Defending the Galaxy: The Sentinels of the Galaxy

by Maria V. Snyder

  “Take Radcliff and Keir with you,” Morgan orders.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Cole, go with them,” Kingston orders.

  A male officer built like Bendix says, “Yes, sir.”

  I limp through the pits. Niall and Elese bookend me, and Cole follows us. We’re quite the parade, giving the bored scientists and techs something to watch. Everyone appears very confused. I can’t say that I blame them.

  “What are we looking for?” Niall asks.

  “Intact Warriors standing in a circle,” I say.

  “Wow, that’s weirdly specific,” Elese quips.

  Pits 3 and 2 have no standing Warriors. The destruction is nauseating. Clouds of dust still hang in the air and scratch the back of my throat.

  In Pit 1 there are eight intact Warriors and there’s a faint green light ringing them. There are also a number of people crouched nearby talking in excited whispers as if speaking louder might bring the looters back. I’d bet my entire pay they are the archeologists for this base.

  Even though the air is warm, I say, “Emitters.”

  The three of us pull the meter long cylindrical weapon around to the front. It’s heavy. I grab the short post that is underneath the front of the cylinder with my left hand. The end of the weapon rests on the crook of my right arm. And a crossbody strap helps support the weight. The trigger is near my right hand. All I have to do is squeeze the two teeth together to fire a null wave at a shadow-blob. It’s an impressive looking weapon.

  “Wait, what are you doing?” Cole asks, reaching for his pulse gun.

  “This won’t harm humans, but it will kill a HoLF,” I say.

  “A…hostile life form? Like the ones that are supposed to be invisible? They’re real?”

  “Yes. Didn’t you read the reports?”

  “Yeah, but we all had a laugh. Obviously someone was playing a joke.”

  “They’re no joke, Officer,” Elese says. “Please clear this pit of civilians.”

  The people who are just sitting around leave without trouble. It’s the group by the Warriors who protest and fuss and refuse to move.

  That is until Elese loses her patience. She points her emitter at them. “Leave now, or I’m gonna shoot you.”

  They hustle out in record time.

  “Nice,” Niall says.

  “Officer Cole, can you ensure no one comes in here?” I ask.

  “Yes.” He takes up position at the end of the corridor.

  The three of us approach the ring of eight Warriors. It’s not looking good. They all have alien symbols on their armor. A green light glows from those glyphs. In the middle of the circle is a thin ribbon of black. The beginning of a portal.

  “Jarren said it takes one hundred and twenty-eight hours for a complete portal to form when there’s only eight Warriors,” I say. “We have plenty of time.” What I don’t say is that in that time shadow-blobs might break through.

  “Is this outgoing or incoming?” Niall asks.

  “Outgoing. You can only open a portal from one side.”

  “Is this so they can escape?” Elese asks.

  “Who?” Niall asks. “The looters or civilians? And why would the looters leave them a way to escape when…” He doesn’t say what we’re all thinking.

  “No,” I say. “It’s not for an escape. Not yet. Maybe when everyone is…dead, the looters plan to return and use that portal.”

  “That’s about five days from now.” Elese is quick with the math.

  I study the symbols. Q? What planet does this represent?

  NONE OF THEM.

  A new combination?

  YES.

  Do you know where this goes?

  NO.

  If there’s a matching set on another Warrior planet, will the portal still work even though it’s not marked with that planet’s designation?

  YES.

  What will happen if we turn it off?

  NOTHING.

  I hate to do it without knowing why the looters left this here. It can’t be good, because nothing they ever do is good. But figuring it out might give us an advantage.

  “She has that look,” Elese says to Niall.

  “What look?” he asks.

  “The one that usually lands us in a heap of trouble. Oooh, now I’m getting the shut-up-and-die look. Love you, too, Recruit.”

  I ignore her. Something isn’t adding up. The looters want the base. They want access to all these Warriors without anyone interfering. They’ve let the HoLFs kill all the people in at least five bases. It took a while, but this time they trapped everyone here and— All my blood drains to my feet. It becomes difficult to keep air in my lungs.

  “Mouse? Talk to me.”

