Finally one of the marshcrabs, the eldest with the thickest shell, clattered forward. He cleared his throat and spoke with a raspy voice, barbells fluttering.
"Our path is clear. The humans are too much of a danger. We cannot let them spread." The elder huffed. "The only race that can exterminate the humans is the Skra-Shen, the great scorpions, masters of the Hierarchy. Their claws are sharp. Their shells are thick. They are arachnids like we are, yet even mightier. We will call the scorpions. We will join them. We will summon their armies here. Akraba will withdraw from the Concord, this weak alliance that cannot protect us shelled creatures, and join the Hierarchy!"
"Hail the Hierarchy!" cried the other elders. "Hail the Hierarchy!"
"Hail the Hierarchy!" Belowgen called with them.
His barbels fluttered with excitement, and he huffed and grunted with joy. Yet as Belowgen was flying back to Paradise Lost, leaving his homeworld below, he gazed across the border into the darkness, and his legs clattered with fear.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Emet entered the bridge of the ISS Cagayan de Oro, sat at the helm, and turned to look at Rowan.
"Ready, Private Emery?" he said.
Rowan hesitated at the doorway, wearing her new Inheritor uniform, her pistol at her side. She nodded, lips tight, and saluted.
"Ready, sir."
She took her seat beside him, and Emet nodded.
"Then let's go," he said, smiling at her.
Rowan wiped tears from her eyes. "Let's go," she whispered.
Emet started the engines and began taxiing the starship across the hangar, heading toward the exit. Beyond the force field, the stars shone. Emet knew what this moment meant for Rowan.
For fourteen years, she hid in this wretched space station, he thought. Nearly all her life. For the first time, she'll have freedom. She'll fly among the stars.
He looked at the girl. She was staring ahead, eyes shining. There was goodness to the child. There was courage and strength and honor.
She looks so much like her father, he thought.
His heart twisted.
You broke my heart, David, he thought. But I still love you. And I promise you, I will do whatever I can to keep your daughter safe.
He looked out to space and his heart felt heavy.
Of course, Rowan had a sister too. A sister named Jade. And that one was, perhaps, beyond his help.
Jade. The girl who—
Pain stabbed Emet's chest like an ice pick.
Not now. He would not let that old memory surface.
He tightened his lips, pushed down on the throttle, and the Cagayan de Oro flew out into space.
The space station grew smaller behind. Soon it was just a sparkling cylinder in space, glowing with a neon halo.
All around the Cagayan de Oro, this small corvette-class warship, spread space. Akraba, a greenish-brown planet, hovered in the distance. Terminus Wormhole shimmered above. A spiral arm of the Milky Way spread like a path before them. The stars shone.
Rowan rose from her seat, walked toward the viewport, and gaped.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Emet said.
Tears filled the girl's eyes. "I've never seen so many stars. There must be hundreds of them!"
Emet smiled. "A bit more than hundreds."
The starlight filled her eyes, and she smiled sadly. "Back in Paradise Lost, you could never see anything through the windows. Too many neon lights. But sometimes I would climb the ducts to the very top of the space station, near the antennas, and peer through a little porthole the size of my hand. I could see two or three stars sometimes. That's the most I ever saw. I used to imagine that one of them was Sol. Earth's star. Our star." She spun toward Emet, eyes wide. "Can we see Sol from here?"
"I'm afraid not, Rowan," he said. "We don't know exactly where Sol is. But we've come up with good estimates. We think it's all the way across the galaxy, too far to see from here. Everything that you see here—all this splendor outside the viewport—is just a tiny, tiny fraction of the stars in the Milky Way. The galaxy is vast, filled with billions of stars and thousands of alien civilizations."
Rowan slumped into her seat. "Thousands of alien civilizations who want us humans dead." She looked at him. "Why, sir? Why do so many hate us? What have we ever done to them?"
Emet leaned back in his seat, piloting the ship at a leisurely speed. "It's because we have no planet of our own."
She cocked an eyebrow. "They hate us because we're homeless?"
His voice was soft. "They don't truly hate humans, Rowan."
