“Someday, you’ll have to let us know if you’re really a monk, or if your ruse is just elaborate in its details,” Alisa said.
“We can start holding sermons on Stars Day if you wish.”
“I’m not sure your ability to bore the crew once a week would verify or deny your monkly status.”
He gave her a dark look and unscrewed the container.
“Captain?” Mica stood in the hatchway, waving to her.
“Trouble?” Alisa joined her in the corridor, figuring Alejandro would prefer it if she did not hover over his shoulder.
“Do you even have to ask?”
“I suppose not.”
“We have attracted tourists.” Mica walked to NavCom, pointed to one of the camera displays, and brought it up on the view screen. Four Starseer warriors stood on the landing pad, talking and eyeing the Nomad.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Yumi’s sister is out there to hurl them into walls,” Alisa said.
“No, but I wouldn’t mind seeing that again.”
“Have they tried to comm yet?” Alisa hoped Alejandro would finish his analysis of the blood first so she would have something to talk with them about.
“No, but one of them keeps pacing. Like he’s waiting for someone. Or a response to something.”
Alisa grimaced. “A response to the question, ‘Can we blow them back out into the mists?’”
“I’m watching them to make sure they don’t snoop around under the ship and see the explosives I set. The docking clamps are still fastened, I noticed.”
Yes, just because Young-hee had said they were free to go did not mean that all the Starseers felt that way.
“Are your explosives set in such a way that they won’t damage the ship?” Alisa asked.
Mica hesitated. “They’re too close in for us to raise the shields for protection. The clamps themselves are fastened to the hull.”
“So, your explosives will damage the ship?”
“Probably, but we don’t have to head into orbit right away. Just fly to a more civilized part of the planet, and we can set down for repairs. That’s better than staying here.”
“All we have to do is survive a flight through those mists.”
“I suggest going straight up. They may extend across the surface for thousands of square miles, but I bet you can fly out of them within a mile if you go up.”
“Maybe.” Alisa had never studied satellite imagery of this part of the planet, but she remembered Leonidas’s encyclopedia article. She doubted all of those airplanes would have crashed if the mists only affected the first few thousand feet above the surface.
She reached for the computer console, thinking of taking a look at the satellite imagery now, if she could pull it up. Most of her instruments had gone wacky when they had first entered the mists.
The comm light flashed first.
“It’s not paint, Captain,” Alejandro said when she answered it.
“What is it?”
“Blood.”
So much for her theory.
“Human blood?” Alisa asked. Maybe the Starseers had sacrificed some animal for their plot, though she hadn’t seen anywhere in the temple where livestock had been kept.
“Human blood.”
“Can you tell if it’s Starseer blood?”
Mica lifted her eyebrows. “Is that possible?”
“Yes,” Alisa said. “The empire tests—used to test babies at birth—to see if they had the gene mutations.”
“Huh. Our legends of them just say they were blessed by the gods and were given magic.”
“Please. Those people are about as blessed as warts on your toes. As far as I’ve heard, humanity is still looking for proof that gods and magic exist. If you’re interested in the search, maybe you can sign up for one of the explorer missions.”
Mica snorted. “To be cryogenically frozen for two hundred years to wake up in another star system? One that might be horrible? You’d have to be a wacko. No, thanks.”
“It’s how our ancestors ended up here.”
“They were wackos.”
“You’re so respectful of the dead.”
“I found my DNA sequencer,” Alejandro said, interrupting the conversation. “For a minute, I thought those pirates with their grubby fingers had taken it.”
“I don’t think they had a sickbay or cared about keeping people alive.” Alisa remembered the scalps those thugs had worn on their belts.
“I have forty thousand tindarks’ worth of equipment in here, Marchenko.” His tone chilled a few degrees. “Don’t tell Beck.”
Alisa closed the comm. “I’m surprised he’s telling me,” she muttered.
“You only steal ancient artifacts, not medical equipment. Unless there’s something you’re not telling me.”
“There’s not. You’re my engineer and confidante.”
“Am I? Then as your confidante, I think we should try our best to leave now before those Starseers outside decide they want to do more than talk about our ship. Leonidas is a war veteran. He can take care of himself.”
“A confidante is someone who receives scintillating secret information, not someone who gives advice.” Alisa failed to see how Leonidas could take care of himself when he was inside a jail cell and injured.
Movement on the camera distracted her from saying as much. Six more Starseers jogged out, four male and two female, all carrying staffs. Some also wore weapons belts around their robes with the latest BlazTech pistols in holsters—the Starseers were definitely not techno-phobes. The warriors lined up in front of the closed cargo hatch of the Nomad, not facing the ship but facing outward, toward the door that led back into the temple.
The comm light flashed again. It wasn’t Alejandro this time.
Reluctantly, Alisa answered. “Captain Marchenko’s traveling circus. Can I reserve you a seat at our late-night show?”
Mica rolled her eyes. “It’s too bad you’re not accepting advice. You really need it.”
Alisa held a finger to her lips.
