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Chapter Four
Adreax
“I said bring us closer, not take us down to the ground!” I grumbled for the umpteenth time, rubbing at the knot on my head where I’d slammed into the command console on landing.
“And I already told you I didn’t think it was a good idea with one of our engines down. How was I supposed to know that we’d get yanked in by the gravitational pull?” Herod argued.
But our argument ended as we threw our shoulders into our work, tugging and shoving at theGreedy She-Devil, trying in vain to get her unstuck from the precarious position where she’d taken a nosedive into the sandy ground. It had not been a graceful landing. I grunted, heaving against the cutter’s underside, rocking it one way and then the other with all my might. At times like these, I was glad I hadn’t invested in a larger ship.
“You think we’d be better off unloading the cargo? We could lighten her up a bit before we break our backs, you know?”
“And what? Show everyone on this planet what we’re packing?” I asked incredulously. “No thanks. I’d like to keep my secrets hidden until we know what we’re up against.”
Herod eased himself away from the ship and looked around.
“I don’t know, Dre. It looks like we’re the only living souls around.”
I paused to catch my breath and turned to look for myself. He was right. I’d been so caught up in surviving the rough landing that I hadn’t really paid attention. But the ground was untouched. No buildings, no movement, and not a sound beyond our own ragged breathing.
“What is this place?” I wondered aloud, momentarily forgetting about my ship, and toeing at the dirt.
I knelt down and picked up the gritty substance, running it through my fingers thoughtfully.
“Obviously it’s a planet. I think the real question is how it got here. Maybe if we look around, we’ll find some sign of civilization.”
“No,” I said firmly. “We need to secure the ship first, and then we can do some exploring. If there’s anything out there, it’ll still be there when we’re done taking care of business.”
When I didn’t get a response, I turned back around and found that Herod was still staring at the horizon. I clapped him on the back, trying to redirect his attention to the work at hand. Now was not the time to be shirking our responsibilities, even if it was just the two of us.
“Look,” he hissed, grabbing my arm and spinning me gruffly to his side.
I peered into the distance, trying to spot the thing that had him so tongue-tied. Then I saw it. Movement. The faintest shadow of a being scaling the top of a ridge in the far distance. Instinctively, I dropped to the ground, pulling Herod down with me.
“Don’t move,” I whispered.
He grunted at me, and I resisted the urge to strangle him. He may be my best friend, but we still got plenty tired of one another on long runs, and I’d say it was long past time for us to have some space between us.
Despite my warning, he lifted his head slightly and watched the hill carefully. He shifted to one side and pulled his rifle out from under his body, then lowered himself carefully back down to his stomach so he could look through his scope.
“What do you see?”
“Will you give me a minute?” he growled. “Gotta get this thing focused first, and then you’ll be the first to know. Well, second, after me.”
I groaned, and tried to make myself patient, a virtue I had never really mastered in my lifetime.
“Looks like there’s only a couple of them…” he paused, scanning some more. “There’s some kind of camp up there. But they’re heading straight for us.”
“Then we need to stop them, immediately.”
He rolled over and gave me a look like I was out of my mind.
“Do I need to remind you we have a ship full of priceless cargo sitting here, and neither of us get paid until we deliver it? We don’t need to go stirring up more trouble by letting some strange creature from this planet come waltzing in here to take it! We do not know what they’re capable of.”
I shuffled backward on my belly, hoping I could make it all the way to my ship without having to expose myself.
“Heh. Just like that, eh? You wanted to get a closer look, and now we’re here, and you’ve turned cowardly? Is that it, Chief?”
Herod was goading me. He knew I would never back down from a challenge. I shouldn’t have to prove myself, especially not to him, but that didn’t change the fact that his words struck me like a call to arms. I scrambled back across the rocky dirt and snatched the rifle out of his hands.
