"Hang on, Ness!" Tristan said. "I won't let them get you!"
With no intention of letting them "get" him, either, Ness rolled around the side of the table. Across the room, Tristan and Emma had already downed several Swimmers, but the remaining five were nearly upon him. He slashed his laser across their feet, stumbling two of them. Most of them weren't even armed—they must have piled into the box as soon as they'd realized what was happening with the gas—but they looked crazed, tentacles whipping, claws snapping.
Tristan screamed wordlessly and charged across the room. Her laser sizzled into an alien's head. Ness booted the table at the remaining aliens. One tripped, slamming to the ground. The other scrambled over its comrade and snapped a club-tipped tentacle at Ness' head. He flattened himself. The limb whooshed over him, but his evasive action caused his next shot to go wide.
Tristan crashed into the alien's side like a strong safety. The Swimmer bounced into the wall and hit the ground. It squirmed, snapping its claws at Tristan. She threaded her laser through the nest of limbs and fired into the underside of its head.
Sam and the others dashed back into the room, opening fire on the writhing masses littering the ground. Ness stood and pumped lasers into the bodies. It was over in seconds. With the hole in his suit, the air smelled disturbingly like fried shrimp.
Tristan moved to face him, grabbing his shoulder. "You okay?"
"I'm hit," Ness said. "Got a big old hole in my suit."
"Time to get you out of here."
"Not without their pads."
"We'll get them, okay? But you can't be exposed any more."
Abruptly woozy, he nodded. She put an arm around him and helped him back through the maze. With the flashlight aimed ahead, he couldn't get a good look at his ribs, but maybe that was for the better. It was starting to burn like crazy. By the time they got outside, he could barely focus on anything besides not screaming.
He had a vague memory of them peeling off his suit and washing him down. They helped him into one of the shopping carts and wheeled him back toward the sub. He might have been able to walk, but he was still pretty out of it and didn't mind being chauffeured.
The sub powered up and made way for New Zealand. By morning, he started to feel sick. Cramps. Nausea. Tristan stayed with him, feeding him broth and just talking about whatever. He was sweating so much he was afraid she'd offer to give him a sponge bath.
She made it less scary, though. Before he knew it, they were at the Bay of Islands. He was already starting to feel a little better. Dr. Gohel looked him over and declared he was suffering from exposure to toxic chemicals. Ness wasn't sure why they'd needed to travel a thousand miles to confirm that diagnosis, but the doctor treated his burn with some weedy-smelling gunk and dosed him full of antibiotics.
"It's not too severe," Gohel said. "Avoid infection, and I think you'll be fine."
While he rested up, Sebastian pored over the files on the tablets they'd looted from the parking garage. Several more transmissions had come in since Ness had stolen the original one. The schemers in L.A. were now asking everyone to arrive by either January 13 or 19—there was some confusion on Sebastian's end as to where the Swimmers' calendar stood these days—and to be ready to fight.
"I don't get it," Ness signed. "How are they even making these transmissions? Did you guys drop a satellite into orbit?"
"YES BUT IT HAS NOT BEEN USED IN YEARS. SOMETHING HAS CHANGED"
"And still no indications as to what this gathering is all about?"
"THEY ARE BEING ROCK. NOT CLEAR. ALL THAT IS SAID IS THAT THOSE WHO DO NOT GO ARE TRAITORS TO THEIR GUTBROTHERS"
Ness blinked. "Well, that's extreme. Suppose we'd better go warn humanity?"
"ONCE YOU HEAL"
"The trip's going to take two weeks. I'm already on the mend."
"TAKING RISKS IS PART OF THE WAY WE HAVE CHOSEN. YET THERE IS ONLY ONE NESS. YOU WILL BE WHOLE BEFORE WE GO"
Sebastian was in one of his moods. Ness knew better than to argue. Some of the locals showed interest in the sub crew, but it was known they wouldn't be around much longer, and even Clarke didn't spend much time sniffing around. Ness' sickness passed. His burn still had a ways to go, but he convinced Sebastian it would heal just as well on the sub as on the beaches of the Bay of Islands. They shoved off in mid-December, meaning to land in L.A. right after New Year's.
