by Jaleta Clegg
"There’s a good restaurant not far from here."
"I’ll accept that as a yes."
"Bring back my ship in one piece, please."
"I’ll do my best." He turned away and left before she could see the years of regret in his silver eyes. He did what he had to, what was necessary to keep the rest of them safe.
Chapter 39
The ship, named the Gull, lifted smoothly, blasting its way loose from the shed where it had been held prisoner for decades. Jerimon and I worked controls cobbled together from spare parts. There were seven of us on board: Jerimon, Tayvis, me, Deke, Wade, Doggo, and a wizened little man who insisted his name was Flash. Scholar assured us he was a navigator, fully licensed and trained. He mumbled and cackled his way through the program. He’d started long before we began warming up the engines. He had to finish soon so we could make the jump.
"Five ships are coming after us," Tayvis said calmly. He was currently manning the scanning equipment, which was on the floor of the cockpit. The mounts for it were rusted through. "They’ve got weapons on."
"Do we have any shields?" Jerimon asked.
"Hell of a time to think about that," I said. "The answer is no." I gunned the sublight engines, pouring on what speed I could. The engine roared. The vibrations rattled my teeth.
"There are weapons," Wade said. "A full battery. We never touched them."
"Take this," Tayvis shouted at Doggo. He shoved the teenager into the seat. "Watch those dots and tell them if they get within this circle or if more show up." He stabbed a finger at the screen. "Where?" Tayvis demanded of Wade.
The two of them huddled on the far side of the room around a casing so old it was orange with rust.
"Incoming," Jerimon said.
"Hang on," I shouted. The ship rolled sharply to one side. A soundless explosion blossomed where we would have been if we’d kept going straight.
"Five minutes to jump point," Jerimon said.
I glanced back at Flash. He was still pecking at the keyboard one key at a time. "How soon?" I asked him.
He kept cackling and pecking at keys. Jerimon muttered under his breath.
"How’s the engine?" Deke asked from where he hung in a net of webbing behind us.
"Holding steady," Jerimon answered.
I flipped a few more switches, trying to coax more speed out of the ship. We dodged another volley of shots.
"There’s more of them," Doggo said. "A real battle, hot bam!" he shouted and slammed a hand on the edge of the scanning screen. It went blank.
"Hit it again," Deke said.
Doggo tapped it. It stayed blank.
"Wire’s popped out," Deke said and talked Doggo through getting it plugged back in.
Jerimon and I dodged blindly hoping that we could keep out of range for the few more minutes we needed. One hit and the Gull would be scrap and we would be dead.
"Seven of them," Doggo said, a lot more subdued.
"Feed it to the main screen," I said. "Split with forward view."
Deke had to talk Doggo through that. The screen in front of me fizzed and cleared, showing an image of the scan on the bottom half and forward views above. A long finger of light reached across the bottom screen. The ship rocked and bucked. One of the dots following us disappeared.
"Still works," Tayvis said happily. "Forty seven percent charged."
Another finger of light reached out. The ships behind us scattered, backing out of range.
"Pour it on," Jerimon shouted.
We straightened the ship out and pushed the stops as far as they would go.
"Course entered, captain," Flash said formally.
"Good," I shouted. "Jump in ten."
I watched the indicators slide up the scales. The engine rattled harder.
"Five," I said.
Lights flashed yellow and red. An alarm screeched. Jerimon slapped it off.
"Go!" I yelled.
Jerimon pulled the switches. The ship whined up and through transition into hyperspace. I let out my breath. Another alarm beeped.
"Shut down the sublights," Jerimon said. "Power down your side first."
We worked together, taking turns shutting systems back down. The alarm shut up. We got the controls locked and set. I swung my chair around and rubbed my face.
"You’ve got grease on your chin," Jerimon said. "Good flying."
"Not what I prefer."
"You like it, admit it." Jerimon nudged me.
"I hate it," I said automatically.
