Out of Orbit- The Complete Series Boxset

by Chele Cooke

  “Burned beyond recognition?” Dhiren offered. “In enemy territory?”

  Beck’s eyes narrowed but he didn’t comment on Dhiren’s bluntness. Georgianna used the doorframe to pull herself to her feet and stepped out of the way.

  “Well, the furniture is either broken or gone, but go ahead.”

  He nodded his thanks and almost touched her shoulder, before thinking better of it. He slid past into the kitchen, brushing his hand along the corridor wall. Alec passed Georgianna without a word, and Keiran only paused to place a soft kiss against her temple before following.

  “Have we been kicked out of your house?” Dhiren asked. “Or are we supposed to go in there?”

  She rolled her eyes, reached out for his hand, and pulled him to his feet. Dhiren took a fleeting look down the road towards the outskirts of the camps—and his potential escape—and trudged through the house after her.

  Keiran had already made himself comfortable on the floor, leaning against the far wall. He had placed a bag on his lap and dug out a large canister. The moment he opened it, the smell of warm stew wafted out into the air. Georgianna’s stomach grumbled and she quickly moved in to sit at his side.

  “Did we miss something?” Dhiren asked. He leaned against the doorframe, tapping his foot.

  “The Colvohan went to meet with the Volsonnar,” Alec said.

  The frown that pulled at Beck’s face was enough to answer her question, but she asked it, anyway.

  “And no Veniche were asked to go?”

  “Of course not,” he said. “Since Edtroka left, they have dropped all pretence of actually caring for our opinion.”

  Keiran filled the silence by drawing a collection of mismatching bowls from his bag and pouring stew into each one with a series of satisfying sploshes. Alec collected them and handed them round. Dhiren looked thrilled and put the packet of Adveni-made ‘food’ aside.

  “Do we know what came of the meeting?” he asked, dunking his thumb into the stew. He sucked the juice noisily from his skin, grinning around the flesh.

  Beck settled himself on the floor with the bowl in his lap, twirling a spoon absently in his fingers. Alec took a seat next to him.

  “The Volsonnar claims the Adveni have been holding back,” said Beck, bitterly. “They’ve given the Cahlven the opportunity to retreat, or they will mass for war.”

  “So much for good and friendly terms for peace,” said Dhiren.

  “Like we’ve not been at war, already,” Alec said. “Nyvalau was just an accident, right?”

  Georgianna didn’t miss the dark look that Beck threw in her direction. At any moment he would ask another question she didn’t want to answer, or he would offer condolences she couldn’t accept. She was only just holding it together and she knew she wouldn’t be able to continue if Beck forced the issue. But he stayed silent, turning his attention back to his stew.

  “What about Maarqyn?” Keiran asked. “Do we know if he survived the attack in the square?”

  “And Ehnisque?” Dhiren added. “Did the Volsonnar say what happened to his precious daughter, after murdering his son?”

  Beck nodded.

  “They both lived. Minor injuries. From Olless’ report, he was quite smug about the lack of Adveni casualties so far.”

  “Yeah, because they have us to use as collateral damage,” Alec said, stabbing his spoon viciously into his bowl. “The Cahlven send us in to fight for them, saying it’s because we know the land. They don’t lose any of their own, and the Adveni obviously don’t care if they kill us all off.”

  Dhiren paced slowly around the room, staring out of the window. He stepped over Keiran’s and Georgianna’s legs and pushed the door open. He lingered, placing the empty bowl on the floor and rubbing his thumb over his bottom lip.

  “Dhiren?” said Georgianna. “What are you thinking?”

  He didn’t turn away from the door or even acknowledge her question. He ran his fingers through his hair and tapped his foot against the wet ground just outside the door.

  “Adveni casualties don’t matter,” he said. “And it doesn’t matter whether they say they’re going to go to war.”

  “How can you say that?” Alec asked. “If they think this hasn’t been war so far, what are they going to do once it is?”

