Unchained (26 page)

Cidra frowned at her. “Then what
happens?”

Leena shrugged. “Depends. If it’s another
force field, they merge together. If it’s not, the force field will
act like an ordinary solid helmet.”

Remembering Decker’s earlier comments, Cidra
hedged, “What if the suit tears?”

“
I’ve never seen that
happen.” Leena shook her head, her hair bobbing away. “We use these
all the time on finds. You wouldn’t believe the beating they can
take. Not only that, the suit is self-healing. If it detects a
tear, it will compress around it, sealing it off.”

Leena checked all the gauges and settings on
the outside of the suit one last time. “OK, here goes. Whatever you
do, don’t move until it’s done.”

Cidra froze as the thermoform survival suit
began to hiss and growl, squeezing excess material snugly around
her. It was then she wondered how it knew when to stop. After a few
uneasy minutes, it halted, apparently happy with its final
form.

Leena gave it a quick check and smiled
proudly. “Perfect. You’re all set. Try walking around.”

Experimentally, Cidra stepped forward,
pleasantly surprised at the lightness and flexibility of the
custom-fitted survival suit. She squatted and straightened. Leena
was right, the suit fit perfectly. “Amazing.”

Grey smiled at her. “Congratulations. It’s
yours now. Every crew member has one.”

Cidra grinned back at him. “It’s a dream
come true. Really.”

Grey laughed. “That’s exactly what they all
say.”

“
Can anyone join this
party?” Barrios walked into the landing bay toward the
trio.

Cidra smiled at him. “You just missed all
the fun. Maybe you should get one of these.”

“
No thanks. Besides, I
don’t think it would do much shrinking around me,” Barrios joked,
but Grey noted his heart wasn’t in it.

Grey said something softly to Leena. She
nodded and turned to the group. “I have to run. Cidra, if you have
any trouble with the suit, let me know.” With that, she left.

Grey pushed off the wall and made a
conspicuous trip into the K12, leaving Barrios and Cidra alone.

Barrios watched Grey enter the K12 and
turned to Cidra, taking both her hands in his beefy fingers.
“You’re leaving soon.”

“
Yes. As soon as we take
position over Courf.” It broke her heart to see him so grim,
knowing full well that it was her fault.

Barrios nodded for a few moments, working on
his next words. “The d’Hont are close.”

“
I know.” Cidra smiled
sadly at his downcast expression. “You can’t worry about it,
Barrios. We have no choice.”

He squeezed her hands. “I know.” He raised
his red-rimmed eyes to meet hers. “In my heart, you are my
daughter. No matter what happens, always know that I love you.”

Cidra felt the tears burn behind her eyes.
She threw her arms around her old friend’s shoulders. “I love you
too, Barrios. I would never have made it this far without you, but
I can’t quit now. I owe it to everyone who ever loved me.”

She backed away from him and smiled, feeling
Grey’s presence behind her.

Barrios looked at him over Cidra’s shoulder
and ordered, “You take care of her down there.”

Grey gave the older man his
pledge. “I’ll do my best.”
Or
die trying
. The words
went unspoken, but understood.

Barrios kissed Cidra on the cheek, turned,
and walked out of the landing bay.

From one hundred meters above, Courf’s
exterior didn’t resemble the beautiful polished stone Cidra had
seen from deep space. Between dense patches of ice fog, the
darkside loomed ominous and terrifying just below them. The K12’s
searchlights revealed a surface that was tortured and scarred with
criss-crossing ridges and slashing canyons. Courf endured a painful
existence.

She gave silent thanks to the crashed
transport’s crew for having the foresight to set the distress
beacon on.

“
We’re almost there,” Grey
said gruffly.

Cidra cast him a sidelong glance. He looked
large and imposing in his survival suit. He also looked irritated.
He had hardly spoken since they’d entered the K12. Even though the
transport was still on the darkside, he had insisted they suit up
immediately and locate the shipment. It was an unexpected risk, but
he had refused to answer her questions about it. His expression was
as icy as Courf itself.

