Renegade Magic (Star Renegades Book 1) Page 13

  These trappers deserved death for the horrors they’d inflicted on her kind, though. They’d relinquished their right to live the second they’d committed a crime against their king.

  Her prince’s warmth eased through her, egging her forward to make sure none escaped. She needed to make sure the kills were clean. No survivors. That was the only way to see justice done.

  The doctor was wrong. Enforcers were not slaves. They were punishers, meant to tame the galaxy and make the stars safe for those who would bow to the king’s rule.

  Today, the galaxy was a safer place. She’d find Matara and take out their leaders another time.

  The screaming stopped, and Dania drew back the remainder of her power. It returned in a fluid sweep, and she tilted her head back, savoring the strength.

  Alanna gulped. “Wh-What did you do?”

  The men gawked at her.

  Dania tilted her head. “I eliminated the problem, as you asked.”

  Espinoza’s cheek ticked. He looked to the doorway. The muscles in his back seemed to tighten under his shirt before he turned back to his crew. “She’s right. It’s no different than if we’d taken them all out with gunfire. Let’s go.”

  He stood, and the others stared at her for a moment longer before following down the hallway. Alanna glanced over her shoulder at Dania. The woman seemed paler than when she’d lost consciousness. Weren’t they happy to be safe? Wasn’t that the goal?

  Gray tendrils of smoke rose from the ashen remains of the bodies that could still be identified as once human. Alanna sniffed as she stepped over one of the charred, smoking lumps. The smell was unpleasant, but it was far from bad enough for her eyes to water like that.

  Alanna cringed, looking back at the remains of the men who certainly would have killed her, if they’d had the chance. Was she upset that they were dead? If so, why?

  The engineer reached down and picked up a dropped weapon, then another.

  Alanna hugged her shoulders. “What are you doing?”

  “These things aren’t cheap.” He shoved a gun into his waistband. “And who says we might not run into more trouble?”

  “He’s right.” Espinoza scavenged a weapon of his own. “These could be good in a fight, and no need to leave them here to get sold on the black market.”

  Dania stepped over a smoking, blackened torso. This was not the real reason for picking the bodies clean, but it was a good enough excuse for her to allow him to obtain a few of the more powerful—and illegal—rifles.

  Espinoza picked up his pace once they cleared the trail of bodies. They sprinted down the hall and into the hangar bay. On the other side of the platform, the Star Renegade’s docking plank was down, and workers slid the canisters of illicit fruit into the ship.

  The doctor stood at the entrance, directing the movement of the goods. His eyes widened when he saw them, and he ducked back inside.

  A man pushed the final canister up the ramp, then waved to Espinoza as he approached. “This is the last one. It’s all on board.”

  So, they’d accepted their cargo of illegal food. If they really had thirty cases, Espinoza was a rich, and very dead man.

  “Skip.” Espinoza stopped short. “If it’s not all A1 prime merchandise, as promised, I’m going to come back to haunt you.”

  Skip held out his hands. “Of course it’s all real. Do you want to check?”

  A particle beam exploded over their heads.

  Espinoza ducked. “Can’t. Gotta go.”

  Dania spun, throwing up a shield of power between the attackers and the ship. Her hands trembled, and a few of the blasts sizzled through. A simple shield shouldn’t have been so hard!

  Her arms ached, as if the power had a weight she couldn’t carry. The shield blinked, and her eyes grew heavy. The slices on both her shoulders burned, stinging like someone had cut her with a fresh round of knives.

  She needed to stop expending so much energy so she could heal.

  Espinoza ushered Ethan and Ty onboard, and the doctor leaned out and threw the captain a package.

  Holding the shield with one palm, Dania snatched the bundle from the air. “What are you trading? What is worth thirty cases of illegal citrus?” The bigger question was…why was she still helping them?

  Espinoza wiped his face with his hand as more trappers took cover, aiming at Dania’s shield.

  “It’s an inundated power supply.”

  He had to be joking. She ripped open the package with her teeth and palmed the tiny device.