She scoffed. "I beg to differ, sir. For aliens who don't hate us, they sure seem hell-bent on killing us."
"They hate problems in their own lives, their own societies," Emet said. "To aliens, we humans are scapegoats. Are the marshcrabs having trouble managing Paradise Lost, dealing with dwindling guests, lackluster profits? Rather than take responsibility, they can blame the human in the ducts. Are the scorpions frustrated at the strength of the Concord, at the cost of running an empire? Rather than blame their own ambition, they blame the humans. Every planet has a problem. Drought. Disease. War. Corruption. Nobody likes blaming themselves, so they blame us. And what can we do? We're powerless. We have no homeworld. We're not members of the Concord or the Hierarchy. If they seek to strike us, we cower, we die, and we cannot resist."
Rowan's eyes narrowed, and she sneered. "But now we have an army. We have the Heirs of Earth."
Emet nodded. "That's why your father and I argued. Why we parted ways. Your father was a pacifist. He believed that humanity should find a distant world, far from other civilizations, and live there in hiding. I believe that we need an army, that we need to find Earth, our homeland, and fight for it. I believe that without Earth, without weapons and warships, we will forever be hunted."
That is not the entire truth, Emet thought. But he dared not say more. Dared not remember. Not now.
Rowan looked at her lap. "Did my father really defect? Really betray you? Really steal the Earthstone?" Her hand strayed to touch the crystal hanging from her neck.
Emet thought for a long moment. Finally he spoke carefully. "No. He did not betray me. He did not steal from me. He simply believed in a different path." He looked Rowan in the eyes. "Someday, Rowan, when you're old enough, you too will have to choose a path. You will be faced with two roads. You will have to choose if, like my son and your father, you wish to vanish into the shadows. Or if you wish to charge into the fire."
"Charge into the fire," she said. "In a heartbeat."
"It's easy to say such things on a day of peace. Once the fire burns, we learn our true character."
"I haven't been very brave in my life," Rowan said. "I've spent my life hiding. A few times, I wanted to escape. To stowaway on some alien ship, maybe hitchhike across the galaxy. But I remained in the ducts. With my movies and books and dreams. I'm done hiding, sir. I've hid enough for a lifetime. I won't run from battle. I won't be like my father. I fought the bonecrawlers in Paradise Lost, and I will always fight for Earth." She chewed her lip. "I hope that when the fire burns, I'm still as brave."
She shivered and looked out the starboard porthole toward Hierarchy space.
Emet nodded. He spoke with a low voice. "Yes, there it is. The Hierarchy. You've spent the past fourteen years in its shadow. No place is more dangerous for humans."
"Is that where Earth is?" she whispered.
"Thankfully, no," Emet said. "We believe the Earth lies across the Concord, on the other side of this great alliance. But millions of humans still live in the Hierarchy, the descendants of Earth's exiles. The scorpions have been butchering them." He clenched his fists. "They've slain millions already."
Rowan gasped. "What?" She leaped to her feet. "Millions of humans still live? Millions killed? Then we have to go there! We have to attack! We have to save them!"
Emet's eyes were dark. "It's beyond our power to defeat the Hierarchy. The Heirs of Earth pilot only a handful of ships. Eve
n the Concord, an alliance of ten thousand mighty civilizations, cannot defeat the Hierarchy. But we've been doing what we can. My daughter, Leona, is leading an attack behind enemy lines, even as we speak, seeking to save a few hundred humans. We cannot save the millions. But we will save whoever we can—and bring them home to Earth."
Rowan sang softly.
Someday we will see her
The pale blue marble
Rising from the night beyond the moon
Calling us home
Calling us home
Her voice faded, and she narrowed her eyes, peering across the border into Hierarchy space.
"Sir," she said, "the starlight is doing something funny. Curving strangely."
Emet stared.
He inhaled sharply.
Again that pain in his chest—a stabbing blade of ice.
He shoved a lever, diverting all available power to his ship's shields.
And from the darkness, they appeared.
Strikers.
Thousands of strikers, emerging from warped space.
"Scorpions!" Rowan cried.
