His eyes widened as he saw me and he froze for just a second.
That was long enough for Blue to spin and sweep the newcomer's legs out from under him with a blindingly fast kick. He followed with a leap, but the green-skinned alien had better reflexes than I'd expected. Even before he hit the deck he'd curled into a ball, rolling back and away from Blue and avoiding the follow up attack that would have finished the fight.
Bounding to his feet, he grabbed for something at his belt. A weapon? A radio? I didn't find out, because Blue knocked it from his hand before he could do anything with it. And then the two aliens were locked in combat, almost too fast for me to follow.
I should help, I thought. But I had no idea how. Suddenly I wished I'd picked up my rock again.
The taller alien moved with blinding speed, long limbs snaking out in punches and kicks. Each one looked fit to kill or cripple Blue, but each one met a block, was pushed aside, missed its target. My savior wasn't as fast, but somehow his arms were always there, catching the attack and deflecting it. He almost looked as though he were dancing, he was so graceful.
I took a step forward, hoping I could figure out some way to help, to join in the fight without getting myself killed. How could I get through that chaos, though? It seemed impossible, and suddenly the idea that I could have won a fight against this man was laughable.
The snake-alien hissed as he kicked, high and hard, and this time Blue didn't block. Instead he dropped under the attack, so low his body almost hit the floor as he kicked out. His foot struck the snake-alien's knee hard, a nasty snapping sound echoing in the corridor.
Snake hit the deck with an unpleasant crunch, and this time not even his reflexes were fast enough to recover before Blue was on him. A punch to the face drove Snake's head into the deck, and then another. And another. The alien's long limbs spasmed and stilled, but that didn't stop Blue.
After a second I put my hand on his shoulder. Blue froze, bloody fist raised.
"He's already dead," I said, swallowing. This was the first time I'd seen a dead body for real, and it wasn't a pleasant sight. "We need to get out of here."
Blue looked up at me, and the rage in his eyes made me take a step back. It was as though he couldn't see me, not really. But that look faded quickly, pushed back by an effort of will as he stood.
"You're right," he growled, getting his breath back and rising to his feet. "My apologies."
I stepped out of his way as he returned to the panel, leaving the corpse of our enemy lying on the floor. It only took a few more seconds for Blue to get the door open, and I shuddered. If Snake had been a little slower getting down here, he'd still be alive.
He's a slaver, I reminded myself as the door hissed open. He'd have dragged me back to that cell and gotten Blue killed for trying to rescue me. There was no other way.
"Help me with the body," Blue said and I blinked, unsure how long I'd been standing there. Nodding shakily I grabbed a leg and together we dragged Snake into the hold beyond the door.
There was still a trail of blood to follow, but against the black flooring it didn't stand out too much. At least it was a little less obvious than a corpse lying in the hallway.
Turning around, I tried not to think about the dead alien. We were almost out. We had to be.
The hold was almost filled with a small spaceship. Small compared to the one we were inside, anyway — it looked about two hundred feet across, and I recognized the shape. The same flying saucer design as had picked me up from Earth. Now that I was up close and it wasn't glowing, I could make out more detail.
Under the cockpit, a turret mounted a cannon, and there were what looked like rocket launchers attached to its side. A sign on its side proclaimed it the Crimson Princess in an alien script that I could somehow read. Whatever Blue had injected me with, it was an amazing translator.
Blue was already rushing towards it.
"We don't have much time," he said, hitting a button on the side, A hatch slid open and a ladder lowered. "Hurry."
I didn't have much choice, so I followed him into the ship. By the time I'd made it up the ladder, he'd already reached the cockpit and started powering up the systems. Inside the Crimson Princess everything felt small and rickety compared to the Red King's Revenge, and somehow that made it feel much more real. For the first time it felt like I was actually in space.
"What is this ship?" I asked. It might have been a stupid question but I had to say something, keep my mind moving. Otherwise I felt like I'd think too much about what was happening.
"A raider," Blue said absently, strapping himself into the pilot's seat and rapidly pressing buttons. Around us the ship came to life, machinery whirring and displays lighting up. "Intended for attacking primitive planets like yours, kidnapping victims to sell. Stealthy to get past scanners, armed in case it has to deal with opposition. Unfortunately it's meant for a crew of at least two, and it's not as fast as I'd like. Not the best choice for escaping in, but it doubles as a poor warship, too — and right now we need guns more than we need speed."
I slid into the seat next to him and gasped as the chair adjusted itself to me. I sank into it and it gripped me, parts of it sliding over my shoulders to hold me down. I'd never sat in a chair that fitted me so well, or so securely.
And that was a good thing. As soon as I was in place, Blue hit a button and a blinding light filled the hold outside. The hangar doors tore apart, metal flying outward as the Princess's cannons ripped into them. Caught by surprise, I bit down on a scream.
"What are you doing?" I demanded, turning toward him.
"They weren't going to open the doors for me so I took it out of their hands," he said as though that were entirely reasonable. "We're about to enter realspace, and that's our only chance. Those doors would have held in the air, but now it's just a forcefield."
