by Aaron Crash
“Sorry,” Elle whispered. “Same thing happened with Granny right around the same time. I came home from university, and Granny was gone. Pearl had no idea where she went. And her room in Pearl’s Jewel looked like she’d be back any minute. It wasn’t like she was dragged out, and she didn’t pack up her things. She disappeared.”
“Was Granny a prostitute?” Trina asked.
“Hard to tell with Granny,” Elle replied. “One minute she was a saint, going to church, loving Jesus, and the next she’s the ultimate sinner. She tried to be good with me, but that kind of bipolar action confuses a kid. She’d love and praise my grades then turn around and lock me in the closet overnight for not doing dishes.”
“Awful,” Trina murmured. “I’m sorry.”
“Blaze had it worse than me. Granny was a joy about three-quarters of the time. Arlo was a narcissistic pig one hundred percent of every single day. Isn’t that right?”
Blaze nodded. “But again, don’t want to talk about any of this ancient shit. I want to know what you think happened down there in the Etrusca ruins, Elle. Trina, if you want to chime in, that’s fine as well. But I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“It wasn’t the Onyx Gate,” Elle said, looking a little ashamed. “I just saw all the Onyx energy it was collecting, pouring in from miles and miles.”
“And it started after the fusion blast hit the cube,” Blaze said. “Maybe the sun-fire energy triggered it? I don’t know, but the whole place came alive. And at the end, it was a continent of tentacles in space. And that screaming. Did you hear the screaming on the ship, Trina?”
“We did,” Trina said. “So, the question I have—which came first? Did the Etrusca ruin draw the demon out and then pull in the Onyx, or was it always like that…a collector. We have no idea what kind of civilization the Etrusca had. It’s all lost. Could it be they worshipped the demons? Or were the Etrusca somehow in league with them?”
“Or were they wiped out by the demons?” Elle asked. “I can see that happening. The Etrusca use their science to open the wrong door…and hell comes bursting out. Maybe the ruin we saw was demonized five million years before, and the fusion blast to the cube woke it up. I checked, and there are no Etrusca ruins anywhere near active suns. There are a few near neutron stars, but not many.”
“Maybe the neutron stars don’t have enough juice left to activate the structures,” Blaze said. “But the more I think about it, the more I think the cube, when exposed to sunlight, triggered what we saw.”
Elle nodded. “Then the ruin drew Onyx energy to it, almost like a magnet. What if Xerxes is using the Etrusca structures like a magnet?”
Blaze let out a frustrated breath. “Since we are playing a ‘what if’ game, what if we freed it? What if it’s out there, now, eating through worlds or eating suns, getting bigger and stronger?”
Elle shivered. “We couldn’t stop it.”
Trina thought for a minute, then spoke. “We had audio on. We heard the ghost through comms. When you mentioned Xerxes, it knew about the archduke of hell. The guy was obviously unhinged, but maybe Xerxes set a trap.”
Blaze nodded. “Could be. But I don’t know. I’m thinking the ghost was just a ghost. It sounded like he was from a scientific expedition that went wrong. Remember? He talked about a neutron star, a graveyard of ships, and that he and his family had fled. Probably found the Etrusca ruin by accident. Then he snaps after murdering his wife and daughter to save them from a long, bad death. No wonder he couldn’t find any rest. Then the Onyx energy worked him over. We’ve seen it before when supernatural creatures know about each other. The ghost is chilling in the ruins, Xerxes streaks past, and the ghost feels it.”
“Xerxes might’ve demonized the ruins,” Elle said. “It might all be Xerxes.”
Blaze shrugged. “That’s an awful thought. If Xerxes can bring Etrusca ruins to life, we are completely and totally screwed. And not in the good way.”
“Our ghost guy talked about a lord and master,” Elle pointed out. “Maybe it’s not Xerxes. Maybe it’s his lord and master, Xerxes’s dad?”
A shiver sneaked down Blaze’s spine. “Maybe once you get some mojo going, you can talk to the ghost guy and see what he knows.”
“Maybe,” Elle said. “You and I both know ghosts can be too far gone to give us much. We’re meant to die, not stick around without a body.”
