Shadow Agents: The Benevolency Universe (Outworld Ranger Book 2)

by David Alastair Hayden

  They marched down to cargo bay one. Siv swiped his hand across the keypad, and a large door slid open to reveal a storehouse of artifacts, most of them undoubtedly Ancient in origin. But it wasn’t much to look at. All of the boxes were closed and labeled. The only piece they could see sitting out was a metal fragment about two square meters in size that to Siv’s eyes might as well be human in origin.

  As they walked through scanning the boxes, Bishop whistled. “I bet there’s a whole museum worth of stuff in here.”

  “That wouldn’t surprise me,” Siv said. “Dad kept a lot of pieces for himself. To study later, or just because he liked having them.”

  "When we returned to Ekaran IV, thinking we'd be leaving out on the run," Silky said, "Gav had Octavian pack all his valuables onto the ship. So I'm sure there are at least a hundred thousand credits worth of artifacts here."

  “Wow,” Kyralla said.

  “If we make it out of this scrape, we may need all the money we can get from selling this stuff,” Mitsuki said.

  Unable to bear the thought of selling off his dad’s things, Siv didn’t respond.

  “Why didn’t he loan the pieces out to museums?” Bishop asked.

  “He donated or sold most of the good stuff to universities,” Silky said. “But you reach a certain point where one broken shard of glass or another torn metal strip is just like any other.”

  Oona opened a box labeled statuary fragments and peered inside, frowning. “I can’t even make out what any of this is.” She picked up one shard. “I mean, what is this?”

  “Early Ancient statuary,” Silky said. “A bit of the hem of a robe.”

  Oona returned the piece carefully, a tear rolling down her cheek. “This is it? Her whole civilization…the giant temple, the gleaming city on the horizon, the lush garden… Not just forgotten, but reduced to random fragments.”

  Kyralla put a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Everything fades with time.”

  “No wonder she doesn’t care if she lives,” Oona said. “There’s nothing left. Not even a legacy.”

  “Helping us stop the Shadraa, should they ever return, will be her legacy,” Siv said.

  “Silky, that reminds me, since your secret folders got unlocked, you know what happened to the Benevolence, don’t you? And you know things about the Shadraa and—”

  “Sir, I don’t think now’s the time to go into all of that. You’re exhausted, and you all have a lot to deal with. If I open that Pandora’s box, then we’ll be up all night with me answering questions. And in the end, you’ll just have more to ponder, and I’ll run out of answers to give you.”

  “I’m not going to let you squirrel your way out of this.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of squirreling, sir. You deserve to know what I locked away. You all deserve to know. But it’s not a casual presentation, and some truths will be difficult to face or rationalize. For some of those here, the truth might be too much to endure right now.”

  Siv knew any truth that didn’t present the Benevolence in the best of lights would be difficult for Bishop and especially for Oona, since she was supposed to restore it, somehow.

  He was trying not to think too hard about the fact he was helping a girl who could restore the entity he believed responsible for his dad’s death. But then, the Benevolence had brought humanity into a golden age of prosperity. And Silky might have information that made those two contradictory things make sense.

  He started to ask about that much at least, but Silky was right. That whole complex topic should probably wait for a more appropriate occasion. If he turned over one rock, he would need to turn over all of them.

  “Why don’t we check out the other cargo bay,” Mitsuki suggested.

  In cargo bay two, they found a few more crates of artifacts, but most of the bay was taken up by archaeological equipment, boxes of ship parts, power packs, and rations, along with an open-topped, small skimmer transport in perfect working condition.

  Bishop hopped with glee and ran over to examine it, instantly naming off various stats about the model, which was apparently rare these days.

  “What happened to the other one Dad had?” Siv asked.

  “Wrecked,” Silky replied. “By that bastard Tal Tonis. Technically, I wrecked it using the ship’s shields. But it was because of Tonis, and I don’t regret it one bit.”

  Siv slumped against the nearby wall. How could he have forgotten? He’d seen that wreck in a vision just a few days ago. He must be more exhausted than he had realized.

