The Ruins of Karzelek (The Mandrake Company series Book 4)

by Lionsdrake, Ruby

  “Can’t. We’ll be blown to hell.”

  An explosion came from the side, and Sedge glimpsed a black robot before the flames roared into a ball around it. The senior Ms. Blackwell ran toward the group, her rifle in one hand and a second grenade in the other.

  “I’m starting to like that woman,” Striker said.

  “There are more,” she called. “Go, go!”

  “Mom,” Tia cried, even as more lasers blasted into the ship’s hull. “The shields won’t take this for long. We—”

  “Open the hatch,” her mother ordered.

  By now, the fighters had noticed Sedge and the others running down to the beach. They must be wondering about the cylinder and the tractor beam, but that did not keep them from shooting. Laser fire bit into the ground two feet to Kalish’s left, and Sedge’s heart nearly stopped. Rock blasted into the air, pelting her and everything around her. A huge piece slammed into her side, and she went down. A gray cloud of dust swallowed her and the cylinder, but not before he saw the tractor beam go out, its load tipping onto the ground.

  Sedge urged his legs to greater speed, nearly tripping over his box in his haste to get to her.

  “More robots from the left,” Tick ordered. “Striker, are you—”

  A thunderous boom drowned out the rest of his words.

  Sedge found Kalish on the ground and lifted her into his arms. “Are you—”

  “Just hurt,” she gasped. “The hand tractor. Don’t leave the engine. That’s everything. Everything.”

  Sedge disagreed, thinking that getting her to the ship mattered far more, but he draped her over his shoulder. His injury from the previous day, though mostly healed, ached under the assault. Ignoring it, he locked her legs to his chest with one arm and, hoping the awkward manhandling was not hurting her further, patted around until he found the hand tractor. He picked up the gun-shaped tool and aimed it at the cylinder, choosing it over the box, since he doubted he could grab both. He could barely see the box now. The smoke had thickened instead of dissipating.

  Tick stepped into the cloud, along with Kalish’s mother.

  “You have her?” he asked.

  “Yes, get the box,” Sedge ordered.

  Her mother looked like she wanted to tear Kalish out of his grip, but more laser fire slammed into the ground nearby. She gave Sedge a curt nod, then armed her grenade and hurled it into the air over the lake.

  “Got one,” Striker cried from nearby. He seemed to be staying behind, putting his grenade launcher to work.

  “A robot?” Tick asked as he staggered toward the ship with the box in his arms. “Let them be. They won’t follow us out. Get your ass—”

  “Not the robot.” Striker laughed. “A fighter.”

  Another boom sounded. The maniac was launching grenades as if they were pieces of candy to be flung to children on Founders’ Day. There wasn’t time to tell him that killing Fleet pilots should not be their goal. Besides, Sedge had no idea how they were going to get out of there if they didn’t take down those fighters. Or what they would do even if they escaped the cavern. It sounded like ships were all over the place up there, ships that wanted the Divining Rod brought down, if not destroyed outright. All he could do was stagger toward the ramp with Kalish over his shoulder and the tractor tool clutched in his hand.

  “Shields are down,” came Tia’s voice from Kalish’s comm. “You can come up, but hurry. We’ve already taken damage. They’re trying to—”

  Something blasted into the rock a few feet away, and Sedge did not hear the rest. He had heard enough. With the shields down, he forced his weary legs into a sprint and ran up the ramp. Striker and Tick were right behind him, even though they faced backwards, Tick firing at the robots as he struggled to keep hold of the box and Striker launching grenades into the sky. One of them soared up and exploded right under the rock ceiling. Huge chunks of stone rained down on two fighters flying underneath. Their wings were hit, and they tilted precariously, one slamming into the cavern wall, and one spiraling down into the lake.

  If Sedge had not been so winded, he would have congratulated Striker, but it was all he could do to make it to the top of the ramp. He tossed the hand tractor to Striker, took a few steps to make sure he was out of the way, then dropped to his knees in the cargo hold. With more care, he lay Kalish down in front of him. Her eyes were open, but full of pain. She rolled to her knees, gasping and clutching her side.

