by A B Lucian
“Who is this amateur you brought along, Olexander? She nearly got you killed.”
Olexander shrugged as he rose to one knee. “Some second-rate assassin I stumbled upon on Luna,” he answered. “She came highly recommended, so I thought I’d find some use for her.” He shook his head. “Seems I was wrong.” He was lying to protect her, but it surprised Sabina how much the words hurt.
Mikail grinned. “Do you take me for a fool?” He was at Sabina’s side in a second. His speed surprised her. She didn’t have time to reach for any weapons. Mikail grabbed her by the chin and raised her in the air with one hand. “I know she’s Jack’s daughter.”
The sinew in her neck stretched and popped, and she gripped Mikail’s forearm with her left hand to lessen the pressure. Her breath came in sputters as she tried to get her right arm up, but it just hung there useless and limp while her jaw was being crushed. She pulled at Mikail’s arm, but it was like pulling on a column of steel.
“Enough,” Olexander said.
Mikail dropped Sabina, chuckling. He kicked her in the ribs to turn her over and ripped Missy’s holster from her left hip. “I knew Jack had a daughter.” He kicked her in the ribs again to roll her on the other side and removed Squeeler. “And I know he has a son.” He pressed his boot down on Sabina’s aching back and forced her to the ground, on her belly. “I know one of them has Protector genes. Judging by how easily I took her down, the boy is the one. I know he’s here on Mandessa.” Mikail ripped Sabina’s kohiri sword dangling off her shoulder and threw it away.
“Impossible,” Olexander said.
Mikail guffawed and grinned.
Olexander shook his head. “If you knew, why didn’t you come for us sooner?”
“Mandessa is a big place,” Mikail said. “Over 800 million slaves here, did you know? Truth be told, I considered bombing the entire planet from orbit.”
“You wanted the suit.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, old friend. I have uses for you. Your corpse will do, but a live Protector is what I need for my experiments. Genetics is a slippery science. My attempts at duplicating the Protector programme has had very limited success so far. My old specimen has been through so many tests and trials that he’s genetic code is full of garbage now. Useless. But I have you now, and soon I’ll have another, better, specimen.”
“You won’t get what you want.”
“Yosh, I believe his name is, will surely mount a daring rescue for his dear old grandfather. I’m sure he has an inflamed hero complex. After all, he grew up around you.” Mikail slapped his thigh in excitement. The shock reverberated all the way down into Sabina’s abused lungs. “I’m dying to find out how you made the Protector genes pass down to your son and then to his son. These are very exciting times, don’t you agree?”
Her grandfather shook his head, mumbling to himself. “It doesn’t make sense. I was careful. I left no clues.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “How did you know we were on Mandessa?”
Mikail chuckled, a slow, cold chuckle that sent shivers down Sabina’s spine. “Yes, you’ve been careful, Olexander. Just as I expected of you. But learning from past mistakes is what Protectors do best, isn’t it? And even if I don’t call myself a Protector anymore—”
“You don’t deserve the honor of the title,” Olexander said, spitting blood near Mikail’s boot again.
Mikail’s mouth tightened and twitched. “To hell with your damn title!” He breathed in deep and continued. “You always wanted a noble death, old friend, and I’ll give it to you, but not yet. For now, you’ll listen. I’ve learned from my mistakes. I hunted the surviving Protectors, but I was young and bloodthirsty, and destroyed every piece of Protector technology I encountered. It felt right at the time. I wanted no reminders of my former life.” A satisfied grin spread across his hard face as he continued off-handedly. “The point is, I haven’t repeated the mistakes of the past. I found out you and Yosh were on Mandessa from your son, Jack.”
Sabina’s heart stood still a few moments. Olexander’s son, her father... but he was dead. Wasn’t he?
“What game are you playing? My son is dead. You killed him, and besides—he would never betray us.”
