He reached into my pocket and removed the hand-terminal Varus had given me. A Pervenio logo was stamped on the center of the screensaver. I’d been hoping that in the chaos they’d forget about it and I could send Luxarn our location the moment I got a chance. Gareth tapped Kale, handed it to him, and signed him something.
“Thank you, Gareth,” Kale said. He stowed it and took his seat in the captain’s chair, positioned behind and between Rin’s and Aria’s. “Aria, is everything ready?”
My daughter struck a few keys, then glanced back over her shoulder. Her cheeks were a subtle shade of green. She made eye contact with me and offered the slightest nod imaginable and a frail smile; something to tell me that I hadn’t failed her. I would’ve returned the expression if my stomach wasn’t so unsettled.
“All systems go,” she said. She ran her hand across a holographic screen, and suddenly the back of both my chair and headrest went slack. Restraints popped out over my legs, chest, and forehead as the chair molded to the cambers of my body. It felt like the entire back half of me was submerged in warm goo. The same happened to everybody, only Gareth somehow continued to dig his pistol into my side.
“Open this place up, Rin,” Kale commanded.
“Cora, armed,” Rin said. “G-stims, everyone.” While everybody but me injected a stim into their necks, Rin looked to Aria. “Pressure’s going to give us a jolt. Think you can handle it?”
Aria ground her teeth, wearing a pained expression as she swallowed back what I assumed was bile. “Just shoot.”
The Cora, I realized. Even my exhausted, poisoned mind couldn’t forget that name because the girl it belonged to reminded me so much of Aria. It was the name of a young, mixed-blood Ringer woman I’d interrogated in relation to the attack on the gas harvester Piccolo, which claimed the lives of near twenty Earthers. Cora was a member of the crew during the attack, same as Kale, but when the latter disappeared, he was blamed for the attack by Director Sodervall. Cora refused to believe Kale had anything to do with it, thanks to some damn obvious feelings. Only, you didn’t name ships after someone who was still alive.
What the hell had Director Sodervall done after I left her alive and headed for medical? The greatest revolution in the post-Meteorite era… could it all really be over a girl?
The ship lurched as missiles lanced out from beneath its wings. The wall of the hangar erupted in a plume of swirling smoke and flame that was swiftly extinguished by Mars’s lack of oxygen. The rapid pressure change caused the ship to jolt, and then the impulse drives kicked in, and we shot forward through the breach.
If it weren’t for my seat’s malleable headrest, my neck would’ve snapped in two. Even still, the pressure exerted on my entire body was excruciating. It felt like the fattest Earther imaginable was sitting on my chest, driving his thumbs into my eyes harder and harder. The air grew thick, oxygen pumping in through the forward recyclers at elevated rates to keep the pilot and navigators conscious through the worst of it.
Mars’s rusty sky filled the viewport. Anti-air fire flashed like lightning all around us as the Venta Co. defenses attempted to shoot us down. Aria whipped the Cora this way and that to avoid them. I could see the grimace pulling at her cheeks, even from my vantage behind her. No amateur would be able to focus under such strenuous conditions, but all Venta’s attempts to stymie us sailed by harmlessly.
I sat in awe of my daughter. Her chest was restrained, but her arms masterfully worked the controls. The ship released flares and who knows what other evasive tech it was loaded with as she twirled. It wasn’t even until a flock of blue-colored fighters appeared on the horizon that she even broke a sweat.
“Venta?” Kale asked.
“Seven, heading straight at us!” Aria replied. The end of her sentence trailed off as she dipped us hard to the left under the blast of an anti-air round. “Should I engage?”
“Let’s see what this thing is capable of.”
“My pleasure,” Rin muttered. She worked her targeting array and unleashed a barrage of ordnance. Missiles, plasma torpedoes, high-caliber flak; enough to make Venta think twice. Aria held a straight course until the volley was released, then dropped into a spiral. I covered my mouth as the viewport spun.
