by Kate MacLeod
But the shooting star banked and slowed. It gained form as it drew closer, becoming a shuttle with wide wings like a bird of prey descending on them.
It set down gently just outside the circle of flattened grass. Malcolm came out of the shuttle to stand by Joelle as they all watched the ramp lower to the ground.
A pair of guards stepped out first, leading the four hostages down the ramp to stand blinking in the sun.
Scout could only imagine how blinding it was for them. The pilot had only been in the space stations in orbit around Amatheon. Geeta, Seeta, and Emilie had been to Galactic Central, but as on the Months’ ship, the sunlight they would have seen had all been artificial. The stations in orbit reflected the sunlight into parts of the city with mirrors, but it wasn’t the same.
They were standing in a world full of sunlight for the first time.
Then the guards herded them off to one side. They were cuffed around their ankles and wrists, and they stumbled as they blindly made their way to stand in the shadow of the Months' shuttle.
Scout had just raised a hand to get their attention when she heard her dogs barking. These weren’t hunting barks or warning barks; these were barks of complete joy.
They hadn’t seemed to bond closely with the Malini sisters or Emilie, although they had all spent days together in close quarters back on the ship. No, these barks sounded more like their barks of joy when Scout or Daisy returned to the room back in Galactic Central.
The dogs charged across the flattened grass to hop and wag their tails at the bottom of the ramp. Was there another prisoner, someone they knew and liked? Bo, maybe?
Scout had a sinking feeling in her stomach at that thought, but when the feet and then legs coming down the ramp became a whole body in view, she realized it was Jun Tajaki.
And her dogs were jumping all over her, desperate for her attention.
“What’s that all about?” Daisy asked Scout.
“They were taken from me on the Months’ ship, but Jun gave them back,” Scout said. “I didn’t know where they were when they weren’t with me, but I guess I do now.”
“It seems she treated them well,” Daisy said, sounding surprised.
“I don’t think she’s much like her sister,” Scout said.
“Don’t get carried away,” Daisy said. “If she’s letting her sister do all the talking and make all the decisions, it’s because she’s the weaker one in the relationship. She will do whatever Mai tells her to do.”
Then Mai came strolling down the ramp. She scowled at her sister, who was down on one knee petting the squirming dogs.
“Dignity, Jun,” she said with distaste, then continued her gliding walk across the flattened grass.
Malcolm curled his shaking hands into fists and advanced to meet her. Joelle walked half a step behind him.
Mai stopped and crossed her arms as she regarded the rebels, then Daisy and Scout. She waited for Jun to finally join her before speaking. “You two might as well get on our ship now.”
“We’re not doing the exchange first,” Malcolm said.
Scout felt like something was missing, then realized who she had lost track of. She dipped her head so that the brim of her hat would hide her eyes as she looked all around.
Arvid and his team were nowhere in sight. Scout was certain they weren’t gone. They were hiding. With those long guns. She could almost feel them all around her, taking careful aim at the Months.
“I don’t think all of the formalities are necessary,” Mai said. “You’ll present your demands; I’ll refuse them; then we’ll be on our way. So let’s just assume we’ve already done all that and get on with me getting off this waste of a planet.”
“That wasn’t what we agreed,” Malcolm said.
Scout could sense how much work he was putting into not losing his temper. His fists were so tight his forearms were bulging, and Scout thought she saw a small drop of blood fall away from one of them.
“We didn’t agree to anything,” Mai said.
“No, we did,” Scout said. “And it wasn’t this.”
“Don’t get presumptuous,” Mai said to her. “Your five little helpers out in the grass are no match for the armaments on our shuttle. I mean, if you want to start a bloodbath, then by all means. Fight me.”
“If you won’t even discuss dismantling the explosives on all of the shield satellites, then Daisy and I aren’t going anywhere,” Scout said. “Our presence here is this world’s only protection.”
