We built an impromptu camp at the corner of one of the sealed bays after the acceleration eased and the alarms cut out. Struthiform crew in harness uniforms came by with crude cots.
A veritable cross section of Accordance subjects crowded in around us. Struthiform soldiers in their own powered armor, carapoids lying along the back wall like large lumps of polished rock, and other humans with their gear.
One recognizable struthiform approached us, his scarred and half-machine face blinking at the bright, stadium-like lighting in the docking bay. “I heard your approach to the ship.”
Lilly Taylor jumped up. She’d shucked her armor. It was behind her, splayed open like something hungry and half machine, half biological, waiting to eat her again. The bright lights seemed to get soaked up by her skin as she went for Shriek’s throat. “You bastard!” She’d spoken before with a more precise, almost British accent. Now I could hear the Kenyan accent coming out with her anger.
Min Zhao was on her feet, grabbing Taylor and spinning her off to the side.
Shriek seemed neither surprised nor concerned, regarding them both with his dinner-plate eyes.
I was on my feet too, leaving my armor behind to back Zhao up. “Thank you, Max.”
“Maria is gone. We died trying to get up here. Trying to save these civilians,” Taylor shouted.
Zhao wrapped Taylor up in a bear hug. “He’s an alien, Taylor. We’re alien to him. He’s a lost soul and he’s not going to look at it the same. But he still fixes us up, don’t forget that. Okay?”
Taylor crumpled for a moment in Zhao’s embrace.
Shriek looked back at me. “This is why I do not learn names,” he said coolly. “They die. Now I know the dead one was named Maria. What good is that now for me?”
I groaned. “Fuck, Shriek, now’s not the time.”
“It’s good that she grieves. You should all grieve. Grieve now and let each other go,” the cyborg struthiform said. He pointed toward one of the large high-definition displays on the bulkhead wall over our heads. “See that small dot there? The blue one? That is your world. Your Earth. I would find a place on this ship, or wherever we end up, to go and look at it one last time. Because the Conglomeration comes for it, and they’ll burn it. And then, eventually, you too.”
I pulled Shriek away from the platoon. Alpha and Bravo were used to this shit and just looked annoyed. But Charlie and Delta were ready to kill the medic.
We needed a medic.
“I’m half ready to kill you myself, Shriek,” I said, out of earshot. “You might be an alien, but right now you’re being a real asshole. Shut up about all that. Did you find Ken?”
“As you requested,” Shriek said. “He was shot. It happened on the surface, but he didn’t report it to you. His armor kept him stable but was compromised. I assume he didn’t want you to worry about taking him into pure vacuum.”
I let out a deep breath. “Let me go armor up and we’ll go look at him.”
“The armor stays in the bay,” Shriek said. “Ship rules.”
“Rockhoppers don’t shuck,” I said.
“You’re on an Accordance carrier accelerating away from the field of battle,” Shriek said. “If you want me to take you to see Ken Awojobi, you shall leave your armor, like any other person who wishes to walk the ship.”
I bit my lip. “I’ll get Amira.”
+ + + +
Ken was cocooned in a medical pod, its spider-like arms tucked neatly away. He sat up as he saw us, pulling coconut-like fibers sinking into the skin on his back out to their limit. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?” I shook my head. “Shut up, I don’t want to hear about that. I’m just glad you’re okay. When you stopped responding, and we didn’t know where in the bay you were, we didn’t know . . .”
“How is everything?” Ken asked. “How bad? I saw the whole side of the ship get sliced off.”
“Maria Lukin, one of the new soldiers,” I told him. “She was over there. She saved my life in the corridor, back on Titan. Shot Chef when the driver took him. Shook her up. She was a quick thinker.”
There was nowhere to sit. Apparently, aliens didn’t expect bedside visitors. Amira folded her arms. “How you feeling?”
Ken nodded. “Better. I’m pretty drugged up. We’ll see when I get released how I really feel, because right now it is warm and very fuzzy, which doesn’t feel right. We just barely got out alive. It doesn’t even feel real to be sitting here, to be still.”
“Barely alive,” I agreed. “I think I believed that when the Accordance handed us some resources and weapons, we’d get in there and show them how fucking hard we could fight. I thought, maybe they just didn’t have the warrior spirit. Weren’t motivated enough. But that was a nightmare. We lost Saturn, and now Titan, too. What’s it going to be like when they reach Earth?”
“I get that from Shriek,” Ken growled. “I don’t want to hear it from you, too. Listen to me: I didn’t almost die for nothing just now. We didn’t fight for nothing. We’re going to go back to Titan. We’re going to go back and kick their asses, and I’m going to be first on the ground. Because the Accordance is not going to roll over and surrender. The Accordance is better than that. They are strong. We are lucky they are our allies.”
+ + + +
There was no food for humans aboard the carrier. By the end of the second day, the engineers were lying down and taking sleeping pills that Shriek offered them, while the rest of us armored up. The steady nutrient drip jacked into our spines was enough to stave off the worst, but it was strange to just mill around in full armor, conserving power and waiting.
Halfway through the third day, the monitors lit up with something other than the outer ship cameras.
A series of rocky asteroids connected by clear tubes and girders flashed on screen. “These are the Trojans,” a familiar voice explained. “These asteroids trail along Saturn in its orbit, and serve as something of a naval yard for our Saturn operations and a rally point for Accordance ships engaged on the Saturn Front.”
The asteroid base faded away, and a familiar face appeared on the screen with the triangular CPF logo up behind him.
“It’s Colonel Anais,” Amira muttered, with all the enthusiasm of someone who found dogshit on the heel of a shoe.
“Here at the Trojan naval base, we will begin preparations to defend against any incursion into trans-Jovian Accordance territory,” Anais said. “Your valued participation in the wars around Saturn has helped reduce Conglomeration forces. You have struck a great blow. Now please gather yourselves for the next stage.”
“What about Titan?” someone shouted, as if Anais could hear them. “We just leave them all there to die?”
Anais droned on more about future plans and the bravery of the CPF.
“We left a lot of people behind,” I muttered to Ken, now recovered and suited up. “What are we doing here? We should be going back to save them.”
“We’re surviving,” Amira said. “We’re still here. We can’t help them.”
“Apparently,” Ken said bitterly. The news that we weren’t going back to Titan seemed to have shaken him. His previous bravado had faded away as the drugs left his system. But I was still surprised. Ken had joined the CPF to get into the officer corps. He’d wanted this. Badly. He’d been a full believer. In the Accordance, in our role in it.
Looking over at the remains of Charlie and Delta squads, and the tired faces of my platoon, I realized Titan had left us all broken.