She selected an assortment of blades, long sword, machetes, daggers, knives, hand claws and brass knuckles, and clipped them to her utility belt, next to a pair of old-fashion handcuffs. Then she filled her backpack with food rations, and magazines of bullets for her rudimentary gun, as well as bolts for her crossbow rifle.
She also grabbed a small medical kit, and low-tech field glasses, just in case her internal eye software failed, too. She didn’t quite trust the recycled technology she’d bought on the black market... although it had survived the planetary shield and the crash rather well.
As she stepped through the hatch into the sunshine, her ears popped. A rustling and a feathering breeze made her glance up. A bird shadow? She raised her crossbow rifle with one hand, blinked to shade her retinas from the orange sun, but saw nothing. At least, her hearing had returned.
Sheba walked nonchalantly back from the underbrush. The puma sat a few feet away in the trampled ferns, licking her lips and cleaning her paws. “Good rabbit.”
“Again, not a rabbit.” Fianna’s hunter’s instincts detected a presence besides the cat. She adjusted her vision and glanced all around, her crossbow rifle at the ready. “Do you see anything, Sheba?”
The puma inclined her head. “Sheba see... big bird... no, nice man.”
“A man or a bird? Make up your mind. Where?”
A young man materialized between Fianna and the ship’s open hatch. How did he do that? Cloaking technology? Or was she hallucinating? He wore only loose white pants. White? How impractical in the jungle. Yet, they were immaculate.
Fianna raked her short blond hair with nervous fingers. She must look a fright. “Where did you come from, pretty boy?”
“My name is Acielon.” Such a gorgeous human specimen, straight out of a holodream ad, muscular, with unruly dark hair, a strong brow, and clear turquoise eyes that pierced right through her... very masculine, too, despite the physical perfection. He must have been grown in a lab. He was too beautiful and perfectly muscled to be natural born.
“Acielon.” She rolled the name on her tongue with inexplicable delight. “I’m Fianna.” Just looking at him, a delicious shiver rippled over her skin.
“Sheba like nice man.” The feline stared at the stranger, entranced. Her coat turned white.
Nice man indeed! He even smelled like... cinnamon. Fianna shivered and her legs turned to putty. Was he exuding pheromones?
Trusting Sheba’s instincts, and sensing no threat, Fianna lowered her weapon.
A hint of amusement flashed in Acielon’s striking eyes. “I just alighted.”
“You mean, you crashed, too?” She peered around through the foliage. “Where is your ship?” Was it the shiny one that reflected sunlight into space?
“Ships do not fly here.” His voice sounded like music, hanging in the air. His turquoise stare never left her.
Fianna scoffed. “What? Don’t tell me you can fly. You have hidden wings or something?”
“Or something.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “You are trespassing. You do not belong here.”
“And you do?” Could he be a local? She remembered the warnings about the natives using lethal natural defenses. The planetary shield, however, did not keep visitors out, only damaged their electronics. Strange.
He flashed a winning smile. “You need help.”
Oh boy. Gorgeous and friendly. “I do need help, unless you are a mechanic...”
Acielon shook his head. His dark hair caught the light breeze. “There are no mechanics here.”
Right. Low-tech planet. “Never mind.” She should not trust a stranger, no matter how handsome and charming. “How did you get here?”
“Azura is my home.”
So, a native then. Were they all like him? “If that’s true, how do you happen to speak galactic standard?”
Acielon’s eyes caressed her. “I speak many languages. You are not the first foreigner to crash on Azura.”
And none of those who ignored the warnings ever returned... “Did you see another ship land recently?”
He nodded but his striking eyes never left her. “This morning. Just north of here, near the entrance of the sacred caves.”
North. Where she’d detected the reflective surface. So it was Tarkan’s shiny ship. “I need to go there.”
He stared at her pointedly. “Why?”
She couldn’t tell him about her hunt for Tarkan. This native might want to claim his share of the bounty. “Maybe the other ship still works and I can get off this forsaken planet.”
