I looked at Sepho and thought of the pain he went through, the pain I and countless others had endured.
“You have no idea the horrors, the pain I endured after we were separated.” My voice hitched, my breath catching in my throat. I gulped. “I’m not asking you to bear that pain with me. I would never ask that.”
“Jinx…”
“It’s my past. My burden to bear, to remember. I wouldn’t ask someone I care about to share in it. I don’t know what happened to you either. We both endured countless horrors. Let’s leave it at that.”
His gaze dropped. He nodded. “Okay.” Jax stood and turned to leave, no doubt to stew with these dark thoughts.
“Wait,” I called. He whirled back around, an eyebrow arched. “I came to a decision.”
“Yeah?”
I took a deep breath. “I’ll do it. I’ll help the resistance. After seeing this…” I gripped my sheets so hard my knuckles turned white. “I can’t sit idly by. So congrats, your sympathy mission worked on me.”
He smiled. “I’m glad to hear it, Jinx.”
“I’m unsure of this whole queen business, but I’ll do what I can to help.” I paused. “And I still need to find a way to reach my friends.” To reach Yan.
That wasn’t the exact answer he wanted, I could tell, but I wasn’t going to budge, and he knew it. He nodded.
“Okay. Now, get some rest. We’re returning to Halyon in the morning.”
Then he left. I laid back down and closed my eyes, though sleep didn’t come easy. I had so much to think of. Pain, memories, Yan, an uncertain future. This wasn’t the future I envisioned for myself, it was the one that chose me. I’d have to make the best of it, because maybe in this, I could do the most good.
I only prayed that I’d have my friends by my side as I embarked on this new journey, this new quest.
11
Yan
Halyon was far from Terr-Ten Station and it took us almost half a day of nonstop jumping to arrive at the resistance base. Even with full fuel reserves, we burned through them to get there. I didn’t care. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except for getting Jinx back.
I felt us arrive. The smooth sailing of the ship at jump came to a halt as we slipped out of jump with a shaky jolt. When we didn’t immediately reenter jump space, I knew that K had gotten us there.
Sure enough, his gargled voice rang out over the ship’s comms.
“We have arrived at Halyon.”
I jumped out of bed and jogged down the hall to the cockpit to join him.
Outside the window was Halyon, the white-blue marble of a planet. All rock and ice and snow. From what I’d researched, there were a handful of mining towns spread across the surface, none too large, none that would attract attention. It was a backwater, a perfect place for a resistance base trying to hide from the Torgoran Navy.
Amara and the others trickled in behind me. Our jade-skinned friend sighed and put a hand on my seat above my shoulder.
“Are we ready?”
I cracked my knuckles. “That’s my secret, Amara. I’m always ready.”
“Do you ever take a single thing seriously?”
“As a matter of fact, not really, but no worries, we got this. Jinx is down there with that skivving little runt Jax and we’re going to get her back.”
She sighed. “We don’t know that for sure. Fallan’s info could be dated. We need to handle this delicately. We’re about to fly at a military base, I doubt we’ll be welcomed with open arms.”
“We just have to ask them nicely for our friend.”
With that, I put in the planetary coordinates that Fallan had given us. The nav program pinged when it was input. The Sanara adjusted her trajectory toward the base on the northern hemisphere, and then she took off. K sat back and let the autopilot get us most of the way there. Once we were within eyesight, I was sure we’d need his trusty piloting skills.
For such a barren, frozen wasteland, Halyon was gorgeous. Towering glaciers the size of skyscrapers glittered with sky blue light, twinkling in the sunlight. A borealis shimmered over the evening sky, the green light mixing with the brilliant oranges of setting suns to the south.
The ship slowed. We were close. Beyond the long, icy plain before us was a distant mountain range. That was probably where the base was. As we approached, there was a series of flashes and bangs, and then explosions started to go off all around us. We all yelped at the suddenness of the assault. It was flak, anti-aircraft guns.
The flak boomed around us, each explosion rocking the ship. Our shields could deal with the block back and maybe a few glancing blows, but any direct hits would not be ideal.
“Put us down, K!” I shouted.
He struggled to keep the Sanara steady.
“That is easier said than done, Captain.”
As K was about to make the daring plunge to the surface, the flak suddenly stopped. A red light on the dash started to blink: our hailing frequency. I just as well assumed that was the rebels calling to see who had come knocking.
“Might as well humor them,” I said.
“Yes, that would be best,” K replied.
“Please don’t antagonize them, Yan,” Amara said beside me. “We don’t need to be blown out of the sky, and believe me, they have the capability.”
I looked at her, hand to my chest, looking offended. “How dare you suggest that I would be so rude to someone of authority who could kill me.”
She fixed me with a no-nonsense stare that would make most men crumble. “Behave, please.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I cleared my throat and pressed the hailing button. “This is Captain Yan of the Sanara, who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?” I looked back at Amara and mouthed, See? I can be polite. She rolled her eyes.
“This is General Nima Yullarin. It would behoove me to inform you that you are encroaching upon military airspace. Please turn back or be blown out of the sky.”
“I’m very much aware that I am encroaching in your space, sir. But I’m here to find someone. Someones, plural, actually. They’re both very important to me.”
