by Clara Woods
Before they could tell her otherwise, Lenah opened the video on her wristpiece and held it out to them. She studied their faces as they watched the Cava Dara attack the Syrr population, wiping them out. Corinna’s face remained stony throughout the whole recording, but the ambassador’s eyes widened ever so slightly as he watched the Cava Dara fly away from the planet.
“That’s right. That last bit is not part of the ancient recording. I took it myself less than two weeks ago from the cockpit of my ship as we were leaving Masis III. They are coming, and I don’t think these are all the Cava Dara. What’s recorded here is only one part of their army. As you saw in the video, there were many Bartoc in the last invasion, but we saw none back on Masis III. I think you greatly underestimate what’s approaching. This might not be a matter that can be handled just by Cheung army.”
“If you are implying that the Cheung forces receive help from Starwide Research Security, we can talk about it. Or rather, your father and I, can talk about it,” Corinna answered.
Lenah shook her head. Corinna was bringing up again the topic of Starwide Research’s security not being part of the corporate UPL force.
“The point I’m making is not about Starwide Research, but about needing a greater part of the UPL forces. There might be multiple attacks in multiple locations. We just don’t know.”
“And you think that you can make a better judgment of this than the high ambassador himself?” Corinna shot Lenah a dark grin. “Let capable people handle this. You’ve already done enough damage as it is,” she finished, and Lenah noticed the high ambassador nodding.
Lenah pressed her lips together. She didn’t trust herself to speak and instead took a deep breath to calm down. Not trying to get provoked was turning out to be really difficult.
“I see that it might be too early to make peace yet,” the ambassador finally said. “Please send my best wishes to your father. I recommend you take that ship of yours and leave as soon as tomorrow.”
They both walked away without sparing Lenah another glimpse. She’d clearly been dismissed. And told to take her ship again.
8 New Plans
“I can’t believe they’re belittling the threat,” Lenah whispered to Persia, stabbing an olive with her fork. They were standing together in a corner of the room, watching Corinna walk from one group to the next, smiling and making perfectly relaxed conversation.
“We won’t get any help here,” Persia muttered, equally hushed. Her beaming mood at experiencing such a fancy party had visibly become gloomy, and she kept glaring openly at Corinna.
“What do you think we should do now?”
“Do?” Lenah echoed, though the feeling she’d had before—of itchiness to leave—was peaking up inside her again. “I don’t know if we can do anything,” she whispered. “We certainly can’t fly in with the Rambler and fight the full Cava Dara force ourselves. And I don’t think we could go and recruit more corporate armies to join in. Not as long as they don’t see the threat as serious enough to hurt their own worlds.”
“That will only happen once planets are attacked,” Persia said.
Lenah nodded. “Or if UPL told them to, which they won’t.” She stabbed the olive again before putting her fork down. “However, there is one thing that we could do.”
“And that is?” Persia asked.
“We could try to avoid the attacks altogether.”
Persia shook her head. “How?”
“If we’re right, and the mage farm is what’s triggering the Cava Dara attack on humanity, then destroying the farm should stop the attack, right?”
“Right…That’s what the Cassidian Elder who came to Corinna thought.”
“There’s only one mage farm location as of now, and it’s inside the Starwide Research compound in Asturis I.”
“What do you plan to do there?” Persia whispered, leaning closer to Lenah.
That was the weak part of Lenah’s plan. “I haven’t gotten that far, but something to turn them off.”
“Like shutting down the electricity?” Persia bit her lip and shook her head.
“I meant a more permanent solution.”
Persia gaped. “You want to destroy your own company?”
“If that’s what can save trillions of lives, of course.”
“Well, if you put it that way. But how can we do that? We don’t even have the stone to get there in time.”
That was a good point. They couldn’t warp as long as they didn’t have the stone or a mage, but a plan formed in Lenah’s mind.
“We don’t have it, but I know where it is.”
“You do?”
