I’d have to improvise in the thick of it, the way I used to when I was a collector. No more scheming. If I was going to clean up this mess, I’d have to be the one thing I feared was no longer possible. Myself.
Malcolm Graves. The finest collector there ever was… in another lifetime, maybe.
Nineteen
Kale
More than a month on a ship with nothing to do had never gone faster. It was my second time being invited to the core planets of Sol, only this time, our host already thought I was defeated. And this time, I would actually make a difference.
We were right on schedule. It was M-Day when the tiny, metal-rich asteroid known as Undina appeared through the Cora’s viewport, drifting harmlessly in orbit. Beyond it, Earth grew closer and closer. I’d never seen the blue and brown orb of their half-drowned planet in person before. Stories said it was once lush and green all over, but now there was a single, vast ocean with spots of land after the Meteorite caused tides to rise, and dark clouds swirling all over. Offworlders who immigrated to Titan always talked about how beautiful Earth still was from space, but to me, it paled in comparison to Saturn—to those rare days when Titan’s stormy skies broke, and its Ring slashed across the frozen horizon.
Today, celebrations would run rampant on the world that infected my people for so long. Venta Co. was set to unveil the designs for the new Departure Ark that would be sent to the stars in four years after being unanimously selected for the honor—I’m sure our attack was used by them to build sympathy. Their people would see it and dream of new worlds to spread their sickness to. Only Venta Co.’s CEO remained busy blockading the Ring and cleaning up the mess Rin made of their fleet and Earth’s hostages. And the man who invented the engines meant to power that Ark lay asleep in my ship, with the first working version of them carried by my ship.
“We’re here, Rin,” I said over the Cora’s coms. It’d been days since Aria could pilot the ship. Exhaustion and pregnancy forced her into the ship’s reconstructed medical bay. Since she was the only doctor on board, I had to trust her when she said she was on the verge of giving birth, though I made sure guards were always nearby.
“Is it everything you hoped for?” Rin said.
“It’s so much smaller than I expected,” I replied.
“Your father said the same before he landed there.”
“And then their gravity crushed him. Even their world is designed to destroy us.”
“So is ours, Kale,” Rin said. “One hand outside and it freezes off.”
With the threat of Madame Venta’s armada neutralized for the foreseeable future, there was time for her to scold me again over Rylah. On the eve of our victory… just like a mother.
“How is she?” I asked.
“Alive,” she said. “How’s Aria?”
“Alive.”
“She should be here, you know. Your son should be born on Titan, like we all were.”
“We’re not having this conversation again. I need her here.”
“No, Kale. You needed Basaam Venta and an asteroid. You didn’t—” She sighed. “I’m sorry, Kale.”
“For what?”
“For showing you that violence was the only way we could change anything. And for waiting until now to tell you.”
“Have you been spending time with my mother?”
“I’m not joking,” she said.
“The only thing you showed me was what needed to be done. Our people need to know that Luxarn can never hurt them again, just like they needed to know that we shouldn’t ever betray our people for an Earther.”
I switched off the coms without a goodbye. If a swift victory over Venta Co. wasn’t enough to cheer her up over what happened to Rylah—a sister she once had to beg to help her own people, according to Rin—then nothing would. She’d done her part to help deceive Luxarn Pervenio. Now it was my turn.
I removed my restraints and let the Cora continue on its automated course for Undina. I drifted out of the cockpit. The youngest of my men who’d saved me so many times noticed me from the galley, eyelids teetering on the verge of sleep.
“Is everything all right, Lord Trass?” he asked.
I glanced past him at the other Titanborn struggling to stay awake after a month-long voyage. Six of them. Titanborn on their second mission to the inner Sol system. I didn’t know any of their names. They’d been handpicked by Gareth and Rin before we went to Mars. Now one of those two would never see a free Titan, and the other seemed to be losing her will to fight for one.
This time, I was alone.
“We’re here,” I said. “Gather everyone and get to the compartment in my quarters.”
