Infinitys end books 7 9, p.62
Infinity's End: Books 7-9, page 62
She nodded. “Just broadcast the battle plans and the strategies you’ve drawn up; they’ll handle the rest.”
This was maddening. He couldn’t even communicate with his own fleet of ships. He swore the Sil did it just to be contrarian. Like they divined sick pleasure from making things as difficult as possible. “Samiya, double-check everything with Tyler. And make sure the auto sequence is solid for the undercurrents, I don’t want to run into a problem out there in the middle of an operation. Let’s get everything checked, rechecked and checked again. We’ve had three weeks to sit on our butts, now is the time to make it count. Dismissed.”
Everyone at the table stood, except for Cas. He glanced to his left, missing Evie’s presence. At least this way she wouldn’t come back to an empty planet. And once she was here and could relay the information, the rest of the Sil would fall in line.
As Cas stood, he realized he was pinning a lot of his hopes on her. They had better not be in vain.
Chapter 18
Evie woke with a start. The ship rumbled through a micro wormhole then back out again, the vibration lessening. She figured she would have gotten used to it after six and a half days of continuous jumps but instead it seemed to have the opposite effect. She’d come to dread every time they did a jump—even subconsciously training herself to wake just before them and hold on to something, though it did little good. She didn’t know why it was grating on her so much, but it had become like a high-pitched noise that was ever-present in the back of her mind. She couldn’t wait to get off this ship and she had no idea how she was supposed to make the trip back. She wondered if Xax could put her under, maybe keep her from experiencing the continuous stress of dealing with these.
The ship lurched again, and the vibrations started, then lessened. Two in a row. They must be getting close. Evie rubbed her eyes and swung her legs off the short bed. Because of the cramped quarters she hadn’t been able to stretch out on the bed, instead having to keep her knees bent in order to lay completely flat. If she didn’t know better, she would say the crew quarters were built by the Val. She didn’t know how her mother was faring considering she was a good deal taller than Evie, and at the moment she didn’t care. The woman had straight out lied about her intentions on this trip and if Evie could help it, she wasn’t going to speak to her again until after they were off this Kor-forsaken ship and she could clear her head.
She should have known from the start something was off about Esterva wanting to come along, considering the woman had built her life on lies. She’d just hoped as her daughter, they’d moved past that.
Apparently not.
Evie stood and stretched as much as she could in the small space, her back popping in places she’d never felt before. As had become customary every time she woke, she performed a quick physical inspection of her body to make sure she hadn’t grown another pair of ears in the middle of the night. So far, the changes had been limited to the color of her skin. She thought her face looked tighter, but it was difficult to tell and could have just been a trick of the light. Most importantly, she didn’t feel any different. She didn’t feel like she was changing in any meaningful way and that was something to be thankful for. The gray skin had taken some getting used to, but Esterva had said it would return to its normal color once they removed the bio blockers. But then again, she lied about everything else, she might be lying about them as well.
Slipping on her civilian clothes, Evie pulled her hair back and tucked it into a neat bun. She’d done away with the long ponytail over the shoulder for the trip as she didn’t want to draw any attention to her human-like appearance. And since Athru had no hair, it was best if she kept it pulled back and out of sight. Just in case.
They’d been stopped four more times and true to what Tos said, each one had been a near carbon-copy of the last. The script from the Athru might have varied by a few words, but the meaning behind it was clear. And Tos, cool as ever, played it nonchalant and easy. He said the number of stops was up, but that was probably because they kept detecting Sesster, and were curious since there weren’t supposed to be any Claxians off-world. Evie didn’t care. As long as he kept doing what he was doing and got them there as quickly as possible was all that mattered.
She made her way down the narrow corridor into the larger space of the ship where Sesster lay. Xax, ever-present, was asleep beside him. She’d barely moved the entire trip, electing to stay by his side in the event something went wrong. Evie, on occasion, would try and reach out with her mind, but found nothing there to grab on to. She could only pray they weren’t too late.
