Winter Harvest

by Dawn Chapman

  I knew it the moment his brow furrowed. He didn’t even need to shake his head like he did.

  I slammed my fist down on the table. “Devious fucking pair of bitches.”

  “What?” he said.

  I knew the identity of the Wreckers. I knew who had the parts to get me off the planet and Tyto with it.

  I knew Hope City was in grave danger. The friends I’d made, everyone.

  It also meant that Arndale knew I was coming for them. That someone had defied all odds, got through their network of blocks, someone who knew the truth and was aligning all the parts to stop them. They were waiting. They didn’t come straight for me, and that reason was obvious too. They wanted the underground that was and had been forming for all the years we’d been here. They wanted it for every person they took illegally, for every life they pushed past the brink of everything they were. Someone remembered, someone fought. Be it Rytin, Tyto.

  Even those in Hope City itself were many. I had no idea how many, but it was in numbers they were worried about, this wasn’t going on for any other reason.

  Bitch isn’t the word, Hiroto said. What will you do? She’ll know she’s been made.

  Not yet. There were transmissions from the nites in the early hours in the mornings while you slept. You don’t sleep very long, so staying up won’t be an issue either. We have around twenty-eight hours.

  I looked back to the ship. I needed that fucking part.

  QUEST INITIATED – POWER PLAY FOR THE x921 ENGINE LINK

  ACCEPT Y/N

  I clicked the Y and immediately decided the only way this could go down.

  I checked my stat sheet quickly, and saw that anything using my nites was now crossed out. I was done for. What about Xe? I sucked in a breath… I’d gotten so used to her help, her control of the fix-me-up team.

  That was Saskia’s power play. She wasn’t anything without Ishra. It was simple, then. Ishra had to come with us. I didn’t know how the hell I was going to manage it, bar hoping that the large Traixic remembered me at least.

  Find me where Ishra is being kept, I asked Hiroto.

  Just ask Tyto.

  “Will you back me one hundred percent, no matter what happens here today?” I asked Tyto.

  “You already have more control over me than anyone else would have if you wanted it, and you know it.”

  “I’m asking for your commitment to me, instead of the other way around. You want Arndale, you want this to end?” I waved my hand around the room, meaning the whole base, the setup.

  “Yes,” he said. “You have my word.”

  “Then get the guys to the ship, put everything on, get it running. That one part will be ours at the end of the day.”

  I moved to leave the office, knowing I needed Dylan on this too, and he would probably still be eating breakfast. I headed on down towards the mess hall. I bumped into him coming out.

  “Oh hey,” I said, then noticed he was flushed. “Going somewhere?”

  “Hey, oh, Tyto’s called me to see him. Any idea why?” I shook my head, alarm bells going off. “Oh, thought you were heading there too.”

  “No,” I replied. “I’m going to Prez Gardens, to see Ishra. Wonder how the babies are growing.”

  “Oh, they’re big!” he grinned. “Almost wish I was able to take one myself. They’re gonna make one hell of a fighting force when they’re bond capable.”

  I flinched, seeing more of their plan unfolding before me. “Shit, yeah. I bet. You seen anyone else hanging around them when you went?”

  “Yeah, Saskia had a couple of guys and some gal talking with her when I saw her. They looked like they meant business.”

  I stopped walking. I wanted to know who they were. “Tyto ask for you right now?”

  “Yeah, I never thought anything of it.”

  “I just came from his office, and he never mentioned it. Where were you going?”

  “Yard.”

  His face pulled.

  “Yeah, no. With me.”

  “Oh, okay.” He promptly fell in with me. “What’s going on?”

  “You were set up by someone, possibly a hit to take you out.”

  “So what are we doing?”

  “We’re going for them instead, and to lure them out, we’ve got to steal a Traixic.”

  He stopped walking and stared at me with wide eyes. “I sure hope you’re kidding. She’s not gonna go anywhere without her kittens, and I don’t think we’re going to get them anywhere.”

