Lady Nyx's Thieves

Every sky pirate knows how difficult anti-gravity maneuvering gear is to use at first. The flying gear can navigate a person through open skies, but learning to use it can be dangerous—as was obvious during my students’ final approach to the landing deck after their first unassisted flight.

Tai, the captain’s son, was the last to land. He came careening crosswind with his arms flapping uselessly beside him as if he were a bird—a giant bird with a heavy peg leg and twenty pounds of flying gear. The students beside me muttered nervously as the wind distorted his trajectory, pushing him to the left and dangerously close to what we jokingly called the Blender: the blades of our skyship’s massive fan pulling air into Lady Nyx’s combustion tank.

As the captain’s second, charged with leading the raids as well as teaching our youngins to maneuver through the skies, I knew well the fear of battling air currents. I also knew that if Tai died, the captain would skin me—a fitting punishment considering what his son would look like after being forced through the combustion fan like cheese through a grater.

“Cross roll!” I barked over the whir of the ship’s engine. Tai, too terrified to process the advice, continued his useless arm-flapping. “Cross roll!” I screamed more urgently. The rescue gun was already prepped, and I aimed it carefully at Tai’s chest. If he could get in range, the machine’s magnet would bind to Tai’s suit and pull him to safety.

Heeding my command, Tai spun to his side so he was parallel to the wind, just as the students had rehearsed in simulation for months. With his body now thin against the crossing air current, he flared the gas on his gear and spun like an axle towards the deck. I fired the rescue gun, and the machine lurched. In a blink, Tai was tethered to the boat like a flag.

“Reel him in,” I ordered, and Samuel, one of the senior students, took the wheel. Moments later, Tai landed with a thud on the deck, breathing heavier than a cheap whore.

“What was that?” I demanded. Shocked, Tai looked up at me through his helmet visor. “Did you forget everything? I can count at least ten mistakes in your landing approach alone, not to mention your sloppy launch.”

Tai wheezed through his teeth, and I rolled my eyes.

“What’s the matter with you, why don’t you—” I froze, noticing a dark splotch spreading through the fabric of his green suit. Blood.

I swore and dropped to Tai’s side. “Zoe, get the medic.” She sprinted away while the other students watched from a distance, expressions horrified.

“What happened, Tai? Can you breathe?” I asked as Samuel unstrapped Tai’s gear and eased his helmet off. I ripped the suit open to expose the wound and began applying pressure.

Tai blinked hard, his pale face stark against the green of his uniform. “It was a Settlement pod,” he said through gritted teeth.

“What? You’re sure?” I asked. Usually Settlement pods ignored other skyships. They rarely had the weaponry or manpower to support combat, and everyone knew an attack encouraged retaliation.

Tai gave a pained nod. “Certain,” he answered and began coughing.

“Your father’s going to kill me,” I muttered.

The medic’s urgent footsteps pounded behind me. “Where’s the boy?”

“Right here,” I answered. “He took a scrap bullet to the side.”

The medic winced. Though expensive, scrap bullets were vicious in sky battles. Not many survived wounds like the one Tai had received. The medic immediately set to work, muttering to himself as he inspected the damage.

I stood. “Tai, how did they get close enough to shoot you?”

He grunted as the medic prodded his wounded side. “I don’t know…” he rasped. “It was hard to see. Blended in with the sky.”

Blended in with the sky? I frowned. “Do you remember the pod’s lot number?” Every Settlement had a number painted on the side so the government could distinguish which citizens lived where.

“B139 something,” Tai muttered. “It was blue.”

A blue pod would be loaded with diplomats and trigger-happy bodyguards. No wonder they fired on Tai.

“Blue?” I repeated.

The medic turned around to glare at me for badgering his patient with questions. I grimaced. “Right. Sorry. Tai you…flew well,” I said, now wishing I hadn’t been so harsh about his landing earlier. He nodded, eyes screwed in pain.

Leaving the medic to do his work, I turned to the other students. “Practice is over,” I told them. They bustled away into Lady Nyx’s inner deck, and I intercommed the emergency flight group. “Suit up,” I ordered through the speaker. “We have a Settlement to hit.”

The unit leader Jake emerged a moment later. “We’re not scheduled for a raid today.” He leaned against the ship’s side, looking at me with contempt.

“We are now,” I responded curtly, not in the mood to argue with him. As the voice of authority just below the captain, I was used to the unit leaders questioning my decisions, especially Jake who I knew envied my position.

“What’s the target?” a woman with short brown hair asked before Jake could reply. I smiled in thanks, but she ignored my gaze by fiddling with her gun belt. Everyone on the ship knew her as Bad Beck, the only woman on our boat ruthless enough to make it to the ship’s emergency flight unit. She was also the best shooter I had ever seen. She’d once taken down an entire ship’s front defense line all on her own after the rest of her unit had been shot down.

“Blue Settlement pod,” I responded, and one of the other fighters cursed. Bad Beck looked up, one eyebrow arched.

“We’re attacking a blue Settlement?” she asked.

