Unfortunately, the basestos crates were missing. Daxar couldn’t explode them if he didn’t know where they were. And right now, the most likely scenario was that the original seller or buyers of the basestos had decided to come get the crates in broad daylight. Daxar had moved too slowly to get guards out there. Heck, he had been an idiot to leave the crates unattended in the first place, but he hadn’t thought that anyone would come looking for basestos on a remote area of a backwater planet. Lesson learned: one should always suspect an evil plan is brewing. Of course, Daxar wasn’t sure he’d live long enough to prove he’d learned that lesson. If the basestos had indeed fallen into the wrong hands, it wouldn’t be long now until the city dome was attacked. Daxar’s only hope was that it would take quite some time to open the biolocks without Nova around. He might have offended her, but she wasn’t stupid or vindictive enough to try to escape the city dome and help a bunch of alien terrorists.
“What’s the news?” Daxar roared as he came around the corner to see Jarmuk and Toryx speaking with another Zocronian man. The man had his back turned to Daxar at first, so he couldn’t see who it was. But when the man turned around to look, Daxar knew him right away.
“What is Merkin doing here?” Daxar spat out. The last person he wanted to see right now was his father’s old right-hand man. Merkin always had an opinion on everything, and Daxar didn’t have time for anyone’s opinion right now. He needed to find Nova and find those basestos crates before someone else did.
“Merkin is explaining,” Jarmuk said, crossing his arms. “And boy does he have a lot of explaining to do.”
Daxar didn’t like the sound of that. What had Merkin done now? The man was annoying, sure. But he had never done anything to endanger Zocrone. Despite Jarmuk’s harsh tone and accusatory words, Merkin looked quite calm.
“I told you all: I did what I felt was right, for the girl and for Zocrone. And I didn’t do anything wrong. There was no search warrant out for Nova when I helped her, and there was no lockdown on the city dome yet when I authorized her exit.”
Daxar felt his heart tighten up in his chest. “Nova? This is about Nova? You know where she is?”
Merkin nodded. “Yes. Well, I know the general direction she was heading at least.”
Jarmuk cut in to explain, impatient with Merkin’s slow, calm answers. “Nova is heading toward Tynperro Asteroid Belt, presumably with the basestos crates. Merkin here helped her get a military grade ship, then authorized her departure from the city dome. According to him, she was planning to load the crates onto her ship, then take them to an asteroid where she would unlock the biolocks and blow up the crates using the weapons from her ship.”
“What?” Daxar said. His mind was suddenly spinning, both with anger at Merkin and Nova for doing this behind his back, and also with incredible fear for Nova’s life. “Whatever ship she has, its weapons can’t possibly be long range enough for her to shoot at the basestos crates from a safe distance. Heck, I’m not even sure the Havoc’s weapons are long enough.”
“She understands the risks,” Merkin said with a shrug. “She thinks she can manage to get away in time. And if she doesn’t, she’s okay with that. She feels quite responsible for the basestos problem, and she wanted to do something to take care of it.”
“You idiot!” Daxar roared, getting right in Merkin’s face. He had never before called Merkin something disrespectful to his face. But this situation was extreme. How could Merkin have possibly thought letting Nova go running off with the boxes was a good idea?
Toryx cleared his throat. “The good news, Chief, is that the basestos is not in enemy hands. At least not yet. But there’s a good possibility that whoever was planning to blow up those basestos crates will try to intercept Nova once she’s clear of Zocrone’s atmosphere. Nova knows at least a little bit about combat situations. She’s been working as a smuggler for a while, after all. She’s surely had to deal with some rough characters. But whether she can hold her own against a large alien mafia determined to get to basestos…that’s another question.”
“We should send a squadron after her,” Jarmuk suggested. “I could have them ready within fifteen minutes, twenty tops. Our fighters can help her if she’s in trouble, and even if she’s not she’ll probably need some serious convincing to come back to Zocrone.”
