The Betwixt Book One (18 page)

Going from having no information, to being bombarded with it,
was leaving me reeling. It was all too much at once. A
galactic-wide movement preparing for the next invasion? Was that
why Od and Crag'tal had become such fast friends? Because they'd
met at the last Twixt Haters meeting? Or did they know the secret
handshake, or how to correctly pronounce the secret riddle? This
was all so much more complex than I could have ever believed.
Things had gone from me being against the Twixt in a galaxy of
unbelievers, to a Milky Way full of an underground
resistance.

I had to shake my head and keep going though. Things were
changing on me every day – the ground was shifting underneath my
feet like I was standing on the tail of an ice comet. But if I kept
on pushing forward, at least that would be going
somewhere . . . I took a deep breath. ‘Okay. What do
you mean an underground—’

‘
It's not a resistance or anything, it's not some kind of armed
militia ready to come to the rescue when Central fall on their ass.
It's more a community. We share information, artifacts. if we've
got them. We figured out a long time ago that beating the next
invasion was going to depend on us getting our hands on whatever
clues there were of the past. Your people aren't going to be here
to pull us out of this one.’

‘
Artifacts?’ I chanced upon the word like a child finding a
bush full of blackberries. Artifacts was precisely the word Od had
used in describing our hunt for weapons. ‘What kind of
—’

‘
You're looking for a weapon,’ the woman cut in again. ‘I don't
know if we've ever come across any – but I know people who might.
The Kroplin was probably right to bring you here, well, he would
have been if we hadn't just dug up your arch nemesis.’

‘
I do apologize. If I had known, I—’ Od began.

‘
Doesn't matter. At least she knows what she's up
against.’

Things were moving faster than a particle in spin. I couldn't
keep up to the changes, and it was making me sick just to
try.

‘
You look overloaded kid,’ the woman nodded at me, ‘sorry, but
you have to find out about this stuff sometime. I just can't
believe you really exist. I mean . . . we
looked . . . .’

I recoiled, I'm not sure why, but it seemed to be the natural
thing to do. It felt like there was an ugly realization. looming
before me, like a cobra from the tall grass. ‘What do you mean you
looked?’

‘
You don't know a lot, do you? Where did they find
you?’

‘
As a server of food and beverages in a space station in the
system of—’ Od began.

‘
I was a waitress,’ I cut in. I was usually a little ashamed of
that fact. But now I wore it like a mantle of gold – because being
a diner waitress was normal. And I needed to remind myself that,
despite where this conversation was going, I was normal.

‘
A waitress on a space station, huh? The last of the People,
the only daughter of Her, working in a diner. Well, forgive us if
we left out the cafeteria in our search. But yeah, we looked for
you. We have Her last message, we knew she sent you. But after the
years had passed almost everyone gave up. When the prodigal
daughter didn't arrive in a fanfare and glitter, we thought you'd
been lost to the ravages of space. But here you are—’

‘
I don't know what you're talking about,’ my voice was much
quicker than it usually was, far more like Commander Cole. I was
comprehending what the woman was saying, but understanding nothing.
I had a mother, there was a message, people knew that I was coming
– what did it all mean?

‘
Then you need to listen harder. Time isn't a luxury the Twixt
are going to give you. This ain't rocket science ki—’ the woman
began, but was stopped.

‘
Doctor Cole!’ someone shouted from outside the room, their
voice sounding like a sonic boom as it echoed in the massive
chamber outside. ‘Urgent message from your son.’

Doctor Cole rolled her eyes and marched over to the curtain
pulling it to. She snapped the com-pad off her assistant, the man
with the floppy hair, and walked back into the room, pulling the
curtain closed behind her. ‘This better be good,’ she
mumbled.

The Doctor pressed some buttons on the pad before seating it
on her desk. ‘I'd ask you to leave so I can have a bit of privacy,
but I don't want you,’ she pointed at me, ‘out there with that
thing. So you'll just have to put up with a mother-son
fight.’

