Project Starfighter (46 page)

“So ... Kethlan,” Chris asked.
“He’s human?”

“One hundred percent,” Overlook
nodded. “An identical twin. His brother’s name was Dexter.”

“Knew it,” Sid said.

“So, where’s his brother?”
Chris asked.

“He’s dead.”

“You killed him?”

“No. Kline did.”

All five, including Athena, looked
shocked. “What?” Chris asked. “Kethlan killed his own brother?”

Overlook nodded.

“Why?” Chris asked.

“We made him a deal—”

“A
deal
? What kind of sick,
twisted deal—”

“Chris, let him speak,” Athena
hushed him.

Overlook went on, “We offered him
his own life in exchange of that of his brother. We promised Kethlan
that if he were to bring in Dexter, we would spare his own life and
use him as a ... template for the next generation of warships AIs.

“Kethlan, that is to say Kline,
was quite an accomplished pilot in his thirties. He trained with the
now-defunct mercenary group The Gentlemen Thugs, under the leadership
of a man known as Raffles.”

“He wasn’t born in Sol?” Chris
asked.

“No,” Ursula said, before
Overlook could answer. “He was born in the Spirit system. He’s
about forty years old, I think. He’s been with WEAPCO for around
nine or ten years.”

“How do you know?”

“I remember him telling me, the
last time I tried to escape,” Ursula said.

“Forty? And a pilot in his
thirties. So, he might have known something about the Resistance. How
long did he spend in Spirit, I wonder?” Chris said, largely to
himself. He then prompted Overlook to continue.

“We caught up with Kethlan after
his mercenary group was eliminated during a skirmish that went wrong.
In a rare move, we took the survivors prisoner and interrogated them.
It was then that we discovered Kethlan’s ... ‘gift’.”

“What about Dexter?” Phoebe
asked. She sounded a little distressed at the revelation that Kethlan
had sold out his sibling.

“Dexter wasn’t a part of the
group. He had other interests and ideas in life. He was quite
different from Kline. After we found out what Kline was capable of,
we pushed him into one of the simulated systems, as we did with
Lexx.” Overlook nodded to Ursula. “Once we had had a chance to
assess him, and discovered how powerful he was, we intended to use
him to track down his brother and then eliminate them both at once.
But when we found out that he was both psionic and an incredible
pilot – save for the prior incident – we offered him his life in
exchange for Dexter’s. He took us up on it. We had no need for both
men,” Overlook added, as Chris made to ask, “and we knew from
experience he would only refuse.”

“So, this isn’t the first time
you’ve tried?” Sid asked.

“As the saying goes, Mr Wilson:
keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

“Monster,” Phoebe said. She
shook her head, looked at her sister, and started to weep. She
clearly could not imagine Ursula doing such a heinous thing to her,
still less her doing that to Ursula.

Chris had heard enough. “We’re
done,” he said to Overlook. “We have all we need from you.”

“What will you do with me now?”
Overlook asked. “Kill me? Or wait until you have destroyed the
Corporation and killed everyone else, first?”

“As far as I’m aware, I haven’t
actually killed anyone yet,” Chris said. “My goal isn’t to kill
anyone, either. I don’t wish to sink to your level. No, I only want
to blow open the gates of your castle, and bring your technology and
benefits to the rest of the galaxy. I don’t see why some should
benefit from a post-scarcity society while others struggle to keep
their heads above water.”

“I told you once already,”
Overlook said.

“Yeah, and I still don’t buy it.
It’s not for you to decide entitlements and to whom certain rights
should go. As far as I’m concerned, we were all created equal.”
He glanced again at Athena. She was smiling.

Overlook began to chuckle. “So,
you would give rights to that thing, too?” he asked, pointing to
Athena.

“Yes,” Chris said, without a
pause.

Overlook sneered. “You’re an
idiot. It’s a machine.”

“And, technically, so are you.”
Chris turned to Sid. “Switch him off. Put him back in his prison.”

Overlook made to protest, but his
words were cut short as his image vanished from sight. Chris remained
silent for a moment, looking at the place where Overlook had stood.
The man was gone, never to be seen or heard from again, unless they
chose to restore him. Something suddenly occurred to Chris.

