Downy waited in agony. He had to get out of this room full of cadets. General Gustav returned from locking Shara in a holding cell. She must not have told him anything, Downy thought, or he would have attacked Downy on sight.
Shara had to be destroyed. Sam had figured out that she wasn’t the killer. He would offer her a deal, or Greg would threaten her, and somehow they would get the information out of her the next time she spoke to them.
Downy had to kill her before that happened. He made himself wait eight minutes before rising and leaving the room. Gustav questioned him, but only in a cursory fashion. Downy claimed that the stress made him ill. He needed a bathroom. Gustav gestured for him to go.
Downy’s reputation for weakness: physically, mentally, even socially; made it easy for him to get away with this excuse. Someday Gustav would know just how completely Downy had fooled him. He would know just how strong Downy was.
Free in the space station, Downy headed for the pilot room. The ‘brig’ as Greg called it, or the containment chambers, were generally used for trouncers before their brains were harvested for the biocomputer. Hence, they were usually situated near the pilot room and the computers.
Downy entered the containment area unchecked. The bioexperts saw no reason to keep people away from the trouncers. The trouncers did that plenty well by themselves.
Twelve large cages opened onto this dark hallway, six on each side. No lights lit the cages, only the tiny lights along the walkway illuminated the space, and they didn’t reach far. He heard breathing.
The first two cages were empty. As he came to the next one, a trouncer lunged into sight. The trouncers made no sound before they attacked, the better to surprise their prey. This trouncer slammed into the crisscrossed bars of the door, and one long claw got through. It nearly sliced open Downy’s shoulder. He yelped and backed away.
The creature retreated into the darkness at the back of the cage, where Downy could only make out its hunched profile.
He breathed again.
“Stupid trouncer,” he said. “Just wait till they put your brain in a bowl.”
Laughter echoed from one of the last cages.
Downy growled. She was here. She was laughing at him. He would kill her now.
***
The Spo emperor took his time thinking. Sam’s stomach felt empty and full at the same time. Like he’d eaten cotton candy that began to spin and grow in his stomach.
If the emperor decided not to sponsor humanity any longer, this trial was over. The Rik would move in, stealing and killing and making Earth their own. And no one would lift a finger to help a condemned non-sentient species.
The emperor finally spoke.
“I formerly believed that humanity could overcome the stigma of the Hadron event. However, this current violence against the human cadets fills me with doubt.” He looked at Greg, “You did not reflect this trend in your reports to me.”
“We believe that the Rik are responsible for these deaths, not the humans,” Greg said. He pointed at Tishing. “We have good reason to think this. Jonathan’s mind was wiped; a use of sasoikeo that only the Rik have perfected. Locked on this space station is a person involved in the killings. I would like the chance to question her before this issue is decided.”
The Merith deferred to the emperor, “Are you willing for this witness to be called now?”
The emperor traced a design on the table.
“Yes. If Greg can prove the killings were not human, we will not renounce our sponsorship.”
Sam watched Greg breathe a sigh of relief. He’d really picked up a lot of idiosyncrasies from his students, Sam thought, as well as the willingness to fight for them.
“I will have the witness, Shara, possibly of Rik, brought at once,” Greg said.
Sam looked hard at Tishing, but he didn’t seem disturbed. He smiled slightly. “Call your witness.”
***
Armen started to remove the third row of bricks, his eyes closed. It was working. An image was emerging behind his mental wall. It was the tower at Pepperdine. The top of the cross was clear behind his wall. He centered on the middle of the wall, clearing bricks faster, downward, though still with deliberation. A sense of urgency, almost panic was taking hold of him. He forced himself to relax his muscles and breathe through his nose. If he rushed the process too much this message from his subconscious would dissolve into nothing.
The tower emerged, with blood dripping from the walls. The edge of the yin yang painted in sheep’s blood became visible. Why this? Armen had pondered the vandalism over and over, talking it over with Sam and the others, what had he missed?