  Q, what happens if there’s no other side? If there’s not another set of Warriors with the exact same symbols to cross over to? Where does the portal go?

  INTO THE SHADOW DIMENSION.

  No need to panic. Not yet. It only goes one way, right? Into not out of?

  FOR HUMANS, YES.

  And for the shadow-blobs?

  DIRECTION DOES NOT MATTER.

  Oh my stars!

  Fourteen

  2522:268

  “We have to turn them off!” I yell as I lunge toward the Warriors with my hand outstretched. Before I reach them, black explodes from the thin ribbon. Shadow-blobs rush out and knock me back.

  “Mouse!” Niall shouts.

  “Take cover!” I order. “Fire at will!” I listen to my own advice. I fire the null wave emitter at the HoLFs rushing into our dimension through the narrow black rift. Sizzle-zaps sound from all three of our weapons. The shadow-blobs are so thick, I can’t get near the Warriors to shut the portal down.

  “Activate,” I say to turn my communicator on. “Officer Morgan, we need back up. Multiple hostiles.”

  “Looters?” Her voice sounds right in my ear.

  I glance over my shoulder. But of course she’s not standing there. Instead Niall and Elese are firing their weapons and ducking lethally sharp tentacles.

  “No, alien,” I say.

  “How many?”

  “Hundreds.” A guess, it could easily be a thousand.

  “We’re on the way.”

  And I’m in a dark part of the pit. I retreat until my back hits a wall. The air cools twenty degrees. They form a solid bubble around me. Well, as solid as a shadow can get. But it’s the weapons at the ends of their multiple appendages that’re the dangerous part. My security jumpsuit protects me from some of the attacks, resisting the slash of a blade or a stab of a knife. Not for long once they figure it out. By the way they’re keeping a slight distance, I think the Warrior heart I touched has made them wary.

  Not bothering to aim, I’m squeezing the trigger continuously, sweeping it all around. I’m sizzle-zapping a dozen at a time, but their numbers never diminish. I have to shut down the portal. Have. To.

  Many more sizzle-zaps echo until it’s one continuous buzz of noise.

  “Hostiles in Pit 2,” Morgan says. “We can’t get to you. Status?”

  “Radcliff, check.”

  “Keir, check.”

  “Lawrence, check.”

  “Retreat,” she orders us. “We’ll take a stand between Pits 2 and 3.”

  “No can do, sir,” I say. “Someone needs to touch one of those Warriors and I’m the closest.” Except I’m not sure how to accomplish that.

  “It isn’t a request,” Morgan growls.

  “I’m pinned down regardless. Niall, Elese can one of you get to the Warriors?”

  “Nope,” Elese says, sounding slightly winded. “I got pushed back into the corridor, keeping as many out of Pit 2 as possible.”

  But that meant Pit 1 would fill up with hostiles. “Niall?”

  “I’m too far,” he pants. “I’ve got your back if you want to make a run for it, Mouse.”

  A run for it? Two steps and I’d be impaled. I’d never reach— Stars, why didn’t I think of this sooner. “Did we bring
an energy wave gun?”

  “A couple, why?” Morgan asks.

  “To destroy the Warriors and close the portal!”

  “Torin, get the weapon from the cart,” Morgan barks.

  I groan. The cart is on the other side of the barricade. It’ll take—well, a lot longer than I have. The bubble squeezes closer. It’s as if they understood what I said. The force of their strikes increases, cutting through the special fabric of my jumpsuit. Blood wells, but the pain is muffled as if it’s happening to someone else who looks just like me. I sizzle-zap like crazy.

  Time blurs, my hands cramp, my fingers freeze in place around the trigger. The wall behind my back is the only thing keeping me alive. I listen to Morgan shout orders and the others respond, but I can’t tell you what they say. I chant, come on, come on, come on, under my breath, willing Torin to hurry, for the gun to get here.

  After an epoch, Morgan says, “We can’t reach you, Lawrence.”

  “Doesn’t matter. Just shoot the bloody Warriors,” I yell.

  “We can’t get into Pit 1. Too many hostiles.”

  Oh. And here I thought she was worried about flying pieces from the shattered Warriors hurting me. Then it hits me. We’re about to be seriously overwhelmed if I don’t do something.

