She smirked. “Yeah, whatever,” she said, turning around and walking away. She turned off her projector, shutting down the old movie she had been watching.

  Aeron quickly stepped in and closed the door.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, pulling off her tank top as she vanished through the door to her bedroom, vanished being the key word. Wherever she wasn’t tattooed, her flesh was invisible.

  “I think you already know why I’m here, or you wouldn’t be taking off your clothes.”

  “You could have let me finish eating first.”

  Aeron glanced at the small table in front of the projector. A box of take-out noodles rested there, only a few bites missing. He went over and picked it up. “Do you mind?” he asked, holding up the noodles. “I haven’t eaten all day.”

  “Are you serious?” she replied, invisible in the corner of her room. Aeron heard her shift a painting on the wall to remove something from behind it.

  He picked up the chopsticks and lifted some noodles to his mouth. “Completely,” he replied right before taking a bite.

  “This is Code Nineteen, right?” Tora asked. She leaned out past the corner, her body already covered by was clad in a spidersteel bodysuit, her long, dark hair pulled back into a tail. She disappeared again, still removing items from the wall.

  “I wouldn’t be here otherwise. How did you know?”

  “I always thought it would be me. Why else did Sherma stick me out here?”

  “Because you’re valuable.”

  “Yeah. One of the few broken clones you have left to play with.”

  “It isn’t like that.”

  “No? I heard what happened to Stacker. He didn’t deserve that.”

  “Probably not, but he got mixed up in things that needed to be kept under control.”

  Tora came into view again as she slipped into a long, shimmering-red synth-leather jacket, along with a pair of flowing white pants and a wide red belt. Aeron wondered how many weapons she was hiding in the flashy outfit.

  “I’m ready.”

  “You know where we’re going?” Aeron asked.

  “Dome Twelve spaceport,” she replied. “Unless the directives have changed?”

  “They haven’t. I need to do something before we go.”

  “What?”

  “Turn around.”

  Tora did as he said without question or hesitation. He took the microspear from his pocket and touched the edge to her back, letting the blade sink into the outer layers of her skin. She didn’t react at all. Neither did the blade.

  “You’re clean,” he said.

  She spun around. “I could have told you that.” Her eyes shifted to the box of noodles. “Can we share that, at least?”

  Aeron smiled and handed her the box. He activated his Oracle, ensuring the signal was encrypted before accessing CentNet.

  “What are you doing?” Tora asked.

  “We need to know what we’re going to run into at the spaceport. Hopefully nothing, but the way things are going right now, my confidence levels aren’t high.”

  “If they’re smart, they’ll lock down any means off the planet,” she replied. “I assume we’re looking at dark ops infiltration. Foothold through subterfuge?”

  Aeron nodded. “That’s right. The primary enemy is a parasite that can seize control of humans and use them like puppets.”

  “And clones?”

  “Not as easily, but yes. They orchestrated the death of Chair LaMont, and they control the Judicus Department. Their primary on the planet has access to an illegal clone replicator.”

  “Do we know who the primary is?”

  “Negative, but they’ve been in lockstep with me so far. I’m guessing someone in the Trust.”

  “Not the Organization?”

  “No.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “They know things nobody else in the Organization knows. Which means they’re getting it from the outside.”

  “Understood.”

  Aeron continued navigating through CentNet. He wasn’t surprised to find his primary account sealed, his access denied. That’s why he had a second account, a backdoor into the system. He activated it, gaining access to the entire system.

  “I’m in,” he said. “Let’s move.”

  Tora took the lead as they headed out of her apartment and into the hallway. Aeron used his right eye to walk and his left to navigate the CentNet. He opened the most recent comm logs, quickly scanning them for reports of movement around Ghost’s, Dome Nine and Dome Three. If the Judicus Department wanted to utilize the military, there would be documentation of the orders. The Centurion Space Force couldn’t do too much without leaving a trace.

  “Fox, are we clear?” Aeron asked.

  “Affirmative, General,” Fox replied. “All clear.”

  “Roger.”

  The immediate area was still quiet. He would be grateful to make it to Dome Twelve without getting into any other scrapes.

  They started down the stairs. Aeron scanned through the logs with practiced ease. He had done the same thing a million times before, always searching for signs of a vanishing ordinary. He froze a moment later when he found one that jumped out in an exciting and terrifying way.

  > Command, this is Sergeant Ming on the Ziyou. We found a… uh… I’m not really sure what we found. I mean… uh… He says his name is Sheriff Hayden Duke. He’s…

  Aeron didn’t read the rest. He went up a few lines, looking for Centurion Command’s response.

  > Sergeant Ming, this is Command. Please scan the detainee’s identification chip for accurate identification.

  > Negative, Command. Please be aware the detainee has two robotic arms and no identification chip.

  It was followed by a gap in the timestamps of the conversation as Command figured out what they wanted to do.

  > Sergeant Ming, be advised the Judicus Department is dispatching a pair of agents to assist with the transfer of the prisoner. Rendezvous at outer hatch C-11.

  > Roger Command. Sergeant Ming out.

  “I don’t believe it,” Aeron said, backing out of the logs.

