Galaxy of Titans: An Epic Space Opera Series (The Augmented Book 3)

by Ben Hale

  He took another bite and spoke through the food. “I was told to wake you no matter what.”

  “When?”

  “About an hour ago.” He took another bite and smiled. “The food on this planet is significantly better than horg.”

  “Dirt is better than horg,” she said irritably. “How long have I been asleep?”

  “About a day.”

  She straightened. “A day?”

  He smiled again. “Overseer Lyn told everyone to let you sleep. Ero tried to come and talk to you, but she insisted. First time I’ve seen a krey listen to a human.”

  She reached for her boots, then realized her clothes were rumpled and stank. “Out,” she said. “I need to change.”

  He stood and exited, shutting the door behind him. She opened the crate and selected a comfortable pair of pants and a plain blue shirt. Donning them, she resolved to find a place for a shower soon, then pulled her boots on. She stifled a yawn as she exited into the afternoon sun. Jevin was leaning against the wall.

  “Who needed me?” she asked.

  “Rahnora.” He used the apple to point to the lake adjacent to the city. “Down by the water.”

  “Drake attack?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing that serious.”

  She set off down the slope and Jevin fell into step beside her. For the first time in weeks, she felt rested, and the walk scattered the remnants of her sleepiness. They entered the north side of the city and passed through the Gate courtyard before dropping into the sloped streets of the lower city.

  The slaves of House Bright’Lor had quickly settled into a routine in their new environment. The children had been organized into groups under the care of designated women, while the men had been divided and put into work details.

  Some used hand lances to chop trees down in a nearby forest, with others brought the logs to the lumberyard outside of town. There, they used PEGGs to lift the logs into a laserstatic field, which cut the wood into varying types of lumber. The construction crews then took over, using the wood to expand, finish, and furnish the rapidly growing city. Because the krey were much more interested in the augments than their living accommodations, the city and its operation were left pretty much alone.

  Siena had spent much of the last ten months away from Lumineia, and each time she returned she was surprised at the level of growth. High Overseer Lyn more or less governed the city, and met with the mid-overseers of the various work details, who in turn directed the lower overseers in charge of small crews.

  More than half of the humans had yet to be augmented, but they did the bulk of the work. The augmented slaves worked under the supervision of the hundreds of krey hired by Skorn to monitor the relative strengths of the various augment types.

  “How did you get back to Lumineia?” Jevin asked.

  “Skorn remotely put in the Gate coordinates, and they self-erased immediately,” she said. “As I’m sure you know, only Ero and Skorn know how to get to this planet.”

  “You’re saying you haven’t plucked the truth from their minds?”

  “The mind augment is a fickle one,” she said. “And a disciplined mind is difficult to pierce.”

  She eyed a group of kids playing in a nearby street. Their laughter echoed off the walls, much to the delight of their women givers, who smiled and talked in the shade of a nearby tree. A krey also watched the youths as they pushed and shoved air at each other, the gusts knocking toys aside. Oddly, a trio of men moving a shipment of wood glowered at the scene.

  As Siena looked beyond the women and children, she noticed there were quite a few of the construction crews that appeared sullen. They worked with their heads down, their shoulders rigid, their jaws set. She pointed to one crew working on a building.

  “What’s with them?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Jevin asked. She glared at him, and Jevin shrugged. “They’ve been stolen by a rival House, they’re about to be turned into augments, they have more freedoms than ever before, and yet they’re being led by a seventeen-year-old girl.”

  She flushed. “I’m not the overseer.”

  “But everyone knows Lyn answers to you,” Jevin said. “I’ve been here less than a month and I know that.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said. “Don’t they want the freedoms they’ve been given? This is probably the first time any of them have been able to build their own home, or have a place they can even call home.”

  “Have you ever heard of a dreg rat?”

  She frowned. “What does a rat have to do with augments?”

