“Yeah...” The wheels began turning in Trista’s head, and she used her ESC to run the numbers. “Four hundred and sixty-seven creds of fuel to make the trip...” She trailed off, nodding excitedly. “This could actually turn us a profit, Buddy!”
He gave a delighted chitter and rubbed his tiny hands together. Activating his mag boots, he aimed them at the deck to get down to his seat, but he was floating too high, and his boots were too small.
“Help me get back down,” Buddy pleaded.
Trista reached over and roughly pushed him back into his seat with a hand on his head.
“Hey! I’m—”
“Delicate, I know.” Trista disengaged from the fuel pod before her transport had finished refueling. Her comms chimed with a refund for the balance of fuel not transferred, and a trite safety reminder about not engaging her main engines until she cleared the pod.
Trista tapped her feet impatiently while she waited for the Harlequin’s maneuvering thrusters to push them to a hundred meters from the fuel pod.
“We really need this,” Trista said, thinking about her backdated docking fees, postponed maintenance for the Harlequin, and the ship’s next loan payment.
“Yes, we do,” Buddy agreed, and gave his belly a loud slap. “Seafood here we come!”
Trista turned to glare at him. “Hey, we need that money for more important...”
Buddy’s big brown eyes grew larger still, and they filled with a sudden sheen of moisture. His ears flattened against his head, and his lips began to quiver.
“Oh, fek it, I guess we can spare a few creds.”
Buddy’s ears popped back up and he grinned, revealing pointy white teeth. “Works every time.”
“Yeah, and one of these times, I’m gonna punch you in the mouth and make you cry for real.”
“Try it. I’ll bite your fingers off.”
“Haven’t you ever heard that you shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds you?”
“Haven’t you ever heard that you shouldn’t punch your pets in the mouth?”
Trista barked a laugh. “Fair enough.”
Chapter 10
Darius stood behind the pilot’s seat in the Osprey Tanik had chosen. He stared at a holographic rendering of Ouroboros that Tanik had generated from orbital scans of the planet. The clouds had been stripped away, and the entire rendering was illuminated, but it was still hard to pick out any distinctive features from the landscape.
“Well?” Tanik asked. “Where did you feel the presence?”
Darius used a hand to manipulate the rendering, turning it first one way, then the other as he looked for the distinctive semi-circular range of mountains that he’d seen. At this scale he couldn’t see very much, so he zoomed in and tried again, but he still wasn’t having any luck.
“Close your eyes,” Tanik suggested. “Visualize the planet.”
Darius frowned, but he shut his eyes and tried reaching out in the ZPF. The planet appeared in his mind’s eye, bright and sparkling with life. He used his hands to rotate it and sure enough, he found the semi-circular range of mountains. This time there was no trace of the blinding presence he’d seen before, but he was certain that it was the spot.
Darius cracked his eyes open to see a very similar image to the one he’d held in his mind. Similar, but different. There was no sign of the mountain range. Darius frowned. “It didn’t work.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure,” Tanik replied. “Try zooming in some more.”
Darius did so, and to his amazement, the range of mountains appeared. He glanced at Tanik, his eyebrows raised in question.
“When you use your awareness, things aren’t always to scale. Important details can become larger than life, while the trivial ones fade away.”
“I don’t think we should go down there,” Cassandra said.
Darius turned to his daughter. “Why not?”
“There’s something... evil down there.”
“Evil?” Tanik scoffed. “Don’t be naive. One man’s evil is another man’s good. There are no absolutes.”
“Really,” Darius replied. “What about the Cygnians? They’re evil.”
“They’re evil to us. That doesn’t make them a universal evil.”
Darius frowned. “Most intelligent races would agree that the Cygnians and their hunting practices are evil, even if they weren’t subjected to those hunting practices themselves.”
“Oh, I’m sure you’re right,” Tanik said, nodding agreeably. “The Cygnians hunt us and other species for sport, so that makes them evil, but consider this, if livestock could talk, what would they say about humans?”
