Zenith

by Sasha Alsberg

  It was a gift, this body. A way to change her world, and the others beyond.

  As the girl stood there, she thought of her dreams. Nameless faces, uncertain futures, deaths she couldn’t stop, births she had predicted before the dawning of their times.

  The Yielded were special.

  The Yielded were loved.

  Outside, the darkness shifted. The girl gasped and pressed her hands back to the glass, heart racing as she waited.

  It began slowly. A flicker on the dark horizon, far beyond the swirling Conduit. A flame, fighting for life. Then it sprung forth, veins of crimson light stretching into the sky, spreading to yellow, orange, pink the color of laughing cheeks.

  The girl smiled.

  It was a new act. Something she’d only just begun to discover how to do.

  She loved the way it made people listen to her. Loved the way it made their minds seem to bow in her midst.

  If her dreams were true, then someday she would use this smile for greatness. For glory. For the hope of her people.

  Today she stood watching, far above the Conduit, as the red sun rose.

  Chapter Four

  * * *

  DEX

  THEY FLEW LIKE demons sprung from a pit of fire.

  Whoever the pilot was, she had one hell of a handle on the Marauder. Leave it to the Bloody Baroness to get the best of the best. Memories of their history together tried to spring their way forward, but he quickly suppressed them, knowing such thoughts and feelings would only stand in the way of his big payday. This was a job, not a social call.

  “Androma Racella.” Dex tested her name on his tongue. “I’ve been searching for you for quite some time.”

  Two months, to be exact. The longest Dex had ever spent trying to capture someone on the run. He’d been to countless planets in search of her and gotten lost for two weeks inside the Dyllutos Nebula before eventually picking up a blood trail that stretched from one end of Mirabel to the next.

  Now he sat on the bridge of an Arcardian Tracker ship, the flashes of fired shots illuminating his face.

  Also leave it to the Bloody Baroness to force me to work with the Arcardian Patrolmen, Dex thought as he stared at her image on the holo before him.

  In his hands sat a document that included all the information about the Marauder’s captain, including a snapshot of her face. The photograph had been taken by Dex himself when he’d almost caught up to Androma on TZ-5 last week. Unfortunately, she’d disappeared before he could reach her.

  She was standing in the shadows of a pleasure palace, a cyborg dancing in the window behind her. Androma’s pale, ghostlike hair was now streaked with purple and peeked out from beneath a black hood pulled low over her face. He could just barely make out her gray eyes and the smooth metallic plates on her cheekbones, a defensive body mod she’d had done years before. But he could certainly see the rest of her: perfect curves beneath a sleek, skintight leather bodysuit, the hilt of a knife sticking out from her black boots. And, of course, outside the hooded cape, her trademark glowing swords were strapped across her back like an X of death.

  The ship rumbled from a weapon blast, and the screen flew from Dex’s fingertips, the holo winking out.

  “Blazing hell!” he cursed as the ground seemed to fall out from underneath him, then shifted sideways until he was practically dangling from his harness. “Settle her!” he shouted to the pilot.

  His borrowed crew scrambled to control the ship as Dex clutched the armrests, gritting his teeth. A little mechanic droid wrapped its hooked arms around Dex’s ankle, squealing as it tried in vain to stay in one place.

  Dex growled and shook it away. What good was being the captain when you couldn’t get your crew to do anything worthwhile? And he didn’t even want to think about the Tracker they were flying. Dex swallowed his revulsion.

  Here I am, the ship seemed to say. Large and in charge and as undercover as a Xen Pterran carriage slug.

  They’d never catch the Marauder. Not like this.

  The Tracker was fast, but the “seasoned pilot” General Cortas had provided for this mission had no style. A starship was meant to fly weightless, limitless and free.

  Just like the one they were pursuing now, its belly full of lying, cheating lady thieves.

  He stared out the viewport, past the laughable pilot and copilot, their heads pressed together as they tried in vain to discover a way to outsmart their prey.

