The Star Mother Page 4

  “Wouldn’t you be more comfortable in your alcove?” Fred wondered.

  She laughed. “As if I could find my way back by myself? It looks like I’m stuck here until you two return, so don’t take all night. If it even is ‘night’ up there.”

  “It’s the middle of the day, actually,” William said.

  Sasha laughed again. “Okay, you go on ahead. Fred will catch up with you. I want to talk to him for a moment.”

  William seemed satisfied with this and turned away, heading down the tunnel from which he’d emerged.

  Sasha still spoke quietly to Fred, in case William hung around close by in an attempt to eavesdrop. She slipped an arm around the back of his neck and pulled him down close, whispering into his ear. “If he tries anything suspicious—tries to signal anyone when you haven’t told him to, makes any sudden moves, I don’t know, anything—you kill him on the spot. We’ll use his ship without his help.”

  “I will do as you ask,” he demurred, then strolled away in the direction William had gone.

  This is either going to save us or get us all killed. Maybe even both at once, Sasha thought darkly.

  Chapter 4

  Carriers

  William had already grown sick and tired of making the trek from his ferry ship down to the tunnels for his regular rendezvous with Fred. The tunnel part wasn’t so bad, but hiking across the surface of Actis remained a deeply unpleasant chore. Order uniforms did a very good job of maintaining one’s core body temperature, and with the benefit of a thin face mask the bitter winds didn’t affect his nose or lips or ears too much, but having to trudge through deep snow—even in solidly manufactured Order boots—left him far from entertained. Snow was an almost mythical phenomenon on Lexin. The summers never got too hot and the winters never got too cold. He remembered Zotz occasionally regaled him with tales from Earth, where snow evidently fell regularly in many places, and where it often got so cold you could easily freeze to death. The idea had always seemed laughable to William, at least until he came to this place. I never knew what cold really was before this planet, he thought with a shiver.

  He paused the stomping of his boots into the white powder long enough to turn and squint through the blowing, falling snow, making out a gray figure not too far behind. He then faced forward again and continued, this time at a slower pace so Fred could catch up. His ship was parked several kilometers away from the small crevice he used to enter the mines, that opening itself distant enough from the surface portion of the Totality facility that they couldn’t readily detect him. At least, he assumed they couldn’t, otherwise someone would’ve come for him by now. I can’t imagine the Totality would ignore a foreign ship parking near one of their mining operations, so odds are good they just haven’t seen me. In all fairness, Actis was rather remote, as much as any place within the Totality Fortress could be considered “remote.” It lacked any significant orbital emplacements, something Zotz must have taken into account when choosing it.

  The recording the old Sage left him remained the only tangible reminder that he once traveled with companions. Much as he hated to admit it, he still missed Linda, and regretted her loss the most. Why couldn’t Zotz have shoved her into that ferry ship right along with me? Why did I have to be the only one to make it out alive? There was nothing left, just debris. The Totality obliterated them. Obliterated the ship, and just left me. He sighed, his breath making a nearly invisible plume in the air before him, instantly scattered by the whipping winds.

  The days spent journeying to this planet almost drove him mad, as well. He watched and listened to Zotz’s recording over and over, hoping there was some kind of message coded deeper within it, that the old man had a plan William wasn’t privy to but could perhaps decipher if he just paid close enough attention. The old man’s words were cryptic: “There are forces that move beyond your perception and mine, forces which fear who you are, and who you may become. Such forces cannot be allowed to capture you. Whatever you do, do not return to the ship. You may find it in the hands of enemies, or more likely destroyed.”

  But what does any of that mean? he asked himself, having memorized the recording word for word by now. Who I am? Who I might become? Are there “forces” to worry about besides the Totality? Maybe the Order? I still don’t know anything about them—what they stand for, whether they’d be friends or enemies if I ran into them. Zotz threw me out here almost completely helpless and thinks I’m going to pull off some kind of miracle.

  He let the thought go as he and Fred arrived at his ferry ship. A pocket remote activated the exterior hatch on the port side of the vessel, a rectangular section folding down to let them in. Both entered and shook off the snow. William quickly moved to close the hatch and restore the temperature of the ship’s interior to a more comfortable level.

  Fred seemed unbothered by the wintery ordeal. “You really don’t care about the cold, do you?” William wondered with a raised eyebrow.

  The gray creature shook his head, a few more flakes of snow tumbling out of his thin, wiry hair. “My kind are quite accustomed to cold environs. Back when I was a youth, I…” His eyes seemed to take him someplace else, no doubt plumbing the depths of some old memory, and William noticed how the lanky man caught himself before he said too much. Fred simply trailed off and smiled. “I see no need to bore you with stories of my childhood. We came here for a purpose, did we not?”

  “You’re right,” William agreed, stepping over to the main console at the fore of the ship. He pulled open an access panel under the primary controls. “As far as I know, all the guts of the communication system are under here. I don’t know a thing about it. I sure hope you’re good with this sort of thing.”

