Polaris (10 page)

JETH'S VISION BLURRED. THE WORLD SPUN AROUND HIM
. The colors in the garden, the rich greens and vibrant blues, the yellows and reds, all smeared together in a chaotic vortex.

His mother. Alive. And here.

He started to rise, ready to run to her, but the look on her face froze him in place. Her gaze was pinned on Dax, fury in her eyes. Marian Seagrave strode into the clearing, giving no sign that she knew her long-forgotten son was present.

The two Malleus Brethren nearby raised their guns at her approach, ready to defend their master. Marian waved a hand at them, and a loud crack split the air, making Jeth flinch. A phantom pain arced through his cybernetic hand as the sound triggered a vivid memory of when Cora had used her ability to manipulate metaspace to destroy the gun he'd been holding, taking his fingers with it. She'd done it out of fear, not anger, but Jeth would never be able to hear that sound without thinking about it.

He forced his gaze to the Brethren, expecting to find them maimed or cut down entirely. But only their guns had been affected, sliced clean through by an invisible force. His mother had phased the guns into metaspace and out of existence, leaving only useless handles behind.

Daxton jumped to his feet, hands raised. “Please calm down, Marian. You promised not to do this. And no harm has been done.”

Jeth understood his fear completely. Fingers were hardly anything. He'd once seen his mother use her ability to kill a man. With a single thought she had phased a chair leg through the heart of an ITA scientist. The memory of it sent a trickle of fear spilling into his joy at her presence.

“No harm.” Marian's mouth twisted into a sneer. “You insert one of your implants into my son and claim no harm? Even after you promised to deliver him safe and whole?”

“He is safe and whole. See for yourself.”

Jeth braced, waiting for his mother's gaze to alight on him.
She's here.
The realization pounded through him, impossible to believe despite the evidence before him. For a second he wondered if this was all just a dream. Then again, he didn't think his imagination capable of such a feat. This was not the mother of his childhood, the one he had known and loved. Everything about her was transformed, the old recreated in a new image. Her shock of white hair and her ability to manipulate metaspace were strange enough, but it went deeper than that, a fundamental change in her very presence. He remembered easy smiles and a quick laugh. Nothing at all like this hardness and ice before him.

Still, Marian did not look at him, keeping her gaze fixed on Dax. “You lied.”

Dax shook his head, sweat beading his hairline. “I didn't lie. And I didn't harm him. The implant architecture was
already there. I just inserted the implant when he arrived.”

A tremble racked Marian's body, fury emblazoned on her face. Jeth had never seen her so angry. She raised a hand to the back of her head, tracing a finger along the tentacle of a white implant. It blended so perfectly with her hair, Jeth hadn't even noticed it. Its existence wasn't a revelation. He'd seen the implant in the Aether Project videos. But the sight of it meant something wholly different to him now.

She went through this, too
, he realized, his head throbbing. He glanced away from her, his eyes drawn to the sight of the black implant, lying a few meters away.

“Was it your predecessor who installed the architecture?” Marian asked, only slightly less angry than before.

“Yes,” Dax said, sounding steadier. “And you never said anything about giving him an implant. Surely you can't blame me for wanting to ensure my investment. I've got everything riding on this.”

Jeth wanted to ask what they were talking about, but he was still too dazed to speak.

“Very well,” Marian said. “It's too late to take it back anyway.”

Dax waved her off. “He'll be fine.”

Marian's mouth tightened into a grimace. Finally, slowly, she turned her gaze on Jeth. As her eyes met his, he could barely look away from the white hair, and the crystal glass smoothness of her skin, which made her appear impossibly young, hardly any older than he was himself.

That's when she smiled, and the hardness in her face
drained away. “Hello, Jeth. I'm so glad to see you.”

The soft, gentle tone of her voice shattered his reservations. He leaped up, crossed the short distance over to her, and swept her up into a hug. She was so light, he lifted her off her feet easily, hugging her tight enough that she gasped. “Mom . . . you're here . . . you're alive.”

