“Um, they… they have my brother,” Scout said. Her tongue could barely produce the words. “ConSec captured him three days ago but I got away. They want us both.”
“Where are they holding your brother? How old is he?” Sora said. Scout still didn’t look up at him.
“His name’s Nait Gash. He is sixteen and they have him at ConSec HQ in the center of the city,” she said. She held back tears that tried to form. “They’ll ship him back to Etionapa if they don’t get a hold of me.”
“You’re just kids,” the blue-haired lady said. She still hadn’t introduced herself. “What’s the big deal about you?”
Scout glared. She didn’t like the woman’s tone and she didn’t want to answer that.
Sora finally pulled his hand back as if he felt the situation had calmed. Scout felt all eight eyes in the room lock on her and she shifted uncomfortably. They wanted an answer.
“We can’t help you if we don’t know any details,” Sora said. His eyes plead with her.
“I never asked for your help. I don’t want it,” Scout said. She straightened again. “I can handle this myself.”
“See, Sora? She doesn’t want our help,” the blue-haired lady said, hitting him on the shoulder. “This was a…”
“Trika,” Sora said, cutting her off. He looked back at Scout. “You may not want it but I think you need it. You are in no state to leave right now.”
Scout growled. “I’m in whatever state that I want to be and I am going to leave…”
Sora cut her off, too. “We will rescue your brother. We can infiltrate ConSec HQ and bring him back here.”
Scout blinked. She had just mouthed off and he replied with an offer to rescue Nait. Bettina would have slapped her if she’d said something like that while in her service. She had not been offered help by one person since Bettina ordered her death. She had stayed out of sight of anyone and everyone because she knew no one would dare help her. No one wanted to, but here this freighter guy stood offering to break in to a government jail.
She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know whether to laugh, keep mouthing off or just accept it.
“Why?” Scout finally said.
“Yeah, Sora, why?” Trika said, gritting her teeth at him.
“Because you’re in need and so is he. I don’t need to know everything to recognize two people who are lost. If we don’t help him it could be disastrous,” Sora said, stepping back and glancing around to the three others in the room. Viktor and the Mizan nodded. “Kossk and Trika will go to ConSec HQ and get him out.”
“What?!” Trika said, raising her hands into the air.
“Our bodies will bring his body back unharmed, Captain,” the Mizan, apparently Kossk, said with an obedient nod.
“Captain, are you sure? That is an even bigger undertaking than before and I’m not sure if is wise for us to insert ourselves into all of this,” Viktor said, stepping again to Sora’s side.
Yeah, it wasn’t wise.
Sora held both of his hands out toward his people, again trying to calm them all. Scout watched with interest. “Trika, you and Kossk are well-equipped for this job. Talek, Fi, and I already went out once, so we can stay behind this time. Two of you is a small enough team to get in and out without much notice.”
He turned to Viktor. He lowered his hands and sighed. “Viktor, you know better than anyone about my desire for justice. You’ve seen it before,” Sora said, gesturing to the ship around them. Scout didn’t really know what that meant, but oh well. “Now, I can use that desire for something better: helping two kids like me. This is about much more than wisdom.”
Trika pursed her lips and stepped back. Sora’s statement must have touched her, too, which greatly contradicted all her complaints. “Alright, Sora, we’ll go. We’ll be as quiet as we can,” she said. “Come on, Kossk.”
“Our bodies have much work ahead but your mind has made the right decision, Captain,” Kossk said, turning to follow Trika. “We will not fail you.”
Scout spotted a lump go down Viktor’s throat but he nodded. “Yes, Captain, I do understand. Of course. I… will get Miss Gash a meal.”
Scout looked back and forth between the two people leaving the room and the two that remained. She still didn’t want to believe this. This group wanted to rescue Nait. No, they were trying to rescue Nait.
“You know they could die,” she said, motioning in the direction of the doorway. “Bettina’s forces are no joke.”
She finally said her name.
“They are resourceful. Kossk used to be a warrior and my sister grew up in fights,” Sora said, leaning over the slab again. “They will bring Nait back and, in the meantime, you can tell me what this is all about.”
Scout sighed, shaking her head. This was ridiculous. Ludicrous, but at this point did she really have a choice?
“Fine,” she said. She noticed Viktor stepping away but she kept her focus on Sora. “Because you’re helping Nait, I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you why Bettina wants us dead.”
Sora slowly nodded. “It’s not just these officers and soldiers. It’s the Queen herself?”
This time, Scout didn’t take her eyes away from him. Her blue eyes stared right back into his brown eyes. There was only certainty about this. “First, every move those idiots make gets back to her. All Bettina. Second, yes, she’s after me and Nait.”
She paused, gulping. “We know her. She raised us.”
3
Trika groaned, staring at the monster before her. Kossk used his wrist scanner to get what readings he could from the building but she doubted that he’d get much. ConSec HQ towered above all other buildings in the city of Volt. That said something, considering towers made up most of the city, but the other towers didn’t have steel walls and turrets on all four exterior walls of the building.
“The technology of this scanner was not made to break through the armor of this building,” Kossk said, clearing his throat as he examined the small schematic the scanner had produced. “The most heat is on the third floor. The bodies of the prisoners must be there.”
