A Queen Among Crows: Book One of Empire's End

by M. S. Linsenmayer

  Expect Possible British Naval Activity in your area within the next six hours from message send time.

  Orders:

  Launch immediate sorties along most likely routes between Nansena and Tunguska

  If British Navy encountered, order their surrender by radio.

  If surrender refused, assume intentions hostile and fire at will.

  Use of exotic weapons is authorized.

  -- Ivan, I don't want a war, but if they started one, give it to them. -A

  "The gates are intact" I reported, obviously. Or obliviously. Some sort of Ob. The gates in question were sheet metal, rusted, about twenty feet high, and set solidly between two watchtowers, neither of which had a convenient window I could reach in and hit the 'unlock' button through. I waved up at James; he wiggled his wings back.

  "The monsters" One of the men behind me asked "How did they get in, the hole?"

  "They Jumped" I pointed up at the wall. "See those scratches? Claw marks. Wall is a bit over twenty feet, so they probably ran up there...along that hill... Then jumped, just like you might hurdle a fence. Claw marks are from where some of them hit the top going over."

  "Which is not good, not good at all." Lois said.

  "Why not? I could probably make that." Julie seemed offended.

  "Yes, dear, but you don't weigh over twenty-five tons. Normal creatures of that size simply cannot make that jump, and even if they could," Lois smacked her beak once "their legs would break like brittle straws. Which makes the myths of them eating armored knights in one chomp all the more plausible."

  "Lovely" Julie put her head in her hands. "So, do I try and scale this wall?"

  "We have some rope." Mr. Popov said.

  "No, we use the magic knock." I walked up to the gate, took off my gloves, and blew on my hands to warm them.

  "Magic knock?" Julie gave me her evil look.

  "Magic knock" I smiled back. Knock on the door... "Shave and a haircut, two..."

  "Bits" James intoned as he opened the door from the other side. "Welcome, welcome, we are having a special today on sliced monster by the pound, do please come in..."

  "Perfect, I do so love a sliced monster" I walked in, ducking sideways to clear the partially frozen gate. The inner yard of the prison held one main building, two stories, with small barred windows, and several small buildings of one story each with what might had been more normal construction, had they not been melted in half. Beyond, I could see the black smoke from the burning remains of what must have been the mine equipment - and around it, pieces of several Maphnk - both the large ground females and the smaller flying males-were strewn like so many butcher's cuts. The smell was abominable.

  "Spread out" Julie ordered "I want to know what happened here. And where the hell are the people?"

  "The mine" I said "Mr. Popov, you said Diamonds or Bauxite? Diamonds would mean coal, right?"

  "I believe so." Mr. Popov replied, "That might explain why it is still on fire."

  "That, and basic geometry." I used my finger to gesture a line from the hole to the burning mine "That heat beam cut right through the wall, several Maphnk, those two buildings, and into the mine itself. Boom. Anything taking shelter in the mine got fried, and I somehow doubt the Maphnk would fit. So, theory: Maphnk attacked, over the wall, humans retreated to the mine, then sometime later something else armed with a super weapon came in after the Maphnk. If the weapon had been first, the beam would have been fired from the inside out, not vice versa. Follow me everyone, I want a look at this mine."

  "And I" Julie came up along me "Want to try cutting those Maphnk with my sword."

  "They might be poisonous." I stopped to glance at her.

  "I am not after steaks. Well, yes, I could use a steak right now... But I want to know how invulnerable these things are."

  "Good idea. Check how deep they got burned, too, if you can."

  "Excuse me, sirs? Sirs!" The corpsman called out "What about these post holes?"

  "What post holes? And what about them?" I growled

  "Well they are very deep, perfectly square, and some of them go right through the concrete. Like they were stamped in by some machine. And they lead to and from the burn hole, like, well, like footprints."

  Well, hells. I jogged over to the corpsman, looked at where he was pointing. Rectangular, even, about three or four hands in size, and four feet deep. In concrete. I paced to the next hole, then across to the one away from it... It stopped here, sliced a Maphnk in half, that imprint is not from a post, it's a claw...

