Skyfall Read Free

had traveled all her life, but she had never experienced such a takeoff. G-forces slammed her into the seat, which had minimal cushioning and no smart-sensors to protect her body. She could barely breathe. The pressure seemed to go on forever, until spots danced in her vision and she wondered if she would suffocate.
    The pressure stopped as abruptly as it had begun. Grateful, Roca gulped in air.
    “You all right?” the captain asked.
    Roca took a shuddering breath. “Yes. I am fine.”
    “Gods almighty.” The captain made an incredulous noise. “You sound arrogant even when you’re gasping.”
    “I don’t understand why you are angry.”
    The captain remained intent on her controls. After a long silence, Roca tried again. “Did the port clear us for takeoff?”
    The captain was reading a holoscreen above her head. “No.”
    Roca clenched the arms of her seat. “It’s illegal to take off without clearance.”
    “Well, isn’t that a shame.”
    The last thing Roca needed was to end up in legal custody. “You can’t just break the law.”
    The captain jerked around to her. “Listen, rich girl. You wanted out of that port. We left even though they couldn’t ensure our safety. That’s breaking the law, honey. You think they’re going to give us clearance and implicate themselves?”
    “Oh.” That made sense. “I see.”
    “Good for you. Now shut up.”
    Roca scowled. “Just think, if I hadn’t put you to such inconvenience, you could have stayed in that lovely port, no doubt for days.”
    To her surprise, the captain laughed. “Got some spunk in you, eh?”
    Roca was too annoyed to answer.
    They fell quiet after that, the other woman intent on her controls. For all its decrepitude, the ship worked amazingly well. Roca had to admit the captain knew what she was doing.
    “You’ve a good ship,” Roca finally said.
    “She goes.” The captain sat back in her seat. “Probably nothing like what you’re used to.”
    “It isn’t polish that makes a ship valuable.” Roca thought of her son’s Jag starfighter, what many had called the fastest, deadliest, most aggressive craft in the J-Force. “It’s the character it develops after years with the same pilot.”
    The captain considered her. “I wouldn’t have expected that from you.”
    “Why?”
    She shrugged. “You don’t seem the type to notice old drums like this.”
    An alarm blared, warning of a malfunction. The captain immediately turned her attention to jury-rigging a repair. Sitting back, Roca silently urged fate to let her survive this trip. She was uneasy enough to lower her mental barriers and let the captain’s mood wash over her. Normally Roca recoiled from opening her mind so much; it exposed her to mental injury and trespassed on the privacy of others. As much as she disliked it now, too much depended on the success of this mission for her to take chances in her judgment of the captain’s intentions.
    Her companion wasn’t a psion of any strength, so it was hard to pick up much, but a sense of her thoughts came through. She resented Roca but would honor her word. She believed the cover that Director Vammond had created to protect Roca’s identity. Roca flushed, already knowing the story; Vammond had described her as a runaway wife who had tired of her aging but wealthy husband and wanted to see her lover. It was a dismal tale, but if it helped her reach the Assembly in time, she could live with it.
    Roca thought of her first husband, Tokaba Ryestar, an explorer who had scouted new worlds. Her parents had arranged the marriage in her youth. Roca resisted it at first, but she and Tokaba had soon discovered they suited each other. Kurj’s birth overjoyed them. For the next six years they had lived a contented life.
    Then tragedy hit, when Tokaba’s ship crashed on a world he was exploring. Roca had never forgotten the devastating night they brought his body home. Nor had Kurj; at the age of six, a bewildered, heartbroken child had