Chapter Twenty-One
Tristin
Tristin had not experienced true joy since the Ardak invasion. But when he followed several cyborgs through a portal back up to his ship and Roihan connected the device to Casin’s battery and he awoke, Tristin met Kirelle’s glowing eyes and thought he’d never been happier.
“What did you guys do to me?” Casin complained. “My neck hurts like I’ve slept on it for days.”
“That’s probably what you did,” Tristin laughed, slapping Casin on the back. “Just be glad you’re alive.”
Roihan connected the device to Corin’s battery next.
Corin awoke with a start, sitting straight up. “Thank the gods. I thought I was dead for sure.”
They all laughed, but Corin looked away from them. After Roihan disconnected the device and moved to Savar, Tristin drew him into a hug. He saw that Corin’s eyes were moist when he drew away. Kirelle and Casin were deep in discussion, so he drew closer to Corin. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. I just thought. . .I thought we were going to die. And I’d promised to return.” His mouth clamped shut, as if he’d overshared.
Tristin’s brows rose. “Who did you promise?”
Corin shook his head. “Someone. I can’t talk about it.”
“Oh.” Tristin nodded. “Someone your parents wouldn’t approve of.”
Corin’s face drew into a scowl, an expression Tristin had never seen on him before. “You know, I almost don’t care. Since the Ardak invasion, we could die at any time. I just want to be happy.”
Tristin’s gaze slid to Kirelle’s back. “I’m not going to argue with you there.”
Corin’s mouth dropped open. “You mean you and the Ardak mad scientist?”
That gave Tristin pause. “I notice you made no mention of her being an elf.”
Corin’s face reddened. “I’m not going to discuss it.”
Oh. He almost smiled. He’d love to be an insect on the wall when Corin’s parents found out. The Royal House of Tuorin had a blood feud with the elven house of Glynora going back three thousand years. The elves first arrived in their galaxy on Corin’s planet of Tuorin Sor, trying to establish an outpost on the already inhabited planet.
Tristin’s great-grandparents hadn’t approved of the elves, fearing they would take over the galaxy with their magic. Skirmishes between the elves and Tuorians on Tuorin Sor had been especially brutal.
When the portals had closed without warning, the elves had been stranded, and Tristin’s great-grandparents had been forced to deal with them. A few of them had fled to Juordin’s planet, and his own.
So while Tristin wouldn’t have parental disapproval of his match, Corin would have a massive uphill battle, both with his parents, and his people.
“Tristin, where is the device?” Corin’s question brought him back to the present moment.
“Mordjan has it. Why?”
“When I was asleep, I remembered X-Blade showing me the device, and setting a program in my chip that would allow me to activate it.” Corin’s face fell. “I think he was going to let us go.”
“I’m sure he was,” Tristin replied, his voice quiet. “He was. . .a good friend.”
Tristin stepped back and saw that Roihan had awakened all the cyborgs. They were chattering happily and slapping each other on their shoulders and backs.
Tristin strode to where Roihan stood, checking the charge on his crystal. “We need to get back to the palace and find Mordjan.”
“That’s the next stop,” Roihan said. “I’ll have Mordjan send Aielle to portal us back.”
“I can do that,” Kirelle offered, raising her hand and making a portal.
“Oh,” Roihan replied, startled. “All right. Thank you.”
“What other magic can you do?” Tristin asked, as they waited for the others to go through the portal.
She shrugged. “It depends on what you’re looking for. I can make portals and do some different kinds of magic if I have to, like make fireballs. But since I trained in medicine, it wasn’t my focus.”
He was interested to learn more, but now was not the time. Once he stepped through the portal, he made a beeline for Mordjan, with Corin right behind him and the others following.
Mordjan glanced up and growled, gesturing to the muscular cyborg with dark skin and long blond hair beside him. “Chihon and I have been working on this damn device all night, but we can’t get into it.”
“Let me try,” Corin said brusquely, elbowing his way between them.
“You could have just asked,” Mordjan said, moving aside to give Corin more room.
“X-Blade implanted something in his chip,” Tristin explained as Corin began typing.
Corin’s fingers increased in speed until Tristin couldn’t see his fingers clearly anymore. Tristin blinked and glanced up at the monitor, where he saw that Corin had engaged the monitor next to his, then the two above them on the task. Lines of numbers, letters, and symbols were scrolling by on all four monitors so quickly that the flow of information almost looked vertical.
After a few minutes, Corin’s fingers slowed. “I’ve got it.”
And just like that, the flow of information on the screen stopped, and a cursor sat there.
Corin typed a set of thirty digits.
The cursor disappeared, three words popping up on the screen: Map, Specs, Notes.
Corin clicked Map, and a 3-D image of the base appeared.
Tristin took in a breath at the sheer size and scale of the base. This mission had just gone from improbable to impossible.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kirelle
Kirelle’s breath caught as the enormous base appeared on all the screens in front of them. It was so large that it went off the set of four monitors.
They were silent as Corin scrolled down to the very bottom of the schematic. Then Mordjan whistled. “That’s not what I was expecting.”
