The Planet Thieves (26 page)

“We crossed Earth into our solar system, much like what you had planned to do with Nori-Blue. Earth has a new sun now, our sun. Our star burns a little cooler, but your planet is at the exact right distance to maintain current weather conditions. Its inhabitants are alive and well, assuming the ESC agrees to our terms of surrender.”

He was holding Earth hostage. The entire planet.

“They're okay?” Mason asked.

“Yes. The year is a little shorter now, and so is the day, and there is some strange tidal activity without the moon, but nothing we can't compensate for. So please stop pointing that talon at me.”

Mason kept pointing the talon at him.

They were almost out of the atmosphere now; soon they would be able to see space. Mason hoped there was something to see, that both fleets hadn't destroyed each other while they were fooling around in the cavern.

“Return Earth now,” Mason said.

“I'm afraid that's impossible for the time being. I've received word that your Olympus space station destroyed the gate.”

 

Chapter Forty-eight

Mason knew what he had to do at once. The news that Earth would continue to belong to the Tremist didn't matter now. There was nothing he could do to change it, and in truth he had expected it. If it had seemed like the ESC was going to recover the gate, the Tremist would've probably blown it up on purpose. It was too dangerous to exist.

So if the king would control Earth in the coming years, Mason wanted to make sure the king knew what he controlled.

He reached out and touched the king's bloodred shoulder. Just a simple touch. And with a thought, a strange, rolling energy flew down Mason's arm and into the king. He could feel it pouring out of his brain, like liquid electricity. The king gasped softly, tensing in his seat.

In an instant, there were now two people who knew the truth of the humans and the Tremist. Mason was careful to just give him the understanding at first, not the history. The king was still piloting the Hawk, and Mason didn't want to cripple him. Just make him understand.

The king sagged slightly, chin tipping forward, and then he shook his head as if to clear it.

“What did you do…?” he said softly.

“I showed you the truth.”

“Impossible…”

“You know it's not.”

The king said nothing more, and Mason couldn't tell what he was thinking behind his mask.

“Perhaps it is time to negotiate a treaty,” the king said.

Then they broke into space, and Mason saw it was too late.

 

Chapter Forty-nine

Both fleets were ragged and scattered. Ships of every size drifted through space, some of them dark and dead, others with sputtering engines and flickering shields. The smaller ships were still engaging in dogfights, but Olympus and the Tremist space station were both badly damaged. Whole sections of each were on fire, and they seemed to be adrift in space. For a long moment, Mason and the king said nothing.

Then Mason saw the Egypt hanging back from the battle. It was intact.

“First order of a treaty is dropping my crew at the Egypt.”

The king said nothing.

So Mason tried again. “You already have Earth. And if I hadn't used the turret, we'd all be dead.”

The king was silent for another moment, and then he pushed the engines harder and flew the Hawk underneath most of the battle.

Mason tapped his ear. “Jer?”

Jeremy replied instantly. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“What's up?”

“Long story, but I'm coming in on the king's Hawk. Let us dock.”

“Okay.”

Ninety seconds later, the Hawk sidled up alongside the Egypt and the docking thrusters engaged. The two ships kissed with a muted bang, then locked together. During that time, the king and Mason were busy on two separate com channels. The king was calling off his forces, and Mason was talking to Vice Admiral Renner.

“The planet is no good, sir,” Mason said. “There's nothing to fight for. Look where I am.” Mason swiveled the console around, and got a good shot of the king.

Vice Admiral Renner actually gasped. “For the love of cake…” he exclaimed.

“Sir?”

“Nothing, is the rest of your team safe?”

“There were casualties. But all cadets are accounted for. There's a lot to explain, sir, I know, but you need to call a cease-fire. Now.”

The king looked into the camera, breaking from his own com. “You really do, human.”

The vice admiral sighed deeply, his eyes calculating as always. “Copy that,” he finally said.

The result was instantaneous. Space began to settle. The swarms of dogfights broke apart, and each ship went back to its respective side. The battle was over, with no winners. Mason watched the dead ships drift for a moment, knowing the search and rescue ships would be deployed in minutes. If protocol was followed, each dead ship had inner sections where the crew could gather to await rescue.

Then Mason turned in his seat.

“Next order of a treaty is all ESC personnel will follow me from your ship to mine.”

The king nodded.

“That includes Merrin Solace.”

“We will ask her what she wants to do.”

That surprised Mason, and was more than a little suspicious. Of course Merrin would choose to stay with the ESC … right?

Mason only nodded, and together they walked side by side to the hatch, where not too long ago Mason had watched as his sister stayed behind. Now they'd be together again. That was a kind of victory in itself, but not one he could measure against the destruction he had witnessed since the last time he'd slept.

Susan showed up first, with Tom and Stellan in tow. Merrin was already there; she must've seen the ships were linking up and decided to be near the exit. Which meant she hadn't been locked up, which was a good sign.

When Mason showed up with the king, both groups became stiff. Twenty minutes ago the Tremist and humans had been mortal enemies, and not everyone knew the truth yet.

“There is peace,” the king said, and Susan's jaw unclenched, but just slightly. Her little brother standing next to the king was enough proof for now, Mason guessed, but she didn't relax. She took Stellan and Tom by the shoulders and guided them onto the Egypt's deck. Merrin still stood next to her father.

“Come on, Mason. Merrin,” Susan said.

“This boy saved our lives,” the king told his daughter. “If you stay with me, I will make you one of the human ambassadors. You will still see your friends, and at the same time move both races forward to peace. Stay with me.” The king paused, bowing his head a little. “You are my daughter, Merrin. I don't want to lose you again. Let me show you where you came from.”

