by R. E. Vega
“It’s easier when I’m moving,” she says, gesturing to the corridor around them. “Less for me to focus on. But I’m starting to get the hang of it—I think.”
“That’s good to hear.”
A half smile appeared on her lips. “Listen to you. I’d almost think you cared.”
“I’ll try not to make a habit of it.”
“Of course not. That would ruin your reputation.”
Her aura had startled to settle on a color—a yellowy-gold hue that suited her.
But he didn’t have time to enjoy it for long. They’d reached the bridge, and that meant business. Judging by the harsh colors coming off of his captain, she definitely meant business.
And seeing Ruce sitting asleep in the captain’s chair while he was supposed to be minding the bridge wasn’t going to help matters. He startled and stood as they all looked at him, and he ran from the bridge without another word.
The captain sat without comment, though it was fairly clear from her aura what she was thinking. Obviously, though, there were more important things at stake than Ruce taking a nap while he was supposed to be in charge.
One of their crewmates was in trouble—and on Defiance, their first priority at all times was having each other’s backs.
They hadn’t even been on the bridge for two minutes—he was just settling down in his chair—when Dayna said, “Um, Captain? We’re missing one of the escape pods.”
Captain Arleth spun around. “We didn’t lose it in the attack?”
It was Thad who answered. “We only sustained damage on the starboard side. The escape pods should have been fine.”
“Well, Ulan is unconscious. It’s not like he could have flown it away,” the captain said. “There must be some other explanation.”
“Wait,” Dayna said, sliding a finger across her screen. “I see it on the scanner. It’s not far. In fact, it’s close enough that we should be able to see it.”
Everyone turned and looked out the viewport. For a moment, Brax saw nothing but an endless expanse of stars—but then a small flashing blur caught his attention. He blinked, refocusing, but it was still there—a small moving vehicle, surrounded by the same dull whitish-gray aura all metal objects seemed to have.
“There,” he said.
“I’ll bring us closer,” Dayna said.
As she did, the escape pod came into better view. Brax squinted, trying to see past the tiny shuttle’s aura, and when he could finally make out the details he almost laughed out loud.
“What the hell is that idiot doing?” he said. “You’d think he’d never piloted a pod before.”
“He’s unconscious,” Captain Arleth said. Her voice was firm, but Brax thought he detected confusion in her aura. “He shouldn’t be able to fly at all.”
“I guess we can’t be sure he’s even on the pod,” Brax said. “Maybe it just came loose in all the hullabaloo.”
“Hullabaloo?” Dayna said with a snort.
“He’s on that shuttle,” Captain Arleth said. “I know it.”
“Wait.” Dayna jumped up. “Maybe I can help.”
It took Brax a minute to realize what she meant. She stared out through the viewport, and the yellow of her aura became tinged with a grayish-green as her forehead wrinkled in concentration.
She’s using her new ability to see into the shuttle, he realized.
For a long moment, everyone stood in silence, waiting. And then, finally, Dayna let out a long breath and slumped back down into her seat.
“He’s definitely there. And definitely unconscious. But he’s not the only one. Yuki is there too. She’s the one driving.”
Yuki? Of course—their passenger. In all this madness Brax had forgotten all about her.
Apparently he wasn’t the only one. The captain cursed under her breath, and there was red along the edges of her aura. “I didn’t even think to check for her. I knew we never should have let her aboard.”
“For what it’s worth, she looked absolutely terrified on that pod,” Dayna said. She looked like she wanted to throw up, but there was fire in her eyes. “We’ve been attacked by two different ships since she came aboard. No wonder she wanted to get out of here.”
“That doesn’t explain why she kidnapped our A’lyph ambassador in the process,” the captain said. She looked over at Brax. “Officer Locke, you and I will be taking one of the other pods. Since we don’t fly like drunk lunatics, you and I should be able to overtake her fairly quickly.”
Dayna stood. “Captain, I think I should go—”
“No. You’ll remain here. I need you at the controls.” She looked at Thad. “You too. You have plenty of business to finish.”
“Understood,” Thad said.
Dayna looked less pleased with her orders, but she sat back down, apparently resigning herself.
Brax followed Captain Arleth off the bridge, trying not to limp too badly. Even though the worst of the damage had been repaired, he had a feeling he’d be dealing with a dull ache in his foot for some days. He should have taken more meds from the sickbay when he had the chance.
“You okay to fly, Officer Locke?” the captain asked him as they walked toward the escape pods.
“I’ll survive, Captain,” he said. “It’s just a flesh wound.”
“What about…” She looked over at him. “How are you and Officer Jackson dealing with the side effects of our latest encounter?”
“I’m doing better than her. Her new abilities seem to make her nauseated.”
Captain Arleth almost smiled. “Well, I imagine most people would feel nauseated listening to your thoughts. So far I’ve managed to avoid it.”
“What do you mean ‘listening’ to my thoughts?” He almost tripped over his injured foot. “You can hear my thoughts?”
