Salene's Secrets

by Laura Jo Phillips

  Salene hesitated for just a moment, then made a quick decision. She pulled up a message screen, tapped out one brief sentence, taking no more than a few seconds to say all that needed to be said. Then she pressed the Send key with a silent prayer and stood up. Jinjie leapt to her shoulder and they hurried out of the map room and into the corridor.

  Salene walked quickly but didn’t run, glad that she knew the yacht well enough to take the shortest route to her destination without having to stop and think about it. She was about half way there when the ship shuddered, setting off alarms everywhere. She stumbled into the wall, barely managing to stay on her feet. She glanced at Jinjie, relieved to see that he was holding on tightly to the shoulder of her kevlex top. She set out again, keeping one hand on the wall now as she walked the rest of the way as fast as she could. Just when she reached for the launch bay door sensor the ship lurched with enough force that it lifted her up, then slammed her to the floor hard enough to knock the wind out of her. She climbed to her feet as quickly as she could while still trying to suck air into suddenly and painfully emptied lungs, and hit the door sensor with the palm of her hand.

  “This do be bad,” Jinjie said. She nodded her agreement, unable to speak since she was exercising her renewed ability to breathe. Once inside she grabbed a survival suit and pulled it on in the required thirty seconds or less, her heart racing, but outwardly composed.

  “Suit up, Jinjie,” she rasped as soon as she could speak again. She looked sideways at the Jotunn who’d jumped off of her shoulder, then back on again after she pulled on her suit. He nodded, then waved his hand, emitting a little shower of orange sparks. A moment later he wore an exact duplicate of her silver survival suit which he’d shrunk down from a regular sized suit before they’d left Jasan. The only other change he’d made to it was an extra tall hood to cover his horns.

  “Do be you want weapons roll?” Jinjie asked, surprising her.

  She quickly considered his offer. Beneath her survival suit she wore a pair of black kevlex pants and a long sleeved kevlex top with the black knee high boots Aisling had given her, but she wasn’t wearing the weapons vest. Aside from one pair of Kunian knives hanging from her belt, and one pair of steel sai, she was virtually unarmed. Even if the worst happened and they were forced to abandon the yacht, there was no reason to think she’d need weapons while floating around in a life pod waiting to be picked up. But she’d made a promise to herself and she meant to keep it.

  “If you can bring it here with your magic yes, I’d appreciate that very much. I’d really like the hand lasers and the weapons vest, too if you can.”

  “Where they do be?”

  Salene told him and he waved his hands in a strange pattern. Bright orange sparks flashed in the air around him just before the black silk weapons roll appeared in the middle of the floor. She bent to pick it up, then opened the emergency survival pack compartment on one of the coffin shaped life pods that stood upright in a row along the wall, and shoved it inside. When she turned back around the soft leather weapons vest and a holster containing her hand lasers lay on the floor in the same place. “Can you get some of my kevlex from the top drawer?” she asked hopefully. Jinjie waved his arms again and all of the kevlex Aisling had given her that she wasn’t already wearing appeared on the floor.

  “Thank you so much, Jinjie,” she said with real relief. She put the hand lasers in the compartment with the weapons roll, but there was no room to add anything else so she closed the door and sealed it. Then she opened the door to the padded interior and tossed the kevlex inside along with the vest.

  “Do be need anything else?”

  “No, but thank you,” she said as she opened the control panel on the right side of the unit and pressed a big yellow button. Lights flashed and the pod’s computer began cycling through a status check, making sure it had the required fuel, oxygen and power to perform its function, which was to ensure the survival of its occupant. Salene went to the next pod and did the same, making her way around the small bay until all seven of the Ember’s emergency life pods were prepped and ready for immediate use. It wasn’t until she was finished that she realized the ship was no longer shaking and shuddering, and that the alarms had gone quiet.

  The launch bay door opened and Captain Jake entered, took one look around and nodded. “Good thinking, Salene, but I think the danger’s passed.”

