I walked to her and brought both Paloma and Ben into my arms. I was tall, they were small. There were some benefits.
“I’m so sorry. There aren’t words.”
She nodded. “Clay doesn’t think it’s fair to make judgments on Amari’s feelings for Amber based on that one interaction or what happened on Earth when we saw them. Both times were high stress situations. Earth is crumbling. He may not have the luxury of losing it with me since I’m basically a complete stranger.”
I just let her talk. What else was there to do? There was nothing I could say that would bring comfort in this moment other than simply being there. It was crazy that my brothers had let her out of their sight at all. In fact, I doubted they had. I turned my head slightly to find Quinn a small distance away. He watched us from a shadow, nodding to me when I saw him. Others might find it stifling, but I knew Paloma didn’t.
Like me, she’d once been so alone that she didn’t know if she’d have people with her again, ever. My brothers’ love of her worked for her, and I was glad for them. As it was, I was never really alone. One of my husbands could always listen for my heartbeat.
She sucked in another breath. “We don’t have any other information about how it is on Earth. With Oceania gone, people are seeking refuge above the surface. It’s chaos. MacKenna needs to make a statement. I hear she is going to do that.”
That probably, under the circumstances, meant Diana. If I had to guess she would be who I would pick.
“Has anyone heard anything about Chancellor Alexander?” Diana’s grandfather had not been heard from when last I checked.
She shook her head. “Tommy says he’s presumed dead. Oh,” she wiped at her eyes, “I heard that some of the Super Soldiers betrayed Evander. Thank you for that. It’s nice to know we dealt a blow to their bottom line, even if it was a small one.”
It really felt like nothing at all. We just stood there by the window. Right then, there was nothing else to do.
13 Duck
Jackson
I’d always had a knack for knowing when trouble was coming. I couldn’t explain it. I supposed if I asked Ari about it, he could tell me the reason for my oh shit there are problems coming senses that I had, but I preferred just to leave it as it was. I’d learned to trust myself and so that was what I did.
I looked up from my desk at the computer screen and tried to figure out what had set off my internal alarms. There was nothing out of the ordinary happening. I sighed. High alert for a month. Everyone was on edge and rightly so. We’d even started to talk about disbanding The Farm and all of us just running for our lives.
Okay, well we hadn’t talked about that seriously. I was still building our house. My family wasn’t leaving.
When I’d left that morning, my lady had been puking her head off. Ari assured us all it was normal and there was unfortunately little in the way of making the mother feel better during this process. I hated that she felt so awful. I drummed my fingers on my desk.
I needed a walk, and I wasn’t going to question the feeling. Nolan had kept the station running at the level of security I was comfortable with in my absence. He’d not changed a thing, not a single process. Everything was in tiptop shape. The jail was unusually full. There had been a lot of ridiculous havoc lately. Drunken brawls, stupid assaults that got the person caught in the process. They were coming off ships in worse and worse shape.
I stopped by the door to the jail and walked down that hallway instead. The prisoners were quiet. Very quiet. Not one of them yelled at me to let them go. They were all sitting up, staring at me. I felt more like I was on display than authority sent to deal with them.
“Jackson.” Rohan called from the end of the hall. “There you are. Came to see if you wanted to go see Wavey for lunch. She gets her appetite back right around now.”
That sounded nice except for that feeling in my gut. “Rohan, something is wrong.”
My brother didn’t blink. He walked toward me. “Tell me.”
I turned around to look at the hall again. My need to move rode me hard, but I resisted the urge. I wasn’t the kind to turn and leave when things got hard. That had been my parents, and maybe there was some of that in me, but I’d never given in, not once, to the need. It was early training, not the material underneath, not what I was made of.
“All day I’ve been filled with the feeling that something is wrong.”
The prisoners couldn’t hear me. Their cells were sound proof unless I hit a button to change that. We could talk without worry.
“Wrong with Waverly? Wrong with someone else? Wrong because Earth is destroyed and the population that can flee is doing so and those left are being forced into slavery for Evander? Or wrong in some other way?”
I loved how he summed it up. “It’s not our lady. She’s not feeling well, but that’s to be expected, apparently. I hate it. I’d trade places with her if I could.”
Ro nodded. “Me too.”
We all would. I ran a hand through my hair. I had to trust myself. Something had triggered my internal alert. “If you were going to lay siege to this place, attack us, how would you do it?”
“Me specifically? My training was assassination and battle. So we’d come in from the sky, or I’d come in by myself. Canyon, too. Sterling led men in battle. He took down towns, communities, and corporations. He made the business tons of money. We all did. So, I’d say a full on assault is how we’d do it.”
That’s what I’d thought. Yet, the skies had been clear except for our own people for a long time. No one came in or out that wasn’t affiliated with The Farm already. No traffic on the planet anywhere. No particular movement nearby at all.
“And if you were going to lay siege to this place knowing that we had you. That we had Canyon. That we had Sterling. The Sandler boys who know how to lead battle. If you were going to come at us to stop us from annoying you, to stop us from interfering with our profits what would you do?”
