Mindee Arnett - Avalon

Celeste let out a sob. The reaction was so unexpected that Jeth stared at her a full five seconds, wondering if this was the same person he’d known the last three years. If someone had told him yesterday that Celeste would be crying in front of him now, he would’ve laughed them off the ship.

Now he found himself stepping forward and hugging her. “It’s okay,” he said, patting her back. “What happened?”

She took another shaky breath and then the words began to spill out from her, as if the pressure to tell the story had been building for a very long time and finally reached its breaking point. “Our ship got lost. We were moving from Magren, my birth planet, to Peltraz for my mom’s new job. The cheapest route was through the Belgrave. This was just before the ITA shut down the routes. I was nine. Don’t really remember most of it. Except one night, after we’d been lost for two weeks, my mom just disappeared.”

Jeth frowned, grateful that Celeste’s position in his arms kept her from seeing it. He didn’t know what to think. “What do you mean she disappeared ?”

“Just that. We went to sleep in our cabin, and when I woke the next morning she was gone. The crew searched the ship, but there was no sign of her.”

Jeth didn’t say anything, unsure what to believe. Just like Flynn, he’d heard a lot of crazy tales about the Belgrave. Inexplicable equipment malfunction, communication breakdowns, supplies going bad, even ships vanishing and presumed lost. But this one was by far the craziest. How could a person go missing off a starship in the middle of space? Unless she’d been pushed out an airlock. Although he would never say such a thing aloud, Jeth couldn’t help but wonder if her mother had simply abandoned her. A poor, single woman, trying to raise a child out here? Wouldn’t be the first time.

“Sssshhh,” he said, rubbing her back. “We’re going to be fine. My parents surveyed the Belgrave for years and never once got lost in there. Or misplaced a crew member.”

The joke fell a little flat, but he felt Celeste draw a breath against his chest, recovering. That was good. He needed her on her game for this trip. Even though he wasn’t wild about going into the Belgrave, his trepidation had nothing to do with ghosts or some unexplained phenomenon.

Celeste took a step back from him, wiping her eyes.

“Feeling better?”

“A little. I guess I just needed to get it off my chest.”

“I get it.” Jeth patted her arm, the awkwardness returning. It was funny, considering how physically intimate the two of them often were while working jobs. Then again, in his experience, that kind of thing was a lot easier than opening yourself up.

As Celeste started to go, Jeth stopped her with a touch to the arm. “If you’ve got time, I’ve got a job for you.”

Celeste put a hand on her hip. “What?”

“Hammer told me the lost ship is carrying some kind of new weapon. If that’s true, there might be some chatter about it on the net. I’d like you to poke around, maybe see if we can figure out why exactly the ITA is so interested.”

Celeste looked down, examining her fingernails. “All right if I ask Lizzie to look into it? I, uh, need to make a quick trip to Sector Twelve.”

Jeth stifled a grin. A visit with the boyfriend would be an even better distraction. “Just don’t be late coming back.”

The next few hours crawled by as Jeth waited for Hammer’s final instructions to come in, along with the copies of Avalon’ s title and transfer papers. He spent the time searching the net with Lizzie. To Jeth’s chagrin, they didn’t find anything. No mention of the Donerail, a missing ship, or even Renford. There wasn’t a single rumor about a secret weapon, even on the conspiracy sites.

Hammer’s instructions and the details on the Donerail finally arrived, but the transfer papers were nowhere in sight. Dismayed, Jeth was about to do something rash and try to get Hammer on the comm when the entry door to Avalon buzzed. He ran down to the cargo bay to answer it.

Daxton Price stood in the doorway.

“Uh,” Jeth stuttered.

Dax grinned and held out an envelope. “Hammer wanted me to give you this before we left.”

Jeth accepted the envelope without even realizing what he was doing. His mind was still several seconds in the past, trying to come to grips with the reality that Daxton Price was standing in front of him.

“You awake there, Golden Boy?”

Jeth blinked away the confusion. “What is it?”

Dax folded his arms, shrugging. “No idea. But I’ll be ready to go in twenty minutes. You’re to meet me with Avalon just outside the short-term docks in Sector Two. I’m going to escort you through the gate, which will get us there a lot faster than the metadrives. Once there I’ll run interference on any passing patrols around the Belgrave until you get inside it.”

Jeth nodded. Hammer’s instructions had said as much, although they hadn’t identified the pilot of the other ship. “Why has Hammer got you doing this?”

Dax chuckled. “Didn’t ask. When the big guy says ‘jump,’ I head for the nearest ring of fire.”

Jeth wasn’t sure whether to smile or frown and ended up doing something in between, looking ridiculous in the process, no doubt. It was clear Dax was joking, and Jeth couldn’t make sense of it. The Malleus Brethren never spoke ill of Hammer. They chose to enter his service and have that thing inserted into their brains.

“Well, see you in a few,” Dax said, and then he strode off, the black implant on the back of his head reminding Jeth again of a giant spider.

He shook off the disorientation and headed inside. It occurred to him that Hammer’s decision to send Dax was yet another indication of how important this job was to him. Whatever this weapon was, he must want it pretty bad. The idea tickled Jeth’s mind with possibilities. Obsession could be a powerful pressure point. If only he had a way to apply that pressure. But he didn’t see how. It wasn’t like he could steal the weapon and hide it. Not if being near it was potentially fatal. There wasn’t much point in finally getting his ship back if he was dead.

Stowing away such thoughts for now, Jeth opened the envelope and examined its contents as he walked along.

“Son of a bitch,” he said when he realized what he was holding. Hammer had sent him a print copy of Avalon’ s title and transfer papers. On actual paper . Jeth’s hands curled into fists. He should’ve seen the ploy coming. A print copy would be harder to counterfeit than the official electronic one.

Still, Jeth couldn’t deny the hope he felt at seeing his name there beside the “owner” heading. He hurried to his cabin and stowed the papers in a hidden compartment beneath his bed.

Fifteen minutes later, after he’d wrangled the crew back onto Avalon, Jeth darted up the stairs to the bridge, excitement exploding in his chest. He was going to pilot his ship. Jeth placed his hands on the control column to keep them from trembling as he waited for the locks that had held Avalon captive for so long to finally come undone. A loud, grating creak of metal echoed a moment later.

He waited, unmoving, for several minutes after the sound faded.

“Um, Jeth?” Lizzie said from the copilot’s chair. “Are we going anywhere today, or are we just gonna hang out here?”

In answer, Jeth eased the controls forward, keeping the pace slow despite his desire to push it hard. He met up with Dax, who was piloting the Citation, one of Hammer’s Vipers. Vipers were cruiser class ships, flashy and expensive, but this one didn’t stand a chance of keeping up with Avalon .