Polaris (26 page)

“Yeah well, we've got to get away first,” said Eric as Perry swung the hover truck hard to the right.

Jeth stood up and Sierra moved into his place, keeping pressure on the makeshift bandage. Jeth headed into the cab, switched on the comm, and opened the link to
Polaris.

“Hey, Boss,” Flynn replied. “How's it—”

“I need you to get in the air and head our way. We've got heat and my mom's hurt.” Jeth glanced up, spotting at least two ITA helos tracking them in the air. They hadn't opened fire yet, and he guessed that they didn't want to risk destroying the cargo in the truck. Although whether they were concerned with Aileen or if they'd realized who Marian was, he didn't know.

“What hap—never mind,” said Flynn. “We're on our way. I'll head toward the city and give them something else to worry about for a while.”

“Good. We'll make our way to the shuttle. Then once we're in we'll rendezvous back at sea. I'll let you know when it's safe to cloak again.”

“Okay,” Flynn said, sounding surprisingly eager. Jeth could only hope the ITA didn't have time to call in anything bigger than the helos.

Perry pressed on, navigating the streets with little concern for anyone who got in the way. They made better time than they had coming in, but the helos stuck with them, along with several ITA trucks following them on the ground.

Soon they were heading out of the city.
Come on Flynn, where are you?
Jeth thought, scanning the sky. They needed
to lose the ITA or they would never make it onto the shuttle. Finally, he spotted a flash of light in the darkness overhead and then the familiar predatory shape of a Black Devil starship. The sight of it made his heart both ache and soar.

The moment
Polaris
was in range, Flynn opened fire, taking aim at the trucks first before moving onto the helos. He was limited to the pilot guns, but they were enough for this task. The trucks went down at once, but the helos returned fire. Flynn didn't move to avoid it, knowing the shields could withstand the impact, at least for a little while. He had to block the helos entirely to let them escape. The ploy worked, and soon the truck was pulling ahead and out of sight.

Ten minutes later they made it to the dock. Perry brought them to a stop just as the signal of an incoming call flashed on the comm. Jeth switched it on and Flynn's panicked voice boomed out, “They've sent in reinforcements. I've got to bug out.”

“We're at the shuttle. Get out of there.” Jeth scanned the sky, no ITA craft in sight. But he knew that could change at any moment. Their flight from the city would've been posted all over the news, and any number of people could be looking for them now.

Jeth climbed into the back to help his mother into the shuttle. He bent down to pick her up, but Remi pushed him out of the way. The giant man slid his arms beneath Marian and raised her up as if she were a small child, his movement gentle but quick. Marian exhaled her pain, tears leaking out
from her eyes. Jeth's heart wrenched inside his chest as if an invisible fist were trying to rip it free from the tendons and muscles holding it in place. He knew this feeling, the fear of his mother dying.

Moments later they were all crammed into the shuttle once more. Jeth hauled the door closed and then sat down at the helm. He piloted them beneath the water as Sierra signaled Flynn.

“We're on our way out to sea. Can you meet us soon?”

“Yeah,” Flynn said. “I'm tracking you now. I'll land a few kilometers out from you and de-cloak.”

When Jeth finally brought the shuttle back to the surface and spotted
Polaris
ahead of them, he took his first full breath since leaving the city. A glance at the clock told him it had only been thirty minutes since they'd left the city, but that was an eternity with a gunshot wound to the gut.

Jeth pushed the thought away, reaching for the reassurance of the implant. Anger bristled inside him, his fury directed at Aileen for bringing this down on them. If they'd stuck to the plan, none of this would've happened. It was their entry into the Stock lab that had triggered the silent alarm. Red clouded his vision. But anger was better than pain, better than fear.

Remi carried Marian onto the ship and down to sick bay. Jeth followed behind. Sierra was already inside, having raced ahead to prep equipment. Remi set Marian on the table and withdrew, as silent as ever but with a dark expression on his face.

As Jeth stepped up to the operating table, Sierra raised her hand. “I need you to leave, Jeth.”

He glowered. “No.”

“You have to. I need to concentrate, and you'll only distract me.”

“I want to help.”

She shook her head. “You're no good at this sort of thing. Get me Aileen. She'll be better help.”

Jeth's hands clenched into fists. He wanted to hit something, destroy something.

“Please, Jeth.” Sierra touched his arm. “You're wasting time.”

Her words hit him hard enough to snap him out of his fury. If Sierra needed Aileen, he would make it happen. Whatever it took. Jeth swung around and ran out into the corridor. He could've used the comm to call for her, but he feared she wouldn't come. He was too furious to keep the anger out of his voice.

