Lost Planet 02 - The Stolen Moon (18 page)

The voice that answered was a loud, angry blare, and Chase clutched his ear as the translink boomed a translation. “Someone on your ship is launching a hacker attack on our firewalls as we speak. The first one was a warning shot to get your attention. You have one minute to make it stop or we will annihilate your vessel.”

Parker.
Chase looked at Lilli, eyes wide, and with a nod she vanished.

“Get the boy,” Ksenia growled in a low tone. In a louder voice, she said, “Be reasonable. You
know
me. We've worked together. We'll investigate your concerns—”

“Fifty seconds!”

Footsteps were running out of the control cabin already. Chase turned and leapt at the back of the closet, racing through the inside of the walls until he burst through the velveteen panels of the sitting room.

Lilli was already there, pulling on one side of the computer. “You have to stop!” she shouted. “They're going to kill us!”

“Just let me do this!” yelled Parker. “I'm already through the first firewall!”

Chase reached between the two of them, phasing between their arms, and tried to grab the computer. His hands phased uselessly through it.
Focus!
he screamed at himself, and just like that, his hands latched onto the metal frame.

Parker glared at him from the other side of the computer, trembling and white with a rage that Chase had never seen before. He yanked it toward himself again just as a handful of Federation Guards came through the door. Lilli moved away, but Chase and Parker stood frozen as a Guard raised his handblaster and fired a short blast at their hands.

“Ouch!” roared Parker as the computer crashed to the floor. Chase stumbled back, rubbing his numb hands.

“What are you doing?” Maurus pushed past the Guards. “Did you just fire at
children
?” He pulled his own weapon and pointed it at the computer.

Before he could fire, a monstrous roar tore through the ship, and everything and everyone was flying, falling, the ship around them shaking like the rage of an angry giant. The first thing Chase saw once the room had stopped spinning was Lilli, staring down at him and crying. He peeled himself off the floor and put his arm around her. Maurus was already beside them, helping Parker to his feet.

They hurried past the dazed, groaning Guards sprawled across the sitting room floor and ran down the hallway. Maurus waved them toward another doorway and into a room filled with rows of passenger-style seating. “Don't look out the window,” he commanded.

Of course it was impossible not to look after he'd said that, but Chase immediately regretted it. The green horizon of Rhima stood sideways as the ship hurtled in an uncontrolled fall toward the moon's surface. Because the ship's gravity generator was still working, they couldn't feel a thing, but the sight made Chase instantly dizzy.

“I said don't look,” snapped Maurus. He pushed Parker into a seat and hit a lever beside it, and a five-point harness popped out around him. As he helped Parker fasten the straps around his chest, Chase made Lilli sit down and did the same for her. He pushed Maurus away when he tried to help. “I'll be fine. Go save the ship.”

Maurus hesitated a moment. “Stay with them,” he commanded. Another explosion hit as he turned around, throwing him to his knees and filling the room briefly with light from a brilliant white fire outside the windows. Smoke poured in from the hall as Maurus stumbled from the room.

“Please buckle in, Chase,” said Lilli, tears streaming down her face. It was a futile action—he would be thrown right through the harness when they crashed. Still, he sank into the seat beside her and fumbled with the straps.

A deep shudder ran through the ship. Outside the window, the horizon slowly tipped back to a level plane, but they were still plummeting toward the moon. An unsteady rocking motion tipped the entire ship back and forth, and the engines screamed in deceleration.

“I'm sorry,” came Parker's choked voice over the roar of the engines. He gripped the straps of his harness with white knuckles. “This is my fault.”

The engines whined even higher, creating a vibration that rattled the walls, but they seemed to be slowing as the ship neared the surface. Squeezing Lilli's hand, Chase couldn't stop himself from watching out the window as it came closer and closer, holding his breath for the second when they would make contact. It came with a deafening crunch of metal, and they all went lunging forward in their seats. Chase popped right out of his harness like he'd expected and fell to the floor, rolling through several rows of chairs with a series of grunts as Lilli's screams—and possibly Parker's?—rang out. The
Falconer
skidded across the landscape, sliding around out of control but gradually slowing down. Finally the entire vehicle lurched up on one side slightly before falling flat with a final crash.

