Stars of Charon (Legacy of the Thar'esh Book 1) (38 page)

Chapter
38

“So what’s your bet Jitters?” The man to my left paused to
take a bite of a protein bar as he leaned against the dingy, rust-covered
bulkhead. “This one going to have more molded provisions? Or maybe something
more interesting, maybe some rusted out power cores?”

“Toys,” Jitters said as he worked the plasma torch on the
edge of the steel door. “This one will have a load of those stuffed
alligator-bear things that you always see the Hoken children carrying.”

“Ha! Toys!” The first man barked a laugh. “Can you imagine
what the Draugari pirating a ship, slaughtering the crew, and then going in and
finding they’d stolen toys? I’d pay to see that one. What about you,
McCullough, what’s your bet?”

“I don’t bet,” I answered solemnly as I looked from left to
right down the long, dank corridors. The air was thick with mist and mold. 

“‘I don’t bet’,” he repeated in a mocking tone. “Always so
serious Lee. Relax, what are you afraid of? This old derelict is abandoned. The
engines are stripped, most of the electronics, weapons systems. Judging from
the rust on this hulk the Draugari abandoned it at least ten years ago. There’s
nothing to worry about. Waste of time even searching it.”

“We’re nine fluxes from Centauri,” I answered. “I’ll relax
when we’re back on the Cypher and back in Protectorate space instead of
floating out here in the middle of the Draugari’s back yard.”

“I second that,” Jitters muttered. “This is the last hatch.
Once I’m done cutting we can poke our heads in, report that there’s nothing but
a bunch of toys or moldy piles of whatever the hell that stuff was in the last
two, and get off this cursed ship.”

“I guess that’s why they call you Jitters,” the other man
laughed a bit harder than the moment deserved.

Jitters ignored him as he moved his plasma torch to the last
hinge.

“Getting all worked up over nothing,” he continued.

“Nothing?” I repeated. “You don’t think it’s strange that the
Draugari stripped this ship but left the cargo bays and backup power systems
intact? That they swapped out the power couplings to lower the voltage, added
dozens of new cable conduits that track back and forth across the ship, and
upgraded the heating and life support units?”

“Who’s to say when those systems were upgraded and modified,”
Darl scoffed. “This bucket was registered to a group of Olsterian traders,
those hairy bastards tinker with everything.”

“Or how do you explain that we set out and have made a
straight line from flux point to flux point through supposedly unexplored and
uncharted space, and happen to go directly to
this
wreck?” I
continued. “This isn’t just some exploration mission. Command sent us here for
a reason. To
this
ship. Some ten year old tanker wreck. That doesn’t
strike you as odd?”

There was a loud clang as the steel door dropped from the
hinges. I let my rifle sling back over my shoulder as I stepped forward to help
Jitters move the door to the side to clear the passage. As Jitters and I eased
the steel door down, leaning it against the bulkhead I heard Darl gasp.

“What in the name of the Sower is that?” Darl’s voice shook.
His weapon hung loosely in his hand.

I pulled my rifle to the ready and stepped around the corner,
ready for a fight.

“Dra-” the words choked back in my throat as I peered into
the storage bay. Instead of the deep, dense, misty darkness I had expected,
there was a soft green light and soft hum emanating from something in the
center of the room. The cargo hold was as spotless as an operating room.

I took a step over the threshold, but Jitter’s caught my
shoulder.

“Those tanks,” he said softly. “There on that-thing, in the
middle. What is in those tanks?”

“Call it in,” I said as I raised my light, peering through
the mist. The light was coming from tanks laying end to end on top of each
other. Each three feet wide, two feet high, and nine feet long. They looked
like caskets. Through narrow windows on each I could see shapes. Bodies. Each
body was floating gently in the tank.

“Is that the crew of the ship?” Darl whispered. “In some kind
of stasis?”

“There are dozens of them,” Jitters whispered. “Stacked one
on another. There’s at least fifty in here. This thing’s crew was only eight.”

“Slaves then?” Darl asked. “Were they transporting slaves?”

I stepped into the room, Darl and Jitters didn’t follow.
Minutes passed as I walked from tank to another, peering in. The faces were
gaunt, the skin was pale, but they were unmistakably Draugari. Human, but not
entirely. Something different. Something bestial. But these were not like any
Draugari I’d ever seen. Their faces were gaunt. Their eyes less sunken.

“Draugari,” I said slowly as I stepped into the room. “And
they are alive. All of them.”

“Those don’t look like any Draugari I’ve ever seen,” Jitters
said as he crept up next to me. “Look, they are broader than usual, shorter by
a foot. But, Lee you may be right. Those faces. They look like Draugari. Just
not like one I’ve ever seen.”

“Commander on deck!”  Darl barked.

I spun around and snapped to attention to see Admiral Lakota
walk through the door, followed closely by a man in a black uniform with the
symbol of the Third Division on his lapel.

“Well done gentleman,” Lakota’s said in a sharp staccato as
he walked past me and approached the tanks. “We’ve been after this for a long
time. You’re right, of course. Those are Draugari, but they aren’t like any
we’ve ever seen before. We’ve only ever seen the males.”

“The males?” Jitters echoed. “You mean, those are the
females? Kept here in stasis tanks? Why?”

“We believe it’s the only way to keep them alive.” The
Admiral responded. “Take scans and bring one of them back to the Cypher. The
only way we’ll stop these beasts is by cutting them off at the source. Set
charges and blow the rest.”

“Look who’s out and about!” Loid called as he caught up
behind me. “You look like hell.”

“Nightmares,” I answered. “Or memories. I haven’t figured out
which.”

Loid narrowed his eyes, “You alright?”

“I think so,” I said as I continued down along the road. “Lee
had been through a lot. I don’t quite understand it all.”