  “Then we need to have a plan.”

  He fell silent for a while as we headed to Prez Gardens. “We have a chance if we get the runt, the one you first pulled out on her, back in the arena.”

  “Why is that one so important?”

  “You don’t know much about them and their species, do you?”

  I didn’t. I hadn’t studied or learned about many of the animals on Tolsa. I wished I had paid more attention to everyone around me.

  Xirob? I asked.

  They’re clan, families. When the mother is close to the end of her life, they’ll pass on control to their herd with the smallest female of her last litter.

  Oh, crap that’s why that little one was so important to her!

  Damn, you had the key to the kingdom in your damned hands and you didn’t know, you gave it away.

  “We’re not going for Ishra, then?”

  “No, we’re going to take the youngster. That will be easier. They’re not bonded to anyone as yet. And if you can hack anything else now, it’s going to be them, right?”

  Shit. I wasn’t sure I could hack anything without my nites to use as a basis to get inside the animals.

  I flushed them all, Hiroto said. They weren’t doing us any favours in here, so yeah, they went. You don’t have any, and we don’t have time to reprogram new ones.

  What about if Dylan does?

  He can’t do anything with his. That would be silly. No, but he might be able to with your help, right? You’d out us to him?

  I don’t care. We need that Traixic on the ship because I am gonna blackmail her to come for it with the part we need to leave this planet far behind.

  “I don’t know if I like the sound of it but I’m in,” Dylan said when I told him. His eyes twinkled, but I could see his worry.

  “Dylan, I don’t know if this will ever be what you’re looking for,” I said.

  “No, but I’m in for all of it. I’ve never felt so alive as I do when I’m around you.”

  I knew I blushed. Hiroto!

  Sorry! I can’t help it. I like him!

  I tried to just smile at Dylan but just nodded and pointed back to where we were heading. “Then let’s get hold of that runt, right?”

  A few minutes later, we were outside the gardens area. There were two guards, but they knew Dylan. One smiled and waved us over, and within another minute we were inside and walking towards the kittens. I had no idea how they had gotten that big, but they really had.

  The runt we could still spot easily. She was almost as small as she had been a few weeks ago.

  “Why is she like half the size?” I asked Dylan.

  Dylan moved to their area, and the others almost bowled him over looking for snacks and more.

  “Here.” He threw something towards me. “You go get her.”

  I caught the meat and gagged; it was pretty rotten, but that got her attention. I called for her, but her eyes stayed still waiting for me to move, to do something else, so I crouched down and used my low levels to make sure she was really interested in what I was now holding to my mouth and pretending to chomp on.

  “Don’t take too long. These guys will just bully their way over in the end.”

  She was very interested, and within seconds was right in front of me.

  I patted her muzzle and started to scratch behind her ears. It was wonderful to hear her purring. Finally, she ate the food. When she tried to bowl me over, I knew we’d be friends. Now I just needed a way to get her out of the gard
ens and back to the ship.

  I started to walk to the main doors, but Dylan got my attention and pointed to one at the back of the gardens. I nodded, and we made our way to the back and outside.

  With some great backtracking, it wasn’t long before I had the next clan leader in the hold of our ship.

  Dylan was playing with her when Tyto came in. She looked at him, growled, then went back to playing with Dylan.

  “I didn’t think you’d actually manage it. Now what’s the rest of your plan?”

  I walked to the comms unit at the side of the room. “Tap in Saskia’s personal number, and let me speak to her. I’ll tell her what I want, what she’s going to do, and we’ll see how she reacts and wants to take it from here.”

  He looked to the Traixic. “She’s pretty awesome. You know that.”

  “Yeah, I don’t want to harm her. She’s a native species here.”

  “Okay.” He tapped the comms with Saskia’s number.

  “What do you want?” Her voice came over on speaker. “We finished this conversation earlier.”

