“And how does it get here?” Mary asked.
“We don’t know. We have limited trade with partners across the universe now,” Susan answered, then looked to me, as if giving me credit for that, or blame. “Someone’s sneaking it in. We’re trying to be diligent at the ‘borders’,” she said with air quotes, “but once the recipe is found out, the dealers are cooking it themselves.”
“Other crime? Murder?” I asked.
Francis answered this. “We’ve had a total of five hundred murders in the last twelve months. Considering our population, we consider this a huge win, but it’s still too many.”
It stung to know we were still killing one another. Even after everything, we kept the mentality and capability of murder. I tried not to think how many lives I’d personally snuffed out.
“I heard you might transfer here if we move out this way,” Mary said to Denise. It was the first I’d heard of that.
“Slate too?” I asked.
“Of course. Do you think Slate would let us live three hours from him? He wouldn’t be able to protect us then, would he?” Mary laughed.
Denise nodded, adding, “We want a new start together. This could be a good place to do that.”
“You’re right.” I didn’t have the heart to tell Mary there was no way I was going to accept the mayoral job. We’d discussed it a lot, and she’d ordered me to consider it before answering. I’d thought long enough and didn’t think it was for me. “Plus, I’d miss having him over three times a week for dinner.”
“If you’d like to get in, we can show you the rest of the area,” Susan said, and we followed her to a modified passenger van. It sat taller than most, with enormous windows, twenty-inch tires rounding it out.
We loaded Jules into the mounted baby seat. One point to them for being prepared. Before we knew it, we were heading down the rough road, past miles of land where ground was being tilled, dug, and prepared for the immense city that was to be. Only a few humans were around, and those did maintenance or used tablets to control the drones and robotic machinery doing the heavy lifting.
“We have twenty different neighborhoods planned, each with more than enough amenities to allow our people to thrive. With each new Terran site, we’re relieving the stresses of the other cities. Within five years, we’ll have enough set up to be optimized,” Bart said proudly.
I wanted to ask what human optimization looked like, but refrained. They did seem to have things under control, and I was happy to see it. People really were stepping up to create this new world. Once again, I thought about sharing colonies with other races. Haven already had a human settlement, and they were looking to expand on it. Sarlun wasn’t open to the idea yet, but the Shimmali were happy trading with us. Suma claimed they would change their minds once we’d been around a while.
The Keppe might want to share a colony, perhaps with the Motrill as well. With the goodwill earned between us, and having Magnus and Natalia among them, I could see this happening. I was thinking larger than New Spero. There was so much room out there among the stars. I was drawn to it, like a moth to a flickering flame, but I couldn’t tell Mary that. She wanted to plant roots, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted for our little family. As long as the three of us were together, it didn’t matter to me.
“We’re approaching where the military base will be located. We’ve already begun construction,” Francis said from the driver’s seat. He slowed so we could see the wide frame of the base building. A few Kraski-style ships hovered on a rough landing pad.
“Who’s that?” I asked, squinting at the ships.
Bart grabbed a tablet and tapped it a few times. “Looks like only one ship’s scheduled to be here. Interesting.”
I looked out the window and saw the familiar logo of the New Spero military on the leftmost ship. The one on the right was bare, missing the identification markings.
“Something’s wrong,” I said, my gut sinking.
“What do you mean?” Mary asked.
“That ship isn’t ours,” I said. My voice was tense and low. “We need to get out of here.”
Denise lowered her hand to her hip, touching her pulse pistol.
Susan spoke out. “That’s absurd. Surely it’s just…” The road in front of us exploded, sending the van backwards as the windshield shattered.
Francis let out a scream as the glass cut into his face. I managed to turn and pull Mary down at the same time as we flew back. Jules was facing behind us, and she let out a cry as we landed, skidding to a halt.
