Rebel's Ultimatum, page 21
Wozim was another story. He preferred to fight with melee weapons but also liked to win. He pulled a surprisingly long energy rifle from his back. Its appearance was alarming because I hadn’t realized it was there. Part of my brain thought it unfolded or telescoped to achieve its oversized functionality, but I really didn’t know for sure. In all the battles we’d fought together, I hadn’t seen anything like this.
He didn’t waste time apologizing or explaining. The last I saw, he was taking aim and dropping one target after another. When that group hesitated, he pivoted neatly in the opposite direction to help Grum suppress the other commando team.
I was halfway up the ramp with Tom’tim and Solen when I looked back. The vacant building had windows, though they were dirty and hard to see through. Shapes, however, were apparently moving toward the front door.
We were about to fight on three fronts, and I couldn’t see what would be the fourth front on the other side of Kayan. For all I knew, they were sending a division of space tanks at us from that direction.
“Woz-man! Fall back. I’ll cover you.”
He complied immediately and was soon on the ramp with me, Grum, and Montow.
Wonder of wonders, he was slightly out of breath when he reached us. “That was very effective using my nickname. No one else would spout such nonsense, and it caught my attention even in the thick of battle.”
“Do you need to work on your cardio or something?” I fired two rounds into the front door of the vacant building as a new group of Taliz soldiers poured out of it. Kayan and Az were having a spirited discussion as to whether or not the warship needed to swoop down and start blasting. So far, Kayan had convinced the younger ship to wait and look for other threats.
“I’ll have you know,” Wozim said, “that this was the first time I used Grum’s new invention.”
“How was it?” the Walen asked as we retreated into the ship and the ramp came up.
Wozim grinned with his razor-sharp, black teeth. “I liked it.” His deep voice gave the phrase added umph.
Kayan launched smoothly as we were running toward our pod chairs.
“I took the liberty of moving them close to the deployment ramp, in case this was how things played out,” Montow said.
I fist-bumped him, and we all laughed. This was like old times, and none of us had been killed or even hurt.
That made me think guiltily of Kayan. She was obviously taking lots of hits, despite her shields, which had to be lowered to allow us to board. Without thinking, I immediately threw my Seer shield between the last of the attacks to come at us before she was up and flying.
“We are accelerating away from the scene at my best speed that allows me to also maintain a stealth field,” Kayan advised. “Please remain in your safety pods until I give you the all-clear. Then, you can move about as you wish or come to the bridge.”
“You are the absolute best, Kayan,” I said.
“Thank you, Noah Gantz. It’s good to have you back aboard, and I hope your passengers find their accommodations adequate.” She switched to our direct mental link. Do I need to restrain either of them?
I don’t think so, but be ready for anything.
“Would you like one of the guns I made for Wozim?” Grum asked. “I can easily modify one to work with your Kayan armor, and it will be simpler in some ways because I won’t have to make room for Ufri.”
“That would be badass. Thanks, Grum. Are you our new gunsmith?”
“I’ve acquired several new hobbies while you were out screwing around. I think everyone will be glad that you are back to take over food preparation, however.”
And just like that, my stomach growled.
“Good work,” Hash said via comms from aboard Az, who was still holding an overwatch position. “We were ready to jump in and save your butts.”
“There will be plenty of chances to fight,” I said. Some of my good mood slipped away, but I was still pretty glad to be where I belonged. With Kayan, Az, and all of my friends, I didn’t see what could stop us.
24
Racing away from the Grand Taliz Consortium base left me tired for reasons that became increasingly obvious the more I thought about them. Inside my pod, I could just talk to Kayan without relying on the mental link. For some reason, I found normal speech more satisfying despite how convenient our neural link was at times.
“I need everything you can tell me regarding the new arrival,” I said, thinking privately about the key Bydel had given me. It had seemed to be one thing—maybe a way to activate or control a dreadnought—but by the end of our adventure near the Obsidian Gate, I had learned it was to wake up elder Tytons who had been asleep for an unknown period of time.
She showed me the location of the Woz-nima-craul, the ship most of the non-Tyton crew just called the Star Rage. The ship looked to be in good order, which was great since the massive vessel was on our side this time.
“Got it?” Kayan asked, and it seemed there had been a lot of information that had gone into one of my ears and straight out the other.
I shook myself out of some dark reverie that was far too focused on my potential for failing in the future. That wasn’t my style. I needed to take care of business now and trust everything else would fall into line as long as I was doing my part.
“I’ll be honest, Kayan, I could use some help this time. Refresh my memory.”
I scanned the data as she explained it.
“Morlan Din decided to continue as captain of the Star Rage, though he definitely relies on his first blade, Bydel, to run the ship during battle, but also during most day-to-day operations. Din serves as a high-level thinker and puts his authority behind his subordinate’s decisions,” Kayan said. “They kept Tozzi as an officer, despite his young age, and it seems that Bydel is mentoring him effectively.”
My breathing steadied as I went through each detail of the ship, even though I knew we were both stalling. Sooner or later, we had to talk about the Tyton elders and why they were no longer snoozing aboard the Woz-nima-craul.
