The StarMaster's Son

by Gibson Morales

  And after the StarMaster's death, showing the military a little good will couldn't hurt. By now half the universe had seen a leaked sim of Felik's conversation with the Wraiths. And half of them wanted him dead for his lack of action in reporting the warning to anyone. The MARINES had offered to protect him in one of their bases while he spoke with diplomats from different races to try to smoothen things out.

  "Yeah, okay, but I still think it's silly they get their name like that. When I become a starkeeper, I'm going to try to change that. I've always wondered, how come you're not a starkeeper? You're a scion."

  "When I was about your age..." Felik could go on for hours about how his abduction as a child and subsequent neural virus had led him down a different path than his brother, Brody. That wasn't healthy. "When I was about your age, I decided I wanted to be the Chief Philosopher. But..."

  "You trailed off," Brody observed, the AR wrapper of his chocolate bar disappearing in a small hologram explosion. "You do that a lot. The Scion Mother said that New Terrans who do that are usually dealing with emotional difficulties." They both were, of course. Only in different ways.

  Felik was still trying to process everything. The StarMaster had been the ruler of the Union Omega, the largest empire in the universe. So vast, it spawned the four quadrants and encompassed billions of species, trillions of celestial bodies. It was insane to think anything could end the man's existence.

  Worse was that millions of sapients thought he should be punished for failing to inform anyone about the Wraiths’ warning. His karma had plunged. He assumed it would never recover. And he didn't even want to think about his karma bit debt.

  Earlier that sol, he'd woken up in his Alderson disk living sphere to his neighbors all pissing on him. It wasn't actually urine, but a sensory booster that was equally as potent. The upside was that they hadn't kicked him out yet. Not that he wanted to stay if they were going to piss on him. Only the arrival of Imperial Infantry troops had saved him from whatever else they had planned. The Infantry escorted him here and gave him a godweb.

  As one of the StarMaster's scions, Felik didn't have a typical father. He was a genetic clone of the StarMaster. That was technically the closest thing he had to a dad. Learning about Arteyos's death, he'd experienced an intense shock, a brief panic, and a lingering sense of dread. Like something worse would happen.

  "Brody, you're too young to know that you're being disrespectful, but you are." Personally, he wouldn't have chosen to bring him along, but Chief Navigator Xerix and other officials had decided to randomly pair up all the scions and send them to protected bases until matters got sorted out.

  "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to."

  "That's why I'm telling you. Your challenge is to figure out how you were."

  Brody puckered his lips and nodded, trying to divert guilt elsewhere. "Okay. The truth is I knew I was being rude. It's because I'm digging into your business too deeply. And I'm implying that you've got certain problems. Which I'm sure you don't."

  "Why do I get the feeling you know you're still mocking me?" Felik all but groaned.

  He didn't want to tell his brother off. He was a child, after all, and entitled to make some mistakes. Given the circumstances, Brody was likely coping by acting out his grief with annoying behavior. They were both on edge. And as a scion with a promising future, it seemed a foolish idea to get on Brody's bad side.

  Appealing to Brody's intelligence and challenging his sense of nuance seemed the better option. "You tell me. What factors prevent me from becoming the Chief Philosopher?"

  Brody tilted his head at Felik.

  "Don't worry. I'll remain objective about it." It wasn't like hearing the truth would upset him.

  "I feel uncomfortable about it."

  "Why?"

  "I know some of the factors. The things in your past. But those shouldn't have prevented you."

  "Do you mean 'shouldn't' ostensibly or morally?"

  "Both."

  Felik looked off into the distance. "Sometimes a lot of things shouldn't happen. They do, anyways. Maybe when you're a starkeeper you can try to alter the universe to change that." His tone darkened and he almost wondered if he'd pressed the boy too hard.

  "I'm going to run a feast sim," Brody said.

  Felik rolled his eyes. His brother didn't notice.

  As the young scion ran his sim, Felik pulled up a media feed. Around the universe, word was spreading about the StarMaster's death. Sapients were honoring the StarMaster with their planet's customs, while others didn't view death as the end, but merely as another stage of life. Some celebrated the StarMaster's end. Many others had only recently accepted preliminary invitations to join the Union Omega and wouldn't learn of the StarMaster's death for millennia.

  Other streams reported that official investigations were kicking off and that the Union Omega would announce funeral plans in the next few sols.

  So far, the power vacuum hadn't led to any major violence. The biggest act was done in protest of Felik's own failing.

  The StarMaster had been old-fashioned, preferring vids and text to sims. And he was dead now. Trying to honor him with trivial preferences suddenly seemed silly. So Felik ran a sim to experience the news firsthand.

  Suddenly, he was floating in space, observing a group of ships. From afar, the vessels looked like high-caliber bullets. Long, lean, and deadly. Their smooth chrome surfaces shined with the glow of a nearby sun.

  The ten-ship fleet moved into a vertical formation. Flaps and turret-like apparatuses extended along their midsections. An energy shield formed around them. Indications of combat despite the lack of any obvious enemy. Hundreds of thousands of kilometers away rested a single green planet and its space platforms.

