I’d know the man inside anywhere. Zhaff Fucking Pervenio. I’d seen him in so many waking dreams since coming to, I could never mistake that face. He was stripped completely bare, countless circuits and tubes poking his sallow flesh. A portion of his torso and his entire left arm were replaced by the same material as my leg—synthetic. The half of his face he once wore his eye-lens over was reconstructed as well. But none of that was what drew my attention most. A respirator covered his mouth and plunged down his throat, and his chest rose subtly, in and out.
“I thought…” I swallowed back the sudden urge to vomit at the sight of my partner, now a Frankenstein patchwork of flesh and muscle. I squeezed my eyelids tight and checked again to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. I clutched my chest, as if that could keep my heart from racing. Breathing suddenly became difficult, the air feeling hot and thick, while a shiver simultaneously ran up my spine, thanks to memories of being shot on Titan.
“I thought he was dead,” I managed to say after a few strained breaths.
“Who told you that?”
“You did... or...” I wasn’t often left speechless, but it happened from time to time. Like when previously thought dead partners pop up in a tube. Or when Ringers blow their own brains out for no damn reason.
“His eye-lens saved him. The bullet broke it, and the shards plugged the hole to prevent the change in pressure from killing him instantly. The cold of Titan still did major damage, but the bullet passed through non-critical parts of his brain. Or so they tell me.”
Luxarn sounded frustrated, as if Zhaff should have been expected to survive a pulse pistol round to the face. I summoned the courage to approach again and laid my hand over the glass, only to find it was quaking. Like it was my first day on the job seeing a body.
Zhaff’s face looked so peaceful in there. He always appeared emotionless, but this was different—like he had no worries. Still, I kept expecting his remaining eye to snap open the moment I got too near, even though I knew that eye was blinded when he was younger.
“He’s been in a coma since we recovered him,” Luxarn said. “Doctor Aurora and dozens of doctors and scientists say he’ll never wake. That the life support is all that’s keeping him alive. She thinks it’s time to pull the plug and ‘set him free.’ But while we’ve wasted decades developing vaccines for Ringers, other companies have made huge leaps in medicine. From cybernetics like your leg to curing certain cancers to—”
“I don’t know, sir,” I said, my voice robbed of all its timbre by shock. “Maybe Doctor Aurora is right.” I wasn’t sure if it was the self-preservationist in me speaking, who knew if Zhaff ever woke with his memory intact, I was as good as dead, or if it was the me who’d grown to care for him. Either way, I’d witnessed my share of mad scientists who thought they could play god and it never turned out well.
“I refuse to give up on my son until he’s truly gone. And neither should you.” Luxarn took me by the shoulders, forcing me, finally, to look away from the kid. “We can avenge what was done to him.”
I peered back at the sleeping, barely recognizable cyborg floating in the tube. A nightmare if I’d ever seen one. “I believe I am.” I backed away from Luxarn. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m done with all of this.”
Anger gripped Luxarn once more, though I wasn’t affected like I once would’ve been. The impossibly powerful man I knew who gazed out upon space as if he were ready to devour it all was clearly gone. Now he hid away like a mad hermit while the Ring was pilfered, clinging on to half-dead corpses out of guilt. I knew the feeling well enough from a lifetime of failing Aria to know that’s what this was.
“You would walk away from the chance to be a director?” he growled.
“Dying puts things into perspective. I’m tired of all the fighting. I spent a lifetime running from a vacation, but right about now, all I want to do is nothing.”
“I know you’re upset about what happened down there, but we can fix this, just like I can fix him. No matter how many credits it takes. Don’t throw this away. You’re the last man in this damn corporation I know I can trust, Graves.”
I never thought I’d be in a world where I would pity Luxarn Pervenio, but if I was indeed the last man he could trust, then Pervenio Corp was doomed. Trust me? A collector well past his prime who’d only physically met him a few months ago, and who’d already betrayed him by putting his bastard son in a coma so I could help an illegitimate daughter I’d kept secret her whole life. That wasn’t a world I knew how to operate in.
