The Lost Star Episode One (22 page)

His stomach sank at her admission.

“Long ago, the Avixan people….”

…

Captain Harvey McClean

He didn't stand a chance against Shera. A
fact she proved when she latched a hand on his shoulder, yanked him
back, and slammed him against the floor.

He hit the metal with such force his breath
punched out of his throat in an echoing choke.

The situation was happening so fast. He
couldn't keep up. And yet, he knew one thing.

She was about to kill him.

Shera stood over him for a single second,
her ice white hair catching the lights from above.

Harvey didn't wince.

Nor did he look away.

He waited for the final blow.

It didn't come.

Shera twisted her head back towards the
doors. “Meva, get those open.”

Harvey opened his mouth to say
something.

Instantly, with speed that could rival a
cruiser at light speed, Shera jerked backwards and slammed a foot
over his throat. She didn't kick down and cut off his air supply,
but the threat was there.

“
Don't say a word, Harvey. I know you can
command-lock those doors. Try it, and I’ll be forced to intervene.
Now,” Shera twisted her head back to Meva, “Get those goddamn doors
open.”

Meva's fingers flew over the access panel,
but to no avail.

The doors were now security locked.

So was the whole ship.

The truth was, he didn't need to give the
command. His current situation was enough.

The Mandalay was trialing a new command
security system to ensure situations just like this – mutinies and
insubordinations – couldn't happen.

Harvey's body was constantly being scanned
by his WD, which was in constant connection to the main computer.
As soon as his WD picked up significant physical distress combined
with threats to his life, it acted to lock out command controls. It
was more than sophisticated enough to recognize Shera's voice, what
she’d said, and, most importantly, that she was trying to crush his
windpipe.

So Harvey smiled.

It caught her attention.

Shera's lip stiffened, twitched up, and she
slowly pulled her boot off his throat. “What have you done?”

“
You’re already locked out,” Harvey
deliberately let his voice drop as low and menacing as he could.
“Security would be on their way. Coalition Command would have been
called. Shera, Meva, give up,” he enunciated those two words – give
up – with all the clarity he could muster.

Shera looked livid, then sneered through a
smile. “I doubt the Coalition have been called, dear – we took
communications down before we got here. As for security – let them
come. And as for your command codes,” she got down on her haunches,
resting one elbow on her knee as she tipped her head to the side
and considered him, “That's unfortunate. But I can work around it.
Watch: Captain Harvey McClean, if you want your crew to live, open
that door.” She extended a stiff finger towards Ava's
door.

Harvey didn't move a muscle. “You’re in no
position to give me an ultimatum, Shera.”

“
I could crush your windpipe with a single
twitch of my hand.” She extended a hand and gently rested it on his
throat. “I call that the exact position to make an ultimatum. Now
open the damn door.”

“Why?”

Her lips twitched into a tortured smile.
“Because I have unfinished business with the priestess.”

“Who?”

“Never you mind. Now open the door.”

“Whatever you’re doing won't work. Just stop
and think about this,” he tried. He wasn't attempting to get Shera
to see reason. One look in her eyes and he knew it was a lost
cause.

What he was doing, was wasting time to buy
Ava a chance.

All Harvey had to do was hold on until
security got here.

“
I have thought about this, Harvey. I’ve
thought about nothing else my entire life. And believe it or not,
I’m doing this for the Coalition. I’m doing this for us. For the
future.”

There was something about the fanatical note
in her voice that told him she wasn't lying.

“… What are you talking about?”

“The Avixans can no longer be held back from
our true power. We can no longer be shackled.” With that, Shera
brought up a hand, latched it around her ceremonial band, then
threw it off. She grabbed the one on her other wrist and did the
same.

They both clanged onto the floor by his
face.

He looked down at them for a single instant
before returning his gaze to her.

“Stop wasting time,” Phar snapped. “We have
to secure this ship. The priestess can wait. She’s trapped anyway.
With communications down, there's nothing she can do.”

Shera slowly shifted her head towards
Phar, her ice-white bun slicing across her neck. “Do not give me
orders. This is my operation.”

“
Then complete it. We must take the
Mandalay. Do not let this man
distract you. The priestess can wait. There's nothing she can
do.”

Shera gave an angry shout that echoed down
the corridor, then she snapped to her feet. She shot Phar a deadly
look before turning and stalking forward. “Fine. Secure that door.
I don't care what you have to do – make sure it can't be opened.
Meva, bring the captain. Phar, find a nice quiet corner and sit
this out,” she said snidely as she stalked past.

His ship. They were after Harvey's ship.

On any other day, with any other ship,
there’d be no way a handful of crew would be able to take over a
vessel of this size. But the Mandalay had been plagued since the
day he’d stepped aboard. Now, as Meva grabbed him up, he realized
something. The problems that had dogged his ship may not have been
accidents.

The cause was likely striding off down the
hall, her ceremonial armbands at his feet.

He’d brought Shera aboard this ship –
deliberately asked for her to be transferred.

So he’d stop her.

No matter the costs.

…

Ava

There was only one thing she could do.

Tell him the truth.

All of it.

She didn't know if she had time, but that
wasn't the point – she had to buy his trust.

She took a breath. “Long ago, the Avixan
people
—”

She heard something slam into the door.
Though the door was noise proof, she saw the panel dent
inwards.

Hunter jerked back, latching a hand on her
shoulder and pulling
her
with him.

