Leonidas grunted. “Beck quashed a breakout attempt involving two soldiers and the screws and legs from the fold-out desk in the cabin.”
“Admiral Hawk is getting an invoice from me before he leaves,” Alisa said.
“I’m still not sensing anything,” Abelardus said from the co-pilot’s seat, his gaze toward the view screen, his chin on his fist.
“The computer isn’t reading anything, either, other than the volcanic activity itself.” Yumi leaned away from the sensor panel. “I’ve studied active volcanoes before. If I weren’t worried about my mother and sisters, I would tell you interesting trivia.”
“Just tell me if it’s safe to fly over the top of it.” Alisa pointed to the caldera. She had already flown around the exterior and had not seen anything manmade on the slopes.
“We should be fine,” Yumi said. “You can fly with your shields up if you’re worried about the ship’s belly being braised. Mount Diablo is known for frequent eruptions, but it’s not due to blow for another three years.”
“Diablo? That means devil, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’m definitely raising shields then,” Alisa said. “Belly braising, indeed.”
She banked and flew toward the smoking rim. She couldn’t imagine the temple being inside of the volcano, but there wasn’t much else to check.
Abelardus gasped and gripped the edge of the console.
“What?” Alisa asked. “Cramp?”
Leonidas snorted.
“It was as if we went through some kind of barrier,” Abelardus said. “I can feel the staff now. And people. But not nearly as many as there should be.” He frowned. “What’s going on?”
“I would be the last person who could tell you.” Alisa felt disappointed rather than exulted at his proclamation that the staff was nearby. It was selfish, but she had started to hope that they wouldn’t find the artifact or the temple, that there would be no trail of breadcrumbs to follow. Then the men wouldn’t be able to talk her into taking more time to help them with their quest.
Abelardus turned his frown in her direction, no doubt surfing through her thoughts again.
“You know,” he said, “it’s possible that the chasadski caught up with the children and they have your daughter and the prince with them.”
Alisa glared at him. “Don’t say such things. There’s no evidence to support that. Besides, Stanislav didn’t say anything about the children.”
“Right, and he’s a totally reliable source.”
“No worse than you.”
“I’m not a thief. Or a murderer. Or someone who either helps destroy a city full of innocent people or stands aside so it can be done in front of his eyes.”
“You don’t know what happened.” Alisa snapped her mouth shut. Why was she defending Stanislav? She had no idea if he had spoken a word of truth to her since they met.
“Damn,” Leonidas whispered.
Alisa turned her attention back to the view screen. They had flown over the lip of the caldera. Smoke bathed the ship, obscuring the view, but they could glimpse bright orange lava below, a lake of it. The Starseer temple floated just above the center of that lake, its castle-like courtyard, towers, and walls the same as Alisa remembered.
“A cozy new home,” she said, glancing at the tiny thermometer that displayed interior and exterior temperatures. “A toasty cozy new home.” The temple, parts of which were covered in ice blocks, couldn’t have been there long, or it would be looking far different now.
Abelardus, his face pinched with concentration, did not respond.
Alisa flew the Nomad along the inside of the caldera’s lip, prepared to take them back over the rim quickly if the temple fired at them. She well remembered the artillery weapons perched on some of those towers.
“They’ll know we’re here,” Leonidas said.
The smoke made it hard to discern details, but Alisa did not see the Starseer darts on the landing pad she had once used. Had the missing Starseers used them to flee the temple at some point?
“I’m sure they’ve known for a while,” Alisa said. “That’s why my fingers are twitchy and the shields are up.”
“I thought the shields had to do with belly braising.”
She looked over her shoulder. Had that been a joke?
He smiled quickly, but his gaze remained on the view screen.
“Braising can come from lava and also from blazer fire,” Alisa said.
“I sense twenty, twenty-five people,” Abelardus said slowly. “There should be over two hundred.”
“My sisters?” Yumi asked. “My mother?”
He shrugged. “I can’t pick them out. Few of the people down there are familiar, for that matter. My temple is full of strangers.”