  “They were quite common on the planet where I grew up.” Jevin tossed the apple core into a stretch of grass. “Dreg rats build nests in caves, crevasses, or any other such space. They start producing and keep producing until they’ve filled the available space, and then stop producing unless a rat dies. Every once in a while the brood will divide, and half will go in search of a new nest. If they choose to settle in a burrow too large for their size…”

  “Let me guess,” Siena said, “they then grow to fill the space?”

  Jevin shook his head. “No. They turn on each other and fight to the death. One or two might survive, but the colony is always destroyed. Sometimes the best way for us to destroy a nest was to simply dig a larger cavity next to it and open a hole. Once it was discovered, they will fight over the new space until they were all killed.”

  “What are you saying?”

  Jevin pointed to the glowering men. “Those dreg rats have been given more space than they’re comfortable with, and that’s the look of someone who wants to go back to the smaller cage.”

  Siena didn’t like the parallel. But were the humans incapable of growing beyond their captivity? As she watched the laboring men, she noticed a subtle difference between the older and younger generations. The younger slaves were mostly excited at the freedoms afforded by House Bright’Lor, and more than once she spotted a man and woman sneaking kisses in spots not visible to the vid monitors. But the older slaves had been slaves so long that they didn’t know how to handle freedom. Just a peek into their minds left a clear understanding. Their fear of the unknown was turning to anger.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Siena and Jevin descended the winding dirt street to the lake below the city. It had rained recently, and the sides of the road were muddy. Some of the newer water augments were attempting to dry the road, a task overseen by a krey that Siena did not recognize.

  “More,” the krey demanded.

  He tapped his holoview and reached for the link to the leashes. Siena looked away, not wanting to see a boy get burned. But his cry of pain could not be unheard. It had been such a common occurrence in her youth, but she found that such brutality bothered her more and more.

  “Where are we going?” she asked to distract herself.

  “To the lake,” Jevin said. “Rahnora said it was urgent.”

  She frowned at his languid pace. “And you didn’t mention it earlier?”

  “You didn’t ask.”

  Irritated, she lengthened her stride. Jevin kept pace. “You should have told me.”

  He shrugged. “Are you going to let me join your team?”

  “What can you do with your augment?”

  “Very little during the day,” he admitted, his expression sour. “But at night…” He smiled. “I can do anything.”

  “Anything?” She paused and faced him.

  His smile turned into a smirk. “Anything.”

  She recalled he had a shadow augment. “That’s a broad claim. What do the krey say?”

  “They don’t know. Every time they test me, it seems my augment is broken.” He chuckled knowingly.

  “You don’t let them evaluate you?”

  “They don’t know how,” he replied. “So why should I make it easy for them?”

  A distant shout came from the lake, its anger and alarm drawing Siena’s attention. “You’ll have to show me what you can do before you can join my te
am.”

  “Around you, I’m confident my augment will function properly.”

  Leaving Jevin in the street, she activated her body augment and accelerated down the road. It curved twice, following the contours of the hill until the sounds of construction faded and the houses gave way to rolling grass and scattered trees. She sped down the trail and jumped off a thirty-foot cliff, a shortcut that allowed her to reach the lake in minutes. There she found the source of the conflict.

  A group of older men and women stood together, facing Rahnora and a group of younger augments. Lyn stood between them, trying to talk over the raised voices being hurled from both parties. No krey was present.

  “Lyn?” Siena called, striding to join her. “What’s going on?”

  The group of older humans, led by a towering bald man with a heavy gut, glowered at her arrival. The ever-calm Lyn noticed Siena and the relief was obvious, while Rahnora relaxed a few degrees, her hands unclenching.

  “Siena,” Lyn greeted warmly, “your arrival is greatly appreciated.”

  “Look,” the bald man said sarcastically, “the ferox has come to speak.” There were snickers at his words.

  “You will show her respect,” Rahnora snapped. Light sparked off her fingertips.

  “Why?” the bald man challenged. “She’s even younger than you, half-breed.”

