Joined: Book One

by Mara Gan

“Is this a trick question?”

  “Not at all,” I answered. “I just want to hear you explain to me what light looks like.”

  He considered. “Light looks like… brilliance. Bright. Sunshine. Warmth.”

  “And dark?”

  “Darkness is the opposite. Shadows. Nighttime. Space. Cold. Why are you asking these questions?”

  “Would you know what light looked like if darkness didn’t exist as a contrast?” I countered, inserting my earring into the locking mechanism to pick at a particularly tiny cable.

  Perseus opened his mouth to counter, then snapped it shut as he considered the point. “So you’re saying that, without darkness, we wouldn’t know what light was.”

  “No,” I replied. “I’m saying they create each other.”

  “Explain?”

  “Tykhe needs balance. Shadows can’t exist without light, and light can’t exist without darkness in the background. They need each other. All things are intertwined.” I wiggled my fingers. “In the same vein, bad things can create good people.” I smiled at him. “Like you.”

  He barked a laugh. “You think I’m a good person?” He shook his head, staring back down the corridor. “Princess, you need to reexamine your evidence.”

  “No, I don’t,” I said seriously, pausing to look at him. “You are a good person. You’re honorable. You’re trustworthy. You have a nasty past, I have no doubt. But think of it….” I struggled to find a good metaphor. “You are like a spray-painted building,” I said finally. “Someone painted ugly thoughts and deeds all over you, but it hasn’t touched who you are inside. You have so much humanity inside you. You are still pure inside.”

  His face was stony as he met my eyes. “No, I’m not,” he said softly. “I am not pure on the inside. I’ve got no soul, no humanity, and no heart. Every time I killed someone, I lost a bit of my soul. The last pieces left me long ago.”

  My heart went out to him. He truly believed he was a bad person. I shook my head, my eyes never leaving his. “That’s not true,” I murmured. “You are a good man. And I will prove it to you if it takes the rest of my life.”

  I turned back to the circuit board and unplugged the last wire. I turned to him with a decidedly impish smile, my seriousness gone. I gestured to the broken lock. “All done.”

  Perseus threw another swift glance down the corridor before straightening. “Excellent. Now, there will be guards; stay behind me. We’ll find a weapons locker as soon as we can, but until then, we’ll have to rely on stealth and our hands. And the less we can alert the entire building to our escape, the better.”

  I saluted. “Got it, Boss.”

  He glared. “Don’t you start.”

  I grinned as he moved to the barred door, now unlocked, and carefully slid it open. It was massive; I never would have been able to move it on my own, but he hefted it aside easily and poked his head out.

  He slipped into the hallway and motioned for me to follow. I marveled at his stealth, given his size, and tried my best to emulate his movements as I slunk along behind him, keeping my back to the wall, watching behind us. He spoke in hushed tones. “We need to find a way to get around the guards without them seeing us.”

  I noticed a large vent toward the top of the wall. I grabbed his arm. “Perseus,” I whispered, motioning to the vent. “Can we go through there?”

  He paused and glanced upward, assessing it, before giving a swift nod. “I believe so,” he murmured. “That should reach the outside, at which point we can make it to the rooftop. I noticed an outdoor stairwell earlier that we can use.” He reached up and unhooked the screen, setting it quietly on the floor, before lacing his hands together and motioning for me to use them as a boost.

  I didn’t hesitate, putting my foot in his hands and jumping up to the open vent as quietly as I could. I leaned back out as he handed me the screen, then scooted backward as he hefted himself inside.

  The vent corridor was large, but still small enough that we had to crawl on our hands and knees. Perseus replaced the screen and we gingerly moved forward through the crawl space; occasionally we crossed other screens, where I noted guards on patrol below and held my breath, praying we weren’t making any noise.

  We had made it nearly fifty yards when I stopped, noting the paneling in front of us looked significantly older than the part we were in.

  I could tell Perseus was thinking the same thing. “This paneling must have been part of the original building,” he whispered. “The rest of it has been replaced, but this looks ancient.”

