Arkadian Skies

by Lindsay Buroker

  “Wait,” she added, “can you tell me if anyone else is aboard their ship? Or did they bring everyone except the pilot over to search?”

  He tilted his head, squinting toward the bulkhead. “Actually, there’s not even a pilot there. Looks like an automated system.”

  Alisa usually would have curled her lip at such a thought, even if there was no reason an automated system wasn’t fine for orbital flight, but in this case, she found the news good.

  “No other androids?” she asked.

  “I don’t think so. Those are harder to detect.”

  “All right, good. Thank you.” She waved for Abelardus to continue to engineering. “Leonidas—”

  He lifted his chin. “I will stay with you.”

  “I may have something more interesting for you to do. I’m going to follow them up top to monitor the android and see who he questions.” Alisa could see their thirteen-year-old Starseer getting ruffled and letting information slip. “And you…” She ignored Leonidas’s suspicious squint and turned on her comm unit. “Mica? Can you talk?”

  “There’s a woman poking her head into the drive coils.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  “She better not break anything,” Mica growled.

  “I’m not sure my engineer understands what the primary concern is here,” Alisa whispered to Leonidas, watching as the man in the cargo hold poked into a handful of crates secured to the wall. Nothing but food for the crew—and the chickens—in there, but he was getting close to the location of the cubby.

  “What do you want?” Mica whispered. “She’s not close.”

  “When she finishes in there, or when Abelardus has her suitably distracted, I want you and Leonidas to take a walk through this airlock and visit their ship. If they left their hatch open, or if it can be forced open—” Alisa touched one of Leonidas’s biceps, “—it might be convenient if some manner of mechanical error occurred to make the patrollers need to hurry back to check on it.”

  “You want me to sabotage a government ship?”

  “Apparently, the government has outsourced planet patrol to a private agency.”

  “So I only spend thirty years in jail as punishment instead of forty?”

  “Leonidas won’t let you get in trouble,” Alisa said.

  Leonidas’s squint had only deepened as she laid out this dubious plan.

  Alisa closed the comm. “Come back if there’s trouble or you spot cameras that she can’t black out. But it’s worth a try, and easier done before they find something incriminating. I think that android is already suspicious of us.”

  “Did Abelardus tell you that?”

  “No, I have a hunch.” Alisa patted his arm before he could object, and strode for the stairs. Maybe it was foolish to send Mica over to commit sabotage before they knew if they were in trouble, but she did not like the long look that Delta Five had given Leonidas. She also didn’t think the android had believed the name she had given him.

  Alisa found Delta Five and his man in sickbay, about to start questioning Alejandro. Ostberg was with him, fortunately not wearing his robe or carrying his staff. As far as she knew, Starseers weren’t illegal passengers, but she wouldn’t be surprised if the patrol had orders to detain them or keep them from landing on the planet. She hadn’t kept up with the news, but anti-Starseer sentiment had led to that attack on their temple the last time she had been here. She wouldn’t be surprised if it had escalated since then.

  “I see you found our patient,” Alisa said. “The one we’re in a hurry to take down to Arkadius. As you can see, he needs better medical care than our ship can provide.” She gestured to Durant’s unconscious body on the exam table, tubing and wires sticking out from under his blanket.

  “What is his ailment?” the android asked while his man poked in cabinets and drawers.

  Alejandro frowned at the heavy-handed searching—numerous tools and kits and bandages were left out on the counter instead of being returned to storage—but he answered the question. “He’s in a coma, and I’m not able to bring him out of it.”

  “He was injured in the same battle where your ship’s identification chip was damaged?” Delta Five asked.

  “I don’t know anything about chips. I’m just the doctor.”

  “What is your function on this ship?” the android asked, turning toward Ostberg.

  “He’s my uncle,” Ostberg said, not exactly answering the question as he pointed toward Durant. It was doubtlessly the answer he had rehearsed.

  The android looked back and forth between the two, and Alisa tamped down a wince. There wasn’t much of a resemblance. Durant had Abelardus’s bronze skin and black wiry hair, whereas Ostberg had blond hair, freckles, and pale skin. Maybe he should have said tutor instead of uncle, since it was true.

