The Exiled Earthborn (7 page)

That much was true. Alpha had told him Natalie’s power source could in fact detonate if it became unstable enough. All the more reason to take good care of his longtime friend.

“I’ve seen a feed of him using that loadout to kill a ship full of Xalan Paragons and their commanding Shadow. If we had the time, I’d have the mad scientist make one for every soldier in your unit,” Tannon said.

Flustered, Maston walked back toward his troops.

“There’s more than one way to kill a Shadow,” he said, scratching at the scar on his neck.

4

Once Alpha’s tracker had been built, the flight was going to take a mere forty-one minutes, despite the distance to Rhylos being equivalent to orbiting Earth about three and a half times. Omicron’s ship was fast in the atmosphere as well as out of it. The newly appointed Guardian crew had taken to calling it the “Spear,” likely due to its flat, elongated shape and razor-sharp nose.

Lucas was relegated to crew quarters and found himself sitting across from a familiar looking brown-skinned giant, the one who had been eyeing him earlier. His black hair was shaved into a wide mohawk that ran all the way down to his neck, and he had a bandage wrapped around his enormous left bicep, which was laced with a series of angular tattoos that resembled circuitry. Next to him was a pale, lean woman whose dark red hair had been roughly chopped short around her ears. Her blue-green eyes pierced Lucas with a glare that made him uncomfortable, but he was too preoccupied to be intimidated; Asha consumed his every thought.

They’d heard nothing from Hex Tulwar or the Fourth Order since the initial video message other than a brief transmission with instructions for delivery of a ransom payment that would never come. Rather, Alpha had used the chemical trace on Asha to reveal she was being held in a fortress buried deep inside the cliffs of Rhylos, a dusty continent tens of thousands of miles removed from the lush greenery of Elyria. Tannon had told him the nation had been in open rebellion for years, but civilian deaths as a result of SDI retaliation strikes had only strengthened the revolutionaries’ cause, and nearby regions had begun to rally to Tulwar and his Order. The only thing they knew for sure about this hidden installation was that Asha was still alive inside of it, and that was all that mattered. Lucas’s thoughts were interrupted by a gruff voice in front of him. The man’s.

“Did you truly kill Commander Kurotos on this ship, Earthborn?”

Kurotos. It took Lucas a second. Omicron.

“Yes, on the bridge.”

“How,” the man pressed. It wasn’t really a question, only a statement of disbelief. A silver plate on his shirt read “Silo.”

“I had help,” Lucas said. “My … friends. We all nearly died trying, but his arrogance allowed us the upper hand.”

“Impossible,” the woman said, finally speaking. Her tag read “Kiati.” Lucas didn’t know if these were first or last names, or merely coded identifiers. The fatigues he had received and changed into were unlabeled. Presumably everybody already knew who he was. Kiati continued.

“You may be from this planet, Earth, but the stories they’re telling about you? No one could survive that. Especially a fight with a Shadow.”

“Maston did,” Silo said, but Kiati shot him an angry glance and he said no more.

“He fought a Shadow?” Lucas asked, incredulous.

“He killed a Shadow. But it is not our place to reveal details of the Commander’s history. Ask him yourself,” Kiati said, still glaring at Silo.

Lucas leaned back against the wall.

“We’re not exactly on the best terms,” he said, rubbing his bruised jaw where Maston had struck him earlier.

“I heard he saved your life at the palace,” Silo said, scratching at his bandage.

“That may be true.”

“And that Corinthia Vale died in front of you.”

Lucas sighed. Even if it was unwarranted, guilt did plague him. The blast was something unknowable, but the party in his honor? It was the perfect target for an attack with so many important guests in attendance there.

“She was gone when I reached her, there was nothing to be done.”

He paused to form a question of his own he’d been meaning to get answered.

“Were she and Maston … involved? He seems pretty distraught over her death.”

“We all mourn the loss of the High Chancellor’s daughter,” Kiati said with a stern face, but Silo had locked eyes with him and was silently nodding.

It was true then. He felt a touch more sympathy for Maston, and recognized his own fury would reach similar levels if it had been Asha murdered instead.

