by J. J. Green
The device was resting in a steel cradle but it was half lifted out, as if someone had been trying to move it but had been prevented. Whether the instrument was important, Carina wasn’t sure, but it could be and that was good enough for her. She grabbed its handle and tried to lift it, but the object was surprisingly heavy.
As she dropped it to adjust her hold, she noticed three small lights pulsing at the top corner. Out of curiosity, she touched the lights and found that she could push them in. She pushed one home and the light went out. She pushed the other two until they clicked into position and became dark too. Unsure what she’d done, if anything, she grabbed the handle with both hands and lifted out the device.
Even in the moon’s low gravity, she struggled to carry it. If she’d attempted to do the same on an average planet, she would never have been able. Stepping carefully past the splayed bodies of the scientists, Carina went out and began the journey back to the shuttle.
She’d lost track of time, she realized, and checked her visor overlay. Fifteen minutes until the countdown to blow the moon was due to begin. She was already sweating with the effort of carrying the device. Should she leave it behind? If the device was important, delivering it to the Sherrerrs could be just the kind of act that would win her a lot of favor. Carina struggled on.
What wouldn’t she have given for an anti-grav trolley? She’d heard such things existed but were insanely expensive. Or a powered exoskeleton. Her armor doubled her physical strength, but it was barely enough. She wasn’t sure she would make it.
Her visor flashed. Three enemy units ahead. She dropped the device and walked ahead. Hoping the enemy soldiers were in the same state as they’d been when she’d passed them, she quickly stuck her head around a corner to assess the situation. The soldiers were up and walking, and they were heading her way. One of them had seen her.
A pulse round flew by so close to Carina’s face it hurt her eyes, despite the deep tint of her visor. She turned and ran, but the corridor was straight with no cover. It was also so long that she would be shot in the back before she reached the end of it. The only protection she had was the device.
She threw herself to the floor behind the block and rested the muzzle of her weapon on top of it. Not a moment too soon, for the barrel of a weapon appeared and a barrage of rounds sprayed out. Carina ducked behind her cover. A moment later, she raised her head just in time to see all three soldiers racing toward her.
She fired, hitting one in his thighs, which slowed him down a little but didn’t seem to do much other damage. She hit the second square in his chest, but the round dispersed harmlessly. The soldiers ran on. Carina didn’t stand a chance, but she continued firing.
A moment later, she wondered why she was still alive. She should have been dead, if the soldiers had been firing at her, but they weren’t—they were firing too high. Their pulse rounds passed over the device, as if they were trying to avoid hitting it.
Carina shot again, this time piercing one of the enemy unit’s armor. The woman was down. Two more to go, but they were nearly upon her and she wouldn’t have the protection of the device. Her heart in her mouth, Carina fired again. Her last shot. This was it.
Then one of the soldiers slumped forward, a hole in the back of his suit. His fellow turned, confused, and was met with concentrated weapon fire. Soldiers from Carina’s company came running up.
“What’s that, Lin?” a voice said over her comm. She recognized it. Mandeville. He was still alive.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “It seemed important, so… ”
“Let’s move, soldiers,” came another voice. Raynott. “Shuttle’s leaving in two minutes.”
Two minutes?
“Can you help me with this?” Carina asked her rescuers. “It’s very heavy.”
With the help of the three soldiers from her company, Carina carried the device down the corridors while the seconds on her visor ticked down.
“Captain Raynott,” Carina said into her mic. “We’ve found something. I don’t know what it is but I’ve a feeling it’s important. We’re bringing it out, but we might not make the shuttle. Can you give us an extra minute or two?”
“Negative,” came the reply.
“Let’s leave it,” said Mandeville.
Carina was torn. She wanted to bring the device to the Sherrerrs so she could save Bryce, but she didn’t want to endanger her fellow soldiers. “You go on. Leave me. I can make it.”
But the three men didn’t reply, and they didn’t leave. The room where they’d broken into the facility was in sight. It was empty except for the bodies of those who hadn’t made it. The shuttle was visible through the destroyed window.
The distance to the shuttle was around a minute’s run, Carina remembered. She checked her visor. They had forty-five seconds.
With a supreme effort, they got the device out the window. Each soldier holding one part of the long handle that straddled the top of the device, they set off across the icy stone moonscape. Carina’s lungs burned and her visor fogged as her suit struggled to clear the condensation of her hot breath on the frigid plastiglas.
At the top of the shuttle ramp a figure stood, beckoning them. Raynott.
Five seconds to go. It was too far. They weren’t going to make it. Yet not one of the soldiers let go of their hold on that device. They wouldn’t abandon the others to save themselves. The shuttle ramp began to rise and the air around the exhaust ports shimmered as the engines began to fire. Raynott stepped back.
They were at the ramp.
With a grunt of effort, the four soldiers lifted the instrument onto the rising ramp and leapt up. Carina didn’t make it. She fell back and hit the ground. With horror, she watched the ramp rising out of reach. Just then, a head and shoulders appeared over the side, reaching down to her, telling her to jump.
