Titanborn

by Rhett C. Bruno

  “Neither should you,” she countered.

  I sighed. “Would you mind telling your friends to lower their guns at least?”

  “You killed my brothers,” the injured Ringer growled. He sat up and slammed his hand against the medical table. “By Trass, you’re lucky you’re still alive!” The movement caused him to wince in pain. Aria placed her hands on his shoulder and helped lay him back down.

  “Quiet, Nash!” she snapped at him. “After the stunt on Earth, Mr. Pervenio will keep sending more and more collectors until there are none of us left. If your former leader had detonated the bomb away from civilians where he was supposed to then none of this would have happened. At least this is one collector I can reason with.”

  Nash muttered something under his breath before relaxing his head. He continued to hold his heated gaze fixed on me, however.

  “I would love to work beyond the sights of guns, but in the end we aren’t Titanborn,” Aria said to me. “It is their right to remain wary of me after all of this, no matter how much I help.” She spread her arms, gesturing to the rows of gurneys filling the room. The only thing I noticed was how she’d used the term Titanborn freely.

  “All of what?” I tried to get a good read on the workstation beside her table. Everything appeared to be medical equipment except for a stack of familiar containers lying against a cabinet with the red-and-black logo of Pervenio Corporation stamped on the side. They looked exactly like the ones in hangar 20 and apparently had just arrived since they were still closed. I approached them, finding it strange that nobody attempted to stop me from looking.

  “Don’t play games with me, Dad,” she snapped, following close behind me. “Do you really think that after fifty years Pervenio Corp couldn’t help bring an end to places like this? Right now we’re buried a few dozen meters below the ‘official’ Darien quarantine, where sick people like this have no chance at receiving help because it costs a lifetime’s salary to get the care they require. I bring the ones deemed ‘too unfit to survive’ here and care for them as best as I can. Many don’t make it. You think germs slip through decontamination by accident? So long as Ringers fear being sent to places like this, Pervenio Corp will own the Ring.”

  “I never really thought about it.” That was the truth. Like I’ve said, I was never one to ask questions as long as the pay was right. As far as I was concerned, Pervenio Corp did what it had to do to secure a place in Sol. At least that was how I’d gone about my life up until seeing Aria standing amid a terror cell and countless dying Ringers.

  I leaned down and popped the lid off one of the containers, hoping with all my heart that it was merely a coincidence and she wasn’t the smuggler I’d been hired to detain. There were no firearms, explosives, or any other dangerous technologies inside. All it held were filled vials and syringes, bottles, and small data pads with the Pervenio logo printed on them—everything a provisional medical center might need to start mass-producing cures. I quickly opened another container only to find more of the same.

  “Immunizations. Vaccines. Simple cures,” she said. “Pervenio Corp has already discovered almost every disease that plagues the people of the Ring…or rediscovered to be precise. And while they are willing to waste billions commissioning Arks that may never reach their destinations, they keep all the medicine that isn’t already paid for locked up on Earth to keep demand high. I’ve been working with the Children of Titan to get our hands on as much as we can.”

  “And Venta Co,” I added.

  She hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yes,” she said. “And them. They’re helping me for the wrong reasons, but I took the best option I had. You taught me that.”

  I turned and gazed straight into her pretty green eyes. They looked like mine had when I was young and full of vigor, only she spoke words that an Earther never would. Sometimes I forgot she was an offworlder, but she was, through and through. I’d made her that way by never settling down. She was no longer the little girl who marveled at the Arks of the Departure.

  “So that’s where you disappeared to?” I asked. “You could’ve said something. I could’ve—”

  “Done what?” she interrupted, a harsh edge to her tone. “Do you know what I had to go through to convince Venta to get involved? And still, they only did it to hurt your employers. I’ve spent more than a year trying to get people out of quarantine zones all over Titan, and even still I’m watched with rifles. That’s how little these people trust anyone from beyond this moon. But can a real doctor let so many suffer and do nothing? Can she, Dad?”

