by M. R. Forbes
“But he’ll still be trapped,” Lia said.
“He’s working on a way out. He told me the means were close at hand.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure. Who knows how long he’s been in chains? He hasn’t found a way to break them, at least not without starving himself.”
“But something has changed, hasn’t it? With the arrival of your ship.”
“Has it?” Caleb replied. What had the Deliverance brought that had changed things? The energy unit? It was already on the Seeker, not in the Citadel. The only things from Earth in the Citadel were himself and Washington.
And Valentine.
“Shit,” he said. “I think I know. He wants the Axon technology. Teleportation, especially. What if the Inahri attack on the Axon has nothing to do with revenge? What if it has everything to do with capturing that tech?”
Riley claimed she knew about it, and she had shown she had some basic understanding, but that still wasn’t enough to build a portal.
But what if it was enough to get Arluthu on the right track? What if he could build a portal of his own? How would he use it? Where would he go with it?
He couldn’t survive without food. He couldn’t survive without fear. What if he could build a portal that would sever his bonds and transport him somewhere else? But where? He had taken Valentine to make her a Relyeh and to make her expertise part of the collective knowledge. If he learned where humankind had settled on Proxima, would he go there?
Going after the Axon wouldn’t work. They were mainly composed of Intellects, not living organisms. Caleb doubted the artificial intelligences would fear him. In fact, he wasn’t sure Arltuhu could even defeat them in an all-out war. It had taken the arrival of the Deliverance to end that stalemate.
And now everything was at risk because of it. All of humankind.
And they had no idea.
“Damn you, Valentine,” Caleb cursed.
“Sergeant?” Oni said.
“We have to do something,” Caleb said. “I need your help.”
“Sergeant Caleb, I still don’t completely understand. You want us to believe Arluthu is imprisoned because you saw it in the Kuu? How do we know the Kuu shows the truth? How do you?”
“It was real. I know it. Arluthu is playing with me like a cat plays with a mouse.”
“A what?” Lia said.
“Even if we believe you,” Oni said. “There is little we can do against an army of Inahri soldiers. We can tell the others exactly what you told us and they’ll think we’re crazy.”
“Do you think I’m crazy?”
“I don’t know. This is all very strange. But Tsi lost her faith in Arluthu because of what her lover saw. He said he got a glimpse of it through an Advocate before he overpowered it and removed it from his arm. But he didn’t say what it was.”
“I can guess,” Caleb said. “If Arluthu sends Harai for me, you’ll know I’m telling you the truth. He’ll force another Advocate on me. He has no choice if he wants to keep me under his control, and I think he does. If the others need proof to act, then we’ll have to get proof.”
“How?” Lia asked.
“I don’t know. If Harai comes for me, you need to find the other Earther here. His name is John Washington. He’s with the Unclaimed.”
“We aren’t allowed to go to that part of the Citadel,” Lia said.
“Even if I give you permission?”
Oni smiled. “If you give us permission.”
“How do I do that?”
“The machine there,” Lia said, pointing to the device Caleb didn’t understand. “Turn it on and tell it what you want. Ask it to print two clearances to the Unclaimed.”
Caleb hurried over to the machine, waving his hand in front of it. The projector activated, and he tapped the item labeled ‘Requests’ in Inahrai. “Print a clearance to the Unclaimed for Oni. Print a clearance to the Unclaimed for Lia.”
The machine didn’t speak, but he heard something happening in the box below it. A moment later, a tray emerged with two small silver discs in it. Caleb picked them up and carried them back to Lia and Oni. He glanced to his right as he did, noticing as the door to the cell began to slide open.
“We’re out of time,” he said, quickly handing them the discs. “Hide them wherever you can.”
Lia and Oni looked at one another. They were nearly naked. They slid closer together on the bed while Caleb turned around.
“Sergeant Caleb,” Colonel Ae said, passing through the living area and into the bedroom. Lieutenant Harai was right behind him. “I thought you would be undressed when we walked in.”
