Burn Out (9 page)

Kale’s ship remained out of sight, over the ridge, about five hundred more yards away. Running there and back was going to count as my exercise for the entire week. Still no sign of the Consulate ship. Markus was right. They wouldn’t think we’d be nuts enough to go outside at night. They were probably bunkered down enjoying a good night’s sleep, certain we’d come out waving a white flag in the morning.

Another two hundred yards and I was panting harder than I had in my life. Making matters worse, the cold penetrated every fiber of my being and my toes were numb. The night had grown almost pitch-black, the light provided by the moon, minuscule. My feet pounded the ground, twisting a few times as I stepped on several small rocks.

The sound of my own breathing, loud and erratic, filled my helmet, punctuated by the occasional expletive from Markus. I noticed Markus had slowed his pace as well. He’d never struck me as much of an exercising kind of guy. At least I might be able to outrun him if necessary, though I could never outrun James or Kale.

We’d almost reached the ridge and aside from my bruised ribs screaming at me, things were looking pretty
good. We were almost there. The night didn’t seem quite so scary after all.

I didn’t notice at first. I’d been breathing so hard, I didn’t hear it. It wasn’t until a rock skittered across my foot that the whooshing of the wind registered. James was a short step ahead of me, and he turned, tugging on my sleeve to hurry up. I heard Britta’s panicked shrieking in my ear. “Run!”

I cranked my legs, trying to move faster, but they burned in protest, practically shouting that they were doing the best they could. They felt like rubber appendages beneath my torso. My lungs were on fire, the icy cold air like a vise clamping around them. A rock hit my calf as the gusts grew stronger. Unfortunately, this last stretch contained no large boulders—nothing to hold on to when things got worse. Which they would. Very soon.

Finally Kale’s ship came into view, maybe a hundred yards away. Crap, it was so freaking cold outside that a hundred yards seemed like a mile. The wind whistled through my helmet, almost rhythmic in its deadly hum.
Please let me make it
. James dropped back and placed his hand behind my arm, propelling my numb body onward. He yelled something that sounded like “hurry,” but I couldn’t hear him clearly over the howling of the wind.

Another gust ripped through the air and my feet lifted briefly off the ground. Only James’ firm hold of my arm kept me anchored to Earth.

Kale made it to his ship and the hatch door opened. My
eyes fixed on that door; it beckoned yet mocked me with its distance. Thirty yards away. A bowling-ball-sized rock flew past, narrowly missing my head. Britta and Markus rushed through the ship’s door. The air around me screamed.

Fifteen yards. Almost there. A second later, my feet weren’t touching the ground. James literally pulled me through the air toward the door. Markus and Britta stood in the entrance, making desperate motions with their arms. Their screams mixed with the shrieking winds in my ears. They moved back as Kale gripped the door frame with one hand and reached out to James to pull us inside. The safe haven of that doorway was a few feet away.

It came out of nowhere—something sharp in my side that hurt like hell. I felt blood running down the inside of my suit. Then everything went black.

M
Y FATHER SPOKE TO ME TENDERLY THE NIGHT BEFORE HIS
murder. Part of him must have suspected his Consulate visit was a one-way trip. He’d gone over all the safety procedures because he said this business trip might be longer than usual. I hadn’t guessed then just how long my alone time would be. For the first time, he hadn’t had me practice with the guns after dinner. He said he hoped I’d never need to touch them again. Then he kissed me good night, which he hadn’t done since the night he found my mother and sister dead.

The voice filtering through my mind at the moment was not tender. It sounded grating and harsh.

“Could someone please explain why we’re helping her? She only came so she could take part of the water
anyway, so why are we giving a crap?”

“You’re almost as much of a charmer as Tora.”

I didn’t need to open my eyes to picture that beaklike nose. I tried opening them anyway, and squinted in the intense light of the room. Markus stood near Britta, watching me with amusement. I tried to sit up but fell back in pain.

Markus chuckled. “Somebody took a hard hit.”

I gritted my teeth. “From what?” I twisted around as if the mysterious cause of my injury would be found somewhere in the room. Dizziness overtook me and everything blurred. It took a minute for my vision to clear.

