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

by Rhett C. Bruno

  The security headquarters was a marvel of technology. View-screens, some of which were entirely holographic, shined amongst a bullpen of desks and surveillance stations. Officers inside gawked as we went by. I caught glimpses of shops on fire playing on the screens at their desks, and hordes of screaming Ringers waving scraps as weapons. Any words were too small to read, but those screens were displaying what was really happening in Darien—what Director Sodervall’s address and the public newsfeeds didn’t want anybody to see.

  “The hangar is just up ahead,” Sodervall said. “I hope you’ve thought about this. You murder me, and it’ll give Mr. Pervenio a reason to unleash his army on Titan. All of your people will die, and it will be your fault.”

  I ignored him. The tall gate of the hangar was set along the side of a corridor branching off the security headquarters. I could see the fluted hull of the Piccolo through a wide viewport. Officers surrounded it. A perfect circular hole in the side of the harvesting bay had been patched up by a plate and sealant. The broken command deck translucency we’d busted through to reach the Sunfire was in the process of being repaired, a shimmering tarp fastened over the breach.

  “You might as well just do it now,” Sodervall continued. “Kill me and let my death be the reason Luxarn finally gets rid of you ungrateful Ringers like his father should have. Forty-five years I’ve been stationed here watching over you, listening to you gripe about the lost, ‘perfect’ world that Trass gave you. He was a coward, helping more cowards run from the Meteorite and never look back. Without Pervenio, you’d be nothing.”

  “We’d be free!” I growled. It took all my rage-fueled strength, but I thrust him against the gate, where a retinal scan was required. His face crashed into the unyielding metal surface. “Open it!”

  He spit out a gob of blood. “Free,” he sneered. “Until you get sick and need our medicine again. I wish I’d been there at the Great Reunion. Maybe then we wouldn’t have made the mistake of not wiping all of you out. We own you, Ringer.”

  “Titanborn!” I fired my pistol into the gate, so close to him that the bullet skimmed his biceps.

  I heard the clamor of the officers circling us edging closer as he groaned in pain.

  “Back!” Rin warned, firing her rifle into the ceiling.

  “Open it,” I whispered into the director’s ear. For all his smug talk, he didn’t hesitate. He could try to hide it as much as he wanted, but I could tell he didn’t want to die. Why would he? His hair was gray and his face weathered by time, but as a top executive beneath one of the wealthiest men in Sol, he had access to luxuries that could give him twenty or thirty more years easy. There was a time I’d have longed to swap lives with him.

  The retinal scanner chirped, and the gate rose. My companions crowded around me, even tighter now as we stepped into the hangar. Everyone who hadn’t been dispatched to Titan seemed to be present—at least fifty armed officers, at a complete loss over what to do. All their more experienced counterparts were far away in Darien. From behind Director Sodervall, my gaze swept from vent to vent near the high ceiling to the top of the Piccolo, searching for sharpshooters. There were none.

  The most decorated officer stood outside of the lowered exit ramp of the Piccolo. He carried a large hand-terminal instead of a rifle. Once we were close enough, he began to speak.

  “Your suits have been delivered as demanded, and your captives on the Ring Skipper let free. They will not be detained.” He gestured up the ramp, where a few workers unloaded our suits of powered armor from a large container. “However, before you proceed, Mr. Pervenio requests an opportunity to discuss terms. He promises that none of you will come to harm if you abandon this foolish course of action, and begs that you sit with him to try and resolve the dispute with the Children of Titan. To start with, the one-hundred-credit reward offered for your arrest will be paid in full to you, and to any of your companions who comply.”

  We stopped a few meters away from him. A chorus of clanking footsteps, shaking rifles, and heavy breaths besieged my ears. The officer raised the screen for me to see, and on it, I noticed a face that was impossible to mistake. I’d seen him live over Solnet during M-day addresses and on a select few ads over the years. Sharp jaw, firm cheekbones, a stern glare: He was as handsome as any Earther model I’d ever seen. A perfect specimen. Luxarn Pervenio.

