Silence fell for a moment, then was broken by Captain Warwick’s voice over the intercom system.
“I’m sure you’ll be unhappy with my decision for a while,” Warwick said. “But Dom, you must remember that we are in the business of making money, not protecting Psychos. In fact, it is really a hindrance to us to even have them. You remember what happened when Liza lost control. She could have blown up that entire merchant ship and killed us all.” Dom’s hands clenched into tight fists. “Anyway, I’ll share the profits from this girl. That’ll make us square.”
“Hardly,” Becce mumbled, and Zimir shot her a dark look.
“Shut up.”
“He’s a traitor,” Dom said, staring hard at Zimir, who shrugged.
“You have quite a few morals for a pirate,” Zimir said with a laugh. Dom mover to attack Zimir, but Becce grabbed his arm, holding him back. The clatter of the lift drew Zimir’s attention instead, and Doctor D, Corbin, Tsuto, and the twins burst into the room. Corbin launched himself at Zimir and tackled him to the ground, ripping his grasp from Vely’s arm. Doctor D stepped up to the cockpit door and using his fingers, he pried the two panels apart until the mechanism broke with an awful squealing sound.
“What are you bastards doing?” Zimir yelled from his place on the floor, pinned under Corbin’s bulk. Dom smiled finally and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Taking control of this ship,” Dom said. The twins set to work on one of the command consoles, though Vely couldn’t even begin to guess at what they were doing. From inside the cockpit, Vely could hear the sounds of Warwick struggling against Doctor D, who dragged the former captain from the cockpit and into the bridge. Becce jumped around the commotion and into the pilot’s seat. Everyone lost their balance when Becce jerked the ship into a tight turn, completely changing directions. They swayed again as she increased the speed of the ship.
“You honestly think this will work?” Warwick asked, though it was unconvincing, as his face was slowly turning purple from the pressure Doctor D was putting on his windpipe. Dom shrugged.
“Seems like it already has,” Dom said. He stepped up to Warwick and ripped his gamma pistol from his belt. “You and Zimir will be locked in the brig until we decide where to leave you. You will no longer sell anyone else to the SSA or betray the Syndicate.”
“I am the Underboss!” Warwick shouted.
“I’m sure Captain Lezal would love to hear about the numerous betrayals you committed by helping the SSA,” Dom said. Warwick blanched, and Dom shrugged. “Besides, we’re pirates. Doc, Corbin, lock these two up tight. Becce, take us to the nearest colony with an SSA prison.”
“Aye, Captain,” the crew shouted, giving Warwick and Zimir contemptuous looks.
48
Liza ran down the hall, not caring about how much noise she was making. Morre’s words echoed over and over in her mind: kill them. She was seriously considering it, but she needed to focus. They barely had a plan for getting off this colony, and they were bound to hit as many obstacles as possible, because that’s just how things worked.
She skidded around a corner and ran towards her room. She burst through the door and found Gwen sitting on Liza’s bunk. The other girl looked up when Liza entered.
“Where were you? You look like hell.” Liza shook her head and threw open her wardrobe.
“No time to explain. We’ve got to leave right now,” Liza said, grabbing her clothes and boots from the bottom of the wardrobe. Gwen jumped and did the same, digging out a a bag. They stuffed their few belongings inside the bag.
“You didn’t kill Morre, did you?” Gwen asked tentatively. Liza glanced up at Gwen.
“No, but he’s not in the best shape,” she answered. Gwen looked fearful for a moment, but Liza added, “He knows what we’re planning. He uh... he said we should leave now.” Gwen raised an eyebrow. Liza shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. Let’s just get out of here.”
Before leaving, Gwen gave the room a once over. Liza allowed her this moment, as she could imagine that it would be difficult to leave a place where Gwen had spent most of her life. When Gwen let the door close, she gave Liza a dark look.
“I hate how attached I feel to this place,” she said. Liza rested a hand on her arm.
“I understand completely,” Liza said. “Come on.”