The first week was pretty quiet. Everyone else had come through the battle in Sydney unscathed, which was generally good for morale, but nobody really knew what they were headed into. When Ness invited them all to the galley one morning, even Sprite looked concerned, no doubt worried that Ness was about to announce that they were sailing into the middle of Galactic War II.
Ness let them stew in their anxiety a moment, then couldn't help grinning. "Beats me how he did it. But if you check under the table, I think you'll find that, even though we're in the middle of the ocean and don't have a chimney, Santa paid us a visit."
The others gaped. Sprite was the first to react, sticking out his peg leg for balance as he ducked beneath the table. He laughed and withdrew four packages wrapped in silver paper.
"What the hell, man?" he said. "When did you have time to do this?"
"You kidding me? After we got back from Sydney, I had nothing but time. I picked up some of it during the trip to Auckland."
Sprite checked the labels, then passed presents to Tristan, Sam, and Sebastian. Tristan smirked. Sam, who was normally as stoic as an Easter Island moai, looked as though she might cry. Sebastian drew his limbs inward in consternation.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING" he signed.
"It's Christmas!" Ness gestured back.
"WHAT IS A CHRISTMAS"
"Come on, man, you've heard me talk about Christmas before."
"I KNOW," Sebastian signed. "CHRISTMAS IS A HOLIDAY. BUT WHAT IS IT FOR"
"I don't know, having fun? What are any holidays for?"
"BUT EACH HAS THE CAUSE FOR WHY IT IS SO. SUCH AS THE FISH ARE BACK IN THEIR RUN, OR IT IS THE YEAR'S HIGHEST TIDE, OR A WAR WAS WON LONG AGO"
"Gotcha," Ness gestured. "Okay, well at first, Christmas was about celebrating the turn of the year. Like, all the longest nights are behind us, and now it's only going to get brighter. Then, after hundreds of years of that, it became about celebrating one of humanity's most important gods. Then, after hundreds of years of that, it was about seeing how much crap you could buy in four weeks."
"THAT IS A STRANGE THING TO CELEBRATE"
"People sure liked it, though. Here's the thing: no matter what else it was about, Christmas was also about clearing out time to spend with your friends and family. That's you guys, right?"
Sebastian bowed his lead low. "THIS IS SO"
"Can we open these?" Tristan shook her present. "Or does Sebastian have a problem with getting free stuff?"
"Sebastian first!" Sprite said. "I mean, what do you get an alien?"
"Go ahead and open it," Ness signed. "Just tear off the paper. Be careful."
Sebastian pinched the wrapping paper in his smallest claws and removed it from the flat, rectangular package, revealing a hardback book. He peered down at it.
"WHAT IS A D-O-N Q-U-I-J-O-T-E"
"A story," Ness replied, speaking out loud as he signed. "You're so into human stuff I thought it was about time you got into reading. That's one of our oldest books. It's pretty funny, too."
Sebastian turned the pages as delicately as if he were handling a live butterfly, eyes moving slowly over the words.
Tristan laughed, putting a hand over her mouth. "He needs to be wearing glasses so bad right now."
The crew busted up. Sebastian looked up from the book, glancing between them. "WHY DO YOU LAUGH"
"That's the perfect book for him," Tristan said. "Sometimes, it feels like this whole ship is full of Don Quijotes."
"I'm opening mine," Sprite declared. "Please be a Nintendo." He pulled off the wrapper, revealing a semi-transparent Game Boy pad. "Wait, it is a Ni
ntendo? And it works?"
"As long as we can keep finding batteries," Ness said. "There weren't many games, but it's got Zelda."
"That's all you need!"
Sam went next. As she opened her gift, the corners of her mouth twitched. She withdrew a foot-long piece of black metal flared at both ends. "A new scope?"
"It's a Swarovski," Ness said. "My brother used to be obsessed with those."
"I do have interests besides rifles, you know."
Ness' mouth fell open. "Sorry. You're kind of hard to get presents for."
Sam laughed, meeting eyes with Tristan. "Just kidding. This is great. Tell me it's the low-light model."
He flushed and nodded. "Thought it was your style."
