by Skyler Grant
Jinx was looking very wide-eyed. "No. No. NO. I don't want that. Stop trying to make me something I'm not. I don't want to be anyone’s savior. I don't want to be anyone’s empress or antidote or any of it."
Tamara stood and slapped her, the sound of echoing through the study. Her hand left a bright red mark on Jinx's cheek.
"You are better than this. If what Mara said is true your presence may help to protect your family and save other lives besides," Tamara said.
"Jinx. If you're going to hit her back it better be now, because I do not abide this sort of behavior on my ship," Quinn said.
A second slap, this one jerking Tamara's head to the side. Jinx really put her weight into it, although when she sat back down it was almost primly.
"Thank you, Tamara. You're right. I was behaving poorly," Jinx said.
"You are quite welcome," Tamara said with an almost stiff formality as she sat back down as well.
Quinn had to wonder if his wives made any more sense to each other than they made to him. He hoped that at least someone on this ship had a clue.
"You think you can stop him, if we get you close?" Quinn asked Mara, looking over to her.
"I honestly don't know, the Emperor tried and failed, and wiped out a whole system in the attempt. I do think right now he is alone, confused in a new time, and we're never again going to find him as weak and without resources," Mara said.
Quinn hated this, but he did trust Mara, and as preposterous as this story sounded it fit with what they'd observed in this system.
"Alexis is off scouting. We're not leaving her here. When she returns we'll prep for launch and go after this plague-bearer," Quinn said.
26
There was no need to force Jinx to try to use the sphere again, not with the Runestone restored. Normally tracking a ship through a jump required close proximity at the time they jumped. They didn't have that, but in this case it didn’t matter. A single rune had been bared. Ilinar had gone to Tremel.
It wasn't where Quinn was expecting. It would have made more sense for Ilinar to get away from the Imperium. Still, what could they do? They followed.
When the Centauri Bliss had been here running the cargo blockade, ships started pinging them with active scanners the moment they left the Runestone and sending interdiction messages. Nothing like that happened now. The two cruisers keeping orbit above Hope's Reach were still there, but the smaller patrol craft were gone. Neither of the cruisers took any sort of action.
"Well, this is spooky," Quinn said.
"Like going into another ghost system," Dela said from the copilot's seat.
Quinn opened a channel to Tamara and Mara, who were prepared to run electronic warfare again. "It’s looking suspiciously and disturbingly weird and quiet out of there. Either of you getting anything from aboard the ships?"
"Their internal networks are active, but I'm not picking up any communication. I'm not sure what that means," Mara said.
Nothing good, Quinn was sure of that.
If they weren't talking, perhaps the colony would be.
Quinn opened a comm.
"Colony, do you read?" Quinn asked.
There was a crackle, and a distorted feed came through with weapons fire in the background. A man's voice said, "We read you. Is this the Royal Navy? We’ve been calling for assistance."
"Afraid not, but we're here to help. The ships up here are silent," Quinn said.
"Yesterday. They made landfall—the mercenaries—except they aren't people anymore. They're something else. We were prepared for a fight so we're ready, but this ..."
"Understood. Hold out," Quinn said and killed the channel.
"We might be good in a shootout, but we're not an invasion force," Dela said.
"Oh, I expect Kara would disagree with you, but I'm not," Quinn said.
"Ilinar must have turned those on the ships, but not the colony. Is it because they're still loyal to the Imperium?" Tamara asked.
"Proximity. I expect he boarded one ship and transformed them, then took a shuttle to get the other," Mara said.
A proper ground offensive would have weapons that could hit a low-flying ship, and would, but Quinn hoped these mercenaries weren't planning on a ground assault.
Quinn kicked in the engines. Unlike last time approaching the colony it didn’t require any fancy flying. The planet quickly grew in the view screen.
"Powerful mana reading. South side of the settlement," Mara said.
Quinn aimed for that. Being underground it was hard to tell just where the colony was located, but the attackers were easier to see. There was a swarm of them, attempting to overwhelm a pass held by several combat mechs.
