Out of Orbit- The Complete Series Boxset

by Chele Cooke

  “You’ll need help at the shield,” Lacie said. “If you want to give the Adveni drug to all of them.”

  Georgianna nodded and glanced around at the others. “So, if Jacob and Lacie hold off taking the drugs for the moment, are the rest of you okay?”

  None of them looked particularly pleased about it, but they each nodded just the same.

  “I’ll take the Adveni one,” Alec said.

  “Me, too,” Dhiren said. “I always did like a mystery.”

  Beck stretched. “I’ll take the Adveni one, too. Better Lyle and Halden get a fever, what with Braedon to look after. And Keiran will need to return to the shield at some point, so better his symptoms match the Cahlven virus.”

  They set to work on clearing out the tunnel cars, ensuring there were three proper beds set up in each one. Jacob prepared more of his herb water, just in case, and Lacie organised everything they’d needed to treat Georgianna, all set up and ready to be grabbed.

  They only had five days before she was meant to meet with both Naltahn and Maarqyn to tell them what they’d done. If they wanted this to work, if all Veniche had to be infected with both viruses before that meeting, then every second was going to count.

  They waited until the day before the meeting to return to the Cahlven shield. Through their testing of both drugs in their own little group, they had discovered that the Adveni drug had an incubation period of roughly a day before the subject began vomiting. Luckily, none of the others experienced the same locked-in effects Georgianna had suffered, even after taking the Cahlven injection. They deduced that it was the proximity of both injections that had caused her body to shut down while it fought off two viruses at once.

  Only Keiran had held off from taking the Adveni drug in the second round, knowing that he would have to go back under the Cahlven shield. He, like every other Veniche beneath the shield, would have the injection administered that day. As the meeting with the Volsonnar and the Colvohan was due to take place the next morning, the symptoms of the Adveni drug wouldn’t show themselves until it was too late.

  They came to the soldier post, and waited as Keiran and Georgianna’s passes were checked by multiple guards. Unlike the last time, they didn’t seem as keen on letting her in.

  The final soldier returned and shoved the pass back into her hand. “What about them?” He pointed at Lacie and Jacob.

  “They’re with us,” Keiran said.

  “They have no pass.”

  Georgianna stepped forwards, joining Keiran. “I have to visit every Veniche being kept under this shield. I need help, which is why they’re here. If you have a problem, call Olless or your Colvohan.”

  The soldier stepped away. “I will let you through today, but today only.” He peered around her to look at Lacie and Jacob.

  Georgianna gave him a cold smile. “Don’t worry. We won’t be coming back.”

  She waved Lacie and Jacob forwards, making sure they went through the shield first, before the soldiers had any chance to change their mind.

  Georgianna pulled up her heavy hood, holding it tight around her face as she stepped through the shield. The electric static tingled against her skin, even after she’d yanked her foot free. Lacie was flattening her hair on the other side, watched by a grinning Jacob with curls that were wilder than normal. Even Georgianna had to smother a smirk as she pulled her hood back down, revealing her protected hair. Lacie harrumphed and followed behind, still trying to tame her hair.

  “How are you feeling?” Georgianna stepped up to join Keiran and touched the back of his arm.

  He glanced at her and nodded. “I’m good. Jake and I are powering through.”

  “What about you, Lacie? You still feeling okay?”

  Georgianna couldn’t be entirely sure, since the freeze wind had turned all their faces varying shades of pink with the cold, but she thought Lacie blushed as she glanced at Jacob and then quickly looked away.

  “I didn’t do it yet,” Lacie said.

  “Oh?”

  The redhead was silent for half a dozen paces before she looked up. “I still wanted to look after everyone.”

  Jacob stepped closer to Lacie’s side. “Once I’m all better, I’ll look after you.”

  She smiled, and the blush only got deeper.

  They dropped the subject and peered up at the Cahlven ship. They stopped at the entrance to the tall tunnel leading up into the belly of the craft, standing just far enough away from the entrance that they didn’t get in the way of the other people going in and out. Georgianna wrung her hands and pursed her lips, snorting cold breaths through her nose.

