‘We don’t have that problem,’ Pereen said. ‘We can deploy a unit of ten ships, including a frigate. If they’re looking for trouble, we can deliver.’
‘Let’s call their bluff and see what they’ve got,’ I said, and turned to the bounty hunter. ‘We will fly out with a unit and will need you to guide us. If your information is correct, I will reward you.’
‘My pleasure, sir,’ she said.
I stood on the bridge of Verity, a Group C Frigate. It was an old ship from the Red War, but updated and impeccably maintained as one of the best ships of our BTL group. With the escorts, fighters, and bombers, we flew out to intercept the mysterious ship in the Poorelline Nebula. We had just pinched in and were running on heavy propulsion.
‘Based on their previous vector, we should intercept them in an hour.’
For someone who had grown up in the desert, flying through the blue of the nebula was both eerie and wonderful. Verity, in the middle, was surrounded by five nimble fighters, three hybrid escorts, and two heavy bombers, every ship pushing through the blue, leaving a trail of purple.
‘We see them on the scan,’ the navigator called out.
‘Intercept, but keep the distance,’ Pereen said. He was the captain of this ship and the commander of the fleet. Reina Wolfe and I accompanied him on the bridge of the Verity.
Sander piloted a bomber. He had insisted. Usher, as usual, avoided spacefaring, and stayed behind running the business down on Runcor, where he enjoyed the best protection should anything happen.
It had crossed my mind that the dark ship inside the nebula could be a decoy, but the background check on Reina Wolfe was good and I was curious. It was worth the risk.
Sander’s face appeared on one of the side screens. He said, ‘Are we there yet?’
‘Look at the navigation.’
‘Sorry, bro, just hoping to get some action on this rocking bomber,’ he said with a grin, and cut the connection.
The dark ship was right where she had said it would be, floating slowly on inertia. The navigator put it on the screen. Our systems could not match the vessel with the databases, and while it looked like it might have been a Dawn Alliance Navy command ship, the network disagreed; it had been modified beyond recognition.
‘What do you think?’ I asked Pereen.
‘Looks to me like a pirate ship. Too early to tell. It could hide some heavy weaponry. We must stay vigilant.’
We approached the ship, setting our trajectory on a vector that would follow them through the blue haze. It wasn’t long until we were within range to scan the ship, to get more information about its features and crew.
‘Initiating in five, four, three…’ the comms officer said. ‘Scanning now.’
As the scan started, a few lights appeared on the dark ship, and the screen came alive with colourful data. Green streaks of light appeared on the ship’s sides, highlighting the docking bays.
‘We woke it up,’ I said as the comms channel pinged.
The comms officer said, ‘They picked us up and are requesting communications.’
I exchanged glances with Pereen and nodded to him in agreement to proceed.
‘Open the channel,’ he said.
A picture of a human man’s face filled the screen. He appeared to be around my age, but softer, and had a mischievous grin on his face. It had been a long time, but still I recognised that face. Just as I had expected: the president’s shy son, Marc. I’d last seen him at my father’s funeral. His sheepish face had grown harder, but I could still see the boy lurking behind his father.
The comms officer said, ‘It’s a relayed transmission. This man is not on the ship.’
Our ship had matched the vector of the dark ship and was now floating calmly through the nebula. I felt the opposite of calm, as Marc started speaking.
‘So good to see you have finally found my side-base,’ he said, his voice all too familiar. ‘And if I’m not mistaken, Reina Wolfe is with you.’
I turned to Wolfe. She grimaced and whispered, ‘This was the man I met on planet Un in the Yedda system.’
Marc continued, ‘I heard you put bounty hunters after me, so I made sure the path led to the right place…’
Pereen said, ‘All ships, max shields.’ He had anticipated what I realised after he said it: the ship was a decoy.
‘…but before we proceed, let me fill you in on why you are here,’ Marc said. ‘You made an unnecessary trip here because you’re looking for the person who’s caused your trouble—Daler Tait, that person is you, yourself—but you’re in luck; you have the means to end that trouble.’
