Shadow Agents

by David Alastair Hayden

  It wasn’t dying that scared him. Death was inevitable. There was no shame in a good death.

  But losing Silky… The chance of going through the rest of his life, however brief, without his best friend, his mentor, his surrogate father… Siv couldn’t handle that. It was too much to bear.

  “I am, in fact, invoking the override, sir.”

  Siv took in a deep breath then exhaled. “Okay.”

  “You’re not going to fight me on it, sir?”

  “I promised you I wouldn’t.”

  “You promise a lot of things, sir. But you still always try to argue.”

  “Not this time, Silkster. I don’t want to disappoint Kyralla and Oona, and I hate the idea of abandoning a mission, but I just don’t think I can go on. It’s too much.”

  “Wonders never cease, sir.”

  “What does Mitsuki think about it? Have you asked her.”

  “I have, sir. She doesn’t like quitting either. But she’s finding it hard to argue when the odds are so stacked against us. And she did agree to the terms as well.”

  He turned to Mitsuki. “I guess that’s it, huh?”

  She nodded but wouldn’t meet his eyes.

  “I’ve connected to the Outworld Ranger,” Silky said with excitement. “Launching Spy-Fly 01 and patching you through so we can video chat with everyone.”

  The tiny drone hovered in front of Siv and Mitsuki and beamed its camera feed through Silky to the Outworld Ranger. Meanwhile, a view of the entire bridge ship opened up within a window in Siv’s HUD.

  The first thing that caught his attention was the fairly young man he’d never seen before sitting at the sensor station. He had wild, white hair. Burns, scrapes, grease, and soot-covered him.

  “Siv,” Kyralla said with eagerness. A warmth spread through him. “Thank god you’re alive. Both of you.”

  “Just barely,” Siv answered. “Did Silky catch you up on what happened to us?”

  “He hasn’t said anything yet,” Bishop answered.

  When Siv’s eyes fell to Bishop, who was sitting in the command chair, Siv cringed. The gizmet had his arm in a sling, and he looked as if a gang of thugs had beaten him up. A pale, orange starkat lay curled in Bishop’s lap.

  “What the hell happened to you?” Mitsuki asked.

  “It’s a long story,” Bishop answered.

  “And who the hell is this guy?” she countered.

  “Part of the long story,” Kyralla answered.

  “I don’t see Oona,” Siv said. “Is she okay?”

  “We don’t know,” Kyralla replied. “She’s been catatonic for a while now. We’re just waiting…and hoping.”

  “I’m Tekeru Jones,” the man said. “I’m an assistant professor at the University of Stygia.”

  “What the hell have you all done to my ship?” Silky growled over the comm.

  “Your ship?” Bishop asked with surprise.

  “Our ship,” Silky responded with irritation. “I just completed a thorough analysis of all the damage. And I’m not happy! Not at all. Even the ship’s cog is beaten up. What the hell?!”

  No one answered. Probably because, unlike Siv, they had never heard Silky angry before. No jokes, no one-liners and snarky asides. Just raw anger.

  “I see,” Silky said, restraint beginning to hold back his anger. “Thank you for enlightening me, Artemisia. Kyralla, well done on the piloting. Mr. Jones, welcome aboard. Karson Bishop, sir, you have my deepest respect. That will go down in history as one of the most brilliant of all insane schemes ever. If I had hands, I would applaud you.”

  Silky’s voice deepened back to raw anger. “With that said, all of you are incredibly stupid for putting yourself in that situation in the first place. Spare me any arguments you might make. I’m disgusted with you all. Silky out.”

  As everyone on the bridge stared wide-eyed at the viewscreen, Siv tried to smile apologetically. “So, maybe you should tell us what happened.”

  He listened attentively as Kyralla and Bishop recounted their attempt to save the crew of the damaged research vessel, how they fought off a pirate vessel, how Oona bonded with the ship, and then how they narrowly escaped a World Bleeders’ destroyer and three starfighters.

