Muses of Roma (Codex Antonius Book 1) (20 page)

“What is she going to do to us?” Cordus asked in a quiet voice.

“She won't turn us over to the Praetorians,” Ocella said, putting more confidence in her voice than she felt. “She hates your family. She won't let Roma keep you.”

“I think she hates
me
. Did you see what she was doing with the knife?”

“She was just trying to scare you. She won't hurt you.”

At least a
sane
person who knew Cordus’s secret wouldn't hurt him,
Ocella thought. But the anger in Gaia Julius's eyes when she told the story of her niece made Ocella wonder.

“So she'll give us to Umbra?” Cordus asked. “I cannot go with them either.”

“If my guess is right, she won’t do that either.”

Cordus was silent and then asked, “Are you sure she is a Saturnist?”

Ocella sat down on the cold stone in the middle of the cellar, and Cordus sat next to her. He was shivering, so she put her arms around him.

“I don't know yet.”

“What will she do to you?”

Give me to Umbra
so they can flay me alive for what I did to their Ancilia here, not to mention starting a war with Roma that Libertus could not hope to win.

“I don't know,” she said.

They were both silent for a while, and then Cordus asked, “Do you want to play a game?”

“What game?”

“I tell you the name of a city, country, or planet, and you have to name another city, country, or planet whose first letter begins with the last letter of the one I gave you.”

She smiled in the darkness. “Sounds fun.”

“I'll go first.”

Ocella held him closer as he began.

Kaeso didn’t know how long he’d been out, but he knew it was a long time. Every muscle in his body was sore, his empty stomach rumbled, and he had a terrible urgency to urinate. He eased himself on his elbows and then brought his feet off the bunk and to the floor. He didn't pass out, so he stood. Lightheadedness assaulted him, and his vision tunneled, but he held on to the bunk until the feeling passed. He got up, shuffled into the corridor, and entered the latrine a dozen paces away. After urinating for almost a minute, he left the latrine and ran into Nestor standing outside the door.

“Feeling better, Centuriae?”

“Sure.”

His vertigo and pounding head was light years “better” than his implant’s agonizing reactivation. Kaeso had wanted to die, anything to end that searing pain. After his discharge from Umbra, he’d been unconscious when they deactivated his implant. Now he knew why.

But it had been worth it. His brain was still adapting to the reactivation, so there were many things he couldn’t yet do with the implant. One thing he could do was see the contract Galeo had made with him regarding his crew’s safety. Most importantly, he could see the endorsement given to it by the Vessels who were not trapped on Libertus. The Muses would keep secrets, to be sure, but contracts were religiously upheld. The pain was a fair trade for knowing his crew wouldn’t be killed to protect Umbra’s secrets.

Kaeso was tempted to push his implant to see what else he could do. It had been a long time since it was active, and he missed its clarity, wisdom, and power.
No. I can’t get addicted to this thing again. Not when it’s going to be taken away from me so soon.

“You should lay down for a few more hours at least,” Nestor said.

Kaeso ignored him. “How long was I out?”

“Nine hours.”

“Lucia hasn't killed the Navigator yet, has she?”

Kaeso’s last lucid memory was waking up after Galeo had reactivated the implant to see Lucia pointing a pistol at Galeo's head. Kaeso said something to her—he couldn't remember what—and then his memories faded. Interesting that Kaeso could now remember in crystal clarity every mission he ever took for Umbra, yet he couldn’t remember what happened nine hours ago.

Nestor frowned. “Well…”

Kaeso looked at Nestor. “What did she do, Medicus?”

“She, um, shot him and then locked him up in Cargo Two.”

Kaeso cursed. He turned around and was about to storm up the ladder when a wave of vertigo hit him. He staggered forward, fell to his knees, and then all fours.

“He is all right,” Nestor said, helping Kaeso up. “She shot him in the liver, but the bullet went through his body. I cleaned the wound and was about to surgically repair the liver but...well, the liver was almost healed. I thought he might be a golem, but he is human. That’s not all. His skin is covered with a fabric that
projects
a different skin.” Nestor stared at Kaeso with haunted eyes. “He is a different man beneath that fabric.”

The ship continued to spin, so Kaeso squeezed his eyes shut. Nestor helped him up and back to his bunk. Kaeso lay down without resisting. He knew the implant reactivation would take at least another six hours to complete. But Kaeso couldn’t wait six hours. Not with a mission to prepare for, a crazy first officer, and a wounded Vessel in his cargo bay, who happened to be his crew's only hope to survive after this mission.

“Stay here and sleep,” Nestor said. “That's an order from your medicus. There are no emergencies at the moment. I'll check on you in an hour.”

“Nestor,” Kaeso croaked, “don’t mention the Navigator’s skin to the crew.”