Outside the ruined doors, strange colors swirled. They drew my gaze, odd but calming, and I felt my attention drifting.
Without warning the colors vanished, replaced with endless blackness broken only by the pinpricks of distant stars. All the lights on the ship went out at the same time. And whatever forcefield held the air inside failed.
The air rushed out in a hurricane, pulling the Crimson Princess with it in a crazy tumble that made my stomach lurch. Without the magic chair I'd have been thrown all over the cockpit, but it held me tight and kept me from hurting myself. Moments later we were out, falling away from the Red King's Revenge. I shut my eyes and clung on for dear life, but my heart soared.
I was free.
9
Kadran
We weren't safe yet, not by a long shot. The Red King's Revenge drifted behind us, and the escaping air hadn't given us enough speed to make it far before they recovered from leaving hyperspace. Already, both ships' systems were coming back online after the transition to realspace — and if I could still see the Revenge with my bare eyes, their sensors would have no trouble spotting us.
I glanced sideways, looking at my human companion. Her eyes were shut tight and her knuckles white where they gripped the arms of her seat. I could hear her breathing fast, too fast, and I wanted more than anything to comfort her.
There was no time. The engines were coming online and I had to act fast. Navigation was still waking up, the computers trying to get a fix on where we were, but right now all I cared about was putting more distance between us and the Revenge.
The whole ship shook as I opened up the throttle. No way to hide us now, and no point trying. The little raider was a lot faster than the Revenge and it would be minutes before they could get another raider crewed and launched. In that time we'd be out of range of their weapons and have a speed advantage they'd never be able to overcome. Assuming that there was any place to run to in the direction we were traveling, we'd be safe.
If there wasn't, we'd run out of food before they caught us. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but death was better than the fate Captain Drezz would offer if he caught me.
"Hold on tight, human," I said as the acceleration pressed us back into our seats. The artificial gravity absorbed most of it, but I was asking the engines for more than the ship was designed to give.
"I have a name, Blue," she replied, forcing words out through her teeth. I smiled. If being angry at me helped distract her from the peril we were in, I'd take it.
"Tell me," I ordered. Speaking wasn't easy, but I'd rather listen to her than the various alarms that scolded me for starting the engines too soon.
The human's eyes flickered open and she glared at me with an intensity that shocked me. "I'm Amy, okay? If you're going to call me something, call me that. I'm a person, not — not just property."
Amy. I tasted the name in my mouth. A short, pleasing sound, a name I would not forget. I smiled, rolling it around on my tongue. "Very well, Amy. I am Kadran, warrior of the Ikarna temple. Not Blue."
She looked at me and nodded. "Kadran. Got it."
Before we could say more, a harsher alarm cut through the conversation and I cursed. The Red King's Revenge had fired on us.
The good news was that we were outside of cannon range for all but their biggest guns, and those would kill us instantly. So long as Captain Drezz wanted Amy back alive he wouldn't fire those. But apparently he would risk a missile. That was bad.
If he was lucky, the missile would disable our engines. A little less lucky and it would vaporize us. Even dodging it would cost us speed, giving them more chance to send another raider after us. I cursed.
"Amy, I will need your help," I said, evaluating our options. "Take the controls."
Her protest was more of a squeak than a word, and she looked at me as though I'd gone mad.
"There's no time," I growled. "I can't fly the ship and man the guns at the same time. Take the controls and do as I say."
To her credit she didn't argue, grabbing the control yoke as I transferred flight control to her. The little ship wobbled briefly as her hands trembled and then she managed to still them. Good, if we were to have a chance we'd need to be steady.
The turret only had a limited arc and couldn't fire backward. We'd need that missile in front of us if I was going to shoot it down.
"Here's what we're going to do," I said, speaking quickly as I adjusted the gun's settings. "See that screen? The red dot is the missile, the green dot is us. When the red dot reaches the innermost circle, you pull hard right and then left."
She nodded shakily, locking her gaze on the scanner. There was no need to tell her what the circles indicated — anything inside the inner one was officially too close to avoid. But dodging sooner would give the missile too much time to adjust.
Hungry Stars, let this work, I prayed, reaching for the calm of meditation. Battle-fury would not help me here, not when I needed precision. Fortunately the temple had trained me well.
On the screen, the dot got closer. The alarm more urgent. The missile reached the inner circle and the world tipped on its side as Amy hauled at the yoke hard.
The missile zipped past us, drive glowing red, already turning to correct as Amy pulled us back towards it. And there it was, lined up perfectly in front of my guns. My fingers squeezed the trigger almost without a conscious decision on my part and hot light speared through the deadly rocket.
A blinding light flashed ahead of us for a moment before the viewscreen went black to protect our eyes.
"We did it?" Amy sounded more surprised than happy. "We're going to live?"
I laughed, letting out the tension I'd been holding. "Yes. Yes, we're safe for now."
The long-range scanners told me that we were moving safely out of firing range and I let myself relax a little. We wouldn't be completely safe for a while yet, but the greatest danger was past. Taking flight control back from Amy I looked to see where we were.
One glance at the navigation screen made me swear.