  “I’m not sure I see your logic,” Beck added.

  There was a small smile on Dhiren’s lips when he turned away from the doorway. He took his time in taking a seat, smearing his thumb through the remnants of stew in his bowl.

  “ We are what matters,” he said, jabbing his dripping thumb at each of them. “The Veniche. Both sides assume that we’re siding with the Cahlven. They assume that we can’t cope alone, and so we need to hide behind one or the other. Obviously, we wouldn’t ally with the Adveni.”

  “Well, they’d be right, wouldn’t they?” Georgianna said. “We don’t have the technology or the training to go it alone.”

  Beck frowned and placed his bowl aside.

  “We have the land. It’s been ours for generations. We know it better. We have numbers who will protect it.”

  Dhiren’s thumb made a popping sound as his pulled it from between his lips and pointed it at Beck. There was a smirk of triumph on his face.

  “That is exactly how we have to stop thinking!”

  “You’ve lost me,” Alec said.

  “Me, too,” Georgianna agreed.

  Keiran slid his arm around Georgianna’s waist and pulled her closer. He’d been unusually quiet since they arrived. But, as she was about to ask if he had any thoughts himself, she realised it actually wasn’t strange for him to remain quiet in these discussions. She looked up to find him staring absently at the ceiling.

  “Do you think the Adveni care if they damage this land?” Dhiren continued.

  “They’ve already proven they’ll do that,” Beck said.

  “Exactly. But what about the Cahlven?”

  Alec raised an eyebrow but didn’t answer. Beck seemed to be waiting for Dhiren to continue, and he did.

  “The Cahlven care about this land about as much as the Adveni. They have back-ups if things get too bad. They have ships they can run away on. We are the only ones who don’t have somewhere to retreat to.”

  Confused, Beck rubbed his hands over his face. He looked older.

  “I’m still not following why this means we have to stop thinking of this as our land.”

  “Because, while we’re thinking about defending our land, we’re not thinking about doing absolutely everything we can to destroy the Adveni. And the Cahlven too, if necessary.”

  They let Dhiren’s words settle in. Georgianna had to admit that she was still confused. How were they supposed to destroy the Adveni if they didn’t have the weapons or the expertise? From the way they were talking, they didn’t even have the Cahlven behind them. They would be alone.

  “We need to fight dirty,” Dhiren said, when none of them answered. “Show them we’re willing to destroy as much as they are.”

  “If it’s destruction you want,” Keiran said slowly, finally looking around at them, “I think I might have an idea.”

  The plan was questionable, at best. They all understood the merits of what Dhiren intended and what Keiran had proposed, but actually going through with it was more than any of them had ever imagined. They’d spent the last ten years trying to protect their lands from the Adveni.

  They’d stayed in the kitchen late into the day, arguing and later compromising on the finer details, but in the end, even Beck was agreed that it was what had to be done.

  It turned out that Edtroka had taught Dhiren and Keiran far better than any of them had ever realised. She could hear his skilful diplomacy in the way Dhiren turned them all round to his way of thinking. She could see his tactics in Keiran’s insistence that they all keep their roles private; so, should one of them be questioned, he or she could only reveal a small part of the picture. And while they wanted to keep the numbers small to protect themselv
es, it was this sense of Edtroka’s influence that helped her convince the others that they needed a few more people on board.

  From Beck’s conversation with Olless, they knew that the Volsonnar had given the Colvohan one week to comply with the retreat orders, before the Adveni intended to escalate the war. With a day and a half already gone, Georgianna set off through the camps to a house she had been directed to by Alec.

  She had closed every door to her family house after the others had left. They would be back soon enough, and her home was out of the way. They could meet there without fear of being overheard. But that didn’t make her any less dubious about returning. If she was going to be an active member of this plan, she knew that she would have to ignore the hollow space in her stomach. She had to focus, even though everything in that house brought her emotions painfully to the surface.

