“Where are we going?” I asked.
“The ambassador’s ship is still coming up on sensors.”
A molten, elongated, lumpy blob came into view. The ship we’d escaped from glowed with opalescence, but didn’t seem to hold the smooth oval or circular form I’d seen in the other Erescopian vessels.
“Are they losing cohesion?”
“Not yet, but they aren’t in good shape.” He pointed to hundreds of small spheres surrounding the ship. “See this? They’re evacuating.”
“Still? We sabotaged them days ago.”
“It probably took them a while to figure out what we’d done to the spine. I bet they tried to stabilize the infrastructure to try to save the ship.” His eyes remained fixed on the failing vessel. “We’re crowded as it is. I should have found another way to stop him. I never considered how many people would be displaced if we lost a cruiser of that size.”
I touched his shoulder. “It’s not your fault. You did what you could at the time. The greater good and all that. You saved Earth—billions of lives.”
He took a deep breath and nodded, centering his gaze on the shimmering console. What did he see in all that swirling metal?
Was he having second thoughts, fearing for all the Erescopians Poseidon said would die if they took the time to terraform Mars?
No. David was not the same scientist who created that horrible powder. He’d do the right thing. I shuddered, wondering what the right thing was from an Erescopian’s perspective.
The ships surrounding the dying vessel drifted off before picking up speed. Most seemed to head for the large, black void in the distance, which had to be a ship blocking the view of the stars. A few headed toward Earth.
David pulled his hands out of the console. “A huge life signature is rising out of the ambassador’s ship’s hull.”
“A life signature? What does that mean?”
“Watch.”
The dying ship quaked before overflowing with glowing orbs. The individual circles of radiance sparkled before bursting out in the world’s biggest firework.
“Whoa,” I whispered. “What is that?”
“The grassen. They know the ship is dead. They’re leaving with the rest of the crew.”
Edgar scurried atop the console. The tips of his feet sank into the liquid metal as his three sparkling eyes gazed into the screen. His friends’ yellow, shining eyes sparkled among the stars, hanging like a tapestry before dissipating and heading toward the ships in the distance. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Incredible.
“They don’t need air to survive?”
“Everything needs air, but they have pockets that store oxygen. They can live for weeks before they have to replenish.”
“Like wearing your very own space suit. Cool.” I scratched the coarse hairs behind Edgar’s eyes. “Do you want to go with them, buddy?”
He shook out his hair, jumped from the console, and grabbed my ankle, looking up at me like a frightened child. Well, a frightened child with three eyes and ten hairy legs.
A tone sounded, and David moved to the control panel.
“What’s that?” I asked.
His lips formed an O.
“David, what?”
He turned to me. “There are still a few life signatures registering in the ambassador’s ship. One of them is human. Male.”
Pressure built in my chest. “Dad?”
“Most likely.” He touched the console. “That ship is going to lose cohesion within hours.”
“Why hasn’t he been evacuated?”
“There’s a bunch of people still on the detention floors. They aren’t moving toward the departure levels.”
A shiver shot down my spine. “They’re leaving the prisoners behind.”
“That’s what it looks like.”
“We have to get him out of there!”
David’s hands hovered over the controls as he stared through the window. “I’ll find him, but I’ll have to drop you off somewhere first. Problem is, I might not have enough power to get back. I’ll have to change ships.”
“You are not leaving me behind. That’s my father. I left him once. I won’t do it again.”
The lowest part of the ambassador’s ship pinched into a bubble and separated. The bubble drifted from the base of the ship and fizzled into oblivion.
“We don’t have much time.” David turned to me. “It’s not only detainees on that ship, Jess. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
I gritted my teeth. “Okay, this whole chivalry thing is sooo not working for me. You are not leaving me anywhere. We’re a team. We do this together.”
He smirked. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
“Well then, stop your yapping and fly this thing.”
The smile jumped off his face and warmed me like a hug. No, chivalrous alien boy, you weren’t getting rid of me that easily.
As the dying ship became bigger on the screen before us, I gulped. Team or no team, what were we going to find there?
32
A massive wall of churning ebony filled the windows as we neared the cruiser, but David didn’t slow.
I gripped the arms of my chair. “Aren’t we going to hit that?”
“No. We’re landing.” He tapped across the console. “Here we go.”
Our ship sunk into the hull of the larger vessel as if we’d submerged ourselves in a pool of tar. Swirling black coated our windows until we broke into an open, barren space. A glistening, ebony floor met dark walls that rose high above our hovering ship—like a deserted warehouse painted black just to creep people out.
David leaned closer to the glass, looking down toward a single black orb floating in the center of the room. Our ship maneuvered beside the smaller craft and set down.
He sighed and rubbed his eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s not wrong? I hoped there would be extra transport liners so we could borrow one. Our ship can’t take much more.”
“What’s wrong with the ship next to us?”
“It’s a hopper. It barely fits one person let alone three, and I couldn’t fly if you were in my lap.”
