Born of Sand (Tales of a Dying Star Book 5)

by Kristoph, David

  Farrow's stomach fluttered. "Truly?"

  Geral nodded. "Of course. I told you the Governor wouldn't seal it off. Too paranoid."

  "And inside?"

  Geral pulled a wrinkled sheet of paper from his pocket and shoved it at Farrow.

  He read quickly, eyes darting across the page. By the time he reached the end his smile mirrored Geral's.

  Farrow gathered his twenty-some remaining veterans in the kitchen that evening. He spoke with confidence and excitement.

  "For the longest time we've worked with the Children of Saria. They helped us become established in Victory Base, they united our purpose, they gave us direction. We have allowed them to guide our efforts, give us instructions. We allowed them control.

  "No longer. It is now obvious little assistance will come from them, if anything at all. They have focused most of their attention on Melis, and the battle against the Empire there. They may succeed, and I wish them the best in that regard, but it will not aid our own battle here on Praetar."

  "But they were to give us a signal," someone said. "A coordinated time to strike. Without them..."

  "We don't need them, brother!" Farrow answered. "You have seen our strength swell in the past two weeks. More weapons, more electroids, more men and women. The Melisao strength on Praetar is barely more than a thousand, spread out and scattered. We can hit them in force at the Governor's Palace, toppling their leaders here and leaving the rest in disarray. They have too much ground to protect and cannot withstand us if we strike any single place. We can liberate our planet from the peacekeepers ourselves, without the help of a foreign group. Do you want your freedom given to you? Or do you want to take it for yourself?"

  "Take it!" cried a scattering of voices.

  "When the blood spills on the sand, and the last peacekeeper's chest grows still, do you want to say you did nothing? That you stood by while men with blue eyes did all the work, men from a faraway planet?"

  All joined in a chorus of, "No!"

  Farrow smacked the table. "You're damn right, no! We have the men, we have the means, we have the will. We are almost there, my Freemen. The battle is already won, we need only rise up and begin it! Praetar has nothing to lose but its chains."

  The room roared. Farrow let the sound wash over him, invigorate him. When it quieted down he said, "There is one final piece that we are missing: pilots to fly our newly functional aircraft. But I have a plan. Once we have them we will finish preparing, and attack one month from now."

  He let that news sink in. The room didn't cheer, but they did begin chattering excitedly. Finally, after so long.

  Farrow made eye contact around the room. "Kari. Geral. Hob. Sandra. Meet me in the hall to discuss." He turned on his heel and left.

  They gathered around him in the hall, quiet but for the distant thumping of machinery. "So where are we going to find pilots?" Sandra asked. "I'm on board, don't get me wrong, but they aren't exactly hiding in the desert, you know."

  Hob nodded in agreement. "Riverhawks are difficult to master, but easy to learn. I could train a few Freemen on the basics within days... but not from underground. We've no simulator in the base, so we'd need to fly in open air to train them. And obviously we cannot do that without risking the Melisao seeing."

  "Exactly," Farrow said. "We need pilots who are already trained."

  "So what's the plan?" Sandra asked.

  Farrow pulled out Geral's wrinkled sheet of paper. "This is a list of all the prisoners currently being held in the cells underneath the Governor's Palace. Twenty-two altogether. Six are trained pilots."

  "Six?" Kari asked. "Why are so many imprisoned at once?"

  Farrow examined the page. "Two are local freighter pilots caught smuggling contraband food into the city. The others are Melisao. Three were jailed for refusing to comply with an order to bomb a section of the city suspected of harbouring terrorists. The other is a Sentinel pilot, charged with murdering his co-pilot."

  "Four Melisao," Kari said flatly. "And what makes you so certain you can trust them to join our cause?"

  "I'm not certain. Not yet, anyways. But they're the only pilots we can find, and we need them desperately. If we can only trust the two Praetari smugglers, then that's still better than we have now. A single Riverhawk in the sky is worth fifty men on the ground."

  "How do we get inside?" Hob asked. "They aren't going to let us waltz in and escort them out, I think."

