Lost Planet 02 - The Stolen Moon

by Searles, Rachel

  Lilli nodded, and an identical copy appeared, very briefly, sitting on the desk beside her. She shrugged. “Practice.”

  It was fascinating and horrible at the same time. “Why didn’t you tell me? This whole time I thought you were safe with us.”

  Lilli lowered her eyes. “I never thought you’d find out. None of us knew this was going to happen when we left the Kuyddestor. And then once things started going really bad, I just thought you’d be mad, and worried.”

  “Of course I’m worried!” Chase exploded. “You’re trapped on a ship that’s been hijacked!” He turned to Mina. “Will you tell Asa she’s here now? We need to go back to the Kuyddestor immediately.” Mina inclined her head slightly, which Chase took for an affirmative.

  Parker stared at Lilli with a kind of fascination. “So where are you?”

  She hesitated. “What?”

  “On the ship. You have to tell us where you’re hiding. You have to.”

  “Oh.” Lilli’s face started to close again, the familiar guarded expression, and Chase realized she was in the place that had been her hiding spot on the ship for the past three months.

  He stepped toward her. “We need to know where you are, Lilli. How are we supposed to help you if you don’t trust us?”

  She ducked her head and spoke in a tiny voice. “There’s a crawl space in the walls next to Uncle Lionel’s—the captain’s apartment. You can only get to it by climbing up a duct that looks like a dead end. Not even your girlfriend knows how to find it.”

  Heat flushed across Chase’s cheeks. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

  “Isn’t she your friend? Who’s a girl?” Unbelievably, a tiny smirk tugged at the corner of Lilli’s mouth.

  The teasing only added to his frustration. “Why did you need to hide? You could have done your practice from anywhere. What was the point of hiding all the time?”

  She looked away, and it seemed for a second like she wasn’t going to answer, but in a quiet voice she said, “I feel safer there.”

  “Well you’re not safe now, are you? Guess it didn’t work.” Lilli recoiled from his words, and immediately Chase felt guilty for saying them. Because they never spoke about what had happened to Lilli—because they never spoke at all—he still had no idea how deep the damage from her past went. It was something they needed to work on. If they got the chance.

  The door behind Asa’s desk slid open. His bright blue eyes locked immediately on Lilli and he strode right up to her with a ferocious look in his eyes. “Is this some kind of trick? Where are you?”

  She seemed to shrink before him. “I’m on the Kuyddestor.”

  “Prove it.” He took her by the arm. “Prove you’re not actually hiding here and trying to trick me into returning to the Fleet.”

  Lilli vanished off the desk, leaving him holding air, and reappeared simultaneously beside Chase. “Good enough for you?”

  The same greedy look came over Asa that Chase had seen when he’d phased through the table. “You could be doing that from anywhere. How do I know you’re not somewhere besides the Kuyddestor?”

  “Is that a risk you’re willing to take?” asked Lilli with a hint of her old fierceness. “Anyway, you’ll find out in about five minutes if you don’t turn your ship around. I can’t keep up this distance much longer.”

  “Hey, is that blood on your shirt?” asked Parker, pointing at bright stains around Asa’s cuffs. “Did you just murder someone?”

  Asa turned his glare on Parker. “No. You’ll be happy to know that my associate saw fit to bring the injured Fleet soldiers aboard my ship.”

  “Maurus is here?” asked Chase with cautious relief. This had to be Ksenia’s work. Whether Asa had sent a shuttle for her too or she’d figured out her own escape, she must have gone looking for Chase and the others at the mineworks and found Maurus and Vidal there instead. “Are they okay?”

  “One of them is nearly dead,” Asa said. “The others are fine.”

  Chase’s stomach dropped. “Take us to see them.”

  “No. We’ll try to return them to their ship when we go back for your sister, and should that fail, we’ll jettison them somewhere.”

  “Jettison like shoot into space?” asked Parker sharply.

  Asa gave him a flat look. “In an escape shuttle, with an emergency beacon. Better?”

  “Take us to see them now,” said Chase. “If you don’t, I’ll just walk right through that door and go anyway.”

