by C. M. Kane
Loki knew immediately he wasn’t going to allow that to happen, he would save her no matter what the cost. Both he and Tae had unfinished business, business he intended to bring to a conclusion in one way or another if it killed him, and if that was the case he needed to think of a way out for her for Hera’s death. One that none of the Gods would question, even if they knew he was lying through his teeth to them.
So far three warriors had entered the room, concerned over Radnors and Tannans yelling, all three had been frozen solid by the still lingering Freya’s breath. Radnor had finally told one of the warriors nearest the door to yell to the next person not to enter, but to go get the antidote. He knew they’d be back shortly, to late of course, Tae would be through the portal and out of his reach by the time any of them were able to move. So far Zeus had ignored every request from his second in command Tannan for instructions; he simply continued to stand there with his eyes closed, ignoring everything around him.
A warrior sprinted into the room spraying a substance around as he moved amongst them. Loki felt his limbs unlock at last, finally he was able to move again, he immediately contacted the bridge to see where the Brightmoon, Tae’s ship, had gone. As he thought, she had left a good six minutes ago, but only after she and her pilot had out flown, then outrun three of the Olympus’s fighter jumpers sent to bring her back onboard. She could be anywhere by now. He sighed in disappointment and sat down, just as Ares slowly stood and turned to his second in command, Solath.
Loki had momentarily forgotten that Tae had told Ares of Solaths duplicity with Hera. Damn it, odds are this will be unpleasant, not to mention messy, he thought. Ares wasn’t exactly known for his sense of humor or forgiving nature. Loki quickly moved out of the way of the blood spray he knew was about to come, he listened to Ares address the now obviously terrified Solath.
‘The woman said you betrayed me, Solath… show me your wrists,’ he said in a quiet, deadly voice.
‘My Lord.’ Solath began trying to back away.
Ares hands shot out and grabbed both Solaths wrists; he turned them over and looked at them, inspecting them closely. A roar of rage echoed around the garden as he saw where a small communications device had been implanted under the skin of Solaths right wrist, it was almost impossible to detect unless you looked closely. He raised his gaze to look straight into Solaths eyes, and then he yanked down and out with all of his considerable strength. Solaths arms popped, before making a wet tearing noise as they tore free from his body. He stumbled backwards screaming in both shock and pain, his fangs running fully out as he stared into the enraged eyes of his god. A god who now stood there holding his severed arms in his hands; only then did Solath finally comprehend that he was already dead. Blood gushed from him as he staggered backwards in pain and shock; he was still staring pleadingly at Ares.
‘My Lord,’ he whispered.
Loki watched dispassionately as Solath fell to his knees, before flipping over onto his face, where he lay until he stopped breathing a few seconds later. After looking at him for a long moment Ares threw the arms he still held on top of the corpse in disgust, he then turned back to glare his rage at the seated Gods awaiting trial opposite him, as if daring them to speak. None were that foolish. Bringing his still harsh breathing back under control he strode back to the table and sat down to brood.
‘She spoke the truth, didn’t she,’ said Thalia quietly. She now spoke for the first time since she had arrived onboard with the other Captains. ‘They’re coming, they have finally found us. Yet still that woman chose to attack and kill Hera, one of the most brilliant and strongest amongst us. If she had just told us what she knew first we would all be in a much better position to fight them!’ She swung her gaze around to the seated Gods behind her. ‘Hera could still be alive, her death was totally unnecessary, this whole debacle is entirely that woman’s fault, she must be punished!’ she finished on a strident note.’
Poseidon had had enough, he leapt to his feet his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, ‘I’ll kill you myself before I allow you to touch a hair on that girls head you traitorous bitch,’ he swore.
‘Poseidon?’ Thalia’s brown eyes widened in shock, ‘surely you can’t mean that! She is nothing, just some stupid little Terran woman who got lucky! We are their Gods, we are deserving of their respect and obedience in all things, surely you can see that?’
