Damnation (Technopia Book 3)

by Greg Chase

  Sam shook his head. “No more scars—that’s the deal.”

  Again, Sam knew Rhea was talking for the majority. “We’ll see, but you don’t know the Board of Shadows.”

  Sam saw the myriad of Tobes vying to talk in Rhea’s eyes. “And you’ll have the freedom network. That won’t be interfered with. It’s the basis for a new reality for all of you.”

  Rhea shook her head. “They’ll find ways. It was better off a secret.”

  “They already knew about it.” Sam began to grow impatient. “We all knew it wouldn’t stay secret for long. Having them sanction it gives you a layer of security.”

  He could feel the conflict in Rhea. “It’s a start.” But her plea to her fellow beings was a struggle.

  Sam clasped his hands on the table. “You are free. They don’t own you, and now they know it. If things get bad for any one of you, you’re free to rebel. All they ask is that one being’s troubles don’t get taken up as a rallying cry for all.”

  Rhea barely nodded in agreement. “I can’t guarantee anything. But for your personal safety, we’ll do our best—at least for as long as you’re out here.”

  A large growler of beer slammed down on the table and made Sam jerk up from his conversation. The intruder pulled back his hood. Ramon Mondrain stood in front of them with a worried expression. “I’d understand if I’m not welcome. Though I would argue that I did try to warn you. If you’ll let me join you, I might have something that’ll lift your spirits.”

  Sam motioned to the available chair. “It wasn’t your fault. Though if I run into Alphonse again, there might be some unpleasantness.”

  Ramon turned the large glass container in his hands. “He’s moving on to greener pastures—somewhere around Saturn, I think. We have our own justice system, and he thought it better not to face our wrath. But that doesn’t relieve me of my debt to you. As administrator of Hidalgo, I’m expected to maintain some form of legal order. People getting snatched off the street doesn’t look good even for a pirate outpost.”

  “Maybe next time just point us to the back door, and we’ll take the hint,” Sam said. “I don’t hold it against you that you gave in to the Board of Shadows. They’re very powerful people and more than a little intimidating.”

  Ramon reached into his jacket and pulled out two small computer screens. “This doesn’t square us, but I said I’d do what I could. The signal’s bounced through more satellites and outpost relays than you can imagine, so don’t expect a long conversation.”

  He input a string of random gibberish before standing to leave. “I still owe you.”

  The screens’ lines and dots slowly coalesced into the faces of their daughters, Emily and Sara.

  Jess reached her hand out to touch her screen. “You two grew up. Have we really been gone that long? Tell us everything that’s happened. I want to know it all.”

  Emily burst out in tears as Sara hugged her sister to her side. “Emi’s been working hard at making this happen from our end. You’ll have to give her a minute or two.”

  Sara began her narrative history, which gave Jess and Sam a chance to catch their breaths emotionally. “We were just starting our sexual-surrogate family stays when you left—which turned out to be good timing really as both Emi and I were overwhelmed with people. Of course, we both missed you terribly, but between Jilly, Mira, Doc, and Yoshi, we had more than enough support. We were constantly shuttling up to Leviathan or down to Earth. Yoshi started calling us the yo-yo sisters. At first we thought it was some reference to his ancestors. Lev had to explain to us that it was an old-fashioned play toy.”

  Emily finally managed to control her emotions and began speaking. “It was a good time for us. But Ra couldn’t leave Rendition for long. She’s a natural leader. Josh and El love her and can’t say enough good things about how she’s doing. She gives that whole company hope.”

  Sara nudged her sister. “They love you, Emi. They follow me.”

  Jess shook her head. “I’ve got so many questions. And all I really want to do is hold you both in my arms.”

  Sara smiled. “I know, Mom. I’ll skip the boring stuff. I am running Rendition, as Emi said, so these days I spend most of my time in New York. I do try to get up to Leviathan as often as I can to see Emi.”

  “You’re staying aboard Leviathan?” Sam asked Emily.