Together, they ran down the hall towards the rooms where the Augurs were housed. Liza didn’t know which room was Cedrick’s, so she pounded on a random door. An irritated looking Augur answered.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Cedrick Sonnes,” Liza said. “Where is he?” The augur pointed to a door across the hall.
“There,” the Augur said, then shut the door in her face. Liza rolled her eyes and crossed the hall to the other door. She pounded on it until it opened, this time revealing Cedrick.
“Liza?” he asked.
“Get your stuff. We’re leaving now,” she commanded. For a moment, Cedrick didn’t move, but then he nodded and turned away. Liza and Gwen waited in the hallway until he reappeared, holding a bundle of clothes.
“Cedrick? Where are you going?” his roommate asked. Cedrick just shook his head.
“I’m getting out of his hell hole,” he said, and left the room, the door sliding closed behind him. Liza grinned.
“I prefer that attitude,” she said. Cedrick didn’t respond; he just stared at her.
“Have you forgiven me then?” he asked. Liza shrugged.
“Undecided,” she answered. “Come on.”
They took off down the hall, running and dodging around other trainees who were still wandering the halls. They reached the end of the hall, where the next door led into the entrance hall of the training facility. Liza opened the door and peered inside.
There were a few SSA officers in the room, wearing the uniforms of Tranq and Katho agents, black with corresponding-colored stripes on the sleeves and shoulders. In a far corner, a Bloodhound in all black was sitting in a chair, his legs crossed, reading something on a tablet. Liza sighed.
“We can deal with them,” Gwen said. “Just steal their power, like you always do,” she added with mock annoyance. Liza laughed, but Cedrick stared at her with his mouth open.
“Your ability isn’t worth stealing,” Liza said. Taking a deep breath, Liza pushed the door open further and stepped into the large room, followed by Gwen and Cedrick. They immediately drew the attention of the guards.
“Get back to your rooms, trainees,” one of them shouted. Liza disregarded them and began to draw power from the guards. She could smell them, their scents she couldn’t begin to identify. Arcs of power jumped on her skin. She restrained her power, waiting for the right moment. Behind her, she could feel the pressure of Gwen’s ability building, pushing against Liza.
“Get back!” a different guard shouted. Liza smiled.
“Can’t do that, unfortunately,” Liza said. “We’ve got places to be.”
The guards shouted angrily and formed a line, blocking them from the door that would lead to the docking bay. One of the Kathos pushed against Liza, trying to force her backwards, but it only interrupted her movement for a moment. The wall of power advancing on the guards from Liza and Gwen was too great for them to penetrate.
“Ready Liza?” Gwen shouted. Her voice sounded extremely far away.
“Yes.”
Together, they released their power, and it slammed against the guards, bowling over whatever weak defenses they managed to put up. Their bodies collided with the wall, and they fell to the ground in a heap.
“Liza! The Bloodhound!” Cedrick shouted. Liza shifted her gaze to the corner where the Bloodhound had been. He was standing now, looking angry. He held a long rifle in his hands which was glowing yellow. “That’s a DZ-20! It’ll blow your body apart!”
“Shit! Get down!” Gwen shouted, and she dove to the ground, pulling Liza with her. Cedrick dropped to the ground just as the rifle released its charge. T
he burst of gamma rays passed over them, sped across the room and slammed into the wall. Vibrations ripped through the room. Though they’d been spared the worst of the blasts, Liza still felt pain on her back. Beside her, Gwen was groaning. Liza lifted her head. Gwen’s back was bleeding.
“Let’s go,” Liza urged, and grabbed Gwen’s hand to pull her up. Cedrick was already on his feet. They only had a moment before the gamma rifle would be ready to fire again. “Go!” Liza shouted, and together they pushed themselves into a run towards the door to the docking bay. Liza stopped a moment, staring at the door. She thought she could see a faint blue shimmer around the edges. A tether? Gwen reached it first and threw her power against it. The door bent in on itself, then burst out, landing several meters from where it had once been. They ran through the doorway into the docking bay with the bloodhound on their heels.
“There’s a ship!” Cedrick called, pointing to a blue ship nearby. Through the windows of the cockpit, they could see someone sitting inside.
