“No,” Richard said. “The prisoner on Diajor’s moon is the only Crosioian scout the Empire has ever captured. The others on Estos killed themselves rather than be taken prisoner. Heck, if this one hadn’t run out of Power and been knocked unconscious, we wouldn’t even have her.”
Jeena stood and walked next to Richard’s chair, placing a hand on his shoulder. “What exactly do you hope to accomplish by speaking to her? If what you told me is true, Crosioian scouts are as loyal to their cause as are wizard scouts. I doubt she is going to tell you any information that will help the Empire. The scout considers you her enemy.”
“I calculate the high priestess is right,” said Nickelo over the battle helmet’s external speakers. “The scout will not tell you anything that we cannot surmise ourselves.”
Richard took his eyes off Jeena and looked out the Defiant’s windscreen at the moon. It was growing increasingly larger. “I don’t want her to tell me anything. I want her to take me somewhere.”
Jeena stepped between Richard and the windscreen, bent down, and locked eyes with him. Her molten-silver eyes churned furiously as an emotion of concern traveled down their link to Richard.
“Where exactly do you want her to take us?” Jeena asked.
The molten silver of his bondmate’s eyes pulled Richard in. Each time he looked into her eyes, he felt they held all the answers if he only knew the right questions. Only this time, he knew his answer lay elsewhere. It lay with the Crosioian scout.
“The capital city of the Crosioians,” Richard said. “That’s where I need to go.”
Sergeant Ron jumped out of his seat. “Are you out of your freakin’ mind? That’s crazy. No one even knows where it is.”
Richard pictured an image of a bat-shaped creature in his mind. “That’s not exactly true. You’ve just got to ask the right someone, and that’s exactly what I’m planning to do.”
* * *
“Fasten the latch where the power-suit’s pants connect to the chest armor,” Danny told Jeena. “You do not want to start leaking air when you are only halfway down to the moon.”
Locking the latch in question, Jeena noticed the light on her helmet’s heads-up display change from red to green. “I could have used a spell to provide my air and thrown up a defensive shield to stop the radiation.”
“Yes, you could have,” agreed Danny. “On the con side, that would have used Power from your reserve. Just because Rick and you can create Power when needed, does not mean you should rely too heavily on recharging your reserves. The commandant always made sure his instructors at the academy stressed using technology first and Power second. Even though you are a magic user and not a wizard scout, it is still a good philosophy.”
Jeena didn’t argue the point. She knew her battle computer had previously belonged to the commandant’s wife, Janice. From past experience, she knew saying anything against the commandant’s teachings was likely to result in a long rebuttal from the battle computer.
“I put the suit on instead of casting a spell, did I not?”
“Yes, you did,” conceded Danny. “However, I must point out—”
The intercom on the wall of the cargo bay crackled. “It is time to enter the ejection tubes,” said Margery.
Turning slightly so she could see her bondmate on the opposite side of the cargo bay, Jeena nodded her head. Richard nodded back before climbing up the ladder to the entrance of the portside ejection tube. She followed suit, climbing the ladder for the starboard-side tube.
The ring on Jeena’s left hand tingled. “Your heart rate and breathing are up by twenty percent,” said Danny. “You have done this a dozen times in the halo-simulator. There is no reason to be frightened.”
“I am not scared,” Jeena said doing her best to control her breathing. “I do not expect you to understand. There is a big difference between doing something in a simulator and actually doing it for real.”
“That is not logical,” said Danny. “I have run a comparison algorithm a dozen times. There is no logical difference between the two.”
“I died three times in the simulator when I did not slow down my rate of fall fast enough.”
“True,” laughed Danny. “The good news is that your last two times were successful. There was no time to do any more practice runs, so unless you are too scared to go and want to back out, I recommend you take your position in the ejection tube. Rick is already in the portside tube.”
