“He wrapped up his pathetic excuse for a cock just so he could keep us around, but it was a miracle I never got sick. Trass blood is stronger than most. Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. I drove a blade into his neck, and that was the end of it. The ship’s security helped me earn this in the riot that followed.” She pointed at the grisly burns maiming her face. “The few left on this ship are the only ones who survived, and we took the Sunfire for ourselves. That was when I decided I was tired of following orders. My sister was our eyes and ears on Titan, so I became our eyes and ears on Saturn. Waiting. Watching.”
“Getting help from Venta Co,” I added. “An Earther corp.”
“Your dad was stubborn until the day he ate a bullet, but he wasn’t about to let me die for failing him. He spent years brokering an agreement with the only company that had the means of getting supplies to a ship that didn’t exist. Their medicine probably saved your life back on the Piccolo, so I can’t say I regret it. We do what we have to for survival, and in the end, it’ll be their mistake. If Venta Co wants to watch their competition burn so badly, then they can all burn together.”
“I’m sorry, Rin, but just because your captain did that to you doesn’t mean Saunders is the same. He doesn’t deserve to suffer like this.”
She stood and said, “Then end it for him. Or don’t. Your choice put him here, after all. Just know that you’re wrong. He’s exactly the same. They all are. Just ask him. Ask him about Cora.”
I grabbed her armored wrist and squeezed. “What about her?”
“You want to save him, get him to tell you why he named her navigator over an Earther.” She stared toward the airlock’s outer seal for a moment, as if she saw something there, then ripped her arm free and stalked away.
“What about her!” I yelled, running after her.
Rin whipped around and grabbed me by the throat, so swiftly that I couldn’t even muster an attempt at evading her. She looked like she was ready to snap my neck in two.
“Cora!” she bellowed. “Your mother! Do you ever tire of worrying about other people? You’re the only one here now, and you have a more important role to play than anyone on Titan has had for generations.”
“I... I still don’t understand what you want,” I stuttered.
“I’m trying to be patient with you, Kale, but you’re as stubborn as he was.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
Rin released me. Her scowl softened. “Do you love Titan?” she asked.
“Of course. It’s my home.”
“Do you hate Earthers?”
“Only some of them.” Her eyes narrowed. I held strong. “That’s the honest truth.”
“Do you hate Pervenio Corp, then?”
I thought back to all the moments dealing with security in Darien—being shocked, shuffling into the Q-Zone, my hollow about to be repossessed, Director Sodervall inspiring a riot in the Uppers all around me.
“Yes,” I said. “I do.”
“Then follow me.”
Hayes was already in the command deck when we arrived. The Sunfire juddered more than usual, and beyond the viewport whipped a windy haze so dark and thick that it was as if a black hole had swallowed us.
“Strap in,” Hayes said. “We’re entering a bad one.”
The Sunfire lurched, hurling my body to the side. Gareth caught me and planted me in a seat. He strapped me in before he and Rin headed to seats of their own.
“Storm?” I asked.
Rin nodded. The structure of the domed viewport rattled so loudly I thought it was going to shatter. Lightning coruscated all around us, bolts the length of Pervenio Station. My heart started racing.
“Hayes, do you have the director’s address saved up here from earlier?” Rin asked.
“Sure,” he said. “Why?”
“We’re going to show Kale.”
“Oh, c’mon, Rini. He isn’t ready yet.”
“Neither were you when I stuck Captain Sildario.”
Gareth signed something to Hayes, who rolled his eyes.
“That was different,” Hayes said. “This is—”
“Show me,” I cut him off. All three of them faced me, surprised to hear my voice. The Sunfire quaked, and I clutched my chair’s armrests so tight they dimpled. I swallowed hard. “Show me.”
“You heard him,” Rin said.
Hayes grumbled something, but he signaled one of the command deck’s small view-screens to switch to the grainy newsfeed from earlier. Director Sodervall’s face appeared on it, lines of exhaustion creasing his old face. He sat in front of a viewport looking out upon Saturn’s dazzling rings and a handful of its many moons.
