by Larkin, Matt
And he couldn’t stop himself from running to her. “Rach.”
She leaned against his chest. “Mac. Guess I have you to thank for getting me out of this.”
And maybe for getting her into it, too. God, what had he let happen to her? “You have to believe me, I never thought he would take it that far.”
“Yeah, save the sobby reunion for later, would you?” Knight said, glowering, and turned to look away.
Phoebe stepped past them all and went to work. “This is going to take a bit of time. It has to be done carefully.”
Aye, no kidding. “No pressure, now. But we can’t stay here long.” He hoped they wouldn’t have to, as he spared another glance at the sphere. This was not a place for humankind.
For a while, Phoebe worked in silence. Rachel and Leah both slumped against the wall while Knight and David kept watch. Her former bodyguard was still as death, watching the hall.
A few minutes later a trio of Sentinels charged them. And God help him, David shot them. It had gone too far, but there was no turning back.
And so he waited for Phoebe.
“That should do it,” Phoebe said.
“Will you be able to keep the AG field online?” David asked.
“No, it comes from the Singularity Drive. If I shut off conversion we lose it.”
“Do it.”
She pulled a handle, and the lights went out. Suddenly, nothing held them to the deck, and he was floating.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
A pulse pistol is essentially a MAG, except that the rails launch a magnetically contained plasma pulse—a superheated cloud of ionized gas that rips through flesh, armor, and kinetic shielding with not only the kinetic energy of a MAG slug, but enormous thermal energy.
Emergency lighting flickered on, stinging David’s eyes after the brief bout of darkness. Knight was floating nearby, an odd look of vertigo on his face.
“Never been in zero-g, huh big guy?” Phoebe said.
David hid his smirk and pushed off the wall, lowering his feet to the floor. He activated the gravity relativizer in his suit, and suddenly his boots clanked down to the deck. At least they had emergency power.
“Isn’t that nice, Mac,” Rachel said. “Did you bring enough GRs for the rest of us?”
Unfortunately, no. Rachel could handle herself, but she wasn’t a soldier, and Leah was wounded. “You two are staying here to guard the Core room. We don’t want it reactivated until we’ve secured Waller.”
“They’re not going to be able to hold it themselves,” Knight said.
Sadly true. David sighed. “Aye. Nielson, you stay with them, too.”
The officer saluted, and David took Phoebe and Knight down the hall. She activated her own GR, and Knight just drifted, pushing himself along the wall. Phoebe kept looking up at him and snorting. Still, David had to admit, he was getting the hang of zero-g flight very quickly. He seemed to have an intuitive grasp of his environment that would serve him well under the circumstances.
Many of the crew would not have GRs, only those assigned to spec ops. It would give him and Phoebe an edge, a freedom of movement the others lacked.
“Where do we find your captain?” Knight asked from above.
“He’s probably retaken the bridge. We have to hurry—they’ll know exactly where Rachel and the others are now.”
He ran down the corridor to the access shaft. The lifts would be out, so these shafts were the easiest ways between decks. He switched off the GR, grabbed a rung of the ladder, and threw himself upward. Every few meters he pushed off again, controlling his ascent.
This was it. The bridge level.
The moment he opened the access door, shots exploded nearby, and David had to jerk himself back down, almost bumping into Phoebe. She pushed aside, and Knight crowded them both.
“Well, boss?” Phoebe said. “We’re here. I hope there’s more to the plan. I mean, I love the charge in guns blazing approach—I just prefer they’re not blazing at me.”
A plan? Not so much, really, but that wasn’t what his crew needed to hear. “Cover me, I’ll launch myself out there.”
“No,” Knight said. “I’ll do that. I’m faster. You two cover me.”
David scowled, but Knight was right. Besides, he suspected he had more experience with pistols than the Gehennan did. There were only three Sentinels up there. Knight had a chance. “Aye, do it. And be quick, lad. On three.”
