Kyralla shook her head. “The engines. We'd need more speed.”
Bishop and Kyralla looked at one another and exchanged smiles.
“It seems we have different priorities,” Kyralla said.
“Maybe I can boost everything,” Oona said.
“I don’t want you boosting anything,” Kyralla said, “unless you absolutely have to.”
“Like if we’re about to be destroyed?” Oona asked.
“Exactly,” Kyralla said.
“It doesn’t work that way, and you know it. I need time to boost something.”
“You did it pretty fast when you transformed the pistol,” Bishop said.
“It still took me a good minute of concentration,” Oona said. “And I overdid it. If we’re about to get destroyed, I don’t think I’ll have the time to do anything. Besides, if I’m in the command chair and we’re in danger, it’s going to be incredibly difficult for me to focus. And if it’s difficult for me to focus, it’s more likely to go out of control. But if I boosted the ship in some way before we even entered the system, then—”
“No,” Kyralla said. “You’re not going to—”
A voice over the comms interrupted her:
“What up, my humans?”
Kyralla groaned. “Damn it, Silky. I asked you to announce your presence first.”
“I remember!” Silky replied. “And I ignored you.”
“Is everyone okay?” Oona said.
“Yes,” Silky said. “And…brace yourselves…”
They waited, but Silky didn’t say anything.
Kyralla cursed. “We’re braced, dumbass.”
“We found your dad!”
Kyralla and Oona shot up out of their seats, and Bishop clapped.
“Is he okay?” Oona said.
"He's shaken up right now," Silky said. "Wraith space tore him another new one. But he'll recover. He also got shot in the leg, but that's healing up nicely."
Kyralla wiped tears from her cheeks and sank back into her seat. “Silky, thank you. I mean that. Thank you so much.”
She would thank Siv and Mitsuki later, but Silky deserved her thanks now. Without his help, they would never have had a chance of finding her dad. The AI was difficult, temperamental, and pointlessly silly, but he was damned good at what he did.
Oona grabbed Kyralla’s hand and squeezed. Tears streamed down her eyes as she whispered, “He’s okay. He’s okay.”
“Can we speak to him?” Kyralla asked.
“Of course,” Silky replied. “But I’d give it a minute. He hasn’t finished retching yet.”
Kyralla returned to her seat with a smile on her face. Her dad was far from safe, and they might still lose him. They might still die themselves. But for the first time, she felt hope and thought that maybe, just maybe, everything would turn out okay.
“Do you have a way off-world?” Bishop asked.
"Ah, now that's the rub," Silky said. "We had a ship lined up before we got your dad out of wraith space. But things have changed since then. The planetary government has locked down all non-essential flights from leaving the planet."
Oona wiped her face with the back of her sleeve. “So you’re stranded?”
“The plan now is to steal the best poorly guarded ship we can find and make a break for it.”
“Do you think that will work?” Kyralla asked, focusing her mind on the task at hand. She could celebrate later. She would celebrate later.
“Honestly? Not a chance. We can steal a decent ship fairly easily, but doing so will almost certainly draw attention from Kaleeb, the Tekk Reapers, and the Thousand Worlders. Once that happens, all hell will break loose. And if we don’t draw attention from the baddies, we still have to avoid getting shot down by the orbital defense platforms and government ships once they realize we don’t have clearance to leave.”
“We’ve been trying to come up with a way to get the Outworld Ranger there,” Bishop said. “I have a scheme I think could get us halfway into the system without anyone detecting us.”
“What’s your plan?” Silky asked.
“Remember the box of phantom emitters Siv had in the farmhouse?”
“Didn’t you use them all?” Silky asked. “Actually, didn’t you use several more than we had already?”
“I’ve been repairing the busted ones you had stored in a box.”
“I didn’t think those could be repaired,” Silky said. “I’m impressed, sir.”
“It wasn’t easy. Using parts from six of them, I’ve now got one fully functioning and two more capable of working in tandem with it.”
