Tinaree: Trial By Inferno (Shadows Of Peace Book 1)

by Nic Plume

  "Got to keep moving."

  "I got him." Tonee grabbed his shoulders, pulled him up the rest of the way, and pushed him ahead. Taylor stumbled, landing on his knees. Tonee tightened his hold and pulled him back up. They followed the others, but Tonee did most of the steering and balancing to keep Taylor on his feet. They ran from alley to alley, moving in a zig-zag pattern through the settlement until Mica disappeared into a building. They followed but stopped at the stairs. Mica was halfway up to the first floor.

  "Whoa, stop," Tonee called out. Realizing he’d used the wrong language, he switched to Tinareean. "Where are you going?"

  He handed Taylor over to Kaydeen, who sat him against the outside of the stair railing.

  "Upstairs." Mica had stopped and started back down.

  "I see that. Why?"

  "We have a safe place up there where we can wait out the bombardment."

  "We’re in the middle of it and need to get out of it."

  "They won’t hit us here. They’re only targeting the mine. And Intergal gunners are really good, so we’ll be fine."

  Tonee raised his eyebrows. "Are they, now?"

  "Yeah, and their guns are all sophisticated and stuff, so they won’t miss."

  "Riiight." Tonee wondered what dream world the boy had gotten his info from.

  "No, really." As if to prove his point, the rail gun staccato suddenly quieted, the rumble becoming more background noise than active attack.

  "I think a break would be a good idea," Kaydeen put in.

  Tonee looked at her in surprise—she knew better.

  She pointed at Taylor, who was leaning on his knees, shaking his head and squeezing his eyes shut as if trying to clear his senses. The way he had stumbled, Tonee realized, something was messed up. Kaydeen agreed and although her voice was nonchalant, her hand signals made it clear they needed to stop.

  "Plus," Salayla added, "we need a plan, supplies, and intel." She indicated the boy with a meaningful gaze. "Why not take the advantage and security this building might offer while we accumulate what we can?" She didn’t add comfort to the list, but Tonee could see it was on her mind. He smiled. It was on his, too. She winked at him.

  "Fine," he relented, "we’ll stay."

  "And rest," Kaydeen added as she pulled Taylor back to his feet.

  Tonee took him again and sent her up ahead. She pulled the pistol from her belt and ran up the stairs with Salayla.

  Taylor tripped on the first step. Tonee caught him and pulled him upright again.

  "Steps, Taylor. We’re on stairs." He had switched back to Trade.

  Taylor didn’t answer, making Tonee wonder if his hearing was affected, too. His body was tense, but that could be an effect of the adrenaline rush they’d experienced, and were still experiencing to a degree. His frustrated huff, though, was surely due to his sensory problems. Tonee had never seen Taylor display any type of frustration. Doing so wasted energy and time that could be spent on solving the problem. At least in Taylor’s opinion. Tonee found punching something oftentimes helped marvelously to clear his mind, or to focus on the problem, or on the pain, for that matter.

  Taylor nodded and tried again. He still stumbled every so often, but they made it up the steps. As they rounded the next landing, Kaydeen and Salayla were heading for the next flight of steps where Mica was waiting. Kaydeen went ahead, taking two steps at a time, while Salayla paused long enough to give Tonee a status report.

  ‘Floor clear, all doors locked,’ she signaled, then followed Kaydeen.

  They repeated the process three more times, with Kaydeen and Salayla running ahead to clear each level while Tonee and Taylor followed at a pace Taylor could handle without needing too much help. At first, Mica was exasperated at their slow speed. He didn’t see why they had to clear the building when he and his friends had used it for the last six months without incident. But, he did as he was told and waited at the top of each stair until Salayla gave him the go-ahead to move on to the next.

