While Conrad found the girl annoying on occasion, she was dead right. With what they’d seen of the Seekers at Orion V, as long as no one was hostile toward them, they took little notice of anyone else. Jason had only gone in a small unarmed pod.
What could they be up to?
Thirty-Seven
Psi-Aion
Tyler’s eyes drooped. He hadn’t slept a wink.
He’d stood at the cave entrance for the rest of the night, gazing through the bars at the landscape beyond.
No one else got any shut-eye either. Captain Marquez and Doctor Tai laid against the cave wall, quietly chatting, while the Marines had scattered, finding a spot to rest, remaining as alert as possible.
The sun was almost up, and it was producing a brilliant purple sky around it. Tyler hadn’t seen many sunrises. It was an occupational impossibility as captain of a cargo ship. He would have enjoyed the experience if it weren’t for their confinement.
From the village, a group of the natives headed toward them.
“We’ve got company,” Tyler said, alerting the others.
Everyone stood, just in time for their captors to arrive, led by the native who’d initially captured them out near the Maybelle.
“Tolar Geri Vokar!” he said to them in a deep voice.
His men opened the cell and rounded them up, once again roping their hands behind their backs.
“We’re not Geri Vokar,” Marquez tried to tell them. “Can you understand? Not Geri Vokar!”
His words fell on deaf ears, and they were led down from their detention back to the center of the village where the elder was waiting for them along with every other village person.
“I don’t like the look of this,” Tai said, noting the six wooden posts around the central tree stump. Each post had a stack of wood surrounding it. “They’re going to burn us at the stake!”
Tyler remembered being told tales of women back on Earth centuries earlier, being burned because people believed they were witches. The stories had given him nightmares.
Marquez broke free of his captor and stepped toward the elder. “You must listen to us,” he said calmly. “We are not Geri Vokar.”
The elder’s eyes narrowed and he nodded to one of his guards. In an instant, with the butt of a spear, Marquez was sent crashing down on his ass.
“Nicolas!” Tai yelled.
The guard dragged him to a post and tied him to it, wrapping the rope around his body. He struggled but couldn’t break free. Behind them, the natives bore down on the others with their torches lit.
Tyler hadn’t given death a second thought for a long time. Not since his father died. But if he were to guess which way he’d go, it would never have been like the witches of a quaint Massachusetts town.
Seeker Craft
The massive globe that was Psi-Aion approached quickly. While standing behind the pilot, Jason kept a close eye on the helm and how adept the Seeker was at controlling the transport vessel.
The Seeker craft entered orbit and Jason could only wonder for what purpose. Was it because he’d come calling on their door and Nash wanted to ensure no one else came searching for him? If it were the case, he hoped the Argo had already hightailed it.
The craft pushed beyond Psi-Aion’s orbit and made a beeline for the atmosphere.
Are we going to land?
The Seeker helmsman maneuvered the smaller ship down and the deck plating reverberated. Jason sniggered to himself. Even an advanced species, with sophisticated spacecraft, still had trouble making smooth drops through the atmosphere of a planet.
Through the cloud, large swathes of green stretched out to the horizon. Jason’s stomach churned while the vessel pulled up and straightened out.
The helmsman found a clearing in the tree line where a massive cliff face overlooked the great forest. Jason did a double take. Beneath it were small wooden structures.
And people.
Psi-Aion
Boom!
Nicolas joined everyone else in the village and gazed into the sky. A craft zoomed overhead, appearing like a black vulture ready to pounce on its prey.
Panic took hold of the villagers and they grabbed their loved ones, scrambling at the sight of the Seeker craft. Even the elder moved quickly for someone of his advanced age.
“Vakar!” they all yelled at the top of their lungs.
Within moments, they’d all fled, leaving the six of them to fend for themselves.
Nicolas stared at Tyler whose ropes hadn’t quite been secured. He wrenched his body forward and twisted out of them with a skill and precision he hadn’t expected. Tyler loosened Nicolas’s knots, and between the pair of them, they had everyone free in a matter of minutes.
“What do you think the Seekers want?” Higgs asked, throwing his ropes to the ground.
Nicolas remembered the drawings they’d seen in the cave the night before. They were coming down for only one reason.
“Fresh meat.”
Cargo Ship Argo
An alert sounded from the operations station. It was the last thing Kevin wanted to hear while steering the Argo toward the opposite side of the planet.
“Something?” he asked Althaus.
His colleague nodded. “Just as we moved into scanning darkness and lost contact with the Seeker craft, there was a change in their trajectory.”
“Were they coming after us?”
“No. They were heading down to the surface.”
“Where?”
“By the looks of it, toward the region our pod landed.”
“They must be going after our people.”
“It’s time we got down there.” Althaus said with steely glint in his eyes.
“I thought—”
“Tyler’s down there. If Alyssa said we’re ready to go, that’s good enough for me.”
Kevin smiled and turned back to the helm, activating the intercom. “Bridge to engine room.”
“Engine Room,” replied his daughter.
“We’re going down.”
“Roger that.”
Kevin switched off the intercom and pushed in the commands on his console. It’d been some time since he’d landed a craft of the Argo’s size.
He hoped he still had the right stuff.
Thirty-Eight
Psi-Aion
A Seeker prowled toward Susan with his weapon raised. She pushed on with what energy she had left after fleeing the village and dived behind the nearest tree.
A weapon blast smashed into the
