I activated my speaker, conversing in English, which carried over to his language. I was surprised the program knew the Mion V9 race’s speech, since they’d been gone so long. It must have gone on to be used elsewhere in the Universe. The shared language database we had access to was very impressive.
"You’re safe,” I told him, raising my hands in the air. “Take a moment, and we’ll fill you in.”
The alien leaned against the wall, taking in Loweck. Our flashlights were now working inside the room, and I shone one toward the ceiling, giving us a little light to see by.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I’m Dean Parker. This is Loweck. We’re here to help,” I told him.
“Help? Where are the others? Where is Khozal? We need to stop him.”
“I don’t know who Khozal is,” I admitted. “But we can figure this out.”
He didn’t act reassured. “He’s gone mad. Khozal found a way to freeze time, and he’s trying to sell it to the highest bidder. Rumor has it, he’s also procured some sort of miniaturizing device. He’s dangerous. We must warn the Chancellor!”
It was beginning to make sense. Before I told him the reality, I wanted to hear more of the story. “Who is Khozal?”
“He’s my brother,” the man admitted.
“And who does that make you?” Loweck asked.
“Khomar.” He stood straighter, and I assumed he was somewhat of an important character in their hierarchy, like I should have been impressed by his name.
“Khomar, tell me about your brother,” I urged.
He seemed exasperated, but fit and healthy. I had no idea how long he’d been frozen like that, but we were guessing at least ten thousand years. That was a long time to sleep for.
“He’s gone mad, as I’ve stated. The Rutelium is so dangerous, but valuable. He’s worked for years, using funding from our people and our mines to create this evil technology.” Khomar frowned, his pink skin turning slightly darker.
“What do you use this Rutelium for?” Loweck asked. All we knew about the mineral was the use for powering things like drones and old space vessels’ engines. It was rarely used any longer, but the Alliance of Worlds saw the value in the resource. Otherwise, we’d never have come this far out.
“Rutelium is the lifeblood of our civilization. It powers our planet,” he said matter-of-factly.
“How so?” I asked.
He glanced around. “Come, I’ll show you,” he said, moving away from the wall. He walked out of the room rigidly, as if his body was still sore and aching, and we followed. He barked his surprise at finding a strange mix of aliens beyond the exit.
“Who are they?” Khomar asked me.
“These are my friends.” I introduced him to the team, ending with Jules. He stared at her a moment longer and shook his head.
“Where are the lights?” he asked, running his hand along the wall. It was dark, save for the flashlight beams.
“There’s no power in the city,” I told him.
He stopped, spinning to stare me in the eyes. “What do you mean?”
“I have to tell you something, Khomar,” I said.
“What is it?”
“You’ve been frozen for a while. I think your brother did it to you when you attempted to stop him from going through with his plan. He succeeded. It’s been thousands of years, and as far as we know, you’re the last of your kind on Mion V9.” I broke the news to him quickly, ripping the bandage off in a fast tug instead of drawing it out.
His expression transformed instantly, his posture failing as he stooped over. “It can’t be. My mother. My father. My love.”
Rivo whimpered beside me, and I grabbed her hand. She’d been through so much, including having her partner killed by Lom of Pleva’s robots while searching for the Shifter I’d ended up using to stop the Iskios.
“We can still help them,” I told him. “Where did your brother live?”
Khomar pointed up. “Top floor. Beside my room.”
“That’s going to be an issue. We can’t access the top floor, not without an elevator,” Suma said.
“I can power it up. The Rutelium system is designed without fail,” Khomar said, his posture more confident as he spoke.
“After thousands of years?” I asked.
“Yes. Follow me.” Khomar took off down the corridors, taking us to the circular room where the huge beast was captured. He stopped at its side. “What is he doing here?”
“It tried to kill us,” I told him.
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. That’s Barli. He’s my pet Vreek.”
“Uhm, I’m pretty sure he wanted us dead,” Walo said, showing Khomar her injured arm.
