Spectra Arise Trilogy

by Tammy Salyer

  “Dave, you know what’s in there as well as…oh, yeah, sure. Let’s go.”

  La Mer gets up too and follows them out, and like that, Karl and I are alone.

  We’re strangers again, neither of us knowing what to say to the other. I fumble to come up with something. “What do you think of the plan?”

  His eyes settle on me and he responds, sounding relieved to have a neutral topic, “It’s thinner than the atmosphere on Nexon, but that’s as good as we’re going to get. If any team can do it, it’ll be us.”

  Scanning his face as he speaks, I don’t really hear his words. I know how thin the plan is, but what I’m really asking is what he feels not what he thinks. He doesn’t continue, so I finally respond, trying to dredge up something to keep the conversation going. “Have you talked to Vitruzzi about T’Kai? It seems like he really got to her, the way he brought up her family…”

  “Why would I?”

  He doesn’t ask in a confrontational way. He sounds curious, reminding me how clueless he can be when it comes to people’s feelings. I almost say something about it, but stop myself. It would only start an argument. Besides, what do I know? Haven’t I been just as clueless, made the same mistakes?

  “I just mean, you’re the only one here who’s known her that long. It might help if she had someone to talk to, you know? She seemed upset.”

  He sighs and looks at the bottle he holds in one hand. “She’s strong. She’ll cope. Like the rest of us.”

  “I just thought—”

  “So you’re going to go back to the life,” he cuts me off, finally looking up, his eyes boring into my face.

  “How…did David tell you that?” It’s hard to find my voice, torn between being surprised and defensive. Damn my brother. Doesn’t he understand privacy? But I get why he told Karl; he knows I’d never do it on my own. I’d let Karl find out when I was thousands of miles and a new identity away. There’s no reason to deny it. “Yeah.”

  “You may not believe it, Aly.” He stands up and walks toward the exit with his shoulders set like iron bands. The tension in them makes his shirt taut, and he takes a deep swallow of his drink before continuing, but his voice is thick anyway as he says, “But I really hope things go well for you.”

  The words sting in a surprising way. I never would have expected such total and unquestioning acceptance. But what did I expect? That he beg me to stay? That he scream at me, or curse at me, or cry? He’s a realist, I’ll give him that. He knows me well enough to know that when my mind’s made up, it’s as rigid as his locked shoulders.

  I take a deep breath and almost choke on it. “Thanks.”

  He doesn’t look back and leaves the galley, deserting me. Moments later, Rajcik enters through the same door. The hollowness inside me instantly begins to compress as rage wraps itself around my torso like a vice. But this time, it’s not about Rajcik.

  He pauses and looks me over before coming in, blatantly measuring how much trouble I might be, then walks toward the cupboards.

  But talking to Karl has taken the fight out of me. I don’t feel like moving, but I can’t just sit here and say nothing. “I’m surprised Vitruzzi lets you walk around without a shadow.”

  He hears the strain in my voice and looks at me again, disquieting interest sparkling in his eyes.

  “I guess she trusts her crew to handle me if I do something unwise,” he says dismissively, rifling through the cupboards.

  He’s wearing a thin shirt, the same plain gray color of everything that’s been laundered through the cleaning system over and over. The sleeves are tight and ride up on his thick arms as he lifts them to dig past things on the shelf, looking for something edible. I see the scar again, cutting a deep groove between his muscles.

  “You almost lost it didn’t you?”

  He finally grabs a couple of nutrition bricks wrapped in plastic, rips one open with his teeth, and sits across from me in the same seat Karl had just vacated. He knows what I’m talking about, but before responding, he throws the unopened bar on the table and swallows the other in two large bites, then rubs his hands together to shake off any crumbs. My own curiosity keeps my frustration at his stalling at bay. Finished, he leans back and extends his right arm to his side. Once his forearm swings in front of him about half of its full range, it stops, the triceps unable to extend completely.

