Cydonia Rising

by Dave Walsh

  “You could take me to Andal-3, then,” she said. “One of my uncle’s good friends is out there, he’d be able to help me, I think.”

  “I think I have enough money to get us to there without picking up any contracts on the way there, you know, keep things quiet?”

  “Good,” she said. “Although, what if Jol’or has reported us to someone? There is a hefty reward out on my head right now and you might be linked to that.”

  “I know,” he gulped down a spoonful of soup; it had grown a bit cold during the course of their conversation. “I’ll just have to hope that isn’t the case.”

  “I hope I haven’t gotten you into too much trouble,” she said, looking defeated.

  “They think you are dead, Kat.” He was beginning to get frustrated with her. “We just have to hope that our eccentric friend is embarrassed enough about letting you slip from his grasp to not want it to get out, otherwise you aren’t dead anymore and I’m a dead man flying.”

  “Do you even have a plan in case he did talk?”

  “Not yet, no.” He shifted slightly on the bench, trying not to bump his ribs. “For now, I’m searching for a new contract and we are laying low until then.”

  “You know, I haven’t really had much downtime in one place over the past, well, most of my life, actually. I’ve always been moving, so I’m not sure I’ll know how to sit still in one place for more than a few days.”

  “I guess we should go looking for something to dye your hair with and something to pretty you up then.” He picked himself up slowly, making sure to not agitate his injuries. “You know, keep you busy?”

  “Pretty me up?” She looked up at him, and Jace turned red almost instantly.

  “Damnit,” he said. “You know what I meant.”

  “Maybe along the way we’ll teach you how to interact with other human beings as well.”

  Katrijn

  Katrijn stood staring at herself in the mirror, seeing what looked like an entirely different person staring back at her. Jet black hair cut at shoulder length and pulled back into a Krigan warbraid, dark eyeshadow and lipstick making her usually soft features strikingly sharp. The girl looking back at her from the mirror was still her, but it felt strange to see what looked like Katrijn from an alternate reality staring back at her. This was the woman who could live a happy life without worrying about intergalactic politics or legacies. This was a new woman and she was happy being nobody. The thought of not being Katrijn Freeman anymore hurt, even if it was just for show.

  She let out a sigh and accepted that this was her life now, that she was on the run and the only way to fix things was to put her pride aside for a brief amount of time. “Alright,” she said, walking out of the bathroom to see Jace scrolling through a news feed on his holoscanner, only to look up and start laughing. “Oh, fuck you.”

  “No, no,” he stopped laughing, clutching at his side. “You just look so miserable. But yeah, that’ll do.”

  “Why would I ever be miserable about having to cut all of my hair off, dye it black and to have this much crap on my face?”

  “Well, you look totally different, and that is all that matters,” he said. “Now, have you come up with a name for yourself?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” she paused, trying to find the right way to phrase it. “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed or not, but this whole look is kind of, well, similar to that photo of your wife.”

  “Oh,” he went silent.

  “I’m sorry to bring it up, but you gotta admit that this might be a little bit close to your ‘type’ of woman, right?”

  “Yeah,” he said, his face flush. “I guess you’ve got a point there.”

  “So, this is your ship and your show for right now, and we might be running into a lot of your people for now,” she said, trying to tread carefully. “I was thinking I could pose as your new wife just, you know…” She felt herself starting to feel self-conscious. “For now, you know?”

  “That’s actually a great idea,” Jace said, obviously trying to not sound too excited by the prospect of Katrijn being married to him. “It gives us a reason to be looking to procure you some new documents, too, not that my guys would really care much for the reasoning. So, anyway, Krios as your last name, what about a first? I don’t think that we can keep using ‘Kat’ for any real reason.”

  “No, we can’t,” she agreed. “I was thinking of something simple like Eja.”

  “Perfect,” he said. “So Eja Krios it is, then.”

  “I guess so.” She forced a smile, still feeling uneasy about the whole thing. “So we should probably get the documentation taken care of, then?”

  “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, let me just gather myself up,” he said.