The fighters fanned apart and returned fire. The Cora shuddered, missiles tearing into its hull. The screens and consoles in front of Aria chirped as readouts transmitted damage reports. As Aria leveled us out, one of the Ringers in the hold behind us puked so loudly, I could hear it over the clamor of exploding torpedoes outside.
“Three fighters down!” Aria shouted. “Ablative plating at 73 percent. No critical damage.”
“They’re looping back around,” Rin said. “More fighters scrambling from the Little Peru Colony as well.”
“We won’t survive too many straight-on assaults like that.”
“You going to take them all on, Trass?” I grated. “Take my daughter down with you?”
Gareth punched me in the rib with his pistol. I was surprised by how weak the blow felt, considering the powered armor he wore, although my whole body was so racked with pain that anything short of a bullet through the brain wouldn’t faze me.
“We won’t have to,” Kale sneered.
“Intercepting coms with Madame Venta,” Aria said. “We’re being hooked in.” She flicked a switch, and the message came through loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Madame Jamaru Venta, this is Galora Martinez, director of security for Red Wing Company on Mars. You are attacking a transport vehicle under our protection. If you do not retreat, we will be forced to engage.”
“Oh, don’t you fucking do this, Galora,” Madame Venta responded. I’d only ever heard her speak over news feeds, but the ire in her tone was enough to give even me a shiver. “That vessel is harboring known criminals.”
“Kale Trass and his followers have yet to be formally convicted of violating any colonial statutes. As inhabitants of greater Sol, they engaged in a contract with Red Wing Company to provide secure transit to and from Titan.”
“I’m aware of the deal you made.”
“Then you understand that the Red Wing Board has agreed it cannot allow you to infringe upon our agreement.”
“Now isn’t the time to flex your muscle, Galora. Are you really going to start a war with me over a band of terrorists?”
“We uphold all contracts to the best of our abilities.”
“Do you know who they have on that ship? They abducted Basaam Venta. They killed my sons!”
“Basaam Venta remains a missing person with unconfirmed whereabouts. The only thing that we can confirm is that your employees stormed a private hangar chartered by us and caused the deaths of no less than seven Red Wing officers as well as an unknown number of Kale Trass’s escort. You will be lucky to avoid USF sanctions.”
Silence. Only the sounds of a ship’s engine pushed to its limits, and the wheezing of the mute Ringer beside me met my ears. Mars’ thin atmosphere gradually peeled away, like a giant was dropping a black canvas over us. The faint stars glittered like diamonds and grew brighter.
“When this lunatic kills more people,” Madame Venta said, finally, “I want you and your damn board to remember that we could have ended it here.” Her communications cut out.
“We have upheld our end of the agreement and will be expecting payment on schedule,” Red Wing Director Galora addressed the Cora’s cockpit directly after a brief silence. “Red Wing hopes that despite unforeseen complications during your visit, our show of support will encourage you to continue the good faith export of certain goods exclusively to us. Our reach, however, extends only so far. May I suggest plotting a course to Titan that steers as far from Jupiter’s orbit as possible. Safe journey, Kale Trass, and please, give your ambassador our best regards for instituting this contract.”
“All Venta fighters are pulling back!” Aria said.
Aria turned down the throttle as we broke Mars’ gravity well and were embraced by the oppre
ssive blackness of space. The pressure exerted on every inch of my body waned, and for the first time since we took off, I felt like I could breathe again, at least until opening my mouth too wide almost made me heave.
Mars’ moon Phobos hovered off to the right, speckled with lights and a host of Venta cruisers flocking the docking station on its surface. As agreed upon between Venta and Red Wing Company, none followed us or fired. Things really were out of whack with Pervenio Corp so weak. Luxarn, or rather the world-eating Luxarn I knew from before the Ring fell, would have never allowed himself to be played like Madame Venta was.
“Damn mudstompers can’t get out of each other’s way,” Rin sneered.
“You do realize it was a mudstomper who just saved us,” I said. I expected Gareth to try to quiet me with another forceful nudge, but none came.
“And where were they when we stood before the Assembly?” Kale retorted. “Barely a whimper of support.”
“Gareth, keep him quiet,” Rin ordered.