Nestor clicked his tongue.

“You already told the crew, didn’t you?”

Nestor nodded, then left Kaeso’s quarters.

Kaeso screamed in his mind. Why had Lucia shot Galeo? The bastard could be arrogant and bossy, but those were not reasons to kill him. Was it self-defense? Had
he
attacked
her
? Kaeso doubted he'd sleep until he found out. All he could do was wait out the vertigo so he could storm up to the command deck without vomiting all over it.

And now Nestor had seen Galeo’s Umbra cloak and told the crew. If the deal Kaeso made with Galeo was off, then his crew was dead.

To occupy his mind while the vertigo receded, Kaeso concentrated on his newly reactivated implant. The neural connections with his brain continued to build, and the implant's information was already seeping into his mind. The implant had all the memories from his years with Umbra: every mission, procedure, wondrous Umbra tech, contact he developed in Roma. The confidence, the wisdom, the bravery. It was all there. Despite his body's weakness from the reactivation, Kaeso wanted to go to Roma now and use those dormant skills. Skills he missed more than he ever realized.

The Magisterium, however, was still a “black hole” in his mind. It was the Magisterium that fed all Umbra Ancilia their mission intelligence. Through Muse tech, the communication traveled light years in an instant, whereas the fastest communication the rest of humanity used were starship couriers via the way lines. The implant com was more like a broadcast, however. Kaeso could not send a message back to Libertus, even though his body's vital signs were. Umbra explained this was for security—if the enemy ever caught an Ancile and figured out the implant, he could send an electronic virus back to Libertus to wipe out the implant network.

Kaeso now understood the caution. The “black hole” proved the Romans could at least jam Umbra coms. From there, it wasn’t too much of a leap to access them. Kaeso hoped Libertus was simply being jammed. He didn’t want to think the Romans had slagged the entire planet.

Memories of Claudia suddenly flashed through his mind. Her laughing, six-year-old face while she and Petra played fake instruments to the tune of some popular new song. Then tears streaming down her eight-year-old cheeks, the orange and yellow flames of her mother’s funeral pyre reflected in her eyes. The snarl on her ten-year-old mouth when she told Kaeso she hated him and wished it had been him who died in that explosion. It was his last memory of her.

Kaeso closed his eyes, opened them, and found the room no longer spinning. He knew it wasn’t an hour since he lay down, but he couldn’t sit still. Sleep was elusive, especially when he didn’t know what was happening to his crew and his ship. He could have used his collar com to call Lucia, but he didn’t want to give her time to collect herself and come up with an excuse for what she did. A surprise visit would throw her off balance, which would most likely get Kaeso the truth.

Once again he stood up from his bunk, the vertigo all but gone, and left his quarters. At the ladder to the command deck, he said a silent prayer to Fortuna that the vertigo would not return while he climbed and then began to ascend.

Lucia sat in the pilot's couch, her chin in one hand and her other hand scrolling through data on her console.

“Why did you shoot Galeo?”

Lucia flinched, then turned to him. “You should be in your bunk.”

“Why did you shoot Galeo?”

“I didn't kill him.”

Kaeso slammed his hand on the wall, making a loud reverberation through the deck. Her eyes were wide like a child who'd been caught stealing candy. “Godsdamn you, Lucia, give me a straight answer.”

“Me?” she asked. “What about you, Kaeso? You're the one who sought out these Liberti agents. You're the one who won’t bring your own crew on some job you won't tell us the half of. You're the one who let this Navigator aboard the ship and let him turn you into some bootlicking slave who jumps when he lifts a finger. Never mind he has some holographic fabric covering his entire body. I think
you
are the one who owes me—and your crew—straight answers.”

Kaeso knew he should have been angry.
I'm her centuriae and she is bound by honor and law to obey my orders.
But that was not his first thought during her rant.

Freedom
was his first thought. With Umbra no longer broadcasting from Libertus, there were no concealment protocols on his implant. Days ago he would have been doubled over clutching his head for merely considering to tell her what he knew. Now he felt nothing. And it was the greatest feeling of freedom he could remember.

“You're right,” Kaeso said. “You deserve answers. You all do.”

Her eyes narrowed.

Kaeso tapped his collar com. “All crew meet in the galley.”

He glanced at Lucia, who didn’t move. “Do you want answers or what?”

She stood up, walked past him, and descended the ladder. He followed her down.

Nestor and Blaesus were in the galley when Kaeso and Lucia arrived. Daryush was the last to enter, and the big Persian stood in the corner, his arms folded. It was the same location and stance Dariya adopted for the all-crew meetings.

With all of them sitting there, Kaeso was suddenly uncomfortable. He was used to giving orders, not bearing his soul and his past to them. He wondered what they’d think of him when they found out what he once did, especially Blaesus and Lucia.