“Excellent,” Silky said.
Bishop started to explain his plan, but Silky interrupted him. “Bartimaeus sent me the details. It’s a good plan…to get part of the way there.”
“Kyralla can fly us halfway in on her own,” Oona said.
"In the simulations, I can," Kyralla said. "I'm not as confident in reality."
“That’s wise,” Silky said.
"I offered to try to boost the ship's systems using my abilities," Oona said. "But Kyralla doesn't want me to do that."
“I have to agree with them,” Silky said. “We don’t know precisely what you are capable of, and you can’t control your abilities. You might boost the ship for a few minutes, only to have it explode or suffer some other calamity. Only do it if you absolutely must.”
Kyralla looked meaningfully at her sister. “Silky likes taking risks, and even he thinks it’s a bad idea.”
Oona sighed. “Fine, I understand.”
“It is imperative that I get off this planet and get to that genetics facility,” Silky said. “For reasons I cannot reveal. And you will absolutely need my help along the way. That said, I think the three of you attempting a rescue is a bad call. And if we can’t get a starship, I have another idea. It’s a rather desperate gamble, but it could work. And it’s better than all of you risking your lives, especially given how incredibly unlikely it is that you could ever reach the planet. Trust me, I want us to get off this planet. And I want to take Mits and your dad with us. But I’ll find a way without you.”
“If we have to come get you, then we have to,” Oona said. “Without our dad, we cannot get to the genetics facility.”
“That isn’t a problem,” Silky said. “There are four physical data blocks that, when combined, will unlock the location of the facility. Your father hid them inside capsules that he dropped off in deep space. He told me how to find them.”
“Silky sent me the needed information, madam,” Rosie said. “Artemisia and I are already decrypting the data so we can pinpoint the locations.”
“Why didn’t he tell us about the first two data blocks?” Oona asked.
“I assume for security reasons,” Silky responded.
“But what would have happened if he’d…if he’d died…and we located the others but couldn’t get back to the first two? I didn’t even know we had data blocks! I thought what we had on the facility was encrypted data in our government account.”
"Your father told Rosie and me about the first three blocks and where they were hidden, madam," Artemisia said over the comm.
Kyralla flared her eyes and clenched her fists. For the chippies to know but not his daughters, it was outrageous! At the least, he should’ve told her since she was older and Oona’s guardian.
“Why are you just now telling us this?!” Oona demanded hotly.
“We swore ourselves to secrecy, madam,” Artemisia said. “We were not to say anything until we received knowledge about the other two data blocks or until Ambassador Vim gave us permission. And if you were captured, we were to broadcast the information to a messiah family network then delete it from our own storage.”
Kyralla suppressed the urge to break something with her fists. “I think it would have been fine to break that oath, given all we’ve been through lately.”
“We could not break the oath,” Rosie said.
“You could have refused i
t to begin with,” Oona said.
“In which case, he would not have told us,” Artemisia responded. “And you were both minors and Ambassador Vim was your legal guardian when we made the promise.”
“Artemisia and Rosie locked the info in a safe and threw away the key, so to speak,” Silky said. “If done correctly, a chippy can only access the information when the conditional is met. I did that to myself with knowledge about the Outworld Ranger and…other important things.”
“I lacked the autonomy to create a workaround, madam,” Artemisia said. “I suppose I still do. My apologies.”
“So we don’t actually have to rescue Ambassador Vim?” Bishop asked. “Not that I don’t want to see him rescued,” he quickly added.
“It isn’t necessary,” Silky said. “You have all the information you need to reach the facility. Yes, you need my help desperately. But if necessary, you can get the data blocks and move on. And if it comes to that, don’t worry about me. I’m a survivor. Like…like Siv and Mitsuki.”
Kyralla could hear the doubt and worry in Silky's voice. She marveled that she could read emotions that subtle from a chippy. Silky was as much a person as anyone else here. Which explained a lot of his all too human traits. ‘Nevolence, he must be so worried about Siv. And he obviously cared deeply about Mitsuki as well.