My seatbelt was undone in an instant, and I reached behind the seat where the stroller was folded. I grabbed a shield dome from inside a pocket and activated it. The shield had been my idea. With Jules around now, I couldn’t be too careful, especially after I’d found out Lom of Pleva and the Kraski were coming for me. I’d expected Mary to tell me I was overthinking it, but to my surprise, she hadn’t.
Karo grabbed a pulse pistol from a hidden holster, and I was pleased he’d taken it. I had one tucked under my jeans leg on my shin, and I grabbed it while Karo steadied his hand on the van’s side door. All of this took place within ten seconds of the blast coming.
Francis remained screaming in the front, and my gaze darted from side to side, wondering where the attackers were. Could we risk getting out? Would they fire at the van next time and kill us all? The shield that surrounded us would only withstand so much force, and it didn’t stretch to the front seat. Susan was in the middle row beside Karo and she was white as a ghost, a continuous cry growling from her closed lips.
“Dean, over there!” Mary pointed out the passenger side window, and I could see two shadows around the edge of the military base’s corner frame.
Denise wasted no time. She burst out of the van and ran behind it, firing a few pulse rounds toward the enemy. Karo followed her. I got out the driver’s side, my own gun tight in my grip. I ran to the front of the van, ducking low. The front end was damaged, metal digging into my back as I pushed against it. Karo fired more shots, and I realized Mary and Jules were still inside, the shield dome with them.
I needed to draw any potential attacks away from the van. Karo fired from the back of the van again, and I took my chance as he distracted them. I ran forward to the far edge of the construction site. I didn’t get any fire at my feet as I crossed the hundred yards. My back pressed against the metal framework, and drones buzzed above me, soldering joints. I looked behind me, toward the two ships at the landing pad, and saw two bodies sprawled out on the ground, likely dead New Spero military personnel. Had this been a trap for us?
I kept hidden from the Kraski vessel as best I could, trying to determine how many enemies we were up against. I made for the back of the site, ready for anyone to jump out against me. No one did, but I almost tripped over a man at the far corner of the building. I knelt at the limp man’s side, feeling for a pulse that wasn’t there. His hands held a blinking tablet, and I removed it gingerly. The screen showed viewpoints of ten drones, each doing different tasks.
After a few moments, I figured out how to control one of them manually, and I had it fly around the perimeter of the building. There were five assailants. Three appeared to be the same type of robots I’d now encountered twice before. The other two were clearly Kraski, tall and thin in their shiny uniforms, like the ones I’d found when we first rose into space aboard one of their vessels.
They were firing at Karo, Denise, and the van. “Get away from there, Karo,” I whispered to myself, not wanting my wife and daughter to be fired upon. I watched a feed from the drone, seeing the robots send a blast of red energy toward Denise’s gunfire, the impact sending the van sideways. I almost shouted for Mary but bit my tongue.
There wasn’t time to waste. I had to stop them.
I ran around the building and dropped a drone from the sky toward the two Kraski. It had a welding torch, and I turned it on with the touch of an icon, cranking the volume of the gas up to max. A flame shot forward from the hoveri
ng drone, and I flew it directly into the pair of Kraski. They ducked for cover, and Lom of Pleva’s robots began to fire back.
It gave me enough time to rush them. I looked up to see Denise and Karo coming to assist me. We fired at the Kraski while they were distracted, felling the first one with ease. Denise took out one of the robot enemies, while the second Kraski fired in my direction. I jumped out of the way, but the beam hit my left arm, sending a jolt of pain through that side of my body.
I fell to the ground hard and tried to roll back to my feet, but overshot it and landed on my stomach. My pulse pistol miraculously stayed in my hand, and when the Kraski approached me, gun at his side, I spun to my back and fired a series of shots. His eyes widened as the blasts took him in the chest. As he fell, I saw two robots behind him, each with red blazing eyes.
One of them sparked as Karo snuck up from behind, hitting it in the back of the neck with a close-range shot. The other fired at me, and I narrowly rolled out of the way. I shot it in the chest at the same moment Denise blasted it in the back of the knees, and it exploded in a pile of bolts. I threw my hands over my head as the shrapnel rained down on me. It had to have a self-destruct feature, because our pistols didn’t hold that much punch.
