The Thief, page 13
The fact one of his own people’s dynasties, the Theriz, had once inflicted no less horrific destruction on the worlds of species deemed ‘unworthy of preserving’ left a sour taste in his mouth, to be sure. He’d dedicated a century of his life to defeating the Directorate that had issued those orders to the Theriz. The Hesgyr’s opinion of his people was correct, and all the work anadens had done in the last eighteen years to do better, to be better, had scarcely begun to scratch the surface of their debt.
Helping to rid the universe of the Rasu had to count for something, though.
Tolje flicked a finger against one of the switches on the left side of the dash and pointed the ship’s nose at the black. “There’s nothing on this world capable of hurting us. I know—the exocolony. Heading there now.”
Once he’d put enough distance between the ship and the planet, Tolje punched in a course and engaged the auto-pilot. “No need to tax the wormhole drive in-system. We’ll be there in forty-two minutes. Let’s eat.”
“Sounds good.” It did not, but at this point Eren had numbed himself to the blandness of the slurry the Hesgyr ate.
Sitting at the small, bolted-down table, Tolje did more swirling of his food with his straw than eating it. “I typically visit thriving civilizations. After all, those are the ones who are making useful things worthy of appropriating. The scene down there, though? That was sad. A real waste.”
“Yep.” Eren forced himself to swallow a sip of soup.
“You ever encounter the Rasu up close?”
He huffed a breath and nudged the food box away. “You could say so. I got trapped on the planet where I was living—still live, most of the time—when they invaded. Spent days fighting them from tree to tree. Fighting and losing.”
Tolje whistled low. “What was it like? What were they like?”
“Have you ever fought something that can’t be killed?”
“Can’t say as I have.”
“You can slice a Rasu mech into a thousand individual pieces, and all the pieces simply melt, slide back toward one another, join up and reform. It takes seconds. If they need a blade, they become a blade. Need a flamethrower or a rocket launcher or a godsdamn ship? Same thing. They were utterly relentless and abjectly soulless.”
“How’d you escape? Was this when Concord annihilated them?”
“Nah, that came a little later. This friend of mine, Caleb? He had a unique skill…you know what, it’s far too complicated to explain in a way that will make sense. Basically, we were able to stop the Rasu on the planet due to special circumstances. The circumstance being that Caleb was present on the surface.”
Tolje looked at him oddly, and Eren shrugged. “I have interesting friends.”
“This I don’t doubt. So, did your people ever figure out what the Rasu wanted? Evil without purpose is pretty rare in this universe. If you dig deeply enough, you usually find a justification for even the most heinous acts.”
Startlingly insightful wisdom from the man. “All we know for certain is they were using the prodigious materials they harvested from the worlds they attacked to build rings around galactic cores, and those rings sped up the rotation of the galaxies in question. Some people think they were trying to reverse our accelerating cosmic expansion, at least for this corner of the cosmos, but it’s only a theory. And even if it’s true, an arguably noble purpose doesn’t excuse the trillions of lives they extinguished in its pursuit.”
“No question.” Tolje stretched his arms over his head and settled lower into the chair. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get back to the cockpit. “Can I ask, who’s Cosime?”
Eren jerked in surprise. “Pardon me?”
“You talk in your sleep.”
“Oh. I hope I didn’t disturb you.”
“I was already up.”
“Okay. Um, she…was my teammate. My lover, my life partner. But she died almost four years ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
“Did the Rasu get her?”
“No—though the story I told did take place on her homeworld. Our home. But no. She was murdered shortly before the Rasu arrived by a man named Torval elasson-Machim, during a reconnaissance mission we were working.” The words were spilling forth off his tongue now. “He was a high-ranking military officer, and he disobeyed orders—well, that’s not technically true. Our government kind of lay in shambles at the time, and what little remained of it was in the process of trying to secede from Concord, or else overthrow it, whichever one worked. So Torval claimed no one had the authority to give him any orders.
“Anyway, he attacked a Savrakath facility while we were on the ground there. Blew the facility and most of my team to bits.” He breathed out through his nose; he’d made peace with those events, so long as he didn’t have to talk about them.
“And regenesis…?” Tolje asked.
“Wasn’t an option. Cosime was a Naraida.”
“The elfin species?”
“Yeah.” He smiled at the reference, as the analogy only went skin deep; the Naraida were fiercer than most Barisans. “Some aspect of their biology foils all attempts at regenesis technology. To their credit, the scientists have tried repeatedly. They’re still trying. But some species’ brains won’t accept the type of biosynth implants required to make regenesis work.” His throat spasmed painfully. “So she’s gone. Buried in a sepulcher on a mountaintop on Hirlas, surrounded by a field of forever-blooming snow-white flowers.”
“It sounds lovely.” Tolje’s gaze dropped to his lap. “We can’t always save them, you know—”
A polite beep rang out from the cockpit, and Tolje went up front and shut it off. After a minute, he returned to put away the meager dishes they’d used before going over to one of the cabinets on the starboard wall. He opened it, removed Eren’s weapons, and offered them up.
