“Yes, that’s wonderful, thank you.”
“Thank you, Jeffrey. Two Frozen Pearls,” Cosma said. When Jeffrey hustled off to the bar, Cosma sat back down and began reclining again. “I’ve had two already, but what the hell? I’m retired.”
Holly laughed. The sun glinted off the nearby water. She blinked and watched Cosma. In a way, Holly already felt better from just being with the woman. She was strong and vivacious. Her voice and body radiated power. She was afraid of nothing. It seemed a certain fact that if Cosma had been staring down the same task that Holly currently faced, Cosma would not be frightened. She would barge into the base, gun down everyone who tried to stop her, grab Charm, and rush out, fearless.
“Now then, drinks are on the way. We can both relax and soak up the sun. It’s good for your skin, you know? Well, at least some vitamin synthesis happens with exposure to the light. We’re a pair, our bodies and the sun. Everything about us is hard-wired into the sun, the day and the night cycles. Down to the most basic cellular processes. Something I read once while I was relaxing in the sun.” She waved her hand and laughed, taking a deep breath, closing her eyes and exhaling loudly. “Ah, that feels good doesn’t it?”
Holly smiled. She knew what Cosma was doing. “It does feel good to be here with you.”
“And what brings you here today, my dear? Besides the obvious reason: this beautiful, relaxing location and the Frozen Pearls,” she chuckled, “and me.”
“I’m about to fail massively,” Holly blurted the confession. She explained everything that was going on, and what lay ahead for Holly and the crew and the trip to Ixion. “And if I fail, the person it will hurt most is the little Yasoan girl.”
Cosma rolled onto her side on her chaise lounger and stared at Holly. Her body was tall and lithe, her skin the color of milk chocolate, her hair wild and free. She was beauty and grace all in one, but untamed, and simply being near her made Holly feel more confident about everything. Even that she was going to fail.
“Well, that doesn’t sound a bit melodramatic, does it now,” Cosma said. She looked unimpressed.
“What?” Holly asked, blinking.
Jeffrey appeared with their drinks and placed them on the table between their chairs. “Two Frozen Pearls. You wanted those virgin, right?”
Cosma glanced up at him, then laughed.
He pointed at her with his hand shaped like a gun and laughed. “Kidding, Cosma. I would never.” He spun on his heel and strode efficiently away.
“Ah, that Jeffrey. He loves to joke.
“Now Holly, I don’t want to dismiss what you said about the little girl,” Cosma said, sucking on the straw in her drink. “But, if a Yasoan child has you launching, what, a rescue mission? Then I daresay, whoever has her, has no chance of walking away from this a whole person. With their limbs working and everything. In fact, if they end up dead, I would venture to guess that they’re the lucky ones. Because whoever lives through this will be mangled. Broken.” Cosma glanced at Holly from the tops of her eyes, head tilted down like she just said something profound, her drink in one hand, the other holding her head up, her elbow bent and leaning against the upper part of the chaise.
Holly sipped her drink. She wanted to believe Cosma. Her cheeks burned hot for being melodramatic. It was childish. But it was how she felt. “Maybe so.”
“Is that it? Maybe so? Holly, dear, you need to be convinced. You don’t have time to think about failure. All that energy wasted on what you do not want to come to pass. That is energy.” Cosma put her drink down and made a fist. “That energy converts you into the person you have to be to not just survive but conquer.”
“It was one thing to discover at the end of my first job, that the jewels were really a child. This time I know it’s a child. And I don’t know who is at the center of the organization. I don’t know what I’m up against. I’ve been stabbed. I was nearly shot out of the Spireway. Charly almost died on a small Minotaur moon. And I was almost trapped by the Shadow Coalition in a warehouse, where they were expecting us.”
Cosma nodded as she listened. “And then what happened?”
“What do you mean, and then what happened? All those things did happen and some were nearly worse than they needed to be.”
“But . . . did you die? Did you actually fail? Or did you kick ass, beat the hell out of the bad guys, and win?”
Holly hesitated. “Well, I won. In one way or another.”
