I glanced at the robot, who remained silent. “Not yet. What is it?”
“The ship is armed with explosives. W will give you the trigger. Should you need to escalate things, don’t be afraid to use it. There’s also a tablet with a live feed of the Kraski colony. Use it to show them your show of force. We’re scheduled to jump there in under two hours. The timing should be impeccable.”
W reached down and passed me a small pen-shaped object. The trigger. I eyed it, worried I might accidentally set it off. It had a flip top and a button beneath. I slid it carefully into my pocket and sighed.
“Anything else I should know?” I asked her.
“Surveillance on the ice world shows no ships approaching yet. I’ll keep you posted on any developments,” the Empress said, clearly invested in the outcome. I wondered what it was that had her so involved on a personal level. I decided not to ask.
Could I have been wrong? Was the traitor not as close to me as I’d assumed? “Thanks, Empress. Wish me luck.”
“Luck has nothing to do with it, Dean. You will do what you need to do,” she said and ended the transmission.
“W, let’s go,” I said with one last look at the colorful nebulas in the far distance through the viewscreen. The robot bent down and hit a button. The ship shook, and I nearly fell over. “What the hell was that?”
“The engines, Captain. They are now detached. This ship has no weapons, with the exception of the explosives attached to the underbelly, and now it has no way of being flown.” W turned and lumbered toward the back of the ship.
I followed him, and we entered the secret room together before I snapped the panel back in place. “Don’t say anything once we’re through.” W didn’t comment, and we stepped through the invisible portal, arriving back on Udoon. Everything was set. The space was empty. Apparently, it was a room meant for clandestine meetings. No chairs, no tables; just dark walls and floors. I wondered how many altercations happened here, and how many dirty deals were done right where I stood.
I opened the door, and the maintenance bots removed the red barrier with the touch of a button. I stepped into the hall, and W was close behind. “Cee-eight, get my friend somewhere quiet. Don’t let the others see him here.”
“Very well,” Cee-eight said, giving me directions to the lounge, where the others were waiting. I kept my eyes down, trying to avoid eye contact with any of the different beings that roamed the station. As I neared the lounge, I saw a Kraski trying to hide beneath a hooded robe. Its familiar eyes burned through the shadows as it peered around anxiously. I turned my head as I walked past it and cut into the bar without being noticed.
I instantly recognized Slate’s short blond hair from behind and headed for their table. Denise was beside him, hand pressed down on the table. I thought they’d stand out like a sore thumb, but after looking around, there were nothing but motley crews of various aliens hanging out, many in random groups. We might have actually been one of the less conspicuous assemblies in the bar.
Rulo saw me coming and slid over on a bench on the left side of the table. The room was packed and musty, making me sweat from the heat and anticipation.
I leaned in. “It’s done.”
“Good. Now we just have to wait,” Slate said. “But not for long.”
“I saw a Kraski in the hall. They’re here.” My voice wasn’t much more than a whisper, but everyone seemed to hear me.
My earpiece buzzed, and Cee-eight’s voice came through. “Dean, your target has arrived at the destination. He has the package with him.”
I tapped it. “Thank you for the information.”
We stood as one, everyone’s jaws tight and faces serious. “We get Karo back now and end this Kraski threat,” I said. We headed for the room that was waiting for Kinca with my trap.
TWENTY-NINE
It turned out Kinca had entered with Karo – the package – and with two other Kraski. There had been no sign of Lom of Pleva yet, according to Cee-eight. I really hoped I could trust her. My gut was telling me I might be walking into a trap as well. I grabbed the communicator that I had connected to the Empress’ own device and programmed it into my earpiece. I didn’t want her message getting through to anyone else’s ears.
“Do we wait?” Slate asked, and I thought about it.