  “Toad, you got my back?”

  “No. Stay put, I can’t…” He puffs. “Can’t keep…them off…of me.”

  Niall’s in trouble. And I’m not going to lose him again. The image of his blood pooled underneath him flashes in my mind. I’m about to charge into the fray when I realize the shadow-blobs weren’t around Niall when we’d rushed to his rescue in the archeology lab. He’d been lying curled into a ball, unmoving. Could it be that simple?

  I freeze and stop sizzle-zapping. My heart thinks this is a bad idea. It thuds in my chest with urgency, threatening to bust out and abandon me and my insane idea. The blobs get in a few more thrusts. Biting my lip to keep from crying out, I stay still. They stop attacking and hover nearby. Seconds tick by like fat globs of honey falling off the end of a spoon.

  The shadow-blobs move away. It would be a relief except they are heading toward Niall. I wait two more honeyed seconds and then bolt toward the Warriors. Pumping my legs, I go as fast as possible, jumping over the larger broken pieces. My movement attracts their attention and they give chase. The theory is it’s harder to hit a moving target, so I weave and duck and dodge and run as fast as I can. I’m knocked off course by blows and strikes. Sharp points pierce my skin, but I don’t slow. I aim for the Warriors and go, go, go. Go!

  Prying my stiff fingers loose, I let my weapon hang from its strap, reach out, and dive for the closest Warrior. My fingers brush its arm, turning the green light in the symbol off. One is all you need to close the portal. A loud pop sounds as I crash land inside the circle, skidding on my side and getting a face full of sand. Ugh. The thin black strip of the rift shrinks and disappears with another pop.

  I fumble for the emitter and struggle to my knees. There’s still a pit full of shadow-blobs to sizzle-zap. Except there are none around me. Inside the circle is a shadow-blob free zone.

  Not pausing to figure out why, I consider it a gift. “Niall! The portal’s closed, rally to me, I’ll cover you.”

  “Where?”

  I stand between two Warriors and wave my flashlight. The shadow-blobs avoid the beam. Bonus. “Here!”

  “Got it.”

  When I spot him running, I aim my emitter and sizzle-zap the HoLFs in his way. It’s not perfect and he stumbles a few times. I’m once again urging, come on, come on, come on!

  He spins in a circle, sizzle-zapping blobs before sprinting the final distance. He crosses into the circle and immediately takes up position behind my back. I’m still sizzle-zapping the shadow-blobs outside the circle. It takes him a few moments to realize he doesn’t need to cover my back.

  “We’re protected in here,” he says.

  “Yup. Nice, huh?”

  “A miracle.”

  I glance at his face and wish I hadn’t. Bleeding cuts mark his cheeks, forehead, and neck. His hair is slicked with sweat. He’s eyeing me with the same sympathy. I must look equally horrendous. Then we both return to sizzle-zapping HoLFs because that’s the priority. It’s different now. I’m just as focused and intense as before, but knowing I’m going to live through this makes breathing easier. I just hope everyone else does as well.

  Morgan calls for status checks every so often. The replies start strong, but, by the fifth time, they’re weaker as exhaustion catches up to everyone. When the shadow-blobs thin in Pit 1, Niall and I leave the protective circle in order the hunt the rest down. HoLFs are hiding in the shadows. And there are a million shadows in these pits. The rest of the team is doing the same.

  We’d brought extra emitters and extra Warrior hearts just in case. I’m assuming Morgan handed those out to the Pingliang security officers. They’re probably not laughing about HoLFs now.

  When we run out of blobs to sizzle-zap, we both stand there for a moment, grinning at each other.

  “Pit 1 is clear,” Niall says.

  “Good, now get your asses to Pit 2 and help,” Morgan orders.

  “Yes, sir,” we say and join the rest of our team to eliminate every single one.

  Once the crisis is over, the civilians spread out over three pits. No one wants to go into Pit 1. Even when I turn off all the other Warriors so there’s no green glow, they still avoid it. Everyone has bleeding cuts. No one was spared. But thankfully no one is critically injured. Medical personnel move through the pits, tending to the wounded.