A terrible smile spread across Mikail’s face. “Did I kill him? Do you really think I would blow up the space station with your son still aboard and lose such a valuable opportunity? Like I said, I haven’t repeated the mistakes of the past. And wouldn’t he betray you? Olexander, my dear, old friend, you don’t understand what ten years of torture and invasive experimentation can do to a man, even one with Protector blood running through his veins.” Mikail rubbed his chin. “It’s probably worse for someone with Protector genes. Accelerated healing is not always a blessing. Sometimes a man just wants to die. But you two will understand soon enough.”
Olexander said nothing, his face unreadable. The frustration caused by Mikail’s words and the humiliation of being pinned to the ground by his boot deepened until Sabina couldn’t hold it in anymore. Her tears flowed down her cheeks, hot and wet. They dripped on the black ground as she clenched her teeth. Her father had been alive and in constant pain all this time. If only she’d known. “You… you… I will kill you, I swear on the Earth itself. I swear it.”
Mikail didn’t even look at her. He stood still, his boot digging into Sabina’s back. “I was quite weary of it all when he finally broke. I had nearly given up hope. That’s why I didn’t come sooner, Olexander. Imagine my surprise. Jack gives in to torture after ten years of heroism. Could I trust his words, his intentions, his memories? Perhaps all he wanted was the quick death I promised him.” Mikail chuckled. “I lied of course. A corpse is no use to me. But then suddenly an emergency Protector signal activated. Imagine my surprise at the timing. I hadn’t seen one in half a century, you see, and it came from Mandessa. A long lost Protector beacon activating on Mandessa, mere days after Jack tells me his son and father are hiding there. How could I bring myself to believe it?” Mikail laughed. “But I guess the universe still has its quirks and coincidences. Your paranoia has rubbed off on me, old friend. I smelled a trap. I was too cautious, so I sent my incompetent Enforcers to scout ahead and make sure it wasn’t one of your ploys.”
Sabina had regained most of her strength and her right arm was almost back to normal. She couldn’t stand Mikail’s ranting anymore.
“So much time wasted in vain…” Mikail shook his head. “Oh well, what’s done is done, let—”
With a twist of her toes, Sabina activated the blades in the soles of her boots, two in the heels and two in the tips. She stabbed upward into Mikail’s calf. The heel blade screeched against the thin material of Mikail’s suit and broke off without causing any damage. That wasn’t what Sabina had hoped for, but the thrust pushed Mikail off balance just enough to give her an opening. With the pressure on her back subsided, she twisted and wrapped her legs around Mikail’s thigh. She jerked hard, but he kept his balance. She jerked again and Mikail staggered and took the sights of the pulse gun off her grandfather. Olexander closed the distance in the blink of an eye, slamming into Mikail so hard the plates of the Protector suit rattled and clanged. They fell to the ground in a whirlwind of limbs too fast for her to track.
“Go,” Olexander said. “Now, run!”
Sabina wanted to stay and help him, but she was in no condition for such a fight. Both of them were stronger and faster than her, and Mikail had the Protector suit on. Still she hesitated. Cowards ran, and she was no coward. She was Sabina the Slasher. She and her grandfather, the last Protector of the Earth, could fight this man and defeat him.
Ship engines roared above them. Arkanian reinforcements, blast it!
“Go!” her grandfather yelled again, struggling to keep Mikail at bay.
Sabina bit her lip until it bled, grabbed her kohiri sword and did as she was told.
Chapter Eleven
Yosh sat on a modest chair on the bridge of the Archibald, very aware all eyes were on him. The
bridge was small, with barely enough room for himself, the captain, and his senior officers. The captain sat in the pilot’s seat, wearing dark blue trousers that had seen better days and his jet black jacket over a white shirt. He turned the seat to face Yosh instead of the controls and cupped his hands beneath his chin. Next to him, in the copilot’s seat, sat Assai. She wore her black suit as always, her bright, green eyes framed by the soft, sandy fur covering her face. Those mysterious cat eyes with their dark vertical pupils intimidated him the first year they had met. Now he saw in them her wish to hold him in her arms. And he liked that. He loved that.
The bridge had two more seats, cramped to either side of the captain and Assai. One to the left, at the engineering panel, with “Big Belly” Headly sprawled in it like a dog from Yosh’s herd. Spatters of grease and dark red oil covered his overalls, as usual, and his pudgy hands were soot black and fidgety.
