The Dragon Circle

by Irene Radford

  He reached deep into the recess, fumbling around for the cool, glassy feel of the faceted crystal. He brushed his knuckles against . . . could it be? . . . a Klip. Cautiously he drew out the thumbnail-sized clamp. It remained attached to one wire. The primary wire.

  Melinda was tapping into his programs. At the same time, she drained memory and power from his system to severely limit his capabilities.

  Anywhere else in the GTE this little device would be illegal. So was murder.

  Melinda had gotten away with both here on Aurora where she owned everything.

  Not anymore.

  With cold determination, Martin slipped the clamp off the primary wire. Nothing changed overtly. No alarms beeped and no surge of power changed the holographic display. He dropped the Klip back into its hidey-hole.

  Then he retrieved the crystal. He dredged up from memory the last report he’d read on crystal experimentation. If he placed it between the processor and the Q drive, connected to both by fiber optics . . .

  Where would he get nitrogen to bathe the crystal?

  No, this was not a crystal star drive. The mini crystal would not be a monopole seeking an opposite pole in an array of crystals. This was a single king stone that wanted to be connected to a mother stone.

  He connected it to the communications port where it could tap into whatever theoretical energy bigger king stones used to connect to the rest of the universe.

  Instantly the hologram of a star map began filling in details. New stars and jump points appeared. Star systems Martin had not charted became blue, green, or red.

  The entire thing shifted and rotated to a new alignment.

  “North!” Martin chortled. “My crystal is now galactic north.”

  And then the jump points changed. Some remained stable and yellow. New ones wandered, taking on paler colors. Some became so intense they changed to orange.

  Martin noticed very pale lines of white connecting the jump points to their destinations.

  And at the core of it all remained a huge blank spot with no jump points entering or leaving. It stood strategically bordered by all three political entities.

  “Scaramouch, what is this hole?” Martin asked his computer.

  “Define hole?” the computer replied.

  “This area without any stars.” He circled the dimensions of the hole. It was big enough to contain fifteen or twenty star systems, but none showed.

  “Unknown. No charts exist for that area.”

  “Scaramouch, correlate the distress beacon with this area.” Martin tapped his foot anxiously while he waited for the computer to make calculations. It seemed to take an inordinate amount of time.

  Finally a tiny violet light blinked at him from an area of the hole farthest away from Earth. But only a few jumps from Aurora.

  “Scaramouch, highlight jump points into this area.”

  “All known jump points shown.” The area remained free of entry.

  “Scaramouch, calculate probability of a black hole in this area.”

  “Insufficient data,” the computer replied.

  “Martin?” Melinda Fortesque appeared on the vid screen. “I need you in my office immediately.” She did not sound happy.

  “What is it, Melinda?” he asked, careful not to call her “Mother.”

  “Stop questioning my orders and come here,” she snapped. Her image disappeared so quickly he almost heard the pixels pop.

  “Uh-oh, she sounds mad. Really, really mad. She must have discovered the Klip is now disconnected.” Martin hastened from the residential wing to Melinda’s office. He paused at her door long enough to straighten his rumpled shirt and trousers and run his fingers through his hair.

  His mind spun with lies. He plastered a blank expression of supposed innocence upon his face.

  Melinda, of course, was impeccably groomed, wearing one of her expensive suits. This one had a longish skirt rather than her usual trousers. Who did she intend to impress? Certainly not Martin.

  “What is this?” Melinda thrust a handheld screen at Martin without preamble.

  The harbormaster’s calendar lay before him, the date of Martin’s last birthday highlighted. And a week later the date of Konner O’Hara’s banishment from Aurora stood out in bold red letters.

  “Looks like a calendar.” Martin shrugged and returned the screen to his mother’s desk. He bit his cheeks rather than ask her about the Klip.

  Maybe she hadn’t discovered it yet.

  “Do not feign ignorance with me, Martin. Your computer’s telltales are all over that entry.” She tapped the entry regarding Konner.

