Beyond The Brink Read online

  “You expect me to trust you?”

  “I don’t expect anything. But if you set up that beacon, it’ll attract every Kragak in the system like flies to shit. And even if it didn’t, we’re still on the fringes of Shanti space. Only the gods know how long it will be before your signal is picked up by a friendly relay.”

  Wu had a point, but Taza had to think about it more. He liked the idea of getting off the planet sooner, and there was no telling who else might pick up the distress beacon, even if it was encoded. At the same time, there was no telling what tricks an Omnion might try to pull.

  “I’m a man of my word, as you humans would say. And if I really wanted to kill you, I could have done it while you slept.”

  Taza cocked an eyebrow. “Why would you have a ship all the way out here?”

  “As you can probably gather from history, we aren’t exactly welcomed by the Galactic Alliance, so we have vessels stored in locations around the fringes, in case of sticky situations.”

  “Like being put in prison.”

  Wu smirked. “Exactly.”

  “About that,” Taza said. “Your file was very thin on the details when it came to your convictions.”

  “That’s because there weren’t any. Not real ones, anyway.” The Omnion ran his free hand over his pale scalp. “Look, it’s a long story, and the longer we stay up here, the more opportunity we give the Kragak to trap us in here.”

  “If you want me to trust you, I’ll need answers.”

  Wu held the cave wall as he struggled to his feet. “And there’ll be plenty of them, but we can talk along the way.”

  “Okay.” Taza scratched his stubble. “But why do I get the feeling there’s a catch.”

  “You humans are always so suspicious. There’s no catch. I’ll bring you back to Sentinel Station in exchange for my freedom.”

  “I can let you live.” Taza put his gun away. “But I still have to bring you in.”

  “If you bring me back to the Brink, my life may as well be forfeit. You know how the Shanti feel about escaped convicts. I’ll be executed the instant you hand me over.”

  “It’s the best I can do.” Taza shrugged.

  Wu coughed violently then stared into the darkness blankly. “I guess it’s as good a deal as I can hope for. You damn humans live up to your reputation. You’re even more stubborn than the Kragak. No wonder you ended up beating them in the end.”

  “I’ll take it as a compliment.”

  “Whatever pleases you.” Wu moaned in pain. “I retrieved a medical kit from the crash but lost it when the Kragak almost found me.”

  “I’ve got one exo-gel here. I was hoping to save it, but sit still for a minute.” Taza drew the spray capsule from his survival pack. “Where is it?”

  Wu moved his arm out of the way and revealed the wound.

  It was much better looking than before. It had somehow closed over, but the area where the skin joined appeared puckered and burnt.

  “This is going to hurt.”

  “Just get on with—”

  Taza sprayed the wound, and Wu growled in pain. For a second he thought the Omnion might attack him.

  “A sign of peace.” Wu held out his hand offering Taza his knife back.

  Taza accepted the weapon and slid it into the scabbard at his side, trying not to seem too bewildered. “Thanks.”

  “The wound would have healed anyway given time, but I fear time is a luxury we don’t have. The Kragak will be looking for us.”

  “One problem at a time.”

  Within seconds, some color had returned to Wu’s skin, and he was able to stand more erect.

  “Ah, that feels much better,” Wu said.

  Taza took a bottle from the medipack and offered it to the Omnion. “Does medication work the same?”

  “Most of the time, Agent Arkona.” Wu took it weakly, read the label, and knocked the concoction back. “Given my anatomy, it will have a limited effect, but it’s better than nothing. What I could really use is some shakka.”

  “Some what?”

  “It’s similar to the liquid that was in the vial you fed me, only much more concentrated. It’s a powerful energy source my people use. Something akin to your rations, only we absorb our energy sources much faster than you humans.”

  “I see. A pity we don’t have any. I could use something like that myself.”

  “I doubt that. It’s poisonous to most carbon-based life forms.”

