Star Chaser (Galactic Shield Book 2), page 25
“Why would a security system do that?”
“Someone could slip away from a tour, hide until all the exterior alarms are set, then do their mischief. Motion sensors probably aren’t used here because guards patrol the area and would set them off frequently. This is the opposite of the first alarm system we detected. We stayed in one place for too long, like someone hiding. You move you get caught, you don’t move you get caught.”
“Oh.”
I pulled her into the next room, then stopped at the sound of boots pounding into the area. I quick-peeked the corner and pulled back before anyone noticed. The challenge was remembering what I saw with any level of useful detail. In this case, the basic information about the next room was more than enough. A full squad of armed guards was filling it. Weapons ready, they held for new orders.
Which meant they were only one part of the alarm response.
I backed up, bringing Cissi with me. There were two other doors to this room. A look around the first corner revealed another group of Havna’s soldiers taking positions. The sound of running boots previewed what I could expect from the only remaining exit.
“Void hell,” I muttered.
“Let me talk to them. That’s why you brought me.”
“No. They have us and they know it.”
Cissi practically bounced on her toes with a new kind of energy. When she stopped, it was obvious she was about to confess something I hadn’t seen coming. “I need to tell you why no one from my family met us at the spaceport. You weren’t supposed to be there.”
“What are you talking about? The customs minister would have sent you back immediately.”
“He did that anyway.” She stopped talking when voices came closer. Tense seconds passed, and the searching guards went another way. We still didn’t have time for anything but planning our escape. “My family has no idea I came to Avian Prime, and there was no marriage proposal. I hacked into the registry and sent my uncle several offers, most of them unacceptable. He picked the one I thought he would. So predictable.”
“Why would you do that, Cissi?”
“I wanted to go to Avian Prime. You have no idea how boring my life was on Earthdale. At least here I would have a chance to make something of myself.”
Both laughing and crying held equal appeal. My mission to save the girl who didn’t need to be saved was a grand farce. Nova would lose her mind and then laugh until tears splashed on the deck. The rest of my squad would be cracking up the moment I delivered the punchline. “How is this going to get us out of here?”
She shrugged.
“You might think I’m crazy, but I understand.”
“You do?” Her expression opened as though she hadn’t expected acceptance.
“We can hash it out later if you want, but for now, you’re about to get your other wish. There is nowhere to run.” I liked her more now. The idea of her marrying some dude she’d never met hadn’t sat well with me. This was messed up, and she had lied to me and the squad, but I wanted to help her more than ever. I suspected her tears at the minister’s rejection had been real. Despite her ruse to get to this planet, that had to hurt.
“You need to hide, at least long enough for me to get a few words out before they point weapons and shout.”
I tucked into a closet that was far too small for me. My nose touched the inside of the door. She snickered as I was wedging myself in and I wondered what she knew that I didn’t. What kind of closet was this?
None of my cameras could fit through the ventilation gaps in the door. I only saw a tiny slice of the room but could hear well enough.
“Stop. What are you doing here?”
“Thank the sky you came. I got lost—separated from my tour group.”
“That had to be hours ago,” the guard said. “Explain yourself.”
“My friend Deadra dared me to jump the rope, and I did because she wouldn’t stop teasing me.”
“Peer pressure is not an excuse. Why are you still here? There is a hefty fine for loitering with the intent to infiltrate.”
“Who did that? Not me. I was scared. There’s a monster following me. The only thing I could do was hide.”
“Lies will not reduce your fine. Come with me.”
I saw movement and thought she had pulled away from his grasp of her arm.
“It’s in the wing dryer! Might be human. Definitely as ugly as a Razik.”
Silence.
The guard was taking her seriously, which suggested there had been a bulletin. Havna’s security force was expecting me, or some other crazy human who thought infiltrating this fortress was a good idea.
My nose itched at the smell of lavender and other flowers. What kind of wing dryer was this, and why had she chuckled when I squeezed in here? The urge to sneeze came at me like shock troopers assaulting a ship. Eyes watering, I held my breath, knowing the trick could only buy me seconds.
“Describe this human,” the guard said.
“I don’t think he was human. Have you ever met one face-to-face? I’m very sheltered. This creature was really big and ugly. Its eyes were like ice and his voice exploded when it spoke. Why aren’t you scared, sir?”
Another guard entered.
The first spoke. “Watch her. She thinks there is a bojangalis in the perfumer.”
“Of course. Lots of monsters hide in there. Very romantic, the bojangalis.”
A sneeze blasted free. My head snapped back and struck the rear of the confined space. Suddenly I realized I stank of my grandmother’s perfume, only worse because I thought there were sparkles sticking to me. All I could see of myself was the side of my nose, but it was enough to get seriously annoyed.
Now, in addition to the urge to sneeze continuously, I needed to laugh in the worst way. The guard stopped within arm’s reach when he heard the ridiculous crescendo of sounds coming from the wing dryer. I imagined a cloud of glitter and flower smells leaking from the vents.
