Traitor Read online

  She stood, bending down to examine the engine block. “What a strange way to travel.”

  “It works for us,” he said. “Sometimes.”

  “But it’s not how you normally travel, is it?”

  He bit his lip — it was clear she could read their thoughts and their memories. “No, but that’s different. That’s secret.”

  She nodded, putting her hands up. “I know.”

  He didn’t like her knowing. Though maybe she didn’t like him knowing her secret either.

  “I’m sorry I tried to keep you here,” she said. “I realize that it was wrong.”

  “It’s okay, I understand it,” he forced himself to say. “I’m sorry about what happened to Cornelius. He must have been very special to you.”

  She sniffed, nodding. Her eyes glistened with tears, or the illusion of tears.

  “The people in this epoch, they’re different. You know,” he said.

  “You’re certainly very different, Kieran Wood. There’s more to you, something about the way you think.”

  He watched her, pursing his lips in annoyance, and wondering how much he needed to hope for something before she would do it.

  “I learned my lesson,” she said, throwing her hands up. “I won’t be doing anything else just because someone wants it. Unless they ask, of course. I can do anything, build anything.”

  “Do you have a new Kepheus Drive?”

  “You know I can’t just separate parts of myself, give pieces away.”

  He didn’t know, but it made some kind of sense. He turned away, preparing to slide back under the manifold.

  “But,” she said, and he braced himself for whatever temptation she could offer. “I was thinking about what you and Sarrin said about Halud. And I realized how I would feel if there was a small chance Cornelius was alive, and someone was keeping me from him. Well, I would be — how do you say it at home — so goddamn pissed.” Her voice, like the words she chose, rolled into a perfect mimic of his dad. “I want to help,” she said in her own voice.

  He licked his lip, thinking carefully before asking, “Do you know where he is?”

  She shook her head, “No. I only know the things you know. Sarrin wants him to be alive, but even she doesn’t know anymore. But you could find out, couldn’t you?”

  He frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “There’s a device you want to build — I’ve seen it in your mind. You think it could find him.”

  He stared at her. He didn’t like the idea of her in his head one bit.

  “I can build anything,” she said, “if you show me how. Let me see the diagram in your mind.”

  Gal had warned him to avoid her altogether. But it was tempting. “How would you build it?”

  She smiled. “I can make myself into anything you want, anything at all, as long as you don’t try to take it away.”

  He bit his lip again. “You would built it, and it would show us real transmissions? Not ones you made up.”

  She smiled brightly again, nodding exuberantly. “Yes.”

  “Is this a trap? You have to tell me.”

  “No. Please, I want to help. It’s the least I can do.”

  He rubbed a hand across his mouth, considering. What would it mean if he trusted her again? She hadn’t tricked them maliciously, she’d only showed them the things they wanted in hopes they would decide to stay, but didn’t force them. Years of training had taught him to see every situation from multiple perspectives, and he could understand her desperation not to be alone, the pain she felt from the death of her companion. It was the same as when he lost Lauren, and, like he had told Sarrin, they all needed somebody.

  “Sarrin needs this,” she said. “She need to know. You know that.”

  He closed his eyes. “You can build it?” He held an image of the full-size capture device from the Observer ship.

  She smiled, and nodded.

  “You can do it secretly, so no one sees?”

  She nodded again.

  “And this is just between us.”

  Again, a nod. “I promise, Kieran, I just want to help. I think you’re the only one who can understand that right now.”

  He sighed, he must be getting soft.

  “Kieran,” she said seriously, “I want you to know, Sarrin is out running. Don’t worry, she’s safe. She needs the wide open space, the wind and the grass and trees — it helps her stay calm, to remember the part of her that isn’t a soldier. I know you understand these things, the same as you understand what I did.”

  Part of him went cold. “Don’t touch her. Don’t trap her with visions of Halud. She doesn’t deserve to lose him again.”