  The Marauder.

  Dex could see her tail up ahead. Each blast of gunfire illuminated her outline.

  A sleek, beautiful beast that looked to be made of the stars in which it swam. Deadly and delicious, all varillium glass in the shape of an arrowhead, now concealed by metal shields to protect it during the chase. The Aero Class ship was one of a kind.

  He’d catch that damned ship and finally reclaim it for his own. And when he captured Androma, he’d bring her to her knees, get her to agree to his employer’s terms...

  “Sir.” A trembling voice pulled Dex from his thoughts. He looked up at the youngest Patrolman on the ship, a boy no older than fifteen with slitted reptilian nostrils. A boy who’d never seen battle. Who didn’t know the feeling of blood on scarred hands. His glowing yellow eyes were wide as he spoke. “They’re making an interesting move.”

  “What move?” Dex sighed. “Use your words.”

  “It seems they’re charting a course for the asteroid belt.”

  “As I said they would,” Dex snapped.

  “What should we do?” the boy asked timidly as he took a step back, sensing Dex’s imminent explosion of outrage.

  The ship rumbled.

  The pilot cursed.

  Dex pressed a palm to the bridge of his nose. “You,” he said, glaring at the youngling between his fingers, “will do yourself a favor and go to the passenger bay so you can crap your pants in private. I can smell your fear from here.”

  The boy tripped over his own webbed feet as he raced from Dex’s view.

  “The rest of you,” Dex said, unbuckling his harness and standing up from his seat, voice rising to a roar, “will catch me that damned ship!”

  The glory of his rage was lost in another explosion.

  This time, it was so bright and so loud that it lit up the skies. A lurch resonated all around him as the ship went sideways. The little mech droid tumbled past.

  “Engine one has been hit!” the pilot yelped.

  A lucky shot.

  Dex’s temper rose as he unclasped his harness and toppled against the metal siding. This job was the answer. It was everything. It could make or break his career.

  And if Dex lost this opportunity now, when his prey was so close, General Cortas would have someone pulverize him when they docked back at Averia—and then Dex would be sipping from a straw for the rest of his life.

  Enough was enough.

  Dex raced forward, boots clacking on the grated floor.

  The pilot looked up as Dex hovered over him, leather gloves squealing with each shift of the wheel.

  “Move,” he commanded.

  “Sir, I am under direct orders from General Cortas to...”

  Dex squeezed his fists. The pilot flinched back as four crimson triangular blades sprung out of each of Dex’s gloves, just over his knuckles. “Move over.”

  The pilot stumbled as he leaped from his chair.

  Dex took the throttle, his bladed knuckles shining as another streak of gunfire shot past. He could hear a commotion in the background, the sound of the pilot’s whining voice as he commed the general. Pathetic tattletale. Dex blocked it all out as he tapped on the screen, losing himself in the motions he’d grown so used to.

  This was where he belonged, in the pilot’s chair. Behind the throttle of his own ship.

  The copilot, a man covered in purple spikes, stared at D
ex openmouthed. “You were right,” he said, his massive canines visible. “They’re heading for Gollanta.”

  Of course I’m right, Dex wanted to say. Androma always runs until she finds a place to hide.

  Through the viewport, Dex caught a perfect, shining glimpse of the Marauder, its jagged, dagger-like shape heading right into the mouth of hell.

  “Alert the fleet near Solera,” Dex said as he angled the Tracker to follow them. Solera was the closest planet, just on the outskirts of the asteroid belt. They could make it in time to intercept the Marauder if they sent their fastest ships.

  “Alert them of what, sir?” the copilot asked.

  Dex sighed. “They need to meet us in the center of the belt. Cloaked.” If he was wrong, well, he was already under the general’s control. He may as well use it to his advantage. “Tell them the Marauder is heading their way.”

  Dex closed his eyes and allowed himself to hope. Then he begged the Godstars that his last-minute plan would fall into place.

