Holding her breath, she stepped into the vortex.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Kuja felt his heart leap the moment Fei arrived back on Bagaran. His joy then swiftly became confusion. His son’s powers were growing, but they were not yet strong enough to cause teleportation. When Kuja opened his mind to the foliage around him, to ask them about it, he heard smugness in the thousands of voices that answered. We are older than you, young god, and much wiser. We only did what was needed. And now so must you. Go. Go to the Creator of Worlds.
Kuja hesitated. ‘I want to go to her but I…I’m afraid. I’m afraid she’ll never stop hating me.’
Do not let your fear destroy your chance for happiness, a nearby vine cautioned him. It wriggled beneath his chin and forced his gaze up towards the sky, where GLEA’s starships hovered, invisible beyond the atmosphere. And do not let your fear cause us to perish. We have brought both god and creator here to save us. So save us.
Kuja stepped inside a new vortex that took him directly to Fei. She didn’t flinch at the sight of him, which was a start. He held his breath as she drew nearer.
‘I can’t believe GLEA’s doing this,’ she said, her cheeks hollow. ‘They’ll, oh my God, they’ll destroy your rainforests and everyone in them. I won’t let this happen!’ Her eyes blazed. Fittingly, she’d programmed the electronic irises to appear magma red at some point. ‘I won’t!’
‘Good, because I’ll need your help,’ Kuja said, reaching out when he felt her need for his touch — and her reluctance to ask for it. ‘I don’t want to destroy the starships outright. I have a friend up there.’
She stayed still, accepting his caress on her cheek, then offered him a wobbly smile. ‘I’m still mad at you. Really mad. You’ll have to spend a lot of time making it up to me.’
‘We have eternity for that,’ Kuja said.
‘Kuja, I’m scared.’ The whisper barely escaped her lips. ‘Eternity is a long time.’
Kuja wound his arms around her, savouring her warmth, grateful for her very presence in his life. He made sure she felt that. ‘We’ll be together and that’s what counts, Creator of Worlds. Magnificent title. Wish I’d thought of it.’
‘Yeah, way more impressive than “sub-level god”,’ Fei agreed, her smile growing. But then her eyes rose up towards the canopy. ‘If those ships are using the same systems as TerraCorp, then I should be able to paralyse them without any trouble. No one needs to get hurt.’ Her red eyes narrowed. ‘Unless they try to hurt us first.’
‘Ready to save Bagaran with me, my Creator of Worlds?’ Kuja asked her.
Fei gave him her answer, then tensed as brown-streaked foliage swirled up around them. Kuja watched her, worried, but she drew a breath and nodded reassuringly at him just as the vortex tore them away from the surface of Bagaran and deposited them into the bowels of one of GLEA’s egg-shaped starships.
Her mind flush with delight at what he could do, at what he could share with her, Fei grabbed Kuja’s shoulders and yanked him into a fierce kiss. The feel of her, and the taste of her, very nearly tempted him to stop what they were doing and make love to her right there.
Fei drew away from him when she saw this thought. ‘Kuja! We have eternity for that, remember? The Chippers can sense energy, so there’s a good chance they’ve noticed two extra lifesigns appear on board. We don’t have much time.’
‘I don’t think their abilities are as sensitive as mine,’ Kuja said dubiously.
‘Well, that or the shipboard sensors will notice there’s two blips where there shouldn’t be any,’ Fei told him, her eyebrows knitting together. ‘Right. I need to gain access to their systems so I can hack them. And then we’re going to need to have a chat with the Chippers upstairs. I suspect Bagaran is only the first of many worlds that they’ve decided to go after.’
‘That’s what I’ve been told,’ Kuja agreed.
‘Okay, that’s enough standing around doing nothing,’ Fei said. She spun on her heel and waddled as fast she could towards a console set into a bulkhead in the corridor.
Kuja followed, keeping his senses alert for any approaching lifesigns, and watched as she hunched over a keyboard that sprang out from the wall. The vidscreen in front of Fei appeared to be running script but she immediately dismissed it, muttering something about redundant processes, then began skimming her way through the systems.
