Burn Out (23 page)

He aimed B.K. at me, then pulled another gun with his left hand, which he aimed at the center of my chest. I guess he wanted to make sure I was really, really dead. “I’m sorry, Tora. This isn’t what you think.”

An alarm sounded overhead and red lights seemed to flash everywhere at once.

James looked around, confused. He flicked on his com system. “What the—”

“James—get back to the control room, pronto.” Kale’s voice sounded through the device.

“What is it, sir?” he asked, lowering both guns.

I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath until the guns weren’t pointed at me anymore. I exhaled in a rush and dropped T.O. back in my bag.

“Consulate ships,” Kale said. “Three of them are on our tail.”

While Consulate ships chasing us was not any better than, say, a gun pointed at my heart, or a well-oiled hatch door, I sighed in relief anyway.

The relief lasted about five seconds, at which point I was flung by an unseen force into the wall next to me. My face smashed into the metal, and James fell next to me. He managed to secure the smaller gun in his waistband, but B.K. fell from his hand. I tried to bend down and reach for it, but couldn’t peel myself off the wall.

I could barely speak, and the words felt as though they were being torn from my throat. “What’s going on?” I asked James.

James struggled to speak as well, yet had somehow managed to get his grip back on B.K. “Hyperdrive.”

He took another breath and looked me straight in the eyes. “We’re running from them.”

T
HE HYPERDRIVE LASTED ABOUT ANOTHER TEN SECONDS
, though it felt like an eternity. I crashed to the floor without warning. “That’s crazy,” I said, more to myself than James.

“Well, normally, you’re supposed to be buckled in during hyperdrive—”

I stared at James in disbelief. “I’m not talking about that. It’s crazy to run from the Consulate. Aren’t their ships faster than Kale’s?” I noticed he wasn’t pointing B.K. at me. Maybe I could wrestle it from him.

“Yeah, their normal speed is faster but they’ve been upgraded, so their hyperdrive was replaced with warp drive.”

“Yeah … and?” I asked. Now it was his turn to look at me like I was a star short of a constellation.

James sighed. “Their regular speed is faster than our regular speed, but it’s not as fast as our hyperdrive. Their only other drive is warp drive, which is way faster than our hyperdrive, just not as controllable. They’d overshoot us by light-years. This only buys us a little bit of time though. They’ll find us.”

James’ com system crackled. “You coming, soldier?”

“Yes, sir … Tora’s with me.” James kept B.K. pointed at the floor rather than at me.

“We’ll deal with that later. Bigger things on our plate right now,” came the response. “Get up here.”

I glared at James. “Shouldn’t we tell Markus and Alec what’s happening?”

James looked matter-of-fact. “No use. They won’t be awake for a while yet.”

I wanted to run, but he gripped my upper arm with his hand and propelled me out the door toward the control room. He yanked me down the hall. “So James, what’s so important that you’re willing to kill for it?”

He gripped my arm even tighter. We neared the control room. He spoke through clenched teeth. “I’ll explain after.”

I laughed harshly. “What? You mean after you kill me, you’ll have a chat with my dead body. Thanks so much.”

He pushed me into the control room where Kale punched various buttons with intensity. He studied some sort of graph by the controls and spoke. “We only have a little time before they track us again. There’s a small planet
just ahead that seems to have a strange energy field around it. It’s messing up my readings. If we hide out there, it might just create enough interference that the Consulate ships won’t be able to track us. We can wait until they pass by, and hyperdrive back to a path to Caelia.”

As far as plans go, that didn’t sound like a great one.

James frowned. “You mean land there? If the planet’s energy messes up our systems way out here, who knows what it will do to our ship when we pass through its atmosphere. It could destroy us.”

I gulped.
Yeah, what he said
.

Kale spun around. “You got a better plan, soldier? We can’t hyperdrive again until the system recharges—they could catch us by then.” Kale scratched his head. “I’m still trying to figure out how they found us in the first place. It’s like they knew where we were.”

James paused a moment. “I have no idea, sir. You’re right. Landing there is our best shot.”

