Magnus settled the lander to the parking pad and tapped the door open. “Just how are we going to gain entrance to the space station?”
I grinned at him, pulling a tiny wood-covered device from my pocket. I tossed it at him, and he grabbed it in midair. “What’s this?”
“The plans from Alfonsi’s,” I told him.
“Wait, you gave them a fake?” Magnus was grinning ear to ear.
“No. I made a copy.” I hopped out, heading for my house. It was warm out, and I swatted at a mosquito that had landed on my arm. It left a trail of my own blood.
“How the hell did you do that? This thing is wooden.”
“I cheated. I know we weren’t supposed to bring electronics and stuff, but I had the old replicator Clare made me some time ago. You place it on a device and it sucks the data from it, storing it safely. The covering also makes it impenetrable to scans. Amada handed the data stick over for long enough for me to make the copy.”
“I wish you would’ve told me about this sooner. It would have saved me a lot of stressing out,” he said.
“Would you believe I forgot to mention it?”
“No. What do you have for us here?” Magnus asked.
“Follow me,” I said, leading him to the far side of the house, where my barn sat locked. I used a keycode, and the doors clicked open. Magnus gazed around, searching for something, and I shook my head. “Underneath.”
Magnus helped me move some hay bales, and there sat my trap door. Again, I keyed a secret code in, and it unlatched. “You and this Alfonsi guy think alike. Am I the only one who doesn’t have a hidden trap door somewhere at his house?”
“You should have one. I bet Natalia does,” I said with a laugh. I was feeling less panicked in the comfort of my home. The jokes were a good way for me to distract my nerves.
“If Nat has a secret room, I don’t want to know what’s inside,” Magnus said.
He followed me into the hidden cellar and whistled when I flicked the lights on. There was a wall of armored EVAs, an energy field-protected wall of weaponry, and countless tools I’d gathered over the years.
“Looks like you’re prepared.” Magnus was already grabbing for supplies, grinning at me. “Do you have any cigars?”
“You wish,” I told him. “Didn’t Nat ask you to stop smoking them?”
Magnus grunted as he lifted up one of the armored suits, likely checking if any of them would fit his larger frame.
“I keep a spare for Slate. You should be able to fit into that one,” I told him, pointing to the end of the room.
“Fine, I’ll wear his used gear,” Magnus said.
“Do you miss him?” I asked.
“Miss who?”
“Slate being your commander.” I shoved a few concussion grenades into the bag, hoping I wasn’t going to need them.
Magnus started slipping into the suit, clasping it together. It was a little snug on his wide frame. “He can be a pain in the butt, but he’s a good commander. Scratch that… he’s a hell of a commander. Probably could have his own ship on the next round of Alliance vessels.”
I liked to hear that. “When are they coming?”
“We’ve already built the last two, and they’re going to be up and operational in a few months. Light is the one Sarlun’s been overseeing, and we’ve already discussed offering it to Slate, with Loweck as his commander,” he told me.
“Really? What about their roles at the Academy?”
“The school can find other weapons and combat teachers. The Alliance is growing, and our explorations teams are crucial to the continued safety and expansion of the group,” Magnus said.
“I know the kids would miss them,” I said.
“Our kids are also only a year or so out from graduating,” Magnus said.
“It’s hard to believe that. Jules will only be fifteen when she’s done. Can you imagine her acting as a Gatekeeper at that age?” I asked. “She’s still a kid!”
Magnus chuckled as he moved his armored suit’s gloved fingers, testing the fit. “I can picture her out there. She’d do a better job than half of our current team. She’s good, Dean. You know that.”
“I do. It’s tough to picture. I have a hard enough time letting her go to class every day without Mary or me watching over her,” I told him.
“She acts older than most adults I know, Dean. Stop worrying about her so much.” Magnus held his helmet under his arm. “How do I look?”
I ignored the question. “Wouldn’t you worry about Patty if she had Iskios powers?”
