Queen's Gambit (Lilith's Shadow Book 6)

by Benjamin Medrano

  The remaining five drones put up a brief fight before being reduced to wreckage like the others, and Spark kicked one aside, growling.

  “I didn’t expect that, not when she didn’t bring any drones to attack us at home,” Spark said, frowning. “How do you think the others are doing?”

  “Warden can stop Black Harbinger’s self-destruction with no appreciable damage, and Archon could take that point-blank and get up afterward. I’m sure they’re fine,” Shade replied dryly. “I’m far more worried about us than them. I would’ve liked Morgan or Warden with us, if it’s all the same to you, but… mental defenses. I’m not in quite the same tier as they are in that regard.”

  “I don’t know… Archon wouldn’t be that well-off without the charms you’ve created for her,” Spark said, zipping between doors as they made their way down the hallway. She wasn’t sure that was the right term when aboard a ship, but she was hazy on ship terminology. She had no idea what port or starboard even meant, for that matter.

  “I think the more relevant aspect is that of those heading for the bridge, the only two I would trust with technology are Lilith and possibly Morgan,” Blooming Orchid said, following at a cautious pace. “Whereas we have Circe, and I’m certainly not going anywhere without her for the time being. I think we’re the better choice for taking engineering, and—”

  They were interrupted by a door sliding open and a massive cannon being pointed directly at Blooming Orchid’s face, wielded by one of the power armor-wearing clones. At least, Spark hoped it was a clone as she kicked into high gear.

  Spark lunged backward and delivered a high kick directly into the cannon barrel, and promptly swore under her breath, thankful that she had metal-toed boots, considering how jarring the sensation was. Despite the armor being significantly stronger than Spark was, the long-barreled cannon was an excellent lever, and she pushed the barrel high enough that the shot would miss Blooming Orchid.

  Of course, Circe stole some of Spark’s thunder by yanking Blooming Orchid out of the way before the cannon could fire, and plasma ate a hole in the wall. As Spark regained her balance, she reflected that Circe’s action might be the better one, considering the heat bloom that plasma likely had. Eh, it didn’t matter, together they made sure Blooming Orchid wouldn’t lose her head… though Spark’s opinion changed as she suddenly found herself staring down the barrel of the cannon.

  “You annoying rat!” the villain boomed angrily. “Die!”

  “Um, no,” Spark retorted, sidestepping and pressing one of her pistols against the barrel, then pulled the trigger. “I wonder what’ll happen if I do—”

  Electricity arced across the cannon and into the armor for an instant, just as the villain pulled the trigger. The next instant Spark found herself sent flying across the hallway, propelled by a violent explosion, and she bounced off the far wall. Hard.

  The others were reeling, and even Circe was having to brace herself against the wall, having caught Blooming Orchid. The part of Shade’s robe that was nearest the door looked like it was smoking, Spark realized absently. No, not the door, she realized belatedly. The smoking hole that had been a door, and the massive dent in both the floor and ceiling. Maybe with some cracks into the structure of the ship, for that matter, and Spark wasn’t sure what’d happened to the power armor.

  “Ow… that wasn’t my best decision…” Spark gasped, wincing as she saw the flicker of her shield coming back online.

  “You’re telling me. We’re supposed to try not to kill people, remember?” Shade demanded, glowering at Spark. She just ignored him, more concerned with how she felt as she climbed to her feet again.

  From the way Spark’s back was aching, she was going to be so bruised tomorrow.

  Chapter 45

  Saturday, December 6th, 2031

  Innocent Bystander, Low-Earth Orbit, Sol

  “Could this ship be a little less convoluted? Aside from the shaft going from the front to back, it’s almost as twisted as Amber’s mind,” Gina groused, and Lilith resisted the urge to giggle.

  “She wanted it to be easily defended from boarders, which means that access to the bridge, or getting to core systems, is convoluted and with plenty of defenses. Like the energy battery about five feet past that corner,” Cassiphone replied helpfully. “I’m trying to hack the systems, but she changed the encryption, drat it all, and I’m dealing with a nasty amount of lag in addition to my lower processing power, at least compared to the ship systems. I bet you’ll be to the bridge before I get access to anything.”

