“The answers are down there,” she said, pointing with her free hand out the cockpit window, “And I intend to find them.”
40
The ramp lowered with Saturn standing anxiously near the top edge as it descended. Liam stood twenty meters away, waiting patiently. The planet’s air was thin and a brisk wind washed over her as she stepped off the ramp and onto the flat stones which littered the grassy surface.
There he was, right in front of her, real as could be. Saturn’s heart pounded relentlessly. She could feel adrenaline pumping through her veins, making her feel light-headed. Too many thoughts rushed into her head. None of them made any sense. She limped forward, almost unaware of where her feet were carrying her, but satisfied that Liam was growing closer. Even the pain in her right leg began to abate with the rush of emotion clouding her thoughts.
She stopped when she was nearly within arm’s reach. Suddenly, she noticed that her weapon was still in her hand, her sweaty palms still slipping on its grip. It hung down uselessly at her side.
“How? Why?” she asked, unsure of exactly what she was asking.
“I’ll explain everything, Saturn. But, first, you need to come with us. You’re not safe with them,” Liam said, gesturing toward The Garuda.
“With us?”
Liam turned and pointed to his ship’s side airlock. A figure appeared there, dressed all in blue and armored head to toe. He stood in the frame, hands hovering near his two chromed laser pistols. Saturn raised her weapon, rage coursing through her, her hand shaking violently.
“He’s the one who killed my Liam,” Saturn seethed, mind reeling.
“He?” Liam began and then let out a laugh, “She won’t harm you, Saturn. I’ll make sure of that.”
“She?”
A bright blue light flashed past them from the tree line and connected with the Ansaran ship, centimeters from Death Wish. The resulting explosion expelled her from the ship, her mask singed and continuing to burn. Coming up to her hands and knees, she shook her head and tore off her helmet. Another blast missed her by a hair and sent up a plume of dirt and rock.
“It can’t be,” Saturn said to Liam, “I watched her die.”
“Death is the greatest illusion,” he said vaguely before gripping Saturn’s left arm and dragging her toward his ship.
Saturn fought his grip and shoved her laser pistol beneath his chin. Liam’s eyes widened along with his smile. How was he enjoying this? The Liam she knew would never be so cavalier when lasers started flying.
“I’m not leaving until I get answers,” Saturn declared.
“There’s that fire,” Liam said, eyes beaming.
“If Death Wish is working for you, then you had my Liam killed. Sestra too.”
Liam’s smile faded and his ice-blue eyes hardened. Up close his cheekbones were higher than she remembered, but it could have been the gaunt pockets in his cheeks from lack of food, nutrition, or both. Saturn wondered if he was just as emaciated beneath his thick Dinari robes.
After a moment, Liam responded, “There was no choice. Inter-dimensional travel already has its risks. Doubles inhabiting the same world for too long is a greater threat to the fabric of space-time than you can possibly know.”
“You killed them based on what? An assumption?”
Saturn dug the tip of her shaking pistol against his pale, perspiring skin. She let her finger place more and more pressure on the trigger until even she was unsure of when it might fire.
“Start making more sense,” she demanded, “I don’t know how long I can hold back.”
Saturn heard the familiar charge of a pistol coming from behind her. She turned her eyes and saw a disheveled Sestra pointing two laser pistols at her, rising from her knees and covered in dirt and dust.
“Sestra, don’t,” Liam pleaded, shaking his head and genuinely anxious, “Even you don’t know her importance.”
Sestra’s face contorted, the deep valleys between her scales doing little to soften her features. She was the embodiment of disdain, with every line and every nook of her face dedicated to conveying that fact.
“She doesn’t want you, Master. No one can serve you as well as I can. Forget her. We don’t need her.”
