by Clara Woods
A second later, the hatch opened, and two ragged-looking strangers appeared. Surprise registered on their faces when they saw Lenah and Persia, and they started pulling out their weapons.
They never finished. A bright light erupted from Persia’s pistol, and one of them went to the ground. Before his body had fully connected with the floor, Lenah sprang for the second one, aiming her knife at his throat. It sliced through easier than she expected, and he dropped his own weapon, gurgling and clutching his wound. Commotion could be heard from the room, and Lenah got her first glance at the situation. There were several more visitors, men with the ragged appearance she associated with criminals, and Uz lay crumpled on the floor. Blue blood was pouring from a wound on her head. Before Lenah could look for Doctor Lund, three more smugglers had pulled out their guns and were aiming at them.
“Drop the weapons,” one of them sneered.
Lenah looked around. They were hopelessly outnumbered. Several guns were pointed at each of them. Her stomach dropped as both she and Persia, who seemed to have reached the same conclusion, slid their weapons onto the floor toward their attackers. One of them kicked both to the side. Then they opened a path in their middle, and a small figure stepped through. Or rather, it wasn’t tall. The creature stood on six legs, its head less than a meter tall and a stinger hovering at the height of Lenah’s chest. The stinger was long, and held deadly poison.
A Bartoc. They were rare outside the Saltoc sector. On Barsal, their home planet, they’d enslaved every other race and typically preferred the isolated life as rulers on their side of the solar system. This one, however, appeared the leader of a thug – a human thug – group. It clicked its palps together, and Lenah couldn’t help but shrink backward. Those things were huge; it would be easy to squish her head in them.
“Akakak, humans.” Its voice had a metallic click to it, as if it was having issues pronouncing words in G-Standard. It didn’t have a defined head, just eyes looking up at them out of the main body, and its mouth apparently wasn’t made for the syllables it required.
“More humans, akakak.” The mouth transformed into the Bartoc version of a grin. At least, that was what Lenah thought the open mouth meant. “Akak, come in, close door behind.”
When a palp clicked right in front of her face, Lenah came out of her freeze and did as she was told, her mind racing. How were they supposed to take on several smugglers and a Bartoc?
The men ushered them against the wall, where she finally discovered the unconscious figure of Doctor Lund. She resisted the urge to go check on him, and instead turned to face the other occupants in the room. In addition to the Bartoc and the three poorly-dressed thugs pointing their guns, two more were rifling through every single kitchen compartment the room had.
“Akakak, where is stone?” the Bartoc asked. “Kahoot, akakakak, want it.”
Lenah almost groaned. Why was everyone after that stone? And how did the whole galaxy know they had it?
To prove her point, more knocks sounded from the guards outside. The Bartoc turned its body as if trying to cock its head, which was impossible since it didn’t have one, then clicked one of its pedipalps. At the signal, two men filed out of the room.
“Stone, akakak,” the Bartoc repeated, his metallic voice getting more pressed.
“Which stone?” Persia asked defiantly.
“Hah, human joking. Akakak.” Then he made a terrible scratching sound that Lenah translated as the Bartoc version of a laugh. “Human not funny.” He motioned one of his pedipalps again, making a rhythmical clicking sound of three beats. The last guard rummaging the kitchen stood to attention. “Ugly human. Search them, akakak.”
Persia tried to step away as he chose her first, disgust written all over her face. She didn’t get far, as her movement brought her closer to the Bartoc, and she stopped dead in her tracks. The man grabbed Persia by the throat, and her head connected loudly with the wall.
“Hey, let her go!” Lenah moved to intercept when a laser beam exploded with the wall behind her and made her freeze.
More commotion could be heard from outside, but this time everyone ignored it. The guard who’d fired the shot addressed her. “Step back, or next time I won’t miss.”
Lenah did what he asked, but was unable to keep herself from murmuring, “That was probably your best shot anyway.” He growled at her, his face contracting, and he pushed the barrel of his pistol closer to her.
