Lost Planet 02 - The Stolen Moon (32 page)

Shaw chuckled. “In a sense. Where did you program the ring to send her?”

Even Cutler couldn't hold back a smirk. “She should be orbiting somewhere over the northern hemisphere of Werikos right now.”

“You teleported her into space?” asked Lennard, horrified. “To her death?”

“She turned out to be … unreliable,” said Shaw with a shrug.

“You killed Lahey and Kobes too,” Chase blurted out as the realization occurred to him.

“We prefer not to keep people around once they've outlived their usefulness. Although, Chief Kobes…?” Shaw cast a questioning look at his sidekick.

A tiny, smug smile tugged at the corner of Cutler's mouth. “Taking out that nasty old bear was just a job perk. At some point he figured out a little too much. More than Lahey ever did, actually.”

Lennard's eyes were paler, colder, and more furious than Chase had ever seen. “So, Peter, you're a part of this after all. I have to say, I'm extremely disappointed. So why didn't you just let the
Destrier
finish what it started?”

“It seemed imprudent after half the galaxy had heard a young boy aboard the ship screaming for help,” said Shaw in a tart voice. “One of those pesky Universal News correspondents rebroadcast him immediately, put him all over the newsfeed.”
Nika.
It had to have been her. “And to be honest, I was always against destroying a big beautiful ship like the
Kuyddestor
when all we needed to do was replace a few key personnel.”

“And what happens now?” asked Lennard.

“High Command's concerned with you. Seems you've gotten in a little over your head. Telling lies, protecting criminals, harboring missing Fleet-owned medical experiments.” He looked at Chase and Lilli as he said this.

Chase moved closer to his sister as his anger flared up. “We're not owned by the Fleet. And we're not experiments.”

“High Command tried to make me complicit in covering up the destruction of an entire planet,” said Lennard fiercely.

“Trucon?” asked Shaw. “If you'd stuck with your orders and hadn't decided to take up the side of that Lyolian, you wouldn't be in this position right now. I've been sent to demote you in person. We're withdrawing your command of the
Kuyddestor
, effective immediately.”

Chase looked to the captain, confused. The Fleet was only going to demote him? Compared to what he'd expected, Chase was surprised to hear this. And uneasy.

“If I refuse to relinquish command?” Lennard's voice was eerily calm.

“I don't think you'll have much of a choice.”

Pounding and shouting sounded from out in the hall, followed by the rumble of blaster fire against the door. Chase glanced at Lilli, whose face was fixed and furious. She must have sent out a copy to raise the alarm. Shaw glanced back toward the noise. “Looks like it's time for us to get going. I'm taking these two children with me back to the
Atreus
, so I can get them back where they belong.”

So this was the sacrifice Lennard was being forced to make. Chase took a step back. “No. We're not going anywhere with you.”

Shaw pulled a few rings from his pocket, silver and thick like his own return ring. He handed Lilli a ring, which she took delicately between forefinger and thumb.
Please be a copy. Please be a copy.
But Chase knew she couldn't be a copy. She'd fought Asa tooth and nail to stay on the ship, and hadn't left Chase's side since. She glared at the admiral, holding his gaze for a moment, and opened her fingers again, dropping the ring on the floor. It made a quiet
ting
when it hit. And then she vanished.

Chase nearly shouted in joy. He couldn't help smiling, especially when he saw the confusion on Shaw's face.

“What did she just do? Is that her thing?” He turned to Cutler. “Get her back.”

The ensign looked just as confused. “I don't know where she went, sir.”

“Fine. We can get her later. The boy's the more important one anyway.” Shaw turned on Chase, but this time instead of handing over the ring, he grabbed Chase's hand and jammed the ring on his index finger himself. Chase looked past him, at Captain Lennard, who quickly shook his head.
Don't phase.

