The Smuggler's Ascension: The Ties That Died

by Christopher Ingersoll

  “It had its fun part,” Sabine giggled as she grabbed Kristof’s ass. “We’re lucky Miss Busybody here nudged me along certain paths so I’d make the right choice when it came to you.”

  “If only I’d seen what would happen after that,” Anasha smiled, “I would have nudged you along a little faster. I just wish I could have been there to see that first time instead of just having felt the memories from you both afterwards.”

  “I suppose seeing is better,” Sabine giggled naughtily, “And feeling.”

  Kristof pulled Sabine into the circle of his embrace with Anasha and the three of them shared a private moment that shut out the universe. Anasha lost track of how long they stood there like that, but it didn’t matter. Time often stood still when they were alone, and she loved those times.

  Soon the Phantom was ready to launch, and Kristof led them aboard while Anasha brought up the rear. The boarding ramp rose behind them as the hum of the ship’s engines started to vibrate through the hull. The ladders up were becoming more and more of a challenge for Sabine as her pregnancy progressed, and this would likely be her last trip on the ship until the baby came. Anasha couldn’t resist the opportunity to help her up to the final deck by grabbing her ass and giving her a push. Sabine’s squeal of surprise made it worth the scolding Anasha got a moment later.

  The Phantom drifted away from the Queen’s Honor using just small thrusters until they were clear, and the main engines lit up and they were on their way. Anasha watched as Kristof oversaw the entry into the rift, which required a very specific course in order to catch the gravity of each black hole equally without tearing the ship apart. The Captain and his copilot had never made the run before, so Kristof had taken command for the duration of the trip.

  “Two days to reach the halfway point of the run,” Sabine said quietly as she too watched Kristof. “Whatever will we do with the time?” Anasha saw Sabine’s smile and didn’t need to stretch out her feeling to know what was on the her tiny wife’s mind.

  “You’re insatiable,” Anasha laughed, “But unless you want the whole ship listening in, you’re going to have to behave…mostly anyway.”

  Sabine laughed with her, and Anasha could feel her love for Sabine glowing inside her. It was still a strange feeling at times, loving another woman like she did, but she couldn’t imagine her life any other way now.

  “This ship does need a bath tub, though,” Sabine said with a grimace as she held her back. “Come lay with me.”

  Anasha led Sabine to Kristof’s cabin and helped the tiny Queen onto the bed. Lacking a bath tub, Anasha grabbed a heating pad instead and placed it under Sabine’s back. Once Sabine was settled, Anasha lay next to her and lay her head against Sabine’s distended stomach so she could listen for the baby. She could feel the child moving, and she smiled at the tiny miracle she’d just felt.

  “Are we sure about this run?” Sabine asked quietly, and Anasha sensed that she was just a little afraid.

  “Kristof has made the run several times,” Anasha said reassuringly. “I’d trust no one more than him to get us through this.”

  “Kristof told me once that ships had detected a large void at the center of the rift,” Sabine said, still quiet. “He said that the ships that had went in to investigate that void to see if it could be a potential hiding place were never heard from again. What if something happens to us in there and we can’t get out?”

  “I don’t think Cassandra would let that happen to us, no matter how upset she will be that we are there,” Anasha said. “And if she didn’t help, my father would. He’s there with her.”

  “And your mother,” Sabine added with a smile. “What was she like?”

  “She was as loud as my father was quiet,” Anasha said with a laugh. “I never knew if my father started out quiet or if he just got drowned out by my mother over the years.”

  “You’re terrible,” Sabine laughed.

  “You’ll see soon enough,” Anasha said, also laughing. “I miss her, I miss them both,” Anasha added, sobering. “Some of the life went out of father when she passed. Though some of it came back when he took you on as his student. Another reason for me to love you.”

  “He was an amazing man,” Sabine said softly as she sifted through her memories of Subat. “He was a stern teacher, but fair. I miss him too. It seems like your family has given up so much in service to mine.”

  “You got the softer side of Subat,” Kristof said quietly from the doorway, surprising his two wives. “It took me years to get on his good side.”

