by AJ Super
She propped herself up on an elbow, glancing around the cell. Everyone had found a place to curl for the night, propping themselves against each other on the bench, two to a bed, curled on the floor like she and Kai. It was quiet.
She stared at the zipping emerald energy surrounding the camera and whispered, “Erebus, I hope you’re all right.”
The spike-haired Sia stirred and cracked their eyes, sitting with Rishi’s dark, sleeping head in her lap.
A Queen’s Guard with a severe knot at the nape of her neck in an olive uniform walked by the shielded bars and picked up the stacks of empty dinner trays. She raised an unkempt, grey-blonde eyebrow at Nyx. “You should sleep. Where you’re headed, there’s not going to be much of that in the future.” She smiled wanly and walked to pick up the trays outside the next cell.
The Sia’s voice graveled as they rested their head against the pocked wall. “So, you are going to be the star example this go around.” They nodded, tattoo stretching down their lithe white neck. “Figured when I saw Singh bring you in personally. Sorry about that.”
Nyx looked up at the cameras. “I’m not worried.”
The indigo-haired figure snorted. “Run all you want. The queen gets hers in the end. In my experience, the best way out is to find a place and hide. Keep your head down. Don’t draw attention.”
Nyx tilted her head. “I suppose.” It was different now. The queen wasn’t going to rest when Erebus and she were in reach. Now that she could find the Thanatos and the Thanatos’ crew. “But there are bigger things…”
They chortled. “The universe is filled with bigger things. There will always be bigger things. If you decide your thing is bigger, you will always be fighting that battle.”
“I can’t just run away,” Nyx whispered, glancing at the camera again.
“You can always just run away. It’s the leaving things and people behind that’s hard.” The Sia’s lips thinned. “It’ll be dawn very soon. The guards will let us out.” They nodded their head to the sleeping vagrants. “But you’ll be taken somewhere else. Probably the docks to a shuttle so you can meet the queen’s behemoth of a city-ship, knowing her need to settle vendettas face-to-face.” A sad smile ticked across their face. “Look, you can run with your friends or without them. The choice is always yours. But I think you can probably make it to that person you keep looking for in the cameras faster on your own. Take your family and run.”
Nyx closed her eyes. She had given Erebus away with her whispers and furtive glances. Not completely, but enough.
The Sia waved their tattooed hand. “You don’t need to worry. I won’t be telling anyone about your camera-friend. I know what it is to need to stay hidden. But you need to get out of here. And you need to take her with you.”
Nyx narrowed her eyes. This Sia seemed to know something. She stared at them. Something in their blue eyes. Something about the similar tattoo she’d only seen on Erebus and Queen Phoebe. This Sia couldn’t be another…
Kai rolled over and sat up. He looked warily at the Sia across the cell. “What’s up? Are you okay?”
Nyx glanced over her shoulder at Kai and nodded. “I’m fine.” Her gaze wandered to Rishi’s companion who had leaned back. Rishi lay in their lap, snoring softly.
A round man in olive-green walked up to the shielded bars and smirked. He cleared his throat. “Hey-ho! You five. Wakey-wakey. Time to clear out.”
The spike-haired Sia sat up. “No breakfast, Lieutenant?”
“I know we are a feeding ground for street scum, but, contrary to popular belief, Crius, we don’t have to give you three meals every time you’re rounded up for the night.” The Guardsman pulled the front of his uniform down over his belly.
Nyx’s breath caught at the name. Crius. Her eyes widened. It couldn’t be…
The Sia shook their petite friend awake.
They were another Star.
Crius roused Rishi. The girl smoothed her black hair and blinked her almond-colored eyes sleepily.
The lieutenant nodded over his shoulder at the two Queen’s Guard at the desk-consoles, and one fiddled with a display. The shimmering shield lowered, and he swung open the black gate.
“Well, hop to it,” the officer demanded.
The original five occupants of the cell crawled off the bunks and stood up from the bench.
