by M. R. Forbes
“I think they want it,” Trinity said.
Abbey took another step toward them. This time, they didn’t back up at all.
“They definitely want it,” Uriel said.
One of the gray-skinned creatures sprang from the corner. Trinity moved like a bullet, on a path to intercept, blade springing from her armor.
“Wait,” Abbey said.
The creature landed beside Trinity, hesitating until the blade vanished again. Then it crept forward, approaching Abbey’s hands.
She remained still, watching it carefully as it came near. She knew Trinity was watching it, too, ready to kill it if it turned violent.
It reached out with a long finger, dipping it into the energy. Immediately, its eyes closed, and a soft hum escaped from it.
It pulled its finger out a second later, backing away and looking up at her. Then it lowered itself, as if in a bow.
“I think it worked,” Uriel said.
The other creatures began moving past the soldiers, nearly a dozen in all. They each dipped their finger in the shower of the Gift, taking in the energy and backing away to join the first, prostrating beside her.
“Uriel, go back topside,” Abbey said. “I want a guard put on the Focus.”
“A guard?” Uriel said, surprised.
“Keeper is terrified of these things, and I know it’s for a reason, even if I don’t see it. I’m giving them a taste of what the Focus has to offer. I want them coming to me for it, not trying to take it for themselves.”
“Makes sense. I’m on it, Queenie.”
Uriel left the room as the first of the soldiers came forward. It was taller than Abbey, and it looked down at her with cautious eyes. It placed its hand into the stream, repeating the gesture of the other Asura, closing its eyes and humming.
It remained for a longer period than the others, but then it too backed away and dropped to its knees, bowing its head. Two more soldiers approached and did the same, and then the flood began.
All of the soldiers shuffled forward at once, a few of them bumping into one another, shoving and hissing.
“Void, get them in line.”
Trinity moved into the group, grabbing the two who were fighting and knocking them both aside. When they tried to move to the energy again, she blocked their path.
The action sent the right message. The soldiers spread apart, forming four lines that approached her in sudden, impeccable order, the biggest and strongest of the creatures moving to the front in clear ranks. They took some of the Gift’s energy in turn, spreading out on the floor, arranging themselves in front of her until they had all been restored.
She drew the Gift back into herself then, the light fading from her hands. She could tell the overall cost had been low, and she wondered how much energy was stored in the Darkstone that it had kept not only them but also Dog alive for thousands of years.
“Well,” Jequn said. “Now what?”
Abbey stared down at the Asura spread before her. King had spoken directly to her in her mind. These creatures had fed on the Gift. There were naniates inside of them now.
“Get up.”
She sent the command without speaking, pushing the thought to the Gift, a visual of the gathering coming to their feet.
The Asura responded, all of them rising in perfect unison, coming to attention and matching her visualization almost exactly.
“One of you will lead the others.”
The largest of the soldiers stepped forward, standing in front of her at stiff attention.
“I name you Sergeant. You are in command of all of these. I will tell you what to do, and you will tell them.”
The Asura lowered bowed its head.
“Remain here. I will call for you.”
It bowed its head again.
Abbey stared at the Asura Sergeant. It didn’t flinch, keeping its eyes forward. Then she turned away from it, looking over at Jequn.
“We have to hurry. We have ten more groups to feed before we reach Jumol. It’s not going to leave us a lot of extra time.”
“Aye, Queenie,” Jequn and Trinity said.
They left the room, walking fifty meters down the corridor before stopping. Abbey looked back. The Asura were still in position, waiting in complete stillness for her to give them more instructions.
“You have them all under control?” Jequn asked.
“For now,” Abbey replied.
“You don’t sound confident.”
“I feel like I’m playing with fire.”
“You’re the Demon Queen of Hell,” Trinity said. “Fire is your natural element.”
Abbey smiled. “You know, I hadn’t thought of it that way. Come on.”
35
“Where are we?” Olus asked. He tried to sit up and was greeted by a resounding thump in his head. He didn’t let that stop him, but he did allow it to slow him down. “What the hell did you do to me?”
“You’re high on the side effects of a cocktail meant to help clear the poisonous isotope that we introduced to your system.”
The voice came from his left. He turned his head slowly, fighting the threat of dizziness. A young woman in a medic’s uniform smiled at him. He found himself staring more than he intended, his eyes drawn to the tattoos that covered every visible part of her dark flesh.
“You’re a Koosian?”
She smiled. “My name is Nibia. I’m impressed. Most Republicans have never heard of us. But then, you aren’t most Republicans, are you Killshot?”
Olus clutched at his head. Koosian’s were Outworlders, but they were also nearly a species unto themselves. They had left Earth during the original expansion, gone as far out as they could, and settled a planet where they could live according to their beliefs and customs. One of which was the belief in witch-doctors.
“I suppose not,” he replied, noticing there were no medical bots in the room. Her origins helped explain that. “What did you give me?”
“It feels great, doesn’t it?” Nibia asked.
“You’re kidding?” he replied.
