Titan's Fall (8 page)

“Dev!” Ken shouted, leaping in.

“Here.”

We fell in close to each other, backs in, facing out. Amira had picked up a barstool to use as a club, and two miners were out cold on the ground.

But the rest of the bar had turned against us.

There was a brief moment where we kept formation, but then the melee set in. We were all just brawling. Punching, kicking, rolling and fighting. Just us against the world, skin on skin. In the moment.

Until carapoids broke through the walls. Before the splintered pieces of wood were done falling to the ground, we were getting thrown to the ground and zip-tied with our hands behinds our backs.

I threw up onto the ground in front of me and groaned with pain as a thick pair of carapoid boots kept me shoved against the rocky floor so hard, I waited for a rib to break.

12

The door to the industrial-sized airlock we'd been shoved into rolled open. Amira and I stood up, somewhat unsteadily, shielding our eyes from the bright light. We'd been lying on hard rock for hours in the dark.

Once my eyes adjusted, I could make out that the silhouettes were five carapoids carrying stun guns and eyeing us with their diamond-like eyes. And between them all, a familiar figure. The man who'd dragged me out of a cell and into the Colonial Protection Forces.

“Anais,” I growled.

“Colonel Vincent Anais,” he corrected. “The first few times we met, I was working in a consulting capacity. Since the increased human independence within the CPF, I now have rank.”

“Colonel,” I muttered.

“Lieutenant.” He smiled. His face was more pinched since the last time I saw him. More lines around his eyes. He carried a somberness around him, now, like an invisible lead cape. “I'd like to say it's good to meet you again, but with you, it is always complicated. You owe me a favor.”

Colonel Anais snapped his fingers, and one of the carapoids set a chair down on the ground. Anais straddled it and looked at us all mildly.

“A favor?” I said.

He nodded and his eyes narrowed. “A big favor. Because you're still a lieutenant. Look, I know there's a lot on your shoulders. A platoon, your parents under house arrest because the Accordance needs to keep an eye on them. But you need to remember that it isn't just the Conglomeration that has it out for you, Devlin. You have enemies elsewhere. Captain Zeus's children are very upset that you maimed their mother, and they want your head. They've been waiting for any mistake. You handed it to them. Zeus's line wants you all to live in a cell for the rest of your lives.”

“Wait, their
mother
?” I asked.

Ken staggered up to join me and Amira. The full-on hangover and soreness from bruises were leaving us barely able to stand in front of Anais. “Zeus is a traitor!” Ken hissed. “We fought a
traitor
for our lives. Again on Titan.”

Anais nodded. “Well, traitor Zeus may be, but Zeus was still Arvani. And Arvani expect to be treated . . . like Arvani. Do you understand?”

Ken rocked in place. “But Zeus killed almost everyone in Icarus Base.”

“Mother?” I repeated.

Anais looked from Ken back to me. “Yes. Zeus is male currently. Zeus was female earlier in life. They can change their sex, it is not that shocking, there are creatures that do this on Earth as well.”

Ken interrupted. “Who cares about Zeus's sex. Zeus tried to kill us. We are going to be punished for doing our duties?”

“Yes,” Anais said. “Zeus's progeny have high status in Arvani
command circles. But . . . the CPF is independent. The pressure rolled downhill, and I convinced Command to put you all on shit detail for the rest of the war. You'll be scrubbing toilets, digging rock, and volunteering for dangerous manual labor whenever it comes up.”

“They could be traitors, too, like Zeus,” Ken said. “They probably are.”

Anais shook his head. “I wouldn't say anything like that out loud ever again if you enjoy being alive, Awojobi. Besides, the progeny haven't left Accordance yet. They are full Arvani still, with all the naturally superior rights that being Arvani entails.”

Amira's laughter stopped Anais cold. He looked at her, visibly annoyed. She smiled back at him. “Some Accordance will always be more equal than others,” she said.

“You're quoting from illegal native literature,” Anais said. “Again, not a smart thing to do out loud on your part. George Orwell's books have been burned or ferreted out by virus.”

Amira stopped laughing and frowned. She opened her mouth, but Anais held up a hand.

“I've stopped you from being executed or even some of the other plans suggested. You're going to be on a security detail for a while until you can be moved to one of the asteroids that are being drilled out.”

