Tanik grimaced. Vartok was right. He had tried dosing with living water during the battle for Ouroboros, and he’d nearly killed himself in the process. Some people were more resistant to the detrimental effects of the Sprites than others. Most couldn’t survive more than the initial activation, and some didn’t. Darius was unusually resistant to be able to imbibe as many of them as he had.
“There’s another option,” Tanik said.
“And that is?”
“We engineer a virus to target and kill the Sprites. We can infect Darius and all of the other Revenants without their knowledge. They’ll be stripped of their powers before they even realize what’s happening. Once Darius is too weak to defend himself, I’ll find him and kill him. After he’s gone, hunting the others down will be easy.”
“And what if your virus infects us, too?” Vartok asked.
“We’ll inoculate ourselves against it,” Tanik suggested. “Besides, staying here will be an effective quarantine.”
“Until Darius comes here looking for us,” Vartok pointed out.
“Hide your presences and don’t draw on the source field for any reason. He won’t find you if he can’t sense you.”
“What if you get yourself killed and leave us all stranded here?” Vartok asked.
“The Revenants left behind transports at the facility I told you about. If the need arises, you can use one of them to fly away to a more habitable world.”
Vartok’s eyes pinched into baleful slits. “Show me.”
“Of course,” Tanik said, and sent himself floating up the rise to the rim of the crater. The effort of doing so nearly exhausted him. Between the recent battle and the constant drain of hovering above the ground to keep weight off his broken legs, he was in desperate need of rest. Once he returned to Union space, he’d get a nanite injection to knit his bones together faster. He didn’t share the Keth’s disdain for technology. There were some things they could learn from their enemy.
As soon as they reached the rim of the crater, the abandoned facility came into view—a sprawling complex of blocky modules and transparent hydroponic domes, all connected by narrow tunnels. Landing pads stood around the perimeter, most of them empty. Two of the six in view had transports landed on them.
“There it is,” Tanik declared.
“It will do,” Vartok said.
Tanik bore his father-in-law’s demanding and ungrateful behavior just as he always had—by pretending not to notice.
Feyra rubbed his arm appreciatively. “Thank you,” she whispered.
He nodded but said nothing. She was the only reason he hadn’t killed Vartok years ago and taken his place as the leader of the Keth. That, and because he doubted the survivors would accept a human for their new leader.
“Are you sure your virus will work?” Vartok asked, his pale forehead wrinkling with doubt. Sprites crawled in random patterns beneath his translucent skin, like an infestation of luminous ants. “You will need help to develop it.”
“I will make it work,” Tanik said. “And I won’t have trouble convincing people to join my cause.”
“Very well. You have one last chance. If you fail again, you will no longer be welcome among us.”
Feyra caught Tanik’s gaze, her blue-white eyes filled with concern. He could imagine what she must be thinking. What if he failed? Years ago they’d discussed the possibility of running away together, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave her people. That left Tanik only one choice if he wanted to be with Feyra: he had to defeat the Revenants.
Tanik nodded to Vartok. “I will bring you Darius’s head to mount on your wall.”
That drew a rare smile from the Keth patriarch. “A fitting end for him.”
Tanik inclined his head one last time and turned to Feyra. Kissing her goodbye, he said, “I will return as soon as I can.”
She nodded. “I will be waiting, my love.”
Chapter 22
Surrounded by an angry mob of armed soldiers, Darius saw only one way out. He subtly smoothed away their ire through the zero-point field. As the angry, accusing looks directed at him faded to confusion, Darius strode over to Cassandra.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, hoping that Tanik’s antivenin hadn’t been a temporary solution to the poison running through her veins.
“I feel fine,” Cassandra said.
“Good.”
Dyara joined them, glancing around in bemusement at the other Revenants. They weren’t frozen as they had been before, but they seemed to be at a loss, as if they’d suddenly forgotten what they were doing.
“Darius, are you...” Dyara trailed off, and fixed him with a suspicious look.
