Star Brigade: Ascendant (SB4)

by C. C. Ekeke

  “He’s on the mend. Just shaken up and angry.”

  With that out of the way, Sam refocused on the most important matter in her life. “Where is my daughter?” Her heart raced with fear for the Korvenite, fear that drew up the worst possible scenarios.

  But terror would get them nowhere. The more she knew, the sooner she found Tharydane.

  “We tracked the shuttle to Jefferson Mining Station,” Lethe answered crisply. “I’m heading there now with a security team.”

  “I’ll meet you there,” Sam replied brusquely, not caring if she sounded rude. “Send me every scrap of data on Loroorol. Then we find Tharydane.” She ended the transmission then whirled on Bevrolor.

  “Whatever you need,” the Nubrideen said with concerned eyes. “Name it.”

  Sam’s fears eddied like turbulent clouds. She drew her armor back on before the cracks got too visible.

  “Have Herrycon take us to Jefferson Mining Station.” Sam moved to exit the private room, Bevrolor trailing behind. “We’re getting my daughter back.”

  ***

  Tharyn woke up abruptly. The last thing she remembered was Jhori seizing on the ground, his psychically broadcast agony taking her down with him. Now she sat in some shuttle’s hazy green-lit cargo hold, her brain groggy and submerged. Clearly this wasn’t a Union Command shuttle, resembling something more civilian. Meaning that Tharyn was no longer on Hollus Maddrone.

  Meaning I’ve been abducted. The realization quaked through her willowy frame. Frightened, she moved to stand up and found both hands manacled together. She tried to stretch her mind out and ran into a wall of nothing. The Korvenite winced and pulled back. “I’m being dampened, too,” she muttered through gritted teeth. That explained the clamp around her neck.

  “Afraid so.” The answer made Tharyn jerk around and behold her captor. The sight made the Korvenite’s brain implode. “You?”

  Loroorol skittered forward on his three legs. An Ikarian working with the Children of Earth. For moments Tharydane stared with disbelieving eyes, unable to process this nonsensical betrayal. Then she remembered Jhori. Her breath caught. “Did you kill Jhori?”

  Loroorol shook his head. “I had a narrow window to transmat you on the shuttle and escape Hollus. Besides,” he continued, wounded by her accusation, “I’m no killer. But it felt good making that Korvie bastard suffer.”

  Never had Tharyn seen such malicious glee on the Ikarian’s face, making him unrecognizable.

  “Are you thirsty?” the Ikarian then asked with his usual timid politeness. “Hungry?”

  “Why? So you can poison me?” Tharyn spat. “How could you betray your own species? Why—?”

  He waved off her outrage. By his scrunched-up features, the Ikarian looked conflicted. “I don’t hate you, Tharydane. In fact, I enjoyed your company.” His features smoothed out, indicating that singular Ikarian resolve. “But you’re still a Korvenite. The same race that destroyed my homeworld and nearly destroyed Terra Sollus.”

  “Destroyed your homeworld?” Tharydane was even more confused. She fought up to a more comfortable position despite her restraints. “The Korvenites never touched your homeworld, Loroorol!”

  The Ikarian waved her to silence. “My name isn’t Loroorol, and this isn’t my actual body. I am Neptune Morrison, an earthborn human. I swapped my mind into this Ikarian body in service of the Children of Earth, to be their eyes within Hollus Maddrone.”

  The admission was a hard slap to Tharydane’s face. “WHAT?”

  “And I would’ve stayed undercover, maybe even gotten close enough to Star Brigade.” The Ikarian shook his head in displeasure with a rattling sound that had to be a sigh. “But a friend needed me. A friend whom I owed several times over.”

  The shock was wearing off, causing fear and anger to sink in. This being whom she’d shared a love for a silly space opera with was a CoE agent. “I was your friend!”

  Loroorol shrugged, almost saddened. “We were never friends. I was installed on Hollus to do a job. Cultivating the trust of you and others was part of that job.”

  Tharyn tried to not show any hurt. But the revelation cut so deep. “You’ll never get away with this,” she hissed, wiping away tears with the backs of her shackled hands. “Star Brigade will find me and kill you.”

  The Ikarian shook his head. “Not happening. Not only is your psychic signature cloaked by these shackles, so are the trackers they placed in you. And I purged the UComm tracker in this body. Not easy, but it worked. See?” He lifted one of his three legs, showcasing a nasty welt that looked to be healing.

