Fourth Under Sol (Digitesque Book 5)
Page 39
The gods settled into their singular avatar again.
“I choose to lead.”
The avatar of the gods bowed its head. “We will do whatever you need to help protect Earth from -”
“No.”
Isavel Valdéz had had more than enough of others telling her what to do. More than enough of people telling her how to keep the world safe. She wouldn’t take it anymore, not even from Ada. She was done with submission, with fear.
The avatar looked up. Everyone looked at her. Hail raised an eyebrow. The gods asked. “Arbiter Liu said -”
“That we should hide, yes. Ada said I had everything I would ever need.” Isavel reached up with her left hand to take hold of the locator stone against her chest, and her smile returned. “She’s a beautiful idiot. She was wrong.”
The avatar of the gods looked down, then back up. “What shall we do?”
“You’re going to send me a ship.” Isavel pointed to the sky. “And take me to the ring - me and any here who want to join me. You’re going to show me everything you know about Earth, about the stars, about this enemy that wants to crush us.”
She looked up, past the columns of smoke, to small and dim Sol beyond.
“Then we’re going to end them. And I’m going to take back what’s mine. And for every human and mirran and god under Sol, we’re going to remind the stars why they were afraid of us in the first place.”
She looked up, hoping the stars heard that challenge.
And in answer, something huge and bright orange slammed into the sky, to screams and cries and shouts.
A ship, silvery with flashes of blue, emerged from the sudden lash of fire. Ridges and fins gave it a shape part avian and part aquatic, as a ring of hard blue light around it quickly disintegrated. It was descending, fast, towards the outskirts of Azure’s ruined city.
The avatar of the gods looked at her.
“Your ship, Arbiter Valdéz. All our abilities are at your disposal. We ourselves are barred from declaring wars, but we can accept your command to do so. So it shall be.”
The avatar vanished, hands fell, and the small machine that had come to speak for the gods of Earth flickered in colour, briefly flashing yellow - amber - instead of blue.
“Arbiter of Earth and Mars. Isavel Valdéz.” Amber’s voice betrayed an emotion she had never heard come from a human mouth, one she couldn’t place. “Mars stands with Earth, as once was. Our facilities are at your disposal.”
She nodded. “Remember that. I will call on you.”
“As you speak, so shall it be, Arbiter of Sol.”
The small probe buzzed off into the sky, blue again, returning to Earth no doubt. The thick, ridged ship was landing in plains where the fires had burnt themselves out, kicking up dust and ash into the air. Martians were running to look, to see this strange craft that could travel between Earth and Mars in moments.
As they rushed over Isavel smiled at Hail, and Hail gaped at her, laughing nervously. They clasped arms, and the hunter let out a ragged breath. “Did you just put me on a level with a god? Though after what happened outside the shield… I guess we’re all smaller than I thought, even the gods.”
Isavel laughed, but the urge to know what had happened - to understand it just a tiny bit more - quickly overpowered her. Had anyone else seen Ada? “What - what did you see?”
Hail’s eyes widened. “The world… bent. You just walked out there, and everything that came bent around you. And then you reached for the shield and it cracked like a dry old eggshell. Isavel - what was that?”
She bit her lip. She knew Ada had been there with her, but maybe that was for her eyes only. “I don’t know. But… I wasn’t alone.”
Isavel looked down to her left hand, and strung the locator stone back up around her neck, letting it bounce in its place. Hail watched her, quietly, and said nothing. Isavel wouldn’t have known what to say either.
She lay a hand on Hail’s shoulder, and together they turned to the ship. “Back to Earth, then. When you tell those kids about a bigger world -”
Hail glanced at the ship, and around them at the carcass. “If anything, Isavel, you keep showing me just how tiny everything I know really is. Let’s… let’s see this ring, first, up close.”
Isavel grinned, giddy with the end of a world.
The crowd parted around her as she made for the starship, the third Isavel had ever seen. It was vastly more impressive than the piece of garbage that had taken Ada away from her. Thank the gods. It shimmered and flexed and moved smoothly, lines of light between chrome ridges, a creature from a future long past stirred into waking memory.
She turned around and looked for her companions, and found them all elbowing through the crowd after her. The five earthlings who had survived the trek across Mars. The two martians who had survived alongside them. She thought she saw other shapes moving through the crowd towards her; she had time. Not a great deal, but some. No sign of Sulakaz, though, and that did give her pause.
When Sam and Tanos found her, they both embraced her, and she laughed and wordlessly pushed them towards the maw of the ship.
