by Roxie Ray
He was still talking about returning me to Earth – but he'd also offered to take me to see the Macurian mating rituals. In his own way, it seemed like he was trying to gauge which one I'd choose when the time came.
I was kind of curious about that myself.
I felt so comfortable around Zark. He understood me in a way no one else could. The idea of staying with him instead of going back to Earth seemed crazy, but then, Carly had done it, right? Hadn't it worked out well for her? Not only would I be with someone who absolutely adored me – someone who genuinely believed that we were meant to be together, despite having been born at opposite ends of the galaxy – but I'd basically be a member of Valkred's royal family.
How could I give up the greatest love of my life to return to a planet where almost no one knew or cared that I even existed? How could I go back to counting pennies and going to bed hungry every night, when there was an entire universe of exotic luxuries and new experiences to explore?
But there was still a shadow hanging over it all. The truth was, neither of us might survive what was waiting for us on Macur. Torqa could murder me, for starters. Her people had already come close a couple of times. Worse, she could elude us completely, and then I'd have to watch the curse devour Zark alive.
Maybe Akzun would still honor Zark's vow to take me home if that happened… but how could I be sure? I got the distinct impression that Zark had made the offer without getting approval from his brother first. If Akzun refused to bring me to Earth, I'd be alone in a galaxy I didn't understand. A dangerous one, where humans like me were sold into slavery and alien sorcerers put curses on people who pissed them off.
My clairvoyance had never allowed me to see my own future – at least, not on my own planet. Maybe things were different now, though. Hadn't my abilities seemed super-charged ever since I met Zark and connected with his mind for the first time? What if I could catch a glimpse of what was ahead for me? It could help me work out my feelings and decide what to do when the time came.
I reached out silently, trying to chart my own course, to understand my own destiny.
It was like running head first into a brick wall.
Nothing. Just… nothing.
What if there were some way to cheat, to work around it? What if I tried to read Zark's future, or Torqa's? I reached out again.
Another wall. And now my head was really starting to hurt.
Shit. Their futures were too closely tied to my own for me to get any sense of them at all. What good were these damn powers if they couldn't tell me what I most needed to know? Sure, they were leading us to Torqa on Macur – but for all we knew, they could also be leading us into an ambush. In fact, that was almost a guarantee, given Torqa's cunning when it came to military tactics and strategy.
How could we hope to prevail without knowing what was waiting for us? There were only two of us against… dozens? Hundreds? More? We didn't even know that.
My thoughts drifted back to Respen. I barely knew anything about him, but at that moment, I wished I could reach across space, wrap my hands around his throat, and throttle the bastard to death for what he was putting Zark through. And all over a fucking book! One Respen could easily find and take back himself if he wanted to, instead of needlessly torturing the man I cared about! What kind of sense did that make? What kind of bizarre, idiotic alien logic was that supposed to be? Goddamn it, it just wasn't fair!
The more I learned about all these intergalactic races and their customs, the less I felt like I really knew.
I tapped a few commands into the data pad, switching the topic from Macurians to Lunians. Maybe there were answers to be found there. Some clue to the mystery, some way out of all this for Zark. I doubted it, but I had to try.
I flipped through the articles, even though I didn't really have any clue what I was looking for. It wasn't like there'd be some blinking red header to let me know which items had useful information on breaking curses.
Most of the known facts about Lunians were things I'd already gleaned for myself. Powerful seers and magic-users, seemingly immortal, glowing white skin, live on Yuluna, blah blah blah…
Then I saw a word that stopped me in my tracks.
Witches.
A term that had swirled around me since I was a little girl. Something that specifically tied my personal history to the Lunians.
“You've found something that interests you?” Zark asked. “I didn't mean to pry, but your thoughts were so loud that I didn't really need to make any effort to hear them. Like music played at a high volume in an adjoining room, you understand.”
“You don't need to apologize for reading my mind, Zark, although it's sweet of you. Yeah, this says that many centuries ago, a ship full of Lunians crashed on Earth.”
Zark nodded pensively. “I've heard tales of that, yes. The primitive Earthlings of that time were in awe of their powerful magic, and several of them even mated with the Lunians before they were rescued and returned to their home planet.”
“Yes,” I said excitedly, “and their offspring inherited some of the Lunians' abilities, and passed them down over the generations! There are even theories that those bloodlines were connected to some of the New England witch hunts and trials, since that's the area where the Lunian ship went down!”
“Well, it's a fascinating story, to be sure,” Zark admitted, confused, “but I'm not sure what it has to do with our current predicament.”
“The women in my family, Zark! Remember? I told you that they used to joke about being the descendants of witches? So what if they weren't joking? What if that's the reason I have these abilities? Because I'm part Lunian?”
He raised his eyebrows, mulling it over carefully. “I suppose it's possible. So little is known about the Lunians – they're a very secretive race, so we never gave much thought to that particular legend. Mostly, we chalked it up to human superstition and misunderstanding, just as early visits from Valkredians probably gave rise to stories of vampires in ancient cultures. Perhaps I should persuade Akzun to dedicate funds and resources to additional research on this sort of thing, once we’re through with this ordeal. The results could be most enlightening. Meanwhile, what does all of this mean in terms of our mission?”
