Lucifer's Nebula

by Phipps, C. T.

  “You didn’t actually think I was going to sell functioning military armaments, did you?” I asked. “I’m not that far gone.”

  Isla hit me in the shoulder.

  Chapter Six

  The Melampus was a half-kilometer-long vessel that routinely docked in space above a planet before unloading its cargo there. That wasn’t a necessity on the Ring as the place was a combination of planet as well as space station. It’s what helped make it an economic hub as just short of a million ships could dock there for refueling while exchanging cargoes from the fringes of human space along with the Community.

  In this case, though, the “edges” of the Ring were functionally not that dissimilar to space stations and I didn’t have an atmosphere or sky. Entering a blue-gray warehouse the Melampus docked against, I saw the room was fairly indistinguishable from a thousand other locations I’d been to during my days as a spacer. Amazing how even the most magnificent sights can quickly lose their luster.

  “I wonder who built the Ring?” I muttered, walking along the many gray metal crates being unloaded by a couple of dozen members of the Melampus’s fifteen-hundred-strong crew.

  “The Elder Races,” Judith spoke on my built-in cyber-comm. “They were trying to direct the flow of development for humanity. The nobility decided to accelerate human development after impeding it for several centuries but along a similar technological line as the Community. The Ring is actually only a couple of decades old but has an entirely false history dating back millennium in its databanks of a race that was similar to several others. I imagine whoever came up with that will have a jolly old time watching archaeologists trying to track down their home world.”

  I blinked. “How the hells do you know that?”

  Also, it stunned me to find out the Elder Races were such petty creatures. I shouldn’t have been surprised since Judith had told me they amused themselves by “gardening” lesser races and playing them against one another for amusement, but it did. The power of gods at their fingertips and they spent it messing with the heads of lesser beings. That explained so much about the universe.

  I suppose it was better than the alternative of simply annihilating those who ever bored them but that was a threat they’d exercised literally tens of thousands of times. It made me sick to think it was a likely fate of humanity, possibly tomorrow, or possibly a million years from now. In a way, I supposed it was a good thing they were still choosing to play with.

  No, I couldn’t even pretend to believe that.

  Judith sighed. “It’s a Cognition A.I. thing. You have no idea the amount of information I have available to me that is forbidden to the general public. I’m even able to monitor the Elder Races’ transmissions despite them being on a sub-universal wavelength.”

  That didn’t sound possible since that would require the Melampus to have a receiver that humanity as a whole didn’t have. “Are you taking the piss with me?”

  “Not this time,” Judith said, chuckling. “There’s a lot of tech built into the ship by the Watchers that you don’t have access to. They really went all out in making this the best spy vessel possible.”

  “And then I went and stole it,” I said. “Ida must be fuming still, assuming she’s still alive.”

  Ida Claire, a pun on “I declare”, had been the previous owner of the Melampus. Despite having the matronly appearance of a New Atlanta grandmother, she’d actually been one of the Commonwealth’s spymasters. The Watchers had outfitted the antique star galleon with a host of advanced equipment and equipment that only a few on the crew knew about.

  Ida had then recruited an exceptionally capable group of misfits to provide a cover for her many strange missions and unusual business ventures. Were this a holovision serial, it would have been the creation of a loving family of true companions against the galaxy’s worst. This being reality, they’d all turned against her upon discovering they were being used for espionage against the Commonwealth’s enemies. Myself included.

  Of course, I’d known about it far before the rest of the crew and had initially been willing to go along with it. It was my lowest moment, even more than working for the Consortium, to consider helping the Commonwealth against the survivors of Crius. At least, that was what I told myself. It had required discovering Judith’s A.I. that had convinced me I had to do anything to keep her out of the Watchers’ hands. I’d even framed her, with Judith’s help, for numerous improprieties in hopes of making it impossible for her to follow me.

  “Do you want to know what happened to her?” Judith asked.

  I thought about that. “No, no I don’t.”

