New Alliance Read online

  “I don’t know, but I think they need our help.”

  ____________

  Two days passed, and we couldn’t reach anyone on Keppe about Magnus. Lord Crul was apparently indisposed, and Admiral Yope was away on a mission. I’d had enough of everyone’s avoidance and decided I had to make a trip to the Keppe home world of Oliter.

  Our gang was inside our home on New Spero, and I glanced around, grateful they’d all come on such short notice. Sarlun was on Shimmal, overseeing the training of the new Gatekeepers. We were in the process of building an intergalactic academy on Haven where the classes would eventually be held, but for the time being, Sarlun was using their own facilities.

  Suma was here, nervously sitting at the table, eating some nuts Mary had placed out. Slate was pacing around the room angrily, and Karo sat solemnly on the couch, not saying much. I was worried about my Theos friend. He didn’t seem the same lately, and even the offer of pizza didn’t sway his mood.

  Leslie sat still, a constant reminder of Mae and Janine, since she was a clone of the same person as they were. Her better half, Terrance, was on Haven making sure the last of the dignitaries launched home without complication.

  Jules sat at the table with us, coloring a piece of paper. She’d drawn a space ship, and a fuzzy alien with six arms was on the page beside it, looking much like a child’s version of the Inlor we saw on the stage.

  Rulo, the Keppe warrior, was the exception. She should have been with Sarlun on Shimmal, with Suma, but the girl had escorted her to our house through the portal stone earlier in the day.

  “I told you, I don’t know how to reach them,” Rulo said, her words translating for me. She stared at me with her snake-slit eyes, thick armored skin bulging through her white uniform. “If I did, I wouldn’t keep it from you.”

  “Then you have to come with me to Oliter. Magnus is in danger, and I’m worried we don’t have much time,” I said, unable to hide the tremor from my voice. Magnus had been there for me without question, and it appeared it was my turn to return the favor.

  Suma chewed a nut and tapped her finger on the table. “‘We’re stuck.’ What do you think it means?”

  “I’m not sure it’s worth speculating over. We have to find out where they were, and if your people were tracking their movements,” Mary told Rulo.

  A scar on Rulo’s face was a reminder from the day when I first met her, when we’d rescued Slate from the underground monsters, and she grimaced, running a hand over her bald head. “We have tracking, but they aren’t always foolproof. Our exploratory vessels have been pushing the borders of the known universe, and often the readouts don’t transfer back to their server until the ship is close enough.”

  “But you’ll come with us to Oliter to find out?” I asked, and she nodded.

  “I will. Magnus is a friend to my people. If trouble has befallen his ship and crew, then it affects the Keppe as well as you. Admiral Yope will also want to know.” Rulo stood behind Jules, watching her make even strokes with a blue crayon. Something was bothering Rulo more than she was letting on.

  “What is it?” I pressed her.

  “Kaspin, someone close to me, is on Fortune. I’m worried about him.” I hadn’t known that Rulo had a significant other. Three years was a long commitment to be separated.

  “Then we go in the morning. First thing,” I said.

  Mary locked eyes with me. “Dean, can I speak to you in the other room for a moment?”

  I noticed how everyone else avoided looking at us as she led me to the porch, and shut the door before speaking. “We have so much going on, and we have Jules now. I know you have this insatiable urge to help everyone and go on adventures, but do you remember what happens when you go out there?” She pointed to the sky, indicating space beyond.

  “I know.” I ran a hand through my hair and leaned against the wooden siding of the house. Maggie was at my feet, and I petted the cuddly cocker spaniel, who was sitting on the steps with Mary. “I told you I was done with that stuff, but this is Magnus. You didn’t hear his voice. He sounded petrified. He was really scared. Natalia’s there with him, and the kids, Dean and Patty. Not to mention the dogs, Charlie and Carey.” I’d been surprised to hear my old cocker friend was still kicking; even up in the Keppe ship, he seemed to have a lot of spunk left in his aging body.

  Mary sighed and nodded, looking away from me. “Then you have to go. I’ll stay here with Jules.” I knew she wanted to come with me, and I wanted my family by my side, but it was too dangerous to be traipsing around the galaxy with the whole family.

