CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THEY FOUND NICOLAS easily, which puzzled Joshua. One search on the net revealed Nic’s town, how to contact him, and the place where he worked: a transport repair place. If the Nostekoi were looking for him, Nic had made it easy, or maybe they already knew where he was. They entered the atmosphere of Invictus, and Joshua found a dock near Bellhaven, the town where Nic lived. Kirk stepped out of the Suki and stretched out his massive arms.
"His house first or where he works?” he half-grunted.
Joshua didn't really know. “Home, I guess."
Nic's home was a pleasant little house, self-sustaining like all the other colony homes. It sat on a grassy lane by a white sandy beach, a cream-colored stucco home with quaint red-clay tiles on the roof. It looked empty, though, and when they approached the doorstep there was no response from the small screen next to the door.
"Let's try Carey's Tech Station," Joshua said, wondering what Nic was doing in a transporter repair shop.
The tech station was a squat, gray building sitting on stilts next to a dirty beach, twenty miles from the idyllic beach where Nic lived. Built from blocks of waffle-indented plasticrete, the building looked like a relic from the first colonies built a hundred years ago. Back then, scarce inter-planetary resources required functional yet ugly architecture. They were appallingly durable.
Joshua stepped out of the Suki and recoiled as the smell of rotting fish hit him. The sand under the warehouse stilts was laced with oily black seaweed. Kirk scrunched his face. "It smells like the ocean died."
The bays to the warehouse were open, so they walked in, and became engulfed by the dim light. Stations with equipment, bright lights, and mech techs were crammed together. Robotic arms rose up over the honeycomb of stalls, gripping giant transporter parts like tweezers pulling out splinters. The sound of power tools grinding and parts clanging to the hard floor echoed through the warehouse.
Joshua spotted Nic first. Far across the warehouse, he saw the familiar figure in one of the stalls. Not quite pudgy, Nic’s body still had a soft, mushy shape. The sandy-haired former cadet stood next to an upside-down transport. His heavy-lidded eyes, which gave him the look of always being half-asleep, were fixed on a diagnostic board in his hand. He looked unusually sleepy, almost dazed.
When Joshua pointed him out, Kirk shook his head. “I didn’t know he liked this kind of work.” His low, bass voice rumbled in the vast space like a two-ton bumblebee.
Theoretically, Nic could do anything he wanted; his marks had threatened Joshua’s all year. Nic failed to topple Joshua’s academic supremacy out of sheer indifference, focused more on a subspace physics theory project than his schoolwork.
They approached Nic, but he didn’t look up. They stood next to him for a few moments until Kirk finally ventured, “Hey, Nic.”
Nic looked up, blinking. Joshua could have sworn he saw cobwebs in the blank, light brown eyes. “If you have a transporter with a problem, the front office is over there.” He pointed across the warehouse to a brightly lit glass office.
Kirk punched him on the arm. “Very funny. What are you doing tweaking a transport? You were doing that when you were five.”
Nic rubbed his arm, his brows furrowing. “Who are you?"
“Nic!” Kirk said, no longer smiling. “It’s me, Kirk. I tracked you down.”
The heavy-lidded eyes blinked again. “Did I meet you at the med clinic?”
There could be no doubt that Nic did not know who his old buddy was. This much disinterest would require more acting ability than an astro-nerd like Nic possessed.
“Nnnoooo, I’m not from the med-clinic," Kirk said, suddenly changing the tone of his voice to something a teacher might use with a group of five-year-olds. "Why were you at a med-clinic?”
“I fell off my lite bike on my way home from work and hit my head. I’m having trouble remembering people.”
A sense of déjà vu nudged at Joshua. He had seen this kind of dazed look before. His first roommate back at school had decided to get a brain scrub after a bad breakup. For his roommate, the ultimate revenge on his ex was to erase her. His roommate had the same dopey look for a few days, but Kirk said it was a month since he'd seen Nic. Had Nic done it to himself, or had the Nostekoi found him?
“We used to know you. You went to Sterling Academy with us," Joshua said.
Nic nodded, a light dawning in his eyes. “Oh, right. The med-clinic techs told me about that. I haven’t run into anyone from the academy but you, though.”
