by David Beers
Chapter Sixteen
How many times have I thought this? Faitrin wondered. That we had no chance? He’s always gotten us through. He’ll do it again.
Faitrin forced herself to think those things because what she saw in front of her wasn’t destroyable. She didn’t understand how she’d forgotten the Commonwealth’s fleet. She’d been a pilot for years, and looking at the force hanging over Phoenix…
I’ve thought this before. I’ve seen impossible things, but he’s brought us through.
Yet, she didn’t need to be harmonized with her dreadnought to know this was bigger than the Ice Queen’s fleet. They’d brought everything, and now they controlled the planet. Prometheus’ force was three hundred thousand kilometers away, but they’d soon be there.
Faitrin’s eyes were gray since she was harmonized with everything going on inside the ship.
She switched to Thoreaux’s comm.
Can you meet me in our room?
It took a second, but she heard his voice in her head. Does it need to be now? We’ve got a lot going on.
I need you.
Meet me there in ten minutes, he immediately responded.
If they died soon, she wasn’t upset about the decision she made back at Pluto. She’d never thought she’d meet a leader like Pro or have a love like Thoreaux.
Jeeves, she said, switching controls. I’ll be back shortly.
Yes, madam, the AI said. His voice was subdued too; perhaps he was the only one who understood what was coming. He was able to calculate everything at once, and these odds…
Insurmountable, she thought as she left the bridge.
Faitrin hustled back to her room, getting there a few minutes before Thoreaux. She needed to figure out her words.
When her lover entered, she saw the stress on his face. He had been thin, but he’d lost weight over the past two weeks—probably ten pounds, but she didn’t want to ask. She likely looked about the same.
She was sitting on their shared bed, and he was about to begin pacing but halted when he saw her face.
“What is it?”
“We can’t beat them,” Faitrin whispered.
He said nothing as the door slid shut behind him.
“That force out there; it’s unlike anything we’ve seen. We’ve never attacked a planet that knew we were coming. Even against the Ice Queen, we had the planet. We’re going to be fired on soon, and we’ll lose a lot of our ships. When we attempt to breach the planet, we’ll lose more. Beneath ground? We won’t have enough firepower.”
Thoreaux stepped across the room and sat down next to her. He leaned forward, putting his head in his hands. “I don’t know what to do. I honestly don’t.”
“Have you spoken to him?” she asked, the “him” not needing to be specified.
“No. He’s in his thinking phase. Any time I try, he says to just keep strategizing for the landing. The only time I’ve seen him out of his room is in the sparring room, but he’s not even practicing. Just swinging his Whip around each of his shoulders, like he’s lost in thought.”
“You’ve got to talk to him. If we go head-on, we’re dead. Jeeves hasn’t said anything, but he knows it too. They have too much firepower. I’ve slowed everything down to give us another twelve hours before we’re within range.”
Thoreaux straightened. “Okay. I’ll go to him, but I don’t know what good it’ll do.”
“You have to try,” she whispered. “Sooner rather than later.”
Thoreaux leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I’ll go now. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He stood and left the room. Tears rested in Faitrin’s eyes, but she didn’t have time for emotions. She waited for a minute or so, then stood and walked back to a bridge that was more scared than she.
Alistair understood what he’d been—an absent leader.
He’d given everyone their jobs and then disappeared. He’d been in brief contact with Aspen, but even that had mostly been absent.
Because he knew what he was heading toward: complete and total annihilation.
It didn’t matter who he prepared or what he did. He’d seen the force. He didn’t have to ask Jeeves or anyone else the chances. They were zero—and he hadn’t been able to figure out a way to change the paradigm. De Finita had played this beautifully; perhaps in the beginning he’d rushed, or perhaps Alistair had too many advantages in possessing the planets.
Now, he wasn’t fortified.
An hour ago, he’d gone to the AllMother.
When the Ice Queen was coming, she’d taught him what he needed to know. She’d been as absent as he since then, though, and he’d thought it was because of how much of herself she’d used.
He was at the end of his rope, though, and there wasn’t anyone else to turn to.
He’d come up with the briefest spark of an idea, but it wouldn’t work either.
He found her in her room, a DataTrack projecting a book but discarded on her bed. She had a screen up in front of her and was staring at the Commonwealth’s fleet, magnified so that one could see the awesome force.
He stepped inside, and the door closed behind him. She didn’t turn to look at him, just said, “It’s amazing, isn’t it? What my father started and what it’s become. Just looking strikes me with awe.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“I know,” she said. “The crazy thing is, the warriors aren’t even on those ships anymore—or at least, the foot soldiers aren’t. They’ve already taken the planet. That is simply the space force. Too bad they’d shoot us down before we could board them, huh?”
He moved over to a chair in the corner of the room and took a seat. He was quiet for a few minutes, staring at the fleet. The AllMother said nothing either.
He finally worked up the nerve to ask the first question. “We’ve always been honest with each other, Mother. I need to know honestly, do you think we’re done?”