  “Thanks for the warning,” Lilith said, and glanced at Gina. “How do you want to handle this one?”

  “Shield against it, and Morgan can blow the hell out of it. You got the last one,” Gina replied, glowering at the corner.

  “May I ask why you’re not asking me to destroy them?” Tania asked, frowning slightly.

  “You either have to get close or melt everything in the area. I’d really rather not have the emergency overrides melt and leave us having to batter our way through a hatch,” Gina explained, glancing at Tania and smiling tautly, though it wasn’t that visible through her mask. “I appreciate having you along but being in space has me on edge.”

  “Which is to say she’d like to get on with it,” Rachel said, and threw a bolt of deep purple energy behind them, which slammed into a drone that had just come around the corner. “I’d really rather deal with her before she decides to kill a whole lot of people, too. Ready, Warden?”

  “Yup!” Gina replied, and with an exchanged nod, the two lunged around the corner.

  Gina was in front and threw up a shield that intercepted a fusillade of energy fire, while Rachel whispered the words of a spell, creating an orb of energy between her hands, then threw it with a gentle flick of her wrist. An explosion rocked the corridor, silencing the guns, then Gina dropped her shield and waved them forward.

  “Got it!” Gina said cheerfully.

  “I must say, this is far more pleasant than my usual method of dealing with traps like this,” Tania said, moving forward calmly. “Slower, though.”

  “How do you normally deal with traps?” Lilith asked, following her as she watched their surroundings for danger.

  “If they look like they are too dangerous, I break through walls. If they look like I can handle them, I block what I can with my sword and take the rest, trusting that I will heal afterward,” Tania said, grimacing as she admitted. “Much less pleasant, that. Many attacks I barely notice, but I feel pain from injuries just as much as anyone else.”

  Lilith winced, and Rachel looked back at Tania, a hint of discomfort on her face as she spoke slowly. “You know, I never thought about that aspect of regeneration. It always seemed like an incredible gift to me, but if you feel the pain… my apologies. Or my sympathies might be more appropriate.”

  “I don’t blame you. In all honesty, it is an incredible gift, as is my resilience. I could do without the wings and might prefer to be able to fly the way that all of you can, but I live with what I have,” Tania replied, pausing as they saw another blast door ahead. “Cas… Cassie? How close are we to the bridge?”

  “Two more blast doors, and one laser trap that will try to slice and dice you into neat, one-centimeter cubes,” the AI replied immediately. “That’s on the other side of the door.”

  “Sounds absolutely lovely. So, why do you give some measurements in metric, and some in American Imperial?” Morgan asked, frowning. “It’s been bugging me.”

  “I do it to screw with you fleshy types, since I can convert the measurements effortlessly!” Cassiphone replied cheerfully.

  “You have a very odd sense of humor,” Lilith murmured, watching as Gina approached the blast door.

  “She’s like a teenager, if you ask me,” Gina said, glancing over her shoulder and giving Lilith a wicked grin. “She’s only, what… two days old?”

  “Less, thank you. I’m still developing, and I’m sure I’ll settle down a little if you gi
ve me some time,” Cassiphone replied with a derisive sniff. “First I want to put a few rods of tungsten through Amber’s ships when she least expects it. If I can do that, it’ll be a good down payment for what she did to Circe. I can worry about fine-tuning my personality center once that’s dealt with.”

  “I think you have even more to work out about yourself than I do, given all of that,” Lilith said, shrugging helplessly. “Though with your processing speed, you’ve also got a lot more time to do so, relatively speaking.”

  “I really think we should focus on the laser grid on the other side of the door,” Rachel said, frowning. “Who wants to destroy it? If it’s on the floor, walls, and ceiling… that’s a lot to blow up.”

  “As you’re concerned about the overrides, I believe that I should refrain,” Tania said, smiling slightly. “Lilith? You are able to melt things with more accuracy, no?”

