“I would like to learn about them. Do you think Councilman Meroca would teach me?” She strolled down an aisle of the labyrinth. Varick followed, watching her as she bent down for a closer look at a flower growing near the floor.
“I’m sure he would love to show you. He’s spent years trying to interest at least one person onboard, but he hasn’t had anyone take him up on his offer.”
“I will. Plants have always fascinated me. Each one is so different, but they all need sunlight, water, soil. If you happen to find the right amount, they take on a whole new life of their own.”
He guided her down another aisle. His hand was gentle, but firm. After the frenetic morning on the bridge, the atrium made for a quiet haven
“Your family has always had a way with plants.”
“My family?”
“Your mother’s house. They started the royal greenhouses centuries ago. Your ancestors are some of the most knowledgeable plant experts in history.”
She paused for a minute, staring at the spiny, brown octagonal plant on the floor in front of her. “I didn’t know that. My mother taught me about plants. There is so much about my parents I don’t even know.”
“They had to protect you. You were a refugee from a different planet. It wasn’t even legal for them to land there in the first place, let alone live there. What would the Earth-dwellers have done if you or your brother had told someone?”
She smoothed down her dress. Sparta. The mountains. The frosty townspeople. All the dirty looks and fearful glances. “We probably would’ve been taken by the government, or lynched, or worse. The rest of the people in town already disliked us because they don’t really like anyone from out of town. No, I know you’re right. I just feel like I don’t know anything about them now. How can I know nothing about my own parents?”
She peered out over the plants into the black expanse of space. Her past was just as blank. She used to know who she was and where she came from. Now she wasn’t so sure. Varick took a step closer, the warmth of his presence a comfort to her
“We’ll teach you. The councilman and I. We’ll teach you everything they couldn’t. I promise.”
She took a deep breath. “Thank you. Thank you for being so kind to me.”
“Of course. I would do anything for you.”
Anna fixed her eyes on Varick’s, but there was nothing she could say in reply. No man had ever said that to her. She trembled. Her lips parted, and her vision narrowed in on him as he leaned in closer to her. Her pulse jangled in her veins.
He withdrew a step, his green eyes wide. Letting out a breath of air in a low hiss, she flushed and spun away, trying to pretend she was lost in thought. She needed to calm her racing heart. She groped for the handrail that ran around the top of the atrium, separating the ship’s occupants from the transparent metal just beyond. Anna searched for a topic, a safe topic, anything to get her mind off the delicious moment that just passed and the terrible realization about her parents.
“Captain Fayn was the only crew member not happy to have me here.”
Varick let out a short bark of laughter. “You were with me, and he is particularly unhappy to have me onboard.”
“Why is that?”
He sighed as if he were about to launch into a long story. She settled her hip against the banister
“When we were boys, we were on the same training ship. We were roommates, friends. We never had classes or training programs together. Still, what time we didn’t spend training, we spent together, getting into trouble. We both wanted to be a Guard of the Realm. When it came time for placement testing, we had to fight each other. If you lose to two opponents, you are disqualified from serving as a Guard of the Realm.”
Varick turned down a pathway through the atrium. Anna followed, walking in step beside him. She breathed in the scents of exotic flowers and musty leaves as they walked along.
“Fayn lost one battle against a friend of mine by the time he came up against me. I beat him. Well, really, I thrashed him so badly he couldn’t participate in testing for the rest of the week. He hated me after that. He thought I should have let him win because we were friends and we both could have been in the guards if I went easy on him.” Concern and regret flickered across Varick’s green eyes. He shrugged, avoiding her gaze
“If you had let Fayn win, it would have been cheating. You would have let someone unworthy become a Guard of the Realm.”
He glanced up at her, his eyes wide with surprise. “Yes, exactly. That’s what I kept telling him. I couldn’t let him cheat his way into the guards.”
Anna smiled at his earnestness. She could picture a teenage Varick explaining his actions to Captain Fayn. “So how did you both end up on the same ship?”
“After the testing, he was assigned a role as captain. I was assigned to the guards. They had us move to separate training ships, which suited us just fine. He had started a rumor that I paid my friend to make sure he lost. I was relieved when I didn’t have to see him anymore. We went our separate ways. I completed my guard training and was chosen as the next Protector. I was assigned to this ship to work on locating you, and lo and behold, when I came onboard, my old friend was here to greet me.”
She smiled as they came to a halt beside a violently orange flower as large as her torso
“Still, he doesn’t seem to be as thrilled about this mission as the other crew members.”
His brow furrowed. “I would never question his loyalty to the Vadana. He has done his duty well, despite doing whatever he can to vex me. I doubt his resentment and anger extends to you. He is a surly man to everyone, though he was not that way when we were young. I would not take offense. If he bothers you, then please tell me, and I will speak with him.”
She waved the observation away. A grumpy captain was the least of her concerns.
~ * ~
The ship gave a violent lurch. Anna lost her footing and stumbled forward. Varick steadied her, one hand wrapped around her shoulder, while the other rested on her waist. His hands tingled from the light contact
“What was that?”
