“Coral?”
Her stomach dropped, as though gravity had gone out. The metal thing churned to life, its sound deafening, its vibrations bringing down the walls around her, exposing her to a thousand strangers. Spirit swooped into her vision, its form a shadow of evil, its talons scraping her eyes.
“Hawk!” Sky cried. The sound of her own voice roused her, and she woke with her head on Hawk’s lap.
“Shh,” he soothed, stroking her cheek. They were lying together on the dead, brown grass next to a struggling sapling in front of someone’s house. They were on one of the residential streets in the 1, taking the long way back to Oriana.
“I don’t remember sitting down,” Sky said nervously, touching his jacket. She remembered putting that on before they left the 3, and she remembered kissing Santos farewell.
“You collapsed. We both did, but I didn’t pass out,” Hawk said, flexing his legs and pushing himself to sit straight. He reached for his fallen sack of fresh fruit and offered her a piece.
“How long?” she asked, declining the fruit. Parker had fed her fresh fruit so many times while her hands were bound and her limbs going numb. The thought of eating another piece of fruit repulsed her.
Hawk searched in the grass for his Virp then lifted it close to his face, squinting like he couldn’t see. “Five minutes. I tried to use the medical setting on the Virp to figure out what was wrong, but everything tested positive, so apparently you had all the diseases. I’ve dubbed it Sky Fever,” Hawk said. He touched the Virp to her arm and took another reading. “Of course, now you test negative for everything, so that five minute nap obviously saved your life.”
Sky’s face twitched. It felt like she’d lived an eternity in those five minutes. She pushed up onto her elbows, taking slow, deep breaths, feeling for Spirit. After carrying the damn thing the last ninety-seven years, she thought she knew what to expect, but these last few months, its behavior had changed. It still tried to kill her far too often, but now it did other things, like give her dreams and teach her to breathe through visions.
“The captain’s coming for us. The hospital’s only a few blocks away,” Hawk said.
“I’m not going to the hospital,” she said.
Hawk snickered at the reflex. “I know. He was there with Tray.”
“You were serious about being in the middle of nowhere,” Danny chuckled, trotting up to the pair of them.
Sky twisted off Hawk’s lap, rolling onto her knees, instinctively feeling for her satchel. All her worldly possessions were in Parker’s slimy hands now.
“Hello,” Danny smiled, kneeling in front of her, checking her fingers for bruises before sliding his hands under hers. His fingers were calloused, but his hands were warm. His smile enraptured her and when her lips found his, he didn’t pull away like he normally would have.
“Someone’s loosened your lips,” she hummed.
Danny tipped his head, abashed, but keeping his face close to hers. “Well, Quin, you know. Old stomping grounds,” he said, his ears getting red.
“Glad to know you stomp somewhere,” she murmured, tracing his jaw line with her finger.
Hawk cleared his throat. “Are you two done?”
“Um,” Danny stammered, sitting back on his heels and rubbing his cheeks.
“I could stand to go a little longer,” Sky teased.
“Do you know what happened?” Danny asked.
“No,” Sky said, lying back on the grass, putting her head on Hawk’s lap, clutching the front of the jacket to keep it closed. “It started like a dream, then an attack. It was less intense than when Liza tried to talk to... it.” The crew knew about Spirit, but Sky had too many negative experiences in speaking about it out loud.
“But something that affects that realm?” Danny asked. “Sikorsky raved the entire way here that Parker was trying to tap into that realm.”
“Sikorsky?” Sky asked.
“I told you he brought us here,” Hawk reminded her.
“You told me Damien Coro brought you here,” Sky said.
“Also true,” Danny said. “Do you know what they did to Janiya after you landed?”
Sky shook her head. “She tried to teleport, but she couldn’t get anywhere. We had this cover story—I was consulting with an old friend about grav-tech manufacturing. Right now, they mine the Hanyu stone here and the conversion to a focused grav-source happens in Quin. I gave them the process and a formula for avalan. And then… and then the Guard came. I… I need to see if Raymond’s okay.”
“We can help you with that,” Danny reassured. “What about Janiya?”
