Broken Worlds: The Awakening (A Sci-Fi Mystery)

by Jasper T. Scott

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Tanik said. “And Captain Riker? How did he die?”

  Dyara explained how he’d attacked her and how Darius had accidentally killed him.

  “That’s a pity. We could have used a man of his experience. I suppose I’ll have to assume the role of Captain for now.”

  Dyara’s back stiffened. “Darius mentioned that we should hold an election and vote for a leader.”

  Tanik’s yellow-green eyes flicked sideways. “Is that still your opinion, Darius?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Interesting.” His gaze slid back to Dyara. “Then this is your idea.”

  “Does it matter whose idea it is? It’s a good one. Today’s freedom fighters are tomorrow’s tyrants. You’re not immune to the corruptive influence of power. It’s time that the Coalition had a democracy.”

  Tanik held Dyara’s gaze for a long moment. “We’re preparing to strike a deadly blow against the USO. Now is not the time to give the reins to a silver-tongued politician who has no idea how to fight a war.”

  “I agree,” Darius said.

  Dyara shot him a betrayed look. “What about your battle plan?” she asked, nodding to Tanik. “During our approach you mentioned you were going to explain how we’re going to slip by the Cygnian Fleet at the Eye.”

  “Yes, according to the ship’s surveillance logs, the Deliverance was expected at the Eye, so we’re going to meet the Cygnians there as planned.”

  “Expected?” Dyara asked. “For what?”

  “To transfer all of the people in cryo. They were supposed to be sent to the Crucible.”

  “Even though most of them are already too old for it?” Dyara asked.

  “Apparently they’re not too old,” Tanik said. “Now go get yourself cleaned up, Lieutenant. There’s still a lot of work to be done before we jump to the Eye, and our arrival there is weeks overdue.”

  “One last thing, sir.”

  Tanik frowned. “Yes?”

  “How did you wake all those people up and explain the situation to them without Gatticus to help you? You don’t speak English.”

  “I learned it. There’s a module for it in the data center.”

  “There is?”

  “Yes. Any other questions?”

  Dyara shook her head.

  “Then you’re dismissed, Lieutenant,” Tanik said. The door of his quarters swished open, and Dyara saluted stiffly and strode out the door. Darius turned to follow her, but Tanik stopped him with a shake of his head.

  “Not you.”

  Dyara glanced back at them just as the door slid shut in her face.

  “Something happened at Hades, didn’t it, Darius?”

  Darius frowned, wondering what Tanik meant. Then he remembered the sortie with enemy fighters and he related the details of the engagement, in which he personally took out at least two fighters.

  “No, not that,” Tanik replied. “You left as a worried civilian father, and you came back a veteran soldier.”

  Darius felt grief rising up to choke him again, but he swallowed it and shook his head. “The Cygnians are evil. Someone has to fight them.”

  “Yes. Someone indeed.” He nodded to the door. “What do you think of Dyara?”

  Darius blinked. “Think of her?”

  “Is she loyal to the cause?”

  Darius felt a prickle of warning in his gut, and checked himself before he spoke. “I believe she thinks your methods are extreme, but she’s no friend of the USO. That, and the Seal of Death on her wrist ensures her loyalty.”

  “Yes,” Tanik replied, nodding. “I suppose that’s true. Did you know that Dyara was my second-in-command?”

  “I didn’t—was? You mean she’s not anymore?”

  “I’d like you to take her place. From now on, Lieutenant Dyara Eraya will report to you.”

  “To me, sir? I don’t have the experience to—”

  “What you lack in experience, you make up for with conviction, Commander.” Tanik withdrew a rank insignia from his pocket—two gleaming white bars, joined together by a black magnetic plate.

  Darius accepted the insignia and turned it over in his hands, wondering what to do with it. As if reading his thoughts, Tanik patted the upper left sleeve of his jumpsuit, and Darius noticed a golden triangle gleaming there. He wondered about that insignia—Captain?—and tried to recall if he’d seen Riker wearing a matching triangle on his sleeve. But as far as he could remember, Riker’s sleeve had been empty. None of them had been given rank insignias before they’d left, even though Riker had informally been appointed as Captain of the ship. Darius grimaced with the memory of the man he’d killed, and shook his head to clear it.