Biting her lip hard enough to draw blood, Jeena scrambled up the ladder as fast as she could make the power-suit move. Since the top of the ejection tube was already open, she placed both feet into the dark opening and slid into the hole while holding her staff as close to her left side as she could. As soon as the top of her helmet passed below the lip of the opening, the hatch swung shut, cutting off the light from the cargo bay. Everything turned pitch black. Even her night vision didn’t help her in the confined blackness.
“The inside of the tube is smooth and painted black,” said Danny. “There is nothing to see.”
Reflexively, Jeena tried bringing her right hand in front of her visor, but the tube was too tight. Both of her arms were locked tight to her sides.
“Your heart rate is up another ten percent,” said Danny. His voice took on a note of concern. “I calculate you are a tad claustrophobic. If it helps any, so is Rick. Try thinking of something else to take your mind off where you are. Nickelo says that is what his wizard scout does. We still have another minute to our drop point, so you need to get control of your emotions.”
Jeena took a deep breath in an attempt to slow her heart rate. When she did, her helmet bumped into the inside of the tube. “It is too close in here.”
“The tube is designed to conform to the size of the occupant’s suit,” said Danny. “It is supposed to be tight.”
“Then it is working perfectly,” Jeena said, trying to force a laugh. The sound that came out sounded anything but humorous. She tried to force her mind to think of something besides her confined space but wasn’t surprised when she failed.
A warm feeling came rushing down the link she shared with her bondmate. Concentrating on their bond link, Jeena traced it back to Richard and used him as an anchor point against her fear of tight spaces. She’d done the same thing once before to overcome the base emotions of a crowd of human males. The technique had worked then. It worked just as well now.
“Your heart rate is returning to normal,” said Danny. “By the way, the drop point is thirty-two seconds away.”
The thought of thirty-two more seconds trapped inside the ejection tube brought on drops of sweat that rolled down Jeena’s forehead and into her eyes. She shook her head inside the helmet and focused on the memory of her bonding night. She remembered the fear she’d felt when she’d knelt before the human male dressed in his strange black armor. She’d offered herself to him in bonding only to have him initially claim he didn’t know her. The image in her mind switched to the black-armored human kneeling before her in the Hall of Meetings with the entire Council of Light watching as he performed his part of the bonding pledge.
That was a very good day, Jeena thought. The memory made her smile. She sent her feelings down the link to her bondmate. The feeling of warmth coming up the link instantly increased.
“Five seconds,” said Danny. “Get ready.”
Jerked back to reality, Jeena stared at the blackness before her. Suddenly, the floor dropped beneath her feet as a blast of compressed air shot her into the vacuum of space. The blackness of the tube was replaced by a flash of dull silver as the Defiant’s hull whipped past. Thousands of points of light on a background of deep black took the ship’s place.
Stars, Jeena thought as the vast emptiness of space began to make her miss the confines of the ejection tube.
“Arch your back and roll over,” said Danny making the words sound like an order. “You are facing the wrong direction.”
Sending out jets of compressed air from the steering tub
es on her power-suit, Jeena rolled over, arched her back, and spread her arms the way she’d practiced in the halo-simulator. The surface of Diajor’s gray moon replaced the emptiness of space.
“Why do I need to arch my back?” Jeena asked, trying to take her mind off the fact that she was hurtling toward the rocky lunar landscape at breakneck speed. “The moon does not have an atmosphere. There is no air to slow me down.”
“True,” replied Danny, “but I calculate it will give you something familiar to do. I think it best for you to do something that will take your mind off the fact that you are falling at a high enough rate of speed to crush you like a rotten apple when you hit the surface.”
The image of a lunar crater growing increasingly larger through her visor brought her battle computer’s words into perspective. “Thanks for the reminder.”
Danny laughed. “That is what I am here for. I live to serve.”
The voice of her bondmate came over the headsets built into the helmet of Jeena’s power-suit. “We are at six thousand meters. You’re doing great. Do you see the prison?”
