by M. R. Forbes
“No,” Harai said, struggling to breathe beneath the hold.
General Ogg was on his knees nearby, struggling against Caleb’s mental assault. The Norg was crawling away from the modulator toward the exit and trying desperately to escape.
“You don’t have to die today,” Ishek said.
“Kill me,” Harai whispered in reply.
Ishek shifted, breaking Harai’s neck, but it wasn’t enough to kill him. Harai reached for the Advocate beneath Caleb’s arm. Ishek reached for Harai, putting a hand to his new Advocate and blasting it with energy. Having lost the creature sustaining him, Harai grunted and flopped to the floor.
He didn’t move again.
“It is done,” Ishek said.
Caleb released Ogg, regaining control of his body from Ishek. He looked down at Harai. He didn’t want to hate the Inahri soldier, but he did.
“That was for Dante,” he said. He looked at the Inarhi crew. They looked back at him, and then they joined Ogg, running from the bridge.
We should stop them.
“Why? They aren’t going to get very far. This place is crawling with trife.”
Chapter 61
“Do you know how to work the controls for the ship?” Caleb asked, picking up the modulator.
You do. Look deep, Caleb.
Caleb searched his memories. Then he moved to the front of the bridge. The holographic controls were still active. He found the comm and activated it. He wasn’t sure if anyone would hear him.
“Free Inahri, this is General Card of the Deliverance Defense Force. Do you copy?”
He waited. Nothing.
“Free Inahri, this is General Card of the Deliverance Defense Force. Do you copy?”
No reply.
“Free Inahri—”
General Caleb Card.
The voice pierced his mind, causing him to gasp as Arluthu reached out to him.
You are mine.
Caleb gripped his head, squeezing his eyes shut. He could sense Ishek’s pain at the ancient Relyeh’s attack.
“You. Can’t. Control. Me!”
Caleb pushed back, recovering and remaining calm. The pressure diminished but didn’t relent.
You cannot fight me. I am of the Hunger. The Might of the Universe. You belong to me. All living creatures belong to me. I will devour you. I will devour your people. All things that exist will become mine. You cannot stop me.
Caleb felt the blood begin to run from his ears, eyes, and nose. He struggled to stay calm against the pressure and its resulting damage.
“You’re nothing,” Caleb said. “You hold power over people who don’t know any better. But I do. I know what you are. You made the mistake of showing yourself to me. You thought I couldn’t fight you, that we Earthers are too weak. You’re wrong, Arluthu. You’re a loose cannon. An outcast. A damned convict. I don’t worship you, and I definitely don’t fear you.” He shoved back against the Relyeh, the pressure relaxing a little more. “The Seeker is mine. Ogg is gone. Harai is dead. Everything you wanted is lost.”
No! I cannot be defeated. I cannot lose!
“You have. Look into my memories. Take a glimpse at what I’ve done.”
Nooo!
Arluthu roared in his mind.
I will destroy your people. I will devour every last one of them. Even if you win here, you will lose.
“I have the Seeker. I’m going to bring it over the mountains, and I’m going to blow your army to shit. And then I’m coming for you.”
The pressure relented a little more. Arluthu knew the truth.
He was afraid.
I will take them all. I will enslave them all.
“You can’t touch them.”
Not here. Not now. You can have this world. There is little left to devour. I know another place. Another world. It is already prepared. You know of it. You were born there.
Caleb froze. What?
Arluthu’s laughter was a deep rumble in his mind.
Your victory is hollow. Even when you win, you lose.
The pressure vanished from Caleb’s head.
“Ishek, what the hell was that?”
The Advocate didn’t reply. It was still in pain from Arluthu’s assault.
Caleb manipulated the controls, trying to activate the ship’s sensors. Nothing was making it through the clouds.
“Ishek, I need you.”
I am damaged.
“You can heal me, but you can’t heal yourself?”
Give me time.
“We don’t have time. I need to know what Arluthu is planning. Even when I win, I lose?”
Use your head.
Caleb clenched his teeth as the realization hit him. The Citadel was still able to fly. Arluthu was planning to leave Essex.
And go to Earth.
Caleb was the only one who could stop it.
He heard a noise behind him and turned to see the trife queen step onto the bridge. She was joined by the Axon trife queen, who stood behind her, head lowered beneath the queen’s in reverence. A mixed brood of trife were behind them.
“Mamma,” Caleb said. He looked down at her large claws. General Ogg’s head was dangling from one of them. She approached him, dropping it on the floor. “For me?”
Mamma hissed. Caleb put out his hand, and she lowered her head into it.
“You’re a good girl,” Caleb said. “Wait here a second, okay?”
He turned back to the ship’s controls. He had another idea, maybe as crazy or crazier than the rest, but he had to make sure it would work. It took him a minute to get the data, able to manipulate the systems easily with the Inahri memories in his head. He turned back to Mamma, putting his hand on her forehead again.
“I never thought when I boarded the Deliverance that I would come to rely on one of you to save my life instead of taking it,” he said. “It’s funny how things work out.” He opened his hand, showing her the modulator. Then he bent down and picked up Ogg’s head, sliding the device inside and passing it to the queen.
