To help them.
Them who? Erick hadn’t used his senses to investigate the crew of the freighter, and it was too far away now. He was fairly certain it had already crashed in the dunes out there.
The owner. And his dog.
There was a dog on board? Erick groaned, knowing where this was going.
Yes, and we can’t let the imperials get him. They might shoot him. Only slightly belatedly, Jelena added, And the freighter captain.
The freighter captain might be a leering asteroid humper. The last one certainly had been.
Jelena hopped down to the dock and headed toward a robot at a kiosk renting out bicycles, personal wheelers, and thrust bikes. Erick sighed, having a feeling she hadn’t even heard him. He also had a feeling he wasn’t going to get his Asteroid Icy.
3
The hot desert sun beat down on Erick’s face and hands as he gripped the thrust bike’s handlebars. He could feel it scorching his pale skin and expected he would be pinker than the Asgard Nebula by the time they got back. He cast a longing look back toward the city and the space docks, but the Star Nomad and the other ships had faded from view.
Also on a thrust bike, Jelena led the way toward the freighter’s crash site. The towering sand dunes outside the city hid the ship from view, but the trail of smoke hadn’t quite faded from the red sky yet.
The imperial bombers had disappeared from the sight too. Erick reached out with his mind, trying to see through the dunes with his third eye. He wasn’t surprised to sense the freighter in a valley with the three bombers on the ground surrounding it.
I think it’s going to be too late to do anything, he told Jelena, eyeing her back as she swooped up, over, and down the dunes. Usually when they were on thrust bikes, Erick would challenge her to a race or rush to the front, since he loved speed and the feel of wind against his face, but he didn’t think anything good would come from reaching their destination first. Or at all. And that made him wary.
They’re still alive, she replied without glancing back. It’s not too late.
Erick checked again, this time trying to sense people rather than ships. While Jelena’s affinity was for animals, his was for engines and machinery, so he always had an easier time identifying those things. But on his second sweep, he sensed twelve people in the bombers or climbing out of them. They all carried weapons. He detected a lone person inside the freighter, and yes, there was Jelena’s dog. Both had survived the crash, but he sensed intense pain plaguing the man. He’d definitely been injured.
It’s also not too late to comm Leonidas and ask for help, Erick pointed out for the third time. He’d first suggested it while Jelena had been hastily putting down a deposit with the rental robot.
He and Mom are busy with their clients. And I want to show them we’re responsible and brave and capable. They need to know it wouldn’t be a mistake letting me captain a ship. We can handle this. Just like we handled the fight at the used-ship lot.
Uh, we handled that by fleeing while you covered our asses.
While I bravely and capably covered our asses.
I don’t think—
Sh. Do you sense that? Jelena slowed her thrust bike to a stop between two dunes.
The other ships? Erick knew they lay on the other side—the smoke continuing to waft up from the damaged freighter let him further pinpoint the position.
No. Sand snakes.
Even though his thrust bike hovered a couple of feet off the ground, Erick lifted his legs and looked from side to side. Where?
The valley they were currently in stretched for a mile in either direction, reddish-brown sand scraped out by the winds. Nothing grew out here in the constantly shifting sands. A beige crab scared by their thrusters was the only thing moving, scurrying away from the bikes. At least, it was the only thing moving on the surface.
When Jelena pointed to the north and Erick reached out with his mind, he detected the snakes. Two of them.
The creatures were more than a foot in diameter and over twenty feet long, and they undulated from side to side as they traveled among the dunes. They could slither across the sand, but they could also burrow down and travel underneath it. The stories said their bodies could expand to swallow an entire shuttlecraft. Their harsh stomach acids digested the organic material and spat the remains of the ship out the other end. Erick didn’t know if that was true, but he was certain they could swallow people whole—that was documented in the sys-net entries for the planet.
Unintentionally, he brushed their minds, and he shivered at the hungry, alien thoughts they held. One snake seemed to sense his mental touch and instantly responded, imagining eating a human—and enjoying it.
Erick yanked his senses back, locking them down. Why Jelena liked to communicate with animals, he would never know. Half of the animals in the system would happily eat humans if they had the chance.
It looks like they’re a few miles away, Erick told her, surprised she’d been casting her senses that wide and had detected them.
Yes, but they heard the crash, and they smell blood. They’re coming to investigate.
Sounds like a reason to turn around and go back to the city.
Or a reason to hurry and help the freighter captain and his dog.
Jelena flew halfway up the dune, parked her bike, and slid off.
Do you have a plan? Erick asked, parking beside her. If they flew up to the crest, they would be visible to the people climbing out of their ships on the other side.
Jelena withdrew her staff, and Erick wondered if giant snakes would be scared of Starseers the way the mundanes at the docks had