He continued clearing bricks. Now he could see Oh Li. He was standing at the base of the tower, holding his arm up. On his wrist he wore a leather strap with a metallic yin yang on it. He saw Downy come around the edge of the tower. Nearly all the bricks were gone now. Downy leaned over, looking at the yin yang bracelet and laughing in his puppy dog way. Then he reached up and slammed Oh Li’s head into the wall.
Armen gasped. In a blink, he saw it all. He remembered when they all first met Downy, when he was trying to choose a human name. He’d asked them all kinds of questions, and he’d been struck by Oh Li’s bracelet. He’d said the swirling black and white reminded him of a tiny deathglass.
Now Armen could picture the rest. He saw Downy luring Nat and Jia off campus. He saw him slashing the sheep. How he’d pretended to be enamored of animals, but always with that assumed goofiness. Jia, Oh Li. Armen had even – he caught his breath - Armen had seen Downy cleaning his nails in their shared bathroom the morning after Oh Li’s death. And probably Downy killed Paolo too, before they’d even come back to Earth. When Downy first joined them on Spo, Paolo had nicknamed him Grover.
Armen’s eyes snapped open and flew to the table where Gustav and Downy were sitting. Downy was gone. He would kill the girl. She knew about him.
He jumped to his feet.
“How long has Downy been gone?” he demanded, running to the door. Gustav looked blank.
“He’s the killer!” Armen shouted. “We have to stop him.”
Gustav looked at him, confused bordering on angry. “Stop him from what?”
***
Downy found Shara in the last cage on the right. She wasn’t laughing anymore.
“You’re going to kill me,” she said. “I feel calm now. That must be human. Besides, I think Claudia and Sam will figure it out… and these are good clothes to die in.”
Downy palmed the lock. He wrenched the barred door open. “They’ll believe me. The filthy Rik girl tried to escape. I had no choice but to kill her.”
“What, in the cage?” she asked.
He jumped at her, putting his face only an inch from hers.
“Shut up,” he said. He grabbed her arm, squeezing until he could feel the bone in her upper arm and she moaned. With a vicious twitch he snapped the bone and she cried out.
He dragged her out of the cage into the dark hallway. She whimpered very satisfyingly now. The best part was that the rest of the Rik wouldn’t blame him for killing her. He was only keeping up his part of the bargain, which included keeping the plot secret.
He held open the door to the containment area with his foot, and dragged her out into the main, brightly lit, curving hallway. She looked sick in the light, crying and clutching at her broken arm. Downy spun her around and threw her face forward into the wall. He planted one hand on her back, pinning her to the wall. He pulled his other hand back, ready to slash her with his claws.
Just before he struck, Downy saw a flicker of motion. He turned his head to see Armen sprinting around the corner, a look of absolute rage on his face. As Downy’s hand came forward, to slice Shara’s spine in four neat cuts, Armen launched himself at Downy. He grabbed Downy’s arm, using his whole weight to drag Downy’s arm down and away from Shara.
“You fooled us,” Armen said, panting.
Downy growled. He twisted his hand to claw Armen’s face, but Armen ducked his head, maintaining his hold on Downy’s arm.
Downy let go of Shara and she slid to the ground. With his free hand, he grabbed Armen’s hair and jerked his head back, forcing him to let go. Downy threw him towards the other wall. Armen’s head collided with a steel support and he crumpled to the floor.
This was getting out of hand. Downy raised a foot to stomp Shara, but then Gustav and Greg came around the corner.
“It’s Armen!” Downy yelled. “He let the Rik girl out!”
“What’s going on?” Greg asked. He looked from Downy, standing over Shara, to Armen, sprawled on the floor.
Armen moaned, and clutched his head. “Downy liked the yin yang, he had access to everyone… He hated Paolo.”
“I don’t know what he – ” Downy started, but he saw the horrified comprehension wash across Greg just before he jumped.
Greg was one of the most respected fighters on Spo, and he took Downy without pause. Every blow of Downy’s was blocked. Greg used hands, feet, and both sets of knees with brutal perfection. Spo limbs could break. With a loud pop and a pain unlike Downy had ever imagined, a crack wound in a spiral pattern from his left most ankle to his knee. Screaming, Downy collapsed on the floor, the pain burning all thought to a standstill.
