The Valkyrie Returns (The Kurtherian Endgame Book 7)

by Michael Anderle

  She zeroed in on the mental signature of the fallen one and made the journey to the ship through the Etheric. “He has succumbed to pleasure,” she informed the junior adept as she made the last of the small steps between the Etheric and reality to reach the ship.

  The female adept’s mandibles twitched in disgust. “Then he is weak.”

  Gödel left the junior adept and made the difficult step into reality and back to the Etheric to enter the bridge. The smallest steps were the hardest.

  The adept turned in his chair at the intrusion, showing Gödel the slack jaw and glassy eyes of an addict lost in their high. “My Goddess,” he slurred.

  “What is this?” she demanded. “You smell of excess emotion.” She cut the Chosen off from the hive with a sharp shock to his cerebral cortex. “Did I not teach you how to avoid being contaminated by the group mind?”

  The Chosen did not reply. His head dropped to his chest, drool coming from his mouth.

  Gödel ignored the frantic minds of the crew on the other side of the door. Her focus was on this piteous excuse for a Kurtherian. “Forgiveness is for the weak,” she told him coldly. “Mercy is a myth. You should have known better than to give in to temptation. Did I not give you the strength to resist?”

  She turned to face the viewscreen, unimpressed by the adept’s silence. “No excuses? That’s one thing in your favor, but I would not excuse your actions even if you begged.”

  The Chosen simply stared, wide-eyed and blank-faced.

  Gödel whirled on the Chosen as the memory of him crystallized in her inner vision. “I remember you were there when I ascended to godhood. You named yourself my brother, swore you were my faithful servant. You carried my body to the ship when I could not walk for myself. How could you betray our cause?”

  She was only half there, drawn into thoughts of the recent past. “Our enemy will waste no opportunity to take advantage of any weaknesses we show, so we will be strong,” she told him softly. “We are all that remain to protect this universe from the chaos of free will. Do you think it was easy for me? To be given the gift of Ascension and choose to remain on this plane? To trick Death and her compatriots into believing I had crossed over?”

  The slowing trickle of blood and cranial fluid from the adept’s ears and nose was his only reply.

  Gödel’s lip curled, seeing none of it. “Look at you. Pathetic. Do you have anything to say in your defense?”

  His refusal to reply drove Gödel into a rage. She stalked the three steps to his chair and grabbed the fallen Chosen by the front of his robes. “Speak, damn you!”

  His head lolled to the side.

  “Suit yourself.” Gödel opened the bridge door with a wave of her free hand and threw the Chosen out into the corridor. “We will see if the lives of your crew are precious enough to make you talk.”

  The crew fell back in fear at the sight of their captain’s corpse.

  “Your Holiness,” the junior adept leading them began in a halting voice.

  Gödel dismissed her with a finger. “Your captain has decided that he is too good to answer for his crimes.”

  The adept opened her mouth to protest that a dead Kurtherian could not speak. One look at the red light escaping the goddess’ heavy veil told her that logic was not the route to go.

  If Gödel believed he was still alive, she didn’t want to be the one to tell her goddess differently.

  The adept knelt and lowered her head in respect, hoping against hope that her deference would be enough to save the lives of everyone aboard. “He failed you, Your Holiness. I will not. The humans must be eradicated for the good of all. I beseech the gift of your wisdom that I might claim that glory in your name. Allow me to take his place, and I will become whatever you need.”

  Gödel kicked the body of the fallen captain. “Giving you my knowledge would be as pointless as trying to pour an ocean into a cup. Prove your purity, and perhaps I will elevate you.”

  The adept prostrated herself. “You bless me with your benevolence, my goddess. Allow me to prove my worth, and I assure you, you won’t regret it. I swear.”

  Gödel motioned for the adept to get to her feet. “Here is your opportunity. Calm my creations.”

  The adept obeyed, standing quickly before Gödel changed her mind. She reached for the hive mind, finding it reduced in strength and fractured. “Gods, he had them attacking each other for his entertainment! This is blasphemy! I won’t fall like him. I’m grasping them. I…have…control.”

