Below, the armored snake stretched its gaping black hole of a mouth. Rows and rows of pointed teeth spun around. Inhaling the sand, the beast twisted and plunged into the sifting sands with a boom. Dozens of smaller insect creatures popped out of the surrounding sand and launched off into the sky, bleating until the aerial kaiju swept out its segmented tail. The insects smacked into it and slid off one by one.
A geyser of sand broke the surface of the dunes and rose a hundred feet. A high-pitched cry and the winged beast spun around facing the rising monster.
Strolling in the same direction, Felik made a shrinking gesture with one hand and the entire scene halved in size around him.
He'd put a thousand karma bits on the sand snake. Yet there was none of the tension he usually got from gambling on these fighting arenas.
He tossed a dice up and down in his hand. It was amazing how something so basic could still be so symbolic thousands of solar cycles after its invention. Chance. Humans had mastered the stars and conquered mortality, but not fate. Not yet.
If the research on the karma pylons was to be believed, one sol, they would. No species had cracked the code yet, but the idea went that the karma pylons could bend the hands of fate across the cosmos. The higher your karma, the "luckier" you were. Of course, until scientists figured out how exactly that worked, it was mostly philosophical ideas about morality, many of which differed from species to species.
Still, he enjoyed gambling on his life from time to time. That's what made it interesting. Chance had almost ended him at the MARINES base. Instead, it got Brody's message out in time and alerted his uncle to their situation. What sort of chance had ended the StarMaster's life?
The StarMaster was the most powerful man in the universe. Sure there were the Type V gods with bodies of dark matter, gravity, or something immutable, but they ranked beyond comprehension.
Felik shrank the kaijus again. Now dwarfing both, he hopped over to the ridge in the ground that was the sand snake. He flicked his wrist and the monsters and the desert blossomed, reducing him to an ant among giants.
A wave of sand exploded out, unleashing a dark red mass. In a beautiful fluid motion, the beast soared into the sky, angled its serpentine form and crashed into the winged behemoth.
Face scrunching up as if to say, That's gotta hurt, Felik tossed the dice up. Another hand reached out and caught it.
He turned to find Xerix Nomiega, Chief Navigator of the Union Omega, beside him in the desert. The kaiju froze in mid-fight, sand hanging in the air.
Felik stared at Xerix for several seconds, observing his chapped lips, the blemishes next to his nose, the curvature of his brows above his eyes, the pallid texture of his skin. Many sapients upvoted Xerix's karma for his choice of a humble image. But he'd also heard Xerix had a couple young, sharp-jawed stud bodies he snuck around in sometimes.
"Is he really dead?"
Xerix nodded.
"How did it happen?"
"I don't have a lot of time."
"You've only got, what, ten living frames?" Felik shrugged. In other words, Xerix could be in ten places at once. For most sapients who possessed multiple bodies concurrently, each acted on its own will, linked only by memory syncs. Others configured their bodies to all think together.
Xerix snorted. "I've met sapients with access to a hundred living frames and they still complain they don't have enough time in a sol."
I've met sapients with one living frame who did as much as sapients with ten, Felik thought but didn't say. Because, well, he hadn't. But it sounded cool.
His neural virus prevented him from copying his mind into anything more than a karma pylon backup, so he'd never had the chance to try. But he was fairly certain the Chief Navigator had more than enough time. He cleared his throat. "How did the StarMaster die?"
"If I told you he died from gambling on intergalactic fighting sims, would you stop attending them?"
Felik's eyes narrowed. As a scion and a member of the Guardian Mind, betting on cosmic arena fights like this was considered beneath him. Another laser blast to his hopes of ever becoming the Chief Philosopher. He made a vulgar face. "Everyone has their vice. Besides, I came disguised." His identity tag would register as a random sapient, not a scion.
"As did I," Xerix said, rolling the dice between his fingers. "Yet there's always the chance..."
The battle resumed. Sand and dust swirled about as the two kaiju wrestled in one seething mass, their roars almost drowning out the Chief Navigator.
"It's all theatrics. There's no way to make these fights truly impartial. How can they control for all the abstract extraneous variables? Speed, physical power, stamina—maybe they can determine those are equal, but how can they determine flight is truly equivalent to burrowing? And it's silly to replicate the fight multiple times as if that whittles out the luck factor."
"I know," Felik said. Humanity still had its problems, but he'd always relished New Terran's aspiration to objective thinking as a big step in the right direction. "They're entertaining." And a distraction. His uncle's soldiers had placed him in the safety of an Imperial Infantry station for the last few hours. He'd been waiting for an update ever since.
"Of course. I still had to make my attempt to dissuade you from watching these."
That piqued his interest. "Why bother to help me if everyone wants me dead?"
"On the contrary, it was lucky that Hayland intervened in your little incident at the MARINES base. We don't want you terminated like Arteyos. Excuse me. Erased. Terminated implies intention."
He thought back to the sim of Xerix and the StarMaster discussing the latter's impending death. Xerix continued to deny its validity in the media, but that was to be expected.
"Did everyone change their mind about me?"
