Gemar [Sunsinger Chronicles Book 9]

by Michelle Levigne

  Footsteps came through the darkness. Bain stopped sawing at the vines and put his hand on Dan's to halt him.

  “Jumpy, huh?” a man said quietly. He had a soft voice, almost genial. Bain imagined the man with a scarred face and filthy clothes covering a fat, stinking body, just to counteract the pleasant, almost friendly tones of that voice.

  “That's not the least of it,” a woman responded. “I've been thinking how that door got opened."

  “Don't.” He chuckled.

  “Something cut that bolt from the outside. That door was as good as welded shut."

  Bain grinned into the darkness at that bit of news. Whoever his invisible friends were, he silently thanked them, and said a prayer of thanks to Fi'in that they had been there at the right time.

  “Maybe we have a traitor among us."

  “Yeah, and I'm half Hoven,” the woman growled.

  “Stranger things have happened.” The footsteps moved on and the voices grew fainter, coming from around an obstruction of some kind. “I remember when I was little, my father would frighten us with all sorts of stories about the Hoveni appearing out of thin air and punishing bad little boys.” He chuckled. “One particularly bad story was how some kid got into a lot of trouble and when he was scared enough, he turned into a gooli lizard. The only thing worse than getting hit by the Hoveni is to become one."

  “Almost makes you wish the Set'ri were real,” she said after a moment.

  “Yeah, well, the way I hear it, you're better off having the Hoveni around than the Set'ri. They're only a little worse than the most rabid Gen'gineers."

  “Who cares? Once we're out of the Commonwealth, we can stop people from coming into Gemar, and if they give us trouble we can punish them any way we want and nobody will get in our way."

  “If we get out of the Commonwealth.” Now the man didn't sound quite so jovial and relaxed. “Lots of strange things going on out here. Makes you believe the Hoveni are more than just a bunch of crazy stories."

  “Kulper isn't going to move the base any closer to the city, just to soothe your nerves, so give up asking him."

  “Kulper isn't from around here. He doesn't know what it's like."

  They continued talking, but the sound of their footsteps as they kept moving muffled their words. Bain waited until he could barely hear a murmur before he started cutting again.

  Two more patrols came by before the vines were completely cut through. Each time, the Scouts stopped and listened. Bain didn't know whether to be amused or worried when the other two patrols mentioned strange goings-on in the camp, equipment vanishing or being damaged while no one was around to guard it, and linking that to Bain and Rhiann's miraculous escape.

  Only half a vine remained to be severed after the last patrol team walked by. Bain sat back on his heels, rubbing his cramped hand and studying the ship while Dan finished.

  “One at a time,” he said, keeping his voice low and soft and trying to avoid the sibilants of whispering. “I'll go first and see if the hatch is open. If you don't see me in twenty seconds, Dan, you're next. Then Lissy. No, better make it Trinia. That hair is going to give you away once they start getting suspicious. You'd better get inside as fast as possible."

  “Sorry,” the younger girl muttered. Rhiann slid an arm around her shoulders and shook her, and the two laughed softly together.

  “Then Don,” Bain continued, “then Rhiann and Lissy together. Everybody keep your guns ready. Tranquilizer darts until they run out, then the exploding tips. Then the acid tips, if we have to."

  It struck Bain suddenly that this was reality, not a game of fantasizing with his friends in a dark, quiet corner somewhere that Spacers met. This was serious, dangerous. He held a multi-dart in his hands and would willingly use it on living people to save his own life. Guarding the Leapers had felt all too real before, but it paled to a serious game before this new depth of reality.

  “Everybody ready?” He waited until they all nodded, then finished preparing his multi-dart, slid it into its holster, and turned to swing his legs over the ledge.

  The dry vines swung and tapped against each other softly as he pushed through them. Bain paused, listening, waiting for a searchlight to fall on him.

  Nothing. He counted to twenty, straining his senses, and then finally stepped out.

  The dash across the open space to the sheltering shadows around the Nova Corona took only moments. Bain had expected it to seem to last forever. He ducked down and kept as close to the skin of the ship as he could as he moved around the back to the closest hatch, at the cargo hold.

  The loading ramp was down, but the interior lights were off. Bain paused with one foot on the ramp, wondering if this was a trap. The pirates didn't know he was a Spacer, so they couldn't know he would be able to steal their stolen ship. Did they think Rhiann, daughter of a Leaper captain, could steal a Spacer's ship? If they did, that meant the pirates knew next to nothing about ships, their different controls, and how far ahead Leaper technology was from Spacer.

