by M. R. Forbes
“No, Queenie. The Seraphim labeled him as such for what they didn’t understand. He has never claimed to be their deity. Only a benevolent benefactor.”
“But they won’t listen to that either, right?”
“Correct.”
“But if the One doesn’t know about the Asura, and he tries to operate a Transversal of his own?”
“He would invite them into Elysium. He is capable of handling the threat.”
“No physical weapons, fine. Is there anything we can use in there? Charmeine told me that whoever controlled the Covenant controlled the truth and that the One’s truth was a powerful weapon on its own.”
Keeper shook its head again. “That’s what I mean about the Seraphim’s belief, and what I’m hesitant to admit. The technology of the Covenant was intended to keep the Seraphim together as a community. Across time and space, across infinite distances. The One believed that this cohesion would prevent conflict. He believed the Seraphim were evolved beyond the selfish need for power and control.”
“But they weren’t.”
“No.”
“So, he was wrong about that one?”
“Yes.”
“And here we are.”
“Here we are.”
“And I thought my day was shitty already. What you’re telling me is that the Covenant is bullshit?”
“What? Of course not, Queenie. The One believes in the Covenant.”
“Belief isn’t going to save the galaxy. You’re telling me that he promised the Seraphim he would take care of them. You’re also telling me he isn’t capable of doing that.”
Keeper stared at her in silence.
“You have to be fragging kidding me.”
Keeper remained silent.
“I blamed the Seraphim for screwing with the naniates. But this isn’t their fault, is it? They had to use what they were left with as effectively as they could. They had to cover for a god that abandoned them.”
“He isn’t a god. And he didn’t abandon them.”
“Then what did he do? At the very least he made promises he couldn’t keep.” Abbey remembered her brief interaction with the Shard. An asshole cut from the cloth of an asshole?
“Because Lucifer stole the plans for the Elysium Gate, preventing the Seraphim from returning home. Because the Asura appeared when the Transversal was used. Not a god, Queenie and therefore not capable of knowing these things would happen.”
“Then he shouldn’t have fragging promised,” Abbey shouted, losing her temper. “He created us. He seeded this universe with his creations. His mistake is going to cost millions of individuals their lives. My daughter is one of them.”
“I understand you are upset.”
“Do you? Do you have any fragging idea? Why am I here? What the hell was the point? The galaxy was screwed the second Lucifer decided he wanted to be in charge. We’re just little specks of shit on the ass of the galaxy, and sooner or later we’re all going to be wiped off.”
“It doesn’t have to end that way.”
“No? I don’t even know what the hell I’m doing anymore. The more I learn about the Seraphim and the Shards and the One, the less I like any of it. I thought I was coming out here to save the galaxy, not learn how fragged it is.”
She glared at Keeper for a second, and then headed away, leaving the Transversal behind and not looking back. She didn’t want to look at the AI. She didn’t want to be on this fragging ship. She wanted to be back on Earth with Hayley. Hell, she would have settled on being with Kett on the Brimstone. She had let Charmeine convince her that the Covenant was important, and that it could help her free the Nephilim’s slaves.
It was a lie. A carefully hidden lie the Seraphim told themselves so they could hold out hope that Thraven might be stopped. Keeper would have clung to the lie as long as it could, allowing them that false hope. She wasn’t going to do that.
She was going to tell the Rejects the truth. She was going to turn the Shardship around. She was going to go back to the Republic, find Hayley, and take her away from all of this.
She pulled to a stop, leaning against the bulkhead, tears running from her eyes. She had never asked to be the Demon Queen. She had never asked to be more than Lieutenant Abigail Cage.
But life wasn’t always fair, and nobody got everything they asked for. What made her think she needed the Covenant to do what needed to be done? What made her think she needed the Light of the Shard, the Focus, the Gift, or any of that other bullshit?
She had her training. She had loyal friends. She had a pretty badass starship. And she had the Covenant. Maybe it wasn’t the Covenant she wanted, but maybe it was the Covenant she needed. And if it wasn’t, maybe she could make it into something she could use.
She stood up, quickly retracing her steps back to the Transversal. Keeper was still there, staring into the still pool.
“Keeper,” she said, getting its attention.
“Queenie. You came back.”
“You knew I would.”
“Yes. That is why I’m still standing here.”
“The One didn’t believe in violence.”
“No.”
“Too fragging bad. He had his chance, and he blew it. This is my show now.”
“It always has been, Queenie.”
10
“On your left,” Bastion said, swinging his rifle in the same direction. An Asura soldier came out of phase a few meters away.
“Save your ammo,” Pik said.
He leaped toward the creature. It was hardly moving, the loss of its General and its inability to phase leaving it stunned. His shoulder slammed into it, knocking it back. A heavy punch from his mechanical hand crushed its head.
“Eww,” Uriel said. “Do you have to be so violent?”
“I like violence,” Pik said. “At least against things that deserve it.”
“I don’t know,” Bastion said, turning his head away from the corpse. “I kind of feel bad for these things.”
