Jordan (21 page)

F
ull reverse,” Jordan ordered.

Tennison was one step ahead of him, kicking the power into overdrive. As Jordan waited to see what would emerge from hyperspace,
his glance fell on Vivianne.

Vi was clearly upset, still furious with him over what had happened between them in the airlock. Maybe that was for the best.

Vivianne wasn’t looking at him. Hadn’t shared her conversation with her friend, and her reticence bothered him on several
levels. First, their chances of finding the last key and the Grail were slim enough if they worked together and shared information.
Second, whatever she was keeping from him might prove to be important. And third, she was too smart to have her working against
him.

“Sensor readings indicate three objects approaching fast,” Gray reported.

Lyle walked onto the bridge, took one look at the viewscreen, and turned pale. “Those machines are coming back after us. I
should have shot them all down the first time.”

“Maybe Trendonis tracked us through hyperspace,” Sean suggested.

Vivianne’s eyes narrowed. “No one is to fire any weapons without a direct order.”

“Wormhole’s ejecting,” Tennison said. Three cubes flew out.

Vivianne gasped, then her gaze flew to meet Jordan’s. “Are those the exact same machines that surrounded us last time?”

Trendonis was out there hunting them, but Jordan didn’t know if the advancing spacecraft were under his control. He turned
to his crew. “How’s the power?”

“Steady, but—” Tennison squinted at his data as if he couldn’t believe his readings.

“We aren’t going anywhere,” Gray said.

“What?” Lyle’s face went from pale to white.

Darren’s voice came over the speakers, “Engines are starting to overheat.”

Gray explained. “Power and engines are working perfectly, but we are at a full stop.”

“How is that possible?” Vivianne asked.

“Power down,” Jordan ordered. Obviously retreat wasn’t an option, and he’d prefer not to drain the Staff. “If we can’t escape,
there’s no reason to risk blowing the engines.”

“I’ll open a channel.” Vi placed the headset over her ears. “Maybe we can find out what they want.”

“Put them on the speakers,” Jordan ordered.

She flipped the toggle switch without hesitation. “Hello. Can anyone hear me?”

Jordan shot her a thumbs-up. She nodded, but there was a distance in her eyes, a barrier she’d put up.

“You will follow us.” The alien voice sounded mechanical.

Vivianne paused for a moment. “Follow you where?”

Jordan held his breath, waiting for a response. But they didn’t reply.

Instead, the machines surrounded the
Draco.

“Here we go again,” Gray muttered.

“Power status?” Jordan asked

“It’s ramping back up.” Gray’s hands moved over the screen. “I can’t stop it. My controls are dead.”

“Helm’s dead, too.” Tennison said.

“We’re moving again,” Vivianne said.

“Those machines are kidnapping us.” Lyle’s voice was close to panic. “They’re taking us into the wormhole. We should shoot
them down before—”

“No shooting,” Jordan ordered.

“But—”

“Last time they cut our power and nearly froze us to death,” Vi reminded him, and Lyle settled down.

Jordan hit the toggle. “Prepare for hyperspace.”

Over the communicator, Knox swore. “The floaters are going to have to scrape dinner off the ceiling again. A little warning
would have been—”

Vivianne grabbed George with one hand, the console with the other. She’d barely braced herself before the alien machines whisked
them right into the wormhole.

“Can we plot our course?” Vivianne asked. “Or are we going to be lost again?”

“No and no.” Jordan looked at his streaming data. “I have no idea where we’re going, but once we return to normal space, our
new star charts should pinpoint our location.”

He should have known better than to make a statement like that. It was almost as if his words jinxed them. The stars streaked
by and the hull shook. They must have remained in the wormhole for about twenty minutes. And then they popped out, the machines
still escorting them.

“Where are we?” Vivianne whispered.

“Nav charts are picking up only one star,” Gray said. “It’s behind us, and there’s also a planet nearby. I’m running an analysis
to see if I can match the light and magnetic spectrum to anything in our charts.”

Jordan had a bad feeling. There were only a few places in the universe where the stars were so far away they couldn’t be picked
up at all. They were between galaxies or in another dimension. Either possibility was mind-blowing.

“Report,” Jordan said, keeping his suspicions to himself.

“All systems are operational,” Gray said, “but we still don’t have control back.”

The cube machines turned the
Draco,
and a yellow planet came into view. It was approximately half land, half ocean, with both poles covered with ice. From above,
the land masses appeared to be mostly sandy deserts, with no jungles, rain forests, or greenery.

“What’s the atmosphere like down there?” Vivianne asked.

“Barely breathable, and without plants, yet, I don’t understand how that can be,” Gray said.

“We should fire on them,” Lyle repeated. “Before they come aboard—”

“They’ve gone to a lot of trouble to bring us here,” Vivianne said. “Let’s see what they want.”

“They almost killed us last time,” Lyle sputtered.

“Only because you fired on them,” Jordan reminded him. “I agree with Vi, let’s see what they want.”

Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

—S
T
. F
RANCIS OF
A
SSISI

V
ivianne knew Jordan was trying to get back on her good side. While she wasn’t immune to his backing her up, or his thumbs-up
over how she’d handled the communications, she also wouldn’t put it past him to try to manipulate her.

The man was complex. Brilliant. He’d lived so long that he was adept at hiding his real feelings—if he had them. She had no
idea where she stood with him, and it bothered her that she cared.

She reminded herself that just because they’d been lovers didn’t mean she required a deeper connection. Vivianne already knew
she could count on Jordan to save her life, even at the risk of his own.

