“You’ll have to take the device to the heart of his construct and place it there,” Judith said. “It will only detonate when you’re a safe distance away. I’ll try and upload myself into his network from your cybernetics during all this to make absolutely sure he’s destroyed. Really, either should work, but we can’t take any chances destroying the monster.”
I didn’t necessarily believe her but was comfortable obeying. “Understood.”
Isla smiled. “I did my best to help her, Cassius. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt glad I was a computer.”
“You’re not,” I said, taking a deep breath. “You’re a woman and the most human of us all.”
Isla smirked. “I’m not sure whether either of us should take that as a compliment or not.”
“This will be the last time we see each other, Cassius,” Judith said, pausing. “I want you to know Judith loved you more than life itself.”
“I never doubted that,” I said, looking at her.
“She’d want you to be happy,” Judith said.
“That’s a harder request,” I said, lowering my gaze. “I’ll try, though. It helps when I just try to love others.”
“We’ll do this together,” Isla said, reaching over and putting her hand on my shoulder. “We’ll both come back or neither of us.”
It wasn’t a promise that filled me with joy. “I’ll try to survive just a little while longer. To bear the burden of guilt and horror until my body gives out.”
Isla kissed me on the lips and I kissed her back, holding her tightly.
Judith vanished. Her absence caused me an immense amount of pain but allowed me to finally lay to rest the ghost which had been haunting me since Crius’s destruction. The False Judith had done nothing to heal my pain but merely re-opened an old wound and exploited it for her own gain. This creature, real or not, had reminded me of who she truly was.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” I asked, holding Isla.
“For now,” Isla said. “Of course, this could just be a dying dream for both of us. Fade could have shot me and you could be having your synapses burning out. Who could tell what was real and what was fake then?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, repeating what I’d been thinking. “Because if life is an illusion then I am an illusion too.”
“That’s a pretty—” Isla disappeared.
“No!” I shouted.
I awoke seconds later to excruciating pain across the whole of my body. It was if my entire body was on fire with broken bones, open wounds, and something inside me knitting them all back together. A bright light was shining in my face and I caught glimpses of smooth stone formed into a pyramid-shaped room. That was when a face moved in front of the light and stared right into my eyes.
Zoe.
“Brother, you are an enormous pain in my ass.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I collapsed unconscious before I could respond to my sister before awakening again sometime later. This time, I took a moment to look around my location and take my surroundings in. I saw no sign of Zoe but that wasn’t a source of comfort. After all, she was probably the only person on my father’s side who didn’t want me dead.
I was still lying on a slab in the middle of a pyramid-shaped stone room which had light coming from no single source but existed ambient about me. There were other slabs spread throughout the room and looking at them, I could see control runes projected directly into my mind in an alien language that I instantly understood the purpose for as well as the functions of.
I was in a medical ward of some kind and I could see, next to me, the figure of Fade in a kind of glowing barrier that was lifting him several inches off the surface of his slab. He looked far better and his injuries seemed to have been repaired. After staring at him for several seconds, I scanned the room to look for Isla and was profoundly relieved to see she was on another slab, though it wasn’t working—perhaps because her anatomy wasn’t human.
I was probably inside the Temple of the Kathax Prime, though I had no way to be sure and the place had a distinctly different aesthetic from the extinct Kolahn’s architecture. The entire place seemed to hum with a rhythmic noise that reminded me of whales or trolodon song. It was a peaceful sensation until I remembered I was inside the fortress of a being which my father was worshiping as a god, possibly at the mercy of my deranged sister. I wasn’t a great believer in the idea of “mad scientists”, but Zoe was proof positive such things existed.
And yet she’d taken me from where I was trapped in a storm-locked cave and brought me here. Dammit. Why couldn’t people just be simple?
“Now to save the day,” I muttered, attempting to slide off the lab and ending up face-planting against the ground.
Yeah, this wasn’t my finest moment. I struggled to force myself to stand before I finally managed to grab the side of the slab and hold myself up.
“No pain,” I said, forcing it away from my body.
I couldn’t entirely will it all away but I did my best to anyway. I was still wearing my clothes from the chase across the desert, but my weapons had been taken away. That wasn’t too bad of a problem but the bomb, which I mentally decided to name ‘the Planet Killer’ was also missing and possibly disabled.
“New plan,” I said, speaking to myself. “Next time someone asks you to do something good—rob them and go to Inanna.”
“That’s not a very nice attitude,” Fade spoke, surprising me.
I leaned up against the slab I’d been laying on before looking down at my associate. “You’ve looked better.”
The field dissipated around Fade before his body lowered gently on the slab. “You saved my life. You kept me from the storm.”
“I did,” I said, shrugging. “You would have done the same thing for me.”
“I was actually ordered to kill you after this,” Fade admitted.
I stared at him. “People wonder why no one likes the Commonwealth.”
“It wasn’t my grandmother,” Fade said, sighing. “She burned every bit of her political capital trying to get a sincere offer to be made for the Free Systems Alliance. The militants in Parliament overruled her. I was supposed to eliminate your father, you, and your sister after you got us close enough for me to do it. Then they would offer the peace treaty while the organization was in disarray.”
