Thor looked over his shoulder as they ran, and he flung his hand up. Several of the boulders rose and slammed into the ship’s cobweb-covered nose.
Surprisingly, the craft wasn’t shielded. The pirates must not have thought they would run into any ships in here. The boulders hammered into its hull with impressive force. Unfortunately, ahridium could stand up to most physical blows, and Jelena doubted they left more than scratches.
The ship did pause for a moment, the pilot raising shields and maybe regrouping.
The ledge? Jelena asked. They had reached the stone wall where they’d come out earlier. Now she wished Thor hadn’t closed that tunnel, but since he had, he could damn well open it again.
I’m not leaving the ship to them, Thor said, turning to face the pirates.
Fine, but we can hide in that tunnel and throw mental attacks at them from in there, right? Jelena sprang into the air, caught a handhold, and started climbing without waiting for a response.
The ship rotated toward them.
She cursed and climbed faster, knowing she would be an easy target on the side of the cliff.
Look out! Thor yelled into her mind.
Expecting the ship to fire at her, she glanced back, but the threat came from above. Boulders tumbled down toward her.
Jelena pushed herself away from the wall and sideways, trying to avoid their path, but even in the weak gravity, they tumbled more quickly than she reacted. One should have struck her, but it halted a few feet above her helmet.
Thanks, Thor, she said.
As she fell on her slow trajectory, she spotted someone looking down from the ledge. Brody. He sat astride one of the stolen thrust bikes, her thrust bike.
A blazer blast streaked toward the ground near the base of the cliff where Thor had been standing. Jelena twisted, trying to see him. Had he been able to protect himself? Or had he been distracted by helping her?
Dust and shrapnel filled the air, and she couldn’t see him. The ship fired again at the same spot.
“Thor,” Jelena yelled and extended her barrier, trying to include him in it.
She sensed him crouching on the rubble. Was he injured? Under attack from Brody? He was still alive so he must have deflected those blazer bolts, but the ship would keep firing, and he couldn’t block that kind of power indefinitely.
Furious with the pirates, she whirled toward them as soon as she landed. She tried to find someone to influence on their bridge. She wished there were some animals aboard, but no such luck. Sensing someone near the android pilot, a woman with a blaster pistol on her hip, Jelena jammed an image into her mind. The image showed the woman raising her pistol and firing at the navigation controls in front of the android.
Realizing that would never work, not unless she could trick or convince the woman that it was to her advantage, Jelena tried to fill her mind with thoughts of taking over the ship. A mutiny. She could shoot the captain, then have the Starseer ship and its treasures for herself. This was the perfect time for a mutiny. Everyone was distracted with firing on Thor.
The pirate woman dropped her hand to her pistol and grew thoughtful. But she took too long to deliberate. The ship fired on Thor again.
You’re not very good at that, Brody sneered into Jelena’s mind.
She glared up, turning her frustration on him. He’d stepped off the thrust bike, and he and Abelardus peered into the chamber. No, Brody was doing more than peering. He was staring down at Thor. Attacking him. She could almost see the waves of mental energy between them. Brody had caught Thor off-guard, when he was busy defending himself. And he’d been helping Jelena.
Growling, she clenched a fist, determined to stop Brody. She sensed the defenses around his mind—there was no way she could throw a mental attack at him. But the ground underneath him wasn’t that stable, thanks to Thor’s earlier rockfall. She was no engineer, but she could sense the cracks in the rock, the way the ledge wanted to shear off and tumble into the chamber along with the rest of the rubble.
Protect yourself, she warned Thor, and poured energy into the rock, trying to shift it, as if she were causing an earthquake.
Jelena couldn’t hear the rocks snap, but the ground jerked visibly under Abelardus and Brody. The alarm that must have flashed across their faces wasn’t visible through their helmets, but she had the satisfaction of witnessing Brody flailing for a couple of seconds before the ledge gave away. They tumbled into the chamber, newly made boulders battering them as they fell. Jelena wished the gravity were normal, so they would take a real beating, but it was better than nothing.