She had only one chance. Carina jumped for her life. The soldier’s hands caught her wrists. She found herself being hauled onto the closing ramp, rolling down to the access hatch. The ramp snapped closed. The shuttle took off.
There was no getting up while the shuttle pulled away at top speed, escaping the moon’s gravity. Even Raynott was forced to the floor.
Carina lay still, listening to the sound of her ragged breathing, looking at the strange instrument that had nearly cost her and her fellow soldiers their lives. She hoped it would prove worth it.
Chapter Twenty
Carina’s palms were sweaty as she knocked on the door to the commander’s office. It had been highly presumptuous of her to even request an audience with him, but the fact that he had granted it lent her courage. The door clicked and swung open a little. Carina pushed it the rest of the way and went inside.
The commander was speaking with a holo of the head and shoulders of a woman. He held up a finger to Carina to signal her to wait. The holo woman’s hair was tightly groomed into a thick spiral rising from the top of her head. Her shoulders were bare, and she wore a sapphire-blue top that looked like the upper half of a dress.
On the journey back from Banner’s Moon, Raynott and the other officers aboard the ship had examined the device Carina had taken from the Dirksen installation, but as far as she knew they hadn’t come to any conclusions. She explained that she’d pressed buttons and the lights had gone out. No one wanted to find out what happened if they turned the lights on again.
From what Carina could tell, turning off the lights had coincided with the lifting of the effect that had incapacitated the other soldiers. They hadn’t been writhing in pain, she’d discovered, but terror. Everyone but her had been overcome with fear so intense they could do nothing but scream. Carina hadn’t suffered any effects at all, but she hadn’t told anyone that. They just assumed she’d managed to fight through the emotion, and she didn’t correct them. Her natural immunity was odd. She wondered whether it had something to do with the genetics that gave her mage powers.
The fact that Carina, Mandeville, and the other two soldiers had managed
to bring out the device, and at such a risk to their own lives, earned all of them plenty of credit among their peers and the higher ranks. Carina was hoping to exploit this.
The commander said goodbye to the woman. The holo faded.
“Private,” said the commander, finally turning his gaze to her. His name was Calvaley and he was in his late middle years, but that was all Carina knew about him. She guessed that as he wasn’t a Sherrerr himself, he had some other close alliance.
“Sir,” Carina replied, saluting.
“Well, what is it?” Calvaley said. “My time is precious.”
“I was wondering, sir, if I might ask permission to visit the men’s quarters. In daylight hours, just to talk to a friend of mine.”
“And what makes you think you deserve that special privilege?” Calvaley’s eyes were coal black and as hard as stone.
“I believe the device I helped remove from the Dirksens’ moon will prove extremely useful to us, sir.”
“Maybe it will.” He stood and placed his hands on his desk as he leaned forward. “That doesn’t mean you deserve any special recognition. You only did as you were commanded. Don’t you think that’s rather presumptuous of you, soldier?!” As he spoke, his tone grew louder, until by the time he got to the end of his sentence he was yelling, his face turning pink from the effort.
“Perhaps, sir,” Carina replied coolly. “However, it doesn’t hurt to ask.”
The commander’s anger fell away in a moment. He laughed. “Not easily intimidated are you? What’s your name again?”
“Lin, sir. Private Lin.”
He nodded as if filing the information away for later use. He sat down and drew his chair closer to his desk. “Yes. Permission granted.” He flicked his hand at her, shooing her away. “Have fun talking to your friend, Private Lin.”
Carina quickly left before Calvaley could change his mind. Finally, she could see Bryce. All their troubles would be over, or most of them at least. Carina bounded down the stairwell leading to the men’s quarters. Mandeville had recognized Bryce from Carina’s description and told her where to find him when he wasn’t working.
This time when Carina spoke her name into the scanner, the door lock clicked open. She went through. The hallway lights flickered on and she could read the signs next to the doors. She quickly found Bryce’s dorm.
Before going in, she double checked she had her elixir with her. It would take only a moment to Transport them both away. She hoped her dumb luck would hold out and that Bryce would be alone.
The door to the dorm opened and someone came out. It was the burly soldier who had beaten her again, of all people. She seemed fated to constantly run into the unpleasant man.
“Come to see your friend?” The man leered. “He’s all yours.”
He held open the door so that Carina was forced to go under his arm to enter the room. When the nasty soldier didn’t leave but stood in the doorway, his sick smile still decorating his face, Carina shoved his arm out of the way and closed the door.
“Urgh,” she said, seeing Bryce sitting on a bottom bunk. “Does this thing have a lock?”
“Carina,” he exclaimed. He came over and hugged her. “Thanks for coming to see me. I’m going crazy in here. It’s nice to see a friendly face.”
“How are you?” Carina asked Bryce.“Are you okay?” She thanked the stars the rest of the dorm was empty. He was alone.
He shrugged. “I’ve been better. How about you?” He reached up and touched the fading bruises on her face. “Looks like they roughed you up a bit too.”
Carina grimaced. “Yeah, a bit. But I’ve had worse. What about you? How are your symptoms?”
