Page 76 of Star Champion

Klark closed the distance between them until he finally stood at his uncle’s side. It was the closest he had been to Uncle Yul since he was five years old.

Shoulder to shoulder, they watched the trawler unload its catch. “We come from a long line of brooding men who like to stare out to sea,” Uncle Yul observed.

Klark frowned. Having his similarities to Uncle Yul confirmed by the man himself did not improve his mood.

“Walk with me,” Uncle Yul said. “Men who plot are far less likely to be suspected of it if they’re out strolling.”

Men who plot? Klark fell in step with his uncle.

“I heard the news today, Klark, about your commoner bajha discovery, our star player, leaving the league. Personal reasons? Bah. Something doesn’t sound right. What do you know?”

For the most fleeting of moments, Klark considered deflecting the question, telling Uncle Yul he was not at liberty to share any information. Then he reminded himself that he needed an ally in the family. “Your suspicions are correct, sir. Kes Aves didn’t leave voluntarily. She was banned from competition by the league.”

Uncle Yul’s steps faltered. “She, you said?”

“That is correct. Kes Aves is female. She was a successful street bajha player, playing in disguise. After tryouts, she admitted she was a woman. She was fully willing to walk away from the opportunity of a lifetime for the sake of being honest. But I wanted her on the team, anyway. She is the single most gifted player I have ever seen.”

“The single most gifted player in the entire league. Unequalled talent. I would have done the same thing.”

By the time it caught up to Klark that he was chatting about bajha with Uncle Yul, they had actually agreed on something. “I filed a formal protest in person before I left Chéyasenn. Then they came out with that blasted lie. You see why, don’t you? The league doesn’t want the embarrassment of a female defeating the best players in the league to be public knowledge.”

Uncle Yul wore his deepest scowl. “Cowards. I bet the B’kahs are celebrating this decision as we speak. The Lesoks, too. If those bastards haven’t influenced it from the very beginning.”

“My entire team and I agree with you wholeheartedly, Uncle. Now rumors are flying, including some that connect the decision to performance enhancing tech. The choices are to leak the truth and be forever known as the team that tried to sneak women into the bajha ring, or we allow the rumors of doping to persist. Both have the potential to be damaging to the team’s reputation and ours.”

Their boots ground against the sand strewn on the path. The sound of the scavenger gulls battling for scraps from the trawler faded behind them. Uncle Yul said, “We need the truth to come out. Then we need to get the decision reversed. Kes Aves must return to the ring, and in time for Team Eireya to win the Galactic Cup.”

“Yes.” It was encouraging that Uncle Yul, the family’s most conservative member, agreed with his plan.

“The risk, Klark, is that forcing the league to admit they covered up banning a female will humiliate them, as you said. Once that happens, we can expect them to come back at us, twice as hard. They could levy enormous fines on the team and our family. Huge penalties that could prove quite taxing on our assets.”

Klark’s gut knotted up at the thought. Just when he thought he could not cause the family more trouble. “I hope we don’t have to weather that storm, but we Vedlas are a powerful family. We will survive. I’m quite frankly more concerned about this coming down hard on Jemm.”

“Jemm, is it?”

“Jemm, yes. That’s Kes Aves’s real name. Jemm Aves. She’d be powerless against the league. No matter what course of action we take, I want her folded into the protection of our clan. I will not stand for her to be prosecuted, or sent to jail. I’ll see her protected, no matter what it costs me.”

Uncle Yul halted. Silence reigned as Klark held the man’s penetrating stare for longer than he ever had in his adult life. “Why, you’re in love with her, boy.”

Klark’s heart nearly stopped. “I trained her as a coach would. She was my player.” The words seemed woefully inadequate to encapsulate his relationship with Jemm, and the magnitude of his feelings for her.

Uncle Yul laughed. “Tell the truth.”

Klark cast his gaze out to sea as thoughts of him and Jemm and all they had shared cascaded through his mind. “Yes. I’m in love with her. It was the most wonderful and extraordinary thing that ever happened to me.” He took control of himself before more foolish words spilled out of him. This was Uncle Yul, after all, and not his teenage sister, Kat. “We both understand the impossibility of being together, however.”

“Ah. The impossibility of being together. I used similar words myself once.” Uncle Yul’s expression reverted back to one of perpetual disgruntlement. “I convinced myself of them when I was about your age. I was the second son, like you are. I had your father to watch over.” He sighed, a sound that carried the weight of years. “I was a fool. I let her go. Every day I imagine I see her out there on the water, and pretend she thinks of me.”

“Perhaps she does,” Klark offered.

“Does not. She’s a grandmother now with a large family and a husband-protector who adores her. She moved on.”

And I never did. Klark guessed what his uncle had left unspoken.

Uncle Yul’s brilliant, pale golden eyes narrowed. “I let the love of my life go because she did not fit the Vash mold. I have regretted it ever since. She was a commoner, as your Jemm is.”

Dour, by-the-rules Uncle Yul had fallen in love with a commoner? The same man who had railed at Klark for allowing Ché to shoulder the blame for a spilled garden cart? Klark tried to wrap his mind around the impossible revelation.

“Take a look at me, Klark. Take a long look at this life-long bachelor. This bitter old coot who strikes fear in the hearts of his nephews. This will be you in thirty years if you let that woman get away. And she will. The good ones always do. Go get her and bring her home. And if she doesn't want to come home with you? Well, just go get her. Things will have a way of working out.”

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