  “Mom? Is she—”

  “Right here.” Ms. Blackwell jumped through the hatch and slammed the control panel beside it. “Tia, get us out of here.”

  The cylinder floated in the air, next to the first one that had been loaded, and Sedge’s box had made it as well. He hoped they hadn’t given their lives in exchange for those items.

  Ms. Blackwell collapsed beside the hatch, blood saturating her shirt. She glowered at the cylinders, perhaps thinking the same thing.

  An unsteady hum vibrated through the ship’s deck. The engines were fired up, and Tia was taking off, or trying. How many fighters were left? Sedge didn’t know. He might have laid there on the deck, waiting to see if they lived or died, but Kalish climbed to her feet, so he forced himself to do the same. If she was injured and could make it to the bridge, so could he.

  “Did they stop firing?” Striker asked, leaning his hand against the hull. “We’re not getting hit, are we?”

  “Not sure,” Tick said. “Shields are back up.”

  Sedge followed Kalish into the corridor, steadying her when the ship lurched and she wobbled. She stumbled onto the bridge and tumbled into the seat next to Tia. On the view screen, fighters swooped and dove, lasers blasting. But oddly, they did not seem to be targeting the Divining Rod any longer. A bolt of crackling blue lightning streaked through their view, and Sedge grimaced, all too familiar with that attack.

  “What’s happening?” he asked, as Tia turned the ship toward the ceiling, toward the slash of sunlight beaming into the cavern.

  “It’s those robots,” Tia said. “They’re shooting at the fighters.”

  Sedge blinked a few times. “How did we manage that?”

  “The fighters were shooting at us—at the ground around the hangars,” Kalish said. “Someone must have hit one of the robots. And now it’s hitting them back.”

  “So long as we get out of here before they smarten up,” Sedge said. He had not missed the fact that the robots had not shown up until their team had started stealing cylinders and cutting boxes off walls. They were probably programmed to keep out thieves.

  The ship glided into the freshly opened tunnel, the walls perfectly smooth, cut from the mountain long ago. They angled upward at a diagonal, the sunlight growing more intense.

  “Kalish,” Tia said, “you’re going to have to talk. Nobody listened when I tried to tell them what we had.”

  “I know. I will.” Kalish was still gripping her side, but she lifted her head, her chin firm.

  Knowing there would be little he could do to help their cause, Sedge jogged toward the cabin where his pack had been for the last couple of days. He dug out his first-aid kit and returned to the bridge. As he knelt beside Kalish’s seat, the ship rose out of the tunnel, and the mountainside Val had promised opened up all around them. A couple hundred feet below, the desert stretched out from the base. The Fleet ships that had supposedly been landed down there were in the air now, hovering over the mining compound, which was just visible a few miles away.

  Sedge might have felt relieved that the big ships weren’t right overhead, but plenty of fighters were lined up in the air. They had been waiting for the Divining Rod to appear.

  “They’re locking weapons onto us,” Tia warned.

  Kalish’s fingers were already dancing over the controls, opening up a wide-angle broadcast rather than trying to message any particular ship. “This is Kalish Blackwell, captain and owner of the Divining Rod. We are a peaceful treasure-hunting ship. And we carry alien artifacts of incalculable worth, thanks to
our recent explorations. If you destroy us, you may be robbing the system of the one technology which has eluded us for all of the centuries we have lived here. Also, I must point out that you have no right to destroy us, treasures notwithstanding. We are GalCon citizens and have a right to a trial before you condemn us of any crimes.”

  “Weapons still locked,” Tia whispered. “Should I slow down?”

  Kalish muted the comm. “No. If they believe anything I’m saying, they’ll lock us in a tractor beam, board our ship, and take everything we have. We have to get out of here. Plot a course for the nebula.”

