Masika reached the fray and jumped in, flinging herself at one of the outliers who was busy shooting at Thor. They were all shooting at him or otherwise trying to get at him, almost as if they considered Erick and Masika flies that could be swatted later on. Jelena’s gut clenched with worry. All it would take was for his concentration to slip for a split second, and they would be on him, with the power to tear him limb from limb before he could bring his mental abilities to bear again.
Jelena reached out toward the horses the androids rode, sensing their states of mind. They had been well trained for raids like this, and they didn’t seem to mind that their handlers were machines instead of people. They were eager for the battle and hoped to be victorious against the vile thrust bikes.
Jelena formed images of apples in their minds, promising them a treat if they ended the fight, preferably by flinging their riders off their backs. That might have worked if the horses had been grazing in the field, but their blood was surging through their veins, and they didn’t seem to notice her offer.
One of the androids threw something at Erick—a stun grenade. It exploded with a flash as it struck his barrier. It shouldn’t have hurt him, but it must have startled him for long enough that he lost his concentration. Suddenly, the android was right next to him, ramming into his thrust bike with enough force to hurl him from its seat. He flew through the air and landed on the ground next to Masika.
He jumped to his feet as she moved to protect him. He must have gotten his barrier up again, because a blazer bolt bounced away before striking them. But he’d lost his bike. It wobbled out of the fight, then bumped into a stump and tipped over, automatically turning off as it dropped to the ground. Three androids on horseback swarmed around Erick and Masika.
Thor had beheaded another android and knocked two others off their mounts, but his movements had a frantic edge to them. He must have felt challenged—if not overwhelmed—as he struggled to attack and defend at the same time against so many.
She took a deep, determined breath and reached out toward those horses again, all of them. Though she far preferred subtle negotiations with animals, ones in which they came out ahead, that wasn’t going to work now. Instead, she flung an image of a massive forest fire into their minds, the inferno sweeping out of the trees and across the prairie where it would cover ground faster than horses could run. She did her best to convince them that the flames were racing toward them right now.
Their instincts overrode their battle lust, and the horses shrieked in fear. They reared, startling their android riders, and whirled away from the skirmish. The horses sprinted past the corral and away from the trees.
Unfortunately, the androids reacted quickly. They leaped from the horses’ backs and ran toward Erick, Masika, and Thor on foot.
A snap came from the corral, wood breaking. The snagor, afraid of the commotion and the continuing gunfire, knocked down a portion of the fencing. They streamed out, intending to flee in the same direction the horses had gone.
“Captain,” Kiyoko blurted from the hold.
“Not now,” Jelena barked, hurrying to touch the minds of the lead snagor. If the creatures escaped into the wilderness, her clients would balk at paying for their delivery. Worse, the snagor might be lost out there and preyed upon by wild animals.
She struggled to calm them, to assuage their fears, but they were too riled up to be reasonable. They needed an outlet for their fear.
Jelena switched tactics, informing them that the android attackers were the threat, not the horses or the noises they were hearing. If they simply ran over and trampled those androids, their problems would end.
The idea stuck in the minds of the lead snagor, and the flow of the stampede shifted. The animals turned to charge at the androids.
Watch out, Jelena warned Thor, Masika, and Erick.
“Captain,” Kiyoko called again, this time from right behind Jelena.
“What is it?” Jelena asked, not turning away from the snagor, not letting her link with them falter. They weren’t aggressive creatures by nature and wouldn’t charge people—or machines that looked like people—without significant prompting. They plowed into the bandits from behind, the stampede overwhelming even the nearly indestructible androids.
The roar of an engine drowned out Kiyoko’s next words. Jelena looked up, re-forming her barrier around herself as a shuttle flew over the Snapper. Did it also belong to the thieves? Would it fire on her ship? Since the hatch was open and they were parked, the Snapper’s shields weren’t up.
Kiyoko gripped Jelena’s arm.