Alistair could see her profile and watched as a smirk appeared on the right side of her face. “What do you mean by ‘done,’ Prometheus?”
“You’re staring at it. You just explained it all in a few sentences. Do you think this is the end?”
Her smirk blossomed into a smile. “Do you remember when we were heading to that dreadnought, and I told you a bit about myself?”
He nodded. “I do.”
“The good thing about being ancient and still having your memory is that you have a story for everything. I don’t know if this one is the right story, but I’ll tell it if you want to listen.”
How much have you grown, Allie? Luna’s voice asked him. In the beginning, you barely wanted to be around this woman, and now you crave her advice.
“I’ll listen as long as you talk, Mother.”
Chapter Seventeen
Only two people alive understood the story she told: her and her brother. Everyone else was dead.
It took a long time, but Alexandria was finally starting to think of herself as the AllMother. She was a little over a hundred years old and finally felt she was starting to learn how the universe worked.
Or that was what she had thought.
Much, much later, the AllMother would realize she’d spent the beginning of her life running from her brother. She couldn’t mount any sort of insurrection because she was simply staying alive.
When it was happening, though, she didn’t understand that.
At a little over a hundred years old, she appeared to be in her mid-thirties, and she’d blossomed into a beautiful woman. However, she only paid attention to such things when it helped her move forward. Men could be simple creatures, after all.
None of that mattered at the time of this story, though. It was all background she gave Alistair so he’d understand she wasn’t the same person then she was now.
Alexander, her brother and first of his name, had found her.
All of her deception and strategy had been for naught. Her brother had left Earth because, in his mi
nd, nothing would matter until he possessed her.
The AllMother had thought she was too far away. She’d thought she was too clever, but while she’d been building a movement, her brother had been building technology and creatures so close to him they were almost indistinguishable.
“Another sector’s down,” the AllMother’s second in command said.
When the AllSeer’s fleet dropped into the third dimension, they’d retreated to a bunker beneath the ground, hoping to command the battle from there. It wasn’t what the AllMother wanted, but she now understood the need to remain alive. Others could die, but if she did, the movement ended.
She and her council had attempted to beat her brother back. The planet was fortified, and she had an army.
Yet she was losing, and the second sector to go off the grid showed that soon, all would be lost. There were five sectors in total, and her brother was attacking the power grid, destroying her ability to attack beyond her foot soldiers.
The AllMother’s soldiers couldn’t withstand her brother’s. They were very nearly a different species.
Twelve people were inside the bunker, each of them with a critical task in front of them. Alex was the only person above the fray, trying to take it all in so she could make the right decision.
“The fourth sector is taking heavy damage,” someone reported.
“How long can it hold?” she asked without looking away from the screen in front of her.
“Ten minutes tops.”
Alex’s screen showed the fleet. Her brother’s arrogance knew no bounds. He’d put his dreadnought within her defense system’s distance.
Her second in command Rankin left his command post and stepped over to her side. “It’s time to consider escaping, AllMother.”
Alex didn’t look at him but kept her eyes on the ship.
Leave? she wondered. Escape while everyone else here dies?
“AllMother?” Rankin asked.
Alex let her mind go out, spreading from the bunker into the building above. She went farther like a mist laying across the land. Alex saw death. She saw her brother’s beasts murdering and pillaging.
We’ve already lost, she thought. It didn’t matter what they tried to do down here or how long the sectors held. They were done.
“It’s time to go,” Rankin whispered.
Alex shook her head and stood up. “No.”
The room stopped its movement. The tasks were paused. Everyone had heard her speak, and they all stopped to look at her.
Alex knew there’d be times to run, to flee her brother’s obsessed madness, but she also understood she couldn’t escape and let everyone else die. Was her life important for the movement? Of course. Was it worth everyone else’s?
No.
Alex looked at Rankin. “Begin the retreat. Get as many of ours as we can to our ships. You’ll know when to launch them.”
“What do you mean, we’ll know?” Rankin asked. “Where are you going?”
“To give us some time to escape.” Alex turned to the elevator and crossed the room. Everyone was still silent, unsure whether or not to question their leader.
Rankin hustled behind her, putting his hand on her shoulder as the elevator opened. “We’ll find another way. You have to survive.”
“Do as I say. I’ll see you on the other side.”
She stepped into the elevator and turned to see her council one more time. She didn’t know if she’d survive; the other side could be where the gods live. She was proud of what they’d done, and it had been her arrogance that had set them up like this. That had allowed them to burn.
She wouldn’t escape while the rest died. She’d buy them time to escape. She owed that to those who’d entrusted their lives to her.
The elevator rose to ground level. The AllMother quickly walked across the empty building and stepped into the open air. She looked at the skyline; flames burned in windows as corvettes rushed across the night sky, lasers slashing to kill those the AllMother loved.