He counted off on his fingers, then stuck his head up and started shooting, trying to pin down the crew without killing anyone. Phoebe did the same, then Knight flung himself out of the shaft, angled oddly up rather than straight out. He bounced off the walls and ceiling at unpredictable angles, sending most of the Sentinels’ shots wide as he closed the distance.
One soldier drew a bead on Knight. David grit his teeth and shot her. No choice. She fell, and Knight collided in midair with another Sentinel. For a moment they spun about, grappling in midair.
No way to get a clear shot, so David launched himself from the shaft. Knight seemed unable to get the upper hand. Not used to fighting in zero-g, he supposed. David grabbed the Sentinel and pulled him down, holding him long enough for Knight to punch him while Phoebe drove the other soldier back around the corner.
David switched his GR back on and clanked down on the deck. Then he dashed around the corner and dove to the ground, firing into the air. Predictably the soldier pushed away to escape. Phoebe came around the corner and shot him with an electrolaser. He convulsed in the air and slammed into a wall, bounced off it and spun into another.
Out of restraints, David had no choice but to pummel the poor lad a few times, making sure he wasn’t getting back up.
He buzzed open the door to the bridge. More shots rang out, but he caught a glimpse of Waller.
“Knight, repeat the last maneuver.”
The Gehennan looked about to argue, then just glared, and lined himself up. Phoebe cleared the top of the door to take position on the other side. She nodded, and once again David counted to three on his fingers.
Then they both fired blindly through the doorway, pulse pistols on full auto. Knight kicked off the far wall, soaring into the room, twisting in midair to avoid pulses David could barely see. A moment later, he followed the Gehennan in, dashing behind a console as more shots rang through the air.
Knight caught a man in midair and spun him around. He squeezed his hand over the Sentinel’s, pulling the trigger on another officer. Knight jerked his elbow back into his captive’s face, probably breaking his jaw.
Phoebe switched to her electrolaser and fired a blast at Waller. The captain had no GR. The blast struck him dead-on and flung him against the screen. His pulse pistol slipped away. And then Knight was up there with him.
Waller swung, and Knight blocked, again and again. Knight’s palm cracked over Waller’s nose, and still the captain fought on. The Anakim might be strong as the holy universe, but Knight was too bloody fast. He turned the captain’s wrist and flung him down on the deck, then kicked off the wall. The momentum carried Knight forward where his knee slammed into Waller’s shoulders.
Phoebe had downed another soldier, and David took on the last, who dropped his weapon when he realized David’s GR gave him such an advantage.
“This the fucker who did that to Rachel?” Knight asked, cracking Waller across the face again.
David pulled Knight off, then grabbed restraints from a downed Sentinel and snapped them on Waller. “Aye, Knight.”
Before David could even react Knight had kicked Waller in the stomach. The captain doubled over, drifting through the air and impacting the screen. Knight moved in again.
“Enough!” David said. “Captain, you’re beaten. Surrender command.”
“Go to hell, mutineer.”
David sighed and nodded at Phoebe. “Get down there and get the power back on.” He tapped his comm to open a general channel to everyone on the ship. “This is Commander McGregor. I have relieved Capta
in Waller of duty for breaches of Mizraim law. The ship is under my control now. Stand down immediately and return to your quarters. Senior officers to the bridge.”
“Will they listen?” Knight asked.
David hoped so. He’d need at least two other senior officers to override Waller’s command control. With Leah and Phoebe up here he could do it, but it would be better if the rest of the officers cooperated.
A few minutes later, the lights and gravity were restored. Knight suddenly plummeted from the ceiling, where he had been guarding the door. He fell almost four meters, but somehow landed on his feet in a crouch.
Within moments, officers came onto the bridge, some with pistols drawn. One of them, Lieutenant Blaise, stepped up and took in the situation, her gaze lingering on the half-conscious captain. Mahlah was a Whisper—a Race designed for low and zero-G work. A perfect Sentinel. “You’d better have a damn good explanation for this, David. You know we’ve always liked you, but there’s twenty of us out there, and we’re ready to shoot you.”
