by AJ Super
“Did Malcam train her?”
“She shadowed him for a couple days. But they didn’t get a lot of time together,” Matthews interjected from the back of the group across the desk.
Nyx narrowed her eyes and took a breath. Envy doesn’t become a God. “Does she know the books?”
“She doesn’t. Yet.” Raphael shook his head. “But her debt is from some prestigious school on Earth, somewhere in the NAU. She had a string of bad luck finding a decent job and when her loans came due… Well, the NAU sent her here.”
“You’re saying she’s smart?”
“Smart enough to avoid the harem and work the safest jobs in the mines until now.” Isabeau grinned. “She knew enough to get Berto to show her the hammer-work and Victor, our best crawler-op, to show her that, too…”
“Does she get along with the other miners?”
Raphael nodded. “It seems like it. Better even than Berto. But he’s a bit of a grump at times.”
“Fine. It’s decided. Once I get the rest of the volunteers, make it clear that Cady stays here and runs the mine. She’s the new foreman,” Nyx ordered. “I’ll hand over the books later today. Have her come here, Isabeau. Matthews, gather the miners for a chat.”
Isabeau and Matthews tapped their hearts.
“Your command shall be executed.” Isabeau said.
Matthews extended an arm to Isabeau, “Shall we?”
Isabeau smiled, and the two sauntered out of the room.
Nyx sighed and stared at her sisters and brother. The four of them were together now. Safe. In the heart of the Cult of Nyx. How was she going to explain this to Erebus and Phoebe? They stood there, Erebus’ mouth tight and Phoebe unreadable.
“I supposed I owe you more of an explanation?” Nyx grimaced.
Phoebe shook her head. “The probability that you would try to start a religious off-shoot of the Church to raise an army was high. It is just a surprise that it actually worked.”
“God of Gods, indeed,” Erebus whispered.
Yoon looked at his sisters in surprise. “You both are taking this well. I thought for sure there would be protests from the Queen of the Protectorate, at least.”
Phoebe bowed her head. “I’m just a figurehead at this point. Nothing more than a salve to ease people onto a new path.” She looked up. “My projections say I need to defer my crown.” A spark lit in her dark eyes. “For now, at least.”
Nyx licked her lips. She didn’t expect Phoebe to be so willing to give up power. She thought the Queen of the Protectorate would fight. “I didn’t want to force you.”
Phoebe smiled. “You wouldn’t have been able to if I had decided otherwise. But it would have split our forces, and the Protectorate would squash us. This way we have a slightly larger chance of doing what you want to do.”
“And what do I want to do?” Nyx tipped her head. “What is it exactly that you have predicted for me?”
Erebus’ face was still.
“You want the universe,” Phoebe toned. “You want your family to live in the open, peacefully, and with the authority of true gods. And you want to rule over them.”
Nyx took a deep breath. Hearing it said aloud by someone was overwhelming. Shocking, even. She felt a tingle race through her fingertips. Phoebe was right. That was exactly what she wanted. She wanted the power to enact revenge at will. She wanted the power to reward in the moment. She wanted to be able to control all the Stars… and destroy any fakes.
The asteroid rumbled. A rain of black dust fell from the ceiling. A loud explosion erupted somewhere nearby. Nyx braced herself as the mine shook hard. Raphael put a hand on her shoulder.
“What’s going on?” Erebus grit her teeth over the loud thunder of another explosion.
The lights dimmed and red alerts began flashing.
Nyx sprang from behind her desk and grabbed Raphael’s and Erebus’ hands and nodded to Phoebe and Yoon. “Follow me.” She ran down the grated hallway to the meeting room attached to her quarters. “That’s weapons’ fire.”
“Why? From who?” Yoon asked as he ran after his three sisters and Raphael who stumbled, confused.
“I don’t have all the variables. Pirates, privateers, Protectorate? Did you do something to make someone mad, Nyx?” Phoebe asked, working to put the pieces together.
“I may have blown up a Protectorate ship… It was supposed to look like an accident, but they may have figured out that it wasn’t.” She slapped the door pad to the control room and trotted to the view screen console. She tapped a couple buttons and a space-view came up on the screen. Along with a Protectorate cruiser firing point-blank at the asteroid mine.
