Broken Worlds_The Awakening

by Jasper T. Scott

  Darius was about to object on account of his own injuries, but his hands and arms were somehow coming back to life. He flexed his hands, the nerves prickling all at once. At some point the blood had stopped flowing from the gashes and punctures in his arms, and they’d scabbed over.

  “How...” he trailed off, flexing his hand. Then he remembered the nanites they’d all been injected with. That had to be the answer.

  “Hurry,” Gatticus said. “They will not stay down forever.” He nodded to the Ghouls on the floor.

  “They’re not dead?” Lisa asked.

  “No.”

  “But you took the blame for—”

  Gatticus waved his hand dismissively. “Because I needed to keep it talking. It never would have let us go, whether it thought we killed one of them or not.”

  Darius hurried over to help Gatticus lift Blake to his feet. The other man groaned and stirred as they hauled him up. His chest was crusted with blood where the Ghoul’s barbed tail had stabbed him, but his injuries seemed relatively minor compared to what Darius himself had suffered.

  “Wake up, princess,” Darius said.

  “Who you callin’ princess?” Blake murmured.

  “You. You slept through the whole blasted thing while we almost died.”

  “Actually,” Gatticus said, “Blake was dead himself until a few minutes ago.”

  “Say what now?” Blake asked, his brown eyes flying wide. He shrugged out of their hands to stand on his own.

  “The barbs in a Phantom’s tail are poisoned,” Gatticus explained. “The venom stopped your heart.”

  “What about that mother and her baby we heard earlier?” Lisa asked.

  Darius looked up to see her staring at the splintered remains of both their door and the one across the hall from theirs. Darius watched those doors for a long moment, half-expecting another Ghoul to come creeping through. “Can you tell if there are more Phantoms in there?” he whispered.

  “No,” Gatticus said. “But if there were, by now they would have come here.”

  “I’m going to see what happened across the hall,” Lisa said.

  “Get a weapon first,” Gatticus said. “Just in case.”

  “But you said—”

  “I could be wrong. Sometimes Phantoms lay ambushes for their prey.”

  “Great,” Blake muttered.

  Darius went to pick up one of the discarded swords lying on the floor, as did each of the others—except for Cassandra, who was holding Gatticus’s arm instead. This time she didn’t object to not having a weapon.

  They crept out the broken door of their room and through the one across the hall into an identical suite. The pillows and furs strewn around the floor were shredded and soaked with blood. And not all of the bloody lumps on the floor were pillows.

  Darius looked away with a grimace, not wanting to see more. “Let’s go,” he said.

  “Wait... do you hear that?” Lisa asked.

  “Son of a vix...” Blake said.

  Darius listened and heard a muffled whimpering coming from under one of the furs. He turned back to see something small crawling out of the bloody mess on the living room floor. It wasn’t human, but it wasn’t far off either. It had black fur all over its tiny body, and a long tail, but otherwise it looked almost the same as a human baby.

  Lisa sheathed her sword and ran to pick it up. She returned a moment later with the cutest thing Darius had ever seen. It looked like a cross between a puppy and a human baby. It was whimpering like a puppy too.

  “Motherfekkers,” Blake said. “They just left it there.” He reached out to scratch the baby behind one of its triangular ears.

  It growled and snapped its jaws at him, revealing a few pointy, triangular white teeth.

  “Whoa, take it easy there, Blacky. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  The baby alien nuzzled in under Lisa’s chin and purred.

  “I think that’s a Lassarian,” Darius said.

  “It is,” a familiar voice added.

  They all turned as one to see Ra standing there behind them with two other humanoid aliens. One of them was a scaly gray Sicarian, the other a lithe, beautiful Vixxon with ghostly white skin and disturbingly human features, except for her solid white eyes, and long, luminescent blond hair.

  “What is that?” Ra asked in a suddenly cold voice. He pointed to the metal arm Cassandra was holding; and then his green eyes found Gatticus, the owner of the missing arm, and his gaze sharpened. “Skava!”