“I'm not sure,” I mused. “It might mean there are other things I'm able to do besides just clairvoyance. Maybe, in time, I could figure that out? Is there anyone on Valkred who might be able to help me with that?”
“To be honest, I doubt it. If your theory is correct, it seems to me that the only people who would be able to provide that sort of guidance would be other Lunians. And since the most powerful member of their race has placed a curse on me, I'm not sure they'd be particularly willing to…”
Zark's control panel chirped, interrupting him. He glanced at it, and his eyes widened.
“What's wrong?” I asked.
“Long-range sensors just detected a small fleet on a direct intercept course with us. Over a dozen ships. Half the configurations are unknown, while the other half are registered to known outlaws and mercenaries.” He looked up at me, his expression grim. “It's Torqa and her followers. And they're powering up their weapons arrays.”
“Can we fight them off?”
He shook his head. “The Wrath is a tough ship, but against that many vessels? I don't think we can risk it. Damn. I had planned to hide the Wrath when we got close to Macur, then take the shuttle the rest of the way to avoid detection. So much for that.”
As he spoke, I saw a cluster of dots on the view screen, moving toward us in tight formation. The sight made a ball of ice form in the pit of my stomach. “So what do we do?”
Zark gritted his teeth. “We retreat, and try to find a different way to get to Macur without being spotted. Plotting an escape course now, and re-routing all available power to the rear energy shields.”
The Wrath lurched, turning around. The screen switched to a rear view – but as our speed increased, the pursuing ships seemed to move toward us
even faster, their images getting larger by the second. Their engines were glowing white-hot, and their cobbled-together designs made them look ugly and mean, like a pack of junkyard dogs closing in for the kill.
“How are they gaining on us so quickly?” I asked.
“The Wrath's a fast ship, but its size still makes it less maneuverable. Plus, those ships chasing us are packing illegal engine enhancements – not to mention whatever top-secret experimental upgrades Torqa managed to steal from the Valkred fleet before she fled.”
“Can we outrun them?”
Zark’s face was stony and determined. “We have to try.”
Three of the lead ships opened fire, and the barrage of deadly lasers connected with the rear shields, making them shimmer as the ship rocked beneath us.
I tossed the data pad aside. “What can I do to help?”
“I have to concentrate on flying the ship, so I can try to find the best escape route. I need you at the tactical console, returning fire.”
“But I don't know how to work the controls!”
“No, but I do, and you have access to everything that's in my mind,” he reminded me urgently. “Just read my thoughts and find the information you need. They may be faster than we are, but I doubt their shields are as strong. If we can pick off enough of them, maybe the rest will fall back.”
“Understood.” I let my mind merge with his, finding everything I needed to know about the ship's weapons systems. They seemed fairly straightforward – “pulse-mortars” for concussive blasts, “plasma disruptors” for more focused energy beams. The targeting mechanisms were easily programmable, and when I set them for the attacking ships, the circular red targets appeared over them automatically on the screen.
I started by unleashing a storm of the mortars. They thumped out of their tubes, finding the lead ships and exploding against their shields. They were still coming, but the protective energy bubbles around the three in the front were flickering.
Was there a way for me to detect how much damage I'd done to them? A quick search of Zark's mind revealed that yes, there was. I read the indicator meter and reported, “Shields down to sixty percent on the lead vessel, seventy-one and eighty-five percent on the two flanking it. No damage to the rest yet.”
“Keep hammering them,” Zark ordered sharply. “And use the mortars sparingly… we have a limited supply.”
I nodded, switching to disruptors and raking them across the row of ships as they kept firing. The shields on the lead ship blacked out and it fell back – swiftly replaced by two more at full shields.
I fired again, and again. The lasers hit their targets, but they weren't doing nearly as much damage as the mortars had. And every time the shielding on one of the ships dropped significantly, it dropped back to let the others ahead, giving it time to recharge.
It was hopeless. There were just too many of them, and from the looks of it, they'd overwhelm us in a matter of minutes. Our own shields were down to less than fifty percent. Based on what I'd seen in Zark's mind, I knew that the tough outer hull of the Wrath would give us some protection after the shields failed completely… but only for a few extra minutes.
Then, if this assault kept up, we'd be blasted into debris.
“This is too dangerous,” Zark said. “You need to get to one of the escape pods. I'll program it from here.”
“No! I'm not leaving you!”
“You have to. I won't let you stay here and risk being blasted into space dust for nothing. I'll try to lead them away so you can make it to Valkred, and…”
“Wait!” I exclaimed. “The escape pods!”
“What about them?”
“Remember last time, when Torqa launched the shuttle at us? What if we took a page from her book? We could launch the escape pods all at once and set them to explode on contact, like a cluster of bombs! That should take out most of the ships at once!”
Zark's eyebrows shot up. “Yes! There's no way their shields could possibly hold up! We'd just have to make sure they get close enough first, so there'd be no way for them to dodge.”
Another laser blast rocked the ship.
“I don't think that'll be a problem,” I said, watching the ships approach menacingly.
