“You’re the boss.” Yumi rose to her feet.
“Am I?”
“We’ll have to figure out if security chief outranks science officer,” Alisa said, watching Leonidas. She assumed he had a reason for shooing Yumi away. She hoped it wasn’t to chastise her for bringing up his personal problems in front of others.
“Perhaps it could be decided by who commands the greater salary,” Yumi said, heading for the hatchway.
“You get a salary?” Leonidas asked.
“Well, there was talk of shares in the payments we get from hauling cargo.”
“Then it’s unfortunate that all we’re hauling are doctors and Starseers.”
“But fortunate that I’ve had time to collect interesting ingredients along the way.” Yumi ducked her head and disappeared into the corridor.
“If only I could please all of my passengers by plopping them down next to mushrooms from time to time,” Alisa said.
Leonidas sat in the seat behind Alisa’s, resting a hand on her shoulder. She chose to find that promising. One didn’t give shoulder caresses while preparing a stern lecture, right?
“It seems likely that we’ll arrive and the staff will have been moved. It’s been—” Leonidas glanced at the digital chronometer on the console, “—more than three hours since the attack.”
So much had happened that it felt as if it had been three days. Had it only been that morning that they had flown in from space and dealt with the planet patrol? Granted, Arkadius had long days, and they had visited several time zones along the way. A yawn tickled the back of Alisa’s throat.
“I’m hoping they haven’t moved it, and that we’ll find the Starseer temple at the same time. I know it’s mobile, but it seemed like moving it was something of a process. It could still be there. Waiting for us.” Alisa waved toward the view screen. They had left the ocean behind and were passing over a city running along a coast lush with green vegetation. Further inland, the number of buildings and houses dwindled, and tangles of trees and other dense growth sprawled across the undulating land. Perhaps a hundred miles beyond that, the faint purple outline of mountains was visible. No, not mountains. Volcanoes.
“Would they have fired from someplace they couldn’t leave easily?” Leonidas asked. “With such a mobile weapon, I would have chosen a remote location and then left as soon as the attack had been made.”
Alisa chewed on the inside of her cheek, second-guessing her choice to let Suyin and her earstar—or whatever her fiancé could use to track her—aboard. Should she have searched the woman and dumped all of her belongings out the hatch? That would have only made her even more irritated.
“With the Alliance ships so close behind us,” Leonidas said, “we need to have a backup plan. Even if the temple has become a chasadski stronghold, we’ll have to figure out a way to direct the military to attack it instead of us.”
“They won’t attack the Nomad while the Tiangs are aboard.”
“Perhaps not, but they could surround us and force us to land.”
“I was planning to land anyway.”
“Mica is right. You are an optimist.” He squeezed her shoulder.
“It’s charming, isn’t it? Admit it. You’re drawn to me.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Even if we land, the Alliance ships can also land and bring hundreds of troops to the Nomad’s doorstep.”
“Good thing we have a ramp instead of a doorstep.”
His eyebrows rose even higher. She supposed that was more likely a sign of skepticism than a sign of how much he was drawn to her.
“I would kiss you if we had more time,” Alisa said, “but will you check the coordinates Yumi and Abelardus came up with and try to find the temple or a ship or anything that doesn’t belong in the jungle? Also, let me know if there are any other ships in the area ahead of us. I can’t believe Yumi and Abelardus are the only two who were able to triangulate the origins of the attack.”
Leonidas released her shoulder and faced the station. “Abelardus implied that his Starseer senses were required, along with Yumi’s math talents.”
“Abelardus always thinks he’s needed.” Alisa reached back and tapped the sensor monitor. “Ships, please.”
He snorted. “You’re a tyrannical captain.”
“I thought the empire approved of that sort of thing.” Alisa flew low over the rainforest, but not so low that she had to reduce her speed. Even without checking the sensor display, she was well aware of the ships closing on them. As she had said, she doubted they would strike, but they would definitely drop like a swarm once the Nomad landed.
