by Jodi Redford
They both sucked in a huge lungful of air and held it. The water surged up, forcing them under. Strangely enough, his entire life didn’t flash before his eyes like a big, bad cliché. Just Rini, staring at him in panic, her hair fanning around them like exotic red kelp. A series of bubbles rippled between them. At first he thought she’d exhaled. Then he felt them spinning, spiraling, funneling in a free fall. Helpless to do anything but ride the current, they held on to the only thing they could—each other.
Lucus broke above the water and pure, undiluted oxygen filled his mouth and nostrils. The next second, the back of his head slammed into the glass and the crushing water flipped him onto his stomach and mercilessly hammered him against the wall. He slid to the floor, his breath knocked into the next universe. Through narrowed eyes, he stared at the small river congesting the corridor and the splashing advance of boots. He worked his jaw, trying to spit out the words and the water ebbing inside his mouth. “Wh—what the fuck just happened?”
“I opened the door.”
He recognized the tinny voice above him. Jeneet.
“Don’t just lay there. You’ve got five minutes before stupid Fimordan gets here with General Quarrel. Trust me, neither will be happy when they see you out of the cell.”
Her astute observation managed to push him onto his elbows. Planting an arm against the wall, he leveraged to his knees. “Rini.”
“She’s over there.”
Following the direction of Jeneet’s tentacle, he spied Rini sprawled farther down the corridor. Lurching to his feet, he loped to her side. Relief crashed into his chest when he peered into her blinking eyes.
“Am I dead? Somehow I didn’t imagine heaven looking like this.”
He knelt and helped her stand. Jeneet jogged up beside them. “You’re both going to be dead if you don’t bust some hiney.”
Rini swiped her streaming hair from her face. “There are probably guards upstairs blocking the elevator.”
“There’s another way. The worker’s passage. This close to lunch, it’ll be deserted.” Jeneet pointed straight ahead. “See that flashing red light? Just beyond there, you’ll come to it. Follow the passage to the end and you’re home free.”
Lucus grabbed Rini’s hand but she didn’t immediately budge. She gaped at Jeneet quizzically. “Why are you letting us go? Won’t you get in trouble?”
“Nah, I’ll blame it on Fimordan. He deserves it for cheating on me with that tramp Saribeth. And I did it because we females have to stick together.” Jeneet winked. “Besides, it gives me a good excuse to visit the Earth outposts sometime.”
He remembered the earlier conversation regarding his pleasure valve and grimaced. Oh hell with it, it was the least he owed Jeneet.
The female Aquatican shot a nervous glance towards the opposite end of the corridor. “You two get going. Now.”
Heeding Jeneet’s advice, he tightened his hold on Rini’s hand and took off running. As promised, he found the door leading to the passageway. Steering Rini ahead of him, he followed her fast clip until they halted outside another steel door. “Why don’t you let me go first, in case…” He didn’t bother filling in the rest of the blank. They both knew what would happen if guards waited outside.
Surprisingly, she didn’t balk when he moved her aside and twisted the knob. The door swung outward and sunlight momentarily blinded him. Thankfully they weren’t greeted with a dozen electro-pulse rifles cocked and ready. Directly across from them stretched the tarmac. The Liberty waited like a beacon beneath the blazing sun.
A siren’s blaring wail blasted overhead.
“We’re gonna have to haul ass.” Snagging Rini’s arm, Lucus sped towards the untended ship. He tried his damnedest to ignore the shouts ringing out to the left of him and the whizzing ping-ping of laser fire ricocheting off the tarmac.
God must have been listening to his prayers, because the debarking ramp was still lowered. He propelled Rini up the stairs and clambered after her, his boots barely making contact with the metal steps. Hurtling inside the star cruiser, he slammed a fist on the ramp release button and hustled to the bridge. While Rini fumbled with the straps on the copilot seat, he powered up the engine.
Several guards darted in the direction of the two bulky rocket racers parked at the end of the landing strip.
