Andromedas guardian, p.20
Andromeda's Guardian, page 20
“When did you become so jumpy?” Daeven pulled out a few weapons.
“When I decided to infiltrate Manitac headquarters with an angry goddess. Speaking of whom, she wants you and Tamarja to stay out of this.”
His brother paused for a second before handing the weapons over to Tohva. “Why?”
“If you get hurt, she’ll feel responsible. Both of you staying on the Starcatcher is the condition I agreed to so I can join her.”
The weapons were nothing that Tohva hadn’t used before, but he couldn’t bring all of them, so he picked a rifle and a sidearm, both hybrid plasma/ore mix for ammunition.
“Here’s a holster.” Daeven tossed the case at him. “I don’t like it, but I also have to consider that I agreed to help Tamarja find her father. We already know he’s not a prisoner anywhere on Homeport territory.”
Though Tohva was slightly taller than his brother, Daeven was broader in the shoulders, so Tohva had to adjust the straps for a more secure fit. This particular piece also allowed for a slicer, so he selected a mid-sized one—not so big that he couldn’t hide it under his clothes, but not so small that he couldn’t gut a person twice his size with one motion, just like Uhla taught him.
“What about Io?” Daeven asked.
“Io doesn’t need any weapons.”
“If she doesn’t want to use them, she can at least carry extra cartridges for you to use.” Daeven opened a second smaller crate. This one had ammunition stored on its internal shelves. He grabbed a fistful of extra packs.
Tohva refused to take them. “Daeven, please. This is hard enough for me to do this without wondering what will happen if Io doesn’t find her sister, or finds her sister under the control of Manitac. She’s not used to being human, or having human emotions, especially the darker ones. If she does go full-on angry goddess, the last thing I want her to have are plasma cartridges.”
Daeven said nothing. Instead, he pulled out an extra harness, then closed the box and set the lock. “You can use this to hold the ammo. It’s bulkier, so more noticeable—keep that in mind.”
Tohva slipped the tough fabric over his shoulders, locking the clip in front of him. “How do we get back into the main bay?”
“The old-fashioned way.” Pulling out a hook, Daeven reached up and yanked down a rope.
“Rope climbing? Really?”
“Makes it harder for—”
“A Manitac inspector to get down here and find your illegal weapons cache. Whatever. Older brother privilege, I go first.”
Even with the weapons and ammo weighing him down, Tohva pulled himself out of the secret bay without difficulty. Once he was out, he held his hand over the edge to assist Daeven.
Standing face-to-face with his brother, Daeven clapped a hand on Tohva’s shoulder. “I know Io means well, but you know Tama and I aren’t going to leave the system until we know one way or the other that you found her missing sister. If we can’t join you on the ground, the least we can do is provide a quick escape, if necessary.”
“You don’t have to do that.
“Her father’s been missing for almost as long as you.” Daeven motioned Tohva to head back toward the cockpit. “I just found you, Tohva. Don’t make me have to live through losing you again.”
Tohva remained where he was, keeping his younger brother close. “You know I can’t promise you that.”
“I know.”
“If something does happen to me, will you do me one favor?”
“Anything.”
“Stay with Io.” Tohva closed his eyes for a moment, gathering courage for the hardest decision he’d ever had to make. “If her sister is with her, just bring them to their respective stars and leave them alone. If her sister isn’t with her, Io will need to get as close to the sun as possible and...I don’t know...jump inside, I guess. Don’t let her grief or anger or anything else distract her from the fact that she needs to stabilize that star, regardless of what happens to me. Promise?”
His brother nodded. “I promise.”
“Thank you.” Tohva readjusted the holster, pulling it farther away from his neck. “Let’s get this over with.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Back in the kitchenette for lunch, Io once again sat at the table without food of her own as Tamarja projected images of the blueprints for the Manitac facility. There were so many of them, and, as Tamarja stressed, each one more than likely had secret rooms and compression gates not on the prints, both above and below ground.
Tamarja had objected to her request that neither she nor Daeven join Io and Tohva. Io had stood her ground. It took a while for her new friends to realize this was nonnegotiable, but Io did agree that having Tamarja and Daeven on board the Starcatcher nearby would be helpful.
Armed with a new resolve to keep Io and Tohva safe, Tamarja called Daeven and Tohva back to the kitchenette. ”You need a plan,” Tamarja said. So Io sat and listened to the others discuss the pros and cons of each location for holding her sister.
An hour later she was still listening, but her patience was wearing thin.
“If I may,” she said, interrupting Daeven. “When I was speaking with Ramsey about where we might start looking, she said, ‘All Manitac has to do is keep your sister separated from the one thing she wants more than anything else in the universe.’ I’ve been thinking about that. At first I thought she might have fallen in love with a human, like I have. I know now that Tohva is my weakness, the weakness that Manitac would exploit if given the opportunity.”
“Maybe Tohva shouldn’t be the one to join you then.” Daeven glanced at Tamarja. “It should be both of us, or at least one of us.”
