“They’ll want payment,” I continue, pulling out what little planetas I have from my pocket and handing them over. “If it’s more, tell them I’ll pay when I get back.” He looks more than happy to take the orange strips of composite carbon and tuck them into his Corporation suit pockets. Typical.
I look around and spot Merrick hovering over his little priestess. Without the white robe, he looks seriously intimidating—which is exactly what I need right now. “You go with Gage. If anyone gets difficult—sort it out.”
He raises a brow but then nods.
Good.
“And what will you be doing?” Merrick asks.
I consider telling him to mind his own business. This guy rubs me the wrong way. Probably because I suspect we may have trouble with him once the more pressing issues of dying of thirst or starvation are sorted.
I decide to play it nice—for now. “The princess and I are going to go turn her buttons into cash and buy some provisions. We’ll see you back here in a couple of hours.”
“Call if you need me,” Max says in my head.
“I won’t need you.”
“That’s what you always say.”
“And I’m always right,” I tell him.
He snorts. “If that’s the story you’ve got to tell yourself…”
“Are we going to have to go down that ladder to get out?” Kali asks.
Beckett pushes a button on the console in front of her. “For you, Princess, only the best.”
Every time she talks to Kali, there’s something in her voice that sets me on edge. On the surface, it’s just regular snark, but underneath I sense this deep, burning rage. Max thinks she’s a rebel, not just because of her attitude but also because she was Doc V’s prisoner.
Kali and I head out of the ship without another word. As Beckett indicated, there’s a ramp leading to the ground from the triangular exit door. Of course it’s triangular on this weird fucking ship. I peer out. It’s late afternoon, and the sun is still high overhead in the cloudless sky. We’re on the edge of the space port, and it’s quiet here. It usually is, since most of the spacecraft in the system are controlled by the Corporation and Rangar isn’t sanctioned.
There’s no such thing as a pleasure craft in the system anymore. Anything not flown by the Corporation is illegal—like us. If we raise any eyebrows, I plan on saying we escaped from the Caelestis.
That’s one of the reasons I brought the princess—if worse comes to worst, I can trot her out and say I saved her life. I doubt, even if they’re skeptical, that anyone will actually risk harming the Empress’s daughter.
Looks like I knew what I was doing when I decided to bring her after all—not altruism, just pragmatism. And a strong sense of self-preservation.
No wonder I didn’t recognize it at first—it’s not usually my strong suit. But until we get Milla out of whatever hellhole she’s in, I’m going to be more careful than I’ve ever been in my life. If something happens to Max and me, she’ll be stuck there forever, and that, I cannot allow to happen.
I head down the ramp, with Kali close behind me and Gage and Merrick bringing up the rear.
“There’s something different about the ship,” she says as we step off the ramp and onto that fucking ridiculous blue Askkandian soil. I turn to look, and she’s right.
When we left the Caelestis, she was a grimy gray color. Now, the dirt has cleared away, and she’s an almost luminescent silver in the bright sunlight. The same color as Kali’s eyes.
“Wow,” Kali murmurs. “She’s beautiful.”
I don’t disagree.
She walks slowly around the ship, trailing her finger over the surface. Then halts at the nose end, a frown pulling her dark brows together. I come to stand beside her.
“What?” I ask.
“Look at that.” She points a finger at the side of the ship just in front of the forward screens. There’s an image depicted on the side of it. Covered by grime before, now it’s clear to see. A star with rays of light shooting from it and a circle around it.
I’ve definitely seen that image before. So has Kali, and it’s obvious she remembers.
“It’s the same as on the heptosphere,” she murmurs. “The same as in my—” She breaks off abruptly, and I look at her, wondering what she was about to say.
But when she continues, she’s focused on more pragmatic matters. “The ship must be from the Ancients. No wonder none of us have ever seen anything like her before. She’s an alien artifact.”
She says the last with a startled sort of reverence that’s a little concerning.
“Of course she’s an alien artifact,” Gage says from behind me. “I thought you knew that.”
Bastard. “How the fuck would I know that?” I ask, even though it’s beginning to make a scary sort of sense now.
“Everyone knows,” he answers, which isn’t actually an answer at all.
I glare at him. “Well, clearly not everyone.”
“Where did she come from?” Kali asks. She reaches out and strokes the ship, and as her fingers connect with the metal, a slight shiver runs through her.
I have a sudden urge for her to touch me the same way, which I deliberately ignore. We’re in enough trouble without adding sex into the mix. Especially since sex with me tends to be…complicated, and the princess doesn’t seem the type to like complications, even though she is one.
“The same place as the heptosphere,” Gage answers. “Doc V brought them in as a package deal.”
“Well, that doesn’t exactly make me feel all warm and fuzzy,” I growl. “That thing was evil.”
“No,” Kali corrects me. “Not evil, just misunderstood.”
I strongly disagree. “We need to go.”
She steps back and looks up at the ship. “We should give her a name.”
I want to ask why when we won’t be hanging on to her, but I keep my mouth shut.
“Let’s call her the Starlight,” she continues. “That’s what she looks like. And the image… It’s lovely.”
Sure, lovely. That’s probably why there’s a big ball of something nasty coagulating in my belly.
We’ve been flying on an alien artifact.
An alien artifact the Corporation is going to want returned…and fast.
An alien artifact that—most concerning of all—seems to have a mind of her own.
Chapter 18
Ian
“Come on,” I say to Kali, who ignores me as she continues staring at the ancient spaceship.
I’m just starting to think I might have to drag her away from her new toy when she gives the ship one last look and hurries after me.
Good. The less time we spend on Askkandia, the better.
On the surface, it’s the most attractive of the planets—which is why the Empress and her Council live here. It’s certainly a hell of a lot nicer than Kridacus, where I was born, but that’s not hard. That place is a complete shithole.
Here, there are lots of trees, and I can see blue and green rolling hills in the distance. The air is warm but not fry-your-lungs warm, and once we leave the actual port, it smells clean.