Angle of Truth

  “Still? You don’t have to grow out of unicorns, you know. I plan to wear unicorns until I’m a hundred.”

  “Given what unicorns symbolize, that will be distressing for your future boyfriends.”

  He’d made it clear that he didn’t imagine himself in that role of “future boyfriend,” so she shouldn’t have found the comment unexpected, but it disappointed her to hear the words. Logically, she knew his future was going to be crazy and insane and dangerous—and possibly quite short—and completely at odds with her own goals, so she shouldn’t long for any kind of relationship with him. She couldn’t even imagine that he would stay aboard the Snapper for long. But the disappointment lingered.

  Thor stopped under a few pinpricks of light filtering through a manhole cover. He shifted it aside with his mind, and Jelena squinted at the sudden brightness. He sprang up, landing in a crouch in an alley. Spotting a ladder, Jelena hurried up behind him. She couldn’t object to him lifting her into the air with his mind when enemies were shooting at them, but she preferred to get around of her own volition.

  “We’re about a half mile from the meeting point I suggested,” Thor said as she joined him. “And a mile from the edge of the city and the landing coordinates you gave Austin.”

  Jelena stood up, her staff in hand, and looked up and down the alley. It was abandoned, with rubble blocking one end. Much of the city was likely abandoned by now.

  “Can you tell if he’s there yet?” she asked.

  “He’s not.”

  She considered how much time had passed since her last contact with him. “He should be by now.”

  “Yes.”

  Trying not to let worry into her heart, she nodded and said, “Let’s go find those prisoners. I’ll comm him along the way.”

  Thor glanced skyward several times as they headed for the street. Concerned about that golden ship? Jelena would be, too, especially since whoever was flying it had somehow found Thor’s exact location in a city of tens of thousands.

  “For the record…” He glanced at her as they headed up another alley. “My stamina is excellent, whether I apply my Starseer talents or not.”

  Remembering him exercising on the Snapper, Jelena didn’t doubt it. “I’m sure your future girlfriends will be pleased to learn that.”

  His mouth twisted with a wryness that she couldn’t quite decipher, though she suspected he doubted he would have future girlfriends. Either because they would all approach him with nefarious purposes in mind, or just because he didn’t think he should divert his focus from his goals. Either option seemed depressing.

  • • • • •

  “Are you sure it’s safe to land?” Austin asked, his concern coming through even though Jelena didn’t have the visual up on her earstar.

  “No, but we need you to land anyway. We’re about to have a bunch of prisoners needing a ride back home.”

  “I’m not real reassured, Captain. I saw that gold ship again on my sensors just a little while ago. He sure was curious about me earlier.”

  “He’s even more curious about Thor. As long as you don’t have him on board, you’re fine.”

  “Is Thor coming on board when we land?”

  “Yes, but I’ll take over piloting then. You’ll be safe back in the engine room.”

  “Captain, when ships get blown out of the sky, the engine room usually goes with them.”

  “We’ll worry about that problem when we get to it. Meet you at the landing spot in…” Jelena looked to Thor, who was still leading them through the city to whatever meeting point he’d designated for the prisoners.

  “A half hour,” he said.

  “Got that, Austin?”

  “Yes. I can be there in… twenty-three minutes.”

  “Good. I like a punctual pilot.”

  Especially considering she and Thor might be spotted leading the prisoners out of the city and chased to the landing spot by soldiers.

  Thor took her through a wide street full of smashed market stalls, collapsed tents, and busted barrels of seaweed, fish, and octopuses. Scavenger birds plucked at the smelly remains, but the people who’d been selling the groceries were gone—mostly. A couple of women had been caught by falling debris from the buildings that had lined the street. After checking to see if any of them were alive and could be helped, and finding they weren’t, Jelena avoided looking too closely at the rubble piles.

  Movement caught her eye, and she stretched out with her senses, detecting people at the end of the mangled market. One was familiar. The Alliance representative that Hakim had been talking to. Powell. She sensed at least thirty other people there, hiding in the back of a dented cargo truck with flat tires. Judging by the strong scent of fish wafting from it, the vehicle had been used to deliver the market goods.