The enemy ships charged, emerging from the Hierarchy . . . and into Concord space.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
"What's going on?" Rowan shouted, clinging to her seat.
Emet was tugging the helm, spinning the Cagayan de Oro around, retreating from the border.
"The scorpions are invading," he said, voice taut. "The Hierarchy is invading the Concord. This is war!"
Hierarchy ships were popping into existence everywhere, emerging from warped space. Battalion after battalion. Thousands of warships. Tens of thousands.
Most were strikers, the triangular starships of the Skra-Shen empire. But there were other Hierarchy ships too: sticky ships formed of white membranes, hosts to nefarious slugs; modified asteroids with engines attached, the vessels of the rocky Meduzian civilization; the organic pods of the Blorins, blobby creatures who wrapped around their victims and digested them alive; and ships from many other worlds. This was a united Hierarchy invasion. This was a new galactic war.
"We have to escape!" Rowan cried.
"Wait," Emet said, staring, heart pounding. "We have to see."
The Hierarchy ships were flying toward Paradise Lost. Toward Akraba. And most importantly, toward Terminus—a wormhole that could lead them deep into Concord territory.
And nobody was resisting them.
Emet frowned. "Why isn't Akraba defending its territory? The marshcrabs should be launching a thousand ships at the enemy."
Yet no marshcrab starships were rising. In fact, the few that had been guarding the border joined the Hierarchy formations.
Emet felt the blood drain from his face.
"The marshcrabs betrayed the Concord," he said. "They bow before the scorpions. Cowards."
"Sir, we have to leave!" Rowan said, trembling. "Look!"
She screamed.
Finally—the marshcrab ships were rising from their planet.
Hundreds of them—bulky iron ships, thrusting forth curving blades like claws. The marshcrabs were not an industrial society, but they were excellent scavengers, slapping together bits of stolen machines into starships of their own. Their fleet used to display the Concord symbol, a galactic spiral. Now their hulls were painted with the Hierarchy sigil—a coiling red stinger.
"We're trapped!" Rowan said.
Emet shoved down the throttle. "We're getting out of here."
He began to soar. But more Hierarchy ships were emerging from deep space. A battalion of enemy dreadnoughts, each the size of a skyscraper, popped into reality above them. Emet cursed, yanked on the helm, and spun around. Marshcrab ships rose below.
"Can't we use warp drive?" Rowan said.
"Not with so much interference around us," Emet said. "Too many enemy ships will disturb our spacetime bubble. Not to mention planet Akraba and Terminus Wormhole so close. Even if we can form a bubble without crushing our hull, we're likely to blast forward and into an enemy warship, destroying ourselves."
"What do we do?" Rowan's voice shook.
"Remain calm, Private," Emet said. "We just need to find a clear swath of space, and we can fly out at warp speed. The Cagayan de Oro is damn fast once she gets going. They won't catch us."
He kept his voice calm. But his insides were pounding.
This is bad, he knew. This is damn bad.
For centuries, the Hierarchy and Concord had respected the border, had split the Milky Way between them. The great Galactic War centuries ago had killed trillions, had destroyed thousands of worlds. Was violence about to flare again?
Emet glided downward, seeking a route between the enemy forces. But another battalion of strikers emerged from warp, blocking his path. He rose, turned, and began flying deeper toward Concord space. But marshcrab vessels rose ahead, blocking him. Everywhere he turned, he saw the enemy forces.
He flew one ship, a small corvette, within the cloud of enemies.
We're a single barracuda in a sea of sharks, he thought.
Rowan pointed. "There." She was clearly struggling to keep her voice steady. "I see a path through."
Emet directed the Cagayan de Oro toward the opening. He began to increase speed. They might just be able to sneak between two brigades of strikers, glide into open space, then blast away at warp speed.
He moved closer. Closer. Faster.
He began to prime the warp engine.
Rowan screamed.
Emet cursed and shoved down the brakes.
Their ship rattled, desperate to slow down.
