by Rachel Ford
Elgin blinked. As omens went, that was a hell of a one. He kept his voice easy and light, though. “Roger that. See you in five.”
Dagir’s evasiveness had not been missed by the rest of the bridge officers, if the glances flying around deck were anything to go by. “As you were,” he said mildly. He didn’t need them indulging speculation. He also didn’t need to put the kibosh on it in too marked a manner. That would fuel rather than silence any doubts.
He waited a few minutes, as nonchalantly as possible, then left the bridge. It was still several minutes before Lt. Dagir arrived, and he spent them pacing the room.
A knock sounded, and Elgin seated himself, calling, “Come in.”
It was Dagir, and he saluted as he entered. “Captain.”
“Lieutenant.”
“Sir, Supreme Leader Velk…he’s been executed.”
Elgin might have been, as the saying went, knocked over by a feather at those words. “What?”
Dagir nodded grimly. “Executed, sir. The rebels held some kind of kangaroo court trial. And they killed him.”
“My gods.” The weight of his own complicity in this murder hit Elgin like a punch to the gut. He’d been ordered to stop the rebels, and he’d refused. He’d prevented anyone else from intervening either. And now the Supreme Leader was dead as a result. “How…how did they even reach him?”
“They stormed the palace, sir.”
“They must be insane. That place is a fortress.”
“Yessir. But…” Daggir shook his head. “Velk killed Nikia Idan’s parents, and broadcast the execution throughout the city.”
“What? Her parents?” Elgin was confused. Luk and Elsa Aldir were Grand Contributors, citizens of the highest standing. “Why?”
“I’m not entirely sure. Even planet-side, it was hard to plug into the comm network. But I saw the broadcast. He said they’d been charged with collusion.”
“Retribution, then,” he said. “For their daughter’s uprising.”
“Yessir. I think Velk ran his own kangaroo court.”
“Son-of-a-bitch. So Idan stormed the palace and murdered him in turn?”
“No, sir. She had some kind of medical emergency. I don’t know what happened, but they took her out on a stretcher, unconscious or dead. That seemed to be the rallying point, though. They broke through the barriers, and swarmed the palace. Even some of the protectors walked off the job.”
“Well fuck,” Elgin said out loud. “I’m not sure I even blame them. To kill the Aldirs? That’s not right.”
“No,” Dagir nodded. “None of it’s right.”
“To execute the Supreme Leader, though?” Elgin couldn’t wrap his head around it. On the one hand, under Tribari law, no life was worth more or less than another. Velk had taken two innocent lives as punishment for what someone else had done.
On the other, the supreme leader was still the supreme leader. In theory, his life might be worth no more than anyone else’s, but, in practice, men died by the scores, by the hundreds and even thousands, at the whims of a supreme leader; and no one batted an eyelash. It was just the way things were done, and had always been done.
“Sir?” Dagir asked.
Elgin looked up, meeting his lieutenant’s expectant gaze. Apparently, he’d missed something. “Sorry, what?”
“I asked, what are your orders, sir?”
“Orders? Hell, Dagir, I’m still wrapping my head around this. I don’t know what we’re going to do yet.”
“Understood.”
“Still, I’ve got to figure something out sooner rather than later. If we’re going to let this stand, we need to make the decision now. And if we’re going to intervene, we can’t waste any more time than we already have.”
“Yessir.”
“I’m going to assemble a briefing with the other captains, Dagir. I’m going to need you on it.”
“Understood.”
Brek’s injured leg felt like it was on fire, but he didn’t dare slacken his pace. He’d skirted most of the lake, and the wolf was almost out of sight now.
The cavern was huge, much larger than he’d realized. Now, as he neared the far end of the lake, he felt something he hadn’t felt on the other side: a draft.
His skin prickled with cold, but not just cold. Excitement coursed through his veins. Airflow meant a space to the outside. It meant a possible escape route.
Now all he had to do was find it.
