Out of the two of them, Decoder had a more solid reputation than Drifter. Reckon would have to balance on a fine line, but he’d done it before. How else had he survived so many years in a bubble-like rat cage teeming with desperation and treachery?
Chapter Fourteen
Sacrifice
Aries leaped over a ridge and scrambled down the cliff side, her boots sliding on loose pebbles as she flailed her arms to gain balance. She chanced one look behind to make sure Striker followed, then threw herself across a gorge in a race against time. Meanwhile, the raiders below them sprinted ahead to the battle in a meager effort to protect their civilization. Aries knew they’d be a scant deterrent to Barliss.
“We have to get to the processor before they do!” She landed on another ledge. She caught a glimpse of the white coral on the horizon, glistening in the rays of the larger sun.
“Be careful!” Striker leaped to join her. He grabbed her arm, halting her. “It’ll be no good to us if you break your leg, or even worse, get caught by a raider and can’t help me drag it away.”
Aries couldn’t heed his words of warning. A fierce burst of anxiety had shot through her blood like a bolt of electricity when she’d caught sight of Barliss and the ships. All she could think of was stealing the processor.
Striker pulled her behind a rock. “Wait until the path is clear.”
“It’s as clear as it’s going to get. I’ll fight any raider that gets in my way.”
“I don’t want to lose you.”
“We’ll both be captured if we don’t get that processor.” He stopped her by cradling the back of her head with his hand. Blasts erupted behind them as the first set of search and rescue ships entered the colony, but neither one of them moved.
Aries felt a pull toward him, a tug of emotion that resonated deep within her. “Striker, I want to fly away with you. I want us to be together.”
Striker leaned in so close, Aries felt his breath on her lips. His voice was deep and husky. “I want that, too.”
“Then we have to go now.” Aries tore away as the last few raiders scurried past them. She ran across the open plain toward the structure built on top of the processor. Behind her she heard Striker shout. “Aries, no!”
She’d been so focused on the processor, she hadn’t realized the fence surrounding the desert cows lay open, the beasts stampeding toward her.
Aries looked all around her, but it was too late to run. She froze in place as the massive beasts came at her, their stomps rumbling in the pit of her stomach.
The first one missed her by inches. Its tentacle-like trunks reached short of her arm. A waft of filthy air blew her hair back in its wake. Another came right at her, belting and bleating as it pounded toward her. Its trunks reached out to entangle her and she ducked and rolled underneath its belly.
She saw a clear path to the processor through the chaos of rampaging beasts in front of her and sprinted ahead, weaving in and out of the herd.
Skulls of all shapes and sizes decorated the structure. The search teams at her back forced her to waste no time, so she threw them all down to the sand. A beak-shaped skull came first, followed by a string of teeth bigger than her index fingers. As Aries pulled the decorations off, she wondered what god the lizard men prayed to and what kind of temple she defiled. Guilt came over her, but she reminded herself another race wouldn’t have a chance without this processor.
As she cleared the first layer off the processor, something grabbed her shoulder and threw her back. Aries landed on her butt, the air knocked out of her. A spearhead jabbed at her throat and she rolled onto her side to get away. A raider stood over her, hissing and clicking his two-pronged tongue. Aries picked up the skulls she’d discarded in the sand and threw them at the raider. Each one cracked on the shaft of his spear as he blocked her weak throws. He lunged for her belly and she kicked at his scaly legs, trying to send him off balance.
As the spear came within inches of her, Striker yelled and tackled the raider, sending them both into the dust stirred by the stampede. Aries scrambled up with an alien skull in her hand, her fingers poking through the eye sockets. She raised her arm to throw it, but feared she’d hit Striker instead of the lizard man. Striker gained the advantage, and as he pinned the lizard man’s arms and held him down, Aries turned toward the familiar sound of ship engines.
She watched in horror as the New Dawn’s search vessels plowed through the dwellings, killing everything in their path.
“Striker, we don’t have much time!”
