Page 116 of Sky Song
Cricket approached Paloma’s desk as she brought up the projection screen. “You knew what he was? This whole time?”
“Yep.”
“And you never said anything to me?” She felt, once more, inadequately lacking in that street savviness, the subterfuge and quick cause-effect discernment that all of them seemed to have. It was like Paloma, Ren, and Lyle were moving a hundred miles a minute while she stood still. It was a disconcerting notion, and one that made her feel potently vulnerable. A pawn.
To give her credit, Paloma looked uncomfortable. “I debated telling you, Cricket, a dozen times.”
“But you didn’t.” Cricket’s words came out bitter. “Don’t you think it is important?”
“You have feelings for him. And here comes me, a concerned citizen, hey, honey, by the way, this one is a bad apple with a violent thieving past and blood on his hands. Yeah, I didn’t want to be the messenger, so shoot me.”
“Thanks a bunch for your concern!”
“I figured if he wanted to harm you, he would have by then.”
“What a great friend you are.”
“I did tell you about detrozanine,” Paloma pointed out. “And he’s protective of you! I’ve seen how he treats you… He feels something for you.”
Cricket’s breath came out on a shudder. “He’s using me, Paloma. I may be ignorant, but I’m not totally naïve.”
Paloma shook her head. “Maybe now’s the time. Let’s just watch this.”
“What’s this?”
“It’s the only video in existence that captures the infamous Shadow Flyer in action.”
“Shadow Flyer. Was it Lyle’s moniker?”
“There is an inconsistency about the name. Hardly surprising with the pirates.” Paloma smiled with one side of hermouth. “Shadow Flyer was his father’s handle. His father’s name was Leithis, and he had been one of the rebels who’d broken off from the Rix conglomerate and established a colony that subsequently became the pirate haven - it’s a separate ugly story. Mayhem and chaos, slaves of all varieties, including women, beastly warring marauders, and total disregard for life and universal values. That’s where Lyle was born.” Paloma paused as she punched in a code to bring up the video.
“Lyle did tell us he was born in a haven,” Cricket pointed out.
“Yes, that checks out. His real name - rather, his full name - is Rayanor Lyrem. It’s kind of long, so I’m guessing he truly goes by Lyle and has all his life.”
Cricket started crying. She hadn’t even known his full name. She knew nothing. She was just a pawn.
“Please, don’t cry.” Paloma’s eyes filled with tears, too. “You know what? Screw it. Let’s not watch it. What does it matter? He can fly us out, we know he can. The rest is idle curiosity.”
Cricket shook her head and wiped her tears. “No, I want to see it.” She wanted to know all there was about a man who owned her heart.
With reluctance, Paloma turned the video on.
At first, the projection screen was black, but Cricket could hear a canned voice barking orders in the background in a guttural language unfamiliar to her.
“This is a feed from a Naem spaceship that got saved and somehow ended up on the net hub. Not easy for a lay user to find but not exactly a cyber secret. Anyway, I couldn’t find all the details, but evidently a ship was stolen from the Naem base, from under the nose of their military, and they gave massive chase. They surrounded him. Here, the commander from apursuing fighter orders the pirate to surrender or else. But the pirate is ignoring him. There’s a caption feature, hold on.”
Paloma turned the captions on, and the Universal scroll automatically appeared every time words were uttered. For several minutes, terse commands against a black screen predicted the pirate’s demise from the Naem force that surrounded him, and ordered immediate surrender.
Suddenly, another male spoke. The reply was short and went along the lines of Fuck Off. The voice was also canned, distorted by the transmitter.
Cricket frowned. “It doesn’t sound like Lyle at all. Is it him?”
“Yes, Cricket. He’s the one commandeering the stolen spaceship.”
The on-screen blackness erupted in crude threats and insults from the pursuing Naem leader, culminating in calling the pirate a coward too afraid to show his face. There was no reply from the stolen spaceship, and the ranting went on and on until, gradually, the blackness lifted, morphed into a shadow and then an image.
It was dark in that spaceship. The piloting Rix showed like a shadow, but then the light source shifted, and she could see his face and neck - everything else remained off screen. The Rix was wearing the bottom half of an oxygenized headgear like a mask that covered the lower part of his face.
