Stargazer

Stargazer

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By Colby Hodge

Dorchester Publishing

Copyright © 2005

Colby Hodge

All right reserved.

ISBN: 0-505-52627-1

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Chapter One

Lilly could feel him as she entered the cryo bay of the ship,
a presence that reached out to her as she followed the solid
back of Krebbs up the ramp. It teased the edges of her mind,
causing her to look furtively from side to side as if she were
being watched. There was always a chance of that happening,
but Krebbs was good at his job and had hidden their tracks
well so they easily blended with the other passengers that
were even now lining up in front of their tubes.

When she entered the bay, her head flew up in shock, her
dark-lashed light gray eyes quickly scanning the length of the
narrow passage that would hold their bodies suspended in a
barely conscious state for the next month until they reached
their destination. She was searching, drawn, without even
knowing she was moving, to a tube directly across from the one
she had been assigned.

The clear plexi cylinder already held a passenger; a man, his
eyes covered with a dark mask and his wrists and ankles bound
with heavy cable. The bulging muscles of his arms made her
wonder, briefly, if the bonds would hold him once he awakened
from the enforced sleep that he was already under. The Seal of
the Legion was affixed to the front of his tube. "Do not
revive without authorization" it warned any and all who cared
to read.

Lilly closed her eyes and willed herself into a state of total
relaxation, reaching with her mind into the mind of the one
before her. Feelings so intense from the one she was
searching hit her with the force of a blow, but none watching
her noticed the impact. A wave of frustration from the one
who was within washed over her. Then her mind filled with
anguish so deep that she wanted to cry out, but didn't, her
years of training taking over automatically whenever her
emotions raged for control. Her training was not strong enough
however to keep her from being startled by a sudden flash of
bright light that resembled a flare. She gained the
impression of sunlight bouncing off highly polished metal,
then darkness.

"I wouldn't get to close if I were you." Someone warned her.

"He seems to be quite harmless." Lilly's voice did not betray
the turmoil she had just experienced as she turned to find a
Legion officer standing next to the occupied tube. He seemed
young enough to still hold the Legion's high ideals of glory,
but experienced enough to be cautious. He could have been
from any one of the hundreds of planets that made up the
Senate. He casually lounged against the cryo tube ready to
impress Lilly with his tales of conquest.

"Oh he is now, but when he awakes it's a different story."
The officer rubbed his hand over the smooth plexi of the tube
while gripping his side arm with the other. Lilly had the
impression that he wanted to use it on his prisoner, but
something or someone held him back.

"What did he do?"

"Murdered five soldiers of the senate who were only doing
their duty," the officer said in disgust.

"He must have disagreed with their orders." Why was she so
concerned about the prisoner's side of the story?

"Words such as that could be considered treasonous if heard in
another place." The threat was vague and his tone
condescending. But why shouldn't they be? She was of no
consequence, just a poor passenger on a slow moving cargo
ship, nothing more.

Lilly ignored it. She didn't feel the need to play the game
with this soldier. "And his sentence?" She gave the officer
what he wanted, a moment to glory in.

"Life, in the deepest hole we can find." He seemed to enjoy
that determination.

"Rykers?" The prison planet had long been used as a threat to
keep small children on the path to good.

"Yes Rykers, the dark star, where he will never again see the
light of day." The officer leaned back against the plexi and
casually crossed his arms. "The funny thing is it shouldn't
bother him a bit. He's like a cat, he can see in the dark."

Lilly looked up at the mask that hid the prisoner's eyes.
Dark rich hair curled out from under the sides, and down the
back of his neck, the shine and softness of it contrasting
sharply with the strongly corded muscles that stood out in the
dim light. The skin was heavily bronzed; obviously he spent a
lot of time under the rays of a strong sun. Lilly wondered
how long it would take the deep tan hue to pale once he was
thrown into the depths of the prison planet. "He can see in
the dark" rang in her mind, and she saw the flash of sunlight
on metal again.

"Don't worry about him hurting you; he's in a deep sleep now."
The officer assured her, his chest all but swelling as he
considered Lilly's slim youthful frame. She turned away from
his intent, but as she turned she caught a movement from the
corner of her eye in the darkness of the cryo tube. Had the
prisoner twitched his finger?

"You can hear our voices," she said in surprise, using the
voice that formed in her mind as she perused the still form of
the prisoner.

"I can." A deep voice whispered back and Lilly's light gray
eyes widened in shock. She had momentarily forgotten her
training. "Why?" the deep voice asked in confusion.

Krebbs gently touched her arm. "It's time, my lady" he said
in a whisper, inclining his head toward their tubes. He would
not take his until he was sure she was safe inside her own, so
she let him lead her across the corridor to the container that
would hold her in a suspended state of sleep until they
reached their destination.