  She faced her deity, averting her eyes as to not be blinded by the godlight.

  Gödel nodded, satisfied that the remainder of the creatures in the holds were safe in the hands of this faithful worshiper. “You are now the captain of this ship. See that you reach Devon without any more losses.”

  She acknowledged the rest of the crew present with a tilt of her chin that caused her veil to ripple and pointed at the corpse. “This is what failure looks like, and failure will not be tolerated.”

  Her examination of the adepts on the ship revealed no further infractions of thought. Gödel widened her connection to the fleet for the final part of her lesson. “A good Kurtherian does not succumb to primitive lines of thought. You will all meditate upon the foolishness of inferior beings who allow emotion to guide them. You will strengthen your resolve to bring in the new age, and reject anything that diverts you from that purpose. We are not individuals, with a right to want. We are the guardians of the future and are duty-bound to cast off all personal desires in the name of that goal. This is what happens to heretics.”

  Gödel threw the adept’s body out of the Etheric to be discarded in the void of space, then returned to her ship without another word.

  Typically, killing your assets was not wise.

  However, now and again, it was wise to remind her people why she was the absolute ruler.

  QSD Baba Yaga, Top Deck, Vid-doc Suite

  The Vid-docs cycled open, and everyone emerged feeling refreshed.

  Tabitha was the first out, after Bethany Anne and Michael. She stretched, feeling her consciousness expand along with her body. “No freaking way.” She looked herself over. “It worked!”

  Bethany Anne’s attention was on the remaining Vid-docs. “What worked?”

  Tabitha flexed her fingers, and her Vid-doc lid closed. “I can kinda see inside the machine. Watch this.”

  John groaned as he got out of his Vid-doc. “The only phrase that worries me more than that is, ‘Hold my beer.” He frowned. “Wait, what?”

  “I didn’t say anything,” Tabitha replied with some confusion.

  John frowned. “Sure, you did. I heard you curse me out.”

  Tabitha’s mouth curled. “In my mind, yeah.”

  Scott clapped John on the back. “That is what you get for not picking something,” he commiserated. Then he slapped himself across the face.

  John’s jaw dropped. “No freaking way. Did I just make you do that?”

  Scott rubbed his cheek to ease the sting. “Yeah, you did. I don’t know how I feel about you being able to plant orders in my mind.”

  “It’s gonna come in handy,” Eric reasoned. “I can see it now. There we are, surrounded on all sides by a tentacle-fest, and John is the one who gets us out of it.”

  Nickie snorted. “How do you figure that? Actually, don’t tell me. I can see it now.” She put her fingers to her temple and put on a strained face. “You put the juju on the hive mind. ‘We are not the Bitches you are looking for.’” She looked at her grandfather. “Am I right?”

  Tabitha and Scott doubled over with laughter.

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Whatever works. You should be able to access the hive mind. At the very least, you’ll be able to disable any Ookens near you, after some practice.”

  John lifted his hands. “Good enough for me. What about the rest of you? You all got control of your new abilities?”

  Darryl created a positive charge over his left hand and a negative cha
rge over his right. He grinned as the friction caused a cloud of sparks to form in the space between his hands, then released the charge to dissipate the energy. “Yeah. I think I’ve got it.”

  Nickie rolled out waves of emotion ranging from abject fear to pure joy. “Sweet soul-sucking…” She didn’t finish her thought but rather smiled. “Yeah!”

  Eric shook his head. “I’m not messing with my ability aboard a ship. It’s not so easy to control, and more offensive than any of you guessed.”

  Michael nodded. “Good call. I saw what you did in the refectory with the oxygen deprivation. Nice.”

  Gabrielle Mysted into the Etheric, then Mysted back to the Vid-doc suite. “I cannot thank you enough for this, Bethany Anne. You have cut years off my training. Decades, maybe. Now I can stand by your side in battle as is right.”

  Bethany Anne looked at her nearest and dearest with tears stinging her eyes. “Guys, this is… It’s more than I could have imagined or hoped for.”

