Nebula's Music (11 page)

Home Run

Nebula and Radian followed Kale through the chaos that was once the Gryphonites’ most productive power mine with Mora positioned between them, her arms around their shoulders. Slaves scurried everywhere, stealing laser guns, tipping over barrels of minerals and throwing their picks into the grinding teeth of the machines. It felt like judgment day. Nebula could not get out of there soon enough.

They trailed a mass exodus of slaves through the cavern and to a labyrinth of tunnels leading out like mice from a den. Behind her, Nebula could hear the machine sputtering as the freed slaves battered the hull with crowbars and rusty hammers. She sensed the contraption was going to explode any minute. Even if they ran meters away, the blast could follow them through the tunnels to sear their backs. Nebula pushed as hard as Mora could stand.

“Over here. Down this way!” Kale waved his hand above the wiry bodies and greasy heads. His tube hair stuck out against the backdrop of sand and stone like a rare sea creature lost in a desert.

Nebula checked on Mora. It seemed like her sister was falling in and out of consciousness, her lids closing and re-opening to reveal the whites as the pupils rolled around.

“Wait!” Nebula called to Kale. She gestured for Radian to help her place Mora against the back of the tunnel wall. Slaves ran back and forth, making it difficult to find a space where they wouldn’t be trampled. She gripped Mora’s face in her hands. “Can you hear me?”

Mora’s eyes flickered and her lips trembled. “Too much…”

Nebula clutched Radian’s arm. “Help me lift her onto my back. I will carry her.”

Radian nodded and hefted Mora’s body. Nebula secured her sister’s arms around her neck and stood like she held a bundle of feathers. They wove in and out of the chaos to reach the tunnel Kale had instructed they follow.

An explosion erupted behind them, sending a rolling cloud of sand and soot. Blinded by the debris, they crouched down and rested. Each second that flew by made Nebula’s anxiety grow. What if the Gryphonites blocked all the entrances to the surface? She didn’t think she could fight holding Mora, and her sister seemed to be mentally slipping away.

When the dust settled, they made their way over to Kale’s chosen tunnel. The Frigian looked stern, as if he’d been waiting for hours. “We don’t have much time.”

Nebula shot him a gaze that could have leveled a building. “I will not leave her behind.”

“She’s as good as gone.” Although his words had no kindness in them, Kale’s eyes held a timeless sadness beyond his years.

Nebula stepped forward, her face inches from his. “I am the pilot. They are not going to leave without me.”

Kale stared for a moment before taking a step back. “All right, all right. Come on. Let’s hope Max can hold out.”

They followed Kale through a series of intersecting corridors that seemed to delve deeper into the earth. Nebula thought she’d never see the light of day again. Radian remained a constant shadow at her side, and Mora’s breath pulsed lightly against her hair.

Just as Nebula was about to ask where they were going, a beam of sunlight illuminated the path ahead. Kale looked over his shoulder and released a toothy grin. “Just what Max’s maps said.”

He led them up a steep incline to a plateau, across which mass slaves dashed in a last ditch attempt at freedom. For each one freed, another was plucked from the earth by a flying Gryphonite. Some prisoners shot lasers at the sky, but there were too many birdmen to hold them all back.

Kale adjusted his own laser. “We’re going to have to run fast. The ships are just beyond that ridge.”

Nebula gripped Mora’s arms against her chest. “I am ready.” With a longing look at Radian, she followed Kale in a mad sprint across the open plain.

Suddenly, a Gryphonite flew over head, casting a shadow on the burnt-red sand. Radian and Kale ducked. Nebula looked up, prepared to place Mora down and fight, but the birdman flew over them and dropped a metallic ball in front of their passage.

“Find cover!” Kale dragged Nebula as she hoisted Mora higher on her back.

“Radian?” Nebula shouted.

“I’m right here, Nebula.” In such a hectic moment, she took comfort from Radian’s voice.

Just as they jumped down a ridge, an explosion spewed rock salt and minerals over them. Kale and Radian coughed as Nebula turned her concern to Mora. She laid her sister in the shadow of a ledge and cradled her body like an infant against her breasts.

Kale jumped up to the ledge. “Stay here. I’ll scout another way around.” Before anyone could protest, he disappeared over the rocks.

