A Warrior on a Harsh World: Part 8
Where Kandi gets help from an unexpected ally
A Warrior on a Harsh World is a story resurrected from our archives. It’s a prequel to The Lyra Cycle, telling the tale of how Kandi — Kandira Sakherani, dutiful daughter, promising soldier — ended up joining the ragtag crew of the Lyra. If you’re just joining us, hop back to part 1.
Another ship roared into the sky from somewhere in front of Kandi and to the left. She shifted, adjusting her arm around her brother’s waist.
“I can take a turn,” Lorca said from Bash’s other side. They’d alternated helping her brother, who was getting weaker by the minute. So much so that she wasn’t really supporting him any more as much as carrying. Up ahead, Rufus guided the drone that scouted the way for their party, flying in front as they trudged along narrow passages Kandi had no idea existed.
“I’ve got it.” She started to add ‘it can’t be much longer’ as they turned a corner. A metal fence blocked the end of the lane. But beyond the triple-locked gate and the barbed wire, the buildings disappeared, revealing the spaceport set against green-hued clouds.
Antara had the skeleton of a space elevator in the desiccated plains outside the capital. It had been started with the aid of Dominion engineers and Imperial funds during the reign of the previous Matriarch. That had all stopped when the current Matriarch kicked half the Dominion contractors off the planet as one of her inaugural activities. All that stood now was a spire reaching towards the heavens, and any off-planet travel of people and freight from the capital and its surroundings happened by ship via the well-monitored and tariffed spaceport. It abutted both Noumi and the base of the House Mount. The new city encroached on it more every year, hugging it. Strangling it, which was why the House debated a new port planned for the plains between the city and the abandoned elevator.
Rufus ran ahead to crouch in front of the fence. He tapped it with something in his hand, and sparks flew. “Live wires.” He looked over his shoulder, a small smile on his face, his eyes shining. “But they’ll think that was a bird.”
Kandi sat Bash down against the cool stone wall and went to join Lorca and Rufus. A few stones’ throws from the fence sat a hodgepodge of local shuttles and atmo jumpers, inner systems transports, and long-range small haulers. Beyond that were the larger ships — passenger liners, research vessels, and a monstrosity in chrome. And amongst them, the Sisters’ ship.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Lorca was asking, drawing Kandi’s attention back to the priests.
“What?” She looked between the two. “I thought you did this all the time.”
Rufus lifted a shoulder. “No so much in daytime.”
“He thinks we should make the cameras look away instead of disabling them.” Lorca waved at the top of the fence. If Kandi craned her neck, she could just see the edge of one of the many cameras that ringed the port. “At night, we disable them. If we’re random, the AI thinks it’s a glitch and sends a bot to investigate before alerting security.”
“So why not do the same?”
“The human operators during the day shift will come examine it for themselves. At least they should.” He placed his hands on his knees. “Rufus figures they’re less likely to notice that the cameras are looking somewhere they shouldn’t, and might ignore the AI when it points that out.” He peered at the fence then back at her. “What do you think?”
“I think….” Kandi paused. Her instinctive thought was to tell someone at Brigade HQ that they had some gaping holes in port security. “You’re the experts.”
“You heard her,” Rufus said, smiling back at them. “I’m the expert.”
Lorca smiled and nodded, then placed a hand on Rufus’ back, kissing the top of his head.
Kandi was about to ask what the plan was after they got through the fence when the ground trembled. For a moment, she thought it was a skycat infantry carrier, then she realized it was a spacecraft getting ready to lift off. She squinted through the wires of the fence to see if she could spy the ship. She quickly picked out the launch pad, and her heart sank into her stomach. “The Sisters.” One hand grabbed at the earth beneath her feet. The other almost grabbed the fence before remembering the sparks Rufus had caused. “The Sisters are leaving.”
She slumped back beside her brother as she watched the ship against the dark sky. A flash coursed against the clouds.
“The Sisters of Elazir know about the AI.” Bash’s head flopped towards her, his voice a whisper. “They even have a name for her. They want to grab it all for themselves, but the aliens won’t let them.”
“Shh. Save your energy.” She ran her hand over his hair, drawing him close as tears welled up in her eyes. His forehead was hot and strands of too-long hair clung to it.
“Ha!” Rufus said, louder than she’d ever heard him. He gestured to them, his face beaming. “Camera’s turned away. Energy field disarmed. Gate ope—”
A pop sounded from the spaceport. Kandi pulled Bash closer, knowing exactly what the noise was: a pulse pistol. She examined the spaces between the ships in the yard but couldn’t see who’d shot at them. A buzzing nearby drew her attention, and she glanced back the way they’d come. The drones had found them. Three sets of red targeting lights were honing in on them. Pulling out the whirligig she’d tucked in her belt, she grabbed a fragment of stone and took aim at one of them.
“Rufus!”
Lorca’s anguished cry made her turned back to the priests. He knelt beside Rufus, red staining his hands. Rufus’ blue eyes gazed at her, but it was clear they no longer saw her. A shard of rock cut her cheek as another pulse hit the wall beside her.
“Lorca.” She grabbed his arm, but he kept staring at Rufus, his hands now on either side of the man’s face. “Lorca, I’m sorry but you have to get out of here.” The priest finally looked up at her, his eyes shining and his nose red.
He shook his head. “No.”
“I’m sure Rufus wouldn’t want you to die watching over his body.” A blaster bolt struck the ground near her feet, sending up a cloud of dust. She pulled close to the building wall. “Go home.”
Instead, he grabbed a rock and flung it over her head. She’d forgotten about the drones. A whine sounded behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder. A drone spun erratically. Three red spots appeared on Bash’s forehead as the remaining drone took aim. It shot just as its hobbled brethren crashed into it. A cry escaped Bash’s clenched jaw as a line of crimson welled up along his thigh. But he was alive. She exhaled in relief, then heaved him up, her arm around his waist.
