Children of Titan Series: Books 1-4: (A Space Opera Thriller Box Set)

by Rhett C. Bruno

  Rin and Desmond stood by the exit watching me. “Where is she?” I yelled.

  “The director… made us watch,” Desmond said, his voice barely louder than a whisper. His hand lifted again, and he pointed a crooked finger at the transparent outer seal of the airlock behind me. “He said… he said we’d receive the same fate our people granted his if we didn’t tell him what he wanted to know.”

  “What did he want to know?” I forced through quaking lips. “What are you talking about?”

  “The Piccolo,” Desmond said. “Something about a hidden Q-Zone. They didn’t stop. They started sending us out one at a time. I was next, but… but then they all left for some reason.”

  “You’re lying!” I tackled him out of Rin’s arms. My fingers squeezed his throat. “You’re lying!” I cocked my arm back to punch him, but just before I did, I stopped. His hands covered his face as he shrank away from me, as terrified as a child left alone in the bottommost level of the Lowers.

  “I didn’t know anything,” he whimpered. “I didn’t know anything…”

  I fell off him and crawled back toward the empty cell C-031. A piece of frozen rock drifted by the airlock window, but there were no bodies lost in the blackness. Nothing. No proof that anyone had been ejected to die. I scanned the cell one last time and noticed a lens built into the small area of wall above the entrance.

  “Rin,” I said, my throat dry as sandpaper. “Did your sister know?”

  Rin shook her head. “Only that they were here. I told you, she had to deactivate all surveillance feeds to get us in and those feeds are all local. From the hall, the cells looked empty. We didn’t prep for this, Kale, we’re improvising. She—”

  “Is she still connected?”

  Rin sat upright and withdrew her hand-terminal. “Yes, but not for long.”

  “Can she pull up the last day of recordings from this cell?”

  “Probably, Kale, but we don’t have time. They’ve found her bug and are fighting her. We have to go.”

  “Ask her.”

  “Kale…”

  “Ask her!” I boomed.

  She reluctantly obeyed. She entered communications with Rylah, and I gazed out of the C-031 airlock. Lights from distant ships danced across the blackness. Ice-rock glistened against the swirling rouge atmosphere of Saturn. Rin extended her hand-terminal in front of my face for me to take.

  “Here,” she said gravely. “We don’t have long.”

  I took it without a word. Frozen on the screen was a silent feed facing the inside of the cell. Cora sat silently in the corner, staring expressionlessly at the wall, her clothes and face clean. I swiped my hand across the screen to fast-forward through the time. Once, security officers came to take her away. She was gone for hours until she limped back in, her face as bloodied as it was when I’d left her, her right arm broken, snapped at the elbow like a twig. Twice more the security officers came for her, and each time when she returned to her cell, her limp was more pronounced and her body more densely covered in red.

  She cried for a few hours after the third time she returned. Until the entrance opened again and in strolled Director Sodervall himself, the time stamp indicating this happened only a little more than an hour ago. I’d never seen him below his shoulders. He wore formal black-and-red fatigues and was unexpectedly short, even for an Earther.

  Cora regarded him, and for the first time, I could see the blue of her eyes before she scrambled across the floor. The director leaned in front of her and said something. He didn’t grin afterward. Or shout. He merely sighed, as if he was tired of the sight of her, before strolling out of the room.

  She watched him go, the dread in her expression matching Desmond’s when I found him. I didn’t need to see what followed to know the truth, but I watched nonetheless. I had to. The cell’s inner seal closed. She gazed up at the lens—right into my eyes—and then the outer seal popped open. Her body was sucked through, gone in less than a second. Like ashes in the winds of Titan.

  TWENTY-THREE

  The hand-terminal slipped through my fingers as the recording stopped. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t swallow. I was petrified, like one of Earth’s forests frozen over for centuries after the Meteorite struck.

  Rin’s hand fell upon my shoulder. Not forcefully, but with the concern of family. “We have to go, Kale,” she whispered. “She’s gone.”

  “I…” I couldn’t find words.

