Children of the Void: Book One of the Aionian Saga (6 page)

“Great, he’s gonna kill us,” said Takomi. “Why’d she have to tell your dad?”

“No idea, but there’s something weird going on, and I want to find out what it is.”

They walked back to the exit.

“You saw the way she looked at that symbol we found,” said Takomi. “It’s got to mean something.”

“No kidding. It can’t be a coincidence that I’ve seen it three times in three different places. My mom acted pretty much the same way when I asked her about it.”

“Well, who can we ask about it?”

“I get the feeling anybody who knows about that symbol is not going to tell us anything.”

“So how do we find out?”

Gideon pushed open the outer doors and walked into the sunlight. “I’ve got an idea, but you’re not going to like it.”

“What?” asked Takomi.

“I’ll have to wait a couple weeks, but I think I can get into the satellite hangar. I should be able to get into my dad’s office and get a better look at that book too.”

“How in the world are we going to pull that off? CENTCOM’s the most secure spot on the whole ship.”

“We? So you’ll help me?”

Takomi threw up her hands. “You’ve already gotten me into trouble, so I might as well see it through. So what’s your plan?”

Gideon hid a smile. “We can’t go in through the front door, that’s for sure.”

“So CENTCOM has a mysterious back door that I don’t know about?”

“Well, no, but it does have a big hole blasted into the side of it. It’ll take weeks for them to seal it up again.”

Takomi laughed. “You’re right, there is a big hole, but you seem to forget that it’s a hundred meters up. We’re supposed to climb up there?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem with Sentinel Armor.”

Takomi stopped walking. “Are you crazy? Are we supposed to just go and ask the armory for a couple suits?”

“I’m working on the details, but I think I can get us suits from the training center.”

“Okay, say we can get some armor. Then what? The second we climb through that hole, someone’s going to spot us. CENTCOM’s always crawling with people.”

“We wait until everybody leaves.”

“There are shifts around the clock. How are we supposed to get everyone out?”

Gideon smirked as he started walking again. “We’re not going to get everyone out. Valkyrie is.”

S
AVE
FOR
A
few guards and engineers monitoring vital systems, every soul aboard the
Leviathan
was gathered in the large central park in the biosphere, just up the river from the cemetery. The climatologists had engineered the perfect evening, with a light breeze and comfortable temperature. White canvas pavilions ringed the park next to stately oak trees strung with lights.
 

In the center of the ring, a huge hologram depicted Valkyrie, updated in real time as the
Leviathan
approached. After a century and a half of drifting through the Void, they were finally getting a close-up — at least in galactic terms — of the planet they soon hoped to call home. Later tonight, the ship would zip past the planet at close to twenty-five kilometers per second. Every camera and spectrometer aboard the ship was furiously gathering as much data as possible as they hurtled toward it.

In a few hours, they would be speeding away again, past Valkyrie and into a close orbit around her star. A few rocket burns later, they would come into an orbit matching that of Valkyrie, and three months from now,
Leviathan
would meet up with the planet and fall into orbit.
 

Despite the festivities, Gideon sat alone on the outside of the gathering. Two weeks had passed since the funeral, and watching everyone drinking and dancing while they celebrated the final chapter of their journey cut him deeper than he’d expected. But that wasn’t the only reason his thoughts were elsewhere.

Somewhere among the revelers, Takomi was biding her time, waiting for the moment of their rendezvous. He’d done everything he could to convince her to stay out of it, but in the end, she’d threatened to turn him in if he didn’t involve her. Truth was, he was glad to have someone to confide in.

“Not interested in the party?”

Gideon jumped in his chair and whipped his head around. Commander Devereux was standing uncomfortably close, staring down at him with the party lights reflecting in his eyes.

“Commander,” said Gideon, and he scrambled to stand up. “You surprised me.”

Devereux raised a hand. “Don’t stand up. I didn’t mean to disturb you. Just found it interesting you were alone, that’s all.”

Gideon sat back down, but had to sit sideways to look at Devereux comfortably. “I was just thinking about what my mom would think of all this. It’s still hard for me to accept that she’ll never see Valkyrie up close.”

