Nanu scowled at the controls of the tender, the needle of the navigation unit flicking from side to side, testy as a grumpy shifter’s tail. The tender vibrated with unusual vigor as they flew high above a jagged mountain range.

“Something wrong?” Ransom Drake asked.

Nanu forced a smile despite his gut doing one of those Highland flings Camryn had described—a strange Earth dance.

“Nanu?” Ransom, the chieftain of the dragon shifters who lived on the planet of Narenda, prompted him for details Nanu didn’t want to deliver.

Instead, he scanned the pulsing, protesting instruments, willing them to revert to usual behavior. It wouldn’t do for something to go amiss during this flight since the dragons were their biggest customer.

Please, please even out.

Minutes ago, everything had appeared normal. Phrull, if he crashed with an important customer on board, he’d never hear the end of it from his friends who flew with him on the Indefatigable.

“Are we almost at the mine you spotted?” Ransom scanned the peaks far below them, unease tightening his broad shoulders, a pained frown etched into the face Nanu’s friend Kaya mooned over every time they visited Narenda.

“Yes, another five minutes flying and we should spot the mine. The scar in the mountain isn’t clear until you’re flying overhead.” Nanu studied the navigation unit with increasing unease. The directional needle continued to waver, and instinct told him the reading was no longer true. They were losing altitude even though the instruments showed otherwise.

“Why are we flying lower?” Ransom demanded. “We agreed to fly above the mountains, not skim them. The resonance from the Narendanite is pulling at my dragon. Are you trying to weaken me?”

“No,” Nanu snapped. “The instrument readings are correct but something is shonky. Phrull it. We are losing altitude. I’ll fly back to base and correct the problem with the navigational system.”

Without warning, Ransom white-knuckled the copilot’s chair. His face paled, and he started to hum, a discordant tune that prickled the hair at the back of Nanu’s neck.

Alarmed, Nanu gripped the controls and switched to manual. The tender bucked and plunged, throwing Nanu and Ransom against their harnesses. The beads on the end of Nanu’s dreads clacked together in a jangle that fit with Ransom’s crazy humming. Nanu flipped through the manual in his mind, pulse jittering as he struggled to correct the flight path and regain altitude.

“Come on. Come on!”

Nothing happened. If anything, the gravitational pressure sucked them closer to the mountain peaks.

Nanu checked Ransom. The big dragon shifter twitched in his seat, his eyes rolling. Phrull, this was not good. His weird humming increased to a high pitch that made Nanu’s ears ache.

Nanu jabbed the comm. “Alert. Alert. Kaya! You there?”

Despite Nanu using every bit of his strength, the controls didn't respond. Something or someone was drawing them closer to the land. Nanu gritted his teeth, biceps bulging as he fought the controls. The minerals in the rocks sparkled and drew his eye, reminding him of stars. He’d always enjoyed his flights over the Narenda mountains, never had a problem. Until today.

Kaya’s voice crackled through the comm, but her words made no sense.

“We’re crashing,” he shouted.

The sharp spine of the mountain peaks grew closer. Nanu scrutinized the ground. Ahead. Yes. It was the weird area the mystery persons had mined without permission, the area Ransom had been so eager to view he’d risked facing the perilous resonance the mountain emitted. They’d assumed flying over at a great height would keep Ransom safe.

They’d been wrong.

The comm crackled and died. They were level with the higher peaks now. Crap, could he keep the tender steady long enough to reach the huge, flat area of the mine? He, Kaya and Ry, their captain, had landed there the day before, so he knew the area was large enough for the tender.

His teeth clenched so tight his jaw hurt. His left hand raced over the controls as he attempted to guide the tender with brute force. It wouldn’t stop them from crashing but he might control the impact.

Ransom groaned and twitched. Too busy to worry about the dragon shifter now, he fought gravity. The tip of their tender wing clipped the mountain, flipping their vehicle into a wild spin. For a sec, Nanu gained control but a gust of wind sent them bouncing into another sheer peak. Metal struck rock in a pitchy shriek. They plummeted below the walls of the mining zone. No safe landing this time.

