Jiyeon narrowed her eyes at the woman and child in front of her. “I should be asking you the same thing!”
“I am sub-commander Cierra.”
Jiyeon eyed her warily. The name seemed to be at least a little familiar to her. “I’m Jiyeon. Cherish recruited us to help Hulaki overthrow the emperor. I’m here to help rescue the concubines before this whole ship is destroyed. Do you know where they’re being held?”
Before Cierra could say anything, a bulky guard emerged from the passageway behind her. He must have followed them from the arena without her realizing it. He clicked his tongue loudly at them. “My, my, my, what do we have here?”
Cierra spun to face him, ready to strike with the pin. “Don’t take another step!”
The guard cackled at her. “Or what? You’ll fix my hair? Don’t make me laugh. Now, why don’t you hand over the girl, and I’ll pretend I never saw you. How does that sound? I know how you women are. You only look out for yourselves. So, hand her over, and you can go back to whatever you were doing.” He held out his hand and motioned for Korrine to go to him.
The little girl pleaded with Cierra. “Please, please don’t let him take me! I don’t want to go!”
Cierra put the girl on the ground, and stepped purposefully in front of her. “The only way you’re going to take her is over my dead body.”
The guard smiled a rotten, snaggletooth smile. He lifted a blaster from his belt and pointed it at Cierra’s chest. “I think that can be arranged.”
Before the guard was able to pull the trigger, his eyes rolled back into his head and he crumpled to the floor of the passage. Cierra looked behind his form to see Lima standing behind his unconscious body. She held a large rock from the caved in passage in her hands. A spot of blood darkened the rock where she had hit the guard over the head. As if shocked at her own actions, Lima dropped the rock, and wiped her hands on her dress.
Cierra looked at her with tears of appreciation in her eyes. “Lima! Thank you!”
Korrine rushed towards the other concubine, and threw her little arms around the woman’s waist. “You saved us.” Lima reached out her hand tentatively and patted Korrine’s hair. It was clear that the little girl’s gratitude meant more to Lima than she had expected.
Cierra squatted down and motioned for Korrine to come back to her. The girl approached her, and Cierra slowly tidied the girl’s dress. “Korrine, I need to go do something, okay? Can you be a big girl, and go with my friends here?”
Korrine’s eyes widened in fear. “I want to go with you!”
The pleading made Cierra’s heart ache. “You can’t come with me right now, but Lima and Jiyeon will keep you safe. Won’t you?” Cierra looked to the other two women. Both nodded determinedly. “See? They’ll make sure you get out of here, okay?”
The little girl glanced at Lima. “Will you help me find my mom, too?”
Lima nodded, but Cierra answered for her. “If there’s a way to find her safely, they will.” Cierra stood up. She faced Jiyeon. “Lima knows where the other women are being held. I’m sure you can find them if you work together.”
Jiyeon eyed the little girl and the other woman in the tunnel. “Is the girl’s mother a concubine, too? Why doesn’t this one speak for herself?”
Cierra shook her head. “Korrine’s mother is a doctor here. Lima can’t speak.” She leaned in so that the little girl couldn’t hear what she was about to say. “They cut Lima’s tongue out. That’s why she doesn’t talk. Just promise me, whatever happens, you’ll get the girl out of here safely. Okay?”
The Josti reached out one of her four hands. “I’ll do my best.”
Cierra squeezed her hand extra tight. “You better.” She let go of Jiyeon’s hand, and picked up the guard’s blaster. Cierra checked that it was charged, and tossed it to Jiyeon. “Take this. You’ll probably need it.”
The Josti looked at the blaster. She hesitated. “You need a better weapon than just a hair pin. You should have it.”
Cierra pressed the blaster into Jiyeon’s hand. “That wasn’t a request. It was an order. Don’t worry about me. I’ll find something else.”
