Part 7 (1/2)
She steps back into the elevator, letting the door finally close.
”Everything will work out according to his plans, Rexicus. You'll see. Remember, strength is sacred.”
It's the second time today I've heard the quote, though I can't tell if she's using it to mock Jax-Har or out of complete faith in the Great Book. Probably a mixture of both.
The words repeat in my head. Not in her voice, but in Adamus's. It feels like a long time ago that he said the same thing to me, when I was battered and broken, barely able to stand as we walked away from Dulce and into the desert. At the time, the sentiment had kept me going, reminding me that Beloved Leader expected my best, that it was my duty to fight and grow stronger for my people.
Now as I look at Mirra's manic expression, I'm wondering if the words could have another meaning.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
WE GO BACK TO THE BRIDGE IN SILENCE, BUT my head is whirring.
”Everything check out?” Denbar asks when we walk in, though from his tone I don't think he really cares.
”Fine,” Mirra says, stealing one last knowing look at me before heading to her station beside the captain's chair.
The sun is high in the sky by the time Jax-Har stomps onto the bridge. His skin is pallid, and the portions of white around his black eyes are bloodshot. Knowing Mirra's stance on what's happening, it's easy to see how she'd view him as a madman, a blasphemer. He looks like someone at his wit's end, even more than he did an hour ago at our meeting. He's fully aware of what he's about to do.
”Is the course set?” he asks.
”Yes, sir,” I say.
”Nothing from West Virginia?” he asks Denbar.
”Negative, sir.”
Jax-Har is quiet for a few moments. Then he turns his tired eyes back to me.
”Take us to Niagara Falls,” he says.
I nod and tap on the terminal in front of me. The wars.h.i.+p starts to move, picking up to a casual speed. There's no need to rush or show off. We're so close already.
”ETA fifteen minutes, sir,” I say.
Mirra stares at me. She nods a little when I notice and then walks over to one of our science officers and disappears into the hallway with him, saying something about Loralite deposits. I turn back to my terminal and pretend to busy myself going over numbers and data I already know by heart.
It's usually quiet on the bridge, but today the silence feels unnatural, heavy. I guess we all know what this means, that in some ways we are disobeying orders, even if we're probably doing what's best for the Mogadorians-or at least what makes sense.
It's strange, when I really think about it, that something so seemingly simple as moving a short flight away from our stationed location could be viewed as an act of betrayal or a lack of faith. Mirra isn't exactly an outlier when it comes to fanatical devotion to Beloved Leader. That's our entire mindset, how we're raised to think from birth. To even be considering the idea that Beloved Leader is fallible is fundamentally anti-Mogadorian. This sort of conflict doesn't exist for us-can't exist based on the way our society works.
And yet, here we are, flying over Lake Ontario.
I glance back at the captain, who's doing his best to look composed even though his fingers thump along the sides of his chair. He has no idea what Mirra has in store for him. I hardly know. I can barely wrap my head around it. But I can feel something in the air, kinetic. Change.
What does that mean for me? Am I really going to help Mirra take down our captain? Or sit by and watch it happen? Who else does she have on her side? Would the troops listen to her? Probably, if she convinced them that Jax-Har was a traitor.
I could tell the captain about her now and stop her little insurrection. I don't know that Mirra would be any better than Jax-Har. Perhaps worse in the long run. She wants to bathe in the blood of our enemies, which happen to be billions of humans on a planet I've come to kind of like as it is.
Who do I side with?
Who would Adamus side with?
I'm not sure where this question comes from, but I know the answer immediately. He'd get off this d.a.m.ned wars.h.i.+p and find the Loric. He'd help stop whatever we Mogadorians had in store, knowing that whatever our plans were, they'd no doubt end with blood flowing in rivers across the planet below. The planet we grew up on. The only one we really know as home.
My terminal beeps.
”Approaching target destination,” I say.
We break through a cover of clouds, and then, suddenly, it comes into view.
I don't know what I was expecting-fire, death, fighting-but all I see are the waterfalls, a river rus.h.i.+ng over a cliff, cras.h.i.+ng down and rejoining itself. Raging, continuing, only temporarily disrupted.
As we get closer, I can also make out three downed Skimmers, but the falls are so breathtaking that I have to be consciously looking for the wreckages to spot them.
Mirra comes back to the bridge, the science officer beside her. He looks . . . unchanged. I catch Denbar staring daggers into Mirra. It's only when the captain motions to him that he takes his eyes off of her.
”Send the fleets I a.s.sembled down to inspect the stone,” Jax-Har says. ”See if we can get a sample. And launch the first air patrol units. Keep an eye out for any hint of movement. If the Loric show, we won't be taken by surprise. Don't give them time to even realize we're here. Fire at will.”
”Yes, sir!” someone replies.
”Officer Saturnus, I want you mapping the movements of the Mogadorian fleet in North America. Not just wars.h.i.+ps, but Skimmers, scouting parties-anything and everything. There were . . . objections when I announced our plans earlier.”
Of course there were. I wonder if he's afraid that other s.h.i.+ps have come after us or just wants to know if they'll follow our lead. Maybe both.
”Won't Beloved Leader be thrilled?” Mirra asks flatly.
Jax-Har looks at her with a blank expression on his face.
”Yes,” he says. ”Forever may he reign.”
The rest of the day pa.s.ses in a blur. Our patrols don't detect anything unusual. I'm unsure whether or not the science division is able to carve off a rock sample. Jax-Har is basically silent in his captain's chair. Mirra keeps finding excuses to leave the bridge. I can only imagine what she's doing.
Tracking our fleet's movements keeps me busy, and I'm able to bury myself in the work, trying not to think about the future. That all changes when I break for dinner, taking my meal back to my room. I don't touch my food, though, just sit on my thin mattress and try to make sense of everything happening. Something is going down at the officers' meeting tonight. In the end, either Jax-Har or Mirra will be leading our s.h.i.+p.
Mirra said I don't have to do anything. That she'll handle it. Maybe I should just let them kill each other and wait for the smoke to clear before I choose a side. No matter who's commanding, my role won't change. I'll still be standing at my terminal, watching the destruction of Earth from hundreds of feet above the cities. That's surely the endgame for both of them. Complete takeover. In the long run, it doesn't matter who's in control. I'm on a wars.h.i.+p. We were built to destroy.
My thoughts go back to what Adamus would do. Completely abandon our people. It wouldn't be too hard, as a trueborn officer, to take a Skimmer, pull out the tracking systems and head for open sky. I could maybe try to track down Adamus and see what he was doing-though, if the entire Mogadorian fleet can't find him, I'm not sure if I'd have any luck.
Or I could just fly somewhere far away from the wars.h.i.+ps, could probably keep a hood on and pulled over my face enough that people would think I was just a pale, tattooed human. I could get by on my own somehow. Somewhere.
But even if I do disappear, so what? We've got this world surrounded. We're primed for full invasion. Our peace with the humans is a sham. Eventually we'll be everywhere. I'd only be buying myself a year or two before my fellow Mogadorians found me and tortured me as a traitor. I'd be constantly looking over my shoulder, wondering if they were on to me.
A memory comes. The last time I saw Adamus. We'd already freed the Chimra, and just needed to get them and Adamus out of there before anyone found him. I was helping. I'd killed several vatborn to ensure his safety. I told myself at the time that it was because I had a debt to Adamus after he'd pulled me out of the rubble at Dulce and saved my life. That this was the only reason I was helping him.