Page 5 of On a Barbarian World

As they disappeared from view, her smile dissolved. She’d never played like that as a child. There hadn’t been time. Her mother had always been working, doing what she could to support them. They’d been really poor. Her mother had worked hard—so hard—to ensure they never went hungry and had clothes. When Aurina had been old enough, she’d had a part-time job as well. There’d been nothing for anything extra or fun. No paints, no pretty dresses, no pretty, shiny things the girls from the wealthier parts of the city had worn in their ears and around their necks. Instead, Aurina had collected rocks she found outside and polished them until they’d shined. They’d been her toys.

Now, she had real gems—invaluable rocks and jewels.

She opened the door to her cabin. Inside, the lights clicked on, and she spotted her bowl of polished rocks and her row of potted plants. They were drooping a little, because no matter what she did, they just didn’t thrive in the ship’s ventilation. One day she was going to have a garden, but for now, she was going to grab that long shower, then head out again in her ship.

Her life was good, and if she felt vague little niggles of dissatisfaction, she was just going to ignore them.

CHAPTER TWO

“Safe trip,” Nissa said. “See you soon.”

Aurina sat back in her pilot’s chair, her concentration split between the control screen under her hands, and the viewscreen above. Behind her, the Sky Nomad and the convoy were getting smaller and smaller. Ahead, the sprinkle of white stars beckoned.

“Thanks, Nissa. Tell Justyn I’ll be up for a game of crossfire when I get back.”

Nissa snorted. “He’ll want to win some of those pretty shinies you have. And he’s damned good.”

“I can take him. I’ll be home in a few hours.”

“Roger that. And Ry said to remind you to watch out for that meteor storm.”

Aurina heard the lazy amusement in Nissa’s voice. “Tell him I will, and I packed clean underwear, as well.” Aurina might complain about the overprotectiveness of her brothers from time to time, but she’d lived without them for so long that now she was grateful she had them.

She plucked a pale-blue stone from her pocket, and rubbed it between her fingers. It was a piece of Perman star crystal, and one of her favorites. It wasn’t worth as much as her gem collection, but the color and the smoothness pleased her. She found it soothing to work it between her fingers.

She focused her attention on the scan data flashing up on her screen. She had four possible habitable planets on the long-range scanners. The convoy needed somewhere to rest and recharge, and it was her job to find it. They needed breathable air, water, and a place to stretch their legs. Food was a definite bonus.

She imagined a nice, lazy stroll through a grassy field, or maybe some trees. Her stomach tightened. She really wanted that. They’d long ago realized that too much time cooped up in starships sent people a little crazy. People started making bad decisions and fighting among themselves. Dare liked to stop the convoy at regular intervals. Near the galaxy’s edge, they had planets and stations they knew that catered to convoys.

But out here—she eyed a multi-hued nebula in the distance—it was uncharted territory. They didn’t know the planets, or what species they might come across. Okay, so which of the four planets to visit first? She repeated a little nursery rhyme from her homeworld and stabbed a finger at her screen. It landed on the image of a large, blue-gray planet her comp had dubbed B1.

B1, it was.

Before long, she passed a small planet with a good-sized rocky moon. Her scanner bleeped. She leaned forward. The planet was uninteresting and not habitable, but the moon had some fascinating geology. She studied the results. It looked like deposits of nember—a rare and valuable ore that could be made into a dark, heat-resistant metal.

Then she frowned. There were also some strange radiation readings. She tapped her screen. Very strange.

An alarm beeped, and her heart kicked in her chest. Dammit, the radiation was frying her shields. She tapped the controls, sending more power to the forward shields.

The alarm stopped.

She released a breath. Close call. She had them on occasion. That was part of being a scout.

Over the next few hours, she passed another planetary system with no promising life. One planet was covered entirely by water, and her readings picked up some very large aquatic animals under the surface. She itched to do a quick fly through the water and take a peek, but she was getting close to B1, and she needed to check out the planet. If it didn’t have what they needed, she planned to head to the not-too-distant A1, then the final two planets, before she headed back to refuel and report.

Soon, the blue-gray orb of B1 appeared in the distance. It looked pretty from here, but scans showed it was a fairly rocky world, with small amounts of water. There appeared to be some rocky, mountainous areas with little vegetation, as well as some gentler meadow areas with small lakes and some low vegetation.

Suddenly, lights started blinking on her console. An alarm turned into an insistent beep.

“Damage to internal systems,” the modulated computer voice intoned. “Multiple system failures.”

What the hell? Aurina stiffened in her seat and tapped the screen. She pulled up a schematic of the Ariel’s systems.

When she saw red lights blinking on just about every system, her stomach did a slow roll. “Computer, what’s causing the damage?”

“Radiation damage to key components.”

Shit. Some of the radiation had made it through the shields. It must have been slowly eating away at her systems all this time.