Ciro’s eyes fluttered as he became dimly aware of the noise and movement around him.
Jane was yelling at someone.
“—probably has a concussion! He needs medical treatment!”
To which someone responded in a frustrated voice, “I know. Now I’m going to ask you to be quiet one last time, Doctor.”
“Ciro?” Reyer asked.
Ciro’s eyes fluttered again, but this time he tried to keep them open. Thankfully, the transport’s windows were small and blocked out most of the light. He tried to sit up. A wave of nausea pushed through his stomach.
“The prisoner is awake,” said an unfamiliar voice next to him.
Ciro groaned, but he managed to sit up. When he thought he could handle it, he looked around.
Jane was across from him, on the other side of the transport. Beside her was Reyer, then Adan. A peacekeeper sat at the end. Ciro had been taking up two spaces on the bench he shared with the two peacekeepers sitting to his left. Another peacekeeper was squatting at the back of the transport between him and Jane.
At his feet was the inert form of Lynx. The sight of the blacked-out robot caused his heart to jump.
“Lynx!”
“I’m so sorry, Ciro,” Jane said. “It was an emp bomb. He was standing right by it when it went off.”
Ciro looked up at Adan, but his older brother only shook his head, his lips pressed together.
“Are you all right?” Jane asked.
“No, not really,” Ciro grumbled. He sounded drained. For a while he only stared at the motionless robot, but then he shook his head and looked up. When he tried to move his arms to get some life and energy back into his body, Ciro realized he had been cuffed, like all the others. “What’s going on?”
“You were found unconscious on the ship,” Reyer said.
“The ship!” He turned to Adan, but his brother’s glare froze the words on his lips. Ciro closed his mouth.
Vas sat back and took a deep breath. When Reyer felt it, she shifted her cuffed hands to her right thigh, closer to the captain, and curled her index finger into a hook. The question sign. The captain flattened his left hand, fingers together—wait. He needed time to think.
Now that Ciro was awake, things had improved. Not by much, but it was something. There were four guards in with them and two in the cab. Getting out of the vehicle would be a nasty business, but if they waited too long, they might be separated. They had been disarmed, but fortunately, all the guards’ guns would be bound. They only had to get them away from their owners to greatly decrease the chances of anyone getting shot. That probably wouldn’t be too difficult. Considering the fact they allowed their prisoners to speak (or berate them) and cuffed all their hands in front, Vas felt safe assuming these peacekeepers weren’t experienced.
Reyer extended her hand with her fingers separated.
No, not now. Vas reached over and took her right hand with his left, pushing all her fingers down. He held her there in a firm grip.
The two peacekeepers across from them heard their cuffs rattle against each other, but benevolently ignored what they were certain was a romantic gesture.
When she could, Reyer squeezed his hand, then let go.
Vas hoped that meant she trusted him, but at least it meant she’d gotten the message.
“How much further?” Vas asked out loud.
“We’re almost there,” one of the peacekeepers said.
Vas waited until their attention was diverted by Jane’s ongoing rant before signing to Alix. When she had signed that she understood, he leaned closer to her.
Before he could say anything, she said, “Don’t ask if I’m all right. Don’t mention my back.”
“So your medicine has worn off?”
“Yes, I am grumpy. Thanks for noticing.”
Vas had to resist the mad urge to kiss her cheek. Lynx had often commented on how he seemed more impulsive and excited when he was in dangerous circumstances. Vas had insisted he was only responding to the situation (at which point Lynx had diagnosed his “delusions” as “justification and willful self-ignorance”), but now he realized what the bot had meant. He would have admitted as much, but Lynx was dead on the floor at his feet.
The captain leaned back against the wall of the transport and tried to relax.
Five minutes later, the transport slowed and stopped. The peacekeeper at the back opened the doors and jumped down. The two men from cab came to help.
Jane got off and yelled at them to help Ciro down.
As one of the guards was doing that, the other two peacekeepers called into the transport, “What are we going to do about the bot?”
The three still inside stood up. “The policy is to bring them in.”
“Yeah, but how are we going to move it? The other squad is gone, and that thing weighs a ton.”
“I could move it for you,” Vas said.
The three peacekeepers near the captain chuckled. “Oh, feeling helpful now? Sure, if you can do it all by yourself.”
Vas smiled. “Lazarus.”
All of Lynx’s external lights came on at once. He was on his feet before the peacekeepers could figure out what was happening—you knew the moment they did because two of them swore. By then, the bot had grabbed the XM4s from the two peacekeepers in front of him, mangling them in his grip.
The third guard shot at the most obvious danger, which, unfortunately for him, was a robot. Vas kicked the XM4 out of his hands before he could realize his mistake, then slammed him up against the transport wall.