She turned her eyes higher, seeing the dreadnought her brother resided in. It hung above her; he’d felt where she was despite her attempt to hide in the bunker. Their connection surpassed anything Alex had thought possible between two humans. It felt like more than science to her, more than technology—almost magical. She didn’t understand it, but then again, she didn’t have to; the proof was right above her. He was there. He had found her. He would never stop.
Neither will I, Alexander.
Her brother’s dreadnought was far too large for her to see the capsule as it left, but as it drew closer to the ground, she finally saw it. He was reaching down from the heavens to bring her to him.
The capsule touched down fifty meters from her. It stood on its end, twice as tall as her and capable of fitting ten or more inside. The door slid open, a silent invitation to come meet her brother.
The world around her continued to burn. People kept dying. They needed her in a way she hadn’t given to them before. They needed a sacrifice.
Alex went to the capsule and stepped inside. Silently, she sat down, letting the seat’s straps wrap around her, ensuring that there would be no escape. The capsule took off, and Alex left her children behind.
It didn’t take long for the capsule to reach the dreadnought. She saw nothing as she rose, only knowing she’d finally reached her destination because movement stopped.
The capsule opened, and two massive Myrmidons stood just outside. Their sabers were drawn, their faces and bodies heavily armored. The straps holding Alex released, and she stood and exited the capsule.
She walked behind one of the Myrmidons and in front of the other, the two of them guiding her to her brother.
It’d been one hundred years since she’d last seen him; she’d only heard about the changes. Rumors had fluttered through the universe about technological distortions of his DNA, furthering their father’s work to make him into some kind of monster.
If the Myrmidons she’d come across were any indication, Alex wasn’t sure how much of her brother was left. Perhaps none.
The walk felt like a long one, much longer than the capsule ride had been. Finally, though, the Myrmidons moved to either side of Alex, leaving her in front of double doors.
They slid into opposite sides of the wall.
Alex’s brother, Alexander de Finita, the first of his name, stood in front of her. He was on the other side of the room, facing a window that allowed him to peer down at the destruction he’d caused.
“Come in, sister,” he boomed. It sounded like her brother, yet different, as if something else was inside him.
Alex stepped through the doors. They quietly slid shut behind her, and she was alone with the man she’d been fleeing from.
“Stop what you’re doing,” she told him. “Stop and leave this planet, Alexander.”
“The name you’ve chosen for yourself…I found it quite interesting. The AllMother, because you’ll take anyone in, yes?” He still didn’t turn to look at her. Even his stance in this room during an attack showed his ridiculous arrogance. To be in a room so close to the edge of the ship was deadly. If it took a direct hit here, he was dead.
“I’ll kill us both, Alexander,” she told him. “I’ll tear this dreadnought apart if you don’t quit.”
He moved his hands behind him, crossing his forearms over one another at the small of his back. “I chose my name based on what you did. If you’re everyone’s mother, then I’m the one who sees the future. I see it all, Alexandria. Why do you keep running from me? With your mental abilities, you have to know I’m going to get what I want. Even now, look at all these people dying, and for what? I’m inevitable.”
Alex took a few steps into the room. It was an empty space, no computers, screens, or even places to sit—just space and windows.
“Are you going to stop, or are we going to die?”
The AllSeer turned around then.
He was huge in a way Alex hadn’t imagined was possible. His bo
dy bulged from his clothes as if ready to burst out. His muscles seemed ready to explode from his skin as if they couldn’t be contained by anything.
His face was larger, his skull having grown with the rest of his body.
He still had the same psychopathic calm Alex had known on Earth.
“I’ll stop,” he said, “if you stop. Agree now to do as I want, and everything happening beneath us will end in the next few minutes.”
For a brief second, Alex thought about asking what he wanted but then forced such nonsense from her mind. She hadn’t come here to negotiate. If she was going to sacrifice herself, it would be a true sacrifice, not giving him what he wanted. “Enough. It seems all you know is death and destruction. So be it.”
The AllMother’s mind had been of a different caliber back then. She hadn’t reached her zenith.
Alex now understood why this room was empty; her brother was giving her no weapons to attack him with. She didn’t care.
Her mind rushed forward, and the AllSeer smiled.
He ran at her, holding no weapons either.
The two of them collided—one’s mind, the other’s body. Alex grabbed his arms, doing her best to stop his forward movement. His power was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. He was everywhere at once, even as she slammed his head with a force that would have snapped a lesser man’s neck. He was faster than her mind, somehow able to dodge the mental power she thrust at him.
The AllSeer was gaining ground, and Alex had no doubt that when he finally reached her, she was done.
The closed doors folded like aluminum foil as she blasted through. The two Myrmidons who stood out there grabbed for their weapons, but it was too late. Alex had them. The sabers came to life, lasers springing from the hilts. She ran them through their owners as she brought them toward her.
The AllSeer saw them coming. He reached forward, and with a might Alex couldn’t imagine, wrenched one of them out of her control.
Saber versus saber, the two battled. One floated in the air, wielded by an invisible hand, the other held by flesh. The AllSeer danced around her attacks, much more adept at hand-to-hand combat.