Lost Valor

by Kal Spriggs

  I was learning a lot, though. My parents had been working on four different main projects. My mom had been more focused on the materials science, I saw. She’d mostly been working on two different materials. One of them was quicksilver, which I knew she’d been working on for at least five years. Most of her hand-written notes for it, anyway, petered out two or three years earlier. Quicksilver was a smart material: it looked like solid metal but under the right conditions, it could flow like a liquid. It could reconfigure itself, given direction. I didn’t know if Jiden knew about it, but I’d always spent more time listening to my parents talk about work.

  I had figured that quicksilver was what the pirates were after, since that was what they’d mentioned. The material had tons of potential applications. My parents’ notes didn’t have the method to create it, but it did have materials analysis and comments. I had to assume it was in the digital files.

  My mom had also been working on some kind of analysis on some of the alien writing and symbols. Her notes suggested that she and Granny Effy had been working on that for years, maybe since their first expedition to Black Rock Mesa. I didn’t know if the pirates would care about translating any of it or not, but I still studied everything I could about it.

  My dad had been doing some of the more technical side of things. Most of the equipment they’d found in their dig site under Black Rock Mesa had been defunct, but I remembered that three years ago or so that they’d started finding more and more equipment that was either functional or repairable. Some of it had been small things, devices of unknown purpose, simple tools, that sort of thing. My parents had managed to recharge depleted power cells on some of those items, though most of the functional and portable items had been sent to Granny Effy at Nelsons University for further study.

  It was the big, mostly immovable, items that my dad had studied. The lowest levels of the dig site were huge, with massive structures of alien design that was supposed to do… something. My dad had been studying and mapping that equipment as his main research project, trying to figure out what it was for… and if any of it still might function. I remembered that he would spend hours, sometimes days, walking the corridors of the lowest levels, crawling through access shafts, mapping everything. His notes had a lot of drawings and sketches.

  His notes were cryptic on his last project. I knew he and my mom had found something, something they thought was important, but they hadn’t said anything directly about it, not that I remembered, anyway. His notes on that were even more cryptic. There were references to an area, to something that he’d been looking for. There were also symbols I didn’t recognize and that his notes didn’t seem to explain. It gave me a headache and I doubted the pirates would know or care about it, but I tried to memorize everything I could anyway.

  Doing that took Ted and I two or three weeks. I mostly used Ted as another set of hands and eyes as I sorted through things. I wasn’t sure if he was figuring things out or not, but here and there I’d throw him a make-work task where I’d show him a symbol and have him write a number or letter over it throughout. He seemed to be perfectly happy doing that, but I also gave him tasks around the lab, moving equipment, sorting through the artifacts and doing stuff to draw attention, normally when I was doing something that I didn’t want the pirates paying attention to.

  My plan was to draw things along, to stall them, and hopefully to feed them false information until I could find a way to escape. I’d booted up my parent’s computers, but I hadn’t tried to log in. I didn’t have even the start of an idea how to get in or decrypt their data and I was hoping I could drag things along with just the notes.

  All that went out the window when Kiyu swept into the lab early one morning and walked right over to my dad’s computer, followed by her bodyguard. “What are you…”

  I trailed off as she typed in a password and logged in. She turned to face me, arching one eyebrow. “I decrypted their files weeks ago, but most of their digital notes are in the same code as their physical notes.”

  I swallowed as I realized what that meant. She’d been looking at all of the information for weeks. She had a head-start on me… and she was far smarter than the pirates I’d been dealing with.

  She walked over to my mom’s computer and logged into that as well, before turning back to face me. “There’s thousands of files in both these systems, but your parents were working on one project I care about.” She held up a page, clearly a copy of one of the hand-drawn notes. It was one of the ones from my father’s projects, one with the strange symbols that I didn’t recognize. “I need to know more about this.”

  “I’m not really sure what that is…” I hedged.

  “There’s some of those drawings over here,” Ted said helpfully. I wanted nothing so much as to kick him someplace painful.