  “Then I know a few people who could do with some.”

  Wu looked at him quizzically.

  “What?”

  “You humans are unusual. No wonder the other races fear you.”

  “Fear us?” Taza laughed. “They mock us.”

  “Only to mask their fear.”

  “Enough ass kissing,” Taza said. “We need to get moving before those guards get back like you say. Can you walk?”

  “I can’t move fast just yet, but I should be fine to walk.”

  “Where to?”

  “There’s a pass toward the east. Beyond the pass, there are plains. On the plains, there is a ruined city.”

  “Sounds like a long way.”

  “Given my condition, it would be a day on foot, as long as we don’t run into any trouble.”

  Something told Taza that not running into trouble was too much to hope for. He read the battery warning flashing in his visor at eight percent. “We better get moving.”

  THROUGH THE HILLS

  The sun scorched the orange sky and baked the hard-packed dirt among the hills, but Taza and Wu were protected from the worst of the heat in the cramped pass that cut through the gray cliffs. Taza was relieved when they first entered the sheltered area, for he had deactivated his suit’s atmospheric controls to preserve power. There was no telling what he might need it for between the cave and the ship that Wu claimed to have stowed away. Taza still didn’t trust the alien, but Wu had passed up the opportunity to end his life as he slept.

  There has to be something to that.

  The giant glass-smooth walls rose on each side of them, and Taza wondered what could have caused such formations, natural or otherwise. He scratched at the glossy rock with a finger.

  “In the cold season, the valley above fills with ice.” Wu slowly led the way and ran a palm along the smooth surface. “When it grows warm again, a river cuts through here, polishing the rock.”

  The Omnion’s skin was still pale, but some yellow had seeped in, making him look a little more alive. He stood just over six feet tall and was completely free of hair. He didn’t appear to be bothered about being naked, though he did mention that it would be nice to get back into a proper suit when they reached his ship.

  Despite demanding answers earlier, Taza wasn’t in the mood for talking. They hadn’t seen any sign of the Krags since leaving the cave, but Taza did what he could to cover their tracks to be on the safe side. He carried his pistol and kept his eye on Wu too. He considered giving him a weapon but decided against it in the end. The Omnion seemed capable of taking care of himself without one. Taza was still taken aback by how fast Wu’s wounds had healed, though he still moved with some discomfort.

  The planet’s air was a little over twenty percent oxygen, but it didn’t seem to phase Wu. Taza could have breathed without his suit but would have eventually passed out if they kept up their aggressive pace.

  The gully gradually narrowed further until it was barely wide enough for them to walk shoulder-to-shoulder.

  “We’re nearing the end of the pass,” Wu said, barely louder than a whisper for fear of being heard.

  “Tell me more about your convictions,” Taza said as they pushed on. “Nine counts of murder. Twelve instances of grievous bodily harm. The list goes on.”

  “Like I said, most of that was fabricated.”

  “Why would anyone make that up?”

  “Sentinel Station isn’t the only political minefield, Agent Arkona. People everywhere have agendas, and while working on bo
ard the Brink as a Shanti informant, I was discovered.”

  “They found out you were an Omnion?”

  “Of course not, or they would have iced me and sold me to the highest bidder. Given the connections I built on Shandalla and the prison, they couldn’t simply get rid of me. But I knew more than they were comfortable with, so they couldn’t have me walking about the Brink either. The only other option was the high-security block. HSB meant no visitors, limited interaction with guards and other prisoners, and no access to electronics. I’m sure it seemed like the perfect solution. But little did they know there were others on the inside.”

  “They helped you escape.”

  “Don’t be a fool. That would have been far too risky. However, they did keep me supplied with enough ectoplasm to keep my Shanti form over the years. They also got me other supplies that I eventually re-purposed for the escape.”

  “You had to know you wouldn’t be able to make it off the station alive when lock-down went into effect.”

