Out of Orbit- The Complete Series Boxset

by Chele Cooke

  “Unless you die here.”

  “I guess, yeah.”

  Dhiren leaned back, frowning. He pursed his lips and glared past her for a few moments before turning his gaze on her. “You’re seriously leaving me in charge of two children?”

  Georgianna shuffled across the bed and reached over, taking Dhiren’s hand in both of hers. “Don’t be stupid.” She grinned and raised an eyebrow. “I’m seriously leaving them in charge of you.”

  Despite Georgianna’s protests, Jacob and Lacie refused to be left behind for the meeting. In a rare moment of fiery confidence, Lacie even threatened to simply follow if they were left behind. Then they would make their way to the meeting alone, suggesting with a wry smile that it would obviously be more dangerous that way.

  Once all of Georgianna’s protests had been exhausted, her promises to tell them everything rebuffed, Dhiren had claimed he liked their tenacity, and agreed to it. Georgianna had flared at him, but secretly wondered if he was merely saying it to close the topic, before he packed their belongings for them and forcibly dragged them from the city. She was sure Dhiren wasn’t above knocking one of them out to ensure the other’s cooperation.

  Georgianna knew Alec would like the idea even less than she did, and it was why they’d chosen a time when he was on watch to tell them of their intentions.

  They sat in the tunnel car, the map spread out between them, and discussed their options. Georgianna hated to admit it, but having Lacie and Jacob with them would certainly help them cover more ground. At this point, it would only be herself and Alec, and she wasn’t confident they’d be able to get close enough, in the short time they had.

  Dhiren headed out in the early hours of the morning, as Georgianna was planning on taking over Alec’s watch. He walked down the tunnel with her, keeping a tense silence.

  “Are you going hunting?” Georgianna said.

  “Kind of.”

  “What sort of answer is that?”

  He grinned at her through the dark. “A vague one.”

  “Helpful.”

  “To my purposes, absolutely.”

  “Seriously…”

  Dhiren gripped her hand and squeezed. “I’ll be back before you’re off watch. I’m not leaving yet.”

  It wasn’t particularly comforting, but Georgianna nodded and dropped the subject as they walked up to the dip in the tunnel where Alec had set up camp. Dhiren waved a hello to Alec, who handed over the rifle and patted Georgianna on the shoulder, before retreating to the camp to get some sleep. By the time Georgianna had slung the rifle onto her shoulder and turned back to Dhiren, he’d already slunk off into the shadows, out into the city for whatever he had planned.

  The watch was as quiet as ever, and Georgianna wished she had sent Lacie and Jacob off earlier, telling them that they would discuss it in the morning, allowing her to get some sleep before the boring shift. She found herself flagging multiple times, jolted back to consciousness by imaginary noises. Each time she pointed the rifle into the darkness for far longer than necessary, scared that someone was waiting for her to flag again.

  Did Keiran knew about her brief run-in with Taye and the Cahlven soldier? Was that why she would be unable to visit him again, even if he did find a way to message her? Would he be attending the meeting, or would be able to get a message to him without the Cahlven finding out? The questions tugged at her, but the answers didn’t look particularly hopeful.

  The lamp flickered dangerously low and Georgianna didn’t know if they’d managed to find any stores of oil.

  Dhiren appeared so silently out of the gloom that she didn’t manage to point the rifle at him until he was less than half a dozen feet in front of her. “Damn, Dhiren! Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

  “I think you’ll find that my sneaking skills are incredibly useful when they need to be.”

  He moved the lamp and took a seat beside her, hip to hip. His pockets weren’t bulging with foraged food, and he didn’t carry a bag with a kill; not that he’d been gone long enough to get out of the city to hunt properly. With the freeze setting in, it wasn’t uncommon for smaller animals to venture further into the city, but he didn’t even have one of those.

  “Where did you go?” she said.

  “Hunting.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry?”

  “Because it was a bust.”

