“Eight seconds,” Kelis stated. He began to count down.
Nothing happened when he stopped the countdown, and Stag actually cursed.
“What?” That burst out of her mouth.
He didn’t answer her. Hellion did. “We should be out of the dead zone but we’re not.”
It was a nightmare. They were trapped in the Pitch.
“Hold course.” Stag sounded too calm. “Maintaining speed.”
Blackness filled the screen—but then she spotted a light.
“There!” She pointed, forgetting her promise to Stag in her excitement.
“We see it.” He turned his head and shot her a dirty look. “Quiet, Nala.”
She sealed her lips. The belts dug into her as the ship reversed thrusters. Stag had to be doing everything by drastic measures for the stabilizers to be that out of sync. Nala was tempted to ask him why. The captain part of her protested his methods. He could have slowed their speed gradually, causing less stress on the ship.
More lights appeared in the distance. They were seeing stars.
The cyborg crew had actually done it. They’d found their way out of the Pitch.
It was the first time anyone who’d ever entered it had escaped, to her knowledge.
“Sensors are limited.” Kelis sounded tense. “I’m not picking up anything but they aren’t reliable at this distance.”
“I’m easing us out slow and releasing some oxygen.” Stag lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “We don’t want to show on their sensors.”
Frustration burst through her. That made no sense! Every ship could be detected on sensors, except those fancy ones some of the military had made. She couldn’t hold her thoughts any longer.
“What are you talking about? Venting oxygen? Why?”
Stag didn’t turn that time in his seat. He ignored her.
Veller was closest to her by the exit doors. He cleared his throat and whispered, “The Genesis Four shuttles are completely reliant on sensors to fly. We have someone who is familiar with their design and their weaknesses. We’ll read as a chunk of debris or an asteroid to them if we move slow. Venting oxygen creates a mass around our ship that confuses the sensors when they try to read the shapes they’re picking up.”
She understood—and it was brilliant. “Thanks.”
He inclined his head. Her next concern was how much oxygen they had to vent out, and if life support could sustain all of them. She didn’t ask though. Avoiding capture and attack was paramount at the moment. She probably would have made the same choice if she’d known it could have saved her crew. All human ships kept emergency tanks of oxygen, and she hoped the cyborg ships did, too. It would be tough being attached to a breathing rig for days until they could reach a station, but it beat suffocating.
Stars filled the screen now. They were completely out of the Pitch.
Kelis hissed a curse. “At least one shuttle remains in range.”
“Where? I’m not reading it on our sensors.” Tension filled Stag’s voice.
“I can only see it because one of the trackers attached. It’s almost out of this system, but it’s there. Nothing on the second shuttle.”
“We tagged one of them.” Hellion suddenly lifted his hand and made a fist. “Yes!”
Nala opened her mouth but then closed it. What tracker?
“They must not have detected it. Good. Show it on the main.” Stag leaned forward a little in his chair. “They’re probably traveling together.”
A blip flashed to the far right of the screen.
“We hope,” Hellion muttered.
“Silence,” Stag demanded. “We’ll keep this speed until they are out of range, then get out of here.”
“Home,” Kelis muttered. “I’ll be happy to see it.”
Nala saw some of the cyborgs smile. They might be thrilled to be returning to wherever they lived, but she wasn’t. At least on this ship, she knew she’d be with Stag. Once they docked with their station or landed on a planet, she had no idea what would happen to her.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, blowing it. Life had taught her to tackle one problem at a time. She was strong. Whatever awaited her, she’d deal with it. She was a survivor.
Chapter Ten
Stag watched Nala take a seat on the bed they shared. The past few hours had been tense. The Markus Model shuttle they were able to track had gone out of sensor range and now the Varnish traveled toward Garden. Veller would wake him if anything happened. The male was an accomplished replacement to take the helm. He had faith in his abilities.
“You spoke.”
She arched her eyebrows. “Sorry.”
“You promised you wouldn’t.”
“I’m human. Sue me. I was dying of curiosity. Why the full burns and drastic stops?”
“I had my reasons.”
“Mind sharing them? Please? I remember you like that word…”
He bent, tugging off his boots. “The Markus Models dispensed bombs inside the dead zone.”
Shock flashed across her features. “They mined the Pitch? Shit!”
“The types they used are drawn to vessel hulls. I didn’t want them attaching to us.”
“You wanted to outrun them so they’d have a harder time of locking on.” She removed the socks she kept taking from his drawer, baring her feet. “Damn, you’re smart.”
“I’m a cyborg.”
“I thought you were crazy. I would have blown up part of my ship if I’d pulled a stunt like that with the Pride. She was old though. She rattled and almost shook apart the last time I had to race her. I’d never have dared to full blast from a dead takeoff. I had to slowly increase speeds to keep her in one piece.”
“Why did you go to that speed if it wasn’t something your freighter could handle?”
