“Watch your mouth!” Blake said.
“Or what? I’m sure the admiral wouldn’t be pleased if I was hurt along the way. I assume if he wants me, he wants me still talking.”
“Quiet.”
“If the admiral had wanted me hurt, he would have asked for it. But he didn’t. You’re not worth his time to be told such orders. I think if it came down to it, the admiral would rather you dead than have his prized prisoner beaten by somebody that wasn’t him.”
“Shut up!”
“Or what? What could you possibly do to me that would make me want to shut up. You have nothing on me. The Union’s taken everything. And when everything is gone, then you have nothing left to take.”
“What about her?” Blake said. He tried to sound confident, but it came out a desperate wheeze like a man begging for his life. “We know she’s on board. That she’s in the detention block.”
“Don’t you dare,” Kendal said. If you hurt Mira, I’ll snap your fucking neck.
“Not that your cooperation will make too much of a difference when it comes to her. Nova’s going to be put in a pretty high strung place regardless, but if you don’t cooperate she might spend the rest of this trip locked up all by herself.”
“Nova?”
“We have her on board,” Blake said. “In the detention block. We’re keeping tabs on her.”
Kendal had to keep himself from smiling. Hurt Nova all you want, you bastards. You don’t even know who Mira is.
“So don’t bother struggling or trying to run,” Blake said. “You’ll only embarrass yourself.”
Kendal thought about fighting back. Thought about wrapping his hands around Blake’s neck and squeezing until he felt him go limp, but decided against it. If he brushed off the threat against Nova, they’d know something was up. That maybe there was another person he was with. They could check the security recordings and track Mira down.
“Fine.” Kendal sighed and held out his arms. “Just don’t hurt her.”
Blake inched towards Kendal like he was a dangerous animal who could lunge at any second. His kinetic rattled in his hand as he unchained Kendal from the grate, then put the cuffs back on.
Kendal’s hands were behind his back, the chain long enough to bump against his legs as he walked.
Tearly had no office, or board room, where he worked. There was only the bridge.
The walk was uncomfortable, mostly from the chains and Blake being too rough with the kinetic against Kendal’s back, but also from having to walk by the morning crew and watching their faces as they looked at him with disgust.
They stopped at the bridge entrance. Kendal looked around at the familiar passage. To his left were the crew quarters, and to his right was communication room where Tenna worked. Where she’d been when he’d pleaded not to put out an alert.
Blake knocked on the door. The bridge was never opened this early. The secondary command decks were in charge until Tearly resumed operations in the late morning. If Tearly was there, then it meant he was expecting someone.
The door opened. Kendal had never seen the bridge empty before. He stood a pace behind Blake, looking around the room for Tearly.
The bridge looked empty. Silence. The lights were dim, like it was still on night cycle, and the monitor had been set to black.
Footsteps echoed from atop the platform, near the back where Kendal couldn’t see. The steps loudened as they approached. Kendal’s chains rattled, and his throat choke up as he watched Tearly walk down the steps of the platform and approach the him. He didn’t even give Blake a glance, eyes going straight for Kendal’s.
Tearly hadn’t changed since they last spoke. The same cropped graying hair, sagging skin, and dark spots around his eyes. A face that was meant to be young, sadly aging into a mess. His uniform was perfect, and he had gained a badge since they last met. The only oddity was the two kinetics on his belt instead of the usual one.
“Take those cuffs off of him,” Tearly said.
“Sir,” Blake said. “I don’t wish to question your orders, but…”
“Then don’t question them,” Tearly said.
Blake swallowed, hands shaking and eyes wide. “Your call,” he said and unlocked the cuffs, putting the chain on his belt.
Kendal rubbed his wrists. His skin had rubbed raw in the short minutes he’d had them on.
“Now leave us,” Tearly said.
“But sir…”
“Now!” Tearly said.
Blake didn’t need to be told again, leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.
