by Trevor Scott
“A fool’s errand,” Nix spat, gripping her shoulder tighter. “She could have told us it was useless days ago.”
“And I wouldn’t be on Taleris,” Astrid shot back with a wince.
Saturn kept her hand close to her weapon and said, “Enough, let’s just get this over with.”
The Ansarans had dismounted their vehicles and taken a few steps forward, each armed with laser pistols and wearing form-fitting gray body suits which terminated at the neck. The Ansaran in the center came to within twenty feet of them and held his empty hands out for Liam to see.
He was a thin man with bulging black eyes and long ears that extended well past his bald head. His features were almost a caricature of the Ansarans he’d met in the past, some of his features highly exaggerated. He opened his thin mouth, revealing long pointed teeth as thin as his waistline. He declared, “I am Caretaker Ruen of House Ansara. Welcome to Taleris.”
Caretaker Ruen cocked his head and examined Astrid. When he was satisfied, he asked, “What are your intentions?”
Liam waved to Nix and said, “We had an arrangement with Astrid. Returning her concludes our business here.”
“Is that so?” the Caretaker said with curiosity. “I’m sure Astrid has much to tell.”
Liam felt the Caretaker stare coldly at Astrid. Something told him he was about as kind-hearted as Ragnar.
“What happened here?” Ju-Long asked, looking around at the dilapidated scenery.
When Ju-Long mentioned it, Liam noticed what wasn’t clear from the sky. The bridge had been struck by laser blasts, chunks of the low walls lining the bridge had been destroyed. As it was, he wouldn’t want to get close to the edge. It was at least two thousand feet to the planet surface.
The Caretaker lowered his eyes as though in shame, and replied, “The Kurazon I’m afraid. Three ships evaded our planetary defenses and took out key components of our infrastructure. They knew where to hit us.”
There was a brief silence, after which the Caretaker said, “Now, as you can see, I have a lot to attend to, so if you’ll kindly return my niece to me, we can all go about our business.”
Liam’s eyes propped open wide. The Caretaker was from House Ansara, which meant Astrid had lied once again, this time about her lineage. Astrid made an uncomfortable sound, drawing Liam’s gaze. The expression on Nix’s face was unadulterated fury. His claws dug deep into Astrid’s shoulder, drawing blood through her light blue body suit. Astrid’s jaw was clenched tight as though determined not to show her pain.
“Astrid of House Ansara?” Nix mumbled through gritted teeth.
Nix was going to provoke the Ansarans if he didn’t let her go soon. Already a few of the Caretaker’s guards had their weapons pointed at his chest. They couldn’t afford to get into a shootout.
Ju-Long reached out toward Nix and said calmingly, “Let her go, Nix. Let’s chalk this one up to a loss and lick our wounds.”
Nix brushed Ju-Long’s arm away.
“She didn’t hold up her end of the deal. She played us every step of the way. She was never going to tell us how to get the Quantum Trigger. If it is on Ansara then we can’t hope to get it back now.”
Caretaker Ruen bowed his head. “My, Astrid. You have been busy. Even whispers of a matter such as this must be dealt with. You know this.”
Astrid nodded solemnly and said, “I know, Uncle.”
Liam looked back and forth between Astrid and Caretaker Ruen and asked, “Astrid, what’s he talking about?”
“I told you there are things that must not be spoken of. It is my fault and I must pay the price.”
Saturn asked the Caretaker skeptically, “You’re going to kill your own niece?”
“What we do is a matter for and between Ansarans. I need not explain myself to outsiders.”
Nix released Astrid’s shoulder and shoved her forward. “Good riddance.”
Astrid took one small step toward her uncle and then stopped. She looked back to Liam and said, “If you want to learn more about Vesta Corporation, you need only look where the twelfth planet once was. Do not give up on the trigger, but remember there are more pressing matters if you want to remain alive.”
