The walk back to the hangar was a quiet, grim procession. The vibrant energy of the Bazaar felt like a mockery now. The scents of cooking food and exotic fuels were just background noise to their failure. The dazzling lights of merchant stalls seemed to highlight the darkness of their dead end.
Reia walked beside Lucian, her voice low, cutting through the ambient noise. "The probability of the abductor being on Earth is negligible. He’s demonstrated access to technology and magic that doesn’t exist there. He moves through the wider universe like it’s his backyard." She glanced at the teeming, multi-species crowd. "Our best chance of finding any trace of him, any pattern, is out here. In the chaos. This is his hunting ground, not ours. We need to learn the terrain."
Lucian didn’t look at her, his eyes scanning the crowded thoroughfares with a new, cold calculation.
Before Reia could respond, a small, frantic figure burst from a side alley, colliding hard with her legs.
It was a young girl, her skin a pale, shimmering lavender, with large, pupil-less eyes of solid silver. Two delicate, moth-like antennae twitched on her forehead. She couldn’t have been more than ten in human years. She wore simple, ragged clothes and clutched a small, glowing data-cube in her hands.
She stumbled back from Reia, her silver eyes wide with terror. "I’m sorry! Please, I didn’t—" Her words, translated by their devices, were a desperate gasp.
A moment later, three hulking figures in the stark, grey armor of the planetary security force rounded the corner. Their leader, a brutish being with a face like a hammerhead shark, pointed a gloved hand.
"There! The little thief! Grab her!" Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on novel※fire.net
The girl whimpered, scrambling behind Reia’s legs as if she were a solid wall.
The entire team shifted in an instant. The post-mission lethargy vanished, replaced by coiled readiness. They didn’t draw weapons, but their stances changed. Silas moved to flank Lucian, his massive frame a silent barrier. Vyn’s shadows deepened around the group. Marc simply watched, his expression unreadable, but his thermal aura spiked by a fraction of a degree.
The lead guard stomped forward, ignoring the girl to glare at Reia and Lucian. "Step aside. That filth is wanted for theft of classified corporate property." He gestured to the data-cube the girl was desperately trying to hide.
Reia looked from the terrified child to the aggressive guard. Her analytical mind processed the situation in a microsecond: disproportionate force, a child as the target, the term "corporate property" used for a living being. The math was ugly.
"She’s just a child," Reia said, her voice flat and cool.
"That ’child’ just cost my employers a fortune," the guard snarled. "Now, move, or you’ll be charged with obstruction."
Lucian finally spoke, his voice low but carrying an edge that made the guard hesitate. "You’re frightening her."
"This isn’t your concern, off-worlder," the guard spat, taking another step and reaching for the girl.
Silas was just there. He didn’t throw a punch; he simply placed his body in the guard’s path. The guard’s hand smacked against Silas’s chest plate with a dull thud. It was like hitting a mountain. Silas didn’t budge an inch.
The guard stared, his confidence faltering. "W-What the—?"
The two other guards moved forward, hands going to the energy weapons on their hips.
A wave of cold washed over them. Vyn hadn’t moved, but the air around the three guards suddenly felt thick and frozen. A faint, crystalline sheen coated their weapons, freezing the mechanisms solid.
"I would not," Vyn said softly, her voice like the chill of deep space.
The lead guard looked from Silas’s immovable form to his own useless weapon, to Vyn’s eerie calm. He saw Marc, whose eyes now glowed with a faint, dangerous heat, and Lucian, whose calm gaze promised something far worse than a fight. He saw Reia, who looked at him as if he were a bug under a microscope.
This was not a group of ordinary traders.
The guard swallowed hard, his bravado evaporating. "This isn’t over," he muttered, backing away. He jerked his head at his companions, and the three of them retreated quickly, melting back into the crowd.
The tension bled from the air. The girl peeked out from behind Reia, her silver eyes wide with a mixture of awe and fear.
Reia turned and knelt down, bringing herself to the girl’s eye level. "You’re safe now," she said, her voice gentler than they had ever heard it. "What is your name?"
The girl clutched the data-cube to her chest. "Lira," she whispered.
"Why were those men chasing you, Lira?"
Tears welled in the girl’s large eyes. "They... they took my parents. They work in the deep mines. This," she held up the cube, "has the records. It proves they were sent to a dangerous zone without protection. The company said they... they died in an accident. But it was their fault! I took it to show the Guild, but the company guards found me."
Reia looked at the cube, then at Lucian. Her message was clear. This is the terrain. The injustice, the corruption, the collateral damage. This is the universe we’re in now.
Lucian looked down at the trembling girl. His mission was to find his sister. It was a single, burning point of light in a dark sky. But this girl, her stolen truth, her desperate flight... it was a reflection of a larger pattern. A pattern their enemy undoubtedly understood and exploited.
"Evelyn," Lucian said, not taking his eyes off Lira. "Get her on the ship. Give her food and water."
Evelyn nodded, stepping forward with a kind smile. "Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get you somewhere warm."
As Evelyn led the stunned girl towards the Star-Jumper, the team was left in a new kind of silence.
Marc let out a low whistle. "Well. That just happened."
"Bleeding hearts," Kaelis grumbled from Lucian’s shoulder, but there was no real heat in it. [Now we’re running a orphanage?]
Reia stood, her gaze following Lira. "He’s out here, Lucian. In all of this. Not hiding in a void, but moving through the cracks of a thousand worlds just one. We won’t find him by chasing ghosts. We find him by understanding the world he moves in." She looked at him, her conviction absolute. "Earth is a backwater. Our answers are here."
Lucian watched the Star-Jumper’s ramp close. He had thought his path was a straight line: find the trail, follow it, get Lucy back. Now the line had curved, leading him not just to a person, but to a purpose within this vast, brutal, and beautiful universe.
"We stay." Lucian said, his decision final.