“You will be glad to hear other news,” she said.
I perked up.
“Kyldan and Ohpe brought the Strong Bread aboard the Woz-nima-craul and maintain a small but impressive portion of his ca-sil—excellent fighters, every one of them. Now that they have arrived in this troubled system, I predict he will deploy his warship effectively.”
“Wozim should like that. He’ll have better sparring partners while we are planning our next move,” I said, still refusing to face the ominous news about the awakened elders. I needed to ask about the Azoks I had been put in charge of before getting kidnapped.
“Chool and Bram have quartered their masterless Tytons aboard the dreadnought, as have Havik and Jones.”
That brought a smile to my face. Chool had come through at the end and saved the day when higher-ranking members of the Tyton society could not. His reputation as a duelist was now firmly established, and I thought he would soon be a battle lord in his own right. It was impressive that he would come on a mission like this instead of looking after his own ambitions.
“That’s quite a cast of dangerous misfits,” I said. “We’re saved.”
Kayan laughed, which again made me feel better than I’d thought possible. Was this what prisoners of war felt like after being forced into labor and then managed to escape? My ordeal on Phene had felt like several lifetimes but had been less than a month, if I’d counted the days correctly.
“How did the elders awaken, and why did they run away?”
“Neither of those are questions I can answer, though the key you left behind is missing. None of my internal surveillance mechanisms captured the events.”
“Can I exit my safety pod now?”
“Of course,” Kayan said. “Though nearly everyone else is sleeping. Solen is hard at work, of course, but will not come out until she has unraveled whatever caught her interest. You know how she is.”
I slid free of the crèche and headed toward my quarters. “I want to check my safe. Where are the young Azoks?”
“Az’s kind are looking for you but have not come to this system yet. I will send out encrypted signals to guide them to us if they get near enough, but that is not a guarantee. As for your living quarters here, no one has tampered with anything in your apartment,” Kayan said. “That was the first thing I checked.”
“Then the key should be there.”
“The Tyton elders awoke from their incredibly long sleep, then proceeded to the launch bay where they stole a ship. We studied their sleep pods extensively after their disappearance.” Kayan offered a summary of the logs, but I’d been part of that and knew how thorough our efforts to learn the secrets of the elders had been.
The ship continued with her story. “There is no way they could have been freed without the key Bydel gave you, and before you ask, I reviewed all of his reports. He knows less than us now. After all of our studies, what he can tell you about the key and the elders amounts to folktales and wild-ass guesses by comparison.”
“Fantastic. Can you put me back on Phene where all I had to do was survive?” I said. “Thinking hurts my head.”
My rooms were just as I left them. The safe was locked. I opened it, and there was the key Bydel had gifted me, or burdened me with, depending on how you look at it, when we first met on Gree-ta-das.
“Uhm, Kayan?”
“I see it, Noah. That raises new questions.”
I locked the safe, paced my room, then headed toward the ancient sleep crèches where I had assumed the elders would remain until we figured out a way to help them and learned the secrets of Tyton history. Kayan had the lights dimmed in most of the passageways. No one was out for a walk.
Except for Caslom Bob.
“Good evening, Noah.”
“Right back at you, Bob. Do you want to help me with something?”
“Of course.”
I smiled despite my dour mood. We arrived at the pods a short time later and stood watching them do nothing. My companion crossed all of his arms and lowered his orca-like head in concentration.
“The key that Bydel gave me is still locked in my safe,” I said.
“Interesting. I tried many things under Solen’s guidance, and with Montow and Gram’s assistance, to awaken them.” He faced me and seemed apologetic. “We wanted to check their welfare, you understand.”
“Sure. I trust Kayan and the rest of you implicitly.”
“You are a fascinating man. I often wonder how there are times when you distrust everything and everyone around you, then with almost no noticeable difference, you place absolute faith in us.”
“I’m complicated.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“I’d steer away from it, especially if you’re talking to a woman. She can be complicated, but you might not want to call her complicated.”
“Are we talking about Solen?”
“Don’t even go there.” I thought about the Altion spy and wondered if her late-night work fest was producing more results than my wanderings. Did her people appreciate her skill and bravery? The woman was the reason most of us were alive.
I couldn’t afford to forget that. When we’d met, I hadn’t trusted her either. Was that relevant to my bizarre captivity with Voc’ti? Just because one amazing person defied expectations and showed legendary reserves of loyalty didn’t mean everyone else I thought was sketchy at first would do the same.
“Trust me, Bob. You don’t want to get on Solen’s bad side.”
He laughed, and it was surprisingly friendly sounding, given his appearance. “This is very good advice.”
“Why do you think the elders ran off without bothering to ask what we were doing with their crèches?” I asked.
“There are many questions without answers, such as how they knew their way around Kayan so well and how they piloted ships that could not have been around before their slumber. How did they know to avoid shuttles still linked with Kayan’s consciousness?” Bob said. “None of this changes the fact that the Taliz and Tytons are at war, and their situation will only escalate without our intervention.”
