by J. N. Chaney
The ex-Sarkonian shifted in place and angled a glance at me.
With nothing to lean on, I settled for crossing my arms. “Abigail Pryar mentioned that you used to be with the Sarkonians.”
“I was,” he said. “Though not by choice. Once upon a time, I was Union. Then the Royal Frontier Expedition rode through our system and claimed the planet I was stationed on.”
The man succeeded in keeping his body language composed, but I could hear the bitterness as he spoke the words. It wasn’t hard to imagine why he felt that way. The Sarkonians weren’t exactly known for giving new conscripts a choice after their homes were seized. The Empire viewed the people of the worlds they conquered as Sarkonian citizens, albeit with fewer rights than those living on Sarkon and its nearest colonies.
“Anyway,” he continued, and met my eyes with a hint of defiance in his own. “I tried to get a message to the Union, but it was ignored. I knew they’d received it, but they never chose to act. I don’t blame anyone in particular, but I won’t lie and say it didn’t sting. Afterward, the Sarkonians decided I was useful enough to avoid a labor camp, but I couldn’t abide working for the enemy, so I chose to escape.”
I nodded. “How did you get out?”
Cabbot grinned. “Forged myself some transfer docs. Before anyone bothered to check on me, I was on a cargo ship headed straight to Neblinar. I got there after your people liberated it. Once the Empire lost control, the locals went a little crazy. Place started to attract some unsavory types. Not really my crowd, if you catch my meaning.”
“Oh?” I asked. He was referring to our recruitment efforts, of course, back in the Deadlands. Abigail had used the Galactic Dawn to ferry hundreds of refugees from over a dozen worlds, including Neblinar, which had been under Sarkonian rule at the time. We brought anyone who wanted to start over on Earth and be free of the Union and the Sarkonian Empire. There had been no shortage of volunteers.
“Present company excluded, of course,” he said wryly. “But I heard about Z-28K. A mining moon with a debris field that made it nearly impossible to get through on a regular basis. I figured working in the mines would be better than running for the rest of my life. Of course, Angus flagged me as soon as I arrived. Turns out, he found me pretty useful for his little satellite operation. Finally, someone who saw a use for my skill set, I thought.” He snickered. “Anyway, I wasn’t there long before you showed up and rescued the lot of us. Have to say, I really didn’t believe people when they talked about a Renegade bringing folks to Earth. Everyone talked about you like you were a myth. I gotta tell you, I didn’t believe it, but here we are.”
“Here we are,” I echoed, thinking on his little story. “In all your travels did you ever hear of something called the Solaris Initiative?”
The easy expression he’d been sporting dropped away and his gaze slid to the side before coming back to meet mine. “Sounds pretty familiar. Why do you want to know about it?”
I held out my hands to show I didn’t mean any harm, though his reaction was interesting. “I heard the man in charge might have some assets that could be useful against the Celestials.”
Cabbot laughed. The sound was loud. It took me by surprise and attracted curious glances from others in the room. “Sorry. It’s just… the leader is a woman. Eva Delgado. Her partner is too. Sophie Singh. Used to be soldiers in the Imperial army. Special ops, so says the rumor mill.”
“Ah, I hadn’t heard that,” I replied. When Shaw talked about it, he hadn’t said one way or the other.
“But as far as weapons, well, you might be onto something. The Initiative has been all over the gal-net news for their thefts from the government. Governments,” he corrected.
It didn’t escape my notice that he hadn’t divulged more than what was already public knowledge, and I wondered about it. “Something on your mind, Cabbot? If you’re protecting the Initiative, I’ve got no issues with them. My only concern is dealing with the Celestials.”
The engineer hesitated as if he were having an internal debate. “I had a little help with my documents leaving Neblinar,” he finally admitted. “A hacker, but I won’t give them up. Anyway, word on the street was that they knew the Initiative’s lead people. I could probably get in touch.”
