by Hugh Howey
The same voice from before responded immediately: “Frequency compromised. Switch to tertiary.”
“Copy.”
“Negative,” a gruffer voice said. A familiar voice. “Break, break. Fifth group is maintaining secondary carrier frequency.”
Silence. Then a different voice. Higher. Softer. Still familiar.
“Molly? Is that you?”
Molly swallowed and blinked back tears.
“Anlyn?”
The trepid male voice returned: “This is group command, switch to tertiary frequency immediately.”
“Command, this is group five,” Anlyn said. “That’s your commander’s daughter. Please hold.”
“Anlyn,” Molly said into the mic. “Are you in that fleet up there? Can we talk? What are the Drenards doing with the Bern? How did you—What’s going on?”
“These aren’t Drenards, Molly. We—it’s complicated. We’re with some people from hyperspace. We control three ships up here—hold on a sec.”
Molly stared at the dash, waiting. She could hear her own heartbeat.
“Sorry, Edison had to say something on the other radio. We have command of three of the ships up here. There’s a few hundred people scattered between them.”
“What? Like refugees?”
“No. Warriors. They have a plan to close the rift but weren’t expecting the fleet to just be hanging out here. None of the Bern ships seem to be moving on, and we can’t act until they do.”
“They’ve been like that for weeks, just holding formation and shooting down anything that moves.” Molly let go of the transmit button, then squeezed it again. “About this Underground… are they from Lok? Do you have—? Is—?”
“I’m sorry,” Anlyn responded quickly. “We just learned what’s been going on ourselves. Another ship is still queued up to come through the rift. Your dad and Cole—” Anlyn paused. “It seems one of the ships went down on the other side.”
Molly gasped. Her heart pounded through her flightsuit. But still, she was just as much thrilled to hear someone relate their recent condition as she was dreading whatever had gone wrong. After keeping her thoughts and fears pushed into deep recesses for so long, she could feel them suddenly popping free, stirring and agitated and impatient.
“Reduce chatter, you two.” It was the other voice from the fleet.
“He’s right,” Parsona told Molly. “A constant stream is easier to stumble onto and hack.”
Molly looked at the mic in her hand, trying to sort out what was most important to say, what information she needed to best assist their combined efforts to defeat the Bern.
“How did the Underground infiltrate those ships in the first place?” Parsona asked, throwing one of her own queries onto Molly’s heap.
“My hunch is that the Bern are staging up here to protect their supply chain,” Cat told her. “You should probably tell them that.”
“Gimme a sec,” Molly told them. “I can’t think.”
She knew what she needed to say. She needed to speak to this other voice, to tell whoever was in charge up there that they were all in this together and that they needed to work that way. She tried a few phrasings in her head, then squeezed the transmit button.
“Command, we are with the Underground as well.” She looked over to Cat, who nodded, approving. “We are currently working on a plan to take out the large ship up there and possibly the rest of the fleet. It’s imperative that we talk.”
“Negative,” the voice said. “Any movement up here, and we’re sitting ducks. Maintain radio silence until the fleet moves out of this system. Nobody acts until then. Over and out.”
Molly cursed. Having friends so close and not being able to speak with them was going to drive her insane. She looked to Cat. “Any ideas?”
Cat shook her head.
“Molly, Anlyn here. We’re coming to you. I need coordinates for your cargo bay, and then I need you to clear out. Wait. Hold on—”
Molly heard voices conferring on the other side of Anlyn’s connection.
“Molly, make sure those coordinates are for a space one meter off the deck. And make them exact.”
Molly pulled up her nav screen to get her current position.
“How exact?” she asked.
“Edison exact.”
••••
Molly heard the air in Parsona’s cargo bay pop, and then a figure materialized a meter off the deck—it just blinked into existence. The person hit the ground in a ball and rolled out of the way. Molly couldn’t believe her eyes. She started to get up from the crew seat, but Anlyn ran her way, telling her to stay put.
