If I ever retire, she thought, I want to spend my time like this. Delving into deep conversations. Laughing. With him.
And yet a fear had begun to grow in her. A fear that she would not survive this war.
The grays were planning a massive invasion. She had already repelled one assault, merely the first wave. She had lost her fleet, thousands of troops, and her arm. Even if she could come home with an Alliance fleet, the grays had all the time in the world. They could rebuild their army over and over, send wave after wave.
Was this a war humanity could not win?
She was still lying in bed with Isaac when the alarms blared.
"Captain!" Niilo said, speaking through a communicator. "Ten enemy saucers approaching. It's the grays."
She ran to the bridge.
When she got there, the battle was already raging.
The saucers fired their lasers. Blasts slammed into the Lodestar, shaking the shields. One of the two Gurami vessels—a tube of water with slender wings—shattered and spilled its contents into space. A Taelian starship, a modified asteroid with engines attached, split in two.
And then they fought back.
The Lodestar fired her cannons. Her companion ships were smaller and weaker, but they too fought with a fury, blasting the saucers with all their weapons. Humans and aliens—they fought side by side, shattering the saucers, routing the enemy. When the last saucer turned to flee, they chased and tore it apart.
It had only been a small sortie of grays, perhaps a group of scouts or spies. But to Ben-Ari, this victory was hope. It was unity. In the darkness, there was light.
They flew onward, leaving the wreckage of the saucers, until they reached Lemuria again.
"We vouch for her!" said the Gurami ambassador, floating inside a mobile globe of water.
"We vouch for humanity!" said the Silvan, his furry, disk-shaped torso balanced on several legs.
"Humanity is noble," said the Nandaki, already aging even after the short flight, for his species only lived for several months. "They are heroes in our realm."
One by one, the species spoke up for Ben-Ari. For humanity. She stood before the Galactic Council, eyes damp, chin raised. Proud.
Eredel, head of the Admissions Council, listened carefully, stroking his white beard and nodding his long snout. At his side, the shaggy Grumstaf huffed, snorted, swung his cane, but said nothing.
Finally the last alien had given his testimony.
Ben-Ari stood facing the council, silent, waiting.
Eredel walked toward her, his wide feet shuffling across the marble floor. A kindly smile spread below his mustache.
"I am proud to announce that humanity is now a member—"
"A junior member!" Grumstaf cut in.
Eredel shot his companion a glare, then looked back at Ben-Ari, and his smile returned.
"You are now a junior member of the Galactic Alliance." He clasped both her hands, the real and the prosthetic, and shook them. "Welcome, my friend. Welcome."
Tears in her eyes, Ben-Ari breathed a sigh of relief. On a whim, she hugged the bearded old Eredel. Farther back, Grumstaf scoffed. She ignored him.
"Thank you," she whispered, dampening Eredel's beard with her tears. "Thank you."
Light in darkness.
Hope in despair.
We can win.
CHAPTER SIX
A million years in the future, space was remarkably unchanged.
Marco stood inside Kaiyo's sensor suit, flying the mecha. The giant robot felt like his own body. It felt like swimming through a sea of stars.
"A million years seems so long to us humans," he said, speaking to Addy through his communicator. "But it's barely a lazy afternoon for the universe."
She flew beside him inside Kaji, the female mecha. She nodded.
"It took me longer to read your last book." She yawned. "We need some music as we fly."
She patched him into her audio feed. "Ripple" by the Grateful Dead began to play. For a moment they flew without speaking, listening to old music from a million years ago. It felt good to listen to music. To something familiar. Something human.
This is what we're fighting for, Marco thought. Music. Art. Beauty. The nobility of humanity. The grays make no art. Humanity can be cruel, petty, hateful, violent. But it can make beautiful music. It's worth fighting for.
They flew in silence, listening.
"Hey, Addy?" he finally said.
"Yeah?"
"I've been reading the news and catching up on the past million years. Guess what? The Maple Leafs still haven't won the Stanley Cup."
"I owe you an elbow to the ribs as soon as we reach Isfet," she said.
