“I’m pretty sure I know where they would keep her. Well, I’ve narrowed it down to two places,” Briar said.
“How do we know he still has her or hasn’t killed her?” Zabe asked and I shot him a look.
“She is alive,” Briar blurted.
“How do you know?” I demanded.
She hesitated.
“What?”
“I didn’t know if I should show you—”
“Briar, just tell me!”
“I’ve been monitoring a few different things. Tapped into some conversations. Hacked a few databases. I discovered a transmission that was sent to Valinor demanding research materials or Caspar would kill her.”
“And?”
She sighed. “Zia, play video.”
Caspar appeared onscreen. “I have your Empress. She’s alive for now, but she won’t be for long, unless you send over all of her father’s research.”
The man Akacia had called Galton responded, “We want proof of life.”
“Of course.”
My hand flew up to my face as the camera flipped to show Akacia curled up in a ball on the floor, bloody and beaten, but alive.
“From this video, I was able to narrow the room down,” Briar said.
“You’ve been looking for a way to help her all this time?” I asked.
Briar bit on her bottom lip and shrugged. “I like her.”
“You never cease to amaze me. Thank you.”
“We all liked her, Ever. We just love our families,” Huxley muttered.
“I know! Don’t you think I know? You guys are my closest friends. You are my family. I don’t want to let you down. I don’t want to hurt you. But…this girl…she’s…” I searched for the right words but couldn’t find them. Thankfully they understood.
“We know,” Briar said. “And that’s why I kept looking.”
Huxley sighed. “You can’t go alone.”
“Bri needs to stay with the ship,” Zabe said.
“I’ll go,” Huxley said. “You and me. We’ll go get her.”
I smiled at him. “How long until we can get close enough?”
“We can be there in twelve earthhours. It won’t take long for you to get the Artemis close enough. Caspar has an alarm system on his ship, but I can hack in and let you know when you can jump.”
“Where do we go?” It had been a long time since I had been on Caspar’s ship. When he took us from our parents, we lived on his ship for years while he trained us. Just thinking about being there made me sick. I had blocked out so much of what happened there and I worried going back would trigger those memories.
Briar pulled up a map of Caspar’s ship on the big screen and highlighted the two rooms she thought Akacia could be in. They weren’t close to each other, but they weren’t clear across the ship either. I could do this. I could get in and get out, but I had to go alone. I couldn’t risk anyone else’s lives.
“If we do this, he will kill our families.”
We all stood in silence thinking about that until Huxley said, “Do you really think we’ll ever find them?”
Briar held up a tiny little metal object. “It’s a tracker. There’s a reason I chose that closet. When you jump into that closet, Ever, stick this there. I can control it from here. Not only will I be able to track his ship, but I should be able to hack into their comms and see who they’re talking to.”
“You’re a genius.” Looking at them all, I said, “This is something we all need to be in agreement on. There’s a good chance she’ll hate us and our families will be killed. Most likely, he’ll come after us.”
Briar, Huxley, and Zabe nodded. “Go get her.”
Smiling, I turned to leave and get ready, but Briar stopped me. “Ever!”
“Yeah?”
“I found the tracker on our ship.”
Spinning back around, I growled. “Tell me.”
“I took care of it. I hacked in and sent it a virus. Next time we’re at a station, we can have it removed. It’s a lot bigger than the one I just gave you and it’s on the outside of the ship.”
“I want to know how it got there in the first place!” It infuriated me that there was either a traitor at one of the space stations or the tracker had always been there.
“I’ll find out,” Briar answered.
I went to the weapons training room and after pounding out my anger on the punching bag. I spent some time training with different weapons. After that I ate a good meal. I had to keep up my strength. With nothing else to do, I stood at the window on the bridge for a while and thought about Akacia. It had been ten nights since I handed her over—ten nights since I’ve slept.
