The Dark of Light (Starhawke Rising Book 1)

by Audrey Sharpe

  Were these children from Gaia? And yet that made no sense. No one had reported any kidnappings associated with the attacks. This room held twenty-three kids, but his team had discovered three other rooms along the corridor with the same set up, also containing groups of young children.

  Unfortunately, this changed everything.

  Reynolds slipped up next to him. “What’s our plan?”

  “I need to talk to Captain Hawke. Be right back.” He moved to the alcove at the bottom of the stairway and opened a channel to Aurora. “We have a problem.”

  “Tell me.”

  “There are children onboard.”

  Several heartbeats passed before she responded. “Necri children?”

  “No, human. But I can’t imagine who they are or why they’re here.”

  Another pause. “Could they belong to the guards?”

  “No. They’re locked up. Whoever they are, they’re not here voluntarily.”

  “Hang on.” He heard murmuring in the background as she discussed the situation with Mya and Clarek. When she returned, her voice held a steely note he knew well. “Can you get them out?”

  “Most likely, yes. But that may alert whoever is in charge of this flying penal colony that we’re here. We’re nowhere near the bridge or engineering. We may not be able to free the kids and disable the ship at the same time.”

  He could almost hear her thinking, weighing the pros and cons, following all the potential what-ifs they might encounter. “As long as those children are onboard, we’re in a no-win situation. If we focus on disabling the ship and ignore the kids, the guards could potentially use them as hostages to force our hands.”

  “I know.”

  She blew out a breath. “What do you want to do?”

  “We have to get them out. Assuming we can get the kids to go with us, the best plan is to put Cardiff and Reynolds in charge. Children are likely to respond better to women than men, and if anyone can successfully sneak a large group of kids off this ship without anyone getting hurt, it’s those two. Drew, Williams and I can continue with our plan to take over the bridge.”

  “Losing Reynolds and Celia is going to make your job a lot harder.”

  “I’m okay with that.”

  He could hear the smile of approval in her voice. “Then do it.”

  31

  The moments of déjà vu were coming faster now. As Celia stepped up to the door panel, she had a new appreciation for how her mentor must have felt as she’d approached Celia’s cell all those years ago, intent on setting her free. But Celia wasn’t a young teen trapped in a prison camp anymore. And whatever these kids had suffered, she had the power to end it. Now.

  She pitched her voice low as she called out. “Hello?”

  The children closest to the door jerked on their beds, their bodies contracting involuntarily as their heads whipped in her direction. Terror washed over every face.

  “It’s okay,” she said in her most soothing voice. “I’m a friend. I’m here to help you.”

  Lots of blinking going on. And the exchange of worried glances.

  “Can you understand me?”

  No one responded, but the older girl who had been rocking the crying boy moved off the bed and crept toward the doorway. Tension showed in every muscle of her body, as if she was anticipating great pain.

  Celia remembered that kind of fear. Raising her hands where the child could see them, she tapped her chest. “I’m a friend. Do you understand?”

  The girl’s puzzled expression indicated the language was unfamiliar to her.

  Not kids from Gaia, then. No problem. She was an expert at non-verbal communication, another skill picked up during her long years of confinement.

  Using her hands in conjunction with her words, she spoke slowly, placing heavy emphasis on the tone and emotional content of what she said. “I want to get you out of here.” She gestured to the room and then out into the corridor. “Off the ship.” She roughed out the shape of the ship with her hands and pantomimed the children moving away.

  The girl’s eyes widened, her mouth dropping open in surprise. She glanced at her companions, who had gathered into a clump at the center of the room. The girl stepped toward the door, but the instant she spotted Ellis and Williams, she recoiled.

  Celia reached out one hand toward the girl and placed the other firmly on Williams’s chest. “Friend.” She gestured at herself, and then at Williams and Ellis. She drew her hands in together and cupped them close to her heart. “Safe.” She swept her hand to indicate the rest of the children in the room. “All of you, safe.”

  The girl’s gaze darted from Celia to the rest of the team standing in the hallway. Time ticked by, taunting, but Celia waited patiently. If they wanted these kids to trust them and work with them instead of against them, this first contact had to go well.

  Finally the child spoke. The language was unfamiliar, but Celia got the gist.

  “Yes. We want you to come with us off the ship. We want to get you free from here.” She placed her hand on her chest. “Celia.” Then she pointed at the other members of the team and said each of their names. She tapped her own chest again. “Celia.” Then she gestured at the child.

  The girl slowly lifted her hand and pointed at her own chest. “Maanee.” The child’s accent gave the word a lyrical quality, drawing out the vowel sounds. Then she pointed at Celia. “Ceeliiaa?”

  Her name sounded better coming from the child. She nodded enthusiastically, then did her best to reproduce the child’s name as she gestured back.

  Maanee nodded and Celia smiled, earning her the barest hint of a smile from the child’s lips in return.

  Maanee glanced at the other children, most of whom were wide-eyed and trembling. She spoke softly, reassuring them. Then she gestured across the hallway and to the sides, something else Celia was able to interpret. She wanted to know about the kids in the other rooms.

  “Yes, the others, too. Everyone.” She gestured to encompass the entire space.

