Krimson Princess: Rystar and the LASSOs Book Two

by Jack Archer

  She shut the door and set her Cortijet down, and Shea paced for a moment before speaking.

  “I just got fired from the FDDS,” he said, standing still and facing her.

  Rystar’s eyes narrowed as she took in that little bit of information and put the pieces together. “You’ve been working for the FDDS this whole time?”

  “I have,” Shea responded, not daring to sit down or make a move until Rystar had finished her questions.

  “And you didn’t think to tell me because…” she trailed off, setting a hand on her hip and using the other to wave around in the air, presumably to pull an answer out of it.

  Shea took in a deep breath and fixed her with a pleading look. He didn’t really want to explain himself but might not have had the luxury of not doing so.

  “Have you—” she started and stopped, putting her hand over her mouth, eyes widening with horror. She removed her hand, and when she spoke again, her voice was frozen over. “Have you been giving them information?”

  “Yes,” Shea responded, pulling his lips together and putting his hands on his hips. His breathing caught in his chest, and for a moment, he wondered if Rystar would throw him off the ship entirely.

  Rystar smiled and huffed, a dangerous sign. She nodded and turned around, pacing the room and thinking, and Shea let her have as much time as she needed.

  “Was it worth it?” she finally asked, ceasing to pace and turning to face him.

  “No,” he said immediately. “It led to the death of Na’gya’s friend, and while I take responsibility, I can’t handle that. I’m sorry.”

  Rystar stalked towards him and put a finger in his chest, shorter than him but twice as terrifying. “You’re right. It is on your hands. Na’gya’s down one friend, and we’re down more intelligence because you thought, what? They’d give you an extra bonus? What did they offer you?”

  “Immunity for you,” Shea responded. Rystar’s eyes widened, and she took a step back. “Jorge said if I could keep tabs on you, when we came back, he wouldn’t press charges or anything.”

  Rystar’s face fell, and she looked to the floor, sighing deeply. “I can’t believe you fell for that shit.”

  “Can you not?” Shea said, daring to smile. Rystar sensed it and whipped her head up.

  “I guess I can,” she snorted, “you’re still pretty green.”

  “I didn’t want them to come after you,” he said, reaching his hand out tentatively to place on her shoulder. When she didn’t move away, he did the same with his other hand and pulled her closer. “But you’re right, I shouldn’t have done what I did. It was stupid and got someone killed.”

  Rystar nodded and let him pull her closer. “I’m still pissed.”

  “And you have every right to be,” Shea said, hugging her tightly for a moment before she pushed away as her comms tablet buzzed. She grabbed it and looked at the message before turning to Shea.

  “Kyran wants to see us on the bridge,” she said with a shrug. Shea nodded but gulped, an icy fist settling in the pit of his stomach. They exited the room, walked down the corridor to the elevator, entered it, and pushed the button to bring them to the bridge.

  The doors slid open, and they exited, seeing the entire crew, including Na’gya, standing around. Shea didn’t get a warm, fuzzy feeling seeing them all there but stepped out of the elevator and slid behind a chair, drumming his fingers on the back of it.

  “Rystar, Shea, happy to have you join us,” Kyran said. Shea didn’t like the steely edge of his tone, the way he leaned against the ship’s console, the way he didn’t use nicknames.

  “What’s going on?” Rystar asked, moving down the steps slowly.

  “Enzo informed me of some interesting traffic he saw a minute ago,” Kyran said, tapping his foot on the ground. Enzo sat next to him, comms tablet in hand and giving Shea a cold glare.

  “What, you’re monitoring us now?” Rystar scoffed, stopping at the bottom of the steps and folding her arms across her chest.

  “Enzo monitors all traffic in and out of this ship,” Kyran responded, standing up straight and striding to place himself in front of Rystar. “And he found some calls coming from your partner there to the old FDDS today.”

  “I know about that,” Rystar said with a nod, “he just told me that he severed things with them today.”

  “Did he also tell you he told the FDDS we were on Yarev?” Kyran continued, his normal nonchalant demeanor gone, replaced with something Shea didn’t ever want to cross again.

