Lacerta

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

The distress signals indicated a point in the dark side of Lacerta 2, a small star in the Lacertian system. That location would put the Star Dragon out of radio contact with Lacerta Alpha and Azjah didn’t like that “coincidence” one little bit. She sent a message to the Rigelian Commander on Lacerta. Their flight plan didn’t allow for this detour, but the alert to the forces on Lacerta Alpha would mean they’d be listening for them and if another ship was in the area, they would advise her away from the distress call.

No ship was immediately in the area, and they gave her clearance to deviate from her flight plan. They also launched a small craft to intercept, but they too were half a day away from reaching them. The forces on Lacerta were committed to maintaining a presence around the planet. She should have realized they would be on their own with this distress call.

Gabriel scanned the ship’s systems, and then he focused on the blackness of space. His Carpathian senses tuned to pick up on other intelligences more than anything else, but the vastness of space made his skills more limited than they were on solid ground. Concentration turned his usually harsh facial features into something more intense than stone. Azjah slid her glance away from him as she resumed her study of the instruments as they searched for the vessel declaring an emergency.

They slid behind the small star known to her as Lacerta 2, and the electromagnetic field around the star quickly cut them off from radio contact with Lacerta Alpha. Goose bumps rose on Azjah’s arms as they searched for the ship broadcasting the distress signal. They circled the coordinates in an ever growing spiral and found nothing. No ship showed on the sensors, and none could be seen through the forward viewing port. No debris indicated catastrophe either. She frowned as the distress beacon continued to play across the radio. “We need to go; I don’t like this at all.” She glanced at Gabriel and he immediately changed the course of the ship back toward their original destination. The sooner they re-established radio contact with Lacerta Alpha, the better she would feel.

Just as they were about to clear the electromagnetic shell around Lacerta 2, the Star Dragon lurched and a stomach-turning grating screech rocketed throughout the ship. They’d been hit by something that had not exploded, and warning alarms went off immediately. Gabriel silenced the alarms, but the warning lights that blinked on in the cockpit remained lit or were flashing as they demanded attention. Their shield had been compromised, but the hull had not been damaged according to the sensors. Their speed had slowed somewhat since the impact, and the finely balanced craft listed distinctly now to the right. Gabriel could compensate easily enough, but something was upsetting the flight balance of the sleek craft. Propulsion was unaffected. Life support had not been disrupted either. She frowned. They hadn’t seen anything on the sensors. But, something had definitely hit them. Systems checks revealed only the initial damage to the shield system, and the incessant list to the right side that could be compensated for, but that they could not explain. Further investigation would have to wait until they landed.

The Star Dragon cleared the radio interference from the star’s electromagnetic field and she immediately advised the command post and the Duke of Sorwind of their lack of findings in terms of any ship requiring assistance. They also reported the impact incident, and the fact that all systems except the increased drag and listing to the right had been corrected. They were warned to make for Lacerta Alpha as quickly as possible. They were also advised to avoid the Capital city of New Festungsmauer. Gabriel lifted a brow hearing that directive, but remained otherwise silent. They hadn’t planned to land anywhere but the base in the arctic station, but still, the warning raised more questions than it answered. Azjah knew she would have to reach the Duke Sorwind via secure channels to find out what that was all about.

The next three flight hours were completely uneventful as they closed on Lacerta. The lack of activity was wholly out of character from the previous trips. In fact, the last three flights had been harrowing as they crossed into Lacertian space. Cephean war ships had fired on them repeatedly with the big main guns, but this time, clear space and silence greeted the passage of the Star Dragon. They had never been chased by the smaller Cephean attack craft, but they had been fired upon every time. Azjah’s nervous habit is to roll a pen over her fingers repeatedly, but since she didn’t have a pen readily at hand, she settled for tapping her finely manicured nails on the yoke of the ship as they drew closer to Lacerta.

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

Gabriel glanced at her, simply saying, “We will find out soon enough.”

