by F. T. Lukens
Liam rolled to his back and blinked up, confused, his eyes blurry, and his forehead crinkled. “Ren?” he croaked. “Is this a dream?”
Ren smiled so wide his cheeks hurt. His heart pounded, and joy flashed through him; his eyes stung with tears. “Get up. This isn’t a dream.”
Liam shot up, and Ren jumped backward to keep from knocking their heads together. Liam swung his legs around. The white of the medical scrubs he wore washed out his complexion, and his eyes were shadowed with lack of sleep and worry, but he grinned when he staggered to his feet.
“Ren?” Ren caught him in a hug and held on. Liam sagged into his arms. “What are you doing here? What have you done?”
“No time to talk. We need to go.”
Ren swung Liam’s arm over his shoulder and grabbed his waist. They hobbled to the door, and Ren peeked around the frame.
Ollie and Asher waited, scanning the hallway, weapons up and ready.
“Got him?” Asher asked, casting a glance over his shoulder.
Ren beamed. “Yes. Yes, I have him.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Liam rasped. “Wait, there are others. There are others here, and they’re going to move us or kill us. I’m not sure which but, please.”
“Sorry, kid, but we don’t have time.” Asher raised the comm to his mouth. “We’ve got Liam. How are you doing?”
Darby’s voice came back. “We’re clear, but we heard chatter on the comms that Vos is loose in the facility. He got away in the commotion.”
“Stars,” Asher cursed. “Is that what you hid in the stairwell?” he said, gaze cutting to Ren.
Ren shrugged. “I didn’t know he was loose. I did feel the doors open on the top floor.”
Asher clutched his gun and dipped his chin toward his comm. “Eyes open. We don’t want to run into him or anyone who is hunting him.”
“Gotcha, boss,” Darby said.
“Ren? What’s going on?” Liam rasped. He was heavy on Ren’s shoulder, and his weight threatened to pull Ren to the floor. But he wouldn’t let Ollie take Liam. They needed Ollie for protection, and Ren wasn’t going to give up. Not now. He hauled Liam closer.
“We’ve got to get out of here before we’re crunched by one of the Corps.”
“Like me?” The figure that stepped out from the cross section wore the Corps uniform and a smug smile. He stopped in the middle of the hallway to block their path to the docking bay.
“You,” Asher said, voice hard.
Corporeal Zag smirked. “Me.”
“How’d you get free?”
“Manual override,” Zag said, with a shrug. “This base is not technopath-friendly. And you may be navigating now, but I guarantee you’ll make a mistake. It’s a matter of time.”
Ren scoffed. “Stars. Figured we’d run into an utter cog,” Ren said. Liam hung on his arm like a limpet and squinted at Ren. Ren thrust his chin at Zag. “He killed me.”
Zag pressed a hand to his chest. “I didn’t kill you.” He reached for his hip, and Asher raised his weapon and trained it on Zag.
“Don’t.”
Zag stopped, smirk still firmly in place, and raised his hands. “The gun in my holster killed you.” His hand fluttered, and Asher moved forward, stepping between Ren and Zag. “You’re interrupting the reunion, Morgan. I’d love for another bullet to find its way to your friend. Maybe this time, he’ll stay dead.”
“Out of the way,” Asher said, gesturing with the tip of his gun. “Back the way you came and maybe focus on the real threat.”
Zag smiled. “You mean Vos, that duster playing leader? He may have escaped, but we’ll catch him again. Just as I’ve caught you.”
“You haven’t caught us yet. And I promise you,” Asher said, body trembling with rage, “you don’t want to catch me.”
Ren reached out but there were no weapons on Zag he could use. And the hallway was only equipped with cameras—no weapons for technopaths to turn on their captors.
“Is that a threat, Morgan?” He tapped his chin. “What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were doing grunt work on Bara? We’re taking that planet over, you know. The Corps is done with you foolish dusters coming up here to space and mucking up the drifts. It’s not just techies and star hosts we’re imprisoning now.”
“A police state. Nice. Except you won’t be able to police anything once you’re all vented.”