I was breathing heavily, scanning the surrounding area for any signs of the enemy.
“Are you okay?” Denise asked as she lowered a hand to help me to my feet. I got up, my left arm hanging limp at my side.
“Nothing a little modern medicine won’t be able to assist with.” I’d kept my streak of bad humor while in terrible situations alive. “Is that all of them?”
“I see no one else,” Karo said, and I turned my attention to the van.
Running across the space, I saw Susan climb out and stumble a few steps before stopping.
“Susan, get inside the shield!” I called out as we approached the overturned vehicle. She looked at me, and then upward, her mouth in a surprised O.
It was too late to warn them. The Kraski ship was emitting a green beam: the same one they’d used during the Event. It plucked Karo and Susan from the ground, lifting them into the sky and into the ship. My pendant burned against my chest. I still wore it as a reminder of that day, of our survival. The beam blinded me for a moment, and I blinked hard, trying to see the others inside it.
I shouted in anger at the ship as it moved, standing on the packed dirt road. I uselessly fired at the vessel with my pistol as it started away. The beam glowed out of the ship for a second longer, and a body emerged from the vessel. When the light cut out, the figure fell the few hundred yards to the ground. Susan’s corpse was twisted on the dirt forty yards in front of me.
Denise stood beside me, and we watched as the Kraski ship raced away with Karo inside.
TWENTY
“How does that feel, Dean?” Nick asked, stepping back to admire his work.
I flexed my arm, bending it every way I knew how. My fingers danced as I moved them around, and I nodded to the doctor. “Just like new.”
“Can you tell us again what happened?” Slate asked.
“How many times do I need to go over this?” I asked. We were tucked away in Clare’s research facility, away from prying ears and eyes. Mary was holding Jules close. Both of them were unscathed after the ordeal, and Mary was taking the whole thing a lot better than I was. I’d come close to losing them today, and I could hardly keep my mind from reeling. We were attacked at home. “What I want to know is how a Kraski ship got through to the surface.”
Slate sat beside Denise, who’d changed from her uniform into a plaid shirt and jeans. Nick and Clare were the only others in the room with us. “I talked with the base.” Slate pointed upwards, indicating the station we had orbiting New Spero. Any incoming ships had to clear with them; otherwise, I was told, we had five pulse cannons tucked away in various locations on New Spero, ready to pulverize anyone attacking or arriving without authorization.
“And?” I said impatiently.
“The ship had clearance,” he said.
“How the hell is that possible? They were clearly an unmarked Kraski ship. We let a Kraski ship land on New Spero! They took Karo!” I was standing, my voice close to a yell.
“They say it had a valid ID number. It scanned through,” Slate said.
“Then someone hooked them up. We have a mole on New Spero.” I sat down, running my hands through my hair. I examined my arm and saw it was still pink and slightly raw. Nick had said it would be a few days before it was fully healed.
“Who would possibly have contact with the Kraski? It doesn’t make sense,” Mary said as she patted Jules’ back after feeding her. My little girl let out a small burp.
“I don’t know, but we need to find out. Clare, can you get the ID number from Slate’s contact? Maybe you can go to the station, and see if we can reverse-engineer this code thing. I want to see footage, and records of the Kraski ships interactions with our station. Slate, we need to get Karo back,” I said, glancing at Mary.
“How are we going to do that?” Mary asked me. “We have no idea where he went.”
“Why would anyone want this Karo guy so badly? Were they trying to get you, Dean?” Clare asked.
“I suspect they would have been happy with both of us.” I pulled out the green stone pendant at the end of the chain that hung around my neck. “I was wearing this. Never take it off, and it’s a good thing.”
Mary was wearing Bob’s old ring around a chain on her neck, so she would have been safe too, but our child had no such protection. We’d have to remedy that.
“And why Karo?” I asked. “Because he’s the last living Theos.”
