“Are you serious?” I asked as the angel moved between us. “You mean they didn’t have a choice?”
“They had a choice. They are sentient, but the choice was not for them alone. It was for Lord Zug. His people sacrificed themselves willingly to retrieve the cube. That exchange is equivalent,” the angel said as she gestured around her. The remains of the Mavericks began to steam and smoke, and I knew that in a few moments, there’d be nothing left of them besides harmless floating molecules indiscernible to the naked eye. It seemed insane to me that they’d given all this up for a cause they’d believe in, and I was trying to stop them for money. It would never work. No, it wouldn’t work at all because our sides were imbalanced. No. To fight them, we had to believe in our cause, in serving our planet and stopping them. It was the only way.
And the strange thing was? The truly strange thing? I did believe. Sure, I may have come here for the money, but right now, after seeing the fervor and dedication of the Mavericks, I knew they had to be stopped no matter what. And I would stop them or die trying.
“Now, what would you like to possess? Let me know so that I can see if you are worthy.” The angel smiled at me, and as she did, I realized the viper for what she was. She didn’t care about me, the Mavericks, or anyone else in the galaxy. No, she just wanted to hurt us. Well, I was done being hurt, and even if I wasn’t, I didn’t have time for that. Not when I had people to save, people who would get slaughtered if I didn’t move. Fast.
“I just want to leave,” I said before I could stop myself. “I mean, now I have to go stop that douchebag from visiting unspeakable evil on my people.” I snorted at the angel. “So thanks for that.”
“I look forward to watching the outcome of your battle with the Mavericks, Mallory Quinn.” The angel smiled at me, and before I could even respond, she flicked her wrist at me and the whole of the universe fell away into darkness.
19
“Wakey, wakey, eggs and bacey,” Niko Buttertree said from her perch on my forehead as she leaned over me so her pixie hair fell around her face. “Fancy seeing you here since you’re supposed to be out saving the world.” She extended a hand, gesturing past me toward the medical bay. “But instead, you’re in here taking a nap. Typical human.” She rolled her eyes so hard, I actually thought they might pop out of her skull. “So lazy.”
“Oh my God! Get it off!” I cried, my heart leaping into my throat as I instinctively batted at the fairy. She lithely dodged my hand as it came down, causing me to smack myself. Hard. “Ow, fuck! What the fuck!”
“Niko, that’s not very nice,” Chloe said, sidling over to look at me as a wolfish grin spread across her face. “Our savior here has a lot to live up to. Don’t go scaring her.”
“Huh?” I mumbled, rolling away from them and trying to ignore the glaring light coming from fucking everywhere by pulling the blanket up over my face. My head pounded like a bass drum, and I had the worst hangover ever. I was getting a little sick of that. I’d been laid out twice on this stupid ship, and both times had gotten a headache. If this kept up, I was going to go buy shares in Aleve.
“Jeffry told us you told the Archive that all you wanted was to return to the goddamned ship instead of, you know, asking for a way to stop the Gideon Cube.” Chloe jerked my blanket away, causing more light to hit me like a kick in the teeth. I reeled, trying to grab hold of the blanket when her words caught up to my brain.
“Wha?” I said, drawing out the word as I sat up, all the memories of my time with the angel swirling around in my head. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Chloe’s finger shot out accusingly to the left where Jeffry sat in a stainless steel chair, sucking on a clear bag full of viscous red fluid. “He says you made her teleport you back.”
“It’s true, she did.” Jeffry nodded, and then he spoke again with a voice that sounded exactly like mine, only dumber. “I just want to leave. I mean, now I have to go stop that douchebag from visiting unspeakable evil on my people.” The vampire snorted. “So thanks for that.”
“I know what I said,” I snapped, glaring at the vampire. “I was there, remember?”
“What did you think would happen?” Chloe admonished, her stupid finger blurring back toward me before hovering angrily in front of my face. “She did as you asked instead of doing something helpful!”
