“Revolution,” he scoffed.
“That’s funny? Did you laugh when you watched the leaked recording of their captives?” The screen again shifted to display footage in a cramped, dark warren of halls and tiny rooms. Each room had glass facing a visitor’s lobby, like the Earthers crammed within were on display at a zoo. Some were bloody, others crying, most both. There was no mistaking it was the interior of one of the quarantines Pervenio had built to house sick Ringers before they took it all over.
“I’m sure Mr. Pervenio is working day and night to try and reach amenable terms with Kale Trass,” the newsman said. “Once they realize how much they’re missing out on, they’ll come crawling back like all the rest. There is no humanity stronger than a united one.”
“With what resources? The Children of Titan have no interest in credits. You and Mr. Pervenio may deny any losses, but rumors are that every single one of Pervenio’s experienced Directors has either been poached or resigned in order to spare themselves the embarrassment of staying on a sinking ship. Luxarn Pervenio pushed the Titanborn population—”
“Ringer.”
“Yes,” the newswoman corrected aversely. “He pushed them by invading their quarantine without any discernible purpose. In my opinion, he should be tried for the deaths that occurred in the ongoing altercations. That isn’t counting the thousands upon thousands still detained by the militant Children of Titan who now have access to weapons and technology he allowed to fall into their hands.”
“Criminals who the USF must condemn and punish for their actions! It’s either that or we might as well let this murderer Kale Trass stroll right into one of our cities for us to place a crown on his head. The first king of Titan. Is that what you want?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“It’s all true, you know,” Luxarn said. The feed suddenly switched off. I’d unconsciously taken a seat at his desk to watch and leapt up so fast the chair slid all the way to the back wall. He didn’t seem to notice, or care, as he ambled in.
“What’s that, sir?” I asked.
“What they’re saying. It’s all true. Worse probably. Most of my other Collectors have abandoned us for greener pastures too. The new Directors in charge of what properties I still retain are green. Most of them haven’t managed more than a dock. They can hardly handle the Sol-wide release of our service bots.” The spherical bot floated in behind him, and he tapped it on the side, causing it to sway in its flight path, bang into the wall, and shut down. “These things were supposed to rekindle human interest in robotics.”
“They pour a mean drink as far as I can remember.” It was a subtle nudge to try and get him to offer up some of the good stuff again, but it went right over his head.
“Yes. Kale forces me to issue an early release to try and boost revenue, and now we’re shipping tin balls that can do little more than bartend a half-empty room or answer a door.”
“And fly.”
Luxarn chuckled exasperatedly. “It’s all unraveling thanks to that monster, Kale…”
“There isn’t any shame in still being one of the richest men in Sol, sir.”
“Spoken like a true Collector.” He sat on the edge of his desk. “It was my father’s dream to usher humanity into our deserved future. To reach as far as we can until there isn’t a star left we haven’t seen. It’s all going to change now. We can’t spread when we aren’t safe, and every offworld colony is going to be looking over their shoulders.”
“We’ll figure it out. We always do. If we can survive the apocalypse, we can survive some pissed off Ringer throwing a tantrum. He’ll realize they can’t survive alone.”
“They did before.” Luxarn stood, approached the stark wall behind me, and spread his arm across it. I could picture him back on Pervenio station staring out his viewport upon all he’d built. Now he regarded little more than rust, metal, and a painting of what we could never have again. “They say Kale has organized a formal meeting with the USF on Mars. I have a feeling he’s going to demand that Titan be granted sovereignty, and considering all the hostages he has on the Ring, the Assembly will have no choice but to settle. Even now he uses them to shield against retribution.”
“Then maybe it’s time they put an end to hostilities. Let Kale have whatever it is he wants and negotiate. There’s nothing they could possibly do with all the resources they’re in control of except trade them.”
Luxarn gaze shot daggers my way. “I will not negotiate with him!” he growled. “They’re hoarding our people in Q-zones even though they’re healthy. Locking them in there like rats while we squabble. Maybe there’s a Ringer under him that can be dealt with, but Kale has to be eliminated. I don’t care what the Assembly thinks. He’ll never let them go free.”
