Nascent Decay (The Goddess of Decay Book 1) (30 page)

She was wrong.

They returned to the planet where Sora and Reskle were staying to give Isaar a modest funeral. The weather had turned slightly colder on the plains, and a slow, steady drizzle was falling. The days were gray and overcast; the nights were pitch black and freezing. Rhylie felt the ambiance was fitting.

She stood beside Isaar’s grave with Mersi, who had her arms wrapped around Rhylie’s waist with her face buried in Rhylie’s side, crying. She hadn’t stopped crying for half of a microcycle, and Rhylie didn’t have the answers for any of her endless questions.

In a way, part of her was jealous of Isaar. His struggle was over, while hers was just beginning. He was beyond pain, beyond misery. That part of her understood why he had done it. The other part of her was bitter and angry with him for deserting them, for giving in to the one thing he had denied her. None of this would have happened if he had just killed her. The anger subsided a little as time passed, but the emptiness inside of her only seemed to grow more and more. But in the end, she knew she had pushed him too far.
Would he have done it if they hadn’t gone to Zhin’aros?
she wondered. She would never know.

Sora had been strangely silent since Rhylie had found Isaar as well, saying very little. Everyone seemed to be lost, drifting confusedly through the haze of grief, but Sora seemed to have withdrawn more than the others. There was no chiding or cautioning. She mostly just sat outside of the temporary shelter, staring off across the plains. Rhylie wondered what she could see out there.

Reskle hadn’t even come out of the temporary shelter since they had buried Isaar. He seemed to be taking it almost as hard as Mersi. Konii and Vorle had quietly gone their own ways after they had buried Isaar, although Mersi kept in touch with them. Rhylie could understand them wanting to be alone. She did too, but that was the last thing Mersi needed, was to be abandoned.

Everyone was broken, despondent, and ready to give up. Everyone but Rhylie. She could see clearly now, the only obvious path in front of her.
If you kill the head, the snake dies
, she thought, a fitting euphemism. She couldn’t remember where she had heard that, but she had no other choice at this point.

Everyone has a choice
, she could hear her father’s voice say.
But sometimes different paths lead to the same conclusion
. She knew what she needed to do, and she was willing to do it alone if she had to.

Maybe it would be safer for everyone else if she did. The primitively cobbled together pile of stones was a testament to that. At least Mersi had picked some wildflowers to cover it with. No one else would stand out here with them. It was as if they would all rather forget.

“I’m not going to forget him,” Rhylie said, as if in response to her own thoughts. “I’m not going to forget those that caused all of this either.” Mersi held onto Rhylie tighter. She rubbed Mersi’s back comfortingly. “I’m going to make them all pay for this. Vorcia, Riddai, Sothu…all of them.”

“Just make it stop,” Mersi sobbed into her side. “Just make it all go away. I don’t want to hurt anymore. I’m sick of hurting. I’m sick of people dying.”

“We need to find where the Masters are hiding,” said Rhylie. “I need their coordinates.” Mersi nodded her head excessively, sucking in a huge breath through her nose. It bubbled through the snot.

“Can I…can I help you?” Mersi asked, pulling her face from Rhylie’s side to look up at her. Rhylie smiled softly.

“Of course you can. I need your help more than anyone’s,” she said. “I…can’t trust any of the others like I can you.”

“You think one of us is a traitor, don’t you?” she asked, her eyes downcast.

“Vorcia told me one of you is,” Rhylie said quietly. “But Vorcia lies.” Mersi sniffled and reached up to wipe her nose with a wet sleeve.

“It’s not me, Rhylie. I hate them. I hate them all so much. As much as you do, now,” she said. Rhylie stroked Mersi’s bald, pebbled head softly.

“I know. We’re going to make them pay for this. I just need to know where they are,” she said. “Especially Vorcia.”

“I’ll see what I can find out,” Mersi said.

“Let’s try to keep it between us,” Rhylie replied softly. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

They remained outside, in the chilly, drizzling rain until the sun began to drop behind the horizon, casting a dull gray tone over the world before darkness finally set in.