  “He told me that, too,” Rystar said. “You have to understand, he did this originally to stop them from pressing charges against me, nothing more. His intent was not to hurt anyone, and when he realized he had, he stopped immediately.”

  “You think…” Na’gya piped up from the corner of the room, pushing off from the wall and fixing Shea with a glare. “Ju’sif is dead because of you!”

  “I know that,” Shea said and walked down the steps to Na’gya, “and I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I had no idea they would do such a thing.”

  “You didn’t think the FDDS would stoop so low as to have the Ya’ados assassinated?” Na’gya countered, his brows furrowed. The pain in his eyes was too much to bear, and Shea looked away. Rystar gazed on him with pity, but he knew she agreed with Na’gya too much to come to his aid.

  “I was stupid, okay?” he said, turning back to Na’gya. “I was naive and thought if I played by their rules, they wouldn’t hurt us.”

  “I was this close to throwing you off this damn ship,” Kyran said, coming up close to Shea and looking up at him. He packed a mighty large punch of viciousness for such a short creature as his red eyes burned into Shea’s. “But you’ve somehow managed to convince me you’re not some criminal mastermind. You’re just an idiot kid who was looking out for himself.”

  The truth stabbed into his gut far harder than he thought it would, but Shea merely nodded and looked at the floor, his heartstrings in tangles as Rystar turned away from him finally.

  “I’ll be monitoring you from now on to make sure you’ve kept your word and severed ties with the FDDS,” Kyran said, the fire dying from his eyes. “Rystar still trusts you, and that means something to me.”

  Beside him, Shea watched as Enzo rolled his eyes and began to swipe at his comms tablet again. Shea nodded, and Rystar spun on a heel, heading back up the stairs and towards the elevator. He made to call out to her but stopped, knowing he would just make it worse.

  Cobalt huffed and pushed himself from the chair he was in and followed Na’gya back up the stairs to catch the elevator as Rystar entered it. It was just he, Kyran, Enzo, and Lupe now on the bridge, and he desperately wanted to leave but couldn’t find it in him to do so.

  “I’m really sorry, I am,” he pleaded to Kyran, needing someone to be on his side.

  “Kid, I’ve made worse fuck ups than yours just now,” Kyran sighed, patting him on the back and sitting down in a seat, stretching his legs out in front of him to cross at the ankle.

  “Did any of them kill a guy?” Shea snorted and sat down across the aisle from Kyran and resting his head in his hands.

  “How about a whole ass platoon?” Kyran shot back. Shea looked up at him, the haunted look in Kyran’s eyes as he remembered whatever he did that killed a whole slew of people.

  “I’m sorry,” Shea muttered, forgetting about the man’s history.

  “Compared to me, you’ve got a lot of fucking up to do before you’re able to get down on yourself about mistakes like this,” Kyran said, tilting his head to look at Shea dead on. Shea’s brow furrowed, but he let out a small smile.

  “Do you think Na’gya will forgive me?” Shea asked.

  “In time,” Kyran said, nodding and gazing out of the ship’s enormous space shield. Lupe had parked them in such a spot, so they had a view of the planet’s curvature just partially hidden by the sun. From up here, they couldn’t make out most of the planet’s details, but the bright blue on the horizon gradual
ly faded into the deeper blacks and greens and blues of the ocean right below them.

  Shea almost didn’t want to leave.

  “Meanwhile, you might want to keep your head down,” Kyran said with a groan as he stood up, clapping a hand on Shea’s shoulder before leaving towards the elevators.

  The elevator doors slid shut behind him, and Shea sighed, jiggling his leg and sliding his eyes down to the back of Lupe’s head.

  “You’re not pissed at me, are you?” he asked.

  Lupe snorted and continued swiping through their comms table. “Oh, so nyënam wew.”

  “Thanks, Lupe.”

  Chapter Ten

  Kyran Skylock: Lismep Station, Oprezzo

  The Mach III Gloriosum still sat in a horrifying state of disrepair in Kyran’s hangar, its wings tattered to hell and engines busted from his ship’s cannons.