“Do you know why we’re here, Mahlah? In orbit of a world where we have no jurisdiction? The captain brought us here to steal technology from the grasp of Jericho Corp. And he was willing to abduct and torture a Mizraim citizen for it. I know you’ve seen what Stigmata does to a person, especially with a telepath delving her.”
Mahlah Blaise turned to take in Knight, obvious distrust on her face, then looked to the side door when Phoebe, Nielson, Leah, and Rachel came in. “You’re with him, Phoebe?”
“Yup, yup. With David, I mean. That blond ass is on his own.”
“Mahlah, please,” David said. “Help me gain control of the ship, then we’ll turn the matter over to the Tabernacle. I give you my word.”
Mahlah nodded, slowly, then walked over to the command console, pulling off her glove. She pressed her palm into it. “Computer, communications chief Mahlah Blaise. Transfer command to Commander David McGregor.”
Phoebe pulled off her glove and did the same.
Finally, David walked over and placed his own palm on the console. “Computer, Commander David McGregor, relieving Captain Waller of command.”
“Authorized.”
“Deactivate internal defenses and restore all systems,” David said. The warning lights stopped flashing, and suddenly he found himself facing down a score of confused looking officers. Aye, they’d all have questions to answer in the days to come. He could only pray the Sanhedrin would back him. Either way, he’d done what he had to.
“So before we leave this God-forsaken place,” Rachel said, “can we make a little stop over to that moon? There’s something we all need to see, I think.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Sentinels classed warships into three categories—in order of size and power: destroyers, cruisers, and battleships. The Logos was a Tribulation model battleship, the latest and most devastating in the Sentinel fleet. Some rumors claimed a Tribulation ship could destroy a planet in under a minute. Of course, official specifications were classified.
The view from the Logos bridge was like looking down on a world from a floating throne. Never had Rachel thought to see something like this. The screen had shown Gehenna as they passed over it, and now revealed the pocked and lifeless moon.
Her heart pounded as much as it had in the battle. This was it. This was the moment. After so long, it seemed surreal. Every hair on her body stood on end. “There,” she said, pointing at the coordinates the Sefer Raziel had mentioned. She stood beside David, who sat in the pilot’s chair. “It should be there.”
“What does it look like?” Phoebe asked.
Good question. Would it be glorious? Gilded? Maybe carved with angelic reliefs? It was like being a kid on her fifth birthday again. “A computer, I guess. I don’t know.”
“Scanners aren’t picking up anything on the surface, Rach,” David said. He turned toward a crewman she didn’t know. “Deep scans.”
A few seconds later, the crewman answered. “There’s something under the surface, sir. Something big.”
A console started beeping. Knight had folded his arms and leaned against it, then jerked away when it beeped. David shot him a look that would have cowed any officer under his command. Knight gave him the finger.
Rachel smiled at the both of them. There was finally a crack in Knight’s armor, and try as he might to hide it, she felt the warmth coming off him. A loyalty deeper than anything she’d ever felt. And David… David had risked everything for her. He’d given up his beliefs to save her. And he still loved her—his emotions soared with his unspoken feelings, the pining of a heart he couldn’t hide from her. Almost enough to bring her to tears.
“Phoebe, use the laser batteries to cut it out,” David said.
“Yes, sir.” She started programming her console. “Phoebe, shoot the Asherans,” she mumbled. “Phoebe, reprogram a black hole. Phoebe, cut up this moon like a birthday cake. Yup, yup.”
Rachel smirked, and David didn’t reprimand her, though his amused emotions told her he’d heard. Five lasers fired from the batteries, precision slicing off bits of rock. Pieces of the moon drifted away, and Phoebe had other lasers chopping them up so they wouldn’t impact the planet. Gehenna had enough problems. She had to hand it to her, the cold-worlder knew how to master a weapons console.
