To Touch the Stars

by Tess Mallory

  The soldier gestured behind him and he turned toward the front of the tavern where people were scurrying left and right, leaving a broad path down the middle of the seedy establishment. In its wake strode a tall, distinguished-looking man with gray-streaked hair and an arrogance Sky could feel across the room. A man whose face was known on every planet in the quadrant. It was evident in the very set of his shoulders that he believed himself to be a superior being. Sky shuddered slightly as he strode across the room, his black cape billowing behind him. How dramatic, she thought. How typical. She glared at Eagle and felt the tension in him, though there was no evidence of stress in the rugged contours of his face. Fury rose inside her, coupled with confusion. Whose side was Eagle on?

  She glanced at Telles as he rose from his position beside the soldier on the floor, his gaze locked on his old friend. He shot her a look that told her to wait and see how Eagle played this hand of the game. She didn't have to wait long. There was the barest instant of hesitation on Eagle's part, then the tension dissipated from his features and a broad, cocky grin eased across his face. He raised one brow in Zarn's direction, hands on his hips, and Sky shrank away from the man beside her, moving to Telles's side.

  A spark of defiance lit Eagle's eyes, giving her a brief hope again—hope that was dashed to pieces seconds later as the colonel nonchalantly folded his arms across his chest and spoke.

  "So—what kept you?"

  Sky cursed. First she cursed Eagle, eloquently, then Zarn, then the universe at large, and finally herself for ever believing that the son of a thieving, murdering bastard could be any less of a thieving, murdering bastard himself. She paced the small confines of the cell on Zarn's ship and tried to think, tried to form some kind of coherent plan. But she couldn't. The power of Eagle's betrayal had robbed her of all cognizant thought and left a pure, raw rage she could not purge. She wanted to scream, to smash things, to beat her fists against the wall. Instead she fumed, wondered with an aching fear where Kell might be. Had Zarn already picked him up as well? If so, there was no hope at all for them.

  She wouldn't even begin to entertain that thought, though. Not yet. She couldn't. Sky kept pacing back and forth until she grew too weary to continue. Stopping at last, she leaned her back against the wall farthest from the doorway. Sliding downward, she wrapped her arms around her doubled-up legs and rested her head on her knees.

  What was she doing here? Why had she ever left Mayla alone that day? That had been the start of this nightmare. No, the start had been the day her father had sent her on the diplomatic mission and Zarn's fleet had entered the Andromedan system to begin their murderous assault on their planet.

  Quick, hot tears stung behind her eyelids. If Zarn hadn't come and destroyed her parents, her family, their very way of life, Sky would at this moment be sitting in the royal palace, probably indulging her love of painting or sculpting. Wistfully, she thought back to her youth, when she had created childish works of art her father had exclaimed over, calling her his little Nonjeen, the name of a popular artist of the day. Sky lifted her head and stared down at the palms of her hands as a wave of anguish swept over her. Once these hands had created things of beauty—even if they had been the awkward creations of an inexperienced child—but now these same hands destroyed. These hands had killed by pulling the trigger of a blaster. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. Once her heart had been filled with childish wonder and a joy for what the future would bring. Now it was cold and dark and filled with hate, and there was no tomorrow.

  Her world as a child had been one of culture and beauty, her life one lovely party or gala occasion after another, filled with happy people in bright colors, shaping the future of their world with vision and tolerance. Now Zarn's dark presence had eradicated every ounce of joy, every bright hope the Andromedans had ever had. Tears traced a languid path down Sky's cheeks as memories flooded her mind. Images of her mother and father, brothers and sisters now long dead. Their voices, their lives, echoed in her head until she thought she would go crazy. She lifted her hands to her head, her fingers tangling into her hair, gripping her scalp. Cold metal slid beneath her fingers as she touched the silver band around her temples. An equally cold chill shook her suddenly to the marrow.

  Eagle, spawn of hell, would tell Zarn that she was Mayla's sister. At least he didn't know about the full extent of her power, or the fact that the silver band was the only thing between herself and insanity. She'd never willingly reveal anything she knew to Zarn, of course, but if he sought to probe her mind—She paled. His machines would detect the deflective power of the band and he would take it from her. And since she had no control, no ability to shield her thoughts without it, Zarn could easily probe her mind and destroy her. That was one reason Mayla was the heir to the throne. A Cezan must not just have the power, but be able to control that power as well. Thank the Creator she did not know where Mayla was hidden.

