Titanborn (3 page)

When Titan went offscreen the offworlder next to me grunted in a way that through his mask sounded like it may have been a chuckle.

“That's where I'm from, Earther,” he said, confirming my thoughts. His voice was muffled slightly by his mask, but it sounded as hoarse and weak as an elderly man's.

“So what brings you to our darling homeworld?” I asked. Inquisitiveness was a part of my job. Even on vacation I had a difficult time turning it off.

“I thought I'd come visit an old friend before I die,” the Ringer responded before he started to cough.

It was obvious he wasn't healthy, but I hadn't realized how bad until then. I could hear the built-up phlegm in his throat. Whether that was due to his offworlder lungs straining to deal with Earth's strong gravity or his apparent sickness was anybody's guess. At first glance he didn't look like he could possibly be much older than forty. It could be hard to tell with Ringers, though. The low-g conditions on Titan give them shallower wrinkles.

I took a tiny swig of my whiskey to cover for my immediate lack of a response. After swallowing it I said, “I see. You're going to need a harder drink then, Ringer. Next one is on me.”

He stared daggers in my direction, his ashen cheeks flushing with as much color as they possibly could. The glass he held rattled against the counter as his hand shook. “Titanborn,” he growled before turning his attention back to the screen.

I wasn't sure what I'd said wrong, but again, I'd met enough people from places beyond Earth's gravity well to know that they were easily offended when it came to their titles. As I shrugged off his reaction the newscast transitioned to a live feed located just outside New London. Everyone inside the Molten Crater hollered, “It's starting!” as they scrambled to get outside.

The M-day anniversary address was about to begin, earlier than anticipated. I'd seen them more times than I cared to remember or admit. I thought about staying inside and watching on the small screen since I'd only just gotten my drink, but quickly remembered that this was the year Pervenio Corp's Ark-Ship Departure was finally taking place.

It seemed like ages ago that they were selected. Every fifth M-day the group with the most promising design for a Generational Ark was commissioned by the USF Assembly to construct that vessel. Over the course of that period anyone who was a registered citizen of Earth could be selected by a lottery to embark on a journey across the stars to spread humankind. For many Earthers there was no greater honor than being chosen to propagate humanity. I was just curious to see what the hard labor of the miners on Undina had been helping to produce.

“Next time then,” I said to the Ringer as I tipped my glass in his direction. “Cheers.”

I drained the rest of my whiskey before following the herd out. It burned and itched all the way down, but the relief it offered against the angry voices of Undina miners reverberating in my head made it totally worth it.

When I reached the Molten Crater's exit I glanced back over my shoulder. Everyone who wasn't passed out appeared to have cleared out, even the bartender. Everyone except for the Ringer. He'd taken a seat on one of the vacated stools at the bar and remained alone, sipping on his glass of water, bloodshot eyes glued to the newscast.

I didn't bother shoving my way to the edge of the raised walkway outside to get the best view. There was no way to miss the Departure as long as you were within the city, since New London was essentially converted into an enormous exhibition of the event. The countless ads strung along the maglev rail line and projected onto the glassy façades of buildings switched over to a live USF feed. None of the city's structures were exceptionally tall—Earthers had transitioned away from sprawling cities with skyscrapers to elongated cities on a line centuries ago for safety reasons—but they were tall enough for me to see fine over the bobbing heads of the augmenting crowd. The landing pad area outside New London Spaceport was being displayed. It was three kilometers or so away along the Euro-String, and only the richest citizens of Earth could get a spot there on M-day.

As a trio of inter-atmospheric ships zipped noisily overhead, the myriad screens zoomed in on fifty men and women wearing dark-green tunics. They had badges on their chests that consisted of eight small white dots along a line with a larger one in the center. It was the symbol of the United Sol Federation. Those fifty people were the lauded members of the USF Assembly. The entire crowd broke into a frenzy of cheers as their supposed leaders came into view. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. I recognized a few of their faces, but had never bothered to learn most of their names.

I wondered if all of the years traveling around Sol fixing situations for Pervenio Corp just made me cynical. The assembly may have been elected by registered citizens of Earth, but anyone with a real education knew they didn't have any legitimate power. Pervenio Corp, Red Wing Company, Venta Co—those were only a few of the corporations that directed the future of humankind.

I'd heard a retired, probably drunk, security officer explain it best during a rant while I was dragging a bounty into a holding cell during my early years on the job: “If you compare us humans to a hand, then the USF is the palm. It holds everything together, but it doesn't move. The corporations are the fingers that plucked us out of a second Dark Age before reaching into the blackness of space as a personal fuck you to every god that's ever been prayed to. The assembly, Collector, is little more than the visible face of the corporatocracy, providing the illusion of control to billions of people who have none…folks like us.”

In my opinion, truer words have never been spoken, and I've held them close to my heart ever since.

