17. Seventeen

Seventeen

Kira

Brie vanished into the ship via the gaping hole in its side. Probably formed sometime during the moon’s explosion or the ship’s crash landing.

Kira stopped on the bank, tilting her head back to take in her former home.

The Vega had seen better days. Scars from its last battle were evident everywhere. The hull was riddled with fissures. Its sides streaked with singe marks from the missiles and weapons fire it would have endured to lure the Tsavitee ship into the blast zone. Whole sections were missing or so mangled they were unrecognizable.

Despite that, the Vega was an imposing figure, rising out of the snow like a resurrected phantom for one last mission. To rain vengeance on its enemies before it disintegrated back into the ether.

Kira set a hand on the ship’s side. "Hello, old friend. How I’ve missed you."

A deep silence answered her. If she were to close her eyes, she could almost hear the echo of those who’d made this their final resting place. Ghosts who lingered long after their deaths.

Something engraved in the metal next to the hole caught her eye.

The words "Never Forget" had been etched so deeply into the side of the ship that it would take a thousand years or more for the elements to erode them away.

Kira’s smile was faint as she traced the characters. "You’re right about that. I will never forget."

She’d carry them with her. A welcome weight. And when she finally located the Tsavitee’s home world and their masters, she’d make sure to exact a little vengeance in their name.

Because she was the Phoenix. And that was what she was best at.

Kira stepped inside the ship, locating Brie in the gloom through the greenish glow her goggles emitted.

"Good of you to join me," Brie said, crouching just out of reach of the moonlight filtering in through the gap.

"This place brings back a lot of memories for me. It’s not easy."

Brie’s goggles were strangely sinister looking in the dim light, lending her a mysterious aura.

The J1N stuttered, its altitude dropping sharply before it recovered.

Brie rose, the moment broken. "Follow me."

"As you wish," Kira murmured, waiting until the woman’s back was to them before giving the J1N a glare. Was it too much to ask for the drone to go more than two seconds without drawing attention to itself?

Kira stomped after Brie, following her deeper into the ship.

It wasn’t long before she recognized the area where they were heading. A place the crew had affectionately referred to as the ship’s brain.

It was located in the center of the ship behind several bulkheads made from some of the strongest alloys in the Consortium’s arsenal. The reason being that in the event of attack the ship could remain active as long as its brain was somewhat intact. And if it did go down, the information contained there had some chance of making it back into the hands of the military’s leaders.

Personally, Kira thought the Tsavitee had the right of it by destroying all crucial systems when a ship went down to prevent their technology from falling into the hands of the enemy. The higher ups hadn’t agreed.

Brie and Kira meandered through the ship in a roundabout manner. The Vega’s state didn’t allow for a straight shot from point A to point B, forcing them to take detours to bypass the damaged sections.

"You’re different than I was expecting," Brie commented as Kira crouched to crawl through a section where the ceiling had partially caved in. Before Kira could respond, she set off again. "Stay close. The All Father placed traps in the interior of the ship to prevent unwelcome visitors."

"That’s not surprising," Kira said.

Odin had always been even more paranoid than her.

Brie moved with a competence and efficiency that spoke of training. She’d gotten the drop on Pallas, even if it was only for a moment. That was no easy feat.

If this had still been during the war, Kira would have tried to recruit her.

It made her wonder what a person with Brie’s skills was doing here. Guarding a derelict ship. Prestigious as it may have once been.

"Did Diesel train you?" Kira asked, stepping over a pile of debris.

"He had a hand in it. Though Rothchild is primarily responsible. Our government requires every able bodied citizen to undergo military training upon reaching adulthood. Insurance for if we’re ever attacked again."

"Smart of them."

Kira wished more planets had done that. It would have made them less of an easy target for the Tsavitee. Maybe so many wouldn’t have died before Centcom’s reinforcements had arrived.

"I agree." Brie’s smile looked strange with her goggles covering the upper half of her face. "Especially given the predicament the Consortium has just put us in by breaking the treaty."

