“You need to disable your cogitor.”
“Grey, I protest! This is a blatant recruitment attempt! Before we take their side’s word for everything that happened, we need to study the contents of the system alert regarding the Possessed Ones. Only then can we make an informed decision!”
“Captain, I’m sorry to interrupt,” a deep, throaty female voice purred behind me. “I’m afraid, we have a landing clearance request.”
I turned round. This was the same Possessed woman in the black jumpsuit who’d ensnared Alice with her cobweb weapon.
She was tall and slim. A blonde. Her frigid expertly made up blue eyes gave me an appraising look. As our eyes met, I felt a shiver run down my spine.
“I know,” Zac replied. “They’ve been pestering me all this time. I can’t drag it out for much longer, I’m afraid. Sorry, Grey, we’ll have to finish talking some other time.”
His holographic image disappeared. On one of the viewing screens, a black dot disrupted the serene expanse of white clouds, rapidly growing, until it became a spear-shaped winged aircraft. I recognized it. I’d already seen it earlier, when Alice and I had been hiding in the woods.
Gnarl’s airmobile. He and Evyl had arrived to collect me, and their plans for my future seemed to be quite different from what Zac had in mind. Still, I shouldn’t wait for the problem to resolve itself naturally.
“Zac? Where’s my stuff?” I asked into thin air.
After a brief delay, the captain replied. “Lydia’s got it. Lydia, please escort out guest to his room. You remember what to do, don’t you?”
The blonde nodded. “Yes, sir.”
She courteously motioned me toward the exit. She took me via a different route, avoiding the central corridors — apparently, to avoid bumping into the Possessed Ones.
“Are you really Angel?” she suddenly asked.
“Just call me Grey,” I said. “Are you Lydia?”
Her shapely lips curved in a scornful grin. “I’m Arachne.”
“I’ve got a match, Incarnator. She probably has a new host. The Archive’s data isn’t quite the same.”
Lydia “Arachne” von Kray
A-woman
Incarnator
Possessed
Evidence of infection detected. Progress: unknown.
Evidence of unidentified genetic modifications detected.
Source type: unknown
Warning level: Red (lethal)
“Where are we going?” I finally asked.
“Zac asked me to give you a little guided tour of the ship,” she replied. “Why, you have something against my company?”
“Not really. But I’d love to get my stuff back.”
“Excellent,” she purred. “Follow me.”
She was almost as tall as I was, and her hugging jumpsuit enhanced her shapely form in all the right places. I tried to focus on the task at hand, making a mental scheme of the ship’s interior with Miko’s help. As we walked down hexagonal corridors, stopping by sealed doors, Arachne kept talking,
“This is the gym, take a look. Virtual simulators mainly. You’ve seen the medical center already, haven’t you? And this is our mess hall. Are you hungry? We have a top-of-the-range food replicator which can rival some of Utopia’s finest restaurants. The food is delicious like you can’t imagine! Unfortunately, we don’t have enough raw materials, so only one-third of its menu is available.”
I wouldn’t have minded a quick meal, but my need to get to my stuff was more desperate. So I just shook my head to all of her suggestions while submitting all my surroundings to memory seeing as I’d been given such an opportunity. We came across some synthetics performing various jobs, and also a few humans in identical Star Fleet uniforms. They were only half a dozen or so, but at least this ship had its own crew. I’d love to have known how they’d recruited them though. Somehow I doubted that everyone on board was an Incarnator.
“Here’s our library… and these stairs lead to the back lower deck. Mind the steps. That’s the engine bay over there. The nucleus… the transmission room… and here – look carefully! – here’re the escape pods,” she touched the sensor on another sealed door.
I saw a long room lined with rows of pointy torpedo-shaped things resting within the massive cylinders of their launch pads.
“Well, the rest is boring,” she said with a sarcastic smile. “Nothing interesting in the engine bay. That’s the end of our guided tour. Let’s go back. I’ll show you to your room.”
She walked next to me, her shoulder slightly brushing mine. Her smell – a faint intoxicating mix of cold winter air, spices, and just a hint of alcohol, was going to my head. Her every glance, every gesture, every unintentional touch – whether consciously or not, she kept challenging my male ego and I couldn’t say I didn’t like it.
“Why are you showing all this to me?” I asked.
She flitted her eyelashes quite innocently. “Meaning? Zac asked me to show you around, didn’t he? You’re with us now, aren’t you?”
“Well, what do you think?” I said, choosing to ignore the question.
“Zac’s the captain. I trust his instincts. And there’s something about you… something weird. Something from long time ago. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Never mind. Here we are.”
With two people, the cabin immediately felt crowded. Arachne let me through, then entered after me. The door closed silently. She leaned her back against it, studying me openly with a mysterious smile.
“So what about my stuff?”
She sighed. “You just can’t wait to get rid of me, can you?”
She touched a device on her forearm, activating the cryptor. Its cube, black with the recognizable sheen of beryllium bronze, materialized on the folding table.
