The Colossus Collection : A Space Opera Adventure (Books 1-7 + Bonus Material)

by Nicole Grotepas

  “Get them!” Magna screamed at her thugs, who immediately began complying.

  “Find cover, guys,” Holly said through the comms. “And then attack, or defend, whatever you have to do.”

  “She’s following the people who took Odeon, heading back to their ship.” Darius’s calm voice announced over the comms. His words were like a harbor in a storm. “I’m tripping the station-wide alarm. It might help.”

  Seconds after he said it, eardrum-splitting klaxons began sounding through the station.

  Panic ensued.

  Most of the Shadow Coalition goons chased after Magna, apparently more worried about saving their skin than following her orders to get Shiro and Charly. What did they think? That the platform was really in danger? They were the danger. It would have been funny if she hadn’t been a ball of fury and fear that she’d missed her chance to save her friend.

  Holly took off at a sprint in the direction Magna had gone.

  “Tell me where to go, Darius. Maybe I can still get Odeon before they leave. This is just my luck—I should have shot Magna and taken him when I had the chance.”

  “Don’t dwell on what-might-have-beens, Drake. I’ll guide you after them,” Darius promised.

  “Shiro. Charly. Save yourselves. Be careful. I’m going after Odeon.”

  “I heard, Holly. I’m going to take out a couple of these bastards and then join you,” Charly said.

  “Me as well, Ms. Drake. It would be doing the 6 Moons a favor if we can stop some of these brutes in their tracks. If there are any left. Most of the courageous fools ran away at the sound of the alarm.”

  “Who wants to get trapped on a space platform? Be careful. She seems to have no qualms about letting her men kill you two.”

  The Shadow Coalition goons avoided Holly as she ran through the storage space, dodging between rows of crates and stacks of chairs, toolboxes and other supplies. It seemed the orders to not kill her carried a lot of weight.

  She thought it too soon. One of the thugs stepped in front of her, and smiled wickedly.

  “Orders not to kill aren’t orders to not maim, or, well, do other things.” One hand held his gun, the other went to his belt buckle.

  “Gross,” Holly said, switching her whip to her left hand and drawing the Equalizer quickly—a move she’d been practicing during downtime at the Bird’s Nest.

  Without hesitation she pulled the trigger. The barrel followed him as his eyes went wide and he tried to duck away. The violent bloom enveloped his thigh, just above the knee.

  Dang. She missed his knee.

  He screeched, falling to the ground. She ran to his side and kicked his gun away.

  “I still don’t know how that feels. It hurt?”

  He gasped in pain.

  Holly pushed away the pity welling up in her. He didn’t deserve it. “Look, idiot. Here’s a tip, catch the woman before you try to take your pants off.”

  He hissed off some extremely misogynistic insults as she left him behind. What a dick. Maybe she should have shot him in the groin—it would have been doing all females a favor. Possibly some males, too. A subhuman like that… she shook her head as she continued on.

  Darius led her out of the storage space through a rear door, which opened into a stairwell.

  “Climb,” Darius said.

  “Damn,” Holly muttered. She could hear the noise and clatter of others above her racing up the stairs.

  “You need the exercise, Drake.”

  “Is that some sort of remark about my weight?” She huffed.

  “Don’t read into it. I’m just looking out for your heart.”

  “In more ways than one.”

  “What’s that mean? Like, because I’m helping go after Odeon and I’m forcing cardio on you?”

  “Don’t read into it.”

  He chortled.

  “But yes,” she said. “Where is this leading me?”

  “The hangar bay where their ship is, it looks like. I don’t want to pressure you, but is there any way you could run faster?”

  “I’ll try, but I’m going as hard as I can.” It took her several breaths to get that out. What did Darius think? That she’d only try halfway with Odeon on the line.?

  “You’re almost there.”

  She realized she’d heard the sounds of doors opening and closing and the stairwell had gone suddenly quiet except for the roar of her own blood in her ears.

  “Shiro and Charly are on their way now. Take the door out onto the next level.”