***
Greg got to his feet, and Gustav was beside him.
“I should have guessed,” Greg said. “I didn’t know why he wanted to silence her.”
“But the emperor…” Gustav said. “We cannot prove this.”
Greg knew. Downy was the emperor’s son. If they dragged a beaten Downy into the trial room, the emperor would be furious. He was not rash, but springing this on him unannounced could only humiliate him. He would not believe in Downy’s complicity unless it was proved. And Greg wasn’t sure they could prove anything.
Seeing Downy about to kill Shara, Greg remembered a few things. He’d remembered Downy’s face in the riot, when he shot into the crowd. How he urged Greg to go ahead and speak on the 4th of July. Even how he’d leaked the information to Sam that had almost gotten Sam killed. Downy had played them all perfectly.
“Put him in a cage,” Greg said. “We can’t deal with him now.”
Gustav didn’t move. “Are we sure?” he said. “If he is innocent – ”
Sam came around the corner.
“They sent me to find out why you’re taking so long,” he said. Then he stopped, staring at Armen, who leaned, ashen, against the wall. Shara was crumpled on the floor crying. Downy writhed on the ground with a huge crack in his leg.
Greg watched as Sam’s eyes flickered from one to the other, putting things together.
“Shara’s accomplice,” he said. “It was Downy?”
“Armen figured it out.”
Sam’s jaw clenched. “Jonathan. Oh Li. Jia. Nat.”
“We don’t have time for that,” Greg said. “Do we lock him up, or bring him into the trial? If we’re wrong – it’s the end.”
Sam took a deep breath, pushing his anger away. “We bring him in, but when we’re ready.”
Gustav cautioned him, as he and Greg pulled Downy up. “This is your whole species you’re talking for Sam. Do you understand that? If you’re wrong, it’s their lives.”
Sam closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them Greg thought he had the look of a much older man.
“It’s my responsibility,” he said. “I’m taking it.”
Greg and Gustav were hoisting Downy’s arms over their shoulders, but they froze at Sam’s words. Greg looked at Gustav, and he nodded.
“It is your choice,” Greg said.
***
Akemi kept repeating her plea. She couldn’t stop.
NAT
NAT
NAT
It poured from her without pause while she rechecked the oxygen level in the cabins. She sealed off the unused rooms and pumped their thin air into the main chamber. Meanwhile she scanned the airlock for Nat’s body.
NAT
THE AIR IS BETTER
PLEASE GET UP
TOUCH THE SCREEN
NAT
NAT
There were no video monitors of the interior of the ship, except in the airlock. Akemi wanted to kill whoever designed that flaw.
At the same time, she calculated the next jump toward Earth. She must get the video of the Rik causing the Hadron explosion to the trial.
A warning tripped when she tried to initiate the next jump.
“Multiple jumps will degrade the biomaterial. Please insert new tissue.”
Akemi smacked the computational computer around until the warning disappeared. Degrade, whatever. She felt fine.
She initiated the jump again.
“Warning: Entering Spo mainspace. Illegal action. Confirm?”
For heaven’s sake…Akemi confirmed, and finally the next jump began.
NAT
NAT
WE’RE ON OUR WAY
TOUCH THE SCREEN
Nat lay in the hallway, just outside the control room door. A stabbing pain in her head was all she felt at first. Her breath came shallow and fast. It hurt to inhale, and yet she didn't have enough air, so she kept trying to pull more in without moving her lungs. Her nose tickled and she tried to rub it. She’d forgotten about the handcuffs dangling from her left hand and they smacked her in the face. More blood dribbled from her nose.
Then she lay still some more. Just breathing. Letting the blood dry on her face.
Her eyes stung a little, the momentary vacuum probably caused a few tiny blood vessels in her eyes and nose, possible lungs and ears, to burst. That's why she couldn't catch her breath either. The oxygen must be almost gone.
But that can't be right, Nat thought, sliding herself into a sitting position against the wall. She wouldn't have regained consciousness if there was no air.