The smuggling compartment Luxarn had installed in what was supposed to be his ship was built to mask anything within from thermal and other scanners, so that he could never miss an opportunity to move something valuable. Gareth had used it to sneak out into New Beijing, grab the ex-collector Trevor Cross, and start all of this. Greed would be Luxarn’s downfall just like the rest of his people.
My guard bowed and left to rouse the others. I went in the other direction, toward the med bay. Aria had her arms and legs tied to the table so she didn’t float away. Her eyes were closed, a tuft of curly red hair covering one of them. Her belly was so full, it looked like it was ready to burst and send my son hurtling into existence.
I drew a deep breath, remembering how Gareth looked in an older version of the room before being sucked out to Space, then drifted in as quietly as possible. I drew myself along the table. I reached out slowly to rub Aria’s bulging stomach, then stopped. She needed her rest. After Malcolm and I entered Undina and turned it into a projectile, she would be the only pilot capable of keeping Earth’s defensive nuclear arsenal off us. I leaned as close as I could, until I could hear every one of her raspy breaths.
“Titan was never meant to be lived on, but it’s our world,” I whispered. “When I’m done, you won’t have to fight for it any longer. Be a better king for them than I was.” I planted a gentle kiss on Aria’s stomach, then turned to leave.
“Kale,” she whispered.
I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. She’d betrayed me, forced me to use her as a hostage to reach this point. I knew now that she could never be one of us, no matter who she carried. Her greatest gift to Titan would be to ensure that my heir had an immune system strong enough to resist whatever earthborn disease our enemies might ever throw at him to try and take control, like Luxarn Pervenio had done before.
I returned to the sleep pods. My guards were busy heaving Basaam Venta out of his. Naturally, the spoiled Earther puked almost immediately.
“Mr. Trass,” he said groggily. “What is the meaning of this? Where are we now?”
“Hide him with you in the smuggling compartment and keep him quiet,” I addressed my youngest guard. “The moment we have control of the station, he will instruct you on how and where to install the engines on the asteroid’s surface.”
“Yes, Lord Trass.”
“And take Aria with you,” I said.
“But, sir, she—”
“Can’t register on their scanners either. Luxarn will be surrounded by his Cogents. We can’t risk anyone other than me, Zhaff, and the collector being spotted until the time is right.”
“Of course, Lord Trass. We’ll make sure she’s comfortable. From ice to ashes.”
I nodded. Then I signaled Malcolm’s pod to open. The intravenous tubes that kept him healthy while he was under slid out, but he didn’t move. At least, not his body. I noticed his eyelid twitch, like he was struggling to keep them closed. He was waiting to catch me off guard.
I removed Malcolm’s own pulse pistol from the holster on my hip. He sprang awake suddenly, fingers grasping for my throat but squeezing only air. I’d already slid around the side of the pod and had the gun pressed up under his chin.
“I couldn’t help myself,” he said mirthfully, voice muffled by a sanitary mask.
“Get out,” I
demanded.
“Are we there already?”
“Get out!”
“For Earth’s sake, give a man a moment after he wakes up from one of those things. I hate going under.” He rubbed his eyes, the same way his daughter did whenever she got up. “Guess I should thank you, though. It’s like sleeping in a coffin, but better than months with no company except space. I’m guessing Aria isn’t talking with you much anymore, and you don’t seem to even know the names of any of the others.”
My tongue tripped over a response. Aria used to say something similar when she was discussing interplanetary travel before we went to Mars. She’d said a wise man told it to her. Apparently, that wise man was the haggard excuse for a collector floating in front of me.
“So what’s the plan, kid?” he asked. “We going to go strolling in, side by side?”
“You’re going to land inside the hangar, load me into that pod, and roll me into Luxarn’s office. Right past his Cogents.”
“And what’s to keep me from giving you a kick out the airlock?”
“I’ve rigged Zhaff’s sleep pod to poison him with oxygen if I hit this application on my hand terminal. Aria will be surrounded by my best men. If I die in there, she’ll never meet her child.”