“Morning,” she whispered as Xax stirred, probably in response to her presence in the room.
“Is it?” Xax asked, blinking all six eyes in succession and checking one of her instruments for the time. “Where are we?”
“I was just about to check,” Evie said. “Want anything to eat?”
Xax shook her head. “I’ll grab something later. Thank you though.”
Evie patted her shoulder as she walked past. “Back in a second.” She continued on down the other side of the ship, past the stores and over to the ladder which led to the bridge. Taking it two at a time gave her another opportunity to stretch, which she relished. Something else deep inside popped when she hoisted her leg up three rungs. Too much, her inner voice said.
As she climbed over the edge to speak with Tos, she stopped short. Her mother sat in the other main seat, engaged in conversation with Tos.
“…not worth the Kassope. I’d much rather try the Harmonious Halls near Grum.”
Tos scoffed. “That place is a hole. You want real entertainment, head to The Elongorium. They got shows that’ll blow your mind. There’s these wind walkers that can—”
“Ahem,” Evie said, standing at the end of the catwalk.
Esterva turned to her. “Evelyn. Good morning.” She produced a small smile but kept it under control. Evie hadn’t made it a secret her mother was on her shit list. “Coffee?”
“No,” Evie replied, walking over to one of the control stations on the small bridge. “How close are we?”
“Not far, I was jus’ about to comm you. We should be gettin’ data from Horus any minute now,” Tos said.
My ass. You would have just let me sleep until we reached Claxia Prime. Tos had been consistent about one thing: he was in this for Tos. He didn’t really concern himself with what anyone else on the ship wanted or needed. If it didn’t affect him, he was unlikely to do it. Typical Sargan scum in Evie’s opinion. She would be happy when this mission was over and she could get back to life on Tempest.
“Sleep well?” Esterva asked. Evie harrumphed. Same questions, different morning. Esterva seemed to get the hint as she didn’t say anything else. Evie pulled up the astrometric data on their location. They were close. Another wormhole jump, or two and they would be there in less than thirty minutes. They’d just passed Alpha Onias and were coming up on Jurest. Horus would be next.
“Are we getting any data from the inner systems yet?” she asked. “Anything on their capabilities?”
“So far nothin’ but patrol ships,” Tos replied. “If they’re fortified, it isn’t this far out.”
“Can we see Earth yet?” It had been years since she’d been this close. Even though she’d grown up on Sissk, her father had always talked about Earth like it was this utopia paradise, having grown up there himself. And when she’d finally arrived to go to the academy, she’d found he’d been right; it was magnificent. She’d almost taken an assignment at Coalition Central as soon as she’d graduated but had declined as it never would have led to a command position. As beautiful and welcoming as the planet was, she didn’t want to sacrifice her future for it. She had planned to return every few years, catch up with her old friends from school, bask in the serenity of it all, but that hadn’t happened. Evie been too focused on her career and eventually had lost touch with most everyone she’d graduated with. She figured there was always time for that kind of stuff later.
“Hang on, one more jump,” Tos said. The ship vibrated and the green glow of the undercurrent flashed a bright white. Evie closed her eyes and held on to the closest railing. When it was over they were back in the regular undercurrent. “Best not ta raise any suspicions this close,” he said. “We’ll be goin’ the rest of the way slow. But we’re close enough to pull data now.”
Evie tapped the controls, focusing the long-range scanners on the Horus system. “What the…” she said as the visual of the system came up.
“What’s wrong?” Evie felt Esterva come up behind her, but it barely registered. It didn’t even matter anymore.
“This can’t be right,” Evie said, resetting the scanners. When the information displayed again, it was unchanged.
“Well? What is it?” Tos asked.
“The scanners have counted over five thousand Athru ships in the Horus system alone, and it keeps adding more.” She spun on Esterva. “How can they have that many ships?”
