Homeworld: Beacon 3

by Valerie Parv

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get her memory back. And make Captain Zael pay.”

  Brave words. She wondered if she’d be able to deliver on them. Zael had already paid. One less thing to worry about, although the thought was less comforting than she’d like. Without an adept onboard ship, Zael couldn’t easily locate the beacons. Not that she had to. Her adept had done his job well enough that Zael knew exactly how things stood. The Kelek captain knew where to find Elaine and Garrett. She may even know that Adam was missing. She didn’t know about his discovery of a way for one beacon alone to access the flux. And she wouldn’t find out, if Shana could do anything about it.

  Damn, she was tired of feeling helpless. For the duration of the shuttle mission, she’d felt as if she were doing something. Now it was over, and they had Elaine back, but not much else had changed.

  She looked up as though lodging her gaze aboard the Kelek ship. Elaine had described what she’d done to Zael’s weather lab. Shana had tried to bolster Elaine’s battered confidence by praising the actions.

  And they were welcome. But how long they’d delay Zael’s inevitable thirst for revenge, and what she would do next, was frightening to consider. The ease with which she’d killed her adept from a distance weighed heavily on Shana’s mind.

  *

  Akia intensely disliked the havoc being created in her lab. This place was her retreat, her sanctuary, from where she controlled that most elemental of forces, the weather. She itched to have her solitude back and the boards under her hands, to lash out at the humans and make them pay for what they’d done.

  Gath came to attention in front of her. “All is restored to order, captain.”

  She gave him a withering look. “Too slow, much too slow. Put yourself and this crew on double shifts until they learn to work faster.”

  Her First hid his wince at her order. “For how long, captain?”

  “Until we return to Kelek space, you deklatz kareen. Until I give a different order.”

  He didn’t dare ask her which she meant. She didn’t know herself. But it felt good to shear off some of her anger on punitive orders. Kam had been clever, ordering her crew to a drill that took them out of the control center while her ship was boarded. They needed to learn that nothing short of death should take them away from duty again.

  She’d been distracted, too. Unforgivable. And not to be repeated. “Get out of here, all of you,” she snapped. To Gath, she said, “Organize a soldier’s morti for my son.”

  “When do you wish the ceremony to be held?”

  “At ship’s dawn.” As soon as the duty was done, she’d deal with the humans.

  *

  Amelia Takei paced in front of the governor’s improvised desk. “There must be something I can do.”

  “I don’t know what any of us can do.”

  Amelia ground to a halt. The governor’s admission was huge. All through this tumultuous time, she’d been the rock around which the sea of people had swirled. Amelia saw the shock of realization hit Shana at the same moment.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t use that against you,” the TV presenter reassured.

  Some of the governor’s old confidence slipped through. “Thank you. I think we have more to worry about than your ratings.”

  Obviously stung by the comment, Amelia drew herself up. “I wasn’t asking for myself. As you say, there’s a lot more at stake.” She’d wormed her way in here on the hunt for the story of the century. Now, to her own surprise, she thought of herself as part of the governor’s team. Of humanity’s team. “There’s something on Garrett’s mind,” she said.

  The governor nodded. “I tried getting it out of him, but he’s not talking.”

  Seeing a way she could be useful after all, Amelia felt the corners of her mouth lift slightly. “Maybe he’ll talk to me.”

  Shana’s look was long and slow. “He might at that. Do what you can.” As the TV presenter turned to go, she added, “Report back to me if you learn anything useful.”

  Pivoting on a heel, Amelia asked, “What if he tells me in confidence?”

  “Worried about your journalistic code of ethics?”

  Amelia exhaled slowly. “Worried about Garrett.”

  The governor gave a measured nod. “Yes, me, too.” Shana still didn’t fully understand the beacon thing, but her relationship with Adam had shown her enough to know that the link between him, Garrett and Elaine was real and powerful.

  Captain Zael’s ability to kill from a distance gnawed at her. Was the skill species specific, or were all of them at risk now? The sense of helplessness washing over Shana was as draining as it was foreign. As a police officer, she’d been trained always to know what to do, even if only to pass information up the line. Her present job limited that option.

  Limited, but didn’t close it off.

  She tightened her lips in a grim smile and reached for the phone.

  *

  “Mind some company?”

  After his debriefing with the governor, Garrett had sequestered himself in a lounge away from the center of activity, ostensibly to rest. He didn’t look as if he was getting much rest, as he sat on a narrow couch, his forearms braced on his knees. His face brightened when he saw Amelia at the door, although that could have been wishful thinking.

  “I don’t suppose you brought coffee?”

  The whole center was fueled on the stuff, she’d decided after tracking down a coffee machine in one of the building’s kitchens. Two cellophane packages in her jacket pocket held cheese and crackers from the same source. She couldn’t remember when she’d last eaten, and doubted Garrett could either.

  Pushing the door wider with her hip, she handed him a mug. She’d been amused to find she remembered how he took his coffee. She remembered a lot of things about him, beyond the call of duty. He accepted the package of food from her but made no move to open it.

  “Not hungry?”