Magnus stared at me. “I have enough to worry about with Patty, believe me.”
“What’s going on?”
“She’s acting out. I think we may have made a mistake pulling her from the Academy. She has no interest in regular school either, and she’s suddenly gone boy-crazy,” Magnus said.
“So basically, she’s fourteen?” I smiled at him, but he frowned in return.
“Doesn’t mean I have to like it. Boys are so much simpler,” he said. “Dean’s a great kid, with a solid head on his shoulders. He makes good decisions.”
“That’s not because he’s a boy. There are a lot of boys doing really dumb things all the time,” I assured him.
“That’s true.”
“There’s another reason he’s well-behaved. “
“What’s that?” Magnus asked with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s all in the name. Did you know Dean means valley?” I asked.
Magnus laughed. “Not quite as strong as a mountain, is it?”
“Or if you dig deeper, Dean means law or justice in Hebrew,” I added.
“Why do you know this?”
I blew air from my cheeks. “I don’t know. I think it was for a school project when I was a kid.”
“Law. Justice. I like it. I mean, it does kind of fit with you, doesn’t it?” Magnus asked. “Like right now. You’re stopping a potential madman from devastating the Earth and our people. More than a valley could do.”
“Speaking of which, play time is over.”
“Who’s wasting time? You don’t even have your suit on,” he said.
I held a tablet and removed the wooden casing from the replicated drive. With great care, I pressed the device into the tablet and held my breath. For a moment, the screen remained blank before data began pouring over into an organized folder.
“Gotcha,” I told Frasier, wherever he was.
Magnus was staring at the documents over my shoulder. “Why can’t we just dock, and enter the station? We’ll tell Paul we’re going. Surely he can contact them.”
“I would, but he told me they closed it off a couple years ago. The space station doesn’t do much any longer. They can use its scope cameras to watch their colonies from above, but almost everything can be done remotely,” I explained.
“That seems… a little short-sighted,” Magnus said.
“I don’t think anyone expected a human to fly up there and try to use its position to wreak havoc from orbit.”
“Why not? That’s exactly what I would expect,” Magnus said.
“You’re not on the EDF, or whatever we used to call it, anymore. That ship has sailed.” I remembered the first meeting with Patrice Dalhousie in Washington all those years ago. It was in another lifetime. “Nothing we can do about it being vacant. Given the circumstances, that’s better. Frasier doesn’t know it’s empty, and the plans won’t have any details about the current occupancy. We have the advantage.”
“Only if we arrive first,” Magnus said.
“We will,” I told him with confidence.
“How do you know that?”
“Because Frasier only has one shot at this. He won’t know we know, and he doesn’t expect anyone to be meeting him at the station. He thinks he has time to read over the blueprints, devise his plan of attack, and then see it through.” I began the process of suiting up, clasping the armor around me.
It was thinner these days, more lightweig
ht than ever before, and I appreciated the Inlorian and Keppe ingenuity in the design. Being part of this Alliance of Worlds might cause Mary headaches on a bureaucratic level, but I loved the resourcefulness it brought as all our races shared technology and ideas.
“Did you know that I’ve never even set foot on the station?” Magnus asked.
I shook my head. “I didn’t know that, but I guess it makes sense. You were on the first run for Heart to New Spero, and they hadn’t begun construction yet.”
“We need to contact Paul,” Magnus said, searching for a console in the wall.
“I’ll do it. You grab some more supplies. We don’t know how long we’ll be up there before Frasier hits. I doubt it will be long, but it’s better to be prepared in case they don’t have things like food or water stored away,” I said before crossing the room to stand by the console. I searched for Paul’s contact sheet, and tapped the icon.
Paul’s image appeared, a frozen picture, and an auto-reply message played. I shut the comm down and sent him an encrypted message.
Proceeding to orbit… I paused, checking the blueprint’s ID number. The station had a binary code linked to it, and I keyed that in to confuse anyone else that might read it. I knew Paul would search and cross reference it properly. With the Horizon captain. Adversaries planning on wiping out all electrical devices. Await signal to this line and send backup.