When Tearly summoned you, he spoke first. Didn’t matter how important the meeting was, or how much of a hurry you were in, he was the one to break the silence. Which is why Kendal made sure to speak first. “I could kill you.”
“With no weapons and no combat experience? I’d like to see you try.”
Kendal swallowed his anger and kept himself calm. His threat had been idiotic, and he knew that. Kendal had no combat experience and he was half the size of Tearly. The fight would be over in seconds, ending with Kendal’s face beaten inside out.
“Officer Vernan has told me that you were arrested along with Miss Ross.”
“I wasn’t with her when it happened,” Kendal said. “Just in the same ship as her.”
“Did you think that because we rejected you, she would take you in?”
“No,” Kendal said. “We were flying into your fleet and we needed a place to dock. That’s all.”
“And like a coward, you went crawling to a anybody who could help, regardless of how dangerous and corrupt they are.”
“I’m not a coward.”
“You are a coward,” Tearly said. “You’ve always been a coward. You turned in Miss Ross without a seconds’ hesitation and sat in front of a judge and jury and told them every secret she trusted you with in a desperate flail to save yourself. If that’s how you treat your superior officers, then I would never have given you any sort of power.”
“I did what I did for the Union,” Kendal said.
“Did you kill Sasha Boe for the Union?” Tearly said.
Kendal grit his teeth. “No,” he said.
“Then who did you kill him for?”
“I,” Kendal started, but caught himself. In a way, Kendal thought, I did kill him. I killed him the same way Nova killed everyone in Benith Town. Letting others do it don’t make my hands clean.
“Don’t have an answer?”
“I killed him for me,” Kendal said.
“Killed a Union officer for your own sick amusement?”
“No!”
“Or did you do it for revenge?” Tearly shook his head. “I suppose it doesn’t matter why you betrayed us.”
“You’re the one who betrayed me!” Kendal screamed, spit running down his chin. “You’re a goddamn sociopath. Sending me to a planet to get blown up with the rest of the disposable grunts. And when you see that I survived, that I survived, you label me a criminal and forced me to become what I am.”
“I sent you to that planet for a reason.”
“What reason was that?” Kendal said. “What goddamn reason?”
“You were the only one who could have possibly gotten through to her.”
Kendal stopped, catching his breath and letting the words sink in. “What?”
“Nova Ross,” he said. “Of all the people in the system, the one person she would have listened to was you. I’d put good money you didn’t even bother to approach her. Bother to find her or to fix things. Maybe you spent your time in a bar. Or with a prostitute.”
“Shut up!” Kendal screamed. “You’re lying! You wanted me out of the Union and you know it!”
Tearly walked up. Slow, menacing steps until they were standing but a few feet apart. Tearly took one of the kinetics from his belt. “Do you want another chance?”
Kendal chose his words carefully. “Chance at what?”
“To redeem yourself,” Tearly said. “In the eyes of
the Union.”
Kendal laughed. “I’ll take it, yeah.”
Tearly grabbed Kendal’s wrist and set the kinetic in his hand. Kendal grasped the weapon and stared with wide eyes. He looked up at Tearly, his face asking all the questions.
“That’s your second chance,” Tearly said. “Put it to your head and pull the trigger.”
Kendal looked at the kinetic shaking in his hand. His breath was ragged and his head light. “I don’t—what do you mean?”
“Kill yourself,” Tearly said. “Then, I’ll see to it that you’ll be held responsible for capturing Miss Ross. That this was all a mistake. You’ll die with honor, and dignity. You’ll have regained your respect with the Union.”
“I can’t,” Kendal said.
“Live a traitor or die a hero,” Tearly said. “It’s an easy choice, lieutenant.”
Kendal looked down the barrel, seeing the black twisted metal scorched from use. A simple kinetic pistol. Holds forty shots and is standard issue for all Union officers. More for tradition than practicality, at least during Kendal’s time.