“What do you want me to do, ask him to help us?” Striker fumbled with the raider’s clothing, trying to use it to tie his arms.
“Let him go.”
Striker cast her a baffled look as the raider wriggled underneath him.
“Look around you. His home is ruined. He’s got nowhere to go but to run away.”
“Damn it to hell.” Striker released him and threw him backwards. “Get on with you, now. Go away.” The raider cowered, holding his arm over his head as he scurried away.
They pulled the processor free of the rest of the beads and other debris that could only be the lizard men’s offerings. Stripped of its decorations, Aries saw the entire bulk of the processor for the first time. The frame was three times bigger than a computer monitor and carved with strange, loopy writing and pictures of feathered wings. Striker ran his hands across it, wiping away the grit.
Aries’ heart raced. “I hope it will still work.”
“We’ll have to get it back to the ship to know for certain. It looks like it’s in great shape, though.” He looked back at her and smiled. “At least they didn’t bash it in.”
Striker ran around it to the other side. “Get your hands underneath it.”
A tent erupted into flames behind them and the heat singed her hair. Trying to be tough, she squinted her eyes and shoved her hands into the sand at its base.
“Heave!”
Aries’ muscles tightened as they hoisted it off the ground. She wished she’d done more weight lifting back on the New Dawn. Her arms shook with the effort like frail twigs.
Striker lifted the brunt of the weight and gestured with his head over his shoulder. “Over there! In the shadows of the cliffs.”
Looking behind her, Aries saw the silver hull of one of the hoverships cutting through the black smoke. “They’re gaining on us.”
Striker smiled despite the weight he carried. “We’ll make it.”
They carried the processor in staggering steps through the dust and smoke and underneath a cliff’s edge, where they hid in a shadow. A ravine behind the settlement, flanked by twin mountains, provided an escape route.
“Look for a place to hide it.”
“We’re not going to take it back with us?”
Striker hefted the processor higher to get a better grip. “We’ll have to come back for it.”
“What if the Lifers find it? What if they take it with them?”
“That’s a chance we’ll have to take. Right now we need to get the hell outta here.”
Raiders ran by them in retreat, some carrying their wounded in makeshift slings. Aries froze as she saw a parent carrying a bleeding child in its arms. “Their blood is the same color as ours,” she muttered under her breath. “They have families. They’re just like us.”
Striker was too busy surveying the cliff side. “Come on.” He tugged the processor forward and she went with it. “I see a crevice in the rock.”
They crossed the fleeing population of raiders and sneaked into a crack in the other side of the cliff. Aries’ arms ached as she set down the heavy weight. “Here.” Striker threw her his cloak. “Put the hood up. We can’t stay here.”
When she didn’t move fast enough, Striker stepped over the processor to her side and wrapped his cloak around her shoulders. “Do they have life-form locators?”
Reality hit her hard and her skin prickled with fear. “They do. Better ones than I have.”
Striker pulle
d the hood over her head and tied the strings taut. “We have to make a run for it. We’ll get lost in the wave of raiders.”
Aries reached for Striker’s hand. “Striker, wait. If anything happens to us, I want you to know that I…”
Striker put a finger to her lips to silence her. “You can tell me when we’re safe. Right now, we have to run.”
Before she could protest, he pulled her back into the sun. They ran in the wave of refugees, and she held on to Striker’s hand, afraid to get separated. Hoverships appeared in the distance, shooting lasers at the trailing lizard men.
One of the ships glided over them to the front of the fleeing horde, spewing up sand and smoke. Aries covered her mouth, keeping her face down so the hood covered her auburn hair as Striker covered her with his arm.
“What are they doing?” Striker asked her, raising his voice over the noise of the engines.
Before she could respond, the ship aimed lasers at the rock wall and shot the cliff side, freeing a landslide of rocks. The raiders around them ducked as debris fell in front of them, crushing the few unlucky refugees at the front of the exodus.
