Farrow gritted his teeth. "I am not asking for much. A little coordination, some extra time. It's the absolute least you could possibly give us."
"We acquired a sand cruiser in the city," Akonai said, referring to the craft he'd used to return that day. "Nearly a fair trade for the Goshawk. Beyond that, we have what we need from you. When the time comes we will give you the signal, and whether you choose to take advantage of it or not is out of my hands."
He has what he needs from us? What the shit was that supposed to mean? Something he said earlier prickled Farrow's memory. "You said you're waiting for the freighter to be loaded. With what?"
"The electroids, of course."
"We've already loaded your electroids." Akonai had visited the city to see if anything could be salvaged from the Station. Most of everything had been destroyed in the battle there, but he did return with ten pristine electroids found in a hidden storage bay. Farrow oversaw them moved to the freighter himself.
Akonai's mouth twitched. "Not those. Yours. The few your engineers managed to scrape together. They're pitiful robots, but they're better than nothing, and at the very least they'll help swell our numbers for the attack on Latea."
The blood drained from Farrow's face. He pushed past a smiling Spider and left the room at a run. The men and women of his base frowned at him as he passed in the halls. He ignored their hails.
He skidded to a stop inside the aircraft bay. It was exactly as he feared: his engineers used rolling dollies to transport the human-shaped electroids up the ramp and onto the freighter. The electroids they'd spent so long collecting and assembling.
"Stop," he ordered the men. "Unload the freighter."
They stopped, but only to stare at him with confusion. "But Akonai said..."
"Now."
They were his men, had been more loyal than any leader deserved, but they hesitated. They stared at Farrow with confusion, then their eyes flicked past him.
He whirled to face Akonai, who strode into the room with purpose. Spider followed behind. He'd retrieved his rifle at some point, and held it across his body. He looked like he wanted an excuse to use it.
"We worked for months assembling these electroids," Farrow said, biting off every word. "We lost men and women collecting the shitting parts. You cannot take them from us so soon before the attack."
"I am confident you Freemen will make do," Akonai said, bored. "And if not..." He shrugged.
All the pieces fell into place. Everything Akonai had done in the last few years. Arriving, taking men and women, rarely bringing supplies. Taking ships. And now the electroids. In a flash of realization, Farrow knew. "You don't give two shits what happens here. You only care about Melis, and the Empire there. You're abandoning your efforts on Praetar."
"We care about the Empire everywhere," Akonai said. "Though correct, Melis is of prime concern. I believe I have always made that clear." He gestured at the engineers, who continued loading the electroids.
"You told us we'd receive supplies, weapons, vehicles," Farrow accused, jabbing a finger into Akonai's chest. "You told us you'd help us retake the planet. You said we'd be heroes!"
Akonai looked down at Farrow's finger. Spider raised his rifle a fraction of a degree. Across the room the engineers shifted uncomfortably.
"You used us," Farrow said, more defeated than angry.
Akonai smiled a cruel smile. "My dear Praetari. All men use one another. It is man's nature, whether his eyes are blue or brown."
"I don't use anyone," Farrow said. "Not like this."
Akonai spoke quickly. "When were you going to tell that woman her daughters are dead?"
Farrow recoiled as if from a blow.
"When were you going to tell her Bruno's freighters were built to be doomed, shot down by the Empire's orbital blockade? When were you going to tell her that there was no salvation at the Station?"
Farrow had struggled with that question since she arrived. He fumbled for words. "I have waited to tell her. A kindness..."
"A cruelty, I call it. A kind man would tell her now, so that she may begin to accept. The longer you wait the worse it will be for her." Akonai spread his hands. "But until then, she will be quite motivated. All men use one another. You may deny it, but the guilt is clear on your face."
While Farrow stood there, Akonai turned back to Spider. "You'll rendezvous with the other craft at the Harpon Supply Station. Their industrial freighters will carry your electroids along with all the others, to deploy on Latea when the attack begins. After that proceed as planned with my son, on the surface. Onero will make you one of his lieutenants."