A floating hologram of a man's head and torso appeared over
the pad.

‘
Mu-,’ the figure said before stopping mid syllable.

I'd used holocom technology before and it was pretty neat. The
pad allowed a 360-degree view of wherever it rested on– essentially
allowing the person who was making the message to have a full view
of the room and who they were talking to.

‘
Mini? What are you doing there?’ the hologram said. Well,
Commander Jason Cole said. Because it was him. Of all the people in
the whole galaxy – Jason Cole was this woman's son.

My heart skipped enough beats to be classed as terminally
malfunctioning as I stared at him.

‘
You know this woman?’ Doctor Cole snapped at her son.
‘Figures, my disbelieving son is the one to find—’

‘
That doesn't matter now, mum, just listen, for once,’ Jason
was as quick and sharp as he always was, but I could hear the fear
behind his voice. And the Commander wasn't one to play at drama.
‘We've intercepted a call from the Crag system – that moon you're
on is about to be overrun by Tarian Mercs – you got to get out of
there, and now.’

‘
What? Doctor Cole blustered. ‘Why would—’

‘
Just listen to me for once in your god damn life. The Crag
government have asked us assist – this isn't a joke, Ma. You've got
a half hour, if that, to get the hell off that moon. We don't know
what they want, but those Tarians aren't going to leave a soul
alive till they find it.’

Tarian Mercenaries were infamous. They were the types of
things bounty hunters and space pirates used to scare each other on
dark nights. They were the most ruthless, dangerous, vicious things
in the galaxy – short of the Twixts, that was. But unlike the
Twixts, the Tarians did their mischief for the love of money, and
plied their trade wherever the Central Credits would flow. I had
never met one, and that was probably why I was still
alive.

‘
Well that's a shame, Jason, because I'm not leaving.’ Doctor
Cole straightened her shoulders, and looked up just the same as
Commander Cole had looked up at Crag'tal.

Jason hit the table wherever he was beaming his message from,
and swore under his breath. ‘This isn't a joke – you need to get
out of there! These Tarians are going—’

‘
Well I can't,’ Doctor Cole collected her hands very carefully
before her, ‘because we don't have any direct transport. It would
take well over two hours to get everybody out.’

Jason was silent for a moment, his face descending into a dead
kind of surrender. ‘Then you better hole yourself up and prepare
for a fight. I'm coming, but I can't promise I'll get there in
time.’

Chapter 10

Tarian Mercs were coming to this underground dig site on this
tiny moon in the Crag system. I couldn't believe it. Last week my
life had revolved around serving customers at a space station and
watching galactic cooking shows in my spare time - and now I was
about to face a mercenary attack in an unprotected underground
facility. This was the stuff of those really bad holonovels you buy
for a half credit at the media store.

‘
I have to go,’ the hologram of Jason looked off to his left,
‘just stay—’

The hologram cut out – buzzing at first and shifting around as
if the image was made out of wobbly jelly. It left a hollow white
noise in the air.

Nobody said anything for a moment, which was good, I could
barely even handle the silence at this point, let alone everyone
talking at once. Mercenaries . . . what did they
want? Would they come here, did they know about this place? Or was
there something else on this moon that was drawing their attention?
Would they hit the space dock and then be gone? And what about
Hipop? Would he be safe in storage?

Gah! I felt so small and incapable - like the innocent I was,
facing off against my first real taste of the violent side of
space. Holomovies and games were one thing – a fully armed, vicious
hoard of Tarian Mercs was
another . . . .

Doctor Cole straightened up, tugging on her dusty brown vest
just like the Commander would tug on his uniform top. ‘I have to
tell my people.’

‘
How do you intend to defend these facilities?’ Od's voice
didn't betray even a hint of fear, though he wasn't standing nearly
as straight and neat as he usually did.

‘
Defend?’ I broke in, the nerves building in me like steam
trapped in a pipe. ‘How do you know they are even coming
here?’

