Beloved Stranger: Gaian Series, Book 5 Read online

  Unfortunately those weren’t the circumstances they were in, not that he knew that. Roan thought she really intended to be his wife. Too bad that wasn’t possible.

  “Perhaps we should go?” she said when it looked like they’d be standing there all night with him staring at her.

  He shook his head. “Yes, of course.” Turning to the man at the desk, he began reciting his name and number again, but the official held up his hand.

  “I got it the first time.” He held up a scanner to Roan’s arm. “Roan Duman.”

  Then he held it up to hers and after a moment frowned. “No tracking tag. You’ll have to take care of that later.”

  Sonja said nothing, but swore to herself that wasn’t going to happen.

  He entered their names on his p-tab. “Roan Duman, Sonja Deems. Married. Marriage fee, thirty-one thousand credits.”

  Sonja couldn’t help her gasp. “Thirty-one thousand? That’s a fortune!”

  The official seemed amused. “Costs a lot to bring women here. Not many are willing to come to a prison planet to be married.”

  And didn’t she know that already. Most women didn’t come here willingly at all. Years earlier she and her sisters had been stolen from their Outer Colony farm to furnish women for the Gaian miners’ marriage meets, and recently she’d been involved in an unofficial effort to end the practice of slaving in the Outer Colonies.

  She’d known there was money in it for the slavers who took the women, but she’d no idea how much. And they expected this prisoner to fork over a fortune like that just so he could have a wife? It was preposterous!

  She turned to Roan but he didn’t protest or even look surprised. He waved a small wand over the machine. “You can deduct it from this account.”

  He smiled at her shock. “Don’t worry, Sonja. If I couldn’t afford a wife I wouldn’t be here.”

  The man waved them through the heavy door that led into the mining complex. Sonja stepped through and inwardly rejoiced. She’d gotten what she’d come for.

  They were inside what looked like a locker room, with brown robes and a few white ones piled up as if people had left in a hurry. In a hurry to enjoy their wedding nights alone, Sonja decided.

  Roan reached for her robe. “You can take that off now.”

  And happy she’d be to take it off and never put it back on again. Sonja stripped off the robe and handed it to him. She hated the robes they made you wear. She hated wearing the stupid white dress as well, dressing herself as if she were to be offered up like some virgin—hah on that—sacrifice for the greater good.

  In this case though, the greater good was the solution to finding her sisters, and much as she’d hated it, she’d put the dress on willingly. She had a plan to rescue them, but it involved getting inside the mining complex, a place outsiders were strictly forbidden to go.

  She’d found the only way to do it was by getting one of the men to take her inside, hence her garments, the marriage meet and allowing one of their men to attach to and marry her.

  Which this unsuspecting man had done—costing him a small fortune in the process. Sonja cringed at that. She’d had no idea they charged the prisoners for their wives.

  Perhaps Roan thought the price was a bargain to get a wife, but what he didn’t know was that she had no intention of settling into housekeeping with him. Her plan was to find out who had married her sisters, locate them and get them off this rock as quickly as possible. They’d already been here six years too long.

  The money, though, made a difference. Maybe she could find a way to pay him back for the marriage fee, although where she was going to lay her hands on thirty-one thousand credits she didn’t know. With her usual salary as a ship pilot, it would take years to accumulate that kind of sum.

  “Did you bring anything with you?” Roan asked, breaking into her thoughts.

  My equipment. “Oh, yes. I have a small bag.” She’d left it in the locker room where she’d changed into the white gown and robe.

  “One bag? You travel light.” He went to a door and knocked, and a man poked his head out, looked at her then ducked back inside. After a moment her small brown duffle was handed through.

  Sonja opened and looked through it quickly, letting out a sigh of relief that no one had found the hidden compartments or noticed the disguised items and seen them for what they were. She looked up to see Roan’s amused expression.

  “This might be a prison but there is very little theft here.”