She gave him a sardonic smile. “Great. Just great.”

They settled into an approach orbit around Lacerta Alpha. The descending flight grew rough and began to toss the starship around as they entered the outer atmosphere in a steadily growing blaze of fire. Flares of super heated plasma leapt past the view ports, obliterating the blackness they had grown accustomed to seeing during the flight, as they slid into the oxygen rich atmosphere still traveling at 22,000 km/hr. They would use the thickening atmosphere to slow the ship as part of standard re-entry. Abruptly the ship rolled sharply to the right, nearly flipping the craft over completely. Gabriel hissed as he fought for control of the ship. This was the same direction they had been listing since the impact on the far side of Lacerta 2. White hot jets of plasma licked at the top side of the ship, which was not shielded for re-entry, nor for the 1500 degree Celsius temperatures. Another alarm sounded as the overhead hull overheated and Gabriel fought to right the ship.

The Arctic Circle loomed below them as they dropped to within fifteen kilometers of the ice and began lining up for the descent onto the frozen archipelago. They were dropping at a rate of 70 kilometers per second, much too quickly through the layers of atmosphere than they should have been falling. It was as though the ship was carrying excessive weight that had not been calibrated into the flight program, and Azjah bit her lower lip as she changed their trajectory to compensate for added weight she couldn’t explain, correcting their rate of descent to 50 kilometers per second.

They flew into the teeth of a snow storm, landing by instruments alone as the visibility was virtually zero due to the swirling ice and snow that was scouring the island. The craft touched down on the icy runway as Gabriel switched on the reverse thrusters and the ship decelerated sharply. He had to maintain a constant correction to the left as the right side of the ship dragged and tried to throw the ship off course. They quickly rolled to a stop in the icy white out conditions, and the snow flashed instantly to steam as it hit the super heated shields. The silvery vessel was surrounded in a cloud of steam and blowing snow, which made seeing out any of the view ports impossible. In this weather, the ship would ice quickly in the frigid temperatures combined with the snow storm, which could last for hours in this climate.

Azjah powered down the ship’s engines and suddenly froze as the engines went silent. Something was moving on the outer skin of the ship. Clanking noises like the sound of armored feet came rattling overhead. It was then that she saw black cables drop down over the rapidly icing nose of the ship, and Cephean’s swarming down the cables to reach the ground before any of the four of them could possibly do so. It looked like a jail break as the Cephean’s slithered down the ropes with weapons slung over their shoulders.

“Damn!” Azjah swore as she grabbed the comm., “We’ve got intruders, armor up!” She shouted from the cockpit out to the common room. This was the source of her unease. Her most awful nightmares had come to pass. The Cephean’s had managed to land on Lacerta undetected by the fleet, and they did it on HER ship! This was only a small group scrambling for escape, but if they could gain access to the ground this way, there was no telling how many Cephean invaders were already here. And to make matters worse, she had brought them to the heart of their surveillance systems!

She grabbed the arctic jumpsuit that had hung inside the cockpit on the last day of flight, and slid into it with all haste, zippering up the front and folding the flaps over the zipper. Next came the arctic boots as she kicked off the flight shoes. Before she grabbed the gloves she’d require to go outside, she pulled two pulse weapons from her stash in the cockpit beneath her seat. There were four extra power packs charged and ready to load into the weapons. She pocketed those in the outer pockets of the jumpsuit. She pulled the fur lined hood over her head and pulled the sun goggles down to protect her eyes from the brilliant glare she knew would come if the snow stopped while they hunted the intruders before they could get away.

Gabriel had likewise donned his arctic gear. Even his Carpathian ability to regulate his body temperature could not compete with the temperatures here on St. Albans, which could drop to below minus 45 Celsius. His eyes were the soulless black of a man-eating shark as he slid the visor down over his face and prepared to give chase to the Cephean’s that had hitched a ride on our ship. He had one pulse gun that was powered up and ready to fire, and one blue laser weapon that he was removing the safety from as he exited the cockpit. His strides were silent but no less deadly for their intent as he met Dominik with a soundless nod.

