Chapter 28 #2
When he got a look at what awaited them on the ship’s flight deck, Raider stopped short. “What is that?”
“The better question is why does it look like Jin?” Kira asked.
Well—the Jin before his soul moved containers.
She tilted her head in consideration. Its likeness really was amazing. Spherical in shape. Only much larger than he’d been. Even the porthole on the front bore an uncomfortable resemblance to his “eye”.
“You asked how you were getting there. This is how,” Graydon said.
Kira stiffened, picking up the relevant part of that statement. “‘You?’ Not ‘we?’”
Graydon’s smile crinkled the skin at the corners of his eyes.
Raider missed the implication as he inspected the vessel. “Where’s its propulsion system?”
“There isn’t one,” Finn said.
Raider looked up with a frown. “This can’t be big enough for more than two people.”
“It’s not.”
Oh, for goodness’ sake.
“It’s for us, Raider. We’re the ones traveling in that thing,” Kira snapped.
Finn nodded. “That is correct.”
She’d forgotten how deliberately obtuse Raider could be when there was a situation he didn’t want to face.
“They have their synth armor. They don’t need anything else,” Kira explained.
Like the Hadron suits the Curs had worn into battle, synth armor was capable of sustaining life for a short time.
The plating naturally stored breathable atmosphere in the walls of its cells, enabling them to last up to two hours without an external oxygen source.
Coating the scales in their ki activated a propulsion system that functioned much like a wave board.
“Let me get this straight.” Raider held up a hand. “They expect us to climb into that thing. And then what? They push us over to the honeycomb?”
“My, my, aren’t you the quick one?” Talon quipped.
Raider snarled. “Fuck that!”
“Raider,” Kira started.
“Do you know what that means?” Raider cut her off with a slice of the hand. “We’ll be sitting ducks.”
“I know.” Reluctantly, Kira looked at Graydon. “Is there really no other way?”
“If there’d been time, I could have arranged to have Rasvel suits on hand,” Graydon explained.
Rasvel suits were the civilian equivalent of synth armor. More widely available and much easier to procure.
“As it is, the lan is the only vessel that can make it across without being picked up by their systems,” Graydon continued. “It’s this or you remain here.”
“We won’t let harm come to you,” Talon promised.
“I don’t think we have a choice, do you?” Kira asked Raider.
His jaw clenched as his gaze lingered on the lan. “No, I guess we don’t.”
Jin – Pirate Base
Jin memorized the twists and turns their path took as Flame marched him through their base, one of his burlier friends carrying Arly like a sack of potatoes over their shoulder.
As headquarters went, Belladonna could have done worse. A Tsavitee honeycomb possessed decent defensive capabilities and its location within the wreck of the Falling ensured no one could trace their position easily.
Jin hadn’t gotten a good look at the structure from the outside, but he could tell from the journey so far that enough of it remained intact to house a decent sized force.
Noticing Jin’s interest, Gator patted a wall fondly. “First time seeing one of these beauties?”
No, actually, it wasn’t.
A honeycomb like this one and the danger its denizens posed was what first pushed Kira into using her burst. By that point, they’d lost half their division and were about to lose the city behind them.
Desperation made strange bedfellows when paired with necessity.
Needless to say, by the end of that day the honeycomb was no more, and Kira had become the Phoenix of legend.
“The Tsavitee used to drop them on planets where they wanted nothing to remain.”
That was because the lower forms inside were basically overgrown insects. Their desire to devour was all encompassing.
Nothing remained on a planet where a honeycomb fell. Not plants. Not animals. Certainly not humans. Only the natural mineral resources that were the Tsavitee’s main objective.
Jin would give the Tsavitee this. Their method was efficient.
If cruel.
“When this one and her sister discovered this place, they also found some of its horde still trapped in stasis.”
Maggie looked uncomfortable as Gator gestured to her.
“When we’re bored, we like to wake some of them up. Feed them a little something from our stable. The way they can strip a body down to bone.” Gator pretended to shiver. “It’s really something to see.”
You dumb fuck, Jin silently swore as he glanced at Maggie.
Human greed never failed to surprise him.
Maggie could have made a killing turning the honeycomb over to Centcom.
Their scientists would have pissed themselves at the opportunity to study its contents.
Especially if some of those contents were still alive and in stasis.