  Martin opted for silence. He tried to keep his face bland and his eyes level. He’d learned the art of a masterful stare from the best. His mother.

  “You moved the entry,” she accused.

  He maintained his silence.

  “I have to respect your perseverance, if not your actions. Do you know who this man is?”

  “Yes, Mother, I do.”

  She returned his silence. He knew he could not out-stubborn her in this mood.

  “Martin Konner O’Hara is my father. You cannot keep me away from him after my fourteenth birthday.”

  “Yes, I can. He will not arrive in time for your birthday. He will never arrive in Aurora. My latest intelligence says that he is dead. Killed in a battle with the Imperial Military Police five months ago. I have just received a copy of his official death certificate on file with the GTE. Any man appearing with his name is an obvious imposter and will be arrested and extradited immediately.”

  Martin swallowed the sob that threatened to escape his throat. He had to blink back hot tears.

  Rather than show emotion in his mother’s presence, he turned and marched back to his own quarters. He slumped into his Lazy-former®. Black despair threatened to drag him deeper and deeper into himself until he disappeared completely.

  “If your father is dead, Master Martin, why would Sam Eyeam activate the beacon?” the Super Snooper asked.

  “Scaramouch, trace agent Sam Eeyam’s movements over the past three months and display in purple on the hologram.”

  “How did you know the O’Haras are my brothers, Captain?” Kat asked. She kept her attention on Leonard’s eyes, knowing they would signal any change in her intent to fire before her finger reacted. In minimal g, could she avoid a spray of needles aimed at her face?

  “I had the displeasure of meeting one of your brothers. The family resemblance is remarkable, Lieutenant Talbot. No wonder you are obsessed with finding them. The one who stole the king stone did this to me.” Amanda Leonard gestured with her free hand to the bruise that marred her face. The fingers of that hand were swollen and hung limp, as if she had broken them. “He stunned me in the face, then kicked me.” Her words began to slur.

  “I think you have a concussion, Captain. You’ve been breathing bad air, too. May I relieve you of the weight of that weapon?” Kat asked blandly. She crept forward, wincing at the clank of the boots of her EVA suit.

  “No, you may not.” Leonard steadied her grip on the pistol.

  “We can still recover the king stone, sir. If we act fast.”

  “I will not desert my ship, Lieutenant.”

  “I am not asking you to, sir. But the others will not act without your orders. It’s chaos down there. We need you to take command and restore order.”

  “Chaos. Rats deserting a sinking ship. It’s all Judge Balinakas’ fault. He ordered the evacuation while I was unconscious. He took the crystal techs away from their terminals at gunpoint. He caused the panic. Ever since the day I came aboard as captain he has challenged my authority. Just because he has served aboard Jupiter since her commissioning does not give him authority over my crew. Only over judiciary . . .” Her words trailed off.

  Good. Her animosity diverted her attention from Kat and her brothers. “Would you like to prove your superior ability to the judge, Captain?”

  Amanda Leonard’s eyes brightened a bit and she lo
oked at Kat with a glimmer of hope.

  “Sign an order, sir. I know where the smugglers are hiding. I watched where they buried the king stone. We can retrieve it along with the rest of the crystal array. But I need your authority to command the Marines.” Kat bent over Leonard, fixing her with her gaze. When she had the captain’s complete attention, she folded her hand around the pistol and pulled it free. She breathed easier.

  So did the captain. “Your eyes are different from your brother’s. His are blue. Midnight blue. I almost lost my soul looking too deeply into his eyes.”

  “The orders, Captain. I need you to sign the orders.”

  “Very well. Take every Marine, lander, and piece of equipment you can scrounge.” She whipped out a handheld and scribbled with a new electronic pencil from her earring.

  “Sir, this puts Lieutenant Pettigrew in charge of the mission.” Kat gulped back her dismay. “I’m the only one who knows . . .”

  “You are too close to the situation, Lieutenant. If you give the orders, you might jeopardize the mission in a misguided attempt to spare your brothers.”

