Shadows of Mars (Broken Stars Book 1)

by I. O. Adler

  Laughter.

  The worm was laughing at her.

  “I find you amusing. I would hear what you and your kind have to offer. If your outpost on the fourth world is any indication, you have no meaningful technology and your resources are little more than a pittance. May the stars shine mercifully upon you after we leave.”

  It barked something and the red light blinked off. It then blurted out what might have been a command. The Cordice chirped a reply but the last translation light also vanished. Carmen had no way to know what had just been said. The Primary Executive slid out of the audience chamber. The guards prevented Carmen from following.

  She Who Waits glided closer. The red light had returned and preceded her. “This negotiation is at an end.”

  “Yeah, I caught that,” Carmen said with a tremor in her voice. She knew that the Melded leader hadn’t put it that politely.

  But then the translator added in a whisper before departing, “And the guards were also ordered to keep you humans here.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Four Arms and Green Eye wouldn’t let her leave.

  Carmen watched as they guarded the door. Four Arms was staring at her. He was tall and lights were visible beneath his helmet. The illuminated parts of his face looked skeletal and his eyes were pits. Meanwhile Green Eye was busy with a virtual display that had popped up before him from an unseen device on one of his metal arms.

  “How long are we going to be held here?”

  Four Arms flinched as if she had spat at him. Green Eye ignored her.

  Barrett took her by the elbow and led her to the box machine that had projected the hologram and sat her down. “Just stop. You keep taking risks which could have bigger consequences than you can imagine. Stop talking to them. Stop doing anything.”

  “But we have to do something.”

  “No, we don’t. And waiting is doing something. You’re going to sit here and wait. We both are. We don’t know anything about the Cordice, the Melded, or this translator. You think we hold any cards because your mom stole a spaceship? And using it as leverage so you can make your ‘reasonable’ request is insane.”

  “You heard him—this Melded leader. He doesn’t care about us. Everyone wants what they want and these Melded are either going to ignore us or kill us.”

  He took a breath and plopped down next to her. “I caught that.”

  “So waiting for either one of those things to happen doesn’t sound good to me. Your hand looks terrible. Are you feeling okay?”

  “Just punching through the pain.”

  She inspected the hand, wrapped it tight again, and put her palm to his forehead.

  “Maybe you should lie down.”

  He didn’t argue as he curled up on top of the box. It was warm and just big enough to accommodate him. Once he was settled she again headed for the door.

  Four Arms fumbled with his weapon and pointed it at her midsection.

  She froze. “We need water and blankets. He’s sick.”

  He waved her off. Clicked with his throat. Clicked again.

  She made a drinking motion. “Water. Call She Who Waits and it’ll make sense. All I’m asking for is water and a blanket.”

  Four Arms stomped his foot on the floor, then stomped both feet. It was as if he were tap-dancing. Click! Click! Clickety-click!

  Green Eye made a soft sound and pulled Four Arms back. Four Arms threw Green Eye’s metal hands off. The irritated guard let out one more firm click before lowering his weapon. They exchanged a few more sounds before Four Arms retreated to the opposite end of the room, pacing and watching her warily.

  Carmen held her ground as Green Eye stepped closer. He stooped his head as if offering a polite bow before expanding his display. His metal fingers typed at phantom keys. The image turned and faced her.

  It looked like a shimmering drop of water. But then a series of moving pictures flashed past so quickly she couldn’t make it out.

  “I don’t understand.”

  He showed it to her again and this time the lights and images were a barely visible shade of blue.

  “I’m not following you. What are you trying to say?”

  Fiddling some more with his device, Green Eye projected a fresh hologram. A three-frame pictograph hung in the air. The first showed drops and waves. The next, the drops and waves in a cup, and the last a humanoid stick figure with the cup tilting to its mouth. Green Eye reversed the order so it read bottom to top, then right to left, and then stacked them so the images slid past sequentially.

  “Yes, I get it,” Carmen said. “That’s what I want. Water for him. For both of us if you can.”

