I keyed the command on the control panel so hard it cracked. The sphere was promptly sucked through the dense Darien Enclosure toward a tiny pinpoint of light. I expected the crowd to cheer, but they watched me in silence. The end of my rant could still be heard echoing down the hall, I’d screamed it so loudly. My mother wore that deeply concerned expression she always did when I disappeared at nights growing up. If she knew half the things I’d stolen back then to help pay our Pervenio Corp. rent, her heart would give out.
As I stood panting, quiet murmurs built by the exit. They rippled across the crowd, some news spreading and stealing the attention of everyone present. I wondered what could possibly be more important than Gareth’s funeral, until the whispers reached Mazrah’s ear. Her eyelids sprang open.
“You need to follow me, Kale,” she addressed me.
“What is it?” Maya questioned.
“The Earthers, they… You have to see.”
There wasn’t much of a choice. The crowd flowed toward the exit, and we were caught in the tide. Everyone sounded anxious. Terrified. Maya and my other guards fell in close and had to bar people from shoving us.
“Should I send for Aria?” my mother asked.
“Yeah, where is our young ambassador?” Mazrah said.
Aria. The woman I’d named ambassador, who had a father who was a Pervenio Corp. Collector and who also happened to be carrying my child. Before we’d left for Mars, all she was to anybody but me was an offworlder with a knack for Earther politics. Being present to see whatever it was Pervenio Corp. was up to was part of her job description...but I couldn’t handle anymore lies.
“Resting,” I replied. That was half the truth. The radiation had taken a toll on her, and she was sealed in my Darien Uppers residence being monitored to ensure our child was healthy...and until I was sure I could trust her.
“She must be exhausted after traveling so far in her condition,” Mazrah said.
My head whipped around to face her. She wore an impish grin. Somehow, she knew about my baby. I glanced at Maya, who’d clearly heard, and she shook her head. That meant Aria had told her. They’d bonded almost instantly after we took over Titan, probably because neither was a full-bred member of the race they were fighting for. And they had history. Mazrah had been the one to get in contact with Aria for medical aid when she was still a runner for Venta Co. Maya may have been behind it, but Mazrah recruited the Doctor.
Had Aria been playing us from the very beginning for Madame Venta? Why?
“Make way for Lord Trass!” Maya bellowed as we entered the Darien Uppers.
The crack of her voice drew my focus back to the crowd. The Uppers remained in disarray, exactly like we’d left them. It didn’t look like anybody was living in the residential towers but instead like my people had continued reveling upon the ruins of Earther commerce for the months we were gone.
Maya pushed through the throng so that we could see what was on a pair of working viewscreens wrapping the atrium where Darien Trass’s effigy stood proud. Hundreds were gathered within it and around the walkways. The volume was all the way up, but I couldn’t hear anything over the ruckus. Gunshots flared in a sequence playing repeatedly on the screen.
“Quiet!” I screamed.
A hush fell upon the Uppers as if all the air had gone out of the room. The Titanborn in front of me noticed I was there, parted, and allowed me to approach the screens. It was a newsfeed being broadcast from Earth on every single one of their channels.
“I repeat, the footage we are about to show is graphic,” a reporter said as the sequence started again. It was a conference room of some sort, only the recording was being shot from outside its window. A view of a Martian skyline was reflected faintly in the glass. Not New Beijing but one of the Earthers’ less impressive domed cities on Mars.
Men and women in formal attire and with the Red Wing logo on their lapels were discussing something. Chairman Valora, the woman who had helped us escape Mars, gestured to a screen displaying shipment lanes. I recognized the indicated drop point near a small belt asteroid named Magnya where we secretly had been trading them foundry salts in exchange for ship parts. Luckily, the goods being exchanged weren’t on display.
Suddenly, the glass shattered, and whoever wore the camera vaulted into the room. On either side of him or her were armored soldiers. They wore our armor, Titanborn armor, orange circle born proudly in the center. Pulse rifles in each of their hands opened fire on the Red Wing Company Board, tearing them to pieces. They dove behind chairs and their glass table, but it was all too late. Red Wing officers rushed through the doors, only to be picked off with unbelievable accuracy, each one a headshot. They never even got a chance to fire a bullet.
