“And we don’t need to use Undina to fill Earth with terror. Sol has plenty of small asteroids. With Basaam’s engine and the Cora’s weapons systems, they won’t be able to stop them in time no matter how far they are.”
“This is our one chance to finally get him, and you want to spare him?”
“I want you to live!” She clutched me by the arms, finally dropping the somber facade she’d been wearing since Rylah lost her hands. She regarded me with that same zeal she had when she recruited me. When she believed that I was the Trass who could lead us to freedom.
“We took his power,” she said. “Took his gas trade and his cheap labor and his station. Why do you think he’s hiding while he sends Madame Venta to handle us? He’s already afraid, Kale. He’s already lost.”
“You call PerVenta Corp a loss?”
“I call it desperation,” she said. “If you won’t change your mind, at least leave Aria and your son behind here.”
“You know I’ll need her to control the collector.”
“And if they catch you?” she asked.
“I have Luxarn’s son as leverage,” I said.
“I still don’t like this.”
“‘My father should’ve let these inbred Ringers die off when we had the chance.’”
“What?”
“Those were Luxarn’s words before he gave Sodervall the order to kill Cora and the others. Don’t you see, we’ll never be free until he’s gone. Until I can look into the eyes of my people and tell them that the man responsible for decades of pain is gone, there will always be a part of us that still fears them.”
Rin reached up slowly and ran her fingers through my hair, like my mother used to when I was young. In some ways, she’d become more like my mom than my real one. In every way, really.
“Killing him won’t bring Cora back,” she said. “It won’t stop Aria from making her choice to run. It won’t change anything. Trust me. I’ve killed enough men for all of Titan.”
“I never thought I’d see this day. We have them right where we want them, and you want to show mercy?”
“It’s not about mercy. Kale, listen to me.”
“I’m done listening!” I shoved her away. “This is what you wanted when you pulled me off the Piccolo and left the others to die. No matter what the cost, that was what you taught me.” I paused when I noticed the young guard who’d saved me from Zhaff in the hospital standing in the entrance of the cockpit. “What!” I yelled at him.
“There is a transmission from Madame Venta’s flagship, the Aphrodite,” he said.
“It’s about time.” I turned back to Rin. “Patch her through, and make it seem like I’m gone. This is it, Rin. You always begged me to stay strong, but now it’s my turn. Mourn your sister’s failure later and focus. They’ll finally get what they deserve. If you fail here, it will all be for nothing. So don’t.”
I left while her tongue fidgeted behind the hole in her cheek, searching for a response. I hated seeing Rin appear anxious like my mother always did. Rylah’s fate and Zhaff’s beating had her flustered, but I needed my fearless aunt.
The moment I was around the corner, and she opened coms, however, she started to snap back into form like I knew she would. Even if she was drawing on me for her unquenchable fury, it worked. Nobody had endured Earther cruelty more than she had.
I stopped so I could overhear their conversation. This was all part of our plan. Madame Venta would be made to think I was missing; then Malcolm would contact Luxarn saying he and Zhaff had captured me. He’d deliver me right to Luxarn’s doorstep, and once I was there, I’d give Earth and their corporations no choice but to give us everything I demanded back on Mars. Aria would see how foolish it was to think they’d chat around a table with my kind like they thought we were equals.
“Madame Venta, I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon,” Rin said. I could hear her trademark poise returning with every word, even if injuries left it difficult for her to speak.
“You?” Madame Venta questioned.
“Rin Trass.”
“Yes, his aunt, I remember. Where is your king?”
“Busy.”
Madame Venta guffawed. “We arrive, and he runs and hides. I must say I’m disappointed. I knew his confidence on Mars was all an act, but this?”
“You can deal with me.”
“Oh, I plan to. I assume you’ve seen the blockade being established around the Ring? I’m here in the name of Earth to end this insurrection. You will lay down your arms, return your captives alive, including Basaam Venta, and relinquish control of the Ring. You tell your king that if you don’t, we will have no choice but to take it by force.”
“Is that all?” Rin said.
“You murdered two of my sons! You’re lucky the USF wants the Ring intact or that frozen husk of a moon you call your world would already be dust.”
“You know they had it coming. Just like you do.”
There was my venomous aunt again. I never thought I’d want to thank Madame Venta for helping pull her out of her grief. We needed Rin today.
“You damn Ringers think this is a game, don’t you?” Madame Venta snarled. “Release your captives and stand down, or you’ll be begging to be ashes.”
“You want them back that bad, do you? We didn’t realize. Prepare your ships; we’ll send them right over.” Rin cut coms and left the cockpit. She stopped and glared at me on her way by, fuming. “I don’t have to agree with you, but never doubt me,” she said. “If you want to go chasing Luxarn across Sol, I’ll make sure Titan stands, but you and your son damn well better come back.”
She continued by. I turned my head to conceal a smile.
“Are you coming?” she asked. “It’s time for one last speech.”
I took a moment to fill my lungs and focus my thoughts, then followed her out of the Cora. Hundreds of Titanborn filled the hangar outside, crammed into the space between ships in our own fleet. They were jury-rigged warships, slapped together from gas harvesters and ice haulers, all except for the peerless Cora. Basaam’s Fusion Pulse Engine was strapped onto its bottom and being prepped for installation on Undina.
