Chapter 8: Cirrus Ice
"Angara do not keep secrets like this," Evfra frowned, walking up and down among the mushrooms, lost in thought. Occasionally though, he would glance at Ryder on the ground and a change seemed to come over him; and then he would start pacing again in agitation. The cycle continued.
"But it solves the problem," Ryder sighed, lying back contentedly with her arms over her head, gazing up at the sky. She didn't weary of watching Evfra contemplate his dilemma, but her neck and shoulders protested after a while. "We would be strangers in public," she continued, "no one can use this against you and even if the kett tried to exploit it, I can hold my own against them."
"The kett are the least of my concerns in this. The Initiative is suspect in several crimes now, that's what all the evidence we have points to and if I am thought compromised by my own people I may as well resign."
Ryder sat up, biting a lip in worry. "Evfra," she said gently, "we can do this. Unless you don't want to continue at all?" She truly tried to keep every ounce of anguish out of her voice; she didn't want this, whatever it was between them, if it was out of some obligation on his part and so she didn't want her investment in the idea of their being together to sway him.
"Strangers in public," he repeated, pausing a moment as he considered it. "I don't know that I can do this."
Ryder looked away.
"I suppose I will have to find a replacement," Evfra mused.
Her eyes snapped back to him and she stared. "You would… do that?" Her heartbeat quickened, but all she felt was stunned disbelief.
"Do you have reason to doubt my words?" he frowned. His eyes were serious, flecked with hints of mingled anger and loss, but mostly she saw fierce determination.
She did understand. More importantly, she was very much afraid that she realized in that moment staring into those wintery eyes that she loved him; and also that he would lose something more precious than life if she let him do this. A part of her burned to know how he felt about her, with the kind of uncertainty that could only be assuaged by words, but she was afraid that if she ever found out, that would force him into choosing between her and his people.
"No, Evfra, the Resistance is yours, I'm not willing to take that from you."
He sighed in exasperation. "I cannot lie to my people instead," he said.
"You don't have to lie," Ryder interjected as gently as she could, lying down again to stare up at the edges of the glowing boulders above her. "All you have to do is act like you always do around me and just not tell anyone! No one would dare question you about a matter like this anyway." She hated herself a little for not being able to bring herself to just end everything here and now and make his choice an easy one, but even the idea of not fighting for this made her squirm inside.
When Evfra didn't respond, Ryder looked up at him only to find him looking at her. After a moment, he joined her on the ground. His face was hardened by long years of seeing death and defeat, scars somehow emphasizing a wound deeper than the flesh, but his eyes were excited and wistful as he gazed at her, fingers trailing her contours; such unexpected gentleness for such a hard man mystified and delighted her.
"Sometimes I do not understand how you stir such hunger in me," he said, and began exploring her with gentle kisses that made her skin tingle with delight, savoring his sweet scent and the feel of his closeness. His ardent attentions were enchanting, especially with the gentle mists swirling around them, but unfortunately it didn't last long; she could see in his eyes that he was troubled by something.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Had this happened any other way…" he began, but didn't continue.
"I don't think it would have any other way," Ryder observed with a laugh. Knowing him and his stubbornness, she doubted she would have docked at Aya nearly often enough to even start to like him, let alone… She blushed at the thought, which in turn irritated her. At what point did someone stop dissolving every time…? Evfra was frowning into the distance, but she noted that one hand still rested on her shoulder, comfortably. It made her smile.
"I will try this… 'strangers in public'," he said dubiously, clearly still not liking the idea.
"Good," she imitated his morose tone of voice, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly as she tried to suppress a laugh at his disapproving frown. "Come on," she said in her normal voice, "we should be moving. How is it that we spent a night here without any animals creeping up on us?"
"The plants are poisonous," Evfra remarked and she stared for a moment before stepping away from the nearest boulder. "Not to you or I," he added, seeing her reaction. "It has a perfume they dislike, ingested it is poisonous to them, however." With a frown for the glowing boulders, he amended, "though maybe that has changed. I do not know much about Havarl's plants, nor have I ever been interested to learn."
