Forging Zero

by Sara King

  I’ve gotta do something, Joe realized. Congress doesn’t do enough to stop Dhasha like Knaaren from hurting people. There had to be a better way.

  And there was. With Yuil. Shattering Congress, like the Trith had foretold.

  …right?

  What would happen if they shattered Congress? That nagging sense of unease disturbed him. Bagkhal had lived centuries. He’d fought on dozens of planets. If he didn’t think there was a way to control the Dhasha, what hope did Yuil and her friends have, really?

  But how will I know if we don’t try?

  Perhaps it was that very mentality that kept the Dhasha secure on their pedestals. Perhaps everyone was just too afraid…

  It was the memory of Elf’s scream as Knaaren ripped him apart that decided him.

  Joe was trying to figure out how to get Libby to go with him when Scott found him sitting against the haauk depot.

  “Kind of weird without the battlemasters here, isn’t it?” Scott said. He grinned. “Maggie and Carl are talking about writing a thank-you note for that Tribunal guy. It’s the most time we’ve had off since we got Second’s flag.” Scott hesitated, his smile fading as his gaze flickered across Joe’s face. “What’s wrong?”

  Joe took a deep breath. “Battlemaster Aneeir’s planning a night raid against Second Battalion tonight. One groundteam only. We’re supposed to capture their battlemaster and bring him back.”

  Scott frowned. “Which one? That Rat girl?”

  “No,” Joe said, shaking his head, “Their battlemaster. Gokli.”

  Scott’s eyes widened to the whites. “Gokli? He’d kill us all.”

  “The battlemasters made a bet or something,” Joe said, shrugging. “Anyway, it won’t be hard. He’ll be traveling outside the city all alone.”

  Scott glanced both ways and crouched in front of him. “You’re serious? What do we do with him once we have him?”

  “Beats me. Aneeir will give him soot, I suppose.”

  “Wow,” Scott said, shaking his head. “Wow.” He gave Joe a curious look. “Does this mean we get to use our biosuits?”

  “Hell, yeah,” Joe said, relieved Scott was buying the story. “You think I’d let you guys tackle an Ooreiki without them?”

  Scott rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. “I don’t know, Joe. That sounds pretty damn stupid. Isn’t Gokli like, so far above Aneeir on the food chain he could kill him by taking a crap?”

  “You don’t want to do it, I’ll get somebody else,” Joe said.

  “No, I’ll do it,” Scott said quickly. “It’s just a little crazy, that’s all.”

  “That’s why he wants us,” Joe said.

  “Yeah,” Scott said, his face stretching in another grin, “Makes sense.”

  “Meet me outside the barracks after chow,” Joe said. “Don’t tell anybody. I don’t want it getting back to Gokli.”

  “Sure,” Scott said. “I’ll be there.”

  #

  “They’re letting you use a haauk?” Maggie whispered, her eyes round with awe. “I didn’t know they’d taught you to drive one of these, Joe.”

  “Bagkhal taught me so I can deliver messages faster,” Joe lied. He hotwired the haauk and gave a little sigh of relief as it lifted off the ground. Nervous, Joe reached up to wipe the perspiration from his brow. He froze when he realized Libby was watching him. She hadn’t said a single thing all night.

  “So,” Joe said, clearing his throat, “Here we go.” Joe brought the haauk off the ground and Maggie let out a gleeful squeal.

  “Quiet, Mag,” Joe said, glancing anxiously at the barracks. “It’s a secret raid.”

  “Sorry,” Maggie whispered, looking like he’d slapped her.

  In minutes, they were skimming over the veiny red masses of ferlii branches, circling around the road where Joe was supposed to meet Yuil’s companions. Up ahead, through the tangled limbs, Joe saw a haauk sitting on the road, its pilot standing beside it. Joe brought them down upon a ferlii branch. He took out his spotting scope and trained it upon the Ooreiki in the road.

  “Is that him?” Maggie asked excitedly.

  “No.” It was the first thing Libby had said since Joe had told them about the raid. She looked away from the pilot and fixed her gaze on Joe once more, her brown eyes hard.

