by C H Gideon
The three of them crashed to the deck aboard Phraim-’Eh’s command ship, having appeared about a foot off the ground.
Every cultist on the bridge turned and stared at them, disbelieving and frozen in place.
“A little warning next time,” Jiya said as she scrambled to her feet, unholstered her pistol, and started shooting cultists. “How’d you even know where to place us?”
Ka’nak didn’t even bother to grab his weapon. He plowed into the cultists wholesale and began beating them to death before they even realized what was happening.
“I scanned the layout of one of Phraim-’Eh’s destroyers,” the AI explained. “They and the command ship are quite similar in external design, especially when it comes to the forward nose and bridge area. I made an educated guess as to where we would land.” Reynolds raised a finger. “Oh, by the way, Asya, you’ve got the conn,” Reynolds called into his comm.
Asya chuckled across the connection. “Better late than never, right?”
Reynolds spun around and blasted a cultist who’d found the presence of mind to draw his pistol. He crumpled to the floor, dead.
Not having expected the sudden arrival of the enemy on their command ship’s bridge, the cultists fell into disarray and died quickly.
Ka’nak stretched his moment out a little longer, swinging a cultist in each hand to bash their brethren to death with their bodies. Blood was flung across consoles and pooled on the deck around him.
“I think they’re dead now,” Jiya told him.
The Melowi glanced from his right hand to his left, seeing both of the bodies there hanging limp.
“So they are,” he replied, shrugging and tossing the corpses aside.
Jiya turned to look at Reynolds. “What now?”
“Start breaking shit,” he ordered, taking the lead and blasting the nearest console.
“That’s my kind of order.” Ka’nak grinned and started to smashing anything he could get his hands on.
Jiya followed suit, choosing to shoot the command consoles first, hoping to disable the ship to keep it from being used against the SD Reynolds and her friends.
“You dare!” A loud, gravelly voice screeched from the open doorway.
The crew spun around to see Phraim-’Eh standing there, nearly frothing at the mouth in his rage.
Reynolds went to respond, but the would-be god was far faster than the AI anticipated.
He was across the bridge in two leaping steps, and he crashed into Reynolds’ android body, the two of them slamming into the nearest console.
The impact shook the deck.
Reynolds reeled as he tried to comprehend the speed and power of Phraim-’Eh. It was nearly unfathomable.
Sensors noted that his uniform had been ripped open and the faux flesh on his back has been sliced off by the sharp edge of the console. Servos whined in his spine, and warning lights flickered in his vision.
Reynolds couldn’t ever remember having been struck that hard.
And Phraim-’Eh had only begun.
He lifted Reynolds into the air and slammed him to the deck as if he were a doll in the hands of a giant.
There was a sharp snap, and the AI realized his mechanical arm had popped at the joint and was angled backward, opposite its normal direction.
His mind reeled under the onslaught, and he watched as the god pulled back a fist and made ready to smash his face in.
Jiya got there first.
She stepped up, far too close to Phraim-’Eh Reynolds realized, and shot him dead center in his chest.
The cultists’ god was flung backward, colliding with a wall and sliding to the floor. Reynolds dropped, but Jiya caught him by his stable arm and wrenched him back to his feet.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Reynolds told her.
“Like I’m going to leave you to get your ass kicked,” she said, grinning. “Not even if he is a god.”
“Watch out!” Ka’nak yelled.
Phraim-’Eh was on his feet already, and he lunged at Reynolds and Jiya. She turned her weapon on the god, but Ka’nak plowed into him first. The two crashed to the floor in a mass of tangled, thrashing limbs.
“Stay away from him,” Reynolds warned. “He’s too strong.”
Ka’nak learned that the hard way.
Phraim-’Eh shrugged the brawler off with ease and drove a fist into the Melowi’s sternum. A sharp crack told Reynolds something had been broken inside Ka’nak.
The warrior screamed, but he was made of far sterner stuff than even Reynolds realized.
