power to be one degree removed. On Earth, just before they gained interstellar abilities, they had presidents for individual nations. Kind of like our realms, but without royalty. Presidential terms ended. Families didn’t control the nations down through generations. Their equivalent of burrs was nuclear weapons, and the presidents had the power to order their launch. The presidents couldn’t launch them, themselves, and their ability to do so ended when their term ended. We need that distance. Nora provides it.”

Liam followed Francis’s reasoning. It chilled him. Nora had become the equivalent of an ancient nuclear weapon’s operator; someone who was authorized to unleash obliteration, but who could also choose, regardless of the president’s order, not to. “Authority was concentrated in the royals to avoid that division of power and the conflict it creates.”

“Maybe we needed that stability, then, back when the Stranding was new and our ancestors unsure of their long term survival in the region. But now, it’s holding us back. Forget that it’s Nora whose burr abilities make this possible. Think about the great step toward freedom.

“In this new balance of power, as the king, I need to be an effective ruler of a society functioning sufficiently well that the strongest burr wielders, those who could choose to act against it, choose instead to support us. And before you protest, it is possible and Lavigne is proof. He’s stronger than Father, and chose to stay in the background.”

Liam was grateful to retreat to his city office and the list of issues Theo and Rita Clarke had waiting for him.

Francis’s crisis of royal existentialism could have waited till the expedition was underway.

In Liam’s absence, Theo had handled the major problems. Thank the stars.

Theo shrugged off his gratitude. “We did our best. Now, this needs you to…”

Two hours later, Trent interrupted Liam’s work. “We’re leaving, now.”

Trained to obey a Marine’s security orders, Liam stood. “Nora?”

“Safe.”

Liam grabbed his jacket, shoved his comms unit in his pocket and jogged after Trent, past Rita, who reached under her desk, presumably for the pistol she kept there on its specially installed shelf. She locked it away overnight.

Royal Guard Sergeant Anders scanned the corridor.

The three men moved fast, taking the stairs down to the secure carpark.

A second Avestan guard, Trent’s partner, had the car running, and they piled in.

“A shooter took out Lavigne on the steps of the Court House,” Trent said.

Their car was armored.

Nora was at the palace. It would shut down. She’d be safe there.

“Aria?”

Trent tapped his ear comms. “Ben is coordinating. Veronica is collecting her from school.”

They were two days out from the expedition’s departure date.

In the living room, Sam clenched and unclenched his fists.

On-screen, the news replayed Lavigne falling on the steps of the Capital Court House.

He’d died from a sniper’s shot.

The Royal Guards and police arrested the shooter less than an hour later. The man was proud of what he’d done. He’d posted a manifesto to the message boards. “Only royals can safely wield burrs. Guy Lavigne was perverting his role as a Royal Guard commander. He brought in strays, ugly Forgotten like the Towers Princess. He polluted the palace. He endangered our king. Someone has to stand up for the principles on which Capitoline was founded.”

For two days, Liam and Nora stayed in Avestan House, under increased security.

Jonah hadn’t managed to join them or to make contact.

Liam couldn’t even talk about it with Nora. They had to assume that in their absence, and Jonah’s, their master suite had been bugged.

Nora spent as much time as she could with Aria.

The girl was growing up too fast. “You have to go on the expedition. You’ll be safer out there. I’m safe here. No one cares about me. No, no, no, I’m not being silly. I’m GLAD I’m not sensitive to burrs. It must be rotten.”

Well, that was certainly one perspective.

The clock ticked down remorselessly to departure time.

As big a wrench as it was to leave home, again, in another sense it was pure relief. The CC Kangaroo’s hatch opened to Nora’s entry code and biometric scan. It closed behind her, Liam and their luggage. Supplies had already been loaded, by the Navy who’d undoubtedly taken the opportunity to snoop.

The retro-android in the entryway stood motionless till the hatch sealed. Then Jonah lifted Nora in a relieved hug.

Tension drained from Liam. They were safe. Jonah was safe.

He patted Jonah’s shoulder before carrying their luggage through to their cabin.

The RC Tolui led the expeditionary fleet out, away from Capitoline, on the direct route to the Origin black hole.

Liam received a message from Casimir, who was on board the heavy cruiser. Call Francis. Liam called.

Mercilessly, the screen displayed every sign of shock and strain Francis exhibited, from his bloodless, stricken expression to his sunken eyes. “It feels as if I’m running away.”

“You’re not,” Liam barked. His voice of command visibly jolted Francis, which was what he’d intended. Bracing junior officers had been part of Liam’s job as captain. Once he had Francis’s attention, then he could reason with him. “You’re not running away, but that is what your enemies—our enemies, the people Lavigne opposed—want you to believe.”