  Chapter 23

  Darius didn’t recognize the word, but he could read the hostility in Ra’s expression just fine. He produced a sidearm from a holster inside his jacket and aimed it at Gatticus. Cassandra handed Gatticus’s arm back to him, as if she was suddenly afraid to be associated with him. Gatticus took the arm wordlessly.

  “What is your agenda here?” Ra demanded.

  Gatticus held up his good arm along with the severed one in a gesture of surrender. “I do not have an agenda.”

  “Skarvot. Tell me truthfully. Why are you here?”

  “I do not know,” Gatticus replied. “My memory was damaged.”

  “Liar! Do you expect me to believe it a coincidence that you came here just before Karkarus was overrun by Cygnians?”

  Gatticus shook his head. “I cannot say if it is or isn’t a coincidence, only that I do not know what I am doing at Hades. The Cygnians were surprised to see me too,” Gatticus said, and nodded over Ra’s shoulder to the smaller Ghoul on the floor across the hall.

  Ra turned to see the pair of Ghouls lying there, and he snarled.

  “They’re alive,” Darius thought to point out.

  “Not for long.” Ra nodded to the reptilian Sicarian standing next to him. The Sicarian drew a curved dagger from a sheath on his belt. Stalking over to the pair of Ghouls, he bent down beside the head of the larger one, lifted it, and slit the Ghoul’s throat. Black blood gushed out, and the Ghoul’s legs kicked reflexively. As soon as the kicking subsided, he walked over and did the same with the second Ghoul; then he straightened and licked the blood from his dagger with a darting pink tongue before returning it to its sheath.

  “Are all the other Phantoms dead?” Cassandra asked.

  “Yesss,” Ra hissed. “Along with most of my people.” His gaze drifted to each of them in turn. “I should kill you all now,” Ra said.

  Blake held up his hands. “Hey, Catman, we’re not on his side,” he said, and jerked a thumb at Gatticus.

  “He’s telling the truth about his memory,” Lisa added. “He really doesn’t know what he’s doing here.”

  Ra’s eyes narrowed swiftly. “How am I supposed to believe this?”

  “Why would the Phantoms attack us if we were plotting with them against you?” Darius asked. He gestured to his bloody arms by way of proof.

  Ra appeared to consider that. His gaze flicked to Gatticus and back. “Do you know that his kind work with the Cygnians?”

  Darius hesitated. “We know that they don’t fight them.”

  “It is more than that. His people are the judges and jury, the so-called executors of the Union.”

  “Well, well, is that true, Slick?” Blake asked.

  “It is,” he admitted.

  “When were you planning to tell us that?” Lisa asked, taking a few hasty steps back from Gatticus.

  “I already did. The only part I omitted was about the position of privilege that androids enjoy within the Union.”

  Blake snorted and shook his head.

  “We’re not the enemy,” Gatticus insisted. “We’re just following orders from the Cygnians.”

  “Just following orders! Now where have I heard that before?” Blake asked.

  “I have no clue,” Gatticus replied.

  “Of course not. It’s been more than a thousand years, so I suppose everyone just forgot.” Blake turned and nodded to Darius. “You know what I’m talking about.”

  Darius did. “Nazis.”

  “Alien Na
zis,” Blake said, “and this place—Hades—this is one of their concentration camps.”

  “So how do you decide who gets sent here?” Darius asked.

  “I told you the Unions sends criminals, troublemakers, and all the less desirables of society to be hunted,” Gatticus replied.

  “Tell the truth,” Ra growled. “You can’t meet the Cygnians’ quotas with criminals alone. They barely make up five percent of the people you send.”

  Gatticus nodded. “As I said, we also send the less desirables.”

  Darius had a bad feeling about that. “What makes a person less desirable?”

  “Ah, now you are getting to the crux of the matter,” Ra said. “The Crucible determines who is less desirable.”

  The Sicarian hissed and the Vixxon, quiet until now, cursed in a husky voice.

  “The Crucible?” Darius asked.