“Looks like we’ll have company for this flight.” Lucus rammed the throttle forward and disengaged the pod wheels. The Liberty lifted and he swung a hard right, heading in the opposite direction of the mountain peak.
“What are our chances of outrunning them?”
He met Rini’s worried expression. “Slim. That’s why I’m going to take them out before we leave the magnetosphere.”
“Uh…how do you plan on doing that? Last time I looked, your ship isn’t equipped with external weapons.”
“Those rocket racers are top heavy. If I get them within close range of Aquatica’s moon, the magnetic pull just might crash them.”
Rini’s gulp was loud enough the guards pursuing them could likely hear it. “Won’t that require us flying too close to the moon?”
“Yep.”
“I was really hoping you wouldn’t say that.”
He yanked on his harness, preparing for one hell of a bumpy flight. “Look at it this way. Either we die courtesy of the moon or the rocket racers. Which would you prefer?”
“Can I hold out for a third choice?” Her wet hair squished on the neck rest as she leaned back and dug her fingernails into the seat arms.
They punched through the sparse cloud cover hovering mid-latitude and the star cruiser continued climbing higher. On the radar panel, Lucus noticed the rocket racers closing distance. “All right, you bastards. You want a chase, you’ve got it.” He executed a cork spin swoop that earned a weak groan from Rini.
She clutched her stomach. “Where’s the motion-stabi pills when you need them?”
He eyed the soaked leg of her pants. “You’re kidding. You don’t have any stashed in those pockets of yours?”
“No,” she croaked. “Usually it’s not an issue.”
“Hang in there.” He scanned the gauges. “We’re less than one hundred kilometers from the moon.”
“At this point, I’m almost welcoming the idea of being crushed to death.”
“Sorry, babe, but I’m hoping to deprive you that outcome.” Pulling back on the throttle, he fired the thrusters until the Liberty hit maximum velocity.
“How many times have you attempted a maneuver like this?”
He didn’t answer and Rini groaned again. “This is your first time. Sweet mother of God, we’re going to die.”
“Ever consider becoming a motivational speaker?” Despite his sarcasm, a bead of sweat trickled down his neck. Dying definitely wasn’t how he wanted to start the day.
The sky darkened and the exterior temperature steadily plummeted as they approached the moon’s orbital path. Ice crystals began forming around the edges of the viewing shield.
“Is it supposed to ice up like that?”
Hell if he knew. “Yeah, perfectly normal. Happens all the time.” He rechecked the radar. The rocket racers were gaining on them. Fast. Shit, I really hope I know what I’m doing.
“Why are you making that face?”
He glanced over at Rini. “What face?”
“That holy-crap-what-was-I-thinking face.”
“I’m not—” His denial snapped off when the entire ship shuddered and the throttle jerked spastically.
“What’s happening?”
“I think we just took a hit from one of the rocket racers.” Fighting to regain control of the throttle, he scanned the system’s alert panel. Sure enough, the left rear thruster was reporting malfunction. Clenching his teeth hard enough his jaw ached, he hammered the bouncing throttle into the highest gear and mentally crossed his fingers that the remaining thrusters would hold.
“Uh, Lucus…I know the viewing shield distorts distances, but that moon looks real freak
in’ close.”
“Don’t worry. Got it covered.” Another quake rumbled through the cockpit. The rocket racers hot on their tail had taken out the right rear thruster. “Motherfucker.”
The ship rocked and dipped, losing altitude. “Come on, baby. Don’t crap out this close to the finish line.” Clutching the throttle tight enough every jolt ricocheted inside his bones, he shifted the Liberty into a free fall. On the radar, the rocket racers tailing them attempted the same nosedive. As he’d predicted, the moon’s magnetic tide locked onto the top-heavy vehicles and reeled them in like a pair of oversized flounders. The racers slammed into the moon’s surface with a fiery explosion.
“Holy crap. I can’t believe your plan worked.”
“That makes two of us.” He caught Rini’s stare from the corner of his eye and cleared his throat. “I mean, of course it worked. Hell, I’m a pro at this sort of shit.”
A buzzing alarm pealed from the alert panel.