Caleb glanced back at the two women. “I wasn’t ready yet. The Kuu gave me a hell of a headache.”
“Show some respect to your superiors, Sergeant,” Harai snapped.
Caleb bowed his head. “My apologies, Colonel. Lieutenant. How can I serve you?”
“I have orders,” Colonel Ae said. “Our Lord Arluthu demands your participation in the upcoming assault. He believes your insight will be extremely valuable.”
“You have to know I won’t do that willingly, Colonel.”
“Of course,” Ae said. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Four guards hurried into the bedroom, dressed in some kind of combat armor. He couldn’t overpower them, especially without his augmented arm and the damn inhibitor on his neck.
“That won’t be necessary,” Caleb said, dropping to his knees. He grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head and off.
“Oni, Lia, you’re dismissed,” Harai said. “Return to your sleeping chamber.”
“Yes, Lieutenant,” they said in unison, jumping off the bed and hurrying from the room. Oni glanced back at Caleb before they disappeared, nodding just enough so he would know they would do as he asked.
“Ishek?” Caleb asked as Lieutenant Harai approached.
“Yes,” Harai replied. “Since you’ve already started the bond.” Harai rolled up the sleeve of his robe and knelt in front of Caleb. “You’ll do what Ishek makes you do.”
Caleb’s stomach was queasy at the idea of letting the Advocate back onto him and into his mind. Not that he had a choice. He had known this was going to happen. But would he be able to do what needed to be done?
The Advocate unwrapped itself from Harai, climbing down his arm toward Caleb. Caleb didn’t resist. He put his arm up, nearly taking Harai’s hand in his. Ishek climbed across, scurrying up Caleb’s arm and quickly winding itself around it.
Caleb closed his eyes as he felt the Advocate’s sharp legs dig into his flesh, making a new connection. A moment later, his headache faded away.
Greetings, Sergeant Caleb Card. Did you miss me?
Chapter 35
Space Force Marine Private John Washington narrowed his eyes, watching his opponent. The Inahri on the other side of the small circle was barely half his size, a runt of a man compared to the former college linebacker.
He still had no idea why any of this was necessary.
They were both wearing padded white shirts and pants the Inahri called kuji. The kuji were supposed to be protection during the training the Relyeh Inahri Unclaimed were forced to undertake on a daily basis, from early in the morning until the middle of the evening.
Nothing was going to protect the fighter opposite him from taking a beating.
It wasn’t arrogance. It was simple physics. He was three times the small man’s size. It wasn’t his opponent’s fault either. John was twice as large as the biggest Inahri he had seen. The alternate humans couldn’t build the same muscle mass, and equal footing with regard to weapons and armor meant everyone he was forced to square off against was severely overmatched.
He glanced up and to his right. There was a long, blank section of wall there, and he was sure there were Inahri behind it most of the time, observing the training. He had learned everything he needed to know about the Inahri military, the Might of Arluthu, during the first two hours he
had been in the Unclaimed barracks. He understood why Sergeant Harai hadn’t killed him, and how he had wound up here.
What he didn’t understand was why they kept running him out into the circle. He was unbeaten in twelve matches but had watched eight of the Inahri he had beaten leave the barracks for their new assignments with a Shing.
He was an Earther. The only one here. And it was obvious none of the units in the Might wanted him.
Not that he would ever fight for Arluthu in the first place. They had to know that too. They had dropped him into the Unclaimed barracks and told him to fight because Caleb said he was valuable, and resources like him were too rare to waste. It didn’t matter that he’d sooner kill every soldier on his squad than help fight against the colony or the Free Inahri. There were rumors that the commanders had ways of making a soldier fall in line.
Was that what had happened to Caleb?
He could relive the scene in the Seeker’s hangar with no effort, putting himself on the ground and watching as his friend and squad leader shot Sheriff Dante in the head. There was no hesitation. No complaint. A simple statement from Harai and he had murdered her in cold blood. It was one of the most chilling things he had ever seen.