“That’s different,” Darius said.
“Why?”
“Because they’re not self-aware.”
“How do you know?” Tanik replied.
“You know what, it doesn’t matter. We’re getting off topic. Cassandra felt something bad down there, and I believe her. What if this is some kind of trap?”
Tanik shrugged. “You’re the one who said we should investigate. Now you want to go back?”
Darius considered that. “No. Maybe...” He nodded to the rendering of the planet. “What do you feel down there?”
“Not evil,” Tanik said with an accompanying smirk. “But there is something, or an echo of something. It’s worth looking into. Strap in.” Tanik marked the mountain range with the green diamond of a nav waypoint, and then moved the holographic rendering to one side. The waypoint appeared superimposed on the actual planet below.
Darius went to sit beside Cassandra and strapped into his acceleration harness. As soon as he’d done so, Tanik ignited the thrusters and they were pinned to their seats.
Tanik banked toward the waypoint, and before long they re-entered the atmosphere. Clouds swept by, and then a crescent-shaped slash of gray came peeking through those clouds. They dropped below the level of the clouds and a dense green forest appeared around the mountains.
As Tanik circled down over the mountains, Darius noticed breaks in the trees, and massive skeletal structures rising out of them.
“What are those?” Darius asked, pointing to one of the structures as it soared up against the horizon, looking like a jagged black mountain.
“Ruins. The remains of the Keth cities,” Tanik replied.
“They look pretty overgrown,” Cassandra said. “How long has it been since the Keth lived here?” She stared out a side window in the cockpit as they passed one of the ruins.
“About twenty years,” Tanik replied. “I was with the Revenant fleet when they attacked....” Tanik trailed off, as if remembering. “It was here that I faked my death and made my escape.”
“Why here?” Darius asked. “Was it because of something you saw?”
“You could say that,” he replied. “Look.” Tanik pointed to the mountains.
There was some kind of structure built along the side of one of the mountains. It looked like a castle—the remains of one, anyway. There were gaping holes in the walls, and the windows were broken. A series of six landing pads were arrayed around the structure, suspended over the cliff by thick metal beams. One of the pads had partly collapsed, while another held the blackened remains of a familiar-looking ship. Darius stared at it as they hovered down for a landing on the pad beside it.
“Is that...” Darius trailed off uncertainly.
“An Osprey?” Tanik asked. “Yes.”
“The Revenants just left it here?” Cassandra asked.
“Does it look like they could have flown it away?” Tanik countered.
Their Osprey touched down with a jolt and Darius unfastened his harness. He folded it away and climbed to his feet. As he did so, a chill came over him, and he shivered. He glanced out at the blackened ruin of the ship on the landing pad beside theirs. Cassandra was right. There was something off about this place, maybe not evil, but dark and foreboding. His gaze swept to the castle rising before them. It was like looking at a haunted house. He felt compelled to explore, but h
e also wanted to turn and run.
“So?” Cassandra asked. “Are we going to go take a look or not?”
Darius was just about to suggest that they stay in the Osprey when Tanik stood up from the pilot’s seat and nodded to them. “Let’s go.”
Darius reluctantly followed him and Cassandra through the ship to the rear airlock. The foreboding grew stronger with every step, and he began to feel watched, just as he had in the field with the other Acolytes.
As they stood inside the airlock, waiting for Tanik to cycle it open, Darius shivered once more. Peripherally he saw Cassandra rubbing her arms to get warm.
“Is it cold in here?” Darius asked.
Tanik glanced at him. “No.”
But he was wearing an exosuit, so how would he know? The airlock swished open, and a blast of warm, humid air swirled in. They jumped out of the airlock one after another. It was definitely warmer here than at their camp—probably closer to the equator. And yet, somehow, Darius felt colder than ever.
He looked out at the view from their vantage point. The sun was high in the sky, the forests below shining a dark and luscious green. Collapsing Keth ruins with black beams exposed soared, dotting the forest like giant skeletons.
