The overhead lights in the room beyond were so dim, Jyra wondered why they were on at all. The earthen walls curved and twisted, eliminating any true corner. It felt like she stepped into an enormous empty snail shell. Thin banners hung from the flat ceiling. Messy piles of paper threatened to completely obscure the desk on which they were stacked. A dresser stained so dark it nearly blended into the wall hunched at the foot of a wide bed. Two nightstands flanked the even wider headboard. Jyra noticed a number of empty water bottles and medication vials on the closest nightstand.
A man reclined on several pillows against the headboard while he stared at the ceiling. Slowly, he brought his gaze to the two women. Jyra tried to keep her expression passive even as she discerned the scarred skin on his face and an eyepatch through the low lighting.
“How are you, Twenty-Six?” Serana’s father asked. “I’m glad you’re here. I was about to contact you to advise that you stay in your quarters.”
It sounded as though he had two voices mixed together. Several syllables rumbled deeply, breaking the otherwise hollow and delicate delivery. He extended his right hand toward Serana who took it in both of her own.
“I’m fine and we have a lot to discuss, but first I want you to meet someone.”
She and Jyra sat on two wooden chairs that creaked in protest. Jyra’s father sat up on his pillows and offered his hand to Jyra.
“I’m Jarrow and you must be Jyra,” he said. His voice seemed at odds with the enthusiasm on his battered face, but Jyra smiled just the same.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said. “I heard you started the resistance.”
“Twenty years ago,” Jarrow nodded. As he shifted back onto his pillows his left arm swung into view, although it ended just below the elbow.
As though sensing her gaze, Jarrow gave a rueful sniff and lifted what remained of his arm a little higher.
“Organizing the resistance was easier when I wasn’t bedridden,” he said. “I survived something that killed many others today from what I hear. Six years past, the hospital shot me out of the sky, but all the twisted metal and fire didn’t kill me. My partner returned several rounds, took out the gun that hit me, and got me back to base to Drenal. I was sad to hear we lost him today. He was an excellent doctor and good man.”
“He helped me recover after my emergency pod crashed here,” Jyra said. Having seen what happened to Tony and Jarrow, Jyra realized how lucky she was to have walked away from two crash landings.
Serana shifted in her chair, likely as another surge of anxiety pressed around her.
“This is my fault,” she said. “If I hadn’t rushed into the rescue mission, none of this would have happened. Field reports haven’t been updated and several new cannon bunkers were overlooked because of that. Those batteries were the first to shoot our ships down. I’ve been so busy with damage control the only other thing I know is messages from scouts on the ground were contradictory.”
Jarrow leaned over to his nightstand and retrieved an oxygen mask. He took several labored breaths. Then he fixed his eye on his daughter.
“I’ve received a full briefing on the crisis already and though you organized the mission, you are not entirely to blame,” he said. “At least one, possibly two, spies gained access to your operations.”
“I thought spies couldn’t contact the hospital from inside the base,” Jyra said.
“They didn’t need to,” Jarrow said. “In fact, traffic logs revealed a command from our base that altered the fleet flight path right over those new batteries. They certainly played a part in the failed mission.”
Serana ran a hand through her hair. Her downcast demeanor switched immediately to anger and she leaned forward so quickly, Jyra thought her chair might collapse.
“Please tell me we caught them,” she said, but Jarrow shook his head.
“They’re reviewing the security footage now, but nothing has come up so far. Everyone in command is accounted for,” Jarrow said. “Search teams are ready to comb the base the moment recognition is confirmed. This is why I want you someplace secure. I’m happy you chose to come here.”
“It probably wasn’t the safest choice to hold the meeting with family members right off of the main cavern,” Serana said. “Some of the higher donor families are threatening to abandon the resistance because of this catastrophe.”
“You’re my daughter and I love you dearly,” Jarrow said, clutching Serana’s hand in his own. “But these families have a right to be angry with you. After the Emarand Liberation mission and this latest disaster, it might not be a bad idea to reassign you for some time.”
“What did you have in mind?” Serana asked.
“I was thinking something outside the base,” Jarrow said. “Something has to change and I believe this is the best possible way. When the hospitals build another battery, I expect you to be the first to alert base.”
Serana let go of her father’s hand and sat back in her chair, a skeptical expression on her face.
“You want me to be a scout?”
“I didn’t say I want you to, but I think it’s the only way to move forward,” Jarrow said. “Those donors you spoke of will continue grieving certainly, but they’ll be doing so in this base. Scouting is risky work, I know, but you might be in more danger here and I can’t protect you like I used to.”