“Wait,” Jelena said, bracing herself so Kiyoko couldn’t pull her back into the ship. She couldn’t leave in the middle of all this.
The two android ranchers who had been standing near the corral gate and avoiding the fight sprinted away. They weren’t running toward the shuttle or toward the skirmish but away from everything and toward the tree line.
We have a problem, Thor informed Jelena.
He’d stopped fighting. He still sat astride the bike, his sword in hand, and he was looking back toward her while ignoring the lone android who was still shooting at him—the others were all distracted as they tried to avoid being trampled by the snagor running all over the field.
We have a lot of problems, Jelena replied. Explain.
“That’s your employer,” Kiyoko said, pointing toward the shuttle. It hadn’t fired at anyone yet. It was landing in the field next to the Snapper with its side toward them. “And I think the androids your people were attacking belong to them.”
Chapter 2
“Our employer?” Jelena could see the Darting Arrow Ranch logo on the hull, and she stared in confusion.
“They’re on the comm,” Kiyoko added, shifting to stand beside her on the cargo ramp. “They said we were supposed to go to their headquarters and what in the hemlocks were we doing out here handing the snagor over to thieves.”
“Hemlocks?” Jelena blinked slowly, dread waltzing into her stomach as puzzle pieces assembled in her mind.
The order to deliver the snagor to the acreage at the far end of the ranch. It had seemed to come from Darting Arrow’s headquarters, but was it possible some outsider had tricked the Snapper’s communications computer? She’d heard of equipment that could do such things.
“That’s not the exact word they used. I don’t swear.”
Jelena stared toward the trees a half-mile away. The two androids on horseback, the ones that had supposedly been Darting Arrow employees, had already reached them. Several of the androids that had originally charged out of the trees and toward Thor, Erick, and Masika were running back in that direction as fast as they could. Some were limping and had been charred or otherwise damaged in the battle. The beheaded ones didn’t rise at all.
The shuttle hatch flew open, and men on open-air wheeled vehicles with giant tires drove toward the trees at top speed. They were human, not android, and they threw exasperated looks toward the snagor and toward Jelena as they took off, blazer rifles in hand. One of the vehicles stopped near the escaped snagor, and men jumped out with electric prods. They yelled for the remaining androids to get in while they pushed back the animals.
Groaning, Jelena lowered her staff and reached out to the snagor, not wanting them to be hurt because of her mistake. They weren’t as agitated now that the weapons fire had stopped, but it still took her several tries to convince them the danger was over and that they should return to the corral.
“You don’t need those,” Jelena yelled to one of the ranchers, trying to stop the men from prodding the animals.
He glowered balefully at her, as if she were the most inept freighter captain in existence. She didn’t try to use her powers to check his mind and verify whether he was thinking that. She didn’t want to know. Instead, she focused on convincing the snagor to return. They listened to her mental urging, but they took their time, ambling toward the corral while slanting dark looks at the ranchers.
A brow
n-skinned, gray-haired woman biting a cigar and wearing a hat large enough to bathe turtles in jumped out of the shuttle. She strode toward the Snapper.
Jelena watched her approach out of the corner of her eye but remained focused on the snagor. A part of her hoped that if she didn’t make eye contact, the woman would go away. Alas, that did not happen.
“Where’s the captain?” the woman asked, chomping on her cigar.
She squinted at Jelena and Kiyoko, then at Erick, Masika, and Thor. They had recovered the damaged thrust bike and were heading back to the ship.
“That’s me,” Jelena said, forcing herself to smile. From the top of the ramp, she had the height to look down at the woman, but Jelena felt three feet tall under her disgusted glower. “It looks like there was a misunderstanding.” Her mother had always advised her to be civil with the clients.
“A misunderstanding?” The woman’s gray brows disappeared under the brim of her hat. “You tried to deliver my cargo to those murdering, bush-pissing thieves from Bloody Canyon Ranch.”
“These are the coordinates I was given.”