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

The Star Dragon’s exterior hatch slid open with a hiss of hydraulics, and the ramp dropped onto the snow and ice of the makeshift landing strip. A blast of frigid air whipped through the opening, stealing through even the arctic protection to send shivers down everyone’s spine as Gabriel and Dominik faded from the visible spectrum and vanished completely into the blowing white out conditions. Azjah heard the pulse gun fire twice somewhere in the whiteness and knew that two Cephean’s had gone down. She could not even begin to guess which direction the blast had come from as the wind howled around them and muffled even the crack of gun fire. But there was no doubt that the Cephean landing party was missing two of their group. Gabriel never missed.

She crouched now near the opening, peering into the wall of white, her own pulse gun aimed at the only entrance point the Cephean’s would have to board her ship, waiting for either an all clear from Gabriel, or an invader to appear on the ramp. She could sense Rena moving into a vantage point where she too could be hard to see, but still have a clear aim at the hatch. The two women waited, poised for the next moment on the brink of an adrenaline rush that only close quarters battle could inspire.

Before Azjah could glance toward Rena, all hell broke loose. Looming out of the snow came three Cephean’s storming up the ramp en masse, screaming in their barbaric language as they advanced. They raced up the ramp together after leaping sideways from a blind point beyond the hatch, intent upon capture of the star ship. All three of them had weapons drawn, but had not bothered to take careful aim before charging onto the ramp. Their abrupt appearance and the racket they were making was sufficient to wake the dead on four planets, but Azjah kept low and took careful aim on the first one.

Cephean’s are huge creatures that reminded Azjah of clothed Sasquatches. They are very tall, some of them going almost 2.2 meters in height. They are also very strong brutes with long hair that tended to remain ragged and ratty. Their language was guttural and harsh to the ear, with no soft consonants at all that she could make out. What they lack to go with those gigantic bodies are brains and sophistication. They would shred and destroy their enemies, and women and children would not be spared when they finally mounted their invasion of Lacerta. This race was only interested in conquest.

Azjah took aim on the first one and fired just as he cleared the hatch entry into the main ship. She’d aimed first for his legs, mid-thigh with the intention of breaking his femur, to drop him as an obstacle for the other two in an attempt to slow them down and bunch them up on the ramp. The second shot was aimed at his head, which struck him above the right eye. He collapsed in a gigantic heap on the thresh-hold of her ship. His two comrades paused for a briefest moment in stunned surprise, as Rena’s weapon fired nearly in harmony with Azjah’s third shot. They had expected their invasion of her ship to be easy pickings, and were shocked to find armed resistance from a private ship.

Dominik called out from somewhere in the howling wind beyond the hatch, “Marchioness? Miss Rena?” She couldn’t be certain just where Dominik was based on his voice as the sirocco winds distorted sound and made conventional locating impossible. The blowing snow and howling wind played tricks with her ability to focus in on the sound of his voice, and she wondered if it had truly been Dominik, or just a trick of the wind.

Azjah yelled back into the storm that they were both alright, and the Dragonseeker solidified in the doorway caked in ice, his metallic green eyes sweeping over the three Cephean’s at his feet. “Gabriel is hunting two others that have vanished into the storm; we should get you both inside the station.”

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

Azjah stood up and glanced at Rena, “leave your things for now; they’ll be retrieved once the last two have been found and it’s safe to return here.” Then she followed Dominik through the raging blizzard toward the safety of the small station. They reached the door and Azjah punched in the access code with fingers that shook with cold. It was too bitterly cold here to use finger or palm prints and she had to make use of an older technology. But since the station was meant to be camouflaged by the icy world, it had been an acceptable concession. The door hinges groaned before sliding open to admit them into the slightly warmer corridor, where at least the wind could no longer assail them.

