"Still scanning," Lailani said. "Definitely no radio signals. No unusual radiation, just what's coming off those binary stars. I'm running a scan on the shapes of the boulders. It'll take a while. So far, nothing but irregular, jagged rocks, nothing that's tripping the scanners." She bit her lip. "We're in either the wrong place or the wrong time. Damn it! Centuries ago there was something here, something ancient, something that had been floating here for a million years. Did somebody find it before us?"
They hovered for several hours, sending probe after probe, running scan after scan, examining asteroid after asteroid. Nothing. Not a signal.
They slept—an uneasy sleep, tossing and turning, waking every few hours to check the signals. In the morning, they gathered in the galley for a dour breakfast. The meatloaf was gone. They were down to eating crackers and jam, their last morsels.
They had to mush Keewaji's food into a paste, and he coughed and could only handle a few bites. The Nandaki bragged that he had already lived to prodigious age, longer than most of his kind, but Marco couldn't help but pity him, that he had grown from childhood to old age within only three months.
"Ideas," said Ben-Ari, sitting at the kitchen table with them. "Anything. No matter how stupid. Give me your ideas."
"Well," Lailani said, "we could fly into the black hole and hope we find a Taco Shack on the other side." Everybody groaned. "What? The captain said no matter how stupid!"
"Lailani, you obviously had the wrong coordinates," Kemi said. "Maybe if you recheck your notes, you can find the—"
"This is the right place." Lailani glared at the pilot. "I know what I'm doing here, ma'am." She tossed out that last word like an insult.
Kemi bristled. "I never demanded that you call me ma'am, Sergeant."
Lailani barked a bitter laugh. "And yet you just flaunted your higher rank right now."
"You started it!" said Kemi.
"Very mature." Lailani leaped to her feet. "Where were you, anyway, when we were fighting in the hive of Abaddon, princess?"
"I was battling scum in the sky!" Kemi shouted. "You know this."
"Oh, yes, you pilots always have some excuse. Even Ben-Ari, who's also an officer, fought with us on the ground, but you—"
"De la Rosa, enough!" Ben-Ari said. "Sit down!"
Lailani sat down, grumbling. "Sorry, Captain." She glanced at Kemi. "Sorry, Kemi. I'm antsy. I have cabin fever. And this fucking place . . ." She clutched her hair and groaned. "Ugh! It should be here! I'm sure this is the right place, but . . ." She sighed. "Somebody else must have found them first."
"The marauders," Marco whispered. "They got here first." He stood up. "Lailani! Maybe scan for marauder vessels around, maybe we can—"
"Way ahead of you, Poet," Lailani said. "I scanned as far as I could. If anyone was broadcasting signals here, even marauders, they're long gone. No vestige of them. No radio signals, no radiation, nothing. There are no ripples in the pond. As far as I can tell, we're the first starship to have flown here in centuries."
Marco rose from the table, unable to stomach the dry crackers any longer. Frustration welled in him. After all this—fleeing the marauders on Haven, defeating them in the forests of Haven, flying through the wormholes and on the back of starwhales—only to find nothing? Had this been only a wild goose chase?
How can it end like this? he thought.
He left the galley, walked past the lounge, and entered the crew quarters. His fingers shook.
We failed you, Addy. We failed Earth. We failed everybody.
And he could feel it—that black hole watching him. Mocking him.
He turned toward the porthole. He gazed outside into space. The asteroids and dust were lazily orbiting the black hole, hovering just outside the event horizon. Marco focused his eyes on his reflection in the window. He saw a man who was still young, only twenty-six, yet had eyes that were much older. In many ways, like Keewaji, he had aged too quickly, already felt like an old man. Tired. So tired. His eyes were sunken. His brown hair was limp. Where was the eighteen-year-old boy who had made love to Lailani in the tent, who had laughed with his friends, who still believed in a future? That boy had died in the mines of Corpus. Since then, only a ghost had walked in his shoes.
And as Marco stared, it seemed to him that a ghost face rose in the darkness, overlaying his reflection, forming a pale mask like the kabuki mask the girl had worn in Haven. He blinked and narrowed his eyes, refocusing.