“The entire first floor is a hanger, and there are seventeen floors below the surface.” Tristin added. “There’s no way they’re only making twenty ships.”
“The base looks extremely well protected.” Chihon scrolled back up and gestured to the top level. “See here? Even the hangar level is below the surface. Having the entire facility belowground helps with camouflage and maintaining the internal environment of the base. You might be able to fly over it and not even know it’s there.”
“What’s this I hear about attacking a moon base?” An elf with long golden hair entered the laboratory and Mordjan motioned him over.
“Aefin. This is Tristin, King of Tuorin Andala. He’s the one who gave us the cure for the Red Death. The resistance has sent him on a mission and he’s asking for help.”
“Right.” The elf nodded to him, then turned to the map of the base.
“Tristin, Aefin is the commander of the Renwyn army,” Tordan finished.
“Do you have some warriors to send?” Mordjan asked. “We can use all the help we can get.”
“Is this some kind of joke?” The elf’s eyes had narrowed. “That’s not just a base, it’s an underground fortress.”
Mordjan gestured to the screen. “It’s not a joke. This is where they manufacture Ardak spaceships. We’re going to break in and steal them.”
The elf’s eyes narrowed even more. “How big is the enemy force?”
“We’re just figuring that out now,” Corin said. He pressed a button, backing out of the map and going to Specs. He scrolled down slowly. “The moon is orbiting the farthest planet in the Onix system, so it’s extremely cold. It says here the atmosphere contains a dangerous level of carbon dioxide, which is poisonous to breathe.”
Chihon frowned. “That explains why they went deep instead of wide for the building—less chance of accidental leakage. But I do agree that there are a lot of laboratories for a ship manufacturing center.”
“Unless they’re doing research on some kind of experimental ship technology.” Tristin pointed to a place
on the schematics. “Look at this.”
The place he indicated was on the seventh floor belowground, simply labeled Laboratories. The one below it was labeled Training.
“How many Ardaks are stationed on this base? Why would they need an entire floor for training?” Mordjan asked.
Corin pressed a few buttons, pulling up the stats of the base, and Tristin’s stomach tightened into a hard knot. “They might. The bottom two floors are allocated solely for housing. It says there are fifteen thousand Ardaks stationed there.”
“Fifteen thousand?” Casin’s voice rose. “You realize there are less than thirty of us, right?”
“Traako. That isn’t an objective, it’s a suicide mission,” Aefin said. “I’m not sending anyone.”
Tordan turned to him. “Look, if we get the ships, we can use some in our battle.”
“And if we all die, there isn’t going to be a battle,” the elf shot back. His eyes turned to Tristin and Mordjan angrily. “Only your stupid ARF resistance could have come up with something like this. We came to you for help, and now you’re taking the only assets we have on a suicide mission.”
“You don’t have to come along,” Mordjan growled.
“Yes, but if you take all the cyborgs who the hell do we have left?” The elven commander took one last look at the schematic. “Traako. You know this is the craziest plan I’ve ever encountered.”
“We didn’t know the size of the base when we planned this mission,” Tordan replied sharply. He turned to Mordjan. “How many Ardaks did you five stop on that battlefield?”
Mordjan’s eyes narrowed. “Probably a hundred thousand. But they weren’t expecting us, and they’d never seen that technology before.”
“They won’t be expecting us this time, either,” Tordan replied with surety. “We can do this.”
“We will have the advantage of surprise,” Mordjan mused.
“But there’s no way we’re getting in there without getting caught,” Tristin said. “They’ll have that base locked up as tight as it was on the Vengeance, security everywhere.”
“We can do it if we portal in,” Kirelle offered quietly.
All eyes turned to her. “And if you have some shielders that can block visibility,” she continued, her voice getting stronger, “then we might be able to be invisible from the monitors long enough to complete the mission and get out.”
“I don’t know about the shielders, or even how many of our portalers could do what you ask,” Tordan said. “Most of them have to see the location, or have to have been there before.”
“I can do it,” Kirelle answered.
“This mission is going to be extremely dangerous.” Tristin began, but Mordjan cut him off.
“You can portal from a map?” the large cyborg asked, rubbing his hands together. “That changes things.”
“Yes, sure. I can portal from these specs. But I’ll need to be close. If you fly slow and low over the base, I’ll get your team in.”
“Can you teach other elves to do that?” Mordjan asked. “Many of the elves from Renwyn can’t portal, and I’m starting to realize that the elves from Garthurian didn’t use portaling overly much because they were so isolated.”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “I’ve never tried to teach it before. My homeworld consisted of islands, thousands of them. We portaled all the time, and not just for vacation. I used to portal daily to the hospital for work.”
“How many will you be able to portal?”
“As many as can run through before I lose the connection. Depending on how slow you fly and how fast they run, I’d say twenty to thirty.”
“That might work, Aefin” Mordjan said, turning to a blond elf. Slowly, the others’ eyes turned to him as well. “If we could get straight into the locations we needed, even straight into the ships, it might work.”
“Are you serious?” Aefin’s voice rose. “You know learning magic takes years, right? She’s not going to teach them in two hours.”
