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  Turning a final corner, the cavern opened to a huge chamber covered with giant crystal formations. Somewhere, many meters above our position, there was an opening to the surface as sunlight poured in and bounced around the crystal surfaces. Light refracted through the mineral faces, casting wide, colorful beams of light across the room. As dire as our situation was, the sheer wonder of the moment caught me off guard – that is, until Hambo collapsed.

  With light bouncing around as it was, picking out details was difficult. I wasn’t sure if this room was a dead end, but it didn’t matter. Without help, I couldn’t go any further and I certainly couldn’t drag Hambo. Belirand would land and soldiers would soon be upon us. My heart sank as I realized we'd come all this way only to be stopped again.

  I searched the room for anything that could help. My eyes fell on a rocky pedestal thirty meters from where we'd entered. Atop this pedestal was a translucent suspension chamber and within that chamber lay Ada Chen. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest.

  I removed Hambo's cloak, folding the material so I could apply pressure to his wound. He was bleeding badly and I wasn't sure pressure would help. The fact was, Belirand soldiers were working their way to us and neither of us had much time. Once again, I felt sick. I'd found Ada, only to lead the very devil to her. The fact was, the damage was done and I'd have to see it through.

  Limping and stumbling against crystal formations within the cave, I made my way to the chamber, cutting my hands on the sharp edges of crystal faces. I pushed past, no longer worried about anything but reaching Ada. Like Snow White, she lay entombed within the suspension chamber. I worried that she would most likely be in the same weakened state I'd been found in. The chamber was translucent and her body was unclothed. Seeing her ribcage reinforced my worries until, upon further inspection, I realized the rest of her body retained much of the muscle tone I remembered.

  I pulled myself up next to the chamber, looked into her placid face and searched for the controls that ran the chamber. The display showed a full charge and indicated that she was indeed in perfect stasis.

  "I'm sorry, Ada," I said as I palmed the security panel and instructed the AI to wake her up. While waiting for the sequence to activate, I became aware of a pile of partially disintegrated fruit that lay atop the chamber. All along the ground surrounding her, I discovered evidence of plant husks and seeds. Somehow, the Scatters had discovered that they could feed the chamber and it would absorb and utilize nutrients. It didn’t explain the full energy stores, but I wondered if that was a result of the surrounding crystal.

  Suspension fluids splashed out from vents at each end and a moment later the chamber’s sides flipped open, depositing a portion of the remaining fluid onto me. Ada stirred and I reached for her, suddenly aware of the fact that she was naked. I looked away, struggling to pull off my cloak to cover her. I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Waves of pain coursed through my body as I jarred my poorly healing ribs.

  "Liam?" Ada asked, coughing up fluid. "What's happened to you?"

  I turned back, feeling the inadequacy of the soiled material I had to offer. She smiled gently as I pushed the cloak to her. "You're naked," I pointed out, carefully averting my eyes.

  "How did I get here?" she asked, accepting the cloak and quickly wrapping it around her body. "You're hurt and you've changed. Liam. Tell me. What's going on?"

  "We're in trouble, Ada," I said, trying to hold myself up on the rock pedestal where she now sat. "That man over there is Hambo. He's been impaled and is dying. We need to find Hotspur, bad people are coming for us."

  "Hotspur is right there." She jumped down and pointed over my shoulder. I followed her finger and then I saw it. Resting amongst the crystals sat Hotspur, still cloaked in her fully-reflective skin, where she’d crashed so many years ago.

  If Ada hadn't jumped down from the pedestal, the blaster bolt that flew over my shoulder would have killed her. "No!" I screamed, turning back to the Belirand soldiers who'd entered the grotto. "Ada, you're our only chance. Get to Hotspur." Well, the last part about getting to Hotspur I never actually finished saying aloud because, quick as lightning, Ada had already sprinted across the crystal grove. I'd like to say that I didn’t pay attention to the fact that the cloak did little to cover her nakedness, but … rings of Saturn, she was beautiful.