  “Maybe we won’t have to go anywhere. Maybe the Keppe know where they are and are already on it,” I said, failing to believe my own hopes.

  “Go to Oliter tomorrow and find out what you can. Take the other end of the movable portal with you, just in case. That way, you can get home to visit us,” Mary said.

  “I don’t know if I should bring it. What if something happens to me? What if someone steals it? They’d have direct access to you and Jules. I’m not sure I can risk that.” I loved her idea, because I’d be able to come home and see them anytime.

  “Oh, Dean, why can’t we hide away from everything, and grow old taking care of our daughter?” Mary asked, leaning into me.

  The door opened, and Karo popped his head out. “Dean and Mary, may I speak with you candidly?”

  “Of course. Come and join us,” Mary said. Karo was seven feet tall, and he still looked odd wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to it. His white hair was pulled into a ponytail, and his eyes bore into mine.

  “I’d like to join you, Dean.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked, not wanting to burden the Theos with dangerous adventures.

  “I’m bored here, and on Haven. I don’t fit in, and few people want to talk to the lone gray alien. I’d prefer to be in your small company, doing something for once,” Karo said, and I felt terrible for him. Here he was, the last of his kind, knowing that all other remaining Theos were trapped inside the portal stones we used to transport from world to world. It was a sad tale, and his request was one I was only too happy to accept.

  “Come with me. I’d love that, Karo. We have no idea what to expect here.” I glanced to Mary. “We might be gone a while.”

  “That suits me just fine. Mary, thank you for all your hospitality. I’m going to miss having dinner with you and little Jules a few times a week, but it will do my mental health wonders to be out there instead of wallowing in my own loneliness,” Karo said, and while we’d talked a lot about him being the last Theos, he’d never spoken quite so openly of his feelings about it.

  “Welcome to the team,” I said, starting up the stairs. Maggie hopped to her feet when I did, and shook her little body before sticking her nose on the door. She was ready to go in to see if Suma had dropped any food on the floor.

  Mary gripped my arm, holding me back as Karo re-entered the house. “Come back to us with Magnus and Natalia, okay? I know I’ve given you a hard time about staying safe with us around, but I know part of you needs this.”

  I was about to deny it, but she lightly placed a finger on my lips, preventing me from arguing the fact.

  Five

  We were in the portal room outside Terran Five on New Spero when I remembered the “guest” we’d left aboard the ship on the landing pad near the capital city on Haven. Leonard stayed at my house with Mary and Jules, and before I left, he whispered that he would protect them with his life. I wasn’t sure that was necessary, but I didn’t tell him that. The truth was, I was happy for Mary to have someone there for company, even though she was more than equipped to protect herself. Part of me wished Slate could stay with my family, but he’d never let me go without him.

  W, the android we’d found on Larsk Two, was with us, along with Slate, Suma, Karo, and Rulo, and I’d nearly pressed the icon on the portal table for Oliter when I recalled Sergo’s insectoid face. “Damn it. We have to make a quick detour,”
I said, and no one argued as I brought us to Haven instead.

  I led our group out of the portal room on Haven, through the tunnels, and out to the surface, where a guard waved us through. He pointed to an idle lander and motioned for me to take it. Sometime later, our assorted group arrived outside the city of Haven. I’d told Terrance a few times that we needed to change the name of either the capital or the planet, because it was confusing to have them both named the same thing. He disagreed, so I’d digressed and hadn’t brought it up since.

  We almost all wore our Gatekeeper uniforms, and I thought it was a little funny to have a crew in matching outfits. Our EVA suits were waiting for us to don them before heading to Oliter. We looked like a real team, comprised of two humans, a Shimmali, a Keppe warrior, and the last Theos in existence. Karo and W were the only ones not part of the Gatekeepers. The Theos man wore a black jumpsuit instead, causing him to stick out like a sore thumb. W was an android and didn’t wear clothing at all. Where his gray exterior was once scuffed and dirty, he was smooth and polished after a little maintenance on New Spero.

