Shipment to Daphnis (Mastery of the Stars Book 2)

by M J Dees

  "Great," said Sevan with a heavy dose of sarcasm. "Now, we have two drugged...how in the name of the Giant Cup do you expect to escape with these two in this state?"

  "The medication will wear off."

  Sevan looked at Ay-ttho's brother.

  "I'm sorry; I didn't ask you your name."

  "My name is Ay-ttho. I am Ay-ttho San An Too. My sister is Ay-ttho San An Wan."

  "Okay, San An Too, do you mind if I call you San for short?"

  "Fill your antennae."

  "Okay San, just how long does it take for this medicine of yours to wear off?"

  "It depends."

  "Depends on what?"

  "It depends on their metabolism."

  "So, in your learned opinion, guessing their metabolism, what are we talking about? Solar cycles?"

  "Not long now. I tried to estimate it for about now. I had hoped the effects would wear off already."

  "And if it doesn't? What happens when the guards come back?"

  "Then I guess they'll send us all to Aitne."

  "Aitne? The prison in space? I thought that was just a myth."

  "It's all too real. They have been shipping dissenters to it for the last solar cycle."

  "Dissenters?"

  "Anyone who doesn't go along with Barnes."

  "So, what is your plan to escape? Can you get us back to the Mastery of the Stars?"

  "That would be ideal. The Mastery of the Stars is not here anymore."

  "Where is it?"

  "They have taken it to Daphnis for dismantling. It could be anywhere by now."

  "What?"

  Sevan and San span round to see that Ay-ttho had recovered consciousness and was now looking at them with concern.

  "They can't dismantle Mastery of the Stars; it's the fastest freighter in the system. And what about Ron?"

  "Relax," said San. "The medication might not have worn off yet."

  "Who are you?" Ay-ttho asked.

  "I'm your brother, Ay-ttho San An Too."

  "I don't have a brother."

  "Yes you do," San turned to Sevan, embarrassed. "It's the medication."

  "What are we going to do?" asked Sevan. "If we can't escape on the Mastery of the Stars, is there another freighter we can steal, or a shuttle we can take?"

  "We are going nowhere without the Mastery of the Stars," said Ay-ttho.

  "You couldn't have heard what San said. He said it could be anywhere by now. It'd be like looking for a marble in a conference of councillors."

  "Ha, ha, that's very good," said San. "We have another saying; it'd be like looking for a needle in a haystack."

  "What does that mean?" Sevan looked puzzled.

  "Well," San began. "A needle is one of those things I used to inject you all with the medication..."

  "Yes, I know what a needle is, but what's a haystack?"

  "A haystack is... well, it's... I don't know what it is. A stack of hay I suppose."

  "And what is hay?"

  "I don't know."

  "Stop it you two, you are wasting too much time, we have to get after the Mastery of the Stars."

  "We can't do anything with him like that," said Sevan, pointing towards Tori who was still slumped in the corner.

  "You two help him up and let's go," Ay-ttho ordered.

  "Not even a 'thank you for coming to rescue me'," Sevan commented under his breath to San but still loud enough for Ay-ttho to hear. Ay-ttho pretended not to hear.

  Sevan and San struggled to support Tori, who was much larger than both of them.

  "Are you out of shape?" Ay-ttho asked, watching them struggle.

  "I'm an unemployed politician," said Sevan. "Not a Corporation Security Guard."

  "And I'm a medic," said San.

  Ay-ttho led them through the corridors, following the instructions of San.

  "It's unbelievable they trust you so much not to station any guards here," Ay-ttho commented.

  "I drugged the prisoners," said San. "And anyway, I think the guards have enough on their marbles with Daphnis."

  "What do you mean?"

  "The workers are rising up, demanding better conditions."

  "The dissenters?" asked Sevan.

  "Yes, except Barnes is more likely to liquidise dissenting workers than send them to Aitne. Aitne is big, but it's not infinite."

  "Lucky for us," said Ay-ttho. "It will make stealing a shuttle a lot easier."

