She kept working and ignored him.
Tiernan’s voice crackled over the speaker. “Jess, transport back and wait for me there.” His words were filled with controlled rage. He’d a right to be angry. He believed she’d killed Reilly and tried sneaking off without facing him.
“Bragg,” Tiernan said, “take her from the damn ship!”
“You’re correct, Mr. Tiernan. Storm, prepare for transport.”
Splicing two wires together, she felt the power drain as the shield came up. When the wires arced and she received a mind-numbing shock, she crawled from beneath the panel.
“Storm!” Bragg bellowed. “You’ll remove shields now! We’ve programmed a repeating distress call in Theazian language to allow your ship to get in. If you get closer to the planet with shields up, they’ll shoot you down.”
She’d suspected that. The only shield up on the poor ship was the one riding above.
Theazians wouldn’t detect it. It also allowed her time to program coordinates for a transfer to where she wanted to go on Theazia. She began frantically working to accomplish it.
She’d been paying close attention as Bragg pointed out locations on Theazia the eve before. With any luck, the area she chose to materialize would be close to the laboratory. She’d get there well before Tiernan and could begin the search. She might actually do him some good before he strangled her for killing his man.
The other option would be to transfer to the Shadow and place herself within an arm’s length of Tiernan. With the impending mission, there wasn’t time for explanations and her presence would distract him. Also, if she managed to convince him of her innocence, that wouldn’t bode well for the three Braughmen and her crew on Efface. He probably won’t believe me anyway. Why would he?
The hum of the engines dropped and her heart sank. Did Bragg find a way to gain power over the ship even with the shield in place? The control panel showed a single engine failure. If she couldn’t get it back on line, she’d never generate the power needed for transport. It was either the shield or transporter—not both with the loss of an engine.
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The alarm sounded and the lights dimmed. Security lighting replaced the brighter lights and cast the command center in an eerie haze of red. The second engine rumbled under the strain of keeping the craft on course. She might not need to worry about much of anything. If the second engine died, she’d do an amazing free fall to the planet.
She also wouldn’t be able to transport or disengage the shield.
Thinking the scenario through for a moment, regardless of having the ship fully operational or not, she’d create a diversion. If she blew up with it, there wouldn’t be the problem of facing Tiernan or Bragg. She’d be free.
“Damn it, Storm,” Bragg yelled, “get that engine operational! Do it now!”
She sat down tiredly in the command chair. It seemed an appropriate thing to do and the chair felt extremely comfortable. She craved a nice long nap. Nothing appealed more.
“Jess.” Tiernan’s voice sounded controlled, steady and without emotion. “You’ll need to do something.”
She was. She was sitting. The thought of him hating her twisted her stomach into a painful knot.
He said, “Would you go to the engine room now?”
She placed her hands on the arms of the chair and pushed herself up. In a trance, she did what the very pleasant voice asked. She walked unhurriedly to the engine room and scanned the silent engine. It’d been the same one that’d bitten Zoe. The coupling had come undone again and she trudged around to the side of it and sat down. Without enthusiasm, she picked up the wrench and began working.
“A bit faster, Jess.”
After the coupling held together, she stretched out on the floor and reached beneath. Flipping switches to bring up power, she heard stirrings inside the mammoth casing as it tried to catch. When nothing changed, she got to her feet and listened.
Dropping the wrench on the floor, she walked over to the reactor, picked up the huge two-tone wrench and thought about what to do next.
“I know what to do,” she said, gripping the wrench with both hands. She remembered the eve prior with Tiernan and how she’d come apart beneath him. Thirty stinking minutes of believing her life may indeed work out in some manner, made her take a swing at the reactor. Bang! A few hours ago, her biggest problem was either getting to Blue or meeting Tiernan’s family.
“Jess!” Tiernan bellowed.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The reactor took more of her sudden fury.
“Storm! Cease this instant!” Bragg yelled.
She whirled around and targeted the dead engine to vent her rage. She beat the metal casing leaving dents from every hit. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to be Bragg’s property again. She was terrified of meeting Tiernan’s family and she wanted—
to go—to Blue! Bang, thud, bang, thud, thud…
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The engine grumbled to life and the wrench fell from her hands. She staggered and almost fell.
“Good gal. Now get back to the console and lower shields. You don’t have much time.”
Not once had he referred to her as sweet or hon. After making it to the command center, she set coordinates and waited. If she transported too soon, Efface would detect the transfer and could pick her up immediately. She’d need to wait until the last possible second so her escape couldn’t be traced.
With nothing more to do than sit with her finger on the button, she listened to Bragg scream out edicts and consequences for non-compliance. After a certain number of them were shouted, they held little threat.
His transmission was interrupted by Tiernan. “Jess, you have ninety seconds to lower shields. Do it now.” He sounded very reasonable.
Once in the planet’s atmosphere, she burst through the cloud cover and viewed the land mass. It rather looked like how she imagined hell. Patches of sparse greenery were surrounded by desolate gray and black mountains. Multiple volcanos had thick clouds of vapor hovering. Some had tremendous spurts of flame channeling out of the openings.
