32
“Is everyone ready?” Isaar asked as he looked around the group. They were all present: Vorle, Konii, Reskle, Sora, and Mersi as well. “Our next target is going to be Tunus, and I do not expect this one will be undefended.”
“I wish you would put a stop to this nonsense,” Sora said bitterly. “Before more lives are lost. You are meddling in an ancient balance that is beyond the scope of your comprehension. The peace we have in the galaxy is precarious, and has grown over time. It cannot be pruned back to begin again without great loss of life, Isaar.”
“You know I respect your counsel, Sora,” Isaar replied. “But people will die even if we do nothing.” Sora frowned.
“The rule of the Masters is harsh, but controlled. What you bring is chaos, uncertainty,” she said. “What you do could throw entire civilizations out of balance for generations upon generations. War is not an endeavor to be taken lightly when peace is already in hand.”
“War is the cost of liberation,” said Isaar sternly. “None of us are free unless we are all free.” Sora shrugged her stooped shoulders in response.
“Some would argue that a caged animal has more freedom than a dead one,” she said. “The life of a slave is better than no life at all, and I speak from experience.”
“I would disagree,” said Rhylie. The thought made her angry. “And I speak from experience as well.” Sora frowned darkly and wrinkled her nose at Rhylie.
“You are simply not being rational, child. When you’re old and brittle like I, you will understand how precious life truly is,” she said. Rhylie smirked at her.
“I may end up old one day, but my bones will never be brittle,” she said. “My bones are buried somewhere inside of a singularity.” Sora waved her hand dismissively.
“Semantics,” she said. “We only have one life to live, or one life to give, depending on how you look at it. After that, who knows. Nothing perhaps. Perhaps we’re born again to do it all over. I know a lot of things, but even I don’t know this. Why risk it? Why risk the lives of trillions and trillions of people when you could just enjoy the life that you have now?”
“Because I can’t enjoy it,” Rhylie said. “Not as long as Vorcia lives.” Sora narrowed her eyes and licked her bottom lip in a vain attempt to wet her mouth.
“Your desire for vengeance will cause countless deaths, child,” she said, pointing a crooked finger at Rhylie. “Innocents will be caught up in your maelstrom, their lives torn apart. People you have never met, and will never know will die beneath your shadow if you do not stop. You tear the galaxy asunder with each step you take towards Vorcia.” Her voice was a sinister vein of crumbling steel, trenched with age but built on conviction.
“More than that have already died,” she said uneasily. Sora really creeped her out sometimes. “Would you have us forget them, and have their deaths be in vain?”
“No, I would have you mourn them, and respect their peace by not sending more to join them,” Sora replied. She always seemed to have an answer for everything.
“I only want to send one more to join them,” Rhylie insisted.
“Enough,” said Isaar. “Sora, I have to respectfully disagree with you. You are not going to change anyone’s mind here today.” Sora frowned darkly and then shrugged her shoulders.
“So be it,” she said. “I’m staying here. Return and see me if you don’t get yourselves killed.” Isaar nodded once, his eyes betraying the insecurities he was hiding.
Reskle chose to remain behind with her. The rest of them boarded the ship. She wondered which one was the spy. She was almost certain it was either Sora or Reskle.
“Remember, we need to be prepared for even more resistance on Tunus,” Isaar said. “They might not know what our next move is going to be, but they know we are planning on doing something. We just gave the Masters a massive black eye.”
“Maybe we should split up for this one-” Rhylie started to say.
“No,” said Isaar. “I want you all together…just in case.”
“Ok, then,” she said in mock submission. “You’re the boss.” Isaar gave her a strange look before he nodded his head at her, then quickly looked away.
He was beginning to look older, the burden of leadership was obviously beginning to wear upon him. There was certain sag to his face that Rhylie had never noticed before. He looked worn down and his eyes were dulled.
“We could put this off for a microcycle or so, you know,” Rhylie offered.
“No. We need to move fast,” Isaar said. “It will not take the empire long to fortify the defenses on the slave worlds. We need to liberate as many as we can before they do.” Rhylie nodded her head reluctantly and dropped the subject.
