Chapter 1: Esthi
Sirens warble on enemy MothershipMarst. Women rush to escape pods as the doors to their servants’ quarters open. Enemy soldiers freak out as sparks fly out of control panels, life support systems grind to a halt. They try to regain control of their ship. Evo, the corrupted CyberTitan, finally turns on his captors. And all it took was a tiny bit of code—an itsy bitch of a virus that the Solcrue’s security engineers will have to hunt down, one I’ve been working on for over a decade.
I monitorVessna’sjailbreak on my tablet. They’re in orbit not far from us—close enough for a data transfer. I dare not try to hack the military mothershipCorenge. They’d hunt me down for sure with that many highly trained soldiers.
Solcrue took my sister.
One day, I will ruin them.
But that day is not today.
I shut off my tablet and pack it in my bag.
Time to move.
A blast goes off in the hallway, scattering hot yellow flames through the louvers of the vent I’ve been monitoring the ship through. The heat scorches the right shoulder of my tired Terran armor. I quickly make my way through the ductwork to the room where my sister has been kept chained up.
It has been agonizing to be so close and yet unable to reach her. Her shackles are of a kind I can’t hack without more time to study them up close. All of this work was to get me enough time alone with her to free her.
A decade of searching has brought me to this moment.
Through a vent, I peer down and into the round cell Myria is in. There’s no one else in there but her. Despite the sirens, sheremains in her hibernation chamber like a sleeping vampire in an upright metal casket filled with green light.
The room is a weave of cables, hoses, radiant fuel cells, and a honeycomb of structural webbing like she’s some sort of queen of the space spiders. But that’s not the strong, sweet, protective older sister I remember. She is not evil. And yet, little about her looks familiar.
“Myria?” I whisper through the vent.
Her eyes don’t open. How she’s sleeping through the chaos, I don’t know. I thought for sure she’d wake up. I have to get to her while the Solcrue are distracted.
The scar between her dark eyebrows brings back a memory of fighting in the mine tunnels over the single piece of hard candy in a dusty rucksack.Forgot all about it when you found the cybertech’s journal.
I pat the pocket of my pack to reassure myself that the book is still there. Grabbing my multi-tool, I loosen the vent cover in her room and peek out. It’s just her and me and the sirens and beeps of the hibernation chamber’s monitor.
The moment I drop out of the vent into the room, the awareness that I can’t turn back and rehash my plan ratchets up my heart rate and makes my palms sweat. I’m not a soldier, not like Myria. Father trained me differently. I’m supposed to stay a shadow. I have to make every second out in the open count.
The vent cover hangs open. Solcrue will question why. If they don’t find me, one of their inspection drones will. I have to free Myria and get to Ellipsis, where the Titans are.
I tighten my gear bags and thigh pouches and finally stand before my sister face-to-face after nearly a decade of tracking her. Myria’s expression is cold, stern even, with more scars than I remember. They’ve bound her in a body shackle more intricate than anything I’ve ever worked on or seen before. I’m certainSolcrue must be trying to control her every move, like some sort of fucked up marionette.
But why you? What made you different? Why didn’t they take me instead?
I think I know why. She was the biggest, strongest female in our mining camp on Earth Minor who moonlighted as a bouncer at our only camp bar.
I fixed machinery with Dad while you swung a Pulaski.
Taking her was the Solcrue’s way of saying that even our strongest can’t escape their rule.
But they’ve not met me. Not yet. And as I look up at my sister’s sleeping face and the evil carapace they’ve bound her in, my need for vengeance grows.
“Myria?” I choke out.
Her ribs swell with a breath. They’ve given her a decorative chest plate, which seems odd to me. The monitor beside her has a program running, one I don’t recognize. I hate it already because I can’t touch her without setting off alarms. It’s more complicated than I’m prepared to handle. So I have to fall on my backup plan.
I pry open every access panel on her cage and find a power conduit. The first ten times I tried to access her room through the main computer network, I got blocked out and shot at by an inspection drone. The only way to get her out is the old-fashioned way.
Drawing the gun from my thigh holster, I shield my eyes with an arm, aim at the junction box, and fire.
Power arcs in a bright flash and crackles. The room goes dark for a second before green emergency lights kick on. That will, no doubt, make Solcrue get here faster, cutting down the time I have to talk with her.
