Heart of the Colossus_A Steampunk Space Opera Adventure

by Nicole Grotepas

  “Hey guys, come on, that was just one time and you caught me. The rest of the session I didn’t cheat once.”

  “We want our money back, Darius.”

  One of them held Darius’s arms from behind him while the other began slugging him in the gut.

  Holly shouted at them, and kicked the one holding Darius in the leg, and then suddenly Odeon was there, whipping his Ousaba club in quick precise strikes. First he took out the one holding Darius with two hard swings to the thighs, followed by a cracking blow to the shoulder where it joined the neck. The Constie released Darius and fell to his knees, crying out. Darius was still doubled over from being hit repeatedly in the gut. Meanwhile, the other grudge-holding gambler saw Odeon coming after him and turned and bolted, disappearing into the crowd of pedestrians.

  “Let’s go, Darius, can you walk?” Holly asked, helping him into a standing position. “We need to get out of here. Before the others come back.” He still hadn’t recovered his breath enough story speak, but he could hobble away from the alley, and so he did.

  “Follow me, Holly. I know where to go.”

  So Holly draped Darius’s arm across her shoulders and helped him follow Odeon back into the crowds, leaving the hurt gambler behind. He’d be fine, Holly figured. Beside, if he didn’t want to get hurt, he shouldn’t start fights.

  Soon they’d made their way into a nearby residential tower. Odeon picked the floor and punched it in, while Darius rested against the inside of the elevator carriage.

  “Thanks, Holly. And Odeon. You saved my skin back there. I walked right into that beating, didn’t I?” He rubbed his neck, stretched it from side to side, and then groaned, holding his stomach. “I think I might throw up.”

  “Try not to,” Odeon said. “We’re almost to your condo.”

  “Is that why you like the Echo Taproom?” Holly asked. “Because you live right by it?”

  “Convenient location,” Darius admitted.

  They reached the floor and Darius managed to hobble out by himself, leading them to his condo. He triggered the scanner lock and opened the door and let them in.

  His apartment was not at all how she’d envisioned it. Holly had imagined shelves lining all the spare walls, full of contraptions and odds and ends, as well as completed creations capable of doing things Holly could hardly imagine. She’d gone so far as to once envision every table laden with tools and v-screens and devices that he was modifying to do his whim. She figured it might smell like metal and oil and lubricants to grease gears and cogs.

  In short, she figured that Darius would live in a shop. Maybe with a bed covered in dust and spare parts, pushed against the wall, unmade, dirty, rumpled, and figured that he would sleep in whatever he’d worn that day. Changing to go in to the Bird’s Nest.

  His condo was nothing like that. In fact, it resembled a museum, or at least, a perfectly designed interior. Nothing was out of place. Tasteful art hung on the walls. There was an ideal amount of plants, and couches that looked comfortable but somehow too nice to sit on. Rugs covered the dark bamboo floors wherever there was furniture.

  Darius sighed and went to the dark gray stone countertop and pulled out the nova notes. He tossed them onto the counter and then spoke to the pile. “You better be worth what I just went through.”

  Odeon laughed.

  “How will you decide that?” Holly asked.

  “After I count it. But I’m too tired to do that right now.” He removed his blazer and draped its cross the back of an armchair on his way to the sofa. He collapsed onto it.

  Holly looked at Odeon, then said with a joking grin. “Honestly, Darius, I was expecting something else from where you lived. I thought there’d be more of a workshop vibe.”

  He grunted from the sofa.

  “But no, it’s really nice. Too nice, I think.” She twirled in the middle of the living area. A light snore rose from Darius.

  “Asleep,” Odeon said, tilting his head to one side. “I don’t think he slept for the past day and a half.”

  “I think you’re right.” Holly pulled a throw blanket off the couch and draped it over him. She beckoned to Odeon and he helped her pull their friends’ boots off. Then they left quietly.

  “At least we got him back to his apartment before he collapsed from exhaustion. And, I guess, getting the shit beat out of him.” Holly led the way back to the elevator.