A louder pop, and a bundle of fur wrapped in tunics crashed to the ground, sending a vibration through the hull. Edison stood up and lumbered her way as Anlyn threw herself into Molly’s arms.
Molly held her friend—tears coating her vision—as yet another man appeared in her cargo bay.
“How many are coming?” she asked Anlyn, pulling out of the embrace and wiping at her eyes.
“Just us,” Anlyn said, smiling at her. Edison came over and wrapped them both up and lifted them off the ground. Past his shoulder, Molly saw Cat run to the third person who had arrived, screaming his name and nearly tackling him.
“Edison, you’re smothering me!”
He dropped them back to the ground. “Sincerest apologies,” he said. “Irrationally, my exuberance overcame my ability to forgo immediate gratification, I—”
“I love you, too,” Molly said, leaning into his tunics and wrapping her arms partways around him.
“What are you guys doing here?” she asked Anlyn. “I thought you were on Drenard.”
“Well, what in the galaxy is Cole doing in hyperspace?”
Walter popped out of his room. He hissed in alarm at the sight of Edison.
“Walter!” Edison said, stomping over to greet him.
Cat approached Molly from the opposite direction, pulling along a short, bald, bearded man. Molly felt dizzy from the amount of activity and the number of things she needed to ask Anlyn about. First, though, there was an outstretched hand waiting to be shaken.
“Ryke,” the man said. He accepted Molly’s grasp and pumped it warmly. “Lotsa folks call me Doctor Ryke, but I done nothing to deserve it.”
“I’m—”
“I know who you are,” Ryke said, smiling at her. He continued to hold her hand as he gazed around the cargo bay, appraising it as if he might a home he had once lived in, or helped to build.
“You know my father,” Molly whispered.
“Yup. Good man. And I wouldn’t worry none about him. He’s fond of grand entrances.”
“So he’s okay?” Molly turned to Anlyn. “How’s Cole?”
“I haven’t seen him,” Anlyn said. “I just recently found out where he was.”
“He set off to help Mortimor get out of hyperspace,” Ryke said. “What we need to be working on is getting that rift closed up as soon as he does. Before we get to that, though…” Ryke looked at Molly expectantly.
“I’m so sorry,” Molly said. “Do you guys need food or water? The bathroom? If you need to rest before—”
“Naw,” Ryke said, looking back over his shoulder. “You reckon I could sneak off to your engine room, just to see her?”
“See who?” Molly asked.
“The hyperdrive,” Ryke whispered.
Cat wrapped her arms around Ryke’s broad shoulders and leaned over to kiss the top of his bald head. “You haven’t changed a lick!” she said.
“Sure,” Molly said. “Help yourself.” She turned back to Anlyn, then realized how difficult it was going to be to explain the presence of all these people to the Navy climbers when they got back.
“Oh, Ryke? I’m gonna need you guys to stash away in the crew quarters in less than an hour. You’ll have to stay there while we fly back to this clearing we’ve set up camp in. I’m with some men in black.”
“Navy?” Ryke looked around like she’d warne
d him of snakes.
“They’re fine, I just don’t want to have to explain how you got here.”
Ryke scratched his beard and nodded, then hurried off toward the back of the ship.
Walter continued to gab with Edison near the door to his room. Molly flinched when she felt the Wadi scurry up her leg to her shoulder. Normally, the thing wouldn’t leave the back of her seat if she put her there. The animal twisted around her neck and jabbed its tongue out at Anlyn.
Anlyn’s eyes lit up at the sight of the colorful Wadi. She came close to Molly, reaching her hand out to it.
“By the lights of Hori,” she whispered.
“Another reason I’m glad you’re here,” Molly said. “I think there’s something wrong with her.” She removed the Wadi and held it out to Anlyn. “Gods, it feels like there’s so much I didn’t get to say before we left Drenard. I—” Molly watched the Wadi curl itself around Anlyn’s neck. “Exactly what happened after we left? I hear your people are pushing out into Terran space and attacking our planets.”
“She’s pregnant,” Anlyn said, rubbing the Wadi’s head with two fingers.
