by Matt Larkin
She snorted. “Well, technically you helped, big guy.” She hugged him back. “So … I assume we need to call Jordan back and tell her we can’t go.”
“But I—”
“It’s okay, ninja boy. You’re scared. I get it. I’ll call her. Pretty sure I can handle it.”
“Phoebe …”
God, she was right. Going looking for aliens was terrifying. And it might place them at risk. The whole ship and their baby too. But Rachel was right, as well. This might be their best chance. And she was counting on Knight.
He sighed. He couldn’t believe he was going to say this. “Phoebe … this is bigger than us. Bigger even than our family.”
Phoebe arched her brow. “You. Are. Shitting me.”
“I can’t turn my back on mankind now.”
“Okay, I think you let this off-rotation navi nonsense go to your head. Knight, we’re just people. I don’t care what kind of bloodline you come from.”
He shook his head. “I’m no messiah. And this isn’t about being nephil, love. It’s about me. It’s about duty. I’m the one who can do this, so I’m the one who has to. We are part of the human race. Our baby is going to grow up to live in the universe we create. And whether that’s a universe enslaved to the angels or not is up to us—it depends on our decisions here and now.”
She turned away and walked across the room. “God. I don’t believe this.”
“Phoebe, please try to understand.”
“I understand,” she snapped.
“Do you?”
“Yup.” She shrugged and walked to the door. “Yup. I get it. Let’s just do this.”
Knight shut his eyes and blew out a long breath. He never wanted to hurt her. He never wanted to put her in this position. But … he had to do whatever it took to put an end to this war.
No matter the personal cost.
23
“David’s death did not … it did not have the effect Asherah might have wished. He was a symbol of the strength of the Sentinels. As a man, they silenced him. As a symbol, his voice rang through the halls of history and a billion voices rose to join it …”
Dr. Rachel Jordan, Eulogy for Captain David MacGregor
APRIL 9, 3097 EY — ANDROMEDA GALAXY
Rachel paced around the Sephirot’s war room, fingers twitching at her side. Still no word from Knight and now this.
“Play it again.”
The screen flashed back to the recording. A battle on the edge of the Tucana Dwarf galaxy. A fleet of Asheran and Conglomerate ships descended on a seemingly abandoned angel outpost. A half-dozen angel ships rose to stop them. So many missiles filled the sky it blocked her view of the details of the battle.
In the end, though the Asherans lost many ships, the angels fell. One by one. An Asheran cruiser flew right into the space station, ensuring its destruction. And the vid was broadcast all over the Mazzaroth.
Asheran propaganda. A message that even angels could be defeated through the combined might of mankind.
Everything Rachel ever wanted—for all the wrong reasons.
That outpost had to have been one of the seals. The way the Asherans threw themselves at it, losing thousands upon thousands of lives to destroy it. Because they had no choice. The Beast must have taken them. Apollyon was now in control of both Asherah and the majority of the Conglomerate.
Another seal gone. Which meant … only one remained. And if the vid she just witnessed was any indication, the angels could not hold it themselves.
Here she had spent the last weeks hunting down Asherans. They deserved to die. They deserved fire and damnation for what they had done to David. She still had half a mind to take the Sephirot to Asherah itself and lay waste to the planet. Leah would surely have relieved her of command if she tried … the rahab had taken Rachel’s usurpation of her authority a little better than Rachel had expected.
Which was to say she did no more than glower.
No … while she fought her useless personal war against Asherah, they were preparing to release the Adversary. An alien universe primed to take over this one. The Adversary hated its former masters, the angels—but its hatred ran deep. It wouldn’t spare humanity either. It had tried to destroy Eden, after all. And maybe the angels were the only ones who could stop it. They had before. They had built the seals and defeated their fallen brethren.
Rachel kicked a chair away from the table and fell down into it. Could she even consider working with the angels? They would stop the Adversary … and immediately enslave mankind. Everything back like it was in the Days of Glory. Humanity scared into obedience by the Adversary, willing to submit to one alien master to escape another. Small wonder she had once thought the angels had created an imaginary foe to threaten people with. The truth, however, was much more horrible than she had ever considered.
They had created the Adversary, then lost control of it.
She blew out a long breath, then swept her hair back from her face. “Contact Galizur Blake.”
The Mazzaroth chimed for a long time before Raziel received her call. His surroundings were dark—she could make out nothing save the shadow of his face. Always the air of mystery.
“Rachel.”
“You’ve seen the report from Tucana?”
“Of course I have seen it.”
Of course he had. She resisted the urge to wring her hands. “So? What are we going to do?”
“Die.”
“Excuse me?” She was not hearing what she thought she was. “That sounded an awful lot like you were giving up. And I know that can’t be the case, what with the fate of the holy universe on the line.”
Raziel sighed, then leaned back into shadows. She saw nothing but darkness. At last he spoke. “Forgive me, Dr. Jordan. I despaired for a moment. For billions of years, we have struggled against this day—feared it. Baraqiel wrote the Covenant solely to try to prevent this. And now it is all falling away … swept into uselessness by …”
“By me.” God, she had done this. In her own arrogance, she had blamed the angels for all that was wrong with mankind, never once considering what could be so much worse. A return to enslavement. Or extinction. Oblivion. The end of mankind. And she had uncovered the Ark, awakened the angels … forced the issue.
