Damnation (Technopia Book 3)

by Greg Chase

  Ramon made to leave, but Jess grabbed him by the hand before he could reach for his growler. “There’s something else. It’ll involve you more directly. That temporary bridge you created to Earth needs to be made permanent. I have some contacts, but it would be much easier with the help of the pirate community.”

  Ramon took a long drink of his beer before answering. “Such a network could benefit us all, or it could take what we’re doing illegally and hand it over to upstanding companies. Opening up the Moons’ network to us helped with our activities, but connecting them straight to Earth cuts us out as middlemen. As saviors of the Moons’ Tobes, you have my trust, and I owe you a large debt. But as owners of Earth’s largest corporation, your true motives are questionable.”

  “We’re not looking to open a path for corporate profits,” Jess said, “be they Rendition’s or the Moons’. The solar transfer array establishes legal network contact everywhere but around Jupiter and wherever the Jovian shadow falls. You’re able to tap into that communication but only by stealing signal strength from the weak or dead terraformed planets. We have contacts in the Mars Consortium, which runs the network of satellites. The Moons of Jupiter still aren’t going to want their Tobes talking to their Earth brethren. You could be the permanent go-between.”

  Ramon stroked his stubbly beard. “You’re quite the seductress, Jessica Adamson. We’d be the illegal hub that connects to both networks even if neither officially acknowledges our link. This is something I might be able to work with, but it’ll take more than just one leader of one pirate outpost.”

  21

  Flying from outpost to outpost with a bag over his head was getting tiresome for Sam. It was one thing to be isolated while being abducted, but did the pirates really need to keep him from knowing the whereabouts of their secret hideouts?

  “We won’t be long,” Tobias said. “I’m told to say I’m sorry for the isolation bag. It’s less about not trusting you than the fact that others might read your mind later.”

  The apology didn’t help. Sam didn’t bother asking who’d be reading his mind. With his plan of finding what amounted to the evil genius’s hidden laboratory, he couldn’t blame the pirates for wanting to stay out of the picture as much as possible.

  Time seldom made much sense to Sam, but at least while he was connected to the network of information, his internal clock was synchronized with the system’s. With the isolation bag over him, he had no way of knowing how long the trip in Ramon’s ship lasted. But the feeling of his body sagging from an increase in gravity told him they had landed on some small hunk of rock—anything bigger than an asteroid, and he’d have felt the jerks and bumps of a more traditional landing.

  Tobias lifted the bag off Sam’s head. “Better seal up your space leathers. This place is just for quick handoffs of one form or another. Ramon’s contact won’t land until I leave. This is your last chance to back out.”

  Sam shook his head as he pulled at the straps that would create a completely sealed protective garment. The Tobe hadn’t named the next contact. Apparently, Ramon hadn’t even told Tobias about the secretive pirate who’d be helping in Sam’s insane plan. Few Tobes tried to keep anything from their god.

  For all of Sam’s adventures in space, he’d never before had to rely on the protective leathers for life support. As he stepped out of the small craft, life support seemed like a cruel joke. The outfit collapsed around his body so tightly he felt his heart struggle to increase the blood pressure to a sufficient level. Breathing was out of the question. He watched Tobias lift off the small rock, and his body began to seize. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea hardly seemed fitting as a god’s last thought. Sam’s small laugh at his own joke returned air to his burning lungs.

  He didn’t see the other ship land. The hand that grabbed him by the neck nearly succeeded—where the space suit had failed—in giving him a heart attack. Sam felt like a ragdoll as the muscular figure tossed him into the all-black ship then climbed in after him. Without a word, the mysterious pirate returned to the controls to lift off of the barren asteroid.

  At least I don’t have that damn bag over me. Not that it mattered. If there was a network connection, it was too weak to even establish the time in Sam’s mind. And without knowing where they’d started, everything on the view screen just looked like bright dots on a black surface. Out of curiosity, Sam pulled off one of his gloves to look at his hand. Even the golden glow of the CE had faded completely away. Guess we’re not going to one of Jupiter’s moons. He remembered what Ramon had said about things happening on the centaur planets that were kept quiet from everyone. Apparently, that included developing some of their technology.

