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I scoffed. “Rest? I’m afraid I’m already in fight-or-flight mode. There won’t be any resting for me.”
“Don’t worry. That’ll go away after your first few runs. Just don’t wear yourself out fretting about what’s coming. It won’t make the job any easier.”
Soleil dismissed me with a wave of her hand and turned back to studying the image on the screen. I moved through the crowded cabin, catching bits and pieces of hushed conversations, little tidbits of intel that each team was working with as they plotted their attack. The only ones who didn’t have their heads together making a plan were Tayla and Adreax. They stood at the helm, Tayla leaning back into Adreax’s chest, and his arms wrapped tightly around her midsection, holding her close as he pressed a kiss into the side of her neck and whispered into her ear.
They looked so serene together, like the universe had made them that way, and even the threat of battle could not break their bond. When Tayla’s eyes caught mine, I flushed with embarrassment, realizing I’d been staring. I don’t know why I found their romance so perplexing. Sometimes, I thought I could see myself like that someday. But mostly, I was too busy enjoying my first taste of independence to imagine tying myself to the first muscle-studded man to come along.
I moved past them, seeking a quiet place to settle my nerves and maybe do some meditation. It was a practice I’d picked up since being aboard this ship. All the girls seemed to do it, and they’d acted shocked that first day when I admitted that I’d never tried. I had to admit; it seemed to help. Or at least I told myself it was helping. Right now, I needed that extra bit of reassurance before we hit the ground running.
In the back corner of the ship, I found a quiet cubby where I could lock myself away from all the chatter and nervous energy that seemed to crackle through the air in the main cabin. I slumped against the wall and slid down to the floor, forcing myself to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth as I counted silently. Closing my eyes, I tried to envision quiet fields full of flowers and clouds floating through a bright blue sky, one of those picturesque Earth scenes I’d seen plastered all over Kychek growing up. I didn’t want to imagine what we were going to see down there. But even as I tried to focus on happier thoughts, I let my hand rest on the weapon strapped to my thigh, my fingers tracing small circles over the little symbols engraved in the side, some kind of serial number or identifier I couldn’t read. Until the Patrol was stopped, there would be no blissful fields and dreamy days. I was on a mission now, and I would not stop until every woman held captive had the chance to be as free as I was now.
I must have been more tired than I first suspected because what felt like only moments later, the sound of Tayla’s voice through the overhead system ordering everyone into position woke me. I could hear the engines thrumming, their pitch altering as we entered the atmosphere of the minor planet and closed in on our target. Swearing under my breath, I leapt to my feet and pushed my way down to the bay door, scanning the faces for Soleil. When I spotted her, her face lit up, and she grabbed me by the arm, hauling me over to her and setting me right before the blank face of the closed door.
“First in, last out, remember?”
“I remember,” I mumbled, feeling the tension rising in my shoulders as the seconds ticked by.
“Head straight for the watchtower.”
“I remember,” I repeated, this time with a twinge of irritation in my voice.
She snorted, her hand squeezing my shoulder good-naturedly as the engines changed their tune again and a high-pitched whine cut off all further conversation.
The ship dipped and rolled momentarily, and we all jostled together. My heart leapt into my throat and I had to steady myself before I opened my eyes again. Now, a thin line appeared along the seam of the bay doors and as I watched, it grew wider and wider, revealing the outpost little by little. I nearly froze, taken aback by the enormity of it all. In the fuzzy picture, it seemed so small. But from here, tall gray buildings clustered together, and I realized that this would not be a walk in the park.
Our ship dipped again, bringing us almost to the ground, and Soleil’s hand squeezed my shoulder once more reassuringly. I wasn’t sure if she could feel me quaking with the rattling of the ship all around us, but I appreciated her confidence nonetheless. Then, before I could catch my breath, the ship tipped unexpectedly, the rear ramp slamming into the ground and emitting an awful screech as it dragged across the rocks and dirt, kicking up plumes of dust in our wake. Soleil shoved me forward, taking off at a sprint.
We ran off the end of the ramp and leapt clear, landing hard and stumbling as we tried to regain our footing even as our arms remained locked together. She didn’t let go of me for even a second before pulling me up and bounding straight for the tallest building of the bunch.