  Thor strode up to the back of the truck and lifted the partially closed roll-up door. A man inside jerked in surprise and pointed a rifle at his chest. Thor knocked it aside with his mind, and the man yelped and jumped back, crashing into one of his fellow prisoners.

  “Stop,” Powell said. “It’s the one we’ve been waiting for, the one who’s going to get us home.”

  Jelena, who was right behind Thor, grumbled under her breath when she wasn’t identified as someone the prisoners had been waiting for. It was her ship and her plan, after all.

  Thor waved for the people to get out. “We need to hurry. There aren’t any tunnels that lead out of the city in the direction we need to go, so the sooner we make our trip, the better.”

  Will you be able to keep anyone we encounter from seeing our group? Jelena asked him as the people jumped or climbed out of the truck, many of them bruised—or worse—from that attack on the plant.

  I should be able to. If I’m not distracted by other concerns.

  Is that ship still out there?

  I can’t tell. I couldn’t sense it with my mind until it was on top of us. I don’t know what I’m dealing with, and that’s unusual.

  What we’re dealing with. Jelena thumped him on the back as they started out of the market area with the group behind them.

  Whoever he is, I’m certain he’s after me.

  Oh, I’m certain of that too. But since I’m standing next to you, that makes the ship my problem too.

  Jelena smiled, meaning the comment as a joke, but he looked morosely at her.

  That is true. As I’ve pointed out before, being the person standing next to me isn’t a good idea. His expression turned thoughtful, and she wished she hadn’t made the comment. He wasn’t thinking of taking off for her own good, was he?

  Don’t leave me yet. I need your help to get these people home and to stop a war.

  Have you come up with an idea yet?

  I’m mulling over options. Once we get these people aboard the Snapper, I want to take Erick and Austin and try to fix the forcefield and find Hakim again.

  Shall I point out that it would be easier—and in line with our original promise—if we took off, dropped the prisoners off back in Opuntia, and forgot their war?

  Jelena smiled again. No.

  Ah.

  Thor had to know she wouldn’t do that, or he wouldn’t have pointed out that the Alliance people were among the prisoners and soon to be stuck—trapped—on her ship.

  “Soldiers,” someone behind them muttered.

  A military truck drove by on a wide boulevard ahead of them, one that had survived the bombing. It soon disappeared from view, but voices drifted around the corner, and Jelena sensed a squadron of troops up there.

  “They’re looking for the escaped prisoners,” Thor said, looking back. “But they won’t see you.”

  “What?”

  “Stay silent and keep following me.”

  Jelena walked out onto the boulevard at Thor’s side and grimaced at a squadron of soldiers marching in their direction. There were other smaller groups up and down the street, men pulling injured people out of collapsed buildings and loading them onto trucks. The closer squa
dron worried Jelena more, and even knowing that Thor could camouflage them, she kept her grip tight on her staff. Some of the soldiers were looking straight at them.

  Keep going, Thor said, speaking into her mind, into all of their minds. Some of the prisoners had faltered and looked like they meant to run back. Coercion came with those two words, and everyone hustled forward.

  A distant rumble from the sky gave Jelena a new reason to worry. Had the pilot of that gold ship figured out Thor was out in the open again?

  He glanced that way, too, but he pointed down the boulevard toward an open gate leading out of the city. The group hurried in that direction, skirting groups of soldiers. Someone tripped and fell down, gasping loudly. Jelena winced, expecting the soldiers to hear the noise. But they kept working, unaware of the thirty-odd people passing within a few meters of them.

  As the group closed on the gate, Jelena began to think they would make it, but she winced when she saw all the open land outside of the city. Flat dirt with only a few cactuses here and there to hide behind.

  “I told him to land a half mile that way.” Jelena pointed. “Along the coast.”

