Living among the Stars (Sky Riders #2)

by Rebecca Lorino Pond

  She turned her attention back to the front window. The shuttle had left the bay and was now soaring in the blackness of space. It wasn’t until the commander turned the ship towards the moon that any light reentered the shuttle. Napra shined brightly into the hull, illuminating the entire inside.

  The ride had been smooth and incident free until something slammed into the side of the shuttle without warning. Lights and alarms went off on after the other as smoke started to fill the cabin.

  Kelly waved her free hand in front of her face to keep the smoke out of her mouth, but failed. She coughed and hacked until she felt as if she would vomit right in her own lap. She was about to ask what the hell happened when an all too familiar voice came over the speaker in the shuttle.

  “I warned you, Zol’tsa,” Kharis’ voice was loud and clear as if he were standing right in front of her.

  Chapter 21

  Earlier

  When Zol’tsa cut the transmission, Kharis went into full battle mode. His enemy hadn’t heard the last from him yet and if Kelly thought he was just going to walk away, she had another thing coming. He would no sooner walk away from then he would stop breathing.

  “What is the plan of action?” Vulmar asked from behind him.

  He swung around violently to face his brother. “I want all fighters prepared for launched. Prepare mine as well. They are still too far away right now to send out the troops, but not far enough to be unable to scan the shuttles that leave his fucking ship!”

  “What are you scanning for?” Vulmar as he now followed behind his brother.

  “What do you think I’m scanning for? DNA!”

  “But….”

  “But, nothing! A sample of Kelly’s DNA was taken by Jonik when Etor first found them. That fucker’s DNA was taken when we had him in custody. Both are in the computer system. I had Jonik up load them both before we left Qetera.” Kharis walked quickly to the docking bay. He wanted to be ready to launch his own fighter as soon as the ship was in striking distance.

  “Brilliant! I wouldn’t have thought to do that. But, what if we’re too late? What if he takes her off first?”

  “I don’t think he will do that. I think he will use her a bait to lure me in. He’s been waiting for this moment for a long time now and he is going to seize the opportunity to take me out.”

  The brothers made it to the docking bay in record time. Per his instructions, the mechanics were busy refueling and checking out the fighters, preparing them for launch. Every last crew member on his ship wanted Kelly back too and would stop at nothing to get her back. They all understand that Kelly was Kharis’ true life mate and that the gods had sent her to him. A true life mate was a rare occurrence but when it happened no one hesitated in protecting or helping the couple in question, especially since it now involved the royal couple. To have three brothers find their true life mates all at one time was definitely a sign from the gods.

  “What would you me do, brother?” Vulmar asked.

  “I want you to stay on the bridge and start scanning every last shuttle or fighter that leaves that ship. When you have a lock on the shuttle with Kelly in it, send me the coordinate.”

  “As you wish, brother. May the gods be with you and good luck,” Vulmar said then pulled his brother into his arms to hug him. “You will get her back, I promise!”

  Kharis choked up for a moment. It wasn’t often that he found himself about to break down, but this involved Kelly and Kelly was his life now. There was no way in hell he could live without her and he refused to do so. No, he was getting her back even if it was the last thing he ever did.

  He hugged his brother back but didn’t say another word. Getting into his fighter, he began his preflight checklist. The last thing he needed was trouble with his fighter. He needed to keep his mind focused to Kelly and getting her back.

  Vulmar left him to head to the bridge. He needed to center his attentions on his mission and on what was about to happen. As he ran his pre-flight checklist, a voice broke into his head.

  Kharis? Where are you? Serelath asked through their mind link.

  I am about to takeoff to go get Kelly back. He tried to shove his dragon’s voice back into the back of his mind.

  I will go with you.

  NO! I will not endanger you. This is something I have to do alone. Now was not the time for his dragon to start with him. Truth was he hadn’t even thought about taking Serelath with him.

  Yes! I am going with you. I am bound to protect you and your mate as is Parath. If you do not let me into your fighter, I will sit right on the nose of it until you relent!

  Kharis jerked his up to find his dragon already sitting in the spot indicated. Get off!

  No, Serelath muttered back.

  There was no point in arguing with Serelath when his mind was already made up. He knew his dragon far too well to ignore the threat given to him.

  Fine, whatever! Shrink down to the required size then get in! Don’t make me regret this, Serelath!

  The dragon shrunk down in front of his eyes to the size of a small child then flew to the door of his fighter when he opened it. Just as he was about to seal the door again, something tiny hopped into the back seat along with Serelath.

  Serelath, what just flew in with you? He had a bad feeling he wasn’t going to like the dragon’s answer.

  Oh, that’s just Parath.

  He twisted around in his seat to face the two faces staring back at him in utter amusement. “No, no way, no how. Get her out of here. I agreed to take you, not Kelly’s too.