  “Yes, we’re good friends to him. He deserves us, though.” Odeon laughed.

  “I really can’t argue with that. But I’ll decide for certain tomorrow. Oh, and Odeon, you’re fucking good with that club. Thanks for having our asses back there.”

  If Holly wasn’t mistaken, she thought she saw what passed for a blush spread across the Druiviin’s face. He tilted his head at her, something bright flashing in his eyes.

  EIGHT

  THE next morning Holly returned to Darius’s condo before going to the Bird’s Nest, after she checked with Charly, who confirmed that Darius hadn’t shown up. When he didn’t answer his phone, she decided to just head to his door and ring him repeatedly till he answered. Which he did, on the tenth ring.

  “Damn, Drake, you don’t give up, do you?” He said after opening the door. He turned and headed back to his sofa. He was still dressed in the clothing he’d worn home from the Echo Taproom, which also turned out to be the clothing he’d worn the day before.

  “I figured you needed me. Am I wrong?” Holly followed him inside.

  “I don’t need anyone. I’m my own man.” He sat down and rubbed his face with both hands. “Is it bright in here? Seems unnaturally bright. Unholy.”

  “That’s the hangover.”

  He laughed, then groaned at the pain the laugh caused. “You got anything for a hangover?”

  “Yes, but none of them work. You’ve been in the same clothes for two days straight. Cleaning up might help?”

  “It’s not the clothes that make the man. It’s the man who makes the everything. That’s me. I am that man. I do it all, and no one cares how I look.”

  “Ah,” Holly said, nodding. “I get it. But you do cut a sharp figure, Darius. You always look good. But the past two days are catching up with you. The exhaustion, the two day drinking bender. Had you eaten any food? You should eat something. Replenish the nutrients you lost.”

  “Sorry Drake, you’re right. That wasn’t smart. But maybe it was worth it.” He rose and went to the counter where he’d tossed the money the night before. He counted it as Holly studied a series of framed photos on a shelf. There were three. One was of a building in black and white. There was a sign on the building. “The Healer of the Lake Home for Children.” The other two photos were of female Constellations. The tattoos on their cheeks were signs that Holly had never seen yet, a half circle with another half circle in the middle of the line that broke the circle of the larger one—maybe symbolic of an embrace.

  Holly turned. Darius had moved into the kitchen. He stood, looking into the refrigerator through the glass. As she watched for a moment, he opened it and began removing things and placing them on the counter. He seemed oblivious to what Holly was doing, so she turned back and continued to study the images. The female Constellations could have been sisters. The eyes of one of them were focused on whoever was taking the photo. Her black hair was short and spiky—not a traditional style for Constie females—and there seemed be a defiant look in her eyes. The female in the other image had a similar hair cut, though her gaze was more open and warm.

  Something stirred at the back of Holly’s memory, something . . . From when she first met Darius. Something he’d said which she’d assumed was a lie, because she thought everything was false about Darius when she’d first met him. Perhaps more due to him seeming to be a scoundrel. He’d gotten her in trouble then as well.

  “Who are the Constellations in the pictures?”

  He spun to look at her, shutting the fridge. “My mothers,” he said. “Drake, come on.”

  “Two?”

>   “Though I could be mistaken—not enough sleep, drunk for almost a day—I seem to recall telling you that I was raised in a Constie orphanage.” As he spoke he rummaged through a cabinet and produced a blender, which he began stuffing full of ingredients. “Fancy a healthy shake? I really just want to go back to sleep. I’m hoping this will give me the energy to not give up entirely on the day.”

  “I’d try some yes,” Holly said, vaguely. So Darius had been raised in an orphanage. She felt a pang of guilt and compassion for him. She needed to remember this the next time she found herself feeling sorry for whatever sad thing that had happened to her—like nearly being killed by her husband. At least she’d had both parents around.

