The Complete Warlord Trilogy: An Aeon 14 Collection
Page 40
Jace smirked and shook his head. “That’s because it didn’t. I have it checking leads on your ship—which wasn’t where you said it was, surprise, surprise. However, it was sighted in the Hercules system, and I decided to come back in a pinnace and fetch you before we moved on it. Imagine my shock when I got a message from Hana, warning me of your little coup. You made for a hell of a distraction; I got up here, and well, the rest is the present.”
Katrina’s voice dropped to a growl. “You’re not going to take me alive.”
“I’m terrified, really,” Jace replied. “My ships—yes, my ships—are out there putting down the last of the Midditerra Defense Force vessels in close orbit of Persia. I’ve tapped into some of Lara’s channels here and have told her outer fleets to stand down and await further orders. Like I said before: thanks for the star system, Katty girl. I really couldn’t have done it without you.”
“It’s not over yet,” Katrina snarled. “Malorie. Kill yourself.”
“Shit…” Juasa whispered as Malorie grasped her own throat and began squeezing.
A pair of Jace’s Adders rushed to Malorie and pulled her arms behind her back as the woman bucked and struggled to comply. Katrina had the pleasure of seeing a look of terror flash across Jace’s face. Then she caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and braced as Moana and another Adder pirate slammed into her.
Katrina fell to the deck with the two women on top of her. She heard Korin bellow, and shots rang out, and then more weapons fire responded.
One of the women atop Katrina clamped something around her neck, and the other tried to punch her in the gut. Katrina grinned with satisfaction as the woman’s fist met her armor-skin, and her attacker howled with rage.
Then the weapons fire fell silent, and hands grabbed Katrina’s arms, hauling her to her feet once more.
She looked around to see Korin on the ground; his right leg was shot, and blood was seeping out around his armor’s chest plate. Beyond him, Malorie stood panting and thrashing, her right arm broken and dangling uselessly, as her left tried to claw at her throat. Juasa was ten paces to Katrina’s left, being held by a pair of Adders who had guns to her throat.
The two guards that Katrina had managed to get enough nano on to control were both dead, holes in their heads leaking blood onto the deck.
Jace gave Malorie a pained look and shook his head as he surveyed the ruin before him.
“You’re a right fucking bitch, Katrina! Look what you did to Malorie. Make her stop, make her stop now!”
“No,” Katrina said. “Never going to happen.”
Katrina said, her eyes boring into Jace’s.
“I don’t know,” Katrina whispered.
Jace drew his pistol. “If you won’t free Malorie, then I’d better put her out of her misery.” He took sight along the weapon’s barrel. Katrina saw him pause for a second, and then he fired a shot into Malorie’s chest.
The former lady of Revenence Castle convulsed for a moment as a new red stain grew across her white dress, and her life’s blood pumped out onto the deck. The pair of guards holding her let go, and she collapsed, a final wheeze escaping her throat.
Katrina met Jace’s eyes, the rage in hers matching the fury in his.
“Jace.”
“What, oh beaten woman?” Jace sighed. “You’re out of cards to play.”
“What about the one where you die?!”
The collar fell from Katrina’s neck, and she turned her hands back toward the two Adders holding her arms, and lightning shot out from her palms, engulfing the women.
They shrieked and fell to the ground, smoke rising from their bodies as they convulsed.
“What the—?” Jace exclaimed, stunned as Katrina charged him, a scream tearing its way out of her throat.
As she approached, time seemed to slow down. She watched as Jace swung his pistol toward her, but it was too late—she was within arm’s reach, and batted it aside as he fired two shots.
Through the cloud of nano she’d dispersed into the room, Katrina saw the bullets fly harmlessly past her head, but her internal targeting systems marked where they would hit.
Juasa!
She spun, slamming her shoulder into Jace, and watched helplessly as one bullet hit Juasa in the neck, and the other struck her in the left eye.
A bloodcurdling scream tore out of Katrina’s throat as blood, bone, and brain sprayed across the two Adders who held her.
For a second, everything around Katrina, all her sensations, went black: sight, smell, sound—they were all gone.
There was no response. She was alone in the universe. There was no one…nothing.
Nothing but vengeance.
A sound broke through, a dull thudding, and Katrina tried to understand what it was. It made her think of a drum. Then there was a pressure around her chest, and she struggled to breathe.
Suddenly the world slammed back into place around her, and she realized that Jace’s massive arms were wrapped around her. The man was laughing as he squeezed, attempting to crush the life from her.
