Worse, they’d opened those doors to space. They said they were checking for hangers on. That had only one possibility. They had been spacing the crew!
A shudder ran through Miranda’s body. Her grip on the service ladder faltered. She flailed mid air for a minute before regaining her hold. Her heart thundered in her chest. Oscar turned back to look at her, then carried on. What kind of monster locked the crew in a landing bay and then opened it up to space, then watched and waited for all of them to die?
‘Rebels,’ her mind told her back.
They had reached the top of the shaft. Two went off in each direction. One towards the bridge, the other towards the engine room. She had to think. Adam was relying on her to save him. She’d already failed Eric, the crew, Axel, Fox, and her family. She was not going to let their sacrifices be in vain.
“Think, Miranda, think,” she whispered to herself. Oscar made a low single beep.
“I know, I just...” Then a thought hit her. There was a way to save Adam. To incapacitate the rebels without killing Adam. The answer sat right in front of her. She signaled Oscar over to her.
“Beep, beep.” Take the panel off, she told him. He reached out with this tentacle arm and removed the panel, exposing the internal wires of the ship’s main operating system.
“Beep, beep, beep.” She gave Oscar his orders. Excited by the adventure, the little droid scurried down the corridor to the right. Miranda took the left down the corridor towards the bridge. They’d called him ‘captain,’ so that’s the only place he would be. She looked down at her band. Oscar had told her how long it would take for him to hack the system. She’d set her band to that exact number. Now all she had to do was get into place and watch until it happened. Easy, she told herself. If only it was as easy as she thought it would be.
Chapter 17
The duct got tighter the closer she got to the bridge. One would think that with regulation interstellar builds like this one, the ship would have straight, even passageways that mirrored the decks below. That was not the case. These tunnels felt more like an afterthought. Something the builders had connected up out of necessity at the last minute. It made for sharp turns and less than ideal corners for crawling on one’s hands and knees.
Every so many feet she would stop and look through a vent, being careful not to be scene by a passing rebel. She needed to stop by the bridge; no farther. Luckily for her the passages were stable. Nothing creaked as she moved. At least she was thankful for that.
She looked through the vent into a round room. This one was different. She passed a row of personal cabins, all empty. Then she saw a couple of converse rooms, all deserted. The very next set of vents looked out over a wide, round room with multiple chairs all facing a large screen. There were people in this room. She went to the next vent to see if she could get a better view. Two bright blues eyes stared directly back at her. She covered her mouth to keep from screaming. Maybe the man hadn’t seen her. Maybe he wouldn’t say anything. She stared back at him, willing him to not see her. After she didn’t hear him cry out she allowed herself to look him over. His dress uniform showed that he was a high ranking officer. Miranda looked at his face again. The blues eyes still stared right at her, unblinking. She looked down at her timer. It had been over a minute and the man hadn't blinked.
Realization dawned in her eyes. This man, the man that had warned them about the planet, the one that had kept them in quarantine. The one she remembered as the Captain of the ship, was dead in front of her. She’d been too late to save him.
She forced herself to move past him to the next grate. She needed a better view, and he was blocking this one.
The next grate opened up right beyond the captain's chair. Miranda could see the room up close now. Adam sat on his knees in front of a man in the captain’s chair. All she could see of him was his hair which was mostly covered by a large ornate hat. Most likely the captain's hat with all its gold decorations.
He had a gun on his knee, the barrel sticking out past the edge of the chair. On the floor in front of Adam lay another bound Ironside. His helmet was off, exposing his strong chin and dimpled face. It was Eric. Miranda’s heart skipped a beat. He was alive. Eric was alive.
She’d been so sure that he was on that shuttle, the one that the rebels blew up. Here he was. Unconscious, but alive.
Adam’s lips moved. He was talking. Miranda strained to hear his words.
“You won’t get away with this,” Adam said.