“Do we need her back in Zocrone?” Toryx asked. “If she wants to leave so badly, then let her. She’s got the crates, we can offload them on the asteroid and destroy them. She can have the stupid spaceship she bought and fly off to wherever it is she wants to go.”
“She’s not going to leave her crew,” Jarmuk said. “If she survives this ordeal, she’ll at least want us to send them out to her.”
Toryx frowned. “Maybe, but—”
“Enough!” Daxar roared. Toryx and Jarmuk fell silent and stared at him, looking slightly peeved. Let them be peeved. Daxar didn’t have time for their debates. Nova was out there in danger, and so were the basestos crates. “We don’t have time for a squadron. This Havoc is ready now. I’m going after her.”
“By yourself?” Jarmuk choked out.
“Yes, by myself. Now move out of the way so I can board and get going. We’re wasting precious time.”
“But Chief, it’s dangerous.”
“I’m not an idiot. I know it’s dangerous. But I also know that every second that passes is another second closer to the basestos falling into the wrong hands.” And to Nova falling into the wrong hands. Daxar was not ready to admit to anyone here that one of his greatest fears in all of this was what might happen to Nova. He was having a hard time even admitting it to himself. She was an outsider, who had brought trouble to their world, even if she hadn’t done so intentionally. What would everyone think of him if he started acting like it mattered to him what happened to her? He would be accused of being unfit for a Chief, and of not putting Zocrone’s best interests first. And they would be right to accuse him, wouldn’t they be? After all, he shouldn’t let his emotions about Nova affect his actions in this crisis at all.
And yet, his feelings for Nova were affecting everything he was doing right now. He pushed past his two friends, trying to avoid their eyes. He was afraid that if they could see how dark his eyes were right now, they would somehow realize that it was because of his passion for Nova. A passion he never should have indulged, and yet still could not shake, even in the face of the potential destruction of his entire race of people.
“The two things are not mutually exclusive, you know.”
It was Merkin who had spoken. Daxar whirled to glare at him. Was the old man a mind-reader or something?
No, he was just old enough to know things. A man Merkin’s age had seen enough of life that not much surprised him or got past his keen sense of perception. Still, Daxar tried to play dumb.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Merkin smiled at him mildly. “Sure you do. Saving Nova doesn’t have to mean you put your heart any less into saving Zocrone. It just so happens that Nova and those basestos crates are in the same spot. I suggest you go get them both before you run out of time.”
Daxar held Merkin’s gaze for a moment, and thought he saw a hint of amusement there. Was this all a joke to him? Daxar looked away. If anything was a joke, it was his own attempts to act like Nova meant nothing to him.
Without another word, Daxar covered the remaining couple of feet between him and the Havoc, and hopped in. Jarmuk and Toryx continued to protest, begging him to at least take one of them with him. Daxar ignored them. He didn’t have time to wait for another passenger, and he certainly didn’t have time to argue. He buckled himself into the pilot’s seat of the Havoc, and closed the hatch. Only then did Jarmuk and Toryx reluctantly step away. His two friends weren’t afraid to get in his face and tell him when they thought he was wrong, but they also knew enough to realize when Daxar wasn’t budging on an issue. And clearly, he was not budging on this. He gave them the signal to let him out of the
city dome, and Jarmuk began the sequence that would override the level three lockdown and let Chief Daxar Kotula out into open space.
Daxar fired up the engines of the Havoc as he waited for the first panel of thick glass to recede. This was the airlock chamber. Daxar took one last look down at the group below him as he lifted the Havoc into the chamber. Merkin caught his eye, and Daxar looked away. The old man might drive him crazy, but Daxar couldn’t deny that age had brought a certain wisdom to Merkin that Daxar himself hadn’t found yet.
I should trust him, for once. After all, my dad trusted him, and he never led my dad wrong. If he says I can rescue Nova and stop the basestos disaster, then maybe it really is okay for me to do both.