2
MALIK
“You better appreciate this,”I grumbled to myself, waiting impatiently as my personal ship floated slowly and silently between the security beacons. I held my breath, scanning my console for any sign that I’d been detected.
If they spotted me, I’d have to light the engines and bounce out of there before they scrambled their fighters, and that wasn’t a race I was sure I could win. However, if I got past the beacons undetected, I was fairly confident I could slip right down into the outpost and spring my brother, Torgus, from his cell. It was he who ought to be appreciative. It had taken me months to figure out where he was being held, and then several more weeks to gather intel on the location, plot my approach, and actually get underway. I’d been sailing without power for hours, ensuring that even the furthest beacons could not detect my presence.
So far, so good. I wasn’t detecting any transmissions and a quick scan of the field ahead showed that all was quiet. I allowed myself to relax a little, sighing heavily with relief as the last of the beacons slid past my view port and beyond the tip of my wing.
At my current speed, it would be another hour or so before I could set her down and the real fun began. While I waited, I rechecked my weapon for the thousandth time. It was loaded, just like it always was, and so was my backup. Once I got in there, I’d hand one of them off to Torgus and we’d shoot our way out of there. It had been a while since I’d had a good showdown with the Sovann’ash and I was looking forward to repaying them for the damage they’d done to me in our last encounter.
Flexing the mechanical fingers of my left hand, I grimaced at the click and whirr of the little servo motors that made my hand work. It wasn’t so long ago that I’d been made entirely of flesh and blood, just like any other man, but now, I was something else. I’d been fused together after the Sovann’ash’s attack, reanimated with the help of technology and sent back out to continue the fight against their spreading empire. This was my first opportunity to show them what they’d done to me, and I couldn’t wait.
However, my brother wasn’t the only reason I’d come. There was something else. They’d taken three things from me that day. My brother, my flesh, and a personal item of no great importance to them, but of immeasurable value to me. When the bomb went off, I’d been thrown to the ground, my left arm obliterated, and it knocked me unconscious. At some point thereafter, one of their soldiers had walked among the casualties, stripping us of anything that might identify us. In doing so, they had taken the one and only connection I still had to my twin sister, a tiny capsule on a chain which contained some of her precious ashes.
I had carried her ashes with me since the day she died. Torgus didn’t understand. He always rolled his eyes when he saw me running my fingers over the capsule, lost in thought. But I didn’t care. Mia was the only one who ever understood me, and I couldn’t bear to let her go. Wearing her ashes made it feel like she was still nearby, like I still had someone to talk to. And I just could not stomach the thought that some slimy Sovann’ash soldier was walking around with her in his pocket, or worse, had thrown her away in a pile of refuse. I would search for that capsule until it was safe with me, or I would die trying. And in the meantime, I would take my delight in relieving the Sovann’ash of as many soldiers as I could manage.
A ping on my screen jolted me back to the present, and I sat up, scanning my console for the source of the sound. The beacons were long behind me now. Unless there was a secondary field of security bots, it was doubtful they could have spotted me. I double checked my rear radars, assuring myself that the beacons closest to me were still silent. Puzzled, I returned to my console, flipping through screens in search of answers.
I was just about to let it go, thinking it may have been an anomaly, when another round of alarms blared and my screens lit up with flashing lights and dozens of warnings. Cursing savagely, I dropped into my seat and prepared to hit the ignition.
But before I could flip the first switch, a large blip appeared on my screen, sailing straight toward the outpost at dangerously high speeds. I watched it go, checking my view port to confirm what my computers were telling me, and astonished to see the bulky transporter flying by with no regard for its safety.
“What’s happening?” I asked, more astonished than anything.
If it was a Sovann’ash transporter meaning to land at the outpost, it was going to have to slow down before it hit the ground. But it didn’t look like any Sovann’ash transport I’d ever seen. The ship was unmarked and unremarkable, and because all security beacons were now blaring and sending out the alert, I doubted very much that the Sovann’ash knew this ship was coming.
My fingers still rested on the ignition switch as I watched. I was torn. If I was a smarter man, I would’ve taken this as a sign from the old gods to get out of there and save my skin. But I had never been the top of my class, and I was much better known for my recklessness. Which is exactly why I fired my engines and aimed straight for my intended target. With every drone activated and chasing the transporter, I followed in their wake, invisible amid the distraction.
