Stars of Charon (Legacy of the Thar'esh Book 1) (23 page)

“What was
that?” I asked.

“
As
the dying light flashed, and the fire filled the void with death, a sliver of
the darkness fled and lived
,” Alume replied without turning. “It’s an old
poem. The translation from my tongue to yours is poor I’m afraid.”

“The
sliver of darkness?” I asked.

“The
remnants of the Thar’esh. The darkness that once haunted my people and
destroyed Vasudeva,” he answered. “Fifteen billion souls died at the hands of
the Thar’esh. They destroyed the star, but the Thar’esh endured. It is the
Collegiate’s duty to find the last remnants of the shadow, and cleanse it with
the light of fire so that their terrible power can never be wielded again.”

As he
finished speaking there was a low rumble somewhere deep below us. Alume quickly
turned and picked his tablet up off of the desk. As he accessed it a second
rumble shook the room, this one was closer. The artifacts lining the walls
rattled in their cases, and the lamp wobbled side to side.

“What is
that?” I asked.

Alume
tapped a control panel on his desk and spoke quickly, within seconds, the guards
reappeared at the door. There was a third explosion, this one closer still. The
lights blinked out for several seconds before the backup power activated.

“Our
conversation is over,” Alume nodded to the guards. “It’s a shame we couldn’t
speak more, Eli. It’s just as well, you have given me all I need. Draugari
raiders are attacking the station. Don’t worry though, because you’ve been
cooperative, I won’t leave you to their mercy. I’ll have my men show you to the
nearest airlock instead. I hear that the death, though unpleasant, is a quick
one. The girl will meet the same fate, don’t fret. It’s a better than you would
get from
them
.”

The
guards jabbed their weapons into my back and Alume turned to leave.

Chapter
24.

The halls were empty as I walked back and forth. My boots
scuffed against the floor. At the far end of the passageway a light flickered,
casting shadows. I focused on the flickering light as I paced. There must be a
pattern I thought. I counted to three to three, it flickered twice. I counted to
eight, it flickered once.

I was in the hall for an hour. The flickering light never
formed an identifiable pattern. It was always random. Unreasoned.
Unpredictable.

At last the hatch swung open. It was a young warrior, one of
the chief’s sons. He nodded to me, he nodded to me as he took in a breath. He
started to speak but instead made a low growling sound.

I kept my gaze on him, his eyes were a cloudy grey.

“Take your ship,” his cloudy grey eyes were intense,
seething. “Take your cadre’ as crew, and two Slires. Patrol these systems.”

He handed me a datacard.

“A system patrol? Patrols are for the world dwellers. A
warrior does not sit and wait for his prey.  What are we looking for?” I asked.

“That’s your orders, does it matter?” he grunted as he turned
and left.

I tried
to struggle, but it was useless. Even if my hands hadn’t been bound, the guards
were several inches taller, and much too strong for me. The lead Celestrial
held my bindings, half-dragging me down the hall. The other followed behind me,
his gun leveled at my back. They took me down a hall and shoved me into the
back corner of the lift. After all three of us were in, one of them jammed the
controls and the lift sped downward.

They
spoke back and forth to each other in brief, tense tones. So far, the
Celestrials I had met had held a calm and even demeanor. But these two had to
throw me out of an airlock before they could evacuate, and their tension was
beginning to show. From what I gathered, the second seemed intent on killing me
where I stood. The other argued back, gesturing up toward the upper decks. The
first seemed to stand down. Apparently their loyalty to, or fear of Alume was
stronger than their fear of the Draugari raiders.

There was
another booming explosion, followed by a swift change in pressure that caused
my ears to pop. That one was close. The lights blinked out for several seconds
and the lift grinded to a halt.

One of my
captors worked the control panel while the other used the butt of his rifle to
try to wedge open the door to the lift. Both had their backs to me. The one
working the door had set his rifle down in the corner. It would be difficult,
but it was possible I could grab it and turn. But with my hands bound there was
little chance that I would be able to kill one, let alone both of them. Still,
I thought grimly, they are about to throw me out of an airlock.

I had to
make my move.

I was
girding up my courage when the door began to open with grinding screech.

As the
Celestrial at the door looked up into a dark hallway, there were three quick
flashes of light. The guard flew backwards against the wall next to me, his
face and chest smoldering. The second guard reached for his gun, but wasn’t
quick enough. More laser fire streaked through the air and he stumbled backward,
pinning me into the corner.