She bowed her head before him, and then straightened and began to hiss. The other trife responded, and every last one of them bowed down to him.
Then they turned and ran from the room.
I don’t like this.
“You always say that.”
This isn’t going to work.
“You always say that too.”
We’re going to die.
“Maybe. It’ll be worth it.”
I hate you.
“No, you don’t. You’re part of me.”
It is possible for an Advocate to hate itself.
Caleb smiled and began to manipulate the Seeker’s controls.
“Let’s go kill a god.”
Chapter 62
“Fall back!” John roared, loud enough all of the Earthers and Inahri nearby could hear him. “Fall back to the seal!”
He unleashed another barrage of fire from the rifle he had liberated from one of the bodies, sending blasts of energy into the bulkheads near the enemy’s position, forcing them all to take cover. The attack gave the ten soldiers he had connected with time to get through the corridor behind him on their way to Metro’s seal.
He stopped once they were out of harm’s way, joining them at the rear and moving backward, taking pot shots to keep the Relyeh on the defensive. The units remaining inside the Deliverance were in bad shape, most of them broken and scattered by the attack, reduced to individuals fighting for their lives in the maze of passages. John had done his best to gather whatever he could and get them back into some kind of organized fighting force, but he was struggling to hold the inexperienced conscripts together, and the casualties were high.
The Inahri storming the Deliverance weren’t using their stunners, preferring to kill the opposition instead of preparing to take them back to Arluthu. It was an unexpected change in tactics likely brought on by the appearance of the Free Inahri and the overall violence of the fighting.
The ground outside
the starship was littered with both stunned and dead. Earthers, Free Inahri, Relyeh Inahri, not to mention bits and pieces of debris from destroyed Daggers, transports, Abominations, drones and APCs. It was the war Valentine had brought them to the planet to fight, condensed into a single desperate effort to push back the enemy and live another day.
Another minute.
Another second.
“There’s a split up ahead,” John said through the comm.
His tactical armor was linked to the Earthers in the group, while the Intellect Skin he wore beneath allowed him to communicate with the Inahri squad, which included General Jax and Kiaan. The general had taken offense to Governor Stone’s efforts to make him retreat, and reacted to the dishonor by bringing himself and his retinue into the ship. Most of those soldiers were dead now, but they had put up a hell of a good fight.
“Take cover at the split. It’s only a short hop from the seal. We have to hold them there.”
“Roger,” one of the Earthers said.
“Yes, Sergeant,” General Jax said. “We’re with you.”
John fired again, the rifle running out of charge. He tossed it to the ground, switching back to the gun Jax had given him. He backed away, making it to the intersection where the two groups of soldiers were quickly fortifying their defense.
“Conserve your ammo,” John said. “Don’t shoot unless they show their helmets.”
“Roger.”
The soldiers waited, ten rifles arranged to fire on the Inahri if they dared pop out from cover. John looked over his shoulder to the seal behind him. He had promised Stone he wouldn’t let the Inahri in. It didn’t matter if the colonists were armed and ready to defend their city. He had said they wouldn’t get inside. It wasn’t about Beth Stone. It was about John’s wife. It was about his failure to protect her. This was his internal redemption, a long time coming. This was his chance to let the past move into the past.
He was going to hold the line or die trying.
“Sergeant!” Jax snapped.
John glanced at his tactical and cursed. Another Relyeh unit was moving in.
Behind them.
How the hell had they gotten around without him knowing?
“I’m on it,” John said. “Hold position here.”
“You can’t handle them alone,” Jax countered. The general was crouched ahead of him, rifle aimed down the corridor toward the enemy. John put his hand on the Inahri’s shoulder.
“I’m taking these,” he said, grabbing the xix from the back of Jax’s armor. “It’ll do.”
“Sergeant,” Jax said.
“It has to be enough,” John said. “If they get us in a crossfire, we’re all going to die.”
“Honor to you, Sergeant Wash.”
“Cover me.”
John had to move into the main corridor to retreat to the seal. Jax and Kiaan leaned out from opposite sides of the corner and fired toward the enemy, sending bolts flashing past them and forcing them to remain at the further intersection. John returned the rifle to his back and tapped the xix together, quickly forming an energy web. Then he broke into a full run, turning his back on the enemy line.
Bolts sizzled past him. One of them struck his back, the rifle he had just put there preventing it from piercing his armor. Another grazed his leg, and he nearly fell. It burned as he came hard around the corner, a freight train rushing headlong into two squads of Relyeh Inahri soldiers.
An image of his wife flashed in front of his eyes. Alive. Bright. Beautiful. The way he wanted to remember her, not the way he so often did. Not the way he had seen her last. She was waiting for him out there, watching him play the hero one last time.
The Relyeh opened fire, the xix catching nearly a dozen bolts, so quickly the captured energy caused the weapons to vibrate in his hands as if they were going to explode. John shouted as he threw the gathered charge back at them, lightning launching out from the weapons and arcing into the group. It speared the walls and floor, knocked out the LEDs along the ceiling and dug hard into the enemy, short-circuiting their battle armor.
