by Jacob Holo
The two Renseki set their trays down and seated themselves. Then and only then did Yonu release her grip on Jared’s arm and allow him to sit.
“We could not help but overhear your conversation,” one of the twins said. He motioned to his identical brother. “We ourselves had the unfortunate duty of facing Pilot Donolon in battle. He was powerful even before his merger with the seraph. His presence amongst the Grendeni is quite troubling.”
Jared leaned over to Yonu, still maintaining eye contact with the two Renseki. “Which Renseki are these, again?”
One of the twins smiled. “Ahh yes, perhaps some introductions are in order.” He gestured in turn to each person at the table. “Lieutenant Jared Daykin. Pilot Yonu Nezrii. Renseki Kiro Torvulus. Renseki Kevik Torvulus. There, now we know each other.”
Jared was surprised and a little embarrassed. “You know my name?”
“Of course,” Kiro said. “We have been following your career with some interest.”
“Really? Why would that be?”
“Because your talent is quite unique,” Kevik said. “All pilots have heightened reflexes in their seraphs, but you also possess enhanced intelligence.”
“That’s the only way an idiot like him would get a squadron,” Yonu said.
“Oh, hah hah. Very funny,” Jared said.
Yonu gave Jared a jab with her elbow. “I’m only kidding. Still, it’s hard to imagine the Renseki interested in a guy like you.”
“We have wondered if his talent might be linked to our own condition,” Kiro said. “The mental boundary between the two of us has always been murky. Perhaps learning more about Pilot Daykin’s talent will help us understand it.”
“Hmm,” Yonu studied the three pilots in turn. “But wouldn’t you have to be related for there to be a connection?”
“Actually, we are half-brothers with Pilot Daykin here.”
Unfortunately, Jared had chosen that moment to take a sip of water. The drink made a rapid exit through his mouth and nostrils. He coughed loudly, grabbed a napkin, and pressed it against his face.
Yonu stared wide-eyed at the twins with her mouth hanging open.
“It is true,” Kiro said. “That is why we came here after landing, so that we might meet our estranged kin.”
“But you’re Aktenai!” Jared said.
“Actually that’s only partially correct,” Kevik said. “Many Aktenai pilots were born on Earth before the Alliance was formalized. No one knows why, but all seraph pilots can trace their lineage back to Earth, be it a hundred generations or one.”
“The Aktenai actually did that?” Jared asked. “Abduct kids from Earth?”
“Uhh.” Yonu shook her head. “Don’t you know anything? It’s one of the chief articles found in the Treaty of the Alliance. You know, the one where Aktenzek pledged to stop its mistreatment of Seedings like Earth.”
“I know that. But I guess I didn’t really believe it. It just seems so farfetched.”
“No, it was actually quite common,” Kiro said. “For example, Pilot Elexen was born on Earth, though he does not remember it.”
“Well, I guess you guys know what you’re talking about,” Jared said. “So, did you two just find this out? About the three of us, I mean.”
“Oh, not at all,” Kiro said. “We’ve known our origins for almost twenty years. But openly acknowledging such crimes is a touchy subject for pilots in our positions. We relegated ourselves to simply watching your progress from afar.”
Kevik nodded. “Though, it pleases us to finally have the opportunity to meet in person. The Choir can hardly object to us working closely with you under current circumstances.”
Jared swirled the water in his glass with a straw. “I think I need a drink.” He started to get up.
Kevik took a glass off his tray, placed it on the table, and slid it over to Jared. “I believe that this is your preferred beverage.”
Jared eyed the dark beer with suspicion. “You do know I’m not allowed to drink that for another year?”
Kiro wore a bemused smile. “A curious Earth Nation tradition. For something you are not allowed to drink, you seem to consume it quite often.”
“Well…” Jared gave the twins a guarded smile. He accepted the glass and took a deep gulp. It was going to be a long day.