  Either answer wasn't getting him any further into the ship, and Bain knew his Scouts would be following close behind him. He had to clear the way for them to enter safely.

  Raising his multi-dart, he stepped up the loading ramp, crouching low to present as small a target as possible.

  No outcry met him. No gunshots. No figures leaped from the darkness to stop him. Bain wanted more than anything to fold up the ramp, close the cargo hatch and turn on some lights, but he didn't dare.

  Night-vision goggles. Next time, we'll add night-vision goggles to our list of gear.

  There was no access tube going from the cargo hold to the bridge on the Nova Corona, only an airlock. It was open and Bain stepped through. The bridge was a cramped affair compared to Sunsinger, with only two cubicles and a half-sized galley. The control panel only had one seat. Bain wondered how Marlin Feris could stand living in such a tiny space.

  He flashed the handlight's beam around and found retractable plates in the ceiling and across the forward half of the bridge. The Nova Corona had no observation dome for going through a Knaught Point. The pilot had to pull back the shielding plates and work everything from the bridge. Bain felt even more sorry for Marlin Feris. There had always been rumors going around that Feris was a little crazy. Seeing the way the man lived, Bain believed that now.

  More important though, he could see the ship was empty and safe. He hurried through the airlock and the cargo hold and waited out of the beam of moonlight at the end of the ramp. When Dan came up, Bain sent him to the bridge to start the pre-launch check. Trinia and Rhiann came together. Bain opened his mouth to scold, then decided to save it for later, when they were all safely inside and the hatch sealed behind them. Then he saw Trinia limping and Rhiann supporting her. When Lissy and Don came up the ramp, Bain gestured for them to follow him to the airlock.

  “Don, guard the ramp. Lissy, check all the seals and hatches and then help Don. We can't close anything until we're just about to launch. The noise would give us away."

  “What about the safety blocks?” Rhiann asked. She sat with Trinia, helping her remove her boot and bind her injured ankle.

  “We'll have to find the overrides, then,” Bain said with a shrug. He mentally kicked himself for not thinking of that. If they tried to launch without turning off the safety blocks, alarms would alert the whole camp. “Everybody ready?"

  “Even if we weren't...” Lissy grinned and headed for the smaller airlock to check the hatch.

  Bain helped Rhiann get Trinia into the bridge and settled them into the unused sleeping cubicle. Rhiann ransacked the medical kit while Bain leaned over the control panel and helped Dan.

  For all his innovations and changes to the systems and outer hull of the Nova Corona, Feris hadn't changed the design or functions of the controls. Bain and Dan shared a wide grin when they realized that.

  Green standby lights came up, making it easier to see what they were doing. Bain changed them to red emergency l
ights, which automatically set the computer for manual override. Half the automatics were turned off. A cool current of air moved through the bridge as the life-support system came online.

  A soft hum moved through the ship as the engines slowly shifted from standby to pre-launch power buildup. Bain and Dan checked each other as they went through the systems prep-list.

  “All right,” Bain said, when the power level indicator finally clicked over to seventy percent. “We're ready. It's going to get noisy in a minute."

  “Good. I'm ready to fall asleep,” Dan said without glancing up from the control panel.

  “We should be back to port in an hour—then you can sleep.” He shared a grin with Rhiann and Trinia, then went down to the ramp.

  “All quiet out there,” Lissy reported when Bain stepped up to her sheltered watching place, next to the shield for the ramp lift gears.

  “It won't be for long. Time to lift.” He beckoned for her and Don to head for the bridge.

  Dan vacated the seat at the control panel when Bain stepped back onto the bridge. For a moment, Bain hesitated. Yet he was the commander, the oldest, and with the most experience. It was his duty to launch the Nova Corona.

  The Nova Corona's engines roared into life. Lights flared all over the camp, search lights and lanterns inside tents and even search lights from the canyon above. Bain slapped the controls for the ramp and heard it grind and shriek into life as it lifted and folded into place. He turned off the viewing screens and folded back the shield plates for the bridge. Power was at eighty percent. They only needed eighty-five percent for launching to atmospheric flight.