“Yes,” I responded.

“That’s madness!” Jake said.

I gave him a flat stare. “The idiots on that ship shot the captain’s son.” The unit muttered a wave of curses, but Jake was still looking at me like I was crazy.

“We’ll get slaughtered,” he said, and the other fighters shuffled their feet.

I held his stare. “If Tai dies, you think the captain will let us live after allowing his son’s murderers to get away?” Jake paled, saying nothing, but I could tell he still didn’t agree.

“These fools are rich beyond reason,” I said, louder so the rest of the unit knew I was talking to them, too, “and we may be thieves, but when have we ever let anybody get away with shooting down one of our own?”

“Never!” the unit responded, and I flashed them an ugly grin. Everyone except Jake cheered in response. I kicked on my flying gear, and the unit followed suit, Jake included.

“We fly!” I said, not wanting to waste any more time.

We threw ourselves from the launch pad, twisting in the air as we sank below Lady Nyx’s underside, with a thirst for blood pumping like adrenaline through our veins. The winds weren’t as strong in the lower skies, and the blue pod seeped within sight sooner than expected, the lot number B139-2211 gleaming in the sunlight.

As we neared the vessel, we could hear the distress signal blare. I estimated we had sixteen minutes before any additional governmental protection had time to arrive. Until then, we had to deal with the pod’s defense soldiers, probably the ones who had shot Tai.

“Three cannons and twelve fighters,” Bad Beck’s voice reported through our suits’ comm system. “That’s not so bad.”

“No, which means they probably ordered most of their defense unit inside to protect the diplomats. Jake, take out the two right cannons with your men and then clear the balconies,” I said. “Bad Beck, I need you to watch my back while I gas the place.”

“On it,” Bad Beck responded through my earpiece, and we swerved to the left, twisting in our gear to avoid the shots zipping past us. “Drop!” Bad Beck screamed from behind me, and I plunged towards the earth as a cannonball soared just over my head. From above, I could hear Bad Beck’s counter shots and the slump of bodies on the deck testifying to her accuracy.

I took the opportunity to dive beneath the ship, slowing just in time to grip the pod’s bottom landing bars. It was hard not to stare as Bad Beck sent three bodies tumbling towards the earth. I flipped to the back side near the air vent, hanging tightly to the ship so the vent didn’t suck me in.

“A mini Blender,” I muttered wryly to myself as I pulled the pin on three gas grenades and tossed them into the air vent. They were sucked in with a satisfying pop.

A moment later, the shells spat out through the air filter, but the damage had already been done. The gas spread into the vessel, and within moments the pod’s residents were irrevocably unconscious. They would sleep until their hearts stopped beating.

“Clear,” Jake’s voice sounded through the intercom. They’d taken care of the soldiers outside.

“Casualties?” Bad Beck asked.

“A little nick on me,” Jake said, “and Dinky Brown took a bullet to the foot, but we’re all breathing.”

“Good work, boys,” I said, and Bad Beck grunted. “Boys and Bad Beck,” I amended, flashing her a grin.

With our helmets filtering out the contaminated gas, we split up to collect valuables. I walked into the room nearest me, and the occupants were indeed asleep. Most were older men and their bodyguards, snoozing uselessly on the floor. A younger couple was slumped on a couch in the far corner, and a badge labeling them as visitors peeked through the collar of their blazers. I ignored the blank stares of the bodies, focusing only on retrieving anything shiny.

Once the main room was clear, I threw open the closet door and froze. Crouched in the back was a tiny child, no older than six. I gawked.

There weren’t supposed to be children on board. Blue pods never had children on board, but here one was, wearing a light yellow sundress and clutching a small heart-shaped locket as if her safety was bonded to it. I knew how valuable the metal was, but for some reason I could not move to rip it from her hands. There, in the sweaty fingers of that small child, was the girl’s future. The locket was open to the miniature pictures inside who I assumed could only be her parents. Her drugged, vacant stare seemed to be drinking them in, hoping with such a pointless innocence that one day a similar life could be hers.

“Ready?” Jake asked from the doorway, jolting me from my stupor. “Everyone’s done. We’ll leave once you give the clear.”

Mutely, I blinked at the unconscious girl, clearly oblivious to how she would soon die. My throat was suddenly dry, but there was no way we could take her with us. We had to get out of there. I muttered a colorful curse and yanked the chain from the girl’s limp grasp. Feeling sick, I turned away before I could change my mind.

“Let’s go,” I croaked. I knew Jake noticed my hesitation, but for once he didn’t say anything. It made me wonder how many sleeping souls he regretted leaving to die.

We ran, throwing ourselves into the skies with our newfound valuables in tow. I could hear the creak of the Settlement from behind me, flown by an unconscious pilot carting doomed passengers.

I tried not to picture the child’s desperate expression as she stared at her locket-less hands like a prayer, and I dimly wondered if Tai was still alive and if this retaliation had been worth it. With the girl’s locket shut in my pack like a new weight on my soul, I tried convincing myself it had to be. We were thieves, afterall.