“This is bullshit!” Ken snapped, angry and surprising me. Amira put a hand on his shoulder.

“You're right,” Anais said. “But before you get shipped off to chip rocks, or worse, there's time. And you never know what will happen between now and then. So, keep your damn heads down. The CPF is underpowered. We need you all alive and functioning. Humanity cannot afford to lose fighters. So, don't give up yet.”

Someone behind me burped and groaned.

“Earth is falling apart,” Anais said, more softly. “Earth First operatives are gaining more followers. And since the Arvani are diverting military resources to fight, security on Earth is faltering. We are retreating to more secure compounds, like Antarctica or the moon.”

We were CPF soldiers, embedded in the Accordance. Going where they needed. We'd gotten whispers and rumors, but this was the first time hearing what had been going on in the year since we'd left. “My parents?” I asked, leaning forward. This all started when the CPF all but kidnapped me and forced me to join.

Anais grimaced. “We don't know where your parents are.”

I should have known. I grabbed the desk. “Their safety was the reason I agreed to this hell,” I hissed. “I gave you your propaganda victory, the son of the famous dissidents joining the CPF and doing his duty. I played the part. And then some. What the fuck am I doing here if not saving them from Accordance ‘justice'?”

My anger didn't even penetrate Anais's almost-bored facade. “You're here because you know that it keeps the Accordance from just bombing any camp they think your parents are hiding in. Because you've seen that there are worse things than Accordance oversight.”

“Oversight?” Amira laughed. “Occupation.”

“The Conglomeration will literally mine people for what they're worth, and then refashion them into something useful for the goals of their gestalt. You might live, but your children will end up being a biological appendage to their civilization. We've seen them do it to countless worlds. And—”

“What about my family?” Ken interrupted. “What about my brothers and sisters?”

“Your family's role in the Accordance was recognized. They've been relocated to refugee quarters at Tranquility. They're safe.”

“Refugees?”

“Be grateful,” Anais said. “Sections of Earth are trying to devolve into self-rule. It hasn't happened yet, but the chaos is tricky. In the meantime, I need you all to stay alive, out of trouble, and out of sight of Zeus's family. I know I'm going to need seasoned fighters. I'm telling you about your families in trust. Trust that you'll understand the larger picture. Trust that you are smart enough to know what needs to be done, and that sacrifices have to be made.”

Anais stood back up from his chair.

“So, now what?” I asked.

Anais looked at the rest of the platoon clustered up behind me. “Lunch is being served. Go eat, get over your hangovers. Get cleaned up. When you get back, you'll be told where security detail is. Try not to screw up. If you're not doing what you're assigned, you stay right the hell here. You only leave this little cave when you're getting something to eat. Got it?”

“Yes,” I said wearily.

Anais stared at me for a while, and I looked blankly at him. Then he nodded, turned around, and left.

+  +  +  +

“You must be laughing at me now,” Ken said to me on the way back to our quarters from lunch an hour later. “To see that you were right about the cost of working with them.”

“No,” I shook my head. “I'm not laughing.”

“It wasn't the wealth we had or my own opportunities. It was the infrastructure. The cities they helped us build. The technologies we gained. The great equalization, after so many
decades of underinvestment. Knowing that, with the tools, our countries could be as great as any that had looked down at us in the past. We were never stupid; it was divide and conquer. The Europeans did it between people in the past, Accordance did the same by approaching the developing world and offering them more to sign the treaties that formalized oversight.”

I grabbed Ken's shoulder. “I guess Earth First, and my parents, are not going to be welcoming either of us if we ever get back home.”

Amira broke the moment as she shoved us from behind. “You weepy little shits.”

“Damn, Amira, we wouldn't even be here if you hadn't thrown that punch,” I shouted back at her, genuinely angry.

“I'm going to have notes in my file,” Ken said.

“Really?” Amira made a face. “You knew the fight was going to happen. I just decided to get it over with and skip the posturing bullshit. None of those miners were going to talk it out and you damn well know it.”

“True,” Ken said. Then he smiled. “Shame you spent so much time on your ass, Devlin; we could have used the help.”

“The fuck?” I was outraged. “I was first to your sides. Both of you ungrateful assholes. I should have walked right out of there and left you for the carapoids.”

Amira laughed. “I'm sure your parent's nonviolent methods would have worked in a bar fight.”