  “Captain Stokes,” Delta Five said, facing her again. “There are only three Gillian Stokes registered in the system database, and you do not match the age, body mass, or physical features of any of them.”

  “I was born off-the-grid. Mom was a gypsy and flew freight between the border planets. I—”

  She paused because the android had touched the earstar hooked over his helix. He listened for a couple of seconds and said, “Coming.”

  His man kept searching sickbay, but Alisa followed Delta Five, worried about what had been found. Had some AI informed him that Leonidas and Mica had boarded his ship? Or had one of his people found something aboard the Nomad?

  Delta Five headed toward the mess hall instead of back toward the cargo hold. He eyed Beck, who had his armored back to them, helmet bent over the burner as he scraped at his pot, but walked toward the passenger cabins without slowing down. Alisa imagined one of the patrollers in Yumi’s room, flinging drug-making paraphernalia about. But the android turned into Leonidas’s cabin instead.

  Alisa had not been in it for several days, not since the night she had fallen asleep in his bunk, only to wake as he had, in the throes of a nightmare, knocked her across the room. It hadn’t changed much, and at first, she couldn’t guess what the planet patroller might have found in there—possessing weapons wasn’t illegal, not on one’s own ship, just ship-mounted weapons capable of damaging other spacecraft. Then she saw the man standing over Leonidas’s crimson case, the one that held the similarly colored armor he had worn in service to the imperial army.

  “Your security man is a cyborg,” the android stated, gazing at her with unemotional silver eyes.

  Alisa had not introduced him as her “security man,” but she supposed a person—or an android—wouldn’t look at Leonidas and think him anything else. That saddened her, reminding her that he had started his university career studying engineering, but this wasn’t the time for such thoughts.

  “Of course,” she said. “Wasn’t that obvious from the size of his muscles?”

  It wasn’t as if a human with a passion for gym work couldn’t gain Leonidas’s musculature, but it was more of a sure thing with cyborgs, at least the ones the imperial fleet had made to serve its purposes.

  “An imperial cyborg,” the android said, flicking his hand toward the case. “Imperial soldiers are not welcome on Arkadius, especially those retaining their army battle armor.”

  “The war is over,” Alisa said with a shrug. “He’s just my security officer now. It would be ridiculously expensive for him to buy new combat armor.”

  The android touched his earstar again. Alisa itched to lean closer, to try to hear what whoever was talking to him was saying.

  “Some of your passengers match the descriptions of felons wanted for theft from the Alliance,” the android said, his cool gaze resting upon her again.

  “What theft?” Alisa spread her hands innocently.

  The Alliance wouldn’t have mentioned the Staff of Lore in a system-wide bulletin, would it have? No, but it wouldn’t have needed to. Nobody would expect the government to explain what people had stolen from it.

  “Search the entire ship from top to botto
m,” Delta Five said. “We’re apprehending everyone.”

  Alisa lunged for the hatchway. She had a notion of locking herself in NavCom and comming Leonidas, but she only made it one step into the corridor. The android moved too quickly for her to evade, catching her about the waist and lifting her from her feet. She kicked and threw an elbow back at his head, but it did not matter. When she connected, it was like connecting with a wall, and the android gave no indication that he felt pain. The arm locked around her waist might as well have been an ahridium bar.

  “Beck,” she yelled. “I could use some help!”

  She hoped she wouldn’t regret instigating a fight, since they were tangling with the law, or at least legal representatives acting as law enforcers. But with her legs dangling in the air, it was all she could think to do.

  Beck leaped into the intersection, spotted her, and charged.

  Afraid she would be flattened, Alisa lifted her legs, curling into as much of a ball as she could while restrained. But Beck angled toward the bulkhead at the last second, his armored shoulder bouncing off it as he bypassed her. He hooked his arm around Delta Five, pulling him backward with him.

