Jelena waved for him to follow her to the ramp, but then ducked under it instead of trying to go up right away. The shadows would hide them so long as nobody came up to either side.
A distraction? she suggested. Can we make something blow up? And then they’ll all run to check on it?
I doubt they would all run to check. And what are we going to blow up in the middle of the desert? Sand isn’t explosive.
I was thinking of one of their ships. If they’re imperials scheming something up, we’d be doing the Alliance a favor.
Your stepfather was an imperial, Erick pointed out. He didn’t necessarily disagree with her sentiment, but he doubted they should willfully destroy property when they didn’t know the whole story.
Leonidas retired from imperialing to marry my mom and run freight. Legally and without stealing weapons from anybody.
There’s a pilot in each of those bombers. Are you feeling bloodthirsty today?
Oh. No, I forgot the pilots were inside. Could one of the crates spontaneously explode?
Let me think for a minute. Erick made sure none of the soldiers were nearby and lowered his camouflage. He checked around and inside the ship again.
The soldiers were still patrolling, but more of them were up on the dunes now, looking farther out than the landing site. In addition to the pilots sitting in their ships, two men remained on guard in the valley. Then there were the two men in the freighter, one working on unclamping more crates and one poking in cabins and banging against bulkheads in the forward section. Erick brushed against the searcher’s mind to get a sense of his thoughts.
He frowned. The man was definitely hunting for what he assumed was a small crew, and he kept touching the knife sheathed on his belt even though he also carried a massive blazer rifle capable of blowing holes in walls. He looked forward to finding the crew and killing them to keep them from complaining to Alliance authorities.
Were Alliance authorities even on Dustor? This was on the fringe of the core worlds, and neither the empire nor the Alliance had ever had much interest in the planet, due to its utter lack of resources. Food and water had to be shipped in, and it was more of a meeting place for illegal activities than a homesteading world. But maybe the Alliance had a ship or station in orbit to keep an eye on things. Or maybe an Alliance representative had been sent to meet the freighter here and pick up the cargo?
The man Erick had been checking on halted and looked down at something. He had a handheld instrument that detected signs of life, and he was using it as a guide. With his Starseer senses, Erick could tell he was getting close to the man and the dog.
Canine barks floated out of the ship, and Jelena winced. The bulkheads muted the sound, but not enough. The man on the hunt jerked his head up and faced what appeared to be a blank wall to him. There had to be a secret panel there—Erick sensed the man and dog right behind it.
“We have to go in now,” Jelena whispered. “They’re in trouble.”
“I know.” Erick turned his senses toward the bomber with the open hatch.
Numerous crates were already stacked inside. He skimmed through them, looking for something with explosive potential. Ah, there was a box of battery packs. Even with all the safeguards that went into battery manufacturing, all it usually took to blow them up was for them to get charged too quickly. He could make that happen.
Erick closed his eyes and poured his own energy into them. It wasn’t quite the same as electricity, but he could sense the ions zipping back and forth, moving too rapidly from the cathodes to the anodes.
Jelena gripped his arm. “Erick?”
“Second.”
He rushed the job, but he was rewarded with an explosive boom from that bomber. It caused a chain reaction, with other explosions following the first. The ship hopped up and down like spittle on a hot burner, and shouts arose from several directions.
“Now,” Jelena whispered, slipping out from under the ramp.
Erick, his legs wobbly after exerting so much energy, had to use the side of the ramp for support as he pulled himself out after her. She was already charging into the freighter, her staff in hand. He sensed her alarm as she almost crashed into someone. The man from the cargo hold. He had been running out to check on the explosion.
Cursing, Erick forced his legs to work. He hopped onto the ramp just as the man pointed a pistol at Jelena.
4
Erick charged up the ramp to help Jelena, barely conscious of the fact that his back was to the explosions still going off—and the imperials running to deal with it. He prepared to hurl a wave of power at the man facing Jelena, but she stepped forward and attacked first. She whipped her staff across, knocking his rifle away as he fired.
A blazer beam streaked wildly away, almost bisecting Erick’s scalp.
He ducked as Jelena struck again. She smashed her staff against the man’s fingers, and his rifle tumbled to the deck.
The man roared and launched himself at her.
She stepped back, but only so she could brace herself. Using her staff both for defense and as a focus tool, she created a shield in front of her. He smacked against it and bounced back. He twisted in the air, managing to get his feet under him, but she jumped after him and caught him before he landed. She rammed the tip of her staff into his chest, and energy crackled around it, white lightning flaring and wrapping around it, and also around the man.
He screamed,