“Let’s go,” he said, taking Cassandra’s hand and striding through the Revenants’ midst until he found an area clear enough to open a portal back to the Deliverance.
“You can’t just take control of people every time they disagree with you!” Dyara said.
Darius glanced at her. “Let’s argue about it later. Right now there’s no one and nothing stopping Tanik from infiltrating and taking control of our entire fleet. For all we know, that’s where he is right now.” He closed his eyes and used what little strength he had left to try opening a portal back to the Deliverance.
The air shimmered in a spherical bubble, and the Deliverance’s aft hangar bay appeared. Darius breathed a sigh. The fact that he could open a wormhole meant Tanik hadn’t infiltrated the fleet.
“Everyone, follow me!” Darius called out, while subtly nudging them to do so.
Taking Cassandra by the hand, he walked through to the Deliverance. Leaving the planet’s gravity behind and returning to zero-G, literally felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Darius walked to the far end of the hangar with Cassandra and stopped beside the exit. Dyara came jogging over, emerging from the stream of returning Revenants.
“So?” she prompted. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“What would you have done differently?” he asked. “Would you have rather sacrificed Cassandra’s life?”
Cassandra looked from Dyara to him and back again.
Dyara’s mouth popped open, but no sound came out. She didn’t seem to have a ready answer for that.
Soldiers poured through the wormhole, flooding the hangar deck in an orderly shuffle of boots. Subduing their wills appeared to have a cohesive, calming effect on the group. Unfortunately, it was also exhausting, and Darius was fast approaching the limit of his endurance. His whole body felt like it was on fire.
“You’re getting too used to this,” Dyara said at last. “The power is going to your head.”
“Show me someone else who can defeat the Cygnians and protect us all from Tanik and the Keth, and I’ll gladly step aside to let them do it,” Darius replied.
“I’m not sure the Cygnians are really the enemy,” Dyara replied, shaking her head. “Getting us to go to war with them was the Keth’s plan. There’s got to be a reason for that.”
“She’s right, Dad,” Cassandra said. “Gakram was different,” she insisted, her voice cracking with grief. “He sacrificed himself to save me while we were on board the Nomad.”
Darius turned to her with eyebrows raised. “One good person isn’t enough to redeem an entire species. If they’re not the enemy, then why haven’t they backed down? They’re free of the Augur’s influence, and now half of their worlds have been destroyed, yet they haven’t even tried to surrender.”
“They’re probably too proud for that,” Dyara said.
“Or too bloodthirsty,” Darius countered. “Either way, it’s too dangerous to turn our backs on them now that they’re wounded. Either we finish them off, or they’ll come back to haunt us after they’re done licking their wounds.”
Dyara chewed her lower lip. “Maybe we can coax them to the negotiation table. There could be a peaceful solution. If we can find one, that would free us to deal with Tanik and the Keth.”
“Negotiate?” Dari
us roared. “You mean like Cassandra tried to negotiate with them?”
“It might work this time,” Cassandra put in. “The Cygnians aren’t all bad. They aren’t evil because they’re born that way. It’s because of the way they’re raised.”
Darius looked from Dyara to Cassandra and back again. He could tell he wasn’t going to win this argument, but he didn’t need their support. Now that he knew how to use wormholes, he could destroy the remaining Cygnian worlds all by himself.
“All right,” he said. “We’ll withdraw the fleet to Union space.”
Dyara smiled. “Thank you. You should also talk to the Revenants. Let them leave the fleet if they want to. Give them a choice. They’ve been forced to fight for long enough.” Dyara reached for one of his hands and squeezed. It was all Darius could do not to yank his hand away and squeeze her throat until her lips turned blue. That impulse gave him pause. When had he become so violent?
“Tell them they’re free to go if they want to.”
“I’ll think about it,” he said, glaring at her and fuming. His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm of short, angry breaths. How dare she tell him what to do!