Spattered blood and groans filled the room. The person wearing the camera masquerading as one of us turned to face another. He or she wore our armor, but I could tell they were too short to be proper Titanborn. It was only by a hair, not enough for an Earther to realize, but I did. The attacker had Chairman Valora by the throat with one hand and held a detonator in the other.
“We are descendants of those chosen by Trass—Titanborn,” the distorted voice of the attacker holding Valora said. “This is what happens to those who steal from our Ring. From ice to ashes.” Then he or she hit the detonator, and the recording went to static, presumably as that boardroom and all the people inside it were blown to atoms. Including whoever was posing as us.
“We are releasing this footage to the public now after the Solnet leaks were unable to be controlled,” the reporter said, clearly rattled. “It appears that self-proclaimed King of Titan Kale Trass’s decision to come to Mars for a talk was merely a ruse. Rumblings out of the USF Assembly indicate that they believe this cowardly attack on the Red Wing Board is a direct reaction to the recent news of a formal merger between Venta Co. and Pervenio Corp. Was it a message or an attempt to keep the conglomerate from acquiring more assets? We can only speculate.”
“Kale?” I heard Maya whisper in my ear. She might as well have been shouting, the room went so quiet. “Was this you?”
I shook my head.
“We went live to Julianne Venta earlier today in reaction to this shocking development,” the anchor said.
The screen transitioned to grainier footage, where Madame Venta’s officers were busy pushing through a mob of reporters. They were outside the New Beijing Spaceport.
“Madame Venta!” a news reporter shouted. “Madame Venta! Do you have any comment on the attack on the Red Wing Board?” One of her men pushed the camera away, but the reporter was persistent. He weaseled his way right into her face and asked the question again.
“Any comment?” she snapped finally. “It’s time we stop taking these Ringer rebels lightly. The USF has spent the last month looking into an incident hear at this very spaceport where my children were slaughtered by Kale Trass when he absconded with our CTO Javaris Venta. Do you think I partnered with Luxarn Pervenio to benefit my company? I’ve been saying the USF needs to permit the development of a defensive fleet since the moment Kale Trass seized the Ring. I’m done waiting for them to bicker over the methods of our expansion. It is time we take control of this situation before Kale targets another boardroom full of innocents. Pervenio-Venta Corp. will seize the assets of Red Wing, and together we will dispatch a militarized force to take back the Ring at all costs. If the USF has anything to say about it, they can try to stop us. It’s time for Kale Trass’s bloody reign to come to an end.”
The feed cut back to the production studio. “Harsh words. We reached out to the USF Assembly for comment, but up to this point there has been no response. This is John Standard of SolWide News Net. We’ll be back after this short break to bring you more about the Red Wing massacre.”
The screen transitioned to a shiny vessel flying through the upper atmosphere of Jupiter. “Have you ever dreamed of sailing over the eye of Jupiter?” a soothing voice asked. “Zeus Luxury Cruise Lines invites you—”
; The rest of the out-of-place Earther ad was cut off by the Uppers erupting in applause for the elimination of a powerful Earther corporation. Some honored the three soldiers who sacrificed their lives to make it possible. Others lauded me for tricking the Earthers into allowing us so close.
I grabbed Maya’s arm, pulled her into an abandoned shop, and slammed the door. Mazrah and my mother followed shortly after, struggling to squeeze through my people as they once again turned the Uppers into their own personal nightclub.
“Kale, did you order that?” my mother questioned, her glower boring into my soul.
“That’s the only company I wouldn’t have targeted,” I said.
“Madame Venta didn’t wait long to get her vengeance,” Maya muttered. “Pervenio-Venta Corp.? Did you know about that, Maz?”
“First I’ve heard, and I keep their newsfeeds playing all day,” Mazrah said.
