“Oh, sure, and have her render me braindead within an hour?” the clone asked, her voice practically dripping sarcasm as she tried to keep Blooming Orchid away from the control console. “You really think that she’ll let anyone with her secrets get away? Maybe if I had my psi suppressor working, but I can’t find the parts to finish it. I think some of the others had the same idea.”
Blooming Orchid sighed, and cut clean through the wrench, dropping the top half of it to the ground as the woman swung it, leaving her with a handle that ended in a smooth, slightly sharpened plane. A faint explosion vibrated the ship, and Blooming Orchid just gave the clone a level look.
“You can surrender, or I can beat you until you can’t resist. Either way, you’re not going to win with that physique,” the heroine said.
“It’s at least a sexy physique,” the clone said, slightly morosely looking at the handle. “I don’t have much left, so I have to take pride in something.”
“Possibly,” Blooming Orchid admitted, her lips twitching as they tried to curve into a smile, but she resisted the urge. She wasn’t going to laugh at the comments of one of Shadowmind’s clones. She refused to think better of the woman.
“I believe it is a reasonable reaction, given what I know of Shadowmind,” Circe commented, pausing in restraining a different clone as she tilted her head slightly. “I believe that Spark and Shade have finished dealing with the last of the suits of power armor, based on the sounds I heard. They should be here shortly.”
The clone seemed to hesitate, then let out an aggravated sigh as she dropped the handle and raised her hands.
“Fine, fine… but we’re all going to die anyway, I’ll bet. She’ll probably steal the body of a clone on one of the other ships and blow us to bits,” the clone said, sounding distinctly disgruntled. “If I had her powers, that’s what I’d do.”
“Fair enough,” Blooming Orchid said, and pulled out a pair of wrist restraints with one hand. She felt a little queasy at the idea of someone blowing up a ship full of copies of themselves without a qualm, and it made her pity the clones a little. That had to suck. “Turn around, please.”
The clone turned at about the time that Spark dashed into the room, with Shade right behind her. Shade looked annoyed, while Spark was grinning broadly.
“Found a weak point!” Spark announced brightly, practically bouncing on her toes as she trained her pistols on the clone. “If you poke an electro-pistol into the joint where the legs meet the body and fire, it shorts out most of the systems in the lower body, and the pilot isn’t going to be doing much. Unless they’re resistant to electricity, but none of them were.”
“Which meant that I was busy restraining them so that she could disable all of them.” Shade said, letting out a sigh of aggravation. “You done here?”
“We just finished, and Circe should be able to control engineering,” Blooming Orchid said, restraining the clone quickly and efficiently. “Speaking of which… Lilith and company? We’ve taken engineering.”
There wasn’t an immediate response, and Blooming Orchid frowned. Then Cassiphone spoke over the comm, and her words caused the blood to drain from Blooming Orchid’s face.
“Sorry, but Amber just blew open the windows into vacuum, and they’re a bit busy… and low on oxygen, since she also tore their masks away. Good thing Warden can teleport, right?” the AI said, though she sounded far too nervous for Blooming Orchid’s comfort.
Reaper Black-One, Low-Earth Orbit, Sol
“Evasive action! Sensor intensity approaching detection threshold!” the pilot snapped out, following his own advice as he began to jink back and forth while the Reaper arrowed toward the ship that was their target.
General Mayhem barely paid attention to the other Reapers, instead focusing on the ships that were ahead of them. They were roughly wedge-shaped with a blunt prow, each of them studded with armor and weapon mounts that gave them a vicious appearance. They also didn’t appear to be designed to enter atmosphere, as they didn’t look aerodynamic to his eyes. The ships had been exchanging fire with the approaching UN fleet for the past few minutes, which had made it even easier for them to get closer. That certainly made General Mayhem happier. It looked like one of Shadowmind’s ships had even taken damage, as he could see a plume of gas leaving it.
What didn’t please him was how much energy fire he saw. General Mayhem far preferred kinetic weapons, as he was practically immune to them. Energy weapons like plasma, lasers, and electricity… those were an entirely different matter, and he suppressed his irritation. Besides, Major Destruction would love seeing all the energy fire, as he was almost as resilient where it was concerned as General Mayhem was to projectiles. It was part of what made them such a devastating team.
Of course, that was when the ships suddenly re-targeted, and energy fire, as well as missiles, began to fly at the Reapers. As he couldn’t do anything to stop the attacks, General Mayhem clenched his hands around the armrests and waited for them to reach their target, confident he’d get there.
After all, even if the ship was blown apart around him, he could keep moving with his powers, and his armor had an ample air supply.
Innocent Bystander, Low-Earth Orbit, Sol
Amber’s smile vanished as one of the clones suddenly messaged her. “We just lost the bridge of your ship, and we’ve got Destruction Corps ships inbound on Grammar Nazi! We’re attacking them, but they were cloaked and are almost here!”