Chapter 11
The Valiant Artisan
Seth folded into the sky-blue nebula. Eddies and currents swirled around him, carrying wisps of lighter and darker shades. Ahead and down from his orientation was the gauze-enwrapped glow of the white dwarf star. The nebular facility was directly ahead, shrouded behind thick clouds of blue and blue-green.
“I’m not detecting any Grendeni craft,” Seth said.
“Same here,” Quennin said. “There could be stealth exodrones this far out, though.”
“We’ll just have to take the risk.” Seth linked with the rest of the Aktenai fleet. “No enemy vessels detected. We’ll proceed in. Stand by to reinforce on my command.”
“Confirmed, sir,” Jared Daykin said, leading epsilon squadron’s fourteen seraphs.
“Understood,” Zo Nezrii said, in command of the six Renseki. All seraphs, along with a formidable fleet of Aktenai frigates and dreadnoughts, waited one light-year beyond the nebular boundary.
Seth checked his loadout one last time. He’d equipped a compact eighteen-shot fusion cannon in the right forearm pod and a multipurpose railgun in the left. However, in order to carry out this mission, he’d dispensed with the leg-mounted weapon pods, wing-mounted countermeasures, and extended scanner array pods.
Instead, he carried four evasion pods that tapped into his barrier and generated an active stealth field. In theory, he was almost undetectable at long range, even by high-powered active scanners. However, the evasion pods were temperamental due to the human mind that powered the barrier. Loss of concentration, fast movement, weapon firing, dagger activation, or anything else from a long list could spoil the effect.
Seth and Quennin had used the pods five times before and were the Resolute’s best qualified pilots to reconnoiter the nebular facility.
“Okay, Quennin. Time to head in,” Seth said, activating his evasion pods.
“Understood. Engaging active stealth.”
Quennin’s seraph vanished completely from Seth’s passive scanners, but data continued to flow between them through a hypercast link. In a small section of his mind, a tactical plot showed two seraphs beside one another, their positions continuously updated.
Seth accelerated forward, fast for a frigate or dreadnought, but painfully slow for a seraph. He and Quennin plunged into thick nebular clouds.
“I’m detecting something ahead and to our left,” Quennin said after almost half a hour. “It’s big.”
Seth turned to look. A large ribbon of darker blue passed by. He zoomed in on a giant silhouette behind it and enhanced the image.
“It doesn’t appear to be a ship,” Seth said. “Nor is it moving.”
“One of the factories?”
“Perhaps, but our data shows all the factories in a ring above the star. This is too far out.”
“More objects. Three directly ahead.”
“Change course. Fifteen degrees down,” Seth said.
“Understood.”
Seth passed underneath a trio of massive objects shrouded by dense clouds. Dark bands of gas billowed aside, revealing the object in the center.
“A derelict?” Quennin asked. “Out here?”
A warship every bit as large as a schism lumbered by above them. Leprous patches of decay dotted the leviathan, revealing jagged teeth of armor and keel bars. Other sections had been neatly cut away, inner mechanisms removed.
“Ship class confirmed,” Quennin said. “It’s a Grendeni dreadnought, probably over three thousand years old. We might be passing through a refuse field of some sort for the nebular facility.”
“Which would make this facility at least as old.”
“You could be
right. I can see where they cut away and salvaged some sections. That wasn’t done recently.”
Seth and Quennin flew past the ancient warships and pushed deeper into the nebula. They pressed on, passing mined-out asteroids, abandoned factories, blasted frigates, and structures Seth could not identify.
“Do the Grendeni pitch all their junk out here?” Quennin asked.
“Who can possibly understand our Fallen brothers and sisters?” Seth said. “Slow down. We’re almost through.”
The white dwarf star burned brightly within an opening in the blue nebular expanse. A long cord of hot matter rose from the star, focused through a conduit of giant rings. The cord split and shot off at angles into the waiting ring of factories. Most of the strands passed through the factories, but some refracted up into the carved remains of a dead planet.
“That’s a lot of ships,” Quennin said.