Viewscreens posted everywhere showed a portion of Pervenio Station where our captive Earthers were being packed into airlock cells, faces marked by dread. Only the emptied cells were loaded with explosives, something the Children of Titan had been quite adept at crafting out of spare parts.
Our thousands of hostages would be returned to Madame Venta in waves, enough to fill every single warship they’d brought to destroy us with. I never imagined sparing them would be what saved us, but I never expected to be betrayed either.
I stood at the top of the Cora’s ramp and gazed down upon my people. So many of them, warriors who rose to take back the Ring from our oppressors. No camera or audio receivers were aimed at me. After Rylah and Aria’s betrayal, we couldn’t risk anyone dispersing footage of me. This time, I got to speak directly to my people. No posturing. No lies.
“Titanborn!” I bellowed. They erupted into cheers, hoisting pulse-rifle into the air.
“Earth has come to wipe us out,” I continued. “They’ve brought more ships than any of you have seen in a lifetime. But do you know who works those ships? Wage-slaves and mudstomper cowards. They fight for nothing. Dream of nothing. Not like us.”
I surveyed the eager Titanborn faces in the crowd. They believed in what we were doing with every ounce of their souls. My people who had been tortured and beaten for half a century. Who’d had their families shoved into quarantines after Earthers spread their sicknesses and charged impossible fees for treatment. Only one among them looked solemn. At the far side of the hangar, my mother watched in silence.
“They don’t understand what it means to believe,” I said, staring straight at her. “What it means to know deep down in your heart that you belong somewhere. Titan is our home! Ice runs through our veins. It’s time we show Earth what it means to live in fear. Stand with me this one
last time, and I promise you all, we’ll never know their sickness again. From ice to ashes!”
All of Darien shook as my people repeated those words over and over. Even the thunder constantly rumbling in Titan’s stormy skies seemed quiet in comparison. I closed my eyes and raised my arms, encouraging them to get louder and louder. It felt like I was in a dream.
When I reopened them, the only thing that changed was that my mother was no longer watching.
“Prepare the fleet,” I ordered Rin. “Don’t engage. Let them panic after they receive the shipments, and I promise you, Madame Venta’s orders will be ignored. Good luck.”
I turned to re-board the Cora, but Rin seized my wrist. “Come back to us, Kale,” she whispered into my ear, so close that the smooth surface of her scars brushed my neck. “You hear me? Both of you, come back.”
I answered with only a grunt, then entered the Cora and sealed the ramp. The survivors and healthy members from the squadron of soldiers who’d accompanied us to Mars awaited in the cockpit. Six Titanborn, fully armored. The elite crew of soldiers selected by Gareth prepared to die for their world if it came to it.
“Lord Trass, as soon as the hangar is cleared, we’re prepared to leave,” the youngest of them addressed me, bowing his blonde head. I still had no idea what his name was despite how many times he’d saved me.
“Excellent. All we need now is our pilot.” I stalked through the corridors of my ship, toward the hall of sleep pods that made a journey across the vastness of space feel like seconds. Four of them were filled, Basaam, Malcolm Graves, Zhaff, and Aria. The Cogent somehow clung to life after wounds that should have made him bleed out, though what was left of him was barely human.
I drew myself over Aria’s pod, where I’d had her placed out of sight after our last interaction. She slept peacefully inside. The mother of my child. Our ambassador. I once thought she could help me forget Cora, but all I could think about when I saw her now was the woman she could never live up to.
I tapped the control panel, and Aria’s pod opened with a hiss. Cold steam poured out, and the gelatinous substance formed to her body liquefied and drained away. Her eyes snapped open, in a state of shock, until they fell upon me.
“What is this?” she whispered, voice still ragged from being under. She tried to sit up and reach me on her own, but I wrapped my arm around her back and helped her out. Her stomach grew more from our child every day, and until he was born, I couldn’t have her overexert herself.
“Get in the cockpit,” I demanded. “We’re leaving.”
She clutched her stomach and backed away. The sudden movements made her visibly nauseated, and she hunched over the pod and somehow held back from vomiting. “We’re not going anywhere with you,” she groaned.
I drew my pulse pistol and aimed it through the viewport on Malcolm’s sleep pod. “You’re no longer our ambassador, Aria. You’re going to take us to Luxarn Pervenio, or you’ll watch your father be spaced the same way his people do it.”
She threw herself in front of Malcolm’s sleep pod. “This is between us!” she said. “Leave him out of it.”
“It’s too late for that.” I easily pulled her away with my powered armor on and pushed her into the waiting arms of one of my nameless guards. “I want eyes on her at all times,” I ordered.
“You don’t have to do this, Kale!” Aria screamed. “Just let us go!”
“Let’s go, Earther-lover,” he sneered as he prodded her along as she continued to scream.