  "Lois." I had to cough to make my voice heard "What walks like this and has claws?"

  "Arachnid, dear." Lois sounded afraid "Spider, scorpion, creatures like that. The largest on record is the Goliath of Australia, about the size of a small dog. This one might be a wee bit larger."

  "A wee bit" James mimicked "More like fifty feet, woman. From space. A giant metal fire breathing spider from Mars."

  "Spread out" I ordered "let's see what else we can find."

  #

  My life, I was beginning to believe, was cursed. In my homeland, burned out shells of buildings, land torn by decades of unrelenting war. Go to scenic Prussia, invade a burning castle. Fly all the way to Siberia, search a burning prison. Well, at least I didn't set The Hermitage of fire; not, although, for lack of James wanting to try.

  The blast, or beam, or death ray, or whatever one wished to call it had cut through the upper level of this building, bisecting the room neatly in half. The remaining roof had collapsed, burying part of the building, but the other stayed open; part of a window, broken furniture, ash strewn floor, bullet casings -lots of them- sprayed around some half-melted slag parts, and strange shadows on the wall. The sound of flies warned before anything else, buried under one of the broken desks was half a human leg, still in military uniform and boot. This was beyond strange, to hell with it.

  I walked back over to the door, grabbed my hat as I looked out against the evening wind. Julie was still over beside the Maphnk, trying to dissect what was left, Lois beside her taking notes. Popov was by the main prison entrance, with several men, apparently trying to clear it out. Above, James and the rest flew orbits... Hah! The radio man and two others were just coming back. I hollered and waved, they jogged over.

  "You" I pointed at the radio man "Are some sort of noncommissioned officer, correct? An experienced veteran?"

  "Yes, Under Officer Adamov. With me are Sea Corporal Lamovsky” The taller man nodded "and Sea Man Litvin. Did you need something? Commander Popov had us looking for supplies..."

  "Good, but this may be important. Light your torches, come with me, and take a look at something." I waved them on and ignoring their protests walked back into the ruined building. "First, those ammo casings, they aren't ones I have seen before."

  Adamov knelt down and looked more closely "Krupp 7.62mm belt fed machine gun ammo...you can see by the striation on the cartridge... But would that mean this mess" And he gestured at the slagged pieces still partly welded to the window "is the weapon?"

  "I think so. Please take a place there, with one of your men, as to how you would be taking cover behind the window and firing out of it...right right" I stopped, drew a line from where they were at the window, and pointed directly 180 the other way... Which led to the strange shadows, not just on the wall, but in the wall, I realized. “The heat weapon, fired first a general beam at the building, which splashed against the roof, then I assume the men kept firing, and the enemy realizing they were not dead, aimed more closely and fired a concentrated burst directly in through the window."

  I pointed at the melted gun parts "what was outside the beam got left intact, everything else was lifted up, blasted back into this wall here" I walked back to the strange shadows "And baked into the wall, almost instantly. The only thing that survived was the parts outside of the glare of the thing... Like that half of a leg."

  "Oh gods" Litvin turned deep green "Should...should we take it for burial?"
/>
  "No." I growled. "What you should do, is inform Mr. Popov... And then tell him I recommend warning the Grand Duke; any weapon that can do this could slice your airship in half like so much soft cheese. What is the Commander doing, anyway?"

  "With some of the men, clearing out one of the more intact prisoner barracks, he plans to use it as a shelter as he thought we were staying overnight." Adamov said "Do we ask for pickup? Do the British have this new weapon?"

  "No, someone else has it. The British would have used it on us by now. I am starting to think Lois is right though, and it's something not someone. Either way, shoo, shoo" I wiggled my hands at them "Tell Popov, let’s get this set up. He is right about one thing, we want to be behind stone walls before any Maphnk return. Hopefully they will take the bait and follow the airship.... Although I am beginning to think we would be safer if they did not; they are just terrible monsters, after all. What did this is much, much worse."

