by Larkin, Matt
Three weeks on the front line had taken its toll on Rachel. For certain she had learned the ship’s systems better. But she had to bear the weight of not only her own fatigue and doubt and fears, but those of the entire crew. And that weight threatened to strangle her.
She lay across David’s lap in his quarters as he gently stroked her temples. She longed to close her eyes and rest, but she couldn’t make herself let go of the image of his face, smiling down at her.
“Not a lot of empaths join the military, lass. I guess for this reason.”
“Mmm.” Telepaths had to concentrate to use their gifts, but empaths could almost never shut them off. One more way telepaths were luckier. She snorted. Such petty jealousy should be beneath her. Being a Psych at all gave her a huge advantage over most of humanity. It was a gift … a gift Angels had given her. Void, how could she be certain of anything anymore?
She had her powers because of what Angels had done to her ancestors. They had genetically engineered Psychs like all the other Races, but denied mankind the ability to enhance themselves. Maybe Caleb was right, and doing so had stifled human potential. Maybe the Asherans were in the right of it all … And she’d just spent the better part of a month killing them.
Five major engagements and as many minor skirmishes. She’d lost count of how many ships they’d destroyed, but there was a number she knew. Forty-seven. That’s how many crewmen they’d lost aboard the Wheel since coming here.
Considering the way her first engagement with the Asherans had gone, she supposed it was a blessing the number was so low. Still, a lot of people had lost friends, lovers, brothers or sisters. And here she was, sympathizing with the enemy. Thank God David wasn’t a telepath. If he knew what she was thinking right now … He’d never understand. His view of the holy universe was simpler, and sometimes she envied him that.
“I love you,” he said. “I mean really, you don’t have any idea.”
Rachel caught herself grinning at his sudden statement. “I’m an empath, Mac. I’ve got a pretty good idea. I mean, what with being able to actually feel your feelings.”
“Does it worry you? I mean, do you ever wonder if the feelings you have for someone are your own, or a reflection of the other person?”
All the time. It was the never-ending danger of being an empath. She had to question whether she lusted after a man because he lusted after her. Was it her nature to desire so fervently, or the desires of others saturating her? But David meant whether she loved him because he loved her.
“The problem with your question, with what you really want to ask me, is … Well, all people are like that—when someone loves you back, it deepens the feelings you have for them, too. It’s not a one-way reflection, it’s an infinite loop. And it’s not just for empaths, Mac. Don’t you love me more because you know how I feel about you?”
“Aye. Suppose I do.”
“Then you don’t need to be insecure, do you?”
“I know it’s been hard for you, serving on this ship.”
That was an understatement. She felt lost. Knight had found his mission in life, and Rachel had lost hers. She’d found the Ark and it had brought chaos. She’d found Eden, and now there was war. She’d convinced herself her crusade could save mankind, and now she didn’t even know what she was saving them from. There was no more clarity of which side was right and which was wrong. She didn’t even know if she still thought Asherans were the villains Mizraim had always cast them as.
Void, she didn’t know whether Caleb Gavet was a villain, either.
All she knew for sure was David was here, and she was going to stand by his side. She supposed it didn’t matter whether the Sentinels were right or not. They were the people she cared about, and so she had to help them, as best she could.
She sighed, and David stroked her face again.
“Lass?”
The Mazzaroth screen beeped, and a transmission from the bridge streamed out of the speakers. “Sir, there’s a report you need to see.”
David hopped up and switched on the Mazzaroth. It displayed a nearby system where a pair of Sentinel ships engaged an Asheran Leviathan. And beyond them, the Ark closed in.
“Angels above,” David swore. “Are they going to get involved?”
Rachel swallowed and rose to stand beside him. “It was only a matter of time.”
Plasma bursts erupted from the Ark in all directions, raining a hail of flame down on the Sentinels and Asherans alike.
“Bugger me …”
Rachel clutched his hand. They both knew it was too late to do anything.
All three ships exploded and began to fold back into their own singularities. They were so close together, the singularities fed on each other, forming a single black hole. She prayed it would burn itself out before growing large enough to swallow any of the planets in the system.
A quarter million Asheran civilians lived on three of the planets there. And if that black hole continued to feed on matter, it would grow and grow. If those people were smart, they would evacuate while they still could.
An Angel’s face appeared across the Mazzaroth. The screen was tight on him, and a hood overshadowed his face, but Rachel could see the shadow of his wings.
“This is the Angel Muriel. Mankind has broken the Covenant and will be punished. All prior factions of your tribes are hereby disbanded. All existing governments are dissolved by divine decree. You will submit yourself for judgment and Angel rule immediately. We have spoken.”
Rachel tightened her grip on David’s hand. A great hollow had opened inside her chest. What had she done? She had awakened the Angels in the hopes of stopping the Conglomerate from controlling the Ark. And it appeared they had. But now, her worst fears would come to pass. All her life she’d fought against Angel theocracy and now she alone had restored it. She had damned humanity in her quest to save it. They really intended to reinforce the Covenant.
The Days of Glory were once again upon them.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVEN
January 10th
At long last the Angels have returned, and my worst fears are realized. Now humanity will willingly return to servitude, and worse, be grateful for it.
