Perilous Hunt

  Without a word, Leonidas turned his rifle in another direction, dodging as he fired. A blazer bolt pinged off Alisa’s shoulder, and her HUD alarm flashed once, throwing up a map of the suit and showing the integrity of the various pieces. Only then did Alisa realize how many drones were zipping about. There had to be at least twenty. Most fired at Leonidas, trying to chase him down as he ran and dove, but a couple turned in her direction. She followed his example, running in what she hoped was an unpredictable zigzag as she returned fire.

  She and Leonidas had come up in an empty foyer with nothing to hide behind, and there wasn’t that much room to run either. Several drones worked together, trying to corner Alisa. She focused on bringing down one at a time, but it was hard not to simply spray fire at anything that fired at her. Her suit gave her more speed, and she could turn on a dime, almost springing into the air when she sprinted off in a new direction, but with so many enemies, blazer bolts still caught her.

  A drone crashed down a few feet away. Leonidas’s work. Alisa growled, determined to drop one on her own.

  “Hells’ wrath,” Beck cursed as he pulled himself into the foyer. “Who left these here?”

  He immediately started firing. Alisa was glad for the help and even more glad that the drones had another target. She felt overwhelmed and frantic, unable to come up with a plan beyond shooting and trying not to be hit. She noticed a corridor as she ran past it, overhead lighting illuminating it. There was movement at the far end, armored figures. She didn’t get a good look, but it had to be the soldiers. On their way back to help their drones? Or waiting while their drones did the work for them?

  Despite her determination to keep running and not get trapped, she found herself pushed into a corner, the drones working together with pack instincts. She took a blast to the helmet when she tried to get herself out of the situation. A new alarm flashed as smoke wafted past her faceplate. There were fewer drones in the air now, with seven or eight crashed and unmoving on the floor, but at least five were harrying her.

  Leonidas plowed his way through the cloud of them, lowering his rifle in favor of grabbing them out of the air. He smashed one between his hands and hurled another into a wall so hard that it disappeared into the panel with a crunch.

  Alisa took a blast to the chest in exchange for the opportunity to plant herself for a second and fire off three well-aimed shots. They slammed into the closest drone, and its shielding failed. Spitting smoke, it careened away to bounce off a wall and crumple on the floor.

  She did not get time to celebrate. A blazer blast tagged her in the hip, and she sprang away again. Eight drones remained in the air, but the ones plaguing her shifted to another target. Leonidas. As one, the drones turned their focus on him.

  He leaped away an instant before all eight fired beams at him. Several struck the floor, leaving smoking holes, and others hit the wall where he had been. He fired as he dodged, a red blur that moved so quickly, the drones clipped each other as they spun and tried to catch him.

  Though she hated seeing Leonidas ganged up on, Alisa took the opportunity to breathe—and fire. She blasted into the drones, wearing down the energy shields engulfing them.

  A couple of the flying menaces were hurled through the air, crashing into walls as Beck and Abelardus joined the battle from across the foyer. Alisa brought down two more on her own, ignoring the smoke wafting from her armor and the alarms warning her that she should find cover. While in the middle of an airborne dodge, Leonidas cracked his rifle against one of the drones and sent it all the way into the elevator shaft, where it ricocheted from wall to wall as it fell.

  Ostberg, just climbing to his feet, peered back at it. Then he leaped forward, his staff at the ready.

  But silence fell in the room, save for a couple of feeble buzzes as smashed drones twitched on the floor.

  “I missed the fight?” Ostberg asked in chagrin.

  Leonidas spun toward the corridor where Alisa had spotted movement before. She started to follow his lead, lifting her arm to shoot, but she froze halfway into position and gaped.

  A man in red combat armor stood there. A cyborg in red combat armor. His rifle was pointed at Leonidas’s chest, and Leonidas’s rifle pointed at his chest. Soldiers in black armor crowded behind the cyborg. Near the elevator, Beck, Abelardus, and Ostberg braced themselves for another battle, but Alisa had the sense that the two red armored cyborgs only had eyes for each other.

  “Identify yourself,” the imperial cyborg said.

