A lone star on the Lady Liberty: Episode 4
Echo against the Horde
This is part 4 of my card challenge story — read part 1 if you’re just joining us.
“Heya.”
Echo jumped to find Laramy beside her. Palm over her racing heart, she glared at them. “Where have you been?”
“With the Blackbird Seven.” Laramy waved a hand. “Like we agreed.” They pressed their fingers to her cheek. “What’s up? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Echo took their hand from her face and raised it high, turning them around at the same time. “Not a ghost. The Skeleton Horde.”
Laramy went still and quiet. “Aw, Jacks.”
“Yeah.”
Echo released their hand, and it dropped heavy at their side.
The windows shook as something hit them, and Echo ducked even though that would be fruitless against the frigid, empty vastness beyond. Pinpricks of light cascaded over the glass: a sparkler, a warning shot.
A second later, a voice crackled through the ship comms. Rough as stone and deep as the grave, it was definitely not the captain’s, especially given that she stood not even five metres from Echo, conspicuous amongst the glitz in her sedate dress uniform.
“We come for the Glory of the Goddess. We will crown her again with the Star and cloak her in the mantle of Heaven. Surrender your baubles to the Horde or surrender your lives.”
“Never,” the captain said into her wrist, a snarl on her lips. Her eyes flashed as she glared at the window. “I swore an oath to protect the passengers and the ship against scum like you.”
“Your choice, Captain. The Goddess loves blood and gems equally well.” The harsh voice reverberated through the conservatory, rumbling up Echo’s spine. It cut out and silence hung in the air for a moment.
Then the room erupted into chaos as the gala guests registered what was happening. The wealthy and their entourages scattered in every direction. Screams of passengers replaced those of the diva, who had disappeared.
People streamed by Echo, jostling her as they searched for exits. She grabbed Laramy’s hand to keep her friend close.
The captain strode by, scowling as she gave orders to the person on her right. She paused, finger in the person’s face. “We’re not giving into pirates.”
“The Horde aren’t pirates.” Echo shook her head, and the captain’s gaze landed on her. “They’re fanatics.”
Without warning, the ship rocked, and sirens sounded. The remaining lights went out, plunging the conservatory into darkness. A second later, red safety lights came on, giving a bloody cast to the fleeing crowd.
Echo swallowed hard. She didn’t know exactly what had happened to her mother, but she knew she’d been lost to the Horde, one way or the other. She’d never let the same happen to her.
She turned on her heels to join the exodus, dragging Laramy with her. In the crimson shadows, she caught sight of Gar and his lizard, both hissing at people to move out of the way.
Laramy pulled their hand free from her grasp and stopped. “What are you doing?”
“Getting away from the Horde.”
“And what about Gar?” Laramy’s foot stamped.
“What about him?” Echo’s eyes tracked the man’s escape route.
“That jewel would change my life.” Laramy put their hands on their hips. “You don’t know what it’s like.”
“I don’t …? I come from the same place, Laramy.” Echo turned away and started walking again.
After a second, Laramy came up beside her. “But not by the same path.” Their hand wrapped around hers. Echo gripped it tight, and they both ran towards the exit.
The captain jogged a few paces ahead, shouting into her wrist the whole time. Just outside the conservatory doors, Echo spotted Ellis Gar as he struggled to hoist the lizard in his arms. The pretty young thing who was at his side earlier had disappeared.
Tongue sticking out, the lizard hissed and squirmed. It kicked its stubby legs out, apparently unimpressed at being treated like a sack of grain. The claws were sharper than they appeared — blood welled up along Gar’s cheek, and he dropped the animal as he pressed a palm to his face. The lizard sauntered away, calm amongst fleeing feet. Gar scowled at his hand and at the blood smeared on it. Turning his gaze to the lizard, he drew his foot back, appearing to take aim.
Echo pressed her lips tight and frowned, then let go of Laramy’s hand. “Distract Gar,” she whispered over her shoulder, but her words were lost in a percussive jolt and the ensuing rush of air … air being sucked out past her, into the conservatory. Her stomach dropped as she felt herself pulled back. Beside her, the captain stumbled and was dragged into the conservatory.
She scrambled for something to hold on to, clawing for anything to keep from being sucked out of the ship. She grabbed a green object to her left … an amorous vine. The plant was surprisingly strong, and a tendril quickly wrapped itself around her wrist.
Then she fell to the floor, and the rushing air stopped as the blast doors to the conservatory slammed shut. Unfortunately, the alarms didn’t stop, and she could barely think over the noise. A hissing sounded to her right, and her stomach ached at the possibility of another hull breach. But what she saw when she turned her head were two orange eyes peering at her.
“Lizard.” Without a thought for her safety, she threw herself on top of it, tearing her arm from the vine’s embrace. The creature hissed and wriggled, but she wrapped her arms around it in a hug, then struggled up to standing. Somehow, she kept its claws facing away from her.