“Ha,” he said.

“Chris?” Sid asked.

“Is it just me thinking so, or
have we just solved the entire Immortal League problem?” Chris
asked.

Sid looked at Phoebe, Ursula, and
Athena, whose faces were blank. “I’m not following.”

“As Tyler told us,” Chris said,
“the League won’t act unless Mal tells them what to do. The last
time he disappeared, they retreated and waited for him to return.
Only this time, he won’t be coming back. I think there’s a good
chance his followers will actually believe that he was killed in
battle. This time, for good.”

Sid again looked sceptical, Ursula
and Phoebe just shrugging. “I’m not sure, mate. How do we know
they won’t just carry on going without him? You have a lot of
people all getting behind an idea. They’ll not just up and abandon
it because of a minor setba ...”

Chris grinned as Sid trailed off,
well aware of the irony. “Just like the Resistance didn’t quit
either, eh?”

“I think Chris is right,” Athena
said. “When the League haven’t seen Mal for a few months –
maybe not even as long as that – they will conclude that he did die
at the shipyards. That will come as quite a blow to them and, without
a leader, they will lose faith in their movement. He was supposed to
be leading them on a mighty pilgrimage, one that isn’t actually
going to happen now.”

“And if the members of the cult
are anything like the former members of the Resistance, they might
actually start to realise that Mal was nothing but a phoney. His cult
will gradually disband altogether, and that will be that.”

The five looked at one another,
waiting for someone to point out anything they had missed. No one
did, and it seemed to Chris that the problem of the cult really was
just going to resolve itself.

“So, when are you going to hit
Sol?” Ursula asked.

“Once you’re rested,” Chris
said. “I need both you and Phoebe to be in peak physical and mental
condition.”

“I’m ready now,” Ursula said.
There was bloodlust in her eyes, as well as her voice.

Chris wanted to tell her that he
didn’t wish her to kill anyone, that machines were their target. He
wasn’t sure he was going to convince her of that, however, and he
was aware he had no idea of the extent and nature of the suffering
she had been subjected to. Revenge was the driving force behind
Ursula now. She should still rest, though. He didn’t want her to
collapse of mental exhaustion midway through a critical battle.

“Rest,” Chris said. “And
prepare yourself. This probably won’t be easy.”

“It
definitely
won’t be
easy,” Athena said.

“Where will we go in the
meantime?” Sid asked Chris.

“Back to Spirit, to Hail,” Chris
said. “I want to go and see Hugo.”

“Why?”

“Call it a hunch, but I think he
might have known Kline and Dexter Kethlan.”

T
he
coffee was good, better than Chris had been given the last time he
had been at Hail. Perhaps the people here had found a better
supplier, or maybe Hugo had simply held onto the good stuff for
special occasions. If it was the latter, this was certainly one of
them.

“Dexter was a good lad,” Hugo
said, looking down into the mug that he cupped with both hands. “He
and Kline used to be inseparable.”

“And you knew both of them?”
Chris asked.

“For a time, when they were both
little boys of about six or seven, yes,” Hugo said. “They came to
one of the small rebellion bases for a few weeks, and spent most of
the time running about the place, breaking things and causing chaos.
They were dressed identically back then. I never realised at first,
but I found out later that they were being passed around and hidden
from WEAPCO because of their psionic abilities.”

Chris started. “What?”

Hugo did not answer at first, almost
as if he was disappointed with himself, and confirmed Chris’
suspicions with his silence.

“WEAPCO were after them because of
their talents,” Hugo said.

Chris scowled. “So, you knew that
William Benedict wasn’t the only one, that there were others
capable of the same thing. Why did you not tell me? Why didn’t you
tell me that twins could do such things?”

Hugo sighed. “Apart from the
Kethlan and Benedict boys, I have never heard of any other twins that
were able to control machines with their minds. I didn’t want to go
spreading false hope and information, and so I, as well as a lot of
other people, decided to keep my mouth shut about it. It was just
easier that way.”

“So, they were both capable of
controlling machines?” Chris asked.