  By the time Tonee and Taylor reached the fifth floor, Kaydeen and Salayla stood on each side of a door with Mica holding a keycard at the ready. At Tonee’s nod, Salayla signaled him to open the door. Kaydeen and Salayla entered first, while Mica stayed with Tonee and Taylor. It didn’t take long until Kaydeen opened the door wide and motioned them to enter. They stepped into an L-shaped living room-kitchen combo with two bedrooms on the right and a short hallway leading to a large bathroom and laundry on the left. Kaydeen pulled Taylor to the couch and pushed him down. He sat, but refused to lie back.

  "We need to keep moving," Taylor said in Trade.

  "You’re in no shape to keep moving," she replied as she picked up his feet.

  He pulled them out of her grip. "I’ll be fine."

  "I know, but for now we’re not going anywhere, so you might as well speed up the process." She put her hand on his chest and pushed.

  He shoved it out of the way. "We need to—"

  "Taylor," she snapped, the medical officer coming out in full force, "Lie down."

  "Yes, ma’am." He allowed her to push him prone. As primary team medic, she had the responsibility and authority to take charge of any injured. Not even a commanding officer had the authority to overrule or ignore the orders of the Medical Officer in Charge. At least, that was what it stated in the regs. Real life and especially combat were usually a totally different piece of kit.

  "Now rest." Kaydeen’s voice had softened again.

  Taylor was asleep within seconds.

  She covered him with a blanket Salayla had retrieved from one of the bedrooms and rose with a sigh.

  Tonee stood by the large window, looking down the alley they’d first entered. He had a perfect view of the entrance into the mine compound and was up high enough that he could see out without being seen himself. He turned to meet Kaydeen’s gaze.

  "And?"

  "His equilibrium is off."

  "No shit. I would’ve never guessed."

  She gave him a dirty look. "What do you want me to say? I’m a medic, not a healer who can sense internal damage. Get me a med scanner and I’ll tell you why he can’t keep his balance."

  They looked at Salayla, who spread her arms wide.

  "I can only procure what is available." She looked at Mica and switched to Tinareean, "Does this settlement have a medical clinic? We need a med scanner."

  He nodded, then shook his head, "Yes, but they emptied it a while ago. We might be able to find some basic medical supplies in the apartments, but I doubt anybody here owned a med scanner."

  "You have access to other apartments?" Tonee asked.

  "I have a master keycard. Leer’s dad heads the maintenance crew here, so his access card opens every door."

  "Heads? So, he’s still doing it?"

  "Well, yeah, just because they’re empty doesn’t mean that they don’t need to be kept up."

  "And the personal belongings?" Salayla pointed at the blanket.

  "We weren’t allowed to take much. The maintenance guys have been bringing stuff out, but there’s not much room on their trucks, so it’s been a slow process. I’m not sure how far they’ve gotten in this building."

  "You said we?" Kaydeen beat Tonee to the question. "You used to live here?"

  "Yeah, my dad used to be a foreman in the mine. This was our apartment. When the Traverse came in, they kicked everybody out and put their people in charge. Then they gave us an hour to clear the plateau and told the new mine manager he could have anybody lagging. Most got out in time, but not everybody did. A lot of people disappeared. We found out later that they’d been collared and taken to the mine to work off their trespassing conviction." He pantomimed quotation marks with his last words.

  "What about the kids?" Tonee asked. The collared mineworkers they’d encountered had all been adults.

  Mica shrugged. "If they were too young to work the mine, they were shipped off. Supposedly to a state home, but we’ve not been able to find them. Mom thinks they’ve been t
aken off-planet." He looked down and shook his head.

  Salayla walked over and put her hand on his shoulder. He inhaled deeply and looked back up. Tears glistened in his eyes.

  "They were good kids, you know. They didn’t do anything wrong. None of them did. Not their parents, either. They didn’t tell us what would happen after the hour was up. If they had, we would’ve told them—we would’ve made sure everybody made it out before we left. But we didn’t know." He shook his head. "We didn’t know."

  Salayla pulled him into her arms and talked to him quietly as he sobbed into her shoulder. Kaydeen motioned for Tonee to back off.

  He didn’t need to be told. He hadn’t intended to bare the boy’s emotions like that. Tonee could empathize. The boy felt guilty for making it out when others hadn’t. Tonee had gone through it himself when his grandparents had died.

