by F. T. Lukens
“So, you freed him?” Ren asked. “Abiathar? You were able to get him out?”
Vos smiled. “I did. Is that what you want? Abiathar to stop her? Then what? You throw my friend back into prison where you muzzle him until he’s needed again?”
“You created this mess,” VanMeerten shoved her finger into Vos’s chest. “You need to own this.”
Vos knocked her hand away. “Me? Your military regime came to my planet and interfered. I didn’t have designs on the drifts until I found a Corps regiment snooping and caught the son of a high-powered drift official with them.” Vos nodded to Asher. “How’s the shoulder by the way?”
“You’re lucky,” Asher said, “that I promised Ren I wouldn’t kill you here.”
“A soldier to the core. Even when branded a traitor.”
Ren pinched the bridge of his nose. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. I understand that there will be no trust between us. We’ve all betrayed each other. But we must stop Millicent. If you don’t want more Corps dead and if you want freedom for our planet, you’ll both shut up and listen to each other.”
Vos raised a black eyebrow and stroked his hand over his goatee. “Fine. I’m willing to bargain.”
“Not you, too,” VanMeerten said with a roll of her eyes to the heavens. “What do you want? A pardon?”
“Hardly,” Vos said, strolling around them in a circle like a shark circling its prey. “I want Erden. I want to rule.”
“No!” Liam stood. The dream wavered; reality shimmered. Holes opened in the sky and in the ground, revealing stark darkness just beyond the image he created. “You were a horrible baron. You kidnapped my brother and my friends. You stole our food and our livelihoods.”
Vos held up his hands, head tilted. “I can’t argue.”
“We’re not sacrificing the planets to save the drifts,” Ren said.
“Well, then,” Vos said, backing away from the group. “No deal.”
“We don’t need him, anyway,” Asher said. He shrugged. “His army defected to Millicent, so he wouldn’t be helpful. And I doubt he knows where she’s going to strike next.”
Vos stopped his retreat. He looked at Asher and let a slow smile bloom over his face. “You’re trying to appeal to my vanity. You think I’d care about what you think of me, a Corps traitor and a little boy who stayed in my prison for a year? I don’t.”
“But you’re not walking away.”
Vos clasped his hands together in front of him. “No, I’m not.”
“It burns you that your faithful so easily abandoned you for another. Granted, her power is spectacular, but it pales in comparison to Ren’s.”
Vos tapped his lips with a finger. “I admit it stings. What would my part be in all this? You already have an army,” he said, gesturing to VanMeerten. “And you have a star host that can presumably stop her. What do you need from me?”
“We don’t need you,” VanMeerten said with a frown. “And I am having a hard time understanding why you’re here.”
“We need a backup plan,” Ren said. “I don’t know if I can defeat her. She has manipulated me in the past. Vos is a duster. He cultivated the devotion and respect of the people who follow her now. He may be able to turn them back to his side. He also has Abiathar, who can help me. Abiathar can stop both of us if it gets out of control.”
“And he probably knows where she is going next.”
Vos didn’t refute Asher’s statement. “And again, we’re down to compensation,” Vos said. He spread his hands. “I gave you my terms.”
“You can have Erden,” VanMeerten said, with a wave of her hand.
Ren stiffened. “No.”
She spun on her heel, sand flying. “You want the planets to be able to govern themselves. Correct? Well, if they don’t want him in leadership then they can revolt. That is their choice of action. Not mine. Not the Corps. We won’t interfere if that happens, but if he’s so important to this mission, as you seem to believe, then I will not have you and your brother stand in the way of stopping this madwoman.”
Ren took a step back. “You’ll install him as a puppet?”
“No,” VanMeerten said. “We’ll give him a ship and his army and will not interfere when he comes back to this,” she swept her hand to encompass their environment, “dirt hole.”
Liam shot to his feet. “No!” The dream wavered again, the sky turned purple, and the waves slapped against the shore as reality shuddered.
