He shifted in his chair, crossing a leg over a knee. ‘They knew about our revolt. Tauxol met me when our rebellion was still in its infancy. Long before Brock imposed his controls. Now I know he was assessing me, deciding if I and our rebellion were the right people to back. It looks like we passed the test,’ he said, with mirth in his eyes. ‘Otherwise we wouldn’t be here. But Brock clamped down soon after, making it impossible for us to travel. And that’s why you came into the picture. Tauxol trusted you, and is trusting us.’

  Cade looked away from the intensity in Deet’s eyes. The rebels in the room were listening raptly.

  ‘Why me?’ he asked finally.

  Deet cocked his head. ‘You didn’t ask Tauxol?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then it isn’t my place to answer. But I know he’s been watching you for a while.’

  Cade shook his head, bemused.

  That Tauxol!

  ‘Is it true what they say? That Neathans can see the future?’

  Deet hesitated for the first time. ‘I don’t know,’ he said slowly. ‘I asked Tauxol once. He laughed. I didn’t dare ask again.’

  ‘What’s in those crates?’

  ‘You didn’t open them?’

  Cade shook his head. ‘Nope.’

  ‘What do you think is in them?’

  ‘Weapons. What else?’

  Deet’s answer surprised him.

  ‘No.’

  Chapter 28

  ‘You should understand where Tauxol is coming from,’ Deet continued. ‘Weaponizing us would be easy. We don’t have much of them. Brock, on the other hand, has the entire military at his disposal. Giving us some armament would even the balance. But that’s not how the Neathans work.’

  ‘He wants you to earn your freedom.’

  ‘Our freedom, Cade,’ Deet corrected him. ‘And, you are right. So, no weapons. But tools, equipment that will help us. Look at the bots behind you.’

  Cade looked.

  ‘They are first- or second-generation. Woefully inadequate compared to what the government has. We have no ships. The few ground vehicles we have are stolen. So, what he has sent us is equipment to manufacture our weapons. At least, that’s what we are hoping.’

  He looked keenly at Cade. ‘Why did you want to meet me? You don’t seem to believe in the revolution … you could have just transferred the weapons to us and be done with us.’

  ‘I wanted to see what kind of person you are,’ Cade replied honestly.

  ‘I get it.’ Deet’s laugh was booming and filled the room. ‘You wanted to see if I was a hot-headed, long-haired, angry young man.’ Several in the room laughed with him.

  ‘And now that you have seen me, what do you think?’

  ‘Humans believed their leaders on Earth, and look what it got them.’

  ‘Humans blindly believed their leaders. If there had been enough of them to change their leadership, maybe we would still be on that planet.’

  Cade was done listening or debating. Not because Deet was being unreasonable. Cade was uncomfortable.

  He’s making me feel shallow.

  One of Deet’s men came forward and whispered in his ear, at which the old man rose promptly.

  ‘We have been here too long. The crates?’ he looked searchingly at Cade.

  ‘I will arrange a location and a time.’

  He gestured with a hand and a couple of women rebels came forward.

  They presented Cade with his equipment.

  The room watched silently as he belted himself up, feeling embarrassment, shame.

  He trusts me. That’s why he’s returning my weapons and comms.

  ‘Cade,’ Deet stopped him as he was leaving.

  ‘I think I know what Tauxol saw in you.’

  Cade waited.

  ‘He saw you were searching for yourself.’

  Cade left without a word.

  The same bunch of men who had brought him from the bar accompanied him.

  They hurried him to their pod. This time, they made no effort to cover his eyes.

  They were climbing inside when Cade hurled himself against them and brought them down.

  ‘Quiet,’ he whispered urgently and pointed upwards.

  A police ship’s siren wailed close by.

  ‘The styx hides!’ one of the three cried softly

  They turned as one.

  The building, a shed or a warehouse, had been covered with the animal skins. However, a brisk wind had peeled off a few, and even as they watched, another hide flew in the night.

