Fade looked horrified. “Are you insane? You can’t leave your father and that thing in charge of the army outside!”
I looked at Fade. “Can you think of any reason other than morality that I would risk my life and the lives of my friends to stop it?”
Fade opened his mouth then closed it. “It occurs to me trying to appeal to your sense of decency would be a bad idea right now.”
“Yes,” I said softly.
“What’s he talking about?” William asked, looking at Clarice.
“We’re not getting paid,” Isla said.
“Oh fuck no!” William said, aiming his rifle at Fade.
“No surprises there,” Anya said.
I was about to say more but the room started to shake and churn with Zoe’s body as well as the sentinel’s sliding down across the ground while I had to brace myself against one of the nearby slabs. Eventually the room stabilized, but everything around us continued to rock.
“What’s happening?” Servilia asked, looking between us.
“The temple appears to be a starship,” I said, taking a deep breath. I recognized the feel of takeoff as well as the amount of force needed to break orbit. “One the Kathax Prime or my father has finally managed to get it space worthy.”
Some days it just didn’t pay to get out of bed.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“The temple is a frigging starship?” William muttered as the ground settled beneath us. “Great, just great.”
“It gets us off the planet,” I pointed out, wondering if it was William’s goal to be the whiniest man who ever lived. “How big do you think this thing is, anyway?”
“Three thousand kilometers.” Servilia—no, Vi—said. “At least, that was what Aunt Zoe always said.”
My eyes briefly moved back to Zoe’s corpse on the ground before I picked her up and carried her to one of the slabs. I pulled off my great coat and placed it over her corpse, more for Vi’s benefit than my own. My sister, as far as I was concerned, died a very long time ago and I hoped there were no more remaining bioroids containing her memories.
“God dammit,” William said. “We’re on a frigging war moon.”
“There’s no such thing,” Clarice said. “Those only exist in science fiction.”
“Tell it to the race of ancient gods we’ve pissed off,” William said. “I’m sure they’ll be fine with explaining why building one is impossible.”
That amused me. “If it was buried on the planet, I don’t think there will be much left from its takeoff.”
“It was a shit planet anyway,” Isla said. “It reeked of a species neither mourned nor remembered. Too much like humanity might end up being if we don’t stop the Kathax Prime.”
“Yes, let’s do that with the power of friendship,” William said. “I’m sure courage and pluck will overcome the enormous number of undead robot monsters wandering around the halls.”
“You don’t need to be sarcastic,” Isla said.
“Since when have we ever not been sarcastic?” William said. “I vote to make it our ship’s motto: ‘There’s no problem too big to grouse about.’”
Clarice looked between. “He has a point.”
“It’s a catchy motto,” Anya said. “I dinnae think I could come up with one better.”
“No one speaks like that on our homeworld,” William said, looking at her. “You’re doing the accent on purpose.”
“Maybe I am,” Anya said, not changing her accent in the slightest. “It preserves our culture.”
“It preserves—” William started to say before Clarice covered his mouth.
“Shut up, please,” Clarice said. “There’s a bunch of force-fields outside this room keeping the ship’s personnel out but I don’t know if it at any point they’ll go down or the A.I. piloting this vessel will shut them down. We need a plan and we need it fast.”
I hoped they weren’t relying on me for that. Who did they think I was, the captain? Oh right. Yeah, I was going to have to get that motto inscribed on the side of the Melampus if we ever saw that again.
“Could you, uh…” Vi pointed to the corpse of my sister on the slab. “Just if you don’t mind?”
I nodded. I’d been planning to anyway. “Of course.”
I turned around from where Zoe was lying and walked back to the group, cataloguing our options. Every second we wasted here was another chance for the Kathax Prime to send his creatures after us. Presuming I could trust anything Zoe said, it was dealing with the virus she’d made from Judith’s memories, but that didn’t necessarily mean we were safe. Quite the opposite, in fact.
“So what is our plan?” William asked. “Because if I’m not getting paid for this job then I’m all for hoping Albion gets destroyed by cyber zombies.”
“Can we call them something else?” Clarice asked, looking over. “I feel like I’m in a bad holo-vid whenever you call them that.”
“We’re fighting Cassius’s evil family, their Elder Race master, and an army of corpse-bots on a giant mobile military space station,” Isla said, walking over to me and taking my hand before offering hers to Clarice. “I think we are well and gone past the point of being in a bad holo-vid.”
“Maybe it’s a good one,” Anya said. “Certainly, it sounds like one I would watch. I hope it has a lot of sex and explosions.”
“No problem there,” Clarice said, taking Isla’s hand. “My suggestion is we find a communications relay, send a signal to the Melampus, and board it. Forget this entire mission ever happened and let the Commonwealth sort it out. All in favor?”
“Aiye,” Everyone but myself, Fade, and Terra said at once.
“Cassius?” Clarice sad.
“There’s still my father’s fleet out there,” I said, frowning. “Assuming the Melampus is still intact—”
“Don’t you dare suggest otherwise,” William said, pointing at me. “I love that ship. More than I will ever love any woman.”
“That explains so much,” Clarice muttered under her breath.