  “What is it?” Tora asked.

  Aeron’s mind was a flurry of chaotic thought. Was the log real or had the Hunger planted it for him to find? Was the whole thing another setup to box him in, or had Sheriff Duke really appeared on Proxima as if by magic.

  Or through an Axon portal.

  He knew the enemy was leaking in from a portal. There was no other means by which they could have made it onto the planet. He had suspected the gateway was hiding somewhere on one of the generation ships. Now he knew which one. The Ziyou, which had been built and launched from mainland China. While the Organization had at one time remained connected around the world, the trife invasion had severed most of those ties, at least temporarily. Whatever had happened with the Ziyou while it was still on Earth was beyond his knowledge. Somehow the enemy had gotten a portal on board and were using it now.

  He had suspected the enemy was originating from Earth. It made the most sense considering what had transpired.

  And if the khoron could invade Proxima through the portal, then so could Sheriff Duke.

  “I was wrong,” Aeron said, glancing at Tora. “I’m changing the directives after all.”

  “That was sudden,” she replied.

  “Something came up. We need to head back to Dome One. To the Judicus Department.”

  “I thought you said the Judici is compromised?”

  “It is and I did.”

  “Is this some kind of reverse psychology thing?”

  “Not quite,” Aeron replied. He accessed his Oracle to check on the loop status through Dome Three. The stations were the worst place in which to remain in a fixed position. They had limited access points and were crawling with Peace Officers.

  He stopped walking when he saw that loop service was temporarily suspended to the dome. “Damn it.”

  “Now what?” Tora said.

  “Son of a bitch,” Aeron said. “I should have known.”

  “Should have known what?”

  Aeron pulled his ion blaster and looked at her. “We’re going to have company.”

  14

  Hayden

  “You two have names?” Hayden asked.

  The male Judicus glanced at him, offering a small smirk. “Judicus Rex. That’s Judicus Heart.”

  “Those are your real names?”

  Rex didn’t answer, putting his eyes forward again.

  The external hatch from the generation starship Ziyou connected to a long, translucent corridor through which Hayden had been able to get a good look at the outside world, one he had never laid eyes on before. He stared silently at the barren landscape—brown, gray and rocky. Broken only by a narrow vein of water that traveled perpendicular to him, it entered the dome from beneath its thick transparent wall.

  He turned his head back to see the Ziyou when they got about halfway down the corridor, his eyes taking in a partial view of the ship set against the backdrop of the planet. It had landed in a valley, with a high range of peaks behind it, another smaller dome visible at the top of the ridge.

  The whole scene was surreal, but not as amazing as he would have thought before he had seen it. Maybe it was because everything was duller without Natalia. Maybe it was because of the desperation of humankind’s predicament. Or maybe rocks and bubbles weren’t all that interesting. Hayden wasn’t sure.

  The end of the corridor led into a large hangar-like space where dozens of vehicles were neatly organized in columns. Mostly boxy designs that didn’t appear all that different from the vehicles he was accustomed to on Earth. He supposed the format worked well enough, and there had been little reason to change it just for change’s sake. Besides, Proxima was more resource-limited than Earth, one of the reasons they had gone to Tinker to help them develop weapons and technology. They were self-sufficient to a point, but that point was too narrow to cover when defending the planet from hostiles.

  Rex and Heart guided Hayden to a dark cube a few meters ahead of the passage to the Ziyou. There were only a few other people in the area, all of them wearing uniforms Hayden recognized by the eagle and star logo embroidered on them as Centurion Space Force. They looked up at him as he came out of the tunnel, trying not to be too overt with their stares and failing badly. He didn’t blame them. He was as much a curiosity as anything could be on Proxima, especially considering most of the members of the Centurion military had no idea what things were really like on Earth. They also didn’t know about the Axon and Relyeh or the potential attack against them. Hayden felt sorry for them. Things on Earth were hard, but at least everyone knew the score. They weren’t living in forced ignorance.

  “Get in,” Rex said, the door to the cube sliding open as they approached. The inside was upholstered in black leather, the cushions thick and soft. Were they giving him VIP treatment, or was this normal for transportation on the planet?

  Hayden hesitated, glancing back to the corridor in search of Caleb. He didn’t see him anywhere. “Where are you taking me again?” he asked.

  “We’re transporting you to the department headquarters in Dome One,” Rex replied. “You’ll be questioned, processed and brought to medical for repairs.”

  “Questioned?”

  “You appeared out of thin air on one of the most remote Centurion bases on the planet,” Heart said. “You don’t think you should be questioned?”

  “No, I probably should. But I don’t think you’re going to like the answers.”

  Both of the Judici smiled, almost as one. “As long as you’re honest, there are no wrong answers,” Rex said. “The mission of the Judicus Department is to act as moderator between civilian and military law enforcement. We bridge the gap, so to speak. It isn’t our aim to persecute you, only understand how you got here.”

  “So you’re the good guys?”

  “You’re on Proxima,” Heart said. “There are no bad guys here.”

