Heart on the Line: 1. The Writer

[clare_dragonfly]

--
We're interrupted
By the heat of the sun
--

Artona did her best to smile at the merchant-ship captain. Not too many ships took the trip from Halos to Caila, which was three months even with the wormgates cutting out most of the space in between, and fewer were willing to take passengers. Certainly there were no regular passenger ships between the two planets, and chartering a special ship would have been way out of Artona’s budget. She was very grateful that this captain had agreed to take her.

Captain Vittoria Ran, a plump, middle-aged redhead, grinned cheerfully at her, clearly not fooled by Artona’s attempt at bravery. “Nervous? Don’t worry. It’s more boring than anything.”

“It’s not the journey I’m worried about,” Artona admitted, stepping through the doorway and swinging her bag down from her shoulder. “It’s the destination.”

The captain raised her eyebrows. “It’s not too late to change your mind. I’ll refund what you’ve paid me. Caila is a bit of a backwater—a city girl like you probably won’t fit in.”

For a moment Artona wavered. Then she pictured Mark’s huge smile in the holochat and her heart swelled. She’d never have anything like him if she stayed on Halos. She shook her head and took another, more confident step forward. “No. It’s worth it.”

“Attagirl,” said Captain Ran, her grin returning. “Glad to see you’ve got some backbone.” She scooped up Artona’s bag. “I’ll show you where to stow this—same place you’ll strap in to sleep. What’s in Caila waiting for you, then? Or is it what’s here that you’re escaping?”

There wasn’t much on Halos for Artona, but there wasn’t so much that it was worth a three-month journey to escape, either. “A man,” she said. “Mark Blackburn.”

“Oh-ho,” said the captain. She hit a button and a door in the wall opened, showing a white, sterile room—much like the rest of the ship. “Well, I wish you the best of it. Here’s your room.” She tucked the bag into a compartment in the wall, then pointed out the straps to Artona. It wasn’t Artona’s first interplanetary voyage, so she was already familiar with the procedures. She followed the captain back out to the control room.

“Strap in, then,” said Captain Ran. “We don’t have much of a wait for our scheduled departure time, and with a small ship like this they’ll sometimes let us go early, if we’re not getting in someone else’s way.” After she strapped in herself, while Artona was still re-familiarizing herself with the configuration of straps, she picked up a small radio. “Control, this is the Kirin, requesting clearance to head for Wormgate Theta. Whenever you’re ready.”

“Roger that, Kirin. You’ll have a few moments to wait.”

Captain Ran acknowledged. When Artona was sure there wasn’t going to be more conversation, she asked, “Isn’t there any more crew?” It had not escaped her notice that there were only two chairs in the control room, and the captain had not wanted to wait for anyone else to board.

“Just me,” said the captain. “And believe me, I’m happy to have some company for the ride out. That’s why I let you take the seat so cheap.”

“And I appreciate it,” said Artona, smiling. “But don’t you need someone else in the control room when you’re sleeping?”

The captain shook her head. “I know this route, as well as a few other long runs I take, and I have the schedules worked out so I’m always awake when it comes time to make a wormgate jump. Other than that, the Kirin keeps things in line for me. There’s just enough AI in there to keep the physical parts of the ship on track while I sleep and wake me up if there’s any trouble.”

Artona nodded. “So what’s on Caila for you? There must be some reason to make this long trip.”

“They pay well, better than a lot of places, for things they don’t have native to the planet,” said Captain Ran. “Wool’s a big one—they have cold winters, but no native mammals with the right kind of fur. They don’t have the infrastructure to make antibiotics and antivirals, so medicine comes from off-planet. And there are the luxury foods, of course, which are different things than you’d expect on other planets. Living on Halos, you’re used to getting citrus whenever you want, right? Well, they don’t have anything like that on Caila, and they don’t travel well, so they’re expensive.”

Artona swallowed. She probably wasn’t going to be able to afford citrus—she’d be missing her favorite snack, oranges. Why hadn’t she thought to research that before deciding to move to Caila? It wouldn’t have changed her decision, she thought. Mark was still on Caila.

“And what do they trade with? They can’t be a completely barren planet if they have money to pay for the wool and citrus.” Artona knew that Caila, unlike some other more recently colonized planets, wasn’t run by a corporation that would be feeding money into their economy. They’d only been established a few generations ago, and they were self-sufficient.

“Precious metals. Apparently they’re fairly easy to mine for there. Gold and silver, mainly, though I’ll also get some platinum and titanium. And those sell well on Halos and other planets, of course, so I make a nice profit. You just have to be willing to deal with the boredom, and I am.”

Artona wanted to ask other questions, learn what else Captain Ran knew about Caila, but at that moment the radio crackled with the announcement that they were cleared to leave orbit, and her questions were forgotten in the rush of wormgate traffic.

--
Only it's too hard to ask
Won't you try to help me?
--

Three months later, when Artona, Captain Ran, and the Kirin had arrived at Caila, Artona was even more nervous. There had been plenty of time for her and the captain to chat about the planet that was their destination, and it sounded like an even harsher lifestyle than Mark had led Artona to expect. It was a cold climate, at least compared to Halos—Caila summers were about as warm as Halos springs and autumns. At least it had a seasonal climate, she reminded herself. Some planets didn’t, or at least didn’t have the gradual changes that Earth-like planets did.