  But Telles did. Sky lowered her hands from her temples and felt new fear well up inside of her. Even though he couldn't consciously remember where Mayla was, he must have the actual memory somewhere inside his mind. Surely Eagle would not allow his father to harm the man who had been his friend for twenty years! Another thought: Was Telles part of this too? Had the whole thing been an elaborate ploy to capture her and Mayla—the last of the Cezans—so Zarn could be sure their kind never rose up to take power again? She closed her eyes.

  "I don't know who to trust," she said aloud. Laughter echoed around her and Sky jerked her head up toward the sound, stumbling to her feet, fists clenched, feeling the hot flush of anger stain her cheeks.

  "Poor, dear child." The voice of Zarn boomed down at her mockingly from somewhere and she searched the room futilely for a hidden com unit. "Trust me."

  "What are you going to do to me?" she demanded.

  "That is entirely up to you." The smooth, cultured tone in his voice altered abruptly. "Where is your sister?"

  So he knew. Eagle had betrayed her again.

  "Where you'll never find her," she said, then added silently, I hope.

  "I think you're wrong, my dear. Your friend with the long golden hair knows exactly where you sister has been hidden."

  Had he already probed Telles? Did Zarn know where Mayla was? The thought of Mayla being at this monster's mercy sent a surge of energy through her weary limbs.

  "Go to hell!" she shouted, shaking her fist at the ceiling. She spun around as the door slid suddenly open and two burly Dominion soldiers entered, blasters at their sides, rifles in their hands. The voice spoke again, the soothing tone sliding like a snake's skin across her fearful senses.

  "Go with them, Captain. You will be joining me in hell very soon."

  Telles lay strapped to a table, tilted at a forty-five-degree angle, as two attendants in pale blue coats attached electrodes to his arms, chest, groin, legs, and face. He stared straight ahead stoically as they readied his naked body. As always, the victim's clothes had been taken, stripped from him ignominiously, leaving him even more vulnerable, more helpless.

  Every muscle in Eagle's body buzzed with tension. He was trying to relax, trying not to reveal how much this facade of composure was costing him internally. He'd done it for years; it should have been child's play. But as he watched his friend being hooked up to the monstrous machine that would read his thoughts, Eagle wasn't sure he could maintain the mask of indifference. He leaned against the bulkhead nearest the door, arms folded across his chest, behaving merely as an interested spectator even as his mind explored every possible means of escape.

  Eagle's gaze flickered over his friend. If he knew the whereabouts of the heir to the Andromedan throne and told Zarn, it would destroy Eagle's plans to use the child to make his father listen to him. If Telles didn't know where she was, Zarn would probably kill him.

  Telles gazed straight ahead, lying as if frozen, his jaw locked—to keep from crying out? Eagle closed his eyes against the sight, his thoughts rushing back to his i
ncarceration on Sky's ship and his own humiliation. Strange, the memory had dimmed against the knowledge that what she had done, she had done for her sister and for the good of Andromeda. Ironically, that was what he had to do now. For Sky, and strangely enough, for his father.

  "Now, I believe we are almost ready to begin, except for our audience. "We must have an audience." Zarn gestured toward the guard standing in the doorway. The man turned and pressed a series of buttons beside the door, lowering the shield protecting the room.

  Eagle knew before the door slid open who would be standing on the other side. She walked through the doorway like a queen, shoulders back, head high, her turquoise eyes snapping with ill-contained fire. Damn, she was beautiful. And brave. And strong. And everything he'd ever wanted in a woman. The realization hit him hard, and it took everything inside of him to keep from reacting outwardly. Then she saw Telles strapped down and sorrow flooded her gaze briefly before the flame returned and she spun to confront him.

  "You son of a bitch!" she shouted, crossing the room and slapping him hard across the face before the hand of one of the guards clamped down on her shoulder and dragged her back. "Let him go!"

