The Revenants Read online

  The clamps braked her remaining momentum, and she slammed into her acceleration harness with bruising force. The Vulture shivered to a stop in the center of an illuminated green landing pad, marked 4B in holographic letters floating on her HUD. In the next instant, the landing pad flipped 90 degrees and carried her sideways into the ship. A pair of metal doors slid shut to her left, sealing the outer hull, and a loud roaring began as air pumped into the space around her fighter. As soon as the sound died away, another pair of doors opened to her right, and the landing pad carried her fighter down a set of rails and into a darkened hangar. Gleaming fighters and Ospreys occupied dozens of matching landing pads and rails.

  Cassandra slowly shook her head, peering into the hangar and searching for any signs of life. Why was it so dark? Then she remembered that Cygnians had very sensitive eyes. They were practically blind in brightly-lit areas. They compensated with their sense of smell and hearing, which was apparently acute enough to create full mental images of their surroundings even with their eyes closed.

  She pulled the release lever beside her seat to disengage the harness. Next she removed her air hose and pulled off her helmet. She took a moment to revel in the cool air caressing her hair and face. Stowing the helmet at her feet, she shut down the Vulture’s engines and punched the open/close canopy button. Cassandra grabbed a handrail inside the cockpit as it opened, and stood up carefully in the zero-G environment. “Hello?” she called out.

  But there was no answer. The hangar was deserted. That was definitely strange. Why was there no one here to greet her? Cassandra reached out in the ZPF and found a Banshee loping toward her on six legs.

  “Welcome to the Nomad, Cassss,” the Banshee said.

  “Gakram!” Cassandra recognized that voice. She groped in the dark to find the railings of the staircase that should have folded out beside her cockpit. Finding the railings just below the rim of the cockpit, she climbed down to the deck. Her mag boots drew tinny clangs from the steps as she went.

  “I am glad you changed your mind,” Gakram said.

  Cassandra turned to face him. “So am I.”

  “Why did you?” Gakram asked. She saw his giant head tilt to one side, then the other, like a dog. Cassandra smiled at the memory. She missed dogs.

  “Tanik spoke with me. He convinced me to come.”

  “Why would he want you to join us?” Gakram asked. “He is no friend of my people. It was his plan to threaten us and demand independence for the Union. And it was his idea to use the ZPF bombs to do it.”

  Cassandra shrugged. “Maybe he is more of a friend than you think. He told me something, but... I think he wanted to be the one to tell you. He’ll tell you when he lands.”

  “Lands?” Gakram echoed with a growl. “Tanik is coming? We did not invite him to join us. Why is he coming?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  Gakram bared his teeth. “He cannot come.”

  “He has to! Admiral Ventaris did something to your ship.”

  “What did he do?”

  Cassandra chewed her bottom lip. “Well, I guess there’s no harm in me telling you now...”

  Cassandra went on to explain about the sabotage, and Tanik’s plan to accompany her to Cygnus Prime as a bodyguard, in case the negotiations didn’t go well.

  Gakram held his tongue until she was done speaking, but as soon as she stopped, he let out a terrifying shriek that sent her reeling back a step and left her ears ringing. “This treachery will not go unpunished!” Gakram spun around and darted away, bounding across the hangar.

  “Wait! Where are you going?” Cassandra called after him.

  “To stop Elder Arathos from using the jump drive before we all die!” Gakram replied.

  Chapter 38

  Darius woke up sweating and shuddering with horror. His chest was tight, his breathing shallow. He sat up and the covers fell away, making him shiver. He stifled a sob, and worked to control his breathing.

  A dark shape sat up beside him, and a warm hand rubbed his back. Dyara’s chin came to rest on his shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s not real,” she breathed beside his ear.

  “Not yet,” Darius replied. “This is the fifth time I’ve seen myself at her funeral in as many nights. It’s getting more frequent.”

  Dyara’s chin left his shoulder. “What do you think that means?”