  “Belay that order, sir,” Director Sodervall said to the only man in his corporation who outranked him. “I assure you everything is under control.”

  “Silence!” Luxarn bellowed, and even through the device, his baritone voice commanded respect. I felt as if I could hear the hairs rising on the necks of every officer in the hangar. Mine would’ve too, but they already stood on end and had been since I’d first grabbed Sodervall.

  “I will not tolerate the murder of one of my directors,” Luxarn said. “Even one who has so spectacularly failed me. I’ve already lost too much today.” He steepled his fingers on his desk. “Now, Mr. Drayton, name your price to end this madness.”

  I caught a glimpse of Desmond. He leaned on Hayes’s shoulder, eyes almost entirely closed, but I think he was watching me through his eyelashes. I was reminded of something he once told me. That if credits didn’t exist, he would be king.

  “There is none,” I said. “We’ll be taking the director down to Titan. Follow us too closely, and he dies. Smuggle anyone onto the ship to kill us, and he dies. Once we’re there, you can have him back. Those are my terms.”

  Mr. Pervenio’s face contorted in a way I imagine it never had before. Before he could respond, I shot the hand-terminal out of the officer’s hand. It exploded into a thousand silvery shards. Rin immediately pushed past the baffled officer onto the Piccolo. I nudged the terrified director onward and followed closely behind her.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  The group of maintenance workers inside the Piccolo’s cargo hold fled as soon as we entered. Our familiar suits lay on the floor in a row, orange circles on the chest arranged front and center. Our rifles were arranged to the side of them.

  “Check all of it,” Rin said to Hayes.

  He surveyed the suits, tapping the switches and lifting each side to check underneath them. “Clean,” he reported.

  “Close the ramp,” I said.

  Gareth limped over to the controls. The cargo bay ramp lifted, and I glared at the wall of officers gathered at the base. It sealed with a prolonged hiss, which was immediately followed by an exhale from every single one of my companions.

  “I told you he’d find us a way out eventually, Rini,” Hayes said, chuckling in relief.

  “You have no idea who you just insulted,” Director Sodervall grated, gaze fixed on our suits as he probably realized where he’d seen them before. “You might as well—”

  I finally unleashed the wave of fury I’d been holding back. “She was innocent!” I cracked him across the face with the handle of my pistol three times in succession. By the time Rin and Hayes grabbed my arms and pulled me back, he was sprawled across the floor coughing up blood and teeth.

  “We need him!” Rin shouted.

  “Sorry,” I grunted. “I’m tired of hearing him speak.”

  “We all are, but we didn’t come this far to die now,” Hayes said.

  Gareth didn’t sign anything, but he approached, tore half of the bloody bandage off his leg, and stuffed it into the director’s mouth. He offered me a thumbs-up. I nodded.

  “Rin, can your sister broadcast a live feed to the station’s security headquarters?” I asked.

  “I’m sure that’d be simple for her,” she answered. “We’ve just never had any desire to send them anything.”

  “Good. Set it up. They’ll need to see he’s alive if we don’t want to be shot down. Hold him.” I kneeled in front of the reeling director and yanked the gag out of his mouth. He dry-heaved.

  “You fucking skellies!” he barked. “I’ll space all of you just like the others. Every single one!”

  “I hate that w
ord.” I raised the pistol to his temple. “Now, use the tiny com-link in your left ear to tell your men to open the hangar.” His brow furrowed like he didn’t know what I was talking about, but there was a time I’d made a living being good at observing. I’d noticed the com-link at some point while I was next to him. I reached into his ear and removed the minuscule device, no larger than my thumbnail. Pervenio officers had only the best tech.

  “Don’t make me ask again,” I said.

  He snatched the device and held it to his mouth. “Open the hangar immediately,” he said. “Happy?”

  “Are there any officers hidden on board?”

  “No.”

  I hit him with my gun. “Don’t lie to me!”

  “There aren’t! To think that Luxarn actually thought he could talk some sense into you. He still doesn’t know how you people really are. I spent too long shielding him from the truth. How you’re all animals.”