Seth passively scanned the hundreds of ships along the facility-ring. About one in ten had a complete outer hull.
“At least they’re only under construction,” Seth said. “We need to get closer to those factories and find one that produces archangels.”
“I’ll follow you in.”
Seth and Quennin descended, skirting the nebular wall as they approached the facility-ring from above. Seth devoted all of his passive scanners to searching the factories but could only make out details on the closest ones. Most of the installations were devoted to frigate or dreadnought construction, though a few were fabricating new schisms.
“One of those factories with the plates coming out of the sides could be producing archangels,” Seth said.
“Exodrones approaching from below,” Quennin said.
Seth spotted the formation of sixteen exodrones. The drones maneuvered in teams of four carrying cube containers. He didn’t think mere cargo haulers would carry precision scanners, but he also didn’t believe in taking chances.
“Follow me.” Seth descended down to the facility-ring’s outer edge. The drones flew above them.
“I’m detecting several negators under construction,” Quennin said. “Three near our position. Maybe more on the far side of the facility-ring.”
Seth grimaced. He focused his passive scanners on the new coordinates. Two had open patches in the outer hull. One was nothing more than a row of keel rings. But no matter how incomplete the hulls were, their fold-preventing field generators might be functional. Seth marked every negator as a priority target and sent the list to Jared and Zo.
“We’ll need to take these out before moving on the archangels,” Seth said.
“Confirmed, sir,” Jared said. “But if we engage the negators first, we’ll lose the element of surprise against the archangels.”
“I am aware of that, Pilot Daykin. My orders stand.”
“Yes, sir.”
So where are the archangels? Seth thought. They folded here. That indicates they’re at least based nearby.
“Take a look above us,” Quennin said. “We’ve got trouble.”
Two Grendeni frigates and several combat exodrone squadrons prowled the nebular wall where Seth and Quennin had emerged. The exodrone squadrons glided about in tight formations, crisscrossing at diagonals as they searched. Two frigates hovered close to the nebular wall.
“They haven’t found us yet,” Seth said. “Continue as planned.”
“We can’t stay hidden for long.”
“Then let’s find that factory.”
Seth and Quennin stopped above the facility-ring and followed its circumference clockwise.
“I’ve got another four frigates in motion,” Quennin said. “And a dreadnought. They’re approaching the facility-ring from above.”
“There’s nothing we can do about that. Continue as planned.”
“If there even is one. The Choir could be wrong.”
“I don’t think—”
“Fold signatures!”
Two Grendeni frigates and forty-eight exodrones folded space directly above them. Wide rings of distorted light expanded out from their dark, streamlined hulls. The frigates aimed their main guns straight at him.
“Move!” Seth shouted.
Seth drove raw power into his wings. His stealth field collapsed. Drive shunts flared up to full power, and tiny snaps of chaotic energy crackled around his black armored body. He sped across the curving line of factories.
Twin beams of searing light bored down from the Grendeni frigates, missing by a few meters.
“At least four negator fields coming on-line!” Quennin said.
Seth looped above a half-finished dreadnought skeleton and aimed his fusion cannon on the lead frigate. He and Quennin fired as one. Seth’s beam punched into, through, and out of the vessel. Explosions snapped across its length, joined moments later by a second frigate’s death spasms.
The exodrones flew down at them, robotic and suicidal. Seth and Quennin fired their railguns, sending volleys of kinetic shells into their ranks. The shells exploded just before reaching the exodrone formations. Thick clouds of high velocity flechettes vomited out, ripping the exodrones apart like so much tissue paper. Staggered pin-prick explosions marked each kill.
“Come on. We need to move!” Seth said.
Every active Grendeni warship turned about and began lumbering towards them.
“Right behind you!”
Seth and Quennin flew underneath the facility-ring’s huge circumference, using the factories as shields. Beams lanced past them every time they darted from cover to cover.
“Epsilon! Renseki!” Seth said. “Begin your attack runs! Take out those negators! If we don’t find the factory soon, we’re aborting!”