“I wish things could be different, sir, I really do,” I said. “I’ve given my life to this company, and it’s been a privilege, but it’s time to check out.” I removed the pulse pistol from my belt and slapped it down on a worktable beside Zhaff’s tube.
Luxarn’s eyes widened, as if he’d had zero doubt he was going to convince me to stay. A man like him would never get used to people saying no.
“You think you can just walk away?” he questioned. “You failed your last assignment, Graves. You were after stolen supplies, and they all got away.”
“They did, but I remember a conversation about an extended job locating the Children of Titan’s hideout. Which we did.”
Nothing got under my skin quite like bungling a job and getting called out for it. My wounded pride couldn’t handle it. Though I couldn’t say that we’d retrieved the supplies, but I made sure we failed. I pictured Aria fleeing with the stolen medical provisions. I remembered expecting what they took to be new weapon tech or a bomb. Instead, it was only meant to help heal the sick.
“You will watch your tone, Graves,” Luxarn said. “Part of the job, part of the reward, then. And don’t think you’ll get any portion of my son’s!”
“Keep the credits.” Words I never thought I’d say to Luxarn Pervenio before turning my back to him. I needed to get out of the room before his anger and seeing Zhaff how he was caused me to say anything that would sour decades of loyal service. He kept using Zhaff like it’d convince me. If he cared about my old partner—his son—he wouldn’t have sent him to battle terrorists as a teenager.
“That doesn’t come anywhere close to what it cost to give you back your leg. You’ll be paying it off the rest of your life.”
That finally got me to stop in the exit and bite my lip. I grabbed my hunk of synthetics, turned, and lifted the knee toward him. “Do you want it back, then?” I said.
A wave of emotions passed across Mr. Pervenio’s face. Finally, he settled on what looked like remorse. “Keep the leg,” he conceded. “For research. What you have in your account won’t cover it all, but consider the rest recompense for thirty good years of service. You deserve that at least, after all that you’ve done.”
“Thank you, sir.” I went to turn again, but he stopped me once more.
“If you really won’t take my offer, at least consider this.”
“What?”
“I’ll provide transport to wherever you want to go. Do whatever it is with retirement you think you need, but keep an open mind. When you realize the mess Kale has made of our Sol, my offer remains.” He tossed me my pulse pistol. It was a terrible throw, and I had to scramble to catch it, but it reached me. “If you see him in the meantime, put a bullet in him for Zhaff. I’ll make you so rich you can crawl into a bottle for the rest of your life.”
I studied the gun. Every dent was a faded memory. Every scratch a tussle. Whether or not I wanted to fire it again, I felt naked without it. I grinned slightly. “All right, sir. That sounds fair enough to me.”
He nodded. “Pervenio Corporation thanks you for your service, Mr. Graves.”
Something brash fought its way to the tip of my tongue before I caught a glimpse of Zhaff’s floating body again and felt my throat tighten. “It’s been fun,” I said. “And, sir, maybe it’s time for you to move on too. Set him free, or whatever. Wherever the dead go, it’s got to be a hell of a lot more pleasant than here.”
My words left him speechless as I
walked away from the only job I’d known since I was a young man in a worthless clan-family who hadn’t seen anything beyond New London. The door shut behind me, and I gasped for air as if I’d been drowning. I had to lean on the wall just to catch my breath.
Where to go now? Maybe I could try to find Aria again like I’d always planned to after retiring, though I kind of preferred our leaving things on good terms. I couldn’t be there to play hero every time she got in trouble working with terrorists. She made her own choices, and I’d taught her well enough to be sure as hell she wasn’t a captive. She’d either done the smart thing like I’d taught her to and run or had convinced her people I was the enemy and was back on Titan taking care of those injured in the revolution. Helping people always came so natural to her.
Either way, she’d be safer on her own. Nobody outside of Titan except me knew her role in sparking the revolution, and people didn’t hunt down innocent doctors. Plus, if I did find her, I’d probably wind up screwing up again and someone else who didn’t deserve it would die.
