Logos (Link Book Three), page 4
“We discovered two hundred Locus on board,” Will said. “A few of them are dead. Black figures they were the most likely to talk.”
Cal stepped to the end of the corridor, which opened into a large, sunken storage place. The Locus were on the deck, arms tethered behind them, kneeling in the same direction. “What are they doing?”
“Atticus thinks it’s a form of prayer, but we can’t be certain.”
Linus’ robot stood with Minister Black and Ambassador Cunningham. Their colony leader paced the deck below, muttering to his fleet admiral. “Trouble in paradise?” he whispered to Will, so the rest wouldn’t overhear.
Will got closer, keeping his voice low. “The Locus won’t talk to Atticus, even though he’s proficient in their speech. The ambassador’s upset that Henry took Primum, since the other two can’t speak the language yet.”
The room was cavernous, with the complete far wall covered in gray crates. “How do I get down there?”
“Rungs.” Will gestured at the white recessed steps. “You know the drill.”
Cal had his suit on, but had left the helmet in the fighter. The closest row of Locus eyed him suspiciously as he marched toward his allies. These Locus didn’t look as healthy as Primum. Their eyes were bloodshot, their gray skin sickly. The protuberances extending off the back of their heads hung limply. All in all, they seemed unwell.
Ambassador Cunningham stopped walking when he noticed they had company. “Admiral Brooks.”
“Hello, sir.”
Darius Black sipped from a bottle, never breaking his stare at the captives.
“We’ve run into a problem,” Cunningham said. “They aren’t saying a thing. I was hoping you’d have an idea.”
“Me? Have you tried Dr. Singh? He’s the anthropologist.”
“I already did. Believe me, you weren’t my first choice.”
Calvin watched the Locus, and the ones who’d been staring lowered their gazes. “Have we determined who’s in charge?”
“How would we do that?”
He unclipped the gun off his belt and handed it to Black. His military commander accepted it without comment.
“Atticus, please come with me.”
“Yes, sir.” Atti followed, his metal feet clanging on the deck.
“Ask them who the captain is,” Cal said.
Atticus did, or he assumed the robot translated it properly. A couple of them peered up, then quickly down.
“Tell them it was me they followed in the wormhole to Ethos.” Cal crossed his arms, standing at the front of the group. The scent of two hundred unwashed enemy soldiers filled the air, and Calvin fought a gag.
When Atticus finished translating, a few Locus kept their attention focused on him.
“I regret that we had to kill the other crews, but we couldn’t allow the Hiphol to have Pathos,” Calvin said.
At the mention of the Hiphol, Cal caught sight of a big Locus near the middle of the pack. It made sense they’d shelter their captain, hiding him in the center of the captives. Cal entered the throng, knowing that these aliens were twice his weight and could probably tear him apart with their hands, should one of them be free from restraint. As he strode deeper, the smell grew worse. It was fear that filled his nostrils. He didn’t believe they were scared of him, but of the Hiphol he’d referred to.
“You’re a Cadre,” he stated.
Atticus repeated it in their language.
“The Hiphol have forced you to fight for them. Do they have your people captive? We can help,” Cal declared. He felt like he was on the verge of a breakthrough, so he continued the train of thought. “We’ve been preparing for decades.” That was a lie, but he needed an advantage in his favor. Technically, since Black’s return, they had been preparing to fight an unseen adversary.
As he closed in on the target, four alien crewmates near him stood up. They struggled to do so with their arms behind their backs, but managed. Cal heard a weapon whirring and gazed at the four Automatons aiming guns at the crowd. “Put those down!” Cal called.
Black used a Slab, and the robots obeyed the command.
“Let’s talk, captain to captain,” Cal said to the Locus on his knees. He was wrinkled, but his eyes had an intensity to them. He had wide shoulders and well-muscled arms despite his age. The Locus flared his nostrils, and Calvin offered to help him up. He refused, then grunted as he climbed to his feet.
“Leveshar eteselarch benigintan loopa.”
