“About six weeks ago, I needed a job, so I signed on to the crew of a salvage ship,” Ariston said, keeping his arms spread so she wouldn’t find him threatening—since his humor hadn’t worked toward that end. “It turns out that they’re not just doing legal salvages. They’re picking on ships in remote systems, killing everyone on board, and then piecing up the ships to sell their remains. I didn’t know that when I signed on.” That was a lie, of course, but there was no way he would tell her he was a law enforcer, not when she was a criminal too. He didn’t need her deciding to join forces with the salvage crew against him. He just hoped she would believe his story. “They didn’t start out doing illegal salvages, or I would have gotten off right away. By the time they started doing the illegal stuff, we were far from civilization, and there was no way for me to leave easily. When I suggested to the captain that I wanted out as soon as we got back to a populated system, he told me nobody left. I’d either stay with the crew, or he’d shoot me. He didn’t believe I wouldn’t go off and tattle to the law.” Ariston was careful not to suggest one way or another if he’d wanted to do that. If she was a criminal, she might find tattling to the law reprehensible. “I didn’t care for being threatened, but he was on the bridge, surrounded by his men. I figured I’d bide my time and escape when the odds were better.”
“Like now, when it’s twelve to one?”
“Well, that’s better than fifty to one, but no, this wouldn’t have been my ideal spot to make my move, but I vowed that I wouldn’t stand idly by while they destroyed another ship and murdered its crew. Unfortunately, I was too late to stop that from happening with the first ship.”
Thinking of her doctor again, Ariston hoped she wouldn’t point out that he’d been too late to stop a lot from happening. So far, this day had him wondering why his superiors kept thinking he had a knack for undercover work. Maybe, if he survived this mission, he would take it as a sign to retire instead of just thinking about it.
Instead of replying, the woman jerked her weapon away from Ariston’s neck and pointed it toward rubble in a shadowy nook. She surprised him by opening fire. He didn’t see anything other than rocks to aim at, but they exploded mightily under her assault.
She cursed, seeming to realize she’d made a mistake, and started to whip the weapon back toward him.
But he spun and caught it in the air. That noise would draw the men searching for them, so they didn’t have time for more chats at bow-point.
She growled, trying to yank her weapon out of his grip, but he grasped the frame, the servos in his armor enhancing his strength as much as her armor enhanced hers. She couldn’t pull away.
“I’m beginning to hate this planet,” she said, glancing at the remains of the inoffensive rock pile.
“You saw something?” he guessed, aware of the planet’s reputation.
She hesitated.
“I thought I did,” she admitted, the words coming out reluctantly. Her cheeks reddened behind her faceplate.
“This planet reportedly has some anomalous features.”
“I heard it was haunted by ghosts.”
“I believe ghosts fall under the anomalous category.”
A shout drifted to his ears from the other side of the ruins. He thought it sounded like, “Heard them over there.”
“We need to move,” he said.
“We? We’re not a we.” She tried again to yank her weapon away. “And I’m definitely not your prisoner.” She glared fiercely at him.
He almost smiled, though he could tell she wouldn’t appreciate that. He’d met plenty of angry and defiant criminals—an amazing number of them became so when a Star Guardian showed up—so he wasn’t sure why her responses stood out to him as unique. Even appealing.
Because you like her eyes, dumbass, the voice in the back of his mind said.
He snorted to himself. Possibly true, though it wasn’t as if he would consider sleeping with a criminal, even if she didn’t clearly loathe him.
“I destroyed the shuttle I came down in,” Ariston said, nodding toward the intersection and using his grip on her weapon to pull her in that direction. They couldn’t stay there to chat. “I am, therefore, in need of a ride off this planet.”
“My ship is surrounded by thugs,” she said, allowing him to guide her away, though she kept a firm grip on her weapon, probably planning to yank it away as soon as he was distracted.
