by Trevor Scott
“Shit,” Liam said. “Where is she?”
Saturn pressed a button on the side of her weapon and the energy dissipated harmlessly into the air. She turned to Liam and felt a rush of blood to her face. His cold blue eyes softened when they met hers and he brushed a long strand of blond hair away from his stony face.
“Should we split up?” Nix asked.
“No, that’s what she’d want,” Liam said. “It’s a small ship, we’ll take it room by room.”
Liam took off down the corridor with Nix, Saturn following him closely. When they reached the cargo bay they searched around each large yellow crate, careful to keep one another in eyesight. The place was empty.
The heat was unbearable now. The temperature in the cargo bay was rising. She tightened her sweaty grasp on her crescent-shaped weapon, fingers slipping until she added a second hand to maintain her grip.
Saturn heard the clanking she sometimes heard in the pipes which ran overhead along the corridor to the cockpit. She and Liam made eye contact and nodded to one another. Liam led the way down the curving passageway. Sweat poured down Saturn’s face and she tried to brush her hair behind her ears to keep it out of the way. The unruly mess wasn’t cooperating and she didn’t have time to fix it.
At the entrance to the kitchen Liam and Nix shot around the corner. Saturn, however, was looking straight ahead to the cockpit. There she saw Astrid in the pilot’s seat, messing with the controls. Saturn let out a low whistle, just loud enough to get the attention of the other two. Liam and Nix popped back into the hallway and followed Saturn’s pointing finger to the cockpit.
Liam charged his energy weapon and stepped quietly toward the front of the ship. Saturn followed within a meter of Liam, catching a glimpse of the V formed by his back through his drenched shirt. She shook her head. She had to focus. But the heat. Her brain felt cooked through.
When Liam was within a few feet of the cockpit, Astrid turned her head to the side and said flatly, “We’re approaching Narra.”
Saturn and the others pointed their energy weapons at Astrid, who turned around, awestruck.
“What is this?” she demanded.
“Step away from the console.”
Astrid raised her hands out in front of her and got up and out of the pilot’s seat. She looked ragged, with sweat pouring down her lightly scaled face and tired bags forming under her eyes. Astrid gazed between her and Liam, notably avoiding eye contact with Nix. She asked, “Here I thought we were past this.”
Liam spoke in a harsh voice, “Tell me about The Heiress.”
“The Heiress to what?”
“To the Alliance.”
Recognition flooded Astrid’s features. Her eyes took on a slight glow that was even more pronounced in the low cockpit light. She nodded and said, “My eldest sister.”
Astrid took a step forward and looked at Nix, the glow in her eyes growing in intensity. Nix readjusted his grip on his weapon. Saturn eyed him cautiously. Something about him seemed ready to snap.
Astrid continued, “It’s exceedingly rare for a family to birth an Ansaran female, let alone two. It’s expected that the females keep having children until they have a girl to replace them. When I was young, they called us miracles.”
“And now?” Liam asked.
“Dead weight,” Astrid spat. “My father could only choose one of us to inherit the alliance. My sister, being the eldest, earned that right. I was sent to Taleris to live with my uncle, in case anything should happen to my sister.”
“Isn’t that nice,” Nix seethed. “Let’s skip ahead to the part where you and your freak sister were engineered to kill.”
Astrid’s eyes widened, their glow squelched with her surprise. She said with a shaky voice, “What are you talking about?”
Nix moved quicker than Saturn had ever seen, even faster than when a fresh pot of Leguma was ready for consumption. He took hold of Astrid and grappled her to the grated metal floor, his energy weapon pulsing near her head and his other arm bearing down on her windpipe. He yelled, “Try to use your power against me, I dare you.”
Saturn looked between Nix and Liam. Normally Liam might have stopped it, remembering his misguided noble core. Now, he simply stood there, listening intently with his weapon pointed down at the Ansaran. Something had changed about him.
Astrid choked out sounds but was unable to form them into words. Nix loosened his grip just enough for her to say, “Whatever power you think I have, you’re wrong.”
