Titan's Fury: A Science Fiction Thriller (Children of Titan Book 4)

by Rhett C. Bruno

  Before any of my people noticed, I clutched Rylah by her flawless jawline. “Is that what you want to see?” I said. “Titan covered in Pervenio red again so you can go back to whoring credits or screwing Earthers?”

  “It can’t be worse than living under a murderer. She fell for you, Kale, and you chased her away listening to Rin. So go ahead and kill me. Because if you don’t, and you touch a hair on Aria’s body, I swear I’ll bring this whole thing down.”

  My hand fell to her throat and squeezed so that the rest of what she said was garbled. I wanted to crush her. Who knew how long she’d been whispering in Aria’s ears, turning her against me until she was willing to run. It was only the sight of my aunt out of the corner of my eye that convinced me to let go.

  Rylah gagged. I turned back to my people. “The former Voice of Titan would have had her spaced without a second thought, but we are not them!” I announced. “Rylah, for your crimes against Titan in this time of struggle, you will never be able to free an Earther from his cell again. Never be able to caress and manipulate all those who thought they could trust you.”

  I approached the controls for opening the tube that allowed ashes to pass through. Both Rylah and her sister’s eyes went wide. My aunt mouthed “Please” for me to stop, but her body remained still.

  “Too much of a coward to kill me, are you, Kale?” Rylah said. The crowd of Titanborn was too loud for anybody but me to hear her. “What’s another body on the pile you’ve started.”

  “You did this to yourself, Rylah,” I said.

  “You’re right. It’s what I get for looking out for anybody but myself. But you know the one thing I learned as an information broker?”

  “And what is that?”

  “That there’s always one secret deeper. You do what you want with me, but if Aria gets hurt because she was naïve enough to love a broken man like you, I’ll tell yours.”

  I paused at the controls with one command left to open the exterior valve and expose her to Titan’s frigid air.

  “You don’t know anything,” I said. “And that terrifies you, doesn’t it?”

  Her bloody lips curled into an impish smile, the same that had probably been used to work over countless men before me. It was probably how she got Malcolm to trust her despite being an offworlder. Probably the reason I took Rin at her word and trusted her half-sister without digging deeper.

  “There were many secrets hidden in Pervenio Station after we took it,” she said. “Pointless executions like what happened to your Cora. Technology. But my favorite was an early passage from one of Titan’s first settlers. So old that the data couldn’t be opened on our terminals, but I found my way in. Of the thousands Darien Trass brought here before the Meteorite hit, all our lives we’ve been told his daughter was among them. But Darien Trass didn’t have a biological daughter, only one he took in.” She started to snicker. “You, and my sister, and your father are as much Trasses as anyone in this room.”

  She grinned all the way through her revelation, at least until she realized that I wasn’t shocked at all. I felt like I should be. Like I should have gone faint upon hearing that our entire revolution was based on a lie. I didn’t feel a thing.

  Maybe she was telling the truth, but it didn’t matter. I was only a descendant of Trass because my people needed me to be. They needed a symbol, a name, to rally behind. To be honest, it was almost a relief to feel the weight of living up to the most brilliant man in human history lifting off me. The truth was that I, Rylah, every Titanborn in the room were all the children of those he selected. The three thousand most worthy people on an Earth that deserved to die.

  Rylah’s features darkened when she realized her final slight had no effect. Not a soul among my people would believe her anyway. It was too late for that.

  I stared straight into her eyes, never breaking contact, and then I keyed the command. The outer seal of the tube opened, allowing the bitter cold of Titan to slip through. At first, Rylah went silent, then she fell to her knees. Her cries were drowned out by the bloodthirsty crowd.

  Her exposure only lasted a few seconds before I resealed the tube, but it was long enough for the chill of my world to slip by her arms and give me goosebumps. Rin threw her cane aside and ran forward to pull Rylah free from the tube. She was too weak still to help, and Rylah collapsed on top of her, her entire body shivering, her lips blue. The skin up to her forearms was frozen solid, and when her hands hit the floor, they began to crack. The only thing that kept them from shattering was that the intolerable cold had fused them together.