“I figured. Using innocent people as collateral is getting pretty easy for you by now, huh?”
“She’s not innocent.”
Malcolm rolled his shoulders. “Few really are. Doesn’t mean they deserve to die.”
“Says the man who’s pulled this trigger on more people than anyone on Titan.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure I don’t deserve to be alive,” Malcolm said. “Yet here I am, because of her. You want Luxarn, I’ll get you in, but you make me a promise.”
“You’re not really in a position, Collector.”
“It’s getting pretty damn clear I’m not getting out of this alive, kid. I’m too old. Too damn tired. All I’m asking is that you promise me, as a fucking man, that no matter what you do with me, Aria lives.”
“She betrayed me,” I said.
“Take her child then. Give him a crown. But you either treat her right or you send her somewhere where she can live the way she deserves.”
I stared into his eyes, dumbfounded. This credit-hungry, Earther collector—the vilest of their kind—was genuinely willing to give his life for a daughter whose existence he made a living hell growing up. It wasn’t something Earthers tended to do.
“Is that all?” I said.
“No. Once you’re done with whatever you plan to do to Luxarn, Zhaff dies painlessly.” He pointed to the Cogent sleeping soundly in his pod. “Whatever his father made him into, he was better off dead, where nobody will see him as the freak he isn’t.”
Malcolm stuck out his hand, fingers trembling. His lips might’ve been too, but they were covered by a sanitary mask. “You promise me, kid,” he said, voice shaking. “Or I swear you may as well put the bullet in both of us now because you’ll never get inside that rock. I get you to Luxarn and back. They go free.”
For some reason as I continued to stare, I saw myself in the Earther. He was five times more wrinkled and had hair as gray as Titan’s sky, but I did. I remembered standing in the Darien Quarantine visiting my sick mother, separated by a screen of glass that seemed impossibly thick. I remembered when the Children of Titan made me an offer to help them smuggle something onto the Piccolo in exchange for her treatment. I’d uprooted my entire life for that chance to save her, and it led me to the only night I’d ever shared with Cora, then to being recruited by Maya and Gareth. It led me to everything.
Maybe our revolution really did mean something if it could get a man like Malcolm Graves to take that same risk. To put another’s life before his instead of credits, or tech, or glory. I slowly reached out and grasped his hand, my long fingers wrapping it halfway back around.
“You have my word,” I said.
“I hope it’s worth a damn,” he said.
“We aren’t Earthers.”
“No, but you’re human. And I’ve seen enough of them. Whatever you did to Rylah—”
“She deserved. She betrayed her people to save an Earther and an offworlder. At least Aria did it to save her father. Your people don’t usually understand what it’s like having only one family. We do. We’ve had our parents, and brothers and sisters, and nothing else for our entire lives.”
“You messed Sol up pretty good, Kale Drayton,” Malcolm said. “But that’s fair enough.” He gave my hand one last hard shake, then released it. “Look at me, shaking hands with a king.”
“Your people named me that, you know.”
“I know. Just like yours named you Trass. All that’s ever mattered is what people believe, isn’t that true?”
My brow furrowed. He smirked like he knew a secret. Had Rylah told him the truth about the Trass bloodline? That it had died off more than three centuries ago with him and endured in name only.
“Cora,” a voice announced from the cockpit. My heart momentarily leaped into my throat until the person went on. “You are approaching the Undina Mining Facility. Please confirm your identity, and we will open the Sector D loading dock, which has been prepped for your arrival.”
“Time to go meet the kingmaker, then, Lord Trass.” Malcolm bowed his head as low as he could as he uttered the name. Then he drew himself along the ceiling back toward the command deck to answer the call. He stopped by the entry.
I watched him go, all smiles and straight shoulders. Confident, like a collector should be, or resigned to the fact that he was never going to get off Undina alive. He was probably right, just like he was right about my lineage. It didn’t matter if he knew the truth about Trass. My people would never believe an Earther over me.