“No, Rachel. You blame yourself. You are not without your sins … but you were not alone. To spare you truths we believed you could not understand, we withheld information perhaps we should not have … and whether you acted or not, sooner or later Apollyon would have made his move.”
Indeed. The angel had made a puppet out of Caleb Gavet, even more than Raziel had done to Rachel.
“I so want to be able to trust your kind, Raziel.”
“But you cannot.”
“How could I? Can you guarantee that if we stop Asherah, they won’t turn on us again?”
“I cannot. I have tried to commune with them. They believe the surest way to stand against Asherah and the fallen is to force your New Eden Republic into submission. They feel it will give them the army they need to destroy those who have polluted themselves with cybernetics.”
God help her, she couldn’t see a way through this. The NER could not stand up to the angels. They were losing their republic, one system at a time. While she was out on the frontier, punishing Asherah for their sins, the angels were conquering her people.
“Come back to us …” she said, even before she realized it. How odd to think she had come to rely on the angel. Once she had hated all his kind for their sins. Once she had hated him for the way he’d used her. But Raziel was the only bridge she had between humanity and the angels. The only chance they had of peace.
“Soon. I fear there is little more I can do here. But I need to finish one last project, and I must do it myself.”
Rachel nodded. And before that, she had to do what she could. Her heart screamed to watch Asherah burn … but her people needed her more. It was what David would want. The Sephirot belonged back in the NER, protecting her pe
ople.
24
“If there was ever a question of our divinity, I can disprove such blasphemy with a simple argument: the chronoton beam. It was developed during the Days of Glory, not before. The angels are not and have never been all-knowing. When we battled the Adversary and rescued humanity, we lacked the ability to unravel time itself as a weapon. God has not revealed all the secrets of the universe to us. We are still unraveling its mysteries for ourselves.”
Sefer Raziel, translated by Dr. Rachel Jordan
APRIL 17, 3097 EY — EKRON SYSTEM, MILKY WAY
Rachel felt her way through the Conduit. Ekron was close. The system had been invaded by angels and their Redeemer minions a day ago. And where the Redeemers went, the Gogmagog were unleashed. One world after another, conquered by angels and forced into submission by their secret police. Rachel supposed she should be grateful the angels had stopped blowing up whole planets.
Off in the vast Expanse of Nod, perhaps Phoebe had heard the news. Her own world, taken by the angels. Maybe she hadn’t. Mazzaroth communication was somewhat spotty out there. Fewer quantum relays or something like that. Would it be a blessing if the icie didn’t know what had happened? Or a curse, perhaps. To return home only to find her world enslaved, crushed under the heel of the Gogmagog.
But not if Rachel could help it.
The Sephirot jumped out of the Conduit. Rachel pushed the ship as hard as it could go, steering directly for a pair of Redeemer cruisers in orbit of the planet.
“Fire pulse cannons the moment we come into range,” she said. “Focus fire on the starboard ship. Half missile barrage. Launch!”
A hundred missile tubes buzzed as they launched their payload. The warheads reached farther than most other weapons. At this range, the Redeemers had time to shoot down the missiles. Most of them. But a pair of cruisers was no match for a battleship like the Sephirot. There was no match for the Sephirot, save the angels themselves.
Several missiles found purchase on the Redeemer ships. Antimatter explosions rocked along the hulls, savaging the shields. In seconds they would be in pulse cannon range. She was through playing around. These bastards had betrayed mankind. They didn’t even deserve the chance to surrender.
Redeemers had been hounding her for her whole damn life. Berating her with blind loyalty to religion imposed on mankind as a means of control. Zealots. Fools who refused to have their eyes opened. Fools like her father … like her brother, rotting in the brig …
And maybe some of them could be brought around … if they only saw the truth.
“Captain!” Ensign Barry said. “There, behind the moon.”
An angel ship crested the dark side of the moon. Another emerged from behind the far side of the sun. They had been hiding, just out of scanner range. Void. Waiting for her? A trap to lure her in. Did they know Ekron was personal to her and her crew? God, they must—just as they’d known about Calneh. And she’d rushed right in.
Of course the angels were smart. Too damn smart. And they’d want to deny the NER its flagship. Such a prize meant more than any one solar system.
But Ekron was still in danger. Whatever the angels’ purpose in this trap, they had chosen Phoebe’s homeworld.
“Launch all drone squadrons,” she said. “And prep the antiproton cannons. I want those things powered before the angels can—”
A chronoton beam rocked off the Sephirot’s hull and then another. Both angel ships were firing. Rachel banked away. She wasn’t the pilot David had been, but she was good. She strafed right past one of the Redeemer ships, keeping it between her and the angels.
The Redeemers’ laser batteries sliced into the Sephirot’s skin. Damage readings flared all over her console. She didn’t know how David had kept up with all this. She’d delegated the drones to other crewmen. She’d have to trust them to shoot down incoming missiles.