  I pictured the dead and dying Ringers outside in the refectory, recollecting how it felt like I was strolling through a graveyard. They were submerged deep under the orange moon’s icy surface where nobody would ever see them so that immigrants from Earth could arrive and continue to replace them with ease. None of the ads on Earth saying, THE FIGHT TO ENSURE OUR SURVIVAL IS IN YOUR HANDS, ever made mention of quarantines or furnaces.

  “I don’t know, Aria,” I said. “But this isn’t your fight.”

  “It is now,” she replied.

  I wheeled around to see the glinting armor and armed rifles of the Children of Titan fighters on the level above. I took a deep breath. “So what happens next?”

  “Leave the supplies here for the twins to continue administering. Pretend you never found it, and take me in instead. I’ll lead Pervenio to all the wrong places, and by the time they find out the truth, my friends here will be long gone.”

  I looked to the ground. “Aria, I can’t…”

  She grabbed me by the wrists and pulled me close. “I know what will happen.”

  I doubted that she really did. They would stuff her in one of Pervenio station’s famous cells. When she had nothing left to tell them she’d be left there for life—or, worse, spaced with the trash—for what she’d done. The ways of the Children of Titan had certainly rubbed off on her.

  “You don’t understand,” I said. “I won’t be able to lie. My partner—”

  Right as the words left my lips a chorus of gunfire rang out from the upper level of the hollow. I lunged forward, grabbed Aria, and pulled her back behind the stack of medicine containers and ducked for cover. That was when I noticed that none of the shots were aimed at me.

  A muddle of screams and bullets ricocheting off rock greeted my ears. I peered over the container to figure out what was happening. I should’ve known immediately. On the balcony shadows danced among bright flashes, and though I couldn’t see him, I knew Zhaff was one of them. His plan didn’t involve waiting for me to discuss terms.

  “Zhaff!” I screamed.

  “Well done, Malcolm. These terrorists are in clear violation of fifteen Pervenio colonial regulations! The penalty for armed resistance is death! Secure the Doctor!” Zhaff yelled at a relatively loud volume for him. It was precisely enough for his voice to project to me while retaining its usual evenness, as if he weren’t currently taking on a cohort of Children of Titan operatives all by himself. He wasn’t even breathing heavily. They didn’t stand a chance.

  “From ice to ashes!” one of them roared, his voice quickly trailing off into gurgles as a bullet shredded his throat.

  I turned to see Aria, eyes wide as they had been on that roof back on Earth. Her lips were trembling, though whether it was with fear or sorrow I wasn’t completely sure. She’d seen enough gunfights as a child for me to imagine it was the latter.

  For the first time in my life, I wasn’t sure that I could follow through in completing a mission. It had always been so easy for me. Close my eyes, follow orders, and follow the credits that came along with doing so. I glared at the medical containers and then back at her. I must’ve repeated the motion at least four times before coming to a decision. I threw on my helmet, yanked Aria to her feet, and pulled her out from behind our cover. There was no time to second-guess.

  “Put on your helmet and grab two containers!” I yelled to her. They might’ve been heavy on Earth, but on T
itan they were no more difficult to carry than two infants. They were still too bulky for her to carry all of them and be able to move, however.

  She nodded and did as I asked. I armed my pistol and stood. A bullet whizzed by me, somehow missing.

  “Traitor!” the injured Ringer named Nash howled. Sometime during the fray he’d rolled off the medical table to use it for cover. He had a rifle aimed at me from the ground and opened fire. I jumped out of the way just in time before getting off a shot of my own that struck him in the center of his chest, causing him to drop his gun instantly.

  “No!” she gasped.

  “Let’s go!” I yelled, pulling on her arm.

  She pulled back. “There’s a better way!”

  Bullets hissed by our heads, crackling against the floor around us as some of the rebels on the balcony who were still battling Zhaff noticed us and shifted their aim. “The Doctor flees!” one of them shouted from above. “Traitor.”

  I was done listening. I grabbed Aria and ran as fast as I could with her in tow.