“You didn’t feel bad for them when they sliced your arm.”
“Heat of the moment, you know. They were a lot more dangerous then. I mean, we’ve spent the last twelve hours hunting them down, and so far not a single one has come close to even trying to attack us.”
“There was that horde on Deck Thirty-four,” Uriel said.
“Horde?” Bastion replied.
“We were outnumbered fifteen to one,” Pik said.
“You dropped a grenade into the middle of them. They didn’t even try to run.”
“I don’t think they knew what it was,” Uriel said.
“My point exactly. I’m getting nauseous every time we squash one of these things now.”
“What are you suggesting?” Pik asked.
“Maybe we should talk to Queenie about it?”
“Keeper said we needed to remove them from the ship.”
“Keeper isn’t the boss.”
“What’s your problem, anyway?” Pik asked. “You didn’t used to be such a baby. Remember that time you beat that guy in Hell because he looked at you funny?”
“Hell was a different place. You had to be a prick or wind up on the wrong end of the beatings.”
“Urinal, what do you think?” Pik said.
Bastion laughed. “Ha! My translator just called you Urinal.”
Uriel glanced sideways at Bastion, waiting while he and Pik laughed about the error.
“The Asura are dangerous,” he said. “You forget that they nearly killed us not that long ago.”
“They were different then,” Bastion insisted. “Just like I was different in Hell.”
They started walking again, leaving the body of the creature behind. Keeper had told them to leave the corpses, that they would be taken care of. Bastion didn’t know what that meant, and he didn’t want to know.
They moved further into the Shardship. He pulled up the map Keeper had uploaded to their tactical network, checking their position. The ship was massive and easy
to get lost in. They had been hunting the Asura for almost twelve hours and had barely covered two percent of the space.
“We should see if Pudding can program her bot to hunt them, at least,” Bastion said. “This is going to take forever.”
“It beats sitting around and waiting to get to the Extant,” Pik replied.
“Uriel, you’re ancient. What do you know about the Nephilim worlds?”
“Not much,” Uriel replied. “I’ve never been there. Disterium powered drives can’t reach them.”
“So how did Thraven get from there to here?”
“The Nephilim took one of the Seedships. Those reactors are more than capable of making the jump. They learned how to reproduce it.”
“Then why haven’t they tried to take us out before now?” Pik asked.
“Didn’t Jequn talk to you about this, already?”
“Well, yeah, but not in specifics. Besides, you were working for Thraven. I thought maybe you knew something we don’t.”
“I know a lot of things you don’t. That doesn’t mean I’m going to share them with you.”
“Aw, come on.”
“The Nephilim are controlled by the Prophets. There are twelve in all, and from what I understand they all hate one another. As a result, they’ve spent a long time warring with each other for control of the Extant.”
“Yeah, Jequn told us about that,” Bastion said. “The question is: what made them stop fighting long enough to plan an attack on our part of the universe?”
“Thraven wasn’t one of the original Prophets. He was a Terran slave many years ago. Egyptian.”
Bastion raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“That caught you off-guard, didn’t it? The Prophet Malize took him as one of a group of slaves, bringing him back to the Extant to help stock his farm.”
“Hold on. Farm? As in chickens and cows and all that shit?”
“What kind of farm is that?” Pik asked.
“A human farm,” Bastion replied.
“I thought chickens came from boxes.”
“No, idiot. That’s the factory-grown garbage. The real thing comes from farms.”
“Oh.”
“Tastes completely different, too. I only had it once, but it was so tender and juicy.”
“Do you want me to keep going?” Uriel asked. “Because I don’t need to tell you this story. I already know it.”
“Sorry,” Bastion said. “Go ahead.”
“The Nephilim have farms, like Terran farms. Only yes, they raise humans there, not chickens.”
“That’s fragged up.”
“You don’t know the half of it. The humans are raised for their blood, but that isn’t all. I’m sure Jequn didn’t tell you this. The Nephilim elite have been interbreeding with slaves for generations. They had no choice. The original Seraphim lines were too thin, and incest is not a good idea for any species.”
“If the Nephilim have sexy time with their slaves, do they stay slaves?” Bastion asked.
“It depends. It’s also one of the reasons the Prophets were fighting. They didn’t all agree on how the situation should be handled. Some wanted to create a line of diversity and then outlaw the practice. Others believed the slaves who became parents of a Nephilim child should be freed and integrated into society. I heard that Malize didn’t think they should breed with humans at all, and killed any of his underlings who did.”
“Ouch.”
“The Nephilim ruling class see anyone who isn’t part of the ruling class as a Lesser. Not only Terrans but also the creatures they bred from the seeds they stole. The Goreshin, for example. They have a higher regard for them because they made them, but they will never achieve the same status.”
“I thought you didn’t know that much about the Extant?” Pik said.
“I’m not talking about the Extant itself. I’m talking about Nephilim society. I spent a few years with a Venerant. They’re part of the Nephilim ruling class as well. They’re given the Gift and trained as courtesans, spies, and assassins.”
“Cool,” Pik said.