  Geral cleared his throat. "I worked as a gaoler in the palace, before. The cells are dug out in a section deep beneath the palace. They go back to the days before the occupation, when the monarchy ruled. Actually, did you know the last two Kings imprisoned..."

  He was falling into one of his long stories. "The tunnel, Geral," Farrow said.

  "Ahh, yes. Well, the Praetari monarchy built a tunnel out of the palace leading into the city, into the back of a baker's shop, if I recall correctly. The exact purpose is not known. A backup escape route in an emergency, a way to slip among the people unnoticed..."

  "A way for royal mistresses to enter unseen," Sandra muttered.

  "...whatever the reason, the tunnel existed. And it connected deep beneath the palace, close to the prisoner cells. When the planet fell to the Melisao, they uncovered the tunnel and revealed it to all as a way to discredit the monarchy, portray them as devious and untrustworthy."

  Hob said, "But the tunnel was publicly destroyed." Next to him, Kari tensed, her eyes growing wide. She's figured it out.

  "Yes. At least, that entrance was destroyed." Geral flashed a wicked grin. "They caved-in and poured cement into one entrance with pomp and ceremony, and then just as quickly built another two blocks away. Used most of the old tunnel. The entrance is in the back of a factory, functional and secret."

  Farrow watched everyone's reactions. Hob whistled through his teeth, and Kari had returned her face to blankness. Sandra and Geral both looked eager. The right crew for the job, Farrow thought to himself.

  Kari rubbed a hand over her bald head. "That still doesn't explain how we'll get four Melisao to fight for us."

  "We can bring 'em back and sort 'em out later," Geral said. "If we're attacking a month from now..."

  It was time for Farrow to tell them. "We're not attacking a month from now."

  Everyone stared at him blankly. Kari said, "But you told the Freemen..."

  "I didn't want everyone knowing the plan. Just in case word spread to the newcomers. I don't trust them entirely, yet."

  "So..."

  "We don't need a full month. The factory workers are progressing quickly with their rifle training, and the electroids will all be assembled in a day or two. As soon as we return with the pilots--even the Melisao, whose loyalty I'm hoping we can gauge on the way back--we will leave Victory Base with our full force."

  Kari's mouth hung open.

  Farrow smiled. "Three days from now, if all goes well at the palace. Praetar will finally fall. Gather your supplies. We take to the sand at once."

  Part III: The Shade

  Chapter 15

  The time had come for Sandrakari, second daughter to Admiral Acteon of the Exodus Fleet and glorious shade of the Melisao Empire, to kill everyone in Victory Base.

  I am the blade.

  Her boots echoed off the metal floor as she sprinted down the corridor, passing Freemen who milled around, chatting or going about their duties. Some watched with curiosity as she passed, wondering what urgency invigorated her feet. The urgency to kill you all, she thought with a strange sense of detachment. The urgency to act after all these years.

  Farrow wanted them to meet at the topside hatch in ten minutes. Enough time to gather supplies: water jugs, rifles, dehydrated packs of food that could last for weeks crammed in a pocket.

  Enough time to decide this base's fate. She just needed to reach the storage closet at the west end of the base, where Freemen seldom wandered. Where she had stored her device.

  "Kari!" one woman called out a greeting to he
r from a doorway. The shade gave a wave--if only to keep from being followed--but rounded a corner and picked up her pace. Keeping up appearances still mattered, if only for the next few minutes. It had become increasingly difficult in recent weeks, with her objectives drifting out of reach and information coming infrequently. And the star-cursed factory women. Their presence complicated her emotions, if not her resolve.

  The ever-present sand on the base floor caused a sliding sensation underneath her boots with every step, her pace bordering on recklessness. She rolled up her sleeve to glance at her wrist computer, recessed beneath a patch of artificial skin. Eight minutes to send the update, receive confirmation, and return before anyone becomes suspicious.