He gritted his teeth and ignored the pain, driving a brutal punch into Phraim-’Eh’s kidney, followed by a second.
The blows lifted the would-be god off his feet.
Ka’nak came around with a wide right hook to follow up. Knuckles collided with the hard bone of the god’s jaw, and another pop reverberated through the room.
Phraim-’Eh stumbled backward from the impact, eyes narrowed and steeped with pain.
Despite the perfectly targeted punch, a quick glance at Ka’nak’s misshapen fist told the AI that he hadn’t delivered the blow without consequence.
But if a broken hand meant anything to the Melowi, it wasn’t clear.
He leaped across the intervening space between him and Phraim-’Eh and punched him in the face again and again and again with his already-damaged fist.
The blows drove Phraim-’Eh to one knee, but there was plenty of fight left in him.
Ka’nak had to lean over to continue punching him, so he slammed his forehead into the Melowi’s face and shattered the warrior’s nose. A gush of blood spewed forth and washed across his mouth and chin like a waterfall.
Ka’nak stumbled, his legs wobbling beneath him, but Jiya jumped back into the fight.
She scorched a trail of fire up Phraim-’Eh’s body, starting at his belly and shooting her way up until she blasted him in the face.
The would-be god rolled with the last of the shots and howled as he staggered to the side.
Reynolds wouldn’t let him off the hook.
The AI charged the god and kicked him against the wall, using the momentum of Phraim-’Eh bouncing back to drive his good fist into the god’s throat.
Phraim-’Eh gasped and clutched his neck, gurgles and froth spilling from his mouth as he struggled to breathe.
Reynolds struck him again, metallic fist colliding with the sharpened ledge of his cheek, shattering the bone there with a sound like kindling snapped apart.
Phraim-’Eh snarled and backhanded Reynolds, driving him back several steps, but the AI stayed on his feet.
Phraim-’Eh roared, “I will slay you all!”
He bounded forward and crashed into Reynolds again. A vicious punch to the android’s side bent several of his ribs. A second blow bent them inside, and Reynolds felt the metal framework of his body grinding hard against its internal workings.
Phraim-’Eh’s third punch definitely destroyed something.
Reynolds coughed and spit out a mouthful of greasy oil. It dribbled down his chest as the god drew back his hand to strike Reynolds again.
“You’re starting to piss me off,” Jiya told him as she unloaded her gun into Phraim-’Eh’s spine.
He stumbled forward, ranting and raving, clawing at his wounds as he darted sideways to step behind cover.
Jiya reloaded.
Ka’nak stepped out of nowhere and drove his good fist into Phraim-’Eh’s nose, adding shattered cartilage to the orbital injury he was already nursing.
Phraim-’Eh shoved the warrior aside and managed to step away just as Jiya found a good angle and lit him up. Several rounds grazed the wannabe god as he circled around a console and came at Reynolds again.
“This is all because of you,” he screamed. “I will tear down your Federation and burn everything you hold dear to the ground. I am a god, and you will kneel before your better!”
Phraim-’Eh crashed into Reynolds again and drove his back into a wall. The bridge
shuddered under the impact.
“Die, android! Die!” he shouted over and over as he pistoned blows into Reynolds head, neck, and torso.
Reynolds’ vision blurred and began blackening at the edges, his sight beginning to tunnel.
Fuck this!
Pressed against the wall, Reynolds could barely move, but he sure as fuck wasn’t going to sit there and let this asshole beat him into so much scrap.
The AI fought back, trading blow for blow with his one good arm, but there was no doubt he was losing the war of attrition. His mechanical body would give out before Phraim-’Eh’s would.
“You are nothing!” the god screamed. “I am a god!”
As Reynolds suffered under the hail of brutal punches, he caught sight of his broken arm flapping at his side.
It looked almost comical as it waved like a banner in high winds, whipping all over.
“You will die! I. Am. A. God!”