  Sevan and San dragged Tori onto the shuttle and left him slumped in a chair while they recovered themselves.

  Ay-ttho ordered them to strap Tori in and to prepare for takeoff. San gave her codes to the hangar doors and the next moment they were in space, leaving the medical detention station behind."

  "How far is it to Daphnis?" Sevan asked.

  Ay-ttho and San both shrugged.

  "Doesn't the instrumentation tell you?" Sevan protested.

  "Oh yes," said Ay-ttho. "Not far. I can track the Mastery of the Stars through the communicator."

  "Have you tried to contact Ron?"

  "Yes, but he does not respond. Something is wrong."

  "I'm hungry," said Sevan. "Is there anything to eat on this shuttle?"

  "There are emergency rations over there," said San, pointing to a cupboard.

  "I need to discharge my waste products," said Ay-ttho, switching the shuttle onto autopilot and causing Sevan and San to look at each other as if to confirm to each other they felt Ay-ttho had given them too much information.

  Sevan and San were both enjoying a feast of emergency rations when she returned.

  "It might take a while for the ventilation system to render that unit usable again," she said.

  "For the love of the Giant Cup," Sevan moaned. "I wanted to discharge my waste products too."

  "I'm eating," complained San.

  Tori began to stir.

  "He's coming round," said Ay-ttho. "How much did you give him?"

  "Well, he is bigger than you both," said San. "I thought he might need more."

  Tori looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings.

  "Where am I?" he asked.

  "We've stolen a Corporation shuttle," said Ay-ttho.

  "Why? Have we rescued you?"

  "Yes, that's right," said Ay-ttho feeling the truth was nearer the other way round.

  "Where are we going now?"

  "We’re going to Daphnis. San thinks they have taken the Mastery of the Stars there to be dismantled."

  "What? Who's San?"

  "I'm Ay-ttho's brother," said San.

  Ay-ttho said nothing.

  "Didn't know you had a brother," said Tori.

  "I'm tracking Ron from my communicator," said Ay-ttho. "It shouldn't take long to get there."

  "I’d better discharge my waste products," said Tori, pulling himself to his feet.

  The others exchanged glances.

  "It must be a side effect of the medication," said San.

  "For the love of the Giant Cup who went in there before me?" asked Tori when he returned.

  The others all pointed to Ay-ttho.

  "You still haven't told us what happened." said Sevan. "Why were you imprisoned and why was the Mastery of the Stars confiscated?"

  "I was still sleeping when Corporation guards boarded."

  Sevan and Tori both nodded with understanding.

  "What was the damage?" asked Sevan.

  "An entire platoon."

  "Ay-ttho, I know it is important for you to recover Mastery of the Stars but do you not think we could be heading into one of Barnes' traps? If he wanted to kill us why didn't he just do it when we were detained in the medical station?"

  They all turned to look at San who shrugged.

  "Maybe he has a worse fate for us." said Tori.

  "What's worse than death?" asked Sevan.

  The shuttle was silent for a moment.

  "We are about to find out." said Ay-ttho, pointing out of the observation window. "We are approaching Daphnis."

 
As they descended through the atmosphere and began to glimpse the surface of the planet, it appeared to Sevan much more desolate than his home planet of The Doomed Planet. Ay-ttho continued to track the Mastery of the Stars and soon they were flying over a desert, littered with the broken hulls of freighters, shuttles, frigates and many other ships.

  "What is this place?" asked Tori.

  "I don't want to find out." said Sevan. "Let's get the Mastery of the Stars and get out of here."

  "That's what I intend to do." said Ay-ttho.

  She piloted the shuttle low over the corroding wrecks.

  "Hey, I thought I saw something move down there." Sevan scanned the metal hulks.

  "Just dismantling crews," said Ay-ttho. "I doubt there's anything to worry..."

  Before she had finished her sentence, a blast came from a hole in one of the wrecks and tore off the back of the shuttle.

  Sevan, Tori and San held on to whatever they could to avoid being sucked out the back. Only Ay-ttho had strapped herself in her seat.

