by Lauren Esker
"No, but I might know a way to find out." Rei thrust his hands into the support cradles for the piloting system. Unlike his pod, a larger ship like this was flown mainly by automated systems, but there would still be a pilot on board and the ability to manually override the computer. His silver cuffs couldn't have gained access, at least not without a lot of work on his part, but the gold ones, with their more extensive access permissions, clicked right in. As he'd suspected, the pilot systems were not locked down. No one without pilot mods could've accessed them, and Kyaroi apparently hadn't bothered to learn that Rei had been given specialized pilot training, not just the basic battlepod mods.
Rei closed his eyes as the pilot tech enhancements in his brain came online, lighting up with information on the ship and its systems. He only had access to the flight-related systems, which meant he couldn't do anything to locate Kyaroi directly. But there were a few things he could do. The artificial gravity, for example, was part of the same system as the ship's inertial damping. It was currently off, since they were on a planet.
"Hold onto something," Rei said absently, as he hooked his feet around the base of the pilot's chair and turned on the gravity, then reversed it.
There was a startled yelp and a loud thump as Jeren proved that he had not, in fact, grabbed hold of anything. In the rest of the ship, Rei heard the crashing as unsecured items tumbled to the ceiling which had become the floor. Hopefully one of those tumbling items was Kyaroi.
Rei opened his eyes to the vertigo-inducing sight of an upside-down pasture and treeline through the forward viewport. He tried to tell his brain that the pasture was rightside up, it was just gravity in the ship that had turned topsy-turvy, but with the blood rushing to his head and his body dangling from his feet and wrists, it was very hard to convince himself that he wasn't hanging upside down.
Jeren scrambled to his feet, standing on what had until a moment ago been the ceiling. "Bet that surprised the bastard. I'll go find—"
"No need." Rei spoke absently, most of his brain taken up with piloting functions. It wasn't quite a trance, but it was close to it. He'd forgotten how much data was involved in piloting a larger ship, nothing like the bare-bones system of his battlepod.
"What? Why?" Jeren demanded impatiently.
Rei had picked up a cycling airlock on the level below them. Was Kyaroi leaving the ship? No—worse. It was one of the airlocks leading to the skimmers.
"He's taking a skimmer," Rei reported. "You'll never make it. He's already separating from the ship."
It was very hard to think. As well as the pilot functions now running in his brain, he was still struggling to get past Kyaroi's lockdown. It was never meant to keep out someone with pilot's permissions, just anyone who might try pushing buttons on the currently locked consoles, and the systems were falling into his control one by one.
LIFE SUPPORT ....... UNLOCKED.
COMMUNICATIONS ....... UNLOCKED.
The ship was sending a distress beacon. He quickly deactivated it and replaced it with the "all's well, false alarm" signal, hopefully in time; it couldn't have been running for very long. And he was also picking up a transmission between the skimmer and a personal comm somewhere nearby, probably in the house—
Rei choked.
"What?" Jeren said, seeing the look on his face.
"Kyaroi just ordered the soldiers in the house to kill the hostages," Rei managed to say, insulated by the artificial calm brought on by the piloting state. His emotions were there, but distant, even as their vehemence threatened to bring his carefully maintained mental discipline crashing down.
Gary! SARAH!
And there was nothing he could do to help, short of firing on the house as soon as he got weapons systems back up. Even if he left now and ran as hard as he could, he wasn't close enough.
WEAPONS ....... UNLOCKED.
"You son of a bitch," Rei snarled.
This was something he'd drilled on until he could do it blindfolded—had, in fact, done it blindfolded. These weapons were different from the pod's, but he was used to targeting across the distances between ships, moons, planets. Aiming at something as close as the skimmer was child's play.
The skimmer was just breaking away from the ship, soaring across the pasture as it gained altitude. Rei shot it down with a thought, just like a training simulation. A fireball flashed in the night, lighting up the pasture like a flashbulb before fading into a smeary afterimage.
***
In the house, Sarah was marched through the kitchen into the living room, where a second Galatean soldier, this one female but still scarily tall, guarded her father and two other people she'd never seen before.