Her right arm was free, and she planted it on his back while wrenching her left loose to place it on his face.
“Die, you motherfucker,” she groaned and sent bolts of energy into his body.
Jace bellowed in pain, his limbs convulsing, further squeezing the breath from Katrina as the power coursed through him. She could smell his burning flesh, and smoke rose out of his mouth as he shuddered and shook.
Katrina held on, delivering every last joule of energy into his body, not letting go until his limbs went limp, and he fell to the deck.
She gazed down at his body, and watched the man draw a shallow breath.
Good. I have plans for you.
She knelt and placed a hand on his neck. The last of her infiltration nano flowed into his body and formed a net around his brain stem, locking down his motor control and paralyzing the man.
Not that it mattered. He had no need of his body anymore.
Katrina rose and turned toward the Adders who still stood in the room. They weren’t shooting at her, and she wondered why.
Is this how succession goes? Kill the leader and become the new boss?
She hoped it was.
She swept her gaze across the assembled pirates, some of whom were standing open mouthed, others holding their guns on her.
“Who wants a piece of me?” Katrina screamed. “Do you think I have nothing left? Do you want to find out?”
She gestured to Jace behind her. “I’ve defeated your lord and master. I control the mind of Admiral Lara, and the AIs are on my side.”
No one said a word, and several eyes darted to the window behind her.
The Castigation was just beyond the window, its guns trained on the glass.
r eyes settle on Juasa’s body.
“You have no one left to follow but me,” Katrina called out to the onlookers. “Get on your knees. I’m the leader of the Blackadder and Midditerra!”
Several of the Adders dropped to a knee, but others didn’t.
A point-defense beam lashed out, burning a hole in the window and slicing two of the standing pirates in half. A loud whistle filled the air as the room’s atmosphere began to vent through the hole.
“Kneel!” Katrina screamed at the Adders, barely holding back the tears that threatened to spill down her face.
A moment later, the rest were on their knees; some had even fallen prone.
Astrid activated the emergency decompression grav shield, and the sound of the room’s air venting into space ceased.
“Much better,” Katrina whispered.
THE WARLORD
STELLAR DATE: 01.28.8512 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Farsa Station
REGION: Orbiting Persia, Midditerra System
It took a week to clean up the mess in the Midditerra System.
Once Katrina proclaimed herself ruler, showing everyone in the system that Lara bowed to her, and that Jace and Malorie were dead, the fighting ground to a halt.
During the assault, Katrina had been careful to send out all her missives out as though they came from Malorie or Lara. Now that she had defeated both, the populace saw her as the savior of Midditerra, the one who had brought order to the chaos caused by the brief but bloody struggle for power.
For now, the MDF and Blackadder were still separate entities, but in time, Katrina would merge them and further solidify her power here.
She stood at the great curved window that wrapped around her throne room—now repaired—and stared out at Persia and the systems and planets of the Midditerra System.
Her system.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, a small voice told her that this was crazy. She had seized a star system; why had she even done it to begin with?
But that small voice was drowned out by the anguish she felt over losing Juasa. It was Katrina’s own action that had killed the woman she loved.
She couldn’t feel pain now, though; she had a star system to run, and she buried the sorrow under a burning fury at her situation in general.
Where are you, Troy? Why haven’t you come yet? It’s been months since Bollam’s World. Are you even looking for me? How hard can it be to find a system that’s a haven for pirates and whatever other scum drifts through the stars?
Katrina turned away from the window and walked back to her throne.
She had no need of the holodisplays Lara had used; her visual overlays were far superior. A throne was a much better use for the space.
Juasa’s words echoed in her mind as she took her seat.
‘Give them the leadership they deserve’.
Katrina would do just that. Starting with Hana.
The woman lay prone before Katrina, unable to move—the web that Katrina had placed around her brainstem cutting off all access to her own body.
She’d been in the position all day, and Katrina knew her muscles were screaming in agony, and cramps would be wracking her body.
Good. It was a small price to pay for treachery, though it wouldn’t be the end of what Hana would face.
Katrina glanced to the right, settling her gaze on Lara. The admiral was suspended in a clear cylinder, hovering half a meter in the air, held in place by a grav field. Tubes ran out of her abdomen and down into the floor: her food supply, and waste reclamation.
Katrina had no idea how long she’d keep Lara there. Perhaps another week; perhaps a month. Maybe years. Maybe she’d string Hana up in a matching cylinder as a reminder of what happened to those who crossed the warlord.