  Silky continued. “This one was also badly damaged. Octavian, I’m impressed. Truly impressed. You did wonders fixing this bike up.”

  Silky never praised Octavian, whom he found incredibly annoying. Octavian bowed and bleeped happily.

  Silky laughed. “He says he spent an entire decade restoring it.”

  “It’s not like he had anything else to do,” Siv replied. “All right, I’ve seen it all. I’m going back to bed.”

  “I know what I’ll be doing while we wait for you in the Kor system,” Bishop said.

  “Plundering through the archaeological tools?” Oona asked.

  Bishop chuckled. “That’s what I’m going to do the next few nights. No, while we wait for them, when I’m not studying up on stasis capsules, I’m going to work on repairing the Tezzin.”

  The skimmer car was still parked in the loading area between the two cargo bays. Though it looked like a family sedan on the outside, complete with wood paneling, beneath that layer the skimmer was advanced security vehicle.

  “I’m sure I can fix it with the tools here and Octavian’s help. I might even be able to do a few more upgrades.”

  Siv shuffled out into the hallway. “Good thinking. We might need it.”

  He made it a few more steps before he collapsed.

  As Octavian helped him to his room, he reminded himself the problem wasn’t just a lack of rest. He was still sick with the neurological disease caused by withdrawal from the Kompel.

  That certainly wasn’t going to make rescuing Oona’s father any easier. He had a feeling he was going to become reliant on stimulant doses just to keep going.

  As he drifted into sleep, he gazed at the Vrazel mask, thinking of his parents. His mother had died in action. And his dad had died trying to take him and the priestess away to safety while running from the government.

  At the moment, his doom seemed genetic.

  6

  Oona Vim

  Both terrified and excited, Oona jerked awake nearly hitting her head on the top of the sleeping compartment as she bounced upward. She’d thought it cozy before, but now it seemed as if it were closing in on her. In a mad rush, she threw open the door and fell out of her bottom bunk, still dressed in her underwear.

  “I know where he is!” she shouted.

  Kyralla leaped out from the bunk above her. “Oona! What’s wrong?”

  “Dad! He’s in danger, but I know where he is.”

  Kyralla rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “Where?”

  “Wraith space. He’s in wraith space!”

  “What?” Kyralla asked. “Why? How?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “So he’s still on Titus II but in wraith space?”

  Oona shrugged. “I don’t know. Can he still be on Titus II and in wraith space?”

  “I think so,” Kyralla responded.

  Bishop hopped out of his compartment. “It’s certainly possible. It’s a weird dimension. We don’t fully understand it.”

  Mitsuki, who had popped out of the small cabin almost immediately, nodded. “If he’s in wraith space, then he must be on a ship. Was it in orbit, or on the planet surface?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t see a ship in my vision.”

  Siv stumbled down the hallway to join them. “Your dad’s in wraith space? And you don’t know how he got there?”

  She nodded.

  “Tell us everything you saw.”

  "It was all fuzzy, but there
was someone with him…a woman, I think. He was hurt badly, but not critically. Something bad was chasing them. I'm not sure what. And…and that's all I—"

  Oona suddenly realized she was still in her underwear. Blushing what she was sure was the darkest red ever, she threw her arms in front of her body, trying to hide as much as she could. “I’m not dressed!”

  Mitsuki laughed. “Well, hardly anyone else is.”

  Oona noted Kyralla was in her underwear, too, only she had thrown a shirt on before getting out. Mitsuki was wearing a negligee. Why would Mitsuki have packed something like that when she was running away from bad guys? Siv was wearing a bathrobe that she guessed had belonged to his father because there was no way he would’ve brought that along with him. Only Bishop was fully dressed, apparently not having bothered to change when he went to bed.

  Kyralla reached into a locker and tossed Oona her dress. She turned her back to everyone and pulled it on as quickly as she could, hoping no one, Siv especially, had seen much.