  “Good,” Judith said, muttering under her nonexistent breath. “I can’t access the Commonwealth intelligence agencies anymore.”

  “Excuse me? I thought you could hack into God’s servers,” I said dryly.

  “Perhaps,” Judith said. “Unfortunately, God doesn’t have what the Watchers do in Cognition A.I. of his own. It’s taken them a year but they’ve frozen me out. My avatars trying to get into their system are all destroyed.”

  That wasn’t good. “Can they track us?”

  “Oh Cassius,” Judith sounded contrary. “They could always track us. You don’t lose track of something like me.”

  That confused me more than I dared to admit. I was about to ask her more when I saw the doors to the docking bay open up to reveal Fade and a group of six armed mercenaries accompanying him. He was wearing a pair of black trousers, a white shirt, and a sparkling rainbow-colored mood-fabric cape. I didn’t think it was a group to rob us because they’d have brought more men. I fully expected the Dragon to arrive with a small army in order to take the cargo from us without paying.

  “We can still get the Dragon’s accounts, right?” I asked Judith.

  “I have large amounts of their information,” Judith replied. “Enough to thoroughly wreck the organization just from what they casually communicate about here. We won’t be able to get everything in their accounts, though, until we have a scan of the Dragon’s biometrics. If he doesn’t show up, this entire deal is going to go banana shaped.”

  “It already has,” I muttered.

  Fade proceeded to walk over to me as Clarice and several of the more intimidating-looking Melampus crew came up behind me. Truth be told, they were all laborers who couldn’t fight worth a damn with the actual danger to any potential foes coming from sniper’s positions I’d set up in empty crates around the chamber.

  “You are either very brave or very stupid,” Fade said, shaking his head.

  “Those two things are not contradictory,” Clarice said, putting her arm around my shoulder and giving me a squeeze. “As our captain routinely proves.”

  Judith giggled.

  I rolled my eyes then looked at Fade with false innocence. “I don’t know what you could possibly mean, Fade. Is there any reason why things shouldn’t go splendidly? We’re off to such a great start in our relationship.”

  “Laying it on a bit thick, aren’t we?” Clarice said.

  “Do you want to be captain? It’s not too late,” I said.

  “No,” Clarice said. “I come from a family of pirates and slavers. The moment I put on the captains hat, I won’t be able to resist swashing my buckle.”

  “I have no idea what that means,” I said.

  Fade crossed his arms. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. I’m stunned you decided to return after what happened.”

  “If that’s a confession, it’s a pretty piss-poor one,” I said, staring at his men. “Especially since the last time a bunch of armed men attacked me with better weapons and equipment, it ended poorly for them.”

  One of the mercenaries moved forward before Fade pushed him back with his left hand. “I had nothing to do with the attack on you. I may have had some plans for integrating you into our organization but is solely the Dragon who has decided to move against you.”

  “And why is that?” I asked, wondering what game he was playing at.
>
  Also, why was he warning me? Was I caught in yet another power struggle?

  Ugh.

  Judith heard that thought, unfortunately. “Yes, who possibly could imagine there’d be a power struggle in a criminal syndicate,” Judith said. “That is a possibility no one could have foreseen.”

  “Quiet,” I thought back. “No one likes a smartass A.I. You have to be solid to pull off sarcasm.”

  “That’s bio-prejudiced!” Judith joked, sounding forced. I think I heard it on one of the crew’s comedy downloads.

  “The Dragon has betrayed the Consortium by taking a side,” Fade said, sighing. “Unfortunately, being criminals, it’s not like we have by-laws I can expel him for breaking. At least when he’s willing to take half the organization with him.”

  “Which side wants to fuck me over?” I asked.

  “Both?” Clarice said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  Fade felt his face and muttered something about wishing the robot doctor was present. I almost punched him right there but let him continue. “There’s been a development in the Insurgency.”

