A Bounty of Love (Love Between the Stars Book 1)

by Willow Walker

  Yeva slid into the pilot’s chair and pressed the ignition sequence. The engine acted like it wanted to start and then started to sputter until it died.

  “What the hell?” Yeva asked.

  “Something in the air. It’s clogging the air intake,” said Tobias from behind her.

  Yeva turned and frowned at him. “Excuse me, did I invite you onto my ship?”

  He shrugged with an apologetic expression. Yeva frowned at him and then turned to fiddle with the ignition computer. Flight in space didn’t require oxygen, just initial takeoff from a planet surface. There was a way to take off from the surface using the spaceflight engine, but she’d never tried it, and the tales she’d heard of people who had attempted before usually resulted in the destruction of the spaceflight engine. She could call Beks to send help but repairing the engine would drain credits she couldn’t spend right now.

  “You thinking of doing a suicide jump?” Tobias asked after a minute.

  “Thought about it, and discarded it,” Yeva said and slipped out of the chair, pushing past Tobias. He was surprisingly sturdy against her touch, and his mouth tilted into a little smile as she did.

  “Are you still in my ship?” She asked to hide her embarrassment.

  “Leaving!” Tobias lifted his hands and followed her out.

  She closed the gangway behind him when the ground rumbled. Yeva looked at Tobias with a raised eyebrow.

  He smiled. “Do you like mysteries?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Depends on the mystery.”

  “Well you’re stuck here now, so you might as well join in the fun. Follow me!”

  Yeva stared hard at his back and shook her head. She wasn’t sure about him. She had expected a fight, or an argument or something, not this goofy man. Yeva sighed but didn’t protest and followed after him. He made a straight line for the trees surrounding the building and started picking his way through the underbrush. Yeva still had her pack draped over her shoulders and adjusted the straps tighter as she took the first few steps into the trees. It wouldn’t do to lose her supplies in this place, especially since her ship was down. As she followed Tobias, she pressed a couple buttons on her armband. In spite of the problems with her ship, the tactical display was still receiving telemetry from her probe above the solar ecliptic. The solar system was quiet. Other than her own ship descending to the planet surface, no out-of-the-ordinary notifications had popped up.

  Yeva prepared a distress call to send to Beks if something went wrong but wouldn't send it unless she couldn't figure out why her ship wouldn't start. Tobias had mentioned clogged air intake.

  “You’ll trip over something.”

  Yeva stopped and looked up. Tobias was standing in front of her with an amused expression on his face.

  Yeva pressed the last few buttons on her armband without breaking eye contact and affected an impish grin. “If you don’t get to the point of this little excursion, then I’ll trip you.”

  “Oooh, careful, I might take you down with me.” His expression was playful.

  Yeva scoffed and pushed past him. She had only taken a few steps, when she stepped out into a clearing. In the middle of it was a ship covered in years worth of vines. The odd thing was that it looked like a newer ship. A new Deva-class ship, about ten years newer than her own.

  Tobias exited the trees and stood next to her.

  “Mystery,” Tobias stated.

  “Is that your ship?” Yeva asked, incredulous.

  “Yep. I was stuck in the temple for a whole week, and when I came back, it was covered.”

  “Covered? In a week?” Yeva was stunned. He had to be lying, but his expression was bemused and vaguely exasperated. She’d never seen any pictures of his ship before, but the Deva-class ship was newer than hers. Other than the intricate vines braided across its surface, it looked as smooth and polished as any well-cared for ship.

  Tobias took a few steps forwards and yanked at the greenery obscuring the gangplank.

  “They grow fast. It only takes a few hours for it to recover anything that I clear. I’ve done a fair bit of wandering, and there are others like it scattered around.”

  “Other ships?” Yeva asked.

  Tobias halted his flora removal and glanced at her, his expression openly curious. “How much research did you do into this planet before you landed?”

  “Not as much as I should have, I think.” Yeva glanced around the clearing, seeing the shadows lengthening as the cloud-covered sun drifted below the treeline.

  “That temple,” Tobias pointed through the trees, “was built over four thousand years ago to some ancient gods that this galaxy has long forgotten.”

  “That long? How can you be sure? The inscription above the door is recent.”

  “Is it? After being here for… a month? I’ve begun to feel differently.”

  Yeva sucked in an annoyed breath. “Look I’m not here for your tinfoil hat conspiracies. I need to find that bounty! I can give you a lift off the planet when I find it, but I have no time to waste.”

  Yeva turned on her heel and hurried back through the trees towards the “temple” as Tobias had called it. She hadn’t meant to be that blunt, but she felt unsettled and wanted to get to work.

  She’d been here for less than a standard hour, and the place scared her. The strange darkness inside the temple, the overgrowing vines. She didn’t believe in the old myths and tales about magic in the old galaxy once she was out of childhood, but just the few experiences from this place made her think that it was either magic or some excessively weird technology at work. She was inclined to believe the latter, but the strange occurrences were spooky.

