“Do you get to watch much television?” Charlie said.
“I don’t understand,” Vingo said.
“The screens down there. What do you use them for?”
“Communication and work. The helmets are for the children to take virtual reality training.”
Frosted glass doors led off in three directions. Directly ahead, in the direction of the transport pad, and to the left and right.
“I don’t believe it,” Layla said.
Charlie twisted in her direction. She stood in front of a plastic display case and pressed her gauntlet against it. Denver walked over and joined her.
“What is it?” Charlie said.
“Artifacts from Earth.” Layla turned to Vingo. “Do you have anything like this?”
“I don’t have a sufficient level in our chain of command. These objects are taken from humans we integrated to supply our outposts. They had no need for possessions. We supply everything they need.”
“Where are the outposts?” Denver said.
“A long way from Tredeya. The ones alive don’t know about you, and Earth doesn’t know about them. I think it’s much simpler this way. Humans have strong personal connections that can compromise behavior.”
“You said supply,” Layla said. “What do you mean by that?”
“Create other humans. Your lifespan is short. The only way to keep a constant supply is by reproducing.”
“You’re breeding us?” Charlie said, casting his mind back to the warehouses on Earth where aliens kept pregnant women. “You’re no better than the croatoans.”
Vingo blinked and hobbled over to the display case. “We don’t need to encourage humans to breed. Each one has a purpose for their life, whether that’s guarding territory, flying or fighting. Most are happy working in different parts of the universe.”
“You sell them?” Denver said.
“We did in times of peace. Not now. We require all of the resources to stay alive. After our planet has fallen, all we’ll be left with is our smaller outposts.”
“Which I assume the scion will be visiting in the near future?”
“It’s reasonable to come to that conclusion,” Vingo said.
The thought of his species being used, brainwashed even, into someone else’s fight grated on Charlie, mainly because there wasn’t a single thing that they could do about it. Nobody on Earth had the technology to search and recover the ancestors of kidnapped men and women. The humans in space might not even want to return if they were indoctrinated into an alien culture from an early age.
Charlie gazed at the contents of the display cabinet. The left half contained alien objects. A silver disc with luminous edges, two transparent blue teeth and a chrome pipe that looked like a musical instrument. The right half contained artifacts from Earth. A wooden comb with several teeth missing, a dagger with a boar’s head in a leather scabbard, iron buckles, and a pendant with three lions engraved on it.
Most of the human objects looked medieval, although in better condition than anything his old team dug up at Quaternary Productions all those years ago. It made him think of Mike, and how excited he used to get when an unfamiliar object came to the finds tent. They didn’t realize at the time how much of a simple life they had.
If people were taken centuries ago to fight about the galaxy, they’d have no idea of Earth’s advances and recent decline.
“Grab me a bag, Vingo,” Charlie said.
“What are you doing?” Vingo said. “You can’t take anything from here. A senior officer owns this house.”
Charlie smashed his gauntlet against the cabinet and the clear protective sheet shattered. He reached inside and scooped up the contents. “If we make it back to Earth, I know a man who’ll love this.”
“That’s theft,” Vingo said. “The security feed will have a recording of your actions.”
“I don’t give a shit. Your allies stole my planet.”
“Besides, we’re gonna steal his transport and you’ll be on the feed too,” Denver said.
Vingo grunted and disappeared through the door on the left of the room. He returned with a small green sack. Charlie stuffed in his newly acquired hoard and slung it over his shoulder. He imagined Mike’s face as he poured the contents in front of him.
A low rumbling explosion outside snapped Charlie out of a brief moment of wonder. The filter display in his visor clicked down to its final notch. “Lead the way, Vingo. We haven’t got long.”
Vingo opened a door leading to a metallic tunnel and they clanked toward the transport pad outside. Charlie’s stomach fluttered when he looked out of the long thin window to his right. They were a hundred meters above the sea, which crashed against rocks at the bottom of the cliff. Thick metal girders curved from the bottom of the pad into the rock face just below them.
A dark oval-shaped craft sat on the right-hand side, roughly the size of a car but on four square blocks instead of wheels. Charlie hadn’t seen transport like this before, but realized that he’d only seen invasion and colonization vehicles, and this was probably a civilian ride.
Denver and Layla stood together on the edge of the platform, gazing at the distant skyline. The scion fighter presence had diminished in this area and it had been hours since Charlie saw anything tredeyan in the sky.
Vingo sat in one of the two front seats, secured a rubber strap around the upper part of his suit and wrapped his gauntlet around two shiny rods on the dashboard. Charlie stepped in and glanced at the controls. A light red hologram appeared on the glass shelf in front of them, showing a 3D outline of the vehicle with measurements alongside.
Like most tech he’d seen from the croatoans and tredeyans, it was nondescript until it burst into life, far exceeding anything on Earth.
Layla and Denver sat behind them on a soft leathery bench and fastened their straps. A wise move considering the thing didn’t have any doors. A quick tilt would throw them overboard.
The engines hummed and increased in pitch. They rose unsteadily to a height of three meters above the pad.
“It might be bumpy because of the updraft. We’ll be over land soon,” Vingo said.
Charlie secured his strap. “Go for it.”
Vingo eased the rods in opposite directions. They gained height and thrust forward. Charlie took a deep breath as wind rushed around his suit. This vehicle made the catamaran feel like riding on the back of a snail in comparison.
Bumping along in minor turbulence, Vingo swept to his left and headed along the right-hand side of the village. The ground below passed by in a blur. Ahead, a few lights dotted the dark horizon below the clear night sky.
Charlie braced himself for the possible carnage of their main city. They’d heard a lot of explosions since arriving. The vaults were located there, and the scion were after information.
The group needed to go there to have a chance of survival, but he was also aware that they might be flying straight into a battleground.
VINGO STUCK to the valleys and snaked between hills. Flames and smoke belched from infrastructure spread around the summits. Charlie guessed they were destroyed pulse cannons or other defensive buildings. From what he had seen of the scion attack, they systematically destroyed any threats without ceremony.
A glow rose up from behind a ridge directly in front of them.
“The city’s behind it,” Vingo said, briefly taking a gauntlet off the control rod and indicating to his front.
“Is it all underground?” Denver said.
“The vaults and urban command center are,” Vingo said. “But the entrance areas and administration buildings are on ground level. I’ll land away from the main area and we can proceed on foot.”