“How much time do you have left?” Kyralla asked in a whisper.
“A few days before I’m useless…then just a few more till…death.”
Oona flipped on the rest of the lights just as Bishop made it down the stairs. Bright overheads illuminated the room, and spotlights focused attention on the nonfunctioning cogs.
“Sweet Benevolence and everything that’s good, holy, bad, or evil in this world!” Bishop exclaimed. “I’m never leaving this basement!”
He ran through the room, spinning as he did to get a good look at the cogs lined up along the walls. His face beamed like a supernova, and he giggled like an idiot. It was like watching a kid getting every present he could ever want on a single Benevolence Day.
A series of trills and beeps sounded at the top of the stairs. Dinner was ready.
“Could Seneca bring my food down here?” Bishop asked.
“Nope, you’re eating with everyone else,” Mitsuki said.
“Who made you the boss?” Bishop complained.
“I’m in charge of getting these girls off planet, and we need to start planning right away, while Siv can still help.”
“She’s right,” Siv told him. “You can come down here afterward.”
Pouting, Bishop nodded and trudged upstairs along with all the others, save Oona.
She peered at Siv with her deep, black eyes. “You saw your dad again, didn’t you?”
“How did you know?”
“I sensed a presence here with us.”
“So maybe it’s real, after all.”
“I believe so.”
“Silky couldn’t see him, and he disappeared when Mitsuki came down, calling to me.”
“If your chippy cannot see him, then it must be something mystical or extrasensory in nature. I’m sorry we broke your concentration.”
Siv shrugged. “I might have lost him anyway. I can’t seem to hold the connection for long.”
Oona took his hands. “Siv, I don’t want you to suffer.”
“Thanks. I don't either. But there’s really nothing that can be done. And I am going to die. You understand that, right?”
“I do,” she said with a nod. “Don’t forget that I’m likely going to die too, during my awakening.” She released his hands and shrugged. “But you know, perhaps death isn’t the end we thought. You should ask your dad about that when you see him again.”
“If I see him again,” Siv responded.
“I’m confident you will,” Oona said. “He seems to come to you whenever you approach death.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Siv Gendin
Hardly anyone spoke as they ate, except to comment on the quality of the food. They were all too tired or preoccupied for much else. But at least the food was excellent. The caretaker cog could perform absolute wonders with a nutrient block. After an appetizer and two main courses, Seneca served homemade zii fruit cobbler. Siv realized with a twinge of regret that, with everything that had happened, the girls wouldn't be able to fully appreciate the treat. It was his favorite.
Kyralla might be remarkably strong and brave, and Oona almost zen-like, but the attack on them and the betrayal and subsequent death of their uncle would soon hit them like a hammer to the heart. Siv understood all too well. You could put the pain and turmoil out of mind for a while, but it would catch up with you-sooner rather than later. It always did.
He considered not discussing business now, while everyone was exhausted, but he wasn’t going to have many more opportunities to help them out. He pushed his empty cobbler bowl away with a sigh. Seneca swept in and politely removed it.
“So, we need to discuss our options.”
“We need a starship, right?” Kyralla asked. “That much seems obvious.”
Mitsuki shrugged. “That depends. Would it be better to hide out here and wait for your father? Or would it be better to run from your enemies and into space to meet him? The first option risks you being found here while waiting. The second option presents difficult hurdles: getting a starship with a captain you can trust and risking being caught in space. There are fewer avenues of escape in space, unless you have a fast ship and a good pilot.”
“I would prefer space,” Kyralla said. “I don’t like sitting here, and…”
“You’re worried your father won’t be able to make it back here safely?” Siv asked. “Or, at least, not without attracting unwanted attention?”
Kyralla nodded.
Mitsuki’s eyes met Siv’s. She was thinking the same thing he was: that either their father was dead or that people were watching him already, hoping he would lead them to Oona.
“They need a starship, Mits. Their uncle betrayed them. Their location was known. That means their father’s identity is also known. Even if he’s allowed to get here safely, he will lead every interested party straight to them.”
“Then we need a ship and a good pilot,” Mitsuki said.
“We could hop on a freighter,” Kyralla suggested.
“Stowing away on a freighter…that could work,” Mitsuki said, “but it’s tricky. Especially if you get caught before you’re away from Ekaran IV. And you’d need one to take you to your dad, who’s…where is he?”
“Titus II,” Oona said. “He’s a diplomat, and he’s working on a trade deal.”
Mitsuki frowned. “The chances of finding a freighter going to Titus II are slim. Bishop, Siv, either of you know any good pilots with a ship of their own?”
Bishop shook his head. “Not a one.”
“Few,” Siv said, “and they all work for the Shadowslip.”
“We’re going to need an independent mercenary then.”
“What if we acquired high quality disguise masks and altered our appearances as much as possible and then booked passage on a starship?” Kyralla asked.
“You’re definitely not going to find many passenger ships heading to Titus II,” Mitsuki replied. “Though you could bounce from a nearby system to there using a mercenary starship from another world. Did you arrange for an emergency rendezvous point with your father? Some planet where you would all meet if you got separated.”