If he didn’t know Caleb so well, he might have even believed he wanted to do it.
But that wasn’t Caleb. The person who pulled the trigger wasn’t the man who had saved him from himself. It wasn’t the man who had given him hope when those murderous assholes had taken it all away.
Something had gotten into Caleb’s head. Another of Valentine's experiments maybe? She had been there too, and he could believe she would turn traitor on them and the colony. She almost seemed eager to do it.
He would never believe Caleb was acting on his own. Not even if Caleb tried to kill him.
John felt something hit his shoulder, breaking him out of his head. The small Inahri had just whacked him with his practice sword, causing an electrical shock to go through his arm and the kuji to activate, holding it in place as if he had taken a paralyzing wound.
He didn’t need that arm anyway.
He jumped out of the man’s reach, crouching low and waiting for the Inahri to approach. The smaller man was more hesitant now that John was paying attention again, and he tried to dance lightly around him, staying on the side of his bad arm.
John decided to use it to his advantage. He moved toward the center of the circle, letting his opponent stay on his bad side. He backed away, and the Inahri followed. He had to force himself not to smile as he pretended to trip up.
The Inahri rushed in, sword high for a killing blow. John pivoted, staying low and diving into the man, tackling him in the chest and throwing him hard to the floor. The practice sword clattered across the ring, and John put his hand on the man’s throat.
“Submit,” he said.
“I submit,” the man replied, tapping a free hand on the floor.
John stood up and then held his good hand out to the Inahri, who took it and let himself be brought back to his feet.
“I thought I had you, Behemoth.”
John smiled. The other Unclaimed refused to call him John, Washington, or Wash. They preferred Behemoth. “I got a little distracted. A lot on my mind.”
The soldier bowed. John bowed back. He had met a lot of the Unclaimed over the two days or so he had been in the Citadel. They were friendly and honorable, eager to prove themselves and get selected for a Shing. They were enemies in the sense that their superiors had decided it, and he knew if he ever had to kill any of them it wouldn’t be at all personal.
That’s why he preferred war against the trife over war against other people. There was no question about who or what the trife were. Humans were somebody’s brother, sister, father or even mother. Killing them was hard, but maybe it would be easier to kill the Relyeh Inahri soldiers. They were taken from their families at birth and raised as a group. None of them knew who their parents or siblings were, and none of them seemed to care.
“Behemoth,” Sergeant Oli said, approaching him from behind.
“Yes, Sergeant?” John replied, turning to face the head of the Unclaimed.
“You’re finished for the day. Return to your cell for sleep.”
“Yes, Sergeant,” John said.
He stepped over the line that marked the confines of the circle, heading to the door beneath the viewing area. He took it down a short corridor to another door, which led out into a smaller passage. It was fifty steps to his barracks, where he opened the door and entered the long, narrow room. Fifty-two Inahri Unclaimed shared the cell, in two columns of double-racked bunks, thirteen rows to the head in the back.
John stopped at his bunk, pulling off his kuji before making a pit-stop in the bathroom. When he emerged, he quickly climbed onto his rack and closed his eyes. They only gave the Unclaimed a few hours to sleep, and he wasn’t going to miss a wink.
He slept like a Marine, always at the edge of wakefulness. When someone reached out for his arm, he was ready for it. His hand snapped over and grabbed the person’s wrist, but he didn’t squeeze. Not when he felt how small it was.
He raised his head and looked down. A woman with a shaved head was looking back up at him, her eyes wide with fear.
“Private Wash?” she said.
“Yeah,” he said. She knew his Marine rank and nickname. “Did Caleb send you?”
She nodded curtly. “He’s in trouble.”
“We’re all in trouble,” a second woman said. “Caleb was right.”
John swung his legs over the edge of the rack and jumped down between them. He had never seen a woman in the Unclaimed barracks before. Half the Inahri men said they wanted to get into a Shing so they could gain access to the other sex. “Let’s talk.” He pointed to the head.
