Galen's Way: A Starquest 4th Age Adventure

by Richard Paolinelli

  Galen paused for a second, then continued forward without a word.

  “Greetings, Professor,” Cassandra called from a small speaker near the table.

  “You must be the infamous Cassandra,” he replied. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”

  “What do you think of our cute couple, Professor?”

  Lir considered the question. There was no way of knowing if this relationship would end in the proverbial “Happily Ever After” from the story books or if it would fade away when the danger had passed. He watched them up on the flight deck for a moment. They really did look good together, and they certainly seemed happy in each other’s company. All they could do was enjoy it for however long it lasted.

  “I think we should give them as much space as we can, my dear,” he finally answered. “Let them enjoy this time without worrying how long it will last.”

  “I agree,” Cassandra replied. “Although I thought I would never get him to make a move on her. I had to almost let them get discovered just to get him to kiss her.”

  “My dear,” Lir chuckled. “I believe this is going to be a wonderful friendship.”

  * * * * *

  “It might interest you to know,” Lir offered when he joined them on the flight deck. Galen had rigged a third seat on the deck, slightly behind the Nav seat that Rhiannon occupied. “that there is a rumor floating around out there that Napat has ordered his crews to ask you to come and speak with him.”

  “Ask, not arrest,” Rhiannon asked.

  “A pretty important distinction, wouldn’t you say?” Lir replied.

  “If the rumor is true,” Galen replied, thinking it over, “and not a trap.”

  “Of course,” Lir agreed. “This contact of yours on Arkon, would he be someone who would be in the loop enough to know either way?”

  “If he doesn’t, he’ll know who to send us to who would be,” Galen answered. “I wish we could take the Tempest all the way back, but she’s too easily spotted. And before you volunteer, Cass, I’ll not have you play decoy and let them chase you in the opposite direction.”

  “Who said I was volunteering?” she replied, but Galen knew better.

  “We’ll get a very ordinary-looking ship,” he continued. “I’ll get as much information as I can, including finding out if Napat really has made such an offer, and then we’ll head for Taygeta.”

  “And what is your plan, especially if Napat’s rumored offer is not true?” Lir asked.

  “I’m planning on you keeping her safe while I walk into the Senate and display the evidence we have against Salacia.”

  “You’re going to just ‘walk’ in?” Lir’s expression conveyed his disbelief.

  “Well, maybe do a little more than just ‘walk’ but I’ll get in and show them the evidence.”

  “And likely have to fight your way back out even if you are believed,” Lir pointed out.

  “This is what I do for a living, old man,” Galen noted.

  “Galen,” Rhiannon placed her hand over his. “You could get killed. There has to be a better way, a safer way.”

  Lir was surprised by how gently his old pupil laid his other hand over hers. He turned away slightly, trying to give them some privacy.

  “Safer usually doesn’t work out the way you need something to work out, Rhea,” he said seriously. “And I’m a lot harder to kill than you think.”

  “Let me go in with you,” she pleaded. “I can verify everything. I can confront my father in front of the Senate and make him answer for his crimes.”

  “Then you’d be in jeopardy,” Galen shook his head. “There’s no telling what your father, or someone in his entourage, would do to try to silence you.”

  “They aren’t just going to sit there and do nothing while you are accusing them.”

  “I very much doubt they would,” he agreed. “But I can move a lot faster if the only person I have to worry about keeping alive is me.”

  “Promise me you’ll be careful,” she said with such sincerity that Lir felt his own heart breaking.

  “As much as I can be,” Galen promised, kissing her hand lightly.

  “I think I’m going to slip into a diabetic coma,” Cassandra cracked from the overhead.

  “Cass, shut up!” all three Hominids ordered.

  * * * * *

  “How soon until we reach Arkon?” Lir asked as he walked up to the flight deck. Galen was in the pilot’s seat, and Rhiannon was likely still asleep in the cabin. He judged it to be slightly after midnight ship’s time.

  “About a half-day yet,” Galen replied. “Couldn’t sleep?”