A laser flashed from the direction of The Garuda. Death Wish stumbled backward, the laser glancing off her armor, then pointed her weapons toward the ship and fired several blasts. She gritted her pointed teeth and snarled as she fired. Saturn’s eyes followed the beams and found Nix on the ramp, using one of the hydraulic supports for cover. A flash from the tree line sent a thick beam which pierced her armor, it’s shining metal illuminated by the equally brilliant sapphire light for half a second. The scales flaked out and a trail of red dripped in starts and stops. Sestra’s golden eyes widened. Her pistols fell from her hands and thumped uselessly to the grass below. Sestra dropped to her knees, the heavy metal of her armor digging into the grass and cutting through to the dry soil beneath. She tilted her head up to Liam and regarded him with confusion in her gaze.
“Master,” Sestra said, her voice seemingly scrambling for words but unable to settle on any in particular.
Liam’s frosty blue eyes regarded her, the slightest hint of sadness creeping into them; a notion which was quickly stifled.
“We all bear our burdens,” he told her with little emotion entering his voice.
Sestra slumped to the ground as she let out one final breath. Her pupils remained locked on a nearby stone, unmoving and unnerving to Saturn.
Liam pressed his chin against Saturn’s pistol and stepped toward her, turning his back to the trees. Saturn returned her attention to him, doing her best to put the upsetting image of Sestra’s lifeless body out of her head. She was bombarded by a sickening feeling in her gut. Saturn knew what this alternate Sestra had done, but seeing her like that brought forth memories of the friend she’d lost. Even staring at the alternate version of her former captain brought no relief. He wasn’t the same person, she told herself.
“There’s not much time,” Liam began, “Come with me. You could be a part of something remarkable. I know deep down you’ve always felt you’re meant for so much more than this.”
Liam raised his left hand and gently cradled Saturn’s cheek. She felt herself leaning into his hand despite her mind’s objections. The warmth of his hand felt nice, at first. After a few moments she began to recall their trek to the desert so many months ago. Saturn remembered holding Liam’s unresponsive body in the cargo bay. She remembered pressing his hand up to her cheek and feeling the heat leaving his body.
Saturn brushed his hand aside and took several steps back, still pointing her weapon at Liam’s head. Her clammy hand shook and tears began rolling down her cheeks freely.
Saturn heard Nix’s voice call, “Take the shot.”
She searched Liam’s eyes for any trace of the man she knew. His physical presence was almost identical, but for the lack of scars; scars she’d seen him acquire.
“We can leave this place right now,” Liam continued, “Leave and never look back.”
He wasn’t the same man. No, he’d orchestrated so much death. He was nothing but another monster.
“I can’t,” Saturn said, voice quivering.
She lowered her weapon and hung her head. Her shoulder-length hair blew in the breeze, the choppy ends which she’d cut herself clinging to the tears sliding down her cheeks.
“I can’t do it.”
Liam shook his head and sighed. He shrugged his shoulders and regarded her with the same unfeeling gaze he’d given Death Wish.
“This version of you is weak,” he said, voice growing dark.
Liam’s hand moved quickly to a silver band on his wrist, the color of the screen turning from blue to crimson.
“We’ll surely meet again. After all, you still have something I need.”
Saturn gripped her pistol tight and pointed it at Liam once again, this time empowered by her anger.
“You’re not going anyw
here,” she informed him.
“Saturn!” Nix shouted from behind her.
Liam pointed toward The Garuda and gave her his signature toothy grin. Saturn stole a backward glance at the ship.
“Shit,” she cursed.
When she turned back to Liam once again she only saw the tail of his cloak as it wisped into the Ansaran vessel. A salvo of laser blasts bombarded the scene, emanating from the tree line. Saturn counted at least three separate weapons. She raised her own laser pistol toward The Garuda and fired.
41
Ju-Long fired the forward laser cannon, swearing loudly as he did. It was nearly impossible to get a clear lock on them. With one flap of their wings they were in another place. The wind turned black around them, engulfing their bodies. They disappeared with the smoke and appeared elsewhere almost instantaneously. It was a trick that made it impossible to tell exactly how many of them were out there.