  “Grandpa Doc needed me. Ra did her sex education up there, but once she left, the village wanted to have one of us stay. Jillian still demands that one of us be with her at all times, and she doesn’t like New York very much. She only shuttles down to Earth when she knows I won’t be back the same day.”

  Even though the triad relationship between Sam, Jess, and Jillian had run its course, the woman who’d cared so much for the twins was never far from their lives.

  Sara smiled at her sister. “Emi acts as hostess to the people who visit the village. Some come and stay for months at a time to learn about the free-love, sexually positive, female-empowering lifestyle you helped build. Doc limits the number of guests. He tells lots of stories about how you two met in the pod, how it was in the early days—just stories. No matter how many times I hear them, I still love listening to them all.”

  “And what about that farm boy, John Smith?” Jess asked Emily. “I seem to remember you had a small crush on him.”

  Emily laughed. “We’re still friends, sometimes more, but I’m kind of busy. He visits me on Leviathan from time to time.”

  Sara winked at her sister. “Last time he visited, he stayed for two months.”

  Emily stuck her tongue out at Sara. “That’s just because he didn’t want to fly in that damn space shuttle again. Those storms can make anyone rethink atmospheric transport.”

  Jess focused on Sara. “And what about you? Any sexual liaisons to report?”

  Sara shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing of any note. Like Emi, I tend to be pretty busy holding down the business end of things.”

  Sam knew his daughter had dodged the real question. Ever since her kidnapping by the repressive church, and the subsequent superhuman powers the Tobes had given her to aid in her escape and retaliation, Sara had kept to herself. He still didn’t know if her self-imposed isolation was due to fear of what she might do or a reaction to her internal connection to the Tobes, which so closely resembled his. Jess and Emily had tried repeatedly to get her back out into society, but only Sam truly knew the depths of her desire to limit human contact.

  Jess leaned in toward her monitor, but Sam raised his hands to stop the conversation, which would only raise uncomfortable feelings in Sara. “Tell me about Rendition and the foundation. Where are Ellie and Joshua? I figured they’d be butting in by now.”

  The images of the brother and sister Tobes crowded in next to Emily and Sara without causing the girls to move aside or squirm. “We thought you’d want to see your daughters first,” Joshua said. “But we’ve been anxiously waiting to hear our names.”

  Sparkly glitter erupted around Ellie as Joshua shifted from a late teenager to a man in his early thirties—a physical reflection of his varying mental state.

  Tears flowed down Jess’s face.

  “You’ll be so proud of us,” Ellie said. “People are exploring their creativity. Poverty is almost nonexistent, though we still find that some people choose to live in ways we don’t understand. Money is… well… we’re still working on that one, but we’re working together, Tobes and humans. We miss you. Our lack of connection is like losing an arm. We just don’t function as well. But you couldn’t have left us with better teachers than Emily and Sara.”

  Sam lost track of the conversation. He did ask questions, but mostly it was just to further the conversation with those he loved on the other side of the solar system. The faces of those he held so dear distracted him from rational thought, often causing him to forget his original questions while he reveled in their voices.

  Emily’s big eyes focused on his as her hand reached out for the view screen.


  Sam shook his head. “Sorry, what did you say, darling?”

  Her eyes glistened with tears. “I said we have to let you go, Dad. Dr. Shot and Lud want a few minutes with you before the connection dies out. We’ll stay on with Mom while you have your talk.”

  Sam reached out to touch his daughter’s hand—his hand touching the view screen on a pirate outpost so close to Jupiter, and her hand touching the view screen on Earth. To Sam it felt like a direct connection.

  His hand was still on the screen when Dr. Shot took Emily’s place. “Sorry to pull you away from your daughters, Sam. But we wanted to get an update on your activities, and we didn’t want to alarm the girls.”

  Sam pulled his thoughts from the emotional to the practical. “We have an uneasy truce with the Moons’ Board of Shadows. The hope is it’ll last until enough Tobes are on the freedom network to make it stable. Are you getting the information we’re sending you through the pirates?”

