by AJ Super
Sarama had orders to jump away, to run, if Kai didn’t make contact in an hour. But the Queen’s Navy could already be holding the Thanatos. The problem with running into La Terre was that it was the central beacon for the entire Navy; the queen could have her entire armada present in a matter of seconds. There was no running, not really.
Nyx’s eyes adjusted to the dim yellow light of the soaring domed-glass room. She spun, gasping at the spacescape around her. In the center of the room, on a platform, a hard, black throne towered, etched with a stylized map of the Earth-Sol system.
Around the room, several uniforms stood whispering. They turned as Nyx and Kai walked up the middle of the dim room, watching carefully, eyes trained on the mismatched pirates. They both looked out of place—Nyx in her lavender jumpsuit, Kai in his black shirt and canvas pants.
She caught sight of the North American Union representative and the African Continental Governance representative standing next to each other. The ACG representative bent to the NAU representative with a stony face and glanced to the head of the room.
Poised in front of the galaxy-etched cathedra was a lissome woman with smooth, ebony hair dressed in a liquid gold gown which pooled at her feet, dripping with light. She descended the steps of the platform. Her amber skin glowed around a black flame-like tattoo that wound from her wrist up to her jaw. The tattoo touched Nyx’s memory, its blackness clawing its way up from some deep place in her mind, scratching at her thoughts.
She looked like she could be a sister to Erebus, from the same South Asian Republic ore hauler the Thanatos had appropriated her Sia from. But that would mean the queen was a Sia, and Sias didn’t have silky ebony hair or finely groomed, high-arched eyebrows like this woman.
The emissary bowed.
The queen tilted her head to him and slid past the prostrate man, touching him gently on his back with long, delicate fingers.
Kai’s mouth opened, and he audibly exhaled.
Nyx side-eyed him, squeezing his clammy hand before letting go.
The queen glided to Kai and put a hand on his chest. She smiled, blinking her long black eyelashes slowly. Kai melted into her cedar gaze, entranced.
Nyx ground her teeth.
“Captain, how kind of you to come,” the queen sang, her accent thick.
“Mmm,” Kai replied noncommittally.
Nyx was less diplomatic. “Not like we had much of a choice,” she spat, crossing her arms.
The queen shifted her attention to Nyx, eyes widening. “You can’t be,” she whispered, moments before capturing Nyx’s chin in between her long fingers.
Nyx tried to jerk free, but the queen held firm, digging manicured nails behind her ears. Nyx gripped the queen’s impossibly smooth hand to remove it.
The queen looked through Nyx, her perfectly painted mouth pulled into a thin line.
Nyx searched the queen right back, at last noticing a faint glow around her irises. “You are a Sia,” she whispered. She didn’t quite understand. Sias weren’t made to look as human as the queen looked. Not since the AI Wars.
The nano-medics buzzed in her body, making her cells vibrate. There was something else. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
The queen dropped her hands and turned to the emissary. “Leave. Everyone, leave this room immediately.” The emissary’s face scrunched, and he opened his mouth. The queen swept her hand to the entrance. The emissary closed his mouth and swung his capelet over his shoulder, striding to the black door. He opened it to the brilliant white hallway, escorting the court out of the room.
The ACG and NAU representatives lingered behind. The queen glared at them. They quickly spun on their toes and stomped out of the room, heads abnormally high.
“Hmmm,” the queen muttered as she sauntered to the platform rising before them. “Most can’t tell anymore that I am a Sia. I wonder…” She turned to Kai and Nyx, spilled gold trailing behind her, head held stiff and high. “How did you know?”
Nyx wasn’t about to give away the secret of Erebus—that the queen and Erebus had the same gold ring in their eyes, that Erebus had a similar jagged black tattoo up her left side. “It was a feeling.”
The queen’s eyes sparkled. “Could you actually be…?” She flicked her hand absently.
Kai gaped. “Why do you look so human?”
The queen grinned maliciously.
“She’s an old model. One that’s supposed to look more human. From around the Wars,” Nyx accused.
The queen shifted, her liquid gold dress whispering. “I keep a couple models on hand, so I can pass the crown to myself as a generation passes. Can’t have the populace getting superstitious about an immortal queen.”