  “It’s a rite of passage, or coming of age ritual that the Cygnians observe when they reach reproductive maturity,” Gatticus said. “They force all Union worlds to send their children to the Crucible, too, as tribute for peace.”

  “Except for androids,” Blake sneered. “No one forces you to go.”

  “Instead of sending us to the Crucible, the Cygnians put us to work traveling the Orion Spur to help convince other species to join the Union. We are diplomats first and foremost. Executors second.”

  “Diplomats!” Blake scoffed. “Right.”

  “What is the Crucible?” Lisa asked.

  “No one knows,” Ra replied. “When children of any Union species reach maturity, they are sent through the Eye to the Crucible. Those who return have no memory of what happened.”

  “Those who return? You mean some of them don’t?” Darius asked.

  Ra nodded. “The Cygnians believe the ones who do not return have been chosen to become like gods. They are known as Revenants.

  “And the ones who do return are all marked with a seal that decides their fate.” Ra turned over his right arm to reveal a glowing, hairless pattern on the underside of his right wrist, in the shape of a sickle.

  “What is that?” Lisa asked.

  “The Seal of Death. It is what marks us as prey.”

  Darius shivered, and quickly rolled up the sleeves of his jumpsuit to check his own wrists. But there was nothing; just clean, unblemished skin. The others did the same, each with the same result, and Darius let out a shaky breath.

  “We’re not marked,” Lisa said. “Does that mean we’re safe?”

  Ra frowned and whispered something to the Vixxon standing beside him. She nodded her head, and her seemingly sightless white eyes narrowed.

  Ra rocked his head from side to side. “You do not have the Seal of Life, either, so no, you are not safe. How did you avoid the Crucible?”

  “I told you,” Gatticus said. “They’ve been in cryo storage for more than a thousand years.”

  “I did not believe you,” Ra admitted.

  “Why would I lie?” Gatticus asked.

  “I do not know, but it is not a very believable story. Why would anyone spend a thousand years in cryo?”

  “Someone forgot about us,” Lisa said.

  “What does the Seal of Life look like?” Blake asked. “Maybe we can fake it.”

  “It is a triangle with an eye inside of it. And no, you cannot fake it. At least, not easily,” Ra said. “The seals are encoded with digital information. They are used for identification and payment throughout the Union. They can be forged, but few possess the necessary skill.”

  Blake frowned. “A triangle with an eye in it? You mean like the all-seeing eye on the dollar bill?”

  “The what?” Ra asked, cocking his head from side to side.

  “Yes,” Gatticus confirmed. “Exactly like that.”

  Blake barked a laugh. “Don’t tell me the Masons were involved with the Phantoms.”

  “The what?” Gatticus asked.

  “A group of people from Earth that used to use that same symbol.”

  Gatticus shrugged. “It may be a coincidence. My understanding is that not even the Cygnians know where the symbol for the Seal of Life comes from, but it looks vaguely like the Eye of Thanatos, so that may be the origin.”

  “The Eye of Thanatos... what’s that?” Darius asked.

  “The gate that people pass through when it is time for them to go to the Crucible,” Gatticus replied. “Thanatos is the ancient Greek god of the dead, who came to take people away to the underworld when it was their time to die.”

  “Like the grim reaper?” Blake asked.

  “Exactly.”

  Darius frowned. “So what happens to us if the Phantoms realize we don’t have any kind of seal on our wrists?”

  “They will either sent you straight to one of their hunting grounds, or they will send you through the Eye to the Crucible,” Ra said. “You may even have to stand trial, since it is a crime to avoid the Crucible when you reach maturity, which clearly all of you already have.”

  Blake scowled. “Great.”

  “Not her,” the Vixxon said in that husky voice, and pointed to Cassandra. “She has not yet come of age.”

  Ra looked straight at her, his green eyes burning with intensity.

  Darius didn’t like the looks Cassandra was getting and went to stand beside his daughter.

  “Is that true?” Ra asked.

  Cassandra visibly stiffened. “That’s none of your business,” she said.

  “What does it matter?” Darius demanded.

