The Star Thief

by Jamie Grey

  “And Myka didn’t know?”

  “Of course not. He’s a child. But what his parents found put us on high alert a few days before the attack. Someone had built a station to take the minerals found in the Banos Prime soil and convert them into a new type of clay.”

  That drug seemed to be the cause of every problem in her life. She took a deep breath. “So someone killed an entire colony to keep production secret?”

  “Partly. We also think the Aldanis had additional information about technology they discovered.”

  Renna tapped her finger on the smooth white surface of the table. “Well, you have the kid now, and I’m assuming the tech I retrieved was the stuff you were looking for. What else do you need me for?”

  Dallas’s lips tightened into a thin line. “Whoever was behind the attack on Banos Prime hasn’t stopped. They’re still after something, and we need to know what.”

  “I haven’t heard of any attacks.”

  Dallas stopped pacing long enough to tap the holopad on the table, careful to keep his eyes averted from the screen. The map of the galaxy on the wall flickered and then disappeared, replaced by high-definition photo images.

  Mangled bodies, smoking cities, blood, death, and destruction flashed by in a blur. Renna’s stomach roiled, and she pressed a hand to her mouth.

  “That’s Nath. Or what’s left of it. Two months ago, it was attacked without warning, and most of the humans on the planet killed. We don’t know what the attackers were looking for or if they found it.”

  Renna dragged her gaze from the screen, swallowing the acid burning the back of her throat. “There’s been no word of this. Not even a hint.” She had contacts on every planet. There was no way the Coalition could have kept this a secret.

  “MYTH is a powerful organization.” Dallas’s gaze fell to the table and his expression tightened. “And there were few survivors left to talk.”

  “But what do they want? Why are they doing this?” The pictures kept coming, and she wanted to scream at him to turn them off. She’d seen it all before, but there was something about the way the bodies had been gutted, the way their blood splattered everything around them… It was horrific.

  “That’s what we need your help to find out. We know the gamma particle destabilizer is part of it. So is Myka. Dr. Aldani agreed to help us if we rescued his nephew, but he refused to work on anything until Myka was returned. We think he knows more than he’s telling us.”

  Myka’s uncle seemed like a very smart man. “Nice to see someone able to stand up to you.”

  Dallas’s face darkened. “We’ve found another manufacturing installation in the middle of the desert on Banos Prime, about twenty klicks from the city’s ruins. We think it’s the same people.”

  Renna’s gaze rested on Lieutenant Keva and the two silent men sitting beside her. They all looked more than capable. She already knew the captain was. “I’ve seen how your space ninjas work. You’re telling me they couldn’t rescue a little boy from thugs like the Cordozas?”

  “It wasn’t that we couldn’t. We just wanted to see if you could.”

  Her nausea faded away as every muscle in her body hardened. “You mean you used this kid as a frakking test for me?” she snarled.

  Dallas raised a hand calmingly. “No, not at all. Myka was genuinely in danger, and we needed to rescue him. You were the closest thing we had to a stealth team. Had Finn’s crew broken into the warehouse, it would have alerted the Cordozas immediately. And this way I was able to force my superiors into agreeing to give you those pardons if you helped us. It was for your benefit as well as ours.”

  “I don’t much like your definition of benefit.” Renna crossed her arms. “What I don’t understand is what you think I can do at a manufacturing facility. I’m no scientist.”

  “No, but you can get into places no one else can. And this facility is…different.” Dallas nodded at Keva, and she used the tablet in front of her to pull an aerial photo onto the screen.

  A dull gray building sat in the middle of the desert. Keva flipped through several pictures, different angles. The walls were completely smooth. No doors, windows or other entrances. It looked like some sort of huge box.

  “What the hell is that?”

  Dallas frowned. “That’s what we’d like to know. And we need to get inside. We’re working on alternative solutions, but you’re the only person who might be able find us a way in and help us uncover whoever is attacking these colonies and why.”

