Star Carrier (Lost Colonies Trilogy Book 3) (15 page)

-25-

Eventually, Star Guard troops made it down five hundred meters into the Earth and stormed into the War Room. We were waiting for them, weary but thoughtful.

The variants were handled very delicately. K-19 and Q-161 agreed to be escorted back into their crates and stored. Director Vogel was instrumental in this negotiation, using a soothing voice as one might with a reluctant pet.

After the variants had left, we were arrested and harshly debriefed, but I felt certain we’d eventually be released. We’d acted without orders but with what had to be acceptable reasons.

After all, hadn’t a Stroj agent managed to work its way into Star Guard and take a commanding position? Who could be angry with the men who had revealed and destroyed it? Yes, good men had died, but if we’d not taken action all of Earth might have been lost.

Sitting in the brig far under the Earth for three days, I began to become concerned. Surely, they knew I’d done the right thing?

But doubts lingered in my mind. What if there were more Stroj about? Reason dictated the odds were high. If Perez had been replaced by another of his kind, how could I expect that individual to be pleased with me?

It was on the fourth day that my cell door finally rattled open. For the first time since my interrogation, a person came through instead of simply leaving a steel tray of cold food.

“Stand back!” said a querulous voice. “I’ve got a writ!”

“My Lady,” said the jailor. “He could be dangerous. He stands accused of killing fifteen men.”

“Nonsense, Warden. My nephew didn’t kill them—those automatons did it. He’s entirely innocent, as I intend to prove. Now, step aside!”

My heart dared to feel hope. It was my Aunt, the Lady Grantholm. She was a powerful figure in government and a confidant of the Chairman. If anyone could get me out of this, she could.

After arguing her way past the warden, she swept into my cell and looked around with a wrinkled nose.

“This is an unsavory habitat for a Sparhawk,” she said. “Unacceptable.”

“Lady Grantholm,” I said, “good to see you.”

“I wish I could say the same, but I can’t. Why am I always being summoned to cleanse messes left behind by others?”

“Perhaps it’s your calling.”

She glared at me. “Being a smart aleck won’t endear you to anyone, William. You should have outgrown that by now.”

I sighed, tired of banter. “What are you doing here? Can you help me or not?”

She put her fingers to her lips. “Not here,” she said. “Warden!”

The door swung open quickly.

“You must escort us to a private meeting room. This one is bugged and unsanitary.”

She handed the man an order with a stabbing gesture. He took the computer scroll, looked at it, and then sullenly handed it back.

Without a word, he led us out of the dungeons. I followed with curiosity. My aunt was a wily woman. She’d made sure I was in her presence before she served her warrant. Perhaps if she’d attempted to deliver papers without seeing me, the warden would have tried to delay her. This way, he had no choice but to comply immediately.

More guards followed us warily. I had the feeling they thought I might turn into a Stroj myself and strike them all dead.

When my Aunt was at last satisfied we were alone and able to talk freely, she slammed her open hand into my face.

It was a hard slap, and it had come without warning. My teeth cut into my cheek with the force of the blow, and I tasted a trickle of blood.

“What was that for?” I demanded.

“For making me take action I didn’t want to take. For talking to a Stroj about things no man on Earth should be discussing. And most of all, for this!”

She held out another computer scroll. I took it and examined it.

The device was mine. On it was a series of scrawled numbers.

Shrugging, I tucked it into my pocket.

“Thanks for returning my property,” I said, “but I hardly see how a few numbers—”

“Those numbers lead somewhere, William,” she said, “and I think you know where they go.”

“Uh…” this was tough spot for me. I didn’t want to lie, but I didn’t want to make a misstep and send my aunt back to her mansion with no reason to help me. I had no idea as to the significance of the numbers—but I could make a shrewd guess.

“They’re coordinates,” I said at last.

“Of course they are! We traced the first sets. They lead to a breach, then to another and another. After three jumps, we lose track of where they lead. Presumably, they’re all hyperspace bridge locations. Where does the trail end?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

She sighed and growled at the same time. “Vogel didn’t want to tell me, either. But he spent time on the power-rack, so I’m more inclined to believe him.”

Standing up to my full height, I glared down at her.

“I don’t lie,” I said. “You can torment me if you like, but it won’t change my answer.”

She eyed me and then made a flapping motion with her hand, indicating I should sit down again. I did so reluctantly.

