Well, that was promising. He had no idea how much access Illyrian could have to what he needed, or how far out on a limb his mother would be willing to go. But he at least felt confident that this wasn't a trap.
"My crew and I are looking to mount a rescue mission of our own since no one here is willing to help. But I'm going to need my ship back, and as much information as we can get our hands on about where we can find Safa, Shan and the others, and what we'd be getting into."
Illyrian's mouth turned downward, leaving Oliver to suspect he was about to be outright denied his request. It would be yet another pat on the head from one of the Rohtet, which was usually followed by empty promises.
"I'll talk to my mother, but I suspect there's nothing we can do about your ship. It's our best link to Safa's research and the information Evie contributed."
"This is insane!" Oliver said before letting out a sharp huff of frustration. "It's my ship, and we aren't your prisoners. You have no right to hold us here."
"None of this has been my decision, or my mother's."
"Has she advocated for our release then?" Oliver already knew the answer. He'd been through this same conversation a thousand times over already.
Illyrian's silence spoke plainly. "You must understand, we do not see your people as prisoners or the enemy. But our survival must come above all else, it is the entire foundation of our belief system, the reason our ships have gone in a hundred different directions. If we do not find a way out of this place, our entire ship and every person on board will be made irrelevant in history. We can go no further. And I would think you would wish the same freedom for your crew."
"Of course. But I haven't even been allowed to see my ship in more than a day now. For all I know, your engineers have ripped it apart in the name of survival."
"I do not believe that to be the case, but I can't say for certain. And no matter the reason, there is no way for us to release your ship without notice. But I believe I can get you the information you're looking for. As well as temporary access to your ship, for peace of mind or whatever else you need. Will that be of any help?"
"It's a start." There wasn't much Oliver could do without his ship, but he was starting to feel the Lexiconis' absence in a way not unlike how he was missing Safa. And the information Illyrian was offering was certainly a step in the right direction. The rest of the crew might be a little lost to decipher whatever they were given without Safa, but it was something.
Illyrian hummed again. "I will need some time. Wait here until I contact you again. Once I can empty the area surrounding your berth of any personnel, get to your ship as quickly as possible. I will likely only clear the area for a few minutes. You'll have as much time as you need once you get there, as you'll certainly be caught on your way back out."
"Then what?"
"I'm not certain. But no real consequences will come to you. It's your ship, you have every right to visit it. If anything, my superiors might come to respect you a little more if they believe you could access it on your own."
"That's not exactly a guarantee of my safety."
"You are free to return to your people now. I can still get you the information you're looking for, it may just take a little longer to find a way to deliver it to you. Otherwise, I can have what you need transferred to the Lexiconis as soon as I have it. The decision is yours."
It wasn't a decision at all. Oliver agreed, and moments later, Illyrian left without a farewell, leaving Oliver in the abandoned apartment. Not sure how long he had, he flipped on his communicator to give Sprocket a quick, vague update, unsure of how much the Rohtet could intercept from the human devices. The rest of the crew had known he had a meeting, but it was one of many, and they had mostly stopped asking questions, instead focusing on their own areas of expertise for potential ways to improve their situation.
The signal came sooner than expected, sending Oliver several decks below as quickly as he could manage without drawing too much attention.
In the past few days, Oliver had become more than passably familiar with the docking section of the city-ship. He'd walked by it several times since the humans had first been dismissed as no longer useful without Safa, usually when he needed to clear his head.
Each visit had been punctuated by a sharp dismissal from whichever of the Rohtet had found him first. By the third visit, guards had been posted, cutting him off from the entire section of the ship.
Being back on the Lexiconis did a little to ease Oliver's mind. Being in his own chair, on his own ship, it felt better. Not good, but better. His ship was still dead in the water, stuck at the mercy of an uncooperative race. And the people who should have been there with him, filling the rooms of the Lexiconis, weren't there. Most of them were close, but until they were back in the air, all together again, it wasn't enough.
He couldn’t offer the remainder of his crew, all still waiting for news in small suite of rooms they'd been given access to, any real timeline on when he might be back. All of that was up to Illyrian now. And he'd gotten Oliver this far, back on board, so there had to be at least a chance he could go the rest of the way.
Oliver would take a copy of whatever information Illyrian managed to transfer, and bring it back to the rest of the crew. Without a way to free their ship, their rescue mission was still at a dead end—unless they could find a way to take one of the Rohtet's smaller vessels? The thought surprised Oliver, and he pushed it aside without dismissing it completely. They weren't there yet, but maybe that would be a possibility.
Oliver’s first stop was feeding a rather hyperactive and annoyed Knack who had been sleeping in the engine room. Then, just as he'd been instructed, Oliver turned on the ship's computers, being careful to bypass any of the other systems. No one could know he'd been here.
The moment each of the screens on the bridge sprang to life, Oliver found a familiar face waiting for him, watching from the central screen.
Oliver! A stream of text appeared under Safa's beaming face. I was starting to think you'd never get here. What have you been doing that was so much more important than checking up on your own ship?
