“As I’ll ever be. Thank you, Ry. I know we were never going to work out, but I like it better when we’re not shooting each other.”
“Don’t get any ideas,” she said. “This is for Aria... mostly.” I was pretty sure I saw the corner of her lips lift as she turned her visor away from me and opened the hatch.
We were greeted by air cold enough to freeze the skin off our bones. Even the Ringer suits couldn’t impede it completely. Cold filled the crevasses of my loose suit and the space of my helmet, instantly making my ears and nose feel numb. Strong wind whipped grains of pale, icy sand through the opening.
We had to climb through a cluster of debris to get out. The Darien Quarantine above had been blown to bits by Kale Trass, and pieces of it littered the ground in every direction, still not cleaned up. Chunks as large as a hover-car were chucked as far as the Darien Enclosure roughly eight kilometers away. It was no wonder that after Pervenio security stormed the place looking for the Children of Titan hideout, not one of them survived.
“Aria’s waiting in Hangar 34 at the Darien docks!” The storm outside was so loud Rylah had to shout. Scarlet bolts of lightning forked above a distant plateau like the blades of the devil’s pitchfork in old Three Messiahs folklore.
Yup. There were few places in Sol I hated as much as Titan.
“Just get a good head start and spread your arms,” Rylah said. “The wind should lift you, even if you’re a fat old Earther.”
I think she was expecting a laugh, but I’d stopped outside to observe a pile of smooth rocks under two hunks of debris leaning on each other like an archway. One rock had a reddish patch on top, like rust. I was probably just seeing things, or it was the rock’s natural coloring, but that was the exact spot Zhaff went down after I’d shot him in the head. I’d replayed that moment enough times in my head to be sure.
“Malcolm, let’s go!” Rylah punched my arm.
I should have died there lying on the tundra with him, yet here I was with another chance at making things right. Zhaff Pervenio didn’t deserve what he got, and he didn’t deserve to become the killer his father made him. A son he’d rejected and pretended was never born all because he wasn’t perfect.
I thought seeing that spot would eat me up inside, but the Malcolm who pulled the trigger truly had died there instead of him. Everything else was borrowed time. I spent half my life in sleep pods from mission to mission, wishing for morning so that I could waste credits earned taking down some poor sap, or wishing for night so I could sneak off-ship while Aria was asleep and get into trouble.
If Zhaff had to die to teach me to cherish even an extra second with Aria, then he was a better friend than I’d ever be. I knew now he wasn’t really dead—at least not when last I saw him—but he was as good as dead to me. Only a shitty father’s guilt kept his heart beating.
“Goodbye, old friend,” I whispered.
“Malcolm!”
I turned and met Rylah’s gaze, then nodded that I was ready.
“Just keep your arms steady, or the fall won’t be pretty,” she said.
She sprinted headlong into the gale. I followed her up a chunk of sunken debris like a ramp, and side by side, we raised our arms as we leaped off. I flapped mine like an idiot, but it was unnecessary. The wind snatched me off my feet, and before I knew it, the wreckage of the Darien Quarantine was lost in the fog of the mounting storm.
My heart raced. I’d been to every corner of Sol worth visiting, dealt with every manner of miscreant imaginable, I’d been on asteroid colonies when their walls were blown open, and the air sucked out. I’d watched a madman try to turn good people into cyborgs by reprogramming their brains. I’d been on ships as big as a small moon, but I’d never flown.
Pervenio Corp didn’t allow personal gliding suits on Titan when they were in control because they were too hard to monitor. Only registered vessels could legally traverse the skies. As Rylah led me through the tempest like we were a flock of birds on Earth before the Meteorite, I almost understood why the Ringers were willing to fight so hard for their planet... almost.
“Enjoying the ride?” Rylah asked.
“I’ve been on worse,” I said.
“The winds usually swirl around the Darien Enclosure. Don’t fight it too much, or you’ll lose control.”
“This isn’t your first time, huh?”
“How do you think my sources fed me information from around Titan without anyone knowing? Storms are the best time to fly.”