“Good enough. Let’s go.” Liza and Gwen changed directions and headed towards the open cargo hatch. They thumped up the metal gangway into the ship. Cedrick punched the button beside the door to close the hatch, and it sealed with a hiss of pressurized air. They stood for a moment, hands on their knees, trying to regain their breath. Liza looked up.
“We don’t have enough time. We need to get up to that pilot,” she said. Gwen and Cedrick nodded, breath still rasping. Liza had no idea where to go, but Cedrick pushed his way past Gwen and Liza.
“All ships have the same basic layout,” he said, and led them down a hall to a lift that would take them to the bridge. They stumbled from the lift into an empty bridge, but the cockpit door was open. The pilot spun his chair around, and his mouth fell open when he saw the three of them stumble into the cockpit, barely staying on their feet.
“Hey! You don’t have authorization to be here!” he shouted. Liza rolled her eyes and stepped up to him. Arcs of power left her hands and surrounded him. She used her hand to direct the power and lifted him from the chair. “You’re a Katho,” the pilot struggled to say. Liza nodded.
“So, you know that you can willingly take us where we want to go, or we’ll just force you,” she said. The pilot said nothing for a moment, looking back and forth between Gwen, Liza, and Cedrick.
“Okay, okay,” he managed to say, just as his face was beginning to turn blue. Liza released him to the ground. He sat in his pilot chair and powered up the engines.
“They know we’re on this ship,” Gwen said, leaning over the console to look out at the catwalks below. The guards had recovered from the blast and had followed them into the docking bay, along with the Bloodhound.
“He better not shoot my ship with that DZ-20,” the pilot said angrily. “Otherwise, you’ll owe me a new ship.”
“Whatever,” Liza barked. The pilot rolled his eyes.
“Someone needs to disconnect the passenger gangway,” the pilot added.
“I’ll do it,” Cedrick said and disappeared into the lift. Liza began to get nervous, and her already agitated power straining to be released.
“How long until we can take off?” Liza asked.
“A few more minutes,” the pilot said. “It would help if you could keep those guards from blowing holes in my ship.” Liza glanced at Gwen.
“Can we get them without hurting the ship?” Liza asked. Gwen closed her eyes in thought and shook her head.
“I don’t know. And this isn’t really the time to experiment,” she replied.
“There’s an auxiliary hatch in the room off the bridge. It’s for repairs. You can open it from the inside with a code,” the pilot said.
“That’ll work,” Gwen said. “We can direct our power from there.”
The pilot rattled off the numerical code. The two women ran into the bridge and threw open the door to the auxiliary hatch. Gwen turned to the glowing keypad and punched in the code from the pilot, and with a hiss, the hatch opened outward. Liza and Gwen grabbed the frame and hoisted themselves up, their feet barely gaining purchase against a ridge in the hull of the ship. The guards below were shouting and pointing at them, while the bloodhound aimed his rifle.
“We have to stop those blasts,” Liza said, her voice trembling.
“Just concentrate on your wall,” Gwen said. For good measure, they held out both hands and forced up a powerful wall of energy. Liza pulled on the guards below, trying to take some of their power. Her mind became overwhelmed with smells. “Stay concentrated,” Gwen said through gritted teeth.
Everything around Liza seemed to slow down when the Bloodhound pulled the trigger of the rifle. The burst distorted space as it sped towards the ship. Liza pushed everything she had into their wall of power. She could feel her energy draining quickly. If they didn’t take off soon, they’d be as good as dead. She struggled to keep up her flow of power. Her body felt weaker and weaker with every Kathokinetic effort she made.
The burst hit the wall with enormous force. Liza and Gwen cried out in pain and horror as they were forced backwards, nearly losing their balance. By all logic, they should have been torn to shreds.
Don’t give up, Gwen said into Liza’s mind. Tilt the wall to the right. Liza grunted, and they moved together to tilt their wall of power to the side, which forced the blast off into another direction.
The explosion of the docking bay sent time speeding back to normal for Liza, and she blinked, looking around. The now de-pressurized docking bay was quickly peeling apart.