  Thor strode through the gates and headed in the indicated direction while throwing numerous glances toward the sky behind them. The thrum of that engine hadn’t come any closer, but Jelena could still hear it, as if someone was circling over the other side of the city. Circling the area near the water treatment plant, perhaps?

  “That’s not the bombers we’re hearing, is it?” someone asked. It was the man Thor had pointed out as being affiliated with the mining corporation.

  “It only sounds like one plane,” a woman replied.

  One plane? More like one gold spaceship.

  Unfortunately, the comment reminded Jelena that bombers had been reported and were on the way. In fact—she tapped her earstar to get a time display—according to Hakim’s aide, they ought to arrive any minute.

  “If the spaceship doesn’t get us, the planes will,” she muttered.

  “Austin will make it on time.” Thor waved toward the sea, though Jelena didn’t see any ships visible on the horizon. “He’s almost here.”

  Jelena’s comm beeped. Austin. Good. Once they got the prisoners on the Snapper, they could raise the freighter’s shields, and be protected from bombers. At least far more than they were out here on the ground.

  As she answered the comm, she noticed Thor had picked up his pace to almost a jog. He looked like he wanted to sprint, but there was no ship to sprint to yet, and the wounded prisoners struggled to keep up.

  “We’re ready for you, Austin,” Jelena said, hurrying to keep up with him.

  “I’m coming in, but, Captain? There are a bunch of airplanes not far behind me, and the gold ship is already there, right on top of the city. I’ve got the shields up, but I think he’s scanning me again, giving me the evil eye.”

  “The faster you land and we board, the faster we can get out from under his eye.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  As the channel shut, Jelena realized that might not have been the best way to share her urgency with an inexperienced pilot. Now he would be thinking about landing quickly instead of carefully.

  “There’s a ship!” someone cried. “Or is it the first bomber?”

  Jelena searched the horizon. If Austin didn’t beat those planes here, she would box him in the ears as soon as she got a chance.

  Thankfully, the blocky turtle-like shape of the Snapper was flying toward them, visible now in the hazy sky over the ocean.

  The comm beeped again, and Jelena answered, prepared to caution Austin to land carefully despite her earlier comment about faster being better. But Erick was the one to speak.

  “Masika and I and a friend are out here, Jelena. We can see you.”

  “You’re out here?” She peered at the flat brown landscape. “Where?”

  “See, Masika? I told you. We can too hide behind a cactus.”

  Jelena couldn’t make out the grumbled response, but spotted a black Starseer robe ahead as Erick stepped out from behind a towering cactus with its arms pointing skyward. He waved. Masika and a third person in yellow and brown robes stepped out too.

  “Who’s your friend?” she asked, her heart lighter now that her entire team was about to be reunited.

  “Dr. Ogiwara.”

  “She came with you?”

  “Not voluntarily. Masika had no faith in my ability to get us out of the underground hospital there. She felt certain we needed a hostage to get past the soldiers.”

  “I was kidnapped,” came a woman’s growl, probably over Erick’s shoulder.

  “It’s not a good idea to kidnap people,” Jelena said.

  There went Thor’s idea of somehow trading or negotiating for the doctor’s services on their ship.

  “Now, now, Jelena. Don’t you think it’s hypocritical of you to lecture us on the foolishness of kidnapping people?”

  “Just—”

  A roar of engines from behind made Jelena whirl. The gold ship came into view over the wall of the city. She cursed, at first thinking it was flying toward them and would strafe the ground, but it was flying out to sea. Toward the Snapper.

  Erick cursed too. “Austin better have the shields up. I’ll tell him.”

  “He said they’re up.”

  Jelena slowed down as Erick, Masika, and their reluctant captive ran toward her group. They’d reached the coordinates, and the Snapper was heading straight toward them. Unfortunately, the spaceship would intercept it.

  “Is there anything you can do to help?” Jelena asked Thor, even as she groped for something she might do. She imagined dolphins leaping out of the water to attack the spaceship, but snorted at the ridiculous idea. Even if the craft hadn’t been shielded and animals could have done something to it, it was hundreds of feet above the ocean.

