Lost Planet 01 - The Lost Planet (16 page)

“Odds of catastrophic death high! Deal over, Maurus. Take back your money. I turn you in.”

“It's too late for that, Vo. What do you think, they're just going to let you go after this? I saw what you're carrying in the cargo hold—they're not going to let an annirad missile smuggler just slip through their hands.”

Vo's eyes rolled wildly in his head. “Stupid human!” he raged. “You ruin me!” Heaving and slobbering a little at the corners of his mouth, Vo glanced around the cabin. “Have to leave now! I eject you into space!”

“Vo, you're outnumbered,” said Maurus. “And if you try to touch any of us, there's a very powerful android here who will stop you dead in your tracks.”

“I'm here to protect the boys, not you,” said Mina flatly.

Maurus glanced at Mina with a small frown. “We're running out of time. Turn off your trackers, make the fold.”

Vo muttered to himself in a high, angry voice and turned back to his console. He folded his humanoid arms. “No.”

“Well then—” Maurus reached toward his belt and pulled out a handblaster. “I'll take out your trackers with this.”

Vo turned in his seat and stared at Maurus with his mouth slightly ajar, an expression of astounded fury crinkling his delicate pointy nose. “You dare…” He turned his beady gaze on Chase, who stood just behind Maurus.

Suddenly two of his long back limbs shot out and snatched both Chase and Parker by the necks, dragging them across the cabin. Chase wrenched free with a terrible burning, tingling sensation, but beside him Parker screamed as the pincer-like device on the end of Vo's limb clamped down on his shoulder.

“Let him go!” shouted Maurus. Another of Vo's long limbs came up from behind and cracked him in the elbow, sending his handblaster skidding across the cabin floor. Vo's pig-like crewman darted forward to grab the weapon, but Mina kicked the creature aside as she grabbed the limb attached to Parker's shoulder. There was a cracking sound, and with an ear-piercing shriek Vo released his hold.

Chase dove across the floor and grabbed the handblaster. On his knees, he whirled around, pointing the surprisingly light weapon at the ship's captain. Maurus took a step toward him.

“Very good, Corbin, now just give the weapon back to me,” he said softly. He reached out to take it.

Panicking, Chase pointed the blaster at him.

“No!” Maurus shouted.

Vo's long limb was already traveling through the air toward the weapon. Chase swung the weapon back at him, his heart pounding. Vo froze in place.

Maurus raised his hands. “You don't have to give the blaster to me. But you have to take out the trackers, or Captain Lennard will catch up with us and we'll all die. Just blast that comm box.” He pointed at a metal box on the corner of the console.

“Don't listen to Maurus, he's lying!” shouted Parker. “He wrecked Trucon, he destroyed my home! Shoot him!”

“Kill him,” barked Vo. “He die, trouble gone.”

Maurus's dark, intense eyes locked on to Chase, holding his gaze. “Whatever you think I am doesn't matter. Just think of yourself. I know Captain Lennard, and he is a vicious, brutal man. Even if I agree to go easily, he'll kill everyone on this ship just to cover his tracks.”

Chase gripped the weapon tightly, paralyzed by the decision. If Maurus really was responsible for the destruction of Trucon, he was probably lying now to save his own skin. Based on the other things he'd done—stealing Mina, leaving Chase and Parker stranded—it was entirely probable that he was just trying to trick Chase into letting him escape.

But he'd also saved them from being sold into slavery, and probably saved their lives. If he was telling the truth about Captain Lennard and Chase ignored him, it would be a fatal mistake.

“Just shoot him!” screamed Parker. “He's only trying to save himself!”

“Think of your friends! Save their lives!” yelled Maurus. “Do it now, you're almost out of time!”

Even if Captain Lennard let them live, they would end up in the hands of the Fleet. It was better to travel with the devil they knew than the devil they didn't.

Chase raised the weapon and pulled the trigger. The comm box exploded into black, twisted metal.

Vo screeched.

“You jerk!” Parker stormed across the room and tried to take a swing at Chase's face. Dodging him, Chase tripped backward, the blaster falling from his hand with a clatter. The little pig-like creature darted forward to grab the weapon and scuttled back behind Vo's seat.