  “Actually, it was quite successful.” Georgianna watched him with narrowed eyes; his aloofness could be annoying. She prodded him in the ribs when he didn’t elaborate. “I was hunting Adveni and Cahlven.” She raised an eyebrow and waited for more. “Well, I say, ‘hunting’. I guess it was more tracking.”

  “And?”

  Dhiren picked up the lamp and frowned at the struggling flame. ”This is a big meeting, right? Important people and all.”

  “Right.”

  “So, what are the chances they are going to turn up blind? Without scouting where they’re going, working out how many people they need.”

  Georgianna frowned. “Pretty low?”

  “Exactly.”

  “But…”

  “I went looking for well travelled areas, and quieter patches. I figure they wouldn’t want lowly soldiers interrupting their meeting, but they would need somewhere with multiple routes of access so they could meet in the middle, instead of having to turn their backs on each other as one leaves.”

  “I’m just going to trust you on that. What did you find?”

  “As luck has it, the Cahlven like doing their scouting at night, too. They were sweeping these weird sticks around this intersection.”

  “Sticks?”

  “Yeah. I have no idea what that’s about. But it doesn’t matter, really, does it? We know where the meeting will be.”

  “That’s great. That’ll be really helpful for me and Alec.”

  “Yeah.” Dhiren folded his hands neatly in his lap. “About that…”

  “Dhiren, please don’t make us go through this again. I thought we’d agreed that I would meet up with you later.”

  He shook his head. “It’s not about you leaving.” He paused and turned to her. “It’s about me staying.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not going.”

  “But—”

  “I know what I said before. And I still want to go at some point. Just not now.”

  Georgianna wanted to throw herself on top of him and hug him until he popped. She didn’t want to admit how tightly the fear of losing him had been clutching at her, weighing on her. In the short time they’d known each other, he’d become as close a friend and she’d ever had. Seeing him leave would have been too painful.

  But she just sat there, staring into the gloom of the tunnel, willing herself not to burst into tears. “This would be your best chance to go.”

  He nodded and wrung his hands together. “I know.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I thought a lot about it while I was out there, and about what Jake and Lacie said about helping. Even if it’s just so I have more information and know how to avoid both sides if this drags out. I think it’s best that I stay for now. Once the wash runs through, I’ll get out of Adlai.”

  “The wash, huh?”

  “Yeah. Wiping things clean and all that. I figure it’s appropriate.”

  Georgianna chuckled and nodded. “I guess it is.”

  “And you’ll come with me?”

  She thought about it for a moment, but it didn’t take long to convince herself of her answer. “Yes. Yes, I’ll go.”

  Georgianna rested her head on his shoulder. She let out a sigh, and it felt like at least a few of her worries were carried away with it.

  Dhiren wrapped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her in tighter. “Come on. Let’s go. We can catch a few hours’ sleep before we head out to this meeting. I found some good vantage points.”

  Dhiren climbed to his feet and reached down, holding Georgianna’s hand and helping her up. H
e took the rifle from her and slung the strap over his shoulder, whistling quietly as they made their way back to the tunnel car.

  Even though he was putting himself in more danger, Dhiren seemed more relaxed now he had made his decision to stay. Georgianna didn’t comment on it, but even after she’d snuggled in under her blanket, her eyes already drooping closed, she couldn’t quite wipe the smile from her face.

  Georgianna awoke to a hand on her shoulder, and a quiet voice in her ear.

  “George. Wake up, George.”

  She blinked, and peeked out from between knotted locks of hair. It was Alec, leaning over her, already dressed and ready to go. “What time is it?”

  “We don’t have long,” he said. “Dhiren’s been out again. The Adveni are doing sweeps around the site.”

  Georgianna yawned and hauled herself up off the mattress. She rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes and swept her hair back, shaking her head in an attempt to rouse herself. “Why didn’t you wake me sooner?”

  “Dhiren just got back. He went to get Lacie and Jacob.”

  Georgianna groaned. From the disgruntled expression on Alec’s face, she knew she should have warned him about Jacob and Laci’s involvement. Not to mention that Dhiren was sticking around for a while. Hopefully, Alec wasn’t too upset about that part.

  “I thought we’d get to talk before it all happened.”

