Maybe the USF didn’t want it, but apparently, Earth’s true powers were done sitting around while Titan made a mess of things.
Three
Kale
“Kale,” Rin said.
I ignored her as I stared down at Aria’s placid face. Her vitals read normally despite Rin’s show of torture to bend Malcolm to our will. The same went for the other life she carried. Still, I hadn’t been able to leave the side of her sleep pod since the operation started.
Threatening to hurt Aria or anybody else I could handle, but torturing her? I felt sick all over, like I was back in a Pervenio-run Q-zone feeling like germs were crawling all over me. I even had on my sanitary mask, as if that would help with the feeling.
“It was just for show,” Rin said, placing her hand upon my shoulder.
“We didn’t discuss it going that far,” I said. “What if something happened?”
“It was barely a spike in intake. He needed to know we’re serious.”
“Are we?” I asked.
“That’s why I told you to stay out of the room.”
“This is my ship, and she’s holding my baby.” I punched the wall as hard as I could. Without my armor on, my knuckles split, and tiny globs of blood floated across the cabin. “Threaten the collector all you want, but you won’t touch Aria again without my permission.”
Rin swallowed back a response, then bowed her head. “I’m sorry, Kale. There isn’t a lot of room for error out here, I acted on instinct.”
“I know…” I ran my fingers along the glass over Aria’s face. “It’s just… what if we really need to do it?”
“You don’t have to do anything.”
“A long time ago, Gareth told me that ‘I lead.’ So it doesn’t matter who flips the switch, does it? It’s all me now, just like Luxarn. Aria isn’t a group of Earther kids who probably wouldn’t have made it, Rin.”
“What?”
“She isn’t Director Sodervall. She’s…”
“Kale.” Rin took my bloody hand. “Look at me, Kale. I need you to answer me as best as you can. Ignore everything else.”
I exhaled through my teeth then nodded and made eye-contact with her.
“Ignore who she’s carrying and where she’s from,” Rin said. “Do you love her?”
My throat dried up, goosebumps covered every inch of me, and my heart constricted. “I… I don’t know.”
“That isn’t a no.” Rin’s features darkened. Her burns sometimes made it difficult to read her face, so I couldn’t tell if it was out of disappointment or concern.
“It isn’t a yes either,” I said.
“It may as well be.”
“So what?” I said. “Cora wasn’t exactly one of us either.”
“And we nearly sacrificed everything trying to get her out.”
“We?” I scoffed.
“All I’m saying is that your feelings are clouding your judgment. The tides of this war can change at the drop of a hat. If you want to lead, you can’t be compromised by someone we aren’t sure we can trust.”
“I didn’t want to lead!” I screamed. “If you and the others hadn’t attacked the Piccolo to get to me, Cora would have never been in that cell. She would still be alive.”
I was so overwhelmed, I didn’t even realize I’d pushed Rin until she slammed against the wall. She stared at me, aghast, while I fumed like a raging animal.
“That collector really got into your head, didn’t he?” Rin asked softly.
“Is he wrong? We’ve been rushing from one fight to another for so long, I never had the chance to think about it.”
“We took a calculated risk so we could reveal who you really are at the right time. I had you followed for years, Kale, and contacted them as much as I could. Your father too, before we came up with our plan. We had no idea you cared for a soul on that ship, or anyone else except your mother. If I had known, I would have taken Cora with us, I swear on my life.”
I looked down. Both my hands squeezed the lid of Aria’s sleep pod so tight bubbles of blood again swelled outside of the cuts on my knuckles.
“Kale, I only wanted to show you the truth,” Rin said. “The future of Titan is your right, by blood. I’d lead if I could, but what I did to Aria, without feeling a thing, is why it must be you. Don’t lose focus now. Not a single Titanborn was safe back then. Cora could have been killed by an angry security officer. She could have been thrown in a cell or Q-Zone for no good reason. I wish we could go back and change what happened, but we can’t. All we can do is make sure it doesn’t again.”
