by AJ Super
Sarama’s voice rang over the comm when the Thanatos popped out of jump space. “Admiral, you need to come to the command deck and see this.”
Erebus walked to the comm by the door and pressed it. “We’ll be there shortly.”
Nyx stretched and pulled her boots back on, leaving the laces untied. “I don’t suppose I need to usurp authority from Sarama.”
Erebus clenched her teeth and stared at Nyx. “Just leave the captain alone. Do what you’re told and what is asked of you and nothing more.”
Nyx raised a brow. “You sound threatening.”
Erebus shook her head and turned to the door, slapping the pad and walking out.
Nyx jogged out behind her, and they strode briskly through the corridors to the bridge. When the door to the deck whisked open, Nyx stood gaping at the view-screen.
In the background loomed the giant asteroid mine of Yangxi X. And surrounding it, in a synchronous orbit were at least two dozen warships, ten large cargo ships, and three older model Battle Stations.
Nyx worked her mouth as she walked down the steps to the center of command where Sarama stood pinching her nose. She looked over her shoulder, black curls bouncing. “They’re all friendly. Got lots of greetings as the flag ship of the Cult of Nyx.” She turned to Nyx. “When I signed onto the Medusa it was rough, but I think working with you has been the trial of my life.” She tapped her heart. “Guess I’m all in? Les Étoiles me protègent.”
Nyx put a hand on Sarama’s shoulder and smiled, then faced the screen again. “But where did they all come from?”
“We’re being hailed,” the Communications Specialist spoke up.
Sarama turned to him and motioned to put the wave onto the view-screen.
Jack and Maeve Greene stood smiling in front of Nyx and Sarama.
Surprised, Nyx grinned from ear-to-ear. “When did you two get back?”
“Not long ago,” Jack said.
“How do you like our surprise?” Maeve chimed.
Nyx sighed, her smile dimming. If only they had come a few hours earlier. Then La Terre would have been taken, and all her woes of losing the Andraste and the clone army would be forgotten. She shook off the thought. It didn’t matter anymore, even if the Andraste were to come back from the pummeling it was likely to get from La Terre, she had… un, deux, trois… Three more Battle Stations and a massive number of warships. She nodded to the Greene siblings. “I like. I like very, very much.” She crunched her brow. “But how?”
The twins shrugged in concert. “We know people,” Jack gloated, eyes shining.
“And we know people who know people,” Maeve echoed, looking positively wicked.
“Liars,” Erebus roared. She stormed down from the second tier and faced the view-screen.
“What?” Nyx glanced at her shaking sister.
“Hypnos. Keres. Why are you here? What do you want?” Erebus’ face contorted with rage.
Jack and Maeve looked at each other. Nyx furrowed her brow, staring at Erebus.
Then the Greene siblings burst out in laughter.
“We were wondering when one of you would give us away.” Jack wiped his eyes.
“It’s been fun playing human acolyte. I want to play longer.” Maeve giggled.
“This isn’t a game. People die. Humans die. Yoon got uploaded,” Erebus shouted.
The twins sobered.
“Didn’t think you had it in you, sis.” Jack smiled sadly.
“Nue always said you were stronger than her, though.” Maeve grinned. “Do I still have to be nice to cet branleur who shot her?”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t think so. You can probably do what you want with him now.”
“No. No you cannot!” Erebus ran a hand over her smooth, bald head, eyes wide with anger.
“Sis? Hypnos? Keres?” Nyx muttered.
Sarama rolled her head back and snorted. “They’re the missing Stars. They’ve been here the whole damned time.”
Nyx glanced at Sarama. “Can you take the Thanatos in? I want to see my wicked little siblings.”
Jack and Maeve nodded.
“The dock is clear for you,” Jack toned.
Maeve licked her lips. “We’ll meet you there.”
The view-screen went black, and Sarama ordered the Navigation Specialist to take the Thanatos to the asteroid. Nyx turned to the seething Erebus, smiling sweetly. “You don’t have to come with me. It doesn’t look like you are on the best terms with our lost siblings. I would rather not mediate a fight while I’m reuniting with them.” She started towards the stairs.
Erebus put a hand on her shoulder. “Whatever you do, you can’t trust them.”