There was a ping from his chest, and he tapped his badge, where a holographic indicator tumbled out in front of him. The message that hung there told him to report to the communications center.

“Either of you know where comms is?” he asked hopefully as he rose from his seat.

Kiati simply stared at him, while Silo jerked his head to the right.

“Thanks.”

Lucas was immediately lost after going down the first hallway. He’d only been on the ship once, and that was during a heated battle on the bridge that left him half dead. But as he continued, passing troops pointed the way to his destination. Some were already suiting up. It appeared that the Guardians had been training on this ship for some time, at least to the point where they knew their way around. They only needed someone to turn it on and fly it, a role Alpha now filled.

Comms was a large area buzzing with officers and flooded with an array of monitors everywhere he turned. As soon as he was spotted, a man ushered him to the rear of the room. A small screen floated up to his face, then tripled in size. Two familiar figures appeared. It was Talis Vale, and she was holding Noah in her lap.

“Madam Chancellor!” Lucas said, unable to hide his surprise. She was in a new ensemble from the gown she’d worn earlier, but bruising on her neck and face indicated she hadn’t escaped the assault entirely unscathed. Dried tears were etched on her cheeks in two columns, but when she saw Lucas, she grinned. As did Noah, and the boy reached for the screen, trying to touch him.

“I’ve told you a dozen times to call me Talis, Lucas,” she said with a weak smile. “It is good to see you well. I was thrilled to learn of your survival.”

“I’m glad to see you’re safe too, Talis. But I have to say I’m sorry for the loss of your daughter.”

Her smiled faded.

“Thank you. I hope you don’t mind that I’ve appropriated your child to help me through this difficult time. He’s a constant source of joy, even in this darkness.”

She bounced Noah on her knee and he giggled.

“Of course. I can imagine no greater protector for him.”

Talis gazed off out of frame, her tone softer when she spoke again.

“I never thought I’d lose her. My sons, my husband, my father. Those deaths I knew in my heart would come someday as they fought impossible enemies millions of miles away. But Cora? She was supposed to be safe here. I cannot believe it.”

Lucas didn’t know what to say.

“I’m sorry.”

But that didn’t feel like anything close to enough.

She turned to face Lucas once more.

“The reason I called you here isn’t to pine for the lost. I’m issuing you an order I hope you’ll follow, even if you’re a citizen of a planet other than this one.”

“Anything.”

“If you find Hex Tulwar in this mess after saving your companion, ensure he is captured alive.”

Lucas was taken aback.

“Alive? After all that he’s done? Conspiring with the Xalans? Killing your … killing so many?”

She shook her head.

“If you come home with his head, this will look like a covert assassination rather than a rescue mission. Even if his death is warranted, it will set the entire region on fire and we’ll have two full-scale wars on our hands instead of one.”

Her right hand was trembling as the other held on to Noah.

“As much as I want vengeance for my daughter, I won’t put more lives at risk for my own vendetta. But I cannot say the same for Mars.”

Lucas nodded.

“I’ve heard he and Corinthia were … close.”

“That was kept secret by them, but it ended some time ago for reasons my daughter didn’t care to divulge. But he never stopped caring for Cora, and I’m worried he’ll tear Tulwar limb from limb if no one stops him.”

Lucas rested his arms on the console in front of him.

“Why aren’t you issuing this order to him? Or Admiral Vale?”

“I have, but if Tannon isn’t on the ground, you can be certain none of the Guardians will intervene to stop Mars. He’d defy a direct order to avenge Cora even if it meant possibly spending the rest of his life in a cell.”

“I’m not going to lie, I’d love to see this bastard dead as well, even if I just learned his name a few hours ago. He took Asha, killed innocents …”

Talis nodded.

“I understand, but he must face justice for his crimes in a civilized manner. If we execute him on the spot like barbarians, we’re no better than the Order itself in the eyes of the world.”

Lucas sighed.

“I’ll do what I can, but Tulwar’s death may be inevitable. Things are likely to get heated during the raid.”