To his surprise, Aileen appeared at the end of the corridor.

“Sierra needs your help.” He swallowed his rage, which was bubbling up like acid. “To save my mother.” He expected her to protest, but she only nodded, her face blanching to a sickly white. Then she brushed past him into sick bay and shut the door.

Jeth stared at that closed door for several minutes, unable to make himself move. But when the sound of tiny footsteps reached him from behind, he swung around to find Cora approaching. Fear clouded her face, her eyes red from
crying. Jeth had forgotten about the link she shared with their mother. Cora would've sensed Marian's pain as soon as they had arrived. He bent down and scooped her into his arms as she reached him.

“Is she going to be okay?” Cora whispered against his neck.

“I don't know, sweetheart,” he said, unable to give her the lie he knew he ought to. Or maybe he knew that she wouldn't believe it. He wished there was a way to disconnect the link she shared with their mother, a link that was no longer so hard to comprehend now that he'd experienced the Axis. Cora's ability was a part of her, not some implant she could just pull out. He wished he could trade places with her and spare her this pain.

He carried her into her cabin and set her on the bed.

“How about a new story,” he said, picking up the reader from the end table.

Cora thought it over, her eyes darting to the door and then back to him again several times.

“Come on,” Jeth prompted. “It'll help us keep our minds off things.”

Cora slowly nodded, and Jeth switched the screen on. He listed off a couple of options, but Cora picked “Cinderella” at once, her favorite.

Jeth sat down to read, taking his time and putting all the effort he could muster into the voices. The distraction helped, allowing him to forget what was happening for a little while.

Sometime later, Sierra opened the door and came inside. Sweat plastered her hair to her face, and there was a smear of blood over her cheek. She looked like she'd been in a battle. Jeth supposed that was close to the truth.

But it was a battle she had lost. He could see the truth in her eyes before she opened her mouth to speak.

“I'm so sorry, Jeth,” Sierra said. “I did the best I could, but it's not going to be enough.”

“SHE'S ASKING TO SEE YOU.” SIERRA SWALLOWED AND
looked at the floor, unable to meet his gaze. “I . . . I don't think there's much time. There was too much damage. I removed the bullet and repaired what I could, but there's internal bleeding. Maybe if Milton were here—”

Jeth raised his hand, cutting her off. He didn't mean to be cruel, but he heard Cora's breathing grow rapid. They couldn't risk her losing control. “See to Cora,” he said. “She's going to need you now.”

Sierra nodded and stepped in. She sat down on the bed beside Cora and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Jeth headed out into the corridor, walking slowly toward sick bay. He was unable to make himself walk fast even though he knew each second brought his mother closer to the last. He didn't want to face this. Not again.

If Milton were here . . .
There was no point in speculating what might have been. Milton wasn't here. The past couldn't be undone.

The door stood open, and Jeth stepped inside, forcing his eyes up and onto his mother, still lying on the operating table. Sierra had taken the time to make her comfortable
with several pillows behind her head and a blanket to keep her warm. A tired smile crossed Marian's face as he entered. He could tell at once that she wasn't in much pain. Whatever drugs Sierra had given her were doing that much at least.

“Come here.” Marian motioned him over to her. He went, picking up her hand and holding it in his. He gazed down at his mother. Her eyes were so much like Lizzie's, but he couldn't bear to look at them for long. He shifted his gaze to the left of her face and saw her implant lying on the table beside her pillow. It was the first time he'd seen her without it, and its lifeless form made it feel as if a part of her was already dead.

“Will you take out your implant, please?” Marian said.

The request took him by surprise, and he raised his eyebrows.

“Please, I want us to talk alone. Completely alone.”

Jeth gulped, his tears rising fast. These were her final minutes, and he would do whatever he could to make them happy ones. He reached up and pulled out the implant, trying to keep the tremble from his hands. The minute it came out, his fear and sadness threatened to overwhelm him, and he craved the reassuring strength of the implant. But it was his mother's last request, and she squeezed his fingers as he slipped the implant into his pocket.

“I'm sorry,” she said.

The tears threatened even harder.

“I never wanted to cause you pain. I didn't plan for any of this to happen.” A grimace twisted her mouth.

Jeth inhaled and exhaled, inhaled and exhaled, fighting not to be swept under by the despair rising up inside him.

“I know this is hard,” Marian continued, “but you must promise me that you will complete the mission. The Harvesters must be destroyed and the Pyreans set free.”

He nodded. There was no question of that. If anything, he was more determined to finish it, loss fueling his need for vengeance.