Cierra watched as Korrine left with Lima, Jiyeon, and Rix. She hoped she’d made the right call sending the girl with them. She quickly stabbed the layers of skirts weighing her down with the hair pin. Using the slashes to tear the fabric, Cierra modified the outlandish gown so that she could at least run more freely if needed.
Barreling down the passageways alone, Cierra found herself faced with a choice. The path split to the left and right. Closing her eyes, she held her breath and tried to listen to her gut instinct. An intense impression of danger seemed to loom to the right. Fighting the fear it stirred inside of her, Cierra gritted her teeth and chased the invisible threat that seemed to be seeping into her with each step.
Her breathing was slow. Her heartbeat throbbed in her ears. Cierra paused at the edge of a corner. She could almost sense someone was there, even before she heard them. She picked up a loose rock and skipped it down the passageway she had just come from. Tucking herself as tightly as she could against the wall, Cierra waited for whoever was around the corner to investigate the noise.
It didn’t take long for an imperial guard to shoulder his way down the corridor. He raked his eyes across the dark passageway. “Damn rats.” He scoffed, and turned to go back to his post, but he never made it. Cierra leapt onto his back and quickly snapped his neck. Lowering him to the passage floor, she removed the two blasters he had strapped to his hips. Checking they were charged, she raised them to the ready position and spun around the corner. Stretching upward from there was a stone staircase. Cierra slowly crept up the stairs. Each foot was placed painstakingly in front of the other, avoiding any loose rocks that might make her presence known.
At the top of the staircase was a doorway. Someone had left the door ajar, obviously in a hurry. Cierra crouched down, peering into the room beyond. The space beyond the door seemed to be a central control room for the small crew flying the palace compound. Pollus was seated in a throne, overseeing his pilots.
The emperor drummed his fingers on the hand rests of his elaborate chair. “Where are those updates I asked for?”
One of the crew members pulled up a screen, and read off the information in a quick, rapid fire. “There are twice as many fighters approaching from the planet’s surface as we have engaged right now. They’ll be in firing range in a few minutes.”
Pollus let out a gravelly roar. “Have there been any responses from the base?”
The young man that had read off the other information shook his head anxiously. “No, your majesty. We haven’t had a single response from our hail. All information at our disposal seems to suggest that…”
The emperor pounded his fist on the arm of his throne. “Suggest what? Out with it boy!”
Trembling, the young man continued. “Everything seems to suggest that the rebels are using our base as their own.”
Pollus snapped angrily at the generals he had on hand. “Riccan, Vander, Jerrod, take your most trusted men and commence defensive maneuver twenty-seven. The technology down there will keep slicing through our shields until we take the base again. Come back successful, or don’t come back at all. I want these rebels snuffed out once and for all!”
The three men clapped their fists over their hearts, and bowed slightly. They spoke in eerie unison. “Yes, father.”
Cierra froze as something pressed firmly between her shoulder blades. She had been so focused on what was being said inside of the control room she’d had let someone sneak up on her. Cierra didn’t have to turn around to know it was the tip of a blaster digging into her skin. An unfamiliar, rough, male voice whispered close to her ear. Something about the tone made her want to throw up. The tip of the blaster dug harder into her skin as the man spoke. “Now, let’s not do anything either of us will regret.”
Five
Theo leapt into the air, jumping high enough to grab the rim of the wall sur
rounding the arena floor. He swung his legs up and over. “Are you coming or not?”
Hojae stood up from where he was squatting beside a pile of dead imperial guards. He held up a blaster to show Theo what he had been doing. “Thought I might need one of these. Not everyone has dark matter flowing through them.” The Josti ran and hurled himself easily up into the stands beside Theo.
The clear dome overhead afforded them a front-row seat to the battle raging outside. Plasma blasts scattered along the forcefield. Imperial ships flanking the palace craft burst into flames, careening away. If the rebel forces kept tearing the imperials apart so quickly, Theo and Hojae wouldn’t have long to find Cierra, kill the emperor, and escape before things really went south.