"Sarah!" Her father started to rise from the couch. The female Galatean put on a hand, the gold cuff glinting at her wrist, and Gary froze, his welcoming smile becoming fixed.
Sarah gave her dad a little wave and went to hug him before looking curiously at the other two. The fierce-looking woman was impatiently trying to rouse a man in a suit, who stirred with a groan. Leaning close, Sarah whispered, "Who are these people?"
"Federal agents Pradhan and Rhodes," her father murmured. "Who have now learned a valuable lesson about trusting suspicious aliens. Why are we whispering?"
"Because I don't want the Galateans to hear me talk and realize that if they can understand me, I can understand them."
"If it works with them like it does with Rei," her father whispered back, "they're going to understand all of us now that you're in the room, right?"
"I ... uh. Maybe." She hadn't thought of that. "Can we trust those two enough to tell them?"
"Beats the hell out of me. Your call."
There was a sharp exclamation from the leopard-spotted Galatean, making Sarah turn to look.
"It's an order," the woman said, her face cool.
"They're cooperating," Leopard Spots retorted. "There's no need to kill them; we can just stun them and leave."
The woman turned her cool green gaze on the hostages and raised her arm. Sarah's blood turned to ice.
"They're going to kill us!" she screamed.
Pradhan reacted instantly. She whirled around, seized a lamp on the end table, and flung it at the lion woman, who gave a startled curse and batted it aside. The stunned agent, Rhodes, tried to lurch to his feet and sank back into his chair. His hand went to his empty shoulder holster and then dropped away.
"Run!" Pradhan snapped. "There are four of us and two of them. Scatter!"
Half Gary's weight suddenly sagged against Sarah. He'd tried to take a step too quickly and lost his balance. He gripped her with strong hands. "Go," he ordered, eyes wide and scared—for her, not for himself.
"No!" she told him flatly. "I'm not going anywhere without you."
And anyway, there just wasn't time. The lion-woman held her hands toward them and spread her fingers. Sarah threw her arms around her dad as green light bloomed around the woman's cuffs and flowed into her palms.
There was a green flash—blocked by the dark shape of a fast-moving body.
Pradhan had thrown herself between them.
The federal agent hit the floor with a boneless thump and a terrible smell of something burning.
An instant later, green light flared across the lion-woman's body and skittered off, draining away like water from her shielded skin. The woman spun, startled, as Leopard Spots fired again, light splintering in all directions.
"I'm not killing unarmed civilians," he snapped. "And I'm not letting you do it either."
"We'll be gone from this world soon, it's not like it matters—"
"Life matters!" he snarled, showing fanglike teeth. "Honor matters!"
Sarah knew she ought to run, but her dad couldn't move fast, it looked like Rhodes couldn't move at all, and Pradhan was crumpled at her feet in a charred heap. Sarah knelt beside the woman and was startled to discover she was still alive, but horribly burned. Her eyes were open, her mouth moving as she tried to speak. When Sarah tried to get a gr
ip on Pradhan to move her, the injured woman gasped and lapsed into probably merciful unconsciousness.
I can't throw away her sacrifice by staying here. But I can't leave her, and I don't think I can move her on my own. And I have to help Dad.
Rei—
It was as if her desperate thought had summoned him. The door slammed open and Rei stormed through it like a blue-skinned angel of vengeance. He pointed both hands at the two Galateans and fired in a dazzling burst of colored light.
"Rei!" Sarah cried, trying to cover her head with one arm and Pradhan's with the other. Stray fire scattered everywhere, scorching the wallpaper and setting fire to the couch. "Not the spotted guy! Stop! He's helping us—Rei, behind you!"
But the Galatean looming in the doorway fired not at Rei, but at the lion-woman. Under the onslaught she was beaten backward to the kitchen doorway and fell to her knees as her shields failed. She looked up; her eyes widened as she appeared to recognize the Galatean newcomer in the long coat.
"You—!" she began, and he shot her.
Leopard Spots brought up his hands to aim at the two of them, as the lion-woman slumped dead to the floor.