  Tabitha and Gabrielle walked over to comfort her.

  “What’s with the tears?” Tabitha scolded gently. “This is a happy occasion, right?”

  “I know,” Bethany Anne agreed, scrubbing her face with the back of her hand. “These are happy tears, I promise. It’s just a relief to know that you can’t be hurt nearly as easily. That we will face the Ookens and the Seven together without as much worry that one of you will die.”

  “Huh?” Scott asked. “What do you mean?”

  “Test it if you need to,” Michael told him. “None of you can be cut by Ooken teeth. There won’t be another incident like the one Nickie faced.”

  “Halle-fucking-lujah,” Nickie whooped. “’Cuz there’s no way I wanna go through that again. Have any of you ever had the skin stripped from your body while you were still alive? It fucking sucks.”

  “No, but I got shot point-blank with a shotgun once,” Bethany Anne replied with a far-off look. “That was a bitch to heal, I tell you, and I didn’t have instant access to a Pod-doc at the time, either.”

  Nickie winced. “Shit. Must have hurt.”

  Bethany Anne chuckled. “It hurt the asshole who did it a hell of a lot more when I beat him with his own arm.” She picked up the jacket to her light armor and headed for the door. “There’s time for you all to get some training in. Ricole will find a space in the Hexagon to flex your abilities without causing a ton of damage I have to pay to fix.”

  Michael followed suit. “I should get back to the lab and see how William and TOM are getting along.”

  “Where are you going?” Tabitha called after them.

  Bethany Anne waved a hand over her shoulder. “To my thinking space. I have a war to plan.”

  12

  Devon, The Hexagon, Eve’s Lab

  Michael was met by Sabine when he left the elevator. “What’s up?” he asked, seeing she was excited about something.

  “I’m glad you’re here. Demon has been asking for you.” Sabine told him without preamble. She slipped her arm through his and pulled him down the corridor toward Demon’s room.

  “What has that cat done now?” Michael inquired, extricating himself from Sabine’s grip.

  Sabine’s eyes twinkled. “It’s not what she’s done, exactly,” she told him enigmatically. “I’ll let her break the news.”

  Michael furrowed his brow, wondering what the mystery was. He entered Demon’s room with the intention of getting a straighter answer from the cat than Sabine was giving him.

  The male cat met them with a snarl.

  Michael flashed red eyes at the cat, unimpressed by the sabretooth’s display of dominance. “Settle down, cat. You’re in my house now.”

  The cat relaxed fractionally but continued to pace around Demon as if she needed to be protected.

  Demon sighed. Males. Can’t an expectant mother get some peace? You, she told her mate. Show some respect for my human.

  Michael raised an eyebrow at being claimed by the cat, but he supposed since he was the ultimate authority when it came to Demon, he’d let it slide. Besides, she’d just dropped a bombshell of epic proportion. “You are pregnant?”

  Demon smiled, her cat-who’d-gotten-the-cream expression scrunching her muzzle. I am indeed. How do you like the idea of there being kittens around here?

  Michael dropped to one knee and examined Demon, moving her head just a bit. “You are glowing,” he answered. “I can only say that it is a good thing if it puts an end to your fractiousness these past months. I take it your search ended when you found your mate?”

  He turned his head to look at the male. “I apologize. I did not realize that you were being protective of your unborn young.”

  The male chuffed and laid down beside Demon.

  Sabine clasped her hands over her chest. “Isn’t this the best news?” she enthused.

  Better news would be that you brought me something good to eat, Demon interrupted. I can smell fresh liver. I hope it’s for me.

  Sabine ruffled the fur between Demon’s ears as she crossed the room to the kitchen area. “Of course it’s for you, silly cat. For him, too.” She waved a hand toward Demon’s mate.

  Michael frowned. “Haven’t you got a name?” he asked the male.

  The male rolled his eyes and sniffed delicately.

  “He has refused to have a neural chip implanted so we can communicate,” Sabine told Michael. “I have a solution—the apparatus Eve used to connect Ashur to the Collectives. We were occupied with taking care of Demon’s prenatal sickness.”

