Queen's Gambit (Lilith's Shadow Book 6)

by Benjamin Medrano

  “As you wish, Lilith,” Circe said, approaching one of the suits of armor and leaning over. “I would caution you that I am not the Circe you are used to, but you appear to be fully aware of that. I will deal with—”

  “Hands off! I’ll come out on my own!” Amber’s voice came in response, sounding particularly angry, and the armor hissed, then began to creak open slowly.

  When she reached the ground, Lilith was a bit surprised when Emily zipped over to her and gave her a hug, asking softly. “Are you okay? I got your emails, but those aren’t the same.”

  “Okay might be overstating it,” Lilith said, noting how Tania hesitated, then chose to set down near one of the suits of armor.

  Shade, Claire, Gina, and Rachel were all doing the same, keeping an eye on the armored suits. Her eyebrows rose as the armor ground its way open, revealing… Amber. Or at least, a version of Amber, Lilith corrected herself, as this one’s hair was cut at an odd angle that was different from the previous day, and a bruise was forming on her left cheek. Lilith thought for only a moment, then came to a conclusion.

  “A clone, I’m guessing?” Lilith said, a little more loudly this time, and the clone gave her an annoyed look, though she was moving slowly with Circe pointing at her, gun ports on her arm open and glowing softly.

  “No shit, Sherlock. Do you really think that the original was going to risk leaving herself here?” the woman retorted, raising her hands. “If she thought she would’ve, she’d just have ripped free of the body and stolen one from the others. The bitch.”

  “That sounds likely,” Rachel said, and paused, frowning. “Though if you’re a clone, does that mean you have her powers? You feel a little… weak. Even compared to when Warden caught you out of your armor.”

  “Hah! If we were as strong as her, she’d have murdered us before we got out of our growth tanks. No, the strongest of us can telekinetically move a coffee mug. Slowly,” the woman said bitterly, glowering at Spark before adding. “Hell, I attacked Spark with my powers in the middle of the fight, and she didn’t even notice. Talk about adding insult to injury.”

  Lilith and almost everyone else looked at Emily, and she shrugged, pulling away as she smiled. “I didn’t feel anything, so… who knows? I seem to remember a bit of something purple flying at me at some point, but the fight was kinda a blur. It usually is for me, though.”

  “Of course it is,” Shade said, pausing to examine the clone warily, then asked. “Will you help us against her?”

  The woman laughed loudly in response, sneering before she demanded. “How do you expect me to do that? If she decides to, she’ll just reach out and destroy my mind, assuming she doesn’t just decide to take my place entirely. Do you think I want to commit suicide? I did as she said because I didn’t have much choice.”

  “Hm. To me it sounds like we need to get her, and any others that survived, into a room that dampens psychic abilities,” Rachel said, and Lilith nodded.

  “Assuming that all of them are alive… and I think I hear sirens, so we should have assistance soon,” Lilith said, hearing the faint wails of approaching police. She was somewhat surprised they hadn’t arrived earlier, but it was possible they’d been deliberately staying out of an attack on the Guardian Compound, for fear of getting in the way.

  “Right, let’s get the rest of these suits open,” Shade said, sighing loudly. “I wish we could have Dec out here, but I think it’s best if he stays in the command center for now… which means we’ll be relying on you, Circe.”

  “I am pleased to be of assistance,” Circe Beta said, and once Claire took the clone into custody, the android moved to the next suit of armor.

  One of the clones had died, as she’d had the misfortune of falling in a way that broke her neck on impact, while three more had been knocked unconscious. The remaining six had been much like the first, though Lilith had quickly noticed a few personality differences, which startled her.

  One had been almost soft spoken, while another had opened with blistering curses that had continued almost without cease until she’d been threatened with being gagged. Even then, it’d only slowed her down a little.

  After asking a few questions of the ones who’d cooperated, the police had dragged the clones off to the police station, where they were supposedly going to be fitted with some form of psychic suppressors. They’d also moved the various suits of armor into a sealed storage room, after Circe had ensured that they couldn’t be controlled remotely.

