Starburst
Page 4
Tears fell from her eyes. “I had no idea…” she whispered, her voice choked with emotion.
Jonah took the cloth from her hands and brought her fingers to his lips, where he gently kissed them.
“Shh…” he soothed her, kissing her wrists before he moved to her jawline. She let him press his warm lips against hers, his hands seeking her body. Letting go of all her resistance for this handsome, charismatic, and caring man she lay down in the bed, letting him claim her. For tonight, she needed this, needed him, and if whatever they were starting right now continued in the morning, she’d be grateful. She knew he’d changed her mind with the truth.
Lacey would join the rebellion to seek justice for those who had none at the hands of the Coalition.
Chapter Nine - The Hunted
She awoke, naked, and wrapped tightly in the muscular but scarred arms of Jonah. Her body ached in more ways than one from the activities of yesterday and the night. A small bleeping noise had roused her from her deep slumber.
“Jonah…” she said, holding the sheets around her breasts, keeping them covered.
“Hmm?” he mumbled.
“Your comm unit is going off,” she said sleepily.
“Dammit,” he grumbled and rolled off the small cot, gloriously naked. She watched his butt as he bent down to grab the comm unit from his pants pocket.
“Sparks,” he grunted into it.
“Jonah, we’ve got a ping and comm from two Coalition hunters, they want us to surrender by the time they reach the colony.”
“Shit, how long?” he asked.
“Sensors estimate at their present speed, about ten minutes until they’re here.”
“Fire up the engines, keep them hot and ready for immediate take off, get everyone back to the shuttle now!” Jonah said, his voice strained. He turned to Lacey, who by now was sitting up, fully awake.
“Are you with us?” he asked, his eyes begging her to stay with him. “It’s not going to be easy or safe for you in any Coalition outposts if you do.”
Lacey stood, the sheet falling to the floor. “I’m with you,” she said, as she took his face in her hands and pressed her lips against his in a sweet but passionate kiss. “All the way.”
Jonah nodded, taking her hands in his and kissing her knuckles.
“Good, get dressed, we’ve got to go.” He grabbed his pants and pulled them on.
They were dressed in a minute and running out the door, through the twisting and turning routes of the alleyways. They broke cover, hearing the screaming of the Starburst’s engines as the rebel crew readied her for immediate take off.
“Rodgers, we’ve got two hunters on our ass, we’ll draw them away and try to get a supply crew down here to help you get back on your feet.”
Rodgers nodded, his face bore the red lines of the scratches and gashes he’d earned during the rescue yesterday. “Good luck!” he shouted as he watched Jonah and Lacey running to the Starburst.
Lacey ran up the ramp and slid easily into the pilot’s seat. Her hands flew over the console, preparing for an emergency take off. “Everyone here?” she shouted back to the main area, where the last clatter of boots could be heard rushing up the ramp.
“That’s all of us, the two criminals decided to stay back on the colony. If they fuck up, Rodgers will have them hung,” Jonah said as he slid into the co-pilot’s seat.
“Good,” was all she said. There was no love lost for the murdering, raping assholes they’d left behind. She sent the commands from her fingers into the console, the ship responding beautifully as it ascended into the bright brown sky. Two specks in the distance grew bigger, twin contrails clouded in a long, billowing line behind the two hunter-class shuttles. She herself had flown them and knew how aerobatic they were. She was driving the equivalent of an old-fashioned truck to these two finely-tuned machines that could turn on a dime.
Their approach was faster than anticipated. With a sharp breath, Lacey took off, the two hunters zooming past, the displaced air buffeting the Starburst as they flew past.
“Come on, baby,” she whispered to the ship as it blared a few air-intake alarms. She shut them down and prepared for an outer-atmospheric departure, pushing the thrusters to their maximum output as the vessel gained speed. The brown sky soon gave way to black.
“I’ve just got to get away from this planet, then I can take us to warp.”
“Warp?” Jonah asked, “Don’t you need to have a destination for that?”
“Yes, and I’ve got one that can help you to take down the Coalition.”
“Where?” he asked her, looking at the sudden bleeping console.