If he struggled against Shaw on this, if he phased away, there would be a fight. But if he pretended to go along, Shaw would teleport off the ship, not knowing until it was too late that it hadn't worked on Chase. It would hurt, he knew, or possibly make him pass out again like the last time he'd tried teleportation, but by then Shaw would be long gone, and they might have time to get away, or at least defend themselves better. So he left his hand in Shaw's cold grasp, and steeled himself against what he knew was coming.

“See you in the stars, Lionel,” said Shaw, pressing the return function on his ring. “Here's your demotion.” At the same moment, Cutler drew something from his pocket and tossed it on the floor with a glassy crash.

And then the teleportation began.

The pain was immediate, a giant wave that felt as if his body had been ripped in half. Chase thought he was ready for it, but he gasped and collapsed to his knees, tears springing to his eyes. Every single molecule of his body was trying to tear itself apart, and blackness rushed in to soothe him. Clinging to consciousness with everything he had, he resisted his body's attempt to pass out.
Focus, focus, focus!

He was trying so hard not to teleport and not to pass out that he didn't notice the yellow fumes rising from the floor. He didn't feel Lennard grabbing him under the shoulders and shoving him toward the locked door.

“Get out!” the captain roared. “Get out of here!”

Long afterward, when Chase reflected on this, he would be ashamed of how easily he went, barely thinking, grasping at safety even as the thick vapor burned his eyes. Not acknowledging that only he could pass through the locked door. Dazed, hurting, hardly able to see, it took him two tries to phase through the door and into the hallway.

Outside Lennard's quarters there was a full riot. Frantic people crowded around the door, beating at the entry key console. Hands reached down and helped Chase off to the side, where he lay on the floor, reeling and only half-conscious of the commotion going on around him, of Parker's white face hovering over him.

A thread of urgency cut through his daze, a growing awareness: Something was wrong with the captain. They needed to get inside the quarters, past Cutty's lock, and help him. Chase tried to rise, weak and half-delirious from pain, but someone pushed him back down. The world swam, darkened, turned into isolated flashes of image and noise.

A flash of people firing their blasters at the door.

A glimpse of Mina, kicking at the door, over and over again. The cracking noise when it finally crumpled and came loose.

The gasps of horror and stifled cries. And a moment later, the high-pitched scream—Lilli's scream.

And he knew they were too late.

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

And just like that, everything had changed.

Chase lay in the white silence of the medical bay, staring at the curtains. He didn't know when he'd awoken. Or if he'd really been unconscious. It felt as if he'd been there forever, just staring, not thinking. Or feeling.

The truth lay like a lump in the middle of his mind. He approached it from the sides, probing it, challenging the reality of his hazy memory. And every time the realization hit—
the captain has died, the captain is dead
—his mind leapt away from it and shut down again.

Shapes moved around him, people he thought he knew, but he just kept his eyes focused on the curtain, ignoring everything else. The less he noticed, the less he thought. And not thinking was a good thing.

It was Parker who finally reached him. In the middle of the night, when the medical bay was quiet but for the whisper of a few machines, Parker appeared between the curtains to stand beside Chase's bed, Mina right behind him.

“Chase, you need to get up.” His eyes were rimmed with red. “I don't know if you're in shock or what, but you've got to snap out of it. Things are happening, and I need your help. It's not your fault, what happened. It's like Asa said. The captain was a target. They were going to get him one way or another.”

Chase turned his head away. That wasn't enough of an excuse. He should have been able to do something. He could have distracted the admiral with his phasing, led him on a chase, anything. Even though a little voice in his mind told him the captain had been doomed as soon as Ensign Cutler showed up.

“You need to get up, Chase,” Parker repeated. “Lilli's even worse off than you are, and Forquera wants us all to meet with him on the flight level right now. I can't do this all myself. I need your help.”

Lilli. Chase hadn't let himself think of her yet, but at the mention of her name, her scream echoed through his memory. She would be taking this so much harder than Chase. He focused his eyes on Parker.

“There you are, buddy.” Parker gave him a watery smile. “We need to get Lilli and get down to the flight level, okay?”