The lift
was filled with the smell of charred flesh and plastic. The sound of running
footsteps echoed down the dark hallway. They were coming. I looked around
frantically for the second Celestrial’s gun until I saw it lying over on his
right side. With my hands still bound I shoved his body aside and lunged for
the weapon. The footsteps were getting closer; I didn’t dare to spare a moment
to look. Finally, my bound hands found the hilt of the gun. I grabbed it and
spun to face the open door, ready to fire.

“There,
see, I told you I wouldn’t hit him,” Loid called over his shoulder, smiling.
“He’s fine. Eli, seriously, lower the hand cannon.”

Ju-lin
came in behind him and breathlessly pushed him aside. She grabbed my arms and helped
me up. Her grip was stronger than I expected, and I stumbled.

I found
myself face-to-face with Ju-lin. My eyes were drawn to her lips as she opened
her mouth to say something, but then she leaned forward and kissed me instead.
The kiss was brief, soft, simple, and made my head spin. She pushed me back
gently and looked up at me with a quick smile.

“Are you
okay?” She asked breathlessly.

I grunted
in reply, as I smiled back at her stupidly.

“Seriously
you two?” Loid interrupted. “It won’t be long before the station security
realizes what’s going on, or rather, what’s not going on. When they do they
will stop evacuating and start hunting us.”

“What
is
going on?” The smell of burnt flesh and an alarm sounding in the distance were
bringing me back to reality. “The Draugari—”

“There
are no Draugari,” Loid answered. “I placed a few of the old warheads around
this rock, disabled long range sensors and main power systems. Their sensors
will recognize the explosives as Draugari, so their first guess will be that
they are under attack. But they aren’t stupid. After they scramble security and
their fighters they will figure out that it’s a distraction.”

“How long
will that take?” I asked.

The siren
suddenly stopped, it was quiet for a few seconds as we all exchanged glances,
and then another, different siren started to sound.

“Not as
long as I had hoped,” Loid answered. “They know they’ve been breached.”

“That
alarm would be for us I guess?” Ju-lin said picking up the other guard’s gun.

“Safe
bet,” Loid answered as he reached behind his back and pulled out my Draugari
blade. “Saw this back in the
Tons
and figured this may come in handy.”

He slid
the knife out of the scabbard and sliced my bindings.

“Thanks,”
I said, taking the knife and slid it back in my belt. “Where to now?”

“Good
question,” Loid answered. “Finding Twiggy was easy enough, but then your cell
was empty, so we had to go wandering around a bit. Now we have to get back down
to the lower decks to catch our ride out of here.”

“The lift
is fried,” Ju-lin said, inspecting the controls.

“Looks
like we’ll do it the old fashioned way,” Loid sighed, looking down at a small
display on his wrist. “There are some access hatches nearby, hopefully they
aren’t on lockdown. When the explosions hit they will have scrambled all of
their fighters and most of their marines. We have three, maybe four minutes
before their ships dock back in and they start sweeping the station. We need to
be gone when they do. Hold tight, I’m going to take a look.”

“Right,”
I said, taking the guard’s gun in in my right hand as Loid snuck down the dark
hallway.

Ju-lin
leaned toward me, her warmth and scent drew in my attention like a singularity.

“The
Celestrial,” she nodded toward the guard whose body had pinned me into the
corner. “Did you? Did his memories? You know the, what did you call it,
Charon?”

“What?”
startled out of my thought, I looked at the body. “Oh, no. I didn’t feel
anything.”

“So it
wasn’t like with the Draugari?”

“No, I
think it has something to do with the knife,” I answered. “I have an old memory
of it from, before, there was a knife then too.”

“So you
have to stab them to death?” she sounded much more comfortable with the idea
than I felt.

“I hope
you don’t plan on stabbing me to death,” Loid said as he slipped back into the
lift. “I’m sorry about the Matron. I didn’t know what she was planning. I
probably should have. But I’m here now, hell I’m not even sure quite why I’m
doing this. It made more sense to just take the money and run.”

“You did
take the money though,” I said.

“Well,
yes, and I did run,” he smiled. “Just not in the direction I thought I would.
Let’s get moving. Down the hall about twenty yards on the right there is an
open access panel in the wall that we can use to get to the ladder in a
maintenance shaft. We need to go down six levels to the lower docks. A lot of
traders come and go down there, so we should be able to make our way from there
to the docking bay. Docking bay eighteen. Got it?”