I was their king the moment I killed Pervenio Director Sodervall. I was their voice when I stood before the USF Assembly and refused to be kicked aside. And I would set them free when I made Earth understand the fear we’d lived our lives under.
That was what made me a Trass.
M-Day had arrived on Earth, and it would be one to remember.
Twenty
Malcolm
“Show your hands,” an emotionless Cogent ordered the moment I stepped off the Cora. It felt good to have gravity tugging on my weary body again, however weak the force was on such a small asteroid. It reminded me I wasn’t a corpse yet. Resting for the journey had my artificial leg feeling less like a dead weight I dragged along with my broken body. I even had my own F-3000 collector-issued Pervenio pulse pistol dangling from my hip, a collector’s duster on, and no sanitary mask covering my mouth.
Just like old times… almost.
Three Cogents were waiting, weapons ready, yellow eye lenses gyrating as they focused on me. Their builds were all different, though each appeared as pale and staid as Zhaff. Luxarn’s lethal army of monotonous servants, plucked off the streets like his own mentally troubled son to give their lives meaning. That always was Luxarn’s greatest talent, turning shit into shine.
They strode toward me, and one peered directly into my face. They were trained to look through a man, to read their subtle facial tics and cues to discern whether they were lying. I knew as they scrutinized me that Kale’s and my path to Luxarn would stop right there if they noticed anything off.
Zhaff was a master. Nearly impossible to deceive, but one look-over and this Cogent cleared me. They couldn’t compare to Luxarn’s son. Either that or they, like Varus, had already been influenced by Luxarn to trust the best collector there ever was.
Another examined the sleep pod I rolled out into the hangar and found the boy king of Titan fast asleep inside with a sanitary mask on. That part was real. Kale couldn’t wear his armor if it was going to appear authentic, so I had had the pleasure of looking down on his scrawny Ringer body as he got in. Watching him squirm as I switched the sleep pod on was the most enjoyable thing I’d experienced since Martian nightlife, but it was the only way. He hadn’t left me mu
ch of a choice but to go along with it either. For all his bravado, he might not have had it in him to hurt Aria, but his men would. They were loyal to a fault, just like the Cogents inviting me in.
“Where is Zhaff Pervenio?” one of the Cogents asked. I took note of the fact that he used Zhaff’s real identity.
“Still in stasis on the ship,” I said. Again, lying to a Cogent was easier when there was a whole heap of truth behind it.
“What is his condition?”
“Terrible,” I said.
“Can you be more specific?”
“I’m not a doctor.”
The three Cogents exchanged a look. Nothing changed in their expressions, but somehow, I could tell that a series of understandings took place between them.
“Please follow us,” one of the other Cogents said. “Mr. Pervenio is awaiting you.”
“That’s it?” I said.
“Is something not adequate?”
“I was hoping for trumpets.” I patted the young man on the shoulder. Months of sitting in a cell on Titan made me appreciative of Cogent naivety. It made me miss the simple days of having Zhaff as my bothersome partner who couldn’t take a joke. Now I was working with a murderous sociopath whose plans beyond reaching Luxarn I was still trying to figure out.
“No games, Mudstomper, or she starts losing fingers,” one of Kale’s Ringers spoke through the com-link hidden in my ear, listening to everything.
“Please, come,” a Cogent said. His eye lens momentarily aimed at my ear, like he could hear the Ringer, then he continued along. “We were requested not to delay.”
“Right behind you.” I grinned and followed, pulling Kale’s pod along with me. I slapped my ear to remind the Ringer to shut up.
Two of the Cogents led me onward while one took a contingent of security officers and moved to board the Cora and find Zhaff. Kale’s people were hidden in some sort of smuggling compartment built into the vessel, which I was assured could escape even the wary eyes of Cogents.
Children of Titan Series: Books 1-4: (A Space Opera Thriller Box Set) Page 104