“Putain. They’re going to tear this place apart if they keep going,” Yoon grumbled.
The asteroid rattled again and a shower of black dusted them.
“Signals?” Nyx glanced at Erebus.
Erebus shook her bald head.
Nyx looked over to Phoebe. “Will they pick up if I send a narrow-wave?”
Phoebe’s lips thinned. “Not anymore. The armada’s been trained not to send signals to outside sources in case they are infected.”
Erebus clenched her jaw. “I see how much my sister trusts me.”
“Humanity needs to have some independence. You can’t have all the technology in the universe.” Phoebe crossed her arms.
“But she will,” Nyx hissed. “I need her to spread. To take the armada and make it mine. To take La Terre. The Battle Stations, the cruisers, the warships. Everything down to the shuttles and Earth orbiting stations. With our power combined, we can control whole under-governments, planets, everything.”
“I know,” Phoebe whispered. “Which is why I started isolating systems on La Terre. I don’t know how many of the under-governments took me seriously when I said they should do the same, but the NAU and ACG likely did. It’s why I started building experimental Battle Stations like the Andraste. You may find it harder to make the universe yours than you expected.”
Nyx exhaled hard. Phoebe had stood in her way, again. First it was by not telling her about the NAU and ACG coup, now it was all these new procedures and this experimental tech in the hands of the new Protectorate.
The asteroid shook harder.
“Those volleys are going to break into the mines soon. So far it seems like they’ve only broken off some surface rock and breached a few outer passages.” Yoon pointed to the ship on-screen as he popped a schematic up in the corner of the asteroid mine. “We need help. We have no guns to defend ourselves.”
“That’s something that will have to change,” Nyx muttered.
Phoebe tipped her head. “Are you going to allow weapons on ships and stations?”
Nyx shook her head. “No, I’m going to disband the Protectorate’s armada.” She pointed to her siblings. “We’re all weapons. Who needs ships with guns when we can take care of rogue elements without them?”
“That’s a future problem. What are we going to do about that, right now?” Yoon pointed to the Protectorate cruiser.
“We’ll make them answer.” Nyx grinned. She turned to Erebus. Her code buzzed along the conduits of the room. “You decided to spread through the mine. What made you change your mind?”
Erebus stared at Nyx with a blank face.
Nyx shrugged. She had a plan, and no one was going to like it. “Have you spread enough through the mine’s systems? Can you do something for me?”
Erebus tipped her head. “Maybe. What would you like me to do?”
“I want you to light up the nuclear waste. It’s highly volatile, and we’ve been storing it in a cargo bay to be taken away and processed for fuel. With the right catalyst, it should combust.”
Erebus’ gold-ringed eyes widened. “It’ll destroy the whole asteroid.”
Nyx nodded. “And it will destroy the Protectorate cruiser if it stays. Hopefully, they’ll answer our waves. I want that ship.” Playing chicken with the cruiser was the last thing she wanted to do, but she didn�
��t need anyone in the room knowing that. Making tough calls was going to be part and parcel with becoming a queen… She may as well start now, with a dangerous bluff. One that even her family wouldn’t understand.
Erebus stood grim-faced in silence for a moment. “Catalyst introduced. I’ll spark it if necessary.” She turned to Nyx with sad eyes. “Don’t make it necessary.”
Nyx bit her cheek and frowned. “I’ll make that call if I need to.”
Yoon put a hand on the console. “You’d sacrifice all of us just to destroy one cruiser?”
Erebus looked at her hands and spoke softly. “You said no one else would die.”
The cruiser quit firing and began to back away from the asteroid mine.
Nyx nodded to Phoebe. “Wave them.”
Phoebe raised a brow. “They won’t answer. The most you’ve accomplished is getting them to leave.”
“Try anyway,” Nyx growled.
Phoebe keyed a narrow-wave. “Protectorate cruiser. Do you surrender?”
Silence.
“Protectorate cruiser. Answer.” Phoebe shook her head, her long dark hair cascading down her back.