  Joe lowered his scope, trying to stay calm. Where was the pilot’s companion? Yuil had told him at least two rebels would meet him on the road. Joe didn’t want to approach his contact without at least two Ooreiki to help subdue Libby. He was pretty sure Maggie and Scott would do whatever he wanted, but Libby would fight. He knew it as well as he knew anything, and he loved her for it. He would have left her behind, but he knew Bagkhal would give her to the Peacemakers if he did.

  “What are we waiting for, Joe?” Libby asked. Her brown eyes were piercing, as if she knew his purpose and was just waiting for him to confirm it.

  Joe shook that suspicion out of his mind. “This looks like a good place to ambush Gokli. I’m just wondering what that Ooreiki is doing just standing down there.”

  “He doesn’t look like a civilian,” Scott said. “He’s wearing black. What if he knows we’re not supposed to be out of the barracks and gets us in trouble?”

  “He’s right,” Libby said. “This is a bad spot. He looks like he’s heading out of the city, so we should move closer to Alishai.”

  “We’ll stay a little while longer,” Joe said. “Maybe he’ll move.” What he was really hoping for was for another rebel to show up to help him keep Libby from killing them all, but he couldn’t tell them that.

  Two hours passed without another rebel appearing, and Joe could tell the Ooreiki on the ground was getting anxious. Scott and Maggie retired to catch some sleep stretched out on the ferlii branch, but Libby stayed awake to watch the road.

  “He’s not moving, Joe,” Libby said. “Maybe he knows we’re coming after Gokli. What if he’s a Peacemaker?”

  For the first time in ages, Joe heard a hint of fear in her voice. He frowned at her, then back down at the Ooreiki rebel. “He’s not a Peacemaker. He’s just some guy whose haauk broke down.”

  “He’s waiting for something,” Libby insisted. “Look at the way he’s standing. If his haauk broke, he would have called for help. He’s watching the road. What if Aneeir set us up? What if he’s a Peacemaker?”

  “Why would he be a Peacemaker?” Joe demanded. “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “It does,” Libby whispered. There was real fear in her eyes now. “A Trith visited me that night Bagkhal bought us the feast.”

  Joe’s breath caught in his chest.

  Libby looked into his eyes. Tears formed on her cheeks but she held his gaze. “He said—” She shook her head and looked away.

  Joe caught her arm, blood thundering in his ears. “He said what?”

  The hurt in Libby’s eyes was enough to tell him the truth. “I can’t say it, Joe. I don’t believe it.”

  He told her I’m going to shatter Congress. She thinks I’m a traitor. Joe glanced down at the Ooreiki on the road. Well, you are, aren’t you?

  Dad wasn’t a traitor. That solid realization made his gut twist. He didn’t know who he owed his loyalties to anymore. Was it Earth, who had handed over its kids without a fight? Or was it Congress, who stood between Earth and the Dhasha? Or was it the aliens in the Army who helped him, kept him alive, given him guidance? Aliens like Nebil and Kihgl and Bagkhal? If it was them, did he stay with Nebil and Bagkhal, who seemed to believe the Army was the only way to keep the Dhasha at bay, or did he go with Yuil, who had Kihgl’s confidence before he died?

  Joe’s eyes fell back on Libby.

  Or did his loyalties lie somewhere else entirely?

  Quietly, Libby said, “I thought I was dreaming, but Maggie saw him, too.”

  “She did?” Joe croaked. Not Maggie, too.

  “Haven’t you noticed how weird she’s been acting lately? She threw that girl off the second floor balcony for getting in
her way.”

  Joe had been wondering about that. “What did the Trith tell her?” Joe asked softly.

  “She wouldn’t tell me,” Libby said, eying him. “He say anything to you, Joe?”

  Fate decided you will shatter Congress, Joe.

  “No,” Joe said. He turned and looked down at the Ooreiki rebel on the road.

  You will try to fight it, but invariably, your path will lead to the same end.

  Joe watched the Ooreiki fidget nervously in the dark. The haauk was there, the offer open. He could leave at any time. He could be free. He could return to Earth and see his family again. All he had to do was show himself.

  “I’m gonna go talk to Maggie. Watch the road a sec.” Joe got up and found Maggie and Scott sitting together, trying to stay awake.

  “Is Gokli here?” Maggie asked.

