by Scott Moon
Kin shook his head. “I have a brother.” He thought of his kid brother Ashton and wondered if he was still alive.
“Half brother,” the Emperor said.
What? Kin focused on the Emperor. “My father is going to be pissed.”
Filoussage Onderbock shrugged. “Your father was much less interesting to us. He was probably ignorant of your mother’s love affair. Or he might know everything. It doesn’t matter.”
Kin processed the information, remembering more and more of his younger brother than he had in years.
“What matters to us is that when you die, the Reaper race with suffer a gradual extinction unless they sense their loss and devolve into madness.”
Kin wasn’t sure he heard the words correctly. He stared at the Mazz Emperor.
The Emperor waited like a wise man on a mountaintop. He put both hands across his chest, one palm on top of the other.
“What are you saying?”
The Emperor composed his thoughts, then answered, “The Reapers, as you may or may not realize, are biological weapons of warfare used to eradicate my ancestors. That was a long time ago.”
“So long ago that Earth Fleet has forgotten about it,” Kin said.
“Yes.” The Emperor nodded. “There was a primary plan and the secondary plan. There were elite units trained to counteract the Reapers, which were never meant to exist in such numbers as they do on Hellsbreach. Your ancestors were a division of those units. But the difference was this: your genetic makeup was intrinsically linked to theirs. In a way, they are the descendants of your ancestors.” He smiled. “Like cousins.”
“Where I’m from, those are fighting words,” Kin said.
“You amuse me, Roland.” When he laughed, he didn’t seem like the Emperor. “You think you understand your family’s history, but you don’t. In an episode that was lost or erased, there was a prior assault on the Reaper race. And before you ask, it was not on Hellsbreach, but everywhere in the galaxy. The monsters were pushed into a major battle on Betaoin, the planet you call Hellsbreach. Your ancestors were sent in at the tip of the spear. They were not meant to win. They were meant to die.”
Kin sat on a bench but didn’t know how he got there. He had lost time and realized the Emperor had continued to talk, but Kin didn’t remember the words he had said — only the sound of something dark, strange, and twisted. He drew a deep breath as though recovering from being punched in the stomach.
“There is a reason you were abandoned on Hellsbreach.”
Kin looked up at the Emperor. “They wanted me to die.”
The Emperor nodded again. “If you had died in a boating accident on Earth VI, it would not have mattered to the galaxy. Had you died on Hellsbreach, dragged down by Reapers on their home world, their entire race would have suffered a gradual decline and extinction within three years.”
Kin’s laugh sounded crazy. “So all I have to do to change the universe is to return to Hellsbreach and die there. Droon talked about reclaiming blood knowledge, but they kept me in a pit where I was practically eaten alive and healed again and again. How could I have hidden anything from Droon’s people? Did your spies know about that?”
“There is no way for my spies to understand the miracles of the Reaper healing pits,” the Emperor said. He moved to Kin’s side and helped him stand. “It is, however, interesting. I imagine the changes you experienced from the ordeal are not fully understood.”
Kin thought about the brutal and repeated interrogations, the isolation, and the scientific studies performed on him after Hellsbreach by Earth Fleet scientists. He knew there was a flaw in the Emperor’s claim that he was important to the survival and/or death of the Reapers but could not put his finger on it. The answer to his second-guessing of this new information should have been obvious, but he was overwhelmed and tired. All he wanted to do was get away from Earth Fleet and the Mazz Empire.
The Emperor handed him something to drink. The fluid tasted like the purest water of Earth.
“They put me in a space casket and shot me into the void. How would that have affected the Reapers?”
“I cannot imagine the fate of the fool who made that mistake. Your friends in Earth Fleet surely court-marshaled the perpetrator, though we would have tortured him first. Your friend Rebecca paid good money to have you pulled from the salvage dump and preserved. Do you believe she could have orchestrated such a rescue if Earth Fleet had not allowed it? Could pirates really steal from the Fleet?”
Kin shook his head.
“All plots and threats lead to Crashdown, towards you.”
Kin thought of Clavender and the way she claimed all wormholes were one. He wondered where her people came from if he looked back far enough in the history.
“Your captivity and Hellsbreach changed you, I see the truth of it. I should ally myself to Earth Fleet to end the Reaper threat forever.”
Kin shook his head. “You can’t do that. The Reapers are not all in one place. There would always be more to hunt.” He thought of Droon’s teeth biting into his arm and the Reaper’s triumph. The monster claimed the act made him the leader of his Kindred. Kin shuddered at the word and glared at Filoussage Onderbock, Emperor so-called of the Mazz race.
I would pay good money to prove you a liar, Kin thought.
The Emperor continued to talk, but he wasn’t listening.
Kin moved closer to the door and started laughing. “I guess my big decision is do I want to save the universe or go die in peace and screw everybody.”
“Earth Fleet will offer you amnesty,” the Emperor said.
“It didn’t feel like amnesty when Major Eagle and his elite troopers captured me.” He’d intended to say more, to dig deep into the double-cross. Why had Captain Trak turned him over to Earth Fleet and then ambushed them? Something about the situation didn’t feel right. First and foremost, Captain Trak wasn’t a devious commander. He was bullheaded and stubborn; he fought like an animal and was more than brutal to his enemies. He wasn’t someone who lied or cheated.
