by Sean Danker
I remembered Queen Meeregald, with her outrageous body modifications and early death from her absolute belief that there was no chemical in the known universe that did not belong in her bloodstream.
As I stood in Cyril’s church with the lights on, I reflected that I was starting to get tired of crazy people.
Did these people think that I was out here because I wanted to be? So all right, yes—maybe I had left home for selfish reasons, but they hadn’t been bad reasons; they hadn’t been wrong.
I’d made a lot of mistakes. I could never go back, and I never thought that I could. I couldn’t fix it. I wasn’t crazy.
I was just trying. I was trying so hard.
And there were people like this, and people like Willis and Freeber. They didn’t know what they were doing. Cyril didn’t understand. No one understood.
I was angry.
The sanctuary was flanked by eight massive sets of curtains, and behind each curtain was a grotesque painting the size of a small house.
Sei stared at them, fascinated.
One painting showed a stormy sea and a great tentacled creature of unfathomable size. There was a ship on the surface, tossed about helplessly, oblivious to what was beneath it.
Another showed what looked like a sun, but inside the sun was what appeared to be a monolithically large eye.
Sei gazed up at one that showed what could only be a black hole, with a tentacle appearing to emerge from the void.
Another near the rear of the church was a detailed portrait of a strange, relatively ugly man I didn’t recognize.
None of those were the problem. The problem was the altar at the front of the sanctuary. It was large, circular, and made of stone. There were plenty of strange carvings in it, but the one that had my attention was the spiral groove in the center.
There was an altar just like it in one of the paintings, and in that image the groove was red.
I’d seen my share of dramas, and I didn’t like where this was going.
This was what Cyril hadn’t wanted us to see. These paintings and this altar. His explanation of his community’s beliefs had struck me as detailed enough that it probably wasn’t false—but it looked like he hadn’t been telling the whole story.
Sei swallowed.
“I don’t have anything against religion,” he said, “but this seems kind of sketchy.”
I collected myself, forcing my temper down. “Yeah. We can’t stay.”
“You really think that’s what they have in mind for us?”
“I don’t feel an urgent need to find out. Do you?”
He shook his head. “But how?”
“I’m going to just go ahead and make up my mind that we’re in immediate danger. I don’t care if it’s true; we’re going to move forward like it is. And I don’t have much more sneaking around in me.”
“You look awful,” Sei said, looking troubled.
“Thanks. Doesn’t matter if there’s nowhere to go. I don’t have the strength to get far on foot, and I don’t think on foot’s the way to go anyway. The road has to go somewhere. We’ll steal one of their vehicles and take our chances.”
“They have to be expecting that,” Sei said, looking worriedly at the big doors leading to the outside.
“I’m not so sure. The vehicles only look old, but they’re really just crawlers mocked up to look like they belong here. They’re probably DNA and clearance keyed.”
“Then they’re no good to us.”
“Not without a friend. These people might be crazy, but are they so zealous that they’ll say no to two imperials?”
Sei considered it. “I’m game,” he said, sighing.
The plan was far from airtight. If we were on property, there was a good chance that Cyril had some kind of security in place to keep the right people in and the wrong people out. If that was the case, we’d just have to wing it. Back in that little shop, I’d suspected what was coming. Now I was certain. The time for speculation had come and gone, and it was time for action.
If this was New Earth, then that road through town probably led to some other settlement. It might be a long way, but there had to be something. There would be law enforcement. Whose word would those people take? Ours or Cyril’s? And that was provided we even made it out of here. Cyril seemed confident. I still wasn’t completely sure why. The situation wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t as if we didn’t have plays to make, and surely he realized that.
His confidence bothered me. He knew something we didn’t.
“Let’s get moving,” Sei said. He looked restless.
“We’ll try Cyril’s house first. He had that little building behind the place. He may have a vehicle in it. I think it’s what those things are for.”
“He’s probably the worst hostage we could take,” Sei said.
“I know. But we don’t know that we need one, and I’m trying to plot a course that will keep us away from these people in numbers.”
“I’m with you.”
We hurried back to the doors, but Sei stopped me when I reached for the handle. He held up a hand, looking troubled.
“They’re out there,” he said quietly. I decided to take his word for it.
“We do have the lights on,” I said, looking back at the sanctuary. Maybe that had drawn their attention. “We’ll go out the back.”
We retraced our steps down the aisle, making for the door near the steps leading to the altar. It was a preparation room with a small office. We moved through, entering a short corridor that led to another door.
Someone had seen the lights and come to investigate—that didn’t mean we were in trouble. Just the opposite. It was a distraction. All we had to do was slip away unnoticed.
We pushed through the door and out into the night, crossing the narrow strip of open land between the sanctuary and the tree line. It was dark, and we were essentially blind, but I’d noticed during daylight that these patches of forest were extremely welcoming. There were no tangled roots to trip on—nothing but soft grass underfoot, and clean, picturesque trees.