“She—Wait, what? The Wadi?”
Anlyn nodded.
“But, she’s getting smaller.”
“Has she been drinking a lot?”
“Kiloliters.”
“Well, she’s laid her eggs somewhere, and now she’s feeding them. Big ones, from the looks of her tail.”
Molly leaned forward and looked at the wisp of a tail as it circled in the air. “How can you tell?”
Anlyn looked around the cargo bay. “I can’t believe you haven’t seen them.”
“I can’t believe you’re standing in front of me! What’ve you been up to? We—Oh my gods I have to tell you about what happened on Dakura, and we got captured by the Navy, and Walter broke us free, and then I nearly got killed here. Oh, and we’re currently inside a StarCarrier that crashed and it’s like sitting vertically in the air and you remember Saunders? That guy from the Academy I told you about? He’s here and not trying to kill me anymore.”
Anlyn beamed and waved Molly down. “Slow down, you’re about as easy to follow as Edison right now.”
“I’m sorry.” Molly went to the galley and filled two cups with water. She glanced over at Edison to see if he needed a drink and saw him studying one of Byrne’s severed arms. Walter had drug the morbid things out to show them off.
“Here.” She held a glass out to Anlyn.
“We just ate about an hour ago, but thanks.” She accepted the cup. “So, you said you had a plan for getting rid of the fleet? I hope it’s a good one, because I had to pull royal rank to risk the hyperdrive trace and have us sent down here.”
“It’s the best we’ve got, but it’ll take a few days to pull off.” Molly nodded to the empty spot in her cargo bay where Anlyn had appeared out of thin air. “I just recently learned that my hyperdrive can do that as well. I’m sending a group of Callites and Navy personnel straight to Darrin, just like how you guys showed up. They’re gonna nab a fleet and then jump back here and put up a fight. Meanwhile, we’re gonna send every missile in this Carrier up to take out that massive ship. We think it’s the one that’s been downing enemy crafts like it’s nothing.”
Molly took a deep breath and winced at how crazy the plan sounded spelled out like that.
“How’re you planning on stealing the fleet at Darrin?” Anlyn asked. Her face had grown quite serious, as if the rest might be workable.
“That’s why we’re here.” Molly pointed to the black duffle bags from the first climb. “We’re raiding the Carrier’s stores for armor, weapons, flightsuits—”
“Not like what you’ll need,” Anlyn said, shaking her head. “At Darrin, you’re gonna come up against personal barrier shields that’ll deflect any kind of bullet or bolt fired at it. Trust me, I know.”
“Albert,” Molly said, remembering the blow Edison had landed to the weapon dealer’s head that the man hadn’t even felt. “Maybe we can just sneak aboard the ships and blast our way out?”
Anlyn shook her head. “The controls for the force-doors are on their belts. You’ll be sending people to their doom, Molly. One-way.”
“Well, hyperspace,” Molly said. She raised her eyebrows. “Maybe there’s enough missiles in here to take out several of the smaller ships before they start jumping away?”
“No,” Anlyn said. “Your plan for the Darrin fleet is a good one. You just need something better than these guns to take it from them.”
“Yeah, I need some of what Albert stocks.”
Anlyn smiled. “Actually, according to Edison, we might have something even better—”
Before she could explain what that was, the portable radio squawked from the cockpit, announcing the return of the Navy climbers.
“We’ll figure it out later,” Molly said. She took the Wadi back from Anlyn, allowing the animal to curl itself around her neck. “Grab Edison and Ryke and hide out in your room. Try and get some rest.”
Anlyn squeezed Molly’s arm and smiled. “Don’t you worry on that last bit,” she said. “I feel like I haven’t slept in ages.”
15 · Lok
Several hours later, Molly lowered Parsona into the now-familiar clearing just as Lok’s speedy sun began to slip over the horizon. Yet another brief day on Molly’s alien home had felt like several. The longest part for her had been the flight back from the StarCarrier, tormented by having Anlyn and Edison stowed away in their old quarters and unable to talk to them. Her only solace was in hearing how badly all three of them needed some sleep. Still, there was so much she wanted to tell them and to hear in return.
