The Dragons of Andromeda Page 9

  “So do I,” Richard replied. “Perhaps you could help him see the light?”

  She thought for a moment.

  “Perhaps,” she said.

  On the planet Lokeren, Philip Veber watched the birds, their colorful wings flashing against the azure sky, while he stood alone on the clifftops. His gray eyes followed the little creatures darting in and out of nests hidden among the rocky crags beneath his feet. Against Philip’s bald scalp, the rays from the sun felt harsh, but not uncomfortable. An amulet with an eight-pointed star hung around his neck.

  His mother was calling.

  “Philip?” she said, walking down the path from the estate to join him. “You shouldn’t be out by yourself.”

  “I’m fine,” he replied. “Better than fine.”

  Her dress billowing in the cool wind coming off the sea, Lady Veber joined her son, taking his hand.

  “Until we know you’re no longer sick,” she said, “I don’t want you wandering off unattended.”

  Philip felt his mother’s warm blood pumping through her hand. He knew his own hand felt like ice. He turned toward her, his features sunken and pale.

  “I may not look it,” he consoled her, “but I’m as well as I’ve ever been.” He saw the concern in her eyes, but felt only irritation. “Really!” he protested.

  “Alright, dear,” Lady Veber replied. “It’s just a miracle I have you back at all.”

  “You needn’t worry, mother. The Necronea have seen to that.”

  “I wish I knew more about the Necronea...”

  “I can’t say I understand them myself,” Philip admitted. “That holy man, Ghazul, tried explaining them to me. The Necronea tapped into a power — a force of some kind — that transcends death. I’m sure there must be a scientific explanation but I’m not a scientist. All I know is, I was dead and now I’m not anymore.”

  “What was it like?”

  “Being dead?” Philip asked, then shrugged. “Nothing as far as I can remember. There was no passage of time. I heard your voice as I was dying and then I heard Ghazul chanting when I opened my eyes again. It was black... just nothing.”

  Lady Veber sighed.

  “Disappointed?” her son asked.

  “No, I suppose not. I just thought—”

  “Something about an afterlife?”

  “Yes,” she admitted, taking a deep breath in the salty air. “It’s just as well. Having you back is all I really care about.”

  She released his hand, which fell to his side.

  “Will you be returning to the capital soon?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she replied. “If you’re feeling better, I should visit the palace and pay my respects to the Emperor.”

  “Does he know I’m alive?”

  “I’m sure a little bird told him,” Lady Veber said. “There’s not much he doesn’t hear about.”

  “Safe journeys then,” Philip said with a thin smile. “And don’t worry about me when you’re gone. I’ve never felt better.”

  She laughed, turning to go. “Good!”

  When his mother had left and Philip was once again alone, he surveyed the view from the top of the cliffs. He held out his hand and one of the tiny birds landed on his outstretched fingers. Swiveling its head, the bird eyed Philip but didn’t fly away.

  Quickly, Philip captured the bird inside his cupped hands. He felt its soft, delicate feathers brushing up against the skin. Slowly, while his gray eyes stared out over the water, he pressed his hands together until the bird stopped moving. He opened his hands and the lifeless bird fell from his grasp into the crashing surf below.

  Chapter Eight

  Like a ripple in a pond of stars, the Wanderer emerged from hyperspace above a turquoise planet. A gray freighter floated in high orbit above the world. Except for running lights, the ship was dark.

  In the cockpit of the Wanderer, Captain Ramus flipped on the intercom.

  “I see the Konpira Maru,” he said.

  Fugg’s voice came from the speaker.

  “How’s she look?”

  “Not great,” Ramus replied. “She’s on auxiliary power.”

  “Are we boarding her or what?”

  “Meet me by the airlock.”

  Ramus brought his ship alongside the freighter, extending a gangway between the airlocks. At 75 yards long, the Wanderer was only half the size of the Maru.

  By the time Ramus reached the airlock, Fugg and Gen were already there. The engineer held a blaster in one hand and Ramus’ holster in the other. Ramus took the belt and strapped it around his waist, double checking that his weapon was fully charged.