Great. Being pulled apart by strange magnetic forces seemed way worse than a shot through the heart. On the positive side, with every new potential method of death presented to me, the more sure I was that I wanted to live.

Kale punched some coordinates into a virtual keyboard that appeared in front of him. The ship dove lower toward the distant planet. James pointed me toward a seat and he sat in the one next to it. When I pressed a button on the chair, mechanical restraints enclosed me in a tight embrace. The boy I’d thought was my dream guy sat
within a foot of me, yet the only thing touching me protectively was a thermoplastic harness. Story of my life.

“Hang on,” Kale called before pushing his own restraint button.

The descent became faster and steeper, and I wondered if I’d actually feel anything at all if the ship suddenly ripped apart. The satchel pressed into my side as we hurtled through space. A roar ripped through my ears when the ship entered the planet’s atmosphere, and the entire ship began vibrating. My heart had pretty much lodged itself in my throat, and I gripped the arms of my chair with white knuckles. The vibrating turned to violent shaking—it reminded me strangely of my mother’s withdrawals when she’d tried to quit the pain meds. Something popped and a piece of plastic flew through the air, inches from my head.

“Not a big deal,” Kale yelled above the noise.

A second later, something else popped, and a hissing sound added to the grating sound of the shaking ship.

“That was a big fuckin’ deal!” Kale screamed. The shaking came to an abrupt halt, though the hissing remained. Kale furiously worked on the control panel, sweat breaking out on his brow. If he was flustered, it couldn’t be good.

“What is it, sir?” James asked. Even he was pale.

“The pressure for the fuel system of the landing rockets. Without it … well …” He didn’t finish his thought, and continued pushing buttons in random succession. I guessed he was trying to manually override the system.
Something must have worked, because the hissing stopped and a new humming sound took its place.

I opened my mouth to ask about it but we hit the ground first. The ship screeched and lurched in protest against the planet’s surface. If not for the protective restraints, I likely would have been thrown right through the windshield. It made me wonder about Alec and Markus, and I hoped Lucy was okay. The ship groaned as it finally came to a stop.

Kale pushed a button and his restraints retracted. “Not bad. The thrusters weren’t able to fully engage in time, but any landing you can walk away from is a good one.”

The scene in front of us was strange. The surface of the planet seemed to shift and move around us. Mountainous hills arose on either side of the ship, then shrank and grew again into a different formation. The ship rumbled as it crested on a mound that formed beneath us.

I pushed the button on my own harness. “I want to check on the others,” I announced. Right before I find a way outta here.

Kale looked at James. “Take her, but come right back.”

I sprinted down the hall, James following after me. “Wait up,” he yelled. He’d tucked B.K. into his waistband too, which gave me a small, though temporary, sense of relief.

The ship lurched again as the ground beneath us changed shape, and I grasped the wall to steady myself. Lucy’s pitiful whimpering sounded from inside the room, and she scratched desperately against the door.

“It’s locked from the inside,” James said, waving his hand over the panel to no avail.

At least Alec had listened to my warning. “Is there an override system?” I asked.

James called up to Kale, who must have done something, because the door opened a second later. So much for my plan to keep Lucy safe—Kale could open whatever door he wanted at any time. Lucy bounded out the door and into my arms. “You’re okay, girl. It’s okay. Just a little rough landing is all.”

I stepped into the room and almost stepped on Alec. Markus lay on the floor a few feet away. James leaned down to check each of them. “Their breathing and heart rates are fine. They must have rolled out of the chambers during the descent.”

My eyes widened. “You’re telling me they slept through that. What the hell did you give them anyway?”

James didn’t answer. Lucy padded over to Alec and tried to nose her way into his pocket for treats. James absently put his hand on her back and petted her a second before realizing what he was doing. He jerked his hand back and stood up. “She’s hungry. You can bring her food and water, but keep her back here, away from …” He paused, and looked at Markus and Alec. “Let’s go. They’ll be fine.”

I snorted. “Yeah, until you give them their next dose.”