  Not having grown up around crystal formations like these, I wasn't exactly aware of all their properties. Sure, in theory, it made sense that the glassy surfaces would reflect energy, or split it, or do all sorts of crazy things with it. In practicality, let me just say that no sane person would fire an energy weapon into a crystal grotto like this more than once. Tracing Ada's path with blaster fire, the soldiers were relentless – and heedless of the danger. It became immediately evident that the shooters weren’t using an AI to direct their shots. Furthermore, as the blaster bolts bounced around the room, it seemed that Ada, the intended target, was the only one to escape the wrath of the split energies.

  "Frakking stop shooting!" I yelled as I threw myself to the ground having taken a dozen smaller spokes of energy that flew in all directions. The fact that I wasn't dead told me the energy diminished as it was split, but try explaining that to the burns on my scalp. I felt like I was wearing a Medusa wig with some very angry electric eels instead of snakes.

  Apparently, I wasn't the only one to have been on the receiving end of the blaster's wrath. With a few yelps, the soldiers stopped shooting and retreated back into the passageway.

  "There's no getting out of here," one of the soldiers finally offered. "You should give yourself up."

  "And then what?" I asked. "Aren't you just going to shoot me?"

  "Chappie wants to talk with you," the same soldier answered. "Where’d that woman go?"

  "Woman?" I asked. "Not sure what you're talking about."

  "Don't act stupid," he said, advancing with his weapon raised. As he came forward, three other soldiers slowly reentered the room. "I saw a woman run off. We'll tear this place apart if we have to."

  "Look, I'm in pretty bad shape," I said, pushing myself up to a seated position. "You saw as much as I did. I think she went over there. You'll have to go get her." I pointed sort of in the direction Ada had gone.

  "Check him," the lead soldier said, as they came even with Hambo's body.

  One of the other three walked over, keeping his rifle leveled on Hambo's small form. I'd always been surprised at how a person looks smaller when they’re dead or unconscious. Hambo looked no bigger than a child. The soldier nudged him with a big boot and then kicked at his side. Hambo didn’t move.

  "Hey, go easy on him. He's never done anything to you," I said, angrily.

  "Never gonna, neither," the soldier said, leering back at me. "Little elf-boy got splattered."

  "Why is it that you bad guys are all the same?" Ada's voice echoed within the chamber as a quartet of flechette darts buried themselves in the man’s chest, the ends sticking out in a line starting at his navel and ending just under his chin. At first, the soldier looked surprised and then he fell over. The remaining three watched in shock and then turned back to where Ada had first disappeared.

  A second soldier yelped in surprise as three more flechette darts found their home. A moment later, he too fell over. Jolted into action, the remaining soldiers returned fire, obviously having forgotten the first rule of combat within a crystal grotto. I covered my head with my arms and leaned back into the stone pedestal. The frakking automatic fire made me feel like I'd been set upon by a hornet's nest. Recognizing the error of their ways, the two soldiers turned and ran back down the passageway, not bothering to drag their fallen comrades with them.

  "You up, Liam?" Ada called.

  "As much as can be expected," I groaned.

  Chapter 16

  Payback

  I must have lapsed into semi-consciousness because the next thing I knew, Ada was crouched next to me, her hand gently cradling my cheek.

  "I can't believe
you're alive," I said, smiling despite the pain that coursed through my body.

  "They won’t be gone for long," Ada said. "Let's get you to the ship. Did we crash or something, and why am I naked?"

  I couldn't help myself; I glanced down from her face. I was disappointed to discover that she was far from naked and wore the small Scatter cloak I'd wrapped her in. "You're hardly naked," I said, snapping my attention back to her face.

  "You're so cheeky," she said, suppressing a grin and pulling me in for a painful hug.

  "Oh, frak, my ribs! Careful," I said.

  She pulled back, gently releasing me. "My gosh, you really smell. When did you grow that beard? How long was I out?"

  "Million questions," I grunted out between painful breaths as she helped me stand. "Not enough time. Hambo needs a med kit."

  "Liam. Talk to me," she said, helping me limp toward the camouflaged Hotspur. "How did you get so banged up? Did we crash land? Last thing I remember, we entered the suspension chambers because Anino's new engines produced excessive inertia."

