Children of Zero

by Andrew Calhoun

  “So what did they use the gates for?”

  “The nations on my world are controlled by amalgamations of political groups and corporations.

  “One of the most powerful corporations is called Zodo Corp. Very powerful, very influential. Very evil. These men have no faith, or at the very least, they have a faith that is deeply misguided. They’re only interested in money and resources.

  “When the gates were found, Zodo Corp saw a vast opportunity to increase their power. They sent large numbers of people to infiltrate the new worlds, including yours.” He looked at her meaningfully before carrying on. “There were limits to what they could do. There are international laws on our planet that even Zodo Corp has to abide by. For example, they are not permitted to reveal the presence of the gates to the locals. They’re not allowed to interfere with the natural rate of technological development on each planet. They can’t take sides in wars or other conflicts. Basically, they have to try to remain invisible.”

  “So what can they do?”

  “Well, now they don’t do much. Before, they used to mainly do two things. First, they infiltrated governments and corporations wherever they went. They figured out how to pass themselves off as locals. This gave them access to inside information that they desired, and it also let them manipulate local populations if those populations started to catch wind of the infiltrations. Second, they stole resources.”

  “Like gold or silver? Or quickspice?”

  He shook his head. “No. Like water and food. My planet is very crowded. You wouldn’t be able to imagine how many people are crammed into megacities around the globe. There is very little land left for agriculture, and the land we have left has been hit by bio-plagues.” She didn’t understand the last word, but she let it pass as Seventy-two continued. “For a time, Zodo Corp eased the burden in the area it controlled by importing agricultural goods and fresh water from planets like yours back to Planet One.”

  “Radovan Mozik was from Zodo Corp,” Janx said suddenly.

  “Yes, Radovan was working for them, and still is if he’s alive.”

  3.6 SAELIKO

  The Epoch rode up high onto the crest of another great beast of a wave and then slammed back down into the trough. The impact let loose a thunderous smacking sound as wood hit water, and the reverberations shuddered through the vessel like an earthquake rippling the ground around its epicenter.

  Sheets of rain came in horizontally, carried on howling winds that sounded more like the wailing Sarrochs of legend than a natural phenomenon. Somewhere above the din, the sound of tearing could also be heard as the remnants of the top mast sail were torn asunder by the fury of the storm.

  There were screams and panicked yells, too. Women hollered at each other, trying to make themselves heard over the frightening onslaught of thuds, cracks and deep-toned groans, all of which signified that the Epoch was taking a severe beating.

  Suddenly there was a violent snapping sound. Saeliko looked up just in time to see a spar for a trysail plunge downward toward the main deck. The long piece of wood hit the mainmast with such ferocity that it snapped into two long pieces, one of which hit a sailor square in the face. Saeliko knew the woman was dead before she hit the ground. Blood splattered into the air and was instantly whipped away by the wind and rain. The harker had no idea who had just been killed. It was hard enough to see anything through the tempest.

  Brenna was nearby Saeliko’s side, barking out orders with as much volume and bravado as she could possibly muster. She waved one arm about as she gave directions and used the other arm to hold onto a rail to keep herself from falling to the deck. It was all of little use. Almost no one could hear her, and those who could were already busy trying to keep the Epoch afloat.

  For the next fifteen minutes or so, Saeliko gritted her teeth and watched her ship battle the elements, rising and falling over each wave. The waves seemed to get bigger and the Epoch seemed to get smaller.

  She thought they’d be able to ride out the worst of the storm without incurring much more damage than they had already, but then she saw it. Slightly off to starboard, she saw the dark shape approach, growing in size as it neared. She considered belting out a command, but it was too late to do anything about it.

  “Rogue wave!” someone else screamed. This was followed by a chorus of other voices as the danger was recognized. The wave was monstrous; it was the stuff the old-timers talked about in pubs to new sailors after a half-dozen mugs of ale. Saeliko crouched down by the starboard rail and reached out for a length of rope that was part of the shroud that ran up from the gun ports to the crosstree of the mainmast. She wrapped her arm around the rope so that the upper portion of her arm was trapped between the rail and the taut rope. Then she braced for impact.

  The wave hit, and she couldn’t remember ever hearing a noise so loud. The force of the water hitting the side of the ship tore metal rails out of their wooden supports, sent swivel guns careening across the decks and ripped apart almost anything in its path. For a brief second, Saeliko thought her arm might pop out of its socket. This concern quickly abated as she realized she was still in one piece, but it was instantly replaced by a much bigger worry.

  The Epoch was rolling. The rogue wave had put so much water on her topside that she had been pushed down too far into the trough between the next set of waves with the bow on the port side dipping into the sea. The whole ship began tilting over at a dangerous angle. To make matters worse, one of the cannons on the starboard side, which was now much higher than the port side, broke loose and raced across the deck. Saeliko knew that below deck, much the same was happening. Supplies and material were shifting and tumbling downward, adding to the weight on the port side and increasing the probability of capsizing. The port rail crept closer to the sea with each passing second. Screams rung out from above deck and below.