Sky shrugged. Her captivity had been largely uneventful, and she assumed all she had to do was save herself. Janiya could teleport. “Parker took my grav-gun. Last time he came, he went straight for the satchel and he took the gun.”
“Did he say anything about Confluence?” Danny asked. “Sikorsky thinks Parker is trying to channel Galen and achieve Confluence, or something.”
“Confluence is one of those crystal healing aids. It’s a mistranslation of Hanyu stone, and the definition evolved when it hit Aquian spirituality,” Sky said.
“Hanyu is a golden word for mixed kids,” Hawk spoke up. “People like me with only one gold-skinned parent.”
“Similar to the Lanvarian idea of Confluence,” Sky said, though she wondered if Hawk’s people meant human-spirit mix. “It’s just a pretty rock here. They mine it to make gravity sources.”
Sky bolted up, the dream coming back to her. Coral always said the gravity sources were connected to other dimensions and possible pocket universes. It was possible Janiya’s Panoptica family lived in one of those pockets, and Parker was trying to get here.
Sky nodded. “I need to talk to Amanda.”
Colonel Keith Rhodes sat importantly behind his ornate, imported, wooden desk, in his new office in the Marble. The room had a window, but it overlooked a side street, cluttered with little cafés and worn out benches. The wall opposite the window had forty view screens, each monitoring a different part of the four domes. The images of each rotated around several surveillance cameras in their regions. The feeds went to other offices as well, where young Guards paid their dues by monitoring the tedium of daily life on Terrana. He like the eerie glow of the screens. It intimidated people, reminding them that the Guard had eyes everywhere.
After Carr’s report, he’d checked the traffic through the 3-gate. The files surrounding Sky’s escape were deleted, which was a clumsy cover-up. Rhodes would have doctored the videos, and perhaps when the files were recovered, he’d find them doctored. Rhodes suspected Santos, and when he’d asked, his old boss claimed to know nothing, but dropped a hint that Sikorsky was on Terrana. Tit for tat. Sky wasn’t important to Rhodes. She’d committed no crime, and was just a pawn in Parker’s game. One Parker didn’t seem to need anymore.
The hint about Sikorsky had drawn Rhodes back to the Marble and the channels here. The moment Cheoff had reported the breech in the library, he’d checked that room and the hallways there and found no sign of the intruder. That was a proper cover-up. Cheoff had described the intruder, but he would have recognized Sikorsky. So far, teleportation was the only explanation Rhodes had for Cheoff’s mysterious encounter. That or hallucinogens, and Rhodes didn’t put it past Parker to drug their leader to discredit him.
“You summoned me!” General Solvere cried, storming into the office. Her fingers were curled into a fist, her cheeks flushed almost as red as her hair. “You. Summoned me?! I am your superior.”
“The Governor wishes to speak to us,” Rhodes said smugly and rising from his chair.
“He might have called me himself. I’m in command here,” Solvere raved, her arm quivering like she was about to throw a punch.
Rhodes brushed past her and walked down the hall to the Governor’s office. He’d idolized Solvere for years, and studied her methods and leadership style. But he wasn’t glad to have her back in the Guard. As far as he was concerned
, her time had passed.
“Colonel,” Cheoff greeted, chasing them into the office and getting to his desk before Rhodes had even processed the fact that he’d been passed.
“General,” Solvere corrected, her nostrils flaring.
“I don’t know that I should address a criminal by rank at all,” Cheoff said. “You assaulted three Nationals today.”
“Tray Matthews is not a National,” Solvere said immediately.
Rhodes raised his eyebrows. He hadn’t expected her to confess, although he’d never doubted that she’d done it.
Cheoff paused his scampering long enough to call up an incident report on his Virclutch. “No, but Christopher Dillon is. Annette Herz. Gregory Draver.”
He looked at Solvere and she looked back, challenging him to make her care about those names.
“They are loyal citizens. Do you know why they’re so loyal?” Cheoff asked, leaning over his desk. “Because my Guards do not storm into their workplace and terrorize them!”
Solvere raised a brow, amused that he’d shouted. She jutted her chin, and said with utter calm: “I’m certain my actions have not dented their loyalty.”