Rohan crossed his arms over his head. “There would be a meeting. A big one. Lots of people talking. Ultimately, it would come down to one leader deciding on a plan. They’d look at all the factors.” His eyes were far away. “The captains would wait in the hall. Called in they’d be given the plan. So many people in that small area they call The Farm. So much disruption of profit.” He didn’t even sound like himself. I wondered if he was remembering another time. Still, I waited. I’d learned to trust him. He’d get where he needed to go even if his mind would never work exactly like anyone else’s I knew.
“Jackson.” He stared at me. “I’d hit you where you least expect it. I’d say to myself that you would prepare for a firefight from the sky. You’d have military launchers ready to go. You’d be ready. I would hit you where you weren’t expecting it, quietly, until it was time to go.”
“They’re already here.” As I spoke the words the truth of them moved through me.
Rohan looked around. “Maybe they came on ships and got themselves arrested so they’d all be in the same place at the same time. Maybe they’re not Super Soldiers because that would be so obvious. Maybe it was a very long game. Evander wouldn’t want to eviscerate this planet. Too many resources to exploit.”
A long game…
I looked around. The prisoners were so quiet today. They were all avoiding eye contact with me or Rohan. Was it possible?
Ari came down the hall. “Here you two are. I’ve been looking for you. Want to come see Waverly? I sent her home from work this morning and told her to go lie down. There’s no point in having her there if she has to run to throw up every ten minutes.” He stared at us. “What’s wrong?”
“Do me a favor, go back to my terminal and pull up a list of all the prisoners in here right now.”
He nodded. One thing about the time we’d all spent together on Artemis was that we’d learned to trust each other without having to explain. I asked, Ari would do it.
I put my hands on my hips as realization dawned on me. All of that
made sense. And I knew why my alert was up. It was the scent. Something tickled my nose and brought on a memory. An old one. I was living on the other side of the galaxy. Diana and I were small children on a cold planet, wondering what every day would bring. Well, it wasn’t just the two of us, but this memory featured her.
She never spoke. I’d thought it was weird but not odd enough to concern my four year old self much. She played with toy trucks. I had two. My parents had found them somewhere. That meant we could get along just fine. I didn’t care if she spoke or not.
Her mother talked to mine. Melissa was in charge, but there was something off with my mom, even back then I’d known it.
“Geoff taught me a few things. If we have to, we can blow them up using this.” She pointed to a bucket. A stinky, sweet smell assaulted my nose. It wasn’t a good sweet, not like dessert. We almost never had any, but I knew that every once in a while someone would find something delicious, and we’d get to eat it. This wasn’t that. This made me gag.
My mother’s eyes widened. “What are you two doing in here? You mustn’t be anywhere near this material. It’s used to make bombs. We’re going to, if we have to, blow up the drones searching for us.”
I shrugged. If Diana didn’t have to talk neither did I.
My mother sighed, pushing us out the door.
I’d been around bombs a lot since then but never that plastic substance they’d been mixing that smelled so sweet.
Not until I’d gotten a whiff of it today.
It was possible that Geoff was making bombs, but he wouldn’t use a makeshift concoction. Not like someone would do if they had to quickly make one under the noses of a staff fully versed in military maneuvers.
No, this was happening. Ari came back down the corner. “I have the…”
I didn’t let him finish. I knew what was going to happen as though I’d already seen it because there was a version of me that had. Damn it, I hated time travel. Fuck. This. Shit.
Ari must have had the same déjà vu. “Rohan,” he shouted. “Duck.”
I tore into Rohan, throwing him to the ground in a tackle I’d never manage to do if he’d been at all prepared for it. We went down just as the lights went off, an explosion taking down our entire power grid.
The glass shattered in the prison. If Rohan had been standing up, the glass would have gotten him right in the neck. Chaos sounded behind us. We had to run. But he’d ducked because fuck it I’d made him.
Ari tugged on my arm, shouting something. My ears rang. No way were these assholes going to overrun my station. I grabbed my gun out of my holster.
Waverly
The alarm sounding pulled me out of my nauseated stupor. Okay, morning sickness sucked, but there were things to do. If The Farm was under siege, they needed me in medical and that was where I’d be. I ran out of the Time ward and made my way into the main area where the med bays were. Worry for my guys rode me hard, but we’d all had to get used to the idea that we had roles to play in this world. I was going to trust them to do theirs.
Even if I wanted to throw something with worry. A terrible thought dawned on me as I rounded the corner toward the med bay. The lights were off. Oh no. Rohan. Had he ducked? Was this it?
“Rohan.” I shouted to the universe. If he was alive he’d hear me. “Be okay.”
Ari looked up. He stood over a patient who had clearly been hit in an explosion. He and Dane had a medical scanner out, taking readings. He looked up at me. “He’s fine. Jackson knocked him down. It counts as ducking. He says he would have done it. Canyon’s fine. Jackson’s fine. They’re battling back hard, but last I heard they were all fine.”
I nodded. They’d all gotten to work. That meant I was going to as well. I grabbed a scanner. If the power was down, the med machines were going to die fast. We were going to have to do this the old fashioned way. I grabbed my gloves. “Let’s do this.”