  “I can take a look.” Fred shuffled forward, William stepping off to the side. The troll got down onto his knees and awkwardly flipped onto his back, sliding toward the opening William had exposed. His hands went inside and felt around.

  I hope he doesn’t break anything, William thought, always quick to expect the worst. “What’s the story with you and that woman, anyway? Sasha?”

  Fred didn’t stop his manipulations inside the console. “I have known her since she was a child. I taught her the basics of this life. Same as I have done for other slaves, of course.”

  “Yeah, but there was something about how you talked with her. She trusts you. Not like a friend.” William didn’t think he needed to be any more blunt than that.

  Fred paused to make eye contact. “If you are suggesting a romantic affiliation, I assure you there is no such relationship. I have been a mentor and a friend, and no more. Perhaps you also missed how she all but accused me of being a Totality spy?”

  William smirked. “To be honest, that read exactly like a love spat to me. I could tell she wasn’t serious.”

  Fred’s expression told William the troll had had enough of his ribbing. “If you expect me to complete my work, perhaps you will find something less irritating to talk about. Or perhaps we can avoid speaking at all.”

  “You don’t have to be like that,” William said, folding his arms. “Just trying to make conversation. How did you end up here? Are there others like you around? Sasha mentioned there are a lot of other slaves. How many are human? How many are… other things?”

  “Well, I do not know where you’re from, William, but Totality slaves are almost all human. Avalonians make up a very small part of the Totality slave population. Most are simply too dangerous to be controlled, too willful to be broken.”

  Avalonians? That’s what they’re called? “Are you saying humans aren’t willful or dangerous?” William found that prospect rather insulting.

  “You can be, but you are also susceptible to the most rudimentary of psychological tricks. You are creatures of habit. You are creatures of comfort. Even slavery can be made tolerable with the right sense of routine and order. Not enjoyable, perhaps, but not suffocating enoug
h to provoke rebellion.”

  “Or maybe a bunch of unarmed and poorly-fed, overworked people realize they can’t stand up to the guys with guns,” William countered. “What’s so great about you ‘Avalonians?’”

  “For one, we have magical gifts that you lack.”

  William laughed, turning away from Fred to get a handle on himself. Once he got his composure back, he continued. “Wait, you’re not serious, are you? Magic?”

  The troll shrugged. “You have traveled in vessels that can close the distance between stars in minutes, and you find the idea of magic implausible? What other sorts of beings have you encountered in your travels?”

  “Weird ones,” William admitted. “There was a basilisk. Some kind of bird thing. A faerie. There were these things called bedknives? And a guy that was full of snakes. Actually, he was a snake. A bunch of snakes. Those guys are assholes, aren’t they?”

  Fred smiled as if a flicker of memory had come alight. “Ah, a serpentine. Don’t judge them all on the basis of one encounter, my friend. Some of my most faithful companions have been serpentines. You wouldn’t want me to judge all humans based on your poor attitude, would you?”

  “Poor attit—” William started, aggressively moving toward Fred. He halted almost as quickly as he began. “You’re just trying to provoke me, aren’t you?”

  “You seem to be an especially easy man to provoke, William Pearson.”

  “Still at it, I see.”

  Fred chuckled. “I hope I have made my point.” Withdrawing his hands from the guts of the console, he sat up, then pushed himself upright. He turned toward the main control panel and gestured his hand over it. “I believe I have made the proper modifications to override the Totality carrier signal. Are you prepared for a quick test?”

  William didn’t see why not. “Sure, let’s try it.”

  Fred lowered himself into the main seat and worked the controls as if he’d done it a million times before. William took up the chair next to him, resting his elbow on the edge of the panel and watching Fred’s movements. “You’re familiar with this kind of technology?”

  “It has been a good while since I’ve had the opportunity to use it, but yes. The Order do not appear to experience technological revolutions on a regular basis. General console design seems to have not changed in… hm, a long time, I suppose.”

  William found this one’s evasive answers almost as annoying as Zotz’s. Did I really just trade one obnoxious, cryptic old man for another? “How will we know it’s working?”

  Fred held up his hand as if to shush William, then moved a slider with his other hand. The cabin filled with beeping sounds of multiple pitches. They came in rapid sequence and William could detect no pattern just from a few seconds of listening. “This is the real carrier signal,” Fred explained. “This is what they send to every other outpost on the planet. It’s a rotating code based on an initial seed value, encrypted with a common cipher. Impossible to reproduce unless you know the original seed.”

  “Which you do,” William guessed.

  Fred offered a toothy grin, showing William that troll teeth weren’t so much like human teeth. Instead, they were very yellowed and sharp, and William didn’t doubt they could be put to deadly use in a fight. If you didn’t die from blood loss you’d probably die of an infection soon after. “Yes, I acquired the code some time ago, in anticipation of an opportunity like this.”

  “Does Sasha even know that?”

  Fred’s smile became more serious. “I tell Sasha what I believe she needs to know from one moment to the next. The less she knows, the less the Totality will suspect her, and the less they could extract from her if they ever opted to interrogate. I am content to let her lead us to freedom, but I see no need to expose her to unnecessary risks.”