“Captain,” a woman’s irritated voice came over the comm. “The docking clamps holding your ship in place are being withdrawn. You have five minutes to leave or—” Voices sounded in the background. “What?” It sounded like the speaker turned away to talk to other people in hushed whispers.
A clank-thunk came from under the Nomad. Mica cycled through the camera images and pulled up the one showing the undercarriage. The clamps were retracting, disappearing into the pier underneath them.
“I’m so glad I wasted good explosives on that,” Mica grumbled.
Alisa muted the comm. “Can you still detonate them?”
“I imagine so, but to what end?”
“Just thinking ahead in case we need to create some chaos to facilitate our escape.”
“Our escape? I don’t know if you noticed, but they’re trying to kick us out.”
Alisa eyed the people lined up outside, noting how they were not facing the ship to keep her and her crew inside. No, they were facing the doors leading into the temple, clearly expecting a visitor, a visitor they wanted to keep out.
“I have no idea how he did it,” Alisa said, “but I think Leonidas might have escaped.” She thought of that nod he had given her, silent instructions to blur the camera lens.
“How could he have done that?” Mica asked.
“Maybe he lied and has enhanced fingernails after all.”
“Captain Marchenko,” a new voice said over the comm. Was that Lady Naidoo? “If you know anything about this, I will use my mind to personally slay you where you stand.”
“Uh.” Alisa did not want to, but she un-muted the comm. “Anything about what?”
She could only assume Leonidas had escaped and was making trouble for the Starseers as he sought a way back to the ship.
“All of these damned ships heading straight toward us,” the woman said, exasperation lacing her voice.
“What? I mean, I genuinely do
n’t know anything about any ships.” Alisa prodded her sensor panel, trying to get a reading through the mists, but it merely bleeped at her in confusion. “You must have better equipment than I do, because I can’t see anything through that murk.”
“We can see the whole planet, and we can see an armada of Alliance craft heading this way, craft that are oddly impervious to the mists. It looks like they’re following a beacon. I can only assume they have something to do with you.”
“I swear I don’t know anything about them. Maybe they want the orb you stole from my doctor.”
“We didn’t steal anything,” Naidoo snapped. “Even if we had taken it, our people made that map centuries ago. It belongs to us.”
Mica nudged Alisa and pointed at the view screen. The door leading into the temple had opened. Several of the Starseers lifted blazer pistols while others hefted their staffs in both hands.
“Did you see—” Alisa started to ask, but then a flash of red appeared at the doorway, and a compact canister was hurled out. Smoke spewed from both ends of it.
One of the Starseers lifted his staff, as if to knock it aside physically, but the canister flew sideways well before it reached the group. It fell over the edge of the pier, tumbling toward the ice far below. Even so, smoke had already escaped, and it hazed the air between the warriors and the door. More than one of the Starseers crinkled his nose and stepped back. The flash of red came again, and something else was flung out. It, too, was sent over the side, but not before it launched more smoke into the air.
“Is that Leonidas?” Alisa asked.
“Who else has red armor?”
“But how would he have gotten it? And smoke grenades? For that matter, how could he have gotten out of his cell?”
“Maybe you can ask him if he makes his way here. That seems to be his goal.”
Leonidas appeared in the doorway, armored from head to toe. This time, he wasn’t attacking. His movements were jerky, as if a puppet master were controlling his arms and legs. Maybe that was exactly what was happening.
The men with the blazers took aim. One crimson bolt caught Leonidas in the armored shoulder. A couple of the Starseers started coughing, waving at the smoke. The hold on him must have lessened, because Leonidas jumped to the side of the doorway, taking cover behind the wall. Another small canister flew out, spewing more smoke. It looked to be the same color as the horrible concoction he had used in the library.
“He’s using the smoke to irritate their senses,” Alisa said, “make them distressed enough that they struggle to concentrate on messing with him. We have to help him.” She turned her head and hollered, “Beck!”
“You will not help him,” came Naidoo’s stern voice over the comm.
Alisa flinched. She had forgotten the woman was on the line.
“He didn’t murder anyone, Lady Naidoo,” Alisa said, forcing herself to be polite and use her title. It seemed like a good time for politeness. “Our doctor should have confirmation in a moment that your Abelardus is still alive. If you don’t want to wait, you can question Young-hee. She looked into Leonidas’s thoughts and can verify that he didn’t kill anyone.”
“The thoughts of a cyborg delinquent cannot be trusted. He may believe his own lies.”
Alisa hissed in frustration and called back, “Doctor? Have you got any more on that blood?”
Beck was standing in the corridor, still armored.
This time, Alisa remembered to mute the comm. “Beck, Leonidas has a problem.” She pointed at the view screen where he was once again being puppet-danced out into view. “If you help him with it, maybe he’ll forget that you’ve been plotting to turn him in.”
“Aw, Captain,” Beck said, his shoulders slumping. “I don’t want to pick a fight with Starseers. All they would have to do is knock me over the ledge, and I’d fall all the way to the ice down there. That’s a long drop, and this armor isn’t that indestructible.”
“We have to do something to help,” Alisa said firmly. “If only to distract them.” She snapped her fingers. “Mica, you said you could still detonate the explosives?”