“You kill him and they might never get that chance.” Cutting the head off snakes was my specialty for a long time, but one of the newsfeed’s talking heads was right. This wasn’t some mere riot. I’d gotten enough sense of that in my last visit to Titan even before the shit hit the fan.
“If he kills them, nothing will keep the USF and all its corporations from bombing Titan out of existence. Kale has to go, Graves. It’s the only way.”
I glanced at Zhaff’s eye lens. It still pained me to see it. In the reflection I pictured him, a frozen, bloodied husk because of me. His death had to at least be a part of the rage fueling Luxarn’s lust for vengeance. I considered for a moment that maybe if I told him the truth, he’d put aside his vendetta and focus on a real solution. Then I remembered how he’d kept Zhaff’s true identity hidden for all those years while he forged him into a weapon. He might’ve loved him in his own way, but it had always been about Pervenio Corp. Company first, how I used to be.
I sighed. “Well, sir, it pains me to say you’re going to have to do it without me.”
His body whipped around to face me, and his plastic-surgery-enhanced façade didn’t appear angered but instead fearful. “That’s nonsense. Dr. Aura informed me that you’re finally healthy. You’re ready to finish what you and my son started, and end the Children of Titan once and for all.”
“My body is fine thanks to you, but I’d rather get out before I embarrass myself any further or lose any more limbs. I let myself be goaded right into their hideout and…” Again I noticed Zhaff’s eye lens out of the corner of my eye. My throat went dry. “And got Zhaff killed.”
Luxarn took me by the shoulders. “So, avenge him.”
“I believe I am.” I brushed him away. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m done with all of this.”
Anger gripped him once more, but I wasn’t affected like I once would’ve been. The powerful man I knew who gazed out upon space as if he were ready to devour it all was gone.
“You would walk away from the chance to be a Director?” he growled.
“Dying puts things into perspective. I’m tired of all the fighting. I spent a lifetime running from a vacation, but right about now all I want to do is nothing.”
“I know you’re upset about what happened, but we can fix this. Don’t throw this away. You’re the last man in this damn corporation I know I can trust, Graves.”
I never thought I’d be in a world where I would pity Luxarn Pervenio, but if I truly was the last man he could trust, then Pervenio Corp. was doomed. Trust me? A Collector well past his prime who’d only physically met him a few months ago, and who’d already betrayed him by murdering his son. That wasn’t a world I knew how to operate in.
“I wish things could be different, sir, I really do,” I said. “I’ve given my life to this company, and it’s been a privilege, but it’s time to check out.” I removed the pulse pistol from my belt and slapped it down directly beside Zhaff’s eye lens. Two relics of a Sol that would never exist again.
Luxarn’s eyes widened, like he had had zero doubt he would convince me to stay. He would never get used to people saying no to him. “You think you can just walk away?” he questioned. “You only partially completed your last assignme
nt, Graves. Part of the stolen supplies, part of the reward. And don’t think you’ll get any portion of my son’s!”
“Keep the credits.” Words I never thought I’d say to Luxarn Pervenio before turning my back to him and heading toward his exit. I needed to get out before his anger caused me to say anything that would sour decades of loyal service. He kept bringing up Zhaff like it’d convince me. If he cared about my old partner, he wouldn’t have sent him to battle terrorists as a teenager.
“That doesn’t come anywhere close to what it cost to give you back your leg. You’ll be paying it off the rest of your life.”
That finally got me to stop in the exit and bite my lip. I grabbed the hunk of synthetics, turned, and lifted the knee toward him. “Do you want it back then?” I said.
A wave of emotions passed across Mr. Pervenio’s face. Finally, he settled on remorse. “Keep the leg,” he conceded. “For research. What you have in your account won’t cover it all, but consider the rest recompense for thirty good years of service. You deserve that at least, after all you’ve done.”