I spun back toward Rin and clutched her shoulders. “Then promise me we won’t let her die too.”
“The collector—”
“I don’t care about him!” I shouted. “No matter what she did or if she lied, promise me you’ll give her a chance to explain herself. That you won’t go behind my back.”
“I know you trust me more than that. You aren’t thinki—”
We can’t become the monsters they are,” I said, voice shaking. “Otherwise, what’s the point?”
“The point is to do what we must to leave your son a brighter Ring.”
“No,” I said. “We have to be better, Rin.”
“You are better. Just stay strong. I can’t promise Aria won’t do something to get herself killed, but I won’t let anyone besides you touch her until you give the order. I would never go behind your back like that. But for now, we have to make sure her father succeeds, and you can’t let him fill your head with doubts.”
“Right.” I took a few short, measured breaths to center myself. Aria was safe for now as long as her father kept going. In fact, there was no way for him to get off Martelle Station, so even if he failed, what happened to Aria no longer mattered from our position. We could tell him anything.
“Did he make it?” I asked.
“He did. Shortwave directional communications are now on,” Rin said. “We switched off all the Cora’s power to any system that isn’t crucial to survival. We won’t go unnoticed forever.”
“What if someone spots us?” I asked.
“We hold off as long as we can for the collector to get this done.”
“We’ll need a pilot, then.” I glanced down at Aria.
“We have me.”
“A real pilot,” I said.
“If we wake her, it won’t be so easy to leave Malcolm behind to face punishment,” Rin said.
I sighed. Rin was right, as much as my stomach abhorred me saying it. The Cora could outrace any ship Venta could throw at us and had enough defensive ordnance left after Mars to shield us from long-range missiles for a while.
“So we just wait?” I said.
“I don’t like being beholden to an Earther, but it’s our only move,” Rin said. “Come on; Basaam is awake. We can proceed.”
I nodded and followed her into the command deck. Two of our men stood behind Basaam, who was strapped to a chair. One more guarded the door. The fat Earther wore a dazed look, same as anyone would who was preemptively woken from stasis without the full series of chemical balancing. Rin stopped in front of him, removed a g-stim from her pocket, and jabbed it into his neck.
Basaam’s eyes opened wide, bloodshot. His breathing hastened. G-stims weren’t only proficient at helping people handle high-g situations. He searched the room, growing more and more frantic with each passing second.
“Settle down, Basaam,” Rin said as she sat across from him. “We’re not here to hurt you.”
“Where is here?” he said. “I see the date on the controls. It has not been long enough for us to reach Titan.”
“We’re near Europa.”
“Are you suicidal?” Basaam said.
“We’re here to help you,” Rin said. “You said you couldn’t do what we asked without your research, so we’re here to get it for you.”
“I won’t help you bastardize my invention.”
“Do we really have to do this dance again? We sacrificed
too much to get you. Now sit there like a good boy and tell us where your lab is on Martelle Station.”
“Please, Basaam,” I said as I walked in using my mag-boots and sat at Rin’s side.
“How do I know Helena is still all right?” Basaam asked.
“Is that your clan-sister’s name?” I asked
He nodded, causing his glasses to fall from his head and float weightlessly. I snatched them out of the air and gently pressed them back onto his face.
“Because I don’t want to hurt anybody else today,” I said.
“I don’t believe you.”
I brushed my men aside, knelt behind him, and undid his restraints. He rubbed his bruised wrists as they came free.
“Get him water,” I ordered one of my men, who obeyed without question. Then I turned Basaam’s face toward me. Terror contorted it, the same way as when someone met Rin for the first time. “I care about people on this ship too, and the longer you take, the more we’re all put at risk. Just tell us where your lab is.”
He looked between Rin and me, then shook his head. “First, tell me what you plan to do with my engine?”
“You aren’t in a position to negotiate,” Rin snapped. I raised my hand to keep her quiet.
