Phoenix Rising (Dragon Legacy) (22 page)

Fox was out of bed in a flash, and had Stella pinned up against the wall. The harsh woman snatched the vial from Stella's hand, and held it up in front of her face. Fox was scary with the black circles under her dark, bloodshot eyes, and looked like she was ready to kill someone. Stella's hands felt clammy, and she was simultaneously ashamed and frightened.

“What do you think you're doing?” Fox hissed menacingly.

“Nothing,” Stella answered. “I wasn't going to use it.”

“Really,” Fox grunted and released Stella, who crouched into a ball against the cold, hard wall. Fox squatted on the floor, searching her eyes. “Stella, right?” she asked, and Stella nodded. Fox turned the blue canister over in her hand, inspecting it. “This,” she said as she looked back at Stella, “would kill you if you tried to use it.”

“But I saw you use one just like it!”

Fox laughed, and put the gleaming beacon of mystery back in her knapsack, then closed the flap and secured the strap. Tightly. She shook her head. “Wrong. You saw me use a flushing serum, which gets rid of this stuff.” She smacked the side of the bag.

“But what is it?” Rok asked as he sat down beside her. He was obviously burning with curiosity, and Fox laughed. Mtumba squatted beside him, apparently also eager to join the conversation. Fox looked at them, shook her head, and spoke.

“Okay, listen close, because I'll only say this once.” They nodded, and she continued. “The serums I use would kill you. Any of you. I can only survive the process because I had a...” her eyes got cloudy for a moment, but she continued, “a special predisposition to genetic flexibility. Long story, but all you need to know is that if you'd tried injecting that, you wouldn't look like Father Levi Davenport. You'd look like you...but dead. Claro?”

The kids nodded, and Fox grumbled something as she crawled back into the bunk, and slammed the shade closed. “Now let me sleep, for Kark's sake!” she snapped from behind the thick green curtain. There were grumbles as she shifted around to get comfortable, settling in for some rest. Stella knew she'd finally found the perfect position when she heard a contented sigh that marked the beginning of a restful slumber.

Stella grimaced when Eli sauntered back from the cockpit, leaned through the doorway, and yelled, “We're gettin' close! Should be less than two hours before we pull into port! Make sure you're ready, cause we won't have much time once we land!”

“Two hours?” he asked with mock-seriousness. “No, you have to be ready in less than one hour.” He dodged another pillow, and then looked at Stella. “Wasn't she listening?” he smirked, then whistled his way back to the cockpit.

Stella shook her head. Men.

25

“I can't believe I agreed to do this!” Eli shouted as they snapped out of warp into a storm of dragons, wormholes and Imperial military might. Skippy squealed a series of beeps as something bumped the starboard side of the ship, and Eli cursed. “Hold on tight!” he yelled as he swerved to get out of the way from a squadron of Spearcraft rushing by to intercept a black dragon.

“Keep it down! I'm trying to keep us from getting killed!” Eli snapped as he made a hard turn to avoid hitting a dragon that was being chased by three Spearcraft. The dragon swiveled and ripped one in half, then jumped at the other and swung it against the third.

“Skippy, where’s my side thruster, buddy? Come on, I need it now!” Skippy beeped affirmatively and darted back toward the engine room.

“No! No! No!” Eli chanted as he tried to slide away from the dragon.

“Please,” Stella whispered as she grasped Rok's warm hand. She closed her eyes and clasped her amulet with her free hand. “Please,” she repeated, and felt it pulse once. The sensation was faint, but clear.

Her eyes shot open as the dragon shrieked, and then with a sharp twist of tail and wing, the majestic animal disappeared into the darkness. Stella blinked, but didn't have time to process what had happened as Eli dodged another fracas on their desperate course toward the Prime Citadel.

As Eli captained them through the madness, Stella took a closer look around them. Four Citadels were centered on a fifth that dwarfed those beside it, and they were all being attacked by dragons. Stella knew the largest structure must be the Prime Citadel. There was no other possibility. Still, her mouth was open with awe when she glanced at Mtumba, who had a similar expression.

“Blast, I need to check something,” Eli said as he punched into the news feed. A display came up on the side of the cockpit window, showing a reporter standing in front of the House of Lords on the Prime Citadel. The display was clear, so she obviously wasn't just using her earbud's visual ping system, since most news agencies had external device managers. Behind her, a large crowd held signs and chanted a mishmash of antiwar slogans and epithets about those who voted for the war.

“This is Aylee Hakima with breaking news here on the Prime Citadel, where a large antiwar rally has formed at the gates of the parliamentary lawn. As our brave military battles the dragons overhead, these men and women are claiming that our leaders have been manipulating us into an unjust war, and need to find a better solution.” She was jostled as a protester pushed past her, but Aylee continued.

“The Prime Citadel's peacekeepers have been keeping the crowd under control, but there's rising concern among experts that this could erupt into a full-scale riot. We're at a flash point here. Honestly, Rogers, I've never seen anything like this. Back to you.”

Even as Hakima spoke, reinforcement squads of peacekeepers streamed onto the scene. As soon as their boots hit the flexiphalt, they rushed in to press their shields against the throng, pushing them back from the gates. Some peacekeepers climbed on top of the transport vehicles and aimed large mounted pulse-guns at the crowd. Stun settings, but still strong enough to cause severe disorientation.

What they hadn't foreseen was the panic that would incite. One area of the crowd stampeded away from the blasts, leaving several injured people behind on the ground. The peacekeepers came in and dragged them to a prisoner transport. The conflict quickly began to escalate, and the feed from Hakima went dark.

“Holy Kark! This is absolutely insane!” Eli yelled at the screen. “First dragons and now riots! This changes everything! We can't go in there!”