"Well, now I feel perfectly safe. Your local knowledge is invaluable." Her sarcasm was lost on him by his serious expression, though she did notice what might just have been a quirk of the mouth.
Getting dressed and as collected as they could be in the middle of a jungle, they gathered their weapons and started on their journey back to the Tempest. It wasn't far, but even that short journey made Ryder uncomfortably aware of how damp all her clothes were from lying on the ground. She could almost feel it eating away at her, but every time her mood began to turn downward, she would glance at Evfra and, still a little stunned by what had unfolded between them, she would instead begin to grin like an idiot until she regained control again. Once they reached Daar Palaav, though, Evfra gave her a significant look and began to radiate distance.
It had been her idea in the first place, but she was ready to admit that she already didn't like it. She broke the silence, needing the distraction. "What do we do next?"
"I need more information to answer that," Evfra said. "I only have full access to all my eyes from Aya's headquarters, but I suspect that we won't find any more obvious leads."
"As I recall, waiting for leads to fall into our lap is what got us into this situation in the first place," Ryder frowned.
"We were following clues, but not all of them were planned. The first man's death involved a Roekaar blade," Evfra said. "It pointed us directly at them, but it also made me doubt. That doesn't suggest a deliberate act, considering their pattern so far."
"You still seemed fairly convinced at the time that it was the Initiative even so," Ryder pointed out. "Still, it does seem like an odd choice. Every other clue has hinted at the Initiative, except that one."
Evfra studied her for a moment. "Which leads me to believe that he was an exception, killed for a different reason than forcing the Resistance and the Initiative apart."
"I still don't quite understand what their game is with you especially," Ryder sighed. "The direction also seems to have shifted…" She trailed off as they finally reached their destination.
Climbing aboard the Tempest, Ryder breathed a deep breath of the ship's air, feeling at home again. They made their way through the cargo bay and she was already loosening her armor in anticipation of getting out of them, waving to Gil when she spotted him in engineering above them. Evfra exuded a stiffness that almost made her wince at how obvious it looked; but on further inspection, she decided that it would pass muster. After all, the man wasn't known for a jovial manner.
"So what do we do on Aya? Besides… gathering information." She fully intended to pass that time tormenting him with small seductions; he certainly owed her the satisfaction.
"We wait for 'Firaan' to make his next move," Evfra grimaced. As they reached the passageway he paused, giving her quarters a dubious glance, then said, "I will go elsewhere."
"Oh, no you don't," Ryder caught his arm and practically dragged him. "You spent days tormenting me with it, you're not stopping now."
"How is this being strangers in public?" Evfra protested, but did not pull away.
"This is my ship," she said firmly. "I trust that my crew is intelligent enough to not speak of this while things are so tense between our people." Once finally inside, they faced each other and she suddenly felt a little flustered, staring up at him. "I suppose we're alone, so…" she meant to say they could be more relaxed, but Evfra unexpectedly kissed her.
After a long, sweet moment, he pulled back. "I am supposed to resist that anywhere else," he said grimly, not looking pleased at the prospect.
Ryder smiled. "I'm sure we won't get out of practice shouting at each other," she said.
Evfra snorted, but did not argue the point.
Calling up her instructions to Kallo, and ignoring his mutter that she spent more time giving orders from below deck than above before the comm switched off, Ryder set about enjoying what little time she had left with Evfra where she wouldn't have to wear a mask of stiff professionalism. They did not talk much, but they did worry side by side, hands clasped as they watched the ship slip silently among the stars.
Distance between the planets or no, the time passed too quickly as it seemed to Ryder and it almost caught her by surprise when Kallo's voice informed her a little sullenly that they had arrived at Aya. Exchanging one last meaningful glance, she and Evfra ascended to the bridge. This time Evfra gave his name and authorization without her asking; Suvi and Kallo's exchanged look made her a little nervous that maybe they guessed more than what they should know. Not that she had been terribly circumspect around them and she had just defended them to Evfra, but all the same she felt uneasy for not being able to control that information anyway.