The door slid closed and blocked out the screech of the wind and the stinging ice crystals that felt more like miniaturized razors. Azjah slid the fur lined hood off her head. Her teeth chattered from the chilblains they’d gotten on the run from the ship to the station. Then she shook the snow off her jumpsuit before pulling off the insulated gloves. “Welcome to our home away from home Rena.” She gave her a sardonic smile as she picked up on a slight emotion flitting across Rena’s face. In that moment, she wondered if Rena had ever killed anyone before. She would keep an eye on Rena in case their skirmish began to gnaw on Rena’s conscience.

They walked down the white hall of the station toward the sound of other voices and the soft glow of computer screens. The entire station had been built deep into the glacial ice to minimize its surface profile, and the hall had a distinct downward slope to it as they entered the working area of the small nerve center. The lighting inside the station was kept very low, and there were four Rigelians seated in front of various screens; their faces showing the strain of long hours of evaluating data. They never looked up as the foursome made their way into the inner sanctum. The satellites above Lacerta were feeding back images of both the planet and the space around the planet. The blink of an eye could mean the difference between seeing the start of the attack and missing it. No one in the room wanted to miss the slightest nuance of what was happening over their heads.

Azjah paused near the closest screen, her pale blue eyes rapidly scanning the information displayed there before she spoke quietly to the male seated there. He spoke too softly for anyone but the Marchioness to hear in her native Rigelian, but his eyes never left the images on the screen before them. Then she motioned to Rena to follow, “let’s get you settled in before we show you what we need your help to put some order to. I’d hate to put you right to work without a minute to collect yourself.” Azjah smiled and headed along another corridor that also sloped sharply downward, going even deeper into the ice sheet.

She led Rena off to the left, down another white hallway that did have a carpet runner to keep echoing footsteps down to a whisper of sound. The station was clearly erected in a short period of time, and was not destined to have a long life span based on the look of things. The fifth door on the right had Rena’s name on it as Azjah gently pushed the door open. “This is yours; feel free to make yourself as comfortable as you can. I realize it’s not grand accommodations, but it’s home for the next couple of days.”

Azjah stepped back, “I’m at the end of the hall on the left if you need me. I’ll be back for you in, say, 30 minutes?” She left Rena in her rooms and opened the door to her own small suite of rooms. They were entirely white; everything in the station was white in an effort to help camouflage the outpost as much as possible. The only concession to comfort was the carpeting, but that too was used to keep down the sound of footsteps incase the Cephean’s had homed in on the location and were listening for human activity in the icy wastes of St. Alban’s.

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

Gabriel knocked gently on Azjah’s door moments after she had closed it, “Marchioness?”

She opened the door to find him standing there with her small bag from the ship. Snow and ice had stuck to his clothing and was just beginning to melt as he left a small group of puddles on the carpet before her glance reminded him to dry his clothing in the way of his people. He handed the small package to her before giving her the report on the last two Cephean’s. There had been 9 of them in all, and the grating sound they had heard had been the parasitic pod attaching to the hull of her ship. It was not a tactic the Cephean’s had ever used in the past as far as any of the records reported. Someone was coaching these barbarians. Whom?

He told her that it would take a break in the weather to remove the pod from the Star Dragon and to ascertain how the pod had penetrated the shields to accomplish its attachment to the ship’s exterior skin. The technology at work here was far beyond anything the Cepheans could have accomplished alone. Kendrick’s name flashed through her thoughts. Would he be so bold as to arm these brutes for an attack on one of the Kaiser’s colonies?

The appointed thirty minutes had flown by and Azjah pulled a heavy cashmere sweater over the silk blouse before going to see if Rena was ready. There was a lot of data to be organized and sent back to Lord Sorwind’s team. The sooner they began putting some order to the massive quantities of data, the sooner they could get Rena off this frozen rock. Today’s attack brought about a firm resolve to get all three of them clear of the impending invasion. She would not allow them to come back while Cephea threatened Lacerta. Today was simply too close for comfort.