“Come,” Tanik urged.
Darius saw Cassandra staring up at the castle. Tanik strode past her and down a narrow catwalk that bridged the gap between the landing pad and the fortress. He turned to them from the other side, and called out, “Come on!”
Darius traded a glance with his daughter before walking over and grabbing her hand. “Stay close.”
Cassandra nodded. “You too.”
* * *
Darius walked through the gaping entrance of the castle with his daughter, both of them treading over the thick wooden doors that had once barred the entrance. The castle was dark inside. Wind whistled in through broken windows and gaping holes in the stone walls. Old, torn and dusty furniture sat about, arrayed around a giant fireplace in the center of the room. Stairs curved up on both sides of the hearth, meeting at a balcony that overlooked the sitting area below. An old chandelier draped with cobwebs swung restlessly above the floor.
Tanik turned on a flashlight. It was a tactical light, mounted under the barrel of a laser pistol.
“Stay behind me,” Tanik whispered, while sweeping his sidearm back and forth. Elongated shadows danced under the beam of the flashlight. Rubble littered the dusty floor.
“We’re not alone,” Tanik whispered.
Darius felt another chill come over him and quickly glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was creeping up behind them.
“Can you sense something?” Darius whispered back. Rubble crunched under foot as he and Cassandra crept behind Tanik. Darius winced at all the noise they were making.
“No, look,” Tanik said, and nodded to the floor.
There were familiar patterns in the dust.
“Footsteps,” Cassandra breathed. “Maybe they’re still here from when the Revenants attacked?”
Tanik just looked at her. “That was twenty years ago. With the wind gusting in as it is, those footsteps are long gone. These are fresh.”
“Maybe we’d better leave,” Darius said, still whispering. He glanced back through the entrance of the castle to their Osprey.
“No,” Tanik said. “Let’s keep looking. We need to know who’s living here. Whoever it is, they’re very skilled at hiding their presence from me.”
“So it is another Revenant,” Darius said.
“Perhaps,” Tanik replied.
“Who else could it be?” Cassandra asked.
“One of the Keth,” Tanik said as he led the way up to the fireplace.
“Let’s get out of here,” Darius said. “We can come back with a squad of Marines. Cassandra and I aren’t wearing any armor, and you’re the only one with a weapon.”
Tanik crouched low in front of the fireplace and reached into it with one hand. “The coals are still warm,” he said.
Darius grabbed Cassandra’s hand. “We’re going to wait for you in the Osprey.” And take off without you if we have to, he thought but didn’t say.
Tanik straightened and turned to them with a twisted grin. “Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Yes.”
“Whatever is hiding here, it might have revealed itself to you for a reason, Darius, perhaps so that it could escape. It might try to steal our ship. You don’t want to be inside it if that happens.”
Darius grimaced. “Fine, we’ll stay with you, but let’s at least go back to the ship to get some more weapons.”
“They won’t do you any good against a Revenant.”
“Then let’s leave!” Darius thundered. His voice echoed resoundingly inside the foyer of the castle, and he cringed.
Tanik’s eyes widened in alarm, and he cocked his head, listening for a reaction to the noise.
Nothing.
Darius blew out a breath, and Tanik fixed him with a scowl.
“If there’s a Revenant here, then why bother whispering?” Cassandra asked. “Wouldn’t they already have sensed us?”
“I’m hiding our presence,” Tanik replied. “Let’s go upstairs and look around. Quietly.”
Just as he said that, a loud creak sounded from somewhere above the stairs, followed by the sound of a door slamming.
Darius’s heart began pounding, and he tightened his grip on Cassandra’s hand. He turned to run back to the Osprey just in time to see a dark, blurry shape dropping down in front of him. Tanik’s flashlight swept over that shape just as it landed with a loud crunch on the rubble-strewn floor.
