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

by M. S. Linsenmayer

  "Assuming it is in there" Popov said "Digging it out will be hell itself."

  "Which was probably the point." Julie spoke quietly.

  "Why bother?" I jogged a bit to warm my feet. I was close now...

  "Why did they bother killing the witnesses?" Popov turned to look, not at me, but the sky beyond. Most of the other men took that as a cue as well, and began looking anywhere but at the trench. It seemed the Navy was made of softer steel than the cavalry had been. Or perhaps, simply better mettle.

  "No why bother digging. The damn thing, if it is there, is close to indestructible, correct?" I felt my half-frozen muscles make a grin.

  "Well yes..." Popov hadn't figured it out yet.

  "This is a mining camp. There must be dynamite, correct?"

  "Yes, there are two and a half cases left in the ...Oh gods, no." Popov turned even greener, if that was possible.

  "Oh Gods, yes. Toss in two sticks, run like hell. Boom. All our problems are a fine pink and brown mist." I had to stifle a giggle. For once in my life, it would literally rain filth. My only regret was I didn't have a camera.

  "We have to be very careful" Adamov suggested "Too much dynamite an we might set off an avalanche." We all stopped for a moment to stare at the surrounding mountains at that comment.

  "We should probably use a mining screw to dig a hole first..." One of the Privates suggested.

  "Ma Reine" Julie had her great coat pulled tight around her, hands shoved deep in the pockets. Her hair whipped in the wind as she spun on one foot to look at me "Is there any problem you don't try to solve with explosives?"

  "Uhm..." I pondered for a moment "...no."

  "You cannot bake a cake with explosives." Popov still wasn't sold on the idea.

  "Excuse me, sir?" Adamov slowly raised his hand "that is just a question of the pressure wave..."

  "Never mind, Adamov. Since you are the expert, get what you think you need, the dynamite is in orange painted shed beside the far north wall. Let us do this and be done. Everyone you don't need, we shall take shelter in the cafeteria. And let us pray that it is in there, and it is invulnerable. Or it won't just be that grave that is blown to shit." Popov said.

  #

  I hunkered down behind a flipped over table as Adamov and his two assistants ran the detonation cord down the stairs to the waiting detonator. I took a quick head count; Lois, James, Julie, Edgar, Rain, a dozen locals... My people were accounted for. "Popov" I said "Are your men all accounted for?"

  "Yes. When you are ready, Mr. Adamov." Popov took cover behind his own table, then glared at me. He was mentally writing the report to blame me for when this went wrong, I could tell. I wondered if I should help him spell Soteira. So many people put the I before the E.

  Adamov wired in his cord and attached the battery leads. "Yes sir." He said. "Fire in the hole in one, two, and fire!"

  The explosion was anti climatic. A small thump, a sound like rustling leaves, and then nothing. We were about two hundred feet away, down a flight of stairs, and behind concrete walls... Was that it? I looked at Adamov, he was clearly wondering if one of the sticks misfired as well. We stared at each other for a moment, then nodded. Time to go look.

  I got from behind the table and slowly started crouching my way up the stairs, Popov started to say something, but I waved him to silence. This was my idea, after all. The first thing that hit me as I started climbing the stairs was the smell, which was so bad it almost made me retch and choke at the same time. The second was the cloud of smoke that hung over everything; lastly was the orange glow and black ash coming from the trench up ahead. "Something is on fire out there." I yelled back.

  "Probably the methane, dear." Lois called. "Buildups would form when it's hot and then freeze solid later, concentrating on the bottom of the trench. Give it a few minutes, then we can go look."

  "Well at least we know all the dynamite got used, one way or another." I wrapped my scarf around my face as a breath mask. "Watch the air, but go ahead and come up."

  We marched, crouched and hopped over to the trench, trying to stay low under the smoke. Strangely, the closer to the trench we got, the cleaner the smell got, as the burning methane pushed the other residue away. Something crunched under my boot, I looked down, to see a burnt human bone, then decided to keep my eyes on my destination instead.

