Lucifer's Nebula

by Phipps, C. T.

  “Your father’s plan is impressive,” Clarice said, not reacting with the same revulsion I had. “It helps explain how he set this all up, though.”

  “He’s a man of great charisma and loathsome ambition.” I had no idea how I would even begin to explain what he’d revealed to me. “His whole plan to use an imprisoned Elder Race member and the Commonwealth against the Community is insane. I don’t know if he’s a genius or a madman.”

  “Why not both?” Clarice said, sighing. “You and Ida both have said everyone who is remembered for anything is usually standing on a pile of bodies.”

  “There’s apparently no limit to the size of the pile my father is willing to create,” I said, disgusted with him.

  Clarice chuckled then frowned. “You don’t think you’ll be able to convince your father to accept the peace treaty?”

  “Not a chance. Peace is a hard sell when you’re winning.” I had to admit, Zoe was probably the bigger impediment than my father. I could tell he’d been tempted by the offer of the Commonwealth’s surrender. Mind you, I’d failed miserably as a negotiator since the introduction of Servilia had distracted me from asking more about what was going on with the soldiers in his service. They were still creepily obedient and yet I hadn’t had a chance to ask because I’d been too blown away by my sudden promotion to parent…brother…goddammit.

  “It’s not just peace but victory,” Clarice said, sitting up and letting the covers fall away from her chest.

  “Victory which does not provide him power is no victory at all,” I said. “He’d rather be viceroy of the Community than liberator of a thousand worlds. Though, honestly, I’m not sure membership in the Community as a vassal state is objectively worse than serving the Commonwealth.”

  “It would also mean losing our freedom,” Clarice said. “We’d be conquered.”

  “There are worse fates,” I said, thinking of my dead world. If we’d killed Germanicus or submitted a year into the war, or, God forbid, never started it, we could have changed our destiny but we’d been too sure of ourselves to believe we could lose. We’d thought surrender was worse than death and they’d proven us wrong.

  Clarice’s look told me she was furious at the very idea of contemplating submission to the Community. “Is peace worth bending your knee?”

  I decided my bed wasn’t going to get any warmer by saying yes. “You’re right, of course. The weight of it all is just crushing sometimes. We have to convince my father to accept this treaty, no matter the cost, or force his followers to.”

  Clarice’s expression softened and she said. “You’re telling me what I want to hear.”

  “Maybe,” I said, sighing. “It doesn’t mean it’s not true. I don’t have any answers.”

  “No one does.” Clarice flopped back on the bed and spread her arms, taking my hand. “It seems we’re caught between a choice of tyrants.”

  I nodded. “For now. What do you want, Clarice? We don’t have to be here. We can just let the Kathax Prime and the false Judith sort this out themselves. It’s not our place to stop my father’s idiocy.”

  “If not us, then who? We’re the only good guys here,” Clarice said. “Don’t you want to be a hero?”

  “Not particularly, no.” I’d long since purged myself of that. You couldn’t be a hero and a mass murderer. I knew where I stood on history’s scales.

  Clarice slapped me on the side. It hurt but I just grunted a bit. “Not funny.”

  “I’m not trying to be funny,” I said, sighing. “I really am running as fast as I can away from trying to do the right thing. I want to look after my crew and try not to be involved in the galaxy’s politics since it is all corporations and government interests anyway.”

  “Funny, I thought I was protecting you,” Clarice said.

  “Yeah, I got that,” I said. “You and Isla both want to make the galaxy better. So that’s why we’re here—trying to make peace with a man who believes he’s saving the galaxy from tyranny for a society that provides stability for three-quarters of the human race by ruthlessly stomping on anyone who steps out of line.”

  “So which is the lesser evil?” Clarice asked.

  “I’m not sure there is one,” I said, sighing. “Good and evil depend on who is benefiting from what action.”

  “Then let’s focus on killing one of the Elder Race monsters manipulating us,” Clarice said, frowning. “Punishment for beings who have done unimaginable evil.”

  I didn’t bring up the fact Kathax Prime wanted to uplift humanity and bring an end to the Elder Races’ cycle of destruction. The fact he wanted to turn us into yet another slave race for his race mitigated my problem with it, somewhat.

  “Yeah, I guess so. If the choice of evils is mine, I choose to blow this guy and his prison to hell,” I said, choosing him as much because he was my father’s patron as the fact he was the only one I knew how to kill.

  “Good, because it’s already in motion,” Clarice said.

  I blinked then turned to her. “What now?”

  Clarice grinned. “Well, I had a conversation with Isla and Major Terra. The three of us decided you were probably going to dither about what was right so we should just start making preparations to blow up the temple ourselves.”

  I was stunned.

  “That’s what Isla is doing in the medical bay. She’s scoping the land while Major Terra is looking for escape vectors so we can make our journey there. I’ve already got the location of the temple from the castle’s central computer.”

  I stared at her. “You used my conversations with my father and sister as a distraction.”

  “These aren’t soldiers,” Clarice said, her voice cold. “All the hundreds and thousands of people running this place aren’t even people.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, knowing exactly what she was referring to. I was just surprised she’d picked up on it as well.