When they returned to the ship, they went straight to Mersi’s quarters and shut the door. Mersi locked it and sat down in her chair, spinning around to face the table against the wall. She pulled up multiple screens and began sending out messages. Rhylie watched her in silence.

“That didn’t take long,” she announced awhile later. “Sothu was way too easy to track down.”

“How so?” asked Rhylie. “Will the others be this easy to find?”

“I doubt it,” Mersi replied. “Sothu is…undisciplined to say the least. The decadence and luxuries he requires for his lifestyle are way out of control.”

“How does that help us?” Rhylie asked.

“Well, some of those…needs…he has can only be supplied by the black market. You know, illegal things,” Mersi said. “And several of those black markets, like tech and certain drugs are controlled by some people I know in other resistance groups. That’s how they fund themselves. Which is funny, if you think about it, the galactic laws and regulations are generating revenue for the people to fight against them? That’s some kind of poetic justice right there. But anyway, they know exactly how to find him.” Rhylie noticed that Mersi’s nostrils kept flaring while she spoke.
That’s how she does it,
Rhylie thought.
She can breathe through her nose while talking.

“Will they tell us?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“They will tell us whatever they can if I tell them that you want to know,” she said. “Not everyone thinks you’re untouchable. Some people think you’re pretty cool y’know.” Rhylie snorted derisively.

“Good to know,” she said. “Can you get me some coordinates?”

“I’m sending them over right now,” Mersi said as she touched a screen and dragged some digits over to another screen and released them. Rhylie narrowed her eyes, trying to read the feed screen. The language was just a bunch of gibberish to her. Maybe she had seen it on some signs while she was on Primiceps, she really couldn’t tell.

“Remember, keep this between us until I get back,” said Rhylie. “Tell everyone that I’m just going out to think and be alone.”

“I will,” she said as she watched Rhylie open the door. “Rhylie?” She paused and turned to look back at Mersi.

“Yes?”

“Keep in touch with me. And be careful. And please come back.”

“They won’t even be expecting me,” Rhylie said.

Sothu’s so-called palace was more than a monstrosity; it was a massive conglomeration that wrapped around his race’s homeworld in an enormous, uneven ring. It was almost haphazard in a sense, having been amassed over thousands of generations, and as such was a jarring aggregate of ancient tech and new construction. She knew why Sothu had chosen to hide in plain sight this way. If Mersi’s contacts hadn’t provided the precise coordinates of his location, it could have taken her a lifetime to explore it and find him.

“So what’s the plan?” Rhylie asked over the com channel.

“There’s a delivery entrance where Sothu receives his…more discreet shipments,” replied Mersi tacitly. “It’s really just a long corridor that leads to only one place, a secret warehouse deep within the heart of the complex. It’s directly connected from there into his personal quarters. Quiet and fast, just the way he likes it. Also, it’s one of the worst kept secrets in the galaxy.”

“What kind of defenses does it have?” Rhylie asked.

“I’m not sure. I would assume some kind of autoturrets, some lasers, cytotoxic gas…” Mersi responded. “Probably some traps and some super thick doors and stuff. If Vorle or Konii had gone with you, I could scan for defenses through either of them. But you probably won’t have to worry about that on the way in. We’re going to get you inside without triggering any of it.”

“Why can’t you scan for them through me?” Rhylie asked.

“Because Isaar thought you might feel violated if we created a direct conduit through you like that,” Mersi replied.

“Oh,” said Rhylie.
That makes sense
, she thought.

“So…nothing I should be too concerned about…right?” asked Rhylie.

“Not that I’m aware of,” said Mersi. “The only thing you really have to worry about is the possibility of him getting away if he finds out that you’re coming for him.”

“Gotcha,” Rhylie said, turning on Isaar’s stealth bracelet. It was the only thing of his she’d kept. She should probably see if Reskle could integrate it, but she was a little leery of allowing him to perform modifications on her now. She didn’t know who she could and could not trust. She would include the others in her plans one by one until she had it narrowed down. But she had a sick feeling that she already knew who it was. She just wasn’t ready to confront them yet.

She slowed her approach as she neared the colossal ring. She’d never seen anything like it in her life.

