Brock hurried to sit next to her, but Thunder was more interested in the wall's odd material. It seemed to be the same as that of the bed chamber, only in these walls, swirling mist was the artist’s topic.
“Sit,” Shay said. “We’ll catapult off any minute.”
Brock pushed his back against the wall and pressed his feet against the opposite wall, in what could be some sort of attack position. Thunder sat down facing them; hand casually draped over his bent knee.
“Copy Brock.” Shay thrust her feet against the opposite wall just as the entire tube began to shake.
Thunder did just that. A moment later the area was yanked upward. A heartbeat after that, it moved down and sideways.
“Isn’t this a charge?” Shay’s eyes gleamed with delight.
Thunder’s stomach declared that he’d found something worse than boats.
The incredible movement continued. Worse, the speed increased. He’d never encountered anything like it, not even when he controlled the weather or did a spirit journey. He shut his eyes, against the pressure, but that only made it worse. When he opened them, again, the clouds were beneath them and they were moving faster than any bird alive across a panorama of clouds and water. Icy perspiration trickled into his eyes.
“Yeeehoohaaaa!” Shay screamed. “Here come the echo marshes.” Beneath them, waving vegetation replaced the waves. “Oh, I hate this part.” No sooner had solid blackness replaced the green, but the path turned straight up and the speed increased as if the thing they were in had been released from its tether. The force relentlessly moved them downward, until he became certain they would end up in a mass of crushed cells. Then, just as suddenly, the pressure was gone.
Shay giggled and floated upward. She rolled onto her stomach and grinned down at them. “What are you waiting for?” She somersaulted backward and shrieked with glee.
Brock drifted upward, as if people flying were an every day occurrence, instead of something the Chose learned to do in a spirit journey.
Thunder gulped. Perhaps he was in a deep trance and only believed this was real.
“Oh!” Shay clasped her hands over her heart. “This is my favorite part.” Brock soared to her side and they gazed at something beyond the barrier. “So beautiful. So deadly.” They clasped hands.
It was just like the molten orb that GEA-4 had shown him, and several of the weavings had depicted only now, it was perilously close to the blue and white orb. “Why was it moved?” Thunder asked. “There are safer ways to control the weather.”
Brock swiveled toward him. “The orbit decayed, but it shouldn’t have happened this soon.”
“I heard that when the dragons started drawing close to the surface, they altered the balance.”
Thunder frowned. “Dalf told me his mother was a dragon shepherd. Are we here to watch as she herds them back to the moon and they push it back on course?”
Shay laughed. “I doubt it. I mean she’s good, but no one could do that.”
“Too bad we can’t because if they hit perfectly, it could work,” Brock said.
“If herding them won’t work, perhaps you could bait them,” Thunder offered. Even as he said it, he shuddered at the memory of the dragon, which had invaded Chatterre, and what Nimri had endured after she’d volunteered to lure the beast into their impossibly inadequate trap. There had to be a better way. His insides quaked at the thought of attempting anything like what she’d done. But she’d done it for the entire Tribe and hadn’t thought of her own sacrifice. He clamped his jaws together. Or had she?
He would never know.
“I wonder why she’s staying in orbit,” Brock said.
“Are you complaining about this gorgeous scenery?” Shay asked.
“When the moon crashes, this won’t be safe.”
“So all will be lost and this world of yours will die like Latawba and Solterre.” Thunder stared at the other pair. “And you will do nothing to prevent it.”
“I would if I could.” Brock’s tone was defensive.
“But you do not bother to look for a way.” Thunder had never met such an indifferent man. “You would allow your sister and everyone else that you love to die while you save yourself.”
Brock hugged Shay close, as if proclaiming that he’d saved her, when in fact, he’d left her behind.
Shay leaned away from him and stared at Thunder. “Could you do something?” He doubted it. She sighed and said, “Someone should at least try to force the dragons to bump the moon back.”
She looked at the stationary view. “Perhaps that’s why we’ve stopped. Maybe D'nor would know how to do it.”
“We have a chance. We must save ourselves while we can.” With that, Brock propelled himself up the odd corridor in a swimming motion. Shay and Thunder followed.
Chapter 22
As Nambaba orbited Kalamar, Raine listened to the garbled transmissions from Otami’s blue unit. The screen reflected her face as she watched their attempts to maneuver the frantically moving beasts meet with defeat. It didn't look like they were trying hard. She sighed; they know all is lost. She shook her head, and realized the thought was as much for herself as it was for Otami.
The radio’s talk was as useless for finding a way to save Dalf as the argument Preston and Reed were having about ways to save their loved ones trapped on the planet’s heating surface. A glance at Brock’s bored expression made her wonder if the Vole d'Laires cared for any of the people, or only for their profits. Even the way Shay's hand was clenched looked resigned. Raine knew that if she were Godhead and had the power to put her profits into saving the people, she would. She didn’t realize she’d spoken the thought aloud until a pained look flickered across Brock’s face.
“If I could do something, I would. But our best scientists have been working on this since I reached puberty and with all that time and all their intelligence, they haven’t found a way.” He sighed. Shay patted his hand. “If a way could have been bought, it would have been.”