William shot her a glare.
“Assuming the Melampus is still intact, we might just been luring them to their deaths,” I said, taking a deep breath.
“We still have a chance to get out if there’s local starships here,” Clarice said. “I admit, that’s taking an awfully big risk, though, especially if they’re drones.”
“Goddammit,” William muttered.
“It’s a plan,” I said, frowning.
“A bad one,” Fade said, pausing. “I need to stop this Kathax Prime and destroy him. I apologize for the way you have been treated, Captain Mass, but it is still my duty to try to save the Commonwealth. I have no idea how I’m going to do it, but your father and his patron are an existential threat to the human race.”
“Unless he just wants to conquer us all,” William said. “In which case, I suggest the Commonwealth surrender.”
“That’s not an option,” I said, thinking about the Kathax Prime’s ideas for uplifting us.
At least as Judith explained them.
“I’ll help,” Anya said.
I did a double-take. “Really?”
Anya sighed. “As much as I hate the Commonwealth and everything they stand for, that’s limited to a few thousand beings on Albion and in their military. They’re the ones who ruined my world and destroyed Crius. The rest of the galaxy shouldn’t have to suffer because of their actions.”
“You shame me,” I said, taking a deep breath.
“We’ve done our best to try to do the mission, Cassius,” Clarice said, looking nervous. “But without the Planet-Killer, I don’t think there’s an option for us to destroy this place.”
“Then allow me to provide another alternative,” my father’s voice spoke behind the group.
Clarice immediately spun around and aimed her rifle, firing repeatedly into the air.
All she struck was the wall of the medical facility.
Seconds later, a hologram of my father appeared sta
nding in mid-air. He looked the same as he had down on Kolahn IV. There was a mischievous look on his face and I could tell he was amused by the attempts to kill him.
“Ah, yes,” Cassius the Elder said. “The assumption I’m enough of an idiot to go in person. A flaw which my daughter was clearly guilty of.”
I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Why?” Cassius the Elder said, shrugging. “She had every confidence you wouldn’t kill her, but didn’t realize you’d done it once and would do it again. That was her mistake. Most people don’t have the opportunity to live multiple lives and she got more than her share. Mind you, it’s not like she’s gone. I have an endless supply of little puppy-like devoted scientists like her. Thomas will be harder to replace.”
I stared at him. “You bastard.”
“Oh don’t be a hypocrite,” Cassius the Elder said. “Do you really think she cares about your guilt, wherever she is?”
“Will someone shut this guy up?” William asked, looking back at me.
“I wish I could,” I replied. “Zoe said you had this entirely under control.”
“I did until you arrived,” Cassius the Elder said. “The Kathax Prime was a wonderfully gullible being for the fact that his brain was the size of a planet. Seeing as we’ve finished his associate in the Kathax Beta off, though, I’m going to need you to close this deal for me.”
“Isn’t enough you betrayed everyone in your Free Systems Alliance?” I asked. “Why the hell would I want to help you?”
“They said they’d give their lives to destroy the Commonwealth and they did,” Cassius the Elder said. “Right now this ancient piece of Elder Race technology is readying itself to bring itself over Albion. It will promptly shell everything there and start turning the survivors into tools for uplifting humanity. I’m doing my best to try and convince a being with the brain the size of a planet this is a bad idea.”
“Who possibly could have seen this eventuality coming,” I said, shaking my head.
“It’s your doing,” Cassius the Elder growled, pointing at me. “You brought another of the Elder Races here and threatened it. Now it thinks it needs an army to protect itself.”
Which it did, but that wasn’t an argument I wanted to forward. “The Kathax Beta, Judith, whatever you want to call her, is dead. Zoe helped bring about her end.”
Cassius nodded. “Which was a long shot from the very beginning, but I never entered this negotiation without an ace up my sleeve. It’s why I need you alive for the next forty minutes or so as the fleet prepares to use the gate to go to Albion.”
“No!” Fade said, perhaps a bit too dramatically. “There’s twelve billion people on Albion!”
“And there’s a trillion humans across the Spiral,” Cassius the Elder replied snidely. “None of which are going to be able to do a damn bit of difference against the Kathax Prime unless we deal with him now.”
I closed my eyes. “How exactly are we supposed to do that?”
“I deliver you to him,” Cassius the Elder replies. “The infection you delivered to the temple itself hasn’t spread far enough to affect him. You need to convince him to merge with you directly and hopefully it’ll finally bring an end to the thing.”
I laughed, actually laughed. “That’s your big plan? Convince one of the smartest beings in the universe to do something painfully stupid?”
“Well, we’re in this situation because of you,” Cassius the Elder said. “We’re also both in locations he can’t hear us—at least hopefully that’s still the case.”
“This is an even worse plan than aligning with it in the first place,” I said bitterly. “Why me?”
“You’re the one with the virus in you,” Cassius the Elder said. “Half the systems on the temple are shutting down. I’m hoping I can con the damn thing into believing he can find a cure for it in your system.”
“That’s a big if,” I said, staring at him.
“We’re out of options,” my father said. “The question is whether I am going to get your cooperation for this or have to send in my army to get you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What do you get out of this?”