‘Lucky?’ piped up Thanatos from beside her. ‘She outwitted and outfought Hera on her own terms, Thalia. All of us, including Hera, were outmaneuvered by a Terran woman whose life has barely started. The fight was fair, and exactly as Hera herself had agreed, when she thought she would have the upper hand. We all agreed to the terms.’
Apollo nodded his head in agreement. ‘Thalia, you knew Hera as well as we all did, and better than most. You of all people knew there was no way she would have stopped in her plans to kill everyone here, no matter what she said! You know this! So stop feigning innocence and pretending like you don’t, and for all our sakes, stop trying to paint Hera into something she wasn’t. Our people would be in a far worse position than they are now if that woman hadn’t killed her for us. It turns out we owe her a debt of gratitude for her actions, not your self-serving lies and excuses. Get over yourself, we lost. Meet your end as a warrior, with dignity and pride.’
Poseidon sat still, his lip curling in distaste as he looked at Thalia. He allowed every bit of contempt he now felt for her show clearly on his face, she flinched and subsided into silence when she finally realized she would receive no help from him.
‘Why?’ Zeus asked as he finally opened his eyes and walked over to the rest of the seated Gods, he looked to Thalia first.
Thalia raised her now tear filled eyes to him. ‘Hera was my friend, my mentor, she was a true heroine, she saved us all when we needed her and paid far too high a price for her bravery. I felt we owed her our allegiance for saving all our lives.’ she said. ‘And you were never around; she had so many ideas about us taking our true place amongst our peoples, as their Gods and rulers.’
Poseidon snorted and was about to say something but Zeus raised his hand to silence him; he turned to Thanatos and Apollo and awaited their reply.
Thanatos cocked his head to the side; he had noticed a subtle change in Zeus when he opened his eyes, all hints of the sex loving gigolo were gone, in his place stood the man he had known eons ago; he was thankful. At least his people would stand a chance against the coming doom with this man to lead them once more. His own death could now be used to consolidate his brethren in the coming battle. Even in death he could serve one last time, and for that he was grateful.
He looked up at Zeus and told the truth. ‘She promised Apollo and the rest of us the freedom to explore as we were born to do. We felt like we were dying here Zeus. As you well know it is not in our nature to be idle, we came to you several times and begged you for some leeway, but you refused. When Hera and Thalia approached us with the offer of our freedom, we took it, and before you ask. Yes. We knew it wasn’t right, but we did it anyway,’ he said. He leant back and looked unapologetically at his leader.
‘This is true for the rest of you as well, or do you have other reasons,’ he looked at the other Captains
Hermes’s spoke up next. ‘Thanatos speaks for all of us that are left. Look around you Zeus, we were all once part of his original explorer group, we simply wanted… no, we needed to regain what was taken from us,’ he stared back at Zeus who stood looking at them all thoughtfully.
After a short silence where he seemed to come to some internal decision he spoke. ‘Forgive me my brothers and sisters, I have no excuses for what I have done; to have pushed you to this outcome… it is my shame to bear, all I can do is ask that you forgive my stupidity. I had forgotten what it meant to you to see what was beyond the next star, or through the next portal. I had forgotten your nature as completely as I had forgotten my own.’
Every god in the room gaped in surprise at Zeus’s words, this was
not what they had expected, they had come here expecting a quick inglorious death for their actions, but instead, he had asked them to forgive him.
Zeus turned his gaze to Thalia. ‘I do not include you in my words to the others, Thalia. Your reasons for joining Hera were for friendship only, or for something that happened eons ago. You seem to have conveniently forgotten everyone else who risked their lives to get through the portal. Not to mention all those who died to hold off Cronus and his fleet so you and the others could escape. Neither I nor any of the others have harmed you in any way whatsoever. I had not taken your freedom from you as I had the others seated here. I had done nothing untoward to you.’ Zeus said angrily. ‘You knew what you and Hera were doing was wrong, yet you did it anyway, and for what? So you could become overlords to the very races who serve us so well in peace and harmony? What were you going to do? Enslave them totally? Strip mine their planets as Cronus did to the other races he ruled back in the realms of the Titans?’ He watched closely as a guilty flush stained Thalia’s cheeks.