  Rin crouched by my side and picked up the hand-terminal. “Now you know what we mean to them.”

  I turned to my aunt. Gone was her hardened glare. Her eyes were glazed over, a tear running down the ripples and craters of her disfigured half.

  “She…” I swallowed. “She didn’t even know anything,” I managed to say.

  Rin propped me to my feet. I didn’t have the energy to fight her as she led me out of the cell. I wanted to sit at the airlock and search for Cora amongst the stars, but I knew I wouldn’t find her or anybody else.

  Back in the hall, Desmond cringed against the railing of the stairs. My assault had caused him to revert to a complete state of terror. Nearby, Hayes supported Gareth, his normally carefree expression rife with anger. Twenty Ringer members of the Piccolo’s crew had been detained, and only one of them remained, beaten and broken to within a fraction of his life. He would’ve been spaced as well if not for what happened on Titan.

  “Kale, we have to go,” Rin said. “Rylah’s been blocked, and reinforcements are incoming.”

  I couldn’t move. I stared at the long row of open cells, imagining the screams that had echoed from within them at the hands of the director before each Ringer was rendered silent despite knowing nothing. But they weren’t all gone. I helped Desmond to his feet. His whole body shivered.

  “Kale, focus,” Rin said.

  “They’ll pay for this,” Hayes bristled. Gareth signed his agreement, though his scowl was more than enough to indicate his feelings.

  “They will,” Rin agreed, “but we have to get to the tunnel. Our time is up.”

  I wound my arm around Desmond’s back and walked wordlessly with him toward the stairs. He was heavy, and having only one working leg meant he couldn’t help me much. Fury drove me. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen afterward, but I was going to get Desmond out just to show the director what failure felt like. Even if it killed me.

  We followed the others down the stairs. I stopped as my view of cell C-031 was about to be cut off. Through the airlock viewport, as the station rotated, I saw the silhouette of Saturn’s largest moon eclipsing the sun—Titan. Orange blades of light encircled it like a crown of fire.

  “Kale!” Rin shouted with urgency.

  I snapped to and allowed the cell to fall out of sight. Down the stairs we went. Rin took the front since she wasn’t carrying anybody. Her rifle was ready. Desmond and I brought up the rear behind Hayes and Gareth. My shoulder burned with soreness and my arm felt like it was going to fall off. A few times, Desmond stumbled, but I didn’t let him fall. I wouldn’t let him fall.

  When we were halfway down the exit corridor, the emergency alarms started wailing. Rylah’s interference in the station’s systems had finally been purged. By the time we crossed the lobby, every door into the detention block was reopened. A device that had the potential to wipe a million Ringer identities off the grid had been expended to save only Desmond’s life. My first decision as the leader Rin hoped I could be.

  Officers flooded the lobby behind us, their footsteps clattering like a herd of ancient cattle. We retrieved our supply bag at the platform and jumped to the service ladder rising through the vertical passage just before any of them might have seen us. The tram-car we’d arrived in was gone, leaving only rock, metal lines, and darkness, enough to shroud us.

  Desmond could barely wrap his broken fingers around the bars, so I stayed below him, keeping him steady. We climbed, the force of the station’s centripetal gravity lessening with every rung. We reached a service landing about
forty meters up, where we finally had a chance to rest.

  It was a tight fit against a power conduit, but we all shoved in, stifling our heavy breaths by pulling our sanitary masks as tight as possible. Desmond didn’t have one on, so I covered his mouth with my sleeve. Getting sick was the last thing he needed to worry about. His gaze dithered as if he was ready to pass out.

  “Legs in,” Rin whispered. “Tram’s coming.”

  The rocky walls around us rumbled, and I heard a loud humming sound like a shuttle taking off. A beam of light pierced the darkness from above, gathering fast. There was just barely enough room for the tram to zip by. My sweaty face was blasted by a wave of warm air.

  “Let’s go,” Rin said once it passed.

  “For Trass’s sake, give them some time,” Hayes protested.

  “There is none now.”

