Finn moved ahead of Duran and knelt before the small opening beside the elevator doors. Nothing looked familiar, but that hadn't stopped him before. “Duran? Is this electrically charged? Am I going up in a cloud of smoke if I touch anything?”
“It's a form of power similar to your electricity. Avoid the yellow wires. I think everything else is safe.”
“I hope you're right.” The wiring was obviously old, covered in some sort of fabric that had scorch marks where wires rubbed against each other. This ship was ancient, and if what Duran and Bolt had said was true, it hadn't been properly maintained for a long, long time.
Parts inside the panel looked worn and discolored, but he carefully clipped all the wires he could get to, pulled out what looked like a small motherboard, and stuck it in his fanny pack to show Mac. Then he carefully replaced the cover plate he'd removed and tapped it with the side of his hand until it slid into place.
“Do you think you've got it stopped?” Rodie stared at Finn, obviously expecting an answer.
“I don't know.” He grinned and stood. “Hell, I don't even know if that controls the elevator, but I know I must have screwed up something.”
The lights overhead blinked, flickered some more, and then dimmed to a fraction of what they'd been moments earlier. Finn glanced along the hallway in both directions. It was noticeably darker. He nudged Duran. “Is that normal?”
Duran shook his head. “No. We'd better get moving before the guards decide to check on the lights.”
They raced along the corridor until Duran held up his hand. They all stopped as he slowly moved a few inches farther so that he could look around the corner, then flattened himself back beside Morgan. “The guards are both focused on the control panel at their station. They're not looking this way at all. Do you think you can overpower them?”
“Hell, man.” Morgan looked as if he were grinding his teeth. “We haven't even seen them yet. I have no idea what they look like, how big they are. How the hell can I say we'd be able to overpower them?”
A visual popped into Finn's mind, and from the surprised looks on both Morgan's and Rodie's faces, he figured Duran was sharing the same image with each of them. The guards were exactly as Cam had sketched themâpale skin, bulbous heads, big eyes, flat faces, with slits for nostrils. They wore dark gray uniforms, but their bodies lacked the mass of humansâlong thin arms and legs, narrow shoulders, and slim bodies. From the size of the elevator doors, Finn judged them to be taller than humans with longer reach, but hopefully not as strong.
Morgan leaned down and planted a big kiss on Rodie. “Try not to get shot, okay?” Then he pushed away from the wall and walked down the corridor toward the guards as if he owned the place.
Finn shot a quick look at Rodie, shrugged, and followed Morgan. The two guards appeared to be totally focused on the counter in front of them. They were definitely tall, but not as large as Finn had thought, and so thin they looked as if they were little more than skin over bones.
Morgan walked right up to the closest and tapped him on the shoulder.
Finn picked up his pace as the first Gar jerked around, stared at Morgan, and let out a blood-curdling screech. Morgan hauled back his right arm and landed an undercut just below what should have been the alien's jaw.
The screech cut off; the Gar swayed for a moment and then went down. Finn planted his hand on the flat surface, vaulted over the counter, and slammed his feet into the chest of the second guard. This one was reaching for what had to be a weapon, but Finn grabbed the thing out of its hand as they both went down, and landed a solid punch to its nose. At least where he thought its nose should be. The creature went limp beneath him.
“Damn.” He shoved the Gar's weapon into his fanny pack, straightened, and looked at Duran. “I didn't bring anything to tie them with.”
“I did.” Rodie pulled a handful of cable ties out of her pack, the kind riot police used to restrain prisoners. It took them only a moment to restrain both Gar and drag them back behind the counter.
Finn took another look. The two were either dead or unconscious. Hard to tell. He glanced Duran's way. “Duran? Will there be other guards on this level?”
“Two at the most. Near the barracks.” He jerked his head in the direction they'd just come. “If they come, they'll be using that corridor.”
“Okay,” Finn said. He glanced that way, just in case. “Where are the soulstones?”
Duran pointed toward a large set of doors beyond the counter. Tightly closed doors.
Rodie found the first Gar's weapon lying on the floor where it had fallen. She stood in front of the unconscious prisoners and pointed the thing at the two of them.
“You sure you're pointing the right end?” Finn stopped to give her a hug.
“Funny boy. I am. And if either of these guys move, I'm sure I can figure out how to use it.”
Duran stood in front of the double doors. “These are always open when we change shifts. I've never seen them closed before.” He ran his hands over the smooth panels, growing more agitated as seconds passed. “Finn? Do you see any kind of switch over there that might open them?”
Finn was already going over the panel the Gar had been working on. Buttons and gauges were labeled with totally unfamiliar symbols. “Do you have any idea what these mean?”
Duran ran back to the panel and stared at the dozens of different blinking lights and moving dials, at gauges and buttons that were all beginning to blink in what didn't look like a normal pattern. “No. We were never allowed to see any of this.”
Finn looked for a pattern but couldn't see anything at all familiar, nothing that looked like it would open what was essentially a vault for the soulstones. He grabbed his Leatherman's tool out of his pack and raced back to the doors.
Running his hands over the smooth surface, he felt a slight vibration near the center. Once again he used the edge of his blade to find a seam, and with the slightest pressure, popped off a metal cap that was hardly larger than his hand.
The dial inside was familiar enough that it sent a chill along his spine. “It almost looks like a combination lock, but I don't recognize the symbols on it.” He took a quick look at the Gar, who were still lying on the floor. “They're not going to be much help. Duran, have you ever seen them open this thing?”
He shook his head. “It was always open during the shift change. We went in, got our soulstones, and came out again.”
