Children of the Void: Book One of the Aionian Saga (8 page)

Tloltan looked up at the warrior once more. “Launch when ready.”

The warrior gave a salute before the doors closed. Darkness engulfed Tloltan with a hiss of pressurized air. With the aid of her armor’s night vision, she was able to see as warm gel filled the dark cockpit. The world went quiet as the gel rose over her head and filled the space around her.

The pod moved as soon as it was filled to the proper pressure. It wasn’t the first time she’d been launched into space this way, but despite her experience, her muscles tightened when the pod came to a stop.

Before she could take a breath, the pod shot forward and pinned her to the back of her seat. Without the armor and the dense gel that surrounded her, the acceleration would have killed her. Many of the civilian Luzariai volunteers wouldn’t survive the launch, not that it made much of a difference. Those that survived the acceleration would only be blasted out of the sky.

The acceleration seemed to last much longer than the few seconds it actually did, but eventually it stopped as her pod shot out of the mountaintops and into open air, ejecting the gel behind it. Soon the cockpit was clear and Tloltan could move freely again.

“Show me the others.”

Are you sure?

Tloltan set her jaw, took a deep breath, and nodded. “Do it.”

A glowing display appeared in front of her, filled with small shapes shooting across the image. Hundreds of pods streaked up out of the mountains and into the vacuum of space. Dozens of large triangular shapes, representations of the Luzariai ships in orbit above the planet, circled above. One by one, they were blinking out as swarms of huge oblong blobs, enemy ships, surrounded the orbital defenses.

There was nothing Tloltan could do to hold back her tears as she watched the wholesale slaughter of her people at the hands of the Maodoni. Though she desperately wanted to look away, she owed it to them to witness their last hour. The Maodoni ships would now be registering the swarm of pods flying out of the atmosphere, each one with a living body inside. The cloud of pods surrounding Tloltan had one purpose, to distract the Maodoni long enough to allow her to escape.

The line held by the Luzariai orbital defenses collapsed as the pods reached the gap. The Maodoni capital ships struck out at the swarm of pods, incinerating one after another at an alarming rate.

It’s going to be close.

Tloltan nodded. Despite the carnage, the sheer number of pods traveling at high speed allowed for a few of them to break through. Only a handful of Luzariai ships remained, and were now commencing their suicide runs at the largest of the Maodoni ships. Tloltan knew many of the captains and officers of the Luzariai Orbital Defense Forces, and could no longer force herself to watch as they sacrificed their ships and crew. With her eyes shut tight, she pinged Itzau and Ukte in the pods closest to her own. “Ready.”

The two young Koramoa acknowledged her order, and her pod shook as small rockets moved it into position. She opened her eyes and updated the screen to show dozens of pods around her moving together. Various popping and humming sounds filled the cockpit as the pod transformed, and loud clangs indicated that the magnetic grapplers were pulling in the surrounding pods.
 

Tloltan monitored the display as the pods coalesced and took shape. The image was starting to look like a ship when an alarm sounded.

Looks like they noticed us. The Maodoni are coming our way.

“Take care of it.”

Already on it.

Hundreds of pods all around them suddenly fired powerful rockets, altering their trajectory on collision courses toward the enemy ships. Instead of carrying Luzariai, these pods were filled with suspended anti-matter, and as the Maodoni turned their weapons on them, the pods exploded in dazzling bursts of blue light. There were too many of them for the Maodoni to stop them all, and one by one the pods slammed into the hulls of the enemy ships, blasting massive holes right through them.

A grim smile came to Tloltan’s lips as she watched makeshift missiles tear the Maodoni ships to shreds. “Captain Neeza,” she said, radioing down to the surface. There was a slight delay before she heard a response.

“Yes, Koramoa Tloltan?” The signal from the captain was weak as it passed through solid rock.

Tloltan hesitated. She closed her eyes, trying to find the inner peace necessary to complete her next order. Even so, her voice shook as she spoke. “We’re nearly ready. Please execute the final stage.”

After a long delay, Captain Neeza answered in a hushed tone. “Yes, Koramoa Tloltan. The spirits of the Ancients be with you.”

