Starbounders Read online

  The horse slowed once they reached a small cluster of stables that made up the center of the space commune. Aliens of all different sizes and colors worked side by side, constructing a new building, with the help of only a few robots.

  “This is it,” the olive-skinned alien said, stopping the horse before one of the stables. “Perhaps I’ll see you again.”

  Zachary, Kaylee, and Ryic climbed down from the horse.

  “Thanks for the ride,” Zachary said.

  “My pleasure,” the alien said. Giving his steed a gentle tap, he departed.

  The three approached the stable doors.

  “Seems like an odd place to be conducting interrogations,” Ryic said.

  “These extractors have to blend in,” Kaylee said. “Sounds to me as if she’s created a perfect cover.”

  They walked in through the open doors and stood at the back of the stable. Doveling sat cross-legged in a circle with two dozen young aliens, leading them in song. Her pointy ears and delicate features made her look like a fairy without wings.

  All Zachary heard was a series of clicks, beeps, and foreign languages, but he could see by the students’ smiles and hand-holding that they were probably singing about harmony and togetherness. Once the song was complete, all of the neophytes stood and began leaving the stable.

  Zachary, Ryic, and Kaylee walked past them, approaching Doveling.

  “Welcome,” she said. “Can I help you?”

  “Look,” Kaylee said, cutting to the chase. “I know what you do.”

  “I’m sorry?” Doveling asked.

  “We don’t want to get you in any kind of trouble,” Kaylee said. “We just need you to get us some information.”

  “You must have me confused with someone else. I’m a teacher.”

  “I know that’s not true,” Kaylee said. “My father is Liam Swanson. I know all about the high-commission court and the charges brought against him. And although he was exonerated, I know he did business with you.”

  “Come with me,” Doveling said. “We should talk in private.”

  The stables were empty save for Doveling and a couple of the eight-legged steeds. Still, Doveling led them to one of the old horse stalls and pushed away a pile of hay to reveal a door in the floor. She pulled it open and began to descend a staircase. Kaylee, Zachary, and Ryic followed. Not knowing where this stranger was taking them, Zachary made sure that his finger never hovered far from the trigger of his sonic crossbow.

  At the bottom of the steps they entered some kind of underground lab. At its center sat two metal chairs with arm and leg restraints. Lining the shelves were glass jars filled with long, slender needles that looked like the kind used for acupuncture.

  “You have it all wrong. He never told you the truth, did he?” Doveling asked.

  “What’s there to tell? He doesn’t care who he sells contracts to as long as he gets his precious promotions,” Kaylee replied.

  Zachary had seen Kaylee bristly before, but never quite like this.

  “Is that what you think?” Doveling shook her head. “Your father was my handler. He was an IPDL agent assigned to utilize my skills in extracting valuable information from outerverse threats.”

  “No. You’re thinking of the wrong guy,” Kaylee said. “My dad’s a contractor. The only thing he’s ever done for the IPDL is get them a good deal on building supplies.”

  “That’s his cover,” Doveling said. “Trust me. I’ve seen him in action. He’s the greatest fighter against injustice I have ever met.”

  “Why would he lie to me?” she asked.

  “Perhaps to protect you and to keep you from fearing for his safety every time he leaves you,” Doveling said.

  Kaylee went quiet. Zachary could see that she was trying to process all Doveling had said about her father.

  “So, what kind of information do you need help retrieving?” Doveling pointed to Ryic. “Is it from this one? Because I’ll pick his brain clean in an hour, tops.”

  “What? No!” Ryic cried. “I’m with them.”

  “Someone wants us dead,” Zachary said, jumping in. “And we’d like you to go into the mind of the man who tried to kill us.”

  “For a child of Liam, anything,” Doveling said. “Bring him to me.”

  “He’s in our ship,” Zachary said.

  “Go,” Doveling said. “I’ll get my needles ready.”

  When they returned to the buckler, Zachary and Ryic found Hartwell rummaging through one of the underbins, the effects of the stun ball having worn off. He seemed to be looking for a way to set himself free from the shockles. Zachary used another stun ball to immobilize Hartwell, then he and Ryic carried him to a wheelbarrow, tying a cloth around his eyes and hiding him under some blankets.

