She looked at Leonidas, who had maneuvered his way into the airlock as soon as he had seen her leaving their craft, and shook her head. He shook his right back. He also did not believe this would work. Abelardus was the fourth person in the airlock with them. He stood at the back, glowering as the staff was taped up there. He held the fake one in addition to his own weapon, which he had kept throughout the chaos. They appeared depressingly similar, neither looking like some breathtaking super powerful artifact.
Beck lowered his hands as a clunk sounded, the airlock cabin pressure equalizing to that of the shuttle. The hatch slid open. Alisa slumped as she found herself looking at the muzzles of rifles. Many rifles.
A dull red light glowed all around the soldiers, and the sounds of fans filled her ears. Was the entire shuttle designed for a decontamination protocol?
“Are we going to have a fight?” Alisa asked, glancing at Leonidas, surprised he hadn’t immediately leaped forward to try to disarm them.
He was watching her. Waiting to see if she ordered it? Or if the men truly threatened them?
“I’d rather not,” Tomich said wearily, coming into view. He had removed the helmet of his suit, and his sweaty hair stuck up in a dozen directions. “I’ve been talking with the admiral, trying to negotiate with him on your behalf. It’s not helping things that you ran off in another direction and took another ship.”
Alisa opened her mouth to say that hadn’t been her idea, but he continued on.
“I did tell him that Adler saved the lives of some of our men.” Tomich shrugged.
“Was he deeply impassioned and moved?” Alisa asked.
“Not noticeably so. But I think if I hand in the staff and say Adler was too much trouble to arrest, I might only be reprimanded and not lose my career.” He looked over her shoulder to where Abelardus still stood in the airlock. “Is that the staff?”
Since Alisa had expected a question more along the lines of, “Is one of those the right staff?” she looked back to check.
Abelardus was working his magic. The staff from the offerings pile glowed fiercely, its runes ablaze. She almost had to shield her eyes.
“It will not work for your people,” Abelardus said with a sneer and held it close to his chest, as if he would fight to keep it.
A good strategy. If they gave up too easily, Tomich would be suspicious.
“So long as we can throw it in a vault and your people can’t find it.” Tomich’s gaze shifted to Leonidas. “Or your people.”
“The station is due to disappear back into the rift soon, sir,” one of the pilots called back. “Should we move the shuttle away?”
“Yes,” Tomich said. “I don’t want to go for a ride with what’s left of that station.”
“Especially when it might not come back,” Abelardus said.
Tomich looked sharply at him. “What do you mean?”
“Did you not leave the keys in the doorway?”
“No, we grabbed them on the way out.” Tomich waved toward the front of the shuttle. “We’ve got them in a tantalum box. My people will want to study the station further.”
“You mean loot it further.”
“You’re the one holding a staff you stole from a woman’s coffin.”
Abelardus clenched his jaw.
“I suppose we’ll have to find someone else who can activate the key though.” Tomich looked curiously at Alisa. “Unless you’d like to reenlist while you’re here today.”
“If I were to reenlist, it would be so I could fly, not stand out there in a spacesuit, touching orbs.”
“Perhaps the Alliance would see the value in having you fly again.”
“I think that may be wishful thinking after the last couple of… incidents I’ve been involved in. Besides—” Alisa eyed Leonidas and thought of Jelena, “—I have other missions that are my priority.”
“Your daughter?”
“My daughter.” And if she could, she would like to help Leonidas find a solution to his problem. Which was also now her problem, unless she wanted to be “just friends” with him for the rest of her life. She almost wondered if this was the sun gods’ way of punishing her, by giving her a man she couldn’t have because she’d turned her back on Jonah so quickly. But if so, they were unjustly punishing Leonidas too.
“Take us out of here, Lieutenant Saul,” Tomich said, waving his finger at the pilot. “Marchenko, I’ll drop you all off at your airlock if you give me the staff without a fight.”
