Wreck of the Nebula Dream (28 page)

“What?”

“The doors are closing all right, but he’s outside. He’s left the ship.” Staring the length of the shuttle bay, to where the small star that was Khevan had clearly and deliberately moved outside the safety of the
Nebula Dream
, Nick swore. “Damn it!”

Mara raised her eyebrows. “Why would he go outside?”

“I don’t know. But if he doesn’t get inside before those doors close, we aren’t going to be able to help him. No way to retrieve anyone from a shuttle.”

Joining him at the window, she squinted to make out the details. “Hasn’t the red glare faded somewhat?”

In a slow trajectory, Khevan stared at the ship he was drifting away from. The huge space doors moved inexorably along their tracks.
 

“Maybe his Lady didn’t appreciate him asking for help,” Mara said. “I’ve heard she’s a jealous bitch.”

Surprised by her choice of words, Nick glanced at her.
Gives me an idea
. Holstering his blaster, he walked to Twilka, unconscious on the deck, bathed in a faint red glow. Going to his knees beside her, he hesitated a second before taking her by the shoulders, leaning in nose to nose.

“Twilka, listen to me,” he said, trying to penetrate her semi-conscious state. “If you’re linked to him, call him back now. Tell him he’s got to get inside before the doors close. No more sightseeing.”

He recoiled, almost toppling over.

Twilka had opened her eyes, but the face Nick was staring into was not that of the Socialite any longer. It was the Red Lady herself – it had to be. Alien, imperious, and angry. The eyes were huge, limpid pools of scarlet and golden fire, surrounded by lashes so darkly red as to be black. The face, superimposed on Twilka’s, was terrifyingly beautiful but exuded evil, malicious intent. Nick’s skin literally crawled as the pupil-less eyes locked onto him. Standing up, he gave ground, barely conscious of doing so. Rapidly growing in size, the apparition detached itself from connection with Twilka’s body. Moaning, the ‘Lite curled into a ball.

Nick retreated another yard or so, as the Red Lady’s representation floated and expanded, filling the corridor with heat and scarlet light. Her hair became living flame, undulating gracefully, framing the harshly beautiful face. She continued to stare at him with those inhuman eyes, studying him.

Damaged throat suddenly parched, he swallowed hard.

“Call him,” he said to the alien mistress of the D’nvannae Brotherhood. “You obviously heard his request, you must have agreed to help us, don’t punish him.”

“Maybe he broke some rules of your order, but surely your decision to let him close those shuttle doors must absolve him of any wrongdoing?” Mara came to stand beside Nick, fumbling for his hand. Gratefully, he closed his fingers around hers. The deity fixed those stark eyes on Mara, who didn’t flinch.

“We’re fighting a bigger battle here.”
Gotta draw the Red Lady’s attention to me, away from Mara.

The heat in the corridor intensified, the air shimmering.

Those awful eyes stared at him for another long set of heartbeats before the ghostly apparition floated past, through the blast door, and was gone.

The klaxons shut off.

“She’s not a nice lady.” Paolo’s declaration left no slightest doubt how he felt. “But her sister was good.”

“Sister?” Nick was confused, puzzled.
 

“What did you see?” Mara asked, gently.

Paolo pointed to the wall behind where Nick and Mara had been standing. “There was a reflection, like in a mirror, but it wasn’t the terrible lady in red. It was a lady all in white, and she smiled and nodded, and then the other one drifted through the door and left.”

Nick checked behind him but saw nothing reflected in the corridor now, if ever there had been something. He went to the blast door. “Time to pick our ride and get out of here,” he said, activating the simple controls which would slide the big doors open for them now the hangar was no longer open to space.

“Khevan?” Mara asked anxiously, catching him by the elbow.

“Don’t know. I’m going to see. You try and rouse Twilka, all right? Drag her into the shuttle bay if you have to, but make it quick. Have Paolo help. Get inside as fast as you can and shut this behind you, got it?”

Squeezing through the steadily enlarging opening, Nick sprinted across the shuttle landing deck, in search of Khevan.
 

