Interlude-Ex Parte

(English)

Jordan’s eyes flew open.

She’d only been asleep…thirty minutes. Good.

she asked.

he said.

<…Ah. In pursuit of little old me… Dira that’s not good.>

she asked.

Jordan complained.

She didn’t have time to locate Win or five Ronin one by one. She pulled the pin on one of her candled-radars. From her berth in the A-ships, her radar covered all five of the others, the recreation platform, the shacks below, and the Ronin’s practice arena atop the adjacent plateau.

Jordan only knew the specific bunks of Aarti and Madeline. But they were both empty. Checking the guys’ A-ships…headcount…headcount…headcount…

Three more were missing.

“Drew,” Jordan said, rousing her sister. “Wake up, now. I need to move fast here, and you need to hear this.”

“M-wuh?” her sister said. “I just got to sleep…”

“This is important,” Jordan said. Too quietly. Too plainly.

“Come on…” Drew mumbled. “It’s been a long day.”

“Alexithymia,” Jordan said. The two of them hadn’t relied on their old codewords since Drew was nine, but they both still remembered. After the second it took for the word to cut through Drew’s drowsiness, she shot upright.

“Jordan?” her sister asked, worried.

“Deadly serious,” Jordan answered. “I need to talk fast, and you need to hear every piece of it.”

“Okay,” Drew nodded.

“Kemon’s trying to get the Ronin killed. I’m going to stop them. You need to stay here, coordinate with Sid—he knows some of the details. But more than Sid, you need to trust Ted. Got it?”

“You trust him?” Drew asked.

“Yes, because ‘Ted’ is not his first name, and he saved my life.”

Her sister’s expression was invisible. Jordan had no idea what thoughts played across Drew’s face. But she trusted Drew to listen.

“…I need to go now,” Jordan said. “Sorry this is so short notice. Sorry I’ve been keeping things from you…”

Sorry, because I could get hurt…went unsaid.

“I said it before,” Drew said. “I trust you. Just don’t get killed, whatever happens.”

Jordan threw her arms around her sister, squeezing a hug out of her to last for days.

“Thank you.”

And with nothing more, Jordan slipped out of her berth.

·····

An hour after the last Human had fallen asleep,the five Ronin hiked up to where Win awaited them.

Win did not comment on the five abductees’ silence.

The Human adolescents were tired from the day’s events, and the sting of betrayal had all of them simmering.

They hadn’t questioned anything when he’d quietly left them psionic messages: report to the shuttle-launch plateau after lights out.

“I am sorry about the note,” he said, keeping it brief. “The situation is evolving rapidly, but I thought you should learn of this in person. I am going to be absent for the next several days.”

“You’re going after Knox,” Donnie accused.

Win did not correct him.

“We already decided; we’re coming with you,” Ben said.

“Agree all you like,” Win said. “I think it would be a bad idea to bring you along. And it is my call.”

“You need us,” Madeline pointed out.

Win almost grimaced. She had no idea how right she was…

“Frankly, I do not know if any of you are ready, much less all of you…” Win spoke gravely.

“We are going with you,” Johnny said firmly. “That thing wore a human face.”

“We have to go after him,” Madeline said. “If Knox makes it away…he’ll give up where we are. More Vorak will come.”

“You’re not talking us out of this,” Donnie said.

Guilt twinged at Win’s heart. He wasn’t. He’d asked them to report here, and, as expected, they were now determined to go wherever he led, not just despite, but because of his reluctance.

Some part of him felt guilty about what came next. Not enough to turn back—the severity of their task had no room for anything short of ruthlessness. But he’d stay with them for the whole journey. It was his responsibility to do at least that much. If you sacrificed an animal, you at least owed it the dignity of looking it in the eye while it died.

“You are sure?”

Not one of them backed down.

“…Then I will put my trust in you,” he said. “You will need—“

Aarti and Ben unslung their backpacks, revealing stacks of foil wrapped nutrient bars.

“We’re not stupid. We’ve got fourteen days of food for us,” Ben said.

It will not even take three… Win thought.

“Then you have enough for me too,” another voice said.

Everyone turned to see Jordan crest the hill, face stony as ever.

“I went to talk to ask Madeline about Ted,” she explained. “Except she was gone. Aarti too. Saw the shuttle lights and put it together.”

Panic went through Win’s mind, only for his ‘Ronin’ to address his concerns themselves.

“We’re hunting down Knox,” Donnie said. “He’s not going to come quietly.”

“I can fight,” Jordan said. “Pirates on Cammo-Caddo kept me in a cage for months and I fought them every time they opened the door.”

