Star Relic

by Clara Woods

  The video changed again to show a female Syrr holding the camera in her outstretched arm and pointing the lens back at herself. She was talking into it intensely, with the same voice they’d heard in the beginning, but what really caught Lenah’s attention was the room she was in. It was this room. The staircase, the tall ceiling, they all were still here, as well as the computer stand in the center. But there was also a mattress in one corner, a water carafe next to it. The woman talked for a few seconds, her eyes darting up nervously. She said one short final sentence in her hissing language, and then the screen turned dark.

  The stone was ejected out of its casing. Cassius caught it as it flew through the air, and handed it over to Persia.

  “The woman that was right here,” Persia said, her voice more somber than normal.

  “It was the Syrr princess from the canon,” Lenah added.

  “And they didn’t make it,” Uz said.

  Lenah took a step back. This race had been wiped out. So all of this, just to see what hadn’t worked to keep another race alive and what might await humanity? Her head was ringing, and suddenly, she wanted no more than to go back home. Back to her comfortable life, working with her father in an occupation she knew, without worries of getting killed or possessing mind magic.

  “Can we take any of this?” Cassius asked Uz, who bent over the console.

  After a few moments, she shook her head. “I don’t understand how any of this is powered. It looks just like stone. Even if we took the whole computer, I doubt anyone could turn it on again.”

  “We don’t have time for that anyway,” Cassius said. “We need to make sure that we get our ship back.”

  Lenah had forgotten about the smugglers who’d gone off to retrieve the Star Rambler. Her ship. Now new urgency filled her, and she clung to it, preferring to confront a solvable problem to thinking about the end of humanity.

  “I can record it, and we can take that.” She pointed toward the small drone that was still hovering close to them. At her gesture, it seemed to regard her with a thoughtful face. Was it considering if it wanted to come with them or not?

  Cassius didn’t give it time to decide, however. Lenah had barely finished the sentence when he launched himself onto the small machine. It let out a shriek, followed by several long hissing sounds. But he’d grabbed it by its wings, so it was unable to fly. The little arms and legs moved frantically, but it was too small to do anything against Cassius’ cyborg strength. Lenah took off her jacket and tossed it over the little robot’s head. With Cassius’ help, she bound her jacket into a small bundle that could be carried around.

  Persia had inserted the stone again, and Lenah pulled up the recording program on her wristpiece.

  “We should also take her,” Uz whispered, pointing to the unconscious figure of Corinna Cheung on the floor.

  Lenah nodded. “We can deliver her to the UPL, together with the recording and the stone.”

  35 Captain of the Rambler

  “I think that’s them.”

  They were making their way back downhill toward their ship, hoping to evade any dinosaur creatures. None of them was up for another fight. Lenah didn’t know if Cassius looked worse than she felt, but her exhausted body would hardly carry her forward, and he seemed to actually struggle carrying Corinna. For a cyborg, that was pathetic. Only fear for her ship made her put one foot in front of the other. She’d be damned if she wasn’t a better owner to the Star Rambler than her predecessors. Knowing what was coming, and that they were somehow involved in covering up a threat to humanity, dampened her feelings of remorse for having stolen the ship, though maybe she could still buy them out once they got the money from UPL for the stone. That way, at least, she wouldn’t be a ship thief.

  The telltale light of laser fire was illuminating the thick brush ahead, accompanied by the trampling of heavy dinosaur feet. They slowed down their speed, with Persia and Doctor Lund in the lead. He was still grumbling about losing all his gear and his necklace, and had gladly taken the front of their group under mutterings of, “Can’t stand your faces anyway.”

  Uz was struggling with the small drone, still covered by Lenah’s jacket. For something so small, it was putting up quite a fight, and the tall Cassidian stumbled downhill, trying not to lose it. She winced when the drone’s stone head connected with her chin. “This thing doesn’t want to leave this planet.”

  “Shhh,” Persia hissed from the front.

