Cherubim

by David Hallquist

  Not that there’s any way I could fly with Talon. He’s in a bad way. We had to leave his exo-frame behind on Venus and melted it down with plasma charges. His AI core is safe aboard the Callisto, being checked thoroughly for any hint of the Saturn virus. It must be tough, being isolated from his body like that. Sure, I know he’s an AI and lives in a cybernetic, virtual world anyway, but still.

  Sammy’s core survived, too, unfortunately. That thing is totally locked down and isolated. We’re taking him back to Jupiter for examination and trial. It’s clear that the core is guilty as hell, but we’re not going to do anything that could be interpreted as violating his rights, which might mess up the trial.

  Donner is recovering as well, and I don’t know how I feel about that. Should I have finished him off on that ash-choked battlefield? I wanted to, but I couldn’t. The trial and humiliation that’s coming up will be like another hell for him, and he’ll be a living embarrassment for the whole service. Still, it has to be faced. Maybe when this comes out, people will treat the threat posed by Saturn seriously.

  Saturn…what were they doing down there on Venus? What strange horror was going on there with their allies in House Phoenix? Whatever it was, no one’s talking about it. I’m wondering if it’s related to the weird alien ship from Mars. The reaction to it was the same anyway—everyone dropped everything they had and focused on it. Singularity…advanced alien biotechnology that could transform the entire solar system and everyone in it. The idea of Saturn with that advanced alien technology is terrifying, and that was probably why they hit it so hard, then refused to talk about it. At least Houses Unicorn and Dragon realized they needed to stop House Phoenix and Saturn in the end.

  We’re going to have to fight Saturn again, and now everyone knows it. All these incidents in the inner system violated the truce in major ways, and there’s more going on all over the solar system. There are reports of the Saturnine fleet harassing shipping in deep space, building up forces around their bases at Uranus, and harassing the independent settlements of Neptune. Sooner or later, it’s going to come to a head.

  But for now, we’ve won.

  Or have we?

  What exactly did we win? Well, we didn’t all get blown away, for one thing.

  The ambassador is still in the hospital, dealing with a severe breakdown, but we got the treaty finished anyway. He’s furious at us, of course, and there’s a good chance Rackham and I will be facing an inquiry, at least. Still, he got what he came to Venus for, so it’s a win for him, even if he can’t see it right now.

  Saturn didn’t secretly take over Venus through their proxies in House Phoenix, so we at least preserved what we had.

  Who were the real winners, though?

  I think House Unicorn won this one.

  Now they have dominance over Venus, they’ve beaten and exiled their rivals in House Phoenix, and subordinated the proud House Dragon. They also have their treaty with Jupiter and have gotten rid of Saturn’s influence, so they don’t need to worry about either superpower. They have free reign with Mercury, and with Jupiter’s fleets being called back for a likely throw down with Saturn, Venus can act freely in the inner system. They’re the only ones who came out ahead in all this, almost like they planned it from the first.

  Right…

  I hate that planet.

  Unwillingly, my thoughts return to the message I received from Princess Lairana Aurien-Rel of House Unicorn…yeah, she’s alive. The woman I saw die was a body double. She wanted to live, I saw the fear in her eyes, but the princess threw her life away callously, like it meant nothing. She set all this in motion with cold calculation and deliberation. Once I realized what happened, all temptation and sympathy for the monster now ruling Venus vanished in an icy cold chill that ran up my spine. The Unicorn is, indeed, the deadliest creature on Venus.

  Should I read it or delete it?

  Read…

  …or delete?

  I move to delete…then somehow hit play.

  The message is short, and so far as I know, had nothing in it Intelligence needed to delete. In the message, she’s on a balcony overlooking the clouds and jungle far below. She’s as breathtakingly beautiful as always, but knowing what lies behind those eyes, I can only see it as a cold beauty. “Noble warrior of the stars, I heard of your valor in battle and hope this message finds you well. I regret that I was not able to see you off in person, as your injuries and our respective duties precluded such a meeting. Still, I shall think of you often.” She sighed. “You’re not only a charming social companion, but vital to everything that happened here. Your actions were not only heroic and brave, but essential for what has come to pass, and for that you have my gratitude. House Unicorn—I—thank you deeply, from the bottom of my heart. Know that my thoughts will always be with you, and I wish you pleasant dreams.”

  Pleasant dreams?

  I think back to the battle and the dream…those surface features, the jungle, the flames, everything matched. Or did it? Did she put some kind of program into my augments? Was there some kind of weird Venusian biotech that slipped past my systems? Was I even possibly psychic? How would I know?

  More Venusian mind games.

  I hit “delete,” and the message vanishes. I’m turning my back on this place and going home to a world and people I love.

  That’s real, and that’s what matters in the end.

  # # # # #

  About the Author

  David Hallquist has a long history of customer service positions, including banking, call center service, and sales, all of which have served as a fascinating study of the human species. He lives in Rockville, Maryland, and is still waiting for the flying cars.