The other seat was empty. Marge leaned against the navigation panel with her arms crossed below her generous cleavage. Yosh was sure she had at least three hand-rolled cigarettes in the many pockets of her tight blue vest. Her husband, Bob, sat next to her like a statue, as if on guard. He was a mountain of a man, all muscle, in his dirty shirt and camouflage trousers. Rough black hairs covered his square jaw almost to his eyes. He probably looked scary to outsiders, but Yosh knew he had a heart of gold.
The last to arrive was Miles, nodding and rubbing his bald head with a big gnarled hand. “Sorry I’m late, Cap,” he said and squeezed in between Marge and Bob. Bob welcomed him with a grin and a rap on the collarbone and Marge rolled her eyes.
The captain stared reproachfully at Miles. “As you all know, the Arkanian Secret Police has come to Mandessa in force. They landed in Shacktown and have rounded up the slaves for interrogation.”
The senior officers mumbled, frowned, and sighed.
“I for one don’t care about the hostages that much,” Miles said, shrugging his broad shoulders. “We rescued Yosh. We did our job, so why are we still here?”
Job? Yosh thought. What job? What’s he talking about? “Thank you all for risking your lives to save me. I’m sorry I’ve put you in such danger.”
Miles’s mouth twitched, and he looked to the captain.
“You have nothing to thank us for, Yosh Farmer,” Captain Dupont said, waving a hand. “I know you have questions, but before you hear the answers, please remember that we do not think of you as a client. We passed that point long ago, even if it started that way. You are part of this crew now, part of this ship, and part of this family.”
Yosh grinned from ear to ear. He hadn’t expected the distant, silent captain to say that. The senior officers’s grim looks vanished and smiles spread across their faces as they nodded. Even Miles smiled, his face and bald head turning a faint pink.
Headly broke the silence again and saved Yosh an awkward answer. “Pardon my bluntness captain, but I agree with Miles. Why are we still here? We’ve got Yosh. We should leave while we still can.”
The captain’s smile vanished. “We’ve used one of the recovered arkanian communicators to listen in on their plans. We found out quite a few things before they switched frequencies. There is an arkanian heavy cruiser in orbit. They haven’t spotted us yet, thanks to our talented navigation officer, Marge. She shut our ‘noisiest’ systems, when strange ships appeared on our sensors.” He paused. “We haven’t left yet because we cannot. If we fire up the engines, the arkanians will pinpoint our position. It would not take them long to strike at us from orbit.”
Everyone was silent.
“My grandfather,” Yosh said. Their eyes pricked up and stared at him. “He should return from Waterplains today. They’ll catch him. It’s him they’re after, him and me. We can’t leave without him.”
The officers of the Archibald exchanged looks.
“Slow down, Yosh,” Marge said, eyeing the captain. “Why do you think the Arkanian Secret Police is after you?”
Yosh remembered the brains and bones scattered across the floor of the mess hall and Ghett trying to gather them. He closed his eyes and massaged the base of his nose. “I saw them. They had the slaves on their knees in the mess hall. They tortured and… and killed some of them.”
“You saw them doing this?” The captain asked, his eyes wide. “What were you doing there? Why did you go so close? It was a foolish thing to do. What if they caught you?”
“I… they did, I mean… I didn’t know what was happening. I heard screams from the mess hall so I went to see what happened.” He shook his head. “You’re right though, I was foolish. I got Ghett killed, him and his entire family. The arkanians killed them because Ghett didn’t know where my grandfather and I were. How could he have known?” Yosh shrugged in dismay and stared at the floor.
Silence engulfed the bridge, and for two whole minutes Yosh listened to the two hundred tons of metal around them sleep and creak.
“It wasn’t your fault, Yosh,” Assai said. He wanted to believe her. “The arkanians are evil.”
“Please,” Yosh said, “give me one of your rovers. You have four in the docking bay. I won’t ask anyone to risk their lives again, but I need to go after my grandfather. I need to find him before he reaches Shacktown.”
Silence.