  Hayden looked at her. He almost believed the sincerity of her words and expression. Did she know how false her statement was? The MPs had mentioned Centurions being transferred in and out of the base at an increasing pace. He was sure that wasn’t an accident. Someone was moving khoron from the so-called pimple of the planet to somewhere they could be more useful.

  And there was no way to know if one or both of these Judici either knew about it or were part of it.

  He would have felt more at ease if he were still in contact with Caleb. But Rex had taken his glasses, and Card was nowhere to be seen. He didn’t doubt the Marine was trying to stay close, but how would he keep up once the vehicle started moving? And even though they had told him where they were taking him, he didn’t know where the hell that was.

  There was nothing he could do about either of those things now. He had to assume he was going into this alone. If anything happened to him, at least Caleb would still be out there trying to complete the mission.

  “Please get in,” Rex repeated, motioning to the open door.

  This time Hayden complied, climbing into the vehicle and sliding across the seat. Heart took the seat beside him. Rex sat in the front. The wheeled box had no steering wheel or any visible manual controls. It started moving without prompting, making a left turn and splitting the center of the hangar towards an open door at the end.

  “What about the ship?” Hayden asked as they pulled away.

  “What about it?” Heart replied.

  “Well, I just appeared out of thin air, right? What if something else just suddenly appears? Don’t you think you should lock it down?”

  “Something else? Like what?”

  “Aliens!” Rex said with a laugh.

  “Rex, show some class,” Heart said. She looked at Hayden. “I don’t know how you got here, Mr. Duke, or whoever you are, but we know how to take care of our own business.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Hayden replied.

  “It’s a quick hop from here to Praeton,” Rex said. “If what you say adds up, we’ll have this settled in no time.”

  “I hope so,” Hayden said, leaning back in the seat. There was nothing else to do but see how this whole thing played out. “For all our sakes.”

  15

  Caleb

  That worked out well.

  “I’m not letting your bad attitude get to me,” Caleb whispered. “We’ll find him.”

  How? Using the Collective here is a bad idea. We don’t know what kind of trouble we’ll attract.

  “Did you see the way that guy winked before the feed cut out? I think the enemy already suspects we’re here. Anyway, we don’t need the Collective. We’re on a human settled planet, right?”

  That’s the theory.

  “When the generation ships left Earth, they had an entire manual of instructions for when they reached their destination. I doubt Proxima is any different.”

  Meaning what?

  “Meaning that there shouldn’t be much here that’s unfamiliar. Some new tech, sure. But the basics don’t change. We should be able to get around here. Especially since we can disguise ourselves as almost anybody.”

  They’ll kill him before we can catch up.

  “Spoken like a true Relyeh.”

  The MPs had led Sheriff Duke out of the Ziyou a few minutes earlier. Caleb remained out of sight until they returned and then exited the ship projecting the male MP. He was way behind Hayden and his captors, the suited man and woman the corporal had referred to as a Judicus. The title was unfamiliar, but he could guess what they were. Secret police maybe. Government agents like the FBI, DHS or NSA.

  He would have preferred if Hayden had remained with the Centurion Space Force. They were bound to have a lot more rules to help keep him safe. There was nothing either one of them could do about that or about the fact that the Judicuses were jamming their network connection.

  Judici.

  “What?”

  The plural of Judicus is Judici, not Judicuses. It isn’t like octopuses or hippopotamuses.

  “Are you really correcting my pluralization right now?”

  Caleb felt Ishek’s laughter ripple through his mind. He wasn’t in the mood to joke around at the moment. Jamming the combat network wasn’t a simple task, and when it happened there always seemed to be an Axon involved. Was one of the Judicuses an Axon? Were both?

  You did that on purpose.

  Caleb allowed himself a slight smile.

  “How do you know what the correct plural is, anyway?” As far as he knew, the title didn’t exist on Earth.

  Go find a Centaurian dictionary.

  He reached the end of the long corridor leading from the Ziyou to the main Centurion base. He had glanced outside on his way from the ship to the installation, the sight of the barren landscape and the domes leaving him feeling almost sorry for the people living here. They had chosen to spend their lives trapped in bubbles instead of fighting for their homeworld or searching for something better. Essex had been under threat when he arrived there, but it was a beautiful planet, so much richer in beauty than Proxima.

  Caleb entered the large room at the end of the corridor. Inside, a handful of Centurions were carrying out assorted tasks and didn’t pay him any mind. He scanned the area for a moment, deciding on a direction. He couldn’t just walk off the base, not projecting a Centurion MP. He needed to change his skin.

  He turned left, staying along the wall with the hope of remaining ignored. There was a doorway into another part of the base. He hoped it would lead to the mess or maybe an exchange. Somewhere he might find a civilian to scan.

  He made it to the doorway, which slid aside when he moved in front of it. It connected to another corridor, which branched at intervals along its length. The construction was simple and functional, all metal walls and floors that continued to remind him of the generation ships.

  He continued along the corridor, slowing as he neared each intersection. He had to be careful how he moved through the base. Projecting an MP, he needed to look like he knew his way around. The good thing was that the place did bear some similarity to other bases he had been stationed at on Earth, and as he continued navigating he realized he wasn’t as lost as he had first guessed.