by Eva Brandt
“I’ll come up with some excuse,” she said. “I’ll try to stall and pretend Selene is still with me. But I won’t be able to buy you more than a day or two at most. If you don’t find a way to get to the Apsid Quasar until then, we’ll lose all hope.”
“Two days is already too long,” Typhon mused darkly. “Time flows differently in the Apsid Quasar. At this rate, she’ll spend years there before we even get the chance to leave Tartarus Base.”
He was right. Fuck. Every second that passed here could be one extra day for Selene, another day she spent being tortured by the apsids.
Shaking myself, I reentered the Sphinx too and together, our group returned to the shuttle. Cerberus and Knox stayed behind to finish the job, as Brendan had instructed. It didn’t take him long to burn to the ground everything that was left and catch up with us.
There were still plenty of Terrans who’d gotten away from our assault, but we didn’t have time to worry about them. We’d killed enough for it to count and Charybdis was awake. The Grand Judiciary didn’t need to know anything beyond that. I’d have to forge some transmissions to make sure our coms didn’t hold anything suspicious, but I’d done it before. It wouldn’t be a big deal.
Pollux took the piloting seat once again and launched the large shuttle into the sky. Behind us, we left only devastation. The irony was that the desolate landscape mimicked the grief in our hearts.
I wanted to believe we still had a chance to get Selene back like Charybdis had said. I wouldn’t give up on that hope and dream. At the same time, though, I knew that priestess had been right. We’d paid the price for the blood we’d spilled.
No. I couldn’t think that way. Selene’s life and well-being wasn’t something I’d ever be willing to trade. And who cared about prices and scruples? Fuck that. Fuck everything. We’d followed orders to protect our friends, and we couldn’t take it back. I wasn’t convinced I would have, even if I’d had the chance. It had been necessary. If that made me a monster, so be it, but I wouldn’t let anything as stupid as remorse get in my way.
Gritting my teeth, I activated my back-link communicator and connected to the systems of each individual chimera. It was tougher for my friends’ mechas, but they allowed it, since the changes I needed to make weren’t too invasive. The communication logs didn’t have a lot to do with the actual mental processes of the chimeras, so I could do whatever I wished without harming them.
By the time I completed my task, the shuttle had already left Terra and was in view of Tartarus Base. “That was fast,” I said as I looked out the shuttle window. “Good job, Pollux.”
Pollux didn’t answer. I wondered if it had been such a good idea to entrust piloting to him, when he was seconds away from having another panic attack.
The others couldn’t have missed Pollux’s condition, but maybe that was exactly why they’d allowed it. Having something to focus on helped Pollux, kept his mind anchored in the moment and prevented him from succumbing to the demons of his past. Considering the recent incident with Stella’s shade, it was a bit of a miracle, but Pollux was obviously just as determined as we were to get Selene back.
At last, we entered the base and Pollux directed the shuttle toward the academy. He didn’t bother stopping by Charon’s Barge, since we had authorization to bypass that. Instead, he landed the shuttle in one of the private airstrips of the school.
Charybdis was already there, waiting for us. Lord Welton was by her side, and the smirk on his face didn’t match his pallor. “I may have reminded him where he stood on the scale of power in this school,” Charybdis said in my mind. “You might have temporarily provided food for us, but I’m not beneath eating him if he gets too cocky. Who knows? I might even get away with it if they think it’s a temporary malfunction.”
“I highly doubt that, Charybdis. Knowing them, they’d find a way to use it against us even if they’re not convinced it’s our fault.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
As Pollux landed, Brendan took a few more moments to give us our final instructions. “All right. Put on your best masks. We’re going to need to pretend this went well. As far as we know, Selene is still with her mother. We’ll have to look put out by the delay, maybe even grumble about it in public. I’ll report to my father and then try to look up the best coordinates to enter the Quasar. They might have changed since the last time we were there, and we don’t know what garrisons the apsids have in the area.”
“And what do we do after that?” Knox asked. “Do we just abandon everything and leave?”