  “I’ll never do another push up,” he says, looking disgustedly at his arm. “Not unless Vitruzzi decides to work some fancier magic. But she doesn’t have the resources she’d need for that. Maybe I’ll be able to get them for her once I get the Temptation back up and running.”

  A chuckle escapes me. “That’s not likely to happen.”

  He raises one eyebrow. “You don’t think I will?”

  “Why would Vitruzzi give you that much freedom? I don’t care how much you’ve tried to help us get the Beachers back; you’re still a criminal. And a liar.”

  He smirks. “Same thing, right? Besides, Vitruzzi still owes me. She helped me by fixing me up. I gave her the video of T’Kai. Now I’m helping you get your friends out of the shank. Don’t you think that deserves some payback?”

  “She doesn’t owe you a damn thing. None of us do. After what you pulled.”

  “We’ll see, Aly. We’ll see.”

  “In any case, you’re not much help to us. You said yourself that you don’t know the layout or how to infiltrate the platform on KL.”

  “I’m still a hired gun.”

  I stand up, no longer able to stomach bandying words with him. “When the shooting starts, Rajcik, we’ll see where your gun is pointing. Something tells me you’ve got other targets besides the Corps in mind. And you can rest assured that theirs won’t be the only ones pointing at you. All I need is a reason.”

  “Sit. Down.”

  His tone surprises me. He hasn’t been my boss in months, but the undeniable command in his voice still gets an automatic reaction out of me. I start to lower myself back into my chair before I even realize it, but catch myself.

  “No. You don’t get it.” I smile grimly. “You’re not in charge anymore.”

  He reaches out and grasps my wrist as quickly as a striking cobra. “There’s something I have to explain to you. So sit down.”

  He doesn’t get up, doesn’t pull me. He just holds my arm, giving me the chance to decide if I want to listen or not. After hesitating a second, I sit. His grip releases, leaving white bands around my wrist.

  “You’re smart, Aly, but you’re wrong about something. You think I’m some kind of monster, a big bad wolf. But I’m not the one you have to worry about here.”

  “Bull—”

  He cuts me off. “Just fucking listen. T’Kai is more dangerous than you realize. He’s in it for blood. My blood, your blood, your whole crew’s blood. The only way to stop him is to kill him. That’s why I’m here. That’s the only reason I’m here. I don’t give a damn about you and your brother.”

  “And you took a job from him.” Acid contempt bubbles in my throat.

  “I’ve been working for him since I was eighteen, three years after they sent me to that shithole on Keum Libre. In fact, you’ve been working for him, too.”

  It’s as if he’s just thrown a bucket of cold water in my face and I nearly gasp. “What are you talking about?”

  “How do you think we managed to keep clear of the Corps for so long? After all those jobs?” He has my attention, and he knows how to keep it. “T’Kai’s been bankrolling me since I was a prisoner on KL. He picked me to be his personal thief. The first cache of weapons I stole paid for his vote of confidence, and everything after that we split fifty-fifty. When you and your brother were on my crew, nearly every heist we pulled was for T’Kai. We made him rich. It was a perfect arrangement, until he got too greedy.”

  My mouth opens, but nothing comes out. I’m reeling, not wanting to believe a word, but unable to stop myself. It’s so obvious, it has to be true. We were lucky, too lucky, for a long time.
The Temptation was a wanted ship; we’d seen it come up in plenty of newswave bulletins, and Rajcik’s identity has been known throughout the system for almost as long as his reputation has. We were always so careful, so methodical. The truth cuts deeply now, but it never occurred to me that we weren’t as good at stealing and selling illegal weapons as I thought we were.

  And something else—Rajcik had always handled the arms sales on his own. He kept the crew in the dark, so we didn’t know how much he was really making from the deals, and our cuts were always enough to keep us quiet. That and fear of what Rajcik would do to us if he suspected we would turn on him. All that time, half the money had been going back to T’Kai. My skin goes cold as I realize how naïve, how utterly and completely oblivious, I’d been.