One last chance, Kendal thought. The room had no guards and nothing that kept him from leaving. Tearly had another kinetic on his belt, but it was too slow a draw.
Kendal smiled at the thought of shooting Tearly, then he practically felt delighted as his hand carried out the action. Kinetic pointed straight out, and Kendal’s finger dancing at the trigger.
You bastard…
Kendal knew Tearly deserved this. Kendal knew he had set this whole confrontation up to humiliate Kendal, and now his one blind spot was his ticket to freedom.
With the kinetic pointed at Tearly’s heart, Kendal pulled the trigger.
He only heard a click.
Chapter 29
Kendal was on the ground, face against the metal flooring and drooling blood. Tearly hit much harder than Kendal ever could have imagined. His chest tight and his head spinning from taking too many blows.
He tried to sit himself up, arms straining to support his weight. His legs were legs numb and limp beneath him, and he couldn’t see straight. He squinted, focusing his eyes and trying to see around him. His sight uncrossed in time to see a boot before it hit his side and sent him tumbling back to the ground.
His head spun from the beating. He stared up at the ceiling and tried to catch his bearings, but another kick sent him rolling across the floor and into a wall.
Kendal sat up and wiped the blood from under his nose. He had to lean against the wall to keep upright, his body trembling from shock. Numbness was starting to settle, but the pain still screamed. His side on fire, chest tight, and face throbbing. He could feel loose teeth near the back of his jaw and it hurt to take a deep breath.
He stared at Tearly with anger and resent. He focused on the hatred he felt, not letting him slip into defeat or humiliation.
“Look how hard you’re trying,” Tearly said. He knelt down and looked Kendal straight in the eye. “You were the youngest to ever be assigned to the Morana. You were the youngest to ever become an Officer.”
“I appreciate the compliment,” Kendal said, voice hoarse and gargled by the blood settling in his mouth.
“But that wasn’t good enough for you, was it?” Tearly said. “You found yourself a pretty little admiral and swung things your way until you were promoted to a lieutenant decades too early. And don’t think I didn’t see that little application Miss Ross filled out before she was apprehended. Looking to be made captain, were you?”
Tearly stood up and grabbed Kendal by the scruff of the neck and pulled him to his feet. Kendal managed to catch himself and stand close enough he could feel Tearly’s breath on his face. His eyes were sharp and red, voice hammering, and fist clenched tight enough that Kendal’s shirt ripped at the seams.
“You’re nothing but a disrespectful infant,” Tearly said. “You look at the world through your own eyes and see nothing but what affects you, and only you. That’s why you’ll never amount to anything.”
Tearly’s anger brought Kendal too close, and his confidence was nothing but a set of blinders to keep him from seeing his mistake. Kendal was inches from the kinetic on Tearly’s belt.
There was the possibility that it could have been empty, but Kendal knew it wasn’t. The pistol he’d been given was a decoy, but the main kinetic on Tearly’s belt was for his own protection. Why would that one be empty?
Tearly had no time to react as Kendal took the weapon from him. No latches or harnesses on Union outfits, only a magnetic belt where the gun stuck, meaning a fast and easy draw.
He turned the safety off and fired into Tearly’s stomach.
The grip on Kendal’s shirt loosened as Tearly stumbled back, holding the wound as a circle of blood grew from the hole. They didn’t speak to each other, but their expressions said enough. Tearly was more shocked than angry, and his eyes spoke more of sadness than anything else.
“Looks like you were right about me,” Kendal said, having to look away as Tearly fell on his knees, then collapsed into unconsciousness.
He detoured to the onsite washroom to clean the blood off his face and hands. Tearly had done a number on him, but the swelling wouldn’t settle from another hour. He brushed his hair back with water and made himself look as presentable as possible given his condition.
Kendal scrubbed down his shirt and put Tearly’s coat and jacket over top. The coat had a hole in in and was stained with blood, but once he buttoned up the jacket it wasn’t noticeable. Officers rarely buttoned their jackets, but Kendal wouldn’t be out there long enough for anyone to notice. He took off the admiral buttons and threw them across the room.