“No, you misunderstand.” Io paused because she had to carefully choose her words. “Tohva is my weakness, but falling in love with a human can’t be my sister’s weakness. From inside a star, a Guardian can see all life, intelligent or not. Time passes so slow for us that entire generations of humans are born, grow old, and die in what feels like mere seconds. Though we love all of you, we don’t form permanent emotional attachments because you don’t live long enough for us to see the details of your lives. You’re just there...and then you’re not. It wasn’t until after I met Tohva and met other humans that I realized the vast variety of individual traits in every single human.”
Tohva’s fingers brushed her leg under the table until he found her hand and held it. The warmth of his touch conveyed his love more than any words. “So you’re saying your sister left her star for reasons other than falling in love with a human.”
Io gripped his hand and nodded in agreement. “My sister either stopped singing before she left her star or she stopped singing at the same time as she left her star. She hasn’t sung since then, and I’m not convinced that the voice I heard was really her.”
“If Manitac’s scientists have developed a method to induce telepathy, we’re all in big trouble.” Tamarja took a gulp from a glass of orange liquid. “It could be the next step in puppet evolution. Using telepathy or the fear of it to keep everyone toeing the Manitac line instead of wasting time with collars, prisons, and brain surgery. If I hadn’t promised myself that I would do whatever it takes to find my father, I’d drag Daeven to the darkest abandoned space station I could find and stay there. “
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Daeven rubbed Tamarja’s shoulder. “We don’t know what Io heard, so let’s not waste time guessing.”
“My point is...” Io waited to make sure all three were paying attention to her, “I don’t think it was one single human who pulled her out of her star. I think it was all of humanity.”
“All of humanity?” Tohva echoed, his brows pinched together in thought.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. Long before the Unity Homeport existed, humans occupied a planet orbiting my star. I loved watching them. When my star started to burn helium, I realized that the planet wasn’t far enough away to survive a supernova. So I sang to them to warn them, hoping that they would engineer a way to escape. Eventually they did, but not until they fought many wars over how to worship me. Millions of humans died because of my interference. By the time they realized that fighting each other would destroy all of them, my star had started burning neon. Even then, there were those who stayed behind in defiance of what everyone else knew to be true.”
Daeven let out a low whistle. “Burning neon. That’s cutting it close.”
“What stage is the Unity star at now? From what Ramsey told us, all the astronomers can see is an uptick in photospheric abundances.” Tamarja changed her head-up display to show the Unity Homeport system. The massive system cluttered with human-made constructs appeared so different from when she viewed it from her star. From the core, it appeared as a well-organized, inhabited system with humans traveling between planets. From the tri-d display, it looked like an impossible maze of constructs she’d have to sift through.
“The star is still too big for you to notice the changes underneath the corona.” Io reached up with her free hand to refocus the image onto the star. “Right now the star is burning neon, but all of the layers are burning faster than normal.”
“Because your sister isn’t in the core,” Tohva said.
Io nodded. “We have three days to find my sister. If we can’t find her, I will have to take her place or most of this star system will be destroyed.”
“Getting back on track…” Tohva shifted the image back to the blueprints. “If your sister loves all of humanity as much as you do, that doesn’t give us a clue as to where she is.”
“I think it does,” Io said. “I’m not familiar with how Manitac operates. Is there one person in control? I mean, from the holos I watched, I know there is a board of directors who appear to control everything, but I don’t recall hearing about someone who directs the directors.”
All three of them gave a heavy groan, but Tohva was the one who answered her. “That is the question of the century. Manitac is powerful enough to ignore or falsify most of the public information documents required for other corporations. Officially, we don’t know who the CEO is.”
“And unofficially?”
“We have a name,” Daeven said. “Sienza Coth. But that’s it. A name leaked by a former board member who died the same night as the leak. No other description. Whoever she is, she’s on re-an treatments because she’s had control of Manitac for the past one hundred and fifty years.”
In the holos, Io often stopped the projections because she didn’t understand something and needed time to look up the meaning. Many times, she’d heard characters refer to their gut instinct. Once she figured out what it meant, it sounded silly, because how could an organ not associated with the human brain have any knowledge of a situation that would result in an instinct? And yet, for reasons she couldn’t explain, her stomach clutched at the information given to her by Daeven.
“Do we have background information on the other board members? Can you tell me exactly what they do?”
“Yes, that information we have.”
“That’s it then,” Io said more to herself than anyone else. “Sienza Coth has my sister.”
“Why do you say that?” Tohva asked.
“However my sister came to the humans living in this system, there is only one person who would know how to handle a Guardian. This Sienza Coth has masterminded the plan to control other humans, either through mind-wipe surgery, their own complacency, or fear of losing what little they have. If she’s as powerful as I suspect, then she’s the one who directs a government with citizens sprawled far and wide across the Andromeda Galaxy and commands the Manitac fleet. She’s like Aura Kazamitiru on Dawn’s Landing—every move made by Manitac has to go through her first. No one dares challenge her because she’s successful at what she’s supposed to be doing: keeping Manitac profitable. In doing so, no one has paid attention to her failures, if there are any.”