  I stopped and drank in the sight of her, her beauty astounding in the dancing lights of the grotto. I flicked off a glob of suspension fluid that had dripped onto her cheek. She stared at me, her piercing blue eyes holding me in place. I nodded, knowing there would be no good time to tell her what she needed to know.

  "That was twenty years ago, Ada," I said, picking out a chunk of rock debris from her brown hair. "Hotspur crash-landed. We all landed in different places on the planet."

  "Twenty years?" she asked. "Where are Tabby and Nick and Marny?"

  "Help me with Hambo," I said. "We're behind enemy lines. I'll tell you everything."

  She nodded gravely. "Just tell me they're alive. Oh, Peter. Please tell me he's okay."

  I chuckled despite the situation. "They're all good," I said. "There've been some changes." A sadness washed through me as I thought about the situation with Tabby. My emotions must have made it to my face because Ada placed her hand on my cheek again.

  "We'll get through this, Liam," she said. "We always do."

  I hobbled to Hotspur's starboard side and placed my palm on a security panel. Hotspur had rolled a few degrees to port and the airlock was four meters overhead. Ada had solved the problem by extending a built-in ladder. Still, I wasn't sure there was any way I'd make it inside, even with the ladder.

  "Can you open the cargo hatch?" I asked, stepping back. "My knee is pretty busted up."

  Instead of questioning me any further, she looked down at the torn cloth and the black-and-blue that spread up and down my leg. "Sit here. I'll grab a medical kit."

  "No, please," I begged. "Hambo could still be alive. Please help him first." I pointed at Hambo's slumped unmoving form.

  "Okay. I'll open the cargo bay and I'll help your friend," she said.

  Without Ada’s support, I had to use the side of Hotspur to help keep me from falling over. Up close, Hotspur's armored skin was as smooth as glass and cool to the touch. The last few months of living in the wilderness suddenly felt like a dream. I had my ship and I'd found Ada. For the first time since awakening on Fraxus, I felt a glimmer of hope.

  Hotspur's cargo bay couldn't have opened more awkwardly for me, high on the side where I was standing, the long ramp nicely blocking my path. I grimaced as I pushed my way around to where the ramp was low enough for me to step up. Internal emergency lighting glowed inside the cargo bay as I pulled myself forward.

  "Make yourself useful," Ada said, jogging toward me, her body oriented correctly on the cargo bay's sloped deck. She'd taken a moment to pull on a suit-liner, the legs sticking out beneath the short cloak. I appreciated her modesty, but the fact was, the dark liner material was formfitting and not far off from her own caramel-colored skin.

  She dropped a pile of items on the deck and ran out to me, helping me traverse the last few meters. My stomach did a weird little flip-flop as we crossed the boundary and artificial gravity oriented me to the ship. Grabbing from her pile, she shoved a medical kit at me and then took off at a run for where Hambo lay.

  Surveying the remaining items, I found an armored vac-suit helmet. Smart girl. She’d realized I'd lost my earwig and would be unable to use the auto-targeting on the heavy-flechette pistol she'd left at my feet. Instinctively, my hand went to my cheek where Chappie had ripped off my earwig. My fingers found a trench of missing skin.

  I pulled the helmet on and grabbed the pistol. Instantly, they linked together and provided firing options. I chinned the fastest firing plan I could find and then attempted to link to Hotspur. There was no response beyond the public menu that was available to any guest. Frak. Anino had us locked out. I chinned through more menus, landing on my old personal security routines. Even though I couldn't do much with Hotspur, I could use her myriad cameras to warn us if we had unexpected visitors.

  With security taken care of, I turned to the medical kit Ada had left behind. Either due to exhaustion, stress, adrenaline or just plain excitement, my fingers seemed incapable of doing anything more than fumble as I pawed through the kit's contents. Finally, I found the diagnostic scanner and ran it across my knee. The verbiage displayed on my HUD didn't exactly say messed up, but I'm pretty sure that was what the instructions implied.

