Sands of Sorrow (7 page)

The representative scowled. “We will not be in that situation again. We have doubled the dome strength and need you to assist us in switching over the field generators.”

Imron asked, “Why haven’t you done this on your own?”

“Our simulations indicate that there would still be a half second moment when the dome could come down and that will kill the population.”

“So, we have to be faster.”

“The Citadel assured us that you could do it.”

“I am sure we can. It is just a matter of how.” Imron smiled. “Specialist Salika is capable of assisting in this matter, and I believe that we will be able to come up with a plan of installation that will be fast and effective.”

The representative mumbled. “I hope so, or we all die.”

Salika hid her smile. Nothing like a vote of confidence to help her get a grip on what she was about to do. She was about to power a city until Imron could get the new machinery in place.

No pressure.

“We need a generator on standby.” Imron took a look at the equipment in the huge space.

The representative nodded. “How large?”

“Whatever you have. She can make up the difference if she must, but she needs to be able to replace the lost power immediately.”

Salika looked at the connections and imagined holding the leads for hours if she had to. It would take some manoeuvering, but she could get into a comfortable position and hold the power to the shield while the replacement shield generator was pushed into place.

When everyone was ready and Saluk and Saber were safely standing by, she stepped up to the wires, wrapped the insulated portions around her hands, and then, she grabbed the live connections

Imron flipped the switch to draw the power from her instead of the connectors, and they started to work on removing the old generator.

The amount of power running out of her was a measurable rate. “I have forty-five minutes. Get moving.” She knelt close to the wall as the old machine was shoved and hauled out by a number of workers assigned to the project.

Salika kept herself calm and let the power leave her body.

Imron was moving the new equipment with the Luthans as quickly and efficiently as he could.

She murmured, “Thirty minutes.”

The large coils were set in place, and the connections were made.

Salika waited as they ran tests on the new machine. “Ten minutes.”

Saluk pressed against her, and Saber was with him.

Salika focused on giving the machines what they needed. “Five minutes.”

Imron cleared his throat. “Almost ready, Salika.”

The scientists tried to turn on the machine, but the battery was flat.

She groaned. “You have to be kidding.”

Imron shook his head. “They are not kidding. The primer is dead.”

Salika opened her eyes and got to her feet, uncoiling the cables from around her hands while slowly moving toward the new machine.

“Where is the primer core?”

Imron flicked a hatch open. The distance made her groan, but she was running out of power.

“I will start it, but you have to flip it immediately. I don’t have enough to keep them both going for more than a minute.”

Imron nodded. “Understood.”

He wasn’t going to argue with her, which was nice. She was at the edge of her control.

Salika opened her right hand and shifted the bare wires to her thumb and forefinger. With her left, she placed the cable into the space before her fourth and third fingers. The pain that her arm experienced wasn’t too bad. The shift let her lean out, and with the tip of her fingers, she grazed the primer, a spark running from her to the shield generator.

The machine hummed to life, and Imron lunged for the connections.

The lead scientist cleared his throat. “We have tamper protection on the equipment. It comes on when it starts up.”

Salika was seeing spots. She tried to move toward the plugs to change the drain, but she ran into the same field as Imron.

“What happens when I run out of power?”

“It will switch over to the new generator.” He seemed unconcerned.

Saluk growled and looked at the switch.

Salika watched as he backed up and then ran forward, his scales out as he pushed through the shield to snap the switch.

Salika felt the sudden loss of the pull on her personal energy, and she dropped to the ground.

Imron crouched next to her, and he snapped his fingers in rapid succession. Sparks hit her cheeks, and she absorbed them.

She levered herself upward as he continued to feed her tiny sparks of power. “That should get me home or at least to the shuttle.”

Saluk came back to her, and she draped her arms around his neck. The sparks that came off his scales were just what she needed to increase her recovery.

The representative was standing on an outer walkway, and he looked at her in surprise. “You survived.”

She looked at the hovering balls with cameras around him. “Did you think I wouldn’t?”

“I was assured—told that you could not get free of the panel.”

The balls hovered around her, and she reached out and took the power from one. The device dropped to the ground.

“I think it is time to return us to our ship and to receive payment.”

The monitor balls all turned to the representative. His skin darkened. “Of course. As was agreed.”

She kept her posture straight by sheer effort of will.

Imron kept an eye on her, and Saluk remained at her side as they returned to the pod.

Instead of it being applauded, their return was done in complete silence.

Salika remained tense until they were above ground and she could see the airfield. She relaxed as they walked closer and closer to the shuttle. When they saw the rank of the guards, it became clearly obvious that they were not going to leave as smoothly as they had arrived.

Imron looked at her and whispered, “Are you strong enough to fight?”

“If I have to, I will. Just don’t ask where I am getting the power from.”

He frowned at that, but he nodded. “Right.”

Imron turned to the representative and smiled. “I believe that you were to provide us with a history of your people and biological information.”