“Luxarn is finally coming out of his shell,” I said. I pressed my hands against the glass door. It vibrated from the festivity outside. “Listen to them. They have no idea what’s coming.”
“Luxarn and her together?” Maya added. “The USF won’t be able to stop them, hostages or not.”
“Why do you think they made this move?” Mazrah said.
“But it wasn’t us,” my mother implored. “Deny it. At the very least it will slow them down.”
“Nothing we say matters anymore,” I said. “They’ve been waiting for an excuse all this time. Waiting for us to show that we’re the monsters they think we are. Nobody looked further in that video than the orange circle to see if it was us. Nobody ever will.”
“So, what now?” Maya asked.
“We prepare. We put everyone we’ve got who’s ever worked in a dock on preparing a fleet of our own. It won’t take long for them to outfit everything they’ve got with weapons, and we have to be ready to hold.”
“That might be a problem,” Mazrah said. She flinched as my glower fell upon her.
“Why?”
“That man, Orson Fring. He’s organized every experienced shipworker we’ve got in protest. We’re arming, just...not as quickly as anticipated without them.”
“I thought I told you to handle it!”
“What did you want me to do? Lock him away? Kill him? The moment you left, his following multiplied.”
“They’re coming around, Kale,” my mother said. She took my arm but didn’t hold on long after I turned to face her. “I’ve been talking with Mr. Fring.”
“Good. We’ll meet with him as soon as we’re done here. Maya, do you have your hand-terminal?” I asked. She nodded. “Good. Record this.”
I opened the door and backed up slowly into the sea of carousing. Maya followed me and set her hand-terminal to record. I remembered when she’d bought the thing so that we could hack Pervenio Station and steal the Piccolo. It seemed like ages ago. Mazrah and my mother watched from behind the glass, brows furrowed.
“We traveled to Earth to make peace, and you shunned us,” I said into Maya’s recording. “Red Wing thought they could buy our loyalty and learned the hard way. The Ring is ours. We will not negotiate. We will not be bribed or prodded. Send all the ships you want. Send a fleet. They’ll return to Earth in ashes. Soon you people will know the fear we lived with every single day under your rule, but we are afraid no longer!” I raised my arms, gesturing to the mob of Titanborn at my back. Then Maya cut the recording.
My mother’s jaw hung open. Mazrah closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. Maya’s expression didn’t change. She understood what it would take to win. All the people behind me begging for war might not have, but she did.
Luxarn and Madame Venta had made their move. They were coming, and all I had to do was sweeten the bait. Feed their rage and their greed so that they would rush things. Our fleet didn’t need to be larger or more advanced. All it needed to do was hold while I pulled the rug out from under the Earthers’ homeworld using Javaris’s engines.
Then, and only then, would they give us everything we wanted.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
MALCOLM GRAVES
“Kale!” I screamed. “Let me out of here, you son of a bitch!” I scratched at the sanitary mask pulled across my mouth, but it was no use. I’d woken with it on, and the thing was made from the same nearly indestructible nano-fabric the wings of Ringer armor were made of. A tiny lock on the back ensured I couldn’t untie it.
We were underground somewhere beneath the surface of Titan. I could tell by the chill. There was enough fuel on Titan alone to keep their settlements balmy, but the Ringers preferred things as icy as Kale’s heart. The moment we landed in Darien and I was removed from my sleep pod, they brought me to this cell. I didn’t even get to see Aria.
I dragged my artificial leg across the floor. They had a band wrapping it emitting some sort of electromagnetic current. It didn’t hurt, but it jammed the signal so that my nervous system couldn’t communicate with the limb, leaving it little more than a deadweight crutch.
I shook the bars holding me in my rock-carved cell. “I swear when I get out of here I’m going to wring your neck. Kale!”
“Shut up!” someone said and kicked my cell. “He’s trying to work.” The speaker, a Ringer guard, limped by, pulse rifle in hand. One of his legs was twisted beyond repair, and his left hand twitched involuntarily. “Wh...why are…aren’t you working?” the guard addressed someone else, his stutter on full display. He looked at the Earther standing in the center of the cavernous space beyond my cell.