“Getting back here in one piece was helpful! That bitch just vaporized like twelve lizard-dudes without a thought while strongly implying she’d actually killed most of Maverick’s population. They literally exploded, and their guts splattered all over me.” I shivered at the memory as I sucked in a breath and stared up at the metallic ceiling. “I wasn’t asking her for a goddamned thing. You wouldn’t have either.”
“You don’t know that.” Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. “Maybe we could have found a way—”
“The way is simple. We go there and kick their ass,” I snapped before trying to get to my feet, only I couldn’t because she was all up in my face. “Or are you scared?”
Chloe snarled and glared at me, and when she refused to get out of my face, I flicked my wrist, throwing a little spiritual chutzpah into it. Magical force exploded outward, snatching the werewolf out of the air and flinging her into the far wall with a thud. As her head bounced off the steel with a loud, wet thwack, and she started to slide downward, her eyes went glassy and far off.
“That is a bad plan,” Niko said, fluttering next to me as the werewolf shook her head, trying to orient herself back to her reality. “You don’t know what the Gideon Cube can do.”
“So what? They’ve had it… um, how long have I been out?” I asked, glancing at the pixie as worry started niggling in the back of my brain. For all I knew I’d been out for days or weeks. Hell, maybe Earth was already destroyed. God, I hoped that wasn’t the case. I mean, sure, they’d have gotten Jen, but even that would have pissed me off. If anyone was going to kill that cheating bitch, it was me, dammit.
“About two hours,” Jeffry replied as he got to his feet and shot me a wry smile before pointedly glancing at Chloe. Great the vampire was amused by my antics. Yippee.
“I doubt they’ve unlocked its limitless power in the last two hours. I mean, didn’t you cats see Avengers? Loki had that infinity stone or whatever the whole movie and all he did was blast people. I bet the Mavericks are still trying to weaponize it.” I smacked my fist into my hand. “So let’s go there, get all up in their grill, and lay the smackdown on their candy asses before they figure it out.”
The vampire rubbed his chin thoughtfully before whipping his arm out in a blue of speed. The force of the wind coming off of it was enough to ruffle my hair, but worse, I hadn’t even seen his fist until it was next to my ear.
Chloe flew backward from behind me and slammed back into the wall behind me. As she collapsed to the ground, blood pouring from her ruined nose, my eyes widened in shock. Jeffry had struck down the werewolf, and I hadn’t even known she was there, and what was worse, even though I knew she probably wouldn’t have killed me, she totally could have. The thought made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. These creatures were fast, and if I didn’t see them first…
“Let’s go with your plan,” the vampire said, shrugging like he hadn’t just decked a werewolf and saved me from unspeakable harm. “The Maverick fleet has been recalled to their homeworld, presumably to be augmented by the Gideon Cube, so at the very least, we’ll have time to plant explosives on the ships.” He smirked at me as if to say, “hey, at least it’s a plan.”
“I’m guessing Captain Brand has already decided we’re heading to the base to do just that,” I asked, raising an eyebrow at the vampire as he moved past me toward the door. He stopped and grabbed Chloe by one arm and hauled her to her feet.
“He did, but he used the words duty and honor a lot more than you did.” Jeffry narrowed his red eyes at me. “But make no mistake, you cocked up by not asking about the cube. You’d better make it up to me by c
rushing the Mavericks beneath your heel.” He shook the dazed werewolf at me like she was a puppet. “If not, next time, I’ll leave you two girls to your cat fight.”
The door slid shut blocking him and her from view, leaving me alone with the fairy.
“So, that went well,” I said, sighing loudly as I sat down on the bed. It really seemed like I’d screwed things up, and worst of all, I’d been trying to do the right thing. Maybe I’d been hasty in wanting to come back to go after the cube. Maybe asking for help would have been worth it even if it had cost us our lives. I mean, I was pretty selfish to think I could stop an entire race of fanatical aliens by myself, but that’s exactly what I’d done. And sure, maybe I could do that, but was it really worth risking the fate of the galaxy on that?
No. I couldn’t go down that train of thought. I’d succeed because there was no other option. I wouldn’t just try. No. I was Mallory fucking Quinn and I would sure as shit win.
