by Carysa Locke
Annie.
She gave a start at the voice in her head. It was familiar. Dante.
Oh, um. Hi.
Arcus tells me you had to go back to the shop for a part.
It’s fabricating now. I’ll be back in a few hours.
It was so strange speaking telepathically. She’d never been very good at it, and it felt like she was fumbling the words in her mind.
How is your leg?
Fine. It doesn’t hurt at all. Just buzzes a bit. I can feel the nanites working.
Hmm. I want to check it as soon as you’re back. Be careful.
I will be. I am. No one’s even here.
Good.
His voice faded from her mind, and she smiled. It felt good knowing someone was concerned for her. She didn’t think her telepathy was strong enough to reach him if he hadn’t sought her mind himself. Her telekinesis had always been stronger.
But who knew what she might achieve once she had some formal training? Most of her life, her Talent had all been done on instinct.
Out of curiosity, she stretched out her mind, searching for Arcus. He would be closer than either of the other two. But while she dimly felt a bunch of other minds nearby, none of them were his distinctive feel. Her headache throbbed in warning, and she let the effort drop.
“Annie!” Salla hurried into the shop, her goggles pushed on top of her head, her face pale. Her eyes were wide. “You need to run. Now!”
Jens was right behind her. He blanched when he saw Annie. Both of them were covered in dust from the scrapyards. “What’re you doin’ back here, girl? Shouldn’t you be workin’ on that ship?”
What was going on? “I needed to fabricate some new nanograph. What—”
Marlon threw open the shop door. He stalked inside and zeroed right in on Annie. Thunder filled his face.
“You!”
Oh no.
Annie backed up, but not fast enough. Marlon closed the distance between them, shoving Jens aside so hard he fell. He grabbed Annie by the shoulder when she tried to turn and run, spinning her around and sending her crashing against the fabrication printer. She bounced off of it and fell.
Marlon loomed over her, his fists clenched. Usually when he was angry, his face turned red and he shouted a lot of threats. Sometimes he broke things. Right now, his face was an expressionless mask and only his eyes showed the depths of his rage.
Annie went cold. This was Marlon’s face when he killed people.
“Where is it?” Marlon asked, each word carefully enunciated.
“I don’t know—”
He backhanded her. She never saw it coming. His biotech enhanced arm was fast and strong. Pain blossomed like fire across her head and neck.
Dazed, Annie lay perfectly still. She blinked stars from her eyes. Jens was crouching behind a landslip a few feet away, fear on his jowled face. In a strange, complete sense of calm she had the realization that she could die in this moment.
Marlon crouched down beside her. Casually, he reached out a hand and flipped the hair out of her face so he could look her in the eye.
“Don’t lie to me, girl. I know you found that crystal. You the only junker hasn’t been bit by one o’those snakes in eight years. An’ yesterday mornin’ ends that streak? You come out o’the yards with a full pack and turn in a pitiful bit o’scrap.”
Annie’s stomach twisted. “I don’t have your crystal. I’ll look for it if you let me back in the yards. I swear, I’ll find it for you—”
He rested his hand over her throat. “You really gonna make me kill you?”
She swallowed. Was it worth her life? If her dreams were true and everything Dante had offered was valid, she could leave Omaris and never look back with or without the crystal. All she had to do was take a leap of faith. And survive the next few moments.
Marlon squeezed gently. Just enough to constrict her breathing. “You’re worth a lot to me, girl. But not as much as that crystal.”
“All right. I did find it. I’ll give it to you.”
“Damn right you will.” Marlon stood up, and he pulled her up with him, dragging her by her throat. She pulled at his hand, but there was no give. She wasn’t remotely strong enough to fight him.
He pulled her into the lift and shut the door, never easing off his grip. She had a glimpse of Salla’s frightened face, bloodless and white, as the lift lowered. When it stopped, Marlon threw open the door and dragged her from it and into her room.