  “I can’t put it into words,” Clarice said. “They move around as in a trance. They respond only when spoken to and do their duties mindlessly.”

  “Maybe they’re merely well trained soldiers,” I said.

  Clarice closed her eyes. “I think they’re dead.”

  I stared at her. “Have you been drinking?”

  Clarice looked at me and I realized she was serious. “I believe you. I sensed something like this.”

  “Sensed?” Clarice said.

  “I…sometimes see things,” I said, trying to put it into words.

  “Now I’m worried,” Clarice said.

  I shook my head. “It’s not important now. You realize Isla and the others can’t face an army, right?”

  “They’re deeply stupid,” Clarice said, frowning. “The one advantage we have over them. Besides, we have an ally here in the castle. One of the few individuals who hasn’t been changed.”

  I hesitated to ask as the only person I could think of would be my brother. While I greatly admired Clarice, I had to say that was an incredibly poor choice of actions. After all, my brother was a spy and they were not the sort of people you wanted to take on faith. “Who?”

  “You know,” Clarice said, clearly overestimating me. “The others should be preparing a distraction right now.”

  “My father isn’t a stupid man, Clarice,” I said, staring at her. “He’s going to be watching you like a hawk. Watching us like a hawk.”

  “I’d rather risk everything than leave you here,” Clarice replied.

  “Clarice—”

  That was when there was a knock on the door.

  Isla then contacted me on my cyber-comm. “Don’t answer the door.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “There’s a group of Void Marines outside it. They’re here to kill you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Nothing gets you out of bed at night like someone trying to kill you. At least, that was what my combat instructor, Mr. Gibson, had always said. Grabbing my fusion pistol from underneath my pillow, I tried to figure out as to m
ake sure they didn’t charge into the room immediately.

  I decided on blasting the key panel of the room. That wouldn’t hold them for long but would prevent the door from being overridden the same way Clarice had done my ready room. My lover, not needing an explanation for what was going on, rolled away herself and immediately made a grab for her rifle at the side of the bed. I think it said everything it needed to be about our lives that neither of us went to sleep unarmed anymore.

  Unfortunately, I had made a critical error by leaving my proton sword on the other side of the room since that was it contained my personal barrier. I had been intending to keep it underneath or the side of the bed but had gotten…preoccupied. I thus made a leaping dive toward it. It hurt a great deal more than it should have due to where I landed, my lack of apparel, and the fact that the floor was made of stone.

  Still, I took my weapon in hand, threw it to the ground, and aimed my fusion pistol at the door. I didn’t know who had sent our attackers—my father, the Kathax Prime, Judith, or the Beltane Bunny—but I wasn’t about to let them take me down. Indeed, killing people was remarkably straightforward compared to everything else I’d had to make choices regarding. Clarice took position behind the bed with her rifle, looking ready to gun anyone down who might explode through the door. Then nothing happened.

  “Huh,” I said, waiting for an attack and looking over my shoulder at the windows.

  “Maybe they’re backing off,” Clarice said.

  “Maybe,” I said, skeptical. “But I doubt—”

  That was when the door slid open and I saw Isla, Major Terra, and William standing there over the bodies of four Void Marines. The three of them were carrying fusion rifles with noise suppressors on the ends. Highly illegal and extremely useful—which made me wonder why I hadn’t invested more to get myself one.

  I looked down at the corpses. “You know, I remember the Void Marines being of sterner stuff.”

  “The Imperial Marine Marksmanship Academy’s standards have slipped since there ceased to be an Imperial Marine Marksmanship Academy,” Isla said, walking through the doorway.

  If there was a chance of my father letting us off this planet willingly, something I’d doubted from the moment he refused to sign Ida’s treaty, that time had passed. We were officially enemy combatants now and surrounded by an entire army of hardened veterans. Then again, they’d come to my door armed and dangerous to begin with—I owed my friends my thanks.

  “Why are you naked?” Isla said, disrupting my thought process.

  “I was having sex with Clarice,” I said, as if it was obvious.

  “Without me?” Isla said, shaking her head. “Tsk-tsk-tsk.”

  “You said to keep him busy!” Clarice said. “This is busy.”

  “I hope you at least took pictures.” Anya grinned. Apparently, the former Shin was a bit of a pervert. At least by Grounder standards.

  “Oh, like we need them,” Clarice said, smirking as if the corpses of four soldiers at our feet was of no great concern. “I’ll make a movie when something interesting happens in the bedroom.”

  “You offend me,” I said, putting my hand over my heart. “I find personal private sex to be an art form.”

  Clarice grinned. So did Isla.

  “Words cannot express my disgust and revulsion,” William said, avoiding looking at us all.

  “Would you help me with the bodies?” Anya asked, looking down at the corpses.

  “Sure,” William said.

  The two of them then dragged two corpses as Isla and I did the remainder. William then lifted a multi-tool and caused the door to slide closed. Apparently, my plan to shoot the lock worked less effectively in real life than I’d seen it work in holos.

  Fool on me.

  “Are alarms about to go off?” Clarice asked, standing up from behind the bed.