Aries’ hope sank, and terror rose in its place. “They’re blocking our escape!”
The other ships closed in from behind and Aries searched the high cliff walls, but they were too steep to climb.
“What are we going to do?”
“Hide in here.” Striker pulled her to a crevice in the rock, wide enough for only her to slip through. Lasers fired around them, and a few raiders fell forward. Aries slipped in but clutched his hand, not wanting to let go.
“Where are you going to—”
Striker pulled his hand away. “I’ll draw their attention away.”
Before she could protest, he disappeared into the masses.
The ships’ engines rumbled as they approached. Aries pressed into the rock, trying to slide more deeply into the crevice. She watched Striker as long as she could, until she lost his dark hair in the crowd. The ships touched down, flinging up clouds of sand. The engines stopped, and it felt like time stopped as well. Her heart hung in suspension as she waited for the dust to settle.
A metal edge cut through the haze as the ramp lowered. Barliss stepped onto the ground like a world conqueror, holding an ultrasonic tranquilizer ray with blue static fizzling at its orb-like center. Her blood froze in her veins. If that hit Striker, he’d go down cold. It would take days to wake him up.
Although Barliss looked even more physically fit, with his muscles filling out his perfectly pressed uniform and his blond hair gleaming white in the sun, to Aries he’d never looked less attractive. After spending time with Striker, no man would ever compare, and certainly not one who suffocated every last ounce of her freedom.
Other guards followed Barliss, fanning out to collect the fallen raiders around the ship. “Bring them to the ship,” a man ordered. “Lieutenant Barliss wants to inspect them.”
She recognized the voice immediately as Langston, the hovercraft pilot from the New Dawn. They’d grown up together, enrolled in the same mechanics class. He’d graduated at the top of their unit. Aries knew he could work the life-form locator like no one else.
“This one is human, sir.”
Aries’ heart skidded.
“A man?” Barliss’ rude voice echoed in the ravine. “Bring him here.”
Aries watched in horror from her crack in the rock as Langston dragged Striker to the lead ship. Aries crept forward enough to see their faces.
Langston unwrapped Striker’s headscarf. “Looks like an Outlander or a pirate, sir.”
Barliss pushed his way through the men and shoved his face into Striker’s. “We’re looking for a runaway. Five-foot-five, slender, with auburn hair.”
Striker looked him straight in the eye. “Haven’t seen her.”
Barliss pulled his head back and sized Striker up and down. “What’s a space pirate doing out here in the middle of nowhere, anyway?”
“What’s a colony ship doing on an uninhabitable planet?”
Barliss smacked him across the face and Aries gasped, holding her mouth with both hands. Her fingernails pressed into her cheeks. “I’m the one asking questions. Tell me why you’re here or I’ll blast a hole in your skull.”
Striker didn’t look fazed by the threat. He raised a brow. “Deserted by my crew.”
Barliss laughed deep in his throat. “Some pirate you are.”
Aries noticed Langston had stepped closer, studying a device in his hand. He moved nearer to Striker. The scanner beeped and Langston stepped closer, staring at Striker’s chest. He pulled something that Aries couldn’t see off his cloak.
“Sir, the DNA matches.”
Barliss snatched the invisible object in his pinched fingers. A hair from her head. It had to be. He dangled it in front of Striker’s face, a glint of auburn. “Want to explain this?”
Striker spat on the ground.
Barliss cocked his laser gun at Striker’s foot. “If you don’t tell me where she is, you’ll be a one-legged man.”
Aries knew Barliss would fire, and she tensed as his finger curled around the trigger. Striker stood, ready to die for her, and it was all her fault. Just a few days ago, she wouldn’t have given up her freedom for anything in the world, and now, one man had changed her entire purpose by working his way into her heart.
Striker remained placid, as if Barliss only threatened to call him a nasty name. “You’ll never have her.”
“No!” Aries screamed, darting out from the crevice, keeping her gaze riveted on Striker as she ran toward him. “Let him go.”
