Was it possible they could find the Tiangs? And get them out of the city if they needed help? And if they didn’t need help… this could be their chance to simply get them. They might not
get
another chance. For now, all of the planes, shuttles, and ships in the city were busy, no doubt being pressed into rescue duties. But that wouldn’t be the case indefinitely.
“We’re going to check on it,” Alisa said.
After all, Laikagrad Vostok was on the way to the sea and the exit route she had planned.
You’re crazy
, Abelardus told her silently.
You just now noticed?
If you want to do something heroic, let’s find the source of the attack. Wrest that staff from whoever thought using it on a city full of innocent people would be a good idea.
A surge of outrage and indignation flooded into Alisa, and it took her a moment to realize the emotion was coming from Abelardus instead of from her. Oh, the chaos below upset her, too, but it wasn’t yet real to her; seeing it play out below was like watching the news about distant atrocities. She was surprised Abelardus of all people felt so strongly. Maybe he could sense the pain and suffering coming from those below, and it wasn’t a matter of watching buildings burn on a monitor.
Yes
, he thought tersely at her.
Alisa almost told him that it would be suicidal for them to go after the person with the staff, but it occurred to her that this was their fault—maybe even
her
fault. If the
Nomad
hadn’t brought the artifact to Cleon Moon where those rogue Starseers could get it… and if she hadn’t left it so poorly guarded… it might not have fallen into such cruel hands.
She imagined the gray-haired, bearded Starseer. Stanislav Schwegler. She remembered him holding the staff, the way it had glowed as he walked out of the hold with it. And she remembered the one thing she could never forget, that he might be her father. If he had done this, she truly could not shirk the responsibility, the obligation to, as Abelardus had said, wrest that weapon from him.
“The damage is even worse here,” Leonidas said quietly, his gaze toward the cameras again.
Smoke filled the air, partially blotting out the suns and giving the air a surreal reddish tint. It was as if a giant forest fire burned, but the flames all came from the buildings and houses, more of them flattened as the ship drew closer to the epicenter.
“Heading for the university,” Alisa said, adjusting their course slightly. She looked over her shoulder at Abelardus. “After that, if you can figure out where that attack came from, I’ll fly us there.”
She feared that even Leonidas would not be a match for a Starseer with that staff, but as much as she wanted to disappear into the stars, to resume the hunt for her daughter, she couldn’t turn her back on this. If this was truly a result of her negligence, didn’t she owe it to the universe, at least to the people living in this city, to try and get rid of that weapon?
Leonidas looked over at her, perhaps wondering if he had missed part of the conversation—and he had—but he did not object. Why would he? He’d been training extra this past week, preparing himself for the confrontation he had assumed inevitable. Maybe Alisa had been foolish not to also assume it had been inevitable.
“I’ll get my armor,” Leonidas said, easing out of his seat.
“It’s rated for fire, right?” Alisa asked.
“To a certain temperature, yes.” He did not expound on what that temperature was.
“Ask Beck to get his, too, will you?”
“Yes.”
Leonidas disappeared through the hatchway. Abelardus was bent over Yumi’s shoulder, pointing at the sensor panel as she poked something into her netdisc.
Alisa’s stomach churned with the nervous certainty that they were doing their best to look up where that attack had come from. What would they do if it had originated in the Starseer temple itself? If the
chasadski
had come to recruit Young-hee’s people, might not they still be there? What if that recruiting had been successful? At least in part? What if Lady Naidoo had been swayed and was standing next to Stanislav as he contemplated his next attack?
Alisa dug out her own netdisc, preferring its simple interface to that of the ship’s computer, and pulled up a map for Tolstoy University and the location of Dr. Suyin Tiang’s office. She dug up the home address for Suyin too.
Maybe it was selfish—or at least self-serving—but she was determined to check on the Tiangs before streaking off on a new mission. She silently admitted that she would
rather
do that than go off on a new mission. She shuddered at the idea of coming face to face with the man who might be her father. A man who might also be a mass murderer.
Chapter 9
“There’s nowhere to land,” Alisa grumbled as she flew around the university, watching the view screen and also watching the holomap. A yellow highlighted building flashed, the one with Dr. Tiang’s office inside it. She could see it ahead of them, but the parking lots and shuttle pads were so full of wrecked vehicles and debris from toppled buildings that she couldn’t land the
Nomad
without crunching ground cars.
