“That as well,” the official said, pointing to the rod in Leo’s hand.
Leo handed it over and Baz smiled. He stopped when Kat kicked him in the knee.
“I hope you understand—the governing bodies of your species are allied with our enemy. We have to take precautions.”
“I understand,” Kat said. “But you needn’t worry about me. I’m not allied with anyone.”
“Everyone is allied with someone, Captain,” Tadrik countered. “Come.” She tapped something into the device on her wrist as she turned and led the way.
Flanked by the two guards whose fingers rested on the triggers of their rifles, Leo followed Kat and the stumbling Bastian Black through the hangar, not daring to look back at the Icarus again for fear of one of the guards noticing, giving away the two crew members who were hiding on board. Waiting until the coast was clear so they could prove just how stealthy they were.
So far, at least, everything was going according to the very terrible plan.
Leo had always known who his allies were. His enemies too. The lines had been drawn all too clearly while Leo stood in the sand and watched. Though in actual fact, they had been drawn long before he was born.
On the one hand, the alien species that arrived with promises of peace, backed by technological gifts miraculous enough to rival Prometheus bringing the fire down from Mount Olympus. A species that could have declared itself an omnipotent overlord but didn’t, instead offering to be a partner, a mentor, a protector. On the other hand, a merciless horde of insurgents determined to rid the galaxy of the first species, starting a war that raged from planet to planet, system to system. There was never any question which side humanity would take in the war; it was only a question of when.
The Djarik made that decision easy too.
There was never any doubt for Leo. His loyalties were confirmed with every headline on his news feed. Aykarian Scientists Provide Possible Solution to World Hunger. Aykari Treatment Proven Effective in Fight Against New Virus. Aykarian Forces Repel Djarik Invaders in Nearby Relgar System. It was written into the daily pledge at school. I swear to uphold the shared values of the people of the planet Earth, and to defend it and its allies in the Coalition against any threats to life and liberty, security and stability, prosperity and peace. Like a chessboard, the pieces belonging to each side were color coded—the silver Aykari ships lined up on one side, the black-hulled Djarik on the other. There was no in between.
Leo and his brother played chess sometimes. Captain Saito had a set made of marble that she’d let them borrow. Their father taught them how to play one afternoon, frustrated at the sight of them staring at their datapads for hours on end. “This is one of humanity’s signature accomplishments,” he told them. “Even the Aykari are impressed with chess.” He taught them how all the pieces moved and showed them some opening plays. He warned them not to underestimate the power of a pawn. “Even a lowly pawn can become a queen if the circumstances are right,” he said, leaving his two sons to duke it out, which they did, over and over again.
Gareth always let Leo be white so that he could make the first move—an older brother’s lone concession. And because he was white, Leo always pretended he was the Aykari beating back the ruthless Djarik horde.
Which only made it more painful when he lost.
“Good game,” Gareth said whether he won or not, and Leo would shake his hand, though they both knew better.
The game was always better when you were on the winning side.
The doors opened up instead of sideways.
That’s the thing Leo noticed as he moved through the Djarik outpost—that their doors opened and closed differently from what he was used to. They didn’t just slide into the wall the way they had on the Beagle—these doors seemed to collapse in on themselves, folding upward as they opened and then cascading back down as they closed, though the door itself appeared seamless.
This is what struck him—not because it was all that strange, but because everything else seemed oddly familiar. The Djarik base had walls and floors, made of a metal that the planet Earth had never seen, but that didn’t change their shape or purpose. The lights that illuminated their path hummed the same soft note as the lights aboard the Beagle, even if the glow they cast had a slightly orangish tinge. He wasn’t sure what he expected, having never been aboard a Djarik vessel, having never visited a planet under their control. Slime dripping from the ceiling, perhaps. Human and Aykari slaves being dragged about in chains. Mucus-covered eggs lurking in the corners, ready to hatch new Djarik spawn. At the very least he expected it to be darker, though he couldn’t say why.
