“Oh, I understand, all right,” Alfis said. “I understand it’s creepy as hell.”
NECESSARY, ALFIS. YOU CAN’T FIT IN THIS UNIFORM, CAN YOU?
“No, but—”
THEN LET ME WORK, YOU UNGRATEFUL ATORGA!
That shut Alfis up…for the moment.
Ryze, however, could fit into the uniform. Mostly. It was a little snug in the waist and the shoulders. If he kept the bulky parts of his armor out instead of retracting them, he would’ve easily ripped the meshy material and drawn unwanted attention from actual Dominion soldiers. He was still able to continue wearing his chest and back plate. Legs and feet were covered, too, although only slightly. His boots matched the attire of the Dominion soldiers enough, and how many people really looked down at military boots? Next to no one…hopefully.
He didn’t wear his helmet for obvious reasons, and that didn’t go over well with him. Being without his helmet felt like being naked in public, especially considering his scarred face was plastered all over the Holo Net. He had come to think of his helmet as another brain, especially with Spex providing important information and frequent updates to whatever the task at hand was. Spex wouldn’t be able to do that, though, not without alerting the real guards. Ryze wasn’t supposed to carry his flayzer, either, but the standard-issue blasters assigned to Dominion soldiers and staff were pretty vanilla. Sure, they could do some damage, but besides that, it wasn’t anything like Ryze’s. So he kept the flayzer. The key was to not draw attention to it by constantly looking over his shoulder or fussing about with the attached strap. Fake it until you make it.
Blue’s features slowly began forming on his face. Two circles for the eyes that remained totally green, a large, hooked nose, ears that stuck out, and texture around thin lips that somewhat resembled a goatee.
HOW IS THIS?
Ryze and Alfis exchanged a glance. Alfis grimaced.
“No offense, Blue, but you look…like a nightmare,” Ryze said.
“That’s being generous,” Alfis added.
Blue’s mouth twisted and wrinkled like a balled-up piece of paper.
“What—what’s that?” Ryze asked, his eyes narrowed.
I AM FROWNING. IS THAT NOT WHAT HUMANS DO WHEN THEY ARE UPSET?
“That’s not a frown, man,” Ryze said.
“Yeah, a frown is like this.” Alfis made an upside down “U” with his lips.
“A little too much,” Ryze said, and then he gave it a go himself.
“You look like an old guy who yells at people to stay off his lawn,” Alfis said. “Talk about a little too much…”
FORGET IT. I WILL KEEP THE EMOTING TO A MINIMUM, AND RYZE WILL DO ALL THE TALKING.
Ryze gave him a thumbs up, then he stepped back and spun around. “Now, how do I look?”
Alfis moved his eyes up and down. “Well, you ain’t winning any fashion shows, that’s for damn sure.”
I AGREE WITH ALFIS. BUT IT IS PASSABLE, AND THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS NOW.
Ryze winked. “Good enough for me. Let’s land this son of a bitch.” He slid back into the pilot’s chair and brought the ship’s speed down as they neared Sker.
ALFIS, GO TAKE YOUR SPOT. CONTAINER NUMBER THREE.
“Aye, aye,” Alfis said, saluting. He waddled off the bridge and back to the cargo hold. There, they had thought of stuffing the remains of the cybersoldiers, but decided it best to shoot them out the airlock. No evidence was the better route.
The shimmering barrier surrounding Sker opened wide enough for the transport to slip through. Just barely.
Though the transport vessel was much larger than the Starblazer, Ryze had no trouble. Their landing was a smooth one. When the vessel touched down on the landing pad control guided them to, he brought his wrist comm up to his mouth and said, “Spex, Eradice, we’re on the ground. We’ll tell you as soon as the shields are down.”
“Roger that,” Eradice responded. “As soon as your tentacle is on the power button, Blue, notify the ship. We’ll only have about three minutes to get through and back before the shield goes up again.”
“Blue nodded,” Ryze said.
“He nodded?” Eradice replied.
“Yeah, he’s a humanoid now. Somewhat.”
“Right. Unsettling, isn’t it?”
“Beyond,” Ryze answered softly. “All right, we’ll see you.”
“Best of luck, sir,” Spex said.
“Thanks, Spex, but we don’t need luck.”