  Helgun was a strange planet, at least in contrast to the ones Katrijn had been on. The planet was simple, almost to a fault. Andlios was still rooted in tradition, but that tradition was that of many people and beliefs, meaning that there was diversity that led to a bit of a blend of all the cultures into one dominant culture. There was a lot of Krigan, sure, but Cydonian, Omegan and Helgean culture were all mixed in just as much. There were even cultures and people that had tapered off but still served as tributaries to the giant river that was Andliosian culture.

  If Cyngen was New Cydonia then Helgun was the New Helgea. The Helgean faith was everywhere, as was the simple life the monks had vowed to live, spitting in the face of advanced technology. Wooden cabins with a hearth at the center and benches lining the walls. Everyone was so quiet and while there were small outcroppings of non-Helgeans, they felt just as isolated as the non-Cydonian settlements felt on Cyngen. If Andlios was the melting pot, then the fringes were the places where there was a pot, but it was mostly full of tradition with the occasional outside ingredient tossed into the mix.

  Even the port they landed on was primitive in comparison to the ones she had remembered back on Andlios and looked especially threadbare after coming from Cyngen. The Helgean religion was really everywhere, which was a shock considering how little of it there was elsewhere in the Republic, even on Andlios. The monks all had their own jobs and roles to keep the planet in working order, but there were prayers done three times a day—morning, afternoon and evening—when most of the planet was eerily quiet. Now was one of those times, it being mid-afternoon and most of the monks were either at their churches or were home with their families praying. She wasn’t even sure how they figured out what time of day it was without constantly checking their holoscanners due to how dim the sunlight was on the planet.

  There were mostly off-worlders mulling around while they walked through the very quiet, quaint city square. They would have stuck out anyway for not wearing full robes like most of the Helgeans did. Gender seemed almost immaterial on Helgun considering that buried in the heavy robes and cowls everyone looked so similar. It always fascinated her that both the Helgeans and Cydonians favored this sort of gender neutrality in everything they did, although the Cydonians were different in many, many different ways from the Helgeans.

  Still, it was very obvious to her that there was a man following them at a safe distance trying to look inconspicuous, but at this time of day, his intentions of trailing them were painfully clear. “So, don’t look back,” she whispered over to Jace. “But we’ve got a tail, I think.”

  “Oh, shit,” Jace, of course, looked behind him before Katrijn could slam her elbow into his ribs, forcing him to cry out and quickly turn back around.

  “What did I say about not turning around?” She was gritting her teeth. Jace seemed like an alright guy but she was surprised he hadn’t been swallowed into a black hole or calculated a jump into a planet already.

  “Right, sorry,” he said. “So what do we do?”

  “Just follow my lead and have your gun ready.”

  “Can do.”

  They continued through the main street while only a few scattered people were walking by before Katrijn motioned for them to turn behind
one particularly large log building. She sprinted off toward the back of the building while dragging Jace behind her, hearing him groan in pain. Katrijn pulled him back behind the wall behind the building while the sound of pursuing footsteps intensified. Jace sidled up along the wall and pulled his gun out, checking the charge while she stood near the end, knife ready in one hand.

  A man in heavy armor, much like the mercs on Cyngen, rounded the corner, and Katrijn swept out her leg, sending him crashing to the ground. She quickly pounced on top of him while he rolled onto his back, holding her knife to his throat while her knees pinned down his arms. Her breathing had intensified, but she was in firm control. “You’ve got ten seconds to answer before this ends badly for you,” she said.

  “For me?” The man laughed through his helmet. “I’m not the one who’s surrounded.”

  “What?”

  She glanced back at Jace and saw him with his hands raised, two guards flanking him with their guns pointed at him. She looked back down at the merc she had pinned down and heard a low, guttural laugh coming from him. “Surrender.”

  “I’ve still got my knife to your throat,” she said. “I’m not so sure I’ve lost yet.”

  “We’ve got your friend here,” one of the guards behind her said. “We’ll not hesitate to blow his brains out.”