A deep, growling voice entered the cabin, ordering her to do something in a foreign tongue. Theazians. Everyone in the universe knew what they looked like. Having a beast close, if only its voice, created a deep shudder in her arms and legs.
“Twenty seconds, Jess. Take down the shields.”
How could he sound so reasonable? He thought she killed Reilly.
She lifted her index finger and rubbed it against her thumb. If it’s meant to be…
“Jess. Jessica!”
As the ship hurled toward the ground, she closed her eyes, hit the button and became weightless. One’s mind still worked during transport and those few seconds took forever. There was no ship now and no power to finish thrusting her to the predetermined destination. She wondered if it’d worked.
A second later, she realized she’d not only made it alive but found herself inside a massive chamber. The sound of pounding footsteps made her slide into a crease near the corner of the room. Seven-foot-tall armed beasts rushed by. How the hell did she manage not to transport herself into the middle of a wall? She’d programmed the computer to land her outside of the compound. Obviously, the ship crashing threw her adjustments off slightly.
Once the Theazians passed, she glanced around. Finally, something to smile about!
Weapons galore lined the walls and she helped herself. Oh my, pulse rifles, evaporators—a mini HERF cannon! The high energy radio frequency launcher could come in handy if she got cornered.
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She slung the straps of multiple weapons over her shoulders, choosing two finder guns for quick defense. She left the area and swayed to the hallway beyond. She wouldn’t move very fast, but she’d sure as hell make an impression on any Theazian she stumbled across.
To her dismay, the halls were easily navigated and deserted. She’d anticipa
ted fighting her way through the structure. Her luck wasn’t Generally this good. The temperature inside the place made her shiver. She’d expected extreme heat because the average temperature on the planet stayed over one hundred and twenty degrees. The echo of voices drifted to her and she followed them. Theazians didn’t make the noise.
As she took a stairway down, the temperature decreased as wails and moans grew louder. A smell assaulted her and she took air through her mouth to avoid it. She’d thought the Doxyn prison smelled vile, but this was worse. After she carefully rounded a corner, a beast spotted her and rushed forward. She let a finder gun drop and grabbed a pulse rifle. A mere gun wouldn’t do the job. She brought it up and fired. He kept coming. It took three shots before his head splattered the wall. Another Theazian appeared. Three quick shots to his chest left him as dead as the first.
Her boot slipped in gore as she stepped over them. She followed the continuous, low moans of tortured souls until she entered a massive room. She froze, temporarily unable to mentally digest what her eyes saw within. Long rows of cages held beings.
The scraps of clothing covering some resembled Governance uniforms. She’d been inside prisons, thought she knew what to expect. Her fingers and toes grew numb as she scanned the area.
Approaching the first cage, she gained a clear view of what was inside. The man had only one eye. A dreadful hole sat where the other should be. “General Ryker. Is he alive, Sir?”
The man stared and urinated where he stood. She moved on. A man and woman occupied the second cage. The man’s head was cradled in the woman’s lap with old blood covering the filthy dressing around his forehead.
Jessica asked, “Is General Ryker alive?”
The woman started shaking and nodded before pointing.
“Help is on the way, Miss. Stay calm.”
Cage after cage held Governance soldiers who bravely pointed out the General’s whereabouts. After seeing what’d been done to them, she decided the treatment she’d endured at Bragg’s hand was pleasurable in comparison. She’d never whine about her lot in life again. It took a great deal of time to find those with some semblance of mind to guide her, but she eventually came to a large metal door.
She twisted the massive latch. The hinges creaked as it swung open. With a rifle in hand and ready, she stood immobile and stared at what lay inside. A smaller cell in the corner of the room stood opened. The bodies of six Theazians lay scattered hither and yon. They’d died brutally, having their throats torn out and faces smashed. The stench of Theazian blood assailed her and she gagged.
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In the middle of the blood, gore and bodies, knelt a large naked man. Punctures and long wounds laced his back. The green ooze covering him came from the monsters to blend with the crimson blood of a normal being. He remained still as death.
Her vision grew increasingly bright, as if many lights came on to glare from above.
Concentrating, she heard the steady sound of someone panting. They seemed to come from within her head. Grief and rage washed into her. She could practically taste the emotions as her heart sped and body trembled.
Something touched her shoulder and she spun to find Tiernan’s chest. When she looked up, disdainful gray eyes gazed at her. Without a word, he stripped the guns slung over her shoulders and passed the sophisticated weapons to the group of Braughmen stationed behind him. She refused to give up the finder gun. She wouldn’t be in such a place without a weapon. Tiernan had other ideas and jerked it from her hands.
“Ryker?” Tiernan called. The man didn’t move. “General Gage Ryker!”
His head slowly turned. Wild looking, huge blue eyes gazed at them without the slightest spark of recognition. His expression held not a hint of comprehension. In fact, he appeared crazed and ready to do damage. A sensation settled in her chest and squeezed. Unbearable pain gripped her insides and wouldn’t let go. After a moment, she realized its source was the General.
“He’s not with us,” Tiernan said.
“You don’t know!”
“Look at him. You saw the rest of them. Ghosts. They’re focking ghosts.”
“No!”
“Aye. We don’t have much time.”