Zag laughed. He dipped his head and met Ren’s gaze. “You going to vent me?” He swaggered closer. “What will your little brother think about you killing soldiers on Erden? Or the ones on Bara? That was you, wasn’t it?”
Ren narrowed his eyes. The longer they stood there, the longer Zag stalled, the greater the threat of capture or worse. Liam was already weakening, his pressure on Ren’s body was becoming a dead weight that he wouldn’t be able to support.
“It’s not Ren you have to worry about.”
“Vos? That cog? He’s a duster cog. He’s not a threat to me.” Zag cocked his head and peered over Asher’s shoulder. “And neither are you, Ren. Is that your name? Take away the access to tech, and you’re a scared, little, village boy.”
Liam rolled his eyes. “This guy is a dick,” he said out loud. “Why are we listening to this? I don’t know you and I don’t like you.” Liam turned to Asher. “Shoot him.”
Asher didn’t hesitate. The first shot glanced off Zag’s knee, and he fell to a kneeling position. The second hit him in the shoulder and sent him sprawling on his back. Asher strode forward, bent down, and slipped the gun from the holster on Zag’s hip. He pocketed it and kicked Zag’s injured leg. He hissed, eyelids fluttering, hanging onto consciousness by a thread.
Asher leaned close to Zag’s face. “Don’t interfere again. Next time, I won’t miss.” Asher stepped on the burn and the smoking fabric on Zag’s knee. “Understand?”
Zag grunted and squirmed on the floor. “I get it,” he gritted out.
“Good.” He grabbed Zag’s hair and slammed his head onto the hard floor. Zag’s body went limp.
“Your boyfriend is awesome,” Liam said, with a wide grin. “I like him.”
“You’re entirely too snarky for someone who has spent the past year locked in a maximum-security facility,” Ren said. “Let’s go before anything else happens.”
“My brother can do anything,” Liam said with a smile. “And so can his boyfriend. And you.” He looked at Ollie. “You look awesome and intimidating. I bet you can do anything you want as well.” Liam listed to the side, and Ren staggered. “I’m happy!”
“I think you’re loopy,” Ren grunted. “Are you… are you drugged?”
Asher grabbed Liam’s other side. “Let’s get out of here.”
“The others!” Liam insisted. “We can’t leave them.”
Asher furrowed his brow.
“Ren! We can’t leave them. They drugged us all.”
“To make you easier to move,” Asher said. “Okay, we’ll figure something out. Ren? Any ideas?”
They staggered toward the stairwell door. “One.” On the other side with the door closed behind them, Ren pushed Liam over to Ollie. “I have one idea,” Ren said then dove into the circuits and found Vos on the vid feeds.
Vos hurried down a hallway, looking harried and pale, not the man Ren had known.
“You. Vos,” Ren’s voice echoed over the comm in the hall, “go to the docks and wait for me there.”
Vos looked at the ceiling, eyes wide. “You,” he said. “You’re dead.”
“No, just a ghost. Hurry. You don’t have much time.”
Vos frowned, but nodded.
Ren retreated to his body and found Ollie, Asher, and Liam staring at him.
Asher leaned close. “What did you do?”
“Found us an ally.”
12
Rowan and Darby offered twin forced smiles. Darby held a smoke bomb. She and Rowan had their backs to the door, holding it closed as soldiers beat against the other side.
“Oh, you know,” Darby said, with gritted teeth, “holding the fort like you said. But they are right here, if you couldn’t tell. I thought you said the only attack would be from above.”
“I was obviously wrong,” Asher replied.
“That’s awesome, Ash. Really awesome.” As she spoke, the door heaved inward, and, in an acrobatic move, Darby jumped and spun and threw the bomb through the crack. Ollie, Rowan, and Asher threw their weight against the door. Smoke billowed in around the edges, but the pounding was replaced by the sounds of coughing and gagging.
Palm flat on the wall, Ren reached in and engaged the lock but, despite tying off the ends of the circuits and burning out the mechanisms, he couldn’t keep it held for long.