"He helped us!" Sarah shouted again. "Don't kill him!"
"Drop your shields and surrender," Rei told Leopard Spots. "We have the ship and your captain is dead. You're the last one left. You can't win."
"I won't surrender if I'm going to be executed like that."
"You won't," Rei told him. "You have my word."
Leopard Spots took a deep breath and there was a quick glimmer across his body as his shields fell.
The Galatean in the long leather coat brought his arm swiftly into firing position. Rei snarled and knocked his hand aside. "What did I just say?" he snapped.
"I was just going to stun him," the big Galatean said between his teeth. "You do it or I will."
Rei raised his hand, then hesitated. "How many of you were on the ship? Standard crew of eight, right?"
Leopard Spots clenched his jaw. His gaze flicked from Rei to the others; he seemed to decide there was no harm in answering. "Eight, yes."
"And who's he?" Rei asked, tilting his head at the Galatean in the long coat.
"A prisoner," the leopard-man said. "He—"
There was a green flash. Sarah jumped, but there was no crackle of electricity, no stink of burnt flesh; the Galatean folded neatly to the floor. The stranger in the leather coat lowered his hand as Rei turned a hot amber stare on him.
"A person could almost get the impression you're trying to hide something about yourself," Rei said quietly.
The Galatean shook his head and leaned down to strip the gold cuffs off Leopard Spots' wrists; he pocketed them. "You can question him at your leisure later, when we aren't standing at ground zero for reinforcements." He stepped over to the lion-woman's body and repeated the process on her. "You may be weak, but you don't need to be stupid too."
"He's not weak!" Sarah snapped.
Rei turned toward her, turning his back on the Galatean. His eyes met Sarah's, and something, some powerful emotion flashed in them—it was as if he'd been holding himself in check, and now, something in him folded, and his next words came out in a gasp. "Sarah, are you all right?"
She drew a breath that turned to a dry sob. Rei took three quick strides across the room and he was there, taking her in his arms. She clung; she couldn't help it. He was so solid against her. Real. Alive. There.
"I thought ..." he breathed into her hair. "I heard the order to kill you. I thought—"
"I'm okay." Sarah swallowed, pressed her cheek against his chest, and wondered if she'd ever really be okay again.
"Hey, not to break up the reunion, but we've got to get this woman to a hospital, fast," Gary said, looking up at them.
Sarah took a shaky breath and pulled away from Rei. "I can call an ambulance, but—" She turned to Rei. "I wouldn't be okay, Dad and I would both be dead, if not for Agent Pradhan. Is there anything on that ship to help her, some kind of advanced medical technology? She's really badly hurt. I don't know if she'll survive." Even if she did, she was going to be badly scarred for life.
"Let me see." Rei bent over the injured woman. Her breathing was so faint Sarah could barely tell she was breathing at all. Gary had covered her with a blanket. "There should be a medbay on the ship, but I don't know how to use the equipment. Jeren?"
The Galatean shook his head. "Sorry, not my area." He staggered to his feet with Leopard Spots thrown over his shoulder. "I'm gonna throw this guy in stasis. If it's okay with you."
"Do what you like," Rei said shortly. He picked up Agent Pradhan, very gently, holding her bridal-carry style.
"Hey, wait!" Agent Rhodes staggered to his feet, holding onto the back of the chair. "You're just going to—take her?"
"I have to. You are right," Rei told Sarah. "From what I've seen of your world's medicine, there is not much you can do for her here. But I can put her in stasis on the ship and find someone to help her. She protected you. I promise I will take care of her."
The bottom plunged out of Sarah's stomach. In all of this, she had forgotten that the eventual outcome of all of this was Rei leaving Earth.
And now he had a ship to do it in.
18
___
T HEY LEFT SARAH'S DAD to deal with Agent Rhodes, who was still shaky from the stun. Sarah walked close beside Rei as he carried Pradhan with the injured agent's head tucked against his chest. She kept wanting to put her hand on his arm, just to touch him, to reassure herself that he was all right—that both of them were all right. She felt strange, dazed and shaky, as if the entire world had an unreal edge to it. The night seemed like some bizarre dream.