“And one more thing,” Dyara said. “Now that you have Cassandra back, and you don’t have to fight the Cygnians anymore, stop dosing with Sprites. They’ve changed you, and not for the better. I can see them in your eyes, you know. Everyone can. You look like a—”
“Like a what?” Darius demanded.
“Like a Keth,” Dyara finished.
Cassandra regarded him with a look of sudden understanding. “I thought it was just me!”
Darius glared at his daughter. “Now she’s turning you against me?”
“What?” Cassandra blinked. “No.”
Darius shook his head and looked away. He was too tired to deal with this kak. Turning back to Dyara, he said, “Plot a jump to the nearest Union planet, Commander.” He nodded over her shoulder to the portal where Revenant soldiers were still streaming through. “I can’t hold that wormhole open forever, and we won’t be safe without it until we’re in warp.”
Dyara nodded but said nothing to verbally acknowledge the order. She was still waiting for him to acknowledge her concerns, but he had no intention of giving them more attention than they deserved. Dyara and Cassandra would never understand. No one would. It wasn’t their job to single-handedly save the galaxy. They didn’t have trillions of sentient beings counting on them.
“If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my quarters meditating.” Darius turned and stormed off, eager to be rid of their accusing looks and false concern. He’d stop using the Sprites when Tanik, the Cygnians, and the Keth were all dead, but not before.
Darius’s thoughts drifted to the flasks of living water he’d had stashed in his quarters aboard the Harbinger. They’d been destroyed with the ship, and the Deliverance hadn’t originally been a Revenant vessel, so it wouldn’t have a supply of living water. He would have to get the other ships in the fleet to send some over ASAP. He needed to recover his strength, after all.
Chapter 23
—TWO MONTHS LATER—
Trista couldn’t believe her eyes. She had to walk up to the holo panels for a better look—as if a few feet could bring into better focus a sight that was hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.
“Where’s the planet?” Buddy asked.
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Yuri Mathos growled as he joined them by the holo panels.
“Are you sure these are the right coordinates?” Trista asked.
“They are,” Yuri confirmed, while stroking the tuft of white fur on his chin.
Gatticus came to join them at the wall of holo panels in Yuri’s quarters. “My optical sensors are detecting a cloud of dust where Cygnus Prime used to be,” he said. “Thermal and radiation readings suggest an explosion.”
Trista glanced at the android. “An explosion?” she echoed. “You’re telling me that something destroyed the entire planet? What could do that? Even antimatter isn’t that volatile.”
“I cannot say what caused it,” Gatticus replied.
“No wonder the Cygnians are withdrawing from Union worlds,” Yuri said. “They’ve met their match with these so-called Revenants.”
Trista frowned, suddenly wondering whether or not that was a good thing. “What’s going to happen after they’re done with the Cygnians? We don’t know anything about them. They could be worse than the Cygnians.”
“They’re lost children, coming home after a long time away,” Yuri said. “I’m sure their agenda isn’t to spread wanton mayhem and destruction.”
“We have to meet them,” Trista said. “We need to know how they’re destroying planets, and what their agenda is—and if any of the rumors about them are true.”
Yuri turned to her with his slitted blue eyes narrowed in thought. His triangular ears flicked restlessly on the top of his head. “I’m sure those rumors are all greatly exaggerated.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that if I were you,” an unfamiliar voice said.
Trista flinched and spun around to find the speaker. An unfamiliar man in a dark, hooded robe stood in the open door to Yuri’s sleeping area. It looked like he had a sword strapped to his side.
“Who are you and how did you get in here?” Yuri demanded.
The man reached up and pulled back the hood of his robe, revealing a bald head and bright yellow-green eyes. “My name is Tanik Gurhain. I used to lead this fleet, many years ago. As for how I got in here, I’ll explain that in a moment, but first, a warning: stay away from the Revenants. The rumors are all true. They’ll bend your wills to theirs without a second thought, and you and your fleet will become their unwitting slaves.”