  “No,” Lir admitted. “Seems to be contagious on this ship. I keep trying to find a better way forward. What’s keeping you up here instead of back there where you belong?”

  “Maybe I’m trying to figure out another way, too,” Galen swiveled his chair around, fixing his gaze toward the cabin where Rhea slept. “Maybe I’m wondering if I’m doing the right thing.”

  “I suppose that depends on what ‘thing’ you mean, my boy,” Lir replied. “Are you thinking of not going to the Senate?”

  “Maybe it would be better just to head out to the unknown sectors and see what we could find out there,” Galen said, suddenly standing up and pacing. Lir could not recall ever seeing him like this, uncertain, questioning every move. He wondered what was really troubling his old pupil. “Even if we get through and she tells her story, it might not matter. Everything that would happen if we run away could still happen anyway.”

  “That is one possible outcome,” Lir agreed. “And running for it is probably even the safest one for the two of you.”

  “But what kind of a life would it be?” Galen didn’t wait for an answer. “Me, I could do that and not notice the difference. But what about her? What kind of a life would it be for her?”

  “She seems to be willing to live it with you.”

  “With me,” Galen said, and Lir heard a hint of bitterness in his tone. “And what do I have to offer her beyond a ship to run away in? I’m a mercenary, a smuggler, a thief and a killer. That’s my resume in a nutshell. She deserves a better man than that.”

  Ahhhh, Lir smiled, so that’s it. Someone has been given a reason to take stock of his life and has found it wanting.

  “Do you love her?” he asked.

  Galen turned and gave his mentor a sad look. “Yes.”

  “And you feel you are unworthy of her?”

  Galen turned sharply away to look outside the port window, and Lir barely heard him say “yes”.

  “Then become her Knight,” he said, walking up behind Galen to put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Be worthy of her every day from this one forward. Stand between her and danger so that it may never pass you and touch her. Slay every dragon, on two legs or four, that would dare darken her sky. Use your skills, your might, for right. Prove to her, and to yourself, that you are indeed worthy of her.”

  “You and your stories,” Galen replied.

  “I like the sound of them,” Rhiannon said from behind. She stood on the flight deck a blue silk robe wrapped around her. Lir took two quick steps to the side as Galen turned to face her. She walked right up to him and looked him right in the eye.

  “I’m no knight in shining armor, Rhea,” he said quietly.

  “You are to me,” she said, taking his hands. “Wherever I go, I want you with me and no other.”

  “You have no idea of all the things that I’ve done…”

  “Actually, she does,” Lir slipped in. “I filled her in on all of your more, sordid, exploits while you were off looking for a ship back on Belisama.”

  “And that doesn’t matter to you?” Galen asked after shooting a dour look at Lir.

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  “How can you say that?”

  “Because you saved my life,” she replied. “Because you saved the others, too, and refused to take any reward for it. Because you didn’t just hand me over to my father when it would hav
e been easier on you if you had. Because even now, you’re trying to keep me alive by considering doing something that you wouldn’t do if I weren’t involved. Because I love you, Galen Dwyn, and you are my Knight and always will be.”

  She raised up on her toes and kissed him. He stared at her like he’d never seen her before. He took both of her hands in his and, closing his eyes, bowed his head and pressed her hands to his forehead.

  When he opened his eyes and raised his head again, the doubting man Lir had seen prowling the bridge was gone.

  “All right then,” Galen said. “We’ll…”

  Alarms sounded and the ship lurched as if struck by something. Galen caught Rhiannon before she fell to the deck. Lir grabbed the back of the pilot’s seat to stay upright.

  “Cass, what was that?” Galen called out, pointing at Rhiannon to take the rear seat while Lir scrambled into the Nav chair. Galen jumped into the pilot’s seat.

  “We were fired on by a ship,” Cassandra reported. “It’s the Harrier.”

  “You two get strapped in,” Galen ordered. “How did he get close enough to shoot at us, Cass?”

