by Taylor Smith
Haley rose quickly, feeling the vibrations in the floor and made her way toward the entrance at a run. Sand and dirt seeped through the ceiling in thin streams from multiple places. The lights had gone out, but her suit had compensated for the dark and she noticed the layer of char that now covered everything, even the caskets.
Just before she entered the hallway, she reached to the small of her back and unclipped an explosive charge. She activated it for timed detonation from her suit’s HUD and tossed it between the rows of caskets. Sand and dirt poured in now as the ceiling began to give way to the land above it. The Pirates of Clew were all liars and scoundrels, and she wasn’t about to let this opportunity pass her by.
She charged back up the ramp and out of the crypt into the waning daylight. She checked the timer and found the countdown at four minutes, so she grabbed the two men who still lay unconscious by their coats and drug them almost the entire distance back to the shuttle and away from the entrance which would spew forth a good portion of the explosion from below.
Once that was done, she turned to get Saundi, and then hesitated. Haley turned back to Cade and disengaged her helmet, which folded neatly back on itself. She could smell the remnants of fire and noticed her suit had been burned black, no longer able to camouflage itself. It was of no consequence as this phase of her mission was almost complete, and she’d soon be back at her ship.
She let a short laugh escape at what she was fixing to do, and kneeled over Cade. She had to come to grips with the fact that she loved him more than she hated him. In every situation that she’d been thrown into, she found her training could overpower every personal thought and feeling, except when it came to dealing with Cade. She bent closer and kissed his forehead, took a deep breath and ran back for Saundi.
Her counter ticked down to one minute as she hefted the girl over her shoulder, and sprinted back toward the old Bonnell Colony as fast as she could. It was a long sixty seconds as she ran with her burden. At five seconds, she threw Saundi to the ground and covered her face.
The explosion bucked the ground beneath her and popped her ears. She glanced up and found they were out of range of falling debris, so she rolled onto her back and took several deep breaths.
After the light rest, she opened her field pack and produced a small round pad. She peeled the protective strip from the back and slapped it to Saundi’s neck. The girl wouldn’t wake up now until she removed the patch or it wore off in twenty-four hours.
She looked back to the smoking ruin of the Neese Family crypt, then into the distance where she could just make out the shape of the pirate’s shuttle. She felt trapped between two worlds. It didn’t matter at this point, though. The damage she’d done in the past month to the pirates was irreparable, and now she’d gone against orders and kidnapped Saundi Neese.
Chapter 11
Cade awoke to a thunderous explosion. He blinked away the blur as he tried to understand what was happening. Before he knew it, he was being pelted by bits of rock and dirt as it rained down upon him. He covered his head, but then noticed Andy lying next to him still unconscious, bits of debris slapped against his unmoving form. He flung himself over his brother’s head to protect him and held his coat up to protect them both.
It didn’t last long, and soon he was staring back at a hazy crater where the crypt used to be. He tried to remember what had happened as he sat motionless on the ground. He shook his head and reached over to nudge the man next to him. “Andy,” he said and then pushed again. “Andy!”
The man finally stirred, then looked up at him blurry-eyed. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” Cade said with a worried look, and then pointed toward the smoldering ruins. “Look.”
Andy followed Cade’s arm with his eyes and cried out. He hurried to his feet and sprinted back toward the smoke.
Cade leapt up and followed him, slowly at first in attempt to find his balance. Andy was at a full run ahead of him, and he watched as the man stopped suddenly, and then fell to his knees. He finally caught up to his brother and stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn’t believe what was before them.
A massive hole had been blown in the ground, easily thirty feet down. Dirt and sand had backfilled the hole, but here and there twisted beams of metal pointed upward to tell the tale of where the structure had been. Chunks of rock, bits of metal and other odds and ends lay strewn about around the blast site.
“I don’t see any coffins,” Cade said as he recognized part of the table he’d been standing at earlier.