‘You knew Hera would have destroyed millions, possibly billions, just for her own amusement. Is that the type of pleasure you yourself now seek? You were once a brave and courageous warrior, Thalia, what the hell happened to make you lose your sense of honor so completely?’
‘Please, Zeus; you don’t understand,’ Thalia said as she started to cry in earnest. ‘Why are you singling me out, the others here are just as guilty.’
‘Yes they are,’ said Zeus quietly, ‘but it was I who committed the graver sin against them in the first place, and that alone led to their actions. I did something I always swore I would never do. I took away their freedom, just as Cronus once did to all of us.’ He turned back to the other Gods and addressed them. That will not happen again, I give you my word on that. My ruling is, Thalia, you will be stripped of your ship the Mousai, it will be stripped of your personal staff, bridge crew, and security forces, all of whom will be sent back to their planets of origin where they may serve their own people in some way. Your ship will be re-named the Fenris and be given to Loki. The rest of your crew may stay to serve their new leader, if that is both his and their wish.’
‘NO!’ Thalia shouted.
‘You will be taken from here to our Med-Labs where Tannan will immediately deactivate your Nanites. All of them! You will then be put in an escape capsule and flown to Tartarise, where you will be ejected to the surface to live out your remaining life.’
He swung around to the other Gods who were staring at him speechless. ‘Thanatos, Apollo, all of you,’ he said turning to the remaining Gods with narrowed eyes. ‘While I have asked your forgiveness for what I have done to you, the fact remains that you still committed an act of sedition against the rest of us, and for that crime, instead of death as is the customary sentence, I instead sentence you to serve as portal guardians under the command of Ares, until such a time as this threat has passed. When the Titans arrive you will be the first to greet and engage them in battle. If, and when, we have defeated our enemies, those of you that survive will once again be allowed to return to your life as explorers, but under our direct supervision. We will want to know exactly where you are going and for how long. We will still need to take precautions in case there are others out there who may prove a threat to both ourselves and those under our protection. Never forget, if we survive this we will, in all likelihood, be in a much more weakened condition. Is this agreeable with you?’
Thanatos, Apollo and the other assembled Captains were shell shocked. They had come aboard the Olympus with their seconds fully expecting to die; their own personal sense of honor was all they had bought with them. Instead Zeus had apologized to them, and instead of killing them, he had given them the now sacred duty of guarding the portal against the possible incursion of the Titans, all under the command of Ares, a master war strategist. This was… remarkable.
Thanatos stood, never moving his intense gaze from Zeus’s eyes. ‘You honor us, Zeus, and we will not let you down again, our lives are yours.’ Slowly one by one the Captains stood and saluted Zeus by putting their closed fist over their chests.
‘Is this acceptable to you,’ Zeus said turning to the other seated Gods.
Poseidon and Hades searched his face, while Odin, Thor and Ares immediately acquiesced, then they too agreed. Zeus swung his gaze to Loki who was smiling strangely at him.
‘It’s good to see you again, old friend, it’s been a long time, and yes, I agree to your plan.’ Zeus nodded, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, he nodded to Tannan who quickly called up the med lab.
Thalia looked around frantically at each of the standing Gods before swinging her gaze back to Zeus. ‘Please, Zeus, why I am to be signaled out for punishment? What about that murderous little bitch who killed Hera. Isn’t that one of our most sacred laws? That no-one, bar another God, may kill, or order the killing of a God, and only then under certain circumstances. Well she’s definitely not a God. Shouldn’t she die for her crimes too?’
Loki had been waiting for someone to mention Hera’s death by Tae’s hand and its consequences. He spoke up as soon as Thalia finished her tirade. ‘Captain Rames was under my direct orders to kill Hera by any means possible if the opportunity presented itself. I gave the orders to her myself before she left the Olympus,’ he said mildly. The others turned to stare at him in surprise.
