Cleon Moon (13 page)

“
Always
a good idea, Captain.”

Alejandro cleared his throat loudly.

“Be careful,” Alisa said and closed the channel. “We probably don’t want to dawdle,” she said to the curious looks turned in her direction. “Could be trouble coming to visit the
Nomad
.”

She well remembered how easily Abelardus had gotten through locked hatches on her ship. If that nosy Starseer didn’t find someone “home” the next time he visited, he might decide to invite himself in for a look around. And if Alejandro was the only one in there, he wouldn’t be a match for a Starseer warrior. As much as Alisa hated the idea of the empire having that staff, she didn’t want some stranger to have it either. There was no guarantee that the person would have good intentions. For all she knew, the Starseers were still bitter about having lost their homeland. Maybe they’d like to destroy a few planets as retribution.

You think poorly of my people
, Abelardus spoke into her mind as Leonidas pulled a pack of flex-cords off the back of his bike.

Can you blame me? Your ancestors tried to take over the entire system.

Our ancestors believed ourselves the logical leaders over humanity. The planets and moons were fragmented. Many of the original colonies were struggling to survive, and few had built cities to rival those of Old Earth, even though centuries had passed. We wished to teach what we had learned and unite humanity once again. With ourselves as their benevolent leaders.

Cocky leaders, maybe.

Abelardus pressed his hand to his chest and bowed to her.

Leonidas glared at him on his way to a fallen pterodactyl. He pulled out a laser knife and cut into its neck, startling Alisa.

“Are you collecting meat for Beck’s grill?” she asked.

“Heads for the bounty,” Leonidas said, not looking up.

“You actually think anyone gets paid that bounty?” Alisa asked. “It might just be there to lure people out to get eaten for the cameras.”

“There are statues in the city of successful hunters.”

“We don’t know that they were successful. Maybe those are statues of the fallen, people who put on a good show before being eaten.”

“If nobody got paid, people wouldn’t be so eager to come out here.” Leonidas finished sawing off the head and stood up with it.

Alisa looked away from the grisly sight. “We’ll see. They might not pay
you
after you destroyed several valuable cameras.”

“I
will
be paid,” he said, then looked to the bikes and down at the head.

Searching for a way to carry them back? Alisa was not going to volunteer her bike as a cargo hauler. Yuck. Besides, it was already mangled from the clingy pterodactyl. She was relieved when it started up again.

“The ship will have weapons, and you will have combat armor,” Leonidas continued firmly, giving her a long look.

If they had been alone, she would have joked that she could survive sleeping next to him if she dozed off in armor. Or maybe she wouldn’t have. He did not look to be in the mood for jokes any more than he had been that morning. Guilt was even worse than pain. She knew that well.

Leonidas’s gaze shifted to where Yumi’s collection bag sat on the back of her seat.

“Don’t even think about it,” Yumi said, propping her fists on her hips. Alisa had never seen her say a defiant word to Leonidas, but she lifted her chin now. “It’s bad enough that you all trampled the rest of the mushrooms while fighting.”

“They’re heathens, aren’t they?” Mica said.

“Heathens who kept you from being eaten,” Abelardus said with a haughty sniff.

“My grenades kept me from being eaten,” Mica said. “And you give me that arrogant look again, and I’ll drop one down your robe.”

“I don’t think that would work.” Alisa pointed at the ground between his feet. “It would fall straight through.”

“If it blew up between his legs, I assure you it would do some damage.” Mica gave Abelardus a vicious smile.

Abelardus blinked and looked away. “Let me help you with those heads, cyborg.”

Leonidas gave a monosyllabic grunt to show his enthusiasm for Abelardus's help. He was tying the first one onto the back of his bike, sans a collection bag to store it in.

“I’m going to volunteer not to help with that project,” Alisa said.

“Can you help me try to salvage these mushrooms?” Yumi grabbed her bag and poked around the area where she had been gathering them earlier.

“Does anyone need help doing something that isn’t disgusting?” Alisa asked.

“I could use help with a shoulder rub,” Abelardus said. “It’s hard work pointing a staff at things.”

“Rub yourself,” Mica muttered.