  “Angry,” he said. He took a mouthful of coffee and grimaced. “Strong, the way I like it.”

  “Angry about what?” The governor’s words came back to her. “Don’t worry, we’re off the record.”

  He cocked her an ironic look. “Shana?”

  “She can’t see me as anything but the media. I hope you can.”

  “I don’t find it all that difficult. Maybe when this is over …” His voice trailed off as though he couldn’t see past the present crisis.

  She set her mug down on the low table in front of the couch and sat beside him. “It will be over and we will survive,” she said in her most confident presenter’s voice.

  He swallowed her statement along with another mouthful of coffee. “Liar.”

  “What happened up there that you didn’t want to tell the governor?”

  “When Kam was dying, I felt Captain Zael killing him with her thoughts.”

  “You said he spoke of an implant. Something in her mind?”

  “Whatever it was, I felt a backwash from the force she directed at him. He died of … pleasure. Unbearable, overwhelming pleasure.”

  With her teeth, Amelia tore open the cheese and crackers, spilling them into her hand. “I suppose it’s possible to die from an excess of anything. How does that fit into this puzzle?”

  “If I’m right, it means she can’t use the power on any of us. We’re not linked to her the way Kam was.”

  Amelia chewed thoughtfully. “Some comfort, I suppose.”

  “There was something else. I can’t get my mind around it yet, but I got a sense that we’re not where we think we are.”

  Finishing a cracker, she dusted her hands off. “Maybe you should try to rest.”

  “I’m not crazy. As we traveled to the Kelek ship, I felt something around us, a field of some kind.”

  Her eyebrows lifted. “Like your flux?”

  “Possibly.” He opened his own crackers and bit into the cheese. “I’m still trying to figure out what I sensed.”

  “And I disturbed you.” She started to g
et up but he stayed her with a touch.

  “Don’t go. I could use a sounding board.”

  Without Elaine or Adam, Garrett had no-one else. Amelia tamped down a small surge of satisfaction at having him all to herself, finally. Then she made herself face what that truly meant. Without the other beacons, Garrett was limited to human actions.

  As a test, she asked, “What does your special hearing tell you?” She deliberately made the question as matter-of-fact as she could. His look told her how much he appreciated the acceptance.

  “I can hear Zael on her ship, preparing for her son’s funeral,” he said. “She’s also preparing something else for us.”

  “Revenge?”

  “More than revenge – annihilation. She blames us for making her kill her lover.”

  Amelia heard the fear in Garrett’s voice and tried to keep her own under control. “You said I’m a sounding board. Use me. Tell me everything you can hear, and anything Elaine saw, that could make a difference. Between us, we might be able to figure this out.”

  *

  As many of the ship’s company as could be spared stood at attention in two rows either side of her son’s burial capsule. None of them had known Ryn Zael. He hadn’t thought his mother knew about his inner conflict, but she had. He’d dedicated his life to being a Kelek soldier. But there had always been a part of him drawn to the sciences. Like her, Akia thought, silently accepting her part in this.

  She’d been a soldier when she conceived him, rising steadily in the ranks of the space corps. She’d also known she was different. Wanting to use scientific means to achieve her people’s goals, she’d focused on geoengineering as a weapon. Ryn had been fascinated by her work, also taking assignments that developed his interest.

  If only … Her gaze dropped to the capsule and she shook herself mentally. They’d each chosen their path and done the best they could. No more could be asked of a soldier.

  With great care she recited his four names to the ship’s company for the last time. After this, he would be spoken of only by his family name. “We commit the body of Engineer Zael to the sun’s fire,” she said, “And his essence to the deep of space.”

  At her signal, the capsule slid along the ship’s gun path. The blast curtain closed behind it and she felt the deck vibrate as the capsule was blasted into space. The trajectory would take the capsule into this system’s sun where every coronial ejection in future would salute her son’s life and death.

  With a look, she dismissed the honor guard and turned on her heel. The steps she’d already set in motion would also serve as his memorial.

  As the door to her laboratory hissed shut behind her, she let out a huge breath of relief. She’d known the morti ceremony would take a toll. She hadn’t realized quite how much.

  There was also Kam’s absence to deal with. How many times had he lingered here while she worked, his considered advice at her disposal? Now she was truly alone for the first time in her life. No partner. No son. No lover.

  So be it.

  Love meant giving too many hostages to fortune. The pain lodged in her chest told her she’d be a long time allowing herself to love again, if she ever did.

  Resolving to control what was in her power, she slipped into the seat in front of the bank of screens and keyboards. Newly restored, the surfaces gleamed. She ran her hands over them. From here on these were the only lovers she would allow into her life.

  Chapter 27

  All business now, Akia called up several views of the volcano the humans called Mount Ekin. At two thousand four hundred meters, the volcano was small by Kelek standards, and according to her scans, had been dormant for over two hundred Earth years.

  The sense of her son’s aura was strong here, she realized. She let the screens show her images of green-flanked slopes honeycombed with lava tube caves. One screen revealed a building cluster, an information center and a few meters away, a wooden structure with a sign identifying it as Ekin Shelter. According to her research, the structure was the center of a protest movement by the country’s Indigenous people to stop a geothermal energy project of a type common in Iddel Province, her home on Kelek.