Somebody must have closed the airlock before it was all gone. Akemi! Nat jumped up only to careen drunkenly into the wall.
She leaned a shoulder against the wall and slid her way into the control room and the computer.
It was repeating a single word.
Nat, Nat, Nat, Nat.....
She bumped the screen. "Come on Akemi, snap out of it.
Her response flared across the screen.
OH MY GOD I THOUGHT I KILLED YOU.
I WAS SO STUPID, ARE YOU OKAY? DON’T TALK! THERE'S NOT MUCH AIR.
THE JUMP WAS HARD, MUCH HARDER THAN I THOUGHT.
I BROUGHT US TO EARTH. CLOSER AT LEAST.
I’M SO SORRY NAT. I’M SO GLAD YOURE ALIVE. DON’T TALK, DON’T BREATHE HEAVY, WE’VE BARELY GOT ENOUGH AIR FOR YOU, I LOVE YOU…
Nat blinked her eyes repeatedly, struggling to read the blur of text with her pounding head. She tapped the screen a few more times.
"Shut up, Akemi. Tell me what's going on."
The screen cleared.
I’M GETTING A GRIP NOW. THE LAST JUMP SCRAMBLED ME A BIT.
WE’RE CLOSING IN ON THE SPO SPACE STATION. IT WILL TAKE US AT LEAST HALF AN HOUR. I HAVE TO JUMP AGAIN.
The door to the control room hissed shut.
I’M DIVERTING ALL ATMOSPHERE TO THIS ROOM. IT SHOULD BE ENOUGH.
I CAN PICK UP THE SPO SIGNALS FROM THE SPACE STATION. THE TRIAL IS IN PROGRESS. THE CAPTAIN IS SUMMONING MEDICS. SERIOUS INJURIES… A SPO, AND A HUMAN.
Akemi monitored the communications as they got closer to the space station. When they were within the appropriate distance (the computational computer was good for something) Akemi sent a message to the captain, requesting to dock with the space station.
She forgot the Spo would know this was a Rik ship.
Within seconds the computational computer was telling her sulkily that enough weapons were trained on them to kill a dragon. The computer didn’t really understand human metaphor, but joined to Akemi her vocabulary had populated its communication library.
However, it was totally right about the weapons, and that was a problem. She sent several more bursts of explanation, but the captain was jamming her signal. He was probably concerned that the Rik might transmit a virus to their computer, which she’d seen in the archives that the Rik did a few years ago.
She tried all the frequencies of communication the ship possessed, but there was nothing. Then the captain sent a message to the nearest armed cruiser.
UH OH
THEY WON’T LET US DOCK. THEY’RE CONTACTING A CRUISER.
Nat’s head was redefining the term ‘migraine’ for her. She could hardly think for pain, and that was saying something. Her ears and throat ached, and a horrible altitude headache was settling in from the loss of air. Now the screen was getting fuzzy. She had to read the words three times before she processed them.
WAIT! GOT SOMETHING. THERE ARE SEVERAL CELL PHONE SIGNATURES ON THE SHIP. IF I CAN FIND ONE THAT’S ON…
GOT ONE. IT’S CHRIS! CHRIS AND CLAUDIA, I MET THEM IN THE HOSPITAL.
OH PLEASE.
***
In the trial room, Greg got a medic to give Shara a pain killer and caffeine injection, to increase her reaction time. They’d already splinted her arm.
She slumped in the one extra chair, facing the screen showing the Galactic Council. She studiously avoided looking at Tishing.
Sam knelt next to her for a moment.
“Help us, and I’ll protect you when it’s over,” he whispered. “I’ll figure it out.”
She just looked at him.
Greg and Gustav consulted in under voices for a moment, but then Tishing stood. “I request the defense to question their witness and stop delaying this process.”
Gustav stepped out the door. “I’ll take care of him for now,” he told Greg.
Greg nodded and turned to Shara.
“You are Rik,” he said.
Shara made up her mind.
“Yes.”
Tishing stirred, uncrossed his legs.
“How many cadets did you kill?”