Though there wasn’t any detectable bitterness in Brie’s words, there was something. A note of sharpness that made sense when you considered where they were standing. A ship whose crew’s lives had bought an alliance that led to peace. Not to mention the civilian population Rothchild had lost in the same encounter.

Kira was still dealing with her own sense of betrayal over the Consortium’s shortsightedness. She couldn’t imagine how much worse it was for Rothchild’s citizens whose moon was a reminder every time they looked up at the sky.

"My father was one of the miners stationed on the moon during the blast."

Kira slowed and then stopped; her gaze trained on the back of Brie’s head.

"He was my hero," Brie said into the silence. "Every day he would call home and tell me a story to put me to bed."

The love Brie had for her father was perceptible even all these years later.

"He told me about the Phoenix too."

Suddenly, Kira was aware of how very alone she was with a stranger on what could be considered the other’s home ground.

"Such stories that made the Phoenix seem almost mythological."

Kira shifted her hand closer to the hilt of the akieri, watching the other woman with a focused intensity.

Brie’s gaze followed Kira’s movements, a wry smile appearing. "You needn’t worry, Phoenix. You’re not the one I hold responsible for his death."

"Why not? I do."

Even knowing that was survivor’s guilt talking, Kira sometimes found it hard to move past the self-blame.

"Did you know several of the miners managed to get one last call out before the moon went up?" Brie put her back to the wall, sliding down into a sitting position.

"No, I didn’t."

That hadn’t been in any of the reports. Most of the information she and Jin had gathered had to do with the military’s movements. Before and after. They hadn’t paid much attention to the miners’ side. They were considered inconsequential. There was no way they would have known in advance of the meeting with the Haldeel. Nor would they have been privy to the Curs’ presence.

In Kira and Jin’s minds, they were civilians who’d gotten caught up in the crossfire.

"I didn’t receive it until afterward, but he called us. My mom and me. He said that something bad was happening and that he had the opportunity to get out but that he and the rest had chosen to stay." Brie tugged off the goggles and set them in her lap. "He told me there was something important that only he could do. That he was sorry but that he was fighting for me and my mom and everyone else. That the Phoenix was too and we had to support her or there was no way she’d win."

Kira’s eyes felt tight. "He was a hero then."

"That was my dad. My hero." The smile that formed lit up Brie’s features. "The rest of the Consortium may have forgotten his name. But I remember. Rothchild remembers."

They would always remember, she seemed to say.

"As they should," Kira agreed.

She remembered them too. Maybe not all of their names. But what they’d done.

She couldn’t have saved Rothchild without their sacrifice. Even with her burst.

Without them to flood the mine shafts with smaralta, Kira could never have done enough damage to the Tsavitee fleet. Because of their actions, Brie was able to live through her childhood to become a woman her father would have been proud of.

Brie dashed a hand over her face, wiping away any dampness that might have fallen from her eyes. Kira pretended not to see as Brie nodded at the hallway to her left. "That’ll lead you to the All Father’s den. Stay to the left and you should be fine."

Kira glanced in the direction she indicated but didn’t move. "What was his name? Your father."

It felt important that she learn it.

"John."

Kira nodded as she moved toward the corridor. "I’ll be sure to remember it the next time I toast the departed."

Kira knew she was getting close when she started having to step over thick wires and ducts running down the passageway like roots from a tree. The air grew progressively cooler the further she went. Not quite freezing but colder than humans or Tuann generally preferred.

A few minutes later she pushed past a curtain of low hanging wires and into a room that had been transformed from its former incarnation.

An ergonomic chair meant for virtual reality junkies sat in the middle of the space. Its unique design was meant to continuously stimulate the muscles on a human’s body while allowing the occupant to remain fully emmeshed in a simulated reality. They were a necessary feature to prevent muscle atrophy.

Kira had heard hackers liked to use them also, but this was her first time seeing it.