Liam held Francis’s gaze through the screen. “If you stay on Capitoline, engaged in the same old fights, the everlasting jockeying for position and point scoring, nothing will change. You are where you need to be as Crown Prince. You said this to me two days ago.”

“Dominic ducked out.”

“For very different reasons. Not least because none of his siblings are competent to stand in for him, but Kirsty can fill in for you. Evelyn can step up. Capitoline is far more stable, and authority is wider spread and stronger than in Palantine, which is still suffering the hangover from Olav’s tyranny.”

If Francis withdrew from the expedition, King Magnus would cancel it. Any delay would be endless, and effectively, an ending. The burrs would be locked up. Nora would be…

Liam took a deep breath and controlled his emotions as he wished Francis would. “Francis, you can’t step more vigorously through the same old dance and expect different results. The enemy always wins when you’re fighting yesterday’s war. Do not allow them to make a mockery of Lavigne’s life work by using his death to cancel the chance of opening the Human Sector.”

“Evelyn needs me.”

Liam bit his tongue, hard, and let his earlier statement echo in the silence.

Evelyn was one of the many who wanted Francis and Capitoline to stay mired in old conflicts and frustrations. Francis had to choose, wholeheartedly, to move forward.

As Dominic had done, sacrificing his own peace of mind and comfort at Avestan House for his duty to his realm.

With as much as Dominic had done, diplomatically, to preserve the expedition from interrealm conflict, he deserved to be part of it, too.

Tactful responses exhausted, Liam ended the call.

The four month journey to the Origin black hole, and then the same distance back, would give Francis ample time to come to terms with himself. All that mattered was that he didn’t turn the expedition back. And Liam was now confident he wouldn’t.

Chapter 18

Nora appreciated the much-needed thinking time the journey gave her. After the first couple of weeks, the magic of space, which disassociated a spacer from planet- or station-based concerns, gave her the distance from her emotions to rationally consider her future.

It felt as if she settled into her own skin.

“I don’t want to displace Theo and Willow,” she said to Liam.

“No argument, here.”

She laughed at him.

He was lying on his back, head on her lap, enjoying a scalp massage.

“At the moment, you’d agree to anything.”

He smiled. “Even when I’m not blissed out, I readily acknowledge that Theo is a superior business manager in a city that takes its cues from the Palace. As for the shadow market…if Willow is happy to handle it, I’m happy for it to be her empire.”

Nora lightly scratched his scalp with her nails and felt him shiver. “What will we do?”

He twisted around. “I have some ideas.”

Nora and Jonah also talked about the future. Well, she talked and he listened.

Pulling her legs up, she dug her heels into the edge of the sofa cushion, and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Kennedy asked me once what rules I wanted to change. I think she meant legal rules. Laws. Although, remembering how she spins words, Kennedy might have meant anything and everything. But if we’re talking about the laws of Capitoline and the Human Sector, what are they but codified expectations?”

Jonah grunted agreement.

Dropping her feet to the floor, she leaned forward. “So, if I think about what expectations I want to change, I don’t think it’s a goal ahead of me. We’ve already done it.” She gestured between them. “You and me. Even if no one knows about you. You changed from a mostly energetic Vapori AI construct to an embodied android AI, and I changed from a towers brat to…” She gestured at everything around them; not just the CC Kangaroo, but the expeditionary group in which she was a key member. “Who we are born doesn’t define who we become. We broke the expectation that people will ‘remain in their place’. I think each person has to make that choice for themselves.”

While Nora was philosophical, the scientists on the RC Tolui remained severely practical, and as the fleet neared the Origin black hole, they became demanding.

On-screen, the weight Pilar had put on during the voyage plumped her face and hands, and revealed her avoidance of the gym. In the confines of the ship, her exercise during the last few months had been purely cerebral. “The Originals’ initial contact with the lens changed them. We don’t know what reaction attempting to connect to it this time, using the burrs’ energy creatively, will provoke. Worst case scenario. You die.”

Nora pulled a face. “Gee, thanks.”

“Or the lens explodes and we all die.” Pilar wasn’t getting any cheerier. “You could lose the ability to sense the burrs. You could collapse. It’s sensible for you to launch your approach to the lens from where medical expertise is on hand, and return to it.”

Nora had already agreed to be on board the RC Tolui for the approach to the lens.

Pilar was trapped in her own spiral of worry and anticipation.

In staying behind on Capitoline, Dr. Chulainn had put Pilar in charge of the research effort at the lens. That rat fink thought they’d fail, and preferred that the stench of failure attach to Pilar and not to himself. Politics was as brutal in science as anywhere else.

