Fractured Era: Legacy Code Bundle (Books 1-3) (Fractured Era Series)

by Kalquist, Autumn

  “I get the pleasure of a guard visit?” Nora asked. “Welcome to my new cubic.” She pursed her lips and gestured around at the curtains, then pointed to the canteen next to her cot. “I’d offer you a drink, but the water tastes like it came from the kak in recyc. The dying don’t need to drink clean. Policy, you know.”

  Her gray hair reminded him of the streaks of gray in his own mother’s hair. She was getting up in age… in her forties now. Most people didn’t go to hospice until after they turned fifty, but some died younger. Guilt tugged at Tadeo. He needed to visit the Meso.

  Tadeo coughed and crossed his arms. “You don’t look like you belong here.”

  Nora sniffed. “If they keep drugging me up, I will.”

  “When were you diagnosed?”

  “Two days ago. They took me off my shifts. I should still be working. It hasn’t progressed much yet.”

  “In population management, correct?”

  “What is this about?” Nora sighed and looked at the curtains like she wanted to escape. “Shouldn’t you be guarding someone on command level or something? We had terrorists on this ship, you know.”

  Tadeo stiffened and tightened his fists. What was wrong with this woman? She talked like a disrespectful sublevel half. “I have a few questions to ask you.”

  The lume bar above the cot finally flickered on, and Tadeo squinted against the sudden bright light.

  Nora leaned over the cot, peering at him, and stopped a few inches from his face. “Who did you say you were again?”

  “Lieutenant Raines. I’m on the president’s personal guard. Now—”

  “Tadeo Raines?” Her eyebrows leapt upward, and her hand darted out to touch his face.

  Tadeo pushed her hand away and jerked back against his chair. You did not touch a guard like that. Ever. But this woman was old and dying, and he needed to get this over with so he could move on to the Repository. “Ma’am, I just have a few questions to ask about some of your patients.”

  Nora laughed and crossed her arms. “You look just like your mother.”

  Tadeo stilled. “Excuse me?”

  “What did you want to know about my patients?”

  His mother? How did this medic know anything about his mother? “Are you from the Meso?”

  Nora’s expression hardened. “No. I’ve been here my entire life.”

  “Then how…” Tadeo shook his head. He didn’t have time for this. He activated his handheld and started the audio recording program. “We’re beginning the interview now. Please state your name.”

  “Nora Faust.”

  “Nora, did you see a patient named Tatiana Carizo?”

  Nora stared at Tadeo for one long moment, then licked her lips. “Hmm. Name doesn’t sound familiar.”

  “Really? Interesting. We just airlocked her for treason. I thought every person on this ship knew Tatiana’s name.”

  “How unfortunate.” A small smile appeared on Nora’s lips. “No. I can’t remember ever treating her.”

  She was lying. Tadeo was sure of it. But why? “Tatiana’s file says she assaulted Medic Meletsky. I’m surprised it wasn’t reported to the guards. Tatiana should have been thrown into the brig. But instead, she asked for you—by name, and you stepped in to talk to her. What did she say to you?”

  “Can’t remember.” Medic Faust tapped her head with two fingers and met his gaze. “It’s these core sickness drugs. They addle the mind.”

  “Tatiana came in for a routine implant renewal and complained of pain from a recent termination. You talked to her.”

  “I do renewals all the time.”

  “I need to know what she said.”

  “I suppose she said she was in pain,” Nora snapped. “You have the file. Stop asking stupid questions.”

  For a moment, Tadeo was too shocked to reply. Who did this woman think she was?

  “Tatiana was a terrorist,” Tadeo said through gritted teeth. “We need to know what she said to you.”

  “I have no recollection.”

  “Were you supposed to terminate Era Corinth’s pregnancy this morning?”

  “Yes.”

  “Tell me what she said to you during your examinations.”

  Nora considered Tadeo, sweeping her gaze from the top of his head down his uniform. “No. I don’t think I will.”

  Tadeo’s face heated, and he forced himself to unclench his fists. “You’re refusing to answer the question?”

  “Era said nothing unusual.”

  Tadeo took a breath and leaned back in his seat. “Do you know what Era did last night shift?”