  Cordelia shook her head. “She’s too smart for that. I’ll build your capture device so you can find her brother. Don’t worry about Sarrin, all the trails lead back to you, because you can give her the thing she wants more than anything.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, you.”

  * * *

  Gal leaned back in one of the wooden-looking chairs spread-out in the meadow beside the ship. Rayne sat beside him. He let his eyes close, allowing himself to rest in the sun for just a minute, no matter how artificial it was. Secrets had come out. Rayne hadn’t even seemed that disturbed by the fact that he’d sabotaged a UEC ship — or she hadn’t heard, too distracted by the disappearance of her father or the fact that none of what they were seeing was real, just a projection from an alien-being.

  The very existence of something non-human was shattering. A being that didn’t follow the Gods or the Speakers would change everything, open the door for questions, for disbelief — no wonder Hap ordered it destroyed.

  But Cordelia was hidden, he knew because despite multiple survey missions, the UECs had never been able to find her again. Now, he and Rayne and a few dozen Augments knew, but he could be pretty certain the Augments wouldn’t be telling Hap any time soon.

  Perhaps, they would be alright after all.

  Some fruity drink appeared beside him, and he shrugged, downing the concoction that didn’t have a name, something Cordelia had designed on his first visit to satisfy his personal palette.

  Without warning, a shout rang across the meadow, slamming Gal’s eyes open and his heart into his throat. One of the Augments stood on the torn edge of the open cargo bay. “Where’s Grant?” the Augment called out. “Kieran needs him to look at a problem.”

  Gal bolted to his feet, Rayne beside him. A problem Kieran couldn’t fix had to be a big problem.

  Grant ran past, leaping onto the ship. He was followed by Rami and a handful of others. Gal started running too, something telling him he needed to be there too. Rayne was a half step behind. The Augments ran faster, pulling ahead as they climbed the stairs and weaved through the corridors of the ship. They were already gathered in the engine room when Gal stumbled in, breathing heavy.

  Kieran stood at the centre, Grant bent down beside him. “I saw the glow when I turned the ship’s computer back on,” Kieran said. Grant mumbled in response, reaching in and examining something.

  When they pulled back, Gal could see they were next to an open access panel on the massive engine block. Inside the engine, nestled between the machinery, was a laz-rifle glowing red. Its mechanism had been redirected, sitting backwards, a handful of wires spilling from it. With a start, Gal recognized the design — it was one of the first bomb-types the hackers had ever shown him.

  Grant nodded. “It’s got power to it, but it’s not active. No telling how long its been there.”

  “Can you dismantle it?” Kieran asked.

  Grant nodded again. “Shouldn’t be too hard.” He reached into the engine again. Gal fought back a sudden urge to tell him to stop, an uncanny certainty that it couldn’t be removed, although he couldn’t say why.

  “Hey,” Rami shouted from behind. He stood at one of the console screens set into the wall. They all turned, watching as the normal array of controls disappeared, replaced by a blank screen with a la
rge insignia: a circle with two parallel lines through it. An instant later, a schematic of the ship appeared, a red diagram overlaid.

  Gal stumbled back into the wall of Augments that was now behind him.

  Grant swore, rising from the engine and coming to study the diagram.

  Rami glared at Kieran. “What is it?”

  “I didn’t even see the connectors,” said Grant. He blinked at the diagram twice.

  Gal read the schematic in a heartbeat, his legs threatening to give way under him.

  Grant told the others: “There’s a dozen laz-rifle bombs throughout the ship. They’re all wired into each other, like a giant web. I must have triggered a failsafe when I tried to dismantle the power-supply. We’re lucky Rami saw this before I actually disconnected it — they’re not charged or active.”

  “Can you still remove it?” Kieran asked.

  Gal leaned in, curious. Could it be removed? Safely?

  Grant bit his lip, eyes darting across the screen. “I think so. But I’ll have to find the central hub. Otherwise, as soon as I disconnect one, the failsafe will trigger the others. Even with one bomb silenced, the rest will still tear the ship apart.”