  The trench itself was still on fire, but lightly, when we got too it. Most of the filth had been blown away, with some strange clumps remaining around the outer rim of the crater. Inside, at the bottom, lay a strange flattened egg shape of some curious ebony black shiny material, with crimson and ocher refractions from the flames. It was oblong, about seven feet in length, with four non-symmetrical rough edged fins attacked to the far end. The material seemed utterly smooth, not even pitted from its impact with the earth or the explosives fired right next to it. Indestructible, indeed.

  "Get some ropes and tools, men, let's see if we can get it out." Julie ordered "Popov, have your radio man hail the ship. Tell them we have found it. Whatever the hells it is."

  The men started jogging back and forth, looking for tools. I just stood there quietly and closed my eyes. Time to send my own signal. Queen takes bishop, check.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  The End of the Beginning

  Interlude:

  A hundred miles away, the great airship Louhi cruised nine thousand feet in the air, making just enough speed to keep the Maphnk below and behind literally moving in circles. Her crew took occasional random potshots at the beasts to keep them following, but as tired as they were, it did not take much to outrun them. The damaged airbag repaired and adjusted for, the airship cruised perfectly level, an unstoppable juggernaut of Imperial Russian power.

  Below, Edgar Allan watched from his tree top hideaway. He paused for a few moments of appreciation for the ship's majesty and beauty. But all mortal things must end, and the order had been given. He pulled the antenna out of the transmitter we had captured from the British 'queen of rats', twisted two dials, and when the light flared green, hit the detonator.

  Fire and storm crackled in the skies above as the explosives we had 'forgotten' to tell the Grand Duke about ripped the Aft sections of the Port Zeppelin to the hells and back. I choked back a cry, watching through Edgar Allan's eyes, as the ailerons were blown clear off; the zeppelin screamed in pain and lurched suddenly and fatally towards the frozen ground below.

  Inside, the crew I had known must be panicking. Desperate orders, the Grand Duke at his bridge, bellowing officers. They might save the ship, I hoped. The spot was chosen to cripple her but not kill her. But in explosives and treachery than can be no absolutes.

  In this, however, I was certain. If Catherine wanted the alien technology, she would bloody well have to ski for it.

  #

  We quickly rigged together some wooden struts from the debris and metal chains to make a crude A frame. After that it would be a question of dropping some chains down into the trench, wrapping them around the device- whatever the hell it actually was- and then lifting it back up. It was pulled here in the first place by the cavalry and then lowered into the trench by men, so it could not be too heavy for us to lift, I hoped.

  "Sir! Sir!" Corporal Lamovsky panted his way up to us, then partly collapsed, hands on his knees.

  "Report, Corporal." Popov barked.

  "Sir, we tried to radio back to the ship as ordered, but nothing on any channel. No response, no traffic, nothing. What if those...monsters... Got the ship?" Lamovsky looked very young right then, with his face bleached and blistered by the winter wind.

  "They are probably just out of range, we are in a valley after all. The ore in the mountains may be killing our signal." I suggested.

  "Can you send your birds to signal them?" Popov had his face twisted up like he was tasting something very sour indeed. I was beginning to suspect he had more than enough of the glories of command for this lifetime and would be requesting desk duty his next rotation. Perha
ps someplace like Taipei. Lovely food, ancient temples, beautiful women... I might go there, myself.

  "Certainly" I said "Just point me to where the ship is. It's last reported location was where exactly, and how fast can it fly again? I could send my birds with the radio to the top of one of those mountains, but they don't have hands to use it, or know the proper signals to send." Small cold spots pricked against the back of my neck as it began to sleet. It was already a frigid hell here now, but it would get even colder, soon.

  "Send them out to scout, anyway, please. I will get Adamov and a few of them men to climb out of the valley..." Popov stopped, then began looking at the peaks surrounding us, even the lowest would take a day to climb back up, and trying to follow the road out would not get them to a tall enough hill...

  "Give the radio to me" Julie crunched her way to us "I know the codes, I have hands, and it will only take me hours to climb that mountain, not days, even in this weather."