  And his conscience ached.

  He had assumed Rystar Umara would be just another bounty hunter, intent on getting her money no matter the cost. His story about the Ya’ados, the Sustri government… he wasn’t confident it would sway her. But then he recognized the passionate gleam in her eyes, the same one Ephrem had when he talked about saving Earth in his glory days.

  Yes, she came from the same cloth as the only man he ever truly loved.

  He approached the Gloriosum and set his hands on his hips, letting out a tremendous sigh as he did so. Kyran was an expert in capturing and stealing ships but didn’t have a shred of knowledge when it came to fixing them. That’s when he relied on Lupe and their hundreds of years of experience in piloting and fixing space vehicles.

  “I’m sure there’s a port down there that can fix this thing up real fast,” Lupe said from behind Kyran, and he turned, watching his pilot approach him with folded arms.

  Kyran nodded and turned back around to face the ship. “You letting Hendi stew by himself for a bit?”

  “It’ll be good for him,” Lupe said with a shrug and stood beside Kyran. “We’ll need to actually port the thing to get the body damage repaired, but I know a good shop down on Uraldi Beach. It’s far enough away from New Vesta we won’t get spotted again.”

  “We need to get out of here soon,” Kyran mumbled, scratching his chin. “The FDDS already knows we’re somewhere on Yarev, and it won’t take long for them to find us again.”

  “So let’s make a jump and throw her in some space port’s repair shop,” Lupe said.

  “That’s a better idea,” Kyran admitted and let his arms fall to his sides. “Get the ship ready for a jump to the next system, no planet necessary, just the first repair shop near the border gate.”

  “On it,” Lupe said, tapping two fingers to their temple and heading off to the elevators.

  Kyran stood there a few moments longer and sent out a group message on his tablet to the crew members, telling them to join him on the bridge.

  His crew around him, Kyran stood next to the ship’s console with Lupe and watched as their hands moved around the dashboard with ease and confidence, preparing them to take off from Yarev and into the next system over.

  “So, where are we going?” Rystar asked, sitting down in a seat and strapping herself in. The rest of the crew was doing the same, and Kyran turned around to face her.

  “Oprezzo, from the looks of it,” Kyran responded, heading to the seat next to Rystar and plopping down into it. He pulled his seatbelt tight and rolled his head on his shoulder to look over at her, grinning wildly. “Rïnrih, no romantic beaches to take you to.”

  “Don’t think we have the time for that, anyway,” she grumbled and faced forward. “What are we doing there?”

  “Going to fix your ship, darlin’,” he said, turning back to the front where Lupe had detached the ship from the port and had begun to meander their way out of the port, speeding off into the darkness towards the border gate queue near the sun.

  “Is there no place here that can do it?” Rystar asked.

  Kyran shrugged and shot his eyes to Shea, who sat at the end of the line with his arms folded. “No doubt, but since the FDDS knows where we’re at, we have to scram as quick as we can and hope no one’s following us.”

  “They shouldn’t be able to,” Enzo piped up from the center of the room. “Unless someone can hack into the border gate system and find out where we went, it’s almost impossible. And I’ve made sure no one can get in our systems to find our flight plans.”

  “Is anyone trying?” Kyran asked.

  “Plenty are trying,” Enzo huffed. “Doesn’t mean they can get in, though.”

  “You mean our systems are under attack?” Rystar asked, brows furrowed. Enzo looked up at her with a grin.

  “We’re always under attack from someone,” he explained, brushing some black hair from his face and turning his attention back to the tablet. “Could be some kid at the space port or a government official. I have to weed through and determine who’s a legitimate threat and who isn’t.”

  “Isn’t that exhausting?” Rystar chuckled.

  “Quite the contrary,” Enzo replied. “It’s calming and thrilling at the same time.”

  Rystar smiled and leaned over to look at what he was doing on his tablet, and Enzo scooted so she could see clearer. He began to explain what he was looking at, and Kyran’s heart warmed at the sight. Maybe she would accept his whole crew into her life and not just Kyran.