“That deal sounds fine to me, but…” She lifted her open hands. “I’m not the one holding it.”
“What do you say, Starseer?” Tomich asked.
Alisa expected Abelardus to feign great reluctance and then hand it over. But he stepped back as far as he could in the small airlock chamber, keeping the staff close to his chest.
“You’ll have to take it from me if you want it.” He sneered at the soldiers. “If you can.”
“Ah,” Alisa said, holding up a finger. “That’s not—”
Leonidas surged into motion, and she stumbled back, startled. He bumped Beck as he lunged for Abelardus, and Beck tumbled to the deck, landing at the soldiers’ feet. Fortunately, nobody fired. They were scooting back, gaping as Leonidas grabbed Abelardus and hurled him to the deck inside the airlock.
Abelardus fought back, pushing at Leonidas’s chest with the staff. He was not strong enough to physically dislodge a cyborg, but he brought his mental powers to bear, and Leonidas flew upward. He rose so fast and far that his back struck the ceiling. Abelardus sprang to his feet. Leonidas kicked out as he fell. A boot slammed into Abelardus’s chest, and he tumbled back, hitting the side of the airlock with bone-crunching force. They reached for each other, and one of the staffs flew aside, almost striking Beck. Limbs tangled, and the men thrashed, going down again.
Despite Abelardus’s mental powers, Leonidas landed on top of him, straddling his torso and his hands going around Abelardus’s neck in a tableau similar to the one they’d found themselves in during their sparring match in the cargo hold.
Abelardus made a strangled noise, trying to breathe. Alisa lifted a hand, not sure if she should try to intercede, or if it would be safe for her to do so. Was this some ruse that they had decided to enact between the two of them? Had Abelardus proposed it by speaking into Leonidas’s mind? Or had Leonidas taken it upon himself to make this staff handoff look good?
“Leonidas,” Alisa said, when it became clear that Abelardus could no longer fight back—his face was turning red as he clawed at Leonidas’s armored forearms. “Let go.”
She eased back into the airlock chamber and picked up the fallen staff.
Is this the right one? she asked in her mind, hoping Abelardus was monitoring her. It was so similar to the usual one he carried that she could not tell. It had stopped glowing when Leonidas attacked.
Yes. Get this troll off me.
Alisa handed the staff to Tomich. “Take it. It’s nothing but trouble.”
Abelardus made another wheezing noise.
“Leonidas,” Alisa repeated, turning back to him as soon as Tomich accepted the staff. She dropped to one knee. “It’s over. Let him go.”
The fury and rage in Leonidas’s eyes seemed real, not feigned, and Alisa reached out to put her hand on his armored shoulder.
“And just in case this is about that night in NavCom,” she said softly, “I think the punch was enough of a punishment.”
Leonidas’s lip curled, but he released Abelardus and knelt back.
He looked at her as Abelardus lay on the deck, gasping for air. “I do not agree,” he said.
“Then it’s a good thing I’m in command and you’re working for me now, isn’t it?” She removed her hand and backed away so both men could stand. “Let him up.”
Tomich’s eyebrows lifted, but nobody else said anything. Leonidas gave Abelardus a final glower and rose to his feet. He leaned his shoulder against the side of the airlock and crossed his arms over his chest, as
if to say, “What now?”
“We heading to the Storm Fury, sir?” the pilot called back.
Tomich eyed the staff that he now held, then looked at Alisa, and finally at Leonidas. She hoped he was weighing the likelihood that Leonidas would attack him next if he tried to turn him over to his admiral.
“To the freighter. We have some guests to drop off.” Tomich lowered his voice. “And then I have to convince Admiral Moreau not to follow that freighter as it gets out of this quarantine zone and hopefully disappears from Alliance radar for a long time.”
“That sounds like a good idea to me,” Alisa said.
Tomich headed for the front of the shuttle.