  “I assure you, Captain. I have no love for any man or woman with the name O’Hara. They abandoned me when I was a child. They left me without a backward glance.” That was not exactly true. A flash of heat flushed her face as she remembered the moments of laughter and reminiscence with her brothers during yesterday’s adventures.

  Then she remembered the incredible experience of reaching out through the universe and touching her mother’s thoughts; of feeling bound to everything and everyone. Especially her family.

  But she did not want to be bound to the woman whose obsession to recover her daughter had become an excuse for gaining wealth that would never be used.

  “Pettigrew is in charge. He outranks you.”

  “What about M’Berra. He’s your second-in-command. He should lead.”

  “M’Berra needs to remain at that rustic headquarters and coordinate everything. Pettigrew leads the mission to retrieve the crystals. You will obey him, Kat. I’m depending upon you to behave yourself and obey.”

  “Yes, sir.” Kat snapped a salute.

  “Take a hydroponics tank back with you and as much food as the droids can carry. You’re all going to be very hungry if you fail.”

  “I won’t fail, sir.”

  “I have my doubts, Kat. Do this for me.”

  “Captain . . . ?”

  “I intend to sail my ship back home with the O’Haras as my prisoners and Judge Balinakas in chains, or go down with it in flames.”

  “Not if you keep breathing bad air with a concussion. Sorry, sir.” Kat slammed her fist into Amanda Leonard’s jaw. As the captain slumped into unconsciousness, Kat slung her over her shoulder and tromped back to the shuttle Rover.

  “We need you dirtside more than you need to remain aboard a sinking ship, Captain.”

  CHAPTER 44

  “THEY COME,” Dalleena called to Konner and the others. She stood at the edge of the clearing, facing north, her right arm extended palm out. In her left hand she clutched the small ultrasound device Kim had given her. She did not need the healing machine much now.

  “Where? How many?” Konner poked his head out of one of the many holes in the ground.

  “How long?” Loki asked. He and Irythros, the red-tipped dragon, dug yet more holes opposite Dalleena’s post.

  So many holes for so many crystals. Everything counted in twelves, the crystals, the holes, the distances that separated them. She did not pretend to understand the why and where of Konner’s operation. She knew only that he considered it important and the others followed his directions.

  “Landers lifting now. Thirty, no fifty people.”

  “Your talents are getting more precise,” Konner said as he vaulted out of a hole. He still carried the intriguing weapon that shot fine ropes over long distances.

  She could think of many times such a tool would have aided her in rescuing lost ones. Especially sheep and small children who tended to get into awkward places where adults could not fit.

  Konner came up beside her. He rested a hand comfortably upon her shoulder, as if it belonged there. As if each of them was incomplete without the other.

  “This place . . .” She shrugged at her lack of understanding. Perhaps the crystals made her tracking sense keener. She knew without thinking that fifty hearts beat against her palm.

  Konner’s hand tightened. Fifty minds brushed against hers. The fifty minds separated, became individuals. She shared fifty different emotions. One stood out from the others, determined, focused, single-minded.

  “They are angry and afraid,” she said. The pressure of that anger made it hard to breathe. Perhaps this refinement of her talent was not for the better.

  “Fifty troops, that’s two landers.” Loki joined them at the perimeter of the clearing.

  “Four,” Dalleena corrected him. “They plan to leave with the crystals.

  “The confusion field anywhere near ready?” Loki asked.

  “No. I need another full day, even if you and Irythros finish the digging and placement of the directionals,” Konner replied.

  “The Others will be here in two, perhaps three hours. The leader pushes them hard. He . . . she seeks vengeance.” The force of the personality swamped Dalleena’s senses.

  She swallowed hard, trying desperately to reclaim her sense of self.

  “Your sister.”

  “Kat,” Konner said at the same moment.

  Sadness swept from brother to brother, then through Dalleena. With her talent engaged and heightened she became a part of their anguish.

  “We will have to fight our own sister. Mum will kill us.” Konner choked.