Matthews uncurled from his spot in the corner on the bench opposite Crius. Elizabet stretched and sat up next to the bench on the floor. Malcam extended his legs from his seated position on the floor at the end of the bench. Red lifted her head off of Malcam’s shoulder. Falak unwound from his fetal position under the lowest bunk and crawled out. Kai stood in the center of the room.
Nyx splayed her legs as she sat on the floor and leaned back on her hands. They weren’t going anywhere. She could see it in the lieutenant’s face as he turned to them while the others filed out of the cell.
Crius held back.
“Come on, Crius. Not giving you breakfast today,” the lieutenant whined.
Crius looked at Nyx and grinned. “You be well. Be a good Star example.” They turned and glanced at the camera and nodded imperceptibly.
“Crius. You’ll be the next example if you don’t get out of that cell.” The lieutenant tapped his foot, bopping his belly up and down.
The tattooed Star whisked out of the cell and the lieutenant clanged the gate shut, motioning for the screen to go up again. It ascended in a clear haze.
The lieutenant sneered. “Don’t get comfortable. You won’t be staying here much longer either. We’re just confirming the shuttle has arrived. I have it on good authority the queen wants to see you all in front of a firing squad, one under her explicit control. Otherwise we’d do it right here.” He leaned a hair’s breadth away from the shielded bars. “She has a nasty streak when she gets an inkling to dislike someone. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if you get some special treatment beforehand. And she must really dislike you folks. She wanted you transported ASAP. No waiting for a fully outfitted Battle Station. The Kokou II just got out of the shipyards and has a rendezvous with La Terre. Lucky me. I don’t have to feed you for a week.” He straightened and walked to the next cell to release the prisoners there.
Nyx looked up at Kai and Malcam, then held out her hands to the two men. “It’s time to get ready.”
They both grabbed a hand and pulled her to standing.
Commander Singh sauntered up to the cell and cleared his throat loudly. Three armed Queen’s Guard stood behind him, rifles at the ready. “It’s time to put on some jewelry, ladies and gentlemen.” He held up magnetic cuffs with one finger. “Would you please approach the barrier one at a time? Or you will be shot.”
The Guardsmen cocked their rifles and sighted them on the group.
“After you?” Nyx smiled at Kai.
28
Nyx ducked her head as she crawled into the black chasm of the back of the transport. The benches were crowded with the other six prisoners and a bent-over armed Guardsman in a wrinkled olive-green uniform. Red sat across from the wrinkled guard, head tilted back, copper hair spilling across her shoulders. She rolled her head towards the bright white light of the open door that Nyx darkened and nodded, then she rolled her head back and closed her eyes.
The lanky Guardsman behind Nyx shoved her. He mumbled, “Bouge-toi,” and she scrambled to settle onto the cold metal bench next to Kai, who sat straight, teeth grinding.
“Well this is fun,” Falak muttered squished between the wrinkled guard with a pulse rifle in his lap and the stiff Kai.
Across from Falak, Elizabet smiled. “Cozy.”
The lanky guard next to Nyx hopped into the transport and slammed the door shut behind him. A metallic clang echoed in the hush as a bar locked the door from the outside, while the wrinkled guard rapped on the front of the transport, both Guardsmen holding their rifles tightly.
The weight of the magnetic cuffs on Nyx’s wrists rested on her knees. It wasn’t going to be eas
y to get out of this tin box, but it was better than involving any of Crius’ people back in the cells. Here, there would be less chance of casualties, and less chance of Nyx infecting more people if she got hurt. She leaned back, looking up. A small dome light glowed yellow above the prisoners, illuminating their uniformly downcast expressions. Malcam edged forward across from Kai, shaking his bowed head imperceptibly.
Next to Malcam, Matthews nodded with his eyes closed. The lanky guard sat at attention by Matthews with his pulse rifle in his lap.
“This is your fault,” Malcam growled.
Kai narrowed his eyes and puffed his chest.
“From the start. From the moment you shot Senator Nue and came back onto the Medusa,” Malcam grumbled. “I should have known you’d get me killed.”
“Nothing that you don’t deserve,” Kai hissed.
The lanky guard leaned forward, unable to reach the men. “That’s enough. Silencieux!”