“Or the Queen just likes to keep her security warm,” Trika said, glancing up at the wall that made up half of this dark alleyway. She spotted a barred vent a couple of stories up. “You think that’ll get us in?”
“Yes, it will serve as suitable transportation,” Kossk said, stepping toward it. “My body can hold the weight of yours. Step on the shoulders of my body and open it.”
She could do that or stand here and wait to be arrested. She guessed she’d stand on the Mizan.
Trika walked forward and hopped up, landing on Kossk’s shoulders. She grabbed the steel wall to keep her balance as she regained her footing. He remained frozen beneath her, which she considered impressive.
She reached up to the vent and grabbed the bars. She quickly identified four bolts that held them over the ventilation shaft. Growing up on the streets of Peor, she’d done stuff like this plenty of times. Government or not, a vent stayed a vent.
One by one, she grabbed the bolts with her index finger and dug her nail into the small space between the bolt and the bars. She began to twist the bolt. At first, it only moved a millimeter, but as she continued to twist it moved a centimeter. Then an inch. ConSec had fastened these well, but she’d seen a thousand like these.
Seconds later, the first bolt clattered to the ground. Then another. Seconds after that, the bars clattered to the ground and Trika pulled herself into the new opening. She maneuvered herself inside the shaft, crawling on her belly. She expected it to be more cramped. Her arms touched both sides of the shaft but she didn’t feel like a sandwich.
She used the extra space to turn herself around, wincing as her back touched cold metal. She looked out the opening and back into the alleyway, reaching her hand down to Kossk.
He grabbed it and she felt his rough scales collide with her palm. She inhaled and pulled her hand back while keeping a grip on his claw. Her cheeks inflated.
/>
Heavy Mizans. Or maybe just Kossk.
She heard a small tear and she glanced out the vent again to see his other claw holding onto the wall as he climbed up. He didn’t tear the building much, considering the armor, but enough to help himself up.
He crawled inside the vent and Trika noticed a long, golden object sticking out of the back of his belt above his gray pants. Darkness covered the vent, but yellow lights from the levels below illuminated the object.
“Was the spear necessary?” she said, trying to keep her voice low.
“Our minds do not fully know what our bodies will encounter,” Kossk said, beginning to crawl forward. Trika moved as well.
“You just want to relive your glory days,” she said, facing forward. Well, she did bring her rifle, too, along with a grenade. Just in case.
As she moved, she observed narrow walls. Even this ventilation shaft sparkled. No dust, no dirt, no nothing. Did germs even live on Con?
“Turn left ahead. It will take our bodies to the third floor,” Kossk said.
They both moved slowly. Trika hoped that officers didn’t have a desire to listen to the vents too much.
“How will we know who this guy is, anyway? Sora and the rebel didn’t give us much detail,” Trika said, turning left as the shaft branched off.
“His body has 16 years. There cannot be too many bodies of that age in this building,” Kossk said. Trika felt his warm breath on her legs. Close quarters up here.
She glanced down as they passed several small, barred openings. The corridors and walls had a pristine quality, even more so than the rest of the planet. White coated the floors and the walls, and it looked as if no boot or hand had ever touched them.
The Queen even made her prisons look beautiful.
How fitting.
Sora folded his hands while Scout shoved a pile of noodles into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed every two seconds before going back for another bite. Sora estimated that she hadn’t eaten like this in weeks. He wondered how much of anything she had eaten in the last few weeks.
The importance of the meal paused their conversation and allowed them to move to the main hold. According to Viktor, Scout’s minor injuries had healed enough for her to be up and about. Scout sat on the couch across from Sora, scraping her plate.
He knew that some members of the crew disagreed with taking her in, but he felt a pull to her and her brother’s situation that he refused to ignore.
Talek and Fi leaned against the wall on the other side of the room, watching from a distance. Sora leaned forward in his seat as Scout swallowed her last bite of pasta.
“So, you say the Queen raised you? Like a daughter?”
Scout shook her head and cleared her throat. “No, not like a daughter,” she said, a solemn tone creeping into her voice. “Maybe that’s how it looked to me for a while, but not to her. Nait and I were left on the doorstep of her palace when we were babies. He was 2and I was just a few months old.”
“Surprising that she didn’t ship you off to an orphanage off-world,” Talek said, shifting in his stance against the wall. “Seems strange that the Queen would keep two orphans who appeared out of nowhere.”
Scout grumbled. “Yeah, well, I guess she saw potential in us. She could groom us and train us to be whatever she wanted. She started training us in combat when Nait turned five and then when I turned four.”
Sora blinked. “Combat at four years old?”
“It was slow, but yeah. She wanted us to grow up to be her personal bodyguards. Her personal assassins. Whatever she needed done, we would be her people. She wanted us to push all emotion aside, all attachment to anything and only focus on being our best for her and her purposes. She had a couple of other kids she was training like this, too. Training was gruesome but I wouldn’t have survived the last three weeks without it,” Scout said, staring off. Sora noticed that she hadn’t made eye contact with him this entire time.