Azjah took Rena into the control room once more and offered her a chair that faced the most modern computer system available anywhere. Three screens lit up as they sat down. “This is the system we need your organizational skills for Rena. Every bit of data coming in from all of the satellites as well as the space craft Lord Sorwind has orbiting this planet is fed into the main data storage. What I need your help doing it putting sense to the logs, photos, images and reports that pertain to the Cepheans massing around Lacerta. We need to find a way to organize it so that the data is most useful.” She frowned as the screens flashed three primary kinds of feed to the systems. “We have the photo images, the purely data feeds, and the listening systems. But there is so much information; we need to distil it into usable bits rather than massive quantities.” The computers were very advanced, but they could still not reason the way sentient brains could.

One of the technicians walked toward them, speaking in hushed whispers, “Putting the information into consecutive days is not going to help, can you work the data into clusters based on the kinds of ships and the numbers supporting the main Cephean fleet, integrate the images and listening feeds with the hard data?”

Azjah gave a quiet laugh, “Rena, please meet Klaus, Klaus, this is Rena, and she is here to try to put order to all this chaos we’ve generated.” Klaus gave her a nod of greeting and switched to Common as he walked her through the systems and storage locations.

For the next several hours, the wind and snow howled outside the small facility. There was no chance of getting to the ship and receiving a really good look at the pod that had allowed their stowaways to land with them. Gabriel had warned that the station needed to be on alert. The pod was likely carrying a homing beacon, most ships did, but until they could get into the ship again, there would be no certainty. The temperature had dropped even further in the banshee winds, and so everyone remained inside, focused on their incoming data and images.

Azjah watched the satellite images with a slight frown. If that pod had a beacon, it would lead an attack right to the heart of the surveillance network. That dark specter hung over her as she sent off several communiqués under encryption that would be nearly impossible for anyone to crack; anyone but Kendrick that is. Again she frowned; if Kendrick was selling weapons technology to the Cepheans… That took her down a path she hadn’t wanted to contemplate, yet it continued to lift its ugly head as a possibility.

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

Just as they had settled into sorting and organizing the colossal volume of information that had been gathered thus far, Andreas, the technician closest to where Azjah and Rena currently sat, abruptly yanked his headset off and bellowed out in a panic stricken tenor for everyone to take cover. We had incoming hostile fire. There was no time to head deeper into the station to seek cover. There was barely enough time to register his words as an earsplitting explosion rocked the small outpost. Alarms shrieked and chaos erupted around them as the previously hushed atmosphere exploded into ear splitting shrieks of metal as it was rent by the blast, and the station’s structures catastrophically collapsed around them. Bernhard, the most reserved technician in the station, had not even had sufficient time to turn toward Andreas when the station’s roof collapsed above him, sending a seven ton fragment toppling in to land on top of the man where he sat.

Gabriel grabbed Azjah unceremoniously, as Dominik reached for Rena with the same determined haste, and using their preternatural speed, the Carpathian and the Dragonseeker practically carried their charges into the deepest recess of the station. The shelter had been built into the ice at another level below the living area for just such an event as an attack on the station. They had hoped it would never be required, yet not to have given the technicians a shelter against the Cepheans would have been irresponsible. The three other technicians followed them into the deep ice as quickly as they could, but Gabriel and Dominik arrived minutes before the others came around the corner and into the safety this space might afford them from the ongoing assault at the surface.

The Cepheans had indeed had a homing beacon on that pod, and they had just landed a direct hit on the station. Two more explosions rocked the small set of buildings as Azjah and Rena sat in the shelter along with three of the technicians. They had all seen Bernhard die in the first explosion, and now they sat in stunned silence as the assault on the station turned the Spartan outpost into unrecognizable bits of debris above their heads. Power flickered and failed before the battery backup system kicked in for the small room. Emergency lighting illuminated the space sufficiently to navigate the room without tripping over others, but little more than that, but even in the dim light, the grim expressions on the other’s faces gnawed on Azjah’s conscience. She had brought the pod and beacon in, and that had drawn the Cephean attack. This was her doing.

