King of Stars (Arcana Book 4) Read online

  When she was recovered from the unexpected ordeal of the space walk and in a fresh change of clothes, Star headed for the bridge. Julian was there, poring over sensor data and maps when she found him.

  “Anything I can help with?” she asked, coming up beside him as he stood near the map hologram.

  He gave her an absent-minded squeeze and bent to place a quick kiss on her hair. “I think we’ve got a tail. See the energy pattern?” He pointed to some spots on the hologram and she realized he had overlaid a portion of the sensor data on the map of their route to this point.

  She moved closer, out of his loose embrace. Tracing the route from Madhatter Station to where they were now, she thought she saw what he meant.

  “Is that disturbance enough to signify a ship of some kind?” she asked. “It’s really minute.”

  “Minute, but familiar. The military has spy craft that give off patterns like that. Designed for one or two people, tops,” he replied.

  “And we’ve got a two-person team on our tail. Great.” She wasn’t happy, but he looked more intrigued than annoyed. “What’s the plan?”

  He looked up from the hologram and met her gaze. It was dark on the bridge, but his bright blue gaze pinned her like a laser.

  “We stay on course. As you noted before, we’re heading very close to the region of space known as the Pyramid. There are some gaseous anomalies there that will help us either elude them completely, or at least determine how far their orders go.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, for one thing, were they ordered to kill you rather than let you fall into enemy hands?” She gasped. Then she realized the implications of what he’d said.

  “Winters would never order my death. And I thought you didn’t believe in my abilities,” she challenged.

  “I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for the moment,” he said with a cocky grin. “Besides, it occurred to me that Winters must believe in you if he sent a Spec Ops team all the way out here after you. Either that, or you stole his family silver.”

  She burst out laughing. “A thief, I am not. I assure you.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t think so.” He chuckled along with her, then sobered, holding her gaze. “I’m sorry I gave you a hard time before.”

  She was surprised by his apology. Surprised and touched.

  “It’s okay. I know I threw a lot at you all at once.”

  She stepped closer and lifted one hand to cup his cheek. He had shaved since they parted and his cheek was smooth, his masculine jaw made up of hard angles that tempted her beyond all reason.

  “You can say that again.”

  He smiled and she felt the muscle of his jaw flex against her palm. There wasn’t a single soft spot on his entire body, she mused, grinning at the naughty new memory that thought brought to mind. No, there was nothing soft about him at all, for which she was very grateful.

  She wondered if a quickie on the bridge would be out of order. She saw a flame dance in his pretty blue eyes and realized he was thinking something along the same lines.

  “Should I make the course correction?” Matilda piped in, breaking the moment.

  Star backed off, letting him go while Julian returned to the map.

  “Hang on a minute, Matilda.” He enlarged a section of the hologram, pointing. “Once we turn here, we commit to our route. We’re almost here…” again he pointed, “…right now. We turn and they’re still on our trail, they know exactly where we’re heading, which means a confrontation right about…” he maneuvered the map to a new section that was filled with anomalies. It was the Pyramid. “Right about here.” He pointed to a region of space that held not one, not two, but three gaseous anomalies.

  Who knew what really went on in those colorful clouds? It was the perfect place to spring a trap—or disappear forever—which happened more often than not in the Pyramid.

  Like the old Bermuda Triangle back on Earth, the Pyramid was a region of space that formed a rough pyramidal shape, bounded by five bright stars—four at the base and one at the tip of the Pyramid. Inside that area, strange things occurred and many, many ships had disappeared, never to be seen again.

  No explanations. No wreckage. No survivors.

  Star shivered just thinking about it. She’d never been to the place herself, but she had a healthy fear of it.

  “Have you been there before?” she asked now, needing reassurance.

  “A few times,” Julian answered, shrugging as if it was no big deal. The tension in his shoulders said otherwise. He knew weird things happened there. He’d been lucky to survive traveling through the area so far, but would his luck hold?

  “But you think it’s our best bet, right?”

  “It’s the shortest route and it gives us a nice place to figure out what our tail wants without necessarily having to blow them out of the sky. If we turn and confront in open space, we limit our choices. I’d hate to kill folks who are only following misguided orders.” He smiled lopsidedly, making her little heart go pitty pat. He really was a handsome rogue. “But if we confront them there, we have a good chance to duck and weave—and get out of there without them seeing our trail. We can lose them in there and make tracks to Solarus Prime. It’s a good plan.”

  “As long as we don’t get lost in the Pyramid ourselves,” she said, fearing the unknown forces in that place. The stories didn’t come from nowhere. There had to be something to them.

  “With me at the helm? We should be all right.” He dusted off his jacket in a comical way.

  “Glad you’re not short on confidence, but I don’t see any alternative. The Pyramid it is.” She touched the control to make the map hologram disappear.

  “All right, Matlida. You heard the lady. Make the course correction and Hail Mary,” he ordered the ship’s AI.

  Chapter Four

  “How long until we reach the Pyramid?” Star asked as Matilda turned, following her captain’s orders.