  “What about the others?” he asked.

  “Others?” Tanik asked.

  “The Murciago, the Korothian, and the Dol Walin—they’ve all been with you longer than I. Shouldn’t one of them be your new second-in-command?”

  Tanik gave a smile that was warped into a twisted snarl by the shiny lines of scar tissue marring his face. “None of them understand the reason we are fighting as acutely as you and I do. They haven’t lost any children. We have. And that’s why we’re fighting—for the ones we’ve lost, and for the ones we’ll continue to lose as long as the Cygnians rule us. The children are the future, Darius, and until we reclaim them, we’ll never have one.”

  Darius nodded slowly, but said nothing to that. His chest ached with a dull pain that he tried but failed to suppress.

  “Go get cleaned up and get yourself something to eat. Then at oh-nine hundred head down to Ready Room One. It’s a few doors down from the amidships hangar on level five. I’ll make sure all the other Vulture pilots are waiting there for you. They’re your responsibility now, and you’re going to need every available moment to train them before we jump to the Eye.”

  Darius realized he could probably use the training too. The blind leading the blind, he thought. “How are we supposed to train?”

  “There’s flight simulators on board. Ask Dyara. She can help you.”

  The door to Tanik’s quarters swished open, and Darius gave a hesitant salute before turning to leave. As he went, he heard Tanik call out behind him: “One last thing, Darius—”

  “Sir?” He turned to face Tanik once more from just outside his quarters.

  “A good commander is driven by reason, not emotion. That means no more reckless charges, and you follow your orders, understood?”

  “Yes, sir,” he said with a frown.

  He wondered when he’d told Tanik that he was responsible for engaging the enemy fighters over Hades against Dyara’s orders. Maybe he’d implied it somehow in his recounting of events.

  “Good. Dismissed,” Tanik said, and the door slid shut in Darius’s face.

  Chapter 47

  Darius prowled the corridors of the Command Deck, looking for his quarters so he could change and get washed up, but he realized that he had no idea where his previous room had been. Besides, now he was an officer. He’d probably get a new room assignment, anyway.

  Darius stopped and looked around, wondering which of the numbered doors were already assigned to officers and which ones weren’t. He used his Extra-Sensory Chip to find and contact the ship’s quartermaster—Senior Chief Petty Officer Harmond.

  “What can I help you with, Commander Drake?” Harmond asked. His voice echoed strangely inside Darius’s head, indicating that the quartermaster was communicating via his ESC as well.

  “I need a room assignment on the Command Deck.”

  “Take room 23C,” Harmond replied. “I’ll get a custom door plate printed out and have a cadet put it up for you later.”

  “Thanks, Senior Chief,” Darius thought, and closed the connection. He shivered involuntarily. It was a weird feeling communicating with thoughts instead of words.

  Darius found his assigned quarters easily enough—23C was the 23rd door down Corridor C. He focused on the door and an open/close prompt appeared before his
eyes. Open Door, he thought, and the door swished open. He walked inside and then thought, Close Door, and it swished shut behind him.

  Darius went straight to the bathroom and got undressed. He left his rank insignia floating there with his clothes and eyed it speculatively while he used the toilet.

  Commander.

  It still didn’t seem like a logical move for Tanik to promote him above Dyara, and everyone else, but he wasn’t going to waste any more time arguing about it.

  As soon as he finished with the toilet, Darius collected the floating pieces of his flight suit and jumpsuit and stuffed them into the laundry chute in the shower. He was about to drop the waste-management girdle in there too, but he hesitated upon seeing that the urine collection bag was full. He’d had to empty his bladder several times during the trip to and from Hades. Fortunately he hadn’t needed to use the girdle for anything else, but still—was the laundry chute the right place to dump girdles full of human waste?

