by John Coon
“This is happening so fast,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m ready to leave my home and never come back.”
Bo’un cast a worried stare at both dead bodies and then glanced back at the main shop door. No one else had tried to come inside, but his expression told Calandra he suspected their immediate peace would meet an abrupt end if they waited any longer.
“Neither of us wants this,” Bo’un said. The tone in his voice grew more forceful. “I get it. I really do. I have a family too. But our choices are growing limited. These people waited here specifically to ambush us.”
Calandra harbored the same suspicions. Evidence supporting his conclusion added up in her mind. She wondered if Delcor used them as bait all along to lure out Ominade and other rebels from the shadows. If his agents indeed found and executed the band of rebels, it meant both she and Bo’un had outlived their usefulness to the chief sovereign.
They needed to flee from Ra’ahm before the door closed on their freedom and their lives forever.
“I think we better find another way out of here.” Calandra glanced at the main door. “My guess is more of the chief sovereign’s agents are watching for us, waiting to shoot us down once we walk outside the door.”
“You make a good point,” Bo’un replied. “Look around. There must be an escape tunnel or a hidden exit somewhere in here.”
Calandra rose to her feet. She joined him in scouring the empty room. They trailed their fingers along the walls and over shelves, searching for hidden buttons or sensors connected to a secret passage or door enabling a quick unseen escape.
She stooped down and ran her hand underneath the counter. At once, a sharp creaking noise greeted her ears. Calandra straightened up, wheeled around, and spotted a perfectly square hole on the floor between the counter and the wall. A section of wooden flooring slid inside a hidden slot, creating an opening large enough to admit an adult human.
“I think I found an alternate way out.” She cast her eyes over at Bo’un. “I triggered a sensor that opened a trap door to a tunnel or cellar.”
“Let’s hope you’re right for both our sakes,” he said.
Narrow stairs led down into thick darkness. Calandra cursed her luck. She did not have a portable light on her. None were on hand inside the shop either. Climbing down below the floor without a light source was not an option. Experience taught her one false step could lead to a shattered foot. Or worse.
“We need a light, Bo’un.” Calandra flashed a concerned frown back at him. “I can’t risk stumbling around in darkness with my brittle bones.”
He nodded and drew out a finger-length tube filled with translucent liquid from a pouch on his belt. Bo’un bent the tube toward him and let it snap back into place. The fluid swimming inside lit the tube up like a handheld ray of sunlight. He tossed it down the square hole ahead of them. The glowing tube exposed a narrow, arched tunnel leading away from the stairs.
Calandra climbed down the stairs. She grasped rounded vertical handrails flanking each side of the stairs to support her balance and footing. Bo’un waited until Calandra reached the bottom stair and then climbed down behind her. She walked a few steps forward. At once, the section of flooring slid out again and sealed the opening above their heads.
Calandra flinched. Her heart pounded while she gazed up at the top of the stairs. If this did not lead to an actual exit, they would die trapped down here.
“Stick close to me,” Bo’un said. “We’ll see where this tunnel goes.”
He snatched the glowing tube off the ground and started forward. A series of pops echoed down the tunnel. Short horizontal lights running across both walls sprang to life. Each embedded light resembled the tube Bo’un used to illuminate their path down the stairs. Abundant light now swallowed up what darkness lingered ahead.
The tunnel opened into a cramped room after they walked only a short distance. Calandra’s eyes darted from wall to wall when she stepped inside the room. A series of chest-high shelves occupied much of the floor space. Most were empty or held items one would expect to find in a random storage room. Her eyes settled on a longer shelf mounted against the back wall.
She gasped.
This was no ordinary storage room.
Metallic plates and books, mirroring the records she studied inside the Central Archives, lay stacked on each row of the shelf. Calandra’s eyes trailed across each one.
“There must be dozens of records stored inside this room,” she said. “I wonder who made these records.”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Bo’un said. “I do know one thing—if we stay here too long, we’re begging for more trouble.”
Calandra agreed with Bo’un in principle. Survival took priority over curiosity. Then again, they would not get another chance to examine these records. If Ominade went to such great lengths to hide them away from prying eyes, the records must hold valuable information.
“Guard the doorway.” She glanced back at Bo’un. “I’m going to take a closer look.”
Calandra approached the long shelf and picked up a book. She thumbed through metallic pages. It held meticulous records. Letters. Reports. Memos. Dates, events, and places linking the chief sovereign to unspeakable crimes. A distinct feeling struck her that the evidence from her trip to the Central Archives with Alayna was also here in these documents.
If that were true, though, why did Ominade withhold these records from her eyes? She reached out to Calandra in the beginning. Surely the rebel knew she would not have betrayed her confidence. Not with evidence of this magnitude. Of course, Calandra also realized she would have dismissed it all as a fabrication not too long ago.
“How many of these can you fit in your chest pouch?”
Bo’un furrowed his brow and glanced over at the tunnel. He fixed his eyes on her again and shook his head.
“Is that wise? Someone will notice if these records suddenly go missing.”