Rylah gradually banked left. I made out the large shadow of Darien’s three-kilometer-long enclosure coming up below us in the shape of an ancient ziggurat. The city’s Uppers filled the portion above the surface, as did its major ports. We glided around until we were level with the top, spewing out smoke and residue from the Lowers’ factories. Viewports offered glimpses of the gardens for the upper residencies within, gardens now browned and dying from neglect. The glass-covered farms sloping down all around the perimeter of the block, however, were lush and filled with busy Ringers. At least Kale hadn’t let everything rot.
Rylah dipped one arm to turn and wrapped back underneath me, heading toward a half-open hangar in the side of the enclosure. I did my best to mimic her, feeling the resistance on my wings. They weren’t used to bearing the weight of an Earther. Her feet touched down gracefully in the hangar. My wing ripped.
I tried to right my course, but I was losing altitude fast and headed straight for the impenetrable shell of Darien.
“Rylah!” I screamed. I closed my eyes and prepared for impact, when something grabbed my back and lifted me. When I re-opened them, I was skidding across the hangar until I slammed against the landing gear of the Cora.
Rylah tapped down beside me, even more gracefully this time. “I’ve always wanted to see an Earther fly,” she chuckled.
I groaned and rubbed my unbelievably sore hip. Congealer helped with bleeding, but it didn’t make the bullet hole in me hurt any less. Nor all the bumps and bruises I’d endured in my lovely vacation spent amongst Ringers.
“Did you have to throw me?” I asked.
“Consider it payback for getting me shot.” She helped me to my feet. “C’mon, Aria is waiting.”
I nodded and took off for the ship’s entry ramp with my artificial leg carting me forward. The nerve endings near it stung every time my brain signaled motion now, but it was sort of refreshing. I didn’t feel as much like I had a ghost growing from me.
I bounded up the ramp into the cargo bay as fast as I could. Rylah followed me and sealed the ship. Then the cargo bay’s interior door slid open. Aria stood waiting behind it, fire-red hair tumbling over her slender shoulders like every curly strand had a mind of its own.
“Aria!” I threw my helmet off and ran to her, throwing my arms around her like it was the last time I’d ever see her. Hell, I don’t think I’d ever hugged her like that in her entire life.
“What did they do to you?” I asked.
“Nothing I didn’t ask for.” She squeezed back, but something was different about her. Even in my armor, I could feel the bump of her belly pressing against me. I held her at arm’s length and stared down. On Mars, it had been too subtle for me to notice, but now it was obvious.
I didn’t throw up, but I could feel the bile working its way up my throat. My stomach churned. She was pregnant.
The first time I saw Aria kiss a boy—a ratty offworlder kid from Ceres who’d tried to pickpocket me, failed, then followed us around like a stray dog—I punished her for no reason, downed an entire bottle of whiskey, and bet an entire job’s worth of credits on a mech fight. Finding out she was pregnant? I wanted to crawl back into my cell and let Ringers keep kicking me in the gut until I died of internal bleeding.
“I might have left out that part,” Rylah remarked from behind us.
Aria didn’t say a word as I gawked. “It’s… it’s his, isn’t it?” I asked, breathless, even though I already knew the answer. Female USF citizens are provided pre
gnancy-impeding implants when they’re of age, removed only by sanctioned doctors when reproduction was approved, or on the black market. Aria wasn’t a citizen, so she’d never received one.
She hung her head and nodded like she was ashamed. Without thinking twice, I took her chin and forced her to look into my eyes. There was a time I would have screamed at her for being so foolish, but I like to think that everything that had happened since the last time I was on Titan had helped me grow up a little. Some men take longer than others.
What felt like an eternity went by as I struggled to get my lips moving, but then I said what I imagined she’d want to hear from her father... finally. “You’ve done nothing wrong, Aria.” I took her necklace out of my pocket and lowered it over her head, then pressed the pendant gently against her chest while I kissed her forehead.