Just to break the silence, he turned to Nestor. “How’s the Navigator?”

“He's lost a lot of blood and he's still unconscious. He should have died.”

Kaeso glared at Lucia, but she did not meet his gaze.

“But the way he's healing,” Nestor continued, “I’d say he's only going to have a small scar in a few days. I can't explain it. Not even golems heal that fast. I would love to know who...or what...he is.”

Nestor left that non-question hanging as he studied Kaeso. “Dariya?” Kaeso asked, avoiding Galeo for now.

“She sleeps,” Nestor said. “All vital signs are normal except her body temperature. It increases a tenth of degree every twelve hours. I believe this is due to the virus.”

Kaeso nodded. The sleeper crib would give Dariya another week if she stayed in it the whole time. The crib wouldn’t stop the virus from spreading, only delay it. Her best chance was Ocella’s alleged cure. Kaeso didn’t want to think about what he'd have to do to Dariya if that cure didn’t exist.

Kaeso looked at the crew. “You want answers. I don't blame you. I've wanted to give you answers for a long time. So now is your chance. Ask me what you want.”

The crew glanced at each other, as if they all had a jumble of questions, but didn’t know where to start. As always, Blaesus spoke first.

“Just who is this Navigator, Centuriae?”

Even without the implant’s concealment protocols in place, Kaeso hesitated. He realized if he told them what he knew of Umbra, he was potentially killing them. Kaeso verified the deal Galeo had made, but he didn't know if that deal was off because of Lucia’s attack. If it was, and he told them what they wanted to know, then maybe not today or tomorrow, but some day an Ancile would kill each one of them. It was a brutal policy, but one that kept Libertus safe for over two hundred years. Once the jamming was lifted from Libertus, his implant's restrictions would return and it would send back everything Kaeso had done while out of contact. And he and his crew would be marked.

But if the deal still stood, then Kaeso could tell them whatever he wanted, and they would not be harmed. During Kaeso's years with Umbra, he knew the Muses to be brutal when the situation called for it, but they
always
honored their deals.

He had to trust that now.

“An organization called Umbra Corps is what has kept Libertus free for over two centuries,” Kaeso began. “The simple fact that I told you its name may have put your lives in danger.”

The crew stared at him.

“I was once an Umbra Ancile,” Kaeso said. “I was stationed in Roma. I spied on Roman Senators, bureaucrats, generals, patricians, and centurions. I also assassinated Senators, bureaucrats, generals, patricians, and centurions. Among others. I did many things to prevent Roma from gobbling up Libertus. Things with tools so amazing you’d think they came from the gods. Like the Navigator’s Umbra cloak.”

“Umbra cloak?” Nestor asked.

“Ancilia wear it to conceal their identity,” Kaeso said. “It works well unless it’s torn or examined by a medicus.”

Kaeso looked from one set of eyes to another. “Six years ago I was discharged from Umbra. Well, you never really leave Umbra. I have an implant in my brain that let me communicate with Umbra when I was an Ancile. Once I left, my implant was mostly deactivated. Except for one function, which prevented me from talking about Umbra or my service with them.”

“Why?” Blaesus asked. “Every planet has its spy agencies, and every planet makes their names known. It builds the mystique. Any one of you would quiver in fear if you knew the Praetorian Guard were after you. So why is this Umbra so different that it kills anyone who learns its name?”

“Umbra
has
built a mystique. You've heard of the Liberti
numina
, right?”

Blaesus chuckled. “You’re saying Umbra Ancilia are
numina
?”

“No, but Umbra can do things that would make some think they’re
numina
.”

“Kaldeth,” Lucia said. “The ‘spirit’ I saw on Kaldeth. Was that...?”

Kaeso nodded. “Roma was in an expansionist mood. They’d craved Libertus for almost as long as it’s been settled, so Umbra knew it was high on Roma's wish list. Umbra did what it’s always done: divert Roma's attention elsewhere.”

Nestor furrowed his brow. “But Kaldeth started that war. The religious castes had been calling for ‘death to Roma’ for decades. Kaldethian terrorists even set off bombs in Terran cities...”

Nestor's voice trailed off as he realized what he'd just said. “That was Umbra?”

“I don't know the operational details,” Kaeso said, “but I know Umbra had a hand in starting the conflict. Umbra instigated the Kaldethians without them knowing it.”

Blaesus shook his head. “I always thought the Kaldethians were mad for provoking Roma. Apparently they weren't mad. They were puppets.”

“I know this sounds dishonorable,” Kaeso said, “but Libertus doesn’t have a large space fleet. It cannot withstand a direct assault, as we all witnessed two days ago. That’s why it must protect itself in other ways.”