As the voice had said, the mercenaries weren't human anymore. Elongated limbs, some covered with fur and some scales, and with massive clawed hands. Amongst them was a figure in red robes, human.
"Dela. Get to the shuttle bay, take the Whiskey and hit these things from above. Kara, Mara, you're up," Quinn said, as he hovered the Centauri Bliss over the battle. Instruments registered the ramp opening, then a salvo of weapon fire as Kara leapt into the fray.
Instruments flashed warnings. Quinn was thrown backwards in his seat as jagged bolts of red electricity jumped from the console to his body. It was deeply disorienting, the ship spinning out of control. Quinn reached back and managed to hit the thrusters just before the ship plowed into the ground, transforming a crash into a bad landing.
"Status," Quinn called out.
"Alive," Tamara said.
"Groaning," Jinx said.
"Bruised but standing, sir," Taki said.
"I'm ... a bit scrambled, but here," Melody said.
"I'm not doing well. I'm ... I feel something wrong with me," Alexis said.
Alexis was the one member of their crew not sworn to Jinx. Quinn hadn't meant Alexis to get close enough to the fighting that it might be a problem.
"If what Mara said is true, you may be starting to mutate. I know we haven't talked about it, but you need to join our family—or at least the least swear allegiance to Jinx," Quinn said.
"We don't have any proof that last works," Alexis said. "And I'm already married—Jinx, that is a really stupid name ... okay, I swear myself to your service. You have my honor and my blade."
It didn’t sound convincing.
Quinn left the cockpit at a run. Whatever hit the ship they weren't going to be flying for the time being anyways. He found Alexis at the dining table, clutching it and looking a bit green.
"If you're about to become a big monster let me know so I can shoot you first," Quinn said.
"Your concern for my well-being is noted, Captain. I'm alive, and swearing seems to have done the trick. I just—it was a very queer feeling," Alexis said.
If she was fine the others might need his help. Quinn headed for the cargo bay, but by the time he reached it trouble had already found them. A mutant beast was there, red eyes glowing, and it let out a massive roar and pounded its chest.
It was an impressive display. Quinn emptied his pistol into its face. That also proved to be an impressive but gory display as the creature tumbled over. Quinn reloaded and was about to step over the thing when a blast of force threw him back against a wall.
"Guns. They really aren't a civilized weapon," said a refined male voice. The figure that stepped up the ramp was wearing clothes almost as antiquated as what Tamara had bought for Quinn. Red robes hung open over black battle armor, a sword at his side.
"Not a bit," Quinn said, raising his gun and intending to put a bullet in Ilinar's head. He didn't get a chance. The gun fell apart in his hand, metal fragments dropping to the floor.
"I felt it on the station. The presence of the blood. I thought it was an agent of Octavius come to finish what he started, and I fled because I hadn’t fully recovered my strength.” He waved at the outside. “I came here, but everything is wrong. There should be cities here, my family, yet there is only dust and ruin."
"Fond of
punching too," Quinn said, surging forward but another blast of power threw him back. This time he worried he must have broken some bones, so fierce was the impact.
"How very disappointing. At least tell me you know something, before you die and I go looking for the blood that protects you? Where Mahara took the Redeemer perhaps?" Ilinar asked.
Even though the haze of pain Quinn recognized the ship. The one Sofia wanted Alexis to find. None of that seemed important right now.
"You don't have to look. I'm right here," Jinx said, stepping into the cargo bay.
Ilinar looked at her and his face flashed confusion. "Opalia? You can't be. He killed you, I saw him kill you."
"My great grandmother, with a good dozen more greats tacked on in front," Jinx said.
Ilinar lowered his gaze to the deck. "This changes things. I'll not kill one of Opalia's after the sacrifice she made, but I cannot let you continue either. Disarm and stand down, and I shall find a way to turn you, train you."
From behind Ilinar came the sound of automatic weapons fire, the air crackling red.