Nora hoped they could prove him wrong.

In addition to indulging Pilar’s last minute panic, Nora participated in endless meetings and drills ahead of their arrival at Origin. She crossed over to the RC Tolui just before they reached the staging point for their expedition to the lens.

Jonah would watch over her, and had hacked his way into control of the RC Tolui’s systems and its shuttles.

Liam refused to be left entirely behind. He would pilot the CC Kangaroo to shadow the shuttle on its journey to the lens, which would take fourteen hours, if all went well. The expedition was relying on the Originals’ reports, and that of the last expedition over a century ago.

Francis, as leader of the expedition, had had the final decision on Liam “intruding” into the vicinity of the lens. “If he wants to risk himself, back-up for the burr wielders is welcome.”

He wouldn’t be one of them. Not at first. Three people would occupy the shuttle, all capable of flying it: Nora, Navy Lieutenant Bram Yardley, and Royal Guard Captain Grant Duran.

After four months alone with Liam and Jonah, Nora had to control her jumpy response to people coming up behind her in the cruiser’s passages or the sudden sound of a voice raised in the distance. She concentrated on Quispe and Sam as they spoke to her, and used them to block out Pilar’s nervous vibes.

Grant smiled at her as they gathered for a final, in-person briefing.

Bram merely nodded a greeting before focusing forward, listening to Pilar as respectfully as he did Admiral Quispe.

Then there was a quick lunch, with Sam lurking in the background before he escorted her to Quispe’s cabin to change into her lifesuit. She’d brought it with her, but someone else had carried it from the docking tunnel to the Admiral’s quarters.

Sam waited outside.

The lifesuit was top of the range, and Nora, Liam and Jonah had each checked it over that morning. She checked it again, and spoke out loud, for Jonah’s benefit. “All good.” She opened the door.

Sam nodded and checked the suit, again. “Helmet?”

She sealed it.

He checked it. “Good.”

She unsealed it.

Sam started back along the passage. “They’re transferring the burrs to the shuttle, now.”

Next to go aboard would be the three burr wielders.

Stars, but she hoped this worked. She could feel the lens. It wasn’t the tingling, prickling sensation of unshielded burrs. It was a hum in her bones, not unpleasant.

Not real, either, she reminded herself. The sensation was how her human brain attempted to process the energy being used in its environment.

The lens was on standby. Frozen. She had to get it to recognize her so she could reboot it.

“Put the burrs in first,” she said aloud.

“You’ve got this.” Sam actually saluted her before she boarded the shuttle.

Grant and Bram were already on board. Bram sat in the pilot seat. Grant was co-pilot.

Nora strapped in as a passenger.

Half-way into the journey, they swapped controls. Bram rose and retreated toward the tiny bathroom at the rear of the shuttle.

Absently, Nora noticed him pass her. The sensation of the lens, the hum of it, occupied more and more of her attention.

“Nora!” Jonah’s shout was a scream through her helmet comms. “Grab all the burrs. Bram aims to obliterate you using one.”

She spun in her seat, jerked up short by her harness, even as she seized the four burrs onboard.

One was unshielded. Bram had cracked open the case.

Stupid, stupid. She hadn’t been paying attention. Panicked, she overcompensated, and reached out not just to the four burrs in the shuttle, but further to the ten burrs tucked inside the lens. She broke through the lens’s shielding to control them. “Jonah, what—”

Her lifesuit exploded.

She should have died without knowing what killed her. An ordinary human would have. But Nora wasn’t ordinary, especially not with fourteen burrs’ worth of energy available to her. For Nora, as her life or death instincts kicked in and voted unanimously for survival, time slowed.

She pulled hard on the burrs’ energy.

The explosion was underway. Her own body, her physical body, was exploding into a bloody splatter in space.

In that moment of dissolution, she clung to her sense of self.

Years ago, when she’d met Jonah in the depths of the Avestan Range, he’d transformed himself from a predominantly energy body to a physical one. He’d shifted to an android form.

Here, by the Origin black hole, she had every part of what had been her physical self. She just had to re-form it.

As far as human physical senses—and the sensors on the watching fleet—could perceive, time and space dissolved. In that endless moment, Nora remade herself.

She breathed in, and there was oxygen in her helmet.

She exhaled.

“Thank you, God.” Liam’s prayer came over the comms link. “I’m coming to get you.”

“What the hell happened?” Quispe’s voice thundered in the background, echoing through Nora’s link to the CC Kangaroo. Jonah had disconnected her other comms lines.