  “I think... I don’t know. Maybe the Sprites are trying to tell me that what I’m seeing could happen soon. I have to talk to Cassandra.” Darius stood up from the inflatable bed, and walked over to a modular closet to put on a jumpsuit.

  “You’ve already warned her. Why wake her up just so you can repeat those warnings? It can wait until morning.”

  “No,” he shook his head. “It can’t.”

  “It doesn’t even make any sense,” Dyara insisted. “Why would she try to negotiate with them after you’ve warned her not to? And we can’t get back to Ouroboros anymore, so how could we possibly have a funeral for Cassandra there?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe the setting isn’t important. Or maybe the setting could change. All I know is there has to be a reason I keep seeing the same thing, over and over again.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” Dyara said. “Maybe it was just a dream, and you’ve turned it into a recurring nightmare by fixating on it so much.”

  “I hope that’s true,” Darius replied. He finished putting on his jumpsuit and padded barefoot down the hall from their sleeping quarters.

  Breezing through the magnetic door flaps at the end of the hall, he stepped into the common area of the habitat. The overhead lights were still on, but turned down low. It was enough to see by. On his way through the room, Darius’s bladder gave an insistent twinge. He hesitated, and his gaze strayed to the door of the Acolytes’ shared bathroom. Then he shook his head. He could hold it.

  Sweeping through the door flaps barring Cassandra’s room, Darius walked down a darkened hallway to her bed. He sat on the side of it, and the inflatable mattress sank under his weight. He felt around for her under the covers. “Cass?” The bed was still made.

  A jolt of adrenaline shot through Darius’s heart, and his pulse began thundering in his ears. Suddenly he was out of breath, as if he’d run a marathon. She probably stayed out late, he decided. But what would she be doing in the middle of the night?

  Darius took a deep breath, shut his eyes, and reached out into the ZPF. He expanded his awareness rapidly, picturing himself floating through the top of the habitat and soaring high over the camp, looking down. Luminous beings were everywhere, mostly inside the habitats, sleeping in their beds. Darius tried to find the familiar tone and texture of his daughter’s mind, but he couldn’t sense her anywhere in the camp. He broke out in a cold sweat; a flash of panic coursed through him, but he clamped down on it and cast himself higher still, until his awareness covered the entire island. He saw bugs creeping in the dirt, birds roosting in the trees, fish darting through the water—even a giant sea monster roaming in the deep...

  But there was no sign of Cassandra. Darius gave into the panic. He cast his mental presence higher and higher until the island fell away and the dark crescents of adjacent islands appeared. From that altitude he sent himself racing over the surface of Cratus, circumnavigating the entire globe in a matter of seconds. He couldn’t find his daughter anywhere.

  There was no sign of the Cygnians either. Their island had been abandoned, leaving only swirling echoes of their presence. Darius directed his attention to the stars and cast himself out into space.

  He found her—aboard a lone destroyer, on the other side of the planet far away from the rest of the fleet. All of the beings around Cassandra felt intensely alien, their thoughts dark and violent. Cygnians.

  Darius’s eyes flew open and his heart kicked against his sternum. He flew out of Cassandra’s room, yelling, “Dyara! We have to go!”

  She and several of the other Acolytes burst out of their rooms as he reached the common area.
r />   “Go where?” Dyara asked.

  Darius hurried through the room. He needed to put on his mag boots and sword. “The Cygnians have her,” he yelled, as he reached the doors to their room.

  Dyara stood blocking the way. She blinked at him. “You mean like a hostage?”

  Darius shook his head. “I don’t know! Maybe! She’s on their ship!” He grabbed Dyara’s shoulders in iron grips and forcibly moved her out of the way.

  “She probably just went to visit or something.”

  “No. They evacuated Cratus. I can’t sense any of them down here with us.”

  “They did? How do you know?”

  He breezed down the corridor to their room, and Dyara followed close on his heels. “Talk to me, Darius!”

  “It’s happening, Dya!” he said. He reached their room and started pulling on his boots. “They’re leaving to warn their people that we’re coming, and Cassandra’s on board. She’s going to try to negotiate with them, and they’re going to kill her.”

