Collateral Trade

by Candace Smith

  “Yeah, well, this is my first solo act,” Sharell laughed nervously.

  “Shit.”

  They docked in the Vallasteria ship’s bay. Taliquant was crushing Tempest against his chest. She was also dressed in warrior garb… though with her usual gothic flair. “I will miss you more than the crystal palace, more than the stars and moons that circle our home, more than…”

  “Cripes, Tali. You can’t miss me if you don’t let go of me.” Tempest struggled to pull away from him. She gripped his face in both hands and pulled him down for a fierce kiss. “If you get back before me, make sure mom hasn’t spoiled the kids too much. They’re always impossible after a few days with her.”

  Tempest strode up to the shuttlecraft and climbed in. “Let’s kick some ancient ass.”

  “Yuck,” Rue laughed.

  The shuttle lurched out of the bay and headed towards the planet. “So, how long you been driving this thing? Tali won’t let me near the controls.”

  “This is her first solo flight,” Rue answered.

  “Cripes. Do you even know where we’re going to land?”

  “In the water, I suppose,” Sharell answered. She tried to aim towards the two landmasses, but she did not want to guess where they would find a shuttlebay.

  Things were exploding around them and from the viewport they could see it was weapons from the two moons that were firing on the battleships. “Let the party begin,” Rue murmured.

  “How long are they going to keep it up?” Sharell asked.

  “Tali was told to disengage after we broke through the atmosphere.”

  “Then we’ll really be alone?” Rue stroked her fingers down her dagger.

  Sharell felt Tian’s comforting swipe, and she smiled. At least she would not be without her mate. The two small landmasses were covered with buildings, and water lapped at foundations. “Water it is,” Sharell announced. In the distance she could see the sails of a small boat, and she skidded across the waves. “Everyone got your oxy pills?”

  “Yes, and Tempest and I will help hold you up.” Rue was the best swimmer out of the bunch. In Florida, she had been half owner in a pool cleaning company and had lived her life near the water.

  The shuttle stopped gliding forward and slowly began to sink. The young women opened the hatch and climbed out, waving to the boat in the distance. At last, they were treading water, swimming in the direction of the vessel.

  Sharell discovered that fully clothed and fighting the waves was much more exhausting than swimming naked in the pool. Even with the oxygen pill, she coughed up the salty brine. Tempest had to let go and concentrate on moving herself forward. The ship changed course in their direction, and Rue willed it to move faster. Holding Sharell up had proved a bigger hindrance than she had anticipated. Of course, she had not planned on landing in the middle of a damn ocean, either. Somewhere along the swim, her dagger worked free from the holster and sank.

  “Cripes,” Tempest gasped. “So not a good omen to start out on.”

  The schooner pulled alongside and dropped a rope ladder down the hull. Sharell worked her way onto deck and collapsed, with Tempest soon landing beside her. Rue managed to keep her feet, as long as she hung onto the railing.

  A man as large as Isari walked up and surveyed the half-drowned women. “I am Captain Vincent LeSeure,” he announced.

  Rue swung out a hand. “Glad to meet ya’.” She looked up into the pirate’s dark eyes, and announced, “We’ve come to save you.” Her knees buckled and she sank to the deck beside Sharell and Tempest.

  It took a long while before the women caught their breath and their muscles were no longer jelly. A woman sat next to them, silently waiting. When they sat up, she said, “I’m Cass. Something big is going on, and I suppose you have answers.”

  “What’s happening?” Tempest asked.

  “There was all this firefight in the sky, and then you guys landed.” Cass laughed uneasily. “Now the seas are receding. It’s like they’re being sucked into a cave.”

  “Shit, they’ve slip-streamed,” Rue muttered. “You from Earth?”

  Under any other circumstances, Cass would have laughed. Not now, though. “Yes. I’ve been here about three months, as close as I can tell. Weird things happen in Aquadea.” She looked at the women and sighed. “This is going to sound crazy, but we’re in the middle of a pirate war.”

  Tempest looked at her. “You know what a slip-stream is?”

