by Eva Brandt
“I highly doubt that, Charybdis. Knowing them, they’d find a way to use it against us even if they’re not convinced it’s our fault.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
As Pollux landed, Brendan took a few more moments to give us our final instructions. “All right. Put on your best masks. We’re going to need to pretend this went well. As far as we know, Selene is still with her mother. We’ll have to look put out by the delay, maybe even grumble about it in public. I’ll report to my father and then try to look up the best coordinates to enter the Quasar. They might have changed since the last time we were there, and we don’t know what garrisons the apsids have in the area.”
“And what do we do after that?” Knox asked. “Do we just abandon everything and leave?”
“I don’t think we have any other option,” Brendan replied. “There’s no real time for subterfuge. We’ll try to be discreet so no one attempts to stop us, but our priority is to get to the Quasar.”
That wasn’t really a plan, since from there, we’d still have to find a method to free Selene. The apsids would hardly hand her over because we asked nicely. But I trusted Brendan to come up with something that would at least give us a chance. In the meantime, I’d play along and act as thrilled as I should have been.
Truth be told, this role was easier for me to play than it was for the others. When I got off the shuttle, the only thing I had to do was make a beeline for Charybdis. I greeted Lord Welton politely, but after that, Charybdis pulled me aside.
Her behavior didn’t surprise anyone, since chimeras were known to act oddly whenever they woke up from a dormant state. Our situation was also unique and complex, so Lord Welton wouldn’t deem Charybdis’s actions odd. I didn’t want to abandon my friends and lovers to a horrible conversation with him, but Brendan could handle it. He’d done crazier things and the news that Selene was still alive gave us all the incentive we needed to keep a cool head.
“Can you say the same about yourself?” Charybdis asked me softly when I returned to her cockpit. “Will you be able to handle this battle, August?”
I clutched the controls of my chimera and watched as my veins lit up with fire. It almost looked like I didn’t have blood rushing through my body at all, but lava.
I’d seen this sort of thing before, an hour or so ago. I hadn’t gotten a great look at the apsid, but his physical form had been humanoid and his veins had glowed from within, just like mine.
“Charybdis, what the hell is wrong with me?”
Was this some kind of effect of the radiation poisoning I’d suffered? Was that why I had so much trouble controlling my tachyon manipulation skills? I didn’t know and honestly, it scared me. It was the worst possible time in the world for me to drop the ball. Selene and the others needed me, damn it.
“I have my suspicions about the cause of your condition, August,” Charybdis replied. “But… This won’t be something easy to hear, and I think it’s best that we discuss it with everyone at the same time.”
I fully intended to push her, to ask her to tell me more. Brendan and the others were still talking to Welton and I didn’t have the patience to retreat to some place more private.
I never got the chance to speak. The coms chirped with the sound of an incoming transmission. “What is it now?” I asked, exasperated.
“I’m not sure,” Charybdis replied, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant, “but I think you should take this call.”
I had no desire to talk to anyone except my friends, but I trusted Charybdis’s assessment, so I obeyed. The moment I activated the coms, I froze at the sight of the person who appeared on my display screen.
“Oh, thank Tartarus,” the woman in question sobbed. “I’d almost lost all hope that I’d be able to reach anyone.”
It was Penelope Welton. Her usually immaculate hair was all over the place and she looked paler than Brendan had been when he’d thought Selene was dead. Her dress was askew and her jewelry missing.
I’d never interacted that much with Brendan’s former fiancée. She didn’t like me, because she saw me as an obstacle in her path. But she reserved most of her hatred for Knox, who’d been the one to keep Brendan from her before Pollux and I had ever entered the picture. She hadn’t displayed any disdain for my Terran background, though, and in return, I’d made no real derisive comments, choosing to let Brendan handle his own affairs as he saw fit.
I couldn’t come up with a single reason why she’d contact me of all people, but something was obviously very wrong.
