A handful more blasts boomed in the darkness, sending the Earther fleet into disarray. And that was when I realized what happens when a wealthy aristocrat who’d lived a privileged life leads an army against people that have spent their entire lives fighting to survive. Kale saw their fleet and didn’t see an insurmountable mass of alloy and weapons ordnance. He saw another scrap to claw his way out of.
The space between the Earther and Titan fleets was promptly filled by a screen of debris and Pervenio Corp cells half-filled with real people and half-filled with explosives. Madame Venta couldn’t fire upon the Titan fleet at the risk of killing all the captives, and they couldn’t fly past the cells to engage; otherwise, all of Kale’s hostages would be left suffocate.
And Kale wasn’t done yet. Clinging to the backs of those cells that remained intact were more Ringer soldiers in their powered armor. Raiding parties, ready to give their lives to further confuse the enemy while the Earthers hid in the safety of their expensive ships. They pushed off across space in squadrons, gripping hands and soaring toward the crippled vessels in the Earther fleet, now already breached by explosives for them to invade with ease.
Madame Venta’s ship, the Aphrodite, was able to divert power to its impulse drives and fall back to avoid them, but it was all too little too late. Titan was going to make them lose all taste for battle without firing a single missile.
“You son of a bitch, Trass!” Madame Venta’s screams directed at Rin echoed throughout the command deck. “I will kill each and every one of you, do you hear me, you bitch? We won’t leave until you all starve.”
“I hope your people don’t miss us too much,” Rin answered. “Have fun cleaning up our mess for once.”
“All captains, fall back and expand the blockade perimeter! Disperse medical evacs to each cell, but for Earth’s sake, probe them before breaching.”
Their coms cut out, and then Rin opened a direct line to us. “You’re clear, Kale. It’ll take them weeks to regroup, and they’ll think twice about engaging with thousands of civilians on board their ships. We’ll send the second wave out the moment things start clearing up and keep them on their toes with raids.”
“They don’t get near Titan or any other colony, Rin,” Kale said. “Is that clear?”
“They’ll never want to come back. Advance teams have begun invading their damaged ships throughout the Ring. They’ll space as many mudstompers as they can.”
“Make the survivors see it.”
“They will,” Rin said. “From ice to ashes.”
“From ice to ashes.”
Kale ended the transmission. He leaned back and drew a deep, satisfied breath. I knew the type. I’d released a few of my own after a successful mission that took a fair bit of thinking to solve. None of what we were witnessing was Rin’s idea this time. Kale Trass had come into his own, and we had front row seats to his handiwork. To all the flashes throughout the Ring of gunfire and more empty containers filling the void with shrapnel.
“The damn fools,” I marveled with him. I couldn’t help but be impressed. “They should have never come here.”
“And Rin didn’t think it would work,” Kale said. “Aria, take us past the blockade at full burn.”
Hearing him stole back her attention from the chaos. She leaned forward and took to the controls, and we sped ahead, the pressure of acceleration again constricting me. It wasn’t like she had much choice except to listen.
We grew close enough to the Venta fleet to be within firing range of PDCs. Aria piloted the Cora masterfully, weaving around debris and drifting ships and cells. We rolled under a frigate with failing engines, then darted up over a chunk of shrapnel large enough to cleave us in two.
It wasn’t the best time to go all proud father, but it was preferable to harping on Kale claiming another victory. Madame Venta’s lines were completely broken. Half the ships we passed were speeding away while others drifted, unsure what to do. They were captains of commerce and leisure vessels, not commanders. Their fleet still more than doubled Kale’s, even with the damage, and boasted more advanced weaponry, but I was damn certain they’d push no further. It was like they had learned nothing from when Pervenio Corp was ousted from the Ring in the blink of an eye. Totally unprepared.
The last row of retreating PerVenta Corp ships passed overhead, leaving only star-speckled blackness ahead of us. No targeting alerts chirped from the controls. No coms came through warning us to fall back lest we be fired upon.
“We’re through the blockade,” Aria exhaled, her shoulders unknotting.
