Dominion Rising: 23 Brand New Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels

by White, Gwynn

  "Okay." Cullen's tone prodded Torek to go on.

  "Man, I don't know exactly the steps, but somehow your dad's crew left clues that if someone answered riddles correctly, your ship's name would be the answer. That's what led Schaefer to ping us, except I got it because I manage the...."

  "Right." Torek enjoyed being the communications portion of the duo, and Cullen was glad not to have to respond to pings from upset handlers.

  "So I spoke to him first, but I wanted to vet him before telling you. And Jolnes, this stop, was kind of my last test. So far, it seems legit. Can't guarantee Setuk's not a trap, just like this could've been, or, really, every one of the jobs we take."

  Cullen trusted Torek's judgment, and knew they could both wake up with a knife to their throats. If the last call was Torek's, Cullen went to sleep at night all right with that. "It's chill, Torek. So why did my dad's clues lead the person with the right answers to find us?"

  Torek took a deep breath, warming up with a smile that seemed on the verge of breaking the jokester. "Because you're going home. We are. Your dad's a bit... I mean, the timing, and someone able to break the riddle in your lifetime... Schaefer. He believes in the Ancients like the Rucien, well, you know, those who have faith. He believes like that, and thinks this is a sign that the Ancients will reveal their Cipher. He wants you and your memories to pull us back to Vijil, where what he knows of the Math, combined with your dad's research, should somehow conjure the Cipher and whatever the Rucien need to punch the Osuna in the throat for good."

  Cullen's body nearly froze at the keywords so often spoken by his father: prophecy and destiny. So often those words had fallen to the floor with as little importance as specks of bread off his shirt. But as Torek spoke them, they contained the respect of a king's oracle.

  Torek's sudden swipe at Cullen's arm jolted him out of his reverie. "What do you think? That's good, man! I mean, about the only chance the Rucien, or really any of us, have of punching those bastard Osuna in the throat is some kind of quirky Ancients prophecy. And if that has anything to do with us, with or without the weird Ancients, then so be it. I think it sounds like fun!"

  Cullen didn't say anything immediately.

  "Whadya think, Cul?"

  "Fun... you think that sounds like fun. I know studying mythology isn't in your top ten, or hundred, things to do, but if that stuff's real... it drew a circle around an island—" Cullen traced a circle from Torek's waistline to his forehead and back down. "And boom! Gone. My people. Transported across the universe. Because why? We don't know. To learn to be better people? To wait for the return of something like us but not..." The glyphs spoke of some far-out powers and beings made to do things that no animals or beings he'd ever seen were capable of. "If all of that is true, and you want to go find it..." Cullen laughed. "Fun is not even close to what we'll be in store for. Some say it's all a lie to trick us into freeing the one who aims to destroy everything."

  Cullen shrugged. In his peripheral vision, Jolnes kicked off from his resting place on the Talis and reached for the dinger by the hatch. It buzzed from a tiny speaker on the dash. Cullen ignored the young pilot to look Torek in the eye. "You know I can't ignore this kind of job. But I just want to tell you. If this works out as planned, odds are split between what we find being the salvation of our universe or... something I don't want to imagine."

  "Like I said." Torek slapped his hands together and rubbed them up and down. "Something fun."

  2

  Ehli swallowed the cool gulp of water, sat up in the reclined neuronet chair, and set the plaster cup on the table beside her armrest. She wished there was a way to save the cold water for Emmit's return from the quarry. Ocia spoiled her during their treatments, like a father would his daughter, but she always felt guilty indulging in cold water, cool watermelon, and salted pork.

  On top of the relief his food and drink provided, his monthly treatments were getting closer to freeing her of the nightmares entirely. Last night was another story. Schaefer's death was as clear as ever. The dream left tracers of memory still playing in her mind: from how he'd forced the mech into the kitchen, to setting off the small explosive that shook the house and rattled dust and debris from the ceiling. The heat from the fire grew closer, hotter, and traveled too quickly for her and Emmit to escape.... She'd woken clasping her damp shirt, convinced the hot sweat was his fresh blood. If she could lower the visor and begin the program by herself, she would have started it already.