Isfet. It still lay light-years away. A desert planet, searing hot, a hellish world. It was there that the Nefitian monks had built their pyramid, had conducted their experiments. It was there that Ben-Ari had marooned them, smashing their starships, computers, and their time machine prototype. It was there that the monks had evolved, eventually becoming the grays, eventually perfecting time travel. It was there Marco and Addy now flew.
When Lailani had read the gray general's mind, she had seen a barren, desolate world. A pyramid rising to the glory of Nefitis. Ben-Ari, afflicted with visions after battling the grays, had seen the same place. It could only be Isfet. The desert world had become, over a million years, even more wretched, dark and desolate, filled with rust and death.
The mechas now flew toward that distant world. To face the grays on their own turf. To face the goddess. To face the terror that lurked within the pyramid. To destroy humanity's evil and restore their species to the path of light.
It seemed an impossible task.
What am I doing here? Marco thought. I never wanted to be more than a librarian.
He sighed. Life was not what he had expected.
"Think about it, Addy," Marco said. "We're a million years in the future. I can barely wrap my mind around it. According to everything we learned from the grays, Earth is gone. It's surreal."
"What's surreal?" Addy said.
"This!" Marco said. "Flying inside giant alien robots. Carrying four hundred marines inside our metal bodies. Being a million years in the future. Earth gone. Going on a quest to kill the Tick-Tock King, a monster inside a pyramid."
Addy's mecha tilted her head. "No, I mean—what does the word surreal mean?"
"It means this is fucked-up," said Marco.
Addy nodded. "Ayep. Shit's fucked-up all right. But we'll unfuck it, little dude. We're good at that. Unfucking things is our specialty."
Marco rolled his eyes. "Your specialty is poking me in the ribs. Wait. Addy! Stop! Stop poking me in the mecha!"
Kaji's colossal elbow drove into him. "Poke, poke!"
His mecha jolted. "Addy, my belly is full of marines, stop!"
They kept flying, moving at many times the speed of light. The Taolians, builders of the mechas, had been brilliant scientists; these ships could fly faster than any human vessel. The stars streamed at their sides.
Even at this remarkable speed, it would take days to reach Isfet. The mechas could be set on autopilot, allowing Marco to eat and sleep. But he spent most of his time in the mecha's head, strapped into the sensor suit. In here, Marco didn't feel like a passenger. He felt like Kaiyo himself, flying freely through space. It was a meditative experience—at least when Addy wasn't poking him and streaming her playlist into his cockpit.
Finally they saw it ahead: a small yellow star. The same star Ben-Ari had flown by a million years ago, picking up a distress signal. The same star around which she had found Yarrow, a planet of missing children, and Isfet, a planet of cruel monks. A planet with a pyramid. A planet where an evil empire had risen. The two mechas flew side by side, the marines within them, heading toward the star.
It begins, Marco thought, trying to suppress his fear. The great battle for Isfet. Two mechas against an army.
"You ready to kick some ass, Poet?" Addy said, speaking through hi
s comm.
His palms were sweaty. His heart was pounding. Even Deep Being could not calm him now. This seemed different than any other battle he had faced. In other wars, he had flown with fleets. Now it was just him, Addy, and two companies of soldiers. True, he had the mechas. And true, they were mighty machines. But surely the grays had hundreds of thousands of ships. Could he and Addy even get near Isfet, let alone reach the pyramid and kill the Tick-Tock King?
It was likely, Marco knew, that they were flying to their deaths. A foolhardy mission. A desperate attempt to stave off extermination.
But he only nodded.
"Yeah, Addy. Let's kick some ass."
They flew closer.
They flew in silence.
They glided through space.
"Weird," Addy said. "Aren't the grays guarding their star system?" She swung her sword and raised her voice. "Come on! Where are you fuckers? I wanna fight!"
"They must be deeper into the system, guarding their planet," Marco said.
"Where is that planet?" Addy groaned. "I can't see anything past that asteroid field."
Marco frowned as they flew closer. Countless asteroids flew ahead, most just the size of boulders, some the size of mountains.