She paced, rubbing at her chin. “I don’t know what to do with you, nephew. The Council is beside itself. First, you refuse an update. Now, you barge into CENTCOM and kill—”

“Wait a minute,” I said, “did you say I refused an update?”

She snorted. “Come now, William! We weren’t born yesterday—far from it. Did you think you’d get away with disabling your auto-updates without triggering a thousand red flags? Do you even know what the penalty is for your tampering with your implant?”

I stared at her, and I found I did know. “So that’s it?” I asked. “I’m to become an unperson?”

“You’re one small step from that status now. One morning update away.”

“But how…?” I asked, trailing off.

“Don’t be naïve,” she snapped. “This is where we keep the wretches, William. It’s sad, really. Forgotten souls. The best and the worst of our species are down here with us right now. Strange to think—”

My hand reached out and grasped her wrist.

“Is Zye here? Aunt Helen—is she down here in this dark place?”

She snatched her hand back from me. “I don’t know. I’m not a jailor, I’m a diplomat—and you’ve made my job ten times harder lately.”

“All I did was my duty. My actions were extreme, but when I get my day in court—”

She gave a bark of laughter and shook her head. “Your day in court will be held by the Council in secret. Not even you will be invited.”

Her words stunned me. “But I killed a Stroj who’d burrowed deeply into our command structure. Are you saying the Chairman is displeased about that? Did the Council know he was here, running things?”

“I don’t know…” she said. “But forget about all that. I’m interested in getting my nephew out of purgatory, but I’m not sure how to go about it.”

The situation did seem grim. I was out of my depth.

She raised a bony finger and wagged it at me. “I have an idea. You’ll tell them where this map leads. You’ll tell them it will provide us a great boon when you get there. Then you’ll go out there and get it personally.”

I blinked at her in confusion. “But I told you, I don’t know where this chain of star systems leads.”

She patted my cheek where she’d slapped me before. “That’s a good boy… but I was speaking rhetorically. You won’t talk to them personally, I will in your stead. I’ll invent a suitable boon and deliver your heartfelt apologies along with a sincere promise to bring home a vague treasure. All you have to do is fly to the stars and find whatever that mad Stroj wanted you to find.”

“What if the trail leads to the Stroj homeworld? Or to a black hole after a blue jump? The Stroj owed me nothing. In fact, revenge seems the most likely motivation since I’d just killed him.”

She stared at me down her long nose. “Would you rather sit here and rot? At this time tomorrow your parents won’t even recall that they ever had a child.”

My jaw worked, but no sound came out for a moment. Then I had a thought.

“What about Vogel? What about the variants? I’ll need their help.”

She looked irritated. “I find your sense of self-preservation woefully undeveloped.”

“Nevertheless, if I’m to find something useful, I need them.”

She sighed. “All right, I’ll see what I can do.

“Then I’ll go out there. I’ll find… something.”

“That’s a good boy…” she said again, patting my shoulder absently. “But I’d suggest that if you
don’t
find anything interesting you’d be best off not coming home at all.”

I nodded, unable to argue with her point.

-26-

The following morning I was awakened by two jailors. They hauled me out of my cell and down echoing hallways.

I asked them where we were going, but they said nothing. They were agents—heavily modified men. It was their kind I’d fought with when the Council first arrested me what seemed like long ago.

Today, I could not defeat them. I struggled, but to no avail. I had no personal shield, no pistol and no sword.

My boots scraped and scuffed the marble floors, but I couldn’t get a grip. With my hands cuffed behind me, there was little I could do.

At last they shoved me into an empty elevator car. One of them threw something at me—a nano-key.

The elevator doors slid shut, and the car began to go upward. I got down on my knees, touched the nano-key to my shackles, then stood up.

Approaching the elevator doors, I hammered on them with my fists.

“I’ll not leave without Zye!” I shouted. But if they were listening, they gave no clue.

Reconsidering my outburst, I decided to once again hide my true motivations. There was no point in demanding things when I wasn’t in the position to force anyone to deliver.

For some reason, on the long, long trip to the surface, I felt the urge to straighten myself. Combing my hair with my fingers and tucking in my collar, I did the best I could. The nanos in my smart clothing had long since lost power, leaving my suit rumpled.

At last, the doors dinged and opened.

I was on the ground floor on the surface not far from where I’d been the day I’d stormed this place. Even more surprising, there was no one there to greet me—no guards, no Aunt Helen—nothing.

