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  Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

  2932 Ross Clark Circle, #384

  Dothan, AL 36301

  Tethers

  Copyright © 2006 by Sara Reinke

  Cover by Anne Cain

  ISBN: 1-59998-168-8

  www.samhainpublishing.com

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: November 2006

  Tethers

  Sara Reinke

  Dedication

  To Kirk, for all the countless times you’ve been my hero.

  Prologue

  4.9.2056

  Commercial Stellar Transport: Daedalus

  Crew Members:

  Captain Alexander Horne (retired) (277-231-9)—First Officer

  Kathryn Emmente (352-210-0)—Second Officer

  Lieutenant Eric Nagel (retired) (424-111-7)—Pilot

  Xian Tren, P.E. (268-199-0)—Seismic and Mechanical Engineering Specialist

  Leia Nicholsan, P.E. (325-989-1)—Payload Specialist

  Franklin Brown, M.D. (517-532-5)—Medical Officer

  Additional On-board:

  Jerica Emmente

  Mission :

  Complete construction of terra-farming colony facility on Jupiter satellite, X-1226

  Funny, Kat thought, studying the stellar display, watching the computer trace lines across the monitor, plotting and arranging course adjustments so minute by the readings she’d almost question their necessity. Funny, it doesn’t feel like Easter.

  But there it was, undeniable on the monitor displays. At least seven months in cryostasis away on Earth, it was Easter Sunday. Back there, in Illinois, she imagined her family would just now be settling in for the traditional Easter feast. Her mother would be bringing out a turkey, steaming and probably too dry, and the table would be laden with mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade cornbread dressing, rolls and her sister Allison’s green-bean casserole.

  The dressing will be too runny, Kat told herself. The gravy too lumpy, and Jerica would just wrinkle her nose at it all anyway. And then we’d have to sit through an hour or so of Allison bitching about her job and how her ex doesn’t pay his child support, and snapping at her kids for picking at each other. Some fun.

  Some fun, but she found herself missing it anyway. Easter had always been a difficult time for her, full of unpleasant memories she didn’t feel much like thinking about, and she had somehow found a comfort and strange sort of solace from being with her family. No matter how weird they could seem.

  She pressed a couple of buttons on the terminal in front of her, locking in the new coordinates the ship had plotted out. They were running late; a small system glitch just prior to their coming out of cryostasis had left them a little over a day behind schedule.

  “Good thing it happened then and not earlier,” Alex had remarked. “Or Christ only knows where we might have ended up. Uranus or something.”

  She’d laughed. They all had, but none of them had really found it funny. And they’d all been keeping a watchful, wary eye on the bridge since then, making sure the system didn’t decide to make another odd decision and send them off-course again and out into space.

  “It’s not like out here, you get lost, you stop in at the nearest Denny’s and ask for directions,” Alex had told her.

  Kat agreed with him. The trip was already going to cost her five years, and she knew she’d have to get used to the lonely, empty feeling deep down in the pit of her belly that came with spending a holiday away from the familiar bustle of her family, because there were a lot more ahead of her. She didn’t feel like getting lost in deep space and never finding her way back home.

  Ordinarily, her crew would have rendezvoused with the one previously stationed at the X-1226 terra-farming colony post, but because they were running behind, the other crew had already launched from the moon’s surface, heading toward them and the stellar platform Kat’s crew had departed from four days earlier.

  Already, the on-board computer, STELA, was picking up the other crew’s transport vehicle, moving in a nearly parallel path, coming toward the Daedalus. The two ships had been sending each other routine hailing messages from the moment they approached within range of one another, and now a small red light flashed, distracting Kat. Someone on the other ship, the Icarus, wanted to say howdy.

  Kat had a pretty good idea who it may be, and smiled to herself.

  She pulled her terminal closer to her and typed: COMM OPEN.352-210-0.

  STELA thought about this for a millisecond and said: ENTER COMMAND ACCESS FOR COMM OPEN.

  Kat typed: SIMONSAYS KAT.

  “Open sesame, STELA,” she murmured, watching the monitor in front of her tile into a small frame. A woman’s face materialized in the window, like some kind of Las Vegas show magic trick. Kat recognized the black woman in the image and her smile widened. “Hey, Trina.”

  “Hey, yourself,” Trina said. “Happy Easter.”

  “Yeah.” Kat rolled her eyes, spinning her index finger in a small circle. “Big hurrah.”

  “Didn’t the Easter Bunny bring you anything special?”

  “I managed to sneak a couple of chocolate eggs for Jerica,” Kat said. “She’s not buying the whole bit about the Easter Bunny finding her way up here, but she was glad to have them.”

  “I bet,” Trina said. “Is she up?”

  Kat shook her head. “She’s not sleepy, but I try to at least get her in her room around bedtime. I’m afraid to get her too out of whack with her Earth routine just yet. Even a couple hours’ sleep and I’m glad.”

  “You writing anything yet?”

  Kat laughed. “Not yet, no.”