  He had the vague feeling that it was, so he went with that and dropped his girdle in the chute. If he was wrong, hopefully the bots sorting through dirty laundry on the other end would be smart enough to figure out what to do with it.

  When Darius was done showering and getting dressed in a fresh jumpsuit, he went back to the bathroom to retrieve his Commander’s insignia. He placed the pair of shiny white bars against the empty black patch on his upper left sleeve, and the magnetic backing snapped into place.

  He stared at that insignia for a moment, wondering if it would annoy Dyara. It almost seemed like Tanik was trying to upset her, like this was his way of punishing her for suggesting that they hold an election.

  Darius’s stomach growled and he shook off those thoughts to go grab some food from the wardroom. Darius only vaguely recognized that word—wardroom, so he looked it up with his ESC. It turned out it was just a fancy word for officers’ mess hall.

  Darius found a scattering of other officers in the wardroom. He went to get his food from the “buffet” counter, and then spent a moment looking around to decide where to eat. That was when he noticed a group of people that he actually recognized—Dyara, Blake, Lisa, Ra, Veekara, and Ectos were all standing around the same table and talking. Only Dyara was eating, but she seemed more interested in the conversation than her food. Darius walked up to them cautiously, noting the gleaming rank insignias on each of their sleeves as he approached. They all wore the single silver bar of a Lieutenant Junior Grade, except for Dyara, whose sleeve sported the gold bar of a full lieutenant.

  Darius walked up to the table. Blake spotted him and called out, “Hey, speak of the devil, here comes Spaceman now.”

  Dyara turned to him with a guilty look.

  “Were you guys talking about me?” Darius asked as he released his food packs and left them floating around him.

  “Yes,” Dyara admitted. Then her eyes found the commander’s insignia on his sleeve and she scowled. “He always does this,” she said, shaking her head.

  “Who does what?”

  “Tanik. Somehow, he always manages to convince people to join his cause, then he finds some way to make them feel special, like they’re actually more than just another warm body to throw at the Cygnians. He missed his calling. He should have been a salesman.”

  “It’s hard to argue with common sense, Hottie,” Blake said. “The Cygnians and the USO want to send us to that Crucible thing so that they can decide which of us to kill and which of us to keep. That’s not exactly appealing.”

  Darius frowned. “You already knew about that, but you wanted to leave anyway. Gatticus told you that four out of every five people return from the Crucible with the Seal of Life. That was your argument for leaving. You figured you would be one of the lucky ones. Remember?”

  Blake shrugged. “Would you risk a twenty percent chance of a death sentence? No thanks.” He shook his head and tapped the silver bar of Junior Lieutenant’s insignia on his right sleeve. “I’m all signed up.”

  “You see what I’m saying?” Dyara asked in a hushed voice.

  Darius’s gaze skipped around the table, finding Lisa next, followed by Ra, and then each of the other survivors from Karkarus. “You all joined?”

  Ra lifted his chin and tilted his head. “Yes. Where is Captain Riker?”

  Darius grimaced. “He tried to kill Dyara. I tried to stop him, but I accidentally killed him in the process.”

  A look of fury flashed across Ra’s face, but then it vanished, and his eyes glazed over. “He will be missed,” Ra said simply. Veekara and Ectos nodded their agreement.

  Darius absently scratched at a week’s worth of stubble on his cheek. His gaze found Blake once more. “Has anyone decided not to join the Coalition?”

  “Not that I know of,” Blake replied.

  Darius couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “So how exactly did he convince you to join?”

  “He didn’t have to. It all just kind of clicked, and I figured it out for myself. I guess I just needed to sleep on it.”

  Darius turned to Dyara, blinking in shock.

  “Is something wrong?” Blake asked.

  Dyara gave her head a slight shake and glanced sideways at the others, as if to remind Darius they were still there.

  Darius pasted a smile on his face and turned back to Blake. “I guess I’m just surprised, that’s all.”

  “Yeah, well, get over it, Spaceman. We need a Commander with his head in the game, not in the clouds. You’ve got four squadrons of Vultures to train, and you’ve got just two days to do it.”