Zoa walked past her with a prolonged stare, and at the last moment she spared a nod. Yarger looked around himself, at the smoke and the sky and the crowd, and for the first time she saw the silent young Firstblood properly wonder what in the worlds he was doing. But he too boarded the ship.
Kelena looked content, taking in Isavel and the ship all as one. “The Red Swords have done so much. Lived so many lives. The youngest of us have been forced to live knowing nothing we do is new.” She shook her head. “This is new.”
“An unimaginable need, you said?”
Kelena’s face lightened to a bit of a smile as she gripped the hilt of the sword. “Yes. I imagine there is plenty unimaginable, out there.”
The martian climbed up into the ship, and that absence bothered her again. She looked around, hoping that nothing had happened.
And there it was, pulsing across the ruins like a liquid snake, darkness billowing around its edges, eyeless sight fixed on Isavel. Sulakaz. It had earned its name here, on this distant red world, but it was not a creature of this world. It was not a creature of any world. She had no control over it and knew nothing of its thoughts, but she trusted it to mean well.
It was vast, slithering over the carcass of the god - consuming parts of it, she realized. But it understood what was going on. She did not need to say anything for it to shrink and slip past her into impenetrable recesses within the bowels of the ship. It left behind an unnaturally smooth trail of crushed god dust, and brought with it unknowable knowledge and power.
Isavel and Hail followed. And behind them came others - many mirrans, who she beckoned towards the promise she had made them. But also more martians than she expected. The world was changing, and for some that was reason enough. And as she stood in the centre of that ship, under black ribbing that shimmered with blue and white of lights she had yet to understand, they crowded in around her. They stood, they sat, they knelt, and they stared at this strange thing come from out beyond their barren skies.
And soon enough there was no more room, and the ship began to close its mouth, and someone clapped Isavel on the shoulders. She spun around to find Dejah song Olympus, her face bruised and her left arm a bleeding gash, still somehow grinning. Tharrak was behind her, shaking his head at Dejah’s voice, no less boisterous than usual. “Isavel whatever your name is, you owe me a new fucking ship and a new fucking arm.”
Isavel laughed, and she set the greenish glow of her hands to work on the latter as a shudder passed through the metal floor. The large inner space was ribbed with seats, and people cautiously took places. Isavel mended Dejah’s ruined martian flesh, but as she realized the ship was rising she had a thought.
“Gods. Or ship. Whoever is listening - let us see Mars, first, before we go to Earth.”
The ship answered, flat and clear in a single voice. “Of course, Arbiter. Upon arrival on
the ring, your martian passengers will need targeted medical treatment to ease the discomfort of Earth-standard gravity. Until the process is complete, they should remain on the ship.”
She nodded, and as the last of Dejah’s wounds closed and the woman stopped wincing as much, the walls along the edge of the ship disappeared. Everyone inside - a hundred of them perhaps, all together - jumped, and those nearest the edges seemed to lean into the ship, as though worried they might fall.
Mars slowly fell away as the ship pulled up. They watched the atmosphere grow thin, the sky grow dark, the red globe now only taking up half the sky. The ship pulled away from the planet, and martians and earthlings alike truly saw Mars for the first time in their lives. One small red dot in a great black cosmos, mottled with crimsons and purples and pinks, strange flora and seas reflecting an essence written into the world by long-dead ancestors. A small red dot that had changed the course of history, more than once. A small dot most of them had spent their entire lives on.
The universe was so, so much larger. And there was something larger still, some flickering light inside her, desperately cast forth a thousand years ago, that was going to set the stars on fire. If she could only come to understand it.
As blue spindles of hard light began to extend outward, connecting to form a ring around the ship, Hail stared at the first planet she had ever seen. “I think the gods finally are on our side.”
Isavel laughed again. She was right.
The gods really were on their side. And that reminded her of an old promise.
Ada had better look to the skies; it was time to send a sign.
About the Author
Guerric Haché grew up bilingual in a small town in Québec, but now lives on the edge of the Pacific in Vancouver, BC, which has lead to experience working in videogame development, volunteering at the Vancouver Aquarium, and pursuing a passion for writing. The Digitesque stories are born of a love of science-fantasy as well as a deep draw towards all things liminal, eclectic, and transitional.
Independent authors always appreciate reviews, positive or negative, not only for the visibility but also because they provide valuable feedback that helps them improve their writing!
Guerric can be found on Goodreads, as well as on Twitter as @GarrickWinter.
Copyright © 2018 by Guerric Haché
All rights reserved
Cover art by Keezy Young