Scorpions (Star Runners Book 4)

by L. E. Thomas

  Focus on the now, she thought. You need to …

  A voice hissed in her head as if a gamma wave transmitted directly into her ear.

  Stay frosty.

  She smiled, fighting back the emotion swelling inside her. Hold on, Austin, she thought. I’m coming.

  They turned around the final corner. At the end of this corridor was the hangar and, if all went well, freedom.

  In the crowd of officers and enlisted personnel, a tall Marine wearing workout attire and a red duffle bag over his shoulder strolled down the corridor with two other men. Ryker glanced in his direction and froze, a feeling of dread filling her gut.

  Sergeant Dak.

  “Come on,” Lena said, pulling at Ryker’s arm. “We need to hurry.”

  “I know.”

  Dak stared in her direction. Ryker’s eyes hit the deck. Please look the other way. Please. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dak change direction as they passed each other in the corridor.

  “Defector Three?” Dak called.

  Lena and Ryker kept walking.

  “Hey!” Dak yelled, grabbing Ryker’s arm. “Hey! How are you?”

  Lena stopped in the corridor next to Ryker.

  “I’m all right,” Ryker said, offering a broad smile.

  Dak adjusted the duffle bag on his shoulder. “I’ve missed, uh, this is going to sound foolish, but I’ve missed our time together.” He looked down at his clothing. “Guess you’ve inspired me to get back in the gym.”

  “PT is good for all of us,” Lena said, glancing at Ryker. “Should we go?”

  “Are you flying today?” Dak asked before they could leave.

  Ryker shrugged. “You know how these things go. They always tell us to hurry up and get somewhere.”

  Dak stared at her for a moment, his head nodding. He glanced at Lena. “Aren’t you Defector One?”

  “Sergeant,” Lena said, “we need to get going.”

  “Wait a sec—”

  Lena pushed Dak’s chest with both hands, the sudden attack sending the Sergeant stumbling back against the wall. He tripped over his own feet and slid across the deck.

  Yanking Ryker down the hall, Lena hurried them toward the hangar.

  “Our window is closing,” she said through clenched teeth. “We have to move!”

  Commotion stirred behind them as they continued forward at a brisk pace without sprinting. Ryker saw the bright lights of the hangar ahead of them and the bustling activity inside. Fighters and ships mingled with maintenance crews. Support staff and equipment moved in all directions. As they came closer, a line of Interceptors came into view.

  Almost there.

  The lights in the corridor went dark. A burning red glow replaced the light a second later.

  Lena stared at Ryker, her eyes bulging. “Run!”

  The massive doors leading to the hangar moved to close. Lena sprinted toward the opening. Ryker hurried to follow, fighting against her sore thighs.

  “Stay with me!” Lena yelled, diving headfirst through the closing doors.

  Ryker hurled her body through the opening. She fell to the deck and slid across the polished surface. Lena vaulted to her feet, offering a hand down to Ryker.

  “Follow me!” Lena yelled.

  “What about preflight?” Ryker asked as she sprinted next to Lena. “And the hangar doors?”

  “Fighter will be ready to fly!” Lena stared toward the starfield beyond the doors. “It’ll take’em too long to close the hangar. We’ll be long gone before that happens.”

  Zahlian pilots and officers scurried across the deck, rushing to their battle stations. Maintenance crew ran past as they weaved through the line of parked Interceptors. Ryker hadn’t heard an announcement over the loudspeakers regarding their escape. Perhaps the ship’s commanding officers were still trying to determine the situation. If they were lucky, the lengthy bureaucracy of command would work in their favor.

  “Halt!” a voice cried behind them.

  A laser bolt sizzled through the air, searing the space above their heads. Ryker turned, saw a squad of Zahlian Marines spilling out into the hangar.

  “They’re right on us!” she yelled, spinning back around. “You better be right about this fighter!”

  “Don’t worry!” Lena shouted, glancing over her shoulder toward the Marines. “We’re almost there.”

