“But you have the toxic lake for that, right?”
“We did. But they make too much for it to cope with. We visit the black lake regularly and it’s overloaded. If Enigma hadn’t been stopped, that pollution would have spilled over into this lake and turned our water source toxic. We’d all—”
“Die,” SA finished for him in a whisper.
“Exactly. You and your friends took down Enigma. Without realising it, you saved us.”
At the mention of her friends, SA perked up. “Do you know what’s happened to the others I came here with?”
While releasing a deep sigh, the creature shook its head. “Gone.”
The word plummeted as a lead weight through SA’s stomach and she could barely repeat what she’d heard. “Gone?”
The beast wrung its hands while frowning at her. “I’m so sorry.” Before SA responded, it added, “But we’ve brought a ship over so you can get off the planet. It’s one of Enigma’s vessels. I’m not sure they’ll be needing it now.”
SA had pulled back into herself, and although she had an awareness of replying to the beast, she couldn’t help but focus on the word gone. “No, I suppose you’re right.”
“I’m afraid we have no idea where your friends are, but at least you can try to find them, right?”
It started as a smile that quickly turned into a laugh. The creature watched her with a deep frown. “When you said gone,” she said, “I thought you meant gone gone.”
The creature clapped a hand to its mouth as it gasped. Its eyes wide, it said, “I’m sorry. I can see that now. No, we think they’re still alive. They’re just not on Varna anymore.”
SA then watched the creature turn around and crouch down. When it stood back up again, it had a plate of food in its hands. “Here, have this; you need it. When you’re done, we’ll get you off this planet so you can go and find your friends.”
Chapter 9
SA cut her splice root in two, speared one half of the yellow-sprouting vegetable with her fork, and put it in her mouth. It had a slightly bitter taste that caused some of the muscles in her neck to tighten as she chewed, but she could tolerate it. Besides, vegetables weren’t supposed to be enjoyed, just digested so she could eat the rest of her meal guilt-free. She swallowed her mouthful, her throat sore from having spoken so much.
While sipping her cool and fresh water, SA looked at the others. They all stared back like they expected her to tell more of her story: Sparks, Reyes, Bruke, Moses, and Seb. It had been several weeks since they’d come back from Varna, this being the first time they’d all managed to get together again to catch up. Instead of giving them what she thought they wanted, she put the second half of the splice root into her mouth.
“And that’s when you came to the Shadow Order’s base?” Moses said.
To avoid speaking with a mouthful, SA covered the lower half of her face with her hand and nodded.
The warmth of Seb’s grip in hers never got old, so when he reached over, SA responded and they held hands beneath the table.
Bruke glowed to look at them both, his eyes glistening with backed-up tears. “And then you came here?”
Again SA nodded.
“Oh, how I would have loved to see that.”
While rolling her eyes, Sparks said, “I’m sure they were grateful to have that moment alone, Bruke. Besides, you may have wanted to see it”—she spoke in a quieter voice, faking conspiracy—“but the neighbours said these two howled at the sky for days. They were like rutting bullwats.”
Heat lifted on SA’s cheeks and she dropped her attention to her dinner plate.
After a few seconds of silence, Reyes cleared her throat, sparing SA’s embarrassment. “Um, I suppose seeing as SA’s told you her story, and seeing as we’re all together for what could be the last time in a while, I owe you all an explanation.”
One of the most composed beings SA had met, she watched the now vulnerable Reyes. Her eyes shifted as she looked for the approval of those around her to continue.
It took for Sparks to break the silence. “The Faradis?”
Reyes drew a deep breath. It looked like she went into herself, finding the strength from deep inside to keep talking. She finally nodded. “Yep.” She then winced to take in her friends again. “If you all want to hear it, that is …”
Sparks tutted and threw her hands in the air. “Of course! We’ve all heard about The Faradis, but none of us have had a first-hand account. It sounded like one hell of a thing to go through.”
After several nods as if to get herself going, Reyes finally said, “No story could come close to the reality of it.”