“We plan to use it, just as your people would. You’ve developed the most efficient Intersolar engine in history, and it requires only the use of simple gases found on nearly every moon or planet in Sol.”
“I didn’t do it to hurt the Ring! Believe it or not. I’m a scientist. All I want to do is make life easier for people.”
“And Venta Co.’s bottom line,” Rin accused.
I shot a stern glare at Rin, instructing her to keep quiet. “And I believe you,” I said. “If we gain sole access to the completed tech, we can use it as a bargaining chip for our rights. That’s all we want. Your engine is useless to us with Saturn so nearby, but your brilliant creation can help us have peace. We traveled all the way to Mars to be mocked and dismissed by your leaders, just to get our hands on you. My friend…” I paused to steady my lips. “My friend died to get you. If peace is really what you want, then help us now.”
“If you mean all of that, then let my clan-sister go,” Basaam said.
“You know we can’t. Our escape pod was already used by our man inside, and if we give up our position, they’ll kill us all. Only you can save her.”
I watched as his mind raced. We could still play our hand aggressively like we had with Malcolm, but even though they were both Earthers, they weren’t the same. Basaam was a thinker. He wasn’t as innocent as he claimed as far as driving value away from the Ring, but it seemed like a part of him really did believe he was fighting for peace, naïve as it might sound.
“Martelle Station Deck L3, Subsection C,” Basaam said softly, looking to the ground. “It will take Level 5 security clearance to get in. My office is on the second floor, west corner.”
Rin immediately rotated her chair and keyed a few commands on the Cora’s control console. “Graves, do you read me?” she said.
Nobody answered for a few seconds, before Malcolm replied, “Loud and clear. I must say I missed hearing your voice.”
“We have the location of Basaam’s terminal.” Rin relayed what Basaam had told us.
“Great,” Malcolm grumbled.
“What is it?” Rin asked.
“The medical facility they took me to is L1. Doctor’s giving me the full diagnostics. Pervenio Corp responded, but Luxarn is sending an agent to make sure it’s really me. I have a feeling it’s going to be one of our yellow-eyed friends.”
“Can you handle it?” Rin asked.
“Maybe,” Malcolm said. “After all, beautiful, I’m only human.”
I watched as the color drained from what was left of Rin’s face. What he called her, the way he said it—it was like stepping into a time machine and being back with Hayes on the Piccolo. I wasn’t sure if it was just a sarcastic coincidence or if somehow Malcolm knew about him, but Rin froze. I felt my irritation over her overstepping my authority melt away as I remembered I wasn’t the only one who’d lost someone that day on Pervenio Station. Rin had listened to two of her crewmates die trying to keep me alive.
“Then you’re going to have to make a move,” I said, moving in front of Rin.
“Blow my cover already, kid?” Malcolm said. “We’re lucky I was quick enough to hide this com-link while he scanned my head or they’d have found us out already.”
“Some collector, being proud of that,” Rin muttered, finally recovering from Malcolm’s unexpected comment. Losing Hayes how we did was the only soft spot she seemed to have.
“I’ve been doing this longer than your king’s been alive,” Malcolm said.
“Then you’ll have no problem. Think of Aria and get it done.” Rin glanced over at me and offered a reassuring nod. I sent one back her way. We argued from time to time, but I knew she supported me. More than my mother or anyone ever could, because she understood. She was the last of the Sunfire’s crew left alive who’d been there on that day when the future of Titan changed.
“If you say so,” Malcolm replied. “Just try not to space her before I’m done like Cora. You’ve learned from us so well I don’t want you thinking that’s the right way to do things.”
Rin quickly reached back and grabbed my wrist before I said anything stupid. I was glad she did because my mind had been so crazy since waking up that I probably would have.
“Don’t let him get to you again,” she whispered to me.
“What was that?” Malcolm asked.
“Just be quiet and get the job done,” Rin said out loud.
