“Dad, you have to be kidding me,” Barl said, meeting Jules’ gaze. “We sent him to culinary classes and everything, and he’s still making pizza. Can you believe it?”
“I like it,” Karo Jr. said. He was the spitting image of his father, handsome and poised.
“Of course you do,” Parleen muttered.
“Enough bickering, kids. We have company,” Karo said, taking a seat at the head of the table. Ableen was at the opposite end, and Hugo sat beside her, already wolfing down a slice of pepperoni.
“How’s your father?” Karo asked Dean.
He shrugged and finished chewing before replying. “I think he’s stressed. This mission… it’s dangerous. They’re on a skeleton crew; everyone’s families have left Horizon.”
“You aren’t worried, are you?” Barl asked through his chewing.
Jules watched Dean and realized she’d failed to ask how he was feeling about Horizon being on this mission. He’d been uprooted from his family, stuck on Light. Not to mention his sister, Patty, was acting even more annoying than usual lately.
“I’m trying not to be, but…” Dean glanced up, scanning the stares of the table’s occupants. “It’s hard to let it go. I mean, this race sounds dangerous. If they killed an entire planet’s inhabitants, I doubt they’ll like some distant Alliance ship coming in and slapping their wrists.”
“Your parents will know what to do. Leslie is with them as well, correct?” Karo asked.
“That’s right. She’s Dad’s commander now.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about. His crew is experienced, and if there’s anyone that understands how to deal with other races wisely, it’s Magnus,” Karo said, and Dean nodded, grabbing another slice of pizza. Jules noted how he always left his crust uneaten.
“What about the Collector?” Ableen asked. “How are the survivors doing?”
This was a subject close to Ableen’s heart. She’d been there at the beginning, working with the freed beings, counseling some when needed. Coming out of freezing like that to a strange place full of distant aliens hadn’t been easy on many of them.
“We’re doing our best to return them home. The ones that choose to go back, that is.” Jules smiled at the Theos woman.
“Some don’t choose to go home?” she asked.
“Not everyone has a home to go to,” Dean said. “A lot can change in a few thousand years, or even a few hundred. But we’re almost at Dechar; then it’s on to bring Brik to his people.”
“Brik.” Karo’s eyes were wide. “Jules, your father has a fascination with Sterona and the people that fled the world, doesn’t he?”
“I guess so.” Jules had been born there, just after her father was tracked down by Kinca, the Kraski working with Lom of Pleva. Luckily for him, Magnus and the others had rescued them in the nick of time.
“He’s going to love finding their new planet.” Karo reached for another slice of pizza, and his wife cleared her throat, stopping him. Jules peered at Dean, who seemed amused by the silent interaction.
“Jules, did you know that the portals have been expanding?” Hugo asked.
She stared at her brother. “What are you talking about?”
“The portals… we learned in class today that two new portals appeared on the Crystal Map.” Hugo ate his food, chewing loudly.
“What?” Her heart sped, and she stood quickly. “How can this be?” She’d been the one to fix the portals, and she was the only person capable of accessing the strange round stones they’d found in the Nirzu’s valley.
Hugo shook his head. “They haven’t figured out why. The teacher seemed baffled by it too.”
“Thank you for dinner. I need to get to Light.” Jules tried to ignore the disappointment she saw in her little brother’s eyes.
“So soon? I thought we could play a game or something after dinner. You could see my room.” Hugo’s eyes grew bigger, tears threatening to form.
“Sorry, buddy. I’ll come again soon. There’s something I need to check on.”
“Jules, what’s the matter?”
Karo rose, coming to her side. He spoke softly. “There could have been something blocking these two portals from finding power over the last few years, since you fixed them.”
“That’s possible. But why did they open now? I have to see them,” she said.
“Thanks for having us,” Dean said.
“You don’t have to leave yet,” Jules told him, but the truth was, she wasn’t mad at him any longer, and she wanted him beside her as they returned to their ship.
“Yes, I do.”
The others walked them out, and she gave Hugo another hug, kissing him on the top of the head. “Sorry, kid. I’ll visit as soon as I can.”
“Take my transport, and ask the guards to return it tomorrow,” Karo told her.
They returned to the portal’s building on Haven in the shuttle, and as they entered the room, Jules stared at the glowing green crystal. Free me! She almost found that planet again but thought better of it, opting for Light’s symbol.
____________
“There’s no power at all?” I asked, staring at the ship through the zoomed-in image on the panoramic viewscreen.
“Nothing on the main scanners, but the telemetry probes we sent out reveal something still registering energy readouts on board,” Rivo said.
I stood behind her and glanced at Loweck. The woman was tense, and with good reason. She’d been shot down years ago and had crash-landed. This one didn’t appear damaged, and she was probably picturing herself on it, the rest of the crew dead when she’d somehow survived, saved by turning half her body into a robot using cybernetic technology.
“We’ll form a team, check it out.” The outside of the vessel was plain, only a string of symbols in some alien language the ship’s records didn’t recognize. We guessed it was a serial number, maybe a freighter carrying goods between worlds.