She reacted and ran toward Ryker, leaping over bodies while slipping through bloody puddles.
“Come back this instant!” Weapons strummed to life from the doorway.
She approached the kneeling man cautiously.
Tiernan said, “Move away. I don’t have a clear shot.”
She glanced back to find Tiernan, Finn and five others in the room with guns pointed in her direction. The strangest urge to remain at Ryker’s back made her indecisive about the correct course of action. She couldn’t understand why the urge to protect him became paramount. Common sense told her to move and she eventually did, to come to his side, leaving his back exposed.
He held something and as she stepped around, she saw a lady. His glaring and wild gaze followed Jessica’s every step. Within his arms lay a very beautiful and completely dead woman. Instantly, she knew he’d caused the demise of the monsters within the room. Yet he held her so carefully, possessively. His fingers stroked her arm and thigh as if reassuring the lifeless body. Tears filled her eyes as grief and pain rolled into her 115
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chest. Even in death, he sheltered her. His sense may be absent, but his instinct to look after the woman remained.
She dropped to her knees and studied the once beautiful woman with long, flame red hair. Her throat lay open where it’d been slit.
“Jess, move away.” Tiernan’s voice was closer. He and the others had come into the room.
Such pain the General felt. Such grief. Very slowly, she raised a trembling hand and reached out. She watched him for any reaction as she touched the woman’s striking hair. She gazed into his eyes as she stroked. “She’s quite beautiful, Sir.”
The corners of his eyes flinched. Agonizing, throbbing sorrow filled him. She could plainly see and feel the emotion. She also sensed anger, urgency and apprehension. It didn’t come from the man. It came from Tiernan.
Images rolled through her mind and what’d happened within the room became clear. The General held his wife. He’d seen it happen—her murder. He avenged her.
The strange replay of events made her skin roughen. The whole situation seemed more a dream than reality. Strangely, the odd sensations didn’t frighten her. “General Ryker?”
He blinked as if trying to make his mind work.
“I’m very sorry for your loss, Sir.”
“You’ve come to take her, Miss?” His voice was impossibly deep. It didn’t match the dark blond hair, beard and crystalline blue eyes.
“No, Sir,” she said softly, stroking his forearm gently, “we’ve come for you and your crew.”
“Don’t touch him! Move away, Jess! Do it now!” Tiernan’s voice was angry, deadly.
Ryker looked down and watched her fingers rub his arm. His head tilted slightly and he appeared curious. “Your touch, Miss. I thought it would be different.”
“How so, Sir?” By stroking him, she felt even more connected, drawn into his pain and confusion.
“I thought when one of your kind came down to take me beyond, there’d be…”
“Sir?” Their gazes remained locked.
“Why are you here?” He looked slightly more coherent.
“To help with your rescue. Do you take my meaning? The Governance sent Braughmen to fetch you and your crew.”
Intensity and intelligence flooded his expression.
“Tiernan,” she said, looking over Ryker’s shoulder, “the General will need something to wear.”
From the bit of research she’d done, she knew Brigadier General Gage Ryker to be an important man. Those in high places within the Governance admired him. Soldiers revered him. He shouldn’t leave Theazia without clothing.
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“Yo
ur name and rank, Miss.” He spoke with authority and power. At that moment, nothing about him resembled a senseless man. He’d come beyond the self-imposed prison in his mind to the here and now. “You wear a Governance uniform, but they’re not issued in white.”
“Storm, Sir. My rank— throwback.” A General in the Serenity Governance should understand her rank. Why did he ask? “Your wife, General. May I find a blanket to wrap her in?”
His head fell forward as if he’d forgotten the woman in his arms. He kissed her forehead and struggled to his feet. Jessica also stood and stepped aside as he walked back into the small cell. With exquisite care, he laid her on the cot and covered her, stroking her head and arm before turning. “She bargained for death, Miss and received it. She’ll be laid to rest here.”
Tiernan came forward and held out a pair of pants. “Are you tracking what’s taking place, Ryker?”
“Your name, Sir?” Ryker accepted the clothing and without further preamble, hastened to step into them and pull them up.
“Shane Tiernan of the planet Braugh.”
“Mr. Tiernan, the Governance sent you?”
“Aye, Sir.”
“And you’re to discern my mental capacity?”
“Aye.”
“I’m clear-minded. Let’s get my crew out of here post haste, shall we?”
“Aye, Sir.” To his men, Tiernan said, “The General wants his people. Let’s make quick work of it.”
Seventeen men blasted locks from cells in the outer corridor. As the Governance soldiers walked from the cages and discovered Ryker, they became alert and quick to respond. Jessica reached for a gun lying on the floor close to a dead Theazian and Tiernan caught her wrist.
“Nay, Jess, you’ll not be armed.”
Because you think I killed Reilly. She understood, withdrew her hand and stepped away.
The General came between her and Tiernan. “Is there a reason Miss Storm should fear you, Sir?”
With the look on Tiernan’s face, there certainly was. Ryker stood slightly taller than Tiernan but suffered from a time of starvation and abuse. It’d be best if the General watched what he said. Tiernan currently had control of the situation.
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