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Chapter Nineteen




Nathan shambled through the broken hull of the Neptune Belle in something of a daze, his mind unable—or unwilling—to come to grips with the devastation of the crash.

The ship had belonged to three generations of Kades, and its corridors had been his home for his entire life. It was as integral a part of his identity as his own flesh and blood. And now it lay ruined upon a desolate beach on a godsforsaken ring, its lower decks crushed against the rocky shore, the back of the ship sagging and half melted.

The cockpit had survived mostly intact and now protruded above the shore at a shallow incline. Nathan supposed he should be grateful for that much. Everyone was alive, and that counted for something. The crash had tossed them around, but no one had suffered so much as a broken bone. Rufus had administered a small shot of panacea to each organic crew member as a precaution, and Nathan could understand why.

The crash might not have inflicted obvious injuries, but he didn’t doubt for a second his muscles would be screaming at him in a few hours, possibly seizing up at the worst possible moment. The panacea would preemptively soothe their overtaxed bodies, keeping them limber and mobile for . . . whatever came next.

Nathan knew he should be focused on the challenges to come, but he couldn’t see past the broken piece of his life he now shuffled through. Aiko seemed to understand what the ship meant to him and why he needed some space in this moment, some time to decompress recent events in his own head. She’d mobilized the others, and together they continued to scrounge through the ship’s wreckage for anything useful.

Food, medicine, survival gear.

And weapons.

They’d need those if the raiders investigated the crash, which he considered likely. They’d “landed” about twenty kilometers anti-spinward of the deifactory, and those cyborgs didn’t strike him as the kind who welcomed visitors with open arms.

He came to the freight elevator shaft and stopped at the edge. A kink in the hull had dislodged the elevator from its guide rails so that it sat at an angle between A and B decks. He didn’t know how stable it was, so he took a ladder down one level and made his way through the adjoining corridor to the mess.

Aiko or someone else had raided the pantry, organizing its contents into groups of useful supplies on the kitchen counter: rations, water bottles that doubled as purifiers, and backpacks to carry everything. Perishable ingredients lay scattered across the floor alongside pots, pans, cooking utensils, and a massive collection of spice shakers, many busted open with their granular contents strewn across the deck. The whole place reeked of too much salt and seasoning.

Nathan stopped at the dinner table and placed a hand on the slanted surface. Beany had coiled its branches around its body in what appeared to be a defensive gesture, and the sight of the plant cowering over the table sent a new jolt of sadness through his being. The poor plantlike . . . thing couldn’t know what was happening.

“I’m sorry, Beany,” Nathan said. He found a pitcher on the kitchen floor, filled it with water from the tap, and poured the contents into Beany’s soil. “Wish I could do more for you, buddy. Last round is on me, I guess.”

Beany uncoiled one of its branches and stretched it out, almost touching Nathan’s face.

“No, thanks.” He pushed the branch aside and gave the plant a sad smile. “I’m not thirsty.”

Beany shook the branch at him, and the tip scratched his face.

“I’m really sorry.”

The plant kept the first branch extended, then uncoiled a second that crossed the first at a right angle a half meter from the tip. The second branch sawed back and forth in a slow, deliberate gesture Nathan had never seen the plant use before. He then realized that neither of the branches held coffee bulbs.

He wasn’t being offered a drink.

“Wait a second.” He frowned at the plant. “If this isn’t about coffee, then . . . are you trying to tell me something?”

The branches shuddered with what might have been excitement and then resumed their pantomime. The more Nathan watched, the more it reminded him of a wood saw working through a branch.

“Do you want me to take a cutting?”

The branches shook again. One retracted while the other curved to present its side. Nearby leaves bent away, presenting an unobstructed gap for him to cut through.

“All right. If that’s what you want, buddy.” Nathan pulled out his vibro-knife and thumbed it on. “Here goes.”

He sank the blade through the branch and cut it free. Beany’s leaves rustled, and the remains of the branch recoiled back into its defensive cocoon.

“Sorry!”

