Lost in Barbarian Space

by Anna Hackett

  Out the window, Colm saw the second marlin just ahead of them. As they turned again, Colm got a perfect view of the pirate ship and cold dread filled his chest.

  The central part of the ship looked like two large, vertical discs. Extending off it were huge spikes, giving it an intimidating look. It made Colm think of the garga animals from the Darken Wilds, with their wicked, poisonous spikes.

  “God.” Honor changed course. “Drake, we need—”

  A high-pitched squeal cut across the comms. She slammed her fist against the console.

  Silence filled the cockpit.

  “They’re jamming our comms. I can’t contact the Drake or the second marlin.”

  Suddenly another alarm sounded. “Warning.” A cool, female voice filled the cockpit. “Weapons are locked on the ship. Warning.”

  “Goddammit, no.” Honor threw the marlin into a dizzying series of turns. Colm felt his stomach dip and pitch.

  There was a flare of light from the pirate ship. Before Colm could comprehend what was happening, the second marlin ahead of them exploded.

  Colm froze. Derek Wu and Dr. Lev’nan. He heard Honor’s shocked cry.

  “No.” She pressed a hand to the canopy.

  There was nothing left but a smattering of debris.

  Honor exploded into action. She threw their craft into crazy zigzags. The alarm still blared.

  “Weapons are locked on your ship. Warning.”

  The pirate ship fired again. A brilliant flash of blinding light.

  Impact.

  The marlin shuddered. A shower of sparks rained over them and alarms blared. Colm gripped the edge of his seat, his gut rolling.

  He was helpless. There was nothing he could do help save himself and Honor.

  The marlin rolled like a dying animal, plummeting toward the icy moon.

  ***

  Honor tried to right the marlin. But sparks were erupting under her hands, screens were going dead. The ship’s controls were not responding.

  The pirates’ missile had clipped their starboard side. The engines were failing and the marlin was rocketing towards the icy moon below.

  God. Derek and Dr. Lev’nan were dead. Her stomach felt sick. She knew the pirates would attack the Drake next.

  And Honor and Colm were going to crash.

  Panic rose, closing her throat and leaving her chest tight. Colm’s life was in her hands.

  “Honor.” A big hand closed over hers. She stared up into gold-brown eyes.

  “You can do this. You are the most frighteningly competent woman I’ve ever met.”

  “We’re going to crash, Colm.”

  He shot her a small smile. He reached out and pushed her hair back behind her ear. “What do you need to do to stop us from crashing?”

  She swallowed, absorbing his warrior calm. “I can’t stop us from crashing. I’ve lost too many controls. The only thing I can do is slow us down. It’s the only chance we have.”

  He nodded. “Do it.”

  She touched the dying controls. Come on, come on. She slammed her palm against the console. “Nothing’s responding.”

  “Stay calm. Do what you have to do.” His hand touched the nape of her neck.

  It helped her piece together some semblance of control. She touched the controls again and overrode the security protocols. That gave her access to do some things that weren’t usually recommended.

  She managed to level the marlin out and reduce their speed. A little.

  “Reentry angle is too steep,” the computer intoned.

  “Ha, would never have guessed,” Honor muttered in response.

  Colm squeezed her nape again. “You can do this. I have plans for you. Plans that involve you naked.”

  She groaned. “Don’t distract me.”

  But as she kept working the dying controls, she realized he was doing it on purpose to help keep her calm. Her warrior was far too perceptive.

  Another alarm started, shattering her thoughts. Flames poured over the canopy of the marlin and the ship rattled.

  They were still going too fast.

  The thick clouds engulfed them and she fought with what was left of the ships controls.

  Still too fast.

  She kept tapping, kept swiping, and bled a little bit of speed from the ship. They burst out of the clouds, and below, she saw the moon’s snowy surface.

  Still too fast.

  “Colm.” She reached for his hand. “I’m sorry.”

  “Nothing to be sorry for.” He laced his fingers with hers. “In a way, this is better for me.”