CHAPTER EIGHT

Nick ran to the lip of the shuttle bay, relieved to see the crumpled figure of the D’nvannae Brother lying safely inside the
Dream
, behind the protection of the massive doors. A few more inches in the other direction and he would have been crushed as they closed.

Groaning, Khevan stirred, slowly sitting up as Nick got closer, shaking hand rubbing his forehead.

“You okay?” Nick knelt. “You’re sunburned or something. Your face is peeling.”

Khevan stared at Nick for a minute, then examined his hands, spreading them wide and turning them slowly over. Every inch of the Brother’s exposed skin was red.

“The embrace of the Lady takes a toll,” he said, struggling to get the words out, past chapped and dry lips. “She’s all heat, light, and fire.”

“Yeah, I know. We saw her at the final moments.” Nick hooked both hands under Khevan’s shoulders and helped him get to his feet, boots slipping on the slick deck. “Impressive.”

“She permitted you to see her?” Khevan was astounded.

“We had a small disagreement, in fact,” Nick said, getting Khevan’s arm over his shoulder and supporting the Brother’s weight. “She wanted to send you off on a tour of Sector Seventeen without us. Or a shuttle.”

“She wasn’t pleased to be summoned, to have
tazlin
used for such a purpose,” Khevan admitted as they trudged slowly toward the waiting shuttles, Nick supporting him, trying yet again to ignore the pain radiating from his damaged shoulder.
Probably a broken bone or three, not much I can do about it
.
 

“You can’t argue with the Lady – what am I saying – you shouldn’t even have seen a glimpse of her.” Khevan sounded outraged, insulted. “She never shows herself to those who haven’t earned the right through trial and sacrifice. You aren’t of the Brotherhood, not even a novice Brother.”

“Not ever going to be either, let me tell you,” Nick said. “Not after this encounter. Although I appreciate the risk you took to get her assistance.”

“She demanded a sacrifice for my impudence in calling on her for this service.” Khevan was matter of fact about it, but Nick heard a subtle tremor in the man’s voice. “I don’t know why she relented.”

“The children said they saw her sister –”

“The Lady in White?” Khevan stopped in his tracks.

 
Nick had to stop, too, which he did with an impatient curse. Khevan directed a searching look at him. “She came as well to our aid?”

“Paolo described her pretty clearly.” Nick urged Khevan to take another step and they proceeded. “Mara and I were all eyes for your Lady in Red. Maybe it’s not as odd as you’re thinking,” he said. “After all, Lady Damais did say you’d made a choice between the two, which one to serve, right?”

“Yes, I did. A long time ago, for reasons that – seemed correct. Then.”

Nick clapped him gently on the shoulder. “Well, then, maybe the White Lady hasn’t given up on you yet. Some connection still exists between you. Whatever, I suggest we get the hell out of this deathtrap. You can rethink your vocation and your allegiances another time.”

“How is Twilka?” Khevan asked anxiously as Nick got him walking again. “I should have inquired after her first,” he berated himself. “She took no hurt? The Lady wasn’t angry toward her for assisting me?”

“See for yourself in a minute or two,” Nick said. He was the one who had stopped walking now, gazing off to the port side of the shuttle bay. “Maybe the Lords of Space have thrown a new chip on the board for us.”

Craning his head, Khevan assessed conditions in the shuttle bay, eyebrows raised. “What are you talking about?”

“Behind the second shuttle, to the left. Is that the captain’s personal flier, or am I dreaming?” Not waiting for an answer, Nick headed to investigate, urging Khevan along somewhat faster than the Brother wanted to move. Nick could tell he was pushing Khevan too hard, but he was impatient to check out his discovery.

Mara and the children, all three of them supporting Twilka to one degree or another, changed their laboriously slow course across the shuttle bay to intercept Nick and Khevan at the trim little ship. With a resounding bang, the airtight door once again sealed the bay from the corridor.
 