  “Captain of the Divining Rod,” an extremely dry voice said. An instant later, a Fleet officer with short graying hair appeared in the air above the control panel. The expression on his strong, lean face appeared every bit as dry—and unimpressed—as his voice. He wore red commodore’s tabs at the collar of his neat, pressed uniform. “This is Commodore Parsons of the Gordian Knot. You attacked the Ferago Enterprises mining complex several days ago, killed innocent men, stole files, and have been illegally trespassing on their claim since then. You will receive no kinder a sentence from a magistrate than being blown out of space by our ships.”

  Sedge did not want to distract Kalish, but she was bleeding all over the seat. He tapped her leg to let her know he was going to attend to her wound, then lifted her shirt and pressed a bandage to her side.

  Her eyes remained locked on the commodore. “We did not steal physical items, nor did we trespass, as a mining claim only grants the rights to extract gems and minerals from the land; it does not convey ownership of the property. As you must know, Karzelek is considered a galactic resource and is owned by the parks and exploration department.”

  “Seven men are dead, Captain Blackwell,” the commodore said.

  Kalish looked like she wanted to deny this accusation as she had the others, but she took a deep breath. “I do not claim that no harm has been done, Commodore. I merely offer up to you the chance to be a hero.”

  “Really.” His brows rose slightly, though he appeared more sarcastic than interested.

  “The commodore is already a hero,” someone said off-screen.

  “One can never have too much glory,” Kalish said. “What if you could be the first to bring an alien spaceship engine back to high command?” She muted the comm again. “Tia, are they following us?”

  “Oh, yes. We have a very large escort. I really doubt they’re going to let us leave the atmosphere.”

  “Are the Mandrake Company shuttles out there?” Sedge asked.

  “Not if they’re smart.” Kalish sighed.

  It did not sound like she would condemn Thatcher and Val for staying out of trouble, but Sedge would feel disappointed if his comrades had abandoned them. It wasn’t fair, since there was nothing they could do, and Val had given them all of the warning she could, but he found himself hoping they could come up with something to save the day. What that might be, he had no idea, since a ridiculous number of ships were surrounding the Divining Rod.

  “Perhaps the commodore would like to see the cargo we retrieved from the ruins?” Kalish suggested.

  “We’ll see it soon enough,” Parsons said. “Prepare to be held and boarded.”

  “They’re interested enough not to blow us out of the sky.” Kalish tapped her fingers on the console. “Tia, push the engines to maximum. Try to get us out of the atmosphere and over to that nebula. That’s the only place we might have a chance to hide.”

  “There’s no chance we’ll be able to outrun them,” Tia said.

  “We have to try. Unless anyone has any ideas, that’s all we can do.” Kalish looked down at Sedge. “I don’t suppose you have a program that would convince all those Fleet ships to return home?” She smiled sadly.

  “I’m sorry. Their computers are a little more sophisticated.”

  “I’m pushing us to max,” Tia said, “but four of their ships are after us, closing to within tractor beam range.”

  Sedge wished he could come up with the brilliant plan Kalish needed. All he could hope was that there might be a chance for some cleverness when the troops boarded the ship, but he could not imagine what they could do with so much of the Fleet around them. Even if Mandrake Company had an armada of ships, it would not be enough to—

  A thought lurched into his mind, an image of alien ships showing up in the sky. Even one alien ship showing up would surely sidetrack the Fleet. Humans had been alone in the system for fifteen hundred years. The suggestion that they might not be—surely that would throw off a commodore’s boarding plans.

  “Explosions going off on the ground,” Tia said. “I think it’s the mercenary shuttles, making some trouble in the mining complex.”

  “It’s not going to be enough, is it?” Kalish asked, her eyes locked on the sensors, on all the Fleet ships around them.

  Sedge attached a repair kit to her side, then stood. If he was going to try, this was the time.

  Kalish looked to him, a plea for help in her eyes. He wanted to promise that he would fix everything, but he had no idea if he would be able to do anything with that box. Even if he could, it would probably be the work of months to figure out how to work it, not minutes.

  “I’m going to try something,” was all he said, not wanting to promise too much. He squeezed her shoulder and sprinted for the cargo hold.