  “I don’t think this is stable enough to hold our weight,” I whispered, pressing my palm tentatively against it. “We’ll never get across.”

  Perseus eyed it. “No, I believe you’re right,” he murmured. “Guess we’ll do this the noisy way.”

  He grabbed me around the waist and, pressing me back against his chest, flung himself backward onto the paneling.

  I didn’t even have time to think about screaming, which was probably a good thing.

  We landed hard, but my impact was significantly softened by landing on top of Perseus. The blow momentarily stunned me, but I blinked in time to see flecks of the destroyed ceiling drifting down over us.

  Perseus’s arms were still wrapped tightly around me. I tried to turn to look at him and he instantly loosened his hold, rolling me to the side and standing swiftly. He reached for my hand. “Come on,” he whispered. “Someone will have heard that.”

  I stared at him open-mouthed.

  “What?” he asked, frowning down at me. “Princess, we need to go. Are you hurt?”

  I shook my head. “You-you just—”

  He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. “I’m a lot bigger than you, Meda, and it’s something I’ve done many times. This was the first time I’ve done it with someone, but it wasn’t so different.” He crooked an eyebrow. “You weigh about as much as my shoe.”

  I stuck my tongue out as he ushered me through the hallway. “Only because your shoes are the size of asteroids.”

  He made no comment but let go of me as we hurried down the corridor. “If I’m right,” he murmured, “we should be close to the exit.”

  “How do you know?” I whispered back.

  “I paid close attention to the place when we landed, and none of the guards had the presence of mind to blindfold me when they led us to the cell,” he whispered. He turned and winked at me, tapping his forehead. “I’ve a mind like a steel trap.”

  “What, rusty and illegal in seventeen star systems?”

  Perseus put a hand to his chest in mock dismay. “Princess!” he whispered, eyes wide. “You wound me.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “It’s far more than seventeen.”

  “Ah.” I shook my head, smiling, relieved he was bantering with me. This trip may have been a trap for me, but it had done wonders for opening up the sticky relationship I had with my Protector. If I didn’t know better, I’d think we were becoming friends.

  “Excellent,” he murmured. “There’s a weapons locker.”

  He moved swiftly over to the wall cabinet and broke the lock with one hand. I was getting used to his obscene strength, but it still made me gape a little. Opening the cabinet, he only found one blaster, but at least it was fully charged.

  “It’ll have to do,” he said, shoving the weapon into his hip holster. “It’s better than nothing.”

  We were moving down the corridor when Perseus cursed and stopped abruptly. Still slinking along the wall, I had gotten a little ahead of him before he stopped. I looked back at him. “What’s wrong?” I whispered. “Shouldn’t we keep moving?”

  “An excellent idea,” he replied curtly, “except that I’ve been caught.”

  “What?” I asked, glancing around furtively. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” he said, sounding strained, “that I’ve been snagged in quicksand. I can’t move.”

  My brow furrowed. “Quicksand?”

  “P
aralyzing traps,” he answered. “Not uncommon near jail cells. They’re pockets where the gravity has been heightened. They get activated when prisoners escape.”

  I hurried back to him, glancing up at him worriedly. “I don’t see anything.”

  He gritted his teeth, his arms frozen by his sides. “Trust me.”

  “What should I do?” k'1`2

  “Look around,” he ordered. “Do you see a generator of any kind? Anything that might be projecting the field?”

  I examined the floor by his feet, the ceiling, the walls. “I don’t see anything,” I said, worried. I gingerly touched his arm. “Well, looks like I can still touch you.”

  “Not surprised. Paralyzers immobilize the prey but don’t stop anything else from getting to it.”

  “That’s weird,” I said. “Why?”

  “I should think it was quite obvious, Princess,” he said grimly. “Now anyone can shoot me, but I can’t shoot back.”

  My eyes widened. “That’s bad.”

  “Agreed,” he said. “But I’ve been stuck in these before.” His face was pinched. “Give me a few minutes.”

