CHAPTER 39

 

 

 

The shadows at the end of the passage grew larger, accompanied by the uneven sound of footsteps. What fresh hell had the Imperium thrown at them?

Kari's hands trembled where they gripped what remained of the super-soldier's arm, hoping it had recharged enough to fire for just a little bit longer. How long could she hope to hold against the strength of Jic's forces with nothing more than a broken arm? Ryker looked battered too, his armor dented and broken in places, smoke drifting from a split in the plating at his leg.

They could leave. Kari's gaze slid over her shoulder to where Piper lay—still unconscious—and the transporter beyond. She could take Piper and Ryker and fly away.

No.

A stupid idea. How far did she think she would get? This massive ship would shoot them to pieces before they made it a hundred yards from the airlock. And even if they did manage some kind of FTL jump, Senator Kimchan and the rest would come after them with new vengeance.

The shadows grew bigger, the footsteps louder. Kari leveled her gun at the corner.

Movement.

Kari fired.

Her plasma bolt screeched and sizzled down the corridor.

Right at Atticus.

His eyes widened in the bright glow, too fast for him to get out of the way.

The bolt slammed into the wall a half inch to Atticus' right, singeing his arm and turning his already burned clothes to scraps of char.

"Atticus," Kari said.

He stared at her, eyes wide. Wren leaned heavily on his shoulder. If she'd been on his other side, she'd be dead.

Ryker dashed forward, taking Wren's weight.

"Are you going to shoot me again?" Atticus said.

Kari lowered the gun, heart pounding. "Sorry. We haven't exactly seen many friendly faces."

"No wonder when you treat them like that."

"More footsteps," Wren said, voice hoarse. She looked like death itself, her skin a pasty green and eyes bloodshot to the point that Kari expected drops of blood to trickle down her cheeks.

"No time for that," Atticus said. "We have to get out of here. Have the prisoners arrived?"

Kari frowned. "Prisoners? No."

Atticus slowed to a stop beside her. "The others from the furnace."

"We haven't seen them."

Atticus glanced back down the hall, then at Wren. "Is it them?"

She shook her head. "I don't know."

"We can't stand here waiting to find out," Kari said. "If it's more enforcers or super-soldiers, we're dead."

"We can't abandon those prisoners. I told them to come here."

Kari hesitated. What the hell was she supposed to do? Atticus couldn't expect her to stand around waiting for some prisoners she'd never met. Especially not when it meant putting Piper and everyone else in danger. "We have to go."

"Just wait. It has to be them."

Kari considered snatching Atticus and hauling him into the transporter but didn't think she had the energy. Too late anyway. The clatter of footsteps was on them.

Kari tensed, ready to fire with the hunk of broken arm.

Soot-stained people hobbled around the corner.

"Hurry!" Atticus said, waving them on.

"There's more coming," Wren rasped. "Enforcers definitely. Maybe the others."

At sight of Atticus, the prisoners ran faster. Their tattered clothes flapped behind them, revealing patches of burnt and blistered skin much like Atticus'.

They ran past Kari, bringing the smell of burning with them.

"Jic's people will shoot the transporter down," Kari said.

Atticus followed the last of the prisoners into the ship. "Have a bit more faith in me than that. We've got sixty seconds before we're all blown to bits."

Kari carried Piper deeper into the transporter. Ryker followed a half step behind with Wren.

Above the entrance, bright white paint read SS Lukas. The transporter was tiny, a fifth the size of Ghost. A single common room with foldout bunks, a storage locker which took up most of the space, and a tiny chair for the captain. The prisoners huddled against one wall, many of them twitching, eyes wide. Atticus hunched over the controls, fingers flying across buttons. Kari placed Piper on a bunk, then rushed to Atticus' side.

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"I've flown a couple of these in my time. It's just the damn airlock. They've issued an emergency lockdown. It's not releasing us."

"There's a manual release on the inside," Kari said, already moving to the door.

"Oh no," Atticus said, grabbing the back of her shirt. "No more pointless heroics."

"Pointless? I'd say all your lives are worth something. Not pointless."

"It's pointless when there's another way. I just have to override the security protocol."

"How long will that take?"

Atticus looked away from her, fingers running over the controls.

"How long?"

"Two minutes," he said, voice low.

Kari nodded once. The Imperium ship would explode in less than fifty seconds. The internal release was the only way any of them survived this.

