CHAPTER 2

An Empty Sky

Maija knew this island like the back of her hand. She knew this entire sector like the back of her hand. It used to be a city before the old ones' world shattered like glass. It was now a disk of cluttered buildings and tight alleyways bordered by nine long stone docks like the one Makhai had just docked their ship on. Several buildings at the center of the island had been torn down leaving a courtyard used for trading. People gathered from all areas to prop up their stands and displays, trying to gather as many pigments as they could. Maija had fallen right into that trap unwillingly. She wished nothing more than to be able to live off the land. To be independent from everyone else but she knew that just was not possible. Not in the Badlands.

Despite the tight alleyways and corridors squeezing in between perfectly square buildings, the island was busy and full of people. The mandatory ship search scared nobody away, even those carrying… questionable cargo. Maija pushed her way through the crowds, bumping into some, ducking under others- using her small frame to drop beneath gaps between people's shuffling legs. She hated all of it. A sense of claustrophobia just vague enough to bother her but not lead any farther.

She passed by the center of town and continued through to the other side of the island. The farther from the center she got, the less and less crowded it became until she was able to walk normally, more cautiously. The pathways were dark. No one bothered to light every alleyway, so her own hip lantern was the only thing lighting her way.

Maija took a turn finally down another alley, now being the only one on the road, and found a small market space, goods set on display for no customers that waited to buy them. One man, looking old with grey hair and wrinkled skin stood alone behind a wooden stand. He was who Maija did all her trading with. Quiet, secluded. How she liked it.

Maija switched off her lamp and stepped out from the shadows, the red of her robe appearing black in the darkness. "Trey."

"Well look who it is," Trey said, standing straighter. Given his aged appearance, his voice was smooth and strong. "My most loyal customer."

"Not by choice," Maija shot back.

He chuckled. "That's what you say. Where's Makhai?"

Maija tossed the actuator to the wooden stand carelessly. "I took this one."

Trey gingerly picked up the actuator, a look of disgust on his face. As if he couldn't believe Maija would treat this piece of equipment so poorly. "Well, where did you find this at?"

"How much for it?"

Trey recoiled, holding his hands out in front of him. "Woah there cowgirl, let's slow down."

Maija hated this man. The way he patronized irritated her. His words always found their way under Maija's skin. He spoke as if talking to a friend and she was not his friend.

Trey sighed, and propped himself up on both of his arms, leaning against the table. He glanced to the right, then to the left, his face fallen to a look of solemn, before finally meeting Maija's gaze.

"Look Maija," he whispered, "This place is going to shit. This New Unity isn't going to leave us alone for much longer."

"Who is New Unity?" Maija asked at full volume.

"A pirate gang," Trey said, flinching at Maija's carelessness, clenching the fronts of his teeth. "Just like always. But there's something… different about them. They're taking Foundation by storm. Growing faster than anyone before them."

Maija crossed her arms. "And what does this have to do with me?"

Trey frowned. "Listen to me." He held up a glass bottle small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. Inside were several pieces of a vibrant red material, closed off with a small cork. Marauder Red. Maija's eyes widened when she saw it and she fought against everything to stop her mouth from dropping. Trey set the bottle down in front of her. Maija moved to grab it, but Trey was quicker, snatching her wrist instead.

"Maija listen to me. I've known your father for a long time. You don't want to be a part of this." Maija shook his hand from her wrist, gingerly touching it almost as if relived she hadn't lost it. Trey grabbed the bottle again. "I will give you this as long as you promise me you buy a ship- a good ship- and get the hell out of here. You may already be too-."

The whole island shook. Maija stumbled back, looking instinctively up into the sky. Sound erupted from nowhere and everywhere. She dropped and covered the back of her head with her arms, she looked back up to the sky. A fleet of ships hovered above almost having appeared from nowhere, lit up with orange lights brighter than the stars. Streaks of red light streaked from each ship, bombshells raining down to the island, the ground shaking with each impact.

"No no no no," Maija whispered to herself as she slowly reached up and grabbed at the side of her head, frozen by the sight above her. Her arm moved back to grab her bow, but emptiness was all that met it. She had nothing.

She needed to get back to the ship. Her bow would be there. Makhai would be there. They could find a way out. Dip under the island. Hide in the void if they had to. They would find away. Maija jumped into action, darting down the alley she had come from.