Astrid broke Liam’s gaze and turned back toward the Caretaker. Liam wondered what she meant by the twelfth planet. There were only eleven in the Ansara System. She couldn’t really be giving up so easily. He’d seen the fight in her. Despite the lies he saw the person behind those glowing blue eyes. She was good-natured at her core, even if her actions didn’t always show it. Before he knew what he was doing, Liam’s energy weapon was in his hand, a swirling bolt of lightning at its tip, aimed at the Caretaker’s head.
“Not another move,” Liam said darkly. “She’s coming with us.”
21
“You’ll never make it off this planet, rake,” Caretaker Ruen spat. “Now come along, Astrid. You need not associate with such filth. Remember your birth.”
At the mention of her birth, Astrid was furious. She looked to Liam, whose gaze was locked on the Caretaker in cold determination. She asked him, “You would take me with you?”
Liam nodded and replied, “I won’t have more innocent lives on my conscience. Come and live or go with your uncle and die. Either way, you’ve made the choice.”
Liam remembered Tiffany, that naïve redhead who’d shared his bed and was subsequently cut down by Takara. It was only right that he gave Astrid the choice Tiffany never had. Associating with Liam had become a deadly game, one which ate away at his insides every time he thought about it.
Saturn and Ju-Long raised their weapons, pointing them at two of the Ansaran guards. They were still outnumbered but at the very least they had a chance. Nix kept his weapon holstered, still taking in what was happening.
“You mean to take her with us?” Nix asked. “You don’t know what she is; what she’s capable of!”
“We’ll discuss this on the ship,” Liam told the Dinari before turning his gaze to Astrid. “What’s your decision?”
Tears fell down Astrid’s cheeks and she wiped them off with the back of her hand. She regarded the Caretaker with her blue-green eyes, her vertical black pupils growing wider.
“I’m sorry, uncle. There’s much I still must do. The old ways are blind to the necessities our future holds. I guess this is goodbye, then.”
“I am your blood and you will obey me,” the Caretaker roared.
“Not anymore.”
The Caretaker’s face grew purple beneath his scales, his rushing blood visible beneath his pale skin. He pointed to Astrid and yelled to his guards, “Kill them all.”
Liam got his shot off first, taking out one of the guards with a ball of energy that left him convulsing on the ground. Saturn and Ju-Long fired on the remaining guards as Liam took Astrid by the arm and started moving with her back toward the ramp. One of the guards caught Nix in his left shoulder, grazing it and leaving a hole where the meat of his deltoid should have been. Nix cried out angrily and retrieved his weapon from its holster, returning fire and hitting his attacker in the face with an energy blast. The crew continued to back toward the ship, blue lasers flying past them and sparking off The Garuda with little effect on its hull.
Only one Ansaran guard remained along with the Caretaker, who hadn’t bothered drawing a weapon. Before the crew disappeared up the ramp Liam heard him say, “She’s no blood of mine.”
At the top of the ramp, Liam hit the button and the lift began to close. Liam took off toward the cockpit at a run. They had to get off Taleris, and quick. In the cockpit, Liam put his arm through the metal ring and gripped the control handle.
“A little help here?” he asked the ship, not really expecting a response.
Several of the switches flipped on their own and the engines whirred louder than before. Liam pulled up on the controls and the thrusters fired. They were airborne and gaining speed in seconds. Out the side window Liam saw thick blue lasers shooting past them. It must have been the planetary def
enses the Caretaker had mentioned, only they were clearly functioning. Liam cut hard to the left, maneuvering around in an unpredictable pattern to throw them off.
The Garuda fired a pair of extra boosters on its own and the ship shot forward at a blistering speed, leaving a trail of fire in its wake as the engines combusted the toxins in the air. Moments later they were crossing the threshold into space, a few stray lasers still firing upward but were refracted slightly off-kilter by the atmosphere. The Ansarans wouldn’t be able to adjust in time to make a difference. Liam punched in a quick course heading for one of the outer moons. They needed to get their bearings.
Saturn appeared in the cockpit’s entrance and said urgently, “You better get back here, it’s Nix.”