  “Gen,” he said, “go to the cockpit and keep an eye on the sensors. Let us know over the comm if anything shows up.”

  “Neat!” the robot replied.

  Ramus took a tiny plug-like comm and placed it into his ear while Fugg did the same. Concealed from the casual observer, the comm would allow them to talk to each other or the ship.

  Once Ramus and Fugg reached the relative safety of the other ship’s airlock, Ramus checked for a breathable atmosphere.

  “It’s got oxygen,” he said.

  “Good,” Fugg replied. “We can’t burn things without that!”

  “We’re not burning things.”

  “Sure, you say that now...”

  The airlock opened into a dimly lit hallway of smooth aluminum walls and steel grates, the latter allowing access to the pipes and electronics running beneath the floor. The air smelled heavy and stale.

  “It could use some paint,” Fugg remarked. “Their decorating is bullshit.”

  “Shut up,” Ramus whispered.

  Fugg rolled his brown, beady eyes. “Life support is minimal. This ship’s dead as a doornail!”

  “Really? Then what’s that?”

  With the barrel of his blaster, Ramus pointed at a shape farther up the corridor. As they crept closer, the shadow took on a mechanical shape.

  “It’s a Parvulian mech,” the captain said.

  The walker, scorched and smoldering, lay on its side against the wall. The hatch in its chest was open and something lay outside it. Something pink.

  Ramus rushed to the Parvulian’s side. He wore a gray bodysuit like the one worn by Bos Kecil, except burned in places. Bending on one knee, Ramus leaned closer.

  “He’s breathing,” Ramus said.

  The Parvulian’s eyelids fluttered and opened. Seeing Ramus looming over him, he screamed in terror.

  “No! Get away!”

  “Take it easy!” Ramus shouted. “Bos Kecil sent us...”

  The Parvulian rubbed his eyes and stared at the captain more closely. “I’m sorry. I thought you were one of them.”

  “Who?” Ramus asked.

  “I don’t know exactly, but they looked a lot like you.”

  “The Dahl attacked your ship?”

  “Never trusted them myself...” Fugg muttered.

  “No, not exactly,” the Parvulian said, coughing. “Their skin was dark violet, and their hair was bright white.”

  He coughed again. “And their eyes... their terrible eyes...”

  “Where’s the rest of your crew?” Ramus asked.

  “Gone. The female Dahl took them away. They hypnotized the men somehow.”

  “Then why didn’t they take you?” Fugg asked.

  “They shot my mech-walker, but they must have thought I was a robot.”

  “You’re safe now,” Ramus said, “We’ll get you to sickbay.”

  From down the corridor, a bolt of energy seared the darkness, blowing the tiny Parvulian into pieces. Ramus jumped up and sprinted towards the attacker, firing as he ran. When he reached the source of the fire, he found only a stack of cargo containers.

  Fugg caught up moments later, his chest heaving.

  “Thanks for waiting for me!” he said.

  “Whoever it was is gone...” Ramus replied.

  “Well, the Parvulian’s toast,” Fugg replied. “Also, you’ve got bits o
f him in your hair.”

  “Goddamn it.”

  Ramus and Fugg searched the ship, hunting for whoever killed the Parvulian. When they reached the crew quarters, Fugg took the cabins on the left while Ramus took the ones on the right. Each stateroom contained double berths, storage lockers, and trunks full of personal effects.

  The whole place is a ghost ship, Ramus thought.

  Reaching another cabin door, Ramus expected another carbon copy of the half dozen before. The hatch slid open and Ramus stepped inside. This time, he saw a woman lying on the bottom bunk, her arm hanging over the side. Coming closer, he noticed something rusty-brown on her neck. With his weapon drawn and ready, he moved to the center of the cabin, only a few feet from the bed.

  “What the hell?” Ramus said.

  The woman’s head was facing towards the wall, her neck fully exposed. Along her jugular were two puncture marks and dark, dried blood.

  Ramus felt someone behind him. He turned in time to see a man with long silver hair in the doorway. His skin was a shade of violet and his eyes were white with black slits.

  The man smiled, revealing a pair of protruding fangs.