“Just a few minutes,” I said in hushed tones. Solving the Kraski threat and getting Karo back were my main objectives. If I could avoid seeing Lom of Pleva entirely, that would be ideal. I imagined getting this dealt with and sneaking out before he showed up. He would be upset, but then we could deal with him another day. “On second thought, let’s go in. Rulo, you guard the door outside. Don’t let anyone through. Rivo, you stay out of the way. If anything happens to you, your father will be as angry with me as Lom of Pleva. I can’t afford another enemy.”
Rivo looked ready to argue but bit her tongue and backed away, heading down the hall.
“Slate and Denise, you’re with me.” They both grabbed guns – Slate a pulse rifle and Denise a pistol. We were ready. “No time like the present.”
I opened the door to the room, but as I started forward, Slate set a big hand on my shoulder, holding me back. “I’ll go first,” he said with authority. I let him.
He entered, and Denise and I were right behind him. One step we were on the Udoon station; the next we were in a copycat room, tens of thousands of light years away. My two allies assumed we were on the ice world.
The Kraski leader’s eyes went wide, and his guards fumbled for weapons.
“Keep them down, Kinca,” I said, recognizing the Kraski with a scar across his face.
“How… where is he?” Kinca asked, looking behind us. I didn’t follow his gaze.
“Lom isn’t here yet. It’s just us.” For the first time, I noticed the tall figure in the corner. He wore a black cloak, hiding him in the dark room. “Karo, are you okay?”
His head snapped up as if he’d been sleeping, his eyes dazed and unfocused. Clearly he was drugged.
I spoke slowly but firmly. “This is simple, Kinca. Right now, Keppe, Motrill, and Bhlat forces are surrounding your little piece of heaven you stole from the Motrill. If you don’t give us Karo right now, the last of your small foothold in the universe will be destroyed.”
“I don’t believe you, Parker,” Kinca said, his hand ready to grab a weapon from its holster.
“Maybe you’ll believe this,” I said, pulling the tablet out. I held my breath, hoping the Empress’ timing was as good as she claimed it would be. The Keppe were hesitantly following the Bhlat’s lead on this mission. Lord Crul must have hated that, and I could only imagine Admiral Yope’s stoic face turning dark in anger. He would be leading the Keppe charge at the colony world, using the wormhole tech that was newly fitted to their fleet.
I turned it over, revealing a live feed of their world. A space station orbited around it, a few ships and satellites blinking lights in our view.
“There’s nothing there out of the ordinary…” he started to say but stopped as the fleets appeared on the probe’s wide camera angle. Dozens of sleek Motrill ships arrived, with the Keppe fleet right behind them. I recognized the markings of Starbound and gave a silent prayer for the crew. Magnus and his family were away on an expedition, and I was grateful to keep them out of my crazy plan.
Seconds later, the Bhlat forces materialized through black rifts, twenty huge warships covering the other side of the world from a thousand kilometers away. They’d make quick work of the Kraski world.
“What is this?” Kinca cried out.
“This is me angry, Kinca.” I stepped toward him. “First you come to Earth and send hybrids to do your bidding. You made them trick us into befriending them. Loving them, even! They’re people too. They aren’t disposable creatures!” I was yelling now, thinking about Janine, who I later learned was Mae, and then the second Janine thrust in her place, and how hard that must have been on her. She’d died because of the Kraski, like countless others
.
“We had no choice,” he said, his voice a low growl.
“There’s always a choice,” I responded.
“Like how you chose to kill us all,” he accused.
“You beamed everyone off Earth and sent them to die. You enslaved the Deltra…”
“We were forced to do that after your new friends, the Bhlat, nearly disposed of every last one of us,” he said, running a finger along his scar. So that was where he got it.
“Then we offer you a choice. Give us Karo, release any human hybrids you have, and we’ll spare you. Leave Udoon station now and never come back.” I lowered my arm and the tablet with it. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one had come into the room.
“Then what? Lom of Pleva wants this being,” Kinca said, looking behind me nervously.
I had to be quick. Lom would be there any time. “He’s just one man.”
The scarred Kraski shook his head. “No. He is much more.”
My earpiece buzzed, and I tapped it. “Dean, our sensors have picked up activity on the ice world. Ships have arrived and are lowering toward the decoy.”
