The Planet Thieves (19 page)

The spinning gate wasn't just drifting now, it was moving with purpose.

Toward Earth.

The com station was a constant crackle of chatter—orders given, orders received. They were mandatory, so they filled the Egypt's bridge with their noise. Most of the ESC particle beams had overheated, and the gate was no longer under assault, aside from the occasional blast from a ship that had played their beams smart.

“What do we do, Captain?” more than one cadet asked him.

Watch,
he wanted to say.
Watch our failure. Watch the end.
Because what did it really matter?

The gate would not be destroyed, that much was clear. So there was nothing to do but watch.

The warrior in him balked at that—the part of him he wanted to grow as he got older. You weren't supposed to just watch, you were supposed to fight. To the bitter end, like the soldiers in the old stories. That was what a real soldier
did
.

Sad, then, that Mason only felt like lying down. Maybe falling asleep, right there on the bridge.

“Mason,” Jeremy whispered. He was right beside him. Tom was watching him too, and Merrin. They were probably watching him so they didn't have to watch the gate.

Mason shook himself from his trance, only because the others were still counting on him. He wouldn't have done it for himself.

Still the gate moved: a spinning hoop they only saw because the Egypt so helpfully highlighted it for them. The nonsentient computer on the bridge painted the gate a brilliant red color, not unlike fresh blood. According to the numbers scrolling on the dome, the gate was thinner than a strand of hair.

Engage, engage,
voices on the com yelled.
Do something, fire, fire everything, fire what you have:
the orders from the com had devolved into pleas. Please help us, they said.

“Orders?” Tom finally said.

Merrin had been waiting at the pilot station the whole time, hands wrapped around both control sticks. She was half turned in her chair, waiting for an order, eyes narrowed. Fierce in a way Mason envied.

She gave him the smallest nod. He knew it meant
I'm with you.

“Wait,” Mason said. He felt pressure behind his eyes, and not for the first time. The words came automatically. “We're separate from the fleet. If we attack the gate, we'll be destroyed. Wait.”

No one argued.

Maybe it was a coward's move, but it was smart. The gate would not be destroyed, and as captain, Mason would not turn his crew over to certain doom unless there was a chance, however small. That was his responsibility.

He told himself that.

*   *   *

When the gate finally reached Earth, their view of the blue planet disappeared from one instant to the next. The gate spun faster, the computer told them, faster and faster, and then it folded space, and through the hoop they saw new stars. Stars the computer didn't recognize. There was a sun blazing inside the hoop now, a smallish yellow thing that didn't look too different from the sun in the center of Mason's solar system.

The gate moved over the Earth faster than he thought possible. Absurdly, it made him think of something he saw once, something terrible, when he was watching an Earth lore video about the twentieth century. It was about a phenomenon called bullfighting. Men would taunt bulls with colorful blankets. The bulls would run at the blankets instead of the men, and the men would sweep them over their faces, quickly, and then reset as the bulls turned around. It was quick. That's how quick the gate was now. The gate swept over the Earth, spinning faster than ever, and then it powered down, and the stars he knew returned, but the Earth was gone.

 

Chapter Thirty-one

The com was silent now. No more chatter. And the Tremist had even stopped their attack. Both fleets hung separately in the black that was no longer Earthspace. It was just regular old outer space, plain and featureless.

“There was a sun…” Tom said slowly. “Through the gate.”

No one said anything. Merrin took her hands off the control sticks and let them fall to her sides.

“There was a sun,” Tom said again. “Wherever they took Earth, there was a sun. They didn't just drop them into the cold black.”

“Doesn't matter,” Stellan said, sniffling. “The calculations needed are too precise. They could never position a planet in the exact right space to keep conditions on the surface the same.”

“That's exactly what we wanted to do,” Jeremy said, “with Nori-Blue.”

“It's different,” Merrin said. “Nori-Blue isn't full of sentient beings. If the ESC messed up, they could reposition it. Even if there were adverse weather changes on the surface, it would've been worth the price of stealing it.”