Her words sucked all the air from the room. SA stopped chewing.
“It all started when we were on the Crimson Destroyer, our mothership. We’d not long been back from a mission. A horrible mission on a sandy planet called Q328. Because of that experience, they’d sent all of the ranking officers on a break. They held the rookies back because they worried we’d not cope if we spent time on our own. There had been too many rookie suicides in the past. The plan was to stay on board for a few weeks before we went on any other jobs. We were officially off-duty.” She laughed and shook her head. When she pulled her hair from her face, SA noticed her shaking hand. “But best-laid plans and all that …”
A slight glaze covered Reyes’ eyes when she looked up at the rest of them. Seb let go of SA’s hand and reached out to the Hispanic Marine. He touched the back of her arm and spoke with soft tones. “You don’t need to go through this again if you’re not ready.”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready.” Before Seb could reply, she said, “But it’s time for me to tell it.” After a deep inhale to settle herself, she said, “I remember when it came onto our radar. We were playing murderball—”
“Murderball?” Bruke said.
“You have a small metal ball you have to throw into your opponents’ goal. Other than that, there are no rules …”
Chapter 10
Reyes ran on Patel’s flank, open for the ball, ready should he need to offload it. Sweat burned her eyes, but she dared not blink; she didn’t have time to blink.
Quick feet and fast straight-line speed, Patel was the star player on their team. It took everything Reyes had to shadow him.
Chan suddenly appeared to their right. Even with the distance between them, she had a good chance of catching up. The fastest of all the Marines and on the opposite team, the small woman of Chinese American descent had thighs like a cheetah and could catch a rocket on take-off.
Heading straight for Patel, Chan would catch him if Reyes didn’t do something to stop her. With no rules in murderball other than get the ball in the opponents’ net, she gritted her teeth and dug deep. In a burst of speed she didn’t think she had in her, she charged at Chan. Because the small Marine had her focus on Patel, she didn’t notice Reyes soon enough.
Reyes hit Chan with a hard shoulder barge, driving an oomph from her. The blow lifted the small Marine from her feet, shoving her away from them and keeping Patel’s route to the goal clear.
Patel turned to Reyes and nodded his thanks. A greater luxury than blinking, it made him miss Hicks’ approach.
“Man on!” Reyes gasped, but Patel turned too late and Hicks slammed into him.
Because she’d seen Hicks coming, Reyes jumped aside, dodging the pair as they went down. They were heading for a collision with the metal wall on their left, but Patel managed to release the ball in time, delivering it directly to Reyes’ grip.
A tight clench on the small metal sphere, Reyes felt twenty pairs of eyes turn her way. It lit the touchpaper, her system flooding with adrenaline as she took off again. Quicker than before, she made a beeline for the opposing team’s goal.
Whoever decided to build the sports arena next to the Crimson Destroyer’s huge boosters clearly hadn’t done exercise before. More sweat than ever ran into her eyes as Reyes swallowed against the dryness in her throat while gulping in the baked
air.
The small red metal murderball in one hand, Reyes ran straight at Weston. She slammed her palm into the centre of his face and felt his nose crunch. Before he hit the floor, she jumped over him without breaking stride.
The hard surfaces in the arena picked up the sound of the others. It told Reyes all she needed to know without her looking back. If she didn’t reach the goal soon, she’d be hit by a stampede.
Patel, having done most of the work, watched as only Julius stood between Reyes and the goal. A woman larger than many of the men, she wouldn’t drop to a handoff like Weston just had.
Reyes darted left, sending Julius diving before she shifted back to the right. As the Marine fell, clasping at thin air where she’d expected Reyes to be, it gave her a clear run on goal. An open net only a metre away from her, she threw the ball hard to the satisfying blare of the buzzer as it crashed home.
They’d won! Reyes threw her arms in the air. She didn’t normally score. A defender, she’d seen the opportunity to follow Patel and took it. While jumping up and down on the spot, she cheered. The rest of her team cheered with her. Then she saw Chan. The game clearly hadn’t ended for her.
