"Lyssa....?"
The ground shook—but only on his side of the gap, which was now so wide, it was no longer a gap but a huge crevasse between them.
Vel looked up at Lyssa, his fear finally matching hers, and moved to jump across the deep split in the ground to meet her, but he was thrown from his feet as the ground moved.
But only on his side.
In fact, the ground on his side continued to shake, but not violently. Vel was moving back and forth, as if the ground was swaying. And he was getting further away from her.
"Lyssa! Help!"
Lyssa got to her feet to try to get to him, but then she was knocked to her knees by another shake. A few feet behind her, another crack appeared, which then turned into a gap, then she, too, was moving away from the ground behind her.
Slowly, she pulled herself across the dusty ground to look down the ledge. To her shock and surprise, there were two protrusions jutting out from the bottom of the cliff, almost walking in the river below, sloshing the water as each "leg" moved forward.
"I think this rock is alive!" she yelled to Vel.
"I don't care!" Vel yelled back to her, clinging to a tree. "How do we get off?"
"Just hang tight!" she called back, reaching down for her mini-computer.
It wasn't there.
Panicking, she looked around and didn't see it anywhere. Her utility belt was gone too.
"Dammit." It must've come off when Vel was trying to throw her off the cliff. When they got out of this, she was so going yell at him for playing around earlier. But now she had bigger problems—she couldn't call the ship to her.
With no mini-computer to call the ship, and no utility belt, she only had one option.
"What are you doing?" Vel called out to her as she stood and went to the other edge. She swayed for a moment, almost losing her balance behind her.
She paused, timing the forward pitching of the ground so she could use its momentum.
Then, with a quiet prayer, she ran forward and leaped.
For a moment, her heart stopped.
Then her body landed hard against the rocky cliff then slipped. She clawed for something to hold, until Vel sprang into action and grabbed her by the shirt, then ribcage, and yanking her up onto the cliff. She lay on her back, staring at the sky and letting the adrenaline pulse through her.
"You are insane!" Vel said beside her. "What were you thinking!?"
"Need my stuff," Lyssa panted, her body still flooded with fear and adrenaline. "Where's my stuff?"
"What stuff?"
"Mini-computer."
"I don't know, you don't have it?" Vel said, looking around. And then his face dropped.
"What?" she said nervously.
"It's over there."
Lyssa followed his gaze and realized that there was a third moving rock creature. Which was currently carrying her utility belt and mini-computer.
"Uh..." Lyssa grimaced, pushing herself to stand.
"Leave it," Vel said. "You don't need it."
"And how do you think we're going to get back to the ship?" Lyssa gaped at him.
"And how do you expect to get over there?" Vel retorted.
"Same way I got over here," Lyssa said, dusting herself off.
"No, Lyssa—Wait!"
With another death-defying leap, she flew over the gap, landing on the ledge. This time, her foot connected with a grip and she was able to hoist herself onto the cliffside.
Her utility belt and mini-computer were lying near the ledge, perfectly intact. She quickly fired up her mini-computer and called for her ship, scanning the sky for the familiar glint of silver.
She heard the sound of engines firing to life and watched her ship rise from the forest. With another gentle swipe on her mini-computer, she steered the ship over to where Vel was teetering.
She realized with a jolt that she couldn't land the ship on the small strip of land on top of the creature. Not only that, but she couldn't get the ship close enough for Vel to grab on to; the force from her ships engines kept knocking him down.
"Vel!" she called to him, still on the creature. "You're gonna have to jump on!"
"What?" he said, eyes wide. "Why?"
"I can't land it!"
"I don't think I can make it!" he called back to her, looking at the distance between him and the ship.
"Yes, you can!" she called. "Just get a running start!"
He looked at her nervously.
"You have to do this now!" Lyssa screamed, struggling to keep her ship steady. "You can do this. I promise you can!"
He nodded, carefully coming to his feet, trying to balance between the swaying of the rock creature and the power from the ship's engines. Lyssa's heart leaped into her chest as he almost teetered backward, but he steadied himself.
