Relic of Sorrows: Fallen Empire, Book 4 (30 page)

“Alisa?” Leonidas asked quietly. He had followed her along the hull and stood a couple of feet away.

Feeling more confident thanks to his presence, Alisa poked the surface with her finger. A tingle of power ran up her arm, but it did not hurt this time. She rested her gloved palm on the piece and felt warmth even through the thick material.

A flash of intense white light came from beneath her hand. Alisa stumbled back, almost losing her footing—and her boots’ grip on the station.

Leonidas grabbed her arm, steadying her. “What did you do?”

“I—”

The rumble of machinery beneath her feet interrupted her, the reverberations coursing up from the hull. Several of the soldiers, including Leonidas, whirled toward the doors, their weapons at the ready. Alisa could only stand and gape. Had
she
done something? Or had she simply been touching this piece of the orb when Abelardus had done something to the other one? That seemed more likely.

With a grinding that she felt rather than heard, the ancient doors rolled open, revealing a pitch-black hangar bay inside.

Alisa looked toward Abelardus, expecting him to bow and take credit for finding a way in. But he was staring straight at her. The faceplate made it hard to see his expression.

“You might want to put some more effort into looking up Stanislav when you have time,” he commented.

She stared back at him, puzzling through the ramifications of the words.

Leonidas was the one to respond. “What does that mean?”

“Nothing,” Alisa said. She hadn’t told him about her questionable genes, and she did not want to do so now, not with a bunch of unfamiliar soldiers—and their familiar commander—looking at her. “Who’s the brave soul who’s leading the way in?” she asked, hoping to divert their curiosity.

Leonidas was the one to walk over the threshold of the doorway, heading into the blackness.

Chapter 18

The hangar bay was empty.

The soldiers directed flashlight beams all over the place as the team entered. Some of the men pushed off the walls, floating through the cavernous space until they landed on a floor or ceiling, but most of them chose the conservative approach that Alisa favored, walking along the walls and making sure one magnetic boot sole was solidly locked to metal before taking each step.

Leonidas strode ahead of her, but he looked back at her several times. She couldn’t help but think he was wondering about the doors. She was trying not to wonder herself. This was not the time to ponder how strange her life had become of late.

At Tomich’s direction, the soldiers waited when they reached the far end of the bay where a smaller set of double doors led deeper into the interior, another pitch-black interior.

Abelardus waved the men aside, indicating that he would go in first. Or at least Alisa thought that was his intent, until he looked at her and gestured for her to join him.

“Oh, I get to lead now?” she asked.

“It seems like a good idea to put the person who the doors opened for in front,” Abelardus said. “There could be traps.”

“That
really
makes me want to go first.”

“I meant to imply that the traps might not trigger if you’re in front.”

“Yeah, what you meant to imply and what’s going to happen aren’t necessarily related.”

“You’re sounding pessimistic, Captain,” Mica said, coming up behind her.

“From you, that’s a compliment, isn’t it?” Alisa asked.

“Absolutely.”

“I’ll lead with you,” Leonidas said, though he gave Alisa another of those curious what-is-this-about looks. Or maybe that was a concerned I-think-I’m-figuring-out-what-this-is-about-and-I-don’t-like-it look.

“Let’s do this then,” Alisa muttered and stepped through the doorway. Leonidas stuck close, his rifle in hand.

Her spacesuit came with a built-in headlamp, so she flipped it on. She had expected a corridor, but another huge bay opened up, the ceiling at least three stories above them. She could not see to the other end because mountains of rubbish rose all around them, the peaks touching that high ceiling in places. An aisle meandered through the towering heaps, like a river snaking between hills.

“Looks like we have gravity,” Tomich said, coming through the doorway with Yumi, Alejandro, and the soldiers.

“And radiation,” a soldier carrying equipment for measuring the environment said.

“More than expected?”

“No, but we expected an alarming amount.”

“I’m watching my helmet display,” Tomich said, “but let me know if you read anything that suggests our suits won’t be able to handle this and we need to get out.”

“Yes, sir.”

Abelardus stayed right beside Alisa, opposite of Leonidas. She felt like a controversial political figure who needed bodyguards to keep the assassins at bay.