“Why don’t we at least try?” Kirelle said. “If the answer is no, then it’s no. But I would bet some of them can already do it but haven’t had the opportunity to try before. It’s not that much of a stretch if one can already portal.”
“Jaffete.” Aefin stared them down for a few moments before giving an angry shrug. “Fine. I’ll take her to see if we can train the others.” He motioned for her to follow him, then turned and headed for the door of the laboratory. “And I’ll ask around. Maybe. But I hope you have a better fucking plan than what I’ve heard.” He smacked the door open, exiting without a backward glance.
Kirelle sent Tristin a nod, then followed Aefin.
She knew Aefin was on the opposed to everyone else in the room, but privately, she thought he was the only one talking any sense.
She would do her duty, but it would have been nice to have better odds.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Tristin
“T
hat is not a happy elf,” Mordjan commented after the door closed behind Aefin and Kirelle.
“Kind of reminds me of someone else I know,” Tordan replied.
“Hey, I’m a changed man now,” Mordjan protested gruffly.
“Aefin has a point,” Tristin admitted. “I hate to say it, but looking at the base, even I have doubts about the mission now. I’ll try to contact Juordin and see if they can send us some backup.”
“What about using the white powder?” Mordjan asked. “If we could spread that through the station, it would cause panic. They’d all be trying to escape rather than worrying about us.”
“Or they’d all be so angry they’d kill us just for vengeance,” Simban warned. “There’s no cure for them. They’re going to want blood.”
“If Kirelle is right and we can get some portalers and shielders, we might be able to get in and out without a big battle,” Tristin mused. “We can deploy the white powder through the air ducts, here.” He pointed to the central corridor of the base, level ten. “If we put it into the system, the fans will blow it throughout the base in minutes. Hopefully it will distract them long enough that we can escape.”
“So one team will deploy the white powder, another will get the ships,” Chihon said.
“It appears the main cache is here.” Corin pointed to the first level belowground.
“The whole level?” Casin asked. “You realize this base is an Ardak league squared.”
“How large is that?” Savar asked.
“How much ground do you think an Ardak can cover in an hour?” Casin asked.
“A lot,” Savar replied.
“Right. That’s how large it is. Squared.”
“I’m thinking there are a lot more than ten ships in that hangar,” Tristin replied.
“Agreed,” Tordan replied. “Assuming we can do this, how are we going to get the ships out from underground?” Tordan asked.
“Right,” Corin said. “There is a lot of information in here, and we can continue to look at it until we leave on the mission. But for now, I think we’re going to need a third team. I’ve checked the exit door to the hangar. You see this circular schematic here? That’s where the ceiling spirals back to let the ships out. It’s controlled by this command post here. There are fail-safes that will have to be physically countered open the hangar door. Someone will have to take out the command post and override the computer.”
Tordan rubbed his hand together. “I’ll take that team. Aielle should be able to portal us, and I’ll take a few elves if Aefin comes up with them.”
“I’ll take the team to deploy the powder,” Simban volunteered. “I’ll ask Valdjan to go with me. We can deploy the powder and fly one of the ships out together.”
“Hopefully Irielle or Ithyll will be able to portal for you,” Mordjan said.
“I’ll do it.” A golden-haired elf strode through the door and crossed the room, linking her arm through Simban’s.
She must be the aforementioned Irielle.
Simba
n frowned as though he wanted to protest, but a look from her silenced him.
“We’re going together, big guy,” Irielle spoke quietly, but not quietly enough.
A few of the cyborgs shuffled their feet, then Tordan cleared his throat loudly. “All right, I think we have a rough plan sketched out. Do we have a timeline?”
“I don’t think so. Let me go back to my ship and try to contact the resistance,” Tristin replied, “Maybe Juordin or Ruith can send us some backup.”
“I guess we’d better find portalers to send you to your ship,” Mordjan said. “Actually, I’ll go with you.”
“No need,” Irielle said. “I ran into them behind the palace. Believe it or not, I did it the first time. But I need the practice.”
Tristin had no idea where Kirelle had gone, so he simply nodded and waited as Irielle created the portal. He strode through, followed by Mordjan.
“We’ll call Simban when we need a portal back,” Mordjan told her, and she went back through the portal to the lab.
Tristin went straight to the console, setting the computer to scan the frequencies he knew.
“I don’t know if it’s something about Aurora, but we’ve never been able to contact the resistance from here,” Mordjan said. “That’s what I wanted to ask you about.”
“Really?” Tristin frowned. “How have you contacted them?”
“We’ve had to find them,” Mordjan admitted. “And we’ve had contact once in space.”
“Maybe I should take off then, get out of orbit.” Tristin lifted off, breaking free of the atmosphere in a few minutes.
“Wow, this is a smooth ride,” Mordjan commented.
“Yes, I steal only the best.” Tristin gave him a sideways grin.
Mordjan grinned back. “I think this ship is quite an upgrade from Aria’s, but we’ll have to see how many warriors we get for the mission. If there are more than fifty, we should probably take her ship.”
“How many does her ship hold?”
“I think about five thousand,” Mordjan replied.
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