“Azura is not forsaken. It is protected.” He stared at her, inclined his head, and a lock of dark hair fell across his brow. “Why do you not speak the truth?”
Triblets! Did he have a lie detector? “I need replacement parts and supplies to fix my ship. Or I can use the other ship, if it’s in better shape than mine.”
“You swear, too.” He raised his dark brow. “You want to take the man named Tarkan off world with you. What is a bounty?”
Fianna gasped. Her heart raced in her chest. “You read my mind?”
Sheba stopped licking her chops and scoffed. “Sheba read mind, too.”
“Is that offensive to you? I apologize.” His smile could melt the frozen peaks and tundras of Laxxar. “I did not know it was bad manners in your world.”
Fianna steeled herself against the man’s dangerous charm. “Don’t ever do that again. It’s rude.” So much for keeping secrets. “We, humans, prize our last remnants of privacy. We have so little left.”
“I am truly sorry.” His smile lit up his entire face.
Why did he have to smell like cinnamon? Fianna melted. She realized she couldn’t lie to this fascinating local. “I seek a man named Tarkan, a dangerous criminal. I came to take him back home to face justice.”
The gorgeous local nodded gravely. “I can take you to his ship.”
Finally some progress. “Please. The faster I can repair one ship, any ship, the faster I’ll get out of here.”
Acielon chuckled. “You may try.”
“I will not try. I will succeed.” Fianna shouldered her back pack and pointed. “North is that way, right?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Let’s go, Sheba.” Fianna started walking, exquisitely aware of Acielon’s curious gaze following her. To her surprise, he matched her grueling pace with debonair ease. Sheba closed the march.
* * *
Acielon followed Fianna, who hacked fiercely at the vegetation with a strong blade, clearing a path through the jungle. Lean and tall, with short blond hair and fitting pants revealing delicious curves, she deployed an insane amount of energy attacking the jungle.
Such a force of nature.
When he’d seen the ship crash and burn, he couldn’t stand the idea of someone getting hurt. Even foreigners. He’d quickly opened the hatch and triggered the fire counter measures with his mind. He’d watched the feline drag her out of the wreckage, glad the girl survived.
The rules forbade him to intervene, but she had such an honest face, with green eyes that could look straight at him without flinching. He had never seen such an obstinate creature, or such an admirable spirit.
He laid a light hand on her shoulder, enjoying the thrill of her soft skin. “Why struggle against nature, instead of flowing with it?”
She turned to him and wiped moisture from her face. “Oh, yeah? What do you suggest?”
He shrugged. “I would rather fly over the jungle.”
“Smarty-pants! Do you see wings on me? People can’t fly, pretty boy. Not without technology.”
“My name is Acielon, not pretty boy, not smarty-pants.” He smiled. “You think I’m pretty?”
“Oh boy!” She rolled her eyes, turned away and kept on hacking.
Acielon turned to the big cat. “Is she always this charming?”
Sheba sneezed. “Worse, sometimes.”
“Your ears still hurt.” Without missing a step, Acielon laid his hand on the cat’s hea
d, expanding healing energy. Sheba leaned into his hand and purred.
“Sheba ears not hurt anymore.”
“Good.” He patted the cat’s head. “You have a good soul, Sheba.”
“You are telepathic, too?” Fianna scoffed, her back to him. “Of course, you are.”
Acielon enjoyed her feisty attitude. “What of it?”
“Nothing. I’m sorry, Acielon.” Fianna made his name sound like a song.
He reined in his excitement. “Are you all right?”
She kept hacking forward. “I just crashed, uprooted shrapnel from my leg, my ship is marooned while others are counting on me, and right now, I’m fighting the jungle. I’m not in the best of moods.”
“I see.” This foreigner puzzled Acielon.
He was curious about the outside world, and hoped to see it sometime, but it was forbidden to his kind. Fianna, however, affected him in other ways. He wanted to help her, protect her. He could tell from the scars on her arms that she had a violent past and could not heal herself as he could. And she demonstrated a quick temper, but she had courage and her limpid blue aura indicated a pure heart.