Ren held out a steadying hand to Liam. “It’s okay,” he said to his brother, then turned back to the group. He bristled. “Fine.” He glanced at Vos’s arrogant and pleased expression and his stomach churned. “I’ll have people waiting for you. Don’t think it will be easy.”
“Oh, I welcome a challenge.”
“Enough.” Asher pulled Ren to his side from where he had drifted toward both VanMeerten and Vos. “Tell us where she’s going next.”
“In my plan, my next two targets would be Nike or Ephesus.”
Asher crossed his arms. “Both small and far away from the major routes. Why?”
“Liam,” Ren said, keeping his gaze glued to Vos. “Can you bring up a map?”
A large map of the cluster sprouted from the ground between them, then bloomed outward. Planets and drifts spun lazily.
“Highlight Phoebus and Echo. What was the other drift she’s taken?”
“Viktory drift.”
The three drifts flashed gold on the map. They were all outer drifts, near planets or moons, and scattered near the edges. “And Nike and Ephesus.” They also burned gold, and Ren saw the pattern instantly.
“Your plan was to make a barrier. You were going to circle the major drifts and slowly move inward.”
“Tightening a noose,” Vos said, pleased with himself. He poked at the map and set Mykonos drift spinning. “Until I could get there.”
“Last time you tried that, you were stopped,” VanMeerten shrugged. “What makes you think you could take it this time?”
“Last time, I was stopped by him,” Vos pointed to Ren. “But by all accounts, he was dead. Also, I had devised a much better plan now that I knew the limitations of your regime.”
“Great plan,” Asher said, sarcasm thick.
Ren ignored them all. “She’s following your pattern.” Ren squinted. “Evacuate the Corps from Nike and Ephesus.”
“That’s impossible,” VanMeerten sneered. “It will arouse suspicion. It will cause panic.”
“Do you want more soldiers to die?”
“No. I do not. If I evacuate those drifts, then what? She will waltz in unopposed.”
Ren nodded sharply. “Yes. That’s what we want.”
Vos’s eyebrows shot up. “What are you planning?”
“You and Abiathar will be waiting on one drift, and I will be waiting on the other. Wherever she lands, we’ll be prepared, and the others will then converge to support.”
“And what will you be waiting with?”
“Traps,” Ren said. “I was ensnared in Perilous Space and I can create the same obstructions in the drift systems. Maybe I can capture her.”
“And if she goes to his drift?”
Vos tilted his head and smiled, self-confident. “You forget. I have a star host who controls others with his voice. He can stop her. I can stop her zealots.”
“And I am supposed to trust you both? Trust that you won’t take the drifts for yourselves?”
“Yes,” Asher said. “You have to.”
“I don’t want a drift. I only want this to all be settled,” Ren said. He tapped his bare foot and crossed his arms.
Vos shrugged. “As long as you keep your end of the bargain, I don’t see why I would want a little outlier drift.”
VanMeerten pointed a finger at Vos and then swung around at Ren. “I’ll be watching
the both of you and will have regiments ready by both drifts. And if you cross me, I’ll throw you so deep in Perilous Space neither of you dusters will ever see another planet sunrise. Am I clear?”
Vos smirked. “We’ve both escaped there once.”
“Why you—”
“Yes. Fine.” Asher interrupted and waved his hand before another verbal sparring match could break out. “We’ll be on Ephesus.” Asher gestured to Liam. “We’re done here.”
Liam nodded, and the dream winked out.
* * *
“How did it go?” Rowan asked as soon as Ren woke. Asher stirred next to him and sat up, rubbing a hand over his head.
“We have a plan,” Ren said.
“And?”
“And it’s the best we can do.” Asher mumbled.
Liam jerked up. He glared at Ren as he stood, stomping out of the common room, presumably to his bunk.
“Is he okay?” Rowan asked.
Ren sighed. “We had to make a trade. He didn’t like it.”
“I don’t think I want to know.” She sat on the couch next to Asher. “Are you sure about this?”