  Cass nodded. “I didn’t know that’s what it was called, but I think that’s how Addie and I arrived here.”

  Rue looked up at the pirates. They were standing by the rail watching the water. “Let me guess. You fell for mister macho, there.”

  Cass laughed. “Oh yeah, big time.”

  Rue shook her head. “Something about off planet guys.”

  “Cass, do you know where the stream is?” Sharell asked.

  “I think Vincent can find it. Actually, the sandbar it was on sank after he saved us, but it’s above water again now.”

  Vincent looked down at them. “Can you keep the Makers away for good?”

  “That’s the plan,” Tempest replied.

  “And ye’ think this stream is how they got here?”

  Sharell nodded. “We know that it is.”

  “We’ll be taking you there, but I’ll be warning you. If you think they’re gone and you’ll be chasing them, we’ll be sealing it off after you’re through.”

  None of the women wanted to ask what had happened on this strange world. They rose and stood with the pirates as they sailed towards the horizon. More sandbars were emerging from the depths. Some joined together, creating larger dry spaces. The pirate captain ignored them.

  At sunset they reached the spot, and the women stared at a clump of rocks on the end of a sandbar. Cass said, “When we came through, the water spilled into the sea.”

  Now, it was sucking down the surrounding waters. Tempest said, “It won’t take you back. That’s not where it’s leading.”

  Cass shrugged. “I don’t want to go back, anyway. Neither does Addie, but it will help to be able to tell her it isn’t a possibility.”

  The women lowered into the water and swam the short distance to the sandbar. Sharell called back, “Give us ten minutes inside, and then blow the hell out of the entrance.”

  “Good luck to you, sky witches,” Vincent answered.

  The women stood by the rushing water. “Looks like quite an undertow,” Rue commented. She took the line the pirate handed her, and they cinched their belts together. Rue would go first, connected to Sharell, with Tempest following behind. They each took a pill and slowly stepped towards the entrance. “Shit,” Rue screamed, as the water pulled her forward off her feet.

  They spiraled down the cavern, scraping themselves on rock walls and pulled forward by the rushing torrent. For several minutes they tumbled and slid before emerging out of darkness and flying over a waterfall into a pool twenty feet below. They dragged themselves onto a small beach and surveyed their bodies for broken bones. Everyone seemed to be intact, and they looked up at a hazy sky.

  “Cripes. I sure as heck don’t want to do that again,” Tempest quivered.

  Sharell studied the footprints in the sand. “I can’t believe a bunch of old guys made it through that.”

  “They’re ancients. They aren’t like us,” Tempest replied.

  The three sets of prints ended at a wall of vines. The women stayed connected by the rope and walked through the hanging vegetation.

  “Where the hell are we?” Rue asked.

  “Someplace they already destroyed,” Sharell replied. They were standing in a field of mud, with no plants or anything else as far as they could see, other than a line of jagged spires sticking up in the distance. “Come on.” She could not feel Tian in this world and it made her nervous. “This place is dead. There isn’t even any smell here.”

  Rue realized she was right. “Damn, this is creepy.”

  They walked
towards the spires, only because there was nothing else to aim for. The rope kept them tied together in case the mud hid a patch of quicksand. The deepest it got was to their ankles, so they continued to trudge through the muck.

  They reached the rocks and Tempest licked her finger and rubbed it. “Nelam. The power is sucked out of it.”

  They held hands and walked between the towers, and found themselves standing ankle deep in nasty water inside a cavern. A few feet past the spires, they turned and saw the entrance sealed. “I didn’t like that place, anyway,” Sharell laughed nervously. The three women followed the stream for several minutes until it branched. In the mud on the bottom, they could see two sets of footprints trailing to the right, the other to the left.

  “Crap,” Rue exhaled. “Guess our ancients suffered some creative differences.”

  Tempest held up her hand, and the sapphire glowed when she placed it at the entrance to the right branch. “This one leads to Vallasteria.”

  “Then Miranda should be able to grab them on the other end, right?”

  “I don’t know, Rue. There might be other streams off this one further down.”