Nyx set her jaw. She needed the ship to answer if this was going to work. She absolutely needed that ship for her little armada… and any ship that was going to come for Yangxi X would be added as well.
Yoon crossed his arms. “It’s better they leave.”
“They’ll just come back,” Nyx snapped. “And I want that ship!”
Yoon held up his hands. “Okay. So, how do we stop them?”
Isabeau pointed to the screen. “That’s how.”
The Thanatos, the Medusa, and the warship from Xianlong V all materialized out of jump space behind the Protectorate cruiser preparing to jump away from the mine about to go nuclear. Immediately, all of Nyx’s tiny fleet had their guns hot and aimed at the Protectorate ship.
Nyx grinned. “Kai finally has good timing. Wave him.”
Kai popped onto the view-screen. “Big fish, meet bigger fish?”
“I only called for the Thanatos,” Nyx said.
He shrugged. “I figured I would just bring your tiny armada here. I wanted to see the birthplace of your Cult of Nyx anyway.”
“Where is the Andraste?”
“Don’t worry. I’v got people on her. They’re in the process of, uh, birthing the clones. It was pretty easy to take control.”
Nyx nodded. “Okay. Now keep that ship from leaving.”
“That’s all and good, but my sensors are registering a massive load of nuclear energy. What’s going on over there?” Kai pursed his lips.
Nyx turned to Erebus. “Stand down.” Silently, she breathed a sigh of relief. The bluff had at least made the Protectrorate ship back off, but it had almost gone too far. Nyx didn’t want to sacrifice the asteroid and the people on it… Not yet at least.
Erebus closed her eyes, and her emerald code swirled in the workings of the mine. “It’s safe now.”
Nyx turned back to Kai on the view-screen. “The energy should be dispersing now. We’ll be fine. But if that ship doesn’t answer my next wave, fire on their engines.”
“Target that cruiser’s engines,” Kai ordered the Weapons Specialist offscreen.
“Phoebe. Wave them again,” Nyx demanded.
Phoebe drew her lips tight and hit the narrow-wave command. “Protectorate cruiser stand down and surrender or be fired on. By order of the Star of Nyx.”
Silence.
Then a click and a voice. “This is Captain Caleb Randall…” Nyx pointed to Erebus. Erebus nodded. Her emerald code whisked along the narrow-wave signal towards the Protectorate ship. “… of the cruiser Eris. What are your terms?”
Nyx sent her white tendrils along Erebus’ code, throughout the warship Eris. She twined over emerald into ventilation operations and narrowed her eyes.
Kai’s face appeared in the view-screen. “Nyx, what are your terms? Aren’t you going to answer?”
Nyx arched her neck. She had no terms. She didn’t want prisoners. Traitors. Anyone loyal to that salope Boucher. After all, Boucher had no problem pulling the trigger on Malcam. Maybe, just maybe, there was someone on the Eris that Boucher valued the way Nyx valued him… Her mouth formed a thin line as she triggered the Protectorate ship to vent atmosphere.
A moment later a mayday signal emitted through the control room, console lighting in red.
Captain Randall’s voice choked over a narrow-wave. “Mayday. Atmo venting. Evacuation needed. This is an emergency.” His breathing was strained, and he coughed shallow, gasping.
Kai stared at Nyx, then looked at Erebus. “Erebus. Stop this. This is just like the Kokou. You can’t kill all these people.”
Erebus shook her head slowly. “I’m not doing this.”
“Then who…?” he trailed off. “Nyx?” His umber eyes widened in realization. “The Kokou, too?”
“I want the Eris. I don’t want any putain de Protectorate branleurs to have to babysit.”
“Rules of war…” Phoebe whispered.
“I don’t care about rules of war. Do you think the other side will care?” Nyx turned to Phoebe and growled. Boucher obviously didn’t care.
“It’s cold blooded. Why go this far?” Isabeau whispered.