“Lady Welton, what can I do for you? Are you hurt? Under attack?”
She shook her head and her eyes filled with tears. “No, that’s not it. This isn’t about me. I tried to reach Prince Brendan, but he must have blocked my com-link or something similar. Flight Lieutenant Cavallero, there’s something horrible going on.”
“Something horrible?” I repeated, alarm bells starting to ring in my head. “What do you mean?” Was she just referring to the recent attack on Gaia’s Haven? No, it couldn’t be. I doubted she’d consider that sort of thing important enough to warrant such a desperate call. At most, she’d deem it distasteful, but it wouldn’t upset her so much.
“I found a folder in my father’s files,” she said. “It contained… It contained some secret notes. They’re on human experimentation. Flight Lieutenant Cavallero, Stella Donadieu’s name was listed in the folder and so was yours. I’m at least ninety percent sure that they want to use you as chimera fuel because you’re part-apsid.”
Unlikely Allies
Pollux
Ash. Blood. Loss. Heat. Guilt.
The thoughts had been swirling in my head over and over, ever since I’d watched Selene being carbonized in front of me. I’d honestly believed I’d die with her. Stella’s shade had been trying to tell me something important. My selfishness and refusal to accept facts had led us to this disaster.
The news of Selene’s survival cracked me open and gave me hope. But I knew the battle was only just beginning.
When we arrived at Chimera Academy and met up with Paul Welton, my resolve almost faltered. “Congratulations on your successful mission,” he told us. “I take it the nest of rebels has been obliterated.”
“Of course,” Brendan replied. “I’ll give my father all the details when I speak to him.”
“I’m sure he’ll be pleased as well. In the meantime, you can take a few hours off if you want to. I’m afraid Acting Pilot Renard hasn’t returned from her lessons yet, but there’s still plenty of enjoyment you can find in Tartarus City.”
I’d never felt more tempted to crack the ground open and bury this asshole in the depths of the asteroid. But I refrained, since he was unknowingly giving us a great tool, the opportunity to leave without being questioned. “We’ll consider it,” I said.
Brendan nodded slowly. “It wouldn’t hurt to visit some of the more… civilized areas. I did want to give Selene a better tour since we never got the chance. She might enjoy seeing some of the things in the Aphrodite Boudoir.”
I almost laughed, because ironically, that was true. August and I had mostly shared the worst part of the city with our lover, but there were places where sex workers did receive good treatment and even enjoyed their career. The Aphrodite Boudoir was a personal favorite for people who weren’t really inclined to advertise their private business on the streets of the city, and my fellow Chimera Warriors and I had been regular clients there before we’d met Selene.
Lord Welton blinked at us in surprise and confusion. Perhaps he hadn’t expected us to agree so quickly, or at all. Still, he didn’t deem it suspicious and instead jumped at the chance to wriggle his way back into Brendan’s favor. “I’m happy to hear you’re keeping an open mind. I’m sure that in the future, Penelope will also be able to assist you with such details.”
“With respect, Lord Welton, I doubt it. Penelope deserves better than to be used as a sexual object by a man who has no intention of pursuing a serious
relationship with her.” Brendan offered Welton a smile small enough to be mistaken as genuine. “I know you’re angry and offended because of this incident, and I think neither of us has dealt with it the right way. But I do wish your daughter the best, and I’m convinced she’ll find a wonderful husband, someone who is a better match for her than I’d ever be. Since today has gone so well, let us start over. I wish for every member of The Grand Judiciary—including you—to accept my decision when it comes to the future mother of my children. I’m confident that it’s the best possible thing for our dynasty.”
Brendan had no real reason to provide Welton with explanations or apologies, but the olive branch served a different purpose. Welton would undoubtedly be convinced that our success on Terra had reassured Brendan and given him a better perspective. Despite his bad relationship with his father and his defiant ways, Brendan had never crossed the line with The Grand Judiciary. Most Chimera nobility acknowledged and valued the fact that he was the pilot of the Typhon, which was no easy task. Lord Welton might begrudge Brendan for rejecting Penelope, but at the end of the day, he’d prioritize his own relationship with the crown over his daughter’s dignity.
