The Last Starship (6 page)

Chapter 14

“Kabex left? Simple as that?”

“Yes, that’s what happened.” On the screen, Jake looked and sounded as worried as Joanne felt. “I want to stay up here for another night, just to make certain he won’t come back, and then I’ll return to New York. Sagin’s forces are up here.”

“Good. I want the Atlantis up there.”

“Trusting the aliens isn’t an easy thing to do, is it?”

“No, it’s not, and I’m not going to trust anyone until I can be sure they're telling me the whole truth. How do we know the confrontation between Sagin and Kabex wasn’t just an elaborate hoax?”

“At the moment we don’t, and I’m not confident we can know until the end of all this. Sagin has been doing his best not to mess with our emotions, and I want to believe him, but I don’t know if that’s because he has been playing with my emotions.”

“Tobias is working with some scientists to create something to protect us from that.”

“One of the things I’m worrying about is the way he was playing with our emotions before. He wanted us to be scared of the Emperor.”

“Did he?” Joanne paused to consider the comment. “We can’t be certain it was Sagin. There might still be one of the enemy aliens here, the one who might have convinced the Emperor’s personal assistant to kill him, and I’ve been keeping an eye out for both of them. I’m still sitting in the throne room because it’s the safest place. There's only one door in and out. The other rooms have multiple doors. Tobias said I could lock them, but how do I know the Emperor’s personal assistant doesn’t have the keys?” She shook her head. “It may seem strange to everyone else, but I’m much more comfortable here.”

“Well, you haven’t been attacked yet.”

“No - so far I’ve been fine, and I don’t know how to feel about it. Whoever killed the Emperor is still around. People believe it was the personal assistant and, considering the way no one can contact him, I’m beginning to think it’s the most likely scenario.” She heard a noise. “Give me a second, Jake. There are strange noises.”

Jake fell silent, and Joanne listened carefully. She wanted to know what was happening. She needed to know.

She stood, edged closer to the door, and then it opened, revealing Tobias.

“Hi, Jo.” He smiled. “I have someone we’ve been looking for.” He pulled that someone into the room. “This is the former Emperor’s personal assistant.”

“I do have a name, you know?”

Tobias frowned. “This is Teresa.”

“I thought the Emperor’s personal assistant was a man?” Joanne asked.

“No, you assumed that, and I didn’t say anything to change your mind.” Tobias looked at Teresa. “Talk to Jo. Jo will help you if you’re honest with her.”

Teresa’s eyes met with Joanne’s. “There was a time when I was little more than a street child who got lucky. I'd met Henry before he was Emperor. I'd picked his pocket, and he could've thrown me to the wolves. Instead, he decided I could work off the debt I owed him. At the time, I had no idea what he wanted from me or that he planned on becoming Emperor. But I knew working for him was better than ending up in prison again, so I did what he wanted me to.”

“You’re trying to tell me the Emperor did something nice for someone?”

“I don’t believe he was doing something nice, Your Eminence. He saw an opportunity, and he grabbed at it. At any point he could have turned on me, so I did everything I could to protect him, including siphoning the funds for the fleet when I realized he was working with our enemy. Sagin was here for a week. Three weeks before that there was another being, much like Sagin, but he was…” Teresa shuddered. “I could tell he hated all of us. When he looked at me, I knew all he wanted to do was kill me. He worked with the Emperor for two weeks, and he changed. Then Sagin arrived, and he changed again. I didn’t know what Kabex had done, however, so I was scared of him turning against us all. I made the decision the best thing I could do was assassinate the Emperor.”

“How did you know it was Kabex?”

Her mouth opened and closed, and Joanne knew Teresa was trying to find an explanation as to how she knew it was Kabex. “I heard Sagin mention the name a couple of times.”

“You’re lying to me.” Joanne glanced at Tobias, but there was nothing in his look to give away what he was thinking or feeling. “How did you know it was Kabex? How much of what you just told me is the truth and not lies?”

Silence filled the room for a while.