  I snatched the com-link from him and crushed it beneath my foot. Then I stuffed the gag back into his mouth. He lunged at me, but a blow from Rin to the back of his head with the butt of her rifle knocked him flat on his face.

  “Everyone in their armor in case he’s lying,” I said. “Keep your weapons on you. Hayes, once you’re ready, get to the command deck and power the engines.”

  “Maybe you forgot, kid, but we kind of blew up the command deck’s ceiling,” he said. “They have it covered for repairs, but I’m not sure how well that’ll hold.”

  “Do you need to be out there to pilot?”

  “Only to lower us out of the airlock, I guess,” he replied, scratching his chin. “Then, I think I might be able to plot a course and get us the hell out of there.”

  “Good. Do it.”

  He looked to Rin, who nodded, and then he picked up a suit of armor.

  “Rin and Gareth, take the others and set the director up in the airlock,” I ordered next. “I want Gareth’s gun on Sodervall every second. Rin, find something in the medical bay for his leg and to help Desmond. Strap him in outside of the airlock and get him in an exo-suit.”

  Gareth nodded and wasted no time starting to put on his armor. Rin took me by the arm and pulled me aside. “What about you?” she asked.

  “Just get it done,” I said.

  I brushed her off and stepped before my suit of powered armor. I could feel Rin eyeing me as she put hers on. The first time I wore it, I’d been forced in. Now I longed to hide my face behind the tinted visor.

  The others left the cargo bay to prepare for departure, one by one, but I didn’t move. Once they were gone, I screamed at the top of my lungs. So loud that I had little doubt the officers in the hangar outside could hear me through the Piccolo’s rickety old hull. When I had no more air left in me to release, I bent over my armor and started to cry. I cried until the Piccolo’s engine flaring on made the floor vibrate. The ship descended through the airlock, and my tears were caught on the unseen currents of zero-g.

  Hours passed. I figured it’d take about six to reach Titan with the way Hayes had the engines humming, and while I had no way of telling time in the cargo bay, I knew we had to be getting close. Accelerative forces towed at my body. I could’ve put on my powered suit to temper them, but I didn’t want the numbness that came with it. Instead, I remained in the cargo bay, holding on to the grated floor so I didn’t float away, staring at the orange circle on the center of the armor.

  “Everything’s been prepared,” Rin said. She floated in the room’s entrance, body covered by armor. It suited her. Made her look like a fighter worthy of the scars on her face.

  “Good,” I replied.

  “That was an unexpected move, to say the least. You’ll be better at this leading thing than I ever was.”

  “I still couldn’t save her.”

  Rin didn’t respond at first. She drifted slowly into the room and pulled her weightless body to the floor beside me. “You know, the last thing Rylah told me is that your mother will be at the safe-house we’re going to once we reach Titan. Everyone below the Darien Q-Zone fled there before Pervenio’s army arrived.”

  “I’m glad she’s okay,” I said.

  “Kale,” Rin sighed.

  “I’m going to kill him, Rin. I know I said I wouldn’t, but I lied.”

  “They’ve lied plenty of times to us. Whatever you decide, I’m with you to the end. We’re family.”

  “Trass’s.” I scoffed.

  “You invaded Pervenio Station and took Director Sodervall hostage. Impressive for a boy who never thought he’d be more than a thief. If that doesn’t make you believe, I don’t know what can. Everyone else sure as hell will when word gets out.”

  “Darien Trass saved people. He didn’t…” I exhaled through clenched teeth. “He didn’t kill them.”

  “Tell that to Desmond.” She edged a bit closer to me. “All I know is that if your father could see you now, he’d be prouder than any man in Sol.”

  I turned to her, lower lip quivering. “Like I should care? My father never saw anything.”

  “That’s not true. Alann loved you from the moment you were born. I never saw him cry any other time but the day he let you go. We watched as your mother took you home after his fake ashes soared. You were so small back then. She gave you lettuce, do you remember?”

  “I do.”