Yeah, she was a lot better off without me.
So, there I stood, an ex-Pervenio collector with a second lease on life who’d just turned down a chance at being a director. No future assignments. No handler. Nothing to do at all. I suppose it was finally time for that drink I owed myself.
Five
Kale
I won’t say I was scared as I watched the ruddy, light-speckled orb of Mars grow beyond the viewport of the Cora. Anxious maybe, though I’d become an expert at keeping myself level enough to always appear composed. It was, however, my first time visiting a world beyond the Ring. Sure, I’d stepped onto many of the moons and stations orbiting Saturn since our revolution started, some as a soldier, others to keep the peace, but never anywhere so close to Earth.
We were nearing the end of our month-and-a-half-long journey to Mars. Earther influence on the Red Planet remained strong as always. Venta Co. and Red Wing Co., the two most significant Earther corporations remaining after Pervenio’s decline, called it their base of operations, though Venta was in the process of transitioning much of their operations to Europa. Still, the USF Assembly had the nerve to consider it neutral ground. They initially asked to hold our formal meeting on Earth, where gravity would crush us into submission, so at least on Mars, I’d be able to walk without my heart feeling ready to explode. G-stims could only counteract the effects of gravity stronger than Titan’s so much, and I needed to remain vigilant.
I twirled one of those very g-stims between my fingers, the Pervenio logo engraved into the pack, a constant reminder of how they’d taken everything from us. The concoction of chems used in them was actually a Titanborn invention from before the Great Reunion, when our ancestors started harvesting the gases of Saturn, which were far more efficient sources of fuel than Titan’s abundant methane lakes. That was just one small part of our forgotten history, revealed from data logs after we occupied Pervenio Station.
After the plague that claimed so many of my people half a century ago, Pervenio took over production of the g-stims like they had everything else. The logo remained proof of that. We’d driven them out now but were left with their highly advanced manufacturing plants and labs, and very few with the skills to do anything more than operating the machinery. Some of the elements required to develop their specific product lines also weren’t prevalent on Titan, meaning our supply was limited. We needed to be careful wasting any until we were able to strip back the formula to what our ancestors used. Boosting gas-harvesting yields to gain leverage over Earth was crucial, and Titanborn couldn’t operate the manned harvesters under Saturn’s gravity without g-stims.
So much was crucial…
I tried to act brazen around my people, but I knew the kind of struggle that lay ahead. It was like Luxarn Pervenio had been prepared that in the event we took over, they’d still be able to make our lives a living hell. My people had to simultaneously fight and teach themselves an entirely new stratum of technical skills to make use of their equipment. Not to mention all the repairs necessary after the heaviest of the fighting. From factories to ships, Titanborn men and women had put most of it together when we were their slaves, but like Rylah once told me, “Knowing where the pieces go isn’t knowing how it works.”
I didn’t even realize that I was crushing the g-stim pack out of vexation until it cracked in half—releasing its chems into the air. From my perspective, the pieces floating out of my grip swarmed about the looming Red Planet like a field of the meteors Earthers were so afraid of. I wondered if Earth looked similar to Mars after their infamous M-Day Meteorite hit, if it was wreathed by red flames racing across its once verdant surface.
“Have you been awake the entire time?” Ambassador Aria asked, her voice groggy. A month in a sleep pod and it was like her vocal chords had forgotten what it was supposed to sound like.
I quickly snatched broken g-stims out of the air and shoved them into the pouch on my belt rather than my mouth. I didn’t want to be numb on one of their worlds. Mars’s gravity wasn’t excruciatingly higher than Titan’s. Enough to notice, but tolerable. I had to feel everything.
“Couldn’t stomach going under,” I said without looking back at her. Our course was on autopilot, and any danger would rouse the crew, but after watching everyone load into their pods, I couldn’t do it. Instead, I’d roamed the halls of the ship alone the entire time, with nothing but yeasty ration bars, stars, and my thoughts to keep me company.