  “Now Drake, don’t go getting all weepy on me. I was fine. I had about twenty siblings usually. And I loved my mothers. Love them. They’re still around. I have no complaints about it. Some kids just grow up on the streets or they end up working as slave labor on a base just off Ixion. Not me. Not this kid. My mothers were more than enough.” He finished stuffing the jar full of ingredients—spinach, three types of Constie fruit, hemp seeds, and two types of Centau vegetables—and hit the blend button. For a moment they couldn’t speak over the high pitched scream of the machine. Then it finished and Darius pulled two tall thin glasses from a cabinet and filled them.

  He held hers up and she left the shelf and moved into the kitchen area. She reached across the counter and took the drink from him.

  It was cold in her hand. “Thanks.”

  “You’ve been thinking that I’m just a drunk gambler all night and morning, haven’t you, Drake?” He eyed Holly over the rim of his glass. He leaned against the counter and took a long swallow of the smooth purple beverage.

  “No, not at all.” She grinned at him and gave him a half shrug. “No one’s perfect. And everyone knows what kind of horrible things I have to do to myself to get through an intermoon flight.

  “I did it to get intel, Drake. My gambling companions. I heard them talking when I arrived at the taproom. They were slightly drunk and were loudly complaining about the injustices they’d suffered at the whim of the Heart and Hands. So I joined them. And then, well, the game did become something more. But in the meantime, I got some dirt.”

  Holly gaped at Darius. “So you got info? You played that long just to get it. Wow, Darius, I’m . . . Wow. Impressed.”

  “I don’t know if it’ll come in handy. But yes.”

  “Spill?” She asked, pulling out a stool and sitting down.

  “Well, it seems that there is unrest in the ranks of the Shadow Coalition. There’s been several upsets in the hierarchy, one of them owing to a specter that has appeared on the Ixion base. There are four Hands, Drake. Two of them stay on the Ixion base. The Heart divides its time between a tanker ship, the Ixion base, and a location on one of the moons. But I didn’t get which one.”

  “Why were they telling you this?” Holly asked, not understanding. They’d been told by other sources that if anyone knows or sees the Heart, they’re either promoted so that they have no outside contact and can’t divulge any information about the Heart, or they’re killed.

  “The wonders of a bit of serum dropped into an open glass of alcohol.” He took a long gulp of his drink.

  “Wow so you gave them something to get them to talk? That’s . . . that’s highly prepared.” She studied him carefully. “Do you always keep a bit of truth serum on you? Or was this a fortunate accident?”

  “Fortunate accident.” He laughed, then grimaced, and touched his head. “Ow. No, but Drake, I can’t tell you all my secrets. They’re my trade secrets.”

  “Good to know,” she said, clicking her tongue. “But I think I’ll be careful the next time you hand me a drink. This one being the exception.” She lifted the health shake.

  “Now we know that the Heart isn’t always on the base. But we need to find out where he is when he’s not there.”

  “He or she. Could be a female.”

  “But I doubt it.” Darius gave her a teasing look.

  “Ha ha ha,” Holly said. “Are you considering taking out the Heart?”

  “Ah, that’s a gruesome image. But yes, remove the heart, destroy the Shadow Coalition. Isn’t that what you want to do?”

  “I think yes. Probably. The main thing for me is to save the kids.”

  “But if we don’t destroy the beast, it’ll just attack again. And the next one could be worse.”

  “Could be. I’m not saying that if we get the chance to capture the Heart, of if he gets caught in the middle of the process, that I’m going to feel sad if we walk away with a dead Heart behind us. But that’s a distraction from the main issue. Saving the kids.”

  “Fine, I respectfully disagree—I think we should target them both.”

  Holly saw the firm set to Darius’s jaw. His mocha brown skin was still haggard and she remembered that this probably wasn’t the best day for him to be debating the future missions of the team. She inhaled, then took a long drink of her shake. It was surprisingly delicious. Just like Darius, to barely put in any effort and have phenomenal results.

  “Why don’t we figure out what you need to get so we can finish the fuel job?”

  He nodded. “I see what you’re doing, Drake. And it’s fine. I’ll let you change the subject.”

