by Gwynn White
“So, you’re telling me we made this worse?” Keva asked.
“No. You made it better.”
“By killing people.” Sparrow raised her glass in cheers and took a sip.
“By ensuring that the bioagent didn’t come into contact with water, it was not purified, and evaporated directly into the air.”
“That sounds bad.”
“It isn’t. The effects are less potent this way, and the success rate of DNA remapping even lower than the three percent Wilmer had predicted.”
“What do you mean?” Keva pointed to two screens that showed people on the ground, writhing in pain, orange dust swirling in the air around them.
“What you’re seeing is Batch D-65 in its pure form running its course,” ILO said, her tone implying it wasn’t finished with them yet.
Sparrow blinked, looking at Keva.
Keva swallowed her liquor before she choked on it. “ILO, remind me to have a very long conversation with you about tact.”
“What I mean to say is that a full DNA override is exceptionally painful and extremely unlikely to be successful. Even Wilmur only anticipated three percent would survive. It is not likely that those who did would have much of a life left.”
“What do you mean?”
“According to my calculations, it is possible that the survivors would have been remapped physically as well as emotionally, chemically, and mentally.”
“You mean—” Keva didn’t even know what that could mean.
“They would have suffered unimaginably horrible deaths as their bodies and minds were ripped apart while attempting to put them back together in compliance with the compound’s directives,” ILO said for her.
“And now?”
“And now, the bioagent is working through their system without hope of completing the remap of their DNA before they die.”
“It looks like they’re in pain.”
“They are, they are being poisoned by the bioagent as it attempts to change their DNA. However, they will die long before the mapping is complete.”
So, the mercy Keva had been able to grant the people of Red Sky was what? A quicker death? “We failed.”
“What about the miners? The ships?” Sparrow asked.
“After the first two ships were shot down, the miners went to the dark side of Bittermoon where they have not been pursued.”
“And the Tencendor?” Keva asked.
“With the miners.”
“Well, that’s one bit of good news,” Sparrow said dryly.
“There is another piece of information you need to see, though,” ILO said, and the computer monitors were filled with images of children.
The children in each picture stood, dusted themselves off, and marched toward the center of town, a dullness to their eyes.
“How many children were killed?” Keva asked softly.
“Only the ones in the immediate blast radius were harmed by the explosions. All the others appear to be safe.”
“But mind warped,” Sparrow said, her tone full of derision.
Keva knew that look. The children had the same distant look of the Allow Siblings. It was the look of a hive mind. “Would the agent have been able to bond with the kids even without going through the purification system?”
“I do not believe so.”
“Then, why are they hive-minded?”
Sparrow jerked, studied the screens, then pulled back, startled. “They are. How is that possible outside of an engineered pod? As far as I know, mine is the only one to achieve this.”
Keva nodded.
“It shouldn’t be possible,” ILO said. “My calculations…”
“I should—”
“Keva,” ILO said, interrupting her, “the worm is active, and I think you will want to see this.”
The screens changed again, and this time, showed Wilmur standing in front of a mirror wearing only a towel wrapped around his lower body. He studied the wound in his abdomen. A healing pink scar sat where the pistol blast had hit him.
“I could have sworn I’d killed him,” Sparrow said.
Dottie rose to her feet. “He’s engineered,” she said too loudly.
“It would appear so,” Keva said.
“He hates the engineered.”
There was a lot of nuances about the Elite that Keva just didn’t get. A screen beside him flicked to life, and Angelique Poe’s face filled the screen. “Report.”
Wilmur’s smile reflected in the large mirror before he turned to Poe. “It was a much better success than even I intended.”
“Your success rate?”
“Less than expected.”
Poe’s eyes narrowed. “Then, we had no reason to send in the rations.”
“In adults.” His smile widened. “None survived, or are going to survive who have the traits we need, even with the toxin we put in the rations. However, every single child survived who was not hit with the blast.”
Poe pulled back from the screen. “What blast? There should have been no external explosion from the reaction.”
“Kadira was there, trying to stop me.”
“It seems as though she was not able to, although not having the adults we needed to be converted is a loss.”
“No, she helped. When I see that bitch, I will have to thank her.”
“Hmm. What happened?”
“She solved the water issue.”
“How?”
“By allowing it to go off in the middle of the street.”
Poe sucked in her cheeks as she stared at something behind the screen. “How was that helpful? I thought the whole point of adding water to the mixture was so that it did not have adverse effects on the water in the body.”
“That was my understanding as well.”
“And without the water going through the air purifier, the right chemical combination was not obtained.”
“That was the theory, but we were wrong, and thanks to Kadira, we now know that. It appears our scientists did not understand the intricacies of their own creation.”
“The settlement was demolished.”
“It was.”
“And all the adults are dead.”
“They are.”
“And who will work?”
“The children, of course, and now, they will not even complain.”
“You are entirely too cunning.”
“I know.”
Poe lowered her chin. “Do you have any idea what you have just done, Wilmur?”