“I think you should stay on the bridge, Captain,” Slate said, opting for the title rather than Dean or boss. That was when I knew he was serious.
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I’ll have nothing to worry about with you and Loweck beside me, will I?”
Loweck rose, moving for the bridge’s exit. “He’s right, Slate. Come on, Commander. Let’s suit up.”
I didn’t love stumbling across a vessel like this when we were only a few days from dropping Uce off, but this was part of our mission. If we found someone in need of assistance, it was our job to offer it.
“Suma, you have command of the bridge until we’re back,” I told her, and Suma rose, moving for my seat. Mary was off this morning, using our boardroom to convene with the Alliance on some matter or another, leaving her chair empty.
“Yes, sir. We’ll be here if you need any support,” Suma said, and we exited the bridge, striding toward the hangar.
“Like old times, hey, boss?” Slate asked. I could tell from the glint in his eyes that he was enjoying this.
“I hope not. We always seem to get into trouble together. I’m hoping this one is a little more cut and dried,” I told him.
It wasn’t long before we were donning our armored suits, flying through the hangar’s barrier in the shuttle, toward the alien freighter. It was hard lines and sharp edges, not rounded or stylish in the least. The hull was dark gray, but the closer we progressed, the more something about the design tugged at my brain. It was almost like I’d seen this ship before, but maybe a different version, because this one didn’t feel quite right.
“Looks like it’s patched together,” Loweck said.
I sat up, glancing over Slate’s shoulders as he piloted us to the outer edge of the vessel. “What did you say?”
“Patched. Like the hull was welded with spare parts and painted afterwards,” she said.
“No…”
“What is it?” he asked.
“The pirates. This ship reminds me of that, only without the colorful hull,” I told Slate.
&n
bsp; “Interesting.” He didn’t elaborate as he latched to the exterior of the vessel. We were at an airlock on the other side, and I waited while Loweck and Slate accessed the ship, the device breaking the code to enter in less than five minutes.
I followed them on, a pulse pistol in my hand. My suit had a camera on it, and I heard Suma’s voice in my ear. “Dean, Rivo wants to speak with you.”
“Put her through,” I said.
Her voice was small. “This is like what you found me on.”
I remembered too distinctly the feeling of finding the trembling Molariun in a cage, the demented robots keeping guard over her emaciated body. She still sang a sad and soulful song about her paramour that day, and I’d never forget the tune. As I walked into the craft, I almost thought I could hear the echoes of that song in the corridors.
“Clear,” Slate said, breaking me from my daydream.
“Rivo, you’re safe,” I whispered into my earpiece.
“Thanks to you,” she replied, and then she was gone, the communication ended.
Loweck and Slate each held pulse rifles, beams of light shooting forward as they scattered them around the hall. The inside was quiet, eerily silent. Usually a ship has some noises, the air recycler pumping oxygen through vents, or the gentle beeping of a processor relaying power through the corridors, but this… I could only hear my own breath.
“This way,” Slate said, following the trail of the telemetry probes’ discovery.
I glanced at the doorways as we walked by, half expecting a rolling robot to crawl through, firing at us. I closed my eyes, blinking away the memory of the pirate wearing someone’s skin over his metal face.
The halls were dark except for the light from their weapons, making it difficult to walk without tripping over something. The farther we went, the more clutter we found on the metal grate floor. This was one of their ships, I was certain. Lom of Pleva’s freighters were operated by robots. Pleva Corp was a real business, one that operated with a board and profit statements, like most corporations.
They made good business by distributing supplies, and not every one of their operations had robopirates running it. This appeared to be one of their clear ships, where day-to-day freight hauling took place.
“The power source is inside here.” Slate stopped at a large double-tall doorway and flipped open a keypad covering on the left side of the entrance. The numbers were dark, powerless.
Loweck pulled a palm-sized device from a pouch around her waist and activated it. A second later, she pressed it to the lower section of the keypad, and the lights blinked on. Slate grinned through his helmet’s mask as the device proceeded to move through every possible combination. Shortly after, the doors spread wide, and Slate stepped in front of me, gun at ready.
The room was full of the metal men, and I almost fired at the robots.
Slate whistled, walking inside. “Has to be a hundred of them.”
The robots were like the ones I remembered, only shiny and new. These weren’t scuffed and derelict like the insane pirate robots I’d first met. They were likely being delivered to a business partner when the ship was cut off from power somehow.
“I don’t want this near Light until we confirm there’s no danger. We need to learn why this Pleva Corp ship is here, and what caused the malfunction.” I walked toward them, seeing row after row of the metal bots. They were dark, heads unmoving, arms at their sides. Some had two legs, others wheeled feet, but none had any conscious activity.
“Why did we get a power reading in here?” Loweck asked.
“Good question.” I peered around, trying to see any lights or hear any humming of electrical components.
Slate held a scanner and strode through the room slowly, holding it up as he walked. “Nothing. Maybe it was only picking up something inside the robots, some fragment of a power source.”