  Gatticus nodded to her. “It matters because Cassandra is off limits until she comes of age. The Cygnians may not realize she hasn’t come of age yet.”

  “Well, that’s not exactly true...” Cassandra said.

  Darius turned to her with eyebrows raised.

  “I got my first period already.”

  “What? When? You never told me,” Darius said.

  “Yeah, like I’m going to tell my Dad about that.”

  “How long ago?” Gatticus asked.

  “A week before we went into cryo,” Cassandra replied.

  Darius looked to Gatticus once more. “What does that mean?”

  “It means that you need to deliver her to the Phantoms before it’s too late.”

  Chapter 24

  “Grak that! Have you lost your mind?” Darius demanded.

  “No. She could be saved. Odds are that she will be,” Gatticus replied.

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Four out of every five people return from the Crucible with the Seal of Life.”

  “Four out of five,” Darius repeated slowly. “That means there’s a twenty percent chance she doesn’t come back, or that she gets explicitly marked for death. I’m not risking that. No way.”

  “It’s better than a hundred percent chance that she gets marked for death otherwise,” Gatticus replied. “Once the Cygnians find out that you withheld her, she’ll be hunted for sure.”

  “Not if we join the Coalition,” Darius said, shaking his head. “Right? They don’t send their kids to the Crucible. Why would they?”

  “I told you, I cannot take you to the Coalition. I do not know how to find them. No one does.”

  “Then let’s strike out on our own. We’ve got a ship, with thousands of people on board, all still in Cryo. We could set out for some distant world and start a colony somewhere that the Phantoms won’t find us.”

  “You’re forgetting something,” Blake said. “We don’t have any fuel.”

  “And the depot on Hades was destroyed,” Lisa added.

  “But the fuel wasn’t,” Gatticus said.

  Blake arched an eyebrow. “How do you know that?”

  “We’re too close to the depot. If that much antimatter had been detonated, we’d all be dead right now.”

  “Why attack the depot if you’re not going to destroy the fuel?” Blake asked.

  “For the same reason that we were going to attack—to steal the fuel,” Gatticus replied. “Tanik Gurhain and
the exiles Ra mentioned likely stole the antimatter in order to weaponize it.”

  “That is possible,” Ra agreed.

  Darius nodded. “Then we need to track them down and convince them to share it with us.”

  “Maybe they’ll want to come with us when we leave?” Lisa asked.

  “Almost certainly,” Ra said. “But there are too many of them for you to take aboard the vessel you came here with.”

  “We could make several trips,” Darius suggested.

  “More than a few,” Ra replied. “And you might not wish to have them aboard. The exiles are all convicted criminals—murderers, rapists, terrorists, and thieves.”

  “And you guys aren’t?” Blake asked. “How did you get here?”

  “We were marked for death by the Crucible, not because we broke the law.”

  “Well, it doesn’t matter,” Blake replied, waving his hand dismissively. “We need the fuel, and they have it, so we have to go find this Tanik guy. Can you take us to him, Sasquatch?”

  Ra hissed. “What does this mean, ‘Sasquatch?’”

  “He’s a big, furry friendly guy,” Blake said. “Everyone loves Sasquatch. So, what do you say, Sassy?”

  Ra glared at him.

  “We can’t wait until morning,” Darius added. “And the offer to take you with us when we leave is still open.”

  “No, thank you. But I will take you to see Tanik—if, you give me the weapons you promised.”

  “Don’t you have plenty of spares now?” Blake asked. Lisa shot him a look, but he went on blithely, not getting the hint: “I mean your people are all dead, right? So they dropped their guns.”

  Ra growled and snapped his jaws in Blake’s direction. “Their power packs are depleted. We need fresh ones.”

  Darius nodded, realizing they didn’t have the equipment to recharge their energy weapons. “No problem. You can have the weapons.”

  “How many?”

  Darius looked to Gatticus.

  “There are at least thirty on the Osprey, and plenty of spare charge clips,” the android said.

  “It will do. Come, we will leave at once.”

  Darius and the others followed Ra out of the suite and down the hall to the stairwell at the opposite end.