Dark Space: Origin (16 page)

“It took a whole year for the first one to return. We don’t have the fuel or time to waste on another long trip like that.”

“Maybe
you
don’t.”

Atton shook his head. “What are you saying?”

Heston smiled. “I sent a whole
fleet
to the Getties, Atton—well, what passes for a fleet these days—and only one ship returned, the
Interloper,
but that’s because they can cloak. They went ahead to explore and gather intel, and when they returned, the fleet they’d travelled with was obliterated. No one even saw what killed them. That’s very convenient for the Gors’ story, don’t you think? You go to the Getties and return with the Gors for allies, and we’re sent straight to the netherworld.”

“You should have just sent the
Interloper
.”

“And wait years for them to return with their slower SLS? As it is they returned a year late because they had to fly back alone. They’ve only just returned a few weeks ago.”

“Late would have been preferable to dead. You only have yourself to blame for that.”

“Says the boy who let his entire crew be wiped out by a virus. Fifty
thousand
officers dead. How does that sit on your conscience? Or do you even have one?”

“Enough!” Destra said. “That’s enough! I’m not going to watch the two of you fight—on today of all days! We’ve answered enough questions for now.”

Atton turned to his mother. “Actually, there are a few questions I’d like to ask
you.
”

Destra blinked at him. “Such as?”

“Such as why you didn’t come looking for us. You knew you’d sent me to Dark Space, and you knew Ethan was there even before the war. Why didn’t you come find us? Did you even try?”

“I
did
look for you —” Her eyes skipped to Ethan. “—both of you. I found your death certificate, Atton. How did you survive that shuttle crash?”

Atton grimaced and he felt ashamed. Of course she hadn’t found him. As of three years ago he’d been officially “dead” and already impersonating the supreme overlord of the Imperium.

“As for your father,” Destra went on, “When I found him, he was with a beautiful young woman. I stayed a little while, just long enough to assume that they were together. Your father tells me they were just friends, but how was I to know? They stayed in the same rooms, flew the same ship, shared their food . . .”

Ethan cleared his throat to say something, but Atton spoke first. “I’ve already met his copilot.”

“Beautiful, isn’t she?”

“I barely noticed her, Des—” Ethan said. “—because of you.”

“I’m not going to argue about that, because I don’t know, but I want you both to understand that I did go looking. I was turned away by what I found.”

“Hold on,” Ethan said. “There’s a problem with your story. Atton said he faked his death three years ago to take over as the overlord. The war and exodus were ten years ago. Your daughter is already seven. If you’d come looking for us before you fell pregnant—which must have been at
least
seven years and nine months ago . . . roughly 3 AE—you would have found Atton still alive. And as for me . . . I hadn’t even met Alara yet. You moved on before you found us—before you even came looking.”

Destra’s face crumpled. “I guess it’s my turn to explain.”

“Damn right it is,” Ethan said.

“Let her talk,” Heston snapped. “You don’t know a thing about it, so why don’t you just shut up and listen?”

Ethan’s face turned a deep shade of red. He looked seconds away from launching out of his chair and strangling the admiral.

“Hoff,” Destra said. “It’s okay. They have a right to be angry.” Turning to Ethan, she said, “But he’s right. You don’t know what happened.”

“We’re listening,” Atton said.

Destra told her own long story then, starting with how she had managed to survive on Roka IV for a few days after the Sythians took control of the planet. She talked about hiding in a stim lab with an outlaw named Digger, and then she explained how she’d found Heston in the rubble of Covena, only to be betrayed by the people she was staying with and forced to flee in a stolen Sythian fighter. She ran out of fuel and landed on Ritan where she and Hoff spent the next three years just barely managing to find enough food, water, and shelter to survive.

“Apart from the struggle to provide for our physical needs, wild rictans and carnivorous bats hunted us constantly. We were attacked on multiple occasions, but we always fought them off. Once they nearly killed me, but Hoff—”

Heston shot her a quick look, and she cut herself off.

Turning back to them with a hesitant smile, Destra explained, “Well, obviously we don’t want to relive such a traumatic experience.”

“All right,” Ethan replied. “So you survived the rictans—what happened after that?”

“We . . . we spent the next month on Ritan together before a rescue finally came. It was Hoff’s fleet. They’d heard his distress beacon.”

Ethan smiled. “That fits. I guess you and the admiral must have got real close on Ritan—snuggling up under the blankets every night.”

“That’s enough!” Hoff roared.

Ethan sent him a sarcastic smile. “Enough would have been keeping your hands off my wife, but you didn’t do that, did you, Hoffkins?”

“I’m going to enjoy watching you have an aneurism as I probe your empty brain,” Hoff replied.

“Ethan, try to put yourself in my position!” Destra pleaded. “After three years spent waiting for a rescue, we were sure it would never come. We thought we were going to die on Ritan!”

“So that makes it okay? I didn’t really think you survived. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again, but I
still
waited for you.”