Instead, she’d tried to make a quick buck by auctioning it to a pirate group.
Easy, untraceable money.
Except pirates had a habit of double-crossing people. Not to mention people who worked with them more often than not wound up dead.
As Maggie would likely find out soon.
Gator leaned down to tap Jin on the forehead several times. “Remember that, for if you want to cause trouble.”
Jin blinked as Gator straightened and jerked his head at Flame.
That was it? A simple warning? Jin had expected him to go somewhere else with that spiel.
“Throw them inside,” Gator ordered.
Flame pushed Jin toward one of the hexagonal openings to their left. Maggie was pushed in after him with the pirates tossing a still unconscious Arly in last.
“Be good,” Flame instructed as a low hum announced the forcefield’s return.
That wasn’t in Jin’s genetic makeup.
“I’m going to report to the bosses,” Gator tossed over his shoulder as he walked away. “Don’t go far.”
Flame waited until Gator was out of sight before turning to Jin. He waved a hand at the cell Jin was in. “Am I correct in assuming you have this under control?”
“What if I say no?”
Would Flame set aside his plans to snoop through Belladonna’s hideout?
Flame studied Jin’s face. Whatever he read there made him smirk. “Tell the Phoenix I said hi. It really has been an honor.”
The human disappeared into the honeycomb.
“What an annoying, strange man,” Jin muttered.
Maggie found a corner and lowered herself into it. “He’s not the strange one.”
“Quiet, Maggie,” Jin ordered, listening.
There it was again. A sniffle. A light cough followed.
“It seems this cell is already occupied,” Jin murmured, moving toward the back wall where a blanket had been draped strategically over the edge of a small cot.
He snagged its edge, drawing it back to reveal a trio of small faces.
“Hello, there. My name’s Jin. What’s yours?”
Kira – Space
“Easy, easy,” Raider muttered, backseat driving like the control freak that he was.
“You know they can’t hear you, right?” Kira asked.
“I’m sending them a subliminal message. They’ll get it. I’m certain.”
Kira chuckled, her tension easing.
The honeycomb passed over them, getting larger with every second.
“You think Jin is okay?” Raider asked.
“Yeah, I do.”
Kira might not be able to reach him because of the stupid cuff but Jin’s presence rested calm and easy in their bond. There were no signs of turmoil or emotional upheaval that would indicate trouble.
Raider sat forward suddenly. “Hey, look at that. Does that look like a ship to you?”
Kira peered out the porthole, glancing where Raider indicated. There in the shadow of a hexagon was a single seater space craft.
“You’re right. It does.”
The ship was human built. A model common to this sector. Pirates liked them, but they were also used by a lot of merchants and private escort companies.
“It’s a long way from the location Graydon’s people pinpointed as the place Belladonna was using as its landing bay. Looks like we might not be the only ones who’ve infiltrated this place,” Raider remarked.
“Technically, we haven’t made it inside yet.”
Raider waved away her objection. “Semantics.”
The rest of their journey was uneventful. Passing quickly until they were through the forcefield of the hexagon they’d chosen as their entry point.
Every one of the thousands of hexagons along the exterior had a barrier protecting it, allowing its inhabitants to slip in and out at will. Those forcefields were what prevented the atmosphere inside from escaping and the whole hive from decompressing.
It was also why they were so difficult to defeat in battle.
No matter how much firepower you lobbed at a honeycomb, you wouldn’t do enough damage to destroy the ship in its entirety.
It was designed to break apart. As soon as those pieces hit a planet’s outer stratosphere, the Tsavitee inside would awaken to ravage everything below.
You had to destroy a honeycomb so thoroughly that nothing remained. Then spend weeks, months, years mopping up any stragglers that survived.
If even one hexagon reached a planet without rupturing, you would have an infestation on your hands before you knew it since they were also capable of parthenogenesis. In other words, asexual reproduction.
It was surprising and a little terrifying to find one of these floating inside the halo of wreckage attributed to the Falling.
So close to Titan and a direct threat to every inhabited asteroid, colony or planet within several light years.
Whoever discovered it should have immediately reported it to Centcom so it could be properly destroyed.
“After this is over, we’ll have to get Jace out here to take care of this,” Kira said.