  I laid my hand upon Rin’s shoulder as she struggled to calm her writhing sister. “Have her body warmed, then meet me at Basaam’s workstation,” I said. “Word came through this morning. His engines are complete.”

  Rin glanced up at me, incredulous. She needed time, but so had I when she invaded the Piccolo and made me a rebel. The Earther fleet was near, and enough time had already been wasted dealing with traitors when we should’ve been preparing.

  “That’s an order,” I said then left them behind.

  My people reached out to brush my armor as I passed, praising my mercy. I heard Rylah howling in agony until I was out of the Darien Hall of Ashes. It was the same sound I’d grown used to while visiting my mother in the quarantine zone. Only, those were my people suffering. The woman at my back, no matter what Rin thought, wasn’t one of us. Not anymore.

  I ditched my guards outside the lift and headed up to the glamorous home I’d never wanted. I’d meant to ask my men to try and spare some water for the garden but forgot. Now even the sole flower that fought to the sunlight for life was wilting and brown.

  I told more guards standing outside the door to leave, then threw it open. Aria lay inside, cuffed to the bed and with a tracking band on her ankle, something I should have put on her from the start if I weren’t blinded by her pretty green eyes like a fool.

  “Kale.” She sat up on the edge of the bed but could go no further. Her due date was nearing, and it showed. “I... It wasn’t what it looked like.”

  “At least have the damn decency not to lie to me!” I slammed my fist on the doorway, bending the frame, then stormed up to her. “You said you told me everything, but not about Rylah and your father’s history fucking. How long were you planning to run?”

  “Just listen to me!”

  “I’m so tired of listening.” I lifted the Ark-ship pendant with one finger then let it drop back to her chest. “Everyone told me not to trust you from the beginning, but I ignored them. They warned me that you were only out for yourself like a true mudstomper.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Well, you picked a hell of a way to show it.” I said. “You want to know what I think? I think you were planning to leave the moment your summit failed and I let you visit your old home. You and your father were going to disappear until Venta mucked things up.”

  “I told you, I had no idea he was alive!”

  “More lies from the mouth of a whore who sold her body and soul to Madame Venta!”

  Aria slapped me across the face. It stung, but I didn’t shunt. I edged closer until she fell back onto the bed and I was glaring down at her from almost half a meter above.

  “Do you think I wanted that?” she asked. “I did what I had to do to survive after I was left alone, just like any of you would have.”

  “You’re not one of us,” I said. “The only reason you’re not being punished like Rylah is because of who you’re carrying. And the moment he’s born—”

  “You’ll what?” she said. “Kill me like Orson Fring? And probably Rylah and my father soon enough. You’re wrong, Kale, I didn’t want to leave. Every word I ever said to you, I meant. Maybe it’s just the doctor in me that thought I could help you at first, but I fell for that wounded man I met all those long months ago who believed in something. But I refuse to sit back and watch you destroy our son like my father did to me over a woman who’s gone and isn’t coming back!�
��

  “At least she was honest!” I shouted.

  “All the good it did her.”

  The back of my hand lashed out to smack her in return, but I managed to stop myself before it struck. With my suit on, it could have done unrepairable damage and harmed the baby.

  “Lucky for you, after we’re done, you won’t have to watch me do anything,” I said, hand quivering. “You can go to Earth for all I care, but Titan is our son’s birthright. All of this is so that he and every one of our children can grow up in a world where we’re more than garbage.”

  “No, Kale,” she whispered. “You’re doing all of this for you.”

  I bit my lip. How could I have been so blind? How did I ever think she understood what we went through, when all she’d ever been was a two-faced rank-climber out to best her estranged dad? First Madame Venta, now me. If not for her bulging stomach, I’m not sure I would have been able to control myself. Even still, I turned away from her and rushed out, locking the door behind me while she screamed my name.