  William determined there was more to the troll’s relationship with Sasha than could easily be discerned from conversing with Fred. Sasha didn’t seem like the open-up-and-talk type either. I wonder what the deal is with these two. Maybe we’ll all be lucky enough to survive and I’ll find out. Putting the thought aside, he paid attention to the beeping sounds, which continued. “How long do we have to listen to this?”

  “Not much longer,” Fred promised, one of his hands hovering over the main console. “I want to make sure the signals are synchronized properly. If I guess wrong about the rotation, believe me, the other Totality outposts will notice immediately. Their systems are designed to detect false signals.”

  William took his word for it. Fred waited for a lull in the beeping sequences, then tapped a button. William didn’t notice anything different—beeps started again, coming in seemingly random patterns. “Did you do it?”

  Fred smiled. “You cannot tell, can you?”

  “Nope.”

  “Exactly. That means I have done it correctly. When we need to override the signal completely, we will have to boost the power—perhaps draw on everything your ship’s reactor can offer. That will be necessary for the duration of our attempt to take over the facility, so the Totality here cannot call for help.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then we will control the mining operation and restore the original signal. Simple, no?”

  Too simple, William thought skeptically. “How many people are in on this plan of yours? You have some clue how you’re going to take over the whole base? I got a good look at it when I was flying in. It’s not small.”

  “You leave that to us,” Fred assured him. “One thing I can tell you is to stay out of sight until we have taken the facility. It is far too easy to identify you as not being a slave.”

  William waved his hands in front of his uniform. “What, you mean my clothes? You guys are practically wearing rags. I’m sure I could manage.”

  Fred shook his head. “No, it is not that.” Putting a finger to his temple, he explained. “You do not have a brand like the other slaves.”

  William’s eyebrow went up again. “You don’t, either.”

  “I am an exception. You wouldn’t be. Did you not see Sasha’s?”

  “No, it was dark,” William answered honestly. Something else did occur to him, though: Kina lied about her scar. She had it right there, in the middle of her forehead. Why didn’t she want to tell us she’d been enslaved by the Totality? I guess I’ll never get the chance to hear an explanation, now.

  Satisfied that his signal was well-synchronized, Fred manipulated the console to shut it down, moved past William, and began rummaging through a chest near the back of the ship, where emergency parts were located. William hadn’t much bothered investigating those, since the ship had worked well so far. “What are you looking for?” William asked, hovering over the troll.

  “A remote communicator. It will let us activate the carrier override signal from within the mine. Just in case. It is supposed to be a standard piece of equipment in a ferry ship’s emergency supplement payload.”

  William watched, squinting to see if he could make out whatever it was Fred spoke of, but then the troll thrust his hand into the air with a triumphant grin. “Found it!” Fred moved back to the forward section and set to work. William once again tried to follow what he was doing, but it all went by too quickly.

  “You’re really good with this stuff,” he observed. I wish he’d tell me what his story is. He must know a lot more than he’ll admit.

  “I appreciate the compliment,” Fred said, still keeping his eyes on what he was doing, looking back and forth between the control panel and the remote. “There we go,” he announced. “I will hold onto this.”

  William shrugged. “I can always activate it from here, right? So you might as well keep it.”

  “Indeed. Shall we return to Sasha?”

  “Wait,” William urged, grabbing Fred’s arm. “I do have more questions.”

  “I would prefer to defer them until later.”


  William glanced around the inside of the ship. “What for? Doesn’t seem like we’re doing anything else right now. Are you planning to start your rebellion the second you get back?”

  “No,” he admitted.

  “Then let’s talk. Apart from our initial… misunderstanding… you’ve been very quick to trust me. You sold Sasha on me without much trouble. You know Order technology. You know about Avalonians, as you called them. You didn’t even seem surprised to see me once you got a good look at me.”

  William definitely couldn’t forget that part, the first time he went skulking through the mines, trying to find any sign of people who might help him. Fred got the drop on him in a hurry and could’ve easily killed him, but once he saw William’s face there came a glimmer of recognition. He wouldn’t admit to it, but it seems like he knows me, so why don’t I know him?

  “I was merely happy to have encountered a possible ally,” Fred deflected. “The Order are no friends to the Totality, as you should know. That you would help us means a lot. I have also developed a good sense of people over the years. You strike me as a trustworthy man, William Pearson. I admit the possibility has crossed my mind that you are a masterful manipulator, skilled in deception. I will have to accept that as a risk. You will have to accept that we won’t betray you. That is a risk for you, after all. Life as a Totality slave is not one I would recommend.”

  William knew he had a point. Still, he’s not being honest with me. I don’t think he’s lying about being an ally, but he’s hiding something. He has to be. What’s the point in pushing the issue right now, though? He’s right. It can wait. William shrugged. “You’re right. I guess we’ll just have to trust each other.”

  Fred extended his hand as a friendly gesture. William gave it a good shake, noticing that Fred avoided squeezing with his full strength. Fine by me. I didn’t need all my fingers broken today.

  “We are all in this together,” Fred promised.