White Fire

by Laurie Bell

  In order to prevent the Blackflame’s entry into the system being discovered, Toni dropped out of forcedspace a few light years outside the Shetii system and used her NSD to bring them closer. They were relying on passive sensors and a visual inspection to prevent the Renegade’s captain registering their presence and jumping too soon.

  “Any sign?” she demanded, sitting tensely. Her eyes darted from her scanner display to the overhead screens, watching for any sign of the smuggler. Her teeth ground together so tightly her jaw ached. Colten picked a good system to hide in. Shetii was an aging solar giant with nine circling planets. Each planet was uninhabited but several of the moons around Jatele, the third planet, were in a stable orbit.

  Toni was tired, frustrated, and growing angrier by the second. She would not let Colten get the drop on her again. This time, she’d either take him in or shoot him down.

  As they crept further into the system, Toni and Mate fell silent, waiting patiently for any sign of their elusive prey.

  Light pulsed at the top right of the Blackflame’s view screen and a force bubble tore open. “Two point eight KL!”

  At Zach’s shout, Toni slammed everything to full and took off after the Renegade. A pop-up counter appeared in her view, descending as they raced through space.

  The enemy ship’s engine flared as it raced away, but Toni had seen him first and closed the gap quickly. Colten must have augmented his ship with something to boost his speed, because Toni had barely inched into range before he darted away again. Inverting the Blackflame, she looped up and slipped closer to the fleeing ship. Her body perched on the edge of her seat as her fingers tightened around the control stick. When the Renegade fell into her targeting box, she ordered Mate to start firing.

  “Boss, are we shooting to destroy or disable? Remember our directive. We are supposed to return those crates in one piece,” Zach recited from the mission file.

  Toni’s blood was coursing hot and fast through trembling limbs. “Disable, of course. We just want to scare him, Zach, make him sweat a little.”

  Her desire to destroy the smuggler was strong. She wanted him down and would happily to do it with lethal force if necessary. Her eyes ached. She was still struggling to focus when reading anything positioned more than a few feet from her face, but any embarrassment over her injuries was nothing compared to the knowledge Colten almost shot her down the last time they’d gone ship to ship. She had no intention of showing him any mercy now.

  “The Renegade is attempting a communication lock.”

  “Deny it,” she ordered. “Keep firing, Mate.”

  “Yes, Boss.”

  Toni pushed her TAFF drive harder. “Give me more power, Zach.”

  She imagined she felt the burst Zach gained from somewhere and checked her screens. The distance between her and the Renegade was growing smaller. The fleeing ship banked sharply. It looked like Colten was going to try and lose her in the atmospheric storms around Jatele’s second moon. Toni raced after him.

  “The Renegade is still attempting communication,” Zach announced.

  “Reject it and flash a message. Tell him to shut down his TAFF. I’ll give him the chance to talk in person after I arrest him.” Her fingers were sweaty around the stick. One button. She could reach it, press it. It wouldn’t take much. The stock of missiles within the Blackflame’s hold flashed into her mind. Overkill? Then she remembered the asteroids, and the flare. Do it. Without his ship partner, the tables had turned and she was in the stronger position. She could shoot him down. A swooping feeling hit her chest.

  A moment later Zach reported, “No response to the message.”

  Toni snorted.

  Mate’s shots were starting to land against the Renegade’s shields. Toni ordered him to target Colten’s NSD or TAFF generator.

  “Why isn’t he shooting back?” Zach asked.

  It was odd. A chill crept down her back. Toni frowned. “Mate, Zach, what’s causing those atmospheric storms?” The Blackflame broke through the moon’s exosphere and dove down. A glance at the readouts confirmed nine hundred mile an hour winds buffeted the ship, and its inhabitants, in a dozen different directions. Toni grabbed for anything she could reach as she was rattled hard. Her seat straps bit deep into her shoulders and stomach as they bound her in place against the violence outside.

  Mate’s fire pounded one small area of the Renegade’s shields, which started to spark.

  “What is that?” Toni cried out. Lightning out here? It wasn’t possible.

  “Feedback from the surrounding thermosphere. There must be a particle response affecting the lasers,” Mate answered.

  “Result?”