  Thor shook his head. “I can see it with my eyes, but still can’t sense it. Can you?”

  Jelena tried to scan the ship, to see how many people were inside, but it was as Thor said. As far as her mind could tell, the ship wasn’t there at all.

  It fired, powerful e-cannons blasting. Jelena winced as they slammed into the Snapper’s shields at close range.

  She was certain Austin only wanted to land as quickly as possible, but he attempted some clumsy evasive maneuvers. He didn’t loop or bank, merely moved the ship up and down, as if it were on a one-grav rollercoaster. The gold ship easily kept up with it and fired again.

  Jelena clenched her fists, wishing there were a way to teleport herself into NavCom so she could take the helm.

  The Snapper loosed an e-cannon blast of its own from its rear cannon, but it flew so wide that Fourseas’ moon was in more danger of being hit than the enemy ship.

  “He’s coming in too fast,” Thor said.

  The shields seemed to still be up, but Austin was coming in as if the ship were damaged, as if he would crash into the cliffs instead of landing atop them.

  “Is that pilot drunk?” someone asked.

  “Is that our damned escape ship?” Powell clenched a fist and turned toward Thor, as if he wanted to punch him.

  Jelena couldn’t take her eyes from the ship. If Austin wrecked the Snapper, the ship her family had only had in its possession for eight weeks, the ship that was still a long, long way from being paid off…

  She lifted her comm. “Pull up on the nose, Austin.”

  He did, and the turtle’s head rose slightly. Was it enough? She held her breath as he came in.

  The bottom of the freighter’s shields bumped against the edge of the cliff, jolting the Snapper and causing rock to shear off and crumble into the sea. The ship bounced into the air as it continued toward them, struck the ground, then bounced again, like a rock skipping across a pond. Jelena wanted to cover her eyes, but she also couldn’t tear her gaze away. At least the shields were still up, and it wasn’t the hull that was smashing into the ground over and over.

  The Snapper scrape
d and ground to a halt surprisingly close to her group.

  “Run,” Thor barked, pointing at the cargo hatch, then also at the gold ship.

  Their enemy had backed off slightly, maybe waiting to see if the Snapper destroyed itself during the crash.

  “Shields are down,” Austin blurted over the comm, his voice so loud it hurt Jelena’s ear.

  “Good,” she said, running after Thor. “Want to open the hatch too?”

  “Shit! Where’s the button!”

  The gold ship didn’t wait long. It zipped toward the Snapper, the two e-cannon ports in front flaring hot, angry white.

  The cargo hatch opened, and the ramp lowered. Jelena didn’t know whether Austin had found the button in NavCom, or Thor or Erick had pushed it with his mind. She didn’t care. She raced for the opening, shooing injured people ahead of her.

  The gold ship filled the sky. Jelena ran past the prisoners, telling herself it wasn’t cowardly to ensure her own safety. She had to get inside. Someone who knew how to fly had to get the ship off the ground as soon as everyone was aboard.

  Just as she reached the ramp, something like a wall of wind came up behind her. Her feet left the ground, and she flew through the air. At first, she thought one of the e-cannons had struck behind her, and this was the shockwave, but her senses recognized Starseer power being used. She tumbled into other airborne people in a tangled mess, limbs thudding against limbs, but everyone flew through the hatchway at top speed.

  Before she landed on the deck, the gold ship fired another e-cannon. It was so close, she heard the ominous thwump and felt the crackle of energy in the air. She squinted her eyes shut as she hit the deck, expecting the devastating power to blast into her unshielded ship.

  The jolt did go through the Snapper, and she felt it lift off the ground and slam back down, but she immediately knew those cannon blasts hadn’t struck with full power. Thor must have protected them somehow. Thank the suns. Thank him.

  “Shields, Austin!” she roared, finding her feet and sprinting toward NavCom. “Get everyone in and close that hatch,” she yelled back over her shoulder, barely making sure Thor, Erick, and Masika were inside before flinging herself into the short corridor that led up front.