I nodded. “Do that. Just find out if they’d be willing to have a conversation.” I regarded Cabbot, pleased with his loyalty, but also his willingness to still help. “You know what we’re up against. Don’t skimp on the details.”
“Alright,” he said.
Where the hell was Sigmond? A few minutes had already gone by and he still stood there lifelessly, not unlike Athena had been in the lab. For a brief moment, I wondered if this Redundancy could infect him from working on her systems. Then, while I watched, his form disappeared.
“Siggy?”
“Right here, sir.” His usually quiet voice thundered out above us.
I looked up, craning my neck until I could see the top of the suit. Sure enough, the triangular head was tilted down, presumably staring back. “You had me worried there for a second, pal.” Much as I hated to admit the fact, it was disconcerting being so near to the thing. Even with Sigmond in the pilot seat, who was to say the Celestial tech didn’t reject the Cognitive’s command and boot his ass out?
“My apologies, sir. The suit is quite complicated, though I am now fully integrated. What would you like me to do?”
I looked around the small hangar that housed the mobile suits. It wasn’t exactly busy. Only a handful of engineers and technicians were in sight. Still, I thought it best to alert them to our experiment. Most went about their business, but a few came to observe.
“Just get a feel for it,” I said.
“Perhaps some distance would be appropriate,” Sigmond suggested.
I gestured for the others to move back a few meters. As soon as we were a safe distance away, the suit’s arms lifted up. He swiveled the head around and turned in a circle, then took a few baby steps. Each movement was fluid where I expected them to be stilted since Sigmond had never had a true corporeal form.
“Talk to me, Siggy,” I called out.
“All systems appear to be functioning properly,” he replied, voice echoing in the large chamber.
“You sound pretty eager to my ears. How about a weapons check. Just try not to take out a wall or something.”
“I shall endeavor to do my best, sir.”
He brought the arm up again and pointed it at down an empty aisle between two rows of suits. The hand began to transform as I’d seen the other one do a few days ago. Five missile noses poked out like lethal knuckles. After a moment, Sigmond retracted the weapon and made the hand whole again.
“Ready for something else, Siggy?” I asked.
“I do aim to please, sir.”
The familiar words made me grin. “Well, then. What say you we try a little target practice?”
“How much time until the Celestials arrive?” asked Octavia.
After finishing up with Sigmond, I called my crew to the lounge of the Renegade Star to discuss the final stages of our plan to move Tartarus and the Alliance fleet to Novo. Abigail stood at my side, not quite touching me. Octavia leaned a hip on the room’s small table, and the happy couple—Freddie and Petra—sat on the sofa. Alphonse and Bolin were busy preparing to leave Earth, and Dressler opted to keep working in her lab.
“Carl doesn’t know,” I said, answering Octavia’s question. “Which is why we need to move fast and be gone before they get here.”
“I agree,” said Abigail, tapping her foot. “Except for the part about leaving everyone on Earth behind.”
I knew exactly what she was thinking. I’d struggled with the idea myself. Lex was on Earth. If Carl turned out to be wrong and the Celestials did attack our home, the girl would be in danger. “Carl ran the probabilities over 1000 times,” I told them. “According to him, they just don’t care about our particular ball of dirt anymore.”
Petra made a sound from th
e couch that might have been a snort. “And you trust this Celestial?”
“Yes,” I replied, fixing my gaze in that direction.
“If he wanted to kill us, there’s been ample opportunity,” Octavia pointed out.
I looked at Abigail to see what she thought.
“They don’t play games,” she said.
Petra pushed up from the couch, her robotic hand leaving dents in the fabric where it gripped. “Are you forgetting the trap they set for us? And the attack on Verdun?”
“No one’s forgetting anything,” I said, lifting my hands in a calming gesture. “That was a different situation with a unique set of factors.”
When the scout had sabotaged Verdun, it had done so cleverly. We almost didn’t survive it, but with proper planning and a bit of luck, we managed to avoid failure. Petra maintained her look of disagreement.
“What do you think, Fred?” I asked. He’d been pretty quiet up to now, and I suspected it was because he didn’t agree with his lady.