“I like your confidence, Starlo,” Eradice said.
“Some might say over-confidence,” Spex added.
“Love you, too, buddy,” Ryze said and clicked the comm off. If a transmission came through, he’d get a light vibration on his forearm instead of a loud broadcast that would get them caught.
OPEN THE CARGO HOLD, Blue said. IF WE KEEP THEM WAITING, THEY’LL ONLY GROW MORE SUSPICIOUS.
Ryze punched the button that opened the cargo’s door. Machinery grumbled in the background. “After you—wait,” he told Blue and then tapped the corner of his mouth. “Got a little something dangling there, my friend.”
Blue brought a greenish hand to his mouth. DRATS. He pressed the small tentacle into his flesh as if it were made of clay. IT’S BEEN TOO LONG SINCE I’VE DONE THIS.
“Well, keep it under control. And can’t you change your skin color anymore? You’re too green.”
Blue closed his eyes and grunted. It looked like he was trying to lift something heavy, but his flesh tone did eventually change.
HOW IS THAT?
“Better, but you still look like you’re nauseous.” Ryze shrugged. “It’ll have to do. Here they come.” Looking out of the viewscreen, he saw Dominion guards heading toward the back of the vessel. They didn’t look like too much to handle, regular old Joes roped up in the galactic conflict either by the mandatory draft or by joining on their own free will.
They met the guards at the cargo hold. All looked like they wanted to be anywhere else. They kept their heads down and walked lethargically. Ryze did the same. He expected greetings, secret handshakes, general banter, but none of that happened. This made him feel slightly bad for them—
DON’T FEEL BAD. THEY ARE MURDERERS, Blue thought.
What about draftees? Ryze thought back.
THERE ARE NONE ON SKER. DRAFTEES ARE EXPENDABLE—WHICH MEANS THEY ARE IN THE FRONT LINES OF WHATEVER BATTLES ARE BEING FOUGHT.
It was true. Ryze knew it, but he still felt bad. There was no changing that. The navigator turned out to be a pretty swell guy…what was to say these soldiers couldn’t be the same, if given the chance?
Ryze went for the container with the large number three written on its side. He smelled the oil. Each box—and there were more than a dozen—was filled with weapons. Number three just happened to have both weapons and Alfis.
Blue went for number six. Together, they fell in the back of the line going down the cargo ramp. Easier to slip out unnoticed. With the way these guys are going through the motions, I think I could probably yell how much I hate the God-King and they wouldn’t do a thing, he thought.
PLEASE DON’T.
Blue was glaring at Ryze out of the corner of his eyes, one of which was a different size and shade. Not only the pupil, but what was supposed to be the white. That part was a squeamish green color.
Ryze squinted and tapped his own.
DRATS!
Blue looked down, his hat hiding his face as he adjusted his organic disguise.
“Can we hurry it up,” a voice whispered from below Ryze, startling him. It took him a moment to realize it was Alfis.
“Shut up,” Ryze hissed. He gave the hovering container a slight shake, and Alfis shifted around with the rest of the weapons like dice in a gambler’s hand.
Once on the landing platform, Ryze saw the towering red facility in the distance. The prison. Inside those steel walls were bunches of people deemed war criminals—and among them was Wylow. Ryze’s heart fluttered at the thought of her. Of course
, he hadn’t really been able to stop thinking about her since they met on Xovia, but he would never admit that aloud.
DON’T WORRY, I WON'T TELL YOUR GIRLFRIEND.
She’s not my girlfriend, Ryze thought back.
He had never been to Sker, but he'd heard a lot about the planet, and it was all seemingly true.
The sky was a fiery red and the clouds that hung low were coal-black. The air smelled of sulfur and flame, yet the temperature was cold—near freezing. Farther in the distance was a mountain range, peaks broken and twisted, like teeth in a diseased mouth. The sight of those summits filled Ryze with a dread he couldn’t explain.
TRY NOT TO GAWK LIKE YOU’RE A TOURIST, Blue said. CLOSE YOUR MOUTH AND LOOK STRAIGHT AHEAD. WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO BREAK AWAY FROM THE GROUP WHEN WE ENTER THE PRISON’S LOADING DOCK.
Ryze did. He was used to the helmet hiding his features, a mask to mask his emotions. Blue was right, though.