Nyx glared over her shoulder. “Crius said that about Yoon.” She tapped her head. “Now he’s in here.”
“In here… but yeah… There’s no reason you can’t have some fun with the twins.” Yoon’s voice sounded through Nyx’s head. “Just because you can’t trust them, doesn’t mean you can’t use them.”
Nyx closed her eyes and turned back towards the door to the command deck. “Just because I can’t trust them, doesn’t mean I can’t use them.” She brushed Erebus’ hand from her shoulder and stormed off of the deck.
43
Jack and Maeve waited for her at the docking hatch on the asteroid side. As Nyx emerged into the red and black rock corridor, they took her hands and pulled her forward, elated children. Nyx couldn’t help but laugh at their intense excitement, her footsteps ringing on the metal grated floor.
Jack, Hypnos, grinned wide. “Are you really happy that we brought you an armada?”
Maeve, Keres, looked at Nyx shyly. “We didn’t do anything bad to get them to come with us. Erebus worries too much.” Her face hardened. “So does that salope Phoebe. Always, this prediction, that prediction. She can’t predict chaos.”
Nyx stopped, a knot forming in her stomach. She guided Hypnos and Keres in front of her. “Did you two do something to Phoebe while I was gone?”
The twins glanced at each other, then sagged their heads, excitement flying from their faces.
“I suppose you’d find out eventually.” Hypnos sighed.
“Jack?” Nyx asked, warning in her voice.
He smiled at her. “I really like that name. It reminds me of the family who adopted us here.”
Keres nodded, her curls bouncing in two knots at the top of her head. “They were nice. I didn’t want to kill them.”
“Quit stalling and tell me what you did with her.”
“We put her in the ring,” Keres mumbled.
“Not to fight,” Hypnos interjected quickly. “Just to keep her. We were getting tired of her constantly telling us to leave, and that we were only making things worse.”
Nyx slid between the twins and jogged down the rock corridors towards the open cavern where the ring stood.
“Matthews agreed with us.” Hypnos clamored after her, Keres in tow.
Nyx rubbed her face. “Matthews agreed with…?” She sighed and continued down the corridors, miners quickly stepping out of her way as she passed, tapping their hearts and calling out blessings. She smiled quietly at them, wishing she had time to properly greet them all and get their names, but Phoebe was probably extremely angry, and Nyx needed to get her out of the cube.
She hit the door pad to the cavern hatch and the door rolled away, revealing the glass cubed ring with Phoebe sitting in the center, quietly meditating. She ran up to the glass and put a hand on it. Phoebe opened her eyes. Nyx held up a finger and then pressed her hands together, begging for a little patience. “I’ll get you out,” she said, knowing Phoebe couldn’t hear her.
She turned to go to the back stairs and Jarrard melted out of the shadows with Matthews. Jarrard’s blue energy stormed in waves. It took her breath away. If he wasn’t such a different person from Malcam in the light, if he had stayed in the shadows, she would have easily mistaken him and thought Malcam had come back to life.
“Just leave her, mon
petit papillon,” Matthews purred. “She doesn’t agree with the path you chose and is trying to stop you.”
Nyx balked. “She’s what?”
Que Mai walked up behind her and the twins, her pink energy swirling. “She was going to betray you.”
The air went out of Nyx’s lung as if someone had punched her. Phoebe, too. Everyone was betraying her. It was just a matter of time. There would be no one left.
Keres put an arm around Nyx’s waist and settled her head on her shoulder. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Nyx nodded. The twins. They had silently been supporting her since the formation of the Cult of Nyx.
Connie and Roger walked into the cavern, escorting a very angry Erebus.
“Erebus too?” Nyx’s shoulders sagged. She couldn’t deal with the implications. The Seven Stars would never be whole. Never be a family. Her heart squeezed, and she took a shaky breath.
Matthews motioned Connie and Roger to take Erebus up the back stairs and put her in the cube with Phoebe.
Nyx held up a hand and untwined herself from Keres, who pouted. She stepped towards Erebus and grabbed her hand. “I’ll take her into the cube myself. I want to talk with my sisters.”