Nanu did everything in his power to avoid crashing, tried every trick he’d learned during his years as a pilot. Nothing worked.

They struck the ground hard. The impact flung Nanu against his harness hard enough to smack the air from his lungs. The tender scraped across the smooth stone and smashed into a wall of rock, coming to an abrupt halt at an uneven tilt, the engine roaring like a dragon in a temper. With a trembling, sweaty hand, Nanu switched off the power. Silence fell.

He groaned and dragged in a breath. It hurt, a pained throb reverberating through his skull. Lifeforce trickled down the side of his head, and his dreads obscured his vision. He unfastened his harness and wriggled free. A peek through the viewport showed him they’d been lucky, the wall of rock stopping them from plummeting down the side of the mountain. Instead, they’d landed in a natural bowl. It could’ve been worse. Assured that their tender wouldn’t be going anywhere without help, he checked on Ransom.

The dragon shifter was breathing. A good sign. Nanu shook Ransom’s shoulder, but the shifter didn’t budge and remained unconscious. At least that weird humming had ceased. That had been plain creepy.

Nanu tried the comm.

Nothing but static.

Sighing, he hoped Kaya had been paying attention and contacted Ry before Ry left with their other male friends on their boys-only excursion. They’d talked about this trip for cycles since they intended to hunt in feline form and live rough. A rest from women and babies, they’d told Nanu.

Nanu crawled through the crumpled remains of the tender and attempted to force the door. It creaked a protest and gave with a suddenness that took him by surprise.

Nanu toppled out, falling awkwardly. His leg bent the wrong way as he struck a rock. The bone cracked, the instant pain shifting his vision to white then black at the edges. The hard embrace of the ground forced the air from his laboring lungs, and it was the last thing he remembered.

Lights out. Nobody home.

Blacklight screened the mountain peaks and the vista below when Nanu regained consciousness. He dragged himself to a sitting position, and the pain in his leg almost made him black out again.

He couldn’t see Ransom from where he lay, but he presumed the dragon chieftain was still unconscious inside the tender. This close contact with the minerals in the rocks and the resonation might kill the dragon before help came. Damn, how had this easy jaunt gone so wrong? He and Kaya had serviced the vehicle before they’d left Viros. No one else had touched it, and the improvements they’d made had gone seamlessly.

Gryffnn, Ransom’s brother, had been expecting them back. He’d consult with Ry and also Niran, the leader of the Incorporeal race who lived in a symbiotic relationship with the dragon shifters. If Kaya hadn’t understood his call, the alarm would’ve gone up when they hadn’t returned. He’d wait and pray he hadn’t killed the dragon chief.

 

“Nanu. Nanu!” The chill on his arm alerted him to a presence rather than the insistent voice at his ear. His eyes popped open to discover one of the Incorporeal race leaning over him.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he murmured. “It’s dangerous.” Pirates and slave traders had laid traps in the mountains to catch unwary Incorporeals. Their rare abilities to fashion energy into tangible things was a valuable commodity for the unscrupulous.

“It was worth the risk,” the man said. “I volunteered. Where’s Ransom?”

“He’s in the tender and was unconscious the last time I saw him.”

“I’ll check on him after I help with your leg. I can’t fix it, but I can reduce the pain.”

The man placed his hands on Nanu’s leg, above where the bone jutted outward. The Incorporeal’s touch started as a faint chill, but the coldness grew icy and uncomfortable, darting downward to Nanu’s toes. A shiver raced through his veins. His frantic pulse eased as the cold from the Incorporeal’s hands deadened the throb of his injury.

“Better?”

“Thanks,” Nanu whispered, able to relax his muscles now that the worst of the pain had retreated.

“I’ll check on Ransom, then flash back. I’ll leave a directional beacon with you. Don’t switch it on until whitelight. Ry suggested this precaution because no one is conversant of the blacklight creatures living in the mountains.”

“Tell Ry there was a weird gravitational pull. It wasn’t there when we landed. He must take care when flying over the mine.”