  “Not yet.” Joe sat down beside them and took a deep breath. Quietly, so Libby could not hear, he said, “Guys, if you had the chance to go home, would you take it?” He was staring down at his father’s Swiss Army knife. He had pulled it out of his vest and had started rubbing it unconsciously.

  “You mean back to the barracks?” Maggie asked.

  “No,” Scott said, yawning, “I think he means Earth.”

  Joe nodded.

  Maggie laughed. “We’re not going home, Joe.”

  “But if you could go home…would you do it?”

  Maggie’s amusement faded. “You mean leave the Army?”

  “Yeah.”

  Maggie stared at him darkly, saying nothing.

  “So? Would you go?”

  “Sure,” Scott said.

  Joe felt himself relax a little.

  “…as long as you could give me my old body back. My friends back home aren’t grown-ups and my parents won’t recognize me like this.”

  Joe was surprised. “You’d stay because of that?”

  Scott shrugged. “They’d expect me to be a kid again. I’m not.”

  Joe realized he was serious. Guilt lanced through him. He’d simply assumed he’d want to go. The Trith had told him he’d shatter Congress, but he hadn’t said his friends would have to help. He could just send Scott back to Alishai with Libby and take Maggie with him.

  “What about you, Mag?”

  “My friends are here,” Maggie said. “I don’t even remember what my mom looked like.”

  We’re everything she’s got. Joe wrapped his father’s knife in a fist.

  Burn the Trith. They don’t know everything.

  “Let’s go,” Joe said loudly, standing. “You’re right. Gokli’s not coming.”

  CHAPTER 36: War with the Huouyt

  Joe was lying in bed, unable to sleep due to Bagkhal’s drugs, when a horn sounded suddenly outside the barracks, loud enough to vibrate the stone.

  “What’s that?” Scott asked, sitting up in bed.

  “I don’t know,” Joe said. “Never heard anything like it before.”

  “Sounds like the call to regiment formation,” Libby said. “Except it’s still going.”

  “The Ooreiki are all gone and our barracks are locked,” Joe said. “How do they expect us to get to formation?”

  “Maybe they think everybody knows how to open the doors now,” Maggie said.

  The sound stopped suddenly, leaving the entire barracks in a wave of whispers.

  Outside, an explosion sounded, rattling their rifles in their lockers. Two more followed, one right after the other.

  “What is it?” Maggie whispered.

  “I don’t know,” Joe said. “But everybody get your biosuits on. Right now.”

  They heard no more commotion while they suited up, but as they were gathering their gear, an explosion knocked them off their feet. It was followed by a deep, powerful rumbling. Joe’s heart skipped a beat. He’d heard that sound before, in school. His teacher had spent the week studying the Andes Mountains and she’d shown them a film documenting the perils of mountaineering. The sound outside was the sound of an avalanche.

  Joe ran to the door and punched in the code to open it. As soon as he did, he stepped outside onto the balcony and froze.

  Half of the barracks was missing. It had sheared off from Joe’s half and lay in an enormous black jumble on the ground. Below, over the jagged edge of the balcony where it sheared off beneath his feet, Joe could see an arm sticking out from the debris.

  “Everybody out!” Joe screamed. “Get down the stairs! Move!” He ran back inside and grabbed his rifle and his gear. As Libby ran out and took in the situation below, he went to the closest barracks door, Ninth Platoon’s, and opened it.

  The kids were still in their big circular beds, trying to sleep.

  “Get your biosuits and get out of here!” Joe shouted. “The barracks is caving in!” He continued his circuit around the remaining half of the barracks, opening those doors that remained on his level. Some of the kids were ready, waiting to be released, but most had simply gone back to sleep. Joe got them all up and ushered them down the stairs, stopping when he reached the jagged edge of the other side. Fifth through Ninth platoons had collapsed in the explosion, along with dozens from other Battalions.

  “Zero! Get the recruits off of the seventh level!” a familiar Ooreiki voice shouted behind him. “I’ll get the eighth!” Joe had just enough time to see Commander Lagrah before he disappeared up the stairs at a run. Below him, he heard the wet thwap of gunfire and hesitated.

  Libby can handle it.

  As soon as he had the thought, he charged up the stairs to reach the next battalion. More of them were awake than the last battalion, some already dressed in all of their gear. Joe rushed them down the stairs and went back for more.