  “What kind of development?” I asked, not sure what kind of development could possibly interest me. If the survivors of Crius and the other worlds conquered by the Commonwealth wanted to expend their lives like ammunition that was none of my concern. Even if it did involve my surviving family.

  I just had to keep telling myself that.

  Fade actually looked troubled. That caused me to worry. “The Free Systems Alliance managed to raid Albion.”

  I stared at him. “Is that all?”

  Fade shook his head. “You don’t understand. They hit the planet.”

  I blinked, letting his words soak in. Albion was the capital of the Interstellar Commonwealth and widely considered the most beautiful and prosperous world in the Spiral. It was also the most heavily guarded location with much of the Commonwealth’s stresses being the fact they kept their Home Fleet perpetually parked in the system. If the FSA had managed to strike the planet itself, it had to be chaos. It would call into question everything the Commonwealth claimed about their right to rule and invincibility in combat. Things I knew were complete bullshit but the average human did not. It was a game changer in terms of strategic position. They’d proven the Commonwealth vulnerable.

  Clarice, however, shamed me by pointing out my skewed priorities. “How many were killed?”

  “Five hundred thousand,” Fade said, his voice low. “A pitifully small amount, really, but it was near the capital city government districts where many families of soldiers as well as officials were located. If they were attempting to strike at Parliament, they failed miserably but they’ve got everyone fired up…or terrified.”

  A sick and ugly part of my soul approved of the deaths, civilians or not. The Commonwealth dropped hundreds of meteorites onto my world, destroying the environment and forcing the population to become homeless refugees in their own sector. It also killed five hundred million people, a fifth of the population. The Commonwealth’s acts made me join the first post-archduchy resistance groups, until they’d started to use child soldiers, and had almost driven me to slaughter the evacuees of the Ravager. I forced that part of my mind down. I had to be better than that. Not because I wanted to be a good person but because if I let the Commonwealth make me into a monster then they won completely.

  “That’s stupid,” Judith said, sounding bitter and contemptuous. “The Archduchy of Crius was already a fascist dictatorship ruled by a hereditary oligarchy. Which is a lot buzzwords. You’d think they’d have just stuck with one or two but no, they wanted the whole enchilada of evil. I know because I was a peasant thing.”

  “Judith,” I thought back to her. “Please shut up. I’m grieving. You were among the dead.”

  “Sorry. Don’t cry for me, though. Cry for the fact we didn’t all string up our leaders before the Commonwealth bombed us.”

  I stared at Fade. “What did this mean for the Dragon?”

  I got my answer a few seconds later as the doors to the warehouse opened up to reveal a disturbing sight as an eight-foot-long lizard, covered in an armored carapace, walked into the chamber. It had numerous spikes across its carapace as well as an intelligence in its eyes. The fact it had finger-like appendages on its legs and a belt covered in tools also indicated it was an alien rather than an animal. Huh, it seemed calling him the Dragon was just his descriptors being accurate.

  The Dragon was not alone, though as he had an honor guard of two dozen Void Marines dressed in black plastisteel armor. The subjugated Archduchy of Crius, or Republic of Crius as they tried to style themselves now, was officially an ally of the Commonwealth. The public hated the Commonwealth, those who would have gladly seen the aristocracy destroyed, and considered its allies toadies.

  Decimating the home world had been a bridge too far for even the greatest radicals, though, and the fact the Commonwealth had imposed horrific taxation to make us pay for the war only cemented their loathing. As a result, massive numbers of the disbanded Crius military had joined the false Cassius’s call to arms. A call to arms that needed me eliminated to prevent any inconvenient truths coming out.

  Clarice took my left hand. “Do you want to—”

  “Not yet,” I said. “Remember.”

  Clarice said, “I think we have bigger problems than the Consortium.”

  “I find that remark insulting,” Fade said, looking back at us.

  “You should,” I said.