“I imagine it's locked after they had their run-in with the last group. I wonder if it's set on a timer?” Morgan stared at the dial a moment and then walked back over to the panel. “If the shifts always change at the same time, that would make sense. Duran, what time is it here on the ship? Can you tell me if any of these dials are timekeeping devices?”
Duran pointed to a readout. “This is the clock that denotes shift changes. There's not another shift for over eight hours.”
Finn joined Morgan and Duran, staring at the console. “Okay, then maybe we need to reset it.”
“And you plan to do that how?” Morgan raised an eyebrow.
Finn rubbed his knuckles against his chest. “I have no fucking idea, Morgan. You got any suggestions?”
“Actually”âRodie shoved Finn asideâ“I think I do.”
Finn stood back and watched Rodie work the controls as if she actually knew what she was doing.
She glanced up. “I can program my microwave. No reason I can't do this. Duran? Can you tell me when I get to the time it is right now?” She was slowly spinning a dial that moved symbols across a small screen.
Duran leaned over her shoulder. “Here.” He pointed at a symbol. “Line this one up with the red line.”
Rodie lined the symbol up the way Duran had instructed. The lights on the console began blinking in a strange almost rhythmic sequence. Finn heard a series of clicks and looked up, expecting to see more Gar coming along the corridor.
The door to the vault slid open and a brilliant glow spilled out. Duran did a fist pump and whispered a soft, “Yes!”
Lights up and down the corridor suddenly flashed. A mind-numbing shriek filled the air. Rodie covered her ears and shouted, “What the hell happened?”
“I don't know,” Finn yelled, “but the door's open. Duran? Get the others. We're going for the soulstones.”
Duran nodded and flashed out of sight. Rodie, Finn, and Morgan raced for the vault. Finn went straight to the source of the light, but it was so bright he couldn't tell where the individual stones were.
“Which one's Zianne's soulstone?” Rodie leaned over the light, squinting against the blinding brilliance.
The moment she said Zianne's name, the glow softened until the stones were each visible on their own. One glowed brighter. Working on pure instinct, Rodie reached in, grabbed it, and stuck the brilliant egg-sized diamond in her pack as the Nyrians flashed just outside the vault. Still in their energy form, they flowed over the tray of diamonds, absorbing their soulstones into their glowing bodies. Then Duran and Nattoch, Tor, Arnec, and Bolt regained their human forms.
Bolt grabbed Rodie in a tight hug. Tears sparkled in Rodie's eyes as she hugged him back.
“Someone's coming!” Morgan grabbed the door to the vault and began shoving it closed.
“No!” Bolt reached out to stop him and caught the door just before it slammed shut. “If you close it, we're trapped. We can't get out of the vault. It's lined with a material that won't allow us to pass, even in energy form.”
“Shit.” Finn glanced out through the tiny sliver. “There are at least two Gar out there. Right now they're checking the ones we knocked out, but they're going to figure out where we are before too long.”
The chattering, clicking, and chirping got louder. One guard stayed with the two unconscious Gar. The other raced down the corridor.
“He's going to the engine room.” Nattoch kept his voice low. “We need to go now, while there's only one.”
Finn glanced over his shoulder. Rodie had one of the Gar weapons in her hand. He grabbed the one he'd confiscated and tested the weight.
Morgan whispered, “I'm going to open the door. Finn, you aim for the guy standing. Rodie? Shoot anyone else who shows up. Duran? Can we get out of the ship from here, or do we need to head for the service bay? We have to get the hell out of here before this thing blows.”
“We can go from here, once we're outside of the vault.”
“Good.” Morgan grabbed the edge of the door, but he glanced up and Finn caught the challenge in his eyes.
He answered.
Hell, yes, we're going to make it.
Morgan hauled back on the door. It slid quietly along an invisible track, but the Gar kneeling by his downed comrades jerked around and raised his weapon.
Finn pointed his and pressed what felt like a trigger. A blast of energy caught the guard in the chest, spun him around, and he dropped without a sound. Morgan scooped up the weapon he dropped and shoved it in his pocket. “Disassemble now. Hurry!”
Finn went for the mental switch and felt his body change. Rodie, Morgan, and the Nyrians dissolved at the same time. Finn sensed the swell of energy and the change in pressure as Duran began to pull him within his own mass of molecules for the return to Earth.
But the one guard who'd raced for the engine room was back. How had he moved so quickly? His arm was already raised. The flash of light from the end of his weapon meant he'd pulled the trigger.
The energy blast from the guard's weapon moved much slower than Finn's molecules, but faster than human eyes could follow. The familiar sensation of being sucked inside Duran's energy washed over him just as the brilliant beam made contact.
Pain exploded. Pain unlike anything he'd ever felt before. Finn heard Nattoch's scream and Rodie's cry of agony.
Deep within his own pain, Finn experienced a horrible sense of loss. They'd failed. So damned close, but they were just a fraction of a second too slow. The ship would explode and the Gar would die, but no one would know of the thousands of beings the Gar had murdered.
He and Rodie and Morgan would die. Zianne's soulstone would be lost, as would the five Nyrians he'd come to know as friends. More than friends. He thought of Duran, a man he already loved. And Tara. Tara would mourn Duran for eternity.
Would she mourn Finn as well?
The pain had become a steady, fiery agony, more than he imagined any person could endure for long. He hoped he'd not be caught in an eternity of pain, trapped in this undying form, forever interacting with the force of the Gar projectile.
He barely had time to think about the miserable consequences of never-ending agony. Then everything disappeared, leaving only darkness. And pain. Unrelenting pain.