Treachery: Celestial Empires Book 2 Read online

  Xavix replied, “Oh dear, that's certainly – well, never mind. I'll send the message, Gemma,” he said, his voice sounding skeptical. “But what if Kysos can't help us right now? There's the election and – ”

  “He's going to help us,” I replied. “He has no choice. He needs to get rid of Boygan anyway, just because the man is a menace and will continue to be a threat to him. And now, I obviously have reasons to find him too.”

  “Does this mean – ”

  I sighed and looked around the trailer, at the ground beneath my feet. This wasn't fair. After everything I'd gone through, I'd finally made it home. I was home, dammit.

  “It means we're going back into space, yes,” I said with a sigh.

  I fell onto the couch and closed my eyes. Not even home for a few hours and already, I was going to have to kiss it all goodbye once more.

  Chapter Two

  Back aboard theUmbra,I was staring at the face of Hugo Kysos on the communications screen. He was the politician I'd just left behind not that long ago, and the politician I really didn't want to see again. Nice enough guy, but I was done with all of the political intrigue.

  Hugo's brow was furrowed, a look of concentration etched upon his face, as he listened to what I told him.

  “According to somebody I spoke with, it sounds like Boygan – or another one of his kind – was on Earth and took my mom and aunt from their home,” I said. “I need to get them back – and I can probably get rid of Boygan once and for all while I'm at it, too.”

  “Well, that would be best for everyone, I agree,” Hugo said, scratching his chin. “But do you have any idea where they might be now?”

  “No, that's why I'm contacting you. I was hoping you could help me,” I said. “Since I know you've been tracking him and all.”

  “We haven't been very successful at it, I'm afraid,” he said, looking somewhat embarrassed by the admission. “Boygan is good at covering his tracks. Very, very good.”

  “Why would he take my family though?” I thought out loud. “What does that help him achieve?”

  “To draw you back out into space, perhaps?” he said. “To get you to come to a place of his choosing. The one thing you can guarantee, Gemma, is that this is a trap.”

  Although I already suspected it, hearing Kysos give voice to my thoughts is what I was afraid of – it was all a trap. But why would Boygan go to all the trouble just to draw me out? Yeah, I suppose he was still pissed and looking for a little payback. But in the bigger picture, what I'd done was a minor irritant to somebody like him.

  And from my perspective, it seemed to be a stupid, unnecessary move to jump through all of these hoops just to get me back into space. Even stupider when you figure if it was revenge he was after, he could have just killed me himself – or had one of his minions do it – after I returned home.

  No, there was another reason in play than mere revenge here. Something else was going on. He wanted something. But what?

  “Why though?” I pondered aloud. “It doesn't make sense to me.”

  “I'm afraid I can't answer that,” Hugo said. “He's still as much of a mystery to me as he is to you.”

  I sighed and shook my head. “Can you at least send me all the information you've collected on him? Maybe there's something we're missing?”

  “Of course, Gemma,” Hugo said. “Hopefully it'll be of some help to you, but there's not much, I fear. Like I said, he's very good at covering his tracks.”

  “Thanks, Kysos,” I said.

  “And Gemma?” he said.

  “Yes?”

  Please, be careful,” he said. “Boygan is a dangerous man. Just – watch your back.”

  I gave him a small smile. “I'm not a fan of dying, so I'm usually careful,” I say. “But – thanks.”

  “Sending everything over now,” he said. “Files should be uploading to Xavix about – ”

  “Files received,” Xavix said before Hugo could even finish his sentence.

  Man, technology still amazed me sometimes – and I'd seen some things. How we'd gotten information from a planet as far out as Acrov all the way here in a matter of seconds was incredible. Most of the people in my neighborhood probably didn't even know it was possible, much less how fast it could be done. Yeah, we were a little behind the times and not nearly as advanced as some cultures on distant worlds.

  “I'll have Xavix look it over and see if he can find any hints about Boygan's location,” I said. “And in the meantime, I'm going to look around my place for clues. You'd think Boygan would have left me something – at least a way to contact him if this is all part of some grand scheme. I'll keep you in the loop if I find anything.”

  “Be careful, Gemma,” Hugo said. “You know as well as I do that this is all a trap.”

  “I'm actually already counting on it being a trap,” I said. “But thanks. I'll do my best.”

  ooo000ooo

  I looked around and found no ransom note, no instructions – no anything. Which seemed more than a little strange. If my operating theory was correct and Boygan had taken my family to lay a trap for me, why hadn't he left some way for me to get in touch with him? What other reason could he have had for taking them in the first place? It wasn't like my mom and aunt were exactly in any shape to work for him. They certainly weren't going to be able to assassinate anybody for him. Which meant that it had to be something to get me to leave Earth and go where he wanted me to go. It just had to be.

  But without any idea of where to go, or to even start looking, I was stuck in the mud. I would have assumed that if taking them was his play to draw me out, that he'd be smart enough to leave some well-placed clues for me to find out where he was. Or at least where he wanted me to go.

