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Close-in Jump


It was perhaps imprudent to have used the old coords, which would bring them out of Jump within hailing distance of the Light. However, Anthora had argued for speed, and Ren Zel was of no mind to oppose her, not with a man’s life in the balance, and so he had said.

“Yes, but you do understand, Beloved, that we are not sent only on Jen Sin’s behalf?” Anthora said in her turn. “I do not mean to say that his case is not dire, nor that the delm, having found him, does not wish to lose him again.

“No, I Saw it plainly. Val Con has a hunch. We must go as quickly as we may.”

And that they had done, with Dragon Song’s modest hold packed with such everyday comforts as one might expect to have at home, and a sealed box marked with Jen Sin’s name.

“Jump end in twelve,” said Ren Zel, who was sitting First, and they hit normal space.

Proximity alarms screamed.

“Shields up!” Ren Zel snapped, blinking at screens displaying a veritable cloud of ships.

Anthora slapped the comm, and voices filled the bridge.

“Flash flyer!”

“Where’d that come from?”

“Dragon boat!”

Somebody’s got hot coords!”

“Others in line before you, Pilot!”

Ren Zel glanced to Anthora.

“Open comm, please.”

“Comm open.”

“This is Dragon Song, Ren Zel dea’Judan, pilot in charge. Our last information was that the system was empty.”

“Oughta take the news feed!”

“Indeed, I ought,” Ren Zel said agreeably. “To whom shall I apply?”

Laughter greeted this, and a callout.

“G’wan, Scotty, tell ’im!”

“Sorry, Tree-and-Dragon, got some high spirits goin’ on,” came yet another voice. “We’re out from the Hacienda on the Family’s say-so. Traveler’s Aid Notice. Copy comin’ across to you.”

“Thank you,” Ren Zel said, as the private line chimed, and Anthora touched the switch.

“Korval ship,” her mother said, “do you have an emergency?”

She took a sharp breath, was aware of Ren Zel’s gaze flicking to her, and in that moment recalled that Val Con had told her this: “Jeeves gave his daughter our mother’s voice.”

Dragon Song, Anthora yos’Galan Clan Korval, on comm,” she said, her own voice perhaps a bit sharp. “Do I speak with the clan’s daughter Tocohl?”

“I am Tocohl Lorlin, yes. Do you have an emergency?”

“An emergency—no. Please inform Light Keeper yos’Phelium that his cousins Anthora and Ren Zel are arrived, bearing the Delm’s Solution.”

“Yes,” said…Tocohl Lorlin. The light went out.

“Beloved?”

She moved her hand. “A foolish start. But it is one thing to be told and another to hear.”

“Is she much like your mother?”

“Her voice is exact. It would perhaps not have been so much of a shock, had I seen her before she spoke.”

Dragon Song, this is Jen Sin yos’Phelium.” The voice on the private band was deep and mannerly, the words weighted, like polished stones. “I am told you bear the Delm’s Solution.”

“I affirm,” Anthora said.

“In that wise, you are understood to have an emergency, and precedence over other traffic. Station will guide you in. I will meet you at the dock.”

There was a pause, very brief, before he added, voice not quite steady, “Allow me to say—thank you, Cousins, for coming so quickly.”


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