  She recognized the process. Basically, drilling would tap into hot rocks some kilometers below the volcano’s surface. The opening of each fracture was equal to a miniature quake in which subterranean stresses found and ripped apart weak veins in the rock. Water would be pumped into these veins at great pressure and returned to the surface as steam to generate energy.

  The process was not without risks. In Iddel, quake swarms had been triggered, forcing mass evacuations. But the demand for the energy had overridden the needs of the people whose lives were disrupted. The survivors had been moved elsewhere, and the work carried on.

  Things were different among the humans. Their feeble leaders had given in to the protesters, bringing the project to a standstill.

  Kam’s comments and Akia’s study of the region’s media led her to think her son had intended to take advantage of the hiatus and cause the volcano to erupt. He’d been stopped by the deklatz beacons. Akia had no intention of letting them stop her.

  In fact, she would take great satisfaction in causing an eruption huge enough to make the mountain shake itself apart, taking the beacons and all who sheltered them with it.

  That her actions would end her mission to rediscover Prana was unavoidable. Alone as she was, finding the homeworld no longer held the same meaning for her. She could conquer that world and howl her triumph to their skies, but who would celebrate with her? Her crew?

  She forced herself to ignore the pain her actions would cause them. Like any good leader, of course she shared their suffering. But she didn’t fool herself that they shared hers. Gath would fill her shoes without hesitation. The others would follow where he led.

  Everything came with a price. Hers was the loss of everyone she’d cared about. An eye for an eye was part of the Kelek ethos. Definitely part of hers, although couched in more military language. No-one would deny her the right.

  By destroying her chance of reconnecting with Prana, she would deny the beacons the same chance. A reasonable trade-off under the circumstances.

  The reports she’d studied said her son’s plans had been thwarted when he was lured to a communications black spot where his trigger couldn’t function. Garrett Luken, one of the beacons, had been hailed a hero for his quick thinking. He wasn’t credited with her son’s death, but Akia knew in her bones that Luken was to blame.

  He would die horribly, she vowed. She needed no trigger other than her boards to set off an earthquake swarm involving half of this accursed globe.

  In her mind she pictured the water, mud and heavy metal contaminants spewing out of the drilling site, burying everything between the volcano and the sea. Thousands of people would be killed. She would mourn none of them.

  *

  Shana felt the first tremblors as indistinct vibrations under her feet. “What the devil was that?” she demanded of Jules.

  Her aide blanched. “Feels like an earth tremor. I’ll get onto meteorology and find out what they’re recording.”

  They’d only arrived back at Government House an hour before. Shana hoped she wasn’t going to regret leaving Black Tree, but they’d done all they could there.

  As the tremors increased, she made a decision. “Get everyone outside now,” she ordered June.

  Her security chief was already in action, herding people toward the exits.

  Garrett stopped in front of Shana’s desk. “If I’m right, getting outside won’t be enough.”

  Shana paused in the act of gathering up her important papers and the security briefcase she’d only just returned to its cubbyhole beneath her desk. “What do you think is happening?”

  “The Kelek captain,” he said tersely.

  Shana felt her eyes flare. “You think she’s the one making Mount Ekin erupt?”

  “After what we did to her, it’s the obvious next step.”

/>   “Elaine heard her tell Kam about her plans,” Shana said, an island of calm as her people streamed around her out of the building. Inside she felt far from calm. Always look as if you have things under control, even if you don’t – especially when you don’t, she remembered one of her first sergeants saying. He couldn’t have envisioned anything like this.

  “People like Zael don’t threaten,” Garrett said.

  Amelia Takei appeared behind him with Elaine in tow. Elaine looked uncharacteristically subdued. Her experience on the Kelek ship had visibly shaken her usual poise.

  “Is this what I think it is?” Amelia asked.

  Shana nodded. “You three should get to safety.”

  “What about you?”

  When had Amelia started to care what happened to Shana as an individual? There was also something different between Amelia and Garrett, a closeness she couldn’t remember seeing before now. She gave Amelia a questioning look but the woman’s expression remained unrevealing, despite her promise to share with Shana anything useful she’d learned from Garrett.

  Was there no-one she could rely on any more, the governor asked herself, feeling Adam’s absence even more keenly as she shoved papers and her iPad into a briefcase.

  June Young came back to her, not letting her walking cast slow her down. “Time to get you out of here, governor. You as well.” The security chief’s glance took in Garrett, Elaine and Amelia.

  “Is everyone else out? My mother?” Shana asked, relieved when June nodded. Even though only a few of her staff remained with her, she didn’t want them put at risk.

  “Government House is too close to the volcano,” June added.

  Shana had thought they would shelter in the basement of the historic building. Moving around from pillar to post was getting old very rapidly. It seemed they could barely catch their breath before a new crisis swept over them.

  Another tremor under her feet reminded her that this could be the granddaddy of crises. She handed her folio of papers to June and picked up the security case, its weight a sobering reminder of what was at stake. “Where do you have in mind?”