Chapter 17BerusCamila

Chapter 17

Berus

Berus gritted his teeth as he returned his comm to his belt. The inspector had come and gone, and the New Horizon had been declared unremarkable. Ulrek was sure that they'd be watching everything the crew did for the next few days, though, so it might take them a littlelonger to get to him and Cami.

But that wasn't the reason for his foul mood. A reliable source at the port had informed them that Rehden, complete with a brand-new look and ID code, had left the port with a group of hired thugs in search of his missing stolen slave. According to the source, a certain shopkeeper had mentioned a male of his description purchasing gear for his newly acquired human female for a trip out to the wilderness.

Berus wondered if that particular pitstop had been a mistake, but what was done was done. And Cami really had needed new footwear. They were still traveling toward Shifting Sands in the transport, but she would need to step outside eventually.

Berus turned Cami to face him. "If Rehden ever gets his hands on you, promise me that you will pretend it was not your choice to come with me."

Cami frowned. "But he already knows I ran away from him."

"Tell him you wanted to stay on the Revenge because the crew promised to get you to Reka 5. It is natural that you yearn for freedom, and it is the truth. But tell him that I stole you from the Revenge after, that you had no choice but to come with me. He will be more lenient on you if he thinks you were coerced. Your survival is crucial; you need to give me or my crewmates time to get to you. Do you understand?"

Cami nodded slowly. "Yes. He'd be very upset if he thought I left him to be with you. But that's not fair to put the blame on you."

"I don't care. I can handle his anger. You cannot. You are small. He could kill you." He cupped her face. The thought of finding her lifeless body made his heart writhe in agony. "He already believes, perhaps rightfully so, that I covet you, so he would believe it."

Cami froze mid-inhalation as she processed his words. "You covet me?"

"Yes. But I will not stop you from attaining your freedom. I know how much it means to you." He meant it. He would let her go free even if he had to ask Ulrek to lock him up to keep him from following her.

"Thank you, Berus." Tears started to well up in her eyes.

"Why are you crying? Do you not believe me when I say that you are safe?"

"No, I do. It's just that you and the rest of the crew have done so much for me already, and I don't know how to repay you all."

"There is no need. We are not able to help everyone who needs it, but those we can, we do. I know that Ulrek feels a certain need to atone for his role in bringing humans here. I wasn't completely innocent either. Yes, I was following orders, as was he, but I still had a hand in enslaving humans from Earth. I was the one who rounded them up. I was the one who guarded them. I know I can't erase the past, but I will do what I can to make amends."

Berus didn't expect Cami's next words, or the soft fingers that clutched his forearms. "If it hadn't been Ulrek and the crew aboard the Stellar Fortune , then it would have been another captain with another crew and another ship. The Stellar Fortune might have been the first, but they only brought over a small number compared to later ships. Neither you nor Ulrek are personally responsible for what happened on Earth, or what happened to me. The Dominion is. I blame them, and only them. Trust me, I've had a lot of time to think about this.

"I know I'm just one person, and my thoughts aren't necessarily representative of the entire human race, but I forgive you. Even though I was brought to the inner planets on board the Stellar Fortune. "

"You were?"

That meant they'd met before, but under much different circumstances.

"Yes. And I still forgive you."

"Thank you."

The transport slowed and turned onto a new road that was very bumpy. Cami went to look out the window.

"Oh—it's just a dirt road."

"We've turned off the main road. Many of the roads to the small villages are simple dirt ones. Villagers like to make it as difficult to get to them as possible."

"Why?"

"Because up until a little over a decade ago, the Dominion drafted from small New Rhean villages. They used to have a much stronger hold on the outer planets. The villagers treated the draft like a curse. In a way, it was. It separated young males from their families, forcing them into the academies in the inner planets. They took females too, to ‘comfort' soldiers on their ships."

Cami looked disgusted. "No wonder they made it as difficult as possible for the Dominion to get there."

"Youngsters who were smart, or had certain skills, were given a good education. The others became simple soldiers. Just bags of meat to do the Dominion's bidding." Berus sighed. "Like me. Except I joined because I was starving."

Cami's eyes softened. "I'm so glad you made it out."

Berus reached down under the seats and brought out the spare blaster. "You should learn how to use one of these."

Cami looked unsure.

"It's okay. The safety is on right now, so it can't hurt you." He placed it in her hand, moving her palms and fingers into a supported, two-handed position that was usually taught to youngsters when they were first learning. "It's not hard. Even those who failed all the aptitude tests can use a blaster."

He was, of course, talking about himself. According to the Dominion, he was smart enough for a blaster, but that was it.