“No.” Asher rested his hand on Ren’s shoulder. “I’m afraid any plans we make are going to be thrown out the airlock as soon as we encounter her.”
Ren leaned into the touch. “It was worth a try.”
“Yeah,” Asher agreed.
“So, what now?” Rowan nudged Ren with the toe of her boot. “What’s the plan?”
Ren and Asher exchanged a look. “We’re going to Ephesus drift.”
* * *
Liam stood on the bridge, looking out at Erden through the rocky debris of the broken moon. Ren tentatively approached from behind, as Lucas typed the coordinates to Ephesus drift in the nav console.
“Sorcha and Jakob will stop Vos,” Ren said, standing next to Liam’s side. “We’ll alert them, and they’ll be waiting for him.”
“He’ll have an army,” Liam said, voice low, fingertips splayed on the viewing screen. “He’ll roll over them.”
“He won’t. Sorcha has an army too. You should see the person she’s become. Jakob too. You’d be amazed.”
“And the person you’ve become?” Liam asked, gaze breaking from the sight of their home planet to rest heavily on Ren.
“Will do whatever it takes to make sure everyone I care about is safe. Including you. Including them. Including this crew.”
Liam turned away. “I never thought of you as someone other people would be scared of, but that general, and even Baron Vos, both of them were afraid. Should I be too?”
Ren pressed his lips together and remained quiet. The answer was too complicated for the moment, but Liam took it for an answer anyway.
“Do you think I’ll see it again? Erden?”
“Of course.” Ren knocked his shoulder into Liam’s. “Once it’s all said and done, I’ll bring you right back. Maybe even you can be part of Vos’s welcoming party.”
Liam huffed, and the corner of his mouth lifted into a smile. “I’d like that.”
“Ren?” Lucas asked. “Everything’s ready. We just need a little freaky science-magic.”
Ren gave Lucas a small smile. “You too, huh?”
“It’s catchy.”
Ren grumbled good naturedly and crossed the bridge to the nav console. He nodded to Lucas.
“Hey all,” Lucas said into the comm, “we’re about to move quickly through time and space via technopathic abilities. Hold on to something.”
Several voices came over the comm at once affirming the crew was ready.
Ren glanced to Liam, who sat on the floor with his back against the bulk head and watched Ren with a wary gaze.
Closing his eyes, Ren blew out a breath. He gathered his power and entered the ship, bled into the systems, flooded the circuits with his presence and his will. Electricity crackled over his body and throbbed under his skin, matching the beat of his pulse. Static and power crested higher and higher, built upon itself until both Ren and the ship reached their limit. The power exploded outward, kinetic and powerful, a wave of light and sound. Space folded and time stretched and snapped.
The Star Stream burst into existence on the outskirts of Ephesus drift.
“I think I am getting used to that,” Lucas said, stretching his arms behind his head. “It beats puttering down a trade route.”
Face pale, Liam staggered away from the view screen. “I don’t think I’m used to it yet,” he muttered.
Lucas laughed while he hit buttons and received information from the docking staff. “Stick with us, and the extraordinary becomes ordinary. Like a year ago, I thought people like you were duster myths, and now, well, I know better.” He flashed a wide smile before flipping open the shipwide comm. “Hey all, we’re here and in the docking queue. Drift time is the middle of the night, perfect for sketchy activities.” Ren frowned. “And reconnaissance. Sketchy activities and reconnaissance.”
Ren shook his head. “Darby is a bad influence on you,” he said over his shoulder as he left the bridge.
* * *
They docked without a problem. The Star Stream eased into the bay and settled on the drift’s deck plate. During the entire process, Ren fidgeted, tugging at the collar of the jacket he’d taken from Asher’s room. After a few minutes to allow pressurization, Ren opened the back doors of the ship wide, as if they were taking on cargo. His power crackled in the mechanism. He followed Ollie and Rowan down the ramp with Asher at his side and Liam trailing with an open mouth and wide eyes. Darby elbowed Liam in the side.
“Close your mouth, dust bunny, or do you want to be pegged a mark.”