  They rolled him all the way back to Doveling’s stable and carried him down to the secret underground lab. Doveling strapped him into one of the metal chairs, shaved his head bald, and removed the blindfold. Soon he regained his muscular functions.

  “Where am I?” Hartwell demanded.

  “Relax,” Doveling said. “It makes the extraction far quicker.”

  “This is a violation of my rights!” he shouted.

  Zachary was unmoved. “How do you think I felt with your sonic crossbow pointed at my chest?” he said.

  Doveling removed a long, thin needle from one of the jars, as fine as a strand of hair, and brought it toward Hartwell’s naked skull. She located a precise spot and inserted the tip into his flesh. Though it looked gruesome, Hartwell didn’t flinch. He certainly wasn’t in pain, and perhaps didn’t feel it at all. Doveling extracted the needle and placed it in a new, empty jar.

  “What are you doing to me?” Hartwell’s temples were beading with sweat.

  “Extracting memories,” Doveling replied. “There won’t be any permanent damage, though.”

  Hartwell relaxed for the first time.

  “Of course, I might rearrange a few things in there,” Doveling added. “Do something about those violent tendencies of yours.”

  She inserted another needle, then removed it. This continued for quite some time, until the empty jar was filled with more than a hundred needles, each with an extracted memory on its tip. It was only after she was finished that Doveling placed a fume mask over Hartwell’s nose and mouth, causing him to fall asleep.

  “Now the memories need to be read,” Doveling said.

  Zachary didn’t see any microscopes or computers around. In fact, there was no lab equipment of any kind.

  “Which one of you wants to be the receptacle?” she asked.

  “What?” Zachary exclaimed. “How exactly does this work?”

  “I need to insert the needles into one of your frontal lobes. Then the memories will appear in your head as if they were your own.”

  “You want to stick those needles into our scalps,” Ryic said. “Not me. No way.”

  “Actually, they’re slipped into the tiny openings of your tear duct,” Doveling said. “With the numbing agent, I’ve been told it’s relatively painless.”

  “So why don’t you do it yourself?” Kaylee asked.

  “A surgeon never operates on herself,” Doveling said calmly.

  Ryic had already made his position known. It would have to be either Zachary or Kaylee, and Kaylee still seemed distracted by the revelations about her dad.

  “I’ll do it.” Zachary was hardly eager but saw no other choice.

  “Good. Take a seat.”

  Zachary sat in the second metal chair. Doveling approached with the jar of needles. She turned to Ryic and Kaylee.

  “If you’re squeamish, you might want to look away,” she said.

  Ryic took her up on the warning. Kaylee was less skittish. Doveling took the first of the needles and brought it toward Zachary’s face. He flinched at first, but she put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Then with only the slightest pinch, she slipped the needle into the small opening in the corner of his eye. Once it was inserted, Doveling ste
adily pushed it up and back. The only feeling Zachary could relate it to was the time he got stitches in his knee after it had been numbed. It was like a gentle, disconcerting tug on his eyeball.

  “The best place to read a memory is just above the ocular nerve,” Doveling said.

  Suddenly an image flooded Zachary’s brain. It showed Hartwell as a boy swimming in a pool. It was as vivid as if Zachary had experienced it himself. “Honey,” a motherly voice called. “Come dry off. It’s time for lunch.”

  Doveling pulled out the needle. It felt to Zachary like a splinter being removed.

  “How recent was the memory?” she asked.

  “That one was from his childhood,” Zachary said.

  “Okay, let’s try one of these,” Doveling said. “It’s trial and error.”

  As the next needle went in, Zachary got a flash of a violent scene. He was watching Hartwell’s father pour gasoline around a man tied to a chair. He struck a match and was about to let it drop.

  “I’ve seen enough of that one,” Zachary said.

  Doveling removed the needle. And so began a process of, one by one, inserting the obscure and often disturbing memories of Hartwell’s past. The collection of thoughts, images, and conversations quickly painted a picture of this traitorous assassin, who had learned everything he needed to know about being a ruthless mercenary from his father.