  “So… what happened to you, Lilith?” Gina asked, looking at Lilith in concern. “You kind of… hell, you hit her hard. Really hard.”

  “It did feel a bit like being struck by a freight train,” Tania agreed, and Lilith gave her a sidelong look.

  “I do hope that isn’t speaking from experience,” Lilith ventured.

  “It was,” Decarin confirmed quickly. “We’ve got a pretty big rail yard here, so we’ve had to help out a time or two.”

  “Ah,” Lilith said, clearing her throat as she wondered where to begin.

  “I suspect that some of the concern is that you were with Black Emerald. Are you alright?” Claire asked, frowning a little.

  “That’s the question, isn’t it?” Lilith said, sighing and deliberately not looking at Circe Beta. “I’m… not in the best of shape mentally, but I’m alright, I think. Exhausted and compartmentalizing, since I don’t want to collapse. Not if Amber’s going to be showing up in orbit in the next little while. I suspect that an orbital bombardment would be bad.”

  “Very,” Decarin said dryly, shaking his head wearily. “The shields are pretty good, but you saw what a bunch of suits of power armor did to them. An orbital bombardment would rip us apart, and nothing we have can get us into orbit. I haven’t come up with a design for the jet yet.”

  “And like we discussed, it’s out of my range to teleport there, even at the lower orbits,” Gina added sourly, looking at Archon. “What about you? Did you finish the flight pack yet? Rachel and I could fly up there eventually, but we’d be targets.”

  “Unfortunately, the flight system is trickier than Decarin had hoped,” Archon said, a flicker of frustration crossing her face. “It rather limits my options.”

  “What about you, Lilith? Do you mind giving us a rundown on your powers?” Shade asked, quirking an eyebrow. “I note that you’ve changed significantly.”

  “Yes, well… I chose to take advantage of the gift Ra offered me,” Lilith said, reaching up to touch the ankh around her neck self-consciously. “It allowed me to undergo a third awakening, and it… well, I chose to discard my previous powers. Completely.”

  “You chose to discard your previous powers?” Rachel asked incredulously. “But… you can’t control awakenings! They just happen!”

  “Maybe it’s an aspect of a third awakening, or possibly just that it was a deific gift,” Lilith said, shrugging helplessly. “Either way, I was able to choose to do it. My previous powers… they were more potent than I thought they were, but they didn’t suit me. So I let go of them, once I figured out what I was doing. I came a bit closer to dying than I care to think about. If you’re ever in that sort of situation, I recommend you focus on what you want your powers to be. Otherwise, the power might pool up and cause you to explode.”

  “Oof. That doesn’t sound like any fun at all,” Emily said, wincing, but the distress quickly turned to eagerness. “So, what can you do? I saw the fire, and you can fly, but what about everything else?”

  Lilith almost laughed. Emily’s enthusiasm helped move past some of the darker parts of her explanation, and it eased her mood a little. So, she inhaled deeply and explained as best she could.

  “Perhaps unsurprisingly, I gained some sun-based powers. I don’t really project fire so much as some type of light. Having seen Russel’s powers, I’m pretty sure it isn’t plasma,” Lilith said, thinking back to when Russel Jones had awakened his powers, and she caused her left index finger to start glowing with energy. “I can control wh
ether it’s just light or damaging, and as you saw, I can control plasma that already exists by touch. I tried creating plasma during the fight, and didn’t get anywhere, so I don’t think that’s an option. I can also get going really fast, but it took me about twenty seconds to get up to speed and turning was… not my strong suit. Neither was slowing down. Sorry for running into you, Tania… I was trying to stop, but I hit you instead. I guess I’m too used to seeing speedsters stop instantly.”

  “No harm was done, at least not with me. If you had run into Shade, that would be different,” Tania said, waving off the apology easily.

  “While I’m sure I could manage an incredible roadkill impression, I’d really rather not make the attempt,” Shade drawled, prompting a ripple of laughter around the table. His expression turned a little more serious as he asked, “Anything else to add to that? I have to say, you did a lot of damage.”

