The Godking Conspiracy

by Cheree Alsop

  “What about you, my Lady,” I asked, keeping my tone light. “Care to join your spineless friend?”

  “It’s easy to call someone spineless who’s not holding the weapon,” Lady Deava said.

  I flipped the knife in my hand and threw it at the closest wall. It sank to the hilt.

  “How about now?” I challenged. “Or do you want a task like being told to kill your own sister in order to hold your title?”

  Lady Deava lowered her gaze. “I honestly had no idea. But I can’t denounce my title. Too many people depend on me.”

  “Your loyalty is to them, not to Parliament?” I asked.

  Her expression was serious when she tipped her head back up. “I hold my seat for my people, not for some petty Lords who think ruling means playing House with a pointy stick.”

  A slight smile touched my lips and I nodded. “Very well. Watch your alliances, though. There are some dangerous schemes afoot.”

  “I will,” she said. She hesitated, then curtsied. “Thank you, my Lord.”

  She left in a flourish of white feathers and petticoats.

  I dropped to my knees and unbuckled the straps that held Anaya. She fell forward exhausted and bleeding; I caught her before she hit the floor. The gashes on her arms bled the worst. I pulled off my shirt and tore it in two to wrap around her wounds. I slid one arm beneath her legs and the other behind her head, then rose to my feet again.

  “You gave up your title,” she said with her head against my chest.

  “It’s just a word,” I replied. “I’ve had many others.”

  I hurried to the doors. When I kicked one, Redden pulled it open.

  He glanced inside at the fallen bodies.

  “Just promise me one thing,” the Quarian said. “Don’t do your ritual for them. They don’t deserve it.”

  I followed his gaze. The sight of the blood-covered chair where Anaya had sat, and the knowledge that it was running beneath my shirt I had wrapped her in, made anger roll through my limbs.

  “I can agree to that.”

  Farlon nodded. “Good. They don’t deserve your sorrow.”

  “We better hurry,” I told the Fay brothers. “One of those women will tell the others. We’re about to become prime targets. Where’s Nova?”

  “On the ship,” Redden replied. “Junquit called her about a transmission she intercepted.”

  “Let me take your sister, Captain,” Farlon offered.

  I paused, surprised and also reluctant to give in to his offer to relieve me of Anaya.

  “You’re far more useful clearing our path than being a pack tarsat,” he pointed out. “I have a feeling we’re going to meet a bit of resistance on our way back to the ship, and you’re worth five of me out there.”

  Redden grinned. “There’s no time to be modest, Kove. You know my brother states it like it is.”

  “Ny,” I said quietly. “I’m going to let my friend carry you so I can protect us all better, alright?”

  Her body was shaking. I knew shock was setting in. There was no telling what else they had done to torture her. I couldn’t stop kicking myself for leaving her under their control. That was something I would have to deal with later.

  At her weak nod, I slid her into Farlon’s waiting arms. The Quarian held her safe and secure against his chest.

  “Ovie?”

  Anaya’s weak voice made me pause. The name she had given me so long ago made my heart slow coming from her lips again. “Yes, Ny?”

  “Thanks for…rescuing me.”

  Her words broke my heart. “It’s a few years too late, but you’re welcome.”

  A smile lifted her lips despite her closed eyes. Her body shook harder. She spoke without opening her eyes, “About…Godking,” she said.

  “We can talk about him later,” I assured her. “You’re in good hands. We’ll take care of you.”

  She rested her head against Farlon’s chest and the strength seemed to go out of her.

  Farlon pulled out another set of knives with his free hands and gave them to me. “I remember your prowess with a blade. Tell me you’ve kept it up.”

  Redden and I exchanged a glance. “No worries there,” I said.

  Redden snorted at the understatement.

  I led the way down the hall. “No matter what happens, get Anaya to the ship,” I told Farlon. “Redden and I will cover you.”

  I paused at the end of the hall that led to the landing bay. Rows of armed men and women in the House’s white and gold uniforms stood between us and the line of ships. Every gun was pointed in our direction.