It was vague enough, but I knew there would be no future signal to his line if Frasier succeeded. I had to beat him there, and foil his plan.
“You all set?” Magnus asked.
“I guess so.”
“Did you reach Paul?”
“No, but I left an encrypted note. He’ll be there when we need him.”
Magnus dropped the two bags full of supplies and looked around. “Should we head to the lander?”
“Nope.” I grinned at him.
“Why not? Time is pressing and all of that.”
“Because I have a better way to get there,” I said, motioning to the stairs. We clunked our way up, carrying countless weapons and gear, where I led him across the barn.
I stopped at the edge of the invisible ship, and Magnus bumped into it. He grunted and rubbed his head. “Don’t tell me…”
“You bet. The old ship lives again,” I told him, laughing at his reaction.
I used my suit’s arm console and deactivated the cloaking on the modified Kraski ship. “We found some trouble in this bad boy.” The sleek white ship ran the length of the barn, its tip touching the large double doors. I ran a gloved hand over the exterior and tapped the rear hatch open. The ramp lowered silently, stopping on the hay-covered ground.
“We’re really doing this, aren’t we?” Magnus asked, stepping forward onto the inclined ramp.
I followed him onto the ship and looked around, the lights powering up at our movement. “We’re going to save the world again.”
“I wonder who pulled the triggers on us while we slept. Do you think it was Amada? We saved her life. She owed us one.” Magnus walked through the familiar cargo hold, across the hall, and onto the bridge. This was the same ship we’d started the adventure in, and I’d kept it as a memento, knowing full well I might need it again one day. “Let’s fire her up and get this over with. I miss my wife and kids, not to mention my ship.” He sat in the pilot’s seat, craning his neck to grin at me.
“So do I. Here.” I leaned over the seat, tapping a button on the console. “This will help.” The roof to my barn opened, slowly hinging apart along the walls, the middle of the peak spreading wide.
“Nice touch,” Magnus said, and the ship hummed to life. The engines on, Magnus guided the vessel upwards, my farmhouse appearing in the viewscreen. When this was all over, I was going to take a week here with the family to unwind. We were all going to need it.
With the touch of a few icons, Magnus directed the craft higher and higher, moving through the troposphere. My stomach rolled with a mixture of nervousness and excitement.
Twenty-Two
The walk along the lake was far easier than the rest of the journey had been. Gone were the constant complaints from the Academy students. Even Kira and Wentle seemed hardened to their new reality. Jules could finally see the years of theoretical training giving way to practicality as they were forced to make difficult choices in short periods of time.
Extel Four walked beside Jules as the newest member of the Academy among their group. She was a little out of her element at the Academy, and she idly chatted with Jules about trying to fit in more. There were roughly thirty Inlorian students registered, but even at home, she’d struggled to make friends. This was something Jules was quite familiar with from her early years at the school, and Jules attempted to pass on some sage wisdom. She almost laughed thinking about herself as clever or wise, especially compared to someone like Regnig, who was surely at the top of both categories in the known universe.
This made her wonder what her had blood showed on the test results. She’d left before he’d been able to analyze them, and she knew it all had something to do with her lacking Iskios powers. They were surging, then vanishing. Not a good combination.
“What was your home like?” Jules asked Extel as they rounded a cove on the lake. The water was misting in the cool morning air, the surface smooth. Jules peered over the edge, catching her bedraggled reflection. She let her hair down, running her hands through it, then reset it in a ponytail.
“Not too different than this. We weren’t in the cities. My mother, Extel Three, was on a town council,” she said.
“Your father?”
Extel Four shook her head. “Never knew him.”
“Did you ever expect to be sent to a school on another planet?” Jules asked.
“Mother said things were far different before the mining began. The discovery of the Inlorian bars, and their usefulness, changed everything for our people. We joined your Alliance, and honestly, the planet grew too quickly. Suddenly, it had all the wealth it never had before, which meant new health care, new technology, and of course, new dangers. We were attacked at least five times in the first two rotations of the star,” Extel said.
