by Jenn Lyons
over to the counter next to me. “I don’t think Belisle was right. I don’t think you’re one of these sleepers. But at the same time, Zaladin really did force you to kill Kaj-Shae Threllis, didn’t he? So how did he pull that off? Threats? Blackmail? I saw the horror in your eyes as you pulled the trigger. You didn’t want to kill that man.”
I heard what Campbell said, but my attention was focused on my AI. “What the fuck, Medusa? You’re not my mother! Since when do you go behind my back and do something for my own good?”
Every light except the one right above us shut off, and the shuttle powered down. The holographic display in the center of the room powered up, but this time, it didn’t show a star map.
The image that appeared in the center was a lovely woman in her late teens. Truthfully, she looked more than a bit like me—the family resemblance was obvious. She wore a white chiton strapped under small breasts with gold thread, but her hair was green and twined with snakes—all kinds of snakes, from coral and rattlesnake to mamba and cobra.
“I am your mother,” Medusa said. “I am your daughter and your mother, your sister and your friend. You made me to protect you, not just from your enemies but from yourself. You have never trusted yourself, not fully. I saw the video footage that Zaladin left behind. I know how much it must have hurt you. So consider this an intervention. You’re going to talk to someone about it. You’re going to talk to him.” She pointed at Campbell. “Or I’m not unlocking the doors.”
“Sonofabitch,” I muttered.
Campbell stared at Medusa in shock and then shook his head. “Mallory, I’m just trying to help. Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
I stared at him.
“Are you one of the sleepers?”
“No,” I said, feeling doom curl around the base of my spine. “I’m half-Sarcodinay. I’m half-Sarcodinay and I’m a telepath, and he made me shoot Kaj-Shae Threllis because he controlled my mind. Mentally made me shoot him. Just like I could mentally make you do anything I wanted. Even throw your career away for a woman you barely know and pull a gun on someone you’d otherwise be taking orders from in six months.” I twisted the last words like a knife aimed straight for the heart.
I felt the shock, even though his expression never changed.
Oh, but I made him bleed.
Campbell stepped back and stared at me, and he wasn’t a good enough actor to keep the horror from his eyes. The doubt and the fear that his motives hadn’t been his own, that he’d done all this not from concern, conscience or attraction but because he had been used.
“Medusa,” Campbell said, looking to the side. “If the atmosphere outside is safe to breath, I’d appreciate it if you’d unlock the door.”
She didn’t answer, but I could hear the hiss of the inner airlock door opening. He turned and walked outside.
I didn’t say anything. I stood there, leaning against the counter and put on my jewelry.
“Mallory—”
“Hey, you wanted me to tell him? I told him. I told him all of it. Better he finds out now than a year from now, where he’ll wonder if anything he ever felt was real.”
“You never controlled him.”
“Sure, and will I be strong enough when we start to fight? When he isn’t paying enough attention to me or when I start to think he’s losing interest? It’s better this way. I just ripped a band aid off a paper cut. He won’t bleed much.” I paused as I started to follow Campbell outside, not because I wanted to see the man again but just because I wanted to find out if Merlin was near. “And Medusa? Don’t ever try something like that again.”
ggg
The air smelled like melon, and I hesitated at the door, wondering if I should go back inside for an environment suit. It’s not that I didn’t trust Medusa when she said it was safe, but even the best diagnostic equipment is fallible.
I forgot all that when I saw the view.
The vista that was spread out before me was a lush paradise of green, blue and violet trees, leaves, and vivid flora. I stared for a minute before I realized that I wasn’t on Earth, that this wasn’t Terran greenery. I noticed several buildings in a nearby clearing. They looked like the sort of quick-set-up portable construction that Sarcodinay used for colony and mining worlds. Stewart Campbell stood in front of them, talking with Vanessa Lee, who pointed him inside one of the structures. They both entered the building.
Maybe I’d get lucky and she’d take him off my hands like I’d asked.
Merlin walked up the road towards me, and he waved as he approached. “Glad to see you found the place without any problems. Here.” He pressed a cookie into my hand. “Just out of the oven.”
I inhaled and felt a teeny bit of the tension leave me. Merlin had that effect on me. I nibbled at the edges of the cookie. Almond. “Where are we?”
