“He has his pride,” I said. “Like Captain Sildario did, remember? He spent his life protecting Cora but was never willing to tell a soul about who she was. Trust me, Rin, if we get Malcolm now, we’ll hold all the cards.”
“If we make it out alive.”
“That’s why now we need a real pilot.” I jumped up from my seat and rushed down the corridor to the sleep pods. My men were busy putting Basaam back under, and I stopped in front of Aria’s chamber. Waking her before I had any time to think about how to talk to her wasn’t ideal, but I remembered all I’d done to save my mother when she was sick. If she thought she was saving her father, then she was our best bet at getting out. There was no better form of inspiration.
I reached for the controls to start the waking process, only to promptly have Rin’s hand cover mine. “Don’t,” she said.
“I’m not having this argument again,” I said.
“Then don’t argue. You want to put us all in danger, fine. You’re the leader Titan has now—for good or bad—but we can’t wait for Aria to re-acclimate.”
“She’ll be fine.”
“She won’t! Don’t let your need to test her loyalty blind you. In her state, waking from an enhanced dose of chems meant for two, she’ll be sick for a few days. I know she’s the best pilot we have, but not while she’s vomiting. Let me handle this.”
“Enough, Rin! Enough trying to control everything. She is the best we have, and by the time we reach the station, she’ll be fine.”
“I’m not trying to—” She huffed. “Trust me, Kale. I know what she’s going through.”
“Really? Were you tortured in your sleep?”
“No, but I was pr—” She caught herself before any of the others overheard and leaned in. “I was pregnant, and I stole credits from your father to fly to Pervenio Station to get it aborted. I was about as far along as she is when I took the ride. Titan was in its farthest orbit, so they put us under since it was going to take three days. Worst feeling I ever felt when I awoke.”
My pulse slowed, and I looked up at Rin. Her eyes welled in the corners, same way they did when she drank too much and thought about Hayes. “You were?”
“Hard to believe me and not Rylah, I know, but my face didn’t always look like this. It was long before the Sunfire. I couldn’t bear the thought of bringing another one of us into our hell and your father, well… I couldn’t have helped his cell much looking after anyone else.”
“Rin, I…”
“If I hadn’t done it, I never would have gone aboard the Sunfire, and I never would have met you. Now, you aren’t my son, and I’m not Katrina, but I swore to myself I wouldn’t let anything harm you.”
I gazed over at Aria’s placid face and forced a smirk. “Some job you did.”
“What can I say, you’re stubborn like your father.” Rin lay her hands on my arms and turned me back to face her. “I’m our best bet at pulling this off thanks to her training, and it’s too late to turn back. Just trust me.”
As I stared at her, I thought back to those early days on the Sunfire when we first met. Nothing went according to plan, but we did the best we could to make it worth something. All the people we’d lost, all the pain we’d caused—because of it, Titan now had a chance to be free of Earth. Without Rin, none of that would’ve been possible. Maybe Malcolm was right, and there was more she could have done to save Cora, but he didn’t know her. And he didn’t know me.
The Rin I’d come to know would have done everything in her power—would have given her life—to save Cora if she knew what the Earthers would do. She proved that on Pervenio Station when we went back, just as she proved in that hangar how far she’d go to protect Aria once she knew she held a piece of us.
I exhaled. Malcolm had gotten my thoughts racing with his lies, but he’d forgotten one thing: on Titan, we weren’t family out of convenience like his people were, nor were we employees out for credits. Our bonds were strongly tied as the Rings of Saturn.
“Okay, the Cora’s yours,” I said.
“Then we don’t have time to waste.” She took my arm and led me back toward the command deck. “Looks like Malcolm is done talking to his boss. Hopefully, it went well.” She took her seat in the captain’s chair and ran through controls. She wasn’t anywhere near as smooth an operator as Aria, hesitating before her every move, but she got it done.
“Everyone strap in,” she said over the ship-wide coms to the three Titanborn we’d woken. “This is going to hurt.”
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
“Now you want to hear my advice?” she asked as she leaned over and tapped through navigation controls.