  Donal was gone when I got back to the trailer. In fact, it looked like most of the neighborhood was gone. The trailer park was dark and just had an air of abandonment about it. Though, to be honest, that had been the case for as far back as I could remember. But since most of the people in my area wouldn't open their doors to a stranger, much less talk to them about something like a kidnapping – people around there excelled in seeing and hearing nothing – I knew the best place to begin would be the trailer itself.

  Of course, it was really the only place to begin.

  I walked through my old home, noticing that even though I'd been gone a long time, not much had changed. Almost nothing had changed, truth be told. The place looked almost exactly how I'd left it when I went away to work on Cromia.

  When I'd met the recruiter who promised me a steady paycheck and guaranteed work, it sounded like a way to better my family's lot in life. Like the only way, actually. With my mom sick and neither of us able to afford her medication, I wasn't in a place to say no to work. Any work. But now, in hindsight, I wish I had. Saying yes to that goddamn recruiter had only brought me misery – and was continuing to do so.

  I came back with no money and with nothing to show for my work aside from a robot friend and a ship that needs constant maintenance to avoid blowing up on take-off. TheUmbra had gotten me home though, and she would take me where I needed to go – with no guarantee she would get me back, however. But I had faith in her. She might not look like much, but she had heart.

  Thinking back to the person I met with – the recruiter who'd come by our house – I felt a rush of adrenaline when I remembered that he'd been a Zhakan like Boygan. I only recalled because I remembered out strangely he'd covered himself up. But he'd been hiding most of his eyes with a long trench coat.

  He'd known that people in my community weren't as accepting of alien lifeforms as other places might be and so he'd tried to hide what he was. He knew we were suspicious and mistrusting of strangers. I hadn't given it a lot of thought, aside from always thinking it was silly. But having dealt with Boygan, and thinking back on everything now, I suddenly thought very differently. About everything.

  Now, I understood why others wouldn't even answer the door to the stranger – because they usually
brought nothing but heartache and trouble.

  As I reflected on everything and tried to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together, I realized that I'd met few Zhakans in my time off-world. And none of them had been trustworthy. The recruiter who'd come to my door that day so long ago reminded me a lot of Boygan. Which made me wonder if they knew each other – and not just because they were the same species. Now, given all I knew and had gone through, I had to wonder if they worked together. If Boygan had been pulling strings behind the scenes and moving pieces around the board – me included – this whole time.

  I shook my head and thought about how silly and even bigoted that sounded. Zhaka was a big planet and there was no guarantee the recruiter and Boygan knew each other just because they came from the same planet. It was a ridiculous thought. And very likely nothing more than a coincidence. Just because I'd had a bad experience with Boygan, it didn't mean that every Zhakan was bad or in league with him.

  But what if the Zhakan who came to my door was to blame for my family's disappearance? He did, after all, know where I lived. Knew my mother. But why would some random Zhakan con artist take my family? What would he gain from it? He knew he'd scammed me when he sent me to Cromia – and would know I had no money. So, if it was him, what was his angle?

  Which only made me double down on the idea that he worked for Boygan. That the wheels of whatever grand plan this was have been in motion for some time now.

  There were so many questions and I wasn't any closer to finding an answer to any of them. I collapsed on the couch, closed my eyes and tried to force myself to think outside the box. I was trying to think of where else I could look, who else might be responsible and my brain was hurting. As I rubbed my temples, trying to soothe my mind, a buzzing sound caught my attention and set my nerves on edge.

  Opening my eyes, I looked around and tried to find the source of the obnoxious noise. It was then that my eyes fell on our old house phone. A phone that hadn't been used in forever. I had no idea why we even still had it – I'd always assumed it was just an ancient relic from a bygone era. I thought it belonged to my mom's great grandma or something like that.

  I stared at the artifact for a few moments before it dawned on me that perhaps I should pick it up. I walked over to the phone and picked it up, placing it to my ear and whispered, “Hello?” almost feeling stupid since the damn thing wasn't even hooked up.

  But then – my rational mind argued – if it wasn't hooked up, how was it ringing?

  “Gemma,” a deep, gravely voice spoke on the other end of the line, nearly making me drop the phone with fright.

  “Yes -- who's this?”

  “That's irrelevant,” the voice said. “I won't be on this line long, but I'm going to tell you everything you need to know, so listen closely. Your mother and aunt are alive and they're being held until we can meet with you. Face to face. Go to your ship immediately, and we will forward instructions to you.”

  “How did you – ” I started to ask how he managed to call me, but he'd already disconnected the call.

  I stared at the dead phone in my hand for a moment before hanging it up. And that's when I realized somethinghad been changed. The old telephone was hooked into the wall. And at the base of the wall was a computer with a glowing light – a receiver. Somehow – probably when they'd taken my mom and my aunt – someone had hooked up the old relic of a phone to a digital communication device. This had all been planned. That was how they intended to reach me once I got home all along.

  With one final look at my trailer – at the home I'd already left behind once for adventures in space – I rushed off toward my ship. Sure, this was probably a trap, but what other choice did I have? Once I figured out where we were going, I could formulate a plan with Kysos. We'd try to figure out what they were up to. But for now, I had to get to my ship and see what they wanted me to do.