Above the chair were countless screens, their positioning reminding Kira of a tree’s canopy. Wires extended from each like branches, interconnecting everything.

It looked chaotic and mad. Exactly like a modern day Yggdrasil.

In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil was the world tree. Its roots and branches ran throughout the different planes of existence. Looking at the Frankenstein monster in front of her, Kira could almost believe it.

No wonder Odin always seemed to know everything. This set up would allow the hacker to extend their tentacles into all kinds of systems.

"You’re not supposed to be here," a voice said from the surrounding darkness.

"I know. There’s been a change of plans."

There was a startled silence before a large figure swam through the gloom. A second later it converged into a person.

Kira spotted the vivid green of Odin’s eye as her friend stepped out of the shadows. A patch covered the other. An earring glinted in one ear. It served to announce that Odin was in their feminine aspect today.

"What kind of change?" Odin asked.

The J1N plowed into a set of low hanging wires. They wrapped around its body, hindering its forward momentum. Despite that, the drone didn’t stop. There was a crack before debris rained down from above.

"That kind."

Odin’s frown held a hint of accusation. "What did you do to Jin?"

"That thing isn’t Jin."

"How is that possible?"

Kira dug her thumbnail into the pad of her pointer finger to steady herself. "A few things happened after you took your leave from the Quorum."

At Odin’s imperious glance, Kira ran through the sequence of events that had happened since they’d seen each other last. "Elise orchestrated an attack on the adva ka. We all nearly died. Jin’s existence as a soul bound was exposed in the process. The Tuann put him on trial. We survived only for a hidden enemy to inject Elena with an isotope that allowed the Tsavitee to teleport her to their home world. One of Jin’s spawn went with her. He hitched a ride with it."

Odin stared, her expression growing more horrified with every sentence.

"I really hope you’re close," Kira finished, unable to keep her desperation out of those last words.

"I am."

Kira’s breath left her in a whoosh of relief. Thank all the Gods that existed.

"But I’m not there yet."

Kira’s head went silent. The kind of silence that was almost audible. A ringing that eclipsed everything else.

Kira’s lungs expanded. She could feel her chest rise and fall. Yet despite that, it was as if air wasn’t reaching them.

Her vision tunneled. From a distance, she heard a tinny buzzing.

Hands caught her shoulders as that buzzing got louder.

Odin, Kira realized distantly. Her friend was saying something. Shouting it really.

"Get a hold of yourself, Nixxy Poo! You don’t get to fall apart yet," Odin snarled, shaking her.

Kira placed a hand over Odin’s and pushed it away. "Your empathy is breathtaking."

"As is your ability to act like the sky is falling."

Odin pushed to her feet as Kira became aware of where she was sitting. On the ground next to Odin’s command chair. The time between when she was standing and the present was a blur.

"I never thought I’d see the Phoenix have a panic attack."

"And you haven’t yet."

"Look here." Odin ignored Kira’s lie as she touched the controls on the chair’s arm. "This is where I’m at."

Trillions of stars blinked into existence as a holographic representation of the universe formed.

"I took the data you obtained from the Tsavitee ship and cross referenced it with the star maps you downloaded from Luatha’s nexus. As well as every star map and scrap of information the Consortium has recorded in regards to the attacks and the direction the Tsavitee’s ships were detected from. I even dug through Haldeel long range scanners and their considerable database of star maps for possible points of origin."

"That’s what you were doing on Almaluc," Kira exclaimed.

She’d always found it strange how Odin had followed her to Jettie when the Sye was so busy tracking down the Tsavitee home world.

"You used the Vega’s command codes to infiltrate Centcom," Kira said in discovery.

No wonder Odin had arranged for the ship to be brought planetside. Kira was only surprised Himoto hadn’t deactivated those the second the Vega was lost.

"With everything I’ve compiled, I’ve managed to narrow the field to this section of space."

The map zoomed into a quadrant of the universe. Over a hundred solar systems were magnified on screen.