“Oh? And who might that be?”
“A girl named Jinx and ‘Lieutenant’ Jax Navari.” There was a pause, and then the line went dead. End of conversation. “Hm, that was rude of him.”
A moment later, the flak returned in full force. I cursed. Ketellin took evasive maneuvers. Amara fell into me as we were rocked by a sudden blast. She growled and pushed off me.
“Damnit, Yan, I told you to behave.”
“Hey, you heard the whole conversation. I was more than polite!”
“Yeah, you were a condescending prick!”
“Isn’t that what he always is?” El asked from the doorway.
I threw my hands up. “Amazing, we’re getting blown up and all you can do is criticize me!”
“Can you shut up!” K snapped. “I’m trying to concentrate so we don’t die.”
I nodded. “Right, you focus on that. Everyone, buckle in if you can!”
They all did so, though Beleak and Rayvan didn’t have a seat, so they just had to hold on to us for dear life. Rayvan’s long arms snaked around my seat and wrapped around my chest tightly. They probably offered more protection than the safety harnesses.
Ketellin took us into a plunge, the nose of our bird pointing straight down. He was an expert in keeping us from not getting blown up, so was I nervous? Only slightly. As we came through the smoke of the flak, we could see the base. Several landing pads sat below, barely noticeable against the snowy mountainside, their reflective surfaces meant to hide them from any curious eyes. It would work if you didn’t know they were there and weren’t looking, but we did, so we were able to spot them.
The mountainside flashed, the well-hidden AA guns continuing to barrage us. K spun and ducked and did his best to evade them. Lucky for us, the sun was setting rapidly, and the darkness was shrouding us, but we could see the landing platform just fine. We got closer and c
loser, the mountain rising to greet us. After a certain point, we got below the guns’ range. We did it. We were alive.
The ship kept on careening toward the ground and the landing pad, our ship screaming with this sharp descent. It looked like we were going to crash, but at the last minute, K pulled up on the stick and we landed on the platform. With a bang, we came to a stop. Our landing was rough, but we were in one piece.
Through the window, we could see the large hangar door grind up and open, and resistance fighters in crimson uniforms streamed out, blasters raised.
“I like a fight, Yan, but not one where I’m definitely gonna lose,” El commented.
“I don’t know if I like your defeatist attitude, Elvonna.”
“She’s right,” Amara said, coming to her defense.
“Well, I don’t know what you want us to do. You knew this would probably happen.”
K was keeping the ship ready to launch if need be. They could have blown us up easily now that we were sitting ducks on their landing pad, but they probably wanted to apprehend us, question us as to how we found them. They couldn’t have security leaks of this magnitude, after all.
“They probably think you’re after Jax. They won’t be happy about that.”
“They’ll need to get over it.” I grabbed my blaster pistol from my hip holster and primed it, ready to fight. “Come on, let’s go say hi.”
“We are not getting in a firefight!” Amara hissed.
“I’m not, but I’m not going out their unarmed either. Now either come on or stay here, but I’m going to get Jinx or die trying.”
“The latter seems very likely right now.”
“Then I’ll see the saints soon.” I strode out of the cockpit. The others followed me.
“Yan…”
I swiveled back around to face them. “Look, let me do this. You all stay in the ship. If this goes south, there’s no reason for us all to go out in a blaze of glory.”
“Yeah and there’s no reason for you to, either.”
“I don’t intend to. Now, stay put. Captain’s orders.”
Amara grimaced, but she didn’t try to stop me. I went down to the cargo hold, dropped the ramp, and started striding off if before it even hit the ground.
The air was frigid, biting at my exposed arms. Admittedly, I probably should have put on a coat as soon as we began our approach. I saw that it was an icy planet, but I’d been caught up in the heat of the moment. That heat would have to do.
The dozen—no, two dozen—resistance fighters in thick, red, long-sleeved uniforms were stark against the white mountainside, not very good camouflage for a secret base, but then, the Torgorans really loved those reddish hues. They all had blasters raised at me. I wasn’t about to be intimidated.
I took another step, but someone shot at my feet. I stopped dead. A large man with a thick brown beard and an even thicker red coat covered in medals stepped forward with a voice-caster.
“You are trespassing on a military installation. Return to your ship peacefully and we will allow you to depart.”
I didn’t have a fancy voice-caster, but I could be loud enough to be heard. “I came for my friend. I’m not leaving until I see her.”
The officer didn’t like that answer. He sneered. “You have to the count of ten. Then we will have no choice but to open fire on you and your ship.”
My grip was tight on my blaster. “You have my response. I’m not budging.”
“Ten…nine…”
Was this the smartest thing to do? Probably not. But Jinx was worth dying for, and I was stubborn enough to do it.
“Seven…six…”
I should get back in the ship and cut my losses. No, I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t leave Jinx behind. She’d never leave me behind, and I wouldn’t do that to her. We were a team, together until the end.
“Five…four…three…two…”
“Everyone, stop!” rang out a voice, silencing everyone. The resistance fighters lowered their weapons slightly and parted to allow a path to me. The officer lowered the voice-caster and turned back in surprise. The voice, of course, was as familiar to me as the back of my hand.
