“When will that be?” Simban asked.
“Soon. Within hours. We only have one thing left to do here.”
Fayelle placed a hand on his arm. “Let’s just go with them. I’d be wary, too, if I didn’t know you guys.”
Mordjan looked at Simban, who shrugged. The others did the same.
“All right,” he said to Ruith. “But I hope you’ll keep our timeline in mind. We really have to get back and take care of our people.”
The resistance warriors slowly lowered their weapons, and they proceeded inside. The closing of the solid door behind them was both a relief and a worry—a relief because it blocked out the bitter cold and a worry because they were locked inside with possibly hostile beings.
He followed them down a set of stairs and then a long corridor, his chip automatically cataloging all the details in case they needed to escape. They had descended enough that they were below ground level. That was likely why the entrance had shown as an anomaly, but the base hadn’t been visible from the air. Various closed doors dotted the sides of the corridor at regular intervals, and there were no windows. The only way out would be behind them, through the resistance warriors.
High Leader Ruith stopped and opened a door on the right, motioning for them to enter a room with high, white walls. They all shuffled in, and he gestured for them to take seats around a large round table. He wasted no time. “Why did you come here?”
“We’re from Aurora. The Ardaks invaded our planet and are coming back with a larger force in a few days’ time, so we came seeking help.”
The elf snorted. “That’s funny. A bunch of cyborgs looking for our help.”
“There are more than just cyborgs on our planet,” Fayelle protested. “And I have no idea why you’re so prejudiced since you’re sitting here with a couple of Ardaks.”
“Those Ardaks have come here at great risk to themselves.” Ruith’s eyes narrowed on Fayelle and Irielle. “Why do you trust these cyborgs?”
“They’re Siirtians. They were made into cyborgs against their will when the Ardaks invaded our planet,” Irielle explained patiently. “But they rebelled and overthrew the Ardaks on Aurora.”
A deafening wail began to fill the room, and everything began to flash red. Everyone jumped up from their seats.
Fayelle took a step back into Mordjan, and he put his hands on her shoulders.
Ruith hit a button on a wrist device. “What the hell is going on?”
“Ardaks, sir. Ten large ships, and a cruiser.”
“Jaffete! Arm the weapon. Prepare to evacuate immediately just in case!” he yelled into the device. Then he narrowed his golden eyes on Mordjan. “How did they find us? Didn’t you use the invisibility device on that ship?”
Mordjan began to get a bad feeling in his gut.
“What invisibility device?” Simban asked weakly.
“Jaffete!” Ruith clenched his fists in rage, and for a moment, Mordjan wondered if the elf would strike him.
“This is your fault,” IceBlood growled. “You assholes may have ruined everything by leading them here.”
“We didn’t mean to bring them here!” Fayelle protested. “We didn’t see them following us.”
Mordjan caught his eye. “Please let us get our ship. It’s the only thing we have.”
“You have zero chance of getting that ship off the surface. And no time to get there,” Ruith said, dismissing him.
“Why should we care about you anyway?” Saara said as her eyes narrowed on them. “You’ve just cost us our greatest weapon. It isn’t ready for use, and we can’t evacuate it,” she spat.
“So, you’re just going to leave us here for the Ardaks?” Irielle’s voice was high and frightened. “At least put us on your ship.”
“You are on the ship. Now shut up and let us get to work,” she snapped. Then she turned to the captain. “To the bridge, sir?”
“We don’t have that long.” Ruith began shouting orders to the others and into his wrist com. “Send the command center to this room! Arm all weapons! Everyone to your stations! Prepare for evac, all ships invisible but mine.” The table and most of the chairs began to disappear into the floor. He spared them a glance. “You all stand along that back wall and shut up. We have only seconds to get out of this alive.”
And suddenly the walls of the room changed.
The top half of the one in front of them went white, then black, revealing the icy surface and the Ardak ships that were starting to enter the atmosphere. Monitors and tiny consoles started to power on along the walls to their left and right.