“He’s not dangerous. He must have been over-excited. Help me free him,” the alien man said.
“I’m not sure that’s such a great idea,” I told him.
“No, it’s fine. Help me,” Khomar said.
Jules was the first to act, crossing the room to grab the light barrier-emitting device. She deactivated it with the press of a button, and the creature stirred, lifting onto its tree-trunk feet. Its multiple arms flailed around, nearly knocking me over as it ran toward Khomar. I was sure the man was about to meet his fate, but instead, the monster picked him up, squeezing him tightly.
“Okay, okay, Barli. I see why you were nervous,” Khomar said.
“What is it?” I asked, recalling how pulse blasts didn’t even harm the animal.
“We used them for mining before the Chancellor passed a law to prevent the abuse of Vreeks. I took one as a pet. They never die. Can’t kill one. But they’re loyal to a fault. I suspect he feared for my safety and tried to find me when you arrived. He wouldn’t have hurt you.”
Loweck rolled her eyes. “He tried to smash me to pieces,” she said.
Khomar scoffed at her with a disbelieving glare. “I doubt it. He was playing.”
The massive Vreek ducked in the room, standing by his master’s side like a trained dog. I kept myself between Barli and my daughter.
“Let’s get this place up and running. Then take us to your brother’s quarters,” I said.
The trip took half an hour, and we emerged along the coastline to a sunny afternoon. The view was spectacular from here, the ground rocky and wet from ocean spray. Jules took my extended hand as we walked along a rough pathway leading to a tower high above the city and coast.
“The power source is here,” our guide told us.
Suma gasped as he opened the door, and we found the entire round tower, almost shaped like a lighthouse, was wrapped in coils of Rutelium. The place had the smell of metal, like a blacksmith’s shop.
Even the floor was metallic, wires and coils stacked neatly in an organized frenzy. Barli stayed outside, and I was grateful for it. He was terrifying to behold, though Jules seemed to disregard the animal already, counting it harmless.
“How does this work?” Suma asked Khomar.
“I’m no expert. We have an intricate system of wiring beneath the city, and this tower is linked to the mining fields, the nearest farther beyond the coast. It utilizes the star’s rays and stores energy, allowing us to have a never-ending power source.” Khomar crossed the floor, and we all stood watching him. I glanced up, seeing a ladder along the wall, but otherwise, there was nothing but open space up a hundred feet toward the ceiling. The whole place was wired and linked to an immense volume of the mineral this world was known for.
“How are you going to…” Suma began to ask, when Khomar bent over, grabbing two disconnected wires, each the thickness of the alien’s wrists. He smiled and pressed them together.
The room began to buzz, and Walo stepped quickly, exiting the tower in a hurry. I could feel the energy in my body, my tongue tasting like I’d licked a nine-volt battery to test the charge.
“Papa, can we help them now?” Jules asked me.
I nodded, glancing outside to see lights begin to turn on throughout the city.
Twenty-Six
“Amazing. Suma, we could power New Spero and Haven with this technology, couldn’t we?”
“They have the advantage of linking to the raw mines, but I think it’s possible,” she said. She stepped closer, whispering to me, “If we save them, returning the people to their world, then they may take objection to us stealing their resources.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “What are you implying?”
“Nothing, Dean. I’m only saying that saving them may not be in the Alliance’s best interests,” Suma replied.
I shook my head. “No. We save them, then we barter. We’ll have a lot of goodwill after rescuing them. I doubt they’d disallow trade with us.”
“I agree, Dean. I was only saying there were options,” Suma said. This was a side to her I’d never seen before, and I had to admit she wasn’t wrong.
I had to be an influence on my daughter, and what would she grow up thinking of me if I turned around and left the people frozen on the tiny planet to their fate? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself, regardless of our access to a stupid mineral.
“Khomar, lead the way. Let’s see if your brother left any clues,” I told him.