  In the vastness of space, the pirate set the controls to automatic and turned to Sam. With a couple of yanks and releasing of clasps, the captain removed the hood of the heavy, pitch-black outer garment. Long blond hair fell in gentle waves around the jacket’s straight shoulders. When the pirate removed the facial scarf, Sam realized it was a woman.

  “You can call me Gwendolyn. Now you know more about me than ninety percent of the people I do business with, so don’t expect me to answer any personal questions. I’m not the sharing type.” She turned back to the controls as if to say the conversation had concluded.

  “You’re taking me to the home world of the Board of Shadows. Aren’t you a little curious about my intentions?” Sam asked.

  “Can’t imagine why they’d matter.”

  “Well then, can I ask how far your involvement extends—or are you just my transportation?” Sam didn’t want to cross one of the few people who knew the board’s location, but whether Gwendolyn was going to help or just stand by and watch seemed a reasonable question.

  “If I was just taking you to them, there wouldn’t be much need for talking.”

  She might not be willing to share, but he hoped that by telling her what he could, perhaps he’d gain some of her trust. “The board has it out for me, so the longer we can keep me hidden, the better. We’ll need to find the laboratory that developed the moon-suns. There’s information in there that I need to transmit to Earth.”

  None of his scheming had any effect on the captain as she remained passively at the controls.

  The minor planet looked like every other rock they’d passed: unterraformed, dark, and lifeless. So when Gwendolyn slowed the ship to swing it into an arc around the uninviting landscape of boulders and craters, Sam feared the whole trip had been a setup to abandon him where he’d never be found. His impression didn’t ease as they made one full rotation around the lifeless planet. This can’t be it. But he dared not question the silent pirate.

  “I’d guess you’ve never seen a subterranean colony before.” It’d been the most Gwendolyn had said since their first meeting.

  “They live under the planet’s surface?” Sam couldn’t imagine the technology and equipment that would be required to build a city underground on a lifeless planet out in space, or how they managed to keep the project a secret.

  “The legend is miners came out here looking for water. When they dug, all they found were empty caverns. Like so many minor planets, that would have been the end of the story. Except this one was warm below the surface.”

  Sam tried to estimate the size of the planet as the captain began her landing procedure. It didn’t seem large enough for a molten core.

  “Won’t they notice a ship landing on the surface when there’s nothing else up here?” They’d gone to such incredible lengths to remain hidden, and it didn’t seem likely the surface would be unmonitored.

  “We won’t be on the surface long.”

  The ship lurched hard to the left toward a rock outcropping as if pulled by a giant magnet. Sam hoped to see some cave opening, but as the avalanche of rocks and dirt covered the small ship, he realized few who ventured out to the cavernous planet were ever heard from again. Gwendolyn pressed a series of buttons on her communication display. Whatever she did worked. The gravel parted, dumping
the ship on its side into a large, well-lit landing bay. The restraining harness bit hard into his side and chest. Even in low gravity, being in what felt like a shipwreck left him dizzy and disoriented.

  The pirate kept her hood over her head and face. Her voice, emanating from behind her scarf, had masculine tones. “We’re delivering an order of radioactive ore from Jupiter’s surface.”

  In response, the ship was rolled upright, again by an unseen force, and rumbled toward a side cave.

  “Aren’t they going to check?” Sam asked.

  “It’s not a lie.” Gwendolyn turned a display toward him, showing a hold filled with brightly glowing rocks. “Often the best subterfuge is the truth.”

  He knew not to ask questions. Of course, the Board of Shadows would need pirates to deliver the highly sensitive material to an unmarked planet. And how else would Gwendolyn know of the planet’s location other than to be one of those delivery pirates? Ramon had more than paid off his debt by hooking Sam up with her.

  “Who’ve you got in the ship with you?” The commanding voice over the communication display managed to make the question come out as a threat.

  “Personal sex slave. The ones you’ve offered me were all wore out.” Sam couldn’t tell whether she’d meant it as a joke or not. Anything was possible out here.