Her aura flickered with a combination of colors Brax was beginning to recognize as confusion. “You said that you and Dayna were suffering from these side effects, too.”
“Yeah—I see auras around people, and Dayna appears to have x-ray vision.”
“Oh.” The captain frowned. “We’ll address all of this when we return with Ulan. This is apparently even more complicated than I realized.”
“Wait—you can’t just tell me you can read thoughts and leave it at that. What am I thinking right now?”
“Later, Locke. And that is an order.”
They’d reached the escape pods, and Brax and the captain climbed into the first one. Hopefully this retrieval business would be quick and painless—he suddenly had even more questions than before, and he wasn’t sure he could survive his curiosity.
He didn’t like the idea of his captain reading his thoughts—that could get very messy very quickly.
If Captain Arleth could hear that, though, she made no sign of it.
“We’re departing now,” the captain told Dayna through her earpiece. “I can see her on our scanner, but stay in contact with us. I always forget how stripped down the controls are in these things.” The escape pods weren’t designed for extensive travel through space—they were mainly for emergencies.
The captain took the main controls, and Brax took the seat beside hers.
She steered the pod away from the ship. The other pod was still close enough for them to see it easily, and it still moved rather erratically.
“Can you read her thoughts?” Brax asked. “Yuki’s?”
If the captain thought he was defying orders by asking her more questions, she didn’t confront him about it. “Yes, but it’s harder.”
“Harder than what? Listening to one of our minds?”
“Harder than listening to Th—you know what? Let’s just focus on our task.” Her eyes never left the other pod. “I can tell that she’s scared and that she has no idea how to drive that thing—which isn’t much more than any of us can figure out on our own. But I can also tell that she hasn’t noticed us yet.”
“You have no idea why she took Ulan?”
“She’s not currently thi
nking about him, so no, I can’t. I can’t read minds—I can only hear thoughts as they happen.”
She flew closer. Looked like this would be a simple retrieval after all. They were almost abreast of the other pod now.
“Oh—she’s noticed us now,” the captain said. “But she doesn’t know how to get away from us.” She paused. “And she seems to think we’re those purple-eyed people who were chasing her earlier.”
“Why would she think that?”
“I can only hear current thoughts, remember?”
Brax nodded. No matter who Yuki thought they were, she was still little more than a child. They should have no trouble dealing with her.
“Captain. Captain, can you hear me?” Dayna’s voice came over Brax’s earpiece as well. “We’ve got trouble.”
“We’re almost to her,” the captain said. “What sort of trouble?”
“Our purple-eyed friends are back,” Dayna said. “And they’re heading right toward you.”
KAYLIN
It wasn’t as though things weren’t bad enough with Brax constantly peppering her with his incessant test thoughts.
Can you hear this? What about this?
She ignored him as best she could, even though she now definitely could hear his thoughts, almost as clearly as she’d been able to read Thad’s. She still wasn’t sure what to make of the crew now having these strange powers, and she didn’t have time to ponder on the situation now.
The ship with the purple insignia on the side came into view, hovering just in front of the two pods.
They were sitting ducks in these things. Escape pods had no weapons systems—they were built for emergency use only. Even the steering systems were very basic—there was no way they were going to be able to outmaneuver a ship as big as the one in front of them.
“Suggestions, Locke.” They were still too far from the other pod to try to catch it with the towing line, and they clearly did not have enough time to try to glide alongside it to dock with the thing.
She heard him briefly ponder those two exact thoughts without having said a word. It was still a little off-putting—okay, very off-putting—that she could hear what he was thinking. But it was just as she had told him—she could hear thoughts, but not read minds. She couldn’t hear the why of the thoughts, only the what.
And they seemed to have the next thought at the same time, strange as it was.
“You heard that?” His expression was some mix between horror and intrigue.
She merely nodded. “It’s a good idea. Give me a second.” She pressed the comm button on the console. “Anything, Dayna?”
“They’re just sitting there, almost like they’re waiting for you to come to them. I don’t see that they’re readying weapons…” She paused for a moment. “They’re all just sitting there.”
“How many of them are there?” She still couldn’t focus her own power enough to be able to hear the thoughts of multiple people at the same time.
“I can see seven on the bridge. I can’t…” It almost sounded like she wretched. “I can’t see past there.”
Seven…it was a lot of people to hear at one time. But Kaylin closed her eyes and did whatever it was she could now do—it was hard to explain. She had to focus her own thoughts and open her mind to hearing the others.
She couldn’t hear the words that were being said, only the thoughts of the people on board. And it did seem like there were more than seven when she directed her energy toward the ship, but there was no way to count exactly how many of them there were. And the thoughts she could hear seemed random and not helpful to their plight.
I knew that girl was trouble from the day we picked her up.
We invested too much in her to let her go now that we’ve found her.
She’ll be a valuable hostage.
That last one was where they were wrong. This Yuki girl had been nothing but trouble from the start—Kaylin damn well didn’t need any more of this. They could have the girl for all she cared. She might normally have been a little more protective of someone she had granted passage to, but the girl had already betrayed her and her crew. And she was holding Ulan.