Mica walked toward the closest pile and picked up a small piece of rubble. She tossed it high into the air, and it tumbled slowly back down for her to catch. “Partial gravity.”

“Keep your boots magnetized,” Tomich told everyone.

“Down the path?” Leonidas asked Alisa. “Or over the piles to avoid possible traps?”

As if she knew. This was Alejandro’s quest. She looked back at him, and he shrugged.

“I thought you had some extra insight, Doctor,” she said.

“From what I read, the unwelcome will be punished for trespassing,” he said.

“I can feel the presence of Starseer artifacts,” Abelardus said.

“Booby-trap artifacts?” Alisa asked.

“Possibly.”

“Can you sense the presence of anything… significant?” Alejandro asked him.

Significant? Their Staff of Lore?

“It’s possible it’s among the things I sense, but…”

“You don’t think so?”

“I would expect a greater presence from something so powerful,” Abelardus said.

“So, it’s not here?” Alejandro sounded more relieved than devastated. Maybe because he knew the soldiers would only take the staff if they found it now.

“I can’t be certain yet. It could be muted by being stored in a vault.”

Sensing that everyone was waiting for her—and what a lovely feeling that was—Alisa started up the path.

“May I see that?” Yumi asked, walking beside Mica.

Mica handed her the small lump of rubble she had been tossing. Yumi rubbed it with her gloved fingers.

As they followed the path, Leonidas kept his steps slow so that he did not pull ahead of Alisa. He probably wanted to, but if anyone would trigger traps in a station made by Starseers, it would be a cyborg.

“This is a gold coin,” Yumi said, holding up the prize that she had cleaned of dust. “Pre-empire. Late Kirian, judging by the date and stamp.”

Several of the men stopped to stare at the dust-shrouded piles with renewed interest.

“Are
all
of those coins?” one asked.

“If so, we’ve stumbled into some ancient dragon’s treasure cave,” another said.

“Just worry about the mission for now,” Tomich said. “If there’s treasure here, we’ll come back for it later. The three suns know the Alliance can use valuables in its coffers to pay for the expenses of running a system.”

Judging by the look the two soldiers exchanged, they weren’t overly concerned about the
Alliance’s
coffers.

“Not treasure,” Alejandro said, rubbing off a piece of equipment that looked like it belonged in an engine room, a very old engine room. “Offerings for the dead. This is a burial chamber.
Alcyone’s
burial chamber.”

“Which makes me feel all the better about invading it,” Alisa muttered. She continued along the winding path, the beam of light from her headlamp playing across the dusty floor ahead of her.

Something made the hairs on her arms rise again, and she stopped a second before Abelardus grabbed her arm from behind.

“Don’t walk there,” he said, pointing at a portion of the floor that looked the same as the rest. “That should be fine up there.” He waved a few feet to the side, indicating she should walk over the lumpy base of a rubble pile.

“
Should
be fine,” Alisa said.

Despite his earlier attempts not to get out in front of her, Leonidas walked in the indicated direction first. Rubble—
offerings
—shifted and cracked under his boots as he avoided the path. Alisa and the rest of the team carefully followed him.

A faint
clink-clunk
sounded from a far corner as Alisa stepped back onto the path. She froze.

“Do we have atmosphere in here?” Mica wondered. “I heard something.”

“As did I,” Abelardus said. “I think someone brushed that trigger.”

“It wasn’t me,” a soldier in the back said.

“We may have just reached the point,” Abelardus said, “where whatever sensors are still working on the station realized someone is here.”

“Comforting,” Alisa said.

Another clunk sounded from a corner that they could not see, not with the mountains in the way.

“Can you tell if something is over there?” Tomich asked Abelardus.

“I sense… not much in that direction. Machinery.”

“Isn’t machinery what you sensed when you tried to read those androids?” Alisa asked. “Androids that tried to kill us?”

“Yes.”

“My sensors show a partial atmosphere,” Leonidas said. “Not enough to breathe, but there might have been more once.”

More sounds followed, the shifting and tinkling of pieces of rubble—or coins—being moved aside. It was coming from that corner.