The elves turned their chairs from the center table so they were facing positions on the wall, and clicking sounds told her that the chairs were hooking into something on the floor she couldn’t see.
“Fire up the weapon,” Ruith said.
“I’m on it, sir,” Saara replied. “But you know it isn’t ready.”
Mordjan could see ships coming into view on the screen in front of them.
“I know, but we have to try it, just in case.” Ruith examined the screen. “Jaffete. They’re fucking close. How long?”
“Ten more seconds,” she replied steadily.
“We don’t have that long. They can hit us from here. Fire the X5 cannons, IceBlood. Use everything we have.”
“Yes, sir,” one of the Ardaks growled in answer.
Seconds later, long blue streaks shot toward the enemy ships. At first, there were a dozen or so, but then they started to split and then split again, until there were so many arcs of light that he couldn’t count them.
“Fire up the engines, GhostDemon,” High Leader Ruith commanded, looking over at the second Ardak.
GhostDemon nodded and Mordjan could feel the ship begin to vibrate. “Keep the ship visible so they can clearly see us and the others can escape. If the weapon doesn’t work, you get us out of here, and don’t wait for my commands. Fly the way I know you can.”
The Ardak straightened in his seat. “Yes, sir.”
“Five, four, three, two, one,” Second Leader Saara counted calmly.
Everyone waited for an infinite moment.
Mordjan wished he knew what they were waiting for.
Seconds ticked away, and still, nothing happened.
“Traako, get us out of here, Ghost.”
“Everyone, hang on,” the Ardak ordered right before he reach forward and smacked a small square panel in front of him. A harness popped out from his chair and secured over him.
When everyone around him followed, Mordjan looked at the wall and found the same square panels. He hit one and a harness popped out from the wall. He secured it tightly over Fayelle.
But he had no time to do his own, because the ship rotated ninety degrees and he was pressed against Fayelle as they shot straight up. The force was so intense that he couldn’t move against it. He hung on tightly in case they shifted directions, hoping he wasn’t crushing her.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Simban had done the same for Irielle and had ended up in the same position as him. Borian and Nordan were secure.
He tried to reach for the next square panel, gritting his teeth with the effort needed to move his arm. Then Fayelle’s hand was there, pushing his elbow, helping him move toward the panel. She yelled with the effort, giving him the extra leverage he needed.
His hand was over the panel, but he couldn’t raise his arm to smack it so he pressed as hard as he could. When it opened, the harness didn’t pop out and he had to reach in to grab it. The process of slowly dragging it back toward him was as arduous as trying to get the panel open.
He managed to slide it over one arm before the room spun, which left him suspended by one arm through the harness, and he held on for dear life. From this angle, he was able to see the elves, who were all anchored to the wall securely, and GhostDemon, who was still flying the ship, using several fingers on both hands to direct and guide.
Second Leader Saara directly below him glanced upward
with a worried expression, as Mordjan forced his other arm toward the second hole of the harness. If he lost his grip, he would fall straight down and very likely crush her.
“The other ships are gone, sir,” GhostDemon said. “The Ardak ships have taken the bait and followed us, so eight are on our tail. But unfortunately, two landed on the planet. Twenty seconds till hyperdrive kicks in, three minutes to the nearest wormhole.”
“They’re shooting!” Second Leader Saara cried.
“Evasive maneuvers! Everyone, hang on,” the Ardak commanded, and this time, his voice came on over the ship’s speaker system.
Then the craft began to spin.
Mordjan was halfway into the harness, so he crossed his arms and locked them to keep from slipping free. He looked over to see that Simban had managed to do the same.
Fayelle had been holding on to him, but she had to let go as the ship spun in circles several times.
Mordjan had never been queasy before, and if he’d been secure he might have even enjoyed the ride. But as it was, the flight was making his stomach churn.