  Despite a strong desire to move, Ramus couldn’t. The blood in his veins had turned ice cold.

  From the corridor, someone fired a blaster, a bolt of energy striking the stranger in the back and sending him sprawling face first onto the cabin floor.

  Ramus glanced from the smoldering corpse to his engineer, Fugg, in the doorway.

  “We needed him alive,” Ramus said.

  Fugg glared at him. “You’re welcome!”

  In his earpiece, Ramus heard Gen’s voice over the comm.

  “Master Ramus,” she said, “things are happening!”

  “What kind of things?” Ramus replied.

  “A ship just appeared on sensors, next to us,” she said. “It just materialized out of nowhere and then jumped to hyperspace. And now a different ship is approaching at high velocity!”

  “Okay, Gen,” the captain said. “Power up the engines. We’re heading back.”

  Fugg and Ramus returned across the gangway to the Wanderer, leaving the body of the strange Dahl behind. The captain headed to the cockpit while Fugg went to the engine room. The hatch to the bridge opened and Gen, still sitting in the command chair, turned.

  “I’m so glad you’re back!” she said.

  “Get out of my chair,” Ramus replied.

  Settling into his seat, he checked for a visual on the incoming ship. The vessel was at least ten times the size of the Wanderer, with a looming superstructure from which masts extended like a crown of spikes.

  “Jump capacitors are charged,” Ramus said under his breath. “Navcom calculating escape vector...”

  The ship’s radio crackled.

  “Unidentified ship,” a stern, official-sounding voice said, “This is the HIMS Baron Lancaster. Power down your engines and prepare to be boarded!”

  “Are we getting out of here or what?” Fugg said over the intercom.

  “It’s a Navy ship,” Ramus replied. “It looks like they want to talk.”

  “Oh, well in that case,” Fugg growled, “let’s invite them over for some goddamn tea and biscuits!”

  “Shall I prepare the tea and biscuits, sir?” Gen asked.

  Ramus, who hadn’t realized Gen was still there, stammered, “What? No! Get out of the cockpit!”

  Aboard the Baron Lancaster, Ramus sat on a chair behind a metal table while the captain, Lord Redgrave, asked questions in the hot, suffocating interrogation room.

  “I already told you,” Ramus insisted, “the Parvulians hired us to investigate that ship!”

  Leaning forward, his hands spread flat on the table, Redgrave loomed over the much smaller Dahl.

  “The Imperial Navy fights pirates,” the captain said. “The Parvulians should have contacted us, not some Dahlvish exile...”

  “Maybe they got sick of losing their crews.”

  “We are an empire of laws,” Redgrave said. “We’ll get to the bottom of this, one way or another.”

  “Meanwhile,” Ramus said, “more people go missing...”

  Redgrave took a palm-sized disk from his uniform and placed it on the table. The holo-emitter projected a translucent image of a ship with a black fuselage and wings of thin, purple membranes. Within the wings, bone-like structures ended in sharp barbs.

  “As we approached,” Redgrave said, “this ship decloaked and jumped into hyperspace. Ever seen a ship like this?”

  “Can’t say I have.”

  “I thought Dahls knew everything,” Redgrave said.

  Ramus shrugged. “Not always. Sometimes we forget.”

  “I guess you just remember the good stuff...”

  “Sadly, no.”

  “What about the dead woman with the blood drained from her body?”

  “I already told you,” Ramus said, “she was dead when I found her. Why don’t you ask the guy with the vampire teeth?”

  “He’s not talking...” Redgrave said, tapping the holo-emitter. The image of the ship vanished.

  “I’ve got a missing crew and two dead bodies,” Redgrave said. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t throw you into the brig?”

  “Because I can help you,” Ramus replied.

  “How?”

  “You’ve been fishing for these guys for a while without any luck. Did you ever consider you might be using the wrong bait?”

  A week later, the Wanderer was traveling alone in a nearby star system. In the galley, Fugg sat at the table, drinking from a 24 ounce can of Genuine Draft Fungus Beer while Ramus leaned against the counter with his arms folded.

  “We’re wasting our time,” Fugg said.

  “Maybe,” Ramus replied.