  A blast shot exploded by our heads, narrowly missing him, making me jump.

  “We don’t have a few minutes,” I said, twisting around to see the small patrol robots advancing down the corridor. “We need to break you out of it now!”

  “Easier said than done, little girl,” he hissed. “Go. Get out of here!”

  I swung to look at him, eyes wide. “What?”

  “I said get out of here,” he replied, jerking his head as much as he could toward the other end of the corridor. “You know how to fly a ship. Get to the Corvax and get as far away as possible.”

  I shook my head. “No. If they were going to kill me, they would have done so already. And I’m not leaving without you.” I kept my eyes on the distant drones; they were about half the size of a human but carried far more firepower than the average blaster did—and I doubted they had been programmed not to kill me, but were just aiming at anyone their programming didn’t recognize. They hadn’t fired another shot, but they hadn’t lowered their weapons, either. They were advancing slowly, blasters trained on us. Lucky for me, I was fairly certain I knew their weak spots.

  “Do you really want to know what their plans for you are?” he barked. “Get out of here.”

  “I’m not leaving without you,” I repeated. I whipped the recently acquired blaster out of his hip holster and stood in front of him. Aiming carefully but quickly, I fired.

  I easily picked off all four of the little robots without breaking a sweat. I turned, grinning, to the angry face of my Protector.

  “See?” I said. “Just like target practice.”

  “Turn around,” he hissed. “Don’t break your concentration.”

  I spun quickly to find human guards running around the corner, blasters firing. I quickly set the blaster setting to low, as I really didn’t want to kill anyone, and started firing.

  I stood in front of Perseus and feverishly picked them off, one by one, but there were too many of them. They kept getting closer and closer.

  “Meda, get the hell out of here,” he snarled.

  “I’m not leaving you,” I replied, furiously downing guard after guard.

  “For god’s sake, at least get behind me,” he growled, his voice beginning to sound urgent.

  “No,” I said, my shoulders shaking. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Goddammit, Meda! What don’t you get about ‘Protector’?”

  I turned to wink at him. “I never did like following orders. I guess that’s something we have in common.”

  I fired the blaster behind him, noticing guards approaching from both sides now. “Phooey,” I muttered. “I don’t know how long we can keep this up.”

  “Behind you!” he shouted.

  I turned in time to see a guard fire a shot directly at Perseus. I threw myself in front of him, returning fire as I went and nailing the guard right in the chest.

  I cried out in pain as the shot he’d fired hit me in the shoulder, slamming me against Perseus’s chest.

  “Meda!” With a violent roar, Perseus yanked himself free of the gravity pocket and threw his arms around me, pulling me behind him as he dove around the corner. He grabbed my chin and forced my eyes to his as he scanned my face. “Dammit, Meda,” he fumed, confiscating my blaster and pushing me behind him, “if we get out of this, I’m going to kill you.”

  I smiled weakly, clutching my shoulder as a burning sensation seared my body. “Noted.”

  I watched in silent awe as he fired shots around corner, nailing every single advancing guard and robot with deadly precision. He easily kept the soldiers at bay, but this time kept me firmly behind him. The corridor was hazy with blaster fire, the acrid smoke burning my eyes and nose.

  I doubted Perseus had kept the setting on low; his shots looked more like kill shots. My heart twisted at the sight of all these people dying. I knew they were trying to kill us, but I couldn’t help but think of their families, their children, their parents. All just because someone wanted me dead.

  People always seemed to die around me or because of me. As far as I was concerned, I may as well have killed them myself. Unintentional or not, the result was the same.

  Soldiers eventually got close enough that Perseus was forced to fight them hand-to-hand. He quickly knocked two unconscious and grabbed another around the neck, twisting his head with a quick wrench.

  I winced, looking away.

  Perseus dispatched the last three soldiers with a furious snarl and knelt swiftly in front of me.

  I blinked. I had forgotten how fast he was; I had barely seen him move. No one moved as quickly as he did, not even Clee or any of the other Mousai.