  “What is this about? I’m done answering questions, and I need rest.” Nora looked through the crack in the curtains. “Medic!”

  “Era airlocked herself last night.”

  Nora’s hand went to her chest. “What?”

  Tadeo kept his gaze on her, unblinking. “Maybe you know why she did it. She must have said something to you.”

  She clutched the sheet, twisting it in her grasp. Then she closed her eyes and settled her head back onto the pillow.

  “I’m conducting an investigation,” Tadeo said. “Do you know something about Era and Tatiana? Were they working together?”

  Nora didn’t open her eyes. “Go away.”

  “Sit up.”

  She didn’t move.

  “Sit up and answer my question.”

  Nora rolled away from him.

  Hot anger lit up in Tadeo’s chest, and he leaned over the bed to haul Nora into a sitting position. Her arms were icy cold. She was so thin, so frail.

  She opened her eyes, and there were tears in them. “Do you think I don’t feel every death? I do,” she said, her voice hard. “You’re a Raines. If you want answers to your questions, ask your traitorous mother. Now get your hands off of me.”

  Tadeo froze, his hands still clutching her arms, and she pulled away from him. He sank back into the chair, his heart pounding. My traitorous mother?

  “My mother is the most loyal captain in the fleet—and a model every captain should follow,” he said, his voice low, threatening.

  Nora narrowed tear-filled eyes at him. “I was around long before you, boy.”

  “You don’t talk about the captain of the Meso that way,” he said roughly.

  “How about the son?” She wiped at her eyes. “You’ve followed right in your mother’s footsteps. You’re both a curse on this fleet.”

  Tadeo balled his hands into fists and stood. “Will you or will you not answer the questions I’ve asked you?”

  “I will not.”

  “You realize what this looks like—that you’re protecting a known terrorist?”

  “I’m dying. I don’t give a kak.”

  “I’m sure the president will.”

  “Perhaps you ought to interview her, then. Especially if you’re looking for terrorists.”

  “Now, you’re speaking treason.” Tadeo worked his jaw and glanced toward the thin curtain barrier between Medic Faust’s bed and the next. Fuck. His damn handheld had recorded all of this, including her accusations of his own mother being a traitor. He twisted his wrist to shut it off.

  Nora watched him do it, and a slight smile spread on her lips, as if she dared him to hand the recording over to Chief now.

  Tadeo’s comcuff buzzed. He shot Nora a threatening glare and answered it. “What?”

  “We found something,” Omar said. “You gotta get down here, now.”

  “I’ll comm you right back.”

  Tadeo switched off his cuff and pointed at Medic Faust. “You are obstructing an ongoing investigation. I’m not done with you yet.”

  She glared back at him without responding, and he shoved aside the curtain and strode out of the medbay, his mind racing. Nora Faust seemed to hate his mother and the president, but it was hard to believe this dying medic could have worked here her whole life and suddenly become involved with terrorists.

  Still, she was hiding something. And she could spend
some time in the brig until she decided to tell him what Tatiana and Era had said during their visits.

  As he made his way down medlevel’s corridors toward the main stairwell, he commed the brig.

  “Lieutenant Raines here. Please send two guards to medlevel immediately to transfer Nora Faust to the brig.”

  “Where is the colonist, sir?”

  “Medbay D, Bed 124.”

  “Sir… hospice?”

  “Arrest her,” Tadeo said.

  He disconnected and commed Omar.

  “What did you find?”

  “We found a canister of explosives,” Omar said, his voice strained. “And it’s empty.”

  Dritan limped around the pile of crushed corpses, searching for any sign of extra supplies. He found a space between a body and rock and worked his hand beneath the boulder, feeling around for the belt he knew would be there. His forearm slid along a slick surface, blood and guts, and his stomach lurched. He swallowed back the urge to puke up the vacuum-packed quin bar he’d just eaten. His hand closed around a belt, and he gripped the edges of two oxygen packs and dragged them out, slowly. He’d lost one already to a sharp rock.

  He breathed easier as the packs came out intact. He crawled over the rock with his haul, his injured arm aching from exertion, until his helio’s light cast its glow on Jan.