  “He was hiding behind an asteroid,” Cassandra explained.

  “An ambush?” Lir asked.

  “It would be his style,” Galen said as he maneuvered the Tempest away from a follow-up shot.

  “You know the Captain of that ship?” Rhiannon asked.

  “Quaz Jellico,” Galen replied through clenched teeth. “He makes Vedastus look like a nice guy by comparison.”

  Rhiannon swallowed hard.

  “Cass,” Galen ordered. “Open a channel to the Harrier. Audio only.”

  “Galen, old buddy,” Jellico’s voice came over the speaker. “You’ve been a very bad boy, my friend.”

  “I’m not the one shooting people in the back, Quaz, and we’re definitely not friends.”

  “That’s no way to be, old buddy,” Jellico taunted. “Why don’t you make this easy on everybody and hand over the girl. I’ll even let you keep that sweet ride of yours and half the cargo.”

  “What girl?”

  Jellico just laughed.

  “C’mon, Galen, everyone knows you’ve got a Princess on board, and she has a pretty little penny on her head. I don’t know why you ain’t cashing in on that big payday, but some of us ain’t so skittish. I like big paydays, son, and I might even get myself a little bonus on the side on the way back to Salacia.”

  “He seems nice,” Lir remarked as another blast from the Harrier flashed just in front of the Tempest.

  “Just one problem, Quaz,” Galen said turning his ship hard to starboard, looking for the asteroid the Harrier had been hiding behind. “I have no reason to stop and give her to you, and you can’t make me stop. You keep shooting at me, and you’re going to do is blow up my ship and that huge payday right along with it.”

  “Now there you’re wrong, buddy. I’ll get paid if she’s brought home alive or in a body bag. I just won’t have as much fun with her dead. You might as well save yourself the grief.”

  “He’s lining up directly behind us,” Lir pointed out. “Shouldn’t you be making some evasive maneuvers before he decides to blow us up?”

  “Not just yet,” Galen said, tapping the mute button on the console so Jellico wouldn’t hear their conversation. “Cass, the next shot he fires will be close. Make it look like he grazed us and start venting gas out the engines. I want to make it hard for him to see us, but not enough to make him break off of our six.”

  Lir read the instruments, saw where Galen was heading and immediately tightened his restraints. He swivel around to catch Rhiannon’s attention and indicated she should do the same. The Harrier fired, a near miss as Galen had anticipated, and Cassandra started venting the gas as instructed, enveloping the Harrier in a hazy mist.

  “You’ve done some crazy things, my boy,” Lir said as he turned back around. “But this…”

  “You got a better idea, share it, otherwise shush,” Galen unmuted the com. “You know something, Quaz, I think the girl would be better off dead than spending a second with you.”

  Galen cut the connection and poured on the speed directly for the asteroid. The Harrier matched speed, directly behind the Tempest. The ship, and the vented gas from her engines, screening the asteroid from Jellico’s sight as well as his own ship’s Nav sensors.

  “He’s getting ready to fire again,” Cassandra reported. “And we are too close to that rock. We’re going to hit it straight on.”

  “I don’t think so,” Galen said, jerking straight back on the control stick and shoving the engine thrust well past the redline.

  The Tempest screamed in protest as she shot straight up on her Y-axis, pulling G-forces that stressed every seam. It didn’t do her Hominid passengers any favors. Lin passed out first, followed by Rhiannon.

  A black tunnel closed in from the edges of Galen’s vision as he fought to stay conscious. They had to get clear of the blast area, and this was the only way to do it. Behind his ship, the Harrier cleared the gas trail and plowed straight into the asteroid without ever trying to avoid the collision. Galen imagined his foe hadn’t had enough time to process the danger before impact.

  The collision reduced the Harrier to its component atoms, shattering the asteroid in an explosive blast that sent micro-meteors racing out in every direction at high speed. Galen held the thrust levels and course until Cassandra finally confirmed that they were out of danger. He barely managed to cut thrust before the darkness claimed him.