Kira raised her knees to rest her wrists on them. "How big is the search grid?"

Odin shuffled, busying herself with the chair’s command controls.

Kira’s eyes slipped closed. "Okay, then. How long would a search of that section of space take?"

"Years."

Kira breathed through the stab of panic. "Jin and Elena don’t have years."

"I know."

"Can you narrow it?"

Odin shook her head with a look of regret. "Not without the possibility of also eliminating their location."

"What if I had someone who has been there recently and could give us another data point?"

Odin’s features rearranged. It was like watching water ripple as the Sye’s bone structure shifted to create a face with more masculine features than it had a second ago. His jaw was a little more angular. His chin wider and stronger. His lips lost their plumpness, becoming a thinner version of themselves.

Kira watched as Odin went from female to male in a shorter time span than it would have taken to change outfits. The effort as natural as breathing to him.

"The general," Odin guessed.

Kira dipped her chin in the tiniest of nods.

Odin folded his hands over his arms as he considered. "On the grounds we’re able to trust a single word out of his mouth, then yes, it could work."

Kira’s heart thumped in excitement.

"At the very least it might get us close enough that I can use the J1N’s connection to the spawn to locate Jin and your niece." Odin leveled a serious look on her. "That’s a mighty big if, though. The generals aren’t your biggest fan. There’s a whole lot of enmity built up between his kind and you. He’s more likely to sabotage us."

Kira didn’t care about that. "He’ll help."

And if he didn’t, she’d just kill him.

"I hope so. Because this is Tsavitee territory we’re talking about. One mistake and we won’t have to worry about what they’ll do to Jin and your niece. We’ll be dead."

Or worse. They’d be prisoners at the mercy of monsters.

Odin touched his jaw absently before reaching up to snag the earring dangling from his ear lobe.

"Does that ever bother you?" Kira dipped her chin at his hand. "Having to use an earring to indicate your gender?"

Odin held up the earring. "What? This?"

Kira nodded.

It had to be exhausting, constantly having to signal to others what would have felt obvious to him.

One side of Odin’s mouth hooked up. "Most people are oblivious when I switch genders. The observant might notice that there’s something different about me, but they rarely suspect the truth of my existence. It’s what has let me survive. Their cluelessness. Otherwise, the Tsavitee would have hunted me down a long time ago." Odin’s gaze was deep as he studied Kira. "You and Jin are some of the only ones able to recognize my shifts."

"Not quite." Kira rose from the floor. "Diesel and his people know something is up. They think you’re a pair of twins. A male and a female."

Odin stopped, turning back to Kira with an arrested expression. "Do they?"

Kira hummed an agreement.

"Fascinating," Odin breathed, his gaze introspective. "They’re wrong, but their ability to spot my differences is intriguing in and of itself."

That was one way to see it.

"You must have spent considerable time around them."

"Only what was necessary."

Kira regarded the hacker. "Sounds lonely."

She’d never considered how isolated Odin was. No wonder the Sye made a habit of popping by every now and then.

"I’m alive. That’s its own reward."

"Guess I can’t argue with that," Kira said.

Odin changed the subject. "Do I want to know how you managed to remand the general into your custody? The Tuann aren’t the type to give up possession of their prisoners."

"Probably not."

Odin chuckled. "That sounds like you."

"It does, doesn’t it?" Kira said with a smirk.

Odin made a beckoning gesture. "Go ahead and summon him. I’m interested to see what the loyal hound has to say."

Kira shifted, uncomfortably. "About that—"

Odin sent her a questioning look.

"He’s not exactly with me," Kira confessed.

Odin frowned. "I was under the impression you had him in your possession."

"I do." This was annoying to have to explain. "At least he was. There was a slight hiccup during transport."

"I take it he escaped," Odin guessed.

"More like I was kidnapped."

Bafflement showed on Odin’s face.

In the resulting silence, the J1N bumped into a screen and bounced off it, changing directions. It drifted in a straight line until it knocked into something else, shifting course again.

