“And where would they get third orders from?” Kai asked, finding it hard to believe that either third-order humans or shrain could exist. The former were lab experiments carried out during the war by an alien race deep into Host territory. Third orders were essentially upgraded clones, but they were unstable and useless in combat.
As for the shrain—they were the heart of many of the most terrifying children's fairy tales, told to them by parents who usually just wanted their kids to shut up and go to bed. They were supposed to be evil entities that melded flesh and mechanics to achieve immortality. The stories told how they got their energy from consuming the souls of children.
“Do you think the shrain might have something to do with the Host attacks on the outer defense worlds?” Senaya asked as Kai listened closely, trying to put everything together.
“I do—and so do the GTU now.”
“What do you mean now?” Kai asked. “Are you in touch with the GTU?”
“Something like that,” Bandar said before turning his attention to the screens and the consoles. One of them showed the cavern with the pool. A dark shape lay on the edge among the shrapnel of the light drone. Thankfully, the body of the fake inquisitor was still.
Kai scrutinized the panel of screens and realized that some of the footage wasn’t from Zarunda—he recognized some of the architecture as being of Host design. It was easy to spot; they had a love for concrete buildings with harsh edges and dominating facades.
“You’re not just a smuggler or a trader,” Kai said. “Who exactly are you?”
Bandar stood up and paced the room, finger and thumb scratching at his chin. “It’s hard to explain, and we’re not going to have a lot of time. I should have just dragged you two here rather than leaving it to fate. The Blackstar is too important.”
“You’re speaking in riddles,” Senaya said. “Look, we’re not stupid, and we’ve been through a difficult time lately. The least you could do right now is be straight with us. Who are you, and what do you want with us?”
Kai stood up quickly, knocking the stool over. It came to him in a flash, all the clues suddenly coalescing into one inevitable truth. “You’re a GTU agent, aren’t you?” Kai said. “You work for Captain Lopek.”
The words stopped the older man as though he had just been struck by lightning.
Kai continued, “You handed me back my father’s footlocker. You knew what it was and what was inside. With all your observation technology, you would have known that shipwreck was just a pointless Host diplomat’s shuttle. You were there to make sure I found the box and its contents, but you got there a bit too late, didn’t you?”
Bandar Trace stared at Kai, his face difficult to read with half of it unmoving chrome prosthetic, but the eyes told Kai he was on the right track. A muscle at the edge of Bandar’s left eye twitched.
“And now we’re here,” Kai said. “And you have intelligence on the shrain and their infiltration into Coalition worlds. And this equipment—this is no off-the-shelf stuff. This is Coalition military tech. I grew up around stuff similar to this. No smuggler I’ve ever heard of gets access to this kind of gear.”
“You’re right,” Bandar said with a sigh. “But you don’t know the full picture, kid.”
“Then why don’t you enlighten us?” Senaya said. “You said we didn’t have much time—what did you mean?”
“I mean, we need to get off this rock. Bova's not the only shrain agent on Zarunda. They'll be amassing on our position as we speak, so I suggest you just do as I say and we'll leave explanations for later."
“No,” Kai said, finally having enough of being told what to do. “We’re not doing anything until you explain fully. I don’t care about the shrain, the Host, or the GTU. I will die here if I have to. Being told what to do by people who don’t respect me ends here.”
“Yeah," Senaya agreed. "What he said." She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Trace.
Bandar shook his head and grimaced. “Your mother said you were a headstrong brat at times.”
“My mother? Yeah, you’re definitely GTU.”
A warning light flashed on the console. Bandar leaned between Kai and Senaya and tapped out a number of commands. One of the screens showed a pair of ships flash in the night sky, their red taillights blinking an ominous warning.
“Inquisitor ships,” Senaya said. “I recognize the flash pattern.”
“She's right," Bandar agreed. "They won't be inquisitors, though. We've only got about five minutes. I suggest we leave now. Follow me."
