“Of course. All part of YZ/I’s plan to get Carlotta to start thinking about doing things differently. While keeping her own best interests in mind, naturally. She’d already lost Impris, but YZ/I convinced her that she could get something better. So she was willing to flush out some of her spies here, if it helped to ensure that she’d get access to this.” Tracy-Ace gently touched the side of Legroeder’s head.
He shivered at the reminder. “Will she stick to it? Will she stop the raiding? Is this where the honor among thieves kicks in?”
Tracy-Ace’s eyebrows went up. “We’ll find out, won’t we? She wouldn’t do it if she didn’t need the information from the Narseil as badly as we do. YZ/I let them save face here, but it’s in everyone’s interest to make sure Carlotta doesn’t wind up feeling conned. They did, after all, refrain from going after Impris—and you—while you were en route here.”
Legroeder felt that knot in his stomach again. He gazed at Tracy-Ace, and something else in his stomach told him there was more for him to ask. “And you… came to make sure Carlotta’s ships behaved themselves?”
“That, and other reasons.” Tracy-Ace looked out at the stars and laughed. Nervously? She turned to face him again, and clasped his hands between her own. “I was thinking… I might stay on a while.”
Legroeder felt a rushing in his ears.
Tracy-Ace looked down at their clasped hands. “For one thing, YZ/I wants to maintain a presence here. Through me.”
“Yes?” he murmured. “And the other?”
She let her breath out slowly and raised her eyes to meet his. Her implants were afire. “The other is, I’d like to stay with you. If you want me.”
His breath escaped with searing slowness.
“Do you want me?”
Legroeder’s eyes were blurring. “You mean that? Really?”
“I just said it, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but—”
She stepped closer, until their bodies were just touching. “But what?”
He had trouble meeting her eyes. “Well—you have a life with—the Kyber, right? And I’ve got this history, where the Kyber are concerned. What about that?”
Tracy-Ace slipped her arms around him and hugged him wordlessly. She pressed her face to his shoulder.
He wanted, desperately, to be satisfied with that. “Trace,” he murmured, squeezing her, “what if YZ/I doesn’t live up to his promise?”
“Which promise?” she whispered.
“The promise to stop piracy.”
She chuckled into his shoulder. “I have a pretty good idea what promises he can be expected to keep, and why. I’m connected to YZ/I, Legroeder. I’m part of him.” She drew back and peered at him. “You mean you never suspected?”
Legroeder stared at her, feeling utterly stupid. “Do you mean that you’re—of course, you’re connected to him. Your augments…” He suddenly remembered his dream—or had it been a dream?—of his augments connected to Tracy-Ace’s, while he slept and she fought with YZ/I.
Tracy-Ace chuckled. “Yes, love. Not now. But when I’m there, in the intelnet. At certain times, you could say that I’m a significant component of his consciousness. Didn’t you ever wonder why he understood your views so well?”
Legroeder flushed. “Do you mean to say—” he glanced around and lowered his voice “—that when we were making love—”
“No, dear, not then. He might have been interested—but no. I’m me, Legroeder, not some hybrid. YZ/I, now—he’s a different story.”
He stared at her. “I won’t argue with that. What other tricks does he have for me? Or should I say, do you have for me?”
Tracy-Ace grinned. “Touché.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“No tricks,” she promised. “There’s a lot I have to do here, though. When our returnees start arriving, there’s going to be pressure on Carlotta to follow suit—especially if she thinks we’re benefiting from relations with the Centrist Worlds. On the other hand, if she thinks we’re betraying them, and convinces the Republic of that—anything could happen.” She turned to peer out at the curved edge of the planet. “By God, though, Legroeder, I’m going to make it work. Damn if I’m not.”
There was an adamance in her voice that he liked, and admired.
They walked arm in arm to the opposite end of the observation deck, away from the planet, where all they could see was the dark of deep space. They stood awhile, peering into the measureless infinity of stars. “There’s a lot to do at Outpost Ivan, before the first fleets can leave for the Well of Stars,” Tracy-Ace murmured. “I’ll need to go back eventually to join them. But right now my work is here, I think.” She gazed at Legroeder for several heartbeats. “You never answered my question. Do you want me here? Do you want me with you?”
He smiled out at the stars.
“Legroeder?”
He turned. “What exactly is it you want to do here with me, Trace? Besides making sure that I’m delivered in one piece to the Narseil?”
“Besides be with you? I’m not sure, I guess. Are you still in legal trouble?”
“I dunno yet. But I’ve got Harriet. I think we’ll be able to handle it.”
“But can I help you?”
Legroeder drew her close. “You helped me come back on the deck of Impris. I don’t know what more you could possibly do.”
Tracy-Ace’s augments were gleaming like jewels. She closed her arms around his neck. “How about if I do this?” she whispered, and kissed him. It was a long, slow kiss that flickered between his lips, and seemed to stretch out time itself. He imagined his implants tickling themselves to life, joining with hers; imagined them all talking back and forth, like an echo in a canyon.
// …love you… love you… love you… //
He held her close and thought, Maybe you can, at that. Maybe you just can.
“Are you going to answer me?”
He felt a foolish grin crack his face before the words came. “Sorry—I thought I already had…” And he kissed her again as, outside the viewport, the stars shone bright and beckoning.
THE END
Dedication
For my family, with love—
Allysen, Alexandra, and Julia
Acknowledgments
This book took four years to write: forever, it seemed; an impossible task. But at last it is done. I owe more than the usual debt to those who helped me through it, and this is where I get to thank them publicly.
It’s customary to save one’s family for the end in this sort of thing, but I’m going to break with custom and start with the very best: my wife Allysen, without whose love and support this book would never have been written. Thanks for that and so much more. And what better fans could any writer ask for than my own smiling daughters? They’ve spent more time in my office than anyone but me, and I doubt they’ve known what a wonderful, continual encouragement they were to me. (Note to A. and J.: I look forward to many more years of having you peer over my shoulder asking, “Are you almost done yet, Daddy?”`) And thanks to my brother, Charles S. Carver; he knows why. (Note: if you happen to be in the fields of personality or social or health psychology, you may know his books, too.)