  “I’m so embarrassed!”

  “Privacy is going to be hard to come by when we’re all crammed together onto a small ship like this,” Mitsuki said.

  “It’s okay,” Siv said with a chuckle. “You were surprised. Don’t worry about it.”

  She blushed deeper. "So…um…I should meditate. Maybe I can pick up something else about his location…" She glanced around. "I need a good meditation spot. The sleeping capsule's not acceptable." She shivered. "Especially not now."

  “What about the detention cell, near the priestess?” Kyralla suggested. “Maybe you can tap into some of her telepathic energy.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Bishop said.

  “You can use my pillow as a cushion,” Kyralla said, reaching up into her sleep chamber.

  “Wait, I’ve got the perfect thing,” Bishop said, rushing off. He returned a few moments later with the bottom section to one of the skimmer’s seats. “I’m not going to be reinstalling this for a while.”

  Bishop placed the seat in the detention cell, and everyone else left so they wouldn’t distract her.

  Oona settled in on the seat, with her back pressed up against the capsule. It took several minutes of deep breathing for her to calm her mind and get over her embarrassment. It helped that she had something important to concentrate on: saving her dad.

  As she focused on visualizing him in wraith space, a hazy scene gradually came into view. At first, details were hard to make out due to the multicolored mists that swirled around her father and the strange, elfish young woman who helped him as he limped along, his body sagging, tears streaming from his eyes.

  The mists peeled away, clearly revealing the space they were traveling through to be an energy vortex, like a ten-meter-wide tunnel piercing a lightning cloud.

  In detail, she saw her father’s injuries. Scrapes and bruises darkened his face. Dried blood had crusted over a cut on his left hand. Blood oozed through the makeshift bandage on a nasty wound to his right thigh. His shirt was a tattered mess. His hair was disheveled and dirty.

  The image of the woman with him was hazy and shrouded as if shadows followed her everywhere. But one thing did come through the darkness: her eyes, blazing red.

  As the mists rushed back in on them, her dad cried out, but Oona couldn’t make out his words. The woman said something and touched him. He broke away from her, staggered a few steps, then fell, screaming. Oona distinctly heard the word “demon.”

  The woman stopped and helped him up. He calmed for a minute as he walked with her again, but his eyes darted suspiciously, one way then another as if enemies surrounded him. Lightning flashed, and blue flames erupted around them.

  Startled, Oona nearly jumped off her seat, afraid they would be injured, but they continued through the flames unharmed. The shadowy woman had no difficulty moving through this nightmarish landscape, but it was horrible for her father.

  The vision faded out, and despite several minutes of effort, she couldn’t reconnect. She had a feeling that was it for now. And she wasn’t even sure it was a new vision anyway. It might just be a clearer version of what she’d dreamed earlier.

  Regardless, it was disturbing, and not just because her father had been in such torment. He was putting his faith in this strange woman to lead him through safely, but Oona didn’t trust her at all. She could practically feel the darkness that shrouded her.

  She found the others in the galley and told them everything she’d seen.

  “Well, now we know he isn’t being held, at least not anymore,” Siv said. “And he’s apparently on the run with a delver.”

  “You’re assuming this delver isn’t holding him hostage,” Mitsuki said.

  Siv nodded with a sigh. “That’s true.”

  “Delvers are the people who go into wraith space to mine flux crystals, right?” Oona said.

  Siv nodded. “I’m guessing that’s what she is. It would explain why she wasn’t bothered by all the terrors in wraith space. But I guess she could be something else.”

  “Well, I don’t know how much this information helps,” Mitsuki said, “but it’s something.”

  “It’s worse than nothing,” Silky said over the comm.

  “How’s that?” Kyralla asked.

  “I’ve been in wraith space before, with both Gav and Eyana, and that tunnel Oona described isn’t a normal wraith space feature.”

  “It sounds like a wormhole,” Bishop said.

