“Where is here?” he said. “I see the date on the controls. It has not been long enough for us to reach Titan.”
“We’re near Europa.”
“Are you suicidal?” Basaam said.
“We’re here to help you,” Rin said. “You said you couldn’t do what we asked without your research, so we’re here to get it for you.”
“I won’t help you bastardize my invention.”
“Do we really have to do this dance again? We sacrificed too much to get you. Now sit there like a good boy and tell us where your lab is on Martelle Station.”
“Please, Basaam,” I said as I walked in using my mag-boots and sat at Rin’s side.
“How do I know Helena is still all right?” Basaam asked.
“Is that your clan-sister’s name?” I asked
He nodded, causing his glasses to fall from his head and float weightlessly. I snatched them out of the air and gently pressed them back onto his face.
“Because I don’t want to hurt anybody else today,” I said.
“I don’t believe you.”
I brushed my men aside, knelt behind him, and undid his restraints. He rubbed his bruised wrists as they came free.
“Get him water,” I ordered one of my men, who obeyed without question. Then I turned Basaam’s face toward me. Terror contorted it, the same way as when someone met Rin for the first time. “I care about people on this ship too, and the longer you take, the more we’re all put at risk. Just tell us where your lab is.”
He looked between Rin and me, then shook his head. “First, tell me what you plan to do with my engine?”
“You aren’t in a position to negotiate,” Rin snapped. I raised my hand to keep her quiet.
“We plan to use it, just as your people would. You’ve developed the most efficient Intersolar engine in history, and it requires only the use of simple gases found on nearly every moon or planet in Sol.”
“I didn’t do it to hurt the Ring! Believe it or not. I’m a scientist. All I want to do is make life easier for people.”
“And Venta Co.’s bottom line,” Rin accused.
I shot a stern glare at Rin, instructing her to keep quiet. “And I believe you,” I said. “If we gain sole access to the completed tech, we can use it as a bargaining chip for our rights. That’s all we want. Your engine is useless to us with Saturn so nearby, but your brilliant creation can help us have peace. We traveled all the way to Mars to be mocked and dismissed by your leaders, just to get our hands on you. My friend…” I paused to steady my lips. “My friend died to get you. If peace is really what you want, then help us now.”
“If you mean all of that, then let my clan-sister go,” Basaam said.
“You know we can’t. Our escape pod was already used by our man inside, and if we give up our position, they’ll kill us all. Only you can save her.”
I watched as his mind raced. We could still play our hand aggressively like we had with Malcolm, but even though they were both Earthers, they weren’t the same. Basaam was a thinker. He wasn’t as innocent as he claimed as far as driving value away from the Ring, but it seemed like a part of him really did believe he was fighting for peace, naïve as it might sound.
“Martelle Station Deck L3, Subsection C,” Basaam said softly, looking to the ground. “It will take Level 5 security clearance to get in. My office is on the second floor, west corner.”
Rin immediately rotated her chair and keyed a few commands on the Cora’s control console. “Graves, do you read me?” she said.
Nobody answered for a few seconds, before Malcolm replied, “Loud and clear. I must say I missed hearing your voice.”
“We have the location of Basaam’s terminal.” Rin relayed what Basaam had told us.
“Great,” Malcolm grumbled.
“What is it?” Rin asked.
“The medical facility they took me to is L1. Doctor’s giving me the full diagnostics. Pervenio Corp responded, but Luxarn is sending an agent to make sure it’s really me. I have a feeling it’s going to be one of our yellow-eyed friends.”
“Can you handle it?” Rin asked.
“Maybe,” Malcolm said. “After all, beautiful, I’m only human.”
I watched as the color drained from what was left of Rin’s face. What he called her, the way he said it—it was like stepping into a time machine and being back with Hayes on the Piccolo. I wasn’t sure if it was just a sarcastic coincidence or if somehow Malcolm knew about him, but Rin froze. I felt my irritation over her overstepping my authority melt away as I remembered I wasn’t the only one who’d lost someone that day on Pervenio Station. Rin had listened to two of her crewmates die trying to keep me alive.