Shay nodded. “Marsha once confided in me that the treasury’s assets were being invested off-planet so that the funds would be safe for something like this.” Her slender hand gestured to the monitor. “But I think they all expected to have enough time to arrange transportation off-planet.”
Raine believed the story despite the way Brock rolled his gaze upward.
“Did anyone ever look for a new planet? One where all three of our species could live?” Shay’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She slowly shook her head. “Just as I thought,” Raine said. Some situations simply were destined for disaster and she needed to learn to accept tragedy.
“It was an untruth meant to stop the people from worrying,” Brock said. “If workers are distracted, production goes down.”
“It really goes down when they’re dead,” Raine snapped.
Pure static hissed from the radio. A glance showed that Nambaba’s flight path was over Headquarters. Were Dalf and Frazier still there, confident that their world would be saved? She tried to swallow the lump of tears in her throat.
Preston turned away from Reed, and glared at her. Red spots on his pale face and shiny eyes made him look ill. “Is there some reason why we’re still in orbit?”
“She’s trying to think of a way to stop this disaster,” Reed said, as he patted Preston’s shoulder. “Let her alone. You can run and save yourself later.” Preston shook off Reed’s calming touch.
“That may be too late,” Coral said. “Please, dear, can we at least get behind Ishdoo? Surely it would provide a shield when Vilecom crashes. Don’t you think that would be a good idea, dear?” she asked Reed.
“Once Vilecom enters the atmosphere, nowhere in the galaxy will be safe.”
Not even in a bakufus' sacred nursery under the waves.
“If I’d known the orbit would decay so quickly,” Reed said, “I would have insisted that The Zar make the calculations for nudging it a priority.”
“What good would that do when we�
��ve lost the technology to do it?” Preston asked.
“It can’t be that difficult,” Reed said. “Look at the antiquated technology they used to move it here.”
Coral patted her mate’s arm, while she addressed Preston. “Don’t bother arguing with him, dear boy. He’s believed that the technology to move the moon was a simple thing as long as I’ve known him.” She glared at Preston’s scoffing expression. “How often have you known him to be wrong?”
“I should have done something years ago.” Reed looked ready to cry.
“You weren’t assigned to that team,” Brock said. “If you’d tried to assist, father would have been unhappy.”
Raine muted the radio’s static garble and focused on their conversation. “Don’t blame yourself. The moon was brought here a thousand years ago. That’s when the problem started. The scientists back then should have foreseen and altered the orbit while they still had the skill.”
“I doubt if they had technology to calculate so many years into the future. And there’s no way they could have foreseen the results.” Reed’s face was getting alarmingly red. “They viewed this world as a temporary refuge while they scouted for a more hospitable world to settle. They couldn’t have envisioned that the moon they captured to warm the ice would be more than a temporary refuge.”
“There, there, dear.” Coral rubbed Reed’s back. “What is done is done. We must deal with today’s choices, not what may or may not have been a choice a millennium ago.”
Raine nodded. “That’s right.”
“But the choices should have been made then,” Reed bellowed.
“They weren’t,” Coral said. “Is there anything we can do now?”
“Maybe,” Brock said. Thunder stood behind him and nodded. How long had he been standing there?
Raine’s heart skipped a beat and a kernel of hope sprouted.
“I gave my word to help Yulder save his ovum,” Thunder said. He didn’t look very happy about that.
Preston’s face went red with rage. “You can’t save the embryos any more than we could save the bakufus, themselves.” He spun to face her, his expression threatening. “At least we’re saving ourselves, or we would if my sister would do her job and get out of here before everything explodes.”
Her brother had been a factor of her life since she was four, but for the first time, she understood why she’d had to force herself to care for him. “You’ve never cared for anyone but yourself, have you?”
He looked ready to hit her.
“She’s right,” Shay said. “Getting me the job with Marsha was about yourself and showing everyone your influence. It wasn’t about what I wanted or finding me a position that would make me happy.”
“Are you trying to tell me you didn’t like it?” Preston demanded.
“I didn’t at first. I thought – never mind. This isn’t about the past, like Coral says, it’s about the choices we make now.”
Preston glared at her. “Is that what you think? That I only care about myself? If that was true why did I endanger my life for that spawn of Gornt’s?”
“I don’t know,” Raine said. “But I doubt if your personal goal was saving Dalf from recycling.” Since he’d helped her, he’d acted like he owned her.
He glared at her.
Shay shook her head. “Don’t lie to yourself. Everything you do is for yourself or your advancement. That makes you a pitiful person. Dalf is a hundred times better than you.” She turned to Raine. “Thunder thinks that if the shepherds controlled the dragons, they could push the moon back on course.”
“I asked if that was why you were staying here,” Thunder said. “Is such a thing possible?”
“Why would you think it would work?” Reed looked intrigued.
“Because I explained that the dragons suicidal attraction for the surface had nudged the moon off orbit ahead of schedule,” Brock said.
Reed’s look turned inward. Everyone became quiet as they watched him think. Slowly, he nodded. “It could work.”
“But it’s too dangerous to stay here,” Preston said.