The distraction gave Striker enough time to knock the laser gun out of Barliss’ hand and elbow Langston in the throat. The man doubled over, and Striker pulled free.
The hovercrafts’ engines revved as she changed direction and ran, racing across the sand to a rock pile blocking the narrow ravine. She ducked underneath a boulder and slid through a tight place between two rocks.
If she could get to the other side, she could make a run for it and meet up with Striker back at the ship. As she wiggled free of the rocks, one of the hoverships flew over her head, blocking the sun. Barliss stood on its prow, aiming the ultrasonic tranquilizer ray.
Aries had no choice. If she hid in the rocks, they’d find her eventually, but if she reached the adjacent cliff, she could hide in the shadows and follow the ledge until she reached a better hiding place. She dashed across the open space, hoping his aim was worse than his temper.
A laser hit the ground by her feet, spraying sand into her eyes. Another hit the ridge above her. Aries zigzagged, hoping she wasn’t an easy target. A third laser hit her square in the back, throwing her down and knocking the air out of her lungs. Lying on her stomach, Aries clawed at the sand with her fingernails, but the shock of the stun gun spread through her body, paralyzing her limbs. As it reached her neck, her eyes blurred and the world spun.
“Striker,” she mouthed as she writhed in the sand. She hoped he’d managed to escape. Her heart broke as she realized she’d never see him again.
Chapter Fifteen
Sandy Boots
“Well done, Lieutenant Barliss. You’ve succeeded in yet another mission, demonstrating the highest levels of excellence.” Commander Gearhardt pressed a panel on his hoverchair, and the device brought him within arm’s reach. He placed a pasty hand with blue veins on Barliss’ shoulder. “Welcome back to the New Dawn.”
Barliss was surprised and honored the commander chose to attend the initial welcoming ceremony as the search and rescue ships unloaded their cargo and the last of the lithium. “Thank you, Commander. It’s only under your guidance such success can be achieved.”
The commander smiled so openly, it reminded Barliss of the time he’d watched Gearhardt from afar as the old man had listened to a chorus sing the praises of the Guide. “No lives were lost, you found Miss Ryder, and we managed to mine enough fuel to make up for the New Dawn’s lost time.”
“You’ve found a few more species to add to our food supply.” The commander signaled to the men with a salute of his frail hand. “Our chief biologist is working on a way to breed them as we speak.”
One of the beasts reared on its hind legs, and a man fell off its back to the floor. Three others ran to his aid and tugged the beast away. Barliss turned his back on the scene. He didn’t need any more reminders of his least-favorite planet in the universe.
“Are you certain we shouldn’t stay another day to glean extra resources, Commander?” Barliss had never before proposed anything to the commander concerning objectives, but he didn’t like the idea of leaving that renegade pirate free, even if he was deserted with no ship. When Barliss had recognized a strand of Aries’ hair on that lowlife’s chest, terrible thoughts had flitted through his mind, murderous cravings that he couldn’t shake.
Although the life scanners said Aries was unharmed and untouched, he knew what that pirate had wanted. Barliss wanted to track him down and rip his arms off so he could never steal his future wife again. The fact that Aries had called out to help the pirate angered him even more. He’d have to deal with her rebellious nature when she woke up.
“We have enough fuel to make it to Paradise 21 with extra reserves. We’ve spent enough time off course.”
“Yes, sir, we have. Too much time, in fact.” Barliss had little choice but to agree with such a direct decision from the commander.
The commander’s bright eye winked at him so quickly no one else in the room could see. “However, it’s encouraging to see a lieutenant with such noble concerns.”
“You are too complimentary, sir.”
“And you, too modest.” The commander leaned back in the cushions around his head. He looked as though being away from the mainframe and disconnected to its life-preserving energies weakened him. The chair buzzed and rose higher before turning to the elevator shaft to the higher decks. “Your efforts do not go unnoticed.” With one finger raised in salute, he rode away.
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