Azjah studied Gabriel long, tense moments, “we’re going to have to make a run for it. They’ll be landing shortly to finish us off and steal anything they can carry away with them.” She bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood, which had both Gabriel and Dominik glancing sharply at her. “Do you think they will blast the Star Dragon, or avoid it until they know what happened to their landing party?” If the ship was unflyable, they would have to make use of the small escape craft secreted away in the deep ice caves.

Dominik dissolved into a misty cloud and streamed out of the shelter as he made the connection between making a run for it, and the Marchioness’ query. He returned several minutes later, and in hushed tones told her that the ship remained intact for the moment, and the pod was now visible since the wind had died down. They would have to move fast to get off the island before the next wave of Cepheans arrived, or another volley was launched if they sensed survivors remaining. He did not tell her that the station was utterly demolished. She would have already surmised that much, but the degree of destruction has shocked even the old Dragonseeker.

The acrid smell of melting metal and burning plastic reached the seven of them as they remained hidden deeply in the ice sheet of the island. Above them came muffled hisses and clunks as the burning or melted debris settled over their heads into the ice and snow. The big explosions that had rocked the station had stopped for the moment, but the remains would continue to settle as fire consumed anything flammable, and melting ice would soon flood the room where they remained out of sensor detection range. At least for the moment, no one would realize that they had survived the attack.

Their options were pitifully few, and Azjah quickly sorted through them. The Star Dragon could get seven people off the island, but could they get to the ship, remove the pod and its homing beacon, power up, de-ice and get off the ground before the Cephean’s homed in on them again? The answer to that was most likely ‘no’. The moment they went to the surface, the Cephean’s who had attacked them would pick up life and movement here. Since they had already targeted them so successfully, the Star Dragon would readily be sacrificed by the Cepheans to keep them from escaping, yet the last thing Azjah wanted was for those same Cephean’s to get a hold of her personal ship.

The other option as she saw things was to make use of the fast escape craft. It was lightly armored and almost no armaments, but it was fast, and it would be unexpected. That would play in their favor. Perhaps, just perhaps, they could make a get away using it. She frowned to herself. That option meant leaving the Star Dragon behind.

Gabriel moved closer to her as another crash of laser fire rained down on the shattered remains of the station. These Cepheans seemed to enjoy destruction for the sake of destruction. Surely their sensors told them that little remained of the once hidden base by now? She took a step toward the entry way only to find the Carpathian blocking her path. “We should remain here, without poking around above and let them convince themselves that no one survived. They cannot land undetected, and they are not ready for the full scale assault on Lacerta.”

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

Azjah gave Gabriel a frustrated look as she peered past him toward the stairs that led back up to the surface. She hated sitting down here hiding, but it was the only logical thing they could do right now. The station was never outfit with weapons, it had been meant to remain hidden as long as possible and relied on the military above them to keep them safe. But that had obviously not worked. She sighed, “How long before we can begin to make our way to the ice caves?” She was ready to go now, but Gabriel’s ability to discern the intentions of others was crucial for her to know before they dared to leave the safety of the shelter. She had made her decision; they would leave behind her beloved Star Dragon in favor of getting the survivors off the island. She owed it to the technicians to get them to safety first, and she was the only experienced pilot besides Gabriel, and she couldn’t see the Carpathian leaving her to fly the Star Dragon while she flew the emergency evac ship and separation was essential if they were to try to get both ships off the ice together.

“No Marchioness, I will not fly one ship if you are not aboard.” His black eyes held a spark she hadn’t seen in many long months. If the man were capable of any emotion, this one would be fury. He remained beside her while the Cephean’s pounded the place where the station had once stood. Smoke tainted every breath they took, but the ice and snow and wind kept the smoke from suffocating them where they remained hidden from detection. It was a waiting game now.