  She felt a strange mixture of concern, anticipation, and excitement. Years of work on Praetar culminated in this precise moment. Surgery to change her eyes from blue to brown. Building a reputation as an assassin, gaining the trust of the Freemen by carrying out jobs--some that even required killing her fellow Melisao. Infiltrating the Victory Base. Staying close to Akonai, the leader of the Children of Saria. Watching his dealings with Bruno, attempting to determine their true plan. She'd suffered Bruno for months to that end, watched his cruel craft unflinchingly.

  All to gain information. Observe, memorize, report. She could have killed Akonai a thousand times over, but her primary objective was to learn what the Children had planned. Their ranks, their hierarchy, their strength. And although she had learned much, the specific nature of their plans to attack Melis remained a mystery. And he escaped before I had a chance to find out. She had sent on what information she did have, the vague timing of when an attack might begin, but beyond that her primary objective had been a failure.

  And my secondary objective...

  She shook her head as she ran. The secondary objective had seemed easy, once. Before the Freemen's ranks swelled with a hundred women, nothing more than refugees, now armed and trained. Now they were combatants. Now they would all need to die.

  I need to reach my device. I need confirmation before I act.

  She reached the end of a hall and opened the door to a small supply closet filled with boxes of cleaning supplies. She slipped inside the room, leaving the door open a crack so the single overhead light would stay on. Taking one last glance down the hall--which remained empty--she crouched by the wall to the right, concealing herself behind the frame of the door. She pushed a stack of boxes aside to reveal a metal panel attached to the wall with four bolts. With a spinning magnet inside her fingertip she removed them swiftly, placing the panel on the ground. Inside were bundles of colored wires, red and green and blue running horizontally. She carefully pulled the wires out of the way to reveal a small cavity behind. A trick her sister Beth had used when she was younger, placing fake bundles of wires within the walls to cover up treats or toys she wanted to hide. Even if someone was inclined to look inside a wall panel, few besides those who knew what they were doing would touch electrical wire. She's working on the project to dismantle the Ancillary, Kari thought. It had been years since she'd seen Beth, or her older sister Pavani, or their brother Alard, the most innocent of them all. Soon, when I am done here.

  Smiling at the memory, Kari removed one of the two devices she had stored in the cavity.

  A small, boring-looking plastic rectangle as long as her smallest finger, with three lights, a recessed microphone, and a switch. She tapped the switch to the on position, and waited a few moments for the first green light to shine, confirming a connection to the relay station orbiting above the planet.

  She took a deep breath and brought the device close to her mouth.

  "This is special assignee Sandrakari," she whispered, "reporting operational activity from Victory Base. Status of primary objective: contact with Children has still not been recovered. The two members of the organization, Akonai and Spider, have not communicated with Victory Base as expected. Rebels here believe they have been abandoned, but I suspect the Children may be wary of information leaking out. I am not compromised, but their paranoia has kept them quiet. I have no new information from them beyond their original vague assurances of an imminent attack on the planet Melis.

  "Status of secondary objective: Freemen are preparing to attack the peacekeepers on Praetar in force, without support from the Children. Attack will begin within three days. Their strength has increased: one hundred electroids, seven aircraft, hundreds of armed men and women. Likely enough to overpower the peacekeepers at the Governor's Palace. The entirety of their strength is concentrated here at Victory Base. Majority are poorly trained refugees, women factory workers from a freighter shot down last week. Still potentially valuable to economy if returned to factory.

  "Current orders are to exit the base and call down the orbital strike from a distance. Please confirm this direction. End of transmission."

  The second bulb on the device stopped blinking as soon as she finished. She glanced at her wrist computer. Five minutes to receive a response and prepare to leave.

  She didn't need to confirm. Her orders were explicit so she could act without confirmation, if needed. When thirty-some hardened rebels occupied Victory Base, all of them responsible for the deaths of peacekeepers, the decision had been an easy one. But now, with so many scrawny, desperate women...

  In her original plan she would have taken Binny out of the base before ordering the orbital strike. Such mercy was not possible for one hundred and forty factory workers. Confirmation would ease my conscience. I need not make the decision. I am the blade, not the voice.