“Yes, of course,” he said, just like I’d expected. “I completely understand. I admit my desire to see Penelope in an excellent marriage got the better of me, but in this, you are likely correct.”
The whole thing was so nausea-inducing I admired Brendan for his ability to not throw up. “He’s a prince,” Scylla pointed out. “He has an immunity to bullshit.”
When coming from Scylla, the profanity sounded a little hilarious and lightened the load on my heart a little. It was undoubtedly what she’d intended. “No, he doesn’t. He’s just very good at pretending.”
“It won’t be for nothing. You’ll…”
She trailed off, and the pause alarmed me. “Scylla?”
“We need to get rid of Paul Welton at once. There’s been a development.”
Brendan twitched, a barely perceivable grimace that told me Typhon must have mentioned this to him as well. At the same time, August came out of the Charybdis. He seemed perfectly calm, but I took one look at him and knew he was anything but.
“Lord Welton, my unit and I need to head into the decontamination shower now,” Brendan said. “We appreciate your support in this matter, as well as the aid you granted Charybdis in our absence.”
“It was my honor,” Welton replied, bowing in respect to Brendan’s station.
Since we were observing all the formalities now, we saluted in turn. Fortunately, the decontamination excuse worked well, and we were able to leave Welton behind in the hangars without too much trouble. Brendan ushered us toward the shower areas, all the while remaining silent. Since we were still in a public open space, I knew better than to ask him what was going on, so instead, I asked Scylla. “What in Tartarus’s name happened?”
“August received an important communication from Penelope Welton. We believe she may be able to help us with our plan.”
Wait, what? Brendan’s would-be wife? That Penelope?
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why would she want to do that?”
“People aren’t just good or bad, Pollux. They all have their reasons for their actions.”
“I’m not debating human nature with you right now, Scylla. I don’t care about her morals. She doesn’t like us, and that’s a fact. She despises Selene, and she’s made that more than clear. Why would you think she’d help us?”
“Out of self-preservation, mostly,” Scylla replied.
She sounded smug, almost predatory, and that gave me more confidence than a simple reassurance ever could. Scylla trusted about as many people as I did, and Penelope wasn’t one of them.
I didn’t receive the actual explanation until we got to the showers. There were cameras here, but August could deactivate them remotely without anyone feeling suspicious. Such equipment always tended to glitch in shower areas, and we’d often taken advantage of this to steal a few moments together.
As soon as we were behind closed doors, I turned toward Brendan and asked, “Penelope? Really?”
“I’m just as surprised as you are and honestly, I’m not sure I trust her. But I don’t think we can afford to be picky and I doubt she’d joke around with stuff like this.”
August sighed and plopped down on a bench, in front of the lockers. “Pollux, she… She mentioned Stella.”
Ice flooded my veins all over again. Spots started dancing in front of my eyes. Selene’s burning figure and accusing eyes flashed through my mind, and in those beautiful, dark depths, I saw hatred, pain, and rejection.
It was only for a moment, and then, with Scylla’s aid, I recovered. I couldn’t afford to fall apart now. I’d do it later, once Selene was safe and no longer at risk of being raped, tortured, and murdered by aliens.
“And you expect me to believe that she wants to help just because she felt bad for my dead sister?” I asked, proud when my voice only trembled a little. “She has no reason to care.”
“Not necessarily, no,” August agreed, “but it appears that, because of what she saw, she fears The Grand Judiciary will do the same thing to her.”
“She’s not wrong,” Brendan mused. “They might not normally do so, but if they find out she stuck her nose where she wasn’t supposed to, they’ll get rid of her and use her for their experiments.”