So this is it? he thought back. Man, I didn’t expect it to be so mundane—
From around a stack of barrels—some kind of fuel with a deathly warning label slapped on their sides—an alien stepped into the middle of the walkway, stopping in front of Ryze and Blue.
“Halt,” she said.
Ryze looked the alien over. He had never seen one exactly like her. Part Nepgip and possibly Gray. It had the upturned nose of the Nepgip, but the slenderness and ashy skin of a Gray.
Blue stopped and saluted the officer. Ryze, unsure, did the same. It had been a while since he saluted anyone. He didn’t exactly miss it.
“At ease, soldiers,” the hybrid said. “What was the holdup?”
Ryze cleared his throat. “Uh, lightning storm, sir. We radioed in.”
“But none came out on the radar, soldier.” Her beady eyes narrowed.
Ryze shrugged. “Maybe it was a tech issue?”
She looked at Blue. “What do you have to say, soldier?” she asked him.
Ryze swallowed. His throat was dry.
Blue had no answer. Despite his transformation, he still couldn’t speak. He was looking at Ryze for help. Ryze cleared his throat and said the first thing that came to mind. “Sir, he, uh, he lost his ability to speak in battle.”
She arched her eyebrow. “What battle?”
“The Battle of Kazer, sir.” The first one that popped into his head. Please don’t say you were in that battle, please don’t say—
“I understand,” she replied, and looked at Blue. “Thank you, soldier, for your service.”
Blue nodded then saluted.
“Now catch up with the others! We have work to do.”
“Yes, sir!” Ryze said, also giving a salute.
She walked past them, and Ryze and Blue kept going, but he knew her eyes were on their backs.
Blue glanced at him. THAT WAS CLOSE, AND IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET MORE DANGEROUS FROM HERE ON OUT.
I’m ready, Ryze thought.
Twenty-Four
Sergeant Deai watched the two soldiers walk away with her hands clasped behind her. The navigator, aside from his inability to speak, seemed okay, but the pilot…the pilot was obviously nervous.
And the way he saluted, Deai thought. That wasn’t right. Slightly off, the hand too low on his brow, his stance crooked.
The two had caught up with the others guiding their hovercarts toward the loading bay. When they were in the shadows, Deai turned and headed for the transport ship. As she ascended up the ramp and into the cargo hold, her strong senses picked up the lingering odor of blaster fire and a slight smell of smoke. She investigated closer. Near the entrance, she found two scorch marks on the metal. Fresh marks.
A twisted smile stretched across her face. I was right, she thought. It always felt good being right. Still, she investigated further. As she walked toward the vessel’s cockpit, she brought up the ship’s data on her holopad. The names of the pilot and the navigator were Sherv and Denuzz, both from the planet Quark. There were pictures accompanying their records. Height and weight were similar to the men she had just spoken with. Their hair colors was indeterminable considering their hats and buzzed heads. Ages might be slightly off, too…
“Hmm,” Deai said. She was walking slowly through the corridors, looking for more signs of struggle when something else caught her eye. From the flight records she’d been scrolling through, she saw there were supposed to be three cyberguards on this ship. She had watched the men come out. They came out with no robots. And there weren’t any onboard now…
“It doesn’t take a genius,” she said. But why wouldn’t they delete the records of the guards? “Because it’s common knowledge that cyberguards were to be on a ship transporting Dominion weapons, that’s why.”
Their hope was that no one would notice, and had it been any other sergeant on the clock than her, they might’ve gotten away with it. She swiped through the holopad and brought her communicator up, ready to notify the other guards in the loading bay when she heard a soft mumble from a nearby maintenance closet. She stopped abruptly.
Rattling, banging.
She opened the door. A man spilled out in only his underwear. He was bound and gagged, in pretty rough shape. Bruises, black eye, dried blood on his upper lip, broken fingers.
Deai removed the gag. “Who are you?” She already knew the answer.
“I’m the pilot of this ship!”
“Where’s the navigator?” She thought she knew the answer to this one, too. Surely, the navigator had put up a fight and the rebels had killed him and sent his body out of the airlock—But why wouldn’t they do the same for the pilot, too?
“He betrayed the Dominion. I don’t know where he’s at. Can you untie me, please? Please?”