“That never occurred to us,” Kyralla said. “Sadly…” she frowned and shifted uncomfortably “…our skill set was lacking. I know how to handle myself in a fight, and my dad knows diplomacy. We didn’t have a security expert or any well-intentioned criminals to help us plan eventualities.”
“When is your dad supposed to return?” Siv asked.
“In ten days,” Oona replied.
“You could take a passenger ship to Alterra, where no one should be looking for you yet,” Mitsuki said. “From there you could hope to catch something going to Titus II. But the chances of all of that happening in less than ten days, given standard travel times, is slim.”
“And there’s still a big problem with the passenger ship route,” Siv said. “Whipping up believable fake identities is a lot harder than you think.”
“You seem to have dozens,” Kyralla said.
“All of them were either given to me by the Shadowslip or were painstakingly crafted. It’s as much art as science, and it takes time to build up a solid one. You could try a dodgy one, but with the enemies you’re dealing with, and with the government stirred up about it too, you’re running a big risk.”
“They’re going to be scanning everyone that even remotely looks like the two of you,” Bishop said. “DNA, heat signatures, facial recognition, fingerprints, retinal scans…the works.”
“He’s right,” Mitsuki added. “Security is going to be incredibly tight at every spaceport, and probably on every form of public transportation, too. So I think we’re settled on the only good option, the only one most likely to succeed.”
“We are?” Kyralla asked in confusion.
Siv nodded. “We need a mercenary starship captain whose silence can be bought.”
“Dumb and greedy but skilled would be ideal,” Mitsuki said. “And we’ll use disguises and the best
fake IDs we can come up with in the time we have. Not so much to fool the ship captain but to fool any planetary authorities who might intercept us in space on a random customs check.”
“There’s probably more of those taking place than normal at the moment,” Bishop added.
“Without doubt,” Mitsuki said. “There will be a ridiculously heightened state of security given the destruction of a Tekk Reaper ship over the city. The government’s going to want to cover their asses and prove they’re keeping people safe. The last thing they want is anyone asking hard questions about why that ship was allowed to make orbit and enter the atmosphere. They will want to appear strong while looking for scapegoats.”
“You’ve been terribly quiet, Silkster. You don’t have anything to add?”
“I do, sir. Only…I don’t want to.”
“You don’t want to give an opinion? I am shocked. Seriously shocked. Have you sustained damage?”
“Sir…your dad’s starship…I lied…it wasn’t destroyed.”
Siv stood abruptly, knocking over his chair and a mostly empty glass of wine. “What?!” he yelled aloud.
“I lied to you, sir.”
“The Outworld Ranger wasn’t destroyed like you told me?!”
The others looked at him as if he had gone mad. Perhaps they were wondering if it was an effect caused by his withdrawal from the Kompel.
“Sivvy, are you okay?” Mitsuki asked.
“What’s the Outworld Ranger?” Bishop asked, his worried eyes locked onto Siv.
“That was Gav Gendin’s starship,” Oona said.
Siv stalked about the room. “How could you?”
“I didn’t want you to go searching for it, sir. It isn’t safe to go there.”
“Why?”
“I’m actually not sure, sir.”
“You don’t know?!”
“Sir, Gav returned from his last expedition on that ship, then hid it at a secret location that he never told you about. Think about it, sir. Obviously he didn’t want you to return there unless it was absolutely necessary.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it? I’m going to die soon. And we need a ship.”
“I know, sir. That’s why I mentioned it. Only…”
“Only what?”
“I’m afraid, sir. Truly afraid. I’m not talking about a pre-programmed routine concerned with keeping you safe from harm. I’m talking about…I think it’s real fear, sir. It feels real to me.”
“You…you’re… Silkster, how could you be afraid?” Siv asked, returning to mental communication. “How can you feel anything?”
“We both know I’m special, sir. And going there scares me.”
Siv continued to pace in circles around the others, who had remained seated at the table. Silky seemed to be farther along the path of fully realized sentience than Siv had thought. Although this might be a particular instance of extreme learned aversion, perhaps the result of locks his dad had put on Silky’s knowledge of past events. Silky had told him from the beginning that much of his dad’s data had been deleted, but Siv had always thought that a lie. Gav Gendin would not have permanently deleted a record of anything he had discovered. He certainly could have locked them away, though.
Siv tried to gather his composure. “Do you know how to get there?”
“Not directly, sir. I don’t know the exact location.”
“Why would he lock knowledge of the location away from you if he thought I might one day need to go there?”
“Sir, he didn’t lock that information away from me. I deleted it.”
“What? Why would you do that?”
“Sir, there are things I hide even from myself. Things I do not want to know.”
“Huh? Never mind. Go on.” After all these years, he was suddenly discovering hidden depths to Silky.
“As I was saying, sir, I deleted the location of the ship because returning there scared me. However, once you survived those first few years after waking up, I regretted the decision. It wasn’t fair to you, and it didn’t honor Gav’s wishes. I couldn’t bring the information back, but after careful study and deductive reasoning and using what records of your father’s travels I could access, I narrowed the starship’s whereabouts down to a general location. The starship is in a secret hangar in—”
“The wastelands,” Siv said out loud.