  She looked asleep, listless, her skin deathly pale beneath her oxygen mask. Her chest seemed to barely rise and fall with each breath. Dritan’s chest tightened at the sight of the puddle of blood beneath her trapped leg. It had slowly grown in size in the past few hours, evidence of how much she’d lost.

  “Jan.” He laid the quin bars and oxygen packs beside her, next to the medkit he’d found. He shook her, and she opened her eyes. “I found more oxygen.”

  She blinked at the light of the helio and looked around, dazed. Then her unfocused eyes found his again. “How many… how many packs left?”

  “Two. We have enough for another twelve hours, at most. I’m sorry—I didn’t find another medkit. We’re out of painmod.”

  Jan’s blue eyes shone. “Doesn’t matter. The truth is… I can’t feel much of anything anymore.”

  Dritan’s throat thickened. “Just hang in there, okay?”

  “Earlier… I thought I heard a voice… from there,” Jan said. She lifted one limp arm, pointing toward a crevice near her. It was the same spot where the crew had been working to remove rubble before the quake killed them.

  “I would’ve heard it,” Dritan said. She was delusional, hallucinating from blood loss.

  “You need to check.”

  “Listen,” Dritan said, kneeling next to her, closer. “I’m going to leave again—try to find more water and oxygen—”

  “You know, I’ve been thinking about it,” Jan said. “In the tube we descended when we got here… they must have had an air recyc fan in there.”

  Dritan sat up straighter. “What do you mean?”

  Jan groaned and let her head rest on the rock wall behind her. “On meteors. When I was on the Perth. The staging sites always have a recyc fan filled with extra packs.”

  Dritan swallowed. “Even if there was a fan… I can’t get to the exit, let alone the tube we came down. If the tube is even still there after the explosion. I’m sorry.”

  Jan blinked, and he saw the tears in her eyes. “I know.”

  “They’ll come for us. Rescue will come.” But the more hours that passed, the less Dritan believed it. Would they come? What if Jan was right? That the president wanted them all dead? Dritan took a quin bar from his belt and handed it to her. “Here. Eat this.”

  Jan grabbed his sleeve, not taking the bar. “I need to talk to you.”

  Dritan settled beside her, and as he did, he unwrapped the bar for her.

  “I’m not getting out of here,” she said.

  Dritan met her gaze. “We’re not quitting. This isn’t over yet. Don’t think like that.”

  She laughed, but it sounded bitter. “All I’ve been doing is thinking. About my husband—Gavin. And my daughter, Bella. She’s only three.”

  Dritan had been doing everything in his power to push away thoughts of Era. Of their unborn child. “They’re safe up there, Jan—”

  “No, listen. It’s not that. Bell made me promise her I’d take her to Observation and point to the subcity where I’d worked.” Jan’s voice cracked, but she smiled. “You know… she’d be sad every morning when I’d drop her off at caretaker, so I’d tell her, ‘Mama always comes back.’ She used to be so happy to see me when I’d pick her up. She’d squeal ‘mama’ in her little voice and run for me. And every single day, she’d say, ‘You always come back.’ But… not this time—”

  “You will,” Dritan said, squeezing her arm. “You’ll take Bell up to Observation, and you’ll point to this damn kakhole of a planet and tell her you kicked its ass. And then we’ll finish the jumpgate. And before she’s even a half, we’ll jump the fleet. Maybe find New Earth.”

  Jan’s pale blue eyes sparkled with tears in the light of the helio. “Promise me—if you get out of here—you’ll look out for my family.”

  Dritan’s throat tightened as he placed half the quin bar in her hand. “Stop it. We’re both getting out of here.”

  “Please.”

  Dritan forced himself to take a bite of the bar. “Only if you eat. You need to keep up your strength.”

  Jan’s eyes grew even sadder, and she glanced at the pool of blood beneath her leg. But she nodded and took a bite of the bar. “Now you have to promise me.”

  “Okay,” Dritan said. “I swear. But you have to promise me that if you’re the one who gets out of here, you take care of Era.”