  Loroorol skittered his way to the helm. “They’ll find my UComm ship, with the data wiped. But I used a container to carry you through Jefferson Station and cloaked our movements in a distortion forcefield from holovid cameras. My escape strategy has been prepped since I joined Hollus almost a year ago.” He sounded so proud of himself. At one point, Tharyn would’ve celebrated Loroorol’s pride. “By then, you and I will be long gone. That is, if they saw through me framing that race traitor Addison Raichoudry.”

  They saw through it alright, Tharyn almost declared, just to claim some victory over this despicable xenophobe. But she stayed quiet…with severe effort.

  “Yes, my superiors won’t like that I blew my cover for Reyes,” the Ikarian rambled on. “But once they get their hands on you, the poster child for Korvenite acceptance,” Loroorol’s enthusiasm was as blatant as it was sickening, “I’ll be back to my human body faster than I can count.”

  Tharydane tried taming the fear by telling herself Sam, Lethe, and Star Brigade would rescue her in time. But the Ikarian’s words made no sense. “Korvenite acceptance? What is that supposed to mean?”

  Loroorol looked at her in surprise. “Guess you don’t watch the news streams. Your little stunt stopping that other Korvenite from fully activating Maelstrom’s Terra Sollus attack made waves. It actually fooled weaker minds that maybe not all Korvenites are murdering fanatics.” The Ikarian was pacing, anxious about something. “Now, Children of Earth can change that narrative. And any chance of reintegrating your kind into Union society dies with you.”

  Those words made Tharyn’s blood run ice-cold. Even without Mindspeak, she could taste the unbending hatred in Loroorol’s words. Suddenly, the Korvenite began realizing she was going to die. “What are they going to do to me?” she demanded, but a tremble betrayed her fears.

  The Ikarian ignored her, growing more anxious. “Where the hell is he?” Loroorol raged, waving his Ikarian limbs in the same exasperated way a human would. The visual was jarring. “If we don’t leave soon, blowing my cover will be for nothing!”

  Tharyn prayed to Korvan above Loroorol’s contact never showed. Then Sam would bust in and roast this double-crossing asshole alive. I’ll even visit another Korvenite living station if I survive this, she promised.

  A beep sounded, indicating a visitor just outside the shuttle. And Tharyn’s hopes died.

  The Ikarian skittered toward the entrance door. “About time!” he fumed. With a few flutters on the side console, he activated the small viewscreen to identify the guest. Tharyn couldn’t see the screen from her vantage point. But clearly it wasn’t who Loroorol expected. He opened the entrance anyway with a hiss.

  “Miranda?” the Ikarian asked in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”

  “Subbing for Carter,” a human voice answered from outside, feminine and devoid of emotions. A slim human woman assertively entered, pale and sparsely freckled in complexion. Her attire was casual: blue denims, a white V-neck, and a dark kurthahide bomber jacket. This “Miranda” gave her waves of long ginger hair an indifferent toss as she took in her surroundings. She gave Loroorol one look and chuckled. “Management felt he wasn’t suited for this extraction.”

  Loroorol slid the door closed, his features a picture of shock. “Management already knows?”

  Miranda gave him a knowing look. “Exactly why Carter got yanked. He talks too much.”


  “Shit.” The Ikarian scuttled up to the helm. “I’ll get us out of here now!”

  Miranda turned her attention on Tharyn with a strange half-smile. She approached and knelt before the Korvenite. Miranda’s auburn eyes swept over her, probing, unblinking, and lifeless.

  Tharyn recoiled. She had met that same gaze many times over on Bimnorii. The eyes of a killer. Miranda’s generically attractive face fooled no one. Even without telepathy, Tharyn sensed danger from her. This human could kill Tharyn without hesitation…and enjoy it.

  “So this is what you’re exchanging for Reyes’s exfiltration.” Even Miranda’s voice sounded compassionless. Did this human have feelings? “I’ve been waiting to meet this one.”

  Tharyn didn’t like hearing that. Or Miranda grabbing her chin as she looked her over.

  “You’ve heard of Tharydane?” Loroorol called from the helm.

  “Her human guardian and I crossed paths a few months back.” Her smile vanished. “Long story short, her actions crippled one of CoE’s financial shell companies.”

  Tharydane’s eyes bulged. One of Sam’s favorite expletives came to mind. Fuck.

  “That was Star Brigade?” Loroorol called back as the shuttle’s engines hummed to life.