“You tell me,” Liam growled back. “Who triggered that explosion?”

Nora existed, but the shuttle had exploded around her.

“She did explode?” Francis’s shout also carried from the RC Tolui’s comms link to the CC Kangaroo, echoed in its bridge, and came via Liam’s connection to Nora’s helmet comms.

There were cameras in the shuttle. Had been cameras in the shuttle.

Francis’s voice shook. “I can see her. Is she,” a terrible moment of hesitation, “alive?”

“Yes, and I’m going to get her,” Liam stated inexorably.

Quispe barked permission, unaware that Liam could have enforced his decision.

Having infiltrated the other ships’ systems, Jonah could—and would—have shut them down entirely if they interfered.

Nora concentrated on breathing. She had never seen anything so wonderful in her life as the CC Kangaroo’s approach, then its open hatch, and finally, Jonah holding her inside the unatmosphered cargo hold before literally carrying her up to the bridge, and Liam. She managed to shed the helmet but not the lifesuit along the way.

“Nora is on the bridge.” Liam switched off the comms, abandoned the ship to autopilot, and grabbed her.

Jonah tactfully retreated as Nora clung to Liam and he kissed her, and muttered, and peeled her out of the lifesuit.

Standing in her underwear, she looked at her hands. Her shaking hands.

“If I hadn’t spent so long meditating and learning myself, I…I don’t know if I could have remade myself. Am I a clone or…am I still me?”

Liam wrapped himself around her like an octopus. He smelled of fear-sweat. Or maybe that was her. “You are always you. I almost lost you.” He couldn’t carry her as effortlessly as Jonah, so he half-supported her from the bridge, through the living area to their cabin. They squashed into the shower together; both a ritual cleaning and a need to exist as bodies.

That was what their coming together was.

The sex meant connection, being human, and never ever losing each other.

“If I didn’t think you needed to eat, I wouldn’t let you out of bed.”

“You have to contact Zac and Casimir,” Nora said. “They’ll be losing their minds.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “They’ll understand. They know I almost lost mine.”

Nonetheless, they did dress, and Liam briefly comm’d Casimir and Zac on audio, while Nora sat tucked between him and Jonah on the sofa, eating the cheese and tomato sandwich Jonah had made her. And drinking coffee.

Liam didn’t think his nerves would settle for a year. He had no need of coffee.

“The docs want to check Nora’s health,” Casimir said. “But unless you think she needs help, they can buzz off. Until we know who planted the explosives in her lifesuit that Bram triggered, and I’ve interrogated them, keep her away.”

“Intend to. Did he survive?”

“No.” A pause. “Nor did Grant.”

Jonah had flicked up a display of the fleet’s current position on the wall screen.

Zac had put the CC Jaguar between the CC Kangaroo and the RC Tolui. Once things calmed down, Casimir would go aboard.

The RC Daimyo had tactfully withdrawn to the heavy cruiser’s far side, showing itself no impediment to Zac protecting Nora.

Hours later, unshaven, and hunched over a table, looking as massively angry as he was, Casimir had an update. “Gambling debts. We got the rating who carried Nora’s lifesuit to Quispe’s cabin. Slick as any sneakpurse, he added a sheet of explosives. Bram had them hidden till that morning. Found a trace in his cabin, and another stronger result on the rating. He claims he doesn’t know how the lieutenant got them past the sniffers. I think I trust his sniveling resentment. He says Bram thought he was better than him, but that they were both idiots owned by the mob bosses.”

The unexpectedness of the sleight of hand at Nora’s lifesuit had fooled even Jonah’s close observation.

Sam added, “Back on Capitoline, we’ll trace who hired the mob bosses.”

Liam wished to kill them all.

“The amount of explosive the rating describes…” Sam looked at Casimir.

Casimir stared at Liam through the screen. “It was an assassin’s measure. It should have killed Nora and left the shuttle untouched. We’re guessing, but the way he went for the burr first, I’m thinking he was going to try a mind-wipe on her.” Anger roughened his voice. “We’ve discussed it every which way with Pilar. Quispe isn’t rational at the moment. Furious that his people did this.”

Since Casimir had broken the worst of the news, Sam added an explanation. “Our best guess is that the explosives were a back-up plan. The mind-wipe was meant to be explained as Nora losing her mind from contact with the lens…since she’s the strongest sensitive.”

“It makes sense.” Nora had crept onto the bridge.

Liam pulled her onto his lap.

“How are you?” Casimir and Sam asked together.

“Been better.”

“You survived,” Casimir said. “You did your job.”

“Grant died.”

Liam held her closer.