My crewmates aboard the Piccolo once called me that because I didn’t like to start trouble with the captain or the rest of the Earther crew members. I wasn’t sure that I’d even recognize that quiet, cowardly Ringer I used to be in the mirror anymore. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
Eighteen
Malcolm
Titanborn guards directed me through the Cora. I stumbled after every one of their shoves, my artificial leg all that kept me from collapsing. They snickered. My hands were cuffed behind my back; otherwise, I would’ve smacked the smirks off their skinny Ringer faces.
They dumped me onto the command deck. Then, before I could manage a breath, they heaved me up and into one of the seats along the back wall. Once locked acceleration restraints over my chest, they uncuffed me.
“Glad you could finally join us, Malcolm,” Kale said. He sat in the copilot’s chair. Beside him, flying the Cora, was Aria, looking about ready to pop she was so pregnant. The control console had been repaired after Zhaff shot it. It was nowhere near as sleek anymore, but Aria seemed able to handle it.
“Aria,” I rasped, “are you okay?”
She went to look back, but the guard directly behind her straightened her head. He held a pulse pistol against the back of her head.
“I’m fine, Dad,” she said, unable to contain her frustration.
“Where the hell are you taking us?” I said.
“I told you,” Kale said. “We’re going on a little family trip.”
The Cora’s thrusters kicked in, and we shot forward into Titan’s stormy sky. Lightning flashed all around us. The ship rattled and whined, battered by an atmosphere so dense, a human being could fly in it. G-forces shoved me against the back on my chair, crushing my arms behind me. It felt like they were going to pop out of my shoulder sockets. All the aches in my torso flared up, worse than ever...and then we were through.
Weightlessness took hold. I finally felt like I could breathe again, but what I saw in space immediately stole the air back from my lungs. Dozens of ships emerged alongside us, with lights from more winking all around Saturn’s moons and stations—everything that comprised the cosmological archipelago known as the Ring. The planet’s icy disks slashed across the corner of the viewport, wrapping a planet swirling with more colors than an Earthside rainbow. People said Saturn was the most stunning sight in all of Sol, but I was hardly able to pay it any attention.
More ships hovered beyond the Ring’s most distant moons. The sunlight blooming along their flanks revealed the colors of Pervenio Corp, Venta Co., and Red Wing Company—all now under one banner. And as the Cora banked away from Saturn to face them, I realized just how many there were. They filled the entire breadth of my vision. Space fleets were the stuff of fiction. Sol had never known an interstellar war before because the USF was too focused on expansion to let any rival factions rise that would require one.
Collectors, like I once had been, ended conflicts before they began or fought them in the shadows. Then Kale rewrote the book. Now I gazed upon an armada clearly intended for one purpose—to take back the Ring by any means necessary.
“Are you really planning to fight that?” I asked him.
“Relax, old man,” Kale replied. “Aria, open up coms to Rin and listen in.”
Aria hesitated for a moment as she too got lost admiring the size of the Earther fleet. Maybe that’s the wrong word for it, but for a girl from the sewers of Mars, it was a hell of a thing to see. Doesn’t matter how many missions I smuggled her on around Sol.
“Aria,” Kale repeated, cross.
The guard nudged her in the back of the head with the gun. She shook her head and focused, fingers flurrying across the controls.
“We’re reading an awful lot of movement down there, Rin Trass,” Madame Venta said over the coms. “Any closer and we’ll begin targeting.”
“You wanted your people back,” Rin replied. “Here you go.”
Suddenly, all the Titanborn ships stopped moving. “Engage radar jamming, mask our heat signature, and take us in slow,” Kale whispered to Aria, as if anybody outside the command deck could hear him.
Aria did as he asked without question, even though I could tell she wanted to be on the Cora even less than I did. I’d raised a smart girl, somehow. Not impulsive like the king sitting beside her. We decelerated and remained cruising straight toward the heart of the blockade.
“Are you going to tell me what the plan is before or after we slam into them?” she asked.
“Look at them,” Kale marveled. “Earthers neatly packaged and shipped back to their own people like all the shiny products they waste their lives trying to buy.”
“You’re handing them over just like that?” I asked.
His lack of an answer revealed enough. The Children of Titan had been crafty devils since the first time I encountered them in New London, Earth, almost a year back. All I could do now was sit back and watch.
The Cora’s unparalleled stealth systems kept us in the dark as we approached, a short distance behind a cluster of cells which had been shot out much earlier to reach so far. It was tough to see over such a great distance, but through the translucency on the nearest one, I didn’t notice any movement from people within. A fancifully designed frigate with swooping wings that served no real purpose in space glided toward one. The trademark Venta overlapping Vs were covered by the name of the vessel—the Aphrodite.
Its airlock extended after its thrusters fired in reverse, latching on to one of the containers. Shadows scurried through the semi-translucent tube of the airlock, the sparks of fusion cutters flickering against the blackness of space. The moment they breached the cell, it blew. The side of the frigate was split open, silvery metal shards slashing the sleek hull.
More blasts simultaneously went off throughout the Earther fleet as they attempted to open the first wave of cells. It was like one of the fireworks displays over New London on M-Day.
“Y… you’re killing them all?” Aria said, incredulous.
“No,” Kale replied. “We just forgot to mention that a few of them are empty.”
Children of Titan Series: Books 1-4: (A Space Opera Thriller Box Set) Page 102