“It’s too dangerous for you,” Madeline said. “I’m sorry, but you’re staying behind.”

More panic went through Win. With more than five seconds to think about it, the only thing worse than Jordan accompanying them would be for her to stay behind and tell the story.

“Why do you even care?” Johnny asked. “You aren’t angry—”

Jordan stomped up to him and tried slugging him in the face. She almost got him too.

Her face was so…still, but the corners of her mouth and brow were twitching, trying to crease into rage.

“My sister is here,” she whispered, voice only faintly strained with anger. “I watched her get abducted. Then the same thing happened to me, and I spent every minute in that cage worrying about her. Our enemies out here? I’m not going to give anyone a chance to put Drew in danger. Not. Anyone.”

The Ronin’s refusing frowns broke at the…strange display of emotion. It was more feeling than anyone had seen out of her. Ever.

But the difference between nothing and a little could be bigger than the difference between a lot and even more.

“…Fine,” Madeline said. “But only if you can prove you aren’t dead weight. We aren’t taking you along if you’re just going to die, and we have to explain to Drew what happened.”

“Drew doesn’t need to know about this,” Jordan said firmly. “I’m not going to worry her.”

“Still,” Madeline said. “Prove you can carry your weight.”

Jordan’s lips actually twitched into half a smile at that.

“I’ll beat the most skilled one here,” Jordan said.

“Fine,” Johnny growled.

“Any rules?” Jordan asked. “I can go quick, but I want to keep things quiet. People are trying to sleep.”

“No rules,” Johnny said. “You just have to prove yourself.”

He squared off with her while the other Ronin backed away. Jordan didn’t adopt any kind of fighting stance, and just eyed them all.

Johnny awaited her with his fists raised. Win could feel his cascade running underfoot, and…Jordan could too. Something about the way she stood…it was just a shade too casual.

Win put two and two together a fraction of a second too late.

Gallons of water crashed down on him with no warning. The deluge was heavy and sudden, pounds of water slamming down from above.

There was no follow-up attack, and in that reprieve, Win saw all five of the Ronin had been soaked too.

Jordan had, he realized, materialized the liquid a hundred feet overhead. No cascade running through the ground would ever detect it, and she’d made no motions to give away herself either.

“Whatheshit?” someone sputtered, soaking wet.

Jordan didn’t answer, simply walking past Win toward the shuttle, poking him in the head as she passed. She waited an extra couple seconds to dematerialize the water, just to punctuate her point.

“That’s not proof,” Johnny frowned.

“Isn’t it?” Jordan said. “I could have just taken out six trained Adepts all by myself. I even gave you warning, asked for rules and everything.”

“You suckered us,” Donnie complained.

“She said she’d beat the most skilled person here,” Madeline said, eyeing Jordan with a growing grin. “You meant Win, not Johnny.”

“I learned in a cage; I don’t play fair,” Jordan said. “Now are we going or not?”

Win eyed her. In one move she’d shown more tactical instincts than any of the other five Ronin, by a wide margin too. Gravity attacks, motionless Adept tricks…

She really did know how to fight, at least a little.

“The Ronin know to follow my instructions,” Win said. “Can you?”

Jordan looked him dead in the eye.

“Yes, sir.”

·····

It was shocking how easily Jordan had joined the Ronin’s mission.

She hadn’t expected to have the opportunity to compile a more detailed psionic message for Drew before they lifted off. As they rocketed into the sky, she cast a bundle of improvised documents and notes toward Drew, and a detail clicked into place. Win and Kemon couldn’t tell people what was going on. The only way Kemon’s plan could work was if all the surviving abductees didn’t know the Ronin had volunteered for this suicide mission.

In fact…they would probably wake up in the morning, and Kemon would gravely report about a Vorak sneak attack in the night. Or maybe they’d make a fuss after Win’s shuttle cleared the atmosphere and wake everyone up in a panic.

‘The Vorak came, the Vorak came! Knox’s allies must have abducted the Ronin! Again! The Vorak stole our best defenders!’

Something to that effect.

Jordan glanced at Win. Her packet wasn’t the most subtle thing. But the Adept was too focused on the shuttle instruments to notice.

Had anyone else?

No. Everyone was quiet, grim, and determined. Ironically, their dour expressions matched what she usually wore.

They had no idea where they were headed.

What exactly was her plan here? Caleb had said ‘get in on the mission and sabotage it’. But that didn’t just mean any kind of intervention would do.

“We have…cleared orbit,” Win said, double checking the shuttle’s instruments. “Our trajectory is set, and we’re accelerating.”

“Where is he going?” Aarti asked.