“I’ve done plenty wrong, Dad,” she replied. “Worse than you’ll ever need to know, but you were right. Some people can’t change, and I won’t raise this baby here. I don’t care who he belongs to.”
“It’s…” I choked back tears. “It’s a boy?” My hand hovered over her stomach but dared not move any closer. Aria smiled, took it, and made me touch her belly myself.
“It is,” she said.
“Kale will chase us to the ends of Sol to get him back,” Rylah said. “But this was Aria’s decision. We just had to play along until Kale finally left Darien since Luxarn’s Cogents have had everyone who isn’t expendable on lockdown here for weeks. We won’t get another chance like this.”
“Once we get away from Titan, we’ll be fine,” I said. “I spent half of Aria’s life teaching her how to hide from the USF and Pervenio Corp. Kale’s got nothing on them.”
“Then let’s go already. If we wait any longer, the Earther blockade will arrive, and there will be no getting through.”
I breathed in the sight of my beautiful, pregnant daughter one last time, then released her.
“I got the hangar open without being noticed, but as soon as the engines ignite, the dock guards will be onto us,” Aria said as she quickly led us through the Cora’s shiny corridors toward the cockpit. “They have stolen Pervenio fighters that will come after us, but nothing that can keep up with the Cora.”
“I’m not worried,” I replied. “I’ve seen you fly.”
“It won’t be as smooth breaking Titan’s atmosphere.”
“You should have seen the landing I just had.”
“I did.” She snickered. My cheeks went red.
When we reached the cockpit, Aria hopped into the pilot’s chair and began priming for takeoff. I bowed out of the way so Rylah could take the co-pilot’s seat. Handling guns, not ships, was my specialty, though I’m not sure who Aria got that gift from, considering her biological mother was a streetwalking Martian sewer-girl. Or her brain, for that matter.
“Aria,” I said while she worked. “Did Kale hurt you?”
“Never,” she said.
“Then I have to know. Why risk all this? Last time we talked, you seemed… dedicated.”
“I care about him, Dad. I really do. And somewhere inside him is the good man who only wanted to save his mother before being forced into all this, but he told me the things he’s made you do, and everything else he’s done. I’m so sorry.”
“What’s one more life on my conscience?”
“You have one?” Rylah said.
“Very funny,” I said. “I did it all for you, Aria. I should have known you didn’t need me, though. Mother of the prince of Titan, they’d have never killed you like they promised, not even Rin.”
“Until the baby’s born,” Rylah remarked.
“I thought I understood why he did it all,” Aria said. “And then I realized, he wasn’t telling me. Not really. Even if he thinks he was.”
“Cora…” I muttered, immediately catching her drift. Call it father-daughter intuition.
Aria stopped working only for a few seconds. Her features darkened and she managed a single, solemn nod. “I’ve spent enough of my life around a man who didn’t actually want me there to know. Every time he looks into my eyes, I can tell that all he sees is a ghost that’ll never return.”
“Aria, I—”
She glanced back. “You’re here now, Dad. And now I get to be the one who saves you.”
“Well, I’m sorry you had to finally see him for what he is.”
“No you aren’t. But it doesn’t matter how I feel about him. Venta and Pervenio are about to turn Saturn into a war zone, and my son will be their number one target now that a Cogent spotted me. That’s the only reason they haven’t leaked it. I was stupid to think there was any chance of sitting down and coming to terms, especially not with Rin in Kale’s ear.”
“They had no intention of a peaceful resolution,” Rylah said. “No matter what happened at that summit.”
“We’re human,” I said. “Too much ugly went down here for it to end without blood. At least you were willing to try.”
Aria closed her eyes. “I know. But I won’t let Kale get our son killed. Maybe one day, he’ll even understand why I couldn’t stay.”
I rested my hand on her shoulder. I’d never been very good at consoling her. I was better at snapping, then drinking away the guilt, but eventually, when the old ways stop working, a little bit of new is all that’s left.
“I was a shit dad,” I said, “but I promise you, I’ll be there for your son until I’m so old you’ll be taking care of both of us.”