Atticus spoke quietly. “We are Cadre: Dagger. That’s the closest I can find to the word.”
“My name is Admiral Calvin Brooks. What is yours?”
Atti repeated it, and the alien spoke slowly. “Cadre leader Rallin.”
“Why do you fight for the Hiphol?” Cal asked him.
The Locus’ gaze drifted over his captured crew and he spoke.
“Because death is the only alternative. I cling to the hope of being returned to our homeland. The Hiphol have promised to free our kind if we replace ourselves.”
“So that’s how they do it,” Calvin said. “Are all Cadres the same?”
The Locus shook his large head. “There are mixed Cadres. We are the last Cadre of our own people. This is all that remains of our race.”
“You’re wrong,” Cal told them.
A murmur spread through the crowd.
“How can you know that?”
“Because I have been to Yezon. I spoke with Kelleg. I’ve seen the Locus Preservers left on Link worlds to protect the devices. We uncovered Sorathe from his cryochamber in the ice on Caelum!”
The mumbles turned to shouting and the overlapping comments of all two hundred captives.
“Is it true?” the captain asked.
“Without a doubt.”
He stared blankly. “They lied to us. All these years. The atrocities we’ve done in their name.”
Minister Black approached, his smile showing white teeth. “What if you could get revenge before we escorted you home? Would you take the offer?”
“We are honor bound to serve the Hiphol.”
“I suppose you won’t change your minds?” Black asked.
“Perhaps if you prove there is a home to return to...”
Black nodded once. “That can be arranged. Nice work, Brooks.”
Calvin couldn’t believe he was being dismissed after convincing the enemy to talk. It was an important reminder of his actual position in the hierarchy. “Yes, sir.”
Like a good soldier, he left, climbed the rungs, and walked the way he’d come. He gazed at the group of Locus and caught Rallin watching his exit. If they wanted proof, they’d get it.
FIVE
The minutes dragged on while Luke and Scout hid in the Hiphol patrol ship. By now, it had been closer to an hour, and he stood up in the cabin to stretch his tense muscles.
“Are they coming?” Scout whispered through the earpiece.
“Shhhh.” Luke viewed the dots on his HUD. They’d originally bypassed the spare hangar, but had doubled back, and were once again near the ship.
His imagination took over, picturing a hideous monster with giant weapons stalking the corridors of this remote planetoid base in search of invaders. The truth was, no one had seen the Hiphol yet, and for all he knew, they were walking teddy bears.
“They’re preparing for takeoff,” Valentina told him from afar.
Luke wanted to respond, but with the pair of Hiphol only meters outside the vessel, he couldn’t risk it. What if they had a similar technology to determine whether the base was occupied? The armor suits were supposed to negate the body heat, making it difficult for enemies to trace them in combat, but the Hiphol might have other means of detection. He scanned the interior of the cabin, combing it for signs of a camera. He’d done that initially, but in his rush might have missed something.
Scout was on the deck, scrambling with his hands.
“What are you doing?” he murmured in annoyance.
“The city was filled with maintenance doors. Maybe…” Scout grinned when the deck clicked, and he swung a hatch wide.
“Get in.”
Scout didn’t have to be told twice. He slid into the cramped space, and Luke checked the HUD, finding the dots together right beside his own marker. They were entering the ship one over. He climbed in next to Scout and dragged the hatch closed. It was pitch black when it sealed, and he realized he’d left his T-51N behind.
The Hiphol moved on his screen, now at Luke’s hiding spot. He couldn’t leave the gun, or they’d be found out for sure. Luke pushed up and used his back to lift the panel while stretching his fingers toward the weapon leaning on the bulkhead. A warning appeared on his HUD, alerting him to the presence of two incoming figures. Almost there. His glove brushed the barrel, and he dragged it closer, then into the compartment. Before he shut the hatch completely, he caught sight of a figure.