Once the noise started to die down a little the leader of the assembly stepped forward to a podium and started speaking. His buoyant voice filled the chasms of the packed city. “People of Sol!” he began. “Today we must remember our ancestors. We must remember the billions of souls who lost their lives after the events of September 3, 2034. Three centuries ago, on that day, humanity was nearly wiped from the universe. But today, my people, I am here to tell you that we have never been stronger! Our continued existences never more secure!”

The crowd went into a full-on frenzy. Shoulders bumped into me from every direction. Spray from raised drinks fell upon my head as if it were raining.

“We have spread out into Sol. From Earth to Saturn, and everywhere in between,” the leader continued. “Right now people on Luna are watching! People on Titan and Mars and Europa are watching! And now, for the tenth time since the founding of this federation, we will look even farther. My people, it is my great honor to introduce the man whose recent vision will allow us to reach beyond our lone star. One thousand of your brothers and sisters have been chosen to join that vision. They will bear the honor of carrying the flame of humanity for centuries to come to worlds unknown. My people, I give you Luxarn Pervenio!”

It was impossible to tell exactly what anybody was cheering for anymore. The clamor had been constant for the entire speech. The assembly leader stepped down, and Luxarn Pervenio replaced him, surrounded on either side by guards in black-and-red armor with the logo of Pervenio Corp printed above their chests.

Luxarn was the wealthiest man in all of Sol. His corporation had been around since before the old governments of Earth dissolved into the USF. He had a stake in almost every major colonial effort in the solar system, except Europa, and had the largest slice of the Ring—which was undoubtedly the most profitable. Even though he was technically my employer I'd never actually met him in person. Few people had. My dealings went exclusively through the directors placed in charge of every city or colony throughout Sol, which Pervenio Corp administered.

“Sol!” Luxarn pronounced, spreading out his arms triumphantly and laughing as though all the applause was meant for him. It may well have been. It was impossible to fathom how many people in the raucous crowd worked under the umbrella of Pervenio Corp. Many probably didn't even realize it. “I cannot express what an honor it was to have our esteemed assembly select our design for this year's Departure. Since that momentous occasion five years ago we have worked tirelessly to construct the most advanced Ark in the history of humanity.”

Luxarn rattled on about the many great feats of engineering his new creation contained. I missed all of it after the part where he said that once it reached max velocity it would theoretically be able to reach the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, in approximately 128 years even though it was headed to the Tau Ceti system farther away. That may have sounded like an eternity to some, but I'd seen all the Departures in my lifetime. It was the lowest estimation I'd heard about an Ark's travel time by nearly fifty years.

It almost made the venture sound appealing enough for me to have wanted my name selected and my body frozen or however they sent the lucky winners, but only a small part. I wasn't sure how long I could go on without having the thrill of a new target to hunt down. Already being on vacation for a few days, including the shuttle ride from Undina to Earth, had my skin crawling. And I couldn't leave my daughter behind while I crossed the stars, wherever the hell she was in the solar system.

It'd been over a year since we'd even exchanged a message over Solnet—five or six since I'd seen her in person. We never saw eye-to-eye, but ever since her dying mother placed her at my feet and told me she was mine, Aria was the only true family I had, same as I was for her. I hadn't spoken to my own clan-family since I'd become a collector. I always hoped I might sit down for a drink one day and by some chance notice her across the room all grown up.

“I give you
Hermes
!” Luxarn Pervenio finally announced, swiftly regaining my attention. His hands were raised toward the sky.

The deafening howl of engines grew so loud that it would have drowned out the crowd if they hadn't already been rendered silent by his words. All the merchants, drunks, beggars, and security officers alike stared up at the murky sky in anticipation. Soon after, a tremendous shadow was cast over the city by the enormous ship sailing high above, right at the edge of the visible atmosphere. It was the largest one I'd ever seen, which was saying something. The details were impossible to make out from so far away, but the thing was easily a kilometer in length and had an equally long, blue-hued stream of distortion trailing behind its twin ion-engines.

Awestruck applause started to build while the
Hermes
soared by. Without realizing it at first, even I began clapping softly. The ship soared in and out of the layered clouds, too large to be obscured by any single one. If life existed on whatever planet it wound up on, I couldn't imagine what those creatures might think when that metal mammoth pierced the sky. And even if the ship never actually reached another star, there was no denying it was one hell of a funereal send-off.

I was caught off guard when something caused the walkway to tremor so violently that I was thrown off my feet. Hot flames and shrapnel spit up into the air from the direction of the maglev rail station across the way. A portion of the blast tore through a USF security hover-car unlucky enough to have been flying overhead. Its engines sputtered, causing it to spin out of control and take a crash course straight toward the Molten Crater.

