“Because I might die?” Siv groaned. “You’re right.” He took a few breaths then started. “Oona has already gone through her awakening.”
Oona nearly stood up inside the car. “I have?”
“When?” Kyralla asked.
“Several weeks ago.”
Kyralla shook her head. “That’s not possible. The awakening is a big ordeal. We would’ve noticed.”
Oona put a hand over her mouth. “Oh!”
Kyralla frowned. “Oona? Did something happen?”
Oona explained her dream experience in the sensory deprivation chamber. “I thought it was a just a weird dream, a nightmare. I told Uncle Pashta, but he didn’t think anything of it.”
“Yet he betrayed us two weeks later,” Kyralla added. “You should have told me.”
“I really didn’t think it was that big of a deal, or I would have told you.” She sighed. “That can’t actually be the awakening, can it? There was hardly anything to it.”
“The priestess called you a chosen one. It's apparently some kind of Ancient thing because she seemed kind of surprised that you weren't one of her people,” Siv told her. “She said the awakening isn’t that big of a deal. The ordeal ahead of you is called the Trial of Corruption. It’s dangerous for her people, so she thinks it would be nearly impossible for a human to survive it. But she thinks you’d have a much better chance if she could guide you through the process.”
“And this Ancient priestess is on the Outworld Ranger?” Kyralla asked.
“Apparently so.”
Kyralla turned to look at her sister. There was a determination in Kyralla’s eyes that Siv hadn’t seen before. “I will get you to her, Oona. I swear.”
Before anyone could ask any more questions or make any of the connections that Siv felt on the verge of making, Bishop hopped back into the car.
“I’ve connected all the spare power packs we have to the engine and made some daring adjustments. We’re ready to go.”
“We should lighten our load more,” Mitsuki said. “Everyone turn your antigrav units on. Silky, how long will the trip to the city take?”
Silky didn’t answer, so Kyralla did. “Five and a half hours, based on our previous speed.”
“I think we should set them to be maxed out for the next four hours,” Bishop said.
Kyralla gripped the steering wheel. “Okay then, are we ready?”
“Silky?” Siv asked.
“Processing, sir…”
“Hurry it up,” Mitsuki complained.
A minute later, the chippy responded. “Okay, I just finished analyzing the situation. There are two Dagger Fists waiting for us outside the tunnel we would’ve taken if I hadn’t known about the old mines. They will detect us eventually, but they are the lesser concern. There are two other strike-fighters circling high above the desert, and every defense satellite in orbit is, of course, scanning the region. Hopefully, the combination of the sensor jamming functions in Siv’s sensor array and the car’s shimmer veil will keep us hidden long enough.”
“So no good news,” Kyralla grunted.
“The focus of their search is still on the other side of the mountains,” Silky said. “That’s a definite plus.”
“Let’s go,” Siv said. “Every moment we waste here is another moment I don’t have left.”
Kyralla slammed the accelerator.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Silky
Silky no longer needed to help Kyralla, so over the next several hours he put all his effort into tracking the strike-fighters and boosting the jamming sequences, using a rotational frequency he thought would work best against both the Dagger Fists and the satellites in orbit.
Several times he mentioned how they never would have stood a chance in hell of escaping before the Benevolence fell, taking many of the high-end satellites with it. The others didn’t seem to appreciate how much of an advantage the technological collapse was in this circumstance.
The skimmer car practically flew toward the ruined city. Silky had to admit, Bishop was a damned fine engineer, especially when it came to jury-rigging quick solutions. He was a lot like Siv and Mitsuki that way, except with engineering instead of stealing and getting out of tight spots.
He mulled over everything Siv had told them about his visionary experience, but no matter how Silky tried, he couldn’t make sense of it. All the information he needed was probably within the locked folder, waiting to be opened. And he feared the moment of its opening was coming all too soon.
Siv was weak and cranky. He should probably leave him alone, but Silky couldn’t help the damnable curiosity burning within him. “Are you sure you didn’t leave anything out, sir?”
“Silky, can you please let it go. I told you everything. Now let me—”
“Sorry, sir. You’ll have to scold me later.” Silky switched to the comm so he could speak to everyone. “We’ve been made. The two Dagger Fists from above are diving our way, and the two at the tunnel exit have turned and are heading toward us.”
“ETA?” Mitsuki asked.
“Twenty minutes for the ones above.”
“And our ETA for the ruined city?” Siv asked.
“Twenty minutes.”
Bishop leaned forward. “Kyralla, tap the override button and put the car into full speed.”
“Why weren’t we doing that already?” Mitsuki asked.
“Because turning off the governor might blow the engine,” Bishop said. “Or rather, it will blow the engine, sooner than later. But I don’t think we have a choice but to take that gamble now.”
No one disagreed, so Kyralla pressed the button, and the car’s speed increased another ten percent.
“I’m readying the emitter,” Bishop added.
“I suspect they’ve adapted their frequencies to avoid it,” Silky said, “but it’s worth a shot.”
A large object popped up into his scan. “And now we have a battlecruiser dropping in from orbit.”
“Don’t forget we still have the problem of actually finding the hangar with the ship,” Mitsuki said.