For a moment, no one said anything.

“I cannot. Believe. We're alive.” Parker dropped his head forward, still clutching the harness.

Chase sat up, his head still spinning, and started to crawl back toward the others.

The door slid open, and Vidal and Derrick rushed in. “Oh, thank the stars, he put you in here,” wheezed Vidal. “Come on, we have to go. Petrod's going to fire again.”

Before Chase could argue, the officers hustled them from their seats and ran with them down the hallway, while all around staffers and crew frantically gathered what they could. At the exit, the door was locked.

“Unlock the door!” shouted Vidal. No one was listening. Derrick pulled a blaster from his belt and fired at the lock mechanism, kicking between each blast. Vidal did the same, timing with him, and after half a dozen blasts, the door began to come loose. They pushed it out far enough to almost squeeze through, but not enough.

“There's a brace bar on the outside blocking it!” shouted Vidal. She hurled herself at the crack, but even her tiny frame couldn't fit. She looked to Lilli, but before she could ask, Chase grabbed the blaster from her hand and leapt at the crack, his skin tingling where he had to phase through the metal.

He landed on pebbly ground and wheeled around. A thick metal bar held the door tight to the vehicle, but it took only one shot with the blaster to knock it away and the door fell away onto the ground.

Derrick swept Lilli into his arms and jumped down, Parker right beside him. Vidal still stood inside the ship, looking down at them. “Run!” she shouted, motioning away from the
Falconer
. She looked back inside the vehicle, and an anxious look crossed her face.

“Come on!” yelled Derrick.

She turned back, eyebrows scrunched. “I can't—”

The missile hit so fast, Chase didn't even hear it coming. It struck somewhere on the other side of the ship, filling the air with an earsplitting thunder. The shock wave tore through him, strong enough that he fell back onto the ground. Struggling to sit up, he saw Lilli, Parker, and Derrick all lying dazed. Vidal had been thrown past them, and lay in a groaning heap on the ground. Derrick was at her side immediately.

“Maurus!” she screamed, fighting to get back to her feet.

Federal Guards and staff came stumbling out of the ship, shocked and bleeding. Ksenia appeared, confused, her dark hair half undone and tumbling into her face.

But no Maurus.

Before anyone could stop him, Chase took a running leap back into the
Falconer
, sprinting down the hallway. Smoke hung thick in the air, and so, eyes burning, he ran at a crouch, covering his mouth with his sleeve. Another missile might not hurt him, but if he dropped dead of smoke inhalation, he wouldn't do anyone any good.

He came upon Maurus so suddenly that he nearly tripped on him. He was lying on the floor outside the control deck, one shoulder of his uniform burned away. Chase dropped to Maurus's side, shaking his good shoulder.

Groggily Maurus responded, pushing himself to his knees to crawl down the hall inch by painful inch with Chase's help. By the time they made it back to the exit, Chase was dizzy from smoke and had no idea how Maurus was even still going. They fell out of the ship and into the waiting hands of Derrick and several Federation Guards, who held them up as they hobbled away from the smoking wreck.

Two more missiles hit, right on top of the other, and the
Falconer
exploded behind them. Most people hit the ground automatically, but the Guard on Chase's right was still standing, and took a chunk of debris in the back of his leg. He fell with a grunt. Ears ringing, Chase looked around the chaotic, smoky scene, frantic until he saw Parker and Lilli huddled together. Vidal scrabbled across the ground, ash and tears streaking her face, and nearly tackled Maurus, sobbing into his chest. Maurus pressed his face into her hair, holding her tightly with his one good arm.

Feeling like he was intruding on something private, Chase looked away. Across the way, Ksenia sat, stunned, while one of her staffers mopped blood off her forehead with a torn-up jacket.

“They can't do this,” she said faintly, staring at the flames licking the smoldering ruins of the
Falconer
. “I have diplomatic immunity.”

“I don't think that counts for much here,” muttered Maurus as he plucked up the burned edge of his jacket, hissing at the long burn that ran down his arm, pink layers of skin already peeling back.