  Do not mention those creatures, Demon moaned. All I can smell is them. Still, it is better than the scent that has pervaded the rest of this building. Talk about being uncomfortable in your own home.

  Michael tilted his head in curiosity. “What scent?”

  How should I know? Demon snapped. All I know is that it does not belong. It’s bad enough that it turns my stomach worse than the wet, rubbery creatures in the tanks.

  Sabine put two plates of chopped liver down for the cats. “This is the first I’m hearing about any odd scents.” Something about Demon’s complaint set her mind whirring. “Do you think you are smelling Ashur’s space rats?” she asked, thinking of the search that had been cut short when the cats had driven Ashur out of the sublevels.

  Not rats, Demon modified. Rats do not smell of metal and blood.

  Sabine shared a concerned glance with Michael.

  Michael lowered himself into a cross-legged position. “May I search your mind for this scent?” he asked. “It could be that you have found a way to track our missing Bl’kheths.”

  “Bless you,” Sabine told him.

  “I didn’t sneeze.” Michael chuckled. “The Bl’kheths are what the species of beings we rescued from the Kurtherian factory are called. They were stolen from their world by the Seven, specifically Gödel, and used as part of the recipe to create the Ookens, along with the Collectives and the Bakas.”

  Sabine’s blue eyes widened in horror. “Mon Dieu. The poor things! How do you come to that conclusion?”

  Michael held up a hand. “I have not, not yet. I need to see what Demon knows.”

  You may look inside my mind, Demon told him.

  The male growled low in his throat.

  Be still, Demon soothed him. Michael is right, and he would never hurt me. I want to know your name. Michael will find the source of my discomfort and remove it so we are no longer restricted to this room, and then we will go with Sabine and let her use the technology that will allow us to hear your voice.

  He narrowed his eyes, his tail swishing from side to side.

  Please? Demon asked. This is important to me and to our offspring. You realize that they will be like me and not you? They will have the power of speech because of the nanocytes I pass down to them. Don’t you want our children to know you?

  The male sat back on his haunches, a thoughtful look on his feline face. After a moment, he nodded.

  Sabine smiled. “At last! Meet me in the main
lab when you’re done here. This won’t take long at all.”

  “Demon, are you ready?” Michael smiled at her nodded acquiescence. “Then let’s begin.” He gently entered Demon’s conscious mind and honed straight in on the jumbled images of every place inside the Hexagon she’d found the Bl’kheth’s scent to be overwhelming. “Hmmm.”

  “What is it?” Sabine held her breath. “Did you find the location?”

  Michael frowned in concentration. “I believe it will be a little more challenging than simply zeroing in on a single location,” he replied as he sorted the images in his mind and compared them against the information he’d gathered from Tabitha's surveillance data.

  “What do you mean?” Sabine asked in confusion.

  Michael released Demon’s mind and got to his feet. “They are spread out. It does not appear that they have confined themselves to just one area. Demon’s mind showed me everywhere from the arenas to the residential sublevels.”

  Sabine frowned. “Not the upper residential levels?”

  Michael shook his head. “Perhaps they have been conditioned to prefer the underground,” he supposed. “These people were kept prisoner in the Kurtherian factory Bethany Anne and I took down. I conjecture that they have never seen a sun, nor the sky of any world.”

  Sabine’s eyes filled, and she pressed her lips together. “That is disgusting!”

  Demon sniffed. If it was not for their scent, I would welcome them.

  “There is not much welcome in being vomited upon,” Sabine mollified. “But perhaps after the kittens are born and your senses adjust back to normal, you would help me search out these Bl’kheths?”

  Demon rolled to her feet as Sabine narrowed her eyes at her human. I will help now. Or as soon as I discover my mate’s name.

  “Bless you.” Michael smiled at Demon then glanced at the male. “I have to check in with William and TOM. Come and find me when you are done.”

  QSD Baba Yaga, Top Deck, Bethany Anne’s Personal Quarters

  On the Baba Yaga, Bethany Anne had an open connection to Lance.