“I came in here expecting you to turn me loose,” Serana said, rubbing her temples with both palms.
Jarrow smiled and the corner of his eye crinkled before he lurched forward, coughing heavily.
“Not long now,” he said, once the fit subsided.
“Don’t say that,” Serana said.
“All I’ve ever sought and defended is truth,” her father said. “You can’t ask me to deny it now.”
“But we haven’t won yet,” Serana said.
Jarrow stared at the ceiling, just as he had been when Serana and Jyra entered his room. He closed his eye and drew another hallow breath. After several moments of silence, he turned back to his guests.
“I never really thought how long this resistance would last when I started it. On the one hand, it’s comforting to know something of mine will last after death, but on the other—” he lifted his missing arm and the flash of Serana’s wry grin appeared on his face—“it’s hard to admit the fact that the resistance still hasn’t achieved what I set out to accomplish.”
He took his daughter’s hand again.
“I wouldn’t turn you loose,” he said. “No matter what those closest to me say, they can’t get as close to me as you. Besides, your mother wouldn’t have allowed me to kick you out.”
He leaned over and placed a kiss on Serana’s forehead.
Jyra remembered the prickle of her father’s whiskers on her forehead when he kissed her goodnight years ago. She felt her mother’s locket around her neck.
Serana ducked away from her father, smiling.
“I wouldn’t get that close,” she warned. “I haven’t washed my hair in days.”
“Not a problem,” Jarrow said. “I can’t smell anything anyway.”
A sudden beeping noise issued inside the nightstand. Serana opened the drawer and handed her father the com.
Jarrow fitted the device in his ear.
“Jarrow here,” he said. He listened intently. Serana and Jyra exchanged glances.
“Lucky enough, I have two people right here who can check into it. Thank you,” Jarrow said, before removing the earpiece.
“Dad,” Serana said quickly before Jarrow could explain, “can it wait? I brought Jyra to meet you so–”
“It can’t wait, I’m afraid,” her father said. “It was great to meet you. Please come back soon,” he added in a rush to Jyra. “But some unusual activity is going on in Hangar B. Cameras aren’t working and there’s a locker entry alarm activated. Graze is head of the deck and command can’t reach him.”
Jyra felt lightheaded from the whiskey and for a horrifying moment, she felt as though her entire upper body was revolving as she sat at Jarrow’s bedside. Then she registered what Jarrow just said.
“Hangar B!” she blurted.
“What about it?” Serana said, taken aback by the outburst.
“Kip is up there.”
“How do you know?”
“I was with him there about twenty minutes ago.”
“Well you don’t know who is there now so be careful,” Jarrow said. “Take the passage, not the elevator. You won’t encounter anyone along the way. I just need you to be the eyes right now. If something serious is happening, hit an E button. There’s no time for further discussion. Go now.”
The women made for the door.
“We’ll continue the discussion when you get back!” Jarrow called.
“Deal,” Serana said as the door shut behind her.
Serana and Jyra ran down the passage, the row of sconce lights blurring together as they headed toward the main cavern.
“Where are the stairs we need?” Jyra asked.
“To the right here,” Serana said as she led them into another passage. “This connects all the service stairs to the cluster of repair hangars. We’ll be there soon.”
“I’m glad I got to meet your father,” Jyra said. “But why did you have me come along? I felt like I was in the way the entire time.”
“I figured I was going to lose my position and I was going to suggest you take my place,” Serana said. “If this issue hadn’t come up, we’d probably be discussing it right now. I’ve thought about it the last couple days and it seems like a good idea.”
“I still don’t understand what you see in me,” Jyra said.
“I’m not exactly sure either,” Serana confessed through short, heavy breaths. “But I can’t ignore your determination. Even the Allied Hospitals couldn’t restrain you. Call me selfish, but so far the potential I see in you is all that’s going right for me.”
Jyra didn’t know what to say and then realized how hard it was to breathe. Her heartbeat didn’t seem to be confined to her chest. She felt it in her neck. Then it thudded in her head. She even sensed the pulse in her thighs as she sprinted down the curving passage.
“Here,” Serana said, squeezing the word between gasps. They paused at the base of a stairway that branched off from the corridor.
They charged up the wooden steps into the sloping shaft. The lights were spaced further apart and they stumbled several times during the ascent. Just when Jyra was about to request a break, her feet found a wooden landing and a door appeared before her.