Nick’s and Clare’s jaws dropped, and I noticed Denise’s fell a moment after. Slate must have told her before.
“The Theos? I thought you said they were all dead,” Clare said.
“I did, but a lot happened while we were gone. I don’t want to get into that now. We know who took Karo, and we know who hired them to do it,” I said.
“We do?” Slate asked.
“Sure. This whole thing stinks of Lom of Pleva.” I sat down on the bench beside Mary. “Let’s take the facts. Lom of Pleva helped the Kraski years ago, before the Event. He created human and Kraski hybrids, a decade before the Event occurred. They’ve been in bed with each other for at least that long. The same robots that Lom sent to get the Shifter from Rivo’s ship came to Sterona to get me.
“When they captured me, a Kraski was there interrogating me. We escape, get home, and now a Kraski arrives on New Spero with more of Lom’s robots, and they take Karo.”
Slate leaned forward. “That doesn’t mean Lom of Pleva has anything to do with it. They could have bought the robots off him years ago, in the same deal as the hybrids.”
“He’s right, Dean,” Mary chimed in. “We might be barking up the wrong tree.”
“No. It’s him. I know it,” I said.
“Then where do we find him?” Slate asked, looking from face to face for an answer.
“I don’t know, but I know who does.” I caught the look on Mary’s face as I said it.
“Dean, you can’t do this. We have a family now,” she said.
“Mary, they came to our home. Attacked our family in broad daylight on New Spero. If we don’t bring the fight to them, what chance do we have?” I asked.
She looked tired, resigned to my decision.
“You and Jules can go to Shimmal for a while,” I said, expecting a fight over it. Instead, Mary peeked down to our beautiful baby girl and nodded.
“I think that’s for the best,” she said without looking at me. She’d been through enough. The ordeal with the Iskios had taken a lot out of her, and with a small child, she was constantly being pulled from anything she tried to do. I knew she didn’t have the energy to come with me, and for once, I was glad that she and Jules could be safely tucked away under Sarlun’s protection. I had half a mind to ask Slate to stay with her, but I couldn’t do that. Selfishly, I needed him a
t my side.
“Then it’s settled. Slate, we go with Mary to Shimmal in the morning, then to Bazarn Five for a quick visit with Rivo and her father.” I ran a hand softly over Jules’ head and kissed Mary on the forehead.
“Now let’s figure out just how we can outsmart this Lom of Pleva.” I went to find a coffee pot. This was going to be a long night.
____________
“Be careful, Dean. You’re not messing with just anyone here.” Sarlun stood at the other side of his office, arms crossed over his pristine white suit. “I’ve done more digging on him since our last visit. He’s got his hands in a lot of bad stuff. Even more than I knew about.”
Mary was beside Suma on the small loveseat opposite Sarlun’s desk. “Do you agree with Dean’s assumption that Lom is involved in Karo’s abduction?”
“I do. Lom’s best known for his genetic obsession. If he knows Karo is the last living Theos, who’s been alive for thousands of years, then he’ll want that man’s DNA. I suspect he wants this secret elixir of life the Theos had. Perhaps he wants to find a way to store his own mind into a stone, until there’s a way to transfer it back to a new body without complications,” Sarlun said.
I’d been so frazzled, I hadn’t put it all together. Sarlun was right. Lom of Pleva definitely was behind this all. He wanted me dead, likely as payment to the Kraski for helping get Karo to him. Only that end of the bargain had failed and I was still open game. My decision to have Mary and Jules stay on Shimmal was even more justified now.
“They still want Dean,” Mary said matter-of-factly.
“I suspect so,” Sarlun said.
Slate stood like a pillar in the corner. His jumpsuit was fresh, his short blond hair recently trimmed. My hand ran to my own thick beard, wondering if I should finally shave it. He looked every bit the devoted soldier. “Sarlun, do we have any idea where Lom is these days?”
The Survivors: Books 1-6 Page 121