In another half hour, I was riding the elevator with Suma, Jules, and Khomar. On the alien’s command, his pet ran off toward the ocean and jumped in, disappearing beneath the waves. Dubs was on standby with the ship, and the rest of the team waited outside the palace for us to return, hoping we found something useful in Khozal’s quarters.
The elevator doors spread wide, revealing a fancy foyer. Suite doors lined the circular room, and I crossed the space to see the ocean out the window. The hillside the building was formed into stood high and proud along the coastline, making this top floor the best view in the city.
Khomar pointed to the double doors beside us. “The Chancellor lives there.”
“Who is the Chancellor to you?” Suma asked.
“My uncle,” Khomar admitted. “Come, this is my brother’s.” He tapped a command on the panel, and the pocket-door rolled open.
Jules didn’t wait. Her eyes glowed brightly, and she headed straight inside, moving past the ornate furnishings, the fancy futuristic seating areas, and toward the bedroom.
“Where is she…?” Khomar began and stopped when Jules lifted a hand, making the bed float away from the ground.
Anxiety filled my guts. She’d just shown a stranger what she was capable of. I glanced at the alien, knowing I’d do anything to keep my daughter’s secret safe. My hand formed a fist, my nails digging into my palm.
“That’s it…” Khomar ran forward, grabbing a device from under the bed. “This is what he kept going on about. He said there was a way to move among a frozen timeline. I only saw it once, but this is it.” He turned to me, smiling widely. My grip loosened, and I grinned.
“How does it work?” I asked.
____________
“I don’t like it, Dean,” Magnus said. The meeting room table on the Horizon was packed with our close friends as we planned our rescue of the Scaril people. I’d had a laugh as I recalled Jules’ pronunciation of their name as Scary-eel.
“What’s not to like?” I asked. Mary sat beside me, and she fidgeted with her coffee cup.
Everyone was there. Walo, Suma, Rivo, Slate, Loweck, Weemsa, Loo-six, Magnus, Natalia, and Khomar ended off the group, sitting opposite Mary and me. Jules was absent, the kids all in classes for the day.
Magnus tapped his finger on the table. “Let me go over this again. Khozal convinced the Chancellor that the planet was under attack, so he could order an evacuation. Then he proceeded to freeze time on that world, himself finding a way to travel through the portal after everyone else was unable to move. How am I doing so far?”
I peered over at Khomar, who pursed his red lips. “I think you have it,” I told Magnus.
“Good. So this Khozal has a device that allows him to avoid being frozen like the rest of his people. He then shrinks the entire planet, using another instrument he procured by trading away a fortune of Rutelium under his people’s noses.
“Then he stores the planet away, and uses it as a threat to other nations. He’ll do the same to them if they don’t pay him X amount of credits. On the right track?” Magnus asked again.
Khomar nodded.
“Okay. No one took the bait, and then what? What happened to your brother?” he asked the alien.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t around for any of it,” he admitted. “If you recall, I was frozen too.”
Mary eyed him warily. “Conveniently frozen on Mion V9 instead of the other world.”
“I didn’t evacuate with the others. I hid, trying to stop my brother,” Khomar said.
Magnus cleared his throat. “Fine. Then you’re saying we use this device your brother had hiding under his bed and use the portal on our ship to visit the shrunken planet, which holds the entire population of the Scaril people. We’ll be able to move freely and deactivate the time-freezing instrument, bringing everyone there to life once again.”
“That pretty much sums it up,” I said.
“And you think it will work?” Natalia asked.
“It’s a gamble. But we have to try,” I told them.
“Who goes? If this tool only works around one person to prevent them from freezing, who do we send on the rescue mission?” Magnus asked.
Slate stuck his hand up. “I’ll go, Boss. I’m the most trained, and you can trust me to get the job done.”
“No. I will go,” Khomar said from across the table, his words translating through inset speakers. “They are my people, and I will rescue them.”