A massive dreadnought emerged ahead from warped space. It was a striker—a scorpion warship—but so large it dwarfed its brethren. From prow to stern, the dreadnought was probably as long as Paradise Lost, an entire space station.
Emet grunted, flooring the brakes, finally halting only a heartbeat away from the enemy hull. The dreadnought loomed above the corvette, blocking the starlight. A red spiraling stinger, larger than the entire Cagayan de Oro, coiled across the enemy hull. Skra-Shen glyphs were engraved beneath it, burning with real flame, spelling out the ship's name.
"The Venom," Rowan whispered. "That's what the word means in human." She glanced at Emet. "I once found a scorpion dictionary. You have a lot of free time when you live in ducts."
"And she's hailing us," Emet said.
He looked around him. Every path was blocked. Thousands of warships surrounded them. Even if Emet tried to navigate between them, they could easily block his passage—or destroy him in a volley of plasma.
He accepted the Venom's call.
His monitor crackled to life, displaying an image from inside the scorpion dreadnought.
"You," Emet said, glowering.
Jade sat there upon a throne draped with human skins. Scorpions clattered all around her. Last time Emet had seen her, long blue hair had grown from her head. She had only stubble on her head now, and burns marred her alabaster skin.
"Hello again, old friend!" Jade said. "I knew we would meet again. I promised that I would come kill you." She licked her lips. "Who is that beside you, that wretched little pest? Your daughter?" She laughed. "I will skin her first so you can hear her scream."
Rowan stared, eyes wide. The girl rose from her seat, walked toward the monitor, and placed her hand against it. She tilted her head.
"I know you," Rowan whispered, frowning. "I don't know how. I don't know from where. But . . . I know you."
Jade laughed. "You know your death then! I am the huntress. I am the queen of pain. I am your nemesis. Come now, humans. Come scream for me!"
Jade grabbed a lever and tugged it.
A tractor beam blasted out from the Venom. It grabbed the Cagayan de Oro with a shimmering blue fist.
Emet pushed the thruster engines to full power, trying to reverse. The ship rattled, shaking madly. The tractor beam kept pulling them forward. Emet diverted power from all other systems, reversing at full thrust. The engines belched out smoke. But
still the tractor beam was pulling them in.
A hatch opened on the enemy ship.
Rowan drew her pistol, but Emet knew it could not save them.
He fired the Cagayan de Oro's cannons. Shell after shell flew, slamming into the Venom. But he could not penetrate the dreadnought's thick shields. He fired again, launching torpedoes, and explosions rocked the Venom, but its shields stood.
A bolt flew from the enemy ship.
It slammed into the Cagayan de Oro, shattering its front cannons.
The corvette jolted. Monitors cracked. Smoke filled the bridge. Rowan screamed.
Emet shoved down the throttle, attempting to charge forward, then soar, but the tractor beam held them in place. His engines roared. Fire blasted from the exhaust. The Cagayan de Oro was overheating. The engines would soon blow.
The dreadnought kept pulling them.
On the monitor, Jade was laughing, tugging on her lever, reeling them in.
They were only meters away from the Venom's hatch now.
Emet drew his own pistol.
"Rowan," he said softly.
"Sir?" Her voice shook.
"I cannot let them take us alive, Rowan." He looked at her. "I'm sorry."
She stared back at him with huge eyes. A tear rolled down her cheek.
She pointed her own pistol at her temple.
"I understand," she whispered. Then she let out a sob. "I wish I could have seen Earth. I wish I could have seen my sister again. I—"
Rowan gasped.
She turned toward the monitor.
She peered at the image of Jade, who was still operating the beam.
"Jade?" Rowan whispered. "Is that you? Jade Emery?"
Jade stared back, and her smirk vanished.
"Who . . .?" Jade began.
Her hand slipped from the lever.
The tractor beam loosened its grip.
Emet gunned it.
Within a second, he diverted all power—even life support—to the engines and charged forward.
They roared toward the Venom, then soared, breaking free from the tractor beam.
As he rose higher, he launched a torpedo from his stern. The missile flew to the Venom's open hatch.
The Heirs of Earth (Children of Earthrise Book 1) Page 28