“There is a horrible beast in there! Be careful!” Cissi said.
Why did it sound like she was suppressing laughter?
30
I flung the door open, striking aside the guard’s reaching gauntlet. I pushed off the wall behind me and kicked him in the pelvis, launching him backward. Instinct commanded me to tackle him and apply quick restraints, but his partner was already on me. I didn't have time to follow up my surprise attack and the advantage it briefly provided.
“Stop! Surrender your hands!” He shouted in Galactic Standard with a heavy accent. Stress was death to second languages.
I dropped low and shot forward, catching him around the knees. Before he could react, I lifted him into the air and slammed him on his back, expecting the attack to knock the wind out of him.
His wings cushioned his fall.
I changed tactics and slid into side-control without a pause. Now, with my body pressed down on his at a ninety-degree angle, I was able to keep him on his back while controlling both his hips and shoulders. His movement was restricted, even if his wings flared beneath him in an attempt to help him back to his feet.
Grappling with Avians was proving to be dangerous and weird at the same time. He moved and shifted beneath me until I felt like I was riding an angry wave.
The first guard struggled to his feet.
I drove one knee into my current victim’s stomach, then punched him hard in the face. This was dirty fighting at its worst, but I didn't have time to be gallant or even fair. He went slack.
Rolling away, I narrowly missed a clumsy attack from guard number one. He swung a baton in a wide arc. After ducking under it, I slammed my fist up under his jaw and lifted him off his feet.
He fell. I bound him with quick restraints, and then treated the other one similarly. “Find something to gag them.”
Cissi scrunched up her face in horror. “Do I have to? These guys were trying to catch us, but that sounds horrible.”
I frisked the man I was working on and found some type of bandanna. A moment later I had him gagged. Cissi awkwardly treated the other guard the same way.
“They'll be found in minutes,” I said. “Don't worry about them. It's time to move quickly.”
Cissi sprinted through the door before I could clear it.
“Too fast, Cissi!”
“Oh, sorry.” She melted against one wall and waited until I caught up. “My heart is racing like a diving falcon.”
I scanned for the responding guards. So far, we were good but that couldn’t last. Holding my rail carbine at low ready, I slipped smoothly toward unfamiliar doors. “Do you remember passing these?”
She nodded emphatically. “Yes. Take that one. It will lead us through the general staff area—food service and housekeeping workers mostly. In older video dramas, they kept servants and didn’t allow them to look the masters in the eyes. Ridiculous, but we weren’t always an enlightened people.”
“History lessons later.” I cut the pie, searching as much of the room from outside as possible, then went through quickly. A pair of bent-backed Avians with hooded cloaks avoided eye contact as they put their wings to the wall.
Cissi followed and sucked in a breath when she saw the workers.
“Problem?”
“It’s nothing. Keep going.”
The hallways in this section of the fortress were long, narrow, and low.
“Cramped.” I said when we stopped to evaluate a T intersection.
Darkness shaded her words. “Old masters didn’t want servants to open their wings. Many things like that were done to keep people in their place. There is no reason for the restriction. It only serves to make hot work even hotter. I’m already sweating beneath my plumage.”
“Human history has worse,” I said, then moved before we could discuss past injustices.
We came to a red door with different markings than the others. “Where do you think this leads?”
“That is a roof access. Can your ship pick us up?”
I continued to the next intersection. “We don’t have the antidote. I don’t want to risk the Soft Touch like that if we can avoid it, and I don’t want to abandon 105. Our plan is still to recover the vials and use my rig to get back to the freight shuttle we left in the forest.”
Avian workers moved aside. Most bowed until their hoods obscured their eyes. I sure as hell wasn’t an Avian lord. These people were so cowed by Havna that they were conditioned to submit to almost any authority. Their timidity made my life easier but also stoked a smoldering rage I knew would grow to a flaming torch.
Many pushed food carts, a detail that barely registered until I noticed some of them trembling with shame. I didn’t understand their aversion to preparing and delivering meals, but it was a thing. Other facts were more obvious. Someone had conditioned them to speak when spoken to and never question authority. This wasn’t normal for Avians. I understood that much about their culture.
“These people might not be slaves, but they’re something too close for comfort.”
“This was ended hundreds of years ago,” Cissi said. “Long before your people showed up in the Andromeda galaxy. Really ruffles my feathers.”
The phrase sounded distinctly un-profane. Cissi’s expression said otherwise. She probably thought human talk about void hell and getting lost in the expanse of darkness was melodramatic or just dumb. Sometimes our people were surprisingly alike. Other times I remembered our species had radically different origin stories.
“If we survive this mission, I’m going to do something about this. People need to know what’s happening down here.”
I pulled her into a new hallway as guards checked rooms the way we had been heading. A moment passed while we waited. “I doubt this is a secret on Avian Prime.”
“What do you mean?”
How to phrase the truth? “People can justify anything. How many people have you seen today with their heads down like servants? Do their families know what their work conditions are like? Friends? Associates? Is there social media on this planet or other Avian colonies? Think back to the movies you love so much. Tell me there weren’t scenes like this.”