  "I can't keep the nose up," she shouted over the noise of the wind and the failing engines. "Hold on, this will be bumpy."

  "We weren't planning to let go," Sevan shouted back.

  He could just about see through the observation window and the wrecks looked close. When he turned to look out where the back of the shuttle should be, he could see bits being thrown into the air where the shuttle had ripped chunks of sensor antennae off the passing wreck.

  The shuttle jolted as it bounced off the hull of the next wreck she hadn't quite cleared.

  "Hold on!" she shouted and a moment later the shuttle ploughed into the brittle side of the rusting hull of what used to be a Corporation frigate.

  The shuttle passed through the rotted hull and slid to a halt among a twisted mess of support beams, debris and dust.

  "What in the name of the Giant Cup was that?" Tori asked as the dust began to settle around them.

  "I don't know," said Ay-ttho, who had already unstrapped herself and begun to hand out weapons. "But whatever it was, it was very deliberate and not friendly."

  Sevan took a weapon with a mixture of gratitude and foreboding.

  "Who was it, do you think?" he asked.

  "I don't know," said Ay-ttho. "But let's not hang around here to find out."

  Sevan wondered how far it was from the freighter where the blaster had fired at them and where they had crash landed and imagined that it wasn't that far. If someone or something was after them, then they, or it, wouldn’t take long to arrive.

  "Wait here," said Ay-ttho.

  She ran through the hole the shuttle had made in the frigate's side, across the sand and through a hole in the hull of a freighter which sat at a precarious angle some distance away.

  A moment later, she reappeared through the hole but seemed to be tiptoeing backwards.

  "What is she doing?" Sevan asked. "She's wasting time. We have to get away."

  "She's trying to throw them off our scent," said Tori.

  "What if they have a great sense of smell?"

  "Then our marbles are fushy juice."

  "That should buy us some time," said Ay-ttho as she stepped backwards through the hole in the frigate. "Follow me."

  CHAPTER 8: NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK

  Ay-ttho led the group deeper into the hollow remains of the frigate. They moved as quickly as they could up the steep incline created by the obtuse angle at which the frigate was resting.

  After a while they found another opening on the opposite side of the hull. Sevan gasped as he looked through the gap and saw what must have been thousands of wrecks stretching out below, all the way to the horizon.

  "Where is she?" Tori asked Ay-ttho.

  "I can't get the signal," she said, staring at the communicator.

  "Maybe it's just interference," said Tori.

  "I hope so," said Ay-ttho.

  "Why do you hope there's interference?" Sevan asked, but Ay-tho's stare told him all he needed to know. All the other reasons were worse than interference.

  He thought about Ron and hoped he was okay. He hoped that whatever was chasing them had not already got to Ron.

  "We need to go that way," said Ay-ttho, pointing towards the horizon.

  "How do you know?" asked Sevan.

  "Because, the last signal I had come from over there."

  Ay-ttho surveyed the area surrounding the frigate and then turned her attention to the interior.

  "If only we could get to the next freighter without leaving tracks in the sand, we might get a big enough head start," she said.

  "Look at that," said Tori pointing to a communication mast, sticking out from the frigate at a jaunty angle.

  Sevan gazed along the mast to the end which he noticed hung over a hole in the adjacent frigate’s hull.

  "No," said Sevan. "Even if we could crawl along that thing to the end without falling off, which I'm sure I can't, falling into the hull of that freighter without knowing what is inside would kill us."

  "I wouldn't worry about that," said Ay-ttho. "Come on."

  Ay-ttho continued up the incline until she reached another opening closer to the communications mast. She climbed out and edged along a ledge of metal until she reached the mast. Tori followed her and then San indicated that Sevan should go next.

  "No, after you," said Sevan, stepping aside.

  "I insist," said San, stepping further aside.

  Sevan climbed out onto the ledge and tried not to look down as he edged closer to the mast onto which Ayttho and Tori had already climbed. Sevan sensed that San was following but he dare not look. He kept edging along until he reached the mast which was too large, so he tried to cuddle it.