Fighting an urge to scream, Jeena forced herself to concentrate on the approaching surface of the moon. A green blip appeared on the inside of her visor.
“I have taken the liberty of highlighting the prison in green on your visor’s heads-up display,” said Danny. “Do you see it?”
Increasing the magnification of her visor, Jeena took in the details of the prison. It was a small two-story affair with a landing pad located a short distance from the gray-steeled building. White strobe lights flashed to mark the outline of the pad.
“I see it,” Jeena told her bondmate. “It looks like we are going to fall short of the target.”
“No,” came Richard’s reply. “This is where our telekinesis comes into play. The entry point through the force field is on the north side of the landing pad. We’ve got to come in at a low angle. Don’t forget to squawk the IFF code to get through the opening.”
“Danny?” Jeena thought.
“I have activated the correct Identification, Friend or Foe code in your power-suit,” said Danny. “I recommend casting your levitation spell now. We are passing below three thousand meters and closing.”
Drawing Power from her reserve, Jeena cast a single-word, no-hand-gesture version of a levitation spell that her bondmate had helped her write. The spell was only half as potent as a full-version of the spell, but confined as she was in the power-suit, she was taking no chances on messing up a hand gesture. She sensed the spell convert her Power into magic. Wrapping the spell’s energy around her body, Jeena began slowing the rate of descent to match that of her bondmate located a bowshot to her right.
“Excellent,” said Danny. “Close the distance to Rick a little. Make sure you do not bump into him. That could be disastrous.”
Levitating horizontally, Jeena drew within ten meters of her bondmate. “How come he is not in a spread-eagle position?”
“Because he is more experienced at this than you,” said Danny. “Once you do this a few hundred more times, I will not insist that you arch your back and spread your arms either.”
“I would just as soon not become an expert at this, thank you very much. I wish the warden had not forbid us from landing the Defiant on the moon. I think it would have been much safer.”
“I calculate the warden made the right decision,” said Danny. “The risk is too high that the prisoner could escape and commandeer the Defiant. I have no doubt Rick could do it if the situation was reversed.”
“You have a lot of faith in Rick, don’t you?”
“Of course,” replied Danny matter-of-factly. “He is his mother’s son, after all. By the way, I calculate you are getting too close to Rick. I recommend you slow your rate of descent. We are passing a thousand meters now.”
Pulling back a little from her bondmate, Jeena reached out with her senses and located the wall of energy ahead. She felt for a lessening of the energy in the force field. After probing for a couple of seconds, she found a small area of reduced energy between her and the landing pad.
“The entry point is just ahead,” said Richard through her helmet’s headset. “I’m putting on the brakes, so watch out.”
Jeena did her best to match her bondmate’s deceleration. She nearly touched his boots with her helmet at one point, but succeeded in pulling back at the last second to avoid contact. A tingling through her body told her they’d successfully passed through the force field.
“Your IFF code worked,” Jeena said. She didn’t fully understand how the identification system worked, but she was thankful her battle computer had gotten the code right.
“Of course I got it right,” said Danny sounding insulted. “What do you take me for, an amateur?”
“Sorry,” was all Jeena had time to say before she noticed her bondmate rotate into an upright position. She rotated as well, feeling more than half tempted to slow her rate of speed to a more manageable rate too, but she resisted the urge. If her bondmate didn’t need to slow down more, then neither did she.
Twenty meters above the brerellium-steel deck of the landing pad, Jeena sensed Power surround her bondmate. His rate of descent slowed significantly. She followed suit and reduced her rate of movement to match his.
“Recommend you reduce your speed more,” said Danny.
Jeena ignored her battle computer. “No way. If Rick can do it, I can do it.”
Her boots hit the metal deck hard. The knees of her power-suit bent, taking up some but not all of the force of the hard landing. Throwing her arms out, Jeena tried to keep from hitting the landing pad with her helmet. She didn’t quite succeed.
Smack!
“Are you all right?” asked Richard, reaching out to help.