The Four Acolytes glanced at Matthews and the Greene twins looked at each other. Taking advantage of everyone’s curiosity and confusion, Nyx dragged Erebus to the stairs and put her hand to the glass, hoping her bio-code was still programmed into the system as Malcam had intended. The glass parted and she pulled her muddled sister into the cube where Phoebe stood waiting.
“What is going on? Are you going to let us out?” Phoebe crossed her arms and tapped a foot.
Nyx yanked Erebus in front of her and slammed her into Phoebe, nearly toppling the two. “I don’t know what the two of you are up to but stop.” She shook her head. “You’re putting yourself in danger, and I can’t protect you from it.”
Phoebe straightened Erebus and turned to Nyx. “You’re choosing the wrong path. Use my power. Look and see. You aren’t going to win. This family of yours is going to fall apart.”
Nyx looked at her hands. Is going to…? No, it already had. And Boucher was to blame. If she hadn’t killed Malcam, everything would have been different. She shook her head lightly. No. She had no family. Just a bunch of fanatics and some lost siblings and people who thought she was their protection… There was nothing left for her but revenge. Nothing left for her but to take the Protectorate and wipe out the salope who started this whole thing. Wipe out the under-governments who followed her. Break up the earth systems that made this need for protection and family and belonging necessary. She would destroy it all.
“I know we can’t keep the two of you here.”
Phoebe opened her mouth, and Nyx interrupted. “I’m going to take everyone with me. Just make sure you do what you didn’t do on La Terre and get out of here. Before someone decides they need to do something drastic with you both, and I can’t stop them.” She pivoted and palmed the glass, leaving the two AI-gods in the center of the glass ring staring after her.
She thumped down the stairs and walked to the door of the cavern. The Warden hovered in the shadows near the incinerator cavern… no more bodies to burn. Nyx nodded imperceptibly to him and then looked toward her sisters, then she abruptly straightened and cleared her throat. “Are you all coming? Or do I need to invite you to a war counsel? It’s time to plan our next steps.”
Epilogue
Nyx looked up from the star-map projected in front of her across the table in the middle of the meeting room. They had a plan. In less than a week, they would take La Terre. And they would take it at its strongest point. Earth. The green and blue globe hovered over the table with the expected representations of Battle Stations, orbiting space stations, civilian cargo ships and passenger ships, and Queen’s Navy warships. She glanced around the table.
Her war counsel looked much different now. Jarrard and Que Mai nodded quietly across the holo-table to the left with Connie and Roger standing like stone behind them. The twins stood directly to her left, and she had to shake Keres off her arm for the second time during the meeting. Leaning in at her right and inspecting the city-ship’s representation was Raphael, where Malcam used to stand, with Matthews next to him whispering something. Aubrey Cady chattered with Berto and a Yoon-clone named Harrison across the table to the right. Sarama stood in the center facing Nyx, staring at her sadly.
There was no more Phoebe. No more Erebus. No more Kai. No more Yoon, unless she counted his voice in her head. And no more Malcam. Her family was gone.
“Say what you want to say, Grace.” Nyx turned, walked to the desk at the back of the room and sat in the worn leather chair behind it with a thump.
“Lots of casualties, this plan,” she drawled in her Queen’s Speech accent.
Nyx rubbed her temple. “I know. But there’s no way to lure La Terre away without them knowing it’s a trap and bringing the entire armada anyway. At least this way, we can use the chaos of the civilians to keep Boucher from launching an all-out defensive right away.”
Jarrard snorted, blue waves dancing. “That’s only if she has an ounce of sympathy for her fellow humans. She’s run the Protectorate into the ground. I’m not sure she’ll wait.”
Nyx shrugged. “Is it our problem if she doesn’t? All those people out there are loyal to her. I only care about those loyal to us. If you agree with this plan, there’s no need to talk further. You’re dismissed.”
The Four Acolytes tapped their hearts and left quickly, followed by Aubrey, Berto, and Harrison. Raphael and Matthews lingered, but Nyx eyed them, and they tapped their hearts and scurried out.
She turned to the twins. “You can leave, too.”
The door to the meeting room beeped. Sarama went to the comm and pressed it. “Oui?”
“It’s Aubrey Cady again. I have urgent news.” A voice crackled over the comm.
Nyx nodded. “Let her in.”