"You were kidnapped," Odin stated in a flat voice, dipping his head to peer at her with one eye. "By the forty three, I’m guessing."

Kira nodded.

"And now you’re here."

"Yup."

"They wouldn’t have let you go so easy. Which of your siblings did they send?"

"I resent that assumption," Kira defended. "I’m perfectly capable of escaping them on my own."

"Which? Kira!"

There was no point hiding it when Odin could find out for himself.

"Pallas."

Odin rounded the chair. "You brought that lunatic here? Does he know about me?"

"He most certainly does," Pallas announced, pushing through the wire curtain and sauntering into the room. "Calling me a lunatic before we’ve ever formally met. Tsk. Tsk. I’m wounded."

Weapons dropped from the ceiling and shot out from the walls, swiveling to point at Pallas.

He squinted at a couple. "Are those Haldeel dalies? Nice. I didn’t think anyone in Consortium territory could get them since they’re banned for civilian use. You must have had to smuggle them in. Who’s your contact?"

Odin backed away, ensuring Kira was between him and Pallas.

"What are you doing here, Pallas? I don’t remember inviting you," Kira said.

"I find it incredibly hurtful how you continue to exclude me from important conversations, but I’ll get back to you on that later." He bared his teeth at Odin in a way that was more aggressive than friendly. "Let’s just say I was taking a stroll and happened upon you two by accident."

Bullshit.

There was no such thing as coincidental with Pallas. Every move was calculated. Planned with meticulous precision.

Pallas might have been the forty three’s blunt instrument, but he was a cunning one.

"I don’t see lover boy." Pallas made a show of looking around. "Did you not trust him enough either?"

"Graydon’s here too?" Odin asked, scandalized.

"Yes, he’s here," Kira admitted wearily. "I didn’t have much of a choice. He is my ally. You’ve met him before, remember?"

"That was different," Odin practically hissed.

Kira disagreed.

Odin’s eyes flared. "If you’re going to insist on bringing guests, I’ll have to reconsider allowing you access to my stronghold."

"Like you had a choice. Jin tracked you down ages ago."

Odin’s laugh was sharp. "Do you think he could have done that if I hadn’t let him? Jin’s good but he’s not that good. It suited my purposes to let him keep an eye on me."

Kira wondered if that was true. The basic tenet of counter intelligence was controlling what your opponent knew. There was a possibility that Odin had allowed Yggdrasil’s location to get out to keep them from figuring out other, more sensitive, information.

"From what I hear, it’s more than that," Kira drawled. "Jin was the one who gave you an introduction to Diesel. You never would have been able to lay a hand on this ship otherwise."

Odin dismissed her words with a wave of the hand. "A minor thing. He didn’t know why I needed it until later."

Doubtful. Jin wouldn’t have vouched for Odin without knowing all the details.

Pallas’s husky chuckle had the hairs on the back of Kira’s neck rising.

"Don’t," Kira warned.

Odin’s skills and knowledge were vital to her mission. If Pallas jeopardized that, they were going to have a problem. Of the violent sort.

Pallas was motionless. A predator locked on his prey. Long seconds passed before his attention shifted slowly to Kira.

There was emptiness behind his eyes. His expression flat. Cruel.

"Of course, little sister." A smile bloomed. As warm and personable as his former coldness. "I promise not to spook your little Sye. Upon my honor."

Pallas didn’t have honor. At least not a version Kira understood.

"Oh dear, your Sye looks uncomfortable," Pallas crooned, watching Odin. "I should wait outside while you finish your business."

Kira and Odin watched Pallas leave.

"That man is scary," Odin announced when they were sure they were alone.

"I’m aware."

He never let her forget it.

"How close is your ship?" Odin asked, shifting focus. "I’m assuming you’re planning to rendezvous with them on Rothchild."

"To be honest, I expected them to beat us here."

Odin’s face was serious. "Want me to take a look to see if they’re in the system or nearby?"