  Mitsuki grinned like a starkat who’d killed twice as much prey as she could eat. “Siv, little Bishy-Bish is one of us. How about that?”

  Siv chuckled. “That he is, Mits.”

  “One of you?” Bishop asked. “What does that mean?”

  “That you’re batshit crazy when it comes to getting the job done,” Mitsuki answered.

  The gizmet frowned. “Huh.”

  “It’s a compliment,” Siv told him.

  Artemisia then recounted the damage the ship had sustained during the encounter. That was more than discouraging, and an unexpected fire of protectiveness erupted within Siv. They had nearly gotten themselves killed, and they had damaged his dad’s ship.

  “That was reckless,” Siv said with unintended anger.

  Kyralla dropped her eyes.

  “Sorry,” Bishop whispered.

  “I get it,” he said, softening his tone.

  “I would tell you what you did was foolish,” Mitsuki said. “But what’s the point? Besides, it was the right thing to do. I might not have done it, maybe, but I get why you felt you had to.”

  Siv sighed. “And what’s done is done.”

  “How have you fared?” Bishop asked. “I’m guessing not well given how exhausted you look and the burns on your clothing.”

  They told them about Vega Kaleeb chasing them, how they had almost lost Silky, and everything else that had happened.

  “While we may be dead,” Siv said, “there will be many others like him. None as individually dangerous, of course.”

  “We’ve got a way to Titus II,” Mitsuki said quietly. “But…things won’t be any easier there.”

  Kyralla glanced around the bridge. After eyeing Tekeru Jones then Bishop, she took a deep breath and sighed painfully. “I can’t ask you to go any further. Not even to save my dad. The risk is too great.”

  “We agree,” Siv said with as much kindness as he could manage, to soften the blow. “Mitsuki and I gave Silky an override, a chance to call off the mission if it was too dangerous, no matter what information your father might have.”

  “I would rather continue,” Mitsuki said. “But Silky is right. And it’s not just that the risk is too great for the reward. It just seems impossible to pull off.”

  “Part of me is willing to press on,” Siv told them. “But…but honestly, I’m not sure it’s worth it. I know that’s a rotten thing to say, Kyra, when your father’s life hangs in the balance, but…”

  “I understand,” she said softly.

  “I think we should all be together on the Outworld Ranger anyway,” Mitsuki said.

  “Strength in numbers,” Kyralla said. “I can agree about that. I’m in way over my head here. We almost lost everything.”

  “So that’s it then?” Bishop asked.

  Kyralla nodded. “We’ll leave my dad on Titus II, for better or for worse and…and hope that he can escape somehow.” As a few tears rolled down her cheeks, she gazed down at the console. “Assuming…that he’s still…alive.”

  Siv wished he could hold her hands and tell something…anything…that would make her feel better. But what could he say other than he’d been powerless to save his own father and understood her anguish?

  He’d so hoped he could do for them what he’d been unable to do for himself.

  His eyes teared up as well. “I wanted to save him for you…and for Oona. But I just don’t think that we can. And even then…”

  “It’s not really worth it,” Kyralla said, half sobbing. “I love my dad, and I want to see him safe. But he is only one man, while the fate of the entire galaxy lies with my sister. She has to be my priority. That’s something he told me many times. I think it’s time for me to heed his words. Oona won’t understand, of course. But I think
we’re all in agreement on this, right?”

  “We are,” Mitsuki whispered.

  Siv nodded. “I don’t think we have any other choice. The risk is too great. We need to stick together.”

  “I…I agree,” Bishop said.

  Silky didn’t voice an opinion, but he didn’t need to. He hadn’t said a thing to Siv since his tirade.

  “Then it’s settled,” Siv said. “We just need to arrange a way to—”

  “No!” Oona cried as she ran onto the bridge breathless. “You don’t understand. We have to go on! We have to rescue my dad!”

  “Oona, are you okay?” Kyralla asked.

  She waved a hand dismissively. “I’m fine.”

  “Oona,” Siv said kindly. “The reason we—”

  She interrupted him. “Artemisia told me what you’d decided and why. But we can’t give up. We absolutely have to find my dad.”