  “Show me,” commanded Asa, pointing to the door behind his desk. “Show me how you do it and I’ll take you all there.”

  Feeling weirdly exhibitionist, Chase walked over to the door. He looked over his shoulder at them, and in a stinging rush passed through the door.

  On the other side was a small room with another elevator. Chase waited a moment, and the office door slid open. Asa looked at Chase like he wanted to examine him under a microscope. “You’ve done this all your life?”

  “No. I was only able to do it after the attack.”

  “After you were dispersed?” Asa asked.

  Parker cleared his throat and pointed at the elevator. “Hey, are we going somewhere or what?”

  Maybe Asa’s curiosity was normal for a scientist, but his blunt questioning was starting to irritate Chase. Dr. Bishallany had never been this insensitive about how he got his ability. “It happened after my parents were killed,” he snapped. “After I lost my memory.”

  Asa’s face tightened momentarily, and he swiped his hand over the elevator console. The door opened, and he ushered them in, turning to Lilli. “And you, were you able to do your projection all your life?”

  Lilli glared at him. “It’s why the Fleet kidnapped me and stuck me in their medical center for three weeks.”

  “So someone in the Fleet knew about you beforehand?”

  Lilli gritted her teeth and didn’t answer.

  It felt like they hadn’t moved at all, but when the elevator door opened they were already at the medical bay. It was as pristine white as the docking bay, with long examination benches and rows of silent machines of all sizes. Jericho was there, moving around a long silver apparatus that looked like a submarine. Sitting at a table looking dirty and disheveled and with his burned arm encased in some sort of plastic device was Maurus. Relief flooded his face when he looked up and saw Chase and the others.

  “Thank the daughters of Hesta,” he said hoarsely. “We didn’t know who’d snatched you up.” He looked at Asa. “Though I guessed it was you once I saw the androids.”

  Standing behind him was Ksenia, who watched everything with a sharp, critical gaze. She had regained her poise, despite her torn suit and disheveled hair. Her eyes traveled over all three of them, and up to Asa.

  “Thank you,” Chase said to her. “For bringing them here.”

  Ksenia gave him a gracious smile and nodded. Asa cast a quick glance at her but said nothing, and walked over to the long submarine-like apparatus. “How is he, Jericho?”

  “Very touch-and-go right now,” said the android mildly. “Significant internal hemorrhaging had already taken place before he arrived here, and both of his legs were shattered.”

  Chase looked at Maurus, alarmed. “Derrick?”

  Maurus nodded. “He’s in bad shape, but at least he’s here.” He raised his eyes to Asa. “Thank you.”

  Asa tipped his head. “Redemption suits you well, Lieutenant Maurus.”

  “Where’s Vidal?” Chase asked.

  “The other android took her to change into fresh clothes,” said Maurus. “She was covered in Derrick’s blood.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’m going to go change as well,” said Ksenia, brushing her dark hair back from her face and moving toward the door.

  Asa stepped to block her. “Excuse me, do I know you?”

  This caught Chase off guard. He frowned, thinking at first that Asa had made a mistake.

  “No, but I know you, Asa Kaplan,” said Ksenia, flashing her dark eyes. “
And Chase’s parents as well.”

  “How do you know them?”

  “If they never told you the story, I’m not sure I should.”

  Asa shook his head, an absurdly dumbstruck expression on his face. “I don’t believe you. Marcus never kept a thing from me in his life.”

  Marcus? Chase frowned. He didn’t know much about his parents, but he’d always heard his father referred to as Henk.

  Ksenia didn’t miss a beat. “You’d be surprised what he kept from you. Can we debrief after I’ve had a chance to rinse off all this blood and lichen?”

  Asa smiled at her, and with frightening speed the smile fell away and left only his intensely cold expression. “You’re an outstanding liar. I can see how you were able to fool these children so easily into believing that you’re acquainted with me.”

  A blunder like that left little doubt that she was lying about knowing Chase’s parents. Still, Chase shook his head, confused. “But I saw her in Lumos … she’d left me a note saying that if I met her there, she’d tell me more about you and my parents.”