“I was glad you called,” Leah said. She sat across a mess table from David, picking at the fish on her plate.
He’d spent almost all his meals with Rachel, until Knight of all people suggested his friends might miss him. Odd, to think the Gehennan should have any insight into such things. Sometimes the man seemed to understand nothing about human relationships. And yet, sometimes David felt jealous of Knight’s ability to read people.
“Aye,” he said. “It’s been a while since we had the chance to just talk.”
Leah snorted softly and stared at her fish. “So it has.”
“How are you adapting to the new ship? The new medical crew to work with?”
The Amphie shrugged, then took another bite. “Most of them are fine. Ensign Han shows real promise. She’s been studying divergent evolution in the Races following the Angel eugenics projects.” Leah leaned in closer, so close her cheek almost brushed his, and whispered in his ear. “Honestly I’d like her opinion on … the prisoner in the isolation wing.”
“No, lass,” he whispered back. “We can’t take the chance of anyone else finding out yet.” They couldn’t be certain how anyone would react.
The Angels were back. They demanded mankind submit to them once again. And despite all that had happened, David’s heart told him to comply. The Angels were divine, and they had taken it upon themselves to save humanity from the Adversary. For all Rachel’s preaching about the wrong they did in hiding Eden, now he knew the reason for that too. Which meant they likely had good reasons for everything they did. And Rachel was too caught up in her crusade to consider those reasons.
David never knew which side to follow anymore. Rachel was brilliant and brave and so convinced she was right. Except now, even she seemed as lost as the rest of them.
“Until Rachel figures out what to do with him—”
“Rachel is not the captain of this ship!” Leah jumped to her feet.
David glanced around, acutely aware of crewmen at other tables watching him. Watching the woman who had just chastised him in front of the crew. What the bloody void had gotten into her?
He grit his teeth and stood. “You are out of line, Lieutenant Commander.”
Her face went slack, and she jerked her hands behind her back. Her eyes darted around the room, and he could feel a hint of the embarrassment coming off her. But she had left him no choice. This was largely a new crew, and he needed to maintain their confidence in him. Their lives depended on his authority, and their trust of him. And Leah had jeopardized that.
“David, I’m sorry, I …”
“You’re dismissed.”
“David …” Leah’s jaw trembled for a second, then she saluted him and strode from the mess hall.
David kept his eyes on the door, trying not to look at any of the crewmen now staring at him. For the first time, he began to understand why his former captains took their meals in the officer’s mess. He couldn’t be a captain to these people and be one of them. Even a minor slip like this meant he was forced to choose between his duty and his friendship with Leah. She was his best friend, and the look she’d had on her face tore at his heart. Like he’d betrayed her.
He wasn’t the one who should feel guilty. She was the one who made a scene in the middle of the bloody mess hall. Except, she may have had a point. Was he failing in his duty as captain by allowing Rachel to decide the fate of their Angel prisoner? It had been her crusade all along. It had seemed like her place to make the hard choices. Except she was now just another officer under his command.
His comm flared. “Dana to McGregor.”
“What is it, Phoebe?”
“You’d better come up to the bridge, sir.”
David scratched his head. Maybe a distraction was just what he needed. He strode from the mess and toward the lift. Knight waited inside.
“She called you too?” he asked.
Knight nodded. After the lift closed and began to carry them up, Knight cleared his throat. “You shouldn’t go into battle with something else on your mind.”
What the void? The Gehennan could read him now? Was that Knight’s newfound psionic ability, or did he just see the tension in the set of David’s shoulders? David blew out a breath and slapped the button to stop the lift. “Your idea to spend time with my friends backfired.” The man would likely hear about it sooner or later, anyway. After that scene, the whole crew would. God—including Rachel. “Leah appears to have some kind of resentment toward Rachel for being in charge of Raziel.”
Knight grunted, then pointedly looked away. The man already knew about it, didn’t he? Why was David the last to learn these things?
David sighed and restarted the lift. A second later he stopped it again and spun on Knight. “You’re right. I shouldn’t face such a situation without a clear head. So bloody out with it, Knight!”
The Gehennan turned and met his gaze, then shrugged. “Fine. Unrequited feelings can strain a friendship, Mac.” Since when did Knight call him that? “And you might not be able to hold on to two women at the same time.”
Two women? Rachel and Leah? God, Knight thought he had romantic intentions toward Leah. They’d been friends a long time, but nothing had ever happened. Not like that. When they first became close he thought it might, but she always held herself so aloof. And then Rachel came back into his life and … And Knight had to be wrong. He didn’t think of Leah that way.
But then, that wasn’t what Knight was implying, was it? What if Leah had feelings he didn’t realize? Had she hidden her heart from him, of all people? He was supposed to be her best friend. If she had wanted … If she had only said …
Knight grabbed him by the shoulders and stared into his face. “We are needed on the bridge. You take it, and you lock it away until you have time for it. Lock it down, David.”
David nodded. Knight was right. He had a duty; he had a mission. He would deal with his emotions, with the two most important women in his life, when the time was right. He buzzed the lift.