Grey adjusted the angle of
the searchlights. He was still angry with himself. How could he
have missed it? Decker had found the d’Hont tracking device on the
K12. It was now safely aboard
Calíbre
in a space pod, ready to be
launched at a moment’s notice. A convincing diversion, he hoped. It
was his only trick left.

As it was, the d’Hont now knew his exact
position. He had led them straight to the shipment. His ghost had
come alive in the form of the d’Hont Class One cruiser. As much as
he hated searching for something in the dark, they had no choice.
Time was running out. The d’Hont were waiting. He wondered what
they were waiting for.

“
It should be dead ahead
and within visual range. There.” He pointed to a distant ridge lit
up by the K12’s probe light.

Cidra tried to pick out the shape of a
transport as the clouds of ice fog swept along the jagged surface.
Then she saw it and breathed a sigh of relief. Not only was it
visible, it appeared intact.

Grey maneuvered the K12 in close, landing on
a relatively flat patch of ground with a thump. Silence, fog, and
incessant night encased them. He left the K12’s engines running in
the even they needed to make a quick liftoff. He turned to Cidra
with a faint smile. “Ready?”

She gave him a haunted look that turned his
stomach. He pulled her with him as he stood up. Framing her face in
his hands, he kissed her gently. “I’ll be there with you.”

Cidra gazed up into his eyes with a longing
and relief that pumped him full of desire. He wanted nothing more
than to forget this death mission and get her out of that survival
suit.

“
Let’s go.” His voice was
husky while he activated her survival suit. It droned low. She
flinched as he tested the suit’s force field around her head by
tapping on it. Hard and hollow sounding. Perfect.

He activated his own, tapped on the force
field, and headed to the back of the K12. He pulled a few tools
from a storage locker and handed a rod to Cidra.

“
What’s this?” She turned
the rod over in her hands.

“
A heater torch.” Grey
activated his own torch to show her. A faint blue light fanned out
from the tip of the rod. “It will thaw whatever it’s pressed
against. We’ll probably need them to free the cargo.” He punched a
control on the chest unit of both suits that activated a wide beam
of light, released the K12’s outer door and stepped out.

Cidra followed without hesitation but once
outside, stopped dead. She cast a look around. Courf looked
sterile. No life, no movement. White clouds swallowed them up.
Beyond the K12’s beam and the survival suit’s lights, there was
nothing but fog and shadows. Ice vapor undulated and swirled in
endless formations. Suddenly, she felt a low moan that emanated
from somewhere deep within the planet. Around and beneath her, the
ground hissed and popped reminding her that Courf was a world that
lived in perpetual torment as its frozen carbon dioxide surface was
alternately heated by the giant red star and cooled on the
darkside.

She fought back a chill that sliced through
her, turning her focus to Grey’s retreating form. Ice crackled
under her feet as she hurried to catch up with him.

The transport lay directly in front of them.
Its nose was buried in a pile of ice boulders, its body scratched
and scarred black. He circled the small ship once, searching for
identification markings. There were none.

“
That crew did a remarkable
job landing her.” Grey’s eyes assessed the condition of the
transport.

They approached the ship’s outer door. With
some trepidation, Cidra stood by as Grey tried to activate the
external manual release. After his initial attempt failed, he
pulled out the heater torch and pressed it against the release
mechanism. Cidra watched in fascination while the area around the
release glowed to a soft pink. Grey pulled the release again. The
hatch popped open without protest except for the gasp of escaping
air.

He smiled triumphantly at her. “We’re
in.”

Using both hands, he pried the door fully
open and stepped inside. The interior lights had long since lost
their charge, but the K12’s powerful beam lit up the interior of
what appeared to be the cargo hold. Cidra stepped in behind Grey as
he stooped to examine an unmarked squat container resting atop a
hover pallet.

“
This could be it.” He
looked around. “I don’t want to open it here. Let’s see if we can
find some identification on-board first.”