She nodded. “It’s being exhibited somewhere next to the guest landing bay. The young guild mage told me. All we need to do is get there, take the stone, and find our way back to the Rambler. Then we can warp our way to Astur.”
“Well, you do realize there are flaws in that plan, don’t you?” Persia raked her fingers through her hair. “For one, the stone will be guarded. Two, we don’t know where we left the Rambler. Plus, I’m thoroughly lost with all these white corridors. Third, we’ll need a weapon of some sort to destroy the mage farm. I don’t suppose you can walk in and tell everyone to turn the destroy-all switch. Which brings me to the fourth thing, we need to get into the compound to destroy anything.”
“True. There’s an entrance inside of Callo mansion. My father hides a key to the mage farm in his office. We could get the key and enter the farm through the house.”
“Won’t the people in the house know you didn’t exactly leave on good terms?” Persia said, shaking her head.
She was absolutely right, of course. Before Lenah could answer, Uz, Doctor Lund, and Cassius approached.
“You two look like you’re having secret conversations without us,” Doctor Lund said amiably. When neither Lenah nor Persia said anything, his eyes widened. “You are having secret conversations without us.”
“Our captain here plans to walk out with the stone, board our ship, sneak into her own house, and blow up the mage farm,” Persia grumbled, low enough for only them to hear.
Doctor Lund’s eyes widened even more.
Uz looked from Persia to Lenah, then back into the crowd of UPL guests. Frowning, she muttered, “That might be a good idea…”
“Might be a good idea?” Persia echoed, sounding incredulous.
“I thought you’d never ask,” Cassius said, a determined grin spreading over his face. Lenah’s jaw dropped open. Were they serious? Was she serious?
“Okay, does that mean we’re doing it?” she whispered to the group. It was a severely underdeveloped plan at the very best. But what else were they going to do?
“We’re doing it,” Cassius said, and Uz nodded.
“Persia, Lund—are you in? If you don’t want to come, that’s fine. You’re under no obligation.”
“And leave you and the cyborg here on your own when you get in a fight? You know I couldn’t be responsible for that,” Persia said.
“That means you’re coming?” Lenah asked, feeling hopeful. She had spoken the truth, that she wouldn’t ask Persia to come along, but she’d thoroughly miss her company.
“Of course, I’m coming. Who else will keep you out of trouble, eh? Besides, where else would I go?”
Doctor Lund’s eyes wandered over the crowd in the room. After a few seconds, he faced their group again. “These people have nice parties, but they are determined to ignore what’s coming.” His hand touched his throat where he’d worn his order’s necklace before the Cava Dara had ripped it off him. “I’ll come along as well.”
9 Escape
“How do you know where they’re keeping the stone?” Uz asked tentatively as Lenah stopped once more to turn around and look for holosigns. She had decided to trace their way back from where the other guests had come. Hopefully, that would lead to the guest bay.
“I asked several people just now if they’d gotten the chance to see it on their way in, and they all h
ad. I hope I wasn’t too conspicuous.” She winced.
After developing their hasty plan, they hadn’t left the party straightaway, even though that was what they’d all wanted to do. Instead, they’d spent more time talking and mingling with the other guests. Lenah had even learned a trick on how to orient herself a little better in the corridors. Now, if she paid close enough attention to it, she could make out the slight bend as UPL station’s main corridors followed the shape of the sphere. They now knew that they were in the station’s main rings and which direction they were walking. Given how hard it was to see the bend, Lenah figured they must already be in one of the outer central rings. That was also where they had left the Star Rambler.
“Did you ask them directly where the stone was?” Doctor Lund asked.
“Of course not,” Lenah answered. “That would have definitely been suspicious. But since we brought the stone here, I also felt entitled to ask if they had seen the beauty of it.”
“And?”
“And most had. Though no one seemed to find it as captivatingly beautiful as me.”
Persia snorted. “Rich folks are always bored. It’s difficult to impress them. I constantly needed to come up with new hammer moves to keep crowds engaged.”
“No wonder you fight like a show star,” Cassius muttered.