“At a guess? Vorak space. I’d settle in,” he warned. “We have his trail, and if it goes where I think it does, we will arrive in two days, travelling at 1G.”

Jordan resisted the urge to ask ‘what trail?’ She’d been through enough training on the Jack to know ships didn’t leave breadcrumbs so conveniently. Was this the choice Caleb had every day? It was so tempting to just call out Win.

But the second she did, everyone would turn on her. She steadied her breathing though, and tried not to think of what Tasser had said about ‘relying on breakthroughs’ too often. There were a lot of moving parts to Kemon’s plan, but they were slow moving parts. And that left her with two days: plenty of time to cover her bases.

‘Cover her bases’. Baseball talk. Great, was she turning into Caleb?

“We could get there faster if we accelerated harder, right?” Donnie asked.

Win shook his head.

“A fight will be waiting for us,” Win said. “Everyone needs to be in top form, and increased gravity is taxing even if we aren’t moving around much. It is not worth the hours we might save.”

“Wake me up if anything happens,” Jordan said. “I’m getting some sleep while I can.”

She lay down in one of the bunks and warmed up her superlocator. There was one thing Caleb and Nai had taught her about fighting; the most powerful weapon of all was communication. And it was time to do just that.

·····

Having to wait until Shinshay fell asleep was a critical flaw of the superlocator. Functionally superluminal communication was great, but having to wait hours until your contact fell asleep could be just as bad as light delay.

But to Jordan’s surprise, she reached someone immediately.

Nai said.

Between sleep and consciousness, Jordan couldn’t quite tell what language they were speaking. It felt like she was speaking English, but Nai’s words sounded Starspeak…

Focus, Jordan admonished herself.

Jordan suggested.

Nai said.

Jordan said.

Nai asked.

Jordan answered.

Nai said.

·····

he asked.

she replied.

Caleb sighed.

Jordan said.

Caleb replied.

Jordan said, seeing Caleb’s implication.

he nodded.

That meant dozens more potential allies. All Caleb had to do was convince them. Which…might actually be easier than the humans.

Jordan grinned. Huh. Grinning felt easy right now.

he said.

she said.

Caleb said.

The Ronin were falling victim to the classic enemy of all teenagers: bad influences. But how could she separate the Ronin from Win?

Caleb said.

Jordan followed.

Caleb pointed out.

he warned.

Jordan realized.

Caleb spoke soberly.

Jordan said.

Jordan said.

Caleb agreed.

Jordan corrected.

Caleb said.

Caleb mused.

So Caleb and Jordan made a plan. With some help.

·····

Funny thing was, Caleb was wrong. Jordan knew, instinctively, that her superlocator still worked beyond the Beacon or anywhere else. Because the same abridgement worked for the Beacons. Wormholes could be moved through other wormholes.

And wasn’t that strange?

Nai had certainly thought so, but it made total sense to Jordan. Maybe that just came with the territory of having created something like the superlocator.

Of course, she didn’t get to prove it after transiting the Beacon linking Minshia and Askior systems. The first leg of the trip was a lot longer than the second. But four hours was the critical number.

Jordan stewed in the hundreds of questions flying through her head. There was little else for her to do while she was awake. Cramped into a space a bit smaller than a school bus left nowhere to retreat to, and no one interested in small talk.

So Jordan kept asking questions, double checking to see if their planning had missed anything.

Could she just kill Win?

No. None of them knew how to fly the ship. And while the Jack would catch up to them…actually finding the tiny shuttle in the void of space was much harder. Maybe there was a psionic workaround somewhere?

All of that was assuming she could even get Win though.

And ever since she’d caught them all by surprise, he was wary of her. She could tell. Even when he was seemingly looking at the shuttle console, his cascade was pushed through the floor, and up into her seat.

Jordan knew how he’d respond if asked; he was surely pushing his cascade through the whole cabin. For practice. Or diligence. Or habit.

But whatever reason, asking about receding it would put him even further on guard.

The wheel in Jordan’s mind kept on turning. Double. Triple checking everything.

Everyone spent the flight lost in their own thoughts, like they were on an extra long airline flight. Everyone slept as much as possible—Jordan spending her resting hours checking in with Caleb and the Jack. But even when they were all awake, for thirty-odd hours they flew, and no one chatted.

All the focus was on one thing: the destination.

·····

“One more time,” Win said. “Go over it.”

“We land on the dark side of the rock,” Aarti recited, pointing to a patch of barren ground a mile from the nearest buildings.

“The five of us stay low and approach the south wall here,” Johnny repeated. It was at least the tenth time they’d gone over the plan.

