Jordon Kori’s death was tragic. There was no denying that. Seeing Mara and Rachel crying in each other’s arms was heartbreaking. Ericca felt diminished by the loss as well. It was then that she realized she had a hole in her heart that only Jordon could fill. Pushing down the unwanted emotions, she refused to cry.
Buck didn’t care much for Jordon but he stood by his sister. To Ericca he seemed broken up, but believed his feelings were aimed more toward his sister’s emotional distress than his own.
Along with Buckhannon, several rebel captains had come to pay their respects as well, and their solemn faces sincerely reflected feelings of loss.
Admiral Hammond had come as well.
The reason for his being here was written on his sour, pinched-in-anger face. He hadn’t come to comfort the surviving Kori family. He hadn’t even come to pay his respects. Evidenced by the doctor examining the body, it was clear Hammand had come to see for himself that Jordon Kori was indeed dead.
The doctor turned to Hammond, nodded, then stepped away.
It somehow seemed right and just that Hammond’s arm was in a sling. Ericca was glad Archer had taken the time to wound the man the way he did, though now it was small consolation.
Close behind Hammond, to his right and left, stood Mr. Childers, his First Officer, Capt. Torrington, and a man Ericca didn’t recognize. Behind them were several armed Providence Marines. That too was good. Despite all the protection, Hammond wouldn’t escape her wrath. He looked up and saw Ericca. For a moment their eyes locked on each other. The exchange seemed to Ericca more of an ‘I’ll get you’ stare-down dual of nerves than anything else. Did he actually intend to beat her at this game? She had learned this stare-down contest of wills from saloon rogues. It was a serious game with serious rules, and she was good at it.
After a long moment, Hammond diverted his eyes. To cover his discomfort, he turned to Mara and Rachel to offer his condolences. Once that BS was over, he led his men straight to Ericca and her party, which included Archer, Tyson Blackhart, and the pirate king’s small security contingent.
Stepping right up to her, Hammond looked her up and down. His acid expression became more severe. “I’ll have that little ship of yours, little girl,” he said coldly. “Count on it.” He seemed completely disinterested in the real reason for the sober occasion.
“You’ll be taking my bullet,” Ericca said in a voice colder still, her eyes locking once again on his.
“You had your shot, Missy. You should have taken it when you could.”
Ericca raised a contented smile then reached up with a stiff finger and poked his shoulder. Hammond winced in pain and jerked back. His marines instantly raised their rifles, as did Blackhart’s security in response to their threat.
“She leaves her light stuff to me,” Archer said softly. “If she wanted you dead . . . you’d be dead.”
“I came to take Captain Kori back to Providence,” Hammond said after recovering from his aggravated injury. “Barring that, I’ll have his ship. And I’ll have yours too.”
“Hammond, you really are a bastard,” Tyson said coolly. His focus on the old man said he was ready and willing to shoot the admiral on the spot.
Hammond glared at the pirate king. “In coming here I lost men.”
“I lost men as well,” Buck said, stepping up from behind Hammond. “In fact, I lost more men than you did, old man. So don’t act as if you’re as generous as all that.”
Hammond looked back to find not only Buck, but the other rebel officers as well. They had surrounded his marines and, other than Buck, each captain had jabbed his own weapon into the necks of Hammond’s men. Outflanked an outnumbered, the marines raised their hands and surrendered their weapons, big and small.
“You got all that you’re going to get,” Tyson warned. “If you want more, you’ll need to ask politely.”
“And we’ll take your requests under advisement,” Ericca said coolly. “Now . . . go away.”
As Hammond withdrew, Captain Torrington stepped up to Ericca. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For making all the difference. You gave me the courage to do this.” He turned to Hammond and called to him. “Admiral!”
Hammond turned with the others to look back at the young commander.
“In front of everyone present,” Torrington said, “I hereby officially resign my commission.”
Hammond scowled. “You what?”
“You heard me.”
“You do this, boy, and you’ll never be able to return to military service.”