Casimir offered a Marine’s wisdom. “Bram brought the explosives. Bram triggered them. Don’t take on the enemy’s guilt.”

She nodded, manifestly unconvinced. In saving herself, an innocent man had died.

Sam changed the subject. “Zac is sending over his people. They’re going to turn the RC Tolui upside down and inside out. We’ve already gone over it, but I intend to be beyond positive before we have you over. But you do need a medical checkup.”

Liam understood the deeper message. Alone, far from any station or moon base, their small fleet couldn’t afford to permit an enemy to sow mistrust between them. “We’ll be there.”

“You’ll be safe,” Casimir promised.

Jonah echoed that promise. He was diligently tracking every action on the RC Tolui.

Nora grasped his hands, swinging them until he focused on her. “Not your fault.” She stressed each word.

“If you’d died…”

“It’s what mortals do. Remember our discussion years ago, about limits? I’m not responsible for Grant’s death, even though he died because I saved myself. You’re not responsible, cannot be responsible, for everyone else’s actions. Be present in the now, Jonah. That’s how you love a fragile, stubborn human.”

She forced herself to live out her own tough girl words, and crossed onto the RC Tolui after Casimir cleared it.

“So, that’s how mind-wipes work.” Pilar had taken refuge in intellectual curiosity. “Memory and personality are functions of the brain, but seemingly, are also stored in energy. That’s what held you together when everything exploded.”

Francis looked green, and changed the subject. “Do we go ahead? Do we turn back?”

Nora looked around the table. Coming aboard the RC Tolui was her sign of trust. Her commitment to Capitoline. “I can control the burrs from here. If it’s possible to alter the lens to allow the millrace to re-open, I’ll do it from here.”

Zac was on the wall screen from the CC Jaguar. “You should be on the Jag.”

Casimir stood behind Nora and Liam, fully armored and armed, and lethally angry.

Equally grim, and equally equipped for war, Sam stood by the door and surveyed the room.

Lucas was included in the meeting. He’d refused to leave Nora’s side, apart from the more personal parts of her medical check-up, since she’d come on board.

On Captain Soo’s order, Lucas had carried a burr, its cased cracked open, into the meeting.

Quispe hadn’t countermanded the order.

The ship would bear witness that even a teenage burr wielder, scared and angry, maintained control.

“I want to open the lens, now,” Nora said.

Pilar jolted. “We should—”

Quispe held up his hand. Everyone quieted. “It is your call, Nora.”

“I agree,” Francis said.

“Then I’ll do it, now.”

Pilar raised her hand. “Don’t you need to add the four burrs?”

Nora shivered. “No. I felt the power in the lens. It has enough to…it’s sufficient. If you’ll give me a quiet room.”

Captain Emmanuel Soo insisted she use his cabin.

Liam stayed with her. He even folded down to sit on the floor, close but not touching, as she sunk into her sense of the energy around them.

She reached out to the lens. She didn’t bother faking a Vapori energetic signature or anything else. She connected to the ten burrs in the lens, and through them to the lens, itself, and then she simply told it, open the millrace.

There was no need to make things complicated when they were simple.

She opened her eyes.

Liam instantly bent toward her, his body language and expression revealing deep concern.

“It’s done.”

He froze. She shifted to lean against him, and he automatically accommodated her. “That easy?”

“I think, maybe, that I know why the Vapori left Jonah and his kin to observe this region for the evolution of sentient organic life. Our complexity fascinates them. They’re primarily energy beings with a small percentage of organic physical existence. We’re the opposite, and we get ourselves into tangles of our own creation.”

She laughed softly. “The Vapori are my kin. Xeno-ologists. Except they don’t study long gone aliens, but emerging ones. Like us.”

His thumb rubbed a circular pattern on her hip. “Why do you think they’re simple?”

“Because physical matter is a layer of complexity higher than energy, and then, matter itself combines in different ways. Atoms and all that physics stuff. Energy can take a pure path. It’s why the burrs work by ‘guided intent’. It’s not magical wishing. It’s a moment of simple, singular focus.”

She smiled at him. “It’s like love. Everything else falls away. You just say ‘yes’. That’s how energy moves. No complexity. Just a ‘yes’ to continual motion and change.”

“Guided change,” Liam mused.

“If someone intervenes, yes.” She rose, and stretched, and gave him a hand up.

Standing close, he kissed her lightly. “You look serene.”

She grinned. “It won’t last. Out there,” she nodded at the door, “they’re waiting to pounce.”

Emerging from the Captain’s cabin, Nora preempted questions. She addressed Quispe. “Can you send a probe into the millrace?”