"Who are you?" The deep voice said inside her mind as she
stepped into her tube. She turned and faced the opposite wall
and saw the legion seal on the prisoner's tube glowing in the
dimming light, but the man behind had faded into the darkness.
The flight attendant gave her a friendly wave as he initiated
her cryo state and she felt instead of saw Krebb's frown as he
watched the proceedings closely. Lilly closed her eyes as she
felt herself lose consciousness, but before all went black,
she saw another flash of light.

The noise was deafening. Lilly felt it all around her, even
though she could not actually hear it. The heavy machinery
churned until the area around seemed to vibrate. Lilly knew
she was deep in the bowels of the earth in some sort of cavern
even though the heavy shadows made it hard to see where the
great generators ended and the walls of the massive cave
began. She felt herself floating within the dream towards a
sound that was not quite drowned out by the roar of the
engines. A baby was crying, a baby young enough to be held in
the woman's arms, but old enough to try and escape from the
pain that was being inflicted upon it.

"I'm sorry," the woman's lovely face sobbed above the
screaming child. The little boy was laying face down across
the knees of her blood stained cloak and struggling mightily
against the hand that held it firmly in place. Tears streamed
down the woman's face as she held the needle sharp point of a
dagger against the child's neck, right below the line of soft
dark curls. The agony showing on her face made it clear that
the tears were not from the pain of her own wound, but for the
pain she was inflicting upon the child. Trickles of blood
were streaming from the cuts that marred the tender skin of
the child's neck but the woman did not stop, not even to wipe
her tear filled eyes as she repeated the words over and over
again. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please forgive me."

Lilly longed to scoop the child up and run with it but the
confines of the dream held her. She felt tears stream down
her own face as she watched the woman, who she knew was the
child's mother hold the dagger against the soft flesh of the
child with the dark hair. "Why, oh why?" she asked herself
over and over again as she floated within the dream. "What am
I doing here, what am I supposed to see, what does this mean?"
No one answered her except the generators that roared
proclaiming loudly that they brought life to this strange,
dark place and shelter to the two before her that continued to
cry out in pain and anguish.

The vision before her vanished as the roar of the engines
became louder and louder until Lilly's ears were ringing with
the sound. She wanted to clamp her hands over her ears to
drown out the noise, but the cryo sleep held her paralyzed.
She felt the vibration from the noise, and her body began to
shake with it. Slowly, her conscious mind began to take over,
warning her that she was no longer dreaming.

As her mind began its swim to the surface, she felt the life
force that was Krebbs leave his body. She felt the grief well
up inside, then she suppressed it as her arms reached out to
brace her body against the heavy vibration that threatened to
shake her bones out of her skin.

Lilly's light gray eyes finally opened and she began blinking
against the flashing red light that alerted all that the ship
was in peril. To her left, Krebbs was slumped in his tube,
his soul gone from his body, the unsuspecting victim of
whatever was attacking the ship. She felt an impact against
her tube, a jolt that nearly knocked her down, except there
was no place for her to fall within the narrow confines. A
struggle was going on at her feet but her eyes could not focus
on it. She scratched at the smooth plexi until she found the
release button and then stumbled out, landing in the middle of
the melee in the corridor.

She was greeted with a snarl, and pushed away by a strong pair
of manacled hands. Lilly's mind began to race as the
situation she found herself in became apparent. The ship was
under attack which meant they had found her. Her bodyguard
was dead which meant she was alone. She could not be
captured; too many people were counting on her.

The struggle before her had become one sided. The Legion
officer had taken advantage of the bonds that still held the
prisoner and was now pressing the heavy metal bar that
connected the manacles against the bronzed skin of the
prisoner's throat. The cords of his muscles stood out as he
strained against the bar that was choking the life from his
body. Lilly picked up a heavy pipe that rolled up against her
and without a second thought, brought it down hard against the
back of the Legion officer's head. The prisoner pushed the
unconscious form off his chest and blinked through the smoke
and flashing light at his savior, who was even now searching
the man's uniform pockets. Lilly pulled out a key and hastily
stuck it in the manacles. They opened with a distinctive pop
and slid away.

"The escape pods are that way." She said as he jumped to his
feet. He grabbed her arm and pulled her after him as they
joined the other passengers who had come to the same
realization that the ship was going down. Some had enough
sense to make their way to the pods, while others just added
to the confusion of light, sound and smoke by screaming and
running against the wiser heads.

Lilly stuck close to the solid back that parted the way for
them. His grip on her arm was solid but not painful, she felt
his steady control and let herself trust him to get them away
from the ship. The dark head ducked under a hatch and then
backed out.

"It's jammed!" He pressed the release lever, which did
nothing, then punched it with his fist. The door slid open
and he swept his arm aside as if he were opening the door to
an elegant carriage. Lilly bolted into the escape pod and he
closed the hatch behind them. Lilly pressed her face against
the window while her companion threw the release lever that
catapulted them away from the dying ship. She felt his solid
presence behind her as they both gazed upward.