“Yes, but it will only damage their docking machinery down there.”
“And maybe cause a nice earthquake under the feet of the people standing right next to it?”
“An earthquake that could also cause the entire pier to break off and dump your ship a hundred feet.”
“Are you being pessimistic or realistic?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll try it anyway.”
Mica sighed. “I’ll get the remote.”
She jogged through the hatchway, pushing past Beck.
“Good.” Alisa thumped her fist against her thigh. She was tempted to fly away from the landing pad now that the clamps had been withdrawn, but how would they get Leonidas onboard then? Besides, she worried about someone dithering with her mind while she had them in the air, especially if she flew around in a way designed to distract the Starseers.
“Captain,” Alejandro said, walking into view, Mica almost bouncing off him as she passed. “I’ve analyzed the sample.”
“And?”
“It does appear to be Starseer blood.”
Alisa scowled. She’d wanted to hear that it couldn’t possibly be a match for Abelardus’s blood. “Leonidas said he didn’t do it, that the blood was there when he got to that spot, and that the window was already broken.”
Alejandro only spread his arms, palms up.
“Is it possible the blood was synthesized in a medical facility? I know that can be done in hospitals, and the Starseers don’t seem rustic and remote, despite the fact that they live in an ice palace at the north pole.”
“It is possible, but it would take more sophisticated equipment than I have here to tell the difference between synthesized blood and real blood.”
A boom came from somewhere outside, and the Nomad shuddered.
Alisa gripped the console for support. “What was that?” She did not think Mica had found time to detonate her explosives yet. “Leonidas?”
He had disappeared from view again, and more smoke than before clouded the landing pad between the Starseers and the temple. Two of the warriors broke ranks and ran toward the open door. Leonidas leaned out to fire at them. Orange blazer bolts lit the smoky air, zipping toward their robed chests.
Since they did not wear armor, Alisa thought they were dead, but the bolts bounced off invisible shields in front of them. A second series of bolts raced toward them, and one man spun his staff, knocking them out of the air as if that weapon were made of the strongest metal rather than the wood it appeared to be. Leonidas kept firing, forcing them to defend themselves. He also rolled out another smoke canister.
Realizing that the skirmish had nothing to do with the boom she had heard, Alisa tore her gaze from Leonidas and the Starseers and checked the sensors. She cursed at what was coming into view. The mists were still making it all but impossible for her sensors to detect what lay beyond, but they could detect things that were close without much trouble, especially in this clear area around the temple. Three massive Alliance warships were closing in on the Starseer compound.
Even as she watched, they fired e-cannons and torpedoes. Orange and yellow bursts of energy blazed through the mists, streaking toward the temple. Alisa winced, expecting them to strike, to blow the icy walls into pieces. But the attacks halted before reaching the structure, much as Leonidas’s blazer bolts had been deflected by invisible shields that the Starseers had raised.
“Are they defending this place with their minds?” Alisa wondered.
“Might be energy shields around the temple, Captain,” Beck said.
She didn’t look back at him. She was still peeved that he had refused to go out and help Leonidas.
More shivers ran through the ship, emanating up from the pier below. This time, it was the artillery weapons stationed on the tower walls. The Starseers were firing at the descending warships, who were firing back. Small one-man
Strikers and Cobras shot out of the hangar bay in the rear of one of the Alliance ships. It was about to be a full-blown battle out there. And the Nomad was in the middle of all of it.
Alisa adjusted the sensors. Yes, they were reading a lot more energy around the temple than had been there previously. “I think you’re right about the shields, Beck. The question is what do we do about it?”
“Hope the Starseers win?”
Alisa had no idea if they could. The Alliance had brought in a lot of firepower. Even as she watched, another warship disgorged its fighter unit, and another two-dozen Strikers streaked into the fray. Alisa, who had flown in just such a squadron, was intimately familiar with their tactics and how effective they could be.
The comm lit up again.
Alisa smacked it. “I’m sorry. I don’t have the answers you want. I don’t know anything.”
“An alarming admission from a ship’s captain,” a male voice said.
Alisa did not recognize it. Had another Starseer taken over for Naidoo? She took a closer look at the comm panel and realized one of the warships had hailed her.
“I’m a special captain,” she said. “Who is this?”
“Commander Farrow of the Star Nautilus.”
Alisa sank down into the pilot’s seat. She had never met the man, but she had heard of the commander and the ship.
Tremors coursed through the Nomad as more weapons fired, the temple aiming at the warships swooping back and forth in the sky overhead. How had they found this place through the mists? And how were they navigating their craft so easily now?
No, not easily, she realized, glancing toward her other camera displays. One of the Strikers was going down, crashing into the ice. Alisa did not think it had been struck, not by a physical weapon. Smoke spiraled up from the mangled craft. But how many could the Starseers drop like that before their shields went down? The Alliance had brought plenty of ships to play. It could survive a few casualties.
“Is there a reason you’re contacting me, Commander?” Alisa asked as she fiddled with the sensors, trying to learn more about the fleet.
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