  Androma was good at what she did. But so was Dex.

  And a protégée could only outrun her master for so long.

  Chapter Five

  * * *

  ANDROMA

  GOLLANTA.

  A world of space rocks dancing around them with death knocking at every viewport.

  Andi stared out at them, her eyes wide and bright against the dimness of space. Darkness surrounded them, lit only by the faint shine of Tavina’s distant stars. And, of course, the telltale flashes of the three ships still trailing them.

  She’d make them regret coming after the Bloody Baroness. It was time to end this.

  Andi turned on her com. “Breck, Gilly.” The permanent lens in her eye, activated by a light tap to her temple, allowed her to patch into another crew member’s visual feed.

  They’d installed them months ago, and the blessed coms had saved their skins several times over. They were well worth the expensive visit to the shady doctor on the satellite city near Solera.

  She patched into Breck’s com first, revealing the gunner’s targeting screen, the glowing crosshairs focused on the nearest ship’s wing. Andi clenched her teeth as an asteroid resembling a skull came hurtling toward Breck’s viewport. Breck took a shot, and it exploded into space dust.

  Andi blinked, shutting off the eye connection and returning to her own view of the asteroids. Lira sat beside her, the scales on her arms flashing as she tried to keep her nerves under control. Music still filled the space, calming Andi, allowing her to concentrate.

  This is just another day, she told herself. Just another chase.

  “We’re low on fuel, low on ammo,” Gilly yelped into the com.

  “Shoot the small stuff and wait for my command,” Andi said. “Then we’ll use the Big Bang and turn their bones to dust.” The weapon sent out a pulse, crippling an enemy ship’s defensive systems, followed by an explosive that could obliterate an entire ship with one shot.

  It wouldn’t be able to hurt the Tracker, but the other ships would be perfect prey, if Gilly and Breck played their cards right. They only had one Big Bang left on board, so they’d have to make it count.

  Gilly answered with a giggle sharp as a knife. “Done.”

  Tick, tick, tick.

  BOOM.

  An old spacesuit floated past the window to her right. Andi wondered if a corpse was still inside and shivered slightly.

  Death was Andi’s closest friend, a little demon that whispered in her ear on dark nights. And here in this wasteland, a graveyard where many had met their demise, death felt closer than ever.

  “We need to single out the Explorers,” Andi said. She’d never flown one herself, but she’d seen plenty of demonstrations at the Academy. They were designed for agility and speed, which meant they were somewhat lacking in armor.

  “I’m on it,” Lira answered.

  The Tracker was a beast as it followed. The smaller asteroids bounced off its sides, barely scraping the reinforced material. The Explorer ships followed behind, protected from the brunt of the asteroid attacks.

  The girls had to separate them, get the Explorers alone in the sky.

  A massive, hulking rock appeared ahead of them, easily the biggest asteroid they had seen so far.

  “Lira,” Andi said, a plan brewing in her mind as she pointed at the asteroid, “circle us around that thing.”

  “Circling will slow us down.” Lira cocked her head, orange light dancing across her face as Solera’s distant sun came into view.

  Andi gritted her teeth. “Do it, Lira.”

  Lira nodded, clenched the throttle and sent the Marauder careening right around the massive asteroid.

  The Marauder swung in a great arc, the music rising in volume as cymbals crashed. In the rear-cam, the ships pursued, flashes of silver and black, shadows that just wouldn’t quit. But as they angled farther and farther around the outer edge of the asteroid, the Tracker ship slowed too much and pulled out of the race.

  Now it was just the Explorers and the Marauder, odds Andi knew her crew and her ship could handle.

  “Wait for it...” she whispered, her breath hitching in her throat. In the rear-cam, the Explorers followed like streaks of light, their guns firing as they tried in vain to catch up to the Marauder. What was their plan? Even if the two Explorers caught them and tried to dock, ships that small wouldn’t be able to haul the Marauder across the skies.

  A flash darted behind them, a short distance away.

