Cesca drifted up to him in the zero gravity, maneuvering with a compressed-air pack. She bumped against him and slipped her arm around his waist. Back when they had both been possessed with wental energy, he had been able to sense Cesca from star systems away; now they were just normal human beings again, although occasionally the water elementals initiated a flash of contact.
Jess and Cesca remained quiet, watching the students, remembering how they themselves had once played, overjoyed in the sharing of their bodies. Maybe as a residual effect of the wental energy, they had not aged much in the twenty years since losing the elementals inside them. Cesca’s dark brown hair, high cheekbones, and generous mouth were exactly as he remembered when he had first fallen in love with her.
Now, though, her fine dark brows drew together. “Do you sense it, Jess?” When he took her hand, he instinctively felt the tingle that the electric elemental touch used to have. “The wentals seem uneasy.”
Jess looked at the glowing comet walls. Though the wentals had lost the ability to communicate with them in clear words and concepts, he did feel a throbbing of buried turmoil. “Yes. I don’t sense any imminent danger to Academ. But… something’s changing, something big—out in the Spiral Arm.”
Their conversation was interrupted when a strange woman jetted across the open sky, heading like an aimed projectile toward the splashing children. Two Roamer teachers followed her, looking flustered, but the woman knew exactly where she meant to go. Her brown hair had highlights of gold and her brittle expression diminished her natural beauty. She wore normal business clothes, not traditional Roamer garb, and Jess noted an insignia on her jacket—Iswander Industries.
He and Cesca moved to intercept her, and she sped directly up to them, using a compressed-air pack to kill her forward momentum. “My name is Elisa Enturi. My son is Seth Reeves. You have him here.”
Cesca tried to stall. “Seth?” The boy was playing with his classmates and hadn’t noticed the woman yet.
Jess asked, “You’re Elisa Reeves?”
“Enturi. Seth’s father kidnapped him and placed him here without my knowledge or consent. He let me think my son was dead! I will initiate legal proceedings soon enough, but for now I need to take Seth to safety.”
“But he’s perfectly safe here,” Jess said. “Everyone thought you died in an explosion. Seth said he saw it himself. I know Garrison believes you’re dead.”
“I am obviously very much alive, and I am the boy’s mother. His father stole him, placed him in extreme danger—” She calmed herself with a visible effort. “I am relieved my child is unharmed. Thank you for watching over him, but I will take him. Now.”
“I don’t think he’ll want to go. He’s doing very well among the other students,” Cesca said.
Two Roamer teachers finally caught up with Elisa, looking breathless. “Sorry, Jess. She docked here and just barged in! She says she’s taking one of our students away.”
“She’s Seth’s mother,” Cesca said.
Elisa looked toward the children playing in the water, narrowing her eyes as if she were doing a deep scan, until she spotted her son. She jetted forward. “Seth!”
The Governess compies broke up a squabble when a quick game of splashing got out of hand. Seth dove out, rose above the water, shaking droplets off of him and rubbing his eyes.
Then he saw his mother, and Jess saw his expression change—more to confusion than delight. “Mother? You’re alive!” He stared for a moment and then started to cry.
“That explosion… your father never should have taken you out there. He put you in harm’s way. You could have died.”
“But… but you fired the shot—”
Elisa intercepted the boy, took his arm, and held on—not a warm and motherly embrace but more like a capture. “I was trying to protect you.”
Seth seemed cowed. He didn’t cling to his mother, but said, “I’m glad you’re alive. I was so scared when all those bloaters exploded…”
Cesca said, “We’d better send a message to Garrison. He’s at Earth, so it’ll take him a few days to get here. In the meantime—”
“I’m taking custody of my boy now.”
Jess felt a knot in his stomach. “Seth asked to be here. He’s doing well in his studies and has a good life with the other Roamer children. Let’s discuss this like adults.”
“If Garrison acted like an adult, he wouldn’t have tried to kill my son,” Elisa snapped.
Alarmed, Seth found the courage to say, “Dad always protected me!”
Cesca said, “Your version differs significantly from the account that we received, Ms. Enturi.”
Elisa was adamant. “You cannot prevent me from taking my own son.”
Jess and Cesca both felt a pang, especially after the domineering Olaf Reeves had withdrawn Retroamer children from Academ and taken them with his clan out to deep space; now they were all dead. But Academ operated under certain rules. Even Garrison had signed the agreement that any parent could remove their child from the school.
Cesca’s voice was cold. “Come with us to the administration office, Ms. Enturi. If you insist on taking him without letting his father have input, we’ll require documentation…”
Seth was well behaved, clearly disappointed, but he did as his mother told him. “I’d rather stay here,” he muttered.
Inside the administration office, Cesca called up the files on the screen. “We need to know where you’re taking him. There has to be some way for us to contact the boy.”
“After Garrison stole my boy and hid him from me?” Elisa said. “I’m afraid not. Seth will be just fine. I have everything he needs. I’ll see that his education continues properly.”
Jess wished he saw more warmth in her and less possessiveness. He unsealed a locker in his desk and withdrew a small vial filled with a sample of wental water. A keepsake. Handing it to Seth, he said, “Take this as a souvenir of your time here.”
Seth placed it in his palm, looking with wonder. “What is it?”
“Wental water, just like what you played in. It’s special.”
Cesca shot Jess a quick glance; she knew what he was doing, but didn’t say anything.
“As long as it’s not harmful,” Elisa said, then hurried through the rest of the paperwork. Before she took the boy with her, she remembered to thank Jess and Cesca for their efforts. “I’m sorry to put you in the middle of this.”
After they departed, Jess felt very uneasy. Cesca’s eyes shone with unshed tears, and he hugged her. “We should send a message through the green priest at Newstation. We’ve got to let Garrison know what happened.”
ONE HUNDRED AND ONE
KING PETER
Unannounced, the Kutuzov and part of the CDF battle group careened into the Theroc system so swiftly that the verdani battleships prepared to defend against an attack.
General Keah broadcast on the emergency frequency, requesting an immediate meeting with King Peter. “This can’t wait, Sire. It seems we’re at war, and we didn’t even know it. Wait until you see these images.”
CDF warships filled the skies above the worldforest, many of them battered and damaged. Her flagship Juggernaut and fifteen Manta cruisers had managed to limp back from the disastrous confrontation at Plumas that should have been a simple war game with the Solar Navy.
King Peter was deeply disturbed to see the wounded battle group. “General, what happened to the rest of your ships?”
On the screen, Keah wiped a hand across her brow. “I sent many of them directly to Earth for full refit and repairs, Sire. Admirals Handies, Harvard, and Haroun escorted the ships to the LOC, but I won’t lie to you—we lost a hell of a lot of ships in that mess.”