Chapter 16

Dusty drove in under the shield without hesitation.

She took her helmet off and said, “Looks like it’s all quiet here. Let’s go drop off the cubes and see if we can disable those ships.”

The others mounted up and followed Dusty. James was bringing up the rear, and he cancelled the shield spell. They travelled a lot slower to the clearing. The light was almost gone. Because the other two suns were not very bright at the distance they were, the planet still had eight hours of full darkness in the northern hemisphere where the camp was located.

This half of the planet was also warmer further from the equator than the southern half and had a smaller polar cap. The smaller of the two main landmasses was also on this half as was the greater percentage of volcanic islands.

Dusty would have settled on the other continent or at least further north than where they now were. She had spent most of the flight down staring at the holo of the planet.

She had picked out a deep bay on the east coast of the largest continent with a large river system feeding into it. It was situated at about the twenty-degree latitude from the equator.

The huge bay was surrounded by low hills that climbed into a mountain range, which was roughly fifteen klicks from the sandy-shored bay. On the other side of the range, the forests thinned, and further out again were grasslands. Several islands were in the bay.

Zed informed her that the area had forests made up of hardier flowering trees that grew a lot taller and broader than the cycads. He had agreed with her that it was a better place to set up a settlement.

He predicted the weather would be milder but still have sufficient rainfall for crop growing. The mineral scans for the range were coming back that rich copper and titanium deposits were present, as well as other useful minerals required by a growing community.

Zed had also mentioned that the doctor had been treating the people here for a variety of tropical infections, and the area was not good for their health due to the hot, humid weather. He recommended that they move them from the area as soon as was practical and Que had agreed with him.

However, Que didn’t wish to move the prisoners off-planet until they could be treated, and she knew more about the infections they had.

They parked up the bikes and settled the gravity sleds.

The High Mages set up a new shield before they moved out. Their first objective was the ships. They moved so they were out of visual sight of the camp and approached the small gunship. Zed told Dusty mentally to hold her vambrace next to the door locking mechanism. Dusty did so, and they waited for a minute.

“The ship is empty, and the codes are changed, Mistress. Only you can unlock the ship by placing your brace near one of the locks,” Zed informed her.

“Thanks, Zed, let’s do the next one,” Dusty replied.

While Dusty was changing the locks, the team had fanned out to cover the ground between the ships and the compound. They waited silently while she moved from ship to ship. She silently called James and Pat to help her shield the ships.

The other three grinned when they realised what she was going to do. When they glanced back a few seconds later, the ships had disappeared.

Aaron chuckled to himself. It was going to be bloody hard for the pirates to escape if they couldn’t even find the ships.

The High Mages joined the others.

Dusty said, “Now, the tricky part. If they are asleep, use the spell to keep them that way and then move on. Do the women, too, if you find them, as it won’t hurt them. Use the darts if they are awake. They may feel you doing the spell, as some people are sensitive to spells being cast on them.”

“Zed has found the schematics of the freighter. The cabins are on level two. But they have probably also altered some storage rooms as these ships only have six cabins.”

“Once we are inside, your AI should be able to detect the people. James and I will do level two. Pat, you get level one, and Aaron and Bindy, you get to do level three as it has the small storerooms.”

“Que, hate to do it to you, but you get to guard the door. Once we have cleared the levels, we will go look at the other women. Aaron, you will take over from Que when we go to do this. James, you get to guard us girls. Are we all clear on the assignments?” she asked them.

They all nodded, so she had them move to the freighter.

As the team closed in on the ship, they got a better look at the set-up.

The place was a mess. Whoever was on clean-up duty needed sacking. The pirates hadn’t even taken their dishes from the meal they had earlier to the wash-up area. Food scraps had been left out, and they weren’t that appetising.

This planet had tiny flying bugs with four legs, and they crawled over the left-out food and dirty dishes. The team took care not to disturb the bugs or dishes.

They made the ramp unchallenged. Dusty and James, who were leading, peered inside. It wasn’t much better inside the main hold. The large open area had boxes stacked everywhere. Some had been opened and left with half the original items tossed to the side of the boxes.