As I walked by the room she had slept in on my way to the med bay, I turned and walked in. Something by the bed caught my eye. I crossed the room and picked up the ring. Kaci’s ring. I ran my finger over her family crest and felt a tear slip down my cheek. I needed to get this back to her. I placed it in a drawer in my room for safekeeping.
In the med bay, I found an adrenaline patch. I placed it on my stomach and waited for the burst of energy to hit me. With the adrenalin pumping through my veins, I hurried to the weapons room where I chose a knife and a gun. I walked briskly to the bridge and examined the map one more time.
I heard Briar approaching from behind. “You’re going alone, aren’t you?”
“It’s too dangerous,” I responded, grabbing one of the jump devices.
She nodded and handed me the tracker. “Be careful and bring her back.”
I placed my hand on her arm. “Thank you.”
The Artemis was easy for one person to man. I powered it up and blasted off.
“Everleigh! What are you doing?” Huxley’s pissed off voice came through my earpiece the moment I’d drifted free of the Nirvana.
“Sorry, Hux. I have to do this myself.”
“You’re going to get yourself killed!”
“I’ve got this, Hux. Just be ready. She’ll need medical help.”
Time seemed to stretch on forever. My leg bounced up and down and my fingers wouldn’t stop tapping the control board. Would she be okay? She had to be okay. What if I was too late? What if I found her dead? What then? I wasn’t sure I would be able to jump back off that ship. I would kill him right then and there. Or be killed.
With the Artemis the perfect distance away from Caspar’s ship, I double checked my weapons, and took out the jump device. “On your word, Briar.”
A few seconds later, she said, “Go now. I will keep it down as long as I can.”
“Okay. I’m going in.”
“Good luck, Ever,” Huxley said with a sigh.
I entered the location of a small closet near the first room. Taking a deep breath and closing my eyes, I pushed the button. When my eyes opened, I was in the closet on Caspar’s ship. The space was cramped but the door was already open. I dug out the tracker from my pocket and stuck it in the corner on the floor. I peeked out into the corridor. The coast was clear. Quickly and quietly, I darted over to the room and peered inside. Empty.
The second room was down the hall. Getting there didn’t take long, yet it felt like it took forever. Double-checking the corridor for guards, I slipped around the corner and down to the room.
My heart stopped when I looked into the room. Bile rose in my throat and I forced it back down. Akacia was there, on the ground, chained like an animal, dripping wet. She looked up at me with feral eyes.
This was my fault.
Fury took over and I gripped my gun looking for someone to blame and kill for treating her like this. Nobody was in the room but her. Assessing the situation, I had to get her out of the chains and then I could jump with her.
Someone was whistling from the corridor behind me. I slipped inside the room and waited. In a singsong voice, a man called, “Time to lose some fingers.”
As soon as he stepped across the threshold, I threw a high kick, knocking him back. He slammed me against the wall. I threw a looping punch
that hit him in the head and he staggered back enough for me kick him in the chest. I slammed his head into the wall. He kicked me and I flew, landing on my back. I wrapped my legs around his and tripped him up, sending him crashing to the ground next to me. I reached for the knife at my hip and stabbed him in the neck, killing him.
I used his shirt to wipe the knife clean, and put it back in my scabbard. I searched his pockets for keys and sighed with relief when I found them. Tears stung my eyes as I scrambled over to Akacia. I blinked them back. This was not the time or the place to get emotional. Still in my clothes, she tried to drag herself away, but she was too weak to get more than an inch. With the cuffs unlocked, I carefully picked her up in my arms and hit the jump button.
I set her down gently and speaking into the earpiece, I said, “I’ve got her. We’re on our way back.”
“Copy that, Commander,” Briar answered.
We were back on the Artemis. It almost seemed too easy.
But before I could even complete that thought, the ship lurched and alarms started going off.
“Damn!” I punched buttons and took the wheel. It rocked again. “They’re firing at us. Somehow they found us and they’re attacking.”
Silence.
“Nirvana? Can you hear me? Nirvana, this is your commander. Come in.”
