“Jelena?” Alisa called as she jogged through the mess hall and past sickbay.
She almost ran into Abelardus, who stood on the walkway with Young-hee, both in their black robes and both carrying their staffs. Yumi was with them, doling out small travel packets of her drugs. Abelardus had refused to take the qui-gorn powder before, claiming that he could keep other Starseers out of his mind without trouble, but he accepted one of the little packets now. Maybe that represented maturity on his part—or Young-hee’s wise influence.
I just know that your mad uncle can overpower me, Abelardus spoke into her mind.
So, you haven’t matured at all?
Not in the least. He grinned at her.
Young-hee slapped him in the chest. Alisa wasn’t sure if she had heard the mental exchange or just figured Abelardus deserved it.
“I am too going,” came Jelena’s voice from the hold below.
Uh-oh.
Alisa pushed past the others and ran down the steps. In the dim emergency lighting, she could see her eight-year-old daughter standing in her Starseer robe in front of Beck and the controls to the cargo hatch. Her fists were on her hips as she stared defiantly up at him. Alisa would have been proud of her for standing her ground if she actually wanted Jelena to stand her ground right now.
“Jelena…” she started, walking toward her and mentally bracing herself for a fight. “You need to—”
“Mom, you said we’re going to meet an uncle, right?” Jelena asked, spinning around. “I know it’s a trick, but he’s going to think it’s funny if I’m not there, right? And then when we’re out there, we’ll sneak away and find Thor.”
“We will hope to get the opportunity to sneak away and find Thor, but it’s too dangerous for you to go out there. We can’t trust your great-uncle. He wants to take over the entire system.”
“I don’t care about that. I just want to find Thor. He’s on board. I can tell, but he’s in pain. He’s scared, and hurt, and I’m not able to talk to him.” Jelena swallowed—there was a hint of hysteria in her voice. “I have to find him. I think they did something to him.”
“I’ll find him,” Leonidas said, striding out of engineering.
Jelena frowned at him, but looked back at Alisa, her eyes imploring. “You’ll need me to lead you to him.” She glanced at Leonidas again. “Both of you.”
“Actually, I can sense him,” Abelardus said from the walkway, raising his staff. He jogged down to join them.
Jelena only scowled, not pleased with his contribution.
Alisa gripped her shoulder. “Stay here with Yumi. If anyone can get Thorian, Leonidas can.”
Jelena crossed her arms over her chest. “You need me.”
“I can’t risk you in this, sweetie.”
“The uncle is going to expect to see me.”
“I don’t care what he expects. He’s not anyone we can trust. He’s—”
“Mom, you’re not listening to me,” Jelena said, her voice rising, a tantrum building. Alisa grimaced. It had been a while since she had seen a full-on meltdown, but she hadn’t forgotten what they looked like when coming—or how much better Jonah had always been at deescalating them than Alisa. “I have to come,” Jelena yelled, tears brimming in her eyes. “He needs me. I can tell. I’m his friend. Nobody else is his friend. You don’t even know him. He—”
“I said I’ll get him,” Leonidas said. His voice wasn’t loud, but it cut through Jelena’s yells. It was the tone of a commander of troops, someone who didn’t take crap from anyone, not even little girls. “When you’re ten years older, have a rifle and a set of combat armor, then you can go out amongst the enemy. But not now.” He pointed toward the walkway. “Stay with Yumi.”
Jelena’s face screwed up in a mulish expression. Alisa was tempted to throw her over her shoulder and lock her in a cabin.
“I’ll bring him back,” Leonidas said, his voice quieter this time. Earnest.
“You better.” Jelena stalked away with her hands fisted at her sides, but she did go up the stairs in the direction he had indicated.
Yumi put an arm around her shoulders and led her into the ship’s interior.
“Thank you,” Alisa told Leonidas. She hadn’t been sure that would work or that it was the right tactic, but did remember that Jelena had always been less likely to have a tantrum at school or with people she didn’t know as well. She saved her stubbornness for home.
