She smiled and ruffled his hair. “We can have whatever you want, pumpkin. But I don’t want you to bother Mr. Loch, okay? He’s very busy.”
Lin’s face fell. He kicked a toe at the floor. “Yes, Momma.”
Now that I knew Veronica wasn’t planning a mutiny, I needed to get us off-planet stat. “I’ll leave you to unpack and settle in. I’m going to get us out of here before Richard regroups.”
Loch followed me to the flight deck. “The kid is going to be a problem.”
“I know,” I said.
“But you’re not leaving them.”
“No,” I said.
“Didn’t figure you would,” Loch said. “Wouldn’t let you, anyway,” he muttered.
A quick glance confirmed the foxy had finally run its course. Loch wavered on his feet. I pulled him over to an empty chair and he slid bonelessly into it. I needed to grab a med scanner to make sure he didn’t have any hidden injuries, but it would have to wait until I’d plotted our course.
I dropped into the captain’s chair and pulled up the navigation control. The FTL drive was fully charged and would be able to jump as soon as we cleared the atmosphere. Now for the moment of truth—how far could we go?
I pulled up a list of reachable locations. The list included the space station I’d started at, the closest gate, and a few planets up to three thousand light-years away. This ship definitely had House internals, and good ones at that. Richard would be foaming at the mouth to get it back.
The gate was the obvious choice. I had no doubt Richard had an array of tracking devices attached to this ship, and I’d never find them all. But if I could get far enough away, the tracking beacons would take so long to reach him that they would essentially become useless.
I plotted a course to Earth, just to see how long the computer thought we’d have to wait at the gate while the FTL drive reset. I frowned at the estimate and changed the destination. But no matter how many different locations I tried, the estimated wait time was the same: one hour. I plotted a course with two jumps and each jump was only going to require an hour’s wait.
An hour turnaround on an FTL drive was impossible. House von Hasenberg scientists were shaving minutes off of six hours and calling it a breakthrough. What we’d heard from the other Houses was the same. And, as far as I knew, even if you had the power stored for a second jump, there was no way to cool the FTL drive sufficiently in so little time without damaging it.
So.
Crap.
Either the estimate was wrong, which would make us sitting ducks for an indeterminate amount of time, or, more worryingly, the estimate was right, which meant Richard would blow us out of the sky at the first opportunity rather than letting me steal the secret.
“Incoming communication,” the computer chimed. The screen showed it originated from ground control, but I would bet good money that it was Richard. I weighed the pros and cons, then pressed the answer key on my console. It would keep the video on me rather than the entire room.
Richard wiped the fury from his face, but not fast enough. “Hello, Richard,” I said. My aristocratic persona was firmly in place.
“Ada, what are you doing?”
“I am leaving. What are you doing?”
He ran a hand down his face and suddenly he looked more tired than I’d ever seen him. “I’m trying to stop a war. You are not helping.”
“You have an interesting way of going about it.”
“I didn’t want it to come to this, but you’re the one who ran away. If we were already married, this wouldn’t be happening. If we marry quickly, we may still be able to prevent it. If not, well, you would make an excellent bargaining piece.”
I ignored the last part because that was just standard House policy. The first part was more intriguing. “We are both far down the House hierarchy. What does our marriage have to do with anything?”
Richard’s expression closed. Ah. Something about that was important. What did he stand to gain from our marriage? He would gain the contents of my dowry. But I didn’t know what all it entailed or how it would prevent war. I made a mental note to look into it.
“I will tell you the same thing I told Father: I will not be forced into marriage. He did not believe me. He thought I would bow to his wishes if he applied enough pressure. He was wrong. I suggest you learn from his mistake.”
“You would rather send your House to war than marry me? We were friends once.” Richard seemed genuinely hurt.
“I refuse to believe that the only two solutions are our marriage or war. I do not understand why our marriage is so important, and until I do, I will not be marrying you. If you would clarify, perhaps I could help you find another solution.”
“Then let me be clear: if you leave in that ship, it will mean war.”
“You mean this mercenary ship that I found on a Yamado planet? This ship? The one I had to borrow after my transport was attacked unprovoked by House Rockhurst? I think the Consortium will be more than happy to hear the entire story from the beginning, along with the surveillance footage from the Mayport. I can call them up now, if you like.”
Richard’s eyes narrowed. “You always were spoiled. If you have no concern for your people, then I don’t see why I should.”
“I am not the one threatening war, Richard. You know how to contact me if you want to discuss a mutually beneficial solution.” I closed the link before he could respond.
If the Santa Celestia was in orbit or at least nearby, then Richard could call down a new transport ship in as little as fifteen minutes. I had to clear the atmosphere and jump before he made it back to his ship or we would be in deep trouble.
“Will you marry him?” Loch growled.
I spun around. Loch still lounged in the chair where I’d left him, but he was clearly awake and more alert than he’d been. How much had he heard? Enough to know that Richard wanted to marry. Would I? That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it?
I sighed. “I don’t know. I do care about our people. If it really would prevent a war, I would have to trade my happiness for theirs. What’s one person compared to the ’verse, huh?” The words were more bitter than I had anticipated.
“You know it won’t be that easy.”
“I know. That’s why I’m still running. I’ll run until I can’t, then I’ll either stand and fight or resign myself to my fate.” I shook off the bitterness and refocused. “For now, I have to get us moving before Richard decides to blow us up for the fun of it.”
“Do you have a destination in mind?”
“I was thinking Alpha Phoenicis Dwarf Zero.” APD Zero was a large, well-known black market in planet form. Anything that could be bought resided on APD Zero—and everything could be purchased for the right money. The Houses turned a blind eye to the less-than-legal dealings because they all got a cut. And while I normally would choose a space station to disappear, with the addition of Veronica, Lin, and Imma, my contact on APD Zero might come in handy.
“That would be my choice as well. There are plenty of smaller options, but it will be easier to get lost on APD Zero.”
I punched in the destination but routed us through two gates. The engines ramped up as we prepared to exit the atmosphere. As soon as we were clear, the FTL would engage to jump us to the first gate. “I shouldn’t have any difficulty withdrawing your money when we get there,” I said. “Then you’ll have your choice of destinations.” I’d gotten used to having Marcus around. When he was gone, I would miss him.
A few minutes later my stomach dropped as the FTL drive engaged. The transition was butter-smooth, though. The lights didn’t even flicker. Infineon requested a jump point from the gate. Once given, a gate jump point was reliable for two hours. We were eightieth in the queue. With the FTL cooldown showing an hour, it would be a race to see if the drive would be ready before the gate gave us the endpoint.
“There’s nothing else we can do here for now. Let’s get you down to the medbay, so I can run a scan on you.”