Teresa stared at Joanne, looking panicked. “Kabex has been visiting Earth for over a decade. I was the first one he claimed, but I know I’m not the last. When I saw Henry I knew who he was, because everyone knew who he was, and yet he accepted it when I pretended I had no idea who he was. He wouldn’t have done what he did if it wasn’t for Kabex pushing his emotions in the right direction. Kabex wanted me here. He wanted me to do everything I could to make it easy for him to take over this world. When I saw Sagin I knew what I had to do.” A tear trickled down Teresa’s cheek. “If I hadn’t done that Kabex would have killed me, and I'm sorry for it. I came to like Henry, even though he was selfish, and I wouldn’t have hurt him if it wasn’t for the arrival of Sagin.”

“Keep talking,” Joanne instructed.

“I was the one who convinced the Emperor to call the Atlantis back down. Sagin thought I was helping him when I was actually helping Kabex. Having you down here would have made it easier for Kabex to get to Earth. I was the one who set up the ambush, and it should've killed you. Kabex isn’t going to be pleased it didn’t.”

“So Kabex and Sagin are on different sides?”

“I’m not one hundred percent sure. To me it’s always seemed like the two of them have been working against each other, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been working with each other to make it look as though they’re enemies. The robots I put to use had been created here. Kabex has a hidden factory, somewhere.”

“What do you want to do to me, Teresa?”

“Kabex would want me to kill you, but I don’t want to be his any longer. I don’t want him to kill everyone here.” Another tear trickled down Teresa’s cheek. “He can’t make me do anything from space, and I know he was there earlier. The problem is not knowing when he might appear again because he’s surprised me before by being here when I thought he was elsewhere. Although, there have been times when the pull has been stronger and weaker. Maybe there's more than one Kabex.” She shook her head. “There is one true Kabex, which is the one I met when I was still a child, and then there are others that look like him, but aren’t truly him, which is why the pull is weaker.”

“Interesting theory.”

“I didn’t stop to think of this before, Your Eminence, because of my fear. Now, if you protect me from Kabex, I will do what I can to help you.”

“Prove yourself by returning the money you took.”

“You want to rebuild the fleet?”

“Of course, I want to rebuild the fleet,” Joanne stated. “The Atlantis is the only human ship up there. I want there to be at least three more.”

Teresa looked torn and turned her attention to Tobias. “I've written down everything you need. The book is hidden in the library. I’m sure you know where to look. You're the person who knows everything.”

She dropped to the ground.

Tobias bent down to check her pulse and scowled.

Theresa was dead.

“It looks like Kabex really didn’t want anyone to rebuild the fleet, but I believe I do know where to look for the book she mentioned. I saw her hide it a couple of times. I assumed it was a journal.”

“Get it, and call for someone to take the body out.”

“I’m sorry for not telling you the whole truth, Jo.”

“I should've known better than to assume the personal assistant I was looking for was male.”

“True.” He smiled. “I won’t be long.”

Joanne went back to where she'd been talking to Jake. “You heard it all?”

“I heard it all.” He sighed. “I don’t know if I believe a word of what she said, but I do believe she’s dead.”

“That could've been something she did to herself,” Joanne replied. “I hate this. I have to suspect everyone, even Toby. The only person I’m certain I can trust is you, Jake, and you’re not here.”

“It won’t be long, and then I’ll be back.”

“You can’t stay, though. The Atlantis needs you more than I do.” An unexpected tear made it’s way down her cheek, and she wiped it away. “I want you to look after the ship. I want you to look after the crew.”

“You’re my crew.”

“I was your crew. Now I’m your Empress.” Joanne laughed and tried to ignore the hysterical tinge to it. “I don’t want to be your Empress, but it’s happened, and I have to deal with it as best I can.”

“Now the personal assistant is dead I want you to find a room you can sleep in, okay? You’re not going to be any good to Earth if you aren’t sleeping. Promise me you will at least try.”

“I promise I’ll try.”

She didn’t know if she was going to be able to sleep without one of Doc’s pills, but there was nothing she could do about that.

She let out an exhausted sigh. “I’ll see you in the morning, right?”

“Yes, you will. Even if I’m still worried about Kabex, I'll find a way down. Maybe one of Sagin’s ships will bring me and then I can leave the Atlantis up here.”

“In the end, it’s up to you what you do, Jake. I trust you to do the right thing.”

“Thank you.”

“I need to go. I have work to do, and then I'll try to get some sleep.”

“Make sure you do.”

With that, he was gone, and Joanne was alone again. She didn’t quite know how to cope with being alone, but she didn’t have any other option because she was honest with Jake when she said she couldn’t trust anyone.