The Emperor lost some of his calm deception, but it was a small shift in the way he carried himself. If Kin hadn’t spent years watching Laura manipulate the Crater Town Council and the negotiations between other small communities in the area, he might not have noticed it. With his left hand, the Emperor picked up a container of alcohol so weak it might as well have been water and offered it to Kin.
“That was rather unfortunate; however, we discovered Earth Fleet’s new commandos. A surprise encounter during a major battle would have been inconvenient.”
Kin didn’t believe the Emperor. “So it’s a good thing Trak had his own commandos and their special SKIN armor I’ve never seen, even though I led this army for a time, and showed up to save me. And all that right after he delivered me to my enemies. I’m not sure who is running this circus, but there has to be a better way to get things done.”
The Emperor stared at him, his calm mask cracking for a second. At the beginning of the interview, Kin thought the man acted like an immortal being, neither Mazz nor human. He claimed to be thousands of years old like someone from the Ror-Rea, but Kin could not believe it. Onderbock shouldn’t be upset by the offhand dig at his soldiers.
Kin moved closer to the door, understanding he could never escape. There were a hundred guards beyond the bunker door and at least some of them were the giants in black executioner armor. He bladed his body sideways from the Emperor in case the man suddenly whipped out a weapon and decided to kill him in a petulant rage. Assuming what the Emperor had told him about the Reapers was true, Kin needed to be amongst the monsters for all of them to die a slow, weird, scientific death. He’d been told so many things about the Reapers and Hellsbreach that he didn’t know which part was real. None of it seemed like a good life insurance policy for Kin here and now.
The Emperor’s story was as plausible as any. Somehow, this explanation felt more right than others and made sense. At the time, he’d been a soldier and never questioned why he n
eeded to remain as the last man on Hellsbreach to detonate the strategically placed and well-engineered atomic explosions.
He’d been given a lot of song and dance about how they wanted to make him and his unit into heroes to inspire the Earth Fleet and Earth Government people. What made better sense, what scientists called Occam’s Razor, was that they wanted to destroy the Reapers by destroying the planet, and having failed in that objective, they would all die anyway if Kin died with them.
“Earth Fleet sentenced me to death and shot me into the void of space in a casket. You claim that was a mistake. Did your agents attend my court-martial? My execution was a dog-and-pony show. Lots of admirals and generals were there.”
The Emperor smiled as though he had expected this. “Do you think that your friend Rebecca could have hired space pirates with enough skill to steal you from Earth Fleet’s garbage dump?”
“You mentioned that. They plucked me from the trash. Anyone could do that.”
The Emperor stared at him, clenching a fist at his side with cool disdain muting his facial expression.
“Who would risk the wrath of Earth Fleet?”
Kin shrugged. “Someone who wanted to rob Rebecca of her family fortune. Don’t underestimate greed as a motivator.”
“I won’t. And I have no doubt that she paid the price. That is a sad story for her. However, it is not the entire story. The events I speak of happened a long time ago and were top-secret even then. There were those after Hellsbreach who saw your disobedience only as a simple betrayal and a failure to carry out your orders. There were men and women of all ranks who had lost people to the Reapers both on the planet and throughout the galaxy. They wanted you punished. They wanted to make an example. But there was someone, and I wish my people could determine who that was, who knew more. You might have been lost by the space pirates, but it is much more likely that you were hidden away. All political intrigue of Earth leads to you, Kin Roland. And therefore, it all leads to Crashdown.”
Kin formulated his response but was interrupted.
“I understand that your brother, half-brother, is a pirate,” the Emperor said.
Kin stared at the man. This was the second reference to Ashton he had made. “I didn’t always get along with my brother, but I bet he would’ve woken me up. We could have created all kinds of havoc together.”
At this point, Kin was just talking because the conversation was moving in too many directions and too quickly for him to analyze. Remembering his brother was like massaging an old wound that had never healed. He loved Ashton but knew his brother had sibling rivalry problems. Ashton was younger and had always wanted to be more like Kin but was too different. He was creative and a free spirit. Rather than join the military, he had started commanding his own ships and modeled his uniforms to be like officers of the eras in history he most admired.
“If I was smart, I would be working with Earth Fleet to end the Reaper threat once and for all,” the Emperor said.
Kin looked at him. “Then why don’t you?”
“The Reaper threat was the only thing that kept Earth Fleet from hunting down my predecessors and destroying them. That was why they created the monsters. Ironic.”
“Which is why you went on the offensive by creating the Slomn,” Kin said.
The Emperor turned and walked to the other side of the room. Slowly, carefully, he faced part way back toward Kin. “We all make mistakes.” He turned away. “Yours will be the biggest of all.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Devil’s Bargain
I should not have to explain justice to this man, or any sentient creature. Telling him of my people and eons of mistreatment is less than dignified. Explanation is a crime. Why must I relive the holocaust of my people? “I am the Omega.”
