Authors: Aubrie Dionne
“Sir, the DNA matches.”
Barliss snatched the invisible object in his pinched fingers. A hair from her head. It had to be. He dangled it in front of Striker’s face, a glint of auburn. “Want to explain this?”
Striker spat on the ground.
Barliss cocked his laser gun at Striker’s foot. “If you don’t tell me where she is, you’ll be a one-legged man.”
Aries knew Barliss would fire, and she tensed as his finger curled around the trigger. Striker stood, ready to die for her, and it was all her fault. Just a few days ago, she wouldn’t have given up her freedom for anything in the world, and now, one man had changed her entire purpose by working his way into her heart.
Striker remained placid, as if Barliss only threatened to call him a nasty name. “You’ll never have her.”
“No!” Aries screamed, darting out from the crevice, keeping her gaze riveted on Striker as she ran toward him. “Let him go.”
The distraction gave Striker enough time to knock the laser gun out of Barliss’ hand and elbow Langston in the throat. The man doubled over, and Striker pulled free.
The hovercrafts’ engines revved as she changed direction and ran, racing across the sand to a rock pile blocking the narrow ravine. She ducked underneath a boulder and slid through a tight place between two rocks.
If she could get to the other side, she could make a run for it and meet up with Striker back at the ship. As she wiggled free of the rocks, one of the hoverships flew over her head, blocking the sun. Barliss stood on its prow, aiming the ultrasonic tranquilizer ray.
Aries had no choice. If she hid in the rocks, they’d find her eventually, but if she reached the adjacent cliff, she could hide in the shadows and follow the ledge until she reached a better hiding place. She dashed across the open space, hoping his aim was worse than his temper.
A laser hit the ground by her feet, spraying sand into her eyes. Another hit the ridge above her. Aries zigzagged, hoping she wasn’t an easy target. A third laser hit her square in the back, throwing her down and knocking the air out of her lungs. Lying on her stomach, Aries clawed at the sand with her fingernails, but the shock of the stun gun spread through her body, paralyzing her limbs. As it reached her neck, her eyes blurred and the world spun.
“Striker,” she mouthed as she writhed in the sand. She hoped he’d managed to escape. Her heart broke as she realized she’d never see him again.
“Well done, Lieutenant Barliss. You’ve succeeded in yet another mission, demonstrating the highest levels of excellence.” Commander Gearhardt pressed a panel on his hoverchair, and the device brought him within arm’s reach. He placed a pasty hand with blue veins on Barliss’ shoulder. “Welcome back to the
New Dawn
.”
Barliss was surprised and honored the commander chose to attend the initial welcoming ceremony as the search and rescue ships unloaded their cargo and the last of the lithium. “Thank you, Commander. It’s only under your guidance such success can be achieved.”
The commander smiled so openly, it reminded Barliss of the time he’d watched Gearhardt from afar as the old man had listened to a chorus sing the praises of the Guide. “No lives were lost, you found Miss Ryder, and we managed to mine enough fuel to make up for the
New Dawn
’s lost time.”
Behind them, men attached harnesses to the animals they’d brought aboard, elephantine mammals with tentacles instead of trunks.
“You’ve found a few more species to add to our food supply.” The commander signaled to the men with a salute of his frail hand. “Our chief biologist is working on a way to breed them as we speak.”
One of the beasts reared on its hind legs, and a man fell off its back to the floor. Three others ran to his aid and tugged the beast away. Barliss turned his back on the scene. He didn’t need any more reminders of his least-favorite planet in the universe.
“Are you certain we shouldn’t stay another day to glean extra resources, Commander?” Barliss had never before proposed anything to the commander concerning objectives, but he didn’t like the idea of leaving that renegade pirate free, even if he was deserted with no ship. When Barliss had recognized a strand of Aries’ hair on that lowlife’s chest, terrible thoughts had flitted through his mind, murderous cravings that he couldn’t shake.
