Earth Fire (Earthrise Book 4)
Page 9
Another train roared by, louder than the others, loud as bombs, as fleets, as collapsing worlds, and it ripped his heart from his chest, dragging it along the tracks, and he couldn't breathe, and again his ribs pressed inward, and his hands shook, and his head spun, and he couldn't take it, couldn't take it. This couldn't be real. This had to be a dream. Just another nightmare like those nightmares of the hives.
"Don't leave," Marco whispered, knowing she couldn't hear him.
A train, deafening, and the station rattled. A neon light shattered. Lailani glanced around, then stood on her tiptoes, embraced Marco, and spoke into his ear, her voice nearly drowning in the din.
"Marco, I can't tell you what I did in the Oort Cloud, what I learned. It's still classified. But there's something coming. Something bad. Something worse than the scum." Her fingers tightened around his shoulders. "They'll want you in the army again. If that happens, you say no. You injure yourself. You do whatever you must, but you don't serve again. You just run and you hide, Marco, all right?"
"Lailani." He frowned. "What's coming? Another attack?"
Lailani was weeping now. She squeezed him against her, kissed his cheek, then fled the station as the train roared down the tunnel. By the time the rumbling had died down, she was gone.
Marco stood alone on the platform by the blinking red phone and tattered poster. All the other commuters were gone. He stood lost in shadows. He did not know the way out.
CHAPTER SEVEN
"Good thing the doctors were here to give you a hand," Ben-Ari said.
Lying in the hospital bed, Kemi cringed and flexed her new prosthetic. "How long have you been waiting to tell that joke?"
Ben-Ari smiled. "Throughout your surgery. Can I shake it?"
"No!" Kemi pulled her prosthetic hand against her chest. "It's still tender and the nerve endings are still fusing into the circuitry. Right now, even bending the fingers feels tingly, almost painful. But they said that should go away in a few days."
Ben-Ari took a deep breath. They didn't have a few days. Chrysopoeia had tried to kill her. And she knew they would try again. She needed to find information—today. And she needed Kemi's help.
Ben-Ari stared at her lieutenant's new hand. Some amputees chose prosthetics that looked realistic, nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. Others chose futuristic, even artistic prosthetics—hooks, blades, snapping tools, sometimes painted with flames or tribal motifs. Kemi had chosen something in between. It was shaped like a regular hand but made of naked metal, the bolts and welding visible. The prosthetic looked like something out of an old steampunk comic.
Ben-Ari moved her gaze to Kemi's face. The pilot was still so young, only twenty-three, but her eyes were older. Both women had seen too much, had grown up too fast, had lost too many loved ones. Ben-Ari hesitated, then broke protocol and stroked Kemi's hair.
"You're not just my lieutenant, Kemi," she said. "You're not just an officer under my command. You're my friend. You're like a younger sister. I love you like I would love a true sister."
"Now don't get all sappy, ma'am," Kemi said, but her voice choked up. "I'm all right. It's just a hand." Her voice softened. "But thank you, ma'am. I never said it properly. Thank you. For saving my life. I would have been spider food without you."
"Part of you was." Ben-Ari smiled wryly.
Kemi winced and gazed at her prosthetic hand. "Don't remind me. I just hope I gave that space bug indigestion." She flexed her mechanical fingers, then winced. "Tickles."
Leaving the bedside, Ben-Ari walked toward the porthole. The hospital was located inside Space Station One, the largest space station humanity had ever built. From here, she could see the rest of Nightwall, this bastion of human ingenuity and power, its light in the darkness of space. A rocky planet below, orbiting no star, harbored military barracks. Dozens of satellites and vessels orbited this world, from enormous warships to single-pilot Firebirds.
Nightwall. Earth's shield. Only a few years ago, it had been so much larger. Since the war, Ben-Ari had seen ship after ship scrapped. Space station after space station torn down. Brigade after brigade dismantled, its soldiers flown home to Earth. The scum had been gone for four years, the survivors hiding in their holes, defeated so badly they would not rise again for centuries.
