Marduk's Rebellion

by Jenn Lyons

hormonal bonding to set in.”

  He raised an eyebrow, and then leaned forward and whispered. “Sex, as defined by Sarcodinay biology, is a very narrow, specific, and rigidly codified set of actions. Sex, as defined by Human culture, is broad, vague and has a lot of...wiggle room. Passing as human became much easier once I realized I could meet one definition without infringing on the other.”

  I stared at him, and then abruptly turned on my heel and continued walking down the corridor. “Let’s keep going.”

  He didn’t say anything, but I could feel him laughing.

  “This isn’t funny,” I snapped.

  He held up thumb and forefinger. “Oh, it’s a little funny.”

  “You tried to kill me on Keeper’s Island!”

  “Are you going to keep bringing that up? You need to get over that.” He paused and added. “And technically, I didn’t try to kill you. I succeeded.”

  “If this is your idea of helping your case, you’re really bad at it.”

  “Keepers no, this is me saying I’m no good for you and you shouldn’t have anything to do with me, but if you think reverse psychology would be more effective, I could try that too.”

  “Jester brought you here, didn’t he? He brought you and me both. That’s how he got a hold of my corpse. He didn’t pull me off a Sarcodinay ship he’d attacked. You gave me to him.”

  “I was taking you to your brother.”

  I laughed then, as we walked. “Oh really? And could you look my brother in the eye when you told him you were dropping off the body of his twin sister you’d murdered?”

  He didn’t answer me; I hadn’t expected him to.

  For a long time, neither of us said anything, and it wasn’t the velvety companionable silence of two people long accustomed to each other but the thick stifling air of two people with entirely too much to say or who have already said entirely too much. I wondered which of us would break first.

  He did. “So how did you meet Whisper Jack?”

  “He found me. First time I ever broke into Deimos. There was this boy who’d been accidentally captured during a patrol and sent here, and I was determined to get him back. I fooled all the locals into thinking I was dead, but Whisper Jack knew better. He was waiting for me when I broke out of the morgue.”

  “That must have been exciting.”

  “Sure, I nearly fainted. Between you and me, I wouldn’t come back here for a really long time. Jack’s not very happy with you.”

  “Really? I hadn’t noticed.” He gave me such a look of wounded innocence that I almost laughed.

  Almost.

  Damn him anyway.

  The hallways were surprisingly empty for some time after that, or perhaps not so surprisingly, considering the warning klaxon of the self-destruct and an angry Whisper Jack roaming the halls. We didn’t speak to one another, but fell into a familiar search pattern, quiet movements through smoke-filled hallways. Finally, I saw the doors to the Forging area and sighed in relief, knowing that the Meshikath quarters would not be far away.

  “Let’s stop for a minute.”

  I scowled at Zaladin. “If you don’t mind, we’re on a bit of a schedule.”

  “The Meshikath clans are under contract to the Sarcodinay,” he pointed out. “They have no such arrangement with humans.”

  I kept any expression off my face. He was wrong, but I wasn’t going to correct him. “So?”

  “So if we’re going to arrange for passage, it might best if I look a bit more like myself.” He ducked behind a freight hauler, pulling his shirt over his head as he did.

  I looked away.

  “How’s that work, anyway? Nanites?”

  “Pretty much, yes. Programmable and very adaptable, although it has its limitations. Really it’s just a synth-skin mold that can be changed on the fly.” There was a sound like a stifled cry of pain from behind the hauler. “Also,” he continued after a gasping pause, now in his own voice rather than Campbell’s. “It hurts like you wouldn’t believe.”

  “Good,” I muttered under my breath. “What about food?”

  “What about food?”

  “There’s no way you had access to Sarcodinay food the whole time you were in the Wilds with Les Dieux de Guerre. What have you been eating?”

  “Human food.”

  “Yes, but how—” My voice died as Zaladin came out from behind the machinery.

  This was the first time I could remember—well, the first time since I was a child being tortured by Tirris Vahn so she could measure my telepathic stressor responses—that I’d seen him look like a Sarcodinay. His skin was a very dark bronze, black in the dim emergency lighting, and his eyes, now luminescent, were nothing like a human’s. He was wearing the black uniform of a High Guard; given that he hadn’t had anything like that on him previously, I suspected that he had used the nanites to create the clothing. He was alien and impersonal, as cold and distant as a marble statue.