  Trap or not, I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. Not if I wanted to save my family.

  Chapter Three

  “Xavix, did we receive their communications yet?” I asked, breathless as I rushed aboard my ship, my droid right behind me – and decidedly not breathless.

  “We did. However, the strange thing is that I am unable to track where the transmission originated,” he said. “I've been working on it, but have not had any luck so far.”

  “What's it say?” I ask, collapsing into my captain's chair – the chair I hadn't wanted to feel under my butt again for a good, long time.

  “It's a set of coordinates,” he said. “To a planet in the Nyota constellation known only as 51 Nyota. Little is known about it at present, given that it was discovered by Cromian scientists only recently. But it is otherwise considered uninhabitable. And to date, nobody has set foot on the surface of the planet.”

  “Or maybe they have,” I said. “Because apparently that's where my mom and aunt are being held. Or at least, that's what Boygan – or whoever is behind this – wants me to think.”

  Xavix cocked his head to the side and looked at me, his black, dead eyes staring at me like a lost, little puppy dog trying to make sense of everything. It was one of the most human expressions I'd ever seen from him.

  “So the abductors want us to go to 51 Nyota?”

  “Apparently so,” I mumbled, scratching my head. “I don't get it either. But the good news is, we can stop at Acrov and talk to Kysos since it's on the way – ”

  “The directions explicitly say no stops,” he said.

  “But we will need to refuel,” I replied. “We can't make it all the way out there without refueling.”

  “There are designated stops built into our route, Gemma,” Xavix said, looking at the navigation consoles. “Everything has already been programmed into the ship automatically, and stops are coordinated for us. No additional stops will be allowed.”

  “And let me guess,” I sighed, “no stops on Cromia or Acrov?”

  “That is correct,” Xavix said. “Our route takes us completely around those planets.”

  “Of course it does,” I sighed.

  Great. Just great. This all just kept getting better and better.

  “Well, let's get in touch with Hugo and see what he has to say,” I said.

  “Gemma, I'm afraid they've hacked into our ship's mainframe and have completely taken it over. Everything is under their control,” Xavix said. “They can communicate with us, but we can't send any communications outward.”

  “Can you override it?” I asked.

  “It would take me some time to get through their system. And even then, they are very good and I have no guarantee of success,” he said. “Not to mention that we're expected to take off within the next few minutes.”

  Damn. This whole thing had been well coordinated. This entire episode had been planned very well. As I stood there weighing the few – very few – options I had, there was a knock on the ship's door that sent a bolt of adrenaline rushing through me and made me reach for my weapon. I forced myself to take a breath and calm myself enough so that when I pushed the button to open the door, I wasn't on the verge of screaming. Instead, I found myself face-to-face with the man from earlier – the one who'd greeted us when we landed.

  “Yes?” I muttered.

  “I couldn't help but notice that you're leaving again, Ms. Sage. So soon?” His eyes narrowed and a suspicious look crossed his face. “You've only just arrived home.”

  I knew that this man, whoever he was, was part of the Air Alliance – the group that helps planetary authorities monitor what happens in our solar system. He was the type of person I should feel comfortable and safe talking to. They were, after all, supposed to be there to help us.

  But as I stood there, I couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. Of course, everything about this situation was wrong. Way wrong. So maybe I was just seeing shadows that weren't really there. But I just couldn't shake the feeling that something about this guy was – off.

  I cleared my throat, tried to sti
fle my annoyance, and tried to see it from his perspective – having only arrived home after a long time away, leaving again so suddenly probably did seem suspicious. I knew that smuggling was a big business and that criminal types shuttled in drugs, weapons, and any number of illicit items – something the Air Alliance was always on guard against.

  From his point of view, my quick stop on Earth probably did look like a smuggling run.

  I couldn't tell him what was going on – but I needed to get going. Which meant that I needed him off my ship sooner rather than later.

  “Yes, well, I've been called back in to work already,” I said. “You know how that goes. I hate to rush you, but if you don't mind – ”

  “I do understand, of course,” he said, glancing around at the ship's interior. “But we never did get to debrief about what happened on your previous mission. And before you can leave, we really must insist that – ”

  “Uhhh – Gem?” Xavix said, pointing at the consoles in front of him.

  I looked over and saw that the clock on the ship's navigation controls had suddenly come to life seemingly on its own. I was staring at the countdown to takeoff. I felt a spike of fear lance through me and knew I needed to get that guy off my ship.

  “Ms. Sage,” the man said. “I really must demand you power down your ship and halt your travel plans until – ”

  I finally glanced at his name badge. “We can't power down the ship or halt our travel plans, Air Officer Singleton,” I said.

  “Please, call me Theron,” he said.

  “Fine. Whatever,” I snapped. “But you might want to step off the ship, because one way or another, we're taking off.”

  As if on cue, the door automatically slid closed behind him, slamming shut with a loud clang. Theron turned and looked at the door and then looked back at me in shock – almost like I had done it on purpose to trap him.