The Xarren Escape (Plundering the Stars Book 2)

by James David Victor

  Beleak wasn’t as careful as me. He seemed to not have any qualms with violence, which shouldn’t have shocked me since the Javray were a warrior race of galaxy-wide renown. He dropped pilot after pilot that weren’t already in cover. After a minute, a squad of the imperial garrison arrived through another door on the far side of the hangar, but they barely made it through the doors before Beleak tore into them.

  So much violence, so loud. The blaring sirens, the yelling, and the yelps of pain as soldiers were hit, the ringing of the blaster discharges. It made my head spin. My ears rang and my head throbbed. I dropped behind cover and pressed my palms to my forehead. No, no, not now.

  Deep breaths. I sucked in air. Had to control my breathing. I couldn’t afford a panic attack. My friends needed me. Time and time again, I’d let them down when they needed me most in firefights, but not this time.

  In a bit of a drastic measure, I pinched my eyes shut and bit down on my lip so hard that I drew blood. The sudden pain snapped me out of my panic.

  I could do this.

  With a yell, I came out of cover and let loose a volley of fire. None hit the mark, but that was okay. A pilot returned fire on me and his bolt came so close to skimming my ear, but I ducked just in time.

  As I stood again to fire again, our commandeered fighter shuddered to life and started to rise ever-so-slightly off the ground. The mooring cables suddenly detached in a hiss of steam. From the still open doors, Amara yelled, “Get in here! We’re leaving!”

  Just then, the door that we’d broken the controls on snapped open and in streamed half a dozen of the garrison’s soldiers, rifles at the ready.

  Not good.

  “Go!” I cried. I aimed and fired. My bolt slammed into a soldier’s shoulder and spun him around. I held my breath. Materelle… I’d hit someone. I’d hit someone. I hit someone. Did I kill them? For a moment, I didn’t even care that bolts were flying all around me, but then Rayvan stumbled past me and I snapped out of it. I continued to return fire as I backpedaled toward the fighter doors.

  “Hurry!” Amara shouted.

  We were in danger of getting overrun. I dropped my rifle and jumped into the fighter right as bolts slammed into the space I’d just been. I was the last to arrive. The cockpit was a cramped circular space that did not leave a lot of room for Beleak. We were shoved against the walls and the console and the controls, so we had to be careful not to press anything.

  Amara flipped a switch and the cockpit doors swung shut. “Hold on,” she barked as she pulled back on the controls. Like a bolt being shot from a blaster rifle, we zipped forward. The imperials tried to lock down the hangar, but we made it through the doors before they closed completely.

  In an instant, we were in the night Elarri sky. The siren still blared in the distance but became dimmer with each passing second. It would take them a minute to reopen the hangar doors and scramble the fighters for pursuit. We had time on our side. We shot up into the night. When we hit the edge of the atmosphere, the ship rocked as it pushed through. I was almost thrown, but Beleak put a firm hand on my shoulder to keep me upright. Still, my stomach protested, and my racing heart had yet to calm from the fight.

  But finally, after a tense minute, we broke through the atmosphere into the vacuum of space. Here, we were just a tiny blip amid the stars and the space traffic buzzing about the planet.

  We headed for the coordinates that K had given us. No one followed us. No one stopped us. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but Materelle taught that hope was the greatest gift we had, right?

  “We’re here,” Amara said, taking us to a floating halt. Minutes went by, nothing. No Sanara. I was usually a patient person, especially compared to Yan, but not for this instant.

  But then, I caught a glimpse of a her, with her hawk-like shape and gold and green coloring. “Look!” I pointed.

  There she was, glorious in the darkness of space, glinting in the light of the Elarri suns. The Sanara. With a smile, Amara pulled on the controls and off we went. We zoomed toward her, putting as much distance between us and the planet as we could get. As the Sanara got closer and closer, we were caught in her docking beam.

  We crawled toward the ship until the cargo bay door opened. I’d been worried we wouldn’t fit, but the closer we got, the less concerned I became. Spending time in the cargo hold with Pivek was not something I did often, so the details of the space were fuzzy, but even with Pivek’s workshop, we’d have room.

