by K. Gorman
“Yes.”
“Whose guard? UN?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Keep them away from Fallon. Please.” She tagged on that last word as an afterthought, realizing that she was giving orders to someone who was not under her jurisdiction. “I’ll be checking in later, if you’ll let me.”
“Of course.” Kalinsky glanced around at the gathered circle and the group of Finlai cyborgs watching them approach. “Is this a challenge?”
Huh. She was surprised that he didn’t know.
“It is.”
“I was wondering why Finlai suddenly stopped firing.”
Ah. So they’d been causing some trouble before issuing the challenge. Good to know. She’d have to talk to Captain Arnelli and Tillerman later. There were likely a number of things needing her attention.
Well, at least you get to literally kill the person who caused such an inconvenience. Most in command positions don’t get that opportunity.
“I’d like to speak with you more, especially in regards to Elliot Corringham’s address, but you’ll have to excuse me. I need to go fight someone to the death first.”
He must have been apprised of Centauri culture, because he didn’t even blink. He gave her a simple nod and broke off, heading to join the rim of the circle, then veering as Reeve stepped down the Nemina’s ramp, waving to get the man’s attention.
Hmm.
Kalinsky and Reeve. That was something she’d have to examine later.
Right now, she had someone to kill.
She focused her attention on the group in front of her. Five cyborgs, all watching her with grim, solemn faces. One, a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties with a near-full cyberization on his body, stared at her with a greater intensity than the others.
You know, I get a feeling that he doesn’t like me much, she thought dryly to Tia.
Well, he won’t be thinking that for much longer, came the reply.
“Am I fighting just one of them, or all five?” she asked Tillerman.
“Just the one. Viktor Morelli. He became Grand Regent a few hours ago.”
“And he didn’t learn from his predecessor’s consequence, I see.” She sighed. “Don’t tell me he was sleeping with Leisler, too?”
“Of that, I can’t speculate. I think he’d be more likely to have slept with Nolen, however.”
“Oh, you know him?”
“Oh, yes. And he’s had this coming for a while.”
“Sounds good.” She sighed again, then rolled her shoulders. “Okay, to the death and anything goes?”
“Anything but interference. You going to use your powers?”
“No. I really feel like hitting something right now.”
“Ah. You have blood on the back of your head.”
“Don’t worry. It’s my own. I’ll also need to fix this armor when we get back up.”
Tillerman gave her an alarmed look. “Did something happen?”
“No, not really. Sasha caught me by surprise is all. She’s in the ship right now. Nomiki’s guarding her.” She shook her head. “I’ll finish this quick so we can get back into orbit and talk. The situation’s changed.”
She didn’t see Tillerman’s face when she pushed herself into a faster stride, but she’d just given the Commander a good amount of information to chew on.
Sure enough, a distinct frown of puzzlement etched her face when she turned back around and joined the perimeter of the circle. Then, she crossed her arms over her chest, planted herself, and adopted a gruff, neutral expression.
By the lack of attention Tillerman paid to Karin as she planted herself on the perimeter of the circle and adopted a gruff, neutral expression, she gathered the commander was not worried about her losing this fight.
As it should be. She’d seen enough to know what Karin was capable of.
She flipped the HUD on her forearm and canceled a few of the faults as she walked up to the group waiting her in the field.
“So,” she called. “Which one of you has volunteered to die today?”
Morelli moved forward and spat in her direction. “You are disgusting. I will not stand idle while someone like you has control of a great nation.”
“Right. Guess I have my answer.” She turned to him, still glancing through her HUD. “Shall we get on with this, or does anyone else have something they would like to add?”
She lifted her gaze to the four gathered cyborgs, meeting each of their gazes with a lifted eyebrow.
They remained silent, their expressions shuttered.
Good. Smart. She might be able to work with them, after all.
“Nobody? Good. Now, go join the rest of the crowd so we can kill each other.” She met Morelli’s eyes again. “I hope you updated your will.”
He didn’t say anything, but he spat at the ground between them again.
What a pleasant individual. Maybe I’m doing them a favor by killing him.
With a smile, she watched the other cyborgs glance to each other, then retreat toward the edge of the circle.
Technically, they had just followed her order. And, by the anger that rippled across Morelli’s face, she was guessing he’d noticed.
Or maybe his face was always like that.
“Challenger strikes first,” she told him, leaning back and crossing her arms. “Your move.”
Without another word, he tapped a button at the side of his collar. His helmet folded into position, visor tinted to obscure his face―and, most likely, filled with all sorts of HUD sensor notifications and tracking.
The wind lifted again, blowing cold across her face. Around them, the crowd grew silent. Waiting. The distant sound of a ship engine growled in the distance. It was dark in the field, the night sky a deep black above them and filled with stars. With the flatness of the prairie, it made her think she was under a dome. That, if gravity were to suddenly stop, she could just lift off and be floating toward the stars.
Well, technically, that was true. But they’d have a lot more problems if gravity suddenly stopped working. Like lack of oxygen due to the atmosphere fucking off. Half the ships would be broken, too.
