A Warrior on a Harsh World: Part 9
Where Kandi finds a ship
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.
Kandi ran between the melee and Lorca and Bash. Fury and pain filled her from toe to ear tips.
Pilhadi will kill you, her mother said, and Kandi felt the truth in her bones. Despite a phantom sensation of Pilhadi’s lips on her abdomen, in a moment of sparkling crystal clarity, she recognized that her mentor’s loyalty rested wholly with the Matriarchy. To the institution in its current form and the woman who wore the robes, rather than the ideals of the Seven Mothers who’d founded it.
She flicked her gloved thumb against the handle of the stave, twisting as she did. Her steps stuttered when she saw the weapon that appeared: a labrys, a double-headed axe of fiery plasma. She’d never seen that one before, either in her own use of the practice staves or watching her mother. The weapon flickered, as if eager to draw blood, then faded.
Fat raindrops stained the tarmac. Shots peppered the ground in front of her, and Kandi found her feet again. Lorca had pulled ahead but now took cover under a ship. Its thin struts offered little protection. Sliding in beside him and Bash, she noticed he’d picked up a blaster from somewhere. He aimed it over her shoulder. She spun into a crouch to see his shot hit its mark. A woman in dented battle armour knelt on the ground. Pilhadi. She shook her head and stood, blasters in both hands, then started shuffling towards them, her steps unsteady at first.
“Go.” She crept back, pushing Lorca and Bash behind her, further into the shadows of the O-class cargo ship, until she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Look,” Lorca whispered.
She turned to what he was pointing at. “The flashiest ship in the yard.”
The vessel was clearly preparing to take off amid the blaring sirens, despite its running lights being dark. A couple of guards hustled a man towards the lowered gangway. With their attention on the distant firefight, they seemed not to see the three of them.
“Run.” She glanced from Lorca to her brother. “I’ll cover the rear.”
Lorca looked on the verge of protesting, but then just nodded and took off, cajoling Bash forward. The wince on her brother’s face told her he found it difficult.
Kandi picked up the stave and spun it as she glared at Pilhadi’s advancing figure. The other woman’s cadence faltered for a second as the plasma labrys created a circle of wriggling light in the air. A shield of fire. The blood in her veins screamed at her to charge at Pilhadi. A fork of lightning hit the ground between them. Kandi didn’t wait to see if Pilhadi followed — instead she ran after Lorca and her brother, using herself and her stave weapon to shield them. Her stomach fluttered as the labrys crackled again before flicking out entirely.
The men were at the Adonis when she reached it. One of the guards lay on the ground, though she couldn’t tell if he was dead or just unconscious. There was no sign of the other guard.
“Do you know who I am?” The man in an iridescent cloak that matched the ship tapped his chest with his palm. “I’m—”
“I don’t care.” She struck the ground between them with the stave — he didn’t need to know it wasn’t working for her. With her other hand, pointed her blaster at him. “Get on the ship.”
His hands fell to his hips. “I’m Varon Gar. Dominion citizen. Imperial agent. And I will not be ordered about by the likes of — ahh!” He clutched his side and red bloomed under his fingers.
Kandi glanced over her shoulder as Lorca dropped to his knee and took another shot at Pilhadi. The force of the impact threw her backward, but Kandi recognized the blaster was no match for her armour — she’d be back on her feet soon.
She turned back to the man. “I’m taking your ship. You come as my prisoner or stay here.” He’d become a sickly ashen colour so his scowl did little to intimidate her. His remaining guard inched backwards up the ramp. Kandi dragged her brother up by his elbow, then shoved past Varon Gar, and stepped onto the gangway. “Lorca.” The priest looked her way. “You coming?”
The priest nodded, then stepped to the fallen guard. Tucking his blaster away, he grabbed the man under the arm pits.
“What are you doing?” she asked him, as Gar joined her on the ramp, cradling his bloody hand.
“I can’t leave him here. I’m a priest.”
She huffed, then glanced at Pilhadi. The woman had gotten to her knees and scowled at Kandi. Kandi waved her blaster at Gar.
“What? I’m coming.”
“Help him.”
His mouth opened, and he glared at her. When a blast hit the ground in front of him, he turned his glower to Pilhadi, but he returned to Lorca and put more strength that she expected his soft form to hold into pulling the guard up the ramp.
Kandi strode to the end of the ramp, turning her focus back to Pilhadi. She fired at her in rapid succession, hoping to keep her pinned. She inched backwards up the raising ramp, positioning herself between her former mentor and the others.
She spared as little concentration as possible on staying balanced on the moving gangway, keeping low while still shifting backwards. She ducked as Pilhadi surged forward. Kandi glimpsed fury before the ramp raised enough to form a shield. She stumbled back into the ship.
As the ramp shut, she heard a scuffling behind her. When she turned around, her heart hiccoughed. Varon Gar held Lorca, an arm hooked around his neck, and pointed a blaster at his temple.
