Nicolas pushed him back to his knees and stood himself. “I’m the leader.”
A gasp sounded amongst the villagers.
The elder kneeled the best he could, considering his advanced age. He grabbed Nicolas by the jaw and gazed into his eyes. “Terch?”
“I’m Captain Marquez. Commander of the—”
The elder drew his hand back and threw the gun to the ground. “Geri Vokar!” he boomed.
Nicolas jumped backward.
“Geri Vokar!” The elder pointed at the sky and waved his hand around in a motion a two-year-old would, as if he were flying a pretend spaceship.
“They understand we’re from space?” Susan said.
The elder tilted his head curiously at her.
“Geri Vokar?” He indicated to the sky again and gestured to a pair of his men.
They produced their spears and pointed them at Susan. One prodded her chest, the other her forehead.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“Me terch!” Nicolas yelled.
The old Seeker’s gaze returned to him. “Geri Vokar?”
The spears jabbed at Susan and she did her best not to appear weak.
“Geri Vokar? People from the sky?” Tyler wondered out loud. “They want to know if we’re from the sky.”
Nicolas glanced worryingly over at Susan. “Geri Vokar!” he said, thumping his chest. “We come from the sky!” He pointed upward.
Murmurs rang out amongst the Seekers.
The elder smiled and returned to his feet, but the spears stayed trained on Susan.
“We mean you no harm,” Nicolas continued. “We came here responding to a distress call.”
The elder snarled at him. “Verash da la Geri Vokar!”
“Verash! Verash! Verash!” the Seekers chanted.
They yanked the spears away from Susan, and she breathed a sigh of relief. But it was short-lived. All of them were hauled to their feet with force and their captors dragged them through the mob while they continued their hostile chanting. At the foot of the cliff, a cave entrance greeted them surrounded by strong wooden bars.
Each were thrown inside, and the bars closed shut behind them. Higgs grabbed at them, but they wouldn’t budge.
Nicolas sighed despondently. “Well, that could’ve gone better.”
Thirty-Four
Cargo Ship Argo
Everything had gone wrong. Jason should have returned from the dark side of the moon, and it’d been four hours since anyone from the surface had reported in.
“You should never have let him take that pod.”
Kevin swiveled his chair to find Althaus standing at the hatchway. “And you think we could have stopped him?”
“I would have, if I’d had some warning.”
“And what would you have done? Beat him to a pulp again?”
Althaus walked onto the bridge and shrugged. “It gets results.”
“He’s not a little kid.” Kevin pointed to the bruises on Althaus’s face, from the previous altercation with Jason. “He can fight back now. And you’re no spring chicken anymore.”
“Someone has to beat some sense into him. You were always too soft. And with his father gone—”
Kevin raised his hand. “Unless you’ve got an idea how to reach the team on the surface, you’re wasting my time.”
“We could take the other pod. Wait, the kid took that, didn’t he?”
“You’re not helping.”
“Playing the captain now, are we?” Althaus bristled. “If something happens to Tyler, this ship’s mine. Don’t forget that, Rycroft.” He stormed off the bridge, and Kevin rolled his eyes.
Jackass.
Kevin ambled to the operations station and checked the communications monitor. Still no reply from the surface to any of his hails. And on the scanners, no sign of activity from the moon. As much as it pained him, if anyone was a priority, it had to be the team on the planet. Jason knew what he was doing when he’d taken the Julieanne.
He stepped from the bridge and headed toward the engine room where Alyssa and Professor Petit stood over the central console. Kevin smiled. It wasn’t every day that his daughter had the opportunity to work with a genius.
“Connect the hose,” Petit instructed her.
Alyssa linked a plasma hose from the maintenance junction to a small plasma storage container and waved her handheld scanner over it. “We’ve got a seal.”
“Okay. Let’s begin the purge. We want only the particles from the exhaust, so bypass the connections to the engine.”
Kevin furrowed his brow. “What’s going on here?”
Aly ran her hands over the console. “Professor Petit has discovered Iota particles inside the Argo’s exhausts. They’re holding their form in the plasma residue.” She checked the readings. “Okay, I’m ready.”
Petit nodded. “Go.”
The hose filled, and the golden glow of plasma seeped into the storage container. “That’s enough. Stop the purge.”
Kevin peered at the contents of the container. “The Iota particles are in there?”
“Yes.” Petit checked over his handheld scanner. “And they’re still holding their form. Apparently, plasma stabilizes the particles.”
It was the first ray of hope Kevin had experienced since arriving at Psi-Aion. “Is there any way we can use this to get back home?”
“One step at a time, Mister Rycroft. This technology differs somewhat from the process we employ to travel at FTL. But it’s a start at understanding it.”
Kevin turned to his daughter. “How are the repairs going?”
“It won’t take long to purge the rest of the Iota particles from the exhausts and any other nook and cranny they might’ve found their way into.”
“FTL is the last thing on my mind at the moment.”
Alyssa raised an eyebrow.
“How much of a beating do you think this ship could take?” he asked.
“It’s taken a fair bashing through that vortex already.”
“Could she handle going through a planetary atmosphere?”
“Still no word from Tyler or the others?”
“No.” Kevin sighed. “Nothing from Jason either.”
“He hasn’t come back from the other side of the moon?”
“No, and because he took the Julieanne, there’s only one way down to the surface.”
Petit put the plasma storage container aside. “It’d be extremely risky dropping an E-Class cargo ship of this age through a planetary atmosphere.”
“We’ve done it before.”
“How long ago?”
Kevin bit his bottom lip. “It’s…ah. It’s been awhile.” The three stood in silence. “We could use your help to prepare.”
“Well, I’ve always been up for a challenge.
Psi-Aion
With no clock, Nicolas found it difficult to tell what time it was