  Shards of rock flew up all around us, but Zhaff carved through our enemies above with the artistry of a master painter and kept us from being hit.

  “Get the Drayton mother into the tunnels!” Aria shouted to Elios Sevari’s twins as we passed. They were huddled under the gurney along with the middle-aged Ringer they’d been testing, terrified. It all made sense. Kale Drayton, the one thought responsible for the Piccolo attack, had his mom sprung from the quarantine right above us and into the healing arms of my daughter. She was in too deep. I had to get her out, for both our sakes.

  Somehow we made it through to the first hollow unscathed. The many sick Ringers conscious enough to hear what was happening were either trembling or sobbing. Two Children of Titan operatives were lying on the floor, their throats cut open by a sharp fragment of rock. Zhaff’s handiwork no doubt.

  “What was that?” Aria asked. She was struggling to catch her breath the same as I was. Pure adrenaline was driving me.

  “My partner!” I lugged her into the exit tunnel and keyed the air lock. Luckily it wasn’t locked from the inside. Once the sequence was complete and the outer hatch was open, I shoved her through. Only then was I finally able to slow down.

  “Turn on your oxygen,” I panted.

  She stopped and looked down at the containers she held. “No! I won’t let you return it all. We worked too hard.”

  I grabbed her by the helmet and switched her oxygen on myself. “Don’t make me regret this.”

  She stared at me blankly for a few seconds. “Regret what?”

  I remained quiet and nudged her along. It took me until the end of the long tunnel to completely gather my breath. Once there, I poked my head and my gun through the hologram-camouflaged exit to make sure the coast was clear. My eyes had to adjust to the brightness, and after they did only Titan’s murky sky was visible. The brewing storm couldn’t be more than ten minutes out and appeared to be growing even more ferocious.

  “Do you have anywhere to hide?” I asked. I couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth. Thirty years and I’d only ever completely failed a handful of missions, let alone committed treason.

  She appeared as astonished as I was. “What? I…Yes. The Children have plenty of sanctuaries buried under the ice.”

  “Can you fly your suit like they do?”

  She nodded.

  “Good.” I motioned for her to put down the containers. “You’re going to have to shoot me now to slow them down.”

  “Dad, I…”

  I handed her my pistol and took a few long steps back. “Aim right here,” I said, pointing at my thigh. “Right in the meaty part. I’ll tell my partner you escaped. I’ll make a foolish attempt at lying to a Cogent.”

  She gawked at the weapon as if it were a foreign object. She was so busy trying to help people that I guess handling firearms was a skill she’d forgotten about. It was good to know that at least one of us still had a heart.

  “If I puncture your suit you’ll freeze,” she said.

  I smiled. “My partner won’t be long. I’ll crawl back inside.”

  She examined the gun, and as she did someone struck her in the back of the helmet, knocking her down. The impact caused her to prematurely fire off a round right before the pistol flew out of her hands and skidded across the sand. My heart raced even faster. This time Zhaff didn’t hesitate when I was about to be shot. Exactly like I’d asked him not to back on Earth.

  “The interior has been secured, Malcolm,” he said. He set down the remaining two Pervenio containers beside Aria. “A few combatants fled into a deeper tunnel system, but the stolen supplies are now all accounted for. You couldn’t handle one?” I could see his scarred, exposed eyebrow lifting behind his visor, as if he was making a joke. Any other time, I would’ve been proud to see him making progress as a normal human.

  Zhaff bent down and pulled Aria’s arms together behind her back. The blow had stunned her so badly that she was on her knees whispering something indiscernible. She didn’t put up much of a fight.

  I approached them cautiously.

  “I sent a message while I was inside,” Zhaff continued. “An airship should be dispatched soon to retrieve us once we are a safe distance from the quarantine.”

  “Zhaff…” The toe of my boot hit something hard. My pistol, lying innocently in the sand. “She’s not going to hurt anyone.”

  “Not directly anymore. Pervenio will have many questions for her, however.” He gripped her wrists and then looked up at me with his glowing yellow eye-lens. I thought I could see the corners of his thin lips curling into the early stages of a smile. “I will leave the fact that she disarmed you out of my report, if that is what concerns you.”