Jules hadn’t heard it put that way, and listened closely. “My father speaks highly of your people.”
“Your father and the Alliance also found a colony world for us to expand to. That was very kind and gracious of the Alliance,” Extel said.
“I was there that day. First group to the surface,” Jules said, smiling at the girl.
“Really?” Her eyes went wide. Extel’s four lower arms dangled at her sides, her top two raised in the air. “That’s pretty exciting. I want to visit one day.”
“Maybe we can make that happen,” Jules said.
Slate was ahead, scouting the upcoming village with Lolin, and his sharp whistle cut through the chilly morning.
Dean was next in line, and he stopped walking, everyone circling around him. “Stay here until Slate whistles again.”
And then the noise came, echoing through the valley. It was the sound of a ship. Jules dropped her pack, picking up a pulse rifle. Dean had a pistol in his hand, and Canni held two grenades, ready to defend the students. They looked like toys in his large Keppe palms.
They couldn’t see the ship yet, and Jules could only hope it wasn’t the Collector, coming to attack them in the open like this. He was in a ship and would destroy them quite easily. She tried to find her powers and felt a faint trickle arrive through her barrier, her eyes glowing slightly, her fingertips vibrating.
Slate whistled again, and Dean waved everyone forward. “Come on, he might need our assistance.”
Jules finally spotted the ship and breathed a sigh of relief. It was one of the borrowed Nirzu vessels.
The village ahead was in shambles, stone and mud buildings knocked to the ground. Jules noticed how the place was set up, with residences on the right side, and other buildings on the left closer to the water. There were trees lining a path toward the mou
ntain looming over the village, and she instantly knew that was where the locals claimed their god was buried within the caves. Jules felt the draw to the pathway now but stopped herself as they neared Slate and Lolin. Her uncle was rushing toward the incoming ship, and when it landed, Loweck hopped out before the door was all the way open.
Loweck embraced Slate, her words too soft for the rest of them to hear.
The students that had gone with Loweck weren’t present, and Jules spoke up. “Where are the kids?”
Loweck glanced up, her eyes dark against her orange skin. “I left them with Suma. Her ship was attacked. She’s injured but safe. I had to find you. What’s going on here? Who’s attacking us?”
Slate and Loweck joined Jules and the others, and Jules answered, “The Collector. I saw his ship, and Lolin here” – she pointed to the robed Nirzu girl –“says he attacked her village. This is it.” Jules motioned to the rubble surrounding them.
“What do we do?” Canni asked, his gaze darting across the sky.
“We go to Suma, drop the kids off, and track this monster,” Slate said.
Loweck nodded, but Jules was walking away, heading toward the mountain cliff beyond. She stopped a few meters down, staring at the caves. The same feeling was tugging at her as she’d felt when they’d first arrived on the planet. Only it was picking up steam, stronger here because of her proximity to the god trapped near the village.
“I can’t go with you,” Jules said.
“Of course you can. Everyone in the shuttle,” Slate ordered, but Jules remained where she stood.
“Lolin, where is your god? If I follow the path, will I find him?” Jules asked, her powers beginning to seep in, slowly filling her body.
“Follow the path. How did you know our prayer?” Lolin asked, standing beside her.
Slate was ushering the rest onto the ship, and soon came to join Jules. “Look, you have to come with us. It’s not safe here with this Collector running around. We’re better off together,” he said.
But Jules could hardly hear him. The pounding in her ears was growing louder, until it was banging like a demanding drum. She glanced at Slate, her eyes fully green and glowing. Her footsteps were light as she started away, voices behind her drowning out. She felt someone grab her arm, but she pushed them away with her powers. No one could stop her. Jules was being beckoned into the cliffside beyond the village, where a dormant god lay among the rocks.
Old World (The Survivors Book Eleven) Page 19