Thor, no longer under Brody’s assault, sprang away from the spot before the boulders landed. He ran several meters and turned toward the pirate ship, his eyes burning with determination behind his faceplate.
More worried about Brody lashing out at her as soon as he could, Jelena sprang toward the spot where he landed amid the boulders. She raised her staff and slammed it into his back as he started to rise. She feared he would kill her for her audacity, and she knew she couldn’t kill him, but she couldn’t let him keep distracting Thor. Nor did she want to give him time to concentrate and retaliate against her.
He flattened to the ground under her assault. She thought about tearing his oxygen tank from his suit, but she didn’t want to kill him. She just wanted him to go away. She thumped him in the back again, hoping to damage his suit so he’d have to take the time to deal with it.
Jelena might have kept going, but the light shifted dramatically, and she glanced at the ship, afraid it was firing at her. It flew across the chamber, its wings wobbling. It looked like it had been hit, and she glanced toward the large tunnel in the back, half expecting the Snapper to fly in to the rescue, weapons blazing.
But the tunnel was dark and empty.
The pirate ship wobbled and crashed into the corner of the chamber, right where that tower was. Jelena spotted Thor, standing utterly still, glaring at the craft.
Did you do that? Jelena asked.
Yes. You started it. The woman didn’t need much more convincing.
Jelena wasn’t sure she wanted credit for helping to crash a ship.
Better forcing it to crash than letting it continue firing on us. I doubt anyone was hurt. We’ll still have to deal with them. As soon as they recover from the crash, they’ll grab weapons and combat armor and rush out here.
Combat armor. Shit, and all she and Thor had were their flimsy spacesuits. They would be—
A hand wrapped around her ankle, and she jumped, startled.
“Idiot,” she cursed herself. How could she have forgotten about Brody?
She raised her staff to smash it down on his arm and force him to let go, but he attacked first. He hurled a wave of power at her with his mind.
Jelena tumbled away, her staff missing him completely as her legs flew over her head and she somersaulted through space. She twisted, trying to land on her feet, certain he would press the advantage. As soon as she touched down, she raised her staff, ready to defend herself.
But Brody had only made it to one knee. Abelardus was climbing to his feet nearby, but only to back away. Brody faced Thor across the rubble. Neither man was moving as they stared at each other, locked in some mental contest.
Jelena took a step, intending to help in some way, but a burst of blue light came from where the pirate ship had crashed. It flared wildly and filled the vast chamber, driving away shadows.
Blue lightning branched from the metal rod at the top of that tower—it still stood, despite the ship striking the base. Jelena ducked as lightning streaked over her head. It flew in all directions and wrapped around the ship, flashing and branching as if it were coming from a black cloud in the heart of an electrical storm.
Thor and Brody stopped fighting, also crouching low as they stared at it. Abelardus didn’t move.
The lightning and the blue light disappeared as abruptly as it had come. The chamber was plunged into darkness again. With the ship’s running lights now
out—what kind of damage had that lightning done to it?—the headlamps on people’s spacesuits provided the only illumination.
One of those headlamps spun past to Jelena’s side, startling her. Brody. He flew head-over-heels through the air and toward a wall.
Go, Thor told Jelena, turning not toward her but toward the pit he had excavated. I almost had that hatch open. From inside the ship, it’ll be easier to deal with the pirates. Their ship was damaged by that electrical surge, but the people inside are alive and well and coming after us.
What about Brody? And Abelardus. Jelena started after Thor but looked at the other men. Brody had landed in the rubble, his headlamp pointed toward the distant ceiling.
They can help us or stay out of my way.
Abelardus glanced after Thor, making Jelena think he’d heard the words. Maybe Brody had too.
Thor scrambled down the side of the pit, heading for the hatch. Jelena paused at the rim and looked behind her, toward the crashed ship and the tower. Once again, she wondered at the significance of the structure.