  Eagle rubbed his jaw ruefully. "Glad to see you too, Princess."

  "Who is this delightful piece of fluff, Eagle?"

  So he didn't know Sky was Mayla's sister? Then maybe he had a chance at least of saving her, although at the moment she looked as if she could certainly hold her own and was anything but fluffy. Even cornered by her enemy, by the man who had killed her family, she stood defiantly, arms tight with contoured muscles, fists clenched at her side, legs braced as if for a blow, or a battle. He regretted now his momentary weakness, the desire to see her in anything besides that plain uniform she wore aboard the Defiant, that had led him to buy her the short tunic she wore. Now, sans protective cloak, the garment was almost transparent and her body strained against the too-tight material in all the right places. He felt his own kind of strain as his gaze traveled over the short hemline to the long, sleek legs below. Zarn moved to stand beside his son and chuckled.

  "Yes, indeed," the Kalimar said, "one of yours, son? Feel like sharing with your dear old dad?" Eagle forced a laugh even as he forced himself not to slam his fist into his own father's face.

  "She's nobody," he said shortly, dismissing the woman with a wave of his hand. "Telles's latest girlfriend," he added, then cursed himself for a fool. Zarn was looking for his friend's most vulnerable spot. If he thought Sky meant anything to him… "Or should I say ex -girlfriend," he amended. "He dumped her a couple of weeks ago, but she keeps tagging along after him everywhere he goes. She showed up at the bar unexpectedly."

  Zarn's gaze locked with his son's for a long moment and, not for the first time in his life, Eagle was glad Zarn was not a telepath. His thoughts at this moment would have had him stretched out beside Telles in a matter of seconds.

  "Why are you lying to me?"

  Startled, Eagle swallowed hard, but quickly recovered his poise. "I'm not lying. What are you talking about?"

  "Do you think I don't know that this is Skyra Cezan? The sister to the heir of Andromeda?" His green eyes narrowed as he stared at his son, and suddenly Eagle knew everything was lost. "I will ask you again, why are you lying to me? Can it be you've joined this disreputable band of renegades?"

  Maybe not lost completely. He saw a glimmer of anxiety in Zarn's eyes. Eagle laughed out loud, hands on his hips. "Of course not," he said, not hesitating even an instant. "Let me ask .you something—why didn't you stick to our original agreement? Why didn't you let me bring the kid to you on Rigel?"

  He heard Sky's quick intake of breath and when he glanced her way, the look of raw fury in her eyes was enough to make him take an involuntary step backward.

  "Are you trying to tell me that you have lied to me because I arrived on Barbaros 9 unexpectedly?" Zarn demanded, his voice flat, filled with suspicion. Eagle shrugged. "I haven't lied to you. I didn't know who she really was. I was just repeating what Telles told me." He could feel Sky's fiery gaze boring a hold through him. Damn, damn, damn. He hated sounding like the kind of man who would lie to save himself. If he could only let her know he was lying for all of them. "But I don't like surprises. And I don't like you giving me an assignment and then going behind my back—acting like I can't handle it."

  "Or is it that you still have feelings of friendship for a man who is obviously a rebel?" Zarn tapped his index finger thoughtfully against his nose as he walked around the fettered Telles. "And a woman who has, perhaps, enticed you to forget where your loyalties lie?"

  "We have no proof that Telles is a rebel," Eagle objected. "I told you, the child healed him and he feels a responsibility toward her. And the woman—" He smiled lewdly in Sky's direction. "All right, I'm no saint, but I've had my fill of her. She means nothing to me."

  "Oh, I'm a rebel all right." Telles spoke from the table and Eagle shot him a cautioning look. The man strained against the straps holding him down, his eyes slightly wild. "I'm a rebel and damn proud of it! You think I'm your friend, Eagle?" He laughed, the sound harsh and angry.

  "Shut up." Eagle said the words quietly. If Telles confessed to treason, Zarn would have no choice but to kill him. "I don't want to hear this."

  "Well, isn't that too damn bad?" He laughed again. "It's time you heard the truth! I've used our connection any way I could. Me, the friend of the son of the great and powerful Lord Zarn." He pushed upward, feverishly allowing the straps to bite into his flesh, faint droplets of blood staining his skin as he did. "I used you. I used you to do whatever I had to do to try to overthrow your father's tyranny."