The nurse on duty looked up from his desk as Chase, Parker, and Mina stepped out from behind the curtain around Chase's bed, but said nothing. How much did he know? How many people had seen Chase phase through the captain's door?

Lilli was two beds over in the medical bay, curled up in a ball, clutching the pillow. Chase whispered her name a few times. Her eyes were open, but she wouldn't look at anyone. Mina pulled off the blankets, and Lilli curled a little tighter. With surprising gentleness, Mina loosened Lilli's grip on the pillow and scooped her up. Lilli didn't fight it.

Chase turned to Parker. “You're sure this is really her? Not a copy?”

“I don't think she has the energy to travel right now. But I checked her hiding spot, and it was empty.”

They walked down the silent halls of the ship, passing nobody. Chase looked around at the walls, seeing the ship from a new distance. It was the captain who had made him feel like they had a home on the
Kuyddestor
. Now he felt like a visitor.

Forquera was waiting for them in a debriefing room near the flight deck, sitting on the edge of a table and frowning at the floor. His dark face was set in hard, determined lines. The
Kuyddestor
was his ship now, along with the risks of filling Captain Lennard's shoes. Chase realized he had no idea if the admiral had tried to come back or contact the ship again.

“What happened with Shaw?” he croaked. “Did he come back?”

Forquera shook his head. “The
Atreus
left almost immediately after the attack on the captain.”

“Why didn't they try again?” His voice rose, spiraling quickly. “He wanted me and Lilli. He said he was just going to demote the captain. Why did he do this? What was the point?”

Forquera shrugged angrily. “It was a move. A power play. We escaped destruction by the
Destrier
, but they still showed us who's in control.”

The door opened, and Maurus walked in, carrying a large duffel bag. He dropped it on the floor and turned to the group, face flat and expressionless, shoulders slumped.

“What's the bag for?” said Parker in alarm.

“You haven't told them yet?” asked Maurus.

Forquera took a breath and looked them over. “You can't stay on the ship.” He paused to allow for any outbursts, and then he continued. “It's not safe here for you. It's not safe for anyone, to be honest, but for you children and for Lieutenant Maurus, staying on the
Kuyddestor
will mean your deaths, particularly once we're in stationary repair orbit by Earth.”

“But you'll still be in danger, won't you?” asked Chase. “Everyone will be.”

“I'll be okay. I know my way around a lion's den. There are only a few of us onboard who know the full truth—some of the bridge team, Dr. Bishallany, Lieutenant Vidal, and myself. We'll be careful. We'll protect the rest of the crew.”

“What about us?” asked Chase. “Where will we go?”

“I've given Lieutenant Maurus a plan. He's taking you somewhere where you can blend in and hide. I have an old friend who will be able to help you. He has unusual methods, but he's effective. I'll tell him to meet you there once it's safe to contact him.”

Chase hung his head. This was happening, and Forquera was right—it was the only choice for them. They couldn't stay on the
Kuyddestor
. And he didn't really want to anymore. Nothing was the same—any safety or sense of home he'd finally found on the
Kuyddestor
had been ripped away. “Okay. I have to go pack some stuff, I guess. And I want to say goodbye to Analora.”

“Your things have been packed. Your rooms are already bare. And Miss Bishallany left a day ago.”

“She left?” He couldn't stop his voice from cracking on this. She hadn't even come by to say goodbye.

“Her father sent her away as soon as he could. I'm sorry.” Forquera stood. “Your ship is ready, Lieutenant. I've cleared the flight deck.”

“We're leaving now?” This was happening too quickly. He needed to say goodbye.
To what?
a voice in his mind asked.

“The report I file with High Command will say that Lieutenant Maurus went AWOL shortly after the captain's death. I won't mention the rest of you, since you were never officially on the ship.”

“And the Fleet will no doubt find a way to spin the story and implicate me for murdering the captain,” said Maurus, not trying to hide his anger. He snatched up his duffel bag and swung it on his back. “Let's go then.”

The flight deck was empty as they crossed it, all the flight crew sleeping in their quarters or sent away. Except for one person.