Abelardus propped himself onto one elbow and rubbed his throat. “Don’t think that your people can hide that staff where Starseers won’t find it,” he called after Tomich. “We’ll be back for it.”
Tomich did not respond. Alisa nudged Abelardus with the toe of her boot.
What? I’m adding dramatic flair.
I think the proper term is hamming it up, Alisa replied silently.
I had no idea you were a critic on acting.
I’m a critic on everything. It’s part of my charm.
Epilogue
Alisa did not leave NavCom until they passed the warning buoy, and the Alliance ships had long since disappeared from the sensor display. She hadn’t truly believed the Alliance would let them go. She had expected them to figure out the staff was a fake and for the two warships to come zooming after them, filling her rear camera and threatening to blow them all out of space.
But her cameras remained empty of anything except stars, and she hadn’t heard a peep since the medical shuttle had decontaminated and cleared her team, and dropped them off at the Nomad. She would have known if a comm message had come in because she had not left NavCom all night, choosing to doze for a few hours in her seat instead of finding her bed. According to the Nomad’s clock, morning had come. She had already plotted a course for Cleon Moon, so she decided she could risk slipping away for some coffee.
Judging by the squawks drifting up from the cargo hold, the chickens were already up for the day. Too bad they had been on strike and hadn’t been laying eggs since the radiation incident. Alisa wouldn’t have minded an omelet to go with her coffee, assuming they were safe to consume.
When she reached the intersection, she heard voices coming from one of the crew cabins. Abelardus? It sounded like him.
Her first instinct was to continue on, to avoid him whenever possible, but she still needed to find out where his brother was. More, she felt responsible for the staff since she had been a part of retrieving it. Eventually, she needed to learn what he planned, and also what Alejandro planned. Did they want to be dropped off somewhere? She hoped so, but could she in good conscience let either of them go with the staff? No. But how could she stop them? Abelardus had power she couldn’t do anything to thwart, and Alejandro… He might still have Leonidas, at least in regard to the staff and fulfilling the emperor’s dying wishes.
She padded down the corridor in her socks, pausing a few feet from the open hatch. It was Alejandro’s cabin, but that was definitely Abelardus speaking.
“…consider working together,” he was saying.
Alisa grimaced. Was that what they were considering? If Abelardus had decided to go along with Alejandro, did that mean he had accepted the idea of the emperor’s young son wielding that staff? If so, Alisa might live to regret her choice to help them.
“We have different goals,” Alejandro said stiffly.
“You don’t know that.”
“You want to involve her.”
“Her daughter may be able to wield the staff.”
Alisa’s blood chilled. They were talking about her? About her daughter?
“So?” Alejandro asked. “You want some mouthy pilot’s kid to use it? Why? The prince has been trained from birth to make sound decisions, and he’s even now being trained to use his Starseer powers.”
“You don’t know that. You have no idea where he is or how to find him.”
“I’ll figure it out. I figured out the staff, didn’t I?”
Abelardus snorted. “With your cyborg’s help. I understand you’re losing him. To a mouthy pilot.”
Alisa suspected she should back away instead of eavesdropping from the middle of the corridor where anyone could stumble across her. She would be surprised if Abelardus did not already know she was there. Still, it was hard to think of backing away when all she wanted was to run in there and kick Alejandro in the shin. Or perhaps someplace higher.
“Unless you stay on this ship with her,” Abelardus added. “She might be your best bet to find the prince.”
“What makes you believe that? And don’t think I can’t sense you trying to manipulate me.”
Abelardus laughed. “With words only. I’m not that gifted at mind manipulation. I might be able to temporarily convince you of something, but it wouldn’t stick. As for the rest, my brother apparently kidnapped her daughter.”
“What does that have to do with the prince?”
“Durant is thoughtful and academic. If he took the girl, he had a reason. He may have figured out long before I did that she’s descended from powerful Starseers. Alcyone, very possibly. I don’t know enough about the Staffs of Lore to be certain that they’re keyed to certain dynasties, but it does seem possible, especially now that I’ve watched Alisa touch it and bring it to life.”