Worn aquamarine armor encapsulated a thin leg, with solid black boots stomping on the deck. Luke risked a glance up, finding it held a gun. He lowered the panel and held his breath while the soldier stepped into the cockpit.
They spoke to one another, their language buzzing like an insect. To Luke, it sounded as if they were arguing. The footsteps stopped, and he gazed at Scout cowering in the corner of the crawlspace, arms wrapped around himself.
More buzzing, and the boots bashed the deck as the pair departed. The dots on his HUD grew farther away until they were in the initial building, boarding their patrol ship.
“The trio has lifted off,” Valentina advised. “You guys okay?”
“We’re… here.” He offered his hand to Scout and helped him to his feet. “Good?”
“Did you see them?” Scout asked.
“Kind of.”
“What did they look like?”
“Smaller than the Locus, but they were covered by armor. It’s well used, and they’re carrying guns.” He said this to both Scout and Valentina.
“You might be the first human to meet a Hiphol,” the commander said.
“No,” he said, thinking about his wife and daughter. “Not the first.”
Scout wriggled to the cabin, then sat in the double-sided chair. “How do we fire this up?”
“Luke, share your screen with me,” Val said.
He took a seat and opened the link to his camera. When he moved by the circular monitor, it hummed, then shone a cylindrical light upwards. Symbols glowed on the holograph. “They aren’t making it easy.” He suddenly wished he’d brought Linus with him, since he seemed to have a handle on the Hiphol technology.
Scout touched one of the icons, and the rest spun away, disappearing.
“How far are the patrols?” Luke asked.
“A thousand kilometers.”
“Let’s wait an hour until we try, or—”
The ship rose, almost sending Luke off the chair. Holographs shot out from both sides of the round dash.
“Those are controls. Probably a thruster and the yoke. Luke, have you flown before?”
“At basic, before they deemed me unfit to be a pilot,” he admitted.
“See if you have …”
Luke touched the projected bar of light, and it felt solid in his grip.
“Maybe I should come and take over.”
“Then we’re in the same dilemma, since I can’t fly yours.” Luke took a long inhale and gazed up when the ceiling shimmered and became clear. “Here goes nothing.”
“I thought you wanted to wait!” Scout shouted.
“It’s already powered on, so what’s the difference? I’m sure someone will be notified a ship’s missing. We just have to be at Zenoh before we’re intercepted,” he said.
Luke twisted the manual control, turning the nose to the left. He did the opposite, then hauled it backwards, tilting the ship toward the exit. Once he had the hang of those simple movements, he tried the throttle, easing it forward.
“Look out!” Scout yelled, but it was too late. Luke clipped the top of the building on his way by, sending shrapnel into the hangar.
“Whoops.” He leveled off and the seat tilted more, giving him a better view. “Valentina, how far to the mines from here?”
“You’re not seriously going right now, are you?”
He checked the HUD, which showed the patrol continuing on their path. “Why not? This is our chance to find them.”
“Should you drop Scout with me?”
“I’m going with Luke.”
Luke watched the boy and nodded. “It’s his friends and…family.”
“Follow me, and I’ll branch off before we encounter any resistance.”
Their plan, while not easy, was simple enough in theory. Luke would bring a Hiphol ship to the mines, find his family, and get Valentina to rescue them in the middle of the night. Having Scout along was risky, but he didn’t want to delay now that he was so close to Kennedy and Lilly.
The trajectory shared by Val determined the trip would only take two hours at a matching speed to the patrols, should anyone be tracking their movements. If the Hiphol were like humans even in the slightest, no one would be paying attention to a single ship in their system. According to the radar, there were over four hundred vessels between planets and space stations by their homeworld, Ivoth. Out here, it was more remote, but he doubted a solitary patrol would raise many eyebrows… or whatever these aliens had.
Scout and Luke sat back-to-back, the center of the cockpit spinning on a mechanized apparatus. It made him recall dinner as a child, passing the salt to his brother by turning the lazy Susan on the table.