  “I’d known him my whole life, and when I saw tears running down his cheeks, I couldn’t believe it. He was always so strong, so focused. He and Katrina cried together from afar while I stood next to him stifling a grin. We’d always looked out for each other, so like a fool, I resented how much he loved you both. I told him it was for the best, and when he saw how happy it made me, it broke his heart. We didn’t talk much after that. He sent me to work with Rylah, the illegitimate daughter planted in our mom by some putrid Earther.”

  “You mean she’s like Cora is… was?”

  “Yes. I rarely saw Alann again until he came up with the plan for the Sunfire, but I’d have given anything to have been able to go back and tell him I was sorry. I never got the chance. Katrina contracted a rare virus, and he traveled to Earth without as much as a goodbye to find the medicine she needed. By the time he located it, our former homeworld had riddled his body with diseases. His only choice was to bomb New London as a distraction so the followers who would’ve stood with him into the vacuum could steal the medicine. He gave his life to give her one back, Kale. That is who your father was. That is who you are.”

  Hearing her story had me so choked up that I could hardly speak. It made me think of Cora. “I never even got to say goodbye,” I said softly. “I loved her.”

  “I know. And I loved him. And if you embrace who you are and become what he and Katrina were so scared to let you, then nobody will ever have to die for the reasons they did again.” She pushed off the floor. “When you’re ready, we’re all by the airlock. Ship’s on autopilot.” She drew her body out of the cargo bay without another word.

  I understood what she was trying to tell me. It didn’t make me feel any better, but I don’t think that was the point. I’d never get over what happened. None of us would. But that passion, that love, didn’t have to make us weaker. I didn’t have to forget Cora; I only had to fight the battle she never could. Destroy the thing that took her mother and almost mine as well. Free the Ring before they made bastards out of us all.

  I grabbed hold of my armor and lifted it. My face was reflected in the helmet’s visor. I was gaunt, covered forehead to chin in blood and tears, sanitary mask and all. I raised it farther so that the orange circle was directly in front of me, like the ring of flame wreathing my head in the image Director Sodervall had distributed throughout Sol.

  I remembered that day in the Uppers when Cora had pulled me out of a riot while I cowered. I was wondering how I’d act in that situation now, after all I’d been through, when suddenly, it hit me.

  A ring of flame.

  I knew what I had to do. I threw on my armor—no small task
while tumbling around in zero-g—and headed for the airlock.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  “There he is!” Hayes exclaimed as I flew down the ceiling of the stern airlock’s corridor in my powered suit. “Our fearless leader.”

  Dried blood was crusted to the floor and walls, most of it belonging to Captain Saunders and the Earthers I’d watched die in the very same airlock. Flashes of that moment assailed my mind as I approached, but they didn’t hinder me. Not with the plan I had bouncing around inside my skull.

  Hayes was strapped into a seat on one of the side aisles. Desmond sat next to him. A bulky exo-suit used for emergency EVAC repairs on the exterior of the Piccolo covered the majority of his wounds, but he appeared less on the brink of death than earlier. Rin was across from them, deconstructing a pulse-rifle just to pass the time, the loose pieces floating before her.

  “How far are we?” I asked.

  “Two hours or so, last I checked,” Hayes answered. “Kind of an issue getting into a command deck that doesn’t have a top.”

  “Do we have any tails?”

  “Only about a dozen, all armed with enough ordnance to blow us to bits if they feel like it. Gareth’s keeping them in line, though.” Hayes gestured toward our mute companion, who held on to a wall inside the open airlock to stay grounded. He aimed his pistol at Director Sodervall with one hand and held Rin’s hand-terminal with the other. The director himself was cuffed to a pipe, the same way Captain Saunders had been on the Sunfire. A gag kept the director quiet. He was only half-conscious regardless, and a spattering of fresh bruises on his face didn’t make it difficult to imagine why.

  “We told them that we’ll be landing the ship by a methane lake about fifty kilometers west of Darien and leaving the director behind,” Rin said. “There’s a storm in the area, so scanners should lose us after we take to the sky.”