Too late to react, Reyes took the full weight of Chan’s shoulder in her stomach. Not quick enough to tense, she went down like a bag of air. The metal floor did nothing to cushion her fall, a skeleton-altering clatter running through her as she took the weight of both of them. When the back of her head slammed down, her world spun and she fought to remain conscious.
As Reyes found her bearings, Chan got to her feet and loomed over her. Eyes wild, she licked her lips and paced back and forth. An animal over its kill, the glaze in her green stare showed she’d lost herself to the adrenaline rush.
Although Reyes opened her mouth to speak, Patel’s voice cut her off. “What the hell was that, Chan?” It echoed through the large arena.
A scowl as mean as the one she levelled on Reyes, she spun on him and threw her arms in the air. “What do you expect? I couldn’t let her score.”
Reyes sat up too quickly, her head spinning again. After holding her brow for a few seconds, she pointed her finger at the small Marine. “That’s bullshit. You knew I’d already scored. You just don’t like it that I took you out first.”
“Of course I don’t. You cheated!”
“You were in play! How long have you been playing this game, Chan? You know the rules.”
Chan worked her jaw as if chewing gum, her hands on her hips.
The fire slightly calmed in Reyes and she lowered her tone. Because of the silence in the vast hall, her voice still carried. “This was yet another attempt from you to take me down. Like you always do. I still don’t know what your problem is. You’ve had it in for me since day one.”
While baring gritted teeth, Chan spoke so quietly, Reyes doubted the others heard her. “Don’t be such a victim, daddy’s girl. It’s tedious hearing the privileged moan about how hard they have it.”
Still out of breath from the run and from being knocked down, Reyes got to her feet a little too quickly. The arena spun around her and she rocked on her heels before she found her balance. Unlike Chan, she didn’t have a problem with everyone else hearing her. “Face it, Chan; you don’t like me, which makes you do whatever you can to hurt me.”
Chan stepped close enough for Reyes to smell the sweat on her skin. At five feet exactly, she stood a few inches shorter than Reyes. She looked up at her and continued to speak through clenched teeth, quiet enough to keep her comments between the two of them private again. “You’re a little daddy’s girl. We got here on merit; you’re here because Daddy pulled some strings for you.”
The same line she’d heard from Chan a million times already, it still raised Reyes’ hackles. She lifted her top lip in a snarl, leaning forwards so their sweating foreheads touched as she spoke slow and deliberate words. “You have no idea what I’ve done.”
“What? You think because you got lucky on that one mission that you’re a Marine now? It took you so long to work out how to get away that half your squad died. A child would have twigged sooner than you did.”
Reyes drove a headbutt into Chan’s nose. A loud crack rang out and Chan stumbled back several wobbly paces.
The closest of the other Marines was still several metres away. Too far away to stop Chan, who screamed as she charged.
Chan hit Reyes flush, knocking her down. She rained punches on her as they fell, and continued to pummel her when they hit the floor.
The blows came so quick, Reyes had no other choice but to cover her face. Chan might have been small, but she packed explosive power.
A punch got through and landed flush on Reyes’ nose. It sent fire through her sinuses, blinding her with her own tears. Chan continued to attack her, her eyes wide, spittle spraying from her mouth as she screamed a shrill cry.
The back of Reyes’ hands burned from where she defended against the attack. Chan would do more damage if she didn’t do something to stop her.
Winded, sore, and unable to see through her blurred vision, Reyes thrust her pelvis towards the ceiling, bucking Chan off. She then leapt at her with her right fist raised.
But Reyes never landed her blow. Strong arms gripped her around the waist and dragged her back. She recognised the safe grip of her father before she’d even looked around.
His gruff voice made her flinch when he screamed in her ear, “What the hell are you doing, soldier?”
The sound of his berating snapped everyone else to attention, including Chan, who quickly jumped to her feet.
As the rage left her, Reyes dropped her focus to the metal floor and said, “Nothing. I wasn’t doing anything.”