  She didn’t know what he meant by that, but as they hurtled toward the moon’s surface, she felt despair wash through her. “I wish I’d taken you up on your offer that first night we met, at the dinner.” She wished she’d felt him inside her, stretching her, filling her. Wished she’d explored him all over with her hands, with her tongue.

  She wished she slept beside him and heard his hearts beating under her ear.

  As the ground rushed up to meet them, instead of closing her eyes, Honor kept her gaze on Colm’s.

  The impact was staggering.

  Metal crunched. Honor was tossed against her harness. Pain bloomed.

  Colm’s hand slipped from hers. Something smashed into her head.

  Then everything went black.

  ***

  Colm slowly awoke. He was cold, and his head throbbed.

  The last time his head had felt like this, he and a teenage Kavon had drunk too much stolen ale at the winter feast. Colm had woken up half naked and facedown in the training yard. Since then, he learned to temper the amount he imbibed at a meal.

  He opened his eyes and saw a spider web in front of him. He frowned. That wasn’t right. He squinted. It was glass.

  The canopy of the marlin.

  Smashed and broken.

  A frigid wind blew in along with snow. Everything, including him, was covered in an inch of white powder.

  He jerked. Honor.

  He turned and saw her slumped beside him, her face turned away.

  Be alive. He wrenched the harness off his chest. Blood stained his hands and he touched his head. He felt the wound where his head had contacted with something. He knew his nanami would already be racing to fix it.

  But Honor had no nanami.

  He reached over the center console and pulled her toward him.

  Even over the howl of the wind, he heard her breathing. Some insane tension in him eased. He worked off her harness.

  “Honor.” He patted her cheek. “Wake up.” She stirred, then groaned.

  Relief punched through him. He leaned over and pressed his lips against hers. “We survived.”

  Her eyes fluttered open. “We’re alive?”

  “Yes.” Her eyes were a little unfocused, but were slowly clearing. “But we can’t stay here.”

  “We made it.” She looked around the shattered cockpit. “We made it. God, Colm, you’re bleeding.”

  “Minor. It will be healed within an hour.”

  She moved, then clutched her right leg and groaned again.

  He leaned over and saw blood on her thigh.

  “Minor,” she assured him.

  “Good. Because we need to move.”

  She rubbed her temple and he realized she was still confused.

  “When you injure your prey and it runs into the woods,” he said, “you track it down to finish it off.”

  Her eyes widened. “The pirates will come for us.”

  He nodded. “And there is a fierce snowstorm coming. The wind and snow are getting stronger.”

  She straightened, pulling herself together. “Okay, we need the emergency packs. They’re behind the seats. And let’s see what else we can scavenge from the ship.” She looked through the cracked screen ahead. “How the hell are we going to survive out there?”

  “With good, old-fashioned warrior ingenuity.”

  She smiled. “Ranks up there with warrior humility.”


  He gave her a smile. “No need for humility when you’re so very good.”

  She snorted. “Okay, my humble warrior, are you ready to go?”

  “Yes.” Colm reached behind his seat, rummaged around and pulled out the emergency pack. Honor did the same, and added a few more items she scavenged. “We just have to decide where to go.”

  She pulled her Sync from her pocket and expanded the adaptable screen. “Okay. Because the location of the wreckage was programmed into the marlin’s computer, that’s where we were aiming for. It looks like we’ve crash-landed nearby. God, I hope we didn’t lead the pirates right to what they’re looking for.” A muscle ticked in her jaw. “Because they sure as hell aren’t getting their hands on the Valhalla, the murdering bastards.” She looked outside again. “I don’t see any wreckage out there.”

  “Let’s not worry about a wreck right now.” Colm was more worried about keeping them alive.

  Honor hit a red button near the canopy and the entire shattered canopy popped outward.

  Together, they climbed out.

  Colm felt his boots sink into the snow. The wind hit, and it was like an icy blade. He pulled his coat tighter around his body.