And so we moved from war to peace, from destroying to rebuilding, Ben-Ari thought. No longer do we, soldiers in space, receive the lion's share of Earth's money, its resources, its brains.
She winced at that last word. She had been thinking of scientists and engineers and strategists, but a different thought now rose. The memory floated before her: the marauders, great arachnid aliens, cracking open human skulls, lapping up the brains.
With a shaky breath, she stared at Achernar, the brightest star in the sky, so close to here. Just beyond that star, they lurked. They digested. She remembered staring into their leader's eyes. Remembered his mocking grin. Cold sweat trickled down Ben-Ari's back.
Wincing, Kemi rose from bed and walked toward her. They gazed together out into space.
"They're out there," Kemi said softly. "Those creatures. What were they? Why was a human prison out there in the DMZ?" She looked at Ben-Ari, eyes haunted. "And why can't we speak of this?"
"I don't know." Ben-Ari took a deep breath. "But I'm going to find out."
Kemi winced. "Captain." She glanced around and lowered her voice. "The admiral himself told us to keep this hush. We can't go snooping around now against orders. Whatever was out there . . ." She sighed. "We just have to hope those in charge know what they're doing."
"How well has that served us in the past?" Ben-Ari placed her hand on the viewport. With the tip of her finger, she could hide Achernar. "We trusted Admiral Bryan. We thought he was a hero. Then he betrayed us, betrayed millions of us. I no longer know if we can trust our generals, our admirals, our politicians, or just our own moral code."
"Sounds like a good way of ending up in the brig," Kemi said.
"Sounds like a good way of ending up on the bad end of a firing squad," Ben-Ari confessed. "But both those fates seem kind compared to what's out there. To what we saw."
Kemi shuddered. They were both silent for a moment, remembering. An alien structure on a dark world, deep in what had been the scum empire. Within it—a human prison, draped in webs. Prisoners, their skulls carved open, their brains removed. Aliens—large creatures the size of cows, with six clawed legs, with jaws that could swallow a man whole, with trophy skulls on their backs, with intelligent eyes.
"Spiders," Kemi said. "Spiders with crocodile mouths. Who crave brains. Spider-croco-zombies. From space."
Ben-Ari smiled wryly. "Just like monsters from a B movie. Except these ones destroyed our squad. And for some reason, the top brass wants them hidden. Kemi, I can't let this rest. You understand, don't you? I have to investigate. If we're in danger, if Earth is in danger, if Admiral Komagata is corrupt . . ." She held her lieutenant's good hand. "All of humanity might be at stake."
Kemi stared into her eyes. "So what do we do?" she whispered.
"I'm a captain," she said. "A higher ranking officer than you."
"Sure, rub it in, ma'am," Kemi said.
Ben-Ari gave a tight smile. "But my security clearance still doesn't go high enough. Not to find out what I need. But . . ." She bit her lip. She was developing a callus from biting her lip so often these days. She spoke in a whisper. "Before he died, my father, a colonel . . . gave me his codes."
Kemi frowned. "He gave you secret military codes?"
"Well . . ." Ben-Ari shifted her weight from foot to foot. "They were on his communicator."
"What, just typed in there?"
"Yeah," Ben-Ari said. "In code. Behind a few walls of encryption. Which, well, needed a black market hacker to crack. But otherwise, just written down. Totally irresponsible, if you ask me."
"Ma'am!" Kemi leaned in, eyes wide, and whispered urgently, "Are you telling me you stole security codes from an HDF colonel?"
"Ma'am, I don't know . . ." Kemi said. "Blasting aliens with guns is one thing. We're good at that. But defying the HDF?" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "It's illegal."
Ben-Ari stared out there. Into space. In the darkness, she could still see him. The marauder. Malphas. Waiting for her.
"Yes," Ben-Ari said. "I must."
That evening, Ben-Ari and Kemi walked through Space Station One, the carpeted floors muffling their steps. Many soldiers were retiring to their quarters or a lounge, their workday done. The two women passed by pilots, engineers, computer programmers, scientists, doctors, analysts, janitors, cooks, and a few guards, all wearing the navy blue of Space Territorial Command. A couple times, Ben-Ari and Kemi stood at attention as a general walked by, but mostly they passed NCOs and junior officers. They were all here to watch the darkness, to defend Earth from the terrors of space.