  “What did you have in mind?” She chose to not acknowledge his sarcasm.

  “There’s somewhere I need to go to get what I need for it. You want to wait while I clean up? You can go with me.”

  “Sounds good.”

  So Holly continued to casually study Darius’s condo while he disappeared into his bedroom, showered, and changed clothes. Thirty minutes later, he was cleaned up and they left his condo.

  “Where we heading?” Holly asked as they rode the elevator up to the floor that would take them to the Spireway.

  “It’s a place like Le Tissier’s. Only this guy deals in biological warfare.”

  “My god, it’s warfare?”

  Darius held up a hand to slow Holly down. “No. Please, Drake. I’m not that sort of thief. I just mean, it’s the kind of thing that works on humans rather than mechanical devices. You know, potions. But not potions, because we’re not living in a fantasy.”

  “Serums. Potions. What’s the difference?”

  They exited the elevator and made their way out to the platform and merged with the queues waiting to board a gondola.

  “Well,” Darius continued, chatting as they walked. “Potions supposedly have a magical component. Serums are all chemical and natural. I mean, if you’re asking for my expert opinion. Which, I’m not an expert. So you’re getting a layman’s opinion who thinks he knows a lot about things that he has no knowledge of.” He laughed and stopped quickly with a groan. “I fucking hate hangovers.”

  Finally it was their turn. They waited as their gondola came to a stop and then boarded it and it lifted them away from the spiretop platform and the cares that seemed to afflict those who were bound to the planet. Darius entered their destination into the control panel and then moved to the edge of the gondola and sat down at the bench..

  Holly went to the vscreen control panel and tapped into the screen interface to have the windows lowered. “Maybe this will help, Darius. Fresh air.”

  “I doubt it. But thanks anyway, Drake.”

  Even after a rough trip on a gondola before they’d rescued the young Druiviin girl, Charm, Holly still loved the freedom that came when she was up in the air above the city. She went to the window and put her hands out, exhaling in relief. This time, at least she wasn’t being chased by goons with guns and no regard for basic Spireway safety.

  “We’re snagging a tranquilizer?” She asked as she turned to face Darius where he sat on the bench around the inside wall of the gondola.

  With his eyes still closed, his arms crossed over his chest, Darius spoke. “Yes. Shiro or Odeon, whoever we decide to send into the fuel depot to distract security, will be able to shoot
them with it or get in close and inject them with it. They’ll fall asleep, and then they can control the security feeds from inside the depot. Erase the footage with Trip’s ship on it and anything else we need to do to keep ourselves hidden.” Darius touched his head again and leaned back against the inner wall of the gondola with his eyes closed. “Tell me when we reach our stop.”

  Holly turned and stared out at the city as the wind rippled like waves across her face. Morning light was the best light, as far as she had always thought. The sun reflected off the passing gondolas. Centau and Druiviin faces stared at out as they passed her, heading in the direction from which she’d just come. Out beyond the spires and tower tops, she caught sight of the mountain ridges that marked the edge of the Sliver. They stretched to an almost impossible height, forming the outermost bowl of habitable region of Kota, the most volcanically active moon of the 6-moons. They also caught the majority of the ash that the active volcanoes on the other side of the moon spewed into the air. Kota was further from Ixion in its orbit, and so the heat that was generated from the thermal activity kept the moon warm. It also meant the soil in the sliver was healthy and fertile, and the Centau had put that to good use in the farms in northern and southern regions outside the city.

  She began to ruminate about the visits she’d taken to see her grandmother out in the country, as a child, but suddenly their gondola was docking and the doors were sliding open. Holly went to Darius’ side and touched her friend lightly on the shoulder.

  “Time to go, Darius,” Holly said.

  Soon Holly found herself in the back room of a spiretop club, not unlike her friend Cosma Kenyon’s.

  “Who’s your friend, Darius?” the owner asked. “She’s not a doctor is she?”

  “Shig Solliss,” Darius said, “Meet Holly Drake. Not a doctor, no.”