“Are you sure?” Kale said.
“We’re not dust, are we?”
“Watch your tone while addressing Lord Trass, traitor,” the guard behind her growled.
“Listen to him, Aria,” I said. “We wouldn’t want to hurt his feelings. The kid can’t even handle being broken up with.”
Kale unfastened his restraints and pulled his weightless body vertical using the ceiling. “Set a course for Undina that takes us as far from Mars and Jupiter as possible,” he said. “Unless you’d both like to be turned to dust.”
I laughed. “You’re really going to go after Luxarn? I knew you were suicidal, but if this is all the men you brought to break in there, then you’re crazier than I thought. He’s buried under rock, surrounded by Cogents, and oh, did I mention it’s only a stone’s throw from Earth and the anti-meteor defensive matrix they wasted billions of credits building on Luna?”
Kale turned to face me, beaming. When I had first met him in person, he seemed conflicted about all the death that followed him, but a man who takes pleasure in the killing part of a fight is the kind who belongs in a cell most. I’d learned that from Director Sodervall a long time ago when I was just a lowly collector trainee.
“Something funny, kid?” I asked.
“Just your choice of words. I only need one man to get in.” He drew his weightless body down the cockpit. “Follow me.”
I watched him go by and turned my attention to Aria, busy entering coordinates for Undina. “Aria,” I said. I could tell she wanted to look back, but it’s tough to defy a pistol against the back of your head. She was looking out for two people now—another illegitimate child to keep the immaculate Graves bloodline thriving into the uncertain future.
“Aria, you just keep us from being shot down,” I said. “I’ll find a way to get us out of this. We’ll work together for once.”
She nodded half-heartedly.
“Try it, Earther,” the guard at her back sneered. “I’m begging you.”
“Your future king is in her belly,” I said. “You really think I believe that you’re going to blow her head off? Damn Ringers. No wonder I always fleeced your kind in poker before you ruined Titan.”
“If she tries anything, we have orders to kill her and pull Lord Trass’s child out ourselves before he’s due on M-day.”
Aria swallowed and squeezed her eyelids shut. The Ringer got more comfortable aiming at the back of her head. I’d never wanted to snap someone’s neck so badly.
“Why didn’t you just leave me behind and run, Aria?” I said. “You and Rylah would have made it easy. Zhaff never would have caught up.”
“I’m not you,” she answered. The twitches of a smile touched the corner of her lips, which made me feel better. Kale hadn’t sucked all the fight out of her yet.
“Thank Earth for that. You remember that job years back when that lunatic tried holding you hostage?”
“Which one?”
I chuckled. “Who got you out of all of them without a scratch?”
“Lord Trass said to follow him, now.” A pulse rifle slid up against my side, and I turned to see another pale-faced Ringer floating in the command deck’s exit. “Move.”
“All right, all right. Keep your pants on.” I used the rungs lining the ceiling to propel myself out of the room, thankful for zero-g providing my battered body a rest. “Keep flying, Aria, you hear me? Keep flying.”
The moment I w
as out of the command deck and back into the main sleep pod cabin, Kale slapped a familiar hand terminal into my palm.
“What’s this?” I asked. “Need someone to teach you how to use Earther tech?”
“You never stop, do you?” he said. “Even after you’ve lost. No wonder Aria would never come right out and say what a piece of mudstomping trash you were.”
“Just trying to live up to my reputation.”
“And that’s exactly why I need you.” Kale pushed off the wall and grabbed hold of an empty sleep pod. Two of his men helped him inside. “You’re going to contact Undina one last time and tell your boss that you captured me and are on your way. You broke through Madame Venta’s blockade so that he could get the credit for bringing the self-proclaimed king of Titan to justice, just like he deserves.”
“Luxarn Pervenio didn’t become the richest man in Sol because he’s stupid, kid. You really think he’s going to believe that?”
“A Pervenio man, through and through, you would never lie to him.” He grabbed hold of another sleep pod and drew himself closer. Within, I saw the pale, cyber-enhanced face of my former partner. “Tell him you saved his son too. How would he know that you once tried to murder him? Or hid a daughter from him that became my ambassador?”
