From Ice to Ashes

by Rhett C. Bruno

  In the background sat the Piccolo, its aft torn asunder. Pervenio Security Officers surrounded it, and one by one members of the Ringer crew were escorted out of the ship. They weren’t being treated like victims. I saw Yavik, Lester, and Desmond, nose still bleeding, amongst all the others. Sweat poured down their faces. Some of them needed help walking. The one person I didn’t spot was Cora. That fact finally earned my full attention.

  The reporter said: “Early reports say that one of the same Ringers responsible for the horrific video being circulated throughout Solnet attempted to accelerate the Piccolo, a gas harvester loaded with flammable gases, into Pervenio Station. While there is no word on who exactly he was, a heroic Pervenio Collector thwarted the attack and was able to detain the surviving members of the crew.”

  “You said they wouldn’t be harmed,” I said meekly.

  “Relax, lover boy.” Vick playfully thrust his hand past my face. “Deception. Joran was going to stop before anything happened. We merely wanted to show them that they aren’t safe, even in their station.”

  “Quiet, Vick,” Maya ordered.

  He leaned in next to the side of my helmet. “They’ll think that all this was our

  endgame,” he whispered, “and bring that hand-terminal of yours right into their security headquarters to be analyzed, just like we want. It’ll provide us a brief opening into their systems when they do, thanks to that gorgeous sister of Maya’s.”

  “I said quiet!”

  Vick hopped away, snickering. I stared at the view-screen. Someone was being carried out of the ship on a hovering gurney. I slid as far forward on the couch as I could. Bad feed and all, I confirmed it was Cora. Her head was propped up and she wore a pained grimace, no doubt due to the brace wrapping her arm, but she was alive. A few more Ringers being treated for minor wounds followed behind her. Then came a body bag.

  “Those mud-stomping fucks!” Vick growled.

  “From ice to ashes, Joran,” Maya said solemnly. Gareth stepped over and placed a comforting hand on her arm.

  “They’ll pay for this.”

  “He knew what he was volunteering for. We can only hope he took some of them out first.”

  Gareth nudged Maya so hard I could feel her armored shoulder tap mine. He pointed at the screen, and I followed his finger, finally able to avert my focus from Cora. Strolling out of the Piccolo last was a pair of men in Pervenio armor who were too peculiar-looking to be normal officers. One was a middle-aged Earther with graying hair, an iron glower, and a pulse-pistol dangling from his hip. The top part of his armor was removed, revealing a faded brown duster. The other was taller and lean, an offworlder in his twenties most likely, with a strange yellow-colored lens apparatus stretching over his right eye.

  “Collectors,” Vick said. “Guess that video made us more popular than we thought.”

  “They’ll be taken care of,” Maya grunted. The feed switched over, and the stern face of Director Sodervall appeared onscreen, ready to address the Ring. “Turn this off. It’s time we all rest.”

  “But, the Director—”

  “Off.”

  She powered the view-screen down herself and stood. Without another word, or even a glance back at me, she left the room, clearly affected by the death of one of the men under her command. Gareth snorted and followed her.

  Vick plopped down onto the couch beside me. “You get used to her. She isn’t all bad.” He patted me on the back and held out the ration bar from earlier. “You forgot this, by the way.”

  “What will they do to them?” I asked as he dropped it onto my lap.

  “Who?”

  “The crew of the Piccolo.”

  “That what you’re worried about? They’ll lock ’em up on the station for a bit while they try to figure out what happened. Standard procedure.”

  “Standard? I’ve heard about how they interrogate prisoners in that place. You’re all so worried about our people, why’d you leave them on the ship to be taken in?”

  He shrugged. “We don’t have the supplies for ’em. The Sunfire would fall apart faster than it already is. Would you rather us all starve here together, or let them take a few lumps before Pervenio realizes they don’t know anything?”

  “I…” I bit my lower lip. I’d traded my mother’s freedom for the imprisonment of the woman I loved. Whether or not Cora knew anything, Pervenio Station’s cells were infamous for a reason. They’d try whatever it took to get answers out of her and the others before they set them free.

