Starlight Cavalry (Sentinels Saga Book 4)

by Linn Schwab

  A broad grin swept across JoEllen’s face, then she stood up and held both of her hands out to him. “Come with me, then. I know where to find them.”

  For an instant, he was too stunned to respond. “Are you serious?” he asked as he reached for her hands. “You really have elephants here?”

  “Mm–‌hmm,” she replied, and helped pull him to his feet. “Elephants, zebras, giraffes, kangaroos.” She started to walk toward the edge of the meadow.

  “Umm,” Karl said as he rushed to catch up with her, “…are there any predators here that I should be aware of?”

  She looked up at him with a teasing grin. “Don’t worry,” she assured him, “I won’t let them eat you.”

  “What’s to keep them from eating you, though?”

  She smiled and continued walking toward the forest.

  To the north, he heard the sound of thunder in the distance. A line of dark clouds stretched across the horizon. JoEllen didn’t seem the least bit concerned by their presence.

  “Maybe we should try to find shelter,” Karl suggested. “It looks like it could start raining pretty soon.”

  “It won’t rain where we are,” she told him.

  He wondered exactly what she meant by that. Could she use her powers to deflect precipitation? Or did she have some understanding of the planet’s weather patterns, and simply know which direction the storm would advance? “How can you be sure?” he asked.

  She stopped and turned her attention toward the clouds. “Because,” she said, referencing an unpleasant memory, “…I don’t like being rained on.”

  As Karl watched, the clouds began to change course, like a barrier was pushing them off to the east. “Okay,” he said, “I can understand that sentiment. A lot of people don’t like being rained on. But maybe you can help me understand something else. Apparently you have some control over the weather. From what I’ve seen, you can summon a storm, or chase it away with nothing more than the force of your thoughts. Exactly how is that accomplished?”

  “I don’t know,” she said sheepishly. “I don’t think I’m the one who’s doing it.”

  This was not what Karl had expected to hear. Things seemed to growing more confusing by the minute. “That’s interesting,” he said. “But it also raises an intriguing question. If you’re not the one who’s doing it, then who is?”

  She looked back toward the east, across the meadow, at the shimmering surface of the ocean in the distance. “I don’t know,” she said, then tried to focus her thoughts. Once again the skies overhead began to darken as the look of concentration on her face intensified. But this time she stopped short and backed out of her trance as if sensing the answer was not going to come. She continued to gaze out toward the ocean for a moment, then softly murmured, “I’m not strong enough.”

  “Strong enough for what?”

  “I don’t know. Sometimes I hear voices, but I can’t tell what they’re saying.”

  “Voices in your head?”

  She nodded, then appeared to lose interest in the subject as if it held little significance to her. “Come on,” she said, turning back toward the west. “The elephants are this way.”

  Karl reluctantly followed her, though he would have preferred not to leave just yet. As keen as he was to see an elephant in person, he was far more interested in these voices she was hearing — and she seemed to be placing them somewhere to the east. He wondered if he dared try to question her about them, considering how quickly she’d pulled back from her trance. Perhaps she had good reason to fear them. Or perhaps she’d tried to reach them before, and simply found the effort to be unrewarding. Though either of those might prove to be likely deterrents, in observing her, he settled on another motivation that seemed to be the impetus behind her actions. It’s the carrot that’s driving her, not the stick, he realized. She’s looking forward to seeing the elephants herself. Either that, or she’s eager to make good on her promise to take me to them.

  He had to smile at the thought of her naiveté, though he found the situation to be somewhat frustrating. In her eyes, the elephants took precedence over some unexplained force that could influence the weather. The childlike innocence this suggested only added to the list of qualities he found irresistibly endearing about her. He couldn’t help but feel protective of the girl. She seemed defenseless, and frail, and perhaps slightly malnourished from the looks of her forearms and lower legs. The rest of her body was concealed beneath the shirt, but from what he could see she was slender and lean, as one might expect of a feral child. He wondered how long she’d been living alone. Surely someone must have cared for her when she was younger. How had she ended up out here on her own? And perhaps more importantly, what kinds of food was she finding to eat?

