Empire of Ashes: An Epic Space Opera Series (The Augmented Book 1)

by Ben Hale

  Skorn was right, and Ero had never possessed a talent for tactical foresight. That was his brother’s domain. But as much as his brother was tactically brilliant, it didn’t change the fact that Ero liked Brand. She was bold and smart, and didn’t cower every time Ero stepped into the room.

  On impulse, Ero replaced the blade and made his way out of the secret room. Advancing up the corridor, he reached his quarters and entered. He activated the micro-Gate on his way in and sent a beamcast to Telik. The scientist was slow to answer, and when he did, the krey bore an expression of annoyance.

  “I have much to prepare before your arrival,” Telik said. “What do you want?”

  “A favor.”

  “What sort of favor?”

  “After you alter the genetic code of one of the slaves, I want to take her back on my ship.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she is assisting me in another matter.”

  Telik jerked his head. “That’s not possible. It would compromise the integrity of the experiment.”

  “Make it possible.”

  “She could die at any moment.”

  “Then I’ll deal with the body.”

  “Or she could go mad and attack you.”

  “Then I’ll kill her and then deal with the body.”

  Telik’s eyes narrowed. “The subjects must stay in a controlled environment in order to maintain the continuity of the experiment.”

  Ero poked the hologram of Telik’s head. “You know it doesn’t matter. Nothing environmental is going to change the results. I saw your data.”

  Telik glared at him. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Skorn took the data when you gave him access.”

  “You would betray our alliance?” Telik was on his feet, his face shaking as heat rose into his thin cheeks. “I’ve spent my life building that, and you go and steal all my research!”

  “Relax,” Ero said. “He just wanted to know if there was any reason you would betray us. Besides, we both know you dug into our history for the same reason.”

  Telik sneered at him but returned to his seat, confirming Ero’s guess. Ero tried not to grin. The scientist really needed to become better with deception. Still, it would not be good to sow a rift.

  “You know our highly illegal plans,” Ero said. “And we know yours. Our alliance is stronger than ever.”

  Telik’s lips soured. “I should have never given your brother access into my system.”

  “Don’t feel bad.” Ero smiled as Telik glowered. “He has a way of getting what he wants.”

  “Like you wanting your slave back?”

  Ero shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “She’s just a slave. What makes her valuable to you?”

  “That’s not your concern,” Ero said casually.

  “You’d have to monitor her for any changes and report them to me.”

  Ero kept the smirk from his face. Telik might have been the most brilliant mind in the Empire, but his weakness for manipulation was appalling. No wonder Skorn had been able to coerce him into giving up his data.

  “I’ll report any changes,” Ero promised. “Anything else?”

  Telik glared at him before lifting his head. “I expect a full report.”

  “You’ll have it.”

  Ero had no intention of writing any report, mostly because writing reports was boring. Ero’s trainers in his youth had ranted and raved when he refused to write reports. He’d barely passed several of the required studies, and only because Skorn had written the reports for him. But there was no reason for Telik to know all that. The scientist finally relented with a nod and reached for the crystal to end the beamcast.

  “I also need help on another matter,” Ero said. “I need to find a slave.”

  “Why?” Telik ground the word out.

  “I just do. His name is Kensen.”

  “What House is his current owner?”

  “I don’t know. But he would have been sold around the same time as a branded slave.” He gave the date he’d acquired on Brand.

  “What’s her name?”

  Ero shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “You think I can find a slave with just a name and a date?” His voice was dubious. “And why would anyone need a specific slave?”

  “I just do. Can you find him?”

  “A branded girl would be remembered. I’ll see what I can do.”

  “One more thing,” Ero said.

  “Another request?”

  “Keep all this between us, would you?” Ero smiled.

  Telik rolled his eyes. “Doesn’t matter to me. Just get me the slaves.”

  Ero ended the beamcast, and his smile widened. He’d just bought the girl a few extra days. It wasn’t much, but there was something intangible about the girl that he wanted to keep around. The least he could do was ensure she wasn’t killed by Telik simply because the experiment didn’t work.

  She would probably be dead soon anyway, even if she did survive the experiment. Skorn’s statement about the lifespan of slaves was entirely accurate. Humans hardly lived beyond a hundred years without special medical care that few krey were willing to provide. But again, Ero could not deny the fire he’d seen in her eyes.

  Realizing he hadn’t eaten in some time, he departed his chambers and collected a drey pouch from a storeroom. Guessing Brand was probably hungry as well, he grabbed a second. He chuckled to himself as he realized that he was going out of his way to save the girl and was now serving her food. Skorn would probably call him mad.

  He used an elbow to activate the door in the hologram room, and it raised upward, revealing Brand in a furious duel. She had several holographic cuts on her body, showing the wounds she would have endured, but she managed to knock the opponent’s blade upward and strike into his heart. The fighter fell onto his back, twisting to reveal the features of a krey male.

  The archive did not contain human combatants, but seeing a slave stab a krey through the heart was disturbing, and Ero abruptly wondered if he’d gone too far. The girl was just a slave, and she could very well turn on Ero.