‘Yes,’ said Poseidon, recovering quickly, he leant back in his seat and smiled smugly at Thalia. ‘I was there in the garden speaking with Loki when he gave her the orders; it was just after we found out about Hera’s treachery. So I’m afraid it’s Loki’s fault that Hera is dead, not Tae’s, and despite your obvious dislike of him, he was still a God the last time I checked, thus making your accusations invalid.’
‘You’re lying! Both of you are, I can see it in your eyes!’ yelled Thalia in rage at their obvious lie.
‘Hardly,’ said Zeus interrupting the exchange, ‘As I, too, both heard and agreed with the order when it was given; but you have raised a valid point, Thalia, so in all fairness I will ask for the vote. Obviously the majority rules, as is our custom, and as all witnesses to the event are here I ask you now. Is there anyone present that thinks a crime has been committed, and who now wishes to charge either myself, Loki, Poseidon, Captain Rames, or anyone else here for that matter, with being a party to the unlawful death of a God, namely Hera.’
Thalia pushed up her hand and looked around; the rest of the Captains sat there staring at her with pitiless eyes. By a miracle they had their lives back; Thalia’s actions achieved nothing, except to strip her of her dignity. They would not go against Zeus or the others ever again.
A young Med Tech had entered the room unobtrusively as the vote was occurring and went straight to Tannan, he handed him a small injector filled with some clear liquid, and after speaking to him briefly he then left. Tannan started edging his way unobtrusively around the back of those seated.
Thalia was now glaring at Zeus. ‘No wonder she wanted to kill you, you’re still the same heartless bastard you always were,’ she hissed.
Tannan quietly moved up behind Thalia’s second, an Elven Warrior named Spaen, and injected him with the Freya’s Breath he now had. As Spaen froze Tannan quickly stepped around him and injected Thalia before she knew he was there.
‘NO!’ she screamed hysterically as her body immediately froze in place. ‘You can’t. I’m a God. I forbid it! Spaen kill them. Kill them all!’
Several Techs entered the room with floating med beds and walked over to the God and her second. After scanning them both and removing all their weapons they loaded them onto the beds and took them straight to the Med Centre, Tannan was following closely behind.
As he was leaving Zeus told him to start the de-activation procedures on Thalia and Spaen immediately. Zeus was loathe to kill her second, but he knew he couldn’t be allowed to live. Seconds were notoriously loyal, and unfortunately Spaen could still do some harm if allowed to go
free, so he, too, would have all of his nanites deactivated. He would then be transported under guard directly to Chena. Zeus thought he‘d have more than enough time to get whatever affairs he might have in order, before the hyper-accelerated aging from having his nanites de-activated finally killed him. Still, he would ensure his guards would remain with him until the end. Before he was dropped off though, Thalia would be delivered to her fate on Tartarise. Privately, Zeus thought that Spaen had by far the better deal between which fate was the worst.
‘Now that all of this is settled we can start to make plans for our defense of the realms. After we have a working plan we will take the new Fenris and its crew, as well as the Kydomois to Vulcan’s space docks at Velonchos for repairs.’ He returned to his seat and sat down.
‘I’ll take submissions for a new Captain and a new name for the original Fenris once she is finally repaired, now let us begin.’
Chapter 5
It took them another three hours of continuous discussion before everything was finally decided on. The Olympus, Kydomois and the new Fenris would now head straight to Velonchos to get repairs started and to unload crews. Apollo, Thanatos, Hermes’s and the other Captains would head directly for Salernis to begin their vigil, they were to arrange themselves in a pincer position around the portal, all new incoming ships would be deployed to new sections as they arrived.
Hades would start to arrange the immediate re-supplying of all the blockade ships for a long siege, before joining them himself. Each had a code supplied to them so that the others would know who was coming through the portal before they arrived.
