Perilous Hunt: Fallen Empire, Book 7 Read online

  “I think we may be within communications range of the station,” Yumi said a while later. “This isn’t the middle of nowhere, despite its desolate appearance. I believe there are boosters on some of the outer asteroids.”

  Yes, Kir had once been a desirable core planet.

  “Do you think they’ll answer if a random freighter captain comms?” Alisa asked, the first twang of nerves assaulting her belly. She couldn’t wait to see Jelena again, and yet she was apprehensive about how the reunion would go, especially after her daughter had been with the Starseers for months. Who knew what propaganda they might have been pumping into her head? Who knew what they might have been telling her about her mother?

  “Perhaps not. I’ll get Young-hee. If she’s not too busy gazing lustfully at Abelardus. He clearly exasperates her, but I keep catching her sneaking peeks.” Yumi stood up. “She is young and driven by hormones.”

  “It happens to the best of us, but Yumi?” Alisa glanced back. “I don’t need to hear the words Abelardus and lust in the same sentence again. In case you were wondering.”

  “Nor do I,” Leonidas murmured.

  Alisa almost asked him about their altercation, but Alejandro remained in NavCom. Besides, since she was flying manually, it was not a good time to take her attention from the controls.

  The comm flashed, and Alisa reached for it before realizing nobody was trying to contact her. The call was directed toward one of the passenger cabin units. Her first thought was that someone at the station was trying to get in touch with Young-hee or one of the other Starseers, but the message must have been addressed to Leonidas, because the ship automatically routed it to his cabin.

  Alisa glanced back and caught him looking at the flashing, but he turned back toward the sensor station without commenting on it. One of the imperial ships trying to get in touch with him?

  Something else to discuss with him later, if he was willing.

  “Greetings, Captain,” Young-hee said, accompanying Yumi into NavCom. “You wish me to comm the station?”

  “I thought your face would be more likely to earn us a welcome than Abelardus’s.”

  “Lord Abelardus is a respected member of our community,” Young-hee said.

  “Didn’t you say he should be punched the last time we talked?”

  “Only if he’s inserting himself into your thoughts without permission.”

  “He does that daily. Sometimes hourly.”

  Young-hee’s expression grew wistful. Three suns, she didn’t want Abelardus trolling about in her head, did she? If she had the power, Alisa would gladly foist him on her if she wished it. Maybe even if she didn’t.

  “Young-hee thinks he’s gorgeous,” Yumi said, elbowing her sister.

  Young-hee sniffed and turned away, though her cheeks flushed enough to be visible even through her bronze skin.

  “Lord Gorgeous doesn’t want to come up here right now,” Alisa said. “You’ll have to do the chatting.” She waved Young-hee to the open co-pilot’s seat.

  Alejandro sighed heavily. Tired of being surrounded by lusty youths, was he? Maybe they needed to find him a nice woman. He might forget about his quest if he was in love.

  One-handedly, Alisa operated the comm, sending a hail out to the unfamiliar system.

  “Sepiron Station?” Young-hee said. “This is Young-hee Park from Temple Ice Iris.”

  Had that been the name of that place? Alisa had never heard it before.

  “I’m traveling in the freighter Star Nomad along with several others from the temple.” Young-hee did not mention Stanislav. “May we have permission to dock?”

  Alisa perched on the edge of her seat, hoping to hear a hearty, “We’re so glad to hear from you, and would you like to chat with the children roaming the station?”

  Alas, she did not get that. She didn’t get anything.

  “Are you sure they’re able to hear us?” Young-hee asked, prodding the comm panel. “Or that this transmits at all? It looks very old.”

  Alisa scowled at her. “You’re twenty. Everything looks old.”

  “I’m twenty-two.”

  “Same thing.”

  “Is that rust?” Young-hee scraped at a brown substance jammed into the edge of the panel.

  “Absolutely not.” Alisa swatted her hand away, but frowned at the spot and scraped at it with a fingernail. “It may be chocolate.”

