He laughed at himself. This was supposed to be a short recon trip, not a battle. Command had given them only the briefest rundown of flora and fauna on the planet. Basically, just what might kill them. He had no idea what was safe to eat, what to watch out for. With limited rations, he wasn’t sure he would live long enough to find his unit, though that potential demise was days, even weeks out.
All this because whispers had reached command about an encampment on an unnamed planet close to one of their biggest colonies. For all their species was known far and wide for their military prowess, which mostly kept them safe, it would only take one successful attack to make others brave.
They couldn’t afford that.
He continued scouring the ground and branches, looking for signs, when twin booms like weapons firing shook the air. Jerking his head up, he searched, knowing what that sound meant. A ship. Only a vessel capable of hypersonic speeds made a noise like that.
Above, clouds filled the sky, but he caught a streak of something displacing the puffy masses, heading toward the horizon.
“My lucky day.” If he could get that ship, he could find his unit. Save them, if necessary.
Zee took a deep breath and broke into a dead run. Getting to that ship was his best chance.
Ellie stepped out of the ship and stretched, a smile on her face. She loved her ship, the Independence, but there was nothing like good, solid ground and nature as far as the eye could see. She didn’t recognize any of the foliage, but still, it was breathtaking, especially after months confined to a ship and various space stations.
Small, blue leafy plants hugged the ground while trees with pale bark and enormous palm-like green fronds stretched above her head. She could make out paths where animals had trampled and displaced the underbrush. In the distance, the sound of running water called to her. She wanted to explore, see all this planet had to offer, but she couldn’t yet. She had one responsibility to address first.
With a sigh, she turned around and placed the little bot on the hull, the magnetics clanking as they locked on. She pressed the power button and a little light turned red, then flashed yellow, then solid green, and it was off. Angus controlled the bot, and he would use it to inspect the entire hull outside Guest Room 2.
The bot was designed for automated repairs, but Vic and Cass hadn’t finished yet, which meant Ellie would have to perform the repairs herself when Angus found the hole. At present, the little bot served as a supplementary sensory system for Angus, allowing him to monitor areas he couldn’t with the ship alone.
Angus would buzz her smart watch when he found the hole, which gave Ellie time to do some exploring. Her ears tuned into the water she’d heard only moments before. She’d always loved waterfalls and rivers. They were peaceful, releasing all the tension life wound up inside her.
As she started hiking, the stronger gravity and lower oxygen levels hit her like a bag of bricks, taxing her body and lungs no matter how she compensated. “Holy shit,” she cursed breathlessly. After a few minutes, she was sweating, the shade of the “palms” pleasant. Before long, she’d found a rhythm, her lungs and heart calming.
Her boots pressed into the soft dirt with every step and leaves from the plants brushed against her, a soft caress that taunted her, encouraging her to touch and feel. “It’s probably a bad idea. For all I know, it’s like poison ivy or something.” But the blue leaves caressed her palms like silk, encouraging her to stretch out her arms and let them slip across her skin as she continued onward.
The sound of running water grew stronger, and the ground beneath her feet grew less sturdy, the soft rich earth growing sandy and coarse. She was close. She knew it. The blue plants grew smaller then disappeared entirely as the ground changed and she could see water in the distance without the plants to disguise it.
She smiled and picked up her pace, almost used to the conditions by now. A little while longer and the palms opened up to a small river with a pool up and to her right with rocks on each side. She climbed up on the rocks, taking them one at a time, remembering times as a child taunting the other children into climbing higher than her.
That had been on Ara, her father’s planet, a place that revered nature. Ellie had played with the other children, and she’d been normal, just like any other kid. She’d never been normal on Earth. She’d always been different, a freak.
All the more reason to spend her time in the middle of nowhere, where no one could put in their two cents. In fact, her only true friends growing up had been Cass and Victoria. They’d both been shape-shifters. They’d understood some of what she had to deal with, and they’d helped her learn when her mother knew almost nothing about shifting.
Her mother hadn’t wanted to know. She’d discovered her shifter nature as an adult, and while the laws had already changed by that time, it didn’t matter. Her mother didn’t want to be a shape-shifter, didn’t want to be different. The extent of her willingness to deviate from the norm was restricted to marrying an alien and becoming an ambassador for Earth.
It was a crazy childhood, often lonely, but she’d learned a lot, learned skills that helped her now. Without that childhood, she wouldn’t know Uso, the most widely spoken language in the galaxy, which she used for trading.
She reached the top of her climb and smiled. Above her, water ran over the rocks, feeding the pool and river below. Kneeling, she ran her fingers along the glassy surface, taking pleasure in the silky texture and cool temperature after the hike to get there. It felt like heaven.
For all of five seconds.
Beep. Beep.
She groaned and lifted her arm to check her smart watch. Angus had located the leak.
She sighed. “Time to head back.”
Chapter Four
Ellie stomped onto the ship, leaving clumps of earth on the ramp to be swept off before takeoff. She was hot, hungry, and thirsty, and Angus had been nagging her from the moment she left the water.