  The police ships can detect the presence of a crowd. They’ll come investigating.

  ‘Andy? You know where I am?’

  ‘Sector 14. In a warehouse. Surrounded by half-constructed buildings.’

  ‘You can cloak me and the warehouse? There’s a police ship, too close.’

  ‘Two of them. Stop talking.’

  Andy. She never wasted time in asking why.

  They huddled close to the pod. One rebel whispered in his comms: instructions to Deet to stay inside.

  Above them, the siren kept rising and falling, and then, after interminable moments, it faded.

  ‘You’re clear. Tell your friends to use the rear exit. I have cloaked their vehicles too, temporarily.’

  Cade relayed the instructions to the men, one of whom gestured at the pod.

  ‘We need to get you back.’

  ‘I’ll make my way. My ship will send a pod. Get Deet away.’

  They nodded. Two of them darted back to the warehouse.

  The third gripped Cade’s hand.

  ‘Deet. I became a believer when he said something a long time back—just one line, and I never doubted him. It was enough for me to go into battle against Brock.’

  ‘What was it?’

  ‘It isn’t death that ends Human life. It is the absence of hope.’

  The words replayed in Cade’s mind as he returned to Andy.

  She didn’t say anything when he entered the ship. She didn’t say a word when he emerged from his room and turned on a news screen.

  War coverage came on. The Neathans were pressing their advantage. Brock was saying the setback was temporary. He then showed the bodies of several Humans.

  The rebels who had been captured in that raid. Before DestinyAwaits replied to me.

  Cade turned off the screen and brooded.

  Not once did Deet say anything about the people he lost. Not once did he play that card.

  He shoved away his chair savagely.

  Not my fight.

  ‘Cade Stryker.’

  His name felt right on her lips. He watched, fascinated, at the way she shaped his name.

  They were still in Lone Star Station’s forecourt. Just the two of them.

  Her skirt still billowing in the wind. One hand keeping it down, the other pushing back that glorious hair that refused to stay still.

  ‘You can’t run. Not from who you are.’

  Cade sat up and blinked rapidly.

  He was alone in his room. His mouth dry, his heard pounding, but no one else.

  The room was dark. From beyond the door, he could see faint light from the control room.

  He looked at the digits ticking away in the air.

  Late night.

  All quiet on his ship.

  No sound from the outside.

  Just him.

  And her. Whoever she is.

  He got off the bed.

  Rose.

  And stumbled when the ship shuddered, violent heaves that almost brought him to the ground.

  ‘Andy!’ he yelled.

  ‘I’m here.’ She appeared beside him.

  Calm. Just a furrow on her brow.

  Screens came up and disappeared faster than he could follow.

  ‘We’re good,’ she told him several moments later. ‘I don’t know what that was.’

  ‘Maybe something outside? A large ship blasting off close to us?’

  ‘No. No vessels took off or arrived. No earthquake hit Calara.’

  She turned to him, spreading her hands helplessly.

  ‘I have no explanation.’

  Chapter 29

  Cade showered quickly.

  Anything to clear his mind.

  He dressed and went to the control room.

  He sat down at a screen and went through an exhaustive check.

  Andy was right. Her systems were good.

  Her AI wasn’t impenetrable. But he was confident that no Calaran system could tunnel into her.

  Still, it’s best to get her started on Tauxol’s chip.

  ‘Andy?’

  ‘You don’t need to shout. I can hear you wherever you are.’

  ‘That chip. Tauxol said it is only half his imprint. Any risk if we get you started on it?’

  ‘Let me look into it.’

  He researched various exchange locations while she checked.

  He would transfer the crates to his bar, first.

  He was always moving cargo back and forth. Ship to bar, bar to ship.

  Three more crates would go unnoticed.

  He decided to play it safe, however.

  There were times he declared his travel to the authorities. Especially when he returned from stars where there were conflicts.

  I came back from Varuna. That’s a good excuse. Solly knows I’ve been there.