  “Unknown.” That cold feeling swept into Toni’s chest.

  The Blackflame bounced and broke through the mesosphere. Something smashed into them, hurling them sideways. Toni held on tightly, forgetting all about the other ship. “I have disabled the Renegade’s TAFF drive,” Mate announced, but it didn’t matter. A loud crack thundered and the Blackflame slammed violently to one side. Power fluctuated, sending sparks through every console and shooting up Toni’s arms.

  She screamed as something hit the ship again.

  Then the power flicked out. The Blackflame plummeted.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Toni gasped for air. Pain, an immense pressure, spread across her chest. She groaned. What happened? Not ready to open her eyes, she focused on her body—fingers, toes, arms, legs. They tingled, aching like she’d depressurized from Zero G too fast. It hurt to breathe. What happened? After several attempts, she pried her eyes open. Blinding light speared into her brain. She let out a scream and slammed her eyelids shut. By Xendia! I can’t remember. Moaning loudly, she could hear herself, so there was that. The scents of ozone and oil saturated the air. Too much. Had there been an accident?

  She cracked open one eye and stared at the giant tear in the wall. With a groan that became a gasp, she twitched her arm and raised her head.

  Something heavy shifted against her legs. She froze.

  “Mate?” Her voice came out as nothing more than a croak. There was no answer. “Mate?” she tried again, fear infecting her voice. Shenghi, what happened? Memory returned with a flash. There had been a bright light and sparks, a feeling of fire and pain and … Oh gods, my ship! They’d been hit by something. Zach, Mate! She dragged herself upright to look around.

  Ow. Something heavy pressed hard on her shins as she twisted. Air fled her lungs. Part of the console, cracked in the crash, trapped her legs. In the distance, Mate lay on his side.

  “Mate?”

  He didn’t stir.

  “Mate? Mate, please Mate.” Toni sobbed, reaching out a hand to him. Oh no. Please no. She stretched her arm and again pain pushed the breath from her lungs. Oh, gods! Kheghing hell. Her mind held only one thought. Get out! She rocked and wriggled back and forth in the tight space. I can’t! With every jerk, fire radiated further along her side.

  Stabbing shocks of nerve fire attacked her body. Flashes of light exploded behind her eyelids. She lost focus. Everything felt weightless; her head was thick with wooly thoughts. Blackness fell in a sudden curtain fall.

  *

  Blinking her eyes open she stared at the crack in the Blackflame’s side panel. What happened? Her head twisted from side to side as she took in the state of the ship around her. Accident? Crash. Her ship had crashed. She lifted her wrist, the stretch of her muscles brought a gasp to her lips. Her other arm was numb. She looked down but couldn’t see her feet. How long was I unconscious? Wriggling her toes, she called, “Mate? Zach?” The ship was silent. The smell of oil and chemicals, probably toxic, was growing stronger.

  It would take something jammed under the console to shift its weight. Over her shoulder, she spied the emergency beacon and reached for it. Pain tore at her side, ripping a gasp from her throat. She flopped back into her chair. Oh, Xendia! Fear settled heavily in her stomach. What am I going to do? The moons around Jatele were uninhabited.
She wasn’t even sure where on the moon she’d crashed. She could be anywhere and she couldn’t reach the emergency beacon, if it still worked. Jagged knives ripped through her limbs as she thrashed frantically back and forth. Free! I have to get free! She blacked out.

  *

  “Rise and shine, sleepy girl.” A man’s voice whispered into her ear and something warm brushed her cheek. Dad? Toni forced open her eyes and looked up into unfamiliar dark eyes. They blinked. Such long eyelashes. Full lips smiled, exposing white teeth. One tooth was crooked, and his nose looked like it had been broken once, a small bump marred the otherwise straight line. Still, he was pretty handsome. Awareness returned with a snap. Daniel Colten stared at her, grinning broadly, waiting for recognition to dawn.

  “Hello there,” he said.

  Her mind went blank and all she could do was blink. “You!”

  “Welcome back. I was wondering how long that was going to take.”

  Toni struggled to sit up but the smuggler pushed her back. “Lie still. You were pinned for a long time. I’m sure everything hurts like hell right now.”