Leonidas nodded once.
“Captain,” Mica said, sticking her head out of engineering. “Did you want to look at this problem today or wait until we’re completely out of power?”
“What?” Alisa took a step in that direction, but a clang sounded outside.
“Better hurry,” Leonidas said. “They’re entering the bay.”
“Be nice if we could turn on the camera display,” Beck said, tapping the controls that would normally do that. The monitor remained dark.
Alisa jogged toward engineering, glancing at the walkway to make sure Jelena hadn’t evaded her babysitter. She didn’t need her escape artist of a daughter finding her way out of the ship while they were here.
Curses, grunts, and bangs met Alisa as she entered engineering.
“There’s a problem, you say?” she asked, picking out Mica in the dim lighting. A lantern rested in the middle of the room, its light gleaming off no less than six panels that had been dumped on the deck.
“I’ve said that at least three times,” Mica said, her voice muffled, her head stuck into a bulkhead, conduits visible inside. “Nice of you to finally check in.”
Since there wasn’t time for sniping, Alisa simply strode over and looked over Mica’s shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“Something is draining our power.”
“Something? A leak?”
“Nothing leaks on a boat I maintain,” Mica growled. “The source is outside the ship. Some kind of beam. I thought it was the grab beam at first, holding us in place in their hangar bay, but it’s got to be more than that. Grab beams don’t drain power.” A clang punctuated her words.
Alisa eyed the dark light fixtures. “Will it drain all our power?” They already knew they would have to disable the grab beam somehow before they could leave. But this hadn’t been in the script.
“I don’t know. I didn’t get a memo about it from Terrible Tym.” Mica leaned back and slapped at a panel. It beeped and displayed a gauge. “We’re down forty percent already. I cut off non-essential systems to conserve power, but if we don’t figure out what the cause is and how to stop it, we’re not going to be able to fly out of here.”
“You’re going to need to fix it then, because flying out of here is part of the plan.”
“There’s a plan?” Mica sent her a scathing look. “Who are you trying to fool?”
“Just get it fixed.” Alisa slapped her on the shoulder. “I have confidence in you.”
“I have confidence that your stupid antics are finally going to get us all killed.”
“There’s that pessimistic streak that I adore in you.”
“I’ll do what I can from in here to try and break the bond, but you’re probably going to have to find whatever’s draining us and turn it off. Preferably before we go to zero power.”
“How much do we need to take off?”
“More than zero.”
“Your precision is admirable.”
“What would be admirable is you and your hulking security officer going out there to stop it.” Mica waved in dismissal.
Alisa added the task to her already daunting to-do list and left engineering.
I am here, Tymoteusz spoke into her mind. I await you and your daughter.
From the way he emphasized the latter, Alisa suspected he was far more interested in meeting Jelena than her. That wasn’t going to happen. All she replied with was, On my way.
“Gravity and air are in place outside, Captain,” Beck said, reading the one instrument still working in the hold.
; Alisa nodded, heading toward him, Leonidas, and Abelardus. Young-hee remained on the walkway, so Alisa assumed she wasn’t coming along to storm the castle. That was fine—she wasn’t exactly a battle-hardened veteran.
“Young-hee,” Alisa said, “Mica would love it if you helped her figure out what’s draining the ship’s power.”
“Yes, Captain. I’ll do my best.”
As Alisa lifted a hand to signal Beck to open the hatch, Alejandro strode out onto the walkway and gripped the railing.
“Captain?” he said.
“You’re grabbing your medical kit and want to come with us?” Alisa asked.
He frowned. “I came to warn you that I was reading excessive radiation against the hull of the ship before my instruments went out. We’re in close proximity to Alcyone Station and that rift.”
“I’m aware of that. Do you have a drug or a recommendation?”
“I can treat you when you get back once I measure your radiation levels. I recommend that we leave the area.”
“That’s not an option right now. Besides, we need Thorian, right?”
“As quickly as possible, yes. The mining ship may have a reinforced hull that will offer more protection than your freighter alone, but we shouldn’t linger.”