“I don’t know, Your Majesty.” He studied the galaxies overhead; nothing but stars and space above him. Adrenaline sped through his veins
The ship gave another shudder, and then reversed direction around the blue star.
“What is Fayn doing?” Varick took her by the hand and dragged her to the lifts. He tapped the control panel. “Fayn, what is going on?”
“A Netrite attack cruiser is coming at us, or have you been too busy to notice?” Fayn growled.
“What? This isn’t even their part of the galaxy.”
“Tell that to them,” Fayn said before the ship pitched to the side again.
Sirens sounded. “It’s not safe up here. I have to get you to your quarters.” He hauled her into the lift.
“What’s going on? What’s a Netrite?”
“An enemy. A civilization of pirates. They attack vessels in hopes of selling whatever they can take, including passengers and crew.”
Her jaw dropped. Varick didn’t want to frighten her, but he couldn’t lie to her either. When the lift stopped, he motioned her toward her quarters. As soon as she stepped on the platform, the ship rolled, and she fell forward to clutch at the railing that separated her from the hollow center of the ship. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“Where are Hannah and Brendan?” Anna asked once they were inside her empty room. “Can you have them brought here?”
He touched the nearest control panel and ordered their guards to bring them to her room. “They’re at the training center, which is closer to the bridge. It will take a few minutes before the guards can get them up here.”
She paced, but when the ship trembled, she sat down at her dining table. “Can our ship fight these Netrites?”
“Captain Fayn and his crew will do their best to fight them or out run them. It depends on how old their ship is, and if it’s well-armed.”
“What will happen if we lose?”
Varick paused. He blinked once, slowly. He shook his head. “You don’t want me to answer that, Your Majesty. If I need to take you in an escape pod and leave the ship, that is what I’ll do. I cannot let you fall into their hands.”
The ship spun. Varick almost lost his balance. He grabbed for the table and pounded on the control panel. Fayn didn’t even acknowledge him; he just continued shouting orders to his crew. Varick listened as the tactical officer called out the dropping power supply, the damage to the ship with each new strike from the attack cruiser. His heart pounded in his ears as panic set in.
“I don’t know what they’re saying. What’s going on?”
He met her gaze and whispered. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty. We need to leave the ship.”
Varick closed the communication with the bridge and called Hannah and Brendan’s guards. He ordered them to take their charges and proceed to the escape pods.
“Where are Brendan and Hannah going to go? We can’t leave without them.”
“Our escape pods can only hold two people. They have to be small enough to evade the opposing ship’s sensors. Their guards will evacuate them.” He took her hand and headed to the materializer. Ordering two survival kits, he scooped them up under one arm
“Where will we go?”
“The pods are programmed to look for the closest planet that can sustain life. We’ll see them there.”
He escorted her from the room. She dragged her feet, looking down the hall for Hannah and Brendan. Veering away from the lifts, he placed his hand on the wall at the very end of the corridor, and it disappeared. Hidden in the small room was the Vadana’s escape pod.
Similar to the ship that carried Anna to Earth so many years before, it was an oval sitting on two thin legs. This ship, however, had no seats. Two people could stand in it, but that was all. He helped Anna step into it, and then he got in beside her and switched on the navigation systems. A sickening explosion emanated from somewhere below them in the middle of the ship.
“Oh, God.” She clasped her hands over her heart.
Varick said nothing. With all of the systems online, he opened the door that separated them from space. The escape pod lifted, and they floated in midair for a moment, before he guided the vessel out of the ship.
The Netrite cruiser hovered below him, level with the bridge, firing a volley of fusion torpedoes straight up the hull. Varick slammed on the accelerator, and the escape pod vaulted forward. Within seconds, they were clear of the battling ships and halfway around the blue star. He steered the ship along the navigational path marked out by the computer toward a life-sustaining planet on the other side of the solar system.
The escape pod was cramped and cold. She shivered beside him. The second planet they passed boasted a small wasteland of craters and steel gray desert. He pointed to a massive blue and green planet ahead. “That’s where we’re headed. A planet called Valtros.”
She glanced at him, her eyes glassy.
Varick searched for a safe place to land that would have a nearby water supply and the potential for food, but he was approaching the planet too fast. He entered the planet’s atmosphere and the ship’s hull began to fade
“What’s happening to the ship? Is it breaking apart?”
He wrapped one arm around her and drew her head into his shoulder, as he steered with his other hand
“We’re fine. Just don’t look. Everything will be fine, don’t watch.” He shouted to her as the atmosphere shrieked around them
The force of gravity hit them with a bone-jarring impact. Anna threw one arm around Varick’s chest and clung to him
He glanced down at her as he returned his hand to the controls. He longed to comfort her, but he was trying desperately not to kill them both. The ship was traveling far too fast to land safely. He skipped over the coastal shoreline he had been aiming for, and focused every drop of energy he had on decelerating the escape pod and lowering the altitude by degrees.
They reached the center of a land mass. He tried to bring the ship down in a verdant forest below, but had to increase his altitude to avoid a chain of mountains snaking across the land. He passed over the tip of the mountain ridge, just barely
On the other side, he made a slow descent. The craft quaked and shuddered, as they flew over a red clay desert. The computer found a river not far ahead, and he steered them toward a rocky outcropping beside it.