The Redeemers were not the real threat.
“Captain?” Alhaq said. “MAG spread on the Redeemers?”
“No. Keep them in one piece for now.” They provided a shield against the angels.
She banked again, swerving as tightly as she could around the Redeemer ship. Damned lasers were carving her up, but angel chronoton beams would be worse.
“Antiproton cannon ready.”
Rachel jerked away, clear of the Redeemer cruiser. “Fire at the closest angel ship!”
The antiproton stream leapt from the Sephirot, impacting the angels instantaneously. Antimatter explosions rocked along its hull until the ship veered away, powered down.
Chronoton beams slammed into the Sephirot. Drones kept the missiles away, but even the MAG barrage from the Redeemers was beginning to wear away the shields. Soon, nothing would be left of their flagship.
“How many Redeemers are on the planet?” she asked.
“Several thousand, we believe,” Barry said.
Too many. They couldn’t take the planet back, but maybe they could keep it from falling. “Send four infiltration squads down in shuttles! Weapons, guard those shuttles no matter what.”
Four squads of Sentinels couldn’t overcome a Redeemer army. But they would prove a nightmare to those bastards when they tried to hold it. Infiltration units could use guerrilla tactics to hit and run, disrupting any semblance of angel control on this planet. It was the best Rachel could do for now.
The shuttles launched.
The Sephirot rocked as more MAGs and plasma bursts erupted around it. Hull breaches flared on her console. If she stuck around much longer, she’d lose the damn ship, but she had to buy the shuttles time to land. David had gone down in a shuttle. If she’d only stayed to protect him …
She banked around, setting a collision course for the angel ship.
As expected, the angels broke away at the last instant.
Immortals weren’t too eager to die, were they?
Rachel spun the ship around. “Are the shuttles clear?”
“Yes, Captain.”
Good. Her heart ached for David, but at least she’d protected these Sentinels.
She dove the ship straight for the Redeemers, trusting the crew to fire the right weapons. The Redeemers didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was saving this ship. As her enemies fled from her aggressive dive, she banked away in a loop and pushed hard for the Conduit gate.
Let them follow. If they dared.
25
“Pirates get lots of places that civilized folks don’t. They come back with stories—if they come back at all. My favorite is about the Zarethon System—not sure if that’s even its name. Who cares? It’s a great story. It’s about octopi that swim in space without even needing a ship. I mean, what’s there even to eat out there?”
Ezra Dana, space pirate and amateur storyteller
APRIL 18, 3097 EY — ZARETHON SYSTEM, PEGASUS DWARF GALAXY
The Wake of Heaven lingered in the Zarethon System. Though the ship remained under Hannah Hertz’s command, she had deferred to Phoebe. Hannah had trusted David, and David had trusted Phoebe. It all led back to Rachel, of course. She was convinced that if they found these Lotan, it could make a difference.
Knight wasn’t so sure. Maybe they would prove useful allies, maybe they wouldn’t talk to humans at all. Why would they acknowledge the servants of their enemies, after all? Isn’t that how the Lotan would see humanity—as slaves of angels?
“Maybe your brother was lying,” he said.
Phoebe shook her head. She had her hand on her abdomen, though she hadn’t really begun to show yet. “Ezra said there were always rumors of aliens in this region.”
And Ezra Dana—space pirate and cyborg—was notoriously trustworthy. He’d been left in the brig on the Sephirot. Phoebe had wanted to bring him with them, but Knight had convinced her the man belonged in prison. He didn’t want sentiment clouding her judgment.
Void, pregnancy hormones seemed to do that well enough. One minute she was ecstatic, the next she ranted about Rachel sending her all the way out here.
Then again, there was nowhere safe to raise a baby. Not the way the holy universe was now.
He had to get them somewhere safe.
“Captain,” the communications officer said. “We’ve got an incoming signal from Rachel Jordan. Old—it had to go through too many relays.”
Hertz looked to him.
“Let’s hear it.”
“Put it on screen,” Hertz said.
Rachel’s face filled the screen, but it was just a recording. Without proper relays, live communication wouldn’t work. “Phoebe. I don’t know whether you will have heard this, and I’m sorry to have to tell you. Ekron has been taken by the Redeemers and the Gogmagog. I’ve done all I can, and I left behind Sentinels to harry them. I promise I’ll return as soon as we’re able. Your mission takes precedence, but you have a right to know.”
The transmission cut off.
“I have a right to know,” Phoebe said. “I’ve got a right to know. That’s what she has to say? Yup, yup. That’s me, good little soldier girl who just … just … what the void, Jordan!”
Knight reached for her, and she punched him in the shoulder. Then she collapsed into his arms. He’d never understand her.
“Ca-can we get a signal to Ekron?” Phoebe mumbled.
“We can send a message,” Hertz said, “but it’ll take time for it to get there.”
Phoebe trembled in his arms, then pushed him away. “I-I’ve got to send a message to Mom and Dad, you know? I, uh … Knight?”
“I’m here.”