“There’s something metallic at the coordinates,” Leonidas said, sounding surprised. “It’s easy to pick up with nothing but dirt and vegetation all around it. That’s a dense portion of the forest. No settlements other than the wilders with their thatch huts.”
“Is it large enough to be the temple?” And if so, would the Alliance people pick it up, too, or would Alisa have to hail them and try to convince them of her suspicions?
“Too small for that. A ship, more likely. And I’m not getting an energy reading. It looks to be powered down.”
Alisa grumbled to herself. It would have been nice if she could have reunited Yumi with her people while dropping the might of the Alliance down on the staff-stealing rogues. She hoped they weren’t zeroing in on some 1500-year-old crashed colony ship.
“I’ll fly over it so we can take a look,” Alisa said, aware of the Alliance ships closing quickly.
“I think the rainforest canopy is going to cover it. We may have to go in on foot.”
She grimaced. They didn’t have time for a hike.
“Looking for a nearby landing spot,” Leonidas said.
Alisa banked to circle the coordinates and look down, in case he was wrong. But all she saw under them were leaves. How had a ship even landed? It had to be a small ship.
“I don’t see any places where a sane captain would land,” Leonidas said.
“But there’s a place for me?”
Leonidas snorted. “I’ll feed you some coordinates. Maybe it will be too tight and rugged for the Alliance ships to follow us down.”
“That sounds promising.”
“They’ll have shuttles they can send.”
“Less promising.”
A holomap popped up on Alisa’s netdisc display, a spot flashing red in the center.
“That canyon?” she asked, swiping to zoom in.
A river ran through the bottom of the terrain feature, almost hidden by branches stretching out from trees lining the edges to either side. The water was running low, leaving grassy space on both sides of the river. They would have to climb out of the canyon and hike a mile or two to reach the other ship.
“If you don’t mind climbing fifty feet,” Leonidas said.
“That’s a short hop for you, isn’t it?”
He grunted.
“The Alliance ships are on your cameras now,” Leonidas said, pointing to the rear display. “They’ll catch us in two minutes.”
“The canyon it is.” Alisa hit the comm. “Beck, how’s coffee hour going?”
“Just fine, Captain,” he responded cheerfully. A giggle sounded in the background. Three suns, that wasn’t Admiral Tiang, was it? It hadn’t sounded like Abelardus or Alejandro, and she couldn’t imagine any of the injured people they had collected giggling.
“Prepare our guests for a trek into the jungle,” Alisa said.
“Uh, pardon?”
“Shortly after we land, the Alliance will be storming the Nomad’s hatches. I suggest that anyone who doesn’t want to be captured or shot not be here then.”
“I, uh, think I understand, Captain.”
“Leonidas, Abelardus, and I need to take a hike. I need you to take Yumi, Mica, Alejandro, Ostberg, and the Tiangs and disappear into the forest for a while,” Alisa said. No need to send any of them to face the rogue Starseers. Alisa doubted Mica’s rust bangs would do much against
such foes. “Assuming they’re all stable, we can leave the injured people here. When the soldiers find them, they should take them for care, probably far sooner than we would be able to do it.”
If she hadn’t been determined to keep the Tiangs on board, she could have dropped those people off at a hospital before heading down this way. Alisa pushed away the surge of guilt. She could self-flagellate later.
“You don’t think the soldiers will interrogate them?” Leonidas asked. “Try to find out which way we went?”
“If the Alliance is interrogating their own civilians these days,” Alisa said, “then I picked the wrong side in the war.”
Leonidas did not reply, but the coolness that entered his eyes spoke volumes.
“They’ll be fine,” she said with certainty. “The rest of us… don’t want to get caught. Once the Alliance ships are busy dealing with the staff thieves, then we can sneak back to the Nomad and escape.”
“And hope they haven’t blown the ship into a thousand pieces?”
“You’re starting to sound like Mica, Colonel Pessimistic.”