"Wait!" Trey called out from behind.

Maija slid to a stop, her feet kicking up small rocks and dust, and spun around. He tossed the bottle of pigment to her. She caught it and stuffed it in her pocket. She turned to continue again but hesitated.

"Thank you." Maija couldn't believe she was thanking this man, but she was. There was something about those last few sentences that sounded different. Genuine. He was concerned about her. Somehow, she found herself saying: "Come with us."

He smiled and shook his head, his smugness from before returning, "I've got my own way out. Just go."

She nodded, coming back to reality. Maija had little time. She continued running, looking up to the sky. The ships had begun to descend towards the island. Some had people hanging from ropes underneath them, ready to jump when close enough.

The busyness of the island returned to Maija like a wave that hit her full force. In an instant there was an ocean of people in front of her, some panicking others taking the opportunity to steal and loot. Others looked calm, as if they had expected this.

She couldn't go this way. It would be a deathtrap. Faster to go around than through. Maija turned and picked up speed again, taking backways around the island- lefts and rights- until she came out along the edge of the island. Two ships painted black hovered in front of her, a person's height from the concrete ground, a group of ten standing by each.

"You! Stop!" someone shouted. Maija hesitated just for second and gunfire erupted around her. She flinched, jumped, dodging bullets as she plunged behind several nearby containers for cover.

Adrenaline pumped through her head, her heartbeat slamming in her ears. Her life had never been threatened like this before and she had no idea what to do. Survive, that was it. At all costs.

Footsteps penetrated the gunfire. Maija jumped up and grabbed the person with a burst of energy. They swung their weapon at her. She grabbed it, but they had still managed to make contact and Maija's bottom lip burst open, blood falling down her chin.

Maija pulled on the gun but the woman who held it had good grip on it. She pushed Maija down, she dragged her with her. The woman's skull landed hard against the stone with a wet thump, and she went limp, blood pooling under her head.

Guilt wrenched at Maija's heart at once. Had she just killed this woman? The thought threatened to grab ahold of her, but she pushed it away grabbing the woman's gun.

More footsteps behind her, Maija spun around and fired. A resounding boom echoed through the air as the gun kicked back. She flinched and ducked down unprepared for the recoil, dropping the gun instinctively. Her aim had been true, punching a hole through a man's shoulder. He fell, still alive.

Maija grabbed the gun again and ran, hands shaking and ears ringing. Training with a virtually silent weapon for most of her life had made Maija forget how loud a gun could really be. Although she knew they weren't, her ears felt like they were bleeding.

She slid, taking a turn just as bullets riddled the ground at her feet. It quickly became very clear to Maija that these people weren't trying to kill her. Only incapacitate her. But the screams of people in the distance washed that hopeful thought away, stinging tears blurring her vision, blinding her.

Maija kept running. She kept running and running and running until it felt as if her legs would give way, her lungs burning with each breath. At some point it had started raining, drenching her clothes and covering every inch of her skin in goosebumps. But she kept running. Taking sporadic turns left and right, giving cover from anyone chasing from behind.

Her vision blurred. Her mind felt so exhausted. She needed rest but adrenaline forced her forwards. She was lost. Her memory failing her. The sound overwhelmed everything. Cannon fire, gunfire. The screams. The screams wouldn't go away all washed away by rain pattering against concrete.

Maija tripped, fell. Her jaw landed hard against the ground. The taste of blood filled her mouth. Her body raged against her mind. It begged, pleaded for rest. But she pushed herself up, scrapping the skin from her hands and elbows. She put her feet underneath her body and kept moving until the sight of her ship brought a relief that rejuvenated her. Brought back that hope that kept her moving. It was still in one piece and there was no one in sight.

Tucking her gun into the back of her trousers, Maija ran, full force, down the long concrete dock, feeling as if the ship at its end was moving farther and farther away, the dock stretching impossibly into the distance.

She had closed half the distance to the ship when bright orange light filled her vision. Then something exploded so loud everything went silent. Maija was thrown off her feet and launched backwards. Her back landed hard, and the breath was knocked from her lungs.

Coughs ripped from her throat as she tried to suck in air. Hands grabbed her arms and hoisted her up. She kicked but they easily overpowered her. Pain pricked at the joints in her shoulders and elbows as her arms were bent backwards.