But she must guard herself against forming deeper attachments. She shouldn’t even be this angry or hurt about his refusal
to acknowledge her contributions down on Tempest. His opinion shouldn’t matter. She didn’t need him to recognize her help.
All that counted was that she’d done what she’d had to do. They’d succeeded in retrieving the Key of Wind.

When he came alongside her and placed his hand on her shoulder, she wanted to shrug out from beneath it. Irritated with herself
over how much she enjoyed his casual touch, she forced herself to step away, to move closer to the viewscreen. “What is this
world?”

His tone was quiet, thoughtful. “On Dominus, we had a legend about Arcturus, a world far out of the Milky Way’s rim.”

“You think this world is Arcturus?”

“It’s possible. Look at the equator. That desert isn’t sand, but stone.” He pointed. “What do you see carved into the rock?”

She peered hard, then gasped. “Those carvings look like three horses running.” They had to be enormous to be seen from this
distance.

“Three fast steeds was King Arthur’s coat of arms,” he reminded her.

“But I thought Arthur was from Pendragon.”

“Many worlds claimed him as their own.”

“What else do you know about these Arcturians?” she asked.

“It was said that on Arcturus lived a race of ancient ones who possessed Goddess-like powers.”

“But?” she prodded, sensing more.

“Supposedly, these Arcturians had lost their humanity. They weren’t cruel, just cold, methodical, careful, and indifferent
to the concerns of the rest of the galaxy.”

She didn’t like the sound of this legend at all. “If the Arcturians are so indifferent, what do they want with us?”

“I don’t even know if this world is the same one from the legend. But I doubt anyone would go to all the trouble to bring
us here if they meant us harm.”

She disagreed. Perhaps she was simply too suspicious, but she couldn’t make such an assumption. Those machines hadn’t invited
them to come. They’d herded them here.

“How do you know this isn’t a Tribe world?”

Jordan shrugged. “If the Tribes have the kind of technology that can take control of the
Draco’
s engines, then we’ve already lost.”

She locked gazes with him. “We can’t give up.”

“We won’t.” Blue fire blazed in his eyes. A muscle in his cheek vibrated. His shoulders squared with determination.

“Conditions on Earth are growing more dire by the day,” she said. “We need to find the last key, go after the Grail, and return
home before there’s nothing left to return to.”

“I’m doing my best,” Jordan said in a soft voice so the others couldn’t hear. Then he turned to the crew and requested, “Status
report.”

“We can’t breathe the air without spacesuits,” Gray said. “Gravity’s within our normal limits. But there may be hyperspace
frequencies our sensors can’t identify.”

“Can you be more specific?” Vivianne asked.

“Remember the energy from your prototype?” Gray reminded her, as if she could have forgotten. “Well, those kind of energies
are all over this planet.”

Vivianne scratched her head. The
Draco’
s sensors might not have the sophistication to track her prototype’s hyperspace frequency, but suppose other races out here
could? Had her communications through hyperspace drawn attention? Was this delay her fault? Or was it merely coincidence that
these people used the same kind of energy as her hypercommunicator?

“The atmosphere just changed,” Gray reported. “It’s now within very suitable parameters for human life.”

“Were our former readings wrong?” Vivianne asked.

Gray shook his head. “I know it sounds impossible, but… someone changed the atmosphere.”

“Who does that? Who changes the air of an entire world to make us more comfortable?” Vivianne’s voice rose in astonishment.

Jordan’s attention focused on his data pad. “We just passed through high-altitude orbital space. They’re taking the
Draco
down to the surface.”

Clouds covered most of the planet. But from this height above Earth she would have seen signs of civilization. The Great Wall
of China. Lights from the big cities, London, New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo. Ancient petroglyphs in China, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan.

But these Arcturians didn’t seem to build great cities, or bridges or roads. She caught sight of sweeping farmlands that dotted
the countryside, and little else. They landed gently on a grassy hillside that overlooked a large, perfectly circular lake.

“The two dragonshapers will exit,” the alien voice ordered them over the
Draco’
s speaker system.

“I’ll get the Ancient Staff,” Jordan murmured. “You might want to pack a few things.”

“I’m on it.” Her voice might have remained calm, but aliens had just ordered them to leave the relative safety of their ship.
They’d issued orders she and Jordan couldn’t refuse. And a shiver of fear shimmied down her back.

“Don’t forget food and water,” he reminded her.

And platinum and hydrogen. She had yet to replenish her platinum supply since she’d used up her energy reserves on Tempest.
His reminder set her in motion.

Fifteen minutes later, she met Jordan at the hatch. “How do they know we’re dragonshapers?” she asked.

“If their scanners are as sophisticated as those cubes that retrieved us, they’ve already downloaded our entire database.”

She gasped. “That would mean they know all about Earth, Pendragon, and Honor, our capabilities and science, our history, our
language.”

“Only if they’ve read everything. And that would take some time.” Jordan took her hand. “Let’s assume they mean us no harm
until they prove otherwise.”

Vivianne patted the laser weapon strapped into her belt. She hoped Jordan’s assessment was correct, but she would draw her
own conclusions. At least Jordan wasn’t arguing for her to stay behind—although she suspected he would have if given the choice.
The hatch hissed open and she strode out beside Jordan. A field of golden grasses stretched as far as the eye could see, and
the placid lake was so large, they couldn’t determine what was on the other side. Along the sandbanks, the greenish water
lapped quietly in the gentle breeze.

Only one metal cube remained beside their ship, and its mechanical voice sounded exactly as it had through the
Draco’
s speakers. “The Key of Soil will be yours if your hearts are true.”

The Key of Soil? How could this machine know about the third key? That information wasn’t in the computer databanks. And how
would anyone determine what was in their hearts? A shiver of ice wound down her spine. This was just weird.