Stealing Mercury (Arena Dogs Book 1)

by Charlee Allden

  Her arched brows shot up over wide eyes.

  He pulled her closer and pressed his face against the bars. He drew in a deep breath letting her fill his lungs. She didn’t scent of the whip-master. That cooled his rage enough to relax his hold and allow her to put a few inches between them.

  “Speak slowly.” He nodded encouragement. “You made a plan?”

  She started to shake her head, but the movement was aborted, pain etched into her features. “No,” she said. “It wasn’t my plan. I was hired to get you to the rendezvous and look the other way when they freed you. Sorry I couldn’t tell you before. They told me not to.”

  Mercury heard Lo and Carn shift in their cages. “Who would—”

  “It doesn’t matter now. They aren’t here and we’re going to have to improvise a plan B.”

  “Another plan?”

  Her small teeth bit into her plump bottom lip. “Yes, and actually it’s probably more of a plan C now.”

  He waited for her to continue, his joy that she would try to help them escape overshadowed by the dread of what cost she might pay.

  “The rendezvous ship might still come,” she said. “But they’re over a week late. I’m taking that as a bad sign. The Dove is badly damaged, so we’re not going far. If we wait here the help that comes might not be on our side, but I managed to put us in orbit around a small undeveloped world.”

  “Plan C.”

  “Right.” A quick grin flashed across her face like the flicker of a glowbug, there, then gone. Its loss left his world darker, bereft after that tiny moment of light. “The ship is a mess and I think I can make Drake and Resler believe we’re losing the environmental controls. I’ll convince them to use the emergency escape-pod to go to the surface until help can arrive.” She pointed to a hatch at the back of the hold. “There’s another emergency drop-pod back there. It’s meant for freight, but I think you can survive getting to the surface that way.”

  He nodded, shocked at the boldness of her plan.

  “I need to ask you a question.” She held his gaze, but her lips trembled and her jaw was tight. “Drake and Resler. I know you hate them. When you get out of these cages?”

  She let the question hang between them, but he saw in her eyes that she knew what his answer would be. Cold washed across him as he realized how she might view the violence, the brutality, that had made him. He was a product of the arena. “I don’t know much of your world, but my world offers only two choices. Kill or be killed.”

  She closed her eyes, shutting him out, and took a deep breath in through her narrow nose and out across soft, full lips. Her lashes fluttered then she was staring him down again. “They forced you to kill, but it doesn’t have to be all you are. It isn’t all you are.” She reached a hand tentatively through the bars and he turned his face into her touch.

  Even as he reveled in the gentle warmth of her fingers he worried she’d only done it to test him. To assure herself he wouldn’t bite her hand off. That, given the chance, he wouldn’t kill them all.

  “I’ve done what was necessary to survive and keep my brothers alive.”

  She pulled her hand back and a tiny hint of her smile returned. “Are you going to tell me to deal with that too?”

  His fists tightened around the bars of his cage. “I’d never hurt you.”

  “If you could be free?” She motioned toward Lo’s cage with a quick tilt of her chin. “If you could all be free.”

  “We all wish for another life, but we cannot change what we are.”

  She nodded but there was still worry in her eyes. “I don’t know where the others were going to take you, but we’re not far from Gollerra territory.

  “Gollera?”

  “Oh. Of course. I wasn’t thinking.” A slight pink tinged her cheeks. “Roma is in the Earth Alliance territory—human controlled. Gollera territory is under the rule of a race called the Golley.”

  “Not humans?” The idea of a place where humans did not rule settled into his mind and started to weave into his reality.

  “Right. I don’t know what your status would be there, but I think you’d have a chance to be free.”

  Her words hung in the air. Small motes of hope that could surely choke him if he allowed himself to breathe them in.

  “Roma won’t know you got off the ship. I’ll tell them you died in the collision—that the cargo-hold was breached.” She backed away, stepping out of reach. She wrapped her arms around herself, as if warding off a chill that couldn’t be blamed on her environmental controls. “When help comes, I’ll go with them, but I promise I’ll come back for you. There’s just one thing.”