"What's wrong?" The stress in Amy's voice brought me back to myself. I couldn't show my emotions in front of her, not when I was trying to keep her calm. I took a deep breath and held it, pushing my anger into it and then breathing out. Better.
"I didn't know our destination," I told her. "But I thought I knew the kind of place it would be. A busy system, lots of traffic, many ports. That's the kind of place a man like Captain Drezz can meet a client and make a deal quietly."
"But...?"
"Whoever he's working for must have something else in mind," I said, baring my teeth at the display. "This is Allor system. There's nothing here, no permanent settlements, no inhabited planets. Just a junkfield left over from the last war, and the Lament for Battles Unfought."
I sighed, dialing back the engines to a more reasonable speed. The crushing pressure of acceleration died down and the seats released us. Amy groaned and stretched, then looked at me with a question in her eyes. I realized that she had no idea what that meant.
"It's an Imperial cathedral-warship," I told her, struggling to keep my hatred from showing through. "And it's the only port in the system. Fortunately it's ahead of us, and we'll get there before the Red King's Revenge. Unfortunately, we'll only have hours before they arrive, and they can send word ahead. If they call their client then we could be met at the dock and that will be the end of us."
"Can't we just... go somewhere else?" Amy's voice trembled, and I realized just how frightening that must sound to her. I wished I had better news for her.
"Not possible," I said, shaking my head. "The Crimson Princess only has a short range hyperdrive, it doesn't have the range to reach another system on its own. It's the Lament or drifting until we run out of supplies."
Turning to face her, I reached across to squeeze her shoulder. There was still hope, if we were lucky, and there was no point in making her despair. "Have no fear, Amy. Drezz will likely not want his client to know that he has lost you, so he'll want to capture us himself. We'll get aboard and vanish into the ship. If I can reach a hypercom I can call for backup and someone will come to our rescue. We'll be safe in days at most."
She drew some strength from that, straightening up. "And then I can go home?"
The question was like a dagger. I tried to hide my flinch, to think of an answer. How can I tell her no? But sending someone back to an uncontacted world is against all the rules of the ASP.
Not a problem for now, I told myself firmly. Right now, Amy needed reassurance and we needed to get to safety. Once that was done, we could plan for the future. Returning her home was impossible. An uncontacted world had to stay that way, and Amy had seen too much to go back.
There was something else, as well. Even if I could send her back I didn't want to, not to a planet where I couldn't follow. I shied away from thinking about the implications of that feeling. Caring about a human? That made no sense, not after what humans had done to me. But there it was, nevertheless. I would have to deal with it sometime, I realized, but now I had more urgent things to worry about.
"Let's get to safety first, and then we can talk about that," I told her. The look she gave me told me that she wasn't fooled, but she didn't push the issue now. That would have to do. I turned back to the controls and set course for the Lament for Battles Unfought.
10
Amy
When the Lament for Battles Unfought came into view it didn't look like anything special. Or maybe I was too shocked by what I'd already been through to register it. Sure, it was another huge spaceship, but so what? One of those had been shooting at us already.
As we came closer, though, the scale of the thing came into focus for me. The ship floated in front of a gas giant planet, the colorful clouds making a magnificent backdrop. Against it, I could see why Kadran had called the Lament a cathedral. It was a magnificently baroque piece of architecture in space. Ornate towers rose from it and gilded statues leaned out into space. At least I assumed they were gilded. If they were solid gold it would be too ridiculous.
To my surprise, the statues were of humans, or at least close enough that I couldn't tell
the difference. Maybe that should have made me feel better about the giant ship, but it didn't. If anything it made it feel more real, more immediate. More terrifying.
The size of it was incredible, and it just kept getting bigger as we closed the distance. More and more detail came into view, and I couldn't stop staring. It was oddly terrifying — nothing that big should fly. Unbidden, my hand reached out to grip Kadran's for reassurance.
Smaller ships buzzed around it like flies, flitting from tower to tower. And the central structure, shining in the distant starlight, looked about as big as my hometown.
"That's crazy," I whispered. "How can it be so big?"
"The Silent Empire is powerful and rich," Kadran answered. At least he wasn't laughing at me. In fact, he sounded awed himself, or even frightened. "You never quite get used to how big they build. It's not as powerful as it could be, though. They could have built a lot of battleships for the same price, and to more effect."
I didn't care how inefficient the ship was. It was impressive in a way that no fleet could have been. But now that we were close enough I could see some of the details weren't perfect. Chunks were missing from some of the outer towers, as though some giant space dragon had taken bites out of them. One of the statues was headless, the neck ending in a melted lump of metal, and another's arm hung by a thread. The Lament might be impressive, but someone had given it a good kicking at some point.
I didn't know whether to be relieved that it wasn't invincible, or terrified of whoever had managed to inflict that much harm on it.
"What happened there?" I asked, gesturing to the broken sections.
"Battle damage," Kadran explained. "There was a war here, decades ago. Prince Xeraxis tried to conquer the sector, and this is where his enemies made their stand. The Lament for Battles Unfought against a coalition of local forces. Technically the Lament won."
Stolen by the Alien Raider: A Novel of the Silent Empire Page 5