Fernando came online in his ear. “Hello, Blaze. If you’re with Elle, tell her I’m thinking about her. Oh, and when she’s finished, I’m ready to install Trina’s implants. But Bill and I would like to go over the ship’s repairs and several weak points in our system. We’ve also been able to avoid some of the pocket anomalies, but Bill is convinced we will die. Before we die, he would like you to understand just how much he loathes you and the rest of the mammalian scum on this lovely ship.”
“I get that. Loud and clear.” Blaze blew out a breath.
The Clickers spoke back and forth, and Fernando found it necessary to add, “One more thing, Bill also hates Ling, but he’s not officially a mammal. The Meelah are marsupials, though the females do have breasts outside of their pouches. You can understand Bill’s confusion.”
“Uh, yeah,” Blaze said. “I’m leaving now.” He closed the conversation. “That was Fernando. He’s ready for Trina when you’re finished. Are you ready for implants, Trina?”
She nodded. “I’ve been trained for combat. You saw how I helped you when we fought Xerxes the first time. I want to do this, Blaze. I can’t walk away from the evil. I can’t turn a blind eye.”
“You want to save the universe.” Blaze swallowed and closed his eyes. He would hate to watch Trina die. But he couldn’t help but admire her determination. He’d seen it before in other people who became hunters that wanted to make the universe a better place.
“That’s it. I want to save the universe,” Trina agreed.
Blaze took her hand and squeezed it. He dropped it and got to the door before turning around. “By the way, Elle, Fernando told me he’s thinking about you right now. Not sure what you did to the bug on that fateful night, but he has it bad for you.”
He grinned at his sister’s long sigh.
The gunnery sergeant walked into the engine room, and part of the back wall was missing. Bill had hullfoam sealing it while the emergency bulkhead processes kept them all from being sucked out into space. The stump of his missing limb was still bandaged, and he was ginger with it, yet his other three arms were a flurry of activity.
Fernando was sitting in a chair, surrounded by the blue holographic science controls, scanning for Xerxes.
Bill clicked.
Blaze did the translating this time. “Bill would like me to know how much he’d like to see me dead, roasted, with an apple in my mouth. Did I get that right, Fernando?”
Fernando clacked in laughter. “Yes, Blaze, yes.”
To his surprise, Bill was also laughing in his Clicker language.
Blaze was far more serious. And pissed. “Uh, guys, how come you didn’t tell me we had such a serious breach? Did this happen during the IPC fight?”
“It did,” Fernando said.
Bill clicked.
“He says that he didn’t think you needed to know since you obviously don’t care about your wonderful, beautiful, troubled ship.” Fernando turned and regarded him with his inscrutable buggy eyes. “I have found no sign of Xerxes. It seems we have lost him. I’m very sorry.”
Blaze couldn’t turn the Lizzie around. But if they couldn’t find Xerxes, he was needlessly endangering the lives of his crew. Not his family, his crew. He was done with family.
“Should we turn around and head back to New Oberlin?” Blaze asked.
“Yes, most definitely. Or we could go to the Terran Quadrant,” Fernando said. “We’re equidistant to either one. Xerxes might be headed for Earth.”
Blaze tapped behind his ear. “Ling, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Certainly, Gunny,” the Shao
lin sloth replied. “I’m in Cali’s room, helping her clean up. We’ve been having such a lovely conversation.”
Blaze shook his head. Leave it to Ling to have a “lovely conversation” when at any minute they could find themselves stranded in space with no escape.
“Okay, guys, keep up the good work,” Blaze said.
“Before you leave, Gunny,” Fernando clicked, “I want to tell you, the logical course of action is to turn around. But as you have pointed out, during what you call The Bug War, the Humans often got the upper hand by not doing what was logical.”
“That also can get a lot of soldiers killed,” Blaze said. “Fernando, buzz me when you put in Trina’s implants. I want to be there.”
“I don’t buzz, Gunny, I click.”
Both Clickers erupted into laughter at that one.
“Wasn’t that funny,” Blaze growled. He was in no mood for jokes.