Leonidas, his bright armor spattered with mud and dino guts, took a break from his head-collecting chore and came to stand beside Alisa. She thought he might also make a suggestion as to what Abelardus could rub, but instead he touched her arm.

“Is your wrist all right?” he asked quietly, turning his back to Abelardus and the others.

“It’s fine.” Alisa held up her wrist and what had previously been a white bandage. “But Alejandro may charge me a cleaning fee when I return this.”

“The dino heads should cover that. Though I hadn’t intended to take you on my monster-hunting excursion.”

“Ah, but then you wouldn’t get to nobly fling yourself across the swamp to rescue people.” She waved at the pterodactyl he had tackled. “Unless you’d brought Beck with you. He needs noble rescuing on occasion.”

“Yes.” Leonidas pointed at the creature she had shot. “You took that one down by yourself. A good shot.”

She thought to shrug away the praise, but it tickled her that he had noticed. “Thank you.”

“If the pterodactyls are worth five thousand a head, that’s half a set of armor right there.” He looked pleased as he held her gaze. “If we run into another one along the way, you can also shoot it, and then you need not sleep with anyone to fund your purchase.”

Alisa had her doubts about whether they would truly be able to collect rewards for these heads—if they did, she couldn’t imagine them being so lucrative—but she appreciated that Leonidas wanted to encourage her independent streak. Or maybe he just
really
wanted to see her in combat armor. She wouldn’t mind seeing that herself. She could get used to the claustrophobic feeling, especially if it meant being able to take hits by blazer fire and being able to breathe in places like this without worrying about having a mask knocked off.

“If we
do
encounter more of them—” Alisa was not quite as enthused with the idea as he appeared to be, “—will you be a gentleman and carry my severed heads for me?”

“Of course.”

The screeches started up again in the distance. He touched her arm again, then returned to gathering his prizes.

“We’re not going to want to stick around,” Abelardus said. “The smell of blood and dino guts could attract others.”

“Nothing like dino guts to rouse the appetite,” Mica muttered.

“By now, I bet you’re fantasizing about working on Alejandro’s booby traps.” Alisa brushed flecks of gore off Mica’s jacket. “You might want to make yourself a grenade launcher, too, so the fleshy things blow up farther away from us next time.”

“I’ll keep that project in mind.”

Once the heads had been loaded onto Leonidas’s and Abelardus's bikes—oddly, all of the women passed on having such trophies hung from the backs of their seats—the group set off, once again following the lake. Leonidas kept peering into the forest. Alisa hoped he wasn’t trying too hard to find a pterodactyl for her. Just because they had all survived this encounter without being injured did not mean they would fare as well in a second one.

“We’re here,” Abelardus announced a few minutes later, stopping his bike on a pebbly beach at the end of the lake.

“These are the coordinates you were given?” Alisa spun her bike in a slow three-sixty. She did not see anything except water, mud, mushrooms, and the giant fungal stalks.

“Yes,” Abelardus said.

“Did the people who gave you the coordinates actually want you to visit?” Alisa’s heart sank at the prospect of a dead end, a dead end with no clues in sight.

Chapter 9

Abelardus was smirking at her.

“I take it you know something I don’t,” Alisa said, bringing her bike to the edge of the lake.

“I know many things you don’t know.”

“It must be gratifying to be so educated.”

“It is.” Abelardus nudged his bike out over the lake, the thrusters creating ripples on the surface. “If you don’t mind floating over water, follow me.”

Mica was the first one after him. “Water will wash off the dino guts,” she explained.

“Only if you dive in,” Alisa said, trailing after them. “We’re not diving in, are we, Abelardus?” she added, another premonition jumping into her mind. If the outpost wasn’t up here somewhere, might it be under the lake?

“Not exactly.”

Yumi trailed after the group, peering left and right as they hovered over the lake, perhaps looking for some variety of mushrooms that floated on the surface. Alisa wondered if she had gathered enough of the orange pus-dripping ones to make her drugs.

Leonidas caught up with Alisa, riding protectively at her side. She smiled at him, remembering how, weeks earlier, she had hoped to one day have him in that position instead of looming at Alejandro’s shoulder, being
his
bodyguard. Her smile faltered as she accidentally put weight on her wrist. She should have asked the universe for
more
than a bodyguard. As much as she appreciated his presence, she wanted more. She wanted to have sex with him and then doze off beside him. Apparently, that was asking for too much.

