Mirror Space - Marianne de Pierres [115]
He heard an exclamation of recognition and felt himself lifted into the air. Strength-enhanced arms and augmented legs conveyed him away from the fire housing and into a cabin. The door sucked shut and he was dropped into a small armchair.
‘Berniere! What in Edo’s name are you doing?’
He forced his eyes open to confront Samuelle’s ferocity. Everything that he needed to say rushed to his tongue at once and he found himself unable to be coherent.
She made a frustrated noise and thrust a water tube into his mouth. ‘Drink, then breathe.’
He obeyed her simple instruction. The cool water somehow made it easier to catch his breath. And then speak. ‘S-small spaces,’ he managed after drinking half the tube. ‘I-I dislike s-small s-spaces. ‘Pologise.’
Her sharp eyes blinked at him. ‘Fariss has been arrested for Macken’s murder. What do you know about that?’
Thales’s stomach cramped with anxiety. ‘Have you seen her?’
‘She’s in station containment, for Cruxsakes. But where have you been, Berniere? How did you get off the damn ship unnoticed?’
‘Fariss helped me. She said it was better for me to leave through the hold. She arranged it.’
Samuelle pressed her forehead. ‘Well, as things turned out, mebbe she was right. Macken’s death brought a lot of attention her way.’ A glint of tears showed in her eyes. ‘Can’t figure out what she was doing though . . . murdering one of Lasper’s treasured.’
‘Perhaps it wasn’t murder,’ whispered Thales. ‘Perhaps it was self-defence.’
‘You know that?’ she said.
Thales shook his head dumbly.
Samuelle shrugged. ‘If only the damn girl’d talk to me about it, but she won’t say a shitting word.’ She sank deep into her own thoughts for a moment, then pulled herself back to the present. ‘And why are you falling out of cupboards at my feet?’
Thales told her, as quickly as his scrambled thoughts would allow, about Mira Fedor and everything that she’d seen in Post-Species space. As he spoke, Samuelle’s expression altered. Disbelief replaced irritation.
‘You say both Landhurst and OLOSS want this woman for different crimes.’
‘Neither are real crimes,’ said Thales. ‘Self-defence.’
‘Like Fariss, eh?’ Samuelle gave a humourless laugh. ‘You have a mastery of understatement, Thales. This Fedor woman nearly tore the side off an OLOSS ship and somehow convinced a bunch of decommed warships to turn their weapons on a station.’ She paced back and forth across the room as she spoke. ‘It’s too risky to align myself with someone of her reputation, though truth be known, I’m curious to meet her.’ She shook her head. ‘Can’t help you. You wait here now, in case I need your testimony.’
‘No!’ cried Thales, forcing himself to stand. ‘You must hear her out at least.’
‘There is nothing I must do.’
Thales took a ragged breath. ‘Fariss is incarcerated?’
The sharp eyes bored into him. ‘And?’
‘What will happen to her?’
Samuelle considered. ‘At home on Edo she’d have been executed if I hadn’t been able to get her off-planet. Here, with things the way they are, I don’t know. Lasper will have to use station court. She’ll wind up in containment, but at least she’ll be alive.’
Containment. The very thought of being locked away was too much to bear - but not as great as the guilt and remorse he harboured over Fariss’s sacrifice. He took a deep breath so that he could say the words in one attempt. ‘I will admit to Macken’s murder on the condition that you help Mira Fedor.’
Samuelle stiffened, though her suit kept working, strengthening and massaging her muscles with little movements that looked like a ripple across her body. ‘What’s that?’
‘I killed Macken,’ he said clearly. ‘He tried to rape me. Fariss left me with a pistol when she went to see you, just before we shifted. It happened then. She came back and found me. After shift, she took me straight down to the hold. I hid in a refrigerated carton.’
Samuelle sank into one of the two armchairs