Faring Soul - Science Fiction Romance Read Free Page B

life.”
    Bedivere sat back as she was. “Liar. If
you liked it that much, you would live quietly. I don’t remember
the last time you stopped to smell the roses.”
    “Too much to do,” she muttered,
glancing at the case.
    The silence stretched and she looked at
him. Bedivere was studying the case, too. He caught her gaze and
looked back at the case again. “Next stop is Federation space,” he
pointed out. “If you really do want a quiet life, Cat, this is the
time to shut down the engines and go mute. There won’t be any going
back after this.”
    “Of course we’re going,” she said
sharply. “I haven’t spent seventeen years scraping together every
last centavo the fringes could cough up just to go live on some
ball somewhere and get even older.”
    “We don’t have to do this. All
we’ve lost right now is time and that’s an infinite resource. If we
head into Federation space, then much more than time is at
stake.”
    Catherine sat up. “Getting cold feet,
Bedivere?”
    He shook his head. “I’m worried.” His
voice was very quiet. “Everything you’re doing, everything you’ve
done. It’s too much.”
    “Just shut up right there,” she said
sharply and spun the chair to face him properly. “Look,” she added,
reaching for a reasonable voice and tone. Reason would always win
out with Bedivere. Logic was the supreme argument. “I have to go
back to the Federation, anyway.” She touched her hair, which was
liberally streaked with grey. The red that had been a rich, deep
color was now faded. “You understand the therapy even better than I
do. You’ve read even more widely and you never forget anything. You
know that rejuvenation revives more than the cellular structure.
I’ll feel young again. I won’t be this cranky old woman who
has seen too much, has wrinkles on her neck and aches in the
morning when she gets out of bed. After, I’ll be sweet and
reasonable and even more determined to see this through.”
    He looked doubtful.
    Catherine grimaced. “Besides, it’s
already too late.”
    “It is?”
    “If we stay in the fringes, the
Shantans will come after us with everything they’ve got. But they
won’t pursue us into Federation space and risk their membership on
the Board. So we have to go there. It’s the Federation or
bust.”
    Bedivere considered that, then nodded.
“As long as you’re not doing this for me.”
    “Don’t be stupid,” she said and turned
the chair back to face the console, to prep for the gate jump. “Of
course I’m doing this for you. What else are partners for?”
    He didn’t argue anymore, because the
ship was technically a four-man crew ship, so jump prep took all
their combined attention and effort. But the little smile at the
corner of his mouth didn’t go away.

Chapter Two
    The Ivory City, Cathain City, Cathain
III. FY 10.068
    The walls of the Ivory City were high
and wide, but the sounds of celebration on the streets of Cathain
reached Kare Sarkisian anyway. As he stood in the dark, leaning
against the cold stone railing, he heard the distant pop of
fireworks, indistinct voices raised loudly and laughter—a lot of
laughter.
    One of the guards who had been forced
to step out into the cold with him when Kare had escaped the
ballroom shifted on his feet, dirt scraping beneath his boots. The
dirt was unusual, even for a balcony on the outer wall of the
alcazar. But staff had been overwhelmed, preparing for the
party.
    “The people out there seem to be having
more fun than we in here, do they not?” Kare’s voice, honed from
years of public speaking, came out deep and demanding. He couldn’t
tell who it was behind the face cloth, but the eyes made him think
it was one of the new ones whose names he hadn’t learned yet.
    There were always new guards.
    “Sir,” the man said stiffly. He didn’t
say anything else, which was proper.
    Kare sighed. Silently. It wouldn’t do
for anyone to catch him being glum on a MapMaker day.
    The door spun and