Halcyon Nights (Star Sojourner Book 2) by Jean Kilczer

waiting, as though the dust of eons had settled into his thoughts, his mind.
    Leave my daughter out of this!
    Know that I can reach her. I will reach her, as I did the toy. If you do not bring her.
    Why? Why her?
    To end the Terran desecration of my world!
    By who? This ravager? I said I'd kill –
    The child too!
He imaged me a picture I will never forget. Lisa… A scimitar poised above her head as she huddled there against the chair, her small arms wrapped around herself, tears streaming down her face. The blade took form, reflected light.
    And lifted. ”No!” I ran to her, tried to knock the blade aside. My fist bounced off steel. “I'll kill you, you crotemunger.” I pushed the chair away and scooped her up.
I'll make fucking amoeba soup out of you!
    The sword flew across the room to slash a fireplace stone that shattered with the crash of an explosion. Shards flew, dust swirled in the heat of the fire.
    Lisa screamed. She clutched at me, nails clawing my shoulders. “Daddy! Let's go 'way from here! Please!”
    “We're going, Lis'.” I backed down the hallway to the front door. The sword followed.
    I felt behind me for the pressure plate that opened the door, but couldn't find it. Either he'd torn it off or was blocking my mind. The image of a spaceship, a gypsy merchant, floated before my eyes.
The Merchant Prince
was painted on its stained and patched side.
    Halcyon, Terran.
    I flattened against the door as the sword glided closer. It lifted as though for a strike.
    “All right!” I turned, to put myself between the blade and Lisa, though I knew it wouldn't save either of us.
How will I know you?
    By your tel power.
    I took a breath, tried once more.
The child will only hinder me from destroying the ravager. Without her along I can –
    “Daddy!” Lisa shrieked as the sword suddenly pressed her side with the blunt edge. I tried to force the blade away, couldn't as it backed me into a corner.
All right!
I screamed within my mind.
Halcyon! Just get it away from her!
    It remained there, an inch from her death as she shivered and clung to me.
    Both of you
.
    My gaze was riveted to the blade. “Both,” I whispered before he changed his mind and struck.
Both,
I sent and began to plan the silver being's death.
    My legs started to shake. I leaned against the wall to maintain my balance and clutched Lisa against my chest. Could I trust this specter to keep his word and not harm my daughter if we went to Halcyon? He hadn't left me a choice.
    The scimitar dissolved. I rubbed Lisa's back and stared at the torn doll.
    “Don't leave me, Daddy,” she whimpered.
    “No, Baby. I won't.” Not this time.

Chapter Four
    Twenty days out. And approaching Halcyon. I lay awake, breathing in the faint metallic smell of humming machinery, and stared at the ship's ribbed metal ceiling with its banks of blinking green lights that showed all is well.
    Sure.
    The Merchant Prince
re-entered the space-time continuum with great soft thuds that quivered through her hull, and rattled metal. I felt heavier as her old, grav stabilizers struggled to compensate. The reassuring whine of circulating air pumps was accented by snores from the five tags with whom Lisa and I shared these cramped quarters.
    I rubbed my eyes and blinked, sleepless. Perhaps Tickbag was best off, iced in a cryogenic unit for the trip. Man and beast were not meant to live in tight geometric chambers of gray that shuddered down to erratic orbits around outback planets.
    The new, dark-energy technology that encased starships in bubbles and made fast jumps, was still more for the big commercial liners that had the creds for such systems.
    I'd hoped Tickbag's name wasn't an apt description of his condition when Lisa had hugged him all through the hovair ride to the Denver Spaceport. He'd wagged his tail and licked her face. It was damn expensive to take him aboard, what with decon and all, but what the hell? She had enough to face, so I sprang for the extra creds. Three