Fires burned in some of the buildings of the campus; others were flattened, roofs crumpled in on themselves and walls knocked down. Great fissures had torn open some of the parking lots, and half of a parking garage had tumbled into one such chasm. People were still streaming out of the buildings, some running, some limping, and some carrying others. They looked around, not seeming to know where to go once they escaped the burning structures. Many heard the
Nomad
and waved up, their faces pleading, asking for a rescue. Blood smeared some of those faces, and Alisa gritted her teeth, quickly calculating how many people could fit in the cargo hold. She might have come for the Tiangs, but the smoky sky did not hold any other rescue ships, not here on campus. Other places must have been deemed more important to help first.
“We can rappel out if necessary,” Leonidas said, walking into NavCom in his full armor. His full crimson imperial cyborg armor. Those people hoping for rescues might flee the other way when they saw him. “And if you tell us who we’re looking for and where he or she is,” he added a touch dryly.
Beck clomped into NavCom behind Leonidas, their broad forms making the space claustrophobic, especially since Yumi and Abelardus still huddled together by the sensor station, doing their calculations.
“A he
and
a she,” Alisa said, “though I don’t know if we can expect Admiral Tiang here. It’s his daughter who lives in the city and has an office in this building.” She pointed to the one they were circling. “It’s the middle of the workday in the middle of the workweek, so I’m guessing she’s there.” Of course, she might have taken the day off to prepare for her upcoming wedding…
Leonidas’s lips pressed together. That did not look like an expression of approval.
“I see,” he said.
“I’ll take anyone else who’s injured and needs a ride to the hospital, too,” Alisa said. “Assuming you don’t scare them away with your imperial ferociousness.”
“I feel about as ferocious as a puffball fish right now.” Leonidas did look weary behind his faceplate, more than his voice ragged. The
Nomad
and its crew had been through a lot since the last sleep cycle.
She offered him an encouraging smile. “A puffball fish bristling with rifles and knives and bottle openers and whatever else can pop out of that armor.”
“No bottle openers,” he said.
“No? What happens when you need a beer after a big day of battle?” Alisa frowned as a sinkhole in another parking lot promised that it, too, would be a bad place to land.
“I can twist open a bottle with my fingers.” He tapped his gauntleted thumb and forefinger together like pincers.
“He twists necks off that way, too, I hear,” Abelardus grumbled, though he did not look at Leonidas. He pointed at the sensor readings in front of Yumi. They had tied in her netdisc and seemed to be getting satellite telemetry updates.
Leonidas looked at the back of Abelardus’s head, perhaps contemplating twisting something of his, but ultimately gave Alisa an abbreviated salute, rounded up Beck, and headed for the hatchway.
“Take some rope,” Alisa said, “but I’m still hoping to find a landing spot.” She had no doubt that Leonidas could rappel down—or simply jump out of the cargo hatch—but how would he get rescued people up into the ship? Throw them thirty feet into the air? That wouldn’t work well, especially if they had to take a whole crowd aboard.
“The roof is open,” Abelardus remarked.
“The roof is smoking and half collapsed.”
“Your last landing spot was a junkyard. I didn’t realize you were picky.”
“I was fairly certain the junkyard wouldn’t
collapse
when a freighter came down upon it.”
“You didn’t take a very good tour of it then,” Abelardus said.
“Perhaps landing in the middle of a fire will be good practice,” Yumi said.
“Practice for what?” Alisa turned the
Nomad
toward the building for a better look at the roof. Unfortunately, Abelardus might be right. Unlike the parking areas around it, it was flat and open, aside from the hole on one side. And the smoke coming out of it. And that fire eating at the corner.
She grimaced. This was not a good idea.
“Using a combination of the available satellite information and Abelardus’s Starseer senses, we believe we’ve pinpointed where the staff attack came from,” Yumi said. “Right before the earthquake, a beam of energy arced toward the city, somehow burrowing deep into the ground to affect the fault line rather than destroying anything directly.”
