Lost Planet 02 - The Stolen Moon (16 page)

“I'm Ksenia Oriolo, the Federation plenipotentiary for the Rhima terraforming project. Come with me.” She ushered them into the ship, down the hallway, walking with sure, determined strides. The
Falconer
was a completely different kind of ship—where the
Kuyddestor
was all functional metal and hard edges, the walls of the embassy ship were paneled in rich, dark wood, and thick blue carpet muffled their steps as they walked.

“How much information do you have?” Vidal asked.

“We only confirmed what you said in your alert. The Werikosa have taken control of the
Kuyddestor
.” She was smooth, confident, and almost too calm.

Vidal continued without hesitation. “Is Ambassador Corinthe…?”

“On the
Kuyddestor
attending the peace talks. I should have been there as well, but I had urgent business on Storros. Until his safety is secured, I'm the primary representative of the Federation and will run the details of this mission.”

Lieutenant Thandiway, do you take your orders from the Federation?
The captain's words echoed in Chase's mind. Would Ksenia be giving orders to the few remaining Fleet soldiers? Vidal didn't say a word, and Chase wondered if roles were different in an emergency.

A Federation Guard approached them in the hallway. “Madame Advisor, the hijackers have initiated contact. How would you like to proceed?”

Ksenia didn't break step. “Send the feed to the Condor conference room, and tell my secretary to join us.” Swiftly she led the group into a long, elegant room dominated by a lacquered table. Everyone quickly took their places in the deceptively heavy-looking seats around the table. Chase hesitated at the door before entering, unsure if they would be allowed to join, but Parker blew past and sat down like he belonged there, so Chase followed, making sure to keep Lilli by his side. No one said a word about them being there, but they were all staring expectantly at the silvery blue adamantine screen at the front of the room.

Ksenia looked around the table, lingering a bit on Chase's face. She tipped her head in the tiniest acknowledgment, and a rush of jittery joy filled him. It
was
Ksenia who'd tried to contact him. “Start the feed,” she said.

Chase's first thought after the screen illuminated was
, I thought we were talking to a Werikosa?
The face that filled the screen looked remarkably Storrian—same drooping beak of a nose, same tiny eyes and turtle-like mouth. Only after a few seconds did he start to see the differences: The Werikosa's features were a little broader, a touch coarser. And of course there was a light blue-green sheen to his skin, the protective oily secretions Analora had told them about.

“Greetings, Madame Advisor,” the Werikosa said. Beneath the translink version, Chase could hear that his native language was full of raspy sharp edges, unlike the slushy language of Storros. “We are in the process of sending over a list of demands.”

“You've done something very foolish, Petrod,” said Ksenia, in a tone that suggested she'd spoken with this particular Werikosa before. “I won't listen to another word until you confirm that no one aboard the
Kuyddestor
has been hurt.”

The Werikosa swayed his head. “Hurt is … open to interpretation. No one is dead. Yet.” Chase closed his eyes briefly, relieved that everyone was still alive.

“Don't make that mistake. You're in enough trouble as it is.” Ksenia shook her head incredulously. “Did you really think doing this would improve your situation? The Federation won't allow you to stay on Rhima after this.”

“You think it matters to us what the Federation allows? We already know what the Federation allows—it allows our wealthy Storrian brothers to ignore our pleas for help, to close their borders to our people, it allows us to work ourselves dead terraforming a paradise that we won't be allowed to stay in.

“Our planet is dying, our people are helpless. We are doing this for all the Werikosa children who didn't make it to their first year because they starved, for all the villages that have been destroyed by sun flares during the Seasons of Fire. No one wants to help the Werikosa, so now we must help ourselves.”

“You
had
a stake in the moon before you did this. Now I can't help you.”

“Currently the Storrian officials are not accepting our transmissions—”

“Because they do not bargain with criminals,” Ksenia interrupted.

“And so we are counting on you to ensure that our demands are met. If Storros doesn't agree to grant us complete use of Rhima, we will use the full force of this starship to attack their planet.”