Jerking her arm away before her bondmate could grab it, Jeena stood on her own. “I am fine, thanks.”
“I warned you to slow down more,” said Danny. “I swear you are as stubborn as Rick. He is in a battle suit. His suit is designed to take hard landings. Yours is a civilian-model power-suit. The specs are not nearly as high.”
“Whatever,” Jeena said using her bondmate’s favorite word for ending a conversation. Noticing her bondmate looking at her, she clenched her teeth as she spoke into her intercom. “Not a word, bondmate. Not a word.”
Chapter 9 – Crosioian Scout
_________________________
The Crosioian scout cocked her head and strained to hear if the sound would be repeated. She swiveled her ears in all directions to no avail.
The noise came from the direction of the landing pad. I heard it at the same time I sensed the disturbance in the force field. There is only one answer. Someone is here. They must be using a stealth shield.
Lowering herself to the floor from the bar on the ceiling that was her perch, she walked to the part of the wall she knew contained the door. Touching the metal wall with the tip of the point on her right wing, she sent a concentrated line of Power into the wall. Converting her line into an active scan, she weaved the line of energy between the particles of creallium embedded in the walls of her cell.
The builders of this prison did not expect it to hold a diviner. I was able to pinpoint the primary locks and automated gun-control systems the first day I was here. If the humans had been foolish enough to keep live guards at this prison with a starship, I would have escaped long ago. As it is, I have been forced to bide my time. She bared her fangs in a smile. Perhaps my waiting is over.
Releasing a series of sonic waves, the scout intertwined the waves with her active scan. She listened for any changes in the environment around her. Before long she picked up two sets of vibrations coming from the prison’s main hallway.
Ah, I have two visitors. I will kill one to intimidate the guards watching from the monitors. Then I will use the other as a hostage. I may be able to convince the guards to give me access to a starship to save their companion. If I was imprisoned by Crosioians, my plan would not work, but the human
s are sentimental fools.
Even as she thought of her plan, the scout knew the odds of success were low. The humans’ emotions were their weakness, but it all depended on who was in charge. From experience, she knew some humans were smart enough to sacrifice the lives of a couple of hostages to keep her from escaping.
It does not matter. The dishonor of being taken prisoner is too much to bear. Death trying to escape is preferable to life as a prisoner of the pathetic humans.
The scout thought back to her capture. After destroying the hyper-drives on two Empire dreadnaughts during the ambush around Estos, she had been picked up by a Crosioian troopship. As luck would have it, the troopship was one of the first two ships to actually land on the planet Estos.
The trap for the Empire should have worked, she thought. The one who killed my mother is the reason it did not. I sensed him as soon as I got off the troopship. He was using a stealth shield, but his Power was low. He was unable to avoid detection by a diviner such as myself.
She remembered running as fast as she could from the troopship, outpacing the soldiers around her in her eagerness to reach the wizard scout first. She gnashed her fangs as she remembered what happened next.
He must have detected me. The tactical nuke he fired destroyed my troopship. I was caught in the blast. My reserve was too low from my battles on the dreadnaughts. My self-heal was unable to keep up with the damage from the nuke. If I had only had a little more Power in my reserve, I could have remained conscious. As it was, my unconscious form was discovered by one of the last Empire units to escape the trap on Estos. They took me prisoner and kept me unconscious until I awoke in this cell.
The shame of being taken prisoner washed over her again. The tractor beams in my cell prevent me from killing myself as would be honorable. If the two visitors heading toward my cell are foolish, perhaps by killing them I can regain at least some of my honor before I die.
The scout thought of her mother. She at least died honorably fighting the wizard scout on Veturna. Unlike my mother, the wizard scout had no honor. I have studied the surveillance videos. If the two demon-hounds and the human children had not aided him, my mother would have killed the wizard scout. His head would even now be a prized trophy on the Long Wing tribe’s Wall of Honor.
Wizard Defender (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 8) Page 10