Zero Magnitude (Galaxy Mavericks Book 3)

by Michael La Ronn

  That intonation.

  She recognized something in it.

  It was the same word they'd used when she had to fire at the Galactic Guard ship.

  Ong.

  Ong.

  Kill.

  Devi’s hands went to her helmet.

  “No!” she screamed.

  The Argus unlatched the housing that held the girl’s chains.

  With a swift kick to the girl’s legs, the Argus sent her body into space. The girl's body flopped like a rag doll as it twirled into the dark.

  Devi watched. She couldn't look away. The girl turned into a white speck in space.

  The Arguses roared.

  “Googa bok!”

  Back to work.

  The children lowered their heads. They swung their picks.

  Devi kept staring at the body.

  A rough shove pushed her forward.

  It was the Argus who unlatched the girl. He had the dead girl’s pick in his hand.

  “Googa bok o la pa-ong.”

  Back to work or die.

  She accepted the pick. Nothing in her life had ever felt so heavy.

  ***

  Devika’s backpack weighed her down as she dashed through the forest.

  Twice she thought about dumping it, but she wasn't going to make the mistake of abandoning her first aid kit again.

  She heard the frantic footsteps behind her and knew she was still being followed.

  The shots had stopped about a mile ago, and she had reduced her run to a jog. Whoever the woman was behind her, Devika had a good enough head start that jogging wouldn't be a fatal mistake.

  She stopped to catch her breath, counted to ten and jogged again.

  This was all about endurance.

  The woman chasing her was wearing battle armor. It had to be weighing her down right about now.

  Devika knew she could count on that.

  She listened for water.

  She could hear it, the rapid rushing.

  She was closer now than she’d ever been.

  She picked up the pace.

  Breaking through the trees, she reached a tremendous river. The current was brown and white, and it flowed with a ferocity that Devika hadn’t expected.

  Her boots sank into the soft mud on the river’s edge.

  She stopped.

  And listened.

  Someone was still coming.

  She glanced around.

  A giant fallen log was lodged in the dirt. It wavered in the current.

  She hopped on the log, tested it. It supported her weight. She put her back against the log and used her legs to push off against a rock on the shore.

  The tree moved, wiggled free, and the current took it.

  Devi rolled around and gripped the log in a bear hug as it floated down the river. It moved slowly at first, but then it picked up speed as it drifted to the center of the river where the current was strongest.

  She scanned the tree line.

  No one.

  She tapped the log as if it were a horse.

  Faster, she mouthed. Faster.

  The log seemed to obey the command as the river carried her downstream.

  She straddled the log, looking backwards, and she drew her handcoil.

  She aimed it at the woods. If the woman came out, Devika could shoot her before she had a chance to draw her gun.

  Advantage.

  Her mind always calculated advantages.

  But no one came out of the forest.

  As the log took her out of sight of the place where she had found the river, she turned around and faced forward.

  The river was long and wide.

  Hugging the log as tightly as she could, she hoped there would be no more rainstorms for a while.

  Chapter 7

  Devi held up a chunk of iron ore for the Argus supervisor to inspect.

  The pig sniffed, took it and tossed it into a bucket. He motioned for her to continue.

  How many days had she been on this asteroid? She had lost count. The days, weeks and months ran together. With no sunlight and no way to tell the time, she felt depressed. She had given up all hope of being found. She was just a machine. She disappeared deep inside herself, just watched herself work. Hoped she would die like so many of the kids who the pigs cut loose.

  She swung her pick again. Sweat beaded on her forehead. The pick scraped against the rock this time, and the Argus squealed for her to swing harder.

  She yelled and struck the rock again.

  The Argus took her pick and told her to take a break. He hooked her chain onto the support line that stretched toward the ship. Without thinking, she started for the ship. She told herself not to look around. Last time she did that, she saw something horrible that she didn’t want to see. Too many kids gave up here on this asteroid, and the pigs didn’t waste any time cutting them loose into space.

  She wasn’t going to get cut loose into space. Living on this crap-hole of an asteroid was bad enough.

  She was halfway to the ship when a tremendous burst of purple light appeared in the distance.

  A giant, disk-shaped warship had just exited hyperspace and was coming straight for the asteroid field.

  The Arguses screamed.

  Two Argus support ships fired at the warship immediately, but the warship had readied a pulse blast. A burst of blue light erupted from the bottom of the ship.

  The lights on the Argus ships flickered off, and the ships slowed to a stop. The warship activated its guns and fired at them, destroying them.

  Devi gasped.

  The children all stopped and watched, soulless and lifeless. No one cheered. No one said a word.

  A bay on the top of the warship opened up and several fighter ships blasted out. They swooped over the asteroid.

  The Arguses grunted.

  SHISH!

  SHISH!

  Chains.

  The sound of chains.

  Devi looked around.

  The children screamed.

  The Arguses grunted.

  SHISH!

  SHISH!

  The Arguses laughed.

  The children’s screams grew more distant.

  SHISH!