“People of the Ring,” he said. Hayes had to blast the volume because the storm was so loud. “By now you’ve all heard of the horrible fate which befell the Piccolo and its loyal Earther crew members. I speak to you now, not as your director, not as the Voice of the Ring, but as one human making a solemn promise to others. The terrorists behind this attack will pay for their crimes. They call themselves the Children of Titan, but we are the people of Titan. Together, we have all helped the Ring thrive! One cowardly act will never thwart all that we have accomplished.
“I am asking—begging for your help in bringing the man responsible for the unwarranted slaughter of twenty-one innocent members of the Piccolo’s crew to justice.” An image popped up next to the Director’s face. It was a cropped view of the Uppers during the riot his address about the Departure Lottery incited. Framed in the center of it, I saw myself, and behind me, the plants surrounding the Trass memorial were up in flames—a ring of crackling orange framing my head.
“He is Kale Drayton,” Sodervall said. “An eighteen-year-old male from level B2 of the Darien Lower Ward. We believe he was also behind a riot that took place not two days ago in the Darien Uppers and cost the lives of two veteran security officers. Consider him armed and extremely dangerous.
“But he is not alone. People in league with these terrorists can be anywhere. Working beside you. Living beside you. Any accurate report of suspicious behavior will be handsomely rewarded. Anyone who is able to provide information leading directly to the arrest of Kale Drayton will personally receive one hundred thousand credits from the account of Luxarn Pervenio. It is time for us to take back the Ring from lawlessness! Lastly, anyone caught replicating the symbol of the Children of Titan anywhere in Sol will be punished by the fullest extent of USF Colonial Law.
“Your safety, no matter where you or your parents were born, is our utmost concern. The fight to ensure our survival rests in all of our hands.”
The feed cut to static. My jaw hung open. Rin could have been lying about everything she’d said since I woke up on the Sunfire, but I’d just watched an address issued by the Voice of the Ring. It wasn’t a doctored video, it was his voice.
“They think it was me?” I muttered.
“The only Ringer who didn’t return,” Rin said. “Half a crew that didn’t see you die. Even we weren’t expecting Sodervall to be this foolish, but people need to put a face to their fears. Your father didn’t allow him to give them one after the bombing in New London, so now Sodervall’s giving them you. It doesn’t matter if you’re innocent.”
“You have to tell them the truth!” I exclaimed. “They think I killed all of those people.”
“Well, you did upload the device that helped us locate the Piccolo without broadcasting our own signal and being spotted. What will you tell them, that you were just downloading music to it?”
I lunged at her, but my chair’s restraints snapped me back down against the chair. I went to remove them, only to find they were locked. So much for no locked doors.
“Easy, now,” Hayes said. “You said no more breaking anything.”
I lost the ability to breathe. Everything Rin had told me paled in comparison to this newest revelation. As rapidly as I inhaled, no air seemed able to reach my lungs. My chest was tight, and as I grabbed at it, the Sunfire dipped hard.
I vomited all over the floor.
“For Trass’s sake, kid!” Hayes shrieked.
“That’s all right,” Rin said. She freed herself from her chair and stood behind me, patting my back. “Let it out.”
“I told you he wasn’t ready, Rin.”
“It wasn’t our secret to keep. He’s dealt with enough of those in his life already.”
I continued struggling to catch my breath as I spit up chunks of regurgitated ration bar stuck behind my teeth. It tasted a lot worse coming up.
“I can’t ever go back…” I realized.
“Not like this.” Rin positioned herself in front of me and raised my helmet up with two hands. “You wanted to know what we wanted, Kale Trass? The real reason you’re here? We’ve been spread thin for too long. Be the leader Sodervall thinks you are. It’s what you were meant to be.”
SEVENTEEN
Leader. A leader of the Children of Titan. Was that what my long-lost father never wanted me to be? What my mom hid me from?