“Relax, Captain. I mixed some of my traditional medicines with your modern chemicals to make a pretty potent cocktail. I’ve never needed it myself, but I’ve heard it leaves you with a pretty solid migraine.”
“You’ve heard right,” Olus replied.
He closed his eyes, his memory of the Asmodeus coming back to him. He grunted as the pain in his head intensified at the reminder that he had lost Hayley.
“I can give you something for the throbbing,” she said.
“Why didn’t you do that before I woke up?” he asked.
“Because I’m a Koosian man-eater,” she replied, referencing one myth about her people that suggested the women often killed and ate the fathers of their children shortly after the child’s birth. She laughed, and then turned serious again. “Honestly, I enjoy seeing you macho types in pain.” Olus stared at her. She laughed again, more heartily this time. “It’s funny every single time.”
“You have problems,” Olus said.
“I’m the ship’s doctor for Quark’s Riders. It comes with the territory.”
“I’m on the Quasar then?” he asked.
“You are.”
“We got away?”
“We did.”
She dug into a drawer, opened a bottle of pills, and poured a pair into his hand. Then she grabbed a small bottle of water and handed it to him.
“Cheers,” she said as he downed the pills.
“Where’s Quark?” Olus asked.
Some of the pain was already starting to subside, and he was surprised to find he wasn’t famished. The naniates were satisfied by whatever had been in the witch-doctor’s cocktail.
“The Colonel said to send you up as soon as you were awake, so whenever you feel like taking a stroll topside, feel free. Otherwise, you can stay down here with me. I promise I won’t bite unless you ask me to.”
She laughed again.
Olus slid off the gur
ney, planting his feet on the floor. A wave of dizziness met him, but Nibia’s arms were around him before he could lose his balance.
“Okay, tough guy,” she said. “Take it slow.”
“I wasn’t expecting that.”
“It should clear up in a few minutes. You need to get your system going again.”
“How long was I under?”
“Ten hours. We could have kept you awake, but it would have hurt a lot more that way.”
“Thank you, then.”
“You’re welcome. Do you want some help?”
Olus shook his head, releasing himself from her. He took a couple of steps, the room spinning as he did. He reached out and grabbed her offered shoulder.
“Damn it,” he said. He hated feeling this way.
“Come on, Captain; I’m not that bad to touch, am I?” Nibia asked.
“Not at all,” he replied. “You don’t mind holding me up?”
“Look around, Captain. I’m not exactly slammed with patients at the moment.”
Olus glanced around the room. The other three beds were all empty. The Riders that had been lost had all died cleanly at least.
“I just don’t understand why I’m dizzy,” he said. “The Gift should be helping me recover.”
“You mean your Meijo? Not this time, Captain. Not after what we did to it.”
“What did you do to it?”
“Gave it a bit of a kick-start. Don’t worry; I’ve done this sort of thing before.”
“The Koosians know about the Gift?”
“The Meijo. Yes. But it’s a secret.”
“Why?”
“Most of the galaxy already thinks we’re a group of anti-technology quacks,” she said. “Adding magic to the mix? I think we’d lose the few trade partners we have.”
“Are you?”
She smirked, laughed, and shrugged, all at the same time. “It’s all a matter of perspective.”
“Anti-technology quacks,” he corrected.
“Again, a matter of perspective.”
“Thraven has the Outworlds fighting for him.”
“The Koosians don’t fight,” she said. “We have a pacifist charter, and we don’t sit on the Governance.”
“How did you end up with Quark?”
“He visited Koosil. He talked me into coming with him. I was young and innocent then.”
They headed out of the medical bay, walking the corridor of the Quasar. There was no one else around.
“He talked you into it?” Quark asked.
“I wanted to see the galaxy. Really, Quark’s not a bad guy. Rough around the edges for sure. A little dirty. A little violent. But the Riders have always been good to me, and I take care of them like they’re my children.”
They made it to the end of the hallway, to a ladder there. Nibia positioned herself behind him as he started to climb, and it was a good thing. He lost his grip and would have fallen if she hadn’t been there.
“I’ve got you, Captain,” she said, holding him until he grabbed on and started climbing again, up three levels until she told him to stop.
They came out in another long corridor, and by the time they reached the end, he was able to walk on his own.
“Ahhh, there he is,” Quark said, coming into view a moment later. “Captain Mann. I hope my ship’s doctor was good to you, Captain. But not too good.” He laughed.
“She’s very capable,” Olus replied. “Thank you for your help.”
“Anytime, Captain,” Nibia said.
“It’s about time you woke up,” Quark said. “We’ve been waiting for you to get your wits back.”
“Did I miss anything important?”
“Nah, not really. Galaxy’s just going to shit is all. Republic planets are collapsing one by one, and knowing what I know now, I expect the Outworlds won’t be far behind.”
“You should have gotten the coordinates to Kett’s fleet from me before you knocked me out,” Olus said. “It would have saved us some time.”
Quark laughed. “Oh yeah, good idea, Captain. You think this is my first time in deep space?” He was still laughing as he guided Olus to the cockpit. “What the frag do you think we’ve been doing since we escaped?”