She breathed in deep and rolled her shoulders, waiting, listening to the bend and rustle of the grass. Feeling the stares of more than a hundred people on her.
The children were there, too, at the sidelines. Silent. Attentive.
Ah, yes. What a good environment for them.
Then again, they’d likely seen worse than what she was about to do.
Then, with a blur of motion and the mechanical whir of his suit, Morelli made his move.
He was fast. She’d give him that. Good, too. The suit dampened his footfalls, and he moved in a near-blur, a quick sprint that he had clearly worked hard to achieve. Within a single second, he’d drawn a blade, lunged across the distance between them, and stabbed into the space her head had been a second before, even tracking part of her dodge and following it with his attack.
And all of that without broadcasting his initial intent.
But she was faster.
With the armor on, she didn’t have to worry about breaking her hand or wrist when she punched. She twisted out of the way, shoved his strike aside, and slammed the blade of her palm into his neck.
He staggered, shot to the side, tried to counter, but she was on him before he could even turn.
The rest of it was a brutal, bloody mess.
She smashed a fist into the back of his helmet, cracking the glass. He struck out, smacked an elbow into her shin, but she just punched the glass again.
This time, it broke, and she slammed her fist into the naked skull below.
The metal plates of his cyborg head dented. He yelled out, bucked and tried to get out from under.
She pulled out her knife, a nice, laser-tinged blade like he had just tried to slice her with, activated it, and stabbed it into his neck.
Blood sprayed, then gushed. Some of it splattered across her armor when he jerked, one of his hand
s smacking harmlessly into her shoulder. When she pressed harder, leaning into it, the bone of his spine cracked.
He went still.
She pulled her knife out and stood. Then she stepped back, watching him bleed out.
After a minute, she turned and left his body on the field, heading back to Tillerman.
Perhaps a minute was early for brain death, and the man could still be saved, but not without interference. And she had things to do.
“Looks like I got myself another nation to lead.” She sighed. “Please, find out who’s Second and have them brought up to the Artemide’s conference room. That aide from earlier can fill them in and give them the info-pack.”
Malouf came up, offering her a clean cloth. “The Mars rep would like to speak with you.”
“Thank you, Malouf.” She switched directions, veering to where she saw Kalinsky, Reeve, and the Martian ambassador standing at the edge of the now-dissolving circle. “Ah, yes, Ambassador Lang. Ride with me. We have so many things to talk about.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The door hissed shut behind her, and she blew out a breath, feeling the tension slide out of her chest and shoulders.
Finally. She was alone.
The meeting had lasted longer than she’d liked, and she was still wearing her armor. All she’d done was give it a quick wipe to get the blood off. And it had beeped every ten minutes, reminding her of the stack of faults her little tumble through Sasha’s portal had given her.
The headache that had been threatening earlier had also decided to make an appearance, likely bolstered by the blow to the head Sasha had given her.
Gods, she thought, turning into the room. I need a shower.
You think you can get the armor off alone, or do you need an attendant to help you dress again? Tia teased.
Oh, shove off.
Still, it was a conundrum. A conundrum she decided not to face quite yet, instead veering into the suite’s kitchen, grabbing a drink and a meal pack from the counter, and stepping over to admire the view through the windows.
The suite really was breathtaking. It had a nice ambience, with a warm, golden base as opposed to the glaring, impeccable white that took the rest of the ship―a suite definitely meant for relaxation and winding down. That also meant that the carpeted floor came in an unfortunate shade of tan more commonly found in cheap, vintage hotel rooms with smoke stains coating the walls and an extra layer of dust in the curtains. The furniture was sleek and modern, but comfortable. Now that she had a moment to examine it, she could see just how well it had been styled, though she gathered that, by its size, it had been styled for a much larger person than herself.
That’s fine. We can just call that ‘Jon’s chair.’
Jon wasn’t as large as the former Grand Regent had been, but he did have trouble finding chairs that fit him.
Fuck, I haven’t even seen the bed yet. I bet it’s enormous, she thought.
Most likely, Tia replied. Especially given how many bed partners he apparently entertained.
She gave a snort. Now, Tia. We’ve only met two of them. People can have more than two bed partners in a lifetime. Hells, I’ve had more than two bed partners in my life, and I’m a pretty prudish twenty-seven-year-old who was sheltered most of her life.
Tia gave a long-suffering sigh. Karin, sometimes you are just no fun to joke with.
She chuckled softly, giving her head a shake, then raised the drink to her lips.
She made a face when she noticed a watered-down tint of red on the side of her index finger’s glove. Nose scrunched, she set the beverage down on the nearest table and began examining the forearm of her suit for a release switch.
Farther down the wall of windows, Soo-jin blinked up at the movement. “Is that you, Legs?”
Karin’s eyebrows rose. She didn’t think her legs were particularly long or fantastic, but she’d take the compliment. “And if it is?”
There was a slight pause.
“Well, I notice that we’re all still alive and the world is still here, so I guess it went well.”
“You haven’t heard?” She glanced over. She didn’t recognize the bottle Soo-jin held, but the smell gave her an idea of the proof. Soo-jin’s liver would let her know its displeasure in about six hours, she predicted. “You been drinking here, alone, all this time?”