“Pirates. They were the bane of my existence. We could always outrun them but I swear they’ve gotten smarter in the last year. It used to be that we’d run across a single ship and it put off enough radiation that our sensors detected them long-range. We’d adjust course and increase speed a bit so they didn’t stand of a chance of catching us. Four months ago, six of their ships were working together, or they were just closely spaced apart. It kind of caused a net effect. We had to push the Pride harder than I’d ever done before. They got close enough to fire on us that time. They missed, but it got hairy.”
He put his boots away in the drawer and turned. “Hairy?”
“Scary. Close call.” She shrugged. “Never heard that term before, huh? They almost got us. I was actually worried that time.”
“They wanted the sex bots you were transporting?”
“There’s no way they knew. It was a secret. I didn’t want a target on my back. Lots of thieves would have searched for us if they knew what we were carrying. Those bots are worth big credits on the black market. Pirates target anything large enough to carry food supplies, and the Pride probably looked like they’d hit the jackpot. Imagine their surprise if they’d actually boarded us to steal food.” She smirked.
“Your job was dangerous.”
“What job isn’t these days when you work in space?”
He couldn’t deny the truth in her words. “Most women don’t venture this far out. It’s considered lawless. Earth Government rarely sends battle cruisers beyond the Baylor System.”
“It’s too costly to resupply them beyond that point. I know. It would have taken my freighter three trips to Earth and back just for the food staples they use up with a crew that size. Think of the time involved. They would need a fleet of transports hauling water, food, spare parts, and other essentials to them every few months to keep a battle cruiser stocked if they regularly patrolled this far out. Imagine the fuel they’d need, too. Some of those vessels carry five to eight hundred crew members.”
He crossed the room and took a seat next to her. “I never thought of that.”
“It’s my job to know about supplies and shipping them.” She smiled. “The
battle cruisers that do venture this far out are here to blow something up, then return back to Earth. They’re already stocked enough to last that length of trip without needing to be resupplied.”
“Blow something up?”
“Like the Chandler Station.”
He hadn’t heard of it. His expression must have shown that.
“It was only open for four weeks. It was this station that flew to the Spacian sector. Some hotshot funded it, thinking he could make a fortune off pirates. That was the word going around, anyway. Full facility, for black-market trading and doing ship repairs. Any ship repairs. Anyone who could pay the credits, and they didn’t care if the ship was sanctioned or not. Some of us captains were excited because the closest station with repair bays is on the Arris.” She shuddered. “Let’s say we avoided that one. It’s got a bad reputation for violence. They might allow pirates to dock, but no repairs are offered to them, so EG left them alone. The Chandler Station, on the other hand, said fuck you to EG from the get-go. They were advertising before they even set up in the sector.”
“So the Earth Government…?”
She nodded. “They sent out a battle cruiser and blew it to hell. No more Chandler Station. I heard they put up a fight, even got some pirate ships to defend them, but they didn’t stand a chance. Only a few ships got out of there intact. My dad talked to one of the captains, another hauler, and he swore they had him dead to rights but let him go. He’s registered, so he guessed that’s why he survived. Dad thought it was more a case of EG wanting word to spread that they don’t take that kind of shit, and not to mess with them.”
“What does being registered matter?”
“We have to pay a percentage of all our profits to EG. I was registered with them. They took twenty percent from me. The stations pay thirty percent or higher, depending on their size and income. It’s the difference between being a sanctioned business and being seen as a criminal breaking the law. Get it?”
“I do.” He intensely disliked Earth Government.
“They screw you either way, but at least paying them keeps us from being fired on or imprisoned. On Earth, they take far more from businesses. My grandfather got screwed out of half his profits.”
“What did he do?”
“Import business. He dealt in selling furnishings for those luxury liners. EG stole his business from me two days after he died.” Her voice reflected her anger. “They took over the contracts, stationed guards around the warehouses where we stored our merchandise, and told all our employees to leave or they’d be shot.”
“They could do that?”
“EG never asks. Comply or die. It’s how it is. I got the hell out of there before they decided to empty his credit accounts and seize his house, too. I sold it, drained the accounts, and bought the Pride.”
“Do you miss Earth?”
She seemed to consider it. “Living on a planet and breathing fresh air? Sure. But that’s not worth living with Earth Government. I’ve done some supply drops to a few colony planets, just three, but they weren’t ideal either. You know?”
“I don’t. Explain.”
“Bram is so hot. The city is mostly underground. You can go up at night when the sun isn’t baking the surface but it’s really barren. The air felt weird too, very dry and heavy. It’s the same with Scorch. They named that one appropriately. It’s a hundred and fifty degrees in the shade when the surface is exposed to their sun, but there’s a lot of water underground. Tons of cavern systems. It’s pretty but who wants to live in…well, water caves? Ever been?”
“No.”
“They built on the water because while the surface is dry, it’s too hot. And rivers are veined everywhere under the ground. There are very few accessible underground surfaces not covered in water. They build everything boat style.”
“It sounds fascinating.”
“It was great to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there.”
“And the third?” He was curious, enjoyed watching her facial expressions as she talked. She didn’t attempt to hide her emotions.