“Would you like to come with us to dinner and we can talk about old times?” Joshua offered. Nic's entire demeanor was off and he wanted to know if it had anything to do with the Nostekoi. At this point, Kirk seemed willing to let Joshua take the lead.
Even dazed, the prospect of filling in the blanks seemed to appeal to Nic. “Yeah, sure. I get off here in two hours.”
“We’ll pick you up,” Kirk said.
“Thanks….” Nic paused, searching Kirk’s face.
“Kirk. My name is Kirk. Don’t worry about it,” he said before Nic could apologize.
A metallic glint in Nic’s eyes made Joshua pause. He stared at Nic’s eyes, his focus jumping to the brown iris, catching details no one else could. The small web-like strings that ran from the edge of the iris to the black of the pupil were wavy, as if they were floating. The rich brown strands melted into a lighter amber halo around the pupil. All very normal. He peered deeper and found them, the metallic specs that glinted in the strands, moving like glittering sand. A cold sweat broke over him as he drew away.
Nic blinked. "Your eyes are really red." A light seemed to clear in his eyes. "I think I remember you."
"I doubt it," Joshua said.
Pulling on Kirk's elbow, Joshua drew him away from the befuddled Nic. "I didn't tell you everything."
Kirk's big body hulked over Joshua as he asked in a low voice, "What do you mean?"
"My parents were kidnapped two days ago. My mother was killed, and my father was tortured until he gave up the rights to the Remington colony. The same people took Cristian and tortured him until he agreed to find me and my little sister. They ripped out his knee and replaced it with a cyber joint and implanted nanocams in his eyes. Nic has nanocams. It looks like they scrubbed his brain too, which is why he doesn't remember us. If we leave him now, I don't think we'll ever find him again. They’re going to move him so he can’t be found."
Kirk stared at him for a long moment, and then back at Nic. Joshua could feel the seconds ticking away. The Nostekoi were probably on their way if they were monitoring Nic. A part of him wanted to run so badly he could barely keep his feet still. But if he could save Nic, he wanted to.
Finally, Kirk whispered, "Look, when you first called me I didn't know why you were so interested in Nic. I knew you guys weren't close or anything. But I do know that I respect you. When you said you wanted to find him, I knew you'd figure it out." Relief flooded through Joshua as Kirk added, "What do you want to do?"
"We have to get Nic. Now. If we wait two hours, I can guarantee you we won't find him again. I think the only reason we found him is the Nostekoi didn't think I'd look for him."
"The who?"
"The people who have my father."
Kirk looked back at Nic. "Okay. I’m in,” he said quietly.
Joshua already had an idea about how to handle Nic, but Kirk’s willingness to go along was necessary. “He’s stubborn, but not very bright right now. We can probably just convince him to come outside and look at our transporter.”
Kirk shrugged his consent, and they both approached Nic, who had bent his head to his task as if he had forgotten them. “Hey man,” Joshua said, “Can you come look at our transporter?”
He continued working, but answered, “Sure. Give me a second.”
They waited until he put his tools down. “Where is it?”
“Right this way,” Kirk said, with an expansive wave of his hand to the door.
They walked out of the warehouse to the Suki, and Joshua opened the door. “Go ahead in. It’s a problem with the navigation system.”
“Oh, this is really nice,” Nic said, climbing into the transport.
Joshua started the engine, and Kirk closed the door on him. The pungent breeze from the beach swept in as the doors closed. The Suki rose from the ground, and Kirk gently shoved Nic into a chair. Restraints locked him down and Nic gazed at them in confusion.
"Is this a kidnapping?" he asked.
Kirk smiled. "No. You want to come, trust me."
Joshua hit the forward controls, and the transporter shot away from the warehouse.
"Are we going to the restaurant?" Nic asked.
Joshua shook his head. If Nic had any of his former intelligence left, it wasn't showing. What a waste.
"So who are the Nostekoi?" Kirk asked.
Joshua remembered the glinting metallic specks in Nic's eyes. He didn't want to talk too much in front of Nic until the nanos were disabled. "I can't really tell you that right now. In front of Nic."