  “Kid, eventually you got to realize that this was going to happen with or without you.”

  “I’m sure you know that’s not true.”

  In my peripherals I noticed Vick’s brow furrow. “She told you, didn’t she?” he said. “Pretty crazy, isn’t it?”

  “Do you all really expect me to believe anything she said?” It was insane. Trass was a genius, a brilliant scientist and inventor who’d constructed the ark that would carry human beings farther through space than ever before in only a handful of years, under the pressure of impending Armageddon. Me? I was a reformed thief who couldn’t even save his mom from sickness on his own. Sure, I could repair a faulty harvesting vacuum or a flickering light, but I was far from a genius.

  “Personally, I don’t care,” Vick replied. “I didn’t believe her either when we first met, but she can be very convincing.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  “Your pop worked hard to keep the lot of you hidden from Pervenio. Seems like as good an indication as any that that’s what you all are. Wouldn’t do Pervenio Corp any good having a bunch of Trasses running around after they took over.”

  “You knew him too?”

  “Nah. He let very few people actually know him, but I’d see him around before I got stuck here. This, all of this—the Children of Titan—he helped start it.”

  “So that’s what you’re calling yourselves?” I said, making no effort to mask my disdain.

  “Look down, kid.” He tapped the orange circle printed on the chest plate of my armor. “You’re one of us now. Better get used to it.”

  “Shoving me in your armor doesn’t make me one of you.”

  “Do you think I asked to be stuck on this piece of junk for three years either? It sure as hell would’ve been easier not to have been born a Ringer. But let me ask you this: If you’d known you’d wind up here, if you’d known everything that would happen, would you have said no to helping your mum?”

  The question gave me pause, and as soon as he noticed that he grinned. I wanted to be irritated by his reaction, but I couldn’t, because I knew he was right. I would have done it all the same, and if I didn’t it would’ve been Cora or Desmond, or some new Ringer crew member I’d never met before doing their bidding. Maya didn’t seem like the type of woman who’d give up easily.

  “Exactly!” Vick said. He hopped to his feet. “Now, what do you say we cheer you up a bit. We’ve got a gift for you. I swear on your great-however-many-times-grandpa you’ll love it.”

  “I’m not—”

  “Won’t accept any ‘nos.’ ” He yanked on my arm, his powered suit easily providing the muscle to haul me upright. “After three years with those two, no way I’m dealing with another sorry sack. Oh.” He bent over, picked up the ration bar, and shoved it into my hand. “And would you fucking eat this already? You pass out and it’ll be my ass.”

  With that, he left the room. I guess I was starving, because once he was around the corner I ripped open the wrapper and shoved half of the bar into my mouth. Chicken soup–flavored, it tasted like heaven. I scarfed down the rest and hurried to catch up with him, struggling to match his strides. He was far more accustomed than I to walking in these suits.

  “How have I never heard of your group…organization…whatever it is?” I asked, still chewing.

  “Outside of Pervenio higher-ups, few had before the recording we sent out,” he answered. “For decades there’ve been factions of Titanborn protesting
for more rights, with names and fancy leaders. Pervenio and his hound Director Sodervall put them all down. Unlike them, the Children of Titan aren’t a group. We’re a symbol. We’re everywhere, and nowhere—operating out of sight. Cells functioning on our own terms. This is just one of many, kid. Few of us know of each other, even fewer have seen each other, but we all know what we want.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Our home back.”

  A difficult sentiment to argue with. Every Ringer dreamed of what it might’ve been like to live before the Great Reunion, when our chief concern was how best to work together to acquire the resources we needed and build a prosperous, peaceful civilization. The new, better Earth Darien Trass had dreamed of. We never considered going back, and it wasn’t only because Titan’s atmosphere was often too stormy to see through. Even once we discovered that Earthers had survived a century after the Meteorite hit, we were happy to let them rebuild on their own, until Luxarn Pervenio’s father showed up on our doorstep and we foolishly invited them in.