  “It’s reassuring to know that our pilot is up here slobbering over a chocolate bar while she one-handedly flies us through an asteroid field,” Alejandro said.

  Alisa shot him a dirty look before saying, “Try again, please, Young-hee. The transmission is going through. They’re just not answering it. Tell them we have chocolate.”

  Young-hee glanced dubiously at the smudge on the control panel, but obeyed the request, trying several more times to make contact as Alisa weaved past asteroids, continuing toward the coordinates.

  “The station has come into sensor range,” Leonidas said.

  “At least we know they haven’t been obliterated,” Alisa said.

  Young-hee’s mouth dropped open in alarm. Apparently, that hadn’t occurred to her. She was new to the ship and didn’t know what kind of luck Alisa had.

  “Anything strange on the readings?” Alisa asked. “Can you tell if they have power and life support?”

  “I’m able to read power,” Leonidas said. “We’ll have to get closer to ascertain the rest.”

  Alisa flew them between two crater-filled asteroids, and when the field opened up ahead, looked back toward Alejandro.

  “What?” he asked warily.

  “Why don’t you go get your medical kit and prepare yourself for a trip over to a space station?”

  “You think there will be injured people?”

  “I’m starting to expect the worst whenever we approach ships and stations that don’t answer our comms.” Some of Mica’s pessimism was rubbing off on her. A depressing thought.

  “Maybe they just don’t want to talk to you,” Alejandro said.

  “We told them we have chocolate. Why wouldn’t they want to talk to us?”

  He snorted, but lifted a hand and left NavCom.

  The Nomad rounded another hulking asteroid, and Alisa straightened in her seat. The station floated ahead of them, independent of the surrounding rocks. A light glowed from inside an observation dome in the center of its X-shaped structure. That X lay nestled inside of a wheel, the design reminiscent of Alcyone Station.

  “It’s taken damage,” Leonidas said, his gaze on the sensor monitor. “However, in addition to power, they appear to have life support. The wheel isn’t spinning, so there won’t be gravity.”

  As the Nomad flew closer, its lights playing over the silvery blue station, Alisa could see the damage. Black scorch marks darkened the hull in places, and a gaping hole had been blown in the bottom of one of the X’s legs.

  “There’s also wreckage floating in the area,” Leonidas said. “It doesn’t appear to be from the station.”

  “Oh?” Alisa asked. “What is it? Or what was it?”

  “A ship perhaps. Not a large one.” Leonidas gave her a long look that she couldn’t read, then leaned around the pilot’s seat to tap a comm button. “Ostberg, can you come to NavCom?”

  Alisa glanced back at him. “Ostberg?”

  “A hunch.”

  “I don’t usually invite him to NavCom,” Alisa said. “He touches things when he’s in here and talks about jotzing up the engines. I’m not sure what jotzing is exactly, but it sounds like he wants to turn my freighter into a thrust bike.”

  “I only need him for a minute,” Leonidas said.

  “A jotzing-free minute, I hope.”

  “I’m here,” Ostberg blurted from the corridor before barging in.

  “Bring the wreckage up on the view screen,” Leonidas told Alisa. “Let him see it.”

  Alisa decided not to point out that she was supposed to give the commands here, not when she was curious
about the ship remains. Why would Ostberg be the one to—a jolt went through her.

  Oh.

  Wordlessly, she adjusted one of the forward cameras to target the wreckage and display it on the screen.

  “Something blew up?” Ostberg asked, glancing at Leonidas. Then he looked back, frowning as he held Leonidas’s gaze for a longer moment. Getting the gist of his thoughts?

  Ostberg leaned closer to the view screen. “It could be,” he said, much more soberly.

  “I’m picking up the part of the hull with the ship’s ident,” Leonidas said. “Pinging it.”

  Alisa squirmed in her seat.

  “It’s coming back as the Moon Hopper,” Leonidas said.

  “That’s the ship they took when they left Cleon Moon,” Ostberg said. “I know it is. I saw it before they left.”

  “The prince was on there?” Leonidas asked. “And the other children?”

  “And our tutors. Everyone who made it away, except Lord Durant.”

