by M. R. Forbes
“What message?” Abbey said.
24
“Coordinates, Queenie,” Ruby said, projecting the image Olus had sent. “To a system near the edge of the Outworlds.”
They were in the Faust’s CIC, on the way back to the Brimstone. Machina Four was a quickly fading memory, though Abbey was sure Gilliam was calling in to Thraven right now to tell him that they had gotten away.
Or maybe not. Was the Skink smart enough to know how the Gloritant would reward failure?
She looked at the image. She had asked him to recover the data from the mainframe, even if it was all ones and zeros, and he had returned this instead. It could only mean one thing. Thraven had set her up and gotten her sent to Hell to keep her in reserve, to hold her so she could crack the wipe on the box if none of his other people were able. He had sent Clyo to give her the Gift to make her easier to control and had sent her down a path that had led all the way to here.
And now?
It was all for nothing. Thraven had gotten what he wanted without her. He had sent Mr. Davis, Evolent Ruche, back to Earth with the evidence, and the asshole had managed to find someone to crack it. Who? Another Breaker? Someone from the OSI? A genius hacker from outside the system? As long as Thraven didn’t know where Kett was, they had a chance to find the General first and make him help with the assault on Kell. They had a chance to take Thraven by surprise and make a mess of his plans.
Not anymore. Damn it.
Thraven was going to follow the coordinates to the Bain System. He was going to use the Fire and the other converted ships to destroy the General’s base, to kill any last vestige of a potential uprising from the only organized force in the galaxy who wasn’t compromised by the Nephilim in some way.
And it had come down to nothing more than time. Another few days, and maybe Olus would have gotten her the data and she would have cracked it first. Another few days, and maybe they would have arrived at Kett’s base and led him and his forces on their first sortie in this new war. Another few days, and maybe they could have ended the threat before it got too far out of orbit, destroying the rising fleet and maybe even destroying the Fire and the Brimstone and freeing all of the poor souls being used to power them.
Instead? She wasn’t sure what instead was going to look like yet.
She wasn’t giving up. She wasn’t giving in. She wasn’t going to change sides. She knew that much. The big things didn’t seem to be going their way, but what did she expect? They were a crew of criminals and outcasts and mercenaries. They were the scum of the galaxy, and it was the cream that was supposed to rise to the top.
“The Bain System,” Benhil said. “Uninhabited. Why would he suggest we go there?”
“Are you sure it’s uninhabited?” Abbey asked.
“As sure as I can be. You know the Outworlds. Could be someone terraformed a rock there and didn’t tell anyone.”
“Not someone,” Abbey said. “General Sylvan Kett.”
Jequn’s head whipped in her direction. “What?”
“I’m sorry, Cherub. I had Ruby ask Captain Mann to find the mainframe I took from Gradin. I used the terminal back in Steel Town to trace it to the asshole who put me away, a guy named Davis. It turns out he’s an Evolent, like the bitch who attacked me on Drune. He has the Gift. Anyway, he took the computer back to Earth, and I assume someone finally got it restored.”
“You were trying to find the General,” Jequn said. “Why?”
“You know why. I told you I do things on my terms. He’s going to help us invade Kell, one way or another.”
“You would have wasted time finding him instead of launching your attack?”
“What attack?” Gant said. “We have lots of guns now, but not nearly enough individuals to hold them.”
“Excuse me,” Phlenel said. “I will require a debriefing.”
“You’ll get it,” Abbey promised. She glared at Jequn. “I’m not playing Kett’s game. Like Gant said, I need soldiers. He has soldiers. According to you, he’s been collecting quite a few.”
“A small force could infiltrate the base on Kell and place charges on the ships,” Jequn said.
“Bullshit,” Benhil said. “An entire fleet? We found some heavy explosives in Sam’s cache, sure, but who would carry it all? Pik’s big, but he’s not that big.”
“And I’m not a fragging pack grangig either,” he said.