  The guard who escorted her to her treatments, Nassib, waited outside the door, the back of his head visible through the slit of the window. Six years ago, on her first night behind bars, the prick had tried to rape her. He hadn't expected the fight growing up as the middle sister between three brothers had trained her to give back. He left with a crushed testicle and a chunk of flesh missing from his cheek where she'd clamped her teeth and yanked free. Ocia had made him her bodyguard and escort to these treatments because, as he said, "You won't have to worry about him ever again."

  Ehli rubbed a finger through her hair above her ear, over the small connector plate grafted into her scalp. If Ocia were here, he'd scold her for fidgeting with it. "They find out you or Emmit have net chips," Ocia would say, "and I won't be able to save you."

  Nassib's head moved out of view through the window, and in its place Ocia, with his gentle stare, passed. A moment later he opened the door, holding a tablet pressed against his lab coat. Her attention dropped from his smile to the shades of yellow and red bruising on his neck.

  "What happened to you?" Ehli asked.

  He chuckled and rubbed his throat as he walked toward her. Nassib shut the door behind him and returned to his post. "Just a patient who's nowhere near as sweet as you." He leaned in to let Ehli hug him without standing up. "How are you, my dear?"

  "Not great. Had a pretty bad nightmare last night."

  Ocia pulled back, frowning. He tapped the screen on his tablet, alternating his focus between its screen and the tiny reader screens that lit up on her chair. In another minute, she'd enjoy blissful rest.

  "I'm sorry to hear that. Did you have any other nightmares this month?"

  "A couple."

  Ocia sighed, and probed her gaze for further info.

  "Three. Four total."

  He tapped that information into his tablet, nodding. "Two less than last month."

  "But one more than three months ago. I thought we were close."

  His smile returned. "Oh Ehli, we are."

  That piqued her interest. "We are? Why?"

  "Do you want news or treatment first?"

  The only thing worse than the nightmares in this place was the boredom. "News."

  He laughed. "Of course. So, you want to guess?"

  "Are we leaving?" Her voice carried far enough to make Nassib flinch.

  "Shhh." Ocia glanced back to check on Nassib, who remained in his position. When his attention returned to Ehli, his growing smile made her heartbeat race.

  "Are we?" She gripped her armrests, ready to jump out of her chair and hug him.

  "Yes."

  "Agh!" She struggled to get around the armrest as quickly as she wanted, but eventually managed and lunged into Ocia's wide frame.

  "Keep it down," he whispered.

  Hot tears wet her cheeks, and she wiped them on his white coat. "Oh, this is too good to be true. Please tell me I'm not dreaming."

  "You're not. And it's only just beginning."

  She backed out of his embrace. "How's that?"

  "The good news isn't just that we're leaving, but where we're going."

  "Okay?"

  "The place where I spend most of my time when away from here—"

  "Yeah?"

  "Is a planet the Osuna can't find. We'll live by the ocean, near waterfalls, in a home I've been preparing for you and Emmit for a long time."

  "Oh!" she gave him another bear hug, muffling her cry against his chest as she squeezed him tight. She looked up at his bruise and her
face fell. "That's not where you got that, is it?"

  He squinted down at her. "It was, but I'm dealing with that as soon as we get back."

  She let go and set a hand on her armrest. "Deal with what?"

  He motioned for her to lie in the chair. "We don't have time. Later."

  Ehli reclined into the chair, positioning her feet and hands over the chair's sensors while Ocia walked behind her.

  He parted her hair over the entry strip, peeled it open and connected the n-jack into her head. "Along with today's treatment, I'm going to implant memories that will guide you to our ship."

  Ehli twisted her neck to see him. "You won't be there?"

  "I'll be there... I just won't be with you right away."

  "Why's that?"

  "Because I have to help distract the prison guards so you and Emmit can get there. Nassib will unlock your cell, but without my help. Where he has to take you, he wouldn't make it without suspicion from his superiors." He rested a hand on her wrist and smiled. "Relax. I want this treatment to help prepare you for our escape."

  She laid her head against the concave padding as he lowered the visor over her eyes. Nervous excitement threatened the likelihood of relaxing anytime soon. She forced a deep breath.