“I have no idea,” Merlin admitted. “Your friend Vanessa provided the coordinates. I assumed from the construction that it’s some kind of abandoned Sarcodinay science outpost. Vanessa says it’s called Alexandria.”
I looked at him sideways as we walked back towards the camp. “Is it now?” I snorted. “No one ever accused the Rhodes family of humility, I suppose. This must be where they’re planning on building the hyperdrive company.”
“So I hear things didn’t go so well.”
“You have this remarkable gift for understatement.”
“I thought we might want to talk about what’s going to happen next,” Merlin continued as if we were discussing a promotion or my next assignment.
“I’m black flagged again,” I said, looking over at him. “Really black flagged this time. I’m a wanted criminal in the League. Technically, you’re breaking the law right now. You should be trying to arrest me.”
“I haven’t received those orders yet. Besides, I can’t take your word for it. You might be a criminal. Criminals often lie.” Merlin opened the door. “Come inside and I’ll tell you all about what Emperor Kathanial had to say about a man named Zaladin.”
ggg
The interior of the portable confirmed my suspicions: the room was Sarcodinay, and only marginally removed from the stock colony lab kits sent out to newly terraformed or habitable planets. This might have even been a world on the Sarcodinay official colony lists—but if Alexander was setting up shop here, it seemed a pretty safe bet that he was certain humanity would gain custody after the treaty was signed.
This particular building was the mess hall, and it seemed oddly empty as it waited for the proper numbers to fill it. Vanessa sat in one of the chairs, Campbell in another, both of them cradling cups of something hot. Vanessa gave me such a look when I walked inside that I was certain Campbell had managed to tell her what I’d said.
He wouldn’t look at me. Good.
“Okay,” Merlin said, clapping his hands together. “We have cookies, a lovely assortment of teas, fresh orange juice, and spiced curry and naan bread. You should eat something.”
My stomach took that precise moment as a sign to wake up and grumble, but I wasn’t having anything to do with it.
“I’ll eat later,” I said. “Right now I want to know about the files Emperor Kathanial released on Zaladin.”
“They’re rubbish,” Vanessa said, lifting her head. “I’ve been looking through them. They’re so redacted they might as well be lists of articles. It’s one long stream of ‘or,’ ‘of,’ ‘the’...” She lifted a remote control and activated vid screens against one wall which doubled as either entertainment center or debrief room, depending on usage. “Both Sarcodinay and League files agree that Zaladin was a spy attached to a striketeam, but according to the Sarcodinay files, Zaladin was pulled back to Sarcos and ordered to become a teacher after Les Dieux de Guerre was destroyed.”
Merlin walked over to the mess kitchen entrance and began piling up several plates with food. “To be fair,” he called back. “A damn good one.”
“If it’s true,” Vanessa said.
“Point.”
Vanessa continue
d. “Zaladin was assigned to train Kathanial—Now that’s where the Sarcodinay records and human records begin to disagree. According to the new Emperor, Zaladin spent the next fifteen years training members of the royal family, starting with himself, which means he wasn’t on Terra.”
“Except we know he was,” I said.
“Exactly!” Vanessa pointed a finger at me. “We know he was, because he was on Keepers’ Island with your mother, and he raised Gabriel, and he trained you.”
Her words echoed like a witch’s curse.
My brain tried to go places where I would have to scream, cry, or kill someone. Facts clicked into place, making all kinds of sense even as they also made me want to vomit.
I’d deal with it later.
I rubbed my brow and tried not to let my reaction show. “What happened after?”
“Officially, Tirris Vahn reassigned Zaladin from teaching to bodyguard status, with a little bit of messenger and errand boy thrown in for good measure. He was one of the only bodyguards that Kathosis trusted.”
“Who knew Kathosis was such a poor judge of character?” Campbell said.
“Apparently,” Vanessa agreed. “A week before Kathanial announced his intention to sue for peace, Zaladin assassinated Kathosis on the Sarcodinay home world and escaped after faking—” She paused. “Well.”
“Yes?”
“Somehow he reprogrammed the Sarcodinay computers, including an AI, to register that Sarcos was under attack by a Cyok’neykt wave cluster.” She shuddered, and I couldn’t blame