No matter how many issues I had with Penelope Welton, I didn’t wish that fate on anyone. I could see why Scylla would believe Penelope, based on that little tidbit.
“There’s more,” August continued. “According to the files she found, I’m part-apsid.”
“Part apsid?” Knox repeated in disbelief. “You’re joking.”
August let out a sharp, lost laugh. He was obviously struggling with these new revelations as much as I was, but was trying to keep it together for Selene’s sake. “I wouldn’t joke with something like this, Knox. It looks like The Grand Judiciary’s experiments are older than we thought and some of them were successful. I’m among the few children born out of an apsid-human union.”
I believed him. I remembered the way the doctors had crowded around August when they’d thought he’d died at Hyperion Base 35. Everything that had happened then made so much sense now, as did August’s previous particularities, his stronger affinity for fire, and his increased resilience to tachyon overload. And really, it made sense that there had been some successes in the countless trials The Grand Judiciary had organized. Otherwise, they would’ve never taken my sister—a noble—to act as their guinea pig.
“I’m sorry, Pollux,” August whispered. “I think that maybe… Maybe my closeness to you might have influenced their decision to pick Stella for the next trials. They might have thought she and I had a relationship and she’d survive the experiments because of that.”
At this point, anything was possible. I couldn’t exclude it, because it was the exact type of twisted logic The Grand Judiciary would use. But that didn’t mean I’d blame August for this. “Stella’s death wasn’t your fault. My parents could have protected her. They didn’t. That’s on them. And anyway, we can’t focus on that right now. We have other priorities. Would this information really make Penelope Welton give us reliable aid?”
“She might help us, but it’s just as likely that she’ll turn on us,” Brendan replied with a sigh. “If she’s in this mess, it’s because of me, because I rejected her. She doubtlessly blames me for it. I wouldn’t exclude the possibility of her trying to get even with us like this. But on the other hand…”
“On the other hand, what?” August prodded.
“We need all the help we can get. Tartarus only knows how much time Selene has already spent with the apsids. If we don’t hurry, there might not be anything left to save. So… Is it too risky to rely on my ex-fiancée, or is it worth taking the chance?”
I thought about Selene’s smile and everything she’d said the day I’d confronted my sister’s shade. She�
�d confessed that she loved us, even if she didn’t always understand us. She’d already given us so much, and we’d betrayed and lied to her.
“Selene is worth everything,” I replied. “Let’s go for it. But we have to make sure Penelope doesn’t stab us in the back.”
“I’m with Pollux,” Knox agreed. “It’s dangerous, but it might work, if we put some pressure on her.”
August got up from the bench and straightened his back. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Very well,” Brendan said. He retrieved his tablet from his uniform and tapped a few buttons on the display. “Let’s pray this works, because if we mess up, it might get us all killed.”
“Even if it does, it will still be worth it,” Knox replied. “We have to try.”
I shook my head, determination surging through me, more powerful than ever before. I didn’t care if I died, but a mere attempt to save Selene didn’t satisfy me. “Trying isn’t enough. We have to succeed.”
Any other option was unacceptable. Selene’s story couldn’t end this way. I refused to accept it. No matter what happened, we’d make sure Selene’s light was never extinguished by the fire of the apsids.
* * *
Brendan
Paul Welton’s personal home was located on one of the secondary asteroids around Tartarus Base, like the palace of the Chimera royal family. Getting there without being noticed would’ve been an impossibility. But I didn’t need to do that. Penelope could be very resourceful when she wanted to be.
With the excuse that we’d be visiting Aphrodite’s Boudoir, we left the academy and headed to Tartarus City. No one in the settlement questioned our presence, and we were allowed to pass with barely a glance.
The same could not be said about the shuttle we were waiting for. Most vessels that came from the outside had to go through Charon’s Barge, unless they received a special authorization of passage, like we had. The sensors around the asteroid detected every ship that approached, which meant that no one could board Tartarus Base without being spotted.