The pod in front of them was trying desperately to turn around, which put it on a crash course into the pod occupied by Kaylin and Brax. The captain pushed a few buttons on the console, maneuvering their pod out of the way of the other, which was now careening toward Defiance.
The thoughts still coming from the bridge of the other ship were beginning to sound angrier. And they were also beginning to not make much sense, especially when Kaylin noticed that she could hear the thoughts being spoken aloud—they had a different quality about them, but she could definitely hear them.
“Is there any way to tell who is on board these escape pods? Or why they’ve launched in the first place?” It was a male voice, strong and capable. Kaylin guessed it was probably the captain of the ship.
“No. But they have our property.” We should destroy them anyway. It was a different male voice in her head, but clearly one who ranked below the other.
“Agreed. I suggest we destroy them.” And I’ll do it myself if I get the chance. The third voice was another man. There was something different about his thought pattern, though she couldn’t say what it was. Only that it made the hairs on her arms stand up.
“We can’t risk it. She’s too valuable. We’ve been trying to find her for too long to risk blowing those pods up. It would be our luck that she’s on one of them.”
“You see the way that one is flying? No way she’s in that one.” It was the third man’s voice, gruff and angry. “Let’s take that one out to send a message.”
“I told you,” the first man said. “She could be on there. We have no way of knowing.”
“Then we should tractor them both. Pull both pods on board.” The second man spoke this time. “If she’s there, we can kill anyone who isn’t her.”
“And if she isn’t on either of them?” The captain was speaking again. She isn’t on either of them, he thought. She’s still on board the main ship.
“Then we kill all of them. Send her a message. We all remember how much she liked messages.” The third man was speaking again. I plan to give that bitch a little message myself when I get my hands on her again. Fuck, I can’t wait to get my hands on her again. I’m going to show her exactly what I do to little girls who cross me—
Kaylin didn’t know how, but she shut off the thought transmission she’d had open with the third guy. Maybe her powers were getting stronger. The more she used this strange new energy, the more control she seemed to have over it.
“We’re turning around.” She pressed a few buttons on the console, nodding in Brax’s direction. “They don’t want us, anyway. They’re after the girl.”
“Figures.” Brad grumbled under his breath. “Why is it these passengers we pick up are always more trouble than they’re worth?” That Barner guy probably is, too.
Damn it, she’d almost forgotten about Barner.
“They’re powering their weapons, Captain.” Dayna’s voice came through the comm system. “You’re not close enough to us for me to pull you inside our shields…” She paused. “Permission to ready our weapons, Captain?”
“Permission granted, Jackson. But only to put them on ready.” Another thought occurred to her. “Can you see any weaknesses in their hull, Dayna?”
“I’ve already looked, Captain. They have a small defect in the area on the port side. If I can get our laser guns aligned right, I should be able to take out one of their engines.”
She needed time—at least a few more minutes to get the two pods inside the protection of Defiance. If the other ship exploded from a well-placed hit, the escape vessels would have no chance. They’d be blown up in the explosion, too.
Kaylin directed her thought reading power back at the other ship, trying this time to only listen to the one that was the captain.
“I don’t care if we kill every last one of them. I just
want our property back.”
It was against Kaylin’s better judgment, but perhaps she could use the girl as leverage to get them out of there. If Ulan wasn’t on board that pod, she’d open a comm channel and tell them to take her. Hell, if Ulan was conscious, she might let them have the pod. He, at least, could defend himself against idiot humans like the purple-eyed crew of the ship in front of her.
She couldn’t tell how injured Ulan was, only that his thoughts were still swirling like they were part of a dream. It was possible that at least telling them she was on board that pod would give them enough time to all get back to Defiance. She didn’t want to risk Ulan’s life in the process, but it seemed their only options were to allow them to try to destroy everyone or to lose Ulan.
Kaylin reached for the button on the console in front of her to open a communications channel, but the other ship beat her to it.
“Attention, Defiance. We are willing to negotiate the terms of your release if our property is returned to us.” It was the captain’s voice, and the thoughts behind his words gave away what he really meant. None of you are going anywhere. We don’t negotiate with thieves.
She punched the button on the console. “This is Captain Kaylin Arleth of the Defiance. We haven’t taken any of your property. We’re a trading and transport vessel. Everything on board the Defiance has the legal right to be there. Any action taken by you will be considered a hostile act—”
“We want our property returned to us immediately.” The captain of the purple-insignia ship replied.
“Allow us safe return to our ship, and I’ll negotiate the return of the girl.” Her stomach turned saying it, but the girl hadn’t been worth a bit of the trouble she’d already caused.
“We want her now. We know she isn’t aboard either of the two pods returning to Defiance.”
“Then your scanners are defective, Captain.” Kaylin was becoming irritated now. She hadn’t done a damn thing to these people—and she was willing to give them back the girl. What the hell was the problem?
Kaylin reached for the comm again, opening the communication port to the other vessel. “Yuki, surrender yourself. Make this easier for everyone.”