  The chain under Devi slackened and she stumbled backward. An Argus nearby held a latch in his hand. He had ripped it from the rock.

  He had ripped the chains loose.

  Nothing held her.

  A line of children drifted into space. Devi felt the rock float away from under her, and she reached out her hand. There was nothing to grab.

  “No!” she cried.

  A child drifted by her.

  Wilmer Boles.

  He had a blank expression on his face.

  Devi reached for him. He reached for her. But they missed, and flew past each other on different trajectories.

  The fighter ships swooped over the asteroid and rained gunfire across the surface. The Arguses fell quickly and silently.

  Her suit beeped.

  Low oxygen.

  She sighed. That’s why the Argus had told her to take a break—to refill her suit. But now that the Argus ship was gone, she didn’t have any way to refuel.

  All across the asteroid field, children in white spacesuits drifted. She wondered if many of them had much time left.

  She drifted, her mind completely numb.

  Days, weeks, months ago, she would have been crying her eyes out. She would have been wishing for her mother and father.

  But now, how could she even know that what she was seeing was real? How could she know that more Argus ships wouldn’t show up and destroy the warship? How could she know, even if she was aboard the warship and in apparent safety, that the pigs wouldn’t come back for her?

  No.

  It would be easier to die. Just let the suit run out of oxygen and put her out of her misery.

  The warship approached with its airlock open, and its metal arms reached out and grabbed her and pulled her inside. And even as the white lights
inside the ship blinded her, she told herself that she’d rather die, and that there was nothing to live for anymore.

  She’d never be free.

  Chapter 8

  “Honey, can you hear me?”

  Devi opened her eyes. A bright white light shone above her, and she couldn’t focus.

  She closed her eyes again. A hand brushed her shoulder, and then her cheek.

  She opened her eyes. She was on a bed. A soft bed. With a sheet over her. Something stuck the inside of her nose. An oxygen cannula. A steady stream of oxygen poured through her nose, distributing a cooling sensation over her. She was in a small room. The walls were painted blue. It looked like a hospital room but smaller, more functional, with only one bed.

  She was in a hospital gown.

  A woman smiled down on her. She had thick glasses, short brown hair and wore a blue polo.

  Devi startled.

  “It’s okay,” the woman said. “You’re going to be okay.”

  Devi swallowed. Her throat was raw.

  “You’re dehydrated,” the woman said. As her face came into focus, Devi realized she wasn’t a nurse. She wasn’t a doctor. She had a tablet in her hand and she sat next to the bed.

  “They gave you an IV to replenish your fluids,” the woman said. “Are you hungry, sweetie?”

  Devi turned away.

  She watched through a circular window as the ship moved through hyperspace. A small relief, but not enough.

  “I didn’t ask to live,” Devi said.

  The statement took the woman aback. She stuttered, unsure what to say.

  “Why did you have to come along?” Devi asked. “Now they’re going to come find us and kill us!”

  “No one is going to kill you,” the woman said. “I promise.”

  “They’re going to kill us,” Devi said, ignoring the woman. Tears welled up in her eyes. “They’re going to kill us just like we had to kill—”

  The woman touched her hand and gripped it tightly.

  “They can’t find you because we’re in hyperspace,” the woman said. “We are two hours away from the Rah Galaxy. Once you’re there, you’ll be in protected space. Trust me when I say that they will never try to kidnap you again.”

  Devi didn’t respond. She sobbed quietly.

  But the woman didn’t leave her. She stayed at the bedside and watched her.

  “Mommy,” Devi said. “I want my mommy.”

  “It’s okay, sweetie,” the woman said.

  “Are you a doctor?” Devi asked.

  “No.”

  “Are you in the military?”

  “No. My name is Mary and I am with Galaxy Protective Services. My job is to help children like you.”

  “But I have a family,” Devi said. “I just want my mommy!”

  “I know,” Mary said.

  “Where is she?” Devi asked.

  “I don’t know,” Mary said. “But I’d like to ask you a few questions so that I can help you. Is that okay?”

  Devi nodded.

  “What is your name?”

  “Devika Sharma.”

  “What a beautiful name. Can I call you Devi? How old are you?”

  “Nine.”

  “Where is your home planet?”

  “Bartholomew Four.”

  The woman paused before typing something into her tablet. Devi didn’t know what that meant.

  “Do you have any relatives on other planets?” Mary asked.

  “I… don’t know.”

  “That’s okay. It’s perfectly fine.” She tucked the tablet away and took Devi’s hand again. “Now I’m going to ask you some very tough questions. I want you to tell me what you can, and if something is too hard or difficult, then I will move on and you don’t have to answer it, okay?”

  Devi nodded.

  “I noticed that you have a big scar on your head. What happened?”

  “I was in Coppice. My friend Rajinder and I were sleeping when the pigs came. They—they chased us through the forest and captured us. And… and…”

  Mary brushed Devi’s hair aside and touched the scar on the side of her head. Devika turned away.

  “How did you end up on Coppice?”