Mary set her cup down and leaned in. She used the console to switch the translator off, and I raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “I don’t trust him.”
“What do you mean? We saw him. He was frozen there,” Loweck told her.
“It doesn’t add up. I think he had no choice. He was stranded on his world alone when no one took his threats seriously. Mion V9 doesn’t have a portal to leave through, so he took his chances and froze himself,” Mary said.
Khomar tapped the table, speaking to us in his own language, which we couldn’t understand without the translator turned on.
I raised a finger to him, and he stopped talking.
“Why wouldn’t he take the tool Jules found, go to the shrunken world, and leave that way?” Slate asked.
“Two things,” Mary said. “Either he didn’t know it was hidden under his bed until Jules found it.”
I thought about his face when she’d exposed its location. He had appeared shocked.
Mary continued. “Or he was stuck there with no portal. Did you see a spaceship anywhere?”
“They didn’t have space travel?” Slate asked. “She’s right. I didn’t see anything at the city we investigated either.”
“What are we saying?” I asked Mary.
“Either that he is Khozal, or he’s making the entire brother angle up. It was all a ploy so someone would believe his tale when they found him frozen in time underground,” she said.
“Does that change anything?” I asked.
Magnus leaned his elbows on the table. “Dean, what do you propose we do?”
“We toss him into the brig, telling him it’s precautionary. Then I’ll go through the portal, and use the tool that prevents me from freezing in my footsteps. What do you all say?” I asked.
Mary’s face was blank, emotionless like an amazing poker player. “Finish what you started.”
I had her approval, though I knew I’d pay for offering myself once again.
“Very well. Dean, you’ll go in the morning,” Magnus said, and flipped the translator back on. “Sorry, Khozal, we had some issues with our translator.”
I instantly noticed that Magnus used the man’s hypothetical brother’s name to identify the alien across from us, but he didn’t blink an eye.
“Not a problem,” the man said.
Magnus grinned. �
�Loweck, throw him in the brig.”
____________
Clare clamped the device to my left forearm, over the armored EVA, and tapped her chin with a finger. “That should do the trick.”
It vibrated briefly, sending a ripple through my body as it powered up.
“From what I can tell, this is meant to protect you from whatever’s causing time to freeze on the shrunken planet’s surface. I’m sorry, Dean, but I can’t give you much else to go on. This is all foreign technology, and neither the Gatekeepers nor the Alliance have any details in our database about this sort of thing,” Clare told me.
“Neither does Regnig,” I said, glancing toward the small world. “When will we place them out there?” I pointed through the viewscreen, out toward the location Suma and the other science officers had deemed the best course of action for the planet. We couldn’t unfreeze them while the planet was tiny and nestled in a box.
“We’re ready to place it now,” Clare said. “I am concerned about a few things.”
“Like what?” Mary asked. It was only the three of us in the room now.
“Does traveling through the portal actually make you small? And if you return with people, will they continue to be small?” Clare’s concerns were warranted.
“Khozal came clean with us after a few days in the brig,” I said. “According to him, he has no way to return the world to its previous size. We’ll have to trust him that the portal will deal with the rest.”
“Clare, can we send something through to test it?” Mary asked.
She shook her head. “It has to be something living, so we could send someone else through, but you’ll encounter the same risks.”
Mary looked thoughtful. “Then it has to be you, Dean.”
I held her hand, and felt her grip go tighter. “I’ll be okay.”
The doors slid open to reveal Magnus and Slate. “Boss, you ready? We’re going to place the planet now.”
With one last glance toward it, I nodded and followed them to the bridge. Slate diverted, bringing the world in his hands to the hangar, where a drone would bring it outside our starship. This was the proper location for the planet to survive in space, given that it had a functional atmosphere in place. Clare didn’t think it was a long-term solution, not with the mass of the world so small, but she admitted it might be fine.
New Horizon (The Survivors Book Nine) Page 22