Chapter 17
Seventeen
Kira
Someone was shaking her.
Kira really wished they would stop. Her head hurt enough without their help.
There was a ringing in her ears that overrode everything else. Even her groan as someone rolled her onto her back. Debris and stone slid off her. Kira got the confusing sensation of someone lifting her. A second later, she was laid in what she thought might be a lap.
Deciding it was time she figured out what was going on, Kira blinked open her eyes.
Finn hovered over her, blood trickling from a cut on his forehead. Just over his eyebrow. Dirt coated his face. His synth armor looked like he’d been dragged through a pasture, the grime dulling its normal dark blue.
Kira tried to push away his hands, losing strength halfway through the attempt. “What happened?”
It felt like she’d gotten the stuffing kicked out of her, but she didn’t remember the fight.
She did remember Jin, however.
Kira jackknifed to a sitting position, immediately regretting it. She cradled her head, wishing she’d moved a little slower.
Finn touched her shoulder.
She thought he was saying something, but she couldn’t make out what.
Seeing her confusion, Finn pointed.
She followed his finger, finding Jin unharmed, if a little shellshocked.
Actually, he looked better than Kira and Finn combined. Except for a little ash on his face and the armor he was suddenly wearing, he was the picture of health. A second later, she saw why as one of his spawn peeled away, collapsing onto the ground.
A closer examination revealed the presence of many, many spawn. Some only half assembled. More metal parts than actual miniature robots. They’d plastered themselves over his upper body, taking the brunt of the concussive wave somehow.
“Bomb?” she asked. Or maybe shouted. With her hearing loss, it was hard to tell.
Finn grimaced and nodded.
Kira looked around in confusion. There were no signs of an explosion in their immediate vicinity.
The bomb would have to be pretty massive to be capable of tossing her around like a rag doll from that distance.
Add in the ash still softly drifting down despite her being unconscious for who knew how many minutes, and Kira had a guess as to what happened.
“We just lost the world gate, didn’t we?” Kira asked.
It was the only structure of note close by.
Finn pulled her into his shoulder, but not before she caught the grief playing over his features.
Kira slumped against him, the strength leaving her. “Damn it.”
Maksym. That poor fool. Wren sent him to protect them. Not die a pointless death.
Finn let her cry. He didn’t give her useless platitudes or try to convince her that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance Maksym and the other two had survived.
They both knew that was impossible. A blast that size would have vaporized everything in its vicinity.
Nothing would have been left. Not even a Tuann.
After a while, humming filtered into her muted world. A comforting lullaby that helped soothe her raw edges.
“You have a nice voice,” Kira said, drawing back. “Why didn’t I know that?”
Actually, there was probably a lot she didn’t know about Finn.
She was familiar with some of his history.
For instance, the fact he’d had two swords before her.
The first being her father. The second a woman he didn’t like to talk about.
His character was also something she’d never questioned.
He’d die protecting her. Would bleed to ensure she and hers stayed safe.
But the little things—like his hobbies and interests.
His likes and dislikes. Those were still much of a mystery.
“It’s the Luathan blood in me,” Finn explained.
House Luatha was home to some of the best artisans in the Tuann empire. Singers, dancers, architects, and the like. If it required an ounce of creativity, it had a home in Luatha. Her mother’s side was probably where Kira got her own singing abilities.
She scrubbed a hand over her face, ridding herself of any last trace of emotion.
Raider groaned a few steps away. “I think I broke my collarbone.”
Like Kira, he must have been thrown into the wall during the blast. He was lying on his back, half buried under the stone, staring up at the sky.
“Can you move?” Kira asked, shifting over to help him up.
A short distance away, Bez was doing the same with his people. His gaze met Kira’s briefly before he went back to tending Az and Pye.
“I think so. What happened?”
“Bomb.”
Raider paused in the process of prodding the wound on the back of his head. “Must have been a pretty big one to do all this.”
“We think it took out the world gate.”
There was a resigned horror in Raider’s gaze as it met hers. “Fuck!”
“That about sums it up.”
Raider punched the ground next to him. “Damn it, Maksym!”
Losing your own never got easier. No matter how many times it happened. Every single loss felt like being stabbed in the gut anew.
You learned to contain your grief. To put it in a little box in your head and seal it up tight.