“You, Win, will go east and get into the subsurface tunnels,” Jordan said absently. More of her focus was on how she was going to throw a wrench into the plan.

“The six of us attack the south wall, blowing through it. The Vorak scatter, and we just have to fight whatever Vorak are too confused to run away,” Ben said.

“Win sneaks in through the chaos, finds Knox, does the real damage, and then comes in as the cavalry against whoever we might still be fighting,” Donnie said.

“Then we all book it back to the shuttle,” Madeline said. But she wore a frown.

“Good,” Win nodded. “It’s absolutely essential to keep our communication to a minimum. We have no idea what kind of psionics these Vorak might have.”

Jordan dimly realized that the only thing keeping her from blurting out the plan’s obviously suicidal inclinations was the fact that she was in an enclosed space with the very same alien willing to send them all on said suicide mission.

But as soon as Win was out of earshot or handgun range…

Four hours was the critical number.

“Remember what Knox has been doing. Remember what happened to you all. If you lose your concentration for even a moment, you’ll fail and die. It’s not too late to turn back now. Are you all ready?”

Nods went around.

Everyone’s face was grim and determined, but Madeline’s also wore a frown. Jordan didn’t miss that.

She also didn’t miss the fact that Win had gone back to reinforcing their emotions after going over the plan’s details. Almost like, it was obvious they needed a plan…but Win didn’t want anyone thinking rationally about that plan.

Because it was terrible by design.

A rather large part of Jordan’s attention was consumed with the fact that it didn’t feel very possible to convince them.

But there was a plan, and she was ready to carry it out. Hopefully the Vorak wouldn’t screw anything up. Eventually, all that was left was to pull the trigger.

“Strap in,” Win called. “We’re thirty minutes out.”

No more lazing around the cabin in low—but consistent—G.

Those thirty minutes were agonizingly tense. The way Win had first explained it…a day ago? Twelve hours? Agh. Time was confusing cooped up like this. It hadn’t been until Jordan had checked with Nai did she truly understand why they weren’t going to be shot down on approach.

Ships with ripping hot drive plumes could be seen from virtually any distance in a star system…but only in the direction those plumes were pointing. So Win’s shuttle had spent the better part of seven hours decelerating along a vector that would keep their drive plume pointed away from the actual rock of Fintuther station. Difficult thing, that: approaching a place, while decelerating, while not being seen by that place?

You really needed to decelerate in a different direction, dip into the orbit of the nearest planet, and then finish your approach with stealthier means of thrust like the shuttle’s quasi-helium maneuvering thrusters.

The Jack had the same basic system, but it was a ship several dozen times the size of Win’s shuttles. The shuttle didn’t need its fusion drive to actually lift off or decelerate. And unlike fusion, thrust via pressurized helium didn’t raise nearly the same infrared spike on sensors.

Of course that same generator module was powered by the ship’s fusion drive. And the ship wasn’t venting heat with the drive plume. So continuously supplying power to the quasi-helium generator was slowly heating up the shuttle.

It was beginning to get uncomfortable, but only like a car ride with no AC.

It was almost embarrassing to think that a Vorak military base could be approached undetected so easily. But then Jordan thought about how long Kemon must have been planning this. There were probably other things done to make sure the Ronin could be inserted without raising an alarm.

The whole point was to get the Ronin there, and the shuttle away with Win on it, with no one being the wiser.

So there was a tiny window there! Before Win was out of the woods and after he’d separated from them, where Jordan had to do her work. The only remaining question was if Win had prepared something to ensure the Vorak were ready for them, or if the ordinary station defenses would be more than enough to guarantee their deaths.

Caleb was paranoid about the first, but Jordan was leaning more toward the second. So had Nai.

“The artificial gravity field for stations like these is intense, but small,” Win warned. “As soon as we drift into it, we’ll fall toward the surface. I’ll orient the shuttle with the thrusters, kick up a lot of dust, and then as soon as we hit the ground, we all need to move as quickly as possible.”

“Understood,” Johnny said, cracking his neck.

Sound was the part Jordan hadn’t expected. You got used to every sound a spaceship made over two days. But out the window of the shuttle, Jordan caught her first view of Fintuther station only for air to suddenly send the whole shuttle tipping end over end.

Everyone clutched the edge of their seats while jets of air whined like hurricane winds. With a lurch, the shuttle tipped sideways again—but when the motion halted, this time the shuttle and its occupants could recognize ‘down’ again.

“Get ready,” Win said. “Touching down after… hee, kasu…”

“Wrong language,” Jordan huffed.

The ship slammed into the ground with a deafening thud, and everything finally stopped moving.