Tayvis and Wade were dismantling the weapons board. Tayvis looked over at me.
"Come check it out, Dace," he said.
"I have no experience on weapons," I said. "You figure it out."
"How long?" Tayvis asked as they popped open a cover. Rust flaked off and the hinge cracked. The cover clanked onto the floor, leaving another pile of rust behind.
"Your guess is as good as mine," I said.
Doggo watched me with something that looked suspiciously like hero worship. "Hot bam," he whispered.
Flash tottered over to the ladder and climbed slowly down out of sight.
"What are we going to do when we get to Xqtl?" Jerimon swung his chair slowly side to side.
"We find the Phoenix and shoot anyone who gets in our way," I said.
"With what, Dace?" Jerimon asked. "The weapons on this ship may or may not keep working."
"So we steal some guns first. The people we’re messing with should have plenty." I looked at Deke, still grinning happily in his net, watching streaks of multicolored light play over the viewscreen. "You don’t have any blast cannons hidden on the ship? Or missile launchers?"
"Didn’t think I’d need them," Deke said.
"Is the wire seated all the way?" Tayvis asked. "Wade?"
Wade stared blankly at the viewscreen. He jumped and twitched when Tayvis said his name.
"The wire," Tayvis said patiently. "Check the green one."
"I keep hearing the com beep," Wade said. "Emergency beacon."
"Then you’re hearing things," I said. "The com doesn’t work."
Deke laughed.
"That’s almost worse," Wade said.
"Tell me what happened on the Kumadai Run," Tayvis said. "Dace never did get around to telling me much."
"You left before I could," I protested.
"Somehow, Dace, you always seem to leave out the important details." He reached into the weapons board and pulled out a circuit chip. He blew the rust off it and plugged it back in.
"So do you," I answered.
"Because if I told you I’d have to shoot you." He lay down under the control panel and poked around underneath.
"Maybe you should have, back on Dadilan," I said.
"Wade, test the yellow one now," Tayvis said. He poked his head out. "It wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun."
"I’d love to hear what Lady Rina would read for you two," Jerimon said.
"She thinks I’m your soulmate, Jerimon. I’m not going within ten light years of her." I couldn’t keep my fingers out of the control panel. I leaned over it.
"There’s more than one definition of soulmate," Jerimon said. He yawned and stretched. "You taking first watch? Wake me up in about ten hours." He slid down the ladder, showing off.
"Try wiggling that socket on the bottom left," Deke said to Tayvis.
"Is there any way to check the weapons without firing them?" Tayvis asked as he rolled over to reach the socket.
"The access tubes are in the engine room," I said. "As long as you keep clear of the hyperdrive, you should be fine."
"Show me where." Tayvis shoved the connector back in the socket and stood up. "As far as I can tell, the board still works."
"It’s probably the energy feed," Deke said. He looked at me.
"I hate those energy cables," I said. "Big ugly things that are always hot. My cadet flight the weapons system went down. Guess who got to crawl through conduits checking the energy feed."
"The smallest engineering cadet, of course," Tayvis said. "You’re still smallest."
"Send Doggo," I grumbled as I headed for the ladder.
"He doesn’t have a clue what to do and you know it," Tayvis said.
I took hold of the ladder and dropped through the hatch in the floor.
"Hot bam," Doggo said behind me.
I slid down the ladder, showing off for Jerimon, except I didn’t see him. Two of the cabin doors were closed. I slid the rest of the way into the engine room. Tayvis came down right behind me. I stepped out of his way.
"Energy feed cables should be back this way," I said, heading for the far corner of the engine room.
Tayvis took my hand, and pulled me back around to face him. "So who’s soulmate are you, if you’re not Jerimon’s?"
"Don’t get scary on me, Tayvis," I said, suddenly nervous. I tried to pull my hand away.
"Are you going to spend the rest of your life running away from me?"
