Without warning, Diawn burst into the room. Her jaw dropped when she saw Reht, in the nude, embracing Triel. “What are you doing?!”
“Whoa, darlin’—who put your panties in a bind?”
Diawn snarled at him. “Ro told me what this was all about. You’d better not be giving the package back to her! And you—”
Triel backed away from Reht as Diawn stormed toward him. “Cover your eyes—don’t look at him. You shouldn’t even be here, leech. Don’t they have a cage for you on that Alliance ship?”
“That’s not very ladylike, Diawn,” Reht said, tapping his lip. “Don’t make me put my pants back on.”
“You never take anything seriously, do you?” Diawn hissed, turning on him. She grabbed him by his nether regions, and his eyes burst out of their sockets. “You’re going to sell us out just like always—just for her. But I’m not going to let that happen. Someone has to teach you how to be a good dog-soldier—a good man!”
Triel didn’t even see the weapon Diawn carried until it was too late. She plunged the hunting knife into Reht’s side and withdrew it before he hit the ground. When Jaeia tried to duck out of the way, Diawn kicked her upside the face, sending her flying into the wall, her head cracking against a support beam.
Shocked, Triel didn’t move as Diawn came for her, even when the blade’s edge sliced across her chest. Diawn’s going to kill me.
“I hope you rot in hell, leech.”
The knife rose to her throat. This can’t be how it ends for me—
“Leave her alone.”
The words were like nothing Triel had ever heard. They perforated her mind, inundated every fiber of her being. It was as if she had never heard anything or anyone else before that moment.
“Leave her. Put the weapon down.”
Triel strained to move her head toward the sound. Jaeia stood near the wall, holding the back of her bloodied head. The look in her eyes paralyzed Triel’s heart. That’s not the girl I healed.
Triel turned back to Diawn, whose hands shook wildly. The knife clattered to the floor.
“I—I—I,” she stuttered.
Diawn’s eyes rolled back in her head as the color drained from her face.
What is she doing to her? Triel wondered. It’s just like the controlling act of a Dissembler—
The thought of the Fallen broke her from her trance, and she dove to Jaeia’s side. She placed her hands on Jaeia’s cheeks, touching their foreheads together. This isn’t the pure malice of a Dissembler, she thought. Triel felt the edge of something ferocious and predatory that would stop at nothing until satisfied. But it’s close.
Not knowing what else to do, Triel prayed the ancient peace chant used on the Fallen: Peaceum alas leju.
Jaeia held onto her wrists and pushed her away. Two gray eyes met hers. “It’s okay.”
Triel gulped for air. “What was that?”
Jaeia shivered. “I’ll explain later.”
Just as the words left her mouth, Mom tore through the captain’s door, knocking it off its hinges. He let loose a deafening roar, and even Reht, barely conscious, covered his ears. Ro trailed behind, rifle in hand, teeth bared.
The Talian grabbed Diawn up by the ankles. When she tried to free herself, he snapped at her face, and she immediately froze. With the situation well in hand, the Healer went to Reht’s side.
“I’m alright, I’m alright,” Reht said, clutching the wound in his abdomen.
“We need to get you treated,” Triel said, touching his clammy skin.
Reht scoffed, bracing the wound. “I’ll be fine.”
Mom dangled Diawn near the captain’s face so he could inspect her.
“Set her down. We need to have a chitty-chat.”
Mom dropped her, letting her hit the plated floor with an audible crack, and moved to Triel. Glowering, he pointed to the slash mark across her chest.
“I’ll live,” she said, touching his shoulder.
“Launnie, get out of here. This is private soldier business now,” Reht said to Jaeia.
“Reht, please. She’s not right—” Jaeia begged.
She’s anticipating Reht’s next move, Triel realized. She can see that one of his greatest strengths is also his greatest weakness.
Diawn, disheveled and shaking on the ground, looked at Jaeia with contempt. “What the hell do you know? I’ll slit your throat—”
“Baby, that temper of yours—we’re going to fix that right now.” Reht reached around to the clothing storage unit and pulled out his 6M handgun. Diawn, who had begun to rise, slowly sat back down as Reht pointed it at her head.
“You have to kill her, Reht, or she will kill you,” Jaeia whispered.
“She ain’t killin’ anyone right now. Don’t worry, little lady. Now go and take care of your own business.”
“Captain—”
“What, your ears all gummed up, kid? Want me to clean ‘em out for ya?” Ro yelled, sticking his rifle into Jaeia’s ear. She put up her hands and slowly backed away.
As Jaeia turned to go, Triel touched her shoulder to read her biorhythm. Within Jaeia dwelled a strange knowing, intangible and indescribable, that had spread through her body like ripples in water radiating from a dropped stone. This has set in motion something terrible that we’ll one day have to face.
“She’s right, Reht.”
“Starfox, love,” Reht said, in his most charming voice. “Why don’t you mosey back to the Gallegos; they already got me on a short enough leash, yeah?”
There was no stopping Reht now. With a heavy heart, Triel followed Jaeia out to the umbilicus that connected the Wraith to the Gallegos.
“Wait, please,” she said.
Jaeia turned her head slightly toward her but continued to decode the hatch lock.
