He punched his fist against the panel.
“Wow, like that’s going to help.” Janni rolled her eyes.
He whirled around.
She squinted and averted her head when the light shone directly towards her. He changed the lamp’s angle and cupped her chin with his hand tilting her face to meet the gravity of his gaze. In the dimmed light, his features were all hard mysterious planes of light and shadow.
Janni trembled and tried to squash the quivery flutters of desire curling in her belly. Hell, a patroller had no right to look this hot!
“Do you have a better idea? I must get into this room.”
“Fine then. Out of the way.” She squirmed out of his hold and pushed past him. From the pocket of her flight pants she pulled out two narrow metal pins. With a careful touch she prised open the panel, then snapped through the joining wires, pushing them out of the way. Deftly she inserted the metal pins, and located the intel chip. One quick zap, a tiny puff of smoke and the door slid open.
“Stand back.” Before she could step forward, the patroller swept her behind him well clear of whatever lurked beyond. Satisfied the room held no danger he turned and pulled her into his arms. She tried to wriggle away but his grip tightened. His breath stirred wisps of her hair and a sensation like the brush of feathers drifted down her spine.
“Clever.” Admiration tinged his voice.
For a number of long seconds, she remained where she was, enfolded within his embrace, stupid tears pricking behind her eyelids as she soaked up the unique sensation of being protected.
Then he straightened, took her hand and they crossed the threshold.
To Janni’s eyes the room looked like a typical commander’s quarters. She followed the beam of the magfen lamp and frowned. How strange. Nowhere could she see any personal effects. “Whoever he was, he must have been alive when he left the ship.”
“The Commander was my older brother. The ship carried our family and many women and children far from the war when communication was lost some eight cycles ago. I was a soldier but volunteered for patrol duties,” pausing he continued, “I hoped I would find them.”
Silenced, she watched him systematically search the room.
All the while the ship lurched from side to side and alarms screamed.
Janni, her stomach heaving in tune with the roll of the ship, tottered over to a chair and sat. It collapsed and the next moment she lay sprawled on the floor amidst pieces of shattered plastic. The Darkon tutted irritably as he crossed the room, she battered his hands away and reached for a cube, which had fallen from inside the hollow leg of the chair.
“Look what I’ve found. A data block.” She tossed the cube to him.
A few deft twists and he had it activated.
“This is Commander Waylem of The Voyager Freedom. I no longer have control of the ship. My crew are dying …”
Janni listened as the Commander’s flat tones detailed the sequence of events that had led to the destruction of his ship. Words like ‘asteroid belt’, ‘organic life form,’ ‘equipment failure’, ‘loss of control of compu’, ‘being hunted through the corridors’, ‘screaming’, whirled about her head while she sat on the hard metal floor, using her arms and legs to brace against the ship’s shuddering heaves.
Beside her the patroller clapped a hand over his ear and she surmised he now listened to his implanted comm device. He detailed orders into his comm, then crossed to her side and lifted her onto her feet.
In his dark eyes she read sorrow, loss and loneliness. The same emotions that had dwelled in her heart ever since she’d been wrenched from her parents’ side and sold by devious traders many years ago. The traders had promised a new life on an earth-like planet far from the chaos of Earth where war raged on every border and nature seemingly had turned against all human life. Instead the traders had bartered the would-be colonists like cattle and her life had been a battle to survive ever since.
Despite her search, she had never found her parents.
If his brother was indeed lost, then the patroller was just as alone. She felt him wipe tears from her cheeks, tears she hadn’t realised she’d shed, his touch gentle, a slow caress over her skin. Lines of grim determination aged his smooth features and her belly did a free fall.
“The life pods are all intact and I surmise my family and all who travelled on this ship have fallen victims to the alien on board this vessel. It seems the alien feeds on human flesh.” His voice hardened until it could cut through metal, so cold did it sound. “Should the ship make contact with any other of our kind, more lives will perish.” He delved into a pack strapped to his thigh. “There is no other option. The ship must be destroyed.”
Janni stared at the nuron charge and choked down the words of protest tangling in her throat. Silently she watched while he programmed the bomb.