“But you royal pain in my butt, I already have,” the man said. His voice sounded familiar, but Miranda couldn’t place it.
“Now all that’s left is seeing you properly dead, but not before I blast this one back to where he belongs.” The wannabe captain raised the gun, leveling it on Eric.
“Stop!” Miranda cried. Her voice echoed out of the air vent and down into the bridge. Everyone froze.
“Who was that?” the man in the chair said to the other rebels on deck. The redhead from earlier was the first to respond.
“It sounded like it came from the vent,” she said. The big guy she was with whipped out his blaster and started to fire at the vents. Miranda ducked back out of the way of the fire.
“Are you crazy?” she heard the captain rebel say. The fire stopped.
“Luce, be a dear and go catch the mouse in the walls,” he said. Miranda huffed. She was no mouse. The least he could do was call her a dog, or maybe a rat. Not a mouse. Miranda took one last look at her band. Four more minutes to go. She was too early, but if she hadn’t said anything then she would have been too late to save Eric. She wasn’t going to let that happen again. Not today; not ever.
“I caught something.” The redhead waved her out with a gun. “Come on mousy, the cat needs to have some fun.” Miranda put her hands up above her head and followed the woman out onto the bridge.
“Well, well, well, look that we got here,” the man in the captain's chair said. He swiveled the chair around to face her. There, sitting in the captain’s seat, was none other than their dead pilot Rycer. Who was very much alive and killing people.
“Rycer,” Miranda breathed.
“That’s Captain Rycer now to you,” he said. “That goes for all of you.” He swung his chair around and gave Adam’s face a pinch.
“Isn’t that how it goes,” he taunted. His voice was low and full of menace as he said, “Whoever kills the king gets to wear the crown.” Adam looked up at Rycer, murder radiating from his eyes.
“Or in this case, the captain’s hat,” Rycer said. He tapped the hat on his head, as if that’s all that mattered.
“Back to the matter at hand,” he said turning to face her. “How ever did you get here?” The redhead pushed her blaster into Miranda’s ribs. Pain shot through her side from where it impacted with her flesh.
Miranda stepped forward.
“The captain asked you a question,” the redhead said. She fixed Miranda in her blaster sights. Miranda could smell the soot from the barrel.
“What is this, a ‘kill me if I don’t talk’ setup?” Miranda joked. They all stared at her. She’d gotten herself into the mess and she could get herself out of it. All she needed was time.
“I have a question for you,” Miranda shot back.
“The little mouse has a question for our Captain,” the brute said. Now his too small cap made sense. It was the first mate’s cap. He’d probably taken it off the guy before they spaced the crew. He was mimicking Rycer. She could use that.
“Yes,” Miranda said. “What was all this about? My family, this planet, capturing a prince just to let him die. Not a smart move in my opinion, unless...”
“Unless?” Rycer said. His smile widened with her eyes. All of the pieces had finally clicked into place.
“Unless this was your end game. You did all of this to get a ship.”
“Ding ding ding! We have a winner, folks.” Rycer spun all the way around once and then back again to face her.
“Let me get
this straight. You started a planetary war to capture our prince, to kill a ship full of people, so you could take said ship to the outer reaches to kill millions of people in the name of... what, exactly?” She egged him on, daring him to keep talking. All she needed was another four, maybe five minutes for the program to take effect.
“In the name of the sanctity of the Holy Mother,” he said, his brown eyes alight with the fire of power. He thought he had all of it. All the cards, and it showed. His face glowed with it.
“Who?” Miranda sunk every ounce of her colonial breeding into that one word. He ground his teeth at her.
“The universe, you dimwitted edger,” he spat.
“So the universe told you to go and kill a bunch of people,” she intoned back. She schooled her face into blank confusion.
He threw up his hands in aggravation. A devious smile crossed his face.
“You poor uneducated mouse,” he said. “Your entire life is based on a lie that you readily expand on because no one took the time to teach you different.” He began to laugh. A large laugh with the syllables held out a tad bit too long to be natural. The four other rebels with him caught up the laugh until it was more of a chant.