“You’re going to need our help to escape,” Kyralla said. Suddenly she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she had spoken the truth. “And we need all of you.”
Oona nodded emphatically. “There’s going to be more to this than finding a facility and going through my trial.”
“Do not swoop in here,” Silky said. “We will escape here on our own, one way or another. I’m resourceful. I will find us a way. And I have mad skills here at my disposal. The woman that saved your father, Tamzin, is competent and has a unique ability that should make it easier than normal for us to steal a ship."
“Do you trust this woman?” Kyralla asked.
“Heck no!” Silky said.
“Then why not ditch her?”
“Like I told you,” Silky replied, “she has a unique ability that can benefit us. And your father trusts her. Besides, I would rather have an untrustworthy ally than none at all. Don’t worry, I’ll be keeping an eye on her.”
“I’m going to keep working on the phantom emitters, just in case,” Bishop said.
“Oh, I need you to finish that project, Horns. I’m sure we’re going to need a distraction to get out of here. You guys dropping the decoy on the edge of the system then jumping back out might be just the thing we need to pull off this escape.”
A few moments of silence passed with everyone staring thoughtfully at one another.
“Ambassador Vim is ready to speak with you,” Silky said. “He lost his chippy, so I’m patching him through using Siv’s c|slate. Be aware that anything you say to him can be overheard by Tamzin.”
A window opened in Kyralla’s HUD. No doubt an identical one popped up for Oona. The video was dark, grainy. She couldn’t make out anything. Then someone turned on a dim light.
Now she could see her father’s broad face and a glint in his eyes. Scruff had formed on his face, and unless it was a play of the shadows, bruises darkened his chin. Several years ago, he had spent a week in bed suffering from a nasty stomach virus. He looked twice as bad now.
“Kyra, Oona,” he rasped, tears streaming down his cheeks. “‘Nevolence, I thought I’d never see your beautiful faces again.”
“Daddy,” Oona said, almost sobbing.
Kyralla smiled and fumbled for words.
“My sweet girls.” He wiped his cheeks. “I’m so sorry I brought all of this onto you. It was the last thing I ever wanted. I should never have gone after those data blocks.”
“But you got them, and you’re safe now,” Oona argued. “That’s what matters.”
“I would hardly say I’m safe,” he replied.
“You had to take that chance,” Kyralla said. “Besides, between our knowledge of the facility and Priestess Lyoolee, Oona now stands a better chance than any previous messiah could ever dream of.”
“We’re gonna make sure you get off-world safely, dad,” Oona said.
“You’ll do no such thing,” Galen replied sharply. “I won’t have you risking everything for me.”
“But Silky said—”
“I don’t care what he said. You have all the information you need. We will make our way to you on our own or…” He shrugged into a sigh. “Don’t come here to rescue us.”
Kyralla started to argue but stopped herself. Lacking a chippy to conduct private communication, her father clearly didn’t know everything they knew, and she couldn’t speak freely within Tamzin’s hearing.
“I mean it,” he continued. “I love you both, and I want you to—”
“Get down!” Siv yelled
The view from the slate went dark as Siv crashed into their father. The scream of plasma fire sounded. A screeching blared through the comm, and then it squelched out.
“Silky?” Kyralla asked. “Silky!”
No response. They’d lost the connection.
35
Siv Gendin
Siv walked the skimmer bike toward the forgotten tunnel entrance they’d used, while Galen limped along, leaning on Tamzin for support. Finally, they rounded a bend, and the exit was in sight.
Galen sagged. “Can I take a moment to rest…before we go outside?”
Siv nodded. “Silky needs to run a few scans, and I’d like to make a few adjustments to the bike.”
Even though Silky had scanned it thoroughly, Siv did an eyeball check on the bike. He adjusted the angle on the pedals and the control panel since he'd last piloted it from a half-standing position.