I whispered into the mic, “Whose ships are they?”
“We aren’t sure. Something new.”
It had to be Lom’s people. We’d been betrayed, and the trap was sprung. My eyes scanned back and forth. Was this all a big trick by the Empress to create chaos among the lesser forces out there? Did she have fun pulling puppet strings? My experience with her had taught me she was tough but caring of her people. She didn’t treat me with anything but respect, and I doubted she was behind it.
Kinca and I stared at each other for a moment as I tried to figure it out. My gaze scanned from Denise to Slate. Was it one of them? It had to be someone close to us. Rivo? W? Rulo? What would their motivation be? Damn it. I was running out of time.
“Give him to us or perish,” I threatened. “I know this is your last home base. You’re done if we destroy this world, and you deserve it after your crimes. Give us Karo, you walk away, your people get to live, but remember this moment. Remember the forces I can assemble against you, and never, I mean never, come to New Spero again.” My blood was pumping hard, and I was standing inches away from the tall Kraski, looking into his hard eyes.
Kinca stood straight-backed but slouched enough for me to see his decision made. “Let him go,” he said, and the guard holding on to the Theos released his grip.
Karo stumbled forward and Slate grabbed his arm, leading him across and through the portal, and I saw him cross back into the real room on Udoon. Of course, the others didn’t know they weren’t there as well at that moment.
It was time to get out of there, before Lom arrived. “Take care, Kinca. Remember our agreement. Stay to yourself, and don’t so much as breathe my name again.”
I turned to leave, Denise beside me, when Slate stepped back inside. Denise kicked out, knocking Slate’s rifle out of his surprised hands. “Wha…” he started to say, when her fist clocked him in the jaw, a snapping sound filling the room. His hands went up in defense, but Denise just stood there, holding a gun on him.
“Denise, what the hell are you doing?” I asked, reaching for my pulse pistol.
“Don’t do it, Dean. Or he’s dead,” she said.
Slate’s eyes were hard, disbelief crossing his face.
“That’s right. Or you’re all dead. And you don’t want that, do you, Dean?” a new voice asked. I’d been so preoccupied with Slate, and Denise’s betrayal, I hadn’t seen anyone enter the room.
The three Kraski each held guns in their hands now, unsure who to point them at. I backed up, pressing my shoulders against the wall away from everyone, and looked at the newcomer. This could only be one man: Lom of Pleva.
He stood at least seven feet tall. His shoulders were wide, along with the rest of him, bulky in a fit and powerful way. Half of his face was metal, a matte gray material; the other half was scarred and pale. It was then I heard the slight whirring of robotics when he moved. He was half robot, a cyborg.
“Lom,” I said, trying to sound tough, but my voice caught in my throat. “We finally meet.”
“Yes. Thank you for placing the Theos in my hands, Dean,” Lom said in English. He smiled, his half-mouth baring teeth too perfect to be natural.
“Where is he?” I asked, my heart racing in my chest.
“He’ll be in my team’s hands soon enough,” was his only answer. “Kinca, you’ve failed me. I’ve tried to help you for years, but every time, your people fail and fail hard. I gave you weapons. I gave you the technology to beam an entire people off a planet, and you squandered it all. The hybrids… you can’t do anything right.” Lom stepped into the room, now between Slate and me.
His footsteps were light, soundless in the quiet box. “Lom, we’ve done all we know how. I think it unfair to say…” Kinca started to say, when Lom brought up an arm, firing two beams from a fingertip of his left hand. The guard to the right of Kinca dropped, then the one to his left.
Kinca stared down at the two bodies and backed himself into the room’s far corner. “I’ve done everything you’ve ever asked of me. We’ve paid you everything we had.”
“And now that your usefulness has ended for me, our arrangement is over,” Lom said casually.
“What does that mean?” the Kraski leader asked.
“It means what you think it means,” Lom said. “Dean, would you be so kind as to point that tablet in your hand at Kinca?”