Kai whispered to Nyx. “How does that work?”
The queen stared at him. “Do you really need to know?” She turned to Nyx. “Your face. You look so much like her.” She pivoted back to the rising platform and stepped up the stairs to the etched throne. “And so much like him, too. It’s a shame. She could have bred with one of our brothers, and you wouldn’t be half-human. That pirate was a waste.”
Nyx pursed her lips. “Our brothers?” she muttered.
“You’re the dead child of Xaoc and Nue Marcus?”
Nyx didn’t understand what the queen was saying. There were no rumors of her death that she knew about. “Dead? I’m not dead.”
“I can clearly see that. But that’s not what I was told years ago. And it’s thrown many of my predictions off recently.” The queen pouted. “I must say, though, foreseeing the choices that the two young men of the Medusa would make was very easy. But, I am sorry for your recent loss.”
“I doubt that,” Nyx replied. After calling her father a waste, she doubted the queen had ever been on friendly enough terms with her father to truly be sorry for his death.
The queen paused in her climb to the cathedra, “I suppose you do.”
Nyx glanced at Kai. “What’s going on?” he mouthed without a sound, eyes wide.
Nyx shrugged. She was almost as unsure as he was.
The queen sat on the black throne. She smoothed the lap of her silky dress. Nyx was missing something. Some connection. The tattoo, the gold ring around the queen’s eyes. She looked so much like Erebus, and it had nothing to do with her Sia-unit.
“Were you human?” Kai asked, stepping forward.
Nyx grabbed his hand and yanked him back, but the queen only giggled.
“No. Of course not,” she said. The queen gripped the armrests of the chair and lifted her head, sleek hair spilling over her shoulders. She spoke openly to Nyx. “You’re a problem, Nyx Marcus. You weren’t part of my data set. I didn’t predict you. You’re supposed to be dead. Now my forecasts all need revision. That’s troublesome.”
Nyx squinted. “Predict me? I still don’t understand.”
Kai pulled his hand from Nyx and stepped forward. “Why did you want us here?”
“Yes. That.” The queen lounged back. “I want the Star of Erebus. I’ll give you anything you want. Your own ships. A fleet. A whole planet. Wealth. Amnesty. Anything. All of it. But I want you to give me the Star. You’re too small to defend her. I want to make sure the Star is safe and that no one with ill intent accidentally, or otherwise, manages to gain control.”
Nyx’s skin prickled. The queen wanted Erebus, and they had brought her right to the heart of the queen’s universe.
A smile slipped across Kai’s face. “You mean, you don’t want us to use it to appropriate other people’s property. Lady, your economy is falling to pieces. Lawlessness is a way of survival now.”
Nyx yanked Kai back again, her gut in knots.
Kai glanced down at her. “Stop that,” he growled and rubbed his shoulder.
“She said, ‘her,’” Nyx hissed. “How does she know? How does she know Erebus isn’t just a weapon?”
Kai’s face paled. He looked up at the relaxed queen. Then, he grinned villanously. “We’re alone here. Let’s find out.” He stalked me
nacingly towards the stairs. Nyx reached out to stop him.
The queen flicked a finger and a blue light shot from the floor. An energy shield rose. Sparks showered around Kai as he levitated from the ground, back arching as the force pushed him away from the platform. He landed on the black marble floor in a pile of limbs.
Nyx started toward him. He had to be okay, but his body wasn’t moving, and he didn’t look like he was breathing.
The queen raised a finger. “No.”
Nyx paused mid-step, heart cracking in her chest. Kai had to be okay. She had to check on him, but the queen could snap her fingers and erect another wall at any time. She glanced around the room, looking for signs of field projectors. Two were built into the floor, thin lines, cracks in the black marble. The queen sat behind the one Kai had run into, and now he was laying across another one. If the queen activated it, he’d be bisected.
Nyx squared her shoulders and faced the queen.
Kai moaned. Nyx sighed in relief. He was breathing, at least, but he was still a ragged pile of bent limbs.
“You’ll give me the Star,” the queen announced.
