by C H Gideon
Chapter Six
Ka’nak went to say something, but Geroux hissed, stopping him short. Jiya elbowed him in the side for emphasis when he looked as if he might ignore her warning. He glared at her until she sent him a message across the private comm.
The room is bugged, so don’t say anything, she told him, gesturing to Geroux.
Geroux casually held up the computer attached to her arm and showed him the flashing red lights on its display. There were a lot of them.
Ka’nak’s eyes widened for an instant before he got them under control and nodded. Once more his mouth opened, but it closed right after, his message coming through.
I hate these things, he complained.
Jiya chuckled. She was the complete opposite, loving Takal’s upgrades on the translator and comm devices. They were a single device now, and they allowed the crew to think at the device directly—which took some practice to get used to—and it then translated their thoughts into words and sent them over the chosen comm channel.
It wasn’t telepathy in that the device didn’t read others’ thoughts, but it was effective enough that the crew could communicate with one another without ever having to say a word aloud.
With a well-trained team, the mental communicators could work miracles. With the current crew, they worked all right.
Jiya chuckled at the thought and smiled at Ka’nak while he scowled.
The crew examined their surroundings, Geroux and Reynolds circled the quarters, noting where all the bugs were located.
It took them a while.
Ten minutes after they’d started, they casually made their way back to the rest of the crew.
“I wonder what kind of food they’ll provide,” Geroux mused aloud, sending her real thoughts a second later. This place has more bugs than a gralflie farm.
Cameras, too, Reynolds added. “I’m sure the local cuisine will be quite to your liking.”
Jiya and the crew carried on a double conversation the entire time, talking about inane and basic things out loud, things they had no real concern about the president overhearing, while they spoke to one another over the comm link.
Seems like the nice guy act by the president isn’t quite real, Geroux stated.
No, Jiya agreed. This looks like next-level paranoia to me.
I wonder what this means for our negotiations? Maddox said.
Could mean anything, sadly, Reynolds replied, but it’s best we avoid saying anything that will make them suspect we’re anything other than what we say we are.
Well, we are exactly what we’ve said we were, minus the bullshit in the backstory, Jiya told him.
That might be true, but this is a game of perception, Reynolds fired back. We are whatever he thinks we are.
Which means we need to be on our best behavior, Jiya agreed.
The whole crew glanced at Ka’nak.
He felt them staring and looked up with a growl. What?
Maybe we should look for a safe zone in one of the rooms. Find a corner where the cameras lack coverage, Maddox suggested.
Good luck with that, Geroux remarked. This place is wall-to-wall coverage.
What do you have in mind, Maddox? Reynolds asked. “Perhaps we should try to get some rest until they come to collect us,” Reynolds suggested aloud.
Jiya realized the AI wanted them to lie down so they could feign sleep and wouldn’t have to keep up the double conversation, since their concentration was failing. The crew were getting quieter and quieter as they focused more on the internal monologue, which made them look even more suspicious than if they were talking aloud.
“I claim the couch!” Ka’nak shouted, stretching out and rolling over, burying his face in the cushions.
A quiet snore sounded a moment later.
The rest of the crew laughed and climbed to their feet, splitting up into separate rooms as if to look for a place to lie down.
Good job, Ka’nak, Geroux told him.
When he didn’t answer, she messaged him again.
Did you hear me? she asked.
Maddox chuckled in the other room. He really is asleep, the lucky bastard.
Reynolds remained in the main room, and Jiya could see him from where she sat on the edge of the bed in another room. Geroux came over and flopped on the bed behind her, face in the pillow.
I wish I could fall asleep that easily, Geroux remarked.
You and me both, Jiya replied, stretching. She didn’t think she’d ever sleep again.
Anyway, back to my question, Maddox, Reynolds course-corrected the conversation. What were you planning?
I was just thinking it might behoove us to have someone cloak and slip out of the room to get a good look around, Maddox answered.
If there weren’t so many damn cameras everywhere, I’d say that was a great idea, Reynolds told him. Unfortunately, Geroux is correct. Our hosts’ paranoia has ensured that there are absolutely no angles in the room that aren’t covered by at least one camera.
What if we short them out? Maddox suggested. Maybe just one or two?
With this kind of setup, whoever the president has covering the monitors would notice immediately, Geroux interjected. You don’t have a system this elaborate and leave it to automatons to operate it. This is a hands-on operation, guaranteed.
Can you hack it? Blind the system without them realizing? Maddox asked.
Jiya felt Geroux shake her head on the bed behind her.
No, I don’t think so, she answered. I mean, I can kill the power and black the cameras out, seeing as how they seem to be connected to the primary power source in the compound, but there’s no way to do it subtly.
A knock at the door interrupted their conversation.
Reynolds got up and went to the door. Jiya came out of the bedroom a second later to back him up.
A smiling face greeted them when the door was opened.
“Good afternoon,” a female said, nodding enthusiastically at them. “I am Kah Dur, headmistress in charge of visitor affairs.”
Jiya peeked over Reynolds’ shoulders and saw five more of the president’s servants there, each standing behind a cart laden with food or drinks.