“We don't know if we don't try,” I told her, and my outrage couldn't be maintained; I laughed. “We're all fucked. I'm laughing because I don't know what else I can do.”

“I know.” We walked side by side, lapsing into silence. Then I grabbed them both in a hug on each side.

Whatever happened, we were going through it all together. Even if it was shit.

Amira said in a lower voice, “When we get back, you need to divvy up the squads and make some choices. You can't keep running away from that. We lost people.”

I hadn't wanted to do this. But glancing back at Kimmirut and Patel, I knew she was right. They were trailing behind us all. “Kimmirut with Delta. Patel to Alpha. And four becomes three, just like that.”

“Who takes over Alpha?” Ken asked.

“Smiley,” I said. Lana Smalley as Sergeant. A few months before, Smiley had been standing in a giant crater carved out of the side of a flying mining platform, frozen and staring up at the clouds above. Now she turned and ran toward problems without Ken or me saying a thing.

“I'll tell them,” Ken said.

“Thank you,” I whispered, unsure of my own voice suddenly.

“We got through it before,” Amira said. “After Saturn.”

“I got used to just the two squads. I felt like maybe we should just keep going, letting the Conglomeration kill us, until there was no one left,” I said.

“No one is replacing anyone else,” Amira said, figuring out exactly what was bothering me.

“I know.”

I had come to understand why Shriek refused to learn names.

“Hey!” I looked around. “Where is Shriek?”

“He wasn't human, they didn't jail him. He'll be waiting for us, I'll bet,” Amira said.

+  +  +  +

We were posted to a large airlock, not all that different from the one we were jailed in for what felt like a night. The
asteroids here kept to a twenty-hour light cycle, Arvani preferences. Several other asteroids had no gravity and had been filled with water for Arvani officers. Some of the miners had been tasked with stocking pools with shrimp and fish.

Fresh fish sounded better than goop. We weren't going to be getting any, though. Let alone any shrimp cocktail.

On the other side of the airlock was another Pcholem. Our job was to prevent anyone from getting aboard. Or even approaching the airlock doors. But no one had. So, we basically stood in front of the doors. Four hours on, four hours off. Two squads at a time, Bravo and Delta today.

“Where is Amira?” Ken asked.

“Not here,” I said.

He shot me an angry frown. “This again? We're going to get into even deeper shit if you don't figure out how to lead.”

“It's bullshit, Ken.” I folded my arms, my rifle slung over my back, and stared at the roof. We were helmets down, and Ken had lowered his voice so we could talk to each other without being overheard. “We're in bullshit because of other things.”

“Yeah, I know that,” Ken said. I unfolded my arms and stared at him. But he was looking off down the tunnel thoughtfully. “I know she'll bug out. I know what happens next to us, it is unfair. But you still have the platoon to lead, and you need to figure out how you talk to Amira in front of them or they will all take it as permission to do whatever they wish. And then where will you be?”

Shriek sidled up to us. “There's no one in the tunnel,” the alien noted.

“Yeah, hasn't been for hours.”

He wrapped his one good wing hand and one mechanical wing hand around each of us. He hadn't even bothered to armor up. “Then let's go in and visit.”

I looked at the airlock. The inner doors were ten feet high. “No. We're here to guard it.”

“How many times do you get to say ‘Greetings!' to a Pcholem in a lifetime?” Shriek asked, leaning in close. “When your world is destroyed and you flee for your lives soon, you'll want to know the beings taking you to safety.”

“We are already on thin ice,” I said.

“I do not recognize the metaphor,” Shriek said. He let go of us and started banging on the doors, his artificial wing hand banging loudly. “Hello, Pcholem! We outside wish permission to come and speak. Let us talk! It is so boring; aren't you bored?”

“Shut up!” Ken hissed. The two squads on duty were turning around and staring at us with various levels of concern.

“This is . . .” I stopped as the doors lurched aside. Air whistled for a second, popping my ears as the air pressure equalized.

I stared down the ramp toward the dark-black, coral-like structures inside. Very different from the smooth gothic arches I was expecting to find. But this was another Pcholem, not the one I'd been on down on Titan.

“Enter,” said a voice.

Shriek looked back at us and half bowed with his wing hands out and then turned and started down the ramp.