Evolution (28 page)

From up here, there's only beauty. Rolling green fields, the sparse desert, and the bright blue of the great big ocean. My life was confined to such a small part of Kiel, and I wish I'd had the chance to explore more of it. To traverse the jungles and see more of the wildlife.

But the Developers took all that away from us, choosing to imprison us instead. It goes back long before they were born. My ancestors were the ones who started all of this, because they thought the vul were inferior beings that didn't deserve freedom. It's a poisonous way to think, and the poison has leeched through the centuries to the Developers who rule Kiel now. They've never gotten over the idea that some people are worth more than others, but it simply isn't true.

Jehara sees me looking down at Kiel and smiles. “Tell me about your life here.”

“I grew up in a work camp,” I say. I tell her about the fields where we labored, about the shacks with leaking roofs and the officials who would punish us if we made one bit of trouble. About the cam-bots that followed our every move, the force-field fence that kept us inside the settlement, and the gas chamber where we were sent when it was decided we weren't useful anymore and needed to be replaced. Jehara might not understand every word I say, but the look on her face tells me she understands the feelings behind my story.

“You will have a better life on Marden,” Jehara says. “You will be free there. As long as everyone does his part, we can make it grow again.”

“I'd like to help,” I say.

I'd like to find a new home, a better one. One where we all can be free. I only hope we'll make it there, Logan and I. I can't go there without him. And I can't leave all of this behind until I know the rest of the people on Kiel are safe.

I tilt my head toward the window on the ceiling. The stars speckling the darkness of outer space are glossy and distant.

“How long did the journey here take?” I ask.

“Three months,” Jehara says. “But the journey back will be longer. The orbit of our planet has taken it farther in the expanse of space than it was when we left. Four or five months may pass before we reach it. But come, I must take you to your people.”

She beckons me onward, and I follow.

*   *   *

The prisoners the vul captured from the Surface have been separated among four of the battle stations, but the largest group is aboard this station, which I learn is called the
Hessana
. The people are being held in different rooms in the hold of the ship, like I saw in the Tessar's visions. They've been fed and given blankets to keep them warm. Some of their worst wounded have been treated by the vul julas, trained healers. In most respects, they've been treated better than they would've been by the Developers, except they've had no idea why they were taken or what was going to happen to them. Most probably feared they'd soon be killed.

I ask to see the group of Alliance rebels and soldiers captured in the mountains in the first hours of the vul's invasion. Luckily they're aboard the
Hessana
.

By the time Jehara leads me to the part of the hold where they're being kept, the vul have made a ship-wide announcement of what's happening. They explain that they've received warning from a representative of the Core citizens that the battle stations are under threat of attack from the Developers, who don't want a peaceful solution to the war. If they're able to go through with their attack, all the Kielan prisoners will be destroyed. The Developers don't care about saving them. But the Core representative has proposed an alliance against the Developers, which the vul have accepted. The vul have received the information they need to access the Core and overthrow the Developers, and in exchange all citizens and prisoners will be freed once the Developers have been taken.

The revelation about what's happening on Marden will have to come later, after the invasion is over. There's too much to explain, too many lies that will have to be unfurled.

Jehara leads me to one of the rooms in the hold. It's huge and crowded with people: girls and boys with dirt stains on their cheeks and mud in their hair, huddled with blankets on patches of mossy material. There's hardly room to walk between them. Four vul guards move into the crowd while Jehara and I wait in the doorway behind an electric barrier. The guards will find Beechy and the other Alliance rebels and bring them out to talk to me.

All the prisoners are awake, buzzing about the announcement.

“Do you think they were telling the truth?” a boy asks.

“Why did they capture us in the first place, if they were going to set us free?” a girl says.

“When are we getting out of here?”

As soon as they realize one of the vul is in the room, they turn their questions on Jehara. The guards hold up their electric sticks to keep the kids from hounding us.

“What's going on?”

“Are we going to die?”