  She was about halfway through the jar when Zachary experienced a memory of interest. In it Hartwell was receiving a holo-mail on his phone, and though the sender was unknown, the message was clear: “Starbounders targeted for termination.” Pictures of Zachary, Kaylee, and Ryic followed. “Last confirmed location: Fringg Galaxy Void Market.” An image appeared of the giant space station, shrouded in darkness. “Once complete, proceed to Tenretni and terminate the cyber hack called Quee. No visual facial ID available.” A picture appeared of a human hand typing with four neon tattoos inked across the knuckles. The rest of the body was obscured in dark shadows. “Last confirmed location: Discrape Towers.” A final image appeared of an abandoned building with indecipherable symbols drawn on the marquee outside.

  “Quick, hand me a pen,” Zachary said. “And something to write on.”

  Doveling removed the needle from his tear duct, then fetched him a pencil and a piece of paper. Zachary transcribed the sign he had seen in his head as best he could.

  “Hartwell was telling the truth. He doesn’t know who hired him to kill us. But whoever it was employed him to kill someone else, too. A cyber hack named Quee living in the Tenretni District. This is the name of the building she was last seen in.”

  “Then we’ll go to Tenretni,” Kaylee said. “What other leads do we have?”

  “That city is located beyond the Asteroid Curtain,” Doveling said. “Past what felons call the Indigo Divide. Once you enter those far reaches of space, there are no lang-link probes. No life lines to the IPDL.”

  “Can I open my eyes yet?” Ryic asked. He still had his back turned and his hands covering his face.

  “Yes, it’s fine, Ryic,” Kaylee said. “We got what we need.”

  “What would you like us to do with him?” Zachary asked, gesturing to the unconscious Hartwell.

  “Once I finish remapping his neurons, I’ll put him to work in the fields,” Doveling said. “He’ll be happy here. They usually are.”

  “What do you mean?” Zachary asked.

  “The criminals I extract from all end up making Kibarat their home,” Doveling said. “That alien who brought you to me—he used to have blood on his hands. Now it’s just dirt. And while some view remapping as inhumane, I have no doubt it gives them a better life than one in prison, behind bars and in shockles.”

  Doveling led them up the staircase and into the stable. As they emerged inside the empty stall, Doveling brushed the pile of hay back over the trapdoor. Then they walked toward the exit.

  “Should you ever need to seek refuge again, you’re always welcome here,” Doveling said.

  A new group of young aliens was already forming a semicircle in the center of the stable, sitting cross-legged and holding writing tablets in their laps.

  “I have another class to teach,” Doveling said. “Today we’re learning about the Three Virtues of the Lamasori. It was he who said, ‘Truth has many curtains. But one need not pull back all of them to see the light.’”

  With that, Zachary, Kaylee, and Ryic departed. Upon stepping out into the warm glow of Kibarat’s dome, Zachary viewed the workers tilling the fields differently. It was impossible to tell which ones were peaceful pilgrims who had come here to seek a simpler way of life and which had been reprogrammed to think that was what they’d desired.

  The distance to the buckler felt longer on foot than it did by horseback. Kaylee was still lost in thought.

  “I know what you learned about your father must be confusing,” Zachary said.

  “It is,” Kaylee replied. “All this time, I thought he was away from us for some stupid job. But now I find out that everything he sacrificed was so he could help make this outerverse a better place.”

  “Sounds like you two aren’t so different after all,” Zachary said.

  A smile started to form on her face. “I’m guessing all those cuts on his hands weren’t from filing papers.”

  They reached the buckler just as the dome’s daylight simulation was beginning to cycle to night. They ascended the boarding ramp and returned to their seats in the ship’s flight deck. This time, Ryic inputted the waypoints to Tenretni on the planet Irafas, charting their course on the Kepler cartograph.

  “What I still can’t understand is how a cyber hack in Tenretni has anything to do with someone wanting us dead,” Kaylee said.

  “Maybe there’s been a flaw in our logic,” Ryic said. “All this time we’ve been assuming that a person from Indigo 8 is behind this. What if it’s not a person?”