  Incoming fire filled the air. Ryker ducked instinctively as the bolts flashed. Up ahead, she saw an Interceptor surrounded by diagnostic equipment including a cart full of computer screens.

  It was their escape ship.

  Ryker cried, a dominant force knocking her feet from the deck. An intense burning penetrated her leg as she tumbled. The hangar seemed to spin. She crashed on her shoulder and spun, sliding across the deck in a sea of sparks.

  Lena kept running, sprinting hard toward the fighter.

  The familiar and terrible pain of the implant surged through Ryker’s body with renewed vigor, transmitting the feel of her skin ripping to shreds as the protective barrier of Lena’s bracelet moved away from her. Ryker couldn’t control her body as it writhed across the deck. Her teeth sliced into her cheeks, splitting skin and tissue. The taste of blood filled her mouth as she rolled over on her stomach.

  Ryker managed to look up. Lena stood next to the fighter, her hand on the open canopy. Her eyes widened as if she considered running back to help.

  Through the intense pain ripping through her body, Ryker shook her head. Sweat burned into her eyes as she clenched her teeth.

  “Run!” she screamed. “Go!”

  Lena hesitated, her body leaning in Ryker’s direction.

  “Do it!” Ryker yelled, the pain increasing. Darkness surrounded her vision.

  Nodding, Lena climbed into the Interceptor. The engine rumbled to life instantly, and the fighter lifted off the ground as the canopy closed. Laser fire ricocheted off the hull as it drifted toward the hangar doors.

  Lena got away, Ryker thought. No matter what else happens. Lena got away.

  Ryker watched the fighter depart until the pain intensified, ripping her attention away from the fleeing Interceptor. She closed her eyes tight, praying the pain would cease now that escape was impossible.

  But the searing sensation only intensified.

  “Wake up!”

  Ryker’s head throbbed. It felt like her brain swelled against her skull with each beat of her heart. She opened her eyes, but the pain of the searing white light forced them closed. Her leg flashed with pain, and she remembered the laser bolt burning into her flesh.

  “Wake up, traitor.”

  It was Rampa. Ignoring his orders, she tried to reach down to feel her leg, but restraints prevented any movement.

  “Do not even try to move,” he said with a sigh. “After all we have been through, we are right back where we started.”

  Ryker opened her eyes, squinting as the buzzing florescent light beamed down on her body. Her uniform had been removed. Thick black restraints came out from the cold metal slab and covered her chest and thighs, fastened so tight her skin bulged and turned red. Her chin trembled as she glanced over at Rampa, who sat on a stool. He rested his elbow on his knee and stared at the floor, lost in thought.

  The rest of the room remained empty. No technicians, no guards. It smelled of alcohol and bleach, probably because the room had been cleaned after being used to torture another unfortunate captive of the Zahl Empire. Underneath the buzzing lights, she heard a constant rumbling like the sound of a capital ship’s engines.

  Ryker swallowed, her throat dry and rough like a burlap sack. “Where are we?”

  Rampa stared at her. “I have a decision to make here, Ryker.”

  She nodded, understanding her time was short. Rampa would execute her for disobeying his commands and trying to escape. Perhaps Lena made it …

  “You have disappointed me beyond measure,” he said, sitting straight in his seat. “We have worked so hard. You and One were the shining stars of my p
rogram, and then you went and flushed it all down the drain. For what? You are now captured, and One is dead. It accomplished nothing.”

  Ryker winced. Dead?

  The last image she remembered before the implant sent intense pain through her body was Lena’s Interceptor flying through the hangar doors. She had escaped, but the Zahlian forces must have caught her before she was able to activate the Lutimite Drive and flee their location. Lena had almost come back for her when the Marines shot Ryker, but there was no other choice.

  Ryker’s throat constricted as a tear rolled down her cheek.

  “Do not waste your energy weeping over a traitor’s death,” Rampa said, folding his arms over his chest. “I have made sure her contact in Engineering has been punished as well. He will regret the day he decided to follow lust over loyalty to the Empire. I would be much more worried about what is in store for you.”

  He stood and loomed over her, his lips close to the side of her face. Ryker felt his breath as he spoke.