  “Oona, I want to save him just as much as you,” Kyralla said. “But we’ve all almost died, and you know he wouldn’t want that, especially when we’re not even certain he’s—”

  Oona shook her head. “You don’t understand. The important information he has—”

  “We’ve been over that,” Mitsuki said with irritation.

  “No, we haven’t. Because it’s not just any information,” Oona told her. “He found the location of the secret genetics research facility every messiah family has searched for.”

  “He discovered the facility?” Kyralla asked with excitement. “Are you sure? Did you have a vision?”

  “Yes. I’m absolutely certain. After I disconnected from the ship I…I saw it, and then I heard him, I heard dad.”

  Oona recounted the dream for them.

  “Tell us again exactly what you saw,” Silky said, his voice filled with awe. “Every detail. Leave nothing out.”

  Oona did as he asked.

  “Now, describe the orb to me again,” Silky said.

  “I’ll do my best.”

  She went over it again, but apparently, there wasn’t much to say. As far as she could tell them, it had been nothing more than a large, glowing ball hovering within a dark chamber.

  “Did you hear anything?” Silky asked.

  “Other than my dad’s voice at the end, no.”

  “How did you feel in its presence?”

  “Inspired and…and a little afraid, honestly. I sensed that it was the most important thing in the universe. Though why I have no idea.”

  “And you think the orb is there?” Silky asked.

  “I know it is,” she answered. “Without a doubt.”

  “Amazing,” he muttered. “Just amazing…”

  “Silkster, do you know what this orb is?” Siv asked.

  “It’s something I did not think existed, sir. I never would have even dreamed of the possibility.”

  “And…” Mitsuki prompted after Silky remained silent for nearly a minute.

  “And that is all I will say about it.”

  “For now?” Siv asked.

  “Until we reach that facility, yes.”

  “Why?” Oona asked. “Tell me. I need to know what it was.”

  “I can’t tell you. If any of you were to get captured and interrogated, you might reveal what it is. Just knowing that it exists is bad enough. The Dark Messiah, for instance, would know exactly what it is from that description, just as I did. Vega Kaleeb would have known what it was as well.”

  “Since your spirit traveled there, do you know how to get to that moon without the need for your father?” Mitsuki asked.

  “Sorry, but I have no idea,” Oona asked. “All I can say is that it’s very, very far away from here.”

  “Well, if we’re going to go to the facility,” Siv said, “then that means we’ll have to continue the rescue mission.”

  “I believe we must,” Silky replied. “Sir, I rescind my override. We must go to that facility. Whatever the risks may be. Nothing could be more important. The existence of that orb changes everything.”

  48

  Vega Kaleeb

  With help from Faisal, Vega heaved a steel beam aside and clawed his way free from the wreckage. The top five floors of the factory warehouse had collapsed into one another, and he was lucky they hadn’t brought the entire building down with them. He might not have survived that.

  He stood and tried to take a step, but something snagged his leg, keeping him in place. He glanced down and growled in disgust. A narrow strip of metal, torn from another beam beneath him, had pierced through the meat of his calf before twisting on the end so he couldn’t pull it free without causing more damage. He hadn’t known about it because he’d disabled his pain receptors.

  “Damn it.”

  He began to reach down, but Faisal zipped over. “I’ve got it, boss. Save your strength.”

  The sky-blade floated down to examine the metal strip, then projected a laser tool from his bottom section. The instrument was designed for cutting more than killing, not that Faisal wouldn’t use it for that purpose if he felt like it. Faisal’s typical use for the laser was to make a wounded victim suffer before extinguishing them.

  “Hold still, boss. I’m going to cut it as close to your leg as possible to prevent further damage to your tissues.”

  “Just get it done,” Vega snapped.

  Tiny bits of debris along with a cloud of dust still rained around them.

