CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“James!” yelled Kiru. “James!”
Then the hatch slammed shut, and she knew it wasn’t such a good idea to try to open it, not if she wanted to live.
She sank down on to the floor and wondered if she wanted to.
All was silent. The emergency siren could no longer be heard. The escape capsule must either have been ejected from the main ship, or the ship no longer existed—or perhaps both.
It was warm inside the lifeboat, warm and light, but she’d willingly have spent the rest of her life in the cold and dark if she could have been with James.
He had sacrificed himself for her, and now she was alone.
Alone again, as she had been for almost all of her life.
“And who are you?” enquired a voice.
Kiru looked up quickly. There was a human standing at the far end of the capsule, or a figure that appeared to be human. If so, he seemed to be male; but because he was dressed, she couldn’t be certain. Within the confines of the capsule, he seemed even taller, broader, than he really was. His face was black, his hair was white, and he was wearing a dark outfit of loose trousers and long jacket.
“Who are you?” said Kiru, as she stood up.
The man smiled, looking her up and down, and said, “I asked first.”
Kiru put her hands on her hips and tried to out-stare him. Without success. He kept studying her naked body.
“I’m delighted you’re here,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“To be joined by a lovely young thing such as yourself, that’s what I mean. What a pleasure.”
“You’re not getting any pleasure from me!” said Kiru.
The man held up both hands in a placatory gesture. “You misunderstand, my darling. When one gets to my age, one doesn’t bother about that kind of thing anymore. Which doesn’t mean one can’t appreciate the physical perfection of a nubile young beauty such as yourself.”
As he spoke, he slowly moved toward her. Kiru glanced around for some kind of weapon, but there seemed to be nothing she could thump him with.
The man followed her gaze, and he also studied the lifeboat. It was small, compact. All that could be seen of the interior was a short corridor, about three metres high, one metre wide. The floor and sides were matte, metallic, and Kiru knew that below and behind them was all the survival gear and rations. The capsule was fully equipped for several people, but would be ideal as a single cabin.
If she had been here alone, she wouldn’t have wanted anyone else suddenly coming in. Apart from James.
“It ain’t much,” said the man, “but it’s going to be our home. I think we should get going.”
“Going? Where?”
“This is an escape pod, my sweetheart. So we escape.”
“I’m not your sweetheart.”
“Whatever you say, my love.”
The man turned, making his way back to the end of the capsule. He raised one hand, rotated his wrist, pointed, and a screen appeared on the wall. Then he started waving his hands in front of it.
Kiru hadn’t moved from the hatch. Although the capsule was larger than the spherical cell, that wasn’t saying much, and she wanted to keep as much distance between herself and the man as possible.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Don’t worry your pretty little head over that. This is man’s work.”
Kiru felt a movement. The lifeboat was in motion. Slipping away from the convict ship. Away from James.
But the ship no longer existed. Neither did James.
She had to forget about him. It would be easy. He was just a man. She’d hardly known him. He was nobody to her. And now, he was nobody at all.
Kiru didn’t believe anything James had told her, or not much of it. He might have been a policeman, but what kind of person became a cop? The kind of person who couldn’t be trusted. James couldn’t help telling lies. Three hundred years old? He probably wasn’t from Earth. He probably wasn’t even human. She was much better off without him.
“Yeah,” she said.
“I’m glad you agree,” said the man.
Kiru realised she’d spoken aloud, trying to convince herself by vocalising her thoughts.
“Women, bless them,” the man continued speaking, as he continued gesticulating in front of the screen, “just don’t have the reflexes and co-ordination to pilot a starship. As long as you know your place, my dear, we’ll get on fine.”
“What is my place?”
“In the galley.”
“You mean I’ve got to row the lifeboat? Chained to an oar?”
“The galley is the kitchen.”
“Ah! I cook and clean for you?”
“If only. It’s all compact food, flasheated in five seconds.”
“Good.”
“It’s not good. If we can cook and eat in ten minutes, how do we pass the rest of the time? This is going to be a long voyage, my precious.”
“I’m not your precious. I’m not anyone’s precious. I’m not a love, not a dear, not a darling. My name is Kiru.”
“Delighted to make your acquaintance, Kiru. Is that it? Just one name?”
“We were too poor to afford more than one.”
The man laughed.
“What’s funny?” demanded Kiru. “It’s true.” It probably wasn’t true because she must once have had a family name—because once she had a family. “I’m from a poor planet. It’s called Earth.”
“I know.”
“How do you know?”
“I couldn’t help noticing, Kiru, that you’re not wearing a slate. But you understand me, which means we’re from the same planet.”
He had been gesturing at the control screen all the time. There was no longer any sense of movement, but Kiru knew the capsule was now speeding through space. Away from the debris of the convict craft. Away from James. Heading for…?
She’d been about to ask their destination, but this was a more important question.
“You’re from Earth?”
The screen vanished and the man walked back from the far end of the lifeboat, which was only several long strides away. He stood in front of her, looking down, and nodded.
Earth was just one of thousands and thousands of inhabited worlds, an average little planet with no distinguishing features—or even distinguished features. Since leaving her native planet, almost everyone Kiru had met claimed to be from Earth. The boss, Grawl, James, and now this man. But they were all men. They could all have been lying.
Kiru had been very nervous at first, but now that the man was so close that she could look up his nose and see his nasal hairs needed a trim, he wasn’t so intimidating, and she was no longer scared. Even his nose hairs were white, as were his eyebrows and lashes.
“Do you have a name?” she asked.
“Plenty of them,” he said. “Unlike you.”
“Do you have a name I can call you?” she asked.
“Eliot Ness,” he said.
There was something familiar about the man. Kiru had never seen him before, or at least not the way he looked now. But appearances could be changed, and no one was ever who they seemed to be.
In retrospect, she knew how much the boss had altered during the voyage from Clink to Hideaway, although she was now unable to picture him in any of his guises. That must have been part of his masquerade, to block the memory of anyone who saw him. He might not have changed at all, but he had controlled Kiru’s perception of his appearance: He had never been an old man, but he had made her believe that he was.
Despite his ability to transform himself, she felt sure Eliot Ness wasn’t the pirate boss.
Neither was he Grawl. Because if he was, Kiru would have lost her mind by now. Literally. And Grawl would have claimed her body.
She also knew that he wasn’t James. Because he would also have claimed her body, although in a much more pleasant and far less fatal way.