“So, what does that tell you?”
“About what?”
“Did you focus on how you were going to fail all those other times. Or did you just become action and fucking survive and then conquer by being your bad-ass self?”
“Er, well, uh. I didn’t fail.”
“Then listen to me. Listen good. Because I’m going to give you pearls here, and not just the drink. Have your moment, you know? Feel the pressure mounting. Listen to the worries for a moment. Hear what it’s saying, and then shut the mother-fucker down. You cannot be paralyzed by the fear. You say to it, ‘I see you, you bastard. I see you. And you do not frighten me.’ And then you walk away. Leave it behind. And do what you have to do. Survive. Win. Conquer. You will not let the fear win. The goal of fear is to make you weak. And sometimes weakness is OK. But as you fly toward Ixion, I want you to leave the fear here.”
Holly felt something resolve within her. It was like coal converting to diamond. Sand becoming stone. Hot, pliable metal becoming steel. Cosma was right. And Holly had merely needed to hear it. She couldn’t confide to her crew. She had to be strong for them. Cosma was the only one Holly trusted to know these things about her. Simply speaking the fears, and letting them free, helped in a way. And now she knew that she could do what needed to be done. She was powerful. She was as bad-ass as Cosma believed.
THIRTY-TWO
AIMEE Voss resembled a smug Centau in every way as Holly and the crew sat in Trip’s ship, the SC Olavia Apollo heading toward Ixion. Holly glanced over her shoulder at the other woman from her seat next to Trip. The insufferable woman sat with her arms hugging her chest and one leg crossed like she was simply relaxing on a leisure cruise. She was dressed in the guise of a Shadow Coalition thug, just like the reset of the crew. Even Trip was, though she would stay on the ship in the landing bay while the others went in search of Charm. Black trousers. A white shirt and a black jacket. Normally Shadow Coalition thugs were tattooed on their necks with a cephalopod of some kind, but that was taking a disguise a little too far. Who would even notice it? Holly hoped they wouldn’t wait anywhere long enough for someone to take stock of whether or not they were sporting the proper tattoos.
In the midst of all the planning and the very short timeline, Holly still hadn’t had a chance to discuss what had happened on Joppa with Shiro. Words between them had been terse or non-existent. He sat beside Aimee Voss as the Olavia Apollo cruised toward Ixion. The flight so far had been longer than Holly wanted it to be. Because she didn’t want to go into a potential battle drunk, she’d refrained from a drink. Odeon sat behind her and kept a hand on her shoulder.
Voss, of course, had asked about it in what Holly could only describe as a snide tone. Shiro had answered her, “Ms. Drake experiences physical illness when she’s flying inter-moon.”
“Is it only inter-moon flight, or is it also between a moon and Ixion?” That had also sounded snide, but Holly ignored it.
“Real funny, Voss, you going to take that act on the road? I know some clubs looking for stand up comedy,” Charly said. She stood behind Trip, watching the onscreen image of Ixion looming ever larger the closer they got.
“Well, there’s a thought. Me, a stand-up comedienne. I would be excellent at it, no doubt. No doubt. But I hardly need the work. I prefer to stay in the shadows, out of the way, so that no one sees me coming who I don’t want to see me coming.”
Holly glanced up at Charly, who raised an eyebrow and made a gagging gesture. Charly thought even less of Voss than Holly did. But what concerned Hol
ly was Voss’s choice of words. What did she mean by it? Holly didn’t want to read into it too deeply—it was probably nothing. Just the woman being dramatic and stupid simply to impress Shiro. He was so easily fooled by her.
Well, they could have each other. What difference would it make? As she watched lightning flash across the surface of Ixion, Holly sheepishly remembered Shiro’s watch and the foolish effort she’d put into it. The time had never been right to hand it over to him. And now, hearing him with Voss, she was glad she’d not given it to him. The ungrateful cretin.
Voss and Shiro kept conversing casually, easily. Holly ignored them and concerned herself with what was to come.