“Damn it!” Amber hissed, anger overwhelming her satisfaction at spacing both some annoying clones and several heroes. “Fine, then wait until they’re aboard and blow it out of the—”
A flash of blue-white energy hit Amber’s arm, heating the armor to a painful level in a second, and she yelped, dodging and staring at Lilith in disbelief. Her creation was floating there in middle of the bridge, glowering at her angrily and seeming to ignore the fact she lacked air. How could she have changed so much in a day and a half?
“What was that?” the clone asked, and Amber growled, deciding to use her weapon in a way that would prevent Lilith from catching the energy.
“I said to blow up the ship once they’re aboard, you sniveling twit! I’m busy!” Amber snarled, and charged at Lilith, trying to use the cannon as a spear this time.
Catching plasma and being able to breathe vacuum didn’t mean that the woman could survive being impaled, but Amber was more than willing to test the theory. As Lilith’s eyes went wide and she dodged, Amber thought she agreed. At least that was good news, and Amber calmed down slightly, focusing on eliminating the cockroach she’d created.
Despite the air rapidly thinning around her and it being sucked out of her lungs, Warden still didn’t panic. She’d been stuck in a vacuum chamber trap once before, and this wasn’t that different, though it was significantly more difficult to deal with when there wasn’t a wall she could pierce with her magic. However, this time she had a new trick, and she spun, the starfield all around her disorienting.
Fortunately, the planet below gave Warden a ‘down’ to focus on, and she picked out several tumbling figures against the blue-white backdrop. Morgan was nearby, looking far more panicked than Warden was, then there was the glowing figure of Archon. There was an odd, buzzing sensation in her ear, but Warden ignored it, focusing her power, and the world flashed around her. When the flash cleared, she was next to Archon.
A purple stream of light lashed out from Morgan and grabbed the three tumbling figures of the clones while Warden grabbed Archon, trying to ignore what was happening to her. She barely hesitated, teleporting again as Archon clung to her, this time next to Morgan and the clones that she’d just reeled in. Warden glanced around for Lilith, but she didn’t have time to spend on that, not with dots dancing against her eyes. She didn’t see her, so she resolved to come back for her. First, she needed to save everyone here.
With another surge of magic, much larger with so many people present, Warden teleported into the corridor leading to th
e bridge and hit the deck hard, the pressure of air all around her hitting like a hammer.
All of them hacked and coughed as they tried to inhale, even the clones, and it was all Warden could do to keep from blacking out. After a moment she gasped. “D-did you see Lilith? I couldn’t see her, I have to—”
“She’s fine, though I don’t understand how,” Cassiphone interjected, a note of disgruntlement in her voice. “While the rest of you were imitating landed fish, she learned that she doesn’t need air to survive, at least in space. She’s busy dodging Amber as she tries to use her plasma cannon as a spear or club. Damned primitive, if you ask me. What next, a slap fight?”
“Oh, thank God,” Morgan murmured, wiping her forehead, then turned her attention to the three clones. “What about you three? Are you planning to cause trouble?”
“After what that bitch just did? Nah, I’d rather spend a few years in SuperMax,” one of them groaned, then coughed again, sounding like she was hacking up a lung.
“Yeah. Damn it, feeling one of the others get spaced was bad enough, I didn’t want to experience it myself,” another said. The last, laying on her side, just rolled over lethargically and offered her wrists to Morgan.
“It was a most unpleasant experience,” Archon agreed, grimacing as she murmured. “I will have to speak with Decarin about expediting that maneuvering system. And getting a mask that isn’t so easily taken away. I would like to be able to maneuver and breathe in vacuum. Can we assist Lilith?”
While she was speaking, Warden quickly pulled out three sets of restraints for the clones. She was getting a headache just thinking about over a dozen copies of Shadowmind running around. This couldn’t end well.
“I don’t see how,” Morgan said, grimacing. “Unless there are vac suits we could use, maybe?”
“Sure, maybe one would fit you, but not the pigeon or McBoobs over there,” the one who’d just been cuffed said, and Warden scowled at her.
“What did you call me?” Warden demanded angrily.
“McBoobs. You’ve got a huge bust, so it fits,” the clone replied unrepentantly, causing Warden’s scowl to deepen. Especially when Morgan let out a nervous giggle, prompting Warden to turn toward her.
“Oh, don’t you even start!” Warden snarled, feeling incredibly self-conscious now, and she glowered at Archon, asking. “Why aren’t you upset?”
“I prefer being called that to being called an angel,” Archon said, a slight frown on her face. “Now, where are these vac suits?”
“Just down the hall, at the first airlock… well, after you get out of bridge access,” one of the clones said, her voice slightly sullen. “We’re all gonna die…”
“I think that’s what she had in mind,” the last clone said, the one who hadn’t spoken before this.
