by Eva Brandt
“This crazy assignment.” I let out a deep sigh. “I wish I knew what it was all about.”
“I don’t know, but I find it odd that you were assigned to Dr. Achebe. Your skills and future missions don’t relate too much to his specialty.”
Maybe that was the whole point, I thought as my fellow Chimera Warriors and I fell into formation. Maybe I was supposed to perfect a topic I didn’t excel at. But if that was the case, why had Commander Trevor taken over Selene’s assignment?
I was still musing over my dilemma when a distant flash drew my eye to the horizon. The systems of the chimeras started to scream, alerting us to an unexpected anomaly. “What in Gaia’s name just happened?” Selene asked through the coms. Had the flash registered on the displays of the Sphinx too or had she missed it?
“I’m not sure,” Pollux replied, “but we’re getting some anomalous readings on my systems. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Cerberus had. “There’s something wrong with the Tartarus shields around the base. We need to head back.”
“It’s the shields,” Brendan said at the same time. “We can’t be out in the open.”
Typhon must have warned him about it. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. If our chimeras had survived entering the Apsid Quasar, they wouldn’t be destroyed, no matter what happened to the shields. But on the other hand, it was better to not draw attention to the true extent of our capabilities. If we’d noticed the anomaly, our teachers must have seen it too, and they were bound to show up soon.
We returned to the hangars just in time. As the gates started closing behind the Cerberus, an almost palpable wave of heat struck us from behind. Everything in the base was resistant to high temperatures, but the mechanism of the doorway still broke.
Cerberus managed to absorb most of the blast and prevented further damage, but that didn’t remove the source of the problem. “Guys, get Selene out of here,” I shouted. “I’ll stay in the Cerberus and block the heat.”
“Will do,” August reported. “We’ll come back in a minute.”
I half-expected Selene to protest, but thankfully, she saw the sense in our approach. She left the Sphinx without comment and allowed August and Brendan to usher her away, out of the hangars. Once the rest of my fellow Chimera Warriors were safe, August returned. Sphinx, Typhon, Charybdis, and Scylla took my place and blocked the entrance, forming a tachyon-absorbing shield. Cerberus carried me to August’s side and safely let me out of the cockpit.
Even if I’d seen and felt the blast, the heat outside the Cerberus still took me by surprise. I did my best to regulate the temperature field around me using tachyon manipulation and August helped. I was still relieved when we made our way out of the hangars and met with the others outside. “What the fuck?” I asked without preamble. “Is this an apsid attack? I don’t understand.”
It didn’t make any sense. The Great Mother had peacefully sent us off with next to no issue. Jared was on Earth, and the last thing any of them wanted right now was to draw attention to him.
Could the Great Mother have lied? Had Jared been on a different mission all along? I remembered the way she’d pulled Jared aside before we’d left and admitted it was a very real possibility.
“I’m contacting my uncle now,” Brendan said, already activating his back-link. “Let’s hope he answers.”
As it turned out, Dean Chimera didn’t answer, but he came to us instead. He arrived less than a minute later, looking uncharacteristically disheveled. “Brendan, thank Tartarus. You’re all right.”
Brendan stared at his uncle in disbelief. He and Archibald had never been all that close and such a show of concern was unusual to say the least. “I was never in any real danger. We were all inside our chimeras when we caught sight of the blast.”
Archibald’s shoulders slumped in relief. I’d have honestly deemed his demeanor a lie, except for the fact that my advanced senses could detect no deceit. “Good,” he said. “That’s good.”
“Was there an attack on the base, Your Highness?” Selene asked. “Are there any wounded?”
“Not an attack per se. We’ve had some solar anomalies as of late. We didn’t see any real effects here, not until today. It would appear the primary Tartarus field generators were more affected than we thought.”
I was no expert at chimera technology, but I did know that such generators were crafted out of Tartarus diamonds. They were built to last centuries, if not millennia, and engineers regularly monitored the tachyon flow that circulated through them. Tartarus field generators didn’t just break, because we relied on them so much.