Eren didn’t give Tolje a chance to think better of the offer. He crossed the space in two strides, took the handgun, blade and miniature beam weapon and secured them in his pockets. “Thank you.”
“Remember, that marker you wear around your neck means I’m responsible for you. You won’t make me regret trusting you with these, will you?”
“I will not. Will they be a problem on Nythir?”
“Don’t go waving them around in the air at passersby or brandishing them at Transitions. But if you keep them concealed, no. Half the residents of Nythir are armed.”
“Understood.” He didn’t need to ask why weapons were commonplace on the station. Nythir wasn’t a lawless place; in fact, the bar fight at Soul Lubrications was the sole act of violence he’d witnessed. But a proud, independent people with a rugged background were usually an armed people.
They returned to the cockpit, and Tolje called up the gaffaeler’s follow-up report on a screen. “It says two cities remained standing on the exoplanet. Not sure why they escaped the Rasu’s notice until it was too late.”
But the answer became clear to Eren as they approached the planet. Situated on the edge of the habitable zone, it was painted in rust and sallow yellow, with only the faintest patches of moss green. It reminded him of images of Ares in the early days of the terraforming effort.
“There are no resources here worth harvesting. Nothing but dust and stone. Not that the Rasu wouldn’t eventually take those as well, but it would’ve been low on their priority list.”
“Makes some sense…strange. I’m not picking up any noise here. No comms escaping. No industrial activity.”
“Two cities wouldn’t be overly loud—not from way out here.”
“No, but I’d expect something to register by now. Let’s take a closer look.”
As they neared, two artificial circles broke up the arid landscape, connected by four parallel lines…except two of the lines splintered at around the one-third point measured from starboard. It wasn’t a good sign.
Light from the system’s star glinted off the circles. They were dome cities. This confirmed the origin of the pale green blotches—early-stage terraforming. High, wispy clouds floated by above the surface, indicating the presence of a minimal atmosphere, but presumably it wasn’t yet robust enough to risk living without protection.
They eased down through the thin atmosphere, and soon catastrophic damage became visible. A hole was punched through the top of the starboard dome some eighty meters wide, and craters dotted the planet’s surface outside the dome’s perimeter. A closer sweep above the second city revealed a spiderweb of cracks in its dome and pockmarked craters surrounding it.
Eren frowned. “Rasu?”
Tolje shook his head slowly. “The report indicated both cities were intact as of two years ago. This is recent.”
“Damn. Any life forms registering?”
“You already know the answer.”
“None at all?”
“Sorry. I wonder what happened here.”
“I don’t.” Eren banged his head against the wall behind him. “War. Civil war, or an insurrection, or widespread riots. Even mature dome cities are rarely one-hundred-percent self-sufficient. Their supply lines from the homeworld got cut when the Rasu attacked, and they never returned. The situation on the ground gradually deteriorated, and with it, morale. Maybe people started getting hungry, or maybe they just missed their luxuries. One thing led to another and, bam—explosions for everyone. They killed themselves.”
Tolje eased his hands off the controls and let the ship cruise a kilometer above the surface. “It’s what species do, more often than not.”
“Not the ones who make it this far.”
“But it is often what happens following first contact. Whether because they meet an aggressive species, they flub the encounter or their culture can’t handle the shock, over half of space-faring species are gone or have slid back to pre-industrial levels within a century after first contact.”
Eren stared at him. “That, I did not know.”
Tolje shrugged. “We’ve been studying alien civilizations for a long time.”
“Whereas we’ve just been enslaving them for a long time. Point to the Hesgyr. Seriously, though, fuck the Rasu.”
“Indeed. Te diewl with the Rasu.”
Tolje headed for space without asking whether he was ready to go. Eren wandered into the cabin and collapsed on the jump seat, then dropped his forearms on his knees and let his head drop. What now?
He didn’t hear Tolje join him until the cushion in the nearby chair made a squeaking sound. He peered out through a curtain of hair. “I really thought these guys were the ones. They fit the profile in every way—” He sat up straight and flung his hair over his shoulder. “What about other systems? Given their overall technological level, it’s entirely possible they’d developed FTL capability. Planet-wide terraforming is top-tier tech, and FTL usually comes first.”
“The file doesn’t say anything about an extra-stellar settlement. Doesn’t mean there isn’t one, as our surveys tend to focus on the target, which in this case was the homeworld. But the file would’ve noted if there was any evidence of FTL capability.”
“And this was the only off-homeworld colony the gaffaelers discovered?”
“No, there were others. Asteroid habitats, gas giant orbitals. All destroyed by the Rasu.”
“Right.” Eren dragged his hands down his face, fighting against a renewed wave of weariness. “Let’s get back to Nythir.”
15
* * *
Eren shut the light off in the guest room and sprawled out on the bed, arms spread wide until his fingers dangled off the edges. How in Hades’ five rivers was he supposed to solve this mystery now?
The report had come in from a new Goljetsu fly-by shortly after they’d returned to Nythir. It confirmed those aliens no longer had the capability to so much as fly fifty meters off the ground, never mind into space. Neither, it appeared, did the few remaining Phae’soon eking out a meager existence on their wrecked homeworld.