  “Do you know how many Titanborn are living throughout the Ring?” Vick asked after a few seconds went by without me responding. “And I don’t mean one-generation offworlders from Earth. I mean real, genuine men and women with roots dating back to before the Great Reunion.”

  I rolled my shoulders.

  “Roughly three million by census,” he answered. “Probably a couple hundred thousand more illegitimates. Hasn’t grown in decades because of our damn immune systems, but it hasn’t fallen much either since the plague’s effects leveled out. Just like Trass never thought the people we left behind would eventually enslave us, Earthers never figured their arrival would drive us to focus on settling down with a good mate and popping out baby Ringers.”

  “Just so they can get sick too,” I grumbled.

  “You’re not listening. By blood we outnumber the Earthers here three to one. Eventually new Earther immigrants will close the gap like Pervenio wants, but if we can make them fear this place too much to dig out of the mud on Earth and drag their asses over, if they choose to go to a Venta Co Colony at Europa instead, or Mars, then guess what?”

  “It gets better.”

  “It does indeed. But if we don’t change anything, eventually there won’t be anyone to remember the days before they arrived and the home we built. We’ll be offworlders, the same as any others, throwing our lot into the Departure Lottery just to feel like we’re worth something.”

  He turned down a branch in the hallway, and as I followed I realized, based on my knowledge of the Piccolo, where we were headed. We were at the starboard airlock wing. This hall was flanked by similar rows of benches, only there were no empty space suits hanging on the wall. The inner seal was closed.

  I froze.

  “Don’t worry,” Vick snickered. “I’m not going to shove you out.” He keyed a command to open the inner seal, and sitting inside the airlock was Captain Saunders, his wrist cuffed to a pipe. His skin was whiter than any Earther’s should be, and his whole body was drenched in sweat even though he was shivering. A torn shirt wrapped his torso, covering a gunshot wound.

  “Captain Saunders!” I exclaimed, and scurried over. His head slumped to the side as he wheezed. Judging by how red the metal floor around him was, he’d lost a lot of blood. I nudged him, but his eyelids only fluttered and he groaned something inaudible. “What the hell are you doing to him?”

  “Figured we’d save the worst of them for you, Mr. Trass,” Vick said, grinning.

  Chapter 16

  Vick wasn’t pleased when I asked him to show me where the ship’s water supply was so that I could retrieve some for Captain Saunders, but he reluctantly let me do what I wanted. That was the first time I began to really consider that maybe he and Maya were telling me the truth about who I was. I had full run of the ship. No doors were locked for a Trass. The thought was so unbelievable it almost had me amused. Almost.

  The Sunfire’s galley was barren. Cabinet doors hung loose and tables were tossed about, stained with blood and rust. It was like I’d stepped into a time machine and emerged on the Piccolo years after it was abandoned. A pallet filled with ration bars like the one I’d been given earlier sat in the corner, along with a few small tanks of water. All of it bore Venta Co markings, and while I wasn’t sure how they got the supplies onto the Sunfire, there was no doubt they were how Maya and her skeleton crew had survived for so long. I wondered if Venta knew they were backing a public execution, all to stick it to their corporate rivals.

  I filled a cup with water for the captain before realizing how dry my own throat was. I downed three cups, then saved one for him. With the Venta G-pill diminishing my soreness, I also found that I was starving. I stuffed another ration bar in my mouth, and grabbed two more just in case. Nobody stopped me. Vick returned to the command deck after he saw what I was up to. Gareth stayed to watch my every move, but despite his hawkish glare, he kept his distance.

  “Hey, Captain,” I said as I approached the airlock, water in hand and focused on ensuring I didn’t crush the cup with my unnaturally strong grip. I kneeled next to him. “C’mon, you need this.”

