Inherit the Stars (13 page)

Cheseia busted the empty rifle over one of the remaining pirates' helmets. The pirate fell to his knees, as another grazed her arm with his blade. Now both of their envirosuits had been punctured.

The pirate with the smashed faceplate came again. Sar kicked her back and sank his sword into another pirate's chest. It stuck there, and the man toppled into yellow dust.

“Key in the pad sequence!” Sar ducked another swipe from his assailant. Nothing would stop him. Not blades, bullets, or the alien atmosphere seeping into his suit. Kivita would still light the fires of rebellion, even if none burned in her heart for him.

Lacking a faceplate, the pirate held her breath; the olive tint of Sarrhdtuu Transmutation colored her flesh. Umiracan's chill frosted over her lips and nostrils, but she attacked Sar like a maddened snake. He avoided an overextended thrust, then punched her jaw. She drew back, mouth not even opening.

Cheseia kicked aside her opponent and raised the protective plate over the airlock keypad. The kneeling pirate rose and dived with his blade, but Cheseia dodged and slammed the pirate into the hull, cracking his helmet. She brought an elbow down across his neck, and he went limp.

Sar grunted as the female pirate punched his side, then kicked his left thigh. He stumbled and broke her
nose with a right hook. She staggered back, sucking in Umiracan's poisonous atmosphere at last. Sar picked up a dead pirate's spike baton.

“Cheseia!” he yelled.

The last pirate cracked his rifle butt across her back. She fell on her hands and knees, her faceplate frosting over from carbon dioxide contamination.

With a furious yell, Sar struck the pirate's back with the baton, its spiked head puncturing polyarmor. The pirate tried to turn, but Sar swung again. The tapered edge entered the man's neck. Blood spurted as the pirate fell to his knees.

Seething with hate and pain, Sar bludgeoned the pirate again and again. He wanted to bring down the foul yellow Inheritor banner. He yearned to rip Shekelor to shreds. He needed to crush . . .

Hands numb, Sar stopped swinging the baton. The pirate's pulpy remains made him turn and force bile down his throat. The baton dropped from his grasp, and cold shame doused his conscious.

“Sar,” Cheseia's weak voice cracked over his helmet speakers. Had she seen him beat the pirate to death?

Sar tapped the code into the keypad and closed the armored cover. Hefting Cheseia up, he entered the airlock. Every breath wrung his lungs; every exhalation fogged his faceplate. Hearing a noise, he turned around.

The female pirate tugged the helmet off a prone companion. Her olive face convulsed and her eyes rolled back before getting the helmet on. She collapsed into the yellow soil.

The airlock slid shut. Sar's breaths hurt his chest.

Frevyx
's onboard systems activated with life support, heating, and gravity operating by the time he stumbled
into the bridge. Cheseia hunkered down on the bench and tossed off her helmet.

“Sar,” She coughed violently and slid off the bench. “Take off.”

“Hold on. Got to . . .” His words came with painful effort as his lungs took in
Frevyx
's oxygen. That green-rigged pirate had survived too long before succumbing to the toxic air. How many such followers did Shekelor possess?

Outside the viewport, a squad of Shock Troopers approached
Frevyx
. Eschewing the seat restraints, Sar started the engines and fired the thrusters. The ship lifted as he pulled the manuals back, even as concentrated green beams passed before
Frevyx
's bridge viewport. Sar gritted his teeth, fired the retro thrusters, and flew over the fortress.

The scanner readout showed at least three Aldaakian ships orbiting the planet. Perhaps a cruiser, a few shuttles. An Inheritor beacon signal streaked from Umiracan's orbit.

“Damn it, Kiv. What the hell were you thinking?” Sar had no doubt she and Seul had taken Shekelor's personal ship. For a moment he feared the Juxj Star might have shown her something none of the rest of them could see. A place he couldn't track her to.

Brown clouds enveloped
Frevyx
for several wracking seconds. Cheseia moaned louder from the airlock chamber, and turbulence jarred him from his seat. Sar gunned the ship faster until it exploded from orbit.

Cheseia gasped as she crawled to his side.

“How bad?” Sar asked, trying to eye her body and the ships ahead.