“It’d go better if you were less of a bitch to everyone,” the fairy replied, shrugging her shoulders and causing pixie dust to sparkle in the surrounding air. “But we are who we are.”
“That is true,” I said right before the voice of Oliver reverberated inside my skull like a thousand buzzing gnats.
“Mal,’ can you come to the bridge please?” there was a pause. “It’s okay if I call you Mal,’ right?”
“Uh, yeah, sure,” I said aloud, wondering if he could hear me respond, but if he did, he didn’t reply. No, the only response I got was Niko looking at me and rolling her stupid fairy eyes.
“Guess we’re going to the bridge,” Niko said, moving toward the doorway in a shimmer. “Swell.”
I was inclined to agree with the fairy. I did not want to go to the bridge and get yelled at by the captain. Still, I guess it could be worse. I could have gotten vaporized by the big-titted angel. That would have been capital-L. A. M. E.
A few minutes later, we wandered onto the bridge, and like before, the ceiling and what not had faded away into translucence, revealing the entirety of space stretching around us. Unfortunately, that wasn’t all it revealed. A planet that looked remarkably like a green version of Earth loomed in front of us surrounded by what had to be a thousand of those weird Void Crushers. Worse, they were all glowing with eerie light that reminded me of the Gideon Cube.
“Is that what I think it is?” I asked as a tiny snake of fear coiled inside my gut. “Because that amount of ships will take a long ass time to bomb if we have to teleport to each one. Especially if they have shields. Before it was like a dozen. This was thousands. It will take days, if not longer.”
“You’re correct, Miss Quinn,” Captain Brand said, glancing at me from his perch in his Captain Picard command chair. “Thankfully, that is not what we’re going to do.”
“Oh, good,” I said as a breath of relief thundered out of me. “I mean, I could have done it no sweat, but I don’t think you have nearly enough chocolate bars to give me enough energy for me to do that many ships in what we’d call a reasonable amount of time.”
“That’s what she said,” Chloe piped up, gesturing at the ethereal figure of Cortiri as the ship’s manifestation hovered in front of us.
“Which is why we will be sending you down to the surface with Miss Deveraux and Mr. Hodges.” He turned to look at the three of us as Chloe’s jaw hit the deck and Jeffry raised a curious eyebrow, ever the picture of fucking calm. “I am absolutely confident the three of you will be able to infiltrate the Maverick home world and stop them from infusing their armada with the power of the Gideon Cube.”
“What?” I cried, and before I could say more, the captain continued, shutting me down with the awesome power of his deep voice.
“Cortiri has calculated that a three-person team has a reasonable likelihood of reaching the planet’s surface without detection via teleportation.” He glanced at Jeffry. “The three of you are to infiltrate the Brain Wave Communication Center the Mavericks use to broadcast communications to their ships. Jeffry is the only one who can do that, so you must get him there, even if you have to carry him to it because of the teleportation sickness. After that, you must enter the Maverick’s capital city of Qul’Tar, locate Zug’s palace, and recover the cube.” The captain smiled at me before directing his solar-powered facial expression onto Chloe who melted into a puddle. “I’d ask you if you can do it, but truth be told, I know you can.” He looked past us and pointed at the planet. “They have the means to erase our entire goddamned planet, and you are the only thing standing in their way. And, you know what, I’m not worried about it because all of you are the finest soldiers I’ve ever had the privilege of commanding on this mission.”
As his words hit me, I sucked in a breath. The plan was crazy. There was little to no chance we’d succeed, and yet, looking at the captain and hearing his words, I almost felt like I was wrong and that we could succeed. It was crazy, I know, but right now, I almost believed him. Almost.
“We’re not soldiers, and we’re like the only people on this mission,” I replied before I could stop myself, which was unfortunate because the look Captain Brand gave me made me want to crawl into my shoes and die. “But yeah, I’m all for it. Let’s get the cube back and save the galaxy.”