  He snapped out of it when Lupe spoke into the ship’s communication speaker to the border gate clerk, giving their information to them and waiting to be processed. Lupe tapped their fingers on the console, waiting as impatiently as Kyran was. At long last, the border gate clerk cleared them, and they pushed towards it, beginning to glow as it prepared them for the jump.

  The border gates still fascinated Kyran. The queues were mainly in open space, large lines of LASSOs and other ships waiting for the next mini-spaceport to clear them for a jump. There were two gates for each system, one to enter and one to exit. The border gate itself was a gigantic, black metal ring that floated several miles from the border gate check and allowed ships ample time to speed up and fly through them when it was ready.

  No one knew where the border gates had come from, only that they had been discovered at the edge of nearly every habitable system in the known universe. They were large enough to accommodate the biggest freighters the galaxy’s species had to offer. Kyran often wondered who would make such a large travel system and what would be big enough to fit through them but shook the thought away.

  They all held on as Lupe hit the throttle and sped forward through the white-hot gate, sending them into a sprawling mess of stars and light. A few moments later, they emerged from the other side and were met with a small, orange sun that pulsed at them from behind the space shield.

  “Changing course to Lismep Station, half-hour away from here,” Lupe announced to the crew and angled the Firehawk towards their destination. “Everyone is allowed to stand up and walk around now.”

  Kyran and the rest of them unbuckled, but Cobalt, Enzo, and Shea stayed in their seats while Rystar, Na’gya, and Kyran all stood up to stretch their legs. “Come on, Umara, let’s go take a look at your ship. Lupe, this thing got autopilot?”

  “Sure, let me set it, and I’ll come down to the Gloriosum with you guys,” they said, pushing some buttons and rising from their chair to head to the elevators. Na’gya stayed behind, walking up to the space shield and gazing out of it, wings unfurled to their maximum glory. There were only a few places in the ship he could do it, and Kyran pulled a face, wondering if Na’gya would ever get the chance to fully stretch his wings wherever he wanted.

  Down in the hangar, Lupe circled the LASSO and hummed at certain points. Rystar bounced on her toes and clasped her hands behind her back, watching Lupe’s every move.

  “Doesn’t look too bad, actually,” Lupe said, coming around from the other side of the Gloriosum and smiling. “Two of the engines have some structural damage, and the right wing needs to be fixed up, but
other than that, you didn’t mess her up too bad, Kyran.”

  Kyran sighed in relief, and Rystar did the same next to him but slapped him on the chest with the back of her hand. “She wouldn’t need fixing if you’d have just left me alone.”

  “But then we would have never met, and that would be a travesty,” Kyran said, putting his hand over his heart.

  “I suppose you’re right,” she grumbled. “Lupe, how long do you think repairs like this would take?”

  “With the right amount of money, I’d say a couple of cycles,” they said, looking over the ship again.

  “We just found out where the Hoop is. Don’t you think that’s a little more important?” Rystar asked. Kyran cocked an eyebrow at her and took a deep breath, realizing she now cared more about the mission at hand than her own LASSO, the one that belonged to her mother.

  “I appreciate the sentiment, sugar, but we’ve got a few stops to make before we get to the Hoop,” Kyran said softly and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Besides, it’s important to me that you’re aware you’re allowed to leave any time you want.”

  Rystar fixed him with a strange glare, her normally green eyes bright with the light around her. She eventually looked away and smiled, hooking her hands in her waistband and turning to leave. Lupe followed, and Kyran called back to them.

  “And Rystar?”

  She turned around to him, and he sighed, wishing he could say what he wanted to say. “I’m sorry about doing that to your ship in the first place.”

  She grinned at him, a genuine one, and all was right in the galaxy.

  “How many tsetär?”

  Kyran was beside himself. All the money he’d accumulated on Earth and in the last 50 years of bounties would be wiped out with an engine and wing repair for a Mach III LASSO.

  “That’s the deal, take it or find another port,” the Sustri at the counter drawled, his blonde hair falling in his face, obscuring most of his features. Kyran couldn’t see much but knew what he could see of the kid’s face was definitely punchable.