Aubrey looked pale and visibly shaken. “I’m sorry to be the one to bring this to your attention.”
Nyx sat forward in her chair.
“The Star of Phoebe and the Star of Erebus aren’t in the ring anymore. No one can find them, and it looks like one of the long-range shuttles has been taken. It looks as if the Warden let them out and escaped with them as well.”
Nyx put a hand over her mouth to hide her smile. She knew it would happen, hoped the Warden would catch her glance and help, but she didn’t think it would only take them a couple hours to escape. Still, this was good. She knew they’d be safer away from this mess than in it.
She swallowed and erased the smile from her face, taking her hand away from her mouth. “Thank you, Aubrey. Now, if you’ll all excuse me. I would like to rest.” She stood and went through the door to her quarters. Quarters that were supposed to be Aubrey’s, but Nyx had decided she was going to stay on the asteroid for a while longer.
Sarama followed her, door whispering shut behind her. “Je suis très sérieuse, Nyx. This is going to be dangerous pour toi aussi. You’re going to face someone who has your powers. How are you going to overcome that?”
“She doesn’t have all my powers.”
“Which ones does she have then?”
Nyx shrugged and shook her head. “I’m not sure… I’ll have to ask her when I see her again. Might be too busy killing her though to get an answer.”
“Nyx, this isn’t a joke.”
“I’m not joking.”
“They have Isabeau… She’s almost as good as the Star of Phoebe. And now Phoebe is gone. What if Phoebe turns?”
Nyx clenched her jaw. “Phoebe and Erebus won’t turn. If anything, they’re going to try to find a way to stop it from happening at all.” She slid down the gold threads of Phoebe’s algorithms. “If they go to Boucher, they’ll end up in the same place we rescued them from… Phoebe won’t let that happen again. If they stayed here, someone would have gotten the same idea and hid them from me… I can’t protect them
here. Phoebe knows this.” She looked around the room, zipping with Erebus’ green code. Oh, how she hadn’t forgotten that Erebus’ code permeated throughout the asteroid still… “Even Erebus knows this.”
“You knew they’d escape?”
“I wanted them to escape.”
Sarama shook her head. “You’re playing games with everyone, aren’t you?”
Nyx blinked and rubbed her temple. “This isn’t a game. This is revenge.”
Sarama spun slowly and took in the room in silence, lips tight. When she stopped, she sighed heavily. “Caravaggio. Seems somehow fitting.”
“Who?”
Sarama pointed at the paintings on the wall. “They’re old Earth art. Probably stolen long ago. I wonder how they ended up here in le cul of the black.”
“I like them.”
Sarama nodded. “But which will you turn out to be? The disgusted maiden taking revenge, the unsure but triumphant child with the severed head of a giant, or the dead gorgon with immortal power?”
Nyx squished her face. “I can’t predict chaos. I intend for this to be chaos.”
Sarama raised a dark brow and tapped her heart. “Rest well.” She slid out the door as it opened with a swish.
Nyx flopped onto the black bed and wrapped herself with the comforter. She blew out a heavy breath. Who would she be after all this was done, indeed? What path would chaos take?
She looked at the emerald whorls whipping through the electronics in her room. Erebus. Erebus was still here with her. Always here. Watching. Listening.
She sat up.
“Erebus,” she whispered. “I know you can hear me. You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. I’m not going to try to come and find you, but I’m not going to stop my people from coming after you. It would look bad if I did. I imagine, without my help, you and Phoebe will be impossible to find. So, lay low. I promise when this is over, you will both be safe. From me. From Boucher. From the cult. From everything. You probably know what I’m planning. You’re probably not happy about it. I hope you keep your word and return the Andraste. Even if it is a little beat up, we need it. We need all our resources. So, I will be using my powers to their fullest. I will be using yours and Phoebe’s, too. And I will be using Yoon.” She tapped her head, surprised that Yoon had been quiet for so long. Maybe he was sleeping? She was getting tired, too. She yawned. “Erebus. I know that in the end there will be a reckoning. When the Seven Stars meet, there will be a reckoning for me… And I might not come out of it alive. If that’s the case, I accept that. But I’m going to fight until the end.” She glanced at the paintings on the walls surrounding her. “After all. The strong rise. And I am the strongest of you all.”