Fernando sobered. “If you see Elle, give her my regards.”
“Get over it, Fernando. It was one night. Not going to happen again. Not enough beer in the galaxy.” Blaze left the engine room.
Down the hall, down the stairs, he walked to the front of the ship, to Cali’s room. Her door was open, and inside, Ling and Cali had made a lot of progress. Some new furniture, funky and very Elle, had been brought in. The wrecked stuff Ling had ejected into space. One nice thing about the universe being so unimaginably big? Littering wasn’t an issue.
Ling and Cali had taken a break from cleaning. Both sat on Meelah prayer rugs, their legs folded, their hands resting on their laps with their thumbs an eighth of an inch apart. It was a meditative posture Ling had taught everyone on board the Lizzie Borden.
Blaze went to leave. “I didn’t mean to interrupt…”
“You’re not,” Ling said. He motioned for Blaze to join them. Blaze wasn’t in any mood to sit still and quiet his mind. At any second, he expected to feel the spacetime wave dissipate, leaving them stuck.
Blaze sat anyway, but he wasn’t going to do any meditating. “So, Ling, I need your advice. Do we turn the ship around?”
“Hi, Blaze,” Cali whispered.
Damn, he forgot to say hello to her. Things were bound to be tense between the two of them. “Hey, Cali, sorry. I didn’t mean anything by not saying hello. It’s just…I’m kind of worried about what we’re doing out here.”
“I understand,” she said quietly. “It’s my fault. What I did. I want you to know, I don’t blame you. Or Elle.”
Blaze found himself growling, annoyed it was feelings and relationships and all that bullshit. They were supposed to be a ship of hunters, not a stupid soap opera. “Look, Elle is to blame. My sister is evil, or she can be. Let’s just drop it. We need you, Cali.”
“Do you regret saving my life on Deseret Prime?” she asked.
“Not a bit,” Blaze lied. He couldn’t tell her the truth. She was like a nuclear weapon who needed reassurance…a lot of work but oh so effective in combat.
“So, do you forgive me?” Cali asked. “For sleeping with Elle.”
“You I forgive. Elle? I’m working on it. She and I are talking at least.”
“And after I…changed…after…can you forgive me for that?” Cali asked.
“Yes, we’re good, Cali. I didn’t like locking you in your room, but we had no choice. You get that, right?”
Cali nodded, her eyes falling to the floor. “So, you and I…we can’t be together like before, can we?”
“No,” Blaze said, though looking at her sweet face, the curve of her neck, and her hips, and the memories of their time together made it hard. She had been reckless and wanton, a wildcat in the sack. And though she looked innocent, she was anything but. He needed to soften the tone of his no. “Well, not for right now. But who knows what the future will hold.”
Cali brightened.
Blaze was glad for that, but he’d come to talk with Ling. “Ling, I thought you said you and Cali were having a lovely conversation. Then I find you meditating. What the hell?”
Ling shrugged. “We talked. We sat in silence. Both lovely. But you are asking for my wisdom on the very unwise thing we are doing. Searching for a rogue demonic robot lost in a dangerous part of space where we could find ourselves stranded. And every second we travel millions of more miles into the void. Yes, dangerous indeed. And very unwise.”
Blaze let out a breath. “You think we should turn around.” He knew it. The disappointment in their failure felt like death. “We never should’ve stopped to check out the relic. Stupid me, but I always think things will take less time than they do. And we might’ve woken up an Etrusca hell beast. Billions might die because of us. Dammit.”
“Those moments are gone,” Ling murmured gently. “Regret is a game you can’t win given the linear nature of our existence. What about the moment right now? Right now, what is the universe asking of us?”
Blaze felt his racing mind come to a crashing stop. Right then, they had one task. Close the Onyx Gate. Since the very start of their hunting, three years earlier, when Elle and Blaze found each other in New Oberlin, orphaned once again, that had been their only concern. Hunt demons, trap ghosts, make the galaxy safe for Humans, Meelah, and Clickers, and figure out a way to find the Onyx Gate so they could close it. That had not changed.
“We can’t stop,” Blaze said.