“Yes, sir. Specifically, the ancient ruined city of Karoo.”
“That’s why I’ve always been drawn that direction.”
“Perhaps so, sir. Though I don’t know why you’d be instinctively drawn toward the ship.”
Siv peered out the window toward the mountains. “Because returning there is my destiny.”
“Are you mad at me, sir?”
“Yes…no…I don’t know. I’ll figure that out later.”
“I’ve always had your best interests in mind, sir.”
“I’ve never doubted that, Silkster. Do you think the ship would still be operational?”
“Sir, I have no idea. But it’s possible, especially if Gav hermetically sealed the hangar, which I imagine he would have. Also, since few expeditions have been done since then and with the area being so inhospitable, I doubt anyone else has stumbled upon it by accident.”
“Sivvy, what’s the deal?” Mitsuki asked. “What’s going on?”
“I have a starship.”
“Of course, you do,” Bishop said with a laugh. “Probably state of the art and everything.”
“It certainly would be,” Siv replied. “It’s an advanced light cruiser, and it was locked away before the Tekk Plague hit.”
If a jaw could drop and hit the floor, Bishop’s would have.
“That would solve all our problems!” Kyralla said. “Or most of them, anyway.”
“We have no way of knowing if it still runs or if it has enough fuel. And Silky only knows the general location, and he’s not even certain of that.” He quickly explained the rest of what Silky had said to them, filling in the gaps since they’d only heard one side of the conversation.
“So we go there and give it a shot,” Kyralla said. “If it doesn’t pan out, then we move on to the next option.”
“It’s in the wastes, and that’s pretty far to travel on a long shot,” Siv said, arguing against what he desperately wanted to do. He didn’t want to sway them unfairly.
Mitsuki shrugged. “If we can slip out of the city and through the mountains, no one is going to think to look for us out in the wastes. And if it doesn’t pan out, we’ll have thrown them off the trail for a while.”
“We might not be able to access the ship without you there, though,” Bishop said to Siv. “This chance will slip away once you…”
“Die?” Siv asked. “It’s okay to say it.”
“I think we have to play this card first,” Mitsuki said.
Kyralla nodded. “I agree. We give it a shot. And if it doesn’t work, I do have a short-range, encrypted transmitter I can use to contact our dad. He might be able to meet us out there.”
“Are you sure?” Siv asked. “There’s good reason people don't go out into the wastes.”
“Don’t you want to go there?” Bishop asked.
“Obviously, I want to go and see the Outworld Ranger again. So bad you have no idea. I just didn’t want to pressure you.”
“Siv,” Oona said, “your dad may have been a guardian, and he owned an amulet made by the Ancients. There may be answers on that ship that are more important than me returning to my dad. We might find the key to understanding what I’m experiencing. After all, our lore doesn’t mention anything about the Ancients having hyperphasic messiahs or a Benevolence of their own, yet you have a guardian amulet made by them.”
“We have our plan now,” Mitsuki said authoritatively. “Leave it to Silky to have an ace up his sleeve.”
“I suggest we all get some sleep then,” Siv said. “As much as I want to head out immediately, we need rest.”
“We could sleep in shift
s in the skimmer car,” Kyralla suggested.
Siv took one look at her and Oona and knew that wouldn’t be enough for them. “I think we could all use showers and a few proper hours of sleep where we’re not crammed into a can. We’re safe here for now.”
“Six hours,” Mitsuki said. “Then we leave.”
Siv scratched his chin. “I am concerned that the car won’t be able to handle the trip out there. We may need to switch. Especially since you may need it to return here if things don’t work out as planned.”
“I’ll give the car a look over and see what condition it’s in and check the power levels and the antigrav capacitors and such,” Bishop said. “It would be a lot easier and safer if we didn’t need to switch.”
“Don’t you need rest?” Siv asked.
Bishop shrugged. “I don’t need much sleep. And I can rest along the way.”
“I know what you really want, little man.” Mitsuki rubbed the back of his neck, causing him to cringe and smile at the same time. “You want to stay up and plunder through Siv’s cog collection.”
“Yeah…well…it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. And I will check out the car first.”
“Do we need someone to stay up and keep watch?” Kyralla asked.
Siv shook his head. “I have numerous sensors active here. And Silky will be in observation mode.” He turned to Seneca. “I know we just got here, my friend, but we’ll be heading out early in the morning. Could you pack us traveling provisions? As many as we can possibly get into the car.”
Seneca responded with a low moan followed by two affirmative beeps.
Bishop tore off into the garage. Mitsuki took the shower in one bedroom, Oona and Kyralla the other. Siv stepped out onto the back porch and gazed at the mountains. The first stars in the velvety sky twinkled above.
The Outworld Ranger, after all these years…
His destiny lay beyond those mountains and in the wastes after all. He had thought he would die here on the farm, but if he could see the Outworld Ranger…his father’s gleaming starship…one last time…that was even better.
Rogue Starship: The Benevolency Universe (Outworld Ranger Book 1) Page 25