An ornery smile spread across Torrington’s face. “Promise?”
Unamused, the admiral turned and headed away.
“What do you intend to do?” Ericca asked.
“What I must. I’m going to find a bar, and start a brawl.”
“Seriously? Could mess up your face.”
“Good. Some say I’m way too pretty as it is.” He extended his hand. “Will you accept my apology and my gratitude?”
Ericca didn’t know if the man was serious or not, but she couldn’t hold back a smile. Taking his hand, she added, “Good luck, umm . . .”
“Jon.”
“Good luck, Jon. See you around the ‘verse.”
With that, he offered his hand to Riley. “You too. Lying in the corridor, I awoke with spit on my face. I take it that was a gift from you?”
Riley looked at the outstretched hand, then considered Jon’s face for a moment, before accepting the handshake. “Yes, sir. That came to you free of charge.”
Torrington smiled the more. “I earned that, so thank you. And just so you know, I hope to be just like you when I grow up.”
Archer laughed, then just as quickly remembered where he was.
Jon looked back at the rebel captains behind him. “Can any of you gentlemen help a guy find his way into trouble?”
Captain Norton stepped forward and drew an arm over the younger man’s shoulder. “If trouble’s yer want, then trouble I’ll give ye. Come with me, boy. I know the perfect place to fill the bill; a little bar on Enri.” With that, he dragged Torrington away toward an awaiting shuttle.
Ericca turned her attention back to the original reason for her being here. She never got a chance to say goodbye to her own parents. At least, in that sense, this would be different. She went to the Koris and wrapped her arms around Race for a moment. She pulled away and turned to Mara. But even now she couldn’t shed a tear. She just didn’t know how. Meagerly, she raised open arms to the older woman.
Mara looked at her, her open arms, and then scoffed as if she’d just been offered dirt in place of roses.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Ericca and Archer, in Viper, rounded an asteroid.
“There!” shouted Archer. “Over there.” He spotted a clear plastic bubble wedged in the crevice of a large asteroid. These simple plasticine emergency devices were used as personal lifeboats. Light and easy to carry, a bubble could inflated at the moment of sudden decompression to envelop a person in the blink of an eye. A closer look revealed this one held a small girl.
Fearing the tractor beam would tear the bubble, Ericca pulled Viper up beside it.
The young girl inside, still alive, smiled and waved at Ericca. Some ship’s captains hired kids as young as nine to work as cabin boys. It was considered a kindness to give the children of needy families work and an income. This girl was about that age.
“Time to take a walk, little brother. Take Viper back and get help. She probably doesn’t have a lot of air left, so don’t be slow.”
“Roger that, sis. Take our spare air scrubber. If worse comes to worst, maybe you can attach it to her pod without popping it.”
“Maybe. Now get going.” Ericca pushed out of her seat and jetted to the pod.
Archer nodded once then pulled away.
A half hour passed and still no Archer.
Ericca found that if she pressed her face to the soft plastic she could talk an
d be understood well enough to comfort the girl. Pressing her ear to it made it possible for her to hear the girl speak. She called herself Penny.
As conversations go theirs was precarious. After some time had passed Penny began to gasp and gulp for air.
Ericca considered her spare handheld air scrubber. If there was a way to attach it to the pod without tearing its plasticine membrane, she didn’t see it. The only thing standing between the girl and the cold vacuum of space was thin and frail. It seemed hopeless. One pinprick, one small insignificant rip, and the internal air pressure would abruptly force the membrane to give way.
“Blast,” Ericca muttered. The situation was becoming desperate. “Where are you, Archer?”
Seeing something behind Ericca, Penny’s eyes went wide as saucers.
Ericca turned. Another massive asteroid—tumbling slowly—closed on her position. Even if she brought her maneuvering jets to full, she’d not budge or slow the asteroid’s approach enough to save the girl. The smartest thing she could do would be to get out of the way and let the girl get crushed. In Ericca’s thinking, that wasn’t an option.
She pressed the communicator embedded in her jaw. “Viper! Come in, Viper.”