  “How old are you, JoEllen?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “I was eight when I ran away from the academy.”

  “The academy? Is that where you were raised?”

  “Sort of. The academies all have nurseries too.”

  Karl recalled not seeing any cities from the air, or any signs at all of civilization. “Are these academies somewhere nearby?”

  “Some of them are. Echo academy is that way,” she explained, pointing to the south. She then pointed to the north and to the northwest, saying, “Charlie is that way, and Delta is that way.”

  “Charlie,” he said. “The name on your shirt?”

  She nodded, and then went on to describe how she ventured into the academies at night to forage for clothes, or for something to eat when she was hungry for foods she couldn’t find in the wilderness. “There’s lots of fruits and vegetables around,” she explained. “But there isn’t any bread or biscuits out here.”

  Karl chuckled. “No, I don’t suppose there are. Some things just don’t grow on trees. But didn’t you say you ran away from the academies? Aren’t you afraid of getting caught while you’re there? What happens if someone recognizes you?”

  JoEllen shrugged and shook her head. “There’s so many girls in the academies that none of them really know who I am. Sometimes I pass them in the hallways at night. They’re so tired they hardly even notice me.”

  “So essentially you’re hiding in plain sight,” Karl said. “That’s clever. Very clever indeed. But I have to wonder why you choose to stay out here all alone. Since you seem to miss some of the amenities they enjoy, why not just go back and live with the others? Why did you decide to run away in the first place?”

  “Because,” she said, looking sad and disheartened, “buildings make my head hurt.”

  “Oh, I see,” Karl said with compassion. “So it’s not that you don’t want to go back. There’s something preventing you from doing so.”

  “Yes,” she said. “I can go there, but I can’t stay very long. If I do, my head starts to hurt really bad.”

  “Any idea why?” Karl asked.

  “No. I ran away when it started happening.”

  “And you’ve been out here ever since, I take it. That sounds like a very lonely existence.”

  To that, JoEllen made no reply. The two of them arrived at the edge of the clearing, and she led him quietly into the trees.

  As they passed through the forest, Karl noticed again that the species he saw all looked familiar. “Tell me something, JoEllen,” he said. “When your people first arrived on this planet, were there any lifeforms already here? Any plants, or insects, or animal species?”

  “No,” she said. “I don’t think so.” She went on to explain that she’d once learned a song that suggested the planet was barren when they found it.

  He marveled at the size of some of the trees, and said, “Remarkable how far things have progressed since then. It looks like this forest is centuries old. They must not have wasted any time in their efforts.”

  As the hours went by, his legs grew weary, and the sky overhead began to grow dark. “How much farther away are these elephants?” he asked.

  “Another day of walking,” she replied. “We’re alm
ost to the edge of the forest now.”

  “It looks like it’s going to be dark soon. Perhaps we ought to find someplace to sleep.”

  “I know a place we can stay,” she said. “It’s just up ahead. We’re almost there.”

  A moment later they emerged from the trees, at the eastern edge of a vast savannah. She led him to what looked like an abandoned building, constructed of metal, glass, and polished stone. It appeared to have once been some sort of outpost, and was roughly the size of a single family cabin. One of the outer walls had partially collapsed, leaving the interior exposed to the elements.

  “What was this place?” he asked as she led him inside.

  “I don’t know. I stay here sometimes when I’m in this area.”

  “I thought you said buildings make your head hurt.”

  She shrugged and said, “This one doesn’t for some reason.”

  “Hmm. That’s interesting. I wonder if we can determine why.” Karl looked around at the building’s interior and furnishings. It appeared to be more of an office than a home. A rack on one wall held a pair of rifles, along with a supply of tranquilizer darts. A desk still contained several drawers full of logbooks. A quick glance through their pages revealed vital statistics of various animal populations.