Spider nodded. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and climbed the ladder into the freighter cockpit. Akonai strode toward his Goshawk, which was being wheeled in from the side bay.
"You've picked us clean," Farrow said. "What are we supposed to do?"
The freighter's engines exploded to life underneath its hull, blowing sand across the metal floor in all directions. Farrow jumped back and shielded his eyes from the blast. Above him, a groan of gears and scraping of metal announced that the massive surface door began sliding open. New sand cascaded down into the room like waterfalls. When they dwindled the dark sky appeared, bearing a yellowish tint even at night.
The musical tone of the engines increased in pitch as it lifted off the ground. It rose into the air with reckless speed, passing through the open door and then shooting off out of sight.
The sudden silence jolted Farrow back to attention. "What are we supposed to do?" he repeated.
"Whatever you wish," Akonai said as he climbed into the Goshawk. "You're in charge here, as you so often remind me."
Farrow felt the warmth of anger rise in his belly and chest and throat. Everything had changed so quickly. They were making off like thieves, swooping in and taking what they needed and leaving before anyone could question them.
He considered that Akonai was now alone. Defenseless, too. The temptation was terrible, a clawing sensation inside his head, but Farrow forced himself to smother it. Despite their disagreements, they were not animals here, no matter what Akonai believed. It would be a poor precedent to set, too, Farrow thought, eying the engineers in the corner. His men seeing him disobey his superior--and worse--was not something he wanted everyone to become comfortable with. Besides, I've disobeyed an order before, and the result...
Akonai paused outside the cockpit. "Oh, I did bring you one other thing. A man. He seems as damaged as one of your half-assembled electroids, but I thought him mildly useful. At the least he's an amusing joke to add to your assortment. I left him in the kitchen."
"A single man? That is all you leave me with?"
Akonai gave a final smile. "What did you expect? For us to steal the Olitau and bring it here to help you?" He laughed as he climbed inside.
The cockpit door closed with a pressurized, suction sound. Farrow stood in the hangar with his hands balled into fists at his side. He watched the speedy ship soar into the air, through the door above, and disappear beyond. He stared at the dark sky with frustration and rage until the doors closed, blocking his view.
Finally he pulled his eyes away and found Mira and Kari standing a short distance away.
Farrow felt his anger rise again. That woman had inadvertently caused many of their problems. She'd stolen credits from the factory foreman, causing him to be removed and thrown into a cell by the peacekeepers. He just so happened to be the same foreman supplying Bruno with electroid parts, which Bruno was in turn outfitting with weapons, reprogramming, and turning over to Akonai. With the friendly foreman gone, Bruno had been forced to work with one less sympathetic to the Praetari cause. According to Kari he pushed and blackmailed and bribed too much, which led to the foreman running to the peacekeepers, who then stormed the Station.
And with those electroids destroyed, and their supplier gone, Akonai had taken all of Farrow's electroids instead. Leaving him with nothing.
"We heard the ship engines and
came to see," Mira apologized. "What's the Olitau?"
Farrow wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. Do you know how much shitting trouble you've unknowingly caused? How many careful plans you've turned downside-up, all because you wanted to save your shitting daughters with some misplaced idea of escape?
In anger, he very nearly told her then. That her daughters were dead, that she'd sent them straight into the blast of a Sentinel missile. That they'd have been safer if she'd continued her job at the factory and waited a little longer. If she had been patient.
He stopped himself from the words, but only barely. I am not cruel, he thought, and I will not reveal it to her out of anger. Kari narrowed her eyes at him, as if knowing what he intended. To stop any comment from her, he said, "The Olitau is the flagship of the Exodus Fleet, somewhere above Melis. Kari, come with me to the kitchen. We've got a new visitor." She was a better judge of people than most, and he always liked to have her eyes on a newcomer.
"We actually just came from there," Kari said. "I know this man."
Something in her voice worried him. "So?"