“It is a comfort, though,” Knight said, staring straight ahead. “Knowing your life is as fucked up as the rest of ours.”
David snorted. The lift opened and he stepped out onto the bridge.
“Captain on the bridge,” an ensign shouted.
“Yup, yup,” Phoebe mumbled. “Captain’s out for a stroll. Checking in to make sure whether the war’s still on, sir?”
“I got held up. What is it?”
Phoebe pointed to the screen. “This is coming via a Mazzaroth Relay.” An Asheran fleet had surrounded the Ark and begun an assault. Thousands of missiles filled the screen, streaming at the Angel ship.
The Asheran Confederacy had given the Angels their answer. They had utterly refused the Angels’ demands and declared war on their former masters. And David could not blame them, really. Even if Rachel wasn’t right about the things she said of the Angels, the Asherans were cyborgs. The Angels would likely destroy them, destroy their entire way of life.
And so now the Asherans would destroy the Angels. Mankind’s former saviors, former masters, would be wiped from the universe. And the thought left a hollow in his chest.
The Ark flashed and a curtain of crisscrossed plasma toroids shot out from it like a bubble. An ever-expanding net that engulfed most of the missiles and stopped the Asheran assault dead.
“Holy shit,” Rachel said. “Wish I’d known how to do that.”
David jerked. He hadn’t even realized she was at her station.
He took the pilot’s chair. “How far are they?”
“Several systems away,” Phoebe said. “We could probably reach them in five or ten minutes. Depending on your performance. In the Conduit, I mean. Of course.”
Even five minutes would be too late to interfere in this battle. Not that David even knew which side he should be on.
Ion streams impacted the Ark, and its black flesh shuddered under the blows. The Ark retaliated with a continuous barrage of plasma launched against five Asheran ships at once. The ion streams cut off one by one, and the Asheran ships detonated. The Ark systematically moved through the Confederate fleet, igniting one Singularity Drive after another.
David’s throat was dry. He watched in helpless horror as the Angel vessel decimated an entire fleet. He found himself unable to speak, unable to move from the chair. The Asherans retreated toward the Gate, but the Angels just continued firing. It was like seeing a gardener clear away a patch of land. Cold and systematic.
By his count, the Ark had destroyed near forty ships, and it was still going.
“Captain?” Phoebe said. “What should we do, sir?”
He had no idea. No idea at all.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHT
January 11th
It feels like a lifetime ago I first set out for Gehenna. And yet, if I flip back the pages of this journal, it has been less than four months. It took me four months to damn to mankind to a hell worse than the one I tried to save us from.
Weeks in the Sentinel brig were pretty much as horrible as Caleb would have imagined. They gave him three meals a day and left him alone. All alone. With not a single thing to do. He couldn’t see his kids. He couldn’t kiss his wife in the morning. He couldn’t even have Rebekah during his lunch break—in fact, he hoped she’d escaped somehow. He’d asked a female Sentinel for a conjugal visit and she’d ignored him.
He was pretty sure there was a case to be made for boredom as a form of torture. Was it possible to die of boredom? Could sheer tedium so suffuse his soul that it would wither away and rot to nothing? Because he was pretty sure that was happening. He’d called the medical officer over to discuss it, but she’d been no more receptive.
“Total lack of activity could be detrimental to my health,” he’d told her.
; The woman, Suzuki, shrugged. “So get some exercise. You’ve room to move around in there.”
“Indeed, yes. Exactly what I was thinking. If you’d come in here and remove your clothes, I could solve two problems at once. Sexual aerobics would alleviate both boredom and the need for exercise. Besides, if I don’t fuck someone soon I might actually go totally off rotation.”
Suzuki glared at him. “Fine. Then go fuck yourself.”
And she’d stormed off.
Pity.
And so, when Rachel Jordan finally came back to see him, he was doing pushups. Which meant he’d probably already slipped off rotation. He blamed the doctor.
He hopped up the moment Rachel came in. “Did Suzuki send you in here to help me with my problem?”
“What problem, Caleb?”
He sighed. “Guess not. What brings the illustrious and ever nebulous Rachel Jordan to my humble office?”
Rachel paced in front of his cell, as if unsure what to say.
So he let her walk. Caleb used his cybernetic eyes to peel away the layers of her clothing and examine the soft flesh beneath. Sadly, the scans didn’t have the detail of really looking at her naked, but it was enough to leave little to the imagination. Not that the formfitting Sentinel uniforms left that much to begin with. One good thing he had to hand them.
“What is it you want, Caleb?” she said at last.
Caleb couldn’t quite suppress a grin. If she only knew. And why not tell her? “At the moment, I want to bend you over the cot and have a wild romp with you. After that, I’d say a coffee, a massage, and then a hot shower. Plus I’d like to be the richest man in the universe.”
Rachel ran a hand through her hair, apparently neither amused nor perturbed by his innuendo. Which might be a good sign.
“I guess you don’t get the news in here, do you?”
No, much to his disdain. Caleb chewed his thumb. She’d obviously come to him for a reason, and sooner or later she’d spill it. Why not drag it on as long as possible? This was the best entertainment he’d had in days. He considered asking her to turn around so he could examine her backside in as much detail as the front.
