“What about Darien?” I asked. “Has Rylah provided an update on the situation there?”
“Last I heard, the main tram station in the colony block had been converted into makeshift quarantines while Pervenio forces continue sweeping the Q-Zone. It isn’t pretty in the Lowers. Titanborn everywhere are trying to break into the Uppers and riot.”
“Good.” I drew myself into the seat next to Rin. “How do you guys feel about helping them?”
“Once we’re down there, we’ll find a way.”
“No, now.”
Rin’s and Hayes’s brows simultaneously furrowed. I was too keen on the plan I’d thought of to wait for their response. “Hayes, I need you to go back to the command deck one more time and alter our course.”
“What?” he questioned. “Why?”
“I want the Piccolo diving directly for the Darien Q-Zone at full burn,” I said.
Rin appeared shocked by the idea, and she wasn’t alone.
“We’ll never get close,” Hayes said. “They’re monitoring our vector. As soon as I change it, they’ll take us down. No way would Mr. Pervenio sacrifice that many men for the director. It’s suicide.”
“That’s why we’re going to have to turn at the last possible second once we’re in atmosphere.”
“Autopilot can’t handle a maneuver like that. We could miss by kilometers.”
“We won’t if you’re at the helm.”
“The command deck’s barely covered. Diving down bow-first through Titan’s atmosphere at that velocity…the friction alone will burn the repair canvas up in seconds. I’d never make it.”
“That’s what our armor is for. We flew through Saturn. It can take it, can’t it, Rin?”
“For a short time, yeah,” she said.
“We’ll wait as long as we can for you. If we hit the Q-Zone now, while our people are in Darien, Pervenio Corp will never be able to recover.”
“We don’t know if all the sick are gone,” Rin said, though her tone didn’t indicate she was opposed to my idea. “It looks like they are, but there could be stragglers. We just don’t know, since any feeds inside have been deactivated.”
“We’ll never have this chance again, Rin,” I said. “If Hayes pushes the engines as fast as they can go, then nothing will be able to stop the ship.”
“Why don’t you go out there, then,” Hayes countered. “I’ll happily walk you through it.”
“I’ll do it,” Rin volunteered.
“No,” I said. “He’s the only experienced pilot here, and if we miss, we’ll never have another shot.”
“Nah, screw this!” Hayes blurted. “I’ve done everything that was asked of me, but not this. I don’t care who you are, son of Trass. We’ve got the director now; that’s enough. Right, Rin?”
She stared forward, her eyes bursting with wonder as she likely imagined the same possibilities I had when the idea had popped into my head.
“Rini?” Hayes repeated.
“He’s right,” she said. “We’ve been waiting for a revolution, and now we have a chance to gain the upper hand before it even starts.”
He shook his head. “No. I won’t do it.” He snapped off his restraints and drew himself down the corridor away from us. “You’re on your own.”
I chased after him. He turned the corner, but before I could follow, Rin blocked me with her arm.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked. “A lot of men will die down there. Men with families, kids.”
I bit my lip. I knew she was right, but as I prepared to answer, all I could see was Cora’s face before she was sucked out to die. If I’d learned a single thing about Earthers since Rin abducted me, it was that it was either them or us.
“I’m sure,” I said. “We’ll never get another chance like this.”
“No, we won’t.” She gave my shoulder an approving shake. “I’ll talk to him, then. He’ll listen to me.”
She followed him, and I’d started to pull myself back toward the airlock, when suddenly, I heard them arguing. I stopped.
“I know it seems insane, but you know he’s right,” Rin said fervently.
“It is insane,” Hayes replied. “With everything that’s just happened, he isn’t thinking straight.”
“But I am. Trust me. You think flying to the Ring Skipper was any crazier? You can do this, and our people will never forget. Half of Pervenio Corp’s armed forces, gone in a flash. Imagine what we could do.”
“Rin. We don’t know if it’s only them.”
“No, but it’s what we wasted three years for. A small sacrifice to pay for freedom, if any.”
