by JA Huss
"Now what?" Ash is looking to the captain.
"Well." He stops and looks down, his eyebrows teetering somewhere between surprise and frown. "I don't think we have to worry about her going through the General Fledge."
And the uproar that ensues drowns out any pain I might be feeling from exposing myself.
Ash is irate. "She is Aves! A sanctioned member of the 039. She will not go through the General Fledge!"
The captain sighs. "She's only part Aves, Ashur. It's not good enough for Lucan. I have no say in this and neither do you. Either she goes through it, or Lucan–"
"Or he kills me," I say bluntly. "Tries, anyway. And since I am on his world, breathing his manufactured air, he'll probably be able to accomplish that regardless of how well-trained I am." They all stop talking to look at me, eyes searching my face. "Lucan explained it yesterday, and I agreed to do it. And to testify against Tier in the trial. That was the deal."
Now they look at me like I'm a traitor but I put my hand up. "Don't ask, OK. You all just need to trust me. Tier asked me to trust him when he brought me here, and I did. Still do." I look straight at Ash. "I still trust him, Ashur."
I look around to the rest of them, even the captain. "And now I am asking you all to trust me. Do you think I want to kill strangers just prove my worth? No. I don't. And I have no information that will incriminate Tier, I promise. He told me nothing. Nothing. There is nothing I can say to hurt him at this point. When he asked me to come with him when we were out on the rock, he said the thing was already in motion, his actions couldn't be taken back, even if he wanted to."
Braun turns away and runs his hands through his hair. They are all so much like Tier it makes my heart ache.
"I never asked him to save me. But he did. I'm sorry if that wasn't what you signed up for when you took your vote. But I can't change it."
I wait to see if any of them will fight with me or maybe walk out, but they don't. I take a deep breath and when I let it out, I feel alone. My team is confused and hurt, my captain is selling me out, and I've told them all to pretty much fuck off. I am just Junco. Again.
The captain clears his throat. "OK. Men? If I were your real captain, I'd stick around and give a shit. But I'm not. Your captain is sitting in Justice on trial for treason because he refused to kill your nine here. Like the girl said, deal with it."
And with that he leaves us alone.
Ashur is furious and stalks up to me, making himself an imposing figure compared to my smallness. Braun intervenes and pushes him back. "Don't do it, Ash, I'm fucking warning you."
"Junco, what were the instructions? I want answers, now!"
I shake my head and Isten takes his turn. "Come on, Ash, back off." Ash pushes him in the chest and Isten bares his teeth. "You better think twice, Ashur, you better think before you touch me again."
"Junco," Layla pleads. "How could Tier have told you anything? You were under morph. There was no message, you dreamed it." Mish, Arel, and Rikan just hang back and say nothing as they watch me struggle.
I turn my head and play with my hair, thinking about it. Then turn back and study each face one at a time. I want to trust them, but Tier ordered me not to. "Layla, if I could tell you I would. But I can't. It was an order. His order."
"Just tell us what the order was," Ryse says, taking my hand. "Really, Junco, he would never fault you for telling us."
"You're wrong, Ryse, it was pretty fucking specific. I'll do what I can, I promise. That's all I can say. I'll do whatever I can to make it right."
Braun steps forward and pulls me away from the group. "All right, show's over. Let's get on with the day."
I break free and head to the shower. The hot water blasts me until my whole body is red and when I step out in my avian clothes once again, the room is empty except for Braun. He's sitting at the table with his back towards me, smoking a cigar and watching some avians fight in a contest on-screen.
"I have to tell you something, Junco," he says without turning around to look at me.
I take a seat on the other side of the table and wait for him to acknowledge me. He just pushes a little gray box in my direction and I light the stogie up, puffing on it to calm my nerves. We sit that way for several minutes and then I push him. "Spit it out, Braun. I don't have a lot of self-control right now."
He lifts his eyes and I can see the wheels turning in his mind. He pokes his cigar in the direction of the screen.
I turn to look at the fight.
"That's Deliverance from last year," he says.