  “How many floors have I climbed?”

  “No idea. Maybe twelve?”

  “There’s my cardio for the day,” she said as the hatch opened.

  She paused just on the other side. The stairwell was at the innermost end of the hangar bay. At the moment, only three ships—cruiser size—were stationed in the landing zones. That must be why they’d chosen this one, it wasn’t a great idea to be marching an obvious prisoner around the station like they were doing. But the hangar wasn’t particularly busy with foot traffic anyway. A few maintenance technicians worked on one of the ships.

  Holly saw Magna pushing Odeon up the ramp. His silvery hair caught the light and Holly’s heart stuttered at seeing him. They were too far away for Holly to determine if he was hurt, but even just this—the apparition of him—gave her a burst of hope she hadn’t felt in days. Were they feeding him? Was Magna being as terrible as she claimed?

  These thoughts rushed through Holly’s mind in seconds. She was so caught up in them, she didn’t see the goons waiting for her.

  24

  Stars exploded in her vision as something knocked her in the face. She reeled and was suddenly looking up at the rafters and lights of the bay.

  “Maim, don’t kill,” her attacker said, laughing. He stood over her and kicked her in the side.

  “Get up, Drake,” Darius said in her ear. “Fight back!”

  “You guys are amazing, you know. Very good at following instructions,” she said, trying to recover her breath.

  She rolled away, but hit the bulkhead where the hatch to the stairwell was. She pushed herself onto her hands and knees and blocked a kick that was coming toward her face.

  She considered reminding the jerks that the orders came from George, not Voss or Magna, and that when George came back—if he ever did—he wouldn’t be merciful if his daughter had been brutalized by them.

  But she didn’t.

  Also, she didn’t know if that was true. Voss said it, but could Holly buy anything that woman said? Or her father?

  The lead thug attacking her laid off for a minute, giving Holly time to rise. And as she did, she pulled her long knife from her boot.

  As he stepped toward her throwing a right hook, he opened himself up. Holly thrust the blade into his side. It was harder to do than she would have imagined. Flesh, skin, and muscle were hard tissues. It was the first time she’d ever tried to stab someone, and she wasn’t prepared for the reality of the experience. So she only got it in a few inches, because his fist connected with her face, sending her falling back against the bulkhead of the space platform bay.

  He roared in pain when he realized he’d been stabbed. Her fingers released the knife with the impact of his fist, not that she would have been able to pull it out anyway. It was stuck in there good.

  “You bitch!” he screamed, spinning away from her.

  “That’s right. I am. Don’t forget it, dickhead.”

  “The ship’s leaving, let’s go,” the other SC thug said. “All we were supposed to do was stall her.”

  “I got stabbed, you asshole.”

  “I know. Glad it wasn’t me,” he said. As they ran off, the one she hadn’t stabbed shouted back over his shoulder, “Screw you, Holly Drake.”

  “In your dreams,” she shouted back, briefly considering shooting both of them in the back as they ran for Magna’s ship. Holly sank to the deck, her hopes collapsing, watching as Magna got away with Odeon.

  “We’r
e almost there, Hols,” Charly said over the comms. “Did they get away?”

  “Yes,” she moaned. “I’ve ruined everything.”

  The hatch beside her opened and Shiro and Charly spilled out, pausing momentarily to get their bearings.

  “I’m right here,” she said, and they spun in unison to find her. “Odeon’s gone.”

  “But did you see him?” Shiro asked.

  She nodded. “For a split second.”

  “That’s something. We’ll get him, Ms. Drake. Don’t give up hope yet.”

  The thrusters on Magna’s ship fired up. It lifted into the air, hovering, and the landing gear retracted. As it coasted toward the opening, it took half of Holly’s heart with it.

  Odeon was out of her reach. Again.

  “Come on, Hols, let’s go find Trip and Darius. Maybe we can follow them,” Charly said, offering her hand.