Nothing.
“Archer, where are you?” she shouted into her mic.
Still no reply.
If nothing was done the straight on collision would certainly kill Penny. Desperate, Ericca turned to the asteroid the child was pinned to, and grabbed hold. Firing her maneuvering jets at an angle to the asteroid, she held on and raised power to full, hoping against reason that if she couldn’t alter the course of the approaching asteroid, maybe she could get this one to turn faster on its axis. Ever so slowly, the asteroid began to move. If she could manage to get it to turn at all even a slight change in rotation might be enough to move the girl out of danger’s path.
Come on, Archer, where are you? her mind screamed as she strained against the rock. Spin, you retarded freaking rock! Turn! It was beginning to work. Though slight the rock’s rotation seemed to increase, and the girl’s pod began to move out of the way. Blast! As Penny’s lifepod rotated toward safety, Ericca traded places with her by moving directly into harm’s way.
Ericca couldn’t quit now. The asteroid hadn’t yet moved far enough. The speed of rotation was increasing, but not as quickly as Ericca wanted or needed. She couldn’t quit now. Not now. The girl wasn’t yet clear of danger. Ericca strained, and then her maneuvering thrusters sputtered, faltered, and quit. Grabbing the rock Ericca scrambled to pull herself along its face to get clear of the collision.
Pain, sharp and sudden, stopped her cold. Clamping down on her right leg, the asteroids closed together. She screamed in surprise and agony. The colliding asteroids then caught her left arm between them and, as one rock rolled against the other, both her arm and leg were crushed. Long terrifying moments. Then it was over. She looked down. Her right leg was gone. The energy field that surrounded her space suit wrapped around the severed stump, cauterized the vessels to keep her from bleeding out. Her left arm was numb. She looked. It too was gone. If not for a depression in the asteroid, her body would have been crushed as well. She felt a moment of sickness. Her head swam. Then all went black.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Ericca forced her heavy eyelids open. The world was blurry and distorted. After a moment, things began to clear. Nearby, Archer sat holding what looked like a mechanical arm. A girl behind Archer, sat on the deep window sill. Ericca remembered her. She was one of Tyson’s pages. She was in fact the same girl back at Tyson’s mansion that Archer had left Ericca for. The same girl who had warned Archer of Tyson’s deceit.
Ericca moved slightly and immediately knew who and what the prosthetic was for. Archer was so focused on it that he hadn’t noticed she had awakened.
After a while the fog rolled away and her head cleared . . . somewhat. “Hey,” she said at long last. Her voice was weak but there was nothing she could do about it. She hadn’t meant it to sound like a greeting.
He looked up. “Hey, yourself, sweetie,” Archer said, getting to his feet. The girl sitting in the window turned, dropped her foot to the floor, but stayed where she was. She offered a friendly smile, but said nothing. Archer dropped the artificial arm into his chair, and came to Ericca’s side. “So. You’re finally awake.” He took her right hand in his left.
Realizing where she was and why, she jerked free and turned away. “You can go now.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. His tone was gentle but matter-of-fact.
She tried to take a deep breath but it caught in her throat, and tears began to well behind her eyes. She didn’t have to look to know she was now missing two limbs. “Please . . . go away.” It was a struggle to keep from crying openly.
He took and released a breath. “Sis, I am not going anywhere.”
Unable to fight it, she began to sob.
Taking a seat on the bed beside her, Archer brushed hair from her eyes. “Now doesn’t this beat all,” he said softly, soberly. “I’ve known you all my life, and for years now, despite all you’ve been through, I’ve never seen you cry since the crash. You’ve been cut with swords, daggers, and hell . . . you’ve even been shivved. When you were fifteen, Saundler even broke your arm just to see you tear up, but you wouldn’t even then. After none of it did you cry. What’s changed, sis?”
She rolled her head toward him. Her face was moist; her eyes were red and puffy. “Are you blind?”
His brows leveled. “Ericca, you aren’t the sum of your parts. If I spent the rest of my life doing so, I’d never discover who you truly are.”