Hugo nodded. “Kline changed as his
powers grew, and he gradually became more and more aggressive, his
gift totally consuming him. Dexter tried to help him but wasn’t
able to hold back his brother. And while Dexter was able to control
his talent, Kline was totally corrupted by it. The two were sort of
yin and yang; Kline becoming, almost quite literally, Dexter’s evil
twin. It’s a very sad story, as I’m sure you can appreciate.”

“Yes,” Chris said. “Yes, it
is.” There was again something in Hugo’s eyes, a regret that went
beyond the story he had told. Perhaps he was once again thinking
about his own two boys.

“Did Kline Kethlan kill the other
Benedict?” Chris asked. “Leo, I mean.”

“I doubt they would have known
about one another,” Hugo said. “As far as I understand, the
psionic power only works between pairs, and not between other twins.
Leo would have been identified in much the same way that your friend
Ursula Lexx was.”

“Do you know anything about the
deal Kethlan cut with WEAPCO?” Chris asked.

“Other than what Overlook already
told you, no,” Hugo said. “It was for purely selfish reasons,
though – he did it to save his own life, and was willing to
sacrifice his own brother to get what he wanted. You’ve seen that
starfighter of his?”

“The Fer-de-Lance? Yes. It’s
powerful.”

“Custom built, just for him. The
only one in its class.”

Chris nodded. Based on what he had
read of the fighter’s specs, the Fer-de-Lance was two, perhaps
three, grades up from the Firefly, the Cyclones sitting in the middle
of the two. But then, a vital part of any craft was the pilot that
flew it. The Firefly had been upgraded since the last encounter, and
Chris was sure that in another head-to-head with the Fer-de-Lance, he
could take it. Not that he wanted to kill Kethlan. He would never
deliberately kill another human being, so long as he could help it.

“That’s about as much as I can
tell you, I’m afraid,” Hugo said. “But given what you told me
about the Upper Circle, I imagine that they don’t want him to
remain human for much longer. The only person who could give you all
the details is Kline himself.”

“Then that’s who I’ll have to
ask,” Chris said. He drank some more coffee.

“You’re not going to kill him?”

“No.”

“You may not have any choice,”
Hugo said. “In fact, given what’s happened to him, you may
actually be doing him a favour. It’s totally messed him up, Chris.”

Chris didn’t respond. For a time,
he thought of Ursula and Phoebe, of how Ursula was a lot more
aggressive than her rather placid twin sister. Could she eventually
become like Kline Kethlan? Could she become twisted and corrupted by
her own powers? No, he did not think so. Ursula’s aggression was a
result of what she had been subjected to during her time as a guest
of WEAPCO, while she was the Upper Circle’s plaything. He had
nothing to worry about with those two; no terrible deals would be
done there.

“You okay?” Hugo asked.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Chris
said. “I was just thinking about the girls.”

“Don’t worry about them. If the
gift was going to affect either of them, it would have done so
already.”

Chris let out a small sigh of
relief. He had suspected as much himself, but it was good to hear it
from another person. He stole a glance back in the direction of the
docking bay.

“That Valkyrie I saw the last time
I was here,” he said. “I want to take it with us, upgrade it, and
give it to Ursula to fly. Her sister already has one. Do you really
need it?”

“You can have it, sure,” Hugo
said. “It’s barely moved at all in months but should be in
perfect working order. I’ll get one of the lads to fly it up to
that freighter of yours.”

“Thanks for everything, Hugo.”

The two finished their coffee.

I
t
had been long enough, Chris decided, as he lay on his bed in the
Dodger
. Two days of mental preparation, as well as going over
the plan time and time again, checking every detail and piece of
intelligence they had gathered. After only a few weeks, they were
ready to make their final move against WEAPCO. He could hardly
believe it had actually been this straightforward. It had taken the
Resistance more than forty years of planning, recruiting and
training, and it had all gone down in flames within hours of the
operation starting.

It was clear to Chris that his own
attack on WEAPCO was going to go a lot smoother than that. There was
the distinct possibility of victory. He wasn’t ruling out the
chance of defeat, and knew that they might die, but he was willing to
take the risk. This was a fight for freedom and equality for all.
Better to die free than live as a slave.