“Only when we’re dealing with the Alliance.”
“Beck, you still there?” Alisa asked.
“’Course, Captain. Just digesting this information. I wasn’t planning on a forced march through the jungle today. Probably shouldn’t have eaten so many cookies.”
“You’ll have plenty of energy.”
“Sure, I will. What about Durant? You leaving him?”
Er. How could she have forgotten about the one injured person that held the greatest gem of information inside his head. “Can you carry him, Beck? We can’t let the Alliance have him. Mica can hold weapons on our not-entirely-voluntary guests, if necessary.”
“Don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Beck said. “They’re really enjoying the coffee. They might not even object to an amble through the jungle right now.”
“Dr. Tiang isn’t hitting on you, is she?” Alisa asked.
“The woman? No… but the admiral has gotten oddly touchy.”
“Ah. Well, let them know about the march. Maybe he’ll be excited at the idea of going off into the woods with you.”
“You’re a wicked woman, Captain.”
“You’re not planning to go with Beck’s team?” Leonidas asked, as Alisa tilted the Nomad downward, heading for the canyon.
“No, Abelardus and I are going with you to confront the rogue Starseers.” She gave him a bright smile.
He returned a dark frown. “That’ll be even more dangerous than dealing with the Alliance.”
Alisa wasn’t so sure about that, at least when it came to her own safety.
“Maybe so,” she said aloud, “but if my plan is to work, I have to be there.”
“You have another plan?” His tone said he wasn’t keen on the last plan she had offered.
She couldn’t blame him, considering her last plan had brought hordes of Alliance ships after them.
“Technically, this may be Abelardus’s plan,” she said.
“I feel so much better.”
She swatted him. “It’s probably our best chance. I’ll go up and talk to the man who may be my father and distract him while you and Abelardus figure out a way to steal the staff back. If he is my father, we have a lot to talk about. All those times he wasn’t there to help me with my homework, and the fact that he missed my one and only piano recital. Mom took me all the way to Thomas-Market 8 for that, you know.”
Leonidas had his mouth open to interject, but he paused, amusement taking over his face briefly. “You studied piano while growing up on a freighter?”
“Technically, it was an electronic keyboard, but I got to play on a real piano at the recital.”
“Were you any good?”
“Of course.” Alisa wiggled the fingers on the hand that wasn’t guiding them toward the canyon. “How do you think I got my fingers so deft and agile for piloting?” No need to mention that she’d been so nervous for that recital, that she had completely forgotten the second half of the song she’d memorized.
“Ah. But your plan presumes that your father will be alone. And that he’s the one who attacked the city and has the staff.”
She gave him a bleak look. “I’d prefer it if he wasn’t the one who attacked the city—I don’t need that kind of sadistic craziness in my family tree—but he’s the one who walked out of the ship with the staff glowing in his hand. As far as we know, it only responds to descendants of Alcyone, and I gather those are somewhat rare. As for him not being alone… you’ve been training, haven’t you? I trust you can handle more than one Starseer.”
She smiled again, though she worried she was presuming too much. The last time Leonidas had met these people, they had put him in a coma. And they had outright killed some of the other Starseers.
“Or,” Alisa said, “we could forget about the staff, deposit our captives on some nice leaves out there, and take off in the hope of escaping the planet and going to find Jelena and the prince. We could leave this mess for the Alliance.” She wondered if that could work. Even though she felt responsible for the staff and what had happened, she couldn’t help but admit there was an appeal to leaving it for someone else to deal with. If her father truly was a sadistic crazy man, she wouldn’t mind never making his acquaintance.
“Land,” Leonidas said, rising to his feet. “I’ll be waiting for you and Abelardus in the cargo hold.”
He strode out. She had time to feel sad that he hadn’t squeezed her shoulder again, but then she had to focus on their descent. As she dipped below the rim of the canyon, the outstretched branches of trees scraping against the sides of the ship, she glimpsed the lead Alliance ship behind them, a hulking dreadnought that bristled with weapons.