“Colonel Rhodes will take command of the Guard,” Cheoff informed her.
Rhodes exhaled, letting his hand rest on his stunner, watching Solvere for her reaction.
“You think he’s going to be loyal to you?” she scoffed. The smirk on her face said clearly she didn’t think Cheoff had the power to replace her, and maybe last month that was true. She could have bedded Parker and gotten her way. Not today.
“Colonel Rhodes, what is the penalty for crimes against the state?” Cheoff asked, like he was requesting a recitation from a schoolboy.
“Execution or imprisonment in the 5,” Rhodes said, enjoying his newly granted power.
“I didn’t kill anyone,” Solvere said. “I was looking for information.”
“And did you find any?” Cheoff asked.
“I caught Tray Matthews hacking into the Terranan medical system,” she said.
“Looking for what?” Cheoff asked.
“Coro, so he claimed,” she said. “He covered his tracks well, and when I detained him, he suffered a little meltdown.”
“Right,” Cheoff said. “Joslin’s Clinic is unique. If you’d done your research first, you would have known not to apply artificial gravity to that particular patient. His is the first ship in three months that has dared break the embargo. They brought water, and all they asked in return was some Hanyu ore and permission to see a doctor.”
“He was breaking the law,” Solvere said.
“No. You broke the law,” Cheoff interjected. “You have been subverting proper channels for months, and now you have injured Nationals with your recklessness. You are on administrative leave until Rhodes gathers enough evidence to hang you.”
Cheoff stalked out of the room, but his words hadn’t even stunned the General. She narrowed her eyes at Rhodes.
“You have a family. You have a daughter. Have you even thought about what he’ll do to them?” Solvere challenged. “Think before you get drunk on your new power.”
“General, there is the matter of justice,” Rhodes taunted, blocking her from leaving. “Execution. Incarceration.”
“I’ve endured a decade of ostracization and humiliation. You’re not even making me shiver,” Solvere said insolently.
Rhodes smirked. “Since you like throwing your victims in gravity chambers so much, I thought it appropriate that you spend a little time in one.”
“You’re threatening me with gravity?” she balked.
“Mr. Parker agreed it was fitting,” Rhodes said. “He laughed.”
Finally, her eyes widened. She reached for her weapon, but Rhodes fired first.
17
Chase was doing his best to sip the whiskey from his mug, but instead he gulped it down in long, burning swigs. He sat on the couch in the crew lounge, his legs sprawled, Amanda’s head on his lap. Morrigan had suggested turning on a flick to help calm Amanda, and even though it was working, she still displayed a disturbing level of crazy. Her eyes were focused on something two feet in front of her face, and she’d been rambling in Terranan for half an hour. Coro sat on the floor in front of her, listening and commenting. He prompted Amanda in Terranan and waved a cup of whiskey next to her face. Amanda’s head turned toward the smell, then she shrieked and flailed her hands at the hallucination hovering overhead. Her fingernail caught Chase’s cheek.
“Coro!” Chase hissed. He tapped the translator on his Feather. Danny said that speaking in Terranan would soothe Amanda, but Chase didn’t speak the language and Coro’s words had not soothed her. Amanda’s babbling didn’t translate and Chase groaned. Moonspeak was a bad sign.
“You have power, dear,” Coro crooned. “You used it to find Hero’s mother. What else can you do?”
“She can’t hear you, Coro,” Chase groused, clasping both of Amanda’s hands and pressing them back toward her chest. Her tone soothed and she relaxed, but she didn’t stop talking.
“She can hear. She’s echoing the flick,” Coro said, pointing at the projection on the opposite wall.
“Not in a language my Feather is translating,” Chase frowned.
“She echoes the tones, not the words,” Coro said. “Janiya did this before she learned to speak.”
“Wasn’t Janiya an adult when you bought her?” Chase asked. He’d read about feral humans and people in captivity being denied language. He’d never met Janiya Coro or heard her speak, but he didn’t imagine Sky would bring her here if she were that helpless.
“Teens maybe. She was a blank canvas,” Coro said.
Chase’s lips curled. “You’re disgusting.”
