Page 30 of Solomon's Ransom
He took a deep, steadying breath.I hope they’ll send me home. I miss my mom, and my best friend, and all the other people I know.
That sounds hard, the ship said.I bet they’re missing you, too.
They probably think I’m dead, at this point.Sol didn’t have to feign the lump in his throat, the wobble in his thoughts.I hope they’re all doing okay.
Is there anything I can do to help?
There it was. Sol’s heart rate picked up.I don’t know. Maybe you could send a message to them? Is that possible?
Well, probably. Do you know your mother’s comms code?
By heart, Sol thought, thanking every star in the sky that he’d bothered to memorize it.Do you think—could you send a message without the pirates knowing? They probably wouldn’t be too happy about me trying to communicate.
Oh, they won’t have any idea, the ship replied.They’d be mad atme, too, so I won’t risk it. I can use the orbital’s systems to send the message. It won’t even show up in the on-board records.
Okay. Great. Should we send it now?
I’m ready whenever you are.
Sol had thought about this a lot, and he knew just what he wanted to say. He didn’t want to assume that the message wouldn’t be intercepted, but he still wanted to make it clear what the situation was, and so he would have to be careful with his phrasing.Hi, Loden, he began.It’s Sol. I’m unhurt but I’ve been captured by pirates. They may try to ransom me back to you since our colony is so wealthy and important. If you don’t think I’m worth the cash, you could try finding a tesseract signal. I think they would be very happy to trade me for a core they’ve been looking for.Remma had told him, finally, what the pirates were after.
There. That should give her enough information to prepare her for what the pirates would expect, while also giving her some hope of getting him back. Assuming she would rather have him than a tesseract core, which wasn’t a given.
No, that was ridiculous. Of course Loden would want him back. He was herson.
That’s all, he said to the ship.
All right.A moment’s pause.Now give me her comms code.
MiroM-LS-4319XP34, Sol said, hoping he hadn’t transposed any of the numbers. He was pretty sure he hadn’t.
It’s sent, the ship reported.
Thank you. You’ve been so helpful. I really appreciate having a friend like you.
He was laying it on a little thick, but the ship only sounded pleased and flattered when it said,I’m always happy to help you.
* * *
“Tellme how you ended up with the pirates,” Sol said.
Remma stirred from his postcoital stupor. “Hmm?”
“Is that a complicated question? You’re still come-dumb.” Sol sounded pleased with himself. “Why’d you leave Tozra? How’d you end up on this ship?”
“You ask a lot of questions,” Remma said, even though he didn’t really mind an excuse to linger in Sol’s bed and talk with him a while. He was getting really attached, more and more with every day that went by, and that was a problem. Humans kept to themselves; they liked to pair bond and raise children together, which wasn’t ever an option for Tozren males. Remma was going to break his own heart.
Well, so be it.
“I’m curious,” Sol said. “Indulge me. You know my whole boring life story, but there’s still so much I don’t know about you.”
Remma definitely liked the idea that Sol wanted to know more about him. He slid one hand down Sol’s sweat-damp back. “I was young. I wanted to see the galaxy. You know—the usual.”
“You got tired of Tozra?”
“We don’t have cities like on some planets. The population isn’t that big. Everyone lives in towns and villages, and my own town started feeling stifling to me after a while. I would watch vids from other places and daydream about having adventures.”
“Little Remma,” Sol said.