  “What happened?” she asked, the instant rush of relief making her knees feel weak.

  “We got lucky, believe it or not,” he said, trying to smile, but the lines of strain around his eyes and mouth told their own story. “The meteor shower weakened the force field a great deal, and of course it also warned us that the damn thing was there. Otherwise….well, never mind otherwise. Between the meteors and our reduced speed, we managed to get through it. Unfortunately it knocked out our shields, our communications array, and most of our navigation controls. We sent out a distress signal before reaching the force field but I have my doubts about it because of the meteor shower.”

  Salene’s face paled. “I sent a message right after I spoke with you. Do you think it went?”

  “No telling,” Captain Jake said. “Meteors cause intermittent signal blockage, so maybe it went, and maybe not. I’m sorry, Salene, but with the communications array down, you won’t be able to resend it. We’ll have to break out an emergency beacon, then continue on this useless trajectory waiting for help to come pull our sorry butts home as it is.”

  “It’s my fault, Captain,” Salene said with a regretful sigh. “If I hadn’t been in such a hurry to get to Garza, we wouldn’t be in this situation. I’m really sorry, not that it does any good.”

  “I’m the captain of this yacht, Salene,” Jake said, gently but firmly. “I made the decision to change our route, and I stand by it. As I said, there’s no beacon on that force field and it’s uncharted, all totally illegal of course. There’s no way anyone could have guessed it would be there. Don’t you blame yourself for something none of us had control over.”

  Salene nodded. “All right, Captain, thank you.” She reached for the zipper on her survival suit just as the alarms went off again. Jake turned around and hit the button below the vid screen on the wall behind him. “Talk to me, Janeke,” he barked.

  “Imminent collision, Skipper. The biggest damn space station I’ve ever seen just appeared out of nowhere, dead ahead. All we’ve got online right now is partial maneuvering thrusters, so there’s no way to avoid striking it bow on.”

  “Time to impact?”

  “One minute, thirty seconds from…MARK.”

  “Abandon ship, Captain,” Salene ordered as she moved to the pod she’d chosen for herself and stepped inside with Jinjie on her shoulder.

  “Abandon ship,” the Captain repeated to Janeke on the vid screen. Once his second in command acknowledged the order, he turned away from the screen to help Salene as the alarm tone changed to let the five man crew know it was time to get to the launch bay immediately.

  “I’ve got this, Captain,” she said, reaching for the occupant control panel inside the life pod. “Get a suit on.”

  “You first,” he said. “Once you’re away, the rest of us will follow.”

  Salene didn’t waste precious seconds arguing. “Do it then.” Captain Jake nodded and pressed a button on the external control panel. High density crash foam immediately surrounded her body, and Jinjie’s as well. It pressed closely against them, covering everything but their faces so that they couldn’t move.

  “Ready?”

  Salene’s heart sped up, but Captain Jake didn’t have time for her to display a sudden case of nerves. His life, and the lives of the crew were at stake, but he wouldn’t see to them, or himself, until she was away. “Ready,” she said since she couldn’t move enough to nod her head. He rewarded her with a quick smile. “Good girl,” he said. “Take care of her Jinjie.”

  “Jinjie will, Captain,” he replied. Captain Jake nodded, then closed the cover of
the life pod and locked it into place. Staring into Salene’s eyes through the oval viewport, he pressed the blue hyper-sleep activation button and secured the cover over the control panel. In two seconds Salene and Jinjie were both unconscious.

  Connell reached for the launch lever, then found himself flying across the bay when the Ember impacted something about a full minute earlier than he expected. He heard bones in his left shoulder and hip crack as he slammed into the wall, then fell to the floor. His eyes widened at the sound of an explosion near the front of the yacht, and he understood that his time was nearly up. Using every bit of determination he possessed he forced his unwilling body to move, using his good right arm to drag himself back across the small bay to Salene’s life pod while screaming from the pain of his shattered bones. Once he reached the life pod, he pulled himself up to a sitting position, then stretched his good arm up, relieved to find that it was just within his reach. He hit the launch lever with his fist, slamming it into place. The life pod shot up into the launching tube with the speed of a bullet shot from a gun, and Captain Jake Connell relaxed and closed his eyes, satisfied that he’d done his duty to the very end.