The crowd around me scattered, fleeing in every direction. The whiskey I'd guzzled had me feeling loose, but I was quickly able to gather my bearings. I jumped to my feet and fell in with them, but as I did I noticed a young girl standing directly in the path of the hover-car out of the corner of my eye. She was frozen by terror, and the sight caused me to stop as well. Her hair was curly and as red as the surface of Mars, like my daughter Aria's had been at her age. I glanced up at the glowing vehicle and then back at her before I cursed under my breath.

“Move, move, move!” I barked, whipping out my gun to get the panicked citizens to diverge faster as I took off toward the girl. I pushed more than a few of them out of my way. I grabbed her just in time and sprawled, the hover-car grazing the top of my loose coat before it slammed into the Molten Crater's entrance.

A dazzling display of fire and sparks erupted as the vehicle's engine overloaded immediately after, the force from the blast knocking my head forward into the ground. Everything went blurry, and for a moment my mind took me back to the last time I was on Earth for a Departure…

Aria and I were in a Euro-String slum a short way east of New London. Aria was only six years old, and since she was born on Mars we were visiting Earth for the first time in her then-short life. More than anything she wanted to see a Departure in person, and we had prime seats for the show. If you looked carefully enough you could make out the city's low skyline of shimmering buildings through wisps of black smoke puffing up from a nearby industrial node.

A gunshot rang out. Aria stood, barely a meter tall, with my pulse-pistol clutched in her tiny hands. She gawked at the smoking barrel, and then across the dilapidated roof of the structure upon which we stood. An empty bottle rested on the parapet.

“You're getting close, girl,” I said to her. I leaned down and gently repositioned her. “Remember to keep your eye down the sight. You may be small, but this gun is a work of art. There's barely any kickback.”

Aria nodded. She pursed her lips, closed one eye, and took aim again. I held her elbow as she pulled the trigger, and this time one of the bottles burst into a million pieces.

“Got it!” she cheered. She handed me the pistol and ran over as quickly as her tiny legs could carry her to see her work firsthand. She hopped up and down in triumph.

“Well done. Just like your old man!” I exclaimed, wearing a smile so wide that you could've seen it from space. “All right, let's try another.”

I pulled a mostly empty bottle of whiskey out of my coat and chugged what was left. She giggled when I burped. Then I staggered over and set it down exactly where the last one had been.

She ran over to me and frowned. “Can we go down there yet?” she whined. She pointed to the streets below where M-day festivities raged. Earthers in colorful outfits were crowded around the Euro-String rail station in the area, drinking and dancing as they watched the newscasts on large view-screens posted at every street corner.

She had the right idea. I wanted to go down, too, but I was trying to remain inconspicuous. I'd been hired to take down a narcotics dealer stealing clients from Pervenio medical facilities in the area. He was on his way to a drop site in the apartment complex beneath my feet, attempting to use M-day as cover. I was waiting for him. On any other day gunshots on the roof might've chased him away, but it was so noisy on the streets that nobody would ever hear.

So there I was, showing Aria her first M-day Departure and getting a relatively simple assignment done so that I could make a few spare credits to spend on celebrations after she was asleep. Killing two birds and whatnot…I couldn't tell her that, of course.

I placed my hand on her shoulder and knelt down to look her in her big, beautiful green eyes. “Doesn't look too bad, does it?” I said. “But I told you, it's too dangerous. You wouldn't want to lose me in that mob, now, would you?”

She shook her head vehemently.

“Exactly! Don't worry, we'll make a collector out of you yet. Then you can go wherever you want, whenever you want.”

“With you, right?”

“Of course.” I patted her before holding out the pistol for her to take. “Now let's see what you've got.”

She reached out to grab it, but as she did the crowd below erupted into cheers. A distant buffered sound quickly rose over the din. I peered through the lingering smog to see the outline of a massive ship cruising high over New London. Aria dropped the gun when she noticed it. Her eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head.

The Departure had begun. I'd already seen plenty of them by that point in my life so it didn't take me much by surprise. Still, they were always a sight to behold. The kilometer-or-two-long Ark was bulbous like a lozenge and had two bright engines, which from that angle looked like a pair of eyes wreathed in flame.

“Is that it?” she mouthed. She couldn't stop staring. “It's…so big.”

“It has to be in order to fit one thousand lucky Earthers. The last one Venta Co built was even bigger, if you can imagine that.”

“Where are they all going?”

“Who the hell knows? Probably one of the stars you saw on the way over from Mars. All I know is I'll be long gone before they get there.” Aria broke from her trance for a moment and shot me an anxious look. “Not for many, many years,” I reassured her.

She exhaled before looking back toward the Ark-Ship. I went to stand by her side, but as soon as I got there my hand-terminal beeped. I glanced down at it and saw that facial recognition had caught a glimpse of the man I was after. I'd tapped into some of the street-level surveillance feeds earlier on in the day to make my job easier.

“Aria,” I said. “I have to take care of something. Do your dad a favor and wait up here until I get back.”