She tiptoed closer and looked down at him. During the past six years, they had both grown. Both changed. She wondered if she even still knew him. She saw that a white hair grew from his temple now, that new lines of worries appeared on his brow, and she realized that he wasn't young anymore. He was already a man halfway through his thirties, a man who had never wanted to grow up, who now found himself forced to.
But he's still the same man I fell in love with.
Cursing everything in the cosmos, including herself, Nova climbed into bed with him.
He moaned, his eyes opened, and he looked at her. "Nova?"
"Hush. I'm not here for anything that will make you happy, so calm down. Everyone else is snoring, so I'm here."
He closed his eyes again. "There's a couch in the main deck."
She growled. "And you'll be sleeping there if you don't shut up."
Thankfully, he shut up. Nova lay down beside him, her back to him, and closed her eyes. Then she wriggled a little closer. Then closer. Then she pulled his arm around her, and she held his hand to her breast. His breath tickled the back of her neck, and finally Nova slept.
CHAPTER TWENTY:
MIDNIGHT
Midnight huddled in the dark forest, shivering and cold, as the bluewolves howled around her.
"Please, gods of my forebears," she whispered. "Please protect me."
The trees rustled around her, their leaves hiding the moon and stars. Insects buzzed, yellow eyes glowed between the leaves, and the howls grew closer. The bluewolves had picked up her scent, and they were drawing near. And they were thirsty for her blood.
Midnight let a small ball of qi form in her hand. It glowed there like a lantern, woven of many dots of light flowing together.
The bluewolves saw at once. They yipped. They scuttled forward through the brush. In the light of her qi, their fangs shone. Their eyes blazed. One leaped toward her, twice her size, ready to feast.
Midnight tossed her light.
The ball of qi slammed into the slick, blue creature, knocking it back. It thumped onto the forest floor with a wail.
Another bluewolf leaped from behind her; she heard it howl.
Midnight sucked in a breath and ported.
In the forest, it was dangerous to port. She could only move in open space. Here in the dark, she could accidentally port through a tree trunk; she would reappear inside the wood, crushed, dying.
But she ported still, blinking out of existence, then back into reality behind the leaping bluewolf. She tossed more qi. The animal yelped and fell down dead, the light coiling across it.
A dozen other bluewolves surrounded her, snarling among the trees. Midnight snarled back at them. She raised both palms, displaying two balls of qi. She made to toss them.
The bluewolves whimpered, turned their tails, and fled. The brush settled behind them.
Midnight shuddered and let her qi fade away. Using this much energy drained her. She had not eaten in a day and night. Not since stealing food at the last farm. Her head spun and she wanted to lie down, to rest, to sleep. But she could not.
The skelkrins might have heard the howls, she thought. They might have seen the light.
Midnight swallowed a lump in her throat. She could still beat bluewolves, native predators of Cirona. But skelkrins were far crueler, stronger predators, and she had seen their tracks on this planet. Twenty or more had landed here, and they were hunting her. And if they found her, she could not defeat them.
She had to move.
Leaving the dead bluewolves behind, she pushed through the forest, traveling in the darkness, daring not even summon any qi for light. She was too weak, and using more qi would further drain her. She walked in blackness.
A root snagged her foot. She stumbled and fell, banging her elbow against a rock. She pushed herself up. She walked onward, more slowly this time, hands held before her. Her palms kept hitting tree trunks she couldn't see, and tears stung her eyes.
I miss home, she thought. I miss my family.
Her tears flowed. She thought of Per, her home world—the forests that glowed with fireflies, the crystal caves, the cities of glass and marble. She thought of her family, her kind mother, her wise father. She remembered the song of her people, the taste of sweet summer wine, the lights that glowed in the temple chandeliers.
Home. Peace. Beauty.
She lowered her head, her body shaking.
Until they burned it.
It had been a night of fire. A night of screams. Of death from the sky. As with so many other worlds, the skelkrins had come to Per.
They had come to kill.
"I tried to fight," Midnight whispered. "I tried to stop them."