  “Goddammit.” Honor was touching her thigh. “My right leg is burning.”

  “I can carry you—”

  “No. I can walk.”

  He would see how she went. If her leg was too bad, he was carrying her, her protests be damned. He looked around, but saw no features, no shelter, just snow.

  He wasn’t going to mention the wolves.

  Honor held her Sync close to her face. “I can see the storm about to hit. We’re just on the edge of it.” She looked up at him. “It’ll last for several hours and we can’t be topside in it. It looks like there’s an entrance to an ice cave a klick that way.” She pointed and took a step.

  He saw her wince. Colm slid his arm across her shoulders. “Your leg is hurting.”

  “Not enough to stop me getting out of here. It’s damn cold.” Her voice was laced with determination.

  His brave warrior. “Then let’s go. I’d prefer it if I was the one keeping you warm.”

  “Get me out of this snow, warrior, and we can keep each other warm.”

  Together, they started walking.

  Chapter Ten

  Honor concentrated on moving through the thick snow. They hadn’t gone far when her Sync iced over. The screen flickered and died. Dammit.

  “It’s too cold for my Sync. I’ve lost the map. We’ll have to look for the entrance to the caves visually.” God, they’d be lucky to find anything in these conditions.

  The cold was beginning to seep through her suit. It was designed to withstand the cold…but not the conditions the storm was bringing. She shivered.

  Suddenly, Colm tugged her toward him. He pulled her in under his coat and wrapped it around them both. The shock of heat made her moan. The fur was warm, and the warrior even more so. She let it sink into her.

  “This will slow us down,” she said.

  “I won’t have you cold.”

  The implacable will in his tone made her smile. “Thanks.”

  They kept walking, the snow getting deeper, and the temperature dropping more. It was hard going, and with every step, Honor’s leg burned.

  She wasn’t sure how much farther they’d gone, when she realized her eyelids were starting to droop. She shook her head and fought to stay conscious.

  But the lethargy was sinking in, and she was losing the energy to fight it.

  Her next step made her stumble and she fell to her knees in the snow.

  Suddenly, she was scooped up into hard arms, the fur resettled around them. She was too cold to complain. She snuggled into Colm’s chest. “I have a confession to make.”

  He made a small sound that rumbled through his chest.

  “I like you holding me. My father never did. He was always trying to toughen me up. Running obstacle courses and sparring against my brothers.” She knew her father loved her, but he was a military man. “Snuggling and cuddling have never been part of my life.”

  Colm’s arms tightened around her.

  “I bet your family was perfect. Strong warrior father, caring mother, loving family.” It seemed Markaria had perfected strong family units.

  Silence. She felt Colm’s body go stiff. She frowned and blinked her heavy eyelids. What had she said wrong?

  “My father was a warrior.” Colm’s voice was almost as icy as the snow around them. “My mother was an artisan. She made jewelry.”

  Silence again, and Honor felt the terrible tension in his body grow.

  “What happened, Colm?” she asked quietly.

  “My father…got sick. It made him angry, short tempered, dangerous.”

  There was so much pain in his voice. She knew for a Markarian warrior, control was vital. Protecting people was vital.

  “My father was violent, and my mother couldn’t handle it. She…provoked him even more, and would add fuel to his rages. But my father did the unthinkable…and used his strength against us.”

  “He hit you?”

  Colm nodded. “I spent as much time away from my home as possible. With Kavon. My mother escaped into her work. Eventually, they hated each other.” Final words.

  She read between the lines. He’d been raised in a battle zone. There’d been no gentle hugs for him, either.

  “What happened?”

  “My father beat my mother to death and then killed himself.”

  God. “I’m sorry.”

  His jaw hardened. “I will never mate.”

  A boom sound in the sky above them. Colm stopped and they both looked upward.

  Bright flashes of light flickered through the thick clouds.