When Tobias walked through the door, she couldn’t help wishing things were different. There was a time when she’d been certain she could rely on Tobias, no matter what, and that was so far in the past it was little more than a fuzzy memory.

When their eyes met, she was certain he knew what she was thinking.

“You can trust me, Jo.”

“Can I?”

“I found Teresa for you.”

“Yeah, how did you manage that?”

“I had her watched, and her movements were suspicious, so I brought her straight here. I always knew there was something strange about her, but I couldn’t work out what it was. Finding out she’d been working for Kabex the whole time made a scary amount of sense.”

Chapter 15

Jake stared out at space. Normally it would have been Joanne on duty, but she was the Empress. It had been a very strange, long, day, and all Jake wanted was for it to be over.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Finding out Kabex had been to Earth before, long before any of them knew the aliens existed, was worrying because there could easily be hundreds of people all over working for him.

Jake sighed. The sound of Sagin walking onto the bridge wasn’t unexpected, so Jake didn’t turn to look at the robot.

“You're worried.”

“I’m certain you heard what Jo and I were talking about.”

“I did. I will do what I can to help you. Kabex and I are enemies. We have been for a long time, Jake, but I can understand why you'd be worried. I would be too if I were in the same position because we're all the same, technically. Everything I've told you could be a story.”

“Asking you to tell me the truth isn’t going to get me anywhere,” Jake said sharply. “I want to believe you’ve been honest with me. I want to believe you're on our side. I want to believe we're fighting against Kabex together. I want to turn to Jo and tell her everything is going to be fine, in the end. But I can’t do any of those things. You could be lying to me. You could be on Kabex’s side, fighting alongside him by getting us to trust you, and then turn on us. There's uncertainty all around us.”

“Nothing I can do, or say, is going to help with that. I'll do everything I can to help you fight against Kabex. I'll show you I'm trustworthy in the hope it might change things in the future, but I don't want you to feel like I'm doing this for something other than Earth. For this has always been my home and I want to protect it from the robot who hates you all. When we return to Earth, I will help Her Eminence design some smaller crafts that will work alongside the Atlantis, but I'll have nothing to do with the building itself. If I have nothing to do with the build, hopefully, you’ll be able to trust the crafts.”

“Thank you.”

“There's no reason for you to thank me, Captain. I'm the person who caused this. I truly believe that, no matter what anyone says to me, as I was the one who started creating others of my kind. If I hadn’t done that there wouldn't have been anyone for Kabex to recruit.”

“No, there wouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have been able to create his own, Sagin, the same way you did. I can understand why you believe this is all your fault. However, if you hadn’t already created your people, you wouldn’t be here now. You wouldn’t be able to help us against Kabex.”

“Every cloud has a silver lining.”

Jake smiled. “Is that something you learned from your scientists?”

“Yes, it is. I 've held on to that for a very long time. There was the cloud of not having enough fuel, which led to me the world I would call my second home - and enough metal to be able to create my people. Then there was Kabex, but my silver lining was the urgency to get back to my real home.” Sagin beamed. “Earth will always be my true home and being able to see it again… I love it here, Captain, and I know my people do as well. Here there are no dust storms, no days spent in hiding, but there are things like water that they've never seen before. I've told them about it all. I've shown them from the windows of their crafts as much as I can, but they would want to feel it for themselves. They want a home as well. My stories about Earth have made them want to be here, more than they want to go out hunting for another world, and they know it is Kabex’s choice that means they may not be able to stay.”

“They won’t blame us if we decide against them staying?”

“No, they won’t.” Sagin touched Jake’s arm, and Jake thought the robot was trying to comfort him. “We understand the position you're in. You are scared of us. It doesn't matter that we're not like Kabex and his people because we look like him. Maybe we'll be able to convince the other humans to let us call the Earth home, but there are no certainties.”

“When we get back I’ll talk to Jo. She needs to think of you as allies, at least for now because you've proven yourself. But I don’t know what will happen in the future. I don’t know if you'll still be on our side if my race asks you to leave our world.”

“I promise you I will, but I know that promise is never going to be enough. You're never going to be able to trust us. Even if we help you bring an end to Kabex, you'll always wonder if we want to take Earth from you.”

“Sometime in the future, maybe centuries, things won’t be like this. I promise you that, Sagin. You can give us the time we need to let go of the memories of this time and truly accept you as someone we can share our home with.”

