by Caryn Lix
Rune got us through the corridors without further incident. Relief suffused me at the sight of the ship on the tarmac. I’d forgotten how big it was, how alien. It seemed to swallow the light. A handful of guards surrounded it, but Imani, Reed, and I disabled them quickly and cleanly. I made Cage and Alexei haul them into the corridor, out of the blast range, assuming we managed to destroy the ship.
Alarms went off again. Someone had spotted us. Jasper raised his hands and wrinkled his brow, and the door crumpled in on itself. “That should buy us a few minutes. Now what?”
The original plan involved swiping explosives from the mines. Obviously, the midmorning attack on our room obliterated that idea. I’d had some vague idea of Alexei simply overheating the ship until it exploded, but standing in front of it, it was clear I’d been dreaming. It was too big, too sleek, made to withstand weapons fire in the vacuum of space. No amount of flames would damage it. “Maybe we can find where the signal is coming from?” I asked hopefully. “Destroy that instead of the entire ship?”
Rune shook her head. “I tried that when I first spotted the signal. If I’d found it, I might have been able to deactivate it.”
We all stood stupidly staring at the thing, and I cursed myself. The others relied on me to come up with something. They’d probably assumed I had a plan in mind when in truth, I hadn’t been sure we’d make it this far. What were we supposed to do now?
A heavy sigh came from the other side of the tarmac. We all spun, raising our weapons and targeting the area. “You’re surrounded by fuel,” came an annoyed voice, and a man strode around the corner of a nearby ship. “Use it to obliterate that pain-in-the-ass ship.”
We stared in silence for another moment before Cage found his voice and asked the question on everyone’s mind. “Excuse me,” he said, “but exactly who the hell are you?”
THIRTEEN
THE MAN STEPPED INTO THE light. He had smooth olive skin and a loose black ponytail and, disconcertingly, a patch over his left eye. He looked like someone’s modern vision of a pirate, right down to the loose white shirt, tight black pants, and tall boots. A pistol and an actual sword hung at his side. All told, he could have stepped out of the pages of Robo Mecha Dream Girl 5, and at the sight of him I was almost overcome by longing, brief but painful in its intensity, for my old life, when evil corporations existed only in the pages of fiction.
“Does it matter who I am?” He lifted his hands in surrender, although I got a strong sense he was mocking us. “I’m giving you the answer to your problem. Fill the ship with fuel and have your fiery friend there blast it to kingdom come. Or would you prefer to stand around waiting for security to break through that door?”
We exchanged glances, but he was right. “Do it,” I ordered, without stopping to think that they might not want to obey me.
To my surprise, no one argued. Weapons were holstered, and everyone sprang into action. “Can you lift those barrels?” Cage demanded of Jasper, already on the move.
“Physically, maybe. Not with my power.”
Alexei and Cage grabbed one of the containers. Their muscles stood out in sharp relief as they strained to hoist it between them. Ship fuel in barrels this size weighed a lot. I had a feeling I’d sprain my back if I even tried lifting one. At this rate, we’d be here all night—and already guards banged on the door behind us. In a few minutes they’d break through, or just start tossing smoke grenades over the walls. Reed and Jasper grabbed another barrel. They almost managed to lift it between them, but then Reed gasped and shook his head, and it clattered noisily to the ground.
Rune sighed heavily. “Boys,” she said, breaking into a run. I exchanged mystified glances with Imani and we followed.
Rune jumped into a nearby hoverlift, closed her eyes, and melded her fingers with the control panel. It roared to life, wavering about a foot above the tarmac. She directed it with practiced ease to where Alexei and Cage shamefacedly dropped their burden.
Imani laughed. “Trust Rune,” she remarked as Rune steered the lift under the platform of fuel, carefully leveraging the platform into the air.
She rose high to get it above ship level. If any of the guards had the brains to look, she was well placed for a shot above the walls. “Come on,” I said to Imani. “We’d better make sure the ship is open and help guide those barrels inside.” Maybe I couldn’t help Rune drive, but speeding things up would minimize her exposure.