  Redden swore under his breath.

  Farlon peered around us. “You’ll cover us with what weapons? You’d need a cannon to get through that!”

  Bullets began to fly. We ducked out of sight.

  After a moment, Farlon said, “Those aren’t handgun bullets.”

  I realized he was right. I peeked out again and saw bodies on the ground with more of the white and gold troops scrambling for cover.

  “Hurry up!” Junquit yelled over the SevenWolf’s intercom.

  “Come on!” I shouted to the others.

  I shielded Farlon and Anaya with my body the best that I could. When a soldier pointed his gun at Redden, I threw one of my knives and knocked the weapon from his hand. Junquit lowered the ramp and we ran aboard.

  “Get us out of here,” Redden said into the communicator while he closed the hatch with one of his other hands.

  I led the way to the medical bay and helped Farlon set Anaya on the table. She didn’t move; whether she had passed out from shock or the loss of blood, I didn’t know. But the rage of need that burned in me at the sight of her wounds made me want to order Junquit to turn the ship back around so I could exact some revenge.

  “Kove, can you come to the bridge?” Nova asked over the intercom.

  I glanced at Farlon.

  “I’ll take care of her,” he promised as he pulled bandages from the drawers. “Nova needs you.”

  I hesitated as the medical table began its scan of my sister. A fierce protectiveness welled up in my chest. I didn’t want to leave her for a second, but I knew Nova wouldn’t request my presence if it wasn’t important.

  “Watch over her,” I said needlessly.

  Farlon nodded again. “Of course, Captain.”

  I glanced back once before I left the room. Guilt and frustration filled me. It was my fault she was in that situation.

  She chose to betray the Accord Systems and Parliament. You didn’t make that choice for her.

  I could have left her on the moon.

  She wasn’t any safer under Malivok’s rule; you know that.

  So I brought her back and let them torture her.

  You didn’t know how much torture Lord Talius could exact in ten minutes.

  I shouldn’t have killed him so quickly. He deserved to suffer.

  On that, we agree.

  “Kove, thank goodness,” Nova said when the door to the bridge opened.

  One look at her face let me know that something was very wrong.

  “What’s going on?”

  Nova tried to tell me whatever was bothering her, but tears filled her eyes instead.

  “Parliament isn’t going to save Evia,” McKy said for his sister.

  I stared at him. “What? Why not?”

  “I intercepted a transmission between Parliament and one of the generals,” Junquit explained. “They said that Malivok’s concentration of forces around the planet and throughout the Loreandian Star System is too great. Their orders were to cut the losses and see to it that he doesn’t attack any of the other systems.”

  She pulled up an image on the screen that showed hundreds of ships around the small planet. Massive drilling ships shadowed smaller jetters heading from the surface and then jumping. It was easy to imagine them full of Andenite heading back to wherever Malivok wanted it.

  “So they’ve left Evia to be blown in half by the Godking?” I asked in sh
ock. “What about the Accords? Weren’t you supposed to protect each other?”

  Jashu Blu gave a sad shake of his head from where he sat at his computer. “I’ve been searching through the Accord agreements and apparently there’s a clause about percentages of risk. They’ve decided saving Evia comes at too great a risk to the rest of the systems. If their troops are depleted rescuing one star system, it could leave the entire Accords vulnerable to attack.”

  “There is no help,” McKy said bitterly. “They’ve left us out to dry.”

  A tear trickled down Nova’s cheek. “So what do we do?”

  I made up my mind. “If Parliament won’t help us fight the Blavarians, we stop them ourselves.”

  Everyone stared at me.

  “How?” Nova asked in a heartbroken voice.

  I thought quickly. “Malivok’s using the Andenite because he’s hoping to reach his immortality, right? So if we stop him, there’s no need to destroy Evia.”

  “Right,” Redden said. “But how to do we find him?”

  “We’ll just follow one of their ships,” Junquit said, warming to the idea. “They’re taking the Andenite somewhere. Follow the rocks, find the Godking.”

