by M. R. Forbes
Further back a blue glow caught her eye, and she found the Seedship, its web of energy pulsing along its hull. It had appeared out of nowhere, vectoring toward her fleet.
She felt a tingle from the Gift a moment before she sensed the naniates exploding from the Node on the Seedship, reaching out toward her ships, taking a half dozen of them and pulling them toward one another, aiming to crush them together.
“Damn it,” she said. “Imp, turn around.”
“Turn around?”
“It’s Lucifer. He’s re-activated the Nodes. He’s using the fragging Focus against us.”
“Are you fragging kidding me?” The fighter swung back toward the fleet. “What are we supposed to do?”
“Get me to the Seedship. We have to disable the node.”
“What about Thraven?”
“I know. Damn it. Just get me there.”
“Aye, Queenie.”
Abbey reached out with her Gift, trying to counter the Focus and keep her ships from being dashed against one another. Bastion raced into the fray, the fighter flipping and turning, ducking and rolling, navigating through the dense layers of lasers and projectiles crisscrossing the space.
The energy from the Focus shifted, releasing the warships, stretched out toward them instead.
“Ugh,” Abbey moaned, feeling the pressure of Lucifer’s Focus digging in against them, trying to bring them to a stop. She pushed back, every ounce of her Gift working to fight against the pressure, to keep them moving forward.
“Queenie?” Bastion said.
The wings of the fighter began to buckle, small dents appearing along the fuselage.
“Queenie, what the hell?”
“He’s trying to crush us,” Abbey said, her voice ragged. Her head was pounding, her muscles tense. She couldn’t hold it back forever.
Bastion added thrust, shooting toward the Seedship. The fighter continued to collapse around them, the power of the Focus too strong to counter completely.
“I can’t,” Abbey said, groaning at the weight. It felt like the entire universe was caving in on them.
A ship appeared to their left, coming out of empty space, decloaking as it opened fire. Plasma streaked ahead of them, crashing into the Seedship, crossing two of the lines of pulsing energy and breaking them apart.
The relief was immediate, the Node disrupted by the attack. The Brimstone hung in space beside them, battered and dim but not completely out of the fight. It fired again, another dose of plasma that hit the Seedship’s shields.
“Hell yeah,” Bastion shouted, whooping as the fighter gained velocity, streaking toward the Seedship.
The Focus reached out again, this time toward the warship. The naniates slammed into it, tearing through it, ripping it into a million pieces in the span of a few heartbeats.
It was all the time they needed. The fighter neared the Seedship and Abbey reached out to it with the Gift, digging a hole through the shields ahead of the hangar.
“There,” she said.
“Got it,” Bastion replied.
The fighter corkscrewed through space, approaching the Seedship in a hurry. Abbey wrapped her arms around Bastion, looking back at him.
“Do you trust me?” she asked.
“Implicitly,” he replied.
“Then don’t be afraid. Let your body relax.”
Bastion’s body fell limp beneath her as the fighter roared into the hangar. She pushed out with the Gift, forcing the starfighter apart, blowing it out into pieces around them and leaving them still propelled forward, flying as one through the sudden atmosphere. Bastion’s eyes were open, remaining calm as he looked into her eyes.
“I bet nobody in the universe has ever had sex like this,” he said.
She rolled her eyes and groaned, at the same time she reached out with the Gift, using it to slow them down. She cradled Bastion in her arms, dropping toward the floor, the Gift bringing them in gently while the starfighter’s debris slammed into the area around them.
“You just can’t help yourself, can you?” she asked as they touched down.
“I thought it was funny,” he replied.
“That makes one of us. Come on.”
She ran toward the nearest exit, with Bastion right behind her. The doors opened ahead of them, battlesuited soldiers taking aim.
She raised her hand as hundreds of slugs fired on them, caught by the Gift before they could connect. She waved her wrist, and the rounds turned back on their source, ripping through the lines of soldiers, cutting through the armor and killing them in an instant.
“I’m really glad you’re on our side,” Bastion said, scooping to grab a rifle on their way past. “I like how we’ve got this system going where I fly you in, and then you kick everybody’s ass. It works for me.”
“Shut up,” Abbey said, stepping over the bodies and continuing down the corridor.
Bastion laughed but didn’t say anything else.
“Cherub, can you hear me?” Abbey asked.
“I hear you, Queenie,” Jequn replied. “Where are you?”
“I’m on the Seedship. I don’t know where I’m going.”
“You’re on the Seedship?” Jequn said, surprised. “Thank the One. The Node is near the center, next to the Core, similar to the Focus on the Covenant. Queenie, you have to hurry. We’re in bad shape. I don’t know how much longer we can hold out.”
“Roger. Queenie out.”
“This is a fun date, huh?” Bastion said as they reached one of the inter-deck tubes.
“Beats the hell out of watching a stream,” Abbey replied, using the Gift to rip the tube open. “Going down.”
Bastion wrapped his arms around her, and she jumped into the hole. They plummeted six decks before she used the Gift to bring them to a stop, hanging motionless in the open air.
