“Why can’t we hit them?” someone yelled.
A trio of soldiers knelt in front of another of the bombers, blazer rifles flashing orange as they spat fire. Countless bolts streaked toward the snakes, but they bounced off, as if the creatures were armored.
And they were, Erick realized, looking at the concentration stamped on Jelena’s face. She was protecting the creatures, letting them wreak havoc with impunity.
Another soldier flew through the air, landing way up on top of the dune. He didn’t rise.
“Are you going to make the snakes kill them?” Erick asked, concerned.
“I’m trying to tell them not to,” Jelena said, her voice tense. “But they’re experiencing a lot of enthusiasm and… glee.”
“Gleeful snakes, wonderful.”
Yun caught up with them, leaning heavily on Erick’s staff. He gawked at the scene, three snakes waving their top halves in the air, hurling soldiers around, and the one still bashing the bomber into the ground repeatedly.
“Retreat,” one of the trio of men yelled. “We can’t win against them. They’re invincible.” He shot an incredulous look toward Jelena. Had he figured out she was responsible for that invincibility?
Erick fought his splitting headache to raise a shield around all three of them in case the imperials tried to shoot in this direction. But the speaker’s gaze caught on Jelena’s staff and the way the silver runes were glowing, the effect noticeable here in the shadow of the ship. He waved to his men, and they fled into a bomber that wasn’t being attacked.
The remaining soldiers followed, still firing at the snakes as they went, covering their comrades’ retreat. It hardly mattered. Another was plucked up from the ground and hurled atop the dune.
One of the bombers rose, flying in that direction to pick up the injured men lying up there. A second one lifted off and hovered in the area, firing at the snake clutching the third bomber. The ship’s weapons were far more powerful than rifles, and Jelena gasped and dropped to one knee.
Erick sensed the protective armor she’d created around the snakes failing. Maybe the snakes sensed it too. The giant one tormenting the bomber released it. The ship fell down on an edge, almost tipping onto its side, but the pilot got the thrusters going in time, and it roared into the sky. The big snake disappeared into the sand, avoiding being hit by further fire.
Erick worried the imperials would realize the snakes wouldn’t be a further threat, or at least not such a significant threat, and return. But they’d had enough. All three bombers took off, shooting straight toward the sky and the stars beyond. They were far more dented than they had been before, but they flew well and soon sailed out of sight.
Using her staff for support, Jelena pushed herself to her feet. Erick eyed the snakes as they slithered around just below the ramp. They drew their bodies out of the sand and coiled up, their flat heads all coming to stare at the freighter. No, at Jelena.
Had they realized she had manipulated them into fighting? And did they now want revenge for the wounds they’d received? Even with the protection she’d given them, they were all still bleeding. Numerous scorch marks cut into the side of one of them.
Erick shivered, remembering the way their minds had felt when he’d brushed against one earlier. The alienness, the desire to eat humans.
The fourth snake reappeared, the giant one. It burst out of the sand and rose three stories in the air, its shadow falling across the freighter’s ramp.
“Uh,” Erick said.
Yun stumbled back several steps.
Jelena gazed out at the snakes, then smiled like a loon. She stuck her hand into the big pocket on the front of her hooded shirt and withdrew hunks of meat. Erick blinked. Jelena, who favored vegetables and faux meat grown in vats, wasn’t the type of person to carry around raw steaks.
Woofus whined pitifully from behind Yun.
“Sorry, boy,” Jelena said. “We’ll get you something else later.”
She tossed the four steaks away from the hold, flinging them like disc toys for dogs. The massive snake heads whipped down to catch them in the air. The big one tried to take his and snatch one of the steaks meant for another. They snapped their jaws, fangs gashing each other.
For a moment, there was a huge, writhing snake brawl, and then, with a flurry of hisses, all four disappeared into the sand. Erick couldn’t tell if they’d each gotten a steak or not.
“You really are Starseers,” Yun said, hobbling forward and squinting at them.
“Really tired Starseers,” Jelena said, plopping down into a seated position on top of the ramp. She rubbed her temples, and Erick suspected she’d developed a splitting headache too. The punishment for trying to do too much. “The ship’s not going to blow up back there, is it?”
She looked at Erick and nodded toward engineering.
“No, the chemical sprinklers went on to stop the fire.” Erick sat down next to her. He wasn’t sure how safe it was to dawdle out here—maybe the bombers would return and try again—but he needed a short rest.
Jelena slapped his chest. “We make a good team.”
“I suppose so. You’ll never find an engineer with my talents to work on your new ship. Whenever you find your new ship.”
“You won’t be coming to fly it with me?”
“Well… I’m the engineer for the Nomad now. And…”
Yun limped out onto the ramp, distracting Jelena and saving Erick from having to complete his sentence.
“That’s amazing,” he said, scanning the valley in all directions. “They left most of the cargo.”
“I’m not sure they left it,” Jelena said, “so much as it fell out when the snake started bouncing that ship around with the hatch still open.” She waved to the crates, none of them currently obeying the THIS SIDE UP markings stamped on the tops.
“At least the Alliance shouldn’t be too pissed,” Yun grumbled, looking around. “They’ll still probably want to jail me. Or hang me up by my fingernails on some Old Earth torture rack. If