"Any day now, Vel!".
She stopped breathing as he took off running, pushing off the ground and flying toward the open hatch of her ship.
"Oh Great Creator in Leveman's Vortex," she whispered.
His one hand connected with the edge of the lowered hatch.
She gulped as he hung for a moment, dangling above the valley hundreds of feet below. With a mighty heave, he threw his other hand onto the hatch and pulled himself up.
Lyssa sighed, relieved, as he sat down safely on the lowered hatch door and waved at her.
Her relief was short-lived, as she realized she was next. Not only that, but she couldn't jump and hold the ship steady at the same time. She looked ahead of her, trying to calculate how fast the rock creature was moving and where she would've placed her ship to be able to make the jump. Her mind was fuzzy from fear and nerves, and she couldn't concentrate.
With a gentle movement of her finger, she maneuvered the ship in front of her rock creature—and waited, readying herself to make one final leap of faith when the time was right.
She watched the gap shorten, and waited for her instincts to kick-in.
"Now!" she screamed, taking off running and flying across the open gap.
Her fingers connected with cool metal, and she felt Vel's hands wrap around hers.
"Got ya!"
But her hands were slippery from sweat, and she slowly watched herself slip out of his hands, a chill running up her spine as she fell.
The wind rushed in her ears, and she knew what was coming next.
Then her whole body jerked upward.
For a brief moment, she wondered if she'd hit the water and her soul was headed to Leveman's Vortex for her final punishment.
Then she registered the trusty emergency cord, magnetically connected to her utility belt, slowly reeling her in.
Her whole body went lax, and in her relief, laughter bubbled from her lips.
She reached the open hatch and Vel pulled her onto the ship roughly, immediately pulling her into a full-body embrace.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Lyssa said, her heart still beating out of her chest.
"What in Leveman's Vortex is wrong with you?" Vel screamed, his face inches from hers. "Don't do that again!"
Lyssa was too shocked to fight him as he embraced her again. She could feel his heart thumping wildly and found herself gently patting him on the back to calm him down.
"I'm okay. I promise," she whispered.
"What is this thing?" he said, looking down at the cord still attached to her waist.
"Emergency cord," Lyssa said, unhooking it and letting it roll back under the ship. "There's a sensor in my mini-computer that senses when it's losing altitude. Immediately tells the ship to release this cord that attaches to my utility belt."
Vel blinked at her, unable to form words.
"I told you," Lyssa smirked, starting to feel like her old self, "I don't like to fall."
CHAPTER TWELVE
"It’s so nice to eat something other than meal bars," Vel said, digging into his sandwich. It had been lunchtime at the Academy when they arrived, and, after an hour in line, they'd settled into a desolate corner of the caf
eteria to enjoy their non-dehydrated food.
"What? You think this is the Manor?" Lyssa said, between bites. "Where, let me be clear, the food is just terrible."
"How would you know?" Vel gave her a look. "You haven't eaten there in ten years."
"And I never will again."
"Whatever." Vel rolled his eyes, before widening them in fear.
"What?" Lyssa said, before seeing what he'd seen.
Dr. Pymus, his hair slicked back, his mouth pursed, stood in the entrance of the cafeteria, his gaze sweeping. Without so much as another word, Lyssa quickly ducked under the table.
To her surprise, Vel joined her moments later. The sight of him under the table was too much, and she started to laugh.
"What?" he said, laughing with her.
"I can't believe I'm hiding from my own boss. With you, of all people."
"I don't want to deal with him either," Vel muttered. "He's going to want an update on the internship."
"So do what I always do." Lyssa shrugged. "Lie."
"What am I supposed to tell him to make him believe me? If I tell him we were researching Leveman's Vortex, he'll want to know specifics."
"You could always tell him you've been bounty hunting."
"Because I'd love to get arrested by Jukin. Remember, I'm not actually in a pirate web."
