Chapter Two
Killian
Shit.
I stared at the knife embedded in the wall, and then back to the man who’d spoken. For a few seconds, I didn’t recognize him. It had been a long time. Twelve years, and he’d changed in that time. A new scar ran from beneath his nose to his chin, bisecting his lips, turning his expression into a perpetual scowl. Otherwise, he looked a lot like me.
“Got nothing to say to your old uncle Joe?” he said, stepping into the cave. His gaze strayed from me to Ruby, who was sitting naked in the sand, her arms wrapped around her knees, staring from me to Joe. Her eyes were wide and worried. I’d told her we were safe, and now she clearly didn’t believe me.
And in all truth, I had no clue whether we were.
Joe and I had never been friends. In fact, I hated his fucking guts.
I got to my feet, ignoring him for a moment, and crossed to where my shirt lay on the sand. I tossed it to Ruby. She flashed me a small smile and shrugged into it, dragging it closed across her front. I pulled on my pants, then sat on the sand and tugged on my boots. I picked up my holster, strapped it on, felt a little better.
I paced the floor a few times.
I was in no hurry to talk to Joe. Though what the hell was he doing here? Last I’d seen, he’d been a slave in the mines just like me. Though he’d always talked a lot about insurrection and breaking free from the oppressors, he’d never actually done anything about it. He’d tried to recruit me once, when I was fifteen, for some group he claimed he was part of and who were going to change the world.
Fat chance. He was all talk.
Except here he was, with his ragtag band of rebels. They were all badly dressed, no real weapons that I could see, though they looked healthy enough. They must be surviving somehow.
I crossed the cavern, pulled the knife from the wall, and headed back to where he stood. I handed him the knife. “You should be more careful,” I said. “You could hurt someone with that thing.”
He might have been aiming at me, or maybe even actually aiming for the wall, but he could have hit Ruby, and that was not acceptable.
Behind me Ruby scrambled to her feet. She came to stand next to me, pressing close to my side. Her hand slipped into mine.
“Aw, isn’t that sweet?” Joe said. “Kill’s got a girlfriend. But then he was always one for the ladies. Thought he was better than us.”
“Knew I was better, more like.”
“Yeah, the fucking great helldiver. And then you died, like all the rest. Not so great. Except here you are, still alive, with your fancy gear and your fancy girlfriend. Pretty little thing, isn’t she? Are you going to introduce us?”
Was I? I’d really rather not, but before I could decide what to say, Ruby stepped forward and held out her hand, a sweet, if slightly forced, smile on her face.
Joe’s eyes widened, but he took her hand and shook it as though surprised into good behavior by her action.
“Hello, I’m Ruby Robbins.”
“Joe,” he said. “Joe Sharpe.”
“You’re related to Killian?”
“He’s my uncle,” I replied. “My father’s brother. And you can let go of her hand now.”
My father had been a helldiver like me. He’d died a month before I was born, so I’d never known him. Everyone told me I looked just like him. My mother hadn’t lasted much longer. She’d succumbed to a blood infection only hours after my birth. Women who bore children in the mines didn’t look for happy endings. There weren’t any.
Joe finally released her hand. “So how come you didn’t die?” he asked me.
“Caught a ledge near the molt. Found a way out.”
“And a way off the planet. How the fuck did you do that?”
“It’s a long story. But I met someone who helped me. Actually, we helped each other. Stole a ship.”
“So what are you doing back here?”
“Another long story and none of your business.”
“Actually,” Ruby interrupted, “he was rescuing me.”
“From what?”
She lifted one shoulder. “It’s a long story.”
A low rumbling sound filled the cavern. For a second I had no idea what it was, then it came again. Ruby’s stomach.
“Sorry,” she muttered.
I turned to Joe. “I don’t suppose you have any food?”
“We might. How about you come back with us, we give you food, and you tell us one of those long stories. I want to know how you got off this godforsaken place. I want to know if you can be of any help to us. Then I might decide if I let you live.”
I pulled the laser pistol from its holster and aimed it at his chest. A murmur ran through the room, but no one moved. Finally, Ruby put her hand on the barrel of the pistol and pressed it down. “He’s not going to hurt you,” she said. “He’s your uncle. And there’s no point. Besides, I’m hungry.” She batted her lashes at me and gave that sweet smile. I was being played, but she was right. I didn’t believe Joe would kill me. He might give me up if he thought there was a reward though. Or Ruby. I didn’t like the way he was looking at her.
I slowly holstered the pistol, wrapped my arm around her shoulder, and pulled her close. “Lead the way,” I said to Joe.
He turned and strode out of the cavern. The others parted to let us through and then closed in behind us. I didn’t like it. Prickles ran up and down my spine, but I kept walking. I thought we were heading up to the surface, but before we arrived, Joe turned left along a man-made tunnel that hadn’t been there last time I was here.
At my side, Ruby was limping. Without thinking about it, I picked her up and carried her. Joe glanced back over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow. There wasn’t much chivalry in the slave mines. The women tended to be as tough as the men.