Honestly, Centcom sending him out here was probably the best thing that could have happened. Kira wouldn’t have trusted anyone else with a task this important. Between Belladonna and the honeycomb, he was going to have his hands full for a while.
A second later, Finn appeared in front of the porthole.
Although the helmet of his synth armor hid his face, Kira recognized him from the way he moved. It helped that he was also one of only two wearing Roake’s colors.
He undid the latches, opening the porthole for them to step out.
Kira’s nose wrinkled as she got her first look at the honeycomb. Even a decade on, this place still contained the stench of Tsavitee.
Raider joined her. “I really hate these things.”
“Don’t we all?”
Raider examined the honeycomb’s interior. “How do you think they even found this place?”
“The Sweet sisters.”
They’d gotten greedy.
Very greedy, Kira mentally added as she spotted the figure suspended in amber.
“Be careful,” Kira warned the others. “This place looks dead. It’s not.”
It was sleeping. Just waiting for someone to wake it up.
“What do you think happened?” Raider asked, giving the slumbering Tsavitee a wide berth as their group moved into the corridor beyond.
Kira shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Once damaged, the honeycomb should have released an onslaught of Tsavitee to protect the structure. If it had, the Falling might have had a different outcome.
Instead, it had gone into hibernation.
Kira would be interested to know why. But that wasn’t what was important right now.
“Where’s Dylan?” Raider asked, examining the faces of those with them.
In addition to Solal and Amila, Graydon had brought two pods of the ship’s forces. Talon and Finn had also come.
“He said we were moving too slow. He went on ahead,” Talon said.
The mission had barely started and people were already going off on their own.
Lovely.
Raider unhooked a modified rifle from his back. “Christ, Phoenix, they’re as bad as you.”
Kira threw a glance at him. “Let’s focus on the issue at hand, shall we?”
“I’m just saying that the only people I plan to go in search of if we get separated are you and him.” Raider pointed at Finn. To Talon, “I’m still on the fence about you.”
“You realize turnabout is fair play.”
“That one won’t leave me behind.”
By “that one” she supposed Raider meant her.
“Believe me, she’s had plenty of opportunities,” Raider said with a crooked smile at her.
She ignored him to focus on Graydon. “Split up?”
The honeycomb was massive. While the scorpion gave them a general direction in which to search, it was by no means a map where x marked the spot.
Graydon nodded before sending the two pods from the ship in opposite directions with orders to sweep the honeycomb from top to bottom, apprehending anyone they came across.
As the pods moved away, Graydon glanced at Kira. “You don’t mind us tagging along with you, do you?”
“If I did, would that make a difference?” Kira asked.
Graydon’s long, slow smirk made her roll her eyes as she moved into the honeycomb, the others following.
“Why ask if you’re going to do what you want anyway?” she threw over her shoulder.
“And deprive you of your autonomy? Perish the thought,” Graydon murmured.
Unlike a human or Tuann ship, the honeycomb lacked formal corridors and hallways. Its structure was more organic. One hexagonal chamber led straight into the next, creating a labyrinth every bit as confusing and easy to get lost in as Titan’s shipyard.
Some chambers were occupied by sleeping Tsavitee, forcing them to backtrack and go around. The journey was neither straightforward nor direct. It was a circuitous mess that grew more frustrating with every detour they were forced to take.
By the time they had worked their way into one of the inner cavities where the hive conducted activities such as fucking, eating, and killing, Kira had lost count of the slumbering Tsavitee they had passed.
Their group followed the cavity as it sloped downward. Its walls made of a hard resin in which small creatures had been trapped.
The hive’s prey, Kira assumed.
She’d just turned to pick her way around one of the holes that littered the ground when there was an ominous crack from the wall beside her.
From the corner of her eye, Kira caught sight of a shadow gliding through the amber as easily as if it was water.
She turned just as a Tsavitee burst out of the resin.
It rammed her from the side, giving her only the briefest glimpse of its figure.
Skin, dark blue. Rosettes in patches along its arms and shoulders. Taller than her and built like a tank.
A class two war drone.
It picked her up, lifting her over its head as it rose to its full height.
Raider shouted something as Finn and Talon closed in from either side. Graydon attacked from its front.
The class two flung Kira away. She hit the wall opposite. It broke under her weight. She crashed through it and into a shaft.
The world went out from under her. Kira fell. The amber walls of the hive closed in.