  “Want to know the best part?” he continues. “Half the shit they blamed on me wasn’t even me. That Corps ship I got away in when I escaped from KL, where the crew was slaughtered? I would have gotten out of there without anyone knowing, but T’Kai tipped them off that I was a stowaway. He was testing me, trying to see if I could do the job. I had no choice but to kill them. And New Sweden”—he chuckles coldly—“those stupid colonists were just patsies that T’Kai hired to guard the arms until we got there. They were fine when we left. It was T’Kai who had them wiped out. Now I realize that he was covering his tracks, making sure that anyone who knew I was working for him was gone. Because he wanted me gone.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us the truth?”

  “Why would I? You all got what you wanted. Don’t forget, Aly, you and David were there by your own choice. You could have walked any time you wanted to, but you didn’t.” His black eyes shine with an evil mirth. He’s actually enjoying watching the effect his story is having on me. “I’d already figured out T’Kai was going to try and have me ghosted after the Fortress. In a way, I did you two a favor when I cut you loose. Things might have turned out differently—maybe no one would have escaped.”

  It’s my turn to laugh, and it burns like bile in my throat. “If he wanted you dead, how the hell did you get away?”

  He sly smirk makes me want to squirm out of its range. “You’re going to like this. You helped. Nothing happened the way it was supposed to on that station. T’Kai didn’t have enough security, and the ones he did have weren’t prepared for the shitstorm you and your new friends created. When the place blew, the soldiers acted like frightened little ants and scattered. After we launched, only one gunship came after us. That bastard was lucky enough to hit us.” He reaches around and rubs the long scar.

  I’m scrambling, just trying to keep up with everything he’s saying. Through a mouth lined by felt, I ask, “Why didn’t it finish you off?”

  He arches a speculative eyebrow. “Orders, probably. Their priority must have been to help their distressed comrades.” That cold chuckle again. “If T’Kai ever reads that commander’s flight logs, I imagine the stupid sap will die choking on his own screams.”

  My confidence is so badly shaken that it’s a long time before I can muster any kind of coherent response. Rajcik has gotten the better of me, far, far beyond what I’d imagined, at every single turn. For the last six years, I thought I had it under control, my life in my own hands, but I’d been wrong. The Corps was everything to me before I woke up to the fact that I was nothing but its puppet, and it had eaten me up inside until I’d escaped. I’d sought out Rajcik as a way of rebelling against the sick corruption of the Admin. But I realize now that I’d merely gone from being a knowing tool of that corruption to an unknowing one of Rajcik’s own special variety. I want to scream my lungs out and strangle Rajcik and all his smug contempt to death, but don’t. If I’d paid attention, I would have seen the truth a long time ago. Had I wanted to be blind? Is there some terrified, weak part of me that’s afraid to be free? Is that what’s driving my decision to follow Rob and become a citizen again?

  He stands up fluidly, like a coiled spring. “Don’t look so surprised. It’s just the way they work. And you think I’m evil and corrupt. Now you know the truth. The only reason I haven’t killed T’Kai already is because I’ve never been close enough to him to do it. But that will change, soon. Something tells me that we haven’t heard the last from him.”

  He walks past me out of the galley.

  I look down at the table and see the nutrition bar he left behind. Picking it up, I hurl it as hard as I can against the wall, completely unsatisfied by the soft crunch it makes. Goddammit! I’ve never been so gullible, so duped, so deceived. And I swear, it will never happen again.

  Does David know about this? I need to talk to him, if only to make the news less difficult to swallow. But first, the com room, find out how far out we are. The sooner this mission is over, the sooner I can put all of it behind me. Forget the past and start completely over from scratch. Nothing has ever sounded so good.

  When I get to the com room, La Mer is hunched over the main console that links with the ship’s central computer. His long, ropy hair hangs down across his cheeks, and he squints as he types intently on the keyboard. He looks up when I come in, his eyes still far away for a few seconds before focusing on me.

  “How’s that security program going?” I ask, leaning against the wall beside him.