I plunged in without hesitation, moving as fast as I dared. I was slowing Sei down, but there was nothing for it. I made for Cyril’s house. We would see if he had a vehicle. If he did, we could try to take it. If he didn’t, we’d make our way back to the village and take one there.
No—no, not without paying Cyril a visit first.
I hadn’t seen anything firsthand, but he’d all but made it clear that he was running things around here. We didn’t want him as a hostage, but we didn’t want him as an adversary either.
We’d knock him out, tie him up, and leave him in a closet. Leaderless, his people would be less equipped to chase us down effectively, and we were going to need every advantage we could get.
Especially if we were on New Earth.
Even if we got out of here, Sei and I were still two imperials on a Commonwealth planet that was still technically at war. Even with the cease-fire in effect, and the detail that we weren’t there by choice, we could still be in trouble.
Sei was a pilot. I was a spy. I was the spy who had murdered twenty million civilians and annihilated the center of government for the Ganraen system. If Commonwealth authorities caught up with us here and identified me, that would not be ideal.
We emerged from the trees, and hand lights came on suddenly, blinding us.
I tried to push Sei back.
“Go,” I said, putting up my hand against the glare. “Just run. I’ve got this.”
“No,” he said, shrugging free and stepping in front of me. “I can take these guys.”
There were five men, and a vehicle came rolling off the road, more getting out.
Sei started forward purposefully, then stopped, his eyes falling on the rifle in the hands of one of the men jogging down the hillside.
“Just kidding,” he said, backpedaling toward me with his hands raised.
I wished he’d just run when I’d told him to—that one rifle was the only projectile weapon I saw, and it wasn’t a smart rifle. It wouldn’t do them any good against a target running in the woods.
I couldn’t run, but Sei could. We could’ve divided their attention, gotten an advantage. Too late now.
Teeth grinding, I took a step back, but the man—the ex-military one, naturally—took aim at me, and I stopped.
How had this happened? A silent alarm at the church? Surveillance? If that was the case, how had we taken them by surprise initially?
Because they hadn’t been looking for us earlier. Now they were on alert. But something wasn’t right. How could they know exactly where we would be? Sei and I were missing something, something critical. We were two steps behind.
Cyril came running down from the road, leaving his vehicle’s lights shining. He saw us and came to a halt, looking relieved.
“Both of them? All right,” he said, running a hand through his hair. He stared at us frankly. “You two weren’t supposed to be awake for this. I’m sorry.”
He didn’t look or sound sorry.
“Very humane,” I replied. “Why didn’t you feed us a story about sending us home and put us back in the sleepers?”
“Because you wouldn’t have bought it,” Cyril replied, shrugging. “You were too suspicious. And at least one of those sleepers is faulty. That can kill you, you know. I wasn’t going to risk your lives.”
“There’s irony there,” I pointed out.
“Pardon the cliché,” Sei cut in, “but do you really think you can get away with this? There’s a record of sale. It doesn’t matter where we are or whom you’re friends with. We can’t go missing with no answers. You should believe us when we tell you that we’re imperials. The Imperium will come for us.”
“Let me worry about that,” Cyril said, looking unconcerned.
“I guess we’ll have to,” I said.
“Guys, you’ve put me in a very uncomfortable position. Can we put this to bed like adults? You were both bought and paid for, and brought here for a purpose. A higher purpose. The highest purpose. That’s all there is to it.”
Neither one of us had anything to say to that. His directness was refreshing, at least.
One of the men beside Cyril leaned in. “What do we do?” he asked.
Cyril let out a long sigh. “I think . . . I think we had best go on and move ahead. These two are a little too independent for my comfort, and the longer we keep them like this, the more risk we take on. We shouldn’t underestimate them.”
“How much are we moving up?” the man asked, motioning his guys forward. They took hold of Sei and me. I wasn’t nearly strong enough to fight back, and there were two of them on me regardless. Sei was in an identical situation. Our chance to make a move was gone.
“All the way,” Cyril replied. He turned and looked up the hill toward his house. “The procession’s supposed to start at the mausoleum, but we’ll just go from here.”
“You’re not coming?” The man seemed surprised.
“I’ll be there shortly. I wasn’t expecting to do this so early. Put the word out. It’s the result that matters, not the show.”
The man nodded and gestured to his crew, and Cyril began to climb back up the hill.
The men holding us pushed us toward the road.
At least we’d inconvenienced them. Maybe that was worth something.
It was completely dark now, and no one seemed to be in a hurry. That was good, because I was fading fast. My feet were sore from all the running around with no shoes, and I didn’t have much strength left.
The guy with the rifle was out in front, looking thoughtful. There was still a man guiding me firmly, and Sei was in the same situation. The other two were just behind us, watching.
I wondered what Cyril was really up to. Where was he going? What was he doing? Why was he hiding it from his own people?
It didn’t matter; it was time for me to live in the moment. I looked at Sei.
“I wish you’d just run,” I told him frankly.