  Time stretched. She leaned out over the doorway to check the hall, but it remained empty, the only sound the background hum of machinery and the echo of distant boots. A ventilation fan recessed with a dim light in the ceiling cast long, spinning shadows across the otherwise dark corridor. She stared at the little device, her only connection to who she truly was, the only tether to civilization.

  Finally the third light on the device began blinking. A series of flashes and pulses, a code which Kari translated in her head effortlessly.

  No change in operational objectives. On record as such. Primary objective: gather information on the Children of Saria and their plans for the planet Melis. Secondary objective: harass, deter, and destroy the rebels on Praetar to the best of your ability, maximizing casualties. Tertiary objective: capture the leader of the Freemen. If conflict in objectives, best judgment is advised.

  Kari gripped the device until her fingers turned white, and very nearly smashed it against the wall. The message was the standard automated response when someone was not currently manning the receiver terminal in the station orbiting Praetar, or did not reply in time, or any other reason for not responding manually. Probably taking a star-cursed piss, while I'm down here in the sand risking my life. The technicians never had a sense of urgency.

  Best judgment is advised. The phrase felt like a taunt.

  She knelt at the wall panel and removed a second device, smaller and simpler, with a cap on one end that protected a single button. Kari slipped it into her pocket, taking care that the cap remained firmly in place.

  A sudden noise behind her. Kari jumped to her feet and whirled just in time to see Farrow approach the door. He flinched at her appearance, holding up a hand. "Shit piled upon shit, you scared me! I was wondering why the door was open..."

  Slowly, Kari positioned her feet to block his view of the panel. What is he doing here?

  He looked embarrassed for a few heartbeats, then slumped his head. "Okay, you shitting caught me. Are you happy?" He entered the room and went to the far wall. Kari used the opportunity to slide a box behind her to block the panel completely. Her hand went to the knife at her belt, brushing against the leather grip. A single slash to the throat. He faced away from her, looking through boxes. None will know, hidden back here. I'll close the door and escape topside and call down the orbital strike.

  Her tertiary objective stopped her. Capture the leader of the Freemen. It would be easy, o
nce they were topside and marching across the desert. She scratched at the hilt of her knife with a fingernail, considering Farrow.

  In the opposite corner, he moved two boxes aside to uncover a third. He opened the top and removed a pile of rags, revealing a tiny metal container, like a bowl that could hold sugar. "Remember when Maggy made that batch of honey candies two months ago? Well, I saved mine to give to Binny. For special occasions."

  He held out the container to show her the round, dark candies inside. Kari relaxed. "You spoil that girl," she said.

  "I know," he said, stuffing the box in a pocket. "Don't tell Maggy. She already complains about how much of my own food I give the girl."

  "Of course," Kari said. Thinking fast, she added, "I'd heard Maggy keeps some of her special foods hidden away too. I was hoping to take something with me for the journey, but couldn't find anything."

  Farrow smirked. "Maybe we'll stop for some cuisine in the city. Visit one of the food dispensaries, eat some stale bread, have a chat with the peacekeepers. 'Sorry, I don't have any glass credits to pay. I'm a Freeman rebel here to retake the city and kill you.'"

  I'm here to kill you. And the mention of Binny only soured her mood more. Not caring that it might somehow tip Farrow off, she said, "It might be a good idea to take Binny with us."

  The comment caught Farrow off guard. He frowned, then snorted. "What the shit?"

  "We could bring her with us and hide her somewhere before infiltrating the palace cells. Victory Base is going to draw a lot of attention in the coming days. If we're unable to immediately overpower the peacekeepers and take the city, if our aircraft need to return to Victory Base to refuel and recharge, the Melisao will know where we are. Binny would be safer away, even in the city."

  Farrow took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "If we fail to take the city immediately, we will have bigger problems than simply keeping Victory Base safe. We cannot win a prolonged war, Kari. We need to take the palace and the other primary peacekeeper outposts immediately, before they have a chance to regroup and focus their efforts." He put a hand on her shoulder, his grip firm. "I know it's difficult leaving Binny here, where she might be vulnerable. But there's nowhere perfectly safe, not in the coming days. I wish there was. You just have to trust our defenses, and pray that she stays safe."