by Trevor Scott
“Put her in my quarters, we’ll lock it from the outside.”
Ju-Long’s tongue was quickly planted to his cheek and he made a noise of approval.
“I’ll find somewhere else to sleep,” Liam said, silencing Ju-Long.
Nix led her away, disappearing down the left corridor toward the living quarters.
“When will I get a crack at her?” Saturn asked.
“Let her sit for a while. Let’s focus on getting off the ground first.”
Saturn nodded and took off toward the cockpit, leaving Ju-Long and Liam alone in the cargo bay. Ju-Long couldn’t get rid of the smile on his face.
“Looks like this trip wasn’t so bad after all.”
“Don’t get any ideas, Ju-Long. She’s a prisoner and clearly not on our side.”
“What is our side exactly?” Ju-Long asked jovially. “The Ansarans are worried about the Kurazon as much as we are. There’s no reason we can’t work together to that end.”
“Says the guy who’s just met his first Ansaran female.”
“You have to admit, you didn’t see that coming either. How can the females look that good when the men look like bottom feeding fish?”
Liam pointed his finger at Ju-Long’s temple and said, “Use this head next time you speak. She’s dangerous and if we don’t play this right it could end up bad for all of us. So, when I ask you to stay away, I mean it. Don’t get too attached.”
Ju-Long’s smile faded and he made toward the engine room, pressing the button on the wall and descending the stairs behind the sliding panels. Liam felt like he was finally starting to understand Ju-Long. He would probably spend the next hour or two working out down there to blow off steam.
Nix came around the corner briskly and nodded to Liam.
“She’s secure.”
“Good. Saturn’s waiting up front. I don’t want to spend another minute here.”
“Me neither,” Nix said, brushing past Liam.
It was clear to Liam that his Dinari friend held some pent-up anger after his interaction with Astrid. He wondered why he seemed more upset than usual. Normally his relations with the Ansarans were tense, but the way he treated Astrid suggested some kind of deeper grudge. His questions would have to wait. Liam followed Nix around the curving corridor to the cockpit, taking the pilot’s seat beside Saturn.
“Nix, do you want to punch in the coordinates for Taleris?”
Nix grunted in the affirmative and started pushing buttons on his console.
“On second thought, put us at one of the outer moons. We should be in scanner range and we can see what we’re dealing with.”
Nix continued to fiddle with his console, finally acknowledging, “Coordinates set for the outermost moon of Taleris. It will take about three days if there are no hiccups.”
“What do you mean, hiccups?” Saturn asked Nix.
“Astrid. If this is an ambush, I’m saying I told you so in advance.”
“Noted,” Liam said, flipping on the power to the engines and slipping his arm through the copper ring, grabbing the control handle on the other side.
Liam pulled back on the controls and was met with resistance. The landing gear was stuck amongst the mud and vines. The creaking beneath them grew in volume, the entire hull crackling in protest.
“Fire auxiliary thrusters,” Liam ordered.
Saturn moved her fingers up her console, increasing power to the three boosters below the ship. The creaking sound echoed throughout The Garuda and they were finally released. Liam pulled up the control handle and made a rapid ascent, retracting the landing struts after clearing the jungle’s canopy. The ship shook slightly as they approached the outer atmosphere, abating only after they broke through into outer space.
“Wait to break orbit until my mark,” Saturn said, watching her screen vigilantly for the best window of escape.
After nearly a minute Saturn said, “Now.”
Liam fired the thrusters, breaking free of orbit and laying in the course Nix had input into the system. The Garuda moved on its own several degrees and locked itself in place, accelerating into space. Liam removed his arm from the copper ring and turned to Saturn and Nix.
“Before this goes any further, understand that I’ll be handling the interrogation.”
“Liam, you need me in there,” Nix appealed.
Saturn was noticeably silent. He knew she’d seen him like that before and was smart to stay out of it. She’d know there was no changing his mind now.