  Darius went to the wardrobe and fetched his sword. Dyara clapped a hand to her mouth and slowly shook her head. “Why would she do that!”

  “I don’t know, but we can’t let them take her. We have to stop that ship from jumping away.”

  * * *

  Darius burst through the doors of the habitat and onto the grassy street. Dyara came out right behind him.

  “We should find Tanik,” she said.

  Darius shook his head. “I already tried. He’s not in the camp.”

  “Then where is he?”

  “I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter.” Darius nodded to the command center. “The admiral will know what to do. Come on.” He sprinted down the street, drawing on the ZPF to enhance his speed. He ran so fast that his boots kicked up clods of dirt and grass behind him. Dyara kept pace beside him. Habs blurred into white streaks as they ran by. Revenant patrols stopped and stared. Some of them called out to ask why they were in such a hurry, but Darius didn’t stop to explain.

  They reached the command center in just under a minute. Darius slowed as he reached the building, but he didn’t stop. The soldiers guarding the doors moved to block his way. One of them held out a hand, and he slammed into an invisible wall and bounced back a few steps. “Halt,” the man said. “Go back to your habitat, Acolyte.”

  Darius glared at the man. “I need to speak with the admiral. It’s urgent.”

  The soldier traded a dubious look with his fellow guardsman. “About what?”

  “About the fact that my daughter is aboard the Cygnians’ ship.”

  “So?”

  “So, they’ve evacuated their island!” Darius thundered.

  “Maybe they don’t like the heat.”

  The other guard snickered at that.

  Darius scowled. He didn’t have time for this. He reached into the ZPF and shoved the guards aside as hard as he could. They went flying in opposite directions and bounced off the nearest habitats.

  “Darius!” Dyara protested. “You could hurt them!”

  Darius ignored her, and directed his attention to the doors of the command center. He tried pushing through them, but they were locked, so he drew his sword and sliced them open. The canvas doors slumped to one side, and Darius swept into the command center. Dyara struggled to keep up as he stormed through the entrance, past the mess hall and the Command Information Center (CIC) to the admiral’s quarters. There was another guard standing there. He straightened at the sight of their approach.

  “What are you doing here?” the man demanded.

  This time Darius didn’t bother trying to argue; he picked the man up and physically moved him out of the way, holding him in a mental vice with his feet dangling three feet above the floor. The guard struggled against Darius’s hold, but to no effect. Darius sliced the Admiral’s door open. “Hey!” the guard said in a strangled voice. “I need backup!” Darius squeezed him harder to make him shut up.

  The lights were on in Admiral Ventaris’s room. He was up and busy strapping on his sword. “You didn’t have to tear the place apart,” he said. “I sensed you coming.”

  “They have my daughter,” Darius explained.

  “I know. I heard your conversation with the guards as you approached.”

  Just then, the very same guards came rushing up behind Darius and Dyara. They drew their swords with a screech.

  “Darius! Look out!” Dyara cried as she drew her own sword.

  “Enough!” Ventaris boomed. “We’re all on the same side here. Darius, please release Adept Thebasian before you kill him.”

  Darius glanced at the guard he held frozen in the air to one side of the door. The man’s face had turned blood red, and his lips were blue.

  “Sorry,” Darius said, and released the Adept. The man fell three feet to the ground and collapsed in a heap, gasping for air.

  “Now perhaps you can explain yourself a bit better,” Ventaris intoned. “You said they have your daughter. How do you know?”

  “She’s not in her room. I used the ZPF to find her. She’s in space. On the Cygnians’ ship.”

  Ventaris closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His eyes snapped open a split second later. “You are right, but she’s not the only one. Tanik Gurhain is with her.”

  Darius blinked in shock. “Tanik is there? Why would he join the Cygnians?”

  “That’s a very good question, but I have a bad feeling that I know the answer. We need to get to the CIC before it’s too late.”