“You really do think a lot of yourself, don’t you?” Mai asked. Her gaze shifted from Scout to Daisy. “You of all people must know you’re not irreplaceable. Shi Jian made dozens of you. Dozens.”
“And yet,” Daisy said, “she seems fixated on having me.”
“Perhaps we’d be doing her a favor,” Mai said. “Breaking an unhealthy addiction. Yes, I think we would be. Guards, put the hostages back on the ship.”
“Wait!” Scout and Malcolm called out at once. Mai turned back with an exaggerated smirk on her lips.
But her sister Jun was looking up at the sky, and so was Daisy.
“What is it?” Scout hissed to Daisy.
“I don’t know,” Daisy said, scanning the cloudless sky. “It’s like no sound I’ve ever heard before. It’s like a haunting, unsettling sort of music.”
Then Jun pointed wordlessly to the south, and Daisy turned to look in that direction.
A moment later they all heard it, like a chorus of voices singing notes that didn’t fit together at all, over an orchestra of instruments like none Scout had ever heard before, playing chords that bordered on the inaudible.
Both dogs started howling and staggered across the flattened grass to Scout’s side.
Then a light shot down out of the sky, hitting a point between the two parked ships. It was too bright to look at, and Scout turned her face away. She could feel heat burning the skin of her cheek, like an instant sunburn.
Then the heat and light were gone, and Shi Jian stood among them.
25
The first thing Scout noticed was that Shi Jian had two arms. She was still dressed in black, tunic over leggings complete with billowing cape and soft shoes, all except for the sleeve over her right arm. That was a deep red, like drying blood.
Scout thought at first that she must be a holographic projection. She had seen projections she hadn’t realized weren’t real people until someone tried to touch them.
Then she saw the perspiration just starting to gleam on the woman’s forehead and knew that she had to be here, under the sun in that not remotely climate-appropriate outfit.
Only, how?
“Shi Jian,” Mai said with a welcoming smile. “We were just finishing up here.”
“We haven’t even started,” Malcolm said, but she ignored him.
Joelle looked at Scout and then at Daisy. Something in their expressions made that little wrinkle of worry crease between her brows. She took another step back from her father and began furiously tapping at the communicator on her wrist.
Calling for reinforcements? If there were anyone on the planet or in orbit capable of standing up to Shi Jian, they’d never get here in time enough to matter.
“I’m just here for those two,” Shi Jian said, pointing at Daisy and Scout. “Then I’ll be on my way, and the rest of you can continue with . . . whatever.”
“We’re not going with you,” Daisy said.
Scout wished she felt as confident as Daisy sounded. She looked up into the sky, but whatever ship Shi Jian had arrived on was nowhere to be seen. Was it hiding in the glare of the midday sun?
Oh, to have her glasses back.
“I wasn’t asking,” Shi Jian said. She raised her red arm, but whatever gesture she had been about to do, whether merely marking the two of them for removal or initiating some sort of attack, neither Scout nor Daisy wanted to just stand there and watch it happen. Scout dove to hide behind the front landing gear of the rebels’ shuttle, hugging her dogs cl
ose to her side.
But Daisy charged straight at Shi Jian. She crossed the clearing with inhuman speed and the scream of someone who’s already taken one of your arms and is fully prepared to take the other.
Shi Jian watched Daisy charge at her with an unbothered expression. At the last possible moment, she finished raising her arm, palm out as if asking Daisy to stop.
Daisy didn’t. Scout saw the muscles in her enhanced legs bulge as she launched off from the last steps of her run, throwing herself at Shi Jian.
There was another bright flash of light, this time not from the sky but from Shi Jian’s open palm, and a crackle of energy that built to a boom of thunder.
Scout peeked around the landing gear to see Daisy lying on the ground, arms wrapped around herself as blue lightning shot all over her body, again and again. Her scream of rage had become one of agony that ended in breathless sobs.