“I can configure the pods to seek out their targets and detonate on impact.” Zark's long fingers flew across the controls. “But you'll have to deploy them while I navigate the ship.” More blasts hit the Wrath, and I checked the gauge again.
Shields were at twenty-two percent.
Not good.
The outlaw fleet was looming, almost close enough to touch what was left of our rear shields.
“If we let them get any closer, the blasts from the pods will damage us,” Zark told me. “It's now or never, Miranda! Do it!”
I took a deep breath, offered up a silent prayer, and released the pods.
They detached from the Wrath with a whooshing sound, and a second later, I saw them – a cluster of small white ovals, like two-dozen eggs spilled out into the black void. The attacking ships immediately started blasting at them furiously, but it was already too late. A couple of them blew up before impact, but the rest hit their marks, and the hostile vessels erupted into flames that were quickly snuffed out by the vacuum of space.
When the clouds of wreckage cleared, there were only a couple of the ships left – and they looked too damaged to do anything but veer off and retreat.
I cheered, clapping my hands. “We did it! Zark, we fucking did it!”
Zark smiled… but that smile faded into a look of utter panic as he looked down at the control panel. “No. We merely allowed them to herd us into a trap. Shit.”
He cut the engines, and the ship came to a sharp stop. The view screen switched to the front of the Wrath, and I gasped.
A vessel stood directly in our way – huge and black and shiny, with widely-spaced thruster protrusions that resembled bat wings, a pointed nose cone, and a pair of wicked-looking laser cannons arranged beneath to suggest lethal fangs.
Our view screen flickered briefly, and the image was replaced with a holographic projection of a sneering Valkred female.
“Torqa?” I guessed.
“None other,” she replied, curling her upper lip to reveal her sharp teeth. “And thank you, Zark, for piloting the Wrath directly into my clutches. You are as pathetically predictable as ever.”
“From the look of your new vessel, you don't seem to have much use for the Wrath,” Zark replied, his fists clenched at his sides. “How the hell did you manage to build something so big so quickly?”
“Oh, do you like it? I call it the Dezmodon. Bleeding-edge Valkredian war technology… a marvel of theoretical science, honed to deadly purpose. I began building it in secret over a year ago. Upon its completion, I intended to present it to Akzun as an ultimate weapon to defeat the Mana. But before I could, he betrayed our entire planet by choosing to make peace with the fish-people instead.”
“How dare you accuse anyone of betrayal?” Zark snapped. “After what you did – ”
“Yes, yes, we can stand here all day rehashing the decisions I made in defense of my home world, but that would be tremendously boring,” Torqa said with a yawn. “And it wouldn't change the fact that your shields were drained to zero percent when the escape pods exploded. A nice tactic, by the way. I'm glad you managed to learn something from me during our time together.”
“Actually, it was my idea,” I pointed out.
She raised an eyebrow. “Ah. How clever. For a human, that is. Now, I have every intention of taking command of the Wrath. The Dezmodon has given me plenty of firepower, but the flagship of the Valkred fleet is a far greater prize. I intend to use it as a symbol to show our people who truly deserves to lead our planet, instead of your cowardly brother. I shall bring the Mana to their knees, and be welcomed back as a hero when I return to Valkred and depose Akzun. Naturally, I'd rather have the ship in one piece… so Zark, if you and your pet Earthling surrender without a fight, I
'll keep you both alive and tucked safely away while I execute my plans. If you resist and force me to damage the Wrath, your efforts will prove futile, and I'll torture the human girl to death while you watch helplessly. I urge you to choose wisely. And quickly.”
“We can't give up,” I pleaded with Zark. “We have no way of knowing whether she'll keep her word!”
“But he will give up, my dear, at least for now,” Torqa said with a nasty laugh. “I know he will, because I know him of old. Zark is an optimist at heart. He needs to believe in the best in people. Even me. More than that, he needs to believe he can go along, just so he can stall for time and think of a way out of all this for you. Not that he's actually intelligent enough to succeed, mind you. Go on, Zark. Feel free to prove me wrong.”
I stared at Zark, waiting for him to fight back.
Instead, to my shock, he hung his head. “Very well, Torqa. You win. We surrender.”
Torqa bared her teeth in triumph, then the view screen returned to the image of the Dezmodon. A shuttle detached from its underside, flying toward us. A few moments later, the control panel for the shuttle bay doors blinked as she took control of them remotely, and I felt the ship tremble as the small vessel docked inside the belly of the Wrath.
“What are we going to do?” I asked breathlessly.
“I don't know. But I'm not going to let her hurt you – not when there's still a chance we can find a way to escape together. For now, we'll just need to bide our time.”
There was something else in his mind, hidden, like someone rustling behind a curtain. Something that told me he wasn't prepared to fully surrender after all. “Zark, what aren't you telling me?”
But before he could answer, the door to the command deck slid open and Torqa strode through, flanked by six armored mercenaries.
“Gentlemen, we have officially taken the Wrath,” she snarled to them. “Subdue these two at once.”
Two of the soldiers leveled their blaster rifles at us. Zark tried to launch himself in front of me, but the soldiers were too fast, and arcs of green energy lanced out, hitting us.