“May we come in?” Kah Dur asked.
“Certainly,” Reynolds replied, stepping out of their way. Jiya did the same as the servants wheeled the carts into the room.
Think we can trust it? Jiya asked the AI.
We’ll scan it for foreign substances, he answered, but I don’t think Jaer Pon would resort to poison when he has us dead to rights in the room, unarmed.
I feel better already, Jiya said over the link, wishing Takal could add in a way to translate sarcasm across the system. The monotone voice lost a lot in translation.
Kah Dur directed the servants where to put the food, and they worked to arrange it neatly and out in the open so the crew could see it plainly.
“Utensils and napkins are on the last of the carts,” she pointed out, “and if there is anything else you might need, please ask one of the guards outside to send me, Kah Dur, a message. I will respond immediately.”
She smiled widely, and it almost looked real to Jiya.
As soon as the servants were finished arranging the carts, Kah Dur chased them from the room, shooing them away like errant children. When they were gone, she turned to the crew and opened her mouth to say something, raising a hand…
The room went dark right then, the power flickering and going out.
Kah Dur eased the door shut behind her.
Jiya started forward on Reynolds’ heels, each realizing the loss of power and Kah Dur’s visit were not a coincidence.
“Wait, please,” she called before they got to her. “I’m only here to warn you,” she explained.
All the bugs and cameras are dead, Geroux reported from her room. Power failure deeper in the compound, it looks like.
“Everyone okay?” Maddox asked, stepping into the hall.
“President Jaer Pon is not who he says he is,�
�� Kah Dur told them, the smile gone from her face. “You are in danger here on Krokus 4.”
“Why are you telling us this?” Jiya asked.
“Because I would not see you harmed simply because you stumbled upon the wrong location at the worst of times,” she replied. “You must believe me: this world is not safe for strangers.”
Geroux came into the room, still scanning for bug or camera activity. We’ve got about twenty more seconds before the backups take over, she warned. The system is repairing whatever knocked it out.
“Stay here in the compound and do not let the guards lead you anywhere else. It is too dangerous,” Kah Dur warned. “There are far too many eyes on the room for him to harm you here, but elsewhere…” She let the rest of her warning hang unfinished.
Ten seconds, Geroux called over the link.
Kah Dur, as if able to hear Geroux’s countdown, shook her head and eased the door open. “I must go,” she called over her shoulder, racing out into the hallway as if her life depended on it.
Jiya wondered if it did.
Soldiers burst into the room an instant later, weapons drawn as the lights flickered and the power returned.
“I’m Sergeant Gib. Is everyone all right?” the soldier asked, eyes scanning the room.
“We’re fine,” Jiya answered, doing her best to look dumbstruck. “What happened? Are we under attack?”
Other soldiers circled the chambers, looking for anything out of place. They returned to the sergeant’s side a moment later, shaking their heads.
“Looks like a simple power failure,” the sergeant reported. “Happens now and again thanks to those bastard Orau,” he complained. “Everything should be back to normal now. Nothing to worry about. We’ll be outside should you need anything.”
These are not the spies you’re looking for, Reynolds mumbled over the link as the soldiers left the room, shutting the door behind them.
What the hell are you on about? Jiya asked.
Nothing, Reynolds shot back, but that didn’t stop him from grinning.
Maddox went over and flopped into a chair across from the still-sleeping Ka’nak. You think she’s credible? he asked. “That was strange,” he said aloud, regarding the power outage.
Geroux returned to the room, signaling that all the bugs and cameras were functional once more, and Jiya went to examine the food.
“I would imagine it happens fairly often, given Ocelora’s location in the ocean,” Reynolds said. “It must take a lot of power to keep the system up and functioning.”
Reynolds shrugged as if it were meant as part of his public answer.
I don’t know, Maddox, he answered over the link. We’ve seen a hint of their uncertainty, given the number of devices in this room alone. We can’t presume anything at this point, so it probably serves us to examine what Kah Dur said if the opportunity presents itself.
Lots of activity on the security systems in here, Geroux reported. They’re checking on us after the power loss.
Hopefully, they don’t think we’re responsible, Jiya added from the other room.
I don’t think so since the source was nowhere near here, Geroux assured her friend. I mean, yeah, I could have killed the power like that from here, but these people don’t know that.
I wonder if we can take advantage of it if it happens again? Maddox said. We could call Kah Dur back under some other pretense.
I suspect Kah Dur feels she has done her duty and we won’t see her again, Reynolds said. She took a risk killing the power while she was here, and I doubt she’ll try it again anytime soon. It would be too obvious that she was involved.
It might already be obvious to security, Jiya exclaimed. There wasn’t a lot of subtlety in that.
I agree, which is why we can’t summon Kah Dur needlessly, Reynolds told the crew. “She risked her life to warn us, and it’s not right for us to put her in further danger.
Then what do you suggest we do? Maddox asked. With us stuck in these rooms, we don’t have a lot of options.
No, we don’t, and we have to decide how to react to Kah Dur’s warning, Reynolds answered. “She suggested we stay put for a reason. It’s simply a matter of whether that decision is the smart one to make.