  “How do you know that?” Darius asked.

  “Captain Gurhain just sent us orders via the ship’s datnet, telling us to report to you at oh nine hundred in Ready Room One. That, plus I’m assuming that shiny new insignia of yours isn’t just for decoration,” Blake said, and pointed at the rank plate on Darius’s upper sleeve. “You’re the highest ranking officer I’ve seen besides the Captain himself.”

  Darius nodded slowly. “Well, you’re right. I have the same orders as you. I guess you’re all Vulture pilots, then?”

  “That’s right. Blue Squadron, same as you. Better hurry up and eat your food, sir,” Blake said. “Oh nine hundred is in twenty minutes.”

  Darius nodded and grabbed his scissors to cut open a food pack of strawberry yogurt with granola. As he spooned it out, he noticed again that he and Dyara were the only ones eating. The others were all watching them with eerie, staring eyes. Darius cleared his throat and said, “I need to speak with my second-in-command about your training—in private. You’re all dismissed. I’ll see you in the ready room.”

  Blake’s eyes narrowed slightly at that, but he nodded and gave a stiff salute. “Yes, sir.” The others matched that salute and they all left the table together.

  Darius watched them leave. As soon as the wardroom doors slid shut behind them, he turned to Dyara and said, “What the hell is wrong with them?”

  Chapter 48

  Dyara shook her head. “It’s like they’ve been brainwashed.”

  “Is that possible?” Darius asked.

  “Yes and no. You can indoctrinate people with a neural mapper if you have the right data modules, but it’s hard, and mappers aren’t designed for it. The success rate for that kind of thing is pretty low, unless you custom-tailor each data module for each person that you want to indoctrinate. Even then, that won’t remove a person’s will, it just convinces them to agree with a particular ideology.”

  “So...” Darius shook his head.

  “I’ve seen this before,” Dyara said. “In the Church of the Divine Light.”

  “So this is some kind of religious fervor? I didn’t hear them spouting any dogma.”

  Dyara frowned around a mouthful of sweet and sour chicken. “There’s legends about the Revenants that say they have the power to make people follow them blindly.”

  “But you said that was just a nickname.”

  “I don’t know anymore. I’ve seen some strange things
in the years I’ve spent with Tanik, and I’ve had even stranger dreams.”

  That caught Darius’s attention. His heart skipped a beat and his skin prickled. “Dreams? What kind of dreams?”

  “I had one recently, the night we spent together on the Deliverance. I woke up hearing noises coming from Tanik’s room, and when we went to investigate—”

  “I had the same dream,” Darius whispered.

  Dyara’s brown eyes widened swiftly. “You what?”

  Darius’s heart was pounding now. “What did we find in Tanik’s quarters?”

  “He was asleep on the ceiling, his eyes were open, and his mag boots were flying in circles around his head.”

  Darius couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Kak,” Darius breathed. He glanced around quickly to make sure no one was listening to their conversation. All the tables next to them were empty except for a cleaning bot zipping around to collect empty food packs and dirty utensils.

  “You dreamed that too?” Dyara asked in a hushed voice.

  He nodded slowly. “It wasn’t a dream, Dya. Ra and Captain Riker were also there. Riker shot Tanik, and he woke up. Then there was a flash of light...”

  “And we all woke up back in our sleeping bags,” Dyara replied, nodding.

  “Do you think Ra remembers?” Darius asked.

  “I don’t know, but if he does, he obviously also thought it was just a dream.”

  “What the hell did we see?” Darius asked. “And why did Tanik try to cover it up by... doing whatever the hell he did to make us black out like that.”

  Dyara slowly shook her head. “Ra said something that night. He said that the legends are true.”

  “Legends of what?”

  “Of the Revenants. I think Tanik is one of them. He’s a real, living Revenant, and I think he really has brainwashed everyone, but he didn’t need a neural mapper to do it. He’s tapping into the source field and somehow using it to control everyone on board.”

  “That’s absurd.”

  “Is it?” Dyara regarded him with eyebrows raised. “How else do you explain everything that’s going on?”