  If the android had not wanted to let her go, Alisa would have been stuck in the middle of the fight, but he must have decided to cast her aside so he could better defend himself. Or maybe he was programmed to keep civilians from being hurt—even suspicious ones that he wanted to arrest.

  Still, Alisa was thrown none-too-gently into the wall. She just managed to keep from tumbling to the deck.

  Thuds and clunks erupted behind her as Beck and Delta Five clashed. Weapons fire had not gone off yet, but that was sure to follow—the human patroller had come out of the cabin and would jump into the fray too.

  Alisa, fearing that even an armored Beck would not be a match for an android, sprinted to the intersection and toward the cargo hold. She had to get Leonidas.

  She almost ran past sickbay, but a scuffle going on inside made her stop. Alejandro was grappling with the other male patroller while Ostberg stood in front of the exam table, protecting Durant. He had a hand raised, his eyes slitted in concentration, but he kept getting jostled and probably couldn’t affect the patroller with whatever he was trying to do. Alejandro, never the supreme fighter, took a punch to the nose and stumbled backward, bumping into open drawers. The patroller pointed a stun gun at him.

  Alisa leaped through the hatchway, yanking out her Etcher. The man started to turn, but not in time. She slammed the butt of the weapon down on his head and lunged for his stun gun. As he staggered under the blow, taking a second to recover, she snatched it out of his hand. She spun it toward him and fired.

  The attack was invisible, but she felt the buzz of the energy currents in the air, especially at such close range. The man stiffened, his eyes rolling back in his head. He toppled to the deck, almost landing on Alejandro.

  “You’re welcome,” Alisa blurted, and raced into the corridor again.

  More thuds and bangs were coming from the crew quarters, and she winced when a blazer squealed from the same direction, but she kept going toward the cargo hold. A stun gun would do nothing against an android, and firing at a law enforcement officer with her Etcher was something she dared not contemplate.

  “Leonidas? Mica?” she blurted over her comm as she raced onto the walkway. There was little point in whispering now.

  Taking the stairs three at a time, she charged down to the cargo hold. She almost stumbled when she spotted the female patroller, now tied and gagged as she sat on the deck, propped against the bulkhead next to the airlock hatch. Abelardus leaned next to her, his arms once again crossed over his chest.

  “That’s not what I asked you to do,” Alisa said, waving at the woman.

  “I took the initiative to improve upon your suggestion.”

  “It wasn’t so much a suggestion as an order.” She stepped toward the airlock as the sound of more blazer fire came from the direction of the crew cabins. “Mica? Leonidas? Are you done in there? Beck needs help.”

  A wailing siren came from the other end of the airlock tube.

  Footsteps rang out on the walkway above the cargo hold. Alisa spun, raising her Etcher. The android leaped over the railing with Beck chasing after him. The human patroller was not behind them, but Alisa barely had time to register that. Delta Five ran toward her, his emotionless expression giving no hint as to whether he meant to charge straight onto his ship or to grab her—or mow her over—along the way.

  Alisa jumped to the side of the hatchway, bumping into Abelardus. The android raced up, and she pointed her Etcher at him, but hesitated, reminded again that this was a law enforcer, not a pirate or mafia thug.

  The android did not look at her, instead bending to grab the female patroller. Beck had been several steps behind, but this gave him time to catch up. He launched himself at Delta Five’s back as he lifted the woman.

  “Let them go,” Alisa yelled, but it was too late.

  Beck’s armored form slammed into Delta Five. The android turned his back to protect the woman and also managed to brace himself with one hand on the airlock hatchway. Beck hit like a wrecking ball, but the android kept his feet. Delta Five twisted, kicking backward. The angle made it awkward, but he clipped Beck in the abdomen with his heel, enough to knock Beck away. Delta Five did not press the attack. He ran through the hatchway.

  “Wait,” Alisa said, lifting a hand as Beck moved to follow. “If they’re running, let them go.”

  “What about the cyborg and Mica?” Abelardus asked.

  Alisa grabbed her comm unit. “Leonidas? Mica? Now would be a good time to return.”

  They did not answer.

