That was for sure. I couldn’t believe it was all over.
“What about Obarral?” I asked.
“That’s what he was cleaning up next.”
“Actually, consider Obarral cleaned.” The Sean bot appeared at the doorway. “I also took control of the Vostok. Are you okay, JJ?”
“Yeah. How about you?”
“Fine. Thanks for the save back there. Those EMPs would have taken me out.”
This was a first. The old flesh and blood Sean Beck rarely said thank you. Especially to me. I didn’t know how to respond and the awkward silence that followed lasted far too long.
Finally, Chiraine broke it. “What are we going to do about those beacons?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You heard Qualt,” she said. “He planted beacons to guide the Mayir here. We can’t let them get the Kryrk, let alone what else is stored on Bandala.”
“It’s probably too late,” Ana-Zhi said. “Once the beacon chain is built, the jump points are calculated instantly. We trash the beacons in this system, we’re actually doing the Mayir a favor. It stops anyone else from following them.”
“Point of fact, it is too late,” the Sean bot said. “I accessed the logs. Those beacons were planted over thirty-six hours ago.”
“So that’s it? There’s nothing we can do.” My throat felt thick and another wave of nausea hit me. It had nothing to do with the shiver-spike.
Ana-Zhi glared at me. “What we can do is get the hell out of this system before the Mayir arrive and kick our asses. And if we’re really lucky, we’ll be able to trace those beacons back to civilization.”
“We can’t go anywhere until we retrieve my father’s body,” I said. “Hopefully the shuttle made it back in one piece.”
“Let’s find out,” the Sean bot said, in a way that struck me as way too cavalier.
We made our way to the bridge and Ana-Zhi sat herself down in the pilot’s seat.
“You know how to fly one of these?” Chiraine asked.
“I’m not going to even dignify that with an answer,” Ana-Zhi replied.
I glanced down at the console. Everything looked familiar enough to me, even though Barnes was notorious for their odd placement of the throttle and repulsor controls.
Ana-Zhi readied the Vostok, scanning status indicators and diagnostic displays. At the same time, the Sean bot plugged himself into a dataport. When I asked what was up with that, he said that he was checking for booby-traps.
“Qualt’s crew are a crafty bunch. I wouldn’t put it past them.”
But luckily he didn’t find anything.
Ana-Zhi keyed the thrusters and turned us back towards Bandala. It was a short trip.
“I’m not the best at landings,” she said to the Sean bot, as we approached Bandala. “Especially with this clunky thing. You want to take over?”
“Of course.”
The shuttle landing deck on Bandala was too small to accommodate the Vostok, so the Sean bot took us into one of the large main freight decks that was only two floors away from where the shuttle—and his body—waited.
I turned to the Sean bot and asked, “You saw the medical facilities on board here, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it’s good enough to safely wake your body—your flesh and blood body—out of stasis, isn’t it?”
“I didn’t see a MedBed, but I’m sure there’s a soma-tank with a nutrient feed on board. The trick to the karokinesia process is modulating the body temperature and—”
“I know how the procedure works. I just wanted to know if we can finally revive you. It’s pretty nerve-wracking worrying about your body getting lost or damaged or something.”
“I’m touched, JJ. I really am. Obviously my first choice would be to have Dr. Mott revive me back at HQ, but I’m not sure when we’ll make it back to Anglad. And it is a lengthy process. Twenty-four hours at least, if I recall correctly.”
“So what are you thinking?”
“Honestly, JJ, I’m not really focused on that right now. We have bigger things on our plate. Ana-Zhi is right about the Mayir. We need to be gone before they get here. And we have to keep the Kryrk out of their hands—at all costs.”
His words hit me like a meteor, and suddenly I knew what to do.
“Jannigan?” Chiraine asked. “You okay?”
“I think I know how we can prevent the Mayir from gaining access to Bandala,” I said in a low voice.
“Do tell,” Ana-Zhi said.
“The Kryrk…” I trailed off, my mind spinning with the realization.
“Yeah, you’re not making much sense, junior.”
All the color drained from Chiraine’s face. It obvious that she had guessed what I was proposing.
“No,” she said in disbelief.
“It’s the only way.”
“What are you talking about, JJ?” the Sean bot asked.
“We have to destroy Bandala.”
Ana-Zhi shook her head. “I think you bumped your head, kiddo. We don’t have that much firepower. The core is too protected and even with the Vostok’s array of void cannons—”
“I wasn’t thinking about using the Vostok.” I cut her off. “I was thinking of using the Kryrk.”
22
Even though my plan made a lot of sense, it had one flaw—and it was a big one. No one knew how to activate the Kryrk. Not Chiraine. Not the Sean bot.
But it wasn’t from lack of trying.
My father had heard the same legends Chiraine had—and he believed them too—at least enough to study the artifact once he found it. But after years of on-and-off brute force attempts to make the Kryrk do something, as well as a multitude of scans, slices, radiant tests, and everything else he could think of, the Sean bot had finally given up hope.
Until now.
Now it was clear that he was excited to be working with a cultural anthropologist of Chiraine’s stature.
“Together we might have a chance to figure this out,” he announced. “I know it.”
“But first we get your body,” I said. Through the main viewport I saw the landing deck grow larger.
The Sean bot touched the Vostok down with just the slightest jolt and then we prepared to disembark. My exosuit was totally trashed so I