He hobbled on. The ceiling was getting lower here, and the wolf had vanished completely, swallowed up by the darkness. After a space, he was walking hunched over, running a guiding hand along the stone overhead; there was not room to stand upright.
Brek came to the farthest shore of the lake and continued on past it. The passage grew narrower and lower. For a little way, the blue glow of the lake cast a faint illumination into the tunnel, but soon it was gone.
For a stretch, he was forced to proceed on his hands and knees in the absolute darkness. It was slow going, and rough on his battered body.
The passage wound this way and that, and he began to fear that he’d be so inexorably turned around he’d be lost. Then, all at once, the ceiling rose. Brek blinked into a vast gray enclosure, and breathed in a blast of cold air. He could smell water, the same strange and sulfurous odors from the glowing pool inside.
But his eyes were focused beyond the silhouettes of stone pieces, beyond the walls and the uneven floor. Brek stared at a patch of light: clear, crisp, beautiful starlight.
He’d found the end of the caverns. He’d found a way back outside. Sinking to the ground, Brek wept with joy.
He was free, at last.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Hey,” Tal said, reaching out a hand to shake his friend.
Tig was mumbling fearfully in his sleep in the seat across from him, and he woke, gasping. “What?”
“Shit. You okay?”
Throwing wild eyes around the cockpit, he breathed in a few long, deep gasps of air. Then, he nodded. “Yeah. Fine.”
Tal was used to the other man’s nightmares. Their cots had been side-by-side in the barracks. Still, they unnerved him, not less now that he understood something of their source. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s fine.”
Tig wasn’t going to talk about it. He knew that. “Alright. I just wanted to let you know, we’re coming up on Trapper’s Colony.”
“Oh.” He nodded, seeming a bit more collected now that he had something else to focus on. “Good. Have we had any hails from the planet?”
“Not yet. But unless we land on the far side of the rock, we’re going to be in range soon. And there’s nothing out there but oil rigs.”
“You think they’ll let us land?”
“I’m hoping so. Especially if what that protector on Zeta heard was right, they’re on the outs with the empire. Hopefully they won’t be in a hurry to turn us over.”
“And if they are?”
Tal shook his head, tapping the gun clipped to his side. “It’s going to be a bad day for all of us.”
Tig accepted this with a slow nod of his head, and they fell into silence for some minutes thereafter.
Trapper’s Colony, a distant point of light on the horizon, grew larger. It was an uninspiring world, sporting long stretches of inhospitable, barren browns and inky black oceans of crude. There was no surface water here, no great oceans or shimmering rivers or placid lakes. The only water to be had was deep underground, and could only be reached by drilling into the bedrock.
Why anyone had ever settled here, he couldn’t imagine. Certainly, with the care and tending of its settlers, Trapper’s had sprouted impressive settlements. Those were the patches of cheery green dotting the globe. But they were so few and far between that they seemed almost to mar the drab symmetry of the place. What could have lured people to this cold, dry rock, with its brown vegetation and endless plains in the first place, though?
Tig’s voice cut through h
is thoughts. “Hell of an ugly rock, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “It is.”
“Still, it’s got to be warmer than Zeta. I don’t see much snow, except on the poles.”
Tal laughed. “By quite a few degrees.”
“Ugly or not, then, it’ll do.”
They flew for another minute or so before a hail came in. “Tribari space shuttle, this is Trapper’s Colony air control. Identify yourself.”
“Air control, this is the TSS-Genevieve. My craft is running low on fuel. Requesting permission to dock and fuel up.”
A moment of silence stretched out between him and the voice on the other end of the line before the answer came. “Permission granted. Docking coordinates being transmitted now.”
“Alright,” he said after the connection terminated, “that wasn’t so bad.”
“Let’s hope they don’t look the Genevieve up,” Tig said. “She’s got to be reported as stolen by now.”
