Star Runners: Dark Space

Chapter 11

11

Settling back into the recliner, Austin cradled the hot coffee between his hands and felt the warmth. His legs were sore from the morning run, but everything else felt rejuvenated. He exhaled, his breath blowing steam off the mug as he listened to the ticking clock on the mantle. The early morning sky cast a blue light inside the townhome. He loved this time of the morning when everyone else was asleep and the day seemed new and full of possibility. He stared at the trees swaying as a cold winter's wind whistled.

Might be snow, he thought, watching the rolling white clouds moving ominously across the horizon. That’d be fun.

He wondered if Ryker had ever seen snow ...

Of course, snow in Georgia usually wasn't real snow. Perhaps he should take her to New England or even Canada, show her more of his world as she continues through rehab and the endless tests.

His stomach turned, his thoughts focusing on Ryker asleep in her room upstairs. Would the doctors ever let her leave? Sometimes, he wondered if they genuinely wanted to help her or if they were more interested in the technology still buried inside her head, restricting her speech and movements. Anger boiled deep inside his core at the thought, and he took a deep breath.

Getting angry with the doctors for what happened wouldn't change anything.

Taking a sip of coffee, he grabbed his laptop to start catching up on his emails. Mom had just left for a short tour to the Legion Capital Worlds, her first trip to Oma for a medical seminar. He wrote her about the floating beaches and made sure to mention the Glistening Orb. Smiling as he typed, he thought of his mother floating around the zero gravity club and laughing. Next, he wrote Kadyn, who had recently said she would be returning to art school in Savannah. Pausing, he watched the trees rattling against one another in the gusts.

The relationship between Josh and Kadyn had been strained as of late. Austin knew Josh had been through a hell he could only imagine, living life of forced labor and captivity. But Kadyn had been under fire, too, and Austin wondered if they’d be able to move on.

As he continued typing, he heard a tapping sound echo through the otherwise silent home. He paused and listened, wondering if mice had found a way inside. When the sound didn't continue, he proceeded with the message.

Tap-tap-tap.

"What?" Austin asked aloud, sliding the computer off his lap and standing.

Moving over to the window, he stared down the sidewalk and saw nothing. A mist started to fall, casting a thin layer of water on the pavement.

Tap-tap-tap.

Hurrying to his office, he unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out the holstered Legion-issued sidearm, concealing it into his gray workout hoodie. He tried to calm his pounding heart, told himself he was paranoid, but the memories of the Phantoms firing on Kadyn's house in the middle of the night were too fresh, too vivid.

Of course, seventy years might not be enough to wipe such events from his mind.

"What you doing?"

Austin spun around, saw Ryker standing in the hallway, her Tizona blue pajamas twisted and riding up her right leg. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she shuffled toward him.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Oh," he said, rushing toward her with his arms outstretched. "Did I wake you?"

He pulled her close, kissing her forehead. When they parted, she stared at him.

"I not deaf," she said in a low voice. "What's that sound?"

"I don't know," he admitted, rubbing her shoulders. "You really should be back in—"

Tap-tap-tap.

He froze, gripping her shoulders a little tighter. "Okay," he whispered, "that came from the front door. Might be the mailman."

"This early?" She shook her head. "I don't think so."

Neither did he, but why worry her?

They moved to the front of the house, Ryker staying a step behind him. Pressing against the peephole, Austin saw a familiar face under a wet poncho.

"I don't believe it," he whispered.

"What? Is it okay?"

"Yeah." He unlocked the door. "Everything’s fine, I think."

Swinging the door open, Austin winced as the cold winter air rushed into the house and asked, "Stetson? Is that really you?"

He didn't smile. "I need to speak with you, Austin." He nodded toward Ryker. "I'm sorry to have awakened you, Captain."

"Is fine," she said, trying to articulate through muscles refusing to cooperate. "Want come in?"

"Thank you, no." His eyes bore into Austin. "Not here socially, I'm afraid."

A shiver went down his back, and Austin knew it wasn't from the weather. "I see. Should we take a walk?"

Stetson moved his arm toward the damp sidewalk. "Please."

Rubbing Ryker's shoulder and giving her what he hoped was a look of assurance, Austin stepped down the brick steps to the sidewalk and walked next to Stetson. They strolled in the bitter mist for several minutes in silence.

"It's been a while, buddy," Austin said, folding his arms tighter around his chest and pulling the hood closer to his face. "Didn't think I'd see you this early. Figure it's something about Josh's little escapade."

"Yes," he said without delay, his eyes on the sidewalk. "How much did he tell you?"

Austin shook his head, wiping mist from his nose. "Not much. Just keeping his word on returning a vessel."

"And that's it?"

"Yeah."

Stetson hesitated. Austin stared at him out of the corner of his eye, remembering the young, scared kid Stetson had been in the Tizona Academy in South Georgia and trying to reconcile that memory of a fragile teenager with the chiseled, confident man next to him. He could only guess what Stetson had seen during his Legion service, but the experience had changed him. He'd seemed to find his place.

“I’d given him an emergency transmitter before he left out of an abundance of caution,” Stetson said, looking at Austin. “I didn’t think he’d need it, but I wanted to make sure he was okay. You said he was a friend of yours. I wanted to be able to tell you where he went if something went wrong. Well ..."

Austin blinked, halting as a lump formed in his gut. "What? Are you saying something's happened to him?"

He sighed. “He activated it.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

He swallowed, stepping to the other side of the path and staring at the dog park across the street. "I see."

Stetson stepped closer to Austin and placed his hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

“I thought he was just returning the ship."

"He was, but he activated the transponder on a world called Ashia."

"Ashia?" Austin asked, remembering the name.

He thought back to being on board Ravi's ship when they orbited Ashia. "That's a primitive world, right? Inhabited by humans?"

"Yes," Stetson said, "but—"

"Then we need to mount a rescue," he blurted out, his voice rising. "We can't just let him—"

"Austin," Stetson said, his deep voice commanding respect. "They might not risk mounting a complex rescue operation into the Fringe between Zahl and Legion space for one Star Runner on leave—especially if we’re not even sure why he was there in the first place.”

"I can't just leave him out there."

“I’ll do what I can to get more eyes on this report.” Stetson sighed. “He might not have survived."

“Why?”

“The signal was coming from one of the planet’s oceans.”

He shook his head, his heart pounding. “That doesn’t mean he’s dead. What else do you know?"

“Nothing more than what I just told you."

"But why would he have gone there?"

"I don't know."

Rubbing his eyes, he fought back his constricting throat. His best friend might be gone or stranded somewhere on the Fringe. After all Josh had been through, he’d probably risked his life trying to help his smuggler friends. He’d always been that way, one who was loyal almost to a fault.

Stetson squeezed Austin's shoulder. "I just thought you'd want to know, my friend. If anything else comes up, I'll be sure to let you know."

"I understand," he said, shaking Stetson's hand. "You're a good man. Thanks for telling me."

"Least I could do." He pointed at him. “Take care of you and the Captain, understand?"

"You bet."

And with that, Stetson spun on his heel and strolled into the mist.

Taking a deep breath, Austin stared into the darkening sky, Josh's face at the coffee shop when he first mentioned a crazy idea of returning the ship flashing in his mind.

I should’ve stopped him, he thought. What kind of a person lets a friend go out there alone?

He blinked away the mist hitting his eyes, the realization of Josh's fate rolling over him in waves. He wondered what kind of a scheme the Barracudas mentioned that could’ve forced Josh out into the Fringe. There had to be more to this story. He wasn’t ready to give up on his friend, yet.