“Or, anyone who witnesses a failure is killed so as not to spread that information around,” Tamarja said.
“Yes. All of the other board members have names, backgrounds, and a specific function within Manitac, but they are directed by Sienza Coth. She’s our target. If we find her, we’ll find my sister.”
The silence from the others was unnerving. She had expected them to contradict her, but they must have believed she was right or they would not be sitting there glancing at her, then at each other, then at the food on their plates, then back at her.
“We’re back to where we started, because we don’t know where Sienza is,” Tohva said. “I mean, there is no information at all. Not even a nameplate on an office or a home address.”
“I can find her.”
“How?” Tohva demanded. Already she could hear the tremor in his voice exposing his worry for her.
“I’m going to ask her.”
“I thought you couldn’t hear your sisters inside a slipstream?”
“By contacting the voice I heard. The one that might or might not be my sister. If it is my sister and she is under the control of this Sienza Coth, then she can inform Sienza that I wish to speak with her.”
“Why would Sienza risk talking to you?” Daeven asked. “She’s remained in power because no one except the board knows who she is or where to find her. Exposing herself to a Guardian not under her control—I just can’t see it happening.”
“She’ll expose herself because she needs more power.” Io inhaled the sweet smell of food and the stale scent of recirculated air. Surrounded by the mundane act of eating calmed her, which was silly because she didn’t eat, but that didn’t matter right now. “Manitac is teetering on the edge of losing control of itself. The Shadows are a growing threat, the puppets are useless for defense, the general population is unprepared to fight, and the only thing more powerful than a Guardian is two Guardians. Whatever Sienza did to my sister, she’ll try it again with me, but I’ll be prepared for her.”
“Wait, wait.” Tohva slammed his fresher onto his plate. “We don’t know how Sienza got control of your sister in the first place. We don’t even know if she has control. We’re guessing at best, and you want to contact the most powerful human in history, a woman who’s responsible for the slaughter and enslavement of hundreds of millions of humans, and talk to her? One-on-one? Like she’s suddenly going to be reasonable and turn your sister over to you, if she even has her?”
“Yes.” Io hated the trembling in her own voice, but her gut told her this was the only way. “I mean…what else do we have? My sister’s star isn’t going to die in two and a half days. Sienza Coth probably doesn’t even know it’s happening. We don’t have time to search every Manitac facility looking for either her or my sister. I need...” Io paused, trying to untangle what she needed and what she wanted, but found herself clutching her hands in her lap to quell her own doubts about both. “We need my sister now, and the only way to get to her is to have whoever is holding her tell us where she is. Once we have that information, I can take her away from Manitac.”
Tohva shook his head. “I don’t like it.”
“Do you have a better idea?” Io demanded, because she was fresh out of holo scenarios to fuel her argument.
Tohva’s gaze bore into her, his jaw clenched, his fingers digging into his thighs. More than anything, she wished he had another scenario, or Daeven or Tamarja did, but they didn’t. This was the only way, and she was the only one who could do it.
“What do you need from us?” Tamarja shut down the holo, but not her ear jack. She was ready to take whatever orders Io had to give. “We only have an hour before we reach the slipstream’s terminus.”
If only Io knew what to ask for. “I’m not sure. Right now, the only thing I need is privacy to initiate the contact and talk to all of you later about the arrangement, assuming there is one.”
“You can use the smallest bay we have,” Daeven said. “It’s on the port side of the ship, close enough to the stern so we can get in there if you need us for anything.”
Io nodded, her throat tightening—because this was it. This was why she started this journey in the first place, but so much could still go wrong. That’s what hurt the most. Even if she failed, she would be the one who would have to live with the consequences for close to forever.
“We can arrange a holo monitor for you. We’ll see you and hear you but...”
“No.” Io tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear so she could continue to see Tohva out of the corner of her eye. His frown deepened. “I can’t risk it. It has to be just me, alone. Sienza Coth is too clever to not know if you are monitoring me or not.”
“All right then.” Tamarja started to clear the lunch leftovers off the table. “I’ll bring you to the bay and you can get started. We’ll be here for you when you’re done.”
“No.” Tohva really loved to throw the word no around a lot lately. “I’ll take her. I’ll bring her to the bay, and I will sit outside until she’s done.”
“Tohva—”
“Io, please let me do this for you. I promised you I would see this through to the end, but I care too much to leave you alone when you’re mentally connected to your sister or Sienza or whoever it is that contacted you. I will be there if you need help.”
His gaze changed from anger to pleading, and all of her resistance melted away. “I won’t make you wait long. Thank you, Tohva. For everything.”
He reached for her, knocking her lock of hair back onto her face. With a swipe of his finger, he wrapped the lock around his finger before tucking it back into place.
“You don’t have to thank me. I love you and I will stay with you, always.”
Wetness blurred her vision. “I love you, Tohva. No matter what happens, you will be in my heart forever.”
She didn’t notice when Tamarja and Daeven silently slipped out of the kitchenette. All she knew was Tohva kissing her with all the sweetness and softness she needed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