“It doesn't change anything,” Fox said. “Except that now we'll have better cover for what we need to do.”

“Cover?” Eli said, looking at her incredulously. “You saw what they're doing to those people! It's barbaric! What makes you think we'll be able to keep the kids safe once we get inside?”

“Who said anything about safe? If you want safe, then go hook yourself into a Virtual-Life-Tank. If you've got the credit,” Fox laughed.

“Those are peaceful protesters,” Stella interrupted, looking at him. “Why are the peacekeepers shooting at them? And why are they being arrested?”

“Not the first time that's happened, little sister,” Kita interjected, and Mtumba nodded.

“But why?” Stella cried, mortified at what she saw onscreen. “Don't they know it isn't right?”

Kita sighed, and her voice conveyed deep sadness. “Right for who? Those people are in the way of someone else who has the power to stop them, and doing right doesn't pay the bills for those officers. Far from it, in fact.”

Captain Eli maneuvered them through the increasingly thick ship traffic as they approached the Citadel ports beneath the rim. The fighting was slightly less dense, and Stella noticed that Eli was searching his display, scanning through earbud listings. “Come on, Hamish. Come on. Tell me you're on shift.” The console display flashed, and a wiry freckled Celtsman appeared on the screen.

“Glad to see you, Eli,” the man grinned though a thick brogue. “How'd you make it past the dragons? You know what? Never mind. I don't want to know. You picked a heckuva day to pay us a visit, boyo. I take it you're lookin' for some clear docking, eh?”

“A nice, safe hangar if you can swing it,” Eli smiled.

Hamish chuckled, then yelled and hit his computer. “Good luck with that! Just don't tell me you've got another shipment of bobble-heads in yer hold...”

“No,” Eli blushed, his face turning serious as he turned to look at Kita. “This is important.”

Hamish nodded, clucking his tongue, and an icon blinked on Eli's screen. “Good man, good man...here, I've got one hangar open...but it could be tricky getting out of it. Lots of demonstrators today. Not lettin' up, either. Some riots already startin' in a few spots after that stunt the peacekeepers just pulled in front of the House of Lords. Could be a risky run for that rusty old ship of yours...”

“Easy there, Hamish. Slowpoke and I go way back,” he said with an affectionate pat on the dashboard. Skippy beeped, and Eli craned his neck to smile reassuringly at his little friend. “Well, of course you'll always be my number-one buddy, Skippy.” That seemed to make the boisterous airbot happy, and he gave a satisfied beep.

“No worries,” Hamish interjected. “I'm sure this won't be a raging disaster like last time, will it? No, you always bring good luck with ya...” Then he tapped his ear and the connection went dark.

As they pulled in to port, Stella could already tell the protests had spread like wildfire, and the hangar next to theirs had smoke coming out of it. Eli grimaced with a furrowed brow, and glanced at Kita. “This is gonna be messy. You sure about this?”

“When isn't life messy?” Kita asked.

Eli set Slowpoke down with a hydraulic hiss. The ship settled into landed position with a slight bounce from the four support legs, coming to rest in a hangar cluttered with tubes and old machinery. Eli looked back at Fox, and said, “Okay, let's get that message decrypted.”

“I can't do it from here,” she frowned. I've got a hack that'll let me into the system, but I have to look at it from inside, and that means getting past the cloistered server vault that the military uses to house all their restricted data.

“What?” Eli asked, but Fox held up her hand.

“I have to get inside their faraday cage,” she explained. “Unless you've got a better idea?” she asked with a smirk.

Eli cursed. “No. I just don't want us in the middle of...well, that.” He pointed at the chaos that was coming into focus through the street windows around the hangar. It looked like mass hysteria.

“We?” Fox chided. “No way! I'm going in by myself!” She glanced over at Kita. “I work better that way. I swear. Just...trust me. I'll send the files when I have them. Here,” she said, and handed Stella a small display projector. “Stella, I have a direct link set up with that, so the instant I decrypt the file, I'll stream it right to you, okay?”

Mtumba chimed in. “And while you're doing that, we can find old John.” He smiled at Rok and Stella. “He should be here on the Citadel, right?”

“Hold on. Hold on, kids,” Eli said. “You can't just run in there without a plan! We don't know for sure if the High King's even on this Citadel! I didn't hear anything about that on the news...”

“But he has to be! I just...I know he is!” Stella huffed, flustered, but Rok and Mtumba nodded their support. “Come on, guys. Let's find him!” She said as she got up and walked toward the rear exit.

Rok and Mtumba got up to join her, and Eli cursed as he pulled himself out of his safety harness. “Hey, slow down!” He ran around them to block the exit. “Listen, I get it that you all want to go be a bunch of big heroes, but that's not how it works here in the real world! You've gotta be careful if you want to survive! You have to plan! I mean, just open your eyes! Or your ears! You can hear the riots from here!” Sure enough, in the abrupt silence, Stella heard the rumble of a people in chaos.

Eli groaned, and looked at the strange trio. Stella gave him a hard look and said, “We need to do this. This is important to me.” She was almost crying, but held herself together. She had to be strong right now, she knew, and so she was.

Eli sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “I just don't know if you fully appreciate how dangerous this is.” Kita and Fox came up behind him. Kita looked concerned, but Fox spoke up without pause.

“Believe it, Stella,” Fox added with urgency in her dark eyes. “Trust me. I know.” Eli spared her a nod of gratitude, but Fox continued, “Yet, I have to also admit that some things are bigger than me, and this just might be one of em. See ya, Cap'n,” and she pulled him in for a hard, impersonal kiss, then hit the exit panel and rushed down the extended ramp to begin her mission. Stella watched her go, and felt conflicted about the strange woman.