Chapter 11
Tanik’s flashlight swept into line, revealing the face of a tall, pretty human woman with dark hair and hard gray eyes. A heavy brow shadowed long, regal features, and a strong jaw. As Darius watched, her entire body began shimmering with light, and she drew a glowing white sword from a scabbard on her back. She was using the ZPF to shield herself.
“Who are you?” Darius asked.
“Samara?” Tanik whispered.
“Tanik?” the woman replied. She dropped her sword with a noisy clatter, and it immediately stopped glowing. A split second later, so did she.
Before either Darius or Cassandra could say anything, Tanik ran by them. He holstered his pistol and crushed the woman into a fierce hug. He picked her up and spun her around in a circle, his laughter booming and echoing through the foyer like thunder.
“You two know each other?” Cassandra asked.
The woman was laughing and sobbing, and Tanik was whispering in her ear.
Darius looked on with a frown. When Tanik finally set the woman down and withdrew from their embrace, he said, “I thought you were dead.”
She shook her head. “That was the plan, you goff! We were going to fake our deaths and escape, remember?”
“Your death was particularly convincing,” Tanik replied.
“Hello!” Cassandra said. “Is one of you going to explain what’s going on here?”
Tanik turned to them and gestured to the woman standing beside him. “This is Samara Gurhain. My wife.”
* * *
The flat white warp disc vanished with a flash of light as the warp bubble dispersed. A double chime sounded from the Harlequin’s sensors and Trista checked her contacts panel to find exactly one signature there, an SB-22 Osprey, designated Gray Seven. Trista summoned a magnified rendering of the ship, and it appeared as a luminous hologram floating before her, slowly rotating.
“There she is, Buddy. Our payday. Looks like she’s been in a fight...” Trista trailed off with a frown. There were hull panels missing all over the ship. How could anyone be alive in there? Even if the cockpit was still pressurized, it could only hold so much air.
“I’m not getting any life signs,” Buddy said. “You think we’re too late?”
“Fek it...” Trista muttered. “This is just my luck!” Now who was going to pay her that five thousand credit reward? Wors
e yet, she was out another four hundred and sixty-seven creds for fuel, and with nothing to show for it.
“What about salvage?” Buddy asked. “We could haul that Osprey back and sell it to an independent shipyard.”
“More like a scrapyard,” Trista replied. “She won’t fetch much in the condition she’s in, and you can double our fuel consumption on the way back with that much dead weight attached to our hull. The nearest buyer is at...” Trista pulled up a star map to check. “Abbex Prime. That’s all the way at the end of the starlane!” She scowled and shook her head. “Forget it. We’ll pay more in fuel to haul her than she’s worth.”
Buddy looked at her with big brown eyes and trembling lips. “So, no seafood?”
Trista frowned. “At this rate we’ll be lucky to eat at all.”
Buddy sniffed and wiped his eyes. “Why couldn’t I have been rescued by a rich freighter captain? The universe hates me.”
“You know I’m starting to see how you ended up in that meat market,” Trista said.
“At least they were feeding me.”
“Because they were fattening you up for the slaughter!” Trista sighed. “I’ll get you food at the depot. All right?”
Buddy perked up. “A fillet of fish?”
“Are you crazy? No, something cheap. How about a nice loaf of bread?”
“Kill me now!” Buddy moaned.
“Don’t tempt me,” Trista muttered as she set a return course for Drake Depot #926.
“Wait, what’s that,” Buddy said.
Trista looked up from her controls to see Buddy pointing at the Osprey. At this distance it was just a tiny silver speck. But that speck was winking strangely at her.
“What the...” Trista zoomed in for a better look, and immediately saw why it was winking. “The running lights are flicking on and off.”
“Someone is alive in there!” Buddy crowed. “Thank the Revenants! Seafood, seafood, seafood!”
“The scans showed no life signs,” Trista objected.
“Maybe it’s an android?” Buddy suggested.
“An Executor? What would one of them be doing out here all alone in a derelict Osprey?”
Broken Worlds- The Complete Series Page 40