Her watch chirped again. “Repairs have been delayed by another 32 minutes due to staffing irregularities.” Angus liked to do that, come up with not-so-subtle ways of telling her she disappointed him. It was like being in a relationship without any of the bennies.
“Hold your horses!” she yelled at the ship. She didn’t mind working while sweaty and stinky, but like hell she was operating a plasma torch if she wasn’t at her best. She would probably lop something off she needed. Like her foot.
Two turns and she reached the galley, which in a ship this size resembled a walk-in closet. She opened the refrigerator’s upper door, grabbed a cold bottle of water, hummus, and pita and placed them on the opposite counter. The room was so small, she could lean against the cooking robot and still eat on the opposite counter.
An alarm went off, vibrating through her like a foghorn. She gasped, dropping her bottle. The water glugged out like blood from a low-pressure artery.
She took a deep, controlled breath. “Angus! What the hell was that?”
Ellie charged out of the kitchen. She’d never heard that alarm before. Didn’t even know what it meant. Cass had a tendency of changing things like ring tones and settings with about as much predictability as a terrier hopped up on sugar.
“There’s an intruder on the ship.”
“What?”
Something cold and hard pressed against her nape. Ellie clenched her jaw, really wishing she could kill Angus right about now.
“I need your ship. Don’t cause trouble.” The intruder’s voice was deep, pronouncing the Usan language in a way she’d never heard before, but that felt almost soothing.
She laughed. “I am trouble.” With a wide swing, she tried to knock the gun from his hand, but it didn’t budge and pain lanced up her arm. She screamed, bending over and holding her hand.
Broken.
She’d been adventurous and clumsy enough growing up to know a broken bone when it happened. Breathing through her mouth, she waited for it to heal. He didn’t try to get her back under control.
His mistake.
Within a minute, the fracture had healed, but she continued to ham it up, moaning and rotating. She shifted tissues in her arm, increasing bone density, tapping iron reserves, increasing muscle mass.
Wait for it.
When she had the right angle, she did the only logical thing to do. She drove her fist into his nuts and hoped for the best.
He howled, cupping his privates. Ellie straightened, noticing the short, charcoal gray hair on his head for the first time, and ran. Her boots slapped against the floor plates, echoing off the walls as she picked up speed.
Then he grabbed her by the scruff and yanked her backward. Her feet left the ground for a moment before coming back down with a bang. Ellie kicked, scrambling to get a better purchase, but a moment later the cold press of steel dug in under her chin, immobilizing her.
Her teeth locked together, her body tensing under the threat.
“Please, don’t try anything. I need you to trust me. I don’t want to hurt you. I just need the ship.”
Her ship? Was he nuts? Her struggles resumed in earnest, her legs thrashing as she tried to gain traction, or kick him, whichever got her freedom. But he lifted her higher against his armored chest, and her feet came off the ground, leaving her with no leverage.
“Let me go!” she yelled, digging her nails into the exposed skin between glove and sleeve.
He didn’t even flinch, holding her aloft with ease. “Where’s the control room?”
“I’m not telling you shit,” she yelled in his ear, hoping he went deaf.
If only.
He leaned his head away, but otherwise didn’t react. Behind her, she felt him shrug his shoulders, then he lifted her higher, starting to walk through the ship.
Now what? If only she could remember all the voice commands. There had to be something that would lock the ship down. But his arm was digging into her ribs, pushing her breasts painfully upward.
He checked inside each room they passed, scanning it with military efficiency, then moving on. The ship wasn’t that big, so within minutes, he found the cockpit. He put her down, planting her in a chair and pushing her back with his flat palm. “Stay.”
He stared into her, like that would somehow ensure her compliance, giving her the first good look at him.
Interesting.
Most of his skin blended in with his armor, which covered almost every inch of him. The armor was perfect except for a melted hole in one shoulder. Beneath it, midnight black skin with charcoal gray stripes peeked through.
His face was black with black eyes and no whites. As he turned to the console, with a view of the bright outdoors beyond, his face scrunched up and just the slightest white showed around his black eyes.
Ellie calculated her options. She couldn’t run. He’d proven he could outrun her. She couldn’t fight him. Even at her best, she’d only managed to slow him down. Observing him, she noted a rifle strapped to his back and a few other unidentifiable weapons in holsters, none of which she could grab without practically humping him.
Her gaze dropped to a long tail flitting behind him, but short of grabbing it, she couldn’t see how she could use that to her advantage.
The intruder sat down and touched the control panel, but a loud error noise rang off, making her jump. He tried again, but with the same result. Turning around, he stared at her in that intense way again. “How do I control the ship?”
What? Every time she’d tried to control the ship, it had worked without a hitch. Why wouldn’t it work now? She opened her mouth, inclined to speak but not knowing what to say.
“Answer,” he barked.
She jumped again, gripping her armrests to keep herself composed. “I don’t know.”