  Renna leaned forward to study the pictures. “I can’t get into something with no opening. No matter how good I am. What makes you think there’s anything in there to begin with?”

  “Aldani says there is. He’s developing the tools to help you get inside.” Dallas motioned to Keva to turn off the holovid. “Our next step is for Captain Finn’s team to take Myka and the particle destabilizer home to Aldani. Renna will work with the doctor to figure out the best way to get into the facility. Once we know what we’re up against, we can figure out a way to stop the people behind these attacks.”

  He paused, letting his gaze drift over the team. “I know some of you are not happy with my team selection. I assure you that each of you has been handpicked for your exceptional skills. You all know what is at stake here and what needs to be done. I trust you’ll do whatever it takes to ensure the end result.”

  Keva jumped to her feet and saluted. “We are honored to be part of this mission, sir!”

  Dallas saluted back.

  And then the earth trembled as an explosion rocked the room.

  SEVEN

  “What the hell was that?” Dallas demanded into his communicator. His face blanched at whatever he heard, and he steadied himself on the back of a chair. The rest of the team watched him, too well trained to question him.

  Renna had no such qualms. “What was it? Felt like we were hit with a bomb.”

  “We were.” He ran an unsteady hand through his hair and started barking orders into his communicator unit. “Send Spec Ops 7 to intercept. We need men on the ground now! Get the cruisers into the air.” He whirled on his heel. “Keva, get the boy and meet us on the ship. The rest of you move. Now.”

  The crew raced from the room in a thunder of boots and shouted orders. Renna turned to follow, but Dallas stopped her with a raised hand. He paced the room twice, shouting orders into his comm unit, before he turned back to her. “Okay. Follow me, Renna. I know you haven’t had time to ask questions. What else do you need to know for this job?”

  She expected the facility to be chaotic and crazy, but the workers still sat at their stations in the command center, speaking softly into their headpieces, moving things around on their holovids. She assumed those moving pieces were ships or people, but it was hard to tell as she and Dallas hurried past. He called out a steady stream of orders as they exited the room and headed down a hallway toward what she assumed was the hangar bay.

  “How many troops?” Renna asked when Dallas was done issuing orders.

  “Ours or theirs?”

  Despite herself, she was beginning to like the major. “Let’s start with theirs.”

  “Two destroyers have been spotted attacking the Warehouse District. It’s gone. Everything is gone.” He swallowed, his eyes flashing before he brought himself under control. “They’re moving north through the city, looking for…whatever they’ve come to find.” His hands clenched at his sides. “But how did they know? It’s like they launched their attack as soon as we sent in Finn’s team to rescue you and the boy. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  Renna swallowed. There was only one thing she could think of that made sense if that was true, and it meant MYTH might have a leak. But Dallas’s pale face made her hold her tongue.

  Instead she asked, “What are our troops doing? Where are they focusing the attack?” She pushed aside the thought of Boyd, her fence and the closest thing she’d had to a friend. His apartment wasn’t too far from the Warehouse District. He always said it pai
d to be close to work.

  Her stomach ached, but she focused on Dallas’s next words.

  “We’ve sent three platoons of MYTH soldiers and two regular platoons of Coalition troops, and three starship cruisers are in orbit. Whoever they are, they won’t get out of here without a serious fight.” He cleared his throat as if remembering who he was talking to. “But right now, we need to worry about getting you off-world. The hangar is down this hall. The MYTH team and a small platoon of soldiers are already waiting.”

  “How big a crew do we have?”

  “The Athena is a frigate with a service crew of thirty, plus the six MYTH officers. They’ve all served together on several missions now.” His gaze was cold, and she could read the warning there. “I’ve read your file. You need to behave yourself, Renna. It’s not a buffet.”

  She smirked and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I am a professional. You don’t need to worry. Much.”

  Dallas entered a code on the datapad at the hangar door, and it slid open with a whoosh of air. Renna inhaled deeply; the smell of starfuel, machinery, and space filled her lungs. Gods, it smelled like home.