He took a step back.
"What the hell?"
An asteroid floated just outside, and a face was engraved onto its surface—right behind Marco's translucent reflection.
He rubbed his eyes and blinked. It was still there. A face carved into the asteroid. A human face. A face startlingly similar to his own. It must have been a kilometer wide.
Just a case of pareidolia, he told himself. The human instinct to see faces in things. Like the face on Mars people sometimes saw.
Yet this face ahead seemed different. Too well-defined. It had been carved by intelligence, not just a random formation.
"Why does it look like me?" he whispered.
The door banged open.
"Marco!" Lailani rushed in. "Marco, hurry! To the lounge!"
He spun around toward her. "Did you see the face too?"
"What face?" She reached toward him. "Hurry, there's something wrong with Keewaji!"
Marco ran.
They raced through the ship and back into the lounge. Keewaji lay on the floor by the jukebox. Captain Ben-Ari sat beside him, cradling his head in her lap, stroking the elderly alien's hair.
Marco approached slowly. He crouched by them. "How are you feeling, Keewaji?"
The old Nandaki blinked rheumy eyes. He clasped Marco's hand. He spoke through a mouth in one of his other four hands.
"I am ready, Master Marco," he whispered. "I am ready for my greatest adventure."
Ben-Ari stroked his hair. "Won't you stay with us longer, Keewaji?"
"My time has come," the alien said. "I have lived for many days. I am ready to sail into the great beyond, to join my ancestors."
Marco tightened his grip on Keewaji's hand. "You can't leave yet! Stay with us longer! Until we can take you home." His eyes dampened. "Don't die here in space. You deserve to be among your people, in your forest. Fight it! Live!"
Keewaji gazed at him, peace in his eyes. "Young Master Marco. Yes, you are young. You always seemed so ancient to me, but I realize now. How young you all are. Yet I am old, by the measure of my people, though I am only five months old to you. For my people, that is a ripe old age. I do not regret dying here, kind masters." Light filled his eyes. "I have lived to see great wonders! I fought the Night Hunters with heroes from Earth. I sailed in a great ship to the stars. I found the Tree of Light and traveled along its paths. I rode upon the mythical starwhales, and I gazed upon the great portal to the worlds beyond." His tears fell. "I am so blessed. So blessed to have seen such wonders. So blessed to die among such dear friends."
Kemi and Lailani approached, knelt, and each held one of Keewaji's hands. Ben-Ari kept cradling his head, stroking his long white hair.
"It has been an honor," the captain said. "Shalom, friend."
"Paalam," Lailani whispered, saying farewell in her own language.
"Goodbye," said Marco. "Goodbye, my dear friend."
Keewaji smiled, tears flowing. "My friends . . ."
His breath faded. His eyes closed.
They did not know his customs. They did not know much about his faith. But for most of his life, Keewaji had been a warrior. Perhaps he had worn no uniform, had carried no weapon, but he had fought against the marauders, those he had called the Night Hunters. They gave him a military funeral, and Ben-Ari spoke of his courage, his kindness, his wisdom. They sent his body out into the darkness, a burial in the cosmic ocean.
"I'm not a religious man," Marco said softly as they gathered in the airlock, watching the shrouded body float away. "But I've seen such wo
nders this year—ships and wormholes and creatures I would have thought impossible. So today, I will believe. That Keewaji found his way to his afterlife. That he's happy. I'll miss him."
After the funeral, Marco told his companions about the face on the asteroid. They managed to track it again, and they all agreed that it looked eerily unnatural—and eerily like Marco. That memory resurfaced, a nightmare from the mines of Corpus: finding a ball of flesh that had stolen his DNA, had grown his face. Yet this asteroid didn't seem menacing. The engraved face was serene.
"It might all just be a coincidence," Ben-Ari said. "We humans evolved to seek out faces, to recognize them on stones, landscapes, even grilled cheese sandwiches."
Lailani licked her lips. "Mmm, cheese . . . You're torturing me, Captain."
Kemi nodded. "Yet we all agree this face looks too good."
"Well, I am rather handsome," Marco said, incurring groans. He looked back outside at his likeness. "It's a sign."