  “They’re getting closer!” Breck shouted in the com. “Ready for the command!”

  Andi bit her tongue, the metallic tang of blood strong enough to keep her fear at bay.

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw another flash, closer now.

  Prox alarms blared in her ear. The music was too loud, the whine of the strings too piercing.

  “Incoming!” Breck shouted. “They’re almost on us!”

  “Anytime, Cap!” Gilly yelped.

  Close.

  Closer.

  “One more second,” Andi whispered.

  “Andi, we should shoot.” Lira’s blue eyes looked black in the shadows.

  Andi hissed in a breath.

  “Now?” Gilly asked.

  Andi could imagine her, tiny and fire-headed, seated in her gunner’s chair several decks below, the whole crew’s fate at her fingertips.

  “Now,” Andi commanded.

  A breath of a second. Andi stared at the Explorer ships on the rear-cam, thinking of the men and women inside. Knowing that here and now, they were facing their final moments. She felt a flash of pity for them, the pang of regret Andi always felt before she took a life.

  Then came the hiss of Gilly’s Big Bang sliding loose from its chamber, a death rocket that Andi knew would fly true.

  She watched as it struck the Explorer on the left first, the blast taking out both ships. The explosion was a work of art. Two ships in one shot, bits of metal and blood and bodies. Carnage stained the skies.

  The Marauder whined as the blast knocked it off course, as if the dying ships had laid bleeding hands on them and shoved.

  Then there was a strange, still silence. Even the song had stopped playing.

  “Explorers are down,” Breck said. “Nice one, Gil.”

  Andi loosed a breath, her fingertips releasing their hold on the armrests. But it wasn’t over yet. She glanced sideways at Lira. “Take us to the center of the belt. Bigger asteroids.”

  Lira caught on. “We can lose them there and fly out the backside, hide somewhere on Solera.”

  “Fuel?”

  Lira spat a wad of Chew into her mug. “Low. But we can make it. We just lost a lot of weight from that ammo.”

  Andi felt the swell of victory like a star exploding in her chest. But beside it, eating away at the feeling of tri
umph, was the knowledge of what she’d just done. How many lives had she stolen? How many families back on Arcardius would don shades of gray in mourning for weeks to come?

  She loosened her harness, allowing herself to breathe a little deeper, and was just leaning back against the headrest when Lira cursed.

  Breck’s and Gilly’s voices shouted into the com, and somewhere, down in the pit of Andi’s dark soul, she knew she’d missed something.

  “There are more of them,” Lira said breathlessly. “Andi, they’re everywhere. It’s not possible. Where did they come from?”

  Andi’s heart rocketed into her throat as the bleating prox alarms went off again.

  Seven ships waited for them, uncloaking themselves, materializing before her eyes.

  “Turn around, Lira! Get us the hell out of here!”

  “I can’t!” Lira shouted. “The Tracker is still behind us.”

  She furiously typed in codes, her fingers flying across the screen. Then Lira yelped as the holo sparked, and a strange hiss fizzled out of the dash. The ship itself seemed to release a deep, rumbling sigh.

  And then...darkness.

  The only light came from Lira’s scales, glowing a bluish-purple in the dark.

  Oh, Godstars.

  No.

  They’d been hit by an EMP. Andi watched as Lira tried to repower the ship with the backup system but to no avail.

  Everything went still and silent, as if the Marauder itself had lost all life.

  “They shut us down,” Lira whispered, her features turning to stone. Smoke streamed from her scales, but even they had gone dark now. As if shock had paralyzed her emotions. Her voice cracked as she tried to bring the dash back to life, tried to restart the emergency engines. “Oh, Andi. They shut everything down.”

  Andi shook her head. “That’s not possible. We have shields against that, nothing could... No one knows how to get past them and stop this ship!” Andi had the special defensive shields installed shortly after taking possession of the Marauder. They were meant to prevent EMPs and other such attacks from affecting the ship’s internal systems.