The lowest communication frequency is twenty-eight-point-eight gigahertz.
Not low enough. Not near low enough to be picked up by Dad’s field set and slip beneath the Centauri’s communication range.
“Command: Reroute circuits for lower frequency.”
That is not a valid request.
I tap the table. Samara shuts the first book and opens the second. “Command: How many transmission channels are there?”
There are twelve transmission channels.
Okay. “Command: Replicate transmission channels times”—I do some quick math in the glasses—“times six hundred and fifty, and connect channels in parallel.”
All channels paralleled. There are seven thousand eight hundred transmission channels.
“Command: What is the lowest transmission frequency?”
The lowest transmission frequency is three thousand six hundred hertz.
And that is what I wanted. I turn to Sam, but she’s gone, and this time she really is gone. For more books. Because she’s already put two inside her head. I run a hand through my hair, thinking. I don’t know where Dad’s set is, or who else might be listening.
“Command: Open transmission channel at three thousand six hundred hertz.”
Channel open.
I look around for something, anything, and grab the keys that were hidden behind Sam’s mirror, sitting where we left them on the table. I tap hard against the table, using the code Dad uses in the field, when he doesn’t want his communications hacked. The code we played with a million times on the ship, a rhythm of long and short taps that makes the words, Who’s there?
I wait, listening. Dad might not be alone. Or he might be asleep. Or he might not even have his transmission set on. Or the Centauri III might be listening to everything at every frequency. I tap out the code again. Check the glasses for people, even though I have the alarm set. Check for Samara in the other room. She’s putting a book back on the shelf. I tap the code again, and two taps into my question, a rhythm comes through in a spurt of static.
Speak freely?
“Dad?”
“Beckett?”
Dad’s voice is thick and full of noise, and it is so good to hear it. “Dad, what’s happening? Are you okay?”
“Where are you? Is Jill with you?”
“Where’s Mom?”
“How long can you talk?”
Someone’s going to have to start answering first. “Jill’s not with me, but she’s okay. I don’t know how long I have. Not that long. I’m in the city.”
“Are you safe? Are the locals hostile?”
“Depends on which local you mean. Dad, I’ve done everything wrong.” I hadn’t planned to say that. I didn’t even know I wanted to. “Orders, the mission, protocol, I’ve screwed it all up.”
“We saw the visuals. Everything’s screwed up, Beck, and you’re not the one who did it. None of this is what we were told. Listen, we weren’t brought here to study the colony or even mine the planet. The Commander came here to take them, every last one of them, back to Earth. Whether they want to go or not.”
I run a hand through my hair. I don’t understand.
“Beckett, are you there?” That was Mom.
“I’m here. I just … I don’t get it … ”
“It’s Lethe’s,” Dad says. “It’s much worse than what’s been made public. There are places in the southern Americas that are wiped off the map. The real mission here was to bring back clean DNA. If it existed. For repopulation, and for blood that’s never been exposed … ”
“But … they can’t just do that … ”
“Of course they can’t! But they are. It’s why they built the Centauri III so big. The thing’s practically a slave ship. The lower level is not for minerals. And I was supposed to be making contact, gaining these people’s trust, so they’d go without a fuss … ” Dad’s disgust comes clear through the static. “Only you screwed up and made contact before we could, luckily, and … ”
We came here to take them. Just like Sam’s story said. I feel like I’ve taken a fist to the jaw. “So what’s happening now?”
“I didn’t like the plan and said so … ”
I’ll bet he did.
“And your mom and I are confined to quarters. All our equipment is gone. But nobody thought of the transmission set … ”
Because it looks like a piece of junk.
“I’ve had it on for a week. What are you using to transmit?”
“The tech from the Centauri II.”
Some silence comes over the transmission. “How much tech do they have?”
“Some. From the original Centauri and the II. It doesn’t look like they’ve been able to make the formats mesh, but I’ve only just found it. Only the governing Council knows it’s here … ”
“There’s still a Council? Really … ”
“Yes, Dad. Listen. The tech is hidden. But the Council has used it to set a perimeter, and they’re mirroring. They might be messing with communications, too … ”
“I don’t know about that. Communication is off everywhere. Signals are not getting off the planet, which might be why we never heard from the colony in the first place. Do you think they know we’re here?”
“I don’t know, but they might suspect it. They caught a visual of Jill and me. But even if they can’t get a signal out, they’ve been receiving for years. I just watched a visual of you … ”
“What?”
“You were sending greetings from the NWSE.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. They got those? Was I being an idiot?”
“I guess. I—”
“Never mind. Is it dangerous, where you are? Right now?”
“A little.” Or maybe a lot.
“Then let’s make this quick. Can you stay where you are safely? Are you still with the local in the visuals? Have you established relationship?”
Well, that would be a great big yes to the last one. “The safety isn’t long-term, Dad. There’s trouble here … ”
“Commander Faye isn’t going to launch the Centauri until after the comet passes, so she’s playing a long game. She knows she’ll find them eventually, and she’d rather not kill, not if she doesn’t have to. She’s getting paid by the head, so it defeats the purpose. But she will if she’s pushed. She doesn’t know they have tech … ”
“She might know. She’s mirroring, too. They can’t see her.”
I can hear a soft muttering, which I think is Dad talking to Mom.
“Okay. Here’s the deal. Do not, under any circumstances, come back to this ship. The Commander will get that city’s location out of you if she thinks it might ease things along, whatever way she has to. Stay where you are, keep the glasses off transmit, do not give up the coordinates. And be careful around Jillian.”
“Jill? Why?”
“Because Vesta knew,” Mom says, talking into the headset. I think Dad’s been sharing with her the whole time. “Promises have been made, and we don’t know what she’s said to Jill, so—”
“But what about the people here? Shouldn’t they be warned?”
I hear more muttering. Then Dad says, “Not yet. Hang tight, and stay where you are, and let’s see if we can avoid bloodshed. There are others who feel the same as we do on the ship. There’s a plan. Give us a little time to … rectify the situation.”
“What are you going to do?”