I shake my head. "OK. I'll bite. What's Deliverance?"
"A fight. A big fight that takes guilty prisoners, especially high-value prisoners, right? Famous ones, ones who committed horrific crimes, shit like that?"
I prod him forward with a nod.
"And they have this contest. The winner gets to kill a bunch of bad guys at the end but the real prize is a wish." He stops and drags his gaze around until he meets my eyes, "I have a plan. Not a great plan, but it's something. Only you can never tell anyone I told you this. They'd never forgive me."
"Hey, if there's one thing you can be sure of, it's that I'll keep a secret, right?"
He smiles. "Right, yeah."
"So what is it?"
He takes a puff and blows the smoke into rings as he stares up at the ceiling, then he looks over at me. "Sorry. It's just, I can't believe I'm going to even propose this. But, if I were you, I'd at least want to know of the possibility. Don't feel pressure to accept it, either. Just think about it."
I nod and lean in as he starts talking in a low whisper. We stay that way for several minutes and I look down when he finishes.
"It's a long shot, I get it. But believe it or not, I'm the brains of this operation." I choke on my own spit and he finally cracks a smile. "No, really, Junco. I might just be a big dumb munitions expert to most people outside our team, but I've got a wicked fucking strategy game going on inside." He taps his head with the spittle end of his cigar.
"Yeah? Well, that's one stupid fucking plan if you ask me."
"I told ya it was."
"Has a lot of variables."
"Yeah, lots of what-ifs, I know."
"Can't possibly work."
"Yeah, forget I mentioned it."
"Oh, it's already forgotten."
We smile across the table and then we laugh.
We laugh until we are hysterical.
Chapter Six
Ashur enters the room as I am wiping the tears from my eyes and Braun is hacking on the smoke caught in his throat. He turns and we both look at our XO, small leftover sounds of laughter escaping before we realize he's still very much pissed off.
"I'm glad you're both so fucking pleased with yourselves. Meanwhile, the entire team is coming apart over this shit."
Braun stands up and for the first time I see him as the imposing fighter that he is. Ashur doesn't cower, move, or even flinch. He's one hundred percent secure in his authority, but he doesn't tell Braun to sit down either.
"Ash, you need to back off. This shit is going down Junco's way, no matter what you say about it. She says Tier gave her orders, and that's the end of it."
Ash pushes past him and walks over to me. "Put some shoes on, Junco, you've got a meeting to attend." I look down at my feet and scowl. "Now, dammit!" he growls. "You're not leaving here barefoot, so put them on."
I get up and grab the boots and socks from my closet then sit on the bed and force my feet to obey and conform. When I'm done I stand and look over at Braun. "I'll see ya soon, right?"
He smiles. "Count on it."
Ashur waves his arm towards the exit and my stomach churns at the thought of crossing the threshold into my avian existence. Ash's hand pushes on my shoulder in an attempt to guide me forward, but I brush it off and walk through the door on my own.
The hallway is just as I remember it, wide, tall, and empty. Once again, the only sound is the echo of our boots as we walk. I look up at Ashur. "Where are you taking
me?"
He doesn't even glance down at me. "Conference Room Zero."
I nod. "OK, well, who am I meeting?"
"Lucan and some guy from Earth."
"Really? Who?"
He shrugs, but doesn't say anything and we walk for several more minutes. This is the longest hallway of my life. When we come to the end there is a large door. Massive. He presses his palm to the biometrics and it takes a moment for the reinforced gateway to commit to opening. We wait in silence as the mechanisms inside click and adjust to the command.
I feel like a little kid trying to see beyond, but I'm disappointed because it's just another hallway, though smaller this time. We turn right, then left, which brings us to another door.
"Are you ready?"
"For what? This the conference room?"
He smiles, the first one since my outburst. "No, Junco, the real world. It's quite a walk over to CR Zero, it's on another part of the habitat. Out there," he nods to the human-sized door, "are a lot of people. Just stay next to me and don't get lost." He starts to turn away, but then looks back. "And for fuck's sake, Junco, don't do anything stupid like try and run off or I swear–"
"Calm down, I won't."