I stopped pulling my hand and slowly looked up at him. His brown eyes searched my face. He wasn’t smiling. My heart was stuck somewhere in my throat. I tried to swallow.
"Promise me one thing, Dace," he said.
"What?" It came out hoarse around the pounding lump in my throat.
"Promise me you’ll be at the bar on Proxima and that you’ll give me a chance."
"I already promised you that, Tayvis. I just never got around to telling you."
He smiled, the dimple in his chin deepened. "Tell me you love me."
"I love you," I said and meant it more than I’d meant anything in my life.
He ran a hand through my still-purple spiked hair. "I love you, too. Although I have a lot to say about your taste in clothes."
"Jasyn usually picks them for me."
He was moving closer. I was having a hard time thinking. He was still smiling. I watched his mouth, remembering the last time he’d kissed me. And the first. I raised my hand and touched the dimple in his chin. He took my hand and kissed it.
"I thought we were supposed to be checking the energy feed," I said.
"We are," Tayvis said.
He kissed me.
Hot bam, I thought, and kissed him back.
Chapter 40
Xqtl hung in space, a ball of black and tan, twisted and deformed by weapons of such power no one quite knew what they had been or what ancient intelligence had created them. Some argued it was the Sshoria who had built the weapons and then destroyed themselves in a fit of remorse. Others argued for another ancient race yet to be discovered. No one would ever know the truth. The weapons and their makers had disappeared thousands of years ago. All that was left were a few scattered ruins and the world of Xqtl.
Xqtl had several shallow oceans, turquoise water so toxic no life could survive long. The land was blasted and barren. The shells of buildings covered the surface. Roofless halls of immense proportions stood next to crumbling walls of tiny storerooms. There was no plan that anyone had ever been able to determine. Only a few artifacts had been found scattered among the ruins. The purpose behind the sprawling complexes of buildings remained shrouded in mystery.
Occasional researchers would uncover the flaking remnants of paintings on the walls. The swirling colors remained obscure and untranslatable. Nowhere had they found anything remotely resembling people or even animals. Xqtl was a mystery.
The three landing fields blasted out of the ruins of Xqtl were very busy. The one farthest north had two small ships parked in the cleared area.
Researchers, Tolun thought, curling his lip. They were necessary cover and proved useful in transporting the occasional cargo.
He looked a hundred miles south as the next field came into view. A single ship stood in the very center of the field. Tolun keyed in the magnification on his personal screen. The ship id scrolled across the bottom of the screen. It was a yacht, a rich man’s toy. Interesting, he thought, as he noted the owner’s name. Not an authorized visit but one that might come in useful.
The last landing field came into view, barely ten miles south and west. A single small ship, battered and rusted, sat to one side of the flat spot. A tug crawled out of a hidden hangar and slowed, waiting for his ship.
The field grew larger in his screen. His ship dropped smoothly through the atmosphere. It was breathable, but dry and dead. He relished the taste of it.
The small shuttle drifted to a landing on the field. The two pilots shut the ship down and left to lock the tug’s clamps in place.
Tolun toggled the com from standy to on. A face filled the viewscreen.
"Hom Tolun," the woman said in a throaty voice. She smiled seductively. He employed her partly for that look in her eyes and the way her lips curved. She knew it and gave him full value. "Welcome home."
"Has there been any news of the Phoenix Rising?"
"Becker and Daggett have not reported in yet."
"Any news from the Blade?"
"They haven’t located the escapees," she said. "They did report an unauthorized launch from Ophir four days ago. From the vector, they think the ship might be headed this way."
Tolun pursed his lips. So they were coming here, he thought. How had they figured it out? What clues had Darien dropped with his careless talk? He briefly regretted scrambling Darien’s brain. He should have waited at least until he’d pulled answers from his cousin.
"Other news?" he asked. The tug rumbled towards the hidden hangar, pulling the shuttle over the rubble of ruins.