  Keiran dropped any pretence of their continued arguments as he came to her side, wrapping his arm around her waist. He pulled her in against his side and kissed her temple. “We couldn’t have done this without you. This is the right thing.”

  Georgianna gave a weak smile and leaned in against him. “Will they see it that way when they’re sick?”

  Lacie and Jacob moved in to stand beside them. “It’s a few days of sickness for a lifetime of protection,” Jacob said. “They will understand.”

  “Will they?” Georgianna said. “After all the testing from the Cahlven, will they take these injections when we can’t tell them why?”

  Keiran shrugged. “Get as many as you can. If they refuse, make a note and move on. As long as they think everyone is infected, the odd one who’s uninfected won’t matter.”

  Georgianna nodded and took a deep, steadying breath. He was right. As long as the majority of the Veniche had both viruses, neither the Adveni nor the Cahlven would know who was infected. Would they want to get that close and risk finding someone who was lethal to them?

  They travelled into the ship in the box that ran up through the tube. Georgianna was surprised that they kept travelling up past multiple floors. Keiran stepped out into the upper portions of the ship. He walked to a panel and pressed his hand against it. A disembodied voice spoke up. “Zanetti, what is it?”

  “I’ve brought the medic and two assistants to check on Veniche.”

  There was a shuffling and a murmur. When the panel next spoke, the voice wasn’t the same as the original. It was familiar and female. “Have Miss Lennox, Miss Cormack, and Mr Stone place their hands against the panel one at a time until it flashes white,” Olless said. “We will update the doors required.”

  “Thanks,” Keiran said, waving Georgianna forwards.

  He took hold of her wrist, showing her where to put her hand. She held it to the panel for a few seconds, and a vibrating pulse ran from her palm up to the tips of her fingers, and back down to the heel of her palm. The panel flashed white.

  Jacob and Lacie both took their turns. When the process was complete, Keiran turned to look at a bulbous device protruding from the ceiling. He touched a finger to his temple and brought it away again in an awkward wave.

  “On you go,” Olless said through the panel. There was a short fizz of static, then silence.

  Keiran directed Georgianna to a door to the side of the corridor. He waved Jacob and Lacie closer and pointed at the wall. “The lock panels are in the walls. They have a mark in the bottom left corner, so you’ll be able to find them.”

  He pointed to a section of wall almost indistinguishable from the rest, and directed them to a small, circular indentation. The circle had two spokes through it: one pointing up and one pointing to the right, as if it were indicating the panel outline. Without asking, Georgianna placed her hand against the section above and right of the mark. All around the panel, lights pulsed, getting brighter. Georgianna whipped her hand away, stepping back. This was similar to when she’d last been on the ship, getting her family back. Soon, the sirens would start wailing.

  But before any sound came, the lights pulsed a vibrant green and the lock in the door unlatched. Keiran pulled the door, and Georgianna felt like she could breathe again.

  They filed through into the corridor. Georgianna closed the door behind them and tested to
ensure it had locked. She pulled her bag around in front of her and dug inside, shifting the injection gun and the first of the vials up to the top, ready to be grabbed. Each vial easily held enough of the drug to administer to a dozen people, and they’d been given some cartridges to load into the injection gun that would insert new needles automatically, like bullets into the chamber of a copaq. Georgianna still found herself intrigued and horrified at how every piece of Adveni technology reminded her of a weapon. She was surprised the Adveni hadn’t pre-loaded the virus into the needles, ready to be fired at any Cahlven.

  Perhaps they had, but those had been administered to patrolling Adveni rather than untrustworthy Veniche.

  Keiran moved further down the corridor, peering in through the doors. He tested a couple, tugging hard on the handle. Each one was still locked. Surely the Colvohan had realised that they’d want to be able to talk to these people? How was this sticking to their agreement? Georgianna gritted her teeth and gazed at the door closest to her.