Liam snapped his mouth shut. Darby looped her arm through his and tugged him through the doorway from the Star Stream’s slip into the dock itself. “Stick with me. You’ll be all right.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Liam said in return.
Ren bit back a chuckle.
“Remember, we’re doing reconnaissance,” Asher said, casting a glance at the duo. “Not picking marks or other…” He sighed. “…sketchy activities.”
Darby shrugged. “I can’t do both?”
Rowan spoke into her comm. “Hey, Pen and Lucas, we’re on drift. We’ll check in on the hour.”
“Okay, Rowan,” Penelope’s voice was cheery. “We’ll be here and will keep an eye out on the docking traffic.”
“Alert us when the Corps regiment VanMeerten promised gets here,” Asher said.
“Will do. You be careful.”
“We’ll try,” Rowan said with a wry smile.
The group left the dock through a small door and spilled into the drift proper. A few shops and restaurants were open on the dock level. Signs flashed, and drones flew overhead, carrying objects back and forth. The usual announcements were quieter than during the bustle of the drift’s day, and only a handful of individuals milled about. Lucas had said it was the middle of the sleep cycle for the drift residents, which left docking parties like their own and a few opportunistic merchants awake.
They stopped at a large observation window, and Ren smiled when Liam looked out as the backdrop of stars rotated around them.
“Holy dust,” he whispered.
“Bunny,” Darby said, cheeks dimpling. “This is nothing.”
Asher nudged Ren’s arm. “Reminds me of you.”
Ren blushed. “Shut up.”
“Anyway,” Rowan said, tapping her lips, “there is a reason we are here. We’ll split up to cover more ground.”
Ollie draped his large arm across Darby’s shoulders and tugged both her and Liam to his side. “I’ll take these two.”
“Good.” Rowan adjusted the weapon at her hip. “I’ll head up. You three head down. Ren, can you give us a quick layout?”
“Sure thing.” Ren swept
into the drift’s systems, vision washing blue, to pull up schematics and abruptly stopped. The sickly-sweet embrace of Millicent’s power rolled over him as soon as he slid into the systems. He stumbled, hand against his chest, a cold sweat breaking out along the back of his neck. He leaned heavily against the drift’s bulkhead.
“Ren? What’s wrong?” Asher was beside him in an instant and wrapped his hand around Ren’s arm to steady him.
He swallowed the lump in his throat. “She’s already here.”
15
“What do you mean she’s already here?” Asher grabbed Ren’s arm. His fingers bruised Ren’s elbow.
Ren grimaced. Millicent’s power pulsed in the systems of the drift. She was there, and her signature crawled in Ren’s veins; it ebbed and flowed over him like the tides compelled by Erden’s broken moon, and his stomach lurched. This wasn’t a series of remnants like he’d felt on Echo. It wasn’t a caress of his skin or a touch against his own star. This was an infestation, a sickening surge of her presence everywhere around him. Ren recoiled, and she followed, poking at his star with her own. Wrapping his arm around his middle, Ren closed his eyes and would have doubled over if not for Asher’s grip.
“She’s here.” He gulped down the acid in his throat. “And she knows I’m here too.”
“She beat us,” Asher said. He turned to the group. “Rowan, get everyone back to the ship! We need to get out of here.”
“Too late.” Ren trembled.
The sound of boots striking the deck in unison echoed down the drift corridor. Whipping his head, Ren spied a cadre of troops in helmets and body armor, weapons raised, marching toward them from one way. In the other direction, a lift dinged, and the sliding doors revealed a second troop. As the first few filed out, Rowan and Asher exchanged a glance.
Ren’s gut twisted as Rowan’s hand dropped to the weapon at her hip, and Asher pulled his from his shoulder holster. They nodded to each other.
“Scatter,” Rowan said voice low. “Make for the ship if you can or hide and wait. Understood?”
“Yes, captain,” Ollie said.
She nodded, body tense like a spring. “Okay, now. Go now!”