Next to Lenah, Persia was being patted down. If she still had that stone in her pocket, as Lenah assumed, they’d soon find it. Maybe that was a good thing, as it would rid them of all the trouble it was causing. Losing the ability to warp seemed a small price to pay against being pursued by every criminal in the galaxy.
The sounds from outside suddenly stopped, the silence heavy, and distracted the man holding her at gunpoint. Lenah didn’t hesitate; she ducked down out of the reach of his gun and crashed into him with all her combined weight and strength. It didn’t make him fall, but it definitely brought him off-balance. She was crouching low and about to launch herself on top of him when she was yanked hard by her ponytail. Something cold and hard was touching the skin on her neck.
“Akakakak,” she heard way too close to her ear as the Bartoc pulled her closer to him.
Lenah heard Persia gasp, but was unable to turn her heard to see what was going on. Nonetheless, she already knew. She stumbled into a barrier in the back, but stayed frozen by the sight of the stinger appearing over her head. Several seconds passed until she started to wiggle. If she had to rip out all her hair to not be stung by that, she’d freaking do it. But the Bartoc easily caught her leg with its other pedipalp, thus extinguishing her moment of resistance. Unable to move, Lenah stood stiff, more feeling than seeing the movement inside the room. It seemed that someone had entered the common room, moving swiftly. She was utterly unprepared when she was suddenly free, and she tumbled to the floor, failing to keep her balance. When she finally got up, it took her a few seconds to understand that someone had joined the fight, and on their side. It was the last person she would have expected to come to their rescue.
The cyborg was jumping around the Bartoc with more nimbleness than she would have thought possible for someone his size. He easily evaded the snaps of the pedipalps, making it look almost like a dance. In each hand, he held deadly-looking knives. After doing an artful roll on the floor, one of his hands snapped out, the blade entering right in between the Bartoc’s belly segments. The creature let out a terrible whine, but the cyborg was relentless. He made an equally controlled stab into its neck. The blade went straight into the junction between two segments of the plating. Finally, collecting her wits and realizing more fights were still going on around her, Lenah spotted a gun on the floor. She jumped toward it just as one remaining thug spotted it too. She touched the handle a moment before he did and lifted it to shoot him straight in the shoulder, then once more. With a painful yell, he went down.
She turned, looking for the next adversary to tackle, but only three figures were standing: her, Persia, and the cyborg. Slowly, she lifted her gun toward the cyborg.
Persia was crouching over the unmoving man who’d searched her, but also got up to point her gun at the cyborg. Before she was fully standing, the thug, who’d only feigned unconsciousness, snatched at her arm and made her stumble. Persia barely caught herself and managed to land her foot square in his face, but not before something gray slipped out of her pocket and crashed into the metal plating of the floor with a loud thump. It rolled a few feet, then connected with the unconscious figure of the Bartoc.
Silence followed as Persia shuffled to pick up the stone and shove it back into her pocket. Out of the corner of her eye, Lenah caught the look on the cyborg’s face. Incredulity was written all over it as he lowered his weapons.
“Are you mad to carry around the Mapstone?”
This time, Lenah couldn’t hold back her groan, though she didn’t know if it was because someone else was after
the stone or because he was acting as if he hadn’t known. After all, he’d delivered them to the security captain who’d asked about it.
16 On the Run
Lenah guided the ship away from Oscuris’ landing station, unsure if she was glad to be leaving or not. This planet had been a bad experience, but she was worried that now they were back to being the cyborg’s hostages.
She ignored the continuous beeping of the comm system, seeing that it was the tower surely asking her to open the hatch. Better get out of here before they decided to shoot at them.
After Lenah and Persia had made sure that Uz and Doctor Lund weren’t gravely injured, the cyborg had told her to take off as quickly as possible, while engaging Persia’s help to carry the bodies into the cargo bay. She was surprised he’d let Persia keep the stone and hadn’t kicked her off the ship. Or everyone except Lenah, for that matter, since like before, he only needed a pilot. Was it possible that he’d actually helped them? Maybe he’d felt guilty for bringing them to Oscuris without food and fuel in the first place. Maybe that was wishful thinking.