As soon as he touched down with a soft thump, he rested against the back of the escape pod and took a deep breath. Sweat beaded on his forehead and rolled down his temples. Anna, still clutching the front of his armor, raised her head. She gaped at the desert before them, and the river that sparkled from the two suns shining overhead.
“Oh, my God, we’re alive. We’re alive.” She hugged him. “For a few minutes, I thought we were going to die.”
“I won’t lie—that wasn’t my best landing job, but landing in an escape pod this small is always disorienting when the shell starts to fade.”
“I thought the whole ship was breaking apart.” She shuddered.
He smiled and put a reassuring hand on her arm. “No, Your Majesty. It’s the same metal that’s in the atrium. It’s terrifying if you’re not used to it.”
She nodded, studying the glistening river. They stood in the escape pod in silence, Varick’s heartbeat returning to normal.
“So what do we do now?” She fixed her blue eyes on him
“We wait. Brendan and Hannah shouldn’t be too far behind us. Hopefully, either they’ll be able to follow us or we’ll be able to communicate with them once they’re on the planet. The homing beacons won’t turn on for three days. If the ship outruns the Netrites or defeats them, they’ll head right here, and we’ll be onboard again before we know it.”
“Three days?” Her jaw dropped.
“Auto-response. I couldn’t turn it on earlier if I tried. It ensures no one follows us who shouldn’t.”
She swiped the hair away from her face.
A monstrous roar filled the air. Varick started, extending his arm out instinctively to cover Anna. The ground beneath them trembled; a thunderous sound filled their ears. Something hit the escape pod, and the craft rolled and tumbled.
When the pod came to a stop, he peered through the front shield. Standing in front of them was a beast, almost twice his height, with a bulky, hulking rotund figure. Gray and hairless, its four feet were each bigger than tree trunks. Two large ears flapped as it roared at them again, and fear froze Varick’s breath in his lungs. The jowls hung low, wrapping around sharp teeth, each one the length and thickness of his arm. The bulbous black eyes glared at their ship.
The creature pawed the ground and lowered its head. He didn’t have to be an expert on this planet’s animals to know what that meant.
Anna screamed as the beast charged down the riverbank toward them. Varick punched the door latch, and the pod flew open. He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her out of the pod.
“Run.” He set her down and yanked her forward.
They ran toward the tower of rocks behind them, as the beast plowed into their escape pod, and sent it flying into the river. He looked back as they reached the mountainous boulders to see the beast stomping in a circle to face them. It roared at them even more furiously than before.
Varick removed his sword from its sheath and switched on its electric pulse. He grabbed her arm. “Hide.”
“What? But—”
“Now.” He took his sword in both hands. The beast lowered its head and charged at him.
She obeyed and ducked behind the nearest rock. Varick held his sword high, and it glinted under the hot suns. The beast ran straight at him. He remained still, his pulse thudding in his ears, until the last second, when he slid to the side and swiped at the giant’s leg as it brushed past him
The beast roared in agony, as his sword tore open a large gash on its leg. Blue blood poured from its wound as the beast roun
ded on him. It hooked his torso with its large head and tossed him up into the air. Varick flew against the boulder Anna hid behind. He groaned, sliding to the ground. He took a shuddering breath and fought the blackness that threatened to overtake him.
Something moved out of the corner of Varick’s eye. Anna flew out of her hiding place and ran away from him. He groaned in protest, yet couldn’t move. The beast screamed, and charged after her. She ran to a nearby boulder that was more than double the animal’s size. She ran straight up to the rock and spun around. She froze there, terror written in every muscle. He gritted his teeth and dragged himself upright. He had to do something. Dizziness made him cling to the boulder, panting
When the beast was a few feet from Anna, she dived out of the way. The animal ran, head-first, into the boulder. The boulder shifted several inches from the impact, but the animal crumpled to the ground and stilled.
She bent over to rest her palms on her knees, her chest heaving. Rage got his heart beating again. What in the galaxy would make her risk her life that way? He was supposed to protect her, and he told her to stay hidden. He sheathed his sword and pushed himself away from the rock to limp toward her, his fists clenched. “What were you thinking? That thing could have killed you.”
Anna threw her arms around him. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” She clutched at his shirt.
“I’m fine. I have body armor…body armor you don’t have. What were you thinking?”
He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. She flinched, her hands flapping on his chest like caged birds. Dust and dirt covered her, sweat glistening on her forehead. Varick fixed his eyes on hers, fighting the urge to crush her in his arms. She had to know what she did was the most foolish thing he had ever seen.
“I thought you were unconscious or…hurt…or…” Her voice strained with emotion. She choked on it and let out a sob.
She buried her face into his neck, her arms locked around him in a vice grip. His anger cooled. Sheer pleasure rolled through his chest, and he closed his eyes. He was touched, honored, that she would be so concerned for his life that she would risk her own to save him. Pressing her to him, he ran his hands up and down her back to assure himself she was unharmed. His heartbeat returned to normal. Resting his chin on the top of her head, he breathed in the faint crisp, sweet smell of her hair.
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