She was worried about him. Everyone was. She could see it in the way they looked at him when they thought he wasn’t looking, the way they spoke to him. Everyone seemed as though they had given up after losing so much, but Isaar was taking it the hardest.
“How long do we have?” she asked.
“About 20 or 25 nanos, give or take,” Mersi piped in. “This one is pretty far.”
“Just enough time for us to get in a nap. Wake me up when we get there,” she said, and went to go crawl in a bunk.
She felt like she hadn’t even dozed off before Mersi was shaking her awake.
“We’re there,” she said. “Well, the launching point anyway.” Rhylie nodded her head once and rolled out of her bunk. They met the others in the central chamber of the ship.
“We have sixteen targets on this one,” Isaar said. “We are going to start on the dark side and follow the rotation of the planet so that we are always attacking at night. If we do it right, we will be able to hit each one before they can send out a warning. It should make your job a lot easier.” Rhylie kept her insistence on splitting up to herself. “We will have to take the last four of them in daylight, so I expect those to be extra dangerous.” Extra fun, Rhylie thought.
“Let’s do this then,” said Rhylie, turning and heading towards the air lock.
33
“Something’s not right,” Mersi announced over the com channel as Rhylie, Konii, and Vorle landed in the first city. “I’m not picking up any signs of sentient life inside the walls.”
“That is impossible,” Isaar countered over the channel. “They cannot be hiding from our scanners…can they?”
“I don’t think they’re hiding,” said Mersi. “I’m not picking up anything at all. I’m getting tons of readings from outside of the city…just nothing inside of it.”
“This does not make any sense,” said Isaar. “Where could they be? Underground?”
“There are no known shielded underground facilities on Tunus,” said Mersi. “It’s it nothing more than a non-industrialized slave world.” Rhylie floated down the empty, dark streets in silence. There wasn’t a single light on anywhere. It was as if they were the only three people alive. It was an eerie feeling, the unsettling silence blanketing the city like a tomb. Vorle and Konii kept pace with her, flanking her on either side.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” she said over the com channel. The dark, empty windows stared at them like vacant eyes. The buildings loomed over them like gravestones, still and dark.
“I’m picking up a huge energy signature on the edge of the solar system,” Mersi said in a shocked tone. “Isaar, these are mininova numbers.” Her voice sounded panicked, distressed.
“Abort!” Isaar screamed into the com. “Rhylie, get out of there! Get out of there now!”
“What? Where?” she asked.
“Get off world, Rhylie, hurry! Get outside of the atmosphere and keep going!” he shouted back at her. “Now! Go!” Rhylie looked at Vorle and Konii before looking upwards, toward the sky. They launched themselves into space, into the vacuum and beyond. They were illuminated by a brilliant flash from behind them that grew with intensity, brighter and brighter.
“Don’t look back!” shrieked Mersi into the com. “Just keep going!
” Rhylie streaked out of the system with Konii and Vorle behind her.
“What the fuck was that?” Rhylie asked, but she already knew.
“They destroyed the planet,” said Isaar. He sounded horrified. “They knew we were coming. They knew. They don’t have enough W-D’s to just have one sitting in every system that has a slave world.”
Vorcia’s words came drifting back to Rhylie. A slave whore, a traitor, and misguided fool. Who was the traitor? Reskle or Sora? She had to find out
“The slaves?” asked Rhylie.
“Dead. Gone. Converted to energy along with the enire planet and atmosphere,” said Isaar, his voice breaking.
“Can you get us a new target then?” Rhylie asked hesitantly. “As soon as possible.”
“I don’t think so,” said Isaar. His voice sounded thick with nausea. “We just got billions of people killed, Rhylie. We have to stop this. We have to stop it now. Sora was right.”
“Dammit. We can’t let them win like this,” she said. “We can’t let them win.”
“We are not letting them win,” Isaar said. “We just need to take some time and think this through.”
“That’s what they want us to do,” Rhylie shot back angrily. She did not like losing. “We need to act quickly before they can take any more precautions.”