  “You’re holding out on us?” Vars stalked over. I hadn’t even seen him come in, I’d been so focused on Kiyu. He grabbed me by the scruff of the neck.

  “I didn’t recognize them,” I lied, even as I watched Kiyu walk over to the notes that Ted had pointed out. That pile was the fourth project, the one that I hadn’t fully understood. Kiyu walked over and looked at the notes, even as Vars held me by the neck.

  “You’re translating parts of it?” Kiyu asked, pointing at where I’d written letters over some parts of the code.

  “I’ve been trying to,” I answered. Vars’ hand squeezed the back of my neck painfully. I had to fight the impulse to throw his arm off and attack him. Vars was strong, but he wasn’t anywhere near as strong as Kiyu’s bodyguard. And Ted and I had been working out daily, I’d been putting on muscle again. If I straightened, I was taller than Vars and I thought I could take him, in a fair fight.

  I knew any fight with him wasn’t going to be fair, though. While he might not have a weapon on him, Kiyu’s bodyguard did. And the last thing I wanted was for her to come after me.

  “My interest, my uncle’s interest, is in these symbols. Where they came from, whether they were from an intact device or not.” She spoke to me as much as she did Vars. “I need to know what these symbols mean and where they were found. Every detail.”

  She waved her hand at Vars, “Release him.”

  “He’s been holding—”

  She cut him off, her voice cold, “Release him, now.”

  Vars let me go and stepped back. I shot a glance at him and I saw his olive-skinned complexion had gone pale.

  “Find me files with these symbols,” she waved her printed notes. “Photos, video, holographic projections. Find me where they came from.”

  “I can do this, we don’t need him,” Vars suggested, cracking his knuckles.

  She shot him a single look and Vars’ mouth snapped shut. “As I understand it, the two whose research this is, you and your men killed them, yes?”

  Vars gave a single, sharp nod.

  “My uncle must be more understanding about such things than my father,” she replied. “There was no need for you to attack them. Killing two unarmed scientists, I bet your father is very proud of you.” She sneered as she said that. My estimation of her went up sharply.

  Vars gritted his teeth. “The boy’s father killed one of my men after they struck an older woman.” He shot me a glare of hate, “and his mother killed five of my people and nearly escaped. My people had to defend themselves.”

  “If you’d approached it competently, you would not have lost anyone and the two scientists would be alive,” Kiyu snapped. “I do not have the authority to have you punished, you are my uncle’s hirelings, but believe me, my father would execute you for such sloppiness.”

  I made mental note of that and filed it away.

  She looked back at me, “There may be a device, a control panel. It will have these symbols.” She waved the page. “I need to know where it is. It wasn’t in the items that Wessek and Vars recovered.” Her green eyes bored into me. “Do you know?”

  I swallowed, considering my words carefully before I answered, “T
he bigger stuff, they kept it in the dig site, though some of it got shipped elsewhere for further research. If it was too big to easily move out or if it was connected to the equipment in the lower levels, they wouldn’t have moved it.”

  “Equipment?” She asked.

  I nodded, feeling sweat bead my forehead, “There was lots of big machines deep down under Black Mesa.”

  Kiyu’s glare went to Vars. “Your father’s reports didn’t mention larger equipment.”

  “We didn’t have time to inspect the entire site,” Vars answered quickly. “There was nothing in the information we were given—”

  “Enough,” Kiyu hissed, waving a hand. “Give this boy what he needs to find the things he needs.”

  “A connection to more processing power,” I suggested quickly. “I can search the files more quickly, that way. My parents computers were designed to use most of the processing power from the network at Black Mesa Outpost, they’re not very good as stand-alone machines.” That was mostly true, but if I could connect to the network, then maybe I could do other things.

  “I’m not going to let him connect to the facility’s network!” Vars protested.

  “You will, or you’ll explain the delays to my uncle,” Kiyu snapped. “And I’ll be certain that my report to him points out that all of this was easily avoidable and that you refused to provide me with the assets I needed. I’m certain he will entirely understand your perspective. After all, my uncle is known to be very understanding, isn’t he?”