“We need to try to contact the Fleet,” said Vidal, wiping at her face and straightening up.

“With what?” Derrick gestured at the
Falconer
. “We're stranded with no comms.”

As they debated, Chase crossed the area and knelt beside his sister. “Are you okay?”

She gave him a somber look. “I'm not hurt, but I'm pretty much reading your lips right now.”

“My ears are ringing too.” Chase looked around at the flat, green landscape—all low rocks and pebbles covered in something like moss. Terraforming had made it possible for them to stand on the surface of the moon and breathe its air, but from what he could see it was nothing more than a barren wasteland. Just above the far horizon, a long, ghostly sliver of massive Storros hung suspended in a sky the gray of twilight.

“We're totally stranded,” said Parker. He looked at Lilli. “I don't suppose you can find us a ride out of here?”

She arched a thin eyebrow at him. “It's not like calling a jettaxi.”

“I guess we just wait until we all starve, or the Werikosa come back to kill us.”

“They're not going to come after us anymore,” said Chase. “They just wanted to wreck our ship.”

“You're right,” said Parker in a flat voice. He picked up a pebble and threw it hard, almost hitting the smoking hulk of the crashed ship. “I'm sure they'll keep us around long enough to watch the Fleet blow the
Kuyddestor
out of the sky.”

 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A thick column of black smoke rose from the wreckage of the
Falconer
. They were sitting a good hundred meters away, but Chase could still feel waves of heat coming off its twisted, fire-licked frame. A few people spoke quietly in small groups, while others sat staring at the horizon, obviously still in shock. Maurus lay on his side on the rocky terrain, grimacing as Vidal and Derrick examined his wounded shoulder.

Vidal got to her feet, looking around the group of stunned survivors. “Is everyone accounted for?”

Ksenia nodded as she joined their group. “Yes. Most of the
Falconer
's crew were androids, fortunately.” She had walked over to the crest of a low hill to look at the horizon. Pushing her hair back from her blood-crusted forehead, she said, “I have a rough idea where we are. There's a gravity mineworks that we should be able to walk to. We'll be able to find food and water and communications there. It's…” She paused and frowned before waving her arm vaguely toward the darkening horizon. “It's somewhere in that direction.”

Parker gave a half-laugh. “I don't suppose you thought to grab a locator off the ship before it blew up.”

“
You
.” Narrowing her eyes, Ksenia towered over him in her torn maroon suit. “I don't want to hear a word from you. The
Kuyddestor
wouldn't have attacked us if it weren't for you. This is all your fault.”

Parker scowled up at her. “I was getting past the firewalls. I was doing more than anyone else.”

“You were deliberately provoking the hijackers.
I
was running the mission. It was my decision to make whether we took offensive action or not.”

“We asked your permission to get on a networked computer,” hissed Maurus from where he lay on the ground. “You just didn't think Parker would be capable of breaching their security.”

“Of course not!” cried Ksenia.

Vidal jumped in. “The Werikosa would have attacked us eventually. They were looking for any excuse.”

“No they weren't,” insisted Ksenia, pushing her hair back in an agitated manner. “They wouldn't have attacked us if they hadn't felt threatened.” She turned back to Parker. “You brought that attack on us. You did that to him.” She pointed at Maurus's raw, red shoulder.

Parker stared at the ugly wound, momentarily lost for words. For a moment Chase was torn between wanting to defend him, and not wanting to anger Ksenia before he even got a chance to talk to her.

“Leave him alone,” growled a scratchy voice. Lilli crouched on the outskirts of the group, glaring at Ksenia through narrowed eyes. “It happened, and it's over, and finger pointing isn't going to change anything. At least we're alive.”

One of the
Falconer
's pilots, whose broken arm hung in a sling, asked, “But for how much longer?”

No one answered, and the only sound was the flickering of flames and metallic creaks as the remains of the
Falconer
fell apart. Maurus pushed himself up on one elbow, stifling a gasp. “For now let's focus on getting to the mineworks. Are we talking about far as in a day's walk, or more than that?”