“Concentrate on flying,” she breathed. “My wind was simply knocked out of me.”

In the nebula-covered void ahead, a lone ship sped toward the Aldaakian one.
Terredyn Narbas
was clamped beneath the Aldaakian cruiser.

“Kiv, you're mad,” he whispered.

•   •   •

“Commander Vuul has brought
Aldaar
here much sooner than I expected,” Seul said. “He must have followed us right after I was taken from Vstrunn.”

The Aldaakian cruiser stretched over a thousand feet in length, glimmering with a polished black finish. Beam weapon emplacements protruded from below the bridge, the underside, and from each geometric, angled wing.

“How many of you are on that thing?” Kivita asked.

“Perhaps six hundred crew and Troopers, with most in cryostasis,” Seul replied. “Just a typical strike force.”

Kivita, once so sure of her actions, now battled a dozen doubts and anxieties. The Aldaakians might pay nothing for the Juxj Star and still keep her ship. They might even leave her in
Fanged Pauper
, with a ruined reputation and a horde of pissed-off pirates chasing her. Salvagers always took risks, but staying on Umiracan would have landed her on a Sarrhdtuu ship. She had no idea why they wanted her. It had to be the gem.

She opened her mouth to ask Seul about hailing the Aldaakian ship, but raw information filled her thoughts.

Kith awaited her orders as Kivita entered information into a Vim datacore by sheer thought. Information in its purest, most immortal form: the collective memory of a species, stored in nature's hardiest materials. Only the Children of Meh Sat could read the secrets within the datacores. Secrets scattered in Vim Cradles.

“Kivita!” Seul screamed.

Fanged Pauper
veered to port, then back to starboard
as Kivita regained her senses and control of the ship. Her hands trembled over the manuals; sweat trickled down her cheeks.
Aldaar
loomed above her like some gigantic beast of prey.

Kivita considered what she'd just envisioned. “Children of Meh Sat” was an ancient term for humanity in the Cetturo Arm. So ancient even the Inheritors couldn't tell what it meant.

“You'll find something special out there someday. Just gotta keep looking for it.”

She touched the place in her polyarmor where the Juxj Star resided. Damn it, why lie to herself any longer? All those stellar vistas, all those coordinates . . . all the wonders she could discover, using this gem. She'd found something far greater than just another relic to barter.

Glancing back at Umiracan, Kivita's heart throbbed. Found something, yes. But what had she left behind?

Kivita cut
Fanged Pauper
's engines as she brought it alongside
Terredyn Narbas
. The parallel airlocks magnetized. With numb fingers she unbuckled herself from the gyro harness and left the cockpit.

“Kivita, what are you doing? Commander Vuul has not received the Juxj Star yet. He will not agree to you entering your ship until you've made a trade and spoken with our Archivers about the Vim signal.” Seul tugged off her buckles and stood, suspicion in her eyes.

“There's other things on board my ship I have to arrange. Then I'll speak to the commander, whatever his name is.”

Seul barred her path to the airlock. “You lie.”

They stared at each other. How could Seul understand? She expected weird things from Kivita, a miracle
to save her people or something. Kivita had to save herself first.

“Yeah. I'm sorry.” Throat tight, Kivita raised the pistol. “But I can't give up the Juxj Star. Not yet.”

Neither spoke for a moment. Seul's eyes darted about, as if searching for a weapon.

“I saved your life. I helped you steal this ship. All so that you can lead us to the Vim!” Seul winced and clutched her thigh wound.

“Seems like we used each other, huh?” Kivita tried to smile.

Seul glared, then looked away.

“I hope you see your daughter someday,” Kivita said. “I mean that.”

“Go. I will tell them . . .” Seul faced Kivita. “I'll tell them I was your prisoner, and you left me here. Even though I know you already fired your last shot.” She moved from the airlock.

The cockpit speaker crackled. “Kiv, what the hell are you doing? Kiv?” Sar's voice made her cheeks burn.

“I hope your heart finds what it needs.” Seul glanced at the speaker.

“Thank you, Seul Jaah.” Kivita jumped into
Terredyn Narbas
as its airlock slid open. As she turned, Seul watched her with forlorn eyes. They reminded Kivita of melting ice shards.