  The Union Omega maintained it as a nature preserve for research, but no sapient life forms inhabited the planet. The space platforms housed drones, automated research labs, and surveillance units.

  A storm appeared to be swirling at the center of the planet’s surface, a brown cloud tainting the green. The cloud grew, spinning and spinning as if drilling into the planet. Flashes of lightning webbed through the clouds as they spiraled with magma. That's when it became obvious this was no cosmic storm, but a far worse feature of the universe.

  The brown mess spread exponentially now, consuming the planet like a rabid beast. A wave of lightning flared as if the planet itself were trying to resist. The space platforms pulled toward the implosion for a second then vanished into the whirling brown mess. Two more seconds and the black hole swallowed up all signs of the planet.

  His boss, Rhona Bash'resque, materialized in a black leather chair, replacing the ten-ship fleet in space. She was a beautiful woman with dark, curly hair and deep-set eyes. Everyone who could afford to be beautiful was.

  "Cowards," Rhona Bash'resque spat. "If they wanted to get revenge against the Guardian Mind, they should've had the balls to attack us directly instead of throwing a tantrum."

  The news host sitting opposite her was another equally attractive woman. "I didn't know the UOP had fleets like that," she said, referring to the Union Omega Patriots.

  "Oh yeah," Rhona said. "Some of those guys have amassed so much karma, they've permanently inserted their consciousness into a warship core."

  "Wouldn't that be fun...." the news host said sarcastically.

  "I'd rather be a warship than a planet," Rhona shrugged.

  "Speaking of warships, the UOP are saying Felik Ullon played politics by dismissing the Saganerio starkeepers' warnings. Can you comment on that?"

  Felik would rather have known who leaked his conversation. There were quite a few possibilities—even though it was technically illegal for government officials of the Union Omega to monitor sapients' through their nexuses, they still did it. He'd even asked Landi to see if he could find anything.

  Rhona shrugged. "No, not really. Sapients can think whatever they want. Felik's had his problems growing up. Everyone is aware of what he suffered in the Darwinist a
bduction incident."

  "Do you think that means he's not responsible for neglecting to properly inform the Saganerio network starkeepers about the Wraiths' threat? They did request all available support."

  "An investigation can determine who's responsible for that. Not me. I wouldn't exactly be objective on the matter."

  The hostess laughed. "Fair point. Are you at least a little concerned about his safety? Now that everyone knows he screwed up, it's possible he'll be targeted by others like the UOP. Yet we've heard that he'll be addressing certain species as part of his job."

  "Yes, from a secure location. He's a—"

  Their MARINE escort entered the capsule, and Felik closed the sim. His nexus tagged the lean, ball-faced MARINE as .

  "My apologies for making you wait. This way," Gurgegh said.

  "How come you MARINES still wear those old uniforms from the Gliese War era?" Brody asked, referring to the crisp brown and beige combat plating that ran over Gurgegh's gray long-sleeved shirt and pants.

  Felik messaged.

  Gurgegh laughed. "I'm sure a prodigy like yourself already knows the answer. Tradition."

  He and Brody said the word together. The MARINE turned to Felik. "I don't suppose you have any silly questions? It's only fair that I give you a mulligan, too."

  "Yeah, okay. I was wondering about you being late. I'm not offended, but I am curious what happened."

  Brody's eyes widened, and he snickered.

  Gurgegh flashed a brief, shameful grin. A few seconds passed in silence.

  "Not offended," Felik repeated. "Just wondering."

  "When I asked if you had any silly questions I was being rhetorical," the MARINE reproofed him.

  "Heh, even I knew that," Brody said.

  Felik fought back the urge to toss up his hands. Whether because of his silly question or the MARINE's lack of a personality, they said almost nothing for another five minutes, passing through several more corridors and launching across a couple open null gravity chambers. In each one, MARINES looked their way, staring daggers at Felik. He considered it fortunate that he didn't hear any whispers.

  "How about a non-silly question?" he said.

  "Too late for that," Gurgegh said.

  "Well, yeah, but—"

  Gurgegh furrowed his brow. "If you have a question, ask, man. No need to introduce it with a question."

  Brody messaged.

  Felik glared at him and asked, "These other MARINES have probably heard about the leaks. Any reason they might be angry at me?"

  "Aside from the fact that you basically allowed the StarMaster to die without even trying to prevent it?"

  "Okay, that wouldn't be a fact. That's your opinion," Felik said.

  "Mmmm, it's kind of a fact," Brody said.

  "Brody, be objective. It's not a fact, it's an opinion."

  Gurgegh messaged.

  Felik squinted at him. "Thanks for your advice."

  "Hey, do you think Felik could ever be a MARINE? I think he seriously admires your network," Brody said.

  "Oh, does he?" Gurgegh said, giving Felik a smug look. "Maybe he should worry about fixing his mistakes in his own network first."

  Yeah, says the guy who works for a military network that "accidentally" kills thousands of innocent sapients every solar cycle.

  A message popped up in Felik's feed from Landi.

  At least that was one mystery out of the way.