A light tap sounded on the hatch to the cockpit, interrupting her thoughts.
“Come in,” Lenah answered as she sat up straighter, making her hands busy on the controls. She was steering them in a straight course out of the landing bay, eyes locked on the rear camera to see if anyone was going to shoot, when Uz slipped into the copilot’s seat. Her face had stopped bleeding, but one eye was swollen shut. At least she was up and about. Doctor Lund was resting in his cabin, still too weak.
“Our host has acquired quite a stack of bodies, both smugglers and guards,” Uz said after a short silence.
“Is host the short Cassidian version of abductor?”
“I don’t think we’re his hostages.”
“Oh?” Lenah asked, even though she was starting to believe the same thing.
“I think he wanted to save us,” Uz said.
“Maybe all he wanted to save was the stone. Why would he care about us?”
Uz shrugged and fell quiet. Because she thought that was true? Then again, she looked so incredibly tired, and no wonder. Life hadn’t exactly been kind to her recently. First captured by the owners of this ship, then by the cyborg, and now injured in the attack of the Bartoc and his gang.
After several minutes of heavy silence, Uz said, “Would you mind coming to Lund’s cabin when you’re done here? He and I, we’d like to know about that stone the Bartoc was looking for.”
Her tone stayed calm, but Lenah could feel the intensity behind the comment. She thought for a moment if she should leave the decision to Persia – who had, after all, been the one to acquire the stone – but decided against it. Everyone seemed to have chosen her as captain anyway. Lenah nodded her affirmative to Uz.
“Once we’re safely away from this planet and once Persia has been relieved of her cleaning duty,” she said after a few seconds.
Uz nodded. “Thank you. I appreciate the trust.”
Lenah looked at Uz, tilting her head to the side. “You’re in this as much as I am. Uz, I’m sorry it didn’t work out to get you on your way home on Astur.”
Uz smiled. “That’s okay. I think my landlord seized my possessions – my manuals – anyway.”
“No happy homecoming?”
“No.”
The ship’s comm crackled before Uz could continue.
“Lenah? Can you open the hatch for me?” The cyborg’s deep voice came from the cargo hold. All her senses perked up at him calling her by her real name. That didn’t sound like a kidnapper talking to his hostage; more like one crewmate addressing another. Was she so thankful to him for saving her from the Bartoc that she suffered from a severe case of Stockholm syndrome?
Curious what was going on, Lenah fumbled with the internal cameras until she found the view of the cargo hold. There was a pile of bodies neatly stacked in the airlock, and an extremely mangled deadbolt hanging uselessly next to it. So much for feeling protected by it. The cyborg stood to the side, apparently ready to start pushing bodies out. Lenah shivered at seeing the Bartoc there. She’d come dangerously close to being part of that stack.
“Sure,” she finally answered through the comm. “Be ready in ten seconds.”
He gave one grunt and got into position. He might address her by name now, but he still wasn’t a talkative one. That was unfortunate, as he seemed her best bet in finding out about the stone.
Lenah watched as the bodies tumbled outside, quickly vanishing from view. The cyborg never even lost balance. After the last body was gone, Lenah closed the outer hatch, feeling better after getting rid of the ugly weight. With a heavy sigh, she made sure the ship was set on autopilot and got up. “If you and Doctor Lund don’t mind, I’d like to make one stop before coming to talk to you.”
Uz nodded. “I’ll stay here in case something shows up on the radar.”
“Thanks, Uz.” Lenah took a deep breath and walked out of the cockpit, toward the cabin the cyborg had probably reclaimed for himself. Procrastination was never helpful.