My Azure artifacts were all inside: the signet ring, Fang, and Claw of Helheim. I still couldn’t believe that the Possessed could actually give them back to me. That would confirm the absence of any malicious intent on their part – as well as their remarkable gullibility which didn’t actually agree with their image of an organization waging an exterminatory war. What if I had a micro charge of Absolute stashed away in it?
“The whole ship is protected by an Al-field,” Arachne smiled as if reading my thoughts. “Just as a security measure. I shouldn’t test it if I were you. Here, I think this is yours too,” she handed me the Crusher, swinging the massive gun in her hand with an expert flourish. “Big toys for big boys. Still, I suggest you swap it for something better. Or at least upgrade this one.”
Next, she produced the skull of Rat King. The horrendous thing, charred and spiky, took up all of the little table, reeking of ash and decay.
“This is the so-called black bone, altered,” she screwed her aristocratic face into a squeamish grimace. “Good for making Azuric artifacts. Category tier 3 in Stellar’s grading system. It has the identity crystal inside. Would you like me to get it out?”
“Please do,” I said.
She reached out and touched the skull with a dainty finger.
Something scurried down the inside of her wrist: a tiny silvery spider the side of a nail. Not organic. My Binocular Vision couldn’t fail me: this was a miniature robot which aptly moved its steel legs.
The spider deftly ran down her hand onto the skull and disappeared in a gaping eye socket. After a moment, it reappeared and climbed back onto the palm of her hand, dragging a gray thread.
Arachne picked it up and gingerly pulled at it. A sinister-looking greenish stone the size of a pigeon egg appeared from the skull.
“Wow, medium size, not bad at all,” she said, handing it to me. “That’s no trash loot. Fancy offering it to the lady?”
“I think I can use it myself, thank you very much,” I said, replacing all the artifacts into the cryptor. “Is that all? How about the King’s staff?”
“Ah, that one,” Arachne said with a bleak smile. “I think I saw something like that in the lab. An unidentified Azuric artifact. It needs
checking first. I shouldn’t touch it if I were you.”
“Why not?”
“It was made by some powerful entity from over the Edge. It needs a thorough check, and even then it’s best left well alone. It might have some very nasty surprises. Honestly, I should leave it here with us. As a token of your appreciation for saving your butt. Or… we might discuss a compensation… if you wish,” she touched her jumpsuit zipper with a suggestive smile.
Slowly she pulled the zipper down and reached inside, producing a small shiny piece of metal that hung around her neck on a black string. A tiny little device shaped like a whistle.
“The master key,” she said. “For opening sealed doors. Zac asked me to give it to you. Just in case.”
She offered it to me in an outstretched hand, leaning her back nonchalantly to the door.
You had to be blind not to read the invitation in her gaze. It exuded the heady mix of anticipation, a glint of dark passion and just a touch of sarcasm. The set of her head and long neck, the delicate outline of her jaw, her slightly parted lips, even the small triangle of white skin under the jumpsuit’s zipper – suddenly it all felt so incredibly magnetic that I felt my blood boil.
“Why won’t you take it? Are you afraid of touching me?”
“A powerful surge of pheromones detected! Grey, I think she’s gonna… oops.”
This felt like the intoxicating effect from that Azuric fruit Alice had given me, only infinitely more powerful. I realized full well what was going on – and still my mind went blank, overpowered by a wild, unbearable desire to take this woman here and now.
I stepped toward her, noticing a similar glint of lust in her cold sarcastic eyes.
The sparks which had been going off between us all along had now exploded in a blast of supernova proportions. We didn’t need words, too busy covering each other in impatient, demanding kisses, hands ripping off clothes that prevented us from touching each other properly.
The zipper rustled. Arachne slid out of her jumpsuit, perfectly naked, her fresh fit body more suitable for a goddess of love than ordinary human.
The sex that followed was more like a gladiatorial fight. Ignoring her attempts to dominate, I seized the initiative from the start and wouldn’t surrender it, greedy like a young man after a year’s abstinence. The surge of our desire was such that we didn’t bother to contain it, reveling in each other’s throes. The bunkbed creaked its protest, rocking in synch with our gasped breathing and Arachne’s soft shrieks.
Once the frenzy of passion had subsided somewhat, I rolled aside and asked, gasping,
“Did you do that on purpose?”
“Of course,” she replied with a languid stretch. “A pheromone release. Just a genomod I have.”
“But why?”
“Why not?” her scarlet-red nails traveled up my thigh. “A fresh host… such a pretty boy. I liked you. And I got the impression it was mutual.”
I didn’t reply. Naturally, I’d had no doubt she’d seduced me on purpose, but what had she planned to achieve? Just a quick roll in the hay with a new partner? Or was there something bigger behind it?
Arachne got up and leaned down gracefully, reaching for her clothes and offering me one last eyeful of the snowy splendor of her naked body. She was beautiful, there was no arguing with that. She had a great figure; but still I couldn’t see anything particularly seductive about her anymore.