“No,” Kai said again. “You didn’t hear me the first time. Explanations now, and then I’ll decide if I’m going to follow you.”
“Fine," Bandar said, exasperated. "The object you found is Navigator tech. It's ridiculously old, and beyond anything the Coalition or Host could create. Your father found it while on a secret mission to find the Blackstar.”
“And what is that?” Kai asked.
“A Navigator ship. It’s rumored by a bunch of eggheads at HQ that this Blackstar is one of the last intact Navigator artifacts and has the ability to communicate beyond and travel to the two inner rings of the galaxy. Your father’s mission was to find it—the Coalition hoped it could be used to maintain the upper hand in the galaxy and perhaps find more wonders beyond the great barrier.”
The revelation sparked a galaxy of questions in Kai’s mind, but he focused on the only one he truly cared about. “Where is my father?”
“That, we still don’t know, but his and the Blackstar’s whereabouts are what I’ve been tasked to help find. And you’re going to help me. That’s why I’m here. That’s why you’re here. And if you want to find your father, you’ll shut up and do as you’re told for once and follow me before we’re caught. But if you want to stay here and die, that’s fine by me—I’ve got enough to go on.”
“You don’t have the tetrahedron,” Kai said.
Bandar quirked an eyebrow. “Don’t I?”
Kai looked to Senaya, who patted down her myriad pockets. “I… I don’t have it,” she said. “You stole it!”
Bandar shrugged. "Call it leverage." With that, Bandar tapped out a few codes on the console, and a countdown timer appeared on one of the monitors. Kai also noticed that the shrain inquisitor was no longer lying in a heap on the cavern ground.
Bandar turned his back, grabbed a few supplies from the shelves, and then pulled a lever behind some old cartons.
The shelf unit swung inward, and a plume of dust billowed into the bunker.
Bandar stepped into the void and said, “You’ve got a couple of minutes before this place blows, kid. If that don’t kill you, you’ll have the shrain to deal with. Your choice.”
Kai’s natural reaction was not to trust him, but he thought back to the issue with the footlocker. Did Bandar know what was inside it? Did he want Kai specifically to realize he was a potential ally?
Not convinced, but with no other choice, Kai knew what he had to do.
Chapter 10
Kai and Senaya followed Bandar into the tunnel and continued to follow until the older man brought them into a cargo area. Dull yellow neon strips cast their sickly light in patches throughout the cavernous opening. Dotted around the perimeter were fuel barrels and tools.
In the middle was a ship that Kai recognized immediately.
He rushed forward beyond Bandar Trace and laid his hands on the familiar hull.
The craft was long, over thirty meters, and featured sleek webbed wings on the midsection. Painted in matte black, the only other livery was the white lettering on the pointed nose cone that read CSF Piercer. This was his father’s ship.
“I know you’ve got questions,” Bandar said, reaching up and engaging the airlock door, “but get aboard and I’ll explain once we’re free of the incoming shrain.”
Kai couldn’t move, emotion grabbing his lungs and paralyzing his muscles. The very last memory he had of his father was him taking off in this very vessel to trave
l to some secret location on a mission he couldn’t talk about.
They had a lot of good memories together on this ship. Kai learned to fly in it when he was just twelve years old, which, later, led him to his career as a ship racer.
Senaya gripped his shoulders and gently shook him. “Come on, Kai, we don’t have time to stand around. Let’s get moving.”
In a daze, Kai did as she suggested. He followed her to the cockpit, where Bandar had already taken the captain's chair. The cockpit was larger than Kai had grown used to with his own ships, and it was more luxuriously fitted out.
Top-of-the-line Coalition military holographic and data projections lined the forward section. Two seats came next, one for the ship controls, the other for weapons. Behind these, a raised platform provided room for two more seats, which the captain and astrogation officer would occupy.
“You’re flying, Kai,” Bandar said from his raised position.
“You’re taking weapons, Senaya. If you both follow my directions, we should survive this. Kai, I trust you can remember how this bird handles?”
