Hands of the Colossus

by Nicole Grotepas

  “Are you certain? I do not mind,” Odeon said.

  “I don’t either. If you end up finding me crumpled on the floor of the corridor, then we’ll both know that I wasn’t up to the task.”

  She rose, gave her friend a quick squeeze on his upper arm, and then strolled around the tables and chairs and headed to the corridor past the bar. Shiro turned from the bar, carrying two drinks.

  “Ms. Drake, I took the liberty of getting you the kind of beer you like.” He lifted the drinks so she could see. His cane was tucked up under his arm, hugged against his side.

  He’d gotten her a pale golden beer, served in a double fluted beer glass. She noted it, and felt a pang for ignoring him so much since the issue at the drug den.

  “Thanks, Shiro,” she said, averting her gaze again. “I really appreciate the thought. But I’m heading back to my room now. I’m skipping a drink the time.”

  “Ah. Is that wise?” He seemed genuinely curious.

  “I’ll find out. Thanks anyway.”

  She hurried past him, breathing out as she did to avoid catching his fragrance. She held it against him, in a way, that he smelled so . . . right.

  TWENTY-NINE

  TWENTY-nine hours later, Holly found herself in the Bird’s Nest, poring over bits of information the mini dirigible had sucked in and sent back to Darius’s decryption programs. He put it up on the big v-screen and pointed to it as they spoke.

  “These here, these words—they’re proxies for children. It’s like an order form, like a request. ‘OK’ it says, ‘we need like three more kids.’” Darius frowned as he said it and his voice trailed off a bit. “It’s disgusting. And then these weird patterns mean money. Novas. How many novas, I can’t decipher, but I know it’s money from how it recurs.”

  “That’s so many drops and interchanges. All that’s happening, constantly, beneath our noses?” Holly gaped at it.

  “I know, I know. Trust me, I know, Drake.” He lifted his driving cap off his head and ran his free hand through his short hair.

  “We can’t do anything about this right now, though. If we do, it’ll tip them again that we’ve got a new way to know what their movements are.”

  Charly breezed in, dressed up in a white and black pants-suit. The day was rounding into evening and she would be entertaining a gala of some sort. “This again, Darius?” Charly sounded put out. She looked at Holly. “He told me about it while you were gone. I don’t want to think about it, right? It’s bad enough that Lucy’s friend went missing.”

  “Ignoring it isn’t an option,” Holly said, sitting down. Neither Odeon nor Shiro had been around that day. That was ok with Holly. Last she’d seen Shiro had been leaving from the capsule on the space elevator platform. Holly had felt haggard and exhausted after trying to sleep on the inter-moon zeppelin ride. It had worked, in short spurts. In general the trip had been a success crew wise, but a failure in her personal relationships.

  “Hey, who’s ignoring it? I’m not. No way. I would simply prefer to be doing something about it versus talking about it and twiddling my thumbs. It’s my way. I can’t stand inaction,” Charly said.

  “True. But we can’t go barging in. If we do, they’ll know we’ve been listening and they’ll change everything before we get any information about where they’ve taken Charm.”

  “And what about the big hub infiltration. The one you went to Po about?” Charly stood to the side of Darius’s large screen, staring at the disturbing information there.

  Darius spoke up. “We’ll move on that soon. The problem with that mission is, uh, er,” he said, hesitating as he glanced uncomfortably at Holly. “It will require help from Voss.”

  “We want to avoid that, if we can.” Holly said.

  “That’s right. I forgot about that.”

  “Because you never go on missions any more.”

  “Not true. I remember this one recent mission—on a moon. There were transponders. There was a near-death experience, if I remember correctly.”

  Holly bit her bottom lip. “But since then, no missions!”

  “Someone has to keep a roof over the heads of my guests. And Torden. And basically, the crew,” Charly said, beginning to sound defensive.

  “It’s completely ok, Char.”

  “Oh, I know it is.”

  “Drake, you’ve already said we can’t move on any of these decrypted drops. But what about tomorrow? What can we do then?”