  She sealed up the bag. “I guess I’m not very trusting.”

  “You trust me, I hope.”

  “Perhaps. But you weren’t the one who had my bag, were you?”

  Roan laughed, and she found she liked the sound. Ever since she’d agree to marry him, he’d been almost jubilant in his demeanor. He had a cheerful attitude she couldn’t help admire. She almost hated to think she was the cause of it, since she had a bad feeling she was likely to be the cure in the very near future.

  He indicated a nearby room. “If you’d like to change into something else…”

  Sonja didn’t need another word or excuse to get out of the white gown that screamed “new bride”. She grabbed her bag and headed for the room.

  When she returned, she was wearing the Traveler garments she owned, a white top with a gathered neckline and colorful skirt. Even wearing her usual short boots, she felt her outfit was dressy enough to keep with her cover story of being a new wife in a mining colony.

  Roan had changed as well, from the baggy brown marriage meet outfit into a pair of tailored black pants and a well-fitting light blue shirt. She was surprised at how handsome he looked, and how prosperous. The rich fabric of the shirt looked like it might even be synthetic silk, and she wondered how he could afford it on a miner’s salary.

  He checked out her clothes, and his eyebrows rose. “You look nice,” he said, in a way that made her think that wasn’t what he was really thinking.

  She lifted her chin at him. “Is there something wrong with what I’m wearing?”

  “Nothing. They’re fine for now.” He took her bag and threw it over his shoulder, then grabbed her hand. “Come on, wife. Let me take you to your new home.”

  She wanted to continue to argue but decided not to. If he didn’t want to tell her why he didn’t think much of her dressing in Traveler’s clothes, then so be it. Why should she care what he thought of how she dressed?

  Roan led her to a doorway sealed with a data reader. He waved the data wand he’d used before to open the door and reveal a corridor. It led to a landing platform next to a set of tracks, where a set of transport capsules sat with open doors. He led her to one of the smaller ones and indicated the seats. “Better sit down.”

  She sat next to him, and he again used the wand to activate the control panel then punched something into it, she guessed their destination. The door to the capsule closed, and it moved slowly away from the platform. As it did, the walls around the capsule slid away, revealing a dark and forbidding landscape through the windows.

  This was her first ground-level look at the lifeless planetoid of Ares Five where the mine was built. Too small to sustain an atmosphere, the planetary body could only support life above ground in sealed bubbles made of clear plastisteel, like the material used in the windows of the capsule. She knew that a network of rails like those the capsule rode on connected the bubbles, making it possible to travel along the surface.

  The capsule sped up and then they were hurtling along the track away from the spaceport. Sonja watched the bleak scenery passing by and tried to keep her excitement from showing. Soon she hoped to see her sisters again.

  “I know Ares Five doesn’t look very pretty,” Roan said.

  “Very few mining planets do. That’s why they build mines there.”

  “You’ve seen a number of them, then?”

  “A couple,” she said, not wanting to volunteer more. In the past six months, more than a few. She and her partners had visited every other Gai
an mining planet in trying to track down what had happened to her sisters. Being a prisoner herself six years ago, she hadn’t known which of the mines her sisters had been left on, and so they’d had to search them all.

  The security at the others had been more lax, so she’d been able to break into the mines’ computers without leaving the ship. Unfortunately her sisters’ names hadn’t shown up as new brides at any of them. This was the only mine left to check and the only one where she hadn’t been able to break into the computers from a distance. Hence her plan—get inside the mine and to where the computers were, even if she had to become a man’s wife to do it.

  She was glad of one thing. As soon as she’d stepped into the marriage meet room, she’d recognized it as the place where her sisters had met their husbands. At least she knew she was on the right track.

  Her sisters had been here and were likely to be here still, assuming their husbands hadn’t already been released back to Gaia. But if that had been the case she should have been able to find them there. She had Gaian friends who had surreptitiously checked the rosters of returned prisoners for those with wives named Deems. None had been found.