“I didn’t buy a wife,” Coro retorted. “I bought a Panoptica. A power source. She wasn’t supposed to be human, and if I hadn’t taught her, she’d still be nothing. She could speak her own mind by the time we married.”
“Amanda’s not a blank canvas,” Chase said, squeezing Amanda’s hand. She squeezed back, then kicked the blanket off her legs. This wasn’t even a bad episode. Amanda was quiet and semi-responsive. Her stress level rose and fell, but she mostly soothed herself. She’d reached for his cup when she was thirsty, and didn’t spill when she sipped.
“Door’s open,” Amanda said, the Terranan words translating through Chase’s Feather.
“No, sweetie. I locked it when Saskia left,” Chase reminded her.
“Hawk opened it,” she said, wriggling her fingers. The lucid moment passed and she lunged at the hallucination in front of her, tackling it as she rolled off the couch.
“Ow,” she muttered when her head hit the floor, but finally her eyes focused on the flick and she touched the projection on the wall.
“Keep her quiet,” Chase ordered Coro. “If there’s trouble—”
“Are you going to give me a weapon?” Coro asked.
Chase wrinkled his nose.
“Aren’t you going to take a weapon?” Coro hollered after him.
Trotting down to the bay, Chase glanced down at his Virp. He had messages from both Hawk and Danny. There was no update on Hawk’s initial cry for help, but they’d made it back to the 4.
The back door opened and Hawk came in first toting a sack of fruits that didn’t look like it weighed more than five pounds, but might have weighed a hundred for the way Hawk’s movements dragged. It was a lame cover for leaving the ship, but Santos had recommended they do something.
Danny came behind him, giving him a lift under the shoulders to get him out of the doorway. Hawk leaned against the bulkhead and sank in slow motion, his tired expression getting a twinkle of amusement at the way he fell in gravity. Danny turned to help Sky in next. She seemed more stable than Hawk, until Danny let go of her. Then she stayed perfectly still.
“I told you all we had to do was leave the door open,” Chase quipped.
Danny shot Chase a look.
“You didn’t tell me he w
as here,” Sky accused.
“What do you mean? You hired him,” Danny said, closing and locking the door behind them.
“To fix the ship. Not join the crew,” she said.
“Fine, I won’t say hello,” Chase said, turning to go.
Danny tugged Chase’s hand, then dropped it instantly, his ears getting red. Chase couldn’t help but laugh at the obvious tell. He’d kissed Sky!
“Did Morri make it to the hospital?” Danny asked.
“Saskia checked in half an hour ago. They’re there,” Chase confirmed. “Morrigan found that doctor you were looking for. She convinced him to meet them there. She has a way with words.”
“Morrigan. You brought more civilians?” Sky said, her face flushing. She still hadn’t moved her feet.
“I brought a doctor,” Danny retorted. “Where’s Amanda?”
“You brought her too!” Sky cried.
“You knew she was here. You asked to speak to her,” Danny said.
“She was supposed to stay with Alex. I thought we’d vring.” Sky threw up her hands, then tumbled off balance. She fell gracefully to her knees, then crawled to Hawk
“Hawk, catch her up,” Danny said.
“Is Hawk okay?” Chase asked.
“They’re both walking funny, and they seem tired,” Danny said, rubbing his face. “Amanda?”
“She’s talking to ghosts right now,” Chase said.
“And Morri left her?” Danny asked, his body getting tense.
“I’m here,” Chase said defensively, though he was equally upset by the task. “I put on a flick. One of the ones she quotes. She’s slipping in and out of Moonspeak.”
Danny rushed for the stairs, but Chase caught the back of his shirt and redirected him to the lounge. He gave Hawk and Sky a look, then decided to go to the ward room and keep tabs on Saskia.
“Chase, wait,” Sky implored, her voice smooth and seductive, her long fingers reaching for him.
“Don’t,” Chase begged. “Don’t try to seduce me into forgiving you.”
“I wasn’t,” she hummed.
“You were, bébé. If you could stand, you’d have kissed him,” Hawk smirked.
The Confluence: A Space Opera Adventure Series (The New Dawn Book 6) Page 12
