by Matt Larkin
“And as with every evolutionary leap, one faces terrible risks. Unchecked, the nephilim bloodlines would become like giants among you, preying on the weak and making themselves like unto the kings of old.”
Sefer Raziel, translated by Dr. Rachel Jordan
FEBRUARY 28, 3097 EY — THE CONDUIT
The Wake of Stars was one of the few battleships loyal to the New Eden Republic. As such, it was returning to Eden, protecting it against any incursion by angels or Asherah. But Gadara was a short trek through the Conduit from Eden, so Hannah Hertz had agreed to drop Knight off on her way back.
And Phoebe who had insisted on coming.
Had she fought David over it? Or maybe the Calnehian had freely let his first officer go. He was the kind of man who understood matters of the heart and family.
Hertz had given them an executive suite to share. Pretty posh, considering they weren’t even captains or diplomats. The room had a small lounge with a comfortable couch forming a semicircle around a table. Knight reclined there, feet on the table, trying to focus on the tablet displaying Gadara.
Last damn planet in the holy universe he wanted to see.
Of course, Raziel owned the whole fucking system, so it didn’t surprise Knight he was there … But of all the people and all the places …
Phoebe slipped into the booth beside him. “You all right?”
“Yeah.”
“Yup, yup. I’m just fine, Phoebe,” she said, flapping her hand like a mouth and talking in a deeper voice. “Sure, I don’t mind visiting the planet I was tortured on to meet the man who did it. Well,” she returned to her normal voice, “that’s big of you, Knight. Awfully considerate of Jordan to take that into account, wasn’t it?”
“Phoebe—”
“Why yes,” she said in the deep voice again, “I’m quite certain she took my feelings into account. She’s an empath, after all. And clearly always right. About every little fucking thing.”
“Hey!” He shoved her shoulder. “I don’t sound like that. And anyway, I’m sure she thought about it … she just needs me.”
“Yup, yup. She’s a real needy girl. But uh, hmm, you know … I need you too! And which one of us is trying to have your baby? Huh? Is it Rachel? You know, I don’t think it is.”
Shit. He’d known she wouldn’t be happy about delaying their trip to Ekron, but he’d hoped she would understand. “It’s not like that, Phoebe.”
“What’s it like then, baby? ‘Cause from where I’m sitting, kinda seems like every time Rachel needs anything, no matter how off rotation, you jump. You put yourself at risk for her every whim. You put our future at risk. You still lusting after her, ninja boy? Still thinking maybe you need to spread your seed around a bit more freely?”
“No!” He had chosen Phoebe. Couldn’t she see he loved her? God, why did she have to be like this? Rachel was just … Rachel. There was no more romance between them. No more sexual tension.
“Yup, well maybe you should have just fucked her once and got it out of your system.”
Knight flinched before he could control the reflex.
“Wh-what was that? Oh. My. God. You did sleep with her.” Phoebe stood and stared down at him. “You fucked her. Was it good?”
He was pretty sure he shouldn’t answer that.
Phoebe fumed. “Be-before or after me, Knight?”
“Before I ever met you.”
“Oh well, at least there’s that. So you love her, too, huh?”
Knight rose to stand beside her and look down into her eyes. He’d never seen her behave like this before. He’d always known she had a chip on her shoulder, but this was … “I do not love Rachel. Not the way I love you. And don’t act like you haven’t had other lovers before me either.”
“I never offered to have any of their babies!”
Well … he had wanted a baby with Rachel, but that was a long time ago. “I chose you. I only want you.”
Phoebe snorted, then narrowed her eyes. “So why do you have to do everything she says?”
“Because I believe in her. Whatever mistakes she’s made, she’s made them for the right reasons. And I am the person I am today because of her. Try to understand, Phoebe. You know me. And you know me better than this.”
She clenched her jaw, then punched his shoulder. After a moment, she slumped against him, throwing her arms around his waist. “I know … I’m sorry. I just … why did it have to be us?”
“You know how busy David is. And Rachel needed someone she could trust. I guess she figured I could handle just about any situation.”
She laughed against his chest. “Yup, yup. That’s my ninja boy. Walk straight into danger like nothing can touch you.”
That’s what he did. That’s who he was.
But Phoebe had almost died on the Tabernacle.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he said. “I’m not going to lose you.”
“I was about to say the same thing.” She ran her hands along his back, and he shut his eyes from the soothing motion. “Knight …” she said after a while. “Jordan and MacGregor got married. That was kind of nice, you know? Old fashioned but nice.”
“Yeah. Quaint.”
“So you don’t believe in marriage?”
He chuckled and pushed her away to look in her face. “I’ve found a single woman to spend my life with. I don’t need a piece of paper to tell the universe that. My own decision is enough.”
She bobbed her head and shrugged. “Sure. Yup, of course.”
Knight watched her as she walked away to go grab a drink from the fridge. It wasn’t her nature to act so insecure. Not about Rachel. Not about anything. Which meant something had pierced her armor … not just the wounds she sustained on the Tabernacle. A fear about Knight and Rachel. But he hadn’t given her reason to fear that, not since they’d been together.
So maybe someone else had.