“Trip you’ll wait in the landing bay with the ship. We can’t risk losing it,” Holly said, absently, her gaze fixed on the mesmerizing surface of the enormous planet. In a way, it felt like it was going to swallow them. It was so enormous. She’d never been near something so large, so all-consuming. The patterns and the colors upon the face of the planet revealed the tempests that swirled across the surface. The planet had always seemed so close, even on Kota. At night they were often able to see the ionically charged lightning making spider webs across certain stormy areas. Their current position put them so close it was the only thing Holly could see.
“Now you tell me, Drake,” Trip said. “I was having exciting visions of running around and shooting at the bad guys.”
“You have a gun?”
Trip glanced at Holly, “What do you take me for, Drake?”
“A pilot. A great pilot, that’s for sure,” Holly said, taking a steadying breath.
“I have a gun. Because I’m a pilot. Trapped with passengers that don’t always seem to be perfectly mentally stable.”
“You’re not hinting at something, are you?”
Odeon switched hands, and there was a moment where she almost ran out to the hatch and jumped ship. She took some calming breaths. It’s ok. It’ll be ok.
Trip followed the coordinates that Darius gave them for the particular base they were headed for. The water tanker Holly had seen at Joppa had been so massive, its size had stunned her. She wondered now how the base would compare against the planet near it.
The swirling storms across Ixion were no match for the anxiety swirling in Holly’s gut. Even with Odeon’s touch—she didn’t want to ask him to sing, not with Voss there—her belly was its own hurricane. She held onto the hope that once she was aboard the giant base, that anxiety would vanish.
“Whoa, look at that,” Charly said, suddenly.
Holly sat up, having drifted into her thoughts so deeply, she’d stopped paying attention to what was happening. The base had begun to materialize against the colors of the gas giant. At first it was just a shadow, but soon the shape of it emerged and grew into the something similar to the type of tanker she’d seen orbiting Joppa. Soon they were close enough to see a tiny fog of smaller ships leaving the landing bay, and moving in a stream toward Ixion’s surface.
“What are they doing?” Holly asked, in wonderment as they got closer and she could see the ships better. They weren’t so small after all.
“They fly to the surface, suck up the gas, and then return to the tanker and off-load it,” Trip said.
“Does that take forever?”
Trip shrugged. “It’s a job. They’re miners. Paid well. Their families are compensated. There are hazards, like any job.”
THIRTY-THREE
THE landing bay was busy as hell. But not only busy: the confusion was madness like a beehive and didn’t seem to be organized in its furor, with thousands of ships landing and a thousand more taking off. Inside the bay itself, there were enormous tankers, lined up to receive the smaller exploratory vessels that went out to the surface and returned swollen with the hydrantium gas.
Holly had heard stories as a kid about how hydrantium was gathered and then refined to power the 6-moons. But as an adult, she’d quickly forgotten the facts about it. What was to remember about the affair? She had never had to teach it to her own students, and her life didn’t depend on the information in any longterm way.
The size of the operation was mind-blowing. Thirty or more tankers were lined up inside the bay to be filled. The small mining vessels weren’t so small after all, a fact obvious now that their ship was closer. Holly gasped, stunned by the sheer magnitude of the whole thing. It didn’t seem possible. How had men—Centau—conceived of something on that scale? And then after imagining it, how had they built it?
“What the—? Guys. You guys. How is this even possible?” Charly wondered.
Holly felt the weight of the crew behind her as they approached the landing bay and Trip’s ship steered through the madness to find its designated landing site. It was a good sensation—to know that in this venture she wasn’t alone. Trained thieves, fighters, friends. Well, most of them were friends.
“Indeed, Charly, I’ve never seen anything this grand. It borders on sublime, does it not?” Shiro said quietly.
Charly continued. “It’s like its own world. You know? That’s what it is, right? An entire planet parked here, built by hand.” She laughed. “Someone should sell it that way. Hand-built worlds. Cost: Priceless.”
“And why haven’t we ever heard about it?” Odeon asked.
“Why should you?” Trip asked. “You’re not of mining stock.”