  It certainly did, but she’d never admit that to him. She shoved his hand away and sat up, stifling a wretched moan. Oh gods! He muttered under his breath but backed away. Glancing at her feet, Toni experimented with twitching her toes. They moved easily under the scratchy blanket. Blanket? The scent of cooking meat floated to her through the air. Her stomach heaved. She clasped a hand over her mouth and swallowed until the waves of nausea settled. “What happened?”

  “I found you. You were stuck under the console of your ship’s control center. I got you out and here we are.”

  Positive it had not been that simple, she glared at him and her hand formed a fist around stiff grass. She lay in a circle of shade cast by a shimmering golden tree. Leaves glinting brightly beneath the burning sun. A thin vein of silver ran through each rounded leaf. Twisting her head, Toni saw they were at the entrance of what looked to be a forest. Toni inhaled then coughed; the air was so dry, hot, like another thick blanket draped over her. She tried to moisten her mouth but nothing happened. The overladen branches above created a large canopy to shade her. A few feet from her side the finest white sand she’d ever seen. It looked like glass. A body of water, maybe a sea or a lake, stretched to the horizon, glistening diamonds under the intense heat. She couldn’t see the Blackflame anywhere. Mate?

  “Where’s my ship?”

  “You crashed further inland, about a mile from here. I came down over there, just out of sight, near the shore.”

  “Crashed?”

  “Yup, same electrical eddy that hit you. I saw you go down and tried to land nearby.”

  “Why?”

  He stirred a bent stick around a steeltale bucket staked over an open fire. He knocked his boots against the stones placed in a circle to contain the flames. So that was the source of the smell that sickened her earlier. “How long was I out?”

  “Six and a half hours. My aid kit is limited, and I couldn’t find yours, but I’m pretty sure you’ve got a couple of cracked ribs and a concussion. Severe bruising to your shins and left knee, nothing worse. Didn’t even penetrate your skin. You’re a lot hardier than you look. If you’ve got a bone regenerator in your ship, I can zap your ribs. You were lucky.”

  Yeah, I sure feel lucky. She met his eyes. “Why did you get me out?”

  He aborted a shrug, air hissing through his teeth. When he moved the pot, he didn’t bend. The muscles in his arm twitched and the side of his mouth tightened. “What, Colten? What aren’t you telling me?”

  He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “This moon is uninhabited and both of our ships are damaged. We’re stuck here, together.”

  She blinked at him. What? Alone? If both ships were damaged how were they going to escape the … oh she was stuck here. With him.

  He continued, “Your ship is badly damaged, but I think we can pull enough parts from yours to fix mine.”

  He wanted to junk her ship? A dagger of pain stabbed into her brain behind her right eye. She pressed into her temple, freezing at the feel of a bandage wrapped around her forehead. “What is this we you’re talking about?”

  He grinned. “My ship is the better option.”

  “Oh, come on.” She flopped back on the ground, landing on something squishy. Twisting, she examined what it was and found Colten had put her jacket there. Huh, that was nice.

  He nudged her a while later. She stirred, opened her eyes and blinked up at the darkness above her head. What happened? Where am I? Sparks of electricity dug into her side when she tried to roll over. Sniffing, she wondered what was on fire. She found a pair of red-stained boots and looked up into Dan’s face. Oh right, the crash.

  “What?”

  “You fell asleep again. Eat this.” He held out a steaming bowl. Her stomach lurched at the thought of food and she quickly turned away.

  “You have to eat,” he told her.

  She clenched her teeth together and shook her head mumbling, “Not a good idea.” After a moment of silence there was a loud slurp. Fighting the pain Toni rolled over. Colten sat a few feet away on a fallen tree trunk and slurped at the bowl in his hands, smacking his lips together after each mouthful. Her skin crawled and she twitched with every sound. Rocking from side to side, more sparks shot down her spine. The burnt-milk smell of the soup drifted to her nose.

  “Do you mind?”

  “What?” Liquid dripped down his chin, and he wiped it away with his sleeve.

  “That’s disgusting,” she groaned. “You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you, Colten?”

  His grin infected his eyes. “You know, you should call me Dan. We’re going to be stuck here a while, together. I can’t keep calling you Agent.”