‘Who is this man?’ Reina asked.
‘There is no match in the network,’ Pereen said, and shook his head. ‘It means he’s extremely influential, or he’s a ghost.’
His comment made my neck muscles twitch; he was a ghost. ‘He’s Marc Puissance, but what does he want?’
‘I only want back what’s mine,’ the recording continued, as if he’d known I would ask that. ‘I wish I could have it all, but just the mining company will do. Also, you will cease your underground operations.’
Pereen glanced at me. I shook my head.
‘I know you’re watching, and I know what you did…’
I gulped. He was referring to his father.
‘Every action has a consequence, and when you killed my father, you set forth a motion, which in ten years has become something bigger than you could ever imagine. Of course, you can’t bring my father back. And I see two options for us. One is that you give me your company and the profits you have unlawfully gotten from stealing from my family. The other is that I make you suffer. Either way, it is my life’s mission to make sure you will have nothing, nothing at all, once I’m done.’
The video cut off. The ship showed no more life signs than before. There were ten cyborgs, each emitting the identification of Colonel Powell. While active, none of them moved.
Sander’s face came up again on the screen. He said, ‘We take out the ship?’
‘Wait,’ I said. ‘What does he want us to do?’
Pereen walked across the room. ‘He said he wanted Runore, but knows we won’t just give it to him, so it leaves him wanting to make you suffer in some other way.’
‘No, I mean, does he wish us to attack them?’
Pereen stepped forth, but before he could say anything, the comms officer said, ‘The unidentified ship is requesting communications. This time it’s two-way.’
‘On screen.’
I was expecting a scrawny cyborg, but instead got an image of Marc Puissance, now standing on sand. ‘Greetings! Do we have a deal?’
‘If you think I’d give you Runore, it will not happen.’
‘I thought so,’ he said, with a half-hearted grin. ‘To be honest, I never thought you’d just give me your company, but it never hurts to ask, does it?’
The video zoomed out, with two cyborgs appearing beside him. ‘I promise I won’t kill you. Just like I didn’t kill your wife.’ Marc gave me a piercing stare. ‘How’s your love-life these days?’
I gritted my teeth and resisted the urge to explode at him. ‘What do you want?’
He laughed. ‘As I said, I want payback for what you did, when you wrecked my family and made me like this.’ His smile disappeared, and he pulled his robe aside. Grim metal parts covered his skin. ‘Yes, I wanted to kill myself—just like your wife did—but the fire never killed me. Instead, it strengthened me and my determination. As for the payback, I will make you watch as the people close to you suffer.’
He nodded at the cameraman.
The camera panned around to show Usher on his knees on the sand, his hair messy and his face sweaty, hands locked behind his back and a thick mechanical collar on his neck. He grimaced and shook his head.
Marc stepped in front of Usher, stood stern, and said, ‘Get up and run.’
Pereen whispered, ‘That thing around his neck…’
Marc held a small device—a
detonator—and would kill Usher. I stood up and shouted at the screen, ‘No!’
‘I can stand up,’ Usher said to Marc on the screen and rose to his feet, ‘but I won’t run.’
Marc nodded and stretched his hand towards a cyborg at the side. The cyborg gave him a plasma pistol, and he readied it and aimed at Usher. ‘Run, or I will shoot.’
‘Stop this!’ I yelled. ‘What do you want?’
Marc turned around and scowled. ‘I already said I want you to suffer.’
‘Leave my brother out of it.’
‘I just might, if he runs like the animal he is.’
I glanced at Pereen at my side. He pursed his lips in thought. Sander’s face came up on the side screen.
On the screen, Usher shook his head. ‘I won’t let you have the sick enjoyment you seek from this.’
Marc turned around to face Usher again. ‘You won’t let us have fun… Perhaps you don’t have a say in that?’
‘I have my free will.’