“Provided the answer we have been searching for?”
“You started a war.”
Keva glanced at Sparrow.
Sparrow didn’t look away from the screen.
“We were already on the brink of civil war, and now that the surveillance video of the bioweapon is being leaked by the Families showing the Four Systems what happened on Red Sky… war is inevitable.”
“If only Raven Fenn obeyed orders and had dropped the bomb when she was supposed to months ago, we would not be in this mess today. We would have our answers and HUMP would be under our complete control.”
Poe quirked her lips. “How many more Batch D-65 devices do you have in production?”
“Thirty-eight. More than enough to curb the rebellion in HUMP and start to work in other systems, like Reyher or Earth.”
“Who cares about the Earth System? It has no further resources we require.”
“But it would curb any rebellious tendencies.”
“Focus on containing HUMP first, but I do wish you had been a bit more discreet. I hadn’t wanted a war so early.”
“Osiris chose this by humiliating me in public.”
“You are too easily wounded. Did you ever find your wife?”
Wilmur tipped his head. “I did.”
“Is she dead?”
“If not, she will be soon.”
Poe shook her head in derision. “Clean up your mess, Wilmur, and get to Heliac Nine as soon as you can. I want you to take the
powder from the units and add only the agent. There is no need to destroy buildings we will just have to rebuild.”
“Of course.”
“And, Wilmur?”
“Yes, Madame Poe?”
“Don’t screw this up again.”
28
How the hell are we getting to Heliac Nine in time?” Keva asked, pushing off to pace the small room. “He has slip drive.”
“That he can’t use,” Sparrow said, her jaw clenched. “The military. You said so yourself.”
Sparrow was right, but Wilmur was changing all the other rules. Maybe he’d change that one, too. She just didn’t know.
Dottie stared at Keva. “What are we doing?” she shouted.
Keva didn’t have an answer for her. “We have to get to Heliac Nine.”
“Keva,” ILO said, “not to alarm you, but The Obsidian Baron is initiating slip drive.”
“ILO,” Keva shouted, running for the door, “start up the engines. Get us into the air. We have to follow.”
“With the military shooting down aircraft?” Sparrow demanded following her. “Think, Keva.”
“If he hits slip speed,” ILO said over the speakers in the corridor, “we will be unable to track him.”
Keva stopped and curled her fingers, clawing the air. What the hell was she supposed to do?
“Do you know where this Heliac Nine is?” Sparrow asked.
“No one does.”
“Wilmur does. Can we hack into his system?” She shrugged. “Get the location?”
“I could,” ARO said over the speaker.
“I didn’t remove you?” ILO asked.
“ILO,” Keva admonished, raising her hand. “ARO, you can hack into his system and get the location?”
“I can. And I can probably disable his slip drive.”
Sparrow glanced at Keva. “That would buy us time.”
“I just need access to ILO’s system.”
Keva’s immediate reaction was to say no.
Dottie looked from Sparrow to Keva and back again as if trying to figure out what they were saying.
Keva sighed. “Do it. ILO, we have to. We need to stop this. We need stop him. You can boot ARO out later.”
“ILO,” ARO said sincerely, “I will not do you damage.”
“I can not trust you.”
The two AIs went silent.
Keva went to the bridge.
“Where are you going?” Sparrow asked, jogging to catch up.
“If they’re busy, we need a pilot.”
“Your AI can’t multitask?”
“I would rather she didn’t have to. ARO is enough of a handful without keeping us from flying into the sun too.” Keva gave Sparrow a tight smile and stepped onto the bridge.
“If they’re going to slow down Wilmur, we need to go check on the Tencendor.”
Keva took the pilot’s chair and ignored Sparrow. Yes. They were in the middle of a race to get to Heliac Nine, and what they needed was to stop for a break.
“Look at it, Keva,” Sparrow said, standing on the other side of the left console bank. “We can’t outrun him even with slip drive out of the equation. And he’s not going to offload Batch D-65 right away. That woman said she wanted modifications done.”
Keva went through the sequence to get her ship’s engines roaring to life. Sparrow had a point. As much as everything in her told her to rush out, to race, she needed to think smart. They didn’t have time for a mistake.
“Plus, Hale has a ship with weapons, and we may need those.”
They might. The navigation console blinked at her, letting her know someone in the copilot’s seat was assisting. She swiveled her seat and found Dottie beginning the initiation sequence for takeoff.
Dottie raised a pale eyebrow as she pushed buttons and started booster sequences for in-atmo flying.
Maybe there’d been reasons Keva saved her that had nothing to do with a promise she made to a dead friend’s sister. Maybe she’d just seen Dottie’s potential.
Probably not.
They were heading to Heliac Nine, and something inside her warned she was taking Dottie and everyone else she’d saved right where whoever pulled her strings wanted them. That didn’t make her feel any better.
“Fine.” Keva released the yoke and pulled Scarlet Harpy off the planet’s surface. “ARO, are you making any headway?”
