Fallen Empire 2: Honor's Flight Read Free Page B

Alejandro intended to say. She supposed it did not matter. Once they landed, he wouldn’t have a reason to return to her ship. He would depart and do whatever he needed to do here, he and that strange glowing orb that he protected like a mother with a newborn babe. After that, she would never see him again.
    Alisa flicked a couple of switches to give Alejandro comm access from his cabin. He could be the one to deal with the imperial officer’s insults too. Then she slid into the pilot’s seat and drummed her fingers. It crossed her mind to eavesdrop, and she might have done just that if she hadn’t had so many witnesses. Nothing like witnesses to help one rein in tendencies toward moral ambiguity. Still, she wouldn’t have felt that wrong for eavesdropping, not when she suspected Alejandro and his orb were at odds with the Alliance. More than once, it had crossed her mind to report him and what she had seen once she reached an Alliance world.
    Leonidas stepped to the side, and Alejandro appeared behind him.
    “Any news?” Alisa asked.
    “We’re to be allowed to land at the Karundula Space Base. A civilian station.” Alejandro said those last words firmly, making Alisa wonder if there had been an argument over that matter. Had the imperials wanted to direct them to a military facility? Where they would be more easily monitored or even locked down?
    “That’s excellent,” Yumi said, clapping her hands together. “The girls will enjoy getting out.”
    “Yes, finding sunlight for your chickens was my primary concern too,” Alisa said, watching as the dreadnought veered away. The two cruisers moved toward her, assuming a flanking position. “Oh, goody. We get escorts.”
    “Better than being shot at,” Leonidas said and headed toward the rear of the ship.
    Beck pushed himself to his feet and rapped his knuckles on his breastplate. “Guess I better find my helmet.”
    Yumi wandered away, too, leaving only Alejandro gazing at the planet, a mix of emotions on his face, none of them easy to read.
    “What did you say to convince them to let us land?” Alisa asked.
    “I simply gave them my name.”
    “No mention of the specialness of your orb?” She smiled and quirked an eyebrow.
    Alejandro frowned at her. “If they interview us, speak nothing of that.” The order seemed strange coming from him, a mild-mannered man in the gray robe of a disciple of the sun gods. Perhaps he realized it, because he added, “Please.”
    Alisa waved an indifferent hand. “I’m just relieved they’re letting us land. Yumi’s chickens need sun, you know.”
    “Is that why they’ve been complaining so much,” he murmured.
    “Either that, or because Beck is stealing all of their eggs.”
    Movement on the screen drew Alisa’s attention back to the controls. The two imperial cruisers were veering off. As the Star Nomad angled toward the surface of the planet, they shifted into an orbiting path again.
    “I guess they decided we weren’t interesting enough to escort, after all,” Alisa said, more relieved than concerned. She hoped the imperials would not call ahead to the base and alert the locals about suspicious Alliance sympathizers en route.
    Alejandro frowned but did not reply.
    A couple of minutes passed, the imperial ships turning into white dots in the distance. As Alisa took them down toward the largest of Perun’s continents, something slammed into the freighter. She did not have her harness on and was hurled forward, the flight stick smashing into her stomach as her head nearly cracked the view screen.
    “What in the hells?” she blurted as she hit the button for the shields.
    Alejandro lay crumpled on the floor between the seats and only groaned as a response. She checked the sensors. If there had been a ship or any type of object that could hit them, the proximity alarm should have gone off.
    “What’s going on up there?” Mica asked over the comm. “You’re bruising my ship.”
    “As soon as I figure it