  Dark shapes came running out of the darkness. Bain hit the ship's outer floodlights. A tight grin lit his face as the running pirates stumbled to a stop, raising arms to shield their faces from the brightness. Some even dropped their weapons. The bald man, their leader, shouted something Bain couldn't hear over the rising roar of the engines. He gestured around to the rear of the ship.

  “Lissy—"

  “I'm on it!” she shouted, and dashed back through the airlock, her gun out and ready light flashing.

  Two seconds later, Bain heard the distinct bang-clang-thud of the ramp locking into place. The green light for the cargo hatch came to life on his board—the hatch and airlock were shut and sealed.

  Power hit eighty-five percent. Bain swept his hand over an array of switches and buttons, hitting every single one with the same ease he had seen Lin use thousands of times. The Nova Corona shuddered and tried to lurch to one side. Bain adjusted the power to the aft lifter jets without even thinking. He half-closed his eyes and listened to the song of the ship.

  “Fi'in guard us,” he whispered.

  Then they were up; two meters; five meters; eight meters. The gust from the lifter jets tore through the camp, knocking over tents and sending people tumbling across the rocky ground. Bain twisted the omni-directional and the ship whipped around to port almost too quickly to follow. Below, the pirates struggled to get to their feet. Futile blasts from beam burners and explosives launchers reached for the Nova Corona, but fell short. Laughter and triumphant whoops rang out through the bridge as the ship arched up toward the sky and flew for the horizon.

  * * * *

  The Rangers landed before the pirates could gather themselves together and flee, much less fight back. Marlin Feris was out of his prison and loaded into the Ranger shuttle before the Nova Corona landed at the spaceport.

  Lin, Herin and Dr. Haral met the ship when it landed, and Dr. Haral insisted on giving all the Scouts thorough physical exams, not just his daughter and Bain. When the Rangers brought in Marlin Feris, they asked the Leaper doctor to examine the man as well.

  Ironically, they learned only a day later that the drugs weren't specifically what had caused his mental deterioration, but rather the tumor spreading through his brain.

  The drugs were artificial, created in an illegal lab and the Rangers were delighted to finally have its specific location, so they could raid it. Those drugs had triggered mutations in Feris’ brain cells. The tumor was growing so quickly, Dr. Haral estimated the man only had a few more months to live. Ultimately, the constant drugged euphoria the pirates had inflicted on Feris had been a kindness.

  Jayza Fyx was nominated as head of the intervention committee between the various secession parties and Gemar's government. The attack on the spaceport administration building and other spots across the planet, and the senseless deaths of innocents had turned public opinion firmly against the secessionists. The fact that two-thirds of the pirates and many members of the secession parties were citizens of the Conclave worked against them.

  “They'll probably hang on for a few more decades,” Lin said, when the news reached her. “I wouldn't expect them to ever have as much power and influence as they did before. They'll probably drop to so few, they'll be told to either leave Gemar or change their ways."

  Bain was glad. He liked Gemar, despite all the problems and sad memories. He wanted to be able to come back to the planet again.

  He didn't know if he would have much time in the next few years, though. Now that Lin's tribunal duties had ended and the Estal'es'cai was ready to move on, there was no real reason to stay on Gemar. With the good report on the Scouts Captain Gil had promised to make and the success of their first mission behind them, Bain knew it was time for the Scouts to come before the Commonwealth Council and petition to become an official force for the Commonwealth.

  Next stop, Centralis.

  END

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Michelle lives in North Royalton, Ohio, just about half an hour from Lake Erie and Cleveland. She graduated from Northwestern College, Iowa, with a BA in theater/English, and from Regent University, Virginia, with an MA in communication (film/writing). She has over 40 short stories and poems to her credit in fan fiction—Star Trek, Highlander, the Phoenix, Beauty & the Beast, Stingray, among others. Her first professional sale was also a first-place win in the Writers of the Future Contest, with the short story “Relay". This story introduced one of her favorite “Barbie Dolls", Rhea Jones. She's a pivotal figure in a series of books Michelle calls Wildvine County. Someday they'll even see print....

  “Sunsinger” belongs in a universe Michelle created called “The Commonwealth". Bain and his adventures are about 3/4 of the way through the planned books—there's a lot of history she's still fleshing out. It's great fun, having thousands of people and stories running around in her head. And someday she'll get them all on paper.

  Keep track of the entire ten-part series on Michelle's author page:

  www.writers-exchange.com/author.php/96

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  Visit www.writers-exchange.com/epublishing for information on additional titles by this and other authors.