  Anasha held out a hand and Kristof joined them on the bed, spooning in behind Anasha as she resumed listening to the baby. They all lay there that way for a long time, enjoying the peace and quiet of the moment on the cramped bed.

  “Are we in the rift now?” Sabine asked quietly a time later.

  “We’re riding the gravity currents in,” Kristof said with a yawn. “It takes half a day to get into the rift proper. I think once we are truly in the rift we will be able to sense if this is going to work.”

  “You think Cassandra will try to keep us away from where she is?” Anasha asked, fighting off her own yawn.

  “Maybe,” Kristof admitted. “She seemed pretty adamant about not helping. I may have to use the power within me to force our way in. I’d rather not do it that way, but time is too short now.”

  They didn’t need to talk about what he meant. The doctors on the Queen’s Honor had examined Sabine again on the trip from Purannis, and her pregnancy still seemed to be advancing faster than it should. Instead of having four months left, she was now less than eight weeks away if the sensor reading were to be believed. If the pregnancy was accelerating, then they truly were running out of time if events were going to come to a head with the birth, as they suspected.

  Anasha lost her fight with her yawn, and she felt Sabine yawn again. Together, the three of them settled in to sleep as the Phantom began the journey into the Devil’s Eyes. Anasha hoped that the name of this place was not an omen for things to come.

  ~29~

  You cannot be here.

  Sabine came awake with a start, looking around the darkened cabin for whoever had spoken. Kristof and Anasha slept by her side and a quick scan of the room revealed nobody else. Yawning, she began to think it had just been a dream and she laid back down. She was about to fall back asleep when the voice came again.

  Go back, you are not wanted here.

  Positive she hadn’t imagined it this time, Sabine shook Anasha and Kristof awake. At first they were hard to awaken, but Sabine persisted and Kristof slowly opened his eyes as Anasha moaned softly. Kristof picked up on Sabine’s alertness and came awake fully, shaking Anasha a little harder to waken her.

  “What’s wrong, love?” Kristof asked concerned.

  “I thought I heard a voice when I woke up,” Sabine said as she kept looking around. “I was about to fall back asleep when I heard it again.”

  “What did it say?” Anasha asked as she too became more alert.

  “That we can’t be here, and to go back,” Sabine told them. “I know I didn’t imagine it.”

  “Was it male or female?” Kristof asked, though his tone told Sabine that he had already guessed.

  “Female,” Sabine said, and saw the confirmation in his eyes. “Do you think it was Cassandra?”

  “Who else could speak in voices here?”

  Kristof rose and went out into the rest of the ship as Sabine slid to the edge of the bed. The lethargy she had felt earlier was still fighting to drag her back under, and it was only with difficulty that she remained awake. She noticed that Anasha was having a similar struggle beside her.

  “The rest of the crew are asleep,” Kristof said as he returned. “I checked the chronometer, we’ve been in the rift almost two days, and we’re near the center of the rift by now.”

  “She’s trying to make us pass by without stopping,” Anasha said irritably. “It almost worked too. Why would she start speaking and
ruin it?”

  “Maybe something else is responsible for waking me up,” Sabine suggested.

  “But what could do that?” Anasha asked.

  “The baby, maybe? He is supposed to be a God when this is done, and we know he has the power to keep Death away from me,” Sabine said softly as she lay a hand on her belly, a tear in her eye from remembering her baby wouldn’t stay with her once he was born.

  “Hey, hey,” Kristof said as he came to Sabine and pulled her to her feet. “No tears yet, that is not for certain. Not if I can prevent it somehow.”

  Sabine gave him a weak smile of gratitude.

  “Let’s go have a look at where we are at,” Kristof suggested, and they all made their way to the command deck. Captain Gerris was passed out at the controls and was the only one in the cockpit. Kristof carefully pulled him from his seat and laid him on the floor, after which he took the pilot’s seat for himself. Sabine watched as Kristof reviewed the controls and instruments carefully.

  “We are at the center of the rift,” Kristof announced. “Now we keep our fingers crossed.”

