Within Ash and Stardust

by Chani Lynn Feener

  She had the belt over her waist, keeping her safely in the seat, and when he went to her, pressing a palm to the back of her neck, she leaned into him. A silent way of saying she was fine, even with a flicker of worry in her green eyes.

  “It started as soon as we entered Vakar airspace,” Fawna told him. Her fingers were moving quickly over the control panel, flicking switches and turning knobs faster than his mind could process.

  He’d never been a good pilot. It was one of the only things he hadn’t excelled at in training.

  “Have you identified where the threat is coming from?” Trystan questioned.

  With a jerk, Ruckus realized the Zane was standing on Delaney’s other side. That his hand was currently resting on her shoulder. He was staring between the scene outside and a small computer screen set into the controls, searching for signs of their attackers.

  “I’d say Vakar, but things are a little tangled now that you and your dad have taken over the place,” Fawna stated. “So, really, it could be anyone.”

  “Not what I meant,” Trystan growled, but his attention was diverted as soon as Delaney shifted forward in her seat.

  “Here!” She pointed to a tiny blip on one of the screens.

  It was flashing various shades of green, and when Ruckus looked, he could make out a slightly darker dot trailing close behind them.

  “He was using the mountains for cover,” Fawna said, though mostly to herself. “Clever.”

  “As much as I agree,” Trystan drawled, “perhaps we can admire their stealth at a later date.”

  “I’ll get—” Ruckus came to an abrupt stop, realizing what he’d been about to say. Worry over the attack drained away to make room for the grief that swamped him. He’d been about to order Pettus to the back of the ship, to operate the cannons there, like he always did.

  But Pettus was gone.

  “Hey.” Delaney sent the word through their fittings, twisting so she could place a hand on his chest.

  It was enough to snap him out of it. To focus. He turned to the Zane.

  “Contact Sanzie and get her to the rear cannons,” he told him, trying not to dwell on the fact that Trystan nodded and complied without putting up a fight. He widened his stance in the small space between the two chairs, securing himself more, even as their ship shook a third time.

  Now that Fawna was aware of their attacker’s location, whatever had hit them hadn’t done so with nearly as much force as before.

  “She’s inside the rear cockpit now,” Trystan informed him a second later.

  “There’s a com link to the right—large purple button. Have her connect with us.”

  Trystan sent the order through his fitting, and a second later a spot on the console in front of Fawna beeped. She pressed it.

  Sanzie’s determined voice came through to them, a bit crackly but otherwise clear. “I’m firing up the weapons. Awaiting order to engage.”

  “As soon as possible,” Ruckus said, then swore when he glanced at the screen.

  Delaney must have noticed the same thing as he did, for she cursed almost at the exact same time. “We’ve got more company!”

  Another two blips had appeared next to the one they’d already discovered. They were in the process of widening around them, taking position to cover their entire flank.

  Ruckus watched the blips’ maneuvers closely for a few moments and then gripped the backs of Delaney’s and Fawna’s chairs. “They’re going to start herding us to the left.”

  “How do you know?” Trystan frowned and bent closer to the screen.

  “I recognize the formation pattern.” He caught the Zane’s gaze briefly. “I came up with it.”

  A heat missile fired from one of the blips, and they watched it make a beeline for them. Everyone had to grip something as Fawna tilted the ship at a forty-five-degree angle in order to avoid getting hit. Even after she’d straightened the craft again, the ground beneath their feet continued to shake.

  “How are those cannons coming, Sanzie?” Trystan called into the com, then grunted when another jolt sent him sprawling forward. He caught himself on the console.

  “Almost…” They heard a sharp clicking from her end. “There!”

  From the screen, they watched a trail of the same heat missiles fire out of their own ship. Sanzie let loose a string of them, tugging the cannon from one end to the other to cover their entire rear. It forced the three attacking vessels to disperse, giving Ruckus’s ship a wider berth.

  “It doesn’t seem to be doing anything,” Delaney pointed out, and she was right.

  “They have shields,” Ruckus explained.

  “Why don’t we?”

  “We do,” Fawna answered for him. “It’s up now; that’s why we haven’t had a hole blown through the walls or anything. Yet.”

  “Comforting.” Delaney started inspecting the controls in front of her, brow furrowing in deep concentration.

  Which was a look that often made Ruckus feel a little wary, because it almost always led to some kind of reckless adventure or unknown. Like when she’d convinced him the elevator ride at that theme park Six Flags would be fun.

  It had not been.

  “Not sure I like where this is going, sweetheart,” he confessed, even though she’d yet to allude to what she was thinking.

  “I assume there are guns at the front of the ship as well, right?” she asked, either ignoring his comment or just too caught up in her head to have processed that he had spoken to her.

  His money was on the first.

  “How do you access them?” She glanced over at Fawna’s section of the console, obviously making note of the differences. Then she reached below the lip of the console in front of her and smirked when she found a hidden button there. A second later the lights began flashing in front of her, and a panel slid out to cover her lap, securing her even more in her chair.

  The controls popped out, a wheel that could control the guns attached to the front of the ship. There were six buttons in total, three on either side, placed for easy access while holding the wheel.