Light appeared—a hatch on the side of the pirate ship had opened. A bulky figure moved in the interior, light glinting off the shoulders of black combat armor.
Jelena bounded into the pit, aware of Abelardus running after her. She didn’t see Brody. Had he ducked down behind some rubble?
Thor leaned back. There wasn’t any kind of handle on the hatch, not that Jelena could make out, but it lifted open. He must have already checked inside with his senses, because he jumped into the ship without hesitating.
Jelena ran out onto the hull, small pieces of rubble and grit shifting under her boots. Abelardus came right behind her. Beams of light slashed about the interior of the chamber, originating at the pirate ship—armored men were jumping out to give chase.
Jelena hesitated at the Kirian ship’s open hatch. Thor had already moved out of view, and the dark interior of the five-hundred-year-old vessel looked ominous and unwelcoming. What manner of booby traps might dying Starseers have left behind?
Hurry, or you’ll be fighting the pirates out in the open, Thor urged her silently.
Abelardus jumped down ahead of her. Light slashed down from the top of the pit as the pirates drew close.
Jelena slithered through the hatchway, her oxygen tank clunking against the edge as she dropped down. Crimson blazer fire streaked through the space she’d just left.
Thor, is there a way to—
The hatch dropped shut above her, leaving her in the absolute darkness of a ship’s corridor.
Never mind.
“Light,” she murmured, turning her headlamp back on. When had it gone off? When that electrical surge had happened?
This way, Thor told her.
His light came on from farther down the corridor, and he turned back toward her. It shone through some of those ubiquitous cobwebs. How in the hells had they gotten in here?
There’s no way to lock that hatch, he added. They won’t be delayed for long.
Another light came on in the opposite direction of the long corridor they’d entered. Abelardus. His back was to them as he headed that way.
Jelena chose to follow Thor, thinking he would be better at finding his way through the ship and locating the artifact. And hopefully someplace defensible where they could deal with the pirates.
Normally, she would be sure he could manipulate enemies if it became necessary, and if there weren’t too many of them, but everyone was sure the pirates had at least one Starseer with them, so he might struggle. Especially if Brody kept harassing him. She should have cracked him harder in the back… and stolen his oxygen tank so he had to return to the ship. Not that Erick and the others would want to deal with him.
Erick? Jelena asked as she jogged to catch up with Thor, batting away the curtains of cobwebs dangling from the ceiling. She stretched out with her senses in the direction where they had left the Snapper, hoping it was still there and not in any trouble. It shouldn’t be. The trouble was in this chamber now.
We’re still here, Erick replied, his voice sounding distant, as if the rock and maybe the hull of the old ship could somehow deaden telepathic signals. The pirates are gone.
Yes, they came to visit us.
Jelena followed Thor past closed hatches, sturdy metal ones with rivets and wheels that had to be spun to open them. The corridors, too, were lined with rivets and thick support beams. It reminded her of the old submarine they’d ridden in on Fourseas.
Thor jogged around a bend. He wasn’t stopping to explore any of the hatches or intersections they passed. Maybe he knew exactly where the artifact was. Jelena could feel its power and thought it might be on another level, underneath them, perhaps. She was surprised she struggled to pinpoint its location now that they were this close, but again, it was as if something was interfering with her usual range.
We found the derelict ship under a mountain of rubble, she added to Erick. Thor is leading the way through it, but the pirates have left their ship and are after us.
Jelena glanced over her shoulder, wishing there was some atmosphere so that sound waves could travel. She would like to know if hordes of pirates were closing on her from behind, and the spacesuit helmet lacked the rear cameras that combat armor usually had.
So far, the corridor was dark behind them. She doubted Abelardus had veered off in another direction to confuse their pursuers—she was positive he simply hoped to reach the artifact before Thor—but maybe splitting up had helped.