“Talk about overkill,” she grumbled, heading for tall grasses on one side of what turned out to be more of a stream than a river. She hoped she hadn’t condemned them all to life in prison. Or worse.
Chapter 12
Alisa tried not to look back as she picked her way up the steep, mossy slope of the canyon wall, the deepening shadows of twilight adding to the challenge. She and Abelardus were climbing out of the canyon a quarter mile upriver from her landing spot. Not only was the Nomad still visible between the branches and brush, but the first of the Alliance shuttles that were landing downriver was also visible. The other ships, too large to land in such tight quarters, circled high above, ready to help with the assault. Or search, as it was destined to become. Alisa hadn’t bothered to shut the Nomad’s cargo hatch as everyone had filed out. That had seemed better than inviting them to use force to open the hatch. The soldiers would figure out right away that their prey had fled into the rainforest.
“Is he waiting for us?” Abelardus asked, matching her pace as she climbed.
Leonidas truly had jumped up most of the cliff in a hop, his cyborg- and armor-enhanced legs taking him three-quarters of the way up. He had landed on the wall and pulled himself the rest of the way up before the roots dangling out of the dirt and rock could decide if he weighed too much for them to support him.
“I suspect so,” Alisa said, finding a foothold for her boot and pushing herself up another couple of feet. Vines snaked down the side of the slope, offering many handholds, but one had to look closely before grabbing them. She had almost wrapped her fingers around a snake at the beginning of the climb. “I’m a key part of the plan.”
“You may be a key part of your plan, but he could have his own plan.”
“Do you have your own plan?”
“No. I think your plan is best. Especially since I thought of it.” Abelardus shook dirt out of one of his voluminous sleeves before reaching for another handhold. He wore his black robe, though he had traded his usual sandals for some boots. He also wore a backpack with his staff tied to it.
“We’ll pretend I shared with you that I’d adopted that plan.”
“Oh, you shared.” He smiled for the first time that day. He’d been in an
awful mood since she had chosen to prioritize finding the Tiangs over retrieving the staff. Maybe now that they were on his quest, he felt better.
Abelardus reached the top first and dropped to his knees, lowering a hand toward her. Leonidas came into view, looming behind him, frowning at the back of Abelardus’s head, as if he had meant to be the one to offer her assistance. Alisa planted her hands on the edge and pulled herself up without help. Perhaps it was a shortsighted move, since all manner of thorny ferns scraped her face as she clambered to her feet.
“Can you lead us to the ship?” she asked Leonidas.
The map was on her netdisc, but she had shoved it into her pocket when grabbing her Etcher, the stun gun, and her multitool. There hadn’t been time to gather actual supplies. She hoped this would not be an extended jungle trek, but when she saw the wall of foliage rising up to all sides, she wondered if that was a delusional hope.
“Yes, I have a map in here.” Leonidas tapped the side of his helmet, then turned, using his big armored feet to smash a path through the brush.
Alisa grimaced at the noise, but she didn’t think any of the Alliance soldiers had come out of their shuttles yet.
“It’s like having an elephant lead the way,” Abelardus observed, but he walked behind Leonidas, making use of the path he was trampling. The jungle was too dense otherwise.
They had not gone far when the sounds of men shouting orders drifted over the squawks of birds and the hoots of monkeys and other creatures Alisa could not identify. Leonidas slowed his pace, stepping more carefully to make less noise. That didn’t keep the wildlife from announcing their progress. She imagined the Starseers in that ship sitting back and noshing on snacks while they awaited the arrival of this interesting party. It was a foregone conclusion that they wouldn’t be surprised. She wondered why they hadn’t left yet. If the rogue Starseers had, indeed, been in the temple, and it was difficult to move, she could have understood, but if they had a ship, why wouldn’t they have flown off when it became apparent visitors were coming? They couldn’t have failed to notice the arrival of the Nomad and its pursuers.