So had armies. So had millions of her people, firing their qi, flying their fleets up to face the great warships from the depth of space. And they had died. Their ships had rained down like dying fireflies.
Only I survived.
Even worse memories now filled her. Memories of the skelkrin masters strapping her down. Poking her with needles. Cutting her with scalpels. Speaking of carving out her magic, of using her in their ships, of cloning a million Midnights to break and torture and harvest.
How she had screamed. How she had begged to die.
Until he arrived. The traveler.
"Aminor," Midnight whispered in the darkness.
The old human with the long white beard had saved her. Placed her in a blue starjet. Sent her off into space, to find Earth, to find his son. To find Riff Starfire and safety.
"But I never made it to Earth." Midnight sobbed. "I fell from the sky to a strange planet, and I'm scared and alone now, Aminor. I'm so scared. They're hunting me and I don't know what to do."
She fell to her knees in the dark forest. The trees creaked around her and more wolves howled, or perhaps they were the howls of the skelkrins hunting her.
You will live, spoke a voice in her mind.
She raised her head, and her heart thrashed. Who had spoken?
You will live, Midnight. You will survive. I'm with you, my child.
It was his voice! The old traveler! Aminor! Midnight whipped her head from side to side, seeking him, but she saw only darkness. The voice had spoken inside her.
"You still watch over me, traveler," she whispered.
A warmth filled her even in the cold night, and she imagined that she saw his kindly old face again. For him she would survive. She would keep moving. She would find shelter, find food, find hope.
She pushed herself back to her feet. She raised her chin. She kept walking.
And there she saw it ahead: a field out in the moonlight. A barn. Shelter from the cold.
Midnight stumbled across the moonlit field, and she crawled into the barn. Horses slept around her, flicking their tails. Warm. Comforting. A basket of apples stood on a shelf, and she ate. She curled up on the straw. She hugged herself.
"I'm alive," she whispered. "I might be the last pirilian in the cosmos, but I'm alive. I will stay alive."
At dawn she would move again. For now, Midnight pulled her knees up to her chin and thought of home.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
OUT OF THE BAG
Riff was lying in bed, dreaming of the Blue Strings, when the lights turned on and Giga stepped into his chamber.
"Captain!" The android smiled and bowed. "We're nearing our destination, Captain."
He blinked, his dreams still tugging at him. For a moment, he thought he was still back home in the Blue Strings, that Giga was a fan approaching the stage. He looked around him and groaned. Of course. He was on the HMS Dragon Huntress, trundling through hyperspace. Specifically, he lay in the captain's quarters, a cozy room containing his bed, a desk, and his holstered gun hanging on the wall.
"Thank you, Giga." He rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed, only to realize he was naked. The cooling coils were on the fritz again—though Romy had sworn she hadn't eaten them this time—and Riff remembered kicking off his clothes before falling asleep
. His jeans, boxer shorts, and T-shirt now lay on the floor several feet away. He clutched his blanket over his lap.
"You're welcome, Captain." Giga smiled at him sweetly.
"Uhm . . . mind turning around as I get dressed?"
Giga's smile didn't falter. "I'm a Human Interface android, Captain. It's no different than getting dressed in front of a keyboard or mouse." She didn't look away.
"Yes, well, I've seen a lot of shifty keyboards in my day. Hand me over my clothes, will you?"
"Happy to comply." She didn't sound very happy, but she handed the clothes over.
He pulled on the important bits under the blanket, then stood up and tugged on the rest. Giga smiled at him sweetly.
"Would you like me to brush your hair, sir?"
"No!" He stared into the mirror, saw his hair standing on end, and ran his fingers through it. "Gods no. Giga, you just worry about keeping this boat in the sky. Come on. Let's hit the bridge."
On their way, they stepped into the main deck. Steel sat on the couch, clad as always in his armor. The knight stared down at the table, where a game of counter-squares was in progress. Steel's brow was furrowed, and he seemed so engrossed in the board game he didn't even notice Riff and Giga entering the room. Across the table, Romy lay on the floor, rolling around, flicking her tail, and moaning.