  Vega could barely restrain his anger and was more than ready to return to the hunt. Unfortunately, he was in no shape to do so. Since his narrow escape from Terra during the final days of the Benevolence, Vega had been in more than a few tough scrapes. But in the last hundred years, he’d never come so close to death as this. And in his two centuries of existence, he had never been so humiliated.

  For the second time in a century, Faisal had saved Vega’s life. The moment before the first propane tank exploded, Faisal had bounced over to land in front of Vega, shouting a warning. Vega had heard him, but there was little he could do about it.

  The plasma shot to his temple had blasted through what force field he had left, pierced his helmet, and burned through his synth-flesh, stopping only when it struck his titanium-encased skull. The concussive force of that skull-strike had sent his vision swimming, his ears ringing, and worst of all, it had temporarily knocked out his central control system. It was the android equivalent of being knocked out, only he was aware of precisely what was happening.

  The moment the plasma bolt had struck him, before it effectively rendered him unconscious, Vega enacted an emergency protocol allowing Faisal access to his systems. It was a risky move, since Silky was nearby, but, given that Reel could’ve kept firing her carbine into him, he’d figured he was about to die.

  Faisal had maxed out his shields, extending them to help protect Vega’s head and torso. Then he took over Vega’s control system. He performed an immediate override on three different safety measures, rerouting all the power from the jetpack and draining Vega’s heart down to one percent. Then he poured all of that energy into Vega’s force field, reactivating it.

  Faisal angled the field so most of it was directed toward the blast, and it extended just as the fiery shockwave rushed onto them.

  The sudden drain on his heart, coupled with the shock of the blast rendered him fully unconscious, for the first time in his life.

  He had awoken half an hour later, buried beneath the five floors of rubble. Massive dents and hairline fractures marred his skeleton-casing. A chunk of stone had fractured his hand, and a steel beam cracked his breastplate open, shattering five metal-encased ribs. He was lucky not to have been crushed to death.

  Instead of killing him, though, the thankfully fireproof rubble had saved him, shielding him from the raging flames above. The heat from that fire, however, had started to blister the skin on his unprotected face.

  His flickering HUD showed firefighter cogs working to put out the blaze. Unfortunately, it also showed dedicated firefighter, police, and medical teams only
minutes away. He needed to get free and out of the area before the authorities arrived.

  Red warning lights flared on Vega’s HUD. But there was nothing he could about it.

  Once the debris stopped falling and the red warning lights flashing in his HUD calmed down, he and Faisal had started clearing off the rubble.

  But they hadn’t gotten him free in time to avoid the authorities. The half-demolished building was surrounded by first responders. A cacophony of competing sirens filled the air, and Vega’s HUD showed even more on their way.

  Metal clanged as Faisal finished cutting through the piece of metal piercing Vega’s calf. He reached down, ripped the strip free, and then stumbled away, heading toward the stairs.

  “Now that you’re free, boss, I’m going after them.”

  Faisal began to zip away, but Vega stopped him. “Wait!”

  “Don’t worry, boss. I’ll take them by surprise!”

  “How much power do you have left?”

  “Enough to carve them up,” Faisal replied harshly.

  “And if Silky has another trick up his sleeve?”

  Faisal hovered in front of him, sparks flaring off his surface. “That chippy will not beat me again!”

  “Faisal, he’s your equal, and he spent years operating in the field. Don’t underestimate him.”

  “Boss, do you want me to quit our partnership? Cause you’re pissing me off mightily.”

  “I want you to help me get to the ship so we can regroup and take them on properly. No mistakes. No half-measures. I want to take them down for certain. And I don’t want to lose you in the process.”

  Faisal bobbed along silently as Vega started limping down the staircase, his busted armor clattered with each step. He’d made it down to the second floor before his companion finally responded.

  “You’re right,” he whispered. “But if you ever compare me to that chippy again, or even mention us in the same breath, then—”

  “I won’t. I promise. Now help me figure out how to get past this mass of firefighters and police gathering out on the street.”

  “There’s no way you’re getting out of here with a fight, looking how you look, boss. A building mysteriously blows up and an armored man walks out, the police are going to arrest you first and then ask questions.”