“I am a show star. Or rather, I was before I met Lenah and had to protect her all the time.”
It was Lenah’s time to snort. “I can fight for myself, thank you very much.”
“And who beat most of those smugglers when we first met?”
“We both beat up one each.”
“Yes, but I helped with yours while you were inspecting the door from behind.”
“You inspected a door?” Uz repeated, looking from Persia to Lenah, then back to Persia.
“No, I got stuck behind one when the two crowded the room where we were hiding. But I quickly made up for it and was able to beat up my share of the thug,” Lenah explained. “Aah, I think it’s over there.”
They had reached a part of the white corridor laid out with a fluffy carpet and an open door leading off it. The only open door—or at least the only visible door—they had encountered in several minutes.
Loud voices sounded from behind them.
“Uhoh, do you think our absence was noted?” Uz whispered.
“Possibly,” Lenah whispered back. “Though I hope they’ll check our rooms first. After that ordeal in the cells last night, it ought to be understandable that we’re exhausted and had to retire early.”
Lenah had spent the last half hour of the party yawning ostensibly before excusing herself.
“I can’t hear anyone inside that room,” Cassius said after walking a few steps ahead of them. With his hearing implants, he had detected mere breathing behind closed doors before, and Lenah trusted his assessment.
Nonetheless, they tread carefully toward the room, and Lenah reminded herself that UPL station wasn’t only defended by guards but also by advanced technology cleverly hidden inside its white walls. Like those damn smart cells.
They didn’t have any weapons; those had been taken away from them before they’d been given their rooms, and with Lenah’s mind magic still not working, their only real weapon, apart from old-fashioned fists, was Cassius.
He was standing in the doorway to the room now, carefully peeking inside. Interestingly, he not only checked what was inside the room but also inspected the walls and the ceiling.
“Looks clear. And the stone is there,” he finally whispered, though his voice sounded unsure. He took one careful step into the room. When nothing happened, he waved for them to follow.
Lenah took the lead behind him and entered a large chamber. One wall was completely taken up by a giant window, currently showing a panorama of Arcadia and the starry sky expanding next to it. The window was at least four stories tall and had a slight curve to it, amplifying the sensation of being part of the galaxy. Remembering what they had come for, Lenah forced her attention back to the inside of the room. In its center, someone had erected a showcase, and on a blue, velvet pillow rested their stone.
“Can you detect any protections on it?” Lenah asked Cassius who was still looking around. He shook his head and closed the distance to the showcase when, suddenly, his body started shaking violently as if from a lightning strike. For one brief moment, Lenah saw a flash in the ceiling. A small hole had opened up in the smooth surface, emitting a light of something that wasn’t bright enough to be laser fire.
Lenah jumped forward, trying to push Cassius, who stood frozen and agony written all over his face, out of the way of the beam, but she needn’t have bothered. The fire had ceased.
Instead, stiff as a board, Cassius lost balance and crashed backward. Lenah steeled herself to catch him but was knocked over by his weight while his head connected to the floor with a cringeworthy thump. Still, he didn’t react, apart from looking shocked, his eyes open. Lenah crawled toward him, looking up at the ceiling. The small hole was gone.
“Cassius.” Lenah knelt next to him, touching his shoulder. He didn’t just look stiff, he was stiff. His muscles were tense to the max and bulging out like strings from his neck.
“What’s wrong? Can’t you move?”
“I think he got nano-stunned,” Doctor Lund said, kneeling on Cassius’s other side.
“Nano-stunned?”
“It’s a strong stun weapon designed to target cyborgs. The surge attacks the organic material connected to carbon-nano tubes. It’s one of the few weapons able to knock out a cyborg, at least temporarily.”
“Temporarily?”
“I’m not sure, but it should subside in a few minutes.”
“But we don’t have a few minutes,” Lenah hissed, looking down at Cassius’s face. His eyes were full of pain, and he seemed alert, as if he could hear them fine but just couldn’t move.
“I hear loud footsteps,” Persia said from the doorway. “We should leave.”