“Where?” He gave her a little shake, hitting her head against the wall.
“Under my bed,” she wheezed out. “Under the floor.”
“Show me.” He tossed her onto the floor, and suddenly she could breathe again. He’d let go of her throat, but he was still between her and the door, and she wasn’t foolish enough to think she could make it past him if she ran.
With one hand, Marlon lifted the bed and threw it aside. He turned and looked at her, clearly expecting her help. She pointed to the correct boards. “There.”
Before she could tell him to be careful, he punched through them with his enhanced arm. She shielded her face as wood splinters shot across the room. Marlon made a noise, deeply satisfied, and pulled her crystal out of the hole he’d made. In his hand it looked smaller, but still gleamed with inner fire.
Annie’s face was swelling. She could feel a numbness spreading where he’d struck her. Her throat was bruised, too, but these were small things. She watched as he looked at the crystal with avarice and awe.
“Such a pretty thing,” he said. “And worth more than your life.”
Maybe to him. Not to her. Not to Arcus, Payne, and Dante.
She remained quiet, hoping he’d leave now. She was calculating in her mind. The printer would take a few more hours to finish fabricating, and then half a day to put Niobe back together.
Too long. But she had no choice. She couldn’t leave here until she had those parts, though, or none of them would be getting off Omaris. She’d have to be very careful these next few hours until she could make it back to the spaceport. Once she was surrounded by her princes, she’d feel safe even if it they couldn’t take off right away.
Marlon turned to her then, the crystal tucked close against him. “You tried to steal from me,” he said.
A deep foreboding filled Annie.
“No one steals from me. Especially after everything I’ve done for you, Annie-girl.”
Instinctively, she crawled backwards away from him. He saw, and gave a small, cruel smile.
“Normally, I’d kill you. But you’re worth more to me alive.”
She waited, tense, conflicted. He was letting her live?
“I knew what you were when I took you in, y’know.” He lifted a hand, gesturing to someone outside the room. “I thought your Talent would make a better junker. I was right. But now, I have no use for you.”
Foreboding crystallized to fear, and fear into terror as black-garbed Laripim security entered the room. When had they gotten here? How? Had they been lying in wait outside until Marlon retrieved the crystal?
“There’s a reward for escaped slaves.”
No. No, no, no, no. She scrambled to her feet, pressing against the wall. Somehow, her knife was in her hand.
One of them reached for her and she shoved with her mind. Her headache exploded back into being, made worse by the pain already radiating across her face. The security officer staggered back, pushed by her telekinesis. But not enough. She was still on low reserves. She didn’t have enough strength.
“I won’t go back,” she said. A hand closed on her arm. She lashed out with her knife, but he easily evaded her clumsy blow. She wasn’t a fighter, just a junker and a mechanic.
She fought as viciously as she knew how, fueled by desperation. Punching, cutting, kicking, even trying to head butt one of them.
“I won’t go back!”
Someone struck her wrist and her hand went numb. Her knife dropped to the floor. She kept fighting as they dragged her from
the room.
“No. I won’t go!”
She grabbed the entryway as they pulled her through the door, fighting for all she was worth. Looking at Marlon’s face, at his horrible smile, something inside her broke. She screamed, raw and filled with rage. Marlon lifted into the air, the whole huge bulk of him. He slammed against the wall of her room once, twice, three times. The crystal fell from his grasp to clatter on the floor. He gaped at her in shock.
She snarled, and squeezed with her mind. She’d never before felt such rage, such a terrible desire for vengeance. His face turned purple as she squeezed. She would crush the cruelty from him if it was the last thing she did.
Something stung her arm. The world went black.
Chapter 8
Annie’s awareness faded in and out in a series of impressions. A transport moving. Familiar corridors that hadn’t changed in eight years. Cell walls she’d hoped never to see again.
She wept. She begged her captors to let her go.