  #

  "Well this is almost cozy" Lois whispered in my ear. I had to nod. We were sitting at a table at what had once been the prison's cafeteria, chosen because as far as we could tell, no one had died here. The fighting had been at the more defensible locations, like the barracks, the towers, the mine itself... Which made me, at least, feel very secure right now. The unpainted concrete walls, with no windows, lit only by a few hanging lamps, didn't help. Several of the men, in the back, were trying to prepare dinner over a small field stove, but from the smells and comments, they weren't doing a very good job.

  To my left, Julie was trying to sharpen her sword with a certain vengeance, while on the table to the right James and the rest of my birds were huddled in a blue black feathery pile trying to get some rest and stay warm. I think I envied them, but I knew I would get no sleep tonight, no matter how much I needed it; I had a decision to make, and it had just gotten a lot harder. No one had ever planned for Martian super spiders.

  Across from us, Mr. Popov coughed lightly. He had commandeered one of the lamps for his own use, and was now huddled beside it, his nose firmly pressed in a random looking pile of books. The man was certain to go blind that way.

  "Popov." I called "Please tell me those books are all bed time stories."

  "No." He put the current book down and cracked his neck. “They are what logs I could find in the Assistant Warden's office. The Warden's office being a mound of ash, you see. Sadly, the sort of men who are assigned to places like this are not the Empire's best; idiots, fools, drunks, criminals, and the incredibly unlucky. Fortunately, this man seems to have been a fornicator- he spends half the pages talking about the buttocks of women he once loved- but he was competent enough to fill in the basics."

  "The Pskov did make it here, then." Julie straightened up.

  "Yes, well, what was left of them. Less than fifty men, the Assistant Warden writes, maybe fifty-eight, no fifty-nine days ago." Popov stopped to drink some hot tea "They were on foot, using their horses to drag some cargo, all covered in tarp, which they refused to talk about at all. The 'demons' as the warden calls them were in pursuit; the cavalry took command of the prison, called out the guards, and managed to fight these 'demons' off. I could not find the entries dated directly after that, but the one dated ten days later talked about constant night attacks, and how they had freed all the prisoners and armed them. Whatever killed everyone here happened so fast there was no time to write about it."

  "The Martian death spider" I said.

  "Yes. Madame, what is that thing, and who do you think is controlling it?" Popov asked. The room grew quiet as every soldier who had been pretending not to listen stopped bothering and just looked right at me.

  "Lois" I said.

  "Very well." She hopped to the center of the table and stood as tall as she could. “Understand everyone, this is just a theory, but it is one that seems to fit the facts. We know, of course, that the finger of the gods is not from this world, and that it is not natural; it is made of metal, although of a kind we cannot duplicate, and it is possessed of a technology that is so much more advanced that our own it appears to us, almost as magic."

  "Well, yes, it is a weapon of some kind, that much even I can see." Julie said.

  "No dear, not a weapon, I think. It is a crewman, possibly, or an armored vehicle of some kind, from this ship of the gods, who has at last come to this world. They have weapons, yes, and incredibly powerful ones, but they are here, now, and they are looking for something. Mr. Popov, as soon as it's day break, we need to find that cargo, if it still exists."

  "If" James interrupted "We still exist. Turn off the lights, now, I heard something outside."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Egg Hunt

  Interlude:

  British Embassy and Residence Destroyed by Suspicious Fire.

  November 1, 1908. Paris, France. Our embassy to the Russian Empire was consumed by a bizarre and sudden blaze this morning at about four am, local time. The ambassador, Sir James Lovetree, His wife Francis, and both children are reported to have been killed, as well as the nine guards who were posted there and all sixteen servants.

