by David Beers
Eight weeks of the sham marriage had gone by, and shockingly, Luna wasn’t dead. She hadn’t thought they’d make it three days, but each day, she found herself going through the motions. At night they lay together; he made his lovemaking moves beneath the covers, and she moaned softly. They never touched outside of cheek against cheek; the beast hadn’t lied. He wouldn’t take her against her will. When he faked his orgasm, she rolled over on her side and lay crying without sound, wondering when this would all end.
Yet, Luna kept going, and she came to see the beast named Hector as a better man than the Ascendant. Luna felt nothing like love or even lust for him, only grudging respect. She knew she was beautiful, and for a man to lay next to her each night and never once try touching her outside of their fake sex? Well, it took honor to do that.
Luna was coming to see that she lived in a world without much honor. The men she’d once thought of as near-gods were scrambling ants trying to keep their spot in the hill, nothing more.
Despite the respect, she was almost overwhelmingly relieved when Hector told her he was leaving. Luna’s face couldn’t show that relief, and it took everything in her to keep from collapsing.
She sat down, then crossed one leg over the other before folding her hands over one knee. “When will you be back?”
Hector was sipping a glass of water. He rarely looked at her when they were together but kept his huge body turned half away. “I’m not sure. However long it takes, I suppose.”
“Where are you going?” Luna asked. She had two concerns here, the most immediate being how long they would be separated. She desperately wanted…nay, needed time away from this man. Respect or not, she wasn’t meant to live with anyone besides Alistair.
The second concern dealt with him—Allie, her true husband. She knew this monster-sized man had come here for war. Hector had shared some things with her, as would be expected of a spouse. Alistair was alive and bringing war to the Commonwealth. Luna surprised herself by not caring a bit about what happened to the government she’d grown up under. When she heard what Alistair was doing, all that mattered was that she might see him again.
The beast had come to kill her true husband. That was his reason for being here, so where he was going mattered greatly.
“We’re fairly certain we know which portal Kane is heading to,” Hector answered. “His force is too big to hide, and given his current trajectory, we know the planet he’ll use to get back to our solar system. We plan on stopping him at that planet so there’s no chance he can cause harm to us at home.”
He placed his glass on the counter.
“I’ll be back when that job is done.”
Luna’s breath caught in her lungs. “You’re going to kill him?”
Hector nodded. “I’m going to do everything I can to protect the Commonwealth. I’ll kill him there, and then we can return to Mars.”
“I wish you luck, my husband,” Luna managed to say.
She couldn’t hold back anymore, and Hector must have known it was coming.
He reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out the black orb, and set it on the counter next to his empty glass. He pressed the button on top and left the room as the tears started running down Luna’s face.
She tried to cover her face with her hands. Her body doubled over so her elbows were on her knees.
Luna had lived with this man—Hector—for almost two months, and she understood Alistair had no chance against him. It didn’t matter how great a Titan Alistair had been. This man was inhuman. He would kill her husband, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
She had to sit here while it happened.
The sobs caused her shoulders to shake and her back to heave. She cried loudly, knowing that for the moment, no one would hear her pain. She could let it out.
Luna cried for her marriage and her husband.
She prayed for the gods to intervene.
She prayed for Hector’s death, the Ascendant’s, everyone involved with this thing against Alistair.
In the end, when her tears had dried and her body was drained, nothing had changed. All her rage, all her sadness… It was the same.
Her husband was going to die, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Hector pitied the woman. He wouldn’t lie to her since he thought she deserved better than that. He was better than that. She was a strong woman who had been placed in a horrific position, one she hadn’t been prepared for. Despite him coming from an even more privileged background than she had, his life had been very different. Harder. He’d faced hardships and seen death from an early age.
He’d watched friends lose limbs and have their entrails fall on the ground, their stomachs opened by a laser.
Hector could do nothing to help her. The best he could do was give her space to let the anguish come out, but even that couldn’t last long. He’d have to go get the stealth machine shortly, and then it would be time for him to leave.
Hector could hear her crying in the main room, but he pushed her sorrow from his mind and went back to the conversation he and his grandfather had just had.
Hector had left much of that conversation out of what he’d told Luna. He was going to a distant planet to defend the Commonwealth, but he hadn’t told her which planet or what waited there.
Phoenix.
That was the planet’s name, the Terram people having named it for the flames that made up the atmosphere. They had sworn their allegiance to this Alistair Kane, and all reports said the former Titan planned to use it to return to the Commonwealth.
Therefore, the Ascendant would kill those sworn to him before killing him.
Hector wasn’t leading the army, he was only a member of it, but that was fine. That was what his grandfather wanted, and Hector believed Caius was right. It was better to keep a low profile, and when the war came, let his deeds speak for him. His accomplishments would push him up the ranks. No one would be able to deny the genius he’d displayed on the battlefield.
The woman’s crying was loud, piercing his thoughts. Hector didn’t mind her showing her pain, but he didn’t appreciate the interruption.