Serana reached over and pulled the lamp from its socket on the wall so that the light wouldn’t give them away. Jyra listened as Serana’s hand glided down the door and found the handle. The women slipped into the hangar, but heard nothing. They crouched behind several large scrap bins, checking for suspicious activity beyond. The eerie blue lighting cast its bizarre shadows upon the walls. Jyra couldn’t tell if Kip was still out on the platform.
A rustling sound drew their attention to the left side of the hangar. A shuttered door had been lifted and someone was feverishly working underneath it. Then the figure began tugging. Something heavy slid across the floor. Jyra stared hard and saw handlebars silhouetted in the blue light. Though much smaller and simpler than Berk’s, it was definitely a personal transport pod.
“Whoever it is, they’re trying to leave the base,” Jyra whispered.
Serana nodded and glanced around them. She crawled toward an E button mounted on the wall, but as she reached for it, her arm bumped a pipe sticking out of a scrap crate. The clang hardly reverberated in the hangar before a gunshot superseded the noise. Sparks flew above Serana as the bullet blew the E button apart. Both women froze in place, but Jyra’s mind did the exact opposite.
The person looked too tall to be Kip and—Jyra smiled as she thought of it—their hair wasn’t glowing. Besides, if Kip was such a marksman, Jyra would have let him handle the firearm back in the hospital.
Several tense moments of silence followed after the gunshot noise faded. The rumble of the pod, however, filled the hangar next. Just over the chugging engine, Jyra heard metal sliding against metal. She looked over to see Serana drawing the pipe that provoked the shot from the crate.
Jyra didn’t have a chance to stop her. Serana leapt from behind cover, holding the short length of rigid water pipe like a sword.
She became a silhouette herself. Jyra watched as gunfire flashed again, but the bullet missed; Serana bore down on the mysterious figure. She swung her weapon and struck the firearm from the shooter’s grasp. Jyra selected her own fragment of pipe as the figure leapt away from Serana. In the blue light, their adversary looked like a middle-aged man, his shadowy features set against his dark, graying hair. His clothes were dark, a long sleeve shirt and slacks. They advanced and he circled around, leading them back toward the stairway door. Then he turned and ran, giving himself time to reach the bin to pull out a scrap weapon of his own.
“Three can play this game,” he said, cocking the pipe to his right side in a defensive pose.
Serana and Jyra glanced at each other, both immediately understanding neither had sparred before.
“You aren’t authorized to be here,” Serana said. “Let alone attempting to fly out of this hangar. You know that is a serious breach of security.”
“We can debate the second and third statements, but the first is definitely false,” the man said.
“Kill the pod,” Serana said, nodding at Jyra. “I’ll watch him.”
Jyra backed toward the idling machine, keeping her eyes on the man. She bumped against the seat and groped for the key, keeping her weapon ready. Her fingers didn’t find what she was looking for and she pivoted quickly to search by sight. The key was located lower than she expected and she turned it.
Just as the pod engine wound down, Serana cried out. Metal crashed on metal. Jyra pushed off from the pod, whiskey obscuring better judgment as she charged toward the fight.
The two pipes reflected blue light and black shadow. Serana shuffled backward, blocking every attack as the man drove her toward the mouth of the hangar, striking with such force that both pipes bent on contact.
In a brief moment of clarity, Jyra tried to come up behind the man while he was preoccupied with Serana, but he spun about and blocked a heavy blow Jyra brought over her shoulder. She fell back and the man continued attacking Serana.
“Give it up,” the man growled, between strokes. “Two of you haven’t stopped me yet.”
Jyra mounted a fresh assault, but the man somehow blocked the simultaneous blows by his assailants again.
“You won’t beat me in my own hangar,” he grunted and Jyra suddenly realized who they were fighting.
“Graze, what are you up to?” she asked.
“I’m only trying to celebrate one of the greatest victories the Allied Hospitals have had against this resistance. The only thing better than the act itself is that I helped execute it.”
He danced away from the women toward the edge of the platform. Serana raced after him, eager to make sure he didn’t have a moment to rest. Beads of sweat glowed on her forehead and she gritted her teeth, preparing to engage.
“If you tell us who the other spy or spies are in the base, we’ll let you go,” Jyra called, lowering the pipe in her hand. She stood about fifty feet from the end of the platform, glancing into the dark corners with concern. Her quick survey of the deck yielded no sign of Kip.
Graze barked with laughter as he dodged an attack from Serana. He managed to strike her across the back. She yelped and tried to dive out of the way, but she didn’t make it far enough.