To Azjah, it felt like hours had passed, but she sensed it was more on the order of half an hour before the thundering laser strikes stopped raining down above them. Silence fell like a pall once things stopped falling down. They would have to make their moves to get to the ice caves and get airborne. Thankfully no one else was injured. That would have made an already dangerous situation even worse.

Gabriel motioned for everyone to remain where they were as he slowly faded from the visible spectrum to have a look above. The minutes ticked by in slow motion as Azjah inched her way closer to the stairs while Dominik kept a sharp eye on both she and Rena. Andreas, Klaus and Udo whispered together, all of them giving the stairs a worried look now and then. Gabriel walked back down the stairs, which was a good sign to Azjah. “We must hurry. There is nothing to be saved from the station, and personal effects are lost in the mangled remains of the living areas. We go with what we have right now.”

Udo groaned hearing that. The technicians had brought personal effects since they lived here that were now lost. Azjah turned to the group, “We cannot risk trying to de-ice the Star Dragon, but there is an escape ship hidden in the ice caves about 500 meters from here. We will make all haste to get into the caves undetected, from there I will fly you back to Trent, where I will see you housed while you decide whether you wish to stay or return to Rigel.” She wouldn’t require them to remain after what had just happened.

Azjah glanced at Gabriel, then spoke very softly, “can we retrieve Bernhard’s body?” He simply gave a single negative shake of his head. Bernhard must remain here until the site could be excavated. Azjah pulled the white jacket closed. “Stay close.” Then she headed up the stairs, into the mangled and shattered remains of the station. The devastation was complete, and the violence shocked even the Marchioness, but there was no time to pause and survey the damage now. She would return, and she would have vengeance.

Arctic winters have very short days, when they have daylight at all. The sun was dropping into the horizon as an orange glow spread around them. The skies took on the rich purple shade that presaged the appearance of a clear and starry sky rather than overcast and cloudy. Normally Azjah would have stopped to watch the setting sun, but not tonight. They made their way hastily across the frigid snowfield, toward the ice caves that only Gabriel and Dominik could see. No laser fire rained down on them; perhaps the Cepheans were not looking to see if anyone had survived.

Dominik whispered an incantation in Old Romanian, bringing a small crystal to glowing life as they raced into the overhang of the cave. The light was not bright, but it illuminated a small circle that allowed the others to see as they went deeper into the cavern. Night fell quickly in the arctic, and outside as now as dark as the inside of the caverns. Azjah led the way toward the small ship. It would be crowded, but small and fast was what they needed, not creature comforts.

A pang of guilt stabbed at her as she keyed the hatch open on the Belraj. She climbed the ladder and disappeared into the darkened ship, unerringly making her way to the cockpit with Gabriel right behind her. The others followed, and quickly strapped themselves in to the serviceable launch seats as Azjah began to power up the craft. Gabriel quickly surveyed the controls and began his usual checks in preparation for emergency launch. The hatch was closed and Azjah gave the controls one last visual before easing the engine power up enough to navigate out of the caves. Once free of the caves, she would send the ship into an acceleration that could potentially cause the technicians to lose consciousness, but better that they blacked out than to be caught in Cephean fire.

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

A blanket of obsidian was littered with brilliant white stars as the Northern Lights chased ribbons of ever changing color across the night when the Belraj exploded out of the icy cave where she had been stored. The flight path took them away from the remains of the station, and Azjah said a quick prayer to what ever deity might be listening that her beloved Star Dragon would be salvageable. Udo had indeed blacked out during the escape velocity forces, but he was coming around, and Dominik looked after him as they made their way toward the continent of Tavar.

No Cephean fire impeded their progress, and as they approached the coastline, Azjah sent an encrypted message to the Duke of Sorwind. The satellite monitoring would have to switch to the secondary post quickly. Within minutes of sending the message, two Rigelian fighters ghosted out of the darkness to flank the Belraj on its approach into Trent. They were cleared to land on runway 26 South, and they corrected their course to land in the militarily controlled sector of the airport. The two fighters remained off either wing tip as Azjah descended toward the runway. As they dropped below 500 meters, the fighters peeled off and rose swiftly to vanish into the blackness.

