Cloud Riders(83)

Cassie, stay put. When Arietis slingshots back towards the dogs, shove him as hard as you can up and out into the galaxy. Then I want you to stay and protect the two stars, Canis Major and Canis Minor. I wouldn’t put it past Aldebaran to deploy another bounty hunter, knowing Arietis has just lost his heart to his daughter . He winked and shook his head. You’re really shaking things up a bit, my beauty.

‘But this isn’t real,’ she motioned at her angelic glow and attire. ‘Maybe I should invite him home for coffee to see the real me who trudges around in T-shirts and gumboots.’

You underestimate yourself, sweetheart. To me, you look like you do right now all the time.

She couldn’t help grinning at his sweetness. Gee, it feels good to be loved even if his love is obviously blind. She chuckled to herself as she turned to see what their renegade star was up to.

As soon as she swung around, Arietis took off at lightning speed. She closed her eyes, imagining him high up in the universe somewhere. Throwing out her hands towards him with a power that just kept getting stronger, she watched as her magic shot Arietis out into space, the Cloud Riders hot on his tail, moving so fast their silhouettes shimmered out of focus. Now that they were out of sight, she kept watch. She knew Pops would have something else up his sleeve and she wanted to be ready.

Just as expected, Cassie felt a roar and the sky seemed to shake. The team had spent many hours explaining all the different stars to her. That’s why she could now easily identify that this was an unpredictable Dwarf nova, ready to explode any minute. Pops must have been furious and driven to the extreme to have risked exposing himself to Zoren like this. He would surely pay for such an attack on so many of the constellations at once.

A closer inspection, confirmed her thought, that it was a Su Ursae Majoris star. It was already sending out bursts of flames from the explosions on the surface. If it exploded now, the outer layer could blow away at many thousands of kilometres an hour, destroying the targeted dog constellations as well as damaging many others. What is he thinking, being so dramatic? He sure had one hell of a temper.

As it neared, Cassie closed her eyes and imagined sending it in the opposite direction that she had thrown the Arietis star. The team had enough to deal with as it was. She felt Starburst sending a shot of energy to help her and throwing her arms up, she shoved it hard and fast towards a safe location where it could cause no damage. However, before it was far enough away, it started to explode. Pieces broke away, scattering in all directions as it shot up into outer space heading for many of the constellations that surrounded her.

All Cassie could do was to keep the dangerous missiles that they had become, from causing any damage, quickly and precisely blasting them into harmless puffs of dust. She nearly missed a piece that got awfully close to the Gemini star but managed to destroy it just before it hit. The core went out of control, spun and turned as it exploded again, heading straight for Canis Major. Snatching it up with her mind, Cassie threw it back out into black space of nothingness where it should have gone in the first place. The impact had so much force in it that this time it was dead in the water, no harm to anyone.

With the stars now safe, she sat on guard again when a shocking pain shot through her. She buckled for a second before the pain released her. Checking herself out, she found no wounds. What in the hell was that? she thought, still stretching out her arm, checking out the area the pain was coming from.

She could hear Kayden. He was yelling an order to save Conor. He and his horse were hit and he’d been thrown from his horse on impact. He’s falling towards you.

She swung her eyes above her head, seeing him coming towards her at a hell of a speed. She closed her eyes and put him on a cloud, slowing his fall and gently lowering him onto Starburst with her. He was hurt badly, blood oozing out of a wound. Something else was not right either. As she slid him gently in front of her, he groaned as his body leant back against hers.

‘Sorry,’ she said, holding him firmly so he didn’t fall off.

His horse was still flying but in a bad state as well. Kayden had the reins, bringing it back to him. In between groans, Conor was telling her they had tried to extinguish the star without Woody but not having the dynamics of five, the star unexpectedly spun out of control and sideswiped him.

Kayden commanded the horses to land on the Canis Major star so he could do a patch-up job on Conor and Conor’s horse. Even though damaged, Arietis had not been disabled and still posed as a threat. This left Kayden no choice but to put Cassie in harm’s way for her to keep watch for him when they landed, while he attended to the injured team members.