“I will tell him,” the man promised. He flashed his hand, and a flask appeared. A loaf of bread and cheese settled beside it. “I will find Ransom now.”

“Come back to tell me you’re leaving. Want to make sure you get away safely,” Nanu ordered.

The man smiled faintly and squeezed his shoulder. “I will do that, my friend.”

The Incorporeal blinked from sight while Nanu noted their surroundings, casting out his senses for anything out of the ordinary. The blacklight was absolute, a trap for the unwary who didn’t realize they stood on a mountaintop. Not a single moon or a distant planet glowed in the skies. Not a wind blew. It was almost as if the mountains held their breath, waiting to counter the next move against them.

“Ransom is breathing, but he’s resonating. I’ve done what I can, but he’s fallen into a coma.”

“Resonating?”

“The noise he’s emitting,” the man explained, his white face and hair glowing in the blacklight. “The precious stones have poisoned him.”

Crap! He’d killed the dragon chieftain. “W-will he recover?”

“It’s difficult to say,” the Incorporeal said. “We’ll move him as soon as possible.”

“Can you transport him back now?”

“He’s too big for me to move. I don’t have enough power left to take either of you because I had difficulty locating you. We had no idea what we were facing or if the pirates had set Incorporeal traps in this region. Niran and Gryffnn asked for volunteers. I offered because I have no family ties. Help will come at first whitelight. I can describe the location, but it will be helpful if you start the locator beacon then.”

“Thank you. Tell them…tell them I tried my best. I-I…”

The man squeezed Nanu’s shoulder. “I have heard tales of your flying skill, my friend. No one blames you.”

“Nanu,” Nanu said.

“I am Seedric,” the Incorporeal offered. “First whitelight.”

Seedric faded away before his eyes, and Nanu issued a sigh at his ease of departure. At least he didn’t have Seedric’s welfare on his conscience too.

Nanu dozed, unable to find a comfortable spot. Nagging worry kept him from relaxing. What if Ransom didn’t regain consciousness? What would happen? The dragons were a secretive race, and he knew little of them, apart from the fact they were skilled in jewelry production and rich. Would they blame him?

Phrull, of course they would. He blamed himself.

As the whitelight pushed away the dark, Nanu set off the tracker beacon and crawled to the tender to check on Ransom, determination pushing him to reject the pain stabbing his limb. As he neared the door, the weird humming became audible. Rhythmic and more musical now, it sent shivers running through his veins.

Nanu had no chance of lifting himself through the entrance to see Ransom, but he figured if the dragon was humming, he remained alive.

Not long afterward, the purr of a tender had Nanu’s gaze scanning the skies. When it flew into sight, the tension seeped from him with a whoosh of relief.

He waved as the tender flew over them and circled to hover above him. The side door slid open, and he spotted Ry.

As the tender continued to hover, Ry, Jarlath, Shiloh and Ellard appeared in open doorway. Phrull, they’d canceled their hunting trip to help him. A harsh gasp of relief rushed past his dry lips. They’d come. The four feline shifters rappelled to the ground while Mogens, their medic and seer, frowned down at them. Ribbons of black flashed through his gray face, morphing his features and arms to a deep charcoal. A stretcher came down next, guided downward by Mogens.

Nanu closed his eyes. Mogens sensed things, long before they did, reading the truth in the clouds. A black Mogens meant trouble or worry. While if he appeared pale and white things were fine in Mogens’s world.

Ry reached him first, his tanned features and green eyes full of concern as he crouched beside him. “I hear your leg is broken.”

The feline shifter was his boss and his friend. His savior, although Ry didn’t realize this truth. Nanu and his late brother Yep had repaid Ry’s faith in them with their flying and mechanical skills, and after Yep’s death, Ry and the rest of the Indy crew had become his family.

“Get Ransom first. I’m worried about him. He’s still humming, and he didn’t answer me when I called out to him. He kept doing that freaky humming crap.”