A massive slice of rock drifted away, revealing a metallic sheen beneath it. The metal was black and seemed to shimmer with starlight, and it stretched on and on under the rock. David rose from his seat and walked toward the screen, and Rachel followed.
What in the holy universe was that?
“Can you get a reading?” David asked.
“Scanners can’t penetrate the material, sir,” the science officer said, “but it looks like it stretches for more than twelve kilometers.”
David turned toward her, his face pale. “Rach… I don’t think that’s just a computer.”
No. It wasn’t. Holy shit.
She looked back at it, as lasers carved more and more of the thing free. It was so sleek with the rock cleared, like a massive board, totally flat. Except… As the lasers cut away more, she realized those were reversed wings coming off the main body, three pairs of them.
“Angels above… It’s a ship,” she said.
“It’s a behemoth, look at her.” David answered. “She’s huge. Bugger me. An Angel ship.”
Knight moved over to her side. “That’s what you’ve been seeking?”
“I guess.” Seemed like it, at least. Her pulse had increased and she had to steady herself on a console. God, the Ark wasn’t just a repository of knowledge, it was a full ship, buried beneath this moon hundreds of years ago. Why did they hide it? Where had they gone? All the answers were down there. All the answers, and all the questions. She was going to faint.
“Is there a docking bay?” she asked.
“That looks like one,” Phoebe said, pointing at the screen.
David turned toward Rachel. “I won’t deny you the moment you’ve been waiting for. Phoebe, you have the bridge.”
He strode off the bridge, and Rachel followed. It didn’t surprise her when Knight fell into step behind her. His emotions were guarded, sometimes hard to read. But she knew he was going to see this through. He’d never leave her in danger. And that warmth, that dedication left her flush. She patted his arm, but Knight kept his eyes forward.
David had returned the Sefer Raziel to her, and she kept it tucked under her arm. No losing this again.
They went down to the hangar, and she and Knight donned Sentinel suits while David started the launch sequence. Rachel’s hands shook when she strapped herself in. This was it. She was going inside the Ark.
“Ready?” David said.
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
David piloted the shuttle out of the ship and flew down to the moon. Off the Logos, the sheer size of the Ark left her speechless. Twelve kilometers of seamless metal, black as night and shimmering, reflecting the stars the
mselves, like a mirror into space.
They flew down, inside a hangar that remained open to space. David pointed to a button on his arm. “Activate your helmets. You’ll have two hours of air. We have to be back at the shuttle before that.”
He pressed the button, and the nanomesh seemed to grow around his head, forming an opaque visor that reflected green light. The rest of his suit looked almost form-fitting, but the helmet was largely spherical.
Rachel did as he’d shown her. The suit started to move, setting the hairs on her neck on end. It was literally building itself over her head. Her heart raced. The helmet covered her face, even her hair, before the front piece turned translucent. One-way smart-glass. The internal air gushed when it first came on, but didn’t smell or taste any different.
“Just breathe normally,” David’s voice said from inside her helmet.
Built-in comm system. Okay, then.
Knight had done the same, and was looking around as if disoriented. The visor extended far into her periphery, so she doubted it cut out his vision much, it just felt like it did.
David buzzed open the shuttle door and they stepped out into the Ark. Inside was pitch black. Her visor switched to night vision, revealing a hangar that seemed to go on and on. Theirs was the only ship inside. The deck below was smooth. In the distance she could see a door leading on. She started for it.
David grabbed her arm. “We need to close the hangar first. If the rest of the ship has atmosphere, we’d be sucked out into space.”
“You think there could still be air down here?” Rachel asked.
David held up a hand scanner, then shrugged. “I can’t read anything through these walls.”
He trod over to the edge of the hangar and inspected a console. “There’s no power. Knight, bring me a fusion cell from the shuttle. I think I can rig it.”
“Like I know what that looks like,” Knight said.
David turned toward Knight. Rachel couldn’t see whatever look David gave him through the visor, but she felt his ire lashing out at him. “I’ll get it,” she said.