  “It’s falling!” Lagrah shouted at him, wrenching him away from another door. “Zero, get down the stairs!”

  Joe hesitated and Lagrah bodily dragged him down the switchback stairway. Immediately, wet plasma rounds smacked into the stone behind their heads. Joe flinched and looked back.

  Instead of simply staining the wall a glowing blue, as recruit rounds would do, the side of the wall was dissolving under the plasma, disappearing as if it had never existed. Lagrah grabbed him by the arm and yanked him down behind a pile of rubble.

  “That’s live fire,” Joe cried, still unable to believe it.

  “It’s a war, Zero. As soon as the commanders got together for their meeting, the Huouyt blew up the space station and everyone in it. Nebil and Bagkhal are dead and that Jreet-loving Na’leen has taken control of the weapons stores.”

  Joe’s first thought was of anger. They were my friends. Then a cool, simmering rage began to build in his stomach. “What do you want me to do?”

  “I know you were associating with the rebels, Zero. Where are they?” Lagrah gripped his jacket, his pale brown eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. “Tell me or I’ll kill you right now, damn what Kihgl said.”

  What Kihgl said?

  “The abandoned ferlii on the edge of the city,” Joe whispered.

  “They wouldn’t have their command post so close to Alishai,” Lagrah snapped. “Where else?”

  Joe thought back to the hidden weapons cache Yuil had tried to show him. He remembered the wet stain on the floor, the Ooreiki flashlight. “There’s a spot in the forest. A small black door set in the side of a ferlii.”

  Lagrah released him suddenly. “Did you see them enter this place, Zero?”

  Joe nodded.

  Lagrah’s sudah began to vibrate. “And you didn’t tell anyone?”

  He shook his head.

  “At least now we know where they’re getting their weapons. Get your platoon. Grab a haauk and take what you need from the armory. Gokli’s inside. Tell him you need Jreet poison rounds and fahjli grenades. Find that door again, Zero. Get inside, whatever it takes. This is real, you understand? Bagkhal was wrong. This isn’t a few furgling teenagers. The one you called Yuil was Na’leen’s assassin, Zol’jib. They’re Huouyt, Zero. Every one of them. They’re makin
g a grab at this sector of space. Na’leen’s been planning it for turns.”

  Joe nodded, feeling ashamed and angry.

  “Go!” Lagrah shouted, shoving him. “If you’re anything close to what Kihgl thought you were, you’ll find a way inside that depot. You’ve got to do it fast, while they’re still distracted with the takeover. I’ll follow with whoever I can find.”

  Joe ducked his head low and hurried between the debris piles, trying to ignore the bodies buried underneath. He found Libby with the rest of his platoon, holding their position behind a sheer wall of half-crumbled diamond with their recruit rounds as the rebels fired back with real plasma, slowly dissolving their cover out from in front of them.

  “Did you see Lagrah?!” Libby cried. Behind her, the barracks let out another explosion and the rest of it imploded, sending up a cloud of black dust that blotted out all sight of the enemy.

  “He told me to find you,” Joe said. “We need to go attack their base.”

  “Who are these guys?” Maggie cried. She was holding her gun tightly, hiding behind a chunk of rock, stark terror in her eyes.

  “Is this a drill?” Scott said, peering through the black dust. “Is that real plasma?”

  “It’s real,” Joe said. “Don’t let it hit you.”

  “Why do we have to attack their base?” Maggie cried. “Joe, I’m scared.”

  “This is just like the hunts, Mag,” Joe said. “Now let’s go get a haauk before the dust clears.”

  Maggie whimpered, but followed him and Libby as they charged through the smoke to the haauk depot. In the dust behind them, a kid let out a startled scream that turned into an unending, agonized shriek.

  He’s dying, Joe thought, terror creeping into his veins. That’s real plasma and he’s really dying.

  Joe grabbed a haauk big enough for the entire platoon, one with armored plating used to drop off attackers in the hunts, and made everyone get on board.

  At the armory, Battlemaster Gokli and his platoon were holding off a group of attackers. Rat was firing from the roof, picking off rebels with a laser rifle while Tank and Bailey fought them off on the ground. As soon as Joe landed, he ushered his group inside.