“Rin…”
“I can track Malcolm’s position through his com-link. I’ll pull alongside the lab, blow it open, and we’ll have a team to retrieve him.” She reached beneath the console and removed a g stim. She raised it to her neck then regarded me. “Sorry, I only have one on me, and there’s no time.”
I nodded for her to continue and she jabbed it into her neck. I watched her pupils dilate, then she struck the engine ignition. A sudden burst of acceleration pressed me against my seat and made my chest constrict. Without my powered suit on, it might have been enough to knock me out. Even still, my fingers squeezed the armrest, and my jaw clenched.
“What about station defenses?” I groaned.
“I just messaged Rylah to send out false warnings about impending attacks on other Jovian Colonies.”
“Good idea.”
“It won’t help us avoid everything, but the first thing Aria taught me about this ship was the weapons systems. Hopefully, she left us with enough after Mars.”
“She’s always careful.”
“Or up to something.”
I rotated my head, only to find Rin’s healthy half wearing a half-pained, wry grin. She was better suited for dealing with the extreme pressure of acceleration with a g-stim, but no one could handle what we were for too long. Our seats shook as the Cora’s impulse drives propelled us at full speed toward Martelle Station. Hyper-advanced stealth systems allowed us to get close, but by the time the details of the station’s ship-factory offshoots were visible, so were we.
“Unidentified vessel, please slow your vector and state your business,” station control said through our open coms.
“I told you it’d help to know how close we can get,” I said through grating teeth.
“Not close enough.” Rin slowly extended her hand toward the weapon controls and worked them with a few fingers. “Target locked, missile away.”
Even through the rumble of acceleration, I felt a slight jerk. Then a rocket trail lanced out in front of the ship. I watched through my eyelashes as it thinned, then exploded into the side of Martelle Station. Chunks of metal and slag sprayed out across the blackness.
“That’ll get their attention,” Rin said.
A Venta Co. security fighter hovering outside of Basaam’s lab banked hard left and fired a missile at us. Rin scrambled for more controls, and our ship’s PDC rounds lashed out across my view. Rin’s aim wasn’t great, but one of the rounds blew the missile before it struck us. The blast radius still rocked the Cora, but Rin didn’t let up. Our cannons arched back down, and detonated another of the ship’s arsenal right out of the tube, taking the vessel with it.
Piloting and operating the weapons systems wasn’t a one-woman job, but Rin was all we had who knew how to handle it. The Cora came in fast before reverse thrusters kicked in and our portside scraped across the side of the station. The sudden shift in momentum hurled me forward since I’d forgot to secure my restraints, but Rin extended her arm to bar me from slamming into the controls.
“They weren’t ready for us, but they are now!” Rin shouted. “Get the men out to retrieve him now.”
I nodded and pulled myself off my seat. Blood rushed to my head, and it took me a moment to see straight. “Nice flying,” I rasped. I grabbed the ceiling and went to launch my weightless body down t
he hall, but Rin clutched my arm first.
“You stay on the ship,” she said. “Kale.”
I bit my lip in frustration then nodded again before continuing on my way. I couldn’t help but glance at Aria in her pod as I entered the next room, completely oblivious to the game of life and death we’d sent her father into. For a moment, I wondered if not wanting her to lose the only family she had was why I’d come up with this insane plan, but I quickly buried the thought. We didn’t have time for doubts.
“You three with me,” I addressed the three Titanborn who we’d bothered waking. One was graying, and judging by the breaks in his nose, had seen more than his share of fights. The others were as young as me, including the blonde who’d let me try steak for the first time, who might have been even younger.
We zipped down the halls using the ceiling bars, then clicked on our mag-boots outside the cargo hold.
“Helmets on,” I said.
The blonde one tapped my shoulder, then immediately reeled his hand back. The young man looked mortified. “Lord Trass, I… What are we doing?”
I took a moment to gather myself, forgetting we didn’t have time to plan this operation. “The collector is out there with vital intel. We have to retrieve him.” A bang sounded, and the Cora rocked hard to the side, throwing us against the wall. “Fast! Helmets on. From ice to ashes.”