Nothing.
Aiming our weapons at Caspar’s ship, I fired, hitting, but not causing much damage. They fired back and the Artemis started spinning. Studying the GPS, I noticed a small planet not too far away. I grabbed the manual controls and steered toward it.
The planet got bigger and bigger and we rushed toward it far too quickly. Reality hit me as we entered the planet’s gravitational pull. We were going to crash. I couldn’t land, but I slowed the speed of the ship and brought up our shields hoping they’d protect us a little from the heat of entry, maybe even the crash.
We came in fast and I braced myself against the controls. As we slammed into the ground, my head hit the control panel and blackness surrounded me.
I startled awake with a gasp. My head pounded and there was some blood on the panel in front of me. I touched the place where the pain originated and winced. It wasn’t gushing, so it was just a minor cut. There was a burning smell that made me gag. I breathed in through my mouth so I wouldn’t throw up. Where were we? Looking around it all came flooding back to me. I was in the Artemis and it had crashed. But where was…
“Akacia!” I spun around to where I had laid her down. She wasn’t there.
A flash of red caught my eye. Blood. Supplies and debris covered the spacecraft. I made my way over to it and pushed away a piece of metal that had fallen on top of her. Rolling her onto her back, I assessed her injuries. She had a nasty gash on her head, much worse than the one I had on mine. Her lips were cracked. Her skin pale. And she looked twenty pounds lighter than the last time I had seen her. She was still somewhat wet and I could only imagine why.
There was another wound on her side, but the head injury concerned me the most. I ripped a piece of cloth and pressed it to her head.
I checked her pupils for responsiveness and was relieved to find that she was still alive. The bleeding was my first concern and hopefully she would wake up soon. I cradled her head in my lap and leaned back against the wall. Besides Akacia, I had two major concerns. I wasn’t sure if we had landed on a friendly planet and there was Caspar. Would he follow us here to complete the job?
We couldn’t stay in the ship.
I ran the back of my hand along Akacia’s face and my thumb traced her lips. My lips ached to kiss hers. My arms ached to hold her.
A quick peek under the cloth and I could see that the bleeding hadn’t stopped. There was a medical kit near the door. I gently rearranged Akacia and grabbed the kit. Once I had the wound clean and dressed. I rushed to the controls and pushed a few buttons, hoping they still worked.
The Artemis’ onboard computer analyzed data collected from the planet’s environment and I surmised that the atmosphere was safe. We could breathe. No poisons registered. Temperature was good. That was a relief. I checked the GPS to see if it could tell me what planet we were on, but it wasn’t working. I tried the radio again and got nothing.
Next, I assessed the rest of the ship. There was a gaping hole in the floor, the engines wouldn’t switch on, and the cloaking didn’t work. There was no flying this thing out of here. There was no flying it ever again. I needed to take a look outside and see where we were.
The door was stuck. I had to slam into it a few times to before it flew open and I stumbled outside. I took a few deep breaths to test the air even though the readings said it was fine. It was thick and humid, but breathable. We had crashed into a forest of giant mushroom-like trees whose leaves were on top, facing the sun. Their wide trunks were tangled with winding vines and had no low branches. With lots of thorny plants growing underneath the tall trees, the smaller brush looked just as friendly. The trees would provide cover and shelter, but if Caspar saw us go down, he would probably be back to make sure we were dead. There was no way I could move the ship. It was too big to hide. It needed to be destroyed. There was a self-destruct button. Once I hit it, I had one minute to get us to safety. Then if Caspar did come looking, he’d only find the wreckage. Hopefully, he’d assume we were dead. Of course that meant that if my crew came looking for us, they’d assume we were dead, too. No matter what I chose, we were screwed.
Back inside, I tore apart the rest of the ship looking for food or water, knowing that there wasn’t any. I found a thin blanket and some rope and grabbed them. I took inventory of the weapons and put as many on my person as I could.