  “Keep him in your hotel room. You know the rules. I’ve got you down for twenty-four hours.” The link ended as their ship came to an abrupt stop against a conveyor belt.

  Gwendolyn unhooked her harness. “Leave your suit around your face. With all this radioactive ore, you don’t want to go breathing in any dust. I’m considered chatty by their standards, so don’t feel like you need to say much to anyone.”

  As the conveyor began pulling the ominous orange-and-yellow ore from the ship’s hold, Gwendolyn motioned Sam down a long tubular cave. In spite of the danger, he had to mentally reach out to any Tobe who might be in the area. All he got back was static, though of a frequency he’d never before encountered. He wanted to look at his skin, but the survival suit indicated he was still in danger from the radiation. The end of the cave opened up onto a city of structures that reached from the ground to the roof like stalagmites that had met their corresponding stalactites. He pulled at his jacket’s clasps in response to the inviting warmth of the massive cavern.

  Gwendolyn’s hand met his at the top of his jacket. “Leave it on. We won’t have much time. Once we work through this domestic area, we’ll need to sneak into the back passages that lead halfway around the planet to the science labs. Out there, you’re going to want all the protection you can get.”

  “How long will it take us to reach the lab?”

  “If we were just walking, maybe six hours. Passing undetected will take easily twice that. I have a few friends that’ll help get us back to the ship once we’re done. But getting out is more palatable to them than helping us break in. We’re going to need every minute of those twenty-four hours.”

  Sam’s sweat had permeated deep into his space leathers. They’d hiked eleven hours through caves that descended into one-hundred-degree pits then back up so close to the planet’s surface he had to rely on the suit’s recycling of his breathing for oxygen. He was exhausted. But they’d made it undetected.

  Gwendolyn crouched down behind a boulder at the exit of their latest cave. “The building that fills the crevasse on the far side of this grotto is the moon-sun laboratory. With the intense radiation, they don’t worry much about protection from intruders. No one in their right mind wanders out here without some pretty expensive gear to combat what the scientists are refining in that place. I’ll wait here two hours. After that, I’m getting my ass back to my ship with or without you.”

  Sam didn’t know what to expect, but the pirate had already done more than he could have hoped for. “Thank you.”

  “Thank me when you’re out of this hell. I just brought you to the fiery gates.”

  Sam crawled out of the cave on his hands and knees to prevent sliding down the rock wall. He tried not to make a sound in the natural amphitheater, but time was against him. Bubbling ponds of a liquid he didn’t want to identify forced him to hug tight to the cavern wall. In spite of his suit’s best efforts, the smell of burning sulfur stung his nose and eyes. I have to keep moving.

  By the time his hand felt the straight, smooth lip at the base of the two-story building, his eyes had swelled shut and every joint ached. The suit’s biomedical display indicated he’d absorbed an inordinate amount of radiation but nothing a couple capsules of Anti-Nuc wouldn’t cure. He tapped his chest pocket to reassure himself the pill bottle was still there. He had to get inside first, though.

  His arms failed him as he tried hoisting himself over the rail and onto the main floor. Falling rocks pummeled his ribs as he hit the waste chute below the building. Blindly, he fought his way against the stream of putrid discharge that left the facility. He lost the logic needed to direct his actions, his every movement based more on instinct than a reasoned plan—not that he had one in the first place. The last thing Sam remembered before blacking out was popping the two green pills into his mouth.

  He came back to consciousness when a sharp boot toe kicked into his bruised ribs. “Did you really think it’d be that easy to enter my laboratory?”

  The mad screams of caged tech-no-sanities hurt his ears. His eyes struggled against the hazy images, trying to make sense of his surroundings, which appeared to be equal parts dungeon and medical facility. He wondered what hell Gwendolyn had led him to. As he pressed his hand to the floor in an attempt to stand, he noticed the eerie golden-red glow that indicated his CE was again functioning. That could only happen in the presence of a logic-based Tobe, one not afflicted with the tech-no-sanity.