Their first stop in a long round of flights had been to drop off the climbers and their gear. Molly had then used another supply run to Bekkie as a chance to catch up with her old friends and give her an excuse for how they had arrived. Now that they were returning to the clearing, Molly realized the unthinkable task she had before herself: She needed to introduce a Navy Admiral to a member of the loathed Drenardian race. And with a Glemot crammed in the room for good measure!
Parsona touched down into her well-worn depressions in the wooded clearing, one strut squeaking a little. Her cargo door opened to let in the night sounds of forest whispers and chirping insects. Molly followed Cat into the cargo bay where another round of supplies had been arranged. As soon as the hatch met the crackling leaves of the clearing, Callites and Humans stomped up together to help unload. Molly left the physical labor to her friends. She squeezed past Ryke, who Cat was introducing to several Callites, and set off in search of Saunders.
She didn’t have to go far, as the portly Admiral was already stomping up the loading ramp to find her.
“Everything go okay?” he asked. Molly watched him search her for signs of trauma, yesterday’s adventures in Bekkie still seemingly fresh on his mind.
“It went fine. We got enough food and water to last the Darrin squads both ways, and I was able to buy extra flight gear off a few other ships for next to nothing. It appears that cash is king right now.”
Saunders looked over the bundles of packaged food and the crates of fluid packets with a frown. “Are you sure this will be enough?”
Molly pulled him out of the way of the supply chains and back toward the crew quarters.
“More than enough, actually. I picked up some friends in town, and one of them, a Doctor Ryke who grew up near my home village, knows a way to shorten the trip back from Darrin.”
“Even more than the route you picked out? I thought you had it down to four jumps or something like that.”
“Drastically shorter,” Molly said. “And it’ll be even safer, trust me.” She led him down the hallway and stopped just outside of Edison’s room. She slapped the door twice as the insanity of what she was about to do fully set in. The daunting task wrapped itself around her chest and made it difficult to breathe. She turned to Saunders.
“Molly, what’s wrong?”
> She shook her head. “Nothing, I—I just need you to stay quiet and calm, okay? Some of the friends I picked up in town… they might not be what you’re expecting.”
A hurt look spread across Saunders’s face. “I’m fine with the locals,” he said. “Just so you know, I was a Naval Ambassador before taking the job at the—”
He stopped. His eyes darted back and forth, scanning Molly’s face. Whatever he saw there had given him pause.
“What could you possibly show me—?”
There was a knock on the other side of the door.
“Just be calm,” Molly said, trying her damnedest to follow her own advice. She keyed the door open, and it slid back. The lights inside were off, the portholes shuttered. Molly ushered Saunders inside and closed the door. They had worried over whether or not he’d even enter the room if he saw what awaited him.
When the lights flicked on, Molly noted her worries had been justified. Saunders flinched back, reaching for Molly or possibly the door behind her. Molly steadied him; she felt his frozen muscles tremble beneath his copious bulk. She watched as the ruddy color of his neck drained white, and worried he might pass out again, just as he had when he’d found out about the Bern threat.
As Molly watched his reaction, hoping he’d be okay, she recalled the first time she had seen Anlyn. Her body had responded similarly, freezing and fumbling for Cole. She certainly knew what he was going through, and how far her own fears had come in such a short time.
“She’s a friend,” Molly told Saunders, hoping to calm him. She moved to his side and placed a hand on his back. “And this is Edison, another very good friend of mine.”
“D—Dre—”
Anlyn rose from her bed and bowed slightly. Molly was relieved to see Edison stay put, his bulk fearsome enough just hunched over on the small bunk.
“My name is Anlyn Hooo and I greet you on behalf of my empire—”
Saunders collapsed, his legs folding neatly, Indian style, as he sank to the deck. Molly steadied his shoulders to keep his head from going back against the dresser. She stepped around and knelt down in front of him, saw his eyes focusing on Anlyn, his mouth open.