“Thank you, sir.” I went to turn again, but he stopped me once more.
“If you really won’t take my offer, at least consider this.”
“What?”
“I’ll provide transport to wherever you want to go. Do whatever it is with retirement you think you need, but keep an open mind. When you realize the mess Kale has made of our Sol, my offer remains.” He tossed me my pulse pistol. It was a terrible throw, and I had to scramble to catch it, but it reached me. “If you see him in the meantime, put a bullet in him, and I’ll make you so rich you can crawl into a bottle for the rest of your life.”
I studied the gun. Every dent was a faded memory. Every scratch a tussle. Whether or not I wanted to shoot it again, I felt naked without it. I grinned slightly. “All right, sir. That sounds fair enough to me.”
He nodded. “Pervenio Corporation thanks you for your service, Mr. Graves.”
Something brash fought its way to the tip of my tongue before I noticed Zhaff eye lens again. All I could manage was to grumble and nod; then I walked away from the only job I’d known since I was a young man who hadn’t seen anything beyond New London.
Where to go now? Maybe I could try to find Aria again like I’d always planned to after retiring, though I kind of preferred our leaving things on good terms. I couldn’t be there to play hero every time she got in trouble trying to work with terrorists. She made her own choices, and I’d taught her well enough to be sure as hell she wasn’t a captive. She’d either done the smart thing like I’d taught her to and run, or was still on Titan taking care of those injured in the revolution.
Either way she’d be safe. Nobody outside of Titan but I knew her role in starting the revolution, and people didn’t hunt down innocent doctors. Plus, if I did find her, I’d probably wind up fucking up again and someone else who didn’t deserve it would die. She was better off without me.
So, there I stood, locked out of Luxarn Pervenio’s office. No future assignments. No handler. Nothing to do at all.
CHAPTER FIVE
KALE TRASS
I won’t say I was scared as I watched the ruddy, light-speckled orb of Mars grow beyond the viewport of the Cora. Anxious maybe, though I’d become an expert at keeping myself level enough to always appear composed. It was, however, my first time visiting a world beyond the Ring. Sure, I’d stepped onto many of the moons and stations orbiting Saturn since our revolution started, some as a soldier, others to keep the peace, but never anywhere so close to Earth.
We were nearing the end of our month-and-a-half-long journey to Mars. Earther influence on the Red Planet remained strong as always. Venta Co. and Red Wing Co., the two largest Earther corporations remaining after Pervenio’s decline, called it their base of operations. Yet, still, the USF Assembly had the nerve to consider it neutral ground. They initially asked to hold our formal meeting on Earth, where gravity would crush us into submission, so at least on Mars I’d be able to walk without my heart feeling ready to explode. G-pills could only counteract the effects of gravity stronger than Titan’s so much, and I needed to remain vigilant.
I twirled one of those tiny, diamond-shaped pills between my fingers, the Pervenio logo engraved into the center. A constant reminder of how they’d taken everything from us. The synthetic formula was actually a Titanborn invention from before the Great Reunion, when our ancestors started harvesting the gases of Saturn, which were far more efficient sources of fuel than Titan’s abundant methane lakes. That was just one small part of our forgotten history, revealed from data logs after we occupied Pervenio Station.
After the plague that claimed so many of my people half a century ago, Pervenio took over production of the pills like they had everything else. The logo remained proof of that. We’d driven them out now but were left with their highly advanced manufacturing plants and labs, and very few with the skills to do anything more than operate the machinery. Some of the elements needed to create their specific product line also weren’t prevalent on Titan, meaning our supply was limited. We needed to be careful wasting any until we were able to strip back the formula to what our ancestors used. Maintaining gas-harvesting yields in order to gain leverage over Earth was crucial, and Titanborn couldn’t operate the shifts under Saturn’s gravity without G-pills.