Radian gave her a nod. “Nebula, tend to Mora. I’ll keep guard.” He squeezed her shoulder and ran to the rim, peering over with his laser ready to strike.

“Mora,” Nebula whispered in her ear. “Can you hear me?”

Mora’s eyelids flitted like dying butterflies. “I can’t help it. I’m fading away.”

“No, Mora. You must endure. We are almost to the rescue ship.”

But Mora’s will faded like a shadow at midday. Her head swayed. She craned her neck and opened her eyes. “I know now you are not Mirilee.” Her words were weak, but the intent strong.

Nebula could only hold her close. She had no idea how to respond. “I am sorry.”

“There is no need.” Mora coughed in ragged outbursts, her lips wet with blood. “You have a kindness to you and an innocence Mirilee never had.” She smiled, as if remembering. “She was bold and proud. I knew my sister well enough to assume she would rather kill herself than be captured.” Her eyes looked to the sky, “I remember now. I saw her jump into the waters of the lake.” Her gaze traveled back to Nebula. “Perhaps she was right.”

“No, we came to rescue you. There is so much for you to live for.”

“Not with this poisoned body.” Mora’s eyelids drooped. “The darkness presses in.”

“Do not surrender to it!” Nebula’s voice broke on her words. She clutched Mora to her chest. “I need you to live.”

“I heard Radian say your name.” Mora smiled as if picturing a bright sunny day. “Nebula.”

Nebula felt her check grow warm like the sun shining on them in the ditch. “That is right. I came for you, Mora. I want to be a sister to you, just like Mirilee was.”

Mora’s words were so soft Nebula had to bend down and enhance her audio input to listen. “Dear Nebula, I cannot stay with you much longer. But I want you to know I do accept you as you are, and I would love you just the same.” She coughed, her breathing ragged.

“No.” Nebula scrunched her fingers into fists. “You cannot go.”

Mora went limp in her arms and her glassy eyes stared at the sky.

“No!” Nebula’s cry rang out, echoing off the cliff tops and throughout the canyons. Although her logic told her that Mora was gone, her heart refused to believe it.

Radian whipped around from his lookout point and ran to her side. “She’s passed on.” His face was drawn in a solemn reverie. “We came too late.”

Nebula could not tear her gaze away from her fallen sister. “She was the only family I had.” She felt like she had lost control, her body shaking and heaving with emotion. If she tried to contain it, her heart would surely explode.

“Nonsense.” Radian’s voice was so stern he silenced her sobs. She turned her head to him and saw intensity in his gaze. “You are a part of my family and you always will be.”

Nebula allowed Radian to take her into his arms. She cried into his shoulder, but it was not all tears of despair. Mingled with the sadness was an underlying spark of hope. In one moment she’d felt so alone, like a single star in a vast universe of black holes. Now she knew she wasn’t alone. Radian would love her until the very end of time.

Kale peered over the rim of the ridge. His words broke the spell of the moment. “Come on, I’ve found an alternate route to the ship.”

Radian stood, but Nebula remained by Mora’s body, gripping her limp hand.

Kale took a moment from watching the sky overhead to glare at them. “You have to leave her.”

Above their heads, a scout ship whizzed by, collecting stragglers from the mass evacuation. Soon enough, the Gryphonites would locate their hiding place in the crevice.

“Come on, Neb.” Radian tugged on her arm. “We must make it back to the ship to fly the others out of here. We must save as many as we can. There must be proof of the horrors the Gryphonites have created.”

Every logical thought screamed at Nebula to get up and complete the mission as planned, but part of her heart felt tied to Mora. She couldn’t leave her body there without a proper burial.

A war cry careened off the canyons to their right. They’d been spotted by the scout ship and they were calling for reinforcements. Radian put an arm over her shoulders. “I know how you feel. I’m leaving her here too. Please, Nebula, leave her be.”

“I cannot Radian. I have failed.”

“Think about all the others—Eldin, Illena. You can’t save her any longer, but you have a chance to save them.”

Nebula couldn’t refuse. She placed Mora’s hand across her chest and closed her eyes. After taking one last longing glance at her lost sister, she allowed Radian to drag her up. They followed Kale down a steep incline disappearing into a tunnel. The scout ship released a rainfall of nets, the fabric falling uselessly on Mora’s body and crusted sand.

The tunnel emerged on another plateau, adjacent to the one they left. The only problem was this rise had no way of getting down.