“No. We both know what the Ansarans think of the Dinari. It doesn’t make it right but being an ‘outsider’ I might be able to get more out of her alone.”
Nix turned and faced the window. He said grudgingly, “Call me when you want to break her.”
17
Liam stood outside the door to his quarters, one hand bracing himself against the riveted metal wall and the other on his hip, a sign of his exhaustion. He wiped the crust out of his eyes and readied his mind for what was about to come. His mind raced with the benefits and detriments of using different techniques to interrogate the Ansaran. He didn’t want to come out swinging for fear she’d shut down and yield no reliable intelligence. Astrid was an enigma. Matters with the Kurazon and the Ansarans were growing more and more complicated and there was no telling where she stood.
Liam stood up straight and adjusted his tunic. He’d try another approach. If it failed there would always be time for the old-fashioned way. Liam held his hand over the door’s sensor pad and the screen’s color turned from red to green. The heavy metal door slid to one side.
Inside his small living quarters, Astrid sat with her back up against the wall, fidgeting with the tight blue material that terminated at her wrist. When Liam entered, the door shut and locked behind him. He crossed the short room and leaned on the small vanity. He took a moment to examine himself in the mirror. His shaggy hair was a tangled mess after being immersed in Narra’s humidity. Worst was his eyes. They looked puffy and tired so that he hardly even looked like himself. Without turning from the vanity, Liam asked calmly, “Where’s the trap set?”
“I’m a woman of my word, Outsider. Deliver me to Taleris and I’ll give you the location of the trigger. No deceptions.”
Liam sighed and looked to the Ansaran. He said, “We’re not going to Taleris.”
Astrid’s eyes grew, their sapphire glow intensifying. Extra lines appeared on her forehead and cheeks, accentuating her anger. She asked with a cutting tone, “What do you mean? We had a deal.”
“Look, Astrid, I want to help you, but I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. As my friend Nix has indicated, we haven’t had much luck by way of Ansarans. Why should we trust you?”
Astrid’s eyes shifted momentarily before becoming fixed again on Liam’s. She replied, “I’m just a researcher. If you knew anything about Ansarans you’d know it’s the males who seek power and control. Ansaran females are concerned with affairs of the mind; of science. I have no interest with your petty squabbles with my people or the Kurazon.”
Liam considered her words. He’d never seen an Ansaran female on Surya, so he had no basis for comparison. In this case he was going to have to take her words as lies until he could prove otherwise. It wasn’t how he liked to operate, but he had more lives than his own on the line.
“What else was being worked on at the research facility?”
“Some secrets are not meant to see the light of day. Some never do. Some are so frightening they have no names, for a name would make them real.”
Liam pushed off from the vanity and slammed the bottom of his fist against the wall. “You speak in riddles.”
Astrid looked up at him with a small smile. The angry lines on her face were dissipating but the eerie glow in her eyes remained. Her long ears turned slightly toward him like a cat searching for the source of a stray noise. Regaining her calm demeanor, she said, “You know as well as I do that they’ll kill me if I talk.”
“Nix might do
the same if I let him,” Liam responded in a crueler manner than he intended.
“Is that a threat, Outsider?” Astrid asked, cocking her head to one side.
“A promise. The safety of my crew is my first priority. What, I wonder, is yours?”
Astrid considered him for a moment, and then responded with a shrug and a simple phrase. “To return home.”
“Right, to House Gaya was it?”
Astrid nodded a little too vehemently. Liam shook his head. Nix was right. She was hiding far more than she let on. She scrunched her knees up to her chest and hugged them in a passive display. Liam wasn’t buying it. He told her, “You can stop now.”
Astrid’s expression turned from meek to neutral in an instant.
“It was worth a shot,” Astrid said. “Ansaran men are far easier to manipulate. What species did you say you were again?”
“I didn’t.”
Astrid smiled, revealing bright white teeth that were less sharp than those of the Ansaran males he’d seen before but pointed nonetheless. In the right light they might have passed for human, but in the small room she looked even more alien to him. She said glowingly, “You want the box but you do not know what it is.”