  Sharell’s emerald shined towards the left branch and she slowly nodded, accepting her fate. “Follow them and make sure they kept going to Miranda.” The women stared at her. “Come on, guys. You can’t risk them getting away and if I get into trouble I’m the only one able to call my mates to find me.”

  “Tian,” Rue whispered. Suddenly, the thought of psychically enduced erotic responses and games took a back seat to the knowledge this same ability was what was forcing Sharell to face this madness alone.

  “Yes, Tian. I think Miranda knew we were going to be separated, and she chose me because of my connection with him.” She untied the rope linking her to Rue and Tempest. In their eyes, she read unease and uncertainty. Sharell smiled, wishing she had her mate’s ability to calm them. “We knew we each had a job to do. It was possible all three of us could be separated.” She glanced down at the two sets of footprints disappearing in the surface beneath the stream. “And we still don’t know that they haven’t split up further downstream. We accepted the task to bring them back and contain the danger they present.” She smiled. “Just hold the party ’til I get there.”

  Rue offered a shaky smile in return. “No problem. Sharell, be careful.”

  “Gonna’ kick me some ancient ass,” she laughed, and headed down her tunnel. Instead of feeling frightened, Sharell felt a surge of empowerment and confidence as the emerald’s light glowed brighter. Miranda’s strange magic was guiding her, and somehow she did not feel alone.

  Rue and Tempest tied together. They took a shaky breath and began to follow the stream to the right. The water gradually deepened to their chests, and after five minutes they slipped in the mud and were whisked to the end of the stream. They tumbled into a clear pool in the Temple on Vallasteria, surprising the Priestess guarding the stream.

  They stood on trembling legs, and Rue said, “Well, shoot. It looks like Sharell gets all the fun.” The two young women looked back up the stream feeling guilty for not staying with her.

  Warrior mates ran into the chamber, and Tempest had a difficult time looking into Chaya and Tian’s worried eyes. “How long have we been gone?”

  Tali pulled her against his chest, and his hands searched her body to make sure he was not imagining she had returned to him. He hugged her close. “Almost three months.”

  Tian and Chaya looked up the stream. Rue held Isaria, and whispered to them, “She was fine when we left her a few minutes ago.”

  Miranda walked into the chamber with Zulien. “Two ancients are secured in the nelam prison. They slipped the stream and arrived a month ago. One was injured and his brother knew they could not go on.” She smiled sadly at the women. “I was able to open the stream in Aquadea and empty the sea, but I could not find the broken branch the other ancient escaped through.”

  “Do you know where it leads?” Rue asked.

  Miranda shook her head and her long white hair swayed. “No. It must be leading to either a dead or depleting world with very little crystal. There is no strong signal in the stars from the nelam to guide me.”

  Tian felt a strange surge of calmness, and he straightened. “Sharell is all right. If she were truly frightened, I would feel her.”

  “Are you certain?” Chaya asked.

  “Absolutely,” Tian murmured. He walked back to the altar on the hill overlooking the Temple. It was a place of great power, and he filled his senses with grounding and balance, searching the night sky for his mate.

  Chapter IX

  Sharell trudged through the murky water, watching the rock walls of the cavern by the light of the glowing emerald ring. The stream followed the small tunnel and there was no other light to guide her. The water never rose above her knees, though the ground beneath her feet was less muddy and no longer sucking at the soles of her boots. It seemed as though she had been walking for hours, but she also thought that time was disjointed in this stream.

  Sharell had no particular plan when she caught up to the ancient. She was still not sure what kind of powers or weapons the mystic might have at his disposal. Through the strange glow of the emerald, Sharell was certain Miranda would not have selected her for this journey if she did not possess what she needed to capture him. As usual, Sharell would shoot from the hip and figure out the circumstances when they happened.

  He’s just an old man, for god sakes; a really old, mean nasty man. She walked a little further. He’s just a really, really old, mean nasty man with mystical wizard powers that can destroy a planet. And he’s probably nuts. Shit. Her thoughts were seriously creeping her out, so she focused on counting her sloshing steps through the water.