"Sapient opinions can be fickle. Based on footage from the MARINE base, we believe the media streams will spin this in your favor. You showed bravery in suffering a beating and protecting Brody. He's had nothing but good things to say about you. Public sentiment should be on your side very soon."
Felik already knew that many starkeepers had ties to the news streams. None as big as his scion brother Oberon, whose consort's family owned one of the largest news networks. It was easy to suggest news stories get spun a certain way. But why would Oberon and Xerix want to in this case?
"That's a good thing, right?" Felik asked.
The world around them darkened for a few seconds as one of the kaiju collapsed over them in the sand. Since it was all a sim representation of a real event, their bodies passed through the kaiju's like ghosts.
"For you. I and several others decided that Rhona's neglect at keeping you safe makes her ill-suited to stay on as the proto of the Guardian Mind."
"Then who will replace her?"
From Xerix's intent look, Felik already knew. Oh, shit.
"You will be the proto of this quadrant's Guardian Mind. The Envoy."
Felik's insides did a little flip. He suddenly felt small despite the Chief Navigator's unintimidating appearance. He was only receiving this promotion because Xerix was allowing it.
But he could very likely be scheming something grand. Xerix had been the StarMaster's main protocol and with him dead, the starkeepers managing the Union Omega would perceive his decisions with great weight.
Felik frowned. If he were truly impartial about it, he should decline. Too many times he'd shaken his head at the blatant manipulation of the news streams to push a certain narrative. Benefiting off that now would be hypocritical. Biased for his self-gain.
Since he was biased in his own favor, though, he decided he should at least opt to become the Chief Philosopher out of this. He craved to do good with that role (though he couldn't deny he also craved the ego boost).
More pragmatic reasons also urged him to accept this gift. He'd known a sapient once who was one million two hundred thousand bits in debt. The Union Omega seized control of his living frame and core in short order. Felik figured the sapient
's core was now part of a server for some construct.
Since his karma bits were in a black hole, he could use a fresh spin on his public image. And keeping his space on Alderson disk #396727-S would be a nice perk.
"With all due respect, wouldn't now be an opportune time for me to become the Chief Philosopher?"
Xerix looked crestfallen. "I would love to promote you. Only, Rhona is going to be the Chief Philosopher. A role she understands as purely honorific." In other words, she got the job because she was willing to surrender all the power of the job.
At least he didn't have to feel bad for her. Felik cast his head down. So, the Chief Navigator wouldn't give him what he wanted. Trivially, he didn't want to let Xerix feel like he was in total control. "I don't know what your plan is with all this, but I can't accept unless I know what happened to Arteyos."
"Maybe my plan requires that you don't know what happened."
Felik made himself laugh because of course Xerix meant it as a joke. A warning not to make demands, but a joke ostensibly.
Xerix returned the amused look. Even his tone lightened. "Communication is so vital to a healthy relationship. I imagine not communicating the situation would only make me an enemy in your mind. Given the Union Omega's fragile nature right now, I would never want that. But I have other scions to speak with, so I hope you won't take it personally that I've invited your uncle to fill you in on the details."
"No, it's fine. I—"
A man in his early thirties replaced Xerix, though he was actually closer to one hundred. Union Omega Fleet Admiral Hayland Ullon. He had the type of face that looked ready to tolerate a good solid punch. A face that you would not want to hit. Because in his gentle blue eyes lurked a vengeful confidence. The threat of retaliation on an even greater scale than anything you could throw at him.
"Thank you," Felik told his uncle. "I owe you two of my lives now."
"Hey, come here," Hayland grunted, hugging him. Their living frames were capable of the same feats of strength, yet his uncle's was larger and he felt the control he possessed over him. The man issued a long sigh. "It's times like these when I wish I could simply give people a data node."
Felik had attempted breaking up with a consort once via data node. She'd required a full system mental scrub. And an arbitrator revoked data node capabilities on his nexus for an entire week. Emotional stuff had to be explained carefully. And mind melding hadn't caught on among New Terrans.
He hadn't expected this show of affection and vulnerability from his uncle. "What happened?"
They both knew he was talking about StarMaster Arteyos, Hayland's younger brother.
"His living frames all went offline suddenly. And his karma pylon backups were deleted. They're still investigating the exact cause."
Unleashed rage swallowed Felik. "You're his brother and you don't know?"
A bright flash of blue shone across their faces as a kaiju vomited a boiling, radioactive slime from some horrific organ in its chest. The blue whitened, all but blinding them thanks to their living frames' synthetic vision.
Under normal circumstances, missing the action would've annoyed Felik. This was anything but normal.
Fleet Admiral Hayland frowned. "Felik, this whole thing is breaking new ground. There are a number of bases to cover, I'm sure you're aware."
Felik swallowed, knowing the implications all too well.
"I'm aware. I..." Words failed him. "If all of his backups are gone, will a ghost replace him?"
Hayland glanced at the snake kaiju's smoldering armor plates. The radioactive slime was winding across and oozing in between them. "No, I imagine any sort of artificial intelligence serving as StarMaster would make Artey roll around in his grave. It'll be a scion."
"Who?" Trepidation nagged at him.
"If we knew that, you think we'd be half as upset? Oberon would be the logical choice, but there are protocols in place, and they'll factor in many variables."