Mason felt weary, hearing them talk. What did it matter if there was a sun? It was almost like they were in shock, or hadn't truly registered what had happened yet.
Earth was no longer in the solar system, and they had no idea where it was.

The gate began to contract, a slow reversal of the unfolding process they'd tried so desperately to stop.

The fighting resumed. One moment, space was dead and still with the stationary hulks of hundreds of spacecraft, some whole, some in pieces, some scored black. The next, the void was alive with fire of all colors. Beams and balls of light exchanging in space that was no longer Earth's.

The ESC ships were named with little transparent tags the computer pasted onto the dome. Mason and the others were able to watch as the SS Kenya exploded in the middle of two other ships—the SS Paraguay and New Zealand
,
which both drifted away, wounded, venting white geysers of atmosphere. From this far away, Mason couldn't see the bodies tumble into space from the torn-apart crafts, but he knew they were there.

But the Tremist were taking hits too. An Isolator's side thrusters malfunctioned, and the gigantic ship veered sideways into two diving Hawks, which promptly exploded with puffs of green fire, impaling the Isolator at the same time.

“Captain,” a cadet breathed behind him. Mason didn't know who. He needed to make a choice, or they'd be next. He needed to get his crew to safety. There was no honor in suicide, and no honor lost in living to fight another day.

In the next second, he learned he wouldn't have to run against orders after all, because the command to retreat was given. The message came as a scrolling green text along the bottom of the dome:

ALL SHIPS REPORT TO OLYMPUS.

Followed by:

GUARD YOUR GATES. DO NOT ENGAGE THE TREMIST.

“Finally,” Tom said, but he sounded stunned, or slowed. Like he was very cold, or had just woken up from a deep sleep. “We should definitely go to Olympus. Olympus will protect us.” It was very possible he was in shock. Was Mason in shock? He might've been. He wasn't sure how to tell. Nothing felt real, that's all he knew. His hands were a little numb.

In unison, the remnants of the ESC fleet began to drop cross gates. But the technology was too slow. The Tremist were able to laser the gates into spiraling pieces that glowed like embers, leaving the ships stranded until they could deploy another. As Mason watched (that seemed like all he had been doing for the last thousand years—watching), a huge Isolator flew in tight above the SS Japan and sucked the whole ship up into its open cargo area, leaving the Japan's cross gate to spin unattended.

“Captain,” Merrin said calmly, jarring him back to reality.

Mason nodded; the fight was lost here, and they had their orders. “Drop another gate,” he said. “Rendezvous with the fleet at Olympus.”

A few of the cadets let out grateful sighs and focused again on their stations.

Until the dome's surface blurred slightly, and Tom's dad, Vice Admiral Bruce Renner, appeared on the screen.

 

Chapter Thirty-two

The vice admiral didn't look well. “Thank God you're all right,” he said immediately. He had the same features as Tom—dark hair and eyes—with a short silvery beard. A beard that was gelled with drying blood from a gash above his right eyebrow. His nose was broken too, purple and crooked. Behind him, something showered orange-white sparks in a brilliant arc.

“Where's your mother?” he said, looking down at Tom, who sat behind the weapons console. “What are you…?”

It didn't take long for him to realize. Bruce Renner's lower lip quivered, and then his jaw clenched. And then he nodded.

Tom's head hung, and he was completely still.

The vice admiral looked at Mason now. “Are you in charge?” Voice like steel, just like Tom's mother's had been.

“Yes, sir,” Mason replied.

“And there are no ranking officers on the craft?”

“Just Commander Lockwood,” Tom said suddenly, in a normal voice, “but he's injured. Gravely.”

The vice admiral took two seconds to consider this, blank-faced. Through the dome, Mason watched the battle rage on. Silent explosions, in every color imaginable. But more and more of the ESC craft were escaping. It wouldn't be long before the Tremist recognized the Egypt on the fringes of the battlefield.

“We were boarded, Dad,” Tom said. “The Tremist took everyone, or killed them, and we hid.”

“We took back the ship, sir,” Merrin said.