Javaris Venta. He was surrounded on one side by a tall array of viewscreens. Random parts were strewn around him, some mechanisms I couldn’t name.
“I need certain materials,” Javaris said. His approach to the guard was drawn short when chains snapped him back. He was bound to his new workspace.
“Lord Trass says tell…tell me everything you need.”
“Help for starters,” he added. “How do you expect me to work with this on my wrists? Under these conditions. I’ll be working with volatile gases. On Mars I had an entire staff. Hermetically sealed laboratories.”
“We’re not on Mar…Mars.”
“That’s for damn sure,” I remarked. Their attention immediately fell on me. I shrugged my shoulders. “Oh, sorry. Ignore me.”
“You have to tell Mr. Trass that these are not suitable conditions. I’ll build him what he wants, but I’m more worried about blowing us all up!”
“Lord Tra…Trass says you must work here,” the guard said. “No…nobody can know.”
“Then, by Earth, send some skilled labor. People that have been around an ion engine at the very least. Or some food. I can’t think straight when I haven’t had solid food in over a month.”
The guard slammed him in the gut with the butt of his rifle. Javaris was lucky the man was a cripple. Even so, with a powered suit of armor on, the blow was enough to send him to his knees. Javaris’s glasses flew off, and he had to crawl and grope along the floor like a beggar to find them. He tried to mask his sniveling, but the cavern was vast and empty. No sound could be hidden.
“You will eat proper food when you’re do…don…” His inability to get the last word out only augmented his frustration. He grabbed Javaris by the collar and flung him toward the workstation. “Get to work or…or her bones start breaking.” The guard aimed at the cell beside mine where a grown woman sobbed. “Quiet, Mudstomper! I don’t want to hear an...another word.”
“What a job you get, watching over the broken and the barred,” I said. “Picking on women. Can’t imagine what you did to get it.”
“Oh, you don’t re…remember?” He drew himself before the bars of my rock-carved prison and leaned in close. I didn’t.
“I’ve beaten thousands of offworlders in my time, kid. Threatened even more. Not one of them didn’t have it coming.”
“Well, I remember y…you. The Collector who interrogated us after the Piccolo attack. Who left us to d...d...die. That mask looks good on you
instead of us.”
I placed my face between the bars and glared right at him. “That’s right. You were one of the crew Kale left behind so he could go become the leader of whatever the hell you lot are. Desmond Parks. Sorry. I usually only remember the pretty ones, like Cora.”
Everything seemed so ordinary then. The Children of Titan raided the Piccolo and publicly executed all of its Earther crew members. Zhaff and I were part of the unit sent to recover the ship and its surviving Ringer crew, only the Children of Titan operatives had disappeared along with a seemingly harmless crew member named Kale Drayton. Director Sodervall, who led the investigation, immediately and publicly blamed Kale for the attack, but when I interrogated the survivors, not a soul believed quiet little Kale could hurt a soul. Maybe they were right back then, but Director Sodervall unintentionally provided the cell-based Children of Titan with a leader that could unite them all. Next time I woke from a coma on Undina after hunting down their headquarters, he was being called a Trass after having wiped out half of Luxarn’s forces.
“Don’t you dare use her name!” Desmond clanged his rifle against the bars.
“What, did you love her too?”
“Never. She and Lord Tr…Trass belonged together.”
“Funny. I don’t remember you having great things to say about him back when I interrogated you. What’d you call him? A weak, Earther-loving scumscrubber. Everyone else had great things to say. ‘Nice guy, kept to himself.’ Hell, Cora basically professed her love for him. Not you.”
“Lies.”
“Doesn’t matter. He had us all fooled.”
“Right until the moment he blew all your Per...Pervenio mates to hell, eh Earther.”
I shrugged, then tapped my metal leg. “Got me a new leg out of it. What’d you get for not ratting out Kale to Sodervall after he left you and the Piccolo crew behind?”
“I...I got a nice show. Earther scum, getting what they deserve.”
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