“Okay. We can do this.” Lenah got up, trying to feel as sure of that as she sounded.
“Persia, Uz, and Doctor Lund, you carry Cassius. I’ll get the stone, and I’ll go first.”
“But you don’t know if it’s protected,” Persia said with a worried glance at the display.
Lenah thought the same but couldn’t think of another option. They were out of time. Without further delay, she snatched the stone, prepared to be either whiplashed by something invisible around it or from the ceiling. But nothing happened. She turned, glad to see that the others had already grabbed Cassius.
Doctor Lund and Persia were each holding one of his arms, while Uz was struggling to lift him from his feet. He was a big guy, but maybe all those implants made him even heavier. Lenah took the lead back into the corridor where footsteps were rapidly approaching. She couldn’t see anyone yet, but judging by the noise, that would change any moment.
She turned and started a quick jog down to where she suspected the landing bay must be. Hopefully, they weren’t back in the same corridors that could be turned into prison cells. Or could that be done on the whole station? That seemed a splurge, even for this place.
To her dismay, all Lenah could see ahead of her was an empty corridor. She touched the walls with her hand to discern if she could find a mechanism to open the doors that surely had to be there, but she couldn’t feel anything. Even worse, the others were visibly struggling with Cassius’s load, and their progress was awfully slow. Lenah turned back to help Uz when figures came into view from behind.
Guards. And they were armed.
“Stop. You’re under arrest for stealing UPL property.”
Lenah almost pointed out that UPL had stolen the stone from them. But that seemed fruitless.
She stopped and faced them. It was four guards, each armed with a pistol. The weapons had curious top builds, not usual for lasers, and she could see a small dart sticking out of it. A tranquilizer. At least, they weren’t going to be injured.
&n
bsp; “Drop him.” One guard pointed toward Cassius. With hesitation, the others put him down on the floor where he lay still, even though Lenah could see him move his fingers just a little bit. Did that mean he could move again? But by the look of agony all over his features, she doubted he would be useful within the next few minutes. Besides, he’d never get to the guards before they could shoot.
Lenah put her arms up in a gesture of surrender, feeling a lump in her throat. They hadn’t made it, and she doubted their punishment this time would be limited to one night in a cell.
“Alright, shoot them,” the same guard, apparently their boss, said in a bored voice.
“Wait, we surrender, there is no need to—”
“Shoot them,” the man repeated as the other guards hesitated at Lenah’s words. This time, they reacted. In a desperate attempt, Lenah tried to feel for their minds. Maybe the adrenaline would augment her abilities and enable her to influence them. But there was nothing. They pressed the trigger, and Lenah steeled herself for the impact.
She watched as small darts flew from the guns toward them, then suddenly turned around, as if bouncing against something in front of Lenah. Pained yells sounded, but not from her group. It was the guards. Somehow, they had been hit by their own darts.
Then she saw it; the watery texture in front of them. Was that a warp bubble? Lenah had been trapped in one only a few weeks back. A guild mage working with smugglers had cast it on her, and she had been similarly protected from laser fire around them. But who was casting it now?
“Quick, come.” An urgent voice sounded from behind them, and she whirled around, expecting to be magically attacked next. Instead, the young guild mage from the party, Lorka, stood there, forehead creased in concentration. He was waving frantically for them to follow him.
Lenah processed that for a second. Why was he helping them? What was he even doing here? This was either real help or a trap. But it couldn’t be a worse trap compared to staying here, she decided.
“One second,” she told Lorka before turning around and running over to the guards who were all unconscious from stunning themselves. She bent to pick up three of the tranquilizers. They also had real laser pistols, but Lenah left those. The dart guns would be handy if they needed to defend themselves. But she didn’t want to risk truly injuring anyone here. That would surely have grave consequences. Behind her, Persia and Uz were helping Cassius to his feet. He managed to take a few wobbly steps on his own, then, with a mask of pain, accepted their help. Lenah was glad he could walk at all.