Tristan peeled open her present. This was a box stuffed with wadded paper for volume. Inside that was an envelope. She read its contents. "What's this? 'One free batch of beer'? Where is it?"
"I haven't made it yet," Ness said. "But when was the last time you had a good beer?"
"About four weeks after the plague. I'd kill for a fresh beer."
"Well, give me a few days once we're settled down, and you can enjoy one without the need to commit any murder. Just save that coupon. I don't work on credit."
She laughed and hugged him. When she withdrew, Sebastian was staring at him, book tucked in one tentacle, claws spinning in agitation.
"What?" Ness signed. "I'll help you read the tough parts."
"IT IS NOT THAT. IT IS THAT THERE IS NOTHING FOR NESS"
"Don't worry about it. Surprising you guys was my present."
"NO! STAY HERE. STAY RIGHT HERE" Sebastian whirled and rushed from the galley.
"Where's he off to?" Sprite said. "Fetching the eggnog?"
Sebastian thumped back in a minute later. He reached out a tentacle, grabbed Ness' wrist, and turned up his palm. He set something small but weighty in Ness' hand. A little larger than a quarter, it was raised in the center, spiraled to suggest a shell. Parts of it looked like dark, glossy iron, but it was marbled with pale threads of something like platinum.
"GIVEN TO ME WHEN I BECAME AN OFFICER OF THE BIG SHIP," Sebastian signed.
Ness glanced up sharply. "What? You can't give this to me."
"I AM NO LONGER OF THAT SERVICE. NOW I AM OF THIS SHIP—AND YOU ARE OUR CAPTAIN"
Ness' eyes stung. Sebastian bobbed on his chitinous toes in a glee he rarely expressed, then swept Ness up in a hug.
It was morning, but no one complained when Tristan poured a round of drinks. They sat around the galley rehashing all the crazy stuff they'd done in the last few weeks, laughing about things that had been terrifying at the time. If Ness had been through it alone, those things might have still felt awful, but somehow, sharing them with others transformed them into something light, as easy to tuck away as Sebastian's badge or the coupon he'd given to Tristan.
After a bit, Sam asked if they could surface so she could test out her scope. Sebastian went to the control room. Sam headed up to the ramp outside. Wanting better light for his Game Boy, Sprite went with her.
"This was so nice," Tristan said from the booth. "I didn't take you for the Christmas type."
"I'm so not," Ness laughed. "I just thought people would like it. Besides, if we're sailing into the end of the world again, sure seems like we ought to do one last Christmas."
"Do you think that's what we're doing?"
"Beats the hell out of me. But until I learn otherwise, I think I'm going to start living like it's the end of the world."
His heart was about to explode. Before he could freak himself out of it, he leaned in and kissed her. She smiled and kissed him back.
"I've been wondering where that was," she said once they withdrew. "But before this goes any further, I want to make one thing perfectly clear, Captain."
"What's that?"
"If you make a single 'first mate' joke—I mean even one—it's over."
* * *
He couldn't have asked for a better second half of the trip. When he wasn't with Tristan, he spent time with Sebastian, helping the alien with some of the more obscure vocabulary and the countless pieces of history, culture, and biblical references embedded in the book. Sometimes he had to ask Tristan for help—she'd gone to college and had actually paid attention—but she seemed as delighted to help Sebastian as Sebastian was to tackle human literature.
Ness' burn was mostly healed. With no sign of infection, he felt fit to return to action. Their rough plan was to park at Malibu, well away from the crashed alien ship, then head into the city on foot to warn whoever was living there of the impending attack.
When they surfaced in Santa Monica Bay, though, they found they were too late. The hills were already on fire, sheets of white smoke mingling with the patchy daytime fog.
"I don't get it," Tristan said. "The Swimmers weren't supposed to start getting here for another two or three weeks."
Ness squinted at the distant hills. "Maybe they showed up early. Decided to go to work."
"There's no way to know until we put our eyes on it," Sam said. "I say we go scout."
Leaving Sebastian and Sprite with the sub, they headed inland, sticking to the shoulders of the hills, where they could move under the cover of trees and shrubs. The paths hadn't been maintained in years and it took them half the day to get within scope range of the fires, which were nearly out, burning around and within a fenced-off reservoir.