  Vars seemed to wilt on himself. “I’ll get him access.” Kiyu stared at him, obviously expectant. “I’ll do it now.” He hurried out of the room.

  “Anything else?” Kiyu demanded of me.

  “If you can tell me what you’re looking for, that would help,” I answered.

  “Of course,” She passed the paper to Ted, who took it quickly and hurried over to me. It was a sketch of symbols and I’d see what I could do to match them. I nodded at Ted to get back to work and I headed over to the computer and started working. Going through the file structure was relatively easy. My dad had been good at labeling and sorting everything. I knew this was part of the fourth project, but those files all seemed to be referenced weirdly and I wasn’t sure that I wouldn’t have to go through each folder and file, one by one.

  “You’re proving remarkably helpful, for someone who is a prisoner and slave to the people who killed his family.” Kiyu was quiet enough that I hadn’t heard her come up behind me until she spoke. I jumped a bit, actually, and as I spun around, seeing a slight smirk on her face in response.

  “Wessek promised me my freedom if I helped him,” I answered, doing my best to meet her green eyes.

  “Yes, I’m sure he did,” she put no emphasis on that, though from her expression, I doubted she believed him either. She looked over her shoulder at the open hatch, where Vars had hurried out so quickly that he’d failed to close the door. “It is interesting, isn’t it, how similar you and Vars are in appearance.”

  “What?” I asked in surprise.

  “Dark hair, dark eyes, similar height, even similar features… you could almost be brothers,” she noted.

  I couldn’t help a look of revulsion. “We are nothing alike.”

  She snorted, “Perhaps not.” She moved to stand next to me, looking at the computer display. “Interesting, you seem to be sorting through the files remarkably well, especially since you haven’t translated the code.”

  I licked my lips, painfully aware of the presence of her bodyguard behind me. Kiyu was close, too, only a few centimeters away, really. I suppose I could have tried to grab her or threaten her, maybe to try and bargain for my escape. I knew she was important, or at least, that her uncle was vitally important to Wessek.

  The thought came and went and I didn’t even really consider it. Kiyu had been the only one, besides Ted, who even treated me as human. To Vars, I was nothing more than a target. To Wessek, I was a toy to be played with or a tool to get what he wanted. To their pirate goons, I was a slave to be moved and watched... and possibly killed.

  “I’m good at picking up context,” I answered. “Besides, these are the newest files and I figured anything related to those symbols would be new. That’s why your uncle would send Wessek, right?”

  She looked at me, but I kept my eyes on the display, opening up a folder and looking through the different files. “You’re perceptive. Remarkably so. Your name, it’s Will?”

  “Yes,” I nodded, still staring at the display, though I’ll confess I wasn’t really seeing the files I looked through. Something about her nearness, her attention, made my fingers tremble and my heart race nervously.

  “Short for William, I suppose. A family name?” I shrugged in response and she went on, “Your father’s name was Steven Nadami,” she noted, “your mother was Joy Armstrong... related to the military family, perhaps.”

  I gave her a slight nod.

  “It’s rare for my people’s military families to dabble in the sciences,” she noted, “unless there are obvious strategic or military objectives.”

  “Just who are your people, then?” I asked, turning my head to look at her.

  Her eyes narrowed, “Is this now an exchange of information, William Armstrong?”

  “I offered to give my parents research,” I answered, “I didn’t think I had to tell everything about myself.”

  She raised a hand and the lights in the room flickered. “Their recordings are now... disrupted.” Kiyu said it casually. I realized that she must have some kind of neural implant or something. I guessed from the flickering of the lights that the monitoring equipment was tied into their network…and so was the facility’s power systems. “You are William Alexander Armstrong, your birth records use your mother’s surname rather than your father’s. You attended the Century Military Academy Preparatory School,” her soft voice put heavy emphasis on military. “You applied for and received acceptance to attend their academy and presumably to commission as an officer in the Century Planetary Militia upon graduation.”