James ignored me. His footsteps echoed behind me as I headed toward the kitchen to find something for Lucy to eat. Guess I wouldn’t be going anywhere without his
company. I had to figure something out fast. As I neared the kitchen door, I scanned the hallway ahead. The entry hatch to the ship was at the end of it. Everyone except me had removed their suits, which hung by the main hatch door. Since my suit was still on, all I needed was one of the helmets tossed nearby on the floor.

Hide-and-seek on a ship of this size would only last so long, but I might have a chance on the planet. If Kale was right that the Consulate would eventually find us, maybe they would come sooner rather than later. The Consulate rescuing me was a long shot, but it wasn’t like I had an abundance of options at the moment.

Though the surface seemed way unstable, if it could hold the weight of the ship, it would hold me. Plus, the multitude of hills would provide great hiding spots. James was fast, but he’d need to put on his whole suit. If I could just make it through the door. My muscles tensed. I had to try.

The ground moved again and the ship settled back hard against the surface. I stumbled, crashing into James, who fell against the wall. My face was so close to his I could feel his breath, and his arms caught me around the waist. My skin tingled at his touch and goose bumps broke out along my arms. His lips came closer to mine, and for one second, I was positive he was going to kiss me.

A part of me wanted to believe he’d finally come to his senses, and maybe now we could get the hell out of here. The other part of me knew better.

Kale’s voice tore from the com system. “James, it’s time to carry out the final orders, soldier.”

James sighed and dropped my hand. “Yes, sir.” Since his com system was on, I guessed I wasn’t getting a private death this time around. He pulled out both guns from his pants and powered up B.K. I remembered what he said about being a great shot, that he could kill me with one shot from a long distance. At present, he was less than a foot away and had not one, but two guns. I was so dead.

“Seriously? Why two guns if you’re such a great shot?” I asked, right as a mountain formed underneath us, and pushed the ship upward at a strange angle. We tilted sideways, teetering in the air.

James fell sideways, and I stumbled as fast as I could toward the main hatch. My pulse raced and I propelled my legs faster, hoping the ship would stay unbalanced for a minute longer. My feet kept slipping on the angled floor, so I used my hands to help navigate toward my goal.

“Stop!” he yelled after me. “It’s dangerous out there.”

Was he serious? “Yeah—you shooting me is so much safer!” I yelled.

“Shoot her already,” I heard Kale shout through the com.

I scrambled for my helmet, and pushed the hatch door button. My heart hammered as I tried to attach the helmet to the suit, but my hands shook so badly that it took several attempts.

The hatch opened and I ran outside, only to realize
that the ship rested on the peak of a very tall mountain. My feet slid out from under me, and I landed on my butt and started sliding down the steep side. I picked up speed, wishing I had more padding in my rear as I hit every bump on the way down. Tons of smaller hills dotted the area around me. At the rate I was going, I’d be nothing more than a splat on the ground when I hit bottom. The sound of yelling in my helmet com startled me, and I looked up to see James coming out the hatch door, gun in hand. Damn, he was fast.

The ground came faster and faster, and I had seconds until impact. I shut my eyes and braced myself. Rapid shifting occurred under me, and the ground leveled. The ship slammed down behind me as the mountain disappeared as quickly as it had come. I opened my eyes and turned around. The ship was several hundred feet away, but James was halfway to me and closing in fast. I jerked myself to my feet, ignoring the throbbing pain, and ran toward a cluster of hills that had newly formed. There were about twelve of them—I just had to hide long enough to figure out a new plan.

My breathing came in ragged bursts. I ran into the hills and kept going until I found a small enclosure in one of the farthest ones. I sank to my knees and tried to catch my breath. I pulled T.O. out of my satchel, though I wasn’t sure what good it would do. Even if the bomb destroyed Kale and his ship, it would kill the others too, except maybe James, and I’d be stuck on a bizarre planet. I was totally screwed.

“Just tell me where you are, Tora,” James’ voice pleaded through my helmet.

I stood and leaned against the alcove in the hill. I didn’t want to sound as weak and tired as I felt. “You’ll never find me,” I said with false confidence.

Guess I spoke too soon, because the planet shifted again and all of the hills disappeared at once. James stood several hundred feet away. There was nothing between us. His voice was calm. “I have to do this.”