Reynolds growled and spat oil in Phraim’ Eh’s face.
“Seriously, shut the…” he started.
He reached down and grabbed his flapping arm with his good hand. Reynolds yanked hard, ripping the limp appendage from the rest of his frame. Then he maneuvered the broken arm around and stuffed the forearm into Phraim-’Eh’s mouth.
“…fuck up!” Reynolds finished.
Phraim-’Eh snarled around the mechanical limb in his mouth, but he couldn’t shake it free without releasing Reynolds.
Which was what the AI was looking for him to do, but Jiya had other plans.
“A hand, please,” she called.
For a second, Reynolds thought she was being a smartass, referencing the mangled arm stuffed in Phraim-’Eh’s mouth, but his confusion only lasted for a second.
She and Ka’nak came to stand at Phraim-’Eh’s back.
Enveloped in his rage, the would-be god didn’t even notice.
At least not until Ka’nak locked his hands on both sides of the arm stuck in the god’s mouth.
He grunted a muffled, “What…” but that was all he managed to get out before the Melowi dropped all his weight on the android arm and pulled down.
Phraim-’Eh’s eyes shot wide as his jaw stretched, all of Ka’nak’s weight and strength yanking it downward.
There was a moment of resistance, then the would-be god’s jaw snapped on both sides, the bone stretching the tendons hanging loosely in front of his neck.
All resistance gone, Ka’nak fell to the deck with Reynolds’ arm still in his hands, blood and spittle everywhere.
Phraim-’Eh stumbled back a step, his grip on Reynolds lost.
That was when Jiya moved up beside him and stuffed a small, round, metal device in the wannabe god’s gaping mouth.
“Now it’s grenade time,” the first officer told Ka’nak as he sat there gathering his strength.
Phraim-’Eh realized then what Jiya had stuffed in his mouth. He gurgled and reached to yank it loose, but Reynolds was quicker.
He drove his metallic stump up under Phraim-’Eh’s mangled chin and forced his mouth shut around the grenade.
With his good hand, he grabbed Phraim-’Eh’s hair and spun him around, kicking out his feet. Phraim-’Eh toppled forward, and Reynolds helped him down. The would-be deity slammed face-first into the hard steel of the deck, muffled shrieks spilling from him the entire time.
He squirmed and thrashed and fought, but Reynolds held him still, grinding his face into the deck so hard his every shout vibrated the deck.
“You are no god,” Reynolds told Phraim-’Eh.
And then he was nothing.
The grenade exploded, taking Phraim-’Eh’s head with it.
Reynolds didn’t even turn away.
He wanted to witness every instant of Phraim-’Eh’s death.
It wasn’t until the body stopped squirming that he let go and straightened, the servos in his back squealing.
“That…was fucking gross,” Jiya said, letting out a muted chuckle as she wiped her face.
Reynolds went over and helped Ka’nak to his feet.
As the three stood there gathering their wits, a sharp snarl came across the comm.
“If you three are done playing around over there, we could use your help,” Asya barked.
Chapter Twenty-One
Takal transported the trio back to the Reynolds, and the crew stared at them wide-eyed, seeing the condition they were in.
Reynolds assessed the situation and waved off their concerned offers to help.
“There’s no time,” he told them, waving Asya back to her seat.
Despite the Godhand being disabled, the last two destroyers had yet to relent.
All of the Gulg ships had been destroyed. The only craft left was the Reynolds, but it was little more than a heap of battered steel after all it had been through.
Shields gone, its armor had been chipped away at by the remaining cultist ships, and nothing remained of its ammo save for a few thousand railgun rounds. Those would be chewed up in moments.
“You didn’t happen to bring a magic wand back with you, did you?” Tactical asked.
“I wish,” Jiya replied. “We have any Pods left?”
“A couple, but we’ve been throwing those at the destroyers ever since we ran out of missiles,” Asya told her.