  Yeva reached the edge of the building and stared at it. A temple. Looking at it now, it had the aura of a temple. Tall pillars, strange designs carved into the moulding. She’d seen the temples of the ancient Vorusian religions, and this was eerily similar. Was the artefact she and so many others had come here to find an ancient relic of whatever religion was housed in this place?

  She shook off her misgivings and walked the perimeter of the temple notating anything and everything of interest. There were openings in the lower half of the building that appeared to be doorways going into the basement area of the temple. She was wary of getting too close and didn’t want to experience that feeling of being mindlessly drawn inside.

  She heard the distinct rustle of footsteps behind her and turned to find Tobias picking his way through the underbrush after her. He was like a lost puppy.

  Yeva stopped at one of the openings that had a lot of dirt kicked up around it. It had been recently dug out, and she glanced back at Tobias. He nodded at the opening.

  “That’s where I got out.”

  “You were in there a week?”

  “At least.”

  “H--have you gone back inside?”

  Tobias smiled at her. “Follow me.” He jumped down into the opening and waved at her. She wasn’t certain that it was safe, but if he was going in so casually it should be right?

  Or it’s an elaborate trap.

  Yeva set the emergency beacon on a 12 hour time delay. If she didn’t come out of the temple to reset it, the timer would send out the beacon to Beks, and hopefully, she wouldn’t die on this stupid planet.

  3

  Yeva activated the flashlight on her armband and arced it back and forth across the opening. Tobias poked his head out and waved at her to follow him.

  She frowned at him but jumped down into the opening after him. Just past the opening was a hallway that curved into the building. Tobias’s head nearly reached the ceiling, and since he wasn’t much taller than her, she was easily able to touch the ceiling. The stonework was solid if a bit moss-covered. If this place had been here as long as Tobias assumed, and as quickly as the forest had overtaken his ship, Yeva thought this place would be swimming in vines.

  “Do you know what this place was used for?” The question popped out before she had a chance to consider it or stop it
.

  “Not sure. There’s some stuff in the center that looks like a chamber for rituals of some kind, but for the most part it’s just empty rooms.”

  “And the artefact?” Empty rooms? No, if the artefact wasn’t here, then this was a wasted trip.

  Tobias started walking down the hallway and beckoned her to follow him. “There’s a part of the temple I haven’t been able to get to, I’ll show you.”

  “We’re not going to run into anymore of that...darkness...are we?” Yeva asked uncertainly.

  Tobias looked back, and Yeva’s light caught his grin. “No but there’s something else you might not have noticed yet.”

  “Oh?” Yeva pointed her light at a long deceased skeleton of a human. The poor chap probably died unable to find his or her way out.

  “Have you noticed… that you can’t lie?”

  “Lie?” She pondered the question but had nothing to say in response. “I haven’t not--” She stopped herself in the middle of her words because she had noticed something. She had been more honest than she had planned, more blunt in a few cases. Usually she tried to be relatively cordial with people she didn’t know, but she had been all out rude to Tobias on a few occasions. He hadn’t seemed all that miffed by anything she had said so she hadn’t considered her words.

  Tobias nodded. “It’s subtle at first, but the longer you are here the more it seeps into you.”

  “What does?” Yeva stared at him, starting to feel a little more shaken by this revelation.

  “The Veritas.”

  “The planet name...”

  “I’m pretty sure the planet was named for whatever phenomenon causes this.” Tobias waved his hand at the ceiling.

  Yeva would have to be more careful with what she was thinking of saying. If she said the wrong thing, it could easily get her killed. Though, even just the short time she had known Tobias Hawk, he didn’t seem the type to get angry over a loose word. Much of what she had learned about him in the vids and in the news was of a curiously different man.

  “You’re not the person I thought you’d be.” It popped out before she could stop it, and Yeva slammed her hand to her mouth.

  Tobias didn’t stop walking, but Yeva saw him tilt his head to the side. “Who am I supposed to be?”

  “I don’t know,” Yeva said softly. “The vids make you out to be this… mythic figure of a bounty hunter.”

  She heard him scoff, but he said nothing more.

  “I guess it makes sense,” Yeva continued. “Everything in the news vids and on the GalaxNet is over sensationalized. It just seemed like you fit the picture they painted.” He just kept walking, and she could tell he was listening to her, but he didn’t respond. Had she hurt his feelings? Yeva knew that if someone assumed to know who she was by what the news vids and GalaxNet liked to report she might be offended.

  “Here we are.” Tobias turned on his heel and led the way into a smaller hallway just off the main hall into an enormous room.

  She’d barely had time to take in the sight of the room, when a whoosh of air followed the noise of a large rock door slamming down behind them.

  “What the...” Tobias turned, his eyes wide with shock. Yeva turned with him and stared at the place where the entrance to the hallway used to be. The wall was solid. A moving portion of the wall had slid into place trapping them in the large room.

  “This is new?” Yeva asked just as she looked at the floor where very obvious pressure plates had been depressed under their feet.

  Tobias saw where she was looking and cursed under his breath. “I saw these the first time I came in but nothing happened when I tested them.”

  Yeva stepped off the pressure plate and when Tobias did too nothing happened. The hallway was firmly blocked.