The thick glass of the airlock chamber slid back into position below Daxar’s ship, and the chamber began to equalize its pressure with the outer world of Zocrone. After a few minutes, the glass dome above him started to slide open. Daxar took a deep breath and launched off, flying in an almost straight vertical line up toward Zocrone’s atmosphere. He flew as fast as he could push the ship, feeling a welcome rush of adrenaline as he began to pass through Zocrone’s bumpy upper atmosphere. It had been too long since he flew. He used to practice at least one a week, but that frequency had fallen off to once a month, and then to every other month. There always seemed to be so much to do as Chief, and flying so often felt like a waste of his time. He was already the best pilot in Zocrone, and he figured he wasn’t going to lose his skills just because he didn’t practice as often.
But he’d forgotten how good flying made him feel. How free. As he sped away from Zocrone and into empty space, he felt like he was back in control of his own life. Being behind the controls of the Havoc steadied him, and reminded him that he could protect Zocrone when it really counted.
And right now, it really counted.
Daxar steered toward the asteroid belt, slowing only slightly when he reached its outer edges. His heart pounded in his chest with the worry that he might be too late. Nova might have been captured, and the bastards behind this whole basestos plot might be torturing her. Or Nova herself might have already exploded the basestos, blowing herself up in the process. He tried to stay calm as he peered through the asteroids, but it was hard not to panic when the woman he loved might have exploded into a million pieces across nearby space.
Daxar couldn’t see anything, and he was growing more and more pessimistic with every moment that passed. Surely, he should have found Nova by now, if she was still here to be found. How deep into this asteroid belt could she possibly have gone before stopping to unload the basestos? Daxar flew out to the very edge of the belt, so he could fly a bit faster and hopefully find her quicker. He was starting to wonder if it was possible that there was somewhere else she had gone, but he couldn’t think of any other destinations nearby. Zocrone really was in the middle of nowhere. The ship she was on didn’t have FTL capability, and she wouldn’t have dared to use a wormhole while carrying a load of basestos.
Or maybe she had. If her choice had been between letting the bad guys catch her or letting the Feds catch her, would she have chosen the wormhole, and the Feds? It would likely mean life on a prison planet for her, but she might have done it to save Zocrone. After all, she’d planned to explode the basestos, and she wasn’t an idiot. She knew her ship would probably be too close and get caught up in the explosion, but she was willing to try, anyway. She was willing to sacrifice everything for his people.
Maybe outsiders weren’t all so bad, after all.
Daxar chewed on his lower lip as he flew, nervous about what he might find ahead. He didn’t want to lose Nova now. He was just starting to realize how truly remarkable she was. Would she ever consider staying with him on Zocrone, or would that be too much to ask of her? Would his people accept her?
Daxar’s thoughts swirled as he hurtled forward through the lonely void of space. With every passing moment, he realized that his chances of finding Nova, or finding her alive, were getting lower. But he kept at it, and less than a minute later, his persistence was rewarded.
Up ahead of him and to his right, a lone figure was floating aimlessly through space. That figure was wearing what looked like a Zocronian survival suit, and was dragging a ship tether along, even though no ship was in sight. Daxar knew in an instant that it was her.
“Nova!” he shouted, his heart doing sudden flip-flops. His big blue chest expanded with happiness as he slightly adjusted his ship’s direction to catch up with her.
Chapter Fourteen
Daxar was confused. Somehow, Nova had come untethered from her ship while performing some sort of outside work. She floated along at a relatively high speed, which meant her ship must have been moving quite fast when she came untethered from it. There was so little resistance out here in space that an object in motion stayed in motion for a long time, coasting along at a consistent speed. That was strange, though. Why would she be tethered and outside when her ship was moving? None of this made sense.
But Daxar could worry about how all of this had happened later. Right now, he had to figure out a way to catch Nova. He wasn’t entirely sure whether she was still alive, but he told himself the fact that she was still in one piece was a good sign, at least. He flew closer to her, matching his ship’s speed to her speed. The first thing he wanted to do was figure out whether she was alive.