He stepped out onto the bedroom’s balcony, and the door closed behind him. He looked out at the garden.
Hector understood the Ascendant knew nothing of hardships either. He lived in this residence, surrounded by everything he could ever want. Hector knew the story of Aurelius de Finita, the first Imperial Ascendant. He had gone through true hardships to create this empire. Those after him? Some yes, some no, but Alexander de Finita, the second of his name, lived like a fat Roman emperor.
Hector felt no pity for what would soon befall the man. His grandfather thought the Ascendant was more clever than Hector. Where the grandson saw weakness, Caius saw cunning. As always, Hector would defer to his grandfather, but when war came, as it soon would, the weakness would be revealed.
Which brought him to Alistair Kane.
The Commonwealth had gotten holovids of the man, and Hector had spent the past eight weeks studying them nightly. After Luna was asleep, he rose from the bed and watched the man fight. Hector wouldn’t lie to himself and say he wasn’t impressed. Kane moved differently than anyone Hector had ever seen, including him. He seemed to be everywhere at once, yet no blows fell on him. He’d watched the battle with the woman, shocked by the sheer heart Kane had shown.
It’d been as if he’d wanted to lose, but in the end, he couldn’t let himself.
More, the Commonwealth had captured holovids of his mental abilities, if that was what they were. Caius had told Hector they were a product of his mutation, and Hector knew the rumors about Alexandria de Finita, the supposed AllMother.
None of that mattered, though. The difference between him and the former Titan was primarily in the man’s mental powers. While Kane was physically impressive, Hector knew he could kill him. No man was his equal in war. No mutant, either.
Hector took a deep breath and leaned against the rail.
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Tomorrow he left for Phoenix. They weren’t able to travel by portal. The Terram had shut down the portal, so they’d be traveling in the fourth dimension for much of the way.
The estimates showed they’d arrive about two weeks before Kane. The former Titan couldn’t go into the fifth dimension with humans at his side, so there wasn’t much he could do to speed up his travels. He would know Phoenix was being attacked and not be able to do anything about it.
Alexander had no shortage of warriors. He had no shortage of Primuses. The Commonwealth had bred them since his ancestor first created the empire, and that tradition had continued.
What he did have a shortage of was loyalty. People he could trust, as Caius had shown with his monstrosity of a grandson. Even now, Alexander’s people were trying to reverse-engineer how he’d mutated Hector without his eyes appearing red. They would know the answer soon, though Alexander didn’t plan to use that publicly against Caius.
A shortage of loyalty; that was his problem.
Alexander stood with his back to the orb, his arms locked onto each other at the small of his back.
“It seems you now understand the danger,” the Fathers said as one.
“And it seems you missed the freak of nature Caius brought to Earth. Yet another threat to my rule.”
The orb chuckled. “That freak of nature might be the thing that saves the Commonwealth.”
Alexander understood the Fathers were mocking him, but he didn’t take the bait. “I’m sure Caius would love to keep your uploaded selves around when he takes over.” He turned to look at the small dot in the middle of the large orb. “I don’t have time for this back and forth. In the morning, we leave for Phoenix. I’ve given you a hundred soldiers, and I need to know who you think I can trust. Do you have recommendations for me or not?”
Alexander had uploaded the dossier of the hundred people an hour before. It should have been finished immediately, but the Fathers wanted to chastise him more. Alexander could hardly imagine uploading himself into the orb with them and spending the rest of eternity next to such nagging pissants.
“We’ve sent back the top three candidates,” the orb responded. “The probability of trusting any one of them is below ninety percent, but we find the female you sent over has the greatest opportunity.”
Less than ninety percent? Were the gods against Alexander?
He swallowed, nodding. “Do you think I should involve her?”
“It depends on the nature of the mutant.”
“Explain,” Alexander said.
“The woman is loyal to the Commonwealth, but not you specifically. She follows you because you are the Commonwealth, but if she sees this Titan as a threat and that the best chance of survival is Hector de Gracilis, your hold on her will loosen.”
“Thank you,” he said, and despite his annoyance, once again went to his knees and bowed to the orb. “I’m going to stop him.”
“Go to the woman,” the orb commanded, “but remember, Alexander, you must make her see that the Commonwealth’s true power rests with you.”
Alexander’s head remained bowed. “Is there anything else?”
“The chances of you stopping him at this portal are slim. We foresee Kane making it back here, and there will be another to contend with then.”
Alexander knew who they were talking about: the first of his name, Alexander de Finita. The AllSeer.
“It isn’t a myth,” the orb continued. “The probability of the first still living is almost a certainty, as well as his sister. Your failure to contain this early has dramatically increased the chance that he will be returning to our solar system as well.” The light moving across the orb condensed to a dot as it quit speaking.
“What does he want?” Alexander asked.
“We have no insight into his mind. Most likely, he is insane and devoid of any logic outside a destructive hunger. He’ll bring fire and ash to us; that’s all we can be sure of.”
