Fire and Brimstone (Chaos of the Covenant Book 2)

by M. R. Forbes

  Yes. But at what cost?

  “Do it,” Coli shouted again.

  She had already decided she would pay the price, whatever it was, if it kept Hayley safe. Thraven knew about her daughter, which meant she might not be. Abbey didn’t have to like what she became. She just had to accept it.

  “Do it,” Coli shouted a third time. “Come on, Lieutenant. What are you waiting for? You don’t have the guts?”

  She felt the change in the rhythm of the ship’s reactor as it dropped out of FTL, right when it was supposed to. Coli’s face changed at that moment, his expression of defiance turning to one of fear.

  “Wait,” he said, his entire demeanor changing. “Lieutenant, wait. Don’t do it. I’ll tell you anything you want to know. I don’t want to die. Please.”

  Abbey stared at him. Her stomach had been churning, but now it began to settle, her whole body becoming numb despite the Gift.

  “Abigail, please,” Coli whined. “I don’t want to die. I’m not ready. I have a wife. I have three young ones. We’re so alike, you and me. We both have families.”

  “Queenie?” Bastion said beside her. “You don’t have to do this. We can leave him here to rot until the Republic catches up and brings him in.”

  “Yeah, Queenie,” Pik said. “I could do it if you want. This isn’t the kind of person you want to become.”

  She turned her head, looking back at Pik and Bastion. Coli stopped whining, waiting for her to open the hatch and pull him back inside.

  “You’re right,” Abbey said, still looking in at Coli. “It isn’t the kind of person I want to become. It’s the kind of person I have to become. Olus was right. You can’t fight someone like Thraven unless you’re willing to become someone like Thraven.”

  Then she hit the control. The outer door slid open, and Coli vanished before he even had a chance to scream.

  “We can’t let him win,” she said, pushing past them.

  24

  “That sure is a lot of shit,” Bastion said, his eyes wandering over the seemingly endless piles of debris the Haulers had recovered. “What do you think you’re going to find in there?”

  “I don’t know,” Abbey replied. “Thraven wanted this junk away from any interested eyes, which means my eyes are interested.”

  “Shouldn’t we be getting out of the area? We left half of the Hauler’s collectors in the lurch, and it won’t take long for the Republic to track the disterium trail.”

  “I told you that you were free to wait for me on the Faust. I asked you to go to medical. I think that knock on the head you took made you dumber than you already were.”

  “Pik needs the medical bot more than I do right now.” He laughed. “I know it’s a machine, but it almost seemed relieved to get an injury it could do something with.”

  “It can’t fix his hand.”

  “Replacements are better, anyway.”

  “It’s my fault he got hurt.”

  “Don’t go there, Queenie. You saved all of our asses again, but you can’t do everything yourself. So where do we start?”

  Abbey looked at the debris. It was separated into multiple piles, each of the piles nearly ten meters high and fifty meters wide, with a main drop station near the aft of the hold where a half dozen bots were busy sorting the remains by material. If the Republic, or in this case Thraven, had ordered it destroyed, it would be brought back to an orbital station and converted, recycled and then resold as base components, with any evidence of anything questionable burned in the process. If it had been collected for investigation, it would go to the closest OSI department for review by Captain Mann’s agents.

  It wasn’t a stretch to think the former case was more likely than the latter.

  “Terminals,” she said. “Projectors. Mainframes. Access points. Anything that could possibly still have data stored on it. The components are going to be small, but that’s why they may have survived. If Emily Eagan built the Fire and Brimstone for Thraven, then there has to be some record of their research and development. Records Thraven didn’t want the Republic to find. That’s why he ordered Ursan Gall to destroy the station, and why he sent the Haulers to clean up after him.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “The bots will have sorted any related debris into one these piles. That’s the easy part. Finding a memory chip or an intact server in the pile, and doing it quickly? I may be wasting our time.”

  “Or you might find something useful.”

  “Since when did you become so positive?”

  “Must be the blow to the head.”

