She reached out and removed the mask. “As a gesture of goodwill on my part, I will gladly hand over the traitor, your former general Aria Amelia, in exchange for personal talks. We have little time with which to do this if either the Host or Coalition are to survive the Koldax and the shrain. Capsis Prime and the surrounding systems are just the first part of the plan.”
Hominos ordered Gaila to stop the video. “Is that really Amelia?” he asked. “Could she have been cloned by the shrain?”
“I believe Reyes Kamala is honest and that this is indeed Aria Amelia,” the scientist said, overlaying the video with a stream of metrics showing indisputable data of Amelia’s ID. She still had the Coalition tag embedded within her. One of the ships had scanned her and received the unique ID reference.
Lattis stared at Hominos with her eyes wide. “Well?” she prompted. “I’d like your thoughts before I decide whether to trust this Kamala woman.”
Hominos thought about it for a moment, ignoring Lattis’s eagerness. That this was Amelia was undoubted; the ID chip could not be faked and the credentials checked out. Kamala was also who she said she was, having provided an official seal from her house with the transmission.
That she was willing to give up Amelia showed an act of faith that very few Host leaders had shown the Coalition during the last decade of peace. And considering what Hett had done to Yuan Lia, it made sense that Kamala would want to be rid of the Koldax; the Host people were essentially being used as nothing more than batteries to power their weapons.
As he considered it, other than delaying the fleet from laying waste to Gaszla II, there was little other motivation he could attribute to this surprising request.
“There was one other thing,” Mathieson said, breaking the tense silence. “Within the transmission was a secured data package. A few minutes after receiving the video from Reyes Kamala, a second, smaller data burst was detected. Within that burst was an extract from a Host intelligence report. I believe Kamala is suggesting they have in-depth knowledge of the Koldax and their technology.”
“Something as sensitive as that wouldn’t be sent by mistake,” Hominos agreed. “Along with handing over Amelia, it’s clearly a hint at a goodwill gesture. And I suggest one that indicates the Host are panicking. And rightly so, given what the Koldax are doing to them; they’re causing them more damage than we ever could. Which means—they need us more than we need them.”
“If only that were true,” Gaila said. “Our analysts have yet to find anything useful to use against the Koldax ship. It’s last known location was about five days away. We’re as much at the mercy of Hett and his minions as the Host are.”
The room fell silent again as all eyes fell on Hominos.
As before, he didn’t allow this tension to affect his thinking. He considered the ramifications, the risks, and the facts and came to the only conclusion that made sense.
“I think we need to talk with her,” Hominos said. “I’ll have Kamala surrender the shuttle to the Beaufort and have her, along with Amelia and anyone else, taken into custody. Once there, we’ll speak with her over video link. I don’t want this going any further than just us and President Gatskil. We need to discuss this in detail before anyone else knows what’s going on.”
“I agree,” Lattis said, clapping her podgy hands as though it were her idea all along. “General Hominos, I’ll leave you to make the order. I’ll speak with Gatskil and let him know what’s happening. Call us when you’re ready to talk with her and we’ll reconvene here.”
“As you wish,” Hominos said, bowing his head slightly.
Lattis got up and made to leave the room, but before she opened the door, she turned around and stared at Hominos directly. “As for Amelia: let it be known between us that I don’t care what you do to her. I don’t want her alive. Is that understood?”
“Yes, President, I understand,” Hominos said. “She will be… dealt with.”
“Good. That’s good.”
With that, President Lattis left the room.
Hominos placed his data pad on the table and began to type out his response to Kamala along with orders for the Beaufort. While that was sending, he brought up the copy of the leaked intelligence report and smiled.
It appeared the Koldax weren’t as invincible as they had appeared, and with this small gift, it looked as though the Host had put themselves into a position entirely beholden to the Coalition, and thus Hominos’s whims.
The galaxy suddenly seemed that much larger. His prospects that much greater—if they could survive the Koldax.
Chapter 24
WITH THEIR WORMHOLE journey thankfully over with, the Blackstar shot out of the shortcut through space and time and instantly fired thrusters to equalize their velocity.
As usual, Kai swore with the engagement of the engines and the exit. Although this time, he had made sure they weren’t shown the swirling universe beyond them on the holocube or screens.
The hypnotic patterns only served to disorientate him.
Kai glanced around the bridge, staring at the various screens of info and the holocube in the center of the semicircular arrangement of couches.
Nothing alerted him to any major failures or damage.
He leaned forward and gestured across the terminal to bring up video streams of their surroundings. According to the data of their location, they had arrived within ten minutes of Azelia’s gravity well.
The front video screen flashed to life and focused on their destination.
Azelia looked like a white marble in an infinite void of darkness. It was the only planet in the system, orbiting its remarkably small sun with no moons or rings or any other stellar phenomena.
“Wow,” Senaya said. “It looks so pure, but—”
“Anticlimactic?” Kai suggested.
“Kinda. I mean, it’s cool-looking and all, but I was expecting… well, I don’t know what I was expecting, but something more. Bigger perhaps.” She shrugged off the chest straps holding her to the crash couch and winced.
