CHAPTER THREE
When Arin finally escaped the Senate Chambers, the sun was throwing long shadows across the forecourt. Her hand flew to her pocket, but then she remembered she hadn’t smokedJuviin years. Smoking had been prohibited on Fortuna Tau, helping her to finally break the addiction.
Stupid old habits. They always resurfaced when she was stressed.
Arin tore off her formal navy blue jacket, which felt tight and constricting, and took a deep breath. She’d forgotten how sweet the salty sea air smelled. It refreshed and calmed her as she strode across the plaza, making her way towards the hoverail station.
Nova Terra hadn’t changed since she’d last been here. It was the same old sterile, pristine, boring, soulless place. It was a world in a bubble, far removed from the harsh realities of the Universe. Its only saving grace was the fact that the azure ocean surrounded it on all sides, blessing it with the perfect balmy tropical climate.
On this tiny island, decisions were made that determined the fate of the human race.
As she rode the escalator up to the platform, Arin becamepainfully aware of the discreet electronic eyes that watched her from every angle. Constant surveillance was a Federation thing; everyone who lived here accepted the fact that their public movements were watched and monitored, but it was still an unnerving feeling.
The South train pulled up as she approached the departure point. It was a sleek, noiseless vehicle made up of five cars. It followed a trackless route through the Diplomatic Zone and out to the southern tip of the island, where the peacekeeper barracks were situated.
That niggling feeling that she was being watched and followed; it never went away.
Arin took her seat and stared through the floor-to-ceiling windows as they sped away from the station, leaving the Diplomatic Zone behind. The hovertrain carved a route along artificial concrete cliffs, and out to one side, the glittering ocean stretched beyond the horizon, azure and endless.
By the time they reached the barracks, there were only military personnel left on the train. Some were in uniform, while others just had that look. They all got it after a while; there was a certain hardness about them that told of sleepless nights and intimate brushes with death.
A faint buzz resonated through the cabin as they glided through the security checkpoint. That strange sensation told Arin their biological signatures were being logged as they passed onto the base.
The hovertrain pulled into its final stop, Nova Terra South, the entry point to the largest peacekeeper barracks in the Southern Hemisphere. As Arin stepped off the train, she found herself flanked on both sides by a couple of government types in suits.
They stared at her for a moment, studying her through dark datalenses. The man was short and stout, with a thick, jowly neck and thinning blond hair. The woman towered over him, tall and angular, her dark hair cut into a neat bob.
“Can I help you?” Arin asked coldly as the hovertrain pulled away, creating a sucking vortex of wind that momentarily ruffled their clothes.
“Sergeant Varga,” the woman said, as tiny lights flickered across her datalenses. No doubt they had access to every single bit of data the Federation had on her, from her shoe size to her favorite brand and the ice-cream flavor she liked. Incidentally, that was pistachio choc-chip. “We are from the Department of Planetary Security. Nonhuman Affairs. We need to speak with you.”
“I gathered that,” Arin said dryly as she started to walk. Now and then, she’d see a familiar face and offer a sharp nod in greeting. She passed out of the station with the two officials trailing behind her, their synthetic shoes echoing loudly on the pavement.
“It would be best if we spoke somewhere private,” the man added as they reached a black bot-car with darkly tinted windows. The doors slid open as they approached, and he gestured inside. “Let’s ride.”
Arin stopped dead in her tracks. “You haven’t even identified yourselves properly, and you expect me to just ‘hop in’? How do I know you are who you say you are?”
The woman pulled out a datapad. “Our names aren’t important, but for convenience, you can call us E1 and E2. We have the highest level of clearance. Clearances beyond clearances. You have no idea. We have informed your CO, and he’s aware. Even your mother’s aware.” She recited the words in a tired monotone, as if she’d delivered the same speech a hundred times before. “See for yourself.”
She activated the datapad’s holographic display, and two biological signatures appeared. Arin held her link-band up to the signatures to verify them. It was no surprise that they checked out.
One was from her Commanding Officer on Earth, Major Singh. The other was a very familiar, very irritating bio-sig.
It belonged to her mother, General Alison Varga.
Arin stiffened. Not many knew that she and the general were related. Most people, including the squad under her command, thought their common surnames were just a coincidence, and she preferred to let them think that.
Orders were orders. Arin sighed and nodded. “Fine.” She slid into the car. That was the problem with returning to Earth. Everyone wanted a piece of her. She hadn’t made contact with her family since she’d arrived, but of course, her mother knew she was on the ground.
Not that her mother was anywhere near Earth right now, but the general, bless her soul, always seemed to know what was going on, even if she couldn’t summon the balls to break fucking protocol and get her own daughter off a doomed mineral freighter.
That was why Arin preferred the relative freedom of space, even if it meant sharing a freighter with a group of rather scary and very dangerous aliens.
There was less drama in space.
She almost missed Rykal’s easygoing nature. It sounded stupid, but when he wasn’t killing Xargek, threatening humans, scaring the living shit out of them, or blatantly pursuing her, he was rather easy to get along with.
He was chillingly, effortlessly lethal, and at the same time, rather nice.