  “Enough,” Lyn said sharply. “Dredge, your disrespect is unacceptable. If a krey were here, you would have been burned an hour ago.”

  “But there is no krey here.” Dredge stepped forward and stabbed a thick finger at Rahnora. “So why do we have to listen to her?”

  “Because she’s one of the best augments on the planet,” Siena said, striding up to stand with Lyn. “And she’s the overseer over the water augments. Which is you.”

  “And you’re just a child,” an older woman sneered.

  There was a chorus of angry retorts from the younger group of augments, their shouts momentarily drowning out Dredge and his cohorts. Grateful for the support, yet not wanting Rahnora to hurt them, Siena raised her hand and snapped her fingers. Instantly, every sound was extinguished on both sides.

  Dredge’s shout cut mid-word, and his eyes bulged in fury. His mouth worked, his lips probably spewing profanities that went unheard. The others were equally as enraged, and Siena tried not to enjoy the spectacle.

  “If you cannot be civilized in your speech, perhaps you should not speak,” she said.

  A new trick? Lyn asked mentally, the tinge of amusement evident.

  Onis figured that one out, Siena responded in kind. Turns out sound waves can be manipulated rather easily. She opened the mental link to include Rahnora. Both of you can still speak, by the way.

  Rahnora grinned and joined Lyn and Siena, but she addressed Dredge. “You’re an augment now, Dredge. Like it or not, you will have to learn from someone.”

  “And Rahnora is the best water augment in House Bright’Lor,” Lyn said. “You can either learn from her, or you can learn on your own—and let the krey discipline you for every failure.”

  Dredge took a step towards Lyn and raised a fist. Siena hit first, the gravity knocking him off his feet and into the mud. She’d tried to stay restrained, but everything about Dredge inspired anger.

  “Your prejudice is unwelcome here,” she said coldly.

  Dredge glared at Lyn, and then pointedly stood and stomped away. His group followed, the silencing of their vocal cords lasting several paces before their muttered remarks suddenly became audible. Siena made to call out to them, but Lyn caught her arm.

  “Best to let them go.”

  “They need to learn,” Siena said.

  “True,” she said quietly. “But one must be in the right frame of mind to be taught.”

  The group behind Rahnora crowded around Siena. “The supreme augment strikes again,” one of the youths crowed.

  “Did you see him in the mud?” a second said.

  “She should have dropped them all into the lake,” another said.

  Rahnora pointed to the lake. “That’s enough of that. Now get back to work.”

  There was an audible groan, and then the slaves stepped into the water and swam a short distance offshore, where they began using bio-aquasynthesis to shape the liquid into solid form.

  Rahnora then turned to Siena and nodded. “Thank you for coming.”

  “Sorry I was so late,” Siena said. “Jevin wasn’t the most responsible of messengers.”

  “Dredge has been getting increasingly hostile,” Rahnora said, “and I hoped you could help calm things. I’m sorry to wake you. I know how tired you were after we returned.”

  “You should have told me about Dredge.”

  “I’m not sure it would have done any good,” Lyn said.

  Siena heard the regret in Lyn’s voice. “Did I do something wrong?”

  Lyn watched Dredge and the others depart. “You embarrassed him, and that’s something he won’t forget.”

  “You think he’s dangerous?” Rahnora asked.

  “Perhaps,” Lyn said. “He and those who think like him cannot adapt to life as an augment. They are much more comfortable under krey ownership than all this.”

  Her words were an uncomfortable reminder of the dreg rats from Jevin’s story. Siena had seen the signs, but she’d dismissed it as just a few struggling to adapt to being an augment. But Lyn implied the problem went deeper. They weren’t just struggling with being an augment, they were struggling with the newfound freedom.

  “How many are like Dredge?” she asked.

  “About a third,” Lyn said.

  “That many?”

  Lyn nodded, her expression conflicted. “I’d been meaning to talk to you about it when you returned.”