“Are you okay?” Kai asked.
“Yeah, that exit wasn’t as bad as previous ones,” Senaya said with a smile. “And I got some rest despite that not-quite-there feeling of wormhole travel. I don’t think I’ll ever truly get used to that. I almost feel like we shouldn’t be doing it, you know? It’s like a big cheat to the universe.”
“I know what you mean.” Kai stood up from the crash couch and stretched his limbs. “Eesoh, can you confirm the Rapier exited with us?”
The amorphous face appeared on the holocube and inclined its head in acknowledgment. “The Rapier is due out… right about now.”
“Open the comm channel.”
“Channel open.”
“Thanks.” Kai turned his attention to Senaya. “Sen, can you and Eesoh go through pre-conflict checks. Make sure all weapons and arrays are charged, online and fully working. We don’t know what we’re going to find down there, and I want us to be ready.”
Senaya gave him a salute before sliding out the terminal panel and getting to work.
Kai confirmed with his mother that the Rapier was in full working order and everyone was physically and mentally prepared for landing. As they approached, Kai had Eesoh run scans for any other crafts or entities nearby.
Nothing.
Not even the Navigators themselves showed up on the scan—despite Kai sensing their presence manifesting as a barely perceptible tingle in the back of his mind.
One thing that did clearly show on the scanners, however, was the force field mentioned in the journal entries. It was clearly coming from the coordinates and spread across the planet, dampening a swathe of frequencies. Kai also felt it in his bones—perhaps reacting to his latent, slumbering Navigator abilities.
“We seem to be the only ones here,” Kai’s mother said over the channel. “That can’t be right. Perhaps something’s manipulating our scanners?”
“It’s possible,” Senaya said, looking up at Kai. “But
I guess we’ll find out when we get there. Weapon systems and shields here are fully operational. Let’s do this.”
With that, the Blackstar’s thrusters grew stronger as they headed for the coordinates to the reported outpost. The Rapier followed closely.
JUST OVER TEN MINUTES LATER, the Blackstar, followed by the Rapier, entered the atmosphere of Azelia with little ceremony. The atmosphere was surprisingly thin, and initial scans revealed they would need breather units due to a lack of oxygen in the air.
Luckily, this time of the planet’s day cycle was mid-afternoon, so their location was bathed in a white light diffused by the thick white cloud cover.
“We’re in visual distance of the outpost,” Senaya said. “Bringing it up on screen.”
As Eesoh piloted the Blackstar down through the layer of clouds, the outpost became clear among the vast landscape surrounding it. Kai instantly thought back to that weird vision he’d had. The ground of the planet was entirely covered in white-blue ice. Mist floated all around, giving the place an ethereal feel and reducing their visibility to just a few hundred meters.
“Are you seeing this?” Kai asked his mother.
“Yep, crystal clear. What the hell is it?”
It was a good question that Kai didn’t have an answer for. He zoomed in to the view for a closer look. The outpost itself looked like a dome a hundred or so meters in diameter. Covering the surface was a mesh of wires, conduits, and hardware. Dozens of burned, damaged pieces of machinery dotted the landscape around the dome. Other unidentified pieces of debris were strewn chaotically on the icy surface.
“The force field originates from the dome’s epicenter,” Eesoh said, his face shifting within the holocube. Kai wondered again why Eesoh was here and what it truly was, but would wait for answers; they had more important things to focus on, like finding his father and disabling this force field so that he could wake the Navigators.
“There was a battle here,” Kai said. “There are scorch marks on and around the dome. I’m going down there to check it out. Bandar, I’d like you to join me. While we’re searching the area, I’d like you, Sen, and you, Mother, to cover us from the air.”
“Got it,” Sen said.
“If you’re sure,” Kai’s mother said. “I’m happy to go to the surface.”
“I’m sure you are, but I really need your skills covering us.”
“What do you want me to do?” Marella said.
Kai considered her question. He’d thought about her a lot during the journey to Azelia, and he found his view on her softening considerably since he’d heard her story. He trusted her because if his father was still alive, then he’d soon know if she was lying and she must have realized that too. And besides, he doubted she was a good enough actress to have made up the story and sound so convincing. It all made sense when he considered her story. After he had read through the journals that his father had left, there was nothing in there to suggest she was withholding anything from him.
“I’d like you to keep scanning,” Kai said, answering Marella’s question. “We need to know if this is an ambush of some kind or if there are enemies en route.”
“I can do that,” she said, a lift to her tone of voice as though this token of trust truly meant something to her.
With the orders sorted, Kai and Bandar on their respective ships got their suits on, guns readied and zipped down the lines to the icy surface. Kai’s HUD filled with various amber warnings about the freezing subzero temperatures outside and the toxic air, but there was nothing to concern him just yet.
The wind whipped around him and his half-brother as the Blackstar and Rapier started their circular patrol around the area.
Kai switched on the internal speaker and microphone. “Bandar, you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, Kai. Stay sharp; we don’t know anything about this place.”