  “Not long. Maybe a couple of standard hours at this speed. Why? Got something in mind?” he asked, one eyebrow raised in provocative question.

  Now that he’d had her, he wanted her again, but he knew he had to pace himself for both their sakes. He had to get his head in the game for the confrontation they were about to provoke. He needed time to set the trap and come up with contingency plans.

  Much as he would love to spend the next few hours making love to Star, they couldn’t afford the distraction. He needed her help if they were going to come out of this in one piece and still on mission.

  “Not really. Just wondering if we have time to eat and prepare.”

  Her practical answer brought him down from the pinnacle of temptation that he seemed to climb whenever she was around. She had valid points though. They hadn’t eaten in while and if all proceeded as planned, they wouldn’t have time later.

  “I hate to put you on galley duty, but would you mind reconstituting something for us both? I’ve got to plot out a few alternative courses through the Pyramid so we come out of it on the best trajectory for the galactic rim no matter what happens.”

  “Yeah, I know. I don’t mind KP duty,” she said gamely as she made her way toward the exit, heading for the small galley. “Should I ping you or bring the food up here when it’s done?”

  “Just bring it here. Time is short and I like to be as prepared as possible. I’ll also need to you man the co-pilot’s chair during the action, if you don’t mind.”

  “Mind?” Her eyes flashed with eagerness. “I’d be happy to. Thanks for asking. I’ll be right back with some grub and then we can settle down to a nice, juicy strategy session.”

  She made to walk away, but he reached for her hand, halting her steps. She turned to look at him over her shoulder.

  “You know, you’re just about the strangest girl I’ve ever known.” He smiled, hoping she realized he meant his words as a high compliment.

  She grinned back at him and he figured she understood. “Thanks, Captain.”
She even leaned closer and placed a quick kiss—too quick—on his lips before he released her hand and she sauntered away.

  Damn. She was getting to him. One taste of her lips and he’d been a goner.

  They reached the Pyramid in good time. They’d eaten, taken the chance to freshen up and make final preparations to the ship and themselves before the encounter. Everything was in readiness when the shit hit the fan.

  The first indication they had that their plan was going to go awry was the fact that the scout ship was already there, waiting for them, when the Matilda reached the first nebula on the edge of the Pyramid. The strange ship’s beacon was blazing with human military identifiers when the scout ship ordered the Matilda to heave to.

  “How in the world did they beat us here?” Julian wanted to know as he instituted evasive maneuvers, doing his best to dodge the small ship that followed close on his heels.

  “I heard rumors about new drives, but I didn’t think they were ready for use yet. I guess I was wrong,” Star admitted. “I probably should’ve paid more attention, but in my defense, ship design really isn’t my field.” She was pushing buttons and watching power levels, running compensation equations while Julian did some fancy flying. She was glad he was trusting her to watch the ship’s systems while he devoted all his considerable skill to evading the ship that insisted on following them through every gaseous fog bank and current eddy of chemical particulates in the nebula.

  Julian really was an excellent pilot. By the time they reached the other side of that first formation, he had managed to put quite some distance between them and the pursuing vessel.

  There was a really forbidding-looking cloud of gas and who-knew-what in front of them. Star tried to scan it and came up with nothing. The ship’s sensors weren’t able to penetrate. That could be really bad…

  “You’re not going into that, are you?” she asked Julian when it looked like he was making straight for the colorful swirl of gas and particles.

  “What better place to hide? If we can lose them in there, we’re all set.”

  “You’re crazy. Anything could be in there.”

  “Yes, it could. But as it happens, I’ve been through this way before. It’s just a cloud of gas, albeit with dense sections that defy sensors. I’ve skirted the edges of this formation before. We’ll be all right. And maybe we can lose our friends.” He checked the controls one last time before taking them into the cloud. “Whoever is flying that scout ship, they’re damn good.”

  “Better than you?” she challenged, knowing there were few pilots as highly rated as Julian.

  “Nobody’s better than me, sweetheart.” He threw her a cocky grin. “Or haven’t I proven that to you already?”

  She flushed, knowing he was talking about a lot more than flying. She wouldn’t inflate his already overgrown ego by admitting that he certainly had proven himself. She’d never known such pleasure as he had shown her and she was looking forward to the time after this crisis, when maybe they’d have a few minutes to do it again.

  She was saved from answering as the ship began to beep. Sensors were picking up something…

  “There’s some kind of vortex in here,” Star shouted, scanning the data. “I thought you said it was just gas.”

  “I’ve never been this far inside before,” he admitted, pulling hard at the controls and shouting terse orders to the AI.

  Matilda’s voice interface couldn’t keep up with the changes the ship was making, so it didn’t respond in words, merely followed Julian’s commands with split-second precision. They were a team in those moments, each doing their part to keep the ship in one piece, protecting it from whatever madness of spatial energy was taking place beyond their fragile hull.

  “Energy is spiking. We’re being pulled in!” Star reported, a quaver in her voice as something unforeseen took place just outside their little ship.

