Chapter 14 #2
“Human tech,” Kira answered. “They’re the gift that keeps on giving. The dust lingers for years after the inciting explosion—especially in an enclosed space like this. Once inhaled, the razor-sharp particles destroy you from the inside out.”
They’d invade your bloodstream. Basically cutting you to pieces, doing damage on a microscopic level until your body finally gave out.
As far as Kira knew, there was no treatment.
“They’re banned on every Consortium planet. Not even the military uses them anymore,” Jin said.
That was mostly because of the collateral damage they caused.
Kira and Jin had lost a few friends that way. Soldiers who didn’t gain minimum safe distance before setting off the bomb.
It was a hell of a way to go.
“How did the remnants of human tech wind up in a wanderer’s enclave?” Az asked.
“There are a few groups I can think of who still have this in their arsenal,” Jin said.
Kira could too.
All of them human. All of them on the wrong side of the law.
“We need to get inside that room,” Bez announced suddenly.
He stared over Jin’s head with a focus that told Kira that he and reason were no longer buddies.
“I just told you that’s a death sentence,” Jin argued.
“I don’t care. It holds the answers we need. I’m going in.” Bez considered Jin coldly. “You and that traitor behind you might not understand loyalty but we do.”
This was the second time Bez had called Finn a traitor.
Honestly, Kira was getting a little tired of it.
Grief and worry could only be used so often to excuse bad behavior. Bez was getting very close to exhausting her patience.
“If a sacrifice is needed, my companions and I won’t hesitate. That is the mark of a true oshota,” Bez said with a look at Finn that had Kira bristling.
“I’m such a martyr. Look at me,” Jin mocked before making an obnoxious gagging sound.
“Spare me. Those two have made so many sacrifices that it’s no longer worth mentioning.
” Jin pointed at Kira. “That one slowly killed herself with ki poisoning because she didn’t want someone else risking themselves on the battlefield.
Didn’t bother telling anyone what was happening either.
Just soldiered on, dying a little more each time.
” Jin’s finger swung toward Finn. “Idiot number two threw himself at an Osiri while trying to protect idiot number one.”
“You were also among those I was trying to protect,” Finn murmured.
Jin acted like he didn’t hear, too invested in making his point to stop now. “That’s just one instance. I’m too lazy to remember the rest. If you want to compare ‘sacrifices’, I’m game. We’ll win every time. Our ‘sacrifices’ at least got results. Yours just ends in pointless death.”
“No one is sacrificing anything,” Kira interrupted.
She felt that needed to be said.
Also, if Jin wasn’t careful, Bez might decide to chuck him into that death trap.
“Quit stirring the pot,” Kira warned Jin with an edge of steel in her voice. “You’ve made your point.”
“But it’s so much fun to see what rises to the surface,” Jin snarked.
Uh huh. Like they had time for that.
“Can you do it?” Kira asked, struggling for patience.
“Do my ears mislead me or did I just hear you admit you have need of my skills?” Jin quipped.
“Just answer the question.”
“First—I want to hear you say it. Say—‘Jin, thank God you’re here. Your superior intellect is exactly what this mission needed.’”
“How about instead I say ‘Jin, if you don’t quit fooling around, I’ll have Dylan escort you back to Ta Sa’Riel.’”
“You’re no fun.”
Kira smiled to herself as Jin shuffled around to face the room’s entrance. She’d thought that might do the trick.
Noticing the aghast expressions on Bez and the rest’s faces, Kira frowned. “Now what?”
“You can’t actually be thinking of sending a child in there,” Pye protested. “Children are precious. No matter how trying they are, it is never appropriate to sacrifice them.”
Az nodded, looking serious. “Caius wouldn’t forgive us if a child’s life was ended in exchange for his.”
“Who said anything about sending Jin in there?” Kira asked in confusion.
These Tuann were so all over the place that she was exhausted just dealing with them.
“Again—not a child,” Jin quipped, kneeling at the threshold of the room as he set his backpack on the ground next to him and dug through it.
“You look like a child. How old can you be?” Bez asked in exasperation.
Jin busied himself withdrawing robotic figurines. “Kira, how old are we?”
“Graydon said ninety-three.”
Kira needed to figure out what day their birthday was. They might be ninety-four now.
Jin lined up a squirrel, a hummingbird, and a figure that looked like a chaterling.
“How is that possible?” Az asked.
Dylan cleared his throat, waiting until Kira glanced at him before shaking his head once.
“It’s a long story,” Kira settled on saying.