“Well, I’m sorry. I didn’t have a lot of time to decide,” he said, glaring at me.
“Be quiet,” said the guy in front of us, apparently the leader of this little band.
“Or you’ll what? Kill us? Keep walking,” Sei said to him.
“It’s not that hard,” I snapped. “Divide them.”
“Excuse me? I’m a pilot, not a general,” Sei shot back. “This is not my job. Small-unit infantry tactics are for the ground forces. I’m an Everwing pilot. What do you want from me?”
“I want you to think,” I said, annoyed.
“I thought the thing to do was to stay with you. Defend you.”
“You help me by going,” I told him. “Obviously. They’d have to chase you or let you go. If you were out there, we still had a play. If they chased, maybe I could make something happen. What’s wrong with you?”
The man leading me snorted.
“Well, I’m sorry for trying to do the right thing,” Sei said, disgusted.
“The right thing is the smart thing, not what they do in dramas. We’re both about to die because you had to play hero.”
“You’re an ass,” Sei said.
22
“I thought the thing to do was to stay with you. Defend you.”
Salmagard knew she wasn’t going to get a better chance. She signaled Diana, who emerged from the shadows on the other side of the road, falling to a crouch and moving in silence.
“You help me by going,” the Admiral said angrily. “Obviously. They’d have to chase you or let you go. If you were out there, we still had a play. If they chased, maybe I could make something happen. What’s wrong with you?”
Perfect. Holding her breath, Salmagard crept forward.
“Well, I’m sorry for trying to do the right thing,” Sei said, disgusted.
“The right thing is the smart thing, not what they do in dramas. We’re both about to die because you wanted to play hero.”
“You’re an ass,” Sei said.
Diana and Salmagard struck at the same instant, plunging hypos into the necks of the two men at the back of the group.
It didn’t make a sound. They caught their victims as they fell, laying them out on the road and picking their way past to follow the others, who were oblivious.
“I don’t think name-calling is constructive,” the Admiral said.
“Oh my Empress, shut up,” Sei snapped.
Salmagard nodded to Diana. Diana was strong enough that she didn’t need to do anything in particular to secure a fast takedown. Salmagard was too light to leave anything to chance with a grown man; she had to compensate.
She leapt into the air, bringing down her elbow with everything she had on the back of the man pushing the Admiral. The blow struck him down as decisively as a bullet would have. Diana simply stepped in, grabbing Sei’s captor from behind and putting him in a rigid headlock.
Salmagard leapt past the Admiral as the lead man turned, startled. She tackled him around the middle, carrying him to the ground with a crash. He tried to bring up his rifle, but Salmagard struck it aside. She grabbed a fistful of the man’s shirt and hit him with a straight punch that put an abrupt end to his day.
The Admiral had fallen to one knee. “That’s where Cyril was going. You guys,” he said, face pale. He didn’t sound good. “That was really bothering me.”
And he looked worse than he had on Nidaros. Salmagard was there in an instant, injecting him with his antidote.
Diana dropped her unconscious victim and threw her arms around Sei.
“My knight in shining armor,” the Admiral said weakly. “Where’s your ship? The GRs? We have to get off this pl
anet.”
Salmagard was taken aback. “Planet? What planet?” She hauled him to his feet without waiting for an answer, looking to Diana. “Where do we go?”
“There was a big structure up there,” the red-eyed woman replied, still squeezing Sei, who looked relieved, but also a little uncomfortable.
“The church?” he said. “No way. We can’t go there.”
“We aren’t leaving?” The Admiral sounded puzzled. He pulled free of Salmagard, obviously feeble but still able to stand on his own. Barely. “What’s going on?”
“We have to move,” Salmagard told him, taking him by the hand.
“Well, not that way. Back—back the other way, to the house,” the Admiral said, allowing himself to be pulled. There wasn’t time to argue; they started moving. “This isn’t a planet?”
“It’s a ship,” Diana called back to him. Lights appeared on the road behind them. Salmagard and Diana angled into the woods, but the Admiral was struggling to keep up.
“What?”
“It’s not a ship,” Salmagard explained tersely. “Just a habitat. There’s a ship pulling it. That’s where we’ve got to go, but it’s on the other side of that settlement.”
It seemed like the Admiral wanted to say something, but he held back.
They emerged from the trees, finding the house dark.
“I thought Cyril said he was coming up here,” Sei said.
“He lied,” the Admiral replied. “Just—just go there. Here.” He pointed.
Diana bounded onto the porch and shouldered through the door. Salmagard followed with the Admiral.
“A ship.” He sighed. “Explains a lot. I should’ve figured that out.”
She gently helped him onto a sofa and hurried to the window. More lights were appearing in the night. Salmagard’s heart sank.
“They’re already here,” she reported.
Diana groaned, shutting the door. “We should’ve gone for the ship first, then come for these two.”
“If you’d come any later, we’d be on that altar,” Sei pointed out. “But how’d you get here? What’s going on? How did you find us? Where did you get those EVs?”