He demonstrated how to toggle the safety on and off. There was a time when blasters didn't have a built-in safety, but enough soldiers ended up shooting themselves in the foot that it now came standard on all firearms.

He had her aim out the window and repeat the motions several times. "It's always in the same spot relative to the handle," he said, "No matter what make or model it is, it will always be there, and the motion is the same."

Then, still with the safety on, he showed her how to select the setting. Normally, all blasters defaulted to stun unless the owner had modded it.

"The recoil is substantial, even on stun. When we stop and make camp, you can shoot a few times to get a feel for it. The higher the setting, the more the recoil."

The transport slowed to a halt and sounded an alert. They were at the edge of the forest and the dirt road continued into it, but the way ahead was blocked by overgrown brush. Berus would need to clear it. It wouldn't be the only time this happened, either. Until they were deeper into the forest, where the trees were larger and the space between them more generous, he'd probably need to keep clearing a path so they could make it through.

The problem was that their transport would leave an easily trackable trail on the ground. On the plus side, at least the dense canopy would hide their transport from view from the air. Logically, that would be the first thing Rehden would try. Deploying a machine to capture aerial footage cost a lot less than sending out his armed thugs in no specific direction.

"Stay in the vehicle," Berus said as he dug around in the storage of the transport for some protective gear and a blade.

Camila

Camila watched with interest as Berus lifted the blade and whacked at the offending foliage. He wore a long protective jacket that went all the way to his hips as he worked. Camila was disappointed she couldn't watch him do this topless. What a sight that would have been!

Berus had warned her that if she needed to step out of the vehicle, she should put on the raincoat as a protective layer. She was on strict orders not to touch any plants, not even those that looked innocuous. He'd explained that there were plants here that could kill just by touch alone.

Having had more than one run-in with poison ivy and poison oak in her past life on plain ol' Earth, she respected and appreciated the abundance of caution. Her philosophy of Survive Another Day also included doing so as comfortably as possible. Imagine making it all the way out here just to die from a rash. Hell, no!

Even with his jacket on, hiding his perfect shoulders and back from view, Berus's body was still impressive. He had managed to move an entire fallen tree out of the way. He cut off all the larger branches, and then, with one giant heave and some leverage, he'd pivoted the massive trunk over to the side. Then he'd picked up each branch like he was the Hulk and chucked them unceremoniously into the brush like they were no more than twigs.

Ugh, he was so strong and capable that it was almost sickening.

And he was kind, too! He didn't have to bring her to Vasek to get her chip changed, but he did anyway. She also hadn't missed the fact that he'd paid for her things with his own credits, not the ship's. Was it such a bad thing if she formed a mate bond with him? Wasn't that the original plan way back when, anyway?

Getting out to the outer planets was a treacherous proposition, and many runaways ended up trapped in even worse situations long before they made it anywhere near Reka 5. Some were returned to their owners alive, others, not so alive. Cami hadn't been desperate enough to risk that, so she had hoped some male would fall in love with her and whisk her away. It was silly, of course, but it gave her hope. Hope was crucial. Once that died, there was nothing at all.

But things were different now. Reka 5 was so close: she didn't need a Tallean to fall head over heels in love with her now. She certainly didn't need Berus to form a mate bond with her. Was it foolish that she kind of wanted him to, even if it meant she wouldn't be able to stay on Reka 5? The Revenge wasn't that bad, and she liked the people on it—

No.

She had to get to Reka 5 first. She had to establish herself as an independent entity, get her own ID number—one designating her as a free person rather than property—and find some way of earning her own credits. Then and only then could she entertain the prospect of romance.

Maybe Berus would be interested in continuing to see her whenever he stopped off at Reka 5. The Talleans called it testing for compatibility . They saw someone repeatedly to see if a mate bond formed between them. And while they'd never do that with a human on purpose in the inner planets, it seemed quite common out here, though of course she only had the Revenge as an example.

Outside, Berus had put away his large, curved blade and was stripping off his jacket. Instead of bringing it inside the vehicle, he tucked it away safely in the external storage. He didn't come back into the passenger area, instead opening the door to the section up front where the driver would sit if there was one.

"Do not touch my leg coverings or the front seats," he warned her. "I do not know the flora on this part of New Rhea well enough. They could be poisonous. It is best I control the vehicle manually from now on. The roads inside the forests are not well charted." He handed her his comm. "Here. Just in case you get bored back there."

"Thanks." Cami took it, but instead of burying her nose in the screen, she watched the forest go by, awed at the sheer variety of plants they passed.