  Alisa blinked. They didn’t know who he was? Maybe the empire was less clued in about the race to the prince and to the staff than she had believed.

  “Adler,” Leonidas said. “You?”

  “Colonel Adler?” The cyborg’s rifle dipped slightly.

  “I’m not on the empire’s payroll anymore. Who are you? Are you working for Bondarenko? I didn’t think he’d offered any cyborgs positions in his army.”

  “It’s Sergeant Yakuri, sir. Bondarenko changed his mind on that. There’s a whole platoon of us who hired on.” The cyborg—Yakuri—lowered his rifle and started to reach for his helmet, as if to remove it, but paused, looking at Alisa, Abelardus, Beck, and Ostberg.

  One of the soldiers behind him spoke quietly and tersely.

  Yakuri lifted his rifle again, but he didn’t point it at Leonidas, instead opting for the space between him and Alisa. “What’s going on, sir? Did you join, ah…” He looked toward Abelardus and Ostberg again, no doubt seeing their robes and staffs. “Someone?”

  Alisa raised a finger. “He joined me. Captain of the freighter parked outside, the one your people fired at without provocation. Colonel Adler is my security officer now.”

  “Security?” Yakuri asked, a lip curling behind his faceplate.

  “Chief of security,” Alisa said. “He gets fringe benefits.” She thought about detailing some of them for the sergeant but remembered that another cyborg would be unimpressed by the fact that Leonidas got to boink the captain as a part of his benefits package.

  “Tell them to lower their weapons and remove their helmets,” a man said clearly from behind Yakuri.

  “I don’t think he’ll do that, sir,” Yakuri whispered back. “That’s Colonel Hieronymus Adler.”

  “Working for some woman.”

  “Some woman?” Alisa mouthed.

  “Tell them to drop their weapons now.”

  “I like how he hides behind you as he says that, Sergeant,” Alisa told Yakuri.

  “I get hid behind a lot, ma’am. I bet the colonel does too.”

  “He is big and sturdy. I like that in a security officer.”

  “Sergeant,” the cyborg’s commander growled.

  “Who’s the ranking officer here?” Leonidas asked. “We need to talk. We may not be at cross purposes.”

  “I’m in charge,” the man behind Yakuri said. “Major Sinclair. And you’re here for the prince, the same as we are, I’m certain. You must be trying to collect on the bounty. I’m sure nobody hired you, not when you’re in that dumpy freighter.”

  “I’m starting to dislike that man,” Alisa said, turning to catch Abelardus’s gaze. Are you in my head?

  I can be in anything you like. He leered at her.

  How about popping into that major’s head to see what his orders are?

  I’ll do what I can. I’m less interested in being inside of him.

  I didn’t know Starseers were so picky.

  “We’re not here for Thorian,” Leonidas said. “There’s a girl with the Starseers who was kidnapped.”

  Alisa shifted, not wanting the empire to know anything about her mission. Did he feel he could be open and honest because these were imperial soldiers?

  “That major is a first-rate asshole,” she whispered over her helmet comm, knowing only he and Beck would hear. Well, the cyborg sergeant with his enhanced hearing might catch the words, too, but she doubted he would disagree. “Don’t tell him my business.”

  “I find that highly
unlikely, Adler,” the major said, making a point of not using Leonidas’s rank—his former rank.

  “Really,” Leonidas said dryly, not seeming bothered by the man’s disrespect, or the fact that at least ten armored soldiers stood in the corridor behind Sergeant Yakuri. Normally, he might handle that many, especially with Abelardus’s help, but the opposition having a trained cyborg soldier of their own left Alisa uneasy. Just because Yakuri knew Leonidas didn’t mean he wouldn’t fight him if ordered to do so.

  “We should work with him, sir,” Yakuri said. “He’s got Starseers with him. They probably know about what we’ll face with the others. You know, the…” He drew a few symbols in the air with his fingers. Were those supposed to represent mental powers? Or magic? “And he’s Colonel Adler.”

  “We’ve established his name,” the major said, “but he’s admitted he has no rank. You do not report to him, Sergeant. Understood?”