  The fire was incredibly fast, consuming the entire building too quickly for any survivors to escape. The building, the famous Hotel De Charost, built in 1720, was made of classical stone construction with wide windows and has since been upgraded with the most modern security and safety features. Government officials questioned off the record have expressed doubts that there is any way this fire could have been natural. Witnesses in the area claim the building was struck repeatedly by lightning, although the sky was clear that night and no storms were reported in the region.

  It has been suggested that if this was an attack, it may have been a response from the Russian Imperial Government for the alleged assassination attempts upon the life of Grand Duke Karl Peter Ulrich at his personal estate in Prussia two weeks ago. As those attacks were by local religious fanatics, and our own British Government has denied any involvement with them, that would make this "response" an unprovoked act of war.

  In the interests of preventing further bloodshed and maintaining the peace and tranquility between nations, we, the editors, do most seriously request the Russian Government reconsider this most rash and dangerous course of actions.

  -Editorial, London Times, November 1, 1908

  In the darkness, we waited. We had cut all the lights; and blocked the large door as best we could. That still left the smaller side doors, but I doubted the Maphnk -or the spiders- could get in there. Mr. Popov suggested some of us go upstairs and look, while the rest waited in the cafeteria. We had a moments comedy of quiet 'who volunteers for what' before I got sick of it and moved as quietly as possible to the upper level. Here, there were windows, and the light of the winter stars too see by through the bars.

  I looked out over the prison walls, trees, rocks, hillside "James are you sure?" I asked. He didn't answer, only nodded. Stick my head up a bit farther, I wished the prison had been built with one or two more levels, we could have seen much farther... But then, if it had been, the cavalry would have used it, and our Martian Death Spider would have turned it into soot and ash, along with the actual Guard towers and mine scaffolding.

  "There" Julie whispered "On top of the east wall. Maphnk, the males, the winged ones. I see five, no six, no wait, more coming in. They are just perching there on the wall, watching."

  "We can maybe hit them with our rifles from here, time the shot, single fire." Mr. Popov pulled out his weapon.

  "No, don't. I don't think they know we are here, they aren't making any calls." I ducked low and crawled over to the correct window, pushing one of the soldiers out of the way so I could see myself. At least a dozen now, with more coming in, it was hard to tell black shapes on a dark winter sky... I would kill for a full moon right now.

  One of them, the largest, pushed off again and glided down to the ground where the dead females lay. I could see him clearly as he did so, gods, he was magnificent. He landed beside the remains, a
nd began making low clucking sounds while pushing against the body with his beak. I watched his eyes, and for a moment, felt a pressure inside my chest; he cocked his head up towards us with a sudden thrust, and I motioned for everyone to take cover.

  "They are eating their dead." The corpsman said.

  "No" I wanted to cry "They are mourning them."

  "Bah." The corpsman relied "They are just animals, they have no souls."

  "I have lost parents, sisters and children." Lois lunged and put her beak right in his face "Do not tell me we do not mourn our dead."

  One of the soldiers pulled up his weapon, but Popov grabbed it and forced it down. "Enough" He cursed " Madame Bird, please let my man go. Corpsman, apologize. These giant birds may not be able to get in here, but their relatives can, and these walls are as much use against that spider thing as wet laundry. Madame Eryma, if this behavior is like others you have seen, what will happen?"

  I pulled Lois back into my arms, and nodded at James to stand down. "If they are related to corvids, they will gather in a ring next and walk slowly around the dead for ten or fifteen minutes; after which they will fly off, and not return for many years. Birds like this are large extended families, led by the oldest mated pair. The largest male, that's parental behavior he is showing to the dead females; He was their father. He's telling them it's time to wake up now, that breakfast is ready."

  "Hells." Popov sighed, and bowed his head for a minute. "Adamov."

  "Sir?" my guinea pig from this afternoon responded.

  "Take one man, stay here, and watch. Do NOT engage unless attacked. If they are leaving, let them leave. I will send two men to relieve you in four hours. The rest of us will head downstairs ... Move quietly, people. Limited lights, keep doors closed, get some food and sleep." Mr. Popov was starting to remember he was an officer. I approved.