17 A New Ally
Lenah couldn’t believe she was doing this. Going to talk to a cyborg in his cabin. It was the kind of stuff only people with a death wish did, or people who believed that their kidnapper might have become an ally.
Apparently, that was her.
She welcomed the short delay when Dr. Lund called out to her through his open hatch. He’d finally woken up. When she entered, he asked her for some water, which she gladly brought him.
“Thank you, Captain.”
“That’s the least I can do, Doctor, after getting you from one mishap to the next.”
He smiled sadly at her. “Not your fault, Miss. I’ll never forget who rescued me from the first set of smugglers and that terrible corporation.”
Starwide Research, right. She shrugged her shoulders. “It was nothing. We had already, uh, acquired the ship anyway, including everything it held. So you were captured on New Earth, huh? How is it there?”
He managed to look uncomfortable even under all the swelling and blue markings on his face. “It’s not a welcoming place. All the human ruins, but no human life. Then you’d expect everything to be dead, but there are animals, rich plant life.” He shook his head.
“Sounds ghostly,” Lenah murmured.
“It is, though not in the magical sense. I and my organization believe that humanity left secrets there. Secrets I plan to uncover.”
“Secrets?” Lenah asked.
“Yes.” Doctor Lund gave her a grave look. “Somehow, with leaving New Earth, humanity decided to accept things it couldn’t explain as magic. Have you heard of the Dark Ages of Old Earth?”
Lenah shook her head.
“People living in that period also believed in magic and the supernatural. Anyone suspected of magical powers was tied to a wooden stake and burned alive, instead of people investigating further. It’s one of the biggest periods of decline in our species. Humanity can only survive in the long run by learning, and thereby sticking to what it can explain.”
“But what about races like the Cassidians? They can teleport. Even their children can warp ships. How can that be explained by science?”
“The secret lies in their antennas. You’ve seen Uz. She can’t teleport or create warp bubbles anymore,” Lund answered.
Lenah shuddered at that. USO, his organization, was famous for not stopping at ethical boundaries. All for the good of the galaxy, of course. Doctor Lund had closed his eyes again, apparently done with the conversation.
Lenah left him in his cabin and all too soon found herself in the corridor once more. Before she could think better of it, she knocked on the cyborg’s hatch. With her prints registered in the ship’s computer, she could have opened it, maybe surprised him in case he was planning to attack, but she hadn’t come to be hostile. She wanted answers.
When no response came, she knocked again, wondering what he might be doing that would inconvenience him from opening u
p. Caressing that gun mounted to his metal arm? Speaking quietly to his secret contacts to turn them all over? With that thought, her hand snapped up to the opening panel, and she was about to open it herself, when a voice behind her made her jump.
“Looking for something?”
The cyborg had sneaked up on her and was standing not even twenty centimeters away. Lenah was trapped between the hatch and his big body. Somehow, she managed to stand straight.
“Hi, cyborg, I was looking for you.” She turned around, refusing to let her fear show, and luckily he got the clue and took a step back. Her gaze ran down his body, from his dripping hair over his bare chest to bare feet, and she realized he’d been taking a bath. “I’ve never met a smuggler who showered as much as you.”
“You’ve never met a smuggler before,” he replied dryly, swiping his hand over the control panel. He sidestepped her and entered the cabin, holding the hatch open behind him. He was waiting for her to come in, and even though that was what she’d come for, Lenah almost suggested going to the cockpit or common room to talk. Or maybe not; everyone was resting, and going to the cockpit might just remind him he only needed a pilot and no one else.
“Of course I’ve met smugglers. Loads of them.”
“Yeah, in the last few days, maybe.”
Lenah snorted, but didn’t answer the comment. After all, he was right, and she hadn’t come to fight with him.
“Why did you break your promise?” She’d always been a firm believer in directness. Even though she’d fully expected him to cause trouble on her ship, she wanted his version of an excuse.
“My promise?” He lifted an eyebrow at her in the way he always did, but there was no sarcasm in his voice. He was studying her with his full attention.
