His father nodded again and removed his hands from the controls. The Storm Spike flew over the crater then glided into a u-turn before it landed. There was a soft thump and clunk as they touched down. Jace retracted his harness before going over to a compartment further down the ship where both their hardsuits were being stored. He showed his father how to get on the suit and watched as it completely sealed around his dad’s body before doing the same for himself. The HUD showed him that both suits were secure and that–though his father’s heart rate was up–both were fine to leave the ship.
“Are you ready for this, Dad?” Jace asked.
“More than.” His father’s voice was filled with excitement and sounded a little breathy.
Jace touched the sensor pad that opened the gangway for the ship. It was strangely silent as it lowered to the gray, soft ground. Jace immediately felt the reduced gravity and couldn’t help himself.
“One small step!”
He launched himself out of the door and his jump had him landed a considerable distance from the ship. He heard his father’s laughter only to turn and see his father do the same thing. His father landed near to him.
Jace slowly turned around in a circle. In a way, it was exactly what he would have expected. Endless grayness cut by the black of the sky. His feet left footmarks in the dust and he felt a little guilty for disturbing ground that hadn’t been disturbed in who knew how long. He wondered if the Moon would be used for anything considering a gate was so near. When there were so many other places to go with an atmosphere that humans could breathe, not to mention highly advanced civilizations to learn from, it would seem a waste to have a moon base.
His father touched his shoulder and said, “Look.”
He was pointing towards Earth. It was beautiful. Blue and white and glowing. But Jace wondered what Haseon looked like. He was more anxious to see other planets than to return to the one that birthed him right now.
“Good God, it’s hard to believe this is real,” his father murmured.
“It’s crazy,” Jace agreed. “We’re really on the Moon. And it was so easy.”
“Yeah, all this time we’ve been working with the Thaf’ell and we were only given crumbs,” his father sounded a little bitter. “Thammah was the only one who would let us even inside one of their craft.”
“Was it because of some Prime Directive or something? Like did they think we were too primitive?” Jace asked, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
“Maybe. But I have the distinct impression that it’s something else.” His father’s handsome face was set into a grim look. “If Nova Voor doesn’t jump to give us ships to protect Earth tomorrow then…”
“Then what?”
“From what I understand, and this is just from hearsay, mind you, all of the ships are from the Precursors,” his father explained.
“Meaning that they aren’t making these ships, they’re finding them?” Jace guessed.
“I don’t even know what their ability to repair them is. They’ve had decades to repair the Osiris and they couldn’t do it,” his father pointed out.
“So any ships they lose they can't replace? They can’t build them. They can’t fully repair them,” Jace realized, “so unless they find new ones–”
“They’ve got an ever shrinking amount of tech to use against the Khul,” his father filled in. “Now, mind you, they have their own tech, but only Precursor weapons and ships are of any real use. We’ve put together some weaponry that works, but not as well as the original.”
“The Osiris can replicate weapons, armor, and who knows what else,” Jace murmured.
“That’s right,” his father said and Jace understood his grim expression.
“They are going to fight tooth and nail to get the Osiris,” Jace filled in. “They’re desperate for what it can do!”
“I think so.” His father contemplated Earth. “Which is why you have your work cut out for you tomorrow. The stakes are much higher than the Alliance is letting on. Just keep that in your noggin.”
Jace nodded. He saw, to his dismay, that the Osiris had put an icon on his HUD of the recorded conversation between Khoth and his mother. He quickly moved his gaze to the Earth rotating above them like a jewel. But he didn’t delete the file.
Depths
Khoth sat in the chair in his mother’s quarters for long, silent moments. His mind was blank. In terms of whether or not to do as his mother had asked of him, he had realized from his first, visceral, negative reaction that he would not do this thing. He would not trick Jace to help the Alliance by pretending to love the young man and he would not use that love to manipulate Jace for the Alliance’s benefit afterwards. He was not adverse to the idea of using his body so much as hurting Jace’s heart.
Not only was it offensive to him on a deep, moral level–his Xi was practically trying to flee his body at the thought–but his Xa also rejected it for Khoth knew it would not work. The reasons were numerous from his own inability to lie convincingly to Jace’s intelligence. Jace would recognize the falseness of it all and reject him. That was even assuming Jace could come to have romantic feelings for him and that was uncertain at best. They were friendly. Whatever they were was in the nascent stages. Jace was human and he didn’t presume to understand all their ways, certainly not their ways of courtship.
But his mother had made this a command. If he disobeyed it, he would very likely be exiled from the Alliance. Just at the moment when he could do the most good, he was being asked to destroy that opportunity. He needed someone not in the military that he could talk to and who knew his mother best. There was only one person who would fit this description and he had wanted to speak to his father earlier as well.
Khoth used the comm unit built into his mother’s desk to contact his father. His father answered his call immediately. There was a slight widening of his eyes seeing it was Khoth and not his mother on this call.