  I ditched my guards and headed to the only place where I knew I could be alone. Down in the Lowers, far below, where I’d grown up before war or betrayal or anything—when only survival mattered. When my mother could still look at me without being disappointed.

  “Lord Trass, I didn’t expect to see you,” said my old neighbor Benji Reiger as I approached. “Can I—”

  “Out of my way!” I shoved the old man out of the way. His back slammed against the hatch into his dwelling, and his wife ran to him from inside to help him.

  I threw open my own hatch and entered the tiny hollow I’d grown up in. I paced back and forth, unable to slow my breathing now that I was alone. I drew my hand terminal to play Cora’s last moments again. It usually allowed me to focus my anger on what needed to be done, but the moment I saw Director Sodervall’s face, I exploded.

  I slammed the terminal against the floor, then grabbed one of the beds inside and ripped it out of the wall, screaming at the top of my lungs. And I didn’t stop. All the fury over what happened poured out of me, until I was left lying against the wall panting like a rabid beast, and the room I’d grown up in was torn to pieces.

  Sixteen

  Malcolm

  Feeling my age wasn’t new, but for the first time in my life, I felt like a cripple. The pounding I took after Zhaff stopped our escape was one for my personal record books, especially after all the others since I was brought to Titan. Ringers on their own, weak. Dozens of them kicking my ribs with their armor on as they dragged me back to my cell after I’d survived a crash? Different story.

  I could barely move either leg, and they didn’t even bother whipping up a new electromag dampener to disable my artificial one. I feared what that meant for Rylah, as if worrying about Aria and now Zhaff wasn’t enough. My hips popped any time I tried to move them, like I was an elder shoved into some clan-family retirement clinic. Even drawing breath led to a sharp pain pulling at my sides.

  Even with all of that, however, it was my mind that felt the worst. We were so close to being free of Titan forever. The frozen world where nothing good in my life had ever happened. It was there that I once decided to leave Rylah and continue being a collector for credits I’d waste on whores and gambling dens. Where I was forced to kill my friend and partner. Where I’d learned my daughter was working with terrorists, and later that she was carrying the child of their leader.

  All I kept thinking about was how much easier things would’ve been if Luxarn had left me out to freeze. No fake leg. No more worrying about Aria. No seeing the sad creature Luxarn had turned Zhaff into to ease his own guilt. Just peace, quiet, and an eternity of darkness.

  “On your feet, Earther!” a hardened Titanborn ordered, banging on my cage. Desmond was gone. If I knew the self-proclaimed king of Titan like I thought I did, Desmond’s failure to control me probably got him punished. Or killed, more likely.

  “You plan on helping me up?” I groaned, voice muffled by a new sanitary mask strapped to my face even tighter. Speaking brought about aches that I didn’t even know were humanly possible. A tough feat, considering I’d spent a lifetime fighting.

  Before my new guard could answer, a throng of heavy feet marched into the cavern. They spread around the perimeter of Basaam Venta’s workspace. The engine he was building remained in a series of pieces, but all they needed now was to be assembled. It was complete. The hollow had been freezing when I was first sent down who knows how long ago, just how the Ringers liked it, but his creation emitted heat like a warm hovercar engine upon every test. By the bars of my cell, it was enough to make me sweat.

  “Mr. Venta,” the familiar voice of my captor addressed him. “I trust everything is in working order.”

  “Yes… yes, of course, Mr. Trass,” Basaam stammered. “Tests show that the Fusion Pulse Engine is operating at ninety percent yield in comparison to those I’d been working on for the Departure Ark. I attempted to produce comparable models, but in these conditions, and with the materials available, I...I...”

  “Relax, Mr. Venta,” Kale said calmly. “That will be more than enough.”

  The boy king wrapped his arm around the scientist’s shoulders, towering over him. I could hear Basaam’s gulp all the way from my cell. He probably thought exactly what I was. With his work completed, what would happen to Basaam and his clan-sister?

  “Bring down transports and have the parts loaded onto the Cora immediately,” Kale ordered one of his men.