“I wasn’t going to linger.” Alisa waved for Beck to hit the button as she looked at Leonidas. “Were you thinking of lingering?”
“No.”
“Nobody here is going to linger, Doc. Promise.”
A faint hiss sounded as the hatch unsealed, followed by a clank as the ramp lowered. Alisa imagined it landing on Tymoteusz’s head and smashing him.
“Wishful thinking,” she murmured.
Leonidas pointed to her helmet. He and Beck both had theirs on.
“I’m going to try chatting with him first,” she said as the bright interior of the hangar came into view, along with several rows of armed men and women. They had glazed eyes and blank expressions, and even though they looked toward Alisa, they were not focused on her. Their weapons, however, were.
“You can do that with your helmet on.” Leonidas stepped onto the ramp first, positioning himself to protect Alisa.
He also blocked her view. She paused to jam her helmet on before following him out—maybe he was right.
As she snapped the fasteners, Leonidas growled deep in his throat. It sounded like pain as much as aggression. He tried to lift the canister launcher he carried, but instead, he dropped to one knee, the weapon flattening to the ramp under his hand.
A few steps behind him, Abelardus bent forward, his staff clattering to the deck as he grabbed his throat with both hands.
Alisa rushed forward, immediately spotting Tymoteusz at the back of the hangar, just inside the door. He carried the Staff of Lore, the orb on the tip glowing cheerfully. The rows of men and women in front of him weren’t Starseers, as far as Alisa could tell. They wore patched and grease-stained clothing with tool belts instead of weapons belts. Some of the blazer pistols and rifles they pointed toward Alisa’s team looked like they came from a past century. They didn’t wear headbands, like the people Tymoteusz had controlled in the Arkadius Temple, but they certainly seemed to be under his command.
“Stop, Tymoteusz,” Alisa said, stepping forward and putting a hand on Leonidas’s shoulder. So much for the drugs keeping the chasadski from using mind techniques on them. “We came to talk. We came in peace.”
“Unlikely.” Tymoteusz sneered, shifting the staff slightly. Leonidas hissed, one gauntleted fist dropping to the ramp, the pain in his body evident even through his armor. “Where is the girl?”
“She’s here. Are you interested in teaching her, then?”
“Perhaps. I had not thought to, but I have no children of my own.”
“Shocking,” Alisa muttered.
“Perhaps another descendant of my father’s loins would be a worthy heir to my knowledge,” Tymoteusz said, not seeming to hear her. His eyes were focused on the ceiling, or maybe not focused at all. “She could be taught to carry on after I’m gone, to be my voice, to rule when the time comes.”
“To rule what? A mining ship? All I want is for her to be educated by someone who—”
“What you want is irrelevant,” Tymoteusz snapped. “You are a useless grub.”
“Somehow, it’s less offensive when Ostberg calls me that. Are you teaching Thorian to be an heir to your knowledge too?”
Tymoteusz’s lip curled. “That boy is dangerous and would never be loyal to me. As soon as my putative allies have finished doing what they want with him, I will kill him with my own hands.”
Alisa did not like the sound of that. She also didn’t care for the reminder that there was a fleet of mafia ships waiting out there too. Even if Mica could return power to the Nomad and they could disable the grab beam and escape, they would be target practice for all those ships.
“The canister,” Leonidas whispered, his voice so quiet and strained that Alisa barely understood. Of course. Tiang’s drug. Tymoteusz had to be nearly fifty meters away, but this might be their best chance to shoot one of the canisters at him. Unfortunately, Leonidas did not look like he could move.
Beck must have heard the order, too, because he started down the ramp toward the launcher. But Tymoteusz wrinkled his nose, and some invisible force struck Beck. His boots left the ramp as he was hurled back into the cargo hold.
Alisa bent and snatched up the launcher. She fully expected a force to fling her backward, too, and moved as fast as she could, whirling toward Tymoteusz as her finger found the trigger. She barely took the time to aim before firing. A twang sounded as the canister launched, but the expected attack came an instant later.
