Chrystal Bones (Finding Home Book 1) (29 page)

“Vihan get ready to fire all weapons at Red Two.” He pointed to the enemy ship that was to the right of the one directly in front of them. “Idris as soon as he fires bring the stealth system on line.”

“What good is that going to do us? They already know we are here.”

“Yes, but Sparks is going to move us five clicks towards Red Two. They will not expect us to move closer. As soon as we are in position I want you to drop out of stealth. When he does Vihan I want you ready to fire at Red One. Sparks at that point swing us around and head directly between Three and Four. They will have their weapons aimed at us and hopefully we can get them to hit their own ships a few times.”

Blue thought the plan was brilliant and probably the only one that gave them a shot at escaping this trap. It would take some fancy flying but Sparks was the best.

“Incoming message,” Sparks announced as the com lit up. This did not come as a surprise as the Ragillians always called for a ship to surrender before firing upon it. The chance to collect new DNA for cloning was paramount in their orders and this time should have been no different. Except this message left them all reeling in shock.

“Commander Napreyio of Haldairia I greet you in the name of the Ragillian Empire. You have thirty minutes to turn over the Shillidon Princess to us. If you comply, you and your crew will be free to go on your way unhindered. If you chose to fight I assure you, your ship and all aboard will be destroyed,” the voice was flat and utterly emotionless. The speaker didn’t care one way or the other but he had his orders and he would carry them out or die in the attempt.

The control room was dead silent. Blue felt the shock coming from each of the men. How? How could they possibly know she was on board let alone who she was. The only people in the universe who knew were right here on this ship and she knew to core of her being that none of them had said a word to anyone else. So how could the Ragillians know?

Jayden’s face was set in stone. His expression never changed as he listened to the Ragillian’s demand but the anger inside him threatened to boil over and overwhelm her. She threw up another layer of shielding in her mind to mute it so she could think. None of them would give her up and neither would they allow her to give herself up.

Jayden’s plan was still their best and only hope of getting out of this. Maybe not in one piece but they had a chance. She wished there was something she could do to help but she would just get in their way. They had been a team for so long that they worked together seamlessly and she would disrupt that if she tried. No, it was best if she stayed out of their way and let them do their job.

Dro’s mental shout shot through all of their minds.
“Jayden they have a Minder,”
his voice held a fatalistic dread that Blue didn’t understand but the look of horror on all of their faces clued her into the fact that this changed the game.

“What is a Minder?” she asked. Her voice broke through the silence that had fallen like a bomb. Jayden looked at her and she could feel his mind whirling and scrambling for a solution to this new problem. It was Idris who explained.

“A minder is someone who can take control of the ship’s computer systems with the power of his mind and render us unable to operate the ship. Leaving us a sitting target.”

“How can someone do that?”

“No one really knows,” he shrugged. “I am not even sure they know how they do it. Of course, no one has ever asked either because whenever one is found they are either killed outright or captured and made to work for their captor. No one wants to come across a Minder.”

“There is no way you can block them from the computers?” she asked.

“We have the codes to access the computers on a continuously rotating pattern but even then it will not take a strong minder long to break through. That is why they gave us thirty minutes to turn you over. They think they can get control of the ship before the time is up,” Idris explained.

“Why are they killed and not recruited to serve on ships to protect them,” even as she asked the question she knew the answer. It was the same as the Humans, kill what you don’t understand and are afraid of.

She closed her eyes and breathed deep. This time it was her anger she needed to get under control. When she opened her eyes Jayden was looking at her.

“I am surprised that the whole race hasn’t been destroyed if that is the way everyone feels,” she said flatly.

“Minders come from all races. There is no way to know by looking at someone whether or not they are a Minder. There are very few of them that are strong enough to take control of a ship’s computer system. People are afraid of them so anyone who shows any hint of being able to do it are quickly killed,” he said softly.

She asked him just as softly, “Have you killed any of them?”

Before he could answer her Dro announced, “
He is through the first layer. At this rate it won’t take him long to get through the last two layers.”

Jayden looked at her and spoke to her mind, “
We will be okay. Trust me.”

She did. She realized that she trusted all of them.

Life had settled into a routine for the crew aboard the Trilleion over the last weeks. Sometimes Blue was anxious to get to Shillidon and sometimes she wished the trip would last forever. There was still so much for her to catch up on and she enjoyed learning all of it.

As with the first part of the trip each of the guys continued to help and answer any questions she had. Her favorite times were spent in engineering with Jos taking apart and putting the different systems back together. Engineering was the heart of the ship and she had an aptitude for it according to Jos.

One night when they were all gathered in the dining area Idris had regaled her and the others with stories about her as a child and some of the things she had done. He told her of her love for all things involving space. One story he seemed to relish involved a trip to the space port shortly before that last fateful trip when she had disappeared.

Their parents had gone to the port to meet a visiting dignitary from a neighboring system, taking her with them. While waiting she had wandered off without anyone noticing she was gone until it was time to do the meet and greet.

The panic that followed had overshadowed the dignitary’s arrival and he was ignored while the port was closed down and searched. It was the dignitary who found her. She had gone aboard his ship, made her way to the engine room and proceeded to take apart his Hyper Drive.

When he had walked off his ship with her hand in his, her fancy dress and face were smeared with grease and she was happily chattering away with the man. She was telling him that she had not sneaked aboard but had walked right in. The dignitary ended up becoming a good friend as well as a valuable trading partner.

Idris had all of them laughing and the evening had been reduced to a free for all with childhood stories and laughter. Blue had never spent an evening like it. She had never had anyone but Riley and Leo and evenings with them tended to be pretty quiet. That was not to say that there had never been good times and laughter, there had been. Just not like this. After that she felt a bond form with the guys.