  Alec shrugged and shook his head. “It’s okay. We were younger than both of them when the Adveni first arrived, and Lacie is a smart girl. She’ll stay safe.”

  Georgianna grabbed a pot of the hyliha paste Jacob had made for their nsiloq marks, and passed it to Alec. She pulled her shirt up her back, exposing the mark.

  “Here. Cover that, will you?”

  Alec dunked two fingers into the gooey paste and rubbed it into her skin. He was gentle, but it still stung like the mark was brand new. Georgianna hissed and gritted her teeth.

  “Sorry,” Alec said.

  “It’s fine.”

  She scrambled to get dressed as quickly as possible, pulling on multiple layers and fastening them tightly around her. Georgianna hid knives in holders inside her coat, and carried a copaq at her hip. Alec watched the whole affair with a proud kind of smile that disappeared the moment Dhiren climbed up into the tunnel car and pulled Lacie up after him.

  “We good to go?” Dhiren said.

  “Almost.”

  Dhiren was either oblivious to Alec’s distaste at the inclusion of Jacob and Lacie, or he was ignoring it. He grabbed the map and laid it out on Georgianna’s bed. “Okay. Lacie, Jacob. You’re going to be here.”

  Dhiren pointed to a building a few streets away from the corner he’d scouted. It would be too far away to hear anything, maybe even to see anything.

  Alec crossed his arms over his chest, hiding a satisfied grin. “It’s going to be your job to look out for incoming Adveni. I’ll do the same from the other side, watching for Cahlven, and Alec and George will go closer in to get ears on the meeting.”

  “Are you sure that’s the best use for us?” Jacob said. “We’re small, we can get close.”

  “No!” Alec said, pausing to calm himself. “No. Dhiren is right. George and I will get closer. You and Lacie keep look out. We have a couple of tsentyls set up. We turn them on right before we leave each other and send an alert only in an emergency. When the meeting is over, wait for it to completely clear out before we move again.”

  Georgianna gripped Jacob’s arm and gave a reassuring smile. “I promise, Jake, we will tell you everything we hear. We won’t keep anything from you. You’re in this as much as we are.”

  He didn’t look entirely convinced, but nodded just the same.

  “Are we all clear?” Dhiren said.

  They all nodded.

  Georgianna glanced around; they were clearly all nervous, maybe even fearful. But that fear would keep them safe, stop them from doing anything stupid. They just needed to hear what happened at the meeting, they weren’t looking for a gunfight.

  She nodded with them. “Good, then let’s go.”

  The snow fell in a silent blanket across the streets and rooftops. The group had circled wide around the meeting place to get Lacie and Jacob into position before heading further in, using the rooftops where possible to disguise their tracks. Dhiren had left them, cutting a path further out, around the other side of the meet, on the street that led out to the camps and the Cahlven shield.

  They still had a while to wait, but felt it best to get in position with time to spare. The snow would smother their footsteps, and by the time they were perched on the edge of a low rooftop which overlooked the intersection, the snowfall had covered their coats, making them almost indistinguishable from the landscape.

  Over the tops of the buildings, they could see the peak of the gigantic Cahlven shield rippling in the weak sunlight which filtered through the clouds. On the other side of the city, a new sight greeted them: a similar dome, but dark grey and unmissable, even under cloud cover. Georgianna and Alec shared a grim look, and turned away from it, settling in for their wait.

  They heard the soldiers before they saw them. Their footsteps were regimented, crunching into the snow at a heavy beat. Alec pointed out the direction, and they both watched as three lines of troops in midnight-black uniforms marched down the road towards them. After a few minutes, more soldiers came into view along the adjoining streets and swept in to meet their leader.

  Georgianna counted two dozen men, not including the first Colvohan. He was dressed in the same black as his soldiers, but he wore a long cloak over the top and, where his soldiers suffered the snow falling onto their heads and into their eyes, he had pulled up a heavy hood that threw his entire face into shadow.

  “Olless isn’t there,” Alec said.

  Georgianna nodded. “Where are the Adveni?”