Her stomach clenched as the ship descended to the planet's surface, but she couldn't quite place what it was that felt wrong about the situation except that it did. She didn't have time to ponder it, though; what seemed like moments later, she and Evfra were already preparing to disembark.
As soon as the bay doors opened and they began their descent, Ryder instantly knew that something was wrong. It wasn't intuition this time, however; angara swarmed over the port, all of them with weapons aimed straight at her. One of them broke ranks and, weapon trained on her the whole time, he stepped next to Evfra as if to protect him.
"Evfra, you are safe! Stars, we thought the aliens had murdered you!" he said.
"The Pathfinder was helping me, not murdering me," Evfra replied. Uncertain looks passed between a few of them, but most seemed even angrier for some reason.
"How can that be? She is one of them," a woman from the crowd said.
"Report," Evfra barked at the man who had joined him, but finding an opportunity to glower his displeasure at everyone until they settled down.
"The damage to Aya was minimal, repairs are mostly completed, a few are still underway. The Resistance is armed and ready to go on your order, other cells have been informed of the situation."
"The situation?" Evfra frowned.
"The enemy," someone said.
Evfra looked stunned. "The kett have attacked Aya?" he asked in confusion.
Again, some of the angara exchanged puzzled glances. "Evfra, the Initiative has declared war on us," another man from the crowd said.
"Impossible," Ryder said flatly, but raised her hands to show she was no threat as one of them stepped up to her and pointed her down with the tip of his weapon. The hostility in his eyes was shocking, and she found herself wondering if she was wrong and if something had indeed happened while they were on Havarl.
They made their way through the port towards the Resistance headquarters. Ryder was getting a little tired of walking that gauntlet with suspicious, curious, hostile and fearful gazes all around her, as if the first time she had stepped off the Tempest had just been caught in an endless loop where she was forever doomed to be the suspicious stranger. This time though, there was an eerie quiet hovering over everyone like a mist that had robbed them of their voices.
Aya itself looked as beautiful as ever, and it seemed that what the fighters on the docks had said was true; not a trace remained of the remains she had seen the last time they were here. Inwardly she was impressed with how seamlessly they managed that over such a short time, but she did not vocalize her feelings. Somehow she doubted the angara were in the mood for compliments.
Eyes searching for Evfra, she studied him while he was listening to one of the men talk about defense perimeters; the man seemed a little confused that Evfra's agreement with the deployments didn't garner the level of approval he clearly expected from the way his chest swelled in satisfaction, but the moment was smoothed over quickly enough when the Resitance leader began to inquire about specific details. His calm was attentive and drew the others' eyes instinctively; in short, he was a leader from head to toe and Ryder was ready to admit that he was good at it. She almost smiled before she caught herself, thinking that this 'strangers in public' thing might actually work.
As they drew closer to the now familiar large white doors, Ryder's steps slowed a little, wondering what they would find inside. Immediately one of Evfra's men prodded her in the back to keep her moving, making her glare over her shoulder at him, but disappointingly it had no effect.
Once inside, though, they actually moved to detain her, until Evfra put a stop to it with an impatient wave of his hand. In his office, one of Evfra's lieutenants looked up from Evfra's table where he had been studying something and as soon as his eyes fell on the Resistance leader, he heaved a sigh of profound relief.
"Evfra, we did not know what became of you," the man said, and they greeted one another in the angaran way.
"Nothing became of me, Saar," Evfra said.
"But the Initiative aliens…" Saar cut off, eyes swiveling to Ryder. His eyes were no more friendly than anyone else's she had seen so far.
"What is this I hear of war?" Evfra demanded, not allowing for any preamble or distractions.
"The Initiative has made its first moves on our borders across all worlds," Saar said, darting reproachful glances at Ryder.
"Where?"
"Voeld, you know what happened here of course, and now Havarl!"
"I was just on Havarl," Evfra said testily. Ryder gave him a sharp look; she had thought they weren't going to spread around where they went and why. "There are no soldiers there nor any movements in the sky, I would have heard."
