No Limits (23 page)
24
“N
o,” Rhys whispered, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. “They can’t do this.”
o,” Rhys whispered, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. “They can’t do this.”
The stinger ships spread out across the view screen, blocking the pirate’s living vessel from the transport ship.
“Someone should tell them that,” Zan shouted as he strode toward one of the beds. “I need a fresh flier in here now!”
Gen released Rhys’s hand. “Let me do it.”
The flurry of activity on the bridge slowed as all eyes focused on her. Rhys was buffeted by waves of concern, both for Gen and for themselves. They knew she had talked with the ship, and most suspected it had driven her mad.
Zan stared at her for a beat before nodding. “Go ahead.”
“No!” One of the pirates at the other station rose to his feet. Rhys made a motion to block him from rushing Gen, but Zan was faster. Pivoting and drawing his pulse pistol, he shot the man in the leg. The man crumpled to the ground, moaning in agony. Rhys moved to the man’s side to ease his hurt.
Zan surveyed his crew. “Any other objections?” When no one made a sound, he tucked the pistol back into the waistband of his pants and helped Gen into the bed.
Immediately, a white glow engulfed her, an aura of welcome and a show of peace from the ship.
“Explain to him what’s going on,” Rhys called from his position by the wounded pirate. “He might have a solution we haven’t thought of yet.”
Zan narrowed his gaze on Rhys. “Are you suggesting I turn control of my ship over to my ship?”
The wounded man lapsed into unconsciousness as Rhys finished binding his smoking calf. “You have been deluding yourself, Zan. He has always been in control and is merely allowing you and your crew on board.”
Zan glowered at him but didn’t refute his claim, nor did he try to block Rhys from moving to Gen’s side and clasping her hand. “Talk to me, sweetness. Tell us what the ship thinks we should do.”
Though her lips moved, no sound came out. The glow surrounding her spread to Rhys’s arm.
“Gen, can you tell him to run?” Zan murmured.
“I’ve explained our needs to him. He has a solution, but he wants Zan’s permission to take over from here.”
A smile spread across the pirate’s face. “Whatever he thinks will bail our fat out of the fire. I say go for it.”
As the words left his mouth, the lights went out on the bridge. The ship listed to one side, and Rhys threw himself across Gen’s body to keep her from tumbling out of the flyer’s bed.
“Captain, there’s some sort of rift opening up directly behind the ship. Sir, it’s pulling us in!”
Zan pushed off from the floor. “Full reverse!”
All the flier stations except for the one Gen lay in went dark. The other pirates sat up. “We’ve lost contact with the ship!”
A great humming noise filled the air, and on the view screen Rhys watched the stinger ships break formation, trying desperately to get away from whatever had the living ship caught in its gravitational pull.
“Look!” One pirate pointed to the passenger vessel. Behind the mammoth ship, a great vortex had opened up, a swirling mass of colors pulling at the hull of the vessel like tentacles guiding it to its gaping maw.
“Is our ship doing this?” Zan shook Gen’s shoulders. Her eyelids were still closed, her breathing even.
The droning noise increased until several of the pirates clapped their hands over their ears. Light flooded the bridge, but not the ship’s natural bioluminescence. The blinding swirl of colors bled through all of them, and Rhys held tighter to Gen, needing to protect her from whatever was coming for them.
As suddenly as it had started, the sensory bombardment ceased. Rhys met Zan’s eyes, and they both turned to look at Gen.
She smiled up at them. “All systems functioning, Captain.”
Zan blinked and whirled to face his bridge crew. The shock and fear rolling through them hit Rhys like waves of seawater lapping against a huge open wound. Zan made a furtive gesture with his hand. “Well? Someone want to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
“Are you all right?” Rhys bent down and scooped Gen up against him.
Her smile was brilliant. “I’m perfect.”
“Captain.” The blond-haired crew member turned to face Zan. “All but one of the stingers has disappeared from our sensor range.”
“Say what now?” Zan whirled to face the view screen.
One lone stinger dipped away from where it had followed them in, flying directly back to the transport as if hell itself was on its tail.
“What did you do, sweet Genevieve?” Rhys whispered in her ear.
She laughed merrily, squeezing his shoulders in a reassuring grip. Truly this woman amazed him to no end.
“The ship, our ship, created two wormholes. Nothing happened to the other stingers. We were moved clear across the galaxy.”
“Come again?” Zan’s eyebrows drew low over the bridge of his nose.
Gen gestured toward the passenger vessel. “You’re free to go aboard at your leisure, Zan.”
Zan glanced from her to the empty view screen and back again. “How come I didn’t know my ship could do this?”
Gen bit her lip and thought it over for a moment. “Did you ever ask?”
Zan threw his head back and laughed heartily. “Damn, now why didn’t I ever think of that?” Regaining his normal confident composure, he clapped his junior officer on the shoulder. “Order one of the fliers to latch onto their energy reserves before they get their wits about them and fire on us. Prepare a raiding party.”
Gen kissed Rhys on the cheek. “Let’s go get your body back.”
With the pirate vessel latched onto the passenger ship like a babe sucking greedily on its mother’s nipple, the ship didn’t have the energy reserves to mount a counteroffense. Zan and his pirates led the raiding party. Rhys wanted Gen to stay on board the living ship, but she refused.
“Don’t you think it’s time you tell me the whole story? I know you killed someone, Rhys, but I don’t know why.”
If nothing else, he owed her this. As they picked their way through the dark and damaged vessel, he gathered his courage. “Sela is unusually gifted as an empath. She doesn’t just have the ability to stoke the fires of emotion—she can also force her feelings on others. A man, one of our spiritual leaders, told my parents that she was bewitched by an evil spirit. They could sense his fear, though, and denied his request to cleanse her.”