Jinx.
12
Yan
There she was, eyes wide, a smile forming when she saw me. She strode forward with a fast, determined gait. And a limp.
She was in a gray medical smock, and beneath the collar of the shirt, I could see bandages wrapping around her chest and neck. What happened to her? Saints, if they hurt her…
Jinx collapsed into my arms and hugged me tightly.
“I’m so happy to see you!” she exclaimed.
I squeezed her back, which immediately made her wince and gasp. I released her.
“What? What happened to you?”
Her amethyst eyes looked into mine, trying to put me at ease, but seeing her injured in the hands of her kidnappers did the opposite. I wanted to go berserk—the consequences of that admittedly stupid action be damned.
“Yan, I’m fine. Just…”
I looked past her and saw him: my so-called friend who had taken her away from me. Jax. He came up to us, his arms up as he tried to soothe me. I stepped away from Jinx.
“Yan,” he said, sounding both anxious and relieved. “Funny seeing you here. If you give me a moment to explain—”
I did not give him a moment. I swung and punched him in his perfect jaw. Jax whirled around with a stunned yelp. The soldiers around us all raised their weapons, ready to obliterate me, but before they could escalate, both Jinx and Jax put their arms out to stop them.
“Easy,” Jinx said.
“It’s okay, everyone,” Jax said, each word a wince. He straightened and rubbed his jaw, winced again, and cursed. “I… I deserved that.”
“And more!” I roared.
He sighed and addressed the crowd. “Everyone, go about your business. These are friends. That’s an order.” There were some grumbles of dissent, but they all followed his command, which was weird to see. I supposed he was indeed an officer. He turned his attention back to me.
“Now, can you please let me explain?”
I glared at him, but then my eyes found Jinx. Hers were pleading.
“Please, Yan. I was mad at him too—still am—but he had a good reason.”
I didn’t want to listen to her. Saints knew I just wanted to beat him to a pulp. But I was a civilized person. I would hear him out. And if I didn’t like his explanation, then I would beat him.
“Okay,” I finally said. I turned to the Sanara and gave them the thumbs-up. If they couldn’t already tell that things had gotten defused, they certainly knew now. Better for just us three to talk for now. We could fill the rest in later.
Jax kept rubbing his jaw. He gestured for me to follow him. “Come. You’ll understand why I had to do it.”
“If I don’t like your answer, then I’m punching you again.”
He laughed, which made him wince, which made me smirk.
“Fair enough,” he said, trying to hide the pain. I hoped it was broken, though I wasn’t that strong, so it probably wasn’t.
Jax took us down a few halls. We passed many resistance fighters, who regarded us with equal parts awe and suspicion. The latter I understood, as it was directed at me, but the awe, the sheer reverence and respect… It was directed at Jinx.
We came to an empty conference room. Very clean, a bunch of chairs around a long metal table, consoles to one wall and maps on another. I probably shouldn’t have seen them, as I was sure they had sensitive information, but it wasn’t like I was a spy. They held no interest for me.
Jax took a seat in a random chair and kicked his legs up. “So, where should I begin?”
I crossed my arms. “You tell me. Why did you kidnap Jinx?”
He sighed. “No subtlety, just right with the punching.” He clasped his hands together and stared at them as he tried to find the words. His shoulders sagged. “Okay, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just
gonna spit it out: I took Jinx for her own protection, because she is Torgoran royalty. The inquisitors we encountered weren’t after me, they were after her.”
“I— What?”
Jinx swallowed. “It’s true. My name is Jinxenna Taolin III, princess and rightful heir to the throne of Torgor, a throne that Tarvath stole when he murdered my parents.”
It was like they ran my head through a sheet of glass, my face being cut into a million bleeding pieces. This was a bombshell. Jinx—the girl I loved, my best friend—was a princess? No, the heir, the rightful queen of an entire spacefaring kingdom.
Saints help me.
I fell back. I tried to grip the chair nearest me, but it did no good as I stumbled against the maps. I fell to the floor, which, I know, was dramatic.
“H-how… How could this be?” I looked at Jinx, looked into those gorgeous gemstone eyes of hers, hoping to see a joke there, a hint that this wasn’t true. But I found nothing but stone-cold truth. She didn’t look thrilled about it either.
Jax retold the story of how his father was given Jinx during Tarvath’s coup. He and Jax, who was only a couple of years older at the time, were to look out for her, but Jax’s father was killed and the two of them were made into slaves. I knew relatively what had happened in their lives from then on, the slavery and the suffering, without the finer details.
“I didn’t want to believe it either, Yan,” Jinx said. “But they showed me the king and queen and…I look just like them.”
“Pictures can be doctored, Jinx. Altered, to fit a narrative.”
She shook her head. “No, this picture was far too old for that. And besides, so many of the older resistance fighters were shocked to see me, like I was the queen reincarnated. Their reactions were real.”
I ran my hand through my hair. “This is a lot.”
Jinx laughed. The sound put me at ease, at least a little bit.
The Torgoran Revolt (Plundering the Stars Book 3) Page 10