  “Explain it to me again...”

  “This is the same trade route that was attacked before. If we keep on this heading, there’s a chance we’ll get hijacked.”

  “And that’s a good thing?”

  “If we want to know where those missing crew were taken, yes.” Ramus said. “The nanos we swallowed will let the Lancaster track us, no matter where we end up.”

  Fugg pounded his chest, releasing a thunderous belch. “And you think Redgrave is going to just swoop in and save our asses?”

  “Maybe.”

  Gen’s voice came over the intercom. “There’s a contact on sensors, Master Sirs!”

  “On my way,” Ramus replied, heading toward the cockpit.

  “Send her down to the engine room!” Fugg called after him.

  Once the captain was gone, the engineer pressed the beer can against his forehead until the aluminum crumpled. Grinning with satisfaction, he dislodged himself from behind the table and staggered down the corridor toward the rear of the ship.

  In the engine room, Fugg punched the call button on the intercom.

  “What do you see up there?” he asked.

  “It’s the ship that Redgrave showed me,” Ramus replied.

  The Wanderer shuddered.

  “They’re firing,” Ramus said over the speaker.

  No shit, Fugg thought.

  Another hit jolted the ship, followed by two more in rapid succession. A control panel exploded and Fugg threw up his hands to protect himself from the shower of sparks.

  “Son of a bitch!” he swore. “She’s not built for this...”

  Gen stepped through the hatch.

  “Thanks for showing up!” Fugg yelled.

  “Always happy to help, Master Fugg!” Gen replied cheerfully.

  An explosion rocked the Wanderer again, sending both Fugg and the robot to the deck.

  “The shields appear to have failed,” Gen said, lying on her back.

  Sprawled on the floor, facing down, Fugg mumbled “You think?”

  Struggling to get to her feet, Gen managed to stand upright while the heavy-set engineer took a few seconds longer.

  “The engines are offline too,” the robot said. “Is this part
of Master Ramus’ plan?”

  “Can’t you tell?”

  The captain’s voice spoke over the intercom.

  “They’re coming alongside,” Ramus said. “Gen, make yourself scarce...”

  Gen hesitated, looking perplexed.

  “He means hide, stupid!” Fugg said.

  “Ah, very good,” she said. “But where?”

  “Try the trash compactor.”

  “Really?” Gen asked.

  “No!”

  Ramus met Fugg at a corridor junction just down from the Wanderer’s airlock. Both were armed, each with a blaster in their hands.

  “Let’s make this look good,” the captain said.

  The hull of the ship reverberated as a vessel docked and secured itself to the airlock. The hatch swung open as Ramus peered cautiously around the corner. The figure who stepped through the doorway appeared similar to the man who attacked Ramus on the Parvulian freighter, but carried himself with a sense of authority, even arrogance. His skin was violet and his hair had a silvery tinge of white.

  “My children,” he said, “the ship is ours!”

  Three more people, all women, boarded. Each wore black and red robes, with heavy collars tight around their necks. The man stayed by the hatch, but the three females came toward Ramus and Fugg who still hid behind the corner. One of the women took the lead while the other two walked slowly behind her.

  Ramus nodded at his engineer and both leaped out, firing their blasters. Following the plan, their shots went wide, purposely missing the intruders down the corridor.

  The women stopped, but made no attempt to avoid the plasma bolts searing the bulkheads around them. They stared directly ahead, fixing their gaze on Ramus and Fugg. The engineer stopped firing. Ramus looked at Fugg, standing with his mouth open and his weapon hanging loosely at his side. Ramus glanced back at the women. He could hear them in his mind like sirens singing, numbing his senses and clouding his thoughts. The hallway grew darker, like a heavy fog seeping in around the edges. His head wobbling, Ramus saw the light go out and felt his body hit the floor.

  Ramus woke with a splitting headache, but at least the pain proved he was still alive.

  “Welcome to the larder,” a voice said.

  Ramus opened his eyes. He was lying on the floor of what looked like a cargo hold, his back against a wall. Fugg was in a fetal position, still unconscious, beside him. People of various races were arranged randomly about the room. Most of them looked sick.