I decided I’d snooped enough and headed back to the airlock. My plan hinged on Hayes’s willingness to risk his life. If Rin couldn’t do it, I’d have to find a way to convince him.
I returned to my seat and leaned back. After a few minutes, Gareth caught my attention and lowered his pistol for a moment to sign me something. It took me two attempts to understand that he was saying. “Now you lead.”
“You think so?” I said.
He shrugged his shoulders. “Trass gave his life to give us the Ring.”
“This is nothing like that. He was a hero.”
“You will be too.”
I swallowed a dry throat, then nodded. I knew he was right. For killing so many, I’d be a hero. I’d give my people a real chance at changing things for our home. “I wish that weren’t true.”
“Kale…” a hoarse voice mumbled. “It really is you.” I turned to see Desmond awake. Painkillers from the med-bay had calmed his nerves, and for the first time since we’d saved him, it didn’t seem like he was staring through me at some unspeakable horror.
“It’s me,” I said.
“What’s going on?” He lifted his arm and realized that he was in an exo-suit.
“We stole the Piccolo to get you out.”
His helmet rotated so that he could get a glimpse of his surroundings. His gaze froze on the director, jaw dropping. “By Trass, I thought I was dreaming.”
“So did I at first.”
He looked back at me, and his features darkened. “Cora, I—”
I hushed him and patted his leg. “It’s not your fault. Now rest. You’ll need it.”
He nodded and stopped fighting the urge to close his eyes and catch up on the rest he so desperately needed. I considered joining him, when Rin reappeared around the corner, Hayes trailing close behind.
“He’ll do it,” she said.
“You’re lucky I can’t turn down the chance to watch that place burn,” he said. “But there’s one condition. When they name you king, or whatever, I get to be your jester.” His solemn façade broke into a halfhearted smirk.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I replied. “You’re sure?”
“We flew across Saturn, remember? With this suit, and if I’m fast, I should be able to slip out after I make the turn.”
“I know you will.”
After a long, uncomfortable silence, he said, “I’m going to go check on the numbers.” I noticed his lips droop out of the corner of my eye as he turned to pull himself back out of the airlock corridor.
“If you’re worried he’s going to go hide, don’t be,” Rin said to me. “He’ll do it.”
“How did you convince him?” I asked.
“I told him that if he doesn’t make it, we’ll name a colony block after him,” she answered. “And that if he does, I’ll personally introduce him to Rylah as the brilliant pilot we couldn’t have survived on the Sunfire without.”
“You’d lie to her like that?” I joked.
“No, probably not, but I wasn’t going to crush his heart.” She snickered, then turned serious. “He didn’t need the inspiration, though. Hayes has as much reason to hate the Q-Zones as any of us. The one in Ziona left him orphaned before he could talk. Plus, it’s a brilliant plan. He knows it’s what any of us would do if we could. He just needed to hear it from me. Beneath all the bluster, Ha
yes is a good man. Titanborn, through and through.”
“You should tell him that, Rin,” I said. “Before he goes out there.”
She grimaced. “He’ll make it. We all will.”
The rest of the trip passed in a hurry. I could tell by the silence that the gravity of what we were about to attempt weighed heavily on us all. Especially Hayes. Once he returned from the command deck, he sat alone on the other end of the airlock corridor, staring at the wall. He looked like he wanted to do what I was asking of him about as much as I had wanted to smuggle my corrupted hand-terminal onto the Piccolo.
Rin watched him the entire time. She’d sacrificed Joran, one of their own, back on the Piccolo, but after all we’d been through, I imagined it must’ve been even harder for her now. For three years, she’d led them through the bowels of Saturn, and it was clear she cared for them more than she would ever let on. The tears welling in the corners of her eyes were proof enough of that—of the heart she thought she didn’t have.
But it wasn’t her who’d come up with the idea to murder thousands. It was me.
Gareth banged his pistol on the wall of the airlock, instantly rousing the director and Desmond. He was monitoring our progress on Rin’s hand-terminal, and his signal meant that we were five minutes from hitting Titan’s atmosphere.
“Here we go!” Rin shouted, mustering her most commanding tone. “Everyone in the airlock.”