“Queenie, I told you before, General Kett and his units are all we have. If we waste them in a futile attack, the whole galaxy might collapse.”
“The whole galaxy is collapsing,” Bastion said. “I didn’t want to believe it either, but it’s impossible to ignore. We go to Orunel; we get attacked. We go to Anvil; we get attacked. We go to fragging Machina Four, guess what? We get attacked.”
“And there’s at least one Evolent on Earth,” Abbey said. “Along with a Republic Armed Services Committee under Thraven’s control. He’s been laying this foundation for longer than most of us have been alive, and now he’s making his move. We can’t screw around hoping to get to the final battle and keeping our forces in reserve until we do. We have to fight one fight at a time, use everything we’ve got, and hope for the best. And by the way, you might be a descendent of a Seraphim, but you aren’t in charge of a fragging thing, and as far as I’m concerned, your kind have been pretty much useless for the last ten-thousand years. You don’t get to decide.”
Jequn’s eyes narrowed, and she glowered at Abbey. She also didn’t continue the argument.
“We do have to make a decision, Queenie,” Gant said. “We know Gloritant Thraven will send a force to the Bain System to confront General Kett. The odds are pretty good that he’ll spearhead that assault. If he does, there won’t be much we can do to stop him. On the other hand, if Gloritant Thraven is in the Bain System, he won’t be on Kell.”
“Meaning their defenses will be weakened,” Benhil said. “I don’t know. That might be the way to go.”
“Lose Kett to destroy Kell?” Pik said. “I thought you just said we couldn't carry that much explosives?”
“We might not have to. If Kell is clear of the Fire and any of the ships like her, we can bombard the fleet from space.”
“Except Nerd said we only have two torpedoes left,” Abbey said. “What are we going to bombard the surface with? And, if Kett and his people die, even if we win on Kell, then what? We’ll be completely on our own.”
“We’re already on our own,” Bastion said. “We’ve been that way since Mann pulled us off Hell. And speaking for myself, I think I’ve done pretty fragging well so far.”
“I heard you’re only alive because she saved you,” Pik said, pointing at Jequn.
“Well, I mean, of course, I had a little help.”
“Queenie, didn’t you suggest we must fight each fight?” Phlenel said. “That statement would indicate that we should adjust for the approach that would offer the best chance of success with an individual goal. In the case of this decision, trying to help the allied force has a much lower potential for victory.”
Bastion laughed. “I didn’t understand half of what jello mold over there just said, but I agree with her. We need to go to Kell. Kett doesn’t want to help? Frag him.”
“Jello mold?” Phlenel asked through the bot.
“What if we could get to Kett before Thraven?” Ruby said. “What if we could evacuate the forces there before he arrived?”
Abbey looked at Jequn again. “You really can’t reach him via communicator? Not even to warn him about this?”
“No. I wish that I could. I know you don’t want my opinion, Queenie, but there is something you should know.”
Abbey wasn’t sure she wanted to ask, but she did. “What?”
“Thraven won’t bombard the base from orbit, even if he can. He’ll want General Kett.”
“Why?”
“General Kett knows the location of the Focus.”
“Who cares?” Bastion said.
“If Th
raven gets the Focus, he’ll have the remaining Blood of the Shard, and all of the naniates within. He will be able to use it to power the Elysium Gate.”
“And return to his universe,” Bastion said. “Sounds delightful to me.”
“Do you think he’ll just leave this one alone?” Jequn asked. “You’re a fool if you do.”
“A fool?” Bastion said, indignant.
“She’s right,” Abbey said. “The only way we can stop Thraven is by keeping him from getting what he wants. If he doesn't destroy the site from space, we have a chance to get in and get Kett out.”
“A slim chance,” Bastion said, holding his fingers up, barely apart. “Like this much of a chance.”
“We can split up,” Pik said. “Some of us can go to Bain, and some of us can go to Kell.”
“Try not to hurt yourself by thinking,” Bastion replied. “Queenie just said we need more bodies. Splitting up is the opposite of that.”
