Mindee Arnett - Avalon

Dax pointed to the back of his head, a glint in his eyes. “Nah, I only looked unconscious.”

Jeth stepped nearer to the bars, watching Dax’s reactions carefully. “So, you’re saying that if we get you the Aether Project, you’ll let us go? All of us?”

Dax sighed. “It’s not so simple as that, as you well know.”

Jeth held his breath, braced for the worst.

“You’ll never be able to outrun him. Hammer must want you bad to have had you prepared for an implant before you’re even of age.”

Jeth flinched and resisted the impulse to touch the architecture.

Dax flexed his fingers around the bars. “Hammer made it quite clear that there were two things I had to bring back from this mission. The Aether Project files and you. Anything less than that, and he’ll kill me.”

Jeth gulped, unsurprised by this threat and believing it completely. “What about my crew?” he said, trying to keep the tremor out of his voice and failing.

Dax shrugged. “He wasn’t as specific about them. Not that he’ll be happy if the rest of them don’t come back with us, but he might get over it. You, though, well, that’s a different story. And you’re just a kid with no resources and nowhere to go.”

Desperation made Jeth’s voice strained and tinny. “Why? What does he want with me?”

A stricken look, so out of character, crossed Dax face. He let go of the bars, then turned and sat on the bench in the rear of the cell. “What I’m about to tell you is something I’ve never willingly shared with anybody. And if you repeat any of it, I’ll kill you, no matter if you are Hammer’s latest golden boy.”

Golden boy . The words bubbled and burned like acid in Jeth’s mind.

“I was once the golden boy, too,” said Dax. “Only I wasn’t an orphan like you. I had a big family. Two sisters and three brothers. All younger. My parents were coal miners, if you can believe it. On Gallant Prime, a rathole, backwoods world if there ever was one.” He chuckled, as if in fond memory. “When I turned eighteen, there wasn’t anything I wanted more than to get the hell out of that place. Not because of my family, mind you. They were great. But because of the mining. Dirty, dangerous shit. So I decided I would join Gallant Prime’s space fleet. Lucky me, I even scored so high on my entrance exam, I had my pick of jobs.”

He took a deep breath, all the good humor vanishing from his face. “And then Hammer found out how well I scored, particularly in the area of cognitive reasoning under pressure, or some such thing, and he decided he wanted me as one of his Brethren. I turned him down, but he persisted, and then he got nasty. He threatened to hurt my family, but I didn’t believe him. I mean, who takes the time to round up a bunch of harmless coal miners and torture them? I thought if I could outrun Hammer long enough, he’d give up.” Dax paused, the silence pregnant with unspoken emotion. “I was wrong.”

Even though Jeth could guess the answer already, he asked, “Did Hammer kill them?”

Dax nodded. “Except my youngest brother, who was only five at the time. Hammer spared him because I came back and let him implant one of these things.” He touched the back of his skull again. “The only reason Hammer continues to spare him is because I stay and do what he wants me to do.”

Jeth didn’t say anything. He didn’t trust his voice to speak. In the back of his mind, he remembered how Dax had called him “test baby” when they’d first met. He understood the term all too well now.

Even worse, Jeth didn’t have any trouble imagining Hammer doing the same to the people he loved. I’ve never been afraid of doing what needed to be done, he heard Hammer saying. Images flashed through Jeth’s brain, of the starving man on Peltraz, the dead, hopeless look on his face, of Trent Danforth, unrecognizable, little more than a machine, and of himself, broken and beaten when they’d placed him on that operating table.

“So,” Dax said, his voice far too casual for the topic of conversation, “I’ve been in your place before, and I learned the hard way that if you try to deny Hammer, your loved ones will pay for it in the end. But if you submit to him now, you’ve got a chance of saving them.”

Jeth wanted to scream and rage and beat his fists against the wall. He hated being so helpless, hated being so trapped. So owned . But he would hate watching Lizzie die even more. He would do anything to spare her. And the others, too. They’re all my family .

“And not that it should matter to you,” Dax said, almost as an aside, “but if I fail to bring you and the Aether Project back, Hammer will kill my brother first and then me. It’s that important to him.”

Jeth forced his hands to his sides, keeping his voice calm. “I could just kill you now instead.”

Dax nodded. “That you could. And Hammer might just leave my brother alone. But if you kill me, you lose your best chance of finding your sister.” He tapped his wristwatch. “Better make your decision soon. It might already be too late as it is.”

Jeth drew a breath and released it slowly. “So, I help you get the Aether Project while we’re rescuing my sister. Then what?”

“Simple,” Dax said, crossing his arms. “I turn a blind eye while she and your uncle and whoever else disappear into the unknown. We can tell Hammer they got killed or whatever you like. So long as you come back to Peltraz and so long as we can give Hammer the Aether Project, I don’t believe he’ll ever go hunting for the rest of them.”

Jeth thought hard, his mind churning. Then he spotted a new problem, one he should’ve realized earlier. He couldn’t just hand the Aether Project over to Hammer, not with all the information it contained about Cora and Lizzie. No matter what Dax believed, Hammer would pursue Jeth’s sisters to the end of the universe if he found out about their value.

Then he remembered that Milton already had a copy of it. A copy that Sierra could modify, deleting all the dangerous information off of it like she had planned to do before selling the original to her buyer on Olympia Seven. If Jeth could get back Renford’s copy of the Aether Project, it would be a simple thing to switch it out with the modified one before turning it over to Dax.

Satisfied by this part of the plan, Jeth turned to the other part, the one where he would willingly return to Hammer. Bleak and terrible as it was for him, it would be better for everyone else.

And that’s okay, he decided, finally giving into the urge to touch the hole of the implant architecture. It was starting to hurt less, his nerve endings adjusting to its presence. He’d known he was damned from the start.

“What about Sergei?” Jeth said.

Dax tilted his head. “Where is he now?”

“Unconscious and locked in a cabin.”

“Good. We’ll keep him right there until we’re done. Then once we revive him, I’ll smooth things over. I’m sure I can come up with a story that he’ll swallow. And don’t worry.” Dax winked. “He may be the general, but he was never the golden boy.”

Jeth didn’t smile as unease settled into the pit of his stomach. He didn’t want to trust Dax, despite believing his story. Dax was still Hammer’s man. And yet he’d given up everything to save his little brother. Not so different from me, Jeth realized. And he has a line on Lizzie . For the moment, that was all that mattered.

Jeth stepped toward the cage. “Okay, it’s a deal. But you’re not getting your implant back.”

Dax grimaced. “I’m afraid that’s impossible. If I don’t put the implant in, Hammer will know something’s wrong. He won’t wait long before sending someone to find out what happened.”