“I’ve narrowed the possibility down to the western section of the old spaceport,” Silky told them. “But depending on how close I need to be for the information about it to unlock, it could take a while. It’s a large area.”
“I can find it,” Oona said. “I can feel the priestess out there now, like a faint psychic pulse. I think once we’re nearer it will be strong enough for me to lead us right to her.”
With the propulsion engine maxed, the car screamed across the desert, kicking sand and debris into the air.
“Bishop’s trick will get us into the city a minute ahead of the strike-fighters,” Silky said.
“It’s lucky they want us alive,” Siv said, his voice trembling almost as much as his hands. “Otherwise, they’d launch a few missiles and call it a day.”
“Oona,” Silky said, “I’ve just sent a map of the old spaceport to Artemisia. When you get a location on the priestess, map it and send that to Rosie, so Kyralla will know where to go.”
She nodded. “I can do that.”
When they plunged into the outskirts of the city, the Dagger Fists were visible on the horizon. Silky poured everything he had into covering their location, but it didn’t help. The ships had a lock on them now.
Bishop activated the emitter. Nothing happened. Silky started rotating the signal, but he could only change it once every fifteen seconds.
As they neared the center of the city, Oona shouted, “Got it!”
Kyralla slammed the brakes, cracked a hard turn, then accelerated again. The engine changed from wailing like a banshee to groaning like a dying man. It sputtered once, then twice.
Bishop patted the frame. “Come on, girl, you can make it.”
People were so ridiculous with their superstitions and their insistence on asking inanimate objects to perform better. Though to be fair, Silky wished he could give the car a few encouraging pats.
; “It should be right ahead,” Oona said.
The engine blew. Flames shot out of the rear propulsion system, and smoke belched out from under the hood. The shimmer veil failed, and the force field lost fifty-three percent power. Fortunately, the antigrav held.
There was certainly no hiding now.
They coasted forward, slowing steadily. With the last of the momentum left, Kyralla steered them toward a tiny building, half the size of Siv’s dumpy apartment. Was that it?
A program started up in Silky’s memory, and a prompt appeared, waiting for him to answer.
The moment he dreaded had come. He wished fervently that he didn’t have to do this.
He answered the prompt. “He needs to know.”
The folder /Gav-Gendin-Secrets unlocked.
And in one terrible moment, Silky remembered every detail about Gav’s death, who had killed him and why. He recalled the priestess, the Ancient vessel, the sentinel outpost, and a number of things Gav hadn’t known about, things that Silky had locked away for good reason. He knew who and what had destroyed the Benevolence, and why. And he remembered the not insignificant part he himself had played in its demise.
He had locked it all away because it wasn’t supposed to matter, not ever again. But destiny had brought them back here, and he couldn’t deny that. He would have been more than content though, to live out the rest of his existence without this knowledge.
He had a major part to play on a galactic scale once again. So he conjured to memory the smile Eyana, his first charge, a daring Empathic Services agent, had always made in dire situations like this, the smile that always said, “I’m going to put a positive spin on this because I’m defying reality right now.”
With her image foremost in his memory, he steeled his resolve. It was his time to shine. It was time to make the “x” in 9G-x sexy again.
They coasted to a stop just short of the little building.
He’d let three precious seconds tick by while he reviewed all the information that opened to him. There was no more time to waste.
The two strike-fighters dropped into hover mode to the side of them. Their weapons active.
“And we’re screwed,” Mitsuki said.
A voice blared at them over a loudspeaker. “Do not move any farther. Stay in your vehicle. You are under arrest. This is your only warning. We are authorized to use force.”
“But not deadly force,” Siv muttered, half awake, half dead. Silky had stopped monitoring his current charge’s health because it was too distracting, and too depressing.
Silky entered the codes for accessing Gav’s secret hangar and opened a channel to the Outworld Ranger. This was the moment of truth. The ship had sat unused for a century. It might be out of power. It might have fallen into disrepair.
Octavian answered him!
“Awaiting instructions, Silky. I have kept the ship and the hangar in tip-top shape as Gav requested.”
“Is it powered?”
“Yes, Silky.”
Bless his titanium hull, Octavian was the most annoying chunk of metal in the galaxy, but he was so damned good at doing what he did best.
With every bit as much satisfaction as it was possible for him to feel, Silky broadcast a command sequence into the hangar.
Showtime, bitches.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Siv Gendin
The convulsions struck Siv as they coasted to a stop, but now, as the two strike-fighters dropped in on them, his symptoms faded. But not in a good way. The boost of life force the priestess had given him was gone. His vitals were dropping. His body was giving in to death.
The end had come, and he discovered he didn’t mind. He was tired of the pain. And was exhausted from battling the desperate Kompel cravings he’d hidden from the others. Not a few times, he’d considered, if for only a fleeting moment, calling Big Boss D to try to work out some sort of deal in exchange for just one more dose.
If someone were to offer him an injector of Kompel right now when he was at his weakest, in exchange for betraying everyone, he would have done it without a doubt. He would’ve had no choice. And he would’ve hated himself for it. But this way…this way he could meet death with a clean conscience.