  I spoke clearly. “Actually, Saskia, we didn’t finish any conversation, because we never had one.”

  “Kyle?” her voice changed from angry to shocked. “What’s going on? You used Tyto’s personal code?”

  “I did. He’s with me now.”

  “Oh, is he injured?” She feigned shock.

  “No, he’s not injured. He’s fine.” I almost heard her stutter out something in the background, but then someone else spoke to her, and I heard, “The compounds one Traixic light.”

  She cursed and then came back to me. “Something came up, Kyle. We can do this another time, yeah?”

  “No,” I said. “I have the Traixic here. Your friend has a part she’s holding out on us, one we need for the ship. If you want the Traixic back, you need to bring it here.”

  Kyle, it’s happening, see? Hiroto brought up an image before me, of the young female. Her DNA’s changing now. Her mother is dying.

  Saskia’s out of time.

  “Wait.” She laughed. “You’re trying to blackmail me for a part for that ship?” I didn’t answer her, and she carried on laughing. “Oh, that’s funny.”

  “You won’t get the Traixic back if you don’t come, and—” I started laughing this time. “Yours is almost dead, did you know that?”

  I looked to the young female that was playing with Dylan, and I could see it. She was starting to grow, and at a pace that no one else could possibly see. Hiroto was showing me her scans as it was happening.

  I grinned from ear to ear. “If you’re not quick, yours will be dead, we’ll have the leader, and she’s not bonded to anyone. I think Dylan would make a wonderful controller, don’t you?”

  Dylan could hear me now, and his smile and face changed. He stopped playing and walked over to us with the youngster chasing his ankles. What? he mouthed at me.

  “You cheap fucking scrote!” Saskia said. “You better not let anything happen to her. I swear I will capture you and cut your dick off!”

  “I’d like to see you try that,” I said. “You’ve got two hours. Get that part, get here.”

  I cut the comms. Dylan punched me in the arm.

  “You knew this was going to happen?” He looked to the Traixic.

  “There’s no way that anyone else can have control now. She’s going to be yours.” I smiled at him.

  “But that means…”

  “You’re not coming with us, and she won’t be either. When I deal with Saskia and we’re ready to leave, you’re staying. They need someone in charge of her they can trust, and I want you to be that person.”

  “I’ll be taking top spot on all the boards, and I’m not high enough level.”

  I reached over and stroked the Traixic’s fine nose and then tweaked her ears. “You’ll be more than high enough with her on your side. Can’t you see how she’s growing, like right now?”

  He looked down at her and grinned. “I can see it, yes.”

  “Then what does that tell you?”

  “I don’t…know if I should accept the offer.” Then he grinned. “Fuck me, the skills that come with it, the stat increases!”

  He squealed like a little girl, and I could do nothing but laugh at him. “Dylan, she’s already made up her mind about you. You just need to accept what she’s offering you.”

  He visibly swallowed, and I saw his eyes change when he accepted the Traixic’s bond.

  “You don’t mess about, do you?” Tyto asked.

  I looked to the door. “No. Let’s get that last bit of prep done for the part, then when she’s here, I can make sure the install is just the push of a few buttons. Right?”

  “Seems easy,” Dylan said.

  I knew it was going to be far from easy—we had no clue to the Wreckers full strength, numbers or levels.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  It was easier said than done to make sure we were ready for Saskia to come back.

  Arch and Slate were with us and in the lower half of the freighter making sure everything else was running. Neither of them had been told what was going on, just that we were leaving soon. I wanted to make sure that Saskia never got near them to try and persuade them over to her side, which I didn’t think she had, despite her charm. They were loyal to Tyto before she’d even come on the scene, and that carried weight. He trusted them, so I tried to.

  There was a ping, and then Tyto moved to the main ship’s controls to let her in. “You ready for this?”

  I nodded. “If we can’t handle her here now, then we’re never meant to get off Tolsa.”

  He pushed the button and opened the door.