  The building Alec had marked was quiet and seemingly empty. The front door stood open and the inside was dark. Cahlven soldiers passed back and forth in the street but they paid no attention to the blonde Veniche hovering awkwardly on the doorstep. She could ask one of them, she supposed. Wrench was cheerful and friendly and she didn’t doubt that he’d gotten to know some of the other soldiers.

  Georgianna hit the ground as the crack of a gun rang through the air. When she lifted her head to see where the shot had come from, she found nothing. A few of the soldiers were looking around in surprise and curiosity. They didn’t seem to know where the sound had come from any better than she did. Realising that she wasn’t at risk of being hit, and that training shooters was probably commonplace for them, Georgianna rose to her feet, a deep blush creeping up her cheeks as she noticed some of the soldiers smirking at her.

  Desperate to get away from their mocking smiles, she slipped into the house and hurried along the entrance corridor. Even if she only came out the other side and continued from there, she would escape those looks.

  As she emerged into the room at the back of the house, she heard laughing from outside the building. She held tight to the strap of her bag and opened the back door. The sound of the gunshot suddenly made sense, as she saw the rifle. But the reason behind it was still unclear, as the shooter turned around and brushed his dark curly hair from his eyes.

  Jacob grinned down at someone she couldn’t see and then looked up at her, his smile fading to polite surprise.

  “George,” he said. “Hi.”

  Georgianna pushed the door further and stepped out to find Wrench sitting against the wall, a weapon of his own across his lap. He looked up at her with a bright smile.

  “Alright there, George?”

  “I’m okay,” she said, glancing between the two of them. “What are you doing?”

  Jacob looked away and fiddled with the rifle in his hands. He rested the butt on the ground and grasped the barrel, rocking it back and forth.

  “Kid here wanted to learn to shoot,” Wrench said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

  She looked away from them, at the holes Jacob had put in the fence. Wrench had drawn a wobbly target onto the wood and so far the young herber had only hit it once. She wanted to be angry with Wrench and tell him that it was inappropriate. Jacob had suffered enough, already. He shouldn’t be taught to shoot, so he could go off and kill people alongside the rest of the soldiers.

  But the anger that bubbled up inside of her wasn’t directed at either of the men in the garden. Jacob was still young, but he had seen more than most men of his age. He deserved to be able to protect himself, and knowing how he had considered himself useless, she wasn’t about to take that away from him.

  Her fury was reserved for the Adveni and what they had forced this young innocent to do in order to survive. Any questions she’d still held about the plan vanished in an instant. The Adveni deserved to pay for every ounce of pain they had given to the Veniche. They should have to pay for Jacob’s torture and the loss of her own family. They needed to be held accountable for the destruction of a way of life, and the murder of thousands of innocent people. They deserved to pay for all of it.

  Georgianna hovered in the doorway and dumped her bag down next to her, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “Wrench, are you on good terms with that tech?” she asked. “The Cahlven?”

  “You mean Tohma?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good enough,” he said, nodding and scratching the back of his head. “He’s been teaching me about some of their gear whilst I show him Adveni stuff. I mean, he knows most of it already but he likes seeing how I approach it.”

  Georgianna nodded absently. They were both watching her as she chewed on her thumbnail and gazed at the holes in the wood.

  “You actually want something, George, or you just worried about my social life?”

  She didn’t feel particularly amused but chuckled just the same.

  “I need some information on the Cahlven ship shields and I was wondering if you’d be able to introduce me. I don’t think I made the best impression when we met before.”

  “He’s a good guy. He knew you were upset.”

  “Why do you need to know about the shields?” Jacob asked. “It’s not like we can fly the ships. From what Tohma has said, they’re coded to react to certain individuals. Not to mention the language problem.”

  “He’s right. There are biological controls on those things,” Wrench said. “Something about voice and eye checks. It’s a safeguard against tampering.”