  He wanted to pull her to him, to wrap his arms around her, to ease her worries, but she was out of his reach.

  “You can’t…” She cleared her throat and when she spoke again her voice was steadier, her posture stiff with resolve. “You can’t come after them on the planet surface. I know you probably want to hurt them and they deserve it, but it would ruin everything.”

  He hid the panic her words churned up in his gut. “Your plan is flawed, courra, my courageous one.”

  “How?” The tiny lines appeared on her forehead as she studied him.

  “They’ll try to punish you. I won’t allow that.”

  “They won’t know.” She shrugged. “At least they won’t be certain.” She strode over to a stack of dull gray containers with the red Roma logo and started checking the labels as she spoke. “I’ll have to rig the ship to blow out the cargo-hold, to support my story and explain why your bodies aren’t onboard. I know it isn’t a perfect plan, but it’s the best I can do.”

  He wanted to shake her. The moment the whip-master no longer needed her as pilot she’d no longer be safe from his twisted games. “You’ll come with us. We’ll keep you safe.” He’d rather be stuck with her on a primitive world for the rest of their lives than allow anyone to hurt her.

  “No.” She started rearranging the containers, huffing with effort. “I can’t. I need to be with them when help comes. And I could never survive the drop in the cargo pod.”

  “I’ll protect you. You’ll come with us.” The growl was slipping back into his voice.

  She shook her head. “There’s no enviro in the cargo-drop. The three of you will survive the low oxygen environment to the surface. I’d never make it.”

  He wanted to howl. “Send them down to the planet and stay aboard with us. You can repair what you’ve done to the ship after they’re gone.”

  She activated a switch on the hover-pallet beneath a stack of containers and pushed it toward the drop-pod. “The damage to the ship from the collision is too extensive to get her skip-ready and they’ll never believe me about the rest if I don’t go down with them.”

  “She’s right,” growled Lo. “They won’t believe her.”

  Mercury snapped at Lo to silence him.

  “Please,” she said. “Trust me and be ready.”

  She stopped at the hatch to the cargo-drop and unlocked it. “I’ve programmed it so all you have to do is step inside. After it’s launched I’ll set the cargo doors to blow.”

  “And you?”

  “I’ll be long gone in the passenger pod before the explosion.”

  She pushed the pallet in, disappearing from sight for a moment before returning to stand in front of his cage, but still out of reach. “The supplies will make things easier for you on the surface. Now promise me, you won’t come after Drake and Resler. That none of you will harm them.” His brothers growled softly, but Sam kept her gaze locked to his, body tense as her voice dropped to a whisper. “Please. Prove you aren’t the animals they claim you are.”

  Helpless to bend her to his will, Mercury keened low with worry and pain. She had no reason to think them more than the animals Drake had labeled them. Yet, she had protected them at every turn. That spoke more of her heart than her fear. This plan of hers was set and they had to see this through, but it would kill him if anything happened to her.
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  “I promise, courra. For me and my brothers. We won’t harm them.” Once spilled the words left a burning hole in his gut. He didn’t blame her for the shrieking ache. She couldn’t know how many times the whip-master’s lash had torn through skin to strike at his pride. How many times watching it dig into the flesh of his brothers had left his heart in tatters.

  She nodded, pulling out the code-key. “And you won’t try to go after them now either? You’ll stick to the plan?”

  Her jaw tightened and her eyes searched his face as if she wasn’t sure he would keep his promise. He didn’t want to, but he had little choice but to rely on her knowledge of how to survive beyond the world of the arena. He nodded. “I’ve promised. Will you trust me, courra?”

  “Step back away from the doors.” She took them all in at a glance making it clear her command extended to them all. “It’s going to be okay,” she said, pressing the code-key to the lock.