Soo-jin made a vague, wobbling gesture to the starscape. “It’s a beautiful view to die by. Less stressful than being on the bridge. Or the conference room. Or anywhere else on the ship, really. Even engineering was stressful.”
Ah. So she had explored the rest of the ship.
Good.
“Did you at least get laid?”
Soo-jin pouted. “No. I was too busy being a whiny little bitch pining over Baik.”
Well, at least she was admitting it.
“Ah. Sorry for taking him away.”
“Did you bring him back?”
“Yes. He was in the meeting a few minutes ago. I suppose he must be somewhere on the ship.”
Karin cringed, thinking back to the meeting.
Well, they had hammered stuff out. And they had gotten everyone on the same page. Sort of.
Fallon was trying to insist on everyone being on their page, citing some bullshit reason or another, but she knew an attempt at power manipulation when she saw one. Alliance, at least, was playing nice. As were Mars and the UN, the former having now sent a team to investigate if their planet, satellite, and station territories housed one Bernard Corringham and, if not, when the hells he had left, and the latter having an actual physical address for Elliot Corringham in Japan.
We should go kill him. It’d be easy. Like cutting pie.
Thank you for that, she thought back to Tia. Now I’ll never be able to eat pie without thinking of cutting someone’s throat.
No, they were waiting for Mars, for the moment. That, and they were regrouping.
She also had an entirely new Centauri nation to bring into the fold. The poor Finlai Commander had been thrown into the conference room with little to no context for what was actually going on, either with her or with the situation. She’d met with him after, then she and Tillerman had sent him the aide from earlier to catch him up.
She didn’t even know what her new nation included. Nor did she precisely care.
They really need to re-examine their systems of government. At the rate I’m going, we’ll have control of their entire system in about five years, give or take.
I suppose that’s one way to unify them under one government, Tia noted dryly.
I suppose.
She gave up fiddling with her forearm, let out a big sigh, and held it out toward Soo-jin. “Soo, come take this suit off me.”
Soo-jin’s face split in a broad grin. “Yes, ma’am.”
She sprang up, wobbling slightly, and tiptoed her way over. The bottle smelled even stronger up close, and its glass bottom made a clunk when Soo-jin set it down on the nearest tabletop.
She turned to watch the stars while Soo-jin gave her a small circle, her grin turning into a frown as she tried and failed to find the catch-release. “What the fuck? Did they grow this on you?”
“No. There’s gotta be a way to make it release. I mean, I bet it comes off when the battery kicks out, but…I really don’t want to wait three days for that, and I really don’t want to have to call Lieutenant Seki in to judge me again.”
“Yeah, yeah, I feel you.” Soo-jin poked her head around her shoulder. “Activate your HUD.”
Karin tapped her wrist, and the screen popped up. Soo-jin reached around, grabbed Karin’s arm, and began to type. She scrolled through several menus, hit a few commands, then gave a ‘yeehee’ of victory as she deactivated the suit from the power menu.
The suit gave a beep, then the panels lifted off, revealing the skintight gel suit underneath.
That was something Karin could deal with on her own.
“Thanks,” she said.
“No probl
em. Just remember: you owe me now.”
She smiled. “What do you want?”
“Bring me up to date on everything, then bring me on your next mission.”
She considered it. “I don’t know where I’m going yet, but it will likely be dangerous. The short answer is that Sasha isn’t entirely evil and I have now brought her aboard, and we’re going after the really evil guy, Bernard Corringham, who was in charge of the Eurynome Project and who may or may not have made himself into a god.” She paused. “He most likely did.”
“Oh-oh. Huh. Okay, I think I heard you and Tia and Nomiki talking about that part before, actually. So he actually did it?”
“Yes. And that is why Sasha decided to end the world and rewrite it.”
“Okay, a bit dramatic, but I can see where she came from.” Soo-jin frowned. “So, like, he really actually did it?”
Karin grunted. “We don’t know if he had a full Cradle when he did it, or if he did it with one that was incomplete―but yes, he actually managed to do it.”
“Sol, this is so fucked up.”
Tell me about it. We didn’t even get into the part where a shitload of dead children’s Cradle ghosts helped herd the living children back into ships and then watched us all fly away. While telling us how to win this war. Or the part where I, quite literally, made a Titaness submit her crown on top of Mount Olympus.
She lifted her hand to rub her nose, paused when she re-noticed the blood, pulled the gauntlet of lifted panels off, and repeated the gesture. This time, there wasn’t any smeared blood, and the gel suit gave a nice, cooling sensation.
But the gel suit had not developed any boundaries during the past three hours, and she was really tired about having it mold into the crack of her ass. Amongst other things.
She scrunched her nose and made a sound of disgust. “Gods, I need a shower.”
“Didn’t you just have one? Like, recently?”
“I need another one.”
“Maybe you should stop killing people in bloody ways. Just whap the next guy on the head or something. I bet your backhand is killer.”
She laughed, imagining herself bitch-slapping the next challenger to death and walking away.
It could work.