  Either her sisters were still here—or something had happened to them. A pang sped through her at the thought. One or even both of her sisters could have been hurt or killed. After meeting the bully that Roan had bested tonight, she couldn’t say without a doubt that all of the men here could be trusted. Most people would say that all Gaians made good husbands, but she had her doubts.

  Her face must have shown something, because Roan patted her shoulder. “There isn’t anything to be afraid of. This planet can be inhospitable, but where we’re going is actually quite nice. I’m sure you’ll like it.”

  “How long until we get there?”

  “Not that far. Beta Residence is the closest of the bubbles, about one hundred kilometers from the spaceport.”

  One hundred kilometers? Sonja tried to subdue her dismay. When she’d come up with this plan, she’d expected the residence bubbles to be closer to the port. How was she going to spirit her sisters across a hundred K of airless desert? Her earliest idea had been to steal some environmental suits and walk the surface, but the distance was too far.

  She wasn’t worried about herself. Gaian marriages had a three-day grace period during which she could leave Roan, and she had a ride off this rock. All she’d have to do was say she didn’t want to stay married and she could ride the shuttle back. Roan might not get his money back… Somehow she doubted whoever was running these illegal marriage meets did refunds. But she couldn’t worry about that right now.

  She was here for her sisters. Somehow she’d have to find a way to smuggle them onto a shuttle and back to the spaceport, where her partners had parked their ship, and she only had three days in which to do it.

  Roan must have thought her worried look was due to apprehension at where they would live. He patted her knee reassuringly. “I think you’ll like my home. If you don’t, we can move somewhere else. Besides, it isn’t like we’re going to be here forever.”

  “No?” She returned her attention to him. “How long is your sentence?”

  Roan looked uncomfortable. “We don’t talk about it quite that way. Usually we talk about our ‘stay’ rather than use the word ‘sentence’. Mine was ten years but I’ve served almost all of it. I’m due to return to Gaia in about six months.”

  “Six months? That’s almost no time at all.”

  He grinned at her. “As I said, we aren’t going to be here forever.”

  Even one hundred kilometers at shuttle speeds went quickly. The capsule soon slowed as they approached a large plastisteel bubble. As they came closer, Sonja saw through the clear wall that there were buildings inside, most towering several stories high. The track they were on led into the bubble wall and a portal that opened like an iris to allow their capsule to enter. They went down what felt like a long tube and then stopped. The capsule door slid open, revealing a doorway and a capsule station similar to the one at the spaceport.

  Roan rose to his feet and pulled Sonja to hers. “We’re here,” he said. “Just a little walk and we’ll be home.”

  Home. It seemed funny this man could believe she could think of any place on a prison planet as home. He led her down a pathway through what, if she hadn’t known she was in a bubble, would have seemed a lush garden, with tall trees and manicured flower beds. She’d heard of the Gaian love for the outdoors and wondered how that would translate to a place as inhospitable as Ares Five. Now she knew—they planted their gardens inside.

  They reached one of the tall buildings and an outside lift with a window and stepped inside. Once again, Roan used his magic data wand to access a set of controls and send them skyrocketing up above the trees. The view from the lift took Sonja’s breath away.

  “Are you afraid of heights?” Roan sounded worried.

  “Not at all. I love being high up. I even had a tree house when I was at home.” Her voice faltered, and she glanced at Roan to see him watching her. Sonja smiled. “I don’t mind heights at all.”

  They reached the top floor, and Roan led her down a long carpeted hallway lined with closed doors and narrow tables topped with potted plants. It felt more like an upscale apartment building than a prison cellblock. When they stopped at one of the doors, he again used his data wand to open it, but before Sonja could step through, he lifted her into his arms.

  “I believe it is customary to carry the bride over the threshold,” he whispered into her ear. A shiver went down Sonja’s spine at the heated promise in his voice.