  Trina arched her brow. “You said you were going to use this trip to start on that novel you’ve been wanting to—”

  “We’re less than two weeks out of cryostasis, Trina,” Kat said. “And four days past the stellar platform. I’ve barely had time to stretch my legs, much less think about writing.” Trina looked disapproving, which only made Kat laugh again. “I’ve got five years to write the novel. I think I’ll eventually find some free time for it.”

  Trina sighed, looking weary. “I’m half-tempted to turn this barge around and meet you back down at the colony, to tell you the truth. I don’t know if I want to go back to Earth.”

  “How come?”

  “Don’t you check out the news transmissions? That group Legion’s been bombing government buildings again.”

  Kat knew the name. There weren’t many people who didn’t. Over the last ten years, Legion had grown from a small, grass-roots campaign for government reform in the United States into a full-fledged militia, complete with armed troops and military-grade weaponry. They had tried to get the government to turn the entire state of Texas over to them several years earlier, as an independent country, a “true democracy,” as Kat had read in the newspapers. Whatever the hell that means.

  Legion had lost that battle, but the war hadn’t been over for them, apparently. What they hadn’t been able to accomplish through legislation, they continued to try and achieve by force. They’re all fucking nuts, Kat thought. “When’d this happen?”

  “Couple of weeks ago. They blew up federal depositori
es in six states. Killed several hundred people. Really gruesome. I think it’s safer up here, personally. Where freaks like that can’t get to you.”

  Kat was nearly inclined to agree. “Well, maybe you can switch professions, get into terra-farming. Get yourself stationed up here for at least the next three decades.”

  Trina laughed. “Don’t think I like it out here that much.”

  Kat smiled and touched the monitor with her fingertip. “It’s good to hear your voice, Trina. Damn it all. I was really looking forward to seeing you, too, so we could at least have one evening to spend over a pot of coffee, having some girl talk.”

  “Everything okay there, Kat?”

  Kat nodded. “Yeah, I just…it’s all fine, I just…”

  “Things still going on with you and Alex?”

  “Yeah,” Kat said quietly, almost ashamedly.

  Trina frowned. “I don’t get you sometimes, girl.”

  Kat laughed. “And why is that?”

  “Because you keep messing around with that married man.”

  Kat laughed again, covering her mouth. “Alex isn’t happily married.”

  “So he tells you.”

  “Yeah, well, if he was happily married, why would he want to sign up for a five-year assignment?”

  Trina shrugged. “Yeah, well, I still say you don’t need him to be your ‘white knight’.”

  Kat chuckled. “Then who should be?”

  “You, Kat.” Trina reached out and touched the screen. “You need to be your own hero.” Her eyes cut momentarily away from the screen. “Uh-oh. Got to run. Got a priority message coming in from the platform.”

  “Okay.” Kat glanced at her watch. “My shift’s about over with anyway. I’ll give you a transmittal tomorrow sometime.”

  “Sure enough, Kat,” Trina said. “Chat with you then.”

  Kat heard the bridge doors slide open behind her, hissing softly, and she turned.

  “No fair.” Kat pouted insincerely. “My time’s not up yet.”

  Eric Nagel, the ship’s pilot, paused in the doorway. “I can come back,” he offered hopefully and she laughed.

  “Forget it,” she said, and he sighed. “It’s all yours, Lieutenant.”

  “Muchas gracias there, pal.” He walked toward her, mockingly dejected.

  She seldom thought about, much less noticed his leg anymore. It was a little bit harder sometimes for her not to think about or notice how handsome he was. How much more so than Alex.

  She stood, relinquishing her seat and the helm to him. “I’ve done all the dirty work for you,” she said, and he raised a brow at her, inquisitively. “I went ahead and programmed the course corrections.”

  “I could’ve done that,” he told her. “That’s what they pay me the big bucks for.”

  She laughed. “Yeah, well. Did you get Jerica to bed?”

  He nodded. “Tucked her in myself. Threatened to tickle her until she pissed her pants if she didn’t at least try to sleep.”

  “Thanks. She’s probably already up and sneaking around, but at least you tried. Have you had any luck sleeping?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. I mean, I feel tired, but not sleepy. I tried a couple times, lying down, but…”

  That was the bitch of cryostasis, in Kat’s opinion. Once under, a person slept in a deep, persistent, nearly vegetative state. Upon rousing, however, it could take days, if not weeks, before the body’s Circadian rhythm readjusted, and normal sleep patterns returned.

  “How long now?” Eric asked.

  “Without sleep?” Kat thought for a moment. “Going on thirty-seven hours. How about you?”

  “Thirty-nine.” He arched his brow, interested. “Why? Are we having a contest or something? You think you can outlast me?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. What’s the prize?”

  “For going the longest without sleep? I’d say oral sex. Definitely.”

  She laughed. “I’d say definitely not.”

  “Perfectly platonic oral sex,” he said, his dark brown eyes round and earnest. “Scout’s honor. Won’t even expect you to swallow.”

  Kat laughed again. “Please. You couldn’t handle it. You’d fall in love.”

  “Too late for that.” The corners of his mouth lifted into a wry smile that was at once fetching and infuriating. “You’re going down, Kat. Literally.”

  “Screw you, Nagel.” Kat smiled and shook her head, walking toward the door.

  “Hey, that’ll work, too.”