  “She told you she left the note, or you asked her if she’d left it for you?” asked Asa.

  Chase paused. It took him a moment to remember, but when he did, he reddened. He had brought up the note to Ksenia first, giving away the information before she could volunteer it.

  “Oh, Chase,” said Parker. “You dope.”

  Asa circled around Ksenia where she stood, leveling the full force of his glare on her. “Jericho, you got a DNA sample from her, I trust. Who is she?”

  Jericho was bent over a console on the apparatus that held Lieutenant Derrick, but he stood up and in a pleasant voice said, “Her name is Ksenia Oriolo, according to Federation records, although there is another record matching her DNA for a Hylene Chauncy, native to Ko Aiob, District 32.”

  Ksenia kept her eyes locked on Asa, her mouth frozen in a defiant smirk.

  Asa nodded in mock approval. “Ko Aiob. Impressive. So you pulled yourself up out of the slums and somehow found a new identity and a new life.”

  Chase’s embarrassment at being duped began to turn to anger. “So you’re a big fake? What are you doing here? How did you end up on the Kuyddestor?”

  Jericho answered Chase before Ksenia could open her mouth. “Under her assumed identity, she was a rising star in the Federation’s diplomatic ranks until she became involved in a scandal dealing with misdirected aid shipments to Banafiel. Following this she was reassigned as plenipotentiary of the Rhima terraforming project approximately two years ago.”

  Asa raised his eyebrows. “A punishment? How has your time in the Galloi star system treated you, Ms. Oriolo?”

  For a moment she appeared to waver, and then she relaxed back against the wall. A sly smile spread across her face—she knew she’d been caught. “About as well as two years surrounded by slugs and idiots can go.”

  “I don’t suppose you had anything to do with this Werikosa uprising on the Kuyddestor, did you? Considering the awfully convenient fact of your being the only Federation representative not onboard when the hijacking occurred.”

  Ksenia merely smiled and said nothing.

  “You helped them plan the hijacking, didn’t you?” said Chase, furious. “You knew they were going to attack, and that’s why you were on Lumos!”

  “I had business at the capital,” she said in lazy defiance.

  “I’m sure you did,” said Asa. “Jericho, put Ms. Oriolo in detention until we can leave her somewhere more appropriate. Take the officers there as well, once Lieutenant Maurus’s arm has mended.”

  Parker made an irritated noise. “You don’t need to do that, Captain Paranoia. He’s our friend.”

  “What are you planning to do with us?” asked Maurus.

  Asa looked down at him. “I’m returning you to your starship, Lieutenant.”

  “You realize the Kuyddestor is under attack right now? You won’t be able to come anywhere near that ship, and teleporting is out of the question.”

  “Finding a way to get you back to the ship won’t be a problem. What you do once you’re onboard again is up to you.”

  “No,” said Chase. “We need to stop the hijackers before the Fleet sends another ship to destroy the Kuyddestor.”

  “That’s not my concern, Chase,” said Asa. “I’ll send a team over to extract your sister, and we’ll leave the soldiers there.”

  “You will not!” cried Lilli angrily.

  “We can’t just leave them there!” said Chase.

  “You’re such a coward,” spat Parker.

  “What do you mean, extract his sister?” asked Maurus.

  Asa raised his hands. “Enough!” He opened a side door that led into a hallway, pointing for Chase, Lilli, and Parker to step outside. “Mina, the soldiers can stay in here, but keep an eye on them.”

  He led them down another long blue-floored hall. “I will say this once. We are not going to rescue the Kuyddestor. We are heading back to retrieve Lilli, and then we will leave.”

  Lilli vanished and reappeared right in front of Asa, forcing him to stop. “If you don’t help save the ship, I’ll hide and you’ll never find me.”

  “You’ll die, is that what you want?” asked Asa savagely. “Is that what your parents would have wanted?”

  Chase turned on him. “Don’t you dare use our parents like that! You didn’t know them!”

