But her father had stroked her cheek. You are beautiful in any form, for your deadliness is your beauty. Go and deceive them.
She had laughed. I will wipe them out.
As Jade walked across the plains, her brothers and sisters saw her. Thousands of scorpions bowed before her, hissing in reverence, stingers rising in respect.
"Mistress!" they hissed.
"Great huntress!"
"Predator queen!"
"Bane of humans!"
She nodded at them, smiling thinly, accepting the titles. None in the empire had slain more humans. Her wrath was legendary.
Yet one scorpion scuttled toward her, hissing in scorn. He was a massive beast, his shell as dark as the void between galaxies. He huffed and kicked sand at her.
"Look at her!" the scorpion said. "She's not one of us. She's one of the humans."
Around him, other scorpions squealed in dismay.
"The emperor himself gave her this form!"
"She is Skra-Shen, a holy arachnid!"
"She is the Great Deceiver!"
But the burly scorpion spat. "Lies. I know what I see. I see a weak, frail human. Vermin! She is vermin among us."
Jade doffed her cloak and approached the scorpion. He was several times her size, his teeth the length of her forearms. He snarled and thrust his stinger toward her.
Jade leaped aside, and his stinger drove into the ground. She lashed her claws, slicing his stinger right off his tail.
Yellow blood spurted.
The scorpion screamed and reared, pincers raised.
She lifted the severed stinger, spun like discus thrower, and hurled it. It impaled the scorpion's chest.
The beast fell, dead before he hit the ground.
Jade spat on the corpse, then lifted her skin cloak, dusted it off, and placed it across her shoulders. As she kept walking, she heard the other scorpions leap onto their dead brother and feast.
She walked across barren hills, and she beheld the imperial palace ahead.
The palace had two towers, representing the two claws in a scorpion's pincer. The towers grew from a shared base, soaring so tall they scraped the edge of space. Here was the heart of the Skra-Shen civilization. Here was the heart of the entire Hierarchy, this axis of scorpions and thousands of other species who served them. And here lived her father, Lord Emperor of the Hierarchy.
"The palace of Baal Skran," she whispered in awe, gazing upon the building. "Hall of Masters."
Jade began moving faster, bounding across the jagged plains, leaping over canyons, until she reached the palace. The main gate rose before her. The archway was carved from sandstone, shaped like two scorpion stingers meeting at the keystone.
Jade stepped through the archway, entering a hall of scorpions.
Large scorpions with black shells, the male warriors, stood guard by doorways that led deeper into the palace. Golden females, the emperor's harem, sprawled everywhere, some carrying their translucent young on their backs. The floor was a mosaic formed of human bones, the skulls screaming in silent agony. Human skins hung on the walls, stitched together, forming tapestries the size of starship hulls. Murals had been tattooed into the skins, depicting ancient battles, the scorpions smiting their enemies.
Jade walked across the hall, her heavy boots crunching bones. In the center of the room rose a hill of human bones, and she climbed a staircase paved with femurs. At the hilltop, she found a depression like a volcano's vent. Teeth filled the pit. Human teeth. Millions of them, filling the hollow mound.
Upon this clinking lair of teeth he stood. Sin Kra. Emperor of the Skra-Shen.
Jade stood before him. "Hello, Father."
Sin Kra was twice the size of the largest scorpion in his army. Rather than black or gold like common scorpions, his exoskeleton was a rare crimson color. The color of human blood. He was the most ancient among them, centuries old, wisest and mightiest of the hunters. He was a predator among predators. The top of the food chain. The tip of the Hierarchy. Ten thousand worlds bowed before him, for he was the destroyer of worlds.
And I'm his daughter, Jade thought. And one day this palace, this planet, this galaxy will be mine.
"They are so fragile . . ." Sin Kra hissed. "So weak . . . Yet they scream so beautifully."
He was pinning down a human, Jade saw. A young man, stripped naked. The pest was lying on the pile of teeth, trussed up, trembling.
"Please," the man whispered, looking at Jade. "Help me. Please."
A scorpion's front limbs ended with massive pincers, each large enough to slice through a man whole. Tucked in beneath them, rarely noticeable, were smaller arms tipped with articulated digits. The scorpions used these "hands" to manipulate tools, build starships, and sometimes—like today—torture their victims with beautiful delicacy.
