Dark Space: Origin (34 page)

“I hurt him. A lot. He didn’t want to cooperate. Maybe you can save him some more pain by answering my questions.”

“We answer questions without pain. You need not hurt us.”

“On the contrary, Tova. The two of you have been lying to me.”

“Lying? We do not lie.”

“When we dropped out of superluminal space, we detected telepathic communications coming from this ship.”

Tova’s slitted yellow eyes widened. “You detect us?”

“Yes,” Hoff replied. He pushed away the glaring overhead light and his features came into clearer focus. He was baring his teeth as humans liked to do when they were happy. “I detect you. I detect all of you. I apologize for the deception, Tova, but you and your kind started deceiving
us
first.”

“We do not lie,” Tova repeated. “I do not know what you detect. Perhaps Roan tries to contact Gors on Ritan?”

“He couldn’t, Tova. Neither could you. Unless you were lying about that, too. We were more than ten light years from Ritan at the time, and he said there were no other Gors around. How do you explain that?”

“Then I do not know what you detect, but it was
not
one of usss.”

Hoff made a loud noise as air escaped from his lungs. “I wish I could believe that, Tova. I’m going to give you one chance to come clean, just as I did with Roan. After that, you’re going to understand just how much rage and hate we’ve built up since your kind destroyed everything we’ve ever known—Sergeant Thriker here lost his entire family. He got to see his home blown to bits by a Sythian missile with his wife and baby still inside, so I’m sure you don’t want me to let him ask you questions.”

“Your mind is damaged, Woss,” Tova said.

Hoff’s pale eyes sparkled. “I assure you, my mind has never been in a healthier state. Now listen carefully, because I’m not going to repeat my questions. Why did your people invade us?”

Tova hissed. “Because we are slavesss!”

“Very well. What are the Gors planning?”

“We plan to work with humans to free ourselves. Now no longer. That is at an end, Woss.”

“I see.”

Tova could tell the admiral was not happy with those answers, but he remained smiling as he asked his next question. “And what about the Sythians? Why have we only ever seen one of them?”

“Because they are not all here, and you do not look. Their home is gettizz. The others—I do not know why they come. I do not know what they want.”

“It’s very easy to get through an interrogation when you claim to know nothing.”

“I tell the truth!”

“Of course you do. Sergeant Thriker?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You can finish this now.”

Tova hissed loudly once more, and her gaze turned back to her mate lying glassy-eyed beside her. He was alive, but barely, and she noticed clear white blood dripping in a steady pitter-patter from the table where he lay to the floor.

She saw another man come into view. He was tall and half his face was burned to a shiny mess of scar tissue. She assumed this was Sergeant Thriker. He picked up a glowing stick that crackled and hummed. He traced it lightly over her exposed abdomen and she hissed in agony, her back arcing against the searing, sparking cords which held her down. She tried to distract herself from the searing waves of pain by cursing the humans and imagining how she would tear them apart when she broke free, but those fantasies only gave her the illusion of hope.

There would be no escape from this.

Occasionally the sergeant would stop burning her exposed skin long enough to ask a question, but the questions were all the same ones that Hoff had asked, and after a while she decided to tell them what she thought they wanted to hear, but that only seemed to make the humans angrier. She endured for what felt like an eternity until the torment passed. At that point she was so drained and so numb that she felt as though her life were slipping away from her.

The humans would pay. They would all pay for this with their lives! That thought gave her strength to hold on a little longer—long enough to see the admiral loom over her once more. He was no longer baring his teeth.

“You were very brave, Tova,” he said. “I congratulate you for holding on this long. By now you must be wishing for the end, but I don’t think it’s that simple anymore. Watching Thriker have his fun, I’ve come to a conclusion. You and Roan will have to stand trial for your crimes. It’s not fair to give one man justice and deprive all the rest. Someone needs to pay for the trillions you killed in the war.”

“So kill usss,” Tova said. “And you have your blood price.”

“
Blood price . . .
that’s a nice turn of phrase. Yes, we’ll kill both of you, but it needs to be a public execution, and I’m afraid it won’t be either quick or painless. Monsters like you must be seen to suffer first, and it is not enough for you to suffer here where nobody can see it.”

“Humanzzz are the real monsters,” Tova managed. “Gorz do not . . .
play
with their food,” she said between gasps for air.

“Yes, that’s right. You just skip straight to eating it. Isn’t that what you did with the survivors on the worlds you conquered? Well, don’t worry; we’re not going to eat you. We’re not that barbaric.” Hoff turned away and Tova heard him speaking to someone she couldn’t see. “Dress their wounds and put them in stasis. Make sure they don’t die before their trial. Once we have Brondi and the imposter overlord, we can have all the war criminals strung up together.”