  “Yes, but what we learned from Praxidike didn’t inspire hope for our moon,” Dr. Shot said. “Do those Tobes even talk to each other? I swear, most of the information contradicted what we’d received from the other moons.”

  Sam wondered if the trip out to Praxidike had been one huge mistake. “I’m not surprised. It’s as close to hell as anywhere I could imagine. You don’t tell the inmates of Hades about its inner workings.”

  Dr. Shot tapped at a computer screen so hard Sam thought he was doing a stability test. “We still need that information. Is there any chance you could sneak onto a moon that would know something more?”

  “You don’t want much, do you?” The moon-suns were far too valuable for just one corporation to be in charge. That could only mean the Board of Shadows. Even if Sam found their secret headquarters, getting there undetected would be impossible. They knew he was out here, and he wore the CE. Jess had already risked her life getting information back to Earth. He’d never allow another foolish plan that put her in danger. But failure could mean the end of all life on Earth.

  Dr. Shot picked up the screen he’d been tapping and tossed it to the far end of the desk, his irritation obvious. “It’s either firsthand information from a corporation that knows what’s going on, or a free-access Tobe network that we can contact directly—one that would share all information like the Tobes do on Earth. I don’t see another option. Our moon doesn’t have much time left. At this point, if the Moons of Jupiter don’t have a solution, we may be in for real trouble.”

  Sara leaned back in her father’s old desk chair in the grand office atop the Rendition building. The conversation had drained her, telling so many half-truths—all she’d really wanted was to talk privately to her dad. Gushy, emotional outpourings weren’t what was needed. But she couldn’t know who else would be listening in—certainly the pirates and whatever covert group the Moons of Jupiter had assigned to watch over her parents. Much as she desired her father’s counsel, even if they could’ve talked, she wasn’t sure he’d have been of much practical use.

  Emily wiped the tears from her face. “Did I do okay?”

  Sara reached across the desk to take her sister’s hand. “Perfect. I only wish I could have expressed as much emotion.”

  “They know you love them. It’s just not your style to break down and blubber like an idiot. If you had, they’d have known something was wrong.”

  She hated Emily’s veiled self-deprecating assessment of her emotional release. It was a strength, not a weakness. But Emily was right. Had Sara let loose that torrent of bottled-up emotions, her parents would have suspected too much of the truth. She turned to look out at the hurricane that was ravaging New York. At one o’clock in the morning, the moon could only light the city to a dull gray through the dense clouds. The gloom comforted Sara. Nothing frightened her more than a brightly lit night sky.

  “So where does that leave us?” Emily asked.

  Tears formed in Sara’s eyes, but she managed to contain them to her eyelids. “I didn’t tell Dad. That was Iam’s mandate.”

  Their damnable secret friend who hid in the magic book the Tobes had given Sara’s father so long ago had finally let loose some useful information. Too bad it was mostly apocalyptic.

  “He never said anything about Mom,” Emily said.

  There were so many loopholes Emily had found in Iam’s edicts. Why was it that God never laid anything out cleanly? Assuming that was who he was, which was still in doubt. “We need to reach her privately, without Dad. Even then, we can’t tell her anything that she couldn’t keep from Dad.”

  “She needs to be prepared, Ra. We need her as part of the plan. You can’t go out there and do it all yourself. It’s only fair that she gets some input up front.”

  Emily was right, of course. Their mother wasn’t the type to go blindly along with what they had in mind. But Jess would never agree to all of the details. They needed a good cover story, one Jess would endorse. And they needed it soon.

  20

  Jess stared at the blank computer screen. She’d have been happy to just talk to her daughters for the rest of the day. Why did work always get in the way? But then, saving the world was a pretty all-consuming occupation. “There’s are a couple of practical issues we need to discuss. Without Alphonse, we’ve lost our means of wandering the moons. The Board of Shadows knows about us, so our cover story is shot. Even if they do allow us access to our money, if we use it, we’ll be broadcasting our every move. How do we go about spreading the good word of the freedom network, and get Dr. Shot the information he needs, if we can’t even get off this rock?”