Nathan took the branch back to the kitchen. He picked up an unbroken spice shaker about the right size, emptied its remaining contents, then filled it with water. He found a roll of tape in a cabinet, placed the bottom half of the branch in the bottle, and secured and waterproofed the top with tape.

“I’ll make sure this finds a good home,” he told the plant, storing the cutting in his jacket’s inner pocket. “I promise you.”

The plant extended another branch to him, this one laden with coffee bulbs.

Nathan chuckled, despite his dark mood.

“Sure. One more for the road.” He plucked the largest bulb and chugged it. A runnel of coffee dripped down his neck, and he wiped it away with a satisfied sigh. “Delicious as always!”

“Nate.”

He tossed the bulb aside and turned to find Aiko standing in the corridor leading back to the elevator shaft.

“Hey,” he said.

“You all right?”

“No. But I’ve sulked enough. Where’s everyone else?”

“Outside.”

“Were you able to get the rover out?”

“No point. The crash flattened it.”

“Just our luck.” He gave her a determined grimace. “Then we walk.”

“Walk where?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it? Let’s go talk to the others.”

Nathan followed Aiko back to the elevator shaft and down the recessed ladder. What was left of the cargo hold had been crushed down to less than a deck, which forced him to crouch-walk over to the tear in the ship’s side.

The surface was as uninviting as the rest of the ring. High above, the sun-orb continued to brighten, revealing a landscape covered in loose, rain-slicked rocks. Dark waters lapped at the bleached bone shoreline, and the fallen, bloodred leaves from a nearby forest spattered the landscape. The air stank of newly fallen rain, and mist rose from the rocks, thickening around their ankles. His skin felt clammy from the heat and moisture.

Vessani, Joshua, and Rufus stood in the shadow of the Neptune Belle’s cockpit, each with pistols in their hands. Vessani was in the process of putting on her armor.

“Where’s my hard suit?” Nathan asked.

“Smooshed with the rest of the cargo hold,” Aiko said. “You’re welcome to go digging.”

He let out a despondent grunt.

Vessani climbed to her feet and retrieved her wraithbane pistol from the ground. She checked the weapon with the obvious signs of prior experience, then holstered it, looking ready for whatever this ring could throw at them.

The other two, not so much.

Aiko had provided the two men with pistols from her collection. Joshua sat on a rock, his head lowered, eyes staring at something on the ground but not truly looking at it. He held the pistol limply in one hand, its barrel aimed at his foot. Rufus had placed his across his lap and stared at it, seemingly hesitant to even touch the weapon.

“Do you two gents know how to use those?” Nathan asked.

“Not really.” Rufus massaged his bald head, perhaps feeling the absence of a wig. “Aiko just handed me one.”

“Me neither, but how hard can it be?” Joshua replied, his words doing nothing to assure Nathan this was a good idea.

“You planning to shoot your own foot off?” he asked pointedly.

“No.”

“Then stop aiming at it. The last thing we need is you ventilating your own foot.”

Joshua frowned at the pistol. “But the safety’s on.”

“Listen to me. Firearms Rule One is only point them at things you want dead, and since you’re not trying to murder your own foot, aim it somewhere else.”

“Okay.” Joshua adjusted his grip on his weapon. “I guess that makes sense.”

“It makes a lot of sense. I see one of you point those the wrong way, I’m taking them back. Clear?”

“Clear, Nate,” Rufus said.

“Yes,” Joshua said. “Very clear.”

“By the way.” Rufus looked up sadly, then glanced over at the twisted cargo ramp. “Not that it matters all much, but I’m sorry, Nate.”

“Don’t be,” Nathan replied, meaning it. “We knew the risks when we came here. And you did the best you could.”

“I know. I just . . . it should have worked!”

“It did,” Aiko said. “Up until that mystery ship flew too close, and the ring went nuts.”

Rufus opened his mouth, but then hesitated and closed it again. He sighed and nodded.

“Any thoughts on who they were?” Joshua asked.