Andy’s gaze went to the middle of the crater and said, “They were either vaporized or they’re still locked in place.” He shook his head. “They’re armored, but I don’t think they could take that. I guess it just depends on how close to the blast they were.” He let his head fall into his hand as tears streamed down his face.
Cade placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “We’ll dig it out. We’ll bring people back and fix it.”
Andy let a short huff escape and said, “That was the original Bonnell colony-ship, or what was left of it. We can’t fix that.”
Cade was about to interject when he got a bad feeling in his gut. He turned a full three hundred and sixty degrees, then crouched next to Andy. “Whoever did this is probably still here.”
Andy seemed shocked by Cade’s revelation and immediately twisted around and drew his sidearm.
Cade drew his VogerCorp R2 as well, and scanned the area.
“Where’s my sister?” Andy asked suddenly and moved to stand up.
Cade grabbed his arm and held him down. “No. I’ll check it out.”
“Like hell,” Andy said and ripped his arm away from his brother.
“Andy, listen!” Cade said in a hiss. “Someone knew we’d be here, which means you’re a target! You’re the leader of Clew now, so no messing around.” He held Andy’s gaze and gave him a look that left no room for argument. “Stay here.”
Cade didn’t wait for an answer from his shocked brother, and rose cautiously. He held his weapon at the ready and looked around the area once more, then turned back to Andy. “Get ahold of Criss and see if she’s seen anything,” he said and turned back toward the shuttle. It was odd that she wasn’t already out here with them.
Andy tilted his head and said, “Neither of the girls are answering comms.”
“I think whoever it was is gone now, but you need to get back to the shuttle,” Cade said and moved back toward the crater.
He shook his head at the ruin, and hoped its contents had survived. When he turned back he noticed Andy was jogging back toward the small craft, and he moved to follow him, but then stopped as he noticed something odd. Growing up on, and spending most of his life aboard starships, Cade wasn’t what you’d call an expert tracker on land. Far from it. However, it has hard not to notice the long lines dug into the dirt that ran from where he stood all the way toward the shuttle.
He remembered walking out of the crypt, then feeling strange, like the air had gone from his lungs. Then he woke up near the shuttle. Looking down at the lines in the dirt again, it was obvious that someone had dragged them away from the blast before it happened. Saundi, perhaps? Maybe she had seen something, drug the men to safety and then… what? Ran off? Nothing made sense.
Cade made his way back to the shuttle, continuing to ensure no one was around as he scanned the horizon for anything that might give him a clue to what had happened. There was nothing there.
His nerves suddenly jumped when he thought of the shuttle, and why Criss hadn’t come out to meet them. It was possible that someone was waiting for them in there. He berated himself for not thinking of it. Andy could be walking directly into a trap. “Andy!” he shouted, but his brother had already entered the ship.
He raised his weapon, aimed for the door of the shuttle and shouted again. “Andy?”
Andy stepped out of the hatch and faced him.
Cade lowered his sidearm and stopped as he saw the man’s face. “What
is it?”
Andy slowly stepped down to the ground and walked toward Cade. His movements seemed unsteady and his face was pale. His mouth worked as if to say something but nothing emerged.
“What?” Cade asked again. “Are you ok?”
His brother placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. “I need to contact the Reaper,” Andy said in almost a whisper. “You stay out here and keep watch, ok?” He smiled thinly, though his eyes still seemed haunted.
Cade knew Andy too well. His voice and demeanor was the same he used every time something terrible had happened and wanted to try and keep Cade calm. “Criss?” He looked to the shuttle and stepped around his brother, and then slapped Andy’s hand from his arm when he tried to stop him.
The short ten yards of distance between him and the shuttle seemed like a marathon, and he felt his chest tighten in anxiety. When he reached the steps that led to the ramp, he bounded upward and barely noticed that he’d leapt over two steps at once.
