Empress of a Thousand Skies(62)
“Great question. Because they needed a skeleton crew for this outpost assignment hellhole and I was their top candidate.” He started to pace. “On a radioactive moon where I’m scared to even touch anything. Look at me, Mom! A shining choirtoing star . . .”
It was almost comical, hearing him cuss up a storm in that wholesome Chram accent. But Aly knew what kind of assignment this was. The UniForce had tons of old bases and “key strategic locations” where they posted a dozen soldiers, tops—far-flung locations that weren’t all that relevant, and soldiers they were trying to punch. And Chrams were the bottom of the barrel when it came to the hierarchy of Kalusian allies. Of course Jeth would be one of the first ones on this taejis of an assignment.
Jeth kept eyeing Pavel, who was draining his battery over in the corner like a little dunce. Jeth knew the droid was sending out a signal jammer, and the fact that he hadn’t powered him down meant Jeth was on the fence about reporting them.
“How long has your unit been here?” Aly asked. Maybe there was still a chance to get Jeth on their side.
“This isn’t my unit, Alyosha.” Jeth glared at him, and for a second he looked just like the skinny punk Vin and Aly had adopted on their first day in boot camp. “It’s me, with a bunch of godsdamned security guards on a power trip.” He was talking about the Tasinn. “We’ve been here two days. And get this: Our orders are coming from a piece of taejis DroneVision host! Nero is dictating military strategy now. Dude has never even touched a uniform,” Jeth spit. Aly thought of the big man on the train, squeezed into his expensive suit. Aly wasn’t feeling too charitable seeing as his hands were cuffed, but he’d give Jeth this—he should be pissed. They all should.
“Nero?” Kara said under her breath.
“Where’d they send the squatters, Jeth?” Aly tried again for intel. It was worth a shot, since it looked like Jeth was feeling chatty.
Jeth stared at him. He never blinked—he didn’t have eyelids—and he had a pretty serious evil eye when he put his mind to it. “Houl,” he said finally. “There’s an internment center there for political agitators. Fontisian agents, that sort of thing.” Aly had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. “Brand-spanking-new and totally inescapable. You’ll know all about it soon enough, you idiot choirtoi. Walking right into a UniForce base. What the hell are you even doing here? In case you hadn’t noticed, you’re wanted for murder.” He yanked open the top button of his uniform and committed the worst of dress code violations as far as their Drill Sergeant Vedcu was concerned. If he were there he would’ve gone crazy, made them all drop down and give him fifty.
“I didn’t murder anybody,” Aly said, losing patience. He struggled against his cuffs, though he knew it would do no good. “Let us go, Jeth. You know they lied! This is the biggest pile of taejis.”
“Of course it’s a lie, Aly. But you know what? You show up to an agitator safe house—”
“They’re not agitators,” Kara interjected. “They’re scientists. They were running for their lives, and you sniffed them out like dogs. Sent them gods know where for whatever experiments—”
“Hey, talk all the taejis you want. I got the UniForce shoving Tasinn up where the sun don’t shine!”
“Shut up, Jeth,” Aly snapped.
“Look at you, so ready to jump to her defense.” Jeth spit in disgust, a wad of saliva denting the plaster of the wall. Aly and Vin had always been jealous that Chrams could do that. “What about us? Your unit, your brothers? You know what we went through once you disappeared? They wanted to make damn sure no one else was working with you.” Aly tried to interrupt, but Jeth held a finger up as he kept talking. “Bullseye, Einstein, Shrank,” he said, listing call signs of all the pilots they came up with. “They’re gone. Disappeared.”
“What?” Aly felt like Jeth had lasered him straight in the stomach. “Why? I haven’t even—I mean, I haven’t talked to any of them for years.”
“Yeah, well, tough tits for everyone. I only got sent out here as an errand boy. Rhesto’s close enough to Fontis to refuel an armada, if it came to that. But we wound up stumbling on a bunch of squatters. It’s just shitty coincidence I’m here.”
So now Aly understood why Jethezar was still stuck on Rhesto. It was punishment, for being even vaguely associated with him. “Everyone else got sent to Zubil, Yarazu, Hapecha . . .” He listed Fontisian territories. “I’m sitting on the sidelines up on this rock while the rest of the unit gets their balls handed to them.”
“They’ve already deployed?” Aly looked from Jeth to Kara.
“We’re at war,” she deadpanned. And he’d known that, hadn’t he? He’d seen announcements on the holos, martial law, armadas moving across space, Tasinn on even the farthest neutral rocks. But Kara’s mom being taken, guys he knew being deployed—it felt more real than anything else had in the past few days. It wasn’t just his life. It was everyone’s.
“Right, exactly what she said.” Jeth patted down the front pocket of his gear and pulled a face when he realized his tobacco was gone. “Swear to the ancestors, Aly, you have the worst timing.” He paced some more.
“Let us go, Jeth. What are you going to do? Turn us in?” In the silence, Aly felt his eyes sting. “Man. All those nights we shot the taejis? All those times on leave with your family? We came up together. We came up with Vincent . . .”