Liam crossed his arms and said confidently, “Under the right circumstances, it opens a singularity.”
Astrid made a face and her glowing eyes swirled with a brilliant shade of blue. She looked to the fabric at her wrist and began playing with the seam once again. Astrid asked, “And what circumstances are those, Outsider?”
“You act smug, but it wasn’t even your people who created the Quantum Trigger.”
The glow in Astrid’s eyes faded, revealing orb-like white eyes with irises that swirled with blues and greens. They looked remarkably human, despite their increased size. Astrid said, more to herself than to Liam, “As I suspected. A human has made the crossing.”
Liam’s face turned pale. In his confidence he’d given away too much. But Astrid, how did she know about his kind? Surely the Ansarans weren’t going around broadcasting the fact that outsiders were in their midst. Liam shoved off of the wall and stepped toward her, kneeling down and getting face-to-face with the Ansaran. He demanded, “Who are you really?”
Astrid stood up from her seated position and Liam followed suit, backing her up against the wall. They were within a foot of one another and sweat began to ball up on Astrid’s pale blue forehead. She averted her gaze and said, “Someone who knows the value of a deal. You’re as entwined in this as any one of us. There is no reason we cannot work together.”
“The basis of any relationship is trust,” Liam said, his voice growing in volume. “Who are you?”
Astrid closed her eyes. It was difficult for Liam to tell if it was sweat or tears that rolled down her face now. She replied meekly, “If I said, your faith in me would not grow. Rather, it would falter.”
Astrid opened her eyes and looked back to Liam, gazing into his cold blue eyes, her own intricate weave of blues and greens revealing an almost imperceptible vertical black slit in the center. The longer Liam stared the larger her pupils grew. She slumped against the wall and continued, “If you are who I think you are, then we’ll need each other. The trigger is not the only item of concern that began with your people. An evil darker than the Kurazon will soon be upon us and I would dare to guess you know their name.”
Liam searched her eyes. She was either telling the truth or she’d transformed into a master liar. He broke her gaze and muttered, “Vesta Corporation.”
“They’ve left their mark on more than the Quantum Trigger. The Kurazon are their instruments, but never forget who the puppet master is.”
Liam said angrily, “Why these games? Why not lead with this?”
“I had to be sure. Our intelligence on your species is limited, and I’ve never seen one with my own eyes. If you deliver me to Taleris, I’ll keep my word. But knowing the location of the Quantum Trigger won’t help you. You’ll need a ship to magnify it and the Kurazon will be hunting you. Even if you did make it home, you’ll contend with worse evils than you’ll face here.”
Liam shook his head. “We have no intention of using it. I intend to destroy it.”
Astrid seemed saddened by the news, but nodded nonetheless. She said, “To do what my people have said they would do but could not. Mesmerized by power they could not part with it. It was their way to expand the Alliance.”
“Surya’s Caretaker told us it would be destroyed, but his words were only air. That’s why we’ve come.”
Astrid nodded, the muscles in her neck pulsing as she looked up to Liam and said, “Then I hope you find it. My people were not meant to have the trigger. At best it will start another war that we do not need. Someone needs to stand where my brethren will not. You have my word, Human.”
•
Four Hours Later
“What are you still doing up?”
Saturn put a hand on the back of the pilot’s chair, gripping the cracked leather before sitting down next to Liam.
Liam leaned further back in his chair and adjusted his legs, crossing them on top of the console. He turned to her and said, “My quarters are occupied, so I thought I’d catch a few winks up here.”
Saturn shook her head and scoffed, “That Ansaran has spun a pretty web of lies and now she’s put you out of your own room.”
Liam turned his head toward his crewmate. Saturn had one leg up on the console and was resting her arms against her knee, looking out the window. Her tight white shirt had been stained by dirt and grime from the planet’s surface and her leather pants bore cuts from stray branches. Liam told her, “Let it rest, Saturn. A few days from now this will all be just a distant memory.”