Now someone was threatening them and she was not going to let some Minder take control of the ship so the Ragillians could kill them. No matter how sympathetic she was about the treatment they received.

Knowing Jayden would try to stop her if he knew what she was about to do, Blue sat on the floor next to Leo and leaned back against the wall. She gathered herself and left her body behind without letting him know. He knew the instant she left her body and turned towards her.

“Damn it Blue! What the hell do you think you are doing?” At Jayden’s shout Idris stood and rushed over to her slumped body.

The two men who loved her in very different ways turned their gaze to the ships surrounding them. Idris muttered, “I hope she knows what she is doing.” Then he stood and went back to his station.

Jayden was scared to his very bones. Not being used to the feeling, he turned it to a rock hard determination to win this battle. He looked up at nothing and said, “You had better get yourself back here in one piece or I really will spank your stubborn ass this time.”

He turned to bark at Vihan and Sparks, “Be ready to execute the plan at the first movement you see from her body.” She had twenty minutes to do whatever she had planed before the Minder had control of the ship.

Blue didn’t hear his threat, she was already on the way to the first Ragillian ship. Flying through space as fast as she could she arrowed in. Not sure how she was going to find the Minder she hoped he would be readily distinguishable from the others on board.

She chose this ship to search first because it had been the one that had demanded she be turned over to them. She flew through the unfamiliar ship looking for the control room, hoping she was right and they would want to keep the Minder close to the command center. There was no time to search the whole ship.

It took her precious minutes to find the control room of the Ragillian ship and when she did no one stood out so she left and flew to the second ship. This time she was able to go directly to the control room.

Nothing, they all looked like the robots they might as well be. She sped to the third ship feeling the panic she was holding back try to overtake her. She shoved it away needing all of her wits about her. Time was ticking away.

She found him in the third ship. It was immediately apparent who he was. He was the only one dressed in a white robe with the hood pulled up casting his features in shadows. All the others in the room were dressed in the same unrelieved black uniform as the clones on the Mudball had been. If she survived this she was seriously going to think about adding some color to her wardrobe.

Going to hover in front of the Minder she thought about the best way to do what she needed to. He was unaware of her presence until she wrapped him in her essence and pushed herself into his mind. It was possession plain and simple. She planned to take over his mind and destroy it from the inside out. Blue felt the exact moment he became aware of her.

Strangely enough he didn’t fight her. Instead he was relieved. He knew she was going to kill his mind if not his body and he welcomed the coming death. His life was an unrelenting hell and he showed her every horror that had been done to him. It felt like it took a lifetime but in reality only a few minutes had gone by before Blue put him out of his misery as gently as she could with a soft kiss of goodbye.

Filled with a rage she had never before felt, Blue tore through the room entering minds devoid of emotion and ripping them to shreds until every clone in the room was lying dead at her feet. When she gained control of herself and saw what she had done she felt sick. Sick and tired. A determination was born in her to hunt down the man responsible.

“
Doctor Ragillian I am coming for you.”

She sent the thought out into the universe. Hoping that somehow he would hear her and know death was coming for him.

Chrystal Bones Billie Jo Hanlin

Chapter 29

Dro gave a shout of triumph they all heard,
“She did it!”
Jayden whipped his head around.

“What do you mean she did it? What did she do?.”

“I mean the Minder is no longer trying to get control of the ship.”

“Get ready. Vihan do not take your eyes off of her until she moves or Leo lets you know she is back. Fire the weapons the instant you get the signal,” Jayden snapped out.

He waited impatiently for Blue to get back. What could she have done in her astral form to stop a Minder? He knew she could not feel emotions or hold solid things in that form so he had thought that it was not much good for anything besides surveillance in a tactical situation. Obviously he was wrong. He exchanged a grim look with Idris.

Blue was exhausted and not sure she could make it back to the Trilleion but she flew on, needing to let Jayden know to change his plan and fire on Red Four instead of Two. Three was out of commission until someone went to the control room and found everyone dead. Until that happened there was a window to escape the trap. A window was all Jayden needed.

Normally Blue could fly for hours without tiring but the destruction she had wrought had drained her to dangerous levels. She could feel herself stretching thinner and thinner until she wasn’t sure she could hold her form together by the time she reached the ship. With the last of her strength and pure willpower she pushed down into her body. Her essence was spread so thin that it didn’t want to conform to the confining body.

As soon as she could she screamed out with her mind to Jayden.
“Fire on Four, Three is dead,”
then her world went black as she lost consciousness.

Jayden barely heard the whisper of sound but he immediately told Vihan, “Fire all weapons at Red Four not Two. Sparks head straight down the throat of Red Three. Idris hold off on Stealth until I say.”

The space was lit with bursts of light. The first few energy beams hit the target and bounced off the shields but the weapons fire controlled by Vihan concentrated on one area and the next few got through. They burned a hole right through the center of the ship. It exploded in a ball of flame that was snuffed out almost as soon as it was seen. Red four was a dead hunk of metal.

“Vihan I want Three raked with fire as we pass. Idris be ready to bring up stealth on my mark.”

The Trilleion was hit with fire from Red One. Red Two was bearing down on them but would not reach them in time to help Red One. The Trilleion shook off the blows and flew towards Red Three. Vihan let loose with a barrage of fire as they passed the ship.

Whatever Blue had done there was no return fire from Red Three and it too became a dead hunk of metal. In any other battle Jayden would stop and look for survivors but that was not going to happen this time. This time he was out for blood and he would see as many dead as he could. He also had two enemy ships left but only one was in a position to present a threat. They could check for their own survivors.