“Are you really going to overthrow the Developers?”

Jehara answers them calmly. “Everything you heard in the announcement is true. We leave to invade the Core in an hour's time. You will be freed as soon as the invasion as over.”

“Clementine?” someone in the crowd says. One of the prisoners staggers to her feet, wincing as the electric shock runs through her wrists. A girl my age with short black hair, whom I recognize from the Crust camp. But I knew her before then, on the Surface too.

“Nellie?”

She looks flabbergasted to see me. “How are you here? I thought you got away!”

“I did,” I say. “I was taken to the Core. I came here on my own to speak with the Mardenite leader as soon as I found out what the Developers were planning. I've struck a bargain with them.”

“So it's true what they're saying?” she asks.

“Yes, all of it is true. I don't have time to explain everything because I'm going with them on the invasion, but the Mardenites didn't come here to harm us.” I look around the room at the other prisoners watching me, hoping they're listening. “Our ancestors once imprisoned them the same way the Developers imprisoned us. The Mardenites want to save us. They're giving us the opportunity to go back to their home planet, Marden, with them. We could make a new home for ourselves there. Free from the Developers, free from moonshine.”

More voices start, people asking more questions. I want to answer all of them, but there isn't time. I can see the guards leading Beechy and the others through the crowd. So I assure Nellie and the other prisoners everything will be explained soon, and step out of the hold with Jehara.

I wring my hands, anxiously waiting for Beechy. So much has happened since we were separated, and I've been so worried he was being tortured or killed up here. I need to hear his voice and hug him and make sure he's all right.

As soon as he comes out of the hold, I run to him. His hair is matted with sweat, and his skin is dirtier than before. He's still wearing the safety suit he had on when I last saw him. I fling my arms around him, and he hugs me back with a tight grip.

“You're alive,” I breathe.

“Yes, I am,” he says. His voice is weak.

The other guards escort Uma out of the hold, but no one else is with them. The rest of the Alliance rebels—Paley and Mal and the others—must be in a different part of the hold, or on one of the other battle stations.

“Where's Sandy?” I ask, pulling away from Beechy.

“I don't know,” Beechy says. “The Mardenites took her away, and I haven't seen her since.”

“They probably took her to one of their healers,” I say, looking to Jehara for confirmation.

She nods. “The woman prisoner is with a
jula
, who healed her wounds. She and baby are well. She is resting.”

Beechy looks wary, uncertain.

“The Mardenites are going to help us invade the Core?” Uma asks.

“They are,” I say. “I have a lot to tell you both.”

“Start at the beginning,” Beechy says.

So I do.

 

29

The rest of the Alliance rebels—the few who were sent to the Surface with the Core squadrons—are rounded up from the holds of the other battle stations. Paley, Mal, and Jensen will join us on the invasion.

Seeing Mal again is strange. The first time we met, I nearly killed him, mistaking his ship for an enemy transport. Even after I learned he was part of the Alliance, I continued to doubt his allegiance to the rebel cause, especially when I was in the Crust work camp and all I saw of Mal was him playing the highly convincing role of a soldier working for the Developers. I couldn't figure him out, so I wasn't sure whether I could trust him.

I feel like I owe him an apology after everything, but when he sees me he makes no sign that he wants one. He greets me with a smile and a handshake, and thanks me for saving him and the other prisoners. So I forget about what happened before, smile back, and thank him for blowing up the quarantine facility in Crust.

Skylar is sprung from the cell the vul had put her in earlier. She's in a horrible mood, having been stuck in a tiny room for nearly five hours after being gassed, but she grows more cooperative as we're all thrust into helping with the preparations for the Core invasion. The vul have plenty of ships and warriors already armed for bombings and ground combat, but the rest of us have to be suited up in proper-fitting armor and given fighting gear. I'm given a handgun that's much sleeker and lighter than Core models. It hardly feels heavy enough to hold much ammunition, but when I shoot it at a practice target, the pulse blast rips the target into a billion pieces. There's also a “stun” setting. I'll probably stick with that one, until Commander Charlie is the person I'm aiming at.