  Just as the life pod shot out of the launch tube one of the Ember’s fuel tanks exploded, sending debris hurtling into space. Some of that debris hit the life pod with enough force to send it tumbling end over end at high speed away from the Ember.

  ***

  Talus had been fighting panic for days now, but as he watched the Controller use his body to shake hands with Khurda he was forced to accept that he’d lost the battle. It had taken less time for Khurda to install the Blind Sight on the Aegl than he’d hoped, though he honestly couldn’t imagine what he could do even if they had more time. Nor did it matter. Not anymore. Once they transported up to the Aegl, all hope would be gone.

  He’d done his best to keep his brothers’ spirits up, to encourage them to continue fighting as hard as they could, but nothing they’d tried had worked. And they’d tried everything. Despair filled his soul as the Controllers in charge of his, Jon’s, and Kar’s bodies prepared to leave Garza.

  “Hello guys,” a familiar feminine voice said, shocking Talus to his core. “I’m glad I caught you before you left. I was afraid I’d miss the chance to say goodbye.”

  Talus could hardly believe what he was seeing as the youngest Dracon sister walked toward them. Except for the color of her eyes and the length of her hair, she was an exact duplicate of their Salene. He soaked up the sight of her, pretending for just a moment that it really was Salene.

  He felt the Controller rummaging about in his mind, searching for information on Tani. Before it had a chance to learn anything she walked straight up to him and, to his and the Controller’s shock, she wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly.

  She released him after a few seconds, moved over to hug Jon, and finally Kar. After releasing Kar she walked back to where Steel and Khurda waited and stood between them. She looked up at her husband and nodded, then turned her attention to Talus.

  “I’m really sorry about this, but I promise it’s for your own good.”

  Talus felt hope flare within him as he watched Steel move away, putting several yards between himself and Tani. The Controller raised his arm and Talus knew it was going to transport him away, but Steel shifted into an immense, glittering black dragon even faster than Talus hoped. Without a moment’s hesitation Steel opened his mouth and roared, sending a stream of boiling flames just over their heads.

  Not even the Controllers could prevent the Gryphons’ alter-forms from leaping forward in an instinctive reaction to the unexpected threat. One moment three men with blond hair and blue eyes stood on the tarmac. The next moment, three equally blue eyed gryphons with eagle like heads, forelegs and wings combined with thick, blonde leonine manes and bodies that stood thirteen feet at the shoulder and bulged with muscle, stood in their places, knocking one another aside since they’d been too close together during the shift. As soon as their transformations were complete they opened their hooked beaks and screamed in pain before falling to the ground where they thrashed helplessly. After a few moments they realized that movement was only making the pain worse, so they forced themselves to lie still, panting harshly as they waited for the pain to ease.

  With Steel back in his human form and hovering protectively beside her, Tani approached the gryphon with the dark gold mane and knelt down beside his head.

  “I’m so sorry, Talus, but all three of you have Controllers. Forcing you to shift was the only way to neutralize them.” Talus panted for a few moments as Tani’s words penetrated the red pain-filled haze that still engulfed his mind, then he forced himself to nod as he looked directly into her eyes.

  “You knew,” she gasped. He nodded again, then was forced to close his eyes when the movement brought on a fresh wave of pain. It took another half an hour for the pain to ease enough for him to shift back into his humanoid form. He checked his brothers, relieved to find them well enough except for the pain. It took them another fifteen minutes to shift, and a few minutes after that they were able to push themselves to their feet.

  When he thought he could do it without increasing the pain that had ebbed to a dull roar in the back of his brain, Talus bowed to Tani and Steel. “We thank you,” he said hoarsely. “I’d lost all hope that anyone would figure out what was happening.”