It was true, but it was also an excuse. Gideon had used the same line several times already to get people to leave him alone, but Devereux just nodded and continued to watch Gideon with his hard eyes. “I knew your mother a long time. She was smart.”

“She was.” Gideon wasn’t sure how else to respond. He glanced at his wristcom, partly to see how much longer until he needed to meet up with Takomi, and partly to signal to Devereux that he wasn’t up for conversation.

Instead of taking the hint, the commander pulled out the chair next to Gideon and sat. Hiding his exasperation, Gideon turned to face the party once more.

“You’re going to love the sunsets,” said Devereux as he settled into his chair.

“The sunsets, sir?”

“You Voidborn have never seen a proper sunset. We tried to engineer one, but could never get it quite right.”

“Oh, yeah. I haven’t really thought about that.”

“We would have pictures of the surface by now, but all our satellites and rovers were destroyed in the blast. Replacements won’t be ready until we reach orbit.”

“Uh huh.” Gideon already knew that. Everyone knew that. He checked his wristcom again. “If you’ll excuse me, sir, I need to use the restroom.”

“Of course.” Devereux stood with Gideon. “No need to ask my permission.”

“Thanks,” said Gideon. He nodded to the commander and walked away in the direction of the nearest bathroom. When he reached the small building, he glanced back. Devereux was still watching him. Gideon checked his wristcom once more as he turned the corner around the building, nearly running straight into Takomi.

“Watch it,” she said, glancing around to make sure they were alone. “What did Devereux want?”

“Don’t know. He was acting a little weird. I think he was trying to comfort me or something.”

“Comfort you? Commander Devereux?”

“I guess. He acted like he was worried about me being alone, and he was trying to tell me about sunsets.”

“Why would he tell you about sunsets?”

Gideon rolled his eyes. “I’ll tell you later. Are you ready to go?

“Yeah, let’s get out of here.”

After checking to make sure nobody was watching, the two of them slunk into the trees surrounding the park. For a few minutes, they picked their way through a grove and emerged a dozen yards from an autopod station. Once they were satisfied that no one was around, they sprinted for the station and jumped into the first pod.

☥

Twenty minutes later, they were ascending the lift at the stern of the biosphere. When the doors opened, they stepped out into the low gravity of training level 6. A few bounding steps later, they stood next to the door to the training facility.

Gideon crouched down, weaving his fingers together and holding out his palms to receive Takomi’s foot.

“What do you think the chances are that it’s still open?” she asked as she placed her foot in his hands and braced herself on Gideon’s shoulders.

He hefted her up and launched her to the lip of the roof. She caught it and easily pulled herself over in the low gravity.

“Pretty good,” he said as Takomi leaned over the edge of the building and held a hand out for him. “I was the last one to leave, and I don’t imagine Ms. Drexel is real diligent about checking the skylights before she locks up.”
 

Taking a few steps back, he ran forward and leapt at the door, stepping off the door handle for an extra boost. Takomi caught him by the wrist and hauled him over the edge.

“Well, that wasn’t too bad,” he said. They crouched low as they walked across the roof to the first skylight. It creaked as Gideon pulled it open.

“Geez, not so loud, Gid.”

“It’s fine. Nobody’s around to hear it.”

With a fair amount of wiggling, Gideon was finally able to squeeze through the opening. He dangled above the floor for a moment before he dropped down into the dark locker room. Takomi had no problem fitting through the opening and landed next to him a few seconds later.

It hadn’t occurred to them to bring flashlights, and it took a while for Gideon’s eyes to adjust to the darkness. The familiar benches and lockers lined the room. They made their way to their respective lockers and pulled out the Sentinel Armor.

Gideon hefted Takomi back up to the skylight, and she wiggled through. After he’d tossed up their armor and helmets, he waited for Takomi to put hers on. When she appeared again, she was fully dressed for battle.

Gideon took a few steps back and prepared for his second jump. “Okay, don’t pull my arms out of their sockets.”