  Two new thoughts entered her mind as she reached up to claw loose strands of drenched hair out of her eyes. First, there were definitely fewer people above deck now than there were before the rogue wave hit. It was possible that one or two of them had managed to scramble down the stairs to safety before the impact, but it was much more probable that ten or more women had been picked up and tossed into the raging waters. Second, the Epoch’s mainmast was wasn’t going to hold.

  It wasn’t a single cracking sound; there were several audible cracks in quick succession, followed by one last mighty crack. The break occurred about halfway up the mast, and the top section immediately came crashing downward with all its accompanying paraphernalia. Fortunately, because the boat was already listing badly, the top of the mast came down over the water instead of on the deck, a stroke of luck that no doubt saved one or two sailors.

  Since the weight of the upper sections of the mainmast was now no longer pulling the Epoch over onto its port side, the ship immediately started righting itself. They weren’t going to sink just yet.

  They were far from safety. The top of the mast that had broken off was still attached by the rigging. This meant that the Epoch was now dragging the entire mangled mess of wood and rope off its port side, which was ultimately going to send them around in circles. In calm weather, this wouldn’t have been a massive cause for concern, but against violently high waves, it was vitally important that they could point the bow into the storm rather than perpendicular to it.

  “Axes!” the harker yelled out. Brenna added her own voice as well. “Axes! Axes! C’mon you daughters of fucking goats, earn your bloody keep!”

  Soon enough axes and cutlasses were brought to bear on the endless snarls of rope connecting the wrecked mast with the ship. Time slowed down and proceeded at a pathetic crawl. Saeliko joined in with her sistren, hacking and slashing where she could, all the while keeping an eye on the crests of the waves that slammed into the hapless ship. The wind and spray continued their intense barrage. This made their job all the more difficult, but they kept at it and bit by bit made progress.

  She couldn’t have said how
long it took, but with a last powerful axe blow from Brenna, the wrecked mast was set free to the sea. Saeliko turned her attention back to the steering of the Epoch, getting the battered vessel re-aligned to breach the waves head on. Somewhere above lightning flashed. The echoing booms of thunder quickly followed, momentarily overpowering the ceaseless screech of the gale.

  An hour passed, and then another. Saeliko and Brenna received one damage report after another. The old frigate was in a bad way, but she would stay afloat. You’re a tough old girl, Saeliko thought

  The storm began to abate, and the crew began to make some progress patching things up where they could and attending to the dead and wounded. While this was going on, Saeliko gave thought to consequences. Specifically, she wondered about the fate of the Black Star. With luck, the Lavic frigate was now resting on the seabed. She doubted it.

  Saeliko knew she was going to take the blame for this. Five days after leaving Myffa’s Cove, they had seen the squall approaching on the horizon. Rather than attempting to make a dash for a safe harbor, the harker commanded them to sail directly into it. She made it clear that there would be no voting on the matter. To justify her decision, she explained to the confused pirates that the prize they were after was greater than any they had ever seen.

  The crew had abided by her wishes, and according to the most recent head count, sixteen women had lost their lives to the storm as a result. Frankly, Saeliko didn’t much care. She was more concerned about the Black Star. What kind of woman was Harker Mikka? Had she diverted her course to keep her frigate safe, or had she elected to blaze a path through the eye of the storm?

  “Looks like we’ve seen the worst of it,” Brenna reported. The burly, broad-shouldered qarlden was clearly fatigued. Her tunic was torn open and Saeliko could see blood covering one shoulder.

  “We need more speed,” Saeliko stated. “Where’s Korrani? She should be up here getting things in order.” Korrani was the new shipwarden. The crew had elected her to the post just after leaving Myffa’s Cove. Saeliko didn’t know anything about her – she was one of the new recruits.

  “Korrani’s dead. Swept overboard.”

  “Damn.” The Saffisheen looked through the biting rain to see if she could spot her new master rigger. “Amba!” she yelled when she saw the girl.

  Amba limped over to stand in front of her harker. The lanky, scar-faced woman was bleeding profusely from her nose. One of her eyes was swollen shut, too. “Aye, Harker.”

  “What happened to you?” Brenna asked before Saeliko could talk.

  “Pulley block swung into my face. Think I broke my nose again.” There was a smile on her face regardless.

  “The Five,” Brenna barked. “Have you ever made it through a spate of action on this ship without getting wounded?”

  “I’m not complaining. The woman beside me had her head knocked clean off!”

  Brenna laughed, but Saeliko wasn’t in the mood. She needed Amba right now. “We’re treading in the water, Amba. How long before you can get us swimming again?”

  “Not sure, Harker. The mainmast snapped high enough that we’ve still got the mainsail, but we’ve lost the main topsail and topsail yard. The mizzenmast and foremast seem to be holding, but we’ve got ratlines ripped out and tangled up all over the ship. That’s gonna take a while to suss out. Plus I think the spanker spar snapped, so that’s . . .”

  “How long?”

  “Honestly can’t say, Harker. “Lakkari or Sammaraeli might’ve been able to tell ya, but I’m new on the job. Best I can do is get the girls started on repairs right now and we’ll get us some more speed as fast as we can.”

  “Get to it then.”

  “Aye, harker.”

  “And Amba . . .”

  “Aye?”