  “Of course I knew. But I knew the Council would send someone and that someone would have full access on and off the Brink. They had to send their best to keep their secrets from getting out, after all.”

  “What’s so important about these secrets?”

  “Believe me when I say that the more left unsaid about those, the better.” Wu looked over his shoulder at him. “For the both of us.”

  “Fine, then tell me more about this ship of yours.”

  “People haven’t seen us Omnions, as you put it, for a long time because we like to fly under the radar when we can. I don’t know what the Galactic Council has told everyone, but almost seven hundred years ago, my people were unjustly banished by the Tal’Ri. They passed a law forbidding all Omnions from traveling in galactic space. Unfortunately,” Wu looked for the words, “business means we must break that law from time to time. As you can imagine, we can’t just leave our ships resting in spaceports. So we’ve hidden them in select locations. Dead planets, abandoned colonies, wastes, asteroids, places where life has never existed, that kind of thing.”

  “You knew there was a ship waiting for you here. You knew the maintenance ship probably wouldn’t make it, so you baited me by sending it anyway as a decoy.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Clever.” Taza fell silent for a minute as he thought about their narrow escape from the Brink. “When you boarded the Allora with me, you wore Warden Dragnal’s form. He was an old friend. What happened to him?”

  “I’m afraid he died.”

  “I figured as much.”

  “Do not misunderstand me. I found the Warden bled out with a knife in his back. By then the revolt was already in full swing, and my main priority was finding you and getting you off the prison. I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “What do you know about the revolt?”

  “Warden Lamira and his guards took the high warden’s side in a station-wide political conflict. He saw the opportunity for a power grab, and he took it.”

  “What will happen to the Brink now?”

  “Who knows?” Wu said. “The Shanti are a strange bunch. They have more tribal and religious laws than any sane person would care to understand let alone try. But I do get the feeling the High Warden and Warden Lamira were up to something else. I didn’t have time to figure it out, but I did download some of Dragnal’s database. It could come in useful. Perhaps you would accept it as another peace offering?”

  Wu pulled a data crystal from under a loose flap of skin on his palm and offered it to Taza.

  He accepted it gingerly and stowed it in his suit’s belt compartment while trying not to heave. He’d have to clean the slime off it later.

  “Don’t worry, it won’t be damaged. That’s a special saline gell.”

  “Good to know.” Taza cleared his throat. “Thanks.”

  “I think it may have had something to do with me. They had a Doctor Morrow taking tissue samples from the inmates, said they were being tested for some kind of disease. But something tells me they suspected an Omnion was on board and they wanted to find it. Fortunately, the doctor had yet to get around to me. I saw him once in a corridor, though. He had a crazed look about him.”

  “You think that if I take you back to the Brink, they’ll know it’s you.”

  “Without a doubt.”

  “I could take you to the SIA.”

  “It wouldn’t make any difference. It’s all politics. I’ll end up back on the Brink either way.”

  “A lot of what you’re saying doesn’t add up with the little I’ve read about your people. From what I heard, you started a galactic war and were driven out by the Tal’Ri.”

  “Ah, but history is always written by the victor.” Wu looked back at Taza, his eyes sad all of a sudden. “And we were anything but victorious that day. Did you know, for example, that the Omnions saw great promise in your people and paved the way for your humans to be accepted onto the Galactic Council?”

  “Sounds like something else they left out of the history books.”

  “Of course. The Galactic Council even sent Omnion agents to your planet before the time I believe you humans call the dark ages. We knew you would one day become a powerful ally, but before our plans came to fruition, the Tal’Ri had their way. We were ousted from the council, and all interaction with your race ceased. You, humans, have a particular drive that other races lack. You always want change and always want more. You remind me of the Omnions before we were exiled. In fact, those similarities were what caused our downfall in the end.”

  Taza was about to ask more about their interaction with humanity when Wu suddenly motioned for silence. He made hand signals that said several enemies might be ahead.