Ellard and Shiloh, brothers from the planet Viros, ignored his plea to help the dragon shifter first. Ellard scooped him up with easy strength, his homely face bearing the same worry as Ry’s. The chill of Ellard’s replacement arm beneath Nanu’s butt pierced his trews before the stretcher took his weight. Ellard had lost his arm during the war with the House of Cawdor, and these days relied on the Incorporeal couple who lived at the palace to provide his ghostly limb.

Searing agony forced a groan past Nanu’s clenched lips, despite Ellard’s gentleness and Shiloh’s help. Crawling to Ransom had done him no favors, yet he’d had to check on the dragon.

“Sorry.” Shiloh, mate to the king and queen of Viros, grimaced. “Mogens will give you something for the pain once you’re on the tender.”

“What about Ransom?”

“Stow your whining,” Ellard snapped, and then Nanu knew the men were worried. Since Ellard had mated with Gweneth, his temper remained sweeter. This burst of impatience had become rare.

Ellard took one end of the stretcher and Shiloh the other, taking care not to jar his leg. It still hurt like a bitch, every minuscule shift jolting him as they carried him across the rough terrain of rocks. The whitelight caught the sparkle of precious gems, studded within the rocks, some of them valued by the dragons for their jewelry designs.

Nanu ignored the beauty to focus on the wreck of the tender and the gouge they’d left on the surface before they’d skidded to a stop near a wall of glittery rock.

Jarlath, brother to the king of Viros, followed Ry to the downed tender. They disappeared inside the crumpled vehicle. He saw nothing more since Mogens operated the lift for the stretcher, and Nanu rose upward.

Mogens guided the stretcher inside the tender, ribbons of white swirling across his black features. He’d obviously worried but appeared calmer with Nanu aboard.

Not him. Nanu’s gut churned and danced. He’d relax once Ransom made it to the ship and they transported him to his clan. He had to regain consciousness.

“You said Ransom is humming?”

“Gryffnn.” Nanu moved his head too fast, jerking his leg. He groaned and cried out as Mogens probed his injury. When the agony allowed him to breathe again, he rotated his head in a controlled manner to glimpse Gryffnn. “You shouldn’t be here. It’s too dangerous.”

“Ransom is my brother,” Gryffnn said. “He’d do the same for me.”

“He’s not in great shape. I’m so sorry. Kaya and I had the tender in tiptop shape. It shouldn’t have malfunctioned.”

“Not your fault,” Gryffnn informed him. “Mechanical failure happens. It’s why we prefer to fly rather than ride in machines.”

Mogens did something to his leg, and the pain…the pain stabbed with the force of a rusty knife, sending his vision white at the edges. Another tug had him screaming like a girl, and it was the last thing he recalled of the crash site.

* * * * *

Viros city, Viros

Yes! The recruitment post on the links showed her the perfect way to infiltrate the close-knit group she’d only been able to scrutinize from a distance. Without hesitation, Jazen applied and contacted Azarious about organizing fake references.

“It will be done. Your alias?”

“Jazen Yelhsa.” Jazen was real—her only true name—while Yelhsa was the handle of her first kill. A reminder not to get cocky since over-confidence led to mistakes. In this assignment, she couldn’t afford to fail. Her period of indenture had ended, and she needed the funds from these last few contracts to secure her future. She intended to buy a small catering business on a, as yet, mystery planet since she hadn’t decided where to settle.

“You have a lead?”

“Yes, but it has proved difficult getting close to my target. They have connections to the royal family in Viros.”

“Contact me if you need further aid. Send your usual reports.”

Jazen hit send, confident her application would stand scrutiny. She slipped her comm to her jacket pocket and scanned the occupants of the grubby bar on Second Street.

A shifty trader wearing a patch over his left eye, a tired waitress and a bored cyborg bartender. Not surprising given the time of the cycle and the dark, dingy interior. Straw covered the floor, and Jazen spotted a few dried flowers amongst the straw stalks. Someone had attempted to make the place smell better, but rotations of grime and spilled drinks plus uncaring customers had taken their toll. Five tables sat amongst the straw and a sprinkling of mismatched chairs. No modern float tables in this joint.