Their political structure was also strange. Instead of a vote for every citizen, there were people at the top with more power and more votes. It was almost like hereditary rulers that Artona had read about in history, except that technically, the positions at the top weren’t passed on from parent to child. It was just that those people had the most votes for who would succeed them, so they did tend to get passed down that way. Artona had a feeling that the captain was hiding something from her regarding that, but she couldn’t figure out what and didn’t know how to ask.

They also had limited communications. Because they were a self-sufficient colony, they didn’t have the fiber optics infrastructure that most modernized planets had. Communication between cities was slow, and there were only a few places where interplanetary communications could be accessed. That made Artona wonder why and how Mark had been able to spend enough time with interplanetary communication to meet her, but Captain Ran hadn’t had an explanation for that.

Looking out the window as the planet grew huge beneath them, though, Artona felt her nerves turn to excitement. It might be a chilly spring down there, but the planet was green and lush-looking. The atmosphere shimmered, and it seemed to beckon to her. It seemed to be home.

When they touched down, though, Artona turned to shake hands with Captain Ran before leaving the ship. “It’s been a pleasure, Captain. Thank you for allowing me on your ship.”

“You, too, Artona. I’m glad I had you along. If you ever want to take a trip back to Halos, let me know.”

Artona nodded. “I will. Next time you’re back for trading.” Then she turned, shouldered her bag again, and walked out the door into the bright, pale sunlight of the spaceport.

It wasn’t as crowded as she would expect a spaceport to be, but it was also tiny. On a backwater planet like this, that must be normal. But she did see a small crowd near one wall, a crowd that started instantly to move toward her. They must be the traders, ready to sell their gold and silver to Captain Ran in exchange for the much-needed goods the captain had told her about. Was Mark among them, or was he waiting for her elsewhere? They would know, surely. Excitement quickened her footsteps.

As she and the group approached each other, she saw that Mark was actually at the head of the group. All the others—all men—were walking a step behind him if not more. She faltered in her step, puzzled, but when she saw his smile, bright against his warm brown skin, she had to run forward.

He ran the last few steps to meet her, too, and flung his arms around her when they reached one another. She let her bag fall to the ground and wrapped her arms around him, too, burying her face in the comforting warmth of his chest. He smelled spicy and gentle, like nothing she’d ever smelled before. Like home.

After a long embrace, he pulled slightly away from her and held her by the shoulders, still grinning so wide his mouth threatened to escape from his cheeks. “Artona. Welcome to Caila.”

She laughed. “Thank you.”

He lifted her bag with one hand. “Is this yours? I told you that you didn’t need to bring anything. I can provide you everything you need.”

“I needed some things for the journey,” she protested, smiling at his sweet solicitude. “And it’s nice to have some of my own things.”

“You’ll have as many of your own things as you need,” he said, then held the bag out behind him. One of the men behind him took it. She realized that they were all smiling, but they were standing there, too, just watching them. Not moving to do their trading with Captain Ran.

She lowered her voice to speak more privately to Mark. “I thought it would just be you. Why is there such a large… welcoming committee? Are these your family?” Most of them didn’t look like him, but she knew that a family wasn’t always blood.

“Some of them.” He turned her so they were both facing the crowd. “My cousins, Jared and Derek.” The man who’d taken her bag stepped forward to shake her hand, and then a man beside him who shared many of his features. She started to greet them, but they were already moving aside, and the other men, seven in all, were forming a line.

Mark introduced them one at a time, but she lost track of the names—living on Halos, she’d rarely heard names like these before, and what seemed to be more important were the titles. Each of them was a Lord Mayor, and each belonged to a different province of Caila’s colony: East, North, South, West, Oceanside, Mountain, and Plains. They shook her hand and bowed to her as though she was someone important.

“What about Central?” Artona asked Mark, puzzled. She may not have known much about Caila, but she knew that it had eight provinces, and that Central was both the seat of government and the location of the spaceport—and thus where they were right now.

He smiled, but this time he didn’t use his teeth. “That’s me.”

She turned more fully to face him, gaping. “You’re the Lord Mayor of Central Province? Doesn’t that mean you’re in charge of the entire colony?” Her voice came out high and nervous.

He nodded and had the grace to look abashed. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see others approaching Captain Ran and the Kirin; these men weren’t the traders at all. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was afraid you wouldn’t come.”

“It’s a pleasure to have you here, Lady Artona,” said a man with a bushy red beard, the Lord Mayor of Plains Province. “We’ve been on Lord Mark to get married for ages.”

Married. She swallowed. This was why she was here, though, wasn’t it? To be with Mark. That was the plan. And his arm was still around her shoulders, supporting her, keeping her safe.

She just didn’t have any idea what these people expected of her. She knew they must expect something. She’d come here to be with one of the most powerful people on Caila… no, the single most powerful person on Caila. Would that make her the second most powerful, or did she start where everyone else did? She had no idea what the rules were for immigrants.

She glanced sideways at Mark. He gave her a reassuring smile, and she relaxed slightly. At least he would be here to show her what to do. He knew she needed support. She turned back to the Lords. “It’s a pleasure to meet all of you,” she said, her voice firmer and stronger. “I’m sure we’ll get along very well.”

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