Glancing behind him distractedly, Nick barely registered the change in status. “Oh, good, the door will keep the pirates out for a brief time, if they get this far into the ship,” was all he said, although the sudden noise had been deafening and echoes were still bouncing through the bay.

“I heard some noise at the far end of the corridor, by the grav lift,” Mara said nervously. “I thought the damn door would never close. We have to hurry, whatever we’re going to do.”

“What we’re going to do is get ourselves on board this beauty.” Nick gestured at the small ship they were standing in front of. It was rakish, the design suggestive of speed and maneuverability. “
The Sigrid
” was inscribed in black under the nose. Even the crisp Basic lettering was slanted, as if it had been written under acceleration.

Mara’s eyebrows rose to her hairline. She checked out the rest of the shuttle bay, then stared at Nick. “But it’s blocked in by the two shuttles. Wasn’t the plan to take one of them? What happened to simple?”

He shook his head, grinning with pleasure. He was the happiest he’d been since this whole series of misadventures kicked off. He actually had some hope they might survive, now.
The captain’s private ship could make a huge difference
. “This is a much better plan, trust me. More chance we’ll actually get away intact. Okay, let’s get all of you safely aboard. Then I’ve got some work to do before we make our run.”

Going to the access panel on
The
Sigrid
’s flank, he keyed in his all-purpose SF code. “I’ll get you settled, warm her engines up, then I’m going to go to each of the shuttles and set their autopilots. I’m hoping we can activate the bay doors from inside
The
Sigrid
’s cockpit, which would be a fairly standard enhancement for the captain’s own ship to have installed.”

“And then?” Khevan closed his eyes, leaned heavily against
The
Sigrid
, a man literally on his last legs.

“Then the two shuttles blast out of here, full power, going in opposite directions, drawing off any waiting Shemdylann. While they’re busy shooting at empty ships, we hit the straight line and we’re outta here, free and clear.” Nick made the classic flying gesture with his left hand.

“Good plan,” Khevan concurred wearily. “I wish I could be of more help, but I can barely stand at the moment.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’ve done your part today and then some. Come on.” Nick helped the exhausted Brother up the ramp, inside
The
Sigrid
and into one of the six seats inside the cutter. “I can do this myself, no problem,” Nick assured Khevan as the D’nvannae sank into the plush seat.

“Nick,” Mara called, her voice carrying a mix of exasperation and worry. “Can you help me? Twilka’s collapsed again.”

“She has taken harm?” Khevan made as if to rise, although plainly he was a man at the outer limits of his endurance.

“No, I don’t think so.” Nick was reassuring, already moving down the short aisle to the hatch in response to Mara’s summons, dodging the two children as they came inside.

“Where do you want us to sit, sir?” Paolo asked, politely.

“Take these two seats here, trooper. Then stay put and make sure your sister does the same, okay? And Huntington.” Nick checked out the bedraggled, one-eared bear. “Not long now and we’ll be off this damn cruise ship, okay?”

“And go find my father?” the boy requested hopefully.

Nick shook his head. “I don’t know if we can, but we’ll sure try.”

He moved into the shuttle bay.

“Thank goodness.” Mara was kneeling on the deck next to an unconscious Twilka. “She passed out. I was lucky to keep her from slamming her head on
The
Sigrid
as she pitched forward. All I could do was break her fall.” She watched as Nick picked the younger woman up and adjusted her weight in his arms, getting his balance before attempting the sloping ramp up into the cutter. “Do you think she’s going to be all right?” Mara stood up, dusting her knees off briskly.
 

“I don’t know. I hope so. All I want right now is to see clear space in my vids and Sector Sixteen border beacons on my readouts, okay?” His shoulder ached.
Thank goodness Twilka hardly weighs more than Gianna.

Trailing after him, Mara said, “Sorry.”

Nick was already regretting the sharpness of his reply. “No, I apologize, Mara. Between Paolo asking me if we were going to find his dad on the lifeboats out there, and Khevan half dead, not to mention Twilka in who knows what kind of state, I’m running out of good answers to questions.”