Page 22 of Healing Creek (Arena Dogs #3)

Chapter Seventeen

Two days later, Grace studied the scene through the viewport with curiosity.

The mismatched collection of ships reminded her of an interstellar exploratory mission she’d once seen launch from Melbourne Station.

There were midsize freighters and courier ships alongside a passenger liner—that was the Gwendella .

The ship that the Neella had come from and was returning to.

She’d already said her goodbyes to Celestia and Cosmo who were transporting the rest of the original Abundance crew off the ship.

All of the ships bringing new crew had congregated at the same coordinates set against a backdrop of stars and all apparently at the request of one small woman of mixed heritage.

Grace hadn’t recognized Samantha’s alien heritage at first. It had become obvious last night.

Grace and Creek had joined the pack at dinner.

Samantha wore a sleeveless top with a low neckline and her hair was piled atop her head.

The stripes of color along her arms had been the first clue.

The second was the bright golden blush that had bloomed across her shoulders and down the stripes every time Lo leaned close and whispered in her ear.

Only Cirrilians had that characteristic skin adaptation and this morning Grace had gone back to that medical scan she’d done for Samantha. That had confirmed it.

Non-human species had restricted rights in Earth Alliance territory, but clearly, none of the captains who’d brought their ships to meet them cared about Samantha’s parentage any more than Grace did.

And none of the crew coming aboard cared that they would be working for a ship’s captain who wasn’t legally allowed to hold that position in this sector.

The familiar thud of Creek’s footfall down the hall drew her attention to the male who’d accepted her despite her own shortcomings.

He didn’t seem to see her lack of intelligence or her inherent weakness.

They made themselves known in a million tiny ways every day, yet he treated her as if she was special, important, valued.

She’d been told Arena Dogs respected strength and courage.

Maybe those weren’t the only things they valued.

Maybe not everything she learned about them was right.

Or maybe she would believe Creek’s assurances that she was strong after all.

It wasn’t all about physical strength—she knew that—but he was helping her get physically stronger.

He’d helped her train every day since that first time.

He’d taught her how to safely add weight training to her routine…

with very light weights. She would get stronger, he assured. Slowly, she knew. Very slowly.

As he came to a stop in front of her and reached for her hands, she realized there was something different in his normally stoic face. More than just the softness he reserved only for her.

“You’re happy,” she said. Putting words to her suspicions.

Creek shrugged. “The Hawley has returned.”

Ah. Jupiter was back. His friend. Though she suspected Creek wouldn’t have used the word.

Grace smiled remembering the Arena Dog and his mates. “I’m glad they’re safe.”

“Feeona might have better luck figuring out where your sister is, from her…less reputable contacts.”

That would be a relief. With every day that passed, Grace became a little more certain that her sister’s circumstances were deadlier.

The sound of joyful female laughter drew Grace out of her dread.

Feeona walked down the hall with Jupiter and Seneca.

Their shoulders brushed together as they moved.

Small touches passed back and forth. A dark-haired, brown-skinned boy walked with them.

The boy carried a cold-pack container from a handle slung over his shoulder.

Feeona ruffled his hair as he joined her in laughter.

Creek followed the sound as well.

As they reached, them Jupiter stepped forward and pulled Creek into an embrace with a slap on the back. “Creek. Glad to see you.”

“And you.”

As Jupiter stepped back, the others closed the distance. Grace could see the longing in Creek’s eyes. Jupiter and his mates had become a close knit family in the time they were gone. Before there had been passion between them, but this was something more. Something Creek longed for.

Feeona turned to the viewport. “Impressive gathering, isn’t it?”

Creek nodded. “Samantha put a call out to her friends and they came. Many are boarding now to take over for St. Germaine’s old crew.”

It wouldn’t do to take anyone they couldn’t trust to Haven—the secret resistance base.

Grace added, “And I’m told it was your clever negotiating that raised enough funds to pay them all.”

Feeona shook her head. “My threats and blackmail, to be more honest.”

