Defender of the Empire 2: Facades (9 page)

Chapter 9 – Beyond Reach

              Rylynn

Sometime later—I don’t really know how much later—I woke up. At first, all I was aware of was the faint gray light bathing the thick tree branch and the far wall. The light seemed to come from both the front and the back, which was weird since there wasn’t a window in the back of the shuttle. I frowned and instantly regretted it. A dull ringing throbbed through my head. It made figuring out why the tree branch was
inside
the shuttle nigh impossible. I tried very hard not to wince as it continued to drone through my head. Something was obviously not right, and the constant hum was not helping me focus.

              “Hold on, Rylynn,” M. Kit said soothingly to me. “Even being strapped in like you are, that didn’t keep you from being beaten up. But since you normally heal pretty fast, this isn’t going to take that long.”

              “What happened?” I whispered aloud before remembering I could just think at M. Kit for her to understand. Boy, do I wish that I had remembered that sooner. It would have saved me quite a bit of effort. It’s very sad when whispering two words makes you want to go back to sleep.

              “The Telmick shuttle we are in was shot down. We crashed,” she reminded me patiently. My eyes widened as things now made sense. Thankfully, that didn’t make my head ache. She must have already worked her magic.

             
Thanks, M. Kit,
I thought to her.

              She buzzed pleasantly before admonishing me, “just don’t do anything too rash and undo all my hard work.”

              I grinned, but didn’t promise anything. We were in trouble and I would do what I had to. Being ‘rash’ sometimes had a nice surprise quality to it. I thought it might very well see us through. I turned my head to see if Ace was in the seat next to me. I gulped.

              He wasn’t.

              From what I could see, the straps he had managed to put on before I lost consciousness were not torn up. They looked as if he had simply unbuckled himself… but where did he go? I glared at my own straps. With my hands cuffed the way they were, I wasn’t able to release myself. I looked toward the cockpit. The tree branch had shattered the forward window. Shards and bark scraps and leaves littered the floor and seats. But I didn’t see either of the Telmicks… though I did note there were dark splatters on the seats and several shards of glass.

              Where had everybody gone? And why did they just leave me here… with blood and an open hole in the hull in a forest known to swallow people whole? Had they gone to check the surrounding area and never made it back? Or did they think I was dead?
M. Kit, where is everybody?

              Before she could answer, we were distracted by deep voices. I held my breath, straining my ears to figure out if they were friend or foe… not that my traveling companions were ‘
friends’,
but they had some reason to keep me around. The branch trembled and the voices got closer.

“Ses-Ky poriden.”

“Aeyn. Brel’toatalklen ses-KGor vela rod nus,” another said. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, though a few words sounded like things I had heard Telmicks say before. What I did understand was that neither voice belonged to Talis or Kifen. By the way the tree was trembling, they were coming. I shook my head. There I was, trussed up with no way out, and two enemies were coming closer. The universe apparently still hated me.

What were my options? I could play dead and pray they didn’t call my bluff. I could start screaming and pray that a predator of some kind would take advantage… and hope it was satisfied with a Telmick sized snack. Or, maybe the three that had left me here would come and help me. I frowned. Yeah, no. I couldn’t risk depending on them. But I really didn’t have many other alternatives. I guess I could have tried the diplomatic route and just talked to my guests, and asked them to get me out of the straps… after all, I was a weak little human. Not a real threat.
And perhaps I should offer them tea while I’m at it,
I thought darkly. Sometimes one could be
too
optimistic.

“Or you could be practical and cut yourself free,” M. Kit suggested.

Using what, exactly? I don’t really have anything close at hand… other than that glass fragment in the tree branch which I have no way of reaching,
I thought back.

M. Kit sighed. “I guess you hit your head harder than I thought.”

And how is that helping?

“Rylynn, don’t you still have that knife Marius gave you?”

My eyes widened and I started calling myself all kinds of idiotic names for forgetting.
Thank the Lord for helpful Medi-Comps,
I thought fervently as I maneuvered my left leg up and near where my hands could reach. The straps were tight, but I was able to push my cuffed hands between the straps. From there, I could slide up my pant leg, and I knew relief. The knife was still there.
Is Ace going lax?
I wondered, but I wasn’t complaining.

Quickly pulling the knife free, I turned it to practical uses, like getting myself free before my guests arrived.
What the hell do they make these things out of?
I thought anxiously as the time kept slipping away and my knife was taking its sweet time. I had just gotten free of the straps when the climbing duo stuck their tattooed heads around the branch. They didn’t even peek, how stupid was that? If only I had a blaster… I wasn’t about to get rid of my only weapon.

They saw me before I could duck undercover. The predatory gleam in their yellow eyes chilled me. But a predator was hardwired to go after the weak and injured. Even with a knife in my hands I was far from a threat. That didn’t mean that I had to cower like a little mouse.

“Oh wow! Look at you two!” I cheered. “You climbed up the big bad tree to the wrecked shuttle.” I shook my head in admiration. “Amazing.”

The two predatory stares fell as the Telmicks tried to understand what was wrong with me. I guess they were used to people screaming and running or begging for their lives—not cheering them on and talking to them. I continued smiling at them as one turned to his companion and whispered something that I was pretty sure, going by the tone and the looks on their faces, meant something like ‘she’s crazy’.
What a lovely idea
. To further concern them, I grinned and started doing a little happy dance in my seat. The move allowed me to slip the knife out of sight. Maybe, just maybe, they would deem that I wasn’t a threat, just nuts, and come on in without killing me, and I would be able to practice some moves Marius had shown me. Even better, they would give me a cautionary look before trying to figure out where my companions had got to. Their forgetting me would give me time to figure out how to get out.

