Page 84 of Sunastara & the Venusian
“Doesn’t feel like it,” Sai muttered as Axel joined Tano and Marisia in the cockpit to initiate undocking.
While Tano steered the shuttle away from the ship, Marisia snapped her fingers at Reya and barked, “Disconnect them.”
Reya nodded, standing from her seat to place a thin metal band around my head. “This won’t hurt,” she said, her eyes swollen and bloodshot, her fingers shaking. “I promise.”
“What are these?” Sai asked while Reya fitted another band around his head.
“Short-range EMPs,” she explained in a whisper. “They’ll frag your VC. That’s all.”
My VC. I commed while I still could.
And with a pop and crackle, Freddie’s voice vanished.The loss of input from my neural implant thrust me into an abrupt, disorienting silence. Until the shuttle’s faster-than-light drive whirred, spooling up for a jump.Don’t let them jump? How in the worlds did he expect me to keep that from happening?
Leaning in close to remove the EMP band from around my head, Reya whispered, “You shouldn’t have come. But they won’t harm you or the boy. They aren’t like that.”
I scoffed. “They—you—are kidnapping us, Reya. Forgive me if I don’t share your optimism.”
“I know this looks bad,” she said, emotion thick in her voice. “But we aren’t bad people.”
“Reya!” Tano barked. “To your seat.”
“Stay quiet and do whatever Tano says.” She looked at Sai, then back at me. “I’m sorry.”
Once she’d buckled herself back into her seat, I turned toward Sai and asked, “Any chance you know how to stall an FTL jump?”
“Are you serious?”
“Of course I’m serious.”
“I’m ten years old,” he said, incredulous. “So, no.”
The shuttle shook as two warning shots from theIgnisar’s exterior defense mechs soared over our nose. Tano cursed in Kravaxian. I couldn’t decipher it without my VC, but I thought I’d heard something about Orion’s balls. “How long until the drive is ready?” he snapped.
“Fifteen seconds,” Marisia responded with an ominous, unshakable calm despite the onslaught of super-heated metal.
“That long?” Reya’s fists clenched in her lap, her knuckles turning white.
Turning to look at her, Tano said, “Worry not, young one. They will not shoot us. Not with the boy here.”
“Tano, stand down.” Captain Jones’s voice thundered through the shuttle comms. “You are surrounded. Return your captives, and we will be lenient. You have my word.”
Tano’s only response was a short-lived flex of his jaw as the onboard AI started a five second countdown. The captain didn’t shoot at us again, and when the countdown hitone, I placed my cuffed hands over Sai’s and squeezed. The FTL drive engaged, and there was a gut churning instant of suspended gravity. Then we jumped away from theIgnisar, disappearing into the black void of open space.
33
“Welcome to Kravax,”Axel said, waving a hand toward the cockpit windows.
I tried to focus on the dark-green planet rotating off the shuttle’s starboard side, but my vision swam, and my temples throbbed. I loathed jumping. Hated it. Would you enjoy being flattened to the width of a single strand of hair, then rebounded so violently to normal size that every single one of your cells heaved? I didn’t think so.
Despite the nausea, the cold sweat beading on my brow, I found the strength to say, “Huh,” while measuring the unimpressive size of the planet between my thumb and first finger. “It’s smaller than I expected.”
“Oh, I assure you, Sunny,” Axel replied with an arrogant smirk. “It’squitelarge.”
I rolled my eyes.
Sai shook his head.