Kirk raised his eyebrows, but didn't argue.
"What are you talking about?" Nic asked.
"School stuff," Joshua lied.
They rode in silence until they reached Nic’s house. “Hey, this is my house.”
Joshua spotted a young kid coming out the front door. It was easy to see the family resemblance in the sleepy eyes and the round face. He must have been about ten years old, his hair kind of long, but there was none of the confusion in Nic's eyes in this kid's face. He was sharp, maybe more intelligent than Nic had been before the Nostekoi had scrubbed his memory, his gaze following the three of them as they stepped out of the cruiser.
Nic waved. "Hi, Shawn."
Shawn gave a wave back, walking over to them.
Kirk put a hand out and Shawn bumped it in a friendly manner, asking, "Where are you going?"
"My house. Haven't seen each other in a while, you know? We'll be back in a few days."
Nic looked surprised. "Oh. That sounds nice."
Shawn spared only a short glance at his befuddled brother before addressing Joshua. "Who are you?"
Still conscious of Nic’s nanos recording everything he said, he mentally went through his options. Tell the truth, which is what he wanted to do, and let the Nostekoi know he was putting the pieces together, or lie, and make Shawn even more suspicious than he probably already was. The hard spark in the boy's eyes came from more than just intelligence. He seemed wary, like someone hiding. Joshua settled on a half-truth.
"I think your brother has been brain scrubbed, and whoever did it was kind of sloppy. He needs serious medical attention."
Shawn leaned against the cruiser's door, looking at Joshua. "What happened to your eyes?"
"They’re enhanced. Or whatever you call it."
"It's kind of weird."
He shrugged. "Yeah. It might be. There's nothing I can do about it. And besides, it has some advantages."
"Like?"
Joshua's mouth twisted a little. He couldn't tell the boy that he could see nanotechs in his brother's eyes or that he knew Shawn's heartbeat had been thumping a little too rapidly for all his nonchalant posing. He didn't want the Nostekoi to know that much. "Who wouldn't want the extra attention? We need to take your brother for some help. We'll let your parents know."
Shawn's small mouth pressed into a line. "No, you won't."
Kirk frowned. "Hey, buddy, what's the problem?"
"Nothing. Buddy." Shawn moved away from the cruiser, but his arms were crossed even tighter now. "You're not taking my brother anywhere."
This wasn't going well, Joshua knew. Sighing, he tried again. "He needs help."
Far away from the aggravated heartbeat of the boy and the empty echoes of the landing bay, Joshua picked up another sound. The soft whine of an approaching craft keened in his ears. It could be the Nostekoi. He didn't know how far away they were, but they were close enough that escape was about to be impossible. He entered the code to the Suki, and the door opened. He nodded at Kirk. "We have to go. Time for another kidnapping."
Shawn's eyes widened for a moment, but before he could run, Kirk's long arm flashed out and caught him around the stomach. He lifted the skinny boy under one arm and pushed Nic into the cruiser with the other.
As Joshua settled into the pilot's seat, he thought it was strange that Shawn hadn't yelled or protested. He hit the engine activation screen, but it remained black. He hit it again. There was still no response. The whine of the approaching craft had now entered the scope of everyone else's hearing.
"Someone is here!" Kirk said.
"I know,” Joshua muttered and knelt down to open the panel under the console. It slid open at his touch. He hit his wristband and searched for a diagnostic program. It popped up and dutifully scanned the components in the cruiser's console. The reassuring word, "VIRUS" appeared.
"Clean it," Joshua commanded the computer, trying to imagine how the cruiser's mainframe could have gotten dirty.
"I told you. You're not going to take my brother." Shawn stood defiantly next to Nic, who was sitting in one of the chairs, blinking at them. The boy's heart was beating faster, the sound of anxiety gearing up for confrontation.
Joshua looked back at his band, which displayed a stream of encrypted nonsense. So Nic's little brother had put some digital garbage in the cruiser, and quickly, too. He blurted, "How did you do all this so fast?"
Shawn folded his arms. “Two seconds. I can destroy the rest of it if you want. Or you can let me and my brother go.”