She didn’t need Dylan’s warning. Under no circumstances had Kira intended sharing the particulars of Jin’s evolution. She much preferred others see him as an unsolvable enigma.
An enigma who was currently muttering to himself.
“Not you.” Jin chucked the hummingbird back into the bag before picking up the next. “Nor you. Can’t risk disturbing the dust.”
In went the chaterling until all that remained was the fist-sized squirrel.
“You’ll have to do,” Jin told it.
He sealed the bag and rose.
“What are you doing?” Bez asked.
He’d lost some of the hostility, curiosity winning out.
“Something your tiny brain can’t imagine.” Jin petted the squirrel. “Okay, my lovely. Time to earn your keep.”
The squirrel cocked its head, its movements so realistic it was like looking at a living creature.
Bez and Pye jumped backwards as Az reached for her en-blade.
“What is that?” Bez snarled.
Jin pressed a kiss to the squirrel’s head. “Don’t listen to those idiots. You’re perfect and amazing as you are.”
Rubbing it on the head one last time, Jin tossed it high into the room.
The squirrel spread its four legs, revealing the flap of material joining them together. It glided on the air currents, carving a meandering path toward the table.
A second later, it landed, dislodging a puff of dust.
“How are you controlling that thing?” Az asked.
Jin concentrated on the squirrel. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
The squirrel crawled all over the table, searching for an access point. It must have found it because the surface lit up with circles of varying sizes. Some were smaller than Kira’s fist. Others as big as her head.
“Human technology isn’t compatible with Tuann,” Az insisted.
Jin’s avatar crawled onto the largest circle at the center of the table. It flattened itself directly against the surface until its belly was fully touching and all four limbs spread wide, making it look a lot like a dissected corpse.
A series of musical chirps issued from its throat.
“Others may consider that a problem but never me.” Jin missed the speculation in Az’s gaze as she studied him carefully. “What am I looking for, Nixxy?”
“A roster of some kind. See if there are names and ages on it.”
Kira could have told him her suspicions but feared influencing him. She wanted him with an open mind.
Bez’s gaze jerked to Kira. “Why do you care about that? We’re here for Caius.”
Instead of answering, Kira posed her own question. “During your search, did any of you encounter evidence of children?”
It was the nicest way she could think of to ask if they’d found their bodies.
Taken aback, Az blinked several times and glanced at the others. “I didn’t.”
Pye shook his head.
After a moment, Bez did the same. “Why are you asking?”
Finn saved Kira the effort of answering. “Our search uncovered something troubling.”
“You think the attackers didn’t just kidnap Caius. You think they stole children as well.” The words were phrased as a statement rather than a question as Az sent a measuring look at Kira. “What would they want with children?”
“Trust me—you don’t want to know,” Kira said.
The Tuann lacked the imagination to fully understand the horrors awaiting a child left alone in a universe that was all too often cruel. To them, children were precious. They’d never walked in utter darkness and didn’t realize the depravity lurking there.
Kira did.
Even if the Tsavitee weren’t behind this, nothing good was waiting for the children out there.
Jin kicked the wall next to him. “Mother humping son of a goat. Let me find you, assholes. See what I do.”
His outburst caused Pye to jump. Bez’s blade appeared in his hand suddenly.
There was nothing overt in the way Dylan shifted, but suddenly all three were staring at him as if he’d done something threatening.
Dylan didn’t say anything. Just stared.
Az gestured for the other two to stand down.
They did so. Reluctantly and a little guiltily.
Jin saw none of that, his face was furious as he focused on Kira. “This is what you expected me to find?”
“I take it my suspicions are correct.”
“You got that right.”
Jin couldn’t stand still, nervous energy infecting his movements. He rocked back and forth on his heels, running a hand through his hair several times until it stood up like miniature horns.
“This is so fucked up,” Jin complained.
“You act like that’s new.”
Their entire lives were a series of fucked up situations.
Jin shifted his attention to Az and the rest. “You’re looking for a group of pirates operating out of the Consortium’s border sector. Specifically, a station called Titan.”
Kira hid her wince.
Once again, all roads led back to that place.
Graydon and his group would be glad to know that, since they were already en route. It made things complicated for Kira and Roake, however.
“Humans have pirates?” Pye asked.
“They do,” Jin acknowledged. “They don’t usually operate this far out though.”
“That’s not strictly true,” Kira corrected.
She’d forgotten that Jin hadn’t been there for the briefing with Harlow yesterday. He didn’t know this planet’s location. Or how close it was the Consortium’s border.