  “Just like one of those driving video games,” she said to herself with a humorless chuckle. “Okay, what now?”

  “They’re behind us,” Ruckus started, “so that won’t be—”

  One of their attackers appeared directly to their left, swerving in front of them. The movement was so fast, they’d almost collided with them. Fawna only managed to dodge at the last second.

  “You were saying?” Trystan drawled, somehow finding enjoyment in all this despite their situation.

  Ruckus sent him a glare and then directed all his attention to the controls in Delaney’s hands.

  “Here,” he said, tapping the first button on the right side of the controller. As soon as he did, panels on both sides of the front of the ship opened, and two large cannons lifted out. He bent over Delaney’s smaller form, settling his arms lightly on top of hers so he could use his fingers to direct her thumbs over the other buttons. “The middle ones fire regular rounds. The bottoms let loose large ones. There aren’t many of those, though, so try not to use them unless we have to.”

  When he pulled back, he tried not to openly smile at the scowl painted across the Zane’s face.

  Delaney twisted the wheel to the right, and the cannons outside quickly adjusted toward her target. Without hesitation, she pressed down on the middle buttons, and a round of fire shot off toward the attacking ship.

  Before any of the zees could make impact, they came up against an invisible force field. As soon as one of the zees hit it, the force field glimmered green, and the zee fizzled in a spark.

  “We’ve got to do something about those,” Trystan stated, watching as the enemy remained totally unaffected. On the smaller screen, they could see Sanzie was still keeping the other two at bay, but it wouldn’t be for long. Eventually they’d take the risk of getting closer and damaging their shields.

  But there was no way they were going to get lucky enoug
h for that to happen. Their attackers had already gotten a head start, had been slowly chipping away at their shield. If one was to fail, it would not be their attackers’.

  “Do you have this?” he asked Delaney, and even after she nodded, he found it difficult to step away. Forcing himself to, he motioned with two fingers at the Zane, turning to rush down the ramp into the heart of the ship without waiting to see if he was going to follow.

  “I assume that means you have a plan, Ander?” Trystan appeared at his side a few steps later, clearly nonplussed by their role reversal.

  “Ever jumped out of a ship before?” Ruckus turned his head in time to catch the Zane’s widening gaze, and chuckled. Without further explanation, he led them to a chamber off to the side that was rarely used. It housed most of their more advanced tech, the stuff that had been necessary during the war, but had since become next to obsolete.

  Fortunately, because their treaty had been so tentative, the Basileus had ordered all military ships to keep their stash of weaponry on the off chance it might one day become necessary again.

  Ruckus hadn’t been the Basileus’s biggest fan, but he had to admit that the man knew what he was doing at least half the time. Too bad the other half, all those bad decisions, were what had gotten Magnus killed in the end.

  The door panel slid open as soon as Ruckus pressed his palm against it, and he entered before it’d fully disappeared into the wall. Everything was exactly where he’d left it, despite his leaving the ship and its running to Pettus and Fawna while he’d been away on Earth. He shifted through a few things, moving toward one of the built-in metal closets, and then sighed in relief when he spotted what he was looking for.

  He snatched two of the three packs hanging from hooks and tossed one to the Zane, angling his head down to hide his grin when the ship tipped at that exact moment, causing the pack to smack Trystan in the face.

  All too quickly, the Zane righted himself, holding up the pack to see what it was. His eyes glimmered and he began unzipping the proper compartments, dropping to one knee so he could place it on the floor for better access.

  “This is daring,” he said while he worked, proving that he had in fact done this before, despite his words. “I’ll admit to being impressed, Ander. Well done.”

  “Your compliments are making me uncomfortable.”

  “I was stating a fact,” Trystan corrected, “not giving you a compliment. I do not enjoy your military prowess.” That last part was said under his breath, and Ruckus was sure he’d misheard him.

  Not caring enough to ask about it, Ruckus attached the last wire and then adjusted the straps, swinging the pack up and over his shoulders. He secured the belt around his waist, tightening it for good measure, and then turned to find the Zane was doing the same.

  “You’re aware,” Trystan said as he finished, glancing up at him, “that if this goes horribly wrong—which is likely—we’ve just left Delaney unprotected, correct?”

  “Don’t worry.” He turned to the camouflaged exit panel, lifting the lid that covered the touch pad. “If it comes down to you or me, I’ll push you in the way of the zee fire and make sure I get back to my girlfriend safely.”

  He slapped his palm against the pad, and after a moment the loud scraping of metal on metal filled the room. The hatch leading to the outside began to ease its way open, the door at their back sealing tightly to prevent the change in airflow from affecting the rest of the ship.

  Trystan stepped up to his side, watching as the gray sky was slowly exposed. “That would make you a cold-blooded killer, Wux.” He tilted his head, caught Ruckus’s eye. “Does she know you have that in you? She called me a monster; I wonder what she’d think if she heard the words that just left your mouth.”

  “Delaney knows who I am.” Ruckus clenched his jaw, glad when the hatch finally opened the rest of the way and they could get on with this. Even though heights made him uncomfortable. “You know what to do?”