She woke with her cheek pressed to a cold metal floor. The other side of her face ached and felt tight. Her leg throbbed. Her head split with agony when she tried to move.
Bright lights hurt her eyes. She squinted and tried to turn away from them. Her stomach rolled and she held her breath, willing it to stop.
She focused on staying awake, on gathering her reserves. She’d escaped this place once, she could do it again.
It wasn’t enough. Blackness swelled up and she spiraled into sleep again.
“There she is.” Relief filled Dante’s voice.
Wind carrying the smell of salt blew the hair back from Annie’s face. Warmth beneath her feet had her looking down. Golden sand beneath her toes. Not that she’d seen sand before, but she knew what it looked like. She’d seen holos.
She looked up, and an expanse of glittering blue stretched before her. Water capped with white foam rolled toward her, then fell back on itself.
A bird called overhead, and she looked up into a clear blue sky.
Another dream. Even whatever drugs they’d pumped into her couldn’t stop them.
She turned, and found Dante, Arcus, and Payne beside her. Arcus smiled and waved. Payne looked worried. Dante reached out and touched her face gently.
The moment his fingers made contact, pain faded from her awareness.
“What did you do?” she asked him, covering his hand with hers.
“We’re in a telepathic landscape. Mine. I just separated your physical self a little further from your consciousness.” He must have seen her alarm because a faint smile ghosted across his lips. “Don’t worry, it’s safe. I know what I’m doing.” His hand dropped away and he stepped back.
“Is this…the beach?” she asked them all.
“It is,” said Dante.
“Do you like it?” Arcus asked.
Annie turned around, taking it all in again. The sun was warm on her skin, but for once not uncomfortably so. It was so beautiful, she felt like she could stay here for days.
“Very much,” she said. “But why are we here? A telepathic landscape? Is that like a dream?”
“Sort of,” Arcus said.
“No.” Payne glared at Arcus. “It’s not the same at all.”
“Oh. But I’ve dreamt of you all before.”
“You have?” Dante looked surprised.
Annie nodded. “Many times. Like…a different time and place. All of us together, on Niobe.”
The men exchanged glances.
“Precog?” Arcus said.
“Probably,” Payne agreed. “It can manifest as prophetic dreams sometimes.”
Dante looked at her thoughtfully. “So, a baseline telepathic gift with likely mechanical affinity, strong telekinesis, and a precog. Interesting combination.”
“Have you ever dreamt anything else that came true?” Arcus asked her.
Annie shook her head. “No. Just the three of you.”
Another shared look between them.
“Do we have a strong emotional bond in these dreams?” Payne asked.
Annie was embarrassed. “Um…yes. But that doesn’t mean it happens, right?”
Arcus grinned at her. “Annie, you’re someone who sees the future. That’s what it means to be a precog.”
She bit her lip. “But I don’t know you.”
To her surprise, it was Payne who stepped forward and gave Arcus a look that said, “shut up, idiot.”
“Precog visions can change,” he said. “They don’t always come true.” He tilted his head. “But often, they do. It doesn’t mean anything you saw is happening anytime soon, just that it might, at some distant point. And really, what you should be focusing on right now is what else your visions tell us.”
When she gave him a quizzical look, he rolled his eyes. “That you survive this, and live to be free. We’re getting you out of there.”
Her heart jumped. Annie would like nothing better than for his words to be true. But…she backed away, putting some distance between them. She relaxed more with a little space, breathing easier.
“But how will you do that?” she asked. “Laripim security is no joke.”
Dante pointed to himself. “Trust us, Annie. We’re pirates. Stealing things — or people, if need be — is nothing we haven’t done before. I made this place so we could talk to you. Luckily, your captors haven’t put a control collar on you, or slapped you with an inhibitor yet.” He pointed to Arcus. “He’s got basic telepathy but strong telekinesis with a projection component.”
He moved his finger to Payne, who knocked it aside with an irritated look.