“Good,” she hesitated, squeezing his hand once more. “But there's something else you must promise me.”

He cleared his throat. “What is it?”

She held his gaze, her eyes glassy but no less determined. “Once you've destroyed the Harvester, do not give Dax the coordinates to Empyria.”

Jeth's brow furrowed, his surprise momentarily staving off his anguish. “You knew what I was planning?”

A smile curled Marian's lips. “Of course. And no, Lizzie didn't tell me. Not directly. But it was easy to guess what she was up to once I realized she had found my data crystal and was studying it. That and the way you questioned my motives concerning Dax.”

Dumbfounded, Jeth asked, “Why didn't you call me out on it?”

“There wasn't time before we left Peltraz. And after, well, things were already strained between us. I didn't want to add to it. Not until it was necessary. But it is now, and now you must promise me not to give it to him.”

“But—” Jeth began.

“You must honor the deal the way I intended, by taking Dax to Empyria yourself.” She paused, running a tongue over her cracked lower lip. “Or don't take him, if you're able to escape. I don't care. Either way, I want
you
to go there. Take Lizzie, Cora, Sierra, anyone else you trust who wants to. But you must go.”

A dozen emotions exploded in Jeth at once, too many for a single one to gain dominance—surprise, confusion, and fear, definitely fear. He struggled to keep his voice neutral, but failed. “Why are you so determined?”

“Because I promised the Pyreans I would return and bring others back with me, once I set them free from the Harvester,” she said with no hesitation. “But now you must do it in my stead.”

“You promised them?”

She nodded. “They truly are sentient, Jeth, as intelligent and alive as you and I. Only more so, in every way.”

Doubt pressed in on him. This had to be his mother's delusion speaking, a result of all the trauma she had endured, both from the ITA and whatever she had experienced when she visited Empyria. Still, he couldn't dismiss her claims. Not now. Instead he gently asked, “How do they talk exactly?” The Pyreans he'd seen in metadrives and metagates had nothing resembling a mouth.

“Mind to mind, of course,” Marian said, the slightest hint of amusement in her tired voice. “In the same way that the implant allows you to communicate with the others on the Axis. The Pyreans' very nature is what makes it work.”

“I see,” Jeth said, understanding this aspect at least. “But how did you communicate with them without an implant?”

“You don't need one when you're on Empyria.” She shifted her head and picked up the white implant beside her. “Going there changes you. Within days of landing, your father and I were both able to touch metaspace. It was as easy as thinking.”

This too Jeth had no choice but to accept. He knew from the Aether Project that Marian's DNA has been altered during her visit to the planet. “But didn't the change . . . hurt?”

Marian shook her head. “Not at all. Not even for a second. You don't have to be afraid of going there, Jeth. It's a planet unlike any other. You won't want to leave, not ever. Everything is new and wondrous. The trees and plants, the animals and water. Even the air is different. Being there, sharing that connection to the Pyreans, it's like coming home after a long time away. Only the feeling doesn't fade. It's like being at peace and elated at the same time. I can't explain it and I can't convince you with words. You must experience it for yourself.”

Jeth stared down at her, doubt plaguing him once more. Yet she sounded so sincere, so utterly convinced of what she was saying. He thought about the implant and how it made him feel, that sense of power and rightness. Maybe it did have to do with the Pyreans after all, dead or not. There was no denying they were powerful creatures. Maybe powerful enough to have planted such memories in her mind. The idea chilled him, and he suppressed a shiver. “If it was so
great, then why did you ever leave?”

Marian sighed then winced from the pain of moving her abdomen. Jeth looked down, noticing how swollen her stomach was beneath the blanket.

“I left because the Pyreans asked me to. They needed me and your father to set them free.”

“But Mom,” he said, unable to stop himself. “How could the Pyreans possibly speak to you in a language you understand?”

“They don't need language. They speak in images and emotions, thoughts that need no translation. That's how they told us that they were dying.”

“Yeah, the Harvesters, I know.”

She shook her head. “It's so much more than that, Jeth. They need
us
. The Harvesting must stop, yes, but they also need
us
.”

Fear clouded Jeth's mind, and for a second he questioned the wisdom of indulging her madness. Then again, he didn't have the heart to stop her. “Who exactly do they need?”

Marian focused her gaze on his face, her expression serious and completely lucid. “Humankind. That's why they first appeared on Earth so many centuries ago. They were trying to make contact with us. We have something inside us the Pyreans need in order to live and thrive. They were ailing even before they breached the ocean. Millennia ago, a different humanoid species lived with them, but that race disappeared.”

“How?”