“I’m truly sorry.” She glanced from Lorca to Rufus. “We have to go, and you should leave too.”
“No.” Lorca’s voice was quiet but firm as he stepped to Bash’s other side and lifted Bash’s arm over his shoulder. “I have nothing to go back to. Others will take my place.”
Kandi started to protest, then just nodded. She was sure they would all be shot dead as they crossed into the port anyway. Especially since she had no idea what she’d do now that the Sisters had left.
Another shot sounded. She tipped her head to the side and frowned: it wasn’t aimed at them. Maybe port security thought her mother’s guard were insurrectionists. Which meant they might not be looking at the cameras at all.
“Let’s get this done then.” She nudged her shoulder at the gate, half expecting electricity to arc through her. But there wasn’t so much as a pop. As she shifted to help Bash, she had to turn her back on the shipyard, causing an itch at the nape of her neck.
When she turned around again, she exhaled. Pilhadi marched towards them from the terminal, through the smaller, local shuttles, surrounded by Kandi’s old cohort. Even though she couldn’t see Pilhadi’s face at this distance, she knew every ding of that armour — she’d faced it often enough in practice. A smile came to her lips as she tugged Bash and Lorca towards their rescuers. But as she arrived at the landing gear of the ship nearest the fence, a shot pinged off the ship, wiping the smile away. It hit so close to her head, she felt the heat as she ducked.
“Don’t shoot!” she hissed, even though she knew Pilhadi couldn’t hear her, and she didn’t want to shout. “It’s me,” she whispered. Movement amongst the ships to her left drew her attention.
Her mother’s guard…closer than Pilhadi. Her mother led the charged. When she met her mother’s eyes, she knew they’d been spotted. She slumped against the ship’s strut, her head in her hands. All this running had ended in naught.
Footsteps sounded all around them, though the shooting continued.
“Is that what I taught you, Kandira?” Her mother’s strong voice cut through the chaos. “To give up?”
Kandi tipped her head and caught her mother peering at her while she ruffled Bash’s hair. She didn’t respond, just held her hands out in front of her, waiting for the manacles.
Arta Sakherani jerked her chin, and Riga came forward, her arms laden. The woman dropped her package at Kandi’s feet.
“Get dressed,” her mother said.
Kandi squinted at the bundle, trying to make sense of it. Slowly it resolved into something she knew. Her battle armour. The adaptive suite granted to every Antaran brigadier when they earned their commission. “But….”
“Here.” Arta held out her hand. “You earned this.”
Kandi reached out towards the proffered rod — a mere 20 centimetres long — then jerked her hand back. A mother’s stave, given to the eldest daughter at death. “I don’t understand.”
Arta Sakherani glared at the ground as a shot hit an arm’s length away before turning back to Kandi. “You’re going to take Bash and run.”
“What? No.”
Her mother peered at her, eyebrows scrunching together. “I thought you’d do anything to get your brother to safety.”
“But—” Kandi tucked a leg into her armour.
“But nothing.” Arta stepped into her personal space. “You’ve broken a thousand Antaran laws, not to mention Imperial ones.” General Sakherani shifted away to calmly state instructions as she peered at Pilhadi’s advancing phalanx, and the unit set to following her quiet orders. Pilhadi ducked behind a pile of crates to avoid the shots.
“But…” Kandi grabbed her mother’s hand, who waved it away with a frown at her bare torso. She shrugged into her spivex mail, which writhed as it moulded to her form. “Why are you helping us? You were going to—” She glanced at Bash, who was tended to by a kneeling Lorca. “To kill him.”
Her mother snorted, before pulling out one of the blasters she had tucked into holsters on her thighs. “I never planned to kill him.” She turned back to peer at Pilhadi’s unit, who inched closer, their shots becoming more accurate. The crates and struts of ships’ landing gear wouldn’t protect them for long. “He’s my son. Yes, he has state secrets in his brain, but it’s so broken, they’ll never get them out.”
“But you followed us.” She snapped on her left arm brace.
“To help you get away. You’d be dead now if it weren’t for Riga.”
Kandi glanced Riga, the woman who was helping Lorca with Bash. She’d thought of her as an aunt until earlier that day, when she shifted to seeing her as a killer with no more evidence than an order given to her mother. She blushed as she put her other arm brace.
“Now.” General Sakherani tapped Kandi’s cheek with a blaster-filled hand as she touched her forehead to hers. “You have to get that armour on and run.”
“No.” Kandi shoved her mother away. “I can help you fight.”
“They’ll win. Then Pilhadi will kill you before she takes him back to that cage.”
“She won’t.” But Kandi’s words had no force. She picked up her helmet but didn’t put it on. “It won’t do any good. The Sisters have gone. She kills me now. She kills me 20 minutes from now.”
Her mother shook her head. “There’s a ship about to take off. The Adonis. Look for the flashiest spacecraft in the lot.” Kandi knew exactly the one her mother meant: the chrome monstrosity she’d seen from the other side of the fence. Arta took the helmet from Kandi’s hands and put it on her daughter’s head. “That’s an order, Sarassan Sakherani.”
Kandi snapped to, and saluted her mother, before turning to Bash and Lorca.
“Kandi.” Her mother grasped the wrist of her suit. “Don’t forget this.” She once again shoved her stave at Kandi, who took it out of surprise. She nodded then turned away.
Kandi peered at Lorca and his grim expression. “How are you feeling, Bash?” she asked, taking in his greenish hue.
Her brother smiled. “Ready to run.”
Stay tuned for part 9. If you’re enjoying the story so far, we’d love it if you’d share and subscribe.