“If we’re even alive to remember it, you mean.”
Liam gazed out the window to the right, examining the passing stars, and said, “That’s the spirit.”
Saturn smiled despite herself. She stood up from the co-pilot’s seat and dragged Liam to his feet. “Come on, there’s no reason for you to sleep up here.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve shared a bed before.”
Liam’s mind went back to another, far simpler time in their lives. The dumb look on his face must have been a cue to Saturn, because she told him, “So we’re clear, I just mean sharing a bed. Get your mind out of the gutter.”
Liam deflated a little but his heart still thumped blood steadily away from his brain as he followed Saturn to her quarters.
•
Three Hours Later
There in front of him stood Vesta Corporation’s enforcer, Takara, the ex-Yakuza member whose number of kills was only rivaled by her number of cybernetic implants, all meant to make her a more efficient killing machine. Her thin face bore the sick smile she got whenever she pulled the trigger.
Takara unzipped her black leather jumpsuit, revealing only her light skin and ample breasts underneath. The zipper reached her navel and she began slipping her arms out, covering her nipples with her arm as she did. She turned around and walked toward a bed Liam hadn’t noticed before. Her back was covered in one large tattoo. A tiger was grappling with a dragon in the monochrome piece of intricate artistry.
She got into bed and beckoned for him to come closer. As he approached, he noticed her implants were gone. Takara’s pretty face could finally be seen without the distractions of cold alloys and piercing eyes with microchips implanted within. Liam felt guilty for finding her so attractive. Somewhere deep inside he knew he shouldn’t look at her this way. She was bad. She’d killed countless innocents and gotten him imprisoned on an asteroid mine.
Without warning, another part of his brain took over and he found himself under the covers with her. Their lips locked together and he could taste her sweet breath on his tongue. The taste quickly turned to iron. To blood.
Liam opened his eyes and he was kissing Tiffany, the redheaded girl he’d watched Takara kill. She stared back at him, a small hole piercing her fore
head where Takara shot her, blood dripping down her face to her chin. Tiffany looked at him quizzically and muttered, “What’s wrong, Liam?”
He closed his eyes and heard that phrase repeated again and again, until finally he jolted awake. He sat up on the sleeping pad, dripping with a cold sweat. Saturn was curled up on her side next to him, her cold feet entwined around his leg to keep warm. His heart raced as he watched her rise and fall with each slow breath. Saturn moved as though feeling a chill in the air and felt around with her arm until she found Liam’s hand. She brought it up around her and moved his hand to her chest, where she absentmindedly entwined his fingers in hers.
Liam slumped down beside her and shared her pillow. He flattened her black hair, catching a whiff of her attractive scent. His heart refused to return to a normal rhythm as they lay there entangled. Liam’s dreams were becoming more vivid. He couldn’t explain it. Something inside him felt broken, but being next to Saturn that night made him yearn for a day when he couldn’t remember those haunting faces.
18
Three Days Later
“I don’t care what she told you, Liam. I don’t trust her,” Saturn said with fire in her voice.
Liam sat down across from her at the table in the kitchen. Nix was slurping down the last bit of his Leguma and slammed the bowl down on the table.
“Saturn’s right,” Nix declared adamantly. “Give me ten minutes alone with her and we’ll see how well her story holds up.”
Liam placed his elbows on the table and rubbed his tired eyes. The last few nights he’d found himself awake more often than not. If not for nightmares, simply sleeping next to Saturn had taken its toll. How could he sleep when she was grappling him all night? Instead of being comforted, he found himself wanting more.
Saturn and Nix continued their outpouring of objections until finally Liam yelled, “Stop it. We’ve been over this. She knew about Vesta Corporation. She knew about Humans. I’m not saying I trust her implicitly, but I think we need to look at this as a lead and follow it. What if she’s right and Vesta is interfering in this system in more ways than we know?”