  Or rather, he should have been. That’s how I’d always known Sarcodinay, that’s how they’d always been. Any emotion I had ever seen demonstrated had inevitably been cruelty or arrogance, pride or anger. He saw me looking and a flicker of something like shame crossed his face, something so wrong on the face of a Sarcodinay that it felt like he was still in disguise, like he was a human pretending to be a Sarcodinay, and not the other way around.

  “You like him, don’t you?” His tone was light. Once that moment of shame was passed, Zaladin gave no indication he had any kind of concern or conscience.

  “Like who?”

  “Campbell. He seems like a good man.” He glanced down a side passage to make sure no surprises were heading our way.

  “He is. One of the best I’ve ever met.” I slid past him, checked another stretch of hall, and motioned for him to follow me towards a broad set of double doors.

  “Sounds like he’d—”

  “No. Stop it.”

  He glanced at me.

  “We’re not going to play this game. The one where you act like you’re my father and give me dating advice while we both pretend we’re not attracted to each other.”

  “Lory, I’m a Sarcodinay High Guard.”

  “Yeah, I’m a smart girl. I eventually noticed. Boy, is my face red, but hey, since apparently I’m half Sarcodinay myself, I’m only half horrified by the idea. Unless you lied on Keeper’s Island and you really are my father.” I paused and turned, pressing my back against the last door out. “You weren’t lying, right? Because we’d be trading in our current problems for the deluxe extra disturbing version if you really are.”

  He smiled as he reached around me for the door handle. He didn’t want to answer the question. Rio, he didn’t want to talk about the entire topic. Who could blame him?

  I set my back against the door and forced it shut again with a loud click.

  Zaladin pulled his hand back and sighed. “I’m not your father. Still.”

  “And Gabriel?”

  “I raised him for a few years, as a favor to your mother.” He looked sad, wistful. “I was forced to end that relationship when someone I know was discovered by Tirris Vahn.” He bounced a finger off the tip of my nose. “Tirris managing to locate you was pretty much a worst case scenario. I had no choice but to step in.” He backed away from me and waved a hand towards the door. “Now, do you mind? We have a lot to do and not much time to do it.”

  I didn’t move. “You move passed the Meshikath, and then what? You kill Kaj-Shae Threllis?”

  Zaladin crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll also be deactivating a self-destruct that would otherwise kill thousands of people, including Merlin, Campbell and yourself.”

  “And assassinate a man. And for what purpose? So we can all experience the thrill of another flashback pointing towards the fact that Tirris Vahn and the Emperor conspired to conquer the human race?”

  Zaladin looked surprised and then shook his head in disgust. “Lorvan, you idiot.”

  “Well, he may have foolis
hly reused templates not meant for human consumption, but what do you expect to accomplish? Do you really think the Sarcodinay are going to be overcome with remorse for what they did? I think cognitive dissonance will do a fine job of convincing them it must have been justified. Your infallible Emperor must have had a reason.”

  “Mallory, move.”

  “What are you going to do if I don’t? Kill me?” I held out my arms. “You’ve tried that already. Excuse me, you succeeded—but I do hope you speak Meshikath, because you don’t have any translation equipment with you, and they—” I tapped the metal door behind me. “—don’t speak Sarcodinay.”

  He slammed the door next to my head and the sound boomed down the hallway. “Mallory, this is stupid. He’s going to kill everyone. Everyone! How many lives are going to be lost because of that one man!?”

  “And yet all you have to do to save those lives is promise not to kill that one man. Why does he have to die?”

  His eyes blazed red. “He murdered your parents.”

  “He murdered a lot of people.”

  “No,” He leaned against the door, arm on either side of me. “He ordered the deaths of a lot of people, but he killed your parents personally. Would you like to know how long he tortured them before they finally succumbed? He was trying to find out where they’d found you. Someone must have given you to them, after all...”

  “Zach, stop it.”

  He leaned in close. “Zaladin, Mallory. You know perfectly well my name is Zaladin. And...” He moved until I could feel his breath on my cheek, could smell the metallic tang of his scent. “I think I can do something more interesting than threaten to