“Then you’re going to have to make a move,” I said, moving in front of Rin.
“Blow my cover already, kid?” Malcolm said. “We’re lucky I was quick enough to hide this com-link while he scanned my head or they’d have found us out already.”
“Some collector, being proud of that,” Rin muttered, finally recovering from Malcolm’s unexpected comment. Losing Hayes how we did was the only soft spot she seemed to have.
“I’ve been doing this longer than your king’s been alive,” Malcolm said.
“Then you’ll have no problem. Think of Aria and get it done.” Rin glanced over at me and offered a reassuring nod. I sent one back her way. We argued from time to time, but I knew she supported me. More than my mother or anyone ever could, because she understood. She was the last of the Sunfire’s crew left alive who’d been there on that day when the future of Titan changed.
“If you say so,” Malcolm replied. “Just try not to space her before I’m done like Cora. You’ve learned from us so well I don’t want you thinking that’s the right way to do things.”
Rin quickly reached back and grabbed my wrist before I said anything stupid. I was glad she did because my mind had been so crazy since waking up that I probably would have.
“Don’t let him get to you again,” she whispered to me.
“What was that?” Malcolm asked.
“Just be quiet and get the job done,” Rin said out loud.
“I always do.”
Four
Malcolm
“I always do,” I said to Rin, smirking. I could tell by both her and Kale’s tones I was getting to them. Faster than even I’d expected to. They had to rely on me, and it was killing them—enough for me to plant seeds of distrust that might last forever.
“Mr. Graves, I’m so sorry about keeping you,” said the Venta Co. doctor as he returned to the exam room I sat in. “We’ll have this sorted out in no time.”
“You said that earlier,” I groused.
“A man shows up out of nowhere, even one such as yourself—we have to be careful. Especially after Red Wing.” He crossed the room as he spoke and knelt in front of me. He tested the reflexes on my human knee.
“Do you mean them helping the Ringers get off Mars?” I said.
The doctor’s brow furrowed. “Right, you still wouldn’t know.” He turned his attention to my artificial leg and began checking the connections at the middle of my thigh. “Apparently, the real reason the Ringers went to Mars was to—”
I lifted my artificial knee into his jaw, which knocked him into the lip of the exam table. I sprang up, expecting to have to incapacitate him, but he was already out like a light. The poor old man, in the wrong place at the wrong time. I tried to lift his body over my shoulder, but my muscles were still weak from travel.
I had to get on my knees for leverage and push off with my artificial leg to get him up on the table. He had a decade on me, which wasn’t easy, and an all-white beard, but it was the closest to a match you could ask for on an unplanned infiltration mission. He could have easily been an old woman like Dr. Aurora.
I stripped him down to his underwear and gave him my clothing as well as my duster. The jacket had been with me for a long time, but it was time to say goodbye. For Aria.
I changed
into the doctor’s medical whites, complete with the Venta Co. logo stamped above his name tag. A younger me would have been foolish enough to feel sick at wearing something sewn by them, but seeing how Venta was taking advantage of the power vacuum had taught me one thing: Pervenio Corp wasn’t special. They were just lucky to have picked the right gas giant to exploit.
I checked Doctor Guvman’s ID and found, expectedly, that his security clearance was nowhere near high enough to get into Basaam’s lab. That was a problem for another time, though. A Cogent was on his way to confirm my identity and likely find out if the Ringers were using me—which they were. I needed to get lost.
“Sorry about this,” I said as I used the exam tables straps to restrain the doctor, then hurried over to the counter and smashed a rack of supplies against the wall. “Help!” I yelled, trying to mask my voice.
Two security officers were posted outside, and they rushed in with their weapons raised. I let them go by toward the doctor’s body then grabbed one by the wrist. I kicked him in the gut with my artificial leg and sent him flying into the other. The force of the blow weakened his grip and let me steal his weapon.