James sat in a chair behind me. His head leaned back against the wall like he was too tired to hold it upright. His eyes drooped in apparent fatigue. “A rock. Two of your ribs are fractured.”

I touched my left side under the white medical gown, and could feel bandages covering the area.
Medical gown? Where the hell are my clothes?

“How did I get in this?” I asked, picking up the hem of the gown.

“I sure as hell didn’t help you,” said Britta. She flung her straight hair over her shoulder. “I’d better go tell our leader that the princess is awake.” Britta stormed to the door, then turned to Markus and raised an eyebrow at him. “Coming?”

I glared at Markus. He smirked. “Don’t look at me. Ask the medic there.” He gestured at James, then followed after Britta down the hall.

Blood flooded my cheeks. Aside from my panties, the only things under this flimsy excuse of a gown were bandages. It took everything I had to turn and face him again and, even then, I couldn’t meet his eyes. “You put me in this gown?”

When he responded with silence, I was forced to look up. I swallowed, trying to sound nonchalant. “Aren’t you a little young to be the ship’s medic?”

“It’s what I trained to do, before some other stuff happened.”

I should have trained to be a dentist, because getting more than a sentence out of him at a time was like pulling teeth. “And?”

At least he had the decency to look embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I needed to check your ribs and clean up the wound before I taped it.”

“Please tell me Markus wasn’t in here.” I knew Markus best, yet he was the last person I would want to see me naked.

“No. No one was. I tried to get Britta to help …”

I put up my hand to stop him. “No explanation needed there.” I eased off the metal bed, but the dizziness returned and I stumbled.

“Whoa.” James rushed to my side, easing his arm around my waist. “Easy there.” He guided me back onto the bed into a sitting position.

My head pounded and my vision went out of whack.

I tried hard to bring James into focus. “What’s wrong with me?”

His arm stayed around me, keeping me steady. “Do you mean medically—or otherwise?”

I heard the smile in his voice and relaxed. “You’re lucky I can’t see you well, or I’d smack you.”

His tone grew serious. “Mild concussion. You flew out of my grasp when the rock hit you, and you hit your head pretty hard on a step of the ship. You should be fine in a few days though. The ribs will take longer to heal.” He cleared his throat and turned me to face him. “I’m sorry I couldn’t hold on.”

Though still dizzy and nauseous, the concern and remorse on his face were unmistakable. I had a strange urge to reach out and touch the blond stubble on his chin. Though I still didn’t trust him, he had saved me when he could have let me die. “I wouldn’t have made it at all if it wasn’t for you. Thank you.”

We stared at each other until I heard footsteps in the hallway.

“See? She’s just fine. I don’t see what all the fuss was about,” Britta said, hand on her hip.

I pulled my eyes away from James. I couldn’t afford to get attached to anyone anyway. After all I’d lost, I’d learned it was better not to care.

Markus touched Britta’s arm and her stance softened a little. She flashed Markus a tiny smile. They’d apparently
done some serious bonding during their night together. I shook my head—that was a visual I didn’t need right now.

“What do you say, James?” asked Kale.

“Sir, her ribs will take time to heal and her head will be hurting for a bit, but I think she’ll be fine. Her suit repaired itself adequately.”

“Nice work,” said Kale. “Tora, we’ll leave you here to rest while we gather up some supplies. We can’t go back until the storm ends.”

It must still be night
. I couldn’t hear any bombs going off in the distance, just the unmistakable winds. I noted a container of water by my bed, with a Caelia Pure label on it. Real water from another planet, not the recycled piss I’d been drinking forever. James nodded at me and I chugged the whole thing in three gulps. This must be what heaven tastes like. I couldn’t believe they had bottles and bottles of the stuff. We could drink water whenever we were thirsty.

“Why can’t we just take off and run for it?” Britta asked. “It’ll be light in less than an hour and they’ll be back.”

“No,” said Kale.

He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t need to. I knew he wouldn’t leave without the guns. They were his only bargaining chip. But we did need to get back to the bunker before daylight or the Consulate would be waiting for us.

“We need to go,” I said, realizing how improbable it sounded. Between my concussion and cracked ribs, I’d never move fast enough to make it home between the storms.

“Astute observation there, my dear,” said Markus. “Wanna tell us how we can do that?”