  They leaned against a smooth wall before a sharp turn in the pass. They looked around the cover and found three heavily armored figures milling about space where the pass widened significantly just under five hundred yards ahead.

  “I see one Krag,” Taza hissed.

  It stood almost eight feet tall with broad shoulders, limbs like giant sequoia branches, and a low heavy-set head. Several horns protruded from its nose, the longest about ten inches long with a sharpened tip. The alien was like a rhino on steroids in an armored suit.

  “I’d forgotten how tough the Kragak were,” Wu whispered. “It’s no wonder they almost wiped your people out a few decades back.”

  “What the hell are those other things?”

  “Those are Aphni. They were driven from the galaxy by the Ancients thousands of years ago.”

  “Old races are making a habit of reappearing lately.”

  “So it would seem. And if they have allied with the Kragak, things are much worse than I thought, and it is even more imperative that I let my people know.”

  “You sound like you’re confident we can get past them.”

  “We can hardly go back the way we came.”

  “It would take three humans to bring down a Krag like that.”

  “If only I weren’t injured I might be able to—”

  “You are injured, and there are only two of us. That’s what we humans call the worst kind of odds.”

  “We can do it, but I’ll need your knife and your pistol.”

  Wu held out his hand, and Taza looked at him suspiciously before giving in and handing the weapons over.

  “Half a mile back, part of the wall had caved. I’ll head that way and take them from above. When I’ve drawn their attention, take them from behind. Those two Aphni are adolescents. Take them first. Aim for the back of the head. I’ll focus on the Kragak. If I lose his attention and he charges you, though, run for it.”

  Before Taza could react, Wu had already disappeared back they way they had come. He drew the sniper rifle from his shoulder and leaned against the ravine wall, ready to fire when he heard Wu’s signal.

  ***

  A distant gunshot told Taza it was time to act. He peered from behind cover through his rifle scope and examined the scene in his si
ght. The three aliens had their backs turned on him and were taking cover behind some rocks. They returned fire at Wu somewhere up ahead. Taza lined up a shot at the smallest of the three, an Aphni. He fired two shots in quick succession, his eye implant making head-shots at a distance reasonably easy.

  He expected the first to drop its shield and the second to kill it, but his shots did neither. He fired the last two rounds in his clip, and the fourth brought the tall, thin creature down.

  Taza drew behind cover again as he reloaded. When he leaned back out for another shot, he found that the Krag was halfway toward him, charging like an enraged armored rhinoceros.

  Taza emptied his clip into the alien before turning to flee, but plasma fire tore into his leg, and he fell to the ground barely able to move. His scanners showed no signs of injury, but his armor was venting atmosphere, and the servos in his right leg were busted. Taza used his rifle to pull himself up and hopped back along the pass as the Krag’s heavy footsteps grew louder.

  In the meantime, Wu and the other Aphni kept exchanging fire.

  Taza reached as far as his body would carry him, his suit’s power dropping dangerously to three percent. Various warnings flashed in his visor, and he swiped them aside before reloading the third magazine.

  He supported his right side against the smooth rock and waited for the thundering Krag to round the corner.

  It skidded around sharply, its shoulder sending up sparks as it gouged chunks out of the gorge wall. The alien lifted its heavy assault rifle, but before it pulled the trigger, Taza emptied an entire clip into the weapon, sending it flying from the Krag’s arms.

  It kept up the charge unimpeded and pulled a long serrated blade from its side.

  Taza brought up his rifle to use it as a shield and braced himself, for all the good it would do him against a quarter-ton of flesh, bone, and metal.

  The Krag smashed into Taza and sent him crashing across the ground, his rifle bent at the barrel.

  He struggled to his knees as the monstrosity bore down on him relentlessly, swinging its hideous weapon. Taza rolled aside and barely avoided being cleaved in two.

  The Krag stomped on his right leg, pinning him down, and try as Taza did, he couldn’t break free.