“If someone other than Ominade and her rebel contacts was aware these records existed, they would have vanished. This is evidence implicating the chief sovereign.”
Calandra started piling metallic books into her arms. She did not have enough time or strength to carry them all with her. Working quickly, she tried to pick out ones which—from a cursory glance—held enough valuable information to justify their rescue from this hidden room. Bo’un unstrapped his chest pouch and emptied the contents into his hand. He stuffed his arca vox inside a pants pocket and shoved a pair of books inside the pouch. Bo’un stretched the ebutoka leather tight over the metallic edges until it threatened to rip apart at the seams.
“Now let’s get out of here,” Calandra said.
They sprinted back into the tunnel. It branched off in another direction beyond the room. They followed this new path until reaching a sealed gray metal door. Bo’un slung the chest pouch across his chest again and raised his left armored sleeve. He moved his right hand over the door and the sides of the door. His motion triggered a hidden sensor. The door slid open with a whoosh and disappeared into a nearby slot.
Another darkened room stood before them.
“Do we dare go inside?” Calandra asked.
Her heart raced until it hammered her ribs. How far away were they from reaching Bo’un’s aerorover? They would need to cover ground to his vehicle in a pouring rainstorm while carrying tons of records. Was it possible to go that far without drawing unwanted attention?
“We can’t retrace the path we followed in here,” Bo’un replied. “This is our only path forward—like it or not.”
Calandra took a deep breath and uttered an unspoken prayer. If this offered their only way forward, they needed Ahm to shield her and Bo’un from potential dangers lurking outside the tunnel.
33
Windows revealed ashen storm clouds silhouetted by a scant amount of pale light. Calandra’s eyes instinctively drifted
to shadow cloaked corners. Large portable shelves covered much of the floor space. Each shelf held assorted goods ranging from handwoven baskets to polished stones. They had passed into another storage room.
Only this one held a door leading outside.
“We found our exit,” Bo’un said.
Calandra wondered if other unseen adversaries tracked them along this new route. Tracing their steps as they crossed through the room. Waiting for the right moment to cut them both down.
A sensor activated when they reached the exit door. It slid open with a whoosh. Bo’un drew out his eliminator again and poked his head outside. His eyes darted one way, then the other. He glanced back at Calandra and nodded. Bo’un saw no danger.
They had to flee to the aerorover.
“Let’s hope we don’t have more company,” he said.
The rainstorm had slowed to a drizzle when she stepped outside again. Calandra cradled metallic books and loose plates she gathered up from Ominade’s hidden room, tucked between her artificial arm and her chest. Going through the tunnel led them out to a narrow street on the opposite side from where they started.
“How are we going to make it back to your aerorover unseen?” she asked.
“We’ll get there,” he said. “Have faith.”
Bo’un set out on a brisk pace down the stone sidewalk. Calandra followed him with long-legged strides. They wanted to move fast while avoiding a full-on sprint that would draw unwanted attention. Once they rounded the corner, and she laid eyes on the aerorover again, Calandra let out a relieved sigh.
No visible sign of anyone watching or following.
Bo’un unsealed the magnetic locks and they both climbed inside. He extended the wings and retracted all four magnetic wheels. Then, Bo’un threw the main engine control knob forward. The aerorover shot upward until it hovered above scarlet treetops. It then shot forward and Bo’un charted a return course to Calandra’s apartment.
No other vehicles gave chase as they followed the sky lane leading back to her apartment. They got away easier than she expected. Such a development did not put Calandra at ease. Fears of hidden agents following them at a safe distance only grew stronger inside her.
“I can’t shake the feeling we’re being watched,” she said. “It’s like we’re back on Earth fleeing from hostile Earthians again.”
Bo’un answered her with an uneasy frown.
“This feels so much worse than dealing with the Earthians for me,” he said. “Apart from you, I don’t know who I can trust any longer.”
Calandra cast her eyes down at the plates and books resting on her lap. She started leafing through pages of a metallic book. She froze and doubled back to the first few pages. Somehow, Ominade obtained a travel log one of the chief sovereign’s agents created.
The log noted several trips to the Aramus system.
The same system the chief sovereign and the Stellar Guard insisted carried a travel ban when she first discovered the probe from Earth.
“This is a travel log from one of the chief sovereign’s agents.” Shock gripped Calandra’s voice. “It details multiple trips they made to the Aramus system.”
“Aramus?” Bo’un cast a quick sideways glance at her. “You mean to tell me he sent agents to Earth before we went to that planet?”
She shook her head.
“Their log entries don’t list a planet’s name. Only a description of their destination as a small red planet.”
“Didn’t we pass a red planet on the way to Earth?”
“We did. And Doni didn’t want us to visit that planet during our expedition even though it appeared desolate.”
Bo’un’s eyes locked into a straight-ahead unblinking stare as the aerorover approached Calandra’s apartment. He began descent maneuvers and the vehicle plunged from the sky lane down to the street below.
“Why would they go to a barren planet?” he finally said. “What are they hiding there?”
Calandra glanced up from the page she studied. She knew enough Separatist War history to recognize the implications of one repeated word in the document.