He gazed over at her as they neared the shoreline of the small island. From the sadness in his eyes, she wondered if he was having similar thoughts.

No, she decided. Wanting more than a bodyguard wasn’t wanting too much. They would find a solution, one way or another. She would help him. There was a way. There had to be. They’d pin down that Admiral Tiang to solve Leonidas’s main problem, and then they would find someone else, a brain specialist if need be, to fix the nightmares. They would find a way.

“Hm,” Abelardus said, floating up to the crest of the island and peering at the ground.

A single fungal stalk stretched up into the drab sky, but there was not much else in the way of ground cover. Yumi made a disappointed noise, perhaps noting the lack of mushrooms.

“You’re not lost, are you?” Mica asked, frowning at him and then at the skyline over the forest. A pterodactyl flew over the stalks in the distance, its dark body outlined by gray clouds.

“No,” Abelardus said, pulling his staff off the back of the bike, where he had it wedged amid the grisly dinosaur heads. “I just need a moment to…”

He laid it across his lap and closed his eyes while running a hand absently along the dark metal.

“Stroke your staff?” Mica asked.

The runes on the weapon glowed faintly.

“Is it safe to sit next to him when he’s doing that?” Mica muttered, easing her bike closer to Alisa’s.

“I’m not sure it’s ever safe to sit next to him,” Alisa said.

“
I
am not the one who injured you last night,” Abelardus said, opening his eyes and frowning at them, and then at Leonidas.

Leonidas’s jaw clenched. Alisa regretted making the joke.

Abelardus pointed his staff at the ground. A soft rumble sounded, and a rectangular portion lifted up under Yumi’s bike. She gasped and steered away from it. The section only lifted a few inches, dripping mud off the edges. Then it slid sideways, revealing an opening about six feet wide by ten feet long. A shaft descended into darkness, and Alisa could not tell if it dropped ten feet or fifty. The faint tinkle of dripping water drifted up from the depths.

Leonidas eased his bike forward so he could look down. “It goes under the lake?” he asked.

“Yes. There may be defenses, so a Starseer should lead.” Abelardus lifted his chin. “I’ll go first and let you know when it’s safe.” He touched his temple. “I know how you all love having my gentle caress in your minds.”

“Gentle caress?” Leonidas asked. “Is that what you call it?”

“I’m less gentle with cyborgs. They have hard brains. Sometimes you have to bash your way in.”

Leonidas growled at him, but extended one gauntleted red hand toward the opening in invitation.

Abelardus nudged his bike forward to hover over the hole, then flicked on the headlight and adjusted the controls so that the vehicle descended slowly. Alisa watched as his head dropped below the level of the entrance, his lamp playing over the interior, damp gray cement streaked with water stains. When he reached the bottom, more than twenty feet down, the lamp shone into a tunnel. He hovered into it, the influence of his headlight dimming as he disappeared from sight.

Alisa waited patiently for almost thirty seconds. Even though Abelardus had not spoken into her mind, she eased her bike over the edge. She was too eager to find this outpost and Jelena to wait. She would take her daughter back with them, where she could run up and down the corridors of the ship, laughing and playing with the chickens. Mother and daughter could once again have vid nights. Did Jelena still like Andromeda Android? Or had she grown out of animated shows? A few more years, and she might be ready to watch some of Alisa’s favorite comedies with her, the less raunchy ones, of course.

I see you couldn’t wait for my gentle caress
, Abelardus spoke into her mind.

I don’t like waiting on men.

Isn’t that what you’re doing with your cyborg?

Would you quit bringing him up? And stop making snide comments about him.

Anyone who loses his composure and hits a woman deserves snide comments.

If you’ve been surfing in our thoughts, you
know
that’s not what happened. And someone who forces his affections on a woman is even worse.

For a moment, he did not speak, and Alisa thought the conversation was over. She descended in mental silence, the sound of dripping water increasing as she neared a pool at the bottom. Then he added,
I would never hurt you.