Though the almost flat, black canvas of his face made it difficult, she could swear an incredulous expression crossed his face. He didn’t speak, waiting for an answer he would accept.
“I don’t know. It just works for me,” she said, waving her hands in the air.
He stood up and back, motioning to the chair. “Show me.”
Ellie hesitated, her nails digging deeper into the armrests. She didn’t want to show him. Showing him felt like one step short of being kidnapped or getting her ship stolen.
“Now,” he said, his mouth forming the word like he intended to bite it off.
“It won’t matter. The ship’s not space-worthy right now.”
“I don’t need to go into space.”
Ellie frowned. Then why did he need the ship?
“Please,” he said, confusing her further.
Why did he keep saying please? Why did he ask her to trust him? He kept alternating between aggressive and polite, leaving her feeling unsteady, almost compliant for moments before she shook it off again. “This is my ship. I’m not giving it to you.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
Ellie paused, watching him skeptically. Though she didn’t recognize the exact pose, she did recognize military precision when she saw it. He stood at attention, waiting for her to come to her senses. “Why would I help you?”
“It’s faster than resisting.”
Most people would make that a question, but he made it a statement, like it was a fact, like he was guaranteed to get his way. She chewed on her lip, trying to devise a strategy that would get him off her ship and far away from her.
At first, nothing came to mind. She couldn’t escape him in the confines of the cockpit. There was only one door and she couldn’t reach it before he grabbed her. She needed to get a locked door between them, a door that wouldn’t leave her trapped. The only room that qualified was the cargo bay. The bay doors opened to the outside.
Ellie stood up. “It should be responding. I’m going to check on something.”
“What?”
“The systems panel is in the cargo bay. If there’re any faults, it should show up there.” She turned away from him, expecting him to follow.
Pounding boots trailed behind her. She resisted the urge to look back.
Be confident. Don’t give him reason to doubt you.
For this to work, he had to believe she wouldn’t try something, believe she’d conceded. She turned around. “You promise you’re not trying to take my ship?” she asked, putting an extra quiver in her voice for good measure.
He lifted his arm in some sort of salute. “I vow on my honor.”
She nodded and turned back around. Maybe he was being truthful. Maybe he just needed a ride. She held in a scoff. If so, the least he could have done was say please. She wasn’t a cold-hearted bitch, after all.
Well, actually, he did say please. He just accompanied that please with a gun and a threat…
As they crossed the ship, the tapping of his boots on the floor plates grew softer. She could no longer feel him breathing down her neck. Was he relaxing? Trusting her?
God, she hoped so.
They passed doors on each side, each one the same as the next, an unfortunate casualty of standardized design. She kept meaning to decorate them, maybe paint them or put up murals, but it seemed like too much effort.
Ellie reached the internal cargo bay door. She had to time it just right. She opened the door, acting perfectly natural as she stepped through the threshold, then slammed the door behind her and locked it in a single motion.
“Hey!” a muted masculine voice yelled from the other side right before something slammed into the reinforced metal.
Ellie stepped back, alarmed at how the door rattled under his weight.
Bang, bang, bang.
Shit, was he going to beat on the door until it caved in? She inched backward, watching the door, waiting to see if it would hold.
“Let me in!” he yelled, slamming into it again.
She lifted her wrist to her mouth, making sure to keep relatively quiet. “Angus? Why couldn’t the intruder fly the ship?”
“He’s not an authorized user,” Angus said, matter-of-fact.
“Authorized user?
”
“Yes, only you, Victoria, Cassandra, and Jessie are authorized to operate this vessel.”
Ellie smacked her forehead, vaguely remembering Cass talking about a security upgrade last week. Cass had made a joke about never losing her keys again, but Ellie hadn’t been paying that much attention.
Reassured he couldn’t steal her ship without her, she walked to the other end of the room, keeping a constant vigil on the ever-shaking door with an angry alien on the other side. She pressed the button on the wall and the doors slid open, exposing the outside world.
Bright light streamed in, blinding her momentarily before her eyes adjusted, and the natural world spread out before her, calling to her.
“This place really is beautiful,” she said before breaking into a run.
Chapter Five
Zee hit the door one more time and cursed. Now what?
Could this day get any worse? He hadn’t meant to scare the poor woman. He was used to dealing with military types, where brusque efficiency was not only expected, but appreciated. Nobody had time for manners and explanations in the middle of a war zone.
Frustrated, he stomped back to the control room. Short of blasting the door apart, he wasn’t getting into the cargo bay to look at the systems panel himself, if there even was a systems panel in the cargo bay. She’d probably made that up.
In the control room once more, he stood, hands on hips as he took in the setup. What were his options?
He could try to bypass the security protocols. Most ships had emergency protocols that allowed a ship to be operated under certain key circumstances. If he could trick it into thinking it was one of those situations, he could gain access to the piloting software.
Zee sat down at the console once more. At first, he couldn’t get it to turn on, but with a lot of random button mashing, the display booted.
Shifting Cargo (A Shift in Space Book 1) Page 2