“And a staff?” Alejandro asked from the corridor.
Was everyone up here now? Alisa hoped Beck was still guarding the soldiers.
“And a staff,” Abelardus agreed. “I think my people may have fled. They might have been forced to flee. Those who are down there must be chasadski.”
Or his people could be dead, Alisa thought, eyeing the smoking lava. What if those who hadn’t gone along with the chasadski’s wishes had been tossed from the towers?
“My people are powerful,” Abelardus said. “They wouldn’t have been easily killed, not even by someone with the staff. The ships are all gone. I bet they took off.”
“Should I try to get the Alliance down here?” Alisa asked, looking toward Abelardus and also Leonidas. This time, she wanted advice before she jumped in with both feet. “Maybe they’ll attack, and we can slip in and you fearsome men can try to get the staff.”
Abelardus rubbed his jaw.
“I doubt the Alliance is going to believe you if you call them and ask for help,” Leonidas said.
“I wasn’t going to ask them to believe me. I was thinking of taunting them and letting them know where we are, then hoping they’ll divert to attack the temple when they see it.”
“They probably know where we are already. They’ll be keeping tabs on their kidnapped people. It may only be their presence on the ship that’s kept them from swooping in and annihilating us.”
“Well, you two tell me what you want me to do,” Alisa said. “This is your mission. I’m just the pilot.”
“We fight,” Alejandro said from outside of NavCom.
Alisa could barely see him past Leonidas’s broad frame. “By we, you mean Leonidas, right?” she asked, almost growled.
It would be suicidal to send Leonidas in against someone as strong or stronger than Stanislav, someone with a powerful artifact in hand and however many henchmen at his disposal. Even if Abelardus helped Leonidas, she couldn’t imagine it being enough. And by his own words, Stanislav wasn’t capable of standing up to his brother now. If he ever had been.
“I’ll go along,” Alejandro said. “I can bring my kit with some drugs in it. If I can get close to the thief, I can inject him with a sedative.”
“But there’s more than one of them, right?” Alisa said. “It’s not just a matter of charging up and taking one person by surprise.”
“As I said, there are more than twenty people down there,” Abelardus said.
“I have Mica making explosives,” Alisa said.
“I don’t think it’ll be enough,” Abelardus said. “I’d hoped my people would be here and could help us… Perhaps if we find them…”
“But is there time to go looking for them?” Yumi asked. “Remember the increased energy reading? Since we flew over the rim of the volcano, I’m able to read it again. It hasn’t diminished at all.”
“It’s odd that they aren’t reacting to our presence,” Leonidas said. “Do they not fear us? Or is there a reason they’re not firing?”
“Stanislav is here,” Abelardus offered. “Maybe he’s a spy rather than a victim, and they don’t want to kill one of their own.”
“He didn’t fake his injuries,” Alejandro said. “I’m amazed he wa
s conscious when you found him and that he was able to fight.”
“But maybe his injuries weren’t received in that clearing,” Alisa suggested. “Maybe the chasadski did battle with the other Starseers before attacking the city. It might have been hard for them to take over the temple. Maybe our buddy Tymoteusz was wounded too.”
“That could be,” Abelardus said. “If so, and if the chasadski are all weakened, it would be a good time to attack.”
“We won’t find out anything from up here,” Leonidas said. “I’ll get the rest of my weapons and prepare to go down and fight.” He met Alisa’s eyes. “I’ll take a few tricks along, but I’m sure I won’t be enough against them. I’ll trust you to do something surprising to distract them to give me an advantage.”
Alisa blinked a few times. His faith in her warmed her, but it put pressure on her, too, as if keeping him alive was her responsibility. Didn’t anyone remember that this wasn’t her war?
“I’ll be ready in two minutes. You can land or fly low so I can jump out.” Leonidas brushed past Alejandro, heading into the ship.
“Guess that means I’m getting ready too.” Abelardus grunted and stood. “If you’re taking votes, I’d prefer the approach that doesn’t require me jumping out of the ship.”
