Chrystal Bones (Finding Home Book 1) (21 page)

“Did you kill them?” Blue asked.

“No. They are just lightly stunned,” Jayden said walking up the ramp.

He grabbed one of the unconscious bodies under the arms and dragged him down the ramp with ease. Blue did the same only it took more effort on her part. When she turned around Leo was pulling the last one down the ramp by his teeth. When he got to the bottom he kept on going, heading for the trees.

“Stop. Leo you can’t eat him!” Blue hollered racing after the big cat. He growled at her when she got in front of him blocking his way. As far as he was concerned he was hungry and this was dinner. Blue put her hands on her hips and said firmly, “No. Drop it. You can’t eat him,” she repeated.

“Why not?”
Leo sent to her.

“Because he is a psychopathic clone. There is no telling what that could do to you.” She got a good hold on the Ragillian’s legs and tried pulling him away from Leo. The cat wasn’t letting go.

Jayden was watching the tug of war and laughing. Blue glanced up and told him, “Don’t just stand there laughing. Either help me or go away.” She looked back at Leo. “Look if you let go of the psycho Jayden will go get you one of those animals he fed you last night,” she coaxed.

“What? Why me? You go get it. He is your pet. Excuse me, your friend. Better yet he can do his own hunting.”

“Leo doesn’t hunt. He’s not any good at it and I can’t shoot an animal. I would feel its fear and do you really think I could eat one after that?” she asked exasperated.

“You have no problem shooting people,” Jayden pointed out.

“That’s different and you know it. Besides I am not going to eat people. Tell him you will go get him dinner.”

“We do not have time to go hunting. I am sure there is something on the ship that he can eat. We need to get off this planet before more Ragillians show up.

Blue dropped the clone’s legs and Leo slinked away with his prize. “You seriously want to go, to space, in that thing?” she paled. There wasn’t much she was afraid of but taking that rust bucket into space was one of them.

“No, no way. We can wait right here for the guys to get back. It won’t be too long. Once they don’t find us on Farpoint they will come back here.”

Jayden did his best to contain his amusement but knew he had failed when she continued.

“Go ahead and laugh. I can’t believe you want to risk our lives on that thing.”

“That thing as you call it is a perfectly good ship and it will be at least three weeks before Idris and the Trilleion can get back here. Do you really want to stay here that long?”

“No, I don’t. What do you mean three weeks. You and Idris said two weeks that’s ten days from now, not seventeen. And that is not a perfectly good ship. It’s falling apart in front of us!” Blue waved her hand at the ship.

“Would you just trust me,” Jayden said through the laughter thick in his voice. “I know the guy who owns this ship. He is a smuggler and deliberately makes it look run down on the outside to deter thieves. The inside will be immaculate and filled with the latest technology.”

Blue studied him for a long time. “If you are lying to me I will kick your ass and stuff your dead body in the garbage disposal,” she said with a look in her eyes that told him she was not joking.

Remembering what she was doing before Jayden distracted her, Blue looked around for Leo. She spotted him under a tree with the clone and she took off running towards him. Coming to a halt in front of him she saw that he had already eaten through the belly and was busy chewing on the clone’s thigh.

“Oh, yuck. Leo you ate a psycho clone. Who knows what that will do to you. Couldn’t you wait? It’s not like you were starving,” she asked him in disgust.

Jayden came up beside her. “Why are you so upset. He just followed his instincts.”

“Instincts my ass. He has never had to hunt. He doesn’t like to hunt. I told you that. Couldn’t you just have agreed to get him one of the animals from our valley. Then this wouldn’t have happened.” She pointed at the satisfied cat and bloody body. “He ate a psycho Jayden. If he gets sick you are cleaning it up not me.”

With that pronouncement she turned and headed back to the rust bucket that apparently wasn’t a rust bucket.

Jayden watched her walk away and admired the sway of her hips. He looked at Leo and said, “You better not get sick.”

