Defender of the Empire 2: Facades (8 page)

When I had been unconscious before, I could barely ever hear M. Kit. It was like she could only speak to me when I was more aware. She could wake me up if I were sleeping, but if I was out for some other reason (knocked out by a stun blast or a particularly hard hit to the head, or when a new Spectral showed up, though I hadn’t had one of those for a while..) she couldn’t. The only ones I could ever hear clearly were Spectrals. When it was really bad, only Kylesst could find me. It cemented a fact for me that I knew but didn’t ever really consider: Spectrals were not bound by the limits of flesh like a Medi-Comp. They were like souls, and Kylesst was connected to mine.

Could I find Kylesst that way?
I wondered.
Could I find our bond and seek him, the way he can visit me?
The thought gave me hope. All I had found before was a long gone ex-admiral Knight, since he had the knife that held my Spectral prisoner. I considered trying it after M. Kit managed to nullify most of the drugs so I could wake up. That thought reminded me that I couldn’t go seeking outside myself until I had my body somewhere safe, and since I was kidnapped that place was not wherever I was now.

Where are we?
I thought to M. Kit.

“On an LFA with one other person. I could not get a facial recognition. And the name you thought before is not in the Citizen Archives and I have been unable to send a message for help because some signal is interfering,” she said in a tone both apologetic and frustrated.

That’s troubling,
I replied.
But don’t worry, we’ll get through this...
And I opened my eyes. Ironically, I was strapped into the back seat where I would normally sit, had I boarded of my own volition. Ace was in the pilot’s seat. My vision was still fuzzy from the drugs, and I desperately tried to blink it away. The forward view was a sparkling display of lasers and missiles splashed on a background of distant stars. Ships of various sizes and shapes zipped around. It didn’t help me much.

I slid my eyes back to Ace. He was not looking my way. He was too preoccupied with watching the skirmish going on just outside. I looked down at the console near me, and smiled. Hopefully the signal blocking M. Kit wouldn’t block the LFA’s com, though why it wouldn’t, I’m not sure. But I figured it was worth a try to send an SOS to the
Hail Mary
. If that didn’t work, maybe I could find some way to disrupt Ace’s plans through the LFA’s computer. I tried to reach for it when my plans were called to a halt. I stared in dismay at the magnetic cufflinks that kept my arms pinned to the armrests.

              “I’m not sorry about the cufflinks,” Ace said from up front. I looked toward him again. He typed something into the dash before flashing a smile at me. “I figured you would know how to use the systems now, and I couldn’t have you attempting to call for help or some other such nonsense,” he said, getting up to join me in the back.

              I raised an eyebrow at him. “What the hell, Ace? Why all this?” I asked nodding toward the scene outside and the ship we were in. Moving my arms caused the cufflinks to clink, including them in my silent list of craziness.

              “You shouldn’t have left,” he replied simply in his typical oblique fashion.

              I fought hard not to roll my eyes. “I had no choice.” He raised his eyebrows at that. Sighing, I continued. “I needed to leave. Something was driving me and I couldn’t ignore it.”

              “Something? Or Some
one
?” Ace asked softly. I could hear the danger under the calm tone of his question.

              I snorted. I couldn’t help it. He was thinking one of two things had caused me to leave. First, I had been driven off by one of the gang. The second was I had met someone… but seriously? I was too young and too busy for that. “
No one
caused me to leave, Ace. If you have to blame anyone, blame me. It was some instinct that caused me to leave.” I shook my head. “I don’t know how else to explain it to you.”

              Ace grunted. “Well then, consider this a similar situation.” There was a beep on the console next to him and he smiled. “That would be our ride now,” he said, and I frowned at him. The next I knew our little LFA was swallowed whole by a larger ship that dropped down over us. There was a slight jostling as the LFA came to rest in the suddenly—there hanger bay. “Well, let’s go say hello,” Ace said, getting up. I managed to pull my eyes away from the familiarly tinted green metal of the inside of the larger ship to stare at him. “Oh right, my apologies,” Ace said, before touching the cuff’s controller band under his sleeve. I quickly unstrapped myself from the chair, but before I could even think to do anything to rectify the situation I found myself in, he did something else and the cuffs clinked back together. He grinned at my narrow-eyed expression, and gestured for me to stand up—an awkward endeavor with bound hands, but I did manage it. I then preceded him to the door.

              I did
not
like being right there when the door slid open to reveal an unknown. I would have no delay before being brought face to face with a reality I was not going to like. As my luck would have it, I was right.
In more ways than one,
I thought ironically, staring into the unfortunately familiar yellow eyes of Jason’s former Telmick captor.

              “Greetings!” Ace said brightly, “you have wonderful timing,
Talklen
.”