  She moved on to the other locks and Mercury fought instinct. His muscled trembled with the need to claim her and keep her safe. He wanted to shove open the cage door and pull her into his arms even more than he wanted to track his tormentors down and end their lives. The damn woman had him in knots, so he would keep his distance. There wasn’t time for what he wanted. What he needed.

  As she stepped back, putting as much distance as possible between them, Mercury finally stepped free of the cage and led his brothers to the cargo-drop.

  The interior was lit in low red light. He walked inside and turned to see her with her hand on the door.

  “You’ll be fine,” she assured, unaware that she was the object of his worry.

  Somehow, he promised himself, he would get to her before Drake and Resler hurt her. As he watched, the hatch swung shut. The click of the lock sealing scraped against his sensitive eardrums like sandpaper.

  A jolt threw him against a container. It knocked him off his feet and emptied his lungs of air.

  A moment later, the floor fell out from under him. He scrambled for better footing. Bones rattling, oxygen deprived brain screaming in protest; Mercury knew Samantha had been right. She never would have survived the cargo-drop’s rapid decent to the planet surface. His belly lodged somewhere near his throat and the vibrations were so intense the ligaments all through his body strained to keep muscle and bone together. Lo and Carn had to be experiencing the same sensations, but he didn’t have enough air in his lungs for a whimper let alone a comforting howl.

  When it finally came, the sudden deceleration proved no less agonizing. He huddled with his brothers in the center of the space, clinging to the cargo clamps and each other. The bottom of the drop seemed to have some mechanism to minimize the vibrations; if they were fortunate, it would be enough to prevent injury.

  Mercury couldn’t afford to be injured. Not when he needed to get to Sam as quickly as possible. He would honor his promise not to harm the whip-master or the bully that had tormented Carn, but that didn’t mean he’d let them harm her.

  The sudden stop of the cargo-drop put an end to his wandering thoughts. For a full minute, he and his pack brothers remained near motionless. The slight huff of their breathing the only sound.

  “Ready?” He studied their faces, now back to normal, and could see they knew what he intended. Lo blinked his agreement. It was Carn who hesitated. Was he thinking of Hera? Did he think going after Sam too much a risk when they had to get back to Hera?

  Carn dipped his chin in a slow nod.

  Mercury pushed to his feet and studied the hatch controls. It wasn’t meant for passengers so there was no obvious handle. He slid his hands over the smooth surface, stopping over a red shape. There was writing, but he couldn’t read it.

  “Why doesn’t it open?” Carn’s voice showed no trace of his earlier hesitance.

  “Maybe it is not yet safe to go out,” rumbled Lo.

  Mercury’s fingertips found a slight unevenness around the red shape. “I think there’s something here.” He pushed gently at first, then with more force. A small section of alloy sprung open to reveal a recess with a metal ring. The small curve would fit perfectly in the grip of a human hand.

  Carn’s boots scraped against the floor as he shifted his weight. “Doesn’t red usually mean warning?”

  “The air grows thin.” Mercury knew they had no time for debate. He pulled the ring.

  A heavy clunk sounded as alloy shifted inside the hatch. A pop as the seal broke took with it some of his worry. At least they wouldn’t all die in a metal canister.

  Mercury shoved the hatch wide.

  Light filtered in, washing the small space in contrasts of bright and dark. The new scents it carried with it overwhelmed his sensitive nose, but the air was rich. It filled his lungs and cleared his head. He stretched and took a deep exhilarating breath.

  Outside, the ground beneath his feet was spongy, but it didn’t shift under his weight like the sands in the Arena. He stepped aside to let the others pass, watching as they too enjoyed the richness of the air. Carn stood tall for the first time in many days.

  Awash in color, the vegetation surrounded them like a visual feast. Purple flowers decorated the nearest trees. Green and blue-leaved bushes spread across some areas like blankets tossed carelessly on the ground.

  Unfamiliar sounds came at him from every direction. Small creatures moved along the ground or up and down the trees. Until he became accustomed to them and the sounds they made, he would have to rely on his eyesight.