The second officer raised his gun to take a shot, but not before I cracked him in the side of the head with the butt of the rifle. The first groaned and reached for his secondary firearm. I kicked him in the temple.
“I’m starting to like you,” I said to my artificial leg. It was nice to have a part of me that didn’t feel like it was begging to fall off every time I moved. I took one of the officer’s sidearms and tucked it into my waistband behind my back, beneath the medical coat. Then I used their own zip-cuffs to tie up the guards’ wrists.
I strolled out into the hallway, dressed as Doctor Guvman. Nurses and doctors zipped around the medical center, none paying much attention to me. I quickly snagged a hand terminal abandoned on a cart, held it in front of my face, and projected some data up from the screen.
The place was a maze. I didn’t know my way around, but I knew a patient lobby when I saw one. It was the place with all the disgruntled faces as they awaited treatment in what was probably the only dedicated medical center in orbit around Jupiter.
“Dr. Guvman, a minute!” a woman hollered.
I glanced up and saw what appeared to be a nurse heading my way. I didn’t give her a chance to see me any closer. I knew how standoffish busy intellectual types could be. I raised one finger like I was busy, then turned away from her.
A few more workers tried to gain my attention as I hurried for the exit. I was in a race against the clock. Soon, someone might check my examination room and find three unconscious bodies, if they didn’t come to first.
I stepped out into the concourse and looked from side to side. I don’t like to give Venta much credit, but their new station was turning out to be a marvel. Unlike Pervenio Station, which was built into a moon and was mostly solid, this was like walking into a kaleidoscope. Every floor wound around an atrium for the Space Elevator, which sank down to Europa itself, each enclosed from space by great spans of glass angled in different directions. Planting areas, vivid advertisements, venue lights—the glass reflected and refracted, making the entire thing seem like its own contained tubular world. Escalators crossed this way and that, crowded by colonists busy shopping or enjoying time off.
Because Europa was also tidally locked on Jupiter, it always had the same orientation to the planet, which served as a sky to the colony. Through the upper skylight, which capped the elevator, the planet’s great eye eternally swirled.
Each floor soared to impressive heights, easily structured thanks to the station itself not being directly on Europa and limited by a gravity similar to Titan’s. It wasn’t overly pleasant for an Earther like me without a weighted suit, which the doctor didn’t have, but this station would serve as a gleaming headquarters while Jupiter grew and Europa was potentially terraformed. Like Titan, it had been tagged for the possibility of human inhabitation far into the future, but on Titan, the locals were deadlier than the air.
I searched the packed station, unsure if Level 3 meant up or down. I didn’t have much time to worry about it since, through the crowd outside of a tech shop, I saw a glint of yellow and a man dressed in black. I’d had enough dealing with Cogents for one lifetime.
Now I really need to rush. I headed for the heart of the massive space, where smaller lifts shot up and down along the edges of the space elevator atrium. Apparently, the entire area I was in was considered the Level 1 Mall District. I’m not sure why I was surprised. These corporations always blew their wad up top making things pretty and stuffed the rest below.
L2 was residential, probably one of the darker bands of the station I’d seen on approach. L3 was labeled as the Jovian Security headquarters as well as lower restricted access. That meant any officer could get to the floor I needed to be on, which was step one. I stepped onto the lift occupied by a construction crew. That remained Jupiter’s primary source of employ.
One of them rode a Venta Co. construction mech, and the others were in basic boiler suits. The thing towered above me like a great metal gorilla, carrying supplies in its front and with mobile arms and legs mimicking the motions of an operator within its transparent cockpit. The things weren’t nimble to be of much use indoors, but near zero-g construction foremen could do wonders in them.