“You really thought of it all, didn’t you?”
“Not until you fell into my lap.”
I lay my hand over Zhaff’s sleep pod. He was still now, though I couldn’t stop picturing him squirming toward me, unable to understand why I’d done what I did. “Is he alive?” I asked, my voice catching.
“We patched him up for this,” Kale said. “Though I wouldn’t call whatever Luxarn made him alive.”
“He’s younger than you are, kid. Just let him go and deal with me!”
“You know, I thought about leaving him on the Cora to die. Then I realized what a mercy that would be after what Luxarn did to him. I can’t even imagine how much it cost to bring him back to life after you put a bullet in his head. Enough to feed every one of my people for a year, I’d imagine.”
“Whatever plans you have for him, he doesn’t deserve it,” I said. “He doesn’t know any better; he’s only ever tried to belong.”
“Well, he picked the wrong side.”
“We don’t get to pick our fathers!”
Kale’s gaze listed off toward the command deck. “True enough,” he said. He then regarded his men. “Close me in and watch him. If he tries anything, you know what to do.”
“I saw the way you looked at her back on Mars,” I said. “Whatever she did to hurt you, I believe you wouldn’t hurt her.”
“Do you really want to test that?”
His men closed him in before I could answer, and I found myself under the aim of pulse-rifles from every angle. I glanced down at the hand terminal he’d given me. How does the most famous rebel in post-Meteorite history break into a clandestine facility buried within an asteroid so close to Earth and filled with elite operatives? He gets invited in.
“Let’s go,” one of the guards ordered. “Lord Trass says you need to act confident.”
I sighed. “Shouldn’t be tough.” I activated the device, navigated to Luxarn Pervenio’s direct contact, and set it to video-call him. It took about a minute for service to hook into the nearest laser com relay in Sol, then it went through.
“Undina Mining Facility,” someone in the support office answered, surprising me. A finely groomed man in formal attire appeared on the screen. Everything to make the mine appear like a proper enterprise. Apparently, after Martelle Station, Luxarn had either changed his direct contact information or was no longer open to it. Either that or a USF investigation into what happened had him hiding certain aspects about his business more strictly.
“I need to speak with your boss,” I said.
“The foreman is on vacation, but if you’d like to leave a message.”
“Not that boss. Luxarn Pervenio.”
“I’m sorry, you seem to have the wrong contact information. The Undina Mining Collective is merely a subsidiary of Pervenio Corporation. Let me transfer you to the Pervenio Corporation headquarters on Earth.”
“Tell him.” I drew a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Tell him that Malcolm Graves is on his way with a royal gift.”
The man’s brow furrowed. He turned away from the camera and typed something into his terminal. His eyes went wide momentarily; then he composed himself and turned back to me. Luxarn always had a knack for hiring professionals, unlike those sloppy bastards at Venta Co.
“I’ll transfer you right away,” he said.
The screen blinked, and Luxarn appeared on the display almost immediately. He looked worse than ever. Not only unkempt but like he hadn’t even showered in days.
“Graves, is that you again?” he questioned, nearly tripping over his words like some crazy hermit living beyond the habitable strings on Earth. I’d met a few. The kind of bearded loon who lives in a shack and still believes that Earth was never almost destroyed.
“In the flesh, sir,” I said. The words came out meekly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of Kale’s hounds level his rifle at my head and then into the cockpit. It wasn’t because I was nervous. Seeing Luxarn so broken, the man who for most of my life could enter a room and have all the ladies swooning and all the wealthy ready to pry open their credit accounts... It put things into a certain perspective. Kale was right. Luxarn appeared in a place to believe anything I had to say.
“By Earth, I thought they finally got you on Martelle after Zhaff cleared your path,” he said.
“You know I’m a tough son of a bitch to kill.”
“That’s for sure. Graves, I… I’m sorry I didn’t have chance to let you know that he pulled through his coma with the help of a new cerebral implant we’re developing alongside Venta Co. I sent him after Kale on Titan and told him to keep a lookout for you as well. He nearly got Trass, but I haven’t heard from him since he found out Kale’s little secret.”