  “Who says he’s my friend?”

  “The fact that you haven’t killed me yet,” the man on the ground said. “Don’t test me.”

  “Eja,” Jace said, “don’t listen to them, Eja, you can still get outta here.”

  “Who the fuck is Eja?” The man on the ground laughed. “You can dye your hair all you want, you are Katrijn Freeman and Jol’or is looking for you.”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” she said. “What I do know is that I could slit your throat and kill your two friends back there before you knew what was happening.”

  “Go ahead,” the man on the ground chortled. “Make my day.”

  “Boss,” one of the men next to Jace said. “Should I smoke him?”

  “Hold on,” he said. “Let her soak it in. She’s fucked.”

  Katrijn scanned around, realizing they were in a world of trouble. The only way out was to save herself, not knowing what these goons would do to Jace. Even if she was on the run, essentially in exile and believed to be dead, she was still Katrijn Freeman and had a responsibility to the people of Andlios. Jace had gone above and beyond to help her, and cutting him loose now would be wrong, something she wouldn’t be able to live with, even if he was kind of a dork. She relented her hold on the captain on the ground slowly, dropping her knife beside him and conceding defeat.

  “Alright, don’t shoot,” she said.

  “There,” the captain said, “I knew you’d see it our way.”

  “Jol’or will be pleased we were able to—”

  The merc on the right of Jace stopped cold mid-sentence, a gurgling coming from his throat before his body tumbled to the ground like a sack of old meat. Before the other merc could mutter a word, Jace was on top of him, raining down blows with his fists and elbows. Katrijn turned back toward the man she had pinned down, but he had her knife now and it was rushing up toward her throat. She caught it with her hand but the force of it sent her crashing to the canvas. Another shot cracked through the sky, missing the intended target but distracting him long enough for Katrijn to pull her other knife free and drive it into the merc captain’s throat, his body convulsing underneath her.

  “What the hell?” Jace asked.

  “I have no idea,” she said.

  A man of dark complexion and a rifle slung over his shoulder rounded the corner, and Katrijn grabbed her other knife and held them both at the ready. The man paused, looked down at the fallen merc who had been shot from afar and smiled. “Damn, that was a good shot, huh?”

  “You’ve got ten seconds to answer before this ends badly for you,” she said.

  “It doesn’t have to,” the man said, noting that both Jace and Katrijn had weapons pointed at him. “Too bad that second shot missed, though, huh? I’m a bit rusty from that distance, I guess.”

  “Ten…nine…eight…seven…” she was counting.

  “Okay, okay, stop,” he held his hands out.

  “Answers, then,” she said. “Now.”

  “I’m here to help you, obviously. Otherwise I coulda blown your head off with ease.”

  “I’m worth more alive than dead to some.”

  “So you are, but I’m here to protect you, not kill you.”

  “So you aren’t just some local goon then,” she said. “You’ve got five…four…”

  “The Old Man sent me, alright?” he said.

  “No, he didn’t.” She tightened her grip on her knives. “He hates being called that, plus, your time is up.”

  “Whoa whoa whoa!” he said.

  “Hey, Eja,” Jace said, and Katrijn almost forgot that it was supposed to be her name now. “Why don’t we at least listen to the man.”

  “Krios there is right, you know, uh,” he paused briefly, “Eja?”

  “Yeah, I am,” he kept focused on the man. “Although knowing my name doesn’t seem like a good sign. Did Jol’or send you?”

  “No,” he said. “You are lucky he didn’t send me because you two sure made a mess back there. Who do you think had to clean that shit up?”

  “Enough of this funny guy stuff already,” Kat said.

  “Alright, calm down,” he said. “I may have gone about this the wrong way, but after missing that rendezvous with you a while back, the Old Man kept me on the case, and told me to follow you here and track you down.”

  “How do I know that you don’t work for Cronus?”

  “Because I work for your uncle, Kat,” he said. “If you let me reach into my pocket I can pull up a direct connection to him and confirm it, alright?”

