Ruiz blinked. “No, no, I’m not your owner. You’re free, as far as I’m concerned. Anyone who wishes may leave now and make their own way.” He turned and looked at Nisa. “Though I would regret it. As to getting home to Pharaoh… I’m sorry, but I think it unlikely, at this point.”
Nisa jerked her gaze away from Flomel and looked at Ruiz, shock written in her face. The others mirrored that emotion.
“Ahh…” said Dolmaero heavily. “This is a blow, Ruiz Aw. But not completely a surprise. Until you took the boat, I’d put such hopes away. Still, will you tell us why we couldn’t somehow return?”
Ruiz was uneasy. How could he tell them that under pangalac law they were still the property of the Art League, that the only way they could ever return legally to Pharaoh was as brainwiped cargo? He temporized. “Travel between the stars is expensive, and few ships call at Pharaoh.”
Dolmaero watched him sadly. “I fear that isn’t the whole story.”
Ruiz looked down. “No. It’s a complicated matter. We’ll talk of it later, if you wish, but now we need to be moving. I’m expecting a call from Corean; she’ll be unhappy when none of her folk answer. I’ve checked as best I can for override circuits, and I don’t believe she’ll be able to take control from us. But I can’t be sure; I’d like to make as much progress as we can before she calls.”
Ruiz turned to the main panel, began to ready the boat for travel. Without turning, he said, “Everyone sit on the couches and fasten the restraint webbing; it’s possible we’ll have a rough trip.”
When the engine began to whine, and the boat lifted into Sook’s sky, he looked back at them. All sat stiffly in the webbing. Three wore identical frowns of uncertainty.
But Nisa smiled as she watched him, her eyes full of some sweet emotion that lifted his heart.
Biographical Notes
Ray Aldridge was born in 1948. He has published a three-volume series, The Emancipator, featuring ex-slave investigator Ruiz Aw. The volume titles are The Pharaoh Contract, The Emperor of Everything and The Orpheus Machine. Short stories by Aldridge appeared in Full Spectrum 4 (1993) and The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: A 40th Anniversary Anthology. Among his shorter works are Steel Dogs (1989), Gate of Faces (1991), a Nebula Best Novelette nominee (1992) and The Beauty Addict (1993), a Nebula Best Novella nominee (1994).