I bit back a grin as his eyes narrowed. I pushed the thought of me on his lap out of my mind. I had a father to save, after all. Stupid libido.
“Are there other hangars?” I asked.
“Yes. We’ll have to see what we can find.” He steered me to the center of the floor.
Edgar scampered beside us, but backed away. He reared up on his hind legs, chittered, and cooed before hopping into the wall behind him.
“Is it okay to leave him here?” I asked.
David nodded. “He can abandon ship like the others anytime. He’ll be fine.”
The ground opened up beneath us. I furled closer to David to hide from the brash Erescopian temperatures as the waterfall’s energy swirled around us.
David eased me out of the cold elevator into the sweltering heat of the ambassador’s ship. As we stepped away, the waterfall’s shimmering opal particles stopped their downward flow, wavered, and reversed their course up toward the ship.
Our footsteps echoed through the barren room.
“No welcoming party?” I asked.
“It’s strange. Someone should have come, even if just to warn us to evacuate.”
“Maybe everyone else left already?”
“I doubt it. That skipper ship is waiting for someone. Stay close.”
We slipped through the door and into one of the long, dark, gray corridors. David slid his hands into the wall.
“Can you actually see anything when you do that?”
“No. It’s more of a sensory thing, like flying the ship.” He pulled his hands-free. “Detention is three levels below us.” His cheeks flushed, showing the lavender hues hidden beneath.
“What’s wrong?”
“Now I know why no one met us when we landed. They know we will go
for your father.”
“And?”
“There’s only one way in and one way out of the detention area. We’re walking into a trap.”
A wave of nausea flooded me. I breathed deeply and gulped it away. Trap or no trap, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t abandoning my father again.
“We knew what we were getting into. Let’s do this.”
He slid his hands around my waist. “Stay beside me. No matter what.”
I nodded, and David tightened his grip. The floor liquefied beneath our shoes. Frigid liquid splashed my face before we plummeted into searing heat in the levels below.
Nematali had warned me Erescopian temperatures could hurt my lungs. I held my chest and dabbed the sweat from my brow with my sleeve. “Dang. No wonder you were always freezing on Earth.”
“Are you going to be all right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but let’s find my dad and get out of here as fast as we can.”
We moved down the hallway. David stopped every few yards, staring at the wall and walking a few more steps.
“What are you looking for?”
“Your father. What do you think?” He stopped abruptly and edged closer to a partition. “This one.”
This one what? It was a wall. The same wall he stared at a few minutes ago.
“There’s someone in there with him.”
Oh, God. Every prayer I could remember sped through my mind as David pressed his hands against the barrier separating us from my father. The wall liquefied, separated, and we stepped through.
Dad stood in the back of the room, pointing at someone in the shadows. “You’re not getting anything out of me, so go ahead and do whatever it is you’re going to do.”
“Dad!” I sprang toward him, but David grabbed my arm.
Nematali stepped out of the shadows. “Are you insane? There are guards posted at all the exits.”
“We couldn’t leave him here,” David said.
Her eyes narrowed. “That’s exactly what they were counting on. They are not interested in this human, or any human. They want you, Tirran Coud.”
Ice riddled my veins.
“You can’t keep me here forever,” Dad said, pressing against the air like one of those mimes in Central Park.
I wiggled around David, ran to Dad, and thumped against … something. A clear liquid sheen rained around my father like water flowing down a shower curtain: a million tiny, clear droplets, but solid as brick. Dad didn’t react. Couldn’t he see me?
Dad glowered at Nematali. “My men won’t leave me behind. You know that. Why don’t you just evac like the rest of your pansy-ass friends?”
“Why didn’t you let him out?” I asked.
Nematali shook her head. “I’ve been trying to, but he keeps attacking me. Something is wrong with his mind. He thinks he’s somewhere called Iraq.”
My heart fluttered. Dad’s eyes narrowed to slits. Calm, focused, and in control—Major Tomás Martinez—not Dad. He couldn’t see me. In his mind, he was somewhere else.
PTSD. Oh, God. No.
Pages of literature flooded my memories: signs to look for, forms of treatment, things Mom and I had to do to keep my father safe from himself.
He’d jump when he heard loud noises. He’d react crazily over nothing. He’d called me Natalie and grabbed his head like it hurt. He’d admitted to mourning some kid named Colin Masters who’d died under his command. How could I have been so blind?
With Mom gone, Dad was my responsibility. I’d forgotten about the dangers of being a soldier. Dad had been suffering, and I’d been so wrapped up in myself that I’d missed it.
David stepped beside me and elevated his hand to the glass. My father winced and massaged his temples.
“His mind runs too quickly,” David said. “He sees images that aren’t here.”
I didn’t need David to read Dad’s mind to see that I should have gotten him help. I’d failed my father. Again.
Tears pooled in my lashes as I clutched David’s tee-shirt. “I need to get him home. He needs a doctor.”