It slammed into Alisa like a train. Wind whistled past her helmet, and before she knew what was going on, she crashed into the stairs in the cargo hold. Metal screeched as it bent, her armor warping the framework. Thankfully, she did not feel much of the impact inside of her suit, but the blow still knocked the breath out of her.
Aware of Leonidas on his knees on the ramp, nearly helpless, she forced herself to her feet. As she ran back across the hold, Tymoteusz spoke into her mind again.
Your belief in Stan’s death was premature. His words were dry, no hint of fear or concern in them.
She doubted the canister had exploded anywhere close to him, but she hoped it had and that he hadn’t realized the ramifications yet.
As soon as she reached the ramp, blazer fire streaked toward her from a dozen directions. Several bolts splashed off her armor, and she thanked Leonidas’s insistence that she put her helmet on. She popped up her arm blazers and returned fire, shooting over the miners’ heads, hoping to scare them rather than kill them. They were pawns, not enemies. Tymoteusz was the one she wanted to shoot.
But he had disappeared. And she saw no sign of the canister she had launched.
The miners, still firing, surged toward the ramp as one.
“Back,” Leonidas barked, recovering enough to return fire. He growled again, as if he were trying to marshal himself, and pushed himself to his feet. “Get back inside, Alisa,” he warned as the first men started up.
They were more like zombies than thinking human beings, but that didn’t keep him from rushing down to meet them. Unlike Alisa, he did not hesitate to fire to kill.
Wincing, she backed up the ramp to the hatchway so she could take cover inside. Her armor wouldn’t protect her indefinitely, not when fifty people were shooting at them.
Abelardus had recovered his staff, and he leaned out from the other side of the hatchway. He raised it, and several of the lead miners flew backward, slamming into those behind them. The men and women faltered but did not stop trying to move forward.
Leonidas ripped the blazer rifle out of one man’s hands and used it like a club. He swung it back and forth, hitting the miners hard enough to send them flying. Alisa winced again, but breaking their bones was better than killing them.
“Captain?” Beck stood behind Leon
idas on the ramp, firing into the crowd, looking like he was aiming for kneecaps and shins rather than vital targets. “Orders?”
“We have to get past them and into the ship if we’re going to find Thorian.”
“Understood. But I’d rather feed workers than shoot them.”
“Me too, Beck. Me too.”
Alisa also shot at non-vital targets, though she had no idea if Tymoteusz would help these people to medical facilities if they were bleeding on his deck.
The miners focused on Leonidas, clearly seeing him as the greatest threat. As Alisa fired, feeling like a coward for hiding in the ship and cherry picking them, she glanced at Abelardus. He’d thrown a few more waves of power to knock miners over, but the stubborn people kept getting up. Alisa feared that killing them or knocking them unconscious would be the only way to stop them.
“Any chance you can break the mind control he’s got over them?” Alisa asked.
“I’ve been trying,” Abelardus said, “but that’s a chasadski power. Honorable Starseers don’t try to turn other people into automatons.”
Alisa grimaced at the idea of Tymoteusz teaching Jelena such powers. By the suns, what had she been thinking in delivering her to his ship? Did she truly believe they could find Thorian and escape?
“I do have some good news,” Abelardus said.
“What’s that?”
Before he could answer, one of the miners screamed and raced in from the side, evading Leonidas who was still knocking men left and right at the base of the ramp. This miner clenched something in his hand. A grenade? No, Alisa realized with a start. The canister. Somehow Tymoteusz had kept it from breaking open, but it was designed to unleash its contents upon impact, so if that miner threw it in the Nomad… with Jelena inside…
Alisa saw Beck turning toward the man, but she fired first. Her blazer bolt slammed into the miner’s chest.
Pain flashed through those vacant eyes, and he halted before leaping onto the ramp. He started to topple backward, and Alisa sprang after him. As he fell, she snatched the canister out of his hand, terrified her armored fingers would apply too much pressure and break it.