  Yeva felt the dread seep through her and tapped at her armband. They were too deep into the temple for signal to get out so her armband telemetry was limited to the small sensors on her armband and in her pack. The display gave her a rough estimate of the size and volume of the room they were in, but much of it was obscured by electromagnetic interference from the center of the room.

  That’s when she finally looked out over the room. They stood on a slightly raised platform, and a brick staircase descended into the opening of a partially obscured maze. Through the vines falling from the ceiling, Yeva could see the trunk of some kind of tree at the very center of the maze. The tree was the source of the vines, and apparently, the source of the electromagnetic interference. Her assumption that some kind of tech was at play here seemed almost verified by the interference.

  Tobias sat heavily at the edge of the platform on the steps and poked at the display on his own armband. He was muttering to himself under his breath and was too preoccupied to notice Yeva stand next to him.

  There was a soft green glow about the creeping plant falling from the ceiling, and Yeva had the presence of mind to turn the light off on her armband. The room went dark and then the glow took over, illuminating the room in an incandescent green.

  “It’s beautiful,” Yeva said.

  “I think I would enjoy it more if I didn’t feel like we were stuck in here,” Tobias said looking up at the soft lights. His eyes caught the glow and for a moment he seemed otherworldly.

  “What changed between the first time you were here and now?” Yeva asked.

  “You,” he said without hesitation.

  “Me?” Yeva said indignantly and glared down at him.

  He looked up at her and just shrugged. “Don’t take offense, but there are some places that can be triggered by multiple people instead of solo explorers.”

  “I’m not offended,” Yeva said. “But if you’re worth the attention you get, you should have been able to tell the difference between dual pressure plates and solo pressure plates. We could have avoided this little accident if you’d told me--”

  She walked forwards and just so happened to step on a hidden pressure plate on the direct opposite side of the stairs from where Tobias was sitting.

  Below them, the wall at the very base of the stairs rumbled and tore the layered plants as it separated. Yeva stopped her rant. If she was worth her salt, she should have been paying attention to where she was stepping. Of course, this place wouldn't be equipped with just one pressure plate.

  “What were you saying again?” Tobias asked snarkily.

  “Shh, I’m thinking!” Yeva hissed.

  The dual pressure plates, just out of stepping distance but within reaching distance if two people were to reach out for each other from the pressure plates.

  With each step going down, words were etched into the floor, and now that she was looking for it, she saw the pattern. The words were written in Uuet like the inscription above the main entrance had been.

  Two each,

  though apart,

  together paired

  From now

  Until then

  Joined again.

  Walk softly

  Life grows

  Where death

  Is afraid.

  Speak truth

  Where lies

  Are broken.

  “It requires two people,” Yeva said in disbelief.

  “I thought as much,” Tobias said and buried his face in his hands.

  “You knew?”

  “When I first came here, nothing happened, I found a couple pressure plates, but most of them were inactive, and I thought that I would probably need a second person.”

  “Did you trick me into coming in here?”

  “No, I’ve been on this planet so long I can’t even lie to myself anymore. I promise, I was going to bring you here and show you the place, but I never...” He trailed off and stared at the vines coming from the ceiling.

  Yeva plopped down next to him and stared at the maze spread out in front of them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him turn his head towards her. She knew what that look meant before he even had a chance to open his mouth.

  “No,” Yeva said.


  “What could it hurt?”

  “I am not going in there with you!” She stared at him.

  “Look, if both of us are careful and keeping an eye out, we can probably make it in, find the artefact, go 50/50?”

  Yeva frowned at him and wanted to argue, but if this place required two people to walk the maze successfully, then it might be her only chance. 50/50 was better than death.

  “You won’t betray me when we get out of here?”

  “On my honor, I will not betray you, Yeva Hawthorne.” He held up his right hand and closed his thumb and pinky against his palm while the middle three were straight. The hand symbol of an oath between bounty hunters. She hadn’t expected him to use her full name or use the oath symbol, but the solemnity of the promise behind his words soothed any suspicion that he might have tricked her down here.

  She held her right hand in the same position. “Tobias Hawk, on my honor, I shall not betray you.”

  The green glow coming from the plants above them faded and plunged the room in a thick true darkness.

  “Well that was ominous,” Tobias said. She didn’t need to see his face to hear the humor and slight apprehension in his voice at the sudden darkness.

  “Is this new, too?”

  “Unfortunately.”

  She felt his hand on her arm, and she tried to not jump.

  “Sorry, didn’t want to lose you in this darkness.”

  Yeva didn’t say anything but tried to turn the light on her armband again. It wouldn’t work. She wasn't fond of the dark like this. Darkness of space, yes. Darkness of the night, fine. But in the night, in space, there were stars, celestial objects capturing light. In the darkness here, there was nothing. She could step off the edge of the staircase into nothingness, and it would all be over.

  Yeva tried to suppress a shudder but failed.

  “Are you okay?” Tobias asked.

  “What do we need to do next?” Yeva asked, avoiding the question.

  Tobias hesitated, and she sensed that he wanted to ask her again, but instead his hands worked down her arm until he had one of her hands clasped in his.