When he approached, she handed him a glass of water. “Sorry,” she said again. “And I don’t say that often, so you’d better savor it. Maybe mark it in a journal so you can look back on it and remember. You know, down the road when you’re wanting to hear it again but you won’t.”
“Someone betrayed you before,” he said. “Someone you were serious with.”
She sighed. “Your empathic powers finally coming in? Damn psychs.”
“No. Not really.” Other than fleeting sensations and confusing rushes he couldn’t make sense of, he had no empathic or telepathic gifts. He was an imperfect nephil, he supposed.
“So you just read me. Even better. David was right.”
He put a hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to tell me, Phoebe. You just have to know I’m not him. Whatever happened before, I’m not going to make the same mistake.”
“No. I expect you’ll make all new ones. Excessive mistakes so blindly stupid I’ll be struck speechless.”
“That would be a thing to see.”
“All right, enough of that,” she said. “Time to do your duty.”
“What?”
“Come on, big guy. Baby-making. Get with the program.”
15
“You’d think it hideous, all bulbous smoke and burning skies and what not. Oh, but if you saw it in the morning, when the first wee rays of sunlight shine through, you might also think you were catching a glimpse of heaven. Aye, it’s not so bad.”
David MacGregor, on planet Calneh
MARCH 1, 3097 EY — CALNEH SYSTEM, ANDROMEDA
Calneh. The world of David’s birth. He’d come to New Rome as a young man, but he still remembered the thick acrid skies of his homeworld. The festive pipe music men played after work. The sound of pubs filled with laughter.
Now, two angel ships emerged from the Conduit in the Calneh system, looking like miniature versions of the Ark. Sleek black, organic hulls that shimmered in the starlight. Much like the Sephirot itself.
David brought his ship around to meet the pair. A trio of Sentinel cruisers flanked
the Sephirot, lending support. Forming a wall between the angels and the planet beyond.
The angels had to know. He couldn’t believe it was coincidence they would choose this planet for a strike. Not a place with such a middling population.
No. His enemies knew who he was, and they were targeting him. Two angel ships were more than enough to render a planet lifeless.
They thought they knew who he was.
He was about to show them just how wrong they were.
“Signal the cruisers to take the angel ship to starboard. We’ll take the other one. Prep antiproton cannons, but lead with a missile barrage. All tubes. On my mark.”
He eased the Sephirot toward the angels. They were on a steady approach. Not intimidated by a mere four human ships. They had come to destroy another entire planet.
Not this one.
David was drawing a line.
Not. This. One.
He began accelerating toward the angel ship. Pushing the engines for all they had. It approached rapidly. David banked away, bringing the Sephirot for a broadside run.
“Fire! Fire all missiles.”
Two hundred missile tubes launched their payloads, filling the sky and his screen with antimatter warheads. As expected, the angels concentrated on the missiles. Purple beam weaponry formed a net and took out whole swathes of the attack.
“Fire the antiproton cannons.”
The lights dimmed on the ship as the cannons drew vast amounts of energy. The ship bucked from the sudden discharge. A pair of beams appeared, slamming into the angel hull at the speed of light. Antimatter explosions rippled over the other ship, tearing away its skin. Atmosphere vented.
An angel was sucked into space and flew by the view screen. Who even knew if the bastards could survive out there or not?
The antiproton cannons cut off as the Sephirot finished its strafing run. David twisted as sharply as he could, bringing the ship around for another pass.
“MAGs.” Time to tear up the insides they had just opened.
“David!” Rachel said. “I’m reading a power up from the angel—”
Beams of purple energy carved into the Sephirot. David banked away, trying to get clear before one of them clipped the singularity drive and destroyed them all.
“What the bloody hell is that beam?”
“Chronoton beam,” Rachel answered. “Accelerated time.”
Bloody void. Just what they needed firing at them. Bloody time itself.
“Missile tubes reloaded, sir,” Lieutenant Alhaq, his new weapons officer, reported.
“Prepare another barrage.” They might not fall for the same trick twice, but every missile they targeted was a shot not directed at the Sephirot.
“We’ve lost one of our cruisers,” Rachel said.
Shite. He needed to finish this foe off quickly or his remaining allies would be dead before he got there.
“I’m taking us in for the same vector as before. Fire all missiles, then concentrate pulse cannon fire on the hull breaches.”
“Sir,” Ensign Barry said. “They’ll also be able to target our breaches if we—”
“I know that, ensign. We don’t have time to play it safe.”
He brought the Sephirot around for another pass, diving underneath the angel ship. Missiles filled the air again, then pulse fire. Pulses tore into the enemy vessel, ripping through the weaker interior, thanks to the hull breaches.
The angels returned fire. Warnings flared all over David’s console. Plasma fires had spread through three decks. Seven… eight hull breaches. One of the hangars blew out.
David pushed closer. They had to do this. They had to show the damn angels they would not submit.
“Fire! Fire everything we’ve got left.”
MAGs and pulse cannons ripped into the angel ship. It rocked, rippled, and imploded like a bubble folding in on itself.
David banked away as sharply as he could. Somewhere behind him, a console blew out, spewing sparks over the bridge.