Doctor Cole's face was steadily growing more determined – the
hard furrows on her brow deepening until they looked like trenches
across her forehead. ‘There's nothing else on this moon – nothing
that would keep a band of Tarian Mercs entertained anyway. They are
coming here, you can count on that.

I didn't want to count on that. I didn't want to count on
anything but Commander Cole getting here in time.
‘Well . . . if you're sure. Then why don't we get
out of here? This moon is so hilly – couldn't we go and hide in
some cave somewhere and wait this out?’

Crag'tal laughed, and it sounded like metal grating on metal.
‘Tarians have bio scanners, good trackers too. Only chance is to
defend till back up gets here. We'll lose – but only
chance.’

I didn't want to be hearing this – everyone was telling me
this was a no-win situation. ‘No – but . . . what
about the Crag army? Won't they intercept, won't the Crag's at the
space dock put up a good fight? You're a warrior race for heaven's
sake—’

‘
Tarians are fast, they have third generation Hyper Cruisers –
they are a crack unit, and are set up for snatch and grabs. And the
Crag army isn't going to bother with them when they know the GAMs
are on their way. They'd know the Tarians are headed for us – and
wouldn't be about to waste valuable resources on trying to prevent
an attack they aren't equipped for. We're on our own for now,’
Crag'tal was being unusually expressive, which hardly seemed a good
sign.

I looked at Crag'tal, waiting for him to cut in that the Crags
wouldn't be that . . . cowardly, but he just
shrugged.

‘
Crag government not what it used to be,’ his voice was heavy
with regret.

I imagined, for a race like his, it would be a hard blow to
allow alien assassins to encroach on their territory. I would have
pictured every Crag grabbing up a weapon and all converging on the
Tarians like . . . Crags to a fight. But they were
just going to sit idly by – because this was politics, not war,
apparently.

‘
So . . . what do we do? We can't stay in
here . . . not with that thing.’

‘
It's not a great situation,’ Doctor Cole walked over and
yanked her curtain open, ‘but we have to defend that thing – as
crazy as that sounds – and stop it from falling into the hands of
the Tarians. If they get their hands on it, or it gets loose –
there will be hell to pay.’

Doctor Cole marched off, calling her people to her like a
mother hen escorting her chicks away from the circling shadow of
the hawk above. Crag'tal and Od walked over to join them, Crag'tal
resting my rifle across his shoulder like a farmer rests his scythe
– ready for the harvest.

I didn't move, didn't want to. Walking over to the
pre-Tarian-attack confab over there would be accepting that such a
thing was going to happen. I didn't want to believe a word of it.
It was too . . . unreal. I wasn't the kind of
girl to find myself in such an outrageous situation – space
mercenaries and underground archaeological sites were not things
normal Mini was used to.

I crossed my arms and kind of hugged myself for a bit –
squeezing my torso and crouching forward. This
was . . . 

I raised my eyes to meet that thing. It was staring at me,
white eyes unmoving.

I straightened up slowly, my arms dropping to my side. I faced
it from across the room, and it felt like the space between us
wasn't really there at all.

A part of me knew how this was going to end, the rest of me
would have to wait and see it though.

‘
Mini,’ Od called from across the chamber, his voice echoing
louder and louder.

I ignored him, hands reaching for the rifle that I had
attached to the back of my suit.

‘
Mini—’

Why wait. I could tell what would happen, I could feel it deep
in my bones.

I could see the future playing out before me in perfect
detail. The Tarians would attack, we would become entrenched, and
just at the GAM would arrive to save the day - that thing would
break free. And we'd all die. Caught unaware, we'd be taken from
behind in a flash of gray flesh streaked with red. It was like
keeping your worst enemy in a time-released cage behind your front
line as you concentrated on the fight ahead – because that was
exactly what was happening. We may be intending to engage the
Tarians, but the real enemy was right here in front of me. And I
wasn't about to make a fatal mistake-