“By them.” The woman flung her arm toward the trees where the androids and the vehicles pursuing them had disappeared.
“The person who commed us identified himself as Alberto from the Darting Arrow Ranch. That’s the name the woman selling the snagor to you gave us back on—”
“The person who commed you was a hog-humping psychopath who’s never spoken an honest word in his life. How could you believe him? Didn’t you think it odd when he gave coordinates ten miles from our headquarters? Aren’t you a Starseer? That’s what Felicity said when she sold us the snagor and said you’d deliver them.” The woman looked Jelena up and down, her disgust and disbelief warring for prominence on her face.
Jelena’s cheeks flushed hotter than all three suns combined. She wasn’t sure whether to be glad or dismayed that she wasn’t wearing her black Starseer robe. She didn’t feel like much of a representative for her supposedly superior people right now, so maybe not having it on was for the best. Of course, her purple shirt with the silver sparkly unicorn head and sequined hem did not exude the sort of authority she needed right now.
“You can’t possibly be the captain,” the woman said. “You—”
“Cannot be held to blame for your security breach which allowed false communications to appear to originate from your ranch,” Thor said coolly, walking up to face the woman, his face as hard as chiseled stone. A fresh bruise darkened his jaw, but it only made him look fiercer.
Thor wasn’t huge, being only a few inches taller than Jelena, nor did he physically tower over the woman, but he managed to exude dark and deadly intent. And authority too. Maybe because he wasn’t wearing a unicorn shirt. He hadn’t yet put away his telescoping blade, so it hung at his side as he stared challengingly into the woman’s eyes.
“It wasn’t a security breach,” the woman said, though her tone lost some of its belligerence. “It was a trick, that’s all. And you fell for it.”
Unfortunately, that was true. Jelena was glad the woman had stopped looking at her, because she would have had trouble meeting her gaze. Instead, she checked on Erick and Masika, who had stopped a few paces behind Thor.
“Are you all right?” she mouthed.
Erick was gripping his side. He shook his head and scowled as Masika nodded.
“Perhaps your people should have warned us about the possibility that your rivals would interfere with us,” Thor said, his gaze still locked onto the woman’s. “And that you allow those rivals to erect corrals on your property. We are but visitors on your moon, after all.”
“They’re not rivals. They’re criminals and cutthroats, and they did that to fool you and claim the snagor. We run a legitimate operation.”
“So there’s no reason you couldn’t have warned us about them.”
“Don’t make it sound like this is our fault.” The woman might have dialed down her belligerence, but she still pointed a finger at Thor’s nose. “Your people very nearly bungled everything and cost us a fortune in snagor.”
“Nothing has been lost.” Thor tilted his head toward the corral.
The woman glanced at it in a dismissive manner, but then turned back for a longer look. Jelena had convinced all the snagor to return to the corral, including Spots and the two others that had preferred the ship, and stand quietly inside. Luckily, none of the animals had been seriously injured during the chaos.
“Good job, Herman,” the woman called, waving to one of the men with the prods.
“We didn’t do anything, Boss. They all went back in on their own.”
If everything else hadn’t gone wrong that day, Jelena might have felt pleased by the startled look on the woman’s face, but she was too embarrassed that she’d been so easily fooled. And as much as she appreciated having Thor on her side, it further embarrassed her that he felt the need to come defend her. She was also keenly aware of Kiyoko standing behind her, seeing her young captain being lambasted.
“Well, get some trucks out here to load them up and take them to headquarters.” The woman frowned at Thor and at Jelena. “Since our freighter operators couldn’t manage to get them there.”
“They are on your property,” Thor said. “There was nothing in the contract that stipulated where on your property they were to be delivered.”
“We can move them for you,” Jelena said, lifting a hand, intending to open the gate and invite the snagor back into her ship. She didn’t want the woman to have any more reasons to complain to her parents—or try to deduct a fee from their payment.