Chapter 8 – The Thing with Welcoming Parties

Rylynn

I was two paces away from the tall gray-skinned giant that had been my enemy not that long ago. Correction—was
still
my enemy. His many tattoos made his narrowed yellow eyes even brighter… more feral. Of all the people in the universe to come face to face with, it would be
this
one.
This
Telmick. “You again,” he growled. Apparently, he and I were thinking along the same lines. And if that wasn’t a scary thought, I don’t know what is.

              Ace glanced between the two of us with enlightenment brightening his blue eyes. “So, I’m gathering the two of you have met? Wonderful. I don’t have to make introductions.”

              “Oh, we’ve met,” I began, turning to Ace. “But it was not a… friendly meeting.” I turned back to the Telmick glowering at me, but my words were still for Ace. “He was going to sell a friend of mine and I objected. My companions and I hunted him down, took our friend back, and then ended up saving these guys from their boss.”

              The Telmick bared his teeth at me. “That is the only reason why I am not striking you down where you stand. Do not push it
cadet,
” he said in his deep voice, making the last word sound like a curse. “And you are also forgetting, we do not owe you a thing.”

              I tilted my head slightly. I wasn’t sure if he was insulting me further by ignoring my actual rank of crewman (the lowest rank of the active force) or if he honestly didn’t know what the single brass disc on my shirt collar meant… though he had known that I had been a cadet before… at the moment though, I didn’t think it mattered. And he was right. In exchange for the jamming signal that Jason had used against the Zar’daken darts, he had told us that if we met again the Telmicks would not be in debt to us.

              “Well, allow me then to introduce the two of you,” Ace said. “Rylynn, this is the great Talis’talklen ses-Ky. Talklen, this is Rylynn Sinclair of the Legion Fleet.”

              Talis’talklen ses-Ky (jeez, is that a mouthful) turned to Ace. “She stays bound until she is off my ship.” Ace nodded as the Telmick leader turned on his heel and left.

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Please tell me this isn’t going to be a long trip.”

              Ace grinned and patted my shoulder. “Let’s go.”

              “You didn’t answer my question.”

              “You’ll get your answer soon enough.”

              Suppressing a groan, I followed Ace through the shuttle bay. The gray-skinned crew unashamedly watched me pass. I figured that if it wasn’t for the cuffs about my wrists, they would have detained me permanently. Their yellow eyes were cold and deadly.

              “How rude. Isn’t this the same crew you saved back on the edge of the N’avé system?” M. Kit asked.

             
It is, but me and the guys also stole their cargo just as their employers were coming to pick it up. That was kind of rude in and of itself. At least to their way of thinking.

              “You are not saying that you regret saving Jason, are you?” M. Kit asked in a horrified tone.

             
Of course not. They could have avoided the entire situation if they hadn’t kidnapped my friend. The short of it is, they are not happy to see me,
I thought to her. I really wasn’t bothered by that fact, because the feeling was mutual.

              Ace followed Talis. (I know there is more to that name, but honestly? It’s much too long and I feel like it’s some sort of title or something. He kidnapped my friend and his people were attacking my homeworld. I wasn’t about to give him any honors.) After walking the breadth of the ship, we arrived at the bridge. Upon entering, I was nailed to the door behind me by hostile yellow glares. Without thinking, I pointed at Ace and said “Blame him. He is the reason why I am on this ship.” Ace glanced at me over his shoulder, his brow raised.

              “She won’t be here long, lads,” Talis said, taking what I assumed was the captain’s chair. Ace gestured for me to lean against the wall, out of the way. He stood next to me with his arms crossed. I watched the Telmicks at work. It was like watching any bridge crew, I guess. I played a game with M. Kit, trying to guess what each console was for. She was also repeatedly trying to contact the
Hail Mary.
She wasn’t having any luck. Whatever signal Ace had used on the LFA appeared to still be in effect.

              After the game, I focused my attention out the forward view screen. The chaos of hyperspace swirled brilliantly beyond. It captivated me and let my mind drift for a moment.

              “Where are we going?” I whispered to Ace. The only reply I got was a smile. Rolling my eyes, I looked down at the cuffs holding my wrists.
Any chance you could make me strong enough to break free of these? Or could you hack into them and make them release?
I silently asked M. Kit.

              “Rylynn, I’m a Medi-Comp, not an engineer. I could make you stronger, but only to your body’s maximum that it could obtain naturally. Sadly, that would not be enough to break the magnetic pull of the cuffs. As to the magnetic pull itself… well, it is not a part of you.”

             
So no,
I concluded.

              “Sorry.”

              I mentally shrugged.
I’ll just have to keep my eyes open for an opportunity to present itself.

