Star Law: A Marshal Cole Series

Chapter 25 (a)

Orion cursed herself for not telling the Marshal more. Still, there was so much herself she didn't know. There was also danger in trying to find out the information she needed to her and others around her. A lot of people had died, some as a result of her direct or indirect involvement.

She was surprised at how fast people came to look for the Marshal. She had quickly apported to safety and then once again to avoid detection. It briefly occurred to her that if he really wanted to, Cole might have directed his would be rescuers to her possible hiding place. In retrospect it had been dumb coming to their meeting wearing a spacesuit.Now, standing outside the ship atop the outside frame of a viewport she cautiously looked down. She could see security officers inside still conducting a search. Since they were not making their way to an airlock, she presumed that Cole had not directed them her way. In any event,she had planned her escape in stages but there was danger in apporting in zero gravity with the ship in motion. The ship shielding protected her from radiation but not from detaching. Every footfall had to be secured with a heavy clunk on the surface. This was particularly important while apporting. There was no room for error when materializing.

The security never looked outside the viewport. And why would they? Any access of the airlock keypad would have triggered an alarm.There were starting to be fewer places on the ship to hide. It was obvious her description was out there and while there were ways to foil facial recognition and disguise herself, it was not going to be easy. And yet she needed to be able to move about to continue her search.

Now that she had contacted Marshal Cole, she felt compelled to reach out to him again for help. She knew though that this was dangerous. Nothing new could have been learned to assist either of them. She thought what her next move would be. She knew that the brothers were still after her. Adisa and Adjani were dangerous especially since her last encounter with them had left their youngest brother dead. It didn't strike her that they would have anything useful to tell her. Still, they did seem to be following orders so through them, she might find out who was in charge. It was risky though and the chance of violence was high.

There was one person who was possibly on the ship who could have the information she needed. So far she hadn't seen or sensed him aboard but she'd kept her telepathic scans passive. An active scan would simply alert everyone to her presence not to mention location. It was a game of cat and mouse although sometimes it was difficult to know the cat from the mouse.

The man she decided to look for was the man who helped teach her about apporting. His name was Goroshenko