“Fine, Rhylie,” Isaar said angrily. “We will do it your way.”
“Thank you, Isaar,” she said, but he didn’t respond. “Can you get us something going, Mersi?”
“I’m on it,” said Mersi. “But this is going to make Quasar think twice about working with us.”
“Tell them we’re running a much more silent operation with this one,” Rhylie said. “Make sure they know it’s just the five of us that know where we’re going.” She felt bad for Isaar. Part of her didn’t want to know who the traitor was.
“We should just pull back Rhylie, and give this some thought,” Isaar implored. “Before we make things even worse.”
“I want to send them a message,” she replied. “I want them to know that we will not be stopped.”
“We are not stopping, Rhylie,” Isaar said as though struggling to find the words. “I just need some time to think.”
“Quasar has agreed on another target,” Mersi piped in. “A planet just a few nanos away, called Zhin’aros. But they said if something goes wrong on this one, they’re pulling back and cutting ties with us.”
“I don’t blame them,” said Isaar irritably. “Give them my gratitude, will you?”
“Okey doke,” said Mersi. “I’m sending coordinates to everyone.”
“Fine. It is your show, your mission, Rhylie,” Isaar said. “Hopefully this one goes a little better.” She didn’t like this side of Isaar at all.
*
They found the free cities of the Zhin’aros occupied, and more heavily defended than the others had been. The fighting was slower, it seemed. The planet had a dense, dirty atmosphere, and it was raining. The rain was greasy and smelled bad, and made the roads of the city slick as they got wet. Even as it was raining, there was a green tint to everything, filtered through the thick clouds overhead. She hoped the whole planet wasn’t like this.
No matter what they did, no matter how fast they killed them, there were always more guards to take out. At times, Rhylie couldn’t even make out the enemy through the projectiles and rain that poured down upon her. It was all she could do just to lash out blindly at them. Vorle and Konii were having similar difficulties making any advancement. It took Rhylie a little while to realize something was wrong.
“Why aren’t all the slaves rushing the city and helping us?” she asked as she fabricated a large shield to block the hail of projectiles. It was aggravating in the same way the torrent of rain was annoying.
“Oh no,” said Mersi. She sounded shocked. “No no no no no…”
“What?” asked Isaar. “What are they doing?”
“They’re…they’re killing them,” Mersi said, horrified. “They’re gassing them. Readings show lethal amounts of cytotoxic compounds are being pumped into the atmosphere across the globe. They’re killing them all. This can’t be happening.” Her voice cast a shadow of shocked sorrow behind it.
“Rhylie, Vorle, Konii…pull out,” Isaar said quietly. “There is nothing we can do here.” Rhylie knew he was right, she did not even argue. She kept her shield up long enough for Konii and Vorle to launch, and she followed them.
Back aboard the ship there was a tense air. Isaar was in his quarters with the door shut. Mersi was sitting in the central chamber monitoring over a dozen feeds on different screens.
“You need to see this, Rhylie,” she said, poking one of the feeds. They all vanished, replaced by one large feed screen in the middle of the table. It showed footage of Rhylie, Konii, and Vorle flying over the masses of slaves, followed by clouds of gas. The feed zoomed in on the slaves as they writhed in pain on the ground, blisters bursting into sores as blood bubbled forth from their skin, thick and black. It was one of the most gruesome things Rhylie had ever seen. It reminded her of the pain experiments on her in the Chamber.
“Turn it off,” she said, closing her eyes and turning her head away.
“They’re blaming Isaar for this,” Mersi said softly. “The Siirocians are saying he ordered it. They’re blaming him for Tunus too. They are trying to portay us as a Master Race Militant group.”
“What?” asked Rhylie, horrified. “Does Isaar know this?” Mersi nodded her head slowly as though in a trance.
“He went to his private quarters after he saw them. He said he needed to be alone for awhile,” she said. “I’ve just been…watching feeds. Not everyone believes it, but most seem to. Either way, you’re not the most wanted person in the galaxy anymore. Isaar is. His bounty is now ten times higher than yours. It might be the largest bounty ever set for an individual.” Rhylie clenched her jaw in anger.