Then she saw what was in front of her. Maija screamed. No coherent word was said as the sound of splintering stone made her cringe. The explosion had decimated her ship and torn through the stone dock, the rock end crumbling to pieces and falling, in a blaze, down towards the void. Maija fell to her knees but the hands at her arms held her up.

She wanted to cry but the tears never fell. She wanted to fall, feel the ground underneath her but they didn't let her. Something hard slammed against the side of her head and blackness ate everything away.

Wake up. Wake up. Wake up! WAKE UP!

Maija sat up, pulling a breath. She blinked, looked around. She was in a metal cell. Claustrophobia so cold pressed against Maija's body. The wall's icy metal surfaces closed in on her. She could see them moving.

She clenched her teeth and fell back to the ground, pushing closed fists into her eyes. A cold sweat broke out across her face and bullets dripped down her back.

With a speed that made her head spin, Maija stood, turning around, and grabbed metal bars blocking off a small window. Fresh air filled her lungs. Dry and hot but fresh. The feeling slowly faded and Maija let her eyes slowly droop closed. Not until see noticed what lay beyond the window.

Not was lay behind the window, but what didn't. She looked out into an empty sky. Not an island, not a wall, not a ship in sight. Nothing but clouds and sky, a bright sun beaming down from somewhere behind her.

It wasn't out of the ordinary, but something seemed so unnatural about the emptiness that clouded around the ship she was locked in. As if something was missing but her tired, exhausted mind couldn't place what.

She fell back down, being pulled by her own weight, her legs not strong enough to hold her for long. She had little time to question the emptiness much longer before she faded back slowly into unconsciousness, her head coming to rest at the base of the wall.

Maija woke up not much later, a weight holding her right arm down so heavy she didn't think she could move it. Her mind was still groggy, but she had wakened up for the most part. It took one movement for her to realize that the weight on her arms wasn't unbearable but relatively light.

A curiosity gripped her fear and pushed it away. Maija sat up against the wall. She was still locked inside the same cell she had woken up in previously but clinging tightly to her right arm was a grappling hook. Two bronze, undamaged canisters sat, snuggled into their compartments along the top.

She'd only ever held a grappling hook once and that one had been damaged. Maija stretched her arm out, gripping tightly to the handle at the end of the hook. There was a button along the side, able to be pushed with her thumb. Maija pushed it.

There was a release of air and then a loud whchink! that made Maija flinch. In an instant, the metal hook at the end of the device flew forwards and imbedded itself in the metal wall across from her and pulled the rope after it with little recoil. She pulled hard on it. Despite the hooks small- arrowhead- size, it held to the wall with a surprising amount of strength. Pushing the button again, the hook disconnected from the wall and quickly sorted itself back into grappling hook, winding the rope around a wooden spool at the back of the device. Again, with no recoil.

How did she get this? Why would her captors equip her with a functioning grappling hook? The one she had found for herself had been blown up when-

When her ship was destroyed. Makhai. Where was he? Had he been… The last she had seen him he had been inside the ship. He wouldn't have stayed there after realizing something was wrong, right? She should have felt worried, but all that Maija could feel was hope. Burning hope that he hadn't been anywhere near their ship when it had been destroyed by cannon fire.

Maija was alone now. No one in this cell with her. She stood and slowly turned in a circle, taking in her surroundings. This ship was massive, just based off the size of the room she was in. There was a window across from the door which looked out into empty space, letting cool, fresh air into the cell. There wasn't an island in sight.

She sighed and sat back down, fiddling with a series of switches along the front of her new equipment. Maija fired it again, the hook weaving through the bars of her cell. Holding down one switch let more rope from the end of the hook, while flipping it the other way pulled the rope tight. It even started pulling Maija up to her feet.

An idea lit inside Maija's mind. An idea she quickly began to doubt. There had to be something to this. Some sort of trap. A trick. Why would this gang, New Unity, give her the equipment to escape from them? There had to be something more.

Maija drew in the grappling hook's rope until her arm was halfway across the bars forming the door to the cell. Grabbing a bar with her free hand, she pulled against the hook with her right arm and pushed with her left. Pulling the switch back, the grappling hook tried to pull in more rope, but Maija resisted, focusing all that force into pushing against the bar.