  “How long have you had them?”

  “We’re not exactly sure,” Talus replied. “We were on the Armadura, we know that much. We have some vague memories of behaving oddly that we couldn’t seem to prevent, but our first really clear memories begin from the moment the Controllers had full control over us. That was three days before we reached Jasan.” Talus closed his eyes and swallowed hard against a wave of nausea. When it passed, he opened his eyes again. “Can you tell us how you figured it out?”

  “Sure,” she said. “Khurda, can we go inside and sit?”

  “Of course, Your Majesty,” he replied with a brief bow, reminding the Gryphons that Tani and Steel were the Queen and King of Garza.

  “I apologize for my informality, Highness,” Talus said to Tani as they followed Khurda into his work shop.

  “Don’t you start,” Tani warned with a narrow-eyed glare. “I mean it, Talus. You call me anything but Tani and I will not be responsible for the consequences.”

  Talus smiled. “I hear and obey,” he said, not quite daring to throw in another bow. Tani frowned, but Steel laughed out loud. Then they were inside and taking seats around a circular work table covered with various bits of electronics and machinery. Khurda handed out bottles of water which the Gryphons guzzled gratefully.

  “How’s the pain?” Tani asked.

  “Much better, thank you,” Talus said after starting on a second bottle of water. “How did you learn about the Controllers?”

  “Salene,” she said, shocking all three of them. “I received a very brief message from her just before we came down here. It said only that I was to make you shift by any means necessary.”

  “She figured it out,” Jon whispered. “How did she figure it out?”

  “She’s known you three for a very long time,” Tani pointed out reasonably. “I know these new Controllers are good at emulating their victims, but she must have noticed some changes in your behavior.”

  “That would make sense except that we haven’t seen her for weeks,” Talus said. “Not since before we reached Jasan on the Armadura.”

  “I’m confused,” Tani said, then grimaced. “I’m unconfused.”

  The Gryphons’ expressions of surprise caused her to smile. “I was confused because I hadn’t heard anything about a falling out between you and Salene, which is the only reason I can think of for you not to have seen her for so long. Then I remembered that since I’m pregnant, no one would tell me anything they deemed upsetting.”

  “Wait,” Jon said, frowning. “If Salene’s message asked only that you make us shift, how did you find out we
had Controllers?”

  “Good question,” Tani said, smiling. “At the same time that I got Salene’s message I got one from Uncle Olaf that said you might have Controllers.”

  “How in the seven hells did he figure that out?” Talus asked.

  “They found a missing container of gel that had been collected from the hibernation tanks you were in, and had it analyzed. In addition to the radioactive particles that you already know about, there were also nano-bots similar to those used in Controllers, though they were different. He asked me to use my healing power on you without letting you know what I was doing. If I found anything unusual, he wanted me to try forcing you to shift.” Tani shrugged. “Since Salene and Uncle Olaf both suggested forcing you to shift, Steel and I intended to do that no matter what I found. Just to be safe.”

  “Did you find anything when you touched us?” Talus asked.

  Tani nodded. “I discovered a foreign body infestation in your brains. I’m sorry it was so painful for you.”

  All three of the Gryphons shuddered with disgust. “Don’t be sorry, Tani,” Talus said. “We’d gladly suffer twice the pain if that’s what it took to destroy the Controllers.”

  “I don’t understand something,” Jon said, frowning. “From all I’ve read on the subject, Controllers are injected directly into the victim’s brain. So why were the nano-bots in the gel?”

  “As far as we know, that’s how it’s always been done,” Tani said. “Since we found one in the mining office here after we eradicated the Nomen, we think it’s still done that way most of the time. But those Controllers don’t work on Clan Jasani, as we all know. They’ve made some changes to it, obviously, and apparently one of the changes is the method by which the victim is infected.”

  “I don’t much care how they got into us at the moment,” Talus said. “I’m just glad they’re gone.”

  “You said you’ve known about them from the time they got full control over you,” Tani said.