“So, let’s make a deal. I’ll help you clear those thugs out of the way, and you give me a ride out of this system in your ship. You can get rid of me at the first civilized place we come to—there’s Talon Station in the next system over.”
At least half of the second away team was looking for them in the ruins, so it might not be that difficult to deal with the men left at her ship. Unfortunately, he would probably have to take her prisoner, no matter how much she would fight it, once they had her vessel in the air. He couldn’t trust her to fly him anywhere safe, especially if she got a whiff of who he was. He made a note to try and find out how many crew members she had on her ship. Hopefully not a lot. He already had an impossible list of people to subdue and somehow get back to Headquarters.
Ah, Admiral Chen, why do I let you send me on missions like this?
“Would agreeing to this deal mean you’d stop trying to turn me into your prisoner?” She scowled at the frame of her bolt bow, or perhaps his hand gripping it.
He almost said of course, but caught himself. It was one thing to fudge the details of his background story—that was simply keeping his cover—but if he verified that she’d come to this planet with intent to raid the ruins, he would be obligated to arrest her. Hells, the fact that she was trespassing on a protected planet already obligated him to arrest her. Though she would only face a fine for trespassing. Unless she had a long criminal record. Bounty hunters often did.
“Your silence is oh so comforting,” she said. “What’s the matter? I’m so hot that you can’t bear the idea of letting me go?”
The translator had a hiccup on determining how to interpret “hot,” but he caught the gist. “I don’t know about that yet. Armor isn’t particularly revealing.” Given their relationship so far, he decided she would be creeped out rather than flattered if he complimented her eyes.
Shouts sounded, not that far behind them, and Ariston lowered his voice. “I’m going to go deal with the people guarding your ship. You can help, or stay here, but if you’re not there after I’ve freed it, I may be tempted to take off without you.”
“I don’t know who told you that you were personable, but they totally lied.”
“It was a self-assessment.”
“Meaning you lied to yourself?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time.” He let go of her weapon, hoping he wouldn’t regret it, and turned down an alley that would take him back to her ship.
His rear camera showed her standing and watching him. She didn’t move at first, and he thought she might slip into the ruins and take her own way back—or let him deal with the thugs on his own—but she finally cast a long look skyward, then followed after him.
He decided to find it reassuring that she cradled her bolt bow in her arms rather than pointing it at his back.
5
Mick followed her putative ally—Ariston, he’d called himself—through the ruins and toward the pyramid. He was taking a circuitous route to her ship, and she wasn’t sure if it was to avoid the men searching for them or to come out on the other side of the ship, where their appearance would be less expected.
A part of her wanted to go handle those thugs herself, but she wasn’t delusional. She would have gotten her ass kicked back at the wreck if Ariston hadn’t appeared. More than appeared. He’d beaten the snot out of a bunch of guys, all at once. He would be an amazing ally if she could trust him.
Unfortunately, she didn’t. Not for a second. He had been lying when he’d told that story, and she was fairly certain he still wanted to take her prisoner for whatever rea
son. Maybe he was a slaver on the side—Mick had heard all about how her sister had originally been kidnapped from Earth by slavers who had wanted to sell her to aliens. Mick had heard about all kinds of assholes in the year-plus that she’d been out in the galaxy.
Her guess was that this guy was a willing member of that crew of murdering salvagers—make that savages—and had decided this would be a good place to pull off some kind of coup. Maybe he was the second-in-command and wanted to be in charge of the outfit. And maybe the captain had caught wind of it and ordered that Ariston be abandoned or killed down here, but he was fighting back. That would explain why he needed another way off this planet. If she did take him with her when she left, she would have to drug him and lock him in one of her detainment cells. She would be better off leaving him here, but that would leave him as a problem for her scientists, assuming they still wanted to stay here.
She wouldn’t.