  Saskia stood there with the part I wanted in her hands. But her blade was in the other. She looked to Tyto. “You better take me to see her now before I take your little piece of ass’s head off.”

  She called me his piece of ass?

  “I’m no one’s piece of ass, Saskia.” Weird. I didn’t know that Tyto swung that way at all. But then again, I didn’t think she did either.

  “Don’t be stupid, Saskia. I never wanted anyone but you,” Tyto said “You know that.”

  “Then why are we here? Why do you still want to get off Tolsa when we could have taken it from them all?”

  She really meant that, too. I watched their exchange. So far she was careful enough to make sure she stayed on the other side of the airlock.

  “You can’t take it from them, Saskia. You’re deluded!” It was going to take him some convincing to get her into us.

  I saw him turn on his charm, and I wasn’t listening. I was more interested in the part. Hiroto, I said. Is that what we need?

  Yes, and it’s working fully. We just need it off her.

  I stayed back waiting while Tyto worked her inside the ship, and then they started to make their way to the Traixic.

  Saskia saw her, how big she’d grown, and then looked to Dylan. “You bastard.” She lunged for him. “You already took her away from me!”

  As her blade came free, she dropped the part. I rushed forward to try and catch it before it hit the floor and bent or smashed, or worse was unusable. I ducked, and she swung the blade around, but I wasn’t quick enough, and I took a hit.

  “Fuck!” I let out.

  Her blade went right through my arm, slicing it clean off. Leaving my arm on the ground, I scrabbled to pick up the part, hoping it wasn’t damaged. I tried my best to get out of the way again, spurting blood everywhere. I almost slipped in my own gore.

  DENTI SYSTEM FULLY COMPROMISED

  CORE NANITES – 0

  YOU ARE LOSING TOO MUCH BLOOD

  YOU ARE DYING!

  Dylan wasn’t hesitating in my defence; he had drawn his own sword and was actually taking her on. Head to head in one of the most stupefying displays of swordsmanship I’d ever seen. I wanted to watch, but doing so meant my life was slipping away faster and faster. My health was falling at a stupendous rate.

  I looked to
Tyto, who managed to dodge them and then helped me get clear of the fighting. When we were out of the way, he got a healing pack and slapped it over the wound, but there was nothing for it to work with.

  He looked confused, so I had to tell him. “I’ve no core nites left. I had to flush them.”

  “Fuck, I need to get you to the med bay!”

  I listened to the fight as it started to escalate. “No, cauterise it. Then get me to the engine room. I need to do this before I lose consciousness.”

  “Okay,” he said.

  Tyto pulled a dagger out. I’d never seen him with other skills, but when the blade sparked with lightning, just like my own could, I froze.

  He placed the tip of his blade to my stump, then he heated it up.

  Lightning sparked around the blade, my wound sizzled, and I shrieked with the agony.

  BLOOD LOSS STOPPED

  I almost passed out with the pain.

  “Kyle!” Tyto slapped me a moment later. “Stay with me.” He helped me out of the room, towards the engines.

  “Are the others ready?”

  “They know how to get us out of here. Don’t you be worrying.”

  “Good.” It wasn’t something I could worry about. I had to make sure

  I got this part working before passing out from blood loss.

  Xirob wasn’t panicking; he kept me calm alongside Hiroto. We’ve got this.

  I looked to what I needed to do, realised I needed two hands. “Tell me what you need,” Tyto said.

  It was difficult. My wound seeping once more. The more blood I lost, the weaker I became and the more I struggled to think on what and where the part was going. I heard shouting and more from where we’d come, and Hiroto patched through the view of the deck. Dylan fought with Saskia. At least he looked like he was winning. She was wounded.

  “Almost there,” I said. “Just see if you can punch the last two sets of numbers in. It should start to come to life.”

  I started to reel off the numbers I’d put in for our own safety, but as I tried recalling the last few digits, I almost passed out. The number was wrong. At least two or three digits.