“No. I won’t.” Nyx trembled. What this woman could do with Erebus would be disastrous for the Earth-Sol quadrant, for the entire Protectorate, for the pirates’ way of life. Erebus was key to controlling the black. The two women stared at each other. They both knew it.
“I’ve been holding the order to take your ship into custody and have all of your crew executed. I can just” —she flicked a finger— “send the order now if you wish.”
A thin thread of anger rose through Nyx like smoke. Red heated her vision. All the people on the Thanatos counted on them to broker some kind of deal. The fact that the city-ship hadn’t grabbed the tiny pirate-ship once they appeared out of jump space only meant that the queen was biding her time to find out something. Nyx evened her breath. The queen needed some vital piece of information.
A smile oozed across the queen’s face. “You are probably thinking that your little ship can just jump away if you get into trouble?”
That was exactly what Nyx was thinking. Sarama had orders to jump the Thanatos to safety after an hour if they didn’t return.
The queen’s eyes sparkled as she leaned forward. “Grapnel beams are set to snare her before she moves a centimeter.”
The air went out of Nyx’s lungs. If the Thanatos tried to jump out, La Terre’s grapnel would rip her to pieces. Kai or she needed to contact the Thanatos soon, get them to stand down, get them to stay. She didn’t want to see the crew scattered across space as if they were nothing but junk.
Nyx edged closer to Kai and gripped his wrist, felt for his strong pulse, and dragged him off the field projector line. There had to be a way out of this, a way to convince the queen that Erebus was never going to be hers.
Her body was electric. There was something about the queen. Something pulling her. Something familiar. The attraction to the queen was magnetic. She set Kai’s arm on the ground and stood.
“You said you didn’t predict me.” Nyx tipped her head. “Why? What are you? You aren’t a normal Sia.”
“What do you think I am?”
Nyx stepped forward, leaving Kai on the cold black marble behind her. “You’re not some relic from the Wars.”
The queen smiled, eyes narrowing. “How do you know?”
“I. Just do.” Nyx’s blood crackled, chrysalises hatching into butterflies flitting through her veins. If she touched their gossamer wings, they would burn. Nyx stepped up the platform, drawn to the queen. “You’re something… more.”
The queen held out a hand. Fluttering warmth rose in Nyx’s stomach.
Nyx reached out and intertwined her fingers with the queen, scabbed and bruised hands a stark contrast to the smooth, lithe grip of the queen.
The queen pulled Nyx towards her, wrapping Nyx with her tattooed arm. “You’re not completely awake yet. You don’t know what you are,” she whispered. “Don’t you feel it? The pull? The buzzing in your body? In your blood? The extra awareness?”
Nyx shook her head. “That’s just the nano-medics fixing me.”
“Is it?” The queen’s fine eyebrows arched. “I’ve never heard of someone feeling their nano-medics. Have you?”
Nyx sucked in a cold lungful of air. The buzzing in her body strengthened. There was an electricity to the domed room around them, familiar, enveloping.
The queen clamped Nyx closer and swiveled her gaze around the galleria. Her eyes were wide, gold halos sparking wild. Nyx pushed away, the queen holding her in an iron grip. “How did she get a signal? No one was broadcasting a signal for her to infect. There’s no way she could have spread to my ship,” the queen rasped.
The black door slid open.
Erebus stood silhouetted by the bright white corridor. The six exoskeletoned soldiers stood like statues behind her, guns to their own heads. The emissary lay crumpled in a pile at her feet.
Erebus walked through the door to the center of the room.
The black door closed as the soldiers snapped from their frozen hold.
The queen grabbed Nyx’s throat, standing and lifting her to her feet. “I didn’t think you would bring her with you,” she hissed at Nyx, shaking her. The queen turned to Erebus, “What have you done to my ship? My soldiers?”
“You wanted Erebus. You have her now,” Nyx croaked as she scratched at the queen’s smooth, synth-skin hand around her neck. Erebus had clearly infected enough of the ship that the queen could tell.