“You won't live that long, Petrod. There's no way your paltry band of misfits can hold against an entire starship full of Fleet-trained soldiers.”

“No? Well, maybe we should just kill them all.” Petrod stepped out of the frame, revealing the bridge behind him with all its officers crowded into the middle tier, Lennard and Forquera, the navigators and communications officers, pale but defiant. Behind them lurked three Werikosa strapped with heavy blaster rifles. Chase broke out in a sweat at the sight, knowing any of their lives could end in a heartbeat, at the whim of this lunatic.

“Don't worry,” came Petrod's voice. “We prefer to keep them all alive. We don't want to hurt anyone, not even one wretched Storrian.” He stepped back in front of the camera. “But we want our moon.”

The transmission ended abruptly. The entire conference room seemed to take a collective deep breath as everyone leaned back in their seats. Ksenia issued orders to her staff, who quickly dispersed, leaving just her and the transport arrivals in the conference room.

Parker leaned back in his seat. “I say just give them the moon and be done with it.”

The corner of Ksenia's mouth tilted up. “Were it only that easy. Storros already went into these negotiations intending to send the Werikosa back to their own planet. After this they won't cede one inch.”

“Can't the Federation just tell them to?” asked Chase.

Maurus shook his head. “The extent of the Federation's power over its members ends more at suggestions than commands. In the end, each planet still gets to make its own decisions.” He looked at Ksenia. “You know this Petrod individual?”

“I've been supervising the terraforming of Rhima for the Federation for the past two years. I've had my share of dealings with him. A hothead, and not a particularly smart one. I don't think he's the worst of your worries.”

“The power outage,” said Parker immediately.

Ksenia nodded. “Someone on your ship must have been working with the Werikosa to time the disturbance and arrange a way to teleport all those soldiers onboard. You have a traitor in your midst.”

Parker slapped his hand on the table, vindicated, and Chase looked over at Maurus and saw his own dread reflected in the Lyolian's eyes. His first guess at the traitor might have been Lieutenant Derrick, just based on what a jerk he was, but Derrick looked completely stunned.

“What are our next steps?” asked Vidal. “Has Fleet high command responded yet?”

“They have,” said Ksenia. “The nearest starship that can help us is the
Destrier
.”

“Sinjan Devore's ship?” The sudden alarm in Maurus's voice made Chase's skin crawl. What was wrong with Sinjan Devore?

Ksenia nodded again. “The
Destrier
has been dispatched from the Ichis star system, but it won't get here for three days. That's how much time we have.”

“Time for what?” blurted Chase.

She turned her dark eyes on him. “Time to get the Werikosa to abandon this madness. The
Kuyddestor
has enough weaponry onboard to wipe out half the population of Storros. If we fail, and the Werikosa begin their attack, the Fleet will have no choice but to destroy the
Kuyddestor
and everyone on it.”

 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Chase leaned his forehead against the window, looking out at the flat green terrain of Rhima hundreds of miles below. A few patchy clouds were scattered over the moon's surface, but there was little else to break the monotony of its landscape. It didn't really look like much worth fighting for. And it definitely didn't look like anything worth losing the entire
Kuyddestor
over.

He turned around to face the velveteen-paneled sitting room where he, Parker, and Lilli had been taken after everyone else left the conference room. Ksenia had been the first to leave when she was called up to the bridge, so Chase never had an opportunity to ask her any of the million questions piling up in his mind. It didn't look like he would get a chance anytime soon, either.

Seated in the corner by a tall china cabinet, Parker stared hard at the floor, chewing on his lip and tapping his foot. He glanced at the window. “Anything good out there?”

“I can't see the
Kuyddestor
anywhere,” said Chase.

“I'm sure the pilot is trying to make sure we keep the moon between us and them. Not that it'll help. If they want to fire on us, we're toast.”