“I see,” I said, not even surprised. “I suppose I should be used to everyone being willing to betray everyone else by now.”
“Yes, well, I didn’t expect space gods and armies of the dead to be involved,” Fade said, coughing. “Also, I’m not sure if your relatives are immortal or not.”
“Just clones,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I can’t tell you if Zoe has a copy of him lying around.”
“I hope she does,” Fade said, surprising me. “He seemed like an interesting person. It was him who helped us pull off Clarice’s ill-advised sabotage and escape plan. I don’t think we could have been able to get to the temple otherwise.”
I stared at him. “It was a stupid idea on all of our parts since they swatted us like a bug. The only reason we survived was because they held back.”
“They held back against you,” Fade said, taking a deep breath. “Apparently Thomas didn’t qualify.”
I didn’t respond to that. “So what’s your plan now?”
“Kill the space god,” Fade said, pausing. “If we can, then maybe your father’s dream of betraying the Spiral to the Community is fucked too.”
“I meant about killing me,” I said.
“I’m not going to,” Fade said, sitting up. “It would be rude. I’m also going to do everything I can to actually help you escape should either of us survive this.”
“What are the chances of that?” I asked.
“Not good,” Fade said, frowning. “The chance of the Melampus escaping into the nebula and not getting destroyed by the FSA fleet was small to begin with, doubly so with the fact they have no reason to preserve the lives
of any of their men. They’re all dead, soulless bioroids so they can waste as many as they need to in order to win. A living plague of cybernetic locusts come to bring judgment down on humanity.”
“I don’t share your view on bioroids,” Isla said, getting up and stretching her arms as well as neck. “If you ask me, they’re more like humans in they are freely giving up their identities as well as will to be extensions of a pathetic half-insane dictator.”
“Let’s not insult humanity,” I said, frowning. “Some of my best friends are human.”
Isla snorted.
“I don’t suppose we’re going to get any help from your Elder Race friend?” Fade asked.
“No,” I said. “Isla and…well, Isla and I, destroyed it. The Elder Races are the enemy of all the Young Species and we’re one down.”
“They’re not going to destroy all of humanity because of that, are they?” Fade asked, quite sincerely.
“I have no idea,” I said, sighing. “However, I’m fairly sure the universe is a better place for the False Judith’s absence.”
“Can we use the weapon you used to destroy her against the Kathax Prime?” Fade asked, apparently not considering the fact we were in its temple and it was probably listening in on us.
“You already are,” Zoe said, walking into the room with a sentinel beside her. She had traded in her lab coat for a beautiful black-and-gold jumpsuit which I recognized as belonging to the Revengeance’s science officer. It offended me to look at the uniform, as if she was borrowing the glory of those who’d actually fought and died to protect the now-destroyed archduchy.
“Hello, Zoe,” I said, unsure how to react to her.
Fade stood still, seemingly ready to move like a cobra.
Isla stared with undisguised hostility.
“After I encountered you with the Kathax Beta, I awakened the Cognition A.I. inside her, which she’d co-opted,” Zoe said, frowning. “I’ve learned much about the functioning of the Elder Race’s consciousness and how to alter or eliminate them. The Judith virus formed from the late Kathax Beta’s engrams are even now spreading through the temple and reacting with the Kathax Prime’s programming. With any luck, he will be destroyed soon enough.”
Every explanation I received for what was going on in the galaxy just opened more questions. Still, Zoe had saved me from the Kathax Beta and I owed her my attention for that much.
I squinted, remembering how she’d tried to persuade me the Kathax Prime wasn’t so bad. “So you’re on our side now?”
Zoe smirked. “I have never been on anyone’s side, brother, except humanity’s. Whatever the case, I did not lie to you in the slightest. The Kathax Prime is the best hope for the ascension of the human race to be able to take its rightful place as the dominant power in the galaxy.”
“You just said you wanted to kill him,” Fade said, as confused as I was.
“I will learn much from his dead consciousness-less programming as well as technology,” Zoe said. “The result will be akin to dissecting a brain, I suppose you could say, or observing it after taking apart the sections devoted to free will.”
“Lovely family you have here,” Fade said.
I didn’t respond to that before looking at my sister. “You realize Thomas is dead, right?”
“Yes, and our race will be too unless we destroy the Kathax Prime,” Zoe said. “Eliminating it is the final stage in our plan to ascend humanity. We simply did not possess the technology until you brought the Kathax Beta to us for my Cognition A.I. to analyze for weaknesses then destroy.”
“Was that always your plan?” I asked, wondering if the Judith she’d created had been a honey trap for me.
“More or less,” Zoe said. “You served as a bit of a speed bump.”
I shook my head. “I could have just not bothered to show up and all of this would have gone down smoothly, wouldn’t it?”
“Perhaps,” Zoe said, frowning. “But the Elder Race’s representative would have chosen another agent and probably led a fleet to bomb us to oblivion. You’ve been a great deal more accommodating.”
I wasn’t sure that wasn’t a better solution. “What do you want from me?”