The two of us scrambled up the ship. Alexei and Cage were on our heels while Reed, Mia, and Jasper conferred with our new pirate friend on the ground. I didn’t know what they were talking about, but I trusted Reed, at least, to keep the conversation in the realm of the possible. Mia you never knew about, and Jasper was still a wild card. I trusted him at least as much as Mia, but his family was involved, and I wasn’t sure how far he’d go to keep them safe. Reed caught my eye over the pirate’s shoulder and gave me a slight nod, and I remembered how easily he’d handled the fights and outbreaks on the ship. I nodded in return. I could leave this to him.
I outpaced the others—climbing was one thing I did a lot of in training—and reached the top of the ship just ahead of Cage and Alexei. Imani had fallen behind a bit, breathing heavily, and as Alexei passed her, he silently caught her in his massive arm and boosted her ahead of him. Imani didn’t say a word, either of censure or of thanks. Alexei had a way of making you feel neither was needed. He would have done the same for Anya, or Cage. Maybe it was a side effect of growing up the size of a mountain, but Alexei treated people in need of physical assistance like it was second nature to help.
With Rune hovering nearby, I clambered onto the ship. Sure enough, the hatch was closed. I pivoted to find Cage extending a flat-head screwdriver in my direction. “I grabbed it last night,” he said. “Thought we might need it.”
It’s amazing how grateful a life-and-death situation can make you for a little foresight. The awkwardness lingered between us, but at the sight of that screwdriver I felt like I could forgive him for anything. I jabbed it into the ship, and the door slid open. I stared into its inky depths. We’d lived on this ship for three weeks. We’d killed hundreds of sleeping aliens on it and stolen their home. And now their home was calling for help.
“Uh, guys?” called Reed. I spun to find him perched on the wall, a good fifty feet above the ground. Another hoverlift floated nearby. Either Reed was adept at hot-wiring or he’d found the keys. “We’ve got trouble.”
Of course we did. “Go,” said Alexei, cresting the ship right behind Imani. “I’ll help Rune with this.”
Imani groaned. “I just got up here,” she complained, but the three of us slid to the ground and raced for the wall. Reed perched on top with an honest-to-God spyglass in his hands, like from some kind of old pirate movie. I glared at our new arrival suspiciously, and he gave me a smirk and folded his arms, clearly having a great time. Who the hell was this guy? And why did he look like he’d walked off the set of a Disney ride without having time to fully change his clothes?
“What’s going on?” Cage demanded.
Reed gestured. “There are guards out here. A lot of them.”
“How many is a lot?” asked Imani.
“At a guess? Thirty or forty?”
Mia and Jasper jogged up behind us. “That door is done for,” Jasper gasped. “They’re welding through it.”
Fantastic. “Reed, get off the wall before they start shooting,” I ordered, and he obediently dropped to the hoverlift. Sliding inside, he did something I couldn’t see, and the lift descended toward us.
I looked back to the alien ship. Rune maneuvered above it, tilting the barrels toward the opening. But she couldn’t just let them drop in case they missed the gap, so Alexei used his broad forearms to knock them into the hole. He wasn’t getting every one, which was fine. A few scattered around the outside might help too. “Alexei!” I shouted. “How long?”
He didn’t look. “A couple of minutes.”
Great.
> From outside came an amplified voice. “Fugitives. We know you are in the landing area preparing to take off in your stolen ship. You will not be permitted to do so. The second you clear city airspace, we will destroy you.”
I laughed in spite of myself, and Reed scowled. “Those twits,” he said. “They still don’t get it.”
“The authorities never do,” said the pirate. “Not until it’s too late.”
We ignored him. “Well, if Alexei can’t blow the thing up, I guess we have a plan B,” Cage replied. Of course, plan B involved at least one of us dying with the ship. And since the only one of us who could really pilot the thing was Rune . . . My stomach clenched. Nope. Plan B was a nonstarter.
The voice continued. “We will breach the door in approximately ninety seconds. At that time, if you are not kneeling on the ground with your hands behind your heads, we will launch concussion gas grenades into the landing area. This will be your only warning.”