  “Of course, sir. I’m just saying he would be a good ally.”

  The major squinted at the back of his man’s head, then sighed. “You’re truly not after the prince, Adler?”

  Alisa expected a prompt, “No,” even though she knew Leonidas cared what happened to the boy, but he gazed over to her instead.

  “I only want Jelena,” Alisa said, not sure what he was asking with that long look. “And I’d prefer that no children were caught in some crossfire here.”

  “I have no desire to take Prince Thorian with me,” Leonidas finally told the major.

  Alisa tried to decide if that had been an evasive answer or not.

  The major ticked a fingernail thoughtfully against the front of his faceplate. “Very well. You may accompany us to meet the inhabitants.”

  “Like we asked to accompany them,” Alisa muttered. And meet the inhabitants? Is that what they planned to do with all those rifles and drones they carried? Meet people?

  “We accept,” Leonidas said without consulting Alisa.

  She frowned, but he lowered his weapon and walked toward Sergeant Yakuri, waving for Alisa, Abelardus, Ostberg, and Beck to follow. The major muttered something that sounded like, “Watch him,” to Yakuri, then turned his back, rounded up his troops, and headed back into the corridor.

  “We’re joining the entourage of people who just tried to kill us with drones?” Beck whispered, stopping at Alisa’s side.

  She hadn’t started following Leonidas yet. She glanced back at the elevator shafts, wondering what would happen if she, Beck, Ostberg, and Abelardus slipped away and tried another level. But Abelardus had said the soldiers were close to the Starseers, not on another level. Besides, she couldn’t imagine leaving Leonidas to these people, even if he was walking along willingly, even if he believed he was safe with them. She didn’t believe that.

  “Good to have you with us, sir,” Yakuri said cheerfully. He and Leonidas bumped the sides of their fists together in some imperial greeting.

  We’re on the same floor as the Starseers, Abelardus spoke into her mind. The soldiers are heading the right way.

  How do they know which way to go?

  I’m not sure yet. I’ll try to find out, but I have news for you. I’m talking to Lady Westfall, the assistant head mistress of the school on Cleon Moon and the person nominally in charge of this mission. There are some refugees from Sepiron Station, too, and they’re clashing on what to do, but none of the Starseers want to go with these people.

  Oh? I thought Thorian’s Starseers—and Durant—were aligned with the empire.

  Emperor Markus’s empire. I don’t pretend to know all the politics, but this Bondarenko has never been a friend to the Starseers. They don’t want these soldiers to get Thorian. He’s been entrusted to their care, and they intend to keep it that way.

  So, they’ll fight for him? Alisa asked.

  I believe some of them will, but they haven’t affirmed that. I only know what Westfall is relaying to me, and they’re agitated and busy. They’ve planted a few traps.

  Great.

  “Alisa?” Leonidas asked over his helmet comm—he was already far down the corridor with the imperials. “Are you coming?”

  “Your helmet is smoking, Captain,” Beck pointed out, tapping her on the top of it.

  “I know,” she said quietly.

  “We following?” He sounded like he didn’t want to, but he pointed toward where Leonidas’s and Yakuri’s red armored backs were about to disappear around a bend.

  “For now,” she said, answering both men.

  Chapter 20

  “Any time you want to get back to me would be great, Captain,” came Mica’s voice over Alisa’s helmet comm. “But don’t rush. If you’re busy having lunch or coffee, you take your time.”

  “What’s wrong?” Alisa asked, foregoing the sarcastic response. She’d forgotten that Mica had commed her during the battle. Now that she was walking along behind Leonidas, Yakuri, and what had turned out to be over twenty imperial soldiers, she should have thought to check on her ship. Her mind had been busy spinning scenarios, trying to figure out how to keep Jelena from getting caught in the middle of a battle. If the Starseers did not want to go with the imperials, they surely had the means to protect themselves and keep that from happening. Alisa did not want to stumble into any traps they had set, either, and was hanging well back. She didn’t think that Major Sinclair would notice or care if her people simply disappeared, now that they had their eye on Leonidas.

  “You want a list of problems?” Mica asked.

