by Vi Voxley
The thoughts flashing through his mind made the room around them darken, red flames dancing on the walls.
Sinetha's humorless smile widened, seeing that. Alona's mouth twitched. For a second it seemed to Braen that the Chali was going to lose control over the android. The confused shiver that followed confirmed that suspicion.
He exchanged a look with Naima. His gesha didn't wisely say anything. It was better to keep the android's attention fixed on him.
The realization that the android probably knew of the baby far before he or Naima did settled as a cold clump in his abdomen. Alona had been allowed to stay near Naima after the attack by the Fearless. He could only assume that its scanners had picked up the child then and Sinetha had blocked the android from revealing this information.
And now it was in the hands of the enemy.
"This is disappointing," the general said, his voice as cold as the vast emptiness of space that he planned to introduce to the trader very soon. "I thought you Chali were supposed to be smart."
The taunt worked. The android's face twisted, trying to mimic the trader's expression of disgust and reluctant agreement.
"Naturally, this wasn't my plan," Sinetha replied tersely. "Your little whore ruined everything."
The warriors around him drew spears as one, growling at the insult to their commander. The android laughed with Sinetha's voice, but Braen hadn't moved a muscle.
"Did she?" he asked, the dark hated in his deep voice making the trader wince despite her real body being light years away from him. "Naima is your only hope for life."
Sinetha glared, looking behind to see if her hostage was still in place.
"Don't bother with threats, General," she said, turning back to Braen when she was satisfied. "I know Brions. You wouldn't do anything that might result in harm to the pretty girl."
"That is true, but you should also know that if you do hurt her, there is no place in this universe where you can run from me."
The android's eyes seemed to burn as Sinetha leveled her gaze on him.
"I am a Chali," she said bitterly and it might have been the first truth the general ever heard her speak. "We are not loved, not even liked. We are hunted, by men like you who can't leave others to their business. You think you can scare me? Danger has walked in my footsteps since I was born."
"We have something in common then, after all," Braen replied, taking another step further. "Once more, I expected better from you. The dangers you speak of are riled up competitors, petty thieves like you, scoundrels and scum of the galaxy. You don't fear them. You don't have to. Locked away in your ship, letting your toys do the fighting.
“Look me in the eye now and say you're not afraid of me."
The room went completely black when he said the last word. Only the ominous fiery glow remained, casting the general in its aura and turning him into a shadow with deep red eyes, rays of light glinting off the spear in his hands.
Everyone moved at once.
His warriors dashed for Naima, as they were supposed to. Braen knew he was taking a risk, but leaving his gesha at the hands of the trader was unthinkable. Sinetha hadn't killed Naima yet and there had been real, genuine fear in her in the last second before everything went dark. The Chali knew that there was no way she could let her only leverage die like that.
Even in the pitch black, the general could see the android trying to shield Naima rather than hurt her, but the android was quickly driven back by the Brions. Armed with nothing but a knife, Sinetha had no choice but to let her prey go.
With a furious, broken cry, she jumped for the closest warrior. Through the mass of bodies throwing themselves between Sinetha and Naima, the general could see that he'd underestimated Alona.
The trader controlling it was able to move freely in the special harness that channeled its thoughts and actions and expressions to the world. Suspended in a suit fitted with straps somewhere far on her ship, Sinetha was able to perform strikes her own body never could have.
The warrior fell with a scream, pushed right into the android's arms by the bodies struggling to get Naima out of the way. Braen watched as the android's body took a heavy beating, but a being that knew no pain hardly cared about that.
Blocking the blows with one arm, electronics and inner compartments exposed, Sinetha fought back. The white pearly arm became a weapon in itself when it used its own long fingers as the spear tip of a blade, the long nails made of the same material as the rest of the body.
The dying scream of the warrior filled the quarters as Braen finally saw that Naima had been taken to safety. His gesha was looking around with wild eyes, utterly blind in the darkness surrounding her – nothing more than an advantage for Brions.
In the meanwhile, Sinetha had pulled her hand back through the thick Brion armor, the warrior's heart in a bloody hand. She quickly managed to retrieve the fallen man's spear as well, making it harder for the others to approach. Backed into a corner, the android fought like a trapped animal.
"Move away!" Braen roared.
Naima's head snapped in his direction at last. In the chaos of the room, the shadows of the general's valor squares were drowning out every other light. She couldn't see him, but she could hear.
"Braen!" Naima called.
Her cry was sweeter to hear than the general could ever have guessed. Usually seeing his gesha in distress killed him, but there was something different about Naima's voice all of a sudden. She wasn't just looking to him as a protector, but with longing.
With an angry roar, Braen turned to the android, aching to get it over with so he could have Naima alone again, safe as she could be.
"I know you can hear me," his gesha called after him as he approached the waiting Sinetha, who shrunk back from him, deeper into the corner. "Don't destroy Alona! It tried to save me! Just subdue it! I have an idea."
That gave Braen pause, but not for long. The look in the android's eyes reflected the absolute rage Sinetha was feeling, wherever she truly was. It was a sight the general had seen often – an enemy who had overplayed their hand, who had come close to what they desired and then failed.