"Do you think it's safe yet?" As the words left her mouth, a pair of black pants and shined shoes appeared in front of them.
"I know you're under there, Lyssandra."
"Wait a minute," Lyssa said, poking her head up. "Dorst?"
Indeed, it was their second eldest brother, and not the obnoxious Dr. Pymus, standing in front of them, arms folded, mouth turned down in a frown, and gaze boring a hole into the two of them.
"What do you want?" Lyssa snapped, pulling herself to sit upright.
Vel quickly joined her, although he was most definitely happier about seeing Dorst than Lyssa was.
"What were you doing under there?" Dorst asked, eyeing Vel up and down as he adjusted his shirt.
"Oh, I dropped a pen and we were looking for it," Vel said.
"I'm sure," Dorst said, looking daggers at Lyssa. She simply returned the animosity with a saccharine smile.
"What can I do for you, Dorst?" Vel asked, taking a huge bite of his sandwich.
"I heard you'd returned to the Academy and I wanted to check on my little brother," Dorst said. "Making sure you were still in one piece."
"Don't worry, Lyssa's only almost killed me…twice now," Vel said, sharing a look with Lyssa.
"That's not funny, Vel," Dorst snapped. "You know just as well as I do that Mother was not happy about you returning to this internship. Especially after the last…incident."
"Which incident was that, Dorst?" Lyssa asked, taking a huge bite of her fruit.
"When you let a pirate kidnap him," Dorst responded angrily. "Why in Leveman's Great Vortex would you leave him alone like that? He's only sixteen—"
"Yeah, and I was eleven," Lyssa shot back without thinking.
"What?" Vel and Dorst said in unison.
Lyssa looked down, an embarrassed blush on her cheeks. "He's fine, obviously."
"What do you mean, you were eleven?" Vel pressed.
"Vel, I also wanted to stop by and make sure you were attending Mother's birthday celebrations," Dorst said. "She is very much looking forward to seeing you again since you haven't been home in a few weeks."
"Lyssa can drop me off," Vel said with a smile. "I might even get her to stay."
"Hah! Next family celebration I'm going to is her funeral."
Dorst gaped at her, as if she had just uttered something blasphemous, "How dare you—"
"Oh she's just being a twit," Vel said, waving Dorst off. "Ignore her."
"Uh-huh." Dorst cleared his throat. "Well, please remember that this is a serious internship. I hope that you're spending your time wisely."
"Oh, don’t worry," Lyssa chuckled, tossing a sly look to Vel. "He’s learning loads."
Dorst finally looked at her, and his eyes focused immediately to the yellowing blotch on her cheek from where her bruised eye was healing. "Do you have a black eye, Lyssandra?"
"It's a scratch," she said, before adding under her breath, "Took you long enough to notice."
"Well, please keep in touch, Vel," Dorst said. "We are looking forward to seeing you at Mother's celebrations in the coming weeks."
Lyssa watched him walk away and pulled out her mini-computer dramatically, nodding.
"What?" Vel asked.
"That was the longest conversation we've had without him bringing up Sostas." She grinned meanly. "I'm impressed!"
"So you want to tell me what you meant by that whole 'eleven' comment?"
"Nothing."
"Because it sounded to me like you were kidnapped by a pirate or something," he continued, unfazed. "Which would actually answer my question about how—"
"Okay, I'm done here," Lyssa said, standing up with her tray and walking away, not even caring when Vel was stopped by Pymus before he could follow her.
***
Lyssa stared at the old computer screen, her gaze darting over the text and tables in her presentation. She was working on the section about water quality, and realized that she didn't have nearly enough information to make a good recommendation.
Rubbing her chin thoughtfully, she looked around the empty laboratory, as if to check and see if invisible people were watching her type in false data into the presentation. It wasn't the first time she'd lied on a planet presentation. but DSEs often made mistakes, so she hadn't been caught yet.
There was a quick rap at the glass laboratory door. Vel waved at her from outside.
Annoyed to be pulled from her thoughts, she pushed herself away from the table and opened the door for him. "Where've you been?"