  “I will. I promise. But if I don’t make it…” She reached a shaking hand up to the zipper of her suit and pulled it down, revealing a necklace with a bit of recyc metal hanging from it. “Bring this back to my family for me. Give it to Gavin for Bell. Don’t let ’em incinerate it. It’s been passed down through Gavin’s family for a long time.”

  “I will. But we’re both getting out of here,” Dritan repeated. He passed Jan the canteen to wash away the dry taste of the bar.

  As she took a drink, a low sound echoed through the cavern. A voice. They both froze, exchanging glances.

  “Did you—?”

  “I heard it,” Dritan said. He stood up and took a few steps, listening. Another sound… coming from the crevice. Dritan’s pulse quickened, and he stumbled around debris to get to the spot. The opening was pitch dark.

  He leaned into it. “Is someone over there?” he called.

  “Yes!” A deep, male voice came back.

  “I hear you!” Dritan yelled. Hope lifted him, cleared his mind. Another survivor. Jan hadn’t been hallucinating. And there had to be a gap in the rocks. Otherwise he wouldn’t be able to hear the man so clearly. Maybe Dritan could squeeze through there to the other side.

  Dritan went back to Jan and dropped one of the oxygen packs beside her. “Guess I should have listened to you. I’m going to try to crawl through.”

  “Get through.” Jan gave him a small, sad smile, visible through her clear mask. “Get yourself out of here.”

  Dritan leaned forward and smoothed her blood-matted hair out of her face. He looked in her eyes. “We’re both getting out of here. You’ll see Gavin and Bell. And I’ll see Era.”

  She stared at him for a long moment, then smiled. “A better world awaits.”

  “And we’re gonna get there,” Dritan finished.

  He handed her another quin bar and left her with an emergency glow to see with, then tightened his mask’s strap and crawled around the rocks back toward the crevice, wincing as his injured arm struck rock.

  The crevice was a dark gap between the cavern wall and the place the ceiling had fallen in. He hadn’t wanted to shove his body through any of these sections earlier, but now he had hope—proof there was something beyond here.

  “You still there?” he asked into the da
rkness.

  “I’m here.”

  “I’m gonna try to come to you.” Dritan snatched his helio from the air and placed it snugly in his suit pocket. Then he activated his last glow bar and hooked it to his pocket to help light the way.

  Before he could change his mind, he wedged his body into the crevice and gritted his teeth as the rock scraped his arm. The rocks pushed against his chest, icy cold, and his suit stuck to the sweat on his back. Each jutting rock stabbed him like the rivets that lined the tight sections of the sublevel pipes. He tried to pretend he was doing routine maintenance in the sublevels, but without the ever-present deep thrum of the power core, he couldn’t convince himself he was anywhere but buried hundreds of feet under solid rock.

  He forced himself to take even breaths, but sweat broke out on his brow, and the space grew tighter as he pushed toward the other survivor. If a quake happened now, this might be it for him.

  “I see your glow,” the man said. He sounded close, only feet away.

  “Is there space for me to get through?” Dritan asked, panting.

  He heard the sound of rocks moving, hitting the floor, of scree falling. Then a light. A helio. Dritan breathed harder, shoving himself through the tight space.

  The globe grew closer, and a few feet later, he reached the edge. He deflated his chest and got through, tumbling onto the ground, crying out as his arm hit the hard stone floor.

  He blinked against the helio’s light, and a thrill ran through him at the sight of the high ceiling there. This had to be the main cavern where they’d come in.

  “I thought I was the only one left,” the man said.

  Dritan sat up and looked toward the source of the voice, toward the helio. A man sat propped up beside the crevice Dritan had just come from. His leg was bloody, tied up with a messy bandage. Dritan moved closer to the man, and as he did, he made out the face beneath the mask. Dark hair, dark eyes, skin even paler than Jan’s. The man was a decade older than Dritan—maybe in his thirties.

  It was Bran McGill.

  McGill was the Paragon guard who had been sent down here with them. The man had acted bitter, never talking to any of them. He’d been kicked out of the guard after Sam had grabbed his pulse gun and used it to threaten the president’s daughter. Sam. Dritan’s gut twisted, and he pushed away memories of his crew. He had to focus. McGill had been here in the main cavern longer—he might know where to find the exit.