He looked up at the vents in the ceiling and the oddest thought struck him.
We are breathing the same air.
There were species that couldn’t, of course. In school he’d learned of a race of alien creatures known as the Kithril for whom oxygen was poisonous. But that wasn’t the case with the Djarik. Leo could breathe freely here.
If he could only catch his breath.
Leo tried to focus, to make a note of every turn they made, one windowless corridor after another, passing dozens of doors with alien markings. The Aykari chip in his head could translate the Djarik tongue but not its text, so he felt the urge to open every door he passed, not knowing what was behind it, only that any one of them could lead to his father. How long would it be before Boo and Skits managed to sneak their way to a terminal and tell them where to go? Every step they took farther from the Icarus stretched Leo’s nerves even thinner.
If Kat shared Leo’s apprehension, she didn’t show it. Not that that surprised him. Her nerves, like her arm, seemed to be made of titanium.
“So this is a mining facility?” she asked, no longer dragging Baz, who was now uncomfortably sandwiched between the two armed guards.
“Primarily,” Tadrik said. “The planet is rich with EL-four eight six, what you humans call ventasium. It’s one of the few worlds we got to before the Aykari, perhaps because it is so remote. We’ve tried to keep its location secret, at least while we finished with our extraction. In fact, it’s somewhat surprising that you happened to find us at all.”
Leo couldn’t be sure—his translator wasn’t always good at distinguishing shifts in tone—but the Djarik in the gray robe suddenly sounded suspicious.
“A fortunate occurrence for you and me both,” Kat said, not missing a beat. “Bastian Black is a prize. Though if you don’t want him, I’m happy to go collect my reward elsewhere. Your sworn enemies have an equally sizable bounty on his head and would be eager to get their hands on him.”
“Indeed,” Tadrik replied. “The Aykari will stop at nothing to ensure the destruction of their enemies.” Leo felt his cheeks burn, picturing his mother hugging him for the last time, asking him to bring her back the prettiest shell on the beach. As if she could read his mind, Tadrik added, “Which requires those enemies to be just as merciless, I’m afraid.”
“What you and the Aykari do to each other is your business,” Kat said. “Just so long as I get paid, that’s all that matters.”
“Captain Corea, we both know that’s not true,” Tadrik said. “War is everyone’s business, yours especially.”
His head hung, Baz grunted, earning him a look from Kat but not another kick, at least. They passed through another entry—this one flanked by two more armed guards.
“Of course this facility isn’t simply used for the extraction and refinement of EL-four eight six,” Tadrik continued. “Because of its remote location and its abundant energy supply, we also use it for research and development. Some of the greatest Djarik minds are hard at work on advancements that could turn the tide of this war.”
“Advancements. You mean weapons,” Kat prodded.
“That is generally how wars are fought, Captain.”
Leo flashed back to Kaber’s Point. To Gerrod Grimsley saying goodbye. Whispers around the Point say the Djarik are working on something. Something big.
; They turned another corner and were led past several more doors, all of them sealed tight save one. “Are we almost there?” Kat asked, talking louder, drawing out her words, unnaturally so. “I was really hoping this wouldn’t take too long. I’m anxious to get back to my ship and be on my way.”
Leo realized she wasn’t actually asking the Djarik who was leading them. The communication device buried in her ear was connected to Skits, who was picking up everything she said. He couldn’t hear the robot’s response of course, if she even gave one, but he didn’t miss the frustrated look on Kat’s face. He could interpret it easily enough: they hadn’t found his father yet. Maybe that meant Boo and Skits were being extra cautious.
Or maybe it meant they’d been caught already.
In response to Kat’s question, their escort stopped in front of a closed door just as obscurely marked as the others.
“Captain Corea, you wouldn’t want to leave without getting what you came for, would you?” she said. She pressed her clawed hand against the sensor and the door slid open.
Kat’s hand instinctively dropped to her waist, to the handle of the pistol that wasn’t there anymore, ready to shoot whatever was waiting to ambush them on the other side.