              So I waited, coming up with potential plans while I faced forward. Surprisingly, or maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, we arrived next to the sole moon orbiting Colony Lenti. My homeworld was visible just past the cratered surface.

              “We are hidden by the moon and the distorter field is online. The Legion starship has made no move that it is aware of us,” one of the Telmicks said.

              “Distorter?” I found myself asking.

              Leaning toward me, Ace murmured, “It serves as an invisibility cloak. But it is just a signal that fools computers. We could still be seen.”

              “That’s why we are behind the moon.”

              Ace nodded as Talis stood up. “Saffa’tauta, you have command till I return. Kifen’alusa, you are with me.” The heavily—but not as heavily as Talis—tattooed Telmick standing behind and to the right of Talis’s chair nodded.

“Aye
Talklen,”
another Telmick, Kifen I’m guessing, said, standing up from his spot near the front of the bridge.

Talis strode to the door beside me. “Come,” he commanded to Ace, and thus me. We followed him, with Kifen behind us, back the way we had come.

I leaned toward Ace, since he seemed to understand more of the Telmick culture than I did, and asked, “What does that mean,
Talklen?
”

“From what I understand, it literally means ‘spearhead’. It’s a title for a clan leader.”

Before I could ask more, I was doing everything I could to keep from falling into Ace. I don’t know how I did it, but I managed not to bowl him over… much. “Sorry,” I muttered instead, before turning to glare at Kifen.

The lightly tattooed Telmick didn’t look apologetic in the least. “Walking does not require questions,” I was told. And thus my entertainment for the walk back to the shuttle bay was taken away. Yes, I did say we were on our way back to the shuttle bay. I was wondering why we had even left it, since we were coming right back to it after we arrived. We approached a Telmick shuttle that was larger than an LFA. Speaking of which, I couldn’t see the LFA Ace had commandeered. Not that Kifen let me have a good look around. I shot him a cross look as we boarded the shuttle. First he denied me learning anything and then he kept me from looking around. I think he was a little touchy.

Soon I was pushed into a seat. Ace strapped me in since I couldn’t do it myself with the cuffs activated, a fact that I was starting to think wouldn’t change anytime in the foreseeable future. Soon after that, we were dropped into space and drifted until our Telmick pilots took control. They steered us toward the planet. A minute or so later we hit the atmosphere. The shuttle bucked wildly and I was so grateful for being strapped in. The cuffs kept me from holding on to anything substantial. Moments later, I breathed a soft sigh of relief as we hit smoother flying. Reentry was always rough, but I wondered if the Telmicks considered it an art form to make it as rough as possible. Maybe it was a rite of passage or something.

Ace conferred with Talis for a few moments before coming back to sit near me. He had just sat down when the shuttle bucked again.

“Shrat!” Kifen cursed. I couldn’t agree more.

I turned to Ace, who had somehow managed to hold himself in his seat. “Why does it seem that everyone’s choice greeting today is shooting?” He didn’t see any reason to respond to that. I cursed in the next breath when the ship shuddered again.

“There go the engines! We’re going down!” Kifen stated the obvious as the shuttle plunged nose first toward solid ground.

“Pull up! Pull up!” Talis ordered. “We can still glide her down.”

Please let us make it. Please let us make it,
I started praying as the Telmicks grunted and pulled hard on the steering shifts. With a groan, the shuttle responded and pulled out of its nose dive. But we were still going down, and far too hot. Ace hurriedly strapped himself in. His wide eyes kept glancing out the forward view screen. I don’t know how he could look away. I certainly couldn’t. A green sea grew below and before us. The part of me that was still calm (not a big part, mind) realized we were going to crash into one of Lenti’s vast wild forests.

“Don’t wander too far in the forests, Rylynn,”
Aunt Sylvie had told me once.
“Get too far in and you might not find your way back out.”
That was one of the few things she had said to me that hadn’t been overly comforting. I never did wander too far those few times I did poke around the forest. Looking back at it now, I couldn’t help but think ironically,
well, it looks like I am going to go too far in.
Hopefully Aunt Sylvie’s warning had been little more than common sense, and a way to keep a young child close to home.

The shuttle hit with a horrible screeching groan. The few lights still on went out, plunging us into near darkness; the only light being the little sunlight that could filter through the dense leaves. Thundering crashes and thuds rattled through the vessel and my ear drums. In the few short moments while there was ominous quiet outside, I could hear the collective whispered prayers and muttered cursing of the other three. I wasn’t sure if my panicked chattering was audible or not.

Suddenly someone started shouting. It took my sound-shocked brain a moment to understand what was being said, but once it did my praying became much more fervent. “Shrat!
Shrat! SHRAT!
”