So much was crucial…
I tried to act brazen around my people, but I knew the kind of struggle lying ahead. It was like Luxarn Pervenio had been prepared that in the event we took over, they’d still be able to make our lives a living hell. My people had to simultaneously fight and teach ourselves an entire new stratum of technical skills to make use of their equipment. Not to mention all the repairs necessary after the heaviest of the fighting. From factories to ships, Titanborn men and women had put most of it together when we were their slaves, but like Mazrah once told me, “knowing where the pieces go isn’t knowing how it works.”
I didn’t even realize that I was crushing the G-pill out of vexation until the shards floated away from my fingers. From my perspective they swarmed about the looming Red Planet like a field of the meteors Earthers were so afraid of. I wondered if their world looked similar to Mars after their infamous M-Day Meteorite hit. If it was wreathed by red flames racing across its once verdant surface.
“Have you been awake the entire time?” Ambassador Aria asked, her voice groggy. A month in a sleep pod and it was like her vocal chords had forgotten what it was supposed to sound like.
I quickly snatched the pieces of the G-pill out of the air and shoved them into the pouch on my belt rather than my mouth. I didn’t want to be numb on one of their worlds. Mars’s gravity wasn’t excruciatingly higher than Titan’s. Enough to notice but tolerable. I had to feel everything.
“Couldn’t stomach going under,” I said without looking back at her. Our course was on autopilot, and any danger would rouse the crew, but after watching everyone load into their pods, I couldn’t do it. Instead, I’d roamed the halls of the ship alone the entire time, with nothing but yeasty ration bars, stars, and the polished interior of the Cora to keep me company.
“Mal—” She stopped herself. “My father never liked it much either. Said it was like sleeping in a coffin, but that it was better than months with no company but space. Too long with the blackness could drive a man mad, or something like that.”
“Not me,” I replied.
She deftly pulled her weightless body along the bars on the ceiling until she was hovering behind me. This may have been my first long-distance space trip, but she was an expert at zero G. Her hand fell gently upon my shoulder, and with it a stream of auburn hair that somehow after so long in stasis still smelled fresh. That got me to glance up, and we froze momentarily as our gazes met. Neither of us held it for long. She instinctually bowed her head out of respect, and I turned my attention back to Mars.
“You need to rest more, Kale,” she said softly. “I know there’s a lot to deal with,
but I’ve seen how you lie awake every night.”
She was right. I hadn’t had proper rest in longer than I cared to remember, and that didn’t change during the trip. But something about artificial sleep made me uneasy. If I went under that long, maybe I would risk losing some memory of what Cora looked like. How her infrequent smiles made the tip of her nose wrinkle. How her silvery hair shimmered under the right light…
“How would you possibly know what I need?” I growled.
She didn’t back down. Instead, she drew herself around me so I had no choice but to stare straight into her bright green eyes. She wasn’t born on Earth, but she wasn’t Titanborn either. Somewhere in between, same as any first-generation offworlder. Her skin was exceedingly pale like mine though rosy on her cheeks and dappled with freckles. Curly, ginger hair tumbled over an ample chest like nobody born on Titan could ever boast. Whether or not she was one of us, her beauty was unquestionable. The loose-fitting dress she wore didn’t hide it. She could’ve easily been Cora’s red-haired sister, and every time I beheld her, my mind was brought back to that moment on Pervenio Station when we’d found Cora’s empty cell shortly after she was spaced.
“I’m your doctor too, remember?” she said. “It isn’t healthy pushing yourself like you do.”
“After we’re done here, I’ll try. Will that make you happy?”
Her lips formed the beginnings of a smile. The tip of her freckled nose creased as they did, causing my heart to race. Before I could turn away, she took my hand and placed it against her stomach. It was still tight but not as flat as the day we met. “Don’t do it for me,” she whispered.
“Never stuff me into one of those fucking things again!” Maya barked from the cabin behind us. The sound of a few other Titanborn puking echoed along with her.
Aria released my hand and immediately put a few feet between us. I was grateful for the opportunity to breathe. Being around her was equally suffocating and intoxicating.
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