“Doesn’t matter,” Nathan said. “They’re dead now, and we’ve got our own problems to sort out.” He strode out from under the cockpit’s shade and gazed at the distant deifactory. “Speaking of which, the way I see it, we’ve only got one option.”

“I wasn’t aware we had any,” Vessani said, her helmet held in the crook of her arm.

“I didn’t say it was a good one.” He faced the team and pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the deifactory. “We need to get off this ring, which means we need a ship. And as it turns out, there’s a ship nearby with a depleted crew.”

“You’re suggesting we steal the pale ship?” Vessani asked.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” He gestured to the nearby forest. “From the looks of it, we can stick to the woods easily enough and use it for cover all the way to the deifactory. From there, we scope out where their ugly ship is and, when we spot an opening, we move in and grab it.”

“That crew may have been reinforced,” Vessani said. “There could be more raiders in the deifactory. A lot more, for all we know.”

“I’m listening if anyone has a better idea.”

“What about sending out a distress call and waiting?” Joshua suggested. “I assume the Belle has an emergency beacon.”

“It does, but all we’d do is kill whoever came looking for us.”

“Ah.” Joshua lowered his head. “Right.”

“Anyone else?” Nathan asked.

The assembled team glanced to each other.

“There’s no way we can fix the Belle on our own,” Joshua said.

“Which is why we need another ship.” Nathan gazed back to the deifactory just as a tiny point of light rose from its slopes. “Like that one.”

The point of light accelerated into a long curve that took it over the forest.

“Is it just me,” Vessani said, “or is it heading our way?”

“Sure looks like it.” Nathan placed a hand on his holstered pistol. “We should hide while we still can. They might search the ship, so if we want to avoid a fight . . .” His eyes gravitated to the dark, dank forest nearby.


Nathan and the others retreated up a shallow incline and past an outer boundary of trees, if the local vegetation could be called such. They resembled baseline deciduous trees with thick, tough trunks leading up to leafing crowns, but that’s where the similarities ended. Black, wrinkled skin covered the trunks, which writhed to a slow, steady rhythm not unlike a heartbeat, and fat yellowed polyps hung from their branches, oozing pus-like fluids. A foul, fetid odor hung heavy in the air.

Their feet squelched in the damp soil, and insects accosted them almost immediately. Nathan swatted his way through a buzzing swarm of flies, which dispersed and retreated deeper into the forest. Long-legged spiders as big as his hand crept along the tree trunks or hung from coarse strands, and roaches scurried about the ground.

A high-pitched screech pierced the forest, and everyone snapped to face the dark recesses behind them. A second screech followed, then what sounded like a pained yelp, a whimper, and finally silence.

“What was that?” Joshua hissed, apprehension twisting his face.

“Something we don’t want to mess with,” Nathan whispered.

The heat of the sun-orb cooked off much of the moisture on the ground, and the fog thickened, settling along the edges of the forest like a cotton blanket, tendrils sliding in through the gaps between trees. The fog and overhead canopy made keeping an eye on the incoming ship difficult, and Nathan lost sight of it until the craft was almost on top of them.

They crouched and waited.

The pale ship slowed to a hover, then dropped down to a rocky flat next to the Belle’s wreckage. A hole yawned open in the side of the ship, and six raiders disembarked with swords and pikes ready. Four spread out around the wreckage while two headed in.

That was six fewer problems inside the pale ship.

Nathan shuffled over until he squatted between Aiko and Vessani. “You two thinking what I’m thinking?”

“You mean with their ship just sitting there”—Vessani flashed a crooked smile—“all ripe for the taking?”

“Exactly.” Nathan winked at her, then motioned Rufus and Joshua to lean in close. “Huddle up, everyone.”

They formed a tight, crouching circle.

“This might be the best chance we’ll ever get,” Aiko whispered. “How do you want to handle this?”