Beside her throne stood another cylinder, though few knew its purpose. This one was black and only a meter tall. Inside, kept alive by nutrient baths and artificial organs, were the brains and neural mods of Malorie and Jace.
There was still much about their operation that Katrina did not know—the extent of the sithri distribution network, all the systems that held bases and ships operating under the Blackadder banner.
Katrina would ferret out those secret locations, find them, and bring them to heel. They would serve her purpose in finding the Voyager, and eventually the Intrepid.
The information she had gathered from the Blackadder ships under her command had led her to believe that the colony ship had not yet come out of the Streamer.
When it did, she would be ready.
“Katrina,” a voice said, and she looked up to see Jordan approaching.
“Jordan,” Katrina said in greeting, a smile forming on her lips. It wasn’t a false one either; Jordan had acquitted herself well during the battle to take Midditerra. Along with Sam, she had crippled dozens of enemy ships. In the end, it had been she who had captured Hana’s ship and brought the rogue captain in.
“The last of the captains of the MDF have accepted your gift, and their AIs have joined us. You are in complete control of the system.”
Katrina rose from her throne. “Good. Now we can turn our attention to the other cantons—especially those who sided with the MDF against us.”
“What are we going to do?” Jordan asked. “Are you going to assemble the council?”
Katrina shrugged. “It’ll get the traitors all in one place and make it easier to kill them and then take their holdings.”
Jordan smiled. “Sounds like it’ll be fun. I’ll ready a strike force. Who do we hit first once the council members are dead?”
“I think we’ll take out the Kurgise. Their lands abut Revenence Castle, and I’d like to expand the sithri fields.”
Inside, under the grief and rage, the small voice rose up, begging Katrina to stop, telling her how Markus, Tanis, Juasa, and everyone she’d ever cared about would be horrified at what she’d become.
Everyone but my father. Maybe he’d known what was necessary to quell an unruly population. Stars knew his way of thinking had won out in the long-term.
Katrina had researched what happened at Kapteyn’s Star after she’d left—the history Troy had told her to avoid looking into.
The Kapteyn Primacy was long gone. Burned to ash thousands of years ago by the Sirians. Everything she and Markus had worked for was gone. Yet Sirius still stood, and the descendants of Luminescent Society still controlled their stars.
She dismissed Jordan, rose from her throne, and walked back to the window, the movement bringing fresh pain to her body.
Katrina ran a hand across her hard, metal skin. It had never meshed properly with her nervous system—the artificial sensory lattice in the armor being too primitive for her advanced neural network.
The agony was a friend now, her one constant companion. It was her strength when all others were gone.
I am Katrina. Daughter of Yusuf, friend of the Noctus, liberator of the Hyperion, wife of Markus, president of Victoria, lover of Juasa, survivor of the fields, and conqueror of Midditerra.
I am all of those things; together, they are me. They form my foundation; they give me purpose. My memories are my strength, the evidence of my power.
I am the steel fist that crushes my enemies, I weather the light and the darkness, I thrive on my torment, I persist. I touch all these things, I live in their worlds, but they are not me, and I am not them. I am the Warlord Katrina.
A NEW LEAD
STELLAR DATE: 02.01.8512 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Voyager, Monta Station
REGION: Orbiting Takan, Kashmere System
If Troy could have paced, he would have.
Carl had called in and told him that there was some news, a lead he’d picked up that may guide them to Katrina. He’d wanted to deliver it in person; organics were strange like that.
After another minute, Troy’s dockside cameras picked Carl up as he navigated the crowds on Monta Station’s third docki
ng ring. He looked both perplexed and distressed.
This isn’t a good sign at all.
Carl reached the airlock and cycled through; it was a quick process, as ship-pressure was already matched to the station’s. Even so, if Troy possessed fingers, he knew they’d be drumming on something right now.
“Just give me a moment to get up to the cockpit.”
That was a silly request. Troy didn’t actually reside in the cockpit.
It took Carl seventeen and a half seconds to reach the cockpit, and then another seven and a quarter to settle into his seat—more than a ‘few’ by Troy’s reckoning.
Troy watched the man clench his jaw and run a hand through his hair.
Carl signaled the cockpit’s door to close, and leaned his head back. “I’m pretty sure I know where she is. I just heard from crewmembers of four different ships that the Midditerra System is where we want to go.”
Carl nodded. “Yeah, it’s on our list. eleven light years from here.”
Troy could tell there was more; it was plainly evident in Carl’s tone.
The man swallowed before speaking.
Troy filed the departure request without a moment’s wait.
Carl nodded slowly.