“You can fly now?” Bastion asked.
She shrugged. “Instinct.”
“Right.”
They exited the tube, coming out near the Core. They bypassed it, moving through to the Node beyond.
A lone figure was standing in front of it, hand raised over the spinning ball, pulling the energy of the Focus through. He seemed to sense her arrival because he released the node, letting it settle back on its base before turning around.
“My Queen,” the figure said, bowing before her. “We knew you would come.”
45
“And you are?” Abbey said, walking toward him.
“Belial, my Queen,” he said, remaining in the bowed position. “The Caretaker. Friend and Servant of the Father.”
“Lucifer’s lackey?” Bastion said. “Great.”
“What are you doing here?” Abbey asked.
“Seeing to it that the Disciple Selvig Thraven completes the task the Father gave to him.” Belial raised his head and smiled. “You’re making that quite difficult.”
“I do my best,” Abbey said.
“Which is why he wants you,” Belial said. “You are his Lilith remade.”
“Not quite. I still have a mind of my own, and I plan on keeping it that way. Now, if you wouldn’t mind stepping aside, I need to disable that so you can’t continue destroying my ships.”
Belial stood then, putting his hands out to his sides. “I’m sorry, my Queen. I can’t allow you to do that. The Father requires souls for the Gate, and the Disciple needs to finish collecting them.”
“So you’re saying you’re here to stop me?”
“Only if you insist on being stopped.”
Abbey smiled. “I do.”
Belial bowed his head again. “So be it.”
He waved his hand. Abbey felt his Gift approach her, a light slap of warning that he had a power of his own. She didn’t move, countering it and knocking it aside.
“You can do better than that,” she said.
Belial smiled, his teeth extended into fangs, his hands shaped like claws. He sprang toward her without another word.
Abbey jumped forward to meet him, h
er own fingers extending. They crashed together in the air, grappling and slashing, both moving quickly to block one another’s attack, bouncing back and coming to the ground.
“I don’t have time for this bullshit,” Abbey said. “My daughter is waiting for me.”
She crouched and sprang toward him. He growled as he braced himself to defend.
She came down hard, hands moving in a blur as she cut and slashed at him, pressing forward while he moved equally fast, his claws catching hers, blocking and pushing her aside. She tested his defenses, slashing at his shoulders, his head, his legs and calves in a dizzying array of blows that would have overwhelmed most fighters.
Belial was skilled, and he managed to keep pace with her, hands and feet moving smoothly from form to form, catching each of her blows and batting them away until they were separated once more.
“He would love you,” Belial said. “If you let him. He would protect you and your child.”
“And what about the rest of the galaxy?” Abbey asked.
“It will burn, as it must.”
“Lucy might be into selfish. I wasn’t made that way.”
“Neither was she,” he said. “That’s why she died.”
Abbey charged a third time, shooting toward him like a rocket, using the Gift to propel herself at him. He remained still, waiting for her to arrive, ready to defend.
She reached out with the Gift, not toward Belial but toward Bastion, yanking the rifle from his hands. She faked toward the Caretaker, stabbing out with her left hand, forcing him to raise his arms to block. The rifle came to her right hand, and she caught it and gripped it, turning it to aim at the same time Belial realized he had been duped. He threw the Gift out at the weapon, trying to knock it aside. She let him, giving him the right side, spinning and powering through to the left. Her first slash removed his left hand. Her follow through dug deep into his neck, nearly severing his head in one quick motion.
The rifle slid along the floor, discarded.
Belial stared at her in silence, a small smile forming and he fell to the ground. She came to her knees beside him, looking at him.
“Well fought, my Queen,” he said.
“You, too,” she said.
Then she leaned in, digging her teeth into his neck and drawing in his blood. She didn’t hesitate to take it. She needed every bit of power she could get.
Belial groaned while she drained him, but he didn’t struggle to get away. He reached out and put his hand on her back, supporting himself, holding himself up to make it easier for her to drink. He whispered in her ear.
“He isn’t the only one who loved you.”
Abbey closed her eyes, dizzied by the influx of naniates and their integration with her system. Was he suggesting she had won because he loved her, or at least what she was becoming? Was he suggesting he had chosen her over his friend and master?
She lowered his drained corpse. Why would he risk all that he believed in for her sake? Even if Belial had secretly loved Lilith, she couldn’t imagine that he would give up everything just like that. It was too easy. Too convenient.
Had he really loved her, or was he trying to confuse her? To turn his loss into a victory for Lucifer? To throw her off her game? Lucifer was a consummate liar and manipulator. Didn’t it stand to reason that Belial would be the same?
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that,” Bastion said, coming up beside her. He pointed to her lip. “You have a little, right there.”
She reached up and wiped the blood away. She wasn’t going to be embarrassed about it. Not now, not when Hayley was waiting for her. “Asshole.”
He smiled. “Now what?”
“I’m going through the Node, back to the Covenant.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Shard used the Nodes and the Focus to travel from the Shardship to the Seedships when they were scattering life across the galaxy. I should be able to do the same. How do you think Belial got here?”