  “Let’s plan for tomorrow, as much as I want to avoid Voss, we’ve got to push through this shit and get to the heart, so we can find Charm.” She glanced at her communicator. Xadrian was calling. “Excuse me a minute guys. Hello?”

  “Why hello, HD, you were supposed to phone me. Remember? That three days I gave you is now one.”

  Holly cussed. “Shit. I did forget. There’s been a lot going on, XT. The zeppelin ride. Well, four zeppelin rides? I’m sorry.”

  “Unfortunately, I wish you’d listened to me. I found out something you need to know.”

  “Ok. Tell me. Go.”

  “It’s not like that. Drake. Meet me at our locale. I’m not telling you anything over this line.”

  She growled and hung up, glancing at Charly and Darius. They were both staring at her with wide eyes.

  “What? You guys have never heard someone growl before?

  ***

  The Glassini Bar was filled with patrons. Busier than normal. Odeon actually sat on the stage, playing his icreash. He acknowledged Holly with a look as she entered and found the table she often used to meet with Xadrian. He was there, and he proffered Holly a small glass of wine.

  “I heard you were developing quite the drinking problem. I took the liberty of getting you a smaller serving,” Xadrian said when she sat down.

  “That is taking a liberty. A huge liberty. Did Dave tell you that?” She sat down and took a sip of the wine. It bothered her, but she didn’t have the energy to argue. She was running out of time, she felt, on finding Charm. And these diversions weren’t helping. “What’s going on, XT, let’s get to business. I have things waiting for me.”

  “Patience, HD, patience.”

  “There’s no time for patience. Do you think the SC is going to be easy on the little girl? They have a nearly limitless supply of children. If they don’t like a Druiviin child, they’ll get rid of her. Replace her with a human or Constie.”

  “This is precisely why you’re here, HD. I found out, through mutual sources, what they’re referring to the Druiviin as. It should help you narrow however it is you’re searching.”

  Holly inhaled sharply. “What is it?”

  He leaned forward, and slid a small square of paper toward her.

  “How old-fashioned,” she said. Taking the paper into her hands and flipping it over to study it. The word read kotan raisin. “That’s it. Are you certain?”

  He nodded. “The team searched it in multiple ways. They found the references all matched the other data.”

  “Then I owe you my gratitude. Thank you, Xadrian. And what is the other thing. The one that has a time-table?”

  “That is part of the issue. If you go search through the information on that topic,” he said, indicating the paper she’d crumpled in her fingers. “You’ll find that it is scheduled to be moved again. If you search where it is now, if you are quick, you can get it before it’s moved.”

  “And where is it?” Her heart was thundering. She almost couldn’t hear Xadrian’s next words.

  “On an outpost located in Ixion’s orbit. Look for it. Look for that info. Once they move, you won’t know where to look and it would take weeks again to find it.”

  Holly leapt to her feet. “Is that it, XT? Any more facts that I wish I’d known yesterday?”

  “It wasn’t me who left the moon, HD,” he answered, shaking his head. Our source told you to stay here, to wait. He gave me the info, I contacted you as fast as I could. I wasn’t going to share this across comm units. You know why. I know you know why.
”

  “If we’re listening, they’re listening,” she muttered to herself. He heard, however and nodded.

  “Precisely. You’re learning. You are learning. Soon we’ll have turned you into a master-thief.”

  She glared at him. “I don’t want to be a thief.”

  Xadrian shrugged and sipped his wine, the rings on his fingers glittering in the hanging lights. He smiled. “Can’t fight nature. Some of us are the way we were made. You, my dear, are a born-master criminal.”

  “And if you’re correct, I’ll use my powers to fight evil people like the SC.”

  “And I will honor that about you. Cheers,” he said, raising his glass to her.

  She hurried out, throwing a look Odeon’s way before she hit the doors and then the street.

  THIRTY

  BACK at the Nest, Holly hurried to explain to Darius what Xadrian had told her.