Hybrid.
Travel logs detailed regular visits to supply nutritional and medical support to a hybrid lying in stasis inside a hibernation pod on the red planet.
“Evidence,” she told Bo’un. “They’re hiding evidence of the Chief Sovereign’s war crimes.”
“War crimes?”
“He’s keeping hybrids in stasis. Keeping them ready to be used again.”
Bo’un’s face filled with fear.
“Hybrids? As in Rubrum-created hybrids?”
A lump formed in Calandra’s throat. It pained her to give an affirmative answer to his question. So many things taught to them about the Separatist War, starting from childhood, were nothing more than carefully crafted lies originating from Ra’ahm’s highest leaders.
“He did it,” she said with a morose inflection in her voice. “The chief sovereign unleashed a legion of hybrids on Confederation cities. Just like Confederation leaders claimed all along. He really committed those atrocities.”
Bo’un met her revelation with stunned silence. Calandra understood his wordless reaction. Learning the truth about Delcor and his evil nature shook her to the depths of her soul. She did not want these things to be real. She wanted to reclaim a long-lost naïveté where life’s biggest worry lay in choosing a trail to explore deep within the Aurora Mountains.
They dashed from the aerorover as soon as Bo’un parked the vehicle. Calandra kept the travel log with her. If spies were indeed watching and waiting, she did not want to let this record leave her sight.
Each second that passed while the elevator climbed toward her apartment crawled along at an excruciating pace. She wanted to scream at the wretched machine to move faster. Calandra knew she would never again lay eyes on the place she called home once she packed and walked out the door. Collecting Bella mattered most now. No time to mourn what she was leaving behind. A new future lay ahead for her—one which, through Ahm’s mercy, included a reunion with Xttra.
She only needed to survive long enough to get there.
Calandra and Bo’un attacked the hall at a brisk pace after the elevator doors slid open. When she reached her apartment door, Calandra froze. She cocked an ear toward the door.
Footsteps.
Inside her apartment.
Her green eyes grew as wide as plates. She wheeled around and stared like a frightened maniogo at Bo’un.
“Someone is inside.” Her voice descended to a whisper. “I heard them.”
Bo’un drew out his eliminator and aimed the barrel at the door. Calandra gulped and disengaged the magnetic lock. Her apartment door slid open with a whoosh. He stepped inside. She followed, hanging back a few steps.
They entered the living room at a measured pace. Bella poked her head out from under a couch cushion upon hearing Calandra and catching her scent. She refused to scurry out and greet her like normal. Unrestrained fear swam in the little cala’s yellow eyes.
An identical sensation washed over Calandra. Her heart throbbed like a hammer repeatedly struck it. Her breaths devolved into shortened bursts. She clenched her natural hand tight to quash forming tremors threatening to break free.
Hidden eyes watched her and Bo’un. Calandra did not see those eyes with her own, but she felt their presence all the same.
“Where are you?” she whispered. “Show yourself.”
The door to her studio opened.
Talan stepped out.
Bo’un swung his eliminator toward the treacherous navigator. His speed did not match Talan’s quickness. A laser bolt struck him directly below his chest pouch. Bo’un gasped. The bolt’s impact knocked him to the floor.
“Here I am.” Talan flashed a vicious smirk. “Now what do you plan to do?”
Calandra’s eyes fell on Bo’un. He groaned and raised his left armored sleeve holding razor discs. Talan shook his head and shot down the arm. He approached Xttra’s fallen weapons officer with an arrogant calmness and delivered a brutal kick to his forehead. Bo’un’s eyelids snapped shut and he slumped to the floor.
“Stay down!” Talan growled.
Calandra backed away from him. Her eyes darted from wall to wall, searching for anything she could turn into a weapon to defend herself. Terror seized every part of her body and squeezed with an iron grip. Her only weapon was to keep him talking. Distract him.
“Why are you doing this?” Her voice trembled as Calandra forced out the question. “I’ve done nothing to threaten you.”
“You’re a disgusting traitor.” Talan spit his accusation at her with added venom. “You conspire with rebels to unseat our sovereign from his place as our true leader.”
Calandra glanced down at the travel log still in her hands. She visualized throwing the metallic book at his head and retreating to a hiding place. Calandra dismissed that notion at once. He was too skilled with an eliminator. Talan would shoot her down without a second thought, exactly like he did with Bo’un.
“Why did you not leave well enough alone? Your obsessive search for Xttra led you down the wrong path.”
Calandra backed away from Talan, keeping her eyes fixed on his weapon. She now stood inside her kitchen.
“What did you do to Xttra?”
Talan smirked again.
“Not what I wanted to do. We set it up beautifully to assassinate him on Fengar and blame the deed on a dissident faction. Some Thetians disrupted our plans and abducted him.”
Calandra’s eyes filled with horror as he unfolded the fate intended for her husband.
“It doesn’t matter in the end,” Talan continued. “He’s out of the way. You and Bo’un were useful fools in leading us to a hidden network of rebels. They will pay a steep price for standing against our sovereign. As will you.”