Leo felt all the air suddenly kicked out of his lungs. There, standing beside a long table stood another Djarik in flowing red robes. “Hello, Leo Fender,” he said. “We’ve been looking for you.”
And standing beside him, the very thing they came for.
Leo stared at the man in the clean khaki uniform and long gray coat, eyes rimmed red, glasses perched dangerously close to the end of his nose. Everything about him seemed to be frazzled, worn down, on edge, but there was no denying it was his dad.
“Leo,” he said.
It sounded almost like a question, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing either. But in the next moment Dr. Calvin Fender was across the room, the two guards behind Leo making no move to stop him. He felt his father’s arms swallow him up, squeezing him so hard Leo’s ribs ached. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the sudden look of alarm on Baz’s face, Kat’s too, as they both watched the reunion, staring at the man they’d come to rescue, not in a cell like they expected, but standing right in front of them, no restraints to be seen.
Leo took a long look at his father, several days’ worth of silvery-black beard, looking haggard and exhausted but unharmed. It had only been a matter of days, but it felt like ages. Eons.
“Leo, thank God,” Dr. Fender said, stroking his son’s hair, chin digging hard into Leo’s shoulder. “I was so worried. I thought I’d lost you.”
Leo couldn’t speak. He could barely even breathe, his face pressed into the folds of his father’s coat, locked on, soaking him in. He felt six years old again. Like his father was superhuman and his arms could hold up the world. Instead, they had to hold up his son, whose legs nearly gave out.
“I can hardly believe it,” he continued. “There was no record of you aboard the Beagle when the Djarik came back for you. I didn’t know what happened. I thought you were gone.”
Leo wormed his way out of his father’s embrace. “Back for me?”
“Yes. Yes,” Dr. Fender said quickly. “That was the agreement. I promised I would help them and in return they would go back for the crew of the Beagle. Then they would bring you and your brother back here. To me.”
His brother? Was it possible?
“Gareth’s here? Where is he?” Leo looked behind him, seeing only Baz and Kat, the two armed guards standing behind them.
The look on his father’s face was answer enough. Dr. Fender glanced over his shoulder at the Djarik standing behind the table, now joined by Tadrik. His scales had a reddish tinge to them, giving them a slightly rusted look. One of his black eyes was clouded with a white film, from injury or age. Leo guessed he was the one in charge.
“The whereabouts of your brother and the rest of your ship’s crew are currently unknown, I’m afraid. They were transferred to one of our transports before your ship was destroyed, but soon after, something happened, and we lost all contact.”
“We don’t know where he is, Leo,” his father said.
The word struck Leo. The one he’d used by mistake when he suggested stealing a ship.
We.
As in his father and the Djarik?
“We are doing our best to locate the missing transport and its passengers, including your brother,” Tadrik added. “After all, a promise is a promise.”
Leo’s head spun. Another look at the pirates’ pinched faces confirmed they were just as confused as he was.
“Somebody want to tell me what the hell is going on here?” Kat asked.
His father shook his head. “Leo, I’m so sorry,” he said, glancing at the Djarik and then back at his son. “I was wrong.”
“What are you talking about?” Leo had never known his father to be wrong about much. You don’t get a room full of medals for posing theories that never pan out. Dr. Leo Fender had always been exact, meticulous, assured. Any mistakes he might have made were quickly analyzed, dissected, and then corrected.
“Wrong about what?” Leo pressed.
“I’m not sure,” his father said. “Maybe everything.”
They came from a world called Aykar,
And promised to show us the stars.
They asked for our planet.
We said, You can have it.
And now look at how happy we are.
—Author unknown
Same Story, Different Side
WITH A SIGNAL FROM THE ROBED DJARIK STANDING in the middle of the room, the already fragile plan to free Leo’s father collapsed, as the rifles that the two guards had kept by their sides were suddenly leveled at Kat and Baz both.