Chrystal Bones Billie Jo Hanlin

Chapter 21

Jayden hadn’t lied. It had taken almost an hour for the gas to dissipate so they could enter the ship. He used the time to question the three Ragillians when they regained consciousness.. It didn’t do much good. All they knew was what they had been told. Find the Trilleion and destroy it using any means necessary. The only new information they learned was when Jayden asked how they had gotten the Dalor ship.

The captain of their ship had gotten the idea when he had come across it abandoned in space. They caught it with a tractor beam and towed it to this mud hole. None of them had been able to do more than get the door open and send out a fake distress signal. Knowing that no one would ignore a distress call from an uninhabited planet.

Then they had watched and waited for the trap to be sprung. It had worked to a point. They hadn’t expected the Trilleion to be as fast as it was and they thought there were enough of them on planet to take care of anyone who landed. They were wrong on both accounts. They also didn’t know how many ships were left in orbit if any. None of their calls had been answered.

The Ragillians gave Blue the creeps. Not because they were clones. It was the no emotions. Everyone she had ever come across had some type of emotions but they had absolutely no feelings one way or the other. When she dropped all of her shields and touched them she could read them. But again there were no individual thoughts. No sense of self, just an acceptance of their life and death. Blue had quickly raised her shields and not touched them again.

She had been thinking about that when she realized that was why the chrystal hadn’t thrown the ones who attacked her away from her. It must work off emotions. If there were none then there was nothing to repel. Jayden agreed with her when she told him her theory.

“It makes sense but it still repelled us and we had no thoughts of hurting you.”

“Yes, but I didn’t want any of you to touch me. When the Ragillians attacked I wasn’t thinking specifically about them not touching me.”

“Good thing you wanted me to touch you last night.” Jayden flashed his wicked grin at her.

“Yes it was. I don’t need a chrystal to throw you across the room. If I feel the need to, I’ll do it myself,” she said with a calm and steady look. Willing her face not to flush.

Blue watched Jayden power up the ship. He input a series of numbers into the computer then reached under his seat and opened a hidden panel. He flipped three switches and entered another set of numbers. The ship came to life. Panels lit up and a holographic image of the ugliest man Blue had ever seen appeared in the middle of the console and started speaking in a low harsh whisper.

“Jayden, at least I hope it is you since you are the only person other than myself who knows the codes to start my ship. There is something going on at Farpoint. I overheard a couple of strange conversations and saw something I was not suppose to see. And since someone tried to kill me shortly afterwards I assume it is very important. That’s not unusual enough to worry me. But they tried to kill Zaheer too because she was with me.

I sent my ship away letting them think I was on it so I could find out what is going on. All I know at this point is it is big and it involves more than one high ranking official in the Alliance and on Haldairia. If I do not come back to claim my ship in a few months you will know I am dead. I will leave everything I find with Zaheer at Z’s Bar. I will make sure she knows to give it to you.”

The image paused then continued, “Watch your back my friend. The Ragillians are not the only ones who want you dead. One of the conversations I heard was about your family and arranging an accident. The man speaking was Haldairian. I cannot tell you who he is, I never saw his face. I know I have heard his voice before. I just cannot remember where. If you come to Farpoint and I am still here, I will find you. If not, make sure Zaheer gets the ship. See you on the other side,” he paused again before finishing.

“If you are not Jayden you might as well kiss your butt goodbye because if you do not input the final code this ship is going to go boom.” The ugly man smiled and the hologram vanished only to pop back up. “I forgot to tell you I made a few changes to the ship since the last time you were on her. I think you will like them. I got my hands on a small Ice. Check out the new stealth system. It is better than what you have on your fancy new ship.” He vanished for good this time.

After a few seconds of silence Blue said, “I hope you have that last code.”

Absently Jayden input the code. Thinking about what his friend had said. He already knew someone was gunning for him and his men but he had not known one of his own people was a part of it.. Maybe it was just him they were trying to kill and his men were in the way but he did not think so.