“I’ll tell you as soon as I lose these assholes.” She powered up the warp drive. The two hunters had broken out of the atmosphere and were turning to intercept. “They’ve got weapons running hot…” she muttered as she punched in the final coordinates and waited the last few nail-biting seconds until the warp drive was finally ready and its panel was showing green.
“Prepare for jump!” she shouted over the internal comms. Jumps weren’t easy on the human body, nor were they really any fun. The hunters fired their ballistic missiles at their ship. The bleeping quickened and became more insistent that they get away from the fatal missiles coming their way.
Lacey hit the engage command on her console, and as the missiles reached proximity, the Starburst disappeared from view. Their bodies were pressed hard against the seats for the first few seconds until the inertia dampeners kicked in. Lacey panted hard as her body’s reacted to almost being crushed by the incredible forces of inertia eased. Beside her, Jonah panted as well, his hand clasped hers.
“Did we lose them?” he asked.
Lacey nodded, her chest heaving as she sucked air into her lungs. “Yeah, I think we did. Unless we transmitted our coordinates to the hunters, they won’t know where we’re going.”
“Where are we going, by the way?”
“Tel-star Array, big ass communications array. The main one for the Coalition and its colonies. We were supposed to be sending them a supplies run this week. I think we might be able to let it come a little early, along with a change in management,” she said with a wink.
Jonah grinned, got up and kissed her hard.
“That’s my girl.” He rubbed his thumb along the underside of her chin.
Lacey smiled.
Chapter Ten – The Array
The Starburst docked at the Tel-Star Array. They had made a quick side-trip to pick up a few of Jonah’s rebel friends, and then continued on to their destination.
Lacey explained the Array was only manned by a small crew of technicians, but they could take it easily as there were hardly any guards or security forces on board.
Jonah nodded. “I wonder why the hell we didn’t think to take over the comm array before?”
He’d called in a few rebellion cell members and gotten them to send their stories of despair and desolation at the hands of the Coalition to the Starburst. He’d come in to find Lacey going through the vids, tears streaming down her face as she looked at the brutal treatment the Coalition had done to the people it claimed it wanted to help.
She felt Jonah’s hand on her shoulder. “Are you ready?” he asked her.
Lacey put her hand over his and nodded. “Yeah, let’s do this.” She got up and checked her sidearm before she joined him in the airlock with the first wave.
“First wave, we’ll secure the entry and cargo bays, then we move on into the next section, while second wave watches our six. Third wave, after we’ve secured each section, post guards and keep the areas secured,” Jonah commanded before the airlock cycled through and the long corridor of the station’s docking port opened up. They moved swiftly, taking over each section effortlessly. The techs didn’t put up a fight, probably figuring it wasn’t worth it to lose their lives over the Array.
They made it to the main comms system control panel. “Got the message?” Jonah asked her.
She nodded. “Ye
ah.” She held up a data chip and slid it into the reader.
“Uploading, and transmitting across the board on all frequencies and channels now,” she said. The console bleeped and the files began to play.
“People of the Coalition, your government has been lying to you. The colonies it vows to protect have suffered at the hands of their benevolent ‘masters.’ Would you let your children suffer in this way? Let your wives and daughters be raped and forced to be a Coalition soldier’s plaything just so she can eat for a day? Or your husbands and sons be worked to death and then flogged if they didn’t keep working? Every day, people are dying in the colonies because the Coalition only cares about one thing, the profit line…”
The message continued to play as a comms signal came through on the priority channel.
“This is First Minister Tremaine calling the rebels who have taken over the Tel-Star Array. A battle cruiser is en route and will be there in fifteen minutes. I encourage you to stop this foolishness or be destroyed.”
Jonah stepped up to the console. “First Minister, I would suggest that you change your mind on this. Destroying your precious Array will send communications back to the dark ages before sub-space comms were possible.”
“The Array can be rebuilt, your lives can’t.”
“Nor can the lives of the people you hurt, Daddy,” Lacey said, as she pushed in front of Jonah.
“Lacey… I thought you were at university…” The First Minister’s facade of calm broke as he recognized his daughter.
“I decided to join up under mother’s maiden name, do my part, but I didn’t know I was working for a government that gave so little to people who sacrificed so much for a chance at a better life.”
“What…? Lacey, you’re not making any sense.”