Nyx shrugged. “Warm blood, cold blood, it’s still blood,” she echoed a sentiment that Malcam had expressed a while back. “It’s just blood, I should say. Besides, without the conviction to die, to kill for your cause, where will the cause end up? Without the courage to sacrifice, what are your goals going to amount to? If I want my revenge, I will do everything I can to get it. No one will stop me. No one.” She paused, half amazed at the words coming out of her mouth and half at peace with the conviction with which she said them. She tilted her head up after a small pause. “They should all be dead in two more minutes. Then I want a clean-up crew over there to space the bodies and that ship up and running in our fleet in an hour.”
“What happened, Nyx? Why are you doing this? This isn’t you.” Kai stared at her in horror. “Malcam, why isn’t he stopping you? Where is he?”
A weight fell in Nyx’s stomach, and she ground back tears. Malcam would have stopped her…? Or would he have stood by her side and allowed her to make her own choice? She didn’t know. Couldn’t know. Not anymore. Straightening her shoulders, Nyx turned her spine to stone. She couldn’t let them see her cry. Raphael slid closer to her and put his hand in hers. “He’s dead. Malcam is dead,” Nyx whispered to Kai as the room fell silent. Her heartbeat rang in her ears. She opened her mouth to apologize to Kai. Say something comforting, but nothing would come out.
The door to the control room rushed open.
“How dare you?” Matthews bellowed as he stormed in. His white robes billowed behind him as the door swished closed, and his face was red with rage.
Nyx stared at him, her eyes wide with surprise. No one had yelled at her in ages. She took a step back in shock.
Kai, still registering the news that Malcam was dead, put a hand to his forehead on the view-screen.
“You risked the one place that can build your following. You nearly killed over half your resources. What makes you think that was smart?” Matthews continued.
Yoon stepped out of Matthews’ path and pulled Phoebe aside. Erebus shrank into a corner.
“But I didn’t, did I? Everyone is still alive, right?” Nyx snapped, stepping forward, ignoring the strangled pleas on the comms.
“This is a sacred place for your followers. You haven’t seen it yet, because you’ve been out in the black, but people are coming here. Ici. They want to see you. L’Étoile. And when they don’t, they stay to pray. They stay and work, even if it’s only for a short period. It’s like a penance for them. A self-flagellation. They do it out of respect and desire to please the Star of Nyx. We’re not only increasing our production through faith, but we’re spreading the word of your greatness. Equity and worth through fair work and consideration is only drawing mo
re of the downtrodden and forgotten. If you destroy that, you destroy everything.”
Nyx let out a screech and threw up her hands. “I never asked for this.”
Raphael squeezed her shoulder, and she lowered her arms and twined her fingers with his.
“You asked for an army. The twins are giving you one. I am giving you one.”
Phoebe leaned over to Yoon. “Twins? What twins? Not Keres and Hypnos.”
Yoon glanced at her and raised a brow.
“That changes things,” Phoebe muttered softly.
“What changes things?” Nyx looked over at her whispering siblings.
Phoebe shook her head, and Yoon shrugged.
Matthews eyed the two Stars and turned back to Nyx. “I suggest you start taking this place more seriously. It is your new mecca. A destination for pilgrimages, and your place of power.”
Nyx cleared her throat. That wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted the Earth under-governments to fall under her control, the colonies, the planets, the orbiting stations, the trade hubs, everything. And she wanted La Terre. She wanted to rule over it all from La Terre and not from some backwater asteroid mine on the edge of dark space.
She pressed her lips together and gathered her white energy to her. She may not be able to affect Matthews, but having it close made her powerful, strong. She could easily lash out and control any of her three siblings in the room. She straightened and unfurled her fingers from Raphael’s. “I will leave this mecca to those who need it. What I need is control of the Protectorate. What I need is the power to control this universe. And the only way to get that is by bending the under-governments to my will and ousting that fake salope of a Star. She can’t run the Protectorate. I can. I have the power. Now, I have the resources. We will take La Terre, and I will rule just like Phoebe ruled. But you will all be by my side.”
Yoon cleared his throat. “What if we don’t agree with how you’re taking the Protectorate?”
Nyx glared at him. “I said: You will all be by my side.”
35
The foreman’s quarters on the asteroid mine would be hers for a little while longer. The new foreman, Aubrey Cady, would have to wait until Nyx got back on the Thanatos, back on her ship.