  She cocked her head at me, evaluating my expression. “Your grandmother is the superintendent of the Century Military Academy and one of the Militia’s highest ranking officers. She handles their intelligence service and we believe she is the head of their military research group. Which makes me suspect that your mother’s presence and involvement in this project ties back to the Militia and your grandmother.”

  I blinked at her, “I have no idea what you mean by that.”

  Her eyes narrowed and her hand flashed out, slapping me once across the cheek, a sharp, stinging, blow. Apparently the prohibition from touching her didn’t include her striking me. It wasn’t particularly painful, it was merely a reminder of who was in charge. I glared at her.

  “See,” she smirked at me, “that one,” she waved over her shoulder at Ted, “he would have curled into a ball. He’s not of warrior stock. You, on the other hand, you didn’t so much as flinch. You’re not a cowed slave, you’re no more a meek helper than I am.”

  “I just want to get out of this alive,” I answered her.

  She smiled a cold smile, “Then tell me, William, do you not desire revenge? Do you not want to burn this facility to the ground with Wessek, Vars, and his men inside it?”

  I looked away.

  “I thought so,” she murmured. She leaned in close, so close that her lips nearly touched my ear, “I am not your enemy, William. I give you my oath that my father and I had no part in what Wessek and his butchers did to your family. Help me and I will help you.”

  She took a step back and the lights in the lab flickered again. A moment later, Vars came through the hatch, puffing slightly as he came, as if he’d run some distance. His dark eyes went from Kiyu to me and back. “The computers can be networked, now,” he said, his dark eyes suspicious. “My security personnel told me that the feed from the room was interrupted.”

  “Oh?” Kiyu asked, an expression of surprise on her face. “
Perhaps your network technicians interrupted it when they were tying in the computers?”

  Vars gritted his teeth, “They haven’t tied them in, yet. hey just made the network ready.” He waved a hand at the computers, “I wanted them to make the connection to ensure they’re properly firewalled.”

  “Well, it’s a mystery,” Kiyu shrugged. “I’ll let you and your people work, Vars. Tell your father I’ll meet with him at his earliest convenience.” She strode out, followed by her silent bodyguard.

  Vars glared at me and then at Ted, who stood pale and trembling under that glare.

  “You two, back to work,” he barked, “but not on the computer, not until my people have a chance to look at it.”

  I had the feeling his “look” would include copying everything onto the network. But since all the notes were in my dad’s codes, I wasn’t too concerned about that. Then again, none of the videos and pictures were encrypted, not after Kiyu had cracked the passwords.

  I went back to the paper notes I’d been memorizing. This time, though, I focused on my dad’s mystery project. Because whether or not I could trust Kiyu, I had the feeling I needed to know and understand everything I could.

  ***

  Chapter 6: The Last Pieces Of The Puzzle

  Sweat burned in my eyes and I gasped for air. My arms trembled and my chest felt like it was on fire. “One more,” I grunted.

  Ted gasped something in reply and we both went down for another set of push-ups. I counted them out, barely able to breathe and spots appearing in front of my eyes, before I flopped to the metal floor of our quarters, utterly exhausted.

  “Kill me,” Ted gasped.

  “That wasn’t so bad,” I panted. I tried to lift myself up so I could look at him, but my arms wouldn’t support me, so I rolled over on my back and sat up. My stomach muscles cramped, in the process, reminding me that we’d worked our abdominal muscles yesterday, but I ignored them.

  “You’re insane,” Ted mumbled, still laying on his face on the floor.

  “Got to be in shape if you want to go to the Academy,” I noted. And for all that Ted didn’t look like he’d fit in at the Academy, I had to give him credit for not giving up. I’d had a much better head start in being physically fit, even after two weeks of being comatose. I’d been gifted with my mom’s height and I’d worked hard to prep for the Academy. Just the fact that my body recognized what I was trying to do gave me a lot of advantage. Ted had been living off gruel and water for two years. Frankly, I was surprised he didn’t have serious health and nutrition issues.