After a time he bent over from laughing so hard. It took another minute before he raised a hand to shut them all up. He looked at her, the fire still alight in his eyes. His gun no longer pointed at Eric. Instead it rested on his knee.
Miranda ducked her head as if in shame, but really it was to hide her looking at her band. Less than a minute to go. She took a long breath and stepped forward and pretended to fall onto Adam. She slipped something into his ears.
“Get off him,” Rycer said. Grabbing her by the arm. Miranda got her feet back under her and stood to the side where Rycer pushed her.
“You know what, I think I’m going to enjoy killing you first,” he said. He raised his blaster up to her head.
Miranda shrunk back. “Come on, Oscar,” she pleaded, even though the little droid couldn’t hear her whisper.
An eardrum splitting cry rang out from the com system. Rycer swung his gun around, searching for the source of the noise. He and all his rebel crew fell to their knees clutching their ears. Blood streamed from their noses, eyes, and ears.
Miranda stood over him triumphant. Her ear plugs where tuned against that frequency. So were the ones she’d slipped to Adam in her fake fall. Together they watched as the rebels collapsed to the floor, each one succumbing to the bone shattering whine.
Rycer tried to aim the gun while still holding his hands over his ears as if shooting her would end the noise. He had no idea that Oscar was the one controlling it and that he wasn’t even in this room. Miranda kicked the gun easily out of his hand. It slid to her left, underneath the captain's chair.
“How...?” Rycer started to say, but his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out before finishing the statement.
Miranda smiled.
“Checkmate,” she said. All of the rebels were passed out. She made a low whistle and the noise stopped. Adam looked at her with pride in his eyes.
“Remind me to never doubt you again,” he said. Miranda let the breath she’d been holding go as she untied his bonds.
“I’m just glad the prick had a vindictive side,” she said. They’d been too late to save the captain, but they’d saved Eric. His prone body was on the floor with the rebels.
“Help me carry them to the brig,” Miranda asked. Adam nodded. They would be out for hours, but there was no reason to give them the opportunity to escape.
“That sound...” Adam said.
“The Rycor Melody,” Miranda said.
Adam eye’s widened. “A planetary capture frequency. But how?”
Miranda shrugged, “They teach it in school. As a prince maybe you didn’t get the same classes as us poor colonials.”
Adam just looked at her. She met his gaze. There were so many other things that needed to be done. The rebels needed to be moved to the brig before they woke up. A rescue shuttle needed to be sent to the planet to get Axel and Fox. A rescue signal needed to be sent to the Imperial forces so that another ship could come and rescue this one. So very many things to do. Miranda didn’t know which to do first. After all of that there would be time to mourn. She was lost in her thoughts when a voice broke through the clutter.
“What did I miss?” Eric said. He lifted a now free hand up to scratch his head. Miranda and Adam both broke out in laughter.
Chapter 18
“Here we are.”
Miranda looked out the windows of the shuttle at a flat field. Yellow grass grew in patches, breaking up the scene of cracked dirt paths. Miranda took a deep breath and stepped off the end of the shuttle.
“I kept my promise,” Eric said, reaching out a hand. She reached hers out and gave it a good shake. Their hands held fast for a second too long. He grasped hers and tightened enough to feel it, but not so tight that it hurt. She slipped her fingers out and saluted; or at least she tried to salute, but it came out more like her limbs flailing around. The slight signs of a smirk played on his lips. He put his helmet back on and turned to board the craft.
She reached out and tugged his sleeve.
“What about the prince?” she asked. “And Axel and everyone else that survived?” After the imperial forces had retrieved the ship, Miranda had remained in the dark. Now their group was reduced back to the first two Ironsides that had come to her rescue at her farm. Had it only been a few days ago? It felt like years all bottled up in blaster fire and exploding ships. If anyone would know what had happened to everyone it would be the team’s leader, Eric.