“What just happened?”
Jaeia paused. “That’s my unique power—my ‘second voice.’ I can control people with words.”
“It seemed…very powerful,” Triel said, choosing her words carefully.
“I’m sorry,” Jaeia said, shoulders hunching. “I don’t risk using it in full unless it means life or death. I can’t really control my talent, and neither can Jetta; they seem to control us. Things always goes too far.”
Triel suddenly realized why Jaeia had come to her for help. “Is that how you’re planning to defeat Jahx—using a power you can’t control?”
Jaeia shook her head as she looked down the dark tunnel of the accessway. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
***
“You,” the dog-soldier captain said, grabbing Diawn by her hair. “You are through here.”
Reht tore the cuff off his shirt and spat on it, then wiped it across his wound, the two fluids together staining the cloth black. He passed the cloth to Ro and Cray, who took turns spitting into it. When Tech and the others finally ran into the room and saw the cloth, they turned their backs to her.
Diawn tried to get to her feet, but not quickly enough for Reht. He grabbed her again by the hair and dragged her to the escape pod access attached to his den.
“Don’t ever come back.”
“Reht, please!” she begged, clinging to his shirt. Tears streamed from her eyes, smudging her dark makeup. “I love you! I did this for you—the leech is poisoning your mind! You’re the only one that ever—”
“You’re lucky I don’t kill you.”
The dog-soldier captain shoved his pilot inside the cramped compartment of the escape pod along with the emblem of her rejection. He knocked the control release panel off with the heel of his boot and ejected the pod manually.
“We should have killed her, Reht,” Cray hissed as the pod disappeared into the darkness of space. “It’s tradition, you know.”
Reht shook his head. If the crew had realized how unstable Diawn was, they probably would have mutinied a long time ago. But her instability made her a valuable asset. She did things for me that would have sucked the soul out of any other Sentient.
Some
where in the depths of his conscience, he felt the truth: She was my responsibility.
(I failed her.)
If this was a mistake, he would have to pay for it later.
Chapter VII
In less than an hour the Gallegos would reach the Alliance Central Starbase. When the admiral summoned Jaeia to his office, she wasn’t surprised.
He probably wants to run through battle strategies or review the latest intelligence reports before, she told herself. But when she stepped into his office and discovered he had requested her exclusively, her assumptions turned to dread.
“Admiral,” Jaeia said, standing in front of the red fabric chairs positioned around his desk.
He was reviewing a file, his eyes moving back and forth rapidly, the screen turning his face blue and white as he skipped through the pages.
Finally, with a controlled breath, he turned toward her. “Jaeia, please, have a seat.”
She did, careful not to make a sound as she listened for his thoughts.
“How are you doing with all this?”
She didn’t really understand the question. “Fine, I guess.”
The admiral steepled his hands underneath his chin. “This isn’t a test. There are no recording devices. They are our only witnesses,” he said, tilting his head at the stars streaking past the window as the ship made another jump.
“I don’t know what answer you’re looking for,” Jaeia said.
“Remember when you asked me if your presence bothered me?”
Jaeia nodded.
The admiral formed words with his mouth, but there was no sound. Finally, sweeping his hand across the top of his head, he said, “You remind me—you and your sister—of someone that I let down a long time ago. And I can’t do that again.”
Not knowing what to say, Jaeia waited for him to continue. Unlike her sister who rushed conversations, she found that silence would sometimes trigger the other person to share more.
The admiral cleared his throat. “I am worried about you, Jaeia. You more so than Jetta. The reports I received from Intelligence may differ with me, but I truly believe that you’re the one who needs to be in that chair.”
Jaeia frowned. “I’m sorry, I don’t follow.”
The admiral pushed himself away from the desk. He made his way slowly to the window and faced the stars. After a seemingly endless silence a lighter clicked, and the smell of maple spice and burnt hay wafted across the room, making Jaeia’s nose wrinkle.
“You and I both know that, in the end, it will be your decision,” he said evenly.
Jaeia swallowed hard and rubbed her palms across the fabric of the chair.
“Your sister isn’t the type to give up, is she?” he said, taking another drag from his cigar.
Jaeia looked at her feet, but they disappeared in the sudden blur of tears.
“No,” Jaeia whispered, her voice catching in her throat.
“That’s why I’m worried about you. When the time comes, what will you do to ensure victory? What will you do to beat Jahx?”
She closed her eyes and wished it was all a dream. If only I could wake up...
Jaeia always knew the time would come when she and Jetta would be at odds over something that couldn’t be resolved with reason or by touching minds. Jahx told me to be Jetta’s anchor, but this time anchoring Jetta might not be enough.
She wished the admiral would talk, but he patiently waited for her. Before she could tailor her response, the words poured right out of her. “You have no idea how much I love my brother.”
Jaeia covered her face with one hand and rubbed the fabric with the other, hard enough to abrade her skin. “I’m always managing my sister’s emotions—or at least trying—and she doesn’t even ask how I feel. She just assumes she’s the only one that cares that he’s gone, and somehow it’s her responsibility to bring him back. I want him back too, don’t you understand that?”