  You will take both of us. The last time I let you take Kelly away from me, you lost her! Parath flew up into his face until they were nose to nose.

  “That was an accident! I can’t worry about both of you while worrying about Kelly!” His stressed level was through the roof now.

  There is no need for you to worry about either of us. You concentrate on getting Kelly and we will worry about ourselves.

  “No, I…” he was cut off by his brother.

  “Kharis?” Vulmar’s voice came over the intercom in his fighter.

  “Go ahead.”

  The shuttles have started unloading. We have initiated scanning but haven’t come across Kelly or Zol’tsa yet.”

  “Okay, good. Just keep me informed. I am about to takeoff,” Kharis said into his mouth piece. “You better not make me regret taking the both of you!”

  His body was wired now. With the adrenaline coursing through his veins and his body in a combined battle/protective mode, he felt invincible. It was killing him waiting to launch his ship, but he didn’t want to act prematurely. He had to time his attack perfectly with the shuttle that would lead him to Kelly and his enemy. Of course, he wouldn’t engage the said shuttle in a full blown out battle. Rather, he needed to disable the vehicle and have it either return to the main ship or surrender to his fleet of fighters.

  “When we launch, no one, and I mean absolutely no one, is to fire upon the shuttle we are after. Is that clear?”

  A round of affirmatives came across his intercom. Satisfied that all understood his order he still needed to dish out the warning for added effect.

  “The first fighter that fires upon that shuttle will face immediate execution. No questions asked.” Another round of positive replies came forth. “As soon as I give the word we will launch.”

  Kharis’ entire fleet waited patiently in the docking bay for orders to takeoff. Vulmar’s ship, which had pulled to a stop alongside his ship, also waited for orders from their commander to takeoff at Kharis’ discretion. Everyone involved waited on pins and needles for the order to come and when it finally did, a sigh of relief could be heard coming across every single intercom in the fighters.

  Kharis was the first to launch his ship and head in the direction of the shuttle carrying his mate. Within five minutes, hundreds of fighters filled the space in front of the two larger ships making appear as if an invasion was about to occur. He chanced a glance behind him and
even he was impressed by the sheer size of it.

  The fleet sped towards the last shuttle that had left the bowels of Zol’tsa’s ship minutes ago. It would take him another sixty seconds to be within firing range before he could attempt to disable the shuttle. His heart pounded heavily in his chest, but his nervous were as calm as a spring day on Qetera. His mind was entirely focused to rescuing Kelly and taking Zol’tsa out permanently.

  When his fighter came up behind Kelly’s shuttle, he set his pulsar gun to stun and fired. A quick burst of orange light blasted forth from the tip of his ship and raced towards the shuttle. He held his breath and waited for the impact to occur and prayed to the gods that he hadn’t made a mistake.

  The pulsar reached the shuttle and slammed into the side of it at the same it the ship had been turned. The pulsar emitted a bright white light as it found its target. His breath left his in a rush when the light cleared enough for him to see that the shuttle was still intact.

  “I warned you, Zol’tsa.”

  The shuttle banked to the left, surprising him into action. The pulsar should have decommissioned the shuttle, leaving it to float helplessly in space. Zol’tsa must have been prepared for his attack somehow.

  “Did you really think I would leave my ship vulnerable to your attack? Did you believe I would make it so easy for you to get her back? You really are a fool!” His enemy mocked him. “My fighters have immediate orders to blow you out of the sky you enter Napra’s airspace. You have no right to invade this peaceful moon. So, if you will excuse me, I have a city to run.”

  Zol’tsa cut him off for the second time and it was starting to piss him off. He needed to make a change in his plans and quickly. Somehow, he needed to get the shuttle to stop before it landed on the surface. If that were to happen, he could start an all-out war with a race trying to recover from a reckless ruler. He had felt sorry for Lephusans from time to time, but not right now. All he cared about was Kelly and getting her out of this alive.

  He followed behind the shuttle, which had slowed, as it began to enter the outer atmosphere of Napra. The fleet would have no choice but to follow the shuttle down in order to secure Zol’tsa before he had a chance to exit his ship. This was basically his only option now since he failed in disabling the shuttle before it could land.

  His eyes never left the shuttle that increased its sped as it descended farther into the atmosphere. The possibility of the shuttle getting away from was an ever increasing possibility. He needed to try to knock out one of its engines to slow it down enough to be able to follow it at close range until it landed.

  Offering up a pray to the gods, he set is pulsar beam to a higher setting. The strike wouldn’t be nearly enough to destroy the ship, just enough to cause some damage. This would be the first time in all his battle history that he wasn’t trying to destroy a fleeing ship as he gave chase. Typically, it was either capture the enemy ship intact or destroy it completely.

  Do you think that’s really a good idea? Serelath asked.

  “We’re about to find out.”