  “It’s a wildlife observation post,” he said. “Or at least it was, a long time ago. They were monitoring the health of certain species here. I wonder what made them decide to leave. It looks like they took off and left everything behind.”

  He looked at JoEllen to gauge her reaction. She appeared to be thinking something through, but declined to offer an explanation. “Maybe they were planning to come back,” she suggested.

  It was clear there was something she didn’t want to tell him. Perhaps he still needed to win her trust. “Yeah. Maybe they were,” he conceded. He looked around at the building’s interior again, searching for signs of human remains. If there ever were any, they’d long ago been dragged off by animals, or perhaps even hidden by JoEllen herself. Whatever had happened to the caretakers here was destined to remain a mystery, it seemed. Unless he could manage to win her confidence.

  “Alright,” he said after some careful thought, “I think I just might have an explanation for what’s causing these headaches you were telling me about.” He walked around the room testing every electrical switch he could find, just to verify the building’s power source was dead. “Do the buildings that make your head hurt all seem to have electric power?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “And this one does not. Or at least it doesn’t seem to be working at the moment. The answer may be as simple as that. Some people are highly sensitive to electromagnetic fields. Since these fields are emitted by electric wiring, there’s a chance that could be what’s causing your discomfort. Maybe after we see the elephants, we can find some way to test that theory.”

  This seemed to pique her curiosity. “How are we gonna do that?” she asked.

  “I’ll have to give that some thought. Have you come across any other abandoned buildings? Maybe some that aren’t quite as run down as this?”

  “Yes,” she told him. “There’s a bunch of them near an old landing strip I found.”

  “And did any of those buildings make your head hurt?”

  She thought back for a moment, then shook her head.

  “Well then, we’ll have to pay them a visit. Maybe we can save the elephants for later. How long do you think it would take us to get to those abandoned buildings from here?”

  “A couple of days, I think,” she said.

  “I guess we’d both better get some rest, then. It sounds like we have a lot of walking ahead of us.”

  He looked around for a comfortable spot to lie down. She waited for him to settle in first, then found her own spot a few paces away, and curled up on the floor near the base of a wall. As the evening light faded, the sounds of nature sang him off to sleep like a soothing lullaby. He sensed JoEllen would be watching over him, and found it strangely comforting despite her frail and diminutive appearance.

  “…any predators that I should be aware of?” he heard himself ask.

  “Don’t worry,” she assured him. “I won’t let them eat you.”

  TRACKERS 101

  When the veil of fog outside the Cricket’s windows parted, her crew was greeted with a sight that caused their hearts to skip a beat. There were rocks all around them, as far as they could see. They were no longer sitting on the outskirts of Pangea. The debris field had shifted and moved in around them. For an instant it seemed their worst nightmare was repeating, but after the initial shock wore off they quickly realized things were not quite as dire this time. What they could see of Pangea was less dense than they remembered. The surge of ice flowing through had thinned its interior while dispersing it over a greater area. And though Michelle couldn’t yet get a fix on their position, none of the girls showed any outward signs of panic. They all seemed to realize they’d been in worse situations.

  “Any contact on the radio yet?” Robin asked.

  Mindy shook her head. “There’s nothing but static.”

  “That’s kind of scary,” Phoebe said. “Maybe we’re the only ship that survived.”

  Robin glanced up at the rear view monitor. The cloud they’d just emerged from was directly behind them. “Maybe we’re the only ship outside the cloud. Let’s start moving along the edge. Maybe our scanners will pick something up.”

  Caroline steered the Cricket to her right and established a course along the edge of the cloud. Just as before, there were so many rocks to avoid she was forced to keep her forward speed to a minimum.

  “Mindy, keep trying the radio,” Robin said. “If someone hears us, maybe we can help guide them out.”