"But Evfra! We just received a report that they slaughtered an entire daar!"
Trapped. Ryder almost groaned, but stuffed it down her throat before it could escape. Saar must have meant the Roekaar camp they had visited; clearly the bit of information about who they truly were had been left out. Worse, now that the Resistance was aware of the massacre, Evfra's hands were tied until he could find compelling enough evidence to prove that the Initiative had not been involved. Whoever this 'Firaan' was, he was clever, very much so. She studied the Resistance leader anxiously, trying to talk to him with her eyes but knowing it was useless.
"I want to see that report," Evfra said.
"That is not all," Saar continued. "We found Aesa," his voice filled with sorrow and anger. "He was lying in your rooms in a pool of his own blood. His throat had been cut by an Initiative assassin sent to kill you."
The situation was far worse than Ryder had feared and she puzzle pieces were suddenly falling into place. It made her want to curse; how could she not see it before? The Roekaar lead had been hers, she had insisted that they look into him and then the messenger immediately turned up dead, like a swamp producing a body to inquisitive eyes. Predictably, as if that had been a signal beacon, her instant reaction had been to grab at the opportunity to defend the Initiative, while an obviously flimsy lead had been dangled in front of Evfra which would potentially prove her wrong in turn…
It was all a very neat bundle. Firaan clearly had correctly guessed that the two of them would slip away to investigate, which left him plenty of room and opportunity to manipulate everything, seed the right reports and even leave another body to point the finger. That would enrage the angara and though she trusted them a little farther than humans to not jump to conclusions immediately, they were an emotional, impulsive people.
"What did you do to our people here?" she asked Saar, not backing down when he glared at her for the interruption.
"Yes, what did you do with them?" Evfra asked. For a moment Saar glanced between them, clearly wondering why Evfra was indulging her curiosity.
"We told them all to leave and to tell their leaders that they are not welcome on Aya." He looked a touch uncomfortable at Evfra's sudden withering glare, but he did not seem to regret the decision all the same. "You were not here, Evfra, a decision had to be made."
Evfra nodded after a moment, looking troubled. He did not look at Ryder. "We must find out more," he said eventually.
"All the reports are here," Saar took a step backwards to gesture at Evfra's table, practically groaning with datapads and other objects Ryder couldn't even begin to guess what they were for.
"Has Paraan been updated on the situation?"
"Of course," Saar nodded. "She was not happy with my instructions to seal the docks."
"She wouldn't be," Evfra muttered. "Where is the report on the Initative's activities on Voeld?"
Saar wordlessly picked up one of the datapads and handed it to him. Evfra took it and read it carefully, then picked up more of them, scanning through the text several times. Saar seemed to hover around him, clearly at a loss on how to be helpful but wanting to help anyway. Evfra did make use of him after a while, handing him datapads he had read but wanted to keep apart from the others, presumably for later study.
He was stalling, Ryder realized; he didn't want to jump to the obvious conclusion and cement the theory that the Initiative was indeed to blame for everything that had happened so far, but he couldn't keep it up for much longer, she was sure. The Resistance – and it seemed the angara in general – were already convinced of their guilt and there was only so long he could avoid voicing the conclusion, unless a miracle happened.
Finally, Evfra spoke. "This one," he held one of the datapads up, "details communication between the Initative and an unknown recipient about strategic Resistance bases, but it is all outdated information," he remarked.
"They did not break our codes," Saar noted smugly.
"Clearly," Evfra agreed, sounding a little skeptical.
"What about this one?" Saar gestured at Ryder.
"Pathfinder," Ryder corrected coldly. Saar glared at her briefly, but his attention was mainly on the Resistance leader.
"Evfra? What shall we do?" From his tone, he was confused; Ryder didn't blame him, the man's response to such situations was usually much more… flagrant.
Evfra did look at her then with an unreadable expression. "Throw her in a cell," he said calmly. "Lock down the ship. They're not going anywhere until we have answers."