“I’ll file that under the ‘obvious declaration is obvious’ status. But I hear you. Let’s stick close together and make our way to the far edge of the dome. I see a doorway of sorts on the left side, so let’s not just walk straight up to it.”
“Sound thinking. Looks like you’re learning quickly. You take point; I’ll cover you from behind—like I’ve done for most of your life.”
Kai didn’t appreciate the hint that Bandar had been responsible for Kai’s survival on Zarunda, but he put it to one side and moved toward the first pile of metallic debris.
Now that he was on the ground and up close, he could tell they were smashed pieces of Koldax drones. Being up close to Wiggs had helped him recognize the machine species’ textures and shapes.
“Are they Koldax machines?” Senaya said over their comm network.
“Sure are,” Bandar said.
Kai inspected one of the dead machines closely. It was as cold as its surroundings, so this wasn’t a recent battle. The damage indicated ballistic weapons had downed this particular drone. “Bandar, take a look at this and tell me what you think did this damage.”
Bandar joined him, knelt and inspected the machine while Kai raised his rifle and covered his brother.
“Looks familiar,” Bandar said. He reached out and picked up a spent round, holding it up to the sky. “Standard gauge—could be Coalition. Which means…”
“Our father could have done this,” Kai finished off. “Let’s keep exploring.”
The two Locke brothers continued to move through the wreckage of the battle. They found a dozen or more dead Patari soldiers, along with more Koldax drones. When Kai was about to give up the search and head directly for the dome, something caught his attention.
Partially obscured by a Patari body was the butt of a rifle.
“Help me get this out,” Kai said, indicating the alien body. With Bandar’s help, Kai shoved the Patari aside and revealed a Coalition-issue rifle. Bandar slung his weapon over his shoulder and picked up the other rifle, checking it over closely.
“It’s his,” Bandar said with conviction. “This belonged to our father. I remember him scratching in this series of marks—the number of times he had come close to death in combat.” Bandar showed Kai. There were sixteen short lines scratched into the body of the rifle.
“Mother, we’ve found Father’s rifle. We’re on the right path,” Kai said. “Any signs of movement from where you are?”
“Nothing so far,” his mother said. “If his rifle is there among the dead, where is he? Hopefully, it means he escaped and is still alive.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Kai said. “We’ll keep looking. We’re approaching the dome now.”
Bandar swapped weapons so that he was wielding his own rifle as Kai came to the dome opening from the side.
Kai placed his back against the structure and dared a look around into the gloom. He couldn’t see anything moving inside, and there was no sound either beyond the whistle of wind. What he could see, however, was a number of large pieces of machinery, the size of a small racing ship, hooked up to what appeared to be batteries or a power source of some kind. Wires snaked to the structure and the various pieces of hardware that covered the dome.
When the wind dropped, a hum of power came from inside.
“Let’s see if we can deactivate this thing,” Kai said. “I’m going in.” With that, he spun around the edge of the building and slipped inside the doorway, sweeping his rifle across the full field of view.
His heart rate ticked up a few notches, but he remained calm. Nothing moved and nothing changed. Bandar followed in behind him. The two men covered each other’s flank as they descended farther into the building.
They swept around the perimeter, checked all shadows and potential hiding places, and found nothing other than signs of more fighting: bullet holes in the walls, debris strewn across the floor, and more dead Patari and Koldax fighters. Encouragingly, they did not find Kai’s father’s body.
“Okay, Sen,” Kai said, approaching the center mass of machinery and cabling. “Let’s see how we can take this thi
ng down. It is CPU controlled; I can see that much. There’s no terminal, though, so there’s no way we can manipulate this directly from here. We can start cutting cables, but seeing as there are hundreds of them, that’s going to take some time. Do you have any suggestions?”
“Let me switch piloting to Eesoh and take a look. Bear with me while I set up the scans.”
“We could just blow it with explosives,” Bandar said from the gloom.
“I’d rather we keep that as a last resort. But it’s an option for sure.”
While Kai waited for Senaya to assess the field generator further, he took another circuit around the inside of the dome, checking under bodies and fragments of metal. It was during this search he found a door to the rear of the building that he hadn’t noticed before. He tried the handle. It was locked.
“Bandar, I need some help here. I’ve got a locked door in need of a boot.”
“I can provide that,” he said with a smirk as he approached. “Stand back, little one.”
Kai shook his head as he moved aside.
With his unwounded leg, Bandar slammed the sole of his boot into the door near the lock. The first hit bounced off the metal surface, but the next one broke the frame, and the third strike smashed the door open.
“What are you guys doing?” Kai’s mother said.
“Amateur lock-picking,” Bandar replied. “We found a room.”
The two men entered, both covering each other and their flanks as before.
There was little need. The room was barely large enough to hold the two of them with a few meters either side. Like the dome, it was unlit.
Kai switched on his external lights on either side of his helmet and swept them around to see what he could find.
Magnitude: A Space Opera Adventure (Blackstar Command Book 2) Page 18