"Why would Ravigans attack a cargo ship?" He asked no one in
particular as they observed the attack vessel hovering over
the large craft that was even now breaking apart.

Lilly shook her head as a shiver went down her spine.
"They're after something if they're sending out Falcons."

His eyes ran over her back as he considered the situation. He
sat down in the small nav chair and began punching up charts.
"I haven't done anything to make them mad, at least not
lately, how about you?"

Lilly didn't answer, just continued to watch as the commercial
ship broke up above them, while escape pods jettisoned away,
the small fighters called Falcons taking up pursuit.

"We're close to Cathra. If we're lucky its gravity will pick
us up." He had found their position on the charts.

"Cathra?" Lilly turned, unfamiliar with the planet, and froze
as she looked into a set of eyes exactly the same color of her
own.

"Only women are permitted to have eyes that color," she
thought to herself. Then she caught a flash of silver, like
the flash that had filled her mind, a flash like that of
sunlight bouncing off metal, except there was no sunlight
here, just a dimly lighted escape pod that was being pursued
by falcons who were firing on them. The pod vibrated when the
shot missed, the brightness of the flash telling them how
close they had come to being blown to pieces.

He switched off the auto-pilot and took the controls in a firm
grip. "Hold on."

The pod lurched forward as they accelerated, the sudden
movement taking the Falcon by surprise. Lilly stumbled into a
seat and strapped herself in as he maneuvered the ship
directly towards another pod.

"Where are you going?" She gasped as she saw his intent. She
closed her eyes against the death that she was certain was
about to occur.

"We can't out run them," he tossed over his shoulder. His
hands on the controls were steady as he flew the pod into the
space between another pod and its pursuing Falcon. They had
no more than passed when an explosion tumbled them forward out
of control.

"What happened?" Lilly asked when she was able to take a
breath again and he once again had control of the pod.

"Our friends out there had a meeting of the minds."

Lilly unbuckled herself and with amazement, pressed her face
to the window again. Debris from the Falcons was caught in
their energy trail, the bigger pieces spiraling away into
space.

"Meeting of the minds." She heard his deep voice inside of her
head. She turned back to look at him, but he was focused on
the controls. "Who are you?" his voice asked again, inside
her mind as his head perused the console with serious intent.
Lilly studied the handsome dark head, the curve of his neck,
the heavily muscled arms that were bronzed from the sun.

The arms crossed as he swiveled his chair around to look at
her. "I think now would be a good time for you to let me in
on your secret." His light gray eyes seemed to look right
through her.

"Secret?"

"Yes, Princess, your secret." He was certain she did not
belong on the passenger ship, but he had no idea where she
came from or what she was doing. She had saved his life, of
that he was sure, but now it had been threatened again and he
wanted some answers. He leveled his gaze on her casually, as
if he had all the time in the world.

The term Princess caused another shiver to haunt her. There
was no way he could know about her. She was sure she had not
given anything away. Certainly her clothing was common
enough, and they had not had enough of a conversation for him
to gauge her level of education.

He continued, "The Ravigans attacked a common passenger
carrier. And even though our friend that we left back there
wasn't, the majority of Legionaries come from the planet
Raviga. You saved me from a Legionnaire, which means you
would rather be in the company of a convict than a soldier.
So therefore, the Ravigans are after you, and since I am now
sharing your company, they are after me. I would like to know
why I am about to die."

The sound of his speech surprised her more than the content.
He was a convict, someone she had supposed to be a common
criminal raised in the poorest of circumstances, but he
sounded educated, almost refined in his manner. "No wonder
that Legionnaire hated him," Lilly said to herself.

"They really don't need you as an excuse to kill me." He
retorted as if he heard her thoughts.

Lilly arched a delicate eyebrow at him. "So I heard."

A sheepish grin crossed his handsome face and he leaned back
to study her. "Why were you on that ship?"

"The same as everyone else, I was traveling."

"Where were you going?"

"It doesn't matter now; I'm obviously not going to get there."
Lilly's mind went into overdrive. He was not going to be
easily manipulated.

"Why did you help me?"

"I was hoping maybe you would return the favor." She willed
her body to relax. She needed all her wits about her now.

His eyes narrowed and he sat up as he saw they were getting to
the heart of the matter. "You saved my life on the ship, I
saved yours by getting you away from there, it seems like
we're even. I might even be ahead if you think about it."

"Oh, he's good," Lilly thought to herself, as she felt another
shiver down her spine. This one felt different however. It
felt exciting. "Concentrate on your task!" she chided
herself. "Perhaps we could come to an arrangement." She
decided to get directly to the point.

He leaned back in the chair again and waited for her play.

"You are a convicted murderer." She stated as a matter of
fact.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Stargazer
by Colby Hodge
Copyright © 2005 by Colby Hodge.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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