“Yes, it hurts,” Shi Jian said. “Especially you. Your body enhances the energy I gave you. It’s going to take a bit of time before your internal systems stop boosting it out to all of your nerve endings and then back again.” She had bent over as she spoke to look Daisy in the eye, but she straightened now and looked at each one of them in turn. “Anyone else?” She flexed the hand at the end of that red sleeve, forming a tight fist and then splaying the fingers wide.
As if she were reloading.
No one said a word.
“Come out now, Scout,” Shi Jian said. “Leave your dogs with these nice people. You won’t be needing them where you’re going.”
“Where’s that?” Scout asked to buy for time. Time she could put to no good use; she didn’t have a weapon or any means of escape.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Shi Jian said. “No need for me to speak its name aloud for all to hear. Although even if I did, no one could follow us there. The name means nothing to any of you people.”
“Not even the Tajaki sisters?” Scout asked.
“Not even,” Shi Jian said.
Daisy’s sobs were quieting, but she was making no move to get up. The sight of her lying there at Shi Jian’s feet, broken, made Scout’s chest hurt.
“My patience runs dry,” Shi Jian said sourly.
“Jun,” Scout called, still not coming out from what cover the landing gear gave her. “I want Jun to take my dogs.” She pulled the leashes out of her pocket and clipped them to the dogs’ collars. “I need her to come and get them from me. They’re very frightened.”
Shi Jian waved a hand dismissively and turned to squat down beside Daisy. She didn’t speak, but Scout just knew that her eyes were taunting the still-unmoving Daisy.
Jun glanced at her sister, and at Mai’s slight nod she crossed the clearing to where Scout hid.
“Jun,” Scout said when she was close enough to hear a whisper. “Help me.”
Jun gave her a puzzled look but held her hand out to take the leashes. Scout got to her feet but pretended to fumble with the leashes, as if they were tangled. She tipped her head so her hat would block her mouth from view and spoke less in a whisper than in a subvocalization.
“I know you can hear me,” Scout said. “You’re not like your sister. You’re more. Like Daisy. Aren’t you?”
Jun looked at her, her face a careful blank. She extended her hand again for the leashes.
“Your sister has always lorded it over you,” Scout said. “Your younger sister. Because she’s always been a talker. And you have a big family, never a moment alone as a kid, never now. But look around, Jun. This is where I grew up. Just me and my dogs, riding over the prairie, only seeing people when we wanted to. Paradise, right?”
Jun blinked. It didn’t seem to carry any meaning; Scout pressed on.
“You want that for yourself, I know you do,” Scout said. “And you can have it. You just have to stop doing what your sister says. The pirate court, the destruction of societies for fun, that’s not your thing. You’re about the open prairie, living free and alone, being your own boss of your time and your work.”
“What’s the holdup?” Shi Jian asked, looking back over her shoulder from where she was still kneeling over Daisy.
“Mai hates dogs, doesn’t she?” Scout said as she reluctantly separated the two leashes from each other. “She’ll never let you have one. She wanted to kill mine, didn’t she? But you wouldn’t let her. You chose to give them back to me instead.”
A muscle in Jun’s jaw stood out as she clenched her jaw.
“Thank you for that,” Scout said. “But you know and I know that Shi Jian isn’t just going to take Daisy and me and leave. She’s going to have more demands for you and your sister. She’s going to tell you to kill everyone here because they’re witnesses. And she’s going to ask you to kill the dogs. And Mai is going to make you do it. All of it.
“Jun, please don’t let Shi Jian make you hurt my dogs.”
Scout gave the leashes a small tug, and the two dogs stepped up closer, looking with something between curiosity and confusion from Scout to Jun and back. Gert thumped her tail against the ground as Jun looked down at them.
“Please, Jun,” Scout said.
There was nothing left to say. She held out the leashes draped over her open palm.
Jun looked at them as if she wasn’t sure what they were. She hovered a hand over them.
“Does this really need to take all day?” Mai said. “Honestly, Jun—”
But her words were cut off abruptly. Scout felt a rush of wind stirring her hair, and the moment she turned to look towards Mai, Jun was already there, her hand closing around her sister’s throat.