  “There’s no time to hit the massive hub. We have this. This, Darius. We know what they’re calling her, now. Can’t your little program look for the word, and then interpret it?”

  “Possibly, Drake. But what would be the point?”

  “To make sure Xadrian is right. That he’s not lying to us.”

  “I get it. That’s true. But say we sort through the millions of bytes of information, and we find out that he’s right. But it took my program ten hours to search? Then we get Trip and head out to Ixion. And we arrive, and the window has closed, and Charm is gone? Then what?”

  “What are you saying, Darius, that you want to just go in blindly, trusting Xadrian?”

  He pressed his lips together, and shook his head. “No. I don’t want to do that. At all. It’s the worst possible idea. The outcomes suck. There are more disastrous possible outcomes and just one potential good outcome.”

  “I know. I agree.”

  “So no, I don’t want to do that. But it’s the only option, Drake. Isn’t it?” He gave her a sideways glance, turning away from his large v-screen board and the things he’d written upon it. “What do you think? You’re the leader. You know I don’t like any of the options before us now, but what do we do?”

  She sighed heavily and sat down. The paper Xadrian had given her had turned into a sweaty ball of material. Crushed and unreadable.

  “I think you’re right,” she conceded. “The worst case scenario, we find out there’s something going on in the vicinity and we do more good than harm. And maybe, maybe we get Charm back.”

  “I think it’s the option that we’ll regret less than the others.”

  “We have to move. Soon.”

  “I know, Drake.”

  “Then,” she said, sighing. “Let’s get planning.”

  Darius pulled up all the information he had on the bases and tanker ships that orbited Ixion, harvesting the hydrantium gas from the upper atmospheres. This gas was then used to create aether, which powered much of the energy that was used in the 6-moons. It was clean and Ixion had a supply that wouldn’t run out for thousands of years. Tidal locking would occur sooner than Ixion ran out of hydrantium, and when that happened, the Centau had plans to move to a new system.

  Together Holly and Darius studied the layout of the base and the possible locations that would hold Charm. They couldn’t focus on the why or the what of it. She was there. She was a child. Holly would destroy the entire base if she had to, to get back the little girl.

  As they discussed it, Holly realized that the tanker she’d seen at Joppa must have been about something other than water. Perhaps it was hydrantium. Why was the Shadow Coalition using tankers? They could get the hydrantium gas for much cheaper than they would from harvesting their own and then refining it.

  “We’ll need Trip, you know,” Darius said.

  Holly closed her eyes and inhaled. “Yes, I know.” She opened them. Trusting Trip on such a huge mission was going to be a trial for Holly. But she would do it.

  “And possibly Voss,” Darius said.

  “OK, and why do you propose we include her?”

  “You think the doors inside the ship will just open when you bat your eyelashes at them?”

  “Ouch Darius.”

  “Sorry. That’s the thing, Drake. These bases and tankers are full of an explosive material. They’re going to have doors that are locked. And we don’t have time to create false identities and go in all cute like a crew of thieves. We’re going to have to do this lean and mean, and fast. If Xadrian’s timetable is right—and I think it could very well be, we have less than twelve hours to get this shit done. There’s a chance we can procure SC outfits, and fool their ship’s scanners so that they read Trip’s ship like it’s one of theirs. But beyond that, we just don’t have time. This is out of the fucking blue. We were heading into a leisurely listen-fest after we broke into the massive hub and tapped it. Now what? We’re off in a direction I didn’t plan. And I’m going at it barebones. “

  Holly gestured with her hands in a downward motion, signaling him to calm down. “Relax. We’re tired. This is a complete shock. So, we need Trip. We’ll have Voss. And we have to leave how soon?”

  “If our window is twelve hours, we need to leave in six. Trip’s ship will do a small portion of the work getting close to the base, but a lot of the speed will come from Ixion’s gravity.”

  “And where will you be? I need to visualize the teams. The operation from far away—I need the big picture.”

  “Ok, so I’ll stay here,” Darius said.

  She nodded, “Of course you will.”