He patted the coat down until he found Tearly’s master key.
“All I need’s a pilot,” he muttered, clenching his fist around the plastic keycard.
Morning’s weren’t too busy on the Morana, yet there were still people at every corner. Even at its quietest, the Morana was still a hive. His only worry was that some of the crew might recognize him, but so far he’d only seen new faces.
Kendal brushed back his hair and kept his head up. Nervousness will tip people off more than anything else, he thought. Act like you’re just on a job and they’ll think nothing of it.
The control room was nearby and unoccupied this time in the morning. A cramped office with a locker and a single desk that sat a grid of monitors facing two chairs. He couldn’t imagine having to work all day in there. Being cramped in with another person staring at the screens until shift end. Perhaps if he was working with the right person, but the thought still bothered him.
Kendal set the controls to show him the detention block. The prisoners were at breakfast, packed into a small cafeteria and being fed the same meals as the officers.
He looked over every face, trying to find her. The poor resolution made it difficult, most looking like a pink and brown blur. But soon enough, he spotted her at one of the tables.
“Gotcha,” he whispered, seeing the scraggly short haired girl sitting at one of the tables. Mira had on the pink prisoner’s uniform and sat between a larger woman and someone blocked by the camera angle. “Let’s hope you’re resourceful enough to get your way out of this.”
He used Tearly’s master key to open the system’s control, and he searched through until he found the detention block. He took a deep breath and turned off the block’s systems one by one. Lights, locks, gravity, security. Everything except for the oxygen. If Mira could find a way out of the block, he could find watch her on the monitors and find out where she was going. Then, all he had to do was meet up with her and get them both to the shuttles.
Kendal sat back in the chair, keeping a close eye on the monitors with his kinetic in lap. It took a moment for the commands to process, but when they did, the detention block feeds went black.
Chapter 30
It was breakfast when the lights went out all through the detention block. The overflow of prisoners meant they had to cycle them to the cafeteria
one quarter at a time to keep from overcrowding. Even with those measures taken, the room was still packed to the point where Mira could barely take a bite without her elbow bumping into the six-foot-tall woman beside her who had arms as wide as Mira’s neck.
Nova was sitting next to her as well, picking at the tray of food she’d been given. Beef slices with cut potatoes and carrots and a thin salted gravy drizzled over top. Nova hated it, but Mira could barely keep from licking the tray.
A week of ration bars do strange things to people.
Kendal had told her about ration-depression, but she never truly understood it until after a few weeks of eating nothing but. They cured hunger pains and weakness, but never made you feel full. A constant appetite that was never satisfied. After a week of them, she was ready to eat the dried biscuits under the counter that were hard enough to chip a tooth on. Thankfully, Kendal stopped her before could.
Mira had been scrapping at her plate with a fork, trying to get the last few bits clung to the bottom, when the lights turned off. This wasn’t like night-cycle. Not dim lighting, but pure darkness. Like what she thought being blind must be like. Not being able to see her own hand in front of her face.
While she couldn’t see, she could certainly hear. Panic struck instantly. The monstrous woman, who’d been beside her, stood up and knocked Mira in the chest, throwing her over and onto Nova. She heard a choir of voices chirping and screaming, and the shuffling of feet over metal.
“Get off!” Nova said, pushing Mira back to her feet.
She focused her eyes, hoping to see even a silhouette, but only darkness. Mira kicked her chair out of the way and felt for the table, trying to orient herself. It was too loud now. Voices and clanging and hitting and trampling all blurred into white noise.
The room lit up for an instant as the scream of a kinetic shook through the room. Mira saw just how many people were around her, and where everything was. Enough of a mental image to know where the exits were, and where it was safe to go.
She suddenly began to feel light headed. Her clothes loosened and lifted upwards, and her hair floated in place.
Cast of Nova Page 21