  Abbey smiled. She had expected she might feel guilty after she had sent Sergeant Coli out of the airlock. She didn’t. In fact, she felt as though she had turned a corner when she decided to embrace her situation.

  They moved quickly through the hold, splitting up and running in the spaces between the stacks. The bots wound their way around them, making space as they continued their work unhindered and taking little notice of their presence.

  They found the more delicate networking components stacked off to the side, close to the drop point. It was smaller than most of the other piles, but that didn’t make it any less daunting. Most of the pieces were the size of a hand or smaller, the stack standing tall enough that it was obvious they would have to sort through thousands of parts. She wouldn’t have even bothered trying, except she had an idea to speed up the process.

  “Keep your eyes on the debris,” she said. “Data chips are the size of a fingernail. Rectangular, and usually smooth. Mainframes are about this big.” She motioned with her hand. “Square. Even if it looks damaged, we’ll want to take it with us. You know what terminals look like.”

  Bastion kicked the base of the pile, sending smaller bits and pieces clattering away. “I’m done being positive. We’re never going to find anything useful in this trash. It’s like a mote in a galaxy.”

  “And how do you find a mote in a galaxy?” Abbey asked.

  “You don’t.”

  “You reduce the search area. There’s an algorithm, but explaining it might make your head hurt.”

  “It already hurts.”

  “Then it might make it explode.”

  “I don’t know if I would look on that unkindly.”

  “Are you ready?”

  “For what?”

  Abbey raised her hands. She could feel the Gift within her, moving beneath her skin. It wasn’t burning like before. Could it be used for anything other than killing?

  She stared at the debris, holding her hands out toward it. She started thinking about Thraven. He wanted to start a war. He wanted to kill innocent people. No. He already had. The Republic couldn’t stop him. Not on their own. Nobody could stop him. Not without help. Not without more information. What were they up against? They had to know. They had to gather as much intel as they could, wherever they could find it. What was the Covenant? What was the Great Return? There had to be answers here. They had made the Fire and Brimstone from ancient blueprints. They had revived long lost tech. Tech that was going to kill them all, unless she could do something about it.

  She felt the anger coming. It was getting easier now. The Gift responded to it, coming alive inside of her. She fought to hold onto it. To keep the anger in her heart. She could feel it thumping harder, the blood pumping stronger through her veins. She kept her eyes on the trash, imagining that it was lifting away and spreading apart, like a wave crashing against a rocky shore, converting the three-dimensional stack to a flat sheet, one that Bastion could quickly scan, the motion matching the algorithm.

  “Oh, shit,” Bastion said as the debris moved and parted.

  “Anything?” Abbey asked. She scanned the first wave as well but didn’t see anything they could use.

  “Negative,” Bastion replied.

  The debris lifted, reaching higher toward the top of the hold, a new line spreading out ahead of them as it began to curl up and over, becoming a reel. Abbey couldn’t hold back the smile over the c
ontrol she had. The power. It didn’t always have to be used to hurt.

  “Wait,” Bastion said, stepping forward and grabbing a half-slagged cube from the spread. He put it on the ground behind him.

  “There,” Abbey said, noticing a data chip. It looked like it was intact. He grabbed that, too.

  “This has to be one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” Bastion said as the debris continued to flow up and over, the pile shifting forward as it was replaced from behind.

  Abbey’s heart was pounding, a feeling of elation overcoming her. Benhil had told her she wasn’t human anymore, and maybe he was right. At that moment, she felt more like a god.

  No sooner had the thought arrived than the power of the Gift left her. The burning sensation turned to freezing cold, her arms prickling as all of the energy washed away. She fell to her knees, the scroll of debris collapsing suddenly, tumbling down in a storm of parts.

  “Queenie?” Bastion said, moving to her side and kneeling beside her. “What’s going on?”

  “Cold,” Abbey said. She could feel her body shivering. “Freezing.”

  “I don’t know what you did, but we need to get you out of here. Erlan.”