I gulped at the exchange. Usher was under threat because of me. The only question was whether Marc would carry through his threat. What if he had been bluffing? Perhaps it wasn’t a bomb. So far, he hadn’t killed any of us, even if he could have murdered Sander or Tiana. It would’ve been easy for him to kill both of them.
Whatever the case, the risks were high. Playing it passive, and giving in, would cause a sure defeat. The other option was to raise the stakes; attack was often the best defence.
‘Hey!’ I shouted at the screen. ‘Is this what you want? I’m with a fleet of armed ships. If you don’t let him go, I will blow up your ship, and then we’ll take you down. The only out for you is to make a deal with me.’
Marc turned back to the camera. He tilted his head as if he was considering my offer, then blurted, ‘Go ahead and try.’
Damn, I cursed. He had called my bluff. I nodded to Pereen, and he ordered the fleet to target the dark ship and prepare to fire. Sander flicked a quick grin.
Without showing a hint of emotion, Marc said, ‘I don’t care. I’m not there.’ He turned around and pointed his gun at Usher. ‘It’s your last chance to run.’
Usher shook his head.
Marc lowered the weapon, but as he did, he shot two plasma bolts, one at each of Usher’s knees.
With an awful scream, Usher tumbled down on his face in the sand.
‘You sand-worm!’ I shouted as Usher rolled on to his back, screaming in agony.
And before I could say anything else, Marc turned around to look at me and smiled. He raised the device. ‘I guess you know what this is?’
I shook my head. ‘Don’t!’
‘It would’ve been more fun if he had run…’
He said something else, but I don’t remember what it was. All I heard was Usher wailing in the background and my heart pumping blood through the veins in my ears. Our childhood, from since the first time I threw sand in Usher’s face, flashed before my eyes.
Marc pressed the button, and as if in slow motion, Usher’s neck exploded.
‘No!’ I screamed as his body fell limp on the sand in a splash of blood.
Pereen ordered a strike. In an instant, dozens of missiles shot forward from our fleet towards the dark ship in front of us.
‘You know what I want,’ Marc said. ‘I’m the executioner of your revenge, and I’m coming for you.’
Before I could say anything, Marc’s video feed disappeared, and the ship before us lit up.
Colourful lights flashed on the ship in our sights, our blasts shot forward, as the image of my brother’s head exploding on the sand flashed in my eyes. On the screen, Sander looked fierce. I might have been in shock, and the only thing I could do was to watch.
Our bolts and missiles exploded on impact with the cyborg ship’s shields. ‘They’ve powerful shields on that one!’
‘Rush it with all we’ve got,’ Pereen said. ‘Fighters, bombers, blow it out of space.’
‘The cyborgs are active,’ the comms officer said. ‘They’re on the move.’
Several missiles shot forth from the cyborg ship. Its turrets fired red plasma on automatic bursts, following our fighters with perfect precision.
Our missiles blasted against their shields, and theirs hit ours. The ship rumbled under my feet, and on the screen, our fighters swarmed around the enemy, firing blasters and missiles that burst into colourful explosions against their shields. The world around us, portrayed by the screens, was full of bright colours, like fireworks, and I could not tell whether we were winning or losing. I could only clutch the armrests of my seat as our ship rumbled, tears running down my face as I thought about Usher.
‘Here’s for messing with my brothers!’ Sander shouted. On screen, his bomber released a long stream of plasma bombs that twirled towards the back of the enemy ship. ‘Damn it!’
His ship stopped delivering bombs.
‘What’s going on?’ I said.
‘My shields are gone. Something’s pierced my ship, a railgun—’
He was cut off as pieces of his cockpit flew around, his face twisting in horror before his image blinked out.
I pulled his ship on the screen; his engines flickered off along with all the lights. A point of yellow light appeared behind the cockpit’s canopy. The light grew and zigzagged in all directions across the surface of the ship. I gasped as I understood what was happening. With my right hand, I reached out for him—
His ship exploded in a flash of white light.