“Who I am? You mean what I am.”
“What you are?” the girl blurted half laughing. “Besides being the most fascinating creature I have ever encountered, what are you? Girl, don’t sell yourself short. Few people will ever meet anyone with the depth of love and compassion you’ve just demonstrated. My God, woman, you risked your life to save a stranger. How many of us can say that?”
Ericca looked away and rubbed her brow. No. She didn’t have to look to see what she had lost. The memory of the asteroids coming together flashed before her eyes, and she flinched and tried to sit up, but now with one leg missing she couldn’t. She felt the blood leave her face and her stomach rebelled. She quickly clamped her hand over her mouth and her shoulders began to heave. Her throat burned and her mouth filled.
Lifting a bucket from the floor with one hand, Archer helped her sit up with the other in time for her to vomit into the bucket. Archer’s girlfriend was at her other side in an instant, doing what she could to help. Grabbing a tissue from the nightstand, she handed it to Ericca who wiped her mouth, and breathed heavily to settle her stomach.
“I can’t do this, Archer.”
“You can’t do what?”
Just then someone rapped on the doorjamb. A young girl into the room.
Archer pulled the bucket away and set it on the floor.
“Did I come at a bad time?” the girl said.
Ericca’s eyes widened. “Is that . . . Penny, are you . . .”
Penny smiled. “Thank you, Miss Ericca, for saving my life.”
Without warning, Ericca felt hot tears stream down her cheeks, and her chin began to quiver all over again. She raised her hand to hide her mouth but by then it was too late. She didn’t want to cry. Never before had she allowed herself the freedom to do so. All her life, for Archer’s sake, she had fought against showing fear or sadness or . . . God forbid, tears. For Archer’s sake—and for her own—she had to be tough. And she had learned to take anything and everything thrown at her. Now there was simply no fighting it or holding back the flood of emotions drowning her. Rebelling against the inevitable, she sniffled, then gave up and gave in to the torrent of feelings overtaking her.
“Don’t cry, Miss Ericca. I’m okay.”
She held out her hand and the Penny ran to embrace her rescuer, stepping up onto the bed’s lower rail to do so.
“Penny said you never left her side, Ericca,” Archer said.
“I can’t tell you what that meant to me,” Penny said. “I was so afraid.” She paused. “I’m so sorry, though, that you were hurt because of me.”
Ericca sniffled, and squeezed Penny tighter. “You were worth it.” Before she had said it, Ericca meant to offer only a polite response. But now that it was said, she believed it was true. This young girl, her life, was worth the price paid, the loss of Ericca’s arm and leg. In fact if she had to do it all over again . . . she’d do it . . . reluctantly, but she’d do it nevertheless.
Ericca looked up at Archer who was so serious all of a sudden. “Um, Miss. . . .?”
“McGaven. Penny McGaven. I’m forever in your sister’s debt.” She pulled back. “If you ever need anything, Miss Ericca, anything at all, you just call on me. K?”
Ericca patted Penny’s back, and squeezed her once more. “I have all the payment I need right here.”
Penny, herself fighting back tears, released Ericca but kissed her cheek before stepping off the bed’s rail. “When I have a little girl, I’m going to name her Ericca. That’s a pretty name. My favorite.”
“Thank you, Penny. That’s sweet.”
“Uh uh. Thank you, Miss Ericca,” Penny said. “Now, I should let you get some rest.”
“Penny?”
“Yes?”
“Please come visit me. I’d like your company now and again.”
Penny beamed, and nodded.
“Where are your folks?”
“I ain’t got no family. No captain or ship no more either.”
“Hey, I don’t have a sister. Maybe . . . you could be mine. I’m kind of broken, but . . .”
“You mean, I could be Penny Archer?”
Ericca looked up at Riley questioningly.
“I don’t know,” Riley said soberly. “There is a battery of tests you’ll have to pass first.”
Living in Freefall (Living on the Run Book 1) Page 26