  "As you wish." Popov held his hands out to the sky for a moment in supplication, but the gods were not listening, as it began to sleet even harder. In the distance, thunder could be heard. "The rest of us, back to work. I want that thing out of the trench before the weather gets any worse... Blasting it free once was risky, having to do it twice will just be stupid."

  Julie looked at me, and smiled. I started to say something, but she held her fingers to my lips, then brushed the sleet from my hair. She dragged me close for a quick, harsh, kiss; then released me and without a word marched to the waiting radio man.

  I could hear some of the men behind me whispering comments, but they shut up as I glared at them. Marching to the A frame, trying to make my boots crunch the way their officers did, and began picking up the chain slack. I was still the strongest and heaviest person in this camp, despite my smaller build, a few minutes demonstration should remind the men of that and shut them up quite nicely.

  Julie wasn't even gone yet, and I missed her already.

  #

  It didn't take two hours to get the thing out of the trench, it took over three. The thing was made of something almost frictionless, the chains just slid off of it no matter how we tried to knot or tie them. Eventually we had to knit a rope net of sorts, pry it up one side, run the rope net under it, then lift it up with the A frame and pulley.

  By the end of it all I was tired, sick of being a one-woman winch, and it was easier to catalog what did not hurt then to figure out what did. My hair did not hurt, I think. Possibly my nose and the skin on the back of my neck; I had stopped feeling either of them at least an hour ago. The troops were not doing much better, I suspected. Popov was trying to bear up as officer like as he could be, but Adamov was mostly speaking in words I never learned in Russian class.

  The thing hung rested now on the ground, closer to the barracks, where we had dragged it. My original observations were mostly correct; flattened egg shape, a bit larger than a coffin, with multiple irregular shaped fins or ports on the bottom. I tried to imagine what it could be; some sort of probe? Were the fins for guidance when entering an atmosphere? Was it a bomb, or some sort of landing craft? Or was I totally wrong, and this never meant to land on our world at all?

  "Is this anything like what your people discovered on the Mongolia expedition?" I asked Popov. "Or in the stories about older findings?"

  "All that is classified far above my level." Popov scratched the stubble on his jaw "But there are always rumors, and I have heard nothing like any of this. The prior findings were parts, I had heard, broken pieces that gave the science masters clues, but not actual objects. Much less giant spiders. This may be the most important finding in human history..."

  "Yes, and now it is ours, thank you." A familiar but almost forgotten female voice came from behind us.

  I whipped around, drawing my sword as fast as I could, Popov, Adamov and the rest of the men reaching for their own weapons, all too late. Shots rang out, over our heads; there was a line of troops, flanking us, in British uniforms, and another line above them in the barracks covering us from behind the concrete walls.

  Their leader, a woman, in a British officer's uniform, lowered her pistol from the sky and sighted it directly on me. "Drop your weapons." She said, pulling the hammer back. The click was very loud, in the winter sleet. Six shooters, colt revolver, I could try... But no, time was on my side. My birds would be back soon.

  I dropped my sword. After a moment of shame, the Russians dropped their weapons as well.

  "Very good" The British woman smiled. It did not reach her eyes. "I... Am the Queen of Rats. These are my soldiers. We have been following you for some time now, and that device is now the property of the British Empire. There is only one detail remaining."

  "Which is?" Popov demanded

  "This." The woman shot me. The first bullet hit my right leg, and I lurched, screaming, the second and third caught me in the chest, and I fell back, flailing against the air for balance. She fired again and again, emptying her weapon, the final shot hitting my shoulder. I fell backwards, into the trench, the black and silver streaked sky spinning like a fan blade. I fell, hanging for a moment, before my head cracked into the jagged sheets of ice below.

  I hate falling, I thought.

  Then I closed my eyes and thought no more.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Kiss, Kiss, Boom, Boom

  Interlude:

  James, his wings spread to their full four-foot length, soared thousands of feet over the Siberian mountains. The wind was deathly cold, crackling in his nostrils like thin planes of glass, but his thick winter feathers kept him warm as he flew.