“Cut power to that!”
He steered back toward the remaining angel ship.
“Can we bring up the antiproton cannons?”
“No, sir,” the ensign said. “We’ve lost too much power.”
“Ion cannons?”
“One of them.”
“Power it up.”
“Sir.”
Another Sentinel cruiser was adrift, and the last looked hard-pressed. But they were not alone.
“Missiles. Get their attention.”
Missiles had the best range, though from this far out, the angels had plenty of time to shoot down a barrage. It didn’t matter. He just needed to buy a few seconds to close the distance.
The Sephirot launched another volley, but his console showed only about three-quarters of the tubes firing. He tapped, revealing the problem. Some entire tubes had been blown off the ship. Bloody void. There was no way to fix that without putting into space dock.
“David!” Rachel shouted. “They’re retreating.”
Even as she spoke, he saw it. The angel ship shot down the missile barrage but began fleeing toward the Conduit gate.
A murmur ran through the bridge. The crew whispered in awe. They had just driven away an angel attack.
The murmur grew into a whoop. Men and women clapped and cheered. David raised his hands, palms up, encouraging them.
Let them have their moment.
They had lost a lot of brothers and sisters-in-arms this day. Soon they would mourn those losses. But for now, they had won.
They had beaten an angel assault. And he was going to make damn sure the entire holy universe knew about it.
16
“The captured Asheran soldier set off some sort of bio-implantable self-destruct device. However, our scientific team has been able to reconstruct several of the mechanisms grafted to the soldier’s body—at least partially. It is our first hard evidence of First Commandment violation by the Asherans. If the practice is as widespread as we’ve long believed, may God have mercy on us all.”
Sentinel Intelligence classified forensics report on the recovered remains of an Asheran cyborg
MARCH 5, 3097 EY — ANDROMEDA GALAXY
David jolted when the Mazzaroth actually connected. Aluf Mishma Lamport appeared on the screen, his face hidden behind his helmet. This had to be the tenth time David tried to reach the man. At this point, it was mere ritual. He never expected an answer.
“Captain MacGregor.”
“Aluf Lamport, I …” David cleared his throat. “Thank you for taking my call. We’ve got to talk, friend.”
“Do we?”
“We made an alliance against the angels, Aluf. I didn’t expect that alliance to fracture so easily.”
The aluf folded his arms. “Did you not? Was it not a temporary truce in times of extreme threat?”
David bloody well hoped not. “The angels are still out there.”
“At the moment they seem more interested in conquering this New Eden Republic than invading Asherah.”
Aye, they did at that. Angel attacks had spread across the Milky Way and Andromeda, severely hampering his attempts to build up the new government. For whatever reason, the angels had stayed away from Eden itself. But their tactics made new systems increasingly wary about signing on.
And why? Because the NER had stood up to them? Or … because they thought to make the remaining Sentinels their own army?
“Look here,” David said. “What do you think they’re going to do when they finish with us? They’ll be coming for you, quick as you like, to renew their attempts to wipe you out of existence. If they conquer us, that’s just that many more forces they’ll bring against Asherah.”
The aluf was quiet for a long moment after that. David couldn’t say whether it was a good thing or not. At last the man unfolded his arms. “What you say may be true. We will take it under consideration.”
“Good. Then we—”
“Mazzaroth off.”
Bloody void.
“That went well,” Rachel said from across the room.
“Better than I expected, anyway.” He strolled over and sat on the bed beside her.
“How are the repairs going?”
They had been stuck in space dock, refitting the ship. But since it was a QI prototype, the local crew was unfamiliar with some of the systems. “Slowly.” Much slower than he’d like. Every minute they spent here was a minute he wasn’t protecting people from assault. “Any word from Knight?”
“No. It’s too soon, anyway.”
“Aye.” David scratched his head, wondering whether to bring up the topic that had been wandering around his mind for days.
Rachel laughed. “Out with it.”
Bloody empath. “So, Rach … are you still using contraceptive tabs?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“I just … I thought after we got married we would start planning a family … it’s what you wanted too, right?”
Rachel sighed and mussed up her hair a bit before speaking. “Yeah. Yes, David. It is. I just … Like this? I mean, angels killing people everywhere we turn. It doesn’t seem like the right time.”
David sidled closer and wrapped his arms around her. “You scared, then? Maybe there isn’t going to be a right time. That’s the holy universe we live in. Means the present is always the right time. Never know how much more than that we’re going to have, do we?”
“Don’t talk like that. We’ll have time when this is done, David.”
“Aye, if it’s ever done. Things might not go back to how they were.”
Rachel leaned in closer to his embrace, trembling a little. He squeezed her.
“I’m just thinking … when we touched that other universe … it’s out there. Just beyond some imperceptible wall. Waiting for us. Waiting to get in.”
Aye. And with her empathic gift, no point in denying he was scared as all shite by it. But there was nothing to be done for it. Thanks to Caleb, now they knew what it was. The Adversary. Seemed almost unthinkable. He had always imagined the Adversary as aliens, somewhere beyond the Local Group. They would wait with a fleet to invade human space. The Covenant protected mankind from them.