“Moonpuff,” Alisa said reflexively, her mind still dwelling on Leonidas’s request.
Abelardus blew her a kiss as he left. Alejandro walked down the corridor with him, leaving Alisa with Yumi.
Alisa felt like grabbing her braid and beating someone with it. She supposed that would be an unfair thing to do to Yumi.
“I’m not sure how everything got decided so quickly there,” Alisa said, “but relying upon me for a surprise sounds like a shitty plan.”
“You think so? I’ve found most of your plans to be surprising. If not startling. And appalling.”
Maybe beating Yumi with her hair wouldn’t be a bad idea after all.
Alisa growled and turned to the comm. “Mica? Get your explosives ready and meet me at the cargo hatch in ten minutes.”
“No please?” Mica replied.
“Sorry. Please get your explosives ready, and please make sure they’re amazing.”
“What do amazing explosives look like?”
“They make extremely big booms with extremely big smoke.”
“So long as the casings don’t have to look impressive, because I’m recycling some of Beck’s green bean cans.”
“I can already imagine our enemies cowering at the sight of them.”
Alisa switched from the internal comm to the external messaging system. She didn’t have much time, but she knew they would need help, no matter how surprising her plans and how amazing Mica’s green-bean-can explosives. She tried to get in touch with the Storm Fury, Tomich’s ship. If most of the native Starseers had abandoned their temple, and the only ones alive down there belonged to the chasadski, then she need not worry about innocent people being hurt if the Alliance swooped in to attack. She would just have to make sure to get Leonidas out of there when they appeared on her sensors.
Unfortunately, the call did not go through. The sys-net access was down too. Everything was down.
“Suns’ fiery coronas, what’s going on now?”
She’d had access ten minutes ago. Was the temple putting out some kind of dampening field?
“Can volcanoes block satellite signals?” Alisa asked, eyeing the smoke and the lava outside. They weren’t that far below the lip of the crater.
“Possibly,” Yumi said. “Maybe if you fly back out, you’ll regain access. Remember that Abelardus couldn’t sense the staff or the people until we were almost here.”
Alisa glanced at the clock. “There’s no time. Leonidas is probably clawing at the hatch to get out.”
“Last century’s Cat-1880 experimental cyborgs from the ConGlom Corporation had retractable claws,” Yumi offered. “I don’t believe any of the imperial military cyborgs were given that attribute.”
“You know too many things, Yumi,” Alisa said, adjusting the thrusters so the ship would hover near the lip of the volcano. She hopped to her feet and jogged out.
“It’s not possible to know too much,” Yumi called after her.
Alisa wasn’t sure about that. If she didn’t know so much, she might not be so certain that storming the Starseer temple would not end well. They needed more allies.
“Captain,” Beck blurted as she turned down the corridor toward the cabins. “Do you need me to go out and help Leonidas? The prisoners haven’t tried to break out for almost ten minutes.”
“An infinitely vast amount of time,” Alisa said, ducking into her cabin.
She grabbed her multitool and weapons as she glanced around, wishing she had more useful items in her arsenal. Like a full set of combat armor. Someday, there would be time to shop for one. She just hoped she survived to see that day.
As Alisa returned to the corridor, an idea popped into her head. Maybe she could get more allies, at least a few.
“Beck,” she said, “I need you to stand at my back and look fierce while I do something.”
“Gladly, but isn’t that Leonidas’s job?”
“Yes, but he’s elsewhere. And he might not agree with my new plan.”
“Uh, will I agree with it?”
Alisa pointed to the hatch in front of him. “Is that the cabin with Hawk in it?”
“That one over there. This is where his men are. They’re noisier and more rambunctious. Hawk’s probably busy canoodling with his woman.”
“While her dad watches on? I doubt that.” Alisa unlocked the hatch he had indicated.
“The admiral is a military man. I’m sure he understands the need for canoodling when one’s fate is uncertain.”
