Page 127 of Alien Burn

Stron remained unimpressed by the smell. Dhomhes left him to it and went aboard with them. He knew those refineries: the sealed, dark processing sheds where raw citricite was handled, the separate housing and freight apron where no unrefined ore was permitted. His father's crews lived by that division. He had been thinking of anyone foolish enough to bomb the processing works. It was harder to imagine an enemy walking through the familiar doors beside them.

Guards stood around the converted passenger area. The seats were filling, voices kept low. At the back, beside Adryel and Janae, Sereya leaned slightly toward the two females.

He was glad to see her there. Janae had worried about her long before Sereya had been willing to admit anything was wrong.

Khalzin stayed toward the rear while Dhomhes and Stron continued forward.

“Did you arrange an escort?” Stron asked.

“Do you think I'm an idiot?”

“I don't know what you've been experiencing the last few days, but I've been attacked multiple times, nearly died a few of them. So the question is valid.”

Dhomhes shook his head. “You worry too much.”

Stron looked back through the hold before answering.

“Or not enough.”

Dhomhes had no clever reply to that.

He went to speak with the captain.

The final passenger check showed Khalzin and Janae had left the transport.

Dhomhes looked at the amended count. They had gone together. It was a deliberate departure, not two people left standing on the platform while someone shut a ramp on them.

He sent Khalzin a request for confirmation that they had protection, then returned his attention to the passengers who were staying.

The engines changed pitch. He felt the first lift through his boots.

Stron stood where he could look back into the hold. Dhomhes knew which passenger he was finding each time. He had begun measuring rooms in much the same way himself.

Beyond the forward glass, their escorts took position.

He gave the receiving team the revised count and checked the landing arrangements once more. Guards at the perimeter. Staff to guide the passengers inside. Rooms ready, including the separate accommodation Sereya had already requested on the light side.

The captain brought them around. Green land slid away beneath them, the atmosphere thinning into the duller colors Dhomhes had known as a child.

He remembered promising Sereya stars.

This was not how he had wanted to bring her here. There would be smoke above the towers and noise through the walls, frightened females trying to sleep in unfamiliar beds. He would spend the first hours working.

Still, she was coming to the place that had made him. Eventually she would see more than its holding rooms and ugly transports.

He wanted her to.

His comm held a reply from the search supervisor. The unit was still working the light-side search ground. No new withdrawal had reached them.

He sent the update to Hawn and added that he would call when they were on the ground.

Then the refineries appeared through the forward glass, their working lights spread across the rock, and Dhomhes began calling in the landing positions.

18

SEREYA

Before the ore transport left, Roemary had lasted less than a minute beside the empty seat.