"Come on, Steel!" The demon rolled her eyes. "You've been thinking for so long. Make a move!"
"Silent, foul beast of the Abyss." Steel didn't even raise his eyes. "I'm planning a brilliant strategy."
Romy snorted. "Is your brilliant strategy to bore me to death? Because it's working. If you don't make a move, I'm going to torture you. I learned how to torture people in Hell, and— Oh!" She leaped up and her tail wagged. "Hi, Riff. Hi, Giga. Want to play counter-squares too?"
Riff walked past her, heading toward the bridge. "We're nearing Cirona. We're about to leap out of hyperspace. Steel, join me at the bridge?"
The knight rose to his feet, leaving the game. His face darkened. Romy too made to follow.
"I'll help too!" The demon wagged her tail.
Riff shook his head. "Romy, I need you to help by staying here and guarding the counter-squares board. I heard there are evil aliens who like to rearrange the pieces when nobody's looking."
Romy gasped and covered her mouth. She moved to stand by the game, eyes darting and lips peeled back in a snarl.
Riff climbed the stairs to the bridge, where he found Nova sitting in one of the suede seats. The ashai was nervously flicking her whip against the floor. Outside the windshield, the lights of hyperspace were still streaming in a dizzying pattern of blue, lavender, and white.
Riff sank into his captain's chair. The suede creaked. "All right, Giga. Let us know when we're there."
The android nodded. "Approaching Planet Cirona in thirty seconds . . . twenty-nine . . . twenty-eight . . ."
While Giga continued the countdown, Riff felt a chill run down his spine. Out there on Cirona, light-years away from Earth, was a pirilian girl—an alien with powerful magic. She might be the same pirilian his father had tried to send him. The same pirilian the Cosmians were after. The same pirilian the skelkrin masters wanted.
The same pirilian who just might hold the fate of the universe itself in her hands.
". . . seventeen . . . sixteen . . ."
Riff caressed Ethel, his old gun. Who was he to try to save such a creature? Who was he to get involved in the games of planets and empires? He was only a failed musician. That was all. A scruffy refugee. Not a hero.
He looked to his right. Steel sat there. His brother. A knight. A man Riff trusted with his life. A man Riff knew would forever fight for his honor and his family.
He looked to his left. Nova sat there, the woman he loved. The strongest woman he knew. He could feel her kiss again, and he knew that, somewhere deep inside her, she loved him too.
I might not be a hero, Riff thought. But for the people I love, I will become one.
"Three . . ." said Giga. "Two . . . one . . . turning off hyperdrive engines."
Across the ship, a rumble rose, then faded. The streams of light outside shortened, rolled up, and formed fixed stars. The dancing splotches of color faded. Riff's temples squeezed inward as if trying to meet. He shook his head wildly and blinked a few times.
Giga spoke in a calm, pleasant voice. "Spacetime curves straightened. We are back in normal three-dimensional space, Captain."
Riff nodded. "Thank you, Giga."
"Happy to comply, Captain."
Rubbing his temples, Riff leaned forward in his seat. He found himself staring down at the green planet of Cirona.
Twenty-five light-years away from Earth, Cirona was one of several planets orbiting the star Vega. Riff remembered hearing about it as a kid—one of the new planets humanity had only just begun to settle, expanding Earth's sphere of influence deeper into the Milky Way. Here was the frontier of the human empire. The planet reminded him a lot of Earth—white clouds, green landscapes, and thousands of pale blue lakes. The planet's star, the luminous Vega, was rising above Cirona's horizon, twice the size of the sun back home and casting out white beams of light.
Riff had been to space before, but no matter how many times he saw another planet, it still filled him with wonder.
Here is a whole other world, he thought. A world a hundred trillion kilometers from home.
A glint in the distance caught his attention. He narrowed his eyes, rose from his seat, and stepped closer to the windshield. The glint vanished, then rose again in the sunlight. Whatever it was, it seemed to be orbiting the planet.
"Giga, see that glint?" He pointed. "Magnify that. Put it on the HUD."