  The tram stopped. Then a basso voice filled the depths of the shaft, one I’d heard many times before. It belonged to Director Sodervall.

  “What in the name of Earth happened here!” he barked. “Spread out. I want the entire block searched. Find these Ringers and put them down!”

  Hearing him ignited all the ire festering in my gut. I pictured him leaving Cora’s cell without a care in the world before she was taken by the vacuum.

  The rest of the group listened to Rin. They prepared themselves to climb deeper up the shaft, where gravity would become imperceptible. Even Desmond stood groggily, expecting me to be behind bracing him. I didn’t move. I stared down at the platform where Sodervall had arrived. My hands balled into fists so tight that my nails dug into my palms. I wasn’t sure if it was my limbs shaking or Desmond’s as he lay beside me, but I felt like I was going to explode.

  “Kale, what are you doing?” Rin whispered from above.

  “Aren’t you tired of hiding?” I answered.

  “Kale?”

  I released Desmond, pushed off the wall, and dropped through the shaft. I braced myself between the metal of the car and the rock of the walls with my hands and feet. It was no different from a ventilation shaft, and negotiating those was my specialty. My light weight made me noiseless, and once I was low enough, I swung myself around the cylindrical tram-car and threaded through one of its open viewports.

  Stacks of horizontal seats rushed by me, my body snaking through the narrow spaces between each level. I grabbed hold of the second-lowest one with my left hand and launched myself through the vehicle entrance, landing directly behind Director Sodervall. Before any of his men could react, my pulse-pistol was out of my belt and aimed at the back of his head.

  “Nobody move or he dies!” I screamed.

  The host of officers in front of him whipped around, pulse-rifles raised. I ducked so that the director obstructed my tall frame.

  “Don’t shoot,” he said, more calmly than I’d have expected. “Listen to him.” He turned his head to catch a glimpse of me.

  “Eyes ahead,” I snapped, taking a page out of Rin’s book.

  He chuckled as if I wasn’t the least threat, like he probably had after he sentenced Cora and so many Ringers to death. “You think you’re the first Ringer to hold a gun on me?” he asked.

  “No, but if you try anything, I’ll be the last.”

  “Kale Drayton, isn’t it? If only Graves could’ve been here to see how wrong he was about you.”

  “Quiet!”

  I heard the clank of Rin and the others scrambling down the ladder. The officers trained their sights on them.

  “Tell them to put down their weapons and back away,” I ordered. “Now!”

  “You heard him.” Sodervall extended his hands and made a downward motion. His officers slowly placed their rifles on the floor. I honestly was shocked by their willingness.

  My impulsive gamble had paid off, at least for the moment. Pervenio wouldn’t tolerate the murder of a director at the hands of a Ringer. It showed weakness. The act might earn the indignation of Earthers everywhere, but it’d also reveal what they were trying to hide in every address he issued. From their attempt at covering up the riot in the Uppers to ignoring the widespread protest to their invasion of the Darien Q-Zone—they were losing control.

  “What are you doing?” Rin questioned, dropping down behind me.

  “Exactly what you asked me to do,” I said.

  “Do it,” the director growled. “Kill me and prove to everyone exactly the kind of animals you people are. You’re all the same. We should have wiped you all out when we had the chance.”

  “Shut up!” I peered around his head and made eye contact with his officers. “Contact the rest of the station and tell them that if anyone fires at us, I’ll blow a hole in his head. And the only thing it’ll prove is that we can reach you anywhere: Titan, Earth—anywhere.”

  The officers immediately started chattering into their com-links.

  “Kale, what’s the plan?” Rin asked. She stepped in front of us, with the others forming a line beside her consisting of exhausted Ringers helping a wounded Ringer stand.

  I was improvising, like I was a kid again amid a theft gone wrong. I spun the director around and shoved the barrel of the pistol into his mouth. “The Voice of Titan is going to take us to the Piccolo and ride with us down to Titan,” I said. “Is it still operational?”

  Sodervall’s eyelids opened wide, finally displaying the hint of panic I yearned for.

  “Is it?” I said.