“You have a lot to learn about corporate politics, kid,” I said. “Under-the-table drug trafficking doesn’t net you public backing. It nets you credits.”
Aria loosened her restraints and turned to join the argument, but the moment our gazes met, her eyes went wide in horror. The weight of Gareth’s arm slumped into me, and his pistol drifted weightlessly across the cockpit. Blood followed it, leaking steadily in perfect scarlet droplets out of his mouth, shoulder, and stomach. The pressure of launch must have started the bleeding up again. His eyelids were three-quarters closed, slits of white in the reveals. If there was even the slightest pigment to the Ringer’s skin, it was noticeably absent. I didn’t need to be a doctor to know he was hanging on by a thread.
“Gareth!” Kale shouted, but he didn’t move. He couldn’t. I’d snatched Gareth’s pistol out of the air and aimed it straight at the king of Titan’s face.
A stroke of luck for once. I could end it all then, just like I’d helped get it started when I put Zhaff down. My hand wasn’t even cramping this time. I was too sick for my compromised mind to hamper me. Kale Trass, or Drayton, or whatever he thought he was, had it coming. Not a soul on the Cora, even his allies, didn’t know it.
But I didn’t shoot.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Aria’s pleading face. I remembered when I’d killed the smuggler Elios Sevari to try and protect her—the first man she’d ever fallen in love with. I remembered all the times I’d let her down, and the last time I’d saved her by shooting my own partner and friend. Murdering Kale wouldn’t free her from the life her bad choices led to. She wasn’t one of them, and Rin would order our slaughter the moment I pulled the trigger. I could see that written all over her scarred face. Once the shooting started, nobody would get off the Cora alive.
So I made the only decision a father could. I coughed once, wiped my mouth, and then spared the boy king of Titan his warranted assassination. I released the gun and allowed his revolution to keep on churning.
Twenty-One
Kale
The moment Malcolm released the gun, I loosed my restraints, pushed off my chair, and zipped across the Cora’s cockpit toward Gareth. I knew Malcolm wouldn’t shoot, not with Aria there, but he’d wasted precious time.
“Earther scum!” Rin snarled as she shot forward and punched Malcolm across the face.
“Aria, he needs medical attention!” I said. Her gaze darted back and forth between the ship’s controls and Gareth. “Now!”
Navigation could wait. So long as Venta upheld their end of things, drifting aimlessly through space posed no current threat. Aria unstrapped herself, glided over to us, and placed two fingers over Gareth’s neck for a pulse.
“He’s still alive,” she panted. “We need to get him to the medical bay.”
I nodded and grabbed the ceiling bars to help pull us along when I noticed Rin preparing to follow. “No. You have to stay and watch the collector.”
“With all due respect, I’m no babysitter,” Rin said.
“I’m happy to fly if you need a pilot,” Malcolm muttered.
Rin grabbed Gareth’s pistol and shoved it against Malcolm’s cheek. “You sat there and let him bleed out!”
The old collector rolled his shoulders. “Seems like we all did.”
Rin’s hand quaked, and I was completely prepared for her to pull the trigger, when Aria intervened. “Would you shut up, Dad!” she snapped. “Just… just stay here and don’t move.”
Malcolm grabbed Aria’s forearm, and they glowered into each other’s eyes for a few seconds. Then he released her, exhaled, and allowed his head to sink back farther into his viscous headrest. He looked deathly ill. The radiation was ravaging his old body faster than his daughter’s, but he didn’t have a forming baby to worry about.
“Kale, let’s go!” Aria shouted.
We drew Gareth’s weightless body through the Cora as quickly as possible. It would’ve been easier with gravity. The only ships I’d served on in my life endured more of it within Saturn’s atmosphere, not its absence. On our way, Rin ordered a few of the healthy Titanborn seated in the hall outside the cockpit to keep an eye on Malcolm and prepare the sleep pods with anti-rad infusion.
The medical bay was down through the ship’s mostly vacant galley. A few of the burnished cabinets were stuffed with ration bars, though with everyone but me put under for the journey, there hadn’t been much need for anything else.