Theo charged through the stands until he was in the emperor’s box. The throne was in place, blocking any secret passage that Pollus and Cierra had disappeared through. Theo ran his hands across the stones at the back of the throne, feeling for anything that might trigger the passage to open again. “It has to be here somewhere.”
Hojae scanned the area. “Are you sure they went through somewhere back there?”
Theo nodded, feeling the frustration building inside of him. “Come on, come on! If I were Pollus, where would I hide a button, or a lever, or something to open a secret door?”
The Josti tilted his head to the side. “He would want it to be easily accessible so he could escape quickly.”
“You’re right.” Theo snapped his fingers. “He would probably want it to be in reach from his throne.”
Hojae plopped down in the carved throne. He squinted his eyes, thinking back to his childhood in the palace. How many times had he seen Pollus sitting in the arena throne while Hojae had been serving Karl? There had to be a hint somewhere in his mind. He just had to focus hard enough to recall it. He ran his hand over the arm of the throne. “He would always run his fingers along the arm of the throne. I always thought it was just a mindless twitch he had, but what if he was reassuring himself that his escape route was in easy reach?” Hojae didn’t feel anything out of place. His fingers trailed along the carvings. “Maybe I’m wrong.” He stood up, gripping the arm of the chair to gain leverage. As he grabbed the arm, something underneath his fingers receded a little, with an audible click.
A small section of stone at the back of the box slid open. Theo clapped Hojae on the shoulder. “Well done!”
The two of them entered the dark passage. Theo funneled the light matter inside of him out to his right hand, using the soft, white glow to illuminate their path. Theo strained his ears, trying to hear anything that might be ahead of them. They began to sprint, praying they could catch up to the fleeing emperor. Ahead, in the darkness, Theo spotted a hunched figure sprawled on the floor. He threw is arm out, to make Hojae halt.
Theo approached the figure. As he got closer, he could see it was an imperial soldier. The man let out a groan, and pressed his fingers to the back of his head. They came away bloody. Seeing the rock on the floor not far from the man, Theo quickly tried to put together what happened. Had the guard tried to do something to Cierra? Was she the one who had knocked him unconscious?
Grabbing the man by the neck, Theo hauled him into a sitting position. “Where are they? Where’s the emperor?”
One of the man’s eyes had a busted blood vessel. Dark, red blood flooded the white of his eye. “Go to hell.”
Theo raised his hand, pulsing with light matter, above the man’s chest. “You first.”
The man winced before Theo ever hit him. A sudden burst of memories flooded the guard’s mind. Theo could see his past, and his future. The man thought about the emperor, and the control room that the passages led to. It was a knee-jerk reaction to having heard Theo’s question. The guard might have been able to keep from saying a word, but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about it.
Theo absorbed the information, and then blasted the guard with a burst of white and purple light. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Hojae looked at the scorch marks that outlined where the man’s form had been. “Go where? He didn’t tell us anything.”
“He didn’t have to.”
The Josti followed Theo, but a confused expression contorted his face. “Huh?”
Theo followed the route he’d gleaned from the guard. “I saw the way when I touched him.”
Hojae paused for a moment. “You’re having prophetic visions now?”
“I guess so.” Now that he thought about it, the flashes of memories must have been similar to what Cherish experienced when she had her prophecies. It seemed that having control over the light matter inside of him wasn’t the only new skill he had.
The two of them found the staircase leading up to the control room. Theo prepared a ball of light matter around his hand. Creeping slowly up the steps, Theo turned to give Hojae a nod. Without saying anything, Hojae planted a forceful kick on the door. As it burst open, Theo charged in, ready to disintegrate anyone or anything that tried to get in his way.
The loud bang of the door slamming into the wall made the crew inside the control room scream. Theo scanned the room. There was no sign of Cierra or the emperor. “Where are they? Where’s Pollus?”
One of the pilots swallowed hard, and glanced at a monitor. On the screen, Theo saw a ship jettisoning away from the palace complex. He was too late.