The way she kept seeing movement out of the corner of her eye was freaking her out, and she was still disturbed by being lured to the wreck only to find everyone already dead. She didn’t believe in ghosts or hauntings, but she’d already decided she didn’t want to spend the night on this planet. The meteorological data that Safin had gathered included sunrise and sunset for their current location, and they only had about two hours of daylight left. Not comforting.
Ariston stopped and poked his head around an opening in a wall. He waved for her to join him.
They were at an edge to the ruins, and boulders littered the dusty, open ground ahead of them, most of them taller than they were. The map in Mick’s faceplate display told her the ship was ahead of them, but she couldn’t see it.
She moved back behind the wall, jumped up, and caught the lip. Stone crumbled under her fingers, and she almost fell right back down, but she managed to hook an arm over the top. She pulled her chin up so she could see over the boulders.
Yes, there was her ship and—
She swore under her breath. Her suit’s scanners could have told her that the shields were down, but she didn’t need them to, not when she could see the damage to the aft side with her naked eyes. The hull around her small engineering section was charred and warped with three panels completely missing and others marred by an indentation that made it look like an asteroid had struck. One of the ship’s lower two thrusters was mangled, as well. To add insult to injury, a cocky-looking man in coveralls leaned casually against the side hatch with one hand while he worked on cutting through a seam with a magtorch.
Two other men stood guard, facing the entrance in the ruins she’d tried to return through earlier. They wore armor and carried weapons.
She dropped to the ground, rage burning in her chest, and snatched her bolt bow with both hands.
Ariston turned toward her and lifted a hand. To stop her? No damn way.
“They’re tearing apart my ship,” she whispered, her voice hoarse with anger. “I’ll kill the bastards.”
“We’ll stop them,” he said, irritatingly calmly. “But your ship is damaged—”
“No shit.”
“—so, we need to make sure they can’t flee and return to their ship. We need to capture that shuttle.” He pointed in the direction where it was presumably parked—she hadn’t seen it during her quick peek. “If we don’t and they get away, we’ll be stranded down here. I wouldn’t count on Captain Eryx to come rescue us after what I did. He might very well drop a bomb on the entire place once he’s got his people back aboard.”
“You go capture their shuttle then. I’m going to kill those guys.” Mick thrust her arm in the direction of the Viper.
“There are three of them, and they could easily call in reinforcements from the ruins. You can’t handle all of them alone. I believe that was an eight-man team, and there are men from the other shuttle that may have recovered from my attack by now. However, I’m betting there’s currently only the pilot and maybe one other man in the remaining shuttle. The rest are all out here, trying to deal with us. This would be a good time to take control of the shuttle.”
“I have a bunch of innocent scientists in my ship.” Mick flung her hand out again, almost clunking her knuckles on the wall. “If those murderers get in while we’re dicking around with their shuttle, they’ll kill them. I know they will.”
“Scientists?” Ariston sounded puzzled, like he wasn’t sure his translator chip had worked.
Mick didn’t have time to explain their mission. All she said was, “Who else would come to this desolate hole?”
With her grip tight around her bolt bow, she tried to walk past him, intending to sneak out there, using the boulders for cover. If she could stop the unarmored guy with the magtorch, she would delay the forced entry. God, would she be able to repair all the damage that had been done and get off this planet? She had some spare parts, but not that many.
Ariston caught her arm, keeping her from slipping through the hole next to him.
“Let me go,” she whispered through clenched teeth. “They’re almost through. I have to stop them before—”
“I’ll stop them,” he said. “You go see if you can knock out the pilot on their shuttle. Like I said, it should be two men max. You handle that, make sure that shuttle doesn’t take off, and I’ll keep these men from getting in your ship.”
“But—”
“You have my word,” he said fiercely, his faceplate close to hers.
She could see his features clearly through it, his dark brown eyes, olive skin, a strong jaw and sharp nose, a crease between his eyebrows as they drew together in an intense look. He was older than she’d expected after witnessing his athleticism, forty or forty-five. He was also a hell of a lot better looking than she’d expected.