  Alec turned and looked down the other street. He shook his head. “Maarqyn likes making people wait. He thinks it makes him seem more powerful.”

  Georgianna grumbled under her breath, but didn’t reply. Alec already knew what she thought of Maarqyn; he thought the same.

  The First Colvohan brought his troops to a stop, and despite the freezing snow, they didn’t fidget or move around to keep warm. They stood to perfect attention, just like the Adveni soldiers Georgianna had seen over the years.

  Maarqyn apparently didn’t want to keep the Cahlven waiting too long. They soon heard the similar crunch of boots in the snow from the other direction, and when the soldiers came into view, it looked like Maarqyn had brought a similar number to the First Colvohan. Georgianna didn’t doubt that both sides had counted their forces to ensure they had an equal number; it had probably been organised in advance.

  Once the two sides were in front of each other, both Maarqyn and the First Colvohan raised a fist into the air. The soldiers walked backwards a few dozen spaces to the edges of the intersection without turning their backs on the other side, and stood at attention once again, facing off against each other.

  Georgianna remembered once, when she was a child, the Kahle had gotten into a bitter fight with one of the other tribes. They were constantly ruining each other’s hunts, chasing hunters off lands they claimed as their own. Even water sources were fought over. The leaders of the tribe had met, and though Georgianna had been ordered by her father to remain at the camp, she’d followed Alec and her brother to the meeting place, hiding in the trees while the adults of the two tribes faced each other. Watching this meeting, she couldn’t help but think of that moment: how the two tribe leaders had made decisions that affected everyone without giving them the option to dissent. Maarqyn, now the Volsonnar of the Adveni, and the First Colvohan of the Cahlven, were not meeting to discuss small details of war, or to concede defeat. They were meeting to make a deal, and no Veniche would ever get to make a decision about their own lives again.

  Georgianna gritted her teeth and leaned closer, remembering how she’d skirted as far as she could along
the branches, just to hear what was being said.

  “Leadership suits you, Guinnyr,” the First Colvohan said. “I am surprised it took you so long to step over those who would stop you from taking it.”

  “Only as long as it took you to do away with your own competition, Naltahn.” Maarqyn’s smile was mocking, and as cold as the snow that settled around them. “Tell me, is Aomel still here?”

  “We did not come here for petty arguments, Maarqyn.” Naltahn’s annoyance was clear in his face, if not in his use of Maarqyn’s given name. “We came here to negotiate the finalities of this deal.”

  Alec and Georgianna shared a glance, their eyes wide. They’d known there was a possibility that the Adveni and the Cahlven would come to some kind of arrangement, but they’d never guessed that the deal was almost done already.

  “You know our terms,” Maarqyn said. “The Adveni have spent a decade building up Adlai. We will not give it up.”

  “Yes, and we conceded to that, as long as the Cahlven are allowed the location to the north the Veniche called Nyquonat.”

  “A horrific name.” Maarqyn rolled his eyes.

  “Yes, quite the mouthful. I expect we will change it soon.”

  Georgianna’s skin burned, red rising up her neck and flushing her face. She didn’t know why she was so angry; it was just a name. Yet the talk of changing it made her eyes sting and water.

  “There is, of course, the other matter,” Naltahn said. “The Mykahnols and their pillars.”

  “The device at Nyvalau was detonated just after the Cahlven arrival, you know that.”

  Georgianna’s pulse pounded in her ears, fast and unsteady.

  “As for the device in Adlai yours had a hand in detonating…” Maarqyn sneered. “We will reinstall it. For our safety. You understand.”

  “Then you will have no arguments to us implanting our own safeguards, I assume.”

  The sound of the Mykahnol’s explosion echoed in Georgianna’s head with Keiran’s warning about the trackers implanted in the Veniche. He’d said they were like the collars. Her blood pounded in her ears as the pieces fell into place. The Cahlven’s safeguards were not hidden in the ground; they were implanted into people: her people. Keiran must have been wrong. The devices didn’t just track the Veniche people; they would make them into weapons to be used should the Adveni step out of line.