  At last, she saw the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. The closer she walked towards the haze, the more she could see of the sky. It was the color of a sickly overripened banana yellow. “Great.” She walked forward, speaking to the opening in front of her. “Tian, can you hear me, now?” She thought of her ‘smart phone’ and laughed. “Yeah, right. Like I’d get a signal in here.”

  She emerged onto a ledge and stared out at a horrific sight. There were boiling pits of sewage-type waste with steam hissing from pocked craters throughout the surface. Burned trunks of trees and branches set against the steamy yellow haze gave the place a more desolate feeling. Sharell understood this destroyed world was the result of the ancient’s creations, and it renewed her resolution to find him.

  Beside her, she heard steady dripping water. The blue sapphire glowed faintly in that direction, but her emerald gleamed brighter across the nightmare landscape. She located the source of the small, clear stream. “Okay, now I know my exit home.” She sat beside it, trailing her fingers in the water and wishing she could just slide to her mates.

  The emerald beat a demanding, pulsing light, and she lifted her eyes and stared at the devastation. If the ancient’s destruction could turn this world into an apocalyptic scene, she did not want to think of what would happen to Actana and its gem fields of power. She knew she had to find him and drag him to this stream. Tian?

  Sharell felt his gasp. “You’re there? Sharell, my mate, you are there?

  I’m fine. I miss you and Chaya. For Sharell, she had only been gone a day. She had no way of knowing that Tian had been climbing to the altar for over six months.

  Are you coming home now?

  Soon, I think. At least I have you with me now.

  Please, come back now.

  You know I can’t. Not until I catch him. Sharell rose and something familiar in the distance caught her eye. “It can’t be.” Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “God, this can’t be. It’s a worse landfill than before.” In shock, she walked away from the slip-stream, and Tian’s voice faded.

  It took the better part of an hour to circumvent the potholes and garbage. Sloshing through fluorescent mud and debris, Sharell made her way to a distant and eerily
familiar shape. At last, Sharell stood at the entrance to the shuttlebay of the husk of the Manerea. Trembling, she walked inside and felt like she entered a tomb. What equipment did not hang by wires ripped from walls was rusted and pitted from what appeared to be centuries of exposure to the elements.

  The sound of her boots was muted as she walked down empty corridors with opened doors half-hanging off broken hinges. It took a while to crawl up the chutes… the elevators were useless… but she made her way to her old room. The emerald stopped pulsing and the light dimmed slightly. The first sounds she heard since entering the ship, came from behind her door. It was sobbing.

  Steeling her resolve, Sharell slowly pushed it open and lavender eyes looked up at her. “Ayana?”

  The woman rose and threw herself into Sharell’s arms. “Pretty, pretty.” Her hands stroked down Sharell’s back with relief. “I knew you would come.” Ayana was wracked with tears and shudders.

  Sharell returned her hug and whispered, “Ayana, what happened here?”

  “He took it away,” she cried. “He said he would make it right, but he took all the pretty, pretty color away.”

  Sharell froze. “Ayana, do you know where he is?”

  “He is with your Chairman. He made promises, and they exiled my Commander to the dark side. The other Casiquas are with him, but my mate told me to wait for you.” She cried and shook harder.

  “How did you know I would come?”

  “He told us. He said you were evil and would destroy our new world, but we knew he lied. I was the only one who knew who you were, so my Commander and my mate told me to wait for you.”

  “Ayana, you have to take me to him.” Sharell swiped her hands through the frightened woman’s tears and smiled. “And then, you must go to your mate and hide.” Sharell took Ayana’s hand and they slid down chutes to the lower level. “Hold on, I need to get something.” Please be there, and please still work.

  She used her shoulder to push the rusted door to the plant lab open. She got down on her hands and knees and found her stubby, still held by the magnet to the bottom of her stool. Crawling under her table, she felt with her fingers until she located the screws. Two of them held the small metal flap in place, and when she pulled it free, the stun gun dropped onto the floor. The green light of full charge glowed in the darkness, and Sharell smiled.