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  The following is an

  Excerpt from Book One of the Abner Fortis, ISMC:

  Cherry Drop

  ___________________

  P.A. Piatt

  Available now from Theogony Books

  eBook and Paperback

  Excerpt from “Cherry Drop:”

  “Here they come!”

  A low, throbbing buzz rose from the trees and the undergrowth shook. Thousands of bugs exploded out of the jungle, and Fortis’ breath caught in his throat. The insects tumbled over each other in a rolling, skittering mass that engulfed everything in its path.

  The Space Marines didn’t need an order to open fire. Rifles cracked and the grenade launcher thumped over and over as they tried to stem the tide of bugs. Grenades tore holes in the ranks of the bugs and well-aimed rifle fire dropped many more. Still, the bugs advanced.

  Hawkins’ voice boomed in Fortis’ ear. “LT, fall back behind the fighting position, clear the way for the heavy weapons.”

  Fortis looked over his shoulder and saw the fighting holes bristling with Marines who couldn’t fire for fear of hitting their own comrades. He thumped Thorsen on the shoulder.

  “Fall back!” he ordered. “Take up positions behind the fighting holes.”

  Thorsen stopped firing and moved among the other Marines, relaying Fortis’ order. One by one, the Marines stopped firing and made for the rear. As the gunfire slacked off, the bugs closed ranks and continued forward.

  After the last Marine had fallen back, Fortis motioned to Thorsen.

  “Let’s go!”

  Thorsen turned and let out a blood-chilling scream. A bug had approached unnoticed and buried its stinger deep in Thorsen’s calf. The stricken Marine fell to the ground and began to convulse as the neurotoxin entered his bloodstream.

  “Holy
shit!” Fortis drew his kukri, ran over, and chopped at the insect stinger. The injured bug made a high-pitched shrieking noise, which Fortis cut short with another stroke of his knife.

  Viscous, black goo oozed from the hole in Thorsen’s armor and his convulsions ceased.

  “Get the hell out of there!”

  Hawkins was shouting in his ear, and Abner looked up. The line of bugs was ten meters away. For a split second he almost turned and ran, but the urge vanished as quickly as it appeared. He grabbed Thorsen under the arms and dragged the injured Marine along with him, pursued by the inexorable tide of gaping pincers and dripping stingers.

  Fortis pulled Thorsen as fast as he could, straining with all his might against the substantial Pada-Pada gravity. Thorsen convulsed and slipped from Abner’s grip and the young officer fell backward. When he sat up, he saw the bugs were almost on them.

  * * * * *

  Get “Cherry Drop” here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B14VBK2

  Find out more about P.A. Piatt at: https://chriskennedypublishing.com.

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  The following is an

  Excerpt from Book One of the Lunar Free State:

  The Moon and Beyond

  ___________________

  John E. Siers

  Available now from Theogony Books

  eBook and Paperback

  Excerpt from “The Moon and Beyond:”

  “So, what have we got?” The chief had no patience for inter-agency squabbles.

  The FBI man turned to him with a scowl. “We’ve got some abandoned buildings, a lot of abandoned stuff—none of which has anything to do with spaceships—and about a hundred and sixty scientists, maintenance people, and dependents left behind, all of whom claim they knew nothing at all about what was really going on until today. Oh, yeah, and we have some stripped computer hardware with all memory and processor sections removed. I mean physically taken out, not a chip left, nothing for the techies to work with. And not a scrap of paper around that will give us any more information…at least, not that we’ve found so far. My people are still looking.”

  “What about that underground complex on the other side of the hill?”

  “That place is wiped out. It looks like somebody set off a nuke in there. The concrete walls are partly fused! The floor is still too hot to walk on. Our people say they aren’t sure how you could even do something like that. They’re working on it, but I doubt they’re going to find anything.”

  “What about our man inside, the guy who set up the computer tap?”

  “Not a trace, chief,” one of the NSA men said. “Either he managed to keep his cover and stayed with them, or they’re holding him prisoner, or else…” The agent shrugged.

  “You think they terminated him?” The chief lifted an eyebrow. “A bunch of rocket scientists?”

  “Wouldn’t put it past them. Look at what Homeland Security ran into. Those motion-sensing chain guns are nasty, and the area between the inner and outer perimeter fence is mined! Of course, they posted warning signs, even marked the fire zones for the guns. Nobody would have gotten hurt if the troops had taken the signs seriously.”

  The Homeland Security colonel favored the NSA man with an icy look. “That’s bullshit. How did we know they weren’t bluffing? You’d feel pretty stupid if we’d played it safe and then found out there were no defenses, just a bunch of signs!”

  “Forget it!” snarled the chief. “Their whole purpose was to delay us, and it worked. What about the Air Force?”