  And then she spotted the prettiest cruiser she’d ever seen gleaming in the helolights. The ship was long and silver, with a dark red stripe running down the center. Two long wings jutted from the back, and the nose of the ship was blunt and wide, all the better to jump to hyperspace with.

  Her skin prickled. She recognized it as an Infiltrator-class frigate. One of the newest and stealthiest on the market. She was going to enjoy getting to know her new home.

  Dallas smiled at her. “That’s the Athena. She’ll get you where you need to go and then some. Be nice to Finn and I can promise you, you’ll get there unharmed.”

  “I planned on it. Anyone who captains a beauty like this deserves my best behavior.” Or at least his pilot did.

  Inside the ship, the familiar hum of the engines and the smell of recycled air greeted her like an old friend, but Dallas was moving too fast for her to get much more than an impression of the main deck. The crew was already sitting at their stations to man the ship controls. It might be a new frigate, but the ship couldn’t fly itself.

  She followed him to the command center, a circular space looking forward over the ship. Captain Finn paced back and forth, barking orders as they prepped for takeoff. Keva sat at a terminal beside him, her fingers flying across a holoscreen.

  Major Dallas turned and clasped her hand in his. “Good luck to you, Renna. We’re all counting on you.” Then he strode over to Captain Finn. The two men spoke in hushed tones, glancing at her once before Dallas spoke into the ship’s comm unit. His mellow voice filled the empty space around them. “The success of this mission depends on you. Be swift, silent, and deadly. And may the gods be with you all.” He saluted before stepping down from the command center. Without a look back, he strode from the ship.

  As the hatch closed behind him, Renna heard footfalls as someone sprinted toward her. She spun just in time for Myka to throw himself at her.

  “I thought they were going to leave without you!” he said, hugging her around her waist.

  She patted his back. “Can’t get rid of me that easily, kid. They been treating you okay?”

  He stepped back and nodded, scuffing one of his shiny shoes against the deck. “New clothes, a shower, some food and water. I’m much better now.”

  “Good. They really don’t want to see me get angry.” She winked at him, then nodded toward the bridge. “Come on, I have a feeling this is going to be a bumpy ride. Let’s find somewhere safe.” Renna waited for a pause in the action before calling up to Finn. “Captain, where do you want us?”

  He glanced at her in surprise, as if he’d forgotten their presence. Her smile slipped. Was she that forgettable?

  “Private Adams,” Finn said, “Take these two to the observation deck and strap them in. Then get your ass back here.”

  One of the young men scurrying around paused when he heard his name and saluted the captain. “Sir. Yes, sir.” He turned to Renna and Myka. “Follow me.” He led them past the comm station, through a large meeting room, and into the port observation deck.

  “Can you take care of him? I need to get back.” Adams jerked his head toward the command center.

  “We’re fine. Go.” So Finn still ran a tight ship. At least that hadn’t changed. She swallowed away the memories. “Okay, kid. Have a seat.” She strapped Myka into one of the chairs, then took a seat by the window.

  “I want to see, too.” Myka struggled against the harness.

  “Stay where you are,” she said with a frown. “This isn’t going to be pretty.”

  “But you’re by the window.” His voice rose to a whine.

  “And I’m an adult.”

  The boy opened his mouth, but a look from Renna silenced him. She gripped the steady-handle beside the window and rested her forehead against the thick glass, letting her eyes drift shut for a moment. Who would want to destroy a planet just to find a little boy? It didn’t make sense. She shivered. Would she ever see Hesperia again?

  Luckily, most of her liquid assets were stored in off-world banks and other locations. She’d learned long ago that diversification was the best bet for someone like her. Having to go into hiding on a moment’s notice meant always being prepared. Her free hand drifted to her throat where she carried her most prized possession, the Seralline Star Sapphire. She’d taken the job as a challenge, as a way to prove she was the best thief in the galaxy. Now she wished she’d never heard of the damn thing. It had caused her nothing but trouble.

