Page 39 of Star Champion

“A misunderstanding, Sea Kestrel. Clearly,” Arran said, waving away a few concerned guards.

Kes told Klark, “I heard his gangsters say that Arran sent them.”

“I heard it, too,” Nico said.

Arran took a breath and exhaled. “My men were looking out for my interests in the city. It’s what I pay them to do. It looks like things went too far, however, and for that I do apologize. But, this is part and parcel of street-bajha culture. Jockeying for the best players.”

“By killing my manager?” Kes argued. “By sending me to the prison league?”

Klark quieted Kes with a touch on the arm. “If I may have a word in private with you, Mr. Arran,” he murmured so coldly that a shudder ran through Arran’s body and his face turned as pale as sea foam against his starched collar. He itched to snatch that prissy collar in his fists and shove the man backward against the nearby wall, but if he had learned anything from his blunders the past few years, it was self-control.

Arran waved his hovering guards away with a flick of his hand. His throat bobbed as he faced the full power of the Vedla glare. “My Lord.”

Klark’s heartbeat made a hollow sound in his ears that competed with the thump music outside in the bar. Sea Kestrel was more than his diamond in the rough, his slum-bred secret weapon; Kes was the answer to lifting his team’s standing and his family’s at the same time. But all of it could have been destroyed on a whim with one word from this self-important, rock-sucking, backwater bully. “If you ever again lay one hand, either your own or through your orders, on any member of the Aves family. Or if you take action to negatively impact Mr. Aves’s right to advance his other players in any club he desires...” Klark mentally twisted his knuckles in Arran’s collar, imagining the man’s face turning purple. “Colony-Marshal Vrent will shut down your establishments faster than you can use your middling station to bully helpless colonists. You will never earn another credit from a club until the day you die. Of course, there’s always work to be found in the mines, I’m told.”

Arran’s pupils shrank at that. “You have my word. I won’t hinder Nico Aves in any way.”

“Do you understand what a man of my status and connections can do if you choose to break your word?”

“Yes, Lord Vedla. Completely.” Arran’s voice was hoarse, as if he had sensed Klark’s desire to choke the living daylights out of him. “There’s more than enough room for the two of us in this city.”

“Do ya really know the Colony-Marshal?” Nico asked Klark when they returned to the hovercar. Kes gaped at him with the same amazement.

“He knows me,” Klark replied. Every once in a while, his infamy was an advantage.

On the way home, they approached a cluster of activity surrounding a large white tent lit by floodlights. Jemm twisted around in the seat to get a better view. “What in the dome is going on out there?” A line of people stretched out from it and wound around the corner. Red and black letters dominated one side of the tent. Below those was an emblem emblazoned with red squiggles and a silhouette of a human form with blocky alien runes she didn’t recognize. Another banner contained words in Federation Basic. “Doctors without Borders?”

Nico laughed. “That ain’t no name for a club. The Ore’s Head is right around the corner though; the club I’m leasing.”

She threw him a sideways glare. “Not a club. The sign on that tent.” As they drove closer, she read,All clinics and vehicles are weapons-free zones. As if regular Baréshtis walked around with pistols.

“Earth-dwellers,” Sir Klark said, his mouth taking a downturn, his tone flat. “It seems they have decided to get involved in your colony, after all. It may be a very good thing. They are an industrious people, despite their outsized ambitions. They can help the Baréshtis. Great Mother knows, the Federation has failed you.”

“Slow down,” Jemm told the driver. Rolling down the window, she leaned out to see. The colonists waiting in line appeared to be more ragtag than usual. Many had coughs like Ma, with lung disease being prevalent on Barésh, thanks to mine work and pollution. Others looked to be suffering with the usual chronic conditions like rashes and sores or colds. Still others sported fresh wounds in need of mending. Her heart clenched at the sight of all the sick children. Some stood with their parents, clinging to hands; others lay limp in strong arms. She had never seen so many ailing little ones gathered together at once.

Then she noticed the suspicious, even defiant looks aimed in her direction. The flycar labeled her as rich, a cog from the compound. She was no longer a mineworker in their eyes; she was an elite, oneof them—the upper class. Maybe they feared she would scuttle whatever was unfolding. “Stop the flycar.”

Jemm opened the door and jumped out, and Nico followed. “What’s going on?” she asked the crowd.

One man took in the sight of her and deemed her to be another trill rat. “They be Earth-dwellers, lads,” he said.

“They’ve come to give us medical care,” answered another, holding the hand of an emaciated little boy with hollow eyes. “For free.”

“Free?” Jemm frowned at the tent, trying to figure out the catch.

“Aye. They’re here to treat all that needs it,” the woman standing with him said.

“For anyone?” Jemm immediately thought of Ma.

“Aye, not just upper class.” The woman’s eyes narrowed with fear and distrust at a point somewhere over Jemm’s shoulder.

Jemm pivoted her head and spotted theVashleaning against the hood of the flycar as he waited for her, arms folded over his chest. He acknowledged her notice with a slight tip of his head, but let her be, although she was certain he would intervene in an instant if he sensed she was in any danger. But his mere presence was ominous to those in line.

He could not help appearing insolent. Arrogance was bred into him—eleven thousand years worth of breeding. His standoffish expression grew dark as a pair of off-worlders made their way toward them, seeing to people in the line, pulling some out, directing others elsewhere.

Earth-dwellers.

Everyone in line stared at the pair of Earth-dwellers and their exotic appearance. Their white-and-red jumpsuits sported the same emblem as the tents, but other runes on their uniforms were unreadable.

---