  “Darius,” Holly said, taking Charly’s hand and rising. She ached everywhere, but there was still adrenaline in her veins, so the pain was a distant signal. “Follow them, if you can. Like, I don’t know, with external security cams on the platform? Do those exist?”

  “I’m way ahead of you, Drake. For sure, I’m following them.”

  “Satellites? Can you hack those and follow her?” Holly followed Shiro and Charly across the deck of the platform, their feet clattering across the metal. They headed to a primary exit that led to the main corridors and a lift that would take them up to the causeway with zeppelin departure gates.

  “I said I’m way ahead of you. Just get here and we’ll leave too.”

  “Will we be able to follow them?”

  Darius scoffed over the comms. “You mean like chase after them right now?”

  “Yes. If we hurry?” Holly and her crewmates piled into a lift, passing two maintenance workers in uniforms on their way in.

  Darius hemmed. “Doubtful, Drake. Our best bet now is to regroup. See where they go. Make a better plan and then get them.”

  “She might be starving Odeon.” Holly felt Shiro and Charly’s gazes on her face. She flushed hot at remembering that she’d screwed this up. Was she being irrational now? “We have to go after him. He can’t survive that long without food. Dammit, let’s get them. Now. In the Olavia Apollo. Trip is fast. She can catch up to them.”

  “What would we do if we can catch up to them, Ms. Drake?” Shiro asked quietly. His brown eyes were soft, like he understood the ache and fears she was feeling.

  But that made her more mad. She flared, angrily.

  “Shoot them down. Board their ship. Destroy all of them, and take Odeon home.” Her voice weakened as she listened to her response.

  Charly exchanged a look with Shiro, then said, “Shoot at, and maybe damage and destroy, the ship that’s currently carrying Odeon?”

  So maybe she was being ridiculous. But she’d lost Odeon again.

  “At least we know he’s alive, Holly.” Charly put her arm across Holly’s shoulders as the lift stopped and the door opened. They left the lift, exchanging places with the waiting Consties who boarded it.

  They continued down the corridor toward the main causeway. As they made their way toward the area with the primary bay where their ship waited, Holly’s resolve to chase after Magna faded. She began to accept the defeat and overwhelming grief for that. Odeon had been so close. Had he seen her? Had he known what was going on and was he aware that she’d failed through her refusal to give Magna the right orrery? Xadrian claimed it was a fake, but perhaps he was wrong. How would they ever know?

  And what the hell was the purpose of the galactic orrery? There was something more to it than met the eye.

  “Drake, I know this is maybe more realism than you want right now, but look, if Magna lets Odeon die, she’ll lose her bargaining chip. So she may be telling you that she’s starving him and hurting him to make you do what she wants faster. She’d be stupider than any of us realized if she starved our friend to death. My take is that she won’t do that. She just wants to leverage everything she can to hurt you and make you do what she wants.”

  Holly listened. Was he right? She fought back against the grief eating her up inside. Just hang on a little longer, Odeon. I’m coming for you.

  The crowds and noise of the causeway distracted Holly. Shiro stayed very close to her, and Charly relaxed her arm around her shoulder.

  “Hey, I’m sorry about earlier,” Charly said quietly. “The fight over the job? That was dumb.”

  “Me too,” Holly said. She remembered that the comms were still on, but none of the others said anything to tease them. Totally out of character for Darius, but maybe they were all feeling too low for repartee.

  “Let’s let bygones be bygones.”

  Holly felt so low, but she tried a smile. “Bury the hatchet.”

  “I’m in.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  “We all need each other. Losing Odeon like this—”

  “Please, don’t say ‘losing him.’ He’s just out of reach.”

  “You know what I mean. Just... we never know when we’re going to have our friends taken away.”

  Holly was going to say something, but her communicator buzzed with a message. She pulled it from her jacket pocket and read the message.

  “Your little purple friend, your Druiivin, is now mine. Forever. I hold grudges. And I’m not that worried about George’s order not to hurt you, Holly Drake. If he has a problem with it, I’ll take care of him as well. You won’t be seeing Odeon ever again.”