None of the customers paid attention to her, and she relaxed, deciding to linger and complete her Narenda investigation. She’d claimed a corner table with a view of the door and settled in to her research.

Jazen learned dragon shifters ran the planet and, until recently, hadn’t welcomed visitors. The leader had relaxed control of the borders although visitors required permits to journey to the verdant lands.

She’d already discovered the crew of the Indefatigable visited regularly. Approaching any of the crew at the castle had proved impossible. The womenfolk—Captain Coppersmith’s woman and the rest of the female crew—always had bodyguards trailing them when they left the castle. The male crew was equally elusive and the seer that traveled with them was plain creepy with his skin tones that changed from white to black and mixtures in between. She assumed the changes occurred due to the seer’s moods, but that was a guess.

For a dozen cycles, she’d trailed the Indy crew. She’d researched them and tried to discover more about the escaped cyborg, last seen on Ornum. Rumor said the cyborg had left the planet with her charge, and they’d departed onboard the Indy. A child-minding cyborg.

Jazen snorted. Raised to be nurturing, child-minding cyborgs shouldn’t have the skills to evade recapture. This one had, and it had sparked the ire of the corporation who owned her. Their investigations, to date, had proved fruitless. Not wanting to give other indentured cyborgs hope, they’d put out a contract for her capture. They wanted her alive and intended to make an example of her, then disassemble for her parts, after studying her programming for faults, of course.

Amme Vanak had left Ornum and after two sightings on the planet of Ibrox, she’d vanished. She wasn’t on Ibrox, which meant she’d left on the same ship because she hadn’t purchased a ticket to leave the planet. Her whereabouts now…undetermined.

Jazen tapped the fingers of her right hand on the sticky tabletop.

The waitress approached, a drag in her step. “Can I get ya a drink? Bartender says you have to eat or drink or ya have ta leave.”

“I’ll have an aloc. In a bottle,” she added, aware of what some unscrupulous bar owners did to their cask drinks. “I’ll open the bottle myself. How is the food here?”

“Better than what ya’d expect. Bar owner’s wife likes ta cook.”

“What do you recommend?”

“Meat pie.”

Jazen tilted her head, setting her straight black hair swishing against her cheek. She never passed up an excuse to research the food prepared by other cooks and few places did pies. “I’ll take a pie.”

The waitress nodded, relief clear in her reddened blue eyes. Jazen mentally counted her coins. Yeah, she had sufficient to tip. She knew this woman’s life, knew the helplessness, the futility of working long hours.

It was never, ever enough to escape.

She’d watched her mother live this life and struggle to raise two hungry children. This woman had it better than her mother, although the waitress mightn’t realize there was worse.

Jazen had seen and taken note not to fall into the same trap as her mother. She’d calculated the odds and taken her chances, begging to go with Azarious when he’d offered a way out for her younger brother. No lying on her back to entertain strange men with peculiar body parts and weird sexual habits. When she slept with a man, it was her choice. She controlled the situation, not her lover of the moment.

Her comm beeped to indicate an incoming message. A slow smile bloomed, satisfaction filling her with elation. A step closer to locating and capturing the missing cyborg. She tapped back a quick message. Yes, she was in Viros and willing to conduct a comm interview at the onset of blacklight. Yes, she had references and would send them at once.

The confirmation came secs later.

All systems go.

The waitress arrived with her drink and the pie. She set them on the table in front of Jazen and limped to the other side of the bar to serve new arrivals. The six young men wore black uniforms, their close-cropped hair proclaiming them servicemen. A military ship had arrived to replenish their stores and give their crew furlough. The bars and brothels of the lower Viros streets would ring with drunken foolery this eve. An attraction for every lowlife in the vicinity to tease or steal money from servicemen with flush pockets and voracious appetites after journeying throughout the solar system for a quarter of a rotation.

Jazen opened her drink and after wiping the top, drank straight from the bottle. Once she finished her pie, she’d wander the market to learn if any of the Indy crew ever left the castle alone.

She’d scored an interview. Luck might favor her twice in one cycle.