There was activity everywhere, tens of thousands of ships cruising to and from the great ring, obscuring parts of it like a massive swarms of flies. Some were on their way towards the planet it encircled, but most were on their way away from it. Garbage and junk metal littered the space around it, in places it was as thick a dust-storm. Pieces of frozen matter splatted harmlessly off of her personal gravity field like bits of dried mud. She didn’t want to know what it was.

“Oh yeah, I should have warned you,” Mersi said, almost as if on cue. “Irinese dump all of their refuse directly into space, even their septic waste.”

“Great,” she said dryly as she pulled up on the service entrance. “Now how do I get inside?”

“There’s a delivery scheduled soon,” Mersi said. “You’ll be able to slip in with them, and nobody will even know. I was…told to ask you politely to leave the delivery guys out of it. They’re just paying the bills, you know. They don’t even know anything.”

“Sure,” Rhylie replied. “I guess I’ll just hang out and wait.”

“Just don’t hang out directly in front of the door. The ship that’s bringing the goods is going to be cloaked,” Mersi said.

She turned her attention to the planet below her as she waited, using her atomorphic visor to scan its features. She could see the massive mining operations Mersi had told her about from where she was. From afar she could make out huge pits and chunks that had been taken out of the planet, some seeming to lead even deeper into mines within the crust. There was a thick haze of gray around it, making it difficult to see much more than the enormous, jagged scars cut into the landscape, covering the planet from top to bottom.
No wonder,
their entire planet is out here in orbit now,
Rhylie thought.

She didn’t have to wait for very long. With no warning, a door sprang open out of nowhere, and a long train of crates and cages began to slowly emerge on floating platforms in a single line. The cages contained exotic beings and creatures that Rhylie had never seen anything like before, even on Primiceps.

Most of them looked more like beasts than the others she had met and seen, but they all had a spark of sentient intelligence in their eyes. There was an assortment of genders as far as she could tell, a mix of male and female and something that looked like both. It reminded her how very little she really knew about the Galaxy. Some of them looked to be of questionable age as well. She drifted over to one of the crates and grabbed onto it, letting it carry her through the door.

The train of crates and cages continued down a long, narrow corridor that was just barely wide and tall enough for it. It seemed to go on forever, a dimly lit patchwork of different types of materials. She hugged the crate she was holding on, barely clearing the wall of the tunnel. Mersi could have warned her about how tight it was. The further along she went, the older the tunnel’s construction became. The interior sections had been here a very long time.

The cargo train finally emerged into a large room stacked with similar crates and boxes. There was only one Irinese in the room along with some automatons that were performing the sorting of cages and crates. There were only two ways into the cramped warehouse, the way she had come, and a small corridor off to the side. She drifted over to it and floated down the long hall before coming to a dead end.

“Now what?” Rhylie whispered.

“I don’t know,” Mersi whispered back. “Why are we whispering.” Rhylie rolled her eyes.

“Because I’m at a dead end on the other side of the warehouse. I don’t see anyway to get through,” she whispered back.

“Oh. Ok. I didn’t know. I really do need to be able to see what you’re doing,” Mersi said.

“No you don’t,” replied Rhylie. That was the last thing she needed, someone always watching her.

“Just wait there for something to be brought out of the warehouse,” Mersi said. “Unless you just want to punch your way through it or something, I dunno.”

“I guess there isn’t another option really,” Rhylie said.
Hurry up and wait
, she thought with frustration.

Before long a set of cages came drifting up the hallway towards her. They both contained the same race of being from what Rylie could tell, but one held a female, and the other one held two males.

All three were a mottled blue and covered with a thin, fine fur that was bristled along their spine. They had a primitive posture, and were well muscled specimens with large, bat-like ears. They had long, muscular prehensile tails that twitched nervously. It reminded Rhylie of her cat. The door opened behind her, and she drifted through.

Sothu’s personal quarters were opulent beyond comparison in Rhylie’s experience. The bed itself was larger than her parents’ entire central room on Mars, with streamers and banners of soft, fine material of a wide variety of vibrant colors hanging from the ceiling above it. The entire room looked as though someone killed a clown with all of its random garishness.