When one appeared right in front of the cockpit window, Ju-Long was finally able to get a good look. Its single eye took up most of its head, leaving room only for long, needle-sharp teeth. While its body was small, each wing was massive in size, pulled tight with its off-green skin. After pressing itself against the glass, the beast disappeared into the smoke.
“We need to get airborne,” Ju-Long insisted.
Astrid reminded him, “Nix and Saturn are still on the ground.”
“They’re exposed. We should draw these things away and come back for them.”
Ju-Long heard a loud hiss and caught the scent of sulfur in his nostrils. In a single motion he turned, drew the laser pistol from the holster at his side, and fired. The beast gripped the fifth chair in its talons and screeched as bright green blood poured from its side. Ju-Long adjusted his aim for its head. The beast’s wings folded around it and black smoke coursed around it. He pulled the trigger and the blue laser went right through it, connecting with a panel on the far wall and sending it into a fit of sparks. Before he could blink, the beast was gone. All that remained was the dissipating smoke.
“No way,” Astrid said, fumbling with the dials and switches on her console, “Nope. I’m taking us up.”
Ju-Long holstered his weapon and approached the front console. Without a word, he fiddled with several switches and modified the co-pilot’s targeting scanner.
“What are you doing?” Astrid asked.
“Remember what Saturn told us not to do?”
Astrid pulled up on the controls and cursed.
“Fine, but you’re taking responsibility when Nix finds out.”
Ju-Long smiled. Sometimes a scolding was well-deserved. If he was going to get a talking to, he might as well go all in.
“Better to ask forgiveness...”
•
Misra fired his weapon, its powerful laser piercing another one of the dozens of creatures cluttering the sky. Its wings flailed and it became shrouded it black as it fell. For a moment the beast disappeared, only to reappear twenty meters lower and continue its plummet to the grass below.
His gaze paused in the sky where a green glow began to emerge in the distance. It was The Garuda, he thought. Had to be. Though, he’d never seen any weapon like that before. It emanated from a point on the back of the ship and coursed through the air like a drunken bolt of lightning, seeking out the winged beasts and frying them like mosquitos in a bug zapper.
Misra turned to Reznik.
“They’ve got them on the run, but there’s still a lot more of them. Engage Omega Protocol.”
The robot’s yellow eyes illuminated and it turned to its creator with its head cocked to one side.
“Sir,” Reznik protested, “Power reserves are under 50 percent. Using that protocol will significantly—”
“Now, damn it. I’ll drag your sorry pile of scrap parts back to the ship myself if I have to.”
“Unlikely,” Reznik said, its chest cavity opening as the glow of its eyes intensified, “I weigh more than two hundred kilos and according to my estimations—”
“Override, Delta-Four-Two,” Misra interjected as he fired another blast.
“KILL,” it shouted mercilessly.
Reznik’s chest glowed a bright cerulean and it dug its heels into the soil. A dozen projectiles shot out of the cavity, swirling through the air in a wild pattern which appeared to lack any semblance of order. Soon enough, the projectiles locked onto their targets and sought them out with extreme prejudice. Explosions spackled the sky.
Misra smiled and said to himself, “That one never gets old.”
•
Saturn shielded her eyes. The heat from the explosions overhead coursed over her tanned skin. An off-green leg hit the grass nearby and rolled up to her, wobbling and twitching as it bled out. Laser blasts continue to fill the air around her, but for a moment her attention was focused solely on the appendage before her. Its skin pulsed with its green blood, alive with the powerful stench of something which had been dying not for mere seconds, but for days.
Black smoke puffed to Saturn’s left. She felt her pistol arm raise before she could even turn her head. Saturn fired and felt the splat of the creature’s blood spatter her long neck and cake in her hair. The odd smoke engulfed it once more and it fell the remaining several meters to the ground. There it phased, the smoke appearing and then dissipating frantically as its body remained in place. Its single massive eye rocked back and forth, evaluating its surroundings for an escape and finding none. Saturn leveled her weapon at the creature writhing on the ground and put it out of its misery, an unyielding expression shading her face.