“Why do your eyes glow?” Saturn asked.
Astrid’s eyes rolled back so that Saturn was in her sight. The glow pulsed angrily now. Astrid replied, “It happens when I feel strong emotions. I don’t know why.”
“Why did you try to kill Ju-Long?” Liam asked.
Astrid bore a look of confusion. “Ju-Long is hurt? Is he okay?”
Nix hit her face with the underside of his crescent-shaped weapon and repeated Liam’s question. A trickle of blood fell down her high cheekbones. Astrid began to weep softly. Saturn noticed Liam’s weapon lower slightly. She knew he wouldn’t have the stomach for this sort of thing. Astrid was clearly lying, but seeing a woman in distress went against everything Liam stood for.
The Ansaran didn’t say anything now, she only stared out the cockpit’s window, watching the stars go by. Something tugged at Saturn’s stomach. She knew that look well. Saturn had drifted off just like that once before. Sights and sounds retreated to the back of her mind and she focused on a single point, waiting for an end that wouldn’t come.
Nix wound up for another swing but Liam and Saturn both stopped him, pulling him off of Astrid’s chest despite his violent protests.
“What are you doing?” Nix asked. “She’s playing you both. Her and her sister are freaks, designed for nothing more than to kill.”
“This isn’t the way,” Liam said. “Not like this.”
Nix was irate now, and screamed at the Ansaran, “I watched your sister kill three of my friends with a word. In the same breath she manipulated the Caretaker and gods know what else.”
Astrid began to sit up and, still clutching her bruised throat, said, “I haven’t seen my sister since I was six years old. Any power she has certainly skipped over me.”
Liam put a hand under Astrid’s arm and helped her up, his weapon still out and ready if needed. He asked her in a stern but gentler voice, “Have you ever heard of something like this before?”
Astrid avoided eye contact and rubbed at the geometric patterns along her graceful neck. She said, “I’d say they’d kill me if I told you, but we both know they aim to kill me anyway. The research facility on Narra once studied Ansaran genetics. We were having too few female children, a side effect, I suppose. They thought to fix it by tampering with our genome even further.”
“What kind of tampering?” Saturn asked.
“It started with screening for defects and known disorders. Soon, it escalated into engineering strength and other desired features. At the end of the War of a Thousand Years, my grandfather decided that our race should not be vulnerable to another prolonged conflict. They began to experiment, free of any safeguards. I don’t know what they created.”
Liam maintained his grip on her arm and asked, “Why were you really on Narra?”
“My uncle sent me. Ever since I was a child, he treated me coldly, as detached a surrogate parent as any there ever was. He wanted me to see with my own eyes what an abomination I am.”
Nix growled, “As I said, engineered to kill. Can we kill her now?”
Liam held a hand up to quiet Nix and said, “Let her speak.”
Astrid hugged her body. Saturn could see this wasn’t easy for her. She’d just been attacked, she’d have no obligation to tell them anything. Still, the Ansaran continued with a shaky voice, “I found the facility deserted, but I was able to piece together what they were working on. I saw the cylindrical chambers, the laboratories, everything. And then I saw the records and I knew it was true. I
was born out of one of those cold chambers, incubated until I could survive outside of it. Elayna, the so-called Heiress, was born of a similar chamber just days before me.”
“Is that why you have this death wish?” Liam asked.
Astrid avoided the question and said, “I don’t know why we were created, but I’ve never seen this power you’ve spoken of. If they’d altered us in some way, it wasn’t in their records.”
“We can take you back there when this is over, maybe you’ll find something useful.”
“No,” Astrid said quickly. “It wouldn’t do any good anyway. I burned the labs. There won’t be any more abominations.”
“Convenient,” Nix said with his arms crossed. “All evidence to back up your story is burned to a crisp.”
Astrid said calmly, “If I did have powers, you would be the only one I’d punish.”
Before Nix could form a retort, the cockpit was abuzz with warning sounds. Saturn crossed the room to the main console and rested her energy weapon on top, bringing up the scans of the surrounding region. Narra was close, one of its moons within half a million miles. The Reapers still trailed but they were slowly closing the distance. They meant to intercept them before they lost the advantage.