  He nodded.

  “Where is it?” I asked.

  He coughed a few times, and then glowered at me. “Back to the scene of your first crime, eh?” he said. “It’s in a private hangar just through the security headquarters. You Ringers will never—”

  I fired a round right past his ear into the ceiling. The sound of the blast caused him to recoil, but I didn’t allow him to move far. “Quiet, or the next one won’t miss!”

  “Fall around Kale,” Rin ordered the others, finally grasping what I was up to. “Half of us in front, half behind. Gareth, can you walk?” He snorted in response and armed his pulse-rifle.

  “You guys are really trying your best to get me killed,” Hayes groaned as he stepped in front of me, together with Gareth.

  “Throw us cuffs, or he loses a hand!” I hollered at the officers. A few seconds later, a pair slid across the floor, and Rin slapped it on the director’s wrists.

  “Walk!” I ordered. I shoved him, and though my weak arms couldn’t send him far, it was enough to get him moving.

  We reached the lobby quickly, where we were greeted by a group of more security officers. The four of my companions huddled around the director and me like a protective shell. The officers formed a circle around us, matching our every movement but making sure to keep their distance. There were dozens of them, all armed with pulse-rifles. Anytime they got too close, I pressed my pistol against the director’s neck and got my finger comfortable on the trigger.

  “You’ll never escape us, Kale Drayton,” the director spat as we crossed the dead bodies by the reception desk. “Collectors will find you and your mother for what you’ve done, and then I’ll show you what real pain is.”

  “Like you showed him?” I gestured to Desmond, who limped along using Rin as a crutch. “Or Cora?”

  “You sent them here.”

  “They didn’t know anything!” I smashed him in the back of the head with the pistol. I wasn’t strong enough to knock him out, but his head drooped forward. I grabbed him by the jaw and wrenched it back. “I said quiet.”

  He cackled, still unwilling to display weakness. “They’ll find you as soon as you land.”

  “No, they won’t,” Rin responded before I could, probably fearful that more talk from the director would provoke me into pulling the trigger and getting us all killed.

  “Kale, stop,” Rin said. “Hayes, where are our suits?”

  Hayes’s face lit up like he understood where she was going. I still wasn’t sure. “Latched on to the vent we entered the Ring Skipper through,” he said. />
  Rin turned to face the ring of officers surrounding us. “Send a squad to the Ring Skipper,” she demanded. “Our armor is hidden in the cargo hold in an exhaust vent, third from the back. Have the suits brought to the Piccolo.”

  “They’ll find the staff we stole the identity of in there as well, if you haven’t already,” I said. “Let them go free, no questions asked. They didn’t do anything.” There was no way I could trust Pervenio wouldn’t interrogate them thoroughly after what had happened with Cora, but it was the least I could offer them.

  Rin nodded. “That too. If the armor isn’t there by the time we arrive, Sodervall flies. If anybody tampers with it, I’ll know, and again, he flies.”

  She established eye contact with me, and when I noticed one side of her sanitary mask lift from a grin, I realized that her use of the word flies wasn’t accidental. I hadn’t thought of anything beyond using Sodervall to steal the Piccolo to get Desmond home, but with the wings on our suits, we wouldn’t have to land at all.

  An officer relayed her orders. I nudged Sodervall to keep moving. He muttered something, but the cold barrel of my pistol against his bare neck rendered him silent.

  The security headquarters wasn’t far from the detention center, but we had to move slowly and constantly remain vigilant. Desmond could barely move at all any longer. All his weight was slung onto Rin, who needed two arms to support him and struggled to keep a hold on her rifle. Gareth leaned on Hayes, and to combat the pain had to relinquish his weapon so he could grasp his wounded leg.

  We were lucky at least not to be in the Darien Uppers or anywhere where lofty ceilings would provide vantages for sharpshooters. The only officers were directly around us, and any shot would have to go through my protectors before it could hit me. If it came to a firefight, we would lose handily. That was evident. All I could do was keep my attention on Sodervall and make sure that if he did attempt to break free, I took him with us.