“There’s a manual override on the other side of the door.”
“Great.” Rowan pushed a stray hair away from her face with the back of her wrist. “Let’s go then.”
Darby eyed Liam with a squint. “Is this him? He doesn’t look like you. Maybe around the nose, but… no, not really. You look nothing alike.”
“Half-brothers,” Liam said with a goofy smile on his face. “I’m Liam.”
“I’m Darby.”
“And I’m out of here,” Rowan said. “There’s a regiment on the other side of this door and probably one down at the docks too. We have to go.”
“Vos is going to meet us there.”
Rowan stutter-stepped. “What?”
The door creaked and shuddered.
“No time. Let’s go,” Asher grabbed Ren’s bicep, and Ollie had Liam tucked close to his side. Stealth no longer an option, they thundered down the stairs and burst onto the docking bay. It was deserted, except for a lone figure waiting in a swath of light next to the aft airlock of the Star Stream.
“Vos,” Ren said.
He turned on his heel and gave Ren a wan smile. “You.”
“Me,” Ren agreed.
“Rumor was that you died.”
“I did, but I got better.”
Rowan and Asher had their weapons trained on him, but Ren could tell he was unarmed. His complexion was sallow, and his cheeks were sunken. His eyes were circled by dark rings, and his hair and beard were uncharacteristically unkempt.
“Space is treating you well.”
“Better than you did,” Ren said. “But enough, we don’t have time to reminisce.”
“No, we don’t.”
“Third floor,” Ren said. “I can’t open the doors. They’re manual. But on the third floor you’ll find your general, a seer, and a few others.”
Vos’s eyebrows ticked up. “And how am I going to get there?”
“With me.”
Asher protested, but Ren shook his head. “We have Liam. Get him on the ship with the others. You too, Ash.” Ren glowed, eyes darkening to black, his power flowing out of him in waves as he entered the prison and flooded the systems. “Vos and I will rescue them.”
“No,” Asher’s fingers around Ren’s wrist were iron. “This is a dumb idea. They are not worth your capture. And we cannot trust him.”
Vos spread open his hands. “I can’t do anything to your friend. His power eclipses any I’ve seen. I have no weapons. I have no idea how to navigate this place.”
“Ash—”
“Not without me.” Ash leveled Ren with a glare. “If you feel like we must rescue them, then fine. But we promised each other to stay together. We’re staying together.”
Ren softened. They had promised, and Ren wouldn’t break it, not after Crei, not after Bara. “Fine, but we have to hurry,” Ren said, surging through the systems, and camera feeds. “There are guards swarming down from the top level and coming around to flank us.”
“Get on the ship,” Asher told the others. “If you need to leave, then go. We’ll follow.”
“And where will you run?” Vos asked, walking forward. “Where will you and your crew go? Now that you have his brother? There’s nowhere safe for you, except with me.”
“This guy sounds like the other guy,” Liam said, holding onto Ollie. “Shoot him, too.”
Asher raised his gun, but Ren stayed his hand. “What we do after this is of no concern to you. But for right now, we have similar goals.”
Vos smiled, and it was more like an animal’s show of teeth than a gesture meant to endear him to them.
“Stars, you’re disgusting,” Rowan said, making a face. “Come on,” she said to Ollie and Darby, then she wagged her finger at Asher as she pulled Darby along. “Don’t do anything stupid. Be back here as quick as you can.”
Asher allowed a small smile. “Have Pen look at Liam!”
Darby mock-saluted and the four of them raced to the ship. Ren was surprised at their quick acquiescence of him and Asher staying behind with Vos of all people, but they understood what Ren needed to do. They understood that, in good conscience, Ren couldn’t leave other prisoners behind.
“We’ll use a lift,” Asher said. “It’s a quick way up, and Ren can control it. Right?”
“Yes.” With his concentration split, Ren rerouted his power to the lifts and found the nearest. Except, in his rush, he missed the trap laid for him in the code. It snared him, like a rabbit rope around his foot, and he stuck fast amid a tangle of circuits and a rush of encryption. His physical body stiffened, and he fell to his knees, palms on the deck. He tried to pull out, but the virus leeched into him, began to smother him with code, locked him behind rapidly building virtual bars.