  The markings were clear. This simple piece of technology, in the wrong hands, was capable of putting a large hole in the side of a planet. Even holding such a thing was illegal.

  Espinoza grabbed the tech from her and tossed it to Skip. “I’m trusting you to get that back to Glenn.”

  Alanna fired past the shield, and the advancing trappers dove behind a pile of large black containers.

  Skip ducked as another blast came from the side and nearly hit him. “I will.” He scooted out of the way of the fire.

  A blast slammed into Dania’s shield. She stumbled back a step as it faltered and fizzled out with a flash. She stared at her hands. Her shields never failed.

  She summoned her strength, but nothing came. She had to have more power at her disposal than that!

  Alanna pulled her down as the trappers opened fire on them.

  The navigator fired over Dania’s head. “Last time I checked, you aren’t invulnerable.” She pointed at Dania’s wounds. “You need to be more careful.”

  Careful? Dania had never had to be careful, despite Alexander’s constant warnings.

  She ducked as another barrage of fire shot over their heads. The ache in her arms deepened. Dania bit her lip, regretting how harsh she’d been to her injured soldiers in the past. Cuts this deep actually did hurt as much as they’d said.

  Beside her and Alanna, the ship roared to life.

  Blinking out of her shock, Dania found Skip inching along the far wall toward a doorway. She couldn’t allow a weapon with that much destructive power loose in the galaxy, even if it was earmarked to help a colony. She started after Skip, but Alanna grabbed her arm.

  “We have to go,” Alanna said.

  “Not without the weapon.” Dania pushed her back and raced toward the fleeing man, but a scream rang out behind her. Dania skidded to a stop as Alanna dropped to her knees, then fell to the deck.

  Dania’s chest clenched. Over her shoulder, Skip disappeared through the exit.

  Espinoza’s voice carried over the cacophony. “Alanna!”

  Dania froze. Did she chase down the weapon, or help?

  Back near the ship, the trappers advanced on Alanna’s position. Espinoza ran to the woman, trying to get her up off the floor, but she didn’t move.

  Dania growled to herself. She needed to trust that Espinoza, and that Glenn person, would do the right thing with the power supply. If she didn’t give up on the weapon, Alanna wouldn’t live to take another breath.

  She ran back, calling up as much strength as she could muster and throwing up another smaller shield around Alanna and Espinoza. Several trappers slammed into the invisible wall. Blood coated their faces as they grabbed their noses.

  Pressing her other hand into the air, Dania clenched her teeth as Alanna’s prone form rose off the ground and floated. Dania grimaced as blood seeped from the lacerations in her arms as if she were using her muscles, and not her power, to move the woman.

  Espinoza stumbled back, wide-eyed, as Dania floated Alanna into the ship.

  He shook off his blank stare and waved Dania toward him. “Come on!”

  She looked back to where Skip had disappeared. All her training told her to go after him, but part of her dearly wanted to trust that this smuggler wouldn’t set something free on the galaxy that would do so much harm. Her stomach settled as if she’d convinced herself it was true. She needed to trust herself. She had no soldiers to assist her and few options that led to survival other tha
n getting on Espinoza’s ship.

  Dania bolted up the gangway beside Espinoza as the doors started to close. Several blasts ignited against the metal, sparking as the entrance started to seal.

  She slipped to her knees, shaking as she used the last of her strength to set Alanna’s body on the ground.

  Espinoza placed his palm on Alanna’s forehead and looked past Dania. “Doc, you got this?”

  “Yes.” The doctor grabbed a bag from a compartment in the wall. “Get out of here.”

  Espinoza stood and flipped a switch beside the door before sprinting down the hall.

  The ache in Dania’s chest seeded deeper than the cuts in her arms as the doorway clanged shut. She’d just allowed an illegal act. She could have executed that courier and stopped the power supply from leaving the hangar bay.