  The officers huddle in Pit 4 for a debrief. We’re a sorry looking group. We’re all equally bruised, battered, and sliced up. I’m sitting down because I suspect if I stand up, my ankle will never speak to me again. Except I don’t tell that to anyone. Instead, I ignore the pain. We’ve decisions to make and I need to be a part of that discussion.

  “Why did the HoLFs attack right when you approached the circle, Lawrence?” Morgan asks.

  Good question. I consider. Had it been just a matter of time before they came through? And just our very bad luck to be there to witness it? Possible. But then I remember the bit of space the shadow-blobs gave me and Niall mentioned it as well. It didn’t stop them from attacking with a tentacle or three dozen, but… “It might be due to us having touched the heart of a Warrior.” I explain. “They might have sensed us and wanted to invade before we closed the portal.”

  “We have the heart of a Warrior?” Cole asks.

  I let Morgan explain. Guess she didn’t have time before. No surprise as we were neck deep in blobs.

  “I like that,” Elese says to me. She thumps a fist to her chest. “I’ve the heart of a Warrior.”

  “You have a heart?” Bendix asks. “That’s a surprise.”

  “Shut it, Benny.”

  He spreads his hands out. “Which proves my point.”

  They continue to banter, but I’m distracted by the pit. It’s spinning and there’s a buzzing in my ear. Is my communicator malfunctioning? I tap it. Nothing changes.

  “What about that protective zone?” Morgan asks, snapping me out of it.

  “I think that also has to do with the hearts. Those Warriors are intact and, once they no longer had to…” I twirl my hand in the air, as if I can scoop the right words into my mouth. “Worry about either creating the portal or protecting it, they could concentrate on keeping the HoLFs away.” I’m not sure I made any sense as everyone is staring at me.

  “She’s your expert?” Kingston asks Morgan.

  “Lawrence hasn’t been wrong yet,” Morgan says, giving the woman a hard stare.

  Really? That doesn’t sound right. I’m sure I’ve been wrong. Except I can’t think of when because the buzzing grows louder. And now black and white spots show up at the edges of my vision. Oh no. I glance at Niall. He meets my gaze and hurries over. His boots make a path in the debris-filled sand, but there’s no sound except the buzz.r />
  “You’re pale.” He crouches down and winces, but now we’re eye level. “Should I get the medic?”

  “Yes, please.”

  That seems to scare him more. “All right, lean forward and take deep breaths, I’ll be right back.”

  I do as instructed, lowering my head between my knees. Before I can take a breath, blackness rushes in, I pitch forward into an abyss.

  Regaining consciousness, I immediately wish to return to the black pain-free oblivion. There is no part of my body that doesn’t hurt. And when I open my eyes, there’s a ring of faces above me, staring. I close them. If I can’t see them, they’re not there. Right?

  Concerned voices cut through my delusion. Scary words like bleeding out and internal injuries are said. A warm hand is holding my icy one. Niall’s. Someone asks where it hurts.

  “Everywhere,” I say unhelpfully.

  Another person is prodding my various wounds, making them worse. I bat at the hand, but someone else grabs my free hand, lacing their fingers in mine. Mom. I relax. Then the prodder finds a particularly sensitive area. Pain explodes and the blackness returns.

  I’ve no idea how long I’ve been out, but the faces are gone. I’m lying on my back. Every centimeter of my body aches. And not the dull throb of tired muscles, but the bright fire of serious injury. The weak emergency lights and rough sandstone ceiling mean I’m still in the pits on Pingliang. The hands remain holding mine and I squeeze them because I’ve no energy and am having a hard time moving anything else.

  “She’s awake,” Niall says. He leans over so he can meet my gaze. “Hang on, Mouse.”

  But I’m already holding onto his hand. Confused, I ask, “To what?”

  “Ara,” Morgan says on the other side of me. “What pit goes to Planet Ruijin from here?”

  Planet Ruijin? It sounds familiar, but my thoughts are broken like the Warriors. They’re scattered with bits lying here and there.

  PIT 26.

  “Twenty-six,” I say.

  “We need a secure channel to Ruijin,” Morgan says.

  Q?