The scene in the shuttle destroyed every other thought, sense and memory. It didn’t even register to him that he’d shouted as he rushed to the unmoving form of Criss Hulbert. At first, his hands moved unsurely over her still form as he didn’t know if he should even touch her or not, but then his gaze fell upon the red patch that lay on her chest. He snatched it up and stared at it for a confused moment and then tossed it aside. He quickly wrapped his arms around her limp form, pulled her close in disbelief.
As he held her, his thoughts slowly began to regain some semblance of order. The universe was cruel, and seemed to enjoy some sick game to keep him in a constant state of grief. He could smell her warm skin, feel the wave of tears that poured down his cheeks and hear his own ragged breath.
Her skin was warm. “Andy!” he screamed with a broken, panicked voice and slammed the corner of the bench seat near him with the flesh of his palm. The seat careened off its hinges with a loud crack, and he reached into the small compartment to retrieve one of several medkits. He tore into the kit with one hand while he still held Criss in the other.
“Andy!” he screamed again as he ripped the red packet open with his teeth. A small device, along with several injectors fell across Criss’ body and onto the floor. He retrieved the field monitor and activated it, then placed it on her chest. Miniscule alarms sounded from the gadget, but the words that scrolled by offered him a scrap of hope. It read: ‘Death imminent. Recommend Stasis.’ Cade grabbed the first injector he saw and slammed it into her thigh.
Andy finally reentered the shuttle and paused. “What are you doing?”
“She’s still alive! There’s still time!” he said frantically as he injected her with the second device and threw it aside. “Get us back to the Reaper!”
“Cade,” Andy said sadly. “Cade, she’s gone.”
“Get us back!” he roared not taking his eyes off the woman in his arms and tossed the monitor toward Andy. He fumbled for the next injector and used it, then discarded it haphazardly as well.
Andy caught the monitor and his eyes widened as he read its screen. “Do you even known what you’re doing?” He asked exasperatedly. “Cade, I’m sorry but we can’t leave without–“.
Cade finally tore his eyes from Criss to meet Andy’s.
Something in that look must have been enough. Andy held his hands up and moved to the pilot’s seat. “Powering up,” he said as he worked the controls.
Cade reached back into the compartment beneath the bench and retrieved another red pouch. He carefully lowered Criss back to the floor of the shuttle, and tore the packet open to produce the temporary medical stasis bag it contained. He barely noticed Andy shouting into the comms for the Reaper as he unfolded it and wrapped Criss up inside.
“Reaper, Reaper, Reaper,” Andy said as the shuttle came to life. “Do you read?”
Cade checked the bag’s seals and depressed a small device near its top. The clear plastic immediately fogged up and became extremely cold to the touch. He yanked his hand away from her and fell back to sit next to her with a sigh. He took a deep breath and noticed for the first time that he was shaking.
“Acknowledged, Captain. This is Reaper,” came Steven Ward’s voice over the sound of the hatch closing. “We’re almost in high orbit of the planet. Criss missed her check-in and we couldn’t raise you on comms, so we broke orbit around the moon to take a look for ourselves. What’s going on?”
“Medical emergency,” Andy replied as he lifted the shuttle off the ground and punched the throttle. “Have the doc meet us in the shuttle bay.”
“Roger that. Who’s hurt and how? Dr. Grant will want to be ready.”
Andy looked back to find Cade sitting next to the opaque stasis bag with his head down. “It’s Criss. Two gunshot wounds to the head and a lot of blood loss,” he said and turned back around. “She’s in stasis now.”
“Damn,” Wards said in reply. “The doctor heard; she’s on her way.”
Andy cut the channel and began working the shuttle’s scanners. “Cade,” he said and looked back.
Cade didn’t hear him as he stared at the pale face through the frosted plastic of the stasis bag. He looked up as Andy repeated his name. “What?”
“Get up here, work the scanners. We need to get as much information as we can to find out who did this. Saundi’s still down there!”
Cade gingerly strapped Criss to the deck and then moved to the front of the shuttle to sit in the co-pilots seat. He stared out the front of the craft for a moment, then tossed the blood-soaked patch onto Andy’s console before him.