  He was barely conscious. I grabbed his jaw and pried open his mouth enough to pour some water inside. Most of it dribbled down his chin, washing the blood away, but some of it got in. He coughed, and I held his mouth shut so he wouldn’t spit it out before I forced in some more. When it seemed he’d had his fill, I yanked on the cloth wrapping his torso and dripped some into the area of his wound. He moaned and punched at my arm, but with my suit on he couldn’t fight me off. I continued cleaning him until the cup was empty.

  “You’ll thank me for that,” I said.

  I noticed the whites of his eyes peeking through a narrow crack in his eyelids as his head turned to face me. He shivered again. The Sunfire was cold even for Ringers, so I couldn’t imagine how he must have felt. I got back up and returned to the room I’d first awakened in. All I could find was a ratty blanket, but I knew it was the best I’d get. I couldn’t risk letting him borrow any of my clothes. After falling face-first into a pool of his Earther blood, I was lucky I wasn’t already covered in rashes and vomiting, even though for once in my life a trip to quarantine was the least of my concerns.

  When I returned to the airlock, I wrapped the blanket around his shoulders. He grabbed the ends, crossed his arms, and failed in an attempt to whisper. Then his head drooped back against the wall and he passed out. So I waited, for an hour, maybe two. I waited so long that I started to doze off…

  —

  I stood in front of a transparent divider. It was similar to the one in the Darien Q-Zone that separated my mother and me. One by one a crowd of people on the other side turned to reveal their faces.

  First I saw John, a bandage wrapped around his head. Then came the other familiar faces of the Piccolo’s Earther crew, until Captain Saunders appeared. Blood leaked out of a widening hole in his stomach as he stood.

  “Help us.” I could hear their muffled cries, but there was no intercom through which to reply.

  Lester parted the crowd and limped toward me, bruised and bloody. Yavik arrived next to him, along with a few more recognizable Ringers. Desmond approached last, only he wasn’t alone. He was squeezing Cora’s hand as she wept.

  “You fuckin’ did it now, Kale,” he sneered.

  “Why did you do this?” Cora sniveled. It was hard to hear her over the constant repetition of the Earthers asking for help.

  “Cora,” I said, and placed my hands against the glass. “Cora!”

  Someone touched my shoulder. I turned to see my mother standing beside me, completely healthy and wearing a bright smile. Finally, I was on her side of the divider.

  “Don’t watch, Kale,” she said with a calming presence. “It’ll all be over soon.”

  I looked nervously between her and the entire crew of the Piccolo. Desmond was laughing. The captain cursed me as his belly opened farther. Cora peered up at me throug
h the bloody fingers covering her face, heartbroken.

  An obnoxious buzzer blared. My mother’s arm wrapped around my shoulders. Then the back wall of the room the crew was in whooshed open, and their screams were squelched as they vanished into blackness.

  —

  “Cora!” I shouted as my eyes sprung open. I was panting, the salty tang of sweat on my lips as more dribbled down my face. I searched from side to side, and discovered Maya beside me. The ghastly nature of her face shocked me once again with the brighter lights of the airlock beaming down on her. She held a cup of water.

  “Relax, Kale,” she said. “It was only a dream.”

  I sat up and wiped my brow. “I was hoping all of this was.”

  “So did I.” She crouched beside me and glared at Captain Saunders. He continued to shiver and hold the blanket tight against his chest. “You can try to help him as much as you want, but it isn’t going to change anything that happened.”

  “What are you going to do to him?”

  “Like Vick told you, that’s not up to me.”

  “Maybe we are family, but I’m not a murderer.”

  “It’d be a mercy at this point. There’s nowhere else for him to go but out the hatch. Aren’t you tired of being called Earther lover?”

  “Water…” Captain Saunders croaked. He pawed at Maya’s leg, his arm barely able to move.

  “You want this?” Maya regarded him with disdain. She tilted the cup in her hand and slowly allowed it to drip over the rim onto the floor.

  “Stop!” I grabbed the cup from her and held it under his mouth. He struggled through a few sips alone before I had to support his head to help. “Just leave him alone.”

  Maya snickered and sat against the wall across from me. She poked him in the head, watching delightedly as it caused his entire body to tip.