Yet how can we defend Earth if we hide what's in the shadows?
They reached the Augury door. A guard stood here, rifle in hands. Here was one of the few doorways in Space Station One that was constantly under guard. Ben-Ari handed over her own security codes. She didn't need to use her father's stolen codes yet. As a captain, she could enter this room, even if she couldn't get much from it. The guard nodded and the door slid open. Ben-Ari stepped inside, leaving Kemi in the corridor.
The Augury was small, not much larger than an elevator, with rounded walls. When Ben-Ari stood in the center, she felt like a child trapped in a well.
"Activate Augury," she said.
The lights shut off, leaving her in total blackness. Stars kindled around her. The walls were all holographic projectors. The illusion was complete. Ben-Ari felt as if she floated through space.
She reached toward some stars. With her hand gestures, she was able to grab some, to pull them toward her, to tap them and expand informational windows. When she grasped Achernar, it zoomed toward her, a crackling ball of bluish-white plasma, several planets orbiting it. A hovering text box offered information on the star: its physical properties and its political importance, a beacon denoting humanity's border in the Milky Way. Smaller stars, when pulled toward her, revealed their own planets and properties.
Ben-Ari tapped planets beyond Achernar, searching for information on their inhabitants. It was believed that millions of planets harbored life in the Milky Way. Over ten thousand species had been cataloged so far, most of them mere microorganisms, others as advanced as animal or plant life on Earth. A few hundred intelligent species had been discovered, most still in their stone age or iron age. Only a handful of star systems in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way, where Earth resided, harbored spacefaring civilizations. Most of those—the Guramis, the Silvans, the Altairians—were peaceful, their reach extending to only a few nearby worlds.
Ben-Ari kept searching, but she could find no information on the marauders. How could a species so brutal, so intelligent, have been covered up this long?
"Show me all arachnids," she said, and she found information on hundreds of spiderlike aliens, but none with six legs, massive jaws, and an appetite for brains.
"Show me all predatory, newly formed civilizations," she said, and several star systems zoomed toward her, home to warlike aliens. She saw voracious blobs, malicious squids, intelligent clouds that communicated with lightning bolts, and beings formed from fire and stone, but no marauders. No threats that had ventured near humanity.
The dark world, the one with the prison planet, did not even appear in the Augury's charts.
Ben-Ari spoke into the communicator on her wrist. "Kemi?"
Her lieutenant answered, voice soft. "I'm here, ma'am, right in the hallway. All clear."
Ben-Ari took a deep breath. If this failed, it could mean her life. This was a criminal act that could get her the death penalty if she was lucky, life on a penal asteroid if she wasn't. She had faced death before, too many times, and survived. This was a different sort of battle, but it required the same courage.
"Computer," she said, "I'd like to input a new code." Her father's security code had been easy to memorize. Einav_May_1_2124_Wilbur. Her name. Her birthday. Her childhood dog. After all the hacking to retrieve the code, it wasn't even particularly secure.
New stars shone in the Augury.
Thousands of new informational windows lit up, then faded to a dim glow, waiting to share their knowledge.
Yes, her lip was definitely developing a callus.
She had to hurry.
She pulled stars and planets toward her, shoved them aside, seeking them, the marauders, the—
There.
She froze.
There!
A star shone before her, and several planets orbited it. The system was swarming with clawed ships—like the marauders ships that had chased her, that had nearly destroyed the HDFS Saint Brendan.
"Kemi?" she whispered into her communicator.
"All clear but hurry," came the lieutenant's voice. "I don't like this."
Ben-Ari nodded. She tapped a clawed ship. A window popped up.
Type: Ravager-class alien warship. Propulsion: Warp drive. Armaments: Plasma cannon. Length: 50 meters (estimated). Complement: Unknown. Maximum velocity: Unknown. Hull construction: Unknown.
No new info here, aside from the name. Ravager. It seemed some senior intelligence officer had a good imagination for naming alien vessels.