  * * * * *

  He woke to a cold compress on his forehead and a soft hand on the side of his face. Rhea’s face swam into focus.

  “Welcome back,” she said.

  “Are you okay?” he replied, sitting up in his chair.

  “I’m fine,” she said.

  “And I’m fine, too,” Cassandra chirped. “Not that anyone seems to care.”

  Galen glanced over at Lir, who was holding a wet cloth to a nasty looking bump on his head.

  “I’ll live,” Lir said.

  “You said you wanted an adventure, old man,” Galen said, relieved. “Ship status, Cass?”

  “We’ll need some repairs when we get to Arkon,” she reported. “As long as you don’t pull anymore stunts like that last one, we should make it there in one piece.”

  Galen rubbed his temples, it felt like a herd of pachyderms were stampeding back and forth up there.

  “Here,” Lir handed Rhiannon a hypo. “This will clear his head.”

  She placed the injector to Galen’s neck and pressured the medication in. The stampede packed up and moved elsewhere, and he felt a lot better.

  “Thanks,” he said. “Cass, get us back on course to Arkon. Best possible speed in our current condition.”

  “Already done, Galen,” she replied.

  “I figured you’d want to keep on going,” Lir explained.

  “I do,” he admitted. “But we’re not going straight to Arkon. When we get in system, head for Dimor instead.”

  “The mining moon?” Lir asked.

  “We’ll land there, and I’ll hop a shuttle over to Arkon while the rest of you stay in hiding.”

  “Why don’t we just dock at the spaceport like a regular ship?” Rhiannon asked.

  “Because there’s a dead or alive bounty on us, and everyone knows about it,” he explained. “Every ship we encounter is liable to start shooting at us now. And everyone is looking for you, Rhea, apparently with little reason to keep you alive.

  “You’re safer on Dimor while I go get us another ship and see if Napat’s offer is genuine or not,” he continued. “When I’m done, I’ll come back and pick you up, and we’ll go from there. Cass, you’ll take the Tempest to Sanctuary and wait for word from me there. Avoid contact with any ship along the way.”

  “I’m not sure I like this plan,” Lir said. “And what is Sanctuary?”

  “It’s a hole in the wall I found years ago,” Galen explained. “No one else knows ab
out it. I figured if I ever needed to disappear for a long time, Sanctuary would be the perfect place for it. We may yet reach a point where that is our only option.”

  Galen waited for any further protests, but got none.

  “What’s our estimated time of arrival at present speed, Cass?”

  “About a day to Dimor, Galen.”

  “Then I suggest we all get some sleep,” Galen rose slowly from his seat, Rhiannon moving to help him. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Cass, call me if something comes up.”

  “I think I’ll stay up a bit and keep Cassandra company,” Lir said, keeping his seat. “You two get some rest.”

  Lir watched as they made their way to the cabin.

  “I’m not a Knight,” Lir muttered under his breath. “Like hell you’re not. Now, what exactly is it that you are up to with this little detour of yours, my boy?”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “Would you care to repeat that, Captain?” Harmool asked in angry disbelief.

  “It appears that the Princess, in the company of Galen Dwyn, was in fact on Belisama at the time we conducted our sweep.”

  Harmool pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger.

  “We suspect they had some sort of DNA scrambler,” the Captain continued. “When we returned to Belisama, we found Lir Fiachra had departed the planet in the company of a man and woman that match the descriptions of the Princess and Dwyn.

  “We checked the records and discovered Dwyn owns a small island a few miles from the mainland. Our pilots had flown over the island and spotted a man and woman in the water. The DNA scan was not a match.”

  “Did they not run a facial recognition scan?”

  “It was inconclusive,” the Captain replied. “The couple was… engaged in close contact … and the scanner couldn’t get a clear shot of their faces.”

  “And neither of them thought to land and check them out in person?”

  “The DNA scan was negative, there was no need…”

  “Captain, you will immediately execute both pilots for their incompetence.”

  “But, sir…”