  Then, my beloved ship consumed ours. The light of the stars and the sun was gone, replaced by the glow of the bay lights. We were in. The doors closed. We landed. We were aboard. We were safe.

  At long last, I was home.

  11

  Chapter 11 (JINX)

  It was so nice being back on the Sanara that I cried when my feet touched the inside. I hopped right out of the fighter and put my forehead to the ground. I prayed and prayed and thanked Materelle for the grace of keeping K and Pivek alive.

  “I never thought I’d be this happy to be back in this cramped dump,” said Amara beside me. I looked up to see her smiling wide, her eyes glistening as well. I wiped my tears away and stood next to her.

  “I like it. I don’t need a lot of space.”

  She scoffed, still smirking, “Yeah, well, your room doesn’t double as an infirmary and personal armory.”

  I shrugged. “True, but it was your choice to keep your weapons there when there is plenty of space down here.”

  “I didn’t want Pivek taking them apart. You know how he gets.”

  As she said it, loud clanking footsteps sounded from around the large dissected engine block from a junker and Pivek appeared, his wings fluttering with excitement. His arms and hands waved rapidly as he signed.

  ‘You have the most interesting weapons, Amara. I simply cannot help myself.’

  I smiled from ear to ear and practically danced across the space between us before I wrapped my arms around his chitinous torso. I pressed my cheek against his chest, tears trailing down the cool, smooth surface. His arms hugged me back.

  “I’m so happy to see you,” I told him.

  He hugged me tighter at those words, then pulled back and signed, ‘And I you. We feared the worst.’

  “As did we,” Amara said, coming up behind me. I moved aside so she and Pivek could embrace. When they were finished, he put his arms around our shoulders and chittered happily. I giggled. I was so happy that he was alive. Even though we heard K on the transmission, a part of me still believed that it was a trick somehow. But having him here, in the flesh—or, exoskeleton—was a tremendous relief.

  He dropped his arms and motioned at our new friends. ‘Who are your friends?’

  I’d almost forgotten about Rayvan and Beleak for a moment since I was so overcome with joy. I turned to them. “I’ll explain in full in a bit when we see K, but they saved my life and helped me find Amara and then you.”

  Beleak stepped forward and bowed his head, placing his arm over his heart. “My name is Beleak. My Elarri friend here is Rayvan, but she does not know Galactic Sign, I’m afraid.”

  I frowned at her and lifted an eyebrow. “You don’t know sign?”

  She shrugged. “There aren’t a lot of Bantiss or other species that speak in sign on Elarra. Never found a need for it.”

  That was fair. I supposed I was very privileged to know so many diverse people and to see so many strange and wonderful places. I’ve led a hard life, but that’s been one of the few benefits.

  ‘It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,’ Pivek signed rapidly. ‘Any friend of Jinx is a friend to me. I thank you for saving her.’

  Beleak nodded with a coy smile and whispered what Pivek said to Rayvan. She beamed and waved. “You’re welcome. We would do it again.”

  So there we were, all introduced for the most part, aside from K in the cockpit. I still needed to explain what the hell went down, and I was sure Pivek and K wouldn’t like what they heard. Pivek was probably still wond
ering about Yan and Rowan, so that would be hard to tell. I’d have to try not to choke up too much.

  Pivek led us up out of the cargo bay and into the main hold. As we climbed, I felt the jolt and lurch as the Sanara jumped systems. There was K, being cautious again, though after the events of the last month and a half, I certainly didn’t blame him. Honestly, I doubted we would ever be so cavalier in our missions ever again, assuming things got back to normal.

  The main deck was just as I remembered, low round halls that circled the main community and communications room with all our rooms ringing it. As we passed each room, I couldn’t help sliding my door open and collapsing on my bed. It was still stiff and musty as ever, but it may as well have been a cloud. It was so perfect, I wanted to cry. Oh, how I’d missed it.