  That would be a problem, especially since the whole point of the plan was to prove to the Adveni that they were willing to fight while also letting the Cahlven know they wouldn’t just sit back and be walked over. If they needed a Cahlven soldier to work the ship, it didn’t really speak to their independence. But she wasn’t about to let the whole idea go up in smoke simply because they had to ask a favour.

  “Well, maybe I can convince him into joining,” she said. “It’s only one person.”

  “George, what’s going on?” Wrench asked.

  “Just an idea. Dhiren and Keiran want to hurt the Adveni without getting the Cahlven involved. Well, certainly not the Colvohan.”

  “What do you plan on doing?”

  Jacob came closer and rested his rifle against the wall. He brushed his hair back from his face and looked up at her with curious excitement. She couldn’t send Jacob away so that she could tell Wrench and still keep Jacob in the dark. He’d been trying to prove his use. She had been the one to tell him he was important, and she couldn’t go back on that.

  “We’re going to do what the Adveni have been threatening from the start,” she said, crouching down next to Wrench and urging Jacob to do the same. She lowered her voice, grinning with satisfaction.

  “We’re blowing up the Mykahnol.”

  A space had been cleared in the middle of the front room. Broken furniture and discarded belongings had been pushed to the side and Dhiren and Keiran had spread out a number of maps. Some depicted the sprawling landscape from Nyvalau to Nyquonat, while others were more detailed, listing every street and landmark in Adlai. The larger of the maps had been discarded as the two men studied the Adlai map. They had placed a number of broken objects on top, even though, within the house, there was little chance of it blowing away.

  Georgianna took the bowls over and handed one to each of them before she took a seat next to Keiran. Dhiren barely looked at his food. He put the bowl aside and reached for a marker stone that had been positioned on the map.

  “Do they really need to be equidistant?” he asked, tossing the stone into the air and catching it.

  Keiran swallowed a mouthful of food, tapped his spoon against the side of his bowl, and glanced between the other objects. As Georgianna leaned forwards, she noticed that they were placed in a circle, five points in all, not including the one Dhiren was tossing into the air. There was a sixth on the map, in the centre of the circle.

  “If the information Edtroka got from Lehksi was correct, the pillars are spaced even
ly,” he said. He sucked the juice from his spoon and turned it around in his fingers. Using the handle, he measured the distance between the northern pillar and the eastern one, then repeated for the space between the eastern and southern. Last, he measured from the southern pillar to the broken splinter of wood in the centre of the circle. The distances were equal.

  “But that’s the pillars,” Dhiren said. “The shield might be different.”

  “It’s not,” Georgianna said. “The ship needs to be at the centre of the field it covers, and apart from changing the general shape, we can’t specify the barrier.”

  They both looked at her with wide eyes and slack jaws.

  “Hey, I understood what Tohma told me,” she said with a grin. “He said you can determine the size of the barrier to a certain extent but you can’t fix it to specific points.”

  Dhiren scowled, placed the stone back in the circle, and picked up his bowl. He ate quickly and without fuss, keeping his gaze on the map. As he chewed, he tapped his spoon against his chin.

  “So, either we don’t destroy it all, or we destroy more land than needed.”

  “And we still don’t know how long the affected area would be uninhabitable for,” Georgianna said. “They didn’t tell you that, right?”

  “No,” Dhiren replied. “But from the tales we’ve been told about how the destruction works, it would be a while.”

  Keiran looked at her.

  “Did the tech say if the shield would withstand it?”

  “Well, I was trying to keep the specifics to a minimum. Didn’t want to risk him talking about it. In short, I don’t know.”

  “Well, there’s no point in moving forwards until we know,” said Keiran. “And don’t we need some information on how to actually detonate the thing first? At the moment, we’re not even sure if it’s possible.”

  “Oh, it’s possible,” Dhiren said, pointing his spoon at the centre of the map. “Our little Adveni friend told E’Troke how to do it. The main problem we’re facing there is that we need Volsonnar approval.”