Eveth Baker considered the view as the vehicle cruised through the late-morning sky of Irron. It wasn’t an auto-taxi, but a similar vehicle, privately owned by the Constabulary to transport officers around. The craft was low and sleek, done in the Constabulary’s traditional steel blue inside and out, with a comfortable cabin that would seat eight Vanir or a dozen Grace on the two benches running parallel to the sides. She and Grodray had the plush, warm seats to themselves.
According to her partner, Jackeith Grodray, the blue overhead was among the closest to the planet Earth where Dankworth had been born and lived his whole life. Hopefully, that had helped with his acclimation.
She didn’t like it, any of it, but they were going to need his help.
The sky was clear and a blue that just seemed artificial to her eyes, but she was used to more urban places like Orgoth Vortai or Hurquar. Irron was almost a nature preserve, by comparison, with few cities of any note and vast wilderness areas covering much of the planet still.
The Constabulary maintained one of their largest training facilities out here, away from civilian eyes that might not react well to loud noises and activities of the men and women training to protect the many worlds of the Accord of Souls.
Below, a plateau stretched out, overlooking a gorge that seemed bottomless in the fog and spray of a tremendous river waterfalling over one thousand meters into a lake so blue it might have been tanzanite.
“Kopek for your thoughts, Eve?” her partner asked, looking up from his digital book as the cruiser banked and started its descent to the base revealed below them in the trees.
“You’d get overcharged, Jack,” she said. “Still not sure what we’re doing here. What I’m doing here. What the hell happens next. You know?”
“You’re here because you impressed the hell out of my bosses and helped break open a major smuggling and genetics operation, Baker,” the man turned serious. “Lot of sunlight suddenly shining in on places where it never should have left. We’ll be years cleaning up all the corruption revealed. This might be one of the biggest cases in our lifetimes.”
Eveth shrugged. She was a cop. That was why she had joined in the first place. Stopping bad guys.
“And Dankworth?” she turned to face him. The ground was rushing up to meet them, but she had been here before, and this runway wasn’t all the impressive, once you had already flown next to the waterfall overlooking a kilometer drop.
“He’s here because he has nowhere else to go,” Grodray nodded once. Sharp. Fierce. Decisive. “He’s a cop, like us, trying to save the galaxy. And everybody is still trying to identify a way we can stop Maximus without him, but nobody’s come up with anything better.”
“He’s a monster, Grodray,” she snapped.
“We’re all monsters, Baker,” he replied in that cold, flat voice he got when he was past teasing. “Sane people do not take up arms and put on a badge. They become musicians. Or shopkeepers. Something predictable. That’s why Kathra divorced me and remarried. Too many nights alone when the kids were young. It’s why she found a second husband who’s a sales manager. Safe. Quiet. Comfortable. But someone has to do this job. Someone has to hold the line against all the people trying to cheat the system and make an unfair profit. Without the Accord, you have chaos.”
“Or Maximus,” she mused, mostly to herself, but apparently loud enough for him to hear.
“Or something worse, yes,” Grodray acknowledged. “I remember Maximus telling Gareth about his plan to become Emperor Marc the First, an immortal human who was planning to take over the entire Accord with the help of more humans, and rule forever.”
“So we have to trust another human to save us?” she sneered. It wasn’t meant to come out that bitter, but even she heard the tones in her voice.
So did Grodray. His eyes got hard.
“That man has sacrificed everything, Eve,” Jackeith’s voice dropped to a murmur. “Everything. And I’ve not heard any reports of him complaining about it afterwards. He’s lost his past, his present, and his future. All his friends and family. The woman he loved. And he would do it again tomorrow, if we asked. Keep that in mind.”
“I know, Grodray,” her own voice dropped as the cruiser landed lightly. “Will it be enough?”
“I don’t know, Eve,” he said. “But we’ve got to try.”