“Yeah.” The concern soon made way for more pressing matters as Tal turned his focus to landing. There was, he was sure, an autopilot landing sequence, but he hadn’t figured it out yet – and he wasn’t about to risk their lives on guesswork. It was one thing to test autopilot in the void of space – he had, and it worked fine – but when hurtling toward the surface at speeds that could crush your ship like an eggshell? No thanks.
He guided the ship into the atmosphere, and brought her to the coordinates indicated. Then, he glanced around. They were on an open landing pad, with maintenance buildings and other landing zones nearby. Two men in utility jumpsuits waited a short distance off. “Well,” he said, “you ready?”
Tig nodded. “Here goes nothing.”
They stepped out of the shuttle and headed for the two workmen. “Afternoon,” Tal called.
The men walked toward them. “You’re the Genevieve, right?” the older of the pair asked.
“That’s right. We got clearance to land for a refuel.”
The younger workman nodded. “We got the work order.”
“Great. Anything we can-” Tal broke off as movement in his peripheral vision drew his attention. He spun toward it, and froze, his hand midway to his pistol. They were surrounded by half a dozen men who had seemed to materialize out of thin air, all training rifles on them.
“Don’t move,” one of the crew called.
Tal could see Tig fidget next to him. He knew what was running through the other man’s mind. “Don’t,” he warned in a whisper. If one of them was going to play hero, it should be him; he had the requisite experience. And right now, they were two seconds away from death. If they were going to get the draw on their double crossers, they’d need a more opportune moment.
But Tig said, “Sorry, Tal. I won’t go back there.”
Shit. He knew what that meant. Tig was going for his weapon. Tal reached for his own, too. And half a second later, a searing burst of energy ripped into him, and he collapsed to the ground.
“I need to talk to Giya,” Nik insisted.
Dr. Kel sighed. “I think you should wait. It’s not worth the risk. Your blood pressure is finally starting to normalize. It’ll keep – it’ll all keep for a little while longer.”
“It won’t. I need to talk to him about Diven.”
“Alright. I’ll call for him. But I’m going to stay with you, Nik. And the instant I start seeing anything that worries me – changes in your heart rate, your blood pressure, anything – I’m turning him out.”
“Done,” she said. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best she’d been able to do in two days.
He nodded, apparently satisfied in turn with the concession he’d won. “Okay. Sit tight, then. I’ll call him.”
“Thanks, Doctor Kel.”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t thank me, Nik. I’m doing it against my better judgement.”
She smiled. “I don’t just mean for getting Giya. Although, I do include that. I mean for everything.” She shook her head. “You’re taking a hell of a risk, taking care of me. If this doesn’t work-”
He held up a hand. “Yes, yes. It’s off to Zeta for me. Believe me, I’ve given it enough thought.” Despite the tenor of his words, his tone was kindly. “I don’t know what the hell this world’s come to, but I knew your parents before you were even born, Nik. I watched you grow up. I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit by and let them kill you too.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Godsdammit, Elgin,” Captain Mercer swore, “I knew staying out of it was a bad idea. Velk, dead? My gods.”
“What were we supposed to do, Mercer? Gun down our own people?” Elgin countered hotly.
“Velk started the shooting,” Captain Rel reminded his peers. “Him and Presider Denis. I don’t agree with the rebels’ tactics, but they were playing out of his book.”
“What the hell are we going to do now, though?” Captain Echil, of the Firebird, wondered. “Velk’s dead. The rebels have taken the capital. Do we intervene – and cause more death? Will there be more killings if we don’t?”
“I don’t know,” Elgin admitted.
“You don’t know? Godsdammit,” Mercer repeated. “I never should have listened to you.”
“You didn’t,” Elgin reminded him. “You ran, with your tail between your legs, until it was safe to crawl out. Remember?”
Echil sighed, rubbing her temples. Even through a holographic projection from the bridge of her ship, her exasperation was evident. “Gentlemen, none of this solves the present crisis.”
Elgin scowled. She was right. Of course, she was right. But Mercer’s words, and his cowardice, rubbed him the wrong way.