The whir of twin engines behind her snapped Saturn back to her impossible task. She stepped toward the Ansaran craft’s still-ajar side airlock. When she reached the frame, she hesitated, looking back at The Garuda as it drew a mass of the flying creatures away from the battle. The version of Liam in the ship had caused all of the mayhem now playing out. Every bit of it. He’d orchestrated her Liam’s murder along with dozens more, and for what? She tightened her jaw and felt a burst of adrenaline pump through her veins once more. Maybe she wouldn’t be able to kill him, but she could scar that pretty face of his if it meant getting the answers she needed.
Saturn stepped up and into the ship, using one hand to pull herself through and the other to point her laser pistol toward the front of the ship. She limped forward, putting as little pressure on her leg as she could. The stark white interior of the vessel was accentuated by fluorescent light; much too bright for her taste. Liam stood near the pilot’s console with the pyramid in the palm of his hand. The top segment spun several centimeters above the rest, with blue light creeping out the crevices and illuminating Liam’s smug face. His features warped behind the façade created by the device as the mixing shades of an oil painting melting over a flame.
“Last chance,” Liam offered her.
Saturn’s trembling hand aimed her weapon and fired through the shroud growing before Liam. She held the beam until her weapon began to smoke at the tip and the imposter standing before her disappeared into the vortex.
42
The portal closed behind him, leaving nothing but the hint of a blue spark hanging in the air where it had been only a moment before. Liam knelt down to the grass and felt his right cheek, then held his hand out in front of his eyes. He cursed. The dimensional shift had warped Saturn’s laser. The beam could have gone anywhere but it had to refract and hit his face; his prize. The blood streaming down his cheek was slow, partially cauterized by the laser. Still, the wound made Liam sick to his stomach. He was used to doing the wounding.
He wiped the blood off on his pants and stood, examining the world around him. By removing the Pyramid from the ship’s interface he must have reset the target coordinates. Instead of Vesta-controlled space he’d ended up back on Rumani, but in his dimension and on a very familiar hill. Liam noticed the device on the ground before him and bent to pick it up. The surface was hot to the touch. He decided it best to let it cool off first and left it
there for the cold breeze to do its job.
Liam looked up to the light blue sky. Thousands of Jians littered the air, their green wings flapping in an unnerving rhythm. They weren’t alone. Among them were birds of every imaginable size and coloring, huddled together like schools of fish and moving in unison when a Jian appeared in a cloud of smoke.
Off to his left several dozen Spinners feasted on the corpse of an Arondak lizard and its young, their crimson accents flashing by as they devoured their prey. Liam shuddered. The only thing worse than spiders were arachnids twice his height with a keen taste for flesh. He felt a prick on his neck and swatted away an insect with a long needle for a beak. It flew away slowly with a belly full of his blood. Liam hated Rumani.
43
Three Hours Later - The Garuda, Orbiting Rumani
“Don’t think I forgot about that little ‘modification’ to my ship,” Nix scolded Ju-Long.
Ju-Long put his hands up defensively and rebutted, “Everything worked out fine. None of the major systems were affected.”
“What about life support? There was a thirty percent drop in efficiency when that what-do-you-call-it went off. What if we were in space?”
“The Exterminator,” Ju-Long said.
“What?” Saturn asked, leaning against a nearby crate.
“Oh, that’s what we called it, ‘The Exterminator.’”
Saturn shook her head, hiding a faint smirk.
“We?” Nix fumed.
“Hey,” Astrid said, “Don’t drag me into this.”
Ju-Long laughed and replied, “You were the one who installed it while we were at Fortuna Outpost.”
Nix felt his eyes bulge and he raised a hand to silence the others. Now wasn’t the time for such arguments. The Garuda had attached to The Kasha and they were expecting Misra to come aboard shortly. He’d left the surface while the crew cleaned up the remaining Jians. Once Death Wish was taken care of Misra’s mission was complete. Nix didn’t blame him for not sticking around any longer. In the same position he might have done the same.
The Lost Corsair (The Corsair Uprising Space Opera Series Book 4) Page 16