Felik shifted his weight from foot to foot. It had nothing to do with the radioactive slime rolling across the desert, high as his waist. All of that affected him as much as a holodisplay.
he sent.
Hayland's face was impossible to read. "One of your sources told you that?"
To his uncle's credit, he had never tried to discover Landi's identity nor informed anyone else. At least he'd never admitted to it.
"He warned me about that and the next thing I know, a MARINES base test almost gets me killed. Did someone set me up to die?"
Hayland looked on the verge of mussing his hair, amusement pooling in his eyes. "You ever heard of the Campbell Shooting?"
Felik's nexus tagged it from the archives. "Yeah." It had occurred at a celebration following the defeat of the Minds of Errukav. A soldier jealous about his girlfriend cheating on him shot up a party. Seven people died.
"This was before the Karma Nebula Pact, so the casualties weren't going to revive. I lost one of my friends there. And it ate me up inside. I thought there had to be more to it. He had survived dozens of battles only to die because of some spurned lover he didn't even know. Three lunar cycles later, I learned that two of the survivors of the shooting died in a shuttle accident. I knew there must've been some relation. It had to mean something. A few solar cycles into the Ascendancy, I decided to stop trying to convince myself and be objective about it. So I used our new technology—an analytics matrix to map out the connections and possible conclusions. There was no meaning. It was just one angry ex-boyfriend and some unlucky people.
"It doesn't take a genius to predict that some MARINES might want you dead after the news streams revealed your mistake. And it only takes one crazy guy to make them right. Not exactly a fourth dimensional insight."
Yet Felik couldn't help finding more meaning in his uncle's story. He was likely referring to his own understanding of his brother's death.
A long drawn, weak noise sounded across the dunes. Overhead, the nuclear slime was eating away at the sand snake's body. The beast was as good as dead. On cue, a notification on Felik's HUD confirmed the sky beast far above as the winner.
"Excuse me, I'm going to go spend the bits I won," Hayland said.
Felik opened his mouth and came up empty.
"Lost, huh? Don't feel too bad," Hayland winked. "I got the owner to pull a few strings and increase my chances."
Chapter 9
KAI
* * *
"You are one lucky girl. And beautiful."
Kai opened her eyes slowly. Luck's got nothing to do with it. And thanks.
Groggy, she racked her mind for an explanation of her survival. She remembered deploying a flare at the last instant. A tiny probe that broadcasted an emergency signal via ansible. Most low grade frames had one for situations like falling into a pit of alien worms.
Blue transparent glass surrounded her. She was inside a private medical capsule. Standing above her was a man in a white lab coat with dark gray trims. Neon red goggles and patches of metal augmented his visage. Her nexus tagged him as,
"That's true. Sometimes it does make you lucky." Dr. Troit turned away, putting his arms out conversationally. Kai realized he wasn't talking to her at all, but someone on his nexus. "No, I mean it. You are lucky and beautiful. Not like this patient I've got here. She's stuck in a low grade frame. Not you. Listen, we'll talk later." He fixated back on Kai. "I apologize." His laugh started off normal but ended with a depressed sigh. "My consort is so busy with her other consorts that we rarely get time to speak any more."
Maybe she's not your consort anymore.
Kai pinched the bridge of her nose. She hadn't paid a visit to a genuine medical bay in a very long time. Her inquisitor fram
e's utility fog would've repaired most physical injuries within minutes.
Pushing herself to a seated position, the tightness in her arms and clicking sensation in her back reminded her that this frame was nothing like that. The tubes running from the edges of the capsule to her limbs and small dome devices dotting her body didn't help either.
"So you want to test the durability of this glass or should I smash through?" She hoped this body could accomplish that much at least.
There was a hint of something disconcerting in his stare. It faded as the capsule opened. The tubes popped off and the medical plates hopped onto the structure's edges.
Getting to her feet, she noticed Raksamat and Sarvill in the capsules between her and the wall. The Clorondite's glowing nebula of an eye swirled. There weren't any tubes or medical plates attached to him.
He was awake alright, but he'd chosen to remain in his capsule.
There were about a dozen medical capsules total. A female doctor was speaking with one patient at the end of the room.
Dr. Troit clapped his hands together. "Your body was—"
Kai put up a hand. "A data node will do just fine."
Even quarantined, she could still receive them.
The node popped up in her feed. "Yes, well then. You can't interface digitally with our base due to your virus. But it's fairly straightforward to navigate physically. You're free to move around at your leisure. Of course, we've blocked you from messaging anyone directly, so—"
She tapped her head with a finger, indicating she would parse the finer details on the node.
Dr. Troit gave a brief and artificial smile and stood aside to let her pass. She glided by, paused, and motioned to Raksamat. "He's with me."
"You heard the lady," the doctor said, making a gesture that opened the capsule. Without warning, Raksamat sprang forward. He froze in mid-air before he could maul his savior.
Frowning as if in disgust, the doctor put up a hand. "This base is protected by a godweb." He knocked on his chest. "I've got a bubbleweb myself."
The StarMaster’s Son: (Formerly The Master War) Page 7