  He piloted the lander to a pad that was only a quarter full now: a vast difference from the other day, when the ceremony was taking place and there were hundreds of various vessels from around the galaxy parked for the event.

  I spotted the ship we’d used to intercept Sergo, and boarded it while the others waited outside, W staying inside the lander.

  “Sergo! Look, I’m sorry. We got tied up,” I lied. I couldn’t believe we’d actually forgotten the guy trapped in a bedroom on the ship.

  I approached and saw his form lying on the bunk in the corner of the room. I pulled a gun from my hip as a precautionary measure and held it behind me as I called out to him again. He wasn’t moving.

  “Sergo?” I asked. Still nothing. Seconds later, I had the force field deactivated, and I crossed the compact room and rolled him onto his back. Black eyes stared up at the ceiling. I was sure he was dead.

  He licked his thin lips, and his head snapped toward me. “Parker! What do you think you’re doing leaving me here like that? I could have died! Good thing we Padlog can slow our metabolism and go into a deep sleep.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. I couldn’t say that I liked the guy, but I didn’t want to be the one to kill him either. Unless he deserved it. “I said I was sorry. Come on, let’s get you out of here,” I said.

  “Where are you taking me?” he asked.

  I hadn’t given it much thought. I’d call Terrance and get him to do something with the Padlog gangster.

  “Weren’t you coming to Haven for a reason? Well, here you are. Have fun,” I said as we walked by the safe he’d brought aboard with him. I pointed to the container. “Wait. You owe me something.”

  His gaze darted from the safe to me and back. “Fine. A deal’s a deal, but like I said, it’s busted.” Sergo tapped in a series of codes onto a screen, and the trunk-like black case hissed apart. A cold mist poured from the edges before he hinged the lid open, revealing dark blue metallic rectangles cut and shaped like gold bars.

  “That’s…”

  “That’s what nearly got me killed. Inlorian bars.” Sergo was staring at them with greed in his buggy eyes.

  “That’s what they called them? Not very original. How much is this worth?” I asked him.

  “I’m not really sure. The stuff’s going for about five hundred per bar,” he said.

  “Five hundred?” That wasn’t much. There were hundreds of different currencies out there, but the universal credit was growing as a trade tool.

  “Thousand.” His gaze flicked to me, and his tongue ran over his mouth again. If I didn’t know better, he was drooling. “Five hundred thousand a bar.”

  “That’s a lot of credits. What were you thinking, stumbling in there and trying to steal it?” I grabbed the Relocator and fiddled with it, finding the power didn’t come on. I hoped Suma would be able to tinker and get it up and running.

  “What happened with the Inlor?” he asked.

  “They came to the Gatekeeper ceremony we were hosting, and after a few hours of discussion with us, have agreed to join our coalition. Now that they’re part of the Alliance, we’ll be returning their merchandise to them.” I kicked the crate lightly, and Sergo’s eyes got even wider, his antennae flicking back and forth quickly.

  “You can’t!” he shouted.

  “And why’s that?”

  “Because they’ll figure out I’m alive,” Sergo said.

  It finally clicked. “If they know we have the bars, then they know we took them off the ship before they destroyed it. Gotcha.” My brain wasn’t operating at full capacity. I was too worried about finding Magnus and bringing them home safely, and returning to my own family as soon as possible. I wasn’t sure I was cut out for dealing with issues like this one any longer.

  “Does that mean I can keep it?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “No. Terrance is on his way here, and he’ll deal with you.” I didn’t really care what happened to the stolen goods, as long as I didn’t have to decide. Terrance and Leslie were in charge; they could take care of the problem better than I could.

  “Where are you off to?” Sergo asked, as if the thought of adventure spelled out financial opportunity.

  “None of your business. The Supreme is asking what happened to you, and we’ve had to tell him the Inlor destroyed your ship to keep up appearances. You might want to lie low here for a while,” I suggested as Terrance entered the ship.

  “Parker, we’ll meet again. Of this I’m sure.” Sergo remained staring at the container of stolen materials longingly. “I guess I owe you one, don’t I?”