“We’ll get him home.” David’s gaze trailed to Nematali. “If he gets out, he has three different ways planned to snap your neck.”
She winced and rolled her shoulder. “That’s why I put him back in there. He’s quite lethal, for a human.”
“Why can’t he see us?” I asked.
David returned his gaze to the glass. “At the moment, his eyes are only processing Nematali Carash, or whoever he thinks she is.” He glanced at me. Dozens of emotions swirled through his eyes. “Your father is a seasoned soldier. A leader of men.”
“Yeah, so?”
David’s lip twitched. He gulped and looked away. “Forgive me.”
Heaviness swelled in my ribcage. “Forgive you for what?”
He turned back to the cell, and my father dropped to his knees. A scream bellowed from Dad’s lips, ricocheting off the flowing walls encasing him.
My heart pummeled. I banged on the liquid glass. “Dad!”
He clawed at his temples. His voice grew raspy.
Stunned, I stared until his screaming stopped.
David covered his eyes.
Dad dropped his hands to the floor and breathed heavily.
Shaking, I turned to David. “What did you do?”
“I enforced the dementia.”
Bile rose in my throat. “Enforced? Shouldn’t you have tried to take it away?”
He gripped my shoulders. “Nematali Carash is right. We’re going to have to fight our way back to our ship.”
“So what?”
“I’m only a scientist, Jess. I’ve never been a soldier. I can’t get us out of this.” He glanced at Dad pushing himself to his feet. “But maybe he can.”
33
Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.
“Release him,” David said to Nematali, backing away from Dad.
She raised an eyebrow. Her hand rose to her neck.
“It will be all right,” David said. “I just need a moment to figure out who he thinks we all are.”
Frowning, Nematali touched the wall, and the liquid glass melted into the floor. Dad lunged for her.
“No!” I shouted.
David pulled him back. “She’s not the enemy.”
“She is,” Dad said. “She locked me up in here.”
“No, she’s with us. She’s—our inside contact.”
Dad’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure?”
David nodded, and Dad turned to Nematali. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I did. You were too busy trying to kill me.”
I stiffened when Dad’s gaze drew to me. “Where did the civilian come from?”
My stomach twisted. Didn’t he recognize me?
“We have orders to evacuate all noncombatants, sir,” David said.
Dad scowled and turned away. How could he not recognize his own daughter?
The floor quaked. Dad jolted to attention. “This area is insecure. We need to move.”
David nodded. “This way.”
He waved us on. Nematali and I fell in line behind David and Dad, moving in tandem. I stumbled as the shaking in the floor increased. Part of the wall shimmered and dripped to the ground.
“That can’t be good,” I whispered.
Dad plastered himself to the side of the wall and peeked around the corner. He pulled back and splayed his palm, silencing us.
My chest constricted as he leaned out a fraction of an inch and drew back. Taking a deep breath, he pointed at Nematali and me and then to the floor.
Stay here. Got it.
He motioned David forward, and they disappeared around the bend. Sounds of a scuffle filled the corridor.
Thomp.
The deep, echoing sound seeped into my bones. My heart skipped a beat. Voices cried out.
“Masters!” Dad called.
Thomp.
David stood beside an unconscious Erescopian. Dad pulled a silver disk out of the limp grasp of another alien and handed it to David, then snatched a black cylinder the length of his forearm out of the arms of another.
I inched beside David. “What happened?”
His wide eyes didn’t leave Dad. “I’ve never seen a human move so fast. I was standing right here, watching everything he did, and I’m not sure I could describe it to you.” David gulped. His cheek flushed deep violet. “Remind me to never anger your father.”
Nematali knelt beside an Erescopian and placed her fingers on the center of his torso. She glanced at Dad, agape. “He’s dead.”
Dead?
“We need to keep moving.” Dad slung the cylinder thingy over his shoulder. “Masters, take up the rear. Keep the civilians moving.”
A shiver ran through me. Masters, as in Colin Masters. Dad thought David was the kid who died under his command. What had David done to his mind? Could we ever bring my real dad back?
As we scuttled down the hallway, the air seemed to darken and thicken.
The ambassador’s voice warbled from the walls. “Tirran, Tirran, Tirran. You’ve made me quite unhappy.”
David closed his eyes and blanched.
The walls wavered with the tone of the ambassador’s voice. “I can’t get the ingredients off this ship, but of course you knew that. I want the powder you stole, Tirran.”
A barrier rose from the floor ahead of us.
“Fall back,” Dad shouted.
I fought to control my breathing as we dashed down the hall and around a corner.
Dad nestled us into a divot in the wall. “What’s this powder he’s talking about?”
David shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s destroyed.”
“I’m going to take for granted that’s a good thing.” Dad checked the hall to the left. “Where’s the pick-up point?”
“We need to get up three floors to the hangars. We’re going to have to commandeer a ship.”
“We don’t have a pilot.”
Ashes in the Sky Page 20