Yuri drew his sidearm and pointed it at Tanik’s chest. “Whoever you are, you made a big mistake to come into my quarters uninvited,” Yuri said.
Tanik didn’t seem concerned by the appearance of the weapon.
Yuri promptly squeezed the trigger, and a blue stun bolt flashed out and hit Tanik square in the chest. The light of the blast somehow suffused his entire body with a lingering white glow. Trista frowned in confusion. That was a side effect she’d never seen before. Furthermore, the light didn’t show signs of fading, and neither did Tanik’s awareness. He gave a crooked smile and chuckled.
“To answer your prior question about how I got in here, I teleported here from a planet that’s thousands of light years away, on the other side of the Eye.”
Yuri stared at his sidearm in shock, as if it had somehow malfunctioned.
“You see,” Tanik went on. “I’m a Revenant myself, a rogue Revenant, and I need your help.”
“Our help?” Trista echoed. “For what?”
“To defeat the others before they enslave the entire galaxy.”
Yuri recovered from his shock and aimed his weapon at Tanik once more. Trista noticed his finger dart up to flick the setting beside the trigger. “I don’t know how you did that, but this time it’s set to kill. Don’t move or I’ll shoot. A squad is on its way here to arrest you as we speak.”
Tanik waved his hand at Yuri, as if he were brushing away a fly, and the weapon leapt out of his hand.
“What...” Yuri blinked in shock.
Tanik made a circle in the air with his finger, and the gun mimicked that motion, flying around Yuri’s head in a circle, just out of reach, taunting him. He didn’t bother trying to reach for it.
“So the rumors are true,” Trista said, tracking the weapon with her eyes.
“Oh yes,” Tanik said. He held up his other hand and slowly made a fist.
The sidearm crumpled in on itself into a misshapen lump and then exploded with a burst of light and heat. Trista threw her arm up and stumbled away from the explosion, cringing with the anticipated blast of shrapnel.
But that blast never hit. She lowered her arm and stared into a ball of orange fire, a perfectly contained sphere of heat and kinetic energy, somehow frozen. The dazzling cloud
of shrapnel slowly faded and cooled before her eyes, and Tanik opened his fist, leaving the pieces of Yuri’s weapon to drift between them in a harmless cloud of debris.
“How did you...” Trista trailed off, speechless. She could feel Buddy trembling with fear where he sat perched on her shoulder.
“That was nothing,” Tanik said. “But just imagine what twenty thousand people like me could do—twenty thousand people who can teleport in and out of the most secure areas imaginable: bank vaults, data centers, government buildings. There’s no way to stop them from taking anything they want. No way to impose sanctions or convict them of crimes. They’ll become the rulers of the galaxy by default, and soon you’ll find yourselves longing for the days when the Cygnians ruled over you. Unless...” Tanik smiled. “Unless you help me.”
“Help you to do what?” Yuri demanded. “You’ve painted a picture of an invincible army. If what you say is true, there’s nothing we can possibly do to stop them.”
“Not true. There is one thing you can do.” Tanik reached into his robes and produced a clear glass cylinder filled with dancing white specks of light. “This is the source of the Revenants’ power. An alien organism, a symbiont. It’s a kind of fungi, actually. Find a way to target and kill it inside a host’s bloodstream, and you will have found a way to strip the Revenants of their powers.”
“And I suppose we’re going to test this on you?” Yuri ventured.
“No, not on me. You’re going to need someone with my abilities on your side.” He shook his canister of glowing water by way of indication. “You can use this to test the virus.”
“What if we decide not to help you?” Yuri asked.
Tanik sighed. “Something tells me you’d rather cooperate.”
Trista nodded slowly, suddenly seeing the wisdom of what this man was saying. The Revenants were the real enemy, and they had to be stopped before it was too late. “He’s right. We should cooperate.”
Broken Worlds- The Complete Series Page 76