  Lenah closed the distance to her and Doctor Lund, peeking through the thick forest growth. Several figures were either sprawled on the ground or shooting at the attacking beasts. They didn’t seem to have figured out that shooting them in the eyes was the only way to hurt the dinosaurs.

  “Do we help out?” Persia asked.

  Lenah hesitated. She wanted to fly away from this planet in the Rambler, which would be easiest if they left these men to fight for themselves. These criminals, she reminded herself. But she didn’t want to carry the guilt for not helping out, either, no matter what bad people they were; they were still people, after all, weren’t they?

  “We need to help them,” she sighed, getting her gun out again.

  Iron fingers clutched her hand as it closed around the hilt.

  “We won’t help,” Cassius said. His eyes bore into hers. “They brought this upon themselves by coming here. It’s none of our business.”

  Lenah shook her head. “We can’t watch them die.”

  “Then let’s not watch. We make our way around and to the ship.”

  Lenah hated that he sounded so damn reasonable, but she couldn’t just let people die.

  “Only a soulless criminal himself would suggest that.” She wiggled her hand to see if he’d let go, and indeed he did. With a snort, she lifted her weapon to aim, only to find that the laser fire from the fighting had ceased. In fact, the fighting had stopped entirely. Two dinosaurs were instead inspecting their lifeless prey.

  “They’re dead. Did you realize that?” She looked up at Cassius again, now suspicious that he’d only let her go because he’d realized they’d be too late.

  He shrugged before continuing down the hill, Corinna still slung over his shoulder.

  Everyone followed, with Lenah in the rear. She knew pouting was childish, but damn her if she didn’t have the right to be mad at him. At the very least, that felt better than having to feel guilty for letting these criminals die.

  “I guess the Rambler is ours now,” Persia said quietly, waiting for Lenah to catch up. Lenah shrugged. It was true, but it tasted sour to her now. She would have preferred to pay someone for it.

  Before them, the others had stopped. Cassius was struggling to keep Corinna over his shoulder while pulling his pistol out of his belt. Lenah followed his movement by grabbing her weapon. When she stepped closer, the clearing where they’d parked the ship came into view. She saw a dinosaur inspecting – sniffing – its rear side.

  “Let’s try to sneak in,” Cassius whispered, motioning Doctor Lund and Uz forward while aiming his weapon. Lenah took position next to him as Persia followed the other two. Finally, she and Cassius moved as well.

  At least the clearing was free of leaves and they were able to walk quietly. They made it more than halfway when large eyes fell on them. With a shriek, the creature moved its thick legs, its muscles bent as it launched into a jump that would intercept their path to the ship.

  “Take that,” Cassius growled, tossing the unconscious Corinna toward Lenah and opening fire on the beast. Lenah grabbed Corinna and threw herself sideways, out of the dinosaur’s path. She landed them in the only plant around, a small thorny bush that was growing on some dirt that had found its way onto the area. Painful little needles prickled her hands, and she noticed Corinna’s face was in there. She pulled the woman up and dragged her behind as Cassius danced around the beast, no doubt trying to distract it while the rest of them made it to the ship. Uz was already waiting in the open hatch, and helped Lenah haul up Corinna. Behind them,
Cassius jumped through the hatch, instantly hitting the close button. Large teeth vanished behind the closing metal. The beast had been right behind him.

  The ship shook hard and almost turned as the large monster tried to get at them, making Lenah worry it might be able to actually flip them. She doubted the Rambler could fly away when not standing upright.

  “Go, go.” Cassius pulled her up and pushed her toward the corridor, apparently fearing the same. As if on automatic, Lenah made her way to the front of the ship and into the pilot’s seat. The ship rocked again as the dinosaur tried to get in. In less than a minute, they’d be able to leave. Cassius came in after her with Doctor Lund. The doctor sat down in the copilot’s seat, and this time Lenah barely noticed how Cassius took position right behind her again. She lifted them off the ground at a steep angle, wanting nothing more than to leave and get some breathing room inside a warp bubble.