Gen paused. “He wanted to hurt her?”
“A cleansing is an archaic ritual that traps the evil essence, nullifying its ability to interact with others. They would have cut out her eyes and tongue before placing her in
lesternari
, the living death.” The thought of that fate for his sister stirred the rage he had thought was long ago suppressed.
lesternari
, the living death.” The thought of that fate for his sister stirred the rage he had thought was long ago suppressed.
“He tried to do it anyway,” Gen breathed. “And you stopped him in the only way you could.”
Her sympathy washed over him. “I committed an act of great evil. The man was afraid. I should have helped him, but instead I ended his life. His blood is on my hands, Gen.”
“No.” Her tone held that stubborn ring he knew so well. “You are frustratingly high-handed, and sometimes obnoxiously self-righteous, but there is no evil in you. Just because your people can’t understand why you did what you had to doesn’t mean I don’t. I admire you Rhys, and I’m glad I fell in love with a man brave enough to protect his innocent sister.”
“You love me?” Hope and fear battled for control of his heart.
Of course, she picked up on his turmoil. “We’ll discuss it later, once you are back where you belong. Don’t give up on happily-ever-after yet, Rhys. We need to find your body.”
Gen thought they would have met up with more resistance from Illustra’s ground forces. But the few humanoids they ran across wore white lab coats in lieu of weapons. Whoever had ordered the empaths to be moved were obviously under the impression the military escort had been enough.
While Zan and his men secured the skeleton crew, Gen and Rhys explored the containment rooms housing the bodies of unconscious empaths.
“There are dozens of them, hundreds maybe.” Ice water slid through her veins as she saw helpless children hooked up to machines that kept their life processes operating while their empathic souls were forced to do God knew what to countless others back on Earth.
Rhys held her hand. “Their influence has spread out. They’ve discovered the younger ones are easier to keep trapped. All the older members of my order were slaughtered because they could escape the candle’s pull.”
Wiping tears from her eyes, she made a promise that she would find some way to not only free them all, but also to expose Illustra so this never happened again.
She crept around another corner and made her way into a dimly lit room. The power flickered ominously as the pirate’s ship fed off the energy reserves. The hallway branched off in three different directions.
“Which way?” she asked Rhys.
He closed his eyes, shook his head. “I don’t know. I can’t
feel
anything. They must have set up some sort of shielding around the empaths after I awoke in my own body.”
feel
anything. They must have set up some sort of shielding around the empaths after I awoke in my own body.”
“Let’s try from port to starboard.” Easing forward, Gen approached the mouth of the first hallway. It was completely dark, and she held up the flickering candle, peering into the gloom.
“Let me go first.”
Rhys pushed past her, and, swallowing, she followed him into the darkness.
He stopped in front of the first cell. “This is where they kept the stronger prisoners. See how thick the cell frame was? It’s to add a dampening field to protect the guard’s emotions in case someone managed the impossible.”
“Like you did.” She was proud of his strength, his perseverance against the challenges he continued to face. Rhys’s bravery and need to do what he felt was right inspired her own. He made her want to keep testing those boundaries she’d lived with all her life.
He stopped in front of one cell door. With the energy field down, he could have stepped inside unimpeded. From the tension in his posture, Gen knew whatever he saw affected him greatly.
Moving up so she could see, she took his hand, looking at him instead of at what was inside the room. “I’m here.”
He glanced down at her, studying her face for an endless moment before turning back toward the cell. Taking a deep breath of recycled ship’s air, Gen stepped over the threshold.
Two cots had been erected amid a tangle of medical equipment. The smaller cot contained a girl, probably about fifteen Earth years old. A tube had been shoved between her pale lips, and her skin was waxy and clammy to the touch. “This is Sela?” she asked Rhys.
He crouched on the other side of his sister’s bed, and she saw the tears swimming in his eyes. “I’d hoped they wouldn’t find her. My parents must be dead or they would have come for her.”
A sound of absolute grief filled the small space. But it did not come from where he stood on the other side of the cot. This noise broadcast again, a keening wail that came from behind her. Slowly she turned to see the other occupant of the room.
Her heart shuddered in her chest as Gen studied the still figure on the bed. His face was a mass of bruises, dried blood crusted in his hair. His body was as large as he projected himself, but gaunt and half-starved. She could count his ribs beneath the ashen skin. Tubes and wires snaked out from the cot, and his chest rose and fell in an artificial rhythm. Her heart ached as she studied the man she loved. “What have they done to you?”
She heard it again, pain and anguish made audible from the still form on the cot. She reached for his hand to offer what little comfort she could. The man she knew approached her from the side. “I won’t know the full extent of the damage until I’m inside. These machines might be all that’s keeping me alive, Gen.”
All at once, she understood what he was saying. This might be the end; he might die as soon as his soul reclaimed his body.
He reached for her face, stroked her cheek. “This is what I’ve been driving toward the whole time. What I wanted. But now I find that I do not want to go.”
She leaned into his touch. “You won’t die. I won’t let you.” Even as she made the vow, she realized she couldn’t affect it one way or another.
“I do not fear death, Gen.”
Her eyebrows drew down. “Are you worried about the others? I’ll make sure we get them back to Earth, reunite them with their bodies.”
The tears in his eyes spilled over. “Such nobility you credit me for. In truth, I’ve barely given them a thought since we’ve entered this room.”
Gen shook her head. “Help me to understand here, Rhys. What is it you’re afraid of?”
He looked down into his own battered face, surveyed his wasted body. Then, turning back to her, he took a shuddering breath. “That you will no longer want me if I am forever broken.”
Her lips parted and she blinked. Was he serious? “Rhys—”
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