  He checked his formation behind him; the jagged V, his mate and her children, the locals and cousins whom had traveled to join him. He feared nothing on the land, but kept his eyes always open for these Maphnk. He had beaten an eagle once, yes, but those Maphnk were monsters.

  He heard the retort of gunfire to the east, coming back from the camp.

  Then the voice, the special voice, he had heard in the back of his head, from almost an egg, went silent. James screamed his rage, and signaled for the flight to turn east.

  But Lois was already on her way.

  #

  "Eryma?" a hand slapped my face. Smacked it again. Something sharp, something terrible, under my nose. I coughed, opened my eyes, or tried too.

  "Wake up your stupid bitch." The woman in the British officer uniform was holding me half up from the ice, with a stick of smelling salts under my nose. On her shoulder Gillian looked concerned. "Your birds- and mine- were getting worried."

  "I love you too, Amora." I pushed her hand away, tried to stand up. The world spun again, and I almost vomited; only the memory of what those cans of food tasted like going down stopped me from doing so. "What happened?"

  "My name is Captain Astarte, Colonial Navy, these days, remember? I shot you, as planned; you fell and hit your head, not as planned. Several of the Russians went for their guns, my snipers took them out. The rest either started begging or ranting about laws of war, when your birds showed up and created a lovely distraction. The remaining Russians ran for the door, while my snipers forgot how to shoot all of a sudden. The Russians escaped, and were heading out on the road last I saw. Assuming any survive, they will report they were ambushed- and the device stolen- by British troops, as planned. Oh, and you are dead. Which is a change, as normally you only smell half dead." Amora pointed behind us, where the device was waiting, along with a dozen sleds and a whole pile of sled dogs. "Time for us to go, yes?"

  "Yes" I tried to stand again, the world blurred, took a few breaths, and forced myself up. A flutter of feathers, and Lois landed on my shoulder, a warm and welcome presence. The world seemed to twist, and then fell into focus as our link became solid. "Whatever happened to using blanks?"

  "Rubber bullets. Much more realistic." Amara held up her six shooter and twirled it with pride.

  "Great. Yes, time to go, and go fast. We will need to drop some dynamite behind us
to seal off pursuit; Julie will be back in a few hours." My vision was holding steady now, at least. Maybe I wasn't brain damaged again? I much prefer a bottle in front of me to a frontal lobotomy.

  "Julie?" Amara hesitated.

  "Julie d’Aubigny, I sent her to the top of those mountains on a wild goose chase. She won't stay lost forever, so get the damn thing loaded and let's go." I kicked the snow off my boots and started stomping towards the waiting sleds.

  "Julie d’Aubigny, the Butcher of Tokyo? Julie d’Aubigny, the Knight of Blood and Leaves? That bloody damned Julie d’Aubigny?? That is who you were kissing?? Are you bloody insane??" Amara ran past me "Get the thing, leave the evidence, we are going now now now!"

  Her men lurched into action, the dogs were rounded up and tied, the device packed, the sleds pointed to the door, we began to mush out... A brutal scream echoed through the valley. I stepped off the sled, pulled out my binoculars, and began checking the mountains around us. The sleet made visibility low, and the late afternoon sun was not helping, but I almost saw a black shadow moving down the mountain side. It flickered, like one of those motion pictures, when played at the wrong speed.

  "You had better get going" I said, sand and bitterness in my throat.

  "Is that... The Maphnk?" Amara had out her own binoculars, and started swearing. I was impressed, I never learned those words at the orphanage.

  "No, something worse." I looked around, trying for a plan.

  "We can outrun her." Amara said.

  "No dear, I think not." Lois noted "I estimate her rough speed at about One hundred thirty miles per hour; even in this terrain she will catch you. And your troops will not be a threat. Eryma is correct, this is our job."

  "Good luck" Amara leapt back on her sled, and the dogs barked as the whips cracked and they were off.

  "Amara!" I ran after. "Leave me some supplies and the special rope!"