Cassius the Elder smiled. “As long as I’m alive, I can still rebuild my empire. That, by itself, is enough.”
Vi looked up at me. “Are you a really a clone of him? It’s hard to believe.”
“Don’t listen to him, Cass,” Clarice said, looking at me. “Anything he says has to be taken with a grain of salt.”
“We’re past that,” I said, taking a deep breath. “All right, Father, I’ll go with you. I want you to force your armies to stand down, though. You’ll let them leave and let the Melampus come forth to pick them up.”
“You’re not making this decision for me,” Clarice said, her voice calm but cold. “We’re all in this together.”
I took Clarice by the shoulders and gave her a kiss. “I came here trying to find redemption and that’s what I have the possibility to find now. I mean, who else gets the chance to honestly sacrifice themselves for the rest of the world?”
“A lot of people,” Isla said, contradicting me and taking my arm. “The sacrifice for most of us is that we try our hardest to help others every day of our lives. It’s why I became a doctor. I don’t want to die in order to save lives, I want to live to save lives. It’s what I want from you.”
As far as I realized I’d badly mishandled my life, I realized in that moment I’d still had a few more hard lessons to learn. “I never should have become a warrior. I should have become a doctor like you.”
“You’d have ended up exactly like me,” Cassius the Elder said, staring at him.
“You said you made up that story about you and your child,” I said.
“I am a known liar,” Cassius the Elder said, frowning. “Are you ready to go?”
I kissed Isla on the lips and said, “Keep Clarice and yourself safe. I need you to look after Vi too.”
“I’ll be fine,” Vi said. “I’m just the most wanted girl in the galaxy by the Commonwealth. Imposter or not.”
“Imposter?” Fade asked.
William shook his head. “No goodbyes, Cassius. You’re only one hundred percent going to die if you plan to. You know, unless you’re dropped into the sun or something. Then you’re going to one hundred percent die no matter what.”
I pushed past him, smiling. “William, if we survive this, I promise to be your best friend and you mine.”
“Don’t make me wish you dead,” William said before giving me a light pat on the shoulder. “I’ve grown used to your presence.”
“I’m ready to go,” I said to my father’s hologram.
“Good,” Cassius the Elder said.
What happened next was shocking to me as a glowing light which seemed to move in and out of me before I found myself no longer surrounded by my friends in the medical bay. Instead, I was in a mammoth coliseum-sized chamber which had eight large walkways over vast chasms leading down an infinite abyss. In the center of the chamber on was a single large obelisk made of red crystal. It resembled the markers which I’d encountered the False Judith was.
The songs I’d heard earlier in the medical bay were much louder here and coming from all directions. I could feel strange energies moving in and out of my body like I was being scanned but it felt more like this was a center of powers humanity hadn’t yet discovered. This was the “brain” of the temple and where the Kathax Prime had been worshiped for millennia by the long-dead Kolahn.
I could hear voices surrounding me and for a moment I wondered, against all reason, if he’d somehow trapped the consciousness of his followers within the computer banks around me. That the urge to commit mass suicide had been motivated by a desire to become one with their god. It was only slightly more insane than everything else I’d experienced.
My father was standing beside me, roughly three feet away. “Your friends have been teleported to your ship.”
I stared at him. “Teleportati
on is impossible.”
“For human science,” Cassius the Elder said. “For the Elder Races, it’s about as difficult as taking one step after another.”
I considered reaching out to push my father out over the edge of the walkway we stood on but hesitated before shaking my head. My father might be willing to kill his own children or, at least, ignore their deaths, but I wasn’t going to become him.
Not even if he richly deserved to die.
“How do I know you didn’t just kill them?” I asked.
“You don’t,” Cassius the Elder said. “However, I wanted you to come here willingly when I could have just taken you.”
He had a point. “So what now?”
“You die,” Cassius the Elder said, turning to the obelisk. “He is here, my lord. The only member of the Young Species to have killed one of your kind. A person who carries within his cybernetics the remains of the Beta’s code. Please, cleanse yourself of what afflicts you and bring us closer to ascension.”
My father could not have sounded more bored or disinterested.
“Before I die,” I took a deep breath, “I just wanted you to know: I’ve always hated you.”
“Thank you,” Cassius the Elder said. “The feeling is mutual. Oh, by the way, I’m in control of the fleet and am the one directing it toward Albion. The Kathax Prime isn’t going to do anything but kill you, but I’m going to kill every single person on the planet, avenge Crius, then rule the human race like a king.”
He vanished in a glowing nimbus of light.
“Well dammit,” I said, staring at the empty space where he used to be. “Why do I keep believing him?”
I was alone. Alone in a dark and empty chamber which didn’t seem to be any more filled with a god’s presence than the state-run churches on Crius. “Are you going to speak to me or not? If you’re going to kill me then you can do that too. I don’t regret anything I’ve done. Your race is monstrous. The Kathax Beta deserved to die.”
Nothing.
Well this was anticlimactic. “Listen, if you’re not going to do anything, I have two beautiful women waiting back for me on my starship so I’ll just—”
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