  Green Eye left and a moment later returned with a soft plastic-like bag containing liquid. He held it out to her. When she didn’t take it, his throat swelled and he uttered a popping sound.

  She accepted it with both hands and bowed, trying to match his earlier gesture and hoping it would be properly understood. “Thank you. Thank you for this.”

  The bag had a nozzle. She squeezed it and a splash of water shot out onto the floor. She put more into the palm of her hand and sniffed it. It smelled clean.

  He made a few more pops.

  She tasted it. “I’m making sure it’s safe for us.”

  Clean, cool water. If there was anything else in it, she couldn’t detect it. She took a drink before giving the bag to Barrett, who swallowed it down until the bag was empty.

  Green Eye watched while finger-combing his tousled mane. His floating interface continued to hover next to him. She pointed at it and he brought it around. He waved away the water triptych. Tapped a few times on the keys. The stick figure appeared again and this time it held something in its hand. In the second panel it put the object in its mouth. The third panel showed the figure with whatever it had eaten in its belly.

  Carmen studied the three pictures in case she was missing anything beyond the obvious. “Hungry? Yes, I guess I am, but maybe we better wait on that.”

  Green Eye was in the process of creating another scene when Four Arms clickety-click-clicked. Green Eye closed the display and retreated to his place by the door.

  “I guess we know who’s in charge,” Carmen murmured.

  Barrett didn’t respond, having reclined again.

  If only she could spend time with Green Eye’s interface. But without She Who Waits to translate there would be no easy way to make a request without causing another showdown with Four Arms. She watched the guards. The two Melded seemed to be able to communicate without any obvious translator. She felt certain they were different species. The only thing unifying them was their black space suits, their weapons, and the augmentations on their skin, or in Green Eye’s case, two artificial arms along with his shining eye.

  More things to learn. But if the Melded were about to take the harvester, she had no time to waste. She paced as Barrett fought to get comfortable.

  A hologram appeared on top of the box.

  Barrett yelped and rolled out of the way as a bright image grew. A white sphere of light hovered. When the sphere spoke, it was with Jenna’s voice. Her words came loud enough for Carmen to hear her perfectly. And Carmen detected the edge of panic in her voice.

  “Car, can you hear me? Are you there?”

  “I’m here, Jenna. What’s wrong?”

  “The Melded found Mom. They’re threatening to hurt her. I don’t know what to do!”

  Carmen shielded her eyes as she squinted at the sphere. “What do you mean threatening her? Where are you?”

  “Plugged in. I’m still in the med bay and connected to the harvester. I haven’t given that up yet. But the Cordice talked to me. They invited me into their simulation again a moment ago and told me about what was happening. I now have access to some of their systems. But there’s too much…I can’t make sense of most of it.”

  “Focus. Tell me about Mom. I thought she was there inside their simulation.”

  “She is, but her body isn’t. It’s h
ere in the home ship on this ring. Mom’s here, Car, but you’ve got to hurry.”

  “I’m kind of stuck right now.”

  “I know. You’re in the audience chamber, aren’t you? I can see you and Barrett and the two Melded. If you can make it out into the hallway, I think I can access the doors.”

  “You think…?”

  “I can do it.”

  How, Carmen wanted to ask. And why were the Cordice suddenly helping them? And if she got out of the audience chamber, what was she supposed to do to stop the Melded without a weapon? But she couldn’t just wait for her mom to be taken.

  Barrett shook his head. “Don’t. Don’t even think about doing anything, neither of you. This has gone too far. You don’t know what trouble you’ll start if you make them angry. We made our case on what we want. Now let them figure it out.”

  The man who wanted her to steal the harvester and fly it to Earth was now asking her to sit back and let the Melded abduct her mom?

  Not a chance.

  The two Melded guards were still alert and watching. The hologram sphere lit up the whole room. While they appeared wary, their weapons remained at their sides. If they had understood any of what Jenna had said and knew what they were planning, they’d be pointing their guns at her.