“Mal—” She stopped herself. “My father never liked it much either. He said it was like sleeping in a coffin, but that it was better than months with no company but space. Too long with the blackness could drive a man mad, or something like that.”
“Not me,” I replied.
She deftly pulled her weightless body along the bars on the ceiling until she was hovering behind me. This may have been my first long-distance space trip, but she was an expert at zero g. Her hand fell gently upon my shoulder, and with it, a stream of auburn hair that somehow after so long in stasis still smelled fresh. That got me to glance up, and we froze momentarily as our gazes met. Her usually rosy cheeks were a light shade of green from sleep sickness. I’d heard her vomiting a few times right after waking, but decided not to draw any attention to it.
Neither of us held each other’s stare for long. She instinctually bowed her head out of respect, causing the pendant on her necklace to fall out from her collar. It was an old Ark Ship figurine she said her father had given to her before he disappeared and she raised herself.
“You need to rest more, Kale,” she said softly. “I know there’s a lot to deal with, but I’ve seen how you lie awake every night.”
She was right. I hadn’t had proper rest in longer than I cared to remember, and that didn’t change during the trip. But something about artificial sleep made me uneasy. If I went under that long, maybe I would risk losing some memory of what Cora looked like. How her infrequent smiles made the tip of her nose wrinkle. How her silvery hair shimmered under the right light…
“How would you possibly know what I need?” I growled.
She didn’t back down. Instead, she drew herself around me, so I had no choice but to stare straight into her bright green eyes. She wasn’t born on Earth, but she wasn’t Titanborn either. Somewhere in between, same as any first-generation offworlder born on Mars. Her skin was exceedingly pale like mine, though rosy on her cheeks and dappled with freckles. Curly ginger hair tumbled over an ample chest like nobody born on Titan could ever boast.
Whether or not she was one of us, her beauty was unquestionable. The loose-fitting dress she wore didn’t hide it. She could’ve easily been Cora’s red-haired sister, and every time I beheld her, my mind was brought back to that moment on Pervenio Station when we’d found Cora’s empty cell shortly after she was spaced.
“I’m your doctor too, remember?” she said. “It isn’t healthy pushing yourself like you do.”
“After we’re done here, I
’ll try. Will that make you happy?”
Her lips formed the beginnings of a smile. The tip of her freckled nose creased as they did, causing my heart to race. Before I could turn away, she took my hand and wrapped it around her waist, pulling herself close. “Don’t do it for me,” she whispered.
“Never stuff me into one of those fucking things again!” Rin barked from the cabin behind us. The sound of a few other Titanborn puking echoed along with her.
Aria released my hand and immediately put a few feet between us. I was grateful for the opportunity to breathe. Being around her was equally suffocating and intoxicating.
“Kale, are we there yet?” Rin questioned. “I can’t take another second of zero-g.” She floated into the command deck, bits of vomit stuck in the crags of the scars marring half of her face.
All I did in response was point through the viewport, where Mars filled almost the entirety of the view. I could now perceive the clusters of metal and bright lights indicating the many domed colonies dappling the planet surface. Thousands of Earthers and first-or-second-generation offworlders were crammed into each of them.
Rin shoved Aria aside and took her place at the central navigation console beside mine, in front of a curving field of screens, holo-displays, and switches. Everything was top of the line. It made the command deck of the Piccolo seem like something out of the dark ages. Rin started picking at keys as if testing each one for poison.
“You have to switch the auto-pilot course off first.” Aria indicated a screen to their left.
“I know that,” Rin said.
She struck the command with verve, like she knew it the whole time, and took control. The Cora shuddered a bit but quickly leveled out. Countless readouts and automated fail-safes ensured it was impossible to mess up flying too badly, short of piloting us straight into the side of Olympus Mons. Aria had spent much of the weeks before this voyage training my reluctant aunt, who refused to put our lives in the hands of an outsider unless it was absolutely necessary like in the Ring Skipper raid.
Children of Titan Series: Books 1-4: (A Space Opera Thriller Box Set) Page 59