Jupiter huffed. “Parting the slavers from their money can only be considered a thing of beauty, my mate.”

Both Samantha and Feeona had proven their worth to this growing family. What did Grace have to offer? Nothing but trouble.

Feeona waved off his flattery but her face glowed. She put a hand on the boy, who was now staring out at the gathering of ships. She introduced him as Toby.

Seneca smiled at the boy. “He’s one of the children Feeona rescued from her home world while Jupiter was here on the slave ship.”

“Oh, heavens. You make me sound like a hero then slap me down with that terrible decision.” The color in Feeona’s cheeks deepened into a blush.

Grace had heard the story of how Feeona had sold Jupiter to the slaver to raise the funds to save several dozen children from death on a colony world and then come back to rescue him and Creek in the process.

Grace could only be grateful.

“You are a hero,” said the boy. “You’re the Angel.”

“Now, let’s not go there, again,” Feeona protested. “Now that we have a reliable crew coming on board we can finally get to Haven and find out what’s going on with the resistance.”

Grace reached for Creek and found the muscle of his arm as tight as she’d expected.

He did not want to return to Haven. But he took her hand readily enough and returned the soft squeeze she offered.

She needed to get the whole story out of him before they arrived, so she would know how to support him.

Her mind was fixed firmly on that problem when Feeona looped her arm in Grace’s and tugged her away. “Come on. Let’s go see Samantha and let the big guys show each other how much they missed each other.” Jupiter huffed and Feeona grinned. “By beating up on each other, of course.”

“Uh, okay.” She returned Feeona’s smile.

“Toby, you’re with us.” She wrapped her free arm around the boy’s shoulder and leaned over and whispered to Grace. “This is going to be fun. We brought root beer.”

“Root beer?” So that was what Toby was carrying.

“Yep. Honest to God, made from natural ingredients, root beer.”

“Where—”

“I was on a farm planet—” Toby began.

“An agrarian colony world,” corrected Feeona.

“On a farm,” Toby complained. “The only good thing about being there was the root beer.”

Grace covered her mouth with her hand to contain a giggle. “I’ve never had real root beer. Just the artificial kind, made from a lot of artificial chemicals.”

“This is much better,” promised Feeona.

“Where are we going?” Grace looked over her shoulder to see Creek watching her walk away.

“There’s a recreation room on this level. When I told Samantha I had Toby with me, she said she’d meet us there.”

“I’m surprised she was willing to leave the bridge with so many ships and transports coming and going.”

“Said she has a visitor. Someone she wanted us to meet.”

Her visitor must be important to take her away from her duties and welcoming so many new crew.

“This ’bout my necklace again?” Toby took long strides to keep up with the pace Feeona set.

“Maybe.”

Grace looked over to see that the boy had a shiny piece of metal dangling from a cord around his neck. A handmade memento?

Feeona made a sharp turn and a double door slid open to reveal the mentioned recreation room.

There was a Ping table, a pool table, and a VR pod.

There was also a storage station with every sort of card, dice, or board game a person could want and a handful of gaming tables. Grace heard Toby whisper, “Cool.”

Across the room Samantha stood in front of a viewport to rival the one she and Creek had been at moments earlier.

And beside her there was…a Golley, if blue-tipped, silver hair above a stocky build and rounded shoulders was any indication.

She’d never actually met one in person. They tended to keep to their side of the border.

He stood just taller than Samantha. As they turned to see who’d come in, she noted the distinctly wrinkled gray skin that confirmed her suspicion.

Samantha stepped forward and beckoned them in. The moment they got close she went down into a crouch to meet Toby at his level.

“Hi there, buddy. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Toby’s brown cheeks darkened with a blush, but he didn’t try to hide as some kids did. “I’ve heard about you, too. Feeona says you’re good people.”

Samantha got to her feet and introduced them to the Golley. “Pillar, Port Chief of Haverlee Station, and an old friend.”

“Old is right, Sam-mie. I was old when you were just a bump in your mother’s bel-ly.” The Golley chuckled at his own joke.