“I don't know. The Pyreans refused to tell us anything about that history. All we know is that it was a symbiotic relationship, one they attempted to establish again, with us. We would fulfill their needs even as they fulfilled ours. Needs we didn't even realize we had. They need us still—now more than ever.”

Jeth blinked. Another species? Aliens? Needs and fulfillment? It didn't make sense. And yet he couldn't voice those doubts to her, not now. He could tell that this was important to her. Perhaps the most important thing.

Marian squeezed his hand with surprising strength considering how quickly she was fading before his eyes. “That is why you must go back. It will start with you and whoever else you bring with you.”

Jeth shook his head. “How can just a few of us make a difference? Why not release the coordinates and let everyone know how to get there?”

“You know why not.” Marian coughed, releasing his hand as she wrapped an arm around her stomach, trying to minimize the movement. Sadness squeezed Jeth's chest. He wanted to help her, to take her place, but he could only watch.

Once the fit had passed she continued, “Releasing the coordinates would mean war and destruction. The ITA, the crime lords, anyone with power at all would try to claim the planet for their own, killing one another in the process.”

Jeth swallowed, knowing she was right. Only— “If I bring someone like Dax there, the same thing will happen.
He'll try and claim the planet.”

“No it won't. No one can claim the planet no matter how hard they try. In their home environment the Pyreans are all-powerful. They can't be captured and harvested on Empyria the way they were on First-Earth. They're too strong there. And Dax will land on the planet with you—and anyone who enters the atmosphere will go through the change—and will understand the truth of what our relationship with the Pyreans can be. As for the rest, I don't know how it will work exactly, how they will bring enough humans to fulfill that need. But I trust the Pyreans to know what they're doing.”

“That's an awful lot to take on trust.”

“Yes, I know,” Marian said. “But I promise you it's the truth, my darling. This is the reason why I didn't reveal these things to the ITA, even when they offered to bring you and me together again. I wanted to save this for you, so that you could live in the world I had witnessed. Please, do this now. For me, for Cora, for Lizzie, and for you.”

Jeth held his breath, his heartbeat throbbing in his temples as he wrestled with his desires. He didn't want to lie to his mother on her deathbed, but what choice did he have? Telling her the truth that he had no desire to risk whatever this change was she and Cora had been through when they visited the planet, that he did not believe in this miracle she described, would only hurt her needlessly. One more lie wouldn't matter, not now. The only harm in false hope was living long enough to realize it. But Marian wouldn't.

“Okay, Mom,” he said. “I will.”

The look of happiness and relief that broke over her face was nearly enough to shatter his resolve along with his heart.

She reached up and cupped his chin. “I know you feel like you're broken, Jeth, but you're not. You've only been bent. But I promise that will change. You will be whole and upright again. Go to Empyria. You will understand.”

He nodded, unable to draw breath for another lie. Bent or broken, it didn't matter. All that did matter was destroying the ITA and Saar. That was the only promise he knew he could keep.

Anything beyond it was just smoke and dreams.

Marian lowered her hand. “Be careful of your Brethren implant. It's a powerful tool. Dax will try to use it to force you to tell him the coordinates instead of letting you take him there. You must not let it happen.”

“I won't,” he said, thinking about the hierarchy and the way he had overcome Eric. The desire to reinsert the implant rose up in him, but he pushed it down out of respect for his mother. This was too private to risk sharing. Eric and Perry wouldn't be able to listen in, but they could still send him thoughts, intruding on these last precious moments.

“And one last thing, before I say good-bye to Cora,” Marian said.

Jeth's knees trembled, and he fought back a sob rising in his chest. She was really going. There was nothing he could do about it. “What?”

“You mustn't blame Aileen for what happened, Jeth. This
was beyond her control. She must've had a reason for needing that medicine. I imagine once you hear it, you'll realize you would've done the same.”

I wouldn't count on it,
he thought.

Fortunately, Marian didn't press him to commit to this promise. She closed her eyes, and Jeth waited, unsure of what to do next.

The sound of the door opening drew his attention. He looked behind him and saw Cora stepping inside, her gaze fixed on Marian. No one else existed. Marian waved her forward, and Cora came to the table and attempted to climb up.

Jeth started to tell her no, but stopped at a look from his mother. He picked her up instead and Cora settled down in the crook of Marian's arm. She was careful not to press against Marian's stomach, knowing instinctively that this was where her injury was.

Or maybe it wasn't instinct, Jeth realized as he watched them. He couldn't quite explain how, but he sensed that they were communicating, sharing thoughts and feelings the same way he did with the Brethren, only without the Axis.