“From ice to ashes!” they echoed as they followed my commands. I signaled the outer door of the cargo hold to open and followed them into the airlock hall. It sealed, and the space depressurized before the outer hatch opened.
The men charged forward, and I went to follow them before Rin’s words echoed in my ears. I stopped. I’d been reckless with my life up until Mars, but watching the life drain from Gareth’s eyes had changed something. I knew because I never would have listened to Rin about staying out of things before. It always felt like we were an eternity from making a real difference, but now, thanks to Gareth’s sacrifice, we had a real shot.
If I died, it could all unravel. I might not have asked for that responsibility—or wanted it—but to our people, I was the face of their legend, and to the Earthers, I was the face of the enemy. I knew that now.
“Basaam’s office is the furthest down the main hall, space side,” I said into my helmet coms.
I watched my men hop across the breach and into the lab. A set of bundled, sparking conduits hung in the center of lofty room, as if something had been ripped from them out into space. What remained of catwalks were twisted, and monitoring stations all around had been blown open. The low g of Europa’s upper atmosphere allowed my men to leap up to the second floor at the back. One remained posted at the corner, and the others delved deeper into the offices.
I fought every piece of me not to jump out and help when I saw the flash of gunfire around the bend. Soon after, my men emerged. One carried Malcolm’s unconscious body over his shoulder. They were down to the lower floor before a bullet slashed through one of their helmets and the man toppled over.
A black figure pulled himself around a nearby corner, battling the pressure change. His fingertips dug into the wall so hard it bent beneath them, and in the other hand, he gripped a pulse pistol. I’d barely had time to move before I saw the yellow glint of his eye-lens. He fired again, and the Titanborn holding Malcolm went down hard.
I whipped around the corner of the cargo hold, grabbed a pulse-rifle off the wall, and let loose. The Cogent fell back around the corner as my hail of bullets sprayed the wall. The one remaining Titanborn grabbed Malcolm and sprinted for the Cora.
“Station PDCs are online,” Rin spoke into my ear. “We don’t have long.”
My magazine clicked empty as the Titanborn leaped across the breach with Malcolm. The Cogent re-appeared and lined up his shot. The muzzle flashed, and the Cora dipped slightly to avoid anti-air fire, causing the Titanborn and Malcolm to slam into the ceiling of the cargo hold.
“Go!” I yelled. Just as the word left my lips, the Cogent’s last shot pierced my helmet. I flew back against the wall, my skull slamming hard. My ears rang, and my vision went blurry.
“Lord Trass!” I heard, but the words were distant. “Lord Trass, are you all right!” The young blonde Titanborn who’d survived tore off my helmet and turned my head from side to side to check for wounds. Then he tilted the helmet. My vision cleared for me to see that the shot had hit the side of my visor and somehow missed my face.
“Grab him!” I groaned, pointing toward Malcolm.
I went to stand, but either my legs were wobbly or Rin turned the Cora sharply because I stumbled and had to catch myself on the wall. I couldn’t focus enough to figure out which. The cargo hold doors were closed.
I staggered toward the airlock, and when I got inside, the Cora spun, and I bounced off the walls like a ball.
“Hold on back there!” Rin shouted. “All station defenses are online. I’m taking us through the Ark Ship frame, then we can outrun them at a full burn.”
The ship heaved me to the side, then threw me forward. The sole remaining Titanborn scampered to try and help me while also holding on to unconscious Malcolm, who didn’t have the luxury of an armored suit.
“Fighter has a lock, hold—”
Another blast made my ringing ears go completely silent. A rush of air dragged me and the others out into the hallway. Our bodies struck a blast door that fell shut and kept the rest of the ship pressurized. My face pressed against a porthole in the center, allowing me to see the result of the Cora being clipped by a missile.
Silvery fragments of the medical bay flew across space, Gareth’s body somewhere amongst them. They were lost amongst pieces of the Venta Co. Ark Ship’s construction frame, battered by the Cora and the fighters chasing us. Cora shot down a few more missiles with PDCs, and the distance grew between us and the chasing ships.