  Carrying Sonja, Roan stepped through the door. She had a brief glimpse of attractive modern furnishings in subtle sophisticated colors before a man popped up from behind the couch in front of them.

  “Surprise!” he shouted. Roan stumbled and almost dropped her.

  Blond hair falling into his face and sporting a bright grin, the interloper waved a couple of bottles at Roan. “I figured you’d want company tonight so I let myself in. But don’t worry. I’m not here to scrounge this time. I brought supplies—I’ve got Gaian beer, pizza and a couple of new holovids that are all the rage…”

  The man’s voice trailed off as he noticed Sonja in Roan’s arms, and he began to laugh. “…but I see that as usual the Dealer has managed to top me. I brought beer but you’ve brought a woman.”

  Sonja wasn’t sure if Roan was going to get angry or burst out laughing. He settled for lowering her to the floor. “How do you keep getting through my security?” he said.

  “Trade secret,” the blond man said.

  Shaking his head, Roan pointed to the other man. “Sonja, this is Allan, who for some reason I call my friend. Allan, this is Sonja, my wife.”

  Having clearly already partaken of at least one of the beers he boasted of, Allan stared in open admiration at her. “It is a pleasure to meet you. Are you ever gorgeous. Would you like a beer?”

  Bemused, Sonja reached out, and he handed her one of the unopened bottles. Allan continued to stare at her and finally shook his head at Roan. “Wow, did you hit the jackpot. First scoring the ticket to the meet, then actually attaching… You are a credit to your profession.”

  Roan stepped over to Allan and started pushing him toward the door. “The attachment was pure luck, my friend.”

  “Ah, but the ticket…”

  “A conversation for another time.” He opened the door. “If you don’t mind leaving us alone.”

  “Get between a man and his wife? Never dream of it.” Allan grinned up at Roan. “I ate a couple pieces of the pizza, but you can have the rest—and the beer. Call it a wedding present. Oh, but…”

  He ducked around Roan and grabbed a couple of small data-disks from a countertop and waved them as he headed for the open doorway. “I’ll take the holovids, if you don’t mind. I suspect you’ll have something else to occupy yourself tonight.”

  He wiggled his thin eyebrows and grinned suggestively as he left.


  Roan shut the door and looked over at Sonja. He shook his head with a woeful expression. “And the sad part is that he really is my best friend.”

  She couldn’t help herself. Regardless of the reason she was here, the whole situation was incredibly funny. Sonja burst into laughter, and after a moment Roan joined her. When they both finally calmed down, she handed the beer to Roan. He twisted off the top and handed it back.

  “So tell me. What is ‘pizza’?”

  Roan smiled at her. “Are you hungry?”

  “Actually, yes.”

  “Then you are in for a treat.” He indicated the couch. “Sit and drink, and I’ll fetch.”

  Pizza turned out to be a round flat bread pie covered with thin pieces of vegetables, meat and melted shredded cheese, which Roan explained was an Earth delicacy that had become all the rage on the prison planet. Special ovens had even been built to bake it properly. Sonja had two slices with her beer, which was apparently an import from Gaia. Both the beer and the pizza were delicious.

  As she ate, she looked around at what she could see of Roan’s apartment. To one side was a kitchen nook with modern and too-new-looking-to-have-been-used-much appliances, except for the refrigerator, which mostly held drinks like the bottle of beer in her hand. A dining counter with tall stools separated the kitchen from the living area they were sitting in.

  The space was larger than she’d expected and furnished expensively in subtle colors. It was elegant but at the same time it felt sterile. Nowhere did she see anything personal, like a personal datastore, or portable holovid images of Roan’s family and friends. The place looked more like a showroom rather than someplace a man lived.

  It was like Roan was hiding who he was. Either that or he didn’t know how to personalize his space, and from what she’d seen of the way he dressed, she doubted that was the case. He might have been wearing a mask when she met him, but his home was doing the same thing now. She could tell nothing about him from this room.