“Yes.” She cradled the back of his head, her hands gentle and warm against his skull. For a moment he forgot the ache of the absent implant. Tears burned his eyes, more than a couple escaping down his cheeks. He didn't care. He was too caught up in the swell of his emotions. Pain and happiness whirled inside him, as strong as two gale winds. He wanted to laugh and cry. He wanted to scream in rage at those lost years, believing she was dead. And he wanted to scream in relief that it was now over.

Marian was crying too, and he held her for a very long time, before finally setting her on her feet once more.

She patted his back. “It's going to be all right, Jeth.”

He nodded then slowly backed away from the embrace, wiping away his tears. He knew giving in to his emotions in front of Dax had been unwise, but there was nothing for it now. He couldn't help it.

“Well, now that the sweet reunion is over,” said Dax, a cold smile twisting his mouth, “why don't you sit and we'll discuss the rest of our business.”

Marian wrinkled her nose in a gesture that reminded Jeth so much of Lizzie it hurt, and he glanced away, fighting back tears as he sought out his chair again. Marian took the
seat opposite him. Her familiar scent, a mixture that defied exact description other than that it was uniquely hers, was all around him.

Daxton sat down as well, looking at ease, but only on the surface. He flashed a too-friendly smile at Jeth. “To answer what I am sure is your most burning question: While you were out there running the ITA back and forth across the galaxy, I have been busy liberating Marian here from their clutches.”

Jeth drew a breath, trying to regain his center. But he didn't know how to manage it when his whole world had just been flipped upside down.

“Don't pretend it was some mercy mission, Price,” Marian said in a scolding tone Jeth knew well. The sound of it, which used to fill him with dread, brought him sweet comfort now.

Dax laughed. “Always so direct and to the point, you Seagraves.” He shifted his gaze to Jeth. “I can see where you learned it.”

Jeth nodded, still struggling to find words. “It saves time,” he managed at last. He cleared his throat. “So you rescued my mother in the hope that she would tell you how to find Empyria. I'm guessing that plan backfired.”

“Too right,” Dax said, sighing.

Jeth wanted to point out that Dax should've known that Marian wouldn't spill her secrets for him. The ITA had been trying for years without luck.

“But that's where you come in.” Dax raised a finger his direction.

Jeth's brow furrowed. “How?”

“What Dax wants is going to come at a price,” Marian said, casting Jeth a warm smile. “You're part one of my demands.”

“You made a deal?”

She nodded. “And so far, he's delivered. You and your sisters are here. Our family can be whole again.”

Jeth glanced away, still too emotionally fragile to look at her for long. He fixed a stare on Dax. “So what's part two?”

Dax grimaced. “Not as easy as part one, I can tell you.”

Jeth grunted. Dax thought that was easy? If Shady hadn't sent that message, he never would've found them. Jeth supposed in the light of being reunited with his mother, he ought to be grateful at Shady's betrayal, but he couldn't forget the buzz still lingering in his head and the insistent desire to retrieve the implant. Not even the shock of his mother's presence had driven it away.

“And part two is completely insane, I might point out,” added Dax.

Marian fixed a chilly gaze on him. “You can whine all you want, but completing the mission is the only way you will ever get the coordinates to Empyria.”

Jeth frowned, thinking of Lizzie and the hidden code once more. But he stopped himself at once. He didn't think it wise to dwell on that now. If he did have access to the information Dax wanted, it was a secret worth protecting.

“What're you after, Mom?” Jeth asked. “What does Dax have to do?”

Marian looked at him, that alien hardness on her face once more. “We're going to destroy the Harvester on First-Earth.”

Jeth blinked back at her, incredulous. The Harvester on First-Earth was the biggest and oldest of them all, ground zero of the discovery of the Pyreans. That was where they first appeared some several hundred years ago, branching out from metaspace for a purpose no one understood. Not that it mattered to the early scientists, who quickly discovered their usefulness in creating a doorway between the physical world and metaspace.

“Destroy?” Jeth said. “Like, blow it up?”

“Blow it up, tear it down. Whatever it takes,” Marian said, unflinching.