“And it’s 100% fatal for those we left behind if we do nothing,” Reed said. “As long as there is a chance-“
“You would kill us all for a chance to save some worthless bakufus?” Preston bellowed.
“My father and sister are down there, too,” Brock said.
“But how are we supposed to herd the dragons if they’re in the atmosphere?” Raine asked. “I can’t take Nambaba in and out of the vapor layers as if it’s some sort of sailfish.”
“Won’t they follow you?” Thunder frowned as he wondered where that bizarre idea had come from.
Raine swallowed. “That’s only happened to me once. How could you have possibly known about it?”
He stared at her intense expression and shrugged. “It is how farmers lure cows.”
“What’s a k-ow?”
“This is irrelevant,” Preston said. “And since there’s no real way to get the dragons back up here, let alone push the moon, we need to decide where we’ll seek sanctuary.”
Unless Reed had a plan, her brother had a point.
“They are beasts used for milk, meat and leather,” Thunder said. “But some like to play a game with the young ones and shake a table-covering in front of them. This makes them charge. Later, they use the technique to bring them home from the fields.”
K-ows? Fields? The man was desirable as a dream and silly as a hum-dum fish.
“That could work,” Reed exclaimed. He grabbed the arm of Raine’s captain’s chair and gazed at her control panel. “What do you use to lure them?”
She blinked. In her entire career, she’d never considered such a thing, yet she’d seen it done every shift for the past twenty years. “Shepherds don’t call them; the CRUs do.” Could the Crystalline Reclamation Units save them? A kernel of hope sprouted within her.
“Myst lures dragons,” Thunder said. He looked as if he’d lost his best friend along with his mind.
“So that’s why the dragons are lured to the sea!” Shay’s expression looked as if she’d had a revelation. “But if they’re already so close to so much mist, how do we get them away?”
Thunder shook his head. “The mist you speak of is fog. I speak of the essence.” He cleared his throat. “Dragons consume a person’s spirit.”
“How dare you insinuate that you know more about dragons than I do! Do you have dragons on your world?” He shook his head. Rage continued to grow within Raine. “I’ve tended them since I was a child, and you have only been here for a few days, yet you claim to know how to handle them and what they eat.”
“One attacked our world,” Thunder said.
Raine held up a single finger. “One.” She gestured toward the planet below them, which was a mass of swirling mist and golden flashes. “One?” She raised her brow.
He nodded, apparently unconcerned by her sarcasm.
Reed stepped between her and Thunder. “Be still and listen to the sorcerer. His kind are experts on this sort of thing.”
Preston roared with rage. “Quit talking, turn this ship around and get us out of here.” He lunged toward her. “Before the moon crashes.”
“You will live or die with the rest of us,” Raine said
Preston leaped at his sister. Brock grabbed him before he could strike her, then shifted his grip to resemble one a mother cat took with her kits. Though Preston seemed helpless, the expression in his eyes screamed of fear, rage, and death to anyone who came between him and escape.
Then, Thunder casually touched his neck and Preston crumpled to the floor. Though the way he’d touched Preston’s neck had seemed gentle, her brother looked dead.
“You killed him!”
Thunder shook his head. “I merely calmed him.”
“If you say so,” Raine snapped. If he could heal Dalf and Shay, and calm her brother with a mere touch, the least she could do was listen. “Tell me what you think we should do.”
How had he suddenly become the expert on dragons? They were the ones that kept the monsters for pets. “If I try to move the beasts, will you take me home?”
“If you are successful in moving the moon.” Raine gave him a challenging look.
Assuming he managed to survive, he was going to live to regret this.
Thunder inclined his head. “So be it, but I need another person with me to release the myst. Are you willing?” He looked Raine in the eye, expecting her to back out, but she held his gaze and inclined her head in agreement.
Chapter 23
Having people staring at them with a mixture of hope and fear distracted them from focusing their concentration enough to succeed, so Thunder and Raine returned to the area Shay loved best. Raine swiveled to face him and appeared unruffled by the fact that they were hovering in space even before releasing their myst.
“Why did you choose me?” she asked.
“You are used to the dragons and know their ways. You are also calm.” His answer seemed to satisfy her. “We begin by creating a circle with our arms and clearing our minds of worry.” He showed her the traditional grip. A jolt of desire passed over him. She looked from their joined hands to his face, her expression unfathomable. Had she felt it, too? He cleared his throat. “Next, we clear our minds of conscious thought.” Her trusting look never left his face. Desire to take her into his arms and kiss her nearly overwhelmed him.
Awful as her world was, it was tempting to stay, just for the chance to look at her and imagine kissing her lush lips.
If I am to get home, I must get past the attraction I feel for this woman.
He closed his eyes and began humming a hypnotic tone.
For several moments, he sensed Raine watching his face, then she, too closed her eyes and began to hum the ritual tone. Gradually, he shed his desires, concerns and fears. Then, the myst separated and he soared free of his cumbersome human form. He opened his eyes and looked toward the planet. The dragons were beginning to stop their aimless movements and some were returning to the heavens.
Thunder Moon: Book 2 of the Chatterre Trilogy (Chatterre Triology) Page 23