Every now and then, negative emotions leaked out of that box, laying waste to your mental health. Sometimes your personal relationships too.
The only way to make it stop was to deal with what you locked away.
But that was easier said than done.
“Enemy combatant!” Az yelled.
She was firing into the trees before anyone else could react. Bez followed suit an instant later.
It was chaos for a few moments.
Kira didn’t know what Az saw that made her think they were under attack, but as the moments slipped by and no return fire was exchanged, she began to think the other woman was jumping at ghosts.
“Hold fire! Hold fire!” Dylan shouted.
It was several seconds before Az stopped shooting her zuipi. “There was someone there. I’m not imagining it.”
“No, you’re not,” someone called from the trees. “But did you ever stop to think they might be friendlies?”
Kira knew that voice. “Maksym?”
The ginger menace poked his head out from behind a tree. “You were expecting someone else?”
“Holy shit! I think he might have more lives than you, Nixxy. How the hell did you survive?” Raider asked Maksym.
The oshota left the cover of his tree, glancing at Az and Bez who still had their weapons pointed at him. “Mind pointing those somewhere else? Violence makes me frisky.”
Bez did so without delay.
Az was a little slower, suspicion written all over her face. “The human raises an excellent point. Why are you alive? You were supposed to be guarding the gate.”
“You almost sound disappointed, Azling. Tell me it isn’t so.”
“Answer the question.”
“I’d be happy to give Roake’s heir a report. Privately, of course.”
Az’s features hardened. “Where are Arly and Tage? Did you kill them?”
“Hey, now.” With some difficulty, Kira got to her feet and limped in their direction. “Everyone take a breath.”
After everything they’d managed to survive in the last couple of hours, it would be a shame if the thing that took them out was infighting.
Az glared at Maksym, her stubborn expression not easing.
Kira’s voice lowered in warning. “That’s an order.”
If she had to repeat herself again, Az might get that beating she was asking for.
Several seconds went by before Az relented. “Whatever you say, heir.”
Kira didn’t react to the bite in Az’s words as the other woman stalked away.
“I thought she was supposed to be injured,” Raider muttered.
Privately, Kira had the same thought. Az’s injuries must have been relatively minor for her to move with such ease.
“What’s going on with her?” Kira asked Bez.
From the cold calculation present in their earlier conversation to the rash actions of just now—she was giving Kira emotional whiplash.
“Pye is more heavily injured than previously thought. I think the most recent concussive wave did something to him. He might not survive.”
Kira glanced at the Tuann’s still figure.
“Now, he shows up without Arly and Tage.” Bez jerked his head at Maksym. “Can you blame her for her reaction?”
“No, I suppose I can’t,” Kira sighed.
If they didn’t recover Caius soon, he might not have any of his pod left.
Pushing that grim thought out of her head, she studied Bez. “Is there anything we can do to help?”
“Not unless any of you are healers.”
“Raider and I have training in first aid. That’s pretty much the extent of our skills, I’m afraid.”
Also, those skills pretty much only applied to humans. Some of them might translate, but not all.
“I might be able to help,” Jin volunteered. At their surprised looks, he shrugged. “When I’m bored, I like to read. My knowledge is completely theory based, but in a situation like this, you take what you can get.”
“You’re familiar with Tuann anatomy?” Bez asked.
“Among others.”
Jin’s answer didn’t sit well with Bez. Unfortunately, they were stranded on an alien planet with no way off.
The gate was gone. Nothing remained except for a pile of ash and molten metal.
Don’t even get her started on the enclave’s ships.
Those that might have survived the first attack were now buried under several tons of dirt.
The pirates likely came by ship, but locating it could be a problem.
Human ships also tended to be slower than Tuann ones.
It could be weeks, if not months, of travel before they reached the edge of Tuann space.
“See what you can do,” Bez said.
After a quick glance at Dylan, Jin hurried toward the injured Tuann. Dylan didn’t move from the sentry position he’d adopted. He simply shifted to keep one eye on Jin while the rest of his attention remained on the surrounding forest.
“Stay here, Raider,” Kira ordered when the human’s attempt to rise was met with a whine and a grimace of pain.
“Gladly.” Raider laid back down. “I really hate this planet, Phoenix.”
“I think I do too,” Kira said over her shoulder as she and Finn headed toward Maksym.
Three attacks in quick succession. It must be a record.