All I wanted was to sleep the hours away and shut off my brain, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t force my eyes to close for more than a second without seeing the final moments on the Piccolo, because Rin was right. It wasn’t all my fault like Director Sodervall proclaimed, but their blood was partially on my hands.
I wasn’t innocent. I knew that the moment I read R’s message on Titan and agreed to her trade.
That seemed like ages ago. Only a day on the Sunfire and my life had changed more drastically than in eighteen years of living. I had gone from the fatherless son of a sick, penniless, Earther house-servant to the descendant of the single greatest human being in our long history of existence. From a worthless gas harvesting worker struggling to make ends meet to the most wanted man in Sol.
It all left me too exhausted to continue the conversation with Rin. I needed to be alone. At least, partially alone. I gathered as much water as I could and brought it to the airlock. Most of it was for me, but it seemed to be helping Captain Saunders. He shook less and groaned more softly.
“There you go,” I said as I laid his head back. “Good as new… almost.”
The bullet wasn’t stuck in him; I’d inspected him closely enough to discover that it’d blasted through his back. I knew a thing or two about infections, and I was lucky enough to have a space-worthy suit on, so I felt comfortable enough to rub him with some Venta-provided cleaning agents I’d found in the galley. He needed a real doctor, though. He needed one badly.
Unfortunately, there were none for hire in the depths of Saturn’s atmosphere. None of my new crewmates would help either. They claimed to have used anything that might’ve actually helped on Rin’s burns and trying to help other Ringer crewmen who rebelled. I didn’t want to give up, though. I couldn’t. Maybe everything Rin had told me about him was true, but he didn’t deserve to die for doing what anybody else would’ve in his position. Did he?
I patted a wet, unused harvesting rag on the front side of his wound.
“Garghhh...” he groaned. “Stop.”
I grabbed his jaw and tilted his face. He squinted through his eyelashes at me.
“Captain!” I exclaimed. “I never thought I’d hear a familiar voice again.”
“What the...Where are we?” He attempted to sit up, the effort causing him to grimace and clutch his stomach.
“Don’t move.”
His breathing picked up. He lifted his bandage and struggled to focus on what lay beneath. The skin surrounding the hole was slightly discolored and oozed pus.
“By fucking Earth!” He poked the area and lurched. “Oh god, it hurts!”
“Don’t touch it.” I brushed away his free hand and returned the bandage to its proper position, then pulled it as taut as possible.
“We’re still on the Piccolo?” he groaned.
“No. You wouldn’t believe where we were even if I told you.” I shuffled backward and sat across from him. “You loved to remind us about the place.”
He noticed that one of his hands was cuffed to a pipe. “They took us prisoner?” he said. “Where’s the rest of the crew?”
I paused for a moment, then said, “Far away or dead. Don’t you remember?”
“We were by the airlock.” His weary gaze darted around the room. The color drained from his cheeks. “This one.”
“It’s not—”
“They took all of my people! John, Orsini, and the others.” He scrambled as far away from me as his cuff would allow.
“Captain, you should try to stay still.” I wrapped my fingers around his ankle. His stare swept from one of my unchained arms to the other. His eyes opened as wide as they had since he’d come to when they settled on the orange emblem on my chest.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” he shouted.
“Captain, relax!” I said. “You’re safe here, I promise.”
“You son of a bitch... You’re one of them!” He sprang at me, but his body was snapped backward, and he face-planted. He screeched in pain. “You son of a bitch!”
“I’m just trying to help you.” I went to lift him back into a seated position.
“Don’t you fucking touch me, traitor!” He punched my chest, his knuckles crunching against my armor. He roared like he was shot all over again, rolled onto his side, and cradled his arm. Blood started leaking out of his gut, but he didn’t have a free hand to help stem the flow.
“I stuck my neck out for you,” he panted.
“I know, and I’m grateful,” I said. After everything that had happened, it felt good to say that and know I meant it. Whether as a slave or not, he did get me out of the shadows, gave me a chance to see Saturn for the first time. The good feeling didn’t last long as I witnessed the mounting revulsion on his face.