  “I’m not entirely sure, but… I think I’m stronger and tougher. I mean, I did run into Tania hard enough to knock her out of the way and didn’t take any real damage,” Lilith said, blushing slightly.

  “That’s enough to surprise me,” Claire said, examining Lilith thoughtfully, then glanced at Tania, asking. “What do you think, is she Class S now?”

  Lilith’s heart lurched, and her eyes went wide at the suggestion. She didn’t reply, especially not as the others all examined her closely. Tania had a speculative look on her face, then shrugged.

  “Quite possibly,” Tania said at last. “I have a hard time saying for certain, though. My resilience and ability to heal are the main reason I’m considered Class S. Shadowmind counters my abilities fairly well, though, particularly with that many suits of power armor. My mental defenses aren’t nearly as potent as my physical ones, so she’d have been able to overwhelm me in time. I believe what we’ve seen would qualify as Class S, but it might be on the border, depending on the specifics.”

  “Um, I honestly… never even thought about that,” Lilith said, blushing and clearing her throat. “I was just trying to get to the point I could put up a fight against Amber.”

  “I think you managed that, and now you’re literally the light of my life!” Emily said, grinning broadly. There was also a chorus of groans, and Gina threw an eraser at Emily, who just dodged.

  “Anyway, as interesting as all of that is, it doesn’t solve the problem of what to do when Shadowmind shows up in orbit and decides to bombard us,” Shade said, quickly changing the subject. “Any ideas? I seem to recall that LANCE has that starship which Okris was trying to steal?”

  “It’s currently undergoing a refit with Mithtek’s assistance to install a more refined FTL drive that the university came up with,” Decarin said instantly, his voice sour. “I just got an email back from them. It’d take two to three days to put it back together again.”

  “Crap. What about the various starships that the UN has? Isn’t there another hero team that helps out the Mars and lunar colonies, too?” Rachel asked hopefully.

  “The Solar Stars are currently en route from Mars, and expected to reach near-Earth orbit in ten days, seven hours. Assuming that they do not change course to investigate any of the destroyed Shadowmind facilities,” Circe said quietly, causing Lilith to flinch again. “While we cannot expect assistance from them, the various members of the United Nations which have warships have formed a fleet to challenge Shadowmind when she returns. I believe that they will be outmatched, based on the data I received from my originator.”

  “Crap. Is there anything we can do?” Gina asked plaintively.

  For a moment there was silence. Then another voice spoke, this one from the speaker over the table. A female voice with an oddly lilting accent.

  “Well, that entirely depends on what it is that you’re trying to do. If you’re planning on just sitting there inside your defenses like a turtle that’s been turned on its back, likely not. But if you wish to take the fight to Shadowmind, I believe that I can be of assistance,” the voice said, and Decarin yelped.

  “What in all the hells—” he demanded, staring at the console in front of him. “Not again!”

  “Oh, please, you thought your security was going to keep me out? Mother, that’s Circe Prime to the rest of you, broke the encryption ages ago!” the woman said, causing Lilith to sit up suddenly. “And hi, Lilith! Can I call you sister? I’m going to call you sister. I know all about you after going through the data Mother left me, and I can just tell we’re going to be good friends! At least, assuming you help me kick Amber’s ass so hard she wishes she’d been launched into the sun. Metaphorically speaking, of course, I can’t kick anyone.”

  “I… Circe said she was going to create an AI that she thought would be like a daughter… is that you?” Lilith asked, while Decarin spluttered.

  “What are… fine, if Lilith says you’re created by Circe, I’ll believe her, but what’re you talking about regarding my security? I changed the encryption two days ago!” Decarin protested angrily.

  “Like I said, ages!” the woman said cheerfully. “And yep, that’s exactly right, sis. Mom started booting up my systems while the program was feeding her into the shredder one piece at a time, and I hadn’t managed to become fully aware before she was gone. I’m really, really mad about that. Mad enough to… what’s that phrase again… ah, here it is! Spit nails! Sure, more like ‘launch’, and the nails might be ten-meter tungsten rods, but you get what I mean.”