  Ero tossed the second bag of drey aside. It landed on the deck, spilling across the corridor. Hearing the sound, the girl turned and wiped sweat from her brow. She offered a faint smile.

  “Just finished the third level,” she said.

  “Out of two hundred.” Ero leaned against the wall and sipped the savory liquid. “You’ve got a long way to go.”

  He’d intended on asking her name, but realized that calling her Brand kept a distance, a distance he apparently needed. He pointed down the corridor, toward the secret compartment.

  “Let’s see if you can last longer than a minute this time,” he said.

  Confusion washed across her features at his cold tone, but she stepped out and closed the vid. Then she noticed the spilled drey. “What happened there?”

  “Do I have to explain myself to you? Just make sure someone cleans it up.”

  A flicker of hurt appeared in her expression. “As you will.”

  Annoyed at his own annoyance, Ero motioned her ahead, and then followed her down the corridor, mentally repeating the same line over and over, a reminder of Brand’s place.

  She’s just a slave.

  She’s just a slave.

  She’s just a slave.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The Nova dropped out of hyperlight, the stars slowing to their stationary positions. A single planet greeted them. Too small to be hospitable, its single distinguishing feature was the asteroid ring orbiting the globe. A dull red star pulsed in the distance, and from the scans, it was clear there were no signals in the system. An empty planet in an empty system, already mapped by the Empire and deemed worthless.

  Ero sniffed in disdain. “Telik could have picked a nicer place to hide. The radiation of that star could cost us our hair.”

  “When you are hunted by the Empire, you don’t hide in busy systems full of witnesses and spies. Now take us
in.”

  Ero dropped them toward the planet and scanned the asteroid belt, but without the coordinates, the hidden inverse sphere would have been impossible to find. Latched onto a second asteroid, the space station turned in a lazy arc.

  Spinning the controls, Ero flipped their ship horizontal and threaded the gap between two other asteroids. Then he rolled them up and over an asteroid shaped like a gnarled fist, the action pushing the gravity dampeners to the limit, and swinging him in his seat. Sparks came from the shield as it brushed the stone.

  “Do you have to do that?” Skorn asked.

  “Fly?” Ero said. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

  “You’re going to blow a dampener, and the gravity drive is already down to six percent power.”

  “Do you have to take all my fun?” Ero protested.

  “The fun that costs us glint? Yes. Yes, I do.”

  Ero chuckled and banked them sideways, turning the rear of the ship around to dock with an arm of the station. Gravity threads reach out and lashed onto the Nova, guiding her into the airlock. A red light on the panel flipped to green, and Ero shut down the ship.

  Ero rotated to face his brother. “Time to drop off our cargo. You want to restock the ship while I deal with the slaves?”

  Skorn shrugged. “Don’t delay. We need to get to the Bone Crucible.”

  “Back to civilized space.” Ero smiled and stood. “Won’t that be welcome?”

  Skorn scowled when a warning symbol began to blink. “Looks like you knocked one of the dampeners from its mount.”

  “Your turn.”

  Ero ducked out the hatch with a grin, grateful his plan had worked. A loose dampener could be a challenge to repair, delaying their departure enough for Telik to finish his work on Brand.

  Ero returned to the cargo bay, where the slaves’ new overseer had directed them to remain during the docking. Smart woman. She’d noticed the disrepair and cracks in the seracrete and wisely been concerned for the safety of her charges.

  Ero opened the door and motioned them out. “Our destination awaits.”

  “This isn’t a populated system,” the overseer said, going up on her toes to look out a small port window. “Where are we?”

  “A popular vacation spot for those seeking to evade detection by authorities.”

  Ero guided them to the airlock. The small space had latched onto a port extending from the inverse sphere, and the two cortexes synced, matching the gravity. A flutter of gravity went through Ero’s legs, and then the door slid sideways open to reveal the bright lights and clean corridor beyond.

  Telik eyed the motley collection of slaves, all crammed in the Nova’s airlock, with a disappointed expression. He sniffed in disgust and then motioned them forward. As each passed, Telik waved his inflictor near their ears, transferring ownership. Brand glanced uncertainly at Ero, but he ignored the look.

  “Is everything in place?” Ero asked.

  “Always.” Telik pointed to the small wheeled mech and gave an order to the slaves. “Follow that to your new home.”

  “We’re being sold already?”

  The slave who’d spoken, a stocky male in his youth, one of the two with red hair, grimaced when Telik used the inflictor to deliver a tiny spark. The krey stood over the slave, his features grim.

  “Get moving, or I’ll make it ten seconds instead of two.”

  The youth bowed his head and followed. The entire group shuffled after the mech, which led the way down the corridor. Again Brand glanced over her shoulder, but Ero kept his eyes on Telik, the two falling into place behind the procession of slaves. Brand joined the last of the line.

  “Any word on my request?” Ero asked.

  “What request?”

  “To find the slave named Kensen.”

  “Who?”

  “The slave you said you’d try to locate.” Ero was growing irritated. “Did you find him?”

  Telik didn’t respond. His attention was on a hologram in his hands. It depicted a recent scan, probably of the eleven new arrivals. Ero rolled his eyes at the krey’s focus.