  “Yes, prioritized and with bullet points, please.”

  “Point One: Alejandro locked himself in NavCom with Bravo Six and is comming the warship. Point Two: Durant led the pack of Starseers into the rec room and locked the hatch. Point Three: Beck didn’t leave any munchies behind to keep your engineer fed.”

  “Uh,” Alisa said. She couldn’t have asked for a more prioritized and concise list, but immediately felt overwhelmed by it. Mostly points one and two. “Can you override the comm system and interrupt Alejandro’s conversation?” she asked, more alarmed by that than what the Starseers were up to. They’d spoken to the major in charge of the ground troops over here, but if Alejandro was trying to cut a deal with the warship commander, that couldn’t be good. What could he possibly think these imperials could do for him? Did he want to abandon her ship and join forces with them to go after the staff?

  “Communications isn’t routed through engineering, so no,” Mica said. “I have a blowtorch with me, and I’m contemplating forcing my way into NavCom. I shouldn’t have fixed that hatch so well the last time someone was forcing their way inside.”

  Alisa cursed softly, now wishing she had left someone trustworthy behind to back up Mica if the passengers made trouble.

  “I’ll comm Bravo Six,” she said.

  “He may be helping Dominguez,” Mica said.

  “He might not realize it’s a problem for Alejandro to make calls. Maybe he’s just reading the technical manuals I left him.”

  “I’ve been banging on the hatch and yelling for them to open it,” Mica said. “He knows what’s going on.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Just because he calls you Lady Captain doesn’t mean he’s loyal to you.”

  “No, that’s not what I was going to say. I don’t think he would do anything to betray the Starseers from his station.” Alisa slowed down, since the soldiers in front of her had come out of the corridor and were stopping to look around. She glimpsed furniture draped with sheets, and a kitchen and dining hall large enough to accommodate at least fifty people, but dust covered everything. “The scientist Bravo Six wants to be reunited with is over here,” she added.

  “Maybe Dominguez offered him a new, better gig,” Mica said. “Or an eye.”

  “I’ll comm over there. Just get Alejandro out of NavCom and lock him in his cabin.”

  “With what army? You didn’t leave me anyone fierce.”

  “Mica, you’ve threatened to blow up Abelardus’s bal
ls. You are fierce. Just roll a grenade under the doctor’s robe.”

  Mica snorted and closed the channel.

  Alisa immediately tried to comm Bravo Six. He didn’t answer. She wagered Alejandro was sitting in NavCom with his fuzzy butt on the comm panel to hide the alerts about incoming messages. She wasn’t ready to believe that Bravo Six had chosen to side with Alejandro, possibly against his own people. That didn’t make sense.

  She was about to comm Admiral Tiang, to see if he could put together some tranquilizers that could be used on Alejandro—and the Starseers if they were up to no good—but the lights went out, plunging the base into darkness.

  “Flashlights,” the major ordered up ahead.

  The clang of metal striking metal rang out in the distance.

  “Someone’s here,” a soldier said.

  “A lot of people are here,” Beck muttered. “This place is busy for a secret asteroid base in a forgotten part of the system.”

  “My people haven’t forgotten it,” Abelardus said.

  “You didn’t know the base was here.”

  “I knew the asteroid belt was here. This was our world once.”

  “It’s not like you ever lived there. Unless you’re a lot more mature than we thought.”

  “He’s not,” Alisa said. “I assure you.”

  Abelardus looked like he wanted to give her a swat.

  Another clang sounded up ahead of them.

  Alisa slowed down, not wanting the Starseers to think her team was with the imperial team. They weren’t an invasion force. They were here to help. She just wished Leonidas was back with them instead of ambling along at his old buddy’s side.

  She unfastened her helmet and reached for the utility pouch where she had stored Yumi’s drug. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go into this meeting with some extra insurance. As she walked, she opened the bag, licked her gauntleted finger, and poked it inside, where a fine coating of powder stuck to it. Fearing there was not time to eye it as dubiously and skeptically as it deserved, she tugged off her helmet for long enough to suck the stuff off her finger, then refastened it.