Athena’s Ashes (Star Thief Chronicles #2)(51)
Author: Jamie Grey

And then she was there. Inside the Athena.

It had been so easy this time. She’d just…become the ship instead of struggling with it. And this time she felt different, more controlled somehow. Excitement shivered through her, and with a thought, Renna’s view switched between areas, almost like switching between surveillance monitors.

On the flight deck, Kojima monitored the controls alone, glancing at a video on his holoscreen between adjustments.

Switch.

On the bridge, Lieutenant Keva sat stony faced at her console, tracking ship movements and glancing at Captain Finn, who stood at the captain’s chair, staring out at the rest of the ship’s crew. He looked tired, shadows ringing his eyes and stubble darkening his jaw.

A flutter of happiness danced through Renna at the purple bruise on his cheekbone. Good, Viktis had gotten in a square hit when they’d fought on Forever Station.

A beep sounded from Keva’s console. “Captain, comm from the Eris. Would you like to take it?”

“In the comm room, please.” He strode from the CIC.

Switch.

In the comm room, Finn turned on the holocommunicator and leaned forward, hands on the table. “Commander, tell me you have something. Please.” He’d let his rigid posture slump now that the crew wasn’t watching him.

Commander Jayla shook her head with a frown. “Nothing. They’ve vanished. MYTH is insistent that you return immediately for a debriefing. They’re sending the Eris to look for her.”

“If I go back, they’ll ground me. We’ll never find her.” He slammed a fist down on the railing. “Dammit, Jayla. I need more time.”

“Time is the one thing we don’t have, Captain.”

A soft knock came on the comm room door and Finn growled. “Buy me some more time, Jayla. One more day. I need to find her. I was the one that let her into MYTH. This is my fault.”

“You know that’s not true.”

“It’s too late to argue about it now. Finn out.” He cut the power to the holo and raked a hand through his hair. “I’m coming for you, Renna,” he growled. His anger made her skin erupt in goose bumps.

She jerked awake, breaking the connection with the ship. Her fingers trembled as she brushed away the tears streaming down her face. Biting back a sob, she turned on her side and buried her head in the pillow.

THIRTY

The Fortune’s Risk landed on Antibes Prime the next day as the brilliant red sun was setting.

“Are you ready for this?” Viktis asked as they waited in the hold for the depressurizing unit to finish processing.

“No. But I don’t really have a choice.” Renna checked her blaster again, making sure it was fully charged, and then patted down her pockets and hips for the knives hidden there. “You don’t have to do this with me, Viktis. I’m the one she’s after, not you.”

“I’m not going to let you go in there alone. Besides, I still owe her for blowing up my ship and murdering my last crew. I’ll be happy to bring the bitch down.”

She doubted it would be that easy, but Viktis knew what he was getting himself into. Renna was going to have more than Samil to deal with. The ghosts of her past hung heavy here. She’d been such a child when she’d landed on the planet, on the run from a mother who probably hadn’t even noticed she was gone. She’d gotten lucky when she’d found the transport ship headed here, and even luckier that one of Blur’s gang spotted her when she got off the ship and offered her a place with the gang.

One of the other girls on the same transport hadn’t been so lucky.

“Here we go.” Viktis pressed a button, and the hatch slid open.

Renna gasped as a wave of bitter smoke hit her. The sun was sinking low in the amber sky over Shalim, its rays streaming between the decaying skyscrapers that dotted the horizon. Smoke plumes darkened the spaces between the bent and jagged fingers of the buildings. Shalim had been dying before she’d left seven years ago, but now it looked like hell itself.

“What happened here?” she asked, staring wide-eyed at the destruction. Her implant whirred to action, pulling up article after article about the chemical spill that decimated the city four years ago.

“Damn,” she said. “The Koschei Corporation used their facilities here to manufacture a chemical used for rapid recycling of construction materials, but they didn’t follow protocols and there were leaks. When it seeped into the earth, it started to attack the buildings and structures here. They’re decaying at a rate of one hundred years for every year.”

“What about the people?” Viktis asked.

Renna winced. If the chemical was strong enough to eat buildings, what in the maker’s name did it do to humans?

Her implant returned the medical records a moment later. She stared in horror at the reports. “Only the very poorest were left. Those who couldn’t afford transport off-world have…changed.” She stepped out onto the soil, her boots kicking up a puff of yellow dust, and tried not to inhale. “Why would Samil build a facility here?”

Viktis shook his head, brushing some of the floating dirt from his sleeve. “She attacked whole cities to acquire subjects for her experiments. She probably just had to offer these people a decent meal, and they’d flock to her. Seems like a better return on investment.”

Renna’s boots crunched on broken rubble as she headed for what had once been the main street through the spaceport. The minefield of destroyed cement and rotting metal stretched around them as far as she could see. Hot air from the decaying buildings clung to her exposed skin like cobwebs, but she shivered at Viktis’s words.

Samil was turning these people into hybrids, too. And with the chemical already in their systems, it had to react differently from her other test subjects. Who knew what sort of horrors she’d created here.

Renna’s implant flashed up a map of the area, and she turned down a side street. “This way.”

“That thing’s kind of useful to have.”

She shrugged. “It did the map thing before Samil altered it. Now it’s trying to take over my brain.”

“And steering starships from across the galaxy,” he added. “I’ve never seen Finn so freaked out. He thought MYTH had found us when you took over. But when he realized it was you…” His voice trailed off, and he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to bring him up again.”

Renna wrapped her arms around her waist, constantly scanning the shadows as they walked. She couldn’t think about him now. She had to concentrate. Grieving for what might have been could come later.