Her mouth bunched to one side after several moments. She seemed to be chewing on the inside of her cheek. ‘GLEA’s hit list is pretty long. And most of these worlds are poor and don’t have a fleet of ships to defend them. This…’ Lines curled around her eyes. ‘This is mass murder.’
‘I wonder how they were going to explain it to the mediaists,’ Kuja mused.
‘Ton Tinel would have ripped them to shreds,’ Fei said with a sharp nod, then went back to work.
Kuja leaned over to study the vidscreen. ‘So…how are you going to paralyse the ships?’
The grin was obvious even from his position behind her; it coloured both her words and her chaotic thoughts. ‘I’m creating a virus, a very simple one. If I corrupt certain executable files, I can kill engines, weapons, shields and communications. GLEA’s ships are connected to each other via the Web so it’s pretty easy to do them all in one go. Idiots. There’s a reason I told Moz to keep TerraCorp off the Web. Basically, any criminal with moderate hacking abilities could take down every Chipper ship in the galaxy.’
‘Fei…’ Kuja lowered his voice to a murmur. ‘Much as I love hearing your beautiful voice, I can sense people approaching our position. Are you done?’
‘I will be if you quit distracting me!’
Leaving her to it, Kuja turned around and crossed his arms, trying to make himself look intimidating. The pair of Chippers that had been creeping up behind him stopped dead, panic flitting over their faces. Their hands touched their lasguns but the weapons stayed holstered. For now.
Neither side did anything for a very long moment.
‘Colonel Lilon Neron told you to kill us, no questions asked,’ Kuja finally said, rifling through their most recent thoughts. ‘But you’ve been arguing about those orders all the way down here. Because neither of you believe that destroying rainforests on innocent worlds is truly just or right.’
They both blanched.
‘Can you read our minds?’ one of them asked in a whisper.
Kuja grinned at their combined discomfort. ‘Of course. I inherited this ability from the Creator God. I’m his son.’
‘His son?’ repeated the woman of the pair.
Fei’s mind was still occupied with lines of code so Kuja decided to buy her some more time. ‘Where did you think the sub-level gods came from? They’re your god’s children.’
‘But you — you attacked our headquarters on Gerasnin!’ the woman cried. She drew her weapon and aimed it at Kuja. ‘There are vids of you! And Hunslow said you threatened everyone in their minds, told them you would kill anyone who angered Bagara. But you won’t have surprise on your side this time, rainforest god. I bet I can squeeze off more lasbolts than you can block.’
‘She probably can,’ Fei said, now leaning back against the console, her work apparently done. She added silently, You don’t have telekinetic abilities, do you, Kuja?
Kuja grumbled at her mentally and she threw a very audible laugh back at him. The Chipper’s lasgun retrained on Fei, but then the woman realised Fei was pregnant and dropped it, babbling apologies.
‘Private Clarin, put that away before you hurt someone,’ the Chipper’s companion said with an irritable shake of his head. Kuja used a glancing touch on the man’s mind to learn that his name was Losson. ‘Mr Bagara, many of us have problems with how GLEA is being run at the moment, not just our mutual friend. He told me you would come here and help stop this madness, but I…I didn’t believe him. I thought you’d just kill us.’
‘He might still do that if we let him!’ Clarin exclaimed, eyeing Kuja.
‘Anyway,’ Losson wen
t on, ‘our mutual friend said GLEA should be working with you, helping you care for the galaxy — oh, and he also said you’re the only god he’s ever seen drunk.’
Kuja knew exactly who this mutual friend was, but he didn’t dare think his name, in case Fei heard it. He wasn’t entirely surprised that Zareth had figured out who he was — according to Losson’s memories, GLEA had just finished circulating footage of Bagara attacking them so that their agents knew what he looked like. They had been ordered to shoot on sight.
Clarin scowled at Losson. ‘We should at least cuff him before we take him anywhere, Lieutenant.’
Fei jerked a thumb at the vidscreen behind her. ‘Oh, I doubt you’ll cuff either of us. If you make us angry, or we die, then you’ll never get this virus off your ships. You won’t be going anywhere until I let you.’
Losson grinned, completely unfazed. ‘I guess we better get this over and done with then. My husbands expect me home in a week.’