"This asteroid belt wasn't here a million years ago," Marco said. "We studied the holograms."
"Poet, things change over a million years," Addy said. "Think about it! A million years before our day, dinosaurs roamed the Earth."
"Actually, a million years before our time, there were already early humans on Earth," Marco said.
Addy nodded. "Exactly! And they rode dinosaurs. I saw it on The Flintstones."
"You don't actually think—" Marco groaned. "Never mind. Fly with me between these asteroids. Let's find Isfet. At least the asteroids might hide our approach."
They flew between the asteroids. Addy sliced a few of the smaller rocks with her sword. Marco had to nudge one asteroid aside with his hammer. He kept working the mecha's scanners, seeking a planet-sized object. The scanners should have been able to detect a gravitational field of that size.
And yet, nothing.
"I think dinosaurs ate the planet," Addy said.
Marco looked around at the asteroids. He spoke carefully. "I think this is the planet."
Addy whipped her head from side to side. She looked at him. "You mean, these asteroids . . .?"
Marco nodded. "Pieces of Isfet. The planet was destroyed."
With her mecha's giant fist, Addy grabbed one of the rocks. She jostled it. "Fuck, Poet. My holographic scanners are showing me the chemical composition of this rock. It matches Isfet." She hurled the asteroid away. "Somebody got here before us! Somebody else destroyed the grays. Fuck. I wanted to do it!" She sighed. "Well, at least those fuckers got blown to bits."
Marco's heart sank. "Addy, this is the right year. The era when the grays have their empire. Nobody else defeated them." His head spun. "I don't think the grays come from Isfet."
"What?" She scoffed. "Of course they do! Ben-Ari visited here a million years ago, remember? Back when she marooned the monks. She saw a pyramid. That's where the monks lived. And when Lailani interrogated the gray, when she saw a vision of his homeworld? She saw a pyramid! The same pyramid."
"What if there are two pyramids?" Marco said. "Hear me out. Ben-Ari marooned the Nefitian monks on Isfet a million years ago, right? They evolved into the grays. They built saucers. If they had space travel, why stay on Isfet, a desert world? They must have moved to another planet—and built a new pyramid there." He looked around him at the asteroids. "This is all that's left of their old world. Hell, could be the grays themselves destroyed it. Maybe this place had bad memories."
Addy groaned. "Great. So they moved! How the fuck are we going to find them now? Does one of these asteroids have a forwarding address on it?" She grabbed an asteroid the size of a house and shook it. "Hey, any grays inside here?" She hurled the rock, slamming it into another asteroid. "Fuck!"
The two asteroids cracked.
Marco stared, frowning.
Inside that asteroid, had he seen . . .?
"Goddamn fucking stones!" Addy grabbed another asteroid and tossed it, then another, then a third. "How the fuck are we going to find the grays now? Out of all the planets in the galaxy!" She groaned and sliced an asteroid with her sword. "We'll never find them! We—"
"Addy!" Marco shouted. "Stop! The asteroids!"
"I know, they're fucking everywhere!" Addy said. "Getting in my way, and—"
"Addy, look!"
Finally she fell silent and stared.
"What the—?" she said.
Things were moving inside the shattered asteroids. Black-and-red tentacles reached out from them. Jaws emerged. The asteroids crumbled, hatching hideous creatures.
They looked like krakens. Their tentacles were black and lined with claws, large enough to crush warships. Their red eyes blazed with hatred, and their jaws opened in silent screams, revealing teeth the size of buses. They must have curled up inside the asteroids, living there like serpents under rocks. Their sleep disturbed, they roared in fury, tentacles lashing. More asteroids shattered across the belt, and more of the krakens emerged.
The beasts were massive. Their tentacles were as long as the mechas were tall. The creatures spurted ink, propelling themselves forward in space. They charged toward the mechas.
Marco and Addy stared ahead.
From the arms of Kaiyo and Kaji, the cannons emerged.
They fired.
Rounds shot forth and slammed into the krakens.
The creatures bellowed silently, no sound carrying in space. Holes blasted open in their flesh. Blood flew in a mist. One shell severed a tentacle.