Just as Graze aimed to strike at the back of Serana’s head, Jyra reached him in time to lock weapons. He smiled and his teeth glittered blue.
“Bad deal,” he sneered through the crossed steel. “I’ll be leaving but not with your permission and certainly not after betraying my comrades. This is my hangar after all.”
“Your arrogance is one of the reasons I never liked you,” a slurred voice said. Graze glanced behind him as Kip cracked the flask against the older man’s forehead. Graze pushed Jyra’s pipe away and spun to attack Kip, but Jyra landed her over-the-shoulder blow this time. Graze staggered sideways, but lunged at Jyra, who barely raised her weapon in time, but she wasn’t prepared for the strength of the stroke. Her pipe slipped from her grasp on impact and clattered to the deck. Graze brought his weapon in from the side and Jyra reacted accordingly. She managed to duck out of the way and felt adrenaline spread through her like her heartbeat had when she was running. The sensation hadn’t dissipated and it reached a climax in her chest. She dodged Graze’s second attack, and seized his wrist.
Her grip was stronger than seemed plausible, her fingers sank deeper than they should have. Graze’s scream was accompanied by the sound of his bones cracking beneath Jyra’s hand. She looked into his eyes, saw only fear, and raised her other hand. Jyra pushed him in the chest, while releasing his wrist and he flew backward with impossible speed. He tumbled over the edge of the platform before his pipe hit the ground at Jyra’s feet; he dropped it the moment Jyra struck him.
Her knees hit the deck first and Jyra slumped forward, her shoulders shaking as her breaths came in short gasps. She stared at the blue glare on the floor, trying to restore calm breathing. Two shadows moved toward her. Serana clutched her back where Graze struck and Kip stuffed his flask into a pocket.
“What just happened?” Kip asked. Jyra noticed his head tipped to one side, but she was too preoccupied to smile. She ran one hand over the other, caressing her arms as Kip’s question circled in her mind.
“Are you referring to the crude swordplay or when I noticed you hitting the spy with your flask?” Serana said, rounding on Kip. Jyra took the opportunity to shake her head, desperate to forget the details of what she did to Graze.
She watched Serana hold out a hand and Kip, whose sheepish posture and expression made him look ten years younger, placed the flask in her palm. Without hesitation, Serana unscrewed the lid and drained the entire vessel before slapping it back in Kip’s fingers. He looked, if possible, even more withdrawn than before.
“I assume this is where you got your drink as well?” Serana asked Jyra, who nodded. “Thanks for leading me to it.”
Serana’s grin appeared for a moment before her features went cold, enhanced by the blue lights.
“To Kip’s point, what did just happen?” Serana asked, fixing Jyra with her piercing gaze.
“Muscle stimulant from the hospital,” Jyra said. “I thought I’d taken care of it, I thought it was gone.”
“What do you mean, ‘taken care of it?’” Serana pressed. Jyra couldn’t tell if Serana was inching back toward her weapon or if it was a trick of her imagination. She had an urge to pick up the battered water line that fell from Graze’s grasp.
“Right after you talked to me in my room, I tried to bend a crooked girder in the corridor. I couldn’t so I assumed the stimulant wore off or that a medical team here removed it.”
“Based on what I saw, I don’t think either of those things happened,” Kip muttered.
“What were you doing up here?” Serana asked him. The tone of accusation caused Jyra to stand to defend Kip, but he spoke for himself.
“Mourning the dead,” he said. Serana went still and silent at his words.
Mourning someone in particular, actually, Jyra thought. Wait, why are we even discussing this?
“Should we be worried at all about the other spies in the base?” she asked.
“Yes,” Serana said. “I need to tell dad about what happened, but I don’t know what to say. How do I explain that Graze ended up on the rocks below?”
“Do you need to be that specific right now?”
“Yes. We need proof beyond the word of any of us of what happened.”
“He fired a gun, didn’t he?” Kip asked, his speech punctuated with slurring. “That’s what woke me up. He got what he deserved just for aiming the gun at you. How did you reduce him to fighting with a used water line, too?”
“Speed and luck that his second shot went wide,” Serana said.
“Search his pod, too,” Jyra suggested. “But I’m more concerned about other spies. Graze did say “comrades” so I guess there’s more than one left. Are they trying to escape, too? They must all know that ships are grounded now. That’s probably why Graze was trying to run.”
“I’ll alert dad, but you need to tell him about what happened eventually,” Serana said. “Once you learn how to explain it, because I certainly can’t.”
She left to locate the com box on the back wall.