  Eagle turned away, too furious to speak for a moment. Telles had dug his own grave, and if they didn't get out of this somehow, Zarn would bury him in it. In the meantime, he would use his friend's stupidity or ploy, whichever it was, to solidify his shaky position with his father.

  "So tell me something I didn't know," he shot back over one shoulder as he walked away from the man. "You think I didn't know it? You think I didn't have you watched constantly? Why the hell do you think I left you for dead on Alpha Centauri?"

  He stopped walking and turned, hands on his hips. Sky was staring at him, the look on her face one of shock and disbelief Surely she didn't believe what he was saying. Surely she knew he hadn't—that he couldn't—leave his friend on a distant planet to die.

  "Enough." Zarn was suddenly at his side. "Get on with the probing. Eagle, you will do the honors."

  Eagle blinked. That was the last thing he expected his father to say.

  "Me?"

  "I'm anxious to see what you've learned since you've been on Station One." Zarn's gaze was hard, unyielding. "Shall we begin?"

  Eagle ran his tongue across his dry lips and stepped onto the platform beside Telles. He had been fully trained on Station One in all aspects of the mind-probe. He had just refused to do it. He picked up the helmet and lifted it over his friend's head, sending him a silent message of apology. He was relieved when the blue-gray eyes flickered back a second's understanding.

  Suddenly, Telles's face blurred and shifted and Eagle saw not his friend beneath the helmet, but his own face, though younger. He blinked, and for an instant felt as though he might black out, then he saw Telles again, and the dizziness passed.

  He cleared his throat and began adjusting the helmet. "You don't have to be put through this you know." He flipped the switch that would apply the tele-lodes beneath the helmet directly over the specific pulse points and cranial locations known to provide entrance to the human mind. "All you have to do is tell us where you stashed the kid."

  "I didn't stash her." Telles said, his usually terse lips curved up in a smile. "She stashed herself."

  "C'mon, Telles, you can still walk away from this." Eagle drew one long tube from the helmet and inserted it into the probe's central unit. He couldn't stall much longer. "Where is she?"

  "I don't know."

  "Eagle." Zarn's voice
was soft from the corner where he had taken himself to in order to watch the proceedings. He stood, arms folded over his chest, his tall image clothed in black creating its own dark shadow. "Let us begin."

  Eagle's hand hovered over the switch that would activate the probe. Telles drew a long, shuddering breath, and Eagle tried not to look his friend in the eye. Telles was scared. He didn't blame him. Hell, he was scared for him. Neither of them had ever been probed.

  "What are you doing?" Zarn's voice echoed again from the dark corner and Eagle froze. It was now or never.

  "Turn on the lights," Eagle managed to choke out. The room was illuminated and he blinked, adjusting his eyes to the light before he straightened and turned, meeting Zarn's narrow gaze.

  "I'm sorry, Father." Eagle said, trying not to blink against the brightness. "I can't do it."

  Zarn stepped forward, and for a moment his features appeared almost vulnerable, his eyes registering his shock an instant before rage lit the emerald depths.

  "What do you mean you can't do it? I order you to do it!" Eagle swallowed hard, then shook his head. "No."

  The explosion caught them unawares. One moment they were standing facing one another, and the next the ship bucked and pitched to one side, throwing everyone to the deck. Klaxons rang out as a deep voice called battle stations over the ship-wide communications system.

  "What the hell!" Eagle stumbled to his feet, heading back toward the table where Telles was bound. If there was a chance of letting him go in the confusion, he'd be ready to take it. He barely made it to his friend's side before another ominous explosion shook the ship.

  "Someone is attacking the ship!" Zarn shouted from his hands-and-knees position on the floor. He struggled to his feet and spun around, glaring at Telles and Eagle. "Is this one of your rebel tricks? Guards! Stay here and make sure no one leaves this room!" Zarn strode to the doorway, his long cape flapping about his heels.

  Eagle quickly pressed the button, deactivating the energy shackles holding Telles captive even as one of the guards hurriedly crossed the room, blaster in hand.