“As good as I can expect. I need another dose of my medication, but the doctor says they don’t supply it, only the preventative. Anyway, I’m glad you’ve come because I wanted to say I’m sorry I dragged you into this. It was all my idea. It was lucky they didn’t kill us.”
“Don’t worry about it. I could have refused if I wanted. You didn’t force me to come along. That’s all behind us now. What we have to do next is get out of here.”
“That’s not possible,” Bryce replied. “Believe me, I thought about it. The only way out that isn’t via shuttle is through the main door, and that’s guarded around the clock. Besides, I don’t think I could make the journey back in my current state.”
“Bryce,” Carina said in a serious tone. “What if I told you that I could get us out of here, but it would mean that we could never meet again?”
“I’d say, that’s great. And then I’d say, wait, why can’t we meet again?”
“I can’t even tell you that. Believe me, the less you know, the better for both of us.”
“Now I’m really intrigued, and a little bit scared. Is what you’re proposing dangerous?”
“Only for me. And it’ll only be dangerous for you if the Sherrerrs catch you again. Then it’ll also be dangerous for me.”
“Huh?”
“I know it sounds crazy. If you don’t want to take the risk, that’s fine. I’ll leave now. This is the only chance I’m giving you. Take it or leave it.”
“What’ll happen if I say yes?”
“You’ll end up somewhere near where we left the town.”
“What?”
“Bryce,” Carina exclaimed in frustration. “I can’t explain. You have to decide now, quickly, before someone comes in. Whatever you choose, whether you say no and I go by myself, or you say yes and I get you out too, it’s goodbye.”
It was only as the words left her lips that Carina felt the significance of what she was saying. Once Bryce knew what she could do, she couldn’t risk being in his company again. She couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t betray her secret. She’d known that when she’d decided to help him. What she hadn’t expected was just how sad it made her feel.
“I don’t understand,” Bryce said, “but you’re saying this is it? I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too. So you’ll leave?”
“Why would I stay? Can I bring anything with me?”
“Yes, whatever you can hold.”
He scanned the room. “Actually, I don’t have anything.”
“Me neither.” Carina hadn’t wanted to risk attracting suspicion by bringing a bag to the dorm. She took a breath. “Okay. Turn around.” The less he saw of what she was about to do, the better.
Bryce gave her a quizzical look, then faced away from her, sitting sideways on the bed. Carina took out the bottle of elixir and sipped a mouthful. She placed her hand on Bryce’s back. She didn’t need to touch him to Transport him, but she wanted to say a final goodbye. The young man had been the closest thing to a friend she’d had in a long time.
She recalled an area between the mountains and the town they’d traveled from, where the countryside was empty of people. Next, she wrote the Transport character in her mind. The next moment, her hand was empty. Bryce had disappeared.
Carina looked sadly at the indent on the mattress where he’d sat a moment before. She sighed. It was her turn.
Chapter Twenty-One
As Faye sat in the garden after breakfast, she pondered a paradox. Mages could create fire, but only when they had elixir to make the Cast, but to create the elixir, they needed fire. Thinking of such things focused her mind on the task that lay ahead. The mental activity also helped to distract her from the pain of seeing the shocked looks of her children when Stefan had let her out of the basement that morning.
The everlasting tension in the household had tightened almost to screaming pitch. No one spoke a word when she arrived at breakfast. Oriana had gasped and clutched her hand to her mouth. Ferne began to exclaim something but was cut short when Oriana elbowed him. Nahla said, “Father…?” but failed to finish her sentence when Stefan glared at her. Parthenia had studied her mother gravely before returning to her meal. Even little Darius seemed to understand the importance of not remarking on what had happened. When Faye had appeared, after taking
one look at her he’d only stared down at his plate as he ate. Castiel had smirked.
After breakfast was over, the children virtually tiptoed away.
From Faye’s viewpoint, the only good thing to have come from Stefan’s most recent behavior was her new understanding of his feelings. She knew now that she was all but valueless to her husband. He only hoped to glean what little she might have left to teach, then she would probably “disappear” as a warning to their mage children of what would happen to them if they disobeyed.
What Stefan probably didn’t guess was that this revelation gave her new power. His usual method of controlling her was through threatening the children’s lives. Now she knew he wouldn’t harm them. Only her own life was at risk—which hung by a thread anyway—and she had lost almost all fear.
Rather than making her give up her attempts to defy him, Stefan’s actions gave Faye new strength and determination. She was going to Transport her children away from him if it was the last thing she did. Of course, they would all remain in danger of recapture. Stefan and the rest of his clan would leave no stone unturned in their search for them, but when they were all free to use their mage powers, they would have a chance of escape. It was a much better alternative to living in that miserable hole with their jailer father.
As she watched the garden, Faye was aware that she herself was being watched. Olivia hovered just out of sight through the open doors behind her. Stefan had departed early that morning by shuttle on one of his ever-increasing business trips, taking part in whatever big thing was happening with the Sherrerrs. If Olivia wanted to sneak to him to betray her, he wouldn’t be back until the evening at the earliest.
“Olivia,” she called. When her maid didn’t immediately reply, she said, “For goodness sake, woman. I know where you are. Come here.”