With an hour left until we plan to depart, Beechy, Skylar, and I go into a room with Hashima, Jehara, and four vul who seem to be some sort of army generals—
kaarns
, the vul call them. The vul have worked out a preliminary strategy based on what Hashima saw of the Core's defenses in my memories. But Beechy is able to explain a lot more than I could show her.

The first step will be getting through the Pipeline. The plan is to bombard the tunnel from both sides of the Surface with as many raiders as we can, to make it impossible for the Core fighters to hold them off. Raiders will be sent through both Pipeline entrances on the Surface. Hashima has already made contact with her warriors in the Surface city so they can prepare.

By now, we have to assume the Developers have realized Skylar and I are the ones who stole the Core transport. They'll have remembered I met with the Tessar, put two and two together, and assumed we were heading to the vul battle stations to alert them about the attack. They'll be anticipating an invasion. They'll have put every possible defense in place.

“We're likely to run into security barriers they've set up in the Pipeline between the Surface and the Core,” Beechy explains. “Bomb lines triggered when an object passes over them, or electric fields intended to cause equipment malfunctions. They'll be impossible to avoid.”

I frown at Beechy. “Wouldn't the bomb lines damage the lower sectors?”

“Of course,” Skylar answers for him. “But they're planning on blowing them up anyway, aren't they?”

Hashima and the army generals were talking in vulyn, but now she speaks for the rest of us to hear: “We'll send harmless probes ahead of us and trigger the weapons before we reach them. I'm sure there will still be casualties, but we are prepared for that. We'll make sure the raiders on the front lines carry fewer of our warriors than the rest.”

Once the plan for the Pipeline is in place, we move on to arranging how the invasion will work once we reach the Core. The vul will storm the outer levels and capture anyone who fights them, using as little gunfire as possible. Uma, Paley, and Jensen will attempt to spread the word among the citizens that the vul are there to free them, not to harm them. They'll also try to make contact with Lieutenant Dean, who should be doing the same thing. Beechy, Skylar, Mal, and I will make for Restricted Division with a small squadron of vul. We will break out the Tessar, along with any other people in captivity, before going after the Developers.

We're down to five hours until the bomb's construction will be completed. It should take us two hours, minimum, to reach the outer limits of the Core. That should leave us with less than three left on the clock.

If the Developers are smart, they'll give up and surrender as soon as the vul warriors infiltrate their sector. Their bomb won't work the way they wanted it to if the Core is overrun with their enemy. But knowing them, they'll keep fighting as long as they're breathing. We need to be prepared to do the same.

*   *   *

The other Alliance rebels and I board a raider with seven vul warriors, including Jehara. Hashima is staying aboard the
Hessana
to oversee the invasion from afar. She is prepared to direct the battle stations to fly farther out of Kiel's range if everything goes wrong, to hopefully save all the people still aboard. If the clock ticks too close to zero without us overpowering the Developers, one of the vul kaarns will signal Hashima. But Hashima wants to do everything possible to conserve the fuel aboard the stations for the journey back to Marden, so it's only a last resort.

I strap into a seat next to Beechy, behind the cockpit. His face is a mask of emotion, but I know underneath he's worrying about what we've gotten ourselves into.

Before we left, he and I visited Sandy in the healing bay aboard the
Hessana
. She was lying on a mossy bed hooked up to monitors and an IV line. Her healer explained Sandy's gun wounds had been closed up, and she had no more internal bleeding. But she'd need to stay on bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy.

Sandy's eyes fluttered open after a few moments, and Beechy's eyes filled with tears. He went and sat down beside her, and the two of them held hands, sharing kisses and quiet words. I felt like I was intruding on their privacy, so I left after a minute. But I was happy to see that she and her baby were going to be okay.