“But if we can use the Brimstone against the defenses around Kell while the Fire is gone, we can clear a path for the reinforcements,” Pik insisted. “And if the ships on the ground are offline, maybe we can use the starfighters we just picked up to deliver the explosives and knock them out. At least some of them.”
“Kell is nearly eighteen hours away from the Bain System,” Ruby said. “It would be a long wait for reinforcements.”
“Nah,” Pik said. “We just need to get the timing right. We can do it. I know we can. Hell, I’ll go down there and bust some heads myself. I want this whole fragging thing over so I can go back to Tro and find a wife.”
“I thought you were afraid of Trover women?” Benhil said.
“Every Trover male is afraid of Trover females,” Pik replied. “That doesn’t mean we don’t want one of our own. What do you say, Queenie?”
All eyes turned to Abbey. She met each of them in turn. This wasn’t a decision she wanted to make, but it was her crew and her call.
“I don’t want to split us up again,” she said. “But want has nothing to do with it. The way I see it, it’s us against the universe right now. And I mean the whole universe. The Outworlds are ignorant. The Republic is compromised. The Seraphim are out of touch, and the Nephilim want to kill us. We only have one another. And the galaxy, all of this galaxy, is depending on us.”
She paused, looking down at the floor. If there was ever going to be a time for the truth, it was now.
“Jester, Bastion, Pik, Gant, I need to tell you something.”
“Queenie,” Ruby said.
“No,” Abbey replied. “This bullshit has gone far enough. We can’t go any further based on lies.”
“What do you mean?” Benhil said.
“You know that Captain Mann gave me the codes to trigger the kill switches Ruby inserted in your brains back on Feru?”
“Yeah?” Bastion said.
“He didn’t give me anything.”
Bastion and Pik looked at one another, confused. Benhil made a face like he was just as lost.
Gant barked in laughter. “I was wondering when you were going to tell them.”
“Tell us what?” Bastion said. “I don’t get it.”
“There are no codes, you nitwit,” Gant said. “There is no implant. No virus. There never was.”
“You knew?” Abbey said. “The entire fragging time?”
Gant kept laughing. “Not the entire time. It took me a few days to build a scanner to look inside my head. My original intention was to find a way to remove it.”
“You didn’t say anything.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I go where you go, Queenie. That’s how I work. And even if you had known before Feru, you would have stayed. That’s how you work.”
“Frag me,” Bastion said. “So, you’re saying we’re free to go?”
Abbey looked at him and nodded. “I can’t stop you. Well, I could kill you, I suppose. But that wouldn’t help anything.”
“You lied to us,” Benhil said, getting angry. “You let us keep thinking we were going to die if we stuck around. Frag, we went back to Feru to save his ass because we thought we were going to die otherwise.”
“I did what I had to do,” Abbey said, staying calm. “The same as Olus did what he had to do. Do you remember what he said after he got us out of Hell? Just because we’re free doesn’t mean we’re innocent. We owe a debt to the innocent people of the Republic for not upholding the oath we made to protect them.”
“Bullshit,” Benhil said. “I don’t owe anybody a damn thing.” He looked at Bastion. “You’re with me, right?”
Bastion still looked lost. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I do,” Pik said. He looked at Abbey. “I don’t care. You’ve always had my back, Queenie. I’ve got yours.”
Abbey smiled. “Thank you, Pik.”
“Fragging traitor,” Benhil said.
“Benhil, you asked Olus about contacting your family,” Abbey said. “I assume that means you still have one?”
“Yeah.”
“Where do you think they’re going to be a month from now? Where do you think you’re going to be?”
He sighed. “I know what you’re saying, Queenie. I do. But if we’re going to lose anyway, I want to see them one more time before we do.”
“Or you can stay here and try to save them, and maybe we won’t lose. You’re an explosives expert. We could use that right now.”