  “It might as well have been a UFO sighting as far as they’re concerned. Two of their F-25s went after that spaceship, or whatever it was we saw leaving. The damned thing went straight up, over eighty thousand meters per minute, they say. That’s nearly Mach Two, in a vertical climb. No aircraft in anybody’s arsenal can sustain a climb like that. Thirty seconds after they picked it up, it was well above their service ceiling and still accelerating. Ordinary ground radar couldn’t find it, but NORAD thinks they might have caught a short glimpse with one of their satellite-watch systems, a hundred miles up and still going.”

  “So where did they go?”

  “Well, chief, if we believe what those leftover scientists are telling us, I guess they went to the Moon.”

  * * * * *

  Get “The Moon and Beyond” here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097QMN7PJ.

  Find out more about John E. Siers at: https://chriskennedypublishing.com.

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  The following is an

  Excerpt from Book One of the Chimera Company:

  The Fall of Rho-Torkis

  ___________________

  Tim C. Taylor

  Now Available from Theogony Books

  eBook, Paperback, and (soon) Audio

  Excerpt from “The Fall of Rho-Torkis:”

  “Relax, Sybutu.”

  Osu didn’t fall for the man steepling his fingers behind his desk. When a lieutenant colonel told you to relax, you knew your life had just taken a seriously wrong turn.

  “So what if we’re ruffling a few feathers?” said Malix. “We have a job to do, and you’re going to make it happen. You will take five men with you and travel unobserved to a location in the capital where you will deliver a coded phrase to this contact.”

  He pushed across a photograph showing a human male dressed in smuggler chic. Even from the static image, the man oozed charm, but he revealed something else too: purple eyes. The man was a mutant.

  “His name is Captain Tavistock Fitzwilliam, and he’s a free trader of flexible legitimacy. Let’s call him a smuggler for simplicity’s sake. You deliver the message and then return here without incident, after which no one will speak of this again.”

  Osu kept his demeanor blank, but the questions were raging inside him. His officers in the 27th gave the appearance of having waved through the colonel’s bizarre orders, but the squadron sergeant major would not let this drop easily. He’d be lodged in an ambush point close to the colonel’s office where he’d be waiting to pounce on Osu and interrogate him. Vyborg would suspect him of conspiracy in this affront to proper conduct. His sappers as undercover spies? Osu would rather face a crusading army of newts than the sergeant major on the warpath.

  “Make sure one of the men you pick is Hines Zy Pel.”

  Osu’s mask must have slipped because Malix added, “If there is a problem, I expect you to speak.”

  “Is Zy Pel a Special Missions operative, sir?” There. He’d said it.

  “You’ll have to ask Colonel Lantosh. Even after they bumped up my rank, I still don’t have clearance to see Zy Pel’s full personnel record. Make of that what you will.”

  “But you must have put feelers out…”

  Malix gave him a cold stare.

  You’re trying to decide whether to hang me from a whipping post or answer my question. Well, it was your decision to have me lead an undercover team, Colonel. Let’s see whether you trust your own judgement.

  The colonel seemed to decide on the latter option and softened half a degree. “There was a Hines Zy Pel who died in the Defense of Station 11. Or so the official records tell us. I have reason to think that our Hines Zy Pel is the same man.”

  “But…Station 11 was twelve years ago. According to the personnel record I’ve seen, my Zy Pel is in his mid-20s.”

  Malix put his hands up in surrender. “I know, I know. The other Hines Zy Pel was 42 when he was KIA.”

  “He’s 54? Can’t be the same man. Impossible.”

  “For you and I, Sybutu, that is true. But away from the core worlds, I’ve encountered mysteries that defy explanation. Don’t discount the possibility. Keep an eye on him. For the moment, he is a vital asset, especially given the nature of what I have tasked you with. However, if you ever suspect him of an agenda that undermines his duty to the Legion, then I am ordering you to kill him before he realizes you suspect him.”

  Kill Zy Pel in cold blood? That wouldn’t come easily.

  “Ackn
owledge,” the colonel demanded.

  “Yes, sir. If Zy Pel appears to be turning, I will kill him.”

  “Do you remember Colonel Lantosh’s words when she was arrested on Irisur?”

  Talk about a sucker punch to the gut! Osu remembered everything about the incident when the Militia arrested the CO for standing up to the corruption endemic on that world.

  It was Legion philosophy to respond to defeat or reversal with immediate counterattack. Lantosh and Malix’s response had been the most un-Legion like possible.

  “Yes, sir. She told us not to act. To let the skraggs take her without resistance. Without the Legion retaliating.”

  “No,” snapped Malix. “She did not. She ordered us to let her go without retaliating until the right moment. This is the right moment, Sybutu. This message you will carry. You’re doing this for the colonel.”

  Malix’s words set loose a turmoil of emotions in Osu’s breast that he didn’t fully understand. He wept tears of rage, something he hadn’t known was possible.