  He laughed uncomfortably. “Look Drake, I’m not being a chicken. I wasn’t made to be in the field. I’ll be here, monitoring everything. I’ll be your second set of eyes.”

  “I get it, Darius. You’re good at your job.” She patted him on the back. “Shiro, Odeon, Charly, Voss, Trip. Me. We’ll be on Trip’s ship.”

  “And Trip’s ship will also be the getaway.”

  “For now, you’ll recruit Voss. I’ll get Trip.”

  “Yes. You’ll need to leave in eight hours. We get Shiro procuring the SC costumes.”

  They finished planning. Beneath the dialogue with Darius about the plans, Holly felt a sickness in her gut about the journey she was about to embark on. Even with all their plans and the fact that they were leaving in less than eight hours, Holly had a few things she needed to do. As soon as the plans were hammered out with Darius, she would have to take off to get it done. Meg and Gabe would need to be informed, and though she couldn’t just pop in to see Dave the official, there was one other person she needed to touch base with. Holly needed a reality check.

  THIRTY-ONE

  THIS is where HOlly goes to cool down and do something. She gets Shiro’s watch repaired with plans to surprise him with it.

  ***

  Holly knew the way to her next location without even pausing to think. And she knew that she had to go there, because she was about to crumble beneath the crushing weight of what she needed to do. Who could even understand what sort of mountain had settled upon her shoulders? It was surely infinitely more vast than even the Ridge of the World.

  She hadn’t ridden the Spireway since the Shadow Coalition nearly dumped her off that night with Odeon, vaporizing the gondola around her. But she found she didn’t care at the moment. Her nerves were so raw from nonstop pursuit of a way to save Charm, that she rode the elevator to the platform and boarded without even thinking about it. The people she passed were a blur. The sun between the tops of the towers, and the waxing outline of Ixion growing on the horizon—all of it was background noise beneath her concerns about what she was about to embark upon on her way to the edge of the Lavender Jade district.

  When Holly arrived in the corridor at the top of a Lavender Jade tower, and pushed the doors open to the Zulu lounge, she realized that she’d almost slept walked through the city. Her thoughts were in turmoil. Her heart had bruised the inside of her ribs with its thunderous pounding. Her breathing was rapid and labored. This wasn’t what a person should feel
as they approached the precipice and gazed into the maw of danger. They just kept going. They were action and not thought.

  But Holly didn’t know how to be anything else. Her brain was cogs and gears, set in motion at the world outside her.

  She strode through the well-lit, posh bar, passing groups of humans and Consties laughing and drinking, seated on half-circle upholstered benches around knee-height tables. It was mid-afternoon, and the crowd was just getting going. Soon there would be tapas and other finger foods, and then a singer or band. But for now, Holly discovered Cosma on the outdoor terrace area, reclining by the pool. As Holly approached, Cosma rose and spotted her. There were other people in the pool splashing about and floating atop the water, as well sun-bathers reclining in chaises around the perimeter of the large pool.

  Cosma took off her white hat and stood to greet Holly, her face lighting up.

  “My dear, my dear. So lovely to see you!” Cosma gave Holly a hug and a beso. She pushed Holly away and held her at arm’s length to inspect her face. “But I must say, you look terrible. Are you not getting enough sleep? What’s been going on in your life?”

  That Cosma recognized the torment Holly was feeling, just about nearly forced the tears to fly. No one else . . . not Darius, nor Odeon, and not even Charly had seen how the work was getting to Holly. Maybe Meg would see it? Who knew. Perhaps today was different. Perhaps it was the nearness of success or failure.

  Holly bit her lip and forced herself to laugh. “I’m doing . . . I’m doing just . . . great.”

  Cosma gave Holly another full body squeeze and then pushed her gently by the shoulders down onto a nearby chair.

  She snapped her fingers at a passing server, “Get over here, Jeffrey. Here, bring this girl a drink immediately. A Frozen Pearl,” she said, glancing at Holly. “A Frozen Pearl, dear?”