Even though his only weapon was his staff, Abelardus walked forward to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Leonidas in the path. Beck and several more soldiers also eased past Alisa.

A shriek came out of the darkness, so loud and startling that Alisa nearly fell over. Flashlight beams crossed in the air, seeking the source. Something flew out of the shadows, massive webbed wings flapping. Alisa thought it was a real animal—a real
monster
—but it clinked as those wings flapped, and dull, mechanical eyes stared out from its bat-like face.

“Fire, sir?” a tense soldier asked as it soared around the ceiling, looking down upon them.

“Abelardus?” Tomich asked.

“I’ve never heard of anything like it before,” Abelardus said. “And it’s not living, so I can’t perceive its intent, though it does have… This is one of the artifacts I sensed.”

Artifacts? Did that mean it would have some power beyond wings and talons?
Starseer
power?

“It’s here to defend the tomb,” Alejandro said, sounding certain.

“The tomb we aim to raid?” Alisa asked.

The creature screeched again, the ear-splitting noise more animal-like than mechanical. Then it banked and veered straight toward them, straight toward Leonidas.

He stood his ground and fired. The blazer bolts splashed off the creature’s metal hide, as if they had struck combat armor. It continued toward him, plummeting, razor-edged talons extended.

Alisa, Mica, and Yumi scurried back as several soldiers leaped forward. Alisa felt cowardly for scrambling out of the way, but Leonidas and the soldiers were the only ones in true combat armor. The spacesuits were designed to withstand radiation, not talons.

Leonidas sprang out of the way an instant before the construct would have snatched him up. The long talons snapped at the air where he had been. Air beat at Alisa’s chest as it caught itself with flapping wings, just keeping from crashing. Only now, with the great creature so close, did she realize how large it was. It had to have a wingspan of thirty feet.

She joined the soldiers in firing at it, but her little pistol did no more than their rifles. Someone switched to a grenade launcher.

“Abelardus,” Alisa called. “Can you attack it? Throw it against a wall?”

“I’m trying to do something,” he replied, his voice strained. He stood on the path, his staff pointed toward the creature, but only shook his head. “It’s as if there’s a barrier around it, protecting it.”

“Alcyone, or those Starseers who entombed her here, must have expected that Starseers might one day invade her tomb,” Alejandro said.

As the flying creature banked for another attack, Leonidas scrambled halfway up a treasure pile, coins skidding down under his weight. It headed straight for him again.

“Apparently, they were worried about cyborgs too,” Alisa muttered, looking around, seeking inspiration. She felt useless.

This time, instead of springing away from it, Leonidas leaped
toward
the creature.

Alisa cursed. What was he
doing
?

He slammed into it hard enough that the great bird faltered. One of those talons grazed his armor, but he struck its chest, managing to find handholds as his legs dangled free.

The creature landed on one of the piles, using its wings to bat at Leonidas’s armored back. Ignoring the battering, he clawed his way upward, toward its neck. The bird’s sharp metallic beak plunged toward his helmet. Alisa fired at the same time as several other soldiers. She struck the construct’s faded gray eye, and the head reared up instead of striking Leonidas. It screeched again, pinning her with its stare. Had that actually hurt it?

One of the soldiers launched something at the construct as Leonidas made his way to the neck and clambered aboard the creature’s back. A grenade. It exploded as it struck the bird’s chest, the flames contorting oddly in the weak gravity and atmosphere. Smoke stole Leonidas from Alisa’s sight.

The creature leaped into the air, flapping away from the men.

“Watch where you’re firing,” Alisa yelled, wanting to shoot whoever had hurled the grenade. That could tear up Leonidas’s armor as easily as it could tear up their enemy.

She let out a relieved breath when she spotted Leonidas, his head up as he straddled the creature’s back. He lifted an arm and drove a punch between its shoulders. Another ear-splitting shriek came out of that metallic beak.

Leonidas appeared to have a good grip, but he was abruptly flung away from the creature’s back. He spun through the air and struck the ceiling so hard that Alisa heard the thunderous thud from halfway across the chamber.

As he tumbled back down, the soldiers opened fire on the creature. It screeched and spun toward them, fearless—fearless and
pissed
.