“Yeah,” answered James. Every head in the room turned to him. One of the perks of not saying much was that everyone paid attention when he did. “We fly there.”

“Huh?” asked Britta. “You mean like fly a hundred feet?”

Kale looked at Britta like she wasn’t the brightest bulb in the bunch. “More like eighteen hundred feet.” He turned to James. “Brilliant plan.” Which it was. I wondered why James wasn’t in charge of this ragtag group.

“The Consulate could destroy the ship once it’s parked there,” James noted.

Kale stroked his chin. “Maybe, but I think it’d be more useful to them whole—or for parts. They’d be crazy not to want a second space drive. We’ll kill them before that happens.”

A tiny voice nagged in my head saying that maybe James wasn’t just trying to spare me from the night storms. Maybe it was part tactical reasoning. Kale wanted the guns and like he’d said earlier, it wasn’t practical to transfer the guns when the ship was so far from the shelter. It would certainly be easier if his ship was right next door.

We didn’t have much time before sunrise. Once the latest night storm subsided, we’d fly to the shelter, keeping close to the ground. It would only take a few minutes and under the cover of dark, there was a chance we could avoid detection by the Consulate ship.

Everyone left the room to grab the containers of Caelia
Pure to transfer to the shelter for now. Kale also packed up the vitamin supplements, energy packets, and other key cargo in case the ship got raided. Everyone except James, who riffled through the various cabinets in the med room and gathered first-aid supplies and medications. He fingered one small box of pain tablets and turned to me. “Did you want anything for pain? I didn’t want to give you any medication without your permission.”

Right. He certainly didn’t have a problem getting me naked without my permission. I opened my mouth to refuse, but my own small stash of painkillers flashed in my mind. Plan B. It would be stupid to turn down something that could be useful later.

“No, I don’t want any now. You should bring them though. You know, just in case.”

His brow wrinkled, but he slipped the box into the supply bag. He surveyed the room and turned to me. I tried to forget I was still naked save for a bit of white fabric. “I’m going to take this stuff up front. Your clothes are on the table over there … you should get dressed.”

He’s seen you without a stitch of those clothes on
. I snorted. “You mean you’re not going to stick around like last time I was naked.”

James sighed. “I told you, I did what was necessary to help you.” He waved his hand over the door panel and it slid open.

I called after him. “So, you were only focused on my injury. You didn’t notice anything else.”

James turned around, a serious look still on his face but a spark in his eyes. “I didn’t say that.” He went through the door before I could respond. It closed behind him.

My mouth hung open in the empty room. I should be angry with him, yet a small part of me liked the look on his face. Then reality kicked in. Here I was, injured and surrounded by enemies, yet worried about a medic seeing my body. Had my father taught me nothing?

I lowered myself down to the floor, and dressed as quickly as I could, wincing as I raised my arms to pull on my faded gray T-shirt. My gun lay next to my clothes. After dressing, I powered up the gun and moved to the door while trying to ignore the lingering nausea. I waved my hand over the door panel, and it opened easily.

The hallway lights buzzed faintly above me as I moved through the hall. The walls were a faded gray, like the color of a dead person. The only decorations were an assortment of dents and chips. This ship looked older than dirt. How it could fly fifty yards, let alone across the galaxy, was beyond me. How did they get here from Caelia on this piece of crap?

I passed a room to my right containing four sleep chambers. Clothes were strewn over two of the sleep pads, while another was neatly made with clothes folded atop it. Clothes that looked like Kale’s military ones. The other chamber didn’t appear like it had ever been slept in. Why was Kale sleeping with the crew? More important, why was he working against his own government, and
how did James and Britta get involved in all this?

Another door stood open farther down the hall. I knew I shouldn’t snoop, but curiosity got the best of me. Darkness saturated the room. I reached my hand inside, waving around for the light panel. The space lit up and I stepped inside. This had to be the captain’s quarters. It contained just one enormous sleep chamber. I closed the door behind me so I wouldn’t be seen from the hallway. The orderliness of the room impressed me. Not a thing out of place. Nothing to even suggest anyone lived there, aside from a pair of shoes lined up neatly by the door. A small clothing container rested against the wall. I couldn’t resist.