Ben-Ari scrolled down. A new line of information appeared, this one more interesting.
Species: Magna Insecta.
"Here we go," Ben-Ari whispered, clicking the name.
A new informational bubble appeared, titled: Magna Insecta, the Marauders.
Below the title appeared a photograph of one of the aliens.
"You are an ugly bastard," Ben-Ari muttered.
Kemi had described them as zombie spiders with crocodile mouths, but they were worse. A lot worse than that. These beasts made the scum seem cuddly. Six serrated legs sprouted from their bodies, ending with clawed digits that looked flexible enough to manipulate tools and deadly enough to disembowel a brontosaurus. The alien's jaws thrust out, lined with teeth on the inside, horns on the outside. Ben-Ari had seen these creatures suck out the brains of their victims, leaving the flesh to rot. These jaws had not evolved to feast on meat but to devastate enemies. These jaws were weapons, and Ben-Ari wagered that they could rip through steel.
Most sickening was the creature's abdomen. She placed her finger on the three-dimensional image, spinning it around to another angle. Skulls covered the alien's body, glued on. Some were alien skulls, but others were human, staring with agony through empty eye sockets.
"How do they find human skulls?" Ben-Ari whispered.
She could not bear to look at the skulls anymore. She spun the creature's abdomen away, but that only brought its jaws back into view. Its four eyes stared at her. Here were not the empty, dead eyes of mere insects, creatures like the scum with only hive intelligence. No. These eyes were cunning. These eyes seemed to peel back Ben-Ari's uniform, her flesh, to stare into her soul. The words of Malphas, the marauder who had chased her to the border, would not stop haunting her. We will meet again.
The holographic marauder's jaw stretched into a grin.
Ben-Ari inhaled sharply and closed the file, and the marauder vanished. Her heart pounded. Cold sweat covered her. How could this photograph have moved? How could it have been looking straight at her? Her pulse pounded in her ears.
Hello, Einav . . .
The words sounded in the chamber. His voice. The guttural voice of the alien. Just a whisper, an echo. No. No, just her imagination. Malphas couldn't be speaking to her here, not truly.
We are waiting for you . . .
Just the hum of machinery, that was all. She was too tired, too scared, imagining voices in the darkness.
Across the Augury, the stars and planets moved. Solar systems zoomed in. Dozens, hundreds, thousands. Around them all—ravager ships. Millions of ravager ships.
We will meet soon . . .
"They're surrounding us," Ben-Ari whispered. "These are invasion formations. They're planning an invasion of—"
"Captain!" Kemi's voice emerged from the communicator on Ben-Ari's wrist. "Captain, you're about to have company!"
Damn.
Ben-Ari began to close star systems. But thousands were opened around her, and each one needed to be clicked. No time. No time!
"Computer, shut down!" she said.
"Too many open systems," intoned a robotic voice. "Do you want to save your configuration?"
"Shut down now!" Ben-Ari hissed.
"Shutting down now will close all open star systems. Do you wish to save your—"
"Close them all!"
"Initiating shu—" The computerized voice changed in tone. "System locked. System locked."
Ben-Ari cursed. She couldn't leave the Augury, not with the information on the marauders still displayed. But if she was caught here . . .
She made for the door. She couldn't see it in the darkness. She reached through holographic space, felt a wall, pawed for a door handle . . .
The door opened before she could reach it.
Light from the hallway flooded the Augury, washing over the holograms.
At the doorway stood three military policemen. Among them stood Admiral Komagata.
She met his gaze.
"They're all around us," Ben-Ari said. "An army. An army kept classified. In shadows. Admiral, this isn't just a typical species venturing to the stars. The marauders are—"
"Men, stun her," said Admiral Komagata.
The military policemen raised their guns.
Ben-Ari leaped aside.
Bolts of electricity flew into the room, narrowly missing her. They burned the floor where they hit. She had no weapon. She knew Krav Maga, but—
In the hallway, the air rippled. A funnel of air drove forward like animated sound waves. Once. Twice. Two military policemen fell.