They crept to the bathroom. John didn’t know what Oli would do if he found two women in the barracks. It probably wouldn’t be good.
“What’s going on?”
Chapter 36
“Wash, you can’t,” Lia said. “A thousand Inahri soldiers are surrounding the Dojo Shing, and you aren’t allowed to leave the Unclaimed barracks without an assignment.”
“Are you kidding?” John replied. “Some worm thing has Caleb under its control, and you want me to sit here and twiddle my thumbs? No. Sarge sent you to me for a reason, and that reason is to bust his ass free.”
“You’ll never make it,” Oni countered. “He sent us so we can develop a plan together.”
“So you believe what he said he saw?”
“I don’t know if everything he saw was accurate, but he said Harai would come for him and they would give him an Advocate, and they did. Arluthu is testing him. I don’t know why.”
“Because he survived two years of fighting the trife on Earth. Because he survived an invasion of trife on the Deliverance. Because he killed a trife queen. And when the Free Inahri incapacitated us, he rushed them when he could have run. Sergeant Card is a hero, in every sense of the word. And I know he is because he doesn’t know he is. He just does his job better than anyone I’ve ever seen. Who wouldn’t want that under their control?”
“Arluthu has it,” Lia said. “He’s sending his Might to the Deliverance tomorrow, Caleb with it. The Advocate knows everything Caleb knows.”
“Which means he has full intel on the ship’s defenses or lack of defenses. If they fight back, it’s going to be a slaughter.” John shook his head. “Those people aren’t ready to fight. It’s going to be a slaughter anyway if we don’t do something.”
Lia and Oni’s faces fell. They had relayed everything Caleb had told them to him. John was pleased to know his faith and complete loyalty were spot-on. It was a Relyeh creature that was controlling Caleb’s actions. The same creature had killed Dante. His pleasure ended there. Caleb was in deep, and helping him get out of this mess seemed almost impossible.
“First things first,” John said. He reached up to the small bump on the back of his neck. “I don’t suppose yo
u can remove this thing?”
The Inahri weren’t taking any chances with him. He had tried to punch Oli a few times, only to find his movements frozen by the inhibitor.
“I don’t know if we can,” Oni said. “They never remove them.”
“Do either one of you have something sharp and pointy?” They both shook their heads. “Do you know where we can get something sharp and pointy?”
“Sergeant Oli’s cell, I would bet,” Oni said. “I have an idea.”
“What is it?”
“No time to explain. Do you know where the sergeant’s cell is?”
“Yes.”
“Count to five hundred, and then meet us there.”
“Oni?” Lia said. “What are you—”
Oni grabbed her wrist. “Come on. We’re going to give the sergeant the surprise of his life, as an overture from Dojo Shing.”
“What?”
“Start counting, Private Wash,” Oni said. Then she pulled Lia away.
John started counting, giving the two women a few seconds to clear the cell before heading back to his rack. He had to stay calm. He wouldn’t be able to enter Oli’s cell with violent intent. The inhibitor would shut him down.
He headed out of his cell when he reached four-hundred, padding through the passages on bare feet. He received a couple of questioning looks from other Unclaimed who were wondering where he was headed and a verbal challenge from another.
“Got called to the sergeant’s office,” he replied without missing a beat. It was true, just not in the way the soldier thought.
He reached Oli’s door at the same time he hit five-hundred. The door opened as he approached. Lia was standing beside it.
“We could have done it in four-hundred,” she said with a smile.
John didn’t know what she meant until he saw Sergeant Oli. His head was cradled in Oni’s lap. She was rubbing his temples and singing softly.
“What did you do?” John asked.
“Our training includes comfort as well as sex,” Oni said. “Many Inahri soldiers have trouble relaxing, especially after entering the Kuu. He’s never been in the Kuu. His mind is in a calmer state to begin with. He won’t wake as long as I’m massaging his temples.”