“I – none. I wiped Jonathan. I kidnapped Nat and her sister. It was D – “
“Your accomplice,” Greg interrupted. “How many did your accomplice kill?”
“Three, if you count Paolo, who died about a year ago on Spo. D – my accomplice also took steps to escalate a riot, which injured five more cadets.”
Tishing leaned forward, and some of the Council did too.
“And your accomplice is human?” Greg asked.
Shara looked at Sam.
“Protected,” he mouthed silently.
“No,” she said. “My accomplice is not human.”
“Rik?” Greg asked.
“No. He is Spo.”
The emperor growled. “What is she saying? She accuses the Spo, but says she is Rik? How do we know any of that is true?”
Shara sat up a little straighter. “The Rik scientists who put me in this body are currently doing the same to one of the cadets. Their plan was to infiltrate the cadets before the trial began.”
Shara gave the scientists’ names and described some of their experiments, which caused more uproar among the Council members. She told them the name of the Rik city where she was born and the names of her parents.
She was convincing. The Merith spokesperson stopped her. “Her planet of origin is accepted. She is clearly Rik. The next question: who is the accomplice, and is he truly Spo?”
Greg stepped in. “She has testified that her accomplice is not human. Whether he was Spo, Rik, or something else, I think the point has been made. The prosecutor charged humanity with killing the cadets. We have proved that they did not do this.”
“We still need to know the accomplice!” the emperor said.
Greg shook his head. “No, I do not believe we do.”
The emperor shook his head. “I am not convinced that the humans are innocent. The accomplice must be uncovered.”
Greg sighed. Sam nodded at him, this was the only way to convince the emperor.
“The name of your partner?” Greg said to Shara.
“Downy.”
***
Claudia watched a distorted view screen from one of the cadet waiting rooms. The cadets were clumped around the several screens, though they left space around her and Chris. The room was dead quiet as they watched Downy on the screen, being carried into the trial room. His leg was bandaged and bulky. One of the Spo carrying him bumped his foot on the edge of the door and Downy swore at him.
“I’ll have you sent to Merith for medical experiments. I swear it,” Downy said.
They set Downy on a Spo recliner that was just relocated for him. He nodded to his father, the emperor, and ignored the Council. Shara now sat against the wall, but Claudia thought she recoiled further when he glared at her.
Greg said to Downy, “It is not my wish to bring charges against you at this time. However, we must confirm that the cadet killings in the last weeks were not at human hands. Is it true – ”
Chris’s cell phone went off, the 1812 Overture in digital tones. All the cadets looked at him as he fumbled it out of his pocket.
“For heaven’s sake, turn it off!”
He silenced it at once and they turned back to the view of the trial room.
“You have reception on a space station?” Claudia whispered to him.
He shrugged and looked at the missed calls. There was no number listed. He muted the phone and put it back in his pocket.
Downy was yelling at Greg on screen. “- don’t even have the guts to kill an insolent, useless cadet – ”
The cell phone buzzed in his pocket. Chris jerked it out. A text message. He put his finger on the power button, but the screen turned pink.
Pink?
“Is this Chris, Claudia’s friend?
I NEED to talk to you before the end of the trial.
Akemi.”
Claudia read the message over his arm and jerked when she saw the name.
“It’s Akemi!” Claudia said. “Talk to her! Where is she?”
Chris hit reply and started slowly typing, “Where are…”
“Oh, give me that,” Claudia said. “You were never a twelve year old girl.”
She took the phone and used both her thumbs on the tiny keyboard. “Whr r u?”
Almost instantaneously an answer appeared. “Coming fast, inside a Rik spaceship. Got to get Nat onboard space station - no air. Get the captain to let us dock.”
“rik w/u?” Claudia sent.
“No Rik, just Nat. Sending data. Be there in 3 minutes.”
The download icon appeared on screen, meaning that the smart phone was temporarily busy downloading a bucket load of data.
“How big is this phone?” Claudia asked.
“64 gig.” The download bar inched forward. “She’s sending something big, though.”
For a second they stood there staring at the phone.