“Could be.” The room was dark except for the beam from Loweck’s pulse rifle, which moved behind me as I headed for the exit. The ceilings were tall in the hold, and I noticed the shelves at the back of the storage room were empty. Everything seemed to be in order. “Let’s check the bridge for a clue as to what happened.”
Fifteen
Jules wanted to do this alone, but Dean refused to leave her side. They headed to engineering, and once again, Jules was astounded by how immense the engine room was. The crystals inside the tube glowed intensely, even at their resting position.
“Why are we stopped?” Jules asked a human worker as the lift settled to the lowest deck.
“We’re not positive. It appears as though we encountered a floating vessel out there, and the captain elected to investigate,” the woman said. She wandered off, tablet in hand, and Dean pointed to the back office. Suma had told Jules to use it any time she wanted to do private research, and she’d loaded the Crystal Map into the system so Jules could access it at any time without watchful eyes.
“Thanks for coming with me,” she told Dean. She’d been kidding herself about wanting to be alone. Everything was better with Dean.
“Any time,” he said, pressing the office door open.
Jules locked it behind them and moved to the long desk at the rear of the room. Suma had some tablets and books open on a table in the middle of the space, and she walked past them without snooping.
“How could more portals open?” Jules asked.
“I didn’t think it was possible,” Dean said, settling to the chair beside hers. It squeaked as he slid it closer.
“It shouldn’t be,” she said. “Not unless…” She pictured the others from the drawings in the books Regnig had shown her. If she’d been able to fix the portals, maybe one of them had played with them. If the boy with the blue eyes was still alive, maybe the other two were as well. Zan’ra. Was that what Jules really was? Was she even human? The drawing had been worn, but it was clear that it was Jules in the picture. Did that mean she was reborn to Papa and Mary? She had too many questions and didn’t think there was any way to find the answers.
“Unless what?” Dean asked.
She wanted to tell him about what Regnig discovered, but couldn’t. Not yet. “Unless there’s something I’m missing,” she said, trying to recover from her blunder.
Dean nodded, not pressing her on it. “Where are they?”
She activated the Crystal Map and compared it with the original, asking the program to identify any changes in it, removing all other data points. The map was gigantic, covering millions of light years. Two dots remained, and she leaned toward the wide screen rooted into the wall behind the desk.
“Those are them?”
“That’s the two new portal worlds,” Jules whispered. She zoomed in, recording the symbols. They were unfamiliar, but she hadn’t expected to recognize them.
“Jules, you have that look on your face.” Dean turned to her, and she forced a grin. “Tell me you’re not going to those planets.”
“I’m not going to those planets,” she said, unsure if that was a lie or not.
“You need to tell your parents about this,” he informed her.
“I will.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Jules reset the Map and powered down the computer. She was suddenly overcome with exhaustion, and she blinked tired eyelids as she stood.
“Let’s take you to your quarters,” Dean said, offering his arm.
____________
The day had come. We’d finally made it to Dechar, where we dropped off Uce the Philod. Mary and Suma escorted her, and returned a short time later, telling us how wonderful the reunion was. Her people sang to her through the water, and Uce had thanked them for everything before disappearing deep below the surface of the ocean.
I was happy to hear it, and now that we were done with the first three legs of our trip, we’d set course for the Ginda system, where Brik was confident the wormhole would remain.
“How can you be sure?” Mary asked the being.
Brik was fairly tall, and he sat awkwa
rdly in the seat, with his thick tail jutting out to the side. He spoke with a bubbly voice, deep but friendly at the same time. He always seemed excited, and I enjoyed the positive energy he exuded. He ran long fingers over his bald head, staring directly at my wife.
“My people, the Ritair, first left Sterona because of the storms. The skies had turned dark, the lava oceans swelling as the eruptions steadily came. The air grew too harsh for us, the sulfur too strong. Our children were becoming sick, our elderly dying prematurely. We needed a solution, so we sent out probes.” Brik’s words translated through the speaker, and I nodded along.
We’d seen their ships: compact vessels, but difficult to fix. We’d tried everything in the six months we’d been stuck on Sterona, but everything was too far gone, too corroded, batteries long expired with no chance of resuscitation.
“How many did you send out?” Mary asked.
Suma was in the room with us, and she’d only listened so far with interest.
“I wasn’t born yet, but my father told me we sent fifty or so initially. We had no contact with the outside world, but we either met resistance or unfriendly foes along the way. Only two ships ever returned,” Brik said.
Two out of fifty. The universe was an inhospitable place, especially back then.
“One of them had found a potential home, but we would have to share it with another race, and their bargain gave my ancestors reason to think we’d be slaves to them. But that was an option, one that would allow our race to continue living,” Brik said.
“And the other?” I asked.
“The other was through a wormhole,” he told us.
Suma spoke for the first time. “And that’s where we’re heading now.”
He nodded in agreement.
“So you haven’t seen the other side, correct?” I asked. We already knew this, but hadn’t heard the entire story from start to finish.
“That’s correct. I was taken from my ship by the Collector before we passed through.” Brik hung his head, the happiness deflated from his chest.
The Survivors (Book 12): New Discovery Page 13