Liam set the autopilot and removed his hands from the controls. He stood and followed Saturn down the curving corridor to the cargo bay. Nix lay propped up against a yellow crate, hand bracing his left shoulder.
“Move your hand,” Ju-Long said. “We need to see.”
Nix dropped his hand and Ju-Long ripped the hole in the Dinari’s shirt to get a look at the wound. It wasn’t bleeding much, likely because the laser cauterized most of the wound. Still, it looked painful and the burn was at risk of infection.
Liam dropped to one knee in front of Nix and asked, “Do we have any medical supplies on board?”
Nix pointed to an adjacent crate.
While Saturn popped it open and began searching for something useful, Liam assured Nix, “We’re going to get you fixed up.”
Astrid paced around the cargo bay nervously. She was mumbling, “It’s all my fault. I’ve denounced my family and now I’ve killed one of the people helping me.”
“Don’t get your hopes up, Your Grace,” Nix said in a daze. “I’m not dead yet.”
Saturn handed Liam a syringe filled with a yellow fluid.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Judging by the label I’d say an antibiotic, but their medicine is a lot different than ours.”
Astrid took the syringe from Liam’s hands and said, “If you inject him with this, he’ll have a pretty good resistance to the Dinari phage sickness but that’s about it.”
Astrid searched through the crate and found another package, ripping it open with her teeth. She held the glass syringe in her hand, squeezing the plunger to remove any air bubbles inside. She approached Nix, who quickly tried to move away.
“I’m not trusting her with that. She’s going to try to finish me off.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Astrid said. “You saved my life.”
“Besides,” Ju-Long remarked, “There probably isn’t anything in our medicine stash that could kill you anyway.”
Astrid tried to approach once more but was met with the same reaction. She looked to Liam and handed him the syringe.
“Maybe you’ll have better luck.”
Liam shook his head out of exasperation and moved in to administer the antibiotics. Nix tried to scoot away but was held firm by Ju-Long.
“I don’t like needles!” Nix cried.
Liam injected him near the site of the wound and between two scales, each the size of a human thumb nail. When he’d finished squeezing the plunger he said, “Tough.”
22
Liam sat down at the dining table across from Nix, who was fidgeting with the bandage on his shoulder. The ship had been quiet since they left Taleris, but The Garuda was never truly quiet. The dull drone of the engines could be heard from any room on the ship. After a while he stopped noticing it. It was only after getting off the ship and coming back on that he remembered how many clinks and clanks there were around the old ship.
The kitchen smelled strongly of the curry-like substance, with distinctive notes of feet and mold to boot. Nix made the dish so often that the kitchen and the entire hallway outside it nearly always smelled of Leguma. It beat smelling like the grease they used on the gears in the engine room or Ju-Long after a hefty workout. He made a mental note not to visit the engine room any time soon.
Liam slid a bowl of Leguma across the metal table and said to Nix, “You shouldn’t mess with it. If you get an infection, Saturn’s going to be pissed that she spent all that time cleaning it.”
“It itches,” the Dinari complained.
“Eat your Leguma. You’ll feel better.”
Nix nodded and picked up the bowl with his good hand, slurping the hot liquid down loudly. A look of satisfaction came over him that can only be obtained from a good warm meal. Nix took the leftover Nerva plant at the bottom of the bowl and pressed it against the porous bandage. The orange liquid seeped in and colored the white field dressing. Nix sighed at the small comfort it gave. He said, “Nerva plant isn’t the best at healing laser burns, but it sure does feel good.”
“What does it feel like?”
“Like Endorphins running through your body. It’s hard to notice the pain.”
Liam smiled and pressed his elbows against the table, bringing his hands together and covering his mouth. His mind drifted to Saturn. She’d been talking to Astrid for nearly an hour, trying to get information out of her. This time it wasn’t an interrogation, but a civil conversation. At least that’s what Liam hoped was going on. Something in the back of his mind told him Saturn lobbied to talk to Astrid to keep him away from the Ansaran. Maybe she didn’t think he could remain objective. Whatever the reason, Liam wasn’t prepared to walk into his quarters and find Astrid’s dead body. An image filled his mind of Tiffany with a hole cut through her head by a laser. Once was enough.