  He logged in his flight details on the station’s flight register.

  Sector 14, where Deet met me, was a good location.

  Not any longer. Never meet in the same location twice.

  He tapped his fingers, thinking. Sectors 1 to 6 were the heart of the city. All commercial buildings were based there. Government offices, Brock’s building, the heart of the government’s AI center.

  The area was where his saloon was.

  I will transfer them right there. In my saloon.

  Right underneath their noses.

  The last place the police will suspect.

  The same three men came to the bar.

  Rufus, Leon, and Bart—he learned their names.

  Rufus was the one who had shaken his hand.

  He was strong-looking, steady, grey eyes. Clean-shaven.

  ‘So, where do you plan to set up this saloon?’ he asked them.

  That was their cover: they were investors who were looking to set up a second Stryker’s Saloon in another sector.

  ‘You got somewhere quiet we can talk?’ Rufus looked behind him, at the crowd, some drinking, several dancing.

  ‘My office. Downstairs.’

  The sound lessened as Cade led them to a basement office.

  The security system at the metal door recognized him and opened.

  ‘Cloaking?’ Leon enquired.

  ‘No. But my ship’s masking our conversation. Where did you leave your vehicles?’

  ‘Sector 5. We walked.’

  Cade opened an inner door and waved them in.

  In the center of the room lay the three crates, gleaming under the light.

  ‘Deet?’ Cade asked.

  ‘He’ll be joining us by holo.’ Rufus went to the first box and fingered it.

  He jumped back when it sprang open.

  ‘Funny,’ Cade murmured. ‘My hands were all over it, but it didn’t open.’

  ‘Deet spoke to Tauxol about the three of us. Maybe the general set up some hand imprint security system.’

  Cade recognized the tools inside the crate. He had seen them during his time on Calara’s systems.

  They comprised an advanced bot manufacturing kit, neatly stripped into component parts and stowed in the container.

  Wait. What’s that knob? And that dial? This machine is a little different.

  He picked up the stock of the tool and hefted it. Examined the switches and the dials. They made little sense to him.

  ‘Neathan gear,’ Rufus told him, grinning. ‘Not the same as what we have here. The general said we should be able to manufacture faster and better bots than those on Calara.’

  Cade put the machine back, while the rebels turned their attention to the next crate.

  Bart whistled softly when the lid clattered to the floor.

  Snuggled tight within it were a sophisticated-looking plasma engine and a thruster.

  Neathan markings on it. And, judging by the finish, brand-new.

  ‘Now, we just need a ship,’ Leon said in awe.

  Cade was furious when he saw the contents of the third crate.

  ‘I thought you said no weapons,’ he rounded on Rufus.

  The rebel backed up defensively. ‘Deet said that. I didn’t speak a word.’

  A heat cannon lay gleaming in the box. It had a long barrel that flared just slightly at the end. It shot long streams of heat that turned AI into toast.

  The crate contained more gear; spares, magazines, cleaning material.

  Bart leaned over the container and picked the weapon up.

  It was heavy, and he nearly dropped it.

  ‘Careful!’ Rufus yelled and stepped back hastily.

  ‘I got this,’ the rebel mumbled. He slapped in a magazine, turned the barrel toward a corner and squeezed.

  No flame appeared.

  He tried again.

  The same result.

  ‘Here. Give that to me.’

  Leon tried, and then Rufus.

  The weapon didn’t work.

  ‘Get Deet on the link.’

  The rebel leader came on, a holoprojection. He silently inspected the containers and turned to his men.

  ‘What’s the problem?’

  ‘That heat gun doesn’t work.’

  ‘You said no weapons,’ Cade interjected, accusingly.

  ‘That’s what Tauxol said.’ Deet looked genuinely perplexed. ‘Why would he send a gun that didn’t work?’

  ‘Why don’t we ask him?’ Cade gritted his teeth. ‘Andy! Can you get the general?’

  She didn’t reply. Instead, Tauxol himself joined them.