Andy narrowed his eyes as he lifted the patch. “This yours? From Yanna?”
Cade nodded once, pain turning to anger. “The same,” he replied as he took a deep breath and worked the scanner’s console. He shook his head and activated a channel to the Reaper. “Reaper this is Cade,” he said in a detached voice. “I want a full sweep of the planet with every eye and ear we have.”
“We’re currently running dark, and if we –“.
“Light her up then, Wards!” He shouted, his voice seething with anger. “Everything we’ve got! And tie your results into the shuttle’s sensor suite.” He cut the channel and was immediately rewarded with a green sensor contact on his console. The Reaper was very visible now, but he didn’t care. He was going to catch whoever did this if it killed him.
Andy glanced sideways to Cade for a moment, and then said, “Someone’s hunting us.”
Cade nodded, his eyes on his screen that was now receiving a multitude of data from the Reaper. “Seems that way,” he replied, then leaned forward. “Contact! Unknown craft bearing zero point zero two –Whoa!”
The shuttle twisted violently onto its side as the small unknown ship sliced directly through their path. The ship was small, but its atmospheric wake threw the tiny shuttle about, and sent it into an uncontrolled spin.
Andy grimaced as he fought the sudden force of gravity of their turn, and shook his head. “Cade!”
Cade shifted the shuttle’s navigation controls to his station, slowly at first, finding it difficult to move as he was pressed into the side of his chair. “Got it!” He worked as quickly as he could, and after a few harrowing moments, was able to straighten the craft out. By the time he had the shuttle back on course, the enemy contact was gone. He glanced back to make sure Criss was still secure where he left her, then turned to activate a channel to his ship. “Reaper!” Cade shouted as he reactivated the channel. “Are you tracking?”
“Whatever it was, we lost it the moment it left the planet’s atmosphere. Are you ok? From here it looked like they side-swiped you.”
Cade looked to Andy, who lifted his brow in shock. “We’re fine,” he said as he turned back to his screen. “Run out the guns. If any targets present themselves, shoot to disable, not to destroy.” He was about to close the channel again when the response came.
“Disable it? Why not just kill the damned thing?” Ward asked.
Cade closed his eyes fo
r a moment, reigned in his temper and replied, “You have your orders. Disable, not kill.” And he closed the channel.
***
Thirty minutes later, Cade carried Criss off the shuttle and placed her on a gurney the doctor had wheeled up the moment they’d touched down in the Reaper’s shuttle bay. He followed the doctor and her nurse toward the exit, when Dr. Grant had turned to him briefly and shook her head for him not to follow. The door closed before him, and all he could do was stare.
He felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder.
“Go get some rest, Dorian,” Andy said from beside him. “I’ll take care of the Reaper.”
Cade turned to Andy and shook his head. “I’m still your XO, Andy. You’re my Captain. It’s my job to make sure you get rest first.”
Andy seemed taken aback at the statement. He blinked, then said, “Well, I suppose you’re Captain now. I know it hasn’t been made official yet, but I intended to once we got back home.”
“I don’t care about what’s official or not, Andy. This has been a rough few days for all of us,” he weakly gestured toward the closed doors, “and now this. But it’s my job as your XO and brother to fill in the gaps. Right now, I don’t think I could rest if I wanted to.”
Andy nodded and began walking toward the bridge. “Me, neither.”
Cade followed Andy out of the hangar. Both were quiet in their own thoughts before he asked, “What do we do about Saundi?”
Andy held his hands up and said, “She had to be on that ship. There was nothing on the surface; at least nothing that we could see. The Reaper would have picked her implant up, at least. She wasn’t there.”
Cade knew he was right. Whoever was after them had taken Saundi and rubbed it in their face with that flyby, just as they’d left his patch on Criss’ chest. It was almost as if this was personal.
They entered the bridge, and Wards stood from his post. “No contacts since the last report, our guns are still out and every scanning system is still actively searching.”