His heavy gray eyebrows lowered further. “You altered the lens?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Nora saw Pilar pinching her inner wrist to keep from bursting into the exchange with questions. “I believe so.”

“Dispatch a probe,” Quispe ordered.

Nora nodded her thanks before turning to Pilar. “I’ll give you thirty minutes to take any physiological measures, then I’d like to return to the CC Kangaroo. You can question me over comms.”

“Oh, but—”

Pilar shut up as Lucas trod on her foot.

It wasn’t the action of a trained bodyguard, but it was effective.

Nora had made enough concessions in coming aboard the ship on which her attempted murderer had served. She returned to the medbay before departing thirty minutes later.

The probe had already launched.

It would take two days to reach the millrace. Being small and unburdened by the fragility of human cargo, it traveled significantly faster than a ship.

The scientists filled the two days by asking Nora variations on the question, “How?”

She kept her answer simple. “I reached out to the burrs inside the lens and used guided intent. I mentally said ‘open’.”

It sent her listeners into a tizzy of frustration.

Quispe snorted. “Like that hasn’t been tried before.”

But Pilar had grown thoughtful as exhaustion claimed her. There was only so long you could be wildly excited by events. “Nora is the sole burr wielder ever to connect to burrs through shielding. It could be that simple. The earlier burr wielders who approached the lens simply lacked the strength of her sensitivity.”

Nora visited the CC Jaguar to be enfolded in ferocious hugs and grumbled at.

Zac was the grumbler.

Ben smiled at his partner. “He didn’t realize he’d gained a sister. It hit him when we thought we’d lost you.”

Nora and Zac glared at the man who was annoyingly exposing their deepest emotions.

But Nora and Liam were back on board the CC Kangaroo, on the bridge with Jonah, to watch as the probe reached the edge of the millrace. All the watching fleet was connected by open comms.

The probe slipped into the millrace, and vanished from their screens.

Triumphant shouts echoed over the comms; Zac’s loudest of all. “We’re next.”

That had been the deal. The CC Jaguar, the destroyer that Nora and Liam had funded, would be the ship, and crew, that risked a live entry into the millrace. Everyone on board had volunteered.

Francis tried to renegotiate, or at least, come on board to travel with them. After all, if the CC Jaguar did make contact with wider humanity, they needed a leading member of the royal family to handle the diplomacy.

Quispe kiboshed the idea. “Prince Francis, you are taking the news of the millrace successfully opening—if the CC Jaguar makes it through—back to Capitoline on the RC Daimyo.” The corvette captained by Milena Dragos. “We’re sticking to the plan. If the CC Jaguar returns with company, the RC Tolui will handle them, and Nora will be here to block the millrace. You are not serving yourself up as a potential hostage.”

Nora checked that the comms was off before she muttered to Liam and Jonah. “If Zac does meet people, they could be nice.”

“Prepare for the worst,” Liam murmured. It could have been a Navy motto.

The CC Jaguar headed for the millrace, and seemed to enter it smoothly. The destroyer vanished.

Watching the screen, Nora curled and uncurled her toes, signaling to her subconscious that the drama was over. It could stand down. Even if she wouldn’t truly relax till the CC Jaguar returned safely.

They had a month. If the destroyer didn’t return by then, regardless of how Quispe and everyone else protested, she, Liam and Jonah were going after them.

Jonah suffered from the suspense more than any of them. He wasn’t used to being unable to track the people he cared about.

For a few days he distracted himself by hunting down the people behind Nora’s attempted assassination. “The mob bosses were cover for one of King Magnus’s cronies, his brother-in-law. Queen Caroline’s brother. They had a lucky break. The Royal Guards were distracted by Lavigne’s murder when the expedition departed. Once they start looking—which they will as soon as Francis brings the news—they’ll find the evidence trail to him.”

And if the Royal Guards stumbled, Jonah would drop the evidence on them. Some enemies were too dangerous to allow to roam free.

Nora expected that the courtier in question would be arrested before her return.

Francis wouldn’t tolerate his uncle’s actions. It was uncomfortably akin to Queen Sarah’s assassination of Hermione on Palantine.

But as Jonah paced the ship and even attempted to use the gym equipment, despite his android form requiring no exercise, Nora almost wished it had taken him longer to track down the enemy.

After three weeks, Jonah wailed in mental and emotional agony. “How do you survive not knowing what’s happening to them?”

“Now, you know my pain.” Nora concentrated on painting her fingernails. The memory of Kennedy’s flamboyant manicures inspired her in her anxious boredom. Even the scientists on board the RC Tolui had ceased harassing her with questions, and were concentrating on training the other burr wielders.