  I was glad, too, that I couldn’t sense his emotions; judging from the fury etched on his face and broiling deep within his black eyes, he was fighting the Rage. I would pass out from empathic overload if I could sense anything.

  I shivered. I’d never seen him show this much anger before. The scar on his eye suddenly seemed more dangerous-looking, standing out against his tanned skin and dark eyes.

  “Let me see it,” he ordered, keeping the blaster in one hand.

  “It’s not bad,” I protested.

  He slapped my hand away and peeled the fabric from the wound. He pressed his lips together. It was bleeding and it hurt—a lot—but I could tell that it wasn’t life-threatening. At least, it didn’t feel like it was, which was likely a good sign.

  My Protector closed his eyes in what seemed like relief—and fury.

  “We need to get that bandaged up,” he said brusquely.

  “I told you it wasn’t that bad,” I said, studying him. “Are you… is this what Rage is like for you?”

  He snorted. “I am keeping it at bay, but barely.” He glared down at me. “You might have been better off if that shot had killed you, Princess.”

  I frowned. “Why?”

  “Because now you have to face me,” he answered, growling slightly.

  I smiled. “You’re not so bad.”

  He raised an eyebrow, looking humorless. “Oh?” He stood swiftly, drawing me up with him, and quickly slung me over his shoulder.

  “Hey!” I protested. “You don’t need to—”

  “Shut up, Meda,” he said tersely. “Don’t push me.”

  I hung there in stunned silence for a moment before griping again. “I can walk, you know—”

  “You voided all walking privileges when you put my life before yours,” he growled.

  “This is ridiculous,” I exclaimed. “You—”

  “I said shut up, Meda,” he hissed. “And stop arguing. We need to keep quiet. We still have a ways to go, and I’d rather avoid another hallway of soldiers.”

  I clapped my mouth shut, sulking. This was absurd. This was the high-handed, bossy, arrogant Protector side. I had been enjoying the other Protector—the one who talked to me, who listene
d to me, who was almost jovial with me—a lot more.

  Perseus jogged up several flights of stairs, and I was amazed he could do it so quietly and with me flung over his shoulder. He wasn’t even remotely out of breath when he got to the floor he wanted.

  He slowed a bit. I couldn’t see anything and the blood was rushing to my head, giving me a whopper of a headache.

  But I knew better than to complain right now. It wasn’t going to get me anywhere, and Perseus was right: we needed to be quiet.

  Perseus swore.

  Still sulking against his back, I perked up. “What is it?”

  He swiftly set me on my feet, giving me a lovely head rush, and pushed me behind a doorframe. He handed me the blaster and glared at me. “For once, do as I tell you,” he said, voice low. “Take this and cover me. And for god’s sake, stay out of the way.”

  I stared up at him and nodded, not daring to argue. I had never seen him quite so intense.

  As he turned and moved to the doorway, I saw why.

  Standing in front of the gangplank to the Corvax was a small army.

  I quickly counted and estimated there to be around thirty soldiers, all armed. Good god, I thought, adrenaline rising. Perseus is going to need—

  He turned back to glare at me again. “Don’t even think it,” he hissed, gripping the wall. “I told you to stay put. Stay out of the way.”

  My mouth fell open. “How did you know—”

  He grunted. “I may not be telepathic, but I’m not stupid. I know you too well. And don’t you dare try anything, little girl.”

  “There’s no way you can defeat all of them!” I hissed. “You need me—”

  “You’re right,” he replied. “I do. I need you right here with those blaster skills. I’m going to pick a fight with the soldiers over there; you cover me as best you can, and then make it to the control panel to unlock the clamps holding your ship in place. Got it?”

  He stared at me meaningfully until I finally nodded reluctantly. He glanced at my shoulder. “How does it feel?”

  I shrugged. “Stings. It’s fine.”

  He eyed me for another long second before turning back to the swarming soldiers. “All right. You ready?”

  I nestled against the wall, steadying my shooting arm. “Yes.”