The Colossus Collection : A Space Opera Adventure (Books 1-7 + Bonus Material)

by Nicole Grotepas

  “Ugly, and pointless, but yes,” Magna said. Her cold eyes returned to Holly.

  “Our ship is docked,” another one of her goons said, tapping his ear. “They want us to hurry. This ship is taken care of.”

  “That’s your ship?” Holly asked.

  Magna leaned over and slapped her.

  Holly’s hatred of Magna solidified; she’d never feel remorse over this woman being hurt. These sentiments would come in handy later. She hoped.

  “None of your business.” The other woman turned to her team. “Let’s go! Keep your guns on them. We’re out of time, and we got what we came for. The zeppelin will kill them. Go, go, go!”

  “You want to take that risk?” Number Three asked. “Leaving them alive? Let’s just kill them.”

  Magna scowled. “No. Her father is the Heart. When he comes back, I don’t need to give him ammunition against me. The ship will kill them. Then it’s not on us.”

  Before Holly could work out what they’d said about her father, darkness overtook her.

  33

  Holly awoke to her leg being gingerly handled as Shiro wrapped a bandage around the wound. Odeon cradled her head in his lap, and Charly was pacing at her feet, cursing loudly.

  “You’re awake, Hols.” Charly crouched and studied her face. Her eyes were worried. “How’s the leg feel?”

  “Fantastic. Feels like it got a makeover,” Holly said, grimacing.

  “Funny. Shiro’s bandaging it. You think you can walk?”

  “Do I have a choice? Are you guys gonna fashion a palanquin out of a table and chairs and carry me?” Aside from the scorching pain in her thigh, peace and calm were her primary feelings, thanks to Odeon’s song. Laughter was out of the question. “If only I were Yasoan.”

  “I’ve wished that too, Holly Drake. Many times.” He didn’t say it softly—it came out as loud as his song.

  She stared up at his eyes. Holly didn’t remember ever seeing such fear in them.

  “I’m going to be fine, Odeon,” she reassured him. It was a lie, but she doubted he knew that.

  She hoped she’d be fine. Getting her team out of their predicament was something to live for. Then she could succumb to whatever the injury turned into. For now, she’d get up and hobble out of there.

  “Where’s our field medicine expert?” she grumbled.

  “Let that be a lesson to us. We should always bring your boy-toy,” Shiro said.

  Holly laughed. The motion sent fresh ripples of pain down her leg. “Boy-toy. Real great. Was Voss your girl-toy?”

  Shiro finished wrapping her leg. “It’s covered at least. And I found this in the First-Aid Kit.” He handed her a small vial of liquid that he’d pulled out of an open red and white case next to him. “Painkiller.”

  Charly glanced at the vial. “We hope.”

  Shiro checked it again. “It’s labeled ‘painkiller’.”

  Holly focused on the bottle and saw that he was right. She drank it in one swallow. “Any sign of the other guards or anyone else while I was out?”

  “No. Which makes me suspicious, Hols.” Charly crouched down. “There’s a lot here that doesn’t add up.”

  Shiro and Odeon helped her stand up. She limped around, avoiding the rubble of their battle, with Odeon supporting her. Her leg wanted to give out, but she managed to command it to do her bidding.

  “Let’s go, before my leg gets worse,” she huffed.

  Charly gave Holly a doubtful look. “Is that how injuries work?” She shook her head, then took the lead.

  Shiro pulled up the rear, and they headed out the exit that Magna and her team of nameless numbers had taken.

  The going was slow, with Holly’s breath coming in labored gasps. Odeon stayed with her, acting as a crutch. They moved through multiple hatches, passing beneath sconce-lighting in passenger areas, through a small bar area, and continuing on into another corridor full of cabins. The painkiller finally set in, but Holly’s leg defied her wishes, and she was forced to rely on Odeon’s support.

  As they moved, something she’d heard just before she blacked out echoed through her head. She wasn’t sure she’d heard right. She furrowed her brow—something about the ship killing them.

  “What was it they said to each other?” she asked between breaths.

  “Who?” Charly asked, looking over her shoulder.

