Chapter 9
TASK
LUMARIA
Task is stressed, though he appears nonchalant as he leans against the wall in the underground chamber where approximately one hundred Lumarian citizens are huddled, awaiting testing and transport.
Somehow, what was intended to be a one-and-a-half-day trip to this godforsaken planet to sign an updated treaty with Lumaria has turned into a two-week-long excursion already, with no end in sight.
Although the ambassador’s condition has improved slightly, he’s still too ill to travel back with the group, so Grayson had suggested — or rather insisted — that a part of the newly signed treaty include transport for the ambassador back to Nexarium on the Polaris.
Lumaria didn’t have a lot of bargaining chips, so it wasn’t like they could say no. Nexarium was doing Lumaria a favor, supplying them ships and a planet on which they could repopulate, until such a time they could return to Lumaria, assuming the planet survived at all.
Task was not enthused about the population of Mids and Lows increasing on Nexarium. That was where most of the trouble came from, and before his departure, it’d been a constant effort to keep them in check. Not to mention assimilating Lumarians to the Nexarium culture and caste structure.
Task was also not enthused about being trapped on a ship with hundreds of Lows for four months, especially because that particular restriction had thrown a wrench in his entire mission.
The point of coming here, in addition to acting as the ambassador’s personal guard, was to surveil Kit so that he could determine when to kidnap her.
But, his plan has been upended. Before, he’d planned to nab Kit and bring her back to Nexarium via Hopper, something that could have been accomplished in a day, two maximum.
Now, he was going to be quarantined on a ship with her for four months, only able to execute his mission when they touched down on Nexarium and had been sufficiently scrubbed for the disease.
Despite how rapidly Draven was deteriorating, this was a non-negotiable or him.
The illness was sufficiently terrifying that Draven did not want Kit brought to him if there was any possibility she was infected.
That ruled out simply dragging her off the ship at the first opportunity.
It was too risky. So instead, he’s here, watching her like prey.
An unknowing little rabbit that’s caught the eyes of a wolf.
She weaves between cots, stopping every so often to speak to someone, to put her hand on a child’s forehead, to prick a finger and take blood. She wears off-white scrubs, her feet clad in clogs, her wavy, brown hair tied back from her face.
It’s loud down here. There are too many people talking, or shouting, crying out for loved ones that have tested positive and are being forced to stay on Lumaria.
But every time Kit walks past someone, it’s like a ripple of calm follows her. Suddenly the crying ceases, or the shouting stops. She has an air about her that seems to engender it, like a gentle wave rolling across the ocean.
Task sees her halt again, and she looks over her shoulder, her bright green eyes locking with his.
He doesn’t look away, but instead smirks at her, raising his eyebrows as if to tell her to get back to what she was doing.
Really, don’t mind him. He’s just there, waiting to load all the Lumarian citizens onto this ship so that they can get the fuck off this infested planet.
Her cheeks color, just slightly, and she turns back around, dropping to her knees in front of a small girl with brown hair. “And how are you feeling today, Nellie?”
“Okay,” Task hears the girl say. “But Mom isn’t. They took her away.”
“They’re going to make her better,” Kit says.
“When will I see her again?”
Kit pauses, as if pondering what to tell her. Certainly not the truth, which is probably that she will never see her mother again.
“Soon, sweetheart.”
A lie, then. A gentle lie, though. One to make the reality of the situation more palatable. To give her something to hold on to.
A flash of memory dances across Task’s mind. A woman with pale blonde hair and deep blue eyes, so much like his own, crouching in front of him. Taking his small hands in hers, then brushing hair off his forehead, telling him he’d see her again soon.
This happens sometimes, the snippet of a memory so vivid, he can almost reach out and touch it.
They never make much sense to him, though he’s fairly certain the woman in them is his mother.
He has no photos of her, nothing to remember her by, save for her last name, which his parents had chosen to give him, despite it being an incredibly contentious choice.
That and the ring he wears around his pointer finger.
Draven gave it to him just after he’d turned nine, when he felt Task was old enough to understand what it was, who it came from.
For so much of Task’s early life, he’d thought Draven was his father. His parents died so young, and Draven was all he had. And he did care for Task like a son, even if he wasn’t. Draven’s brother had been Task’s father, and he’d always said he could see him in Task. He wondered which parts.
Task snaps back to the present, watching as Kit leans towards the child with the finger prick. She takes her small digit in her hand and says, “This is going to hurt just a bit.”
Nellie’s eyes get wide as she sees the gadget coming towards her finger.
In a flash, it’s finished, and Kit is standing up again, turning to the other Luminary standing just down the aisle from her.
Both their hands are filled with vials of blood for testing, and Task is hoping they can speed up this process just a bit.
Voss appears next to him, nodding to the ship that is docked ahead of them. “Remulus is on board.”
“Good,” Task says, following his gaze.
The SFS Polaris is enormous — the biggest ship Task has ever seen, and he’s been aboard the largest war vessels in the Nexarium fleet. There are multiple stories stacked on top of each other. White lights ring the exterior between each layer, one end of the ship comprised entirely of glass windows.
Captain Gavin Claiborne from the Lumarian Air Force will captain the ship, seconded by Chief Officer Damian Dobbs.
Voss is to be stationed as the Second Officer and General-on-Board the Polaris, while Task has been assigned as the Chief Security Officer.
A platoon of Lumarian Guardians will be staffing the control room.
The rest of the Nexarium Force is there to act as Security knows Task better than he knows himself much of the time. But Task cannot share the details of his mission with anyone, even him. If Voss thinks Task is lusting after a woman instead of plotting her kidnap, all the better for everyone involved.
“When you put it that way…” he muses.
Task flicks his wrist to illuminate the face of his Chronogram, looking at the time. They have twenty more minutes until departure, and the growing chaos makes Task want to get out of Lumaria as soon as possible.
“Let’s go,” Voss nods in the direction of the main entryway to the SFS Polaris — a walkway into its belly. “We’ll need to stand watch there, and get at least half of the platoon on board before we start allowing Lumarian citizens to enter.”
Voss walks briskly towards the ship’s entrance, Task following behind. Things are about to get very interesting indeed.