  Rahnora was nodding. “I’ve seen men and women like Dredge in other augment groups. Most are older, but plenty are young.”

  “Can you handle it?” Siena asked.

  Lyn actually laughed. “We are way beyond anything I’ve ever done. A high overseer does not govern, they manage, but Skorn and Ero have left the entire city to me.”

  “You’re a Primus,” Siena abruptly realized.

  “Not in name,” Lyn said. “But in duties, yes.”

  “And that’s why they are angry,” Rahnora said, her tone disgusted. “They want to be governed by a krey.”

  “What will they do?” Siena asked.

  Lyn watched the rest of the augments laugh and toss water at each other. “Nothing for now,” she said. “But when they begin to organize, we might have a problem. Dredge is more dominating than the others, so we’ll need to keep an eye on him.”

  Siena caught a stray thought from Lyn, a worry that Skorn would replace her with Dredge as high overseer. Siena bristled at the prospect. Lyn had been chosen as overseer back when there were just a handful of slaves, and she’d quickly been thrust into a position of authority over thousands. As she’d shown an increasingly keen mind to leadership, Ero and Skorn had given her more and more leeway, until almost the entirety of the construction of Ilumidora was left to her direction. It gave the krey more time to focus on studying the augment abilities, but it put Lyn at risk if anything went wrong.

  “I’ll talk to Ero,” Siena said.

  “Thank you,” Lyn said. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  “Anything else you need?”

  Lyn smiled faintly. “Try not to push anyone else into the mud. Inciting conflict is what the krey do. We don’t need more of that between us.”

  “Even if we want to,” Rahnora said.

  Both Lyn and Siena laughed, and the comment was obviously intended to be light, but Siena’s amusement quickly soured. Dredge had been belligerent and condescending, and she’d used her increased power to push him down. She realized her augments gave her power not unlike that of the krey.

  “Not that way!” Rahnora called to a boy floundering in the water. She sighed. “Thanks for coming, Siena. And if you can stick around, I have a new augment tr
ick to show you.”

  “Help!” the boy called.

  Groaning and rolling her eyes, Rahnora hurried to the sputtering boy.

  “Am I turning into a krey?” Siena asked Lyn.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” Lyn said.

  “Yes you did.”

  Lyn turned and held her gaze. “Being an augment is more than just having power, it’s what we do with it that matters. For all of us, we’ve never had a home, a family, or friends that wouldn’t be sold the next week. Some, like Dredge, crave the security and control the krey offered. He will probably use his augment to subjugate, because that’s what has been taught.”

  “Can’t we be better?” Siena asked. “I don’t want to be like that.”

  “Then don’t be,” Lyn said. “You—more than any of us—will have to use your position to punish as much as to protect. Always remember that you should never punish from anger or irritation. It should always be from a place of sadness, because you are causing pain.”

  “Like a leash?” Siena tapped her earing.

  “No.” Lyn said. “A leader allows the pain of consequence to teach. They do not inflict pain for the sake of punishment.”

  “When did you learn so much about leadership?” Siena asked.

  Lyn chuckled. “I learned it from you.”

  Siena had avoided being overseer because she didn’t think herself old enough or capable of being the one to direct the slaves. And yet she was their leader. From the smallest child to the oldest elder, from the most sullen to the most excited, they all looked to Siena. Even more than the krey.

  “I’m just a girl with barely controllable abilities.”

  Lyn smiled softly, much like a mother regarding her daughter. “You are so young, and I cannot imagine the weight you already shoulder. But if there was ever one with the strength to carry such a mantle, it is you.”

  Siena didn’t know what to say as Lyn embraced her, nodded, and then turned to ascend the path. Looking up the hill at the sprawling settlement—one built because of what she’d become, to house other augments like her—Siena felt a heavy sense of loneliness. The krey wanted her to be a product and the slaves wanted her to keep them safe, but what was she supposed to be?