“Fold!” called Maurus from the console, where he had already shoved Vo out of the way. The warping air caught Chase by surprise, and he fell to his knees as the ship jumped through space.

Parker slid down the wall beside him. “I hate you. You're as much a traitor as he is.”

Chase didn't answer. He was already second-guessing his choice. By choosing to travel with the most-wanted man in the universe and run from the Fleet, had he made them criminals now too?

“We're safe,” said Maurus. “Vo, start a course for Lyolia.” Vo bared his teeth and hissed, cradling the limb Mina had squeezed. “Do it. And tell your deck hog to give me back my sidearm as well.”

Raising his humanoid limbs in indignation, Vo barked an order, and the blaster slid out from under his seat. Maurus picked up the weapon and examined it. “He's removed the munitions chamber. This is useless!” Vo ignored him, and Maurus holstered the weapon with a frown and returned to his seat near the console.

Parker glared at the back of Maurus's head. “You're just going to sit there like everything's fine, aren't you?” he asked. “We all know what you did. You killed thousands of people—you ruined an entire
world
. For what, Lyolian politics? For the stupid Karsha Ven?”

Maurus whipped around. “You believe everything you see on the news, do you?” He shook his head. “Do you think I'd bother helping two stupid Earthan boys if I'd just killed thousands? I'm not a traitor. I serve the Fleet.”

“Oh really?” countered Parker. “Because I'm pretty sure that was the Fleet who just tried to kill you. If you're so innocent, why are you running away to your homeworld instead of staying to defend yourself?”

A shadow crossed Maurus's face. “I'm protecting myself,” he muttered, turning back to watch Vo's movements at the console.

Again Chase wondered if he had made the wrong choice by helping Maurus escape the Fleet. He looked up at Mina. “Can you contact Asa now?”

She shook her head. “Not since you shot the trackers. That box held the entire communication system for the ship, so you've left us unable to contact anyone.”

Chase's heart sank. “I did?” He could feel Parker's angry eyes boring into the side of his head.

“No communications, even if emergency happen,” added Vo over his shoulder. “Better hope ship not break down.”

“I'm sure there's a distress beacon in your escape shuttle that we can activate, if need be,” said Maurus. Vo made a rude noise and turned back to the console. “You can communicate with your people as soon as we reach Lyolia, Corbin.”

“We'll figure it out,” said Mina. “And his name is Chase.”

“What?” Maurus glanced back, frowning.

“His name isn't Corbin.”

Maurus stared at Chase for a moment. “Whatever. Take them down to the bunkroom and keep them out of my way.”

“I should probably stay up here and help you navigate,” Mina said. “With the trackers down, the ship will be more vulnerable.”

Maurus shook his head. “We'll be fine. Vo's not going to leave the control deck because he's afraid we'll lock him in his cabin, so I'll stay here to make sure he takes us to the right place.”

Mina stepped beside Parker, who was still sitting on the floor. “Come on, let's go downstairs,” she told him. Chase thought Parker might fight to stay on the control deck, but he jumped to his feet and charged straight to the exit.

Chase followed him down to the back of the ship, past the cargo room they'd escaped from. At the end of the hall was a cluttered bunkroom that smelled like sour old sweat. Six bunks lined one wall, and a rickety table and chairs stood opposite them. The back of the bunkroom was filled with stacked boxes that Parker immediately began to search through.

Chase pulled out a chair and sat, putting his head in his hands. He spoke at the floor. “I'm sorry. I didn't have any better choice. And he did save us from getting sold to those slave traders.”

“It's great, yay, we're saved,” muttered Parker. “We're traveling with a mass murderer who's wanted by every government in the galaxy, and thanks to you, we have no way to contact anyone if we need help. I feel safe, don't you?”

“That's not fair,” said Chase. “We don't know if he had anything to do with Trucon.”

Parker looked up at him with narrowed eyes. “You're right. I don't know. Actually, I don't know much of anything right now. I don't know where I'm going, or where Asa is. I don't know who decided it would be a good idea to set my homeworld on fire. And I sure as shooting stars don't know what you are.”