“Shit. It’s not personal, Queenie. Not really. I mean, I’m pissed at you for lying, but I can sort of see why you did, and I know I owe you because of Sam.”
“I’m with you, Queenie,” Bastion said, interrupting. “On one condition.”
“What’s that?” Abbey asked.
“I’m taking you to Bain. I’m flying you in, and I’m flying you out.”
Abbey shook her head. “I need you to fly one of the Devils. We don’t have another pilot as good as you.”
“That’s the deal. I’m not making the same mistake a second time. I’m not losing another member of my team because I wasn’t there.”
“Fine,” Abbey said. She couldn’t argue with that. “Thank you, Bastion.”
He nodded. He looked like he was going to cry. “Since I’m getting all blubbery already, I want you to know. I hated you all when Olus got us out. But that was then, and this is now. I don’t have any family out there. All the family I’ve got is right here. That includes you, freak-monkey.”
For once, Gant didn’t get mad. “Any friend of Abbey’s is a friend of mine, even if that friend is a loudmouthed moron.”
“It looks like I get left out in the cold again,” Benhil said. “Will I ever stop looking like King Asshole?”
“You’re more like the royal fool,” Bastion said.
“And every Queen needs a Jester,” Abbey added. “Does that mean you’re in?”
Benhil nodded. “I’m probably going to regret it when I’m dead, but yeah. I’m in. Once a Reject, always a Reject, I guess.”
“Group hug?” Pik suggested.
“Uh, no,” Gant said.
“I don’t think so,” Benhil said.
“I’m going to go help Nerd dock us to the Brimstone,” Bastion said.
“I need to oil my bot,” Phlenel said.
“I’ll help,” Jequn volunteered.
“You all aren’t funny,” Pik said.
“Yes, we are,” Bastion countered, disappearing into the cockpit.
Abbey walked over to Pik. “Just don’t crush me,” she said, putting her arms out.
He laughed as he wrapped his big arms around her, squeezing gently.
“We’re going to die, aren’t we, Queenie?” he asked.
“Not if I can help it,” she replied.
“I know you’ll do your best. But as long as I get to die doing something good, I can handle that.”
Abbey wished she could say the same. She couldn’t. Not when Hayley’s future wa
s at stake.
Winning was the only outcome she was willing to accept.
Whatever it took.
25
Olus could barely stand by the time his ride reached the closest access point to the Museum that was still open to the public. The meds Dilixix had given him had worn off and left him in a pretty bad state, his heart thumping and his head spinning, to go with his difficulties maintaining balance. He had no idea how he was going to stop whatever Davis was planning from taking place like this.
He was glad the Plixian had given him a few extra shots.
He dumped another pair of pills into his hand, looking at them hesitantly. He needed to be conservative with them. The first pair had lasted about twenty minutes, and he was still a ten minute walk away. And even once he reached the front of the Museum, he would need to find a way in. Security might have let him past yesterday, before he had become almost as much of a fugitive as Abbey and the other Rejects. There was no way that would happen now.
Not unless he did something underhanded.
He was okay with that.
He kept the pills in his hand and started walking, joining the individuals who were being shunted around the path near the Museum, making his way closer to the site one shaky step at a time. The event was supposed to begin at nine, and it was already eight-thirty. He knew from experience if something bad were going to go down it would happen right away, not at the tail end of the night. Violence had a tendency to be impatient. He could only hope that one of the Council members arrived late and delayed the proceedings for a few minutes, buying him time to figure out Davis’ play.
He thought about Zoey and Gyo as he walked. Forty years ago, he wouldn’t have registered his part in their deaths at all. He was nothing but a machine back then. A killing machine. An elite assassin. Time behind a desk had changed him. Time with a team. Time learning about them and caring about them. He had done what he thought he had to do, but he still hated himself for it. He still felt responsible for them. He couldn’t bring them back to life, but he could make sure they hadn’t died for nothing. It drove him to keep moving, to keep going even when his body was telling him it was done.