  Yet she hadn’t. Instead, she’d saved the smuggler’s navigator—a woman probably guilty of all the same crimes as her captain. She crawled to Alanna and swiped the hair back from the unconscious woman’s face. Dania’s stomach lurched as the doctor dropped to his knees beside them. Alanna lay limp, her lips parted unnaturally.

  A weight built in Dania’s chest and she reminded herself to breathe as the doctor fumbled with his bag.

  Didn’t he realize Alanna had been shot? Alexander would have healed her by now.

  She punched the floor. “Hurry!”

  The doctor jumped before steadying himself and injecting something into Alanna’s neck.

  The woman opened her eyes, lifted her head, and grabbed the blood-soaked slash on Dania’s shoulder.

  Dania bit back the pain and did her best not to pull away. This woman had stood beside her while the men had cowered uselessly. Dania wouldn’t balk next to the woman now.

  Alanna stared at her before taking two labored breaths, and easing her head back onto the deck. “Ouch.”

  Dania released her own breath, and her shoulders relaxed. She wasn’t a medic, but Alanna’s reaction had to be good. At least the woman wasn’t unconscious anymore.

  The doctor smiled down at his patient. “How many times have I told you to jump out of the way of the bullets?”

  Alanna winced, grimacing. “Well, I guess you’ll need to tell me one more time.”

  Dania sat and looked at the deck plates. The weight inside her chest lifted. She rubbed the base of her neck, warding off the strange heaviness that had built there.

  Had she been worried about a woman she didn’t even know?

  She glanced at the doorway as the ship hummed, lifting off the ground. If anything, she should have been horrified with herself for letting an illegal weapon loose on a trading station filled with criminals. But somehow she just…wasn’t.

  Beside her, Alanna turned and smiled at her. “Thanks.”

  Dania smiled back, nodding. Warmth flooded her—a sensation similar to sharing time with Alexander. She blinked and tried to refocus herself.

  Why wasn’t she more worried about the weapon?

  Her reactions were off.

  Wrong.

  Human.

  Dania’s gaze trailed back to Alanna and then to the doctor.

  What had these people done to her?

  17

  Cal

  Cal sprinted onto the bridge, skidding to a stop before the front viewing pane. “Why aren’t we out of the blasted landing area yet?”

  “They aren’t clearing us,” Ty said.

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass. Punch it.”

  His first mate shrugged. “You’re the boss.”

  The ship banked up. Several people ducked their heads as they blew past the air shields and into the clear blue sky.

  A mottled voice came over the comm. “This is border patrol. You have not been cleared for takeoff. Return to the landing platform now.”

  Cal had taken about as much as he could today. He grabbed the comm from Ty. “This is Captain Espinoza of the Star Renegade. We were just making a fair trade with Glenn and we were attacked without provocation. We’re leaving whether you like it or not.”

  Cal hit the forward weapons array, and three bolts of energy left the ship, scattering the base’s small shield. The shimmer of light faded…probably not from their blast. Security was most likely afraid Cal would do damage getting out, and repairs cost far too much this far away from any engineering settlements.

  The Renegade blasted through the atmosphere, but as soon as they reached free space, three enormous cruisers blocked their path.

  “Double ambush.” Ty adjusted the controls. “That’s not border patrol. They knew we were here.”

  Yeah, Cal had the same feeling. That wasn’t the way Glenn operated, though. Someone else must have tipped these guys off.

  He hit the comm. “Doc?”

  “Yeah, boss?”

  “I kind of need Alanna up here.”

  “You’re kidding, right? She has a bullet in her.”

  “I get that, but we’re all about to die.”

  The ship rocked. Ty banked down. Cal held on as his first mate swirled the ship between two surveillance pods and barely dodged a freighter that tried its best to lumber out of the way.

  Alanna’s frail voice came over the speaker. “I already tried to jump us. I c-can’t concentrate.”

  The weakness in her voice made him feel like pig guts for even asking.

  Several smaller ships left the big cruisers—high-end racers, the kind drug runners used…or trappers. The Star Renegade was fast, but it was only uncatchable because of Alanna. There would be no way they could outrun ships manufactured for speed.