“Please,” Yosh said again. “I’ll pay for it and for our safe passage. I ... I found tons of old books in my grandfather’s office. Books about Earth! They’d sell for massive amounts on the black market. You’d have money for five rovers.”
Captain Dupont stared at him with his dark eyes, his jaw clenching rhythmically.
Headly stirred in his seat. “Now is as good a time as any, Captain.”
“I agree,” Marge said.
“Whatever’s fine by me,” Miles said, playing with his belt.
Bob’s muscular arms dabbed at a spot of dust on his chest. He nodded. “The boy needs to know.”
Assai kept silent.
Captain Dupont brushed a hand over his small beard and looked at each of them. “It is not our decision to make.”
Yosh felt lightheaded. Everything happening around him seemed false suddenly, forced. What were they talking about? Everything seemed to have a different meaning than the one showing on the surface. His head swam with questions. Everyone obviously knew the answers, but no one told him anything.
“No,” he said, standing. “Tell me. Tell me everything. Why is the Arkanian Secret Police after us?” He waved his arms. “Why did they kill Shacktown’s guards? Aren’t they on the same side? How come I survived after being shot? How did you find me?” He slammed a fist into his palm. “I need answers, dammit!” The stern looks on the others’ faces made him calm down. “Please.” He sighed. “At least help me rescue my grandfather.”
Captain Dupont seemed to consider this for a while, unaffected by Yosh’s outburst. “Do not worry about your grandfather. The arkanians will not capture him. He is not in Waterplains. He is not even on Mandessa.” The captain rose from his seat and clasped his hands behind his back. “Things have gone terribly wrong, and the Arkanian Secret Police here means the plan is ruined. Yes, Yosh Farmer, the Arkanian Secret Police are after you and your grandfather.
“If the Enforcers killed the guards, it can only mean the Betrayer is here, and he knows about you, Yosh. At one point or another, most likely after he has captured you, he will bomb Mandessa into oblivion.”
Yosh collapsed back in his seat.
◆◆◆
Yosh’s knees still felt too weak to stand. Destroy Mandessa? The whole colony? Why would anyone destroy Mandessa?
Captain Dupont continued. “You have a transmitter on you. That is how we found you. No, don’t try looking for it. It is not visible. Your father placed it on you when you were born, and your grandfather gave us the frequency when he hired us.”
“My father?” Yosh looked at their faces in turn. “What do you know about my father? And what do you mean my grandfather hired you? To do what? It doesn’t make any
sense.”
Marge studied her crossed arms. Bob was studying her. Headly played with his thumbs in his lap. Miles kept sheathing and unsheathing his knife. The only ones who looked him in the eye were Captain Dupont and Assai.
“He hired us to teach you, Yosh Farmer,” the captain said.
Yosh’s face burned. This was preposterous. He stood and walked to the doorway. He needed air—cool air. It was too stuffy on the bridge.
“Olexander hired us to teach you to fly a ship, how to fight, how to shoot a gun and use a blade, how to fix engines and sabotage them, hack into a ship’s systems and take them over. Olexander hired us to teach you about what’s out there.” The captain gestured toward the sky. “To answer questions you could not ask your grandfather and questions he could not answer without you finding out the truth.”
Yosh’s blinked fast and clenched his teeth. “Truth?”
“Olexander was the last Protector of the Earth, Yosh Farmer.”
Yosh gave a high-pitched squeal. Everything Yosh found in the secret chamber beneath his grandfather’s study slammed into his mind at the same time. The interactive poster centered toward Earth. The terminal with the history archive of the Protectors. The Protector suit with the sigil on its breast: his grandfather’s Protector suit. All the locks he had encountered, the one under the desk, the one on the Protector suit’s case, the one on the terminal—they were the same as the lock he stumbled across on Obelyn’s ship. Lost artifacts from the long-dead order were scattered across the worlds where the Protectors had fought and died. But normal people couldn’t open or use them. Only Protectors can use Protector technology, he thought. So how could I have opened them? His mind froze at the realization. Why hadn’t he figured it out until now? It was so far fetched a theory that his mind must have refused to indulge in it.