“Mining stock?” Odeon repeated.
Trip leaned forward and tapped some buttons that lit up on the control panel. “There are some who like the mining life. It’s life on the edge of danger. Living out here on the base, filling the tankers, zooming toward the planet and then, just when your ship is about to succumb to the gravity well, you pull out and power your thrusters back toward the base. It’s exhilarating and dangerous. Not made for everyone.”
“Were you made for it?” Holly asked.
“I did it for a time. When I was young and crazy,” Trip responded as she punched buttons and leaned back to watch as the ship’s AI steered onto a landing pad. “Once we land, you will be able to disembark. It should not be an issue. I don’t think you will have any of those until you get into the interior halls. The disguises will help, however.”
“Hear that Darius?” Holly asked. There was lag as the communications bounced around the satellites and landed back in the Bird’s Nest on Kota.
“I’m here, Drake.”
“You gonna guide us through the base?” Holly asked.
“Got it, yes,” Darius said. “I’ve got your feeds all here on my screen and I’ve got a schematic of the base’s layout.”
Because Trip’s ship was of Centau colors, they landed without interference inside the pressurized part of the landing bay, which was sealed off from the giant tankers. The crew followed the corridor of the Olavia Apollo to the hatch and exited to the base.
“Alright,” Darius said, “Once you guys get off the ship, go toward the inside of the base, in the direction opposite of where you just came. Because that would obviously take you out into the dangerous area.” He laughed.
“Come on, Darius, this isn’t a laughing matter,” Charly said. She was amped up, nervous, ready to bust heads without killing them. “Stay on topic.”
“Calm down pussycat,” Darius said.
“Never ever call me that,” Charly said. “Unless you want to lose your welcome in the club.”
“Hey. Everyone is nervous. We all need to relax and stay focused. Same team, right guys? No threats. No ultimatums. No name-calling.” Holly led them toward a corridor in the direction Darius had explained. There were other ships parked around them. They followed a designated walkway that avoided any collisions with parked ships. The delineated path met up with other pathways and soon they were walking behind other people, some dressed in Shadow Coalition attire, some of them in pilot jumpsuits that didn’t seem to have any affiliation to the Centau or the SC. The majority were human and Constie, though Holly did see a few Centau, most of them were in pilot jumpsuits.
; The rest of their time walking through the vast interior landing bay was done in silence as a crew, absorbing the environment. Holly snuck her hand around her back under the SC jacket and felt the Equalizer there. She’d also put some extra projectile cartridges on her belt for back up. Her hope was there’d be no shooting. No gun fights. Shiro walked behind her, using his lionhead cane as a walking stick. He was the most-non-threatening SC thug she’d ever seen. She wanted to laugh as she thought of it, but that might draw attention and so far they were successfully slipping under the radar. Voss had also brought an aether gun, and Charly carried two long daggers in sheaths under her arms, plus two other small ones up her sleeves, but she preferred to use her fists and feet. Meanwhile, Odeon had refused to leave his Ousaba club behind. It was strapped to his back. Holly caught the eyes of strangers in the landing bay studying the staff, curiously, then glancing at the Druiviin as well. The question in their faces was obvious: why is a Druiviin carrying a weapon. Weird.
Soon they reached a set of doors that led deeper into the base and they passed into it.
“OK,” Darius’s voice said in Holly’s earpiece. “When the corridor opens up, turn right.”
No one said anything. As a group they followed his directions and moved further into the base. Soon the corridor opened up into a vast, cavernous space with windows high above them. The claustrophobic sense of the tunnels was replaced with an airy feeling that belied the truth that they were on a giant floating island. The causeway they entered was like a street in the City of Jade Spires. There were shops and tents set up in front of them with shelves full of wares. Fruits, vegetables, clothing, bags, trinkets, candies, and children’s toys were on display to tempt passerbys. And there were a lot of them.
Holly tried to not gape. The others seemed to feel the same way—that staring in awe might give them away.
So they merged into the crowd and headed in the direction given to them by Darius.
Hands of the Colossus Page 20
