CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CAINA WATCHED JOSHUA leap into the transport at an impossible speed, his body a blur. She stared up at him, but he didn’t seem to see her, as if his mind were somewhere else. He was covered in a shining red liquid. “What are you covered in?” she asked. She knew, she just didn’t believe it.
Joshua held out his hand, the red glistening on it. “It’s red plasma.”
Dylan took a medical scanner out of his pocket and ran it over Joshua. “Can’t be— because you’d be dead.”
A deafening roar thundered through the ship and alarms rang out. The jolt sent a shock of pain through Caina’s body, and she tried to brace herself against the bench seat. Without restraints, she swayed with every movement of the ship, causing fresh pain.
To her surprise, Joshua moved to put an arm around her shoulders, holding her while the transport banked. The distant look left his eyes. Glancing out at the Nos ships, he commanded, “Cris, go to the mine shafts.”
Without turning back to acknowledge him, Cristian adjusted his course. The gaping black entryway into the mountain rushed at them. They raced into the tunnels, the lights flashing by them on the shaft walls. The tunnel opened up to a large cavern filled with loading equipment and huge transports. The white rock walls gleamed in the stark lights. Joshua twisted around to call out to Cristian, “Let’s try to dock inside one of the bigger ships.”
They dropped down and flew along the floor of the hangar past a row of ships. Cristian drew them in close. “None of them are open!” he yelled. The alarms in their ship finally shut off, but the Nos would be back in a matter of seconds.
Joshua went to the door of the med ship. “Go ahead and let me out!”
“What are you doing?” Dylan asked.
Joshua didn’t look back. The doors opened, and Joshua’s long arms spanned the doorway, the wind blowing his hair back away from his face. He stared down at the ground, his fingers gripping the frame. The transport began to slow, but he didn’t wait, jumping out.
“Joshua!” Caina cried. She clutched her wound and inched toward the door, trying to see if he’d landed. She saw him roll and then he became a blur of movement. Cristian turned the transport around, and she lost sight of her brother.
As they circled the cavern and the equipment below, she saw the two Nostekoi ships falling behind them. Cristian skimmed the floor towards the carrier transports. From across the cavern they could see one of the giant carrier doors opening.
Weaving between the transports, Cristian headed for the doors. An alarm sounded, signaling that the Nos had targeted them again. Caina held her breath, waiting for the hit. Suddenly Cristian decelerated, and the dusty mine transport dropped.
“You’re too slow!” Dylan said.
Caina didn’t know if they had much of a choice. Being forced to dock on the ship at such a high velocity meant they would probably crash when they got inside. If they were lucky, they wouldn’t damage the large carrier.
Their ship bounced off the ground and threw them back in the air. Caina was tossed into the wall and to the floor. The engines cut out, and they hit the ground, skidding to the carrier’s open doors. Metal shrieked on concrete as they slid sideways. Cristian let out a cry as he tried to right their ship. They spun and slid into the doorway of the carrier, slamming into another small ship already docked inside, metal crunching against the wall. The two ships rammed against the hull of the big carrier.
Caina lay on the floor, blood seeping through her hands as she held her stomach. A roaring sound filled the small ship. She watched a crack appear on the main window screen. Cristian climbed over the seats, his dark blue eyes anxious. He gathered her into his arms. “Are you all right?”
She nodded.
The whole ship was vibrating as if the hull might shatter. “What’s happening?” she asked.
Cristian cradled her against him as he stood up. “I think Joshua is piloting the main c-carrier. W-we’re lifting off.”
Dylan joined them, holding the gash on his head. He glanced down at Caina’s wound. “It looked like it opened again.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, feeling light-headed.
Cristian swayed as the floor moved. He found his balance and stepped out of the battered mining ship. Through the closing doors of the carrier, they could see a Nostekoi ship hovering outside, its lights glaring and the engine loud like a massive bird of prey.
“Let’s get out of the cargo bay!” Dylan said.
Cristian tightened his grip, and she could feel him breathing hard with the effort of carrying her. The carrier pitched to the left and he stumbled, but quickly regained his footing. A brilliant explosion hit behind them, a wall of heat radiating in a searing wave. Cristian went to his knees. She almost fell out of his arms, but he pulled her close again, shielding her.
She began to slip out of consciousness. She felt him stagger to his feet, and then everything went black.
A rushing sound like wind woke her. She lay in Cristian’s arms, the two of them on the floor in a place she didn’t recognize. She finally realized she must be on the bridge of the carrier. Bright lights illuminated translucent screens all around the room. The wide front screen displayed the white rock walls of the mine shaft rushing by. Silhouetted against the bright white was a tall thin figure, his arms strung out by cables that reached up into the ship. His body was stretched so far it looked like his joints might disconnect. His head hung down, the muscles on his neck straining.
Dazed, she tried to understand what she was looking at. She realized it was Joshua, his arms tethered to the ship. Had they been captured by the Nostekoi? Why was he bound like that?
She grabbed Cristian’s shirt. “Help him,” she said.
He looked down at her, a sad expression in his dark blue eyes. “It’s okay. He’s doing it to himself.”
The ship shuddered, and she realized they were rising, and then the rock walls disappeared as they shot out of the mountain. The sun burned bright, flooding over Joshua’s tortured looking body. She put one hand down on the floor and pushed herself up, trembling at the pain. Cristian put his hand on her back, supporting her. “I’ll take you to him.”
As they drew nearer, she could see that the cables were not wrapped around his arms. Confused, she gripped Cristian’s shirt. He leaned down and said in a gentle voice, “This doesn’t hurt him. No matter what you see he’s okay. All right?”
Her heart began to pound, and she didn’t know why. Cristian moved around Joshua so she could see him.
His wrists were bent back and split open. The gaping hole was grotesque but bloodless. Cables sprouted from his arms, reaching up into the walls of the ship. His red eyes were luminescent, his face blank.
Scared, she whispered, “Joshua?”
He didn’t move at first, and then raised his head and met her eyes. He had almost no pupils, the red taking over his irises. He seemed to see her, though. A pained expression crossed his face, and then he bowed his head again. “We’re going to hyperspace, Cris,” he said in a stilted voice, as if the words had to come one at a time from different places in his mind.
Cristian shifted her in his arms. “Let’s get s-strapped in.”
Someone moved behind her, and she realized it was Dylan. “He’s perfectly stable. He’ll be all right.”
She blinked. Had everyone gone insane? She choked out his name.
His body jerked and he looked up, but not at her. He looked at Cristian. “You have twelve seconds. Eleven. Ten. Nine…” he kept counting.
Cristian swung around and ran. Breathless, he explained quickly. “Look, we’ll sort this out later. He’s fine.”
Lightheaded with shock and probably blood loss, she didn’t have the strength to argue. Cristian set her down with more gentleness than they had time for and the restraints closed over her. Dylan and Cristian strapped down.
Dylan looked over at Cristian. “She’s going to pass out again. I’ll get to her wound after the jump.”
“She n-needs blood.”
Joshua’s head turned to look back at them, the movement eerily mechanical. “….two, one.”
She blacked out.