Quinn could almost see the bullets dissolving before they hit him, fracturing harmlessly into dust in midair. Ilinar clenched his fist and twisted, and Kara dropped to the deck where she stood, limbs distorted along with the sounds of snapping bones.
"Stop hurting my friends," Jinx said with steel in her voice
"These?" Ilinar scoffed and he drew his sword. It was a wicked-looking thing, the blade ebon black and carved with numerous runes glowing red. "You may keep them as your slaves, if you cooperate. Not the green one though, she dies. Such crude weapons, not rune-forged or touched by magic at all? Did you ever expect something like this to hurt me?"
"Just stop this! What do you know about Opalia? What do you know about me?" Jinx said.
Quinn wished he knew where Mara was, or if she was even still alive.
Ilinar advanced on Kara, extending the blade over her. "You are hard to kill. I do not know your kind, but I will conquer them as a sign of respect, to you. But you shall not live to see it."
Quinn's vision was going blurry, but even so he thought Tamara must have been moving fast as she advanced on Ilinar from behind with something held in her hands. It was the artifact, the one Quinn ordered put away for safekeeping.
With a crack it hit Ilinar's skull, and blue light flared.
27
Ilinar stumbled to one knee, bracing himself by leaning his weight upon his sword. A pulse of red energy surrounding him crumbled the artifact to dust in Tamara's hands right before she was thrown across the cargo bay to slam hard into a wall.
Then with a growl he slumped forward, unconscious.
Energy bolts slammed into Ilinar's body. Mara came stumbling up the ramp, helped by a hard-looking, heavily tattooed woman. Most of the armor on the left side of Mara's body had burned off and the flesh beneath charred and blackened.
The shots didn't really hit Ilinar. Even unconscious, his protective aura was dissipating the energy before it touched him.
Mara said, "Too strong. I was an idiot to think we should try this. Kick him out of the cargo bay and let’s fly. He won't be out for long."
"And what about the colony?" Quinn asked.
"We can't hold out. My mechs are falling apart and out of ammunition," the tattooed woman said.
"As she said—lost,” Mara said. “There is nothing we can do. Had I time, had I known how strong he'd be, I might have arranged something. But now—now we flee."
Jinx stepped into Quinn's field of vision and knelt down beside him. There was a blue glow. When Jinx stood she held his pistol in her hand. It was no longer in fragments. She said softly, "Rune-forged, touched by magic, he said."
"I'll try," Mara said.
Jinx shook her head. "If it’s my ability powering the gun, it should be my hand pulling the trigger." She walked over to Ilinar, aiming the pistol, and pulled the trigger. Blue light flared, the bullet dissolving before it reached him although it made it further than anything so far. The next one made it further yet. It wasn't until the fifth shot that the round made contact with his skull.
Ilinar spasmed on the floor, red runes on his skin glowing in brilliant relief and making him almost seem forged from molten fire for an instant before they faded. Then his body was gone, just an empty set of robes and the sword where Ilinar had been moments before.
Jinx screamed, crackling blue lightning surrounding her, and she stumbled back against a bulkhead. Runes crawled and played beneath her flesh, brighter than Quinn had ever seen. The screams were agonized, pained. The pistol dropped from her hand as she fell to the deck on her hands and knees.
Quinn could see the runes fading from all over her body except where she held the pistol, her hand marked with a blue rune glowing with a steady luminescence.
"Huh," said the tattooed woman. Quinn was forced to agree.
There wasn't time to worry about what had happened yet, not right now. Not if the colony was going to be saved.
Quinn said carefully, "Jinx, I don't know what happened, but if you are still in there we need you. Healing. Kara first, then Mara. If the colony is going to be saved it needs them."
"I ... right ... right," Jinx said with a shake of her head. Her hands were wreathed in flames now, a brilliant glowing blue. Jinx stumbled as she made her way over to Kara and pressed the rune-marked hand upon the broken flesh. Kara screamed as badly twisted limbs reshaped themselves and she broke all over again in the process of being put back together.
"How?" the tattooed woman asked, as if she hadn't just seen oddness enough.