  “Lucifer?” Erlan replied. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know. Queenie’s in trouble. Prep the shuttle.”

  “I’m ready and waiting, sir.”

  Bastion reached down, collecting her in his arms and lifting her. She could see him flinch at the cold. “Frag. You’re so cold. You feel like you’re already dead.”

  “Data,” she managed to say.

  Bastion looked back at the few pieces they had collected. “Forget it. We need to get you back to the Faust and under some blankets or something.”

  “Data,” she repeated.

  He carried her over to it, bending to scoop up the parts and put them in her lap. “There you go, Queenie. Now we’re leaving.”

  He carried her out of the cargo hold, all the way to the hangar. Erlan was waiting in front of the Hauler’s shuttle.

  “Oh, no,” he said, following Bastion onto the ship. “What happened?”

  “She was using her magic to move some of the debris when she collapsed.”

  “Why?”

  “How the frag would I know?” Bastion snapped, lowering Abbey into one of the seats. “Latch her in, I’ve got the stick.”

  “Aye, sir,” Erlan said.

  He worked the straps, pulling them down over Abbey, swinging himself into the adjacent seat and securing himself just in time. The shuttle rocketed forward, bursting from the Destructor toward the Faust, waiting a few hundred kilometers away.

  Abbey closed her eyes. Her head was pounding. She was still so cold. As soon as her lids met, the world behind them lit up, a single emotion forcing its way to the forefront.

  Fear.

  She opened her eyes, looking around, a feeling of panic overwhelming her. What the hell was going on?

  “Queenie?” Erlan said, leaning toward her.

  “Don’t,” she replied. Her body was tingling. She felt like she was dying. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  He leaned away from her. She felt the forward pull as the shuttle slowed to enter the Faust’s hangar. Then she heard the landing skids clamp down on the floor.

  “Queenie?” Bastion said, returning to her. The hatch opened. Ruby was the first to board. She had an injector in her hand.

  “No,” Abbey said, seeing it. The injector was torn from Ruby’s grip, shattering against the side of the shuttle. “I don’t want to sleep. I don’t want to close my eyes.”

  “Okay,” Ruby said. “What do you need?”

  “Food. I’m hungry. So hungry.” Her eyes fell on Bastion’s neck. “No.” She clenched her jaw.

  Was that what this was? The Gift trying to take control? To make her do its bidding? Was that what happened to Private Illiard? To Private Lesko? Did the mind succumb if the will wasn’t strong enough? If the Gift was trying to assert control, what would it make her do if it succeeded?

  “No,” she hissed through her teeth. She hadn’t finally accepted the Gift to be challenged by it.

  She had accepted it to use it.

  For her needs.

  For her desires.

  For her goals.

  For her strength.

  Her hands gripped the edges of her seat. She could feel her fingers changing. She could feel them digging into the metal and bending it out of shape.

  “Lucifer, Erlan, it isn’t safe here,” Ruby said.

  “If she dies, we die,” Bastion replied. “Well, the nerd here doesn’t. And you don’t. But I do.”

  “Why am I a nerd?” Erlan asked.

  “Get. Out. Of. Here,” Abbey said.

  The Gift wanted to control her?

  Frag that.

  Ruby grabbed Bastion’s arm, pulling him from the shuttle, with Erlan close behind. They left her alone there. They couldn’t help anyway. This was her fight. Her struggle. Her demons.

  She pushed back against them, her eyelids slowly dropping, the Gift resisting the effort. Was it working for Thraven, too? A small laugh escaped her at the thought. Her eyelids continued to move, twitching as the action was resisted.

  “This is my body,” Abbey said. “My life. My fight. You aren’t the master. You’re the servant, and I’m the fragging Queen.”

  Her lids snapped closed, the resistance fading. Again, everything lit up behind them, a fullness of light that flashed and vanished as suddenly as it had come.