“I suppose,” Uriel replied. “Anyway, she explained all of this to me. I was only half-listening most of the time.”
“She knew Thraven was a slave?” Pik asked.
“No, I got that part from Thraven. He’s very proud of where he came from. An Egyptian eunuch slave who became a Prophet of the Nephilim and is leading the Great Return? From the other side’s perspective, it is very impressive.”
“Did you say eunuch?” Bastion asked.
“What’s a eunuch?” Pik said.
“Yes,” Uriel said.
“Castrated, or emasculated?”
“I don’t see how it matters.”
“Which one is it?”
“Emasculated.”
“Gloritant Thraven has no nuts?” Bastion said.
“You could put it that way.”
“I don’t get it,” Pik said.
“Someone chopped off Thraven’s package,” Bastion said.
“Have you two noticed you get hung up on the stupidest things?” Uriel asked.
“It’s entertaining,” Pik said. “I need to come up with some good names to call that asshole before we meet up with him again.”
“I told you, he’s proud of who he is and what he’s managed to become,” Uriel said. “I don’t think calling him stupid names will bother him.”
“But it’ll make me laugh,” Pik said.
“Let’s go this way,” Bastion said, checking the map again.
There was a larger compartment a few hundred meters down. It seemed like as good a place as any for the Asura to hide. Not that he wanted to kill any more of them, but until he was able to speak to Abbey about it in private, he had orders to follow.
“So, how did Thraven get out of a life of slavery?” Bastion asked as they walked.
“I don’t know all of the details. Somehow, he learned to speak in the language of the Seraphim. He managed to convince Malize to put him to work inside his palace, where he began reading about the Father, the Promise, the Great Return. All of that. Then he learned about the Gift. He killed a Venerant and drank of his blood, giving himself the first part.”
“He killed a Venerant without the Gift?”
“That’s what he told me.”
“Do you think it’s true?”
“He had no reason to lie. Take the Gift away from Gloritant Thraven, and you’re still dealing with a very dangerous individual. When the Prophet heard what he had done, he expected the Gift would kill him.”
“But it didn’t.”
“No. He was more naturally adept than any of the Noviates the Prophet was training at the time.”
“Like Queenie?” Pik said.
“Very much so,” Uriel replied. “Malize took it as a sign and decided to train Thraven instead of killing him. He raised him from Lesser to Nephilim, and when the time came, Thraven repaid Malize by betraying him and taking his place as Prophet.”
“Because of course,” Bastion said. “How could it end any other way?”
“Thraven spent hundreds of years at war after that. He conquered two of the Prophets before convincing the rest that they were fools to keep fighting one another when they should be following Lucifer’s words and freeing the rest of their people.”
“So he left the Extant and came to frag us,” Bastion said.
“Pretty much,” Uriel agreed.
“Speaking of which,” Pik said. “What’s the deal with you and Queenie, anyway?”
Bastion glanced over at Pik. “How is that speaking of which? You completely changed the subject.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. And what made you ask that, anyway?”
Pik shrugged. “I don’t know. Uriel mentioned the girl he was having sex with, and it made me think of you and Queenie.”
“There is no me and Queenie.”
“Yeah, but do you want there to be? I see the way you look at her wi
th those big googly Gant eyes.”
“I do not, and definitely not with Gant eyes.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You do,” Uriel said. “Even I’ve noticed it, and I haven’t been with you all that long.”
“Shut up. I don’t. Well, I mean, I’m not saying I wouldn’t if I had the chance, but Queenie doesn’t think of me like that. She doesn’t think of anyone like that.”
“I don’t know,” Uriel said. “She’s nicer to you than she is to the rest of us.”
“She is?”
“On a whole. I don’t know if you two feel the same way, but she can be a bit bossy.”
“She’s assertive,” Bastion said. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Defending her?” Pik said, laughing. “You totally want to -”
Pik fell silent as they reached the large room at the end of the corridor. The door looked like it was stuck open, and a large, scaly shape was visible beyond it.
“What do you think that is?” Bastion said, staring at it.
“It looks like a snake,” Uriel said. “A big snake.”
“Do you think it’s alive?” Pik asked.
The scales shifted slightly. Just enough that it was obvious it had moved.
“Uh, Queenie?” Bastion said, opening a channel on his comm.
“What is it, Imp?” Abbey replied a moment later.
“Can you mark our position and come down here? We have a situation.”
11
“This isn’t the kind of situation I was expecting,” Abbey said, looking at the creature through the entrance to the room.
“You and us both, Queenie,” Bastion said.
Abbey approached the mass slowly, not quite sure what to do. It was barely moving and hardly seemed dangerous.
“Any ideas?” she asked, looking back at the others. After Bastion had asked her to come down, she had requested Keeper, Gant, Jequn, and Trinity join her.
“It has to be Asura,” Keeper said. “But I have no record of anything that size.”
“If it’s Asura, we should kill it,” Pik said.
“We don’t need to kill it,” Bastion replied. “Queenie, I wanted to talk to you about that when you have a minute.”