Although the life scanners said Aries was unharmed and untouched, he knew what that pirate had wanted. Barliss wanted to track him down and rip his arms off so he could never steal his future wife again. The fact that Aries had called out to help the pirate angered him even more. He’d have to deal with her rebellious nature when she woke up.
“We have enough fuel to make it to Paradise 21 with extra reserves. We’ve spent enough time off course.”
“Yes, sir, we have. Too much time, in fact.” Barliss had little choice but to agree with such a direct decision from the commander.
The commander’s bright eye winked at him so quickly no one else in the room could see. “However, it’s encouraging to see a lieutenant with such noble concerns.”
“You are too complimentary, sir.”
“And you, too modest.” The commander leaned back in the cushions around his head. He looked as though being away from the mainframe and disconnected to its life-preserving energies weakened him. The chair buzzed and rose higher before turning to the elevator shaft to the higher decks. “Your efforts do not go unnoticed.” With one finger raised in salute, he rode away.
Barliss sighed, releasing the emotions he’d been keeping in throughout the conversation. Usually he played the tunes of conversation like Chopin struck keys on the piano, but with the commander, he felt like an amoeba underneath a microscope. Someday the old man would see through his façade and realize his favorite lieutenant wasn’t as strong, sharp-witted, or noble as everyone thought.
Barliss flexed his shoulders. For now, he was safe. His career rose by solid increments each day. He had Aries back, and he could use the lithium discovery to frame this mission as a personal success instead of a personal humiliation. Smoothing over the front of his uniform, he walked over to the scout ship and watched as a crystal cylinder floated on air down the ramp, guarded by a team of medics.
A member of the medical team held a life scanner connected to the cylinder by a cord. Barliss stopped them before they could pass. He peered inside the glass, but the foggy lid obscured any details. All he could see was the silhouette of auburn hair splayed out like a sleeping beauty.
“Dr. Pern, is it? How’s she doing?”
The head doctor looked up at him as if he intruded on a conversation between her and her readings. She flicked her finger over the touchscreen and the monitor changed to strings of numbers that had no meaning to him.
“My apologies, Lieutenant. I’m quite busy right now. I’ll provide a report within the hour.”
Behind them, the engines ignited as the
New Dawn
broke free of the planet’s gravitational pull. The floor shook under their feet as the intercom came on with a low static buzz. They stood in observance, listening to the incoming message.
“All officers on deck. Prepare to leave orbit.”
The doctor cocked an eyebrow as if to prod him into action, but Barliss stood his ground. “Her status, Doctor, if I may.”
“She’s dehydrated and sunburned, but otherwise her condition is stable.”
“Good. When will she be awake?”
“The stun laser hit her square in the back at close proximity.” She gave him a frown of disapproval as if she knew he’d fired it. “It will take another four or five hours for the brunt of the effects to wear away. Even then, she may not be able to discern her surroundings or stand up and walk around for another twenty-four hours at best.”
“Excellent.” Barliss couldn’t hide his pleasure and didn’t try. “By then, we’ll be far away from Sahara 354.”
…
As Striker crested the dune, long cables detached from the ground all around him, rising to holes in the spaceship’s underbelly, like tentacles retracting into a jellyfish.
“Damn it to hell!” he shouted, then wheezed, gripping a muscle cramp in his side. His legs burned from running through thick sand, chasing the ships as they’d sailed away. He’d tried to hold their pace with the hope of overtaking one before they headed back to space to join their mothership, but the desert had held him back.
He’d want to leap up and grip one of the cables, but the holes in the ship were too small for him to climb into, even if he’d succeeded. He’d fall to his death when the last of the metal disappeared.
A sense of helplessness washed over him. The thought of the man in charge having Aries made Striker’s blood rage like he’d been infected with a disease. Finally, he grasped the extent of the horror she ran from. He understood her desperation and the totality of the sacrifice she’d made to save him.