Olus glanced over at Quark and smiled. The Quasar was sitting in the middle of a fleet of starships, with the Brimstone positioned front and center.
“Next time you doubt me, Captain, I’ll leave you behind.”
He laughed again.
Olus wasn’t sure if he was joking or not.
36
“You lost Hayley Cage?” General Sylvan Kett said, his tone incredulous.
“To be fair, we were double-crossed,” Olus said, returning the General’s attitude. “At least we were out there trying to do something.”
“And what is it you think I’ve been doing, Captain?” Sylvan said. “There are nearly a hundred Republic ships out there now. We started with less than a dozen. Considering the Milnet is still down, and we have to get to close range to pass over instructions on how to activate the Galnet workarounds, I think that’s pretty damn good.”
“Congratulations,” Olus said. “It means you have a big enough fleet to start moving on the offensive.”
“Directly against Thraven? That would be suicide without Cage.”
“You need to consider a war that Abigail Cage isn’t part of; General Thraven has her daughter. Do you think she’ll do anything to risk harming her?”
“She’s surprised me before.”
“We need another plan.”
General Kett rose from his seat behind his desk, his face softening. “Olus, we’ve known one another for a long time. That you’re here at all only speaks to your abilities. I heard what happened on Earth. You’ve done a fine job. But I know Thraven, too. Without Cage, without the Focus, we can’t defeat him. It doesn’t matter how many ships we have.”
“Bullshit,” Quark said, speaking up for the first time. Both men looked to the mercenary. “Yeah, I know. Hard to believe, right? I’ve dealt with these magic assholes before. I almost had Cage. Came this close.” He spread his fingers apart a few centimeters. “All we need to do is get close enough to hit him with some poison, and his Gift won’t do shit for him.”
Sylvan laughed. “Get close enough to poison him? That would never happen. Forget about the fact that he’d snap your neck from fifty meters. He has four warships like the Brimstone. We’d never get a shot at him.”
“The Quasar has a cloaking system,” Quark said. “He’d never know we’re coming.”
“You can’t stay cloaked forever,” Sylvan said. “Who are you anyway?”
“Colonel Quark of the Riders,” Quark said. “Mercenary. Bounty hunter. Currently in the employ of Don Pallimo.”
“Didn’t you say Don Pallimo is the one who double-crossed you?”
“He didn’t have a choice. Thraven is holding his consciousness hostage.”
“Consciousness?”
“The Don is dead,” Olus said. “For years now. His assets are being controlled by a neural network designed to think like him. An artificial version of his mind along with an army of synths.”
“You’re kidding?”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?”
Olus nearly laughed. Quark’s scarred and wrinkled face coupled with his mechanical eyes was impervious to appearing jovial.
“He double-crossed us, but he also helped us escape,” Olus said. “He wants us to rescue him.”
“I don’t believe this,” Sylvan said. “Where is this network located? And don’t tell me the Outworlds.”
“Oberon,” Quark said, a slight smirk appearing at the corner of his mouth.
“Frag it,” Sylvan said.
“Don’t dismiss the idea too quickly, General,” Olus said. “Don Pallimo has nearly a thousand ships at his disposal, along with a number of mercenaries under contract.”
“Those thousand ships are cargo haulers. Unarmed. They’re also spread around the gala
xy.”
“Yes,” Olus said. “Which makes them perfect.”
“For what?”
“I want to destroy the Galnet.”
Quark laughed out loud that time.
“You what?” Sylvan said.
“You heard me. I want to destroy the Galnet. Bring down the repeaters that pass the signals around the galaxy, and cut off Thraven’s ability to communicate with his forces. The Crescent Haulers are the perfect tool to do that.”
“We won’t be able to communicate with our forces,” Sylvan said.
“Not at long range, but you need to get close to pass them the workarounds, anyway. Think about it. If we can cut communications between Thraven’s ships, we can start hitting his battlegroups and hopefully convince a few of them they’re fighting for the wrong side. Either that, or he’ll be forced to reactivate the Milnet, and we’ll have our full communication systems back online.”
General Kett tapped his fingers on his desk while he considered it. Then he nodded. “It’s not a bad idea, but it’s still risky.”
“Especially because you need to put the fleet in motion before we finish the job,” Olus said.
“We?” Sylvan asked.
“I’m still under contract with Pallimo,” Quark said. “He wants me to save his digital ass? Then that’s what I’m going to do.”
“It seems you have this all figured out,” Sylvan said. “Why did you even stop off here? You could have gone directly to Oberon, rescued the hostage, and proceeded to start destroying Galnet repeaters.”
“First, because we’re in this together, and we need to coordinate. Second, I was hoping you had gotten an update from Abigail. Third, because we’re going to need your help.”
“Charlie sent Cage to the Covenant, but she didn’t tell her what was waiting there.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a long story, Captain. One I don’t have all the details to. Suffice it to say; there were some problems in the past that may have been dealt with a little too heavy-handedly. And by past, I’m talking thousands of years.”
“That seems to be a common case with the Seraphim, doesn’t it?” Olus said. “I spoke to Abigail on her way to the Covenant. She told me about the experiments.”