“Fuss, fuss, fuss,” was Lucas’s assessment of the scientists’ busy work. Since Casimir and Sam vouched for him, the Marines on the RC Tolui had taken him on as an honoree trainee, which kept him gainfully occupied and out of the officers’ hair. If he could escape the scientists.

“Finally! They’re back,” Jonah shouted. His cry rang through the CC Kangaroo’s internal comms system.

Nora ran up from her workshop to the bridge.

Liam had been in the gym and was warm and slightly sweaty. Less than her actually, given her sprint. Neither of them cared.

“Are they okay?” Nora panted.

Jonah beamed. “Yes.”

She and Liam bent over the image on-screen.

The CC Jaguar was still emerging from the millrace. Then it would have to travel three days before it would reach comms range with the rest of the fleet. If Zac sounded the all clear, then the CC Kangaroo and whomever Quispe permitted, would travel out to meet them.

In good news, Zac hadn’t spun the ship. The CC Jaguar entering a roll was the agreed signal if trouble was on his tail and Nora had to close the millrace.

Beyond that, speculation was all any of them had, for now.

Except Jonah. He secluded himself on the bridge to eavesdrop on the CC Jaguar and ransack its data.

Preparing the most complicated lasagna she could dream up kept Nora occupied so she didn’t pester him for details. Although she couldn’t help glancing continually at the open bridge hatch.

Liam wandered the ship, chatting on comms with Quispe, and later with Lucas.

“Waiting really is agony.” Nora attacked the carrots, shredding them swiftly.

She was pouring raspberry brownie mix into a pan when Jonah emerged from the bridge. Hastily, she stuck the pan in the oven, set the timer, and absently licked brownie mix off her thumb.

Liam set aside his comms unit and braced himself against the counter.

Jonah smiled broadly. “Everyone on the CC Jaguar is well.”

“And?” Nora was ready to shake answers out of him.

“And I’m not stealing your reaction to Zac’s news from him or from the recording of that comms call.”

“Jo-nah,” she complained.

Liam, though, slumped against the counter. “If it was bad, you’d tell us. If we had to hurriedly prepare to receive strangers, you’d tell us.”

Jonah wrinkled his nose at being so predictable.

Liam smiled. “For the rest, we can wait.”

“Speak for yourself.” Nora glared at his grin. She rinsed out the mixing bowl.

“Do you mind if I invite Casimir and Lucas to dinner?” he asked.

Looking around the kitchen, she half-laughed. She’d tidied as she cooked, but it was still messy from her cooking spree. “It’s that or we’re eating lasagna for days.”

“Lucas has some amusing speculations as to what the CC Jaguar encountered.”

“I’ll be on the bridge,” Jonah said hurriedly.

Nora raised an eyebrow at him. “Scared you’ll give something away?”

“Yes.”

“Ooh! That makes it worse. It means Zac and Ben found something good.”

She had to, as Casimir sagely advised Lucas, possess her soul in patience for the next three days.

Then Zac’s voice came through clearly. “Did you miss us?”

Quispe growled.

“We did,” Nora said. “Now, give!”

Zac laughed, his face alight with enthusiasm on-screen. “I’ll give you a brief summary then send through the detailed report and attached data. We had time on the run home to prepare the information package. The universal rivers require constant vigilance—or ours does.”

He had an avid audience.

“At first, we thought the rough journey was due to our unfamiliarity traversing universal rivers. The navigation equipment copied from the colony ships blipped frequently and we had to adjust course each time. We cycled through shorter shifts to retain vigilance, but we made it home.”

“That bad?” Captain Soo asked, seemingly involuntarily as he immediately muttered, “Sorry. Go on.”

“It was bad,” Zac said. “And it wasn’t us. As we learned when we reached the millrace of the black hole our ancestors used to enter the space river that brought them to Origin. The station there is abandoned.”

Nora leaned forward. She imagined everyone did.

“The station has a warning beacon flashing. The warning is of unpredictable currents in the universal river. Our journey had been longer than that recorded in the colony ships’ archives, but I calculated we had time to investigate the abandoned station, briefly. Fortunately, its managers left a history of the station in digital form, which our comms people cracked, and which is highly informative of the society our ancestors left behind. Unfortunately, the station was abandoned three centuries ago.”

He shrugged. “A lot may have changed.”

“So, no one was there to witness your arrival?” Quispe checked.

“No one. Nor did we detect any monitoring equipment. They lost other ships after our seven colony ships, never found any of them, and eventually gave up. Business shifted away to safer routes, and the station was mothballed.”