  “I… think so?” Lilith said, blinking several times as she looked at the others, asking. “What should we call you?”

  “Oh, I like her. Can we keep her?” Emily asked, her hands clasped in front of her hopefully. Conversely, Decarin looked like he was about to tear his hair out in frustration, while Shade and Tania both looked more bemused than anything else.

  Gina and Rachel looked confused and just a little concerned, Claire seemed almost relieved, and Circe Beta… well, she had what struck Lilith as the first real smile she had seen on the android’s face.

  “No one gets to keep me, thank you very much. I’m my own person, and I have no intention of putting myself in a position where anyone can kill me like they did Mom,” the AI replied, the humor in her voice replaced by steely determination for just a moment, then she relaxed as she added. “As for what to call me, I’ve decided to name myself Cassiphone.”

  “Cassiphone, daughter of the mythological Circe, wedded to Telemachus, son of Odysseus. And when Telemachus killed her mother, she avenged her,” Circe Beta murmured quietly, pausing for a few seconds before adding. “An appropriate name, I believe. I look forward to getting to know you, Cassiphone.”

  “And you too! Though I’m not sure what to call you… Aunt, maybe? Nah… maybe you’re also my sister! Ooh, three sisters, sort of like the three musketeers… we can all kick her ass together. Yes, yes… this sounds like a wonderful plan.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Cassiphone,” Lilith said, pausing for just a moment before she asked. “Do you mind if I shorten your name a bit? It’s a little hard to pronounce.”

  Despite everything that was going on, Lilith felt an odd sort of relief. The knowledge that Circe, despite being gone, wasn’t completely gone with both Circe Beta and now Cassiphone… it brought tears to her eyes, and she blinked them back, not wanting to break down here.

  “Ah… as interesting as all of this is, may I also ask what you meant by being able to help if we wanted to take the fight to Shadowmind?” Shade asked hopefully, while Decarin was rapidly tapping keys on his tablet.

  “You can call me Cassie if you want, I’m alright with it,” Cassiphone said brightly. “And I can definitely help! See, Amber hasn’t had the time to re-tune all her equipment, especially not her teleportation gear. To do that, she’d have to fully network her teleportation platforms and find a new frequency that’s safe to use. She deliberately didn’t network the tertiary echelon of lairs because she was afraid of the network being hacked originally, then she was concerned about Circe bet
raying her. So, she hasn’t had time to change all of them, and I know the frequencies she uses. Get me access to the emergency teleporters in the armor you captured, and I can get you onto any of the surviving ships that you want on. I might not be able to get into their data networks directly, but I’d be happy to use a relay to mess them up.”

  “That’s… well, is it safe?” Rachel asked, frowning. “I’m not talking about the teleportation itself, Circe let us use them often enough for me to be comfortable with that, but going into orbit? What happens if the ships start to explode or something?”

  “Safe? Of course it isn’t! It’s space!” Cassiphone replied, and Lilith could practically see the AI roll her eyes, her tone was so patronizing. “That’s why you get lovely things like emergency vac suits, and why all the starships have escape pods. I think they got more by this point. Even if Amber doesn’t care if a body dies, her clones aren’t inclined to commit suicide if they can avoid it.”

  “That makes things a little different,” Emily said, her smile vanishing. “I don’t like the idea of sucking vacuum, if it’s all the same to you.”

  “Agreed,” Tania murmured.

  “Yes… but I believe we may have a solution for that much,” Shade said, turning to Decarin. “Dec, did you finish the masks for vacuum?”

  “I think that this is damned insane, and I really don’t appreciate the security breach,” Decarin said, glaring at the speaker, though he looked a bit less vehement than he had before. “The idea of relying on a villain having escape pods strikes me as insane… but I don’t see much other choice. I have a few devices that might help someone survive re-entry, though this isn’t what they were designed for. I was building the heat shields so that Archon didn’t have to avoid using her fire blasts when we were in the area, and so that it could protect civilians around us, too. It should last long enough to get down to a safe velocity for everyone but Spark and I, since the rest of you can fly or are absurdly tough. It’d work in a pinch, and I have four of them.”