The remaining Titanborn grabbed me and screamed something. Rin was over the ship-wide coms doing the same. I couldn’t hear any of them. All I did was search the blackness for a body that would never be turned to ashes and loosed upon the skies of Titan. The body of my protector, Gareth, my friend… lost forever.
Six
Malcolm
“Kale!” I screamed. “Let me out of here, you son of a bitch!” I scratched at the sanitary mask pulled across my mouth, but it was no use. I’d woken with it on, and this one was made from the same nearly indestructible nano-fabric the wings on Ringer armor were made of. A maglock on the back ensured I couldn’t untie it.
We were underground somewhere beneath the surface of Titan. I could tell by the chill. There was enough methane on Titan alone to keep their settlements balmy, but the Ringers preferred things icy. The last thing I remembered was being pulled off Martelle Station, then I woke from my sleep pod and was dragged to wherever here was. I didn’t even get to see Aria first.
I dragged my artificial leg across the floor. The Ringers now had a band wrapping it, which emitted some sort of electromagnetic current. It didn’t hurt, but it jammed the signal so my nervous system couldn’t communicate with the limb, leaving it as little more than a deadweight crutch.
I shook the bars holding me in my rock-carved cell. “I swear, when I get out of here, I’m going to wring your neck. Kale! Rin!”
“Shut up, Mudstomper!” someone said and kicked my cell. “He’s trying to work.” The speaker, a Ringer guard, hobbled by, pulse rifle in hand. One of his legs was twisted beyond mending, and his left hand twitched involuntarily. “W-why aren’t y-you working?” the guard addressed someone else, a stutter on full display. He looked at Basaam Venta, who stood in the center of the cavernous space beyond my cell. A tall array of viewscreens curved in front of the Venta scientist. Random pieces of tech were strewn about, mostly mechanisms I couldn’t name.
“I need certain materials,” Basaam said. His approach to the guard was drawn short when chains snapped him back, binding him to his new workspace, where I imagined he was prepping to build the prototype engine I’d s
tolen the plans for. I felt an unusual pang of guilt before remembering that if I’d failed, the Ringers wouldn’t have any use for him. Knowing them, that was a death sentence.
“Lord Trass says t-to tell-tell me everything you need,” the guard said.
“Help for starters. How do you expect me to work with these on my wrists? Under these conditions? I’ll be working with volatile gases. On Europa, I had an entire staff, trained engineers, hermetically sealed laboratories—”
“We’re not on Eur-Europa.”
“That’s for damn sure,” I remarked. Their attention immediately fell upon me. I shrugged my shoulders. “Pretend I’m not here.”
“You have to tell Mr. Trass that these are not suitable conditions,” Basaam said. “I’ll build him what he wants, but if we’re not careful, I’ll turn this place into a crater.”
“He already did that once,” the guard said. “Lord Tra-Trass says you must work here. No…nobody can know.”
“Then, by Earth, send me some skilled laborers. People that have been around an impulse drive at the very least. You have captives; find out which ones have training in nuclear engineering or shipbuilding at the very least. And some food. I can’t think straight when I haven’t had solid food in over a month!”
The guard slammed him in the gut with the butt of his rifle. Basaam was lucky the man was a cripple. Even so, with a powered suit of armor on, the blow was enough to send him to his knees. Basaam’s glasses fell, and he had to crawl and grope along the floor like a beggar to find them. He tried to mask his sniveling, but the cavern was vast and empty. No sound could be hidden.
“Leave him alone!” the woman in the cell beside mine cried out. She’d been sobbing ever since we were brought down, and though neither she nor Basaam seemed to have any interest in talking to me, I’d had imaginary money on the fact that she was Kale’s leverage against him.
“Helena, don’t,” Basaam wheezed.
“Please, you have to let us out of here,” Helena said.
Children of Titan Series: Books 1-4: (A Space Opera Thriller Box Set) Page 88