  “Kale… uh… Mr. Trass,” Basaam said. “I’ve told you, this technology is not optimized to operate on a ship the Cora’s size.”

  Basaam Venta was still trying to do the humane thing, even in his situation, like a good scientist. I wondered why more of the brilliant people I’d had to take down for Pervenio Corp in my day for pushing tech too far couldn’t be more like him. Then I saw Kale stoop over the man and make him cringe and remembered why. Only weak men wound up in situations like this, forced to do things to protect loved ones. What did that say for myself and all I’d done to make this possible?

  “As I’ve told you, I have no intention of using these on the Cora,” Kale said. “Take him to the Cora and have him assemble the engine there.”

  Two armored Titanborn seized him, knocking his glasses off in the process.

  “You said you would let her go if I did this!” Basaam yelled. He did his best to fight them. Poor bastard. Not everyone with Earther strength grows up knowing how to wield it. “Please. You gave your word.”

  Kale raised a hand to stop his men. “He’s right. You’ve done everything I’ve asked of you, Mr. Venta. Your clan-sister will be released back to her own people with the others, as promised.

  “What others? Where are you taking me? I gave you my work. Just let me go with her!”

  Kale grinned. “Titan still needs you. We’re going on a ride, Mr. Venta. You, me, and our friend over there.” Kale nodded to his men, and they returned to hauling Basaam out of the room. His screams for Helena echoed throughout the hollow until he was out of sight, then stopped abruptly. I could hear the woman crying in the cell next to mine. She couldn’t even get a word out, she was so distraught. Weak or strong, I was beginning to realize that nobody was built to handle a situation like this.

  “I feel like I’ve seen this scene before,” I said to Kale, trying to draw attention away from her. My body creaked and cracked as I used the bars to heave myself to my feet. “That’s right. It’s just like back on Pervenio Station before I left Sodervall in charge of your crew. We all know how that ended.”

  “Quiet!” My new guard hit the bars with his rifle.

  Kale turned to me, sneering. I would’ve paid all the credits in the world for another chance to wipe it off his face.

  “It’s okay.” Kale motioned for the guard to back away and approached my cell himself. Just the sight of his face after what had happened had my blood boiling. The smug, pompous kid who thought the whole solar-system owed him everythin
g. I’d put down too many ambitious young men like him to count for Pervenio, but he was by far the worst.

  “I think you and Sodervall would have gotten along,” I said. “You’re both insufferable, self-righteous shits. Want to know what I should’ve done after I interrogated Cora? Taken her with me myself. Could’ve given her a better life than either of you or, you know… death.”

  Kale’s expression didn’t break. Getting under Desmond’s skin was simple, and driving a wedge between Kale and Rin had been as well. But every time I saw Kale again, this war had made his shell a little harder. It was like Aria was the only thing left helping him cling to his humanity, and now he knew she wanted to run.

  A second bout of insults stopped on the tip of my tongue when I realized who that numbness to the horrors men are capable of reminded me of—Me. Three decades as a collector made me indifferent to everything, at least until Zhaff and Aria turned me inside out.

  “I’m starting to enjoy our conversations,” Kale said.

  “You too?” I replied.

  “I’ll miss them, but it’s time for you to help us one last time.”

  “How many times do me and Aria have to tell you I’m retired.”

  “Oh, Aria told me many things. About how you abandoned her so often as a child to get ahead on credits. How after five long years without talking, you found her in that cavern on Titan and tried to get her out. You want to know my favorite part, though? It’s when you shot Luxarn Pervenio’s secret bastard son to keep him from taking her in.”

  Kale clapped his hands; I flinched. To me, it sounded like that very gunshot that took Zhaff’s life, echoing over and over in my brain. Only now I had the extreme displeasure of picturing him squirming as his body was gored.

  “Zhaff Pervenio,” he mused. “I wonder what Luxarn will say when I find him and tell him that his prized collector is the real killer. That Malcolm Graves is the one who made our revolution possible.”