Sora put his chin in his hand, mulling over everything she had just said. He had no reason not to believe it, but he had not expected this explanation. “If this is true, why is she after you now?”
“As if I know,” Scout said, scoffing. “This isn’t your fight. You really should just let me go.”
Sora shook his head. “You promised an explanation.”
Scout rolled her eyes, throwing her head back. She still didn’t look at Sora. “We didn’t know much about her politics, so we didn’t know about the Parliament crap. The takeover happened and suddenly she wanted us dead, too. Her soldiers had orders to kill all trainees. My brother, me and my two friends barely escaped.”
“What do you mean, ‘too’?” Sora said, leaning even further forward.
Scout paused. Sora felt the air of the ship thicken. She tilted her head forward, staring off again. “Parliament. She killed all of them.”
Sora’s eyes widened and he glanced at Talek who shook his head with a sigh. He had been on to something earlier.
“Come on, don’t act so shocked,” Scout said, scoffing again. “She calls a meeting and they all disappear? Bettina controls the army and she had that army kill Parliament. Then she covered it up. Then she tried to kill us and she still wants to shut us up. Maybe we know too much about her or something. I don’t know why but she wants us dead.”
Sora had lived on the outskirts of government all his life, but Parliament had existed for as long as he could remember It served as the only source of government to balance Queen Bettina’s power. She truly had taken over.
However, Sora didn’t need to concern himself with the politics of it right now. He needed to focus on Scout. She grew up with this woman and she had betrayed her in every way.
“Yeah, so there’s your explanation. I still don’t understand why you and your crew are doing this,” Scout said. She leaned down, putting her head in her hands and rubbing her eyes. Her exhaustion still showed.
Sora suspected the exhaustion wasn’t just physical.
“You may know how to hold a gun but this isn’t your line of business. Your sister and the Mizan could get captured or worse and so could you,” Scout said. “This isn’t your fight.”
Sora stood and put his hands on his hips as he turned away from Scout. This time, he paused before he spoke. This information had unsettled him, but had not deterred him. Maybe it should, but it hadn’t.
He needed to explain why.
“I was a kid on the streets once. I know what it’s like to be chased and abandoned. Left to fend for yourself,” Sora said. He blew some air out of his nose as he let that statement digest.
“Join the crowd.”
“My siblings and I grew up on the streets of Peor. Mother left when I was five and my father…”
The flames flickered in front of Sora again. For a split second, the main hold vanished and he only saw orange heat.
Scout took the pause to speak up. “Peor? The armpit of the galaxy? That planet is nothing but trash and criminals.”
Sora turned back to face her. She continued to stare at the wall, so Sora could only see half of her face, but he’d take it. “You’re right. It’s what I had to put up with for years but it taught me everything I know. Taught me how to rise above it.”
He glanced at Talek. Talek gave him an affirming nod.
He looked back at Scout, taking another short breath. “I watched my father burn to death when I was seven. A crime lord hired an assassin to kill him and I witnessed it all take place. That day taught me the hardship of this galaxy.”
He stepped closer to Scout. Finally, she met his gaze. He saw the hurt and the sadness in her eyes. “It taught me what it was like to be an orphan.”
Scout bit her lip slightly and scratched her neck. “Did you ever get… I mean, did you ever…”
He heard her swallow.
“…get revenge?”
Suddenly, Sora saw Felicia in the mine on Bolton. He watched blood fly out of her mouth as he punched her. He watched her scream as he flew away o
n the Killer.
“For better or worse, I did.”
Scout narrowed her eyes and didn’t break her stare. The girl who wouldn’t even look at Sora to answer his questions had disappeared and now her voice sounded like a growl. “That’s what I want. What I need. I need to serve her justice for what she’s done.”
Sora remembered that feeling. He used to enjoy that feeling, but now it just left him confused. “Revenge isn’t the point. I don’t want you to go through this alone.”
“I have Nait, and I have two friends who I’m going to find before Bettina does. I’m not alone,” Scout said, before biting her lip again. “We’ve both had it bad. I get that, but it doesn’t mean you need to help me.”
Sora had changed since that day on Bolton. Not only did that day change him, but it began the process of change. Viktor saw it then and now Sora finally began to understand it better. Building a crew, meeting his crew members and now rescuing Scout and Nait… he had a desire for more. A desire for something more than mending his childhood wounds.
“I know, but I want to. Going forward, I want to help you and your brother however I can.”
Scout shook her head and laughed. “This is much bigger than you think. Joining with me means going up against Bettina and that is practically a death sentence.”
Talek cleared his throat. “Practically, yes,” he said, stepping forward. His eyes locked on Scout and his face showed his seriousness. “Certainly, no. We all live in this galaxy, so whatever this monarch does impacts all of us.”
Sora let a small, gentle smile creep across his face. He motioned to Scout’s burnt ankle. “I could say the same to you. You’re one teenager going up against the ruler of the nebula. At least let a lowly ship crew help you.”
Scout sighed, looking down at her injured legs. Her head drooped. “What would we even do?”
“We keep you safe and then we go from there,” Sora said, sitting down on the couch again. He leaned toward Scout. “You don’t have to trust me—”
Survival, Dark Times Page 5