  Isla tossed Clarice’s clothes to her. “It depends if you remembered to shut down the bugs and cameras in this place.”

  “Of course.” I started to dress as well. “That was the first thing I did. It’s not going to help if my father order his soldiers to kill us, though.”

  Honestly, I was half-expecting a group of reinforcements to burst through the door right now. Surely someone had heard my blast if not theirs or seen them running down the halls with heavy weapons? What was going on here?

  “Your father strikes me as the kind of guy who, if he suspected it would take four Void Marines to take you out, would send eight,” Clarice snarked as she zipped up her flight suit. “Whoever sent these soldiers, it wasn’t him.”

  She had a point there. Was the Kathax Prime responsible? Some automated system? Zoe? We had a multitude of enemies here and precious few clues.

  “My father is a very dangerous man,” I muttered. “Albeit, I’m inclined to think if he wanted me dead, he’d just invite me into his study and stab me.”

  “Like he did before?” Isla asked.

  “He didn’t stab me,” I said. “Just distracted me and threw me off his game, apparently before this ambush.”

  “I’m starting to realize why you turned out the way you did,” William said. “Not that it keeps me from wanting to cave your dad’s skull in.”

  “Go ahead,” I said, sighing. “He’s made it clear he’s no father to me. He never was.”

  That was when I noticed one of the soldiers on the ground started to twitch and I wondered if he or she wasn’t quite dead yet. Clarice definitely noticed and went to remove their weapons from them, tossing them on the bed.

  “Must we fight him?” Major Terra said. “He seems like he’s got a fairly good idea. I may not agree with his methods but his plan to uplift humanity is sound.”

  I stared at her. “How do you know about—”

  “A good plan for a psychotic asshole,” William interrupted.

  “Yeah,” Major Terra said. “Still sound.”

  “Evil space god whispering into his ear,” I said, as if that was actually a valid argument to her point.

  “Right,” Major Terra said, looking down. “There is that.”

  “Why are we alone?” I asked, deciding to focus on what was important. “We should be drenched in troopers now.”

  “We’ve prepared a distraction,” Isla said, a mischievous smile on her lips. “Something that should give us enough time to get to the prison temple and blow it up. Stage two should be starting any moment now.”

  I stared at her. “That smile is terrifying in ways I cannot adequately put into words.”

  There was more movement from the Void Marines.

  “Finish em off or secure them,” Clarice said. “Isla’s filling Cassius in about the details of my plan.”

  “Which she really should have cleared with me,” I said, glad to be free of the captaincy’s burden but not at all happy they felt they could do this without filling me in. Had I really been that bad of a leader? Okay, yeah, I had been, but that was just because I was a drunk and unhappy in the job.

  Right, maybe they had been justified in their plan.

  “Guys, you should look over at this,” William said, having opened the helmet of one of the Void Marines. He stepped back and raised his gun at the “corpse” with a look of revulsion on his face.

  I did, now fully dressed. My eyes widened as I saw something nightmarish. The face of the fallen soldier was almost completely rotted over and the smell hit me almost as quickly as the sight. His skull was visible underneath but seemingly transformed into metal with red electrical optics. It looked like someone had, somehow, started transforming his skeleton and nerves into metal.

  “What the hell?” William said, his finger on the trigger but not pulling it. Leaning in, he said, “Hello? You still alive, horribly disfigured person?”

  Right before the fallen Void Marine lifted its left hand and wrapped it around his neck. Honestly, in that moment, it felt a bit like karma.

  “Oh hell, I hate being right,” Clarice shouted. “Shoot him!”

  The rest of
the Void Marines started getting up off the ground. William fell to the ground among the fallen troopers even as they were peppered with energy rifle fire and a few shots from me as well. Somehow, miraculously, he wasn’t shot, though the trooper’s arm was blasted off at the elbow and hung from his neck until he ripped it off and hurled it at the wall.

  “What the fuckity fuck! Fuck!” William shouted, looking at the wall.

  “I really hope those walls are thick,” Clarice muttered, grimacing. “Otherwise stage two may not be enough.”

  “Fuck!” William shouted, firing repeatedly into one of the now-stationary targets.

  “Yeah, we got that,” Isla said, walking over to the ruined arm and picking it up. It tried to go for her throat but she held it at bay. “Mother Earth and all of her colonies, I think these bodies have been modified with micro-transformers.”

  “Excuse me?” I asked.

  “A branch of nano-technology that claims that machines can be used to modify existing matter into another form of matter, no matter how complex. Basically, say, turning flesh and muscle into complicated electronics.”

  “Fucking zombies!” William snapped, getting up and jumping away from the bodies. “Someone has made cyber zombies.”

  “It does look like that,” I said, looking down at that. “Some sort of infection designed to make people into machines.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” I said, staring at her. “As well as wholly impractical. Why the hell would someone make soldiers into machines instead of just manufacturing bioroids?”

  “I imagine he is,” I asked, staring. “But in order for his rebellion to succeed he needed to look like he had an army of unflinchingly loyal soldiers. Ones which would do anything he required and served in any capacity. I doubt this is anything more than the heart of the Free Systems Alliance, but it’s certainly enough to carry out his orders perfectly.”