“Samrat Condor has taken overmy country and enslaved my family. His troops have nearly taken overall of Planet Alandra and now are preparing to attack Jaipar, forcingKoriann to marry that tyrant Zanton. And you have the nerve tolecture me about taking a few uppers so we can stay alive long enoughto return with critical information that may make a difference in thewar.”
She wanted to remind him he’dgone without food and sleep before and not used uppers, but shedidn’t want to get into an argument. Perhaps it waswrongto be critical. He was under unusual duress, especially when it cameto Koriann.
She closed her eyes again but thespinning sensation returned, so she kept them open. She placed herhand over her womb and smiled contentedly as she thought about thecause of her sickness. Soon she would be a mother. She felt thefamiliar, loving presence of the Soul that would enter the body shecarried.
How long would it be before shewould feel the stirring of life within her? And how long before she’dsee Michio again? Would he be changed from his training? Then it hither that she might never see him again. Idon’t want to die,she thought
16
Stranded in Space
Toemeka woke up hours later whenthe ship jolted out of the space jump. She stretched her limbs, stifffrom sitting for so long, then glanced at the fuel tank.
Her stomach rolled. It was in thered refuel zone. They’d run out of energy before they reachedplanet Borko. If they hit the atmosphere at this speed, they’d burnup. Even if their shields survived the intense heat, they’d crashinto the planet’s surface without fuel to slow them down.
“You’re awake,” Erlingsaid. “How are you feeling?”
“Not real good.”
He frowned. “What’s wrong?Hunger pangs?”
“Yuck, even the thought of foodmakes me nauseated.”
“I suppose making a jump whenyou’re pregnant made you sick.” He glanced at the fuel gauge. “Ihate breaking radio silence, but we can’t wait any longer to makeradio contact with Jaipar. We need them to send a fuel ship..” Heturned on the radio and tuned in the frequency used by Jaiparmilitary. “Cruiser to base, come in.”
There was a long static-filledpause, then Michio said, “Night Wanderer to Cruiser, is Wind Riderwith you?”
“Yes, I’m with him.” Joyflooded through Toemeka at the sound of Michio’s voice. He musthave flown to Jaipar after she contacted him in the jungle.
“What’s your status?”Michio asked.
Erling looked at Toemeka. “Doeshe understand Coalition code?”
“A little. Let me give it atry.” Into the mike she said, “The cat’s almost out of food.
“We’ll see that he’s fed.”Michio said. “Over and out.”
Toemeka switched frequencies andsent out radio signals. She waited for Michio to respond that they’dpicked them up. When he didn’t, she said to Erling, “They must behaving trouble locating our signal.”
“They’ll find it. I’m surethey have every computer operator at the space station searching forit.”
Finally there was a crackle onthe radio followed by, “Night Wanderer to Cruiser. We’re on ourway.”
The next half-hour passed insilence with no sign of a Jaiparian ship.
Erling said, “I think we’dbetter hook directly to base. We’re running out of time.” Toemekanodded and he turned on the radio. “Cruiser to Night Wanderer, I’mhooking up with ground control computers so you can get a readout onour exact location.”
After a few minutes Michio said,“This is Night Wanderer. We’ve got a fix on your location. Weestimate it will take eighty minutes to reach you.”
“We could hit planet Borko’satmosphere by then.”
“Use your remaining fuel toveer away from the planet.”
“Night Wanderer, I love you,”Toemeka said. She turned off the radio, afraid she’d cry if shesaid anything more. She crossed her arms over her chest and lookedout the window.
“I’m sorry I got you intothis,” Erling said.
“You didn’t get me into this.I went on the mission of my own free will.”
“It’s been quite an adventurethis time. In a few hours we’ll be back at the palace, crackingjokes about all this.”
“Do you think so?”
“Sure, Mich won’t letanything happen to you. If we lose radio contact, he’ll connect toyou inwardly.”
Toemeka smiled, despite herdespair. “Always the optimist.”
They were silent for a while,then on the screen Toemeka spotted a dot moving toward them.“Incoming ship at six o’clock,” she gasped. “It’s coming infrom the wrong direction and is too soon to be ours.”
Erling turned on the transmitteron the radio. “Cruiser to Night Wanderer.”
“Night Wanderer here.”
“We’ve got company. We’regoing on radio silence and turning off our linkup with base.”Erling glanced at Toemeka. “Check the computer for a place to hide.We can’t fight them with so little fuel.”
“If we turn off the trackingsystem, Michio won’t be able to find us. Our squad is still over anhour away and the Raptor ship will be here in a few minutes.”
“I know, but it’s tracking usby the signals we’re sending out,” Erling said. “We have tolose it.”
Toemeka did a search on thecomputer, then said, “Erling, I think we have enough fuel to reachDelga. It’s one of Borko’s moons”
“You sure you want to risk it?If we run out of fuel, we won’t be able to slow down and we’llcrash into it.”
“We can divert all theremaining energy from our weapon systems.”
Erling winced. “If the enemyship catches up to us, we’ll have nothing to defend ourselveswith.”
Toemeka’s fingers flew acrossthe keyboard. “We’ll just have to reach Delga before they do andhide.” She ran a few calculations. “There now we should haveenough to land safely.”
Erling flew directly to Delgawithout further objection. On screen, Toemeka could see the Talonship following them on a straight course. Erling peeled around Delgausing its atmosphere to slow their ship. He put up the airfoils tofurther slow down as they entered the moon’s atmosphere.
Toemeka knew Michio couldn’ttrack their ship anymore so she silently chantedshonuto connect to him. Soon she felt his energy inwardly.
Erling prepared to land.
Toemeka was thrown against theshoulder harness as they tore toward the moon’s surface, coming intoo fast. “Slow down!” she screamed, afraid they were going tocrash into the mountain looming ahead of them.
Erling adjusted the controls andthey soared over the mountain top. Then he slowed the ship enough toland safely in a narrow valley between two high peaks.
“We did it!”