“Nice of them to provide us with a time frame.” Mia spun on her heel and shouted, “Lex! Whatever you’ve got will have to be enough!”
The barrels were only half gone, but the edges peeked over the ship. Not many more would fit anyway. Alexei didn’t waste time arguing. He never did with Mia. He said something to Rune and jumped onto the lift with the rest of the barrels. “Take cover!” he shouted as he hoisted himself into the cockpit and Rune tilted the platform, sending the remaining barrels crashing to the ground. They surrounded the ship now, some of them cracking open and oozing their contents over it, around it.
“Cover sounds good,” agreed Jasper. He spread his arms, flexed his shoulders, and a nearby wall, a few ships, and Reed’s hoverlift rearranged themselves over and around us. His muscles trembled with the effort of maintaining the structure, and I gave him a worried look. I’d never seen him struggle to control his power before. “I’m anticipating some feedback,” he explained, gritting his teeth. “Shelter won’t do us much good if it collapses as soon as it takes a blow.”
“Exactly how strong are you?” I demanded, casting a worried glance over the assorted debris.
Somehow, Jasper managed a shrug, even as sweat trickled down his brow. “Dunno. I’ve never pushed it. I can manipulate objects telekinetically, as long as they’re inanimate, and it’s never given me much trouble before. But I’ve never tried to hold out against an explosive force before, either.”
“What about Rune and Lex?” Cage demanded.
The pirate sighed. “They’ll cause the blast from above and withdraw. If they’re lucky, they’ll get out of the way. Most of the force should head out, not up. I’m going to cover my ears now. You might want to do the same.”
“Who are you?” Imani demanded, but I grabbed her and pulled her to the ground. Everyone followed, and we clamped our hands over our ears—all but Jasper, standing in our midst braced against nothing, sweat pouring down his face in the dim light oozing through the cracks in his makeshift shelter.
For a second, nothing happened. Had the plan failed? Maybe Alexei hadn’t managed to blow up the ship. Maybe the guards had broken through. Maybe . . .
A faint rumble in the ground was my only warning before the concussive force of the explosion struck. Jasper had no hope of standing against it; in an instant, he’d collapsed, the walls crumbling around us. The explosion rocked the air and set my ears ringing even with my hands clamped over them, and pieces of metal and rubber tumbled around me, bouncing painfully but harmlessly off my shoulders.
I winced in a sudden field of smoke and chaos. “Jasper!” I cried, the intensity of my fear catching me off guard. How had I become so close to these people? I struggled to my feet and made my way to where he’d been standing, only to find Reed crouched at his side, jaw tense, channeling his healing power. As I watched, the wounds on Jasper’s face knitted shut and he opened his eyes, groaning loudly.
My relief burst out of me in a gasp as I took stock. Cage was on his feet, holding Imani’s arm. They both seemed unhurt. Mia and the pirate were already on the move. I followed them, running through the smoke to where the mangled remains of Rune’s hovercraft lay crumpled on the ground. For a heartbeat everything froze, nothing but flames and twisted metal and somewhere in its depths, Alexei and Rune. “Reed!” I shouted, breaking into a sprint. “Reed!”
Mia beat us there and tore into the vehicle with her bare hands. She hauled Rune out first, semiconscious but apparently not seriously injured, bleeding from multiple wounds and lesions. Mia dumped her on the ground, and I grabbed her, pulling her against me. “Are you okay?” I demanded.
“Yes,” she said softly. “Alexei shielded me. I think . . . Kenzie, I think he absorbed some of the explosion.”
“Of course he did.” Mia spoke in short, sharp syllables as she tugged Alexei free of the wreckage. “Everyone else has shiny new powers. Why shouldn’t Lex? And also, would somebody goddamn help me?”
I jumped to my feet and grabbed Alexei’s other arm. The pirate caught his shoulders and together we dragged him free. Reed ran over and dropped to his knees beside him, his face pale and sweating. The fire’s heat became more noticeable, moving past discomfort into tinges of pain. As Reed worked on Alexei, I risked a glance at the ship. It was a sea of flames, nothing but fire and shimmers and the occasional shadow. If that didn’t block the signal, nothing would.