“I have no idea,” Esterva replied. “They left our planet with fewer than two hundred, and most of those were smaller support craft. Whatever they’ve been doing in this system for the past eighteen years, it has been extensive.” Her face darkened. “Dulthar.”
Evie grimaced. She didn’t want to hear that name again. Instead, she returned her attention to the display, bringing up an image of Earth. She gasped at what the display showed. “This…can’t be right.” Instead of the blue and green world she’d been expecting there was nothing but a brown sphere, covered in black and gray splotches. As best she could tell, the planet still had oceans, but they were no longer blue. They were kind of a sickly green. And all around the planet were artificial structures, some of them huge.
“That bastard,” Esterva said. “He’s terraformed it into a construction platform. That’s how he’s built up such an armada. He’s been siphoning the natural resources of the planet and using them to build more ships. I should have known he’d pull something like this.”
“You never knew?” Evie asked, tears welling in her eyes. She couldn’t believe the beautiful planet she’d lived on for four years was just…gone. As if someone had snapped their fingers and destroyed it, in one, fell swoop. “In all that time you were looking for me, you never came here?”
“I never got this close,” Esterva admitted. “I knew if you were this close, you were probably dead.”
“By Garth Almighty,” Tos said. “Never seen anythin’ like that before.”
“Is this what the Athru do?” Evie demanded. “Do they just come and destroy?”
“They don’t see it as destruction,” Esterva said. “They’ll see it as creation. That the planet was changed to serve their own needs. Dulthar is relentless in his pursuit of—”
“Stop saying that name!” Evie yelled. Every time was like a slap in the face, because it did nothing but remind Evie that her mother had lied about her true intentions of coming on this trip. After Evie had practically dragged it out of her, she learned Dulthar was the Athru-in-chief. The one who made the final decision, despite the Athru ruling body having a part in the say. He had been her mother’s commander at one point, and had been the one to discover Esterva’s treachery, hunting down and killing the rest of her team. Esterva had finally admitted she’d come along to determine where he was, how fortified his position, and if possible, break in and kill him before the rest of the Athru ever knew she was there. It didn’t matter that one action could destabilize everything, including their attack plans. She was driven purely by a need for revenge, but Evie had shut that down. She’d forbade Esterva from leaving the ship without her, and under no circumstances was she to have contact with any Athru while they delivered Sesster home.
The computer beeped and Evie turned to it. “It’s up to seven thousand,” she said, her voice small now. How were they supposed to go up against a fleet this big? Even if they did have the element of surprise, if each of those ships had a planet-killing weapon on board, their fleet wouldn’t survive a day.
“We’ll be at Claxia Prime in a few minutes,” Tos said.
Evie’s heart jumped in her throat. She hadn’t even considered what the Athru might have done to Sesster’s home world. She altered the scanners to look at Earth’s closest planetary neighbor and was greeted with a sea-green planet, a wide band of bluish rings circling the equator. She let out an audible sigh. At least the Athru had left Claxia Prime alone. Evie did a double-check of all the rest of the planets in the system: Osiris, Ra, Isis, Amun & Mut, and Set…they all seemed unchanged. The only planet they’d decided to destroy was Earth. And they hadn’t even destroyed it, not in the traditional sense. Instead, they’d debased it, stripped it of everything good and useful, all in the name of building a bigger defense. “Dulthar did this?” she finally asked.
“Most certainly. He has the final say on all general operations. Including construction and military.”
“Then we need to make him pay,” Evie said through her teeth, seething.
“I know,” Esterva replied. “Which is why I’m here.”
“We’re coming out of the undercurrent,” Tos said. Evie glanced to the side. The green of the undercurrent disappeared to reveal the cool glow of Claxia Prime beyond. It didn’t escape her notice at least four Athru ships were in patrol around the planet.
She wiped her eyes. “Let’s do what we came to do first. And hope it’s not too late.” She tapped her comm. “Xax, get ready, we’re going down.”