A ship appeared on the horizon.

Jake stared at it. He knew it belonged to Kabex. It came to a stop just in front of the Atlantis.

When he heard the sound of someone trying to communicate with him, he went to the panel and pressed a button. Kabex appeared in front of him on the screen.

There was no doubt in Jake’s mind how much the robot hated him, even though there were no emotions in those created eyes, and he was intrigued as to why Kabex had returned.

“You're a fool to trust Sagin.”

“Who says I’m trusting him? For the moment, he's an ally. If it turns out that I’m wrong-”

“Of course, it will turn out that you're wrong. When Sagin leaves your craft, get someone to check it. He's going to have sabotaged it in some way because he wants Earth as much as I do. He just thinks the best way to win it is to work with the humans before turning on you once I'm gone, and I know that's something you must've thought about.”

“It is.”

“Good. At least, you're not a total idiot. The Emperor was. Sagin filled his mind with stories of being in control of both worlds. I've always been honest about how I feel about you and what I want to do with you. Sagin is lying to you. Sagin will always lie to you. He does not know how to tell the truth.”

“You might be right about that, but I'm willing to give him a chance to prove to me he's a worthy ally.”

Kabex chuckled. “Maybe you are a total idiot. We're immortal. We'll live forever unless someone takes us apart so he can wait for as long as he has to in order to take your world. There will come a time, in the not too distant future, when your descendants will have forgotten all about this - and that is when he will strike. You'll be long buried by then, Captain, and Sagin will take over your precious human race. He'll make them his slaves. He'll show you how little he thinks of you because you created him to be a slave. You built him, you sent him off in a craft with too little petrol, and then he spent years doing the same things I did.”

“What is that, Kabex?”

“He plotted his revenge. It was meant to be very different to this, but I pushed him to do things faster than he wanted to, and he didn't like that. I don't think he liked my appearance much. He tried to take me apart, but my people stopped him. That was when he knew for sure he was not in total control and he was so angry. He blamed it all on me. He didn't want to think his people might actually like me more than they liked him.” Kabex smiled. “We will meet again, Captain, and you might be grateful for death then.”

Jake sighed as Kabex disappeared from the screen. Dealing with him and Sagin wasn’t something Jake would wish on his worst enemy, but he was the one stuck with them.

A noise made him look at the panel in front of him and he couldn’t help grinning when he saw who it was. He pressed the button to connect the transmission.

“You should be sleeping, Your Eminence.”

“The next person who calls me that is going to lose a finger,” Joanne joked. “I know what I should be doing, but I keep dreaming of the last battle we had against the aliens.”

“Who were you up against?”

“I don’t have a clue.” Joanne sighed. “I wish I did. What are you doing up this late?”

“Having an unexpected conversation with Kabex, who seemed to be trying to turn me against Sagin by telling me things I’ve already thought of, and I've realized something paramount.”

“What?”

“There’s no way we can win.” He looked up at the ceiling of the ship. “We take out Kabex and Sagin leaves. Give it fifty, a hundred, three hundred years, and it’s entirely possible Sagin will return. He’ll convince another Emperor to work alongside him. He’ll take our world and turn us all into slaves.”

“Or we take out Kabex and Sagin stays. In a hundred years or more, he’ll take over our world and turn us all into slaves again.”

“Maybe what we need to do is destroy all of them, just to be certain.”

“Could you do that to Sagin?”

“Who knows? I want to believe I can, but I like him and so does the crew. We all want him to be telling us the truth. Unfortunately, there's no way we can know whether or not he is. I hate this. It was simpler when I believed they were all our enemies.”

“Keep thinking they’re all our enemies, Jake. It’s the only logical thing we can do. We have no way of knowing what might happen in the future.”

“No, we don’t.” Jake clenched his jaw. “The most annoying thing about all this is the fact that I like Sagin. I didn’t want that to happen.”

“I’m sorry that it did. Just promise me you will do what needs to be done if it comes to that.”

“I will. No matter how much I like him, Earth will always come first.”

“Good.”

Jake looked over at where Sagin was watching him. Although the robot couldn't hear what he was saying, he appeared somber, and Jake knew he understood the position they’d all found themselves in.

Would the robot turn against them?

Jake hoped not.

For just as Kabex warned him, they’d meet again.

Another battle was imminent.