“I take it the secondary generators prevented any real damage?” Brendan asked.
“Fortunately, yes, although there may be injured. For the moment, we haven’t been able to reach the generator power plant. I’ve sent a team there.”
“With your permission, Your Highness, we’d like to join the rescue effort,” Pollux offered. “Our chimeras are far more resilient to radiation than a shuttle or Harpy, and we’ve taken serious damage before and survived.”
“Don’t worry about that, Flight Lieutenant Donadieu. The other teams can handle it. I had a different task in mind for you.”
As he spoke, his anxiety vanished and he returned to the impeccable prince I knew him to be. “Communications with the outside have been interrupted by the anomaly. It’s urgent for you to ensure that there isn’t more to this than just an accident. Brendan, Flight Lieutenant Alexander, you’re to travel to The Grand Judiciary in your chimeras. Flight Lieutenant Donadieu and Flight Lieutenant Cavallero, you’re in charge of dropping by the nearest asteroids. Acting Pilot Renard, you go to Terra.”
I hated the idea of letting Selene go to Terra alone. But fighting the command, now of all times, was a bad idea. Besides, Selene was aware that she needed to be careful. This visit might even come in handy since she did need to speak to her mother about a medical check-up on the baby.
“Shouldn’t we take a shuttle, Your Highness?” August inquired. “It’ll be faster than flying there with the chimeras.”
“Yes, but I prefer to keep this operation under wraps, just in case we do have something to worry about.”
That was an odd comment to make. I wasn’t sure I understood his logic. If there were enemies targeting the other asteroids, an urgent intervention was better than a stealthy, slower one.
Maybe Brendan understood an underlining message that I missed, because he nodded. “Of course, Uncle,” he said. “We’ll leave at once and we’ll approach with caution. Until then, it’d probably be a good idea to be careful around the hangars. If you find enough time to fix them, don’t rush it. The structural damage might make it problematic for inexperienced workers and tamers to stay too long there.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Brendan,” Archibald replied. “Now go. I trust you and your unit will provide us with the best result in this mission.”
The words should have sounded condescending, but instead, they seemed honest. Still puzzled about the prince’s behavior, we excused ourselves and made our way back to the hangars. By now, the excess of tachyons had mostly dissipated, consumed by our chimeras.
Full of energy, our friends were more than ready for our mission. “Training is all well and good,” Cerberus confessed as he took me in his paw, “but I was created for action, not lying around.”
He didn’t say more, and for that, I was grateful. We both knew he didn’t truly regret his actions in Gaia’s Haven, or if he did, it was just because of the consequences I’d had to suffer.
Maybe a mission that would involve rescuing someone would be just the thing we needed to get our relationship with Selene in a good place again.
Still, I was uneasy and watching Selene enter her chimera again didn’t really reassure me. “Be careful, Selene,” I whispered. “Please, don’t get hurt.”
I didn’t expect her to hear me, but she did. She looked up and shot me a quick, sweet smile. “I won’t. Trust m
e a little, will you?”
It wasn’t her I distrusted. It was the world I had a problem with. The world didn’t value her enough. But I’d lost the right to say that when I’d lied to her and participated in that attack that had almost killed her. And so, I could do nothing but follow orders again and enter Cerberus.
As we took off and ventured past the wavering shield of Tartarus Base, I made a silent, dark wish. I hoped that the apsids had indeed decided to attack and had gotten rid of King Philip for us. Somehow, I doubted that was what we’d find when we reached The Grand Judiciary. As of late, our luck hadn’t been great and I feared that it would take some time for it to change.
****
Pollux
“I think we should split up,” August told me as soon as we left Tartarus Base. “Let’s get this mission done as quickly as possible. I don’t like this delay at all and we’ll be safe enough on our own.”