That didn’t take long. As he passed by her, he saw her turn her face toward his ship, and then her jaw dropped in shock. Daxar’s heart melted as his eyes met hers. She was alive! Whatever had gotten her into this predicament hadn’t killed her, at least. But how could he slow her down enough to rescue her? As he was pondering this, he realized he was traveling a little bit faster than her, and his ship’s cockpit had passed her. He slowed so that he could make eye contact with her again, but she didn’t reappear.
What the heck? Then he looked back at his wing and laughed. She had somehow managed to grab onto the spaceship as it passed. That couldn’t have been an easy feat. The gloves on survival suits were notoriously bad for gripping things. But her determination must have been strong, because she had managed to get a grip on a moving spaceship. Granted, she was moving at almost the same speed as that spaceship, but still. Daxar was impressed.
He slowed his spaceship down until he was hovering, and then pulled down his helmet visor so that the helmet would be pressurized. He opened the hatch to the cockpit, and Nova inched her way along the ship until she reached the open hatch. He held out a hand and helped pull her inside, then pulled the hatch closed behind her.
He lifted his visor and looked over at her, not sure what the appropriate thing to say in this situation would be. He finally settled on an oh-so-eloquent, “Uh, hi.”
She pulled her helmet’s visor up, eyeing him warily. “Hi. What are you doing out here?”
She sounded almost accusatory, and he had to hold back a laugh. “What am I doing out here? I’m rescuing you. Although I had expected to find you in a spaceship, not hurtling aimlessly through space. What the hell happened?”
He should have been angry at her. He should have yelled at her for sneaking away from Zocrone and making off with the basestos without his permission. But he was so sludging relieved to see her alive that all he could do was grin at her like a fool.
“It’s a long story,” she said, her voice taking on a weary note. “But I don’t have time for it right now. We have to get back to the basestos crates. The Ithos were on their way to steal them.”
Daxar immediately sobered, his giddiness over finding Nova alive tempered by the realization that if she didn’t have her ship anymore, that meant the basestos crates were out here somewhere completely unguarded.
“Where are the crates?” He was already throttling up the power on the Havoc.
“They’re further this way, just inside the asteroid belt. At least, that’s where I left them.”
Daxar was already turning his ship in the direction that Nova had indicated. “You just left them
alone?”
She gave him an impatient sidelong glance. “Like I told you, it’s a long story. But basically, I was kidnapped while in the process of unloading and unlocking the crates. The Ithos have ships that somehow run completely silent, and one of them snuck up on me. He towed my ship and me away, while I was still tethered to an empty rear cargo hatch.”
Daxar furrowed his brow. “He towed you? How?”
Nova shrugged. “Beats me. I’ve never seen anything like it. He had a weirdly shaped ship and some sort of tentacle-like cables that attached his ship to mine. He flew away from the boxes, and a few minutes later the tether to my ship broke and I was just free-floating through space. I don’t think he realized I was gone, but once he and the others do realize that the basestos crates are unlocked, they won’t care. They only needed me for the biolocks, which I had already unlocked anyway.”
“The others? How many others?”
“Three ships that I could see. They were heading toward the basestos crates when I got pulled away. They’re probably almost there by now, if they haven’t already made it. We can still get to them in time if we hurry, though. They’ll be loading the crates very slowly and carefully to avoid an accidental explosion.”
“I can’t believe you left them unlocked crates!” Daxar pushed his ship to go faster. He had to get to the basestos before the Ithos got the powder.
Nova was looking a bit defensive. “I was trying to help. I thought I could get the boxes away from Zocrone and explode them, and then your people would be safe. I was trying to prove to you that not all outsiders are bad.”
“And you didn’t think the Ithos would follow you?”
Nova looked chastised. She stared down at her hands. “No. I was so caught up in worrying that you would catch me that I didn’t worry enough about the Ithos.”
The Alphas of the Seven Galaxies Page 14