When Petra spun around to stare expectantly at him, the surprise on his face confirmed my theory. “Well, Frederick?” she said, fisting her hands.
Freddie gulped. “Well, I—I’m not really—”
“C’mon, Freddie, spit it out,” I barked.
He cleared his throat and tried again, opting for the middle ground. “It’s hard to say for certain without more data.” The words came off as shallow and uncertain, and Petra’s face reflected she felt the same as I did.
Octavia leaned on the table, her lips pursed as she reasoned it out. “Leif said their goal is to wipe out all sentient life, not toy with it. If Carl wanted the same outcome, he could have killed us at any point.”
Petra didn’t answer for a long moment, but I could see the gears turning in her head. “Still, he could be trying a different game, one where we trust him and lower our guard, only for him to strike us when we’re at our most vulnerable.”
“It’s called the long game,” I muttered. “And you’re right. He might be, but I’m willing to take the risk.”
“As am I,” said Abigail. “I’ve distrusted our enemies in the past, but Jace has a way of turning them into allies.” She gave me a slight smile. “Stupid as his methods might be.”
“If you really think it’s the wisest move,” said Petra. “I’ll go along with it, but I still don’t trust him.”
“You don’t have to,” I said. “In fact, it’s probably a good thing that at least one of us doesn’t. You can help keep the rest of us in check. In any case, we’re going to make sure the Celestials come after Tartarus. Once Carl detects their presence in this system, we’ll open a rift and enter slipspace. Try to lead them away.”
“Right,” Abigail murmured. “They’ll have something to chase.”
“Exactly,” I said. “We’ll make it look like we’re running, and because they think we’re the prey, they’ll pursue. We’re going to set course for a series of different, seemingly random S.G. Points. They won’t know where we’re going.”
“Until the time is right for us to strike,” finished Petra.
I nodded. “Hard enough that they can’t strike back.”
3
It took the better part of a day to get things ready. I would have liked a week, but with the Celestial threat looming, we couldn’t take the chance. There was just too much riding on the Alliance being ready to split before our enemy could reach us. So, we worked with the time and resources at our disposal. By the time Tartarus departed for Novo, Earth would be as ready as she could be.
While we finished errands on Earth with a Union ship, Carl would wait with Tartarus and the rest of the Alliance outside the tear leading to Earth’s core to act as lookout. Assuming we made it back to them in time, we planned to give the Celestials just a glimpse of our tail end so they would follow us, leaving Earth alone.
Part of the plan was to leave Gaia a handful of the suits. Although Sigmond had his work cut out for him, my AI was able to get the mobile armor prepped so Gaia could take control if necessary. I had my reservations about that idea at first, Gaia not being on the same level as the other Cognitives. Ever since her revival when we accidentally activated Project Reclamation, her processes had been limited. I liked her well enough, sure, but she’d suffered some degradation of her own over the last few millennia. Still, Sigmond assured me that she could handle this, and I trusted his analysis.
In addition to the extra firepower on the ground, Sigmond would leave a fleet of drones and some of the new weaponry we found aboard Tartarus. Angus, along with his men and women, were prepared to stand their ground if needed. They had a large supply of Neutronium munitions at their disposal thanks to the access the Sarkonian Emperor had given us to the Aldera system.
The Aldera system had enough prodium to make all the Neutronium we could ever need, something Sigmond had been doing at one of his numerous factories, but most importantly two pulse cannons courtesy of Dr. Dressler and Davon. They’d already been in the middle of getting more added to our repository, and I wasn’t about to leave Earth without plenty.
While we were back in the Sol system, those still on Tartarus had already begun construction on a hydroponics bay. Since the Celestials had no need of foliage with their perfected bodies, no such facility currently existed on this mega ship. The rest of us, our Eternal friends included, were quite the opposite. We’d also pick up some supplies that Dressler’s Earthbound team had gathered.