  “Yep.” Miranda’s grip on Tharyn’s chin tightened painfully. Soon, the shuttle’s engines settled and a brief floating sensation filled Tharydane’s bones. Meaning they lifted off, and were leaving the base.

  Whatever lingering hopes Tharydane had of being rescued drained away. “What are you going to do with me?” Her heart pounded with fear. Was it torture then death? Or would they violently kill her straightaway?

  Miranda released the Korvenite with a disdainful shove, causing Tharyn to knock her head against the wall behind her. “After Neptune gets his friend off Terra Sollus, we’ll let you go.”

  Tharyn frowned, perplexed. That made no sense. “Why?”

  “It’s the right thing to do.” Miranda’s smiled never reached those dead eyes. Her voice took on an overly saccharine quality the Korvenite knew to be false. “You’ll be dropped off in the heart of a crowded Terra Sollus city-state, with a special surprise.”

  Tharyn didn’t want specifics. But curiosity got the better of self-preservation. “What kind of surprise?”

  “A special virus injected in your bloodstream to amplify your telepathy twentyfold,” Miranda answered eagerly. “You’ll lose control of your telepathy, overload the mind of any non-Korvenite your telepathy touches, killing them in nanoclics.”

  As Miranda stood up, Tharydane’s horror rose in parallel to towering levels.

  The human’s eyes gleamed with the joy that a killer only got from dealing out death. “After you murder thousands, the authorities will put you down. Then the Union will know what Korvenites truly are…and finally wipe you limebloods off the face of this galaxy.”

  Chapter 40

  The sewers below Terra Sollus were sectioned off in vast, gloomy tunnels. There was barely enough light to see in front of one’s face, sticky mud squishing beneath every step. And this place smelled awful—as in vomit-inducing awful.

  But a terrible stink was the least of Tharyn’s troubles. Currently she was in shackles, sweaty and shivering from head to heel, unable to use Korvan’s gifts and being dragged on a leash by two Children of Earth operatives. One was a double agent whom had pretended to be her friend. The other was clearly a mercenary or assassin of some kind named Miranda. She was the one Tharyn feared most. Her eyes held no emotion, like Marguliese. Except Marguliese was a Cybernarr. What’s Miranda’s excuse? As far as the Korvenite knew, they were underground to find Loroorol’s close friend. After they found him…

  I’m dead. Not immediately, but the way this Miranda psycho had described it made the realization worse. Sam, Lethe, and the rest of Star Brigade clearly had no clue where she was. Tharyn squeezed her eyes shut, trying to fight off her fears. But the terror only screamed louder.

  “Hey.” Miranda yanked hard on Tharyn’s leash. The Korvenite stumbled forward, almost falling. “Walk. Or do you need motivation?” The human didn’t raise her voice, nor need to. Tharyn quickened her pace.

  Loroorol looked back at the exchange with beady, nervous eyes. He was enjoying this as little as Tharyn. “Why did you bring her?” the Ikarian complained. “Keeping Tharydane in the shuttle is safer.”

  Miranda shook her head of flowing hair adamantly, marching behind Loroorol. “I’m not letting this blekdritt whore outta my sight. She’s too valuable.”

  A weird boldness seized Tharyn after hearing this. “Glad to know how much you care,” she snarked.

  Miranda replied with a stinging backhand slap, dropping the Korvenite to one knee. Tharyn was seeing stars as the human jerked the teen up by the leash until her mouth was near Tharyn’s ear. “You’d shit yourself if you knew my true feelings about your kind,” she hissed coldly. “Keep walking.”

  Loroorol continued ahead, ignoring what just happened. Coward. From Tharyn’s perspective, he was barely in charge anymore.

  The next several macroms went on in silence. Tharyn kept her head down and kept walking. She managed to swallow her sobs, but not her tears. In the darkness, no one could see them.

  “This will all be over soon, Tharyn,” Loroorol blurted out.

  Tharyn looked up sharply at such a useless statement. “As in me getting infected with a fatal virus soon?” she snapped, not caring if Miranda struck her again. “Go die in a black hole.” The teen had meant to sound furious, but a sudden sob betrayed her last words.

  Miranda scoffed impatiently. “How much longer, Neptune?”

  To Tharyn’s surprise, Loroorol had stopped in front of a rusty, grime-covered wall reaching higher than she could see. “We’re here. Stand back.”