The admiral extinguished the cigar on his boot. “I do, Jaeia, I do.”
“I don’t want to fight him, and I—I resent that you’re asking me to do it.”
The admiral moved to the corner of his desk and sat on the edge. He looked as if he wanted to place a hand on her shoulder, but he settled for resting it on a datafile.
“But I will, don’t worry,” she said, wiping her tears on her sleeve. “Because I know what I saw; he died many months ago, and whatever he is now isn’t anything like him. Jahx would never want us to allow him to become somebody’s weapon.”
“How will you do it, Jaeia?” the admiral asked gently. The fatherly look in his eyes was something she both appreciated and resented.
Jaeia shivered. “I will do what I have to in order for the Starways to be safe. I will do what I have to in order to save my sister.”
The admiral folded his hands across his lap. His face turned hard and his nostrils flared. “I am giving you command of the Alliance Fleet. I am entrusting you with the lives of all the Sentients of the Starways.”
“I know.”
“Furthermore, you are a child, a telepath...” he said, trailing off. Doubt crept around the edges of his thoughts. “It was not easy for me to make this happen.” He looked straight through her. “Please, tell me I am not wrong to trust you.”
The boy in the coolant room appeared by her side, his accusing eyes watching her every move. She wished she could reassure the admiral, but she couldn’t.
“May I be excused, Sir?” He didn’t give her any indication either way, but when she tried to leave he caught her by the arm. “Do whatever it takes to win, Jaeia. It’s what Jahx would have wanted.”
***
By the time they had arrived on the Alliance Central Starbase, the admiral had already briefed them three times on what little remained of the Fleet and the Homeworld territories. Jetta’s heart sank even further as the admiral outlined the composition of their forces.
“... and the Iuti have one warship, two battleships, and about fifty-two fighters readied at the Homeworld Perimeter. It’ll be our last defense. Let it not come to that,” the admiral said grimly.
Minister Razar and the chancellor of the General Assembly joined their company in the war room, closely monitoring their discussion from the observation deck. Jetta hated the observers—it just reminded her of her days with the Core. Part of her expected Rogman to come storming out of the crowd, his troop of specialized guards at his heels, ready to dispense the next round of games and punishment.
Jetta, her sister called, be here now.
Jetta straightened up. “What about the Deadwalkers?” she asked, studying the projected map of the Homeworlds.
“It’s hard to estimate,” Unipoesa began, but something made him pause. “Even if they converted all of the Dominion starships into Liiker vessels, it still wouldn’t account for the size and mass of their Fleet.”
“You mentioned they were abducting Sentients. It would be logical to assume then that they’re stealing their technology, too,” Jaeia commented, looking at a hologram of a converted Dominion ship.
Tentacles and antennae perforated the hull of the warship. Jaeia rotated the axis of the ship, exposing the bony spires jutting out of fuel tanks. At the stern of the ship, plasma reactors spewed greenish spores into the vacuum of space. The fuselage, deformed by a newly-formed exoskeleton, shimmered with a slick resin.
Jetta could barely keep back her revulsion.
“Yes,” the admiral said. “That possibility has been explored. There’s some type of distortion field around their vessels blocking our long range sweeps, so we can’t get an accurate reading. Even our probes can’t get close to their front line.”
“What’s your best guess?” Jetta asked.
Unipoesa clasped his hands together. “They outmatch us at least ten to one.”
Jaeia’s doubt rattled around inside her head. Fighting the Motti’s army is near suicide. Outnumbered and outgunned, they were just two telepaths against an entire army of talented beings with the most p
owerful telepath in the galaxy at the helm.
It’s like I’m four again, and Yahmen’s come home drunk, Jetta imagined, seeing his silhouette in the doorway. How do I defeat an enemy that’s so much bigger and stronger than me?
Rage, unmitigated by time, came alive from memory. (How can I face an enemy I don’t understand?)
Jetta gnawed on the inside of her cheek, trying not to let the admiral see her increasing uncertainty. What’s left to save, after all? The Motti have obliterated over half the habitable planets in the Homeworld territories.
Jaeia sighed and put down the list of starcraft she was studying. “How is this going to work?”
“My voice has been recorded into the communications tower. Whatever you say will be filtered and then transmitted to the Fleet.”
Admiral Unipoesa must have seen the fear in her eyes. “Remember, the commanding link to the Liiker force is your brother’s mind. You understand him and know how he thinks. Use this to your advantage.”
Though the admiral meant this as advice, it only made Jetta feel worse. The Motti are exploiting his ability to predict his enemy. Anything we do is futile.
In the back of her mind she saw her brother’s face. A shy smile and bright blue eyes reminded her of her promise. No. I’ll act quickly, before the part of him that’s been taken by the Motti has a chance to react.
Jetta shot a glance at her sister before moving to sit in one of the two command chairs installed for them in the adjacent campaign room. The area was designed for consultations and private meetings and was ill-equipped to house the bundles of wires, monitors, and projector/processors necessary for combat command.
It’s hard to breathe, Jetta heard her sister think. The air, stagnant and hot from all the humming machinery, seemed to press down on them in the cramped space.
Triorion: Awakening (Book One) Page 43