“I see that,” the vice admiral replied. “Well done. But I don't want you to rendezvous with the fleet at Olympus. You are ordered to cross to a remote base and settle down there. Somewhere small enough the Tremist won't know where you are. Understood?”

The huge gate was halfway back to its cube form, curling inward like a dying spider. It wouldn't be long before it was ready for transport.

“Negative, sir,” Mason said without thinking. A few cadets gasped, but what was the vice admiral going to do, throw Mason in the brig? “Regrouping at Olympus is a mistake. The Tremist will just take the gate to Nori-Blue and steal it too. We have to stop them.”

Instead of reprimanding him, the vice admiral went blank-faced again. He looked very tired. His eyes were slick with tears that weren't quite ready to fall.

After what seemed like an eternity, the vice admiral nodded. “The order to regroup came from Grand Admiral Shahbazian himself. I can't ignore it.”

“We can't let them take both planets,” Mason said, suddenly lightheaded. A cadet did not disobey an order. A cadet
did not
disobey an order from the grand admiral.

The Egypt's crew gave up a murmur of agreement; the other cadets were on board. It was strange: seeing Earth disappear should've crippled their resolve, but it seemed to make them stronger. They had nothing to lose. Mason was ready to fight for what was left of humanity, for the billions out there who were lost, possibly freezing to death at this very moment. Mason was ready.

“Are you aware of the Egypt's mission?” the vice admiral said, using his admiral voice again.

“Not completely, sir,” Mason said.

“The Egypt held the gate, but it also held the Lock.” Behind the vice admiral, the sparks still showered. Mason heard footsteps, and an alarm blared. The vice admiral was on the SS Russia
,
which was currently evacuating. “The Lock was the experimental counterpart to the gate. If the gate was ever stolen, the Lock could be used on a planet to freeze it in place. Who is your ship's AI?”

“Elizabeth, sir,” Elizabeth said.

“Greetings, Elizabeth,” the vice admiral said coolly. “Give these cadets access to the Lock.”

“Done.”

“Plant the Lock on Nori-Blue's surface,” he said. He was looking at his son now. “The Tremist will be able to home in on its signal eventually, but it will buy the time we need to move our entire fleet into the system.” He suddenly appeared doubtful. “Can you do this? Son?”

“We can do it,” Mason and Tom said together.

“You do your mother proud,” Bruce Renner said. “You do me proud. I am proud of all of you. You are no longer cadets, but among the ESC's finest. Now go, before it's too late—”

His signal was suddenly cut off.

“Elizabeth!” Tom shouted. “Where is the Russia?”

She highlighted the vice admiral's ship on the dome. “Intact, Ensign Renner, the broadcast was interrupted by—”

Then
she
was cut off.

The dome fuzzed once more, and then the Tremist King was onscreen, holding Susan Stark next to him with a handheld talon pressed against her temple.

 

Chapter Thirty-three

“Susan!” Mason cried out. He couldn't help himself. Susan's eyes were deep purple, and one was swollen shut. But she managed to smile at Mason. A normal smile, like she wasn't currently held hostage by what was presumed to be the deadliest being in the galaxy.

“Hey, little brother,” she said. And they were the sweetest words Mason ever heard. He promised himself to later promise to Susan he would never play a stupid mean trick again, not ever. Or against her, at least.

The king's dark oval of a face seemed to float next to hers, ready to suck her in like a black hole.

“Mason Stark,” the king said, voice rasping through his mask, clear but metallic.

“Yes,” Mason replied. He clasped his hands behind his back and squeezed them together; they were the only things that were shaking, for now. Susan was in danger, but Susan was
alive,
still breathing, her heart still pumping. At the moment, the crushing defeat was insignificant; Mason knew he shouldn't feel that way, since an ESC soldier's first duty was to the ESC, but he didn't care.

“I will make this simple and easy for you,” the king said. “You will deliver the girl Merrin Solace to me, or this will be the last time you see your sister alive.” He spoke like Merrin wasn't sitting five feet in front of the screen, right where he could see her.