  No words were going to help that. But distraction would.

  "Tell me about your friends."

  Kaydeen shot him a sharp look. He ignored it.

  "Leer and…"

  "Nitus." Mica pushed away from Salayla. "They’re my best friends." He wiped the tears from his eyes. "They’ve been helping me keep an eye on the mine." His voice was still shaky, but he was getting himself back under control. "My parents didn’t believe me when I told them about you guys, especially since they brought you to the mine. That’s where civilians are punished. Intergal activity must be reported to the garrison in the valley since they’re in charge of anything to do with the military. And then came the news that the Traverse had ordered everyone killed and your ships destroyed. They showed it—"

  "Wait, what?" Tonee interrupted him. "They killed everyone?"

  "Yeah," Mica answered with a nod. "They pulled out all the bodies, shot all the survivors, and then blasted everything in place. They even shot down the big ships behind the moon. They had it on the news for days." He fell quiet.

  Salayla and Kaydeen looked as shocked as Tonee felt. He lowered his head, pressing his fist against his mouth and turned away.

  Everyone was dead. He couldn’t believe it. He’d assumed that…he didn’t know what he’d assumed. That theirs was the only Interceptor that had been shot down? But that didn’t make any sense. If that had been the case, then the attack would have continued and they would’ve been freed soon after. But they weren’t, so the attack had to have been aborted. And Intergal didn’t abandon their people, so the rest of the advance forces had been pulled out, or there had been nothing left to pull out. The possibility had always been in the back of his mind, but he’d avoided thinking about it.

  Tonee combed his fingers through his hair—it was way too long. He wanted to punch something, but that wouldn’t help. He should’ve punched their guards, snapped their necks. That wouldn’t have helped, either. Plus, they were civilians—sadistic civilians, but still civilians. They had nothing to do with the kill order.

  He drew a deep breath, fighting down his anger. It was another point on the list. One day, he’d get the chance to cash that list in, and he’d enjoy every minute of it.

  He’d been pacing, walking off his steam. He stopped and looked back at the others. Mica had withdrawn to the entry door and was playing with the control panel. Salayla and Kaydeen stood were they’d been, keeping their distance and giving him space. They’d dealt with their pain, he was sure of it, though he didn’t know what that might look like for a Din. They had feelings, like humans, but they felt and dealt with them differently.

  Salayla had tried to explain it one day, soon after they’d met. Human emotions were hot burning impulses that were allowed to reign free, to control the body’s actions, she had said. Taylor and Tonee had immediately disagreed, but she had continued to explain that Din emotions could be as strong but weren’t allowed to override the brain. They were dealt with, Bled off, or Shared. Tonee had never quite understood the difference between Bleeding off an emotion and Sharing it—both involved Readings—but he’d never asked her to clarify that point. Probably because her insinuation that humans were emotional apes compared to Din had rankled him. The important part was that Din were more calculated with their emotions and didn’t lose their temper.

  Kaydeen looked at him. ‘You good?’ she signed.

  He nodded and took a closer look at what Mica was doing with the control pad.

  He was in the security app, but that was as far as Tonee could understand the symbols. He hadn’t learned to read Tinareean during their train-up, at least not past the most basic info he’d needed for the mission. Salayla could probably make sense of it. As interpreter, she had learned the language almost fluently. But it was much easier to just ask.

  "What are you doing, Mica?"

  The boy didn’t turn around. "I’m tapping into the building’s security system. We’ve already set it up to alert whenever somebody is using the front door into the building or approaching the apartment. I expanded it to all entries into the building. If anyone opens any of the doors or windows, we’ll know about it."

  "Good thinking."

  "Thanks. My dad’s been working security, and with the Resistance, monitoring our surroundings has been a high priority."

  "Your dad is in the Resistance?"