“Aiko, take Vess with you,” Nathan began. “Follow the woods to the left and circle around. Try to get as close to the ship as you can. Between your commando body and your hard suit, you two are the best equipped to grab that ship.” He patted the commect on his belt and switched it to silent. “Call when you’re ready. Us guys will stay here and make some noise for you, then fade back deeper into the woods. With a little luck, we’ll draw enough of them toward us and clear the path for you.”

“While we slip into the ship,” Aiko finished.

“You’ve got it. Any questions, people?”

“None here.” Vessani fitted her helmet on and sealed up.

“What do you mean by ‘make some noise’?” Joshua asked.

“We’re going to rile them up by shooting at them,” Nathan explained.

“But I’ve never fired a gun before!”

“All you really need to do is not shoot yourself or us, then run when I say so. We’re the distraction, got it? Think you can manage?”

Joshua grimaced, but then gave him a slow nod.

“Good. How about you, Rufus?”

“I will endeavor not to shoot myself,” the cleric replied dryly.

Nathan pulled away from the group and checked the crash site. The raiders were still searching the wreckage, and the two closest cyborgs had even sheathed their swords.

“Looks clear enough. Go!”

Aiko and Vessani rose and hustled to the left.

Nathan crept a little closer to the edge of the forest and put his shoulder against a wrinkled tree trunk. He could feel the damned thing pulsating, which sent a shudder of revulsion down his spine. Wind blew in from the shoreline, and the fog grew heavier, rolling around the pale ship in thick ribbons.

He waited a few minutes before his commect vibrated, then raised it to his ear.

“Go ahead, Aiko.”

“We’re as close as we’re going to get without exposing ourselves.”

“Got it. Wait for—”

Joshua shook Nathan’s shoulder urgently.

“What?” Nathan hissed through clenched teeth.

“There’s something behind us!” Joshua hissed back.

Nathan spun around and followed the direction of Joshua’s gaze.

A low, heavy shadow crept toward them on thick, muscular legs that padded through the underbrush with barely a sound. It passed under a break in the canopy, and a shaft of light gleamed off moist skin.

Nathan’s first impression was of a white, hairless lion. A mass of flesh tendrils writhed where the mane should have been, matted in places with grime. Its bloodred lips parted into a vicious, almost human grin to reveal rows of translucent teeth. He couldn’t spot any obvious eyes on the hideous creature.

“Aw, hell,” he groaned and raised his pistol.

The eyeless lion stood up on its haunches and screeched, spewing flecks of saliva from its ruddy lips. The noise rattled Nathan’s eardrums, but he kept his eyes and gun locked on the creature. The beast brought its front legs down. Translucent claws sank into the earth, and then it launched itself forward.

Nathan dove out of the way and fired. Bullets tore through the creature’s mouth and flank. It swiped at him and missed, claws tearing through a tree’s flesh-bark in a spray of black, oily sap.

The monster landed heavily, turned and snarled at him. Nathan scrambled to his feet and backed away. He cut loose, firing until his weapon ran dry. Bullets pierced the creature’s flesh all along its side. It took one more step toward him, lost its footing, and slumped to the ground with a defeated gurgle.

Nathan pulled a fresh magazine from his bandolier and rammed it home.

“We’ve been spotted!” Rufus reported. “They’re heading this way!”

“No kidding!” Nathan snapped. “Shoot them!”

Their trio of pistols cracked, and both Rufus and Joshua struggled to control their weapons. Nathan doubted either of them could hit the Belle at this range, let alone the four cyborgs dashing toward them through the fog.

Nathan sighted on the closest raider and opened fire. The raider’s chest blew open with a burst of gore and ruined machinery. He stumbled forward, righted himself, and kept coming.

Nathan pummeled the cyborg until his head snapped back, his feet slipped out from under him, and he collapsed onto his back.

Three raiders charged up the incline, and Nathan kept firing and reloading, but soon a roar from above and behind him demanded his attention. Not a beastly bellow, but the consistent monotone of powerful technology. The fog overhead parted, and the metal spikes of a second pale ship slid into view. The ugly craft flew in low, its belly brushing past the tree canopies.

“Above us!” Rufus shouted.