“I don’t think we have any other option,” Brendan replied. “There’s no real time for subterfuge. We’ll try to be discreet so no one attempts to stop us, but our priority is to get to the Quasar.”
That wasn’t really a plan, since from there, we’d still have to find a method to free Selene. The apsids would hardly hand her over because we asked nicely. But I trusted Brendan to come up with something that would at least give us a chance. In the meantime, I’d play along and act as thrilled as I should have been.
Truth be told, this role was easier for me to play than it was for the others. When I got off the shuttle, the only thing I had to do was make a beeline for Charybdis. I greeted Lord Welton politely, but after that, Charybdis pulled me aside.
Her behavior didn’t surprise anyone, since chimeras were known to act oddly whenever they woke up from a dormant state. Our situation was also unique and complex, so Lord Welton wouldn’t deem Charybdis’s actions odd. I didn’t want to abandon my friends and lovers to a horrible conversation with him, but Brendan could handle it. He’d done crazier things and the news that Selene was still alive gave us all the incentive we needed to keep a cool head.
“Can you say the same about yourself?” Charybdis asked me softly when I returned to her cockpit. “Will you be able to handle this battle, August?”
I clutched the controls of my chimera and watched as my veins lit up with fire. It almost looked like I didn’t have blood rushing through my body at all, but lava.
I’d seen this sort of thing before, an hour or so ago. I hadn’t gotten a great look at the apsid, but his physical form had been humanoid and his veins had glowed from within, just like mine.
“Charybdis, what the hell is wrong with me?”
Was this some kind of effect of the radiation poisoning I’d suffered? Was that why I had so much trouble controlling my tachyon manipulation skills? I didn’t know and honestly, it scared me. It was the worst possible time in the world for me to drop the ball. Selene and the others needed me, damn it.
“I have my suspicions about the cause of your condition, August,” Charybdis replied. “But… This won’t be something easy to hear, and I think it’s best that we discuss it with everyone at the same time.”
I fully intended to push her, to ask her to tell me more. Brendan and the others were still talking to Welton and I didn’t have the patience to retreat to some place more private.
I never got the chance to speak. The coms chirped with the sound of an incoming transmission. “What is it now?” I asked, exasperated.
“I’m not sure,” Charybdis replied, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant, “but I think you should take this call.”
I had no desire to talk to anyone except my friends, but I trusted Charybdis’s assessment, so I obeyed. The moment I activated the coms, I froze at the sight of the person who appeared on my display screen.
“Oh, thank Tartarus,” the woman in question sobbed. “I’d almost lost all hope that I’d be able to reach anyone.”
It was Penelope Welton. Her usually immaculate hair was all over the place and she looked paler than Brendan had been when he’d thought Selene was dead. Her dress was askew and her jewelry missing.
I’d never interacted that much with Brendan’s former fiancée. She didn’t like me, because she saw me as an obstacle in her path. But she reserved most of her hatred for Knox, who’d been the one to keep Brendan from her before Pollux
and I had ever entered the picture. She hadn’t displayed any disdain for my Terran background, though, and in return, I’d made no real derisive comments, choosing to let Brendan handle his own affairs as he saw fit.
I couldn’t come up with a single reason why she’d contact me of all people, but something was obviously very wrong.
“Lady Welton, what can I do for you? Are you hurt? Under attack?”
She shook her head and her eyes filled with tears. “No, that’s not it. This isn’t about me. I tried to reach Prince Brendan, but he must have blocked my com-link or something similar. Flight Lieutenant Cavallero, there’s something horrible going on.”
“Something horrible?” I repeated, alarm bells starting to ring in my head. “What do you mean?” Was she just referring to the recent attack on Gaia’s Haven? No, it couldn’t be. I doubted she’d consider that sort of thing important enough to warrant such a desperate call. At most, she’d deem it distasteful, but it wouldn’t upset her so much.