Chapter Six
Petra de Osimian’s hair was shaved almost to her skull. She had an extremely short crop over her dome, and the reason for cutting it so had nothing to do with vanity. She wasn’t trying to start a new look within the Titans.
She wore it that short because if she was ever to fight without a helmet, there would be nothing for her enemies to grab.
There’d been no official measurement, but Petra was most likely the smallest of all the Titans. Perhaps the smallest Titan ever, not in height but in weight and body structure. She would have looked more at home in a ballgown than in a MechSuit, though she’d never felt comfortable in fancy garments.
Currently, she was flying in a transport to a place she’d never been or ever thought she’d go. Petra had graduated from the Academy two years prior, and while she’d been in competition for First Graduate, she’d ended up losing to the man who most thought would end up as Primus someday. Even a Primus wasn’t often brought to the Imperial Residence, though, yet here she was being whisked away to it the night before an invasion began.
Petra had been told very little. She’d received a holovid message telling her to be ready in ten minutes, that a transport would pick her up. When she asked where she was going, the answer had changed everything: to meet with Alexander de Finita.
This was the largest offensive Petra had heard about in recent history, and although they were only loading up on dreadnoughts tomorrow, she wasn’t going to be able to sleep much.
Now she wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.
It was just after midnight, and the transport was quickly descending to a landing zone on the Imperial Residence’s premises. Petra watched as land-to-air weapons followed the vessel’s progress, ready to blast it and her out of the sky if the credentials it’d used to enter turned out to be false.
The transport touched down and was put into sleep mode. The side door opened and Petra stepped out. One of the legendary Praetorian Guard stood in front of her. In his MechSuit, he looked like a giant, and Petra found herself awed. She knew it was silly, given that she was a Titan, but all of the important public events in her short life had involved these men and women—the Praetorians.
“Salve, Petra,” the guard said formally. “Please follow me. The Ascendant is waiting for you.”
The guard turned, and in a walk that matched his formal speech, led her through the residence. Petra had developed skills other Titans didn’t have, and she’d done it without noticing it was happening. Those skills were necessary for someone her size if she was to succeed in a world dominated by bigger men and women. As an example, she never actively paid attention to her surroundings, but she saw everything.
As she moved through the residence, her eyes never veered to the left or right, but her mind tallied every possible threat and every guard she saw. She found the exits, the stairways, and the elevators while her eyes remained focused on the back of the guard in front of her. Anyone watching would have no idea that Petra had just created blueprints in her mind of every room she traveled through.
She’d heard about the throne room and silently hoped she would be able to see it. That wasn’t where the guard took her, though.
He led her to the gardens.
Petra had heard of the gardens as well, though she now realized the descriptions had failed to do it justice.
The Praetorian stopped just outside the entrance. Petra didn’t look up or around, but she didn’t need to. She saw it all at once, even as her mind focused on the face that had filled the millions of holovids she’d watched over the years. The face of the Commonwealth.
Alexander de Finita.
“Come in,” the Ascendant called.
He sat in the middle of an enclosure. His body was thin, his limbs long, his face narrow. A bottle of what looked to be wine sat on a round glass table. An empty chair was on the far side of the small table.
Petra walked in. Glass walls surrounded her, with green and blue lights shining on the other side. The fifth Imperial Ascendant had built th
is room and created the saltwater reef. Fish of all shapes, sizes, and colors moved through it. Crustaceans, squid, and other animals Petra couldn’t begin to identify were clinging to corals or floating gently through the water.
Petra didn’t look at the wildlife, but without a doubt, the aquarium was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
She stopped just before reaching the table, her hands at her sides, her eyes straight ahead—a soldier.
“My ancestor was trying to be humorous when he named this place,” the Ascendant said. “He called it ‘the gardens’ because he thought it would be funny to see his propraetors’ faces when they walked in and saw it was a garden of the sea. Rather than humorous, it came off as arrogant.”
De Finita picked up the glass in front of him and took a sip of the purple liquid.
“I rarely come here. It’s probably been years since I was here last, yet no matter how long I stay away, the internal workings of this palace keep going. Someone—or an AI—monitors the PH and salinity. The feedings continue. The cleaning of the tank. All so that when I walk in here, I can see its beauty.”
Petra had no idea what to say. She saw that the bottle looked to be one-fourth full and found no glass except the Ascendant’s on the table.
He finally turned to look at her—not his whole body, but his head over his shoulder. “They tell me you hold the Commonwealth in deep reverence. Is that true?”
Petra’s face showed no emotion, but she nodded. “Yes, my liege.”
The Ascendant motioned at the empty chair. “Sit with me.”
The Titan walked over to the chair, unsure of anything that was happening right now. It was already pulled out for her, and she sat down. She met de Finita’s eyes. The lights from inside the tank revealed their faces to each other, if in a soft fashion. To Petra, he looked tired and slightly tipsy, though she didn’t know him well enough to say that was the case.
“Would you like some wine?” he asked. “I can have them bring more.”
“No, my liege.”