Ensconced in the Scylla, I nodded. “We’ll keep in contact at all times. Let me know if you find anything.”
“You want me to take Tartarus 2X?”
For a few seconds, I genuinely considered his offer. It was a tempting proposition. I hadn’t been to my childhood home in months. As a rule, I avoided going back to that damn place, because it brought back dreadful memories of a time when I’d been unable to save my sister. But today, I had a mission from Archibald Chimera, and I no longer carried the same burden. Oh, I was still very angry with my parents, and that would never go away, but I knew that my sister was still alive and safe. That gave me strength and even filled me with a desire to find closure.
“It’s fine,” I told August. “I’m done running away, hiding, and making excuses.”
“All right, Pollux,” he replied. “I’ll head out to 1T. But be careful.”
“I will.”
I directed the Scylla into space, toward my childhood home. The asteroid where my parents had built their massive mansion was generally known as Tartarus 2X. They shared it with a few other noble families, all of which were pretty much assholes. I had no desire to see any of them and a part of me wished they had indeed fallen victim to some kind of vicious attack. But it wasn’t meant to be.
It took me a good couple of minutes to get to the asteroid, even with the full speed of my thrusters. The moment I was within view of my home, I activated the coms. “Grand Chimera Scylla, tamer Pollux Donadieu, requesting permission to land.”
I received a prompt response. “Milord Pollux! Of course, of course. Landing strip 2B is available for you.”
Our steward sounded enthusiastic, but a little nervous. His attitude, coupled with his words, made my hackles rise.
Landing strip 2B? That was pretty out of the way and smallish for a chimera. Was it a way to slight me? That seemed out of character. When my parents wanted to make a point, they usually did it in a more overt fashion. And they hadn’t tried to instigate a fight with me in ages. How odd.
“Is everything all right, Jensen?”
“Yes, Milord. Of course. We just have some guests.”
Guests. That didn’t sound good, considering the reasons for my visit. But maybe I was jumping at shadows here. My parents entertained all the time. Maybe their neighbors had dropped by for a visit and their shuttles had occupied the landing strip.
There was a simple way to find out. If I approached my destination from the right angle, I’d be able to catch a glimpse of the vessels of these mysterious guests. I might not be able to identify them on sight, but Scylla could run them through all the systems she had at her disposal and tell me who we were dealing with.
I didn’t have to worry about such an issue. The moment I caught a glimpse of the vessel, I knew who it belonged to.
What in Tartarus’s name was King Philip doing here?
It wasn’t exactly unusual for my parents to socialize with the Chimera royal family. Leaving aside my relationship with Brendan, they had their own connections to our esteemed leader. It was one of the many things that had infuriated me after Stella’s death. They’d continued on with their lives as if nothing had happened and had even become loyal members of King Philip’s inner circle.
But as far as I knew, King Philip didn’t leave his palace to visit other people. They came to him and he received them at his own leisure. Brendan had never mentioned a change in this routine.
“Do you think this might have something to do with the generator collapse?” Scylla asked.
“I don’t see how it would. As far as I can tell, they don’t know about it at all. But anything is possible.”
With Scylla’s comforting presence vibrating at the back of my mind, I set the mecha down on the smaller landing strip. By the time I left the cockpit, Jensen was already there to greet me. “Milord,” he said with a smile, “as always, you honor us with your presence. We didn’t know you’d visit. Otherwise, we’d have been a little more prepared.”
I liked the old steward. He’d been among the few people who’d genuinely mourned Stella. But he also took his role as the guardian of our house much too seriously for me to ever consider taking him in my confidence. I felt no remorse when I set my hand on his shoulder and squeezed it, allowing a brief wave of tachyons to surge into his bloodstream.
“Not to worry, Jensen. You don’t need to make any extra preparations for me. Now, where are my parents? I’d like to speak to them.”
“I’m afraid His Lordship isn’t at home. He’s in an emergency session of The Grand Judiciary.”