“Fine, let’s go,” Morgan said, and Warden rubbed her forehead, her rage subsiding as it was replaced by worry and a rapidly growing headache.
She hoped Lilith was alright.
Lilith wasn’t sure why she felt perfectly fine in vacuum even without air. It still felt like she was breathing, like something was filling her lungs like air even if she couldn’t speak. It was very, very strange. The only reason she felt as calm as she did was because she’d seen Warden teleport the others inside the ship, otherwise she’d be racing out to try to help them. Instead, she was dodging as Amber tried to run her through with the blunt tip of the plasma cannon she was holding.
Lilith ducked the attack, responding with a simple blast of intense heat into the woman’s torso as she shoved Amber out of her thoughts, her anger growing still stronger. She wouldn’t give Amber the satisfaction of a reply. Not here, not now. No, if she was going to do anything, she was going to beat Amber… and if that meant killing her, so be it.
Amber’s armor glowed where Lilith hit it, and the villain’s thrusters flared brightly, shoving her rapidly out of the way. But before she could get far, Lilith grabbed the barrel of the cannon, growing more confident in her abilities with every passing moment. She strained slightly as she spun, her muscles bunching as both her ability to fly and her physique fought Amber’s armor, but in this case the microgravity worked in her favor, as did the fact that her ability to fly didn’t seem to care about the difference in mass.
She threw Amber into a wall hard, crushing electronics and sending a shower of debris through the room, following it up with an intense blast that she thought might disable her armor. Of course, that was when a purple shield of psychic energy blocked the attack, and Lilith tried to curse, but couldn’t. Amber zipped out of the way as she tried to punch through the barrier, just a little too late.
Then the armor exploded in a brilliant blue release of energy, and Lilith barely was able to raise her arms in time before the shrapnel hit her.
Chapter 47
Saturday, December 6th, 2031
Astral, Low-Earth Orbit, Sol
Amber swore to herself as she left her body, as this time it hurt even more than it had the previous time. She had a splitting headache, or at least what felt like a headache. She didn’t have a head, so it wasn’t like she could have a normal headache. It took a couple of seconds to throw it off, but she managed… and then she checked to see if her attempt to kill Lilith had succeeded.
While Lilith was battered, she had several burns on her face and was missing a chunk of hair, she was mostly intact. Oh, shrapnel had punched into her arms, legs, and torso, but the outfit she was wearing had done a surprisingly good job of keeping most of it out of her vital organs. It was incredibly frustrating, and Amber glowered at Lilith for a second, then decided that it was time to deal with her once and for all.
Amber had made Lilith as a receptacle for her mind to begin with, as a clone that would be perfect, so Amber wasn’t going to let her do as she pleased. Lilith’s mental shields might be powerful, but they wouldn’t be able to stop a full-scale assault by Amber. They couldn’t, not after being caught in an explosion like that and being in pain.
So, Amber formed her psychic body into a spear and struck like a lightning bolt. As she’d expected, Lilith’s mental shields held for about half a second, then they failed, allowing Amber to rip into her mind without delay.
It was like stepping into a blast furnace.
Innocent Bystander, Low-Earth Orbit, Sol
One moment Lilith was reeling backward and gasping at the odd not-air she seemed to be breathing, aching as she tried to quantify how many pieces of shrapnel had pierced her flesh, as well as how bad the burns she’d sustained were, and the next a white-hot awl slammed into her brain.
The awl hit her mental defenses when they were weak, and while she managed to blunt the assault, it breached her defenses before she could reinforce them. Lilith gasped, agony searing through mind and body as she clutched at her head, and alien thoughts tried to force themselves into her.
At first, she fought off sheer instinct, her mind lashing out at the invader. Garbled thoughts shot through Lilith’s mind, there and gone almost as fast as they appeared. The experience of a starship ramming directly into what looked like a docking bay on a rocky asteroid. The towering, disdainful rage when Lilith dared defy Amber. Her frustration when Black Emerald had denied her, and the sheer venom of her response as she’d turned her attention on Lilith’s friends, making a promise that she had no intention of keeping. What she’d had in mind for Gina, Rachel, and Tania in particular… those thoughts were brief, but Lilith’s fury was roused fully by the plans she caught.
Amber seemed to catch some pieces of Lilith’s thoughts and memories as well, but Lilith wasn’t going to give her time to do anything. This was Lilith’s body, not Amber’s. It was her mind. Her life, and she would not allow anyone to take it from her.
Amber let out a mental scream as Lilith reached deep inside herself and stabbed, hard. The villain didn’t let Lilith attack without reprisal, of course. No, if she tried, truly tried, Lilith was sure that Amber could reach deep down and extinguish her… but if she did, Amber would risk dying with her. And risking herself was something Amber would never do.
Queen's Gambit (Lilith's Shadow Book 6) Page 30