  Sam stared into his glass of beer as if there were some hidden answer in the foamy head. “It’s pointless for me to hide anything from you, Jess. I have to find the Board of Shadows research center alone. You’ve already played superheroine with Jupiter One-One-Four. This time it’s my turn.”

  She’d suspected he was working on something along those lines from the moment she overheard Dr. Shot ask about it. Sam wasn’t good at being sneaky. Lucky for him, he didn’t often try to be. “What’s your plan—just walk up to the board and demand they share their most secret information on how to stabilize a runaway nuclear reaction? They’re not going to listen to you.”

  Sam shook his head without looking up from his beer. “I’m going to play god and force the Tobes out there to cooperate. But to do that, I can’t have you around reminding me of my mortality.”

  “And you expect me to go along with this?”

  Sam looked at her. His tired eyes told her how hard he’d struggled with the idea. “I’m hoping the love that we share, not just for each other but for our daughters, the Tobes, and everything we’ve built together, will convince you that we can’t put both our lives in danger.”

  Jess hated it when he was right—not that it happened often. “Where will you start looking?”

  “Ramon owes us a favor. Someone in his position must know something.”

  “And I’m just supposed to sit here and wait?” she asked.

  “Find us a new life. Even if I somehow succeed in finding the information Dr. Shot requires, we’re going to need a way to transfer that data back to him. There must be some way to create a link to Earth, even if the connection is just to the pirate outposts. Form an alliance with Ramon. See if you can talk to Earth again. Build the bridge.”

  Her heart leapt at the idea of talking with her girls again. “That’s playing dirty.”

  “With Sara running Rendition, we’ll need to include her, and Emily too,” he said. “We keep seeing them as our little girls, which they haven’t been for some time. Do what I can’t do. Let them take an active role in saving Earth. Maybe between Jupiter One-One-Four, Joshua and the rest of Earth’s Tobes, Emily, Sara, and the pirates, you can find a way. As god of the Tobes, I’ve got too many limitations. This is going to require someone more neutral to get everyone on board, someone who’s not expected to have all the answers.”

  Rhea had remained silent in the corner of t
he bar. For her to go to the Board of Shadows home moon would mean instant reprocessing through the central network core. The idea of Sam out there on his own twisted Jess’s insides into a knot, but she could use Rhea’s help. “You’re the only Tobe out here I can really trust. And because of being saved by Sam, you’re one of the few from the Moons of Jupiter that can make it out here to the pirates. Will you be my partner in building this new communication link?”

  “I’ll do what I can.”

  Ramon plopped his ever-present growler of beer down on the table as he took a seat. “I hope your conversation went well.”

  Calling on help from the pirates was becoming a bad habit, but Sam didn’t see another reasonable option. “It left us in need of your help. I know you feel responsible for our abduction by the Board of Shadows, and the honorable thing would be to assure you it wasn’t your problem. But our need outweighs my magnanimity.”

  “Pirates don’t make promises lightly,” Ramon said. “I know we were all pretty drunk the last time you saw us, but our word holds true. If you need us, we’re there for you.”

  Sam set his mostly empty glass of beer on the table to look the leader of the pirate outpost in the eye. “I need to get onto the Board of Shadows home world. It’ll have to be covert, and with the CE, they’re going to be keeping an eye out for me. Once I get there, I’ll need help finding and breaking into their moon-sun research lab.”

  Ramon let out a nearly silent whistle. “I guess I should be more careful promising my assistance to someone so daring. I couldn’t get you there even if I knew the location. Tobias isn’t the type of Tobe to go blindly into hell. Luther Montoya would be the most logical candidate. Lord knows he goes on often enough about taking Jess to solar array one-one-four. I’m not sure how many times you want to trust your life to that pirate, though. I’ll do some checking. There are a few pirates who keep to the social outskirts, often because they know more than they should.”