  Lo crouched down and lifted a handful of dirt to his nose then inhaled loudly. “Smells different here.”

  “Yes, but the air is good.”

  Lo nodded his agreement, but Carn shook his head. It didn’t appear to be a sign that he disagreed. He looked more like he was shaking water from his ears after a dunking. “Carn?”

  “I’m okay.” But he squatted down and slumped forward.

  Mercury moved to him and rested a palm on his back. “What is it old friend?”

  “Can you hear it?”

  “I hear many things.”

  “No.” He grimaced. “A low thump, thump, thump.”

  “Low?”

  “Yes. Very.”

  Lo crouched nearby. “Could it be a natural part of this planet?”

  Mercury couldn’t hear the thump, but he knew both Carn and Lo had better hearing in the lower ranges. “I don’t know.”

  Of course, this was the first time any of them had stepped onto a planet surface outside the domes of Roma.

  Mercury patted Carn’s shoulder. “Let me know if it changes or gets worse for you.”

  Carn nodded as they got to their feet.

  Mercury started a slow circle around the drop. Shattered wood covered the area behind the small transport device that had carried them down from a ship above the planet. His gaze followed the trunk of a tree. The cargo-drop had skimmed all the branches from one side as it had fallen to the ground. The top of the tree stretched high over head. Taller than any tree he’d ever seen. There were trees near the Arena Dogs’ training grounds, but nothing like this living tower.

  The sky overhead was a bright blue and impossibly far away. Somewhere above, the ship they’d fallen from hung in the vastness beyond the blue. He’d been told of space and the distant worlds beyond, but it hadn’t been real to him. Standing in the place that was clearly not the same as the one he’d come from, his world had suddenly become vast.

  “How will we find her?” Lo spoke from next to him.

  Mercury started to speak but a flash drew his gaze to the sky. A puffy white trail of smoke traced across and downward. Mercury pointed. “There. We will find her close to where the smoke meets the ground.”

  He glanced at Carn again. The man looked stoic and paler than usual, but he stood straight and tall. Mercury could only hope his need to get back to Hera would drive him more than it hurt him.

  “Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Roma Campsite, Planet G-45987

 
; Earth Alliance Beta Sector - Gollerra Border

  2210.157

  Samantha brushed tree bark off her hands and took in a deep breath. It was the first planetary air she’d breathed in nearly a year and it smelled heavily of vegetation. Dense forest surrounded them on all sides. She’d managed to drop the escape-pod in a kilometer square patch of barren soil.

  The cargo-drop Mercury, Carnage and Diablo were in had a much cruder propulsion system so she couldn’t be sure exactly where they’d landed, but she’d tried to put them down in the same general area. She had their promise and it was the most habitable spot on the planet.

  And her gut told her to keep them close.

  Drake dropped another branch onto the small stack of firewood. “What do you suppose made this clearing?”

  Samantha reached down and broke the seal on one of the bedrolls she’d hauled out earlier. “Probably the terraforming platform we saw.” Or more accurately, crashed into. “There’s three more positioned across the planet.” The huge equipment had been visible from orbit and easy enough to spot since there’d been no vegetation, or anything else, around them.

  “Why in the hell didn’t you put us down near one of them? There might have been supplies.”

  “None of the others are functional as far as I could tell and the areas where the other platforms are located are not nearly as hospitable as this section.”

  Drake shifted the position of the last log he’d dropped. “Makes sense.”

  “Not really. It’s like they were never activated, or they were shut down after stage one. But the one that was here must have run the full course. The vegetation here is way too advanced for recent terraforming. Who would install four terraforming platforms, activate only one, then let the planet and the equipment sit idle for fifty to a hundred years?”

  “I think that’s a mystery for another day.” Straightening, he stretched his arms over his head with a grunt of pain.

  “Hurting?”

  “Feels like someone rolled me in a metal washtub and hung me out to dry.”

  Samantha huffed, surprised he’d admit to any weakness. “You need the med kit?”