  Kristof turned off the autopilot and reduced speed. Sabine sat in Kristof’s command chair at the center of the cockpit as she watched what was happening. Everything was white outside of the viewports.

  “Is it always white outside when you’re in the rift like this?” Sabine asked quietly.

  “No,” Anasha answered just as quietly. “Normally you can see the black holes through either viewport. This is something new.”

  Go back, came the voice again, this time heard by all three of them.

  “You know we can’t,” Kristof responded to the air. “We need your help or trillions of people will die. You don’t want that kind of blood on your hands, Cassandra.”

  The voice did not return as Anasha gaped at Kristof, apparently shocked by his frank talk to a God.

  “What?” Kristof asked. “We don’t have time to stand on ceremony or beat around the bush here. Sabine’s pregnancy is accelerating, which means we have even less time than we thought.”

  The ship began to shake suddenly, prompting Anasha to climb into the copilot’s seat quickly. Kristof adjusted a few controls, but the shaking persisted. Sabine had no clue what was happening, but she was suddenly afraid knowing that there were two black holes waiting to swallow them at any wrong move.

  “Ok, fuck this,” Kristof said angrily.

  Sabine suddenly felt a cold, hard power begin to radiate through the cockpit, and she saw Kristof’s hands on the controls begin to burn with the red fire that gave off no heat, but that cold hard feeling instead. The shaking of the ship subsided until they were flying smooth again.

  More miraculously, the whiteness outside of the view ports began to fade, but they did not see the black holes. Instead they began to see the gardens and parks with winding pathways that they had seen in the Sphere’s vision. There were people on the ground, as well, who now looked up in shock while pointing at the ship that was suddenly in their midst.

  Sabine watched Kristof manipulate the controls expertly and the Phantom circled slowly before coming to land in a large grassy area. The whine of the engines began to power down as Kristof switched off the controls and then he rose to stand before her.

  “Maybe you and Anasha should stay here,” Kristof suggested with a tone that clearly said he expected an argument.

  “We three are awake for a reason,” Sabine said, assuming a tone of authority she normally reserved for the royal court. “I will not stand idly by in this, nor will Anasha. We three are a team, are we not?”

  “I just want you to be safe, my love,” Kristof said softly.

  “I have you and Anasha to protect me,” Sabine said with a smile, no longer authoritarian. “If you two can’t protect me, then I will not be any safer here alone.”

  The three of them made their way through the ship, passing sleeping crew members as they went. Many had fallen asleep at their posts, some in the hallways, and one unfortunate fellow in the shower. Kristof went and moved the man so he would not accidentally drown before they finished the trip to the cargo hold. The boarding ramp descended, and a rush of sweet, warm air and sunlight rushed into the hold.

  At the base of the ramp two people stood waiting, smiles upon their faces. Anasha rushed down the ramp into Subat’s arms, and they were all shocked to see that Subat was solid and not a spirit. The woman with Subat also embraced Anasha, and Sabine guessed that this was her mother. She shared Anasha’s blond hair and blue eyes, though she was more matronly than athletic like Anasha.

  Kristof took Sabine’s hand and led her down the ramp to join the small family reunion. Anasha was crying, but they were happy tears. Sabine went and hugged Subat tightly as he smiled at her. Kristof lagged behind, and Sabine pulled him forward to join the group.

  “Well met, my son,” Subat said warmly and embraced Kristof, and Sabine choked back a sob as she saw the pain that Kristof had been carrying ever since Subat’s death fade away in the warm sunlight and Subat’s embrace. Kristof returned the embrace, tears in his eyes as he smiled. “Much better,” Subat said happily, “That pain was doing you no good, and almost killed you. It is much better gone.”

  “Thank you,” Kristof said softly. “I was afraid…that you would blame me for…”

  “No, my son,” Subat stopped him, “Things are as they needed to be to bring you all here. I do not bare you any malice. I am happy here, and reunited with my Juliet.”