Although his hands were shaking, Kai instinctively moved them across the control console as though he had never been away. The ship's engine came to life with a roar then a controlled whine. The lights in the cockpit dimmed so that the holographic projectors and video feeds provided a cool blue ambiance.
The data screens flowed with metrics, all confirming fully operational subsystems. Even the Piercer’s slightly faulty gyro had been fixed, requiring no on-the-fly adjustment, as was the case when Kai had last flown her.
“Where are we headed?” Kai asked as he confirmed full in-atmosphere propulsion capacity.
“Straight up,” Bandar said. “She’s got a new VTOL thruster. When we’re clear of the compound and in open air, head out of the atmosphere at an eighty-degree angle.”
“That’s too steep,” Kai said. “She won’t hold together; the atmosphere’s too thick.”
“Trust me, kid. This isn’t my first time. Senaya, how are you getting acquainted with the weapon controls?”
“Um, I think I’ve got it figured out. If not, I’ll learn quickly, but let’s try not to have to use them, eh?”
“That'll be down to your boyfriend's flying skills." Bandar checked a display, confirmed the roof had withdrawn on his compound and gave Kai the order to launch.
The Piercer reacted instantly to Kai’s command, the straps on the seat digging into his shoulders as it pulled hard gees in its rapid, direct ascent. The main navigation screen beeped when they were clear, and the video feed showed an enhanced view of the night sky, with holographic overlays of other ships.
Below them came a deep boom.
“What was that?” Kai said, not turning his attention from the control screen. The video feed showed an orange coloring as though dawn had suddenly appeared.
“The compound,” Senaya said. “It’s… leveled.”
“Along with the shrain inside,” Bandar added. “But that’s the least of our concerns. Ships incoming at a rapid rate. Ascend, Kai, at full power.”
Kai took a quick glance at the two inquisitor ships and noted they were about ten seconds away and gaining fast. Their design, however, wasn’t conducive to non-atmospheric flight, but that wasn’t to say they couldn’t fire on them.
“Sen, release the chaff rockets,” Kai said.
“We don't have any," Bandar said. "Just fly, and do it quickly."
There was little else to argue with so Kai did as he was told and angled the Piercer to the sky. He engaged full propulsion engines, hoping they had enough liquid fuel to escape the atmosphere.
The craft lurched hard, pulling gees and exploding upward, a fiery column blasting out of their stage-one exhausts. Kai’s jaw tightened and his vision blurred, and the ship continued to accelerate. Two missiles from the inquisitor ship flashed by behind them as the second-stage engine kicked in, powering through the last section of Zarunda’s atmosphere.
A further tense, g-pulling moment passed. Just as quickly as it started, it stopped, and the Piercer was floating in the vacuum of space.
“We’re through,” Bandar said. “Now let’s get some distance on those ships down there. I don’t want a stray missile to catch us unawares.”
Kai took a few deep breaths and waited a moment to acclimatize to the lower g-force. His body felt tense and bruised, and he hoped not to have to do that again too soon. He fixed a coordinate to take the Piercer out of range of the inquisitor ship and used a couple of Coalition scientific space stations as cover; their debris shields would easily withstand a missile. And this would buy them time.
Not that Kai had that luxury. As soon as he matched the stations’ orbit, a communication request came through. Bandar answered. Senaya got out of her seat and joined Bandar on the platform, taking up the other seat so she could get a look at the comms screens.
Bandar was about to speak, presumably to tell her to go away, when the comms alert flashed again, more urgently this time—it was coming from a secure Coalition military frequency.
“Agent Locke, it’s Trace here,” Bandar said.
At first, Kai thought he was talking to his father, Kendal Locke, but when Bandar put the call on the loudspeaker, it became apparent that it was, in fact, his mother. Senaya gave Kai a look that hinted that all this was planned.
Kai wondered then if the inquisitors were in on it too—a sham of a situation to make him forget about tomorrow’s race, which, barring a miraculous turn of events, wasn’t going to happen.