“Rune!” Cage caught his sister in his arms, knocking both of them to the ground. Sheer panic laced his voice. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, gege.” She pulled back and caught his face between her hands, smiling at him. “Everything’s fine.”
Something released in me at the sight. Surrounded as we were by flames and chaos, the genuine care between the twins made things a little less horrifying. Their tension hurt me, too. I hadn’t realized how much until this moment.
Alexei moaned as Imani and Jasper staggered into view, both relatively intact. “We did it,” said Jasper, staring at the ship. As he spoke, something else caught and a small explosion made us wince. The heat from the flames forced us back, smoke choking us as we struggled downwind.
At last we found a reasonably safe place to stare at the growing wall of flames. “We did it,” I agreed softly. “So what do we do now?”
The pirate yawned, stretching and popping the joints in his arms. “Well, that’s up to you, of course,” he said. “But if I were you, I’d come with me.”
FOURTEEN
I CLOSED MY EYES. I was out of patience with this guy, and so I was surprised when my voice only sounded weary. “Come with you where?”
“Does it matter? I have a ship.” He arched an eyebrow. “At any rate, I’m leaving, not waiting around for Mars Mining and their buffoons to take me captive. You lot can follow or stay put.” He turned and strode away from the flaming debris.
We exchanged frantic looks. Where was he going? Should we follow? What choice did we have? “Wait up!” Cage called, making the decision for us, and we broke into a run.
I skidded to a halt as we rounded a corner to find the pirate opening the hatch on a Titan 365 Racing Ship. “Whoa,” I said. “That thing must cost—”
“A million credits,” Reed finished. His eyes shining, he took a step forward. “At least. With an acceleration that leaves the competition in the dust.”
“Would you like to get in? Or did you want to stand there admiring it?” Mia brushed past us, and we all put on a burst of speed. We weren’t out of the woods yet.
“How do you know they won’t just shoot you out of the sky?” Cage demanded as we scrambled onto the ship. We found ourselves in a barren cargo hold, kind of a letdown compared to the Titan’s flashy exterior. Reed, who did not appear to share my disappointment, hovered over the control board like a kid examining his Christmas gifts.
The pirate thumbed the controls, and the doors slid shut. “My ID signal is messed up and I can’t seem to fix it,” he sighed heavily. A chair appeared from nowhere, emerging from the cargo hold floor, and he sank into it
, hauling the safety straps over his chest. Reed drew nearer, peering over his shoulder in what he probably imagined was an inconspicuous manner. “Sometimes it projects that I’m Omnistellar security. No one wants to shoot until they have the details. Risks an interstellar incident, you know? By the way, you might want to hold on to something.”
Cage grabbed an overhead rack with one hand and Rune with the other, and I braced myself between him and a stack of crates. We were just in time. Reed hadn’t been kidding about this thing’s acceleration. I wasn’t sure Mars Mining would have time to demand identification, even if they hadn’t been busy dealing with the inferno Alexei had left in their docking yard. The ship’s ID must have already been keyed to pass through the dome, because it didn’t incinerate us. In fact, we blasted out of there so fast the gravity pinned me to the wall and Cage to me, sending the air whooshing from my lungs.
Mia shouted a few inventive curse words from across the room, where she, Alexei, and Jasper clutched at Imani, who hadn’t grabbed anything in time. Reed had made no attempt to brace himself, apparently too fascinated by the controls. He was paying for it, lying on the floor clutching his head, but I didn’t feel too sorry for him and his newly discovered healing abilities.
The ship’s acceleration became almost painful, yanking my skin taut against my bones. The muscles in Cage’s arm tensed as he pulled away from me, but it was like trying to fly. You can’t fight gravity after a certain point. The pressure on my lungs increased, both from the g-force and from Cage’s weight. Right when I thought I would pass out from the lack of oxygen, it released with a recoil that sent all of us spiraling into the cargo bay. Our momentum carried us upward. We were weightless.