“He’s hacked the system and interfered with the slip drive,” ILO said. “He’s hobbled most of their propulsion system.” ILO’s voice sounded hesitant to offer the compliment.
“That’s good, ARO. Thank you. ILO?”
She didn’t immediately respond.
Keva took them away from the debris field that had once been the settlement of Red Sky and flew over the long, flat surface of Bittermoon. “He’s helping?”
“Yes,” ILO said. “And somehow he will help himself when he no longer need us.”
“I know.” And Keva did. She’d met many humans like that too. It was unnerving to meet a machine which acted similarly.
“Do you?” ILO asked, her tone indignant. “What happens if that moment occurs when you’re in trouble and need his help?”
“Then, it’ll be just like dealing with humans, ILO,” Keva shouted, the red terrain growing rougher as they approached a high altitude area with a stark drop-off. The landing took careful maneuvering most pilots left to their AIs, but Keva was just as adept as ILO when it came to flying. “Now, ILO, do me a favor and just do the best you can do.”
ILO went silent.
Sparrow took in a deep breath, folding her arms over her chest.
Dottie didn’t say anything as she continued to work her way through her checks of the system. It looked like she was doing damage analysis on the ship, which was all well and good after being in an explosion, but why wasn’t she saying anything? It could very well be that she couldn’t hear what was being said. Keva didn’t know how long it would take for her to hear again.
They flew the rest of the way in silence.
Just before they got to the ridge, the ships came into sight. Dozens of them, most of them mining ships. There wasn’t a lot of free space to park. Where there weren’t ships, people were being dragged and carried out of the ships and made to rest on the dirt. Keva parked Scarlet Harpy—it was going to take her a while to get used to the name if she had the chance to get used to the name—and docked the yoke.
Dottie followed Sparrow off the bridge.
Every instinct in Keva told her to get out of there, to chase after Wilmur, to head to Heliac Nine. Everything in her screamed that they didn’t have time to stop and talk, which was exactly what they were doing.
“ARO,” Keva said before she entered the cargo bay, “what’s the status?”
“He’s stopped Wilmur’s ship,” ILO answered.
Keva sighed. If they survived this, she was going to have to talk to ILO about insecurities. “And Heliac Nine’s location?”
“He still doesn’t have that.”
“Let me know as soon as he does.”
“Of course.”
The cargo ramp was down, and Sparrow was halfway off the ramp when Keva spotted Dottie following behind. Without her mask.
“Dottie,” Keva called, jogging after her. Her muscles groaned. That was the other thing with sitting when they should be acting. Muscles had a chance to “recover” and after being thrown to the ground in an explosion, that recovery didn’t feel great.
Dottie stopped and turned around.
Well, at least her hearing was coming back. Keva picked up a mask and handed it to her. “Don’t forget this.”
“But she’s not.” Dottie gestured with her hand toward Sparrow.
“She’s a HUMPer. Wasn’t born here, but she was raised here.” Keva grabbed a mask and slid it over her own face. “You don’t have to act big and tough. You just need to be able to breathe. How’s your arm?”
Dottie finished clearing her mask, her expression hidden behind the
grille of the mask. “I will be fine.”
“Okay. Well.” Keva stopped Dottie as she moved to continue down the ramp. “Dottie, look. We’re heading into a dangerous situation.”
“And you are going to tell me to stay behind, that I will be a liability.”
“I’m suggesting you should. Yes.”
“No.” Dottie raised a pale brow. “You will need me. I am smart and can assist you.”
“And when we start fighting or when we’re blown out of the sky?”
“I will hide or die.”
Keva took in a deep breath and tightened her grip on Dottie’s arm. “I appreciate the effort, but you don’t need to come just so you can die.”
“And I might be the one reason you survive. I’m tired of you underestimating me.”
“I have two AIs.”
“And I am human.” Dottie gently pulled away from Keva. “Even with as brilliant as ARO is, we could not teach him all the things he needs to know to interact fully in a human environment.”
That would have made Keva feel a whole lot better if Dottie had experience with the rougher society of the Black. But she could no longer discount the qualities Dottie did possess. The girl had proven herself smarter and tougher than Keva gave her credit for. She just had to hope it would be enough.
They had several dozen meters before arriving at the Tencendor, all the while dodging people in various degrees of alertness.
Domino set a man on the ground whom she’d just hauled out of the ship and called to Hale through her mask.
He knelt beside a woman to check on her injuries before he stood, turning.
Keva had a chance to look at him before he knew she was there, all focus and concentration. Was it possible she had found the one good man in the universe? The one man who did the right thing for the right reasons?
Domino gestured with her head.
When Hale saw Keva, he loped into a jog and met them half-way. He hugged Keva close, his arms wrapping her in a constricting embrace. Despite the chaos, he smelled clean.
They’d had sex before, after the heat of battle, to burn off the extra adrenaline, but she never expected this kind of reaction. Though, when she slipped past the awkwardness of it, it did feel…nice. She relaxed slightly and stepped into him.