He held a branch for her to hack. “How can I help?”
She handed him the blade. “Here. Your turn. Have at it.”
He chuckled. “I do not hurt plants. They do not like it at all.”
Fianna frowned at him. “What?”
Acielon laid his hands on the tall green stalks, caressing them, singing to them in his mind. They bent and parted in front of him, clearing a path to let them through. As they advanced, the vegetation closed the path behind them.
Fianna emitted a long whistle. “You’ll have to teach me that trick.”
Sheba growled. “No whistling.”
“If you remain on Azura long enough, you can learn to do that. At least, that’s what the legends say.” Although no one had ever left the planet, Acielon feared she might find a way. He wanted her to stay.
A loud explosion in the sky made him look up. “Another one is falling.”
Fianna squinted through the tall canopy of trees. “Another ship?”
“It never rained so many ships in one day, not in my lifetime.” Acielon yearned to meet the outworlders. Would they be as fascinating as Fianna? Somehow, he doubted it.
Chapter Two
Standing in the clearing, near his new space yacht, the Silver Angel, Tarkan raised a hand to shade his eyes against the setting sun casting dark orange shadows. He stared at the blazing ship homing upon his landing site. Its engines roared and spewed flames, like a dragon trailing smoke in its wake. The low-tech chemical engines shot long vertical burning jets under the hull. No tilt on the vertical landing. Good.
Kid Hacker, who’d raided the secret archives of the Alliance gave him good Intel about the planet’s unusual EMP shield. If the properties of the crystal in the caves held true, Tarkan would soon live like a king. No, like a czar.
The vibration grew louder as the black, bulky ship slowed its descent. Tarkan covered his ears against the roar of the low-tech engines. The air and the ground trembled as the Monalisa hovered over the burned grass and extended its landing pods downward, emitting steam that hissed and billowed. The flames diminished in size. When the pods touched the ground, the engines shut off.
Perfect. Just like his own landing that morning with the Silver Angel.
The main underbelly hatch of the Monalisa opened with a grind of mechanical gears, and the ramp unfolded. Tarkan waited on the ground, facing the ramp.
Kong, his second-in-command, walked out, dwarfing everyone in his red, sleeveless synthleather coat, with his bald black skull, flashy gold rings, diamonds, and chains.
The rest of the Dragon Squad followed. A dozen misfits from the slums of the Byzantium-5 space station, the scrawny, the lame and the wretched. They squinted in the golden light. Some spat on the ground, others screened the surrounding vegetation at the edge of the clearing, as if expecting dinosaurs. He’d given them a home and a purpose. They’d become his charges... his unruly family.
Their belts, boots and synthleather vests bristled with blades, grenades, sawed-off guns and rifles worthy of a museum. They’d been working for him for many cycles. They worshiped him and proudly wore the dragon tattoo on their bare arms. All loyalty, and not an ounce of brains.
Tarkan straightened his frame and firmed his voice in a show of authority. That’s all these simple hoodlums understood. “What took you so long?”
Kong smiled with a shiny row of diamond-encrusted gold teeth. “We came as soon as we received your message with the coordinates, boss. Glad you escaped. I did my best in your absence, but it’s not the same. You are the best at getting the good scores.”
“Next time, respond faster.” Tarkan switched to a broad smile as he stepped forward, and slapped Kong on the shoulder. “You look good. No problems on the way here?”
“No, boss. It went like a dream.” The teeth sparkled in the black face. “The low-tech engines, the mirror signal, everything worked just as you said it would!”
Tarkan erased his smile. “Of course it worked. Did I ever lead you in a half-ass operation?” He glanced at the matte black hull of the Monalisa. He’d missed his old ship. “I hope you took good care of my favorite girl.”
“Not a scratch on her, boss. I was very gentle, I swear... but there is no way to run diagnostics to check if the high-tech systems still work.”