Kuja and Fei followed both Chippers up to the bridge. There was no time to admire the gently curving silver walls of the room or the twinkling starscape filling the expansive viewport. Several lasguns were trained on Kuja and his wife, though many more remained holstered.
‘Don’t get any ideas, Bagara,’ Lilon Neron warned.
Kuja glanced at Fei, but her snarl was aimed at a different man. She had spotted Zareth. ‘Of course you’re a part of this. You want to hurt as many people as possible. What did they promise you, Zareth? A promotion? Or didn’t you need any incentive to participate in mass murder?’
Zareth’s eyes flicked between Fei and Kuja. ‘Fei, if you would just let us…’
‘No, I think I’ve had enough of being talked over.’ Her hands coiled into knots at her sides. ‘You don’t get a say.’
Lilon rounded on Losson and Clarin. ‘Why are they still alive?’
‘Ask Lieutenant Losson,’ Clarin grumbled.
‘Ms Neron says she put a virus on the ships,’ Losson said. He seemed to have no trouble answering Lilon, unlike his companion. ‘Begging your pardon, sir, but these worlds have committed no crimes that we can punish. And it goes against GLEA’s best interests to attack harmless worlds. The mediaists will not forget this and neither will the civilians who worship the Creator God — we’re having enough trouble getting them to donate as it is!’
‘Shut up!’ Lilon barked at him. ‘There is no virus. We have firewalls!’
Zareth cleared his throat and stepped forward. ‘Fei probably built those firewalls. We share the same systems as TerraCorp because we’re the same entity, even if Head General Huw Hunslow doesn’t want to admit it.’
Zareth hooked his thumbs onto his belt. This was apparently some sort of signal, because every agent who hadn’t yet drawn their weapons fell in behind him and copied the gesture. After several tense seconds, a good portion of the remaining Chippers holstered their lasguns and joined the growing crowd. Lilon frowned deeply at Zareth and his supporters.
‘They also said…’ Clarin hesitated, ducking her head to avoid Lilon’s furious gaze when it fixed on her. ‘They also said that the sub-level gods are the children of the Creator God. Is that true?’
‘Of course it isn’t!’ Lilon snapped. He began ordering one of the tech-minded agents still loyal to him to trawl through the ship’s systems. He explicitly told them to find nothing.
Almost immediately, his beleaguered inferior announced that they couldn’t raise the other ships and nor could they move or fire any weapons. Beads of sweat broke out on Lilon’s forehead.
‘Interesting,’ Zareth mused. ‘The sub-level gods are the Creator God’s children. This certainly explains why he’s done nothing to curtail their powers.’
A glower started to creep across Fei’s face so Kuja swiftly showed her what had happened between him and Zareth. But within moments her voice cut across the bridge, silencing the growing murmurs from the gathered Chippers. ‘Zareth, you were a shit to me and suddenly I’m supposed to trust that you’re on our side?’
Zareth sighed deeply. ‘Fei, this has nothing to do with us. But look, Kuja listens to you in a way I never could. He loves you. You’re much better off with him.’
Zareth nodded at Kuja and moved closer, holding out his arm. Kuja was momentarily confused, because the gesture the Chipper had in mind was not the one he was used to seeing among Sandsa’s people in the deserts. But he allowed Zareth to squeeze his hand and give it a firm shake. Several agents gasped at the companionable display.
Zareth released Kuja’s hand and said wryly, ‘I’m impressed that you haven’t speared every one of us with branches by now. I’d be tempted to in your position.’
‘I don’t think I like you two being friendly with each other,’ Fei grumbled. ‘And I think we should all be focusing on the immediate problem. GLEA is out to destroy rainforests and countless lives because they’re afraid of Bagara and can’t stand the thought that not every planet wants to be under their heel!’
Zareth turned to face the pack of Chippers behind him. ‘Where does it stop? Do we attack every planet that has a grain of sand, or a single drop of water? Do we keep going until there’s nothing left in the galaxy?’
Kuja could spot Zareth’s most loyal supporters from their firm, confident nods. Others still looked uncertain.
‘Remove this virus now!’ Lilon roared, sweeping over and knocking Zareth out of his way.
‘No,’ Fei said, lifting her chin.