The distrustful look on Parker's face sent a cold feeling into the pit of Chase's stomach. “I told you, I don't know how I got out of the container. Do you really think I'd lie about that?”

“I don't know what I think anymore.” Parker slid one stack of boxes out of the way and started on the next row. “All I've got is my gut, and my gut tells me that you are not normal, and that Lyolians are huge liars who can never be trusted.” He slammed the box he was holding onto the floor. “I can't believe you sided with him!”

“Dr. Silvestri told us not to go to the Fleet under any circumstances.”

“I don't think Dr. Silvestri expected any of this to happen, do you?” Parker shouted. He threw a box lid against the wall, making Chase flinch. “Helping Maurus escape was the stupidest thing you could have done!”

Mina walked through the bunkroom door. “Calm down, Parker.”

“And you!” Parker shouted at her. “You're supposed to protect me. Why are you going along with this? You could have taken them both down before they had a chance! We could take over the ship and go wherever we want.”

Mina shook her head. “It's Vo's ship, and we'll go where he takes us. Unless your life is directly threatened, mutiny is a crime with very severe punishments.” She took a seat at the table. “You'd better settle in. It's going to take at least two weeks to get to Lyolia. With the trackers gone, it's too unsafe to make any more folds.”

“Stupid machine!” Parker cursed in frustration, kicking a box. He turned back to Chase. “This is all your fault. If anything bad happens, it's on you.”

Too beaten down by doubt to challenge Parker, Chase lowered his head again and nodded.

 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Chase had been walking in pointless circles around the lower deck of the ship for half an hour, trying to ignore the growling in his stomach. After four very long days aboard Vo's ship, he regretted his decision to travel with Maurus more than ever. The ship was boring, it stank, and occasionally a worrying rattle echoed from deep within the walls. But worse yet was the constant, gnawing hunger. As a smuggler, Vo usually hopped from planet to planet, trading and resupplying at each stop. After Chase destroyed the trackers, it didn't take long to realize there wasn't enough food stocked on the ship for a two-week voyage with five hungry mouths—not including Mina, who functioned on bimonthly doses of lithium oil.

He returned to his cabin, restless. Parker was lying in the lower bunk, flipping through a stack of brochures he'd found in one of the boxes.

“Hey, you want to play a card game?” Chase asked, hoping to distract himself from daydreams about a closet full of delicious scrappies.

Parker glanced up and shook his head. Although he didn't seem angry anymore, his behavior had shifted. He was quiet and moody, and on several occasions, Chase caught Parker watching him with that same guarded expression he'd worn after Chase's unexplained escape from the cargo container. Mostly Parker kept to himself, reading whatever he could get his hands on or studying the contents of the engine room.

Chase crossed the room and looked at a couple of the brochures Parker had tossed on the floor, but he couldn't read the language they were written in. “I'm starving,” he muttered.

Parker cocked an eye at him. “Good luck getting something to eat.”

In his role as jack-of-all-trades, Vo's tiny deckhand, a creature called a Lakito who answered to the name Ferkel, also served as the ship's cook. The disgusting little thing ruled over the ship's low food reserves with an iron fist, doling out skimpy meals at irregular intervals. Both Chase and Parker were quick to complain about what Parker called “orphanage gruel,” but Mina refused to interfere after she determined that Ferkel's watery betaprotein stews met the minimum caloric requirement for teenage boys.

Hearing a noise outside the bunkroom, Chase looked down the hall and caught a glimpse of Ferkel scrambling up the stairs to the control deck. He'd left the door to the mess room wide-open. Seeing the one chance he might have for days, Chase dashed from the bunkroom to the small kitchen. Yanking open cabinets, he was disheartened to see that the first three were already empty. Two skinny boxes sat in the fourth cabinet, with names he didn't recognize: Mapoflakes and Qorn Qrisps. He reached for the shiny red Mapoflakes box.

“Not that one.” Parker stood behind him, his eyes glittering with hunger. “Grab the Qrisps.”

With a guilty thrill, Chase ran back to the bunkroom, the Qrisps tucked under his arm. As he closed the door behind them, Parker grabbed the box from him and tore it open, showering a heap of crumbly golden triangles on the table. “Dinnertime,” he said with a grin.