There were several lurches, and the Ardak cursed. “We’ve been hit, but the shield is holding. One minute to wormhole.”
There was nothing to do but hold on as the ship spiraled first one way, then the next, often jerking in different directions midspiral.
“Slowing for wormhole entry. Here weeee goooo,” Ghost said finally.
There was a crushing weight that threw Mordjan forward as they came out of hyperdrive, and then everything slowed as they entered the wormhole.
He reached toward Fayelle, and their hands caught once more for the infinite seconds of slowness as time stretched out.
Then they were through, spiraling in the opposite direction.
“Three followed us,” the Ardak noted.
“Shit. How far are we from the Tourin galaxy?”
“Twenty-four hours in hyperdrive.”
“Do we have the power?”
“Yes, but we won’t have enough for invisibility.” There was a pause as Ghost pressed a few of the lights. “There is a large star coming up. I can turn on invisibility and slingshot behind it, hoping they won’t guess our trajectory. It will also save us two hours.”
“Good idea. Do it,” High Leader Ruith replied.
Mordjan had been fighting to fix his harness the entire time, and breathed a sigh of relief as it finally clicked together over his chest.
The ship lurched again.
“Do these ud rans never give up?” High Leader Ruith broke off into a stream of curses.
“Forty-five seconds to the star,” Ghost said calmly. “Secure your harnesses for gravity sweep.”
“That means hit the blue button in the center,” High Leader Ruith said, glancing back at them.
Mordjan hit the blue button in the center of the harness, and a net shot out, covering his torso and limbs and securing him to the wall behind him.
“That’s a neat trick,” Simban said dryly over their mental frequency.
Mordjan looked over to see that he wasn’t as calm as he sounded. “Just relax,” he told Simban. “Focus on what you can control.”
Simban nodded.
He switched to the regular frequency so the other two cyborgs could join in. “How are you two holding up?”
“Just fine, sir. I’d really like to get my hands on one of those X5 cannons, though,” Nordan replied.
“Why? It didn’t do anything against those Ardak ships,” Borian shot back.
“Ardaks aren’t our only enemies,” Nordan said stubbornly.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Mordjan promised.
“Slingshot in ten,” the Ardak said, and the countdown began over the speakers.
Then the ship began to turn in a way he hadn’t felt before. It was upside down and diagonal, the weight crushing, and if his entire body hadn’t been anchored to the wall, the harness likely would have broken off.
It seemed to last forever, and for several minutes he struggled just to breathe. His hand was still holding on to Fayelle’s, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t turn his head to see her. He tried to speak, but no words came out. It was as if they were beyond sound.
Please be okay, he said to her silently in a half order, half plea.
Then the pressure began to change, rotating over him slowly and smoothly. They must be rounding the star. It continued for several more minutes, but it lessened by degrees until it was more bearable. He swallowed, which had both of his ears popping, and the pressure gradually went back to normal.
“Status?” High Leader Ruith asked.
“Invisibility on, headed for Tuorin galaxy. Twenty-two hours and forty-one minutes to destination. No Ardaks visible behind us.”
Ruith smiled for the first time. “And that’s why we call you Ghost.”
The monitor in front of the Ardak blinked red, and he winced. “Correction. One ship visible behind us. No. Two ships. They must have guessed our trajectory.”
The captain’s smile turned to a scowl. “Jaffete. That means we’ll have to fight them when we come out of hyperdrive.” He held his wrist to his lips. “Put the time to destination on the clocks. Weapons check. I need the status of everything available on this ship.”
22:41 flashed onto a clock over the door, and then Ruith turned Saara. “Go through our files and find everything we have on the Ardak ships behind us. They look like the new RC class ships. Find anything you can that might tell us how to stop them.”
Mordjan tried to think of ways they could help, but came up empty. He’d rather be helping the resistance than be stuck in this makeshift bridge turned holding cell, but their knowledge of the technology the elves were using was rudimentary at best.