A pair of openings gaped wide on either side of the second ship, and raiders began roping down into the forest.

“Run!” Nathan shouted. “Deeper into the woods!” He keyed his commect. “Ladies, we’re running for it! You’re on your own!”

He didn’t wait for the response. The first raider let go of his rope and landed beside him, almost right next to him. He blew the cyborg’s face off and sprinted past. Another raider snagged his rope on a tree branch and let go, dropping the rest of the way to land on his hands and knees. Nathan hurried through the uneven terrain and shot at him, but his bullets flew wide.

He grabbed another magazine off his bandolier and checked on his companions.

Joshua’s foot caught on a root, and he stumbled forward, but Rufus held out an arm and caught him before he fell. They ran on, both keeping pace with Nathan while raiders converged on the three men.

“Keep going!” Nathan planted his feet and raised his weapon. “Move it, you two!”

They dashed past him. He unloaded several shots, downing or stalling two more raiders, then turned and followed them.

“Where are we going?” Joshua shouted.

“Away from them!” Nathan barked. “Move, move, move!”

The canopy grew thicker, and the forest denser and darker. The moist soil gave with each step, sucking and tugging at their boots. They splashed through the edge of a shallow, murky pool, which frothed with each stride as they dragged crimson algae floaters behind them.

That second pale ship slid past overhead, the roar of its thrusters assaulting their ears. Ropes dangled from the side openings, catching and tearing at the dense canopy. Another pair of raiders grabbed the ropes and dropped down ahead of the three men.

Followed by several more.

The raiders kept coming, and Rufus staggered to a halt, chest heaving, the damp ground sucking on his boots. Joshua ran into his back, and the pair almost fell over. Nathan turned in a quick circle, searching for a path to safety.

He found none. The raiders had formed into a loose but contracting loop around their position. They were about to be neck deep in swords and cyborgs.

“Nate?” Rufus pleaded.

His mind raced.

“We punch through!” Nathan picked what seemed to be the weakest part of the entrapment. “This way!”

Nathan lit up one of the cyborgs. Chunks of flesh exploded off his chest and arms. The raider dropped to his knees and plopped face-first into the muck. Nathan ran toward the gap in their lines, but the soggy, spongy terrain fought him every step of the way. Joshua tripped and fell into the mud with a large splash.

“Here!” Nathan hurried back and extended a hand. Joshua grabbed hold of his forearm, and he hauled the engineer back up to his feet—

—moments before a raider tackled him from the side. The force of the blow threw Nathan to the ground, and the pair splashed through the surface scum with the raider on top. He punched the raider in the face, but all that did was cut open his hand. The raider headbutted him, and stars swam across his vision.

Nathan’s pistol slipped from his grasp, and it plooped into the mud and sank underneath the surface. Nathan groped at his belt, yanked his vibro-knife free, and switched it on. The blade hummed to life, shedding mud from its oscillating, translucent edge.

He stabbed the raider in the side of his gut.

The cyborg grabbed him by the throat and squeezed.

Nathan gasped and drove the blade up into the raider’s rib cage, then through his shoulder. The fingers at his throat lost their strength, and Nathan scrambled out from under the wounded, bleeding cyborg.

A blow from an unseen assailant thumped into the back of Nathan’s head, and he spun and dropped to his side. His vision swam, even worse than before. He sensed motion to his right and swiped drunkenly at it, but another blow cracked against his shoulder, and he dropped down into the slime on his side.

His vision began to clear, and one of the shapes resolved into a raider. That one planted a boot on Nathan’s wrist and pressed down with enough force to squeeze out a pained groan.

Nathan tried to push the leg off, but a second raider grabbed his arm and pinned it back. He stared up at the raiders. Four metal eyes stared back.

“I’m sorry,” he groaned with an insincere smile. “We seem to be lost. Can you point the way off this ring?”

The second raider grabbed a fistful of Nathan’s hair and placed the tip of an active vibro-sword against his throat. Nathan swallowed audibly. That little bit of motion was enough for the blade to draw blood.



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