"He's... uhh." She ran a hand over her bald head. "He's different. You'll see what I mean. His name is Dok."
Chapter 8
Farrow, Kari, and Mira stood in a semicircle around the small man while he hunched over the table. He wore a long coat with strange gearwork and metal bits sewn into the thread, which he occasionally touched or manipulated in a compulsive way. Instead of eating his soup he focused on his spoon and fork, pushing them together with both hands as if trying to make them fit. He rocked back and forth, muttering unintelligibly under his breath.
Maggy stood on the other side of the table, large arms crossed over her chest. "Been sitting there doing that for ten minutes. Won't even touch the soup." She sniffed. "Like he's had better in that miserable city."
Dok dropped his spoon into the soup with a splash. He focused on the fork, bending one of the metal prongs backwards.
"Hey! Stop that," Maggy cried, snatching the utensil from his hand.
This caused Dok to begin moaning softly under his breath, and his rocking increased, his head bobbing like a bird's. With a sigh Maggy gave him back the fork. He immediately calmed down and resumed whatever it was he was doing.
"He was at the Station," Mira said. "I saw him there. He worked for Bruno."
Kari nodded. "Dok's an engineer. Don't let his appearance fool you. He's quite skilled."
This shit is skilled? Farrow thought, watching him bend the fork's prongs in different directions. He barely looked like he could clothe himself. They needed all the manpower they could get, but they had little room for leeches. At least Binny can clean and sew up wounds.
Mira sat next to Dok and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. Dok drew back with fear, ceasing his muttering. "Shh, it's okay," she said, taking the spoon out of the bowl. "Come on. Let's eat some soup. Just a little bit."
She lifted the spoon to her lips in an exaggerated motion to demonstrate, slurping the invisible liquid. "Mmm!" she said, putting the spoon back. "Delicious!"
It was a ridiculously childish thing to do to a man who appeared older than all of them, but to Farrow's astonishment it worked. Holding the mutilated fork in one hand, Dok carefully picked up the spoon in the other and raised it to his lips. He made a loud slurping noise, although the spoon was empty.
"Good! Now try it with actual soup." Mira took his wrist and dipped it into the bowl, then let go to allow him to feed himself. He raised the spoon and slurped. Half the liquid dribbled down his shirt, but some must have reached his mouth because he eagerly took a second spoonful, then a third.
Mira beamed up at the others. "He just needs a little help, that's all. I'd be cowering too if I had to work for Bruno for all these years."
The mention of the Lord of the Station caused Dok to give a sudden jerk. The spoon clattered to the table and he put his head in his hands. "No, not ready. If there's not enough parts, then not enough rowbits. And if not enough rowbits, Bruno angry..."
Mira touched his shoulder but he recoiled and yelped. Maggy tried pushing the soup closer to him until he knocked it away with an accidental elbow. She rushed off to grab a cloth to clean the mess while Dok's moans grew louder. Mira continued speaking soothing words but it didn't help.
"Oh he's shitting different, alright," Farrow said, not bothering to keep the acid from his voice. The chaotic scene was the finale to a truly awful day of events.
Kari seemed equally annoyed. "At the Station he got this way whenever he'd been away from his workshop too long," she offered. "He's more at ease around electronics and mechanical things."
"Fine. Take him to the workshop, at least until he's calmed down. But afterwards see that Binny gets him set up in a cell for the night."
"A cell? He's harmless, believe me. You don't mean to question him..."
In truth he wasn't sure what to do. He trusted Kari's opinion more than anyone else in the base, but what he didn't trust was a new visitor dumped on his doorstep by Akonai. He sighed. "I'll figure out what to do with him tomorrow." There were a lot of plans that needed changing, but most of the base slept at that hour. All of it could wait.
The two women each took an arm and led Dok from the room like a prisoner. Farrow highly doubted that simply being in the workshop would calm him, but he couldn't muster the energy to care. Maggy gave him a sympathetic look as he left the kitchen.