“All I’m asking is that you try, Lucas. It would be the best way you could honor my daughter. Hopefully Mars will understand that as well. Cora wanted peace above all else. Peace with Rhylos, peace with Xala. She would not want to be ‘avenged’ in such a fashion.”

Noah squirmed in her arms.

“I know what you’ve done to get here. You’ve told us astonishing, harrowing tales of your will to survive. But you don’t have to be that man anymore. You’re a father now, whether you call yourself that or not. Be a man your children can admire, not fear.”

That hit Lucas like a shot through the chest. He thought of his lost son, Nathan, on Earth, one he rarely saw even before the war, as he shirked his parental duties as often as he could. It was getting harder to picture his face.

“Take care of him for me,” he said, motioning to Noah. Talis nodded with a strained smile and the feed went black.

Despite being told to remain in crew quarters for the duration of the flight, Lucas had little desire to return and play twenty questions with Kiati and Silo at his assigned station. Instead, he made his way to the bridge and, after a fairly long trek, the large central doors opened and he saw before him the place where his journey almost came to an end six months past.

The CIC had mostly been repaired, but a few of the consoles that Omicron had ripped out of the floor hadn’t yet been replaced. Angular craters pocked the ground where they once stood. Lucas saw Maston and the admiral drawing up battle plans on the large central holotable. The last time he’d seen it activated was when Alpha’s deceased father delivered his fateful message to them.

Maston saw him immediately and predictably began to protest.

“What’s he doing here?” he said to no one in particular. “I thought I told you to remain in quarters.”

“And I don’t take orders from you,” Lucas said coldly. “I’m not a Guardian.”

“You wouldn’t have even lived through training,” Maston spat back at him.

Yet again, they were in each other’s faces with someone about to be hit. Tannon walked up to them coolly, putting a hand on each of their shoulders.

“We’re eight minutes from arrival, we don’t have time for this shit,” he said in an exasperated tone. “Lucas, on the ground you will obey Commander Maston for your own safety and the safety of the other Guardians. We don’t do lone guns here. And you,” he said, turning to Maston. “The man lived through his local apocalypse and killed a Shadow right where you’re standing. Give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Maston simply turned away and went back to the holotable. Lucas had no desire to provoke him further by relaying Talis’s message, so he walked toward the figure sitting in the pilot’s chair.

“Alpha.”

The gray creature turned to him, cables connected to his temples. He nodded.

“Lucas.”

The view out of the newly replaced central screen showed the curved edge of the blue planet rotating rather quickly ahead of them. They were in the outer atmosphere, the fastest way to get to their destination without being detected. They were cloaked, but flying too low at too-high speeds could damage any structures or aircraft nearby and give them away. The ship wasn’t meant to run errands from one end of a planet to the other. Its usual destinations were trillions of miles away.

“How does this thing fly?” he asked.

“It is … pleasurable. The difference between this ship’s capacity and the Ark’s is like that between a [garbled] and a [garbled].”

Alpha’s translator broke up when it couldn’t find the necessary words to substitute into the analogy.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Lucas said.

“Perhaps when Asha has been safely returned, you can pilot the craft. You were quite skilled in combat with the Ark, and that was merely a transport vessel. This is a far more refined weapon.”

“You should know, you built it.”

“It was largely a creation of my father, though I did some work on the engine systems when I was younger. This ship brought Commander Omicron many victories, though often his enemies did not even realize it was present.”

Lucas walked up to the viewscreen. The vista before him of the planet’s curved surface was astonishing. He wished Asha were there to see it.

“What do you make of the cloaked ship the Fourth Order used?” he asked.

“It is hard to say,” Alpha replied. “But I imagine it is a much, much smaller craft, and developed by someone with an intimate knowledge of the science.”

Alpha became quiet for a moment.

“I would like to apologize in advance.”

Lucas broke his gaze out the window and turned to him.

“For what?”

“For not being able to accompany you on this mission on the ground. I must remain here, as I am the only one trained to fly this craft.”

“Of course, I never expected you would be coming. Why would you apologize for that?”

Alpha sighed.

“Asha is my … friend,” he said, as if the word was foreign to him. “We have fought many battles together, the three of us, and I would not see her lost after the journey we undertook to get here.”