“Why’s she so suspicious?” Jyra muttered. “She knows the hospital gave me this stimulant. She knows what it can do.”
Kip knelt and gazed at her, his eyes somewhat unfocused.
“Awareness of potential and watching as it’s unleashed aren’t the same thing,” he said. “The latter, as I just witnessed, can excite and terrify at the same time.”
“Are you always this insightful?” Jyra asked.
“Only when I’m drunk.”
Jyra appraised him out of the corner of her eye before she got to her feet.
“I need talk to you about something else once we sleep off the whiskey,” Jyra said, before she followed after Serana who was already speaking rapidly into the com box.
“You’re sure that’s a wise idea even after what’s happened?” she said, as Jyra came to her side. “All right. We’ll see you some time tomorrow. I’ll get ready.”
She ended the com call, shaking her head.
“He’s aware that other spies might try to escape now so he’s released his personal security detail to monitor all exits in addition to the extra patrols,” she explained to Jyra.
“Which puts him in danger,” Jyra said.
“It does,” Serana said. “That doesn’t concern him though. Sometimes I think–” she paused and it took Jyra a few moments to realize misery constricted Serana’s voice.
“Ever since he crashed, he hasn’t been the same. All of the surgery and medicine it took, and takes, to keep him alive, it bothers him. He hates it and often it seems like he’s seeking death.”
Jyra hesitated as she thought of her family. Though their deaths had caused her great sadness, at least they had gone quickly, unlike Jarrow. Jyra just met Serana’s father and despite the short meeting, he had cavalierly expressed how little time he had left to live. Slowly, Jyra laid a hand on her friend’s shoulder. Serana looked mildly surprised, but she clutched at Jyra’s fingers with her own.
“Parts of both my father and I died the day he crashed,” Serana said, her words smelling of whiskey. “My obsession with stunt skiffs was already shaken after my mother died when her skiff fell out of the sky. But I never fully understood the consequences of what would happen if I suffered a similar fate. While I continued competing, dad was focused on expanding the resistance. I told myself I played my part by flying, disguising my father’s work in shady taverns and alleys, slowly securing contracts and other resources for the resistance. But he made it to all of my competitions, a time when he was just my father, nothing more, nothing out of the ordinary.
“But everything changed when my port engine blew during a planet-wide skiff match. Dad hardly made it down ten rows of the stands, trying to rush out to the wreckage, before I was loaded into a hospital transport. Not that it stopped him. He tried three times to free me. And the third time is when the hospital shot him down.”
Serana turned to stare down the hangar into the view beyond. The light of morning graced the tips of the peaks and she released a shuddering sigh.
“I can’t imagine what I would do if I couldn’t fly anymore,” Serana said. “Dad and mom were the same way. Despite the fact it has led an early death for both of them, I know dad misses flying more than his eye and arm. And I miss it too. How can I love something so much that has destroyed my family?”
Jyra didn’t know how to answer, but she let her curiosity get the better of her.
“There’s no hope for recovery?” she asked.
“His lungs held together longer than expected,” Serana said. “Between the heat and smoke he inhaled, there’s no way to save them. Transplants could work, except all the surrounding tissue is beyond repair.”
“Should we go back to him now?” Jyra asked. Serana shook her head.
“Not until tomorrow,” she said. “I told him we need some sleep. I’ll make the announcement once we craft it and officially resign my post. The failed mission doesn’t only harm me. Dad is trying to get his affairs in order with the resistance before he dies. His affiliation with me could hinder that endeavor.”
“That’s why he’s putting you out as a scout,” Jyra asked.
“Yep,” Serana said. “And when my father draws his final breath, it’s likely I’ll be forced out of the resistance.”
“That’s not fair,” Jyra said. “Sure you’ve made mistakes, but you’ve put all your effort into this cause.”
Serana shrugged.
“I have, but I’ve always been compromised by guilt. This failed mission certainly didn’t help matters, but I’ve never forgiven myself for what happened to my father. That is my greatest failure. To be captured and used as bait to lure him into their sights.”
Serana stopped talking again and stared at the sunlight that gleamed on the edge of the protruding platform.
Jyra stepped away from her side and walked back to Kip, who had passed out again. She nudged his shoulder and pulled him to his feet.
“Time for real sleep,” she whispered.
They trudged toward the elevator and met Serana at the doors. Kip staggered inside and collapsed into one corner.
“I forgive you,” Jyra said, as she and Serana entered the elevator. “If Kip were awake, I’m sure he would, too.”