  Case in point: being blackmailed into helping on a suicide mission.

  Unfortunately, the Star was worth more than the gross domestic product of all the Outer Rim worlds put together. It was her security blanket, her ticket to freedom. As long as she had it, she had an escape plan. And she always liked to have an escape plan.

  Even that last day with Blur’s gang, when the cops had arrived. She’d mapped a route out of the warehouse sometime during that first year with them, never thinking she’d have to use it. Three years later, slipping out the ventilation shaft had saved her from a life of hard labor on a prison planet. She’d worked alone after that. Getting involved was too dangerous. She could only depend on herself.

  What would her life have been like if Hunter—if Finn—hadn’t betrayed them? Would she still be working for Blur? Still tied to the gang by death and lies and violence? Renna let out a sigh. No sense in going down that road now. All of that had been a long time ago.

  Beneath her feet, the engines rumbled to life, the ship’s blood starting to pump and churn as they readied for takeoff. Sunlight streamed into the hangar as the doors above opened to the Hesperian summer sky.

  Right. It was still daylight out here in the real world. Soon, they’d be in space, where time didn’t matter, where the velvety darkness was a constant presence, wrapping her in its soft cocoon.

  Captain Finn’s voice came over the comm. “Stand by for takeoff.”

  Renna’s stomach fluttered as the ship moved. And then they were out into the bright summer air, shooting upward so fast she gasped and clutched the grip as they went vertical, her ears screaming with the pressure of rising so quickly.

  They cleared the MYTH building, then the other skyscrapers. Below them, the city of Veth was laid out in a grid. A smoking, crater-filled grid. She bit back a gasp, the image burned forever into her mind. The Warehouse District was gone, nothing but rubble. She craned her neck toward her apartment building, but there was nothing left. Even the less inhabited part of the city off to the east was now pocked with craters and smoking debris.

  Strange destroyers churned through the city, obliterating everything in their path. They were unlike anything she’d ever seen: three stories tall, with double wings on each side and a long narrow tail.

  Three MYTH battlecruisers shot past the Athena, their engines grinding as they banked toward the attacking fleet. Fire and
missiles burst from the weapons bays of both fleets, streaming toward their closest targets in a blast of fire.

  As one of the enemy cruisers pulled away, an explosion shook the air around them. Below, near the center of the city, a gaping crater had opened up, smoking and blazing with fire.

  Renna unlatched her harness, her stomach tightening at the sight of the city below them. She had to clear her throat before the words came out properly. “Stay here. I need to check in with Finn,” she said to Myka.

  His eyes widened, and he put out a hand to stop her. “But Renna…”

  “I’ll be right back. I promise.” She smiled reassuringly, waiting to pick up her pace until she was out of sight. She raced back to the bridge and heard Finn barking orders before she spotted him pacing in front of the holomap.

  “Bank hard to port. Keva, patch through Dallas’s comm feed. I need to know what’s happening on the ground. Bokal, charge the guns. We’re going to need them before we’re out of Hesperia’s atmosphere.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.” Keva typed in a command at her console, and the crackle of static from the intercom filled the ship.

  The roar of an explosion from the comm shook the bridge before Dallas’s voice boomed out. “Evacuate! Get all support staff to the bunkers! Team Alpha to the ground entrance! Order the fighters to come around for another assault!”

  Finn stared down at the console, his hands clenched into fists. “Dammit. They’re getting killed out there. We have to do something.”

  Keva frowned. “You know our orders, sir. We have to escape with the boy.”

  Dallas’s voice shouted through the comm. “Status on the Athena. Now!”

  A woman answered. “Sir, they’re approaching atmospheric release. They’ll be away in three minutes.” Her voice was cool and collected, a sharp contrast to the sound of explosions in the background.

  “Keep the fighters on the offensive! Captain Finn has to get away. Evacuate all personnel from the facility. Then get to safety yourself.”