Star Fire Read Free Page B

feeling out-of-sorts and a little self-conscious. She’d worked her ass off for her commission and damned if she’d let mutiny and death take her title away. Only, the board of directors at Northern Star Trading had that authority. The woman’s military bearing had Sasha straightening her spine and wanting to salute. Rank and file had never appealed to her before and she attributed the impulse to being dead.
    “NaTashamarilla.” Unitard dropped her arms to her sides as she dipped forward in a polite bow. Not one to insult a potential customer, even a spectral one, Sasha copied the movement. She was happy to note her hostess’ appreciation of the courtesy. “As civilisation has shortened the use of proper names, you may call me Tasha. Now listen, Captain Sasha Tran.”
    “Sasha is fine.” She wanted to zip her lips at the dark expression Tasha gave her. The woman could even give Sasha’s mother a lesson or two in the ‘evil eye’ department.
    “You do not have the mentality of a military officer.” Tasha sized her up like a kith trader ready to make an offer for prime goods.
    Taking Tasha’s comment as momentary permission to speak, Sasha nodded. “I’m a civvie captain. Small, fast commercial trading ship specialising in romantic imports. The skill set is both public relations and business management. Piloting skills help too.” She zipped it again as soon as she realised that Tasha wasn’t interested. Sasha had always thought that being dead would be a lot more relaxing.
    “You are not dead,” Tasha told her at the end of an exasperated sigh. She rubbed her temple in an elegant three-fingered circular pattern. “Not yet.”
    Before she could ask anything else, Tasha held up a finger. “Since time is short, let me explain.” Sasha nodded for her to continue. “Two thousand years ago this planet, Aros, was a thriving centre of civilisation. Our scientists created the crystal technology that enabled us to preserve our lives long after death and share our knowledge with our descendants by bonding with a new host.
    “But back to the beginning. Despite a few political misunderstandings and prejudiced factions, we believed we had a good treaty with our sister planet, Atmos. Aros was too busy dealing with a series of natural disasters. Earthquakes, storms…our people were too focused on evacuation and preservation to pay our sister planet much attention.”
    Sasha nodded again. Both of the primitive planets shared the same orbit around the system’s sun, though neither had a moon. The planets’ close proximity possibly gave them the benefits of a moon apiece. Sasha had hoped the unique worlds would have equally rare minerals, or at the very least artefacts to sell to the scientific community.
    Pain flickered across Tasha’s features before she continued. “It was not until too late that our government discovered Atmos’ tectonic deharmoniser. A doomsday device, you might say.” More pain and sadness clouded Tasha’s face. “I died before I could pass on what I’d learnt. I found out later that a small fleet of my people’s ships were able to muster a counterattack, destroying much of Atmos’ resources. After that, the remainder of my people were consumed with survival. There has never been a reason for me to establish the primary bond with a host. Until now.”
    “So, let me get this straight.” All of Tasha’s talk about time running out was making Sasha paranoid. She imagined that she could feel the shadow of the injuries she’d sustained when those trees had speared her. She waved to encompass the crowd of women. “You all are dead. I’m not. So, when I wake up soon, it’s going to hurt like hell since I’m not really healed.”
    Waving off an interruption, Sasha continued. She held up one finger to finish her point. “But I’m probably going to be possessed by a ghost who lives in some kind of crystal machine built by scientists thousands of years ago. All of which were killed off