“You can,” Ling said. “You have complete freedom. Given the nature of your mind, however, I don’t think you would find peace if we left the Sargasso Expanse without finding Xerxes, trapping him, and interrogating him. I could. I could let go of this moment and find peace in the next. But you and Elle, you couldn’t. I find that very sad for you.”
Cali erupted in unexpected giggles.
Blaze turned to stare, mystified. “What the hell, Cali?”
“Sorry,” she said, still giggling. “I find it funny that Ling pities you. Here you both are, total badasses, and yet, Ling’s right. You two are a mess when it comes to mental health. But then, so am I. We are quite the family.”
Blaze got to his feet. “Crew. Team. Unit. But not family.”
He stomped out the door just as Elle broke through comms.
“Hey, brother dear,” Elle said with an evil sound to her voice. “Trina is on her way to the sick bay for the implants. I just called to say that we both have kissed her now. I’m going to go sleep, so don’t wake me, but I just had to tell you, we’re neck and neck. May the best woman win.”
Elle shut off communication. Blaze tried to call her back, but she’d gone into sleep mode. Do not disturb. He had to stop himself from punching the corridor wall.
If they all were a family, it was most fucked-up family ever.
FIFTEEN_
╠═╦╬╧╪
Blaze stood with his arms crossed in the sick bay. Trina lay on the bed, Fernando working on her with four arms, reaching for a laser scalpel, administering the anesthesia, using the eyelid spreader, and carefully inserting the micron-thin implants into her eyes.
He wasn’t about to broach the Elle subject with Trina. He wanted to keep it all professional, though the idea of his would-be new squeeze kissing his sister filled him with exponential amounts of anger. But oh well. Business first. Love later.
“So, Trina,” Blaze said, “you can tap behind your ear to bring the system online. But it does work with brainwaves. The implants can tell if you want them on or off, most of the time, and you can scroll through windows and menus by looking and thinking about what you want to see. The double-blink also works. The whole system is really intuitive.”
“This is amazing,” Trina said. “I know we’ve had brainwave technology since the early twenty-first century, but it’s come a long way.”
“The Bug War helped with that,” Blaze said. “A lot of the advances in our technology came from combat applications. Like the nanofiber, the combat display, comms implants, the VHI stats. For those, you’re hooked into our system, so you can see us and our health. Also, when you grab a
weapon, the implants will pair with the gun, and you’ll be able to check ammunition and power usage levels.”
“I want a fusion pistol,” she said. “Those things are badass.”
“Sounds good. If you need any help, we can remote into your system and walk you through the menus.”
Fernando hunched over his patient. “Stay still for this next part, Trina. I’m going to make the incision and place the listening and speech component near your inner ear on the right side. While it is closest to your right ear, you will hear us in stereo. I will place another implant near your vocal cords.”
Blaze and Trina stopped talking while Fernando placed the implants and closed the wounds with synthetic skin that matched her skin perfectly.
The eye implants were in place. Blaze saw her VHI blink on in his display. Trina was good to go.
“Fernando,” she said, “I’ve been wondering. Elle has mastered Onyx energy enough to cast really powerful spells. But as a Human, she doesn’t have your Clicker linguistic abilities. So…why…uh…”
Fernando clacked laughter. “Why am I taking so long to learn Onyx speak? I do not believe you are casting aspersions on my intellect, but instead are genuinely curious. Put simply, Human children have exceptional language acquisition abilities that are superior to Meelah and Clickers. Elle studied Onyx while learning English as a small child. I am an adult. Also, from what I understand, Granny’s teaching methods were brutal but very effective.”
“Yeah, Granny and Arlo were both real bad people,” Blaze said. “But keep up your studies. I like the idea of having a backup witch on board.”
Fernando responded. “I believe that while I have no real gender, I would be considered a warlock. You do use the masculine pronouns to refer to Bill and me, and we have male Human names.”
The gunny chuckled. “You have me there.”
“Thanks for answering my question,” Trina said. She slid off the operating room bed. “Blaze, would you walk me back to my room? I want to play around with the displays, and then I have to sleep. But we should talk.”
“Kinda done talking,” Blaze said.