  “I’m willing to give it a try. If all else fails, we can kick the door off its hinges,” Lilith agreed, flushing slightly. She found herself a little… off-balance in her new position. It was strange being able to be on the front lines with the others.

  “Alright, well, we’re about to find out. Hopefully the other doors aren’t open with a huge cannon ready to shoot us,” Gina muttered, and hit the button for the emergency override. Lilith had to wonder why she seemed so gleeful about using those. And why Amber had built them into blast doors, as it seemed rather counter-productive. Perhaps it was a subtle form of sabotage by Circe? That seemed likely to Lilith.

  The doors clicked, hissed, then slowly slid open. As the interlocking panels slid apart, she saw a short corridor lined with dozens of tiny holes in the floor and walls before it terminated in another set of thick blast doors. Lilith took one look at the hallway, then shook her head. The trap was a touch obvious.

  “Alright, let’s see how I do against these,” Lilith murmured, and she extended her hands, flexing her fingers experimentally as she tried to get a feel for how her new powers worked.

  The first hint of her power was a wave of heat that rose within her, though Lilith couldn’t quite say where it came from. It seemed like it came from everywhere at once, and yet there was a strange sensation like it was literally welling up out of wherever it’d been hidden. Then the heat grew more intense, never quite reaching the level of discomfort, and it… it pooled, much like when she’d undergone her third awakening. Until she focused it, and it spilled down her arms almost as if eager to be used.

  Radiant energy erupted from her hands almost effortlessly, and the beam of energy hit the floor first. Lilith had already realized she could modulate the beam slightly, and she weakened the intensity so she wouldn’t risk punching straight through the ship. The floor bubbled where the beam hit, then the polymer started to melt, shifting and flowing. A sharp pop accompanied a tiny explosion in the first of the holes in the floor, followed by more of them from other holes. Lilith was starting to get a feel for how much energy it took to destroy the laser emitters, so she split her beam to hit more of them at once. Then something set off the trap, Lilith suspected heat was the culprit there.

  Brilliant red lasers suddenly filled the room in a grid of coherent light, blazing ominously. It would have been a good deal more impressive if Lilith hadn’t been in the middle of destroying many of the emitters, and she smiled as they continued to fail one after another. It took her only a minute to do enough damage to shut down all the lasers, and when Lilith let the beam of energy fade, the corridor looked like its walls, floor, and ceiling were made of wax that had run, with some scorch marks where lasers had cut into the material.

  “Well, that was impressive,” Gina said, looking at Lilith as she asked. “That wasn’t too exhausting, was it? I know some energy projectors burn through energy about as fast as speedsters.”

  “Nope, I barely felt it,” Lilith said, grinning. “Shall we? Though I’d suggest watching your step, considering how melty the floor is.”

  “And here I am, the only one with wings,” Tania murmured, though the smile on her face showed that she wasn’t that displeased. She promptly showed why by crouching, then taking a flying leap down the corridor, just barely avoiding the beads of polymer hanging from the ceiling at the peak of her arc, then landed gracefully at the other end where Lilith hadn’t damaged the floor.

  “Well, you certainly make me feel like I’m as graceful as a bull, at least when it comes to jumping,” Rachel said dryly, and took flight as she continued. “I think I’ll just fly, rather than make a fool of myself.”

  “I rather expected you would,” Tania replied, and Lilith laughed softly, following Gina and Rachel as both of them carefully drifted down the corridor, avoiding any of the damage as they did so. Lilith rather regretted doing so much damage to the ship, but she hadn’t had much of a choice in the matter.

  A few seconds later they were all in front of the door, and Lilith murmured. “We all ready for this?”

  “Ready seems a bit much, but let’s do it,” Rachel said, pulling out a wand and examining it.

  “Agreed,” Archon said, drawing her sword again, and the golden blade ignited with flames.

  “Any warnings you can give us, Cassie?” Lilith asked, channeling some of the energy into her hands again.