If we can’t speak to her, there’s not much for us to go on, Maddox stated. Perhaps we could—
A distant explosion went off, and the power in the room flickered once more. Second and third explosions were felt right after. Each sounded closer than the last, and the floor shuddered beneath their feet.
“What the fuck is that?” Jiya asked, racing out of the room with Geroux at her side.
The noise even woke Ka’nak. “Sounds like Ocelora is being bombed,” he explained calmly, yawning as if it were an everyday situation for him.
Maddox jumped to his feet as yet another explosion erupted nearby.
“The city is under attack,” Maddox called, realizing that Ka’nak was correct. “Has to be the Orau again. They’ve come back for revenge.”
Yet another explosion sounded, this one even closer.
“I don’t know about you, Reynolds, but I’m thinking us staying here is a bad idea,” Maddox suggested.
“I agree with you,” Reynolds replied, motioning toward the door. “Let’s get the fuck out of here before the dome is blown and a trillion metric tons of water drops by for a visit. Where is my ship?”
When they reached the corridor, they found it empty except for Sergeant Gib.
Chapter Seven
Sergeant Gib waved to the crew to follow as he ran from the palace.
The soldier rushed through Ocelora as missiles poured down upon it. The crew followed close behind, eyes on the watery “sky.”
With every blow to the protective dome that held the ocean at bay, hundreds of gallons of water spilled into the city, raining down in great gushes before the barrier sealed itself.
“Definitely the Orau,” Reynolds stated as they ran, dodging down random alleys to avoid being hit by direct fire or falling water.
“Are they always this aggressive?” Jiya asked the Krokan sergeant.
Gib shook his head, not bothering to glance back at Jiya. “No,” he answered. “I can’t recall the last time they lashed out like this.”
“Guess we pissed them off,” Ka’nak said.
“We have a knack for doing that,” Jiya admitted.
“Where are you taking us, Sergeant?” Reynolds pressed, wondering if this was some part of the plot Kah Dur had spoken of.
They were out in the open now, just as she had said, and Reynolds began to think the soldiers might well be leading them somewhere better to dispose of the crew than the palace.
He hoped that wasn’t the case that he was just paranoid, but either way, he would be ready.
No one would ambush his crew without his taking a pound of flesh from their hides.
“If even only a little of this is what happens during a normal bombardment,” Geroux said as she sprinted along, “I can understand why everyone is so beaten down. This has to wear on you.”
Reynolds agreed. “There’s no living comfortably under such a threat,” he stated. The Orau were relentless, and their constant efforts to tear down Krokus 4 were having an effect.
Even if the Orau failed to invade and pillage Krokus 4, they were winning the war by simple attrition.
From a distance, they could batter the Krokan people without much fear of reprisal, raining down terror over and over until their spirit broke.
It sickened Reynolds, and if he could do something about it before he and his crew left, he most assuredly would.
The Orau would pay for what they were doing to the people of Krokus 4.
“How much farther?” Maddox asked, desperate to catch his breath.
He’d spent a long time in the dungeons of Jiya’s father and had yet to fully recover from his ordeal despite the effort of the Pod-docs aboard the SD Reynolds. Without pumping him full of nanocytes, the general was only flesh and bon
e.
Reynolds had pondered upgrading the crew, but he’d thought better of it when he pictured Bethany Anne’s expression when he informed her that he’d used nanocyte technology on people he’d known for only a short while.
She wouldn’t take it well, he knew, so he had discarded the idea.
Maybe the day one of his crew got badly hurt when they didn’t need to would expedite his decision. He had instilled in them that they had to bring everyone back to the ship. With the Pod-doc, he’d be able to heal them no matter what.
A missile struck a short distance ahead of the crew then, exploding and hurling shrapnel and flames their way. Reynolds wondered if now would be the time.
The crew sealed their armor by reflex, helmets closing over their heads, and darted for cover. Debris clattered around them, tearing at the walls of the building they’d hunkered behind.
Most of the soldiers weren’t so lucky.
The sergeant squeezed in beside the crew, having been right on top of them, but the soldiers who’d been leading the way were caught in the blast. Fire lapped at them, tearing through their simple armor as if it weren’t there.
Then a rush of water put them out, crushing them in the process.
Reynolds saw Geroux cover her eyes and duck away as the males died and crumpled to the ground.
He was grateful they’d expired quickly, none of them even getting the chance to scream as they were enveloped first by the fire, then smashed by water.
Black smoke roiled around as the chaos of the missile strikes settled. Reynolds was glad for the improved optics on the suits, which would allow his people to see no matter how bad it got out there.
But it wasn’t the smoke they had to worry about.
Another missile exploded near the first, and a second and third followed. The path they’d been following was decimated in an instant, the nearby buildings exploding and toppling to the ground.
It was as if there had been an earthquake, the ground shaking and dancing beneath them, making it hard for the crew and the sergeant to stand. They leaned against the building at their backs and hoped it didn’t get blown away like the others. Water pooled around their feet.
“What’s going on?” Jiya asked, looking at Reynolds, who braved the carnage to stand nearest the corner where he could see out to the street.