  "That's my girl. When you're done, Nassib will take you back to your cell. I'll send him the ready signal. He'll open your door, then you just follow your intuition."

  "My in—"

  The purple light from the visor cut her off as the neuronet sucked her into a virtual heaven of white.

  * * *

  The western exit of Emmit and Adi's secret cave required squirming on your belly and sometimes digging to fit under the rock. Emmit chewed on the sweet juice of the green grapes their hideout supplied, and handed a couple more to Adi from his pocket. Emmit's pet gecko tickled his neck as he licked his scratchy tongue over the sweat even this shaded area produced.

  Outside, the absence of hoof beats, mule moans, or prisoner chit chat encouraged Emmit to poke his head out to the sun-warmed air, squinting into the daylight. No one passed by on the dirt path overlooking the sharp descent to the quarry. On the other side, a long bridge entered the prison. Red rock from the quarry formed the two-story frame that stretched three kilometers into Setuk's sprawling desert before it curved out of sight.

  Getting out from under the rock and onto the trail was a race against the chance that a passing Osuna satellite could relay his location. The clear sky and lack of shuttles flying goods or passengers between the prison and orbit was one more sign that something was up.

  "Someone out there?" Adi asked from behind him.

  "No."

  "Then let's go." He nudged Emmit's foot. "We're late, Em."

  Emmit scraped a last swath of dirt and started to wiggle out when his heart clenched and his body froze.

  An Osuna wolverine breached one side of the trail and disappeared behind the other side in two graceful gallops. If Emmit's intuition hadn't halted him, he'd have been halfway out and three quick breaths short of the end of his life. In his shocked stillness, another wolverine galloped past, this one a good ten kilos heavier.

  What are wolverines doing on Setuk?

  "What are you doing?" Adi asked.

  Emmit stuck a finger back to silence him. A half-dozen hard heartbeats later, he decided the threat was gone and crawled into the open light. He quickly turned and pulled Adi to his feet. He didn't let go until they'd run to the near edge of the wall. He peeked out. The path leading up the mountain was clear. To his left, he traced the curve of the path's descent toward the bridge, and the thin dust cloud kicked up by the wolverines.

  "Em—" Adi's shock cut short his breath, and he pointed instead. The two wolverines were only a small part of a pack chasing their food across the bridge.

  As Emmit watched them claw down and maul the guards, who stood no chance of making it inside the prison, he wondered who would have let such terrors loose on those who had ruled unchallenged for half of his life.

  Adi looked at Emmit, eyes lost in fear. "Where do we go?"

  Dy's scratchy tongue licked some sweat off Emmit's neck. He glanced back at the crawlspace into their cave. They could wait in there while the wolverines had their way with the bastards that had tormented him and Adi... but Mom. She was with Ocia for her treatment. He'd had his at sunbreak, but hers might not be done yet.

  The lead wolverine leapt onto the wall, dug its claws in, and pounced through a screen window.

  Mom could be on her way back to their cell.

  Beep-beep-beep.... Beep-beep-beep.

  The sound chimed from his feet.

  Beep-beep-beep.

  In the weeds beside the rock. He reached for the sound. His fingers poked through the sticky bristles of the weeds and brushed against something metallic. He knelt and forced the shrubbery aside to reveal a silver beacon the size of an orange half buried in the dirt.

  "Do you think a guard dropped that when they were running away?" Adi asked.

  Beep-beep-beep. The chime lit a small green light at the center of a groove parting it at the center. Emmit pushed it, and the beacon parted like a clam shell. "I don't know."

  Inside was a folded piece of paper with the shading of scribbled writing on its hidden sides. Emmit opened it to a series Versteg letters, the language of Osuna royalty. Circles. Slashes. Vertical lines. Dots—thick and thin, some in swirls that looped around and behind the solid lines.

  And they all spoke volumes.

  Regardless of any memory of seeing such shapes before, he knew them like the seashore of his first home. They told him it was time to leave, and to bring the beacon.

  "Emmit." Adi's tone spoke of caution.