  * * *

  “What’s he doing?” Striker whispered.

  “Not sure,” Tick replied. “He’s barely moved for ten minutes.”

  Sedge knelt in front of the box, the back panel open. Rows of runes lined the inside of that panel, a few of them slightly indented, buttons that could be pressed. His tablet sat open on the deck next to him with the translation program running, trying to find words to explain the instructions. His hand hovered over the box, aching to try pressing things at random, seeing if he could get the program to run, to transmit the realistic holodisplay to the exterior of the Divining Rod. But it wouldn’t do any good if the workers showed up as well as the alien ship. Fleet would not be fooled if people were walking around in the middle of the sky.

  “Flying into some clouds and holding there for now,” Tia’s voice drifted back from the bridge, “but they’re all around us, like a noose. Whatever the mercenaries are doing, it’s not enough to convince the military to leave us alone up here.”

  “Any chance of losing them in the clouds?” Kalish asked.

  “Maybe in the nebula, but not simply in the clouds, no. And that big dreadnought is blocking me every time I try to angle for the atmosphere.”

  A shadow fell across the box. Sedge leaned back. There was not much he could do until the program finished hunting for matches in the database.

  He expected Striker or Tick, since they had been roaming around, their weapons clanking as they talked about him, but they must have gone up to the bridge. Ms. Blackwell was the one standing above him, her arms folded across her chest.

  “Kalish thinks you’re doing something clever,” she said, her tone making it clear she did not share the belief.

  Sedge did not particularly share the belief either. “The more appropriate adjective is desperate.”

  “She’s not—”

  The ship shuddered, then groaned some protest.

  “They’ve got us with a tractor beam,” came Tia’s defeated words from the bridge, then a softer, “Sorry, Kalish.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  Ms. Blackwell had turned her head to listen to the words, a disappointed expression crossing her face, but her jaw hardened when she faced Sedge again. “It probably doesn’t matter, since we’re all on our way to jail—or worse—but you were never going to be brought on board as a business partner, just so you know.”

  “Pardon?” Sedge stared up at her, mystified as he tried to remember if he had ever said something to lead her to think that was his desire.

  “That was Mingus’s goal, and he almost succeeded. As it was, he walked away with a lot of
money. Climbing into my daughter’s bed isn’t going to make you rich, mercenary. She’s not foolish enough to fall for something like that again—she wised up in time last time not to fall for it.”

  Hardly able to believe her accusations—or that she was bringing them up now—Sedge glanced at the translation program, hoping it had finished, so he would have an excuse to ignore the bitter woman. But it continued to hum along, drawing on resources from all over the system-wide network.

  “Ms. Blackwell, I’m not looking for a new job,” Sedge said, forcing himself to look her in the eye. “And if I wanted money, I would have continued to work in my family business. My parents are the founders and majority holders of Genes and Greens, a research and development horticulture company. It’s a publicly traded corporation. You can look it up if you wish.”

  The tablet bleeped, announcing matches for his runes. Yes.

  “If you’ll excuse me, not letting us be captured is my primary concern right now.” Sedge bent, reading as quickly as he could, trying to figure out what he needed to reprogram the box and wondering if he could possibly do so before it was too late to help.

  Without a word, Ms. Blackwell strode away, her boots clanging on the deck. He did not look up to watch her go.

  Chapter 14

  “The engines will burn out if we don’t give up,” Tia said. “We’re not getting anywhere.”

  “I know.” Kalish was watching the sensors, trying to figure out what was going on in the mining compound. Some Fleet ships had diverted to investigate the smoke and explosions coming from there, but there were still two ships flying on either side of the Divining Rod, each one more than fifty times the size and with fifty times the weapons. One had them locked in their tractor beam and was slowly reeling them in. “Don’t try to fight it. There’s nothing we can do now.”

  She gazed to the dark blue sky ahead of them, the promise of space, with the pink haze of the nebula stretched out beyond the planet, inviting them to hide in its cloudy, sensor-distorting confines. If only they could reach it.