There were people, however, bustling around the place as if I wasn’t worthy of notice. Putting on the best show I could manage, I strode out into the hallway as if I owned the place. Perhaps they were going for humiliation. Perhaps this was their odd idea of a perp-walk.

No matter. I was a Sparhawk, and I wouldn’t give them any kind of satisfaction.

Still, the front doors, no more than a hundred echoing paces across the floors, were very tempting. I couldn’t help but pull my cap down over my face, tilt my head toward the exit and walk in that direction.

After a dozen steps, I saw they were still cleaning up from the attack I’d led. The front windows had yet to be fully repaired. All the gunfire had taken out thousands of credits worth of glass panels alone.

“Hey!” shouted a voice. “Is that you…? Captain Sparhawk?”

I hesitated. My instinct was to keep walking, to put as much distance between the dungeons and my person as quickly as possible.

But I didn’t. I knew there was no point. If they were playing games, they had all the cards. They could arrest me again in a moment.

Turning on one heel and manufacturing a smile, I struggled to recognize the woman who had spoken to me.

“Is that Ensign Raeling?” I asked.

She beamed. “You remember me? I was very junior when I served aboard
Defiant
.”

“Of course, in the purser’s office. What are you doing here?”

“I’m testing for rank. Wish me luck!”

“Luck,” I said in what I hoped was a pleasant tone. The ensign was young and perky. I’d had an eye for her, like every other man on the ship.

But as we spoke, the entire conversation seemed very odd to me. She knew who I was, and my face had to have been plastered on every newsfeed on the planet over recent days. How was it she had yet to run for help?

But the fact was, she didn’t seem to be alarmed at all. She just looked at me, happily at first, but then with growing concern.

“You look as if you haven’t been sleeping sir,” she said. “Is something wrong?”

“Well, the trials of a Guardsman never cease.”

She frowned in incomprehension for a moment, but then she gasped and put a hand to her mouth.

“You weren’t here during the attack, were you?”

There it was. I’d blown it. I’d been recognized by possibly the only person on Earth who didn’t know I’d been involved—and now I’d given her reason to recall my face here in the very lobby I’d done my best to demolish.

“Well… that is…”

She stepped forward, put out a hand and touched my arm. “Don’t say another word, Captain Sparhawk,” she said. “I understand. It must have been awful. Just think, right here where we’re standing a dozen Stroj killed a dozen of ours. It’s almost unbelievable. We should wipe those monsters out.”

My mouth was open to speak, but I managed to shut it again.

“Just so,” I managed. “Ensign Raeling, I wish you all the luck with your tests, but I’m afraid I must be moving along now.”

“I understand, sir,” she said. “Don’t let me keep you. Maybe we’ll serve together again someday.”

Without another word, she turned and walked away. She did pause to glance back, and she blushed when she saw I was still standing there, staring after her.

That jolted me into action. I did an about-face and headed for the exit.

After passing a dozen guards, I thought I was home-free, but one of them called after me. He had a portable terminal in hand, and it was blinking colors.

“Captain Sparhawk?” he asked.

Again, I faced my assailant pleasantly. “Yes, Chief?”

“We’ve got a package for you. The biometric scanners recognized you as you came near the doors and triggered an alert.”

“A package?”

“Yes. Here you are, sir.”

He handed me a heavy sack. It was lumpy, and there was one item of unusual length inside. I could feel it through the cloth.

Immediately, I knew what the item was: my family sword.

“Excellent,” I said as I pulled out my shielding cloak, my sidearm and my blade.

Donning them all under the curious eye of the guard, I felt whole again.

“Did you lose them battling the Stroj in the attack, sir?” he asked.

“Yes—I did.”

The man shook his head. “Such brave souls, all of you who were here fighting that day. I’m glad you survived.”

“So am I…”

With that, I strode out into the sunlight a free man.

By this time, I’d puzzled out what the hell was going on. No one knew I’d led the attack against CENTCOM because there had been an update this morning. But instead of updating them all to forget my existence, they’d updated the world to remember an attack by the Stroj rather than me.

As far as the people of Earth were concerned, I was a heroic Guardsman who’d faced the enemy and beaten them right here at CENTCOM’s gates.

It was an odd feeling to recall something differently than everyone else did. It was both thrilling—because I was free—and nightmarish, because I was in awe of the Council’s power to manipulate events.

How often had they fabricated the past? Which details had I been taught about Earth’s history were truthful—and which of them were a pack of intricate lies?