“You think we can make a difference?”
He looked at me seriously. “Of course. What else would be the purpose of our existence?” Then he crawled under the sleep pods and quickly found a major clue to what had happened.
I watched in horror as he dragged out the corpses of several Fyr slugs.
“It seems these things gorged themselves on the power conduits and expired,” he said. “We spent too much of our time reviewing surveillance videos and other data. Note to self: get on the floor more next time.”
“Yeah, that’s generally great advice.” My tone expressed some doubt, but I had important questions. “Do we have a fresh problem with those things?”
“No. These seem to have come with the pods. They were attached where we didn’t think to check. The favorable atmosphere of Kayan’s rooms and passageways must have eventually awoken them. Apparently, they don’t need to be inside the pods to become dormant.”
“Where did they come from?”
“I don’t think these are from our galaxy or our time.”
“Creepy.” I backed away as he manipulated the dead things. They were fundamentally different from the Fyr slugs I had exterminated during my early days aboard the leviathan.
“I must dissect these and learn what I can of them,” Bob said, then gave me a short bow of his head before leaving with his macabre prizes.
“I’ll just stand here and be freaked out then.”
The leviathan custodian didn’t respond. He was already on the way out the main door and intent on his new task.
I walked around the ancient sleep pods, unsatisfied with Bob’s answer to what had awakened the elder Tytons. Having the circuitry chewed up shouldn’t have roused them and set them on some mysterious quest.
An hour later, I was rummaging through one of the pods, pulling back cushions and tubes and opening every part of the interior that could be opened. More than once, I caught the falling canopy and fought back raw terror.
Would I be trapped for thousands of years if it closed on me?
That question was on my mind as I checked one last cubbyhole I’d missed during the previous nine searches. It clicked open when I nudged it, and inside was a key just like the one I’d locked away in my personal safe.
“Son of a biscuit. They had their own hidden keys.”
“Well done, Noah,” Kayan said. “That explains some of the mystery. It appears the stowaway Fyr slugs tripped something that awoke the elders, then they escaped with some sort of pre-arranged plan.”
“Where are they going?” I asked as I noticed a series of numbers scrawled inside the canopy. They had seemed like random scrapes from Tyton horns. My first thought was that the occupant had been terrified upon awakening in this thing and had thrashed until he or she got free.
Then the letters and numbers started making sense if I framed them with the Tyton language I knew from the Reach, but also from the demons. This was neither, but it was recognizable.
“That is unknown.”
“Maybe not.” I showed Kayan the information, and she recorded the scratched-out code to be analyzed.
I checked each of the pods and confiscated their keys. We really didn’t need this distraction. Our galactic plate of disasters was already full.
“Solen is asking where you are.”
“How sweet, she cares.”
“I am awakening everyone. The Woz-nima-craul is approaching, and it seems she launched the Strong Bread, which is also nearby.”
“I’m on my way to the bridge.”
Solen came on the line. “Hurry, Noah. They are being pursued.”
25
“Hello, Noah Gantz,” Bydel said the moment the connection was established. As one of the older but still fit Tytons I knew, he cut an impressive figure in his new uniform and armor. His coloring was black and gray, as was his outfit. The dude was not someone I wanted to meet in a dark alley. Right now, I was glad he was on our side.
“I have questions to ask once we deal with the Taliz warships chasing you,” I said. The number of vessels pursuing him didn’t look good. On the bright side, this had to mean there wasn’t much fighting happening in the Obsidian Gate systems. On the darker side, we were probably screwed.
“Interesting,” he said calmly. “I can’t wait to learn what other mischief you have dragged us into.”
“Don’t start with me. Remember the key? Well, we’re going to talk about that.”
His eyes narrowed, but the two of us weren’t the only people using the comms.
Voc’ti stepped closer to the primary display. He didn’t like being in the pod chair, no matter how clearly I explained that his life would depend on it when Kayan began to really move. My back and forth with Bydel hadn’t seemed to faze him. He had other concerns.
“That is the Taliz Grand Consortium First Fleet.” He looked over his shoulder at Tom’tim, who wasn’t saying much. The Shoal leader had been moody since his last showdown with his old friend. Voc’ti turned, locked eyes with me, and continued. “I was part of that battle group when you were captured, then was ordered back to our home systems to conduct the interrogation.”
“What do you know about its leader?” I asked. The ship movements I was seeing told a story I didn’t like. Fleet battles always caused more death and destruction than they were worth. Whoever was leading the TGC First Fleet seemed ready to mix it up.
“Admiral Hol’fa lives only for war and exploration,” Voc’ti said. “It was even worse before he was estranged from his wife.”
“Too much information, but maybe we’ll circle back to that later.” We didn’t need this to turn into a reality show.
“All of this was avoidable, if only certain persons had made better decisions and not lost control of their words,” Voc’ti said.
Tom’tim sucked in air as he jumped to his feet and clenched his fists. Voc’ti took a fighting stance, then flared his face tentacles in the manner I knew was their most dangerous expression. “You dare insult me now?”