Frowning, Chase flopped down in a plush burgundy armchair. Beside him, Lilli was very quiet. He glanced over often to make sure she wasn't trying to send a copy back onto the
Kuyddestor
again. Kneading his fists into the armrests, he tried to reason with the panicky voice in his mind. The Fleet wouldn't destroy one of its few starships, would it?
It would, if this were the plan to get rid of Lennard and Maurus and any other loose threads left over from the Trucon plot.
But that was a crazy thought—the Fleet couldn't have known that the Werikosa were going to hijack the ship.

He needed to talk to Ksenia and find out what she knew. Was it really just an accident that they were all off the ship when it was attacked?

The door to the sitting room slid open, and Maurus entered. “I need your help.” He went straight to Lilli and crouched beside her chair. “Can you get back onto the ship to see what's happening?”

“Yes,” said Lilli quickly, sitting up straight.

“No.” Chase looked at Maurus. “Please, don't make her do this. If she gets hurt there, she'll get hurt here too.”

Lilli shot him a scornful look. “Do you realize how fast I can disappear? Nobody can hurt me.”

Those words were familiar—Chase himself had said them before. He was the one who should be taking these risks, the one who couldn't get hurt even if he tried. “Get me onto the ship instead. Shoot me like a missile. I'll go right through the walls.”

Maurus made a face and shook his head, his attention still on Lilli. “Can you get a message to the captain?”

“No,” she said. “They've moved the entire command crew into the flight deck, and there are a ton of guards there. I couldn't do it without being seen.”

Parker spoke up. “I still don't understand how they were Able to take over the ship so quickly. The
Kuyddestor
has enough crew and guns to stop an army.”

“Most of the guns are locked in the armory, and the locks don't work anymore,” said Lilli.

“What do you mean?” asked Maurus. “Did you see something else?”

“I eavesdropped on some conversations. Once the Werikosa got onboard, I guess the controls went crazy. Some things still worked, like communications and lights, but others just stopped responding. Weapons, locks, piloting controls.”

Parker smacked himself on the forehead. “It was a trojan.”

“A what?” asked Chase.

“It must have been the blackout that happened a week ago. I bet somebody used it as a cover to install a trojan horse into the ship's mainframe—a back door to access all the controls. Now whoever has control is making it impossible for the crew to fight back.” He leaned forward. “Is there any way to sneak back onto the ship? If I can get access to the mainframe, I might be able to figure out a way to override the trojan.”

“You'll still need someone to help you fight off the hijackers,” said Chase. “I should go too.”

Maurus held up his hands. “Slow down, guys. I don't really see how we could get back on the ship right now, and nobody's going to want to send children to do the fighting.”

“Ksenia might,” said Chase.

“Why do you say that?” Maurus asked with a frown.

“Because I think she's the one who took Parker's chip and left me the note. I saw her in Lumos, where we were supposed to meet.”

“Really? Are you sure?”

“I didn't get a chance to talk with her, but I know she saw me there.”

He held Maurus's gaze for a long time, and for a second it seemed like he might have convinced him. Then Maurus shook his head. “Even if it she was the one who contacted you, what does that mean? That she's working for Asa? That she has Fleet connections? Do you think she even knows about your—” Maurus waved a hand up and down at Chase, leaving his ability unspoken. “You don't know what her intentions are.”

“That's why I need to talk to her.”

Leaning back, Maurus rested his elbows on his thighs. “We need to be very cautious about this until we know more about her, and about what's happening aboard the
Kuyddestor
.”

The door slid open again, and Vidal stood in the doorway. “What's going on?” She walked toward them, her eyes on Lilli. “How do you know what's going on aboard the
Kuyddestor
? Are you psychic?”

“No,” said Lilli, drawing out the word. She glanced at Maurus.

Maurus chose his words carefully. “Lilli's an … exceptional child. We were just talking about a way to get Parker access to—”

“So that whole story about them being stranded orphans that we're prepping for the cadet program?” Vidal interrupted. “That was all bogus?”