Heart of the Nebula by Joe Vasicek Page A

the fact still remained
that he was keeping her prisoner. Could she trust him? It made no
sense—no sense at all.
    The only thing that made any sense in that
moment was the plate of beans. With no one else to watch her, she
picked up her fork and dug in.
     
    * * * * *
     
    “ A stowaway?”
    “ That’s right,” said James.
“Sara and I found her while we were, ah, having dinner
together.”
    “ I see,” said Captain
Jarvis. She sighed and shook her head. “Well, we’re too far out to
turn around now, and we don’t have the facilities to hold her. The
best we can do is leave her with the port authority at Gaia
Nova.”
    “ With all due respect,
captain, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
    “ Oh? Why not?”
    Because I can save
her, James thought. The girl had obviously
led a hard life, and he’d be damned if he threw her to the
wolves.
    “ The girl is a full citizen
of the Colony, and she has every right to our protection. We have
no embassy at Gaia Nova—no way to ensure that she’ll receive that
protection.”
    “ Irrelevant,” said Jarvis,
waving her hand. “She’s a stowaway on my ship, and I want her off
at the first opportunity.”
    James stiffened. Irrelevant? How can you
possibly say that? But then he remembered
that Jarvis was a civilian, not a member of the Corps. She’d never
sworn the oath, much less put her life on the line to serve or
protect her fellow citizens.
    “ Yes,” he said, narrowing
his eyes. “And as the highest ranking military officer on this
ship, I am formally requisitioning the resources of this private
yacht to detain her until we return.”
    Captain Jarvis frowned.
“You want to do what ?”
    “ Not ‘want,’ Captain. This
is a formal exercise of my military authority. The girl stays with
us until we return to the Colony.”
    “ But that’s absurd. We’re
already at the maximum number of passengers, and—”
    “ I’m sure we can find a way
to make it work,” he countered. “If necessary, she can stay in my
quarters, and I can double up with Lars.”
    “ And how do you plan to
keep her detained there? The doors only lock from the
inside.”
    “ She’ll behave—I’ll see to
that.”
    Jarvis glared at him, clearly upset with his
affront to her authority. If this weren’t a civilian ship, he would
never be able to get away with this kind of stunt.
    “ Very well,” she said,
sighing loudly. “I’ll comply with your demands, Lieutenant. ”
    “ Thank you,
Captain.”
    “ I’ll thank you when that
stowaway is off my ship.”
    James saluted, and Jarvis left—for her
quarters or the bridge, he wasn’t sure. For a moment, he considered
returning to Kyla on the observation deck, but he hesitated.
Something told him that wasn’t a good idea just yet.
    What is she running
from? he wondered as he slowly paced the
corridor. No doubt she had stowed away on the Freedom Star in order to leave the
Colony forever—but why? If the situation back home was really that
miserable, that meant that he’d failed.
    Not yet, he told himself. There’s
still time to save this girl. If she
honestly felt that the only way to solve her problems was to run
away, then he’d have to convince her otherwise. One way or another,
he would change her mind—even if it took the whole voyage to do
it.

Part II: The Guardian
     
    Chapter 6
     
    Sara palmed open the door to the bridge and
stepped casually inside. The astrogator on duty glanced up briefly,
but turned back to his work as Captain Jarvis rose to greet
her.
    “ Ah, Sara,” she said,
offering her hand. “Good to see you.”
    “ And you. Have you spoken
with Lieutenant McCoy?”
    “ About the stowaway? Yes,
we… discussed the situation not an hour ago.”
    Jarvis’s voice had a hard edge to it; Sara
guessed there had been something of a confrontation.
    “ And what did you
decide?”
    Jarvis scowled. “As the ‘highest ranking
officer on this ship,’ the lieutenant has ‘requisitioned’ this
transport to