Ball of Silence

Ball of Silence - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

         The farewell the next morning is hard for Vic. He has tears in his eyes as he embraces me.

         "Good luck, Jaiah, good luck," he says. 

"I'll come back one day, I promise." I wish I could take him with me.

"Yeah, sure." He doesn't believe me. He thinks we'll never meet again.

         "Thanks so much for everything. I feel awful. I've reawakened your desire to see more of the universe. I've made you and Aima unhappy."

         "No, Jaiah, that's not true. I think about that occasionally, but I know how lucky I am here with Aima. We'll be all right. Take care of yourself out there."

         "I will. I'll come back one day."

         He nods and hugs me again.

We all have tears in our eyes when we finally lift off.       We are quiet for most of the flight back to the Voice of Silence. Only as we arrive do I realize that Sina has hired a bodyguard to look after the ship during our absence. He reports that nobody has tried to gain access to the ship. Shuslam is too far away from the rest of the Unity for bounty hunters to follow.

         I announce on the station's message boards that we are ready to take a cargo, any destination. I put the box with my crystal by my armchair, then go with Flin to buy a cheap portable computer at the station's electronics store. I spend the afternoon modifying it so that it won't interface with the ship's systems. Then I message Hriff. Half an hour later, she sends me the encryption software, and I install that too.

         As I appear in the mess hall for dinner, Sina has escaped to the bender bar on the station in the company of her hired bodyguard. Flin and Priar have panic in their eyes.

         "What do we do if she refuses to jump us to those secret coordinates?" Priar asks.

         "I don't understand why she doesn't want to! What's the big deal? I thought benders could jump anywhere if they had the coordinates," Flin says much too loudly.

         "I'll talk to Sina. I don't want to go to Heelith space with a bender that I don't trust. She has to jump us there. She will jump us there. Let me talk to her."

Flin grumbles and curses Sina under his breath while Priar gives me a worried nod.

         Sina doesn't come to my cabin that night. The next morning, I ask Flin to notify me as soon as she's up. According to the ship's automatic log, she only returned to the Voice at five a.m.

         She finally appears at noon.

         "Can we talk after lunch?" I ask her.

         "Sure." She eats in silence.

Flin has great difficulty in controlling himself. He looks as if he wants to hit her.

         Finally, Sina and I finish eating and go to my cabin.

         "So," I say, not in the mood for small talk. "Will you jump us to these secret coordinates? Will you come with us to Heelith space or not?"

         "I don't know yet, Jaiah." Her whole body is tense and her voice quivers.

         "When will you know? What does your decision depend on?"

         "So you're dead set on going through with all of this?"

         "Yes."