  “Easy enough,” Kaj said from his place near the wall. “But how will you stop him? We’ve seen the force he has on his side.”

  “We’ll figure out a way,” I said with more certainty than I felt. “Just get me there.”

  “Aye aye, Captain Sunder, Sir,” Junquit replied with a salute.

  I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t argue against her cheer.

  Nova looked hopeful. “We have a chance. Maybe we can at least slow him down or get him to call back his troops.” She turned to the pilot. “Junquit, follow those transports—”

  “I’m going to stay,” McKy announced, cutting her off.

  “Why?” Nova asked.

  McKy motioned to the monitor that showed the ships flooding their star system. “You guys stop Malivok. I’m going to try to find a way to lure those ships away. Two plans are better than one at this point.”

  I had to accede to his logic. “Take the hopper we brought back from the Blavar System. It might still show up on their log as one of their own.”

  “Good idea,” the Cadonian agreed. He hesitated, then held out a hand. “Good luck.”

  I shook it. “Same to you. Take care of yourself out there.”

  He gave a wry smile. “I’d say the same to you, but that means you’ll probably come back to Nova.”

  “Would that be so bad?” Kaj questioned, surprising me with his candor.

  McKy saluted the one-eyed Verian without answering. He kissed his sister on the forehead before she could protest, then left the bridge.

  “I don’t like him going alone,” she said.

  “I’ve got his back, my Lady,” Kaj told her. When it was clear she was going to argue he motioned around the room. “You have an abundance of both brains and brawn on your team.” His eye narrowed with a rare touch of humor. “Don’t make me tell you which comes from whom.”

  Nova rose onto her tiptoes and kissed the butler-turned-bodyguard on the cheek. “Take care of yourself,” she said.

  A blush ran up from the Verian’s neck to color his cheeks as he left the bridge.

  “I’m going as well,” Lord Regalus announced. He looked at Redden. “I’m going to try to rally the Lords and Ladies who owe me favors. Fortunately for us, that’s a whole lot of royalty.” He winked at Nova. “It pays to own a planet on which most Lords and Ladies lose more than their shirts betting on the Estian races.”

  “I believe it,” she replied, her tone uncertain.

  Redden hugged his father. “Take care of yourself. Farlon and I will see you again soon.”

  His father held him a moment longer. “You, too, son. I’m proud of you.”

  Redden stepped back with eyes that glimmered in the bridge lighting and watched his father leave.

  When the door shut, Nova took a steeling breath and turned back to me. “Well, Smiren, this is what I bought you for.”

  Her words brought a smile to my face. “As I recall, you used fake marks when you purchased me. Not to mention the fact that I already freed your brother and saved your life.”

  “So you’re worth every mark,” she said.

  My jaw dropped at her teasing statement.

  “Captain, Count McKy and Kaj are leaving the ship now. I have located a transport carrying Andenite and am ready to set our course,” Junquit announced.

  Nova glanced at me. “What do you say, Kove?”

  “Let’s stop the Godking and save Evia,” I replied.

  Chapter Ten

  NOVA

  Nova felt great about Kovak’s words until they neared their destination. The sight of the planet far outside of the Accord Systems and deep in Blavarian territory made her heart slow.

  “Redden?” she said quietly.

  “I know,” the Quarian replied. “Don’t lose hope in Kove’s plan.”

  The ships they followed were mismatched and made of all kinds of jetters, carriers, and strikers. The SevenWolf fit in without any problem.

  Junquit broke the tension-filled silence of the bridge to say, “I do have one concern.”

  “What’s that?” Redden asked.

  “I found the other ships by scanning them for Andenite. What if—”

  “What if another ship scans us and finds that we’re lacking?” the Quarian completed. He glanced at Nova. “That is a concern.”

  She thought through their options. “If we get flagged, tell them the SevenWolf was having thruster problems. If they make us land to get it checked out, that makes our lives easier than hoping for clearance with the rest of the ships anyway.”