“What do we do now?” Radian asked as they stood on the edge of a thirty-foot drop.

Kale untied his backpack and took out a single rope. “We climb.”

“What?” Radian’s brows rose as he peered over the ledge.

“You afraid of heights as well as underground tunnels?”

“No. But we’ll be easy targets.”

“Not if we descend in that shadow over there.” Kale pointed to a narrow crevice formed by the walls of two plateaus.

Radian frowned and took a breath. “What do you think, Neb?”

“I am calculating right now.” Nebula weighed all possibilities. After a moment’s thought, she replied, “It is the only way.”

Kale tied the rope to a rock the size of a small asteroid. He threw the remainder of the length over the incline. “Let’s go.”

Nebula took Radian’s hand. She wanted to tell him everything was going to be all right, but the odds were not in their favor. It would be best to remain silent and allow hope to shine through.

“I love you.” The words flowed from her mouth before she could think and she blushed.

“And I, you.”

“We don’t have time for Romeo and Juliet, guys,” Kale shouted over his shoulder. As if to reiterate his point, a buzzing sound came from the canyon beside them, ringing in the air like an alarm. The scout ship was onto them. With a nod, Kale disappeared over the ledge.

Radian gestured for Nebula to go next. “Ladies first.”

Nebula agreed. One look over her shoulder, she grasped the rope and began her descent. Radian followed her, his rubber-soled boots gripping the rock wall just above her head.

“What if they see the rope?” Nebula shouted to Kale.

“I’ve hidden it underneath a layer of sand.”

The buzzing from the scout ship grew louder as it scoured the ledge, examining all the shady crevices and outcroppings. Nebula hoped Kale knew what he was doing. She was blind to the sky over the ridge as she climbed down, hand over hand.

It took an achingly long amount of time to reach the bottom. Every time the rope jerked, Nebula pictured more of the sand shaking off to reveal their escape route. When she was certain she could bear the weight of the jump, Nebula leaped from the rock. She prayed the silver hull of the scout ship would not peer into their particular crevice. Just as Radian reached the end of the rope, they set off, closing the distance between them and the stolen Warbird.

Scouts were cluttering the sun glazed sky, and their movement lured them in. They had four ships on their heels when they saw Max’s barricade on the horizon. Nebula marveled at Max’s success. He’d been true to his word. Humans armed with lasers fired around a Gryphonite Warbird as the birdmen laid siege.

Ducking behind a ridge, they huddled together while Nebula estimated the distance between them and the Warbird. It was one-hundred fifty-two yards of open territory with scout ships firing nets and Gryphonites flying overhead with lasers.

“You two go first.” Nebula glanced over the ridge. “I will take the rear.”

“I don’t know, Neb.” Radian scratched his head so hard she thought his hair would fall off. “I don’t like the thought of you in the back.”

“I can run the fastest of all of us, and besides, if one of you gets hurt or tangled in the nets, I can pick you up and carry you the rest of the way. That way no one is left behind.”

Nebula watched as Radian cast a glance at Kale. The Frigian shrugged as if to say it wasn’t his decision.

“They do not kill humans.” Nebula reached out to grab his hand. “I will be fine.”

“Okay,” Radian agreed, “but don’t fall too far behind. I’ll only run if you’re with us.”

After catching their breath, Radian and Kale set off at a sprint with Nebula following. They zigzagged in and out of enemy nets as rigging rained from the sky.

Nebula thought they would make it until she saw a Gryphonite hovering in the air over her head. He sputtered back and forth in an awkward, jerking motion and she noticed one wing was splinted together. She recognized his sharp beak and mottled feathers as the Gryphonite she threw over the canyon in the battle upon landing. She hadn’t known the Gryphonites could fly with only one wing.

He raised his laser gun and fired. A shot hit her in the chest just as she realized the Gryphonite must’ve known she wasn’t human. “They do not kill humans,” she heard herself say as she fell back. But she’d been wrong about one thing. She wasn’t human, not anymore. Who was she kidding? She had never been human at all.

“Nebula!” She heard Radian scream her name before her world went black.

* * * *

The piano resonated in the background, filling the hall with haunting tones. Nebula was sprawled on the marble floor in Mirilee’s rhinestone-crusted evening dress. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling, casting a cool glow of flickering light.