  He seemed to be in his ship. Frowning, as he peered at the array of screens that were at the side of the holoprojection. He nodded absentmindedly in greeting, toward the men in the basement.

  ‘Finally,’ Cade challenged him. ‘You didn’t get my requests? I’ve been trying to talk to you.’

  ‘I’m in the midst of a war,’ the general said, shrugging. A flash appeared behind him.

  He broke off and barked an order in Neathan, and then turned to them.

  ‘You are on the front?’ Deet’s eyebrows came together in disbelief.

  ‘That’s where a war is usually fought,’ the general replied, with exaggerated politeness.

  Cade couldn’t help grinning despite his anger.

  A joke. Tauxol’s finally cracked a joke.

  ‘Looks like Cade’s got the crates safely,’ the Neathan observed.

  ‘That looks like a heat cannon,’ Deet said, pointing to the third box. ‘You said you wouldn’t be sending any weapons.’

  ‘I changed my mind,’ the general replied carelessly.

  Cade frowned. Tauxol was taking this too casually.

  First the joke. Then this. He’s always serious. Now, he looks like he’s enjoying himself.

  ‘It doesn’t work,’ Rufus burst out. He grabbed the weapon, turned it on the general and depressed the trigger.

  ‘See?’

  Bart took the gun. He tried again. No flame spat out.

  Leon fired it, as if Tauxol needed any more proof.

  ‘Let Cade try,’ the general suggested.

  ‘Nope. Not me. I am not touching that thing. I am pissed off at you. For ignoring my calls. Then breaking your word to Deet.’

  ‘I don’t mind that.’ Deet’s eyes glinted in amusement. ‘We need weapons. Working ones,’ he emphasized.

  ‘Sorry,’ Tauxol apologized. ‘Everything else should work.’

  And he disappeared.

  Cade stared at the empty air, frowning heavily.

  The general hadn’t looked the least bit apologetic.

  Chapter 30

  ‘Why didn’t you try the weapon?’ Andy asked Cade when he returned to his ship.

  He had arranged ground transport for the rebels once Deet had left.

  The rebels had silently loaded the containers in it. Andy checked for the presence of police ships and patrol bots, and they left on her signal.

  ‘Not you, too,’ he sighed, slumping into his chair.

  A bot came to his side, carrying a mug of his favorite brew. Tea, grown on Pindar, which was a home for rare plants.

  The tea plants had originally been brought from Earth, and now vast plantations grew on the planet.

  He drank deep, threw his head back, and closed his eyes.

  ‘You aren’t content.’

  He didn’t acknowledge Andy’s presence. Neither did he answer.

  ‘You are drawn to Deet. But you don’t want to accept it.’

  ‘Leave me alone,’ he grumbled.

  He rose and went to his room, slamming the door behind him.

  Stripped and stood under warm jets of water.

  He let himself relax, thinking of nothing, and was whistling tunelessly when he emerged.

  Blue eyes.

  He stood stock-still for a moment, feeling as if he had been punched.

  That same yellow dress.

  He lunged. Fell awkwardly but managed to grab a sheet.

  Wrapped it around himself.

  Disbelieving his eyes.

  Shook his head. Closed them. Opened them again.

  She was still there.

  He tried to work his tongue.

  Couldn’t.

  Words were jammed in his throat.

  Blond hair. Those curls that he remembered well.

  A faint citrus perfume that took him back to Lone Star Station.

  The same woman was standing in his room.

  His room.

  On Andy. His ship. On Calara.

  Regarding him curiously.

  ‘It’s you,’ he croaked finally.

  ‘Who are you?’

  Her voice. It was silk. Smooth. Liquid honey. Just like how it had been when she had uttered his name in the gas station.

  ‘Where am I?’

  ‘Who is she?’ Andy screeched, her holoprojection recoiling in shock.

  ‘Who is she?’ the woman echoed.

  ‘How did she get here?’ Andy said.

  ‘Where am I?’

 

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