  “I’d appreciate it.”

  I swallowed hard, bent over, and slowly wrapped my fingers around the handle of my pistol so that he wouldn’t notice. My heart was beating so hard that it felt like it was going to burst through my rib cage.

  I’d spent years of my life hoping I was still human enough to feel such an elevated level of apprehension again, but as it finally happened I wished I never had. Zhaff was growing on me, but he would never defy orders. I knew that better than most. Until that moment, it was the one thing we definitely had in common. The one thing I’d always respected. Difficult as he was, he was honestly the closest thing I’d had to a friend in far too long. I was no longer ashamed to call him my partner.

  But it was either my daughter’s life or that of Luxarn Pervenio’s son. I’d given the richest man in Sol and his corporation everything up to that point, but I couldn’t give him her.

  “To ensure the safety of human propagation. Right, Zhaff?” I asked.

  He stopped what he was doing and glared at me as if he realized something was wrong. His eye-lens angled toward my hand as my finger threaded the trigger of my pistol. I hoped that he wouldn’t, but without hesitation he reached for his holstered gun.

  I was too slow on Undina. I was too slow in the wilderness of Earth. But I wasn’t too slow then. I raised my pistol and planted a bullet right in the center of his visor. He crumbled to his knees, but his own gun never left his hand. Not even when his body crashed face-first into the ground, the inside of his helmet filling with blood.

  Aria squealed and I took a few quick steps toward her before a sharp pain in my side caused me to collapse as well.

  I knew what was wrong before looking down. Amid the tension with Zhaff I hadn’t realized, but when he struck Aria the round she’d accidentally fired had hit in the quad, directly enough to pierce clean through my armor into an artery.

  A good shot, just like her old man.

  I dropped my pistol and covered the wound with the palm of my hand, but the glacial atmosphere of Titan was already getting through. The pain began only as a tingle.

  “You’re hit!” Aria howled, snapping out of her state of shock. She stumbled over and bent down above me.

  “I’ll be fine!�
�� I grated. I squeezed my eyes shut trying to ignore the sting in my leg, which was magnifying rapidly.

  “I’ll get you back inside. You’ll die out here!” She grabbed my arms and started dragging me back to the tunnel.

  “There’s no time!” I shook her off and pointed to the container with my pistol. Speaking was getting difficult. The area directly inside the wound got so cold that it burned like molten metal, the sensation quickly spreading up and down my limb without respite. An iciness I thought impossible sent my whole body into a shiver. Each word I spoke labored through long, winded breaths. “They’ll find me in there and I’ll be dead anyway for killing him.”

  “Then I’ll carry you with me!” She knelt and tried to dig her hands under my body, but I nudged her away with my elbow. She was likely strong enough on Titan to carry both me and the medical containers, but not to do that and fly as fast as she’d need to in order to avoid the ships Zhaff had called for as well as the approaching storm.

  “No,” I whispered, clenching my teeth. “Don’t waste this chance. They don’t come often.”

  “I…I…”

  I saw the internal struggle written all over her face, and I couldn’t help but picture her as a little girl refusing to eat another yeasty ration bar. It was the same stubbornness that had likely led her to help the Ringers in the first place. I wasn’t a stranger to it. It was what had kept me gallivanting around Sol for so many years. But as I looked at her, I finally understood how the Ringer on Earth could pull the trigger on himself so easily. Standing for all those people in the chambers behind us, rotting for no other reason than being born on the wrong world, was a cause worth dying for. Just like dying to keep her alive was for me.

  “Now get out of here before it’s too late!” I barked. One last order to the first partner I ever had.

  She peered back at Zhaff’s body with wet eyes, then tightened her lips and nodded. “I won’t forget.”

  I grasped her hand. It was shaking as much as mine was. I stared at her beautiful face and smiled through the agony. “Aria…I was never the dad you deserved. I hope you can forgive me for…everything.”