  “We are so screwed,” Ty said.

  Doc’s voice came over the intercom again. “Ah, boss, the scary enforcer lady says to hold on.”

  A flash of light erupted in front of them, as if someone had just pointed them at the sun.

  Ty cried out, covering his eyes. “There’s a…” He squinted at the light. “I don’t know what that is, but we’re being drawn toward it.”

  Cal leaned toward the console. “And the other ships?”

  Ty squinted, holding up a hand to the light. “It’s hard to see, but it looks like they’re backing off.”

  Cal called up his scanners and stared at the results. All the readings said the anomaly was a small black hole. What the blazes?

  “Pull up!” he screamed.

  “I can’t.” Ty’s face reddened. “The controls aren’t responding.”

  The trapper ships swarmed just outside the pull of the odd singularity, as if waiting for Cal to run so they could give chase.

  Cal wanted to humor them. Facing the enemy you knew was much better than getting broken apart and smashed by a sinking chasm in space.

  Doc started shouting obscenities, and Cal realized the intercom was still on. “What’s wrong?”

  The shouting continued.

  Alanna screamed, “What’s going on?”

  Cal had to hope that they were worrying about the same thing he was. The swirling vortex was about all he could handle at the moment.

  Cal switched to the engine room. “Ethan, we have a black hole up here.”

  “A what?”

  “You heard me. I need more power.”

  “Working on it!”

  Ty glanced at Cal, sweat beading at his brow as he fought the controls sucking them in. “What’s the plan, boss?”

  Cal gulped, staring into the harbinger of their doom. The light filled every part of space, a blinding megalith that had sprouted out of nowhere.

  No one had ever escaped a black hole once caught in its grip, and they were definitely caught.

  He looked back to Ty and tried to put on a reassuring face. “As soon as the power comes up, we’re both going to take the controls and then we bank down on the count of three. Full thrust.”

  “Will that work?”

  Probably not, but they didn’t have another choice.

  Hopefully, they’d break free and then maybe they’d be able to outrun the trappers. They’d been in
worse situations.

  Well, maybe not worse, but some pretty bad ones.

  The hole flexed and then shrank.

  “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Ty asked.

  Cal breathed a sigh of relief. They might actually make it out of this alive.

  “Wait.” Ty leaned closer to his instruments.

  Cal ran another scan as the black hole stretched.

  “What the…?”

  The singularity shimmered, then widened, arching like it reached for them. The ship shook.

  “Cal!”

  “Hold on!”

  The lights winked out in the ship. The black hole swallowed them, spinning the Star Renegade into its gaping maw. The stars swirled, flashing in reds, blues, and yellows. Cal’s fingers dug into his chair as the ship vibrated.

  “Hull integrity?” Cal cried out over the roar.

  “Can’t tell. Nothing works.”

  The galaxy sunk and rolled over them, twisting and distending until they slid out into the quiet of stars hanging in deep space.

  Ty’s heavy breathing filled the room.

  Cal’s hands gripped his chair. His ears rang like he was underwater.

  It was like life had stopped, leaving the two of them hanging in space, trapped in the small, dark bridge area.

  The lights flipped back on, and they both cried out.

  Ty pumped his fist in the air. “Whoo! What a rush!”

  Cal wiped his face. Yeah, it had been a rush, all right. He probably needed a new pair of underwear. “Where are we?”

  Ty looked into his console. “This can’t be right.”

  “What does it say?”

  Ty turned to him. “It says we are seventeen quantums from our last location.”

  Cal turned back to the stars, looking for something familiar. The Brim Cluster shone back at him, and the Chupacabra Constellation. But that wasn’t possible.

  “Boss, we just flew about a week’s worth of quantums in a few minutes.”

  Not only that, but they were right on their flight plan. That simply wasn’t possible.

  The doorway slid open, and Dania walked onto the bridge. Her uniform had been cut off at the shoulders, and a white bandage covered each of her forearms. Cal was too shocked to wonder why she was alone.