"It's a sign that you have a massive head?" Lailani said.
"My head is perfectly normal!"
"Uh huh," Lailani said. "Is that why you could barely find any helmet to fit you?"
"We can't all be the size of a tadpole like you," he said. "But no, this isn't a sign that I have a large head with a very large brain. I think . . ." He gazed out the porthole again. "It's a sign from them. From whoever flew the Ghost Fleet. They knew we would come. They left it here for us."
"They should have carved Kemi's face," Lailani said. "She's the pretty one."
"I am not!" Kemi said, bristling, then bit her lip. "Oh. I mean—thank you."
Marco gazed out at the black hole. He spoke softly. "Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here . . ."
"Shakespeare again?" Lailani asked. "Nietzsche?"
"Jones and Henson," Kemi answered, a soft smile on her lips. "Labyrinth. Our favorite movie."
Marco looked at her. Kemi smiled back. They both remembered those times in their youth.
Marco turned toward his captain. "Ma'am, I suggest the following course of action. We fly into the black hole."
They all started talking at once.
"You're crazy!" Lailani said.
"The forces would rip our ship apart!" said Kemi.
"Marco, no," said Ben-Ari. "That would be suicide."
Marco waited, listening as they kept objecting, until they all quieted down.
"Has anyone ever flown into a black hole?" he said.
"Well, no," Kemi confessed. "At least, not in any story I ever heard in flight school. But . . . Marco, this isn't like a wormhole. Wormholes are portals to other locations in the galaxy. A black hole is an immense funnel of gravity. It would crush us like a tin can."
"Except this isn't an ordinary black hole, is it?" Marco said. "It didn't exist when Lailani was studying this place. And it has a sign here. My face, carved like a celestial Mount Rushmore. That's an invitation. Remember what Keewaji said? In his people's stories, this is the great emptiness. A passageway to a world beyond. He was right about the Tree of Light and about the starwhales. I say we listen to him now too. We fly into the darkness. Maybe we'll find what we seek beyond."
"And if you're wrong?" Kemi said.
"Then we die painlessly," Marco said. "Better than starving to death here without a working warp drive."
"We could call the whales back," Kemi said. "We don't have to die here."
Marco took her hands in his. He looked into her eyes. "Kemi, the marauders have taken over the world. The world we love. And they have Addy. Sometimes we have to take a leap of faith. Sometimes we just have to believe."
She looked down, then back into his eyes. She nodded.
They all stepped onto the bridge. Kemi sat at the helm. The black hole loomed before them.
Captain Ben-Ari stood with her back to the viewport, and she spoke to them.
"Eight years ago, I was an ensign, fresh out of Officer Candidate School. I had never commanded soldiers in battle. You were all new to the military, frightened teenagers, homesick. And I tried to mold you into soldiers. I tried to teach you strength, dedication, and honor. But you were the ones who taught me these things, and for eight years, it has been my honor to serve with you. You followed me through fire at Fort Djemila, into the darkness in Corpus, and into the searing inferno on Abaddon. You followed me thousands of light-years away from home. And every step along the way, I've been more awed by your wisdom, your ability, and your human spirit. You make me proud to be human."
Marco stood up. He saluted his captain. His voice was hoarse. "It has been our honor, ma'am."
Lailani stood up too, and she too saluted. "An honor, ma'am. I came to you a broken girl, scars on my wrists, suicidal." Her voice cracked. "You saved my life, ma'am. You showed me what a strong woman looks like. I will follow you anywhere."
Kemi too rose and saluted. "Since I was but a youth, you have been my beacon, my lodestar. I will follow you always, my captain. To hell and back."
Ben-Ari smiled at them, blinking her damp eyes. "Kemi Abasi, my brave lieutenant, my swift pilot. Lailani de la Rosa, my fierce little warrior and my eyes in the darkness. Marco Emery, my conscience in a cosmos gone mad. You are all my soldiers. You are all my friends. You are all my brothers and sisters." She returned the salute. "It is likely that we fly now to our deaths. We must take our leap of faith. Will you follow me one more time?"
They all nodded.