  “Do not think about it, Konner.” Dalleena dropped her seeking hand to wrap it around Konner’s where he clutched her shoulder with desperate fingers. She felt her skin bruising beneath his grip.

  “We cannot engage them here.” A note of panic crept into Konner’s voice.

  Dalleena’s chest felt as if an iron band squeezed it. She needed to sever her physical contact with him in order to keep breathing. Yet she could not. He needed her. She knew with absolute certainty that he would break something in his mind if she removed his hand from her shoulder, her hand from his, his mind and emotions from contact with hers.

  “We have strategic advantage here. They will have to come at us uphill, over rough terrain,” Loki countered.

  “If we fight them here, I will have to kill one of them.” Konner’s words came out, barely above a whisper.

  Dalleena could not breathe. She saw the man he meant, Lieutenant Pettigrew. For three very long heartbeats she relived with Konner the vision of the man turning into a skeleton, of a bright tunnel swirling, drawing them in, like the dragongate, but without a destination.

  Was that what it was like to die? She shuddered. Loki stared into Konner’s eyes for a long moment. Then he nodded as they came to a silent agreement.

  “They can’t land four vessels here and Kat knows it. Two were a tight fit.” Loki began to pace.

  Kim joined them, Hestiia close on his heels, as if one could not act without the other. “Perhaps one of us should go up with Irythros and scout.”

  “I don’t think that will be necessary. Dalleena is following them,” Konner said.

  “If I were Kat, I’d land at the foot of this hill and hike up,” Loki said. He picked up a stick and began drawing a rough map of the area in the loose dirt. The brothers called Raaskan and Niveean over to consult.

  Dalleena tuned out their conversation and listened to the emotions of the Others. The similarity of Kat’s thought patterns and emotions to Konner’s frightened her. She tried to block out the leader, Kat. She raised her hand again, seeking the practical information of speed and direction.

  “Six small vessels, two men each, approach very fast. They are surrounded with energy. Dangerous energy,” she called to them. “Fighters with weapons charged.” The alien words invad
ed her mind and heightened her fear.

  Konner went rigid. The image of the bright tunnel swirling, faster and faster, pulled her closer and closer toward death. A death she/he/they would inflict? Or a death they would suffer?

  She had to break free of this man. Now. Forever. She could not live with this terrible knowledge.

  “Heads up,” Loki whispered into his comm. He spotted movement through the tall ferns and scrub. The intruders came. Right on schedule.

  He watched from the vantage point of a tall tree. The only reasonable path from the flats to the clearing lay within his view. He hoped that Kat would not take the unreasonable route over cliffs and dead-end ravines. If she had skilled rock climbers among her Marines, she might be able to reach the clearing unobserved.

  Loki had gladly left Cyndi gagged with duct tape and bound to a tree half a klick before the clearing. The IMPs would have to rescue her. Her protests and demands ought to slow the IMPs further and alert anyone left in the clearing.

  Loki’s few warriors had a chance to pick off the intruders one by one as they negotiated obstacles, natural ones and those created within the last two hours.

  “See them,” Raaskan confirmed. “Pettigrew leads.” A long pause. “Taneeo guides him.” The last came out on a hiss.

  “Expected that,” Loki muttered. One more piece of evidence that Hanassa’s spirit had taken over Taneeo’s body. Hanassa had gone to great lengths to remove the Stargods from the land of the Coros. He hadn’t given up, even in death.

  Where was Kat, if not up front? He sought a different vantage point. A rock outcropping offered him clear line of sight of Raaskan’s position. Unfortunately, it also gave Pettigrew the slanting line of sight to Loki. He stayed prone, shielding his eyes against the westering sun filtering through the cloud cover, searching for the tall female and whatever company she might lead.

  Thank St. Bridget, Pettigrew kept his eyes focused straight ahead. He prodded Taneeo with a sharp finger every few meters and barked questions. He should have kept scouts ranging ahead and placed himself in the middle of the column for his own protection, but the cocky lieutenant had to lead. He probably saw this as his one chance at promotion.