“I’ll be back to deal with you shortly,” the high leader said before leaving, his team exiting one by one after him until finally Second Leader Saara shut the door.
Chapter Ten
Fayelle
Fayelle was numb with disbelief, and no small amount of fear. Everyone was frozen for a moment, the entire compartment as still and silent as it had been when they were going through the wormhole. Then they began to unhook their harnesses, so she did the same. The room had changed from looking like a control room to the blank walls it had before, and the elven technology was nowhere to be seen as if it had never been there to begin with.
“Did that just happen?” Nordan asked, rubbing out his arms.
Simban shook his head numbly and put his arms around Irielle. “So, we’ve gone from being imprisoned by the Ardaks to being imprisoned by the resistance?”
“It looks that way. And wherever we’re going, it isn’t back home.” Mordjan took two steps to the door and peered out the window toward the top. Then he returned to Fayelle, silently reaching for her hand. “The Ardaks are going to come, and we aren’t going to be there.”
She knew she shouldn’t take his hand again, but she wanted to. His hand was warm, and the sparkle of magic that went through her at the contact reminded her that she was still alive.
“We don’t know that. Let’s focus on the fact that we are alive and that we’ve found the resistance. We are in a better position than we were yesterday.” Fayelle examined the others as she spoke. Simban’s and Irielle’s faces were pale, and Nordan and Borian wore matching expressions of worry.
“Only if we can convince them to help us,” Mordjan said.
“Yeah—at first I was doubtful, but after that escape, I have to say that those ARF warriors might be rough around the edges, but they’ve got it where it counts,” Borian said.
Only Mordjan had kept his color, but his hand slipped from her and he prowled from one end of the room to the other like a caged beast. “If only we could connect with the ship, we could unlock the control center.”
“Yes, I tried that already, too,” Simban admitted.
Irielle pulled away from him slightly in surprise. “Isn’t that dangerous? We don’t know how many warriors are on thi
s ship, and they already don’t trust us.”
“We don’t actually have to take it over,” Mordjan growled. “But it would put us on equal footing, if we have control of their ship, they would have no choice but to listen to us when we ask them for help.”
“Do you really think they are going to help us after we led the Ardaks to their base and then forced them to abandon that weapon?” Nordan asked.
“They don’t have any reason to lie. High elf majesty whatever his name was looking pretty pissed,” Simban replied.
“High Leader Ruith,” Fayelle corrected automatically.
Simban shot her a dark look. “Whatever. You’re either the leader or you aren’t.”
She shrugged. “When several elven realms band together, we have high kings and high leaders. They all rule, but the high king rules over all of them.”
“So we can assume this means there are many factions of the resistance and he might be the one in charge of all of them,” Mordjan growled. “The only way this is good for us is if he agrees to help us.”
“And that appears unlikely,” Simban retorted.
“We didn’t lose them that weapon. It didn’t work, and who knows if it ever would have,” Mordjan replied. “We lost them a hypothetical weapon.”
“They said it wasn’t ready yet. It might have worked if they’d had more time,” Borian said. “I wonder what it was.”
Nordan crossed his arms. “Who cares? What the fuck are we going to do now? We’ve just lost our ship, and we’re imprisoned by the people who were supposed to help us.”
“We’ve been through worse,” Mordjan muttered.
“Yes,” Simban said quietly. “We sure have. We’ll figure it out.”
When the cyborgs had arrived with the cure, they had made it seem as if retrieving it had been easy. Fayelle didn’t know if that was correct, but what she did know was that nothing about this mission was easy, so that one probably hadn’t been, either.
Her life on Aurora had been sheltered before the Ardaks had invaded. She’d been safe in Garthurian, and it wasn’t until the Red Death was released that her people had been affected. It had rocked her faith in herself and her magic, but she hadn’t suffered real pain or grief like the cyborgs and elves standing around her had experienced.
Mordjan Page 5