His Fire Maiden - Michelle M. Pillow Page 0,18

your mother, do not seek revenge against your sister for my crimes. She is your blood. I sometimes long for what we could have been to each other, should life have been less cruel. I don’t blame you for I see the impossibility of us now, but you must know that I loved you then, as part of me continues to love you even now. I would have proudly been your husband, but you know that. You know all of that. I sometimes forget how fresh the events must be to you. There was so much death between us. That said, if there is to be another death, or more to the point if I am dead, I hope it was in atonement of my sins and that you will be able to forgive me now. I am truly sorry, Josselyn. All I ever wanted was to be a part of what you had. I never meant to destroy that which I loved so dearly.” Jack sighed, and she could see the pain on his face. He nodded once before the holo-box turned off.

Was it an apology or a love letter or a justification of some past tragedy? Was Josselyn a daughter or fiancée? Though it filled in a great piece of the puzzle, it only caused more questions to arise. What had happened? And how did this information change the fact that Josselyn had killed a great man, her father? If Josselyn was imprisoned that had to mean the woman had done something wrong. Violette knew the general. He would never harm an innocent person. Never.

Violette crossed her arms over her chest and sat back. Her shoulders hit the metal wall of her sparsely decorated captain’s quarters. In reality, the only thing separating her room from the rest of the crews’ was that she was in it. Otherwise, they were identical.

Her father’s voice echoed through her. Sister?

What kind of strange family history lesson was this? The general wanted to marry Josselyn a hundred years ago. Instead, there was a betrayal, and he married the mother—Josselyn’s mother, Violette’s mother. Josselyn was frozen in a Federation prison for some crime related to the treachery, thawed, came back to kill the old man who knew her in their youth, and was now walking around looking and acting the same age as Violette with a birthday technically in the prior century.

Just thinking about it made her head hurt.

This bit of news did put a small crimp in her plans. As far as Violette knew, Josselyn was her only living relative—unless of course her father had more secrets floating around the universe. The general would demand that she respected the shared blood.

“Well, he’s not here, is he?” Violette said to the empty room. She slammed her fist back into the wall, making a satisfying bang against the metal. Three seconds later an answering bang vibrated back. She felt more than heard it. Her mind came to full alert. The vibrations sounded again, louder this time. They became a steady beating against the metal of her ship. She knew every noise Racing Banana made. This was not one of them.

Forgetting her personal concerns as she went to investigate, Violette ran her hand along the corridor, feeling for the vibrations. They grew stronger toward the back of the ship. She imagined the rest of the crew to be sleeping—even the pilot. On board a vessel it was hard to keep track of day and night since they were in deep space, so they kept the ship’s lights on a dim timer. It helped regulate sleep patterns and kept the crew from going crazy.

The noise was coming from the cargo hold. Violette grimaced in annoyance. “Blast it all, Isaac, if you smuggled another unsanctioned creature onto this ship again, I’ll have your Corge ass!”

The small room was crammed full of metal boxes and rubber-coated crates. There was barely enough room to maneuver down the narrow aisle between the stacked cargo. Seeing movement, she stiffened.

“Sacre, Ghost, you startled me. Is that you making all that noise? What’s going on?” Violette took a deep breath, only to have the renewed banging pull her attention.

Ghost pointed at a large crate in the back and then moved to disappear into a narrow opening between two boxes. Violette glanced after him as she passed. She’d barely be able to get her hand into the tiny space.

“Thanks for the assistance,” she yelled sarcastically after him. The pounding became louder. She stiffened, apprehensive of