“Damn it, Ethan! It’s not the same. Were you stranded alone with your copilot for three years? Did the two of you have to fight every day just to survive, wondering most days whether it would be exposure or starvation that would kill you first?”

Ethan’s jaw bunched. “It might surprise you to hear that food isn’t all that abundant in Dark Space. Most of us are working just to provide the basics, and a good number of us fail to do even that.”

“Fine, hold it against me,” Destra said.

“All right, I will.”

“What made you come looking for us, then?” Atton asked quietly. “You already had Hoff and Atta, so why go digging up the past?”

Destra turned to him, her eyes shining. “As soon as we got off Ritan and it became possible to look for you, I wanted to go, but then I discovered I was pregnant. Hoff wouldn’t let me make the trip until Atta was born, and by then . . . well, then I had someone else to worry about. What if I went tearing off into Dark Space and got myself killed? Then
two
children would grow up without their mother. And what right did I have to intrude on your lives now that I’d already moved on with mine? What could I possibly offer you two if I ever found you? The answer was nothing, so I kept Hoff from making contact with Dark Space for years, and he respected my wishes. We left you alone, so that I could make up as many lies as I wanted to about how good things were in Dark Space. I imagined that you and your father had found each other and were safe. In my mind I had you two living on a hydroponic farm on some lush planet, safe, comfortable, and
happy.

“I know that sounds crazy, and that’s probably because it is, but most of the time thinking happy thoughts about you two was enough to ease my conscience. For the times when it wasn’t enough I had Atta to remind me why I was staying away.”

“That’s a comforting pack of lies. You could have gone looking for us without going yourself,” Ethan said.

“I know, and that’s why I guess it sounds so hollow now. The truth . . . the truth is it was too hard. In my mind there was no way to mix my old family with my new one without destroying them both.”

“So what changed?”

Destra turned to Atton. “Dark Space came to
us
. They found us at the old transfer station in the Stormcloud Nebula. Hoff had posted a crew there to watch over you, and as soon as the gate was re-opened they met. Word came back to us, and when Hoff told me how bad things were in Dark Space, I was overwhelmed with guilt. By contrast, we had an easy life, and the enclave was flourishing. Hoff encouraged me to look for you two, just to reassure myself that you were both all right. I agreed, and Hoff sent me to Dark Space along with a liaison from his fleet.”

“I remember receiving them, but not you . . .” Atton said. “That was just a guise to find us?”

“Not a guise; they had real business with you, and I had my own—it was an excuse for me to make the trip. When I found out that you’d died, Atton . . .” she shook her head and more tears sprang to her eyes. “I should have gone looking long ago. Maybe then I wouldn’t have had to go through so much pain.”

Atton took a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say.”

Heston smiled thinly at Ethan. “Now you see how it all happened? I hope
your
story is as good as that.”

“You already know my story,” Ethan replied, sounding even more tired than Atton felt.

“Not quite true. I know how you came to be the overlord, but not how or why you were found impersonating a nova pilot.”

“I guess I forgot to mention that part,” Ethan said.

“Yes, do tell.”

So Ethan did. When he finished his story about how Brondi had used him to spread the virus which had killed nearly everyone aboard the
Valiant,
the admiral was left shaking his head incredulously. “How am I supposed to pardon you now? With a story like that? At least your son didn’t actually do anything wrong—besides impersonating an officer, that is.”

“I’m not asking for a pardon,” Ethan said.

“Good! Because you won’t get one.”

“Hoff!” Destra said.

“I can’t,” he said, shaking his head. “When people find out, they’ll want justice. They’ll demand it. Someone’s head will have to roll, and if it isn’t one of theirs, it will be mine. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. The trial must go on. I can find a way to excuse your son, but that’s it.”

With that, Heston’s comm trilled, interrupting them, and he touched his ear to answer it. “Yes? . . . You found what? . . . I see. . . . Send me the transcripts. I’ll be there soon.”

“What happened?” Ethan asked.

“We’ve picked up an escape pod from the
Valiant.
”

“The
Valiant
is here?” Ethan asked, suddenly alarmed.

“Oh yes—
I guess I forgot to mention that
,” Heston said with a wry twist of his lips.

“Then Brondi is here, too.”

“Assuming I can trust your stories.”

“Who was in the pod?” Atton asked.

“Your friend, Roan. I’m going to review the transcripts from his debriefing now. Apparently his story supports yours. That’s something in your favor at least.”

“We have to do something!” Atton said.

“We?” Heston echoed, rising from his chair. “I don’t know what you two have to do with it.”

“Admiral,” Ethan said. “I have a score to settle with Brondi. I don’t care what you think of me personally, or whether you have to put me on trial for my crimes afterward, but I want to be there when you take the
Valiant.
Consider it a last request.”

Heston’s eyes narrowed as he thought about it. “All right. I’ll grant that, but I hope you know how to handle a zephyr.”