“What’s that?”
He saw no way to downplay the situation facing them. “We’ve lost another thruster.”
“How? We’re not being fired on anymore.” Panic bubbled beneath the surface of Rini’s voice.
“Maybe the moon’s magnetic field is playing havoc with the system circuits.” As if to verify his suspicions, the navigation and alert panels blinked off. “Damn, sometimes I hate being right.”
With the alarm’s insistent buzzing silenced, the sound of his own heartbeat pounded in his ears. He eased off the throttle, bringing the ship level.
“We’re not going to make it, are we?”
He looked over and met the uncertainty in Rini’s eyes. She took a shaky breath and released her death grip on the harness. “You can tell it to me straight. Better knowing what to expect, right?”
He hoped to hell she meant that, because what he had to tell her wasn’t pretty. “We’re flying on one thruster and the navigation system is shot. Our best chance is flying back the way we came and finding a landing surface. If we’re lucky, I might be able to bring us in manually.”
The white sheet of her face stood in direct contrast to the determined set of her chin. “Okay, let’s do it.”
Cranking the throttle, he steered the ship in a loop and descended towards the vaporous cap of clouds scuttling across Aquatica’s surface. How ironic that minutes ago he couldn’t get away from the damn planet fast enough and now it was their only hope of salvation.
They broke through the stratus of clouds. A patchwork quilt of rolling landscape spread roughly ten thousand feet below them. Hope started to blossom inside Lucus’s chest.
Then the final thruster crapped out.
Chapter Seven
The high-pitched scream of metal reverberated inside Rini’s ears as the Liberty crashed into a stand of cacti and continued plowing onward. While the ship racked and stacked dismembered cactus parts outside the viewing shield, Lucus battled with the reluctant brake.
A boulder roughly the size of a small house loomed directly in their path. If the curses streaming from Lucus’s mouth were any indication, he must have noticed the rock the same instant she did. He attempted veering around it. Easier said than done with a runaway spacecraft.
They collided with the boulder, the impact shearing off the left wing. The ship spun, executing several mad three hundred and sixty degree circles. Once the star cruiser coasted to a halt Rini groaned and dragged her head from the seatback, her vision blurry from the ship’s spinning-top routine. She stared at Lucus, trying to determine which of the two figures wavering in front of her was the real him. “Are you okay?”
He unclipped his harness and staggered from the seat, peering around the bridge like he couldn’t believe he was still alive. Shaking his head, he looked at her. “Yeah. How about you?”
“I think so.” Unsnapping her harness, she did a quick inspection for damage. Other than her double vision and the red crisscrossed welts where the straps dug into her torso, she seemed in overall decent shape.
She lifted from the seat and took an unsteady step. Her upper body swayed in the opposite direction of her feet and she stumbled into the control panel.
“You’re walking like my brother after he’s imbibed one too many cases of beer.”
“It’s my head.” She clamped a hand on either side of her skull. “It won’t stop spinning.”
“Then park your butt for a minute while I check things outside.”
“No, I’ll go with you.” Dropping her hands, she shoved away from the panel and almost fell over.
Lucus grasped her shoulders and edged her sideways until her rear end nudged the arm of the copilot’s seat. “Stay put. You’ll do neither of us any good if you fall out of the ship and break your neck.”
Okay, he definitely had a point. Grudgingly, she watched him march off. Both of him. “Ugh.” Wincing, she massaged her temples. It really sucked having the same side effects that came from six rounds of margaritas, only without the accompanying buzz.
After giving her head five minutes to rest, her vision cleared enough for her to risk standing. When her legs remained sturdy, she decided to join Lucus and assess their dismal situation for herself. With the electrical system officially out of commission there was no way of opening the debarking doors. Fortunately—or not—a large gaping hole took residence in the same spot the wing used to be. The cock-eyed angle of the ship made it a fairly easy drop to the valley’s floor. She followed the loud grumblings coming from somewhere near the front of the star cruiser and spied Lucus bent at the knees, glaring at the severed wing.