  Those words squeezed Tharyn’s heart like a vise. After they collected Loroorol’s friend, her death awaited. Long, painful, and public.

  The Ikarian raised his wrist, pulling up a floating holoconsole that splashed the tunnel’s visible length with pale blue light. “Kingston, it’s Neptune,” he said. “Stand back. I’m coming in!”

  Loroorol typed into the holoconsole before an ovular door in the wall slid open. Tharyn saw a clean chamber beyond the wall with sparse furniture. Her gaze soon found a human man sprawled across the middle of the floor. He was shriveled up and grey-skinned, barely alive. She gasped. “Oh, sweet Korvan!”

  Loroorol rushed ahead on his three legs. “Good God! Kingston.” He gathered the human up in his arms.

  Miranda yanked Tharyn forward by the leash as they followed. Up close, Kingston looked more corpselike. Skin hung loosely off his bones, his face practically a skull with skin stretched over it. Tharyn shuddered and looked away. “What happened to him?” she asked, voice trembling.

  Loroorol ignored her. “Kingston, can you hear me? Please wake up,” he whispered. Watching the Ikarian’s desperation to save his friend was almost touching, until Tharyn remembered who he was and what he had done. I hope Kingston dies, she seethed.

  Suddenly, Kingston jolted to life. He took one look at Loroorol holding him and fought feebly to push away.

  “It’s me, Neptune.” Loroorol sounded relieved. “I’m here to rescue you.” That relief vanished as the desiccated human fought even harder to escape. He was trying to speak, yet only unintelligible whispers came out. Tharyn couldn’t help noticing a strange silvery rash covering his chest, further marred by reddish scratches. Must be delirious from lack of food and water, the Korvenite decided, fascinated by this unhinged display.

  “Kingston! Let me help you.” The Ikarian’s awkward limbs made controlling the thrashing man harder.

  Miranda observed the situation with blank, probing eyes. Her stare made Tharyn’s skin crawl more than Kingston’s emaciated body.

  Finally, Loroorol muscled his thrashing friend upright and shook him. “Stop. Fighting!” He looked to his ally beseechingly. “Miranda, some help here?”

  She approached with
a tight smile. “Certainly.” Miranda drew a pulse pistol from her jacket and fired.

  Kingston’s head snapped back, bright green briefly illuminating the safe house.

  Tharydane stumbled back and shrieked, her horror bouncing off the sewer walls.

  “NO!!” Loroorol cried as Kingston sank from his grasp, lifeless. The Ikarian dropped to his knees and cradled Kingston’s charred, red ruin of a face.

  Tharyn stepped away from Miranda, whose gun remained trained on Kingston’s corpse.

  Loroorol’s hands dripped with red human blood as he looked up at Miranda. “WHY?”

  Miranda remained calm and cold-blooded. “The same reason I’m doing this.” She turned slightly, pointing her firearm now at Loroorol.

  Tharyn couldn’t believe her eyes. This woman’s off her comet crazy.

  The Ikarian’s eyes bulged like balloons. “What are you doing? Put the gun down,” he screeched. Tharyn didn’t need her telepathy to sense Loroorol’s terror.

  Miranda remained stiller than stone. “You know my role in the CoE,” she stated flatly.

  The Ikarian’s disbelief drained away as he slowly stood up. “You’re a cleaner.”

  Miranda gave her ginger locks a defiant toss and moved closer, dragging Tharyn along. “Fixing internal problems that Children of Earth leadership needs to disappear. Kingston Reyes became a problem.” She gestured her head at his corpse. “That chest rash is a tracking device. Obviously implanted by Star Brigade. He probably didn’t know.”

  Her gaze found Loroorol again. “Blowing your cover for that waste of circulation, despite it netting us the Korvie?” She shook her head in displeasure. “Big problem.” Her voice remained monotone yet dangerously near amused. It creeped Tharyn out almost as much as Miranda’s murderous actions.

  Loroorol didn’t bother pleading anymore. “I thought you were my friend,” the Ikarian said quietly, clearly realizing how this ended. Despite herself, Tharyn’s heart broke for him.

  Remorse briefly tightened Miranda’s bloodless mask. “Neptune, this isn’t personal. You’re one of the few decent human beings in CoE and a half-decent fuck. But you’re also a sentimental dumbass whose mess I have to clean up. Sorry.” Her finger curled around the trigger as Tharydane squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t watch, despite hating Loroorol.