He felt increasingly defeated as he made his way back to his room. No assembled electroids, only piles of semi-useful scrap. Five working aircraft, though only three of his men were experienced enough to pilot them. A dwindling workforce that would soon be reduced further. A decrepit, dilapidated desert base that still ran on only two of three power turbines, meaning at any moment they could lose electricity and be trapped underground to die.
They needed more of everything. He didn't know how much more, but he knew what he had would do little against trained peacekeepers.
He didn't know what to do. When the signal to attack came, would they charge forward despite their insufficient strength? Would they remain lurking beneath the sand instead, and possibly suffer the wrath of Akonai and his Children later? As Farrow climbed into his cot the questions berated him. He slept a poor sleep, wracked with doubts and troubles.
He rose early, but somehow Maggy was already in the kitchens ahead of him, preparing breakfast. The woman sleeps less than I do, he thought as she moved thin slices of barleybread from the oven and began spreading honey over the top from a jar. At a glance he could tell they were nearing the end of their grain supplies; she made the barleybread far thinner than normal, and spent an awfully long time scraping the last specks of honey from the container. They received most of their food supplies monthly from a food processing manager in the city, a man in charge of raw material storage who was sympathetic to their cause. His last delivery had been less than normal after the Melisao peacekeepers unexpectedly searched one of his delivery vehicles. The next wouldn't arrive for another three days, but Farrow trusted Maggy to figure it out, and knew she would tell him if she couldn't.
Still, when she handed him a plate of honeyed barleybread he put up his hands. "Just the coffee this morning, Maggy."
She scowled at him in a motherly way and pointed her wooden spoon. "You're not eating every third day. You think no one notices, but I do."
"My stomach has been foul lately." His belly rumbled hungrily, giving away the lie. "Just some liquid to settle it, please."
She scowled as she poured coffee from a kettle into a steel cup. "We're fine on grain, you know. I'm just using the rest of the barley before moving on to the alfalfa shoots. The meal will be larger at supper."
"I'm sure it will be."
She put the coffee on the same plate as the barleybread and slid it forward, as if that would convince him. "I ought to tie you down and force-feed you like a child."
"Give my portion to Binny," he said, picking up the metal coffee c
up. He left the kitchen before Maggy could reconsider tying him down. Sometimes he wasn't sure if her threats were genuine or not.
Victory Base was originally constructed by the Melisao in the immediate aftermath of the war. As the occupation began, they decided to construct a remote operations base to monitor the city--and the rest of the planet--from a distance. They built it beneath the sands, mere miles from the site where the Emperor had landed to reward the victorious Melisao Admiral and accept the surrender of the Praetari monarchy.
Yet after years of relatively peaceful occupation, the number of peacekeepers needed on Praetar began to recede. Clusters of soldiers in threes and fours patrolled the streets, where once they had marched in groups of twenty. Aircraft ceased patrolling the skies, as the Praetari had no military vehicles to speak of. The number of craft maintaining the orbital siege blockade dwindled. And although pockets of resistance still lashed out occasionally--Farrow's group and others--the damage was considered miniscule and hardly worth giving attention.
Soon the peacekeepers abandoned Victory Base entirely in favor of locations within the city, at the Governor's Palace and elsewhere. They welded shut the doors and left its contents in place, should the need to refortify it ever arise. The only ones who knew of the secret base were the Melisao, so leaving it in place in a hibernated state made sense.
Until Akonai came and opened its doors, revealing its secret to the Praetari rebels. And now the secret was theirs, the Freemen's occupation of the base unknown to the Melisao in a delicious twist of irony.
At first Farrow had worried that the peacekeepers might decide to refortify the base at any moment, suddenly discovering that the base remained operational and used by their enemies. As time went on that scenario became less and less likely. The shitting peacekeepers underestimate us, Farrow thought as he walked through the Victory Base corridors. They are too focused on their Exodus. It was a thought he told himself whenever he needed to redouble his resolve, when his doubts crept in and poisoned his mind.
Born of Sand (Tales of a Dying Star Book 5) Page 8