Her teeth clenched and she braced her arm against the bar, trying her best not to snap her wrist. A loud grinding came from the grappling hook and her entire arm started to shake. Maija ignoring it, now lifting her leg up and pushed with her knee. She turned her face to the sky, squeezing her eyes closed, holding in a grunt as it felt as if the bones through her left forearm were about to break.

Two things happened next. The bar snapped, half of Maija's body falling through the gap its absence created. And the entire grappling hook jolted forwards, crackling orange sparks shooting out from the back. The rope snatched back, the force pushing the grappling hook- and Maija with it- forwards and through the opening in the wall. She fell forwards, tripped while reaching around trying to catch herself all before landing face up on the metal floor. Part of the metal bar, still hanging from the ceiling, fell and clanged against the ground.

Maija couldn't believe that had worked. She clambered up to her feet and grabbed the metal bar, using it as some sad attempt at a weapon. There was another doorway out of this room, it had been left open. She peeked out, looking out into a long corridor, all made of metal. There was no one in view.

She stepped out, moving carefully. Her footsteps could not sound louder. But theirs were louder. Two men reared around a turn, walking down the same corridor Maija was. She ducked into the nearest room and waited for them to pass. This room looked like someone's sleeping area. Two made beds sat in each corner of the room, a crate at the foot of each. Everything else was undecorated.

Maija moved back into the corridor, tracing back the two men's steps. They had come from a stairway going both up and down. Instincts told her to go down and she followed. Going up would only lead her father from the ground which, now that she had a working grappling hook, didn't seem like all that much a problem anymore.

She went down anyway, peeking beneath doorframes for anyone passing by. Two floors down and the stairs came to an end. The last deck opened to one massive cargo hold stretching the entire length of the ship, filled from wall to wall, floor to ceiling with crates of all sizes and materials. Shortly after the stairs, the deck dropped to a ramp that hung over empty space. A hole in which Maija could only see sky through.

Wind gusted through the opening, pulling at her clothes and hair. Maija stepped forward, inching closer and closer to the opening. There was nothing beyond it. Nothing but clouds and air.

"There's no way you're getting off this ship," someone said behind her. Maija spun around, almost losing her balance. A man stood behind her. Arms crossed in front of his chest. He wore a tan hunter's jacket completely free of wrinkles. A holster hung from a leather belt and sat against black trousers. He wore a cowl made from more cloth, covering his face entirely. "Not without help at least."

"What do you want from me?" Maija shouted, speaking up over the wind behind her. Maija rose the pipe up, gripping it with both hands. "Why me?"

"Maija, I need you to cooperate with-."

She cut him off. "How do you know my name? How do you know it!" Panic gripped her and she made no attempt to keep it off her face.

The man remained silent. Glaring at her with invisible eyes. She glanced away, trying to find anything else to cast her gaze on. Finally, the man moved. First dropping his hands to his sides. Then he took a step towards her. Maija jumped back, missing the hole in the floor by a foot.

"Look at you," the man muttered to himself in just over a whisper, shaking his head. "Running like a scared animal."

"Stop patronizing me."

"Cooperate with me and I can insure you'll see your father again," the man said so suddenly Maija dropped the pipe just slightly. "Well, Makhai. As you refer to him."

"Stop."

The man again, remained silent. Looking at Maija. Watching her. Finally, he said, "Bring her to me."

Maija spun around at those words but not in time, someone grabbed onto her and other to the metal bar in her hands and wrestled it out. She fought either way, tried to swing it out of his grip but failed, someone else's hand latched to her shoulder. She ducked but one of them predicted it and landed a punch against her side. Maija grunted and fell to her side not even for a second before she was lifted back up and moved towards the man with the cowl.

Between the folds of the cloth covering his face. Through the darkness that kept his face in shadow, Maija could see his eyes now. They looked neither hostile nor friendly. Based solely on his eyes, her mind didn't know whether to fear him or not.

But even though he had decided to keep his true intentions well hidden, she didn't.

She scowled at him and fought with the men who had quickly removed the grappling hook from her arm and bound her wrists in rope which nipped and bit at her skin. Maija spoke through gritted teeth, tears pricking her eyes.

"I'll kill you. Like you killed Makhai."

He scoffed. "Oh please, I would deserve a much… grander death after all I've done. Besides, Makhai isn't dead."

The tears burned at her eyes, her vision blurring. Maija refused to let them fall but they trickled down her cheek anyway. She spoke in no more than a whisper, "I don't believe you."