“I found a folder in my father’s files,” she said. “It contained… It contained some secret notes. They’re on human experimentation. Flight Lieutenant Cavallero, Stella Donadieu’s name was listed in the folder and so was yours. I’m at least ninety percent sure that they want to use you as chimera fuel because you’re part-apsid.”
Unlikely Allies
Pollux
Ash. Blood. Loss. Heat. Guilt.
The thoughts had been swirling in my head over and over, ever since I’d watched Selene being carbonized in front of me. I’d honestly believed I’d die with her. Stella’s shade had been trying to tell me something important. My selfishness and refusal to accept facts had led us to this disaster.
The news of Selene’s survival cracked me open and gave me hope. But I knew the battle was only just beginning.
When we arrived at Chimera Academy and met up with Paul Welton, my resolve almost faltered. “Congratulations on your successful mission,” he told us. “I take it the nest of rebels has been obliterated.”
“Of course,” Brendan replied. “I’ll give my father all the details when I speak to him.”
“I’m sure he’ll be pleased as well. In the meantime, you can take a few hours off if you want to. I’m afraid Acting Pilot Renard hasn’t returned from her lessons yet, but there’s still plenty of enjoyment you can find in Tartarus City.”
I’d never felt more tempted to crack the ground open and bury this asshole in the depths of the asteroid. But I refrained, since he was unknowingly giving us a great tool, the opportunity to leave without being questioned. “We’ll consider it,” I said.
Brendan nodded slowly. “It wouldn’t hurt to visit some of the more… civilized areas. I did want to give Selene a better tour since we never got the chance. She might enjoy seeing some of the things in the Aphrodite Boudoir.”
I almost laughed, because ironically, that was true. August and I had mostly shared the worst part of the city with our lover, but there were places where sex workers did receive good treatment and even enjoyed their career. The Aphrodite Boudoir was a personal favorite for people who weren’t really inclined to advertise their private business on the streets of the city, and my fellow Chimera Warriors and I had been regular clients there before we’d met Selene.
Lord Welton blinked at us in surprise and confusion. Perhaps he hadn’t expected us to agree so quickly, or at all. Still, he didn’t deem it suspicious and instead jumped at the chance to wriggle his way back into Brendan’s favor. “I’m happy to hear you’re keeping an open mind. I’m sure that in the future, Penelope will also be able to assist you with such details.”
“With respect, Lord Welton, I doubt it. Penelope deserves better than to be used as a sexual object by a man who has no intention of pursuing a serious relationship with her.” Brendan offered Welton a smile small enough to be mistaken as genuine. “I know you’re angry and offended because of this incident, and I think neither of us has dealt with it the right way. But I do wish your daughter the best, and I’m convinced she’ll find a wonderful husband, someone who is a better match for her than I’d ever be. Since today has gone so well, let us start over. I wish for every member of The Grand Judiciary—including you—to accept my decision when it comes to the future mother of my children. I’m confident that it’s the best possible thing for our dynasty.”
Brendan had no real reason to provide Welton with explanations or apologies, but the olive branch served a different purpose. Welton would undoubtedly be convinced that our success on Terra had reassured Brendan and given him a better perspective. Despite his bad relationship with his father and his defiant ways, Brendan had never crossed the line with The Grand Judiciary. Most Chimera nobility acknowledged and valued the fact that he was the pilot of the Typhon, which was no easy task. Lord Welton might begrudge Brendan for rejecting Penelope, but at the end of the day, he’d prioritize his own relationship with the crown over his daughter’s dignity.
“Yes, of course,” he said, just like I’d expected. “I completely understand. I admit my desire to see Penelope in an excellent marriage got the better of me, but in this, you are likely correct.”
The whole thing was so nausea-inducing I admired Brendan for his ability to not throw up. “He’s a prince,” Scylla pointed out. “He has an immunity to bullshit.”
When coming from Scylla, the profanity sounded a little hilarious and lightened the load on my heart a little. It was undoubtedly what she’d intended. “No, he doesn’t. He’s just very good at pretending.”
“It won’t be for nothing. You’ll…”
She trailed off, and the pause alarmed me. “Scylla?”