  “Did the ship make it to the station?” Young-hee asked. “Or was it almost there when…?”

  “I’m sure they made it,” Alisa said, refusing to believe any other scenario.

  Leonidas rested a hand on her shoulder. “The sensors aren’t detecting any bodies among the wreckage.”

  Alisa took some solace in the statement, though the talk of “bodies” made her uncomfortable.

  He squeezed her shoulder gently, as if he could guess her thoughts.

  “Young-hee,” Alisa said, “are we close enough that you can tell how many people are on the station? Or even if the children might be there?”

  Young-hee frowned in the direction of the station, then frowned at Ostberg, who shrugged back at her and shook his head.

  “What is it?” Alisa asked.

  “There’s nobody on the station,” Young-hee said.

  Alisa slumped in her seat. “You’re sure?”

  “I’ll go check with my colleagues, but I believe so, unless the Starseers are hiding themselves somehow.”

  Alisa remembered Stanislav’s words about shrouding. The implication had been that shrouding was a chasadski skill, but was it possible some of the regular Starseers knew how to do it? Regular Starseers who wanted to protect young children from all the ships searching the asteroid belt?

  “Young-hee?” Leonidas asked as the young woman headed for the hatchway.

  Young-hee paused. “Yes?”

  “Would you be able to tell if people were there but—” he glanced at Alisa, “—didn’t survive the battle?”

  A worried bleakness flashed across Young-hee’s face. “Once someone is dead, their life aura disappears, so no.”

  “You said they still have life support there,” Alisa said, frowning back at Leonidas. “They shouldn’t be dead. The station is damaged yes, but not obliterated. They could have flown away, or they could be hiding in there and shielding themselves from other Starseers. Remember how Abelardus couldn’t sense anyone when the temple was in the volcano and hidden from his powers?”

  “The sensors also don’t show any life signs,” Leonidas said.

  “The Starseers could be fooling them,” Alisa said stubbornly.

  He sighed. “Or someone could have already arrived, kil—captured everyone inside, and left.”

  “I’m surrounded by pessimists,” Alisa grumbled and hit the comm. “Alejandro, we’re going to board the station and check it out. Meet us in the cargo hold with your kit. There’s no gravity. You may want to put pants on under your robe.”

  “Thanks for thinking of my modesty, Captain,” came the dry response.

  “I was thinking more about the rest of us. I know you don’t laser those legs. Mica, I also want you to come along. There’s damage over there, so we may need your engineering expertise.”

  “Do I have to wear pants too?” Mica asked.

  “It depends on how many people you want ogling your exposed bits.”

  “I prefer no more than three at a time.”

  Alisa closed the comm. “I wonder if all captains have to deal with such sarcastic crews, or if I’m special.”

  “You’re definitely special,” Leonidas said, squeezing her shoulder again before releasing her.

  “I’m going to take that as a compliment, but I suspect I’m being naive.”

  “I assume you’re going to dock with the station before sending them over?”

  “Yes, will you go put on your armor? Alejandro needs a babysitter. I’ll keep an eye on the sensors while you dress.” Alisa hoped the station wasn’t locked down and that they could board it without having to cut a hole in a hatch.

  Leonidas stood up. “I trust you’ll also put on your armor?”

  “What makes you think I’m leaving NavCom?” She was planning on it—if Jelena was over there, hidden away from abrasive intruders, she planned to stride in to greet her personally.

  “Because I know you.” He patted her and ducked through the hatchway.

  Alisa smiled, despite her worry about her daughter. It was nice to be known.

  She found a row of airlocks on the back side of the X and angled toward one. All of the slots were empty, but she spotted shuttle bay doors on a lower level. Her sensors weren’t strong enough to tell if the bay was empty or had ships in it.

  Before she docked, she did a long-range sweep of the asteroid field, worried that other ships would arrive while her team investigated the station. Maybe she should stay behind so she could fly the Nomad away to hide among the asteroids if need be, but the idea of leaving her people behind made her uneasy. She ought to train Abelardus to pilot the ship in an emergency, but he usually went with the boarding party. He could do more in a battle than she could, after all. One day, she could train Jelena to be her backup pilot.