Win was, predictably, the first person to move, unbuckling not only his harness, but those of Ben and Aarti too. The Farnata allowed them precious seconds to steady themselves in the station’s artificial gravity. It was heavier than what everyone was used to on Schozha, but Jordan recovered quicker. It was close to what she’d felt on Cammo-Caddo.

She was the first one at the shuttle door, ready for when Win pulled the lever.

The second air started hissing out, Ben worriedly asked, “Wait…what about spacesuits?”

But before it could be a problem, the door was open and no one started suffocating.

“…The whole rock has an air barrier, doesn’t it?” Jordan said. “Just like the valley back at camp?”

“Hmm? Oh yes. That one actually handles much more pressure over an even larger area,” Win said. He hadn’t thought to address why spacesuits weren’t necessary. “This whole rock is only about a hundred and thirty square kilometers.”

Not waiting for the shuttle’s ramp, Win materialized one first, and they quickly filed out onto the asteroid’s surface.

It was rocky, dusty, and utterly dull except for the billions of dazzling stars spread out above them. Nowhere on any planet, anywhere near bright stars would get a view of the cosmos as good as this one. No light pollution to drown out any detail…and Jordan pouted. She was the only one who’d noticed.

“No time to waste,” Win said, pointing the Ronin north.

“Let’s get going!” Johnny growled. He must have been trying to be leaderly. Win broke out in a run, perpendicular to their path, just like they’d discussed.

Jordan breathed steady, and jogged a little harder than the other five, getting herself ahead of them. She pulled the pin on a candled-radar to track Win’s position. Past one-quarter mile, he slipped beyond the radar’s reach. But that was fine. It meant Win was far away too.

As a matter of fact, the map said it would be roughly a mile from their landing point to the gate Win wanted them to attack. He’d probably turn back any second now. So this was about as good a spot as any.

Jordan slowed, making sure her change in pace was visible for the others. They blew past her at first, but stopped when they realized she had too.

“Jordan, what’s going on?” Johnny said.

She just looked up at the sky no human in history had ever seen before. “Such a beautiful sight,” she said. “Seems like a shame to ruin it with a fight.”

“What the shit are you on about?”

“I’ve just been thinking through the plan,” she said. “And I think it’s shit.”

“…You came here with Ted,” Donnie said, and that was all it took.

If there’d been any doubts about how thin trust was between abductees because of Kemon, the change in body language that went through all five Ronin confirmed it for her.

All five of them turned, away from the Vorak installation—good!

But they turned toward Jordan—not so good.

“I think we should turn back,” Jordan said. “We’re charging headfirst into enemy territory, and we don’t have the first idea what they’re capable of. We’ll die.”

“They don’t have any idea what we’re capable of,” Johnny said. “Neither do you.”

“Are you forgetting not twenty-four hours ago when I landed surprise attacks on every one of you?” Jordan asked. “Because I know that ten Caleb Hanes couldn’t survive attacking this place, much less us. Caleb’s better than I am, and I know I’m better than you guys. So do the math and call it off.”

“You bitch…” Donnie spat. “You only came along to make sure this all goes wrong, didn’t you? You’re just here to ruin our plan.”

“Not your plan,” Jordan corrected. “Win’s plan. Kemon’s plan, where we die fighting the Vorak, and he gets to frame the soldiers here for kidnapping us from Scozha, and probably Earth too.”

She could see them not believe her. Disbelief and anger were the only things playing through their minds.

“Think about it!” Jordan tried. “You didn’t leave word with anyone! Win set this up so that you wouldn’t tell anyone where you were going! He’s the one who told you about Knox too! He might not have been lying about him being a Vorak, but what did Win really tell you besides that?”

Jordan thought she saw Madeline frown at that point. Maybe there was a chance she could be convinced?

“You’re wrong,” Johnny said.

“I’m trying my best to be diplomatic about all this,” Jordan said. “But one way or another, I’m not letting anyone take another step closer to that base.”

“Move, or be moved!” Johnny screamed.

The first iron lance jutted up from the ground, and Jordan smiled.

Not one of them had been paying enough attention. She’d never figured herself a psychologist, but it was fascinating to notice their behavior.

They’d all been running north.

Jordan had stopped.

They’d run past her, noticed her stop, and stopped themselves.

They were further north than she was: closer to the Vorak base!

But they’d turn to face her. They were so itching for confrontation, they hadn’t realized Jordan wasn’t standing between them and their goal. In fact, just the opposite.

But the Ronin came at her anyway.

She couldn’t help but grin and unfurl her emitter array.

Four hours was the critical number. Time to see if they would make it.