  She moved to the door and pulled on the waist-high hatch. It flopped open, clanging as it hit the metal underneath. Behind the hatch, an open space had been left so that items could be passed through the door without opening it.

  A man got to his feet and moved closer, expectant. When he saw she wasn’t holding anything, his eyes narrowed. “No food?”

  Georgianna frowned. “They pass food through here? Don’t they open the doors for that?”

  “No.”

  “Vtensu! Have they been here giving injections?”

  He nodded.

  “Couple of days ago. Everyone had fevers, but they’re mostly gone now.”

  “Okay. I need to give you all one more injection.”

  “What, now?”

  Georgianna smiled at him through the window. “No more testing. No more being held here. It’ll take a few days, but all Veniche will be released.”

  The man didn’t need any more than that. He stuck his arm through the hole. Georgianna glanced around to see the location of the corridor camera, then drew out the injection gun.

  “That don’t look like the ones they gave us,” he said.

  “It’s not. So, don’t tell them, okay?”

  He looked concerned, but didn’t remove his arm from the hole.

  She pulled out the vial and removed the cap over the needle. Inserting the vial into a chamber at the side of the injection gun, she listened to it whir. It beeped, and Georgianna wiped over the man’s skin with a damp, papery cloth from inside a packet. She squeezed the flesh of his arm, placed the gun over it, and pressed down on the trigger. The needle moved slowly, piercing the flesh. The gun whirred for a moment and then drew the needle back. From within the gun, there came a little snap as the needle broke and was forced into the waste chamber.

  The moment the gun left the man’s skin, he drew his arm back and waved another person in his cell forwards.

  Jacob and Lacie joined her beside the door, watching as she administered the virus to the next person: a young woman who looked only a little older than Lacie. She squeaked when the needle went in, but other than that, didn’t say a word. Lacie and Jacob had already seen the guns used; they’d tested them back in the tunnels to be sure they knew how. But they needed one last observation before they felt comfortable.

  They stepped away from the door.

  “Keep an eye on where the cameras are, and keep your back to it,” Georgianna said. “Hide what you’re doing.”

  Keiran joined them.

  Georgianna turned to him. “You go ahead. Start explaining what we’re doing so we can move faster.”

  He nodded and went to one of the doors, opening the hatch and speaking quietly to the people inside.

  Lacie took one side of the corridor, Jacob the other, and Georgianna set off to the other end. Between the four of them, they could hopefully get through enough people before the Cahlven realised they were being betrayed.

  “You know, I still don’t know why you wanted me here,” Beck said, stuffing his hands further into his pockets and bringing his shoulders up to his ears.

  Georgianna bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, hugging her coat around her as she looked over at him. “What are you talking about? Of course you should be here. You’re our leader.”

  Beck snorted and raised an eyebrow. “I’ve not been a leader to the Veniche for some time now.” He didn’t look put out by the admission, nor sad. It was just a factual statement. “You should have brought Keiran with you, or Alec and Dhiren.”

  Georgianna shook her head and glanced both ways down the street. “You are our leader. Everyone knows that.”

  “But…”

  “Beck, you’re not getting out of this, so cut it out.”

  He laughed. “You do realise you just gave your apparent leader an order, right?”

  Georgianna glared at him, trying not to grin and join with his laughter.

  “Good point,” she said. “Doesn’t change anything, though.”

  In her pocket, the tsentyl she’d collected from Crisco crackled with laughter for a few seconds before falling silent again. Wherever the others were hiding, watching over their meeting, they found her misstep as funny as Beck did, and they wanted them to know it.

  Before she could chastise them for breaking the silence, or have Beck do it, the uniform trudge of boots marching down the road came thudding into their ears. Both of them peered down the street, steeling themselves as the Cahlven soldiers came into view from the west. They surrounded their Colvohan, heads held high and looking sleek and professional in their uniforms, unlike Georgianna and Beck, who were bundled in heavy coats with scarves pulled up over their noses, looking as dishevelled as usual.