She didn’t tell me what these supplies consisted of exactly, but I assumed equipment and seedlings, maybe even some half-grown fruit trees and vegetable plants. Truth was, we didn’t know how long this excursion might end up taking. Our survival might depend on our ability to cultivate food for weeks at a time. That might not have been the most likely of scenarios, but I liked to be prepared all the same.
As we slid through the rift and into Earth’s core, I couldn’t help but think about Petra’s gloomy outlook. The woman had lived most of her life on an icy rock, buried underground. She and the rest of her people had survived the harsh and bitter cold, herds of local monsters, and finally a world-ending attack by the Union. Coming to Earth must have seemed like a cozy alternative to a life of pain and misery, where you were lucky to see another day.
Now the Celestials wanted to destroy everything we’d fought so hard to build. I didn’t blame her for being cynical—hell, the woman had lost an arm a short time ago, though that had been more of a freak accident than anything. Still, it was no wonder she felt the way she did. Positivity rarely kept people alive in a war. Only skepticism and caution did—those were your friends, and we should have all considered ourselves lucky that a few of us had grown to know them so well. Petra’s doubts might have seemed too much to some, as though her caution were a poison, but I could understand her thinking, because I had known it myself, back when I was running jobs for men who would rather kill me than pay what they owed. When friends betrayed for nothing but an easy score. When I could scarcely trust the woman in my bed.
Even now, there were moments when I felt myself beside Petra, questioning my place in all of this and thinking twice about my newfound allies. I chose to use it as my drive, though, and hopefully end this war once and for all. I wanted to fight long enough to ensure that each of my crew found a life worth having, one that Petra and Freddie would someday start together, once these bitter moments were nothing but a distant memory as they grew old and fat with peace. I’d do what had to be done to make that dream a reality, for them and for Abby and Lex. That little girl with the white hair and blue eyes, and all the other kids who might grow up and know a different world than any generation before them. All of us deserved to live that dream, and I aimed to give it to each and every one of them.
I kept those thoughts fresh in my mind as Verdun appeared in the distance. The UFS Defiance was already there, having left an hour before the Renegade Star. By the time we landed, I could see that a number of strike ships stood at the ready, along with supp
ly crates that Alliance soldiers were in the process of loading into the bays. My orders had been received, it seemed, and my people were as efficient as ever.
A few engineers directed the grunts as they moved specially marked cases. Cold storage, by the look of them. I’d seen them before in the domes. They were used for temperature controlled items like plants. Dressler had assured me we would have everything needed so she and Davon’s team could get growing started right away. Rackham had even offered the Union’s assets up. Apparently, they had someone who was a whiz at hydroculture in deep space. Dressler vouched for the woman, a Dr. Lee, saying she’d known her.
I chuckled inwardly, envisioning a squat woman with thick glasses and springy hair. That’s what they always depicted in the holo vids, anyhow. Didn’t much matter, I supposed, so long as they could do the job and keep the lot of us from starving to death.
Leif had joined us for his return trip, though he’d stayed pretty quiet for most of it. A final stint in the healing pod seemed to set him right and I was confident the Eternal, along with Karin, could handle things after we left. He remained uncharacteristically silent while I set us down.
I shot a glance at Abigail, but she only shrugged.
“If I didn’t know better, I might think you were sulking,” I told him, powering the ship down.
Slightly alarmed, his head snapped up. “Not at all, Captain. Don’t get me wrong, I want to go with you, but I’m focused on preparations for the colony. I count at least seventeen individual projects that will require my attention today alone, and that is to say nothing of—”
“Okay, okay,” I said with a slight chuckle. I unbuckled my harness and stood to stretch before clasping his shoulder. “Angus is going to help out too. Between the three of you, I’m sure things will be handled.”
Leif nodded but still wore his concerns for all to see. The man was focused and intent—qualities that I valued. He would make a fine proxy for Earth in my absence, along with Karin and Angus. I believed in their abilities, each for different reasons, and I was confident they could handle things while the rest of us were off galavanting across the stars.