  A few minutes later, they entered a small dark sterile chamber occupied from the floor to the ceiling by dozens of tiny hovering white motes. Each would represent a diplomat from a different species once Felik initiated a session with them.

  "You two can hang out here," Gurgegh said. "We're just sorting out a minor technical issue."

  That was odd. Felik wondered how long he'd actually have to wait.

  "That won't be a problem, will it?" Gurgegh asked.

  "No, no..."

  "Look, it's not my call. My protocol gave me the order, okay?"

  "Sure, it's not a problem."

  Brody messaged.

  A hint of annoyance hit Gurgegh's face as he left the capsule.

  "The drop in tension here is almost palpable," Brody said.

  "Would you be quiet?"

  "What, I'm not the one who asked the silly question."

  "Need I show—"

  The notification made him freeze. This couldn't be right. He checked and saw that Brody's protective bubbleweb wasn't running either. He wheeled around and palmed the wall. It did nothing.

  "Won't open?" Brody asked. "Let me try."

  It didn't open. That was less than good.

 

  Felik groaned. The power of the base's godweb eclipsed his so of course it could shut his down. Why the hell would they schedule the drill for this moment? Talk about bad timing. He had to complain to someone, so he complained to Gurgegh.

  He didn't get a response.

  "What should we do while we wait?" Brody asked.

  He thought about the bitter-looking MARINES they'd passed.

  "Fuck," Felik breathed.

  Brody's jaw dropped in horror. "W-what?"

  "Oh, no, no. I didn't mean I want to do that. It was something different," Felik said. "Look, we need to go."

  He tried accessing the motes in the capsule but kept getting responses.

  They were trapped. Just like in his childhood. The parallels made him wince. He couldn't let Brody suffer as he had.

  "Get behind me," he said.

  "Why?"

  "I'll tell you later. Trust me for now."

  "Fine. What should I do then?"

  Without a bubbleweb, Felik would be his only defense. Any second now a MARINE would assault them. He bit his lip. "Your nexus has some psionic capabilities. Try to psi.hack those motes. If you do, send this message." He compiled an SOS data node and sent it to Brody.

  "I've never psi.hacked anything before, though."

  Felik gave him a skeptical glance. He was about to bet his life that wasn't true. "Oh, really? Well, now—"

  The invisible force of gravity wrapped around his body and hoisted him off the ground. He could do nothing but succumb to the painful knowledge that a MARINE must've caught him in a godweb. The wall opened. A MARINE in an intimidating dark blue Viper combat frame stormed in and stood inches from his face.

 

  The gravity began weighing down on Felik's limbs. Every second the pressure intensified, and he got heavier and heavier while his body floated in the air.

  "Don't hurt him," Felik managed, willing Brody to stay brave. He didn't know what was happening, whether this MARINE was only here to kill him or as part of a scheme to get rid of all the scions. As long as this wasn't a repeat of his past—as long as Brody didn't suffer like he had—that would be a victory.

  Even as the intense gravity lock squeezed every inch of his synthetic protean frame, he could still perceive the dark blue MARINE in front of him. In the reflection of his armor, he registered the literal husk that remained of his own body, crushed by pressure all around. There was no pain. He had no reason to enable that sensation. The MARINE could if he psi.hacked him, though.

 

  Crap. Against
a Viper frame, his psionic security wouldn't last long. In short order, he'd be wishing he were dead. And the MARINE would be able to grant his wish by corrupting his core.

  he asked. At least let him know the exact reason for his death.

 

  What a stupid reason. On second thought, Felik wished he hadn't asked.

 

  A progress bar neared completion on his HUD as he stared into the MARINE's helmet, struggling to find a hint of mercy. Suddenly, cracks webbed across that helmet and his blue armor.

  The psi.hacker began to scream and writhe.

  The progress bar reset and vanished.

  Patches of flesh replaced the MARINE Viper armor as if someone were hijacking his body. In seconds, a Fleet Admiral uniform replaced the sleek, aggressive design of the combat armor.

  Felik blinked, recognizing the dominating face of his uncle. He had psi.hacked the psi.hacker and somehow replaced his body frame with his own. Saving him just as he'd saved him a lifetime ago from the Darwinist's abduction stasis.

  His uncle gave him a solemn nod and walked off in the opposite direction as a team of MARINES rushed in to help Felik and Brody.

  Chapter 8

  FELIK

  The eight-foot long fangs dug in between the massive armor plates and a guttural roar of pain echoed across the desert. The pierced kaiju rolled backward and a deep, cracking sound replaced its cry. The trio of fangs shattered moments later.

  With surprising grace, enormous wings unfolded and battered the sky, throwing up a sandstorm in two massive gusts. The sky beast shot up, then hovered over the sand, neon green blood spilling out from its jaw filled with the remaining still-deadly fangs.

  Below, the armored snake stretched its gaping black hole of a mouth. Rows and rows of pointed teeth spun around. Inhaling the sand, the beast twisted and plunged into the sifting sands with a boom. Dozens of smaller insect creatures popped out of the surrounding sand and launched off into the sky, bleating until the aerial kaiju swept out its segmented tail. The insects smacked into it and slid off one by one.