“We need to get rid of Paul Welton at once. There’s been a development.”
Brendan twitched, a barely perceivable grimace that told me Typhon must have mentioned this to him as well. At the same time, August came out of the Charybdis. He seemed perfectly calm, but I took one look at him and knew he was anything but.
“Lord Welton, my unit and I need to head into the decontamination shower now,” Brendan said. “We appreciate your support in this matter, as well as the aid you granted Charybdis in our absence.”
“It was my honor,” Welton replied, bowing in respect to Brendan’s station.
Since we were observing all the formalities now, we saluted in turn. Fortunately, the decontamination excuse worked well, and we were able to leave Welton behind in the hangars without too much trouble. Brendan ushered us toward the shower areas, all the while remaining silent. Since we were still in a public open space, I knew better than to ask him what was going on, so instead, I asked Scylla. “What in Tartarus’s name happened?”
“August received an important communication from Penelope Welton. We believe she may be able to help us with our plan.”
Wait, what? Brendan’s would-be wife? That Penelope?
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why would she want to do that?”
“People aren’t just good or bad, Pollux. They all have their reasons for their actions.”
“I’m not debating human nature with you right now, Scylla. I don’t care about her morals. She doesn’t like us, and that’s a fact. She despises Selene, and she’s made that more than clear. Why would you think she’d help us?”
“Out of self-preservation, mostly,” Scylla replied.
She sounded smug, almost predatory, and that gave me more confidence than a simple reassurance ever could. Scylla trusted about as many people as I did, and Penelope wasn’t one of them.
I didn’t receive the actual explanation until we got to the showers. There were cameras here, but August could deactivate them remotely without anyone feeling suspicious. Such equipment always tended to glitch in shower areas, and we’d often taken advantage of this to steal a few moments together.
As soon as we were behind closed doors, I turned toward Brendan and asked, “Penelope? Really?”
“I’m just as surprised as you are and honestly, I’m not sure I trust her. But
I don’t think we can afford to be picky and I doubt she’d joke around with stuff like this.”
August sighed and plopped down on a bench, in front of the lockers. “Pollux, she… She mentioned Stella.”
Ice flooded my veins all over again. Spots started dancing in front of my eyes. Selene’s burning figure and accusing eyes flashed through my mind, and in those beautiful, dark depths, I saw hatred, pain, and rejection.
It was only for a moment, and then, with Scylla’s aid, I recovered. I couldn’t afford to fall apart now. I’d do it later, once Selene was safe and no longer at risk of being raped, tortured, and murdered by aliens.
“And you expect me to believe that she wants to help just because she felt bad for my dead sister?” I asked, proud when my voice only trembled a little. “She has no reason to care.”
“Not necessarily, no,” August agreed, “but it appears that, because of what she saw, she fears The Grand Judiciary will do the same thing to her.”
“She’s not wrong,” Brendan mused. “They might not normally do so, but if they find out she stuck her nose where she wasn’t supposed to, they’ll get rid of her and use her for their experiments.”
No matter how many issues I had with Penelope Welton, I didn’t wish that fate on anyone. I could see why Scylla would believe Penelope, based on that little tidbit.
“There’s more,” August continued. “According to the files she found, I’m part-apsid.”
“Part apsid?” Knox repeated in disbelief. “You’re joking.”
August let out a sharp, lost laugh. He was obviously struggling with these new revelations as much as I was, but was trying to keep it together for Selene’s sake. “I wouldn’t joke with something like this, Knox. It looks like The Grand Judiciary’s experiments are older than we thought and some of them were successful. I’m among the few children born out of an apsid-human union.”
I believed him. I remembered the way the doctors had crowded around August when they’d thought he’d died at Hyperion Base 35. Everything that had happened then made so much sense now, as did August’s previous particularities, his stronger affinity for fire, and his increased resilience to tachyon overload. And really, it made sense that there had been some successes in the countless trials The Grand Judiciary had organized. Otherwise, they would’ve never taken my sister—a noble—to act as their guinea pig.