  “We’ve never found a stable wormhole anywhere before,” Silky said. “But it’s possible. Wraith space isn’t neat and tidy like all the other spaces we know. Hyperspace, echo space, dull space…those are all copies of our universe with the distances between everything altered. Even flux space, we think, is a version of our universe, only compacted into a near singularity.”

  Mitsuki rolled her eyes. “Get to the point, professor.”

  “Rude, woman!” Silky countered, before continuing. “Wraith space is like a distorted copy of our universe, perhaps with a strange, parallel version leaking into it, which is the theory I’m partial to. Anyway, that’s why you can jump into it while deep inside a gravity well. And that’s why you can sometimes travel there only to find a nearby planet missing or discover a new one in the depth of space.”

  “Wraith space as a parallel universe is my favorite theory as well,” Bishop said, a little too cheerfully. Kyralla glared at him. “Sorry, didn’t mean to sound so upbeat. Obviously, I’m concerned about your dad.”

  “It’s okay,” Oona said.

  “So you’re whole point,” Mitsuki said, “is that wraith space is weird so finding a stable wormhole there is possible.”

  Silky sighed. “Yes, that was my point.”

  “So he may be traveling from Titus II to an entirely different planet, maybe even on the other side of the galaxy?” Siv asked.

  “Or to a world that doesn’t exist at all within real space,” Bishop said.

  “And that,” Silky said, “is why the information is worse than nothing. Because he could be going anywhere.”

  “I hope the tunnel’s taking him to somewhere else in real space,” Oona said, worrying. “Because a world that exists only within wraith space would kill him, and not because he’s injured. Mentally, he can’t handle being there.”

  “Eventually they will have to emerge into real space,” Bishop said. “Wraith space is hard for everyone. Even delvers eventually start succumbing to its mental effects.”

  “Is your dad an empath?” Silky asked. “Because empaths can’t handle wraith space well.”

  “Dad’s a level two, advanced,” Kyralla said. “It’s one of the reasons he’s a good ambassador.”

  “So what do we do now?” Bishop asked.

  “We continue as we were,” Siv said, “hoping he’s just in wraith space to temporarily elude whoever’s chasing him. And we’ll assume that this wormhole only takes him to somewhere else on Titus II. That’s all we can do.”

  “Siv and I will st
ill travel to the planet via Zayer Prime,” Mitsuki said. “Even if he’s not there, maybe we can figure out where he’s gone. Meanwhile, Oona can try, as often as she’s able, to get a fix on him again. Siv’s right, that’s all we can do.”

  Oona nodded and stood up from the table. “I’ll go back to meditate.”

  Kyralla touched her arm. “Don’t overdo it.”

  “Meditation will help me when my trial comes, and I’ve got nothing else to do.”

  “Just make sure you get some rest,” Kyralla said.

  “Take my bedroom when you’re tired,” Siv said. “You’ll sleep better there.”

  She beamed at Siv. “Thank you.”

  As Oona started back toward the detention cell, he stopped her.

  “Don’t worry. We will get him back, somehow.”

  Oona nodded. She wanted to believe him, but she couldn’t shake the sinking feeling that she was never going to see her dad again.

  7

  Siv Gendin

  By the time they reached the midpoint, Siv felt almost like his old self again. The anti-toxins and other medications Octavian had dosed him with had successfully sent the neurological disease Kompel had given him into remission. And several days of rest had allowed his body to recover from the near-fatal withdrawal symptoms.

  Since Octavian had quit fussing over him, Bishop and the girls had let him move out of the captain’s cabin and into one of the bunks.

  Siv felt more comfortable sleeping in the bunk. The captain’s cabin had been his dad’s room, and he didn’t think he’d ever feel like he belonged there. He did bring the Vrazel mask with him though, tucking it into the cubby space.

  As soon as they popped out of hyperspace, Oona sent a carefully worded message to her father, telling him to meet them in the war-torn Lantus system twenty light years away. Kyralla felt confident their father would know it was a fake, but Oona still worried he might go there mistakenly if he escaped wraith space and Titus II.