“Yes, sir.”

*  *  *

It was late. Atton stood in the Hestons’ garden, watching a setting sun splash the artificial sky in shades of ruby and carnelian. It was as though Hoff and Destra weren’t living on a ship at all, but he supposed that was the point. It was unusual to find so much luxury aboard a military vessel, but if Hoff had paid for the renovations himself as he’d said, then it wasn’t against fleet regs—it was, however, a slap in the face for everyone who was struggling just to get by. Atton had never been so self-indulgent, even as the supreme overlord of the Imperium, but not everyone shared his views on equality and sacrificing oneself for the common good.

Swish.

“Hello, Atton,” a warm female voice said. “Beautiful, isn’t it? Like one big light painting.” Atton tried to be diplomatic, but when he smiled it looked thin and papery, and Destra saw right through it. “He’s very wealthy, Atton,” she said, sounding defensive. “You can’t begrudge the man that.”

“Why not?”

Destra sighed and she walked out to the edge of the synthstone terrace. Her gaze slipped sideways to a swing bench with black cushions and gleaming duranium frame which stood below the dining room window. “Why don’t we sit down for a while? Hoff will be back for dinner soon, so we should make the most of the time we have alone. There are still some details to go over.”

“Good idea.” Atton followed her to the swing bench and they sat down. “You found something to get into the lift tube?”

“A cutting beam. I hope you know how to use it.”

Atton nodded. “Don’t worry. What about an escape plan?”

“I have a ship ready, Hoff’s corvette. Its main purpose is for Atta and I to escape in an emergency, so it won’t require any clearance codes to launch.”

“How far is the ship from here? Can we get there in a hurry?”

“You can take the lift tube right outside the front doors. Deck 24.”

Atton let out a long sigh. “How do you feel about all of this?”

“I’m hedging my bets, aren’t I? So whatever happens, I can deny my part in it.”

“I wish you’d agree to come with me. Whatever’s down there, I have a feeling you’re going to have to see it for yourself. If you don’t, you might not even believe me when I tell you.”

“Atton, there’s no way I’ll be able to deny my involvement if he catches me on the holocorders down there.”

“I guess it all depends on whether or not you want to continue living with the secrets and the lies.” Destra frowned and looked away. Atton went on, “Think about Atta.”

The back doors swished open, and both Destra and Atton jumped.

“Hello,” Hoff said as he stepped outside.

Atton smiled up at him.

“Hello, darling,” Destra said matching Atton’s smile. “We missed you at lunch.”

“I told you I couldn’t come. We had an emergency to deal with.”

“What kind of emergency?” Atton asked.

Hoff turned to him with a sarcastic smile. “I’m glad you asked. Your pet Gors were caught calling for backup.”

“What?” Atton bolted to his feet.

“That’s right. I caught them making unscheduled contact with their so-called crèche mates.”

Atton shook his head. “How?”

“While you were turning a blind eye to them, I found a way to detect their telepathy, and I detected it coming from this ship as soon as we dropped out of SLS.”

“What? Hold on, even if your technology is perfect, he still could have been contacting a friend on Ritan.”

“He and Tova denied all the reasonable explanations, leaving just one possibility—they betrayed us.”

Destra gasped. “What are we going to do?”

“I’ve had both Roan and Tova put into stasis, so there won’t be any more unscheduled communications from them.”

“I mean what are we going to do about the Gors,” Destra replied. “They’re everywhere.”

“And they’re on my fleet,” Atton growled. “If you do anything—”

“Then that’s your problem.” Hoff pointed at him. “If you hadn’t trusted them in the first place we wouldn’t have to deal with this mess now. For the sake of your men, I hope the Gors still make a distinction between your fleet and mine, but if not . . . the blame for their deaths sits squarely on
your
shoulders. I’m pulling the plug on Ritan.”

“What?!” Atton shook his head. “There are tens of thousands of Gors on Ritan!”

“Exactly. We’re still a few trillion short before that will make us even for the war, but it’s a good start.”

“Are you
positive
they were giving us away?” Atton said. “How does your detector work? Maybe it’s not that accurate, or there was some kind of interference.”

Hoff waved his hand dismissively. “How it works is classified, but I can assure you the technology has been thoroughly tested.”

“Hoff,” Destra rose to her feet now, too. She walked over to him and took his hand in both of hers. “Listen to Atton. If you turn on the Gors now, thousands of men will die. At least give Atton time to tell his fleet so he can protect his men.”