How funny to think that not so long ago she would have shot her crewmates if it meant she survived. Now she was willing to sacrifice herself for them. Stupid. Emotions made you do stupid things. And yet, there it was. She jogged toward the exit. At least she'd go out with a bang. And she'd know that she saved Piper. Perhaps now that Jic and his group were dealt with, Piper would be able to live a normal life. Ryker and the others would make sure of that.

But damn, Kari wished she'd had a chance to say goodbye properly. She'd made a promise to Piper—it seemed like a lifetime ago now—that she'd never again leave without saying goodbye. One more promise she couldn't keep. Perhaps she should have told Piper the secret; that there's always another lie. But then again, perhaps it was better that Piper didn't know those truths. She seemed happier without them.

A heavy hand landed on Kari's shoulder just as she reached the exit. It yanked her back, hurling her to the other side of the room.

Ryker.

"Ryker, what are you—"

He opened the ship's door, stepped out, and let it slide shut behind him.

"No!" Kari scrambled to her feet and dashed across the room. But Ryker was already heaving on the manual override. His armored hands yanked the lever. The clamps holding the transporter to the massive ship opened with the sound of grinding metal.

Ryker grinned at Kari through the window set into the transporter's door.

"No!" She smashed her fist against the glass, but the door wouldn't open; vacuum detected on the other side.

The Lukas' engines burst into life and they shot away from the docking bay, Ryker disappearing in a blur behind them.

"No." She pressed the side of her face against the cold glass, straining to catch sight of him. "Atticus, turn around! We left Ryker back there. We've got to go back. We've got to—"

The center of Jic's ship disappeared in a plume of red. Fiery explosions ran along its length, catching new sources of fuel and bursting outward, sending hunks of metal shooting out in all directions. The explosion chewed through the massive ship, spreading from end to end and reducing everything to charred scraps.

In her head, Kari could hear the deep booms, but the real blasts made no noise in the emptiness of space. "No." She pounded on the window once more, bile rising to the back of her throat.

Ryker.

Her eyes filled with tears but she couldn't look away from the mangled mess that had been the ship.

When the last of the oxygen on the ship ran out, the flames died, leaving behind blackened hunks of broken metal, a minefield for any ship passing through the area.

Only Atticus' push on the engines kept the transporter ahead of the shrapnel, otherwise a dozen holes would have punctured through the hull. Somehow, Kari couldn't bring herself to care.

Ryker.

She slid down so that she sat with her back to the wall, hands shaking.

How many years had he been there for her? He'd saved her life a dozen times, dragged her through the rebellion, and kept her alive through all the years after, even when she wanted to die. And now… it should have been her.

"Kari."

She looked up through blurred eyes. Atticus stood above her, deep lines around his blue eyes.

"We left him behind."

"There's nothing we could have done. If we'd gone back we would have been caught in the blast."

"We left him behind." Her whole world had been reduced to those four words. What kind of friend was she? What kind of captain?

"It's what he would have wanted."

Kari wanted to strangle Atticus. He didn't know. He didn't know Ryker like Kari did, and hadn't he been the one driving? Hadn't he been the one to set the explosion? But she couldn't really be mad at him. It was her fault. She should have been the one to pull the manual release. If only she'd been faster, got ahead of Ryker. She bowed her head.

Atticus placed a soft hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

Kari couldn't say anything. No words would do Ryker justice. The Universe would be a far worse place without him. He was the one who fought for justice and equality. Even after everything, he'd still clung to his plan to make Zenith a better place, a fair place. Who would do it now?

She could still see him, standing in the middle of some wrecked battlefield, holding that damn astral map of his—broken now too—and smiling because he saw the good in the Universe. The good she'd never been able to see except through him.

Kari's breaths came in ragged fits and gasps as she fought against tears.

Silence.

Unending.

Torturous.

Silence.

Ryker always filled the silence and kept Kari's demons at bay. Now the voices had free rein in her head. So many people had died, but Ryker was one too many.

Something heavy slammed against the other side of the door.

Kari flinched.

The force of it vibrated through her back. She scrambled away from the door, hand searching for a gun that wasn't there. It was probably a piece of shrapnel that had somehow caught up with them.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Atticus crouched beside her. "Doesn't that sound like—"

"Knocking." Kari lurched forward to press her face against the window. "It's knocking."