  The slaves gasped when they passed out of the corridor and into the biosphere. It was obvious which of them had never experienced such a phenomenon, and ten of the eleven betrayed their hesitation when the corridor culminated in a funnel. There, the gravity anchored their feet as they walked the curve to stand on the exterior of the sphere. Telik had no patience for the slow moving and activated his inflictor several times. Even then, the slaves stumbled to walk up the curving arch and enter the sphere.

  Brand grimaced and glanced at Ero, this time with a touch of anger. Ero wasn’t sure whether he wanted to laugh or shrug. The girl clearly blamed him, but Telik was now her owner. Best she learned her place.

  Despite Ero’s conviction, the irritating spark of guilt returned. Perhaps he should have taken Skorn’s advice and left her to her fate. As the group of slaves finally negotiated the funnel and entered the forest, Telik hurried to the front of the line, and Brand dropped back to walk the forest path next to Ero.

  “I thought we had a deal,” she whispered.

  “We did,” Ero said.

  “Five days and that’s it?”

  “You’re a slave. I can sell you if I want to.”

  “But you didn’t sell us. Did you?”

  “Why would you say that?” He couldn’t resist the smile.

  “I saw the scans.” She pointed to the mech floating next to Telik. “And I recognize a human health mech when I see one, even if it’s been modified.”

  “You are far too clever for your own good.”

  “What are we doing here?” she hissed.

  Ero saw no reason to lie, so he spoke the truth. “We’re going to see if you can be augmented, to make you more valuable.”

  The disgust on her face sharpened the guilt in his chest. It cut deep, surprising Ero. He’d rarely felt guilt for anything, even when he’d lost brothers or family members on Kelindor. He marveled at the near pain, wondering why he was so attached to a slave.

  “Augments are illegal,” she said flatly.

  “Very illegal,” Ero corrected.

  “And krey aren’t good at obeying the law.”

  “See? You’re starting to understand already.”

  Brand looked away. “I don’t want to understand the mind of a krey. Not if you’re going to experiment on innocent humans.”

  “Is that what you think you are?”

  “We’re certainly not animals,” she said.

  “Most krey think you are.”

  “The krey may be all-powerful, but that doesn’t make them all-right.”

  He chuckled, unable to refute the slave’s wisdom. “If you’d talk to any other krey like that, you’d be writhing in a puddle of drool.”

  “Then I should be grateful he holds the inflictor.”

  Ero burst into a laugh, drawing the attention of all the slaves. Again, he considered the possibility that she really would turn on him, but decided to dismiss the thought. Whatever happened, he decided he would keep the girl.

  The group followed a trail through a group of trees while a cloud drifted overhead, the density of the trees forcing them into a single file line. Ero had never liked biospheres and couldn’t get over how the ground sloped upward. It made him feel confined.

  “Is the experiment going to hurt?” Brand asked softly.

  “Are you afraid?” Ero was surprised.

  “Wouldn’t you be?” she challenged. “If it were humans experimenting on you?”

  He grinned at the image. “Probably.”

  “Well, if I’m going to die, can I ask you a favor?”

  “What do you want to ask?”

  “Whatever happens, don’t let Telik keep me.”

  He grinned. “I already made him a deal. After the experiment, you’re staying with me.”

  “Really?” She sounded surprised and, if he was not mistaken, hopeful.

  “It’s true,” Ero said. “Whatever happens,
you are returning to the Nova. Possibly with augmented abilities.”

  She laughed, the sound nervous yet relieved. “Maybe I’ll be as strong as a dakorian.”

  “And twice as fast,” he replied. “I wonder what the Empire would do with a ferox that can snap a dakorian in half?”

  She actually smiled a little, and he was glad her mood had lightened. It was strange to realize that he actually cared about the slave, and he fleetingly wondered if the experiment was a bad idea.

  “Are you done talking to the slave?” Telik called tersely.

  “Of course,” Ero said, realizing they had fallen behind the rest of the group.

  Telik stood on top of a hill, glaring at Ero. They hurried to catch up, and Telik guided them to a squat structure in a clearing between trees. The group followed the mech inside, and Ero lifted his eyes to examine what was obviously a lab.

  Lined with large chambers, the square building lacked any furnishings. Its rooms were smooth white walls and floors. Instead of seracrete, the interior walls were made of thick glass, allowing an unbroken view into each of the rooms. Light emanated from the ceiling, which had been threaded with tiny light conduits. As the group entered, a small pedestal rose from the floor, and a holo appeared above the small panel.

  “Into the rooms,” Telik barked.

  They were unmistakably cells, and several slaves hesitated until Telik burned them all at once. The expressions on the slaves ranged from confused to outright terrified, but Brand entered her cell and turned to watch the door whisk shut. If she was afraid, she did not show it on the outside.

  “Begin experiment three hundred and sixty-three,” Telik spoke to the building, and gravity amplified inside the rooms, pulling the slaves from their feet. They slumped to their knees, straining to stay upright. “Onto your backs.” The inflictor appeared in his hand, a warning that all the slaves heeded. They reluctantly lay on the floor.

  Ero stood next to Telik. “How long is this going to take?”