I’d been shaking in anticipation and immediately pushed off my seat. I took Desmond by the hand and helped him into the airlock. “Hold on to something,” I said to him.
Gareth didn’t move. He remained filming the director from the floor so that there was no way for anyone on the other side to see what was happening.
Rin drifted into the airlock and regarded the director. “Should we let him go up in flames with his men?” she asked as she handed me a pistol. “Or make a show of it?”
“Neither,” I replied. “Get him in a suit. He’s coming with us, for now.”
She didn’t question me. She grabbed an exo-suit off the corridor walls and carried it into the airlock with us. The director said something and kicked his legs, but through his gag, all I could hear were moans.
Hayes leveled his weightless body outside of the airlock and visibly swallowed the lump in his throat. “All right, I’m going to seal you in and head up,” he said. “Pretty soon, it’s going to get real bumpy. When we’re low enough, I’ll release the outer seal. Take it slow out there. I know I’m the best flier here, but I’ll be catching up to you from the command deck.”
“As slow as we can,” Rin promised. She threw him a nod, and he returned one.
“Let’s show those Pervenio mud stompers who the Ring really belongs to,” Hayes said, pouring as much heart into the words as he could muster.
He raised his hand to close the outer airlock seal, but before he could, Rin shouted, “Hey, Hayes! From ice to ashes!”
He flashed a smug grin. “From ice to ashes, beautiful.”
The airlock sealed, and he disappeared around the corner. It was strange watching him through the tiny viewport from that vantage; seeing what John and the other Earthers had before they were evacuated. It seemed impossible that I would ever have wound up where they were, yet there I was.
“Wait until we start shaking, then we cut the feed and suit Sodervall up,” I said.
Rin nodded without averting her gaze from the viewport. I checked Gareth to make sure he heard me. He did the same.
We braced ourselves, and a few minutes of silence later, the ship lurched as we hit Titan’s atmosphere. The airlock started rocking, more violently with each second. We were thrown against the inner seal.
“Cut it!” I yelled.
Gareth smashed the hand-terminal on the floor. I grabbed the director and released his cuffs. He squirmed, but he couldn’t compete with the strength of my suit. I lifted him, and together Rin and Gareth forced his body into the exo-suit.
“Rin, you take the director,” I said. “I don’t trust myself.”
“With pleasure,” she replied.
“Gareth, you’ll fly alone and keep a lookout for ships. I’ll take Desmond.”
“Take me where?” a bewildered Desmond questioned.
I gently lowered a helmet over his head. He wore a similar expression of terror as the director. “You’ll be fine,” I said. “Just don’t let go.” I sealed his visor.
“Com-links on,” Rin shouted. “Wings ready.”
I didn’t need any help this time. The nano-fabric wings popped out of my arms and stretched to my sides. I closed my visor and gripped the wall. The airlock rattled so intensely it hurt my joints, even through the suit.
“There you guys are!” Hayes shouted over our shared com-link. His voice was muffled by raging winds, so I had to listen carefully to hear him. Either he was pretending to be having fun, or he really was. It made me feel confident that he might actually be the best flier he boasted to be and escape unscathed.
“How is it out there?” Rin asked.
“Hell of a ride! Repair canvas burned up in a flash and I’m holding on to the console with my legs in the air like I’m riding an Earther pig!”
“Are we on course?” I asked.
“Just one more shift!” As slight as the turn was, at the speeds we were going, the force of it heaved us against the side wall. I grabbed Desmond’s helmet just in time to make sure the visor of his far-inferior helmet didn’t hit the wall and split open. Everybody else seemed to make it fine.
“There we go,” Hayes said.
“Take it easy up there!” Rin yelled.
“Too rough for you?” Hayes laughed nervously. “All right, I can see the Q-Zone—by Trass, I can see it! There are ships everywhere. They’re starting to take aim at us.”
“It’s too late,” I said.
“On my mark, I’m releasing the seal. Hold on to your friends, ladies and gentlemen! Five, four…”
My muscles tensed. I clutched Desmond’s arms and stretched them around my waist so that he was holding on as tight as possible.