“If you think I want some Alliance-loving rebel’s kid to have access to that staff, you’re spaced.”
He had all manner of adjectives for her, didn’t he? Alisa glowered at the wall to his cabin.
You can come in and join the conversation if you wish, Abelardus said dryly into her thoughts.
I might kick Alejandro if I did.
I wouldn’t object. It would be nice to see you unleash your temper on someone else.
I only unleash my temper on people who deserve it, she growled in her mind.
I do apologize for that. Sometimes… sometimes when you want something badly enough, you don’t realize you’re influencing those around you to get it.
“Are you listening to me, Abelardus?” Alejandro asked.
“Yes, Doctor. My point is that my brother may know more about where the prince is than you do. Didn’t you say that he’s with Starseers?”
“I didn’t, no, but I suppose you know everything that’s in my head.”
“I learn what I wish to learn.”
“Leonidas is the one who said he’s with the Starseers, some that were friendly to the empire. That’s all he knows. The Alliance is offering two hundred thousand tindarks for that information.”
“They might be wiser to put out a bounty on my brother. He always sided with the empire.” Abelardus grunted. “He may even be with the prince now. Alisa’s daughter could be too. He could have been the one to collect both of them. Perhaps others too. Other children who might become powerful enough to change the course of history.”
Alisa rested her palm on the cool metal wall, hardly able to process his words. Powerful? Jelena? A girl who could barely get a volleyball over a net?
“You said you don’t know where your brother is,” Alejandro said slowly, “that he hasn’t responded to your messages.”
“This is true, but I know where he was last seen. And we’re already heading in that direction.”
“Cleon Moon?”
“Cleon Moon.”
A touch on Alisa’s shoulder made her jump. She spun, putting her finger to her lips before she caught herself.
Leonidas stood in the corridor, wearing his loose exercise togs and holding two mugs. He tilted his head back toward the intersection. She blushed at having been caught listening, but was glad he did not say anything and give her away. Abelardus hadn’t mentioned her presence, judging by Alejandro’s comments. Not that the good doctor held back that much when she was actually in the room.
Alisa followed
Leonidas to the mess hall, where he handed her one of the steaming mugs of coffee.
Though her mind was reeling from listening in on that conversation, she took a moment to smile at him and say, “Thank you.”
“Was your eavesdropping fruitful?” he asked.
“More like disturbing. And don’t pretend you and your enhanced cyborg ears have never eavesdropped.”
“Hm.” He eyed a few chicken feathers scattered on the deck and sat at one end of the table.
The ancient, powerful, and mysterious Staff of Lore lay atop it like a toy someone had forgotten to put away. It wasn’t as if anyone on the ship didn’t know about it, so Alisa supposed there wasn’t much point in squirreling it away.
“The problem with eavesdropping,” Leonidas said, “is that you sometimes hear unpleasantries that you might have been happier not hearing.”
“Is that the only problem?” Alisa wondered how long he had been behind her, also hearing that conversation.
“One might also list the questionable morality as a problem.”
“But only if one was particularly sanctimonious, right?” Alisa started to sit across the table from him but decided to be cozier since they had the mess hall to themselves. She slung her legs over the bench and sat beside him.
“Probably.”
She leaned her shoulder against his and sipped from her mug. “Ah, good. Strong. Coffee and chocolate shouldn’t be diluted.”
“I agree.” He sipped from his own mug.
She wouldn’t have minded if he had slipped an arm around her waist, but maybe it was better to keep touching to a minimum, since nothing could come of it.
“The ship is heading to Cleon Moon,” she said. “Have you looked to see if there are any cybernetics facilities there? I know it’s not an overly modern and industrialized world, but there are some research outposts, if memory serves.”
“There aren’t any facilities.”
“Ah.”
Relic of Sorrows: Fallen Empire, Book 4 Page 27