"Safa!" Oliver cried out. Eyes wide, he searched the area for any hint of how he was supposed to respond. Safa was alive! And annoyed with him. But he was happy to take it.
On screen, Safa shook her head before looking down, presumably to type her next message. I accessed the alien’s database and hijacked a connection since they had already been spying on the city-ship, pinpointing it enough that the link would be specific to the Lexiconis. They were already linked into a video feed, so that part was easy, but I couldn’t get a two-way text interface. So, this is going to have to be enough.
Are you okay? Is everyone else?
Oliver nodded. There was so much more he could have said, or wanted to ask, but for the time being, this would have to be enough. From a nearby computer, a series of beeps alerted him to an incoming transmission. This had to be Illyrian. With the touch of a button, Oliver accepted the file transfer, but otherwise ignored it.
Good. I'm unharmed, but getting hungry. Though since they've already killed one of the Rohtet, I'll still count myself as lucky. But there's no time to play catch up. This species has a massive baseship, a hive, really. And thanks to yours truly, they're less than an hour away from moving through the void like their smaller ships.
Oliver tried his best not to look horrified, but probably failed. She was cooperating with the deadliest race in the void, helping them. No. She wasn't. Oliver couldn't help but chastise himself for his first reaction. This was Safa. There was more to it. And even if there wasn't, she'd been held captive by damned aliens for days now. He needed to be a person she could come to without feeling judged.
It was a calculated risk, I promise. But I have an idea that I think could get us all out of here. Well, at least the Rohtet and the ship I'm on. As long as the Lexiconis stays inside the city-ship, we'll get to go along for the ride too. It's not going to be easy, but I absolute
ly believe it's possible. I'm just going to need a whole lot of help.
Chapter Twenty-Six – Evie
Oliver was returned to his crew at gunpoint, just before Evie and the others were set to leave for dinner. His face, covered in the same scruffy beard that the rest of the human men had, looked more tired than concerned, like he didn't really believe the Rohtet would shoot him.
Evie was less convinced, at least until they shoved him back into the living space they'd been given and left.
"What the hell happened?" Sprocket asked, checking for the second time that hour whether they'd been locked inside. The door opened a few inches before he closed it again.
"Long story," Oliver said, looking oddly pleased with himself. "But you had all better be at your best, because Safa is alive, and she has given us a hell of a lot of work to do."
Everyone started talking at once, asking the same question in a half-dozen different ways. Once Oliver had finished telling his story, Evie's mouth wasn't the only one hanging slightly open.
"Shouldn't we tell the Rohtet?" Torque suggested from his spot in the corner of the room.
"They have bigger problems to worry about," Oliver said. "Or at least they're going to soon. An entire fleet of the aliens who took Safa are going to be headed this way, and soon. And when they get here, we need to be ready. Besides, they've proven more than once that they aren't going to listen to us. It was Safa the Rohtet had wanted in the first place, and it was Safa's plan they'll get, but we're going to be the ones pulling this off."
Twenty minutes later, Evie was already mentally spent from just listening to Oliver's attempt at relaying all the information Safa had given him. But the Lexiconis' crew seemed to come alive, the deeper Oliver got into explaining what needed to be done. And in some ways, the plan was simple. Wait until the battle started and the ships were in range. Transfer over everything they needed, including Safa and the others. Let them work their magic, and just like that they would all be free of the void.
But making this plan work hinged on every single person in the room playing their part, and playing it well, all while undermining the Rohtet who were still hovering uncomfortably nearby whenever any of the humans tried to leave their enclosure. And if the guards were breathing down their necks, it was a fair assumption that the security system was doing the same.
"We might as well get something to eat," Sprocket said almost an hour later, when the tension in the room became even louder than the sound of rumbling stomachs. "We can't do anything until the Rohtet are distracted."
"That could be any minute now," Oliver said, running his hand over his jawline. He was clearly feeling the pressure of the last two days.
"Or it could be several hours. And if we're going to pull this off, I'd rather be well-fed."
Oliver was quickly outvoted, and the crew made their way to the mess hall they'd been directed to on their first night aboard the city-ship.
Evie even managed to get three whole bites of a pink mush the Rohtet seemed fond of before the lights began flashing overhead, an alarm blaring to her core.
There was no time for a final pep talk. The crew sprang into action, only Lincoln pausing long enough for one last bite before scrambling away from their table.
With a quick nod to Linna and Gwynn, Evie took off in the direction of the city-ship’s central computer core, pushing past startled Rohtet, all trying to learn what the humans and their companions already knew. This wasn't going to be like all the attacks the Rohtet had endured since getting to the void. The hive ship had arrived, bringing its entire fleet and arsenal with it.
Now following behind Gwynn, their group only made it is far as the spiraling escalator that would take them below decks before the city-ship took its first real hit. The impact had come from somewhere below, and the ship's dampeners could barely keep up, sending Evie reeling as she struggled to keep her feet.
"Come on, Casseract!" Gwynn grabbed Evie by her upper arm, giving an urgent yank before continuing as though she didn't care in the slightest if Evie followed or not.