“Need to talk about it?”

“Naw, I’m alright.”

It was still morning, the air was crisp. Most of the
Dante
’s
temporary landing crew had returned to their ships the night before. The colony
already seemed to be returning to its old quiet bustle.

“Were you able to find out anything about Growd’s ship?” I
asked the question had been gnawing at me.

“Actually I have,” Loid answered as he pulled his slate out
of his pocket. “I was having a few drinks last night with some of the
Protectorate flyboys, and they said that they encountered some wreckage
floating in high orbit near the southern poles. The wreckage looked earthborn,
and it was nowhere near the fight, so they thought it was strange.”

“Did they know if it was his ship?” I asked, mind whirling.
“It could have been a Draugari ship that limped away from the battle, or-”

“No, they didn’t,” Loid cut in as he flipped through his
Slate. “That’s why I took Tons up this morning to take a look. Here, I took
some high res pics of it. There, you can see what’s left of the fuselage, and
there one of the engines. If you enhance it and go in tight you can see half of
the MineWorks logo from the port fuel tank. It’s his ship.”

I stopped and took the Slate, peering intently into each of
the pictures. Aside from a few larger pieces of the ship, most of it was dust.
Whatever had hit it, had hit it hard.

“I don’t see any signs of bodies,” I said. “Or the Charons,
though they were small, maybe ten centimeters high, hard to spot in the black.”

“Must have been some kind of armor piercing round,” Loid
added. “The wreckage looked like it blew up from the inside out.”

“From the inside out,” I snapped. “They could have been
boarded. Or they could have met up with another ship to escape.”

“Naw kid, don’t look at me like that, that shuttle was
lightly armored. There are a half-dozen warheads that I know of offhand that
would make an explosion like that. Draugari or Celestial.” Loid said with an
air of finality. “Besides, some of the guys I was drinking with were sitting
out covering the rear-guard monitoring the flux points. Nobody came or left
after the Dante arrived. That’s Growd’s ship, no doubt about it. They are
gone.”

I took one last look through the images on Loid’s slate
before handing it back and beginning to walk again.
I wanted to believe that they were
destroyed, but I still felt a shadow of doubt in the back of my mind.

“Did you talk to Marin’s guy?” Loid asked, breaking the
silence.

“Fanto?” I asked. “Yeah, I met with him this morning.”

“And?” he pressed.

“I’m deciding,” I answered.

“What would he have you doing?”

“I can’t say,” I said with a grin.

“Bah,” he threw up his hand. “You have one fifteen minute
meeting, and now you’re all cloak and dagger.”

“I already have the dagger, why not the cloak too?” I joked
as I looked him over. “You’re leaving.”

“Yeah,” Loid answered. “The Dante lifted the lock-down this
morning, traffic is free to come and go. The stars are open for business.”

“Ju-lin?”

“She’s already back in the
Tons
,” he answered as he
stopped. “Itching to go. Speaking of which, I shouldn’t wait too long, she may
lift off without me.”

I smiled.

“Loid, thanks.”

“Hey, no problem kid,” he answered. “Take care of yourself.”

“You too,” I said. “And take care of her.”

“As best as I can,” Loid answered as he turned. “Oh wait, I
almost forgot.”

He pulled out his Slate and keyed in a few commands.

“There we go,” he said, slipping the tablet in his pocket. “I
just gave you your share.”

“My share of what?”

“The bounty that the Matron paid me when she handed you and
Twiggy over to the Collegiate,” Loid answered. “I figured you needed some
running cash, and besides, it was yours anyway.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem at all kid.”

I leaned forward to shake his hand, but he bypassed it, giving
me an awkward hug.

“Um,” he said, straightening himself back up. “Yeah that was
uncomfortable. Won’t do that again. Until next time.”

“Keep her
safe,” I said.

He nodded
solemnly, and
without another word he turned
back toward the starport.

I kept walking through the Downs aimlessly the rest of the
morning. Thinking of Ju-lin, of Loid, of Growd and the memories that he had
stolen. I didn’t set out in any direction in particular, but I found myself on
the edge of town at the base of a hill. I looked up toward the outcrop of
stones that marked the entrance to the cave I had woken up in. I knew that it
was more or less inevitable. If I was going to leave the Downs, there was one
more answer I needed to find.

I pulled a flashlight out from my belt as I entered the cave
and began to carefully climb down. My exit from the cave seemed like a lifetime
ago. I recalled Lor’ten and Lee’s faces. Two lifetimes ago to be exact. I kept
climbing down, hand over hand. My body was rested again, agile, quick.

The cave was deeper than I remembered, and darker. I flipped
off my light. I was left in nearly complete darkness. I turned it back on and I
continued climbing down. Further and further, until I came to the spot. I
dropped down the last cleft and landed easily and shined my light down on the
stone below me.

Below me the stone was smooth, pure, and white. Tevarite.
Bladestone. I knelt down and slid my hand over the surface. I should have
known. I recalled what Ju-lin had said: “
Tevarite puts off a low level, but inconsistent
electromagnetic field
.” Her words echoed against the memory from Taro’s
words as he handed his blade and whetstone to the Draugari chieftain:
“this
is the whetstone made of the stone that my people use to forge our knives and
keep them honed to kill
.”

The stone. I reached down and absently touched the hilt of my
knife. The Draugari had listened closely to Taro, all those years ago. They had
found bladestones and used them to forge and hone their blades just as the
Thar’esh had. The energy field in the Tevarite was part of the process of
capturing a Charon. It had been the stone itself that had somehow saved me and
preserved my mind so that it could reenter my body after the terraforming was
complete.

“So it was just an accident,” I whispered softly into the
darkness. “I happened to be in just the right place when the terraforming
began. But why was I here?”