“I’ve got sore feet,” Ruby said to him, wiggling her toes.
He shook his head and continued on.
“Are we going to be all right?” Ruby whispered. “He won’t really try and kill you, will he?”
“Probably not.”
“He’s your uncle. Didn’t you get on?”
“He was an asshole.”
She grinned. “Maybe it runs in the family.”
“Hey, I’m not an asshole.”
Her hair was drying in curls around her head. She looked like an angel out of the old Earth books I had seen. Her stomach rumbled again.
Finally, the tunnel widened and we entered a cave hewn out of the rock. There was no natural light here, but torches flickered in sconces around the room. It was big, maybe twenty feet by twenty feet and several platforms had been cut out of the rock wall, presumably for sitting and sleeping. I placed Ruby down on one of these and looked around. The place stank, reminding me of the old slave cells; too many people, who didn’t wash enough, too close together. A flicker of the old despair threatened to catch hold. I forced it down and sat next to Ruby. Just being near her kept the old feelings at bay.
The men had followed us in and started doing stuff—hopefully cooking some food. One lit a small fire and another went to a chest, pulled out a sack and a small cauldron. He added water from a leather satchel and grain from the sack, then set it over the fire. I leaned back against the warm rock wall—nothing on the asteroids was ever cold—and pulled Ruby close. Shutting my eyes, I relaxed for the first time in…probably since we had landed on Groth. I might hate my uncle, but I felt safe here, safe enough to let down my guard. I must have fallen asleep immediately, and I had no clue for how long, but Ruby awoke me with a tap on my real arm. I blinked. A man stood in front of us, holding out two bowls of steaming food.
I took one and Ruby the other. She dipped in her spoon and put some of the sludgy, gray gruel in her mouth. I had to bite back a smile as she tried her best not to grimace at the taste. I took a mouthful of my own. It wasn’t that it was bad. No, it was more that it was…nothing. Totally bland and without flavor. Mealie meal was the staple food of the slaves, but it provided energy and not much else. It was supplemented by a monthly injection of some sort of vitamin and mineral concoction that kept them healthy enough to work.
All the same, she cleaned her bowl and I did the same. We’d better get used to it as we could be here a while.
“Hmm, that was…tasty.”
“Liar,” I muttered.
She gave me a haughty look. “Don’t be rude.” Then she fluttered her lashes at the man stirring the cauldron. A dazed look washed over his face, and he came over, took Ruby’s bowl, refilled it, and handed it to her.
“Thank you,” she murmured. “You’re so kind.”
He made no move to bring me any more food. “Stop flirting.”
“I’m not,” she said, taking a mouthful and swallowing it quickly. “I’m just being nice. You should try it sometime.”
“I never learned how and I’m too old now.”
“No, you’re not.” She turned to study me. “How old are you?”
“Thirty.”
“Oh. You look older.”
“Yeah, I probably looked thirty by the time I was twelve.”
She filled her spoon and held it out to me. “Here, have some of mine. I can be nice enough for both of us.” I ate the gruel, because she offered it, and she was nice, and I wanted to make her happy and keep her safe and… Hell, I didn’t know what else. I had no clue about this stuff.
At that moment, I was saved from any more soul-searching by Joe. He took a seat opposite us, and that appeared to be a sign for everyone to sit down. There were thirteen of them in all. All men, which was probably why they were finding Ruby’s presence so disturbing. Well, they could look, but they’d better not touch.
I decided to get the meeting going. “So,” I said, waving a hand around the group. “Who are you? What are you doing?”
Joe answered, “We are the Rebel Coalition of Groth.”
Fucking posh name for a load of loser tossers, living in a cave and eating gruel. “And how’s the rebellion going?”
Joe’s eyes narrowed. Good, I was pissing him off. “Slowly,” he said.
“Admit it. You’re just a bunch of escaped slaves, eking out an existence little better than slavery.”
“We’re still in the planning stages.”
I snorted and anger flashed across his face. This was what I wanted; some real emotion, get to the heart of the man. That was the only way I’d know if I could trust him.
“At least we stayed,” he growled. “At least we didn’t run away like a coward.”
He had to be kidding. “You think I should have stayed and done fuck all like you assholes?”
Joe got to his feet, fists clenched at his side. I tried to jump up, but Ruby gripped hold of my arm and held me in place. I satisfied myself with a glare.
Joe glanced from me to Ruby and back. “Pussy whipped as well as a coward.”
I sat back and curled my lips into a smile. “At least I’ve got some pussy. How long since you had any, Uncle?”
“Will you stop winding him up?” Ruby said before he could answer. “Joe, thank you for the hospitality and the food. We really appreciate it, don’t we, Killian?”
My lips twitched, but I managed a nod.
“Now, I’m sure your coalition is doing some fine work and perhaps you might be able to help us a little more.”
“Maybe. But why should we?”
“Because we both want the same thing—the end of slavery on Groth.”
Joe pursed his lips then turned his attention to me. “Is that what you want as well?”