Collapsing in the sand, he watched the last vessel rise, stirring up mushrooms of dust in the engines’ wake. His heart went with it, the growing distance tearing it from his chest. No matter what he’d said, his loyalty to Aries ran deeper than mere comradeship and mutual interests, and her last act proved it beyond a doubt. If such unconditional love existed, then she was his. To have her ripped from him by a monster of a man was beyond cruel. As the ship became smaller and smaller, he reached his hand up to the sky, as if he could grasp it in his palm and drag it back down. The impossibility of all the obstacles between them clogged his brain and battered his logic so he could hardly breathe.
Overcome with grief and frustration, he pounded his fists into the ground until the skin grew red and raw. He’d find a way to get her back. He could finish restoring the alien ship. Thanks to Aries, he had the final piece he needed, and he’d get it to fly. Then, all he had to do was find the
New Dawn
. Aries had said they were traveling to a paradise planet, but that could be anywhere in the unending vastness of space—another impossible obstacle.
Perhaps they’d left behind a clue to their coordinates. Striker looked over the dunes like a desert wanderer searched for an oasis, but the windblown sand covered all tracks in seconds, and he knew they’d never leave behind a map or a skychart.
Frustrated, Striker clenched sand in his fists, the particles falling in a stream around his legs. His thoughts flew in overdrive, each one banging against metal doors. The
New Dawn
would be gone in seconds and leave no trail. So how could he track them?
The answer came to him so suddenly, Striker shot up from the ground as if he’d heard ten sandworms screech in chorus. Aries had left her locator on the alien ship. If he could reverse the frequencies, he could follow the homing beacon back to the
New Dawn
.
The colony ship was now a small speck in the sky, like the glint off the wing of a silver bird. The farther it flew, the slimmer the chances of establishing a connection. Striker threw himself down the dune so fast he almost toppled head over boots. Regaining his balance, he sprinted to the alien wreck. The smaller sun rose at his back as the colossal giant set in front of him, blinding his path with its glorious sunset.
The white column of the alien ship’s communications tower protruded from the sand like a fallen obelisk. Striker wiped the windblown grit off the hatch and traced the correct hieroglyph to enter. Seconds ticked away as the platform rose.
He could no longer spot any ships in the sky. They must have breached the final layers of atmosphere into space. The hatch opened, and the platform appeared. Striker jumped down, boots stomping on the floor. As the floor beneath his feet glided down, he thought of all the possible ways to reactivate the locator. A sliver of doubt stung his confidence and he pushed it away. He could decode anything, even the controls to an alien ship—he’d be able to rework a simple homing beacon.
The locator sat, untouched, in the corner of the table where he’d discarded it after dislodging the cuff from Aries’ arm. Striker dug up all his tools, spreading them across the table like a sea of odd treasures. His hand shook as he opened the control box and prodded the wires inside, too aware that he held his only existing tie to Aries in the palm of his hand. One false move would ruin it forever. After running his fingers over the scratches his tools had caused, he carefully reinserted the energy cell.
The green light flickered on and then off again, a distant heartbeat revived. Striker used pinpricks to type in commands on the device’s tiny touchscreen. Like anything digital, it had codes, and any code could be manipulated or cracked.
Memories from his childhood came back to him, long nights spent huddled in the heat of the air shaft with his father, playing intricate puzzle games with strings of numbers. “Find the patterns,” his father whispered in his ear with immense patience, “and follow it through.”
His frustration would grow as his father sat beside him, encouraging him to solve the riddle, calming his aggravation. “The fabric of time and space is all connected, like a giant being, and you must find those correlations if you’re to ever work your way out of this station.”
He’d work his way toward Aries now. Within moments, Striker cracked the code. The device beeped once, then the light flicked on and off in a rhythmic pulse. The beacon had latched onto a similar signal from the
New Dawn
’s mainframe computer. The device gave him a litany of numbers and letters ending with the most important five digits in Striker’s world: the coordinates of the flight path of the
New Dawn
.