“Sir, I contacted the Outworld Ranger crew and got them up to speed. I think Galen should speak to his kids before we continue. Just in case.”
Siv detached the c|slate from his jacket, pinched the corners, and expanded it out to a full, thirty-centimeter slate. Silky routed his connection through to the slate, and Siv passed it to Galen.
“You can talk to Oona and Kyralla now.”
Galen snatched the c|slate out of Siv’s hands and cradled it. While Galen talked to his kids, Siv drew a flashlight and made more adjustments to the bike. He tried not to listen in on them but couldn’t help it. A warmth spread through him, knowing that because of his efforts, he’d reconnected the girls with their father…at least for one more conversation.
Tamzin rounded the bend, stalked back, passing Siv and Galen, and checked the door leading out. “I’m not seeing—”
She paused when Kyralla said "Priestess Lyoolee," and Siv flinched. Galen glanced at Siv then Tamzin. Realizing the mistake, Kyralla tried to cover it up, making out like it was no big deal.
“Sir, I just did a level-four scan burst, the third one I’ve conducted over the last few minutes. This time I got static feedback.”
“They’re fuzzing you?”
“Affirmative, sir.”
“So they can only hide from lower-level scans when we’re close. They’re aware of that, and they’re not even bothering to hide their efforts to jam or signal block you. Well…” Siv sighed. “We knew they’d try to ambush us. What’s your guess?”
“One team outside, one team closing in from the tunnel.”
“How long do you think we have?”
“Given that Tamzin checked around the corner but didn’t— Sir, take cover!”
Siv tackled Galen to the ground. A Tekk Reaper popped around the bend and opened fire with a plasma rifle. Aimed right where their heads would’ve been had they not taken cover, the shots zoomed over the bike.
Tamzin ducked near the entrance and returned fire with her laser rifle. The reaper darted back.
“Open a channel to Tamzin’s chippy so we can communicate better.”
“No good, sir. She still won’t grant access. I’ve been trying for a while now, begging her, wooing her, berating
her, but it’s no use.”
“What’s the problem?”
“She’s crazy, sir. That’s what.”
As Siv drew his plasma pistol, Tamzin fired a low-power beam down the tunnel, sweeping it back and forth for a second. “I’ve got you covered. Get Galen and the bike through the entrance.”
Siv holstered the pistol. “You got it.”
A Tekk Reaper hopped around the corner, and Tamzin scored a hit on his outer shoulder. He dodged back, barely harmed. Crouching behind the bike, Siv moved it up to the entrance. Galen stuck beside him.
“Wait, sir! I’ve neutralized their feedback projections. We’ve got four Tekk Reapers on the other side of the door, kneeling ten meters away, plasma rifles at the ready.”
Red dots popped up into Siv’s locator display. Five outside, and four down the tunnel.
“Those are all the ones I can detect, sir. There could be more.”
“Tamzin, we’ve got five outside, and four down the tunnel.”
She swept another low-powered beam down the tunnel. “Gotcha.”
“This would work a lot better if you’d let my chippy talk to yours.”
“No.”
“We can establish a limited connection that will only allow for communication.”
She started to disagree again, but Galen interrupted her. “Don’t be difficult, Tam.”
“His chippy is too powerful. He could override mine and—”
“Chippies can’t do that,” Siv said.
Silky laughed. “It’s not impossible, sir.”
“We have to trust each other,” Galen told her. “We’re not getting through this otherwise.”
“Fine.”
“Limited access established, sir. Damn, her chippy is one rude butthole.”
“What did you expect?”
“Yeah, okay, the sensor array data you’ve got is worth the risk,” Tamzin said. “Maybe.”
Galen shrunk the c|slate to single-hand size. “Oh, thank you.”
“I’m feeding him locator data and the text of our conversations to the slate so he can follow along, sir.”
“What’s the plan?” Galen asked. “Go back? Since four is fewer than five?”
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