More tears, and Tloltan had to breathe deeply for several seconds. “And with you, my friend. It has been my great honor, Koramoa Neeza.”

“The honor is mine. Be sure our sacrifice is remembered.”

There was nothing more to say. Tloltan cut the signal and spoke to her honor guard. “It is finished. Itzau, man the rear guns and cover our retreat. Ukte, open the tunnel and keep it tight. We don’t need a capital ship tailing us on the other side. Prepare for travel sequence.”

The pods were now fully transformed, and the newly formed ship’s gravitational drive was running at full capacity. The small ship, sleek as an arrow, and the same golden color of the Koramoa Armor, shot away from the battle at top speed.

“Show me the planet.”

I wouldn’t recommend…

“Show me.”

Her display changed to a live feed of the planet behind them, quickly shrinking into the distance. At least ten Maodoni ships — hideous brown blobs covered in rows of curved spikes — had maneuvered to pursue them. Itzau opened fire on the closest ship, roasting its hull with a powerful plasma cannon, but it was never going to be enough to stop them. Tloltan’s ship was designed for speed, and could never face off against even a single Maodoni capital ship, let alone ten of them. But it wouldn’t have to.
 

Cracks formed across the surface of her planet. Bright lights leaked out from these cracks like rays from a new sun, and a moment later, a bright flash signaled the destruction of her home world. Captain Neeza’s last duty was fulfilled, and within seconds, searing plasma engulfed the slowest of the Maodoni ships and continued racing toward them. “Quantum tunnel open,” said Ukte. “Entering in three, two, one... now!”

Tloltan didn’t even have time to register her sorrow before the familiar sensation of a quantum jump seized her, as if every molecule in her body vibrated violently. Everything around her stretched for a moment before returning to normal as they entered quantum space.

Ukte’s strained voice sounded in Tloltan’s ear. “Tunnel is closing. We’re through.”

Tloltan let out a sigh, but then Itzau’s voice sounded in her other ear. “An enemy ship made it through. It’s small. Looks like a scout ship.”

So close. They had almost gotten away, despite the odds stacked against them. Tloltan put her head in her hands. “We’ll have to deal with it on the other side. Nothing we can do about it right now.” She removed her harness. “You’ve both made me proud today. We all have a lot to contemplate, so get some rest.”

Tloltan stood, walked to the back of the cockpit to an open space, and knelt on the ground. The golden armor melted away, back down to the bracer on her wrist. With her hands on her knees, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply as tears ran freely down her face.
 

The weight of the stone around her neck seemed to pull her down, and she reached up and held it in her fist. At least for now the Zaer was safe, though it had cost the lives of millions of Luzariai.

What will we do about the scout ship?

Tloltan opened her eyes. “We’ll fight, of course. What else can we do?”

We can’t win. This ship isn’t built for direct combat.

“We have enough firepower to disable its quantum drive. That’s our only hope.”

There’s always the chance we’ll have help when we arrive.

Tloltan’s shoulders slumped, and she dropped her head to her chest. “Even if the humans are there, I’m afraid they’re not prepared for this. We’ve kept too much from them, and now we’ve doomed them too.”

They’re a tenacious species. I wouldn’t underestimate them.

“I wish I had your optimism, my friend. The Maodoni, too, could be described as tenacious.”

G
IDEON
AND
T
AKOMI
spent the next hour worrying about their fate inside Commander Devereux’s office. The commander had told them to stay put and left without another word. They hadn’t dared to check, but they were pretty sure he had locked them in.

When the door finally opened, Devereux was accompanied by Hiro Tsukamoto. Gideon had never seen him look so angry.

Hiro stopped and glared down at them. “I can’t believe you two. What in the world were you thinking?”

Takomi stared at the floor. “We’re sorry, Dad. We were just...”

“Just what? Just breaking every rule you could think of? First Dr. Marcus’s house, and now Admiral Killdeer’s office? Have you both gone crazy?”

“It was my idea, sir,” said Gideon. “I convinced Takomi to come with me. It’s not her fault.”