“Now that the central government has been dissolved – for how long is anyone’s guess, I suppose – we need to contact whoever is claiming to lead the rebels.”
“Have you made that contact?” Echil asked.
It took a moment before Elgin realized that she was addressing the question to him. “Me?”
“Yes.”
“You are the senior captain,” Mercer pointed out. “And this was your idea.”
“I haven’t. Once I found out what was going on…well, I figured I’d bring it before the council.”
She nodded. “I appreciate that. But I would move that we reach out to the rebels – or whatever they’re calling themselves. See what their demands are, if they have them. See what their plans are, if they’ve gotten that far.”
Elgin nodded. “The girl, Nikia: the one whose parents and husband were killed. She was the one leading them. I’ll see if she’s still alive. If not, I’ll try to find out who stepped into the role.”
“Good. Before we can make any decisions, I think we need to know more.”
“Agreed,” Rel offered. He’d been largely silent throughout, but now he nodded emphatically. “There are already too many hot heads involved. For the sake of the empire, we need to approach this calmly and rationally.”
“Are you sure Elgin’s the man to do it, then?” Mercer wondered.
“I move that Elgin makes contact with the rebels on our behalf,” Echil offered.
“Seconded,” Rel agreed.
A round of ayes sounded from the assemblage of holograms. Mercer was the lone dissenter. For his own part, Elgin abstained from the vote.
“That’s that, then,” Echil nodded. “The ayes have it.”
Mercer rolled his eyes. “Great. So much for the Tribari Empire.”
Nikia was fidgeting with the edge of her blanket when Giya entered. Kel had reached out to him hours ago. He was busy, she knew. Keeping peace and order, planning a new government: she was lucky to pry him away at all.
Still, her thoughts were with Diven. She was a mass of conflict where her brother was concerned. When she thought of Elsa and Luk, she could have killed him herself. But then she remembered how she was alone, entirely alone, in the world, and Diven was the last Aldir drawing breath. Then, she was more forgiving.
Then, her mind would paint exonera
ting scenarios. Who knows what threats Velk made? Maybe it was the only way to stay alive.
Finally, though, the CWCT man arrived. He looked more harried and tired than usual, but his round cheeks grew a little rounder with a smile, his eyes twinkled with pleasure, as he stepped into the room. “My gods, Nik. You have no idea how worried we all were.”
“Giya, I’m so glad you’re alright too.”
Dr. Kel frowned with disapprobation, but, offering a condensed version of the same lecture he’d given her about her blood pressure, he stood to the side to let them converse in relative privacy.
Giya leaned into hug her, then seated himself in a chair beside her bed. “Sorry I couldn’t come sooner. Between the courts and the councils for new elections, and the volunteer peacekeepers…” He shook his head. “It’s chaos. But beautiful chaos, Nik. We did it. We actually did it.”
His joy was infectious, but she forced herself to focus. “What about Diven, Giya? Kel tells me he was found guilty.”
His face sobered, and he nodded. “Yes. Accessory to murder, among other charges.” Nikia’s brow creased, and he hastened to assure her, “But we left the sentence up to you.” He shrugged. “You’ve given enough for the cause, Nik. Whatever call you make, we’ll support it.”
“Even if I pardon him?”
He nodded grimly. “Even if you pardon him. But – at least look at the evidence first.”
“Thank you, Giya. I will.” She would. But she knew already what her response would be. Diven was her brother, her flesh and blood. She wouldn’t see him killed.
“Of course. Without you, Nik, we wouldn’t be here.”
She reached over to squeeze his forearm. “Without you, I would be dead. It was you who convinced me to be smart, remember?”
He smiled. “Well, then we’ll call it a team effort.”
She grinned. “Team effort it is.” They sat for a moment in silent contemplation, then she said, “But you have to tell me everything, Giya. Tell me about taking the palace. Tell me what we’re doing for elections. Have we made any contact with the fleet? With that captain, who wouldn’t attack?”