“Get inside!” the pilot shouted through the ship’s intercom. Gwen tugged Liza down into the ship and pulled the hatch closed. She jammed the lock button, and they collapsed on the floor of the little room. The edges of Liza’s vision blurred and darkened, and she fought to remain conscious. Beside her, Gwen’s chest was heaving, but she seemed otherwise alright.
“I think you take more out of yourself when you steal power,” Gwen said.
“Well shit,” Liza slurred, and her vision went dark.
When Liza came to, she was lying across a bench in the bridge. Cedrick was kneeling beside her, holding a cold pack to her forehead. Liza groaned and pressed a hand to her temple. Her body felt like the gravity generators were too strong.
“She’s awake!” Cedrick called. Gwen appeared in the doorway from the cockpit and smiled.
“Oh good,” she said.
“How long?” Liza asked.
“Only a few minutes. Which is good, because we need to do an FTL jump and it wouldn’t be safe to do if you’re unconscious,” Cedrick answered before Gwen could speak. Liza raised an eyebrow but accepted his response. The pilot appeared in the bridge beside Gwen.
“Where do you want to go?” he asked, looking slightly less annoyed. Liza pushed herself up into a semi-sitting position.
“I need to contact Vely and find out where they are,” Liza said. The pilot nodded and turned to the console in the center of the bridge. He punched a few buttons and a holographic screen appeared in the space above. Cedrick pulled Liza to her feet and held her up with an arm around her waist.
Maybe he’s not a total prick, Liza thought to herself. Gwen startled her by responding,
He’s been very helpful since we got on this ship. Liza frowned at her, and she grinned. Your defenses are weak. I can poke around all I want.
“Not if you want to live,” Liza said. Cedrick and the pilot exchanged looks.
“Do you know the communication lync you want to connect to?” the pilot asked. Liza entered the code on the console. The screen lit up with red letters that said, ‘Establishing Connection.’ It was another minute before the red letters changed to ‘Connection Complete.’ The screen changed, and Liza instantly recognized the room on the screen. Her heart twisted in longing to be back on The Gypsy Star. Her sister with the strange, dyed hair appeared in front of the screen.
49
“Liza!” Vely shouted into the screen. “Cedrick!” Liza leaned against Cedrick for
support, looking exhausted. Liza smiled at her.
“Hey brat,” Liza said. Vely rolled her eyes. Cedrick said nothing, but he smiled fondly at her.
“I’m so happy to see you that I’ll forgive that for now,” Vely said. “Where are you?”
“We just escaped from the SSA training facility,” Liza said. “We are… borrowing a ship.” Liza’s gaze shifted off the screen with a grin. “We need your coordinates.” Vely pressed a button on the communication lync and brought up their current destination coordinates.
“Can you make it to the Mars region?” Vely asked, her eyes skimming over the flight plan. “We’re headed to a colony there.” Vely sent the coordinates of the colony over the communication lync to Liza’s side. Her sister frowned.
“Why there?”
“Oh! We had a mutiny! Warwick and Zimir are locked in the brig right now, and we’re going to give them over to the SSA. Captain Dom said that Warwick and Zimir both have huge bounties on their heads,” Vely said, trying not to run all her words together. Liza blinked at her, stunned.
“What?”
“I’ll tell you all about it when I see you. Dom is the new captain,” Vely said with a wink, and she was pleased to see her sister blush. Liza shook her head and turned to speak to someone.
“Can we make it there?” she asked. A voice Vely didn’t know answered.
“We can make an FTL jump and be there in a few Earth hours,” the voice said.
“You hear that?” Liza asked, looking back at Vely. She checked the destination report.
“Yeah. That’s perfect. We’ll be there before you, but I’ll tell Dom to wait for your arrival,” Vely said.
“Good,” Liza said. Vely watched as Cedrick whispered something to Liza, who smiled and nodded. A young woman with dark skin appeared in the screen and helped Liza away, leaving just Cedrick.
“I’m sure you’re not too happy with me right now,” Cedrick said. Vely’s hands began to shake slightly from nerves.
Psychogen (Galactic Syndicate Cycle Book 1) Page 27