“Put your weapons down, or I’ll kill him.”
Kandi didn’t move. “A brigadier never puts her stave down. She holds it even into death.” Her fingers clenched around the handle as she tried not to think of her mother. “Besides, you chose the wrong hostage.” She raised her blaster, pointing it at Lorca’s chest. The priest’s eyes went wide. “I only met him today. My brother however….” Flicking her gaze over his shoulder, she drew his attention to Bash, who stood behind him, a rock in his raised hand. How his skinny arm had the strength to lift it, she didn’t know, and she doubted he had the heft to do anything with it. In the end, it was a moot point: Gar swooned and collapsed to the decking of his own accord.
Lorca stole back the blaster and peered at her. “Only met me today?”
She shrugged. “It’s true. But I wouldn’t have shot you.”
He patted her arm. “I know.” Looking down at Gar, he asked, “What now?”
“We need to get onto the bridge.” She jerked her head over her shoulder towards a closed door. Despite its flashiness, the inside of the ship was small enough it was clear where the bridge was. “Take off before they dispatch the local Air Squadron.”
A moan from their captive elicited a groan from her. She knelt by Gar, glancing back at Lorca and Bash. “Can you two check out the situation on the bridge? Recon the ship?” Bash nodded, followed by Lorca. Kandi tucked her blaster in its holster and switched off the malfunctioning stave, clipping it to her armour. She checked their other hostage — his pulse was strong, though his breathing was laboured. Then she went in search of a medkit.
“Bridge is clear,” Lorca’s voice said over the ship comms. “Ship’s already primed and ready. Launching.”
“You know how to fly?” Kandi shouted as she felt the hum under her feet.
There was silence on the line for a moment. “It’s autopilot. I just pressed a button.”
Kandi had some flight training. All brigadiers took a cycle, just in case they had to take over from a downed pilot. Her face scrunched as she peered at Gar. His eyes fluttered but didn’t open. She didn’t know if he needed her rusty medic skills more than Lorca needed her rusty pilot skills. She bit her lip. Checking his pulse, she decided to search for a medkit. She was in some kind of lounge, and quickly found bottles of alcohol, most varieties she’d never heard of. An eyebrow arched as she picked up a bottle and imagined what their hostage’s reaction would be to her using his stash to clean his wound. She put the bottle down. Surely the ship has a medkit.
Opening a door along the small corridor, she came face to face with the most beautiful young man she’d ever seen. Unnaturally beautiful. And very naked.
His mouth formed an O as he gasped.
“Sorry, looking for a medkit.”
He pointed right, and Kandi continued to the end of the corridor. She pressed a small door set in the wall, and the panel dropped open. Behind it was the kit she was searching for. But she peered at the back of the chamber for a second — the corridor was too short. There was more to this ship that it appeared.
She spun on her heels. She didn’t have time to think about that right now. Returning to the lounge, she knelt beside Gar. When she cut open his tunic, she found that most of the bleeding had stopped. No doubt he had nanos to aid in that. But that wouldn’t help if he went into shock from blood loss. Rifling in the medkit, she found one packet of blood booster. At a sound, she glanced up to find Bash staring at her from the chair he’d slumped in.
He caught her eye. “I’m fine.”
He was pale and his voice weak. But he was conscious and upright. She nodded and shook the blood booster in one hand while the other pulled out the hypo. After sliding the pack into the hypo, she jabbed it into the crook of the man’s elbow. Next, she doused the wound with a liberal smear of antiseptic. This drew out another moan.
“At least it’s not your Vendrugan whiskey,” she said to the still unconscious man. “So stop whining. You’ll live.” The ship juddered as if the universe heard her. “Lorca?”
“It’s fine. It’s all fine.”
She pressed her lips together, doubting it was actually fine. Instead of running to the bridge, she focused on her patient. She ran the stitcher over the wound before slapping on a nutribandage. Sitting back on her haunches, she admired her work.
The ship shimmied, and Lorca’s voice came over the comms.
“Um, we have company.”
Kandi sighed. She’d known it was too easy. She made to rise, but she found her arm trapped. Varon Gar was conscious, his fingers wrapping her wrist in a surprisingly powerful grip.
“The slip drive.” Despite his condition and the grim set of his jaw, his eyes twinkled.
Kandi knew little about astrodynamics, but she did know one thing. “We don’t have a navigator. Unless that’s him.” She jerked her chin at the unconscious man.
“My pilot…he’s….” He pushed the words out in gasps. “Ganymede.” Kandi glanced back in the direction of pretty young thing. Gar shook his head. “My AI. He’s multi-talented.”
Kandi pressed her lips together, and her eyes narrowed. “That’s a lot of power to give an AI.”
“I trust him more than most humans.” He shrugged, which elicited a wince. “Stay here then.”
She gaze at their captive, realizing she should have let him tell her more about who he was. “Fine.”
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