  “Wrong, Chase,” Asa barked, his voice echoing down the hall. “And the last thing in the universe that they would have wanted is for you to sacrifice yourself for the Fleet.”

  “Why do you hate the Fleet so much? Did you work for them? Were you part of the program that created my parents?”

  “Did I work for the Fleet?” Asa lowered his head, his mouth twisting into an expression somewhere between a sarcastic smile and a grimace. “In a way.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Parker.

  “What do you know about your parents, Chase?” Asa asked.

  Chase paused. “They were genetically engineered soldiers created by the Fleet. One day they escaped, and Captain Lennard found them and helped them hide somewhere.”

  Asa nodded. “That’s right. Now ask yourself something. If you were going to go to all the trouble, expend all the research and energy and technology required to create a genetically enhanced soldier, an experimental fighting machine … would you only make two of them?” He shook his head. “No. You wouldn’t make an army of them, not at first, but to only make two would be too risky. You’d have to run tests, find their limitations. What if something were to happen to them?”

  Chase stared back, his mind stubbornly resistant to Asa’s words. “Then you’d have to start over. So?”

  Parker smacked him on the shoulder. “Good lords, Chase, don’t you get it?”

  Asa said nothing at first, allowing several moments of silence to hang between them. “There were seven of us.”

  Chase’s mind raced. Us? This was not at all what he had expected. “Wait. What?”

  Asa nodded. “Once upon a time, my name was Fighting Unit 2402. A triumph of genetic engineering, a physically perfected humanoid soldier—almost Earthan, but better. Just like your mother and father. We were all raised together, trained together … and finally we escaped together.”

  It was like a bomb had gone off in Chase’s head. He looked over at Lilli, wide-eyed, but she only frowned at Asa as she listened. A flurry of new questions burst from Chase’s lips. “How did you escape? Why didn’t you stay together? Did you know they had children?”

  Asa lifted a finger to stop him and began to lead the way down the hall again. “For safety’s sake we had to split up for a time after we escaped, but we were to remain in contact, with me acting as the hub of information. We had a plan to exact our revenge on the people who’d created and nearly destroyed us. But a few years after our escape, Henk and Caralin lost their appetite for revenge. Seems their focus went elsewhere.” Asa paused long enough for Chase
to realize that Asa was talking about him.

  “What about the tracking chips that Lilli and I had? They were made by you.”

  “Your parents didn’t contact me very often, but one day they sent a message requesting my help with some sort of very complex tracking chips. They didn’t tell me what they were for, but I had my suspicions, so I agreed on the condition that I be allowed to build in multiple redundancy backups to the systems of my choosing.”

  “So you always knew where we were?” asked Chase.

  “I always knew where the chips were,” Asa clarified. “Although I had to promise your parents that I would only use that information in case of emergency.”

  “What about me?” asked Parker. “Whose son am I?”

  Asa glanced at him, expressionless, and kept walking without responding.

  Chase’s mind was buzzing too hard to worry about Parker’s question. A gap of information popped up, a huge question. “What about the others? You said there were seven of you. Did you all escape together?”

  Asa nodded as he rounded a corner. “Yes. One of them you’ve already met.”

  An hour ago, Chase would have been certain that this person was Ksenia, but knowing who she was now, he had no idea whom Asa meant.

  Asa hit the console on a doorway, leading the way into an office. Chase stepped inside and froze, feeling like he’d gotten all the wind knocked out of him.

  Leaning against the desk with her famous perky smile was Parri Dietz.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Chase gaped at Parri Dietz, the face he’d seen a hundred times on the news feed. Asa had to be playing a joke on them. For as much as his secrecy and paranoia finally made some sense, it was impossible that his counterpart was a famous newscaster whose face had probably been seen by every humanoid in the galaxy.

  “Are you kidding me?” said Parker. “This is—this is the…? No.”

  Ignoring him, Asa walked up in front of Parri Dietz and slammed his hand on the desk hard enough to dent the surface, making Chase jump. “What were you thinking?” he barked.

  Parri Dietz stood up off the desk and casually adjusted the cuffs of her silk shirt. “Nice to see you too, Asa.”