“I always do.”
Four
Malcolm
“I always do,” I said to Rin, smirking. I could tell by both her and Kale’s tones I was getting to them. Faster than even I’d expected to. They had to rely on me, and it was killing them—enough for me to plant seeds of distrust that might last forever.
“Mr. Graves, I’m so sorry about keeping you,” said the Venta Co. doctor as he returned to the exam room I sat in. “We’ll have this sorted out in no time.”
“You said that earlier,” I groused.
“A man shows up out of nowhere, even one such as yourself—we have to be careful. Especially after Red Wing.” He crossed the room as he spoke and knelt in front of me. He tested the reflexes on my human knee.
“Do you mean them helping the Ringers get off Mars?” I said.
The doctor’s brow furrowed. “Right, you still wouldn’t know.” He turned his attention to my artificial leg and began checking the connections at the middle of my thigh. “Apparently, the real reason the Ringers went to Mars was to—”
I lifted my artificial knee into his jaw, which knocked him into the lip of the exam table. I sprang up, expecting to have to incapacitate him, but he was already out like a light. The poor old man, in the wrong place at the wrong time. I tried to lift his body over my shoulder, but my muscles were still weak from travel.
I had to get on my knees for leverage and push off with my artificial leg to get him up on the table. He had a decade on me, which wasn’t easy, and an all-white beard, but it was the closest to a match you could ask for on an unplanned infiltration mission. He could have easily been an old woman like Dr. Aurora.
I stripped him down to his underwear and gave him my clothing as well as my duster. The jacket had been with me for a long time, but it was time to say goodbye. For Aria.
I changed into the doctor’s medical whites, complete with the Venta Co. logo stamped above his name tag. A younger me would have been foolish enough to feel sick at wearing something sewn by them, but seeing how Venta was taking advantage of the power vacuum had taught me one thing: Pervenio Corp wasn’t special. They were just lucky to have picked the right gas giant to exploit.
I checked Doctor Guvman’s ID and found, expectedly, that his security clearance was nowhere near high enough to get into Basaam’s lab. That was a problem
for another time, though. A Cogent was on his way to confirm my identity and likely find out if the Ringers were using me—which they were. I needed to get lost.
“Sorry about this,” I said as I used the exam tables straps to restrain the doctor, then hurried over to the counter and smashed a rack of supplies against the wall. “Help!” I yelled, trying to mask my voice.
Two security officers were posted outside, and they rushed in with their weapons raised. I let them go by toward the doctor’s body then grabbed one by the wrist. I kicked him in the gut with my artificial leg and sent him flying into the other. The force of the blow weakened his grip and let me steal his weapon.
The second officer raised his gun to take a shot, but not before I cracked him in the side of the head with the butt of the rifle. The first groaned and reached for his secondary firearm. I kicked him in the temple.
“I’m starting to like you,” I said to my artificial leg. It was nice to have a part of me that didn’t feel like it was begging to fall off every time I moved. I took one of the officer’s sidearms and tucked it into my waistband behind my back, beneath the medical coat. Then I used their own zip-cuffs to tie up the guards’ wrists.
I strolled out into the hallway, dressed as Doctor Guvman. Nurses and doctors zipped around the medical center, none paying much attention to me. I quickly snagged a hand terminal abandoned on a cart, held it in front of my face, and projected some data up from the screen.
The place was a maze. I didn’t know my way around, but I knew a patient lobby when I saw one. It was the place with all the disgruntled faces as they awaited treatment in what was probably the only dedicated medical center in orbit around Jupiter.
“Dr. Guvman, a minute!” a woman hollered.
I glanced up and saw what appeared to be a nurse heading my way. I didn’t give her a chance to see me any closer. I knew how standoffish busy intellectual types could be. I raised one finger like I was busy, then turned away from her.
Children of Titan Series: Books 1-4: (A Space Opera Thriller Box Set) Page 84
