Mary Rosenblum - Horizons

Ahni froze, the razor edge of a dagger’s blade against her throat. “Killing me will not save you, Mother,”

she whispered. “He already has the data. He is reading it now. A skimmer is waiting at the dock, if you want to run. I will not stop you.” A white-hot thread of pain crossed her throat as her mother’s hand trembled. Ahni closed her eyes as hot wetness crawled down her throat and between her breasts.

Suddenly her mother laughed and stepped back. “You are so prepared to die. Like a Buddhist monk You are weak.”

“You are evil,” Ahni breathed

Her mother spat on the table between them. She smiled, blood red lips stretching over her even teeth.

“Live with my blood on your heart.” She plunged the dagger into her throat.

Ahni stumbled backward as blood splattered her face, spraying crimson dots across the pale wall as her mother’s body spasmed and fell, her heels beating briefly on the tiles. Ahni covered her face with her hands, her mother’s blood and her own, sticky on her skin. Finally the tears came.

And tore her apart.

PLEASE REMAIN SEATED UNTIL DOCKING IS COMPLETED, the cool androgynous voice murmured. All through the cylindrical cabin of the shuttle, seat-webs clicked and retracted. Business passengers plus a few tourists smoothed wrinkles from their singlesuits and pulled bags from the storage bins beneath their seats. Ahni shouldered her own carryall and let the stream of passengers carry her into the Arrival Hall. It wasn’t nearly as busy as it had been on her last trip up here, but she spotted tourists among the business travelers. Good, she thought. They were coming back up here more quickly than she would have guessed. The native woman at the Customs and Immigration desk scanned her new travel visa and smiled at her, eyes widening. “Wow,” she said. “How cool to really meet you.”

“Thanks.” Ahni returned the smile, thinking that her arrival would be all over the Con as soon as the woman went on break. So much for arriving anonymously, she thought.

She reclaimed her bag and headed for the main corridor, but beefore she had gone more than ten meters from the Arrival Hall, a cart zoomed up. Laif leaped from it and scooped her into a bear hug that lifted her from the ground. “About time you came back up here.” He grinned as he set her down, his emerald flashing. “My first act as official Mayor of the independent territory of New York Up was to send you the very first immigration visa we issued. I told you I’d do that. So what the hell took you so long?”

“I had a… family tragedy to deal with, Laif.” She closed her eyes briefly. “I had to get a lot settled…

before I could come up here.”

“I’m sorry.” He peered at her. “Rough, huh?”

“Yes. It was rough.” She summoned a smile for him. “So are you enjoying being Mayor?”

“Hey, I get more complaints… This independence thing has headaches not even Dane saw coming.”

He handed her into the cart, tossed her bag into the back seat. Looked at her sideways. “You want a lift to the elevator, I bet?”

“Of course.” She smiled at him. “Where else? Are things working?” She studied him as the cart zipped along the corridor. “Is it going to turn out like you and Dane planned?”

“Yeah, I think so.” He sighed. “Lots of growing pains and we were a little off on some of our estimations, but we brought down the first few rocks, let a lot of downside celebrities come up and see just to sooth the jitters downside, and that’s going to tip the balance on supply up here. Tourism is coming back faster than we thought. Koi and his folk.” He shook his head. Laughed. “Can you believe it? We got to watch out for the religious nutcases–they figure they’re either devils or angels–but the rest just come to look, you know? I think Koi’s family kind of likes it, now that they’re used to it. We can really start building, once we get things stabilized and get our trade balance established. We’ve already got residency applications piling up.” He pulled up at the elevator.

“I’ll let Dane fill you in on all the important details.” He leaned across the seat to hug her once more. “I’m glad you’re back,” he said. “Dane’s been missing you. I may not have much of an E ratting, but even I can see that.” He laughed and handed down her bag. “Get up there before the Con finds out you’re here. If you want any privacy.”

“I’m on my way.” She smiled up at him. “By the way, I’m here as the Huang heir to open a branch of family operations on NYUp. With my father’s blessing. For good, Laif. If you want to grant me permanent residency.”

“Sweet Mohammad, Buddha, and Jesus, the stiff old goat has a brain after all.” Laif grinned. “Never would have guessed it when I was pissing him off in the Arrival Hall.” He clasped her wrist. Hard. “I didn’t grant you a travel visa, sweetheart, I granted you an immigration visa. If I thought I could have kidnapped you, I would have. Welcome home and go see Dane.” Laif spun the cart away from the elevator and headed down the hall with a flip of his fingers.

Welcome home. It felt right.

The climb to the hub seemed to take forever. The familiar flood of gold-green light made her squint as she pushed off from the eleevator, towing her bag.

A familiar, slender shape zoomed out of the leafy shadows, missing her by a hair. Koi rebounded off the elevator, somersaulted, and in a second, had wrapped his long limbs around her. “I knew you’d come back up, I told Dane you would.” He released her and pushed off from a tube, darting like a swallow through the leaves. Finally, he halted himself a handspan from her, grinning. “I didn’t tell him I saw you coming.” His grin widened. “You can surprise him.”

“I hear you’re a celebrity, Koi.” Ahni laughed and took his hand.”You and your family.”

“Yeah, we’ve been going to the park to meet people. Dane asked us to.” Koi snagged her bag and towed it, drifting along with her. “It’s fun. We’re better at scrum than anybody.” He laughed. “Li Zhen took us to Dragon Home after we left that lighthouse thing. They’ve got a really cool garden, too.” Koi plucked a couple of ripe strawberries from a tube, passed her one. “Some of my family stayed there. Ren likes to play with them.” Koi smiled. “I like Ren. He taught me his language,” he said in Mandarin.

“Nice accent,” Ahni said, impressed. “That was fast.”

“It wasn’t hard to learn.”

She barely heard his response. Up ahead, in a clear space among newly planted tubes, Dane was checking plants, a handheld scanner of some sort in his hand. A couple of Koi’s family drifted along with him. Emotion swept over her like a tidal wave.

“I’ll take your stuff to Dane’s place,” Koi said, radiating a smile.

“He has your stuff from the hotel there, too. And that ugly pot. He said it’s so old and ugly it has to be valuable. How come ‘old’ is valuable downside, Ahni? Old is just old.”

“I’ll explain about history,” Ahni said absently. “Another time.”

He had felt her. Turned. Let the scanner drift.

They met in the bright light of the open space, spilling momentum against each other, his arms going around her, the heat of his body warming her clear to the center of her being.

“What happened?” He pulled back to look at her, concern in his eyes.

“A lot. I’ll tell you later.” She laid her cheek against his chest, drifting with him. Koi’s relatives zipped around them radiating happiness and welcome, finally zoomed away. “I’m up here to stay, Dane. For good.” She pulled back a bit.”You got room up here?”