“Drake, just checking in,” Darius said, cutting into Holly’s thoughts. “Your flight’s about to leave. I’ve been seeing a lot of chatter on the nets that something major is about to go down on Paradise. It’s increased by one hundred fifty percent over the baseline, which I established over the past few days.”
She paused and sat down on the edge of her bed.
“Does it seem more likely that whatever we’re heading toward is real?” She asked, thinking.
“Can’t tell. We won’t know till you get there and we have eyes on this thing.”
She stood and went to the small window of her cabin. Her side of the ship faced Kota. “Has anyone seen or heard from Iain yet? Let’s hope our fourth didn’t bail on us. We have no idea what we’re heading toward. If it’s real, we don’t want to be massively outnumbered.”
Darius laughed. “To be honest, if you’re outnumbered, it will be by numbers that we could never have matched anyway, even if we wanted to.”
“Point taken. Thanks for manning the comms, Darius. Keep us informed.”
“Will do, Drake.”
She muted her mic again. She was nearly ready to head to the dining hall, though now that she had so much weaponry attached to her body, she felt weighed down and strange. The Equalizer had once brought her comfort and security. It was still a valuable asset. But it felt like too much. She had the throwing knives and her boot knife. Plus a crew that carried weapons. Shooting an aether weapon on the zeppelin was a terrible idea.
She removed the gun and stowed it in the drawer under her bed, next to her luggage.
Now she was ready. She left her cabin, locking the door behind her, and strolled through the corridor to the spiral staircase located closest to the dining galley. She passed a Constellation family on her way and smiled and nodded at them. The corridor was lined with cabins on either side and a strip of light above her. When she had gone down two levels, the sound of dishes clinking drew her in the direction of the dining galley, which took up a large portion of the zeppelin. Holly ordered a Frozen Pearl at the bar and then picked a table not too far from it and sat down to wait for her crew.
She could feel the windows looking out at Kota behind her and glanced over her shoulder, confronting what she saw. A familiar swirling sensation filled her gut, and she breathed deep to calm it. Her gaze caught on something as she turned back to her table. She glanced back at what caught her eye. It was Iain, standing just beyond the hatch that opened into the dining galley. The large door was just closing behind him.
He approached her, wearing a black utilitarian coat over a plain navy shirt and dark gray trousers tucked into black calf-high boots. “Holly,” he said, giving her a nod as he sat down.
“I was beginning to worry that you’d changed your mind.”
“Once I commit, I don’t back out.”
“Good to know. Odeon has an ear-piece for you and a communicator. Be sure to grab that when he shows up.”
“Planning for trouble?”
She laughed. “I’m not, not-planning for it. Expect the worst, hope for the best.”
Iain looked around the dining galley. Tables were filling up as more passengers settled in for the journey between moons, traversing the aether highway that stretched from Kota to Paradise. “Very wise. These luxury vessels always make me nervous.”
“You? An ex-military man? I thought you were impervious to fear.”
He looked at her. “Fear is what makes a human ready to fight. Men like me, we ride the edge of fear, alert and prepared for any imaginable situation. I’m not afraid. But these ships aren’t made for anything other than traveling. They’re not capable of fighting back, so if something happens, we only have our wits to save us.”
Holly listened, her own nervousness increasing as she listened to him talk about the dangers. “There are emergency pods. I have firsthand experience with them.”
He dipped his chin and toyed with the cuff of his coat. “That’s right. It’s smart to have an escape plan. You won’t be caught off guard. Someday, if you ever want to tell me about it, I’d like to hear that story.”
She nodded stiffly. “Maybe when we’re not about to disembark.”
“How’s the drink? I never expected you to pick one like that.”
“I usually go for wine or imperial beers. But it’s morning.”
“Ah, but five o’clock somewhere,” he laughed. “I’m going to go get one. Not that specific drink, but something for morning. Be right back.”
While he was ordering at the bar, Shiro sauntered in. “I see our fourth arrived.”
“Let’s hope he’s worth it,” Holly answered, wanting to downplay how glad she was to have Iain along.
“Yes, let’s,” Shiro said.
An awkward silence fell over their table as Holly struggled to have something to say to her companion. “Odeon has the extra earpiece?”
“That’s right.”
“Good.” She knew that he did, and following that question she didn’t try to figure out anything else to say to him.
Soon Iain returned with a Bloody Mary.
“A bit of salt with your drink?” Shiro asked, doffing his bowler and balancing his cane between his knees.
“What can I say, I like them salty,” Iain said.
Odeon soon joined them and the tension in Holly’s shoulders lessened.
“Do any of you chaps have any idea what this is about? Ms. Drake?” Shiro asked.
Holly leaned forward to speak in a quiet tone. “It’s likely going to be—if anything—nothing more than a meeting. But my hope is that it gets us closer to the Heart somehow.”