We whipped around the corner into the med bay and laid Gareth down on the table in the center. Everything around me was white, like the halls of the Darien Q-zone before I razed the place to the ground and booted Luxarn Pervenio from the Ring.
“I need to stem the bleeding,” Aria said as she rifled through the magnetically sealed cabinets searching for equipment. “Get his suit off him.”
I fumbled along his back searching for the switch that loosened his red-stained armor, but I could hardly see straight. All the white was dizzying. Rin brushed me aside and unlatched him herself. Then she started removing his suit. His bloody shirt was stuck to the inner layer and had to be peeled away like a shell.
Zero-g made it difficult for her to gain leverage, and after a few seconds, I gathered my bearings enough to help. Gareth was injured badly. I knew right away I should have never let him keep pushing himself. Not that it would’ve mattered. Thanks to Aria and her suddenly appearing father, there would’ve been no time to treat him before taking off.
“Kale, move!”
Aria shoved me out of the way and cut his shirt down the center with a scalpel. His milk-white stomach was drenched with blood. The gaping hole in its center bubbled. A perfectly angled shot had apparently sliced clean through his armor and out the back.
Aria sprayed Pervenio Corp congealer over the wound. I’d learned a bit from watching her work. The stuff was as cold as the surface of Titan, enabling it to slow the flow of blood cells and cause them to clot.
“Is that it, Doctor?” Rin said.
“His heart’s stopped,” Aria said. “Hold him down.” She ripped a defibrillator off a rack on the wall, touched the two pads together, then held them over his chest. His body arched toward the ceiling when she pressed them down once.
“He’s not breathing!”
“Come on, Gareth!” She went to shock him again but lost her grip on the handles. She turned toward the sink right in time before vomiting. It bounced around the rim in zero-g, streaks of red in the bile. I wasn’t sure if it was the extreme radiation, which was enough to penetrate my suit or the sight of another dead friend, but I joined her at the sink and vomited as well.
“Give me those!” Rin snatched up the defibrillators and continued jolting Gareth. The parts of him not held down all slowly lifted, limp like the arms of a puppet. By the third try, I couldn’t watch anymore.
“He’s dead,” I rasped, holding out my arm.
“N… no…” Aria stuttered. She wiped her mouth and tried to return to Gareth’s body. “We can still—
”
“He’s dead!” I smacked the defibrillators out of Rin’s hands. “I don’t need to be a damn doctor to know that!”
“I can… still save him,” Aria whimpered.
“You’ve done enough, Ambassador.” Rin lowered her face over Gareth’s and pressed her lips against his forehead. I remained completely frozen, watching. “From ice to ashes, old friend,” Rin whispered. She ran her fingers over Gareth’s eyelids to close them.
Aria’s hand suddenly slipped as she went to push off the wall again, and she knocked into the med table, startling us both. She released a bloodcurdling moan and held her stomach. I felt the pain in my gut too, like someone was lighting a bonfire in the pit of my stomach, but Aria had been totally exposed in the hangar.
“Kale,” Rin said.
“Gareth,” I finally managed to utter. I grasped his hand, and his long fingers rolled across my palm as if they were slabs of rubber left in the freezer too long. Rin pried me free.
“Kale. If we don’t get Aria to a pod soon, I fear for your child’s life. I’ll plot our route home and update Rylah. Aria. Aria!” She slapped Aria’s face lightly to keep her conscious. Her freckled cheeks were discolored, and her eyes rolled aimlessly between brief stints of focus and moaning. It was only then, as her hand rubbed across the barely perceptible bulge of her belly, that I remembered what she carried inside of it.
“I’ve got her,” I gasped. I wrapped my arm under her shoulder.
“She knows?” Aria looked up at me and wheezed. Her eyes were bloodshot.
I nodded.
“We don’t have long before it hits us too,” Rin said. “Our suits were made to withstand many things, but nothing could block an impulse drive that close completely.”
Titan's Rise: (Children of Titan Book 3) Page 27