She found herself inputting coordinates almost without thinking. The idea was to run an evasion pattern that did not conform to expected Authority systems. That was easy. She could do it all day long. Making the Audacity slip away from hazards and hide in places it should never have gone was literally her job.
Having set the ship up, she went for a walk around the interior of the ship, much of which had been off limits to her. She started in the captain’s private quarters, breathing in the hallowed air of that sacred space now desecrated with her mutineer presence.
“It was always going to end this way, wasn’t it,” she mused to herself, running her fingertips over a row of ceramic cat figurines. Janus was a cat lady, it seemed. Or perhaps a worshipper of a feline goddess. Hard to tell. Even harder to care about. Janus had turned out to be a disappointment, and as much of an enemy as Jerri had ever had.
She wandered the ship for hours, feeling the massiveness of it all around her. It used to feel small sometimes, a place with nowhere to hide. Now it stretched out into being her personal infinity.
There was nobody to stop her from going into the holobays now, but now she didn’t feel like doing it. In an effort to cheer herself up, she went to the mess hall and got the computer to generate a feast of foods for her, everything she’d ever wanted to eat and more. It was enough to fill an entire long table. She took a few bites of a few treats and moved on. She had no appetite. In many ways, she felt as empty as the Audacity itself. She’d assumed that taking the ship would be the beginning of a wild and exciting rebellion. Instead it felt like the beginning of her own personal end.
What now?
What next?
Who…
Images of Atlas kept flashing through her mind. All the places she’d encountered him on the ship felt especially poignant and made her feel extra lonely. Why had Janus given into Taylor’s fucking bullshit? Was there some greater conspiracy against her own personal happiness?
“Authority ship, you have approximately thirty seconds to depart Dinavri border space or be removed from existence.”
A sudden warning blared through the emergency communication system. It was clearly intended to terrify, but Jerri perked up at the voice.
“Sithren? Is that you?”
There was a pause.
“The Kitari’s human?”
“My name’s Jerri. Jerri Tessil. But yes.”
There was another pause.
“You appear to be the only life sign on the vessel.”
“I am.”
“Something has slain the entire crew? Have you been attacked by an entity or disease?”
Jerri worked on the communicator to get the video feed up. It took a second, but she managed to get face to face with the Dinavri lord, who was giving her the kind of look Atlas would probably give her if the situation were reversed and she were a Dinavri defector.
“It’s a long story. Want a ship?”
There was an even longer pause. Sithren’s eyes narrowed at her with great suspicion.
“What are you playing at, human?”
“I took this ship. Thought you might want it.”
“You are defecting from the Authority, is that it?”
“Not… no… I mean, yes, but not in that way. I’m done with them. I thought you might like to have a ship in return for passage through your space. Obviously I’m going to be a criminal in Authority territory, so I was thinking, what if I give you this sweet Authority ship and you give me free rein.”
“You thought, as a human female in Dinavri territory, we might give you…” Lord Sithren’s lips quirked. “Free rein.”
“I know you’re usually male dominated or whatever…”
“Male dominated or whatever,” he murmured to himself. “An interesting way of describing our ancient and honored culture.”
“Right, but I brought you a ship.”
“And that, in your view, would give you some right to exist in our realm while respecting none of it.”
“When you say it that way… it, uh, doesn’t sound good.”
“Absolutely none of this is a good idea, human. But come dock anyway. We’ll work something out, as you people say.”
Chapter Fourteen
Present day
Atlas turned off all communication equipment and went dark as he coasted into Dinavri space, barely able to believe he was returning. He should have radioed the situation into command. He hadn’t. He did not want them turning this into an even bigger problem than it already obviously was.
He was guided into a docking position, the very same dock he’d landed in before with Jerri. In many respects this visit felt like a reprise, though it was arguably worse in every single way.
“Oh, for fuc—” He looked over to his right and saw the Audacity in dock. This was really happening. Jerri had actually stolen the thing and brought it here. He had never seen anything so spectacularly incongruous in all his life. The Audacity was a great white creature of sweeping curves and thick lines. Set against the backdrop of this ornate and impeccably engineered city, it looked like a child’s drawing yet to be colored in.