“Oh man, it’s going to take a lot more than duct tape or Super Glue to fix that puppy.”
Lucus looked up and his gaze stalled on her chest. Glancing down, she noticed her black tank top clung snugly to her skin, courtesy of the dunking in the general’s death tank. She crossed her arms over her breasts.
Dragging his attention to her face, he pushed to his feet. “Not that it matters. Without the system control, we can’t exactly fly out of here anyway.”
“Speaking of here—where are we? I know we’re on Aquatica, but how close are we to General Quarrel’s base?”
“See that peak?” Lucus pointed to a mountain ridge on the far horizon. “That’s where we flew out of.”
A shiver charted her spine as she stared across the valley. “Do you think there’s any chance he knows we crashed back on the planet?”
“Let’s hope to God not. We’ve got enough shit to worry about without adding Squid Face to the list.” He scruffed a hand through his hair and scanned the wreckage for a minute before pivoting and heading towards the exposed hole in the Liberty.
Rubbing her arms, Rini abandoned her station to investigate the enormous boulder responsible for the mangled wing. The rock towered over her by at least ten feet and spanned twice that in circumference. Strange symbols were carved near the center of the rock. She traced a fingertip over the grooves, wondering about the origins of the symbols and their meaning. During her four years at the ranger academy she’d studied the various alien languages, but there were so many it’d take a lifetime to learn them all.
“What are you doing?”
Jumping, she jerked her hand away from the rough-textured stone. Lucus tossed her the shirt draped over his shoulder. Apparently interpreting her blank stare, he shrugged. “Your skin’s so fair I worried you’d blister beneath this sun.”
He was worried about me? She immediately brushed away the tickle of happiness brought by the idea. It would be epically stupid getting warm fuzzies where Granger was concerned. The man was a smuggler, for crying out loud. If life had played out the way she’d originally planned she might have been faced with arresting him.
But he does kiss like nobody’s business. A fierce hot flash swamped her at the reminder. Tugging the shirt on, she flapped the collar, trying to stir forth a poor excuse for a breeze. She followed Lucus’s interested scrutiny to the carved symbols in the rock. “I was trying to decipher th
em. I’m afraid my knowledge isn’t—”
“Khian tu jidah.”
She stared at Lucus, shocked beyond words that he was versed in archaic alienese. “Okaay.”
“Translated from Illonican, it means Starflight Folly.”
Buttoning the shirt, she tied the bottom tails into a knot. “Just a tad bit cryptic.”
“Not really. It’s the name of another ship that crash-landed in this valley.” He tapped his forefinger against another of the symbols. “Khtar. He’s one of the crew members buried here.”
“Buried?” Her gaze immediately darted to the ground. “Are you telling me this rock is a freakin’ headstone? Good God, how big were these aliens?”
Lucus chuckled. “I suspect the boulder is more a monument than a headstone.”
“Then I don’t need to worry about disturbing the grave of Khtar, the ginormous alien?”
Lucus shook his head and she exhaled in relief.
“This might actually be good news. With a little scouting, maybe we’ll find something from the Starflight Folly’s wreckage to jerry rig the Liberty’s control panel long enough to transmit a distress beacon.”
For the first time in what seemed like forever, hope seeded in Rini’s heart. “Good idea. I’ll start checking the area past those cacti over there.”
A warm palm clamped around her elbow before she could dash. She glanced up into Lucus’s narrowed eyes. “What? We’re wasting precious daylight.”
“You’re not gallivanting off by yourself, damn it. We have no idea who or what could be prowling around.”
“I wasn’t planning to stomp into the desert with a big flashing eat me sign.”
“Babe, you aren’t stomping anywhere without me right beside you.”
“Terrific.” She threw her hands out in disgust. “We’re back to you dishing the sexist ultimatums again. Look, I know you’ve got bigger muscles than mine and that extra appendage between your legs, but I’m fully capable of fending for myself. I’ve been doing it my entire life.”
Irritation shimmered in his dark irises. “You mean like how you were perfectly capable of fending for yourself back in the cell?”