"Happy to comply!"
One pane of glass on the windshield acted as a head-up display, able to magnify, shrink, or analyze the view. Right now, an image of the glinting object appeared there, zooming closer, taking form.
Riff inhaled sharply.
"What," he whispered, "is that?"
At his side, Steel and Nova stiffened. Both spat our curses.
Riff leaned closer to the HUD. It was some kind of starship, he thought, but unlike anything he'd ever seen. This was no human starship. Not even a ship built by humanoids such as gruffles, halflings, ashais, or other subspecies that had evolved from humanity. Whatever this was, aliens had built it.
The vessel was charcoal and jagged. Iron spikes rose across its hull, and two great claws thrust out from its flanks. The starship looked like some mutated crab, dipped in tar, that had grown to monstrous size.
"How large is that thing?" he asked Giga. "What's the scale on that zoom?"
"The object is one thousand and fifteen meters long, Captain," said the android.
Riff's heart sank. "Are you telling me that ship is a kilometer long?"
"No, Captain." Giga shook her head. "One kilometer and fifteen meters, sir. Counting the claws."
"Counting the claws," he muttered. "Lovely. Always count the claws." He gulped. "And each one of those claws is large enough to grab the Dragon Huntress and crush it like a grape."
"This vessel is not human in origin," Steel muttered.
"Thank you, Sir Obvious," said Riff. He paced the bridge. "Gig, run a scan of all alien starship designs you have in your memory banks. See if you can find a match."
"Already complied, Captain," she said. "Enemy vessel matches description of skelkrin warship, sir."
Riff felt faint. He had to sit back down.
"Skelkrins," he whispered.
Giga nodded. "If my translation of the letters on her hull is correct, sir, she's called The Crab."
Steel and Nova exchanged dark glances. Riff gripped his gun. As bad as Cosmians were, they were only servants. The masters were the skelkrins, these deep space killers who had been swarming across the galaxy. This was still human territory. What were the bastards doing here?
"Wait a minute, Giga," Nova said. She frowned at the android. "You call this an enemy vessel.
Why?"
The android tilted her head. "This is a skelkrin ship, ma'am. All skelkrin ships are enemies. They have only one mission: destroy all in their path." Giga smiled sweetly. "Would you like me to engage them in battle, ma'am? Or should I prepare the escape pod?"
"Wait. Wait!" Riff rose back to his feet. "Before we flee or fight, let's think. If they're skelkrins, and they're an enemy, why aren't they attacking? If we can see them, they can see us." He frowned. "Why are they just idling? Why aren't they blasting us out of the sky?"
Giga tilted her head. "Cannot compute. Answer unknown." Her face brightened. "Would you like me to hail them and ask, Captain?"
"No." Riff shook his head. "No, we stay silent. We stay distant. We've stumbled upon a sleeping wolf, and I don't think we should wake it." He licked his dry lips. "Giga, there should be a town of settlers below. Are you still picking up their signals?"
She nodded. "Yes, Captain. Colony still showing up in scans, sir. Would you like me to hail them?"
"No. I want full communications silence." He frowned and pointed at the distant vessel. "This might not be a warship after all. This might be a spy ship. They might be monitoring the planet . . . or monitoring us. Giga, plot a landing course. Take us down to the colony. Let's see what the skelkrins do."
"Happy to comply, Captain."
The Dragon Huntress veered and began to descend toward the planet.
The skelkrin ship hovered in the distance, silent, still, dead.
Riff sat back in his seat as they shot through space toward the atmosphere. Soon the Dragon Huntress was rattling madly, and the first layer of ozone flared around them. Fire blazed outside the windshields. The hula dancer swayed so madly her hips almost dislocated, and the bulldog bobbed his head like a headbanger at a metal concert.
"We really need seat belts on this thing!" Riff shouted as the air roared around them.
Steel and Nova sank into their seats, gripping the arm rests, not even able to reply. Giga swayed madly across the deck until Riff caught her, pulled her into his lap, and held her close.
Alien Hunters - Discover Sci-Fi Special Edition Page 14