“I didn’t think those parts were real!”
“The guards are going room to room. Can we cut through this area to a new part of the building and avoid them?”
She forced down the indignation of our recent conversation and focused on what we needed to do. “I think so. Let me lead. Put that gun away if you can.”
I slipped the weapon beneath my jacket but kept the front loose for easy access. My weapons were covered but wouldn’t escape close examination. “Where can we find cloaks?”
“That’s not a good look,” she said. “But I see your point. There must be a laundry section somewhere.” She led the way, glowering at the increasingly grim work conditions beneath Havna’s palatial stronghold and muttering under her breath. “I’m going to do something. By the sky, I will.”
Old and young Avians alike shied away from me. Each time we approached a new group, they squeezed close to the walls to let us by. They lowered their eyes, showed their hands, and cast aside their dignity. More than once I caught them peeking at me like I was an exotic zoo animal.
“Peace, friends. I’m not here to hurt you.”
“That won’t help, Breaker.” Cissi watched a group as we passed. “You’ll probably scare them more.”
“Right. I’m an ugly monster after all.”
“That was for the guards—method acting. I’m sure you are very handsome for an older human.”
“I’m not old.”
She gave me a look. “So you’re the same age as Sergeant Nova and Fathers and the others in your squad? I didn’t realize that was the case.”
“You don’t have to be mean.”
She laughed lightly. “I wouldn’t dream of it!”
“You know this type of banter makes me think you’ll fit right in with the squad. But don’t get attached. You’re not an APOP agent, or even a specialist.”
“I could be.”
“It takes years of training, if they accepted you to the academy, and I doubt they would after all the time you’ve spent around me. Trust me, my name won’t serve as much of a reference.” I stopped at the sight of a new group. These stood back and looked as wary as the others but were clearly waiting for us. The word was out. A human and an Avian woman were fleeing through the lower sections of the fortress.
One stepped forward. Not tall by Avian standards, he appeared strong and confident. I liked him immediately, though it was clear he didn’t have much use for me.
“What are you doing here, ape?” The man’s words reminded me of Cabs. “Why does that girl expose her face to the world?”
“I lost my dog.” The words popped out before I could stop them. “She's helping me look for it.”
He scowled. “Humans keep pets. That is what makes them less than us. You should be averting your eyes, not the other way around.”
I held up both hands, striving for all the sincerity I could muster. “I’m not arguing, friend. Do you have a name?”
“Call me Loden. What ape word describes you?”
“My mother named me Benjamin, but everyone calls me Breaker.”
He held my gaze as he processed this information. “This thing you said about your pet dog was a sarcasm, was it not?”
“Inside joke. It's been a long day. I apologize if I caused offense.”
“No matter,” he said. “We must alert the guards. Every one of us will suffer if you are found among us and we did not do our duty. The rules are simple and clear.”
I waited. He said nothing, did nothing.
Cissi moved between us. Rather than bow submissively, she doubled down on boldness. Head held high, shoulders back and wings slightly flared, she looked Loden in the eye. “We've passed dozens of people who said nothing. We are easy to ignore.”
Loden made a guttural sound I couldn't quite describe. It seemed he was going to chastise her further. I held back. So far, nothing I'd said had been helpful.
“You can easily turn a blind eye,” Cissi continued. “This man helped me when others would not. He stood up to the minister of customs without being asked. Why? Because he felt the man had done me an injustice.”
“Maybe you need help, girl. We do not.”
“He has helped other Avians. Don't judge him until you know what you're talking about.”
I held up both hands to get their attention. Everyone in the room watched and waited. “There were twins in Havna’s city fortress.”
“Lord Havna,” Loden grumbled.
“You call him Lord?” Cissi’s tone conveyed nothing but disdain.
Their disagreement was a sideshow. The other workers never looked at them. All of their attention was on me. My mention of the twins had struck a nerve.
“Havna had them chained to the floor and spirited them away when there was trouble,” I said.
The crowd hissed and talked rapidly in a dialect of their language I couldn't understand. They were wary of me. Some probably disliked me as much as Loden did, but they valued the twins and didn't appreciate that they were mistreated.
Sometimes my hunches paid off. The average Avian might not care whether I lived or died, but their own people meant something—and the twins were a special case.
Loden moved to interrupt my view and silence the crowd. He planted his feet a bit wider and lowered his chin. His wings drew tight about him. “You don't know me, or my people. I was, and always will be, the first to suspect you of wrongdoing. Your people have done nothing to relieve our suffering. However, if what you say is true, I will lead you in your attempt to liberate the birth pair.”
I waited a beat to avoid sounding flippant or sarcastic. “I've already freed them from Havna. He poisoned them. I must take from him an antidote to save their lives.” The twins could survive by simply remaining in my enemy’s custody, but why muddy the waters. This group probably craved freedom nearly as much as life. In my mind, these were the same things.
Excited talking and arguing broke out among the previously silent group. Loden glowered with rage.