  “Fine.” She pulled her knife back and tugged him up by his shirt, pressing him up against the wall. “Jace, keep him in your sights.”

  “Thanks,” he said, looking relieved. “Although I’m not sure he needs to be pointing that thing at me; I’ve seen your shot, man, it ain’t great. A warning shot from you will probably melt my face off.”

  “No shit,” Jace said. “But until she says otherwise, this gun is pointed at you.”

  “Fair enough, I guess.” He pulled a holoscanner out from his pocket, presenting it to Kat. “See, just a holoscanner, no tricks.”

  “No tricks,” she nodded.

  “Alright, let me just pull this up and…” He paused, cursing under his breath. “No no, just give me a second, maybe something is just—damnit!”

  “What’s wrong?” Jace asked, taking one step in.

  “Connection to O’Neil’s private terminal is being denied.” He was beginning to sweat. “Not just the usual, but something is wrong.”

  “There’s a lot wrong,” she said. “From my brother dissolving the Senate to you following us.”

  “You gotta believe me.” He was starting to look panicked. “The Old Man sent me, just, I can’t reach him. He told me he’d call, though, in a few days.”

  “Sounds like stalling to me.” She moved the knife toward his neck.

  “No, you gotta believe me,” he flinched. “I’ve seen what you can do with that thing, be careful with it.”

  “Ha, fat chance,” Jace said. “Getting her to listen to an order?”

  “Look, I know you’ve been through a lot, but you gotta believe me.” The man kept his eye on Katrijn’s blade. “The fact that I can’t get through to him right now is just as bad for you as it is for me. I gotta assume that you two wanna talk to the Old Man, I know you aren’t going back to Cyngen with Jol’or on the hunt for you, plus that stunt you played with their defense grid probably pissed off a lot more than just him.”

  “Yeah, that was a pretty great move,” Jace boasted, still favoring his side. “Wasn’t it?”

  “So that was you, then?” he said. “I dug it,
man. It’s the kind of crazy that those Cymages don’t think about.”

  “Well thank you.” Jace turned to Kat, grinning wide. “At least someone respects my genius.”

  “Whatever,” she said, “I still don’t trust this guy.”

  “It’s Loren, by the way,” he said. “Nobody ever asked or anything, but it’s Loren, Loren Jones.”

  “Well, Loren,” she emphasized his name. “I still don’t see a reason to trust you.”

  “Look,” he said, “the Old Man said he’d call and he’ll call, just give it time. Shit is fucked up back home, you know that as well as I do. They all think you are dead and your brother has gone even more nuts, if that is even possible. He’ll call.”

  “I’m not sure I trust him either,” Jace interrupted. “But by the look of things afternoon prayer is letting out and having a gun and knife on Loren in broad daylight isn’t the best idea.”

  “This is broad daylight?” Loren looked up, still careful with Kat’s knife resting against his neck. “This is pretty dim if you ask me.”

  “It’s a dim planet,” she sighed, pulling her knife off of his neck and sliding it into the hilt by her back. “But he’s right, we should get off the streets and back to our room.”

  014. The Cold Night

  O’Neil

  Out of everything on Andlios, his personal garden that he had tended to since he took up residence inside the palace was what O’Neil would miss the most. His original garden on the Omega Destiny was difficult to leave, but the idea of his own garden planted in actual soil had excited him too much to be overly upset about leaving it behind. Initially, he had a garden in the cobbled together shantytown of Speera, the first settlement created for a select few from the Omega Destiny, but everything about Speera felt like a fever dream at this point. Even though Speera itself still stood in the same place, it had become much more than old parts of the Omega Destiny bulkhead with tarps hastily thrown over them for walls. Now it was a living, breathing city and that garden, much like his tiny one on the ship, was long since gone. The garden in the palace had become his passion, though, the only remnant of his past life that remained for him. There were no children to worry about, his ex-wife Jeanette had returned to Earth with the Fourth Fleet and he never found the right way to talk to Dr. Susan Brandis. Perhaps that was still the greatest regret of his life.