  Maanee pointed up and spoke again.

  Celia frowned and shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  The child pointed again, hard, sweeping her hands to encompass the entire ceiling.

  An idea dawned, though it made no sense. “The Necri?” Hunching her shoulders, she did an imitation of the Necri form. “Is that who you mean?”

  Maanee nodded rapidly, her hands sweeping the ceiling again, then around to include the children. She finished by mimicking Celia’s gesture of leaving the ship and safe.

  Celia stared at her in shock.

  Reynolds spoke up. “Is she saying what I think she’s saying?”

  “Yes. She wants us to save the Necri, too.”

  “How would they even know about the Necri?” Ellis asked.

  She glanced back at him. “I don’t know, but obviously they do.” She faced Maanee and gestured to the ceiling. She pantomimed doors opening and the Necri leaving the ship, followed by the hands to heart safe gesture. To her shock, tears appeared in Maanee’s eyes. The child turned and motioned the other children forward.

  Time to do this. “You’re up,” Celia said to Drew.

  Drew took the device she’d used on the previous door from her utility belt and placed it on the security panel. She tapped in a command, and a few seconds later, the door slid open. She pulled the device off and fastened it to the panel on the opposite wall.

  Maanee approached cautiously. Celia and the rest of the team members backed up to give the children plenty of room. When Maanee saw what Drew was doing, she stepped into the hallway and called out to the children on the other side of the door. A young female voice responded.

  The security panel flashed green and the door slid open. This group was led by a girl who appeared to be slightly older than Maanee. The two spoke rapidly, glancing up at the ceiling as they talked.

  Drew sprung the locks on the remaining two doors and the children pushed into the hallway like an incoming tide. They
ranged in age from twelve to four or five, with the girls outnumbering the boys three to one.

  Ellis and Williams moved down the corridor to minimize the fear factor their presence elicited. Drew joined them while Celia gestured for Maanee to lead the children to the stairway at the back of the ship.

  Maanee shook her head and pointed down the corridor in the opposite direction.

  “We can’t go that way,” Celia said. “This is the exit.” She motioned to the stairway.

  Maanee raised her hands with palms out and fingers splayed. She pulsed both hands once and then lowered one hand and held the other up with only four fingers showing. Then she pointed down the hallway towards Ellis. Celia shook her head and Maanee repeated the gesture, then placed her hand on her head and raised it as high as she could while keeping her palm level.

  That’s when Celia got it. “There are more kids down that way?” She repeated the ten and four gesture the girl had made. “Fourteen kids, taller than you?” She held her own palm over the girl’s head to indicate the average height of a teenager.

  Maanee nodded and pointed again.

  “Okay.” She turned to Reynolds. “Start leading them up to the bay and see if you can get them to take zip lines out to the trees. I’ll join you as soon as I can.” She faced Maanee again. “Will you tell them to go with her?” She gestured to the kids and Reynolds, and then up to the stairwell.

  Maanee nodded, then spoke to the children. They began moving down the corridor as if they knew exactly where they were going.

  Celia refused to think about why that path was familiar to them. “Come with me.” She motioned to Maanee and strode to where Ellis’s team waited. “There are fourteen more kids down this way, probably older teens.”

  Ellis glanced along the corridor, which stretched another fifty meters. He crouched down so he was on eye level with Maanee and gestured down the hallway. “Where?”

  She darted down the corridor and they followed behind. She stopped in front of a smooth, unmarked door.

  Drew stepped forward and began working on the security panel. She frowned when it didn’t open. “Either there’s more security on this door, or they know we’re here.” She continued tapping in commands, and after a few moments, the panel went green. “Got it. But our grace period is over.”

  The door slid open to reveal a hallway to the right. Along the opposite wall, individual cells stood in a row, their design somewhere between the barracks where the children stayed and the confinement cells where the Necri were kept. Maanee called out and was answered by a chorus of voices, both female and male, from behind the closed doors.

  “Thank goodness for central controls.” Drew moved to the panel on the near wall that showed a clear diagram of the row of cells and the locked status for each. Ellis and Williams waited at the open doorway with weapons drawn as Drew set to work disabling the system.

  “Any chance we’re going to have trouble with these kids once they’re free?” Ellis asked.

  Celia tapped Maanee on the shoulder, interrupting her conversation with a female on the other side of the third door. “Will they be okay coming with us?” She conveyed the concept as best she could. Thankfully, the child seemed to understand. She said one word and placed her hand on the door. Then she tapped her chest and touched the door and said the word again.

  “Your sister?” The question was answered a moment later when the door to the cell slipped open. A pretty girl of about fifteen who had the same sandy blond hair and blue eyes as Maanee dropped to her knees and hugged her little sister close. When she lifted her gaze, tears spilled down her pale cheeks.

  Teenage boys and girls emerged from the other cells, their attitudes indicating a mixture of hope, fear and anger. Understandable considering what they’d endured.

  The teens began firing questions at Maanee. She gestured up toward the ceiling as she spoke, mentioning Celia’s name several times as well. Some of the teens glared at Celia, their distrust in the adults who had freed them evident. But Maanee wasn’t cowed, her expression fierce as she dared them to challenge her judgment. Her sister backed her up, and that turned the tide. The teens didn’t look happy, but they grudgingly accepted the new paradigm.