Jinx healed Mara next, her touch not just restoring Mara’s features to their usual perfection but even mending the torn and tattered armor. Jinx helped her companion next before getting to Quinn and then Tamara.
"You don't seem short on juice," Quinn said.
"He had a lot of mana in him. I got most of it when he died. I could feel it, just like when I drained the tank. It is like I’m burning up from the inside out," Jinx said.
"I'm grateful for getting me out of that cockpit, but I don't know you folks can do much," the tattooed woman said.
"What’s the problem? Quickly," Mara said.
"While you figure that out, I'm going to shoot a lot of things until they turn their attention on me and away from the ship," Kara said, disappearing down the ramp.
"Our ground defenses are based around a squad of combat mechs. They were already worn down, now they're out of rounds and torn to shreds. I'm Donna Kass, by the way, squad leader," Donna said.
Quinn asked Jinx, "I hate to ask this of you, but if you have that much juice do you think you can fix some mechs?"
"I don't know. I can try," Jinx said.
“You can kill too. You need to burn off the power. A touch from you right now should kill a wrathspawn. Don’t worry, they aren’t human anymore. They’re nothing even close,” Mara said.
"Any of your guns use standard energy cells?" Quinn turned to Donna.
"We've been out for awhile, but yes."
Quinn hit the comms. "Melody. Get the loader up with those energy cells we scavenged. Just the ones you recharged. Taki and Mara will play escort. I'm going to try to get us flying again."
Quinn hated this part of being a captain, and being a pilot. Leaving the others in the line of fire while he removed himself. But another ship in the air with the Whiskey could make a lot of difference, even without weapons besides the disruptors.
Quinn settled into the pilot’s seat, waiting for an all-clear from Melody before firing up the engines. It took several attempts, the rough landing taking its toll, but soon he'd engaged the thrusters to get the Centauri Bliss hovering ten feet off the ground.
Below, the loader filled with energy cells was trundling along. Taki and Mara were on either side of the driver’s seat, each with a rifle and firing away at any of the beasts coming in their direction. They’d attracted the attention of a pack and Quinn hit the engines, doing a low pass th
at sent them scattering.
Quinn checked the sensors. There were perhaps two hundred of the creatures still alive—that was after a lot of killing had already been done. The mercenaries must have been preparing a ground assault when Ilinar had arrived.
The Whiskey was still flying, good, Quinn had been worried about Dela. He hit the comms.
"How you holding up?" Quinn asked.
"Out of ammo, but I've been relaying intel to someone on the ground. Glad you're not dead, saw the crash," Dela said.
"Oh, it got a lot weirder, but we're all alive here. Melody is running a loader towards those mechs. We need to keep them off her."
"On it, Captain," Dela said.
Together they made sweeping passes over any packs that gathered. It lost its effectiveness after the first few times, but that was enough for the loader to reach the mechs. Jinx must have been able to get them repaired and the energy cells were compatible, because soon they were charging into the fray. Stubby and bulky humanoid machines around thirty feet in height, mobile weapon platforms.
Beasts that clung to the mechs were shaken off. Extended arms blasted energy weapons into any concentration. With charged guns and repaired frames, and without Ilinar, the battle was suddenly very one-sided. But the attacking beasts knew no caution, no retreat. They fought until the very last one had been downed.
When the battle was done Quinn got a hail from the colony.
"Centauri Bliss, you're cleared to land," cracked the speaker.
Dela was hailing a moment later. "Did they just invite you to land and sound really curt?"
"They did. Weird way to thank us for saving their lives. I expected to be offered a lot of beer," Quinn said.
Whatever the reason for it, they'd find out. The colony transponder guided the ship towards a mountain. A rock face dropped away to reveal a hangar and Quinn took the ship in. Dela in the Whiskey landed beside the Bliss a few moments later.
Tamara met him in the hold and they left the ship together. The hangar bay was almost empty of ships, and of people. Nobody met them and it was left for them to find their own way. The lift down had only one button.