And the beasts kept flying.
They reached the mechas, and their tentacles lashed out.
Addy swung her sword, severing one tentacle. Ten others grabbed her mecha, enveloping her. Claws lined the tentacles, cutting into Kaji's armor, punching holes through the metal. Inside the mecha, Addy screamed. She lashed at the creatures, struggling to free herself.
A kraken leaped toward Marco, tentacles flailing. Marco swung his hammer. A tentacle wrapped around the weapon and yanked, nearly ripping it from Marco's grip. More tentacles reached out to grab him. He fired his cannons, tearing through the beast. Gore sprayed him. Through the red mist emerged two more krakens. Their tentacles wrapped around Kaiyo, and jaws tore through the mecha's belly.
Screams rose from deep inside Kaiyo.
The tentacles were slicing the marines inside the mecha.
Controlling the machine from its head, Marco grabbed the tentacles with Kaiyo's metal hands. He strained to rip them off. With every tentacle he removed, another lashed against him. He spun through space. He fired again. He hit a kraken. He swung his hammer, crushing one of the beasts, only for tentacles to grab the weapon and yank it free.
Another tentacle slammed into his belly, punched the hull, and tore out a patch of armor.
Marines spilled into space, silently screaming, failing, freezing in the vacuum.
Marco fired cannons from both his arms. He hit kraken after kraken, pulverizing the creatures. A kraken leaped on him from behind, and teeth dug into his shoulder. Alarms blared. Smoke filled the mecha. Through the cracks in his body, marines in spacesuits were firing rifles at the krakens, but their bullets could not harm the massive aliens.
At his side, he was vaguely aware of Addy struggling too, slicing at tentacles with her sword. Holes gaped open on her mecha. She too had lost some of her marines, maybe all.
"Addy, we got to get out of here!" Marco shouted.
"I retreat from no fight!" she shouted back.
"This is not our fight!" Marco said. "We have to find the grays. This is not our hill to die on."
She ripped off a tentacle, only for another to grab her mecha's leg, to squeeze. More tentacles pulled the limb. A dozen krakens were now working together, pulling at Kaji's limbs. Addy screamed.
"
Addy!"
Marco flew closer. He fired at the krakens, trying to rip them off Addy. More of the monsters grabbed his arms, tugging them back.
A gargantuan kraken, as large as the mechas, flapped toward them. Ink filled space, hiding the battle. The creature gazed with red eyes. Its tentacles reached out, grabbed Kaji's torso, and pulled. The smaller krakens yanked at her legs.
With bursts of fire and shattering steel, Kaji's left leg tore off.
Inside the mecha, Addy screamed.
Marco's hammer was gone. His cannons were barely making a dent in the horde. More asteroids kept cracking open, spilling out more krakens. Across the asteroid field, they kept hatching. Soon hundreds of the monsters were swarming.
But the smaller asteroids, Marco noticed, remained intact.
Some krakens seemed to fly around those small asteroids, to . . . protect them.
Addy was still screaming, one of her mecha's legs missing. The krakens were still tugging her limbs. With a shower of sparks, her right arm tore off too. She yowled.
Marco turned to fly away.
"Poet!" she shouted. "Poet, damn it, help! Poet!"
Her cries tore at his heart. But he ignored her. He charged in the opposite direction, moving away from Addy, knocking his way through the swarm of krakens.
He reached one of the small asteroids. It was no larger than a sedan, small enough to fit into his mecha's hands.
He grabbed the asteroid, spun toward the horde, and shouted, "Let her go!"
The krakens spun toward him.
They opened their jaws and shrieked silently. There was no sound in space. They could not hear each other. But he saw the terror in their eyes.
"Let her go!" he shouted again, raising the small asteroid with one hand. He pointed at Addy.
The krakens growled and kept tugging on Addy's mecha. She had only two limbs left, and the krakens seemed determined to tear those off too.
Marco sneered and crushed the small asteroid in his hands.
A kraken hatchling—no larger than a man—died in Kaiyo's metal hands, staining them with blood.
Earth Eternal (Earthrise Book 9) Page 11