Dane looked at Ari. “Policy stays the same. We know we’ve been infiltrated. Fine. We don’t know who the good guys and bad guys are yet. We treat everyone and sort them out after.”
The building shook. Okay, this was going to be a long day. My stomach clenched and somehow I was going to have to ignore it. Come on, baby. I spoke to my not born son. We have stuff to do today.
Seventy-two hours later it was over. Our preparations making The Farm safer—which everyone was officially calling The Station now because that really was what it had become—had paid off. Evander had stuck most of their infiltrators in the jail, thinking no one would look for them there. Jackson thwarted that.
We were lucky.
The second surge had come from the sky. While our defenses were down, we’d been very vulnerable. Yet, here we were. All of us still alive. I couldn’t fathom how that had happened. I sank into a chair. C.J. had gotten the power system back up at half capacity, and so even though we were only running low lights, I could hear the steady buzz of the med machines in the background, keeping my patients alive.
At least seven of them were identified traitors. They’d get a trial. Everyone did here. Thanks to my brother. It was amazing how we all had found our parts and knew how to fulfill our roles. I couldn’t imagine doing any of this without them.
Rohan sunk into a chair next to me. I’d seen him twice since the battle started. Once in the distance and once when he’d brought someone in and dropped them off on Ari’s table. This was the first time we’d spoken.
“You okay?” He kissed me on the cheek.
“I am because you are. I realize that sounds totally co-dependent, but three days ago you were supposed to leave us. You’re here, so I’d call that a win.”
He scowled. “Wavey, I would have ducked. I’d even thought it. Like okay, now I duck, when Jackson knocked me over like I had no idea what I was doing.”
I shrugged. “We all take care of each other. Jackson more than most. Face it, he loves you like a brother. If you have to duck, he’s going to see to it that you do.”
He put his hand on my stomach. “Daddy would have ducked.”
I startled. That was the first time he’d done that. He’d acknowledged the baby, touched my stomach, as though it was a perfectly normal thing to do. I loved it. Tears came into my eyes. I wanted this. I wanted all of us to have moments.
“That thing you just did,” I wiped at my eyes, “that was just what a dad should do. You’re going to be a total natural at this. You’ll give me parenting tips.”
He leaned his head on my own. “I love you.”
“Excuse me.” A woman walked into the room. I’d never seen her before. She was tiny, brown haired, with eyes that I thought in the dim light looked green. “Can you help me? We just landed, got cleared because, um, Asher lives here. And… I’m looking for my sister. I was told she might be helping out in here.”
Asher was Diana’s brother. He’d been gone on a scouting mission with three others near Venus, looking for information on the director of the Evander board. A woman there was selling information on him. He was only seventeen but anxious to join in helping. He’d been gone for months. This had been his first excursion. I’d only found out when I asked after him. Now he was back, and he’d brought someone with him right at this time?
I rose, although Rohan stayed in his seat. I looked over at him. His eyes were closed. The Super Soldiers could sleep everywhere. He must not find this tiny woman to be threatening.
“No one here but us. Who’s your sister?”
She nodded. “I can see you’ve just been through hell here. I… w-w-wish I could help.” She stuttered but got through it. It seemed like every other word she stumbled on a little. I waited, not wanting to draw attention to it in anyway. “My sister is Paloma Dela… sorry, Sandler.”
I gaped at her, and Rohan’s eyes flew open. Maybe he’d only been half asleep. “You’re Amber Chen? We heard you were dead.”
She sighed. “I ran away. I left. I needed to get away, and I took the chance in the chaos to disappear. I know that mig
ht seem cruel.” She lifted her chin. “But it’s what happened and I… Do you know where I could find my sister?”
Rohan answered. “Coming this way. It seems that Asher found her for you. They’re almost here.”
She scrunched up her face. “How do you know?”
I touched his arm. “He can hear it.”
“Oh.” She widened her eyes. “That’s useful, isn’t it?”
He laughed. “It can be.”
Paloma rushed into the room. Without a word spoken, she threw her arms around her younger sister. Amber had stood straight and announced who she was, but she crumbled in her big sister’s arms like she couldn’t possibly remain on her feet any longer. I stepped back. My brothers were there with her. Everyone was talking all at once.
I’d leave them, but I couldn’t exit until my patients were all okay. “Canyon says there’s a message coming in from Earth that we’re all going to want to see.”
Paloma lifted her head. “I don’t think I can do that right now.”
“Canyon.” I’d gotten used to talking to them without them having to be present but it had to be odd for others. “Put audio on in here so we can hear it.”
The speakers turned on. “This is Danny Pearson. Chairman of the Board for Evander Corporation. Who am I looking at?
I sighed. Evander changed Chairmen more than most people changed tissues. They were always men, which wasn’t surprising considering the women shortage. This was at least the third one I’d heard. “What do they do with the previous chairmen?”
Rohan shook his head. “Some of them retire in luxury. Some of them are executed. It depends on the next chairman’s preference. I killed one once.”
Light Unfolding: A Reverse Harem Science Fiction Romance (Wings of Artemis Book 8) Page 15