  “Now you’ve lost me,” Zachary said.

  “Think about it,” Ryic said. “The glitch in the Qube. The malfunctioning stun ball during the Chameleon game. The unlocked terrarium. The sabotaged starbox. They’re all things that Cerebella could have done.”

  “You’re saying Indigo 8’s mainframe computer wants us dead?” Zachary asked. “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” Ryic said, “but she would have received the transmission we sent from the void market. She could have hired Hartwell to kill us. As for Quee, perhaps the hacker stumbled onto the truth. Who better to uncover Cerebella’s plot?”

  Zachary had to admit it was a compelling case.

  “Computers have taken on a life of their own before,” Kaylee said. “Haven’t you ever read about the Binary Colonies?”

  If it was Cerebella who was responsible for all of this, they were up against a more powerful adversary than they’d even thought possible.

  «ELEVEN»

  Zachary made gentle sweeping motions with his hands, guiding the buckler through a calm expanse of space. The young Starbounders had deactivated the autopilot so they could all get some practice in. It also helped pass the time during the long flight between space folds. Kaylee and Ryic were in the main cabin playing an impromptu game of zero-gravity soccer. Kaylee had blown air into a rubber glove taken from one of the first aid kits and was kicking it from wall to wall as Ryic tried to intercept it.

  “Come on, Ryic, if you’re frustrated, talk some trash,” Kaylee said.

  “I have no interest in speaking about garbage,” he replied. “My focus is on winning.”

  Zachary could hear Kaylee kick the makeshift balloon ball. There was a pop followed by a whizzing sound, and the deflated glove zipped past his shoulder, making a high-pitched squeal before smacking into the cockpit window. Kaylee soared up beside him.

  “Sorry, hit the tip of my boot,” she said.

  “That sound,” Zachary said, still cringing. “It’s worse than nails on a chalkboard for me.”

  “Really?” Kaylee asked. “A deflating balloon?”

&nb
sp; “Yep, ever since I was little. My parents hired a clown to make balloon animals at my first-grade birthday party. I hid in my bedroom the whole time.”

  “That’s so sad,” Kaylee said, suppressing a laugh. “Then again, the sound of an emery board is like a knife jabbing at my eardrum. That’s why my fingers look like they’re in desperate need of a manicure. Which you couldn’t pay me to get, by the way.”

  “Your hands do resemble those of a hairless ichtyopod,” Ryic said.

  “That better be a compliment, or you’re about to see these hands close up,” Kaylee said, making two fists.

  “It is a smooth-skinned, glorious creature,” Ryic said, clearly lying, “renowned for its beauty.”

  But Zachary wasn’t listening anymore. His focus had turned to a cloud of gray that stretched as far as he could see. “What is that?”

  As the ship got closer to it, it became apparent that the cloud was made up of millions of rocks banging into each other, shattering into smaller pieces.

  “The Asteroid Curtain,” Ryic said. “Past there, we’re on our own.”

  “I think we already are,” Zachary said.

  “Some say it was caused by the big bang itself,” Ryic said. “That everything beyond it is part of the outerverse that predates existence as we know it.”

  “Maybe it’s time to put the autopilot back on,” Zachary said.

  With a gesture, he disengaged the manual command of the buckler. The ship continued on its course, and the closer they came to the Curtain, the better Zachary felt about his decision to relinquish control. He could have dodged the larger chunks of rock with his own steering, but there were tiny ones, too, so small that they went undetected until the ship nearly made impact with them.

  The autopilot’s collision-avoidance system was working overtime. As the buckler wove through the maze of hurtling rocks, Zachary, Ryic, and Kaylee were treated to a roller-coaster ride. It was like Six Flags but without the tracks. If he hadn’t been strapped in, Zachary would have been turned into a human pinball. As soon as they crossed to the other side of the Asteroid Curtain, the ship started beeping and a flashing red message appeared on the cockpit window: WARNING: EXITING REGISTERED IPDL TERRITORY. OUTERVERSE DATABASE LIMITED FROM THIS POINT ON. HIGHLY CAUTION AGAINST CONTINUING.