Saturnius Mons by Jeremy L. Jones

Author:Jeremy L. Jones [Jones, Jeremy L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-26T22:00:00+00:00

Viekko sat at a wooden banquet table almost twenty meters long, staring at a hunk of charred meat on a stick while his mind drifted farther away. This room inside the ship was cavernous. It was possibly the cargo hold or even a stripped-out engine room. It was large enough to house five long tables each seating upwards of twenty to thirty Perfiduloi with room to spare all eating meat from skewers and drinking some black fermented fruit drink. Light streamed in through a series of windows high above their heads.

Viekko closed his eyes and tried to focus on the here and now. A few moments ago, he thought he was sitting at the family table just after his mother’s funeral on Mars. Before that, he pictured himself in the Colony Defense Force mess hall looking at something unidentifiable on a metal platter. Before that, a small round table in a Rio club looking at a drink changing colors right in front of his eyes.

Each time he had to force his mind back to the present. He was here on Titan. Surrounded by a hundred Perfiduloi warriors all tearing big chunks of mammoth meat from the sticks with their teeth. After that was done, there was going to be some kind of trial. At which point they were probably going to kill Carr, Viekko or both of them.

He pulled up his sleeve to contact Isra again. He whispered just under his breath, “Anything yet?”

There was a long pause before he heard Isra’s voice over the earpiece. “Nothing. I have made some inquiries with Laban’s people but that is not likely to get us anywhere. The Houston is not willing to send any of his people outside the walls. I hate to say it, but you are on your own.”

Viekko swallowed hard. “Is she dead?”

“We do not know anything yet. It could be an equipment malfunction or her signal dropped or is somewhere out of satellite line-of-sight. Viekko, listen carefully. You need to think about yourself now. Get yourself to safety and then, we will worry about Althea and Cronus.”

Viekko sighed. “Understood.”

Carr, sitting next to him, took a big bite of meat. “S’matter Viekko? Not hungry?”

Viekko looked at the hunk of meat again. Somewhere he felt vague pangs of hunger poking out through the Haze, but they were too far away. What little grasp he had on reality at the moment was entirely focused on Althea.

Carr took another bite. “I wouldn’t worry about your friends. They got rerouted.”

Viekko slowly turned his head. “Say that again.”

Carr gave Viekko a smug, grease-covered grin. “I said they got rerouted. We managed to isolate your private signal before you even left base camp. You didn’t think we’d just let you traipse all over this moon unsupervised, did you? They are safe. I just needed to make sure they didn’t interfere. Are you going to eat that?”

The world around Viekko got sharper. It wasn’t as good as a shard of triple-T, but the thought of pulling

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