The airlock shut, and Kivita ran to the bridge, wondering how she'd disable the Aldaakian clamps. Wondering if she'd ever see her new friend again.

Terredyn Narbas
's gravity still lay under the Aldaakian cruiser's influence, but Kivita managed to strap herself into the gyro harness. There had been no sign of Shock Troopers on board—they'd have stopped her at the airlock, anyway. She opened the bridge viewport and gripped the manuals.

Kivita closed her eyes, and her breath shook through trembling lips. A cold, hard reality stole over her: she was leaving Sar behind. Leaving Seul and any possible bargain with the Aldaakians, too. The Juxj Star might show her more things—things she'd only dreamt about as a little girl staring up at the stars.

The console speaker awoke with static. “Kiv, wait. Your beacon can still be traced. Follow me and—”

She cut off the speaker and muted the mic. Too late, Sar Redryll. Too late.

The scanner readouts showed nine of Shekelor's ships closing with the Aldaakians—and thus her own craft. Kivita flicked on her radio transmitter and tapped in a code sequence. Once she'd cracked a pirate-ship computer in the Raderon system by hacking its clamp release.

The console beeped a negative. Yeah, so she lacked familiarity with Aldaakian code syntax. Kivita tried again. Nothing.

Shekelor's ships came closer. Kivita pounded new numbers into the keypad. C'mon, work, dammit!

The scanner picked up a shuttle exiting
Aldaar
, while
Frevyx
evaded two of Shekelor's vessels. Kivita rubbed her brow. The shuttle would have a boarding party. This time, Sar and Cheseia wouldn't be around to help repel it.

“C'mon, Kivita, think.” She tapped in two more codes, but the clamps remained fixed on
Terredyn Narbas
's hull.

On the scanner,
Frevyx
outmaneuvered a pirate vessel attempting to magnetize airlocks, while the Aldaakian shuttle boarded
Fanged Pauper
. She hoped Seul would be okay.

Her fingers neared the keys again as the tingling returned to her temples. The sensation of ice sliding through her skull made Kivita gasp and thrash in the gyro harness. What the hell was happening to her?

A long code sequence entered her mind; binary, but with complex syntaxes she'd never heard of. Kivita's eyes fluttered and she tried to concentrate. Where had it come from? The code slid through her thoughts as she stared at the keypad.

“Get out . . . Get . . .” The code corkscrewed into her mind as she stared at the console. Get away from
Aldaar
; get away from the pirates . . .

Her proximity alarm honked as
Aldaar
's clamps released her ship.

Sucking in a deep breath, Kivita opened her eyes. The bulkheads creaked as a mild gravity flux rippled through
Terredyn Narbas
; then the craft was free.

Kivita glanced from the viewport to the keypad. Her fingers had not tapped in a single number.

“What . . . ?” She couldn't breathe. The icy pain in her head spread, and she gritted her teeth. Breaths finally came, fast and ragged.

How did I do that? The code went from her mind through the keypad, to
Aldaar
's computer. . . . It wasn't possible. Her heartbeat thrummed in her ears.

Maybe Seul had told her comrades to let Kivita go, or they wanted to ditch
Terredyn Narbas
's extra mass to combat the pirates. There had to be a reason.

Kivita punched the thruster control, pushed the manuals, and sped away. Dunaar had lied to her, Sar may have betrayed her, and Shekelor wanted to sell her to the Sarrhdtuu. Why? She'd done nothing but find this gem, right?

She needed to get away and think. Needed to study the Juxj Star.

On the scanner,
Frevyx
slowed as another pirate ship drew alongside to magnetize with its other airlock. Two more ships flanked
Frevyx
and used their gravitational fluxers to destabilize it. Sar would be boarded for sure. It would serve him right. But he'd saved her on Vstrunn and let her keep the Juxj Star instead of taking it.

“Like your Umiracan Kiss now, Sar?” Kivita's finger lingered over the light-jump button. What could she do to save him?
Terredyn Narbas
had no weapons.