It was weird, but I’d never really thought about it too hard. Slavery was just the way things were. How could we change it?
“Of course he does,” Ruby said. Clearly, I was taking way too long to answer.
Now, I really thought about it for the first time. And she was right—I would like to tear the whole slavery system apart. I would like to bring the crappy imperial house of Groth to its knees. Make them clean their own goddamn palace. Mine their own goddamn asteroids. Then I’d like to utterly destroy the Federation and all those dickheads supposedly in charge, who stood by and did fuck all while their stupid rules were endlessly broken.
“Yes,” I said. “I want that.” And by saying the words out loud, I had a strange inkling that my life was about to change forever.
Bye-bye, fun.
Hello, serious stuff.
But maybe it was time. “I want to utterly destroy the imperial house of Groth and all the free people who never did a thing to stop this. I’d like to toss the lot of them down their own asteroid mines.”
“Actually,” Ruby said, “we want to bring them to court for breaking the Federation’s rules.”
Nice idea. But who did she really think had been standing by while all this went on? The goddamn Federation, that’s who. But I didn’t want to burst her bubble.
“Great plan,” Joe said. “But I think I’ll settle for tossing them down the mines.” He nodded to someone behind him, and the man came forward with a bottle and glasses. He handed one to me and Ruby and Joe. As he filled them up, the pungent scent of raw alcohol stung my nostrils. Obviously, Joe had decided to at least listen to us. Ruby was sniffing at the glass as though it might poison her. She took a small sip, and her eyes widened. This was the local brew, distilled from the grain which was the staple diet, and not for the uninitiated. She took another sip and smiled. “Good.”
Really? I found that hard to believe.
Joe caught my eye, raised a brow, and swallowed his drink in one go. I did the same. A small frown crossed Ruby’s face, but then she swallowed hers and licked her lips. She constantly surprised me.
“Now, tell me what you’re doing here,” Joe said.
I took a deep breath. I wasn’t going to admit that I needed their help, but they could make things easier for us…or harder. Where to start? “A few weeks ago, I took on a job to rescue an Earth girl from a Bhaxian slaver,” I said, and then told him what had happened between that moment and now.
Joe turned to look at Ruby. “So you’re an escaped slave? Just like us?”
“I guess so.” She looked at her empty glass, and the man rushed forward and filled it for her. Smiling at him, she wrinkled her nose as she thought about her answer; she was so goddamn cute. “Though I prefer to think of myself as an undercover agent working for the Federation’s Earth liaison.” Her expression cleared. “Besides, slavery is illegal, so there is no such thing as an escaped slave, just an illegally imprisoned person who has now gained their freedom.”
Good answer.
Smart as well as cute.
“Fair enough,” Joe said. “What do you want from us?”
I would have loved to have said “nothing.” But I had Ruby to think about as well. “We have to wait it out until things settle down on the planet. Hopefully, someone will come and get us, but it might be a couple of months.” I tried to work out how long it would take Zak to get to Earth and back in the Helldiver. She was faster than the Bhaxian slaver but it would still take weeks. “We need somewhere to hide out and some food.” I glanced across at Ruby. “And Ruby could do with some clothes.”
“And what do we get out of this?”
“When my ship gets back, we’ll pay you of course.”
“My ship? Aren’t you the hoity-toity one? How do we even know you’re not making all this up? You always did have an imagination.”
Ruby leaned forward. “Honest, he does have a ship. She’s pretty and silver and called the Helldiver.”
Joe cast her a smile, clearly warming to Ruby more than me. “Okay, we believe you then. We want weapons and money.”
We’d have both if Rekowski paid up as he’d promised. “We can do that.” I thought for a minute. “But first we need some intel. What’s happening on the planet? We need confirmation that our friends got away.”
“I’ll put out some feelers. We have some contacts in the ships that bring supplies. We’ll see what we can find out. In the meantime, you can stay here.”
“No. We’ll stay in the cave where you picked us up.”
“We not good enough for you?”
“Not even close. And Ruby’s shy and she’d prefer to be somewhere quiet.” A few weeks alone with Ruby sounded like a plan I could live with.
He nodded once. “Probably for the best. She’s a distraction, that’s for sure.” He turned to one of his men and spoke quietly. The man went off and came back five minutes later with a bag, which he handed to me. I peered inside. There was a small sack of grain, a pot, some clothing which didn’t smell too clean, but which we could wash, and a bottle of alcohol. I glanced up. “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me. Just help us out when you get the chance.”
“We will,” Ruby said. “We’ll stop this.”
Joe shook his head. “So innocent. What do you really know about slavery? You’ve maybe played pretend for a few weeks, all the time knowing someone is on their way to save you. But with real slavery, there’s no one to save you. Someone owns you and it’s forever. No hope that anything will ever change.”
“But it will change. We’re already changing things. So are you.”
He shook his head. “Naive as well as innocent. Come on, I’ll take you back and show you something on the way.”
I had an inkling what he would show her and I wanted to stop it. But maybe Ruby needed to see where I had come from.
What had made me the man I was.