His dad’s ghost appeared in the car, confirming his impending demise. The ghost might be only a memory, but he found it a comforting one, and he was glad to see him now at the end.
His dad smiled, despite the situation. “You made it to the Outworld Ranger, Siv. The ship is yours now.”
Siv weakly coughed a laugh. “Too late, Dad. I’m dying.”
“Have you forgotten the inhaler of Awake?”
“The Awake?” He had forgotten it. “That would only buy a few minutes at best.”
“It will give you a chance.”
“What’s the point? We’re beaten, and all is lost. I’d rather go now, while I’m at peace with it.”
“Son, a lot of people are depending on you. Now is not the time to be selfish. Think of your mother. What would Shira do?”
“Mom?” He sighed. “She’d charge into a building guns blazing to save the lives of innocent people she’d never met before, knowing the odds were against her.” He knew this, because that was exactly how she had died.
“There’s even more than a few innocent lives riding on you.”
Siv heard the others talking, but their voices were distant. Could they hear him talking to his dad? Based on their conversation, he didn’t think so.
“So what do we do?” Kyralla asked. “Surrender?”
“Guns and glory is my preference,” Mitsuki said. “I can’t let them capture me, not after I told them I was Silustria Ting.”
“I’m sure when they find out you aren’t her, they’ll be more lenient,” Oona said.
“Hardly. They’ll want to know how I know anything about her, and they’d torture me on the merest chance that I might know even one of her secrets.”
“Oona must survive, though” Bishop said. “Even if that means being captured. The Terran Federation surely wouldn’t hurt her.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Kyralla said. “There’s a reason we hid from them.”
“They did some nasty experiments on the last several messiahs that popped up,” Oona said. “They claimed they were trying to help them.” She shrugged. “I suppose chancing they’ll experiment on me is better than dying…maybe.”
“How many of you are there?” Mitsuki asked.
“One pops up somewhere in the galaxy every couple of years,” Kyralla answered.
“Tits of the ‘Nevolence,” Mitsuki replied.
“So what’s it going to be?” Bishop asked.
“I’m going out in style,” Mitsuki said. “The rest of you stay here if you want.”
“But you’re good at escaping, right?” Bishop argued. “Maybe you could break out of prison.”
“Not this time, little gizmet. Not this time.”
Siv tried to wave or call out but they were too involved in their discussion to notice. Finally, he managed to grab Oona’s arm.
“What is it?” she asked, worried.
“Inhaler…in my belt pouch.”
She pulled it free and gave it to him. His hands were shaking too much to use it, so she helped him. As he inhaled three full doses of the drug, far beyond the safe limit, a fire lit within his mind, and some strength infused his muscles.
“I guess maybe it was fun knowing you lot,” Mitsuki said as she got out of the car.
“Mitsuki, wait!” Oona cried.
She paused and met Oona’s eyes. “I did my best to get you out of here. I’m sorry I failed you.”
Mitsuki slammed the door shut then walked out in front of the car to face the strike-fighters.
With a surge of energy from the Awake, Siv sat up, shivered, then opened the door.
“Not you too!” Bishop said. “You’re too sick to—”
“To die?” Siv laughed, almost maniacally.
He was alert, and
for the first time in a week, he felt genuinely good. He could handle this.
Kyralla leaned back. “Siv…”
“Let me go,” he replied. “I’ve only got…”
“Two and a half minutes, sir. Why wouldn’t you respond to me?”
“I was busy dying, and talking with Dad.” As he shut the door, he told the others, “I’ve only got about a minute left. I’d like to spend it doing whatever I can.”
He walked out and stood beside Mitsuki. “Didn’t think you were going to do this alone, did you?”
Mitsuki raised an eyebrow at him. “Can’t believe your alive, Sivvy. I want a hit of what you took, okay?”
“Before or after you’ve been shot through with a plasma bolt?”
“After.”
“Come get us!” Siv yelled, deploying his helmet and drawing his plasma pistol. “If you’re man enough!”
Mitsuki laughed, raising her plasma carbine. “I’m ready and willing, boys!” She flashed an obscene gesture at them with her other hand.
“Egads, sir, the both of you are such drama queens. And though I’d love to watch the show, this is my moment, and I need you to take a step back. Now.”
“Put down your weapons and surrender immediately,” an irritated soldier yelled over the loudspeaker, “or you will be neutralized!”
Mitsuki deployed her helmet. “You can try!”
Something clanked and whirred beneath them, and the ground beneath them began to quake.
“Sir!”
Siv stepped back, grabbing Mitsuki by the arm and pulled her along with him. Startled by his touch, she fired her carbine into the cockpit of the strike-fighter on the right. The shots glanced off the craft’s force field.
The strike-fighter returned fire with a guided round that could hit only her. Which was smart, because that way they wouldn’t risk hurting Oona.
Siv activated his force shield and leapt in front of Mitsuki. The round exploded against the shield, knocking it out and tossing them back into the car. The fiery remnants that made it through the shield scorched their armor and blackened the faceplates on their helmets.
Rogue Starship: The Benevolency Universe (Outworld Ranger Book 1) Page 31