  Honor struggled to see. God, she really hoped it was a rescue from the Drake. “I can’t make it out.” She frowned, straining to make out any details.

  Then she got a glimpse of the craft…and the wild splashes of color on the side.

  She shook her head, her hands clenching in the fur. “It’s not one of ours.”

  “Then we best get out of sight,” Colm said.

  He kept walking, with heavy, deliberate steps. The wind howled past them, tearing at the fur coat. The snow whipped into their faces. Even with Colm’s hot body beneath her and the fur around her, Honor was feeling the cold again. It was seeping in like an insidious intruder.

  “I think we should be near the cave entrance.” She couldn’t see a damn thing. A lump the size of a rock lodged in her throat. What if they didn’t find the cave?

  Colm stopped. “Be quiet.”

  She went still. “What?”

  “I heard something.”

  Her heart tripped. “Wolves?” She fumbled under the fur for her laser pistols.

  Colm was frowning. “I don’t think so.” He put her down and slowly scanned the area. Then he marched over to a spot and crouched on one knee.

  Honor hurried after him and stared.

  They were footprints. Humanoid footprints.

  But they were huge.

  When Colm started to follow them, she wasn’t sure it was the best idea. But soon, the prints just…stopped. Like whoever had made them had disappeared into thin air.

  Colm brushed at the snow, and a second later she spotted the opening he’d uncovered. Beyond was a sloping tunnel entrance into the ice caves.

  Honor didn’t know whether to be excited or worried. But she did know they couldn’t stay out here in the storm with pirates after them and wolves prowling around. She clumsily opened her backpack and pulled out a flashlight. She flicked it on.

  Colm entered first and Honor followed, steadying herself as her boots slipped a little on the slick ice.

  “God, it’s beautiful.” The walls were a deep, rich blue that looked almost like glass. It was still cold, but without the howling wind and driving snow, the air felt much warmer than above.

  They walked deeper into the tunnels.

  “We ne
ed to find somewhere to rest and tend your wound,” Colm said.

  “I can make it.”

  The tunnel snaked lower, and the temperature increased from cold to cool. Her shivering had stopped.

  Soon, the tunnel opened into a small cavern. The walls were covered in a silver-blue moss that glowed with tiny pinpricks of light.

  It looked like a fairy grotto in some ice queen’s castle. “Wow.”

  “We have a similar plant on Markaria that grows in the north. It is infused with mites, an early version of the nanami.”

  Honor studied the moss-like plant, touching it with her finger. “It’s bioluminescence.”

  “Here.” Colm pointed to a large rock. “Let me see your leg.”

  Honor moved over to him. Now that she was feeling warmer, the pain in her leg was much more noticeable. It was throbbing like hell. When she reached Colm, he gestured again, and she realized he wanted her to take her trousers off.

  “Are you just trying to get me naked, warrior?”

  “When I get you naked, you won’t need to ask me my intentions.” He looked at her. “Now let me look at your wound.”

  She unfastened her enviro suit and pulled it off, then her cargo pants beneath. She tossed them over the rock. In just her shirt and panties, with goose bumps prickling her skin, she gingerly settled on her discarded trousers. Now she could see her wound, and she winced. The gouge across her thigh looked bad.

  Colm rummaged around in his pack and pulled out one of the basic first-aid kits. He opened it up and pulled out some antiseptic pads. He started cleaning her wound.

  “How do you know your way around a first-aid kit so well? I wouldn’t have guessed you had them on Markaria?”

  “We do now. Medical supplies and tech were the first things Aurina helped facilitate trade for.”

  He took his time, working diligently to remove the blood and clean her wound. Soon, he pressed an adhesive over it. Then he stroked her thigh. His warrior hands were callused, and they rasped against her skin. She shivered and this time it had little to do with the cold. He stroked higher, moving to her inner thigh, his fingers moving in tiny circles. Little shivers of sensation worked their way through her body. He moved higher, teasing the edge of her black panties.

  “I’m going to fuck you.”