Kira nodded. "If you could."

He took a seat, leaning back in it until it was reclined. His hands moved over the arms of the chair, tapping on a few controls until a soft glow rimmed his head. A sign that a neural net was active.

"I can confirm they’re not in the system or any of the surrounding space."

"How far out do your scans extend?" Kira asked.

"Pretty far. If they’re not showing up, it means they’re still more than two days out."

Disappointment moved through Kira. "That’s less than ideal."

Odin shut down the neural net and returned the chair to its original position. "I tried hailing them but I got no response."

Odin’s equipment likely wasn’t much worse than Jace’s. If the rear admiral could contact her in the deep of space, Odin should have had no trouble either.

"It’s a long way between here and Ta Sa’Riel," Odin pointed out. "Anything could have happened."

"Wren and Finn are with Raider. Between those three, they should be able to handle anything that comes their way."

Kira wouldn’t let Odin make her believe otherwise.

"They just got delayed. That’s all."

"If you say so."

"I do," Kira confirmed with a nod. "Worse case—if they don’t show up in the next couple of days, I’ll go looking for them."

"I have a ship you can borrow. It just needs to return from its smuggling run."

Kira arched an eyebrow at her friend. "Pallas was right? You’re a smuggler?"

"Running Yggdrasil takes a lot of funds. Not to mention, it’s dangerous out there right now. A lot of people just want a little reassurance in the event the Tsavitee come knocking."

"I can understand that," Kira said softly.

The J1N circling in one continuous slow loop made Kira sigh with frustration.

"While I wait, do you think there’s anything you can do about that?" Kira nodded at the J1N.

"I take it you want its personality to resemble Jin’s?"

"At this point I’d settle for it being able to fly in a straight line."

Odin’s snicker held amusement. "I’ll see what I can do."

"Thanks." Kira glared at the drone. "Blue did what she could, but as you can see, it didn’t really help."

Kira was hoping the occasions where Odin had hacked Jin’s system to leave him a ’present’ might come in handy now.

"That’s probably because Jin left an imprint to prevent anyone from tampering with his physical form," Odin explained. "No worries, I should be able to bypass that."

Kira looked at him. "You sound certain."

"I’ve had a lot of time to consider Jin and his situation," Odin told Kira. "Jin being on the home world isn’t good. If the Osiri find out he’s there, they’ll take him apart until they figure out the secret that has eluded them for so long."

"The Osiri?" Kira asked.

"The masters’ true name. No one ever uses that word though." A bitter smile tilted Odin’s lips. "That would be considered an invitation for a long and painful death at their hands."

"Why are they so obsessed with the creation of a soul bound?"

Odin shook his head. "I don’t know. Most of what they do doesn’t make sense to me. The soul bound are just one in a long list."

"Is there anything you can tell me about them?"

Very few realized there was a master pulling the Tsavitee’s strings.

Among humans, she could count on one hand the number privy to that information. She doubted that had changed with her absence.

The Tuann were a little better informed.

They could thank Graydon for that. He and Harlow were the ones who put it together from clues they learned from Kira.

What Graydon knew, the emperor and his closest confidants also knew. Kira couldn’t be sure about the rest of the Overlords, though.

"My theory is that they’re obsessed with evolution," Odin said after considering her question. "To an almost pathological level. Any new races that draw their interest, they push until they find the limits of its evolutionary path."

Kira was quiet, wondering if that was what they had in store for humanity.

"When they have the answers they seek, they throw their broken toys to the horde. Whether those toys survive and find a place for themselves or are destroyed is up to the toy."

"What’s their purpose?" Kira asked.

There had to be one. It might not make sense to Kira, but it was there.

"Who knows? Maybe to create a perfect race? Their own evolution? All I know is that they’ve designed evolutionary paths for hundreds of species, including my own. The Tuann were the ones they were most proud of." Odin looked over at Kira. "I’m pretty sure the soul bound are a big reason for that."