“I wouldn’t mind repeating this sometime,” she said, zipping up her jumpsuit. “When we’re not in such a rush. Provided Ice and Evyl don’t kill you before,” she turned her head and flashed me a winning smile.
On this optimistic note she gave me a wink and left.
And I – I’d just realized something.
Interlude. Avenger
TWO FIGURES, their blue capes virtually identical to those worn by the khali in the holy city of Urgenta, strode onto Avenger’s empty bridge. The one in front pushed his long headdress back. His cold motionless face was akin to a deadman’s mask. His sunken eyes lurked deep in the shadows of their sockets, glinting with Darkness.
The second one shrugged off her hood too, revealing a hairless head covered in tattoos. Her pointy ears glinted with gold rings; her angry slanted eyes searched the bridge.
“Zac, stop fucking us around!” she snapped. “Come out now, quick, for Daat’s sake!”
The air to one side of them thickened, forming a holographic image.
The digital ghost nodded, hiding a smile in his blond beard. “Nice host, Evyl. Not quite your usual type. Ice, you look like death warmed up. Do you get enough sleep?”
“Zac,” Gnarl said slowly and heavily, dropping words like blocks of ice. “Where is he?”
“You shouldn’t have bothered to come. You’re not having him.”
“Zac, he killed me! He burned me alive from inside! I lost my body, my Phenotype, my lab and every single one of my Anubises! All my Genomes! All those years of work! And now I’m stuck with this body!” Evyl ran a squeamish hand over her face covered in the Rogues’ ritual tattoos. “I. Want. His. Head,” she said in a soft, fierce voice.
“If the truth were known, the change of host and the loss of your Phenotype might do you a world of good. Have you forgotten the Code? I don’t think you remember what it’s like to be human anymore. That Anubis avatar has made you far too cruel and aggressive. How many prisoners have you fed to your cyberwargs? Honestly, I think you need a break. Try to be human for a change.”
“Ice, you hear that?” Evyl asked, turning to her mentor. “I think he’s taking the piss! He’s talking about being human! He, after he killed Horus! That’s a bit rich, coming from a blob of Umbra stuck in the ship’s nucleus!”
“Keep your voice down, babe,” Gnarl said calmly. “Zac? Where is he?”
“Would you just shut up, both of you? Astra fatida! How about you listen to me first? I’ve found out something. He’s not the City’s spy. He came from the Black Moon.”
Once the two Possessed Ones had finished listening to the captain’s story, they calmed down a bit. Evyl bit her lower lip, pensive. Still, Gnarl’s eyes remained icy cold. He walked over to one of the consoles and pressed a finger to the dead screen irresponsive to his touch.
“Zac, mind giving me access to the ship’s network? I’d like to see the footage of your conversation. Unedited.”
“Very well,” the captain said.
A surge of green circles ran across the screen from under Gnarl’s finger. The man kept silent as he watched the video.
Then he swung round toward the hologram. “This doesn’t change anything. A Black Sarcophagus… a memory loss… yeah right. A clever manipulation, more likely.”
“What kind of manipulation?”
“It can be anything. Can be the City’s new ploy, or the Shard’s machinations, or one of Stellar’s schemes. Don’t know, don’t care. The best thing we can do is kill him.”
“He’s our comrade, our brother in arms, for fuck’s sake!” Zac snapped.
“He’s not our brother. Our brothers are either dead or devoured by the Shard. He’s one of Stellar’s Incarnators,” Gnarl said sharply. ‘Which makes him our enemy.”
“He wiped out his own memory. He doesn’t know anything. He reset himself back to zero.”
“That’s what he says. Resetting themselves back to zero was something only the Grand Legates were capable of doing, or so rumor had it. And making it to Grand Legate is almost unheard of. Don’t you remember the requirements for that kind of promotion? I think there were only two of them in the whole history of Stellar.”
“Three, actually.”
Gnarl frowned. “That was never confirmed. And in any case, they’re dead now. We should know!”
“Well, in theory, those who survived on the Black Moon could have been promoted to this rank. Talking about Angel…”
“Zac, please. How would he have done that? That’s just impossible. You know it just as well as I do.”
“There is an
off chance that he might in fact be Angel,” Zac repeated firmly.
“There is no chance, that’s what I’m trying to tell you! It’s impossible. Angel is dead! Has been dead for a long time! I’m afraid, you’ll have to live with it, Zac.”
“What makes you think so? You did manage to get out of the Well, didn’t you? Why couldn’t Angel do the same?”
“You’ve never been on underground raids, Zac. No one can survive them. I got out by a sheer miracle, simply because I lost my host. It took me many long days of wandering through the spiral tunnels until I finally managed to get out. But my group – and Angel’s – they all stayed down there, every one of them to a man.”
The Enchanter (Project Stellar Book 2): LitRPG Series Page 17