Pinning the human down with his legs, Sin Kra reached into the prisoner's mouth, grabbed a tooth, and yanked it out.
The man screamed.
Sin Kra tossed the tooth onto the pile. It clinked.
"You shouldn't play with your food," Jade said.
The emperor laughed, a sound like cracking ribs. "Torture is not a game, my beloved Jade. It is an art."
He pulled out another tooth, a molar this time. The man howled. Another tooth clinked onto the pile.
"Tooth by tooth," Sin Kra said, "and I raise this mountain. World by world, and I build an empire."
"I can't hear you over all the screaming," Jade said. The man was weeping, begging, crying out in agony.
Sin Kra grunted. He clacked his claws, and several servants scuttled forth, small arachnids with furry black bodies. They wrapped the man in webs.
"Keep him fresh," Sin Kra said. "I want him still screaming when I pluck out the rest of his teeth."
The spiders nodded, bowed, and carried the prisoner away.
"Father," Jade said, "the humans attacked us. Again. They stole several hundred prisoners. They destroyed several of our strikers. It was the Heirs of Earth again. The rebels." She clenched her fists and bared her teeth. "But I killed many of them. I destroyed two of their starships. If you will allow me to chase them into the Concord, I—"
"No," said Sin Kra. "Not yet."
Jade stepped closer. "But the humans muster for war! They build warships, they mock us, they—"
"They will all die, daughter. Fear not." He lifted a human bone from a pile, cracked it open, and sucked the marrow. "First we will slay all humans in Hierarchy space. And soon, very soon now, the Concord will be ours as well, and the skins of their humans will hang in our halls!"
Jade raised her chin. "I can't wait for that day. I yearn for it! A galaxy free of humans, and myself returned to my true form, a scorpion proud and strong."
Sin Kra nodded. He stroked her cheek, his claw scraping across her alabaster skin. "Yes, child. Once the humans are all gone, you will become a scorpion again, and you will rule at my side."
Jade shivered with delight, but then she grimaced, sudden shame flooding her.
"Father, I had the dream again last night." She closed her eyes. "Like so many times before. I was a child. A human child. My hair was golden, not blue, and I wielded a crystal sword. I lived in a glowing cave among other humans. I had a human mother. A human father. Foul vermin! I lived among them like a rat." Tears burned her eyes. "You came to me in my dream. You saved me from them. But I still remember their song. A song of Earth . . ." She opened her eyes and looked at him. "I've never known fear in battle, but that dream terrifies me."
Sin Kra grabbed her in his claws. He pulled her close. His jaws loomed before her, lined with teeth, and his golden eyes blazed like cauldrons of molten metal.
"The humans infected you with a false memory," he hissed. "They have dark powers. They always seek to deceive. They've deceived the galaxy itself, claiming that they have a homeland named Earth. And they've deceived you, making you remember what never happened, making you doubt your true heritage. You hatched here in this chamber, Jade. You were a beaut
iful Skra-Shen, translucent and shimmering, even as a hatchling. I broke you myself. I molded your exoskeleton into a human shape, so that you may walk among the humans, earn their trust, and lead them to slaughter. Do not let them deceive the deceiver!"
Jade nodded, head lowered. "I will not."
Sin Kra tapped the round implants embedded into Jade's skull. They thrust out from the shaved side of her head. The implants shone, casting blue light against his claws.
"I will have to calibrate your mind," he said.
Jade stepped back. "No! No, Father. I don't need another calibration."
"Clearly you do." Sin Kra chortled. "You stand stooped before me, shoulders slumped, head lowered, and you confess fear. What kind of apex predator confesses fear?"
"I am not afraid!" Jade said, straightening her back. "I am a proud huntress, and—"
"A huntress who dreams of being human!" Sin Kra said. He huffed and turned toward his servants. "Bring the cables."
"Father, no!" Jade cried. "Please! Not again!"
She tried to retreat, but he grabbed her. He held her tightly in his claws. She wriggled, trying to free herself, but he was so strong.
The furry arachnids approached, carrying cables tipped with crackling prongs. The servants hissed, eyes shining. They placed their bristly feet upon Jade.