  Devi didn’t want to remember the strange orphanage, the one with the bunk beds and the mean, mean headmaster who beat her and drove her into the streets. She didn’t want to think about how she and Rajinder lived in the forests of Coppice by day and returned to the pod city to rummage through the trash at night. And most of all, she didn’t want to remember how she didn’t remember how all of it started.

  “I don’t know how I got there,” she said finally. “I was told that my parents abandoned me.”

  “Do you believe that?”

  Devi looked away.

  “Okay, that’s a difficult question,” Mary said. “Moving on. When the Arguses abducted you, where did they take you?”

  “To their ship. They made all of the kids fight each other.”

  Mary gasped.

  “They gave me a wooden stake and put me against a little girl. And, and, and—”

  “Did you fight her?”

  “I killed her.”

  Again, the statement took Mary aback, but she still remained compassionate and warm. Devi didn’t know what to think.

  “They made you kill, then.”

  “I don’t deserve to be here.”

  “What did they make you do on the asteroid, Devi?”

  “We were mining.”

  “That must have been pretty scary.”

  “A lot of kids died,” Devi said. “The Arguses cut them loose into space.”

  “I can’t imagine how that must have felt,” Mary said.

  “Did you find the other kids?”

  “The ones that the Arguses released into space?” Mary asked. She shifted in her seat. “Yes.”

  Devi knew by that response that something was wrong.

  Mary leaned forward. “Devi, many of them are dead or in serious condition. You are the only one that has been able to give us any information. I am so happy that you are okay, and I promise with all my heart that you are going to continue to be okay, okay?”

  Mary told her she would be back in a little while, that she had to tell the military what happened so that the soldiers could use the information to bring the Arguses to justice.

  She left Devi alone in the room.

  Devi should have cried. But she didn’t. Only humans cried, and she didn’t feel human. She knew she was never going to see Mary again. That wasn't how life worked. Not anymore.

  But a few minutes later, Devi couldn’t believe her eyes when Mary returned. The woman sat in the chair, held Devi’s hand, and talked about nothing.

  Small talk.

  It was… pleasant. No one had ever talked to her like that before.

  Soon, Devi was asleep, and the last thing she remembered seeing before drifting off was Mary’s smiling face.

  Chapter 9

  The log drifted down the river.

  Devika was miles away from her pursuer now. There was no way the woman could have followed her.

  The water splashed against her knees, and she wished she could take a nap as the log floated and bobbed gently. The cool waves made the humidity more bearable, too. Though she was sweating profusely, it wasn’t as bad as before. She had a bottle of water in her backpack, and she drank half of it, measuring out enough to last her through nightfall.

  But she kept her eyes open. She was ready for anything.

  The current lessened and the river grew bumpier. The log slammed into several rocks, almost throwing her off. Fish leaped out of the water here and there.

  The wall of trees that she had grown so familiar with opened up, revealing a long, sloping valley.

  The log drifted toward the riverbank. A dead tree hung low over the water. She jumped onto it, hanging over the river for dear life. She pulled herself onto the tree and rested for a moment. Then she balanced as she walked along the tree and c
limbed onto the riverbank.

  The air was cooler here. She took cover in the green shade and pushed her way through the trees and shrubs.

  She couldn't tell what time it was.

  Probably well past midday.

  She walked through the forest with the river on her right. Better to stay in the shade, under cover in case her pursuers decided to fly along the river looking for her.

  She walked for half an hour, quiet and focusing only on the path ahead. She didn't think about the pursuer or what she was going to do next. She only focused on the moment. And at the moment, the challenge was pushing her way through the vines and trees and leaves that slapped her skin. Twice she brushed off some sort of pincered insect that she hoped wasn't poisonous. The flies were thick, and her arms grew tired swatting them away. Several times, she stopped to wipe the excess sweat off her face and neck and to sip water. She forged onward, her gaze at the trees ahead.

  Finally, she emerged from the tree line and beheld the valley. The land below was separated into bright yellow swaths divided by thin brown lines. The ground slipped downward and transitioned from muddy weeds to wet grass.

  Flowers.

  This was flower land.

  She remembered hearing about this part of the planet when she was a little girl living here. She'd overheard stories about flower farms that stretched for miles and could be seen from the highest layers of the atmosphere. Coppice was the agricultural planet, replete with lush forests and farming climates. But she had lived in the temperate part of the planet, where most of the population lived. She had seen temperate forests, but not rainforests like this.

  She climbed down a muddy bank and entered a long, wet clearing.

  She followed the way toward the flowers.

  ***

  Mary held Devi’s hand as she stepped out onto the rocky soil of Provenance.

  Rows upon rows of glittering metal pods stretched ahead, and a parade of people applauded. Photoflashes blinded her.

  “Just hold onto my hand, honey,” Mary said.

  Devi scratched her neck. She was wearing a t-shirt and jeans given to her by the military. They itched her skin. Her ankles were sore.

  She wore sunglasses to protect her eyes since she hadn't seen sunlight in months.