She snickered. “I hear Pallus has a great retirement community.”
“Don’t even joke about that.”
“All ship checks are go,” Rylah said, eyeing the controls and obviously trying to speed things up. “Engines are primed and ready. Waiting on you.”
“Where will you take us?” I asked. “I’ll let you decide this time.”
“I haven’t thought much about that,” Aria said. “Hopping from station to station might be more fun than sticking around anywhere for long.”
“I taught you well.”
Her lips formed a wicked grin, the likes of which I remembered from when she was still a child, unaffected by my parenting techniques; that same kind of look she put on when I’d tell her to eat her ration bar, and instead, she’d crumble it in zero-g. Or when I’d tell her to stay put, she’d agree, then she’d sneak out through the landing gear of whatever ship we were on to follow me into the seediest asteroid colonies imaginable.
“All right, impulse drives are heating up.” She struck one last command, and the floor instantly began to rumble.
Rylah pulled up the feed from the Cora’s rear cameras on her console. “Dock guards are here already,” she said. Two Ringers in their white armor sprinted into the hangar and realized what was going on. They drew their pulse rifles as if those could do anything against the ship’s plating.
“Seal the cargo bay… What the hell?” Rylah questioned. I leaned over her to see the feed and saw the guards suddenly lying face first on the floor of the hangar.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. Pulling up other feeds to—”
“I’m locked out,” Aria said. She lifted her hands from the ship’s controls as they started to blink. Then the overhead lights winked off.
“Aria, what the hell is going on?” I said.
“We need to run,” she said, voice suddenly shaking. “Dad, we need to get out of here!”
She sprang out of the chair and grabbed me, but by the time she did, the lights flashed back on. I was facing Aria, so I saw fear twist her features first. In her gaping eyes, the unmistakable reflection of a glowing yellow eye-lens made all my muscles tense.
“Malcolm Graves, you are here,” spoke the same robotic voice of the Cogent who Luxarn assigned to save me back on Martelle Station.
“It is you,” Aria said through trembling lips. “I knew it.”
Unlike us, Rylah didn’t freeze. “You!” she shouted. We had powered armor on, and she swung
at the Cogent. He caught her hand like she was merely a child throwing a tantrum, twisted her arm, and forced her to the ground.
“Informant, code-name Rylah,” the Cogent said. “You should be in Pervenio custody.”
“Stop!” I yelled as I whipped around. The way he spoke her name... I’d heard that voice, way back before Martelle Station. There, I hadn’t been able to see him clearly, but I think deep down, I always knew. Who else could mow down an entire contingent of Venta security officers without a drop of sweat?
Few things are more shocking than finding out you’re going to be the grandfather of the son of a murderous tyrant. Learning that the partner you’d shot in the head and sent into a coma was back in action... That was tough to beat.
Zhaff held Rylah in place, even though he wore nothing but a thin black boiler suit and a respirator over his mouth and nose. I knew it was him. The way his eye-lens fixed on me, its inner mechanisms gyrating as he focused; there was no doubt. And somehow, that damn lens was the most human, expressive part of him left. Even more work had been done to him since I saw him floating like a vegetable in that tube on Undina. His head had been shaved, with three lines of ragged scars running along the left side before giving way to the mechanically reconstructed left half of his face.
Luxarn promised to rebuild him, as if he were a product on a factory-belt. Like a fool, I’d doubted my old employer. I never would again.
“It’s a pleasure seeing you again, Zhaff,” Rylah groaned.
“What in Earth’s name did he do to you?” I asked softly. I cursed myself for being so foolish. For so long, I’d taken pride on seeing everything, connecting dots, but again, my aging brain failed me. On the surface, all the mechanization made Zhaff’s voice seem different, but a closer listen revealed that of my old partner. Sure, his every breath rattled as a built-in respirator kept him alive, but he was there, clear as day on Ancient Earth.
Children of Titan Series: Books 1-4: (A Space Opera Thriller Box Set) Page 98
