Even If You Dream

Kienan Ademetria watched the readouts from his seat aboard the bridge of the Silhouette, balancing a cigarette between the fingers of his right hand. The freighter's mighty engines shook the hip as it pulled free of the orbit of Kuran and made its way into open space.

Kienan tried to relax. After all, this was what he wanted. To be far away from Kuran, to be far away from everything, to be able to concentrate on nothing but work for once.

And for nothing else than to be far away from her.

Kienan sighed, shoving his long chestnut braid off of his shoulder and behind him as he walked over to another terminal. His eyes scanned over his travel logs for the hundredth time since he'd gotten underway. He didn’t have to, actually, Toriares had been good as his word. According to Kienan's logs, he was a trader who had spent most of the last 9 months on a long haul through Khephren space.

Kienan looked at the rest of his readouts. His course was already laid in for Ganymede colony, not too far from Earth. Unfortunately, even at full Space Drive, it would take the better part of two days to get there.

Kienan took a long drag on his cigarette. Moments like this he hated to be alone with his thoughts, especially since they seemed to get louder when he was alone.

* * *

"I'm telling you," the heavyset woman behind the counter of the liquor store said firmly. "I'm telling you not to do this Kienan."

Kienan was looking at his pistol, and she couldn’t tell whether he was listening at all. He chambered a round in the pistol and slid it into the concealed holster in his jacket.

"Why, Lil?" Kienan said. "For her?"

"No, goddammit," Lil said. "For you. She's gone Kienan. Let her go. Move on and don’t look back."

"She just ran away," Kienan said, looking away for a moment. "She wants me to come and get her back. She wants me to come to her rescue, what happened last month was just a tantrum."

"You sure that's what she wants?" Lil asked. She reached down behind the counter, grabbing a bottle of old Earth scotch and two shot glasses from under the counter. With practiced ease, she opened the bottle and poured two shots, without spilling a single drop.

Kienan looked over his shoulder at the two shots. "Not thirsty," he said, fumbling in his jacket pocket for a cigarette. He finally fumbled one out, brought it to his lips and lit it, taking a short drag off of it.

"Take it," Lil said. Her gray eyes regarded his emerald green gaze as he turned to face her. He looks like an angel, she thought. But he's just a devil in a white suit. "Please, Kienan. For old Lil."

Kienan let his cigarette dangle from his lips as he reached for the shot. He held the glass up to the light, watching the amber liquid within. Then he took the shot, downing it with practiced ease.

He looked down at the empty glass and then back up at Lil.

"This isn't just about Jayla, is it?"

* * *

Harlan Korpil kept stride with the blue-skinned man as best he could, but apparently, his authority was a poor substitute for his colleague's enthusiasm. They made their way down the halls of Omnicorp's Ganymede research facility.

"Can't tell you how happy we are to have you with us to mop up this project," Korpil said, his voice nasal and obsequious. "You come highly recommended, Doctor Reficul."

The blue-skinned man turned and regarded Korpil with his burning red eyes. "I do?"