I hesitated but turned the tablet up, seeing the image of the Kraski world much as it had been minutes before. Lom tapped his foot five times, and we witnessed the first explosion go off on the planet. Then a second, a third, and one last fiery eruption. Bright orange energy shot out from the world, and an energy source appeared in the center of the planet’s destruction, sucking everything in the area into it.
Ships from the invading fleets struggled against the force; then there was nothing but empty space where the Kraski world had been. Kinca fell to his knees, screaming out.
“You see? I don’t like loose ends,” Lom said.
Kinca stretched to grab a gun from his fallen guard, but Denise was quicker. She took a second to spin to the Kraski, firing a single pulse at him from her pistol, before swinging back to aim at Slate. Kinca crumpled on the ground, dead in an instant.
This wasn’t going to end well. I knew it in my gut and hated myself for getting stuck in the trap. I’d been so foolish. Of course it had been Denise. She had access to things as a policewoman, like cameras, ID codes, and anything else. She was trusted, and she’d integrated with us through Slate. It was just like…
My eyes went wide, and Lom’s one good eye squinted at me, his half-mouth smiling again.
The Empress started talking quickly into my ear, but I didn’t hear her words. It was all white noise.
Slate looked crestfallen, destroyed. I needed to snap out of it and figure a way to still win the day.
“You see it now, don’t you, Dean?” Lom asked, still smiling.
“The hybrids. You didn’t give all of the models to the Kraski, did you?” I asked, looking at Denise.
“No, I didn’t. They’ve proven their worth, especially this one.” Lom glanced over to Denise, who grinned back at him.
“Denise, is it true?” Slate asked her.
“Shut up, Zeke.” She said his real name with contempt. “God, you’re so weak. Following this one” – she jabbed a thumb in the air toward me across the room – “around like a lame puppy. It was painful playing this role.” Her words were sharp, and Slate looked like she’d just stabbed him in the chest with them.
“What do you want, Lom?” I asked.
During the seconds it took him to answer, I heard the Empress’ voice in my ear. “They’ve touched down at the room on the ice world. If you have to do anything, do it now, before they realize the trap.”
I remembered that Denise didn’t know where we really were right now. We weren’t on the ice
world where we’d built the replica of the room on Udoon; we were in a ship far from any civilizations. A ship with no engines and lined with explosives. All I needed to do was get Slate and myself through the portal first, leaving them behind. Then we’d disconnect it and tap the trigger on the pen-like device linked to the bombs.
The realization that the Kraski were gone hit me. There would be a few of them left around, but they had no fleet, no leadership, and from the sounds of it, no credits left to their name. If I could pull this off, we’d be without one of our old enemies and could deal with Lom of Pleva at the same time.
Lom finally spoke. “I want you dead. It’s quite simple.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” I asked stupidly. I was trying to distract him, to get him pacing the room, moving away from the invisible portal barrier. It worked.
Lom stepped forward. Denise remained still, pointing a gun at Slate, keeping her distance from his long reach in case he tried anything. I huddled close to the barrier, waiting for the moment to act as Lom spoke. “You’re a lot of trouble. I’ve heard all the stories. Very impressive for a weak human. But you’re more than that, aren’t you, Dean? More than the rest of your pathetic race.”
I still held my pistol, waiting for the right moment. Firing at Lom would be a dangerous gamble. He was only half flesh and likely had a shield covering him. I had only one other alternative.
“I’m just an accountant,” I said, and his forehead scrunched up, like he didn’t understand the word. “Why don’t you just let us go our way, and you go yours?”
“You see, I can’t do that. But I’ll give you an option. I come bearing an opportunity,” Lom said.
“What’s that?” I asked. My finger twinged on the trigger of the pulse pistol.
“Work for me. You’ll be wealthier than you could imagine, live anywhere you want. Dean, you haven’t seen the luxuries out there. Your wife would love it. And that little pink baby of yours too.”
The Survivors: Books 1-6 Page 128