  He looks back at the screen for a few seconds before answering. “If what Quantum told me about their protocols is right, it’s basically done. Once we send a signal burst that the drones pick up, they’ll analyze it, and that’ll be all she wrote. It’s like scrambling an egg. All the components in their brains will still be there, but they won’t be put together the same way. We’ll be able to fly right past. Some of them may retain enough of their programmed protocols to follow us, but that’s about all they’ll be capable of. It may be a little nerve-racking, but if it gets to be too much, Venus can always shake them. They’re intra-atmospheric, so their range will be limited.”

  His confidence is reassuring, and the conversation helps redirect my scorched thoughts away from Rajcik. “How do you feel about things after we get on the platform?” La Mer is a thinker, not the kind of combat soldier that most of us are. He can hold a gun and point it in the right direction, but his instincts are evasion not engagement.

  His eyes shift toward the floor before he answers, the confidence of a moment ago blown away as if on a sudden gust of wind. “I guess I’m just hoping that we won’t see much fighting. They aren’t prepped like they expect an attack. Why would anyone attack a penal colony guardhouse? Maybe they’ll just have a couple of personnel…”

  “We can hope, right? But just in case, maybe you should stay on ship with Venus. No one else can do what you can. You’ll probably be the most help to us on the move and with access to the ship’s com equipment.”

  He looks at me sideways, his large eyes limned with emotion, either gratitude or relief. Or both. Then he says, “About Cross…”

  “Doesn’t matter,” I cut in. “You did what made sense to you, and that’s a good way to stay not dead. No harm done.”

  A knock pings against the hatch, and I look over to see Vitruzzi. She opens the door and comments, “We’re only ten hours from KL. What’s the status on the drone override?”

  “I’m there. Just point the transponder in the right direction and give it a boost. Everything within a couple hundred klicks will get zapped. We should try to get as close to the platform as possible in order to hit anything they have on reserve down there. Nothing outside that range should be picking us up anyway, so they’ll all continue their normal routines without ever knowing we’ve been there.”

  She nods and manages to look almost pleased. “That’s excellent. Good job, Jeremy.”

  “V,” La Mer says, “I’m wondering where you want me when you go down into the substructure.”

  She sees the fear in his eyes and smiles at him softly. “We need you here, on the Sphynx. In fact”—she looks at me—“the ship’s never going to sit down. We’ll take the shuttle in. I’ve already told Venus to cover
us while we make the descent. Once we hit the platform, she’ll stay in flight until she hears from me or Brady. We don’t know what might happen down there, but if the ship gets locked down, we’re all fucked. You two can manage the ship and keep the drones under control from a reasonable distance.”

  It’s a good plan, even though we’ll be sitting on each other’s laps inside the shuttle until we hit ground. I ask, “How close do we need to be to the colony until you can read the Beachers’ tracking implants?”

  I don’t need to say it aloud, but if none of the devices are transmitting, it’s either because the colonists aren’t there or their bodies aren’t outputting enough energy to keep the devices active. Because they’re dead.

  “They have a fifty-K range.”

  I nod. “Any word from Quantum or T’Kai?”

  “Nothing,” she answers, her voice clipped. She turns back to La Mer. “Do what you have to to make sure that program works, then try and get some sleep. This is it.”

  This is it.

  THIRTY-TWO

  “Where the fuck did it come from?!” David yells as Venus forces the ship into a hard left bank and starts to climb.

  “I don’t know, but it’s not a drone,” Karl says, his eyes not wavering from the command camera feed linked to his VDU.

  I watch mine just as intently as I grip the crisscrossing bars along the armory door a level down from David, my body tensing in anticipation of the next shearing turn. The Corps ship chasing us had come out of nowhere after we broke through KL’s atmosphere; our radar never even picked it up. The drone program worked just as La Mer had said it would, and we were minutes outside of reaching the oceanic landing platform, planning on doing a NAP of the earth flyover of the island colony before setting down. Venus began evasive maneuvering the second the Sphynx’s secondary sonic pressure wave sensors detected a higher than normal reading coming from above us, but none of us were ready for it.