“I’m glad you agree, Ms. Quinn because I’m trusting the three of you with the fate of the entire human race, so shut the fuck up and do your jobs because we don’t get any second chances.” He stood then and extended his palm toward us. A tiny silver pin sat in the center. “This is a neutrino vortex bomb. Drop this anywhere near the planet, and it will create a swirling black hole that will suck in the entire planet. Use it if you must. Zug cannot win.”
“Um… why don’t we just use that now?” I asked, shaking my head. “Sounds like that’d solve all our problems.”
“Cortiri, explain why we cannot use the neutrino vortex bomb unless it’s a last resort,” the captain said, gesturing toward the apparition while Jeffry came over and plucked the small silver pin from his hand and pocketed it.
“The neutrino vortex bomb has a 97.35% chance of killing all life within this sector of the galaxy within three minutes of detonation. Casualties will include the coalition planets of Zatha-URr, Mong-Cohn, and Eridaxi. Six minutes after detonation, the coalition planets Marle, Krux, and Gigenheim will also be destroyed. Total casualties estimated to be in the low trillions. Additionally, this sector will be rendered uninhabitable for all time.”
“Woah, you have a weapon like that?” I asked, getting a little sick as I thought of all that destruction. “How the fuck did you get something like that?”
“Unlike you, this isn’t our first rodeo, Miss Quinn,” the captain replied, shrugging his shoulders. “Ride a few more bulls, and I’ll consider telling you about the race of Nothiagons that used to inhabit Planet 3-47567.” He cupped his hand conspiratorially as he leaned in close to me. “Key word is used to.” He waved me off. “Now get going.”
“Come on,” Jeffry said, reaching out and taking my hand. Chloe was holding his other one. “Try and land somewhere that’s not wet or made of spikes.” He added as a picturesque plateau appeared on the view screen in front of me. Jeffry nodded toward it. “Right there would be perfect.”
“You know, I didn’t spend two years in school getting my MBA to cart your ass around,” I snapped as I called on my magic and felt it start to sizzle and pop in the air around me.
“You went to school to get an MBA?” Chloe snorted barely suppressing a giggle as the scenery began to dissolve, and I focused my power on moving us across space and time with my mind. “I thought people got those out of those claw machines outside supermarkets.”
20
We slammed into the ground. Well, Chloe and I did. I managed it such that while Chloe and I landed on the shore, Jeffry landed in the lake. He spluttered, and as he did, I realized there was some kind of blue cactus with pink spines just below the surface of the water. Bonus. Spikes and water? Talk about a two for one deal.
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As Jeffry climbed to the shore, sputtering, the heat began to beat on my back.
I took one last look at the vampire before turning my gaze heavenward. The massive yellow sun burned overhead, causing my neck to burn in a way that let me know I should have worn some sunscreen. A sigh escaped me as I reached back and rubbed my neck to no avail while wondering why my spacesuit didn’t protect me from this.
I mean, I didn’t burn like Jen did since she was full on Irish, and would have made a ghost look tan by way of comparison, but I’d been known to burn. It had come as a hard lesson. Let me just say that just because you don’t burn in Hollywood, does not mean you won’t get charbroiled in Jamaica. You have been warned.
“I specifically asked you not to land me somewhere with spikes or that was wet,” Jeffry snarled, pulling himself onto shore as Chloe offered him one hand he neglected to take. “And somehow you managed both.”
“I know right. I’m pretty pleased by that,” I replied, watching him pull the thin spikes from whatever underwater cactus thing was in the water. “I’ll have you know that nine times out of ten, landing in water prevents you from getting teleportation sickness, and I really doubted Chloe wanted to carry you.”
“She’s right. I didn’t want to carry you,” Chloe said before turning her amber eyes on me. “You should have said something before you did that, though. For all we knew, the water was acid.” She shook her head. “You don’t really understand how a team works, do you?”
“I know that if you get rid of all the useless letters in team, you’re left with me,” I replied, covering my eyes with one hand to block out the sun as I peered into the distance. “So you know…”
“You wouldn’t last a day in the pack with that attitude,” Chloe said, shaking her head at me. “No wonder you’re single.”
Maverick: A Supernatural Space Opera Novel (Witching on a Starship Book 1) Page 11