Page 31 of Solomon's Ransom

Remma snorted. “Notthatlittle. I was about your age—the Tozren equivalent of your age. Just less settled in myself, I think, than you are. I wasn’t content with what Tozra had to offer me.”

“So you decided to become a pirate?”

“Not quite. I went to work on our system’s only orbital for a while, just as a mechanic. A man I worked with had a cousin on Denna’s ship, and he said they might have work for me. I didn’t ask enough questions, I guess. I assumed it was a freighter or a merchantman, and when Denna interviewed me he didn’t say anything that made me think otherwise.”

Sol laughed. “You became a pirate byaccident?”

“Basically,” Remma admitted. “It didn’t take me long to figure it out once I was on board, but I convinced myself it wasn’t that bad. We weren’t hurting people, after all, just—you know. Taking their things.”

“Poor naive Remma,” Sol said. “Bumbling into a life of crime.”

“You were right, you know,” Remma said. “Scavenging isn’t the same. What we do here, on this ship—it’s worse. I wish I’d had more backbone back then, and told Denna to let me off at the next station. Instead I just got used to it.”

“I think it’s normal to adapt to whatever circumstances you find yourself in. Most people would, I bet.”

“It’s okay to tell me that I lack moral clarity,” Remma said. “I would agree.”

“You’re leaving now,” Sol said. “So you got there in the end.”

“The time in your colony changed me. I had forgotten there were more options in life than just brainlessly doing whatever Denna told me. It was good for me to learn about a different way of living. I’m ready to feel like a person again instead of just a minion.”

Sol’s hand on Remma’s hip squeezed gently. “You can be a person. You can do anything you want.”

“We’ll see,” Remma said, knowing there was only one thing that he wanted.

TWELVE

Remma didn’t know what to expect when he received Denna’s summons. It could have been anything from good news to an announcement that Sol was being booted out an airlock effective immediately, and that Remma was going with him. He walked through the ship’s corridors with his heart in his mouth, afraid to hope but hoping anyway, because the only other option was to succumb to despair.

Denna didn’t greet him in the claustrophobic receiving room. Instead, Remma passed through the door into Denna’s main living quarters, where Denna was sprawled on a couch drinking what from the color was probably liquor, and probably expensive.

“Remma! Took you long enough.” Denna swirled his drink. “I’ve got news you’ll be glad to hear.”

“Oh?” Remma said.

“We’re heading back to Mirolasor. I want that tesseract core. And I suppose we’ll see what value we can extract from yourfriend.” Denna’s mouth drew into a frown. “Let’s hope he’s worth the trouble.”

“He will be,” Remma said with far more confidence than he felt. “And then you’ll have him off the ship, so he won’t be a problem anymore.”

“And good thing, too, because we’re headed way out to Ferrinet Sector after this job, and I don’t want to drag a human with us all that way. It’s at least a month to make the trip, and he’s not worth feeding for that long.”

To Ferrinet—that was halfway to the other side of the galaxy. What in the world could Denna be planning all the way out there? But that wasn’t Remma’s problem; he wouldn’t be going with them. Even if he hadn’t already made up his mind about that, he didn’t want to travel so far away from Sol.

His universe had reorganized itself while he wasn’t paying attention. Sol was its center now.

He left Denna’s rooms and went out into the corridors of the ship. After all his worrying, it was going to happen—he was going to get the chance to take Sol home. Now he just had to hope Loden would be able to come up with a ransom. And if she couldn’t—well, he would just have to figure something out. He would rather die himself than see Sol executed because of him.

After a moment of dithering, he headed for Sol’s room in the distant reaches of the ship. The guard posted outside barely acknowledged him; he was probably sick of letting Remma in every day, but that was too bad for him.

Sol was awake, standing near the door, hand on one of the ship’s communication modules. He snatched his hand away when Remma came in and didn’t replace it.

“Trying to break yourself out of here?” Remma asked.

“Something like that,” Sol said. His face broke into a welcoming smile that warmed Remma’s heart. “It’s good to see you.”

Remma, indulging himself, bent to kiss Sol’s cheek. “I have some news to share.”

“Oh?” Sol drifted after him as Remma moved to sit on the bed. “What’s that?”