Admiral Andros Cort Shield stepped from the shadows wearing lightweight armor — disappointing, but not unexpected. Humans needed tools and technology. They required drugs, therapies, and all the illusions of their sciences and their religions. Omis-tri-valeon had not risen to become the Omega because he was a fool. Humans were incomprehensible; this was well known to the shapeshifters. Their actions, however, followed certain patterns.
“My security team claims you came alone,” Shield said, one hand behind his back.
“Which you did not,” the Omega said. “And you brought a weapon.”
“I haven’t lived this long by being a fool,” Shield said.
“No, you relied on stolen gene therapy and the liberal assassination of your enemies,” the Omega said.
“Political assassination is not the same as actual murder. Do not demonize me. We are alone. You have no one to impress with your rhetoric.”
The Omega moved nearer the admiral, who was a man that should have died long ago — if not by age, then by the hand of his many enemies. “Do not play games, Admiral. I was not always the leader of my people. I did work in the trenches — as a pleasure slave and an assassin.”
The admiral knew all of this, of course. The Omega decided to nudge him off balance with information there was no way he could expect. “I was also a soldier. Oh, Admiral Shield, didn’t you know we are also warriors?”
With that, he slipped into his true form, which was the reason he did not need to cheat the agreement with weapons, bodyguards, and armor. His adversary and potential ally was a proven soldier, not merely a powerful political entity who could also lead, but an individual who could fight hand to hand.
But not against a shapeshifter in true warrior form.
The Omega resisted the urge to accentuate his height and girth. Perhaps the muscle stretching across his long, lupine frame had been leaner and denser in his youth, but the sight of his wolfish-human form startled Admiral Shield. “Your spies have not learned everything about us, I see.”
Shield pulled the pistol from behind his back and held it by his leg. “I won’t fall for your tricks. Let’s get this business settled. I confirmed your information about the Enemy of Man. A rapid decline of the Reaper race ending in extinction will follow Roland’s death, but only if he is within their biosphere.”
The Omega nodded. “I am glad you did your homework. You understand what must be done. All that remains for us to consider is what comes next. With the Reapers, the Slomn, the Mazz, and the Wingers gone, how will the rest of the galaxy be divided?”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, mimic. Roland is harder to handle than you can imagine,” Shield said.
The Omega felt blood rushing toward his brain even as his hands trembled with fury. He fought to restrain himself. Even so, the admiral was forced to retreat several steps and aim the pistol as anger forced curses from the Omega’s throat.
“Stop right there!” Shield said.
Chest heaving, eyes darting in search of a target to kill, the Omega restrained himself long enough to stop his forward motion. “I am not a mimic, you human bastard.”
Admiral Shield laughed nervously, adjusting his grip on the firearm and his aim. “My bad. I forgot how sensitive you people are to the distinction. Let’s get back to business. No more name calling.”
Tension bled through the air between them.
“Back to business. Your job is to get Roland into the Ror-Rea with Clavender. I will see that the Reapers are driven through the gap right behind them.”
Color ran from Shield’s face. “About that. My advisers don’t think you have the firepower. I will need details and assurances before we take this last step.”
“I don’t need weapons or armor. I have the Rage.”
“We have the Rage in a holding cell,” Shield said.
“If I call him, then many of your best troopers will die during his escape. Return my servant and we may begin to conquer the universe.”
Shield laughed again. The Omega thought it was the second nervous laugh of his entire, very long career.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rabbit Hole
“WHY am I here?” Kin asked.
“So that yo
u may be set free.” The Emperor seemed distracted, fighting for self-control not just of his words and deeds, but of his actual body. The incident was brief, but made Kin shudder in revulsion he didn’t understand.
He moved around the inside of the bunker, examining the impregnability of the place, stopping near the door and trying to pull it open. “Hmm. I’m not feeling free.”
“Our time is short. You are nowhere near as funny as you seem to think you are.” The Emperor called his guards and waited for them to enter the room. “I will allow you to wander Crashdown if that is your will. Chase your Crater Town people and watch them die. None of that is a concern to me. I have set you free with knowledge. Earth Fleet is about to offer you amnesty. They will betray you, Roland. It won’t be long before the experiments begin, but they will be so much worse for you than before.”
“Offer me something better,” Kin said.
“Swear fealty and I will protect you from Earth Fleet.”
“At what price?”
“Lead my invasion of Hellsbreach.”
Heat flushed through Kin’s body.
“Success will require the help of your friend Clavender. I will not interfere and will keep my generals from trying to capture her. Once Hellsbreach has been tamed, I will find you a world to call your own.”
“Why do you want to attack a planet that ruined Earth Fleet?” Time passed. The Emperor said nothing.
“I won’t go back there, especially since you told me the best way to kill the Reapers is to let me die on their home world.”
“I don’t want them gone, merely contained. As long as they exist, Earth Fleet must fear two enemies,” the Emperor said.
Kin shook his head, not believing the offer.
The Mazz Emperor smiled. “It is a good bargain for me. You would be motivated to win every battle for me, knowing what your death would bring. Ah, Roland. You are stubborn. Don’t you see how my offer serves us both?”
“Can I go now?”
The Emperor waved one hand at the door. Kin tried it and it opened.