  “What about the program?” Rami asked.

  Grant shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never used code to trigger a detonation. I suppose it’s possible.”

  Rami’s hand reached out before Gal could stop him. “Then we should be able to stop it.”

  Gal felt a burning on the back of his head, and he turned. Rayne stared at him, her eyes wide, angry. A sudden guilt made him shrink away, though he didn’t know why. He had a suspicion though, based on the insignia that had first blazed across the screen — it was a signature of sorts, something to let the UECs know who was responsible. It was the symbol of the hackers, and later, the rebels.

  Another shout called his attention back to the console. A scroll of code reeled across the screen, too fast to read. Gal had a terrible suspicion he knew what it said.

  “There’s a program uploading,” said Rami.

  “Can you read any of it?” Kieran asked, pressing in close.

  The code finished, replaced by a digital clock: 10:00.00. The first digit flicked to a 9, the others counting down rapidly. Ten minutes before the bomb blew.

  Rayne stared.

  “Everyone off the ship!” Kieran shouted.

  Gal stood rooted in place as Augments started to move around him.

  “What did you do?” Rami accused Kieran. “I saw you that day working in the programming. I knew it wasn’t repairs.”

  “We have to get off the ship, there isn’t time.”

  A hand grabbed Gal’s elbow, pulling him as the Augments ran off the ship, and he sprinted to keep up.

  Beside him, Aaron jogged. “What did you do, Johnny?”

  Gal’s lungs heaved as he fought to keep up, unable to answer. He had been good with bombs once. A long time ago. He had made bombs powerful enough to rip through four-foot thick reinforced plastic con-steel.

  This bomb would tear the ship apart and everything surrounding it.

  He stumbled, falling as his feet hit the manicured lawns. Cordelia.

  Cornelius had died from a single laz-cannon blast. What would happen to Cordelia?

  Behind him, the ship’s thrusters rumbled, filling the air with a humid heat. The ship started to lift off the ground.

  Maybe he was wrong. Maybe someone else had set the bombs. Maybe they weren’t as powerful as he thought.

  “How could you do this to me?” Rayne towered over him, arms crossed and her face as cold as ice.

  A chill shot through him instantly, and he started to shiver. “What?”

  “You used me,” said Rayne.

  He shook his head. “No, I —.” What had he done? There were rebel bombs on the ship that Gal knew could only have come from one place, even though he didn’t remember setting them at all.

  “You had me install that program into the engineering computers. You told me that program would help us protect the ship. That we could take control if the Augments started to become dangerous.”

  “I—.”

  “You used me to set a bomb, Galiant!”

  His heart hammered in his chest. “What program?” But he knew, he already knew.

  She pushed him, hard, as he tried to stand, toppling him over. “The one you asked me to install for you.” She turned from him, wailing, “I destroyed the ship. You used me to destroy the ship.”

  “Rayne, no, it’s not —.”

  “I don’t know you at all.”

  He reached for her to explain — he’d been hallucinating, he’d had no idea what he was doing — but she pushed him away.

  “Get away from me.”

  He reached again, words sticking in his throat. He wanted to tell her it wasn’t him, not the real him. He didn’t remember doing it. He had been so confused. Realization dawned. “It’s all happening again.”

  Cordelia would be torn apart, a third planet lost in a violent explosion. This time — like the loss of Earth, like the death of Cornelius — it would be his fault.

  Gal looked up into the steely eyes of Aaron. Behind him, an army of hairless, grey demons watched. “You forgot yourself, Gal,” Aaron said. “You tried to run, but you only made it worse.”

  * * *

  Sarrin jogged back to the grassy meadow, her mind feeling clear and, even, calm. She’d never run like that before, and her lungs burned joyfully. There were no flaxen ungulates this time — they weren’t meant to be on this planet — but Cordelia had provided her with a wide open woods and a way back as soon as she’d wanted it.