"Father, no!" Jade said. "Plea—"
The arachnids plugged the cables into her implants.
Jade screamed.
Venom pumped into her, crackling, sizzling, filling her head, flowing through her skull and veins.
She tried to beg, but she couldn't even speak. Only scream.
She was drowning. Burning inside. The agony roared over her memories, crushing them, searing them, burying them. Acid flowed over her parents, that glittering cave, the girl she had been in her dream.
And in the ruins, she remembered.
She was a pale, translucent hatchling, a scorpion tearing through an egg.
She consumed her own mother, ripping into the flesh.
Her own father broke her, remolded her, reformed her into the Deceiver. A scorpion in human form. A great huntress to destroy the vermin.
Sin Kra stared at her, still gripping her, even as the venom kept pumping into her head.
"What are you?" the emperor demanded.
Jade could barely see him through the pain. Barely speak. She felt as if her teeth would fall out, would join the pile.
"What are you?" Sin Kra shrieked.
She managed to shove words past her lips. "I . . . am . . . Skra-Shen!"
"Who is your father?"
"You are, my emperor!"
"What is your task?" the emperor said.
"To slay humans!" she cried. "To slay them all!"
Sin Kra nodded and yanked out the cables. It felt like he had ripped off chunks of skull. Jade fell to her knees, panting, wheezing, weeping. She had bit her tongue, and coppery blood filled her mouth. She had wet herself. She knelt on the pile of teeth, hair crackling, her implants glowing, then fading.
"Rise, Jade of the Skra-Shen," said Sin Kra. "And hunt again."
She rose. She clenched her fists so tightly her palms bled.
"I will hunt them all!" she shrieked, her voice echoing through the cavern. "I was born here. I hatched from a great queen's egg, and I consumed her flesh. I am the huntress of the dark. I am the mistress of pain. I am the flayer, the queen of death! I will kill them all!"
She spun around, bounded across the chamber, and burst out into the searing landscape.
"Gather, my warriors!" she cried. "We fly out! We hunt! We kill!"
The scorpions gathered around her, howling for bloodshed. Jade licked the blood off her lips. She looked up at the blazing suns and smiled.
You're out there, Emet Ben-Ari. You're out there, humans. I will bring you back here, and your teeth will shatter under my boots.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
As the Nantucket rumbled toward the hollowed-out asteroid, Leona refused to look at her father. She sat in the cockpit, fists tight, jaw clenched.
"Leona." Sitting at the helm, Emet reached to pat her shoulder. "This is the right choice. We—"
She shoved his hand away. "Don't touch me."
He returned his hand to the controls. He stared forward again, piloting on in silence, brow furrowed.
Let him fume! Leona thought. He's dragging me here. To see her. That . . . creature.
Her lip peeled back in disgust. Ten years ago, as a girl of seventeen, Leona had flown this same path with Emet. They had come to see it. And it had betrayed them. Because of that creature, her womb was empty, her thigh was scarred, and—
Stop.
Leona forced deep breaths. She was still an Inheritor. She could not succumb to her pain. Humanity had never been in such danger, and she must be strong. But why, Ra above, did Emet want to return to the traitor?
Leona stared at the asteroid ahead. From the outside, it looked like any old rock. Hacksaw Cove was hidden from the galaxy. It didn't even orbit a star. Peacekeepers never came here. Most in Concord space didn't know this place existed. But outlaws, pirates, smugglers, and terrorists knew. So did the Heirs of Earth.
If you stole, bought, or sold forbidden data, Hacksaw Cove was your Mecca. Here was the gossip hub of every spy, conspirator, and detective in Concord space. You went to places like Paradise Lost for hookers, drugs, and grog. Hacksaw Cove was not about pleasure nor sin. This place was about information.
The asteroid was many kilometer wide, almost a micro-planet, and never in the same place. No star tethered it. Often it floated among many other asteroids, hidden in the crowd. Hacksaw Cove was nearly impossible to find, unless you had the right code. The Inheritors had paid quite a few scryls for this code.
As they moved closer, details on the asteroid emerged. Its surface was dark and craggy. There was no sign of civilization here. But there was a secret code engraved into the stone. Emet tapped at his keyboard, pulling up a two-dimensional hologram of a rocky asteroid, its surface covered with craters and mountains. He raised the holographic image, aligning it with the true asteroid that hovered outside.