  “The jerks who shot me.”

  “ ‘The ship will kill them,’” Odeon said with a melody still on his voice.

  “Yeah, what did they mean by that?”

  Before anyone could respond, the communicator Danielle had given them started buzzing in Holly’s pocket. She kept heading through the corridors, following the fighter, and Charly made a noise of surprise as Holly held the communicator to her ear with her free hand.

  “What?” Holly asked Danielle.

  “Nice to hear from you too, you lovely beast you.”

  “Things are a bit tense here. What is it?”

  “The ship left, the one that stole my spot. That’s the good news. I can dock any time now. You ready for that?”

  “Meet us there. We’re on our way now.”

  “The bad news—maybe I should have led with that. Hindsight. Anyway, the bad news is that your zeppelin went off course.”

  “Off course? What do you mean?”

  Charly made more noises of surprise and shock, then started to curse. “Oh, trust me, I know. This is unmistakably ‘off course’.” Her voice had shot into a high register.

  Holly was getting irritated. “In what way?”

  “Calm down, girl. Calm down. We can handle this,” Danielle said.

  Holly fumed. She counted to ten. Ahead of her, Charly continued to make sounds of displeasure. Holly had no idea what was going on with her, but Danielle was becoming a distraction that prevented her from finding out.

  “Spit it out, Danielle. We’ve got some problems here.”

  “This other problem should be fine. Before I tell you, know that I’ve got your back. So, the zeppelin has left the aetherway. Worse. It’s speeding up, heading directly toward Ixion. You need to get off, fast.”

  Holly struggled with the information as pieces clicked together in her mind. She inhaled sharply. “That’s what they meant by ‘the ship will kill them.’”

  “Who meant what?” Danielle asked. “Look, doesn’t matter. My ship’s faster. We’re going to dock, get you on board, and get away. Ixion is powerful, though. We only have a narrow window to get you off before we’re past the point of no return.”

  “How long?”

  “Based on my calculations, five minutes.”

  “We’ll get there.”

  Holly ended the call and returned the communicator to her pocket. “Set a timer. We have five minutes to get to the ship.”

  Charly stopped without warning, then muttered something and kept going.

  Holly craned her neck to peek around Charly. “What’s wrong?”

  “Can’t you see it?”

  “No, I’ve got one hundred and fifty pounds of muscle in front of me. You don’t make a good window, Charly.”

  Charly turned sideways to let her see.

  Up ahead, the floor was littered with something.

  “What is it?” Holly asked, feeling the blood leave her face. She already knew.

  “Carnage,” Odeon said, his song vanishing.

  Blood covered the walls and cabin doors. Holes in the bulkhead still sizzled. Not all the work had been done by aether guns; some had clearly been done by swords.

  “Was it mercy killing?” Holly asked. “The ship is heading for Ixion. They would have died anyway.”

  Shiro came up behind Holly. “Not mercy. Insurance.”

  “This is sick,” Charly observed.

  “I agree, Charly. And I agree with Shiro,” Odeon said. “They could have left in escape pods. If the ship is heading for Ixion, we need to get off it.”

  “That was the purpose of the timer,” Holly agreed. “Let
’s go.”

  Bodies of guards and crewmen littered the corridor. What Magna and her thugs had done was all-out slaughter. As much as it sickened Holly, she didn’t have time for the carnage around her. She couldn’t think about it. She couldn’t dwell on it.

  “We have five minutes to get to Danielle’s ship before we’re dead. Well, four now. If we don’t hurry, we’ll be stuck in its gravity well and we’ll be pulled in. And I don’t know how to fly a zeppelin.”

  “Can you run?” Shiro asked her.

  “Can or can’t, I’m going to,” she replied. She looked at Odeon and took her arm off his shoulders, then stepped away from him. “We have to get out of this alive. That means no more carrying me.”

  The colors of his eyes intensified as he looked down at her. He nodded. “I know.”

  “Magna’s on my shit-list,” Holly said. “But let’s get the hell out of here. We can grieve later for the death she left in her tracks.”

  “And plan our revenge,” Charly added.