  But as she neared the green space, a worry crept in, and she looked just in time to see the freightship rise above the trees.

  A group crowded together on the grass, huddled anxiously where the ship had stood not an hour before. Sarrin’s mind counted rapidly. All the Augments, Hoepe’s crew, and former UEC soldiers were present except, she realized with a start, Kieran, Grant, and Rami.

  Cordelia appeared in front of her as she approached. Her face was drawn tight in a human expression of worry. “He’s on the ship, dear.”

  He, meaning Kieran. It was disconcerting how Cordelia could read her mind so easily. “Where are they going?”

  “There was a problem with the ship,” she said.

  Sarrin frowned. “Why are they leaving?”

  Cordelia closed her eyes for a minute. “They are very worried. I think there’s a bomb on the ship.”

  “Who’s worried?”

  “Everyone.”

  Hoepe appeared through the crowd, pushing his way forward, but he had no answers and they stared into the sky in silence. The little freightship disappeared rapidly through the cloud cover and into space beyond.

  “Where are they going?” Sarrin asked, although she already knew the answer.

  “Grant doesn’t know if he can disable the bombs in time. They wanted to put distance between themselves and everyone else,” answered Hoepe.

  A heaviness that had nothing to do with physical exhaustion or gravity traps crushed her chest and forced her to fight for every molecule of air. “I should have been there.”

  “There’s nothing any of us can do. They’re in the hands of the Gods now,” said Hoepe. “Kieran’s with them.”

  Sarrin shut her eyes. Hoepe thought Kieran was a God, but he wasn’t. He was an Observer, human. But Kieran was smart, bright, he wouldn’t die. No, he couldn’t die.

  Cordelia shifted, her voice quiet as she muttered, “Something’s wrong.”

  Sarrin’s entire body jerked. “What?”

  But Cordelia didn’t answer. She took two running steps forward and then melted into a silvery tendril, reaching up into the sky.

  * * *

  Kieran flew across the engineering bay, registering the punch after he had landed on the floor. He gasped for breath, turning to see Rami.

  The Augment’s face was redder than ever.

&nb
sp; He was back on his feet in an instant, holding a hand to his aching cheek. “You too. Get off the ship.”

  “No,” Rami snarled, taking a menacing step towards him. “I won’t let you do this.”

  “We have to get the ship away from the planet and everyone else.”

  Grant pushed between them. “It doesn’t matter who did this, we need to figure out how to disarm it.” He bent down under the central console, pulling the grey panelling away from its base so he could reach inside.

  An image formed in Kieran’s mind of a massive fireball consuming everyone, and he blinked it away. He stepped around Grant, reaching for the controls on the central console. “If you’re going to stay, at least make yourself useful.”

  “What are you doing?” Rami grunted, but some of the malice had slipped from his voice.

  “There’s been too much damage to the thrusters. The auto-pilot can’t compensate for all our rewiring. We have to take the ship up manually. It’s too much for just one engineer.”

  Hesitantly, Rami stepped to the other side of the console, a holographic image of the ship appearing between them. Together, they coordinated the thrusters, putting out enough burn to start lifting the massive ship. Kieran hoped Cordelia might give them a hand.

  As the display showed more and more distance between the ship and the planet’s surface, Kieran’s lungs finally sucked in a deep breath. He looked through the display at Rami, the Augment’s face pinched in concentration. “I’m glad you stayed,” he said.

  Rami only grunted.

  “How’s it going?” Kieran called to Grant.

  Grant responded with a non-committal noise. “I’ve never seen anything like this wiring. I keep having to check everything twice and again. I’m still not sure I get it. It’s the same as the re-wiring in the shuttle.”

  Kieran looked back, already aware of Rami’s glare. “I didn’t sabotage the shuttle, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “Someone did re-wire the shuttle,” said Rami. “And someone rigged this. If it was you….”

  “That bomb is going to blow us to kingdom come. Why would I ever set something that was going to kill me too?”