“I don’t care whose idea it was. Both of you are completely out of line. Admiral Killdeer’s busy right now, but before any of us get any sleep tonight, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

Takomi shot a dark glare up at her father. “We’ve got a lot of explaining to do? What about you and Mom? You’re all keeping secrets.”

“Enough.” Hiro pounded his fist down on Devereux’s metal desk. “Both of you, go back to the house and wait in Diana’s office until you’re told you can leave. Nobody knows what to do with you right now, but I can tell you this much: you won’t like it. You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourselves into.”

Gideon cleared his throat. “Mr. Tsukamoto, sir...”

“I said enough. Don’t say another word to me or anyone else until you’re back at the house. You really don’t want to make this any worse.”

Without another word, Hiro spun around and walked out of the room. Devereux waited until the teenagers had walked out the door and then followed them out of the office.

There was no sign of Hiro as they left CENTCOM. Devereux stopped at the exit and opened the door for them. The two guards outside both did a double take when they saw Gideon and Takomi were with him.

Standing in the doorway, Devereux pointed at the autopod station across the platform. “Don’t take any detours. I’ll let them know you’re on your way.”

“You’ll let who know?” said Gideon, looking back at Devereux, but the commander ignored him as he turned and walked back into CENTCOM.

☥

The short trip to the Tsukamoto residence was made in complete silence, as was the walk from the autopod station to the Tsukamotos’ home. The pathway was as familiar to Gideon as the path to his own home. The cadets in his cohort had always been close, since their generation was the last group of aionians born before they reached Valkyrie.

They crested a small hill and looked down at the jumble of cubes that made up Takomi’s house. Gideon had once asked Hiro about the architecture, and Hiro had told him it was called the “modern” style, even though the style was centuries old. They reached the front door and opened it.

Diana Tsukamoto, Padre Diego, and Vincent Uritumbo were talking in the foyer as they walked in. The three of them turned to glare at the teenagers.

Diana was visibly clenching her jaw. For a moment, Gideon thought they were about to get another tongue lashing, but instead, she waved for them to follow her down the hallway.

“Come with me, you two.”

Padre and Vincent watched as Diana led Gideon and Takomi down a hall and up the wooden stairs to the second floor. At the end of another hall, she opened a door and turned to face them.

“Hand me your wristcoms.”

Gideon and Takomi both frowned.

“Why?” asked Takomi.

Diana raised one eyebrow and glared as she held out her hand, waiting.

Takomi shrugged and took off her watch. Gideon did the same. Diana took them and deactivated each one, waving for them to follow her through the doorway.

They entered an office at the end of the house with a view of the fields and river outside. Diana walked around the desk and opened a drawer, pulling out a heavy metal box and setting it on the desk. She opened the lid to the box and dropped the wristcoms inside, removing her own watch and doing the same. The sides of the box were incredibly thick, and she closed the lid with a heavy thunk, returning it to the drawer.

“I don’t think anyone would be eavesdropping on your coms, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful.”

“Why would anyone want to listen to us on our wristcoms?” asked Takomi. “Is that even possible?”

“It’s not supposed to be possible, but recent events suggest otherwise. Now, get comfortable. You might be up here for a while.”

She took a few steps but stopped at the door.

“Oh, and don’t even think about leaving this office. I wouldn’t be surprised if the admiral throws you both in the brig until we reach Valkyrie.”

She walked out and closed the door before they could respond.
 

Takomi blinked and looked at Gideon. “Was she joking?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Gideon, what’s going on? Why are Padre and Vincent here?”

He sighed and fell into one of the comfortable chairs next to the desk. “I wish I knew.”

Takomi sunk into the chair next to his. “I never should have let you go through with your plan. We’re so screwed.”

“If we hadn’t, we’d still be in the dark. I had to know.”

“We’re still in the dark, Gideon. That book didn’t have any answers, only more questions.”

He tapped his knuckles against his forehead. “It’s all got to be related somehow. I have to know why someone would have wanted my mom dead. Our parents know something, and they were never going to tell us.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Doesn’t change the fact that we’re screwed.” Takomi stood and walked to the window, straining to see outside in the light of
Leviathan’s
artificial moon. Gideon closed his eyes and rested his head on his fist.