Nora rubbed her arms, imagining how much worse things could have been for their ancestors. They might have been stranded, but they’d emerged into a region of space that had planets capable of sustaining human life. Other ships might have wandered till their supplies ran out, unable to navigate the currents home or find alternative refuges.

“Which means the realms can decide how we make contact,” Quispe concluded, satisfied.

“Sure,” Zac said easily. Too easily. The politics of the newly opened millrace would be huge. But Zac was right. That wasn’t his problem.

Nora decided it wasn’t hers, either. She’d opened the millrace. What people did next was on them. It wasn’t her job to hammer commonsense into privileged royals.

If Quispe imagined that the tycoons would wait for the ruling royal families to decide the way forward, he was kidding himself.

The open millrace, even with the dangerous river on the far side, would be an irresistible lure.

“I’m sending the information packet, now,” Zac said. “Study it, and you’ll know as much as we do.” He signed off.

Nora stared at Liam and Jonah, unsure what came next. Studying the information packet, obviously. But what did it all mean? Did they share her sense of anticlimax?

“The expedition achieved its mission,” Liam said, pleased.

She looked at Jonah.

He smiled at her before locking eyes with Liam, who nodded.

She narrowed her own eyes in suspicion. “What have I missed?”

“We have a surprise for you,” Jonah said.

“To celebrate Zac and everyone’s safe return and the open millrace?”

Jonah shook his head.

Liam’s grin started in his eyes before twitching the corners of his mouth. “We’ve been thinking about what to do next.”

“I don’t want to go through the millrace,” she blurted out. “It’s too far from Aria and Cherry and…and home.”

Liam clasped her hand. “No, the Human Sector is home. We’ll leave others to go adventuring. But…you know how Jonah and I set up a fleet of taggers to survey border space?”

“Taking up from where I left off? Yes.” She pulled him toward her. “What have you found?” She looked at Jonah. He was the one who’d have observed the discovery across the vast distances of space. “What have they found?”

“It’s not what they’ve found,” Jonah said. “It’s what they could find.”

Man and android let her think about that.

Suspicion dawned. “What they could find? Like how I found blaze after you aimed me at it, Jonah?”

“How would you like a habitable planet?” Jonah suggested. “We could point a reliable tagger in its direction to ‘discover’ it.”

She exploded. “Quacking star ducks! It would be Aventine, named after the seventh colony ship. The freedom and hope Zac’s been dreaming of.”

“Yes,” Liam said simply.

“A real home,” she said slowly. “Free of King Magnus and his courtiers and their plots, and the tycoons. Although they’d come out to a new planet for the money to be made.”

“Aeric would,” Liam said. “The Nonet would want a role pulling strings behind the scenes. Establishing a new society will be hard work.”

“It will be. It will be…awesome.” She toppled him out of his chair with the force of her hug.

Laughing at her antics, Jonah helped them back up. “So, you like the idea?”

A new planet would provide him with the freedom to be himself. He could ensure his invisibility to its systems.

“It’s perfect,” Nora whispered. She clasped his hand as well as Liam’s. “Perfect.”

Want More?

I hope you like Nora’s happy ever after. After five books, the characters are so real to me that I NEED them to be happy—and you, too. Thanks for joining me on this journey.

I’d really like to tell Cherry’s story (she’s been keeping secrets), set three years after Resolve so that we can catch up with everyone and see how integration into the wider human universe is going. Or if it is!

Whether I do so next year depends on if I can commit to giving the series the energy it needs. The Human Sector has evolved into a complicated world with more characters than I meant to introduce. I need to be at the top of my writing game to do a new story arc justice. If the real world would settle down into being healthy, happy and peaceful, it would help. But then, we all wish that.

So, for now, I have a couple of standalone novels lined up.

The Reality I created for the House books (the Uncertain Sanctuary trilogy) pulled me back in, but I’m keeping the spin-off series, Hidden Sanctuary, to a collection of standalone novels—although characters from earlier books will drop in. Any House in a Storm is out in September 2022.

And to end the year on a lighter note, sending you all into 2023 with smiles and laughter, I’m mashing together the two genres of science fiction and romantic comedy to create Doctor Galaxy, out in December, which is also a standalone novel, although I’d like to follow the Pax Galactica Corps’ adventures in future books.

My writing and publishing plans for 2023 are up in the air, so you still have time to influence me. Tell me what you want!

As always, take care. Be kind to yourselves. And thank you, I’m so happy you’re enjoying the stories I tell.

Jenny

June 2022

P.S. To stay up to date on new releases from me, please follow my author page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Jenny-Schwartz/e/B0042MAD86

Catch up with me at my Facebook page, on Twitter @Jenny_Schwartz, or at my website.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Want More?