Deai turned away from the pilot. Let him stew a bit longer. A weakling like him should’ve never allowed insurgents to overtake the ship.
She brought up her holopad and began typing a message to every officer in or around the prison facility.
The message: Security broadcast: Two rebels have broken through our defenses. Both human, both dressed in the attire of Dominion guards. Their field numbers are 7303991 and 298491. I repeat…
Twenty-Five
“Easier than I expected,” Ryze said. “Really.”
They had broken off from the line of soldiers loading up the weapons and were now twisting through the labyrinthine corridors of the prison.
Blue stopped in a small alcove, hidden by shadows and out of sight of any cameras. Ryze brought up the schematics from his suit’s holopad.
THERE IS STILL MUCH TO DO. Blue opened his weapons box. From it, he took a blaster longer than a human arm and a few n-packs.
Ryze looked up, eyes wide. He expected a blaster, but he wasn’t expecting that. “You okay with using that thing? I mean, your species was against violence, weren’t they?”
YES, WE WERE, BUT THAT WAS BEFORE THE CELESTIAL GOD-KING WIPED OUT MY PLANET. THE RULES HAVE CHANGED, STARLO.
“I like what I’m hearing. All right, we’re at Junction B. According to the schematics, this is about the halfway point.”
SO THIS IS WHERE WE SPLIT UP.
“Exactly. You know where you’re going?”
I DO. DO YOU?
“I got the map, you don’t.”
“Get on with it!” Alfis shouted, voice muffled. “And let me the hell outta here!”
“Shit, I totally forgot.” Ryze undid the lock and helped Alfis crawl over the edge and onto the floor. The Atorga’s fuzzy hair was disheveled. If not for the rage in his eye, he might’ve looked like a cuddly stuffed animal.
“Gimme one of those blasguns,” Alfis said.
Rather than argue how Alfis wouldn’t be able to comfortably hold a weapon that big, he handed Alfis what he wanted and thought the failure would speak for itself. It didn’t. Again, Ryze found himself impressed.
“I’ll hold it for you.” Ryze slung the rifle over his shoulder. It knocked against the flayzer currently not so greatly concealed by his overcoat.
LET’S DO THIS AS QUICK AS POSSIBLE. RENDEZVOUS ON THE SOUTH LANDING PAD, Blue said as he walked away. Before he turned the corner, he looked back at them. OH, AND PLEASE TRY TO KEEP THE BLOODSHED TO A MINIMUM.
Ryze saluted.
Alfis said, “No promises.”
Blue shook his head and left.
“All right,” Ryze said. “You ready?”
“You gotta quit asking me that,” Alfis replied. “I’m ready, but that don’t matter at all. Whether I’m ready or not, we’re doing this, ain’t we?”
“We are.” Ryze pulled out the binds. “You know the next part, friend.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Alfis thrust his hands forward. Ryze cuffed him. Right now, the Atorga was officially Prisoner 3341, heading for Section J, where Wylow was locked up. “Just know I don’t feel good about it, though.”
Ryze laughed. “Worst comes to worst, slip out and kick some ass. Easy.”
“Yeah, but minimum bloodshed.”
They both laughed this time, as if what Blue said was a joke.
With Alfis in front of him and Ryze’s weapon pointed at his back, they left the shadows. On their way, a soldier heading in the other direction passed them. She nodded; Ryze nodded back. When she turned the corner, he let out the breath he was holding.
They kept walking. They passed rows and rows of cells. Prisoners hung their hands out between the bars and leaned against the doors. Ryze stared straight ahead. Seeing these people only hurt him, because he wished he could save all of them.
“Terrible,” Alfis murmured. For the first time since Ryze had met the Atorga, he sounded sympathetic.
They went up a flight of steps and through a mess hall dotted with soldiers eating and talking in low voices. They kept to themselves, avoided any and everyone with a Dominion sigil on their overcoats. Which was all of them.
Three minutes later, they passed into the corridor leading to Section J.
The door before them stood tall and ominous. “Looks unbreakable,” Ryze said.
“Nah, my nails could slice right through that,” Alfis answered.
“After seeing what you did to the cybersoldiers, I actually believe you, but that’s probably a terrible idea. We gotta get in the right way.”
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