Ju-lin
and I nodded.

Loid
tapped the display on his sleeve.

“We have three
minutes. Eli, you go first, then Twiggy. I’ll cover the rear and seal the panel
behind us. I don’t just want to get out of here.” Loid said. “I want to get out
of here cleanly. Just because I was willing to come back for you guys doesn’t
mean I want the Collegiate, or whoever it is to know it was me.”

“Loid,” I
slipped the pistol into my belt. “Thank you for coming back.”

“Whatever
kid,” he turned to scan the hallway. “I figure my deal with Gramps is null and
void if I don’t make it back at least with Twiggy. A good load of treated oak
is hard to find.”

Ju-lin
pushed forward and gave Loid a light kiss on the cheek, “Thanks.”

“God, you
two get sappy when you’re about to die, don’t you?” he wiped off his cheek
roughly, though the corners of his eyes betrayed a smile. “Okay, let’s move.”

We stood
there awkwardly unmoving for a second before I realized that I was going first.
Loid gave me a slight nudge, and I drew my pistol and started to walk as
quickly and quietly as I could down the hallway.

It was
dark except for a dim glow from a few dark green emergency lights that
illuminated the floor. Though the hallway was quiet, we could hear activity in
the distance, shouting voices, clanging metal echoing over the droning of the
alarm.

Before
long we reached the access panel. I leaned inside to look down, it was darker
than the hallway and had a musty scent.

“Looks
empty at least,” I said quietly as Ju-lin and Loid came up beside me.

“Grab the
top there and swing in, feet first. There
should
be a ladder,” Loid said
in whisper, he had a pistol in each hand and was peering into the dark hallway.

“Should?”
I asked.

“This was
not
plan A,” Loid answered. “It’s all should, may, or could from here on
out.”

I glanced
over at Ju-lin, who was looking at me expectantly, so I slipped my pistol back
in my belt, grabbed the top ledge across the top of the access hatch, and
lowered myself through it feet first into the darkness. After kicking my legs
around wildly for a few moments I found metal, ladder rungs. As I kicked, the
laser pistol slipped out of my belt, and clattered as it tumbled down the
seemingly bottomless access tunnel. Once my feet felt stable, I slipped my
right hand out, groping in the darkness until I found a handhold, and began to
lower myself down.

“You okay?”
Ju-lin asked.

“Yeah,
I’m good. The ladder is just a little further than you would expect,” my
whispered words echoed back at me from somewhere in the darkness. I continued
to climb down. My eyes were adjusting to the almost complete darkness of the maintenance
shaft. I could make out a few shadows of pipes and wires along the wall.

The
darkness intensified as Ju-lin hoisted herself up through the access hatch,
eclipsing the light. I was looking up, doing my best to help guide her to
finding the ladder when a series of bright flashes came through the access
panel.

“Get a
move on,” Loid called. “They’re coming.”

I heard
another series of shots.

“I’m in,
come on Loid!” Ju-lin called as she started to climb down the ladder.

“Get
moving,” he answered. “I’m right behind you.”

I could
hear shouting in the distance, but with Ju-lin above me and nowhere to go but
down, I continued my descent. I kept climbing down, ten, twenty, thirty rungs
of the ladder. Six levels down Loid had said. I squinted in the darkness trying
to count the access panels. I think I had passed three floors.

Somewhere
above I heard a wild yell, there was another wave of darkness as Loid’s body
occluded the access hatch, and then a series of clangs and curses.

“You
okay?” Ju-lin called.

“I’m, oh,
dammit, I’m okay,” Loid grunted. “You weren’t kidding that this thing is wider
than I thought. Hold on kids. This may be a little loud.”

“Why?” I
asked.

There was
a deafening explosion from above, the light all but faded as smoke billowed
through the access panel.

“That,”
Loid answered. “A concussion grenade. It should slow them down. Keep moving.”

I
continued climbing as quickly as I could, another ten rungs, fifteen, I looked
over my shoulder.

“I think
this is six levels down,” I called. “But it’s too dark to be certain.”

I could
hear voices far above as the smoke began to clear and the guards were working
their way into the access tube.

“I don’t
think we have a choice at this point,” Ju-lin answered.