“Pucks, mines?” Jiya pressed.
“Some loose ones out there somewhere.” Asya gestured in the general direction of space.
“Can you and your people power us up?” Reynolds asked Xyxl.
The pale, ghostly alien shook his head. “I’m afraid not. We’ve been sustaining the last of the shields and allowing your pilot enough power to continue evading, but even that will soon come to an end.”
“What about yours and Takal’s program?”
“There was a flaw in the coding,” Xyxl admitted. “While we had success early on, with each successive attempt, it became harder to control the enemy craft. We are unable to access their programming at all now.”
“Gate drive’s out too, before you ask,” Asya reported.
“Then we’re left with one last option,” Reynold said.
“That ship has sailed, buddy,” Tactical told him. “We ramp up the ESD now, and none of us are walking away from this. It won’t be a victory, it will be a glorious tie.”
The ship jumped as the destroyers closed, every blow tearing the life from the superdreadnought.
Reynolds reached into the ship with his senses and felt for his personalities, felt for every wire, every conduit and circuit, every electrical charge.
The ship was spent.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I refuse to surrender. I refuse to die and let even two of these fucking ships get away.”
He turned to face the crew. “Everyone strap in. We’re not going down without a fight.”
Jiya nodded and went to her station. Ka’nak followed, and Geroux and Maddox buckled in a moment later.
“Let’s kick their asses,” Jiya said.
Reynolds offered her the best smile his mangled face could manage, and he motioned to Tactical with his one good hand.
“Fire up the ESD.”
To his surprise, Tactical didn’t bother to argue.
As the weapon warmed up, Xyxl and his crewmates down in the bowels of the ship providing the ship with as much energy as they could bear to part with, Reynolds eased into the captain’s chair.
The enemy destroyers hammered at them all the while, each blow chipping away at the armored hull and bringing them closer to destruction.
Reynolds sank into his seat, both mentally and physically.
The part of him that was the ship hummed in the background, growing louder and more powerful with every passing second. He reached into the ship, dove into it and drew it in, welcoming back the solid steel structure that had been his home for so long.
It was as if he were adrift on the ocean, the waves carrying him, buoying his essence as he connected with the hulk that was him once more.
Earlier, he’d stepped away from the ship, severed the link and tasted what he had believed was freedom.
He’d been wrong.
Being separated from the ship, from himself, was not freedom. It was torture.
No matter how much he wanted the experience of walking upright and appearing humanoid, in the end, he was who he was.
The ship.
It was him, as he was it.
There was no separating them on a molecular level. They would always be one.
But he’d learned many lessons while he’d been mobile, the greatest of which was perseverance.
There were still too many things he wanted to experience, to take part in, to feel, so he found it impossible to give in and accept defeat if it meant he would fail himself, fail Bethany Anne or, most of all, fail his crew.
All their trials had led them here, to this moment, and he would use his strength to overcome.
“Bring us about!” he ordered, his voice ethereal, barely above a whisper. He realized it came both from his mouth and the speakers built into his flesh in the ceiling above.
Ria obeyed and swung him around.
He could feel her hands on his controls, sense the anticipation and excitement in her grip. She moved him instinctively, and he gave in to her, letting her have complete control.
A rumbling in his center drew him through the system; a gnawing, burning hunger that seared his guts.
He followed the feeling deeper and deeper into himself. He slithered through the channels he had designed to protect him from the ravaging power spewed from within.
It was like riding a volcano in reverse, diving down into the cone and fighting the flow of lava as it fought to dislodge him, spit him out.
Reynolds wasn’t going anywhere.
He doubled-down and pushed harder, at last coming to the source of the scalding, searing sun that churned and bubbled, its energies growing harder and harder to contain.
The view was mesmerizing.
He stared at it, watch the power grow and expand until it was ready to overflow.
Somewhere deep inside himself, he knew he had come there for something, to do something, but he didn’t know what. He couldn’t remember.