  “I still believe in you, Ryker,” he said, sliding his fingers around the curve of her ear. “My superiors think this operation is folly, that I should flush you out of an airlock and end the entire effort right now. But we’re going to show them, right? We can turn this around. Can’t we?”

  Tapping her shoulder twice, he straightened and looked at his tablet.

  “In order to continue this project,” he said, his tone returning to one of authority, “we are going to start from the beginning. Using what we know of your genetic makeup and the trigger points we discovered during our time together, the initial process should be much more intense and more productive than our first time through.”

  Ryker clenched her teeth. “What does that mean?”

  Rampa grinned, revealing his perfect teeth. “First, we are going to break you. We will destroy your will to resist. Then, we will rebuild you. You will never dream of betraying the Zahl Empire again. I’m afraid you will have to pay for your sins, and those of Defector One as well.”

  She swallowed, horrible memories of her first weeks in Rampa’s captivity flashing through her mind. The hours of torture had nearly killed her—she couldn’t imagine surviving it again.

  “Please,” she said, sliding her tongue across her parched lips. “Don’t do this. Captain, please.”

  He nodded toward her. “You did this.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t.”

  “Too late.” He raised the tablet. “We will talk after.”

  “Just kill me,” she gasped, watching him. “Kill me? Please?”

  Rampa shook his head. “But I so enjoy your company, Ryker.”

  “Just—”

  A vicious surge ripped through her body, the implant sending pain signals directly to her brain. She screamed in agony until it felt like her vocal cords would explode. Waves of pain rippled through her body. Writhing on the slab, she arched her back. The restraints dug into her skin, splitting the surface and spilling warm blood down her body. Shaking her head, she tried to imagine being in another place.

  But the torment pulled her back as if it attacked her very soul with a vengeance. She pleaded with him to stop, screaming for mercy. As the torture continued, she made an endless series of promises.

  Rampa didn’t leave. Through the agony, she saw him looming in front of her. He stood near her feet, a crooked smile arching at the corner of his mouth, as the waves of pain shot through her body.

  The burning ceased. Her body relaxed, collapsing back onto the slab. The wounds from the restraints continued to sting as she gasped.

  “That was sixty seconds of level three,” he said, staring at his tablet like it was a new toy. “Next, I would like to try level four.”

  “Please, Captain,” she whispered, her voice scratchy and her body weak. “There is no need … for this.”

  “There are seven levels of pain possible with your implant,” he said as if he hadn’t heard her pleas, “and you’ve only experienced five of them in the past. Today, we are going to experience all seven.”

  Ryker couldn’t hold back anymore. Her defenses broke. She wept on the slab, her entire body convulsing with every tear.

  “Oh, Ryker,” he said, “let me help you end this embarrassing display of emotion. What would the other pilots think?”

  Her face crumpled, and she lowered her chin to her chest. The seconds of peace ticked by, but she knew it would not last. Rampa’s pain would reappear.

  “And here we have level four,” he said.

  The pain returned, and Ryker prayed it would end soon, one way or the other.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Austin tilted his head back, leaning against the smooth stone of Painter’s Rock. Overhead, two Tridents flew in silence across the heavens like blinking pulsars in the fading daylight. A cold breeze touched his face. The gentle rumble of the Tridents reached him like a distant thunder, overtaking the soft buzzing of the surrounding insects.

  Earlier that day, Austin and all of the other members of the Scorpions had undergone thorough examinations to ensure they were clear of implanted foreign objects. They had all passed and proceeded into their daily flight briefings.

  Austin watched the Tridents above him. The patrolling fighters increased altitude, scratching two white lines across the cloudless sky as they exited the Omeya atmosphere. According to the flight schedule, it was Dimas Sorn and Bear’s patrol this evening. Austin sighed, wishing he had a patrol today to take his mind off the situation.