“Mother, it's Kai. Are you behind all this?" he said, not wanting to screw about with the protocol.
“I am indeed, and it’s for your own good. But before you start to feel sorry for yourself, you’ll hear me out. Things have escalated, and the situation is bigger than your ego or whatever the hell it is that drives you to do so many stupid things when you’re capable of so much more.”
Kai opened his mouth and was about to reply when his mother, in full GTU mode, cut him off.
“Listen up. I don’t have long, so pay attention. Your father is likely to be alive. Your finding of the Navigator artifact attests to that. Bandar has hopefully filled you in on that situation.”
“Yeah, kind of,” Kai said. “And he stole the artifact from us.”
“Then I know it’s safe. Here’s the deal, Kai; war is looking inevitable at this stage. We’re not sure of the scale or scope of it, but intelligence is telling us that the Host worlds have found some outside help and new technology to rebuild their forces. We should know more in a few days’ time. We also know that they’ve partnered with the shrain—and some other species we’ve not discovered before—to infiltrate many of our worlds. Zarunda included.”
“I get all that,” Kai said. “But what about Senaya and me? Why are we here, on Dad’s old ship, with a smuggler?”
“First, you’ll respect Trace. So far, you’re still alive because of him. You owe him the benefit of the doubt, at the very least.”
Bandar nodded toward Kai, but not in a smug way. There was something else there. A flash of familiarity that Kai couldn't quite place. He blamed it on the panic of the recent events. He wasn't thinking straight, and he was finding it difficult to analyze everything his mother was saying.
“Fine, let’s say I play along and respect Bandar for supposedly keeping us alive. Why are we here, and what do you want with me?”
“You’ve been given a mission by Captain Lopek. And I’ve agreed. It’s the only way. Your safety is in danger regardless of whether you stay on Zarunda or not. But at least this way you can put your considerable skills to good use.”
“Okay, just get to the point,” Kai said, tiring of his mother’s justifications. “Tell me, what is it the GTU wants me to do?”
“Find your father—and by extension the Blackstar device. If the Host is as powerful as we think they might be after their new partnerships, then we're going to need everything we can get our hands on. And by the last rep
ort, your father was extremely close to finding the Blackstar. The Navigator tech will give us the edge, and who knows what we might find beyond the barrier and in the inner sphere of the galaxy.”
Kai shared a look with Senaya. As usual, her eyes were wide with wonder. And he found himself feeling it too. Even though he had remained on Zarunda for many years, he had always leaned toward adventure—just not with any kind of military organization.
And that was what the race was about: the thrill of winning as much as being able to help get his friends off the planet and somewhere safe. That thought bubbled up until it became concrete and he saw a way of getting what he wanted too.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll do it. I’ll help find Dad and the Blackstar, but you have to pull a few strings in the government for me. First, I’m not affiliated with the CDF or the GTU. If I’m to do this, I’ll be completely independent and won’t be answerable to anyone. Including you or Lopek.”
“I—”
“No,” Kai said, eager to get the rest of his conditions out. “Second, I want you to get the Coalition to send proper supplies and healthcare professionals to Zarunda to investigate the blight. And in the meantime, I want you to take a list of my friends and acquaintances off the planet and to Jallan IV. Only then will I consider doing this task.”
“And I agree,” Senaya said. “I’m with Kai all the way on this.”
That reminded him of his third condition. “And lastly, Mother, there is one more thing.”
“You don’t want much, do you, Kai?”
“I could say the same thing. You’re asking me to give up the life I know, all that I’ve worked for to go on what could be a fruitless search into the unknown that’ll more than likely get me killed. I think it’s only fair that this works both ways.”
There was a brief pause across the secure line, the voice data packets that tunneled through subspace for near-instant communication across vast distances now silent.
Kai looked over to Bandar and was about to ask if they had lost connection when his mother spoke again.
Blackstar Command 1: Prominence Page 8