“You can dispense with the act, Captain Black. Please, have a seat,” the Djarik with the cloudy eye said. “And feel free to take off those bindings. We will find you a better-fitting pair later.”
The soldiers pushed the two pirates past Leo and his father, leading them to the table with the muzzles of their guns, forcing them into chairs.
“Don’t bother trying to contact your two companions. They can’t help you.”
There was no point in pretending anymore. Kat’s voice, so confident up till now, faltered as she ignored the Djarik’s command. “Skits? Skits, do you read me? Are you there? Answer!” She and Baz traded worried looks.
“Your robot’s communications systems have been temporarily disabled,” the lead Djarik continued. “We caught it and the Queleti attempting to hack into one of our terminals. They are unharmed, though I haven’t yet decided what to do with them, or with you. On the one hand, you are pirates guilty of stealing countless cores of EL-four eight six from the Djarik empire. On the other, you delivered something valuable. Something we’ve been looking for.” He nodded toward Leo still huddled against his father.
“What’s he talking about, Leo?” Baz said. “You told us your father was taken prisoner.”
“Oh no. Dr. Fender is not our prisoner,” the rust-scaled Djarik said. “Not anymore. We are partners. He is going to help us finally win this war.”
Leo shook his head. This couldn’t be right. He’d never known his father to be much of a fighter, but he was still a man of principle. He wouldn’t help these monsters. He wouldn’t turn his back on the Coalition, his planet, his family. Leo searched his father’s haggard face for answers.
“Leo, sit down,” he said.
Leo refused at first, fists clenched, standing his ground. The Djarik had obviously done something to his dad. Drugged him. Brainwashed him. Threatened him. Something. This wasn’t his father.
“Leo, please,” Dr. Fender pleaded, and, begrudgingly, Leo sat. “Director Chellis is right,” he continued, glancing at the Djarik standing next to Tadrik. “I have agreed to help them.”
Leo shook his head. “Help them? How? Why?”
Leo’s dad started talking quickly. “For you, Leo. You and your brother. I had
to find you. I had to find a way to keep you safe. But not just that. Things have changed. The Aykari and the Djarik, what happened to Earth, what happened to us, it’s not quite what you think. It didn’t . . .” Dr. Fender’s voice faltered. He knelt down and took Leo’s hands. Leo flinched; his father’s fingers were ice-cold. “What I’m about to tell you will be hard to hear and even harder to believe, but I need you to try.”
Leo kept his eyes on his father, not wanting to look at the pirates currently being held at gunpoint because of him, or at any of the Djarik who still caused his body to shake with anger and fear.
He nodded. “Yeah, okay. I’ll try,” he said.
Then he listened as his father told him how the whole war really started.
And how his mother really died.
“They’ve shown me things, Leo. I’ve seen evidence,” Leo’s father began. “What is happening with us, with Earth . . . it has happened before.”
Then he told Leo a story.
It was one Leo had heard before, about an advanced alien species, the most advanced the galaxy has ever seen, capable of traveling from star to star with the aid of one precious element, the four hundred and eighty-sixth one they’d discovered.
How they located a planet where that element was stored in abundance, a planet densely populated by a species not as technologically advanced, but still proud. Freethinking and free-spirited. How an agreement was made between the visitors and the planet’s inhabitants, an even exchange: Knowledge and technology in exchange for access to the planet’s resources.
Then came the Aykari excavators. Thousands of them. Digging deep into the planet’s crust. Slowly but inexorably sapping the planet of its strength, slowly and silently poisoning its water, its land, its skies, the more-advanced species taking what they wanted while limply justifying the costs, costs they themselves would not have to pay. The planet began to wither, to blight and burn. And the creatures that lived there began to suffer and starve, their land dying before their eyes, forcing them to abandon the only home they’d ever known using the new technology they were given or else face a slow but unavoidable extinction. This was the price of progress, the intruders said. This was the price of bringing enlightenment to the entire galaxy. They were given two options: stay and watch their world be drained or leave to find a better one.
Stowaway Page 23