But Evie wasn't prepared to let these people down. Not now, and not ever.
They made it three floors before they were finally stopped by the Rohtet, and that had more to do with bad luck than anything else. They'd each been focused on following the path they were given, determined not to miss a single turn, when they almost collided head on with a group of seven Rohtet pilots, all decked out in their gear and rushing toward a hanger bay, according to the digital map in Evie's hands.
And of course, it was the largest among them that Gwynn crashed into, so busy studying the portascreen she'd linked with the Rohtet computer system that she hadn't bothered looking ahead.
"You are not allowed in this area," the female Rohtet said, grabbing Gwynn's arm not unlike Gwynn had done to her not long before.
"Get the hell off me," Gwynn said before being shoved backward. The Rohtet woman smirked, seemingly enjoying herself.
As one, both Evie and Linna stepped in to fill the space where Gwynn had stood a moment before, both blocking the Rohtet from doing her any more harm, and Gwynn from getting them all thrown out the airlock because she couldn't stay calm.
From the tense feeling of Linna's shoulder against Evie's own, the other woman was just as ready to fight as Gwynn had been. And she'd likely be far more effective as well.
But they needed to get to the other side of the corridor if they were going to reach the chamber Safa had directed them to, and with seven against one, the odds of their trio making it anywhere at all weren't great. They needed another way out of this.
"I apologize for my friend," Evie said, doing her best to use words from the Rohtet's language. She'd been hearing them through her translation chip all day, but had no idea if she had the grammar right. her attempt seemed to at least startle the Rohtet woman enough that her fists stayed by her side. "We just need to get through."
A heartbeat later, the rattling of metal on metal sounded from above. Hopefully it would be enough to distract the Rohtet and get them back to whatever they were supposed to be doing that wasn't harassing a group of people who were still theoretically guests on their ship.
"What reason do you have for being here?" the same woman asked, glowering at the lot of them.
From behind her, Gwynn let out a stream of choice words, but Evie did her best to ignore them. Brute force and vitriol weren't what they needed in that moment.
"The ambassador sent us to collect something for her," Evie said, ad-libbing like crazy. The smallest trace of doubt appeared on a few of the Rohtet faces, but not one of them moved.
"We do not have time to escort you from the area," their leader said after a few moments. "Please return the way you came. The ambassador has her own people to do menial tasks on her behalf. People are dying as you waste our time."
It was a fact Evie was all too aware of, but if they didn't get through soon, it wasn't just a few Rohtet lives that would be at risk. But the time it would take to try to explain that much would be more than enough time for the aliens to destroy any chance they might have for success.
A few of the Rohtet stepped closer to Linna and Evie, creating a blockade.
"You aren't the only people who have somewhere to be!" Evie said, straightening her back to try to get herself as near the Rohtet's height as she could. "If you can get in touch with …" Evie struggled, trying to come up with the right name.
"Illyrian," Gwynn whispered from behind her.
Evie repeated the name. "The ambassador's son. He'll tell you then we can all get out of this place and back to work."
The Rohtet woman hummed something deep and low. Disapproving, maybe? "Why should we not contact the ambassador herself?"
"You don’t think she has better things to be worrying about right now, besides your massive mistake?" Gwynn asked, sounding unusually calm for herself.
Two of the Rohtet leaned in toward one another, speaking too quietly for Evie to hear. She risked a glance at
Gwynn who had managed to shoulder her way in beside her. Beside her, Linna looked as tense as ever, her muscles primed to pounce at the first sign of trouble. Not for the first time, Evie wished she knew what the midnight-skinned alien was reading from those around her. A little telepathy could go a long way in that moment.
"This is Illyrian Pfersa." Evie had yet to gain any real skill in reading the tones of the Rohtet as they spoke, but if she had to guess, Illyrian was at least a bit surprised by the call. Not surprising as Evie had made this whole thing up on the fly. But Illyrian had helped them before, would he do it again?
"We have two humans and the Terssa here. They are attempting to get into a restricted area, claiming to be on your mother's orders."
The pause that followed could have stretched out for years as far as Evie knew. Only the sound of gunfire punctuated the silence.
"Let them pass."
"You know your mother has sanctioned this?"
"No, but I know we all have better things to be doing in this moment. These people mean no harm, and we have no reason to suspect them of dishonesty."
The Rohtet eyed their group warily. This hadn't exactly been the enthusiastic endorsement Evie and been hoping for, but maybe it would be enough anyway.
They let them pass without so much as another suspicious comment, moving on as though nothing had happened. Like they hadn't potentially just cost them all everything.
Sprocket and the others had to have made it to the engine room already to begin the preparations as they’d discussed. They would be in place, ready to cause a massive energy surge as soon as the prisoners had been returned safely.
And they still had two floors and several labyrinthine sections of the ship to get through to reach their destination. "We need to move faster," Evie said, picking up the pace herself, and hoping the others would follow suit.
Into the Void (Beyond Humanity Book 1) Page 20