“Confirmed, sir,” Jared said. “We’re on our way.”
“Understood,” Zo said.
Twenty fold points snapped open. Six seraphs materialized at the far end of the facility-ring, their fold points nothing more than momentary white specks. The silver Renseki seraphs pounced on a half-completed negator. They ignited their chaos daggers and sliced it apart from the inside.
Fourteen seraphs under Jared’s command swarmed a separate target. Beams exchanged, and Grendeni warships began to die in titanic eruptions.
“Seth, I think I found the factory.” Quennin relayed the coordinate data.
Visually, the factory looked no different than any other. Its boxy main body wrapped around the star strand, but the large plate extending from its side was packed with tight rows of archangels. Even at this extreme range, Seth could make out hundreds of those machines crouching like so many winged skeletons.
Two shapes broke off from the archangel factory. They ducked underneath the ring of factories and flew out at incredible speed. Far faster than any archangel, and faster than almost any seraph in existence.
Their course led them straight to Seth and Quennin.
“Quennin, we have incoming.”
“Yes, I see them…”
The two enemy seraphs closed. Seth received their request for a direct hypercast link. Hesitantly, he opened the channel.
“Seth, this is Jack. We need to talk.”
***
Jack had to wait almost half a minute before receiving a reply.
“I have nothing to say to you,” Seth said.
“Look, I understand you’re upset,” Jack said. “But we don’t have to fight.”
Seth and Quennin stopped beneath one of the Valiant Artisan’s factories. Jack slowed, remaining in the open. He had nothing to fear from the Grendeni warships above.
“Shall we kill them together?” Vierj asked, halting next to him.
“Not yet,” Jack said privately.
“Your compassion for your former comrades is sweet, but misplaced.”
“It is mine to misplace,” Jack said. With a mental flick, he toggled back to his channel with Seth. “There is no need for us to fight, Seth. Call off your attack, and I will order the negators to stand down.”
“That is not an option,” Seth said. “Our b
attle will not end until one of us is dead.”
“Come on. Be reasonable, Seth. Neither of us wants to—”
“YOU KILLED MY SON!”
Jack opened his mouth to reply, but words failed him. The true price of his actions slammed home in his mind. He’d only been concerned with not harming Seth or Quennin. The possibility of a son or daughter among the pilots had never occurred to him.
Damn it! How could I have been so stupid? Jack thought. That flame-red seraph. Was he in that one? Oh God, what have I done?
“I didn’t know. Please believe me, Seth. I didn’t know.”
“It doesn’t matter if you knew,” Seth said. “My son is dead because of your treachery.”
“I… I swear I didn’t know.”
“There is no shame in fighting to win, Pilot Donolon,” Quennin said coldly. “But you have chosen your side, and it is not ours.”
“I only have one question for you,” Seth said. “Why have you betrayed us?”
“I…” Jack felt sick to his stomach. Seth’s son was dead by his hand. How could he have been so careless? He knew that this was a small sacrifice in the greater scheme of his plan, but the thought brought him no comfort.
“I did it because—” Jack stopped. Vierj would be listening. Even within the untraceable security of hypercast, Vierj could listen. He dared not risk exposure now.
And even without Vierj listening, how could he tell Seth the truth? How could even that justify his actions? He doubted Seth would actually believe him, and the truth would only serve to forewarn the Choir and the Eleven.
No, silence was his only option.
“If you will not answer, then we have nothing further to say.”
Twin purple daggers exploded out of Seth’s forearms.
I knew this moment would come, Jack thought. Deep down I knew it, even if I thought I could plan my way out of it. It was inevitable that I would face Seth and Quennin in battle from the moment I set down this path.
Jack found his gaze drawn to Vierj’s shadowy seraph. So be it. I will be neck deep in corpses before this horrid business is over and will have only myself to blame.
Jack summoned his chaos sword. It snapped vividly into existence and solidified as a bar of blue light.