“I deserve my own ship. My own life. My own chance at fortune,” Malcam spat. “The Marcuses took that away. There’s no way you deserve the Medusa.” He paused and rolled his head towards Nyx, staring at her with cold blue eyes. He wasn’t acting. He meant every word he was saying. “Do you really think she’ll forgive you now that she remembers?”
Nyx lowered her head, unable to look at Kai. He had lied to her for so many years. She spun the gold ring on her finger over and over. He was supposed to be family, and he had betrayed her. She looked up and opened her mouth to say something.
“She will,” Kai interrupted with a whisper, something in his voice cracking. “You don’t make her decisions for her. She’s perfectly capable of forgiving me. I love her.”
Nyx pursed her lips. She knew the plan called for them to fight, but they didn’t need to fight over this. Not right now. Not when she was feeling so… raw. Not when she didn’t know what to do about Kai. Malcam was already beyond her. She didn’t need to worry about him. He was merely a means to an end. But Kai?
Malcam rolled his eyes. “She’s just a pet. Don’t think for a moment that I don’t know why you bedded her in the first place. You wanted to get Xaoc’s approval. It’s always been about his approval. She’s just the ends to your means.”
Kai glanced at her. He opened his mouth, and she nodded to Malcam. He shouldn’t break the momentum. The fight was just getting started. It was clear Malcam was pushing all the right buttons, too. Kai was seething and looking for her forgiveness at the same time.
He looked back at Malcam, glowering. “Don’t bring him into it. He was a bastard, and he used us. And regardless of my choices, that ship isn’t yours, Malcam. You didn’t earn it,” Kai snapped.
“Earn it? The rule of law on the Medusa was strength. I had it. Neither of you did. I earned my place.”
“If you think earning it through treachery and murder is legitimate.”
“You know I had to do what I did,” Malcam growled. Then he lunged forward, hands to Kai’s throat.
The lanky Guardsman next to Nyx jumped up, bent beneath the low ceiling of the transport. He lurched for the two men. Kai smashed his mag-cuffs over Malcam’s head. Malcam reared back and lifted his restraints to block the crushing blow. The two sets of cuffs crashed together with a clang, ringing through the transport.
The lanky guard pulled his pulse rifle up.
Nyx leaned back and kicked. She hooked the toe of her boot around the stock of the rifle and the gun popped out of the guard’s hands, clattering on the ceiling, flipping onto the guard’s shoulder, and then falling down his back, dragged by its strap. The lanky guard stared at his empty hands.
Nyx didn’t hesitate. She dug her shoulder into the guard’s gut and slammed him against the transport’s black wall. The air rushed out of his lungs with a huff. He doubled over, gripping her back.
Matthews stood in a half-crouch and swung his shackles into the Guardman’s face. The guard crumbled into Nyx, his weight pulling her to the floor. She yanked herself out from under him and shoved him against the wall, peeling the gun from his shoulder while Matthews patted him for the magnetic key with his shackled hands.
Matthews shook his head and showed his empty palms.
At the other end of the cramped transport, Red had barreled into the wrinkled Guardsman, smashing him against the wall of the transport, and knocking him out. She had searched him for the key as well. “Nothing here,” she grunted.
Elizabet held the pulse rifle and squeezed her way to Nyx. Red cleared her throat, and everyone moved to the back of the transport as she made her way to the doors. She held her hand out to Matthews and took the rifle from him. The women looked at each other and cocked the guns, leveling them at the door.
Nyx slid to the wrinkled guard. She slapped his doughy face. He moaned.
She slapped him again. His sunken eyes fluttered open, and when she threatened another slap, he flinched.
“Good,” she said. “I have your attention. Get them to stop.”
The wrinkled guard snorted. “They won’t. Not until they reach the docks.”
Nyx glanced at Malcam. His cheek was welted yellow and red. She shrugged. “We have to get to the docks anyway.”
Malcam nodded. “There will be more people to fight. The two in the front of the transport, and whoever is going to be taking us from there. I wouldn’t guess less than six. And we only have two guns.”