"I didn't know you had a lab," Vel said, looking around. "Doesn't look like it's been used in a while…"
"It's not mine," Lyssa said, checking the data on her analysis and what she'd typed into the presentation.
"Another paternal hand-me-down?"
"Yup. Dorst wants this lab, though. He's gotta share with Hasidus and Kasan," she said, referring to their third and fourth eldest brothers. "They had to pool their money to afford that tiny closet they have now."
"You should really give them this lab," Vel chided. "You know you don't use it."
"Using it right now."
"You're using it to put together a presentation which you can do on any machine in the universe," Vel said. "Besides, it might help you mend some fences between them."
"I don't want to mend any fences," Lyssa grumbled. "Besides, they should be trying to mend fences with me first."
"Tell me about when you were kidnapped," Vel asked, quietly. "What happened?"
Lyssa sighed and sat back, chewing on her lip for a moment with a frown.
"Please?"
"When I was eleven, just…three months after I had started at the Academy, Tauron kidnapped me."
"Why?"
"He was trying to get a rise out of Jukin," Lyssa replied, looking down at her hands. "Jukin had recently purchased his commission as Captain of the U-POL Special Forces. The unit had existed before him, but it was always stocked with the laziest, the most inept police. Jukin had started whipping it into shape, hiring new recruits who shared his vision for a universe without piracy. He was immune to bribes, to threats against his own life. So Tauron thought he could be persuaded if one of his precious sisters was in danger." She paused, chuckling darkly. "Problem was, Tauron chose the wrong sister."
Vel was watching her closely, but said nothing.
"Put a gun to my head," Lyssa said with a steady voice "Told Jukin that if he didn't quit targeting pirates, he was going to blow my brains out."
"What did Jukin say?"
"Be my guest," Lyssa whispered. The memory was vivid.
Vel's mouth dropped open in shock and his brow furrowed. "He didn't…"
"So then Tauron called Mother," Lyssa continued numbly. "I mean, he figured that if he couldn't get what he wanted out of Jukin, maybe he could at least get a good ransom for me, or maybe Mother could convince Jukin to stand down, but…"
Vel hadn't taken his eyes off her.
"Well, I guess you can figure out how well that one went," she said, smiling.
"Obviously not the way she reacted when I was kidnapped," Vel whispered.
"Actually, there were some striking parallels. Mostly about Mother saying I was a terrible person. Soul is going to be damned to Plegethon, all that."
Vel shook his head. "That's not fair. They had no right to treat you that way."
"I'm used to it by now," Lyssa said, looking down at her hands distractedly.
"So…is that why you wanted to become a pirate?" Vel asked after a few silent moments.
"Tauron was completely and utterly against the idea," Lyssa said with a small chuckle. "Not only was I just an eleven year old girl, but I was the sister of the Captain of the Special Forces. He thought it was too dangerous—for him and for me. But," she said, "I kept coming back again. Finally, one day I ended up on the wrong planet for a week and he got scared enough to strike a deal with me."
"What's that?" Vel asked.
"He said I had to continue my studies," Lyssa said, looking around the lab. "I could come stay on his ship on the weekends and during semester breaks, but I had to stay in school." She chuckled again. "He made me do the most menial of tasks—laundry, cleaning the ship, cooking for the crew—anything to try and change my mind. I didn't care though, as long as I was away from the Academy."
"How did you get into bounty hunting?"
"Tauron had no patience for it," she said. "So that was my job. Sometimes I could find the guys in an hour—sometimes I'd be pouring over my mini-computer for three weeks in the back of class."
"Professors didn't stop you?"
"They all thought I was working on Leveman's Vortex," Lyssa said. "Let me skip class sometimes too. Tauron didn't like it when I did that, though."
"I find it incredibly ironic that a pirate was the reason you finished your degree."
"He said he would make me a full member of the web when I got my degree," Lyssa said, her smile fading slightly. "Unfortunately, Jukin got a hold of him first."
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