  A whiff of sour hormones, like those of an animal, inhaled into Emmit's nostrils. Then he heard the wet wheezing of heavy, open-mouthed breaths.

  Emmit lowered the paper as a snort pushed it down on a fold. Trickles of snot peppered his arms from the wet snout of the Osuna wolverine standing before him. Emmit's bladder woke with fire, but he clenched it shut.

  The massive animal stood close enough to chomp off a hand before Emmit could blink. On all fours, its head rested under Emmit's chin. Emmit's stomach quaked as each breath shook his torso. He looked deep into the creature's brown eyes and black pupils, wondering which second would be his last. How is it not killing us right now?

  The black fur profile, slick snout, penetrating eyes, and red tongue lolling over sharp ivory incisors... all reformed in a memory, as if he'd seen this animal before. Not just a wolverine, but this exact one. In that memory, he walked beside it.

  Against reason, but with no alternate options, Emmit followed his memory. Heavy legs and lethargic muscles pressed on toward a connection with what should be. In the unknown past, he'd found a collar.

  Emmit reached into the thick black fur at the animal's neck. His fingers brushed over leather he had seen before, just as he saw in the present.

  "Emmit," Adi whispered. His stare threatened to break into tears at any sudden movement.

  "It's okay," Emmit said. He scratched under the animal's collar. Its stillness bespoke of rigid training. A warrior on all fours.

  In Emmit's memory, Adi was not there, but everything else was as his mind predicted: the cool blue sky over the mountain backdrop, the angle of his view into the alcove they'd just come from, the crack in the soil that ran across the ground near the animal's front foot. He knew what came next.

  Without a word, the wolverine lowered to its belly.

  Emmit lifted his leg over the creature's back.

  Adi covered his mouth.

  Emmit relaxed his weight onto the able beast and tucked his heels into the muscular ribcage.

  The wolverine rose, giving Emmit a towering view of his speechless friend.

  Emmit didn't know how, yet, but he did know that his time as a prisoner in this arid prison was over. The wolverine would take him—and Adi, if he wanted—down into the quarry, where a box of tools would be wa
iting for his use, along with a grill extension to a Mericure bubble p-drive that needed repairs.

  Emmit hitched his heels into the animal's ribs, prodding it into a slow creep toward Adi. "We're leaving. You should come." Emmit halted his animal with a tug on the collar.

  "How are you doing that?"

  "Does it matter? I am. Would you like to spend one more night under these stars?"

  "No." Adi stepped toward him, and the wolverine dipped its hind quarters to let him on. "No I don't."

  "Not one more night," Emmit said. When Adi's grip locked around his waist, he kicked his wolverine into a descent fast enough to fill his cheeks with air and his heart with a universe of new life.

  * * *

  Guards ran past Nassib on their way to the stairs and the screams of terror that rose from the opened doorways to downstairs. Mixed with the cries of the dying were the snarling roars of powerful predators. Ehli almost felt bad for them, until a dozen memories of their treatment of prisoners caused her to shrug.

  Nassib turned his key inside the lock and opened the door. Like the revelation of a great secret, Ehli knew exactly where to go, and how. She reached in her pocket and took out what she only now remembered was there: a lev pistol. The lightweight, hand-sized gun, powered by self-charged magnets and a chemical mixture of powder, could stun or incinerate with its laser-like discharges. The oval canister in the pistol's handle was filled with a sea-blue compound, one that, when activated, would emit a burning blue ray from the nozzle. Not even the guards had these.

  Nassib noticed her new equipment and halted.

  He was part of the plan, so she waved him on. Emmit was out in the middle of the action, so she had to hurry.

  Nassib yanked her hand, and they descended the open stairwell as other prisoners watched. Guards ran by below with charge spears to bolster the ground floor entrance. She had a thought of trying to let the prisoners out, but their cells would keep them safe from the wolverines. Nassib took her to a tunnel that went deeper into the prison, then indicated for her to hop into a mine car.

  She climbed in while he unlocked the brakes, then he jumped in as it slowly gained momentum down the hill. Lanterns on the ceiling lit their rapid entry into the tunnel and the bowels of the quarry. Cool air blew through her hair, lifting it easily to whip in the breeze.