The engine outside the bay grew louder for a second, and then came the explosive hiss of landing thrusters and a loud, deep thump on soft earth. Joshua stood up, and Shawn shrank away. Ignoring him, Joshua opened the weapons compartment on the wall and took out two plasma guns. He gave one to Kirk and turned back to the sharp-eyed boy.
"I didn't do this to your brother, but whoever did probably just landed. We need to get away from here."
Joshua didn't wait for a reply, hoping that if Shawn was smart enough to dirty up the Suki’s mainframe, he was smart enough to figure out where the real danger was. Kirk followed him out of the cruiser, stepping on the soft sand and grass. Two figures were silhouetted against the door of the open transport. They were there for only a fraction of a second, and then they blinked out of sight.
A gust of wind blew, and a few leaves swirled in the air. Kirk whispered, “Onix!”
Joshua forced his body to relax. He'd sparred at the academy against opponents in onix. His instructors could never figure out how he managed a flawless victory score. He didn't tell them it was because he could see the onix-clad opponents, which no one else could do since it bent the light and made anyone wearing it invisible. But he could see it. He grabbed Kirk's sleeve. "Follow me."
As Kirk moved with him Joshua caught sight of a wavering figure approaching his right. Light played on the outline of the body, bending and shifting, so quickly that the average eye could not follow it. He let the figure move close. Another one was coming up from behind them, so he pushed Kirk behind him. The hardest part was pretending to be as blind as Kirk, to avoid looking directly at the forms who thought they were unseen.
He was suddenly aware of every sensation, sight and sound, all of it vividly in focus. The wind brushed against his face bringing the scent of grass, and the burnt smell of the newly landed spacecraft, the peculiar odor of poly alloy burned by the atmosphere. A spider dropped from a long blade of grass, its thin thread of silk glimmering for a moment in the sunlight and disappearing, like the onix that tried to hide in the light. The figures wavered and moved, crawling around him in a circle.
His brain exploded with the flood of information, grasping it all as quickly as it hit him. His blood raced harder, and he could feel the adrenaline spiking through his veins, all his muscles coiling, tightening and ready to move. Still looking slightly off in the distance, he shot the figure behind them. His vision was so quick now he could see the plasma leave his gun. He swung it around and shot the other figure from his peripheral vision. His eyes scanned the area for the other two and caught the bright light of red plasma bursting from across the bay. He kicked Kirk's knees out from under him. He shot at both figures as another bolt of plasma appeared. He hit them, his eyes burning into thin air to detect their wavering outlines. The second red plasma shot went wild as Kirk hit the ground with the rest of the onix-clad attackers.
Kirk grunted, his eyes wide and searching. “They’re shooting to kill.”
Joshua's eyes strained in the light. There was another figure, but it wasn't in onix. It was something else. A girl in black blurred into view in front of him. Shocked, he stared into her red eyes. She gazed at him, peering into his face, her eyes locked on his. She had a small, rounded face framed by long jet-black hair and parted red lips. Her hand held a wicked looking blade with elegant, loose fingers. He pulled the trigger and she dropped to the ground, convulsing in green plasma.
"Did you see that?" Kirk asked, scrambling from the ground. "Her eyes!"
"Let's go." For the first time, Joshua was actually scared. He didn't know what red eyes meant, but if she was like him, they were all in trouble.
The black cruiser thrummed to life. They made it to the door and burst inside the cockpit where Shawn sat at the pilot's seat.
"Strap in. I'm going to light speed before we leave the atmosphere," the boy said, blinking at them with calm, dark eyes.
“Nope,” Joshua said, lifting Shawn out of the pilot seat and taking control. The Suki jerked off the ground.
Joshua's heart beat as his mind reeled. Who was that girl and where did she come from? How did she get red eyes? The way he'd moved was a skill he'd developed at the academy, and carefully hidden. To get that quick, all his senses had to be heightened to the point where he could barely control the flood of light, colors, sounds and sensations. He knew no one else could do it. It wasn't natural. But this girl could. He was sorry he'd hit her with plasma, but she scared him. And she was with the Nostekoi.