He lets out a deep breath and I unexpectedly take one in, then his palm flattens against the side of the door and my new world comes into view. I stand there gaping at all the people bustling past. It reminds me of Tokyo or London, there is so much foot traffic. He takes my hand, pulls, and then we're walking in the stream. I try not to look around too much but I can't help it. It's not another hallway at all, it's a city.
I walk along looking up and I hear Ashur laugh. "Junco, watch where you're going. You look like a tourist."
I look over to him and smile. "I am a tourist." It's only then that I notice we're not even on the ground level. I strain my head to see past the throngs of bustling avians, towards a transparent railing a couple dozen yards away. I gravitate towards it, pulling Ashur with me. "Just let me look, OK?"
He shakes his head, but takes the lead and pulls me through the crowd. I stand at the railing and lean over, then swallow and dip back quickly when I realize we've got to be a hundred stories up. Trains whiz past on a suspended track about twenty stories below, and I notice several more as my eyes travel down towards the ground. "Wow, it's pretty incredible."
"This is our capital, do you know what she's called, Junco?"
I meet his eyes and shake my head.
"Amelia. This entire habitat holds eight million people, it's the largest. And busiest, obviously."
I give him a crooked smile. "I love it. How come no one's flying though?"
"Only Aves can fly here, just too crowded. You can fly if you need to. You're in the black Aves uniform, so you'll always be recognized as one of us." He takes my hand and leads me out into the bustle again. "It's about a ten-minute walk to CR Zero, but we can take a train if your feet will hurt."
I look down at them. They already hurt. But I shake my head. "No, let's walk."
Ashur smiles and pulls me through the crowd. Once we get off the main walkway there are a lot fewer people and he transitions into my guide, pointing out things like stores and offices, bars, restaurants. It's like the Peaks, except nothing like it at all. A dozen or so minutes later we arrive at another biometrically sealed door. He presses his flesh and it opens into a small room.
"We're going up," Ashur explains as he palms the panel. An elevator. My weight sinks with the artificial gravity pull as we ascend and I count the seconds until we stop.
"How high did we just go?"
"About a thousand feet."
"In ten seconds? Damn."
"I have to warn you about the next part, we can go back down and take the train if you prefer, but I think you'll like the view if we walk. You'll probably get really disoriented the first time, just be prepared."
I nod and he presses his palm to make the door open and we step out.
Into nothingness.
The dark star-filled night closes in around me and I hold back. Ash pulls and I think I will fall over, into the black below my feet, but then he's behind me and his hands are planted on my shoulders pushing me forward.
"Just walk normal, Juncs. The walkway is transparent."
"Everything is transparent, Ash. I feel like I'm walking out into space."
"Well, that was the feeling they were going for, so I guess they succeeded."
We climb until the incline evens out and I realize we're standing on the summit of a great arch that dips out from the habitat and into the vacuum. I spin around and almost fall. "Why are we the only ones out here?"
He shrugs. "VIP shit, you know. Not for the masses."
"Feels good to be important, then."
He smiles. "Can you find any stars?"
I search, but I'm lost in the night for the first time ever. "It makes no sense to me, I can't find any."
He points and I follow his finger. "There's his belt, Juncs. Can you see it?"
I don't at first, but then it all slides into focus, like I'm looking at some old 3D art. I find Rigel, then up to Betelgeuse, then Castor and Pollux in the Twins. I turn, carefully, and I can see the entire winter hexagon.
"Wow." Chills run down my body and I shiver.
"Yeah. I know how much you like looking at the stars. I like it too."
I look over to his face and try to figure him out as he stares out into the deep. "I don't really get you, Ashur. I mean, you're a pretty hard guy to read."
He lets out a little laugh. "Says the lion to the wolf."
"Do you hate me? For not telling you? And for getting Tier in this mess?"