  "Climb up on top," he heard Tori shouting back at him.

  Sevan looked up and saw that there were other lumps of metal sticking out of the hull which Tori and Ay-ttho must have used to climb up but Sevan, being shorter and less agile, was not convinced.

  "Come on," said Tori.

  "Go on," urged San.

  Sevan reached as high as he could but could not quite get hold of the metal protrusion. He took a deep breath and jumped, managing to get a hold but then struggling to pull himself up. He felt something on his leg and then realised that San was trying to help him.

  "Push," said San and Sevan reached for the next piece of metal.

  He pulled himself up until he could stand on the side of the almost horizontal mast. Sevan edged forward. He could see Tori and Ay-ttho disappearing into the distance ahead. They seemed to be running but Sevan could barely walk. He tried to concentrate on the stretch of mast ahead of him but could not avoid seeing the extent of the drop on either side.

  "Keep going," he heard San's voice behind him.

  Sevan stared straight ahead; he could feel the mast vibrating as Tori ran back towards him.

  "What's wrong?" Tori asked.

  "You keep making the fushy thing move, that's what's wrong," Sevan complained.

  "Well come on, we have to get moving."

  "I am moving."

  Tori looked at Sevan and appeared to realise the problem for the first time.

  "Oh, I see. Climb on my back."

  "No."

  "Why not?"

  "It's humiliating."

  "Look, Sevan, we don't have time for this. No-one will see you."

  "He will," Sevan gesticulated behind.

  "I don't mind," said San.

  "He said he didn't mind. Now get on my back."

  "No, I don't care whether he minds."

  "Then wh..." Tori looked towards Ay-ttho. "Oh, I see."

  "No, it's not like that," Sevan protested.

  "No, it's fine. I understand," Tori couldn't suppress a small smirk of amusement.

  "Stop that."

  "No. You wait here. I'll come back for you when she is in the freighter."

  Tori ran back towards Ay-ttho, causing the mast to move in a way which made Sevan want to crouch down but it worried him that if h
e moved at all he would fall off. Sevan tried looking at what Tori and Ay-ttho were doing in the distance but that also made him feel like he would fall off so he just settled for staring at the surface of the mast straight ahead of him.

  The disturbing movement of the mast was his first sign that Tori was on his way back.

  "Okay, climb on board," said Tori.

  "I don't think I can move," Sevan admitted.

  Before he could protest, Tori had lifted Sevan onto his back and was sprinting along the mast at what Sevan considered to be a terrifying pace. When he had reached almost the end, he set Sevan down on a much narrower surface.

  "Oh, for the love of..." Sevan exclaimed before deciding that even speech might send him over the edge.

  "You need to get down this line," said Tori, pointing to a line which had been tied around the mast and descended somewhere Sevan didn't dare look.

  "Where did that line come from?" Sevan asked.

  "My utility belt," said Tori.

  "You have a utility belt? I can't see it. Didn't they take it off you when we were detained?"

  "It's built into my suit."

  "Nice."

  "Thank you. Now, will you get down that line please?"

  "No."

  "What?"

  "I can't."

  "You can."

  "I can't."

  "Look, if you could do it, how would you do it?"

  "Don't give me any of that deep marble fushy. I can't."

  "What's wrong?" San asked as he caught up with them.

  "Sevan is being a pain in the waste products discharge orifice," said Tori.

  "I'm sorry, I just can't do it," said Sevan.

  "Alright, we'll you'll have to move over here past the line so San can get down."

  Sevan edged further along the narrow mast until he was past the point at which they secured the line allowing San to lower himself down into the hull of the freighter below.

  "Come on," said Tori, once San had gone. "We have to go now before they come and see us."

  "Who?"

  "Whoever shot at us, Sevan. For the love of the Giant Cup, just get yourself down that line."

  Sevan knew Tori was right. He knew they had to get off the mast before whoever might be chasing them arrived. He lowered himself into a crouching position.

  "What are you doing?" Tori asked.

  "I don't know what to do," said Sevan who had not watched how San had managed go get himself down onto the rope.