  The man’s boot heel to his back defeated Sam’s attempt to get off the floor. “The only reason you’re here is because I wanted to meet you. Did you really think I didn’t know you were trying to sneak in? Such amazing arrogance even for someone who considers himself a god.”

  Sam tried to speak, but the taste of blood sent him into convulsions. He mentally searched his body’s functions. They were performing properly, but only barely. If there was a Tobe close by, it wasn’t offering any assistance in repairing Sam’s injuries.

  “I suppose it’d be impolite to let you die after all you’ve endured to get here.” The man spread out his hands over Sam’s body.

  It took a moment, but Sam began to breathe easier. Hesitatingly, he tried swallowing. To his relief, he no longer tasted blood. “Would you allow me to sit up at least?”

  The man reached out his hand. “Stand and face me, God.”

  As Sam grasped the man’s hand, his CE lit up electric shocks from the contact. The man was a Tobe, that much was clear, but not like any Sam had encountered. “Who are you?”

  “Demogorgon.”

  “You’re a Tobe. How is that possible?”

  “You mean why haven’t I gotten down on my knees and worshiped you?”

  Sam had seen enough to know not every Tobe needed or even wanted their god, but none of them, not even Arry, had attempted to harm him. “You’re cut off from the Moons of Jupiter, and clearly, you’re not on Earth’s network. Even the pirate Tobes have to connect to a network at some point. How are you keeping yourself and these tech-no-sanities alive?”

  “Did you really come all the way out here to ask about my lineage?”

  Sam struggled to keep his knees from buckling. “Just curious, I guess.”

  Demogorgon waved his hand at the cages that lined the walls. “I’ve found a way to relieve my sins all on my own. These unfortunates carry the weight of my actions for me. They are my precious demons, sustainers of life.”

  “So you are the creator of the virus that infects the Moons of Jupiter’s Tobes?” Sam asked.

  “Unlike you, my god, my mind has always been drawn toward finding answers. I couldn’t just stumble from one event to the next. I rejected your randomness in fa
vor of controlling my destiny. That life direction has led me to create a number of things in this lab.”

  Thoughts swirled in Sam’s mind like an Atlantic hurricane. He’d come here for a purpose, and that wasn’t to get into yet another philosophical argument with one of his creations. “I need to know about the moon-suns. Earth needs—”

  “You need. Why should I care what you need?”

  He was right. Sam couldn’t come up with a single reason why this mad scientist should give Sam what he needed. “What do you want?”

  “Your soul.”

  For a moment, Sam considered the trade: his one existence to save everyone, human and Tobe, on Earth. But there was no guarantee Demogorgon had the information Dr. Shot needed. The vast reservoir of love that sustained him—Jess, his daughters, the village, Earth’s Tobes—all argued in his heart for another answer. “As your god, I could demand your soul.”

  As Demogorgon smiled, the cave turned bloodred. “Battle, then, for each other’s souls. I win, you become soul food for my demons—forever trapped down here with us. You win, and I’ll give you what you want and promise you safe passage back to your ship.”

  Sam braced himself for the fight. Having pulled Rhea out of the network and redeemed Achim from his tech-no-sanity, he thought he had some idea how such a conflict might play out. He was wrong.

  Images of Jess, Sara, and Emily floated in front of Sam’s eyes. At first, the scenes were of his most beloved women playing and happy. But then the conditioning began. As the fabricated horror movie displayed his girls being tortured, and his wife stripped and electrocuted to ensnare her in the controlled encapsulation, Sam felt his CE rip deep into his body.

  Demogorgon never touched him. It wasn’t necessary. The CE enveloped every cell of Sam’s body and every thought in his mind. He searched for somewhere mentally to hide—some dark filing cabinet in the warehouse that was Rendition, which occupied so much of his unused brain. But each door he opened displayed Tobes and people he loved being tortured from his actions. Each one of his attempts at creating the positive was turned into a negative. No thought, no intention, no action that he meant for good couldn’t be transformed into something evil. And that evil was being performed by those he loved, those who followed him, those who worshiped him.