The representative smiled tightly and took a small data crystal out of his pocket. “Here. A bargain is a bargain.”

Imron took the data crystal and handed it to Salika.

She watched as the representative smiled. Apparently, he thought she was going to fry the memory.

She slipped the crystal in an inner pocket on her tunic, and she smiled tightly.

He inclined his head. “Thank you for your assistance.”

They turned and walked toward the shuttle and that was when all hell broke loose.

The guardsmen who were in a line between them and their ship lifted weapons and targeted them.

“I am afraid that you can’t leave Luthan with that information.” The representative was moving off to the side.

Salika looked at the weapons as they powered up. “I am going to get us to that shuttle.”

Saluk growled and flared his spikes. Saber crouched on Saluk’s back, and Salika took a deep breath. It was time to try this out with witnesses.

She raised her hands and called the power. She started with the electrical energy in the weapons, and then, she removed power from the guards themselves. The representative hit the ground and twitched.

Imron grabbed her and carried her to the shuttle faster than he ever had before.

To her amusement, he returned and brought Saluk and Saber into the shuttle.

Saluk staggered as he was set on his feet, but he immediately headed for the tiny medical unit. His mind called to hers, and Salika went to see what was concerning him.

The bomb was a foot square and wired into the ship’s systems. She took a look at it and blinked at the mercury switch. It was going to be triggered by takeoff.

“Don’t take off, Imron. I have to drop something off.”

She put her fingers in place of the wired connection and she continued the power flow while she yanked the strands free of the ship’s systems.

Once it was loose, she carefully held it and walked to the cargo hatch. Saluk hit the drop for the ramp, and it slowly lowered into place.

“Take off, now. With the ramp open.” She yelled it into the speaker.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. When I yell go, go.”

“Will do. Saluk, don’t let her fall out.”

Saluk growled affirmation, and the ship slowly lifted off the ground. They cruised away from the airfield, and when they were a few hundred feet above ground, she scooted down the ramp and let go of the bomb. “Go! Go! Go!”

The ship lurched skyward, and Salika crept back up the ramp. She was nearly to the top when the explosion sounded, and a heartbeat later, the ship rocked.

Salika grunted as she fell and slid downward. She was nearing the edge of the ramp when it closed. When it sealed, Salika rolled to her back and gasped for air.

Saluk walked up to her and nudged his head under her arm. The claw mark on the button told her the story. He had closed the hatch for her.

“Thanks, Saluk.”

She crawled along the floor of the cargo hold and stood on wobbly legs to walk to the command deck.

Saber hopped alongside her until she sat. He demanded to be picked up, and the moment she touched him, soothing energy ran across the nerves made raw by panic.

“Saluk spotted the bomb, and he also kept me from dropping to the ground.”

“It was dangerous.”

“I gathered that when I was skidding toward certain death.” She fished the crystal out of her tunic. “Shall I see if this is actually any information we can use?”

“Of course. It would be awkward if we had to go back and get what we were promised.”

She picked up the insulated tablet from her station and heard the click as the crystal docked.

The information was a history of the Luthan people, and it appeared to be intact.

“I need to look into my people. He called them Sorrows.”

She quickly flicked through the eons of information until she saw the word she was looking for. Sorrow. The Sorrows were a group of Luthans who believed that blindly pursuing science had brought them to their situation of death at the hands of technology.

Her ancestors had packed up and left Luthan behind, setting in place strict moral guidelines that were to confine and support their people.

What Salika knew and the Luthan didn’t was that those strictures had rapidly become scars in their society, inflexible and difficult to work with.

Every citizen on those ships had lost someone at Daenskil, and each genome was on file.

Those files were included in the data packet.

“I am really thinking that the representative wanted us dead and was then going to reclaim this.”

Imron raised his brows. “Is the information useful?”

“It will be. Are we out of their airspace yet?”

He smiled. “Not yet, hold on.”

She clutched at the tablet and Saber as they shot upward through the cloud layer and powered up until they left the atmosphere behind.

Salika had just gained the keys to finding her relatives, and she could hardly wait to see images of those who had been brave enough to leave their world to strike out to live a life on a world with no name and less creature comforts.

If she could find those faces, she would finally feel like a whole person and she would have something else to talk with Hroma about.

She hugged Saber and smiled. It was almost a normal thought. A few more and she would take up the dance classes that Imron wanted her to join him in. She got the feeling that the dance class was just an excuse to hold her, but she was finally good with that. Perhaps it would lead to other things, perhaps not, but she would never know if she didn’t try.

Her ancestors tried to find a new world, and they managed it, ending up in her own genetics after three hundred years. She hoped it wouldn’t take that long to let him kiss her.

Salika is a work in process, and she knows it. As long as Imron is fine with it, there won’t be a problem. At least he knows that Saluk will keep other men away while Salika works through her issues.

Thanks for reading,

Viola Grace

Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.

An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.