And then the trader managed to surprise him.
"I don't want to kill you," Sinetha said, hissing. "You must live. I warn you now. Step back and give me the girl, or you'll regret it. Death will come to you swiftly."
"Have you lost your mind?" Braen asked as the rooms emptied around him, warriors pouring out of his way to make room for the general.
Naima stayed where she was, a whole squad of men blocking the path to her.
A hint of regret flashed in Sinetha's eyes and just then Braen saw the true emotion behind the Chali's actions. There was greed, yes, but also fear. It was like something terrible was lurking in her, out of reach yet close enough to feel its awful presence.
"What have you done?" the general snarled, raising his spear to guard.
"I thought I could do it," Sinetha whispered, her voice weak and sad and afraid. "We have our sources. And the Chali are many. As soon as I heard of the destination, I rushed there. The Fearless, General. Can you imagine what it would cost, just a little piece of it?"
Hunger crept into her voice as she spoke. Braen was disgusted, but he didn't move forward.
The android looked as terrified as the trader must have appeared.
"I was wrong," she admitted with terrible finality. "It was so strong already. I brought it aboard my ship. With our devices, our traps, I thought we could contain it. Kill it and let you deal with the next one. I would have done you a favor, General. If I'd succeeded, we might have bought you some of the time you wasted on your gesha!"
She trailed off for a second before continuing.
Braen gritted his teeth. He’d known that the Chali were up to something despicable, but to be so foolish? He could not have imagined anyone being so arrogant and idiotic.
"It took us, breaking everything we threw at it. Droids, androids, gunfire. Not a scratch on it. And then it caught m
e. You were right before, General. It's been a long while since I've looked upon my enemies with my own eyes and the Fearless... against it, I had no chance of victory. I thought it would kill me, but instead it listened. And laughed."
"You serve the Fearless now. You have served the enemy ever since you sent your proxy to me. You have been with it the whole time," Braen finished, loathing plain in his voice. "I wonder, does the Fearless know what you planned to do?"
"It knows. It doesn't care," Sinetha replied, a morbid smile on the android's lips. "After what I built for the monster, it will never die."
"What did you build?" he demanded.
"A harness."
The general bared his teeth in a snarl. The answer had been in front of him from the moment Sinetha began to talk. A hush went through the room and Braen could hear Naima's shocked intake of breath.
"How many?" the general asked, his voice alone fixing Sinetha in place. "How many androids does the network control?"
"Hundreds," the trader said. "Maybe thousands."
The silence that followed spoke louder than the words before. A Fearless, in control of a thousand creatures like Alona. Bodies that couldn't really die, fighting without losing anything. While some traders managed to maintain control over a few androids at a time, Braen fully believed the Fearless could send them all on the battlefield to meet him.
A thousand battle bots, controlled by the ancient evil. He would have to cut his way through them to even get a shot at the real villain.
"And Naima?" he asked, pushing the horrible news aside in his mind. "What is she to you?"
"Insurance," Sinetha shot back at once. "After the Fearless imprisoned me, I sent you the most lifelike proxy that wasn't in the cage with me. Alona was perfect, always more emotional than the others.
“I wanted Alona to get to your little whore. If I had the girl, you would have been mine. You would have protected me from the Fearless. And after you killed it, I might have traded her for the favor I asked."
"Still," Braen spat. "After everything that's happened, you still want to make a profit!"
The android shrugged.
"I am a Chali," Sinetha's voice said, before changing to drop in timbre. "But now all is lost. I warned you, General. The Fearless is here."
24
Braen
Just like that, Sinetha was gone and the light in the android's eyes turned red to match Braen's temper.
"General," said a voice as old as stars, deep and dark. "We meet again."
From the corner of his eye, Braen saw Naima get up behind the line of his warriors to see their enemy better. The android looked in her direction as well. Its mouth was bared in a snarling smile.
It looked completely wrong, like Alona's mouth simply didn't stretch as far open as the Fearless would have liked. The end result was that the android looked like it was trying to crawl out of its own skin.
With the Fearless, it was a natural reaction.
So we meet again after all this time…
"There she is," the monster gargled, looking at Braen’s gesha standing defiantly, staring it down. "You have hidden yourself from my sight, but it is a minor inconvenience. Soon, I will have you and the other girl as well. Then nothing in the galaxy can hide from me again. You will lead me where the lifestone is brightest, where the worlds are rich so I can feed and live forever."
"Never," Naima said, shaking her head furiously. "I'd rather die."
"You would be surprised, little Terran, how few people choose that option when given the real choice," the Fearless said, tilting Alona's head to the side, nearly cracking it. "Have no fear. I will not let you choose."
That was all Braen needed to hear. All those long minutes of suffering, seeing Naima in danger, the general had managed to stay calm, but no more. With a roaring battle cry, he charged at the android.
Naima's quarters descended into pure chaos. Warriors rushed out, dragging his gesha with them. Not out of fear, but to get her as far away from the enemy as possible, as well as to give the general room to properly face the monster.