Krakin was right. Something big was going on. Thanks to Krakin he had a feeling he would find at least some of the answers on Farpoint. He needed to get there before the Trilleion did. Once again he was about to drag Blue into a dangerous situation there was no way to avoid. Idris was already set to meet them at Farpoint. If he and Blue did not show in time, Idris was going to come looking for them.

Blue left Jayden to his thoughts and studied the ship. It was the size of a large two story house and in immaculate condition on the inside. Everything was clean and polished and looked as new as Jayden’s ship. No one looking at the outside would expect this on the inside.

She had to admit it was a very good disguise. It had fooled her and she would bet it had fooled many planetary inspectors and pirates. Jayden had said his friend was a smuggler. A good one if the expensive interior was any indication. She walked around looking at the art on the walls and the soft chairs placed here and there for comfort. She peaked in rooms when the doors slid open as she passed through the corridor.

The ship was set up the same way as the Trilleion, with the control area in the middle and all other areas branching off from it. From watching Star Trek and many other space movies she had expected the control room to be in the front of the ship but this made more sense. The design protected the control room from any damage that could be inflicted from the outside. It was the safest place on the ship.

The outermost rooms were storage areas, she wondered if they were called cargo bays. There was a large room that served as a shuttle bay but was currently empty. The inner rooms were what you would expect.

There was a kitchen, a couple of bedrooms and an exercise room. No matter how advanced a society there would always be treadmills and elliptical machines. She supposed if you spent a lot of time in space you had to have some way of staying in shape. Jayden had them on his ship too.

She wandered back into the control room when Jayden called for her. He was ready to take off. She sat in the co-pilots seat. “There’s plenty of room in the shuttle bay for your shuttle if you want to pick it up.” She looked around for Leo and saw he was sleeping off his psycho dinner in the corner. She planned on keeping a close watch on him for the next few days.

“We will swing by and pick it up now. I want to take off from the opposite side of the planet than we came in anyway,” he said lifting off. What had taken them four days to hike took only minutes in the ship. There was no lightning this time just a light mist so the trip off the planet went smoother than the trip in. Blue kept her eyes on the sensors looking for any Ragillian ships.

The controls were different enough than the ones she had learned so far so she didn’t try to help any more than that. Instead of shooting straight up and into orbit, Jayden eased the ship slowly through the atmosphere. Scanning for any ships in the vicinity as he climbed higher and higher.

There were three Ragillian ships stationed around the planet in even intervals. At least one of the ground team’s messages had gotten through because it was obvious they were waiting for them. Jayden was prepared for the worst though. When they broke through the last layer of atmosphere he jumped the ship into hyper speed immediately in the opposite direction of the way they needed to go.

He hoped to catch them off guard enough to get a good head start. If he could get far enough ahead of them he could lose them in an asteroid belt with a small jump gate several hours away. Krakin had found the gate years ago and as far as Jayden knew he was the only one Krakin had told about it.

The gates were scattered throughout the universe and had been found thousands of years ago. They were as much of a mystery now as they were when first discovered. No one knew if the gates were a natural phenomenon or if an ancient race had created them. There were arguments for both. They had fixed entrance and exit points. Going through a gate could cut hours or days off of a journey. Provided you were going in the direction the gates went.

There were five gates in constant use and they corresponded with the five founding members of the Alliance. According to Krakin the gate in the astroid belt was dangerous to get to and was a very short jump. Making the effort to get to it not worth it for most people. But it did make an excellent escape route if you were in a bind with someone chasing your tail.

Jayden brought the ship out of hyper drive and entered the belt cautiously. Weaving a course through the moving rocks he made his way to the center. His hands were steady on the controls as he dodged a huge rock that came too close to hitting them.

The danger was that if they were hit with a big enough rock the impact could throw them into the path of another rock. That impact would throw into another before Jayden could regain control. Leaving them bouncing from impact to impact until the shield gave completely. If that happened the ship would be in pieces before they could reach the gate.