Do you need us to come pick you up? Erick asked. I’m trying to use this opportunity to fix a rupture in the deuterium tank and get shield power regenerated to maximum in case Austin needs to fly us somewhere, but I was watching the sensors and think I can figure out where the pirates went. We can storm in, blazers firing if you need us.
That’s not a bad idea—maybe these thugs would have to return to their ship if it was under attack. Thor caused them to crash into some tower that got all bright with electrical power, but I’m not sure how much damage their vessel took.
Tower? That the thing you were talking about earlier?
Yes.
Maybe I’ll take a look at that footage you sent while Austin is getting us ready to fly over. We need a few more minutes, though. Don’t get yourself killed.
I’ll try to resist the temptation.
Thor stopped before closed double doors at the end of a corridor. A dead-end corridor. There weren’t any hatches to the sides in this area, and Jelena turned around, half-expecting armored men to charge into view. Something was twanging her senses and making her uneasy. The energy oozing from that artifact?
They’d broken cobwebs to come down the corridor, and they stirred as she looked back, almost as if a breeze was whispering through the ship, but that couldn’t be. Jelena eyed the environmental stats floating on her Glastica display. The inside of the ship was similar to open space. Utterly frigid, no air, no gas, nothing.
This is an elevator, but I’m sure there’s not any power to it. There’s no power to anything. Thor handed her his blazer pistol and rested his gloved hands on one of the doors. Unlike the metal hatches, these appeared to slide into the bulkheads, as in a typical elevator. If there are access ladders, I haven’t sensed them yet. I’m going to try to force this. We need to go down a few levels.
I knew those muscles you’ve been working on in your little gym were for something.
I was going to use the power of my mind. Despite his words, he assumed a physical stance, knees bent, his shoulders posed to pull.
So your muscles are purely decorative? Jelena reached behind them with her senses, hoping to locate the pirates.
Like an early Sarellian Dynasty vase.
Jelena could tell that the pirates had split up and that two were heading in their direction. Even though she and Thor had taken several turns at intersections, the broken cobwebs would make it obvious which way they had gone. She started to shift her attention to creating a barrier across the corri
dor, but she paused, sensing something else too. Something… strange.
Something alien.
Chapter 15
Alien?
Jelena scoffed at the word. There had been plenty of alien flora and fauna in the system when humans arrived, but no intelligent extraterrestrials, as the Old Earthers had once called them. Mankind had yet to encounter intelligence in their system or, through telescopes and probes, in any other system, either.
Jelena pressed a hand to the bulkhead and pointed her staff toward the open corridor. She started to create a barrier, but gasped as a zing of energy flowed into her palm. Yanking it back, she stumbled into Thor.
What’s wrong? He gripped her shoulder, steadying her.
The strange energy ran up her arm and into her body, almost paralyzing her, and she would have toppled backward if not for his support. She gasped for air, but her lungs were tight, constricted. A weird sensation started up in her head, as if ants were crawling around between her skull and her brain.
She gritted her teeth at the intense discomfort and jerked her hands up. Her movements were rigid and awkward, and she felt like some puppeteer’s marionette on strings. She grabbed at her helmet, as if she could scratch her head through it, as if scratching it would stop the ants.
Beams of light appeared in the corridor. She saw them, but she had a hard time registering what they meant. Images flashed through her mind, not unlike the way they did when Thor communicated with her. She saw their ship from above, and it was flying through tunnels, then back out into space. It hurtled away from the asteroid belt at top speed.
“Jelena,” Thor barked, his voice crackling over the comm.
A distant part of her mind felt pleased that someone had gotten it working again. But she was too busy trying to push away the uncomfortable sensations to answer.
Two pirates, their headlamps pointing right at Jelena and Thor, raced toward them with blazer rifles raised. They fired, bolts of energy searing the dark corridor. They should have hit Jelena in the chest, but Thor erected a barrier to deflect them.
Stolen Legacy Page 16