  “Can someone bring the stone?” she asked, tension filling her voice.

  “Here.” Doctor Lund was holding it.

  That was when she saw it. A swarm of figures were streaming up – flying up – from the direction of the temple. Hundreds of statues, suddenly alive, were doing the impossible: leaving their resting home of six thousand years to come for humanity. As they watched in silence, four bigger figures appeared: winged Cava Dara. Lenah could have sworn that one of them turned around, looking in the direction of the Star Rambler with its bright purple eyes.

  “By the stars, it can’t be,” she heard herself whispering.

  “It’s starting,” Cassius said, his voice sounding even raspier than normal as he stared after the swarm of Syrr and Cava Dara slowing ascending after them into the sky.

  After several long minutes, Lenah turned her attention back to the ship and engaged the autopilot with trembling fingers. It would be a few minutes before they could start the warp bubble.

  “There’s nothing we can do right now,” Cassius said quietly. “But we need to get back into the system and deliver this information. If Corinna Cheung kept this quiet, UPL might only understand a fraction of what’s going on.”

  Epilogue

  Lenah met up with Doctor Lund in the corridor outside their hostage’s cabin. They’d decided against using the cells in the engine room, instead opting to tie Corinna up inside one of the empty cabins. Bringing a mind mage against her will had its own set of challenges. They needed to make sure to never lose control of their minds to her. Lenah opened the hatch quietly, hoping Corinna would be asleep, but angry eyes stared at her when she stepped into the room.

  Tied to the bed, her hair a messy nest, Corinna definitely didn’t resemble the woman Lenah had idolized for most of her adult years. She quickly entered, gathering her concentration.

  In the two days that Corinna had been on the ship, Lenah had already gotten significantly better at slamming up her protective wall. It was easier if it was just her in the room, but she couldn’t concentrate on her wall and administer an injection at the same time yet. Doctor Lund walked in behind her. They’d learned the hard way yesterday that it was easiest to shield several minds if they were also physically aligned. For the evening dose that day, they’d walked in side by side, and Lenah had barely avoided the doctor attacking first her, then himself, with the tranquilizer syringe. She’d had to wrestle him to the floor, and then out of the cabin. Now they made the doses more frequent, and took care to stay behind each other inside the room.

  Doctor Lund quickly grabbed the arm of their captive where it was tied to the bed, and inserted the needle. He might not be a doctor of medicine, but he seemed quite comfortable doing this. He’d also sounded confident that the drug they’d acquired a few days ago from the other ship wouldn’t harm Corinna, beyond making her mind too sluggish to gather her power. Lenah hoped that was true.

  The detailed questions the others had asked about Lenah’s own power had been difficult to answer. She’d been silent about her talents for so long, being open about it rang all her internal alarms. But at least everyone still talked to her, even if they trod more carefully around her now. Lenah regretted it had come to this, not wanting their mistrust, but answering the questions had helped Doctor Lund choose the right drug for Corinna, and so far it had worked well, making her power almost useless.

  Once they closed the hatch behind them, the doctor said his goodbye in the corridor and continued toward his cabin. He and Uz had been hunkering down there, trying to find more information on the Cava Dara.

  Lenah continued on toward the common area, stretching her stiff shoulder under its bandage. Luckily, it wasn’t a bad injury, and her exhaustion after fighting Corinna had been cured by ten hours of deep sleep the first night after they’d entered the warp bubble. She’d spent most of the past couple of days brooding in the cockpit, worrying about how this whole situation had developed.

  Rumors of this hadn’t even made it onto the starnet, which was deeply troubling. There weren’t many entities powerful enough to keep a secret like this. She hoped UPL was the right organization to approach. For such a thing as war on humanity, they were the only ones. This was a situation that required corporate armies to be united, and that was what UPL had been founded for a few centuries back. They really didn’t have a choice.