Well, that wasn’t good news. A potential attack at Tartarus Base and alarming developments at The Grand Judiciary? This whole thing might be more problematic than I’d expected.
But if that was the case, why was the king here? Frowning, I continued interrogating the steward. “And my mother?”
“She’s… indisposed.”
“Is she really? I thought you said she had guests.”
Jensen’s face flushed, and all of a sudden, I understood. I tightened my hold on his shoulder and increased the pressure my gift was putting on his core. “His Majesty is with her, I take it.”
Jensen flinched at the sudden pain. “Yes, Milord,” he mumbled. “But please, don’t interfere. This is a matter you should stay out of.”
The hell it was. I didn’t care what my parents did behind closed doors. The state of their marriage was irrelevant to me. But I did care if my mother was sleeping with my sister’s murderer. “Where are they, Jensen? Don’t make me ask twice. I have no desire and no time to search through the whole house.”
Jensen’s shoulders slumped, but he must have realized I was serious. “Her Ladyship’s quarters. Please don’t do anything too reckless, Young Master. Stay calm.”
With a huff, I released my hold on him and stalked into the building. Staying calm would have been easier a few weeks ago, before the incident in the Apsid Quasar. I could only hope I had enough control to not lose my temper in front of the king.
Even if I no longer visited my childhood home regularly, it was very easy for me to find my way to my mother’s quarters. The whole area was soundproofed, but as soon as I stepped into the corridor, I felt a distinctive surge of tachyons coming through the metallic walls.
It turned my stomach, because it reminded me too much of Brendan for comfort. But I’d never turned away from things that were uncomfortable and I wouldn’t start today.
Regardless of how I felt about my parents, I still had enough decency to ring at my mother’s door instead of just bursting in. I slid my palm over the digital scanner and ordered the mechanism to announce my presence. At first, there was no response. I repeated the process, wondering why it was taking so long. Jensen should have notified the king of my imminent arrival, so my mother and her lover should have expected me.
The door finally slid open, and I was greeted with the sight of my mother standing there in nothing more than a very skimpy dressing gown. I highly suspected she wasn’t wearing anything underneath it, because I could see her beaded nipples straining
the fabric. Disturbed, I kept my eyes on her face. “Mother, good afternoon. I hope you are well.”
She smiled, not seeming taken aback by my presence. “Pollux. This is a surprise, dear. What are you doing here?”
“I’m actually on a mission from Tartarus Base. There was an explosion at the generators and His Highness, Dean Chimera, thought it suspicious. He sent me and the rest of my unit to check other locations of interest for potential attackers.”
Her pleasant expression faltered and she stepped out of the way, granting me entrance to her quarters. “I see. That does sound like a problem. We haven’t felt anything here and we’ve received no information of any developments from the other asteroids or from the moon base.”
“That’s good news, I suppose,” I replied as I stepped into her room. I was unsurprised to see the king sitting on her couch. At least he’d managed to put some pants on, because otherwise, I might have reacted very poorly—or at least, more poorly than I did. “Your Majesty. I’d love to say it’s a pleasure to see you here, but I think we both know I wouldn’t mean it.”
King Philip let out a sharp chuckle. “You have a fiercer tongue than I remembered, Pollux. Don’t worry so much. I’m not bringing dishonor to your family name. Your father is perfectly aware of my arrangement with dear Odette.”
“Is he?” I clenched my fists and bit the inside of my cheek. “That’s interesting.”
Scylla’s voice echoed in my mind, soft and calming. “Pollux, you knew this was a possibility. It was unlikely for your mother to do something like this without his permission. And besides, are you really surprised by his betrayal?”
“No, I guess I’m not.”
Oblivious to the exchange between me and my chimera, my mother took hold of my arm. “Come now, Pollux. Don’t be so dour. You of all people should understand a relationship like this. After all, your whole unit is sharing the tamer of the Sphinx, right?”