“Like I was saying.” Dax shook his head. “Completely insane.”

Jeth nodded. First-Earth was First-Earth. Rescuing Marian would've been hard enough, but this was hard to the tenth power.

“Do you have any idea what you're doing, Marian?” Dax said. “People will die. The Harvester is manned by a crew of hundreds, and if this makes things worse with the metatech, dozens of star systems could be left to die.”

Marian turned a glare on Dax. “As if you're concerned about collateral damage. But yes, I know exactly what I'm doing. It has to be done. And if you are set on finding Empyria, you best share my determination. If the Harvester on First-Earth isn't destroyed, there will be no Empyria left
for you to find. It's the Harvester that's causing the Pyreans to wither away, and if they perish, so will Empyria. So will everything.”

Daxton looked skeptical, but Marian didn't give him a chance to argue.

“The Pyreans aren't sick from some disease, as the ITA believes. It's the harvesting itself that's doing it. The unrelenting rape of their world that's been going on for hundreds of years is finally taking its toll.” She fell silent, although her sides heaved. She looked like a woman gone mad, like the woman Jeth had seen in her video journals. What had happened to her when she visited Empyria? He wanted to ask, but held back. She might tell him, but certainly not in front of Dax.

As for Marian's theory, he supposed it made sense. He remembered Sierra's tree metaphor. Maybe it was more accurate than either of them had realized. He didn't know much about trees, but he guessed that if you stripped away its branches, its bark, all the way down to its core, it would die. Same as anything else.

Only, if the harvesting stopped, the consequences would be the same as if the Pyreans died out—the end of interstellar travel, just like Dax had said. The ITA had no way to pass through metaspace without the Pyreans. Their plan had been to clone Cora, creating a human-Pyrean species, a slave race that would take the place of the metadrives. But Jeth would die and take the entire universe with him before he let them have her.

He shook his head as another complication occurred to him. “What's the point in only destroying the one on First-Earth? What about all the others?”

“No, don't go there,” Dax said, glaring. “Our deal is for First-Earth only. The other Harvesters don't come into play. Not for this. I've risked enough already.”

Marian sighed. “Yes, that's what we agreed on. One galaxy-sized problem at a time, please. But the mission won't be in vain. The Harvester on First-Earth is the largest and most destructive by far. Taking it down will have a massive impact.”

Jeth frowned, confused by her dismissal of what seemed so obvious a problem. He glanced from her to Dax, wondering just how extensive their “negotiations” had been.

“Okay, but how do I fit into this?” Jeth asked, remembering Dax's words about ensuring his investment. The growing throb in his head was making it hard to think.

“Sierra has information we need to complete the mission,” said Dax. “And I believe you are the only person capable of getting her to cooperate.”

Jeth shot him a puzzled look, at first not understanding. Once he did, he snorted. “You must be joking, right? I can't make Sierra do anything she doesn't want to. Nobody can. Besides”—he shifted his gaze to his mother—“Mom, I can see how much this means to you, but . . . you're free of the ITA, finally. Cora, Lizzie, Uncle Milton, everyone else, we're all together again. We can leave now, never look back.”

For a moment he feared his mother would turn the same
hard anger on him that she'd shown Dax, but instead her expression softened. “I know, Jeth. I promise you I understand. But we have no choice. We
must
do this.”

Jeth clasped his hands together, the idea of the risk involved beyond his ability to contemplate even for a second. “Why?”

“First,” Marian said, her expression darkening, “destroying the Harvester will be a devastating blow to the ITA, one they might never recover from. And I trust you see the benefit of that.”

Jeth gave a reluctant nod.
Revenge
. That was a motivation he could understand, but it wasn't enough.

“And the second, more important reason, is because of Cora.” Marian's voice hitched as she said the name, her eyes glistening with tears. The sight of them made Jeth's breath catch as he remembered that his mother had never seen her youngest daughter at all, had never touched her or kissed her or soothed her fears. The ITA had taken Cora from Marian at birth as part of their cruel experiments in their determination to master the power of metaspace.