  Suddenly, Lenah realized that over all her brooding, she’d skipped lunch today. She was starving.

  When she stepped into the common room, Cassius was at the table eating an instant rice dish. If not for her belly loudly proclaiming its need for nourishment, she would have turned around. After his defiance in helping the Rambler’s prior owners, she’d avoided him as much as possible. Obviously, the resulting delay in her decision to help had solved a bigger problem for her and Persia. They didn’t need to fear someone coming after the ship any longer, but the cost felt too high. Or was she blaming him so she didn’t feel her own guilt?

  Cassius looked a whole lot better since she’d last seen him yesterday. The gashes in his face were healing, even though he was still pretty swollen. Lenah walked in wordlessly, fetching another instant rice from the cupboard and heating it up. He was sitting in the middle of the table, and she debated if she should eat dinner back in the cockpit, but decided that would be silly. It wasn’t as if she could avoid him forever on a small ship like the Rambler.

  He surprised her by getting up and pulling two bottles of beer out of the fridge. “You look like you could use it.”

  Lenah accepted the bottle and imitated his movement to take a sip. Beer wasn’t considered a valid choice of beverage for someone of her station, and she was worried that it was because of its taste. But when delicious freshness mixed with pleasant bitterness touched her taste buds, she instantly took a second, much bigger sip.

  She found Cassius smiling at her expectantly, and couldn’t help herself but return the smile.

  “It’s good,” she said before taking a third sip. Did that mean he wanted to have that promised conversation now? She hadn’t forgotten when, back in his cabin, he’d promised to share some of his background with her over a beer, in return for some of her background. “So, second beer of freedom, huh? Better or worse than the first?”

  “The second beer has the better company.” That made Lenah pause in lifting her spoon to her mouth. Was he flirting with her? Did she actually like it? Or was this just his way of making peace with her? “The first one was in a smelly tavern full of even smellier criminals.”

  “Ah.” Not flirting. Lenah felt a pang of disappointment. But what was she even thinking? Having a sexual relationship with her ex-kidnapper was definitely not a smart choice. It had been a while for her, over a year since the break-up with Mason. Cassius wasn’t exactly ugly, but he also probably wouldn’t flirt with her to gain access to her privileged station. But she had a million other things to worry about right now.

  “And you’re not one? A smelly criminal?”

  “Not any longer.”

  “But you were?” This was the closest Lenah had ever come to hearing
about his background.

  Cassius nodded slowly. “Maybe not the smelly part.”

  “I don’t know, from the way your hair looked when you came on this ship.”

  He’d sported unkempt dreadlocks and a scruffy beard back then. Lenah felt good for not having said “when you kidnapped us” this time. By the guilty look in his eyes, she suspected he’d caught onto it too.

  “I did many bad things. Things I can never make up for. But I intend to punish the people who were in charge of that.”

  “You were doing it against your will?” she asked.

  “Not always,” Cassius said. “But having these powers became less attractive the older I got, and the more I realized I was using them for the wrong things.”

  “Couldn’t you just leave and get a job? Did you have to kidnap someone to achieve your freedom?”

  He looked her straight in the eye. “I’m sorry I kidnapped you. It’s – it was the only method I knew.”

  His guilt sounded honest, so Lenah asked, “Who did you run away from so hard you had to kidnap us?” She figured only high-ranking criminal organizations could afford the services of a cyborg in their ranks.

  “My father,” he said solemnly, to her surprise.

  The beer started to taste bitter in her mouth. “What?”

  He shrugged. “Why so surprised? I grew up on a ship. My father’s smuggler ship.”

  But she was more interested in the other implication. “How did you become a cyborg?”

  After all, it meant losing his real arm for a piece of metal. The army typically recruited tough men who’d been injured beyond help for their cyborg program. It was a way to keep good soldiers alive and make the best of a terrible situation, so to speak. The procedures were supposed to be painful.