  There's just about no way to describe how good it feels when a med-patch first hits a painful wound. I'd make a comparison to sex, but that's too banal. I would put the feeling somewhere between the first kiss of a new romance and the taste of ice-cold beer after a long day of hard work. I closed my eyes to the blessed relief of the pain-killing, tissue-repairing, infection-removing nanites. A few seconds later, a chime sounded, prompting me to add two more patches above and below the first one.

  "You little buggers haven't seen anything yet," I said, knowing the nanites had no capacity to hear me nor could they form a response. In that moment, however, I felt pretty warm and fuzzy toward them. I breathed a satisfied sigh and looked up, just in time to see Ada struggling to walk across the crystal-covered grotto floor, carrying Hambo's body.

  Knowing better, I struggled to my feet. The small man had put himself in extreme danger for someone he barely knew. "How is he?" I asked, my heart in my throat. I'd lost more than a few friends in combat and the fact was, it never got easier.

  "He's bad, Liam," Ada said. "Nanites are having trouble with his physiology."

  "There's a medical tank forward of the armory," I said. "The AI should be better equipped to make an assessment."

  "We're locked out of Hotspur's command menus, Liam," she said, stepping up into the cargo bay. "I don't know if we can get the tank started up. Why would Anino lock us out?"

  "I don't know," I said, leading her forward to the aft hatch that led to the living quarters.

  Immediately after the hatch, to the port side, was the armory, a two-and-a-half-meter wide by four-meter deep room. Forward of that was a small medical bay that was just a little wider, but only big enough to hold a full submersion medical tank on the forward wall and a single stainless-steel table on the aft.

  Entering the room, Ada placed Hambo onto the horizontally-oriented med-tank and pressed her palm to the security panel. "Good," she said, breathing a sigh of relief as the tank's glass cover rotated into place. Small mechanical arms secured Hambo and fixed a breathing apparatus to his nose and mouth.

  "Good?" I asked, sliding up onto the table and cutting the jerkin off my torso, using a special tool designed specifically for that purpose.

  "Hotspur is running an alien bio diagnostic," she said. "Aside from looking like something from The Hobbit, your friend isn't really all that much different from us physiologically. Apparently, just enough to confuse the nanites."

  My AI recognized that I hadn't followed the Hobbit reference and showed me a quick synopsis of an ancient story that I think Mom had tried to get me to read. I quickly pushed away thoughts of her as the tank, including a fully-submerged Hambo, rotated to a vertical position, giving us more room in the cramped
quarters.

  Ada turned back to me and looked at my bare chest. "What in the blue forests of Marfon happened to you, Liam Hoffen?" she asked. "You're all muscly, your skin is black and blue, and you look like a mountain man."

  That was Ada. If you ever wanted to know what she was thinking, you only needed to wait a moment and she'd tell you.

  "Longish story," I said, momentarily distracted by the fact that we'd left the cargo bay open. I chinned back to a menu and successfully caused the door to start closing.

  "Does this hurt?" she asked, poking at the deep purple bruising on my ribs.

  "Frak, Ada, yes!" I said.

  "Don't be such a baby. Lie down," she ordered, helping me back onto the cold steel table and removing my helmet.

  "I need that," I complained. "I've got a security program running."

  "Me too and don't be difficult." She ran a medical scanner across my torso. "Now get to talking."

  I wasn't sure where to start, so I just jumped in at the beginning. "Tabby, Marny, Nick and Little Pete were awakened twenty years ago when we landed. Fraxus is the name of the planet, by the way," I said. "They searched for us, but it wasn't until a few months ago that they found me. Unlike you, my suspension chamber was failing and I was almost dead."

  "You look pretty good right now," she said, more clinically than I'd have liked. "Aside from the fact that you smell really bad."

  "Yeah, well, I was in prison for a while and my captors weren't big on hygiene," I said.

  "Prison? You pissed off the locals already?" she asked.

  "Frakking Belirand," I said.

  "Nooo." Ada's tone was disbelieving, which was completely understandable.

  "Yes."

  "And they found you?" she asked. "After twenty years? That's crazy."

  "The indigenous people are called Scatters," I said. "They're friendly enough, but it looks like they're under Belirand's thumb."

  "Wait. You said Nick and Marny have been up for twenty years. Are they old now? What about Peter?"