  “You could.” Sliding her butt back, her head whirled. A sharp pain sliced into her hip. She mashed her lips together and forced through it. Arrest him, or at least chain him to something nearby until she could move properly. Laying back down, she moaned. Maybe she’d arrest him in the morning.

  A laugh from the other side of the fire made her suspect he knew exactly what she was thinking. She scowled up at the sky. Where are my shades?

  “Broken. I found them in the wreckage when I pulled you clear.”

  Khegh it all, I said that aloud. She’d have to be careful with what she thought about. Clearly she wasn’t focusing well enough to stop from saying whatever popped into her mind. She did voice her other fear. “Mate? My C-bot?”

  “Disabled or injured. I don’t know. Non-functional, at any rate. I couldn’t get a signal off him.”

  Mate? Oh no! If he was down, then so was Zach. I’m alone. Toni closed her eyes massaging the skin between them. You have him. Her eyes sprang open at the betrayal of her thoughts. “Speaking of signals …” she prompted hopefully.

  “No electronics at all.”

  There went her plan to trigger the emergency alert manually. Then again, if she could get a look at her ship, maybe she could cobble something together to send out a limited signal. “You said we might be able to get your ship to function?”

  “I’m thinking if we dismantle your NSD we might be able to boost a—”

  She shook her head. With no charge to the Normal Space Drive, it wouldn’t matter. “We have to change the switches first.” I never checked my spare supplies. Did she even have replacement switches?

  He eyed her with interest. “You sound like you know what you’re talking about.”

  She grunted. Electronics and programming were her thing, not mechanical repairs, and she said so. His early words replayed in her head. “We’re stuck here, together.” Shenghi.

  “Like I said, between the two of us we might be able to get something up and running. Look, if you can’t eat, then at least try to get some rest. Neither ship is going anywhere for the time being.”

  He was right about that. And she wasn’t going anywhere until she could stand up without falling over. How can I sleep
? Colten—Dan, his name is Dan—was wide awake, and who knew what he could get up to while she was out. Then again, all he’d done so far was rescue her from her damaged vessel, patch her injuries and try to feed her. Not what she’d have expected.

  She was safe and warm and he’d even cooked for her, though she couldn’t stomach the thought of it. She allowed her eyes to drift closed. She’d have to rely on him—at least for now—but she wouldn’t trust him.

  *

  “Get up. We have to move, get up!”

  She was prodded and pushed hard, then felt herself moving along the ground, a tight band tugging hard on her ankle. “Wha …” she mumbled, gasping at the spike of pain that stabbed through her leg.

  “Get up,” Dan demanded.

  Toni pried open her eyes to find him towing her across the sand toward the tree line by the ankle. “What, what’s wrong?”

  Dan dropped her ankle and hoisted her upright.

  “What? What is it?”

  “We have to move. Trouble’s coming.”

  “What?”

  “Just move!”

  With his help, she limped under the cover of the trees. Twigs and branches scratched at her legs as she stumbled trying to keep up with the powerhouse pulling her forward. He kept his arm around her back; his body heat soaked into her skin. Why isn’t he wearing a shirt? A rumble rattled the trees around them. She slowed and glanced over her shoulder. What on Marn?

  “Keep moving!”

  The rumbling increased, making the dirt beneath their feet tremble. Toni tripped. Her sides ached and her left knee was throbbing like a bitch. She pulled back on Dan’s arm. I need to stop. He grabbed her around the waist and swung her over his shoulder breaking into a run.

  “Woah, hey!” From her new vantage point, Toni could see … Oh, my gods! Thin tree trunks snapped or fell, tumbling around the stampeding grey-skinned, four-legged animals. Eyes wide, they snorted and bellowed as they crushed everything in their path. At first, she thought that was what Dan was running from. Then she saw the monstrous creature bearing down behind the three animals. At least, she saw its big, clawed feet. “Shenghi!” Dan ran faster. Toni’s heart sprang into her throat—she couldn’t breathe. Her ribcage was pressed against his shoulder. His body odor filled her nose. Every step he took forced the breath from her lungs. She could only gasp, and watch in horror at the approaching stampede.