“Lynx! My cuffs!”
The robot turned and crushed the cuffs, ignoring Vas’s cry of pain when his wrists had to take some of the collapsing pressure. Lynx was back to fighting the peacekeepers less than a second later.
The three peacekeepers outside the transport didn’t want to shoot into the vehicle with their comrades still in there. Their hesitation gave the captain enough time to launch himself past Reyer and out onto the ground. A blast blew by his head, but before the peacekeeper could get off another, he had punched him in the face, snatched the e-rifle from his hands, and threw it behind him.
When Ciro saw another peacekeeper raising his weapon to shoot Adan in the back, he slammed down on the XM4 with his cuffs. The peacekeeper screamed when the blast took off a part of his own foot. Ciro kicked the weapon as far away as he could. That was all he could manage. He dropped to his knees, his head filled ear to ear with pressure and pain.
“No!” He heard Jane scream.
He turned to see the last peacekeeper with his e-rifle raised, about to smash it down onto his skull. Jane threw her shoulder at him. She barely weighed more than half of what he did, but it was enough to knock the blow aside. By that time, Vas was there. The captain yanked the XM4 from the peacekeeper’s grip and slapped him across the face with the butt end.
The captain turned to the transport. A peacekeeper was standing in the opening, his rifle raised and pointed at Adan’s chest.
Reyer smashed her still cuffed wrists against the side of his face. His head crashed into the edge of the transport door. He fell out of the vehicle, and a stream of blood started to slide down his face.
“You missed one!” Reyer yelled.
Vas shrugged. “I knew you were there.” He went over to the peacekeeper. The man winced as Vas reached down. The captain ignored his cowering, drew the man’s machete, then picked up the XM4 and tossed it away.
“Lynx is pinning down one of them at the moment,” Alix said.
“What about the other?”
“I took care of him.”
“Dead?”
“I broke his knee when he drew his machete.” She pushed the weapon toward him with her foot. “Give this to Ciro—or Jane if you have to. Mr. Broken-knee is near Lynx and completely unarmed. If he tries anything, he won’t get far.” She turned back to the interior of the transport. “Take care of the ones out there. We have it under control in here.”
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“Will you be long?”
“I hope not.”
Vas half dragged, half led the last peacekeeper over to sit with the rest of them.
Reyer had Lynx crush her cuffs with one hand. The bot’s other hand was still clamped down on the peacekeeper’s dislocated shoulder, pushing it into the transport wall.
“Thank you, Lynx.” Reyer went to work on the locker where the guards had stored their weapons.
“You-are wel-come, Miss Rey-er.” The bot’s voice jerked in and out as he spoke.
“What’s wrong with your voice?”
“The resur-r-rection pro-gram is not per-fect, ma’am. The emp-bomb seems to…have…affected some sys-tems. All ma-major sys-tems are online.”
“Lynx, you’re a miracle. I don’t care if it’s imperfect, I’ll take it.” Alix laughed with relief. “I thought you were gone.”
“That-would have been…sad.”
“Yes, it would have.”
After a minute of working curled over the lock, her back was in agony. She stood up and walked over to the peacekeeper Lynx had pinned. She looked him over, trying to find a machete or knife to help her break past the cover, but he had nothing.
“All right. I’m in too much damn pain to hack that lock,” she said. “Give me the code.”
“No,” the man said.
“Look, buddy, I have to get in there somehow, and you took my knife. That means the only tool I have left is the robot currently making sure you don’t attack me while my back is turned. The only way he’s going to be free to help me is if you’re no longer a problem.”
She folded her arms and waited.
“1-9-4-7-1-0. But it requires a hand print.”
“Are you offering to help, or shall I have Lynx rip your arm off?” Adan’s right, I do get grumpy.
The man opened the locker and then, at her direction, laid down on the transport floor next to his incapacitated colleague. Lynx stood over both of them while she investigated the contents of the box. She let out a quiet laugh. “Nice.”
Not only did she take out everything that had been seized from them, but all of the peacekeepers’ security cuffs as well. She tested her e-pistol by firing it at the ceiling of the transport, but it had been destroyed by the emp. She hoped Vas had remembered to pack spares when they were at Home Base. She had Lynx truss the peacekeepers up so they couldn’t move while she went to take the rest of the stuff out to Vas.
When she tried to jump down, her right leg collapsed under her. She knew she must have screamed, but she couldn’t care. She felt the ground under her left cheek, felt her fingers pressing down into the turf—everything else was pain.
“Alix!”
Vas came over. She pushed the pile of weapons and cuffs toward his kneeling form. “Take care of the guards first.”