Hojae looked at the men piloting the ship in revulsion. “They’re just the skeleton crew.”
Theo kept his eyes on the men flying the ship. Even if they didn’t look to be much of threat, he had learned not to underestimate his enemies. “What do you mean by that?”
The Josti sneered at them. “They’re doing an horrendous job. They’re not even trying to avoid the Yasta fighters, or turning so the force field’s away from them.”
Theo wrinkled his brow. “You mean they aren’t properly trained? What’s the point in having a pilot crew that can’t even fly the ship properly?”
Hojae spat on the floor in disgust. “There’s no need to invest time in training them. It’s assumed that when they are called to duty, the ship and everyone on it will be destroyed. Except the emperor, of course. He’s always had his handy escape pod.”
Studying the men in the control room, Theo tried to make sense of what the Josti was telling him. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would anyone agree to be part of such a crew?”
One of the men summoned enough courage to speak up. “You don’t understand! Don’t come in here acting like you’re so much better than we are.”
Hojae snarled at the pilots. “Theo, just kill them. That’s what they’re here for. Why waste time with them?”
Theo spotted the name patch on the man’s uniform. “Well, Titan, why don’t you explain it then? Because you’re right. I don’t know how anyone would agree to be part of a suicide squad that would ultimately be responsible for the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of other people.”
Titan’s voice was full of emotions. “Each of us come from poor, outer rim planets. None of us are from the same home world. Every couple of decades, the emperor posts open slots for his skeleton crew. When your wife and kids are eating dirt just to feel something in their bellies besides hunger, and you have to listen to your children cry themselves to sleep every night because their bodies ache from sickness and malnutrition, then as a man, you know you’ll do anything to make their suffering less.”
Theo narrowed his eyes at the pilot. “How does you being here help them? When you die, who will be there to take care of them, then?”
A dry scoff made Titan shake his head. “It’s our deaths that provide for our families! The emperor promises to take care of our families for three generations if we’re killed while flying the ship. Your opinions mean nothing to us. We’re doing what we can to make sure our children, and our children’s children have better lives.”
Theo thought about his own sons, who were murdered in cold blood on Relisse. “How can you have faith that Pollus’ll keep his wo
rd? There won’t be anyone to make sure he follows through after you die.”
Titan lifted his chin defiantly. “Even if he doesn’t, at least we tried.”
“No.” Theo shook his head angrily. “That’s not good enough. What if there was a better way? What if you could give your families better lives and still be around to watch your children grow up?”
Titan tightened his jaw. “Fairytales are for children. This is how the world works.”
Theo squared his shoulders. “One of the most dangerous things a man can do is to simply follow instructions without questioning why. Billions have died because of that. Right now, you’re in the heart of a rebellion. It is imperials versus Yasta warriors. You’re witnessing history being made. Be careful what side you’re remembered on.”
Hojae twirled a lasana blade around with one hand. “Just let me kill them! We’re wasting time!”
Theo locked eyes with Titan. It didn’t seem so long ago that Theo had taken on an extra job for Remi and Cierra. His kids had needed new shoes and clothing. The legality of the job had mattered less than the payoff. Maybe he and Titan weren’t so different after all. “No. You may have been stripped of your dignity, but you can still change your destiny. Sometimes, that chance can change your entire future.”
Six
Cherish watched as more of the Yasta fleet were picked off by the imperials. She grabbed the comm and shouted out orders. “Everyone with a solid coat of Relissarium shielding form a wall! If your ship didn’t get coated, stay back. You’re the firing squad. I want a ten meter gap in the shield wall every ten seconds. Firing squad, give me two, quick bursts through the openings, and then close the wall back up before they can get a clear shot.” She watched the fleet move into position, but continued on her original flight path.
Arden clicked his beak nervously. “I can’t help but notice you aren’t following your own orders.”
“Yeah, well, do what I say, not what I do.”
The Relissarium Wars Omnibus Page 66