They discussed potential outcomes quietly and soon the Cold Blossom disembarked. The umbilicals that connected them to the space platform disconnected and the massive sails unfurled, catching photons that pushed their ship into the aether highway. A mixture of solar energy and aether force propelled the zeppelin through space. Occasional bursts of light through the windows from the star known to humans as Yol caught Holly’s eye. She had downed most of her Frozen Pearl as well as a plate of eggs and toast, while the rest of the crew also took breakfast.
Not long after they’d talked their way through most of their food, Odeon noticed something odd out the window. “We just passed very close to a shepherd moon,” he said, rising and moving to the large windows looking out at the sun. Holly and the others followed him. “Yes, you can see it, still.”
“That’s not right,” Iain remarked. “We’ve veered off the aether highway, then.”
It’s happening again, Holly thought. It was a loud deafening thought.
“Why would the captain take us off the main thoroughfare?” Shiro asked. He’d brought his cane and bowler within.
Holly felt a black cloud threatening to cover her vision. What had Iain said? Ride the edge of fear? Ride your fear. Ride your fear.
Holly shook her head, just as Odeon seemed to notice that she was having a panic attack.
“He wouldn’t,” Holly said, to Shiro, collecting herself. “Let’s find him. Either something is wrong, or the captain is hijacking the ship. Both scenarios mean we need to do something.”
“Where’s the bridge? I’ve never even been in one, on a ship like this,” Shiro said.
As one, Holly’s crew looked at Iain.
“Follow me,” he said, launching toward the hatch.
* * *
Iain led them up several flights of the spiral stairs and toward the bow of the ship. Getting that far was easy. Soon they came to a hatch that was locked to them without a keycode.
“We need someone to let us in,” Iain said, looking over his shoulder.
“Who has access to the bridge?”
“Maybe servers? Other crew members?”
“But who’s around that can do that for us?”
“I’ll find someone,” Shiro said, heading back the way they came.
“Thanks Shiro,” Holly said. “Odeon, is this a lock you can get through?”
“It’s likely that I cannot, but I’ll try until Shiro returns with someone to help.”
Iain moved aside to allow Shiro access to the hatch and the lock.
“This is when we wish we had the Skelty Key still,” Holly muttered.
“Skelty Key?”
“Long story. I’ll tell you when we’re not worried the ship is about to crash into a shepherd moon or drift into the rings.”
She watched Odeon, desperate to be doing something to improve their situation. The door was set to seal if anything happened. Like other ships, there was an emergency release, but it still required that they gain clearance by disabling the lock.
Odeon pulled out his lock picking tools, set the black velvet envelope down, and shuffled through them.
“A Yasoan with a lock picking set,” Iain said. “You keep interesting company, Holly.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet. One of the Hands was a Yasoan. ”
Odeon pulled out a tool that connected to the lock on the side of the hatch. He attached several wires to it and punched in some numbers. His silver eyebrows knit together as he concentrated. Iain turned around, leaned against the door, and crossed his arms. Holly imitated him, keeping watch in case someone came along. Someone crested the spiral staircase. Holly hoped it was Shiro with someone to help. Unfortunately, it was a male Constie crewman, dressed in a black and white uniform.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
Holly looked at Iain. “Do we tell him or knock him out?”
Iain rubbed his chin. “Maybe he’ll let us in.”
“Or he won’t, and will call security instead and we’ll miss our chance to save the ship. Of course, if they had security stationed outside the bridge, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“These are the sorts of decisions that make your job so hard,” Iain said.
“It’s a hazard.”
“Hello? I’m going to call security,” the Constie said.
Holly turned to the crewman. “Come over here and we’ll tell you what we’re doing.”
The Constie scoffed. “As if I’d fall for that.”
“There’s something wrong with the ship,” Iain offered. “We almost hit a small moon, and we’re off course. You know anything about that?”
“What? Really?” The crewman put his hands on his hips and began to approach.
Holly glanced at Iain. “He listens when a man talks,” she said sarcastically and scoffed.
Grant threw his hands in the air and shook his head, playing along with Holly. “Some people!”
The crewman stopped at comm unit on the wall and tapped the screen. “Captain Royal? Everything OK in there?”
There was no answer.
The crewman tried again, calling out to Captain Royal.
When there was no reply, the crewman looked back at Holly and her crew. “Something’s up.”
Holly cocked her head to the side. “Yes, we know. What tipped you?”
Grant asked, “Can you get in there? Do you have emergency protocols?”
The crewman shook his head, “Someone else may have them, but not me.”
Grant muttered some choice cuss words under his breath about the lack of regulation on lower class zeppelins.
“I think I almost have it,” Odeon announced, then, a few seconds later the hatch rolled open just as Shiro returned, out of breath.
“I couldn’t find anything. Nothing. But it looks like Mr. Starlight saved the day.”
Inside the bridge, the captain was hunched over in his seat, a knife sticking out of his back.
Holly stared on, horrified. “Shadow coalition,” she whispered. “Knives are their work.”
Similar knives protruded from the three other members of the crew, at least one of them was on the ground as though they’d been running to get away.
Iain immediately stepped in, moving the body of the pilot out of her chair and sitting down. “The rest of you will have to help. Sit down. Mourn later. Someone get to the helm—Shiro, you do that.”