  They were caught in a maelstrom of unknown origin. The ship was tossed and loud bangs and the screech of metal could be heard, but the integrity of the hull remained. They didn’t lose life support although their sensors were useless. The craft spun, the stabilizers working overtime—and failing—to keep the squishy, human occupants of the metal and ceramic vessel from feeling all of the effects of whatever anomaly had them in its grip.

  “If this keeps up for much longer, I’m gonna hurl,” Star admitted, gripping tight to the console in front of her, hoping against hope for her world to stop spinning and jerking her from side to side.

  “Yeah, maybe that last meal wasn’t such a good idea,” Julian quipped.

  She looked over at him and even though it was tough to see with all the weird light penetrating the cockpit from outside, she took heart in the fait bit of humor in his tone. Whatever happened next, they were together. Neither of them would die alone and their last minutes would be spent with someone they each cared for in some way. She reached out her hand, covering his on the console next to her.

  He flipped his hand over and wove their fingers tightly together, his grip strong as he met her gaze. The gentle squeeze of his fingers against hers was reassuring.

  “It’ll be all right,” he said, holding her gaze through the worst of the shaking and spinning. He seemed so confident, it gave her hope.

  “How can you be so sure?” she couldn’t help asking.

  “Because the Goddess protects small children and fools. I definitely fit into that last category right now.” His crooked smile warmed her even as the eerie light flooding the cabin increased.

  The pearly light pulsed once…twice…a third time, and then it was gone. The distressing noises from the rest of the ship started to dissipate as the stabilizers began to compensate, a little at a time, for the yaw and roll of the ship.

  “Do you think we’re out of it?” she whispered as things began to settle down incrementally.

  He squeezed her hand once more, then let go to work the controls. She did the same, rebooting systems that had gone offline. Within a few moments, her sensor displays were back, but what they told her made her blink. Then blink again. It couldn’t be…

  An open comm channel spit static into the air a moment before a disembodied, male voice spoke over the speakers.

  “Vessel Matilda, you are in violation of Solaris space. Follow escort vessels Nerym and Moktauk, or be destroyed. They will flank you in three point four secs. Do not deviate from your current course. They will match your speed until you regain control of your craft. Do you understand?”

  “Did he just say Solaris?” Julian asked, incredulous as he scanned his controls.

  “Yeah.” She heard the confusion and awe in her own voice as she read the sensor data. “According to my readings, we came out of the Pyramid very close to Solaris Prime. Look.” She pointed to the far right of the viewport. Sure enough, the massive planet was just coming into view as their ship finally stopped spinning.

  “Sonuva…”

  More crackling over the comm preceded new communications. “Vessel Matilda, this is Captain Lewrig Dyssa of the Nerym. You are in our gun sights. Any deviation from the course we set will be met with deadly force. Are you recovered enough to reply?”

  “That last bit sounded almost polite,” Star observed. “I think we should talk to them.”

  “You do it,” Julian suggested. “You might get a better response.”

  She gave him a startled look. “If you say so.” Shrugging, she opened the channel to the other ship that they could now see at their side. There was another, smaller ship, on the other side. “Captain Dissa, this is Star Senna on the Matilda. We apologize for our abrupt appearance. We encountered some kind of spatial anomaly quite some distance from here and it unexpectedly spit us out here. We did not intend to enter your jurisdiction without permission, and will follow your directives. Our weapons systems are powered down, as I’m sure you can see on your sensor scans, and will remain so. Thank you for your escort. May I ask where you’re taking us?”

  The response, when it
came a few minutes later, sounded surprised. “We were not aware there was a female aboard. I am instructed to convey greetings, Lady Senna. Your ship was expected, though we were not told exactly when you would arrive. We have been waiting for you and were told to expect resistance from a lone male pilot. We were instructed to do our best to deliver him to the temple on Prime.”

  Star’s eyebrows rose as she shared a surprised look with Julian. “Thank you, Captain. Please, may I ask, do you mean to say the Zenai temple on Solaris Prime is expecting us?”

  “Exactly so, Lady. Do you have a male pilot of exceptional skill with you? That is who we were told to expect,” the captain answered.

  “Indeed, I do. He is busy seeing to the ship. We came through some kind of energy vortex that greatly impacted ship systems. He agreed to see me safely to the temple, and so will give you no trouble on the way down to Solaris Prime. I thank you for your escort.” She cut the connection.

  “So the holy man you said you were going to meet…? He’s a Zenai priest?” Julian asked as she tried to process all the information they had just been handed.

  “I thought so, but wasn’t completely sure. The priesthood was already on the lookout for you, though. Sounds like they knew you were coming and how you would get here. Interesting, no?” She looked over at him. “I’ve heard they have ways of foretelling the future too. How much do you want to bet they were ready and waiting for you to make your run at the emperor? They probably knew you were coming before you did. Only, it sounds like my presence here caught them by surprise. Interesting,” she repeated contemplatively. This would bear thinking about.