“Klaus is too cold.” She hugged her arms, as if the memory made her chilled. “It snows year round. They joked it was named after Santa Claus, just using a K instead because of the trees. They lost about fifty people when they first settled there, before they figured it out. Killer trees. No thanks.”
That surprised him. “How did colonists die because of the trees? Were they poisonous?”
“The trees are alive. They eat anything they can grab. People included. I thought they were joking, you know, messing with the tourists, but the guy I delivered supplies to showed me a vid of one of the trees snatching up some of the local wildlife. The damn thing threw out a branch, grabbed up one of the hundred-pound sheep-looking beast that roams the surface, and the trunk opened. It shoved the poor thing inside it. Dinner was served. They’re rooted to the ground but the limbs can move and the trunks bend. He told me to stay at least three hundred yards away from them to be safe.”
“Are they sentient?”
“Who cares? Did you miss the part where they eat people?”
“I was wondering if they could communicate. They might see the colonists as invaders to their planet. The trees might act in self-defense, rather than viewing it as murder.”
She grinned. “You’re so cute. Look at you thinking of the poor trees.”
“It’s a valid point.”
“It is.” Her smile remained. “What if they are sentient? Would you go hug a tree and make friends?”
He narrowed his eyes, studying her. “Are you mocking me?”
“No, but I am amused. You hear about killer trees and you’re thinking about their motives. I didn’t care why they ate people. It just freaked me out, and I couldn’t fly out of there fast enough. What a horrible way to go. No thanks.”
“We have life forms on the planet we settled on, and we live in peace with them.”
“Are they killer trees?” She sobered, fear showing in her eyes.
“No. They are amphibian-humanoid life forms with intelligence. We built our city away from their ocean, on land, where they don’t seem to venture much. It was paramount to us not to make them feel threatened or invaded by our presence.”
Nala liked the way Stag spoke about the aliens. “You care about them.”
“Of course. I’m certain they were afraid when we first landed on the surface and they became aware of us. We went out of our way to show no aggression and establish communications, but they ran from us. We set up a camp near the beach, allowed them to watch and learn about us, hoping they’d finally approach. They didn’t as the weeks passed. We used the time to learn where they avoided travel, did terrestrial scans to make certain nothing under the ground was a danger, and chose that location to settle our city.”
“Nice.” It really was. “How are they situated technology wise?”
He shook his head. “They don’t seem to have any.”
That stunned her. “None?”
“We’ve done some scans with fly drones at a distance but didn’t want to be too invasive, to avoid frightening them. They have built small cities under water and in caves near the beaches. They are impressive designs, but we’ve never picked up any indication that they are far advanced. They have lighting though. It could be from a natural source. We detected some lava tubes under the ocean floor in the shallow parts where they habitat.”
“So you just let them be?”
“You sound surprised.” His tone took on a sharp edge.
She fought the urge to touch him but didn’t dare. “Don’t pick a fight with me. You tend to do that. It’s just that most people who settle on planets aren’t so courteous of the local inhabitants.”
“You mean Earthers do that.”
He spat that title, making it clear it was an insult. She decided to tackle the issue head-on. “Enough. I’m not your enemy, Stag. EG screwed me over too. No, I wasn’t enslaved or created by them. Did you hear me when
I said they stole my grandfather’s company? Running it was supposed to be my future. They took that away. I could be bitter and angry, but I chose to seek an adventure instead. I bought a freighter and flew into space.”
He just watched her. She hated noticing how his long and dark eyelashes really made the blue of his eyes appear breathtaking. She liked him a little too much, and actually found his prickly personality a bit appealing. She always knew where she stood with Stag.
The evening before flashed, and so did the earlier conversation they’d had before leaving his quarters.
Stag broke the silence. “You should hate Earth Government. They are responsible for you leaving your home planet, and they created the Markus Models that attacked your ship.”
“Wow. Ever heard of looking for a bright side? I got to spend just over six years with my dad. I wouldn’t trade that time for anything. He never would have retired or left the military if I’d stayed on Earth. He hated even visiting there.”
“Now he’s dead, and you’re left with nothing.”
That hurt. She turned her head away, staring at her lap. “Thanks for pointing that out.”
“Nala,” he rasped. “I apologize.” He reached over and rested his hand on the small of her back. “You will be treated well by our council. They are nothing similar to your government.”
She lowered her head. “Yeah. Sure. If being forced into sexual slavery and given to some guy translates into being ‘treated well’. Sounds fun. That’s sarcasm, by the way. And at least now I know it’s a planet. I wasn’t sure where you were taking me.”
“Garden is beautiful, and the weather is favorable year round. The trees won’t attack you. The name we gave it is an accurate description.”
She looked at him. “Will I ever see you again once you dump me there?”
“The city isn’t that large. I’m certain we’ll meet again when I’m on the planet’s surface.”
“You spend most of your time in space?”
“Yes. This shuttle is mine. I volunteer for all the dangerous missions.”