  They reached the spiral staircase that led down to the bottom level. Holly took them as fast as she could. Each step sent new fire through her limbs, lighting her mind up with agony. Didn’t matter.

  Pain is just proof of life.

  She focused on that mantra as she trotted stiffly down the steps, gripping the wood banister beneath her fingers. In her mind, her leg turned into a wooden block that wouldn’t work quite the way she needed it to, but that was fine. Someday, that unresponsive pile of wood would become a beautiful limb that set her free.

  They reached the bottom level, where the ship’s crew quarters normally were, and began the long race through the corridor to the cargo bay. There were more bodies on that level. Holly tried to leap over one, and saw Butterfly’s face. His body was charred from an aether gun.

  Her stomach turned, realizing that was how she might have died. She couldn’t believe that it was her damn father that had stayed Magna’s hand. That, in some way, she had his ass to thank that she was still alive.

  For two more minutes.

  She nearly tripped on the arm of Baldy. Blood oozed from the bone and muscles where it lay about seven inches away from his shoulder. His vacant eyes stared up at her with terrible accusation.

  Hey, we didn’t kill you. I spared your life, she thought. Sucks that it didn’t make a difference. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

  With one minute to spare, by her very casual mental calculations, they made it into the cargo bay and hurried across the vast space to the airlock.

  “I hope the ship is on the other side,” Charly said, her voice full of doubt. “Knowing that woman . . .”

  “I’m sure she’s there,” Holly panted, but she wasn’t sure.

  As they entered the airlock and the doors clanged shut behind them, the pressure equalized. The hatch into the Benedicat Cor Tuum opened.

  Wick stood there, a smarmy grin on his ragged face.

  Holly limped inside, with the others following behind her, and Wick sealed the passageway.

  “Take her away,” he said, presumably to Danielle over a comm.

  Holly collapsed against Wick, her leg giving out after all the sprinting. Bile rose in her throat at the smell of him, at being so close to him.

  He righted her with a throaty laugh, and she stood on her own.

  34

  “That does not look good. Even all bandaged up. Is that blood seeping through?” Danielle asked, eyeing Holly’s leg. She lifted her gaze to Holly’s face.

  Shiro cleared his throat. “Now, now, Ms. Le Roi, that was the bandage available for me to use. I had little choice in the matter. There’s no blood seepage, though.” He studied it and nodded.

  Danielle ignored him and stared at Holly. “Come to think of it, you don’t look good. Your face is peaked. I’m worried about you . . . and I never worry about anyone. Except Lucky when he drinks too much. Which happens any time he drinks.” She shot a pointed look at Wick where he sat, tapping the screen and taking readings.

  He spun slightly in his chair to gaze back at Danielle on her throne, where she sat with one leg tossed over the side, swinging it like she didn’t have a care in the solar system. Wick scowled and shook his head.

  He wore his eyepatch, which maybe meant the fortune-telling, fake eye was on deck. How long till Shiro and Charly were asking it fortunes again? Maybe they could find out how to get the galactic orrery back.

  She frowned. It wasn’t a yes or no question. Probably wouldn’t work.

  Holly was seated at one of the empty control panels, her leg propped up on it as she leaned back in the chair. Odeon was on the ground beside her, resting back on his hands, relaxed as ever. The White Witch reclined in another spare chair at a nearby console and watched Holly. Meanwhile, Charly and Shiro had taken spots at a bench built into the bulkhead around the perimeter of the bridge, and were conspiring quietly.

  The mood was grim. Well, in everyone but Danielle.

  “Oh, look at that,” the captain said, her attention flickering away from Holly to the viewscreen.

  Everyone followed the direction of Danielle’s gaze.

  “There she goes. Such a shame. Every zeppelin is a treasure, and that one was no different. Oh goodness. What a show. Yes, yes, yes with the lightning and explosions.” Her eyes glittered as she watched the destruction.

  Though they were zipping away from the planet as fast as Danielle’s ship could go, their view was from the rear of the Benedicat Cor Tuum, which afforded them the sight of The Golden Eclipse being pulled into the gas giant at angles that tore the ship apart and burned it up.