  After speaking with the Lily Pad’s captain for a while, Virginia found an empty bunk to lie down in and managed to get a few hours of sleep. When she awoke, she was summoned to the bridge again. Captain Siegler was standing by the starboard windows, looking out into a void in the fog where visibility was slightly increased.

  “Lieutenant Scot,” the captain addressed her, “while you were sleeping, I had some of my technicians look over your fighter. They determined it’s far too damaged to repair, so I’m assigning you one of the spares we were transporting. Since the fighters we’re carrying aren’t loaded with munitions, I’ve instructed them to transfer the ones you brought with you, so the Lily Pad won’t be entirely defenseless. But I’m curious why you seem to be one rocket short. I was under the impression you were simply on a routine patrol when your fighter got caught up in this fog.”

  Virginia swallowed and tried to think of a response that wouldn’t reveal what she’d really been up to. Before she could speak, though, the captain extended her right hand. Her upturned palm held the mission recording chip from a fighter. It was clear from her expression that she’d already viewed the contents. There was nothing to be gained by withholding the truth.

  “Come with me,” the captain said, heading for her office. Virginia followed her inside and closed the door behind her.

  Captain Siegler leaned back against the front of her desk. “This fog may be our undoing,” she said. “We’ve never faced anything this disruptive before. I half wonder if it might’ve been deployed by our enemy to render our defenses entirely useless. The prelude to an all–‌out assault on Valhalla. What do you think, Lieutenant Scot? From what I’ve seen on your cockpit recording, I gather you just might have some valuable insight.” She held the chip out in her palm again. “Did this friend of yours share any secrets with you?”

  Virginia wasn’t sure if she was being threatened. The captain’s tone certainly seemed accusatory. “I … can explain,” she said.

  “I’m eagerly awaiting your explanation, Lieutenant. I can’t wait to hear how an enemy pilot ended up in one of our fighters.”

  For the next few minutes Virginia went over the details of how Jason had been forced into flying to Volaris, and what she�
��d been able to learn from him while he was there. In truth, she’d learned more from Dave than she had from Jason. And of the two of them, she was far more inclined to trust Dave. Anything Jason had revealed to her was now suspect.

  “This is all very fascinating,” Captain Siegler said when Virginia was finished explaining what had happened. “I can only imagine what it must’ve been like for you to actually get to speak with an enemy pilot. From what you’ve just told me, it would seem Commander Eldridge has decided not to let word of this get out.” She handed the storage chip to Virginia. “If you see her again, you can tell her not to worry. I’ll respect her decision. It won’t spread beyond here.”

  The piercing shriek of an alarm suddenly rang in their ears. Both of them immediately scrambled for the bridge.

  Captain Siegler headed straight for the optical scanner. It appeared there were enemy ships nearby. “What have you got?” she asked the operator.

  “Heavy cruisers. Two of them, flying in tandem. Range, approximately three kilometers.”

  “Does it look like they’ve seen us?”

  “No, not yet. They’re running silent. No radar signal.”

  “This is just what I was afraid of,” the captain said. “Enemy ships are using this fog as cover to see if they can sneak past our defenses.”

  “I have to get out there,” Virginia insisted.

  Captain Siegler shook her head. “You can’t stop them, Virginia. A fighter is no match for a heavy cruiser.”

  “Maybe not,” she said, “but I can track them. If I can stay with them without being seen, maybe I can alert our forces to their position.”

  “Very well,” Captain Siegler agreed. “Good luck, Virginia. Be careful out there.”

  After sprinting to the Lily Pad’s cargo hold, Virginia scrambled into her fighter, strapped herself in, and fired up the engines. As soon as the doors slid open for her, she threw the throttle forward and burst out through the opening, then raced to catch up with the enemy cruisers. By now, the fog was growing thinner. Visibility appeared to be much improved. There were rocks all around her, drifting in random directions, but the enemy cruisers were nowhere to be seen.