  But Major Cayo Wilkos, undoubtedly on the orders of Major Jonathan Nubern, had grounded Austin based on the recent news that Ryker was not only alive but serving the Zahl Empire. The grainy image of his Ryker standing on a parade platform wearing a Zahlian uniform was seared into his mind and made his stomach flip. Ryker’s shaved hair and pale, gaunt face didn’t look like the woman he loved. His throat filled with acid, and he shook his head. He stared across the flat plains of Omeya, felt the humid air sticking to his skin.

  Ryker.

  While he had tried to move on, the love of his life had survived. Who knew what horrors or lengths of torture she endured? And she had done it all for him.

  His mind drifted back to the culmination of his mission to capture the Wraith. The outcome of the mission had seemed doubtful so many times. From Tia to Val to the Serpents on the remote moon, many had sacrificed everything to help him escape with the most powerful space fighter in the galaxy. That group included Ryker, who had flown her Trident directly into a missile salvo from the Dauntless.

  But she hadn’t died.

  Austin remembered the explosion, saw the debris of the Trident floating through space. With the system disruptor frying all sensors in the area, he would never have detected her escape pod’s beacon. Even if he had picked up Ryker’s signal, there would have been no way he could have rescued her without risking the mission. He would have been captured, too, and the Wraith would be back in the hands of the Zahl Empire. Through his efforts and Ryker’s sacrifice, the Legion engineers would be able to one day create their versions of the Wraith. He knew it had been an important mission, crucial even.

  However, it didn’t seem worth it at the moment. Nothing did. Staring at the stars, he knew Ryker was out there somewhere. Clenching his teeth, he closed his eyes and thought of her. Her long black hair pouring onto her pillow or flowing behind her in the crystal clear waters of Oma. Her eyes boring into his while in the elevator leading to the Glistening Orb, and her embrace as their feet left the floor.

  A vehicle approached, the headlights sending two beams across the flat landscape. The engine sputtered to a stop, and the lights extinguished. Leaning forward and away from Painter’s Rock, Austin glared toward the vehicle. It was one of the Legion workhorse utility cars he had seen the maintenance crew using. Why wouldn’t they leave him alone?

  The car door creaked open. Footsteps cracked on the gravel. Austin leaned against the rock and faced away from the vehicle, gazing up at the stars. Perhaps they would
go away. Whoever it was, maybe they had just come out to view the sky. They would take in the view and head back to the base.

  Someone exhaled and cleared their throat.

  “Austin?”

  He winced. Nubern.

  “Austin?” Nubern repeated. “It’s Nubern. Jonathan. Uh, some of the others told me you might be out here. No one’s seen you since this morning. I wanted to bring you something to eat. It’s getting late. You don’t want to be out here in the middle of the night. I’ve heard the temperature can drop pretty quickly.”

  Nubern paused. Austin listened to his heart beating, pulsing blood through his ears. He looked down at the dirt, wondering what would happen if he stayed out here. Would the Legion forget about him and let him go?

  You’re an idiot, he thought. Then again, I don’t care at the moment. After everything I’ve been through, I deserve to feel however I want to feel.

  “I’m going to leave it on the side of this rock,” Nubern said. Footsteps kicked through the gravel to the back of Painter’s Rock. “It’s just a sandwich. I thought I remembered you saying something about ham and cheese. In town, they had some of those butter cookies in one of the stores. I picked some up today. Reminded me of something your mother served during our first recruitment meeting. I thought it might help.”

  Austin placed his hand over his mouth. He blinked several times, the stars blurring together into a haze.

  “Anyway,” Nubern said, resignation in his voice, “come back soon, son. I’m here if you need to talk.”

  The footsteps moved away. Austin heard the door open. Shaking his head, he got to his feet and ignored the stiffness in his body from sitting on the ground for hours. He walked around to the other side of the rock, his hand in the air.

  “Major?” he called, his voice cracking. “Nubern?”

  A flashlight activated and found his face. “Austin.”

  Nubern marched toward him. Reaching out, the major placed his hand on Austin’s shoulder.

  “I hate this for you, son,” he said, his voice shaking. “I hate it more than anything. No one should have to see what you saw. That picture … I tell you, I hated myself for bringing it to you.”