"The Patrol is actively hunting. Message capsule yesterday reported two full battle groups assembling at Tebros." Her exotically slanted eyes glanced to the side to read a screen in a move she knew he found very suggestive. "At least three ships have downshifted into this system within the last two days. One is currently hiding in the asteroids. Another landed at the research field this morning. It checks out as valid. They lost track of the third one shortly after it emerged. It was on the very far edge of the system. A solar burst interefered just long enough for them to disappear from scans."
"The one in the asteroid field?"
She let the tip of her tongue show between her lips as she accessed the information. "No ship beacon. Reilly believes it is one loyal to Darien, waiting for him to contact it."
"Then let them wait," Tolun said. "Darien won’t be coming home."
"My condolences on your family’s loss," she said, smiling seductively. "Your suite is ready."
"I’m looking forward to it."
"The five have summoned you to the inner chamber tonight."
His smile tightened. He would have refused, but he liked living a bit too much. The five, faceless and nameless, ruled his life, as they did all those who sold their loyalty to Targon.
"The merger with Blackthorne is finished," she said. "You kept your position. Congratulations."
"Celebrate with me when I reach my rooms." He switched off the unit. The shuttle shivered to a stop. The hatch opened again.
Tolun strode out into the hangar, the heart of the Targon Empire. He walked as one of the ruling class. He’d earned his place and he intended to keep it, despite his cousin’s bungling.
Chapter 41
Jasyn watched the screens nervously. They hung in an asteroid field, hoping they would stay hidden long enough.
"Did stripping the beacon work?" Clark asked her.
"Looks like it."
"Habim’s itching to fix it."
"If he does, we’re dead. I thought wires weren’t his thing." She frowned at the tangle hanging out of one of the control panels. "This had better work."
"It already is," he said, leaning over her shoulder to scroll through the logged ship signatures. "Five ships." He tapped one of the names. "I think this is the one."
"You think Dace is still alive on it?"
"She is, Jasyn. She has to be."
"What do we do?"
"We need to get closer to the planet," Clark said. "We need to find out where they’re going. So we don’t have t
o search the whole planet."
"Another ship just downshifted," Jasyn said. She frowned as the id flashed unknown at her. "Another one of theirs?"
Clark reached around her and typed. The machine scanned further. More information scrolled across the screen.
"It’s not right for that. Wrong class of ship. It reminds me of some of the ships we saw on Brugundhi."
"The Sidyama?" Jasyn asked, confused.
"I have no idea," Clark said. "They’re orbiting."
He settled in the seat next to her to watch. The ship swung around the planet and passed out of their range.
"We have to get a better view," Clark complained.
Jasyn looked behind her into the lounge. It was ship night, no one else was awake. They had an extra three people on their ship, Family from Everett’s ship. Everett had wanted to come, but as captain he said he couldn’t duck his responsibilities to his own ship. He’d promised her help and he’d delivered what he could. The navigator Darien Harris had planted on her ship had finally told them the coordinates for their destination. She’d checked them and rechecked them. The only possible planet was Xqtl. Tolliver had promised her that the Lillian May would deliver the pilot and navigator to the nearest Patrol base. She’d given him a message for Lowell. Whatever price Lowell would extract she was willing to pay if it meant Dace and Jerimon got out alive.
She sighed and scrubbed her cheeks with her palms. "I hate waiting."
"Two more days, and we should have backup." He kneaded her shoulder, working out the tension.
"A dozen merchant ships with no weapons against I don’t know what. That last ship had a full set of weapons, enough to rival a Patrol cruiser."
"Another ship," he said, leaning closer to the scan. The id scan blipped red. "Bingo. We know that one is Targon."
"How?"
"Old database I never deleted."
They both watched as the ship powered directly for Xqtl. They faced the daylight side, all three landing fields were in view.
"Top one is the one the researchers usually use," Jasyn said. "It matches the landing coordinates. Middle one is a backup. This one is unused," she said, flicking a perfect peach nail at the southernmost landing field.