  “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that,” she replied, heading out of the bridge. He chuckled gently behind her.

  Chapter One

  There was a terrible, searing pain in Kat’s face.

  It radiated out from somewhere just above her left eye. She tried to blink, to open her eyes and look around, but they burned, agonizing. She heard a woman screaming.

  Leia. That sounds like Leia…

  And then she blacked out again.

  ***

  Kat dreamed of before, of Alex in his crisp, starched uniform, leaning back in the captain’s chair and folding his hands neatly behind his head. His breath came in a long and tired sigh.

  “I’m getting too old for this shit, Kat,” he said and she remembered hoping futilely that this would segue into something more—a promise that this would be his last mission, that he would leave his wife and build a new life on Earth with Kat.

  He moved out of the chair, close to her, pushing his body up against hers. He kissed her. His hands were busy with her breasts, fumbling with the fastens on her flight suit.

  “Alex, no,” she protested, but she didn’t mind. “Jerica could walk in any minute.”

  He looked at her, leaning forward so the tip of his nose rested against hers. His eyes were bright, mischievous. “Shhh.” He pressed his fingertip over her lips. She giggled.

  He kissed her throat, and she put her hand against the growing swell of his crotch, gripping him, stroking, making him groan softly, hungrily against her.

  And then there was a sound—bammmmph—like an enormous plastic bag filled with air being sat on from somewhere deep in the dark, empty belly of the ship.

  “What was that?” Startled, Kat pulled away from Alex.

  “What the hell—?” he said, his voice overlapping hers.

  The cruiser moved gently under their feet, as if it had been nudged by the edge of a breaking wave. They stumbled, arms pinwheeling out for balance.

  The claxon began to shriek, a high, nasal voice.

  WHHOOONNNKK!

  WHHOOOOONNNKKK!

  The red security alert lights flashed suddenly.

  WHHOONNNNNKKK!

  They ran into the corridor outside, hurrying toward the bridge. They met Leia as she rushed out of the rec room.

  “What’s going on?” Leia screamed over the din of the alarm. Her hands were pressed over her ears.

  “I don’t know!” Alex yelled.

  “Where’s Jerica?” Kat cried, and then she saw the little girl standing behind Leia in the doorway. Her blue eyes were large and frightened, seeming to swallow her whole face.

  “Mommy!” Jerica ran and Kat scooped her up. Her little arms wrapped vise-like around Kat’s throat.

  The ship moved again underneath them, more violently this time, sending them sprawling. Kat tried to shield Jerica as they smacked into the wall.

  “You okay?” she asked, and Jerica nodded, her headful of yellow curls bouncing.

  “What’s happening, Mommy?” she wailed.

  Kat pressed her lips against Jerica’s brow. “I don’t know, pup.”

  Leia sat up, dazed. Blood streaked down her cheek from a wound below her eye.

  Alex helped Leia get to her feet. “Kat, take Jerica and Leia and go round up Franklin and Doc. I’m going to go up to the bridge and find Eric. Meet me at the escape shuttle.”

  “The shuttle?” Leia cried. “Are we going to crash?”

  “Just go with Kat!” Alex snapped at her.
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  “Be careful!” Kat shouted after him. She meant to say, I love you.

  He disappeared down the corridor, away from them.

  She remembered that there were things exploding, wires, cables and conduits along the ceilings of the passageway. There was some kind of power surge, an overload or something. It had turned the hallways of the ship into a murky, smoke-filled hell.

  “Shit!” Leia shrieked.

  Sparks landed on them, burning their faces and hands. Kat tried to protect Jerica, tried to put her own body between the flames and her daughter. Jerica wasn’t crying, but she was making frightened, mewling sounds. She shoved her small face against Kat’s throat, gasping for breath, frightened and panicked.

  Leia smacked fervently at her arms and belly. “ShitshitshitshitSHIT, Kat, holy shit!”

  Eric was suddenly in front of them, yelling. He grabbed Leia by the arm, jerked her around smartly and started beating her in the back of the head. Her hair was burning, on fire, but the smell was indiscernible from the hot, rich stink of the electrical fire and melting circuitry.

  The entire cargo ship heaved, and a long, fat section of piping came crashing down out of the ceiling. Leia screamed, her voice ripping above the din of the alarm claxon. Eric put his arms around her, pushing her head down, shielding her body from the shower of sparks. “Kat!” he cried. He held his hand out to her. “Kat, come on!”

  “You know who he is, don’t you?” Leia had asked her once.

  “What do you mean? No. Who?”

  “Oh, Kat, that’s Eric Nagel. You know, the Sovereign pilot. He was in all the news…such a shame, what happened to his leg.”

  “Mommy!” Jerica cried, and she cringed, struggling. The hole in the ceiling where the pipe fell was on fire. “Mommy!”

  “Come on!” Eric flapped a desperate hand at her. “Here! Help her, come on!”

  Someone grabbed Jerica away from her, pulling with strong arms—Franklin.

  “No!” she screamed. “Jerica!”

  “It’s burning!” Franklin caught her by her wrist, his hand clamping down, hurting her. “Go! Now! I’ve got Jerica!”