“It’ll take too long,” Chris said. “We can’t wait. If they’re in a Rik ship it’s going to take a lot of convincing for the captain to let them dock.” Chris tapped Armen on the shoulder.
“We’ve got to get to the control room,” Chris said. “Akemi and Nat are coming.”
Armen stared, and Claudia showed him their texts.
“How did Nat… never mind,” Armen said. “Let’s go.”
In the control room, the captain was yelling at a subordinate. It was the hissing, guttural yell of the Spo, but Armen interrupted him. He hissed and barked something at the captain that made him stop and stare at them.
The captain took a deep breath, clearly about to have them thrown out. Claudia felt blank. How could she explain quickly enough to get through to him?
Chris walked calmly into the captain’s space.
“The ship is Rik,” he said.
The captain’s eyestalks swiveled to him.
“Yes, Rik. How do you know that? Are you Rik? Get them contained!”
Three Spo grabbed Chris and Claudia. “I’m Spo security,” Chris said. “A lost cadet is on that ship. She needs air.”
The captain paused. “There is a trial in progress. I cannot allow anyone to dock.”
“Get authorization from General Gustav or Greg,” Chris said.
“Are they communicating with you?” Armen asked the captain. “In English? Ask their names.”
“You are not my commander,” the captain said, pale orange. He eyestalks twitched. “Get them out.”
The phone in Claudia’s hand beeped. Download complete.
Chris grabbed the phone. “Let us see what this is,” he said. “If it doesn’t convince you, we’ll go.”
The captain paused.
“We’ll go, after this,” Chris said again. He tried to open the first file, but it didn’t display.
“Shoot. Probably video files, from the size of them. But they’re not normal…” he changed some settings on his phone. “I have some Spo software on here from work. If it’s Spo video, then maybe…”
He tried again and the first video started. Chris watched the Hadron explosion from space, holding the phone out so Claudia, Armen, and the captain could see.
Claudia felt a flop sweat forming on her forehead. Why did Akemi send them this? She expected a video of Nat and Akemi escaping. Or a video of them gasping their last breath. Something convincing. This was ancient history.
Chris clicked replay. “Maybe she – ”
But Armen said shush, and the captain started bouncing on his clawed feet. “It is a Rik digger bomb. On Earth.”
Before the short video had finished its second play, the captain was back in his chair. He was issuing commands and stubbing his clawed fingers onto various screens. The large curved window in front of him showed the single ship growing closer.
“They’ll be docked in three minutes,” the captain said.
“The video showed a bomb?” Claudia asked. But Armen was hyperventilating a tad, so she patted him on the back.
The captain finished his frantic work. “They’re docking now. Let’s go see who it is. We must confirm this video for the trial.”
Claudia waited behind the others as the airlock door opened. She was afraid what she might see in the ship. Why had Akemi contacted Chris? Was Nat injured? Was Akemi? If they didn’t have enough air, that was going to be even more of a problem for Akemi, with her lung transplant. What if they were too late?
As soon as the ship’s airlock slid open, with a hiss of sucking air, Claudia felt wind rush past her into the airlock as the pressure equalized. Spo security forces ran on board, followed closely by Chris and Armen.
“She’s here!”
“It’s Nat! She unconscious.”
Claudia ran then. Nat lay on her side in the control room. Handcuffs dangled from one chafed wrist and blood caked her nose and lips and ran out of her left ear. Her hair was tangled in a knot and when Armen lifted an eyelid, her eyes were horribly blood shot. Claudia could see the resemblance to Akemi, but only slightly. This girl looked so much older and tougher than Akemi. Armen and the captain crouched to pick her up. “We’ll take her to medical room,” he said.
“But Akemi?” Claudia said. “Where is she?”
She and Chris left the control room, checking each room. The ship was small. Akemi was nowhere to be found.
When Chris began to pry open a cabinet in the kitchen area, Claudia realized she was still holding his cell phone. It buzzed again with a text message.
“I’m not in there. Don’t hurt yourself.
I’m the ship computer.
:( Go figure.”
Claudia dropped the phone.