“
What was that?” She kept her gaze locked
on the doors, expecting them to explode inward at any moment.
Though academically she knew that the shields should hold them in
place, she also knew exactly how much Shera wanted to end
this.

Now Ava understood everything.

Every so-called accident.

They were all attempts to kill Ava and get
her out of the way so… what? What exactly was Shera's end game? Did
it have something to do with the civil instability Captain McClane
had mentioned?

If Avixa really was on the brink of civil
war, why the hell hadn't Ava been told?

There was so much about this situation she
didn't understand.

There was one thing she did understand.

Shera was determined to kill her.

Ava curled her hands into fists, letting
the nails dig so deep into her palms, she excavated half-moon
cuts.

She didn't have Shera's power, but Ava would
still fight.

Not because it was her duty as a priestess,
but because this wasn't right.

She expected the doors to fail at any
second, but abruptly the banging stopped.

Hunter let out a sharp breath. “The
shields will hold them back. They keep pounding on that door, the
shields will just get stronger. Don't worry, security will make it
here soon.”

She didn't respond.

“Ava, what were you saying?”

“That if I don't call my government right
now, this ship will fall.”

“What?” he spluttered.

“I guarantee you the other Avixans will be
working with Shera. This… would have been planned from the
beginning. Every accident – the lifts, the neuro gel… god, even
that trader in the bar, it was all Shera,” she realized, her cheeks
paling.

“What?”

“Just let me access the off-ship
communications… though I doubt they’ll work.” She paled even
further.

“What?”

“Just do it… please.”

Hunter took a hard breath and appeared to
make a decision. “Computer, give Ensign Ava permission to access
off-ship communications—”

“All communications are offline,” the
computer replied at once.

“What? How?”

“All communications are offline,” the
computer repeated without explanation.

“
Has security been notified? Does command
know—”

“All communications are offline.”

“
That's not what I’m
asking,”
he
roared.

She reached out and latched a hand gently
on his arm. “It won't work. Shera's been planning this since the
day she got on board.”

“Planning what? Ava, what the hell is going
on?” his desperation reached such a shaking pitch she couldn't
ignore it anymore.

“
Shera’
s trying to take this ship.”

“What's that got to do with you? And why do
you need to contact your government? What do you possibly think
they can do?”

“
She wants to kill me because she thinks I
can stop her. And if I could contact my government, I’d be able
to.” She tried to stop herself, but her gaze naturally locked on
her armlets.

He followed the movements of her eyes. “What
are those?”

“Locks.”

“
Wh—”

A red alert suddenly cut him short. It
blared through the room, the illumination cutting to half as a
strip of red lights lit up along the ceiling.

“
Computer, what's going on?” Hunter
demanded.

The computer didn't reply.

“Computer?” he repeated once more.

Nothing.

“Christ. We have to find out what's going
on. We have to get out of here.” Hunter looked warily at the
door.

“We go through that door, they’ll kill us,”
Ava stated with total certainty.

Hunter brought up a hand and locked it on
his mouth. At the same time his gaze darted quickly from the left
to the right as he surveyed her room.

Her room was small, plain. Though there was
a bathroom and furniture, that was it.

She didn't have any weapons, no equipment.
Nothing they’d need to break out of here.

Hunter's searching gaze suddenly locked on
the floor. “What's under your bed?”

“Ah, what?”

“I think this room's over the aft
ventilation system. There could be an access under your bed.” He
lurched down to his knees and shuffled towards her bed.

“How do you know that?”

“
Because, Ensign Ava, I’ve spent the last
several days crawling through every service duct, ventilation
shaft, and bloody nook and cranny of this ship. I’ve stared at
enough maps trying to figure out how to get us to safety that I’ve
started to learn the interior of this ship. And, if I’m not much
mistaken,” he shuffled fully under the bed, “There's a vent
here.”

She heard a metal clang as Hunter rapped his
knuckles on something.

“Give me a hand moving the bed.” He shuffled
back out.

“It's bolted to the floor.”

He swore as he shifted back and rested on
his haunches. He brought up a hand, wiped the sweat from his brow,
and cast another worried glance towards the doors.

As soon as he was done, he pushed forward,
locked a hand under the bottom of the bed, and checked the bolts.
“… We could remove these with the right tool.”

“I don't have an engineering kit in my
room.”

He leaned back and began casting around
again.

“
Come on, Ava, there has to be something
around here,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “Anything that
could get those bolts off. Come on, we're running out of time,”
true desperation punched through his words. It crumpled his brow,
drawing the rumpled skin hard against his eyebrows.

Her stomach crawled with anger,
compassion, guilt.

And above all else, shock.

She had no idea how any of this could
happen.

How could Avixa fall into civil war? Who
would dare drive something like that?

... To think, she'd come to the Coalition
to get away. To finally find a place where her origins didn't
matter.

Now she was arm deep in this.

Instinctively, she brought her arms up and
stared at her armlets.

Hunter caught her doing it again. He
lurched to his feet and grabbed her shoulders, staring right into
her eyes. “I don't know what's happening here. I guess I don't have
time to find out, but, Ava, we have to act now. If you're right,
and Shera's been planning this from the beginning, we may be the
only two on this ship who can do anything about this.”

She looked up into his eyes. His gaze was
so strong, so determined. It summed up Lieutenant Hunter McClane's
personality perfectly.

She found herself swallowing, a cold dense
feeling wending through her stomach.

She didn't have to search her memory too
far to realize what it was – responsibility.

“
Come on.” He let his hand slip down her
shoulder until he grabbed her hand.