  “Mind yourself. You fall overboard and we’re really fucked.”

  The Kalleshi woman smiled and nodded before limping away and shouting orders to anyone and everyone listening.

  Brenna spoke up again. “We’re going to have to hold a funeral for the dead at some point. Send ‘em to the Five properly.”

  “Fuck the dead,” Saeliko said quietly. “We need to focus on the living. Go find Haley, Kettle, Dallas and Soup, and get them up to my cabin. It’s time I had another talk with them.”

  3.7 JANX

  “Tell me about Radovan Mozik,” Janx commanded. “What did he do for Zodo Corp?”

  “Zodo had some secret facilities built around the Laventhene Empire. Some around Mael and Kalleshi too. Anyway, he oversaw some of those facilities. Made sure things were shipped out on schedule. He also worked his way into the scientific community in Laventhene.”

  “Earlier, you said that Zodo Corp eased the burden for a time. You specifically used the phrase for a time. I take it by that you meant they’re not doing it anymore.”

  “About twenty-two years ago now, all gates in and out of Planet One were shut down. Wait. Let me rephrase. They weren’t intentionally shut down. I mean that the various factions that controlled each gate mutually agreed to stop all traffic from going through them.”

  “Why?”

  “Because what happened to Planet Zero was also happening to Planet One.”

  “Zero was the dead planet.”

  “That’s right. The people there were slowly killed off by a . . . I’m sorry, you don’t have a word for it in your language. Let’s just say it was a type of sickness. It was an infection that jumped from person to person. And not just humans. Other animals were affected, too. When our people first explored Planet Zero, they inadvertently brought it back to our own planet. They realized what they had done very quickly, but it was already too late. Twenty-two years ago, it was decided that keeping the gates open was too risky.”

  “Because the sickness would spread to all of the other worlds.”

  “Yes. In fact, there were some incidents that led them to this certainty. One of those incidents happened here about twenty-five years ago.”

  “About the same time that Radovan Mozik used his power to destroy a town in Laventhene?”

  “Those incidents are linked. A group of people from my Church brought the sickness from our planet to your planet. They intended to set the sickness loose and bring about the end of your world. What the Church didn’t know was that Radovan was informed ahead of time. He had just enough time to get a . . . an airplane of sorts, and arm it with a special type of weapon.”

  “The Big Bang.”

  “Is that what you call it?”

  “That’s what the Lavics called it. The Maelians, too.”

  “Well then yes. He used the Big Bang to stop the sickness before it could spread. He burned it while it was still contained amongst a few carriers.”

  “Huh.” Actually, that made a weird sort of sense to Janx. Everyone in Laventhene old enough to remember the Big Bang was also old enough to remember the confusion that had spread after the explosion. There was a great amount of debate as to why he had done it. Opinions varied considerably on that point, but it was generally assumed that Radovan was a villain of the highest order. No evidence had been found to determine whether he was working for the Maelians or someone else, but regardless, you’d have to be the owner of a dark heart to kill that many innocent people in one go. However, this was at odds with all of the accounts of Radovan before he unleashed the Big Bang. The majority of those who had come to know him agreed that he had been an upstanding citizen of the Laventhene Empire.

  “Wait, why in the Five did your Church try to destroy my planet?”

  “Faith. The end of times was prophesized. It was foreseen. It was part of His plan, and His plan was perfect in all ways. Our Lord saw the sickness coming. He described it in our scripture, and it has come to pass. Yet, He also made it clear that the sickness was to be embraced. You see, you and I, and every other person on all seventeen inhabited planets, cannot become what we are truly meant to become until the apocalypse has taken place. We cannot transcend” – there was that word again �
�� “to a higher state of being.”

  Janx held up a finger for him to stop. She wanted an intermission to allow herself to digest everything he had said thus far. She found all of it inconceivable tripe. Mad babble. This man was clearly delusional. Perhaps he had lived in a hut by himself for long enough, and with sufficient rum, to lose his senses and gradually build up this imaginary tale in his mind.

  It was well-constructed though. She had to afford him that. There were ways to tell when a person was lying. They couldn’t flesh out the details. They looked at their feet or the ceiling. They suffered awkward pauses before they could answer questions. Seventy-two didn’t show any of these signs. He believed what he was saying.

  “You wanted to kill my planet because you thought your god wanted it?”

  “Not me personally. My Church is not a monolithic entity. It never has been. There are disagreements on how we should interpret His words. Those of the Church who brought the sickness to your world twenty-five years ago were what we would call ultraists. I would call myself orthodox. I follow a more reasonable way. A middle way.”

  “You don’t believe in planet-killing.”

  “I believe that it will happen of its own accord, and when it does, we shouldn’t try to stop it. The scriptures make this very clear.”

  “What does all this have to do with killing those two people you crashed in the airplane with?”

  “Those two must die,” he said with conviction. “They are what we on my planet call Zero Stock. They are rare. Their rarity is a result of scientific realities that you are not fully equipped to understand, so I will not bother to explain it to you.” Janx gave him another annoyed look, but as always, he spoke on without apologizing. “The only thing you really need to know about Zero Stock is that there are some who believe they can stop the sickness.”