  “Of course,” he scoffed. “Who do you think developed this technology? Because I can assure you, it wasn’t Vakar. We—”

  Ruckus didn’t give Trystan time to finish, instead opting to do what he’d wanted to do ever since he’d first met the Zane.

  He pushed him out the window and watched his body plummet.

  CHAPTER 6

  Trystan was going to kill the Ander. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. This time he was serious. Ruckus Wux was done for.

  As soon as Trystan managed to regain some control over his quickly falling body.

  It’d been a while since he’d had to jump out of a moving vehicle—any moving vehicle—especially one as large as a ship. And, as he dropped, he was forced to admit that the Ander’s ship was a pretty impressive size at that. No wonder they’d been targeted. How the hell had they expected to get away with entering Vakar in that monstrosity?

  He reached for the latch at his right side, fingers fumbling to lift the flap of fabric meant to protect the controls from being accidentally hit. In his struggle, he ended up tearing the scrap of material loose, and the wind quickly tore it from his grasp. It fluttered away, disappearing in less than a heartbeat.

  Placing his first three fingers against the controls, he pressed, holding down while the device did a quick scan of his body. The technology was brilliantly made—by a Kint—and was designed to digitally map a person’s specs in under five seconds.

  It was too loud for him to hear the beep signaling the scan was complete, but he noticed the flashing green light at his hip and pulled his hand away just in time for the machine to do the rest of its job. He’d already opened the side panels on the pack on his back, to allow for a faster response time, and he held his arms straight out at his sides and spread his legs wider as material began to spool out.

  It was a light shade of gray, like the surrounding sky, and covered in millions of tightly packed tiny rubber dots. The whole process took under thirty seconds, the soft material wrapping around his torso and up and down his limbs. Once his fingers were covered, it tightened, briefly impeding his ability to breathe as it adjusted around him.

  The helmet came last, stretching up from the neck to encase his head in a clear plastic. Lights flickered in front of his eyes as systems came online, and then he felt the distinct pressure at the base of his skull, which indicated that the suit was connecting to his fitting. Doing so allowed him hands-free control, and with only a thought, he activated the jets in the soles of the gray boots he now wore.

  They propelled him upward, and he scanned for the Ander. While it’d felt like he’d been falling for an eternity, it’d actually been under a minute. He spotted Ruckus wearing a similar suit, hovering at the side of his ship. When Trystan approached, Ruckus signaled toward the attacking ship on the right.

  As much as Trystan loathed taking orders from someone technically beneath him, he gave the Ander a curt nod. This wasn’t about struggling for alpha status, not when Delaney was currently on the ship being shot at.

  The suits they were wearing helped camouflage them, so there was little fear that the enemy had spotted them. But they wouldn’t protect from cannon fire, so Trystan gave himself a moment to assess a path before directing the suit toward the attacking vessel. He weaved and dodged, feeling the heat from some of the zees as they passed him. It would have been difficult enough without having to worry about Sanzie shooting from the opposite direction, but of course she was.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw that the Ander was close to the other attacking ship. For optimal success, they needed to use their packs at close to the same time, so Trystan sped up.

  Numbers raced across the screen in the corner of his visor, giving him updates on how high he was, how quickly he was approaching the oncoming ship. When he was less than ten feet from it, a beam came out to scan for the presence of force fields. Knowing there was one already in use, Trystan straightened his body so that he was in a somewhat upright position.

  His hand dropped back to the control panel
at his side, feeling out the triangular button at the bottom. As soon as the screen on his visor flashed that it had latched onto the force field, he pressed it.

  He felt the pack at his back open at the top, and a good portion of the weight he’d been carrying lifted as a black box rose into the air and then slammed forward. As soon as it made contact with the force field, a bright burst of electricity hit it, and bolts of sharp yellow skittered around the entire ship, frying the wiring.

  The protective shield flickered once, twice, and then vanished, leaving the ship vulnerable.

  Sanzie must have been watching, for Trystan barely had enough time to dive out of the way before a large missile shot through the air toward them. The impact, and following explosion, forced him sailing backward, his body spiraling uncontrollably.

  He allowed it to happen, let himself get swept away, dodging the raining bits of metal and debris now dropping to the ground from the destroyed ship on every turn. From the looks of things, the Ander had successfully deactivated the force field of his target as well, and even now Sanzie was taking it out of the sky.

  Finally Trystan’s momentum slowed and he was able to regain control. He twisted so that he was facing the final attacking Vakar ship. There was no sign of the Ander, but that was no matter. These suits had only been rigged with one power cell—the tiny EMP device that’d taken out the force fields. There was nothing he or Ruckus could do about this final ship.

  Just hope that Delaney could handle breaking through the ship’s shield on her own. And it looked like she was doing just that.

  Even as Trystan thought it, the field around the final attacking ship began to flicker in places. Without the other two to help damage Ruckus’s, it seemed this smaller vessel didn’t have the fortitude to withstand so many zees at once.

  Their shield gave way with a crackle, and the final zees Delaney was firing finally hit their mark. The ship struggled to maintain its balance for another precious second before a loud burst of one of the engines sent the vessel careening downward.