So his two best candidates had flamed out, and he was back to square one. His professed usefulness debunked, the Confab would surely send him packing in the morning, unless he could dial up the charm to eleven and convince them to give him another opportunity to prove his worth, possibly via his other, far worse idea.
Odd, that this failure was bothering him so much. He didn’t owe the Hesgyr anything. This was nothing but a side gambit on his part designed to maybe possibly get them to stop sneaking around Concord territory stealing things, after all.
But he found he’d grown to like them, ornery and irascible lot that they were. At a minimum, he liked them enough to want to prevent more of them from being murdered in gruesome fashion. Also, he hated being wrong, hated not being the dashing hero who saved the day with a witty retort delivered alongside a stylish flourish.
Yeah, that might be most of it.
A golden glow expanded to light the dark room, and he threw an arm over his eyes. “Doesn’t anyone knock?”
“If I warned you I was coming, you’d wave me off.” The light faded, allowing shadows to return. “Despite the fact that I’m bringing what you asked for.”
He moved the arm and squinted in Nyx’s direction. Her raven hair was pinned back at the sides, and she wore a simple but expensive gray tunic over casual black pants. “Now’s not the best time. Kindly leave everything on the floor and go, so I can get back to pouting.”
A jumbled pile of clothes landed on his face. “My advice? Burn what you’re wearing, as it’ll never recover from the abuse you’ve inflicted on it since you departed Ares.”
“I’ll take it under advisement.” He wrangled the clothes and tossed them off to the side, then gave in and sat up. “And the rest?”
Two boxes thumped down beside him. “A ‘thank you’ is customary at this point.”
He nodded soberly. “Forgive me, it’s been a tough day. Thank you. I mean it.”
Nyx stared at him for a moment, her expression scrupulously blank, before glancing around the room. There weren’t any chairs, so she perched precariously on the edge of the bed and folded her hands in her lap. “What happened?”
He despised admitting weakness to her, so he hedged. “I hit a small roadblock in finding the source of these attacks. Spent a lot of hours on a ship that does not offer the height of luxury. Watched too much footage of attacks so grisly they sickened even my shabby, jaded heart. All in a day’s work. How’s home?”
“It’s…fine. I won’t bore you with the latest unconscionable moves by the Conference. I know how you loathe politics.”
“Don’t you as well?”
“Deeply. But it’s now my job to care about politics, so I do.”
It wasn’t her job, not really. But keeping her grandfather safe was her adopted calling, so she’d added such distasteful items to her duties on her own initiative. If she insisted on adding the torture of political games to her daily activities, far be it from him to convince her otherwise.
So instead, he opened the first box. Inside were six state-of-the-art grade IV spikes specifically designed to adapt to dozens of computer configurations of foreign origin. Hesgyr systems weren’t one of the preset configurations, but the spikes’ firmware should get him eighty percent of the way there, and he’d handle the rest.
“What are you planning to hack?”
“You got the image capture I copied you on? The one with the locations of other civilizations in this supercluster?”
“I did. I don’t envy the Consulate their job of turning it into usable intel.”
“I’m hoping I can make their job easier. The Hesgyr have a shackled SAI here on Nythir, goes by SIMON. I was granted access to its high-level records on the Hesgyr’s historical thievery, in the hope I could identify a slate of suspects in the attacks. If I can break into the machine, I can download a plethora of information on the individual civilizations—and also details on how much they know about Concord, not to mention how they obtained their knowledge.”
“The first step in stopping them from infiltrating our facilities a second time…smart thinking.”
“Actually, the first step is me making friends with them, so next time, they’ll just ask if they need something. But it’s always good to have a backup plan.”
“Yes.” Nyx nodded at the other box. “And the protein bars? Are they not feeding you?”
“No, they are, but their food tastes like spoiled Savrakath fertilizer.”
“Oh.”
An uneasy silence fell, and he filled it with a dramatic exhale. “Well, thanks for bringing all of this. I’ll let you know what more I’m able to learn.”
“Yes, about that.” She stood and tried to start pacing, but the cramped room didn’t allow for it. “The Advocacy has determined that the Hesgyr activities on Ares represent a clear and present threat to state security. Further, the attacks on these aliens from an unknown enemy have raised significant concerns about our own vulnerability. Accordingly, I’ll be joining you here for the duration of your mission.”
“You—what?” He leapt up, too, cutting off half her narrow path. “Bullshite. Corradeo trusts me to do my job and do it spectacularly. The ‘Advocacy’ didn’t determine a godsdamn thing—you did.”
“As Director of Intelligence, it is within my purview to decide such matters on behalf of the Advocacy.”
“Fine, but don’t hide behind grandaddy. Tell me you don’t trust me to my face.”
“That’s not true. You have proved your value as an intelligence agent on multiple occasions.” Her chin lifted. “But this is too important for one person to manage.”
“You’d manage it yourself, if I wasn’t already here.”
“I ran my own solo missions for millennia as an Inquisitor. Missions far more complicated than this one.”
He just stared at her in disbelief.