Saturn announced, “We’re less than fifteen minutes out from Narra’s closest moon. They’re gaining on us.”
Liam cursed and spat, “We’ll settle this later. Battle stations.”
30
Liam gripped Astrid’s shoulder and stared into her blue and green eyes, their vertical slits growing wide as the glow faded. She didn’t fight his grasp, rather, she seemed too fascinated to notice. Liam told her, “If you want to live, get on a gun.”
Astrid hesitated a moment, and then nodded silently, brushing past Liam to the open chair behind the pilot’s seat. Liam noticed that Nix had immediately taken Ju-Long’s seat, where the controls for the main gun were located. He didn’t blame the Dinari. Astrid had a long way to go if she wanted to prove herself, and knowing the truth about their ship was a long way off.
Liam took his seat at the front of The Garuda and slipped his arm through the familiar copper circle, gripping the handle on the other side. The copper ring tightened snugly around his arm and he felt control of the ship at his fingertips. He altered course so they were pointed slightly off from Narra’s moon, but still well within its gravitational pull. Liam ran the calculations in his head several times, but numbers were never his strongest suit. Still, his plan was just crazy enough to work. If the Reapers wanted a fair fight, they were going to have to look someplace else.
“Saturn, what’s the temperature in the engine room?”
“Over one thirty, why?”
“It might get a little hotter.”
Nix chimed in, “There’s sensitive equipment in there. It’s hot enough as it is.”
“It’ll be temporary.”
“It’s not like we can vent the excess heat out here, this ship wasn’t designed that way.”
“Why wouldn’t the engineers come up with a solution for the heat?” Saturn asked. “It seems like a big oversight.”
“It’s never been a problem before he started driving. The coldness of space has done enough in the past to cool down the ship. This place is usually a meat locker.”
Liam said, “When we make it back to Surya, remind me to make some alterations.”
“You mean if we make it back,” Saturn jeered.
“If we’re dead we won’t care about the heat,” Liam reasoned.
“Comforting.”
Liam ignored her and focused his attention on the glowing holographic projection in the center of the console. The Reapers flew side by side, the leader’s nose sticking out slightly ahead of the other. They were within 750,000 miles now. Liam cursed. The Kurazon were almost within targeting range. Out of the corner of his eye, a third dot flashed briefly on the outside of the scanner’s range, disappearing almost as quickly as it appeared. Liam hit the console trying to make the dot show up again.
“What was that?” Saturn asked.
“I don’t know, it could be nothing. But we’ve got bigger problems to deal with.”
Liam’s left hand found its way to the throttle. Saturn eyed him with a dangerous look. He wrapped his hand around the handle and pushed it forward as far as it could go, which was hardly any farther than it was already pressed. The cockpit was bathed in flashing red light and groans emanated up through the floor, shaking the consoles violently. The Garuda wasn’t amused.
Saturn yelled over the din, “Nix, are you sure there’s no way to cool us down?”
“Not without sucking us all into space. I told you, the ship wasn’t meant to accelerate this fast.”
“We just need to hold out a little longer,” Liam shouted.
They were approaching the moon now and Liam turned the ship into orbit. He felt his hand shift ever so slightly, surely the work of The Garuda adjusting his aim. It wasn’t the first time the ship had made adjustments on its own, but every time he saw it Liam found himself surprised. It was good to know The Garuda practiced the art of self-preservation.
Narra’s rockiest moon grew before them and its massive canyons came into view. Liam kept an eye on their speed, which continued to climb as the moon exerted its pull upon them. They were traveling along the dark side, coming up on the bright horizon. Liam got ready to make his move, but when he went to move the controls, he found the control handle moving on its own once again, breaking the moon’s orbit and shooting toward Narra. When he checked the readout on his screen, Liam noticed that they’d broken orbit at precisely the right angle to maximize their acceleration. It made him wonder why he even bothered driving.
“We’re headed for the surface?” Saturn asked.