She waited until her sister’s face went from red to purple before throwing her to the ground.
Then she turned to face Shi Jian.
26
Jun’s face was as inscrutable as always. But her hands were flexing in and out of fists, and her body language was shouting just one thing: determination.
Shi Jian sighed as she stood up, stepping over Daisy’s crumpled form. She flicked the hem of her cloak as if letting it brush over Daisy would sully it.
She raised her right arm in its horrid red sleeve and made a come-at-me gesture.
“Jun,” Mai tried to squawk, but what came out of her throat was little more than a whistle of sound, easily ignored.
Jun didn’t charge at Shi Jian; she advanced deliberately, one step after another. Scout supposed this was a fighting stance, but to her, it looked like a dance, it was so light and precise. When Jun was just over an arm’s length away, she started circling Shi Jian, hands up but loose, not in fists.
Scout had always thought passionate rage was Jun’s defining feature, but there was none of that in her now. She was a creature of infinite patience, waiting for Shi Jian to make her move.
Shi Jian grinned as if this were all a big game. Then, fast as a snake strike, her right hand fired forward to catch Jun in the chest.
The movement was too fast for Scout’s eyes to follow, but Jun didn’t seem to have that problem. The next moment both of their bodies were still, Jun had a hold of Shi Jian’s wrist, pulling her arm to full extension and using it to control her, to pull her further away from Daisy.
Shi Jian’s foot snapped at Jun’s kneecap, and Jun let go but resumed circling.
Shi Jian’s grin was gone.
Scout led the dogs closer so that she could kneel beside Daisy. Gert huddled close behind her and Shadow was shaking like a leaf, but they shared Scout’s concern for Daisy. When they reached her side, Shadow began earnestly licking at her face.
“Are you okay?” Scout asked. Daisy looked up at her with bloodshot eyes. This was more than the eyes of someone who had missed a few nights of sleep; her left eye had what looked like a spidery clot trying to wrap around her iris.
“Help me up,” Daisy said. She had to close her eyes to focus her energy on getting the words out.
“I don’t think you’re ready for that,” Scout said.
“Up,” Daisy said again, trying t
o push her own weight up with trembling arms. Scout hooked the leashes around her wrist so she could use both hands to help Daisy sit up and lean against her.
Daisy took a moment to catch her breath, then looked up at Shi Jian and Jun still circling each other. Shi Jian was being more cautious now.
Suddenly the dogs started barking, and Scout saw that Mai had gotten back on her feet and was waving at her ship.
Then she saw the guards at the base of the ramp trying to get their hostages—her friends—back inside the ship.
“Stop!” Scout shouted and released her dogs. They ran to pull at the pants legs of the guards. Gert tripped hers, sending her down on her butt with a whoosh of chaff from the dry grass. Shadow was too little for that, but he was twice as tenacious. The guard he was attached to was barely able to take a step.
The guard raised his rifle, prepared to strike Shadow with the butt of it, but before Scout could even shout another alarm, Arvid and his squad had boiled up out of the grass. One of them hit the guard in the side of his head with her own rifle. Two more kept the fallen one pinned down on the ground. Arvid and the others stood at the base of the ramp to keep more guards from coming out.
A sudden scream drew Scout’s attention back to the fight. Jun was stumbling back, clutching the side of her face as she shrieked.
“What happened?” Scout asked.
“Shi Jian nearly got her,” Daisy said.
“Nearly?”
“Jun dodged to avoid being punched, but not enough. Shi Jian’s fist brushed her cheek.”
“That contact was enough?” Scout said. “She’s enhanced, like you.”
“Not like me,” Daisy said. “She’s more advanced than me. But not as much as Shi Jian.”
“She can’t win this,” Scout said. Jun had stopped staggering back and seemed to be having a hard time staying upright. She was clutching her cheek and taking deep breaths but not even looking up at Shi Jian advancing on her.