"There was definitely a fight here," Sam murmured. "But all I'm seeing is humans."
Tristan rolled her eyes. "It's fucking tribalism, isn't it? You've got an alien swarm summoned here, and these idiots are too busy killing each other to notice."
"How could they possibly know?" Ness said. "The only way we found out about it is because we raided an alien lair and had a friendly alien to translate for us. I'm guessing we may be the only humans on the planet who know what's going on."
"Fair point. Even so, at a certain point, you have to ask yourself whether they're worth fighting for."
"I'm not sure they are." Ness reached for her hand. "But I'd still like to try."
Tristan hesitated, then nodded. They stood and walked together toward the smoldering fort.
28
Lanterns gleamed from atop the wooden walls of the Heart. Faces appeared there, some brown and some pale. Gunmetal glinted in the unsteady light. A thicket of trees ringed the enclosure, separated from the walls by fifty yards of open ground. Raina moved her legions into the trees, spreading out their numbers.
Mauser moved up beside her. "Well, so much for catching them in the open."
"This is how we expected to face them all along," Raina said. "And we drew them away from attacking the Dunemarket. I feel no disappointment."
"That's because they don't know the only way to kill you: harpoon you with three barrels, then shoot the oxygen tank in your teeth."
"You have single-handedly invented the need for a word that means 'I have no idea what you just said.'"
A man stood from behind the wall and gazed into the woods. Even if the lanterns hadn't showed his blond hair, Raina would have known him by the proud cant of his neck and the way his burning eyes seemed to lock on her despite the darkness and the trees.
"Let me guess," Anson said, voice carrying far and wide. "You're here to bring justice to the land. To right wrongs and save souls. Well, here's what I see: a few days ago, you were gone. Now you're back, and you've brought war with you."
Raina snorted. "Even when you try to talk about me, you wind up talking about yourself. We had peace. For years. There was enough land for both of us. Then you decided that what was ours should be yours. We're here because you marched us to this point at the tip of a sword."
"It's all my fault, huh? Then what if I offered you peace right now?"
"Then I would say that even a snake can sense when its back is against the wall."
He laughed ringingly. "We're not against a wall—we're inside one. We have farms. Water. Self-sufficiency. I
wonder if you'll sound so confident a week from now, when you're hungry, cold, and tired."
"We won't need a week," she said. "Walls are only as strong as the men behind them."
He drew back his head, then put his back to her. However, he projected his voice louder still, as if to make sure she could hear every word. "Five years ago, none of this was here. Many of you lived in this city—surviving—but you were alone and afraid. So was I. The aliens were gone, but had been replaced by gangs. In a way, this was worse: we'd gotten rid of the squids, but we could never be rid of whatever causes men to prey on each other."
Anson began to pace along the walkway behind the top of the wall. "It felt like we might survive, but we could never hope for more. Until I took a stand. And you began to join me. United, we spread peace like a fever. Before we knew it, something we hadn't dared dream of was made real.
"Yet this dream and its promise drew jealous looks from San Pedro. The woman who brings war to us tonight brings it wherever she goes. Even when her own people threw her out, and joined us in peace, she returned with guns and swords and fire. She's no different from the gangs we threw off. She can't dream. Know what happens when you can't dream? You become a monster.
"So when you fight—and we will resist these monsters—remember that we're fighting for more than survival. We're fighting for a dream of paradise that we made real. This night is more than a battle, more than one last test—it is a gift you will be giving your children and your grandchildren in perpetuity."
He stepped back, punctuating the end of his speech. His people thrust up their hands and cheered.
Raina gazed across her patchwork army. "You don't need me to tell me why we are here, or how important it is to not lose this fight. But I wonder if there has to be a fight after all."
She turned from them and took three steps toward the walls and the faces atop them. "Why are we here? The answer is simple: Anson, your leader, has forced a rift between us."
Several of the Sworn jeered, flapping their hands. Raina waited for this to subside.
"For months, he waged covert war against my people. Even after I discovered his treachery, and fought back, I tried to bring peace between us. Instead of signing a treaty, Anson's big dream was to kidnap me, and attempt to kill me. So we fought on.
Relapse (Breakers Book 7) Page 36