The warrant officer repositioned himself so he stood between Reyes and Chan. He looked from one to the other. “Whatever nonsense is going on between you two, it stops now. You got that?”
Reyes nodded, but Chan didn’t. It wouldn’t ever stop, so why should she lie about it?
“Chan?” the WO said. “Don’t make me discipline you.”
Tears stood in Chan’s eyes and she shook while glaring at Reyes. She then turned to the senior officer, the same rage boiling in her.
Fists larger than any Reyes had ever seen, when she watched her dad clench them, she winced at the fury she knew he had in him.
But Chan spoke before he flipped, letting her words go with a resigned sigh. “I’ve got it.”
A few tense seconds passed where Chan and the WO stared at one another. The man looked like he expected more. When it didn’t come, he shook his head and turned to the rest of the Marines in the arena. “Whatever’s just happened here, we’ve got bigger fish to fry. Much bigger fish. Something’s just come up, and since it’s me and a bunch of no-good rookies, we need to respond to it. All of you get to the briefing room now.”
Reyes watched her dad as he walked past her. He kept his eyes straight ahead and his shoulders pulled back. Chan followed on his heels and spoke when she got close so only Reyes could hear. “Good job Daddy’s bailed you out again, eh? He’s saved you from yet another kicking.”
After she’d drawn a deep breath and let it go—her cheeks puffing out as she exhaled—Reyes felt Patel’s gentle touch on her shoulder. “Ignore her,” he said. “Those of us who got away from those creatures on Q328 saw who you are. Chan doesn’t know shit.”
“She knows I watched a lot of people die. That I didn’t work out how to get past those creatures soon enough.”
Patel fixed her with his deep brown eyes and Reyes dropped her focus to the floor. “Look at me,” he said.
When Reyes looked up, she saw a blurred image of him through her tears. A lump burned in her throat. “Too many died on Q328.”
“Of course, but we all would have died were it not for you. You were the only one to think of a solution.”
“I should have thought of it sooner.”
Where Patel’s grip had been soft on her shoulder, he now tightened it, giving Reyes a gentle shake as he
said, “Stop that!”
After drawing a deep breath, Reyes pushed her pain down again, looked at Patel, and nodded.
“Now, come on,” Patel said, “let’s get to the briefing room before you piss your dad off more than you already have.”
Chapter 11
Two rows of chairs stretched across the wide briefing room. The large area had space for many more, but because they were operating on a skeleton staff, no more needed to be laid out. When Reyes walked in and saw Chan in the front row, her pulse quickened, the increased blood flow aggravating the pain on the back of her hands and across her face.
Because she didn’t want to sit next to the small and angry Marine, Reyes opted for the row behind her. She made a line of already seated soldiers stand up to give her access to the spare seats near the wall. Lombardo put a hand on Reyes’ shoulder as she passed and looked into her eyes. Several inches taller than her, she swiped her long blonde hair behind one ear while studying her face. “Are you okay?”
Reyes nodded.
“I don’t know what Chan’s problem is. No one else resents you like she does. It must be hard to rise above it in the face of her aggression, but I think you should. It’s the only way to deal with crazy.”
After she’d dipped a nod at her friend, Reyes said thank you before continuing to pick her way across to the spare seats. Patel followed her like he often did. Their crash and subsequent experience on Q328 had given the survivors a tighter bond than Reyes had with anyone else except for her dad. Despite him always going harder on her than any of the other rookies, they were always tight. Her relationship with him seemed to be the thing that got under Chan’s skin the most.
Once she’d sat down—closer to Chan than she would have liked—Reyes looked at the Chinese American Marine and balled her fists. The throb of her bruises forced her to relax them again. As she drew a deep breath, she looked at Patel, who had his attention on her hands. He then looked up at her and raised his eyebrows. Despite what Lombardo had just said, it took for Patel to back it up before she relaxed. He had her best interests at heart. She needed to be the bigger person and rise above Chan’s bullshit. Again! She conceded the point with a nod.
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