Merrin swallowed.

Before she could answer, Jeremy broke through on the ship-wide com. “Uh, all crew. Get to a monitor.”

There was one built into the wall next to the hatch. Everyone watched as a zoomed-in image of Nori-Blue's surface appeared. “Serious seismic activity on the planet's surface,” he said. “It appears almost volcanic.” Onscreen, a huge section of forest was breaking apart. There was a scale at the bottom that said it showed about one hundred miles. The forest was a green carpet more than anything, the trees too small to distinguish. As they watched, the ground began to disintegrate in the middle, the trees tipping over and falling into some kind of sinkhole. The circle grew, as more trees were swallowed up, and the diameter kept growing and growing—stretching into an oval shape—until the hole was an enormous black crater.

“What's happening?” Susan asked breathlessly.

She didn't have to wait long for the answer. From the hole emerged a ship larger than anything Mason had ever seen. It was as long as the hole, so nearly one hundred miles. It was too big to have a shape, really, other than the general shape of a rectangle. The ship had to have hundreds and hundreds of levels. It was as black as space. Dirt clods the size of mountains tumbled away and broke apart as the ship passed from the hole and began its ascent.

The Fangborn knew how to fly.

Child, why didn't you tell us …
Mason thought. He didn't expect an answer so many kilometers away.

But then Child said in a weak voice,
I didn't know.

The Fangborn ship was still in the atmosphere when it fired a single white laser at two ships flying close together—one a crippled ESC supply ship, the other a Tremist Hawk that was venting purple and green gases. The blast was so bright on the screen, Mason had to squint.

When the light faded, both vessels had vaporized.

 

Chapter Fifty

Mason had to make a choice. The ESC still in the holding bay would take too long to transfer. There was another flash on the screen, and two more ships just disappeared into dust that glittered in the blue sunlight.

It was time to leave this cursed system. The rest of the ESC would have to wait—there simply wasn't time to transfer them all, not when they could all be vaporized at any moment.

Mason took two steps, grabbed Merrin's arm, and pulled her onto the Egypt's deck.

“Sorry,” he told the king, “I need her to fly my ship.” He pressed the button that slammed the door down between them. Through the glass window, he saw the king's black mask.

The king said nothing, just stalked away. Perhaps he would've put up a bigger fight if the Fangborn ship wasn't already in the upper atmosphere. Mason studied it for a moment longer. A long and thick horizontal line bisected the front of the ship, almost like lips. The line glowed dull red, like heat was building behind it. It made Mason colder than he already was.

“Let's move!” Susan said, and the five of them sprinted down the crossbar.

They arrived at the bridge to find it fully staffed.

With Commander Lockwood sitting at the nearest console. His burns were healing, but he was still in bad shape. Half his face was pink and shiny with new skin, one eye swollen shut. Whatever the cadets had done to him, it seemed like it was working.

Jeremy stood up from the captain's chair. “
Finally.
I'm done with this captain stuff.”

Lockwood was so weak he just nodded to Mason.

Mason nodded back. “Sir?”

“I am not of sound mind or body,” Lockwood said. “The bridge is yours.”

Tom joined Susan on the weapons console. “Weapons hot!” he said.

Merrin sat down at the pilot console. “The Hawk has disengaged. We are free.”

Mason retook his chair.

The Fangborn ship was in space now. The crew didn't quite gasp, but there were mutterings and astonished sighs. Through the Egypt's dome, Mason saw it eclipse Nori-Blue's sun. Both fleets were plunged into shadow.

On the dome to the right, images of the king and Grand Admiral Shahbazian snapped on side by side.

“All ships in Nori-Bluespace—” the grand admiral said.

“Attack at will,” the king and grand admiral said at the same time.

The shadows were banished as hundreds of lasers and particle beams lanced through the darkness …

… only to bounce off the hull harmlessly. Every beam and bolt fired at the Fangborn ship ricocheted off on some new trajectory, some bouncing back and injuring the ship that fired. White light began to grow under the Fangborn ship, until two parallel beams appeared, brighter than any sun, and danced over both fleets, dissolving any ship they touched.

Then the front of the Fangborn ship
opened
.

The glowing line Mason had seen before now split apart, like a maw. A massive pair of jaws filled with fire inside. The bottom part swung down, like a yawning alligator, then swung up twice as fast, crushing and swallowing two small fighters that had gotten too close. There were small bursts of fire, and then nothing. Like chomping on fireflies. It was eating
ships,
literally eating them, and the maw was big enough to swallow both space stations whole. Somewhere on the bridge, a first year was crying.

The grand admiral broke through the com: “Full evacuation! All ESC retreat on random vectors!” he said, as more and more ships exploded. There were so few left. The cadets were relaying information to each other, but Mason barely heard it. There was something new happening onscreen. The two space stations were trying to flee. But the Fangborn ship held them in place with some kind of force field that enveloped them both. It was a shimmery silver tractor beam that shot out like a laser, split apart, and then folded neatly around the stations. Mason understood why after a few seconds. No reason to destroy that many meals. The smaller ships were pesky and probably not worth the trouble, but if they could isolate both space stations—that would be millions of bodies they could capture and eat.

Someone was asking him something.

“Do we leave? Do we leave?” Merrin said. She was turned around in her seat.

Space was nearly empty now: the ships that were able to flee did exactly that. Wreckage was all that remained. And the Egypt.