"Now and always," Marco said, and Kemi and Lailani repeated his words. "Now and always."
Kemi returned to her seat and placed her hand on the accelerator. "Together?" she said.
Marco placed his hand over hers, and she smiled up at him. Lailani placed her hand atop his, and finally Ben-Ari added her hand too.
"Together," the captain said.
They pressed the accelerator.
The Marilyn shot forward, scattered luminous space dust, and flew into the black hole.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The Resistance rolled down the highway, heading to war.
The ruins of the world spread around them. Their drums boomed, echoing across the devastation.
They were survivors. They were haggard, wounded, roaring for triumph. They were rebels. They were humans.
This was their finest hour.
They did not bother to mask their arrival; their enemy's ears would hear their vehicles from afar. They announced their charge with howling throats, with roaring engines, with blasting stereos. Men stood atop armored vehicles, savage, shirtless even in the cold, beating mighty drums. Riders roared forth on motorcycles, crying out for war, firing into the air to herald their assault. Armored trucks rumbled, heavy metal thundering from their speakers, and the world trembled under their bass. Six tanks stormed along the flanks, warriors standing on their roofs, chanting and raising their fists. Above the force, loudest and fiercest, flew their three assault helicopters, loaded with missiles and bullets.
The Resistance. Seven hundred warriors collected from across the desolation. The pride of humanity.
You might be up there in space, Marco, gallivanting around, Addy thought. But down here in the muck, this is true Earth might.
She rode at the vanguard on her motorcycle. An assault rifle hung across her back, two pistols and several grenades hung from her hips, and her pouches were stuffed with ammunition. Each of her leather boots hid another pistol and knife.
Strapped to her thigh was her most precious weapon: the marauder tooth. She had knocked it out from Orcus's mouth. She had used it to slay her first marauder. She had used it to cut herself free from the web in the slaughterhouse. More than any rifle or gun, this tooth signified her might. She had fashioned it a hilt, and she bore this ivory sword like a knight of old.
And like a knight, she wore her armor. A helmet covered her head, painted with a snowy dragon. A bulletproof vest encircled her torso, and she had painted a blue circle in its center, symbol of Earth. From her motorcycle rose her fla
g: a blue circle in a black sky.
I am a knight, she thought. This motorcycle is my horse. The marauder tooth is my sword. And my coat of arms is the blue circle of Earth.
"For Earth!" she cried, fist raised.
Behind her, her army answered her cry. "For Earth!"
Addy reared on her bike, pushed down on her throttle, and roared forth. Behind her, the trucks, Jeeps, Humvees, and tanks followed, and above the choppers thundered. Clouds of dust rose around them and the earth itself shook.
I flew to battle with a hundred thousand starships, Addy thought. I stormed to war with millions of soldiers. But here, this army, these seven hundred—this is my greatest battle. This is my army. This is my hour. This will be Earth's greatest victory.
Ahead she saw it, spewing its foul smoke on the horizon.
The slaughterhouse.
It rose before a backdrop of Toronto's shattered, decaying skyscrapers. It rose from a field of ice and blood. It rose at the end of their path and the beginning of their war. It rose like it had risen a thousand times in Addy's nightmares, a place of death, of breaking apart, of man reduced to a beast, of humanity made into meat. There it was, behind those walls and barbed wire. The place of all her terror. The place where her courage would blaze like a thousand suns.
She raised a megaphone to her lips.
"Armored vehicles, flare out!"
At her sides, the armored Jeeps and Humvees rode off the road. They charged across the fields, raising dust and snow, a hundred machines of war, all topped with machine guns and grenade launchers and howling men.
"Tanks, stay right behind me!" Addy cried.
Behind her, she heard the war drums beat in approval.
"Motorcycles, with me!" Addy looked around her at her other riders. Fifty men and women. She recognized Steve by the tiger drawn on his leather jacket. He rode up toward her and stayed near.
"Stay strong, my friends!" Addy cried. "You are men and women of the Resistance. You are human. You will win! For war, for glory, for Earth!"
"For Earth!" they howled. "For Earth!"
Earth Shadows (Earthrise Book 5) Page 28
