by Marc Horne
Chapter 26
The vacuum of space and the whole way that works prevented a monumental clang as Meseret's space fleet manifested in Earthspace.
The ships of this fleet were velvety gray and antler like. The design supposedly dramatically increased each ship’s “kill space.” Of course, Meseret would not have signed off on it if it didn’t give her the most beautiful, most avant-garde annihilation force in the galaxy.
Meseret. The bold. The beautiful. The last significant intelligence in the human empire. The cold, silent architect, making inexplicable planets in her nebula. Making a code some said. A hologram in fractals. A signature for the next galaxy. An admission of her own life in death.
Harsh killer too, though. Fought her way to the top. Knew the taste of every blood type.
Highly suspect individual. Everyone knew the story about how she almost toppled the galaxy and fell in with Boa Morte. Then changed her mind.
It was just a story but so well known and so firmly believed that it outdid history in its solidity.
Fierce protector of the Sanctity of Earth. Fierce avenger of every slight. She was the one who would slam the rule book down on any feeble finger that felt across the boundaries.
She enjoyed a quick righteous kill.
She was not a ‘good person’: at best ‘noble’.
Like lions.
And now her fleet danced around the clumsy, heavy, hard space whales of the Gukkool clan.
“Violation! Violation!” they screamed with voice channels, machine to machine channels and with their dramatic choreography.
Woo lay on the floor. His throat was dry. Sometimes he was in a black tunnel. Sometimes he was on the deck of his ship.
Sometimes he was a little boy again. Time was immensely rich during these phases. It was semi-solid. It contained all the phases of the moon and flicked through them like a flickbook as you rolled your head around. Left to right. Right to left.
Oh dear. Back on the bloody floor.
He had been dragged to the command deck on the lubricant of his own blood. He looked down. One leg had not come along for the ride. The other was sole up and just a measly bunch of frayed tendons declared that they belonged together.
The massive glass dome from which he once dominated was now a magnifying glass of his shame. All creation saw him laid out before the mad, bristle-haired assassin with the fluorescent pack over his groin.
The head of Meseret resolved like a dew before them.
Then Woo died.
Meseret looked toward Xolo.
She looked hard at him.
She saw spiders. Buffaloes. Paul McCartney singing Helter Skelter.
“What is that? A cryptomask?”
“Yes. Maybe.”
“Is that mess the Admiral of this fleet?”
“Yes. I wanted to keep him alive, but he was too bad-ass.”
“It’s rare to find one like that.”
“Yes. It was unexpected.”
“And you?”
“An innocent bystander caught up in the treacherous plot of the Gukkools.”
“You have documentation?”
“Enormous documentation.”
“Enough to…?”
“Scourge them.”
“And in return?”
“My freedom. My anonymity. Help me clean up the Earth quick.”
“You don’t strike me as an Earther.”
“I have a cryptomask: I shouldn’t be striking you as anything. But whether I am an Earther or not, they’ve risked a lot to get me here. I will repay them.”
“Explain.”
“This ship holds the head of a viral infection that plans to wipe out all humanity. This ship and this virus are now my property. The rest are yours.”
“Am I going to see this ship come and wreck my planet or this virus despoil my string of planets?”
“You are not.”
“But..”
He laughed hearty and sexy. She did too.
“Yeah…but!”
“And why don’t I kill you now?”
“You need the documentation. I’ve sent the security deposit to your info account. It’s a holographic of the rest. Proof of my good faith. Oh that reminds me, when you blow up the ships I need you to also purge the Gukkools’ finance bots and do a full financial excommunication on them.”
“But of course.”
She paused for a second. The laugh had left a smile on her sensual lips. They were wine red.
She continued.
“So give me a name. So I can hear you coming for me.”
“I am not a Good Death.”
“I see.”
“I am the Automatic Assassin.”
“I see.”
“So don’t ask me when I am coming for you, because I don’t know. May never happen. I am the invisible gun in the invisible hand.”