  Subat brought his wife forward to meet Kristof and Sabine, and Sabine hugged her tightly, suddenly missing her own mother. Sabine had never had a close relationship with Queen Josephine because they had been two very different people, even when Sabine had been young. This meeting with Anasha’s mother gave her hope that one day she would have a chance for that relationship still.

  “You have passed the first test by coming here,” Subat said once the greetings were all done. “There is another still before you, however. Our Mistress Cassandra is not happy that you have come, and has refused to aid you as you know. Not all of the Su’Tani here are happy that you three have come, either. They fear that your Triad will bring more pain upon the universe as did our Mistress’s union. They do not know you three as I do.”

  “I’ve had to knock quite a few heads together in these gardens,” Anasha’s mother, Juliet, announced boisterously. “Nobody talks bad about my little girl, let me tell you.”

  Sabine giggled quietly to herself, remembering Anasha’s description of her mother and seeing how true she had been.

  “Where is Cassandra, father?” Kristof asked quietly as he looked around at the lush gardens and parks.

  “Our Mistress spends most of her time in the Temple of Eternal Tears,” Subat said sadly. “She joins us from time to time and is happy, but she still bears a great sadness. The betrayal of Azrael and his destruction of Suthanara wounded her deeply. Pyreus’s actions were no less of a betrayal to her, and she mourns him as well. She blames herself for not being able to simply choose one of them, and that is why she distrusts your union.”

  “You must show her the truth of your love,” Juliet added. “Only in that way can her eyes be opened, and hopefully one day her heart be healed.”

  “This is the Garden of Eternal Light,” Subat explained as he led their group along a path through the beautiful gardens and parks of this place in Null Space. “Our Mistress created this refuge for her people after the death of Suthanara when she saw what Azrael had become and what he was doing to the Underworld. Once, the Su’Tani were a race of men apart from the Puranni people and lived for and served the Goddess Anza’Tai. After the death of Suthanara, she sent her people out among the people of the universe to serve as protectors and teachers, in the hopes that they might protect them from the darkness that Azrael sent forth.”

  “Only among the Puranni people did the alliance endure,” Juliet continued. “Among the other worlds the Su’Tani either lost their way, or simply faded away. Yet on some
worlds, the Su’Tani became corrupted by Azrael’s agents and became something darker, like the Priestesses of the Gau’dran’Seti.”

  “I’ve had a few run-ins with the Gau’dran’Seti,” Kristof said. “I didn’t much care for the first couple.”

  “They are fearsome foes,” Subat agreed. “Luckily the Su’Tani endured on Purannis, and have since spread throughout the Protectorate, though much of what we once knew in life has been lost.”

  Sabine listened as they walked, but she became entranced by the beauty of the Garden of Eternal Light. It made her own personal garden in the Palace at home seem a collection of weeds and rocks. In the distance she began to see tall crystal spires that sparkled in the sunlight. As they drew closer and closer she could see more of what had to be the Temple of Eternal Tears.

  The Temple seemed like an image of a fairytale castle with grand towers, graceful spires, and tall walls all made of a clear crystal that still hid everything inside of it. There were fountains built into those crystal walls that each dripped water down the sides of the Temple, making it appear as if it were indeed crying.

  “This is where we must leave you for now,” Subat said as they stopped on a shallow hilltop above the Temple. “Our Mistress will not deny you entry, but she will not willingly listen to what you have to say.” Turning to Kristof, he added, “In this moment, the Father’s power you carry will not be an aid to you. The solution must come from your hearts, through love in its myriad forms.”

  Sabine took Kristof’s hand, and Anasha’s, and together they continued on the path to the Temple. It was not as large as it had first seemed, Sabine thought as she watched the water rolling down the walls in endless drops. It made her incredibly sad to think this Goddess had been in mourning for countless eons.

  The doors opened by themselves as they approached, and when they entered Sabine gasped in wonder. From the outside the Temple had seemed an enormous structure, but inside was but a single room. There were no crystal walls inside as there were outside, inside was done in richly carved and stained wood paneling and columns, with wrought iron railings that connected each column as they circled a circular depression in the floor that created a large sitting area. There were large pillows filling the sitting area, but no chairs.