  Junquit nodded. “Good plan, Captain. Will do.”

  “At this rate, we’ve got about an hour,” Jashu Blu said from his station. He typed an entry into his computer and then reported, “It looks like the majority of the ships are docking are the far side next to that structure.” He paused, then said, “That’s quite the structure.”

  “Pull it up,” Nova commanded.

  The young Quarian swept the screen up to the bigger panels above Junquit. Everyone stared at the massive pyramid made of dull golden translucent stone. The amount of Andenite stole Nova’s breath. Though Evia was one of the richest sources of the mineral, Nova had never seen so much of it in one place.

  “Is that all Andenite?” Jashu Blu asked in amazement.

  “It is,” Redden confirmed. He shook his head. “The Godking’s insane to put so much in one place.”

  Jashu Blu gave the other Quarian a wide-eyed look. “Why is that?”

  “Think about it,” the youngest Lord Fay explained. “It takes a small amount of that mineral ground down and ignited through a reactor to activate a ship’s Dark Matter drive, right?”

  Jashu Blu nodded.

  Redden pointed at the screen. “Imagine if that entire pyramid was somehow ignited.”

  Jashu Blu’s face paled. “It would blow up the planet.” He sneezed nervously.

  “Probably the star system and then some,” Redden said.

  Junquit typed into her computer. “When I multiply the blast radius by the size of the mineral in that pyramid, here is what it shows.”

  She put the image on the screen. Everyone stared.

  The blast radius stretched far into the Accord Systems.

  “Apparently a singular explosion is far less than the chain reaction that would occur here,” Junquit explained quietly.

  “That could wipe out everything we know!” Jashu Blu said.

  Nova’s stomach twisted. “Send the information to Parliament and let me know if they get back to you. I’m going to check on Kove and Anaya.”

  She left the others on the bridge and made her way down the hall. Her fingers trailed along the walls of the SevenWolf. The familiarity of the textures beneath her fingertips grounded her. She had explored the halls of the ship since she could toddl
e along after her father. Over the past months, it had become more of a home to her than Evia.

  Thinking of the fate of her home planet, as well as that of the entire ‘Verse, made her anxious. There was so much she couldn’t control. Even if the Andenite didn’t explode, how was she to see to the safety of the Loreandian System if the Accords they depended on turned a blind eye to their fate? She could only hope that Kovak was right and there was some way to stop the Godking. Otherwise, her only hope lay in McKy fighting all of those ships with whoever he and Lord Regalus could rally. Considering the amount of the gunships surrounding Evia, she didn’t have a lot of confidence in their chosen mission.

  She put her hand to the panel; the door to the medical bay opened. Kovak and Farlon appeared to be in deep conversation near the bed in the corner where Kovak’s sister had been moved to sleep. Both men turned to face her.

  “How is she doing?” Nova asked.

  “Sleeping, for now,” Kovak replied, walking to meet her. “Luckily for her, Farlon’s a fair hand at stitches. She didn’t have to survive my clumsy sutures.”

  Farlon shrugged. “The stitches are just a precaution. Smirens heal quickly enough that we’ll be removing them in a day or two.”

  “If she stays put,” Nova said. She smiled at Kovak. “As I recall, that’s your weakness.”

  He chuckled and pulled her into his arms. “You got me. I’m not great at following the orders of empaths or any healers for that matter.”

  She noticed that the bite wound where his neck met his shoulder was almost healed. No streaks of red or marks of infection colored it.

  Kovak followed her gaze. “Just another scar,” he said lightly.

  She leaned her cheek against his chest and breathed in the familiar smell of him as she ran her hands up his back. She knew well the feeling of his scars beneath his shirt. They were healed as well, merely the marks of a gladiator along with those that had been added during his protection of her. The fact that she was responsible for a few of them made her heart heavy.

  “Kove?”

  “Yes?” he asked. The scruff of his jaw brushed against her hair when he spoke.

  “Promise me you’ll be careful out there. We land soon.”