“Don’t bother. You’ve done enough.” The woman turned her back and stalked to her shuttle, not giving Jelena another chance to talk. “And you will be billed for the damage done to the androids we sent to stop you from delivering our cargo to thieves. Don’t you have a comm officer? We tried to contact you three times before flying out here.”
Jelena winced, remembering the comm signal and how she’d ignored it to deal with what had seemed the bigger emergency.
She’s crabby, Erick told Jelena telepathically. This isn’t your fault.
Jelena sighed. Yeah, it is.
She walked back into the ship, mentally composing a message for her parents. She had better tell Mom and Leonidas about this before the ranchers contacted them with what would no doubt be an unflattering version of the story. And a bill. Three suns, how much did androids cost? What if she ended up owing more than she earned for the freight run?
• • • • •
Jelena sat on the cargo ramp, looking out at the dusty ranching town of Pig Spit while Alfie sauntered around under the ship, sniffing weeds. Pig Spit, a ramshackle sprawl of one-story wood buildings and shacks, was on the opposite side of the moon from Darting Arrow Ranch. It didn’t have a space base, docks, or even an airfield of any kind. Ships landed in a stretch of dirt on the outskirts of town, and their owners had to walk or drive in to do business.
Not that Jelena had business to do now that her cargo had been delivered. Thor was the one who’d requested they stop here for a few hours before leaving Gecko Moon. Oddly, he hadn’t left the ship yet. Jelena couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to linger here.
Her parents hadn’t yet responded to the message she’d sent—it would take hours for it to travel to the core worlds where Mom and Leonidas were running freight with the Star Nomad—so she didn’t mind the wait. It did, however, concern her that Thor had been evasive about why he needed to stop here.
“Are you doing all right, Captain?” Kiyoko asked, walking out onto the ramp to stand beside her.
“I’m fine,” Jelena said.
A rodent scampered out from under the port thruster housing and raced across the dusty lot. A bark echoed from under the ship, and Alfie appeared, chasing after it. The rodent darted down a hole. Alfie stuffed as much of her head as possible down after it, her tail whipping back and forth as she sniffed and pawed at the ground.
“
Though I’m perhaps not as happy as Alfie,” Jelena amended.
If nothing else, she was glad the dog had a chance to get some sun and exercise. She’d warned Alfie not to roam far, though, since several groups of disreputable men loitered in the dusty lot, some having come out of the motley collection of ships parked there, others looking like they might have come to steal from the motley collection of ships.
“She seems to be happy all the time. There’s something to be learned from animals, isn’t there?” Kiyoko smiled down, and Jelena wondered if that was a hint that she should be brooding less about the snagor-delivery fiasco.
Noticing that their new doctor wore gloves, Jelena ignored the question and waved at her hands. “Has someone needed your surgical expertise? Or have you been cleaning the lav again?”
“Erick did want me to inject some nanobots to heal what he considered grievously bruised ribs, but I’m wearing these because I was scrubbing the deck in sickbay. I’ve also been doing an inventory, and I have a list of supplies that you may want to consider adding to the ship’s stocks, especially if you’ll be involving yourself in gunfights often.”
“What would you consider often?”
“More than once a month? I have some QuickSkin, but a limited amount. I was impressed that your people managed to battle androids without receiving any serious injuries. Erick’s bruised ribs notwithstanding.”
“Hm.” Jelena looked toward a group of drunken and injured men helping each other back to their ship. “I’m not sure this is the ideal location to purchase medical supplies.”
“What will you think of me if I say it looks like a mecca after Fourseas?”
“Is that only because the buildings haven’t been bombed recently? Because mecca certainly seems like an overstatement.”
“Buildings with roofs are luxurious. As for medical supplies, perhaps I can put in an order through a supplier on Arkadius, and it can be shipped to our next destination.”
Thor walked out, and Jelena paused before continuing the conversation. He wore his usual black, with the hood up and a wrap concealing the lower part of his face. His sword, the blade now retracted into the handle, hung from his belt, as did a dagger and a blazer pistol.