Abruptly, the alarms gave way to an announcement. For a second, the sudden quiet was deafening.
“Attention, attention,” a voice that wasn’t the captain’s said over the public comms. But it wasn’t the Horde either. Echo glanced over at the closed blast doors as the voice continued. “All passengers, please immediately make your way, in a calm and orderly fashion, to the nearest life pod. Follow all crew instructions. Do not stop for personal effects. This is not a drill. This is not —”
The voice cut off as the ship rocked and rolled, and thump after thump hit the ship.
Echo tipped her head, trying to identify the sound, when a new speaker came over the comms.
“Your new captain is correct.” The guttural voice had returned. “This is not a drill. Prepare to be boarded.”
Echo realized what the thumps were: boarding pods hitting the ship. She spun in a circle, made oblate by the weight of the lizard, as she scanned the area for Laramy.
She didn’t see her friend, and worry that Laramy had been sucked into space gnawed at her belly. Instead, she saw Ellis Gar — pointing at her while speaking to the heavily armed security detail at his side.
After struggling a few metres with a squirming lizard clutched to her chest, Echo flung the creature onto her shoulder, ignoring the danger posed by its taloned feet.
Off to her left, a figure clad entirely in black caught her eye. One of the Blackbirds.
Adrenalin fluttered through Echo’s veins. It made her nauseous but focused her attention. She scanned the scene in front of her for the lights that indicated the route to the nearest life pods. Without breaking her stride, she dismissed most of them: the halls were too full, the crew too alert.
She finally settled on the last of the five possible paths. It held one lackadaisical crew member and only a handful of guests shoving each other. With a slight hiccough in her step, she shifted direction, juggling the awkward lizard. She spared a quick glance over her shoulder — she didn’t see Gar’s goons anymore, but a second Blackbird had joined the first.
Echo smiled. She could outrun most people in a footrace — she frowned ... she could if she weren’t carting around a wriggling lizard. She clutched the animal tighter with one arm while pumping the other, then gasped sharply as a talon pierced her bicep. The crewman barely glanced at her when she ran past. He just waved her by with a quick nod, not even startling at the lizard. Then Echo remembered she still wore a ship’s uniform.
She paused for a second, turning back. “Stop those two in black. They’re in league with the Horde.” The man looked at her before his mouth gaped as he focused on the lizard. But then Echo started running again.
Within steps, she’d caught up to the passengers. “Coming through,” she yelled. “Move it.”
The woman on the left turned and pulled her companion to the side seconds before Echo would have bowled them over. The woman’s companion shrieked, and their eyes went wide at the sight of the lizard.
She slowed as she neared the next intersection, checking which way the emergency lights led. She had two options. Shouts rose behind her, followed by the sound of a blaster shot. Without a second thought, she went left.
And immediately regretted her choice. The corridor spilled out into a nexus full of people. And a member of the Skeleton Horde.
Echo gasped. They were even more frightening outside their ships which bristled with weapons.
The Horde’s signature skull mask covered the pirate’s entire face, except for their shining eyes, hazed by Stardust. The drug played some part in their fanatical religion, and perhaps in the reason Echo’s mother had joined them. Stripes the colour of bleached bone ran down their arms and legs, and arched around their breastplate like ribs. A tattered cloak completed the picture of a desiccated corpse reanimated.
The thing raised a hand and pointed at her. Echo shook her head, bringing herself back to the immediate danger. She tore her gaze away to examine her options and quickly realized there was only one. She spun around and went back the way she’d come — she’d face the whole gang of Blackbirds before being a reluctant convert to the Horde.
Echo didn’t slow her pace as she neared the intersection again. “Coming through, followed by the Horde.” She stumbled as the elbow of someone not fast enough clipped her hip. The impact spun her around, and her back hit the wall, but she managed to stay upright … and keep hold of the lizard. Pausing for a second, she caught her breath. Her pulse beat a rapid tattoo in her ear. Then she heard screams the way she’d come. Adjusting the lizard, she forced herself to carry on, even though she couldn’t see any more life pod indicators down the dim corridor.
Jacks, if it came to it, she’d rather be spaced than join the Horde.
Footsteps sounded behind her.
Her chest burned and her arm ached. She might be able to beat anyone in a footrace, but not a marathon.
Then she turned a corner and came to a door. A closed door. With her free hand, she dug in the pocket of the uniform jacket.
Echo pulled out the key Laramy had given her to get into Gar’s room and slammed it against the panel. She held her breath in hope, waiting to see if the door would open. When it stayed shut, she exhaled and pressed her head against the cold metal, letting the lizard slip to the floor at her feet. Slowly, she turned to meet her fate. Glowing bones advanced on her.
Echo leaned back against the door. She had no weapons with which to fight — but fight she would, literally with tooth and nail if she had to. She clutched her hands into fists.
Then she fell back into emptiness.
Continue to episode 5. To read more in this universe, pick up books in The Lyra Cycle on armchairalien.com or your favourite online bookstore.