  “Not really, no. There should be four energy weapons mounted around the bridge so they can cover anywhere in the room, and there are five stations for people to work, including the command chair. That’s all I’ve got, sadly,” Cassiphone replied, then added. “Good luck! Give her a solid kick for me, if you can.”

  “Alright, let’s do this,” Gina murmured, and punched the button to open the doors to the bridge, raising a glowing shield in front of all of them as she did so.

  Her decision immediately proved worthwhile, as the moment the doors opened wide enough for them to see anything, a blast of plasma slammed into Gina’s shield, and Lilith followed its trail back to see a woman in power armor. It was probably Amber, and her anger flared at the sight of her. There were also three clones that Lilith could see, but she only had a moment to consider that, as the others lunged into the room.

  Tania charged straight for Amber, while Gina and Rachel moved to the left. Warden blocked fire from several energy weapons while the clones cowered, and Lilith moved to the right, taking only a moment to glance out the windows, then her eyes widened as she saw something flash against the shields of another ship that looked like a tiny model against the unwavering backdrop of stars, and the weapons on the ship returned fire, pulses of plasma and other energy hurled into the void at targets Lilith couldn’t even see.

  Tearing her attention away from the scene, Lilith was thankful that her thoughts did seem to be faster than they had been before, as she hadn’t let herself get too distracted. She threw a bolt of light at Amber, whose shields flashed, protecting her from the attack while the villain dodged the following strike as well as Tania’s first attack. The bridge didn’t have a lot of space to maneuver, though, and Lilith was only slightly surprised when Amber came her direction, since she’d been half-expecting something like that. She got another shot in before she had to dodge, while Amber spoke.

  “You foolish lab refuse, you think you can come here, attack me on my ship, corrupt my AI, and get away with it? I think not!” Amber groused, taking aim at Lilith, and Lilith tensed, preparing to catch the plasma again, since she thought she remembered the feeling of it.

  At the last moment Amber spun and fired the plasma into Tania’s chest right as she’d almost caught up with her. It threw the angelic woman backward, and Lilith winced in sympathy. A bolt of purple energy splashed off her shields from Rachel’s magic, and Gina’s follow-up bolt broke through them, glancing off the armor but at least making contact.

  “Then you should’ve learned to leave me alone!” Lilith retorted, floating toward the ceiling and blowing one of the energy turrets off its mount before it could get a bead on her.

  “Perhaps so, but I think it’s time to even the
odds,” Amber said, and the anticipation in her voice caused Lilith’s blood to chill, as did how the barrel of Amber’s cannon drifted a tiny bit to the right, aiming directly at one of the windows.

  Lilith whipped her hands around to aim at the cannon, but she didn’t have time. Especially not when the drag of gravity that she hadn’t quite realized was there suddenly vanished, and she slammed into the ceiling, at the same time that the others found themselves lurching upward as well. Pain lashed through her, and Lilith was just beginning to regain her bearings when Amber fired, shattering the window leading into space instantly, then shifted her aim to the other windows.

  “Oh, you bit—” one of the clones began snarling as she’d been drifting upward, but the howl of air being sucked out of the ship drowned her out, as did the fact she was being sucked into vacuum as well. One of the clones had managed to grab onto a console, but the other two went flying into the void as Lilith’s heart practically stopped at Amber’s ruthlessness.

  The same air was pulling at Lilith as well, but she could easily resist it. Her eyes widened as she saw the others weren’t doing nearly as well, especially Tania. Of course, that was the moment that Amber laughed, barely audible in the vanishing air, and made a gesture. Violet energy flickered around her fingers, then around each of their masks. Lilith only had an instant to realize what was happening, then the air masks Decarin had provided were yanked away. Worse, she saw the doors to the bridge slam shut.

  Well, this was bad.

  Chapter 46

  Saturday, December 6th, 2031

  Innocent Bystander, Low-Earth Orbit, Sol

  “You could just surrender, you know,” Blooming Orchid said, effortlessly blocking the attack by the clone of Shadowmind, a little bemused despite herself. The wrench she was using wasn’t that dangerous.