Liam heard the clank of footsteps over the grated metal floors in the corridor and turned his head. Ju-Long hovered in the doorway with a confused look coming over him. He scratched his thick neck while he appeared to look for the right words.
“What is it?”
“It might be nothing, but you should probably check it out anyway.”
Nix started to get up but Liam waved him off. “Stay and finish, I’ll go.”
Nix nodded and picked up a long piece of Nerva plant with his fingers and dropped it into his waiting mouth, slurping the rest of it down noisily.
Liam stood and followed Ju-Long toward the front of the ship. On their way, Ju-Long explained, “I was just monitoring our sensors and considering our next play, when I saw something strange. It was just a blip but it got me thinking.”
“Show me.”
Ju-Long approached the center console and brought up a holographic image of the surrounding space. He pointed at a region near a few of the outer moons of Taleris. For a moment there was nothing, and then Liam saw it. A long, thin sliver appeared and then disappeared. Whatever it was, The Garuda’s sensors weren’t having a very good time of identifying it.
“I’ve seen three of those glitches around different moons.”
“I don’t think it’s a glitch,” Liam said, taking the pilot’s chair. “I think it’s time we made a course correction.”
Liam slipped his arm through the copper ring and gripped the control handle, jerking the ship out of autopilot. With his free hand he punched in the only coordinates he knew by heart.
“I’m setting course for Surya. Grab the others.”
Ju-Long moved to obey Liam’s order but stopped when the blips on the holographic image began to change. All three slivers broke their lunar orbits and were on course to intercept.
“Do you see that?”
“It’s them. Reapers.”
Liam flipped the emergency warning switch and red lights began to flash throughout the cockpit and the rest of the ship along with an annoying but unmistakable sound.
“They’re fast,” Ju-Long observed.
Liam watched the hologram for a moment and replied, “Too fast. Even at our top rate of acceleration they might catch us. We need a new plan.”
Nix arrived at the cockpit, followed closely by Saturn and Astrid. Nix asked, “What’s going on?”
“Reapers,” Ju-Long said, “And closing fast.”
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p; “Battle stations,” Nix ordered. “How long until intercept?”
Liam replied, “About ten minutes. But there might be another way.”
“What other way?” Nix asked.
“Well, you said it yourself, these things are powerful and fast. We’d never stand a chance against three in an open space battle.”
“What are you implying?” Saturn asked.
“Look here,” Liam said, pointing at the holographic projection. “This looks like it used to be a moon, but it must have been destroyed by some kind of asteroid. Taleris’ gravity field is still holding the fragments close to one another.”
Astrid remarked, “You’re going to fly us into that mess? Are you crazy?”
“We just need to get one of them alone. Nix, you said this thing has taken a Reaper out before. Do you know how?”
“The records are vague, but it’s said that normal laser blasts are ineffective against them. We’d have to use something else.”
Nix put extra emphasis on the last few words, and Liam had a feeling why. Astrid still didn’t know the history of The Garuda. Nix was surely reluctant to share that information with an Ansaran, even one that’s on the same side. If the Ansarans knew one of the legendary Corsair-class vessels was still in existence, they would do everything in their power to destroy it, even if it was helping their cause. Maybe they didn’t have to tell Astrid. Maybe she’d never even heard of the Corsairs.
“Ju-Long, get on that gun. You know the one.”
Ju-Long nodded and moved past Saturn to take the seat behind the co-pilot’s chair, bringing up a targeting display once he was settled.
Liam turned to the crew and said, “I’m changing course for the split moon, you guys might want to strap in.”
Saturn and Nix took their seats and Astrid was left standing awkwardly in the center aisle, gripping two of the cracked leather seats. When Liam noticed her standing there he said, “Oh, right. Maybe just hold on tight.”
Astrid replied, “That’s reassuring.”