“We should have gone for the Masters first,” she said angrily.
“The risk was too great,” said Mersi. “If they had captured you or killed you…then they would have the tech. They could make millions of soldiers just like you, and Konii and Vorle.” Rhylie narrowed her eyes as she finally remembered what she had been meaning to ask Isaar.
“Where did this tech come from?” she asked slowly.
“What?” responded Mersi, as though the question had caught her off guard.
“Where did Isaar steal the tech from that he used to make this body?” Rhylie asked as she leaned over the table, closer to Mersi. Her eyes grew wide.
“I-” she said, and her eyes darted around as if she were desperately trying to find a way out of the situation. “I promised I wouldn’t tell.”
“She doesn’t know?” asked Vorle. He gave Mersi a strange look.
“Isaar asked me not to tell!” Mersi exclaimed. Rhylie pushed herself away from the table and moved closer to Mersi, crowding over her threateningly.
“Why doesn’t Isaar want me to know where the tech came from?” asked Rhylie as she hovered over Mersi. Mersi cast her eyes down towards the floor and began fidgeting.
“Because you’ll be mad,” Mersi said softly.
“Then I’ll go and make him tell me himself,” Rhylie said coldly. She turned and headed towards Isaar’s private chamber.
The door was shut. She hit the button to open it, but there was no response. He must have locked it, she thought. She banged her fist on it, leaving tiny dents.
“Isaar, open up!” she shouted. There was no reply. She banged on the door again, harder. This time she left larger dents. He couldn’t be asleep already. “This door isn’t going to keep you from answering me!” She pressed the button again. Still nothing. She was getting angry. She pressed her fingers to the crack between the sliding doors and they pooled, working their way inwards as minute tendrils. Once they were through the other side, she pulled, forcing the doors to spread open. She wasn’t prepared for what she saw on the other side.
Isaar sa
t in his chair, his eyes wide and staring, his mouth gaping open. Blood still pumped from his open mouth in weak gouts, spilling into his lap and onto the small pistol he still gripped tightly in his hand. The wall behind him was covered in his brains and blood. Bits of skull and clumps of hair were plastered to the wall amidst the gore.
Rhylie’s mouth worked wordlessly, spewing gibberish as she dropped to her knees. Her fingers curled and uncurled involuntarily as her body began to shake, tears pouring down her face as wails of sorrow began to flutter forth from her throat like dying butterflies.
She thought she had forgotten how cry; she thought she had forgotten how to scream; she thought she was beyond being horrified; she thought she was beyond feeling pain.
She was wrong.
34
They returned to the planet where Sora and Reskle were staying to give Isaar a modest funeral. The weather had turned slightly colder on the plains, and a slow, steady drizzle was falling. The days were gray and overcast; the nights were pitch black and freezing. Rhylie felt the ambiance was fitting.
She stood beside Isaar’s grave with Mersi, who had her arms wrapped around Rhylie’s waist with her face buried in Rhylie’s side, crying. She hadn’t stopped crying for half of a microcycle, and Rhylie didn’t have the answers for any of her endless questions.
In a way, part of her was jealous of Isaar. His struggle was over, while hers was just beginning. He was beyond pain, beyond misery. That part of her understood why he had done it. The other part of her was bitter and angry with him for deserting them, for giving in to the one thing he had denied her. None of this would have happened if he had just killed her. The anger subsided a little as time passed, but the emptiness inside of her only seemed to grow more and more. But in the end, she knew she had pushed him too far. Would he have done it if they hadn’t gone to Zhin’aros? she wondered. She would never know.
Sora had been strangely silent since Rhylie had found Isaar as well, saying very little. Everyone seemed to be lost, drifting confusedly through the haze of grief, but Sora seemed to have withdrawn more than the others. There was no chiding or cautioning. She mostly just sat outside of the temporary shelter, staring off across the plains. Rhylie wondered what she could see out there.
Nascent Decay (The Goddess of Decay Book 1) Page 23