As the Fearless dodged Braen's first blow, laughing in a voice that made the walls of the room shake, Naima called out to him for the second time.
"Remember, Braen!" she screamed. "Break it, don't destroy it! I need to know! We have to give Alona a chance!"
The general didn't understand much of Naima's reasoning, but he trusted her, without question like was proper for a gerion. So far, his beautiful little Terran had shown amazing wisdom and courage. And she had been right about the lifestone.
Braen had no trust in his heart for the android's AI, yet there was one thing that made him listen. Before, when Naima had claimed that Alona had tried to warn her, Kerven hadn't protested, which meant it was true.
The Fearless roared.
The howl echoed in the now-empty rooms as Braen circled around the android, armed with a Brion battle spear. He knew firsthand how sharp it was, what a deadly weapon his kind wielded. The monster, of course, needed no advantages but the ones it already had.
The general watched the spear’s movements in the android’s hands with curiosity and awe, despite himself. The Fearless picked up all the techniques like they were nothing. The spear looked as natural in the android's hands as it did in his.
So far, the monster hadn't attacked, merely regarded him, measuring his worth against the day they'd had their previous fight.
Braen wondered how well it remembered and the thought brought a feral grin to his lips. A being of infinite life surely possessed infinite memory. It already knew what it felt like to succumb to his will.
"If you think the Chali toys will stop me, you are very much mistaken," Braen promised. "No army has ever managed to win a war against the Brions and make no mistake. I am bringing war to your doorstep if you are afraid to face me yourself."
The Fearless laughed, its voice so deep Braen could barely hear the cackle of it.
"I think nothing, General, you should know better," it growled then, a hint of eternal malice playing in its eyes.
It seemed to him that after the Fearless had taken over Alona, its skin was slowly turning red. Like it was bleeding internally.
"It is tiring, to listen to all of you through the ages," the Fearless said. "Every man and woman who has ever faced me has assumed that I care, that they are anything more than pebbles in my path.
“I have seen stars die, General, and new ones be born. There is only one of me and I will live forever. I don't care what happens to the Chali, nor to you, nor to the Terrans."
"Why are you here, then?" Braen asked, seeing the way the android gave a few practicing mock blows to get the proper feel of the weight of the spear.
When the monster didn't respond, the general knew he had his answer.
"You hardly deserve your name," he said, stopping.
It was a risky move, considering the opponent was able to move so fast even he could barely see it coming, yet the Fearless only stared at him through the android's eyes.
"I am a threat to you," he went on, "and so was Tieran. I suppose it makes sense, in a way. If I had died so many times before, I don't know how I would feel if I ever met my killer again on the field. How good would I say my chances are?
“I see fear in your eyes now, monster. I should have seen it before, from the way you sneak into the minds of the Terrans. It's not only the lifestone that you seek, it is us. Through their eyes, you watch and think. We have killed you before. Could we do it again?"
With every word he said, Braen saw the truth revealed to him. The android in front of him was heaving, breathing heavily, the sounds coming from its artificial throat mere imitations of what the Fearless really had to sound like.
"You are here to see if I've gotten better," Braen said, his eyes flashing as the heavy spear began to twirl in his hands, gathering momentum. “I assure you, I have.”
The monster roared in fury. The android shook in the sound waves, looking like it was about
to be blown to pieces.
"You got lucky once," the beast grunted. "It will not happen again. You forget, General. I may die, but I will rise again, wiser and more powerful than ever before. You? You are nothing but a mortal. Every day, you grow older, while I grow stronger."
"Not this time," Braen said. "I will make sure the day you meet me for the second time will be your last."
"Not if I make this day yours!" the Fearless bellowed and charged at last.
Braen met the strike of the spear like he would have done any other, but the strength with which it was delivered was enough to throw him across the room into a wall. He was up in less than a heartbeat and even that was barely enough as the stolen spear struck home where his head had been, so close Braen could feel strands of his hair torn.
The android's body was as tough as the warriors had warned him, it seemed, and fast beyond belief. He had to be thankful that the Fearless had waited for him to arrive, otherwise there would have been many more Brion bodies on the ground already.
The general cursed himself for presuming the fight would be nothing more than a warmup, when it was clear he had to fight for his life every second of the way. Yet even as he dodged the monster's next blow, Braen knew he had one advantage over the enemy.
The Fearless' previous form had been able to take over host bodies and fill them with his strength and power. Audrey Price had described a gruesome scene to him where a warrior had been used as a puppet like that, forced to move far beyond the body's actual abilities. She'd said it looked like a doll with broken strings dragged along by an invisible power.
Nothing of the sort was possible with the android. The Fearless could use it like the Chali did, but no more. It could only use the body, it wasn't able to make it any more than it was.
The Fearless was limited to what the android could do.
It should have made the fight easier, but it did not. Braen didn't remember a battle like that in his life. Every second seemed to be stretched into an eternity, an endless moment after endless moment, walking on the edge of a blade.