Chapter 19
Samiya took a deep breath and pressed the comm button beside the door. Behind her Vrij stood at attention. Cas didn’t need to know she was down here, but she wasn’t about to confront him alone. She’d had this nagging sensation ever since he’d first appeared on that screen, and even after he’d come on board she thought she could resist. But it had been almost seven days, and she couldn’t put it off any longer. Vrij had been understanding.
Despite the fact he was close to eighty, somehow Rutledge seemed younger now. Stronger in some way. She couldn’t understand how, as she already felt the weight of time on her own body, despite being nearly twenty years his junior. Maybe it was that hit from Zenfor that really drove it home. The loss of the eye—that had been unfortunate, but something like that could happen at any age. But being batted around like a piece of raw meat had given her a new perspective on just what her body was capable of these days. And if Rutledge decided to try something, she wasn’t confident she could stop him in time.
But that blade on Vrij’s back could do it.
The doors slid open to reveal the large man, still clad in his “uniform” from the Hiawatha, with one glaring difference. There was a Coalition captain’s emblem on his chest, shiny and new.
“Commander,” Rutledge said, surprise in his voice. “I didn’t expect a visit from you.”
“Life is full of surprises. I didn’t expect to see you alive again,” she replied.
“Does that mean you’re glad to see me?” he asked.
“I’m confused. You’re supposed to be dead. All this time, you and I have been hiding out in Coalition space, helping other humans and we’ve never come across each other’s paths? Don’t you find that strange?”
Rutledge made a dismissive motion with his hand. “It’s a big galaxy. And the key word there is hiding.” He paused. “Though, you are supposed to be dead as well. I thought we lost you on the Achlys.”
“That was the idea,” she replied.
“Where have you been keeping yourself?”
She shifted. “Most recently? Starbase Five. Or what was left of it. Before that we were all over the place. We stayed out of the core worlds, kept to the fringes when we could.”
“Impressive. I didn’t know there were any others still alive.” His eyes narrowed.
Samiya nodded at his new piece of hardware. “You better not let the captain catch you wearing that.”
He glanced down in feigned ignorance. “Why not? I am the captain of my own ship, after all.”
“You know why. You’re technically a civilian. You were given a dishonorable discharge. You’re not an officer.”
He stared at her a moment, then removed the emblem and tossed it into the room. “It’s been a while since I’ve had enough resources to print what I want. I had to indulge.”
“I know how you feel,” Samiya replied. When Tempest first showed up she couldn’t believe the resources of this ship. But in the following weeks she’d come to take it for granted without even realizing it.
“What can I do for you, Commander?” Rutledge asked.
She took a deep breath. Coming here, standing in front of this man she’d once seen as a mentor and a leader, Samiya found it harder to begin than she’d anticipated. Was she still concerned with his opinion of her? “I thought you should know, we’re close to Sargan territory. A few more hours until our destination.” The fleet had spent the last seven days micro-jumping through the undercurrents without incident. Samiya wasn’t even sure the Athru could detect them during micro-jumps.
“Thank you for telling me. Robeaux is keeping me sequestered. I don’t know if he thinks I’m a threat to his authority or what, but it’s a tight leash.”
“Are you?” she asked.
“If he finds he can’t deal with the pressure, I’m always here to help.” He glanced over to Vrij. “Where are we stopping?”
“Close to Devil’s Gate. There’s not a lot of traffic in that area anymore. Anything close to the Coalition border has been abandoned.” Cas had initially had reservations about this area, but scans had shown it was a good location. Close to Coalition space, but in neutral territory, but also devoid of a lot of traffic. Back when Samiya had left the Achlys, she’d navigated this area, bartering her and John through to stay off the Coalition’s radar until they could get further away. It was strange being back. Starbase Eight—or what was left of it—was less than a day away. She had a strong desire to go find it, see what had become of her old stomping grounds, but that meant entering Coalition space. And even with their dampener installed, it was too big of a risk. But it did bring up something she’d had a hard time getting off her mind. And it gave her an excuse not to get to the real reason why she was here. “How did you do it?”