“Where did it come from?” Alisa prompted, slowing down and pointing the nose toward the end of the roof that appeared most stable. She tried not to imagine dropping through it—and through the four floors below it.
“Deep within the Belt of Fire,” Yumi said.
“The what?”
It sounded vaguely familiar, but Alisa had never lived on Arkadius and did not know the geography that well.
“An equatorial region where several fault lines come together. There are numerous active volcanoes, both on the continents and in the sea. It’s quite a fascinating area.”
“Oh? Are there mushrooms and drug ingredients there?” Alisa slowed the ship to a hover and carefully lowered them to the roof. She was starting to believe Yumi could find something fascinating about
any
area.
“As a matter of fact, there are numerous medicinal herbs that grow in the rainforests there. There’s even a rare frog with skin that becomes hallucinogenic when cooked. It goes for an incredibly high price. Some of the back-to-the-wilders have trained the native wolfkins to sniff out the frogs. They catch a few, sell them for enough to buy real estate in the city, and give up their nomadic ways.”
“You’re a font of information, Yumi.”
“I would very much like to try deep-fried frog skins someday.”
“Maybe you can put them on Beck’s shopping list.”
The roof creaked and shifted under the
Nomad’s
weight. Alisa grimaced, again thinking of plunging through all the way to the bottom floor. Taking off from the basement would be a challenge.
Alisa hit the comm to the cargo hold. “Leonidas? Beck? You two can go, along with anyone else who wants to be heroic alongside you.” She glanced at Abelardus, who only made a sour face. She didn’t truly expect him to charge into a burning building when he didn’t have armor or a fire suit, but then again, he might be able to protect himself from smoke inhalation with those invisible shields he could make. “Office 307B, third floor. If you run across other injured people along the way, bring them back. We’ll get them out and drop them off at a hospital. A hospital we haven’t previously visited.”
“Acknowledged,” Leonidas said, his voice as professional as always, despite the raspiness.
“Beck couldn’t afford these frog skins,” Yumi said. Maybe she had been contemplating the shopping list while Alisa spoke.
“He’s going to be wealthy one day. He has connections now, you know. It’s only a matter of time before he’s won the love of the galaxy through his barbecue sauces.”
“Aw, thanks, Captain,” came Beck’s voice over the comm. “I didn’t know you had so much confidence in me.”
“You’re an inventive and talented man, Beck. Now, go kidnap Dr. Tiang for me, will you?”
“Kidnap? I thought we were rescuing people.”
“The difference between kidnapping and rescuing is very subtle.”
“Not to the victim,” Yumi said.
“Leonidas, her first name is Suyin, and she might be slightly alarmed at seeing an imperial cyborg, so send Beck in first when you reach the office. He can sweet-talk her.”
“I don’t even know her or why we’re getting her,” Beck said.
“Just smile in that affable way of yours and offer her muffins.”
The roof shifted again as something groaned, then made a crunching sound. The
Nomad
slumped down a few more inches.
“By the way,” Alisa added, “alacrity would be appreciated for this mission.”
“Always,” Leonidas said.
“She wants alacrity
and
muffins,” Beck said. “She’s a demanding captain.”
“Always,” Leonidas repeated.
The cargo hatch status indicator flashed as the door opened, and the two men left the
Nomad
. As Alisa checked the sensor station to see if any other ships were close, she caught Yumi giving her a disapproving look.
“Look, we’re not kidnapping anyone,” Alisa said, assuming that was the reason for it. “It was a joke. We’re saving them. They’ll be grateful to see us.”
“I doubt anyone on this planet will be grateful to see an imperial cyborg,” Abelardus said. “Even one with muffins.”
“They will if he carries them out of a burning office.”
Alisa frowned at the number of ships and shuttles on the sensors. Had there been that many a few minutes ago? She assumed they were involved with rescuing people, but their proximity to the campus made her uneasy.
The roof creaked again. Alisa considered lifting off and flying around while waiting for Leonidas and Beck to complete their task. A part of her wished she was down there with them, so she could be the first one to speak to Dr. Tiang and perhaps convince her that the armored men were friends and not foes, but a burning building was no place to run around without combat armor. She just hoped they weren’t wasting time. She could feel Abelardus’s gaze upon her and sensed his agitation, his desire to go after the staff wielder.