“Not exactly.”
They were traveling far faster than Liam had ever gone before. The Reapers were matching their course, beginning to come around Narra’s closest moon and closing on The Garuda. Liam’s heart beat faster, swiftly pumping blood to his extremities. He’d thought about using the moon’s canyons to force a chase, but it was too risky. With two ships they could split up or attack from a higher orbit, negating the risky maneuvers he was taking near the surface. He had a better idea. It was the only thing that made sense to him and the only way he could think to have the advantage over two Kurazon Reapers.
“They’re closing,” Saturn said. “I don’t know how but they’re moving even faster than we are.”
Liam directed the ship to the steepest angle of descent he could. The Garuda tried to shift the controls away but Liam held firm. The stream of purple energy overhead grew enflamed, angered by Liam’s denial. The roar of the engines became louder in protest.
“Easy,” Liam said to the ship. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Who are you talking to?” Astrid asked, confusion coloring her voice.
“All captains talk to their ships,” Liam hedged.
Astrid said skeptically, “Is that right?”
Nix pointed to Astrid’s console and told her, “Drop it. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep your eyes on your screen.”
Astrid was silent. Liam caught her face in the reflection of the cockpit’s window and saw her close her eyes and clench her jaw. Astrid’s demeanor could very well have been a ruse. He had to be ready to act. It had crossed his mind that she was hiding whatever power she held until after they dealt with the Reapers. Revealing herself before would be suicide. It had also occurred to him, but seemed far less likely, that perhaps she was telling the truth. Maybe she didn’t have the same alterations as her sister and she was innocent in all of this. It seemed far-fetched, but stranger things had happened.
Liam heard Ju-Long’s woozy voice over the speakers in the console, “What’s going on?”
“Just sit tight Ju-Long, things are going to get a little bumpy from here on out.”
“You didn’t even buy me dinner first.”
Liam laughed and replied, “Just h
old on to something.”
Saturn pointed at the hologram and stated, “We’re approaching the outer atmosphere but we’re coming in too fast, we need to change our angle of descent.”
A green laser shot past the cockpit, breaching the atmosphere and causing an explosion on the surface of the planet below. Liam held their course. It was hard to see out the cockpit’s window now, with a glowing orange trail of rushing air flowing over The Garuda’s curves. The effect only lasted a moment and they were free of the upper atmosphere. Liam fired the reverse thrusters in an attempt to slow their descent.
The Garuda’s angle changed from nearly ninety degrees to sixty, still steep but much more manageable. Liam was able to fire the remaining thrusters underneath the curved belly of the ship and slow their descent further. More green lasers found their way past them, one of them grazing the hull behind the cockpit and jolting the vessel.
“Open the vents, get rid of the excess heat,” Liam ordered.
Saturn hesitated before finding the right controls on her console. The heat levels began to drop and several of the warning lights stopped flashing. Saturn checked the holographic image of the surrounding area and said, “They’re breaching the atmosphere. They’ll be on top of us in seconds.”
Liam flipped a hard switch and released The Garuda’s long wings. He felt his insides jump as the wings slowed their descent to a crawl. Liam punched the accelerator and used their new maneuverability to turn the ship around. The plummeting Reapers were in their view and firing on them. Liam spun The Garuda around in a spiral, minimizing the hits to the wings.
“Are you crazy?” Nix asked incredulously.
“Fire everything!” Liam commanded.
The crew complied and Narra’s tinted green sky was colored with blue lasers. The Garuda sputtered and then released a volley of its electric napalm substance from deep within the ship. The lasers were ineffective against their armor, but a portion of their main weapon found its way to the hull of the rear ship, corroding the top of the ship and forcing fragments of metal to break off into the sky.
Liam turned hard to the right and accelerated out of the Kurazon ships’ flight path. The Reapers were desperately firing every thruster trying to slow their descent, but they were less effective than The Garuda had been. Their angles began to level out but they were falling too fast. Liam brought the ship about and watched them drop beneath the jungle’s high canopy. He waited for an explosion but one never came.