  Holly gasped. “I guess we’re all wrong about what Magna will or won’t do.”

  She stopped walking, ducking out of the stream of people into a space between two bazaar tents on the edge of the causeway. She surrendered her phone to Charly and Shiro and began taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

  “What a bitch! I’m going to make her pay,” Charly said.

  “What’s the message say?” Darius asked over the comms.

  Shiro read the message to him.

  “Guys, trust me. She’s just playing hard to get. Keep the threats close to your heart though. Let’s use them to fuel our hunt for her and Odeon.”

  25

  She steered her thoughts away from her failure even as she steered herself towards Iain’s back in the City.

  There was no where else to go, but she needed an escape, a retreat. And if she wasn’t too proud, she could use his insights into what to do next.

  Charly, Shiro, and Darius had different ideas, but all Holly knew was that whatever they did next, it needed to result in an actual rescue of Odeon.

  As she walked through the dark streets of the City, she kept her head down and her mouth nuzzled deep into a scarf. Snow blew and wind beat against her face, a frenzy of activity that reflected the fury she’d locked deep within. The image of Odeon, a prisoner, burned into her soul. She couldn’t forget it. It floated before her constantly. His silver hair limp around his face. His shoulders strong, but something in his posture revealed belied secrets about what he’d been experiencing.

  She should have followed her instinct and shot Magna when she had the chance. They could have fought the goons and rescued Odeon. He was worth it, wasn’t he? Wasn’t he worth five or six times the life of a person like Magna?

  Soon Holly looked up. Her feet had carried her by memory to Analogue Alley. Autos rolled by, the sounds of their tires muted through slushy snow. Pedestrians dressed for the Alley hurried past her, buzzing with excitement. Many of them were in strange attire meant to look like animals and creatures from the woods of Yaso. Holly wasn’t sure what was going on, but she appreciated the distraction, the calm sense that the natural world was all around her as she followed the stream of bodies into the alley. The aetherlamps glowed with green handwoven wreaths, and signs written in the primary Yasoan language, announcing something.

  Snow flew around them, the fresh blanket suppressing the animated conversation that buzzed around Holly.

  Soon she was across f
rom Iain’s shop. She stepped out of the stream of pedestrians and looked up at the glowing windows of the top floor.

  He wasn’t expecting her, and she hoped he was home. Though she should have called, she was out of sorts. She hoped he’d understand, hoped that he didn’t have other plans. She wanted nothing more than to get over their unresolved minutia and sink into his arms. Share a drink. Talk and laugh together.

  Did she want to talk to him about Odeon and Magna? Or did she simply want to exist with him without cares for a short time?

  She continued to stare up at the living area of the shop, gathering the courage to knock on his door. It was silly that she was so nervous, that she’d automatically walked here without thinking, and was now balking.

  Her heart thudded uncomfortably against her ribs when a female figure appeared in Iain’s window. It wasn’t Kaye, that much Holly knew.

  But before Holly could decipher who it was or if she knew the woman, the figure was gone.

  Who is she? What’s she doing in Iain’s personal living area? Were they listening to music? Was she having drinks with Iain? He’d never led Holly to believe that he was seeing other women, or that he even had other female friends or connections other than Kaye.

  Her hopes for a calm night sank. This, on top of losing Odeon again, it was too much. Holly didn’t even remember doing it, but soon she was sitting on the stoop of Angelo’s watching Iain’s shop and house, wondering what she should do next. Barge in? Ask him what he was doing? Ignore it?

  She certainly wasn’t going to walk into his house or try to contact him with another woman there. That would be humiliating.

  Despite the snow and cold seeping through her trousers, Holly didn’t budge. She buried her face in her hands for a moment. Her instinct was to run. But she was too tired. Too angry. Where would she go?

  The stream of pedestrians didn’t stop. Many of them were dressed in costumes of animals from nature—trees, creatures that looked like deer from Earth, woodsy beings, devils, angels, demons. A cluster of them passed by very closely.