  I didn’t stay long. I bounced up and rejoined the others as they walked to the cockpit. I lingered a moment longer in front of the door to Yan’s room, my hand on the cool curves of the siding. I took a deep breath. Materelle, please let him be alive and okay. I’m going to find him.

  “Jinx? You coming?” Amara asked. I dropped my arm and composed myself, catching my breath.

  “Yeah.”

  Her gaze lingered on me, her eyes holding the sympathy that was always beneath the surface even when she was in a rage. She knew what I was feeling. We all loved Yan, even if he annoyed her to no end. He was our leader, the glue, the one who brought us all together. Our family wasn’t complete without him.

  I fell in behind her with Rayvan and Beleak as the door to the cockpit whooshed open. Pivek stood aside and let us pile in. It was cramped, and Beleak and Pivek were too big so they had to stand in the hall, halfway through the doorway.

  And there, sitting behind the controls in his large carbon fiber chair watching the stars and space zip by in a blaze of colors as we jumped, was our soft-spoken Batoric pilot Ketellin.

  He swiveled around to face us. “It took you long enough.”

  I laughed and threw myself at him, my arms circling his neck around his breathing apparatus. I was on the verge of tears again, but I managed to keep them at bay this time. It wasn’t easy, though.

  “I’m so happy to see you,” I told him.

  “Likewise, Jinx.”

  I released him and let Amara greet him. “Glad to see you got away from those imperials,” she said with a smile.

  They embraced. K snickered in that sly way of his. “Was there any doubt?”

  I smiled. He was soft-spoken for the most part, but he was under no illusions about how talented a pilot he was. He knew he was the best.

  After they were finished, I introduced him to Beleak and Rayvan as I had with Pivek. Everyone was smiling and exchanging words and it was such a great moment to have everyone alive and together.

  But then K looked at me with a frown and asked, “What happened? Where are Yan and Rowan?”

  Which of course he would ask the question. He wasn’t clairvoyant. Still, hearing their names was like a punch to the gut. I didn’t want to go over the events of that night, but K and Pivek had a right to know everything, or at least everything that I was aware of. Whatever else happened with Yan, whether he was alive or not, was beyond me.

  I could only pray for the best.

  So I told them. Told them how it all went to hell when Rowan betrayed us, specifically how he shot me. That prompted Pivek to sign the Bantiss equivalent of spitting in disgust and say, ‘I always had a feeling about him. I never trusted him.’ Which was true. Bantiss had an uncanny knack for reading people, and Pivek had warned from the beginning that he didn’t like Rowan. It was on us for not heeding his suspicions. But to be fair, Rowan had come through for us time and again for nearly a year before this betrayal.

  I finished up by recalling the events after my injury, my near death and fever, Rayvan and Beleak helping me, our finding Amara, and eventually tracking down K and Pivek themselves. So now everyone was caught up.

  Silence crept in on us as we digested the gravity of the situation.

  “So, what do you want to do?” K asked.

  I sat down in the copilot chair, distinctly aware that this was where Yan always sat, and crossed my arms. “Well, I… I have to believe that Yan is alive. I want to try to rescue him if we can.”

  “But wouldn’t that require returning to the manor?” Rayvan asked. “That’s a tall task.”

  “With a lot of variables that aren’t in our favor,” Amara added. Always the voice of caution, and some might say pessimism.

  I wasn’t going to have it, though. “We still have the blueprints to his house, all the plans and info from our first heist. And this time, they won’t think we’d come back. He probably thinks that we did what any other thief would do: tuck tail and run, hide from the big bad mob and lay low. But he doesn’t know us.”

  Amara rubbed her temple. I hated when she did that. “That’s all well and good, but we don’t even know if Yan is alive.”

  I groaned. “Amara, I don’t want to have this argument with you again…”

  “Well, you’re going to,” she shot back, her lips curled into a serious frown. “Going back there puts all our lives at risk. I know you love Yan. We all do. He means the world to me as much as I want to punch him in the face, but we have to do this smart. I won’t go in blind if I don’t know for certain what I’ll find.”

