An Exile Amid Stars (Shieldmatron 2)

A NOBLE HEART IN A TRAITOR'S SKIN

For nearly ten years, Surela “Rel” Silin Eddings has been plying the galactic waters on the merchant vessel Earthrise, picking up sundries for the home system from which she remains exiled… and enjoying herself despite it. How else, with a congenial crew, dozens of worlds to explore, and so many things to learn? Most days, she can even forget she’s a criminal to her own people, and that’s the way she likes it. The last thing Surela wants is a new mission… particularly one that involves haring off into the unknown reaches of space in search of an Eldritch from a House predisposed to hate her for her misdeeds. But the Empress has decided one of the Eldritch’s waywards needs to come home, and Surela’s the woman to fetch her.

As usual, nothing goes as planned…

Genre (setting): space opera (Pelted)
Tags: intergalactic politics, space elves; war; dragons; shapechanging; shifting loyalties; a cute kid
Rating: PG-13 for references to violence and body horror

An Excerpt From Chapter 1

            “We give you ten scrapes,” Flight Deck said. “Then we release the wing. Are you prepared?”

            From the hatch to the engine compartment, Erynne growled. “We’re taking home all ten of those bottles of tea-wine.”

            Surela shifted against the control web and bared her teeth in a grin. “I tend to agree.” She twitched a finger to open the channel to the Chatcaavan vessel. “Ready.”

            “Doors opening. Strong winds, Viper.”

            Surela didn’t wait; she threw herself against the fields surrounding her in the modified cockpit and her ship shot toward the end of the boat bay. The deck doors hadn’t full parted when she punched past them, just clearing their metal edges. The Chatcaava said they’d give her ten scrapes—their equivalent of ten minutes—but in practice they’d release the fighter wing in six or seven. She wanted to be well into the asteroid field before they reached her; Erynne wasn’t the only one who wanted to win the exercise’s prize… and not solely because tea-wine had become an Earthrise favorite.

            Erynne’s voice again. “How’s the field feeling?”

            Surela leaned toward the curved window and the HUD projected on the inside of her windows increased the scroll speed to reflect their acceleration. The first of the asteroids flew past and then she was in the field, bending and dipping, hands outstretched. Her private vessel was the first to have the Chatcaavan technology that replaced their pilots’ neural harnesses with a more sensitive cylinder of force fields that translated her movements into the ship’s, but she’d trained on the harnesses and not having something snug around her body was… “Alarming. But more natural than the control harness. I dread the field collapsing.”

            “The field won’t collapse and even if it does, the web will stiffen up to catch you. The failsafes are excellent and it’s a cascading system.” The engineer’s voice grew more muffled. “Power consumption curves are good. Don’t hit any of those rocks where the dragons will see it.”

            “I have not been doing this for five years for naught!”

            The engineer’s grin was audible. “Yeah, but now it’s personal. For me. I helped on this install.”

            “Maybe,” Surela said, ducking into the shadow of one of the larger asteroids while scanning for a better hiding place. “But it’s my ship.”

            Footsteps on the deck now, then Erynne dropped into the seat behind and to the right, just visible in Surela’s peripheral vision. “What’s the plan?”

            “We test the new system,” Surela said. “Which is not just about motion.” She flexed her fingers and pushed her palms forward, inching the ship out of the shadow of the asteroid and sending it in a gentle glide toward a likely looking spot: a lacuna between four different rocks that were holding stations-keeping with one another. She eased her ship into that empty space. “Now we test the rest. I hope you won’t be bored, arii.”

            “Me? Never.” Erynne grinned. “But I’ll hop into the engine compartment anyway. I don’t want to distract you.”

            “Very good.” As the engineer vanished, Surela exhaled. The Chatcaava had reported the capabilities of the field control system, but they’d been more interested in aerobatics than its more esoteric abilities, as one would expect given their mania for flying. But Surela had been fascinated by the field’s mimicking of the body state of the pilot. Chatcaava were unparalleled fliers and she hadn’t managed to impress them yet with either Pelted control or Chatcaavan harness… but this system? Eldritch were trained in body discipline from the moment they left the nursery.

Surela composed herself. The force fields cradled her body; if they failed, the web would keep her from falling and the backups would return navigational control to the traditional, Alliance-style board at the fore. She could relax. Relax, and become a hole in space. Slow her heart, and the emissions of her lovely little vessel; calm her breathing, and sense the lighting around her dim. When the ten minute timer chimed, it barely stirred her… and to her delight, her complete relaxation caused the field to enfold her, raising her from the deck until she was floating a few inches above it.

            Oh, she was going to love using this new thing.

            Once consumed in her pool of tranquility, Surela cracked her eyelids. The specialty of the Chatcaavan pilot was dog-fighting in close enough proximity they could use their eyes, the way they would have when fighting one another in atmosphere, on their own wings. But to reach that proximity, they had to find their prey, and like every modern vessel, the fighters relied on sensors. Foiling those was Surela’s aim. She couldn’t outfly most Chatcaava, even with four years of training under their tutelage, but she had demonstrated she could trick them… and nearly five hundred years of living had made her very devious indeed. That was how she’d earned her nickname: being likened to a flightless version of a dragon, and a dangerous one, was their idea of a compliment.

            They were right, at that.

            First one, then another fighter appeared on her long range sensors. Then the whole wing made their passes, executing the scissor wing maneuver they searched with before breaking off for single pursuit. They overflew the ‘ceiling’ of her band of asteroids, no doubt directing their instruments in every direction. But Surela was another rock in this pond, and her ship had grown cold and still, using the patterns of the asteroids alongside to paint her hull with a similar sensor map. It was not the most up-to-date stealth technology, but her friendship with the Eldritch’s Chatcaavan allies had given her access to recent discards, and Erynne had seized on the chance to incorporate one into the swift little ship Surela had bought herself for pleasure jaunts.

            The fighters darted back over her, then accelerated onward to investigate the next cluster. They’d be back, though. Her goal was to remain hidden for half an hour, and they were barely five minutes in.

            Five minutes or forty, though, it wouldn’t matter. She was no flier born. But she could outwait a more aggressive, impatient species. The tea-wine was as good as hers.