“What do you know about the Sun Colonies?” Luke asked, realizing Scout had no memories of anything but Ethos. Come to think of it, neither did any of the forty thousand displaced colonists from Pathos.
“Earth… that’s the capital, right?”
Luke smiled, finally relaxing slightly. “Yes. Geneva is the capital of Earth. That’s where the Diplomats’ head office is.”
“Have you been there?”
“Not in ages.”
“My parents lived on Mars,” Scout said. “Or I think they did. I was in the hospital when we were evacuated.”
“I lived on Mars too,” he told the kid.
“Really?”
“After I lost my wife and girl, I was in a bad place. But when I left the Deniers, I got a job at the mines outside Red City.”
“What was Red City like?”
Luke didn’t want to sugarcoat it. “Bleak.”
“Oh.”
“It wasn’t so bad, don’t get me wrong. But being under a dome with artificial everything all the time isn’t for the faint of heart. I didn’t deserve better, so I stayed. The mines weren’t bad. I fixed things when they broke. Because of my experience wearing spacesuits in the military, I was used in the outer regions if a pump broke or something needed repairing beyond a robot’s capability.”
“That sounds kind of cool.”
“Cool it was not,” he said.
“Where did you live?”
Luke hadn’t once talked about his years on Mars since starting this adventure, and was surprised by his own candor. “I had a small apartment on Dungeness Street. A lot of the miners were out there, but it was quiet since we worked such long hours and had to rise before sunrise. Which, as I mentioned, was enhanced for our brains. At Red City, the sun was only forty-three percent compared with Earth. That takes a toll psychologically. I had a bed, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The place was concrete, so it dampened any noise from outside.”
“Was it lonely?”
Luke paused, still gripping both controls. Stars twinkled in the distance through the clear window on the ship. Beyond was Zenoh, growing in size as they approached.
“I’m sorry, I should mind my own business,” Scout said.
“No, it’s fine. Yes. It was lonely.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah, it does.”
They spent the next hour talking about Luke’s childhood, and how he’d gotten into the military. He told Scout about meeting Lilly and their whirlwind romance, leading to Kennedy’s birth at the onset of the Solar War. Luke confided how much he regretted not spending time with his girl in the early years while he’d been fighting the Deniers. In the end, they neared the mining world, and Luke’s throat hurt from talking.
“Valentina, what are you picking up?”
“Zenoh has five moons surrounding it. There’s a series of other planetoids, and that’s where the bulk of the operations are located. I’m sending you the image of the base now.”
His HUD blinked, and Luke focused on the scene. The rocky asteroids were warped, connected by long metal tubes and structures. Ships flew between the crevasses, and orange glows on the surface could only be giant smoldering fires. He wondered how they could burn in space until he recognized the energy shield shimmering around the entire base. Machines floated from one side to the other, their thrusters red and focused.
“This is where they brought Mom and Lark?” Scout asked, seeing the same feed.
It was straight out of a nightmare. The mines on Mars were heavenly compared to this. Luke’s skin itched under his suit, but he couldn’t scratch through the armor. “We’ll get them out.”
“I’m breaking off. When I find a safe spot to hide, I’ll ping you my coordinates. Luke…”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”
“Gotcha.” He imagined the list of trouble a straight shooter like Valentina Desroches got into was extremely short.
“Turning off comms until I’m settled. I don’t want to notify anyone of my presence.”
The image faded, and her ship vanished off his radar. “We’re on our own.”
“That’s nothing new,” Scout said.
Luke noticed other ships flying from Zenoh, and a large space station to his right. Luckily, there were more patrol vessels like the one he occupied. A pair of them moved from the space station in the direction of the mining outpost. Luke adjusted his course and clumsily drifted in line, staying far enough away to not be obvious.
Within ten minutes, he passed by the energy shield. His dash glowed with unreadable symbols as he entered the artificial atmosphere. He didn’t need to check whether the air was breathable when he noticed a maskless human marching behind two Hiphol robots. Their white exteriors were covered in soot and grime.