“That won’t-be…need-ded. You help Miss Rey-er.” Lynx leaped over both of them and picked up the Supremacy cuffs Reyer had stolen. He went to help Ciro secure the rest of the peacekeepers.
“How can I help?” Vas demanded.
“Shoot me,” Reyer said.
“Short of that.”
“Remind me never to jump when I don’t have to. I am not the spry soldier I once was.” She panted for a moment or two. “Give me a minute.”
Vas looked around. The building they were behind, like most buildings on Kala, had a generous amount of space between it and its neighbors, it was less dangerous than it could have been. No one inside the building seemed to have noticed that something had gone wrong, but that could change in a second.
He took the time to put all his weapons in order, tuck his cuffs back on his belt, and find a place for Reyer’s knife and machete. He kept his e-pistol in hand.
“I’m sorry, Miss Reyer,” he said, “but time’s up.”
“I know.”
“Are you ready?”
“Yes, sir.”
Vas put her right arm over his shoulders, moved his foot so it was under him, and helped lift her to her feet. He heard her groaning and worried she might bite through her tongue to keep from screaming.
“Can you walk?” he asked.
“Kind of.”
By the time they reached Dr. Jane and Ciro, Reyer was able to take most of her weight. The biologist was down on her knees, having barely finished tying a tourniquet above the ankle of the peacekeeper who’d lost half his foot. She stood up and wiped her hands on her blood-stained pants.
“Are you all right?” Alix asked.
Jane touched her pale forehead. There were bruises on her wrists from when Lynx had crushed the cuffs. “I attacked a Supremacy peacekeeper.”
Ciro came up to her side. “You kept that one from bleeding to death.”
“No one died,” Vas said.
“I still attacked a Supremacy peacekeeper,” Jane said.
Ciro bumped her arm with his elbow. “That was hardly an attack. You nudged him. What’s a nudge? Nothing. No big deal.”
Reyer laughed. Jane saw how pale Alix’s face was and noticed the sheen of sweat on her cheeks. “You’re not a hardened criminal yet, Jane.”
“Come on,” Vas said. “We have to get out of here. We’ll find a ride—”
“Steal it?” Jane asked.
“Yes, Doctor.”
Jane was still for a moment, but then she nodded.
“Good. I’m glad that survival is actually on your priority list,” Vas said. “Now, would you rather take this e-pistol and shoot anyone who tries to overtake us, or would you rather help Miss Reyer for a while?”
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Gardner was staring so intently at the screen in front of him, he didn’t notice anything until he felt the muzzle of the e-pistol pressing into the back of his head.
“Where’s my ship?”
“Ah. Captain.” Gardner’s hands dropped away from his console. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“You didn’t put the security back up when we left.”
“I had other things on my mind.”
The gun pressed his head forward a little further. “Where’s my ship?”
“I…I can help you, Captain.” Gardner’s voice trembled. “I want to help you, but I need you to listen to me.”
The gun lifted away from his skull. When he heard the captain back up a few paces, Gardner swiveled his office chair around to look at them. They all looked exactly like their photos.
“Adan Vas,” Gardner said. He nodded to the woman standing next to the captain. “Sergeant Reyer.” He looked at the last woman. “Dr. Bonumomnes.” Well aware of the e-pistol still pointed at him, he slowly reached over to his desk and picked up her notebook. “I believe this is yours, Doctor?”
Jane stepped over to grab it before Reyer could stop her, but Gardner didn’t try anything.
When the notebook was back in Jane’s hands, the general said, “What about the other one? The one they took off your ship?”
“He’s cannibalizing what’s left of your bot to fix ours,” Vas said.
“Your bot is alive?” The general held up both his hands for a moment. “A wonder like that should be fully operational. He’s welcome to whatever he needs.”
“We weren’t looking for your approval,” Reyer said.
The general saw her face and noticed she kept shifting her weight from one cockeyed angle to another. “Do you need to sit down, Sergeant?”
Reyer was about to refuse but thought better of it. When she sat down in the armchair, Vas moved to the side of it while keeping his weapon pointed at the general.
“I won’t waste time,” Gardner said. “Your ship’s been impounded by the Supremacy peacekeepers. They’re waiting for someone to figure out what’s to be done with it.”
“Has anyone touched anything?” Jane asked.
The general hesitated when he heard the desperation in her voice. “All of your cargo is intact.”
Her relief was instant and palpable.
“However,” the general grumbled, “I suspect someone did touch something.”
“What?” Vas asked.
“I didn’t know what to make of your story at first, but you obviously believed it enough to risk your lives to find me. The notes in that notebook,” he nodded to Jane, “were even more convincing. When I had managed to shoo away those pesky peacekeepers, I was able to sit down and do some research.” He let out a deep sigh. “There’s a xeno that goes by the name of Jack Harlan—”
“We know Harlan,” Reyer said.