When both images aligned—the true asteroid and the holographic one—new landforms appeared.
The combined images created a network of canals, spelling out words in Aelonian, the Concord's lingua franca:
Welcome, friend.
"We've got the right asteroid," Emet said.
Leona glowered. "Have I mentioned that we're making a mistake?"
"A few hundred times, yes." Emet raised the scorpion memory chip, the one the refugee girl had smuggled out of Hierarchy lands. "But there's important information stored here. Humans died to retrieve it. And there's only one alien who can hack into this chip."
Leona felt her cheeks flush. She leaped to her feet. "Dad, not her! You can't trust that creature again. It's her fault! It's because of her that—"
"Leona!" he roared. "Enough. Sit down. You are an Inheritor. Act like it."
She glared at Emet, trembling with rage.
I can't, she thought. I can't forget that day.
The scar on her thigh, long and deep, burned again. She winced, looking away.
I miss you so much, Jake.
Sometimes the pain was too great. Sometimes Leona wanted to do like Bay. To steal a ship. To flee her father, flee the Inheritors. Yes, Bay had lost somebody too. Bay had run. And before him, the traitor David Emery had run, stealing the Earthstone. So many had abandoned this war. So many grieved.
Leona looked back at her father. At his shaggy hair, streaked with white. At his haunted yet strong eyes. And her shoulders slumped.
I will not abandon him too. I will stay. I will fight with him. For Earth.
She sat back down. They kept flying.
When they were close enough to the asteroid, Emet transmitted his code. A moment later, a hatch opened in one of the asteroid's craters. Several drones emerged, shielded and loaded with cannons. They flew toward the Nantu
cket and buzzed around the ship, scanning it with sweeping red lasers.
"Mucking hackers," Leona muttered. "Probably stealing our secrets."
"You know we don't carry classified information on the Nantucket," Emet said.
"These muckers can probably hack into our Ra damn brains," Leona said.
Emet gave her a wry smile. "Maybe you should wear a tinfoil hat."
The drones patched into their comm system.
"Visitor recognized: Inheritor Starship Nantucket. Crew: Two. Species: Human. Commander: Admiral Emet Ben-Ari. First mate: Commodore Leona Ben-Ari. Crew outlawed on systems: All Concord worlds. Profession: Underground militia." The drones buzzed out of their way. "Welcome, friends."
"Underground militia?" Leona said. "I thought we were freedom fighters."
Emet snorted. "We're lucky they didn't call us terrorists. Most folk do."
The size of an old Earth yacht, the Nantucket was just small enough to fly into the hatch. Engines rumbling, the ship glided into the asteroid.
The Nantucket floated down a graffiti-covered tunnel. Alien parasites clung to the walls, hissing as the Nantucket flew by, then leaned down to feed on the smog. Grates below revealed shafts that plunged into the heart of the asteroid. Nuclear reactors churned deep below, powering this hidden world.
Several kilometers into the asteroid, the tunnel opened up into a vast cavern. Here was the heart of the asteroid. Here was the galaxy's most secure vault of secrets.
Hundreds of workshops honeycombed the walls. Drones flitted back and forth, and gondolas moved on cables, passing between the nooks. Cables dangled everywhere, flowing out from each nook, coiling together, then plunging into a massive outlet in the floor. It looked like a tree, kilometers tall, reaching out branches to every shop.
But these shops sold no physical wares. They sold information. Hacksaw Cove attracted the best hackers in the galaxy. The brightest and boldest came here. The best cybercriminals, whistleblowers, and data pirates worked here. Some called them electronic terrorists, others saw them as heroes of information. Here lived the famous Captain Electric, the alien child who had hacked into the Peacekeeper Headquarters mainframe, then leaked the information across the galaxy. The infamous Senpai Seven worked here too; any song, movie, game, or software you needed, they offered you a pirated copy. Several shops operated alluring avatars they sent into cyberspace to recruit drug mules. Others streamed illegal content, from pornography to revolutionary manifestos. There were shops that harvested passwords, others that hacked into bank accounts. Some shops hacked into cameras, took compromising photos, and blackmailed their victims.
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