  The blue light on the laser indicator lit up to inform him that the laser was at his desired setting. He flipped up the cover that covered the release button and positioned his thumb over it. He had hesitated for a few precious seconds before he pressed it. This time a blue ball of light hot out of the bottom of his ship. It covered the short distance between him and the shuttle in a millisecond then struck the tail end of the shuttle where the engines were the most vulnerable. The explosion’s shock wave shook his as it raced passed him in the opposite direction. As the brightness of the light faded, he could immediately see that the pulsar had caused more damage than he had expected it would. Smoke and flames poured out the back of the crippled shuttle as it plummeted to the surface of the moon.

  He had been wrong in thinking the pulsar would slow them down! Instead, he had doomed them all to a fiery death.

  “Son of a bitch!” he exclaimed.

  There was nothing he could do at this, but watch in horror as the shuttle careened towards the surface of Napra. For the first time in his life, he prayed that his enemy would be able to steer the crippled ship enough to land it without it blowing into a million pieces.

  Chapter 22

  Kelly screamed in horror when another, hard jolt hit the shuttle. Smoke poured into the cabin, choking all in it. She waited for the masks to drop down like on an airline, but none came forth. She covered her mouth and nose with her hand as she struggled to gain enough air to satisfy her lungs.

  “The mother fucker just killed us all!” the guard sitting next to Zol’tsa shouted above the noise of the alarms going off.

  “Oh my God! Oh my God!” Cheery chanted over and over again as she squeezed her eyes shut.

  Things didn’t look too good for them. These were most likely the last moments of her life, but she prayed that the impact would be quick and painless. While she had risked her life every time she went out on patrol, she never relished the thought of falling out of the sky to her death. Facing death on the ground on a daily basis had become a habit she basically had control over, but falling out of the sky was the one thing she had absolutely no control over.

  She glance over at Cheery to find her unconscious. The smoke was becoming too much to bear and was quickly overcoming her. It wouldn’t take much longer until she fell unconscious too as she fell to her death.

  “Can you pull her up some?” Zol’tsa’s voice drifted into her ears.

  “Help me pull back on the steering column and we just might stand a chance. Other than that we’re dead.”

  “Is there any way to get some of the some of the smoke out?” the guard shouted.

  “The exhaust system is on but it’s barely running. The son of a bitch hit us with a pulsar blast too powerful!” Zol’tsa shouted.

  Kelly tried to watch as the two men frantically tried to save them. The smoke was causing her eyes to water and burn, so she had to narrow her vision down to small slits with her eyelids.

  Zol’tsa turned to look at her at the same time she looked at him. “Hey, princess. Your mate has succeeded in killing all of us, including you! Now that’s ironic! While trying to save your ass, he sentenced you to death. At least I would have kept you alive!” He started to cackle as he choked on the same smoke filling her lungs.

  Outside the front window, she could see white clouds whip by at the shuttle sped towards the ground. Every so often a flame would appear in the window, indicating they were in a lot more trouble than she thought. If they were on fire, then their chance of surviving had dramatically reduced. The flames could ignite the fuel used in the tanks upon impact.

  Suddenly, there were tree tops filling the window. The shuttle skimmed along the tops of the trees causing the fiery shuttle to jolted and jump as it tried to find an opening in the foliage. Screeches and scratches came from the outside on all sides. The shuttle dropped several feet when the right side slammed into a huge tree blocking their path.

  Kelly’s body jerked to the side hard, making her cry out in pain. She wanted to cover her head with her hand and arms but was too afraid to let go of the seat handles she was currently had a death grip on.

  “This is it. Hang on,” Zol’tsa shouted a second before the shuttle hit the ground.

  I love you, Kharis! Goodbye Parath! She screamed inside her head. She didn’t think anyone would have heard, but her dragon’s familiar voice came shining through.

  You will not die! Do you hear me? We are right behind you!

  “I love..,” she never got the rest out.

  The shuttle hit the ground hard then twisted on its side. It continued to slide until a patch of smaller trees caught hold of the foreign object and stopped its forward momentum. Her head bounced back and slammed into the panel behind her. The last thing she remembered was a black mass moving past her. She let the blackness take over and draw her into blessed silence. Nothing hurt anymore and all she wanted to do was sleep.

  ******

>   Kharis held his breath as he watch the doomed shuttle crash. There was no way possible any one on board could have survived, but he had to find out. He landed his plane in the opening that the crashed shuttle had created as it broke through the trees. Smoke filled the area surrounding the ship, so he had no idea if anyone had tried to escape from it.

  Opening the door to his fighter, the two dragons slipped out first and raced to the downed plane. He followed quickly behind them, but he wasn’t as fast as the great beasts were. By the time he slid to a stop next to the shuttle, Serelath and Parath had managed to put out the fire near the engine he had taken out. In all his years bonded to Serelath, he had never seen his dragon use his cold breath. It was always the fire he had seen and loved.