“
Stay here.” He stood up
and walked toward the open doorway to the front crew
section.

Cidra followed him and was immediately sorry
she hadn’t heeded his direct order. She stood frozen in place just
inside the doorway. In the glow of her suit light, two very still
crewmembers sat with their backs to her, facing forward. Ice
crystals covered their bodies. Silent sentinels to the truth.

“
I told you to stay in the
cargo area,” Grey said as he worked his way around the small cabin.
He pulled out the heater torch and pressed it against a handle on
center console until it glowed pink. Then he pulled a short
cylinder out of the console board by the handle.

“
Memory core?” Cidra’s
voice sounded raspy.

He nodded. “Most likely contains the same
data as Syrus’ holo recording. I’m taking it with us.”

“
This is it?” she gasped.
“You’re sure?”

Carrying the core, he guided her back
through the doorway to the cargo hold. “The crew members are
wearing the Kin-sha crest on their uniforms.”

Cidra’s stomach rolled over. Grey tossed the
core on top of the large cargo container and bent to check the
controls on the hover pallet. He seemed completely unaffected by
the presence of two dead crewmembers. She, on the other hand, was
shaking uncontrollably.

Grey tapped the controls several times. The
hover pallet hummed to life. He blew out a long breath and thanked
the stars above. There was no way the two of them could move this
heavy container back to the K12 alone. Luckily, they didn’t have
to. He programmed the settings. The pallet under all that vaccine
rose steadily off the floor, hovering a half meter off the
floor.

“
We’re done.” With a gentle
push, he began guiding the huge container out the cargo
door.

Cidra clenched her fists. “I’ll be there in
a minute.”

Grey shot her a hard look. “This is no time
to mess around, Cidra. We have to leave.”

She didn’t back down. “I have to do
something first.”

“
Fine. Make it quick.” He
maneuvered the hover pallet through the door and toward the
K12.

Cidra watched him push the pallet along.
After taking several deep breaths, she turned toward the front crew
section.

After securing the
container aboard the K12, Grey stormed back to the transport. She
still wasn’t back. He was going to chew her out good when he got
hold of her. He stomped into the cargo hold. No sign of her. He
caught the glow of her suit light in the crew section.
What was she doing
?

Whatever he was going to say was completely
forgotten when he stepped foot inside the front section. She had
used the heater torch to thaw two blankets that she was placing
over each of the dead crewmembers. He watched her tuck and smooth
the blanket with the gentle care. She glanced up at him with a
bleak expression. Her hands went still on the blanket.

“
They looked so cold,” she
said in a fragile voice. Her gaze skittered away as she resumed her
task.

He stood watching her for a few seconds, all
the anger draining out of him. This was tearing her apart, but as
always, she did what was necessary. Despite his wrath and her own
aversion, her compassion had won out. She had more heart than
anyone he’d ever known.

“
Cidra.”

She slowly lifted her eyes to his. He almost
choked on the thick emotion in his throat. He extended a hand to
her. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Cidra was still trembling as they cleared
Courf’s atmosphere and headed into space. It was the kind of
trembling that went so deep, it felt like it would never stop. She
wasn’t sure if it was fear or excitement or grief. The emotions
were too close together.

“
Keep an eye on the
long-range scanners, Cidra.” Grey interrupted her thoughts. “I
don’t want anyone sneaking up on us.”

He appeared grim as he piloted the K12. Not
grim, she corrected. Worried.

“
Why is
Calíbre
so far off planet?” She drew
her attention back to the displays.

“
I ordered them out
further. I wanted them in a better position to watch for unexpected
company,” he murmured, all his energy focused on the
scanners.

Cidra stared at him while all the pieces
clicked into place. “They’re here, aren’t they?”

Grey didn’t answer her,
hailing
Calíbre
instead. “Decker, do you see anything?”

Decker replied back instantly, “Nothing yet.
Just you heading toward us. Can you kick that thing up a notch?
This place is giving me the creeps.”