  Materelle preserve me, I was about to start a fight, but then K cleared his throat. Our eyes snapped to him. “I may have some information that can help you.”

  My heart stopped. “What?”

  “I’ve been monitoring extraweb chatter and delving into secure transmissions with the signal interceptor Pivek rigged up for us, and I found some interesting conversations from some of Xarren’s allies.”

  Amara swallowed and licked her lips. “About what?”

  He sighed. “I do not know specifics, mind you, but apparently Xarren has started an underground gladiatorial circuit beneath his manor. Prisoner against prisoner. Fights to the death. He’s the type of man that would delight in that. It’s very possible that Yan is still alive, fighting in this arena of Xarren’s.”

  That didn’t make me feel that much better. Yan hated killing. The idea that he may have to do that to survive, or worse, that he was already dead, made me sick.

  “So, he could be dead already,” Amara said very matter-of-factly.

  Ketellin shrugged. “Very possible. Hard to say. I don’t know how many prisoners he has fighting, how often they fight. Is it random matchups or does he have favorites? I say there’s fifty-fifty odds that Yan is alive down there.”

  “I don’t like those odds.”

  I stood up in a huff. “Well, I do. Nothing we ever do is going to have perfect odds, no chance of risk. Our lives are a risk, always, every damn minute of every day. Danger is our way of life, Amara.”

  “Jinx…”

  “No, Amara. I’m tired of all the caution, all the stealth. I want to be loud. I want to make something and someone hurt who deserves it.”

  “I think I like this energy,” Rayvan said with a smile. K just blinked at me, showing no emotion or hint of what he was thinking one way or another, as per usual with him. Pivek had his arms crossed but he nodded lightly. Perhaps he agreed?

  Amara, though, was not on board. Not surprising. “Going in quiet, playing it safe, is how we operate. It’s how we get things done and how we all survive.”

  I slammed my hands against the console, narrowly avoiding smashing buttons that would have activated Materelle knew what. “Screw this. I’m tired of letting all of these people walk over us. No more sneaking. I say we fly down there, lay waste to his precious manor, and walk over the ashes until we find Yan. And if he is…gone, then we’ll kill every last one of them with the Sanara and end the Elexaes once and for all.”

  When I finished my rant, I was panting, standing, my fists clenched and arms shaking. Like Yan, I wasn’t fond of violence of any kind, especially killing, but with these monsters, with what th
ey’d done to me and Yan and his family and to countless others across the stars, they deserved retribution.

  No one said a word. I feared that they were too stunned and taken aback by my inflammatory words. I couldn’t really blame them. What I was proposing was crazy. Surely Xarren would have some defense against us, right? I mean, one of his enemies would blow his house away otherwise. Still, the cold reality of the situation didn’t do a thing to dampen the fire in my chest.

  Finally, Rayvan clapped her hands together. “I like it.”

  Amara threw her hands up. “You are impossible. Fine, we’ll do it your way. But when this blows up on us, literally, I will blame you.”

  I beamed at her. “Noted.” I sat back down, folded my legs and arms, and faced my friends. “So, here’s what we’re gonna do…”

  12

  Chapter 12 (YAN)

  I tried with all my might to keep my hands from shaking, but saints knew there was just no way.

  Too much blood stained them.

  I leaned against the walls of my cell. The surface was cool as it pressed against my back through the thin fabric of my shirt. I wish my shaking was from the cold, but I knew that it was from what I’d done. I was a killer now. Of course, I’d killed before, never liked it, but in self-defense you gotta do what you gotta do. But this…one on one, hand to hand or knife to knife… It was too intimate, too primal, too raw. Even though it was still self-defense, it felt wrong.

  After the Yodenian, I’d fought two more times. Even though it’d just been four days, luck was not on my side, as I was chosen twice in a two-day span. The second time, I fought an Elarri man who was much too old to fight. He had a limp and hardly any muscle, but even so, he gave it his all. I didn’t want to hurt him, but the threat Xarren had issued against my sister was loud and clear in my mind. I had no choice.