  “We need to get moving.” Celia stepped toward the doorway and Maanee and her sister followed.

  “They’ll go with you?” Ellis asked as the teens joined them in the corridor.

  Celia nodded. “Reynolds and I will get them off the ship, then we’ll head down to engineering.”

  Ellis shook his head. “You can’t leave them. We still don’t know who they are or why they’re here. We can’t abandon them to wander through the forest. Get them out and then stay with them.”

  But that would cut his team down to three. Not good odds. She started to argue, but he held up his hand. “That’s an order, Cardiff, from me and your captain.”

  Apparently while she’d been talking to the teens, he’d been talking to Aurora. Reluctantly, she nodded. “Good luck.”

  His smile was grim. “You, too.”

  32

  Something was wrong.

  Kire couldn’t put his finger on what was bothering him, but for some reason, his subconscious kept nudging him to stay alert. He stared into the two enclosures as he contacted Roe. “Any word from the assault team?”

  “Nothing from Ellis, but I just spoke with Celia. They’re beginning the evacuation of the children.”

  “Good.” He’d been shocked when Roe had told him about the kids and the Necri cages. It added an unpleasant twist to an already difficult situation. Apparently the guards were using the Necri to do their dirty work. But that didn’t explain why the ship was also carrying a hundred captive children. “How long before they can get them out?”

  “I’m hoping for ten minutes or less, but it will depend…”

  Kire didn’t hear the rest of the sentence. He’d spotted movement inside the containment fence. One of the guards was awake. He gestured to Byrnes to give them another dose of the inhalant, but his hand froze in mid-motion as dark shapes rose into the air.

  He cut Aurora off. “Is Jon doing something with the guards?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Because they’re airborne.” And so was he. Leaping up, he raced toward the containment fence, weapon drawn, with Gonzalez and Byrnes on his heels. He managed a dozen steps before several blasts from the guards pocketed the ground in front of him. They were awake!

  “The guards are not incapacitated!” he shouted as he reversed course and returned fire. More blasts rained down and he flattened his back against the nearest tree. Byrnes and Gonzalez took up positions nearby. “What the hell is going on?”

  Byrnes answered without taking his attention off the approaching figures. “I don’t know. I hit them with another dose but it didn’t have any effect. They should have been out for hours.”

  Kire had trouble hearing Roe’s reply over the sizzle of rifle fire. “Kire! Jonarel’s lost…the wing harnesses. He’s trying…back, but six guards…your way.”

  “Yeah, we know.” More blasts touched down. He peered around the tree and did a double take.

  The guards weren’t the only ones moving. Like a swarm of locusts, the Necri rose from the enclosure and headed back in the direction of the ship, with several of the guards joining the tight formation.

  Kire opened a channel to the entire team. “We’ve lost control of the wing harnesses. The Necri are returning to the ship, and they’re bringing several of the guards with them.” He paused to snap off a few shots as the guards landed. “It looks like everyone’s wide awake.”

  A blast slammed into the tree near his head, obscuring any response. Hopefully the assault team had received the message, because they were about to be invaded.

  Kire’s next shot hit one of the guards squarely in the chest, but rather than felling him, he only staggered slightly and then kept coming. The scorch mark where the material of his tunic had burned away provided the explanation. Underneath
he wore a suit of heavy body armor. No wonder they all looked like body builders.

  “They’re wearing armor,” he called out to Byrnes and Gonzalez. And that was bad news. They were already outnumbered two to one, but this placed the odds even more heavily in favor of the enemy.

  “Emoto. Get behind me!”

  At the command from Gonzalez, Kire pushed away from the tree and darted through the intervening space. Two pops sounded and something whirled through the air. The guards dodged out of the way and kept coming.

  A split second later the trees lit up in silhouette as dual explosions took down the two targets. The remaining attackers reconsidered their strategy and sought refuge behind the trees.

  Gonzalez glanced at Kire with a wry grin. “Magnetic grenades. I knew those wings would come in handy.”

  Byrnes joined them. “I’ve figured out why the inhalant didn’t work on the guards. They’re wearing ventilators.”

  Kire frowned. “But they weren’t last night when we conducted surveillance. We would have seen it on the sensor images.”

  Byrnes’s expression was grim. “No, they weren’t.” His implication was clear. Somehow the guards had known what to expect this time and had planned accordingly.

  33

  All things considered, the evacuation was going smoothly. By Celia’s calculations, about a quarter of the kids had already made it to safety.

  The teenagers hadn’t needed any urging to hustle up the stairway and into the bay. As some of the younger kids spied the new arrivals, they’d raced across the short distance and flung themselves into their siblings’ arms.

  Reynolds had set up a zip line and moved into the nearby tree. She’d brought a few of the older kids over first, stationing them at intervals below her to help the younger ones climb down. The girl from the second cell was helping Celia get the children set on the line.

  Maanee and the teenagers stood off to the side, talking quietly as they gestured at the empty cells. It wasn’t hard to figure out from their troubled expressions what they were discussing.