  "Yeah, we all are." Mica finished his work on the control pad and turned to Tonee. "Nitus’ dad started the local chapter, or cell, I guess. He came across Dad while we were trying to find out what happened to the missing miners. He also helped with trying to locate where they’d shipped the kids, but even his connections couldn’t locate them. That’s why Mom thinks they were taken off-planet."

  His eyes dropped to the floor and his shoulders drooped again. Tonee needed to change the subject.

  "So, Leer’s dad gave you access to these buildings, your dad taught you how to use the security systems to your advantage, and Nitus’ dad gave you the intel you needed to find us and get us out. And you said they didn’t believe we were here?"

  "Well, not quite. Leer took the keycard without his dad’s knowledge, I learned to work security systems by helping my dad on the weekends, and we knew about the attack because they told us to stay home and wait until they sent us info about our evacuation."

  "Evacuation?"

  "Yeah, Intergal agreed to evac families of volunteers who did the jobs you guys were supposed to do six months ago." He waved his hand to encompass Tonee and his teammates. "Leer and Nitus were tagged as runners—you know, to let everybody know when and where they’ll be picked up, since that can’t be put out over the comms. When they’re done, they’ll come here."

  Tonee, Salayla, and Kaydeen asked a few more questions before breaking to run a security check on the building. After they ensured the building was as secure as Mica thought and the monitoring program ran as he promised, they explored some of the apartments. They didn’t find a med scanner but were able to put together four decent survival packs. They also found clothing that was close enough in size to fit each of them.

  Once they’d scavenged the supplies, they returned to the apartment and took showers. The bathroom was luxurious, with an oversized shower with sauna, steam, and dry settings. Multiple showerheads sprayed from all directions with adjustable water pressure and additives. Tonee didn’t even have to move—he simply stood in the center and was massaged, soaped, rinsed, and dried. It felt like heaven, especially compared to the ice-cold water hose showers the guards had provided them with in the mine. The clothing they had found fit all right, though the shirt was a little too tight across his shoulders and way too colorful, but it was much better than the clothes the guards had supplied them with once their uniforms had worn through.

  Two hours later, Leer and Nitus showed up. Leer was a cocky sixteen-year-old with a wrestler’s physique, while Nitus, at fifteen, had spent more time in front of a screen than in the outdoors. At least he wasn’t as full of himself as Leer, who immediately tried to impress everybody with his experience as ‘war zone runner.’ Mica called his BS, pointing out that their town had no mi
litary value and only the standard Enforcement Officer presence to keep order, and therefore hadn’t been on Intergal’s target list. Leer tried to smooth over that point, but when Nitus jumped in on Mica’s side and told how easy it was to get out of town and come here, Leer segued into fawning over Salayla and Kaydeen and the hardship they’d experienced. Salayla, always up for a good flirt, took him right on. Tonee wondered if the boy realized how outclassed he was in experience and capabilities—that the woman he offered to protect could snap his neck in an instant.

  Kaydeen ignored him and checked on Taylor. He was still asleep.

  After the initial meet and greet and sizing up, the boys settled down enough for Salayla to debrief them, although she worded it more eloquently.

  Tonee settled back by the window to listen.

  The boys thought the attack was going well. At least, that was how they interpreted the ‘all is well’ message Nitus had received when his dad had commed to give him his ‘homework’—a descending list of the founding families and their length of rule. Leer’s smart recitation of the instructions made Tonee wonder what he missed. He looked at Salayla. She had no clue, but Mica immediately rattled off names and numbers.

  As he did, Salayla’s face brightened. When Mica was done, she turned to Tonee and Kaydeen to explain.

  "The founding families are an important part of Tinareean history. Their reign during the settlement period was the only time the planet’s leaders were preordained and not elected. It’s a common believe that their leadership was the reason Tinaree was such a successful colony and was able to pay off its debt and earn its independence within two hundred years of its founding." She paused in her history lesson.

  "Considering the speed of space travel at the time," Kaydeen put in, "two hundred years from touchdown to independence was record time."

  Salayla nodded. "It’s such a matter of national pride that every history book on the planet starts with the account of the settlement period."