“I can speak for myself. Annie and I have already talked. She knows I’m an empath. I also have both telepathy and telekinesis at moderate strength.”
“Do people usually have multiple Talents?” she asked.
“It’s pretty normal,” Dante said. “Most people have at least a baseline telepathic, telekinetic gift, or both. We don’t leave our own behind, and we have no intention of leaving you here. We knew you were Talented as soon as we met you. Your shields are much stronger than a null’s.”
“Null?”
“A regular person. Someone not Talented.”
“Not to mention, the way you worked on Niobe was more intuitive than any mechanic I’ve ever seen,” Arcus added.
Niobe! “You can’t take off until the ship is fixed and back together,” she said. “I was fabricating the nanograph, but—”
“Your friend Salla showed up with it last night,” Dante said. “And she told us what happened. You were an escaped slave?”
Annie twisted her fingers together. She was so unused to talking openly about her past. She sat down in the sand, hugging her knees to her.
Payne sat next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “It’s all right, Annie. You don’t have to talk about it.”
“No, I—I mean yes. I was a slave.” Annie took a deep breath of sea air. She felt like just being in this place cleansed her, strengthening her. “I grew up working in the shipyards. Using my mechanical affinity, I guess? My telekinesis didn’t develop until I was older. I was considered a low power, low risk asset. They worked us sixteen, sometimes twenty hour shifts. We were too exhausted to think about escape.”
She picked up a handful of sand and let it run through her fingers. “When I was seventeen, the dreams started. They showed me another life. A free life. I wanted that. So, a few months later, I walked off the production floor, stole a landslip, and left. By then no one thought I was even capable of escape. I’d been with Laripim for years, so I had more freedom than others. In lower Ferrous City, most people don’t ask too many questions. I sold the slip to the first black market vendor I found, and used the credits to feed, clothe, and hide myself. Then the money ran out. Within a week, I’d signed on with Marlon as a junker.”
“Brave girl,” Arcus said.
She smiled at him. “Just determined.”
“Listen,” Dante said. “Salla is putting Niobe back together.
She said she could do it.”
Annie nodded. “Salla knows her stuff. Marlon liked to give me the complicated jobs, but Salla has a lot of experience.”
“All right, so as soon as Salla is done, we’re coming for you.”
She straightened, alarm shooting through her. “You can’t. You’re Talented, too. If Laripim get their hands on you—”
“They won’t even know I’m there,” Arcus sneered. “I’ll go in and get you out. Dante will take care of the guards. Payne will be ready and waiting with Niobe to back us up. Then we’re getting off this planet and never looking back.”
“But what about—what about the crystal?” How could they leave behind the one thing they’d come here to get?
Dante gave her a level, serious look. “The crystal was a payday. Did we want it? Sure. But it became secondary the moment we knew what you were. Believe me, your life is far more important to us than that crystal.”
She stared at them all, struck dumb and mute.
Payne cocked his head. “Hasn’t anyone ever cared enough to put you first?” he asked.
She shook her head, unable to speak around the lump in her throat.
Arcus gave a careless shrug. “The crystal doesn’t matter. We can always steal something else. But there’s only one Andromeda Jones.”
Tears in her eyes, she said, “I told you, it’s Annie.”
“Yeah, well.” He gave her a wry smile. “I’ll remember for the next time.”
“It sounds like Salla needs a few more hours,” Dante said. “Whatever happens, you need to hold on until we get to you. Try to be meek and compliant. If they put a control collar on you, it’ll complicate things.”
“All right.”
Meek. She could do that. She hoped.
Annie came awake sputtering and coughing. Someone had thrown water on her. She sat up, her hair dripping. A woman was seated on the hard bench across from where Annie lay. She had long dark hair pulled back and secured with a pearl clasp, and wore a stunning silver dress that followed the curves of her body. Her face was perfect, her demeanor cold and haughty.
The guard holding an empty bucket stepped back. Annie shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.