  “I suppose you do. I’ll bank it for now,” I said.

  I got Terrance up to speed, and when we were all done, I pocketed the damaged Relocator. When Sergo wasn’t looking, I grabbed ten of the Inlorian bars and met our group near the lander. The bars were lighter than I expected.

  “Everything good, boss?” Slate inquired.

  “Perfect. I don’t think we’ll be seeing Sergo anytime soon.” I headed inside the transport ship, and the rest followed.

  On the way, I scanned the landscape below, smiling as we flew over a modest village. Drones and robots were assembling the base of a residential facility, and already there were tiny ant-like forms moving along the ground.

  A few minutes later, we were at the portal’s landing pad, ready to get to the Keppe world and find out what we could about Magnus’ venture and where his ship, Fortune, was last seen.

  “Was this delay really necessary?” Karo asked me, nodding to my pocket, where the Relocator sat tucked away. I’d told them about the bargain, and Suma was anxious to look at the damaged device.

  “Let’s hope so.” I set foot on the ground and listened to the rustling of the nearby leaves in the wind. It was calming, and I closed my eyes, stepping away from the group. I was going to be holed up with our team in rooms, on ships, and God knew where else for the next foreseeable while, so I soaked it all in. My helmet was off, and I let the wind brush against my freshly-shaven face. I breathed in the air, and felt the sun warm against my cheeks.

  I stood like that for at least three minutes while the others chattered among themselves, probably thinking I was going nuts. I didn’t care. The next few weeks were going to be intense and unpredictable. I needed the recharge, and it worked. I instantly felt better, rejuvenated. Sometimes it paid to stop and smell the roses.

  When I turned around, the others were already walking toward the portal cave, and I followed, slipping my helmet on. By the time I made it into the room, the portal stone was glowing, the hieroglyphs in the shapes of icons for each distant world the stones linked to were pulsing, and I stepped into the circle, ready to go to Oliter.

  No one spoke as Suma tapped the table’s icon for the world, and the room was bathed in white light before dimming, eventually settling in pitch black.

  “What’s wrong with the portal room?” Rulo
asked, her words translating for me in my earpiece.

  “I don’t know.” It shouldn’t have been dark. The Keppe portal was directly beneath their leader Lord Crul’s base, and it should have been well lit, the room immaculate and architecturally designed, unlike some of the unkempt caves we visited on most worlds. The Keppe took pride in theirs, and guarded and maintained the space with the utmost care.

  A light flashed on: Slate had activated his suit’s beams. We all did the same, and soon we had a better image of where we’d ended up.

  “This isn’t Oliter,” Suma whispered, and Rulo rolled her eyes.

  “Of course this isn’t, child. Do you think my people would leave a resource like the portal stone in such disarray?” Rulo barked. She was normally so affable that her outburst caught me off-guard.

  Suma stood her ground. “I’m not a child, and we know what the Keppe portal looks like. Most of us have traveled through it.”

  I hated to second-guess my friend, but she might have made a mistake. I cleared my throat. “Suma, is there a chance you chose the wrong icon? They can be hard to get right, and you’ve been studying so many things. Maybe you picked a similar symbol?”

  Suma glared at me, her snout snapping upwards. “I didn’t screw up. Slate, tell him. You saw me.”

  Slate nodded. “I did, boss. She chose the right one, I’m sure of it.”

  Karo was standing away from us, facing a doorway. I watched him stare at the wooden slab without moving. He was acting even stranger than normal lately. It was something else for me to have to watch out for.

  “W, what kind of readouts are you getting?” I asked our robot friend.

  “Captain, the air is within reasonable parameters for each of your races’ capacities,” W responded.

  “Good. I think we should try again, see if we can get to Oliter.” My hands were already moving across the crystal-clear table, swiping over the dozens of symbols on each page. We’d recently opened up the blocked icons on all of the stones, allowing the hidden symbols from the Theos Collective to be visible to all Gatekeepers. Sarlun had fought it at first, but when he saw the advantage of finding more worlds to explore, making more connections out there, he’d agreed with me.