This time, he had to use one of the benches to launch himself up to the skylight. Takomi’s gauntleted hand grasped his wrist as he flew by, letting him swing to a stop.

“Not so tight. You’re crushing my arm.”

“Sorry,” said Takomi through her helmet’s speakers as she pulled him through the opening. A few moments later, Gideon was suited up in the close-fitting armor and putting on his helmet.

“So, do we take the autopod back or just run?” asked Takomi over the suit’s intercom.

“Better run and avoid the autopod stations. Could be awkward meeting somebody along the way.”

“That’s what I was thinking. I’ve always wanted to run full out in Sentinel Armor.”

Gideon jumped off the roof and walked toward the platform’s railing. “You know what I’ve always wanted to do?”

He looked over the edge at the lake below.

“Don’t even think about it. With the ship’s spin, you’d never hit the lake.”

“The suit could handle it.”

“Maybe, but even if you didn’t break your legs, you might do enough damage to the armor to need repairs. How would you explain that one?”

Gideon stepped away from the railing. “Fine. You always have to be the responsible one.”

“I’m stealing Sentinel Armor and breaking into CENTCOM with you. I don’t think responsible is the right word.”

Even with their Sentinel Armor’s augmented speed, it took longer than they’d expected to reach the opposite end of the ship. They were both winded when they finally did.

Gideon stretched as he caught his breath. “Now I know why they built the autopod network.”

Takomi looked up from her own stretch. “No kidding. Now what?”

CENTOM’s three entrances were guarded, and they stood between two of them.

Gideon looked up at the gaping hole in the side of the complex. “Now we climb.”

The surface of CENTCOM was covered in a series of overlapping armored plates, like the shingles of a roof. Where the plates overlapped, there was just a few centimeters of metal to grab on to. Without the aid of the Sentinel Armor, the climb would have been impossible, but with its added strength, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Gideon gripped the first plate and pulled himself up hand over hand, letting his legs dangle below him. He looked back over his shoulder at Takomi.

“Piece of cake.”

She shook her head. “You’re doing it all wrong.”

Takomi walked over to the wall and gripped the plate like Gideon had, but instead of pulling herself up the wall with her arms, she planted her feet against the wall and pushed out with them. In no time, she passed Gideon and continued up the wall, reminding him of holograms he’d seen of monkeys climbing a palm tree.

Once Gideon had gotten the hang of Takomi’s technique, they made excellent time, and before he knew it, they were at the opening. Dozens of robots worked on repairing the hole, and the teenagers had to move quickly to avoid them. They ducked inside and dropped down to the floor a meter below.

With the help of his helmet’s night vision mode, Gideon surveyed what had once been a large hangar bay. Twisted and charred metal littered the corners of the room, and at the far end, they could make out the emergency bulwark that had sealed the hole leading out into the void. The armored walls of CENTCOM were three meters thick, and Gideon could only imagine the destructive power required to cause such damage.

Takomi walked over to the nearest corner and picked up a charred hunk of metal. “Well, we’re not going to find any clues here.”

What little debris remained was melted and twisted, unrecognizable. Seeing firsthand the aftermath of the explosion that killed his mother made Gideon’s skin crawl.

“Yeah,” said Gideon, trying to hide the emotion in his voice. “Let’s go to my dad’s office.”

“Right. Which way?”

Gideon looked at the exit to their left. The door was twisted and welded shut. The door on their right was obviously new and looked like it should work properly.

He walked toward the new door. “Looks like there’s only one way out.”

The door turned out to be a temporary one and had to be opened with a manual wheel. Each crank resulted in a painfully loud screech, but they had little choice but to open it enough to squeeze through. They decided not to create more noise by closing it again and made their way down the darkened corridor.

Gideon hadn’t accounted for how difficult it would be to find his father’s office. They couldn’t use the lifts, since they were voice activated and required security clearance, so they had to explore each level one at a time, moving between them using service ladders.

They came to a corridor that Gideon recognized. After following it for a few minutes, they came to the doors that opened up to the bridge. They could hear voices on the opposite side, so they hurried to the corridor on the other end.