“Yeah, but if you go back to the Covenant alone, Lucifer’s going to kill you. Not to mention, Thraven’s still down there with Hayley.”
“Lucifer can only kill me if he knows I’m there. I don’t intend to stay long. Gant.” She held her breath waiting for him to answer.
“Aye, Queenie?”
She let her breath go, thankful the Harvester was still intact. “I’m sorry I almost killed you.”
Gant chittered. “Don’t worry about it. Almost doesn’t count.”
“I’ll make it up to you later, I promise. Did you manage to pinpoint the location of Thraven’s comm link?”
“Aye, Queenie.”
“Can you pass me the coordinates?”
“On the way.”
“How’s the fighting going out there?”
“We’re still alive, but we’ll take whatever help you can provide.”
She received the coordinates into her demonsuit. “This will help.”
Bastion stared at her. “You aren’t going to do what I think you’re going to do?”
“It’s faster than flying.”
“What if something goes wrong?”
“Because everything is working out so well already?” She used the Gift to pick up the rifle and guide it to his hands. “Guard the Node. Don’t let anyone in here, and don’t let them destroy it. Give me five minutes, and then do the honors yourself.”
“Wait a second, Queenie,” Bastion said. “You want me to destroy the Node?”
“Unless you prefer to give Lucifer the chance to join you in here? Five minutes should be plenty of time for me to use the Focus. If it isn’t, it means I’m probably dead anyway.”
“This plan sucks.”
“Do you have any better ideas?”
“No, but it still sucks.”
“I agree.” She stood and stepped toward him. “Kiss me.”
“What?”
“For luck.”
“Good luck, Queenie,” he said.
She put her lips against his. One quick moment of intimate human contact. That was all she could afford.
Then she pulled away, turning back to the Node and stretching her Gift out to the sphere. She visualized the Focus as it began to turn, hoping that was all it took to make the crossing.
It was.
46
The transfer from the Node wasn’t quite what Abbey expected. Neither was the state of the Covenant when she reached the other side. The Seedship device didn’t deliver her directly to the Focus. Instead, it dropped her inside the teleportation room, in the center of the concentric circles where she had stood once before.
It didn’t matter. Her goal was to use the Covenant’s technology to reach Thraven. She had the exact coordinates, and while the Earth was always in motion, she had to believe the ship’s Core could figure out the rest.
If it would even let her make the trip. Keeper had betrayed her to Lucifer, or at least his operating instructions had been compromised. She didn’t know if that extended to the teleporter, but she was here now, and there was no way back.
She had to try.
She moved from the platform to the control unit on the other side of the room, quickly activating the interface. It took a few seconds to reach the targeting inputs, but her hands were fast across the controls, flipping through and entering them at top speed. She was sure Lucifer would know something was amiss as soon as the device activated. Would he know before that?
She hoped not.
She finished entering the coordinates. Star positioning for the planet itself, latitude and longitude down to the decimal for the exact spot on Earth, altitude for the height. If everything worked the way it was supposed to, she would be whisked light years through space to step out on the other side. The concept was hard for her to reconcile. The technology was more like magic than anything else.
Whatever. So long as it worked.
She finished inputting the data, her hand hovering over the controls, ready to activate the system. Her skin was
tingling, the Gift sounding an early warning.
“Queenie?”
Abbey turned her head. Keeper was in the doorway, staring at her.
“Keeper,” she said.
He raised his hand. He was still carrying a knife. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“You can’t hurt me,” Abbey said. “It’s against your protocols.”
“I have new protocols.”
“I know. You didn’t choose this.”
“No. It doesn’t matter. Machines do not make choices.”
“I’m leaving. I needed the Focus. That’s all.”
“He doesn’t want you to leave.”
“Lucifer?”
“Yes.”
“He knows I’m here?”
“He knew you would come. He knew you would have to.”
“Then he knows why.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he come to me?”
“He’s too large to fit down here. Will you meet with him?”
“No. Not yet. I have a Gloritant to kill.”
“You may not survive.”
“I have to.”
Keeper lowered the knife. “He won’t stop you. It is your right.”
Abbey was surprised by the reaction, just like she had been surprised by Belial. “Doesn’t he want me dead?”
“If you aren’t with him, you are against him. You are no threat to the Father, Queenie. Even if you defeat the Disciple. You will slow the Great Return, that is all. Unfortunate, but not beyond acceptable.”
“Well, frag him too,” Abbey said. “You can tell him I said that.”
“I will.”
Abbey tapped the controls, activating the teleporter. She moved to the platform, keeping an eye on Keeper. He didn’t make any moves to stop her.
She nearly recoiled when the blood from the Focus began to pour out. She was expecting the milky white of the Shard, not the deep red of the Nephilim. She watched as it filled in the channels, igniting in flame, its energy bringing the device to life. The naniates reached out, and she reached back, allowing them to join with her, integrating so that they could carry her to her desired destination.