“I swear,” I said. “None of this is what it looks like.”
“You put on quite a show, Drayton,” he said. He was sweating so profusely I could’ve showered under his chin. “Leading on Cora. Pretending to save my life while you handed over my ship. My crew. What the hell did you do to them?”
“That’s not what happened. Just calm down, and I’ll explain everything. You’ll aggravate the wound.” I picked up my wet rag and held it out for him, smart enough to keep my distance this time.
“Scared of getting sick?” He spat at me, a sticky mixture of saliva and fresh blood. I was able to turn my body just in time so that it splattered on the side of my helmet instead of my face. “I should have never let you back on!”
“Wash yourself, then!” I shouted. I threw the rag at him and shot to my feet. I stopped outside of the airlock’s inner seal. “I’m trying to help you, sir.”
“You touch me again, and I’ll wring your skinny skelly neck, Drayton! You took my ship! I’ll kill you.” He tugged on his cuff again, then collapsed onto his side and squirmed in agony. The veins in his neck bulged. “I’ll kill you!” I heard him groan through his teeth after I decided to hurry away.
My eyes welled with tears. My throat was tight. I made it around the nearest corner, and then screamed at the top of my lungs. I punched the wall repeatedly. My armored fists slammed through a cluster of exhaust pipes, causing hot exhaust to spew onto my face. I didn’t stop. I kept punching until my arms were sore and the lights started flickering from damage to power lines buried in the wall.
“Why is this happening to me?” I asked myself as I fell to my knees. “Why me?”
A hand landed on my shoulder. I turned and saw Gareth, expression staid as ever. He signed something to me, slowly so that I could better understand it. He had to repeat the symbols a few times to spark my memory.
“Won’t accept help?” I read.
“No,” I said. “Because he’s an Earther, right? Like your old captain.”
Gareth shook his head. “Would you, as him?”
“No, I guess I wouldn’t.” I exhaled. “I don’t know what to do...” I collapsed against the wall, steam cascading over my shoulders. Gareth joined me. “I’m just so tired.�
�
“Sleep?” Gareth signed.
“Not like that. I meant I’m tired of being so out of control of everything in my life. All of you telling me who I am. For the briefest moment, I thought I had everything. I saved my mom. I had Cora. A job.”
Gareth’s hands remained still.
“I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this,” I said.
“What do you want?” he signed.
“Me? I have no idea. I thought I was doing the right thing helping my mom. Now everyone else I know is either locked up somewhere, refusing my help, or dead, and I’m stuck here in the middle of Saturn talking to the mute who helped put me here... Sorry. I’m sure you were only following orders.”
His expression didn’t shift. “What do you want?”
I drew a deep breath. “To fix it. I know my life can never be the same—you’ve all made damn sure of that—but I guess I failed at keeping my distance from people. At not caring. Trass, I’d kill to have a drink with Desmond right now, and I never thought I’d say that. I don’t know what I’d do to be with Cora.” A weak chuckle slipped through my lips.
“Then do it.”
“That’s easy to say, but I can’t. You’re stuck here with the most wanted man in Sol.”
He shook his head and then stared directly into my eyes. “Listen to her then. You lead. You choose.”
“I lead,” I whispered. I leaped to my feet, having a sudden epiphany. “I lead.”
I ran to the command deck so fast Gareth could barely keep up with me. Rin sat at a console, keying commands while she munched on one of our precious ration bars. Hayes scrubbed my vomit off the floor and the back of his chair, visor on, presumably so he didn’t have to deal with the stench.
“Rin!” I hollered.
She calmly glanced up from her work. “What is it?” she asked. “Are you feeling better?”
Hayes raised his visor. “Is he feeling better?” he said. “How about me? He should be the one cleaning this shit up.”
“Quiet.”
“By Trass,” he grumbled and returned to scrubbing, cursing under his breath the entire time.
Children of Titan Series: Books 1-4: (A Space Opera Thriller Box Set) Page 42