“That Ar… the ambassador is pregnant with his child. Yeah, I know. About Zha—”
“Where are you, Graves? Are you still near Titan? Madame Venta informs me that our assault has been delayed by Kale’s treachery already. I swear, it’s impossible to find good help these days. I told her not to rush in, but you can never trust a Venta.”
“The situation doesn’t look pretty,” I said. “I passed it on my way to you aboard the Cora. Zhaff... uh... he broke me out of my cell, and we stole it.”
Luxarn laughed and clapped his hands. “Did I not tell you that you two made a formidable team?”
“You did.”
“And where is my boy?”
“With me.” I rotated the hand terminal and showed him Zhaff’s face in the sleep pod. My chest tightened as I held it there to push the lie through.
“Is he...”
“He’s stable,” I said, “but he was injured in the fighting, so I put him under to recover. Without him, it never would have been possible, but, sir…I have him.”
“What?” Luxarn asked.
“Kale Trass.” I angled the hand terminal to show Kale inside of his sleep pod, eyes closed and tranquil. The thing wasn’t even on, but the young king was growing into quite the showman. “They’re trying to keep it secret that he went missing, but that’s why his aunt is handling all of their defenses.”
Luxarn’s features brightened. “Is he dead?”
“No.” I slapped the side of the pod. “Just fast asleep.”
“Madame Venta did say he wouldn’t speak with her. She doesn’t know?”
“She doesn’t. With all due respect, sir, I don’t trust Venta scum, even if they’re your partners now. Especially not after seeing how she nearly got your fleet destroyed in minutes.”
“You did the right thing, Graves. The finest collector there ever was! I knew you couldn’t stay retired.” He laughed gleefully again, and a bit of color finally came to his cheeks. There were even hints of a smile, t
hough, with all the cosmetic work done to his face sagging from lack of upkeep, it was difficult to tell.
“What are your orders, sir?” I asked.
“Bring him to Undina immediately and tell nobody,” he said. “I help provide Venta with the largest fleet ever assembled, and she fails before she even started. Yet one Pervenio man will topple the Trass family for good. You’ll be remembered forever for this, Graves. I’ll have a damn statue of you erected in the heart of New London myself.”
“I don’t need any of that. Kale went too far.”
“I won’t accept no this time. Together, you, me, and Zhaff are going to rebuild everything they stole from us. Madame Venta will be booted from her own company for this fiasco, and I’ll name you in her place. The second richest man in Sol; how does that sound? We’ll rewrite history together.”
“It sounds great, sir. Just sit tight. I’m on my way.”
I switched off the hand terminal, unable to bear talking to him any longer. Seeing him hell-bent on revenge was one thing, but falling headfirst into a trap was another. All the corporate alliances and anti-USF moves were a façade. That shrewd, world-eating businessman Sol knew was already dead, and Kale hadn’t even pulled the trigger yet. It would be a mercy killing, just like for Zhaff after what Luxarn made him into.
I tossed the device to one of the guards. “Happy?”
Kale popped open the lid of his sleep pod, and his men hauled him out. Then they poked me in the back with their pulse-rifles.
“Well done, Collector,” Kale said. “Now get in.” His man seized me.
“This is never going to work, kid,” I said, shaking them off me. “You’re going to get us all killed.”
“It already has worked.”
He pushed off toward the command deck, and the lit end of a shock baton prodded me in the back before I had a chance to do anything else. My body convulsed, ten-thousand volts coursing through me. I continued to twitch even after the guards stuffed me into the pod and hooked me up, unable to scream at them for fear of vomiting.
Then they closed me in. The worst part about it other than the silence wasn’t that I knew Kale was right, but that he was also smart enough to put me under. Aria had to remain at the ship’s controls, considering her condition and the warlike state of Sol, but with my brain shut off, I wouldn’t have any time to think of a way to get us out of this.
Children of Titan Series: Books 1-4: (A Space Opera Thriller Box Set) Page 103