  Her whole body tingled. She opened her eyes again. The interior of the shuttle was suddenly in crisp focus, as though it had always been veiled by something before that moment. Specks of dust floated in front of the lighting, and she followed each one. She could feel the Gift inside of her, at rest once more.

  She raised her hands from the seat. The entire frame was bent and twisted. She looked at her fingertips. They were normal. Her lips were dry. She was still hungry. She unlatched herself and stood up. She felt warm again. Back to normal.

  She found the computer components they had taken and picked them up. Then she made her way off the shuttle.

  Ruby, Bastion, and Erlan were waiting for her there. They stared at her as she made her way down.

  “I’m okay,” she said.

  “Are you sure?” Bastion asked.

  She nodded. “I haven’t felt this good since I made the drop on Grudin.” She held up the data. “Let’s see if we can get anything out of these. Lucifer, get us away from Feru, back to the Fringe. Erlan.” She paused, smiling. “I think you have a new call sign.”

  “What?” Erlan replied. He shook his head. “No. No way.”

  “Ha,” Bastion said. “Welcome to the Rejects, Nerd.”

  “I don’t want to be Nerd,” Erlan said.

  “I never wanted to be Queenie,” Abbey said. “You get used to it.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with being Nerd,” Bastion said. “Hell, if I didn’t have a cool nick like Lucifer, I might take Nerd.”

  “Really?”

  “No. But it suits you, kid.”

  “Queenie,” Ruby said. “I was monitoring Milnet traffic while you were gone, keeping tabs on positioning to ensure we weren’t about to be attacked. I picked up a beacon right before Lucifer pinged me about your condition.”

  “What kind of beacon?” Abbey asked.

  “From the Brimstone,” Ruby replied.

  Abbey raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Gant?”

  “I don’t know who else would have activated it.”

  “Where?”

  “Anvil.”

  “Interesting choice of destination,” Bastion said.

  “What’s Anvil?” Erlan asked.

  “An Outworld military base, mostly,” Bastion said. “Why would Thraven send the Brimstone there?”

  “I don’t know,” Abbey replied. “Let’s go find out.”

  25

  Abbey led Ruby down to the belly of the Faust, into the smal
l access space behind the Construct module where the virtual reality system’s computer was located. It wasn’t the best substitute for a Breaker’s standard quantum mainframe, but it was the most powerful processor they had on board. It would have to do.

  “I have to get the softsuit we picked up on Feru,” Abbey said. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Of course, Queenie,” Ruby said. “Are you well?”

  “You mean the episode in the shuttle?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m better now. The Gift. Whatever it is, it was trying to take control. To start bossing me around.”

  “I struggle to process that concept.”

  “Me, too. I think I beat it into submission.”

  Ruby smiled. “I’m glad. If you’re tense, I’m programmed in over two hundred forms of massage.”

  “One of these days I might take you up on the offer. We don’t have time right now. See if you can expose the interface port on this while I’m gone.” She handed the half-melted mainframe to Ruby. “Hopefully we won’t have to hack our own. I don’t think we have the tools on board.”

  “We do,” Ruby said. “I believe Gant has most of them in his quarters.”

  Abbey smiled. Gant was still alive, still out there, and still helping her. It was the best outcome she could have hoped for.

  She wandered out of the Construct module and over to the armory, where Benhil and Airi had brought the equipment they picked up on Feru. She tried to remove the hellsuit, only then remembering that it was coded to Airi.

  “Fury,” she said. “Can you come down to the armory and help me out of your hellsuit?”

  “Aye, Queenie,” Airi said. “I’ll be right there.”

  It only took a minute for her to arrive. She had already changed out of her lightsuit and into a light tank and pants.

  “I heard about what happened on the shuttle,” she said.

  “News travels fast,” Abbey replied.

  “The ship isn’t that big.” She reached out, pressing her hands against either side of the hellsuit and pulling it apart. The material disconnected in response to her touch, the center slipping open. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Abbey replied, shrugging out of the hellsuit. It dropped behind her, and she lifted her feet and pulled it down past her calves, leaving her naked.