“I thought you might. The conniving monster has been looking for the xeno home planet for decades. He’s been at it since before he took over the body of the traitor Rurik—since before he found out about you, Sergeant. He abused his position and rank to try to covertly get the information he wanted.”
“The position and rank you gave him,” Vas said.
The general’s face twitched before he answered. “Yes. But now he has the information he’s been after.”
The gun Vas was holding wavered as he rubbed the back of his neck. “The ship’s log,” he muttered to Reyer. “Ciro was right. It was a trap.” The captain swore. He returned his attention to Gardner. “Now you have what you wanted. Don’t think the Rising will stand by—”
Gardner gripped the arms of his chair and leaned forward, almost rising from the seat. “Captain, I wasn’t lying! I didn’t want to know the location of their home planet! This is not a Supremacy conspiracy. This is Harlan! We weren’t looking for their home planet—they were!”
“The xenos?” Dr. Jane asked.
“Yes!”
“What are they going to do now that they know where it is?” Vas asked.
“I don’t have many official responsibilities now, but I am required to keep tabs on the xenos that are left.”
“How many are there?”
“After the seventeen the Rising killed? Only twelve. Including Harlan. Captain, about two hours ago, every last one of them disappeared from their positions. They’re gone.”
A long silence filled the room.
“If they’re going to their home planet, they’ll need a ship,” Vas said.
“I think they have ship,” Gardner said. “Harlan’s been engineering this for years. He groomed them and prepared them for what they’d need. He has pilots, computer experts, weapons experts, trained soldiers. A battleship has gone missing.” The general had trouble saying the next part; he had to swallow twice before he could do it. “Along with roughly twenty people who worked on the base where it was kept.”
“They’ve taken hostages?” Reyer asked.
“They’ve taken new bodies,” Jane said. “They’re going to make more human-xenos. They always want the most powerful bodies they can find—”
“And they found us,” Vas said.
Gardner looked at him. “I will get you your ship, Captain. I’ve used a lot of favors learning all this, but I still have a few more. I’ll get you back to your ship, but in return, I need to ask you to do something. Stop them. Save those people if you can, but whatever happens, we can’t allow more human-xenos to exist. Don’t let them get off that planet.”
Vas shook his head. His laugh was low and angry. “I have a runner. We’re a total of four people and one bot! Two of us aren’t trained soldiers! Why don’t you send some of your own troops, General? Our lives have been endangered enough because of you.”
“I can’t, Captain! You don’t understand. It would take too much time! Everything would be over before I could get them to listen to me. Only five people in the Supremacy hierarchy even knew about their existence. I only knew because I was over interagency sensitive information, and space exploration was considered a military venture. As soon as I learned we could kill them, I wanted them all dead—I know a risk when I see it—but by that time one of them was more sentient than the others—”
“Harlan?”
“Yes. He could communicate. He understood everything—all the complex ideas and threats. My commanding officer ordered me to make a deal with them. Their existence would be kept a secret and their lives would be spared as long as they agreed to work with us. It was only later that I found out my commanding officer was working with a Senator—a woman who had ambitions of her own. She and another politician helped to clear the way for Project 32 to go forward without its nature being revealed. Everyone else who worked around the project only knew that it was top secret. None of them guessed they weren’t taking orders from a human.”
“You let Harlan give orders?” Reyer asked.
“We had to! The xenos would listen to him. If he ordered them to go into danger, they would.”
“But you put him in charge of real people?”
“A few. They were messengers, logistics men—people who didn’t ask questions. But from what I’ve seen, he used his position and the fact that his work was highly classified as a tool to manipulate others. He created a hidden branch of his department dedicated to finding the xeno home planet…and you, Sergeant. They’re the ones that have been hunting you.”
“After everything you’ve told us, everything you and your people have done to us,” Vas said, “you’d get me my ship and trust me to go and save a battleship full of Supremacy citizens?”
“I have no choice, Captain. It’s you or no one. The xenos are as much a threat to the Rising as they are to the Supremacy.”
From the expression on Vas’s face, Reyer realized it was her turn to be the mature one. She put her hand on his arm.
The captain said, “If I do this, you’ll use every favor you have to stop the search for the xeno home planet. You will rob, blackmail, and threaten anyone you must to delete every last file Harlan has on Sergeant Reyer. You’ll remove any current warrants or ‘wanted-for-questioning’ notices regarding Dr. Jane. I want Project 32 shut down.”
The general stood up. “Done.” He moved toward the door. “We have no time to lose. When I called Major Tennama, he said that Harlan had left hours ago. He and the other xenos will have to find transportation off their planets and rendezvous with the battleship, but we don’t know how long that will take.”