Snarling, her father gave the air in front of him a vicious shove with his hands; the ensuing forcefield slammed into Fei and sent her flying. Kuja reacted immediately, his vines causing metal to scream as they took root in the floor, providing as much of a cushion as they could for the Creator of Worlds.
But they were not needed.
Fei was floating in midair above the hard deck, arms flung out either side of her. A score of Chippers had their own hands extended as they projected the combined, much stronger forcefield that had halted her fall. As one, they lowered their arms back down to their sides. Fei coasted gently onto her feet.
Zareth marched up to Lilon. ‘Colonel Neron, we serve and protect all children of the Creator God, mortal or otherwise. Stand down!’
‘I will not take orders from some — ’ Lilon began.
Zareth sliced a hand through the air, commanding silence. ‘We just found out that Bagara is a son of the Creator God, just as I am. I won’t hurt my brother. But it sure looks like you’d hurt your own daughter.’
‘I will not allow any of my fellow agents to harm an innocent being,’ Lieutenant Losson piped up.
‘And neither will I,’ echoed several other Chippers.
Kuja felt triumph boil off Zareth.
‘Hunslow will rip out your chips!’ Lilon hissed, lunging forward.
Zareth stepped aside and the older man overbalanced, hitting the deck. ‘All of our chips? I think it might just be easier for him to rip out yours. Think your wife will still let you room with her?’
‘She better not,’ Fei muttered.
‘Can you get us in touch with the other ships?’ Zareth asked, turning towards her. ‘You don’t need to let us go yet, but I do need to get my message out there. To let everyone know how things are going to be inside GLEA from now on.’
Kuja could see that a lot of the words popping into Fei’s mind weren’t particularly pleasant, but she understood what Zareth was trying to achieve. Even if she still disliked him. Intensely.
‘Alright,’ Fei said and seated herself at a console. While she restored the flotilla’s communications, agents flooded over to hold Lilon down with both limbs and powers as Zareth clamped lascuffs onto his wrists.
‘What’s going on over there?’ Head General Huw Hunslow’s voice demanded through a speaker in the console.
Zareth looked at Kuja and Fei, a hand hovering over the sensor pad that would let him respond to his superior. ‘So what is going on here? We’re all getting out of this alive, right?’
‘Angl
ing for a better rank, Zareth?’ Fei asked sourly. ‘I imagine this’ll look good for you, being friends with a sub-level god. You’ll have a whole bunch of people willing to support your promotion now.’
Kuja rested a hand on her arm. ‘Fei, Zareth is nothing like your father. He’s doing this for the good of the galaxy, not himself.’
‘I don’t care — he hurt me!’ she cried.
‘I had to leave you in order to achieve my true purpose,’ Zareth said, then winced. ‘That sounded bad.’
Kuja snorted. ‘You think so, do you?’
Zareth’s eyes skated towards the viewport, a much safer location to pin his gaze on than Fei’s scowl. ‘It was my fault. I couldn’t…I couldn’t give you what you needed. And then I realised…oh God, this sounds even worse. I realised I didn’t love you. I’m sorry. But I found my calling and you’ve found yours. Let’s move on, Fei. Please.’ Zareth nodded at Kuja. ‘This man loves you enough to share entire worlds with you. And I’m well on the way to changing GLEA for the better. Do you still think we should have stayed together? ’Cause I don’t.’
Kuja rested a hand on Fei’s shoulder, squeezing gently. She was ready to forgive Zareth, because he was right and she was so much happier without him, but she sure enjoyed watching him squirm. Fei flipped a quick smile at Kuja when he coughed, trying to mask his laughter.
‘Husband,’ she said conversationally, ‘I’m not sure I’m comfortable with the fact that I like some of these Chippers now.’
‘We just had a few bad eggs,’ Lieutenant Losson said and poked Lilon with the toe of his boot. He darted back when Lilon brandished his teeth. ‘Very, very bad eggs. I’m going to enjoy binning this one.’
Zareth cleared his throat and the bridge fell silent. ‘Am I right in assuming that we’ll get back control of our ships in return for GLEA promising to fix up its act?’
Fei’s lips remained defiantly sealed until Kuja nudged her side. She sighed. ‘Oh, alright. But if you dare mess up again, I’ll rig all of your ships to explode.’
The Twisted Vine Page 29