And the air in the pasture smelled ominously of smoke. "Rei, did you set something on fire out here?"
"It's a crashed skimmer. I shot it down. I'm surprised you didn't hear it in the house."
"If it happened while they were trying to kill us, I think we had other things on our minds." She could see a dull glow up the hill now, like a banked campfire. "That's not going to start a brush fire, is it?"
"Don't worry," Rei said. "It's too wet out here to burn."
Sarah hoped he was right about that, but he'd already reached the ship. No sneaking around this time; he opened a door in the side—she didn't see how; it seemed to just flow open in front of him—and they entered the cargo bay just in front of the stasis pods. The big Galatean in the leather coat (Jeren, Rei had called him) was just getting done tucking their other prisoner into a pod.
"He's still nice and healthy, just like you like 'em," he remarked, standing back and crossing his arms as Rei and Sarah carefully loaded Pradhan into one of the empty pods. She looked tiny in a pod meant for someone much larger.
"Can you try not being an asshole for five seconds?" Rei asked as the lid of the pod hissed shut. He touched a few buttons; a panel of lights turned pale blue. The Galatean equivalent of green lights? Sarah wondered.
Jeren shrugged and strolled off down the cargo bay. "Guess I'll take care of the dead guys upstairs," he said over his shoulder. "Since you're too busy canoodling with your local piece of tail."
Rei visibly bristled. Sarah squeezed his hand. "It's okay. Is that the guy who was in the stasis pod?"
"Regrettably, yes." He sighed and leaned against her. "I figured, under the circumstances, any backup was better than no backup. I hope we don't regret that."
"Uh ... how dangerous is he?"
"I wish I knew, but I don't want to spring an ambush on him and try to shove him back in the pod unless I'm sure I can take him. Maybe I'll stun him while he's asleep."
This made her smile slightly, as he'd no doubt intended. "What about the ship?" she asked. "Was it damaged in the fight?"
"Only cosmetic damage." He smiled down at her. "Want a tour?"
Her heart leaped ... then sank. "Yes. More than anything. But I need to get back to the house. I can't leave Dad alone with Agent Rhodes, there's no telling what he'l
l do—and, um, there's a ... dead lady in our living room."
"Right. I'll deal with that. You shouldn't have to."
And somehow that was what did it, the reminder of the body in their living room. Sarah discovered that her hands were starting to shake, her teeth to chatter.
"Sarah?" Rei's voice seemed to come from very far away.
"I don't know what's wrong with me," she managed to say.
"I do." Rei's voice was infinitely gentle. "Sarah. Sit down."
He guided her to the floor; it was more of a controlled fall. She leaned into the circle of his arms, shaking as if her body wanted to fly apart.
"They tried to kill us."
"I know," he murmured, stroking her hair.
"We killed them."
"We had to," he whispered. "We killed as few of them as we could."
"I—I know. I thought—I thought you—I was afraid—"
"Shhh. Sarah, it's over."
"Is it?" she asked fiercely into his shoulder, her cheek pressed against the black T-shirt that was all he'd been wearing under the sweater. He smelled like smoke and sweat. "How can it be? You—they—"
The enormity of it choked her. This was what he'd been dealing with. All of this. The danger, the fear—the way Agent Pradhan had just fallen down, the smell of her burnt skin and clothes—
"Sarah, listen to me." Rei was still talking, had been talking, she felt, for some time. "I know what you're feeling right now. But it does get better. We were acting in self-defense. We had to. Your father told me he was in a war—"
"Vietnam," she whispered.
"And he came back from it. And he was all right again, eventually. Right?"
Sarah nodded, dimly aware that Rei's words weren't just for her. He was speaking to himself, too. And that was what allowed her to claw her way back out of her own head, reminding herself that neither of them had to go through this alone. Comforting her helped comfort him. And if she could just make herself say it, not just to herself but to him—
"It wasn't our fault," she said quietly.
"No. It wasn't."
"And it'll get better."