Even though she had no reason to trust him, Mick had to admit he would be able to handle multiple opponents in armor more easily than she. And he seemed willing to do so. She just had to pray that he wouldn’t turn out to be a murderer himself and run inside and kill everybody under her charge.
Despite the doubts stampeding through her mind, she found herself believing him. Earlier, she’d been able to tell from his clumsy story and hesitations that he’d been lying. He seemed utterly serious now. And truthful.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll do it.”
“Good.” Ariston released her and turned toward the hole. But he paused, looking back. “Before I risk my life for your ship and your scientists—” he said the word like he didn’t believe that’s what they were, “—what’s your name?”
“Mick,” she said, more because she didn’t want to delay than because she wanted to share it.
“Mick?” His brows drew together, emphasizing that slight furrow again.
“Technically, Michelle, but I hate that name. It’s too girlie.”
“Mick, it is then. May the gods be with you.”
And with that, he was gone, leaping from the ground in front of her to a boulder ten meters away. He landed in a crouch on top of it, sprang to another one, then dropped down to approach the ship on the opposite side from the hatch. Mick lost sight of him, but she had to trust that he would do as he’d said.
She hoped she wasn’t making a mistake.
Following the map on her faceplate, Mick located the enemy shuttle about a half mile away and veered toward it. It had landed farther from the ruins than the Viper, probably clearing numerous boulders in the same way she had. She ran instead of walking, wanting to hurry up and secure the ship, then return to help protect her own.
But loud cracks made her falter. Gunshots.
Their enemies all had energy-based weapons like the bolt bows. That could only be Dr. Woodruff with his gun.
Did that mean Ariston had been too late? That the guy with the magtorch had already burst into the Viper? He and his armored buddies could be attacking her scientists while Ariston fought others outside. Bullets might work on someone in coveralls, but they’d be even more useless than bolt bows on armor. They would bounce right off.
>
Mick could see the top of the enemy shuttle over a few boulders, but the gun fired again. It sounded muffled, like it had come from inside the Viper.
Cursing, Mick changed routes. She sprinted toward her ship, almost caroming off boulders as she rounded them. She couldn’t risk all of her passengers being killed. It was bad enough Dr. Garcia had died.
The ship came into sight, as did orange en-bolts streaking all around one side of it. Shouts, roars, and cries of pain echoed off the boulders.
Mick came at her craft from the far side, so she couldn’t yet see the combatants. She ran under the shadow of the two wings on the port side, then eased toward the nose, her bolt bow ready. As she rounded the front of the craft, a figure came into sight, a flying figure. The armored man flew head over heels through the air to crack against a boulder fifteen meters away from her.
The armor was silver and blue rather than the mismatched white and gray of Ariston’s, so she assumed it belonged to an enemy. As the man rose to his feet, Mick fired. Knowing the armor would deflect all but a sustained blast, she held her finger down, aiming for the seam at his shoulder.
The man roared and turned toward her. He reached for his utility belt, but he must have lost whatever weapon he carried there. He realized it was gone and sprinted toward Mick, his hands outstretched.
She shifted her aim, pouring her fire right into his faceplate, still holding the trigger down. The man zigzagged his route, ducking his head and trying to avoid her en-bolts, but at this range, she could have hit a mosquito.
His legs bunched, and she expected him to spring for her, but some alarm must have gone off, warning him that his armor’s integrity was failing, because he bolted to the side. He jumped over a boulder and ran off into the wilderness.
A gunshot came from Mick’s left.
Someone in a yellow hazmat suit was leaning out of the open hatch—the hatch that had been forced open—and firing a gun. Woodruff?
His bullets ricocheted off a boulder. The man in coveralls crouched behind it, returning fire. Mick winced as en-bolts streaked toward the Viper. Woodruff ducked back into the airlock, and the beams slammed into the already damaged hull of the ship.
Ariston_Star Guardians Page 6