‘Sander!’ I shouted, still reaching out to him in vain. ‘NO!’
Sander’s bombs reached the enemy ship, and exploded in a fast succession, each pounding deeper inside the ship. It took less than ten seconds until the cyborg ship in front of us exploded in a blinding burst and sent out a shock wave that made our ship tremble.
I wiped my face and sighed in relief. But the feeling was short-lived: while we had won the space battle, my war with Marc Puissance had just started.
Pereen came up to me, a grave expression on his face, and said, ‘I’m so sorry. We’re the only ship left.’
My chest tightened. I had lost both of my brothers.
I crumpled down in tears.
Chapter Twenty
In a week, I was back on Runcor, flowing smoothly across the desert plains of Fearanor on the same floating event venue we used for my father’s funeral. Reuna scorched hot above us in the clear sky, but my mind still roamed the black vacuum of space, where I had left Sander and so many of my friends. Marc had killed Usher somewhere in these desert plains, and we never recovered his body. My brothers’ bodies failed to receive proper burial—Usher’s was blown to bits on the sand, and Sander’s in atoms across the massive vacuum of space—but the priests made sure their souls received proper parting rites.
I had no further communication from Marc. With help from Pereen, we turned every stone to find him, but it proved more complicated than we thought. According to the Runcor administration, the Dawn Network, and even the Ghostnet, he had died in a self-ignited fire shortly after his father had disappeared. There were no traces of him anywhere, and the bounty hunters couldn’t help either. Reina Wolfe had the most knowledge, but even she couldn’t help.
I thought it would be easy once I knew the enemy. The answer that it was the ghost of Puissance’s son took me back to square one, but this time I missed the most important things I still had on the last round.
My brothers were dead, and my once graceful and lively love had become a depressed robot who shunned me.
I leaned against the railing on the back of the ship, looking down at the sand passing below us and the haze of the dust trail left behind by the ship below me.
The funeral quests were many, for it was a double funeral, but there were only perhaps half of the people who’d joined my father’s wake. Only close family and some BTL people, most of whom avoided public events, had come for Sander. But Usher, having enjoyed public presence as the head of Runore, had many to mourn him. Neither
of them had the following of my father, though, and the mood in this gathering was different. With my father, there had been friendly, genuine mourning, but now everyone just wanted to be seen to attend. For me, these people were irrelevant and seeing them failed to lift my spirits.
With every passing day, I became more and more depressed, and perhaps even paranoid. Often, I would see Marc among a crowd of people, but after I glanced away and looked back, he wasn’t there. I saw cyborgs in the corner of my eye, but when I checked, there was nothing. And when I closed my eyes, I saw Usher’s head explode, again and again, as Sander’s and our father’s death-cries rang in my ears.
When my father died, I had succumbed to sorrow, but soon after that, the overriding feeling had turned to anger. Now, with my brothers’ deaths, the anger was already present, disguised as frustration and overshadowed by depression. Without my brothers and Tiana, what did Runore, success, or avenging them mean? Without them, every success or failure was a drop of water in the desert. The only person left—the person I had neglected the most—was my mother.
After the ceremonies, I found her down in a quiet room below the decks. She sat on a chair alone, wearing a dark red dress, and stared at an empty black wall.
‘Mom.’
She stood up and turned to face me. With tears in her eyes, she threw her arms around me and squeezed tight. ‘Daler.’
We stood there in silence for a moment. There was nothing I could say.
She pulled back and said, ‘Why does this happen?’
I met her teary eyes and shook my head. It was all because of me. Even so, I said, ‘I don’t know.’
Her eyes mirrored my soul as if she knew it, too. The shadows on the lines on her face made her look old. ‘I can’t lose you, too. Promise me you’ll be safe.’
‘I will, Mom.’ There was nothing else I could say.
She turned away and sat back on the chair, motioning me to sit beside her.
‘Runore,’ she said. ‘You have something going on. Is it going to kill you as well?’
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