Alisa opened the hatch without responding. Something sprang out of the closest corner, and she jumped back, bumping Beck as he surged past her and into the cabin. He grabbed Hawk as the man landed, pushing him back against the bulkhead.
Suyin and Admiral Tiang stood up from their spots on the edge of the bunk, Suyin wincing as Hawk was lifted against the bulkhead to dangle with his feet above the deck. Hawk snarled, trying to shove Beck away, but without his combat armor, he wasn’t a match for Beck.
“No canoodling happening in here, Captain,” Beck announced, impervious to the officer’s struggles.
“Glad to hear it. Admiral Hawk?” Alisa faced him while keeping the Tiangs in her peripheral vision. She held her stun gun loosely, not wanting to aim it at them unless she had to. “I have a proposition for you.”
“Not interested,” he snarled at her.
“We’re about to go down to fight the rogue Starseers who stole the powerful Staff of Lore. Admiral Tiang has heard about it. Have you?”
“Yes,” Hawk grumbled, shoving at Beck again. “Put me down, you lumbering ox.”
“Can’t do that, Admiral,” Beck said. “Not unless my captain tells me to. Or if there’s something burning on the grill.”
Hawk’s brow furrowed.
“My Starseer ally tells me the staff was responsible for the Laikagrad earthquake,” Alisa said, “and my science officer tells me that its energy has been increasing, that it might be getting ready for another attack. Something even larger this time, maybe.”
Hawk quit glaring at Beck and turned his angry eyes toward her.
“We aim to take the staff back from the thieves who have it,” Alisa said.
“So your people can have it and use it instead?”
“My people have no interest in creating earthquakes.” She couldn’t be certain a young and vengeful prince wouldn’t be intrigued by the idea, but she did not intend to let Alejandro or Leonidas give the artifact to Thorian, no matter what plans they thought they had. “The staff is being held in the Starseer temple, and we expect resistance. Strong resistance. I came to offer you the chance to help us. You and your men. Anyone who’s willing to walk beside my security officers without attacking them. We’ll go in, stop t
he rogue Starseers, and figure out the rest later. After the threat to Arkadius has been nullified.”
“As if you care about Arkadius. You’re running around with imperials, and you’ve betrayed the Alliance.”
“So, you’re not interested in coming to help?”
“I—” He paused, still glaring at her, but calculation filled his eyes.
Alisa could practically see him cogitating. He had to be thinking that if he was let off the ship, he might escape permanently, and maybe his people could retrieve the staff and take it back to the Alliance, perhaps throwing her and the rest of her crew in a brig somewhere as a bonus. If he was going to be a politician, he would have to learn to hide his thoughts better.
“I’ll help,” Hawk said. “Assuming your hulk sets me down.”
Beck promptly dropped him to the deck, though he didn’t let go.
“Shall I ask the rest of your men if they’re willing to help?” Alisa asked. “It will be dangerous down there, so maybe it should be a volunteer mission.”
“They’re soldiers. They knew there would be dangers when they enlisted. I’m their commander. They’ll help.”
“Good,” Alisa said. “Beck, do you know where Leonidas put their armor?”
It ought to still be intact since Stanislav had waved his fingers to open it, and nobody had been required to use a crowbar.
“Pardon?” Beck asked. “You’re going to give them back their armor?”
“We can’t ask them to fight Starseers naked.”
“Are you sure? Because a bunch of naked soldiers might distract the Starseers more than men in armor.” Beck lowered his voice and whispered, “And we’d have an easier time wrangling them back into these cabins later if we need to.”
Alisa met Hawk’s eyes. “I trust that won’t be necessary.”
Beck, looking far less trustful, released Hawk and walked out.
Hawk squinted at Alisa, assessing her, or perhaps debating if he should punch her in the face and stalk out to find his men and his armor on his own.
“I can already tell you’ll be an asset,” she told him, forcing a smile and hoping the words would prove to be true. If nothing else, he and his men could take some of the chasadski’s ire. Alisa didn’t want it all directed at Leonidas and for him to end up in another coma. Or worse.