“Will we make the departure bay in time?” Dread quivered in her thin voice.
The patroller shook his head, his eyes fixed on his task. He performed a last system check with his personal compu and grunted with satisfaction as he straightened. His steady gaze met hers.
“My ship’s intel advises the alien life form is shutting down all life support systems. The departure bay lies too great a distance from this cabin, but we may have a chance should we find the portal intact,” he said, his face grim.
‘The portal.’
Words of magic and myth surrounded the portal. It was said to be a gateway through space and time, a secret of which only the Darkon Guardians were privy to.
And a gateway only Darkons could use.
So this is it. This is how my life ends. Stuck on a wreck floating through outer space and about to be obliterated by a bomb. She hoped Bansell and the others had managed to evade the patrol cruiser; that they were safe.
Her limbs shook as she stared at the wall, her heart stuttering in shock.
“Hurry little thief.” The patroller gripped her upper arm and hustled her over to the commander’s personal chute.
They crammed inside, Janni so close she could have been his second skin.
The chute hurtled deeper into the depths of the ship. The door whooshed open and immediately the stench of sulphur singed her nostrils and mouth. She clapped a hand over her face and through watering eyes she squinted, wishing she had never removed her suit. Why was the patroller insisting on her presence? Did he require her skills as a thief?
The chute door whooshed shut enclosing them inside an illuminated small compartment, bare save for a metal arch dead centre in the room. She wiped her streaming eyes. Were there precious stones inset into its intricate design?
Something large clanged against the closed hatch on the far side.
The metal wrinkled and puckered. Janni’s heart jolted, then pounded a deafening chorus of beats inside her head. Any minute now and whatever lay behind the door would be in the room.
With them.
She spun round to find the patroller standing legs apart and with his palms braced against either side of the arch. Red and green lights flashed once, twice then joined in a glowing link over the humming arch. No longer could she see the opposite wall. A black void now pulsed with a rhythmic beat in the centre of the arch.
“I didn’t steal anything from you,” muttered Janni in a small voice.
“Harumph,” grunted the patroller busy checking his personal compu, before turning to look at her. Perhaps he hadn’t heard her? He stood there staring at her. She stood there staring at the floor. Waiting for that moment when once again, she would be alone.
Three long beats later, he said, “Only Darkons can use the portal.”
Right, so this was going to be her punishment for some crime she never committed. Janni nodded, wishing he’d just leave and get it over and done with. She clenched her hands into fists and the familiar pain of abandonment squeezed her heart.
“I do not wish to leave you behind, little thief. My dreams have oft been invaded with thoughts of you ever since we m
et. I have held the memories of those few precious rones we spent together, close to my heart. Every station we docked, I sought you. Every ship we came into contact with, I hoped you would be on board.”
A wistful smile curled his lips and his dark eyes glowed with the warmth of a hearth fire in the cool depths of evening. He ignored the sound of buckling metal coming from the door and held out his hand. “What you stole was my heart. Come with me. I promise to keep you safe and guard you with my life.”
Her cold bones heated from the promise of life and the tenderness she read in his eyes. Did he really mean it? Hope lightened her heart chasing away the shadows of years of loneliness. She said gruffly, “I don’t understand. How? I’m not a Darkon, the Portal won’t work for me.”
He unclasped an amulet from around his wrist, which had been hidden from view by his protective armour and slipped it over her hand. Red and green garnets flashed and glowed from the reflected light of the arch.
“A gift from the goddess, Cercis, when our world was young. The gems keep safe any travellers through the portals and I choose to give you this gift. Without the stones, you would never make the other side.”
“The other side to where?”
A cheeky grin split his dark face, like the rays of the sun after a thunderstorm. “Does it matter?”
“Hell, no!” She intertwined her fingers with his and smiled, feeling energy sizzle through her veins, revitalising her with new life.
With hope.
With love.
“My name is Janni.”
“I am Arun.”
Together they stepped through the arch.
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ISBN: 9780857990341
Title: The Portal
Copyright © 2013 by SE Gilchrist
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The Portal (Novella) Page 3