Then John reached them. He swung the xix like clubs, with all the force his augmented muscles could gather. The weapons smashed through faceplates in one strike, the fury of his assault knocking down three of the soldiers before they could react.
Five had fallen by the time the others’ armor rebooted, bringing them back to life. John was in the middle of the scrum by then, and he pulled himself away from an awkward grab, kicking out and knocking one soldier into another. He used the xix to create another web, bringing it over another soldier and sending energy through the helmet and into his head, killing him.
Someone hit him in the back, pushing him forward. The soldier there caught him and punched him in the chest, the impact cracking the armored plate and driving him the other direction. He avoided the next strike, getting a xix against another helmet and shorting the battle armor a second time.
The muzzle of a rifle smacked against his helmet.
“Honor to you, Behemoth,” the soldier said, prepared to pull the trigger. John recognized him as one of the Unclaimed he had met in the Citadel.
He closed his eyes. He had tried. He was ready.
Except the soldier didn’t shoot. He hesitated and the Inahri around him froze.
Just like that, it was over.
John didn’t know how or why, but the Inahri soldiers lowered their weapons. They turned to one another, chattering over their comms and leaving John standing in the center. It was the most surreal thing he had ever experienced.
“What’s going on?” he said to the soldier.
The former Unclaimed stared back at him, fearful and confused. He shook his head inside his helmet. “Arluthu is abandoning us.”
“What?”
“The Citadel is leaving the planet. Arluthu is leaving us behind. We have displeased him.”
It took John a few heartbeats to make sense of the statement. Arluthu was on the run?
Caleb had done it!
He couldn’t hold back his grin, even while the combatants around him hung their heads in sudden despair, all of the fight drained from them in an instant. There was no reason for them to continue the attack if the god they were fighting for had forsaken them.
“General Jax, are you seeing this?” John asked.
“Yes, Sergeant. The Relyeh forces are surrendering as we speak.”
“All of them?”
“All of them.”
“Sergeant Washington,” Deputy Klahanie said. “You’ve got to come to the bridge. You have to see this.”
Chapter 63
The Seeker rose through the clouds.
Caleb barely felt it. Standing on the bridge and looking out through the transparency in the alloy, it seemed to him more like the planet was falling away instead of the ship climbing.
According to the data he had collected and the memories of the Inahri he had gathered, the Seeker could make it into orbit with power to spare on full backup stores. It would allow him to get into space and intercept the Citadel, even without the energy unit.
He had given the modulator to Mamma, the trife queen, and sent her back to the Deliverance. She would give it to Governor Stone. The colony was going to need it, one way or another. Either to provide lasting power to the ship if they needed to evacuate the planet or to help them get a better foothold on it, providing an endless source of energy for them and their Free Inahri allies. Arluthu’s World was going to be their world now, free of the Relyeh and the Axon. Free for them to build into a new home for humankind.
He wasn’t going to need it. Not where he planned on going. Not with what he planned on doing.
The Seeker could make it to orbit on backup power. It could hopefully intercept the Citadel there. What it couldn’t do was utilize its weapons systems. The cannons were functional, but firing them would drain the energy from the ship.
The guns wouldn’t be enough to take down the Citadel anyway. It was too large and
too well-armored, and yet somehow it had enough power to fight gravity itself.
Better technology.
“Better than the Axons?”
In that way, yes. It would have to be for us to make our spacecraft out of stone.
It was a good point. The ship continued to rise, gaining speed as it passed through the clouds and over them. Caleb looked down. He couldn’t see the edge of the ship from his perch, it was so large. He was sure the people on the ground outside the Deliverance would see him. They would probably see the Citadel too.
Arluthu’s ship became visible on the Seeker’s sensors the moment the ship cleared the clouds, the electrical storms no longer affecting its systems. The massive stone starship was already approaching the edge of the atmosphere, the three minutes it had taken Caleb to let Mamma and the others get out costing him time.
But they could still catch up.
The Seeker continued to gain velocity. Formerly buried thrusters formed a ring around the outside of the ship, lifting it on a circle of blue fire.
“Seeker, this is General Jax of the Free Inahri. Can you hear me?”
“General Jax,” Caleb replied. “This is General Caleb Card of the Deliverance Defense Force. I hear you.”
Caleb heard the General’s relieved sigh. “General Caleb. I guessed this was your doing. Arluthu is leaving the planet.”
“I know. He decided he didn’t like the weather anymore.”
“We’ve got you on our sensors. You’re following him?”
“Yes. I have to stop him.”
“He’s leaving the planet, General,” Jax repeated.
“Yes, I understand that.”
“General, the Seeker is a valuable asset. A valuable Inahri asset.”
Caleb couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “Let me guess, the real reason you decided to help our people out was because you figured we’d give the Seeker back to you when we won?”
“It is rightfully ours. We expected you to honor that, as we have honored our alliance.”
Are you surprised?
“I understand your position, General Jax. You’re welcome to come up here and claim it from me.”