  “Just have to find her,” she murmured, guiding the Nomad toward one of the locks.

  Another flash appeared on the communications panel, another message coming in. Once again, it was directed to Leonidas’s cabin.

  She glanced over her shoulder, but he had disappeared. Into his cabin where he might take the time to check his messages while he changed. She chewed on the inside of her cheek, tempted to check his incoming and outgoing transmissions. If the empire was sending him messages, they would surely be encrypted. But if he answered, she could snoop and see his half of the transmission.

  “No,” she decided. With Alejandro and Abelardus, people who would put their interests ahead of hers, it made sense to eavesdrop so she could protect herself if need be. But she would trust that Leonidas wouldn’t do anything that would hurt her or jeopardize her mission or her ship.

  Still, she couldn’t help but feel uneasy as she finished the docking procedure. He had, after all, served the empire for twenty years and sworn the emperor his loyalty long before he had ever met her. Even if that emperor was gone now, the way he’d turned down Admiral Hawk’s offer of Alliance employment told her that the empire wasn’t yet dead for him. Maybe it never would be.

  Chapter 5

  Alisa activated the magnetic boots of her armor as soon as she passed through the airlock tube and set foot in the station. She had to push off the ceiling to get her feet close to the deck before she was pulled downward, the soles touching metal. Leonidas already stood ahead of her in the large entry room, his red armor on, one of two rifles he had brought cradled in his arms. Beck floated out of the airlock tube and joined them.

  “The air is fine,” Leonidas said.

  Data flowed down the edges of the liquid Glastica faceplate of Alisa’s helmet, as her suit sensors analyzed the environment and agreed with him.

  “Come join us, Mica and Alejandro,” Alisa said, waving through the tube back toward the Nomad.

  Sepiron Station’s airlock hatches hadn’t been secured, and a panel on the outside had allowed them access without any special requirements. That had been convenient, meaning the team hadn’t had to force its way inside, but Alisa did not know if it boded well. If the local Starseer
s had wanted to protect the children, wouldn’t they have locked down everything?

  Mica floated through the tube in her new spacesuit, her tool satchel slung over her shoulder, one hand clamping it to her side. She had come prepared to do work outside if needed.

  Alejandro floated through wearing trousers and a shirt instead of his robe, sniffing dubiously at the air as he entered the chamber. Beck grabbed him and pulled him down to the deck, keeping a hold so he wouldn’t float away.

  “You want me to restore gravity first, Captain?” Mica asked.

  Alisa hesitated. Would they be here long enough for that? She wanted to do a quick search and then get back to the ship. Still, as she watched Alejandro’s gray-and-black hair bobbing about his head, she decided it would be more convenient for all if they had gravity. Otherwise, if he opened his medical kit, everything might float out. With luck, it would be an easy fix.

  “Yes,” Alisa told Mica. “Take Beck to watch your back. The rest of us will look around.”

  “Who’s going to keep the doc on a leash?” Beck asked.

  Alejandro glared at him.

  Leonidas started toward him, but Alisa held up a hand. “You be ready to shoot things. I’ll get him.”

  Alejandro turned his glare on her. Maybe he thought she would let go and leave him stranded here. She supposed she shouldn’t find that thought appealing. Now that Durant was awake, she didn’t have as much need for a doctor… at least for the moment. But what if the children had been hurt? She had better keep him around.

  As Alisa was about to head into one of several corridors offering routes away from the docking area, three more figures floated through the airlock tube in their direction. Abelardus, Ostberg, and Stanislav.

  Alisa couldn’t keep from making a face. Abelardus was useful to have along, and she might have invited him if he had been in NavCom, but she didn’t trust Stanislav, and Ostberg wasn’t exactly the most mature of the Starseers.

  “I’ve never been here before,” Ostberg said brightly, peering around. “Anti-grav is fun.” He made a swimming motion, then bounced off a wall.