Dark Space (12 page)

Ethan turned to Atton with his eyebrows raised. “Cross it?”

Atton waved his hand. “I’ll explain later. Here we are.”

They arrived at a broad set of double doors which read,
AS Pod Bay
—the aft starboard pod bay. “Where are we?” Ethan asked, though he already knew the answer.

“Our interrogation room.”

Ethan frowned. “It looks like an escape pod bay to me.”

Atton turned to him with a small smile. “That’s exactly what it is.” The imposter overlord passed his wrist over the door scanner and the doors opened for him with a
swish
and a
thunk.

Inside, at the center of the room, was a fold out table with three chairs, all three of them occupied. A pair of guards stood just beyond the doors, and lining the walls to all sides were dozens of hatches leading to escape pods. They walked into the room, and the people seated at the table looked up to see who it was. Ethan only recognized one of the three seated there, but when her violet gaze met his green, he found that not even she was recognizable. She smiled luridly at him, and gave him a well-practiced
come hither
look which he had never seen Alara use.

“Hey, handsome,” she said as he drew near.

“Frek, what did they do to you, Alara?”

The young woman’s brow furrowed. “My name’s Angel,” she replied, and then she smiled luridly again. “But that’s all you’re getting out of me until you buy me a drink.”

Ethan shook his head and turned to the overlord. “She’s been chipped.”

Atton nodded. “It would seem so.”

“Can’t you fix her? Take it out?”

Atton appeared to hesitate, and then he said, “We’re not sure yet. We’re still looking for a cyberneticist.”

The old man sitting at the other end of the table looked up then with hollow blue eyes. “Even if we find one, we’d need to know the deactivation codes, or we could turn her into a vegetable.”

Ethan’s gaze skipped from the old man to the old woman seated across from him, but she didn’t appear to notice that they were there. Her eyes were glazed and she stared absently into the distance.

“There must be something we can do for her,” Ethan insisted.

“Sure there is, handsome. Get a little closer and I’ll tell you exactly what you can do for me.”

Ethan winced and his gaze slowly returned to Alara’s face. “I’m sorry, Kiddie.”

She cocked her head and gave another lurid smile before flicking her tongue around inside her mouth in an erotic dance. Then she crooked her finger at him, indicating that he should come closer, and she blew him a kiss.

Ethan cringed.

“We’ll keep working on it,” Atton said. “But for now there’s only one sure way to get her back to the way she used to be, and that’s to beat the codes out of Alec Brondi.”

Ethan began nodding. “I’d love to.”

“Good,” Atton nodded, and with that he turned to leave. Ethan reluctantly followed.

As they were leaving, Alara’s father called out: “What is she to you, pilot?”

Ethan turned to look back over his shoulder with a small, sad smile. “Everything.”

The old man held Ethan’s gaze for a long moment, his pale blue eyes glittering, his lips trembling, and then he gave a decisive nod. No further words were needed.

Ethan turned and followed his son back to the lift tubes. Once there, Atton punched the call button and the life tube nearest them promptly opened.

“I have one more secret to share with you, Ethan,” Atton said as the doors closed behind them.

Ethan looked deeply troubled, and it took a while for his ears to register what Atton had said. Once they did, he turned and raised an eyebrow at his son. “Oh?”

Atton selected the bridge as their destination, and he turned to Ethan, his eyes glittering in the light of passing glow panels as the transpiranium lift tube rose swiftly through the ship on its way to the bridge. “We’re not alone.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that Dark Space is not the only human enclave that survived the war, and humans were not the first race that the Sythians conquered.”

Ethan shook his head, blinking rapidly. “That’s not possible.”

The lift tube opened and Atton led the way back to his office. He nodded to his guards before passing through the doors and promptly locking them behind him and Ethan. With a subtle shimmer, the overlord’s wizened features morphed into the young, handsome face of Ethan’s son.

“Why is it not possible?” Atton finally replied. “Can there be only one sentient race per galaxy? The Getties Cluster was teeming with life. When we sent out ships to explore that galaxy, we encountered another race that was subjugated by the Sythians. They’re still alive, and numerous, but little more than Sythian slaves. They don’t have a lot of technology of their own, but they are fast learners, and they are filling our ships faster than we can salvage them. We are at war again, Ethan. The war never actually ended. We need to get the
Valiant
back to help fight that war before Brondi declares himself king and warlord of Dark Space, effectively cutting us off from our supply lines.”

“What . . .” Ethan’s brow furrowed. “What are they like?”

“The others?” Atton asked with a smile. “They’re like nothing you’ve ever seen or imagined, Ethan, and they are the secret to defeating the Sythians.”

“I don’t understand,” Ethan said. “If they can defeat the Sythians, why haven’t they? You said they’re slaves.”

“They’re more powerful than they know. Would you like to meet one of them? One of the Gors? They’re going to help us take back the
Valiant
in ways that you’ve never even imagined possible.”

Ethan nodded slowly. “Any enemy of Brondi’s is a friend of mine.”

Atton’s smile broadened, and he turned to the wall of his office. With a swiping gesture, he made a section of the wall collapse against the floor, revealing a shadowy corridor with a lift tube waiting at the end.

“Come with me,” Atton said, already starting down the corridor. “And prepare to be amazed.”