“Go to the heart of the temple,” Zoe said, her tone cold and unsympathetic. “I need you to reach the central crystalline matrix and upload the last of the virus. The Kathax Prime was distracted by the initial virus but he isolated the portion of it I infected. There’s a small army of nanovirus-infected soldiers between our present position and them. Ones which the Kathax Prime has managed to usurp control over. I’ve managed to delay them for the time being with others I’ve overwritten for my own service, but that won’t last long.”
“Nanovirus-infected soldiers?” Fade growled. “Those are people you’ve turned into slaves!”
“Tools,” Zoe said. “Slaves would imply they can ever have a choice again. They can’t.”
“Why not just use the Planet-Killer?” I asked. “Assuming you still have it in your possession.”
“It’s already been disposed of,” Zoe said, simply. “I want the Temple of the Kathax Prime intact. It is the key for the ascension of mankind.”
I found myself remembering when the Human Rights Coalition bombed the Germanicus Tram Station. I’d been only fourteen years old while Thomas and Zoe had been fifteen. The two of us had been visiting with cousins when the explosion had ripped through a quarter of the building, killing hundreds and causing the crowds to panic. Our guards had abandoned us and it was Thomas who had brought me to sensibility.
He slapped me across the face, stared right into my eyes, and said, “We have to find Zoe.”
I nodded. “We can’t leave her here.”
It had been a boy’s bravado, because I was terrified of what was going on. I hadn’t yet learned to make the mask of courage into its reality. Still, we pushed past the people running away from the bomb and saw people who’d been trampled to death or mortally wounded by broken glass. There was nothing we could do for them, though I wanted to help, and it ended up almost a half-hour before we’d found Zoe huddled in a women’s restroom stall.
Thomas grabbed her and hugged her tight, whispering. “I am never going to abandon you, my sister. Neither is Cassius.”
Zoe grabbed Thomas back, whispering, “You are the most important person in the world to me. Cassius too. We’re always going to be a family, yes?”
“Yes,” Thomas said. “We’re not going to let anyone tear us apart. Not the filthy rebels, not the Commonwealth, and not the nobility.”
“Not Father either,” Zoe said.
“No,” Thomas said.
I was brought back to my senses by the memory, so sharp and clear I might as well have been living it in the moment. “Do you feel anything for Thomas’s death? He loved you more than you could possibly imagine.”
“Did you feel anything when you killed my doppelganger?” Zoe said, her voice low. “I trusted you, Cassius, and you betrayed me.”
I stared at her. “I never betrayed you. You betrayed yourself.”
Zoe snorted. “A meaningless distinction. You and Father were always at each other’s throats. Always planning your big games and big plans but you were limited in your vision. He wanted to build an empire and you wanted to be the greatest soldier ever. Both of you were failures in the end.”
“You’re right,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Father should have recognized you were his daughter all along.”
Zoe gave a half-smile. “Do we have a deal?”
A fusion blast went off and Zoe fell to her knees before collapsing forward. It was followed by several more blasts as the Sentinel turned around, its armor absorbing the attacks. Fade jumped up on top of his slab before leaping onto the sentinel’s back, grabbing a proton knife from its side and stabbing it in the neck.
The battle was over before it began.
I didn’t see who shot Zoe and didn’t care for the moment because I was already by her side, staring at the fusion blast
in her back. The energy attack had liquefied most of her organs and sent a shock that had probably instantly killed her. Pushing her over, I stared into her eyes that were wide open and I wondered if this was the “real” Zoe or another one of her clones. It was the second time I’d seen her die and I asked myself if I had anything left in me to mourn her.
I didn’t.
“Death comes swiftly for us all,” I said somberly. “God and the Devil keep you, sister, because you always assumed you’d be among them someday but it was never a quest you had to fight for.”
“Cassius?” Clarice’s voice spoke.
I looked up and was stunned to see the sight of Clarice, Anya, William, and even Princess Servilia. They looked a bit more worse for wear with smudges and William sporting a bandage over his right arm but were all still alive. All of them were armed as well with Clarice holding the gun that had killed my sister.
“You’re alive?” I said, taking a deep breath. “There is a God.”
“Yes, one who wants to fuck with us,” Fade said, cleaning off the proton knife as he looked between the corpses on the ground. “How the hell did you get here?”
“Shot our way out,” William said, shrugging before a pained look appeared on his face. “It’s pretty much how we solve all our problems. Oh and Princess Pureblood here helped us get out when we were captured.”
“Shut up, peasant,” Servilia said before smirking. “With all respect, Captain, I’d very much like to request asylum on your ship. Your family, our family, is completely insane.”
“Yes, yes it is,” I said, taking a deep breath. “It would be my honor to offer you a place on the ship, Princess Servilia.”
“Call me Vi,” Servilia said. “I hate the name they gave me. I don’t know anything about ancient Rome other than it seems like a poor empire to base yourself after if you have a Christian-derived culture.”
I chuckled at her statement. “It would appear this entire plan was built on the basis of lies and misinformation. It is my suggestion we find a way to depart this place and never look back.”
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