“Oh, I’m sure I am. Besides, neglect is always something you’ve done, isn’t it, Father? Leaving mother and me for a younger, prettier woman? And the bastard daughter who I’m ashamed to call my half-sister, who’s only a year younger than me? You spent more time with her than you ever did with me. Were you ashamed of your legitimate family, Daddy dearest? Might I remind you whom you married first?”
“This isn’t the place to be speaking about this, now come, tell your rebel friends to stand down, we can work something out for your trial.”
“The only one who should be on trial is you. You didn’t do your job of protecting the people,” Lacey said accusingly. The sounds of angry shouts and violence could be heard outside the building where her father was. His guards sounded nervous in the background.
“This wasn’t my fault, it’s the corporations that back us! The mining companies have the final say on how things are done.”
“You still had a say, you could have done something—you should have done something.” Hot tears trickled down her face as she looked at the man whom she had loved and admired but who had never had the time for her or her mother. He was more interested in spending his precious time with a secretary and the illegitimate daughter she bore him, not even a year after Lacey was born. Jonah came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her body, pressing his lips against the back of her neck and whispering his words of love and support against her ear. She put her hands over his and took in a deep, shuddering breath.
“I’ll do something right now. Call off the cruiser, tell them to return to their previous course and heading…” Her father paused, listening to a protest from his military advisor.
“Just do it.” He turned back to the view screen.
“I’m stepping down. There’s no way the Coalition can come back from the damage you’ve done. We’re already getting reports of open rebellion in the streets and colonies. Your message has been clear and heard by all.” He sighed and looked down at his clasped hands before he looked up again,
Lacey pulled away from Jonah and restlessly paced the room.
“Sparks, do me a favor, look after her,” the First Minister said, his eyes showing the sorrow he felt at losing his daughter, but strangely it had lost the ability to move Lacey.
“I will. She has become very dear to me in a very short time.” Hearing Jonah declare himself, she smiled.
“She has that way about her. She cares.”
“That she does.”
She watched Jonah as the blue screen with the Coalition’s emblem appeared, and the words Transmission terminated blinked in white.
He turned to one of the techs. “Everything gets recorded, right?”
The tech nodded fearfully.
“Good, put that at the end of the message we’re currently transmitting.”
He left the tech under guard and came to her, leading her gently from the room.
☼☼☼
Lacey wiped the tears that ran down her face, streaks remained where they had run over her cheeks and dripped down onto her clothing. She sat in the observation lounge in the living area of the Array feeling strangely saddened at finally having confronted her father after all these years. It was something her mother never had the courage to do, even when her father had packed his bags and left her, divorce papers signed and on the kitchen table.
Jonah’s hands wrapped around her, and he pulled her back against his chest.
“I’m sorry for everything I’ve done to you, everything you’ve had to go through,” he murmured against her ear, his breath warm against the lobe.
She sighed.
“If you want, I can take you back to a Coalition outpost, and you can go home.” His voice carried a sadness and a fear that she’d say yes.
Lacey turned in the circle of his arms, her gaze staring up at him.
“I’m already home,” she said as she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.
Epilogue
The First Consul of the newly formed Alliance smiled at the crowds before him. Their voices rose up in a joyous cheer that reverberated through the open spaces of the grand courtyard at the First Minister’s Palace, the former home of the leader of the now disbanded Coalition.
“I swear to uphold the rights of every citizen and civilian who is under my care, they shall be given a home, a place to work, and good food. They will come home safely to their families at night. This I promise.” He now stood before the leaders of the colonies that had joined him, their weathered faces showed hope for the first time in years. The First Consul turned to his beautiful wife, and took her in his arms.
“I love you, Lacey Sparks,” he whispered before his lips met hers to the thunderous roar of an approving crowd.
“I love you too, Jonah Sparks,” Lacey whispered back as they parted and faced the crowd.
They knew their lives weren’t going to be easy, but they were dedicated to their new path, and to each other.
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About Logan Levi
Logan Levi is an emerging author of Sci-Fi. She’s off working hard to introduce you to your next Awesome Book. This is Logan’s debut book in the Sci-Fi Genre. Logan also uses the pen names Kaiden Klein when writing Paranormal Romance and Eva Winters when writing Mystery/Suspense/Crime
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