“He was on holiday. The global media got a feed of his retreat to the private planet of Vargon 6.”
Miranda whistled. Vargon 6 was a Lux planet with perfect terraforming. Even a shuttle down to planet to spend a day was more than Miranda could make in a year farming.
“Is he really there?” Miranda asked.
“Am I really where?”
Miranda started at the voice. Fox took off his helmet, but it wasn’t Fox. If it wasn’t for her knowing that the other Ironside was Eri,c she would have sworn she was looking right at him. She still couldn’t get over how alike Eric and Adam looked. The same color of hair. The same color of eyes. Even the length of their eyelashes were the same. They had to be universal twins. Just had to be.
Miranda dropped all pretense of propriety and gave him a hug.
“I thought you were Fox,” she confessed.
“So Fox gets all the hugs, check,” he said, winking at her. “That’s what we wanted everyone to think.” She buried her face in his armor and breathed in his scent one last time.
“So I’m part of everyone then,” she teased.
“Yes, no, I mean...” he stumbled over his words. Miranda smiled. She got a little bit of satisfaction every time she made Adam’s smooth exterior slide off in a flustered break. She got really serious on him for a moment.
“I just thought I’d missed my chance to say...” she started. He put a finger to her lips.
“Don’t,” he said. “This, whatever this is, is a beginning, not an end.” Miranda nodded. His finger on her lips sent a shock through her. She stepped back away from the gangplank and the two Ironsides.
“We’ll be seeing you soon, Miranda Farmer,” Adam said, putting his helmet back on, “very soon indeed.”
Miranda watched as the shuttle lifted off and up into the sky.
“Beep bop boop,” Oscar said.
“I’m going to miss them too,” Miranda responded. Her eyes started to fog up. She bit back the tears. “You heard them. We will see them again. They promised,” Miranda reminded Oscar.
“Private Farmer!” a voice called from down the path towards an outcropping of squat buildings. None of them were higher than two stories. They blended in with the dirt at her feet. The only reason she could tell they was there at all was because they didn’t have grass growing on them.
“Here,�
�� she said. She ran to catch up to the man.
“Well, I guess you are somethin’,” he said, looking her over. “Somethin’ that needs fixin’. Drop and give me twenty.”
Miranda dropped to the ground and started counting.
“One.” She smiled.
“Two.” She was starting her new life.
“Three.” Her left arm gave out, landing her face first in the dust. She tried to lift for four, but her arm wouldn’t respond.
“I said give me fifty, Farmer!” the man barked. She struggled back into plank position. Her muscles screamed for relief. It wasn’t going to be easy.
“Four,” she counted. The sargeant moved on, leaving her there to fulfil his order. Oscar gave her an encouraging beep.
Yes, she would have a lot to keep her busy until she saw her Ironsides again.
Author’s Note
Hi! Thank you for reading Imperial Edge. It is the first in a series of books about Miranda and her space adventures. Recently it was brought to my attention that I love mysteries. Every one of my favorite books, TV shows, and Movies have one thing in common. From Scooby Doo to Doctor Who they are all mysteries.
That’s the great thing about mystery stories. They aren’t stuck in just one genre or type. Sure there are tropes. You can’t have a good story if you know everything or are given too many hints. Plus, unmaskings, am I right?
So blending science fiction with a good old who done it is the heart of my new series. I’m calling it Science Fiction Mystery (and no I didn’t make this up, it’s just not a category on amazon yet).
If you want to know when I’m releasing the next book, sign up for my email list here (https://dl.bookfunnel.com/dnkgzepc6m). You will get a free digital copy of my novella RUN in english along with being added to my email list. This is the list where I send out all my latest news, updates, and book releases.
Thanks,
Celinda
Preview: Imperial Hilt (Book 2 in Miranda’s saga)
Imperial Edge Page 13