  Danielle whistled. “That was a close call if I ever saw one. Oh, and before I forget, my prices went up when we had to consume so much fuel to hurry away to avoid the gravity well.”

  Holly clenched her jaw. That wasn’t welcome news. Especially since they’d lost the galactic orrery.

  She’d been ready for complications, but not that sort. She’d imagined running into guards or having to shoot a few more legs, not what had happened with the slaughter of the crew and guards.

  Voss was shaping up to be much worse than George and his henchmen. Such wanton killing was the sign of a deranged egomaniac. Voss hadn’t been the one pulling the triggers and slicing off arms—that had been Magna—but she was the leader. It was her management style that set the tenor for how things were run. They killed in her name.

  Therefore, it was Voss who deserved the blame.

  “We didn’t get the orrery. That means we won’t get paid,” Holly said. She felt the eyes of her crew on her.

  “Not my fault. This isn’t a charity. I work for money. I have to feed myself and my crew. Stock the fridges. Buy fuel. We don’t live on a moon, you know. This is our home,” she pointed at the bridge, “We sail the aetherways. Keeping her afloat is how we stay alive.”

  “That seems expensive, lass,” Shiro observed.

  “It is. But we like it.”

  “You must be wanted,” Charly said.

  “We are. I am. I’m wanted by many, had by few. Or however many I want. Whenever I want. Wick, on the other hand,” she laughed. “And Melba.”

  “Do not bring me into this,” the White Witch said, waving a dismissive hand at her niece.

  “Well, she probably has about fifty lovers across the 6 Moons.”

  The older woman hissed, her blue eyes flashing like steel knives. “Watch your back, Le Roi.”

  Danielle chortled. “You’re a Le Roi, too!”

  “By marriage,” the older woman said darkly, “not by birth.”

  Odeon and Holly shifted their attention from woman to woman as Danielle and Melba debated the particulars of how they were related. It was complicated, and Holly stopped paying attention as the discussion continued.

  Her thoughts scrambled as best they could under the circumstances as she tried to work out a solution to the kink in their plans. Was it fair for Danielle to demand higher pay? Holly needed the money the orrery would have brou
ght in. Not just to pay Danielle Le Roi, but to accomplish her own plans to fight Voss, The Cocks, and whatever incursion George may have planned. Her empire needed to be built.

  “Lucky, take us back to the Kota space platform,” Danielle said, settling back into her throne. The woman turned her scepter over and over in her hands.

  “On course,” Wick muttered, his voice like a serrated knife over a leather satchel.

  “We can give you half your payment now. The other half when we get the orrery back,” Holly ventured.

  Shiro had given her another dose of painkiller, but Odeon was staying with her to keep an eye on her. Holly preferred it that way—if Shiro and Charly had also wanted to stay near her, Holly would have felt too much like a spectacle. She already did, in fact, but whether that was due to being an actual spectacle, or to the strange floating sensation the painkiller had induced, she couldn’t tell.

  Danielle rested the top of the gaudy scepter against her bright pink lips. “Hmm. That really doesn’t work for me. That’d be like me saying to you, I’ll swing back to The Golden Eclipse and get you when you’ve paid me half. I couldn’t leave you there, could I?”

  “You could have,” Holly said. “But if you had, you’d never get paid.”

  “True. Which is obviously why I even rescued you. For the money.”

  “It’s all well and good to demand more money for more fuel, Ms. Le Roi,” Shiro said, exchanging a look with Holly. “But if I may suggest, if you don’t work with us now, you’ll never get any money.”

  “Shiro’s right,” Charly said. “We don’t have all of it. Now that the orrery is gone, we’ve got to figure out a way to get the money to pay you.”

  “And your plan is . . . to what?”

  The crew, Danielle included, all looked at each other. Gazes shifted everywhere as they worked out an answer for that.

  “We don’t know,” Holly admitted. “But we’re not giving up. There will be another job, and you will be paid.”

  The captain cocked her head, giving Holly an apprising look. “At the platform, give me half of the original agreed upon price. Then double the remaining half to square up with me.”