“Ren?” Asher was by his side, his hand on Ren’s shoulder, but it was far away, secondary to the trap squeezing tighter and tighter around him. “What’s wrong?”
“Stuck,” he forced out. “Trap.”
“What do you need?”
Ren shuddered. The more he fought, the tighter the snare wrapped around him, squeezing his electric self. He couldn’t hold awareness in both domains, and there was no way for him to pull out of the prison and back into his body. With gritted teeth and fingers curled against the deck, Ren let go, and trusted Asher to protect him. He left his body behind and focused entirely on his technopathic self.
From the video feeds, he saw his body on the deck squirming and thrashing and Asher hovering over him, holding him, but he couldn’t stay long. He had to free himself, had to untangle from the snare wrapping tighter around him, trying to snuff him out.
He fought, but with every piece of code he unfurled or peeled away, two more took its place. He was trapped, as Zag had warned. Trapped in more ways than one in the prison built to hold people like him. They’d have to leave him behind. Asher could drag his physical body to the ship, but his other self would be stuck.
Help!
Ren thrust the plea out into the universe.
Help! Help! Please!
He had seconds left. The cell walls stacked higher and thicker, and Ren was almost completely covered. He had nowhere to run. He lost access to all the systems including the cameras. The chains and strings of code wrapped tighter and tighter around him, crushing him. And Asher ran out of time as well. Those guards would be descending on the dock in minutes. Asher was left alone with Ren incapacitated and Vos right there. He had to get out. He had to get out. He couldn’t get out.
Panicking, Ren struggled to do what the others had told him. He was a supernova. He could explode. He could overwhelm. He had to. He had to. He had to. Focus. Focus! Hold on to the anger. Hold on to the hope. Hold on to the love. He thought about Liam and the joy he felt seeing his brother again. He thought about Asher and his faith and determination. He thought about the crew and
how they’d folded him into their family and accepted Darby the way she was. He thought about Jakob and Sorcha and their resilience and how he ached to see them again. He tapped it into it all, the power of his star, the power of his humanity. He gathered it in, collapsed inward, and he expanded and pushed and struggled against the wires holding him captive.
It hurt.
It hurt so much.
He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t.
We’re here!
Ren felt them in the system. He had no idea how they’d gotten in, no clue how they had left their debris, unless they had butted against the prison itself. But they were there. The other star hosts. Four of them, pinging against his senses.
Help!
They swarmed him, broke down the trap, ripped away the barriers, and Ren could metaphorically breathe again. When the last piece snapped away, Ren ran; the others followed.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
You’re welcome. Get out of here.
The weapons system. The guards have escaped. They can access it. They’ll blast us out of the sky.
We have it. We’ll disable it. Go quickly!
What about you?
We’re fine. The guards are almost there. You must go, Ren. Run!
Body arching on the deck, Ren gasped and slotted into his body. He grabbed Asher’s wrist; Asher’s hands clenched in the fabric of his shirt. Eyes open, legs twitching, he gulped in a lungful of air.
“Run. Out of time.”
Asher’s gaze flicked away, and Ren followed it to see Vos standing there, face pale. Asher unholstered his pulse gun and slid it across the floor to a far corner of the deck.
“You’re on your own. Good luck.”
With a strength that surprised him, Asher hauled Ren to his feet and threw him over his shoulder. Vos ran for the gun, and Asher, yelling into his comm as he went, ran for the ship. The aft airlock swung open. Ollie waited on the other side. Asher’s strides ate up the expansive distance. Ren’s body jostled with each step.
With a few meters left, the door to the docking bay flew inward with the force of an explosion, sparks and metal skittered across the deck surface, and Ren’s senses pinged with a barrage of weapons. Ren raised his hand, and, despite the weakness he felt in his own power, he locked on to the weapon signatures. He twisted and yanked and cut the power supplies to all the tech.