Tarkan rubbed the long vertical scar on his stubby cheek. He needed a shave. “Same for the Silver Angel. We won’t know until we leave the influence of this planet. If the electronics are damaged, we’ll have to make repairs once we are back out in space. It cannot be done here.”
Kong motioned with his black-bearded chin toward the silvery space yacht in the clearing. “Where did you find that fancy bird?”
“None of your business.” Tarkan straightened, unused to questions from his Dragons. He’d only been locked up a few months, and already his henchman forgot his place. “I won it in a gambling den... fair and square.”
“Right.” Kong emitted a big belly laugh. “That would be the day. Only you would blow up half a space station to escape from prison, and show up in such a fancy rig.”
Tarkan flashed his second-in-command a warning stare. “It got me here, didn’t it?”
Kong took a step back, bowing in apology. “Sorry, boss. It’s not your style, that’s all. Too flashy... even for me.” The man chuckled. “Looks more like a chick’s luxury yacht.”
“But it has the latest stealth technology onboard. Extremely useful for a smuggler.” Tarkan grunted. “I hope it still works.”
Kong glanced around the clearing suspiciously. “Did anybody follow you here?”
Tarkan shrugged. “One ship fell from the sky shortly after I landed. Fortunately, it wasn’t prepared for the planetary shield. It crashed and burned upon landing, a few miles south of here.”
“Stupid bounty hunters.” Kong laughed. “Could they have survived?”
Tarkan shook his head. “I heard several explosions, saw a lot of smoke. I don’t think that crew is still alive. And if they are, they must be badly hurt. In any case, without the Intel we have, they are stranded here... indefinitely.”
Kong turned toward the rocky hillside. “Did you check out the caves?”
Tarkan’s heart beat faster. “Just as the Intel said. Even better.” He motioned to the disparate crew of a dozen men and women, young and old, gawking around, awaiting his orders. “Come see for yourself. It’s half a standard hour climb, but it’s something to behold.”
In the fiery glow of the setting sun, they set out and hiked toward the bare rocks up the slope. As they climbed steadily, leaden clouds rolled in, festooned with gold edges. Lightning streaked across the darkening sky in the distance, and thunder rolled, getting closer.
Half way up, a sudden flash and a loud clap prompted Tarkan to climb faster. “Rain is coming. Hurry. We’ll keep dry in the caves.”
; Too late. The downpour fell in thick sheets, drenching them. By the time they reached the shelter of the overhanging rocks protecting the cave entrance, they dripped like melting ice statues.
Kong shook his dark muscular arms, splashing water on everyone around him. “Never seen so much rain fall at once.”
“Tropical climate, like the Intel said. Hot, humid and sunny by day, heavy rain by night.” Tarkan shivered. Accustomed to the dry air and even temperatures of space stations and spaceships, he hated getting soaked.
“I hate climbing.” Kong glanced around the dark cave entrance and grimaced. “Well, now that we are here, I can’t wait to see the mother lode.”
Tarkan pulled a glow stick from his belt and bent it to activate the luminescence. Tall shadows loomed from the surrounding rocks.
“This way.” Tarkan’s voice echoed in the vast cavern.
As he led the group deeper inside the cave, through a narrow, uneven passage, a faint blue glow emanated from the surrounding rock. Water dripped from the ceiling. The operation he had planned might take some time, and many trips, but Tarkan hoped they wouldn’t have to stay here any longer than necessary. For some reason, he felt watched. This strange planet gave him the hibby-jibbies.
* * *
Coming out of the jungle in the downpour behind Acielon, Fianna emerged onto the clearing at the foot of the sloping hill. Adjusting her night vision software, she squinted to survey the area, through the rain curtain. A perfect landing spot, a flat expanse, like a meadow, with only short grass and small flowers resembling daisies.
Two ships sat, side by side, one slick and silvery. The other, bulky and black, looked familiar. The Monalisa! She shuddered at the implications.
“Tarkan brought his Dragon Squad.” Both ships stood level on their landing pods. Both looked in pristine condition. “They didn’t crash. They landed safely. How can that be?”
Angel Mine Page 2