Soon enough they were moving to climb in, but I didn’t get to see if any of my half-thought, crazy ideas would work. Two white blasts hit the two of them from behind. Eyes wide in shock they slumped into the cockpit, large circles of blackened flesh smoking on their backs. The smell of burned hair and cooked meat filled the shuttle and I gagged.

“Good job, Rylynn. You had them so confused it was comical,” Ace said as he dropped through the shattered front window into the cockpit from above.

“And where were you?” I asked caustically.

Ace being Ace, my tone didn’t bother him. If anything it amused him. “Outside, obviously. We were scouting the area and getting our bearings. Since you were still unconscious, we decided it would be best to leave you where you were.”

“So you left me strapped in with cuffs on, unconscious, in a wreck that would be a magnet for either the guys who shot us down or animals. Nice,” I grumbled.

Ace flashed his famous grin and replied, “We were nearby. And you are no longer strapped in,” he observed.

“Worried for her own well-being, a girl has got to be resourceful,” I said, nudging a nearby piece of glass. There was no way I was going to let him think I had a knife. It was, after all, the only actual weapon I had at my disposal and he was
not
going to take it away from me. Definitely not here, in the deep forests of Lenti.

Ace raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment. Instead, he motioned me toward him. “We have a ways to go to get to civilization, and as you pointed out, this shuttle is a magnet to undesirable visitors,” he said with a graceful gesture, before pulling one of the bodies into the shuttle so one didn’t have to climb over it to get around the large tree branch. I watched his struggle with the body for a time, but made no move to help him, not out of malice but for practical reasons: it was a tight space where only one person could fit, and my hands were still cuffed.

“How far off the ground are we?” I asked once he had shoved the body under the branch and out of the way.

“A ways. Somewhere around thirty feet or so,” he said, gesturing me to come closer. Having no real other choice, I did.

“And you want me to climb out there with my hands bound?” I asked incredulously.

“You don’t need to climb,” Ace replied, and before I could ask him what he meant, the madman had picked me up and tossed me out the window. Yes, you heard correctly. I got tossed out the window of a wrecked shuttle thirty or so feet off the ground, pinned there by a huge tree branch skewering it like a shish kebab, as if I were a sack of potatoes.

Thankfully, I was caught by Talis, who slung me over his shoulder (again, like the damn potato sack) and climbed down to the ground. I’ll be very honest with you, I think it was a lot farther than a mere thirty feet. Ace and I were going to have words. And no, some of those words
won’t
be me asking if he had known that Talis had been right there. I really didn’t want to know.

“Let’s go. I don’t fancy being here much longer,” Talis ordered once we reached the ground and he had set me on my feet. I was surprised by his gentleness, but then, he was in too much of a hurry to have me picking myself up with my wrists bound together.

“How long till we get out of here?” I asked.

“A few days,” Talis replied. “We’ll keep the moss perpendicular to our course,” he added as we started off. I sighed softly and resigned myself to a very long walk through dark wilderness that not only swallowed unwary travelers who had ventured too far, but now also had the folks who kindly shot us down hunting for us. To top off all this good news, I couldn’t trust any of my traveling companions except for M. Kit.

But as I was soon going to find out, I couldn’t afford
not
to trust them.

***

              Coronaius System

              Spectral Empire

              Balenna

              The world of Coronaius was one with an endless metropolitan skyline. The higher apartments and businesses were reserved for the noble elite and sickeningly wealthy. The tight maze of the city’s foundations were for those not so lucky, but that didn’t mean street rats or beggars. Even the actual streets of the city were well maintained—practically spotless. The real estate was still exclusive to the well to-do middle class. On a world that worshipped the Machiavellian principle of gaining wealth and power, one did not find the poor. Either they left
before
their finances were shot, or they were sold by their creditors to the colonies.

              The golden-eyed and squat Kootoli loved desperate folk. She did too, but for a different reason. The Kootoli enjoyed the cheap labor, and she enjoyed the tasty snack they made. Staring thoughtfully out the window of her transport, she decided to stop by a deportation center after her business was concluded. She needed to keep Adrian’s soul strong enough to keep his body running smoothly for some time yet, and she couldn’t keep chewing on the Mythic Spectral in the
Lous-eci’dalb
, nor could she devour another Spectral. Too many of the morsels, and the mythic would be able to break free. That wouldn’t do at all.

              Adrian’s fists tightened as she thought of all the temptation around her. She should get a damned medal for her restraint, especially since she was always starving. Yes, she definitely needed some of those desperate creatures soon.
Ten should be… no, make it fifteen. Yes, that should be enough till we get to Colony Lenti,
she calculated as her transport arrived. Mentally shaking herself from her hunger daze, Balenna directed Adrian’s body out. She blinked a couple of times at the bright lights of the city. It might be night, but the lights made it seem like day. The tinted windows of her transport had dimmed it to an agreeable level. Thankfully, Adrian’s eyes adjusted quickly enough.

              “Welcome Adrian,” a man said, coming forward. Balenna recognized him as Jonas Baden, the leader of the Movement’s headquarters on Coronaius. Adrian and he were good friends, though they had disagreed on things in the past.

              Tuning into how Adrian would respond, she smiled. “Thank you, Jon. Is everything ready?” she asked, clasping Jonas’s forearm in the men’s traditional greeting.

              Jonas nodded and gestured for Adrian to proceed him into the building. “Yes. They are waiting for you.”