  Chapter 39

  By the time Tanik came aboard the Nomad, the sabotage had been found, and the Cygnians were busy fixing it. As a result, he wasn’t the one they credited with saving their hides—Cassandra was. That won her a measure of trust and a tentative standing on board the ship, one which enabled her to roam the corridors freely. As for Tanik, he’d been allowed to stay aboard the Nomad, but only as a prisoner. He’d made a half-hearted attempt to convince Cassandra to leave with him and go back to camp. She refused, just as they had planned, and Tanik had refused to leave, too, so the Cygnians confiscated his sword and arrested him, taking him down to the brig.

  Cassandra and Gakram stood outside a heavily-reinforced cell designed to hold a Revenant—though Cassandra wondered if it would hold a Cygnian Revenant. She stepped up to a holo panel on the wall of Tanik’s cell and waved it to life. They weren’t allowed to enter his cell to communicate with him directly.

  Tanik appeared on the screen, floating above the deck with his legs crossed and eyes closed.

  “Tanik?” Cassandra asked.

  His eyes snapped open and flicked to the screen on his side of the cell. “You came to visit me. How nice.” His voice oozed with sarcasm.

  “How are you going to protect me now?” Cassandra demanded. “You’re locked up! This wasn’t part of the plan.”

  “No, it wasn’t,” Tanik agreed. He uncrossed his legs and his mag boots yanked him to the floor with a metallic clunk. He went to the holo panel in his cell and glowered at her. “Who told you to tell the Cygnians about the sabotage?”

  “I... you didn’t tell me not to!” Cassandra objected.

  “I did. Indirectly, at least. I gave you our story. You were supposed to have joined the Nomad in order to accept Gakram’s invitation and fulfill the prophecy, nothing more. I was supposed to come and tell them about the sabotage, but only after I was forced to tell them in order to save your life.”

  “Well, what’s the difference?”

  “The difference is, now the Cygnians aren’t grateful to me for saving them, so they’ve locked me up, and if the Admiral ever figures out that you told them about the sabotage before I arrived, then we’ll both be liable for treason—me for telling you classified information, and you for relating it to the Cygnians.”

  Cassandra gaped at him. “Well... we can still stick to your story when we get back. How will anyone ever know any different?”

  Tanik scowled. “Indeed, just be sure that you do stick to that story
.”

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Cassandra prompted. “How are you going to protect me now?”

  “I’ll figure something out. In the meantime, it would be best if you didn’t talk to anyone, about anything, except for Gakram.”

  “Well, what do I do when we arrive at Cygnus Prime? What about the prophecy?”

  The Ghoul guard who had accompanied them to Tanik’s cell glanced their way as she said that, the four red eyes of his helmet glaring.

  Tanik’s eyes darted to that Ghoul, then back, and he smiled thinly at her. “I’ll figure something out,” he repeated, and fixed her with a meaningful look.

  She took the hint and nodded hastily. “Okay.”

  The guard stalked over to them on two legs, his massive head brushing the ceiling. He growled at Gakram. “We have to strap in.”

  “We’re jumping out already?” Cassandra asked.

  The Ghoul glared at her once more, then looked back to Gakram. “We have detected six squadrons of fighters incoming. Elder Arathos is going to try to outrun them.”

  Gakram hissed and tossed his head. “Lead the way, master.”

  * * *

  Darius stood with Dyara in the CIC, watching his worst nightmare unfold. He was bursting with the urgent need to do something, but there was nothing he could do. Even if he took off in a Vulture right now, he’d never be able to reach the Nomad before they jumped away, or for that matter, before the fighter squadrons Admiral Ventaris had launched.

  Revenant Sentinels with the rank insignia of Lieutenants and Lieutenant Commanders manned the various control stations in the room. The admiral walked from station to station, checking in with each of them.

  “Flight Ops, how long before our fighters reach weapons range with the Nomad?” Ventaris asked.

  “Fifteen minutes, sir.”

  “And how long before the Nomad can jump?”