Colonies out on the Asteroid Belt abused them more than anywhere else—some even reoutfitting them for combat. Ceres, in particular, had an incredible manned-mech fighting league where you could bet away a shipload of credits if you had them. I knew because I’d wasted a payday from a big job on Eros there once. I’d even snuck Aria in to watch.
A few workers eyed me as I stepped on. Right before the lift went down, a security officer stepped on, heading back to headquarters.
“How many damn units do they want us to build on this place?” one of the construction workers asked.
“All those refugees from Titan have to live somewhere,” answered another.
“I’m just sick of the lines ever since they flooded here.”
“It’ll only get worse with the merger talks.”
The lift stopped at L2, and the construction crew filed out. The mech lumbered past me, and its arm knocked into the officer.
“Watch it,” he spat.
“Sorry about that,” the worker replied from high up in the cockpit.
The doors shut and we were about to head down when the lighting went red, and an alert sounded. A holographic screen appeared in front of us, my face plastered right in the center. It was an old photo from the last time I renewed my collector’s license with Pervenio, but it wouldn’t take a genius to put two and two together. The only differences were fewer wrinkles and gray hairs.
“This is a station-wide alert,” a feminine robotic voice said. “Be on the lookout for this refugee. He may appear to be a doctor, but consider him armed and extremely dangerous.”
“Don’t,” I said softly, sliding the barrel of my pulse pistol behind the security officer’s head before he could do the same. I didn’t need many fancy gadgets like the new wave of collectors, but I had none of my usual gear—no spotters or intel, nothing—so I couldn’t afford to take risks.
“Off the elevator, now,” I said as I reached around him and signaled the doors to open. I couldn’t arrive at the security quarters level dressed how I was now.
“I don’t want any trouble,” the officer stammered. He sounded young.
“Good, then walk.” I gave him a light shove out into the hall of the Martelle Station residences. I moved my gun down behind his back and kept it close so nobody would see.
Gracious halls coiled around the atrium through which the space elevator plunged, the glass here angled in such a way to reflect stars from behind Europa as if it were a night sky. Doors to residential units lined the outer wall entirely around the station’s circumference. Each had a sod lawn out front, complete with a white privacy fence—because why not pretend to be
on Ancient Earth? The look repeated down at least ten floors, with smaller lifts set at intervals to traverse them.
The whole development was a gaudy mess, a far cry from Pervenio’s sleek, reserved designs.
I searched from side to side. Residents roamed freely, with security officers here and there. The half of the residences across the gaping atrium were blocked off with non-fabric with an aluminum inlay strong enough to keep the void of space at bay. Security drones zipped out of a ventilation system, spreading out to sweep the floor for the intruder—me.
“This way,” I said as I pulled on the officer. I dragged him up the ridiculous stoop in front of a unit and told him to knock. He did as I asked. Typical Venta Co. security; all the shine but none of the grit.
“I don’t know what you want,” the officer said, “but you’ll never get off this station.”
“Who said anything about getting off?” I replied. “Knock harder.”
A few seconds passed, and I could hear the buzz of the drones nearing. Finally, someone inside grumbled something, and the door lifted.
“What’s all the commoti—” an old man said, not that I had the right to call anybody that.
I pushed inside and aimed the gun at him over the officer’s shoulder. The old man’s hands shot up, and fear twisted his features. “Close it and lock it,” I said.
“Please, I… I…”
“Now!”
The man did as I asked, then I waved him over to his couch. The unit was spacious; I’ll give Venta that. High ceilings, top-of-the-line appliances, and furniture. A bulbous viewport on the far side was programmed to show a scene from Ancient Earth rather than the blackness of space. Grass as green as Aria’s eyes swayed in the wind, and a few types of bird I couldn’t name soared by.
“What is the meaning of this?” the old man stammered.
“Quiet.”
I removed all of the officer’s weapons, placed them on a table, and shoved him onto the floor by the couch so I could keep an eye on both of them.
Titan's Fury: A Science Fiction Thriller (Children of Titan Book 4) Page 5