Gabriel taxied the craft toward the directed markers as military transport surrounded the small ship. The flight engines were shut down and Azjah took a deep breath. Exiting the lead vehicle was the Duke himself. It was going to be a very long night.

She opened the hatch and descended the ladder to stand on the ground and await the Duke. They were on tenuous footing here as technically the Duke should outrank her, but the fact that she was a Marcher put her on an even footing. And her family had held titles far longer than his. Would he yield, or would she?

The Duke approached in very business like fashion before briskly going to attention, clicking his boot heels together and bowing formally to her. “Marchioness, we are pleased you have been able to escape the attack on the station. You will come with me now for debriefing; the others will go with Viscount Breuning.”

Azjah gave him a brief nod, “Gabriel and I will join you.” She glanced at Dominik and Rena before once again meeting the Duke’s eyes.

The Duke lifted a brow at the big Carpathian, but offered no objection as he opened the door for them both. Once inside, he removed his hat and regarded the pair. “We have been seeing more and more of these parasitic pods arriving on inbound ships. I could not warn you over the general air waves. I am sorry you lost Bernhard, and your ship.”

Azjah gave him a cold look, “You could have sent encrypted word to me.”

He shook his head. “No, they have found a way to break the encryption we use. Someone has sold them not only advanced technology, but they’ve sold them OUR technology.”

“Kendrick.” Azjah’s blood froze in her veins. It had to be. Gabriel remained silent, but she saw flashes of his intentions via their bond.

After giving the details of the attack, and how the Cephean’s gained access to the island, Azjah told the Duke that she needed to return to St. Albans. If she could save the Star Dragon, she intended to do just that. The Duke shook his head. “No, you cannot return to the archipelago, but I will send my people to check on your ship. If it can be flown, I will have it returned here to you.”

She frowned, but civilians simply couldn’t interfere when the military assumed command. They were driven to Azjah’s home in Stafford on Tyne, approximately 80 kilometers from Trent on Hillside, where Rena, Dominik, Gabriel and Azjah would cool their heels to await word on the Star Dragon.

The next morning, Azjah checked her messages. The Duke had made good on his promise. Her ship was going to be flown today off the island. She would be allowed to retrieve it by sunset. The Cephean pod would remain with the military for evaluation and analysis. They were welcome to the thing as far as she was concerned.

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

The day passed too slowly to suit Azjah, but she took Rena out to show her around Stafford on Tyne. The small city was fashioned after an old English town, and had the quaint feeling of a country manor. Even the threat of invasion had not killed all of the local businesses, and the two spent several hours in the market district. Azjah found a small shop that sold the rare dates from the edge of the desert, and she bought enough to provide a rare treat for Rena and to take back to Andre. The chef would enjoy the seasonal fruit even more than Azjah did.

The trip back to Trent on Hillside seemed to take forever. She wondered how much damage had been done to her ship, and how significant the repairs would be. But the craft had been flown rather than hauled, and that much was promising. They paused at the security gate and she handed over her identification, and Gabriel had simply faded from the visible spectrum, allowing the guard to see only the Marchioness. As she drove through the gates toward the indicated hangar, she saw the Duke awaiting her arrival.

“There is minimal damage to the outer skin, Marchioness. The pod used non-invasive methods to attach itself. You are fortunate.” His glacial blue eyes swept over the sleek craft as they walked around the outside of the ship. “Your onboard guns have been re-charged. I took the liberty since you have an off world guest that I presume you will want to return.” He had his fingers laced together behind him as they walked and studied the condition of the Star Dragon.

Azjah was satisfied that her ship was ready to fly and she thanked the Duke for returning it to her so promptly. They would be on the morning flight window and back in RhyDin. She had much to consider during the upcoming flight home.