  “Jen, how bright can you make that hologram? When I say so, turn it all the way up.”

  “I’ll try.”

  Carmen marched towards them and pointed back at the light. “You guys know how to turn that thing off?”

  Green Eye moved towards the hologram. But Four Arms gestured wildly at her and stomped a foot. Jabbed the weapon barrel in her direction. Clicked emphatically. Green Eye called out and began gesturing. Distracted, Four Arms lowered his gun, squinting in the light despite his helmet.

  Carmen paused and covered her face. “Jen, now!”

  The hologram flashed like a star. The explosion of light caused Four Arms to flinch. Even shielded, Carmen’s eyes took a moment to adjust as the hologram began to strobe. Four Arms was fiddling with his helmet and appeared to be having trouble.

  This was it. Her chance.

  She shoved Four Arms aside. Bolted for the door. But Four Arms was too fast. A hand caught her by the back of her hoodie. She was pulled off her feet and slammed to the floor. She dislodged it but another grabbed her ankle. She kicked it. The guard wasn’t letting go. Through it all he spouted an endless series of clicks.

  The doorway was just in reach. She dragged herself and Four Arms across the floor. He was surprisingly light, about as heavy as her nephew Zach.

  “Let go of me!”

  She kicked again with her heel, this time aiming for Four Arms’ helmet. The helmet shifted and Four Arms released her hoodie while keeping a grip on her ankle. But she managed to pull her body into the hall.

  “The door, Jen, get the door!”

  Four Arms let go just in time as the door hissed shut.

  “Which way is Mom?”

  But Jen didn’t answer. If she could only talk through the hologram projector, then Carmen had two directions she could go. According to her sister the Melded had found her mom’s body in a room she hadn’t yet seen. She estimated she had explored half the ring in the direction of the medical bay.

  So she jogged the opposite direction, wondering what exactly she was supposed to do once she found them.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  She could hear the Melded Primary Executive shouting up ahead. It was just out of sight up the slope of the hallway. Once he paused in his tirade, She Who Waits replied in her soft voice, only to be interrupted as the worm howled.

  They were coming her way. Carmen ducked into the nearest door and took cover behind a vertical wall of the box machines. The air felt stuffy. The door took forever to close behind her. One of the Melded soldiers appeared just as the door shut. He pounded at the door but it wasn’t opening.

  A verbal exchange followed.

  Carmen rose and cocked her head to better hear, but it was more of the same, with the Primary Executive carrying on with a series of outbursts and not letting She Who Waits answer. They remained outside the door for a moment before the worm’s voice moved off down the hall.

  Had Jenna locked it behind her? Carmen approached the door but before she could touch it, it slid open.

  The worm, She Who Waits, and two of the Melded soldiers were heading towards the audience chamber. One of the Melded guided a cylinder as it hovered next to him.

  She felt it in the pit of her stomach. Her mom was inside the cylinder. But if the Cordice had some semblance of control of the ship with the caretaker gone, why hadn’t they stopped the Melded before?

  She got her answer moments later.

  The door to the audience chamber wasn’t letting them in. The soldier in the lead took a moment to fiddle with a device on his wrist. After a minute the door opened. Which meant they could access any of the rooms on board the Cordice home ship despite Jenna’s interference. Carmen knew they would have found her if they had wanted to take the time.

  The two Melded along with the Primary Executive slipped into the room. The worm began yelling again. The Melded leader was starting to remind her of a certain PE teacher in junior high who had three modes of communication: mumbling, loud, and hysterical whenever a student wasn’t doing what they were supposed to, which was always.

  But the cylinder was unguarded, at least for the moment.

  Carmen rushed towards the cylinder. It was mounted on what looked like a floating pallet jack with no visible handle or controls. She put a hand on the metal. Tried to see through the small window at one end. She made out a face obscured by condensation. Whoever was inside had shoulder-length dark hair like her mom’s.