  More footfalls sounded on the walkway. The human patroller, not the one Alisa had knocked out but the one that had been searching Leonidas’s cabin.

  He saw them and lurched back toward the protective cover of the closed corridor. Alisa aimed the stun gun at him, but he had already disappeared from sight.

  “Find cover,” she ordered Abelardus and Beck, expecting the man to lean out and fire at them any moment. She started toward the airlock chamber, but Beck waved for her to get behind him.

  “I am the cover,” he said.

  The patroller leaned around the corner and fired through the railing of the walkway as Alisa skittered behind Beck. Orange blazer bolts slammed into Beck’s chest plate.

  Alisa tried to make herself tiny. She hated to cower behind someone else, but she had a better angle to aim at that corner from behind Beck than she would from within the airlock chamber. Besides, the android had gone that way. She didn’t want to leave her back exposed in case he set down his patroller and returned to the Nomad.

  Beck fired at the patroller, using his built-in arm blazers.

  “Wait,” Alisa said, patting his back. Fortunately, the man ducked back before being caught by a bolt. “We can’t kill these people. Abelardus?”

  “Yes?” Abelardus said, sounding bored. He had taken a wide-legged stance, his arms bent and palms out, a strange-looking fighting position when he didn’t have his staff.

  “Can you convince him of… something?”

  The man leaned out, firing again. Blazer fire splashed off Beck’s armor, then shifted to streak toward Abelardus. It halted and bounced away before it reached him, ricocheting off an invisible barrier. Alisa leaned around Beck and fired the stun gun, hoping to get lucky. But they were short-range weapons, losing power and accuracy after more than a dozen meters. The man ducked back, unharmed.

  “Like what?” Abelardus said.

  “Anything. I don’t care. That Beck is too pretty for him to shoot. Whatever makes him drop his weapons and surrender.”

  “It’s hard to reason with someone whose mind is amped up with adrenaline.”

  The man leaned out once more, this time targeting Alisa. She ducked behind Beck again, but one blazer bolt screeched between his legs, slamming into the deck at her feet. She cursed, feeling like she was dancing o
n a hot stove, but kept herself from diving away from Beck where she would be even more vulnerable.

  The alarm kept wailing on the ship behind her, and the sound of weapons fire erupted from somewhere in its depths.

  “If I can’t shoot back, he’s going to keep doing that,” Beck said, taking another bolt to the chest plate.

  Alisa leaned out, hoping to catch their enemy with the stun gun before he disappeared around the corner again.

  Something slammed into the wall of the cargo hold near the main hatch. Nobody was over there, and it made Alisa jump. A yelp came from the patroller.

  “Do you surrender?” Abelardus called up as the item that had struck the wall dropped to the floor. It was the patroller’s blazer pistol.

  The man leaned out again, and Alisa fired, expecting him to have pulled out another deadly weapon. A knife flew from his hand, spinning toward Abelardus. This time, with more of his body visible, the stun charge caught him. The patroller stiffened and pitched against the far railing before dropping onto the walkway, one boot dangling over the edge.

  “Make sure he’s disarmed, please, Beck,” Alisa said, patting him on the back. “And then find the one in sickbay and tie him up too.”

  Beck jogged for the stairs, and Abelardus lowered his hands. He sniffed at the knife on the deck—it had hit his shield and dropped harmlessly down.

  “How primitive,” he said.

  “Yes, such a pain when the enemy doesn’t bring high-tech weaponry capable of truly ripping our hearts out.” Alisa dug out her comm unit again. “Leonidas, do you have a minute to talk?”

  An explosion came from the other ship, and Alisa spun toward the airlock tube. Smoke wafted through it, obscuring everything at the other end.

  “He may not be interested in teatime right now,” Abelardus said. “But if you want to talk, I’m always here for you.”

  “Encouraging. Leonidas, if you hear me, can you get back over here? We want to escape without killing anyone.” Three suns, she hoped it wasn’t already too late for that. Thus far, her crimes had been somewhat open for interpretation under the letter of the law, but if her crew killed Alliance citizens… she would never find a way to explain that away.