Nyx sighed. “They don’t know that we have just two guns. We should be able to disarm whoever opens these doors pretty quickly.”
“My plan did hinge on getting this transport to stop,” Malcam reminded her. “You insisted on not shooting our way out back at the holding cells, princess.”
“Have to have more guns to shoot,” Nyx hurled back.
“Plan going a little sideways?” Kai smirked, eye blackening and split-lip bleeding. “So, no one has a key back here. Keys are with one of the guards up front I guess, so we’re all trussed for the foreseeable future. They won’t stop the transport until they get to the destination, so we’re headed to the docks. And we only have two guns equipped with shot limiters.”
Red and Betty held the pulse rifles out and looked at their lengths. Two small counters stuck at the bottom of the battery clips.
Betty growled, “Ça schlingue.”
Red threw her head back. “Really, you couldn’t have noticed that earlier? What are we supposed to do with,” she looked at the counter, “three shots each?”
Falak cowered on the bench. “Make them count?”
Kai lowered his head. He held his hand out to Red. “Rifle? Just for a second.”
She hesitated then handed him the black weapon. He pointed the barrel up then shoved it into the yellow recessed light, showering the seated company with shards of plastic and glass, covering the group in darkness.
Nyx gasped. All she could see was Kai’s fiery crimson blaze and Malcam’s blue tidal whorls. She cleared her throat and shook the debris from her hair. “What are you doing?”
“Coming up with a plan,” Kai remarked.
The transport slowed.
“Either we’re here already, or there’s an alarm built into things that break back here,” Kai said, rattling the rifle for Red to take. “Unfortunately, an alarm means they’ll have their weapons drawn when they open the doors. Make your shots count, ladies.”
The transport jerked to a stop. Nyx blinked in the glowing darkness. The two sharp-shooting women at the door shuffled, their rifles clicking, little metal parts rattling in steady hands as they readied their aim. Nyx closed her eyes. The onslaught of bright morning light coming from the outside when the Guardsmen opened the door would blind her otherwise, despite the brilliant energy pouring from Malcam and Kai, which did nothing to illuminate the transport.
The bar slid on the door outside the transport. The door opened. Two shots rang.
Nyx tensed and opened her eyes.
Red and Betty crouched low, sighting down the rifles, black silhouettes on the washed lavender
sky. Betty jumped down from the back of the transport, blonde ponytail swinging behind her, deep walnut eyes roving with the barrel of her rifle, beads of sweat on her skin. Red scanned the horizon above Betty, shaking a strand of hair from her face.
Nyx’s eyes adjusted to the rising morning light. Bars and perforated metal shields covered the windows of buildings. Cheap, roll-down security gates spray-painted with various initials or lewd characters protected shop fronts. The display screens in the middle of the streets proclaimed curfew still in effect in bright red letters. No one was on the wide, dusty avenue stacked with crates and recycler bins.
Red nodded to Betty as Betty stepped around the corner of the transport with her rifle to her shoulder. Then Red jumped down to the ground and turned to the silent cadre of prisoners. “Coming?”
Everyone stood in unison and scrambled forward.
Red smirked. She bent over the body of one of the guards and patted the front pocket of the woman’s olive uniform. She dug in a pocket, retrieving a magnetic key for the cuffs shackling everyone’s wrists, and held it up to unlock the manacles as each of the captives jumped from the back of the transport.
Malcam nodded Nyx forward, letting her go before him. Kai pulled the rifle and holstered pistol from the body opposite Red and handed the pistol to Falak.
Falak turned the silver energy weapon in his hand and looked at the bottom of the grip at the shot limiter. “Three shots? The Queen’s Guard really trust these guys, huh?”
Nyx jumped down.
Betty strode up behind Kai, rifle pointed up in the air. “We need to leave. They have a distress beacon set and running in the cabin of the truck. The doors are combo-locked. I can’t get into it to turn it off.”
Red uncuffed Malcam and tossed him an energy pistol. He jumped down and grabbed the doors, slamming them shut. Then he slid the black bar across and shot the code box that unlocked the bar.