“Damn it. You’re going to pay for this. I want the source, where she was originally downloaded, not just a part of her program. I want her central consciousness.” The queen squeezed her fingers around Nyx’s neck. “It won’t be in that Sia-unit. It’ll be on the Thanatos. But I don’t know who released it, so I can’t predict where. Communications? Weapons? Life-support?”
Nyx wheezed as she clawed the queen’s hand crushing her throat. The world around her darkened.
The queen looked into Nyx’s eyes. “You’re not Nyx. Not the Star. Not yet. Not ever. I’ll just take the Thanatos and find Erebus myself.” She pushed Nyx backward, down the steep stairs of the high platform.
The floor receded from Nyx’s feet. She gasped, and the stairs loomed below her. Gravity pulled her to the black floor, marble rushing towards her, body heavy.
Then gravity suddenly gave way.
She floated.
The queen lifted from the platform, her gown a deluge of gold. Her ebony hair eddied around her shoulders. Kai also eased off of the marble, stretching slightly as he gained consciousness, and Erebus glared, defiantly stuck to the floor as if gravity operated only where she stood.
Nyx’s momentum pressed her towards the floor of the domed room. She put her hand out and pushed off from the stair crashing towards her. The change in energy sped her back towards the startled, drifting queen who gently swam through the air.
Nyx twisted her body and straddled the Sia-queen, slamming into her and pressing her against the cathedra as gravity returned. The two smashed back to the seat of the chair, Nyx’s feet planted on either side of the queen, one hand to her throat and one fist raised with white knuckles.
Kai landed with a small whoosh and a moan.
Nyx’s hands trembled.
The queen smirked. “You could hit me, but I have no pain receptors.”
Nyx gripped her hand tighter, then dropped it. Violence wouldn’t get her anywhere with this woman, whatever she was.
Nearby, Kai moaned again. Nyx backed away from the scoffing woman, turned, and ran down the steps to Kai to roll him over. She pried his eyes open. He had a massive lump on his forehead and would probably have a concussion. She needed to get him to the ship and to Doc Lenus.
“I didn’t kill any of the soldiers when I expanded into their exoskeletons,” Erebus whispered as she walked to Nyx’s side. “They have families. Friends. They follow orders. Do their jobs. One has a commendation. But they will destroy this
unit and kill you. I heard the emissary say so.”
Nyx hugged Erebus. “You did good.”
“One of the soldiers urinated.”
Nyx laughed. “I would too.”
The queen stood, shaking. “How did you gain access? There’s a ship-wide ban on any tech using any kind of bandwidth.”
Nyx smiled. She was pretty sure she knew how it worked out for Erebus. She turned to the Star.
Erebus grinned. She looked up at the queen. “Your security scan uses an encrypted narrow-wave channel that directs to your security division. I danced onto it and expanded on the light of a tightrope. I am La Terre. La Terre is me.”
The queen blanched.
Nyx snorted, relaxing. “You’re going to have a hard time taking what isn’t yours to take now.” She stood Kai up, his arm around her shoulder.
“Erebus may be on board my ship, but she’s not really here,” the queen spat.
Nyx huffed and hoisted Kai across her shoulders. He was heavier than he looked. Erebus hooked his other arm around her shoulder, and Nyx glimpsed a similar tattoo on her that the queen wore on her own neck. They nearly matched, like they were sisters.
Nyx raised her eyes to the queen, head ducked under the weight of Kai’s half-limp body. “Why do you want her so bad?” She grit her teeth, terrified she knew the answer. Seven Stars, she knew the answer.
The queen stared at Nyx, lips tight.
“Sisters stick together,” Erebus chimed.
The air went out of Nyx. “You’re a Star,” Nyx whispered. “You said you didn’t predict me. You seem to foresee movements. You strategize. Let me guess…The personification of war and prophecy. The Star of Phoebe.”
The queen grimaced. “Only the monks still call me by that name. I am not remembered well as a prophet or a fortune teller, Star of Nyx.”
“I’m not…” Nyx started to protest, then caught herself.
“I know you’re not,” the queen said grimly.
Realization dawned on Nyx. “The La Terre being right here, right now. And the reason the Kokou found the Thanatos out near dark space? You knew we would end up here.”