His smile drops as he looks down to me. "Junco, as much as I'd like to blame you, none of this is your fault. We fucked up. End of story. And not just with you, with a lot of shit." I stand quietly as he thinks, just taking in the stars and the night. "I'm just having a hard time coming to terms with what we did because Tier is the closest thing to family I have. All the other guys, we're all family too. But Tier and I have been through everything together. We're from the same clutch so we have the same birthday, we grew up together, went to Earth together, came back together. Usually you never have the same morphday as your clutchmates because maturity is an individualized thing. But all of the 039 have the same morphday, so Tier and I are connected through every important life milestone there is. And we've been leading these guys since some of them were eight years old."
I let out a deep breath. "I told you, Ashur, I'll fix it."
He looks up and points to a shooting star. My eyes follow as he talks. "You can't fix it, Junco. The trial is a formality. He's going to be killed."
I shake my head. "No, Ashur. He's not."
He looks into my eyes as we stand there in silence. "I trust you. But don't go and do anything stupid, Junco, because you can be saved. You're a sure thing, darlin'." We both smile at his Tier impersonation. Then he looks down and whispers, "This Fledge has no idea what's coming."
I force down a frown and he takes my hand and leads me down the arch and back into reality.
Lucan is pissed off when we finally make it to the outer door of Conference Room Zero. "Where the hell have you two been?" His eyes blaze at Ashur, then rest on mine. "When I call for you, Junco, you come!"
Ash steps between us. "I brought her straight away, Lucan. Calm down."
"What did you do, walk?"
Ashur laughs. "As a matter of fact, yes. We did walk. This was her first time outside. Shit, man, be reasonable."
Lucan shakes his head. "Watch your step, Ashur. If I've lost patience with Tier, how much do you think I have left for you?"
Ashur shrugs off his threat, then turns to me. "I'll be outside if you need me, Junco."
"That won't be necessary. I'll handle her from here."
"I don't think so, Lucan. She's my nine and I have every right to stick around."
I raise my eyebrows and wait for the fight, but Lucan just grabs me by the arm and pushe
s me towards the door.
"Don't bruise her, Lucan."
"Don't push me, Ashur, I'm not in the mood."
Ash looks me in the eyes and I shake my head at him. "It's fine, Ashur, I'll see you after."
I'm shoved through the open door into a very normal-looking conference room, if you don't count the night sky view that dominates one entire wall. There is only one man seated at the table that can hold more than three dozen. I almost gasp out loud when I see him.
"Coot, thank God you're OK."
"What the hell are you doing here, Slag?"
"Holy shit, Coot, you have wings."
"Yeah, I'm half avian, remember?" I look over at Lucan. "What's this about?"
Lucan shrugs, trying to look indifferent. "It appears that Earth is unable to continue without you, Junco. Your former commander has something to discuss."
I look at him, then over to Slag. "What the fuck is going on here? Am I being sent back to Earth?"
Slag steps forward. "Calm down, Coot, I'm only here to make an offer."
I look back at Lucan, but he puts a hand up. "I'll give you some privacy."
Slag and I wait for him to exit the room and I get a glimpse of Ash trying to look in before the door closes.
"Explain, now."
He pulls out a com tech from his jacket and hands it over. "I'm to deliver this to you. I have no idea what it says, so I can't speak until you've seen it and made a decision."
I take the com. "You haven't watched it?" I ask with an incredulous frown.
Slag shakes his head. "Biometrics, Junco. It's only for you. Retinal scan. I'll wait outside with them. Just let us know when you're ready to talk."
He leaves the tech in my hand and even though it is impossible for such a small flimsy card to feel heavy, it weighs me down. The chairs are built for humans, with a full back, and when I settle in it feels good to get the pressure off the new blisters on my feet.
The retinal scan flashes my eye and the video begins to play.
It's Moju and my heart thumps wildly in my chest as he screams. A face enters into view, a head I sliced off that night in my driveway. Aren sniggers at whoever is running the camera, and then motions for another person to flame Moju with a torch. "See that, Junco? You think you can get away with what you did?" He shakes his head and barks another order at the torturer. "I've got him, Junco! You might be far away but I've got Moju."