  The door to the audience chamber still hadn’t closed. Perhaps whatever hack the Melded soldier had performed was keeping it open.

  “I’m here, Jen,” Carmen whispered. “I’m with Mom. What can you do about the door?”

  One of the Melded soldiers stepped into the hall. He was shorter than the others and round of body, asymmetrical with three tentacles and pads for hands. The bare tentacles weren’t covered by his suit. His skin held an iridescent sheen. He pointed his weapon at her and barked with a metallic voice.

  Carmen froze. “I’m here. I’m surrendering myself.”

  He barked again.

  She was cautious not to stare or move and kept her hands at her side. The Melded grabbed her and pulled her into the audience chamber. The worm had Four Arms pressed down onto the floor. Green Eye was ducking nearby, his nose seeping dark blood. She Who Waits stood next to the worm and Carmen spotted Barrett cowering behind the hologram console.

  The white light was gone.

  She glared at the worm. “I’m here, so calm down. There’s no need to hurt anyone. That’s my mother you have out there. What are you doing with her?”

  The Melded soldier escorting her brought her next to Barrett.

  The Primary Executive dropped Four Arms and slid towards her with She Who Waits following. Carmen held her ground as it leaned over her like a crashing wave.

  “Do not be troublesome again,” the worm said. “My soldiers were incompetent. But you shouldn’t have escaped.” It barked an order to Metal Voice. The translation light flickered. “Take Sylvia Vincent to our ship.” It glanced at She Who Waits and grumbled again. The red translation light vanished.

  No eavesdroppers, Carmen figured.

  It didn’t make sense. Carmen racked her brain trying to understand what the Melded would want from her mother. They were after the harvester and it was here. Did the Primary Executive think her mom was still in control of it? And how had they found out any of their information?

  The worm got Four Arms on his feet and shoved him towards the door. It waved for Green Eye to follow, then added more orders as his underlings hopped to.

  Carmen spoke softly to She Who Waits. “Can we talk without them understanding?”

  “I am obliged to translate all at
tempts at communication.”

  “You were willing to board the Cordice home ship with us against protocol. And if you’re helping them take the harvester, it means you’re acting against the Cordice. So whose side are you on?”

  “I’m neutral in the affairs of the Framework.”

  “But you’ll help anyone who asks. Is that correct?”

  “I assist within the parameters of my stated function. We listen, we translate—”

  “You told me already. I get it. But that doesn’t mean you’re obligated to volunteer everything anyone says, right?”

  She Who Waits showed a band of yellow. Carmen licked her lips as she willed the alien to hurry in whatever mental task she was performing. Green Eye and Four Arms were in the hall and moving the cylinder even as the worm was growling orders to Metal Voice. Metal Voice took his position at the door with his sole focus locked on Carmen. His three tentacles wriggled like vines in a breeze.

  The Primary Executive coughed as it squeezed out of the chamber.

  She Who Waits began to move. “I am summoned.”

  Carmen got in her way. “I need you now. So how does this work? Can you talk to the Cordice for me?”

  It was impossible to tell if She Who Waits was facing her or if she even had a front, back, or side. But the hovering red light rotated towards Carmen. “I will translate but you must unlock a channel through their communication node. I have been cut off by the Primary Executive.”

  “Jenna, are you listening? Can you connect me to the Cordice?”

  The white sphere appeared on the hologram console, brilliant but not blinding.

  “Hello, the Cordice. Is anyone there?”

  The voice that answered sounded distracted and tinny. “Yes. Are you there, daughter of Sylvia? We again have access to the in-ship communications. Yet we continue to have difficulties. Multiple systems are disabled. Power levels are good. Simulation is stable. But the home ship is compromised and the caretaker is offline.”

  “We know. I want to help but there isn’t time for a rundown. My sister has access to your home ship?”

  “Yes. I am the engineer. I allowed it. I understand there was an attempt to return what Sylvia Vincent stole. The harvester must be brought back.”