She punched the thrusters again and grunted as
Terredyn Narbas
turned about. G-forces tossed her in the gyro harness, and the gravity generator sputtered until she switched it off to zero-G. Though all her instincts begged her to leave, Kivita banked to port and angled
Terredyn Narbas
's braking thrusters to
starboard. As she sped alongside the second pirate ship docking with
Frevyx
, Kivita fired the thrusters.

The brief burst of heat and energy shook her ship, and debris slapped against the starboard hull. Two damage indicators blinked on her terminal, bathing the bridge in red light. The scanner displayed the pirate ship swerving away from
Frevyx
, chunks of its hull floating away.

Kivita swerved to starboard, fired her port-side braking thrusters, and wheeled
Terredyn Narbas
around to make a pass on the other pirate ship. G-forces slammed into her chest and stomach. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her vision narrowed into near darkness. She gasped for air as a structural-integrity alarm blinked.

“Kiss this,” she mumbled, and urged
Terredyn Narbas
onward. Her thumb barely pressed the break-thruster button for the starboard side. Another proximity alarm hinted at success. Red warning lights on the console zigzagged across her tumbling vision. Dings and thuds echoed through her ship as debris struck it.

The gyro harness bit through her envirosuit, while G-forces yanked her around the bridge, but Kivita tugged the manuals. One pirate ship used its fluxer again.
Terredyn Narbas
shook, and Kivita's stomach crawled into her throat. Everything became a blur of red and yellow lights, black void.

Kivita's scalp flared; her mouth went dry. The fluxer—have to stop that stupid fluxer before it disrupts my flight path too much, before the pirates board
Frevyx
, before they hurt Sar. . . .

Her jaw popped with a racked cry as paths blazed into her thoughts. An icy feeling sheared through her body. Numbers emptied from Kivita's mind as her consciousness reached out toward the pirate ship.

Terredyn Narbas
stopped shaking and its flight stabilized. Per her scanner, the pirate ship's fluxer had ceased operating.

Twice she'd forced something to happen on another ship just by thinking about it. Twice! Her wide-eyed stare drank in the celestial vista outside the viewport. Two times meant this couldn't be a coincidence. The stars and nebula all seemed to brighten in agreement.

Shivering, she flew
Terredyn Narbas
away from her handiwork. On the scanner, the two pirate ships appeared as flaring shapes on either side of
Frevyx
.

“You owe me one, smoothie,” Kivita whispered.

The scanner beeped. Four pirate ships, one of them the large saucer with the forward cargo hold, closed in on her position. She'd done what she could for Sar and Cheseia. Anyway, if Sar was still half the pilot he used to be, he'd escape.

Terredyn Narbas
's engine whined, and she frowned. All warning lights and alarms came on, assaulting Kivita's eyes and ears. The ship sputtered and slowed down.

No, not now. Please, girl, not now. Her mind churning with icy rawness, Kivita forced herself to focus on the console's readout display.

The ship was losing power; the phased energy dumps would need a manual reset. Just enough remained for a light jump. Great.

Her fingers darted over the keypad as a hundred different coordinate sets raced through her mind. Before finding the Juxj Star, she'd never known so many. At random, Kivita punched one in and hit the activate button; then cold agony whipped across her temples. Why couldn't all this damn information leave her mind?

“That's it, girl. Take us out of here. C'mon.” The
engine sputtered again. Kivita loosed a wordless shout, wanting the energy dump to reset, wanting to get the hell away. Wanting it to reset without her having to touch the lever.

With a dull roar, the engine awoke. The viewport shut as
Terredyn Narbas
light-jumped away from Umiracan.

After reactivating the ship's gravity, Kivita unbuckled herself from the gyro harness. The next instant she lay on the floor, palms and knees smarting from the impact. It took all her will not to vomit.

“Sar, you asshole.” The words took more effort than she'd thought, but she needed to say them. The wringing nausea in her gut faded and Kivita stood. She pulled herself along the ship's corridors to the cryo chamber. All her bruises and cuts hammered at her nerves.

She needed light medical attention, food. But sleep first. As her cryopod hissed open; the Juxj Star spilled from her pouch and plunked into the cryopod. The gem's glassy red surface reflected her own face back at her.

“What the hell are you?”