Samantha laughed with him. “And you were there to escort me home when I got caught sneaking into the port at five years old.”

They spoke pleasantries for a few minutes more before they all settled around a too-small gaming table. Toby passed around the root beer. Grace twisted off the tube top and drank. The fizz made her nose itch but the taste was sweet and exotic. “Mmm.”

Feeona grinned. “I told you it was good.”

Pillar took one sniff and sneezed.

Toby let loose a belly laugh. As he settled down, he pulled his necklace over his head and plunked it on the table.

Pillar leaned in and reached for the medallion, stopping short to meet Toby’s brown-eyed gaze. “May I ex-am-een it?”

“Sure,” said Toby with a shrug. “Long as you don’t damage it.”

Pillar closed his bony fingers around it then hefted it in his palm. “Feels like the same alloy.”

“Same as what,” asked Toby.

Pillar laid the medallion back on the table and opened a pack he had strapped across his body. He dug around inside for a moment then pulled out a disk-shaped piece of alloy.

“I asked Pillar to identify this one for me a while back.” Samantha reached over and covered Toby’s hand where it lay on the table. “Seneca told me you were able to identify the marking on your necklace.”

“Sure. My mom taught me a few of the old symbols.”

Feeona touched the tap-panel on the table. “I’m sending the list we came up with.”

The table’s display lit up with e-copies of some drawings with handwritten notes.

Toby tapped the lit panel. “Seneca and I put our noggins together and drew out all the ones we could think of. Some I knew, but there was a bunch we don’t know what they mean.”

Pillar touched the panel, too. Enlarging the images. His lips pursed and slid right and left as he thought. “Interesting! I wasn’t able to find a meaning for the symbol on the disk, but I found mention of chunks of the alloy turning up on several colony planets on the Delvinci Union border.”

Feeona put an arm across the back of Toby’s chair. “We’re from Petro-5, that’s on the Delvinci border, too.”

“The Delvinci Union?” Grace had been trying to stay out of the conversation, but she couldn’t help herself. “We have quite a few Dreat onboard. Maybe Creek could talk to them about this.” The Dreat were from that area of space along with the more dangerous hive-like Rettins.

“Splendid,” said Pillar. “I’ve al-rea-dy spoken to some of our traders that venture into the territory, and I’ve heard that this alloy has turned up on several planets on the other side of the border as well.

The story that goes around is that this alloy comes from a race that lives beyond the Union.

That they tried to settle this area at some time in the past but abandoned their colonies and pulled back for some reason. ”

“Maybe the Dreat will recognize the symbols. Toby, do you know the native pronunciation on any of the symbols,” asked Grace.

“A few,” said the boy.

“Great, that’ll help.”

“Help with what?” asked Samantha.

Grace hesitated. They hadn’t asked for her help, but… “The more pieces of information we can get the more likely we are to find an algorithm that will help us decipher more of the language.”

Feeona lifted an arched eyebrow.

Grace shrugged. “One of my sisters is a linguist.”

Samantha leaned forward in her chair. “I think I know a place where we can find a lot more of this language.” She traced a finger over the alloy disc.

“In the solar system where we found this there are several old terraforming platforms. I suspect they were built by the same people who used this language.”

“How ex-cite-ing.” Pillar tapped the tips of his fingers together in a steady rhythm.

They came to a sudden stop and he put his palms down on the table.

“Sadly, I must return to Haverlee.” He pushed to his feet and thanked them all for sharing their puzzle and root beer with him.

“You will let me know what you find out, yes?”

Samantha nodded. “Of course. Now let me walk you back to your ship.”

After a round of farewells, the two left and Toby wandered over to the VR pod.

Feeona swiveled in her chair to face Grace, suddenly looking very serious. “There is something I have to tell you.”

Grace’s heart crawled up her throat. She knew it wouldn’t be good. “What is it?”

“A sizable bounty has been posted for you through dark channels. I’m sure it’s Roma.”

Of course it was.