  In the opening to the intersection, the Cahlven soldiers came to a halt, moving apart like a flower opening for the sun. The Colvohan stepped out from the centre, with Olless following a few steps behind. Georgianna fought to hide a grimace, glad of her scarf. She had hated Olless as much as any of them—if not more—before they’d been banished from the shield. But in the recent months, she had proven herself to be decent and caring. She had lied for them, protected them, and in return, they had found a way to try to kill her.

  “Miss Lennox,” Naltahn said, giving a small bow of his head. “Mr. Casey. A pleasure to see you looking so… well.”

  Beck bristled, tugged down his scarf to reveal his face, and gave a tight smile.

  “We should wait until the Adveni arrive,” Georgianna said, removing her own scarf.

  Naltahn peered at them, like one of his scientists watching over a test subject. “Yes. What else do we have to discuss?”

  Georgianna glanced at Olless and took a breath, readying herself to speak, to ask her how she had been. But she stopped before she could voice the question. It felt like a lie, a betrayal. Instead, she smiled and nodded her greeting. Olless nodded in return.

  The Adveni arrived in the same manner as the Cahlven, with Maarqyn surrounded by soldiers. He also brought a second in command. Georgianna recognised his deputy, but only after a minute of staring as they made their way across the snow. She’d met him first in the Compound, where he’d asked how much Georgianna would cost. Edtroka had yelled at him. His name was Tzanlomne and, from the uniform he wore, he was a commander; the same rank as Maarqyn had been before Beck had killed the Volsonnar.

  She hid a smile, wondering if he’d been a commander when Edtroka had called him a self-important bastard to his face.

  “Quite a little gathering we have here,” Maarqyn said, ignoring any pleasantries. His smile was as cold and cruel as ever. “And who’d have thought it would be the little bird to bring us together?”

  Georgianna looked to Beck, half expecting him to step forwards and speak, to tell them what they had done and to make their demands. But he was watching her with a proud, expectant smile, nodding her onwards. Resisting the urge to chew on her bottom lip, she glanced around the buildings instead. The others were up there, watching her, wai
ting for her. They were all depending on her. It didn’t matter that she’d reminded Beck that he would always be their leader. Today, it was her job.

  Drawing herself up, Georgianna checked that her hood was pushed back and flat against her back. She rolled her shoulders and looked between Naltahn and Maarqyn. “We brought you here today to make a deal,” she said loudly, hoping that volume would make up for the fact her voice was threatening to crack.

  Both Naltahn and Maarqyn were smiling, and she realised they both thought they had already won; that fact alone gave her more confidence than before. These men had constantly underestimated the Veniche and treated them like children, to be ordered about or saved from their own stupidity.

  Georgianna stepped forwards and dug into her pockets. In one hand, she drew out the Adveni injection gun, and in the other, one of the syringes given to her by the Cahlven. She tossed them onto the compacted snow at their feet. “You have both made deals on behalf of your race,” she said, watching as their gazes locked onto the two devices, their smiles fading. “And we accepted both of those deals.”

  She could see the realisation settling in, even before she opened her mouth again. Edtroka had once told her that she was a terrible liar, that he could see the lies in her face. Now, she could see their truth, the anger they tried to hide behind ordered masks.

  “Colvohan, we made a deal that the Veniche would carry a virus capable of killing an Adveni, should they come in close contact with anyone infected. The virus would not harm Veniche, and there would be no more testing on Veniche people by Cahlven scientists.” She smiled and turned to Maarqyn. “Volsonnar, we made a deal with the Adveni that the Veniche would carry a virus capable of killing a Cahlven, should they come into close contact.” Beck stood beside her, not bothering to hide his glee. He encouraged her to continue. “Every Veniche in this area is now infected with both viruses. The Cahlven were most helpful in administering their own drugs, and in allowing us access to those under the shield, which gave us the time to administer the virus we were provided by the Adveni.”