“Which one is the helm?” Shiro asked, looking around.
Iain looked up and pointed. “That one. Move the body. Get your hands on the controls and soon I’ll tell you what to do to get us back on course. Holly, sit here, and monitor any debris in our path. It’s a scanner and will also give you readings on our shields to make sure nothing gets through and damages us. I’ll take care of the coordinates and get us back on course. ”
Shiro gingerly moved the body from the chair, his face paling considerably as he did so. And then he sat down and removed a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his hands off.
Iain continued to direct them even as he punched the screen in front of him. “Odeon, make use of that staff and stand guard. In fact, make sure that whoever did this isn’t hiding in here somewhere.”
The Constie crewman appeared on the bridge, stepping into the carpeted room tentatively. “Oh no, Captain Royal. Who would do this? Can I help?”
“Yes, stand guard out there. Make sure no one else on the ship figures out that the captain’s been murdered. Just keep it business. I can get us to the space platform.”
“How?”
Holly turned in her chair to address the Constie. “He used to run a ship. Now do what he says.”
Iain began calling out coordinates and instructions to Shiro. They made no sense to Holly, but then, neither did the information filing across the console in front of her. “Iain, I assume that if anything bad is going to happen, that this console will flash a warning at me?”
“That’s exactly right, Holly. Keep an eye of it. If there are other ships approaching or if we drift into someone else’s flight path, you’ll also get a warning from the monitors around the moon system.”
20
Once Iain got the ship under control and back on course, they resumed the flight path to Paradise without further trouble. Whoever had sabotaged the Cold Blossom hadn’t wanted to show their face, but Holly and the rest of the crew suspected that it was meant to kill them while appearing to be an accident.
Holly’s main concern once they reached the space platform was being accused of having done it, though she connected with Meg and Gabe and managed to navigate the interrogation from the inter-moon police in such a way that she her crew were regarded as heroes rather than murderers.
They were all exhausted once they touched land on Paradise, so rather than head immediately to the coordinates that had been broadcast, Holly sprang for rooms in a grimy dockside hotel. “All we need is the beds. We can rest for a few hours, clean up, eat, and then head to rendezvous point.”
They headed inside the nearest hotel, called the Mariner’s Bride. “Charming,” Shiro said. “Is there nowhere else we can stay? Somewhere like The Opal Galaxy resort on Itcap? There has to be a location like that. The business people who travel here can’t possibly stay in a place like the Mariner’s Bride.”
“We don’t need posh furnishings, Shiro. It’s just to freshen up and rest before we check out the coordinates.”
“Your mistake is in assuming that I can rest in a location riddled with bugs and rodents, as this place surely is.”
“We’re sticking together. I’m not springing for a resort when we plan to only be here long enough to discover what’s happening.”
He groaned as Holly went to the receptionist and tried to get four rooms.
“Sorry. We only have two left.”
Holly was too tired to deal with that sort of frustration, or to look further. Her eyes felt like they had sand underneath them. “We’ll take them.”
She rejoined the crew. “There was only two.”
“Who’s rooming with who?” Shiro asked, suddenly seeming uncomfortable, though why wasn’t immediately obvious. He could have reservations about every member of the crew.
“I’ll go with Holly,” Odeon said.
“Unfair, chap,” Shiro said.
“I have her back,” Odeon said indignantly. “I a
lways go with Holly.”
“Precisely, but last time you did not have her back.” No one could believe that Shiro referenced their last zeppelin trip.
Holly bit her lip, irritated that they were making a spectacle of it. If she’d had a chance to choose, she would have picked Odeon, but now that would appear to be playing favorites. “No one is in my room. How does that sound?”
Shiro frowned. “Three of us to one room? There are only two beds.”
“Then Iain will go with me,” Holly said, realizing she hadn’t asked him. “Iain, is that alright with you?”
He nodded, though Holly thought she saw a flush rise to his cheeks.
“Everyone is tired, and also hungry. Let’s never speak of this ridiculous moment in our history as a crew, please. Now, go get some rest and clean yourselves up.”
The rooms were on separate floors, one on the bottom and another on the 7th. Apparently the Mariner’s Bride was hopping tonight. Holly gave Odeon the key and they split up. “Check in on the comms later.”
Then she found the lift and took it to the 7th floor with Iain. Neither of them spoke, which she appreciated. She wanted to tell him how amazing he’d been on the zeppelin, but her nerves were frayed. She also wanted to apologize for Odeon and Shiro behaving like teenagers, but the exhaustion of what she’d just endured permeated her senses.
They arrived on their floor and located the room. The lights in the corridor flickered and the carpets were worn. It didn’t bode well for the rooms and the beds. But she wasn’t going to break the bank for a luxury room, though she assumed that what Shiro had said was likely true, due to the fact that major businesses had shipping ports on the planet. They wouldn’t stay in dives like the Mariner’s Bride.
The Colossus Collection : A Space Opera Adventure (Books 1-7 + Bonus Material) Page 79