“One!” Hayes hollered.
“For you, Cora,” I whispered to myself right before the outer seal opened. The ship fell around us as we were pulled out into the atmosphere, where so many of my people’s ashes had been loosed. The wind took me, gripping my wings and twisting Desmond and me about. The force of it racked my brain, but the suit kept me conscious until I could straighten myself out. As I did, Desmond lost his grip on me and fell.
The thick Titanian atmosphere and low g slowed him enough for me to figure out how best to angle my arms to dive toward him. I snatched his body with one hand, causing us to corkscrew through the air. As we tumbled, I managed to draw him against my chest so that he could wrap his arms and legs around me. That allowed me to gain control of my wings, like I’d been flying my whole life. The storms of Titan had nothing on Saturn.
“We’re straight!” I yelled over the coms.
“Us too!” shouted Rin.
Gareth snorted loud enough for us to know that his sound wasn’t merely distant thunder.
“Hayes?” Rin asked, but he remained silent.
That was when I finally had a chance to look around. I tilted my arms to turn, falling in line with the others at roughly the same altitude.
The Piccolo plummeted, a plume of flame from friction enveloping its bow like a red dress. The Pervenio ships hovering around Q-Zone scattered. Others, which had been following us from the station, darted through the upper atmosphere above. Both they and the anti-air turrets tucked along the top of Darien’s enclosure kilometers away let loose a barrage of missiles simultaneously.
Strings of dark smoke traced the sky, but they were all too late. The Piccolo crashed bow-first at full speed into the lonely plateau that harbored the Darien Q-Zone.
Its nuclear-thermal engines and their reactor detonated instantly from the impact, causing an explosion so bright that I momentarily lost control while attemptin
g to shield my eyes. When I flattened back out, the brightness waned to reveal a mushroom-shaped cloud. The blast painted Titan’s horizon in brilliant orange.
I was too high up and too far away to feel the shock wave, but half of the tram-line connecting to Darien itself toppled. Pervenio ships were smacked out of the air like insects. Rocks and debris flew in every direction, so far they peppered the side of Darien’s thick enclosure. I scanned the fragments for a flying man in white but found no one.
Rin continued calling for him, and I hadn’t the heart to tell her to stop. I knew, though. Hayes hadn’t made it, but he took more Earthers with him than anything had since the Meteorite struck their homeworld, three centuries ago.
TWENTY-SIX
I strode down the cramped command center of what was apparently one of the Children of Titan’s many secluded hideouts. Consoles and other equipment were strewn across the floor. Even as far away as we were—within a century-old transport ship buried beneath a string of mountains—the shock wave of the Piccolo’s exploding engine was felt. Loose pieces of the ice-rock walls had snapped off, and the provisional lighting systems strung along the low metal ceiling were dim. Wires hanging between them drooped so low that I had to brush them aside while I walked, as if I were trekking through one of Earth’s pre-Meteorite jungles.
I was told it took five years to construct the series of tunnel systems leading from beneath the Darien Q-Zone to where we were. Titanborn men and women stood in silence on either side of the room. It was strange to see so many of my people together and not wearing sanitary masks. They watched me go by with a mixture of confusion and reverence.
By then, a few hours after the explosion, the entire Ring knew what had happened. Nobody was sure how many Pervenio officers were killed in the initial blast or how many were suffocating beneath the crumbling plateau, soon to die. Debris had shattered one of Darien’s glass farm enclosures, but with my people striking, nobody was inside. Only the plants were left to flash freeze—a small price to pay.
Pervenio rescue efforts to the Q-Zone diverted much of their remaining forces, spreading them thin all across Titan and the Ring. According to Rylah, the central lift to the Darien Lowers had been shut down to retain order as my people protested. Many of them had begun to climb the shafts toward the Uppers in an unstoppable fury. They stormed the intact hydro-farms. Took control of factories, shops, and even docked ships. It didn’t matter how weak their muscles were, or how crude their weapons, with numbers on their side.
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