  The Dragon moved to the center of the room as reinforcements poured in, both mercenaries of the Consortium as well as more members of the Free System Alliance. There were close to a hundred troopers here and it was a far greater number than I’d suspected for our plan to work.

  “Well, it would seem our partnership has ended,” I said, calculating ways of dealing with this situation.

  “Surrender?” Judith said in my ear. “I can break you free easier than fight this many.”

  “Possibly,” I whispered. “Though get those biometrics.”

  Judith made a noise I interpreted to be one of frustration that I was still confident we could pull this off. In fact, I wasn’t, but if I could make my crew rich with my sacrifice than that was the only heroism a person like me had left. God and the Devil knew I hadn’t led my previous crew to anywhere but their deaths. It was why I hated being captain. I wasn’t fit to lead anyone.

  “I’m afraid our partnership is just beginning,” Fade said, his voice low. “Amazingly enough, I believe the Dragon is here for us both.”

  I looked at him. “Oh?”

  Fade shrugged. “It seems my belief the Commonwealth will win and should be supported is an unpopular one with the Dragon.”

  “Great,” I muttered. “I’m going to die with a diehard Commie at my side.”

  Fade laughed at that.

  “Fall back, Clarice,” I said.

  “But—”

  “That’s an order,” I said, stepping forward and approaching the Dragon with my hands in my pockets. “Good evening, sir, or whatever the appropriate gender of your species is. We’ve brought your weapons as requested. If you’ll provide us our payment for the action, we’ll be on our way.”

  The Void Marines all raised their rifles at me as the mercenaries started moving around the chamber and securing the workers.

  “I see,” I said, sighing. “We’re not even going to play along are we? That’s the problem with criminals, none of you are as theatrical in real life as in the holos.”

  The Dragon growled. Its voice was a deep guttural baritone generated by a voice modulator built into its throat. “Colonel-Count Cassius Mass, the Butcher of Kolthas, the Fire Count, the son of—”

  “Just captain now,” I said, staring at him. “You can’t trust the Free Systems Alliance. Their ideology only extends to revenge and putting themselves in power.”

  “I’m counting on it,” The Dragon said, chuckling. “Fade, you have outlived your use
fulness.”

  Fade turned on his personal shield along with his men. They wouldn’t last five seconds.

  “Do you have what you need?” I asked Judith.

  “Yes,” she responded.

  “Then—” I started to say.

  That was when all hell broke loose.

  Chapter Seven

  Seconds before I was about to trigger my own ambush, another group initiated their ambush. Explosions triggered from across the docking bay from pre-placed charges around the equipment as stealth cloaks dropped all across the catwalks above, revealing a collection of twenty-four Shin Commonwealth soldiers wearing their silver bodysuits as they unloaded with 4-7 fusion rifles and grenades.

  Shin were a product of Shogun’s monstrous slaving society as they’d conducted illegal experiments on Commonwealth criminals, wiping their brains and replacing them with combat training as well as a fanatical loyalty to their government. Ironically, that was a product of my deranged sister’s research if Judith’s statements on them were accurate. They were soon retaliated against by the FSA forces present.

  Then a bunch of the dock workers pulled out their own weapons and started opening fire against both sides. I realized those individuals had to have been instilled there by Fade in order to set a trap for the Dragon. It made the entire fight even more ridiculous as I had set a trap as well. The whole thing was approaching a battle royale at this point.

  “Speaking of which,” Judith said over our cyber-comm, “whom do you want me to tell the others to fire at?”

  “Anyone who is shooting at our people!” I said, pausing before reconsidering. “The FSA!”

  After all, if I was going to pick a side in this, I wanted it to be the one that didn’t include my psychotic family.

  “As you wish,” Judith said dryly. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you about this.”

  As the air filled with fusion blast fire over my head and bouncing against my personal shield, I saw three automated turrets pop out of the top of shipping crates we’d set up. These began targeting the Dragon’s soldiers and Void Marines while riflemen fired from the insides of their crates.