Akacia moaned. I hurried back to her and cupped her face in my hands. “Akacia? Can you hear me?”
She moaned again and turned her head a bit.
“Akacia? Open your eyes.”
She blinked a couple times and I knew when she could focus because her eyes showed every emotion she was experiencing—relief, happiness, hurt, pain, fear. I hated that I had that affect on her. “Are you okay?”
Her blue eyes, dark with betrayal, narrowed and she looked away.
“You have a head wound. It’s bleeding. We need to get out of here. Caspar will come after us.” I kept my sentences short and emotionless. “Do you think you can walk?”
She made no effort to answer, but swallowed and tried to get up. As soon as she was on her feet, she lost her balance and started to fall. I reached out and caught her. “Okay, Empress, I’ll carry you.”
She was heavy, but I was strong. I scooped her up. Her eyes fluttered closed again. Taking a deep breath, I hit the self-destruct button and hightailed it out of there. I ran as fast as I could with her thrown over my shoulder and found a spot behind a nearby tree. The boom rocked the ground under my feet and the heat from the explosion reached us where we huddled together, but thankfully we were unharmed by flying debris or fire. Within minutes, the ship was destroyed. I hoped I did the right thing.
Akacia didn’t wake up as I walked. At least an hour had passed when I spotted a cave. I set her down outside while I went in to see if it was safe. It was small, but dry. I set her inside and then stretched. It was warm, but I didn’t know how chilly it would get in the evening. I should get a fire going just in case and by the look of her lips, Akacia needed water.
I checked under the bandage first. The bleeding had stopped. I closed my eyes for a second, thanking whoever was listening for that small favor. I hated leaving her, but I had to. I found the firewood pretty quickly, but water was another story.
As I built the fire at the mouth of the cave, ominous black clouds rolled in faster than I had ever seen and a brilliant shock of white ripped through the gray sky. Another lightning bolt hit a nearby tree, cracking it in half. Way too close for comfort. The smell of the burnt tree tickled my nose.
“Shit,” I swore. The fury of the storm was incredible, but where was the water? If it would rain, we’d have something to drink. Not that
I had anything to collect it in. That should be my next priority. Finding something to hold water.
Lightning crashed down again and again making me very glad we were in the cave. No rain ever came. Then as quickly as the storm had appeared, it was gone.
Akacia moaned again. I looked over to make sure she was okay. Her chest rose and fell with each breath she took so at least she was still breathing.
Once the fire was roaring, I relaxed a little. My whole body ached. The bump had grown, but it wasn’t bleeding anymore and the headache was manageable. I watched Akacia sleep. Peacefully sometimes, fitfully others. She grimaced. She cried out. But at least she was alive.
Chapter Eight
Akacia
MY HEAD FELT BETTER, BUT my side was still bothering me. I knew I should rest, but I couldn’t be near Everleigh. She betrayed me. She turned me over to that monster. I had to get away. I needed time. Time to think. Time to process. Time to figure out where to go from here.
I could survive on my own.
Once outside the cave, I struggled to get my feet under me. My legs were shaky, but they’d hold. I grabbed one of her knives and placed it in the scabbard on my leg.
“Where are you going?” Everleigh stood in my way. I tried to push by her, but she moved again. “You’re hurt, you’re dehydrated, and hungry. We don’t even know where we are, if this planet has intelligent life on it, or what the terrain is.”
I glared at her for a long time, and this time when I went to go by her, she let me go.
Everleigh was right though. I was hungry and weak, and I needed to find water. As I picked my way through the brush I remembered what my teachers had taught us about how to find water. Stop and listen, look for animals, and lush, green vegetation—even an increase in insects would be a good sign. Head downhill and if all else fails, find mud and dig. Once I got far enough into the trees, I sat on a rock and listened. Minutes passed and I didn’t hear a damn thing that sounded like water, but maybe it was just because the pounding in my head was so loud. I looked around on the ground for animal tracks. What kind of animals lived here? Maybe there weren’t any.
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